Interview with the Founder of Astronauts 4Hire



Space Stations by Bigelow & Orbital Technologies. Dragon Lab Missions by SpaceX. And more to come. The hardware is being built. Should Bigelow, and SpaceX pay to maintain an internal astronaut corp to operate their hardware or should they outsource their astronauts?

Would an internal team of astronauts be a cost center or profit center for these hardware manufacturers. 

Enter Astronauts4Hire – a commercial astronaut corp. Buy their services "by the drink". I first talked about A4H here.  Below is my interview with Astronauts4Hire's President/CEO and co-founder, Brian Shiro.


Q: Can you give us a company overview of Astronauts4Hire? The services you intend to offer? The market you are targeting?

Brian Shiro: Astronauts4Hire (A4H) targets both inward and outward-facing markets. We can illustrate this by dissecting our name into two parts: “Astronauts” and “for Hire.” “Astronauts” refers to our internally-focused activities related to building the skills of prospective commercial astronauts with the goal of creating a professional commercial astronaut workforce. The “for Hire” refers to our externally-focused activities to match commercial astronaut candidates with specific missions to be carried out on suborbital or orbital flights. Our target markets include prospective astronauts, researchers, and companies.

Services we offer internally to members focus on the professional development of members as astronaut candidates. This involves fostering communication among astronaut candidates, negotiating special pricing for training courses, and offering scholarships to flight members on a competitive basis to help pay for their astronaut training. Plus, members can gain entrepreneurial skills by getting involved on the ground floor with building the organization during this early phase of our development.

A4H offers a number of services to the external community too. A4H will work with researchers and companies to provide the manpower required to achieve mission objectives on parabolic, suborbital, and orbital flights. Primarily, the services pertain to planning and executing experiments or operating payloads on flights. It could also involve product testing or promotion, particularly for commercial clients, as is the case with the upcoming space beer flight.


Q: Describe Astronauts4Hire’s latest contract to test beer in microgravity?

Brian Shiro: A new space engineering company, Saber Astronautics Australia, teamed up with the 4-Pines Brewery in a joint venture called Vostok Pty. Ltd. to create beer brewed specifically for consumption in space. This stout-derived beer has low carbonation and high flavor, meeting known challenges the human body faces with taste and carbonation in microgravity. Initial batch recipes were taste-tested by 4-Pines and were proven safe for wholesale consumption through terrestrial sales, which will help fund the microgravity beer testing experiment. Drop tower tests conducted at the Queensland University of Technology characterized the liquid under brief, but high quality, microgravity conditions.

After considering many internal and external service providers, the Vostok partners chose Astronauts4Hire (A4H) to carry out the flight experiment. A4H selected its top four members with past microgravity research experience, and Vostok then interviewed them before settling on a primary and backup A4H research participant to carry out the experiment.

A4H is contracted to provide general support to the first human research experiment on alcohol absorption in microgravity. A4H’s primary purpose is to provide the human test subject (research participant), who has a myriad of tasks to handle before and during the flight. This includes experiment setup, pre-flight testing, data collection, and serving as a critical liaison with the ZERO G Corporation, the company that will provide the parabolic flight service. In this sense, A4H has been the team “on the ground” in the USA to support the experiment.

Vostok and A4H also collaborate on press releases and other publicity matters. We worked together with the ZERO G Corporation to negotiate many logistics details for the research flight. For example, when the original November flight was cancelled by ZERO G, Vostok and A4H worked with ZERO G to establish a new flight date in December.

The experiment itself will consist of a baseline sampling of the beer two days prior to the flight in which measurements of body temperature, heart rate, and blood alcohol content will be taken. Qualitative information such as the beer’s taste and overall drinkability will also be recorded. These same parameters will be recorded during the flight sampling. During the ZERO G flight, the A4H flight researcher will consume the beer during alternating 0-g parabolic portions of the flight.

Vostok’s ultimate goal is to be the prime supplier of beer to space tourism operators and hopes that the tests carried out by A4H will lead to the establishment of standards for the responsible, casual consumption of alcohol in space.


Q: Why did you choose to start Astronauts4Hire as a non-profit?

Brian Shiro: We arrived at the decision to become a non-profit through careful consideration of business modality alternatives. Being a non-profit fits best with our near- and intermediate-term goals of establishing A4H as the main aggregator of commercial astronaut sector stakeholders: crews, trainers, vehicles, mission elements, etc.

Like a professional organization, A4H aids its members in their professional development as astronauts through structuring of a training program, negotiation of special training prices, and awarding scholarships to members to help pay for their astronaut training. A4H is also helping establish the industry standards by which commercial astronauts will be measured. A4H will fund these activities primarily through a combination of donations, sponsorships, and grants.

Another important source of revenue for A4H includes its contracts with researchers to perform experiments on microgravity flights. This is important because it allows A4H to build experience and a customer base without having to wait until suborbital space vehicles are operational. Not only does it help us get our feet wet with providing payload operation services, it also gives our members further experience to make them more competitive astronaut candidates by the time suborbital space vehicles are ready.

If A4H were a for-profit venture, possibly having to pay back investors, we would have to charge higher prices for our services. This would not only potentially limit our clientele; it could restrict the growth of the emerging commercial astronaut market. Keeping costs low in the beginning is therefore very important, and that’s why the low overhead of a non-profit is the right track for A4H during this phase of its development.


Q: What is your long-term strategy for growing Astronauts4Hire?

Brian Shiro: The near-term plan is to finalize our business plan and federal 501(c)(3) status as a non-profit by early 2011. We will more aggressively pursue fundraising at that time and plan to start raising enough money by mid-2011 to allow us to award our initial A4H astronaut training scholarships. The pattern of raising money primarily by writing grant proposals, soliciting donors, and establishing sponsorships will continue for the next 2-4 years. We have a stepwise strategy to use money raised on a 6-month basis to pay for training activities during each subsequent half year.

In the first few years, A4H will mostly contract out its training to third parties, but by 2014 or so (after we have a few spaceflights under our belts), we plan to ramp up our internal capabilities to train ourselves too. What form this will take remains an open question, but it could include establishing a commercial astronaut training center. We plan to fund this in part by collecting registration fees at workshops, clinics, and symposia hosted by A4H on various topics related to commercial human spaceflight and suborbital research. The scope of these workshops will likely range from an introduction to commercial spaceflight for the general public in a Space Camp style to detailed technical forums for researchers to further the field.

Beyond five years, when the industry is on its feet, we can forsee possible spin-off ventures focusing on different aspects of the commercial astronaut workforce. What we know as A4H today could become more like an educational foundation, and other related businesses could handle the operational aspects of training and flight services.

Our ultimate goal is to be the main organization that provides astronaut skills training and ratings to help individuals find flight opportunities on suborbital and orbital platforms and to serve the crew needs of the commercial human spaceflight industry.


Q: What capital requirements does Astronauts4Hire have to execute your growth plan?

Brian Shiro: Our biggest assets now are our members’ time and skills, as well as the publicity we are enjoying. Capital investment so far has been light, but we have forecasted our growth requirements for the next five years. For example, we are targeting a total operating budget of approximately $81,000 in 2011 that will grow to $300,000 in 2013.

A4H needs about $150,000 in 2011 to meet its training targets, $250,000 in 2012, increasing up to just over $600,000 by 2015. On the cost side, this assumes a growth rate of 10 new flight members per year, which influences the cost of training required. On the revenue side, our forecast assumes we add at least 1-2 new “Martian” and “Lunar” donors at the $10,000 and higher level per year and earn at least one additional grant at the $50,000 level or higher per year. We also assume to add future zero gravity flight contracts like the beer flight at a rate of 3 in 2011, 5 in 2012, and so forth.


Q: What are ways the new space industry can take advantage of Astronauts4Hire’s services that they may not be thinking about or be aware of?

Brian Shiro: The space community talks a lot about “commercial crews” these days, but when most people say that, they are referring to the vehicles and engineering systems that will get people to space, not the crews themselves. Astronauts4Hire aims to fill that void by providing a professional astronaut crew service with qualified astronauts who can assume a myriad of duties on space missions.

Individuals interested in going through a structured astronaut training program can apply with Astronauts4Hire to take advantage of our relationships with training providers and connections to potential employers who may hire them later.

In the near term, we can work with researchers or companies who want to fly experiments aboard microgravity parabolic flights. Once suborbital and later orbital space vehicles are flying, we can do the same on those platforms. A4H members can serve a “guinea pigs” for flight hardware and medical testing to help establish the qualification of commercial spacecraft for human flight too. Eventually, A4H could become a prime supplier of crews to operate and maintain commercial space stations in orbit.


