tim%uci-750a@sri-unix.UUCP (04/10/84)
From: "Tim Shimeall" <tim@uci-750a>
Donna Pivirotto, the manager of the Space Station office at JPL gave a
talk today at UCI on the space station and its current goals. The
following is a summary of her talk. Anything which sounds out of
place should be attributed to my notetaking.
The Space station is currently planned to go up in the early 1990's
(Anything before 1994 is a politically acceptable solution, given the
President's initial speech on the subject.) An initial $8 billion
budget is planned, including development of an orbital manuvering
vehicle, which will also be used in connection with the shuttle.
The current effort has been mainly dedicated to determining what
functions the station will have. The following major functions have
been pretty firmly decided:
- Science/applications and Technology Laboratory (with particular
emphasis on Life Science experiments).
- Permanent observatories (20-30 year duration, for both stellar
and earth observations)
- Manufacturing facility (geared towards "for profit"
experimentation by private groups)
- Free flyer servicing facility (on the order of the Solar Max
mission of the shuttle)
- Communications and Data Processing node (to work with TDRSS)
- Transportation Node (for deep space missions)
- Assembly Facility (for deep space missions, large antennas, etc.)
- Orbital Storage facility.
It is planned to have an international group of mission sponsors,
rather than one space station user.
The station will be in the most convinient orbit for shuttle servicing
- a 28.5 degree inclination Low Earth Orbit. It is planned to put up
a 'cheap' station first, and then expand it, as follows:
Initial Full
Budget 7.5 - 9 Billion 17-20 Billion
Crew 6-8 persons 12 persons
Power 60 kw (w/thermal expulsion) 160kw
The station is projected to have about 300 cubic meters of volume by
1999.
The station will support attached and free flying payloads, in
addition to two (unmanned) space platforms, one in Polar orbit, and
one in 28.5 degree orbit. There will also be several on-board labs,
for experiments that require human participants or supervision.
Eventually, the station will also include a space-based OTV (described
as "Kennedy in the Sky").
The design of the station is still quite tentative, but most designs
use 14' x 30' "cans", transported up in the shuttle, arranged in
orientation with the earth (nadir pointing). This reduces station
drag, but increases problems with instrument aiming.
The polar orbiting space platform (called the "Earth Observation
System" or "System Z") will include observations on the earth's
environment, ocean dynamics, solar input, land use, atmosphere, and
continental geology. All this is part of the Global Habitability
study, a planned program for the near future. It will be launched
and serviced from Vandenburg, due to "change of orbit" energy costs.
It is included with the space station, since the power and support
technologies will be derived from those developed from the space
station.
The initial launch is planned for between 1991 and 1994, with 2 year
incemental launches therafter.
The station will be operated for NASA customers - exclusively, with
performance of services guaranteed. Policies for this are currently
being formulated.
The station project is doing a LOT of research on automation of the
station and its functions, to reduce the "on board" support crew
needed to as small a part of the crew as possible. The goal is to
have one station "housewife" (possibly male) which performs all
the station upkeep, with the aid of a LOT of automated tools, some
artificially intellegent. The remainder of the crew would be mission
specialists. There will still remain a need for men in space, to
handle the following functions:
- Repair unanticipated damage (as in SkyLab)
- Adapt, either to unanticipated problems or for
flexibility in the performance of experiments.
- Real time sensing (with no delay, which can be important in
manufacturing)
- Perform one-of-a-kind functions, which are not practical to
automate
- Provide security for information
Current projections indicate it will cost about $100K/day to maintain
a human in orbit, which will reduce the recreational uses of the
station. People are planned to be in orbit for as long as 180 days
(although it should be noted that Ms. Pivirotto termed this a 'straw
man' figure).
The talk concerned itself mainly with the commercial applications of
the space station, but in response to a question, Ms. Pivirotto made
the following comments about DoD use of the station:
- DoD currently "does not need" a space station -- which may simply
mean that they want NASA to pay for it (a strategy they used with
the shuttle). Everyone anticipates that DoD will use the station,
but there are some drawbacks to military use of this station:
a) The station is VERY vulnerable
b) There is intended to be a LOT of international use of the
station, and possibly a lot of international participation in
its construction, which makes LOTS of security problems for the
military.
c) the station is not in the most useful orbit, militarily.
Given these problems, DoD will probably launch its own station, in a
polar orbit, eventually. Until then, the main hope is that DoD won't
usurp the station entirely.
The technology for closed life support systems is not anticipated to
be available before 1994. Current plans are to service the station
by shuttle, which may cause problems. The crew will need about 56K
lbs. of water for 90 days, a figure which is too heavy for the shuttle
landing gear. So some redesign of the shuttle may be needed.
Traffic control around the station is anticipated to be a REAL
problem, in 3 dimensions, once the station becomes fully operational.
********************************************************
Note: This lecture is part of Social Ecology E149, a course entitled
"Life in Space", which discusses the various problems associated with
the space station. This course meets at the University of California,
Irvine, on Monday and Wednesday from 11:00 to 12:20 in 161
Humanities Hall. The following is a list of lecturers for the
remainder of the quarter:
Apr. 16 Prof. K. Baldwin (UCI physiology)
"Physiological Changes of Humans Under Prolonged Space Flight"
Apr. 23 Dr. B.J. Bluth (CSU Northridge Dept. of Sociology and NASA HQ)
"Isolation and Confinement: Case Studies of Violence and Disruption"
Apr 25 Dr. Mary Conners (Man-Vehicle systems research at NASA-Ames)
"Performance in Space: Changes in the Human Physiological Condition"
Apr. 30 Dr. R.L. Percy (Space Station Operations Safety at Rockwell)
" Space Station Operation Safety"
May 7 Prof. Daniel Stokols (UCI Social Ecology)
"Geomorphic Architecture and 3-D Space Design"
May 21 Dr. Warren James (NASA - JPL)
"Schedule Planning for Spacecraft Operations"
May 23 Prof. John King (UCI - Computer Science)
"Humans in an Automated Environment"
June 6 Stan Sadin, Deputy, Space Systems Directorate
(Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology)
"Beyond the Space Station and 2001"
Tim