The JHU WSE Energetics Research Group and Commercial and Government Program Office (CGPO) recently completed a project from the National Defense University (NDU) in support of the U.S. Air Force’s Air University, to study the how the commercial space industry can be leveraged to support national needs for access to space, as well as effects and risks that increased access may pose for U.S. national security.
JHU conducted the $1.4 Million study in partnership with three prominent Washington D.C.-based think tanks: The Center for a New American Security, the Telemus Group, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
As countries around the globe compete for access to space, new threats are continuously emerging for our nation. These new threats coupled with a strained federal budget mandate a need for more affordable space travel and access. To this end, the goal is to develop and employ fully-reusable launch vehicles. The Hopkins and NDU team studied whether it is feasible and economical to support commercially-led public and private partnerships to develop new technology that will allow cheaper and faster access to space; the risks and benefits of doing so; and what changes to policies and regulations would enable these new commercially designed and built vehicles and systems.
This project was awarded under WSE Commercial and Government Program Office, a new office within the WSE designed to build partnerships between government, industry and the university. The work was conducted and managed by the Energetics Research Group. Additional partners included Wikistrat, a consulting company focusing on crowdsourcing; and BMNT Partners, which operates under the Hacking for Defense platform at Stanford University. JHU small business partners also played key roles in the study, including: Onyx Aerospace (Athens, AL); Interstellar Technologies LLC (Huntsville, AL); and Special Aerospace Services (Boulder, CO).