Posts tagged business
CU ROLE IN DREAM CHASER SPACECRAFT TO CONTINUE UNDER NEW NASA GRANT TO SIERRA NEVADA CORP.
Apr 22nd
Faculty and students at the University of Colorado Boulder will continue to play a significant role in the development of the Dream Chaser, a commercial spacecraft that will be used to carry astronauts to low Earth orbit, thanks to a new $80 million grant from NASA to Sierra Nevada Corp.
The Louisville, Colo.-based aerospace company was one of four companies to receive grants this week from NASA’s Commercial Crew Development program. The grant is a follow-on to Sierra Nevada’s NASA grant of $20 million for the Dream Chaser last year.
Roughly the size of a business jet, the 30-foot-long Dream Chaser is slated to launch vertically on an Atlas V rocket and land horizontally on conventional runways, similar to the much larger space shuttle. The spacecraft is based on NASA’s earlier HL-20 lifting body design.
As part of its continuing development of the Dream Chaser, Sierra Nevada will fund “human rating” research led by CU-Boulder Professor David Klaus of the aerospace engineering sciences department, according to Jim Voss, a CU faculty member and vice president of Sierra Nevada. Human rating research is aimed at developing a methodology for evaluating safety and operational aspects of spacecraft intended to transport crew.
“This is a great industry-academia collaboration that combines providing design input for the Dream Chaser to Sierra Nevada with four related thesis topics being pursued by Ph.D. students in our program,” Klaus said.
Sierra Nevada also will sponsor and fund a continuation of the CU-Boulder graduate student project involving Dream Chaser displays and controls, Voss said. The graduate project is focused on cockpit design and ergonomics evaluation to determine the best placement and type of controls to be used by the crew. The students are being advised by Voss and his colleague Joe Tanner, both of whom joined the CU-Boulder faculty after retiring as NASA astronauts.
Klaus, who heads the aerospace department’s bioastronautics focus area, has set up a laboratory in CU-Boulder’s Engineering Center housing three mock-ups of the spacecraft. One is a full-scale model of the Dream Chaser based on the earlier HL-20 design that is on loan from NASA to Sierra Nevada; another is a 15 percent scale model unit that was used for flight testing last December, and the third is the cockpit section being used to evaluate the layout for instrument displays and controls. A “public day” is being planned so that the community will have a chance to view the project.
“The University of Colorado and Sierra Nevada Corporation have formed a partnership that allows use of the tremendous intellectual resources of students and professors to help develop a commercial human spacecraft, the Dream Chaser,” said Voss. “I’m really pleased to continue the work that was started last year and look forward to more student involvement with this exciting project.”
-CU-
City of Boulder kicks off Energy Future outreach efforts
Apr 8th
The City of Boulder is announcing a variety of new ways for community members to learn about and give feedback on the ongoing Energy Future effort. The city has released an animated video sharing the goals of the initiative and an online survey. In addition, staff members will be conducting outreach at a variety of locations around town.
Boulder’s Energy Future goal, shaped during public forums last fall, is to ensure that residential, business and other institutional customers have access to safe, reliable energy that is competitively priced, increasingly clean, and as locally produced as possible — giving customers more choice and control in their power.
The city’s energy team is focused on gathering the facts and data needed to inform decisions about the best option for the community. While no decision has been made about how to accomplish this goal, analyses that take into account Boulder’s specific objectives are underway. Currently, three options are being explored:
forming a new agreement with our current provider, Xcel Energy; the creation of a local power utility; or,
a hybrid approach that includes elements of both of the previous options.
The city expects to begin receiving reports from consultants and committees who are studying the options in late April. Over the following few months, council will evaluate the information and determine whether to put any measures on the ballot for voter consideration in November.
In the meantime, the city is working to inform the community about the project and encourage public input about the important choices that lie ahead.
This week, the city posted a short animated video to its YouTube channel and on the energy future website to provide information about the community’s vision. That video can be viewed at . Members of the community are encouraged to share this through social media and other venues.
The city has also launched a two-minute online survey that gives community members the opportunity to share their energy knowledge and help prioritize the objectives the city is considering. That survey can be accessed and shared via the energy future website or at http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/503292/City-of-Boulder-Energy-Future.
Boulder’s Energy Future has already become a frequent topic on Boulder Channel 8 programming. This month, the program A Boulder View included an interview with Councilman Matt Appelbaum, who fielded many of the tough questions the community has asked about the initiative. That video can be viewed at http://bit.ly/energyfutureview.
In addition to these digital-based efforts, city staff and team members will be answering questions and talking to residents about Boulder’s Energy Future at a variety of community events over the next couple of months. You can find city staff each week at the Farmer’s Market, and on Tuesday, April 12, project team members will be at King Soopers, 3600 Table Mesa Drive, in south Boulder. Similar events will take place at other locations in following weeks. Please stop by.
Anyone seeking more information about the Energy Future project or community outreach is encouraged to visit www.BoulderEnergyFuture.com or call Andrew Barth at 303-441-1937 or Sarah Huntley at 303-441-3155.
City of Boulder News Briefs (for reals)
Apr 7th
Tree removal work on Pearl Street Mall has begun
The City of Boulder’s Parks and Recreation Department has begun a tree removal and replacement project on the 1300 block of the Pearl Street Mall.
The project will include removing declining linden trees and tree grates, realigning tree vaults, enlarging tree grates and planting new trees. This work may cause brief, minor access closures. The project is expected to be completed by April 15 (depending on weather and contactor scheduling). There are no anticipated business access impacts due to this work.
For construction updates, visit www.BoulderParkNews.org.
Boulder Municipal Court to close from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 8
Boulder Municipal Court will be closed from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday, April 8, for a staff meeting.
