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EDITOR'S NOTE - The United States led the way in space exploration
for two decades before Washington started cutting back NASA's funds
in the late 1970s. The nation seemed ready to relinquish its
leadership in space to the Soviet Union and two emerging space
powers, Japan and the 10-nation European Space Agency. But then
President Reagan discovered space, and became a fan.
By HOWARD BENEDICT
AP Aerospace Writer
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - An international armada of unmanned
spaceships is streaking toward a rendezvous with Halley's comet over
seven days next March. Two are Soviet, two are Japanese, one is
European.
None is American.
The United States, the world's leading space-faring nation, will be
on the sidelines for the most examined, most studied and most
photographed celestial event in history as the celebrated comet makes
an appearance near the sun, something it does only once every 76
years.
True, the United States will view the comet from afar with
instruments aboard two space shuttle missions, on Earth-orbiting
satellites, and on a seven-year-old spacecraft that is orbiting
Venus. And American scientists are directing an International Halley
Watch, which will help coordinate the flights and findings of the
five spacecraft. But it's not the same as having a ringside seat.
America is not going to Halley's comet because the Carter
administration cut funds for such a project in 1979 and the Reagan
administration did the same two years later.
That was a period of sinking budgets for the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration. And most of the funds NASA got went into
shoring up the lagging space shuttle program.
Science was the loser. And after two decades in which the United
States led the way in probing the planets, the stars and distant
galaxies, this nation seemed ready to relinquish that leadership to
the Soviets and two emerging space powers, Japan and the 10-nation
European Space Agency.
But then President Reagan discovered space, and became a fan. NASA's
budgets improved, boosting space science, and in 1984 the president
directed the agency to develop a permanent manned space station
within a decade. Among its functions, the station will serve as an
orbiting science laboratory.
Reagan said the station would enable the United States to maintain
its space leadership. But the Soviets also are developing a permanent
manned station, and should have it in orbit several years before the
American facility. And they are pursuing an aggressive space program,
even though their technology trails that of the Americans.
Soviet planetary exploration has been limited by technology to the
close-in planets Venus and Mars, while U.S. spacecraft have probed
Venus, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn. Voyager 2, which
reconnoitered Jupiter in 1979 and Saturn in 1981, will rendezvous
with Uranus next January and with Neptune in 1989, leaving faraway
Pluto as the only uncharted planet.
The American advantage is the use of miniature components,
high-powered upper-stage rockets, and nuclear generators to power the
probes.
Steered by tiny gas jets, these robot spacecraft with names like
Mariner, Pioneer, Viking, Voyager, Venera and Mars have traveled to
exotic landscapes stranger than any myth or legend. At their
destinations, some skimmed close, snapping pictures and gathering a
few days of data before soaring toward another planet or into
interstellar space. Some orbited their targets to examine them at
length, and some descended to the surface to study mysteries there.
Humans as a result have caught their first close views of the great
storm systems and rings of Jupiter; the active volcanoes on its
salt-covered moon, Io; the parched and cratered wasteland of Mercury;
ancient river bottoms, raging winds and a volcano almost 80,000 feet
high on Mars; sulfuric acid clouds, lightning, an active volcano and
hellish temperatures on Venus; the thousand rings and tantalizing
moons of Saturn, and several stars that may be centers of solar
systems like our own.
From these flights, scientists are assembling a vast mosaic about
the solar system and its intricate workings. A basic goal is to learn
more about planet Earth, fitting it into the cosmic puzzle that is
the origin, the evolution and the structure of the universe.
Roald Sagdeyev, director of the Soviet Institute of Space Research,
says the American and Soviet roles in planetary exploration, although
not coordinated, are clearly defined by the relative technology of
the two nations.
With much better electronic miniaturization and long-lived
spacecraft, he says, the United States is more suited to probe the
distant planets, while the Soviets concentrate on those closer in.
''This approach is quite complimentary because both sides share
their data,'' he said.
Sagdeyev noted the Soviets postponed Mars exploration after
America's 1976 Viking landers ''made an important contribution to
Martian science.'' He added that ''everybody now must stop and think
about what the next approach should be.''
The United States has not launched a planetary explorer since 1978.
In that period, the Soviets have dispatched eight, all to Venus.
Sagdeyev said the Americans, with their expertise, are playing the
role of coordinators of International Halley Watch.
''There should be such an international division of duties,'' he
said. ''If everybody would be rushing toward Halley's comet, there
would be a traffic jam.''
Sagdeyev says comets are debris left over from the creation of the
solar system some 4.6 billion years ago and contain primordial matter
in pristine form. ''They preserve the matter in its original state,''
he says. ''It could tell us much about the birth and history of the
solar system.''
One of the two Soviet spacecraft will be the first to fly near
Halley's comet. But it won't be the first to probe a comet. Some
innovative thinking by a group of NASA scientists produced that first
for the United States.
The scientists mounted a bargain basement mission to the comet
Giacobini-Zinner, using a satellite that had been in space since
1978, studying solar particles while orbiting the sun about half a
million miles ahead of the Earth. They guided the International
Sun-Earth Explorer, called ISEE, close to the moon, allowing lunar
gravity to deflect the craft onto a path that took it 44 million
miles out to Giacobini-Zinner.
ICEE, renamed ICE, for Interplanetary Comet Explorer, but pronounced
the same, passed through the comet's tail, 4,500 miles behind the
nucleus, on Sept. 11. Scientists will spend months studying the
information radioed from the probe. Among early observations: The
tail was about 15,000 miles wide, three times greater than expected,
and charged particles of water and carbon monoxide were detected,
confirming what most scientists have suspected, that comets are
basically large chunks of ice and dust.
ICE survived the dash through the comet's tail and is on a path that
will take it within 18 million miles of Halley's comet in March. But
that's a far cry from the near approaches of the Soviet, Japanese and
European craft. The European Giotto will come the closest, about 300
miles.
In discussing the American space science program, Sagdeyev expressed
envy over a very sophisticated Hubble Space Telescope that is to be
launched next year to peer deep into the universe.
''We are very jealous of this type of project I must confess,'' he
said. ''It is a very giant step forward.''
The telescope's 9-foot-diameter mirror, orbiting above Earth's
obscuring atmosphere, will be able to see objects 50 times fainter
and resolve objects 10 times smaller than any optical telescope has
been able to do so far.
It is one of three major science spacecraft NASA plans to launch
from space shuttles next year. The most exciting month will be May
when shuttles Challenger and Atlantis will be poised on adjacent
launch pads at Cape Canaveral, to be launched six days apart, on
dates determined by celestial mechanics.
Challenger is to lift off May 15 with Ulysses, a joint U.S.-European
craft intended to be the first to go into solar orbit around the
poles of the sun. Atlantis is to blast off May 21 with Galileo, which
is to intercept the asteroid 29 Amphitrite in December 1986 and then
fly on to orbit Jupiter in 1988, dropping an instrumented probe into
that planet's atmosphere.
Other major NASA missions planned in the next few years are a Cosmic
Background Explorer to search for the ''Big Bang'' origin of the
universe, to be launched in 1987; a Venus Radar Mapper to provide a
geological history of Venus, in 1988; a Gamma Ray Observatory to
study stars and galaxies, also in 1988; a Mars Observer to determine
the surface composition of Mars, in 1990; a Comet Rendezvous and
Asteroid Flyby Satellite, with targets to be selected, in 1991, and a
Titan Probe and Radar Mapper to chart the atmospheric chemistry and
surface of the largest of Saturn's moons, in 1993.
The Soviets have announced they also are planning several deep space
shots, including a 1988 flight of two laser-equipped Mars spacecraft
to land on two Martian moons, Phobos and Demos, and vaporize surface
material for analysis; a 1989 moon orbiter to geochemically map the
entire lunar surface, and the 1991 launch of two craft, one which is
to intercept an asteroid and the other to drop a landing probe on
Venus and then continue on to another asteroid.
Manned spaceships are playing an increasing role in space science
studies. On the space shuttle, this has been most evident with the
three flights so far of the European-built Spacelab, carried in the
cargo bay. On its most recent mission, in July, five scientists in
the seven-person crew conducted extensive studies of the sun, stars
and Earth's atmosphere.
Many more Spacelab flights are planned with foreign astronauts
aboard, including a late October journey which will have two West
Germans and a Dutchman in the crew. NASA plans other non-Spacelab
science missions on the shuttle, including two directed at Halley's
comet. In late January, astronauts will deploy the Spartan satellite,
with two ultraviolet telescopes to study the comet's chemical
composition. In March, four astronomers aboard another shuttle flight
will observe the comet with Astro-1, a package of three ultraviolet
telescopes and two cameras.
Cosmonauts orbiting for long periods aboard a series of small Salyut
space stations have conducted science work, although most of their
tasks are believed directed toward military objectives, materials
processing experiments and learning how the human body functions in
long-term weightlessness. One crew remained in orbit for 237 days.
When the Soviets and Americans orbit their permanent space stations,
each will have laboratory modules for astronomy and other science
projects.
The American goal is to have its station in place by 1992, the 500th
anniversary of Columbus' discovery of the New World.
U.S. observers believe the Soviets are close to launching the
central core of their permanent station, but are awaiting readiness
of a huge rocket in a class with the Saturn 5 which boosted American
astronauts to the moon. The Russian rocket has been on a launch pad
for several months undergoing tests and it's thought to be having
technical problems.
The American station initially will have six to eight persons on
board, while the Soviets have indicated their first complement will
be about 12.
Space planners of both nations have talked about using a station as
a steppingstone to establish a lunar science base and to mount a
manned expedition to Mars.
Lately, there has been increased discussion about the United States
and the Soviet Union joining in establishing a lunar station or in
going to Mars. President Reagan has suggested as a starter that
astronauts and cosmonauts participate in a joint space rescue
demonstration. The topic may be discussed at the president's November
summit meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.
In 1975, there was a linkup in space between three astronauts and
two cosmonauts.
Sagdeyev said he was disappointed there was no follow-up to that
flight.
''I would like to see joint enterprises in space - not necessarily
joint manned flights,'' he said.
Planetary Society president Carl Sagan says a joint superpower
flight to Mars ''could have a powerful function in raising hope on
Earth and providing an aperture to a benign future.''
Thomas O. Paine, a former NASA administrator who heads a
presidential National Commission on Space, had this to say about the
proposed venture:
''When you look at Mars, you cannot help but realize that Mars is
not going to be settled as a national enterprise. Indeed, that would
be grossly unfair to mankind as a whole.
''Everybody will want to participate and I think it is up to us to
provide the leadership...But I think we must make available
participation in this great adventure to all men, everywhere.
''And certainly, in banding together of all mankind to bring life
throughout the inner solar system, this cannot help but bring to our
home planet many benefits, not only in technology but also...in
trying to develop here a more peaceful, more cooperative, more
forward-looking and more humane planet Earth.''
END ADV
AP-NY-10-05-85 2348EDT
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