EDITORIAL

MICRO-PHILANTHROPISTS UNITE !

by Bruce Jessop

A cosmic vision on a down-to-earth budget’ might well summarize the adventure Roderick and Randa Milliron embarked upon when they founded Interorbital Systems (IOS).




Bruce Jessop
This story for Vision One starts about one year ago, precisely on November 11, 2006, after the worldwide launch of the Fastwalkers documentary film.

I called Randa and after a few conversations, we agreed that we should meet here in Germany about some assistance they needed in promoting their private-sector space program. The meeting produced some interesting ideas and possibilities for collaboration.

I could see Rod’s, Randa’s, and the entire Interorbital Systems’ team’s passion for their goal of launching rockets and both cargo and human payloads into space.


The Rocket-Connection

Equally important, I could see that with decades of preparation they were very competent to conduct such a venture. Their devoted team of technicians and scientists, assembled over the years, had both the training and expertise to see this through. In fact they had onboard a highly respected scientist by the name of Lutz Kayser who had in fact been a handpicked protégé of the famous rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun.

 

Picture Gallery

Wernher von Braun

7 Photos by NASA
Click on the picture to open the gallery

"When you want to conquer space, there are two problems to solve: the gravitation and the paper-warfare. With the gravitation, we could cope. " (Wernher von Braun)

Randa gave me some background on the von Braun/Kayser/Milliron connection. Kayser and von Braun had worked together in the very early days of NASA’s Apollo Moon Missions, and later when von Braun left NASA, he joined Lutz Kayser at his company OTRAG, the world’s first commercial space company. Kayser also recruited von Braun’s old colleague and NASA lunar mission veteran, Kurt Debus. OTRAG conducted thousands of engine firings and many test launches, but finally closed due to international political pressure. Both von Braun and Debus died. When Kayser and the Millirons met, he had formed a new company, BDKRS, LLC. (von Braun Debus Kayser Rocket Science, LLC) from this terrifically powerful base of rocket design history.

When Wernher became the first human to send a rocket into space from the test area at Peenemuende, Germany, on October 23, 1942, his dream had been to use an oxidizer other than the liquid oxygen which propelled the V2: that chemical was nitric acid (HNO3).


Wernher von Braun
with model of V2-Rocket
German V2 - Rocket
"The Revenge-Rocket"

That oxidizer was unavailable at that time, but to von Braun, the acid was the perfect choice. In 1942, all nitric acid had been consigned to munitions production, so von Braun had to pull liquid oxygen (LOX) from the air and used LOX (as a default) to continue with his V2 program. But nitric acid was his oxidizer of choice; he had written extensively and proposed that missions to Mars (“The Mars Project” by Wernher von Braun) be conducted using nitric acid, because of its superior performance and storability characteristics.

When Lutz Kayser founded OTRAG in the 1970s, he chose nitric acid as his oxidizer. The founders of BDKRS and IOS had much in common. Based on field research and years of experimentation, rocket engineer Roderick Milliron, founder of Interorbital Systems, came to the same conclusion: nitric acid was the best-performing and most suitable oxidizer for his own space missions.

Photo: Lutz Kayser


When Roderick and Lutz joined forces with the intent of carrying out a lunar mission, they became a vector through which the vast knowledge of the early rocket pioneers and Moon rocket creators could be channeled: together they would carry on the powerful von Braun-Debus legacy through the use of what the greatest rocket experts of all time considered the prime oxidizer for reliable, low-cost, interplanetary space transportation systems: nitric acid.


Eyes in Space ?

With this powerhouse of rocket talent suddenly available to us, I asked if Interorbital could possibly launch a small camera (see Eyes in Space) through which one could view live from space our beautiful planet Earth?


The answer was yes.

So we eventually got down to what such a venture would cost. They told me that other than IOS, the least expensive launches for small payloads to low Earth orbit (LEO) were offered by the Russians at a cost of approximately $10 million USD----just for the launch, excluding the payload costs--- and up to the hundreds of millions for other carriers (ouch! that would exclude any possibility we had to assist them at that financial level) but (here's the good news) they would be able to complete development of their launch vehicle, and launch such a project, with camera/telemetry payload included, for $1.2 million USD. As to the follow-on Moon Mission, the price would be $35 million USD----compared to $140 million for a similar NASA mission, or more than $175 million if flown by the Chinese.

The IOS founders stated that they would also be willing to donate a percentage of future profits to support Vision One in carrying on its philanthropic pursuits. Hmmm... interesting.


Important Questions

While discussing this possibility my mind went a little farther, and I wondered if we had a sequel to Fastwalkers in the making. Could we ever dream of sending a camera to circumnavigate the moon at close range and transmit images back to earth? With this pure private-sector data, we could have the answers to the following questions:

1) Have US astronauts actually been to the Moon, or was it, as some have suggested, only a Cold War ploy? With our own camera delivering uncensored images, could we validate that artifacts were left on the Moon by the Apollo missions?



Photo by NASA


2) As has been suggested, do artificial structures from ancient civilizations exist on the Moon?

3) Is there a secret base on the far side of the moon as other reports have claimed?


Possibilities

Very intriguing possibilities, but how do we raise the money? Well, again, the conventional way maybe, at a cost of hundreds of millions, but again with IOS' launch system, a Hollywood production company, a TV Network, or corporate sponsor could handle the costs that would otherwise be completely out of reach for entities other mega-corporate players, governments, or the military/ industrial complex.

So after this meeting and much reflection it was decided that we would create a funding pipeline: Vision One. We could make this all happen with the help of 1.5 million individuals worldwide. In fact, we would create a database of donors and ‘micro-philanthropists’ who would be in favor of funding up to 5 projects a year (if and when available) with each person contributing a minimum of $1.00 or EUR 1.00 per project up to a maximum of $1.5 million per project.

The criteria for Vision One support would be that each technology would benefit humanity at an affordable price and lessen the financial burden (reverse the need for money) on individuals and families, and that each project would function beyond corporate-governmental control: an effort of the people, for the people.

So it is with enthusiasm and hope that we launch Vision One, and with the peoples’ combined financial support empower the founders of Interorbital Systems to fulfill their vision and thereby take humanity to unexpected heights and rewards.

 
[ Back ]