henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (06/20/89)
[Don't remember whether I mentioned this last time or not... One of my German readers filled me in on why the new West German space agency is technically a private company: "In Germany all Government employees are bound into a rather tight salary schedule which gives lower wages than in the respective private sector. Thus the new DARA (Deutsche Agentur fuer Raumfahrt = German Space Agency) was formed as 'private' company to be able to pay the salaries needed to get qualified staff."] [For those interested in antimatter propulsion, CERN has just taken back (from Fermilab) the world record for antiproton production. The numbers still aren't high enough for any practical purpose except producing Nobel Prizes, though.] Sen. Barbara Mikulski, new chairman of one of the key Senate subcommittees overseeing NASA funding, warns scientists that NASA funding is an investment, not "a giveaway program or entitlement". First formal meeting of the National Space Council will aim at setting a new policy on remote sensing satellites. Surprisingly, DoD is expected to support continuing Landsat funding, as they make quite a bit of use of it. Aerospace Plane project decides to continue parallel funding for both main propulsion contractors through late 1990, instead of making a choice now. Neither has a significant advantage, and they are different enough that retaining both is felt to provide useful redundancy. Of course, this does complicate life for the airframe bidders, who have to be ready to handle either. Soviets slip first manned shuttle flight to 1992, to permit installation and testing of advanced redundant flight-control systems. [One would suspect that completing development of said systems is the real issue.] Soviet cosmonauts criticize current system as giving the crew inadequate ability to intervene in case of trouble, and say that planning for orbital flight tests is not well organized. Igor Volk [chief test pilot for the program] says that the next flight will not occur until late next year at the earliest, and will be unmanned. The third mission will probably be manned, with Volk in command. The Soviet shuttle cosmonauts are a separate group from the Soyuz crews. They were selected primarily for aircraft flight-test experience and then trained as cosmonauts, with training still putting considerable emphasis on aircraft testing. Boris Gubanov, principal designer of Energia, says Soviets are studying a winged, flyback version of Energia's core, using shuttle technology. Equipping the strap-on boosters with wings is also being looked at. So far the strap-ons have not been recovered, but they are built to use a parachute recovery system now being developed. Gubanov also says that two upper stages are under development for Energia: a "small propulsion module", roughly similar to NASA's OMV, for maneuvering in low orbit, and an oxyhydrogen upper stage to put 18 T into Clarke orbit, 32 T into lunar trajectory, or 28 T into Mars/Venus trajectory. Valery Barsukov, a prominent Soviet planetary scientist, says that Soviet planetary activity will focus on Mars for the rest of the century, aiming at an orbiter/lander mission in 1994, a rover/sample-return mission in 1998, and a manned mission hoped to occur before 2025. The 1994 mission will use two identical orbiter/lander spacecraft, with the lander carrying an instrumented balloon, small "meteorological pods", and one or more surface penetrators. Consideration is being given to building two complete backup spacecraft, which would be launched in 1996 to either repeat the 1994 mission if it failed, or conduct similar studies on Phobos. He says the Soviets have no immediate plans for Venus or the Moon, although they are interested in joint lunar missions with the US. Soviet Union and its US marketing rep, Space Commerce Corp, offer to supply Energia launches to orbit the US space station. This would save NASA the multi-billion-dollar costs of developing its own Shuttle-C proposal. The Soviets have designed an Energia cargo pod with a 122x18ft volume, compared to 82x15 for Shuttle-C. Payload masses are similar -- 50-75 T -- but there is a planned upgrade path that could put up to 200 T on Energia. Specific prices and schedules are not yet available, since Energia is not officially operational yet, but price per kilo is expected to be comparable to that of Proton [i.e., cheap] and the Soviets have said that if a customer with a 100 T payload appeared, it could be in orbit next year. SCC also plans to bid to Goddard under the upcoming procurement for commercial sounding-rocket services, using Soviet Cyclone rockets. Art Dula, its president, says: "I'd like to bring some Soviet vehicles over and launch them from [the Cape]. We're an American launch vehicle service provider -- all the laws encourage launch vehicle service providers from the US. We are such a provider. We happen to use Russian hardware, just as [Space Services Inc] used Canadian hardware [for its launch in March]." Magellan is on its way, after an aborted launch attempt April 28 and a successful one May 4. The April attempt hit some computer problems first, and this stalled launch long enough for a hydrogen recirculation pump to short and stop. The pumps circulate liquid hydrogen through the engines to keep them cold and avoid thermal shock or formation of hydrogen-gas bubbles on engine start. The pumps stop 6 seconds before engine start and the failure would not have endangered the shuttle. The successful Magellan launch clears the Eastern Test Range for a number of other missions which have been waiting impatiently, notably the first Titan 4 (early-warning satellite), a Titan 34D (either a military comsat or an eavesdropping satellite), and a pair of Deltas (a Navstar and an Indian comsat). Some of the scheduling pressure was relieved when the USN postponed further Trident 2 testing to permit a nozzle redesign in the wake of the March 21 failure. NASA will recommend killing the space station if Congress orders a cut or $600-800M or more. Such a cut is not at all unlikely. NASA is fighting with one foot in a bucket because it's in the middle of a management shuffle, with key people (notably Truly) holding office on an acting basis only. Senate criticizes lack of cooperation between DoD and NASA, notably the USAF's unwillingness to let NASA use Titan 4s. "[DoD wants] its own little space empire." SDI [!] encourages NASA to accelerate retrieval of LDEF. LDEF will reenter unless retrieved by the end of this year at the latest. NASA currently plans retrieval early in December, which is cutting it very close, especially with the uncertainty of reentry predictions. The Hubble Telescope may slip [it did] to keep LDEF retrieval on schedule. SDI (and NASA) are very keen on studying the effects of five years in space on LDEF's systems, including support equipment that was not originally meant as experiments. Particularly interesting are effects of atomic oxygen on composites and solar cells, the number of space- debris and micrometeorite collisions, and the effects of thousands of day/night thermal cycles. NRC committee strongly supports construction of the Aerospace Plane prototype to improve hypersonic technology, while warning that it may not be able to achieve orbit even with an auxiliary rocket system. USAF moves to "normalize" space operations, emphasizing launches by military technicians rather than contractors [the "own little space empire" rears its head again], and standardization of payloads and interfaces to permit last-minute selection of hardware. The USN, on the other hand, is wondering whether it can depend on space assets controlled by the USAF, and the Army can't get excited about the idea at all. Future SDI shuttle payloads will depend on cost and lead time. A senior SDI commander observes that preparing the Starlab (SDI Spacelab) mission for flight included 26 boxes of paperwork to support a NASA safety analysis, which seems excessive. -- You *can* understand sendmail, | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology but it's not worth it. -Collyer| uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu