In another sign of belt-tightening by the space agency, NASA announced Wednesday, April 17 that it would be cutting the number of employees at its Washington headquarters in half by next October.
In a press release filed late Wednesday, NASA officials said they were developing a plan that would reduce the number of employees at its headquarters from the current 1,430 to as little as 650 by October 1997.
However, in language placed in the Omnibus FY 96 Appropriations Act, Congress prevented NASA from continuing the layoff process until Congress had time to review the scope of the cutbacks.
The new "Reduction in Force" comes on top of other cuts in headquarters staffing that have resulted in the elimination of nearly 800 positions since October 1993.
Rumors of the cuts had been floating around Washington for some time. Talk of the impending cuts increased the previous week when NASA put out a call to hire an employment placement service, presumably for employees needing new jobs.
"I know this is disturbing and unwelcome news," NASA administrator Dan Goldin said in a message to NASA employees. "You have told me you want information about these issues in a timely fashion, whether the news is good or bad, and I've been listening to you."
Officials said they announced the cuts 18 months before they are scheduled to be completed in order to give employees "the information they need to make career decisions."
Some positions at NASA headquarters will be transferred to other NASA facilities around the nation. Officials had already identified nearly 240 jobs that could be transferred, and 110 of those transfers have already taken place.
However, it is unlikely more positions can be transferred to other NASA centers, according to officials.
In language approved by a conference committee and signed into law with the rest of the 1996 funding bill on April 26, members of Congress were "concerned by NASA's unexpected recent announcement regarding additional and accelerated personnel reductions at NASA headquarters."
"Such substantial staffing reduction may jeopardize NASA's ability to manage adequately programs of continuing priority to Congress and the Nation," they added.
"It [the layoff plan] is premature and leaves many questions unanswered such as what positions will be eliminated and how this will impact NASA's ability to perform its mission," said Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD). "Until these questions are answered, NASA risks downgrading its operations instead of merely downsizing them."
"The language does appear to signal that Members of Congress are unhappy about not being consulted before the announcements on the proposed layoffs were made," wrote T. Jens Feeley of NASA in a memo posted on NASA's RIF website. "That does not mean, however, that Members of Congress are necessarily opposed to further staff reductions at NASA HQ."
NASA is undergoing a period of declining cuts but expanding projects, which makes for difficult decisions. The proposed fiscal year 1997 budget is identical in size to the budget proposed for 1996, which, coupled with the small loss of buying power from inflation, actually results in a budget cut for the agency.
Meanwhile, NASA continues to spend $2 billion a year on the international space station and more on shuttle operations, which now become crucial to support the construction and operation of the station.
This has put the squeeze on other projects. Space science lost nearly $200 million, or 10 percent, of its budget in the 1997 proposal.
Projects like the Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) orbiting telescope under development and the Discovery class of inexpensive planetary spacecraft suffered some of the most significant cuts.
Congress may provide more money for space science, though. Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) promised to add more money to space science projects, likely at the expense of NASA's Earth Observing System.
To prevent larger cuts in programs, NASA has been seeking more efficient ways of doing business. It has recently been pursuing a consolidation of space shuttle operating contracts under a single prime contractor as a way of privatizing shuttle operations and saving money.
Earlier in the month, NASA signed agreements with Lockheed Space Operations, a division of Lockheed Martin, and Rockwell International, transferring shuttle contracts currently in their names to a new entity, the United Space Alliance (USA). USA is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Rockwell.
Last fall, NASA agreed to work with USA on a non-competitive contract to take over all shuttle operating contracts under their name. NASA hopes the consolidation will save considerable money while not jeopardizing safety.
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European Space Agency officials have scheduled the first launch of the new heavy-lift Ariane 5 rocket for Saturday, May 25, ESA officials announced last week.
A launch rehearsal was held at the launch site in Kourou, French Guiana, on April 25. The vehicle was filled with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen and three simulated countdowns were performed with no problems.
Arianespace, the company which operates the Ariane 4 series of commercial boosters, hopes the Ariane 5 will help it consolidate its position as the leading firm for commercial satellite launches. The massive booster will be able to place up to 7.4 tons of satellite payload into geosynchronous orbit.
Two Ariane 5 launched are scheduled this year under the supervision of CNES, the French space agency, operating under an agreement with ESA. Arianespace will take over the Ariane 5 in 1997.
An Ariane 42P booster launched a Canadian communications satellite into orbit Saturday, April 20 that will provide wireless communications throughout Canada.
The MSAT-1 satellite, an HS-601 model built by Hughes, is owned by TMI Communications, an Ottawa-based company that seeks to provide voice and data mobile communications throughout the vast, sparsely-populated nation.
"TMI is to provide mobile satellite communications in Canada and Canada includes the Northwest Territories and the Yukon: a very large area," TMI president John Farrell told Reuters. MSAT-1 will be able to provide communications throughout North America.
The Ariane launch is the fourth this year and the 85th overall. Eight more launches are scheduled for 1996, including the first flight of the new heavy-lift Ariane 5 booster.
