henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (09/09/87)
[Minor note on format: in the interest of saving keystrokes, I'm going
to stop signing all of my interjections with "-- HS"; material in brackets
henceforth should be assumed to be from me unless otherwise marked. --HS]
Editorial titled "Space Leadership Void". "...the sad truth is the US
space program, most notably the NASA portion, is foundering under the
worst management crisis it has faced since the agency was formed in 1958."
Theme is that Fletcher should either stand up for the agency or resign.
Shuttle-escape engineers are looking at a fire-pole scheme as an alternative
to the tractor-rocket scheme. The idea is to just stick out a guide rod to
carry escaping crew downward clear of the wing.
[This is a fine idea, simple, reliable, and without the safety problems of
the rocket method. I give it a 50-50 chance of being adopted, assuming
that it does turn out to be as superior as it looks. (He who believes that
superior ideas automatically get adopted is dreaming.)]
China will buy comsat components from Germany for the next Chinese comsat.
Hughes is looking at Palmyra Island in the Pacific as a launch site for the
ALS. It is privately-owned US territory near the equator.
House subcommittee slams White House for doing nothing about the space
program in general and the National Commission on Space report in particular.
US and European delegations to meet to work towards a trade agreement on
commercial launch operations. The hope is that other nations might join in.
For example, the Europeans are expected to protest the US-only clause in a
recent Commerce launch procurement.
NASA receives space-station proposals from six bidders. Evaluation board
will report to Fletcher late Oct, final decision Nov. Rockwell and
McDonnell-Douglas are bidding on structure and distributed systems (plus
propulsion and EVA gear); Martin Marietta and Boeing are fighting over
the pressurized modules; Rocketdyne is sole bidder on power; GE Astro Space
[formerly RCA space div. as I recall] is sole bidder for free-flying
platforms and payload-attach hardware. Two or three pages of detail on
who's doing what within the various bids; these are all complex teams.
White House begins a complete reassessment of US space policy. Reaction
from space-related agencies is basically "AGAIN?!?". This just might lead
to major action on space for the FY89 budget, Reagan's last.
USAF-NASA squabble over new boosters worsens. NASA wants to move ahead
on a shuttle-derived study, the USAF sees this as competition for ALS and
opposes it.
More comments on the Ride report. Ride emphasizes the need to build
infrastructure, and the risk of a Mars mission turning into a one-shot.
NASA vs. the Office of Mismanagement and Beancounting again. [Yes, I know
that's not its real name...] OMB criticizes NASA for a statement about
buying expendables, on the grounds that it undercuts presidential decision-
making. NASA says this is ridiculous because existing presidential policy
already calls for more expendables.
NASA will try to get $11.9G budget past OMB for FY89. (FY88 is $9.5G.)
Fletcher calls for firm future $12G budgets, also wants $100M supplemental
in FY88 for buying expendables.
Soyuz launched to Mir, two Soviet cosmonauts and one Syrian guest. It
will dock to the rear port, on Kvant. Progress 30, which docked in May,
was jettisoned and reentered July 19.
Arianespace sets Sept 11 as tentative launch date for next Ariane.
Aerojet fires first full test of Titan 4 first-stage engine; successful.
Color pictures of the multi-port docking hub on the Mir mockup shown at
Paris.
Leningrad conference on satellite systems yields surprise: Soviets fail
to discuss their Glonass (Navstar lookalike) navsat, prompting speculations
on why. One possibility is that they want to improve Glonass to match
Navstar accuracy, so a receiver built for both would not make Glonass look
inferior. Another very good possibility is that the Soviet military may
want to keep Glonass for their own; the Pentagon wanted to keep Navstar
until it decided that civil users should help pay the bills, a problem the
Soviet military may not have.
Large article on technological advances going into the space station; of
note is oxyhydrogen propulsion for station-keeping.
The [small] organization representing Europe's astronauts calls for an
interim expendable manned capsule, partly to get manned work going before
Hermes and partly as an escape system for a European space station. One
awkward issue is that Ariane 5 will be over-sized for just the capsule,
while the smaller Arianes are not man-rated. Piggybacking on another
payload is a possibility.
Rep. Manuel Lujan criticizes NASA's astronaut-selection procedure, noting
that of the last 45 astronaut candidates selected, only three were neither
military officers nor NASA employees... and those three were an Army civilian
employee, a JPL employee who is also son of a former NASA DepAdmin, and the
first female black astronaut. "Are we being asked to believe that out of
the thousands of applicants that coincidentally the best qualified were all
NASA employees or from the military?" "If the qualifications for astronaut
are best met by serving an apprenticeship with NASA... you owe it to the
American people to state that publicly."
[Personally, I think that (a) there is little doubt that NASA has several
silly prejudices, including this one, about astronaut selection, and (b) it
really doesn't matter very much, because the problem remains one of finding
ways to *eliminate* most of the well-qualified people. As long as there are
far more amply-qualified applicants than positions, irrelevant and silly
selection criteria are inevitable. The right fix for this is not to change
from one silly set of rules to another. -- HS]
Another big spread on Chinese aerospace. McDonnell-Douglas is about to
start talking to China about putting the PAM upper stage on the Long March.
McD-D recently got permission from the State Dept to discuss the matter (!).
A formal export license will be needed to pursue it in depth. There is
foreign interest, notably from Australia's Aussat.
AW&ST visits Chinese booster factory. "...a continual stream of horse-drawn
carts passed the facility's security wall next to small peasant cottages with
chickens running in the street..." A movie about the plant showed a wind
tunnel test plainly involving an ICBM prototype, although the Chinese will
not confirm ICBM work at the plant. They are getting ready for a stretched
version of Long March 2, preferably with a PAM as third stage. The movie
also showed as many as four boosters in checkout simultaneously.
Another interesting story of how *competent* people respond to a failure.
The first flight of the oxyhydrogen upper stage on Long March 3 was a partial
failure, with premature shutdown during the second burn. The factory
diagnosed the problem as bubbles in propellant lines, developed and tested
fixed components, ran four ground firings, and then flew the new hardware
carrying China's first Clarke-orbit comsat -- SEVENTY DAYS AFTER THE FAILURE!
More indications that the Chinese are not fussy about clean-room procedures
except where it really matters.
The first-stage engines of Long March 2 run at less than 85% of their rated
maximum thrust, to provide a safety margin. The same engines will be used
in the strap-on boosters for the L.M. 2-4L version.
China is preparing to launch another photographic spysat, the same type they
are marketing for civilian payloads. AW&ST saw it being readied. The most
remarkable thing is that it uses a *wood* heatshield. They say that they
tested various fancy materials, but concluded that a thick layer of oak
worked well and was good enough.
US State Dept. openly and loudly refuses to grant export licenses for
shipment of satellites to the Soviet Union for launch on Proton. At least
one test-case application has been denied (the companies by and large
expected this, but wanted firm responses rather than the waffling that
they got when they asked). Everyone is waiting to see whether European
nations will allow satellites built there onto Proton. State says that
even if the Administration were interested in changing its policy, which
it is not, it would take several years before results would be seen.
An "Aerospace Forum" article by a fellow named Eugene Meyers, strongly
pushing a space station based on the shuttle external tanks. [Frankly,
the guy comes off as a flake, although he has some interesting ideas.]
Much more detailed Halley-nucleus photos, obtained by processing and
compositing of Giotto images. The increase in detail is fairly striking.
--
"There's a lot more to do in space | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
than sending people to Mars." --Bova | {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,utai}!utzoo!henry