From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: space news from Aug 10 AW&ST
To: sci-space-news@news.arc.nasa.gov
Followup-To: sci.space
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 02:06:46 GMT

First GOES-Next bird is in the space simulation chambers for tests,
leading up to a launch late next year.

NASA self-assessment results will be published, including measurements
of Goldin's own performance against complaints that he is late for
meetings, slow to return phone calls, and slow to forward documents.

ESA is doubtful that Giotto will be able to make a third comet encounter.
The probe is currently back in hibernation, awaiting an Earth flyby on
1 July 1999 that could be used to redirect it.  However, it only has 4kg
of fuel left, which is probably not enough to fly another encounter, and
there is some concern that updates to ESA's ground equipment may make it
difficult to talk to Giotto by 1999.

FCC approves requests from Motorola, Ellipsat, and Constellation to launch
several experimental satellites each as advance tests for their planned
LEO comsat systems.

France and Italy showing increasing interest in some sort of joint European
ballistic-missile defence system.  The Mitterand government in France is
opposed to such systems, partly because widespread deployment of such
systems could neutralize France's small strategic-missile force that now
gives the country near-superpower status, but Mitterand's Socialists are
expected to lose the next election.  Europe as a whole is looking at
growing threats from the Third World, instability in Russia and the Ukraine
that could allow tactical missiles to end up in the wrong places, and cuts
in more conventional aerospace programs.

Pakistan is building prototype hardware for its second satellite, meant
for a small experimental remote-sensing mission.  They are hoping for a
piggyback launch to minimize costs (their first went up on a Long March
test launch two years ago).  They are also continuing development of
their home-grown sounding rockets with a long-term objective of being
able to orbit small satellites, but this program is being hampered by
Western unwillingness to sell them technologies that could be used in
tactical missiles.

NASDA approaches design freeze on the J-1 booster, intended to place
1-ton payloads into low orbit, as a replacement for the H-1 in launching
payloads too small to be economical on the H-2.  The current J-1 design
puts the second and third stages of ISAS's M3S2 scientific launcher atop
one of the H-2's SRBs.  About two launches a year are planned; there is
some interest in commercial sale, but prices would be high and the matter
will not be pursued until development is further along.  The current
authorization from the Space Activities Commission is for design and
development, but no actual launches have yet been ordered.  The major
remaining design issues are the first interstage assembly and the
guidance system (ISAS traditionally uses radio guidance, while NASDA
prefers inertial).  Prime contractor has not yet been chosen.  The old
Tanegashima H-1 launch facilities will be used, with minor modifications.
NASDA has sketched growth configurations, starting with a "hammerhead"
design with a fatter payload fairing and progressing through solid
strap-ons to a concept adding two more H-2 SRBs as a zeroth stage, but
no serious work on such has been authorized.

Meanwhile, ISAS has hit a snag on its M-5, meant as a major upgrade to
the M3S2 series:  both first and second stage motor casings burst well
below their specified pressure in early tests.  This has delayed the
launch schedule a year.  Particularly inconvenient is that the Noshiro
Test Center facilities mostly cannot be used during winter, which is
expected to increase the delay.  The first M-5 launch is now set for
1995, carrying the Muses-B radio-astronomy mission.  A Mars mission is
still set for 1996, while the lunar penetrator mission will slip to 1997.
The M-5 is the first all-new M-series booster in twenty years, and was
undertaken because the M3S2 is simply getting too small (indeed, the
remaining M3S2 facilities will be mothballed in 1994 because all later
missions require the M-5).  With a launch mass of 130T and a 1.8T
capacity into LEO, it will be one of the largest all-solid launchers.

World's largest light-gas gun nears completion at LLNL.  It is expected
to be able to accelerate 5kg to 4km/s, and is a major development step
toward a gas gun capable of orbital launches.  After initial tests,
the gun will be moved from Livermore to Vandenberg to permit firing it
upward at an angle.  The current design probably cannot be scaled up
to an orbital gun, as new barrel materials would be needed to cope with
the necessary pressures, but new approaches are being developed and the
problems are believed manageable.

Tethered-satellite mission hits snags, literally...  After repeated
problems, tethered-satellite deployment was aborted at 256m and the
satellite was successfully reeled back in and stowed.  Further attempts
at deployment would have been possible, but there were fears that more
problems on retrieval might have required abandoning the satellite.
The engineers generally rate the mission a partial success:  "we flew
the two scariest parts of the mission" [deployment and retrieval] and
mission commander Loren Shriver reported that it was relatively easy
to damp out unwanted tether motions.  The scientists, unsurprisingly,
were less happy, since little of their end of the mission got done.
The satellite itself performed flawlessly; the US-built deployment
apparatus, and records relating to its construction, are being impounded
for an investigation.

ESA succeeds in boosting its Eureca long-duration experiment carrier
into its desired orbit, after some delay.  It was deployed from Atlantis
a day late due to software problems, and then a first orbit-raising
burn was aborted when data seemed to show that the thrust line was
5-10 degrees offset from where it should have been.  Diagnosis of the
problem was delayed because Eureca is within view of ESA ground stations
for only about 2 hrs/day.  A solution was not considered urgent, as
current atmospheric forecasts indicated that Eureca would not fall too
low for retrieval (planned for April) even if no orbit-raising burn
was done.

The Progress freighter design has been modified somewhat to carry a new
thruster package to Mir, with its midsection -- normally full of tanks
for gases and liquids -- reworked to incorporate side cutouts to hold
the box-shaped thruster unit.  Energia says these modifications will also
allow Progress to carry a piggyback payload of perhaps 1000kg to be
released into orbit.

Russia develops a revised design for Mir 2, with a core similar to the
existing core unit and four modules similar to Kvant 1.  The current
design has the module cluster located at the middle of a long beam,
which will carry solar arrays at one end and parabolic solar concentrators
on the other.  Putting the solar arrays out on the beam, and giving them
greater ability to pivot, will eliminate problems now experienced with
Mir in which the whole station must sometimes be turned to get better
sun angles.  Energia says there will be a heavy emphasis on placing
contracts within Russia rather than in other ex-USSR republics, because
"prices charged outside Russia are skyrocketing, and there is not a
corresponding increase in quality or capability".  Mir 2 is planned for
flight in 1995 or thereabouts,;the current Mir cluster is expected to
continue operations until then without major problems.

The Space Regatta Consortium, a group of companies led by Energia, plans
to test a solar sail on a Progress mission late this year.  After the
usual delivery of supplies to Mir, the Progress will separate and then
deploy the sail.  The 20m-diameter sail will be deployed by centrifugal
force.  [The Russians seem to think this is a unique concept, which
indicates that they're somewhat out of touch with solar-sail work
done elsewhere...]  The sail will be "evaluated" for three days, after
which it will separate from the Progress and both parts will eventually
make destructive reentries.  The SRC is offering advertising space on
the sail, to be visible from Mir when the sail is deployed.  Various
possible future applications are being discussed.  [Frankly, it's not
clear to me how much they're going to learn from this.  Air drag is going
to dominate sail thrust at that altitude; conventional solar sails are
pretty useless below about 1000km.]
-- 
There is nothing wrong with making      | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
mistakes, but... make *new* ones. -D.Sim|  henry@zoo.toronto.edu  utzoo!henry
Newsgroups: sci.space.news