The final module for the ten-tear-old Mir space station was successfully launched Tuesday afternoon, April 23, Russian officials reported.
The Priroda, or Nature, module was launched atop a Proton rocket from the main Russian launch facility at Baikonur, Kazakhstan at 3:48pm Moscow time Tuesday.
The module docked with Mir as planned early Friday afternoon, April 26. The 19-ton module is carrying research equipment that will be used by the current Mir crew, including American astronaut Shannon Lucid.
The key purpose of the module is to perform biological experiments, from the effects of the space environment on the human body to the possible development of new medical treatments.
The U. S. Air Force announced Monday, April 22 that it had chosen Rockwell International to build the next generation of global positioning system (GPS) satellites.
The contract, worth up to $1.3 billion through 2012, involves developing up to 33 new spacecraft. Rockwell beat out Lockheed Martin and Hughes for the contract.
GPS satellites are used to provide accurate positions anywhere on the globe, and have become extremely popular in the last several years.
The Russian Space Agency has found a new and unlikely source of funds to keep the cash-strapped agency afloat: the soft drink giant Pepsico.
In a press conference Thursday, April 25, Pepsi kicked off a half-billion dollar campaign to increase its market share in Russia by adding new bottling plants and new advertising campaigns. The press conference featured a live linkup to the Russian space station Mir and cosmonauts Yuri Onufrienko and Yuri Usachev.
"The world is looking exceptionally blue today," Onufrienko said, a tie-in to Pepsi's new blue packaging.
The linkup, for which Pepsi paid an undisclosed sum, is the first step of a new but poorly-defined relationship between the soft drink company and the Russian Space Agency. Pepsi is still looking for ways to use this relationship, according to a company official, and is considering plans ranging from orbital billboards to sponsorship of a manned lunar landing.
A new computer game to be on the market by Christmastime will strive to provide a realistic simulation of an Apollo lunar landing. According to the Los Angeles Times, "Lunar Landing", developed by AIM Software Ltd., a subsidiary of Wiz Software of Orange County, California, will be a CD-ROM game that will require players to guide astronauts on one final lunar mission. The company is filming scenes this month at the Johnson Space Center to add to the realism... The Saturn V rocket on display at the Kennedy Space Center is being moved to a new viewing center. The giant rocket is being moved in stages, with the process to be completed by May 11. The new Apollo/Saturn V center will open in early 1997... Astronomers have proposed a new theory explaining why the planet discovered last fall around the star 51 Pegasi can exist only a few million miles from its star. According to their explanation, the planet formed much farther out and spiraled in over millions of years before forces on the planet stabilized. Their results were published in the British science journal Nature.
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The beaming of laser power from a ground-based powerplant supplying electrical power to orbiting satellites through laser light conversion appears to be feasible, according to Dr. Harold E. ("Hal") Bennett. Dr. Bennett, president of Bennett Optical Research, Inc. and Vice-President of Technology at SELENE Corporation, recently addressed an audience of 800 attending the Kern County Board of Trade's 38th annual Business Forecast Conference in Bakersfield, CA on the space laser power system.
Called SELENE (SpacE Laser ENErgy) in honor of the Greek goddess of the Moon, it was originally a NASA project that was to be sited on U.S. Navy land. It was abandoned by the government for lack of funding. The program has a price tag of $350 million.
Dr. John D. G. Rather at NASA Headquarters, who originated the project, saw SELENE as a possible way to feed energy to a future moon colony. For now, however, laser power beaming technology will be used to extend the lifetime of satellites in orbit. SELENE will also move satellites from one orbital position to another quickly and inexpensively, through the use of a laser powered "Space Tug." Envisioned as an unmanned vehicle with solar panels to convert laser power into electrical energy, the Space Tug will remain in permanent orbit. It will be able to retrieve inoperative satellites for repair at the soon-to-be-built International Space Station.
Should a satellite require a major overhaul, it can be brought back to Earth for repairs by returning space shuttle orbiters. Once repaired and placed back in low-Earth orbit, the newly operational satellite will be returned to its proper location by the Space Tug. Powered by energy from a ground-based free electron laser, and beamed to it by an adaptive optics telescope, the Space Tug receives the energy beam, and stores it as electrical energy. It then uses the stored energy to drive an ion engine as its propulsion system.
"Large commercial information satellites are said to return roughly $40 million per year through the lease and sale of transponder channels," stated Dr. Bennett. "By furnishing extra power to them via SELENE, a satellite's lifetime might be extended by 3-5 years in some cases, thereby increasing their monetary value. According to Dr. Bennett, use of a Space Tug to ferry satellites between high and low orbits can potentially reduce launch costs as much as 35% the cost of today's $80 million price tags associated with Expendable Launch Vehicles (ELVs).
ELVs (such as the Atlas, Delta, Titan, Scout, Long March, H-2, PLSV or Ariane), and even partially reusable vehicles -- such as the Space Shuttle -- place satellites into low-Earth orbit between 125 to 1000 miles. The spent stages of the launch vehicle, which can't achieve orbital velocity, fall back to Earth and burn up upon reentry into the atmosphere.