Q: What recommendations do you have for space entrepreneurs considering starting their own business?

Brian Shiro: Just like in real estate, what matters most is “location, location, location.” Try to be in the right place at the right time and foster a network of contacts that can help springboard your venture to success. Never underestimate the amount of time it will take to do something. If you think it’ll take a month, multiply it by 10, and you might be closer to the mark. However, that doesn’t mean the pace of progress is slow, as sometimes it can feel like you’re barely keeping your head above water just to stay afloat. Keep your eyes on the prize to maintain motivation and try to remind those working with you of the broader goals from time to time to keep up group morale. Surround yourself with a mix of “true believers” and skeptics to ensure you get a healthy mix of inspiration and grounding. For virtual organizations with members spread out geographically, as we are in A4H, leveraging modern communications technology is a key advantage, but one must be careful to ensure the tools foster efficiency rather than implementing too formal a process that could burden the pace of growth. Above all else, have fun, work hard, and you are sure to succeed!

Airplanes or Automobiles?

Is Human Space Flight more like the airline industry or the automobile industry?

In a recent post at Space News, guest-blogger Gordon Smith, Ph.D., acknowledges  the reality that Human Space Flight has not been truly commercialized while other highly complicated and risky industries have flourished privately.  Smith believes those attempting to commercialize human spaceflight utilizing an airline industry business model could be more successful by changing models.

Might the automobile industry provide a better business model for Human Space Flight to be patterned after? Cars and trucks are specialized for the needs of their users and onboard redundancies are minimized through the use of AAA, tow trucks, gas stations, and other readily available "emergency services" that are easily accessible to motorists on the road. Smith argues in favor of:

• Rescue craft capable of reaching both space stations and free-flying spacecraft on short notice (perhaps already on-orbit)
• Maintenance craft (think spare parts)
• Rendezvous craft (think tugs)
• and of course depots

NASA could provide the rescue service or perhaps such a rescue service could be offered as a private venture:

• Added redundancy for NASA
• Like COTS, another way for NASA to stimulate the industry
• Lower Insurance premiums for Bigelow
• Lower Insurance premiums for all private manned launches

Note: for these to be a help to humans in space, these vehicles do not necessarily need to be manned themselves. This quote from his blog post sums up Smith’s position:

“The automotive industry operates similarly to human spaceflight, if one looks at the broad operational behaviors. A vehicle departs from a certain location, travels for a period of time that may be limited or indefinite (but the car may pause as needed), and can return to any number of locations. However, the automotive industry prevents DTD and redundancy costs from growing prohibitive using government or private means to render assistance in the form of ambulances and tow trucks.

We gain so much by adjusting the human spaceflight industry model to better support their operations. Creating a means by which aid may quickly be dispatched to space stations or vehicles on orbit is within the scope of the 2010 National Space Policy, reduces the costs associated with human spaceflight and makes it easier for private commercialization to grow. Instead of having to counter every possibility, known and unanticipated, private vehicles and stations need only ensure that if something goes wrong, their occupants will be able to safely wait for help. This is an improved response over escape pods currently under consideration, as it does not leave an abandoned asset worth billions of dollars to drift unattended in orbit, where it may easily be lost.”

Gordon Smith has also written this paper on the macro-economic impacts on the space industry where he strikes similar tones.  This paper warrants closer scrutiny.  Perhaps in an upcoming post.  For now, I like this quote from the paper:

"This emergency response capability, then, should be made a priority in forthcoming policy so that the long promised commercial sector may finally develop."

Gravity for Sale

xGRF Concept Graphic

Back in June, guest blogger, Kirk Sorensen, over at Selenian Boondocks described a cool concept for generating artificial gravity from a tether (and a Canfield joint). I read the paper behind the concept.  Last week when Jon Goff at Selenian Boondocks followed up with this post about a Variable Gravity Research Facility (xGRF) as a Flagship Technology Demonstrator, it reminded me I needed to post some business applications for such a facility as well.

Could such a facility be run commercially? In the discussion below, I will use the International Space Station (ISS) as my example, but the model I present would work equally well with other orbital destinations like a Bigelow Aerospace habitat.

For us non-engineers, think of the xGRF as a Bigelow module (habitable volume) with a large tether attached. Because of the power (almost magic) of the conservation of angular momentum, when the tether is unwound, the station spins. When the tether is re-wound, the tether stops spinning (this is where the engineers shoot me for over simplifying – but you get the idea).

• Because such a station could be spun at various rates, multiple G-Loads are possible. 
• Because the station could be despun quickly, the xGRF station is easier to dock with. 
• Because the station can be despun and respun at a low energy cost, the station is cheaper to operate.

Selling Gravity

Could an entrepreneur run such a gravity facility at a profit? Their profit centers could be both the “gravity service” they offer (a night sleep under gravity) as well as the data they generate from the effects of varying levels of gravity on humans (for use by others in planning long-duration space flights). Those guests staying on an xGRF become both customer and lab rat.

I don’t think it is too ambitious of a goal to return astronauts to earth with NO LONGTERM NEGATIVE EFFECTS from microgravity. Although obviously not achievable currently, I think we are all assuming humanity has to develop this capability someday – the current system in untenable. Is such life-enhancing effects possible through short bursts of artificial gravity? We do not know.

Even if the effects of artificial gravity prove less than completely restorative, as long as you assume the benefit from short bursts of artificially gravity is superior to the current system of significant daily exercise, I believe one could still develop a lucrative market for a gravity service. The option to sleep under artificial gravity could become highly desirable - one of those services that moves from “luxury” to “requirement” in people’s minds very quickly.

So my idea…

Let’s explore the idea of a commercial xGRF with an example: Put an xGRF in an orbit that would allow for frequent trips to the ISS (low transfer times between facilities and low delta-v costs). Astronauts would work in the microgravity environment of the ISS and sleep in the artificial gravity environment of the xGRF with daily transfer tugs moving astronauts between the two facilities. Co-locating an xGRF with the ISS could:

• DOUBLE the productivity of the ISS as measured in astronauts’ daily “workable” hours (see the tables below for more on how one doubles station productivity) and 
• Reduce microgravity physiological impacts on astronauts in orbit.

Here are the details:

• Transfer time between stations should take no more than two hours
• Astronaut time on xGRF equals 10 hours per day
• Astronaut time on ISS equals 10 hours per day
• Three Astronaut shifts of four astronauts per shift
• Increase ISS crew size from six to eight at any given time (assuming life support could handle 8 on ISS)
• Allow around-the-clock work on the ISS – including constant experiment monitoring if needed
• Repurpose current ISS sleeping, exercise, & personal spaces into science and experiment space 
• Productive Astronaut hours per day on ISS could increase by 100% without any new modules added to the station itself (from 60 productive hours per day with a crew of six to 120 productive hours per day with shift work outlined below)

Table 1 below highlights the productivity of three shifts of four astronauts transferring between ISS and xGRF daily:

Table 2 below highlights the current productivity (note, exercise and sleep times are my estimates only):

Challenges…

• The political challenges to be allowed to dock with the ISS three times per day are enormous (perhaps too enormous)
• The logistics of frequent dockings are significant. Note these first two challenges are relevant to my last post about the last mile problem for mico-cargo delivery to these stations. If today’s post highlights how we are struggling to solve frequent deliveries for macro-cargo, how pessimistic should we be regarding micro-cargo deliveries noted in my last post?
• Allowing a spinning station so close to the ISS (or any orbital station) creates security challenges that must to addressed. There is always a chance the two stations will collide. Do the benefits outweigh the risks?  How can the risks be mitigated?
• Is two hours really enough time to transfer between stations? If not, does the loss of productivity from longer “commutes” (three hours, four hours?) degrade the idea to the point of being unexecutable?

As with most tantalizing space business concepts, this one falls into the category of, “If I only had a billion dollars…” I do like Jon Goff’s idea of developing a xGRF as a NASA Flagship Technology Demonstrator. Regardless, once commercial station operators have achieved a few more milestones, this concept may be worth a deeper look – adding productivity to our astronauts in orbit and more importantly, improving the quality of life of those working off-world.

