SpaceFlight A British Interplanetary Society publication

Volume 60 No.10 October 2018 £5.00 SUN seeker Parker launches 10> Sidemount Shuttles

634072 BIS launcher report

770038 Apollo 7 remembered 9

CONTENTS Features 11 Dr Parker’s Sun grazer NASA has embarked upon a new and more intensive data collection project designed to gather information about our Sun through direct sampling and a close-up look – far closer than ever before. 11

Letter from the Editor 16 Giant rockets: the third way Seradata analyst David Todd gives us his This month we remember the overview of how NASA could have acquired a flight of Apollo 7. Its real heavy-lifter a lot earlier and a whole lot cheaper, importance was not so much that it was the first manned Apollo had it taken a different route. mission but that it was upon its success that Apollo 8 was cleared 27 First up: Apollo 7 to fly to the Moon. In a way, this Fifty years ago in October, NASA launched the was a repeat of how Alan first manned Apollo mission, long in the making Shepard’s flight as the first and considerably changed from its original 16 American in space on 5 May 1961 objective. cleared the way for President Kennedy to announce the Moon 30 Getting there – the NLV project goal less than three weeks later. Robin Brand reports from the BIS Technical Few cannot fail to have been impressed with the launch of the Committee on the first phase of the Society’s Parker Solar Probe which will fly Nanosat Launch Vehicle project and describes closer to the Sun than any other how that activity is progressing. spacecraft. It is more than 56 years since the launch of the first Orbiting Solar Observatory on 7 March 1962 – seven more were to 27 follow. NASA has had a proud history of solar probes, not least Skylab’s Apollo Telescope Mount. Regulars As a major feature this month I am particularly pleased to again 2 Behind the news publish an analytical study by UK Space puts on a show David Todd – always good for sound revisionist thinking. This 4 Opinion time he asks whether NASA got it all wrong when moving from 6 ISS Report Shuttle to the Space Launch 9 July – 8 August 2018 30 System. 36 Satellite Digest 549 – July 2018 40 Obituary Georg von Tiesenhausen (1914-2018) 42 Multi-media The latest space-related books, games, videos David Baker [email protected] 44 Letters to the editor Inspiration for all, Moon dust, Clavius lessons 46 Society news / Diary 38 COVER: AN ARTIST IMAGINES THE PARKER SOLAR PROBE NEARING PERIHELION / NASA SOLAR PROBE THE PARKER IMAGINES ARTIST AN COVER: What’s happened/ What’s coming up

OUR MISSION STATEMENT Editor David Baker, PhD, BSc, FBIS, FRHS Sub Editor Ann Page Creative Consultant Andrée Wilson Design & Production MP3 Media Promotion Gillian Norman Advertising Tel: +44 (0)20 7735 3160 Email: [email protected] The British Interplanetary Society Distribution Warners Group Distribution, The Maltings, Manor Lane, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH, England Tel: +44 (0)1778 promotes the exploration and 391 000 Fax: +44 (0)1778 393 668 SpaceFlight, Arthur C. Clarke House, 27-29 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1SZ, use of space for the benefit England Tel: +44 (0)20 7735 3160 Email: [email protected] www.bis-space.com Published monthly by the British Interplanetary Society, SpaceFlight is a publication that promotes the mission of the British of humanity, connecting people Interplanetary Society. Opinions in signed articles are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of to create, educate and inspire, the Editor or the Council of the British Interplanetary Society. Registered Company No: 402498. Registered charity No: and advance knowledge in 250556. The British Interplanetary Society is a company limited by guarantee. Printed in England by Latimer Trend & Co. © 2018 British Interplanetary Society 2017 ISSN 0038-6340. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced all aspects of astronautics. or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording by any information storage or retrieval system without written permission for the Publishers. Photocopying permitted by license only.

SpaceFlight Vol 60 October 2018 1 BEHIND THE NEWS

Coming to a site near you – Lockheed Martin’s spaceport launcher. UK SPACE PUTS ON A SHOW Britain's space industry puts its best foot forward at this year's FIA.

THIS JULY’S BIENNIAL FARNBOROUGH government support policy really helping now? International Airshow (FIA) was certainly record breaking in terms of its aircraft and engine sales – BREXIT – A UK OPPORTUNITY more than 1,400 commercial aircraft were ordered, Despite the lack of solid UK government interest in valued at £117 billion, together with 1,432 aircraft space and rocketry during the 1980s through to the engines, worth £17 billion. These industry figures are mid 1990s, changes in investment attitudes and the more than double the 2016 show and there is great success of UK satellite manufacturing of apparently a backlog of 14,000 aircraft on the books. recent years means that companies like Airbus But if the FIA’s show success is a barometer of a Defence and Space, SSTL and ClydeSpace have boom in world aviation growth, what of space boosted growth of the sector to 8% a year, with UK activity, covering both commercial applications and space companies employing 38,500 people and science/exploration? Euroconsult are bullishly creating an annual revenue of £13.7 billion in 2016. quoting an estimated average manufacturing The UK government wants to expand the UK’s requirement for 300 satellites, with a mass of over share to 10% of global activity by 2030, worth over 50 kg, each year by 2026. £40 billion. But at the FIA, trade visitors were of Will the UK’s March 2019 Brexit damage or course wondering if the change to the close link enhance our worldwide space interests and is new with European space activities and markets may

2 Vol 60 October 2018 SpaceFlight BEHIND THE NEWS

Coming to a site near you – Lockheed Martin’s spaceport launcher. ESA’s Exomars rover test model, the flight hardware being built by ADS at Stevenage. NICK SPALL

threaten that UK ambition. argue that the UK is well-placed for a post Brexit A key issue currently under discussion is of course international expansion of its world space the emerging £9 billion Galileo satellite navigation The UK manufacture and trading interests. UK SPACE PUTS ON A SHOW system. The EU is arguing that post Brexit the UK At the FIA it was also noted that new government should not be entrusted with access to the sensitive government initiatives such as UK spaceports and licensing for military grade encrypted information. Excluding the launch activities should accelerate the UK’s UK’s space industry from future contracts could be wants to international standing in the world for space industry considered as a “protectionist” approach and, UK expand the growth. industry having invested approximately £1 billion so far, government Ministers have even referred to the UK’s share to UK LAUNCH SITES idea of developing a national satellite navigation The UK has never had its own orbital rocket launch system for the future if the UK is excluded from 10% of global site, despite the success of the South Uist range Galileo contracts. near Benbecula in Scotland serving as the home At the FIA, notable was the strong presence of activity by launch-site for the successful sub-orbital Skua and international space companies like Lockheed Martin, Petrel sounding rockets that could reach heights of long established with its UK-based subsidiary. 2030, worth over 170 km. It was exciting for the space US-based Virgin Orbit showed off their Boeing community at the start of FIA week when two key 747-400 satellite launcher aircraft model, due to be over £40 announcements were made covering UK based at the forthcoming Newquay Spaceport (see billion. government pump-priming spaceport investment SpaceFlight Vol 60 No 9 p2). The UK’s Reaction (SpaceFlight Vol 60 No 9 p 2). Engines is now closely linked to US interests and Following the May 2016 announcement that the Chinese aerospace component companies like the UK government was allowing the market to select UK/China’s Sigma Precision Engineering show the more than one horizontal launch site for orbital flavour of UK global activity; some therefore might access, Prestwick near Glasgow, Llanbedr in Wales

SpaceFlight Vol 60 October 2018 3 BEHIND THE NEWS

and Newquay in Cornwall have the airport is protected from low Briefing emerged as prime contenders. cloud and mist due to its MARS COVER-UP For 2021 timescale launches, the surrounding peripheral land mass, government is committed to which strips out moisture at low June saw the start of a Martian dust storm bringing in new orbital and sub- levels. They describe a 10.4% that is rapidly reached global proportions, orbital licensing regulations to average annual incidence of cloud causing the Opportunity rover to shut down clarify legal issues and ease the bases below 457 m, arguing that and Mars orbiters to refocus their attention. Spaceport development and Newquay is 31.1% and Llanbedr With the THEMIS instrument (Thermal function process. The UKSA is 17.9% (Met Office figures). Emission Imaging System), on Mars Odyssey, currently working closely with the scientists can track the planet's surface and CAA and DfT to achieve that end. REACTION ENGINES FUNDING atmospheric temperature, and the amount of An agreement between Virgin Over recent years, Culham-based dust in the atmosphere. This allows them to and Newquay has been signed for Reaction Engines have been watch how the storm develops over time. launches to commence from 2021. working steadily towards the One mystery yet to be solved is how dust With an impressive presentation of development and testing of storms go global. Every Mars year during the its site advantages, “Glasgow SABRE, the “Synergistic Air- dusty season, localized storms erupt all over Prestwick Spaceport” was Breathing Rocket Engine”. This will the Martian surface, but scientists aren't yet prominent at the FIA, arguing the achieve both air-breathing and sure how some of them end up encircling the case for the existing international rocket modes, enabling hypersonic entire planet. airport close to Glasgow as being air travel at Mach 5, or orbital

JPL an ideal spot for horizontal launch access velocities of Mach 25. activity, providing 356 ha of At the RE stand the company available development land. The showed off the pre-cooler unit Scottish Enterprise and South used for the Scimitar engine test Ayrshire Council bodies promoting runs at Culham – these results led Prestwick quote its advantages of to the engine being successfully easy communications across the technically reviewed by ESA. RE globe, the proximity of hi-tech are supported by their US aerospace companies like Space subsidiary at Castle Rock, Glasgow (University), Clyde Space, Colorado, “Reaction Engines Inc”. Strathclyde Univ. etc., long Now part-funded by the UKSA 2.9km/1.9km runways, sea / and ESA, plus BAE Systems, ELECTRIC ORION countryside aircraft approaches and Boeing and Rolls Royce and On 8 July engineers preparing the Orion test good weather. minority investors, RE have future article for an Ascent Abort-2 test in April Interestingly, the Prestwick resources of £100 million to press 2019 applied electrical power for the first Spaceport promoters firmly ahead and develop the engine at a time since the vehicle arrived at the Johnson contrast their site’s weather with new bespoke facility at Westcott in Space Center, Houston, Texas, in March. Newquay and Llanbedr, noting that Oxfordshire – the facility model Over several days technicians measured voltage levels at each pin connection and Opinion connected additional systems in the core avionics and data instrumentation, routing and clamping more than 17 km of wiring inside the module. The AA-2 test will fully A RAY OF HOPE? stress the Orion Launch Abort System and provide the final verification of the escape AT A TIME WHEN THE GENERAL PUBLIC are said to be locked in negative equipment prior to the crew flying on thoughts and a general sense of gloom about political matters there is a Exploration Mission-2 – now tentatively burgeoning sense of optimism among the cadre of Britain’s space scientists, scheduled for 2020 on the second SLS Block engineers, technicians and managers. After several decades of lacklustre 1 launcher. The Crew Module is to undergo support from government, the clear and distinct benefits from increased tilt tests to verify weight and centre of investment in UK Space is beginning to develop a self-supporting optimism. gravity measurements before acoustic tests It is one thing for a sense of national pride to inspire confidence, risking at NASA’s Glenn Research Center’s Plum perhaps a measure of hubris, but when foreign companies and government Brook Station I Sandusky, Ohio. organisations start flowing inward – that seals the deal! And it is something about which we should all have a great sense of pride, as UK citizens and those who are members of the British Interplanetary Society, who have been projecting this message since the re-establishment of the Society after the Second World War. So, allow yourselves a pat on the back – you were right all along! And now the legislators and the executive branch are sending the same message too. On these pages, Nick Spall reports from the Farnborough Airshow 2018, a biennial display of international aerospace products, engineering design and ingenuity, up for further development and on sale – either as an idea to invest in, or as a plug-and-play mechanical or electronic device for existing products, be they spaceframes, airframes or systems. But rightly, he begs the question: what of Brexit? And quite unbiased, and with the interests of GB plc to the fore, Orion gets plugged in.

NASA sloughs off this dispiriting gloom which appears to have gripped the nation. Or at

4 Vol 60 October 2018 SpaceFlight BEHIND THE NEWS Briefing HIGHLANDS ROCKET Ken MacTaggart reports that components of a new British rocket were flight tested at the Kildermorie estate in Ross-shire in early August. Edinburgh-based rocket developer Skyrora launched a small solid-fuel rocket carrying hardware and software intended for use on later full-scale launch vehicles, plus a new A model of Virgin Orbit’s converted Boeing 747-400 “Cosmic Girl”, the horizontal-launched payload separation device, on-board satellite carrier destined for operation from UK spaceports. video cameras, and a commercial NICK SPALL payload for social network Ask.fm. The was provided at the FIA stand. The UK space pavilion at the FIA, UK/ test reached Mach 1.45 and an altitude of HOT pre-cooler will be tested (TF2) ESA astronaut Tim Peake was on over 6 km. After burn-out, the payload this year and the TF1 SABRE hand to introduce the 2020 Mars module was ejected, but remained developed by 2019 for core tests Rover naming competition. The UK, attached by cable to ensure a random runs in 2020. Following integrated which is building the rover at the tumbling motion, avoiding a rapid dart-like ground tests, the engine will be ADS factory in Stevenage, won the descent of the flown on unmanned vehicles and naming rights at the ESA rocket body, which then mounted on larger aircraft and Ministerial Council in 2014 as it is would have unmanned orbital launcher vehicles. the key financial contributor. jeopardised its RE is already attracting wide Dr. David Parker, Director of recovery by interest. In 2017 US defence Human Spaceflight and Robotics at parachute. Skyrora research organisation DARPA ESA, noted how ESA normally will present its plans awarded the company a contract called their probes after famous at the BIS-organised for an undisclosed sum for high scientists but said: “We just want a 16th RISpace in temperature airflow testing at a great name”. London 30 October-1 Colorado site. RE claim competitive The details of the competition November. VIA KEN MACTAGGERT satellite launch prices once the are on the UKSA website, hosted engine is mated to a launcher at by Airbus, with a closing date of 10 some point in the 2020s. October 2018. Anyone resident in TESTING TIMES an ESA or associated country can Contracts worth £19 million have been EXOMARS NAMING COMPETITION apply. Single words, an acronym or awarded for the first phase of the Fresh from showing UK Prime a combination of words are National Satellite Test Facility (NSTF), to Minister Theresa May around the considered possible. SF Nick Spall be built and operated by STFC’s RAL Space on behalf of the UK government. They are the first step towards meeting the UK space industry’s need for The clear and distinct benefits from increased co-located world-class facilities for the environmental testing of space payloads investment in UK Space is beginning to develop a and satellites. The three successful contractors will supply the large space self-supporting optimism. test chamber, vibration facility, and the combined electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and antenna measurement system. least we are told it has. Satellite test facilities on this scale, do not The big question is not whether departing the European Union is good or bad currently exist in one location in the UK. for the British space industry; that decision has already been made – it is going Once operational in 2021, the NSTF will to happen. The real question is: are we as a people and an industry mature, provide the UK space sector with all the responsible and tough enough to go it alone and to succeed in our endeavours. test facilities it needs under one roof as it Because, if we are not, at the recognised level of capability exhibited by our seeks to capitalise on the 3,500-10,000 space industry, to fail is to admit incompetence. satellites due to be launched by 2025. At every point in our history when this country stood alone it prevailed, against dire economic disasters, against enemies at our gates, and against political unrest and subterfuge. For too long we have been negative, controlled by the ideas (and ideals) of others who have sought to embrace us in their own self-serving interests. As a nation, we have benefitted greatly from being a member of the European Union but now we are leaving and for the first time in several decades we will only have ourselves to blame if we fail. Speaking collectively for the UK space industry, we have it within us to succeed and no longer anyone to blame if we let ourselves down. The industry is RAL proud, succeeding and the future is bright. Light it with pride, in our people and UK gets a new National Space Test Facility. our country. SF David Baker

SpaceFlight Vol 60 October 2018 5 SATELLITES LEFT: NASA / RIGHT: ESA / RIGHT: NASA LEFT: ISS Report 9 July – 8 August 2018 Expedition 56 has completed its second month of operations. The station is crewed by its American commander Drew Feustel and five flight engineers, Americans Ricky Arnold and Serena Aunon-Chancellor, Russians Oleg Artemyev and Sergey Prokopyev and from ESA, Germany’s Alexander Gerst. Report by George Spiteri

rogress MS-09/70P was launched atop a ABOVE the launch site. Immediately following the docking Soyuz 2.1a rocket from Baikonur’s Pad 6 at The Cygnus space freighter the new head of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin Site 31 at 21:51 UTC on 9 July (03:51 10 July from Northrop Grumman, radioed his congratulations to Artemyev and added formerly Orbital ATK, is local time). The unmanned freighter docked grappled by the Canadarm2 “it’s finally worked out for us….definitely a giant P to the Pirs module eight minutes ahead of robotic arm while still step forward”. Russian space officials plan to use schedule after 3 hr 40 min and two orbits at 01:31 attached to the Harmony this fast-track method eventually for crewed Soyuz UTC on 10 July as the complex flew 418.4 km above module. Cygnus would missions to the Station. soon be uninstalled from the northern coast of Australia. Harmony and released back Following three hours of leak checks, Artemyev Progress delivered 2,567 kg of supplies, including into Earth orbit, ending a and Prokopyev opened the hatches to Progress and 1,565 kg of dry cargo, 530 kg of propellant, 420 kg 52-day cargo mission at the devoted most of 10 July with transferring items to of water and 52 kg of oxygen and air. This was the International Space Station. the Station. first time the Russian cargo vehicle successfully Cygnus’ Japanese built BT-4 main engine was attempted a fast-track rendezvous and docking with fired for 50 sec at 20:25 UTC on 10 July to boost the the ISS. Two previous attempts were cancelled when station’s orbit by 89.9 metres in a test to verify an on both occasions the launch was aborted within additional capability to adjusting the ISS’ altitude. the final minute of lift-off and Russian space officials Zvezda or Progress vehicles normally conduct resorted to the two day 34 orbit rendezvous profile RIGHT orbital re-boosts and this was the first time Cygnus (SpaceFlight Vol 60 No. 1 pp 11-12 and SpaceFlight German astronaut was used for such a manoeuvre. Orbital ATK who Vol 60 No. 5 pp 11-12). Alexander Gerst of ESA are responsible for Cygnus, were recently bought A Russian space source told RIA Novosti that busy with housecleaning by Northrop Grumman for $7.8 billion. President activities inside the technicians at Baikonur rolled out the vehicle three International Space and CEO of Orbital ATK David Thompson said “we days prior to launch instead of the usual two days Station's Destiny laboratory remain focused on operational excellence….after “to carry out the necessary checks” by engineers at module on 28 July. the transition into Northrop Grumman”.

