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February 10, 2003

Stephen Garber
NASA History Office
Code IQ
NASA Headquarters - Room CO72
Washington, DC 20546-0001

NASA is pleased to announce a request for proposals for a new 
historical book project entitled "Access to Space:  the Evolution of 
an Idea and Technology."  Full details are available at 
http://prod.nais.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/eps/sol.cgi?acqid=103561 on the Web 
and a more brief description of the project is below.  We encourage 
all interested parties to submit proposals by the deadline of March 6, 
2003.  Any questions about the upcoming contract should be addressed 
to the procurement specialists listed on the Web.  Thank you in 
advance for your interest in this important topic.


The goal of this research project is to produce a roughly 500-page 
manuscript history of the views of scientists, engineers, 
policymakers, enthusiasts, and the general public regarding the 
various methods conceivable and available to put humans and payloads 
into space.

Access to space has been the critical question in spaceflight since 
the beginning of the space age: how best and most efficiently to reach 
Earth orbit.  Reaching Earth orbit efficiently has been the key 
obstacle to overcome because once a payload has escaped most of 
Earth's gravitational pull, it is much easier for it to travel 
elsewhere in the solar system or beyond.  In addition, there are a 
number of kinds of applications satellites that function within Earth 
orbit itself.

This work will present a conceptually challenging analysis of the 
manner in which humanity has thought about the methodologies of 
reaching Earth orbit (focusing on the twentieth century), exploring 
the various technologies conceived and developed.  It will describe 
the process of technological innovation that has led to the 
development of chemical rocket launch vehicles that presently exist, 
and will explore the debates over the use of expendable launch 
vehicles versus reusable rockets. It will also explore the possible 
other types of launch systems that have been considered such as 
nuclear, electromagnetic, laser, and ion propulsion technologies, in 
addition to hypersonic aircraft.

This project should not simply be a descriptive history of the 
development of various U.S. launch vehicles.  Rather, it should tell a 
broader, analytical narrative story about why particular launch 
systems were chosen over others.

Stephen Garber
NASA History Office
Code IQ
NASA Headquarters - Room CO72
Washington, DC 20546-0001

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