Since a geo-stationary orbit is 22,500 miles above the Earth's surface, additional stages are required to place the satellite into an elliptical orbit whose perigee is at the stationary or other desired distance from the earth. Then an orbital insertion or "kicker" rocket -- which is normally built into the satellite itself -- is used to circularize the satellite's orbit at the desired distance. The kick motor is normally part of the payload of the larger booster -- representing in some cases 40% of its weight. By having a SELENE powered Space Tug in permanent orbit, it could move satellites to higher orbits without the kicker motor, thus saving costs associated in that weight and expense.
The Space Tug can also maneuver to a disabled satellite and bring it back down to a lower orbit for retrieval by the Space Shuttle, or International Space Station. "If satellites are inserted into the wrong orbit, as happened to the first of the U.S. Navy's $200 million UHF Follow-On (UFO) series of communication satellites, the space tug would capture and move it to it's intended location," Dr. Bennett stated with a wry smile. "Hmm, UFO -- I guess the government named this series of satellites with tongue in cheek!"
"Lack of an energy source has limited development of the Space Tug until now," stated Jim DeWilder, president of SELENE Corporation, a private firm headquartered in Lompoc, CA near Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Barbara County. "Traditional chemical rockets only carry enough fuel to place a satellite into orbit after launch," DeWilder explained. "A Space Tug, while taking as long as 30 days to accomplish orbital insertion, must also have a fuel source capable of continuous interorbit operations."
According to Rodger Martin, executive Vice-President of SELENE Corporation, there are only three known energy sources for this purpose: Solar, Nuclear, and Laser. "Solar power is unfortunately not strong enough to charge the solar cells and panels needed for a commercial Space Tug. Nuclear power does provide the necessary power source, but is extremely difficult to get licensed," Martin stated. "SELENE's laser energy offers the only realistic, clean, and renewable energy source to power a Space Tug."
Martin explained that since the heavy energy-generating equipment is located on the ground with the laser energy beamed into space to the orbiting Space Tug, the satellite only needs a receiver, storage cells, ion engine and flight control electronics. SELENE can also be utilized to regenerate power cells in orbiting satellites, or clear unwanted space debris, such as disabled satellites.
At present, there is no current method to recover disabled satellites. Once a satellite nears the end of its operational life, it conducts a "graveyard" operation to make its orbital slot available for another satellite. The fuel required for graveyard operations could maintain a satellite's station-keeping functions -- and its revenue flow -- for nearly six months, if alternatives such as a SELENE powered Space Tug were nearby. Therefore, a market exists for servicing orbiting satellites and those to be launched over the next decade. If only a small percentage of satellites utilize the SELENE system, it would still employ 3,000 high technology workers in satellite manufacturing, with 200 additional positions for each operational site.
The first SELENE system prototype will be located in the Sierra Nevada mountains at Birchum Springs near the Naval Air Warfare Center, at China Lake, CA. "NAWC China Lake, located in the high Mojave desert, has the highest 'solar insolation period' in the country -- an average of 260 clear days per year," said Dr. Bennett. "In 1993, only 5 completely overcast days were measured at the Birchum Springs site for the entire year."
Since laser light cannot penetrate significant cloud cover, cloudless days are essential. Because of a fortunate meteorological accident, the site has not only phenomenal atmospheric clarity (visibility is often 100 miles), but also remarkable astronomical viewing -- comparable on good days to that found at the best observatories in the world.
The largest geothermal source of electricity in the United States, measured at 250 Megawatts -- and believed expandable to 1 Gigawatt -- is located within a few miles of Birchum Springs on U.S. Navy property as an added benefit. Although dry on the surface, China Lake has a large supply of underground non-potable water for cooling. The altitude of the SELENE site at Birchum Springs is nearly 6,000 feet above sea level on U.S. Navy land and is entirely surrounded by restricted airspace. It is centered beneath Restricted Area 2508, which is one of the largest in the country -- larger than some states along the Eastern Seaboard.
Although located in a remote and unpopulated area, Birchum Springs is about an hour's drive from the community of Ridgecrest. Second only to Bakersfield with a population of 30,000, Ridgecrest is the second largest city in Kern County and has access to multiple 45-minute commuter flights to Los Angeles International on a daily basis.
"The pleasant, well-equipped and smog-free city offers one of the highest educated workforces in the country," Dr. Bennett said. "38% of the population have bachelor degrees, 22% have masters degrees and 12% possess PhDs -- some have called us "the egghead capital of the world." According to Dr. Bennett, the proposed site is able to take advantage of the expertise, laboratories and other resources of NAWC China Lake's Weapons Division, one of the largest research and development facilities in the U.S. Navy.
Key parts of the SELENE project include a free electron laser, the Space Tug satellite, an adaptive optics telescope that would serve as the Beam Director and on-site facilities for command and control of the system. "The Commercial Space Applications Committee, a nonprofit group under the city of Ridgecrest's 'Indian Wells Valley 2000' project has been working on developing a business plan to fund key parts of the system," stated Dr. Bennett. "With the support of the SELENE Corporation, progress has been made on acquiring a Russian-built laser in Novosibirsk, and $25M in funding is being secured for the power beaming complex."
Dr. Bennett pointed out that site construction itself and the Beam Director are not currently funded at this time, although proposals are being developed. "A Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) is being developed with government agencies," stated Dr. Bennett. "However, major funding for the project is coming from the private sector who are interested in space development, as opposed to government funding."
According to Jim DeWilder, most of the technology is available now, although further proprietary research needs to be accomplished prior to full scale development. "Since this is a privately financed project, we don't need a go-ahead from the government," DeWilder stated. "We will proceed with SELENE's implementation at the appropriate time. Our schedules are proprietary information at this time until the sources have been secured," DeWilder added.
SELENE Corporation has assembled the world's leading experts in lasers and optics. Since the on-orbit satellite technologies are proven and established, new team members with expertise in other technical areas are being considered. Dr. Bennett serves as SELENE Corporation's Vice President of Technology. An agreement is in negotiation for participation of Dr. John M. J. Madey, the inventor of the free electron laser, and Duke University's Free Electron Laser Laboratory. Additional agreements are also in negotiation with other foreign sources, the U.S. Navy, NASA, U.S. Air Force and Department of Energy Laboratories for collaborative efforts.
Once funding is in place, the laser will be checked out and assembled by a team from the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, which is operated by the University of California. It will then be shipped to the site and reassembled, finally becoming operational by 2001. Progress has also been made on funding the Environmental Impact Report, which is required before any site construction can be done.
Since the SELENE effort fits well with the local economy and other commercial space projects, the Ridgecrest City Council is on the advisory committee to the California Spaceport Authority, supported by the Western Commercial Space Center (WCSC) at Vandenberg Air Force Base near Lompoc, CA. The Council has also passed a resolution supporting commercial space exploitation, and signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the California Spaceport Authority.
Recently, the state of California's Defense Conversion Council designated the Central Coast Regional Technology Alliance (CORTA) and WCSC as the California Space and Technology Alliance (CSTA) to jointly represent commercial space interests within the state. WCSC is obviously an enthusiastic supporter of SELENE as part of California's emerging commercial space infrastructure.
"The SELENE effort in the Ridgecrest/China Lake area is one of four projects that has become known as 'California's Highway to Space'," stated Donald D. Smith, executive director of the Western Commercial Space Center. "In SELENE's case, Birchum Springs is the 'gas station' along the highway to space," Smith added.
According to Smith, the state of California is attempting to establish a "cradle to grave" full-service commercial space launch effort. Vandenberg's California Spaceport will serve as the focal point for commercial space launch operations. "On-orbit control of satellites will be managed by the Onizuka Satellite Control Center at Sunnyvale," stated Smith. "Recovery services will be provided by Edwards AFB in the Mojave desert near the communities of Palmdale and Lancaster." Smith added that the California Spaceport Authority is currently assisting the Antelope Valley communities in securing the research and development bids for the X-33 Reusable Launch Vehicle Technology program.
Overall, potential commercial space jobs in California could reach 200,000 with at least 500 located at China Lake during the construction process. For a state struggling to recover from the huge displacement of a highly skilled workforce due to budgetary cuts in aerospace and Defense drawdowns, SELENE represents a new utility for the 21st century.
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It is hard to pin down what The Snows of Olympus is about. Is it a book about terraforming Mars? Yes, but it goes into little technical detail, especially when compared to such works as Terraforming by Martyn Fogg. Is it a book about the past and future Martian exploration? Yes, it could be considered that, but again the history is very basic and familiar to most readers. Is it a computer graphics book? Perhaps, as the computer-rendered scenes of a future Mars are dramatic, but again we're missing the hard info we need to duplicate his work. Let's then consider Clarke's book as an illustrated story book about mankind's fascination with the Red Planet, and enjoy it all the same.
The book is long on pictures and short on text. Clarke discusses the history of observations of Mars, and later exploration by unmanned spacecraft, interspersing interesting personal anecdotes relevant to the topic along the way. He then describes his use of a software package called Vistapro which he uses, with some assistance from the product's author, John Hinkley, to create Martian scenes during various stages of terraforming. A significant fraction of the book is dedicated as a picture gallery showing these often-stunning images. He wraps up the book with an all-too-brief discussion of terraforming Mars.
At times the lack of detail can be frustrating. Clarke will use specific years in his computer-generated images to show changes on Mars, but doesn't discuss how we got to that point in time, and what we need to do to make it a reality. As a coffee table class of book, though, this is not a big flaw.
The one thing that I saw as clearly missing was an opportunity to try out the software. After seeing the images I really wanted to try and make some of my own, but I don't have the Vistapro software. I would have liked to see a CD-ROM distributed with the book, including perhaps a limited version of Vistapro and some sample files which could be used to generate some of the images in the book. A more detailed version of the book, with a CD-ROM, would certainly be of interest to those would like to learn more and perhaps tinker with some of Clarke's views of Mars's future.