6 Vol 60 October 2018 SpaceFlight ISS REPORT

SpaceFlight Vol 60 September 2018 7 ISS REPORT

On 11 July, Artemyev and Prokopyev resumed unloading Progress as did Gerst and Auñón- Chancellor with Dragon. The United States Orbital Segment (USOS) crew also conducted a variety of life science research exploring how microgravity impacts fertility, algae production and the gastrointestinal system. The two Russian cosmonauts were back at work unpacking cargo from Progress on 12 July, whilst Cygnus was filled with unwanted items prior to its release. Auñón-Chancellor worked with the AngieX Cancer Therapy experiment, which is using microgravity to study a treatment that targets tumour cells and the blood vessels that can supply them. Feustel devoted a second day to the Micro-11 fertility study, whilst Prokopyev worked with the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG). On 13 July, Nine CubeSats were released from the NanoRacks deployer at 08:05 UTC (RainCube and HaloSat), at 09:50 UTC (Radix), at 12:35 UTC (TEMPEST-D and CubeRRT) and at 14:20 UTC (RadSat-g, MemSat, EQUiSat and EnduroSat-1) respectively (SpaceFlight Vol 60 No. 8 p 37). NanoRacks tweeted its thanks and congratulated “all of our customers”. Gerst and Auñón-Chancellor conducted some final on-board training for Cygnus’ imminent release, whilst the remainder of the crew concluded a week of eye examinations using ultrasound techniques. ABOVE resumed studies with the Matryoshka-R radiation TRASH DISPOSAL Astronauts Drew Feustel experiment and set up hardware for several days and Serena Auñón- The crew enjoyed a light-duty weekend 14/15 July. Chancellor are seen work with the SPLANH biomedical investigation. Gerst was at the controls of Canadarm2 when it conducting microscope All six crewmembers participated in a routine released Cygnus at 12:37 UTC on 15 July as the and Microgravity Science emergency evacuation drill on 18 July. Arnold complex flew 407.1 km above south east Colombia. Glovebox operations during and Gerst collected blood samples for a pair of The unmanned commercial vehicle had been the Micro-11 investigation. ongoing human research studies. Feustel teamed up The study is looking to detached over two hours earlier from the Earth provide fundamental with Gerst to conduct further work with the RR-7 facing port of Unity by ground controllers at 10:25 data indicating whether experiment, whilst Auñón-Chancellor examined UTC. Named in honour of former Chief Operating successful human endothelial cells through a microscope for the reproduction beyond Earth

Officer of Orbital Sciences James “J.R.” Thompson AngieX Cancer Therapy experiment and answered : NASA AND OVERLEAF HERE ALL IMAGES is possible. Jr., Cygnus was filled with a record of more than questions from students at the St. Louis Science 3,000 kg of trash, released six CubeSats from its Centre, Missouri. external deployer on 15/16 July before conducting The following day, during a Q and A session various engineering tests and was commanded to with the Wall Street Journal Digital Network, a destructive re-entry over the South Pacific Ocean Auñón-Chancellor admitted that some members by controllers from Dulles, Virginia at 21:17 UTC Auñón-Chancellor of the crew have had “urinary tract infections, on 30 July. admitted that small cuts and small wounds” during long duration The crew began their working week with missions but didn’t name specific crewmembers, five further hours of Dragon transfers on 16 some members of citing NASA’s privacy rules. July, Auñón-Chancellor resumed work with the The astronauts worked with the Biomolecule AngieX Cancer Therapy investigation whilst the crew have had Extraction and Sequencing Technology (BEST) Feustel, Arnold and Gerst focused on the Rodent experiment on 19 July and extracted DNA samples Research-7 (RR-7) facility. An Active Aerosol “urinary tract swabbed off surfaces inside the station. The DNA Sampler (AAS) was deployed inside Tranquility, will be sequenced on Earth to help scientists however a similar device failed to activate in infections, small understand how life adapts to microgravity. Arnold Unity. The battery powered AASs actively pull tweeted that working with BEST was his “personal in air and collect particles using the principle cuts and small highlight” of the scientific research conducted of thermophoresis. The following day, the crew wounds” during during the crew’s working week. Artemyev and retrieved samplers and after connecting them to Prokopyev studied how a crewmember’s heart charges, they were redeployed for a second round long duration and circulatory system adjusts to long duration of sampling. missions, courtesy of the Cosmocard experiment, On 17 July, the USOS crew worked with the missions and Gerst investigated how the Earth’s magnetic Space Algae experiment, which aims to further field interacts with conductors, which could NASA’s understanding of how plants respond provide insights for electrical engineers to design and grow during space flight using state of the improved space systems. art omics techniques. Their Russian colleagues Feustel spent part of 20 July working with the

8 Vol 60 October 2018 SpaceFlight ISS REPORT

failure. NASA later blogged “all payloads are back in a stable configuration and normal operations Arnold tweeted a continue. The cause of the POR is still under investigation”, and they were assessing the impact short video clip of on science and ISS hardware. Aside from the POR, 21/22 July was another him and his light-duty weekend for the crew. Auñón- crewmates Chancellor said they looked forward to “ice cream treats” on Saturday evenings and Arnold tweeted unloading items a short video clip of him and his crewmates unloading items from Dragon with the caption from Dragon with “Motivation = Ice Cream”. Gerst initiated a week’s work with the Sally the caption Ride EarthKAM hardware on 23 July, which allows thousands of students to photograph and “Motivation = Ice examine Earth from the ISS for world-wide public and classroom use. Auñón-Chancellor continued Cream” with a further week’s activities with the AngieX Cancer Therapy experiment, whilst Artemyev and Prokopyev worked with the Konstanta-2 biotechnological study and Feustel and Arnold conducted several more days’ research with the RR-7 facility. The following day the crew performed routine maintenance to the Colbert T2 treadmill, conducted four hours of Dragon cargo operations and completed their weekly questionnaire for the Interactions investigation which examines the interpersonal factors that define ground and crew Amyloid experiment to help doctors develop performance. advanced treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, On 25 July, Arnold and Auñón-Chancellor whilst Arnold and Gerst continued with the BEST stowed more samples into science freezers, whilst investigation and later stowed microbe samples in further research was conducted with the RR-7 a science freezer for molecular analysis on Earth and AngieX Cancer Therapy studies. The Russian to identify potential pathogens on the ISS. Auñón- crewmembers continued with Progress cargo Chancellor examined biological samples as part of transfers to the station. the Micro-11 study through a microscope which The engines of Progress MS-08 were fired for were later stowed in one of the Station’s freezers. 199.2 sec at 16:10 UTC on 26 July to boost the station’s altitude by 700 metres. The manoeuvre POWER FROM THE PEOPLE BELOW was necessitated to accommodate the next Soyuz On 21 July the Direct Current Switching Unit Pictured troubleshooting landing and launch and placed the ISS in a 423 (DCSU) 3A experienced a Power on Reset the Combustion Integrated x 402.5 km orbit. Feustel and Auñón-Chancellor Rack, Ricky Arnold spoke (POR) which resulted in a loss of power to with Stennis Space Center continued another week of work with the Micro-11 some downstream loads. The crew and ground Astro Camp participants on investigation. Gerst explored the sedimentary controllers worked together to recover from the Thursday, 19 July. properties of quartz and clay particles. The ESA astronaut mixed samples suspended in a liquid for photographic and video downlink to scientists on Earth. Arnold worked with the AAS and BEST experiments, whilst Artemyev and Prokopyev resumed work with the Konstanta-2 study and the ongoing Matryoshka-R experiment. The week ended on 27 July with Arnold, who NASA described as “the Space Station’s resident farmer”, harvesting Arabidopsis plants in the Plant Habitat-01 facility, to better understand the physical and physiological changes that plants experience in microgravity. During a TV downlink, Arnold told the ground the plants were “doing great” and will be sent to Earth for analysis. Gerst joined Arnold to conduct more eye examinations and Feustel continued loading Dragon with cargo and research samples. Artemyev and Gerst also posted several pictures on their twitter accounts of the Moon during the total lunar eclipse that was visible from various parts of the world on 27 July.

SpaceFlight Vol 60 October 2018 9 ISS REPORT

THE POWER OF OLEG Arnold filmed Artemyev conducting his daily exercise session while pedalling on the station’s exercise bike, the Cycle Ergometer with Vibration Isolation and Stabilisation System (CEVIS), during the crew’s light-duty weekend 28/29 July, claiming “that’s how we orbit the Earth so quickly….Oleg p o w e r ”. On 30 July, Artemyev and Prokopyev began preparations for their forthcoming EVA. Gerst worked inside Columbus with an experiment to help doctors understand how an astronaut’s perception of time and distance is affected during and after a space mission. Arnold resumed loading more scientific samples inside Dragon including results from the AngieX Cancer Therapy study and answered questions from interns at various NASA centres. He said that based on the views from orbit, he’d most like to visit the mountainous “parts of Peru, Chile, southern Argentina” when he returns from space. More items were packed inside Dragon on 31 July, including biological samples from the Micro-11 study and the RR-7 investigation. The crew also set up the Synchronised Position ABOVE Auñón-Chancellor radioed “there’s a tremendous Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites Cygnus cargo spacecraft amount of critical science aboard Dragon…can’t is set to depart the (SPHERES) Zero Robotics for a test session. Zero International Space Station wait to see what results Dragon brings”. Robotics provides middle school students the nearly two months after Ground controllers at SpaceX mission control opportunity to write algorithms for the SPHERES delivery of several tons in Hawthorne, California commanded Dragon to satellites to accomplish tasks relevant to future space of supplies and scientific perform a 12 min 53 sec de-orbit burn at 21:23 missions. experiments to the orbiting UTC on 3 August and Dragon splashed down less laboratory. Auñón-Chancellor filmed Arnold working than an hour later in the Pacific Ocean 659.8 km with the BEST experiment on 1 August, whilst her south west of Baja, California at 22:17 UTC (15:17 Russian colleagues continued with their spacewalk local time) to complete the Commercial Resupply preparations. Gerst worked with the Fluid Shifts Services-15 (CRS-15) mission. experiment which aims to help doctors understand The crew conducted their regular housekeeping how living in space impacts the human eye and “…that’s how we activities and other light-duty chores during assisted Feustel and Arnold with further packing of the weekend of 4/5 August and on 6 August crucial scientific research samples into Dragon. orbit the Earth so Artemyev and Prokopyev resumed their spacewalk On 2 August, Arnold packed the final items preparations by performing a leak check on into Dragon prior to its release, including samples quickly….Oleg their Russian Orlan EVA suits. The remainder from the Amyloid experiment. The crew conducted power” of the crew worked with the Microbial Tracking another routine inspection of the Bigelow investigation which monitors the different types of Expandable Activity Module (BEAM). They also microbes that are present aboard the Station and recorded a message to support the kick off of the the MagVector 3D experiment which examines 2018/19 European AstroPi competition. how Earth’s magnetic field interacts with an electric According to a NASA blog; “AstroPis are conductor. augmented Raspberry Pi computers equipped with Arnold and Artemyev posted dramatic photos the mighty Sense Hardware Attached on Top (HAT) from orbit on 7 August of the California wildfires that measure the environment inside the ISS, detect raging in the US. Arnold also answered questions how the station moves through space, and pick up from fellow teachers at the Challenger Centre in the Earth’s magnetic field. One of the AstroPis has Washington DC and following the Q and A session an infrared camera and the other has a standard NASA TV broadcast recorded footage of Arnold visible spectrum camera.” conducting some of the experiments and lessons school teacher Christa McAuliffe would have RETURN OF THE DRAGON conducted aboard the ill-fated Shuttle mission in The hatches to Dragon were closed at approximately 1986. Auñón-Chancellor wrapped up work with the 08:00 UTC on 3 August. Packed with 1,723.6 AngieX Cancer Therapy study and Gerst explored kg of scientific research and cargo, Dragon was using a sextant with star maps as an emergency unberthed from the Earth facing port of Harmony form of navigation in space. about two and a half hours later at 10:30 UTC and On 8 August, Gerst performed more work with ground controllers released Canadarm2 from the ABOVE the Sextant Navigation experiment, whilst the unmanned commercial spacecraft over six hours Serena Auñón-Chancellor remainder of the crew conducted an acoustic conducts activity with the later at 16:38 UTC as the spacecraft flew 410.3 km Hydrogen Sensor Oxygen monitor noise survey of the station and checked a just north of Australia. Once Dragon completed Generation System (OGS) camera on NASA’s Space Automated Bioproduct its third and final departure burn from the ISS, Remove and Replace (R&R). Laboratory (SABL) facility. SF

10 Vol 60 October 2018 SpaceFlight SOLAR SYSTEM Dr Parker's sun grazer NASA was less than four weeks old when the US National Academy of Sciences recommended launching a solar probe to answer fundamental questions about our parent star. Now, 60 years later, the latest in a long line of sunseekers has been launched aboard one of the world’s most powerful rockets bearing the name of the father of the solar wind theory – Dr Eugene Parker. by David Baker

he Parker Solar Probe is a mission some sixty years in the making. With the dawn of the Space Age, humanity was introduced to the full dimension of the T Sun’s powerful influence over the solar system. In 1958, physicist Eugene Parker published a ground breaking scientific paper theorising the existence of the solar wind. The mission is now named after him, and it’s the first NASA mission to be named after a living person. Only in the past few decades has technology come far enough to make Parker Solar Probe a reality. Key to the spacecraft’s daring journey are three main breakthroughs: the cutting-edge heat shield, the solar array cooling system, and the advanced fault management system. The TPS was designed by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, and was built at Carbon-Carbon Advanced Technologies using a carbon composite foam sandwiched between two carbon plates. This lightweight insulation is

BELOW: NASA / RIGHT: JOEL POWELL JOEL / RIGHT: NASA BELOW: accompanied by a finishing touch of white ceramic paint on the Sun-facing plate, to reflect as much heat as possible. Tested to withstand up to 1,650º C the TPS can handle any heat the Sun can send its way, keeping almost all instrumentation safe. “The Thermal Protection System (the

RIGHT Lift-off for Parker Solar Probe at 3.31 am on 12 August 2018.

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heat shield) is one of the spacecraft’s mission- OPPOSITE the Odeillo Solar Furnace, which concentrates the heat The Parker Solar enabling technologies”, said Andy Driesman, Parker Probe team prepare of the Sun through 10,000 adjustable mirrors, was used Solar Probe project manager at the Johns Hopkins the spacecraft to test the cup against the intense solar emission. Applied Physics Lab. “It allows the spacecraft to that is about to Other critical innovations are the solar array be lifted from the operate at about room temperature.” Space Environment cooling system and on-board fault management Parker Solar Probe’s TPS, is a sandwich of carbon- Simulator at NASA’s systems. The solar array cooling system allows the carbon composite surrounding 11.5 cm of carbon Goddard Space solar arrays to produce power under the intense Flight Center foam, which is about 97% air. Some 2.4 m in diameter, in Greenbelt, thermal load from the Sun and the fault management the TPS adds only about 72.5 kg to Parker Solar Maryland, where system protects the spacecraft. Using data from seven it spent more Probe’s mass because of its lightweight materials. than nine weeks Sun sensors placed all around the edges of the shadow In space, the temperature can be thousands of undergoing tests. cast by the heat shield, the fault management system degrees without providing significant heat to a given protects the spacecraft during the long periods of object or feeling hot. Temperature measures how fast BELOW time when it is unable to communicate with Earth. Dr. Eugene Parker, particles are moving, whereas heat measures the total S. Chandrasekhar If it detects a problem, Parker Solar Probe will self- amount of energy that they transfer. Particles may be distinguished correct its course and pointing angles to ensure that moving fast (high temperature), but if there are very service professor its scientific instruments remain cool and functioning emeritus for the few of them, they will not transfer much energy (low Department of during the long periods when the spacecraft is out of heat). Since space is mostly empty, there are very few Astronomy and contact with Earth. particles that can transfer energy to the spacecraft. Astrophysics at the University of Chicago, watches STAYING COOL FEELING THE HEAT the launch of The solar arrays have a surprisingly simple cooling NASA's Parker The corona through which Parker Solar Probe will Solar Probe, the system: a heated tank that keeps the coolant from fly has an extremely high temperature but very low first agency mission freezing during launch, two radiators that will keep the density. Compared to the visible surface of the Sun, named for a living coolant from freezing, aluminium fins to maximise the person. Behind the corona is less dense, so the spacecraft interacts Parker is Nicky Fox, cooling surface, and pumps to circulate the coolant. with fewer hot particles and doesn’t receive as much Parker Solar Probe The cooling system is powerful enough to cool an heat. That means that while Parker Solar Probe will be project scientist average sized living room, and will keep the solar at Johns Hopkins travelling through a space with temperatures of several Applied Physics arrays and instrumentation cool and functioning million degrees, the surface of the heat shield that Laboratory. while in the heat of the Sun. The coolant used for faces the Sun will only get heated to about 1,400º C. But not all of the Solar Parker Probe instruments will be behind the TPS. Cantilevered out over the heat shield, the Solar Probe Cup is one of two instruments that will not be protected by the heat shield. This instrument is a Faraday cup, a sensor designed to measure the ion and electron fluxes and flow angles from the solar wind. Due to the intensity of the solar atmosphere, unique technologies had to be engineered to make sure that not only can the instrument survive, but also the electronics aboard can send back accurate readings. The cup itself is made from sheets of Titanium- Zirconium-Molybdenum, an alloy of molybdenum, with a melting point of about 2,349º C. The grids that produce an electric field for the Solar Probe Cup are made from tungsten, a metal with the highest known melting point of 3,422º C. Normally lasers are used to etch the gridlines in these grids, however due to the high melting point acid had to be used instead. Another challenge came in the form of the electronic wiring. Most cables would melt from exposure to heat radiation at such close proximity to the Sun. To solve this problem, the team grew sapphire crystal tubes to suspend the wiring, and made the wires from niobium. To make sure the instrument was ready for the harsh environment, the researchers needed to mimic the Sun’s intense heat radiation in a laboratory. To create a test-worthy level of heat, the researchers used a particle accelerator and IMAX projectors, jury- rigged to increase their temperature. The projectors mimicked the heat of the Sun, while the particle accelerator exposed the cup to radiation to make sure the cup could measure the accelerated particles under the intense conditions. To be absolutely sure the Solar

ALL IMAGES NASA ALL IMAGES Probe Cup would withstand the harsh environment,

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the system consists of 3.7 litres of de-ionised water. While plenty of chemical coolants exist, the range of temperatures the spacecraft will be exposed to will vary between 10º C and 125º C. Very few liquids can handle those ranges like water. To keep the water from boiling at the higher end of the temperatures, it will be pressurized so the boiling point remains above 125º C.

GETTING THERE Parker Solar Probe lifted off gracefully from Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral a day later than planned, at 3.31 am on 12 August, carried on its journey by a Delta IV Heavy. Producing a lift-off thrust of 9,341 kN, the three common-core boosters, each equipped with a Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-68A, continued to burn until port and starboard cores separated at 3 min 57 sec. Following central core cut- off at 5 min 36 sec, the stages separated eight seconds later followed by ignition of the cryogenic second stage with its single RL10B-2 engine. The fairing segments jettisoned seconds after that with the stage burning until 10 min 37 sec. After coasting for almost 12 minutes, the second stage re-ignited at 22 min 25 sec and continued to burn for a further 14 min 13 sec, shutting down at 36 min 38 sec. Less than a minute later, at 37 min 29 sec, the Northrop Grumman Star 48BV third stage rocket motor fired and continued to burn for about 90 seconds, delivering the spacecraft to a heliocentric orbit with an intersecting path for Venus. Separation of the spacecraft occurred at 43 min 18 sec prior to solar array deployment. This was a unique combination of stages for a Delta IV Heavy and is worthy of note, the Star 48BV taking its designation from its diameter in inches – being 122 cm. Developed by Thiokol Propulsion which was taken over by Orbital ATK in 2001 and bought out by Northrop Grumman this year, the Star 48 series has most commonly been married up with Delta II launches but it proudly boasts its claim to fame as between about 4 am and 6 am EDT, and within a the Payload Assist Module (PAM), a perigee stage for period lasting about two weeks – was very precisely Shuttle-launched satellites during the 1980s. chosen to send Parker Solar Probe toward its first, vital This was a The timing of Parker Solar Probe’s launch – target for achieving such an orbit: Venus. “The launch unique combination of stages for a Delta IV Heavy

LEFT Its orbit gravitationally adjusted by several encounters with Venus, the Parker Solar Probe will reside in a heliocentric orbit trapped within the inner solar system by the orbits of Mercury and Venus.

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Parker Solar Probe will use Venus gravity assists during seven flybys over nearly seven years to gradually bring its orbit closer to the Sun. Its first Venus flyby is two months after launch, in late September 2018, and its first close approach to the Sun, already closer than any spacecraft has gone before, will occur three months after launch, in early November 2018. On the final three orbits, Parker Solar Probe flies to within about 6.1 million km of the Sun’s surface. The current record-holder for a close solar pass, the Helios 2 spacecraft, was seven times farther away. Helios 2 came within 43.4 million km of the Sun’s surface in 1976. Mercury orbits about 57.9 million km from the Sun on average, so it is nearly 10 times farther away than Parker Solar Probe’s closest approach. At closest approach, Parker Solar Probe hurtles around the Sun at approximately 700,000 km/hr. The spacecraft will be in an elliptical orbit around the Sun at 3.4 degree inclination from the ecliptic plane.

SMALL, BUT PERFECTLY FORMED Despite its dramatic design qualities and exceptional objective, the Parker Solar Probe is a small spacecraft, about 3 m tall and 1 m in diameter below the cooling system and TPS. The two solar arrays are each 1.12 m in length and 0.69 m wide providing a total area of 1.6 m². On average the solar arrays produce about 388 W of electrical energy. Communication is maintained through a single high-gain antenna for high-speed science data and two fan-beam antennas supporting command uplink and health status plus telemetry downlink. Two low-gain antennas support command uplink and real-time health and telemetry during periods where the spacecraft is on contingency operations. The maximum downlink rate is 555 kbps and during the long cruise phase Parker Solar Probe will energy to reach the Sun is 55 times that required ABOVE transmit health and status to three ground stations to get to Mars, and two times that needed to get to Parker Solar Probe each week. During solar encounter operations the in the Astrotech Pluto”, said Yanping Guo from the Johns Hopkins facility adjacent spacecraft will be in contact with Earth three times a Applied Physics Laboratory, who designed the mission to Cape Canaveral week through a beacon tone indicating health and trajectory. “During summer, Earth and the other in Florida prior to status. In periods of science data downlink, it will ALL IMAGES NASA ALL IMAGES integration and planets in our solar system are in the most favourable mating with the transmit at a high data rate on a daily basis between 20 alignment to allow us to get close to the Sun.” launch vehicle. and 24 hours a day. SF

INSTRUMENTS FOR MEASURING THE SUN The FIELDS suite, led by a research team from the University of Another suite, called SWEAP (Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and California, Berkeley, measures the electric and magnetic fields Protons Investigation), uses two complementary instruments to around the spacecraft. FIELDS captures waves and turbulence in gather data. The SWEAP suite of instruments counts the most the inner heliosphere with high time resolution to understand the abundant particles in the solar wind – electrons, protons and fields associated with waves, shocks and magnetic reconnection helium ions – and measures such properties as velocity, density, – a process by which magnetic field lines running across the and temperature to improve an understanding of the solar wind and Sun's surface explosively realign. coronal plasma. SWEAP is led by the University of Michigan, the University of California, Berkeley, and the Smithsonian The WISPR instrument, short for Wide-Field Imager for Parker Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Solar Probe, is the only imaging instrument aboard the spacecraft. WISPR takes images of structures like coronal mass Finally, the ISIS suite (Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun) ejections (or CMEs), jets and other ejecta from the Sun to help measures particles across a wide range of energies. By measuring link what’s happening in the large-scale coronal structure to the electrons, protons and ions, ISIS will understand the particles’ detailed physical measurements being captured directly in the lifecycles, where they came from, how they became accelerated near-Sun environment. WISPR is led by the Naval Research and how they move out from the Sun through interplanetary space. Laboratory in Washington, D.C. ISIS is led by Princeton University in New Jersey.

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Giant rockets: Some say NASA's super-heavy rocket the SLS is redundant as commercial providers race to give customers the big lift. But there was always another, cheaper way to get to the Moon and Mars – literally right off the back of the Space Shuttle.

by David Todd, Head of Space Content

Seradata Ltd INDICATED WHERE OTHERWISE EXCEPT NASA ALL IMAGES

hortly after Barack Obama took up office on 20 January 2009 as the 44th President of the United States, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy asked former Lockheed S Martin executive Norman Augustine to head up a review of NASA’s human space flight plans. Laid down by President George W. Bush and publicly announced on 14 January 2004, NASA was to retire the Shuttle in 2010 and divert resources to a return to the Moon after developing a range of new hardware for what was ABOVE determined schedule. The Obama administration A giant Ares V designated the Constellation programme. rocket thunders favoured the existing commercial cargo and commercial Constellation involved the development of two spaceward carrying crew programmes to form the base upon which future new launch vehicles, Ares I and Ares V, and two new components of human space flight plans would be built. what a NASA artist spacecraft, the Orion crew exploration vehicle and envisaged would However, a revolt against President Obama’s slow the Altair lunar landing vehicle. Ares I would have be a lunar landing and somewhat vague plan, led by former Apollo consisted of a single evolved Solid Rocket Booster expedition. Moonwalkers Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan, stage from the Shuttle programme, with an upper stage backed up by most of the US Senate, resulted in an powered by a J-2X motor. Ares V would have had order for NASA to obtain a Heavy Lift launch vehicle five or six Space Shuttle Main Engines at the base of a (HLV), one which would use Space Shuttle technology cryogenic core stage, flanked by two 5.5-segment Solid and build upon existing activity in the Ares rocket Rocket Boosters. An upper stage consisting of a single projects. J-2X engine in a cryogenic Earth Departure Stage would NASA chose a slower-to-develop but more evolvable have given Ares V the capability of sending 71 tonnes to inline design which became the Space Launch System. the Moon, or 188 tonnes in Low Earth orbit. OPPOSITE However, with the development of new reusable The Augustine Commission’s review of these plans Ares V was a commercial HLVs such as the Falcon Heavy, Elon legacy rocket resulted in a recommendation for termination of taking technology Musk’s BFR and New Armstrong, hindsight suggests Project Constellation and the Ares rocket programme from the Shuttle that the Sidemount concept would have made a better programme with the and this was announced on 1 February 2010. It led to aim of harvesting interim HLV than the SLS. Nevertheless, the larger the concept of a “Flexible Path” to slowly develop the as much sunk-cost commercial HLVs are yet to be technically proven, technology for human exploration via an evolutionary in that programme and before they arrive, there is a period of opportunity applicable to the approach, eventually exploring the near-Earth asteroids, aims and objectives for SLS to have a role in human lunar sortie mission the Moon and eventually Mars but without any pre- of Constellation. exploration.

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Giant rockets:

the third way

A LONG AND WINDING ROAD The history of heavy-lift launch vehicle development has been a long and hard one. As we examine what launch vehicles are needed for future exploration of the Moon, Mars and other planets, we should first look to see what is really needed by a human exploration space programme. For example, a human Mars mission needs several elements. These should be brought together like a jigsaw. For a Mars mission, these jigsaw pieces can be described as follows. A heavy-lift launch vehicle and a crew-carrying spacecraft with a service module, which will be able to get a crew into orbit and, on separate launches, the constituent elements ready for assembly to allow such a Mars mission to take place. The constituent elements include: a habitation module along with consumables (fuel, food etc.) to allow the crew to survive on the way to and from Mars. These elements will also require power, propulsion, life support, navigation, and communications systems. Such a mission will also need a transfer stage for the outward journey and a return stage, which may be pre-positioned in Mars orbit. Any mission is likely

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to involve human landings, so a landing craft with ascent stage or capability is required. Finally, other technologies will need to be developed. These include new EVA (extra vehicular activity) space suits and KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS transportation systems, as well as propellant storage ET external tank and/or in situ propellant generation systems. exp expendable The problem for those considering undertaking such J-2S Apollo-derived liquid engine SRB solid rocket booster a mission is that each of these elements is expensive SSME Shuttle main engine and time consuming to develop and build. In this era Std Standard used for Shuttle of restricted budgets, space agencies such as NASA find XL extra long (stretched) that they can only afford to build one of the “jigsaw” pieces at a time. And therein lies a hazard. Having to build one piece at a time can lead to periods of no human missions or space flight capability. For example, a similar hiatus occurred between the end of the Apollo/Skylab era, which ended with the Apollo- Soyuz link-up in 1975, and the much-delayed start of the Space Shuttle launch programme in 1981. The trick is to balance the programme so that there are no major “barren patches” which degrades operational experience and causes temporary personnel layoffs. This can be done by using productive interim missions in much the same way that the Gemini programme filled the gap between Project Mercury and Apollo, allowing NASA to perfect its rendezvous, docking and spacewalking techniques. Such interim missions also have the benefit of maintaining public excitement and support.

SIZE DOES MATTER When it comes to building the first elements of the ABOVE jigsaw pieces – the HLV and crew spacecraft – past From the inception NASA Mars exploration studies show that, ideally, such of the Space Shuttle an HLV would have a minimum payload capability programme in the transfer to the Moon, or two trans-lunar injection 1970s, NASA looked of 200 tonnes to Low Earth orbit (LEO). The idea was at how the Shuttle transfers followed by a lunar orbit rendezvous. As that the larger the rocket, the fewer assembly launches could evolve into such, an HLV’s payload capability to LEO was a less would be needed for an expedition to Mars. Traditional a universal launch important parameter than its payload trans-lunar system involving Mars mission architectures always envisaged a period both sidemount and injection (TLI) capability. Past NASA analyses showed of assembly in LEO to fit the habitation and transfer linear stacks. that typically a minimum TLI payload should be stages together ahead of refuelling. This would come BELOW 35 tonnes for each launch when using a two-launch shortly before or after the crew boarded the expedition Constellation mission. envisaged four following their launch from Earth. astronauts riding As it examined its HLV requirement, NASA looked Nevertheless, for lunar missions such large-scale in Orion and three to its past. With its LOX (liquid oxygen)/kerosene- assembly in LEO were not envisaged. For these, NASA travelling down to burning first stage and cryogenic LOX/Liquid Hydrogen the lunar surface planned a two-launch architecture, either involving aboard Altair some upper stages, the venerable Saturn V was able to carry an initial docking in LEO followed by a large payload time in the 2020s. 48 tonnes to TLI and 140 metric tons to LEO. Its TLI performance was even good enough to achieve human landings employing just a single launch, albeit with a minimalist two-astronaut Lunar Excursion Module. Unfortunately, while its blueprint designs still exist, Saturn V’s manufacturing tooling was destroyed in the 1970s. This was not part of some Richard Nixon- inspired anti-spaceflight conspiracy as some have suggested (although he never was a space fan despite being the President having the honour of calling Armstrong and Aldrin on the Moon), but more because by that time NASA wanted to look forward to the Space Shuttle rather than back to the Saturn V. On the other side of the fence, the Soviet Union developed two HLVs. The original one was the famous N-1 which, sadly, never flew successfully. It was retired in the early 1970s when the Soviet Union gave up its lunar dream. But in the 1980s the Soviet Union developed the 100 tonne-capable Energia both to offer a heavy-lift delivery system and to carry the Buran shuttle. However, the programme ended due to its high

18 Vol 60 October 2018 SpaceFlight SLUG costs and the collapse of the Soviet Union and neither remains in production – although the Energia booster stages fly on as the Zenit launch vehicle. Over the decades NASA has examined how to get back into the heavy-lift launch business. Original concepts included examining whether derivatives of the Saturn V should be built, or whether new LOX/ kerosene booster-equipped LOX/liquid hydrogen core and upper-stage rockets should be designed. None of these was selected, mainly because the Shuttle programme was costing so much to produce and run. However, once the Space Shuttle was successfully flying, design studies examined whether Space Shuttle hardware could be used to produce viable HLVs. These included a wingless orbiter design called Shuttle C, and a larger in-line design, which, as we shall see, later influenced both the Sidemount and SLS concepts respectively.

A HOPE OF LUNAR RETURN As the Shuttle programme began to show its age, a clamour grew for NASA to find a way to escape the LEO cul-de-sac and start proper space exploration once again. Under such conditions, and under President George W. Bush’s Vision for Space Exploration, Project Constellation was begun. NASA originally envisaged using a two-rocket architecture, but this time with an Earth orbital rendezvous plan. Importantly, however, while they shared technology, the two rockets, Ares I and Ares V, were very different beasts. Ares I was a large rocket using a solid rocket first stage and a high-energy LOX/liquid hydrogen upper stage able to launch 25.4 metric tons to LEO. This would include a crew in Orion and its service module.

expendable

expendable expendable

expendable expendable ABOVE In LEO it would link up with the landing craft, called Even as the Altair, attached to a large transfer stage called the political wind was expendable blowing against Earth Departure Stage, which, like the Ares I upper Constellation, NASA stage carried a J-2X rocket motor. Initially there were launched the Ares I-X on 28 October hopes that the Ares I/Orion combination rocket could expendable expendable 2009 to validate the fill in as the imminently required replacement for the design for human Space Shuttle to carry crew to the International Space space flight. Three months later it had Station (ISS). expendable been cancelled The Ares V was a much larger true heavy-lift by an Obama design aiming to carry 188 metric tons to LEO and 70 expendable administration disinterested in big metric tons to TLI. Its upper stage was also the Earth space goals. Departure Stage for Orion and Altair. Eventually it was decided that Orion would carry four crew, with the landing craft able to land three astronauts on the Moon. Project Constellation soon ran into trouble. Firstly, Ares I was beset with a major problem when engineers expendable Project discovered a serious vibrational issue related to thrust Constellation oscillation which, at one point, was predicted to be so violent that it would kill the crew. Engineers worked A cutaway of the Ares soon ran into on damping mechanisms, and even strobing systems I launcher, the “single- to allow the shaking astronauts’ eyeballs to view stick” which would have trouble the instrument panel during launch. In the end the complemented Ares V by providing a medium-lift problem was found not to be as serious as first thought capability, functionally and a suborbital test flight called Ares 1-X proved this expendable justified as the launch system for Orion to Earth orbit. to be so. Nevertheless, the growth in the mass of the Orion

