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Us Declares New National Space Policy to Extend Manned Flights to Planets
In a major decision, US President Ronald Reagan has endorsed a new National Space Policy which will see the US reassert itself as the leader in manned spaceflight and also lead to manned flights to Mars by early next century. The policy document released in late January reaffirms NASA’s role as a civilian agency and is seen as a major win for the agency which has been experiencing numerous difficulties over the last decade. Commercialisation of space is to receive maximum support by NASA although no direct federal subsidies will be provided. Specific policy objectives are aimed at providing NASA with a clear sense of direction and a set of tasks to accomplish culminating in long range manned flights into the solar system. The planned NASA space station becomes a critical technical milestone and a physical staging point in the long-term exploration plan. Lunar missions are envisaged, including the establishment of a manned lunar base; these would be followed by a manned landing on Mars. NASA have established an Office of Exploration which will organise the agency’s various resources in order to define specific lunar and Mars missions. The Johnson Space Center will assess both lunar and Mars mission scenarios and review surface operations, the Goddard Space Flight Center will examine the scientific potential of the possible missions, Marshall Space Flight Center will assess orbital transfer vehicles and propulsion while the Langley Research Center will concentrate on the applications of the Space Station as a node in a transportation network. By late January the Johnson Center had begun the definition of a lunar base and a Martian base with the outlook that a lunar site could be used for supporting a Mars mission. Mission requirements will be determined first, followed by an evaluation of what technical capabilities need to be developed to support the requirements. An initial lunar mission has been defined; it would begin with a series of robot vehicles which would provide data for the selection of a base site during the 1990s allowing then a series of manned missions. These would involve several landings with large vehicles carrying 48,000lb of cargo to establish the base. A second phase of the program would follow through to 2010 and see the development of lunar resources and the deployment of a substantial scientific infrastructure.
Us$100M Mars and Lunar Technology Program Initiated
In support of the proposed missions, NASA is about to commence a joint technology development program involving both US universities and aerospace manufacturers. The Pathfinder project will concentrate on technology areas specific to the lunar and Mars missions, including robotic roving vehicles, automated orbital rendezvous and docking of probes, new propulsion systems, aerobraking techniques and new power generation and communications technologies. The current $1,000m budget is the first in a planned multiyear $1,000m expenditure. The nature of the lunar and Mars missions will demand a considerable amount of information gathering prior to the landing of manned missions and this would largely be accomplished with robotic planetary rover vehicles. These vehicles would recce possible landings and sample surface materials. The roo vehicle is expected to have the ability to autonomously in simples, crush, saw or core them and store some samples for return to orbit and timely Earth. This would require staring gathered samples in an ascent vehicle which than dock in orbit with a larger vehicle that is capable of retum fight to Ear orbit. The large propagation delay in the transmission of mes sages from Mars to Earth necessitates fully autonomous machines.
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The distances involved and the presence of an atmosphere and substantial gravity on Mars are also new problems to tackle A new family of oxygenhydrogen rocket powerplants with greater thrust/weight ratios will be required to keep the weight of the weight could also be accomplished by using Aerodyname bra ing father than rocket braking during descent and landing Other technologies to be examined under the program and power generators for operation on the surface of the Moon and Mars, Techniques for processing lunar soil into propellant or structural material and closed loop We-support systems.
Shuttle Program Delayed After Booster Test First Titan 4 Delivered
The date for the next Space Shuttle launch has been postponed yet again following difficulties with the redesigned Solid Rocket Booster. A test carried out just prior to Cham last year resulting in an unexpected failure of a carbon-phenolic booster note boot ring has led NASA to abandon the recent modifications to the new boot ring design and return to the earer DM-8 design. The boot ring i part of the sealing mechanism between the SRB and its gimbaled exhaust no and was one of the components NASA had targeted for ment in its post-Challenger redesign program improve. The three Rocketdyne shuttle main engines scheduled for use in the next mission completed acceptance testing and were shipped to Canaveral early in the year. These were installed on Arbier Discovery in late January. At the time of writing, NASA had set the following schedule for mission preparations: 9 May -mating of the Discovery to its SRBs and external tank in the Vehicle Assembly Building, 13th May out to launch pad 308, 13th June fight readiness firing of the main engines on the launch pad. August has been tentatively nominated as a target date for the launch although NASA had declined to commit itself to a particular date.
In an unrelated event, the USAF took delivery of its first Titan 4 ELV at its Cape Canaveral launch site. The USAF has ordered 23 of the heavy in Trans and plans a first launch in October this year. The Titan 4 when mated with a Centaur G-Pupper stage is expected to it a 10,000 class payload into a geosynchronous orbil
Cape York Spaceport Reaches Milestone Another
The Cape York Spaceport proposal has finally won Federal Government support, while the Cape York Space Agency Pty Ltd has been awarded a leadership role in the curent 2 year feasibility study.
the In December last year Prime Minister Hawke wrote to the Queensland Premier, Mike Ahem, expressing Commonwealth’s interest in the programme and support for the Queensland Government’s effort in obtaining full private owne ship and responsibility in the project. The Federal Minister for Industry, Technology and Commerce, Senator John Button, will Oversee federal involvement in the project.
The Cape York Space Agency (CYSA) Pty Ltd and Comalco were leading contenders in the shortlist with BHP, Bond Corporation, Sumitomo and EPrime Aerospace also bidding for the feasibly study on the spaceport. The Queensland Govt had chosen to appoint a contractor to coordinate the programme rather than a developer, to avoid having unsuccessful bidders proceed with val proposals overseas and hence damage the long-term profitability of the project. CYSA is a consortium including TNT, Boral, Brambles, Mayne-Nickless, the Commonwealth Bank and other local and overseas organisation.
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