THE SUCCESS OF THE TRIPLE HELIX.

8/6/2020

Last week we experienced a historic event with the launch of the Falcon 9 from the United States. This fact has much relevance from two perspectives:

The first is the return of the Americans to the space race. Until last week only two nations could send human beings into space, China and Russia. The launch of the Dragon capsule using an American spacecraft, launched by American astronauts and from American ground turned this race into a race of three. By the way, Americans are astronauts, Russians are cosmonauts, and the Chinese are Taikonans.

The second is the ability of a private company to launch astronauts. It is worth remembering that the NASA model is the best example of the triple helix (Industry, Academy, and Government); orbital missions happen between agreements between NASA-SpaceX with his ship Dragon and NASA-Boeing with his ship Starliner. This partnership has reduced launch costs to one-tenth, when a space shuttle launch costs $560 million, now a Dragon launch costs about $47 million.

As Jack the Ripper used to say, we go in parts. In space agencies like NASA, nine out of ten employees are contractors who work for private industry. Also, all the developments made at NASA are done in conjunction with private companies. Because of this, companies like SpaceX can use the technology developed to put NASA astronauts on the International Space Station in the way that suits them best. An example: The company will start flying tourists next year and using these rockets to put satellites into orbit.

FERNANDO DE LA PEÑA

The President and Executive Director (CEO) of AEXA, Fernando De La Peña, has twenty years of successful leadership in technology and engineering companies.

A US citizen whose lifelong passion for space exploration and Aexa’s cutting-edge experience plays a key role in supporting NASA. As a college engineering student, Fernando completed and patented an antimatter-powered spacecraft engine and received additional patents, for example, a space launcher that employs magnetic levitation. He received a Discovery Channel Award in 2010 for his work on founding the Mexican Space Agency. This year he was elected president of the Johnson Space Center’s Small Business Council.

Companies like AEXA that have developed technology to train the astronauts can use this technology in the energy and medical market. Because of this, for every dollar NASA invests, the United States recovers seven by allowing industries to use these technologies. This model is not new and has already been proposed in some texts, such as: (De La Peña, Flores Correa, Perez Castilla, Herrera Cortes & Robles Navarrete, 2010)

Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti performs a simulated medical assessment on Tom conducted by a Flight Surgeon at NASA´s Johnson Space Center.

These associations with the Industry do not stop there, sub-orbital flights are led by private companies like Virgin Galactic, which what they are looking for is flights end to end, or in other words, the flight from America to Europe in 30 minutes. Another very important alliance is the construction of the Orion spacecraft that will take the astronauts to the moon and later to the planet Mars. This partnership is between NASA-Lockheed Martin.

The space race goes round two, at the moment a new space station called Deep Space Gateway is being prepared, which will orbit the moon while we colonize it; this space station can travel to the planet Mars, making colonization much easier. To this effort, the administrator of NASA, Jim Bridenstine, has invited all countries to join since this time-space colonization will happen.

Scale model of the Orion ship from Lockheed Martin.

Fifteen countries have been technologically and economically enriched by being part of the International Space Station (ISS), the question is: "Which countries will be part of the Deep Space Gateway?"

A curious fact: Europa the moon of Jupiter, has three times more liquid water than the Earth; most of the creatures on this planet live underwater. What surprises will we find in Europe?

References
De La Peña, F., Flores Correa, O., Perez Castilla, G., Herrera Cortes, J., & Robles Navarrete, M. (2010). Agencia Espacial Mexicana (1st ed.). México, D.F.: R. Porrúa Ediciones.