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capsule forced a design change from the original RIGHT Shuttle-derived four-segment SRB to one with five This 1975 artist’s illustration segments. Safety concerns also remained over whether envisages the the residual thrust and the inertia of the solid rocket Shuttle elements being adapted for would make it strike the upper stage during staging. unmanned heavy Meanwhile, the designers of the Ares V had their cargo lifting, a own technical issues. They struggled to achieve the configuration later known as Shuttle-C. payload performance promised and had to make several redesigns including the addition of an extra RS-68 first-stage engine to the five already carried. The RS-68 engine was, at first sight, a good choice. Much simpler and cheaper to produce than a Space Shuttle Main Engine (RS-25D) and with a much higher thrust, albeit with a lower specific impulse, engineers nevertheless found that these clustered engines had cooling problems. Unlike regenerative cooling more normally BELOW Neil Armstrong used for such engines, the RS-68’s simple ablative (left) and Gene cooling system was not enough to stop overheating Cernan, the first and the last men to aggravated by solid rocket booster efflux. walk on the Moon, are given a briefing THE AUGUSTINE COMMISSION and an inspection of an Altair mock- With their technical difficulties, and because two up. They would be different rocket designs would be costly to develop, an in the vanguard of insurgency movement based around the Direct pressure a march against cancellation of bold group advocating a fast-track to deep space, demanded dreams and a rethink. They were in favour of a more “direct” grand goals. derivative of the Space Shuttle. After months of hearings and evidence, the Augustine commission came to the following conclusions: the Project Constellation plan to return to the moon by 2020 was “Not Executable” due to underfunding; Ares I and V were projected to cost US$30 billion to develop and would be late (not ready until 2020s); Ares I would not be ready in time to serve as a space station transport; Constellation's first Moon landing could not occur until 2028 or later. The eventual target of a putting humans on Mars would remain, but a new plan would use a “flexible path” – a steady pace of technology development via a series of missions, beginning with lunar orbital missions and later involving visits to the asteroids and the Lagrange points. This plan would officially sidestep the Moon because in Obama’s words “we have already been there”. The downside of this plan was that it was both too vague and it lacked a commitment to have that first piece of the jigsaw: an early HLV capability. At Obama’s decision, something unexpected happened. In an open letter Armstrong, Cernan and others publicly described cancellation of Constellation with no prospect of lunar return as “devastating”. They further predicted that Commercial Crew systems would not be ready in time and were likely to be initially less safe than the Shuttle. The first of these predictions was prescient as even today Commercial Crew systems by Boeing and SpaceX are not expected to start flying until 2020. It was Obama’s predecessor, President George W. Bush, who took the decision in January 2004 to retire the Space Shuttle in 2010 (actual retirement date was July 2011) under the back drop of the STS-107 Columbia disaster. As most space engineers will tell you, space systems with a long flight experience and heritage, like the Space Shuttle, tend to be much more reliable than brand new systems. The engineers know their quirks and their safety weak spots, and what to watch out for. Meanwhile, the relatively undiscovered nature of new systems, such as the Commercial Crew systems,

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LEFT landing mission with its TLI mass capability of 39 By the late 1980s, tonnes (81 tonnes to LEO). Shuttle-C had gained respect as At first sight, the plan was very attractive, but a future launch detractors cited safety to try to rubbish the design. Even system and studies accelerated as the NASA’s then Administrator General Charles Bolden post-Challenger noted concerns about the crew escape (e.g. escape environment rocket impingement on the external tank, aerodynamic showed that expendables would forces pitching Orion into the external tank etc.). In make a significant fact, NASA’s own studies had shown that while the comeback. side-mounted crewed Orion spacecraft location would be more susceptible to overpressure (explosion) damage than other configurations, the capsule escape system itself would work satisfactorily in an emergency. There were, however, other problems with the design. The first of these was that the rocket could not Sidemount’s be developed much further. While its initial capability of delivering 81 tonnes to LEO easily beat the Senate’s main initial requirement for a 70 tonne capable HLV, it could not, even with modifications including larger SRBs, go problem, beyond 90 tonnes to LEO. In other words, it could not achieve the Senate’s second target. however, was Sidemount’s main problem, however, was its overall cost. The plan would only work well if there was a

NATHAN KOGER NATHAN its overall smooth transition from the Space Shuttle. This meant that the Space Shuttle had to be kept flying for three along with their “teething troubles” tend to lead to high cost or four more years beyond its 2011 retirement. With failure rates at the start of their careers – even if they are its operating costs set at $3 billion per year, continuing eventually more reliable in the longer term. with the Space Shuttle would have added a further It was partly the result of Neil Armstrong’s $10 billion to the $7.6 billion development costs of testimony that the US Senate revolted against Obama’s Sidemount. Thus, even though there would be savings new plan. Instead the restive Senate insisted that work from not having to use Russian Soyuz “rides” and begin on a new heavy-lift launch vehicle. Partly to US commercial cargo systems, Sidemount’s overall get a launch vehicle flying as fast as possible (many cost would still be around $17-18 billion. This was remained fearful that NASA would find a way to kick approximately the same as going for a more capable “in a new HLV down the road), and partly because some line” design. senators wanted to keep the Space Shuttle programme NASA Administrator Bolden and his Human jobs in their constituencies, the Senate demanded that Exploration Framework Team (HEFT) thus made the any future launch vehicle had to be based upon Space BELOW best and most logical choice in going for an inline The sidemount Shuttle technology. concept offered design, given the information then available. Sidemount Under its NASA Authorisation Act of 2010, the great advantages thus became “the one that got away” and SLS, the Space and could have Senate required that an initial version of the new HLV considerably Launch System, was chosen in its stead. However, by would be able to take a minimum of 70 metric tons to expanded the choosing SLS over Sidemount, there would inevitably be LEO, with later versions capable of carrying 130 metric production a long delay between the last Space Shuttle flight and a potential for the tons. system, lowering new US human launch capability. unit costs as the With the benefit of hindsight, Sidemount, which CHOOSING SLS vehicle adapted to could have been flying by now, would have made a general satellite Two main design concepts vied to be the new launcher capability the ideal “interim” launch vehicle, ahead of any very launch vehicle: an inline design and a side-mounted increasing demand. large launch vehicle using newer technologies. But configuration. One bright spot in the Augustine hearings was a presentation by the then manager of the Space Shuttle programme, John Shannon. He showed his design team’s conclusions that it would be possible • 4,544,684, lb at liftoff • 647 psf max q to convert the Space Shuttle system into a heavy-lift • 3.0 g max launch vehicle, called Sidemount. This was a derivative of the old Shuttle-C concept except that instead of using a “wingless” space shuttle, a new special side- mounted carrier would be designed. The configuration was so like the Space Shuttle that it could use virtually all its infrastructure, promising a fast transition. With only one new element (the carrier itself) needing to be designed afresh, the Sidemount had a development cost of only US$7.6 billion – less than half that of an in-line design. • 7.5m inner diameter payload carrier • modified Shuttle boat tail / avionics With such a vehicle, Shannon promised that NASA • existing 4-segment RSRBs would be able to return to the Moon. The basic two- • existing ET design launch architecture could mount a lunar exploration

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who knew that one day Elon Musk would come up It uses a single LOX/liquid hydrogen Rl-10B2 and can with his BFR? Apart from being used for sortie-class carry up to 85 tonnes to LEO. human lunar exploration, Sidemount could even Who knew A later Block 1B version, which will become the have offered a human transportation service to LEO main version used for lunar operations, uses the while Commercial Crew transportation systems were that Elon Exploration Upper Station (EUS) with four RL-10C3 perfected. But, former Apollo astronauts aside, who engines. It will be able to carry 105 tonnes to LEO or 40 expected that these Commercial Crew systems would Musk would tonnes to TLI. be so late? one day come If required, the SLS Block 2 will then be built. It will use either two Advanced Solid Rocket Boosters or LOX/ SLS – THE DESIGN CONCEPT up with his kerosene powered boosters – probably powered by When the definition of SLS performance and the Saturn V F-1 derivative engines. The Block 2 SLS will construction parameters were announced, US rocket BFR? carry a minimum of 130 tonnes to LEO, but may carry scientists were slightly aghast, criticising the Senate’s up to 165 tonnes. design constraints as too restrictive and backward The development of the SLS has proved very looking. They soon dubbed SLS the Senate Launch expensive and prone to delays. Its projected System. But SLS was what the Senate wanted: a launch development cost was $18 billion (in 2017). Worse than vehicle that employed many elements from the old this, however, is that NASA has very few missions to fly Space Shuttle programme. on it, at least in the near term. This has led some critics SLS is basically a core rocket using four RS-25D/E BELOW to suggest that NASA has built a rocket with “nowhere rocket engines, which are, in effect, the reusable SSME Performance to go”, and one that could soon be made redundant by (Space Shuttle Main Engine) modified to make them trade-offs and other launch vehicles. capabilities for expendable because a thrust structure recovery system various sidemount SLS has suffered programme delays related to would be too expensive. To this core are attached two configurations misalignment of the friction stir welding tool inherited Solid Rocket Boosters. On top is mounted the SLS Block including a from the Shuttle External Tank programme, hurricane manned ballistic 1 upper stage, derived from the Delta IV rocket and recoverable storm damage and software faults. Even its launch tower called the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion System (ICPS). spacecraft. has accidentally been built “slightly bent” – but that’s

VEHICLE CHARACTERISTICS BLOCK I HLV - CARGO BLOCK II HLV - CARGO BLOCK II HLV - CREW First stage boosters Gross mass 2,596,932 lbm 2,596,932 lbm 2,596,932 lbm Burnout mass 385,227 lbm 385,227 lbm 385,227 lbm Useable propellant 2,211,705 lbm 2,211,705 lbm 2,211,705 lbm No. of engines / type 2 x 4-segment SRB 2 x 4-segment SRB 2 x 4-segment SRB Engine thrust (each) 2.94Mlbf @SL 2.94Mlbf @SL 2.94Mlbf @SL Stage engine lsp 267 s @ Vac 267 s @ Vac 267 s @ Vac External tank Gross mass 1,662,895 lbm 1,664,095 lbm 1,664,095 lbm Burnout mass 73,111 lbm 74,311 lbm 74,311 lbm Useable propellant 1,589,784 lbm 1,589,784 lbm 1,589,784 lbm Propulsion / carrier Main propulsion gross mass 57,398 lbm 57,398 lbm 57,398 lbm No. of engines / type 3 x SSME 3 x SSME 3 x SSME Engine thrust (each) 396,569 lbf SL; 490,847 lbf Vac 396,569 lbf SL; 490,847 lbf Vac 396,569 lbf SL; 490,847 lbf Vac Stage engine lsp 452.19 s 452.19 s 452.19 s 7.5m internal dia. carrier mass 50,994 lbm (includes ASE) 53,980 lbm (includes ASE) 48,060 lbm (includes ASE) Upper stage Stage at MECO (59.6 nmi) Stage at Mach 17.2, 59.7 nmi Stage at Mach 19.1, 55.3 nmi Gross mass 3 x 120 nmi orbit 364,988 lbm 363,621 lbm Burnout mass (upper stages determined 37,942 lbm 36,575 lbm Useable propellant by mission type) 327,046 lbm 327,046 lbm No. of engines / type 1 x J2x 1 x J2x Engine thrust (each) 293,750 lbf Vac 293,750 lbf Vac Stage engine lsp 448.0 s 448.0 s Total LV Gross liftoff mass 4,544,684 lbm 4,847,644 lbm 4,793,559 lbm Gross delivery (120 x 120 nmi) 174,454 lb (79.1 tonnes) 198,735 lb (90.1 tonnes) 174,454 lb (92.1 tonnes) Net payload (@ 28.5°) 157,008 lb (71.2 tonnes) 178,862 lb (81.1 tonnes) 182,744 lb (82.9 tonnes) Net payload = gross delivery reduced by 10% (Orbited EDS not included (Orbited EDS not included) Flight conditions Jettison 14 Klb LAS at 155 sec Maximum dynamic pressure 647 psf 616 psf 639 psf Maximum acceleration 3.00 gs 2.31 gs 2.56 gs Liftoff thrust / weight 1.57 1.47 1.48 Jettison upper carrier fairings 22,883 lb @ 185 sec 22,883 lb @ 185 sec 18,306 lb @ 185 sec

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form of flattery and both China and Russia have sought rocket designs closely mimicking its performance. China has finally chosen its Long March 9 HLV design. Having considered using a solid rocket boosted LOX/ liquid hydrogen core and upper stage like SLS, it has All measurements Total volume 1,385 cu m LEO payload: 73 metric tonnes instead plumped for a Saturn V-style configuration in metres using a LOX/kerosene first stage and boosters with cryogenic second and third stages. The rocket is DIV-class expected to be able to carry 140 tonnes to LEO and 50 upper stage tonnes to TLI. Given its limited finances, the Russian space Total volume 870 cu m LEO payload: 43 metric tonnes + DIV-class upper stage programme has blown hot and cold on a new HLV. Nevertheless, it still seeks to build an “SLS-ski” with Earth a design probably based on the Energia 5V proposal, departure which should be able to carry 105 tones to LEO. stage NEW HLVS A THREAT TO SLS? Total volume ~ 390 cu m LEO payload: 82 metric tonnes Over recent years the SLS programme has gained more and more critics. The very slow pace of the another story! ABOVE human space programme meant that NASA looked Multiple The late Neil Armstrong joked during one of applications for at an interplanetary probe launch role for its new and the post-Augustine Senate hearings that as Project cargo lifting and otherwise underutilised heavy-lift SLS rocket. Elon Constellation was deemed non-executable this meant adoption of a Musk’s showman stunt when he demonstrated that the cryogenic boost that it could not be killed. Well one part that did stage capability, Falcon Heavy could launch heavy payloads – whether survive was the Orion capsule, which was deemed by something that exploratory space probes or his own Tesla sports car – most to be a good design and worth saving. However, was denied to the to heliocentric trajectories – showed that SpaceX could Shuttle after the Orion still lacked a Service Module, and while Challenger disaster launch such devices for considerably less than the $1 Lockheed Martin began designing one, eventually the on grounds of crew billion per launch SLS. European Space Agency stepped in with one based safety. And there are more competitors to come. The later on the ATV. It did this in lieu of payments owed for 105 tonne capable SLS Block IB and 150 tonne plus SLS its share of the International Space Station launch Block II versions could soon be usurped by SpaceX's and infrastructure costs. Hence, the “Mickey Mouse” 150 tonne capable, but much cheaper to fly, all reusable lookalike, circular solar arrays were replaced with an BFR. SpaceX has announced that it is to begin test ATV X-configuration. BELOW LEFT flights of the upper stage of this rocket next year – a Total cost for Orion and ATV-based Service Visualisation of the rocket SpaceX founder Elon Musk claims will take Module is estimated to be $6 billion. However, delays optional growth humankind to the surface of Mars. In the meantime, potential between to Orion and SLS have resulted in the first unmanned sidemount and SpaceX’s commercial competitor Blue Origin is known Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) test flight on SLS Block linear launch to be working on its own Saturn V class heavy lifter 1 being delayed from 2018 to 2020 (SpaceFlight Vol 60, configurations. called New Armstrong (named after the late Neil No 9 pp 22-29). Meanwhile, the US Congress cancelled BELOW Armstrong). human-rating of ICPS so EM-2 moved to SLS Block Considerable work In its revised format and fully reusable guise, the was conducted 1B. This delayed the first crewed flight of Orion (EM-2) by NASA on the BFR rocket – now more politely known as Big Falcon from 2020 to 2023 but additional funds provided by Constellation Altair Rocket – can carry 150 tonnes to LEO, or 250 tonnes as Congress allows NASA to fly EM-2 on a second Block lander and these an expendable. It even promises to return 50 tonnes to designs may well I SLS, thus moving it up to no earlier than 2022. With feed in to future Earth in reusable form. Musk’s design philosophy is to commercial crew operations now delayed until 2020 landers when use the BFR as most of the exploration jigsaw pieces: a at the earliest, this will leave a nine-year gap in human astronauts return to reusable HLV/Crew Spacecraft, an Outbound/Return the Moon to build launch capability for NASA. A barren period indeed. scientific research Stage, a long-range Habitat and a Landing/Ascent craft. While SLS has its detractors, imitation is the highest stations. BFR uses LOX/methane propellants for both

OUTPOST VARIANT Descent module Ascent module

SORTIE VARIANT CARGO VARIANT Descent module Descent module Ascent module Cargo on upper deck Airlock

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stages: 31 Raptor Engines on the first stage; six ABOVE for a winged vehicle returning to Earth, the heating Raptor Engines (four vacuum, two sea level) on winged SpaceX wants rates would be so large that direct planetary entry would

to use its BFR SPACEX second-stage spacecraft, which can also technically be launcher to not be survivable. flown as “SSTO” (Single Stage to orbit vehicle) – albeit help support Earth re-entry is fine for the Space Shuttle re- independent LEO with only a very small payload. facilities en-route entering from LEO at Mach 25, but its thermal In theory, if it works, it does nearly everything for an to Mars protection system could not survive coming in from, interplanetary mission and, being reusable with rapid say, a lunar or Mars mission at Mach 30+. One way turnaround, has a low cost per flight. The rapid re-flight to get around this problem might be to execute a capability allows for fast refuelling via other BFRs. No propulsive braking manoeuvre, or a more thermally long assembly schedules or fuel depots are needed, at benign shorter/shallower atmospheric entry for an least at the LEO end of any mission. Even better for initial aerocapture, and then make subsequent entries to its operational economics, BFR can be used for other lower the orbit by aerobraking. missions, such as launching satellites to all orbits and Alternatively, a separate blunt-body heat shield, lunar landing missions. or inflatable ballute/sheath partly made of ablative Elon Musk has announced that he is targeting a materials, could be used. Another solution would be cargo mission to Mars in 2022, with a four-BFR ship for the crew to “jump off the bus” and re-enter using mission (two cargo flights and two crewed flights) in a separate blunt-bodied craft, such as the Apollo 2024. Nevertheless, there are some important problems command-module-shaped Orion. that need to be solved for BFR Mars missions. These In theory, if it Finally, while SpaceX has made radiation protection include propellant storage at the Mars end and, for the crew a priority, there has been little apparent eventually, in-situ propellant generation for later works, it does consideration of whether artificial gravity should be missions. provided. However, SpaceX does apparently intend The BFR is “winged” and is likely to have a relatively nearly to use much shorter travel times compared with high hypersonic Lift-to-Drag (L/D) ratio of 1 or above. everything for conventional Hohmann travel times of six months or Having some lift is attractive in that it provides a good more. cross-range capability as well as good trim control as an the velocity decreases. When entering at super-orbital A FUTURE FOR SLS? velocity, the lift vector can also be used to hold a interplanetary The cost of SLS has denuded NASA's other spacecraft in an atmosphere for long enough either to programmes. As such, it has, to date, only been able bleed the velocity off enough to go into orbit around a mission to afford to build the first of the pieces of its Mars planet (“aerocapture”) or to go on directly to land. exploration jigsaw: Orion and SLS itself, and these However, analysis using ballistic coefficients and are late. The much-vaunted commercial crew delivery other factors such as atmospheric characteristics, high systems are also much delayed and could soon find L/D vehicles tend to have much higher convective themselves with “no place to go”, unless a successor heating rates when compared to blunt bodied craft. This to the International Space Station is found after it is writer refers to the conclusions of his Master of Science defunded in 2025. thesis, at Cranfield, on the use of winged vehicles for As already noted, hindsight suggests that Sidemount interplanetary missions, which suggests that the thin (this writer’s original choice) would have been a Mars atmosphere thermal protection will not be a cheaper interim rocket. But that is the past and time problem, even for direct atmospheric entry. However, and technology has moved on. NASA finds itself