Rarely has a book come out with such good timing as Other Stars. Other Worlds? Published just weeks after the discovery of another extrasolar planet, the fourth in six months, Dennis Mammana and Donald McCarthy provide a detailed and readable review of previous and current efforts to look for planets around other stars. After reading the book and studying the difficulties with discovering other planets, you may even become a little skeptical of the most recent discovery claims!
The concept of other worlds that could be home did not arise until the Renaissance, according to the authors. The concept of other worlds teeming with intelligent life has been remarkably well-received at times in the last four hundred years. However, it has only been within the last several decades has there been any detailed effort to search for these postulated planetary companions.
The authors discuss some of the recent false alarms in extrasolar planetary discoveries, such as Barnard's Star and VB8 (which one of the co-authors, McCarthy, was involved with). Their efforts failed because while the initial data was very promising, data collected at other times by other observers failed to find evidence for a planetary companion of any kind. Other indirect evidence for planets, such as the dust disks around Vega and Beta Pictoris, are also mentioned.
The authors and editorial staff have done an excellent job to keep the information as up-to-date as possible. The discovery of the planet around 51 Pegasi is mentioned in the epilogue, and the January announcement of two new planets, while not mentioned in the text, is included in a figure on one the book's color plates.
The lesson that the reader takes away from the book is that extrasolar planetary discovery is a very difficult, but very rewarding task. This is an excellent resource for anyone seeking to understand more about the history and techniques of planet discovery, and to help sort out some of the most recent news in the field.
French astronomer Jean Heidmann, who is one of the world's leading experts in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, shares his knowledge of the history and techniques of SETI in his book Extraterrestrial Intelligence. While the path of the book isn't as linear as it could be, the reader will learn a lot about SETI from a European perspective by the end of the book.
Heidmann divides the formation of intelligent life into five stages. The first, or cosmic, stage, involves everything from the Big Bang to the creation of a solar system. The second, or organic, stage, involves the formation of the first molecules from which life will develop. Third, the prebiotic stage discusses the creation of the building blocks of life, from amino acids to DNA. The fourth stage, primitive biology, involved the formation of life at the lowest level, such as bacteria. Finally, the fifth stage, the "advanced" stage, includes the evolution of life up to intelligent beings.
After laying that groundwork, Heidmann then talks about the techniques that can be used to search for evidence of other intelligent life forms in the Universe. He discusses techniques for scanning the heavens in search of these signals, from the earliest single-channel observations 35 years ago to the hundred-million to billion channel searches at the present time. He also discusses the possibilities for the numbers of habitable worlds in the galaxy and what protocol we might follow if a real signal is detected.
It is disappointing that Heidmann did not take more of an effort to use his five-stage framework for the formation of intelligent life as a basis for arguing that extraterrestrial intelligence should be commonplace (or rare). Such a discussion would have added much to the book. Also, Heidmann often goes off onto tangents, discussing for several pages the ESA's Rosetta comet mission and the need to keep a comet sample cold on the return trip to Earth. It's interesting but does not add much to the core discussion of the book. Despite these minor flaws, Extraterrestrial Intelligence is a good book for anyone looking for a serious overview of SETI.
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The May meeting will be a joint event with the Space Horizons Conference. A forum consisting of experts attending the conference will speak on the current and future space plans. Attending the forum will be Rick Fleeter, president of AeroAstro LLC. Also attending will be Lori Garver, executive director of the National Space Society. Jim Stewart, vice president of Teledesic, has just been added to the speakers at the forum! This is a rare opportunity to meet and talk with some of the movers and shakers in the space business! Don't miss out!
The hotel is located on Memorial Drive just past the west end of the MIT campus. People taking the T can get off at the BU Central or West stops on the Green Line B branch and walk 10 minutes across the BU bridge to attend. A map is on the other side of the flyer.
Solar power satellites were first proposed by Peter Glaser in the late 1960s as a way to provide nearly limitless amounts of energy to the Earth cleanly. Since that proposal, SPS's have been believed by many to be an important long-term benefit of space exploration and development, but we are no closer to building an SPS today than we were nearly 30 years ago. Peter's talk will look at the history of the SPS concept, and future directions for solar power from space.
[Note: this is rescheduled from the March meeting, which was canceled due to weather.]
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The Boston chapter of the National Space Society elected new officers at its April meeting. The new officers are:
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The development of Russia's remote sensing satellites was an outgrowth of the summit meeting between President Eisenhower and Premier Khruschev which was canceled after the Soviets shot down a U2 aircraft and captured the pilot. President Eisenhower wanted to begin a discussion on an open skies treaty allowing each of the two nations to keep track of the development of the other's military and nuclear capabilities with scheduled overflights by camera equipped aircraft. The somewhat premature flight and capture of Gary Powers coupled with Khruschev's difficulties with hardliners who were against his policy of peaceful coexistence forced him to return to the Cold War. Eisenhower's policy failure led each nation to develop new boosters and satellites to increase their space surveillance capabilities. When the Cuban missile crisis erupted, and one of our RF-101s was shot down by Russian antiaircraft missiles (SAM's) over Cuba, tactical aerial reconnaissance became too dangerous, leading both nations to accelerate their efforts to occupy the high ground of space.
In the USSR, the military and space factory managers had a strong influence in the "Commission on Military-Industrial Issues (VPK)," and also within the Central Committee of the Communist Party. This gave the rocket and satellite managers carte blanche to produce launchers and surveillance satellites in unlimited numbers. Vast amounts of funds were spent on engineering design and upgrading satellites, sensors, and launch vehicles. Some of these satellite platforms, basically uninstrumented spy satellite modules were turned over to the "Space Science Institute" where the remote sensing instruments were installed. Thus, we have the RESURS installed in the ZENIT and so forth.
Amongst the first operational satellites was the Russian nuclear powered Rhorsats that were used in the late sixties and seventies. The nuclear thermal source provided 3 kilowatts to power a search radar for tracking NATO naval maneuvers. In 1980 one of these, COSMOS 845, reentered the atmosphere and left radioactive debris strewn across western Canada. The Rohrsats were programmed to go into a higher orbit at the end of their active missions, but a malfunction allowed the highly elliptical orbit of this one to deteriorate until it hit the dense atmosphere and broke up. This started an environmental movement in the United States to ban the launch of nuclear powered satellites and space probes. The Soviet Union paid Canada a penalty of two million dollars and continued to power their satellites with nuclear sources.
In 1979 the RESURS-F1, based on the third generation ZENIT military recon satellite platform went into active service, launched from Plesetsk on a SOYUZ-U launch vehicle. The manufacturer was The Central Specialized Design Bureau in Samara. The satellite occupied an elliptical orbit of 250 to 400 km at an inclination of 83 degrees. There were three telescopic cameras mounted in a structure made from a hybrid Vostok command module. It had retro-rockets and a parachute to return the payload to earth after a two week mission.
Development of the first ZENIT began in the late 1950's with the first experimental launch (COSMOS-4) in 1961 which failed. The next development model, COSMOS-7 was launched and recovered successfully, but further work was required to improve performance and reliability which proceeded through 1963 and 1964 into the second generation. The engineers were still unhappy with some aspects of its performance. In 1968 a third module was placed on top of the spherical recovery module which could mount additional sensors, or a small propulsion module that was independent of the upgraded, steerable retrorockets. This addition provided some maneuverability for making changes in its orbit. These modifications upgraded the ZENIT platform into the third generation which became operational in 1968.
The launch mass of the RESURS-F1 variation was 6300 kg which included the Priroda-4 camera payload which had a weight of 500 kg consisting of three telescopic cameras such as the SA-34 (KATE-200) multispectral stereo camera, operating in 3 visible bandwidths, that could photograph a 225 km wide path with a resolution of 15 to 30 meters. The film cassette had a capacity for holding up to 1200 frames.
The SA-30 (KFA-1000) was a panchromatic camera with an 1800 film image capacity and a ground resolution of 5 to 8 meters. It required two separate apertures to photograph a swath 147 km wide. Another camera, the SA-30 Star Field Camera was used pointed upwards, taking real time pictures of stars. This information would be correlated with the surface photos to obtain an accurate positional fix on the ground locations. It had a sensitivity sufficient to image stars down to the fifth magnitude, and a capacity for 1300 film frames. For special missions an additional 150 kg of instruments could be carried on the F1 Priroda payload. These payloads were launched and recovered every 14 days.
In 1987 an upgrade of the F1 was placed into service. This was the F2 which incorporated solar panels for extra power, and carried the MK-4 camera package which combined the SA-20 and the SA-34 into a single camera, the SA-M, for measurements in 4 visible wavelengths with a similar resolution and ground track to that of the SA-20.
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PASA meets regularly for a business luncheon and formal meeting from 1-3 pm, the third Saturday of every month at Smart Alex Restaurant, Sheraton University City, 35th & Chestnut. 2 hours of free parking with validation.
Scheduled activities: Sat., May 11th, formal meeting; May 23-27, ISDC in NYC; Sat., June 15th, formal meeting; Mon., June 24th, 6:30 pm informal meeting. Call Michelle for details.
April 13th meeting: Confirmed speakers for our Asteroids: Promise or Peril sessions on Sunday at ISDC are: Don Cox and Jim Chestek of PASA, Robert Farquhar of NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) project, Tom Gehrels of Space Watch in AZ, and Alan Willoughby of Analex Corp. in OH. Jim Chestek noted that information on asteroids has appeared recently in SSI Update, John Lewis' book Rain of Iron and Ice, and the March/April 96 Final Frontier magazine.
Dottie Kurtz reported that the Planetary Society magazine had an article on a near-Earth asteroid telescope at Kitt Peak observatory. Earl Bennett reported that he was researching SETI periodicals, that a female US astronaut was on an extended stay on Mir, and that some PASA members had attended lunar eclipse and comet watching parties.
Oscar Harris reported that he and Mike Fisher were judges at the Philadelphia School District Science Fair. Nice work guys! Mitch Gordon discussed the latest Inside NSS, and an article in the Phila. Inquirer. Jay Haines discussed the latest SSI Update.
