Schafer to help launch moon plan

Office here gets potential $6M contract to study design of new spaceship

Friday, September 03, 2004

By SHELLY HASKINS

Times City Editor shaskins@htimes.com

Workers at Schafer Corp.'s 75-person Huntsville office are among the first hired by NASA to figure out how to take President Bush's plan to return to the moon and make it work.

On Wednesday, NASA awarded Schafer's Systems Engineering and Integration Division here a potential $6 million "Concept Exploration and Refinement" contract to do some early work on the moon plan. Boeing Co.'s Phantom Works division, which has about 180 employees here, will provide space systems expertise for Schafer, said Monty Vest, a Boeing spokeswoman. Schafer has worked primarily on missile defense projects.

Essentially, Schafer and Boeing workers will use computer models to look for the best ways to get humans back to the moon and how to best design the ship to get to the moon and beyond, said Charles Chitwood, general manager of Schafer's Huntsville operation.

In January, Bush called for "extended human missions to the moon as early as 2015" and for using the moon "as the launching point for missions beyond" by 2020.

Since the power of today's computers dwarf those of the 1960s-era Apollo missions, and micromechanical devices are available today that weren't then, NASA won't be able to just work from its former moon mission blueprints, Chitwood said Thursday.

"We'll be looking at what kinds of technological changes have occurred since Apollo that would allow us to accomplish similar things in different ways," he said.

Schafer and its Boeing support team will be looking at possible designs for the Crew Exploration Vehicle, which NASA hopes to use for moon missions and possibly Mars missions. Schafer's job will be to figure out scenarios that might affect which features the new ship has, such as whether it would need to dock with the International Space Station on its way to the moon, Chitwood said.

The initial stage of the contract is for six months' work for $3 million, with the possibility it could be extended for another six months and another $3 million, he said. The work could lead to future designs for a long-range space vehicle.




Schafer to help launch moon plan Office here gets potential $6M contract to study design of new spaceship Friday, September 03, 2004 By SHELLY HASKINS Times City Editor shaskins@htimes.com Workers at Schafer Corp.'s 75-person Huntsville office are among the first hired by NASA to figure out how to take President Bush's plan to return to the moon and make it work. On Wednesday, NASA awarded Schafer's Systems Engineering and Integration Division here a potential $6 million "Concept Exploration and Refinement" contract to do some early work on the moon plan. Boeing Co.'s Phantom Works division, which has about 180 employees here, will provide space systems expertise for Schafer, said Monty Vest, a Boeing spokeswoman. Schafer has worked primarily on missile defense projects. Essentially, Schafer and Boeing workers will use computer models to look for the best ways to get humans back to the moon and how to best design the ship to get to the moon and beyond, said Charles Chitwood, general manager of Schafer's Huntsville operation. In January, Bush called for "extended human missions to the moon as early as 2015" and for using the moon "as the launching point for missions beyond" by 2020. Since the power of today's computers dwarf those of the 1960s-era Apollo missions, and micromechanical devices are available today that weren't then, NASA won't be able to just work from its former moon mission blueprints, Chitwood said Thursday. "We'll be looking at what kinds of technological changes have occurred since Apollo that would allow us to accomplish similar things in different ways," he said. Schafer and its Boeing support team will be looking at possible designs for the Crew Exploration Vehicle, which NASA hopes to use for moon missions and possibly Mars missions. Schafer's job will be to figure out scenarios that might affect which features the new ship has, such as whether it would need to dock with the International Space Station on its way to the moon, Chitwood said. The initial stage of the contract is for six months' work for $3 million, with the possibility it could be extended for another six months and another $3 million, he said. The work could lead to future designs for a long-range space vehicle. Copyright 2004 al.com. All Rights Reserved.