Plymouth Rock - Asteroids here we Come

Lockheed Martin this week pitched a Manned Asteroid mission utilizing two linked Orion Spacecraft currently being developed by the company. Although LM admits asteroid mission planning is 100% internally funded, many within NASA have expressed an interest in the Plymouth Rock presentation. The basics:

• Two linked Orions
• 6 month round trip
• 100kg sample return
• 3 Astronauts
• No new tech required
• With funding could make the trip within 10 years
• Several asteroids being considered for the 2015-2030 time frame from small to very large

The proposal is intriguing. A space entrepreneur has only has to read Mining the Sky to salivate over the potential of extraterrestrial resources available to us on asteroids. But in the near term, what I am most interested in as an entrepreneur is Lockheed’s plan to leave one of the two Orions in orbit after the manned asteroid mission - able to reused over multiple trips. This “stretch” Orion would forgo the heat shield in favor of modifications making it more conducive to long duration space flight. One Orion capsule (the one with a heat shield) would reenter with Crew and samples after each mission. The stretch Orion would remain in orbit ready for future asteroid missions or to serve as a long duration space lab in LEO.

This trend towards reusability is important and I am glad to see it promoted for three reasons:

1. Philosophical Logic: The debate over “reuse” or “launch new” continues to rage (or at least simmer). For LM to recommend a solution that contains such a large reusable component, this means the largest defense contractor on the planet has given the nod toward near-term technologies like depots and space tugs as well. Although not mentioned in the Plymouth Rock presentation, such technologies like propellant depots and space tugs would be needed in order to prepare the stretch Orion for a follow-on mission. We have already seen companies like ULA and Boeing make recommendations for depots and tugs, but to date we have not seen much from Lockheed Martin on the subject.
2. Altruistic Logic: For humans to become truly space faring, cost minimization of permanent space logistics must become more important than capability maximization. Reusable components are essential to create sustainable space logistics solutions.
3. Profit Logic: A clever risk-tolerant company could make a lot of money with a reusable man-rated asset in orbit (especially if LM retains ownership after the primary mission with NASA concludes).

Here are a few secondary missions for a stretch Orion (with profit potential):

• Become a Lunar/Mars cycler ferrying missions to and from the moon or Mars (the stretch Orion will already be capable of remote rendezvous and docking)
• Analyze the earth using the same instruments used to analyze Asteroidal surfaces and sell the data to the science community
• Sell experiment space on-board as a long-term space lab (much less vibration than on the ISS) – dock with ISS to take on experiments, but fly remotely without crew for long durations.
• Fly to the moon: Commercial Lunar fly by’s (One Stretch Orion and one Dragon or Soyuz attached)

How would you make money from a stretch Orion?

The Astronaut Company

My mother tells a story that when I was six years old, I told her I wanted to own an “Astronaut Company”; not “be an astronaut” but own an astronaut company. No surprise, years later, I work on the business side of the aerospace industry. And so I have been following with interest the start of Astronauts for Hire, a non-profit organization tasked with preparing the next generation of commercial astronauts.

It is not hard to imagine a future where Bigelow stations dot low earth orbit and business owners are evaluating opportunities in orbit on such facilities. One big question for businesses will be the human question: as a business owner, how will my efforts on orbit be carried out?

• Who will maintain my experiment on orbit? 
• Who will run my camera for the film shoot? 
• Who will pack the latest batch of protein crystals for their return trip to earth? 
• Who has the micro-gravity experience to serve as Butler and maids at my hotel?
• Do I bring these resources up to station with me or purchase a more turn-key solution where I provide the mission and others provide the space station and astronaut solution?

Astronauts for Hire offers a piece of that puzzle. Bigelow will no doubt hire/train a core group of astronauts themselves, especially initially. But if another company(s) can provide astronaut services at a lower cost, down the road, Bigelow may happily subcontract this portion of their service.

Additionally, I can envision a day where the rich and powerful own space yachts made out of customized Bigelow modules that they purchase for hundreds of millions of dollars each. Such yachts may need to be tended when not in use and serviced with the owner on board. An astronaut company could offer such a service. Such a need for a commercial crew, will expand the scope of the “astronaut” from scientist and pilot to include, perhaps, any human service performed on earth – all carried out in micro-gravity.

Currently, Astronauts for Hire’s service is limited to training the next generation of space pioneers. This training could grow to actually offering scientists on orbit as needed, and eventually for A4H or another company to offer any “LEO Human Service” on orbit. Scientists, pilots, repairmen, construction workers, cooks, maids, and more. This would be the true Astronaut Company.

This only confirms: all my best ideas I had by age six.