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[Originally published in the April 1996 issue of Odyssey, the newsletter of the OASIS chapter of NSS - Ed.]
Gene Austin, NASA program lead for the X-33 Single-Stage-To-Orbit technology demonstrator vehicle, paid tribute to the efforts of space activists to promote the notion of reducing the cost of space access in a talk with OASIS and Orange County Space Society members on March 20 in Long Beach.
In his second visit with Southern California NSS chapters, Austin described the advances the three contractor teams had made since his last talk in June of 1995. He and his aids from the Marshall Spaceflight Center and NASA headquarters showed tapes and illustrations of the three reusable launch vehicle concepts. His presentation included numerous photographs and videotapes of recent work to move the country closer to a viable, commercially-developed rocket that dramatically improves the opportunities for creating a spacefaring civilization.
The three contractor teams, led by Lockheed-Martin, Rockwell, and McDonnell Douglas, have designed three unique concepts for their reusable launchers and are in the middle of a competition to develop the suborbital X-33. The X-33 would serve as a technology testbed for proving the feasibility of reaching orbit, deploying a payload, and returning to Earth using a reliable vehicle operated much like an airplane.
The four areas of critical concern for achieving this goal are the ability to manufacture ultra-lightweight structures; build reliable, high-performance rocket engines; build tough, reusable thermal protection coverings; and reducing the time and manpower to operate the fleet of rockets. Each of the companies has built and tested parts of their booster concepts and proven the feasibility of resolving many of these problems.
Austin's presentation featured pictures of high-speed rain resistance tests aboard the NASA F-15 aircraft, linear aerospike rocket engine test equipment attached to the NASA SR-71 supersonic plane, lightweight composite tank pressure tests, among others.
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The Russian space station Mir with Mir-21 crew, Yuri Ivanovich Onufrienko, Yuri Vladimirovich Usachyov and Shannon Lucid (call signs Skif-1 Skif-2 and Skif-3) will be appearing in the mid west US morning skies May 20th to Mid June. and evening skies in June.
Amateur radio operators can log into the Mir 'Packet' (R0MIR-1) BBS on 145.550MHz simplex And soon on 435.775MHz uplink / 437.975 downlink MHz. The cosmonauts also use the freq. 145.200MHz, up and 145.800MHz down or 435.725MHz Up /437.925MHz down or 145.550Mhz simplex to talk or send SSTV video with amateur radio operators on the ground during their off-hours.
Look for MIRWATCH and other great space stuff on my web page at http://www.skypoint.com/~benhuset/. Weekly NASA status reports about MIR-21 are now just a click away on the Internet at: ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/statrpt/jsc/mir21/.
Here is a summary of the past few reports:
Mir 21 Status Reports
MISSION CONTROL CENTER MOSCOW; 8 a.m. CST/5 p.m. DMT - Fridays, April 1996After Atlantis' undocking from the Mir Space Station, the Mir-21 crew has settled into an on-orbit routine of experiment work, including material and life sciences research as well as Earth observations that begins a permanent U.S. presence in space.
Officially Lucid became a member of the Mir-21 crew while Atlantis was docked to the station. Since the Shuttle's departure, her activities, along with the cosmonauts' are coordinated at the Mission Control Center in Kaliningrad outside Moscow with inputs from a NASA science expert consulting group also in Moscow.
The crew's work schedule is laid out in the form of a cyclogram, which is similar to a Shuttle Flight Plan. The cyclogram is generated four days ahead of schedule with real- time modifications and inputs sent to the crew via radiograms or separate messages. A group of experts from NASA is serving as consultants to the Russian flight control team for scheduling and is on duty in the Mission Control Center in Kaliningrad outside Moscow, throughout the crew's work day which typically begins with wake up around 8 a.m. and ends at approximately 11 p.m. (midnight to 3 p.m. CDT).
The American Optizon Liquid Phase Sintering Experiment, or OLiPSE. is the first designed to be conducted in the Russian furnace. The Optizon furnace operates at high-temperatures to process materials for further study on the ground. The crew started processing of 70 samples of different metals for varying lengths of time in the furnace. The samples were brought up on Atlantis and will be returned for analysis by the University of Alabama, Huntsville, Teledyne Advanced Metals and Kennametals Inc., on Atlantis' next flight. The microgravity environment of space significantly affects metallurgical properties during the melting process which will allow investigators the opportunity to extrapolate the results and improve industrial technology areas such as cutting tool quality.
Acceleration measurements are being taken aboard the station at various locations to help scientists determine the best and worst locations for experiment operations. The Space Acceleration Measurement System, or SAMS, is strategically placed to characterize the environment of the laboratory in relation to any variations, or movements, in the environment that might disrupt experiment operations. SAMS records fluctuations that will allow scientists to interpret results of investigations and to learn how to avoid regions of the station that are highly susceptible to movements that would disrupt experiment work.
Daily monitoring of the quail egg experiment is being conducted as are periodic fixations of eggs throughout the mission at various stages of development. Thus far, eight eggs have been fixated and Lucid reported seeing embryo development in some of the eggs. This study will provide additional insight into embryonic development to evaluate changes due to the weightlessness of space.
