henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (11/14/88)
STS-26 mission successful, after fears of launch delay due to unexpectedly low high-altitude winds (re-examination of the aerodynamic models of the wing revealed a bit more margin than expected) and misbehavior of a backup power controller in one OMS pod (the primary controller was working and the controllers decided to proceed). Lots of coverage of the launch, not much real news. STS-26 experiments included tests of the pointing accuracy of the IUS for planetary missions, done by comparing the IUS's own attitude sensors with the shuttle's before separation. France is trying to keep the door open for Britain to change its mind about participation in ESA's more ambitious programs, e.g. Ariane 5. US geologists examining Venera radar images of Venus have found features similar to Earth's mid-ocean rift zones, the first solid evidence of plate tectonics on Venus. The images are five years old but became available outside the USSR only recently. Space Station agreements signed by US, Canada, Japan, ESA. Something not mentioned in earlier stories about the details is that each lab provider (i.e. everybody but Canada) can veto use of its lab for military purposes. US launch companies upset about White House decision to approve use of Chinese launchers for US satellites. Dept of Defense says the Chinese already have the relevant technology, so there is no technology-transfer issue. General Dynamics rep says: "What mechanism will be used to prevent the infusion of American know-how in problem-solving, systems engineering, and management techniques that we have developed over the past 25 years?" [I don't understand what he's moaning about; if the Chinese picked up US aerospace management techniques, their prices would have to double overnight to support all the extra overhead. Those areas are the US's weaknesses, not its strengths.] State Dept says Chinese will agree to limit Western sales to four launches a year; US launcher companies say that even that might be too much. [If they're that sensitive to small loss of business, I'd say they're doomed anyway.] State Dept says potential losses to US launch companies were considered but were outweighed by potential losses to US satellite builders. Pictures of Offeq-1, the first Israeli satellite, and its launch. ESA declares Ariane 4 operational after one launch. [Hmm, a new record for minimizing testing...] Performance actually was about 1% better than expected. Some technical problems did turn up in the post-launch analysis, but nothing of real importance. Soviets modifying Mars-study plans after loss of Phobos 1, although final efforts to reestablish communications with it are still in progress. Some experiments were not duplicated, and there were hopes that the seismometer on P1's fixed lander might have been able to detect P2's fixed lander putting down its "harpoon" anchor. Fortunately the "hopper" lander is on P2. P2's Phobos flyby may be moved up a few weeks, since there is no longer any need to wait until P1's flyby is finished. NOAA launches polar-orbit metsat on Atlas E from Vandenberg Sept 24. OTA says US needs to pay more attention to cutting launch and mission- operations costs if it wants to make spaceflight cheaper overall. Study says that the traditional NASA/USAF approach of trying to get higher performance out of launchers is not going to help much. They talk about designing to cost rather than to performance, but when they actually plan for future systems, increased payload becomes the priority. NASA and DoD spend very little research money on new launcher technology and improvement of launcher operations. NASA is making small efforts to improve the technology, but has no clear plan for using the results or setting priorities among different research directions. OTA says that major reductions in operations costs, such as those promised for ALS, will happen only in the presence of high demand, major efforts to design vehicles and ground facilities for fast turnaround, and more uniform payloads. These conditions are possible, but are most unlikely unless either SDI deployment proceeds or civilian space spending rises sharply. In any case, ALS cannot fly until 1998 at the earliest under the current program. Prospects of cutting pre- launch costs for existing launchers are not encouraging, with the pre-Discovery experience casting doubt on NASA's renewed optimism. OTA cites three major factors in high operations costs: outdated facilities that require constant maintenance, excessive supervision and paperwork, and lack of incentives to lower costs. "The system does not have incentives built in for achieving low-cost, successful launches. There is the incentive not to fail, but not the incentive to lower costs." says one OTA advisor. OTA observes that SDI's Delta 180 experiment cut costs up to 50% by decreasing oversight, delegating authority to those closest to technical problems, and providing major cash incentives to contractors (shared with their employees) to meet the demanding schedule. Shuttle operations costs are likely to remain high. Spares are still a problem. So is the sheer complexity of the shuttle -- after every flight, 5000 parts must be removed and inspected in the SRBs alone! Computers and software are a major cost, with little coordination between different groups: "...the flow of information during the launch sequence is excellent [but] during the months leading up to the launch, information flow is very poor." Shuttle-C may help, but it will introduce its own problems. Unless it is specifically designed for simplicity and ease of operations, its operations costs could be very high. There will be coordination problems with two different types of vehicles using launch facilities. The very high value of Shuttle-C cargos will probably dictate launch preparations of the same order of magnitude as those for a manned launch, and its non-standard nature will make things worse. Photo of Amroc's full-duration motor firing. Various technical details were changed to solve stability problems in earlier motors. The test also demonstrated Amroc's thrust-vectoring technique, injecting 70% hydrogen peroxide into the exhaust nozzle to create a shock wave that deflects the main exhaust plume up to 6 degrees. Amroc's first suborbital test flight is next. The single-stage rocket will be sub-flight-standard in some ways, since minimizing weight is not important for the test. It will carry a superconductor-crystallization experiment; there is sufficient demand for microgravity time that even this short flight (circa four minutes in free fall) is valuable. -- Sendmail is a bug, | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology not a feature. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu