henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (12/11/89)
[Pegasus update, as of 7 Dec: dress-rehearsal captive-carry test slips one week due to minor electrical problems.] Editorial about the effort being mounted by Keith Glennan, James Webb, and Robert Seamans -- all ex-heads of NASA -- to start an organized project to preserve historical records of the US space program. The Smithsonian is running it. An awful lot has already been lost, notably in industry but also within the government. Even the more formal forms of records are sparse for some projects, like the early Mariner missions. Engineering drawings are largely missing, even for major efforts like the F-1 engine and the Apollo lunar module. And most prominently, there are very few records of the decision-making that went into the designs, even when the final result is well-documented. The final blow is that almost all Apollo-era documentation is on acidic paper with a lifetime of only a few decades. Galileo launch slips due to the need to replace a misbehaving engine controller on Atlantis. During a pre-flight test run, the computer on engine #2 had trouble updating its value for the low-pressure fuel duct pressure -- a moderately important sensor reading -- and there were some doubts about the backup computer as well. Mission rules call for both computers to operate correctly, and attempts to duplicate the problem for study were unsuccessful. The slip casts considerable doubt on Galileo's second asteroid encounter, which was already at the limits of fuel supply, although the calculations are conservative enough that the first asteroid encounter and the full Jupiter mission are thought to be safe. Judge Oliver Gasch denies the Christics' request for an injunction to halt the Galileo launch. He rules that the wisdom of the launch itself is outside his jurisdiction, and the only issue at hand is whether NASA has complied with the rules. He further rules that NASA has conducted proper environmental-impact reviews, that the Christics are not likely to prevail in a trial, and that the public interest would be harmed by a launch delay. Case closed. ESA begins evaluating 150,000-page (!) industry proposal for Columbus (polar platform, space-station lab module, and free-flying lab module). Cost, surprise surprise, comes in at about the predicted $2.5G, with some variations depending on a couple of details: which design is used for the polar platform (BAe's design based on other Columbus hardware, or Matra's based on the Spot4/Helios bus), and whether the resource module for the free-flier is replenished by replacing it in toto or by replacing modules within it. ESA grows increasingly concerned about the US's unilateral decision-making regarding the station. "The US program has been chaotic recently, and major changes in configuration or scheduling are being developed in NASA without necessary coordination with its international partners." "What is happening with the station proves once again that we can't count on the US for fair treatment on international programs... They have told us that the situation with space station Freedom now is improving. But what assurances do we have that the station will not undergo another major configuration change -- which probably will be made without consulting us -- when the next budget crisis comes?" Solar Max to fall, reentry expected in mid-Dec [well, it was a bit ahead of schedule...]. Models predict either a few big pieces or a lot of small ones will survive reentry. Solar Max has no propulsion system and there is no possibility of choosing its impact point. With Solar Max about to die, NASA is starting to run high-risk tests that have some chance of damaging the spacecraft. There is seldom a chance to do this on a spacecraft that's been up ten years. Various systems are being stress-tested, primary systems are being shut down and long-dormant backup systems activated to see if they work, and jettison mechanisms for the high-gain antenna and solar arrays will be fired. Many solar scientists are more than a little angry about Solar Max's death, since it continues to return high-quality data. Hughes considers commercial venture to build small ocean-monitoring satellite, to be financed by sale of data to fishing and environmental interests. It would weigh about 250lbs, could be up by 1991, and would be launched by Pegasus. Hughes and NASA are negotiating a deal to give NASA R&D rights and Hughes commercial rights. Total costs for six-year life would be "under $50M". Data returned would be similar to that from Nimbus 7's coastal-zone color scanner; the project grew out of old proposals to put an ocean sensor on a future Landsat. It would be a relatively wide-angle sensor gathering low-resolution images in eight narrow bands. The satellite would be in a sun-synchronous orbit with equator crossing at noon. Hughes wants to sign up some startup customers before go-ahead, on contracts offering ongoing access to the data stream rather than sale of single images. The venture will be based in Canada, where Hughes is finding the government much more helpful than in the US. "Report from Baikonur Cosmodrome", with lots of big color photos of Soviet space activities. View of Buran's payload bay with the doors open. Non- flight Energia on the pad for fuelling tests. Close-ups of Buran's nose with reaction-control-system package removed, showing construction of the interior (conventional aircraft techniques, by the looks of it). Energia liquid-booster integration area, with many bits of hardware on view. Visit to Leninsk, the town supporting Baikonur. A somewhat scruffy place, with generally poorly-built buildings and streets. People find it less than an ideal place to live, given extreme temperatures and isolation, but it has compensations: wages at the Cosmodrome are quite a bit higher than elsewhere, and consumer goods are in better supply. Baikonur's primary pad for "A" boosters is the same one used for Sputnik 1 and Gagarin. [Compare this to the Cape, where most of the historic pads are long disused and rotting.] Soviet Union decides on a three-orbiter shuttle fleet for the moment. Number one is being partially disassembled for inspection after its 1988 flight (this inspection having been delayed by the decision to take it to the Paris Air Show), number two is at Baikonur having final systems work done, and number three is midway through production near Moscow. There is some confusion about names because "Buran" is both the number-one orbiter and, increasingly, a generic name for the system. Number two will be used for the second unmanned flight, tentatively set for 1991. As speculated in the west, Energia's payload capacity depends on how many liquid-fuel boosters are used. With two boosters, the minimum, it's 65 tons to low orbit. The maximum, with eight boosters and a slightly modified core, is 200 tons. "Controlled flight" remains possible after failure of a single booster or a single core engine. -- 1755 EST, Dec 14, 1972: human | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology exploration of space terminates| uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu