Oct. 2007 update.

Micro-Space has filed a "Letter of Intent" application for participation in the "Google Lunar X Prize". This challenging effort, to land an operational "Rover" on the surface of the Moon, will be a stretch and must involve funding from sponsors or investors. On the other hand, it plays into Micro-Space strengths, including our unusually light weight "Lunar Lander" systems and the storable fuels they use.

Our "Human Lunar Lander", with its split tank grouping, makes it easy to load a "Rover" unit, and we intend to display this as a full scale system at the 2007 "X PRIZE Cup" event. We also have in operation, and will display, an innovative Lunar Rover for this use.

We envision using the Google Lunar X PRIZE, with its high publicity and sponsorship value, plus $30 Million cash prizes, as a mechanism to attract funding both for the competition efforts and simultaneous validation of Micro-Space systems for affordable human adventures in space.

Micro-Space continues to be a participant in the "Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Competition". Although we have made considerable progress with our Lander’s subsystems, we have not been able to focus as intensely as we had hoped on this project and we will not receive a FAA Launch License in 2007.

We have made excellent progress with our Interplanetary Life Support Systems (as noted on our News page) as well as the related literature research. We have located Canadian Air Force and other study reports which guarantee that "pressure suits" for space and planetary EVA based on extreme altitude aircraft work can be far lighter and safer than the NASA EVA standard (functionally derived from 1890 "Diving Dress").

No obstacle (other than short term funding) has arisen to block our vision of affordable human adventures near the Earth, on the Moon or on Mars. While these expeditions will still be expensive, the costs will fall into the range of funding for an ocean racing sailboat or an auto racing team.

The "Road to Space" is open. Once adventurers recognize that even an expedition to Mars is no more impossible today than were the privately funded expeditions to the North and South Poles a hundred years ago, they will gear up and go!

2006 Report follows:

Micro-Space is actively involved in manned and unmanned spaceflight programs. It has been observed that our design for the X Prize competition was "spartan". That is exactly true. As long as the "per pound" factor remains in transportation (from parcel delivery to spaceflight), the lowest cost will probably be associated with minimum unnecessary weight. It may be comforting to be surrounded by a bulky structure, but (as demonstrated by the Space Shuttle) that probably provides no protection against the real dangers.

Our approach resembles SCUBA Diving, as opposed to exploring the sea in a submarine. If you can afford the later option, it avoids the training needed to dive on your own. The dangers in space resemble those underwater, although they are REDUCED in many cases.

Our current efforts include prototyping lightweight life support systems for interplanetary travel, equipment for SCUBA type EVA,"Diving" or swimming in orbital space, and one man suborbital flight, with descent from extreme altitude via "Ballute" and conventional parachute. The later may cost as much as advertised "Tourist Rides", but you aren't locked in a cabin, going along for the ride.

For the really adverturous, we expect to be able to provide the equipment needed to walk on MARS for a cost comparable to a major sporting event. This is one hundred to one thousand times less expensive than NASA estimates, and requires no new launch system developments!

Micro-Space was a registered contestant in the X PRIZE competition. The X PRIZE Foundation awarded the prize to the first team which achieved suborbital spaceflight twice in two weeks with a reusable manned craft.

One of the requirements is that the vehicle not rely on government developed hardware. This demands that private parties not only develop the systems, but raise the money to pay for this work. (Actually, no government funded project has ever come close to fulfilling the X PRIZE requirements.) Such an accomplishment will prove that private spaceflight is feasible and affordable.

This is extremely important, for the dreams sparked in 1969 will never be realized without private spaceflight. Pioneers, whether mountain men or religious outcasts, computer hackers or web nerds, are peculiar people. They invest their lives and assets in the pursuit of their dreams, yet they can seldom tap government treasuries. All mankind eventually benefits, but those who lead the way into a frontier often walk alone.

The X PRIZE is a sunburst, illuminating the ongoing spaceflight work in small shops around the world. It empowers these efforts, allowing expanded work, even as it inspires new starts. Thank God that the X PRIZE program is allowing people to believe that the shores of space are not a permanent barrier, but that they themselves could be among the many who go beyond, and travel into space.

Many of the X PRIZE entries are elegant concepts: Micro-Space's is not. Ours is an assemblage rather that a unique design, since our only hope of rapid success lies in using what we have already developed. We are in fact not well suited to such a competition since we have historically followed a systematic plan with an emphasis on reliable and repeatable results rather than on quick accomplishments. We may miss the prize, but we will end up with an operational craft, manufacturable and affordable, which offers suborbital spaceflight to any willing to accept costs, risks and personal challenges comparable to high altitude mountaineering.

RISK flashes automatically into mind when human flight on a rocket is discussed. For more than half of the last century, the response to aircraft was the same. Man seldom survives falling from the sky. Yet the airplane is the safest way to travel. In many ways, rocket flight is even safer since it is above weather and many rockets have virtually no moving parts to fail.

Space flight is risky, but the primary risks are covered with a skydiver's dual parachutes, and a SCUBA diver's breathing gear. The many false ideas about space are dealt with in Space Myths. See also X Development Plan, X Flight and VISION.

The Micro-Space suborbital vehicle is assembled from the modular propulsion units which are used in our other designs. It uses a cockpit core much like a bobsled into which three pressure suited men can squeeze. Various configurations of propulsion strap-ons are possible. To have a shot at winning the X PRIZE it will be necessary to use a large cluster of the 4 inch diameter propulsion modules we are now flight testing. Later flights will be able to use a small number of larger diameter modules as illustrated. There is actually little engineering benefit from the larger size units, as dry weight scales linearly with fuel weight.

Complexity troubles many, and our assembly looks complex. Yet using a large number of motor units can greatly increase reliability. In our designs, the motors have no moving parts, and all are brought up to full thrust while the vehicle is still locked into its launch tower. The propulsion modules are more like big propane torches than "engines". Only after stabilization of all the propulsion units is there a commitment to flight, then the lock down clamps are blown, and the flight begins.

It is easy to focus on big flaming rockets and forget that without adequate controls, manned flight is insane. The primary invention of the Wright Brothers was to understand the importance of effective control and to develop appropriate systems for their craft. A related problem is flight training. The Wright's inched their way into flight, developing the necessary reflexes bit by bit.

This is less practical for rocket flight, and - when pointed toward the sky - a pilot has few directional cues. A substantial part of the Micro-Space effort is directed toward developing the control systems, information displays and flight simulators that our astronauts will need.

Other aspects of our program