Long-term protein crystal growth experiments are being conducted as well as space acceleration measurements that could affect the growth process. A unique container filled with cold gaseous nitrogen surrounding protein samples keeping them frozen was launched aboard Atlantis and has slowly begun thawing, allowing the crystal growth process to begin. The crystals will be grown for the duration of the mission.
Periodic radiation measurements are being taken by the crew as routine work throughout the flight. The dosimeter is moved throughout the station to gather radiation data at various locations.
Other activities aboard the station included Earth observations with most of the scheduled sites being photographed. Photography could be interrupted for the next week or so due to the attitude, or position, of the station in support of other scientific investigations.
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The 77KSI (TsM-I) Priroda module was launched by Proton from Baykonur on Apr 23. The 19500 kg Priroda is the final module for the Mir complex, and was built by the Krunichev factory. 77KSI carries a set of remote sensing experiments and some microgravity experiments:
On Apr 25 one of the two battery systems on Priroda failed. Priroda does not carry solar panels. Fortunately, Priroda docked with Mir at 1243 UTC on Apr 26. This is the first time one of the 77KS modules has docked on the first attempt. On Apr 27, Priroda was due to be rotated from the -X port to the +Z port. Kristall is at -Z, Kvant-2 at +Y, Spektr at -Y, and Kvant at +X. The Soyuz TM-23 craft is docked to the +X port of Kvant, and the Stikovochnoy Otsek (Docking Module) is attached at the -Z port of Kristall.
The Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) was launched at 1227:40 UTC on Apr 24 from Vandenberg into an 896 x 906 km x 99 deg orbit. MSX is a Ballistic Missile Defense Organization satellite which will study the infrared, visible and ultraviolet signatures of ballistic missiles in their midcourse phase (after the launch vehicle rocket plume has shut down). The main experiment on MSX is the Spirit III cryogenic infrared telescope, the first to use solid hydrogen instead of the liquid helium that has been used by infrared astronomy satellites in the past. The hydrogen will maintain the dewar at 8.5K. MSX will also perform civilian scientific research, with atmospheric observations and astronomical studies. The MSX spacecraft was built by Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Lab.
MSX instruments are:
Titan IV K-16 was launched from Cape Canaveral on Apr 24. It was a Titan 401 variant with a Centaur upper stage, and the payload is probably a geostationary orbit signals intelligence satellite.
Kosmos-2332 was launched on Apr 24. It entered a 303 x 1575 km x 83 deg orbit, characteristic of radar calibration satellites including Kosmos-1179, Kosmos-1463 and Kosmos-2265. It is believed that these satellites are spherical in shape and may be based on the Vostok/Zenit descent cabin shell.
Telesat Mobile Inc. (TMI) of Canada's M-SAT satellite was launched by Ariane on Apr 20. M-SAT uses the Hughes HS-601 design, but its prime contractor was Spar Aerospace of Canada (a similar industrial partnership was used for the Anik D satellites in the 1980s in which Spar used the Hughes HS-376 design). The satellite is almost identical to the AMSC-1 satellite launched last year for American Mobile Satellite Corp., and carries L-band transponders for communications between mobile users.
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Mar 9 0133 REX-II Pegasus XL L1011/Vandenberg Technol. 14A
Mar 14 0711 Intelsat 707 Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 Comsat 15A
Mar 14 1740 Kosmos-2331 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC43/4 Recon 16A
Mar 21 0453 IRS-P3 PSLV Sriharikota Rem.sensing 17A
Mar 22 0813 Atlantis Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 18A
Mar 28 0021 GPS 33 Delta 7925 Canaveral LC17A Navigation 19A
Apr 3 2301 Inmarsat III F1 Atlas IIA Canaveral LC36 Comsat 20A
Apr 8 2309 Astra 1F Proton-K/DM2 Baykonur Comsat 21A
Apr 20 2236 M-SAT 1 Ariane 42P Kourou ELA2 Comsat 22A
Apr 23 1148 Priroda Proton-K Baykonur Spaceship 23A
Apr 24 1227 MSX Delta 7920 Vandenberg SLC2W Mil.tech. 24A
Apr 24 1303 Kosmos-2332 Kosmos-3M Plesetsk Radar cal 25A
Apr 24 2337 USA-118 Titan 401 Canaveral LC41 Sigint 26A?
Mar 9 Columbia Landed at KSC Mar 12 FSW-1 capsule Reentered over Atlantic Mar 13 ODERACS IIA Reentered Mar 19 TSS-1 Reentered over Middle East? (or Atlantic?) Mar 31 Atlantis Landed at Edwards AFB
Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due
OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 2 STS-78 Jun 27
OV-103 Discovery Palmdale OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis OPF Bay 1 STS-79 Jul 31
OV-105 Endeavour LC39B STS-77 May 16
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks
ML1/RSRM-47/ET-78/OV-105 LC39B STS-77
ML2/ STS-79
ML3/RSRM-55 VAB Bay 3 STS-78
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