24 Vol 60 October 2018 SpaceFlight LAUNCH VEHICLES lumbered with a very expensive and under utilised SLS habitats could be built on the Moon. The plan allows rocket, which could soon be completely redundant if for the development of rendezvous, extra vehicular commercial HLVs succeed. Should NASA activity and propellant storage technology ahead of The question is: should NASA bother at all with any human Mars mission. The HLVs used for such SLS given that Elon Musk expects his BFR to be flying bother at all operations would be the SLS Block 1B followed by BFR in four years? Well, given Musk's past over-optimism and/or New Armstrong. with launch targets, SpaceX will probably not make this with SLS Ideally, early lunar surface exploration would be date. Thus, for a short time, there is room (and need) given that prioritised over having a lunar gateway station. This for an interim heavy-lift rocket if the right decisions is more likely to get approval from President Trump are made. Nevertheless, BFR could eventually entirely Elon Musk given that such landings would happen in a second replace SLS, say, in eight years or so. presidential term should he be re-elected. At the very As it is, it is not certain that BFR will work at all. expects his least, it will keep the US public (and taxpayer) excited. Thus, it may be wise to wait for perhaps three years President Trump is reported to be in favour of before deciding on the long-term future of SLS. In the BFR to be backing Musk’s BFR plan to get to Mars. Perhaps meantime it could fulfil its role as an “interim HLV” through a Public-Private partnership. As for a timeline: ahead of the arrival of newer commercial reusable flying in four it should be possible to mount human landings on HLVs. But time is short and because of that, where to years? Mars by 2030 but the project must be affordable. The go, how to get there and which HLV to use? launch vehicles likely to be used are the BFR with the Before considering the options, it is worth noting SLS Block 2 and/or New Armstrong acting as back-ups. what NASA has done and what it wants to do. NASA funding of the International Space Station will in all NEXT STEPS probability end in 2025. While $150 million grants The first thing is that in all the following cases NASA are available either to carry on using the ISS, or to should help fund the BFR effort in a kind of Public- construct and launch commercial LEO space stations, BELOW Private project, allowing it to have its flag on initial Performance this is totally inadequate. Ideally, NASA should build trade-offs and human exploration of Mars. While there remain doubts a “Son of Skylab”: a core space station that would be capabilities for about certain aspects of the BFR plan – especially mainly fabricated on Earth, like the original Skylab, various sidemount configurations and which could be based on an HLV upper stage. This including a “Son of Skylab” could either be leased out to private manned ballistic companies or become a core for their modules to be recoverable spacecraft. attached to. It could eventually become the prototype for a lunar space station. This would be launched by a currently available HLV – either Falcon Heavy or SLS. President Trump directed NASA back to the Moon: the Lunar Orbital Platform Gateway space station which could act as a base for human landings in the late 2020s. This lunar space station will use cancelled Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) electric thrusters on a propulsion module. Eventually lunar bases and

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the atmospheric entry part of the return to Earth – it stage SLS Block 1 would be powerful enough to mount really does look like the best option for putting humans basic excursion sortie missions using a two-launch on Mars. In the intervening period, NASA could do the Simpler Mars lunar rendezvous architecture and a new Apollo-like following: Lunar Surface Access Module (LSAM), if one was Option 1: Cancel the SLS after allowing EM-1 to mission developed. Importantly, it provides a successor to the qualify the Orion spacecraft in unmanned condition in ISS! Medium risk: NASA can always restart EUS and 2020. Start designing a lunar/Mars plan for delivery by designs have SLS Block 1B if the commercial HLVs fail. commercial HLVs: BFR, New Armstrong. suggested Poor Choice: Option 1 is the lowest cost but would CONCLUSION be politically unacceptable as it makes the SLS/Orion that storable While SLS detractors have long advocated the use effort a white elephant and wastes the $20 billion spent of commercial launch vehicles (only now becoming on it so far! It is also high risk: there is no back-up HLV propellants practical) in conjunction with shaded propellant storage or LEO/lunar space station if commercial efforts fail. depots in orbit (a concept not yet tested), it is the best Option 2: Stick with NASA’s planned funding of would be a HLV we have. SLS might have been a misstep and one SLS Block IB/EUS and its Lunar Orbital Gateway. which might soon be usurped, but it should be used However, build a lunar lander first for early lunar better as much as possible as an interim HLV now. This will surface missions. Put SLS Block 2 on ice. Second solution for make it worthwhile, especially if deployed in exciting choice: Option 2 is the current NASA plan, modified human lunar landing missions. to put NASA astronauts onto the lunar surface earlier the Earth With respect to going to Mars, the above discussion in 2020s. Low risk: it provides a large HLV and a space has assumed this will employ conventional cryogenic station if commercial efforts fail. However, it is higher return leg chemical propulsion using either LOX/liquid hydrogen cost and slow: commercial HLVs are likely to make or LOX/methane as propellants. There are, of course, the development of EUS and hence the SLS Block 1B other propulsive systems such as nuclear thermal and pointless in the longer term. Nevertheless, EUS might solar electric propulsion which could be used instead if eventually become a Universal Earth Departure Stage sufficiently developed. for either the BFR or New Glenn to carry. Likewise, simpler Mars mission designs have Option 3: Cancel EUS and SLS Blocks 1B and 2. suggested that storable propellants would be a better Instead human rate the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion solution for the Earth return leg. While less efficient, Stage (ICPS) for EM-2 (now being done anyway) and storable propellants do at least avoid the boil-off extend it – 35 tonnes should be possible to TLI – for problems of long term cryogenic storage or having to basic Apollo class lunar exploration missions. Build BELOW use in-situ propellant generation. SpaceX is serious a human carrying lunar lander for these. And build about getting to By using Mars aerobraking/aerocapture techniques “Son of Skylab” (LEO & later lunar use). First Choice: Mars and if its to keep the mass down, and by quickly docking multiple Option 3 cancels the expensive development of the technological pre-fuelled departure stages together with the habitation capabilities live up EUS and would be the quickest way to get SLS flying to the rhetoric of and lander modules, such a basic mission might even be astronauts. It also offers exciting early lunar exploration its publicity, a BFR possible using the HLVs we have now: the SLS Block 1 proving SLS’s value as an interim rocket ahead of a just may be among and Falcon Heavy. Nevertheless, even a simpler Mars the first to carry Moon/Mars effort with commercial HLVs. While not as humans to the Red landing mission still needs the other required “jigsaw powerful as an SLS Block 1B, the extended tank upper- Planet. pieces” to be built first. SF SPACEX

26 Vol 60 October 2018 SpaceFlight SLUG ALL IMAGES: NASA ALL IMAGES: First up: Apollo 7 The purpose of the first manned Apollo mission in October 1968 was to clear the way for a first flight into lunar orbit by the three-man crew of Apollo 8 – and without a successful precursor, that dramatic flight could never take place. by David Baker

nitially, bold projections about the early flights test Apollo radar and navigation systems by homing of astronauts in the Apollo spacecraft suggested in on a previously launched two-man Gemini that the first might be conducted by a Saturn I spacecraft. The other group had a powerful friend launch vehicle utilising an S-IV stage to reach – George Mueller, NASA’s head of manned space I orbit, followed by three more manned flights. flight programmes. That was changed when NASA decided to cancel Mueller was concerned about conducting the Saturn I development programme and switch operational flights simultaneously between all Apollo operations to the more powerful Saturn two programmes and insisted that the Gemini IB with the S-IVB stage, itself utilised as the third programme end before the first manned Apollo stage of the Saturn V. Then there was an idea to merge mission took place, even to the extent of dropping flight operations with the Gemini programme, even Gemini flights if Apollo threatened to precede the last while that was still underway. There was a difference of mission. In any event, such a possibility was difficult opinion about that. to envisage: the first two Apollo flights were with At the Manned Spacecraft Center (renamed the TOP a Block I configuration which consisted of a basic Johnson Space Center on 19 February 1973), two Schirra, (centre), Apollo spacecraft but without rendezvous and docking Eisele (left) and groups were in opposition – one group wanting to Cunningham, to capability or the essential software for the guidance precede a planned Apollo rendezvous and docking whose skills it fell system. Block I was plain vanilla – the basic people- exercise with a previously launched Lunar Module by to qualify the Apollo carrier without all the bells and whistles required for a Block II spacecraft executing the first Apollo flight in conjunction with a for deep-space Moon-capable Block II spacecraft. late Gemini mission. This, they said, could be used to operations. The division between Block I and Block II

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had been the equivalent of inserting the Gemini programme between Mercury and Apollo, in which Gemini missions would provide an early capability for demonstrating spacewalking, rendezvous and docking and long duration flight. Plus, Gemini would give Mission Control valuable experience managing complex missions lasting up to two weeks and testing the exacting demands of ground-based tracking and communications systems. Within the remit of the Apollo programme, Block I would fly qualification flights ahead of the more demanding Block II flights of fully equipped spacecraft fully capable of deep-space operations and in so doing repeat the example of Gemini. The only problem with that was the very nature of the Block I configuration, which NASA regarded as a test-bed itself, frequent changes being made as different pieces of test equipment were installed, removed, replaced and removed again as development continued on the spacecraft’s myriad systems. Block I had too many inconsistencies and as an intermediate test vehicle it was littered with pieces of equipment which, once wired in and then removed when it was decided they were not needed, left cables still in the wiring looms, coming from nowhere and going nowhere. ABOVE Earth-orbiting flights. The S-IVB second The original plan had been to fly the first two stage is the subject AS-204 would be known as Apollo 1 and would be manned Apollo spacecraft on sequential shakedown of attention as commanded by veteran astronaut Gus Grissom along missions about two months apart (AS-204 and AS- the two vehicles with space-walker Ed White and rookie Roger Chaffee. fly over Cape 205) , followed by the launch of an unmanned Lunar Canaveral 400 km The repeat shakedown flight would be flown by Schirra, Module (AS-206) for test and qualification purposes below. Eisele and Cunningham with McDivitt, Scott and but commanded remotely from the ground. After that, Schweickart assigned to fly the third manned Apollo the third manned Apollo flight (AS-207) would involve flight for a rendezvous and docking with the previously the first Block II vehicle, followed by the launch of launched Lunar Module. During this period the first an unmanned Lunar Module (AS-208) which would two Saturn Vs would fly unmanned (AS-501 and AS- serve as its target. The two would dock and the crew Apollo 7 502), qualifying the giant launcher for manned flights from Apollo would enter the LM to test it out before and capable of carrying the Apollo and LM together on returning to the mother-ship to come home. All five would be the the same rocket. missions would involve the Saturn IB and all would be By early 1967 the plan had been simplified, with last time only Apollo 1 remaining as scheduled, the Schirra crew astronauts recycled as their back-up, and the McDivitt crew flying the first Block II spacecraft to rendezvous with a Lunar would fly a Module. Astronauts Borman, Lovell and Anders would fly a Block II Apollo on the first manned Saturn V Saturn IB in mission (AS-503) and conduct a highly elliptical Earth orbit flight to deep space, testing the communications the run-up to and essentially the first leg of a flight to the Moon, their elliptical path looping back before reaching it. Only Moon after that could NASA hone the final few test flights landings before the first landing attempt. TRANSFORMATION At 6.31 pm on Friday 27 February 1967, Grissom, White and Chaffee lost their lives in a flash fire on LC-34 at Cape Canaveral which changed everything. By mid-1967 the back-up crew to the Grissom mission knew they would be the first astronauts to ride the Apollo spacecraft into orbit on a Saturn IB – essentially flying the mission planned for Apollo 1. It would fall LEFT to Schirra, Eisele and Cunningham to shake down the The last manned Saturn IB flight Block II spacecraft and prepare the way to the Moon. in support of the The mission would be known as Apollo 7 and it would Apollo Moon- landing programme, turn out to be quite contentious. and the last flight After the Apollo 1 fire NASA tore up previous from LC-34, carries plans to fly a manned Apollo and a Lunar Module the first manned Apollo into space on separate Saturn IB flights to test rendezvous and on 11 October 1968. docking with both vehicles. Apollo 7 would be the last

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time astronauts would fly a Saturn IB in the run-up spacecraft on its own in the domain for which it was to Moon landings. Instead, the McDivitt, Scott and designed and allow time for Grumman to get the LM Schweickart crew who would have launched on a ready for what was now going to be Apollo 9. Saturn IB mission were now to fly on the first Saturn It all depended on how well the Apollo 7 flight V flight (Apollo 8) with both CSM and LM on the went and that got off the launch pad on 11 October same launcher. But things did not turn out that way. 1968. While technically near perfect managed by a During the first half of 1968, after the first LM had crew who performed everything expected, they were been test flown unmanned in Earth orbit and judged plagued by some disorientation as they floated around satisfactory for the next phase of flight evaluation, their more spacious spacecraft and had difficulties Grumman had difficulties getting the first manned LM with the “waste management system” which had all the ready for delivery. Delays set in and it began to look as None of them attractiveness of an open sewer! On what was intended though the entire programme was in danger of missing to be a shakedown flight in any event the crew got testy the deadline. Grumman could not guarantee that would fly with pesky annoyances which built up, an attitude Apollo 8 would have a Lunar Module to test. Which made worse when Schirra went down with a severe was when a radical idea emerged, one which was so again head cold. secret that only a few top NASA officials were in on it. In what was the first, but certainly not the last, time What if, instead of flying their highly-elliptical orbit a crew challenged Mission Control in a manner which much like the unmanned Apollo 4 flight, the Borman, bordered on mutiny, the media demand for live TV Lovell and Anders crew, planning to do their mission as shows – the first from an American spacecraft – sent Apollo 9, jumped ahead of the McDivitt crew, intensely Schirra into open rebellion, dictating to ground rehearsing their Lunar Module Earth-orbit mission? TOP controllers exactly when, and when not, he would Walt Cunningham What if, on a mission re-designated Apollo 8, they flew at work aboard transmit tours of the spacecraft interior. Punctuated all the way to the Moon and either went right around Apollo 7. with a degree of humour but with a pithy disregard for it and came straight back or, even more audaciously, being told what to do, the crew came home after just ABOVE they went into orbit for a day before returning home. The mission badge over 10 days 20 hours in space. None of them would That would keep up momentum, test out the Apollo for Apollo 7. fly again. SF

SpaceFlight Vol 60 October 2018 29 TECHNICAL PROJECTS

Getting there:

the NLV project The Nanosat Launch Vehicle (NLV) feasibility study is one of seven current BIS Technical Projects. Phase 1 started in March 2016 and was completed in March 2018. Phase 2 has since begun and is expected to take another 12 months. by Robin Brand FBIS

he initial “deliverables” were to involve ABOVE a series of intermediate questions that led to the BIS members, enhance the visibility of An example of an ascent final conclusion. These six key questions and the and first orbit from the north BIS technical concepts, and produce a of Scotland plotted using resulting answers are explained in this article. feasibility report, all of which the study ‘ASTOS’ software. T believes it has achieved. K1 The feasibility report from Phase 1 was released The first question was: would it be feasible to at the start of April 2018, copies of which are launch into orbit from the UK – if so how? The available from project leader Robin Brand as study concluded that in principle it would indeed explained at the end of this article. The report be possible to launch into SSO or polar orbits from concluded “that orbital access to space from the UK the UK. After looking at the associated launch is feasible and could be investor funded. This could corridors in more detail, the study concluded that be implemented by a vertical-launch vehicle from such ascents could take place either to the east of the north of Scotland or, possibly, by air launch”. the Faroe Islands (e.g. from The Moine peninsula The study initially set out to answer the relatively “How cheaply on the north coast of Scotland ), or to the west of simple question “How cheaply could access to the Faroe Islands (e.g. from North Uist in the Outer space be for small space satellites?” However, it could access to Hebrides). In order to meet safety requirements and quickly became apparent that the answer was “not potential insurance costs, ascents to the east of the cheap at all”, and as the space scene in the UK was space be for small Faroe Islands would face difficulties because of the evolving rapidly, the focus soon changed to tackle location of the “West of Shetland” oil field complex the question “Investor funded access to space from satellites?” midway between the Shetland and Faroe islands. the UK?”, although with smaller satellites to LEO This part of the study also concluded that the (Low Earth Orbit) still in mind. ‘cost’ of dogleg ascents would not be significant The question might be simple, but the factors for the BIS NLV reference launch vehicle, as it are complex, so the study was broken down into would be designed with such a capability in mind

30 Vol 60 October 2018 SpaceFlight TECHNICAL PROJECTS ALL IMAGES VIA THE BIS VIA ALL IMAGES

ABOVE A 2-D plot of a vertical ascent and first orbit at 400 km from N.Uist. Blue = altitude, black = airspeed, green = delta-v.

LEFT Just after fairing jettison at +150 secs (far left) and second stage separation at +277 secs.

from the start, a proposition supported by detailed ABOVE RIGHT other fields but apparently not before in the space trajectory analysis. A sketch of the launch industry. ABM is used where the drivers can be corridor to the west of the Another vital aspect of feasibility is the Faroe Islands for an ascent understood but not measured directly, and requires necessary legal and regulatory framework, and the from North Uist. This path considerable computing power. study was pleased to observe that following “HM avoids the extensive oilfield The conclusion was that Low (8-9%), Government’s commitment to enabling access to complex located midway intermediate/ideal (c.17%) and high (22%) per space from the UK”, and calls for grant proposals between the Shetland and annum growth scenarios could result, each based on Faroe Islands. for launching from the UK by 2020, Britain is a set of market presumptions. The study considered actively putting into this framework into place. an annual growth of 15-17% most likely, lower For instance, the “The Space Industry Act than most forecasts suggest. However as this is a 2018” received Royal assent on 15 March 2018, debatable variable, all three scenarios were fed into and the UKSA and CAA are working on enabling the economic model, as explained below. regulations to be laid before Parliament in 2020. Other conclusions were that a small satellite Both the BIS in general and BIS NLV members in launcher could achieve a reasonable market share, particular took part in consultations on the original although there is a significant strategic risk from draft space Bill. large vehicles offering discount ride-sharing. Some growth scenario observations were: K2 a) Low growth may benefit small launch The second key question the study examined was: providers (fussy clients/customers!); what is the potential (nano/microsat) market? b) High growth results when customers are The study noted that in 2017 the number of not so fussy about orbits, customers happy with nano/microsatellites launched was just over 300. cheaper rideshare, but significant backlog that This acted as a baseline, but in order to try and smaller launchers could meet; determine the future market size, a growth rate c) Intermediate growth less attractive to ‘Big had to be worked out. Many such forecasts simply Launchers” may allow small launch providers extrapolate past growth, but the study considered compete on availability and service. this unsatisfactory, not least on the basis that “past performance is not a guide to future performance”; K3 in other words an understanding of the factors The next question addressed by the study was: involved and how they might act, was important. ABOVE how could access to space be most economically To do this, the study used a technique called A flow chart of the ABM implemented for c. 100 kg payloads? Two “Agent Based Modelling” (ABM), a method used in process. fundamental launch options were considered:

SpaceFlight Vol 60 October 2018 31 TECHNICAL PROJECTS ground launch and air launch. A range of potential options was studied and basic concept vehicles derived and analysed using the following steps: a) Parameters such the proposed payload mass and an assumed delta-v budget were used for a technical feasibility & preliminary sizing exercise b) Cost analysis – comparative c) Cost analysis - actual In step a) the technical feasibility & preliminary sizing exercise was produced for ground-launched and air-launched options. For step b), the range of potential options was studied and basic concept vehicles derived then assessed using a “parts count” analysis to evaluate the relative complexity and hence cost of each option. Finally, for step c), calibration against historical data was carried out in order to estimate the likely development and production costs. Result: The reference vehicle (option 1) had a development parts score of 562, which equated to a development cost of £28 million. This was subsequently rounded up to £30 million for the economic analysis. Allowing £10 million for the cost of developing the carrier system (e.g. glider plus aircraft modification), the estimated total development cost for air launch was £40 million. The study appreciated that many authorities regard these figures as being far too low, and indeed, should complete systems or the whole vehicle be procured from the traditional aerospace supply chain, costs might be approximately ten times those quoted in this report Hence an essential element of this low-cost approach would be the in-house development and testing of the propulsion system, since this is the most expensive system by far. It followed ABOVE The final part of the process was to validate the that an independent UK launcher would need to Three visualisations of performance of the reference vehicle by detailed the BIS NLV “reference be supported by an independent bi-propellant vehicle”. This is not an trajectory simulations of ascent to orbit from propulsion development and test capability, optimised design, just a the north of Scotland. This was carried out by preferably based in the UK. concept vehicle, a “stake in feeding the parameters into the ASTOS software Several concepts for the BIS NLV reference the ground” for comparison application. vehicle were considered. Characteristics of such a purposes. reference vehicle were: K4 Gross Lift-off Mass (GLOM) 10.5 tonnes The next question the study looked at was: what Length 21 m might a realistic payload and revenue return First stage 3 x 48 kN pump fed engines (144 kN look like? The study concluded that a 100 kg net = 32,000 lbf / 15,000 kgf) flexible mixed payload configuration based on a BELOW Second stage 1 x 60 kN pump fed engine The results of the ground flat mounting plate design that could accommodate Third stage 1 x 15 kN autogenous engine launch initial sizing various arrangements of CubeSats and microsats Propellants Propane/LOX exercise. would be optimum, and provide revenues of

Gross liftoff Stage 1 dry Stage 1 Stage 2 dry Stage 2 Stage 3 dry Stage 3 OPTION mass mass engines mass engines mass engines (kg) (kg) No. x kN (kg) No. x kN (kg) No. x kN 1 3-stage bi-prop 10,528 919 3 x 48 312 1 x 60 64 1 x 15 2 2-stage bi-prop 18,624 1,866 10 x 22 203 1 x 27 – – 3 Boost/core bi-prop 16,518 1,400 4 x 408 736 1 x 40 64 1 x 15 4 Boost/core hybrid 42,186 3,840 4 x 100 1,837 1 x 100 64 1 x 15 5 3-stage solid 26,707 2,182 4 x 80 484 1 x 100 85 1 x 16 6 2-stage hybrid 1st, bi-prop 2nd 25,896 2,836 5 x 64 266 1 x 30 – – 7 3-stage all pressure-fed bi-prop 17,827 1,957 3 x 72 491 1 x 90 90 1 x 18

32 Vol 60 October 2018 SpaceFlight TECHNICAL PROJECTS

$4,160,000 to $4,875,000 per launch. As part of this question, the study also looked at the number of launches that might take place per year, as it could be argued that a larger vehicle and payload might be more economic through economies of scale. However as a 100 kg net payload would require an average of ten satellites per launch, even with a modest total of six launches per year, 60 satellites would be needed from the accessible global market, which represented 20% of the 2017 global market of just over 300. Hence it was concluded that larger payloads would require an unrealistic proportion of the global market. K5 Then came the question: how do the economics come together and could a business case be closed? The study concluded that both the ground and air launch reference vehicles could provide the sort of returns investors might require at a cost that would be acceptable to customers, but because of its overall costs, the ground launch option appears to be the less risky ABOVE During the study, an economic test was derived The ASTOS software ASTOS was employed for to help determine the design of a launch vehicle. visualisation and trajectory The test helped lead to an optimum “Feasible validation. Design” as shown in the flow diagram on these pages. The economic test measured how the return RIGHT to investors would alter as various design and The volume constraint model for the mixed payload costs were changed, these in turn being derived concept. from the design under test, required infrastructure and market factors. The return to investors was measured by means of the IRR (Internal Rate of Return), commonly used in business to compare different investment possibilities. The process was run many times for ground and air launched variants, using data from key questions K2 and K4, This included the three BELOW market growth cases (high, medium & low), as A 2D-plot of ascent of the well as fee to orbit and launches p.a., to provide BIS NLV 3-stage reference a distribution of investor IRR by varying the cost vehicle from the north of tolerances. The result suggests that both the ground Scotland east of the Faroes to 400km SSO, and air launch reference vehicles could provide the inclination 97.5° kind of returns investors might require at a cost (Blue = altitude, that would be acceptable to customers. Because of black = air path speed). its lower overall costs though, the ground launch option appears to be the less risky. K6 The final key question the study looked at was: could access to space from the UK be investor funded? In this case, funding was considered from the general point of view, rather than for Gross liftoff Stage 1 dry Stage 1 Stage 2 dry Stage 2 Stage 3 dry Stage 3 OPTION the specific case addressed in key question five mass mass engines mass engines mass engines previously. For this question it was concluded “In (kg) (kg) No. x kN (kg) No. x kN (kg) No. x kN principle there is a substantial investor base that 1 3-stage bi-prop 10,528 919 3 x 48 312 1 x 60 64 1 x 15 could prove interested in a project such as the BIS NLV and which suggests that access to space from 2 2-stage bi-prop 18,624 1,866 10 x 22 203 1 x 27 – – the UK could be investor funded.” 3 Boost/core bi-prop 16,518 1,400 4 x 408 736 1 x 40 64 1 x 15 The study also identified potential early stage 4 Boost/core hybrid 42,186 3,840 4 x 100 1,837 1 x 100 64 1 x 15 funding sources such as angel investors, crowd funding, venture capital, private equity, 5 3-stage solid 26,707 2,182 4 x 80 484 1 x 100 85 1 x 16 corporations and government funds. It noted that 6 2-stage hybrid 1st, bi-prop 2nd 25,896 2,836 5 x 64 266 1 x 30 – – UK investment incentives existed, for instance development tax breaks, enterprise investment 7 3-stage all pressure-fed bi-prop 17,827 1,957 3 x 72 491 1 x 90 90 1 x 18 schemes and venture capital trusts.

SpaceFlight Vol 60 October 2018 33 TECHNICAL PROJECTS

Revenue less Revenue less Revenue mass Revenue mass CONFIGURATION No. of U deployers deployers less deployers less deployers @ $50k/kg @ $50k/kg c.100 kg option (kg) $50,000 (kg) 9 Quadpack (12U) x 4 48 62.4 $3,120,000 89.6 $4,480,000 10 16U CubeSat/microsat x 6 96 124.8 $6,240,000 126.9 $6,345,000 11 Quadpack x 2 & 20U CubeSat/microsat x 2 64 83.2 $4,160,000 97.5 $4,875,000 12 Quadpack x 2 & 22U CubeSat/microsat x 2 68 88.4 $4,420,000 102.7 $5,135,000

CONCLUSIONS In summary, space was increasingly seen as an interesting and potentially lucrative field of investment and the UK is blessed with a significant and enthusiastic investor base for start-ups, supported by generous tax breaks for start-up investors. This suggested that access to space from the UK could be investor funded. Work on the study is continuing, with a twelve-month “Phase 2” following on from the initial two-year feasibility study. Phase 2 will examine various aspects in more detail, and consider feedback received from Phase 1, for example issues regarding costs. For pdf copies of the final report on Phase 1, or to join Phase 2, please email [email protected]. For further information see the project website at https://www.bis-space.com/what-we-do/projects/ project-nlv. SF

TOP A comparison of potential revenue per launch for the 100 kg payload option. The mixed payload configuration is listed in row 11 bordered in red.

ABOVE How the economic test was used utilising a spreadsheet.

LEFT The flexible mixed payload configuration. A sketch of the arrangement.

BELOW A tabulated depiction of the business case conclusion.

Ground launch launch (initial investment £30m) Air launch (initial investment £40m) Growth in demand high intermediate low high intermediate low Very robust Very robust Robust Robust Weak? Weak Fee = £40(c.$57)k/kg (avg. 5.0 (avg. 5.0 (avg. 5.0 (avg. 5.3 (avg. 5.3 (avg. 5.3 launches p.a.) launches p.a.) launches p.a.) launches p.a.) launches p.a.) launches p.a.) Robust Weak? Weak Robust not viable not viable Fee = £30(c.$43)k/kg (avg. 5.9 (avg. 5.9 (avg. 5.9 (avg. 7.0 launches p.a.) launches p.a.) launches p.a.) launches p.a.)

34 Vol 60 October 2018 SpaceFlight

SATELLITE DIGEST Satellite Digest 549 Satellite Digest is SpaceFlight’s regular listing of world space launches using orbital data from the United States Strategic Command space-track.org website. Compiled by Geoff Richards

Spacecraft International Date Launch Launch vehicle Mass Orbital Inclin. Period Perigee Apogee Notes designation site (kg) epoch (deg) (min) (km) (km) PakTES 1A 2018-056A Jul 9.16 Jiuquan Chang Zheng 2C-SMA 285 Jul 9.36 98.05 96.79 588 625 [1] PRSS 1 2018-056B 1,200 Jul 14.81 98.09 97.48 639 640 [2] Beidou DW32 2018-057A Jul 9.87 Xichang Chang Zheng 3A 4,200 Jul 17.97 55.05 1,435.85 35,691 35,874 [3] Progress MS-09 2018-058A Jul 9.91 Baykonur Soyuz-2.1a 7,430? Jul 10.56 51.64 92.56 403 407 [4] Telstar 19V 2018-059A Jul 22.24 ETR Falcon 9FT 7,080 Aug 2.65 0.09 1,433.82 35,700 35,787 [5] Galileo Sat 25 2018-060A Jul 25.48 CSG Ariane-5ES 715 Jul 26.44 56.31 830.92 22,897 22,904 [6] SPACEX

JAXA Galileo Sat 26 2018-060B 715 Jul 26.44 56.31 830.90 22,897 22,902 [6] Galileo Sat 23 2018-060C 715 Jul 26.44 56.31 831.74 22,901 22,939 [6] Galileo Sat 24 2018-060D 715 Jul 25.85 56.30 831.42 22,899 22,925 [6] Iridium 160 2018-061A Jul 25.49 WTR Falcon 9FT 860 Jul 25.80 86.68 97.00 610 624 [7] Iridium 166 2018-061B 860 Jul 25.80 86.67 97.00 609 624 [7] Iridium 158 2018-061C 860 Aug 11.54 86.40 100.37 776 779 [7] Iridium 165 2018-061D 860 Jul 25.80 86.68 96.99 609 623 [7] Iridium 155 2018-061E 860 Aug 9.16 86.40 100.37 776 780 [7] Iridium 154 2018-061F 860 Jul 25.80 86.68 96.98 608 623 [7] Iridium 163 2018-061G 860 Jul 25.80 86.67 96.98 608 623 [7] Iridium 156 2018-061H 860 Aug 10.70 86.40 100.37 776 779 [7] Iridium 164 2018-061J 860 Jul 25.80 86.67 96.97 607 623 [7] Iridium 159 2018-061K 860 Jul 25.80 86.67 96.97 607 623 [7] Beidou DW33 2018-062A Jul 29.08 Xichang Chang Zheng 3B/YZ-1 1,060 Jul 29.92 54.99 787.15 21,533 22,193 [8] Beidou DW34 2018-062B 1,060 Jul 29.92 54.99 786.90 21,520 22,194 [8] Gaofen 11 2018-063A Jul 31.13 Taiyuan Chang Zheng 4B 2,000? Aug 4.88 97.43 93.88 242 691 [9]

NOTES

1. Pakistan Technology Evaluation Satellite is an earth resources 5. Telstar 19 Vantage is a telecommunications satellite built by SSL satellite built by Suparco carrying a medium-resolution camera for (a Maxar Technologies company, formerly Space Systems/Loral) earth imaging. using a 1300 bus for Telesat and launched by SpaceX. Mass quoted above is at launch. The satellite is in a drift orbit and will be 2. Pakistan Remote Sensing Satellite is an earth resources satellite located at 63°W for service to Brazil, the Americas and the Atlantic built by DFH using the CAST-2000 bus for Suparco carrying two high- region. Part of the capacity is leased to Hughes Network Systems resolution panchromatic/multi-spectral cameras for earth imaging. who call the satellite Hughes 63 West. First stage successfully Manoeuvred to reach operational orbit. landed on the Of Course I Still Love You barge about 650 km downrange. 3. Beidou, or Compass IGS7, is a navigation satellite using a CAST DFH-3A bus. Mass quoted above is at launch. Satellite is in an 6. Quartet of Full Operational Capability navigation satellites for the inclined geosynchronous orbit with ground track centred over 111°E. Galileo system, built by OHB for the GSA. Satellites are also named GSAT0221, GSAT0222, GSAT0219 and GSAT0220, Galileo FOC FM21, 4. Unmanned freighter mission to the International Space Station, FM22, FM19 and FM20, and Anna, Ellen, Tara and Samuel, the last mission ISS-70P, with 2,567 kg of cargo including two Cubesats. after four winners of a children’s competition. Launched into plane Spacecraft docked at ISS/Pirs port July 10.06. Cubesats, which B of Galileo constellation. will be hand-deployed during a future EVA, are SiriusSat 1 and 2, a pair of 1kg 1U educational satellites built by Sputnix and Sirius 7. Ten low-orbit communications satellites built using the ELiTeBus Educational Centre, each with a detector for the particle radiation by Thales Alenia Space and launched for Iridium by SpaceX, the environment. seventh batch of the Iridium NEXT second-generation design. In

36 Vol 60 October 2018 SpaceFlight SATELLITE DIGESTSLUG

SpaceX launches the CRS-15 logistics flight to the ISS in a pre-dawn display of fire and smoke. On 17 July Japan's Hayabusa 2 began moving to within 6km of asteroid Ryugu before moving back out to a distance of 20 km. addition to the communications payload satellites carry add-on 8. Pair of third-generation Beidou navigation satellites, also known as payloads: an ADS-B receiver to track air traffic for Aireon and Compass 3M-5 and 3M-6, built by CAST for SASTIND. Launched into an exactView RT AIS receiver to track shipping for exactEarth. plane C of system. Launched into parking orbits. Satellites are manoeuvring to raise orbits and enter Plane 5 of the Iridium constellation. The first to 9. Earth observation satellite built by CAST for “scientific experiments, reach their operational orbits are Iridium 155, Iridium 156 and land survey, crop yield assessment, and disaster monitoring” with Iridium 158, co-located with Iridium 83, Iridium 86 and Iridium 50 a high-resolution optical imaging payload. Lack of information on respectively. First stage successfully landed on the Just Read the payload and new elliptical orbit suggest that satellite is possibly for Instructions barge about 350 km downrange. military purposes.

ADDITIONS AND UPDATES DESIGNATION COMMENTS DESIGNATION COMMENTS

1996-063B MEASAT 2 was manoeuvred off station at 148°E July returned to 20 km July 21 to 25. 13 and is drifting to the west. It appears to have been 2015-073A Zhongxing 1C was manoeuvred off station at 81.5°E retired. July 11 and was relocated at 80.4°E July 31. 1997-076A ASTRA 1G was manoeuvred off station at 51°E July 19 2016-050A JCSat 16 was manoeuvred off station at 162°E July 24 and was relocated at 56.8°E, co-located with NSS 12, and is drifting to the west. July 31. 2016-065A Shi Jian 17 was manoeuvred off station at 94.3°E July 1998-050A ASTRA 2A was manoeuvred off station at 113.5°E July 18 and rapidly relocated to 80.8°E July 21. It had drifted 10 and was relocated at 100°E August 2. to 80.4°E, following Zhongxing 1C, by July 31. 1998-051C Iridium 80 was manoeuvred out of the Iridium 2017-025A Inmarsat 5 F4 was manoeuvred off station at 56.5°E constellation to a disposal orbit July 12. Add orbit: July 18 and is drifting to the west. Jul 18.38 86.38° 93.08 min 161 km 694 km 2017-037A Kosmos 2519 continued manoeuvres to lower perigee 2000-024A DSP 20 (USA 149) is drifting west away from its station until July 16 then raised apogee. Add orbits: at 166°W, according to amateur trackers. Jul 16.54 97.85° 93.74 min 312 km 606 km 2000-028A Eutelsat 36A was manoeuvred off station at 12.7°W Jul 19.54 97.86° 94.39 min 317 km 664 km July 10 and is drifting to the east. 2017-037D Kosmos 2521 manoeuvred to lower orbit July 20. Add 2000-081A ASTRA 2D was relocated at 5.2°E, co-located with orbit: ASTRA 4A and SES 5, July 20. Jul 20.58 97.90° 90.89 min 293 km 348 km 2002-031B Iridium 98 was manoeuvred out of the Iridium 2017-047A TDRS 13 was relocated at 49°W as orbital spare July 9. constellation to a disposal orbit July 7. Add orbit: 2018-009A SBIRS GEO 4 (USA 282) has manoeuvred off its test Jul 24.53 86.39° 93.43 min 162 km 726 km station at 159°W and is drifting to the west, according 2004-004A DSP 22 (USA 176) has been relocated at 87°E, to amateur trackers. according to amateur trackers. 2018-012B SES 14 completed manoeuvres to reach geostationary 2009-011A Kepler entered safe mode July 2 due to reducing fuel orbit over 39°W July 18. It was manoeuvred off this pressure. test station July 25 and was relocated at 47.5°W, co- 2009-044A JCSat RA was manoeuvred off station at 128°E July 23 located with NSS 806, August 2. Add orbit: and is drifting to the east. Jul 18.48 0.06° 1436.00 min 35,781 km 35,792 km 2014-076A Hayabusa 2 manoeuvred from 20 km down to 6 km 2018-033B HYLAS 4 was manoeuvred off its test station at 21°E from asteroid (162173) Ryugu July 17 to 20 then July 19 and is drifting to the west.

SpaceFlight Vol 60 October 2018 37 SATELLITE DIGEST

DESIGNATION COMMENTS DESIGNATION COMMENTS

2018-036B EAGLE (USA 284) has manoeuvred from an eastward Jul 17.42 51.64° 92.54 min 399 km 408 km to a westward drift orbit, according to amateur CubeRRT 1998-067NY trackers. Jul 16.91 51.63° 92.54 min 400 km 407 km 2018-037A Kosmos 2526 (Blagovest) was relocated at 128°E July EnduroSat One 1998-067NZ 10. Jul 16.46 51.64° 92.53 min 399 km 408 km 2018-038A TESS began its science mission July 25. EQUiSat 1998-067PA 2018-046A J. R. Thompson was unberthed from ISS/Unity on Jul 17.42 51.64° 92.52 min 399 km 407 km July 15.4 using the ISS arm and released July 15.53. MemSat 1998-067PB Manoeuvred to a higher orbit and deployed six Cubesats from NRCSD-E deployers in three batches Jul 17.42 51.64° 92.52 min 398 km 408 km July 15 to 16. Spacecraft was de-orbited over the RadSat-g 1998-067PC Pacific Ocean July 30. Lemurs are named after Jul 16.91 51.64° 92.52 min 398 km 408 km members of the Spire team and are the first in the Aerocube 12A 2018-046C series to carry an additional ADS-B payload to track Jul 20.61 51.64° 94.17 min 477 km 489 km aircraft. Nine Cubesats were deployed from ISS via Aerocube 12B 2018-046D the Kibo airlock July 13.34 (HaloSat and RainCube), Jul 20.55 51.64° 94.17 min 477 km 489 km July 13.41 (Radix), July 13.52 (TEMPEST-D and CubeRRT) and July 13.60 (RadSat-g, MEMSat, EQUiSat Lemur 2 TomHenderson 2018-046E and EnduroSat One). Apart from the Aerocubes, it is Jul 18.71 51.64° 94.16 min 478 km 488 km not at present clear which satellite corresponds with Lemur 2 Yuasa 2018-046F which object. Add objects with orbits: Jul 19.88 51.64° 94.16 min 478 km 488 km HaloSat 1998-067NU Lemur 2 Alexander 2018-046G Jul 16.55 51.64° 92.54 min 400 km 408 km Jul 19.09 51.64° 94.16 min 477 km 488 km RainCube 1998-067NV Lemur 2 Vu 2018-046H Jul 16.42 51.64° 92.54 min 399 km 408 km Jul 20.14 51.64° 94.16 min 477 km 489 km Radix 1998-067NW 2018-050A Feng Yun 2H was manoeuvred off its test station at Jul 16.42 51.64° 92.54 min 399 km 408 km 94°E July 18, was relocated at 79°E July 27 and was TEMPEST-D 1998-067NX declared operational August 3. INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION ACTIVITY RECENTLY DETAILED ORBITAL DECAYS There were the following orbital manoeuvres of ISS during July, the International Object name Decay first boosted by J. R. Thompson and the second by Progress MS-08: Designation

Pre-manoeuvre orbit: Jul 10.56 51.64° 92.56 min 403 km 407 km 1997-069B Iridium 41 Jul 28.34 Post-manoeuvre orbit: Jul 10.93 51.64° 92.57 min 403 km 408 km 1998-021D Iridium 65 Jul 19.00 1998-021F Iridium 67 Jul 2.50 Pre-manoeuvre orbit: Jul 26.58 51.64° 92.57 min 402 km 408 km 1998-032E Iridium 75 Jul 10.41 Post-manoeuvre orbit: Jul 27.92 51.64° 92.58 min 402 km 409 km 1998-051B Iridium 81 Jul 17.04 2018-046A J. R. Thompson Jul 30.89 End-of-July orbital data: Jul 31.91 51.64° 92.58 min 402 km 409 km ESA-CNES Ariane V carried four Galileo navigation satellites from Kourou in French Guiana on 25 July 2018.

38 Vol 60 October 2018 SpaceFlight

OBITUARY

REMEMBERING Georg von Tiesenhausen (1914-2018) One of Wernher von Braun's original team members who contributed towards the development of the V-2. by Frank H. Winter

eorg Heinrich Patrick Freiherr (Baron) von Tiesenhausen was born on 18 May 1914. Although he was inclined to infer so, it is difficult to say that he was “the last” of the von G Braun group, since there were three “waves” who emigrated to the US after World War II: in 1945-

46; in 1947-49; and in 1951-59. Von Tiesenhausen HIGGINBOTHAM DAVID arrived in 1953. Also, contrary to popular belief, not all the former V-2 team members went on to work in and that he was working on a rocket and admitted that “my settle in the Huntsville area – although most did. wildest dreams had come true”. Von Tiesenhausen was not German by birth but was He was so Von Tiesenhausen started out in the department born in Riga, Latvia, in 1914 – then part of the Russian of ground installations, which had responsibility for Empire. He was descended from a German noble family captivated developing the launch facilities, handling procedures that had lived in the region since the 12th century, and and mobile launch equipment. He went on to help hence was entitled to the title of “Freiherr”, or Baron. by the film design four major test stands, including the famous Test However, his immediate family moved from Latvia to [Frau im Stand No. VII. One of the more unusual installations Germany in 1918 when the war of independence from he worked on was the Schwimmweste (“Swimming Soviet Russia broke out. He was raised near Hamburg Mond] that Vest”), or “proof stand”, which was mounted on a barge and in 1935 became a naturalized German citizen. for testing the smaller Wasserfall (Waterfall) anti- he watched it aircraft missile based on the A-4. At that time, there AN INFECTIOUS FILM was great interest in building floating test stands in the Georg was introduced to the possibilities of the rocket repeatedly Baltic, since they could easily be moved and were less for spaceflight in 1929, at the age of 14, when he saw the vulnerable to Allied air raids, and the Schwimmweste filmFrau im Mond (“Woman on the Moon”). He was so had its flame deflector ingeniously suspended under captivated by the film that he watched it repeatedly and water. Following the major RAF raid on Peenemünde in later became a member of the Verien für Raumschiffahrt 1943, Von Tiesenhausen conceived a larger floating test (the VfR, or Society for Spaceflight) – although he was stand for the A-4, but it never came to fruition. not among the early experimenters. His last major project at Peenemünde was a From 1938 to 1939 he attended the Engineer School super-secret one carried out with colleague Bernhard in Hamburg, studying mechanical engineering. When Tessmann and code-named Prüfstand XII (“Test Stand war broke out he was inducted into the Luftwaffe's XII”), in which U-Boats were designed to tow huge, Signal Corps, but was discharged with the rank of torpedo-shaped caissons each containing an A-4. The sergeant late in 1941 so he could finish his education. submarines were to tow the missiles to within 160-200 In April 1943 he was again called for military duty km of an enemy shore, close to a target city, then raise and was assigned to the Flakversuchstelle (Anti-Aircraft them to the vertical so that the missiles' nosecones stuck Experimental Station), Karlshagen – then a cover name out of the water through open hatches. Once fuelled and for the Wehrmacht's top-secret rocket development activated, they would then be fired from their caissons. centre at nearby Peenemünde, on the Baltic Sea. Since The idea had originated as a direct consequence of his technical speciality was thermodynamics, he was the the rapid progress made by the Allies across northwest ideal choice to participate in the development of what ABOVE Europe during the latter part of 1944, with construction was then called the A-4 rocket (later designated “V-2” Rocket pioneer scheduled to begin in 1945. After the failure of the by Josef Goebbels’s propaganda machine). Georg later Georg von Ardennes Offensive, however, the speed of the Allied Tiesenhausen, who asserted that before he went to Peenemünde he had no died on 4 June at advance was such that the Germans rapidly ran out of idea what was going on there, but on arrival discovered the age of 104. coastline and Prüfstand XII never progressed.

40 Vol 60 October 2018 SpaceFlight OBITUARY

Von Tiesenhausen was also involved in the design of a multi-stage lunar rocket, although this was only a paper study.

THE PEACE DIVIDEND At the end of the war, von Tiesenhausen and his test stand group were captured by the Americans at Bad Aibling, but were soon released. They were offered the opportunity to come to the US under the auspices of Operation Paperclip to assist the Americans in the development of their own nascent missile programme, but von Tiesenhausen did not want to leave his family behind and elected to remain in Germany. Times were hard in post-war Germany and for a time von Tiesenhausen worked as an auto-mechanic for the No. 3 Royal Armoured Vehicle Workshop in the British Occupation Zone. At times he also drove a ten-on Mack truck, served as a chauffeur, and worked as a passport picture photographer. But in 1952 another American team was sent to Germany to search for former rocket technicians for the next phase of ABOVE “Missile Launching Apparatus”). This was subsequently Von Thiesenhausen Operation Paperclip. This time, the offer to move to the played a significant applied to the Saturn launch vehicle as the hold-down US was extended to family members. Von Tiesenhausen role in the design of clamp that momentarily restrained the rocket until it accepted and the following year rejoined his old von launch and support had built up sufficient thrust for liftoff. equipment for the Braun team at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville. V-2, seen here Among his other noteworthy contributions were a Initially he contributed towards the development being prepared for 1963 study of potential mobility systems on the lunar of the Redstone ballistic missile, including the design launch after the surface that eventually led to the Lunar Roving Vehicle war by a British- of the handling equipment and control stations. The German team. (LRV), participation in the design of the Saturn-based Redstone incoporated so many features of the original space station that became Skylab, and the basic layout German missile that he called it a “glorified V-2”. In of the huge “Crawler-Transporter” that transferred 1956, following the formation of the Army Ballistic the Saturn launch vehicle from the Vehicle Assembly Missile Agency (ABMA) at Huntsville, he was assigned Building (VAB) at Cape Canaveral to the launch to the Systems Support Equipment Section. But in pad. He also planned the layout of the launch pads July 1960, along with other members of the von Braun themselves. team, he was transferred from the Army to the National Additionally he filed many other patents and became Aeronautics and Space Administration and served as The Redstone deeply involved in studying and promoting automation chief of the Future Launch Systems Study Office at the as it applied to robotic spaceflight, although in 1985 he newly established Marshall Space Flight Center. incoporated also authored the important NASA study, The Human In the same year, von Tiesenhausen applied for his Role in Space, which concluded that a human presence first US patent (later granted as No. 3,038,383 for a so many is essential in the exploration of space and cannot be features of entirely replaced by machines and robots. In 1986 von Tiesenhausen retired as the Assistant the original to the Director of Marshall's Advanced System Office, having most recently worked on the application of long German tethers in space and become a leading authority on the subject. Even so, his fertile and inventive mind ensured missile that that he would continue to remain active in the field of astronautics, which included years spent teaching he called it a and lecturing. In 2011, former astronaut and first man on the Moon Neil Armstrong presented him with the “glorified Lifetime Achievement Award for Education at the US V-2” Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville. From an early age, von Tiesenhausen was also a prolific writer, both of technical articles and general features, and was more than happy to respond to several historical questions that this writer posed to him as he approached his 100th birthday in 2014. In his later years, he worked on an essay on the Big Bang theory, and even after passing his centennial milestone, he LEFT continued to pursue a lifelong love of music by In 1953 Von composing for the organ – the instrument that he Thiesenhausen emigrated to played regularly for his local church. Georg von America to rejoin Tiesenhausen died in Huntsville, Alabama, on 4 June Wernher von Braun, aged 104. He is survived by his wife of 75 years, by three this time located at Huntsville, children, nine grandchildren, 23 great-grandchildren

RINGT: US ARMY / ABOVE RIGHT: VIA DAVID BAKER VIA DAVID RIGHT: ABOVE ARMY / US RINGT: Alabama. and two great-great-grandchildren. SF

SpaceFlight Vol 60 October 2018 41 REVIEWS MULTI-MEDIA

SpaceFlight reviews the latest books, websites, films, TV programmes and games for space enthusiasts of all ages

SPACE MODELS Reflecting VOYAGER

young intern working at NASA in 1964 chanced upon the discovery that, in the very near future, a "grand tour" of our solar system could be A undertaken. The larger planets in the system would be aligned so that, if a space ship could be sent to Jupiter, its gravitational pull would cast it out towards Saturn – rather like an enormous slingshot. Thirteen years later this vision became a reality with the launches of the Voyager spacecraft. Forty years later, they are still travelling. British composer and performer, Warren Greveson has scored a soundtrack to one of the most engaging and longest-running stories of space exploration. Released this September ABOVE (2018) on the Market Square Music label The VOYAGER double-disc (MSMCDDVD201), VOYAGER traces the launch package comes with a CD and 40 year journeying of the Voyager I and 2 and a DVD, the latter with film clips, graphic representations spacecraft in a two-disc package comprising an of encounters and virtual audio CD and DVD of the music synchronized displays. to a specially commissioned 70 minute-long film, “HELLO FROM PLANET EARTH”. While the launches of manned spacecraft inevitably held greatest sway in media and public interest terms, two, largely forgotten probes have been exploring space longer than any other craft. Launched back in 1977, Voyager I and II are exploring, as NASA put it, “where nothing from Earth has flown before”. In August 2012, Voyager 1 entered interstellar space. Filled with the detritus of long-dead stars, NASA scientists hope to learn more about the region when Voyager 2, currently in the heliosheath (the outermost layer of the heliosphere) also reaches interstellar space. Says 61-year old Greveson: "Like most boys growing up in the early sixties, I was fascinated by space LEFT exploration. The gold disc "I watched all of the films made by the on the Voyager spacecraft which Americans and Russians showing firstly satellites, contains audio of then animals, and finally astronauts being diverse tongues, image catapulted into the cosmos. And, I wanted to be of life on Earth and music representative of human an astronaut. That wasn't to be, of course, but like civilisation over millennia. so many others I've been held in sway ever since

42 Vol 60 October 2018 SpaceFlight REVIEWS

GAMER'S CORNER with Henry Philp Universal exploration

While the image may suggest that No Man’s Sky is just another Star Wars- copying space fighter game, it is actually so much more. In this game, you are free to explore a universe made up of 18 trillion unique planets, each with their own climate, hazards, geology and wildlife. This universe is so big that it would take you over 570 thousand years to visit every planet if you could visit each one for a single second. In order to make exploring this gigantic universe possible, the game dispenses with realistic orbital mechanics and allows the player free flight in space. Warp drives allow fast travel between star systems. Much like Astroneer, No Man’s Sky is more about the exploration of worlds, rather than the flight between them. As you progress through the game, you can unlock and build new spacecraft, vehicles and even planetary bases. In the game, you control a futuristic space-suited character across the surfaces of these unique planets. You can use a laser beam to collect resources, all of which are useful for building equipment and even managing your life support and radiation protection. With the latest update to the game, you can even do this along with other players. While Kerbal Space Program (SpaceFlight Vol 60 No 8 p43/Vol 60, No 9 p45) focuses its attention on realistic flight in space,No Man’s Sky allows the exploration of a huge universe unconstrained by the limiting laws of physics. You can find the game at https://www.nomanssky.com. by space and its mysteries." and that's limited their experiences into basic With the music written, Greveson turned references. But they have done it nonetheless and to designer/film-maker Tim Gill to create If you were there will continue to until their energy source runs out an appropriate filmic context that would be sometime around 2025. entertaining as well as educational. Says Warren: in the 70s, it "Unless they collide with something, the "Tim had designed a vast number of audio and Voyagers will travel around the Milky Way, film releases including one last year for my band resonates well orbiting it every 225 million years. That's an Dolennu. extraordinary thought – we're very pleased with "I had seen some of his film shorts work too, our imagining of it in this music and movie." so I had no doubt that he would do a great job of If you were there in the 70s, it resonates well translating my music into images." on reflection; if you weren’t, you get the feel for While he suggests that "Hello From Planet the age of Voyager when it was launched and Earth …" was straightforwardly derived from when it met its ambitious goals. Readers can sourcing and licensing images and clips pertaining BELOW obtain the CD/DVD direct from the publisher at to each track name and assembling these into The Voyagers are exiting http://marketsquaremusic.com/product/warren- the solar system, and are a narrative context, Gill acknowledges how his destined to orbit the centre greveson-voyager-hello-from-planet-earth/, composer's folding of 70s music stylings and of the Milky Way in perpetuity. price £11. tropes into the soundtrack informed on his design and direction. "From the start, I wanted to create a film that would be fun without undermining the factual elements of the Voyager Project story”, he says. "While his compositions were of the now, I could hear in this music Warren throwing us back to the Voyagers' launch decade from time to time. I decided to emulate the concept visually”, Tim continues. "So there are elements of 70s sci-fi TV and science education film shorts seeded into the final cut. The outcome is faintly retro in feel and I think it adds to the fun." Warren Greveson has the last word on the project: "We don't really know what these intrepid spaceships have encountered in any depth”, he declares. "They've reported back using legacy technology that's relatively unsophisticated today,

SpaceFlight Vol 60 October 2018 43 CORRESPONDENCE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Inspiration for all Sir: With regard to the article on NASA and its employment policies, in the September issue (SpaceFlight Vol 60 No 9 p 30), I remember an article in the science magazine Focus a few years ago suggesting that, when NASA was originally established, the various installations and facilities were deliberately spread over as many states as possible in order to gain as much political support as possible and so reduce the risk of NASA being dismantled. With regard to the “Opinion” piece, and the article, on page 34, concerning providing the necessary STEM skills for the British workforce; the photo and article regarding the interment of the ashes of Stephen Hawking in Westminster Abbey, reminded me of the late Isaac Asimov, best-selling

writer and polymath, and supporter of space travel. RICHARDSON VIA JO Asimov once wrote of how he, during a visit to this country in the 1980s, visited Westminster ABOVE There is actually a movement devoted to raising Primary school teachers Abbey, where he saw the burial sites of five of the at a conference on how the age of school entry, so that children who have people - Newton, Rutherford, Darwin, Faraday, and to stimulate children into learned to read before starting school – I was one – Maxwell – he had once placed on a list of the 10 higher learning and to trade might end up spending years in a classroom as the acceptability for excellence. greatest thinkers of all time. A decade or two later, only child there able to read or write, with all that he would, presumably, have added Hawking to that that might imply for their development, and mental list. By any reasonably standards, this is surely a health staggering national achievement. You may have come across the Japanese- It is therefore fascinating, and depressing, to be American scientist, Professor Michio Kaku. In his aware that there are many people, some of them book, “Physics of the Future”, he describes various within the educational system, who would consider scientific trends likely to be of importance over those six people, were they within the system at the next fifty years, one of them being space travel. the moment, not so much as major assets, but as Towards the end of the book, he discusses the representing a threat to their fellow pupils. question of which nations will be able to embrace It should be recognised that there are many the trends and so prosper. He describes how he teachers within the state system, utterly opposed once met the former Prime Minister of Singapore, to any kind of differentiation on the basis of Dr Lee Kwan Yew, and asked him how he had ability, whether with regard to Grammar Schools A commentator managed to improve the status of his country or to Universities. A number of commentators so markedly. Dr Lee replied that he considered have pointed to evidence suggesting that some once compared the his most important reform to be in the area of teachers actually “resent” pupils of theirs who education. On gaining office, he had instructed gain university places, for failing to demonstrate British education the various schools, colleges, etc, to make a point a proper “solidarity” – “What one child cannot of discovering their most gifted students, and then have, no child should be allowed to have!” A system to the “Bed ensuring that they were provided with sufficient commentator once compared the British education of Procrustes”, funds and other support, to ensure that they were system to the “Bed of Procrustes” in the Greek able to study in their own time, at their own speed. myths, with the “occupants” being either stretched with “occupants” The success of this policy can hardly be or crushed to fit, irrespective of harm or pain. denied; we need to be doing something similar, There was an article, some years ago, by being either but what are the chances of our doing so? Mrs the then Chief Inspector of Prisons, Sir David May is hesitant over her plans for an increase Ramsbotham. Sir David had, in the course of his stretched or in the number of grammar schools; the current duties, been required to visit all of the dozen or so Opposition education policy seems to be that gifted Young Offender Institutions in this country, and crushed to fit, children should be discouraged by being forced to was struck by the large number of “very bright” irrespective of study at the same speed and level as everyone else, teenagers he found in them – victims, as he saw it, no matter the harm done. of an educational system that simply failed to meet harm or pain “Where ignorance is bliss, tis folly to be wise”, an their needs, leaving them bored and frustrated, all odd motto for an educational system, and possibly too apt to turn to anti-social behaviour. a suicidal one for a country. There have been studies indicating that gifted children can be driven to drugs as the only relief Peter Davey from the boredom and isolation they may face. (via email)

44 Vol 60 October 2018 SpaceFlight CORRESPONDENCE

Bean, film and dust Sir: As I have read (SpaceFlight Vol 60 No 8 pp33- 36), Bean and Conrad carried the first colour television camera to the lunar surface on Apollo 12, but the camera was accidentally destroyed after Bean pointed it at the Sun. Besides this the two astronauts left accidentally several exposed film rolls (all colour pictures of the second EVA amongst them) at the landing site. I wonder if it might be possible to recover and develop these films on a future moon landing mission. This could be very exciting! Perhaps the question is, how the material survived the harsh environmental conditions on the Moon (ageing of the film material, radiation, temperature cycling etc.). How were the films protected, how were they left on the Moon? How many pictures were exposed and are still on the Moon? It is now almost 50 years ago – and there will be at least 20 to 30 more years passing by before humans will return to the Moon – but as we know, hope springs eternal. I would like to know if somebody can answer this question concerning radiation, temperature cycling and the influence on the exposed film material. I have another a question with reference to your article Deadly Dust (SpaceFlight Vol 60, p20). On page 21 of that article there are several NASM / BELOW: NASA LEFT: SEM images of the fabric of the A7L space suit contaminated with Moon dust. As far as I know ABOVE Lessons from Clavius Apollo 17 Commander Gene the Moon suits were left behind on the Moon, left Cernan collected a lot of Sir: The fine dust on the Moon and Mars, poses in the Ascent Stage of the Apollo Lunar Module lunar dust on his suit and on a serious health risk, as highlighted in the article which was crashed back down on the surface. The the exterior surface of every "Deadly Dust", (SpaceFlight Vol 60 p 20). The piece of equipment used article implies they survived, so where are the A7L outside the Lunar Module, a electrostatic attraction of Moon dust for spacesuits space suits now? typical penalty for venturing poses a particularly challenging cleaning problem. out on to the surface. I suggest that Moon base airlocks be fitted with a Dr Jens Heide, Hamburg, Germany shower system, whereby the astronauts, on entry, (via email) are thoroughly showered in air at atmospheric pressure and at a temperature of (say) of 20 °C (There is a lot of misunderstanding about this. The with a salt solution in water. suits were not left on the Moon, or in the Ascent Pure water is a poor conductor of electricity, Stage of the LM, but carried back into the Apollo but dissolved salts should make it conductive spacecraft. However, on most occasions the gloves, enough to neutralise the electric fields holding lunar overboots and visor assemblies were discarded the dust on spacesuit surfaces, and the dust will when the hatch was opened for a final time on the be washed off. The resulting suspension of dusts lunar surface to dump excess items and save weight. in the water would be washed out of the airlock Sometimes, on the J-series missions (Apollo 15-17) BELOW through a filtration system, and the salt solution The A7LB suit worn by the Command Module Pilot wore the Commander's Dave Scott, Commander of would be recycled. Cleaning off the salt solution helmet and its visor attachment for the deep-space Apollo 15, is on display at could be achieved by then showering with pure EVA to retrieve items from the Scientific Instrument the National Air and Space water, followed by evacuation of the air in the Museum, Washington, DC, Module-Bay (SIM-Bay) – the various cameras and and still bears the marks left airlock to evaporate the water. scientific instruments in the Service Module. These by lunar dust. After this, the airlock would be re-pressurised are visibly seen on photographs of SIM-Bay EVA on and the astronauts allowed inside. This wouldn't the way back to Earth. Grubby space suits stained be so easy for spacecraft, because of the bulk of an with lunar dust can be seen in museums. Most of airlock and the cleaning system, so maybe one of these are perishing and in pretty poor condition. the earliest actions in a Moon base construction There have been occasions where people have saved would be to lay a suitably-sized metallic landing the contents of vacuum cleaners used to clean the area and keep it free of dust. Arthur C Clarke's suits back on Earth after each flight, claiming that Clavius Base in 2001 a Space Odyssey probably had the vials of residue also contain Moon dust. In such the right idea, by bringing spacecraft into the base cases only a fraction of the material actually came and avoiding contact with the lunar surface. from the Moon. As a sad “footnote” coming up to the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing, Neil Dr Raymond D. Wright Armstrong's left overboot was left on the Moon! Ed.) (via email)

SpaceFlight Vol 60 October 2018 45 SOCIETY NEWS SOCIETY 46 Vol 60 October 2018SpaceFlight SLUG hero, after whomstreetsand schools were named, the progressofFaris fromthestatus ofanational Sharjah Art Foundation, HTC Vive andMSI,portrayed SAHAArt from (SupportingContemporary Turkey), Union withbothcrewed and roboticspacemissions. was allied totheSoviet intendedtohelpstates 1987 aspart oftheInterkosmos programme, which cosmonaut, Faris flew in totheMirspacestation Ahmed Faris. As thefirst and,so far, only Syrian centredoncosmonaut Muhammed installation sculpture, andphotography, heproducedan Turkish artistHalil Altındere. Working withvideo, the HQ tobesufficiently toplay “extraordinary” hostto around London for onenightayear”, consideredBIS festival locations thatputsartintoextraordinary in itsown words, isa arts “free contemporary the publiconnightof7/8July. transformation opento intoanexquisite artgallery inside outandupsidedown duringthecourseofits BIS staff andadedicatedconstruction crew, turned time, Arthur CClarke Housewas, withthehelpof OUT OF THE OUT curated by the South Bank's Hayward Gallery curated bytheSouthBank'sHaywardGallery 'Extraordinary' BISplayshosttoArtNight FOR ROUGHLY A FORTNIGHT, The traditionallayoutofthelectureroomgotamakeoverfornight7/8July. The Curated by theHayward Gallery, “Art Night”, which, Space Refugeeby –amultimediainstallation Space Refugee supportedby installation, counting preparation countingpreparation activity whichactivity metwithsome disapproval inSyria. He Turkish schools toencourage STEM learning–an the Levant (ISIL).Faris is seen inthevideovisiting artefacts byofIraqand the,socalled, Islamic State suffered considerabledamageto buildingsand Palmyra, after inSyria, anancientcity which has off-world refugeecolony. The projectis called aerospace law, ofan concerning thepracticality NASA scientists, architects, andexperts on tyranny, noinjustice”. and wherethereisno there isfreedomanddignity hope we canrebuildcitiesfor theminspace,where Should thatnotprove tobepossible,Faris says, “I about theirlongingtoreturn totheir homeland. Syria, andspoke toanumberoffellow refugees faced by himandhisfamily intheirexodus from which Faris talkedofthedifficulties anddangers from theBIS’s own collectioninanother. central feature inoneroomanda numberofartifacts asa museum, withavirtual presentation reality exhibition wasofaspace setupinthestyle and ultimatelytohislife asarefugeein Turkey. The to beinganopponentofthe Assad regimeinSyria, The videogoesontofeature with interviews The was highlightoftheinstallation avideoin ORDINARY

VIA ALISTAIR SCOTT SOCIETY NEWS Northern Consortium's Space Age conference

A ONE-DAY CONFERENCE on morning concluded with a panel 19 June arranged by the Northern session made up of the speakers Space Consortium with the help of and chaired by Joanne Wheeler, the British Interplanetary Society MBE of Bird and Bird. was the first Space Conference to After a lunch break that gave be held as part of the Liverpool attendees time to network, look International Business Festival. around the exhibition and possibly Alan Cross, FBIS, Northern get a glimpse of HRH The Duke of Space Consortium, chaired the day Cambridge, the Festival’s Patron, and opened the Conference. the afternoon session consisted of Following Alistair Scott’s brief eight brief presentations. Society presentation was Miles Using satellite data, Spacetime Cardin of Spaceport Cornwall who Enterprises plan to offer a real-time described their plans and progress virtual reality experience. Weather to date. Mike Taylor from the UK Logistics deliver bespoke localised Space Agency covered the ongoing forecasts, and DriverNet have work to ensure that the UK industry developed very successful fleet continues to grow in line with the management software. Skyrora projected aim. Ian Downey, Head described their new launcher of UK Ambassador Programme, inspired by Black Arrow, while ESA Business Applications, Twinkle will be the first explained how his role was to commercial satellite to look for ensure that the benefits of space exoplanets, and the Gateway Earth technology and data were used Development Group plan to throughout industry and business. develop space stations as a focal Stuart Eves addressed the issue point for an off-world economy. of space debris and novel ideas for The Asteroid Mining Corporation removing it, including using debris explained their plans for extracting as fuel. The final speaker in this platinum from asteroids and STFC session was Robert Hill, Space Daresbury described their facilities Adviser KX Systems – a major for business incubation and company with expertise in support. BIS headquarters, refashioned for Art Night. handling the large amounts of The packed day ended with all space data available. the speakers participating in a is also seen leading children on a “Mars walk” in Following a brief film, Wallis panel session. The Northern Space simulated space suits in Cappadocia – a region of Laughrey, Vice President, Raytheon Consortium exists to develop the Turkey bearing a remarkable resemblance to Mars. Space Systems explained their space industry in the North West The suits were on display in the BIS lobby alongside current plans for working in space and those interested should a very lifelike head-and-shoulders bust of Faris with the main theme being one of contact [email protected] wearing his Russian Sokol spacesuit. co-operation with others. The for details SF R.J.Morris FBIS Around 1,200 people visited BIS HQ between 6pm and 4am on Art Night itself (which coincided with Pride and an England World Cup football game!). Over the following week, many local residents also dropped in to find out more about the BIS (some admitting that they had passed the building many times, but had no idea what the BIS was about!). BIS staff and members were on hand to answer questions from visitors and introduce them to the Society, while the Art Night staff showed them the paintings and sculptures, and helped them enjoy the audio-visual presentations. Thanks must go to Gill, Mary and Griff for their patience and hard work in supporting the Art Night team setting up this extraordinary art display and to Gill, Ian, Griff, Alistair and Colin for surviving the night. Though exhausting, a marvellous time was had by all and the Society received invaluable publicity from an event that it The prestigious panel at the Northerm Space Consortium. was pleased and proud to host. SF Griffith J Ingram SCOTT VIA ALISTAIR

SpaceFlight Vol 60 October 2018 47 SOCIETY NEWS

BIS LECTURES & MEETINGS MEMBERSHIP NEWS BIS PRESTIGE LECTURE: SECRETS OF A SPY SATELLITE 6 September 2018, 6pm VENUE: BIS, 27/29 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1SZ Phil Presser, chief designer of the optical system fitted to the top-secret KH-9 US photo-reconnaissance satellite, talks for the first time about its development and operation. Wine and cheese will be served at the event. Members £10, Non-members £20. EXOMARS TALK 13 September 2018, 7pm VENUE: BIS, 27/29 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1SZ The joint European-Russian ExoMars Rover is due for launch in 2020 following its assembly by Airbus in Stevenage. Paul Meacham, Lead Systems Engineer at Airbus, presents a status update. SOUTH WEST BRANCH: TO MARS VIA Gerry Webb with outgoing President Mark Hempsell and Exec. Secretary Gill Norman. KAZAKHSTAN 5 Octoberr 2018, 7.30pm VENUE: Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, 16 Queen Square, Bath, BA1 2HN Terry Ransome, retired aerospace engineer, talks about his work on Beagle 2. Registration is not necessary. A new President BIS/Herschel AstroSoc members/students pay £2 on At the 73rd annual general meeting of the BIS on 28 July, the BIS the door; other visitors pay £4. membership welcomed to office the new President, long-standing Fellow Gerry Webb. There can be very few space-buffs who have not SPACE DAY heard of Gerry, a lifelong member of the Society who attended his first 6 October 2018 meeting more than 60 years ago! VENUE: The Hive, Sawmill Walk, The Butts, Worcester WR1 3PD Encompassing a professional career in space activity, Gerry founded Twenty exhibitors so far, and counting! To book a free Commercial Space Technologies a very long time ago and continues to stand, email [email protected]. be an important player in finding launch slots and supporting a broad Attendance is also free and there's no registration. customer base. Known internationally, CST has been a consistent

Please join us if you can. player in the space business for almost 40 years. SCOTT ALISTAIR Gerry is quick to acknowledge the outstanding contribution made by APOLLO 7 – THE FIRST FLIGHT outgoing BIS President Mark Hempsell and of Alistair Scott before him 11 October 2018, 7pm but he is determined to maintain a “continuation of the steady VENUE: BIS, 27/29 South Lambeth Road, London, SW8 1SZ evolution of ideas, functions and activities that the Society has been Jerry Stone presents the first in his series of lectures undertaking under Mark”. On behalf of its entire readership, SpaceFlight about every manned Apollo mission. wishes Gerry every success over the next three years of his tenure – a period of new challenges and fresh opportunities. SF David Baker BIS PRESTIGE LECTURE: WALLY FUNK & SUE NELSON 16 October 2018, 6pm NEW MEMBERS VENUE: BIS, 27/29 South Lambeth Road, London, SW8 1SZ Sixteen more new BIS Open Days members joined in A special evening of canapés, talks and Q&As with American aviator Wally Funk and award-winning July, including 12 from the UK, 3 from podcaster Sue Nelson. Members £20, Non-members the USA and 1 from £30. Pre-booking on the BIS website is advised. and Book Sales Australia. Welcome! CATCHING STARDUST The Society will be holding two open days from 10:00 to 8 November 2018, 7pm 15:00 on Wednesday 12 and Thursday 13 September VENUE: BIS, 27/29 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1SZ 2018. On both days there will be a sale of many surplus Natalie Starkey, a geologist and cosmochemist, joins us books from our library, on various astronautical and to discuss her book Catching Stardust, telling the story astronomical subjects. Each day there will be three of comets and asteroids. guided tours around the Society’s Library, Conference Room and Council Room. The guide will give Call for Papers INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION FORUM information on our various paintings, photographs, 14 November 2018, 9.30 am to 5pm (tbc) artefacts and models on display in the rooms. Tours VENUE: BIS, 27/29 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1SZ will start at 10.30, 12.30 and 14.30. Each tour will have a maximum size of six to eight persons, so it A forum to celebrate the 20th anniversary of operations may be advisable to book to avoid disappointment. This aboard the ISS. Please email [email protected] with will be a chance for BIS Members to see more of the BIS any ISS-related papers. HQ facilities and for local people to see what we do. SF

48 Vol 60 October 2018 SpaceFlight