henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (03/29/88)
[The moral of this week's summary is to make damn sure you sign up for your Advanced Russian courses, and think about Introductory Chinese while you're at it.] Editorial claiming Reagan space policy is too little and too late: nice words, but no specific projects, no solid push for funding, and no real indication that Reagan himself is behind it. "Is the state of the US space program such an embarrassment to the Reagan Administration that it wants only to go through the motions of articulating a space policy?" First Delta 2 is behind schedule but there are hopes of making up the delays; first launch still set for Oct. The long-wave infrared signatures of simulated ICBM plumes did not match predictions in the SDI Delta 181 experiment. Details secret. USAF safety officers brief Truly on USAF concerns that NASA safety area for the shuttle is much too small if NASA sticks to its policy that destruct systems will be used only if the orbiter is totally out of control. USAF says that if this policy continues, all of KSC should be considered at risk during a launch and uninvolved observers should be outside it. This is particularly sticky because VIP and press sites well within KSC are being built and renovated. USSR is considering expanding its 1994 Mars balloon/rover missions to include small return vehicles coming back to Earth from Mars orbit, as a rehearsal for a later sample-return mission. The return vehicles also would bring back high-resolution film from orbiter cameras, as a supplement to radio image transmission. Other additions being thought about are a 110-lb subsatellite for gravity measurements, ten small weather transmitters to be dropped on the surface, a pair of penetrators for subsurface science, and a 1m-resolution camera system for the orbiters. All of this, including the return vehicles, is contingent on a decision to use aerobraking for Mars-orbit insertion, which would greatly boost the payload of the missions. USSR is also thinking about missions further afield. Corona, possible for 1995 launch, would do a Jupiter flyby to get within 5 million km of the Sun. Also being looked at is a Titan probe mission, including a surface probe and a balloon, possibly for 1999. NASA would like to get both CRAF and Cassini (Saturn orbiter, Titan probe) into FY90 budget, on the grounds that they use similar spacecraft and doing them together would save money. [Don't hold your breath.] Mir crew prepares for EVA to install a new experimental solar panel module on Mir's third solar array, replacing one of the four modules already there. The new section was delivered by Progress 34. Redesigned SRB joints pass hot-firing tests with large deliberate flaws. Massachusetts-based Payload Systems Inc books protein-crystallization payloads onto Mir, starting 1989. They have their export licence already, too, so this is real. Kayser-Threde of West Germany books three flights aboard Soviet unmanned recoverable capsules, with the intent of developing equipment and selling the experiment capacity to others. They are still working on export clearance. They say the Soviets were surprisingly easy to deal with. Both PSI and K-T will supply their experiments in sealed cases which the Soviets will not open. Soviets also say that round-the-clock supervision by company representatives is possible if desired. Intospace (European company) signs contract with China to fly its multi-user protein-crystal-growth facility, COSIMA, on a recoverable capsule on a Long March this August, with another flight within a year. Matra (French) books another microgravity flight aboard Long March. (Its first was last fall.) Satellite owners call for major revisions in the usual launch-contract terms. Current contracts impose penalty charges if payloads are not ready but not if launcher is not ready. Payments begin years before launch and must be complete before launch. And launch companies bear little responsibility for the effects of launch failures. The customers want all of these to change. Arianespace and Martin Marietta, who have long waiting lists, say "impossible"; General Dynamics, hungry for business, says "we'll make improvements". CNES [French space agency] proposes to buy and operate a Caravelle (small French jetliner) for microgravity flights. ESA is considering paying for the maintenance in return for access. ESA has rented space on NASA's microgravity KC-135 several times and would like more convenient flights. ESA prepares to revise industrial work assignments for Columbus following Britain's decision not to participate. The commitment deadline has passed without a British commitment. Later entry into the program would require unanimous consent of the other participants. Ariane 5 and Hermes also got no British commitment, but Britain wasn't heavily into either one to begin with, while British Aerospace expected to be prime contractor for the Columbus polar platform. NASA and DoD discuss future of Shuttle-C unmanned heavylift shuttle derivative. Second-phase Shuttle-C study contracts are to go out by late March, subject to funding (looking doubtful) and to outcome of turf battles (notably with the USAF's ALS). Shuttle-C configuration has settled down some [or been settled down by NASA's prejudices?], with all participants agreeing on a side-by-side layout much like the shuttle. To the shocked surprise of absolutely nobody, NASA's leased-platform specs closely resemble those of Space Industries's ISF. Must be a single shuttle payload with 2-3kcuft of pressurized volume, at least 30% available for commercial use after accommodating the government, shirt-sleeve environment with minimal help from the shuttle, normal autonomous operation for 4-6 months, contingency operation for three years without servicing or external reboost, ability to dock with shuttle, orbital capability by end of FY93 with a bonus for earlier, firm five-year fixed-price lease (subject to the vagaries of Congress, of course). US suppliers only. Decision mid-July. USAF exercises first option on Delta 2 contract, adding 7 to initial order of 7. Another option, for 6 more, remains. Japanese CS-3A comsat launched by H-1 Feb 19, in Clarke orbit Feb 21. Big spread on Space Industries and Spacehab. SI expect to win NASA's lease contract and will start bending metal then. They expect the first module to be ready for launch in 1991, with the first servicing mission early 1992. A second module could be added later in 1992. ISF thinks it can raise the $700M needed privately given a government commitment to lease. There is some government cynicism about SI, on the grounds that SI used political pressure to get government business after it couldn't find any commercial customers. SI counters that the major reason for the lack of commercial customers is the Challenger mess. Spacehab says the only government support it needs is launch slots. They hope for regular government use but are not asking for guarantees. They have offered to barter use of part of their modules in return for launch service, to avoid NASA having to explicitly spend money on it. Of note is that it now looks possible to fly Spacehab together with Spacelab; Spacehab says this could provide extended crew quarters and storage for long Spacelab missions. They also suggest fitting Spacehab out as an animal facility, in hopes of solving some of the problems with the Spacelab animal facilities. Spacehab is also proposing their modules as space-station expansion modules. Both SI and Spacehab are interested in selling capacity overseas, since foreign interest in microgravity work is much stronger. They will need government permission to do this. One major uncertainty affecting both is future shuttle pricing (not resolved by either NASA or the White House so far); another is excessive reliance on reliable shuttle operations. JPL is flight-testing prototype equipment for the third shuttle radar experiment, scheduled for spring 1991. [Finally, this one is only marginally space news, but worth mentioning for sheer entertainment value...] Break Out The Photon Torpedos, Mr. Spock: SDI is funding studies of "electromagnetic missiles", uncertain theoretical possibilities of propagating radio energy in ways that partially avoid the inverse-square law. Apparently the idea is not totally ridiculous, but to date nobody is sure whether there is any physical reality behind the mathematical speculation. Harvard is running experiments to check it out. -- "Noalias must go. This is | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology non-negotiable." --DMR | {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,utai}!utzoo!henry