SpaceFlight A British Interplanetary Society publication

Volume 60 No.12 December 2018 £5.00 I n search of a brave new world The trouble with Soyuz Building the Gateway

12> Shuttling to the Moon 634072 India in space 770038 9

COVER: AN ARTIST IMAGINES THE SPACEX BIG FALCON ROCKET ON ITS WAY INTO SPACE / SPACEX The British Interplanetary Society OUR MISSION STATEMENT of humanity, connecting people [email protected] David Baker idea; readanddiscover! a humaninorbit.Isthisgood reflecting onIndia’s plantoplace programme isoutinprint, history ofIndia’s space whose monumentalworkonthe an analysisbyGurbirSingh, of anothergravitywell! points onthesurface–bottom rather thanplacingalldispersal advantages ofsuchafacility the LunarGatewayandabout in theUnitedStates. the DeclarationofIndependence on howwecouldlearnmuchfrom my Opinionpieceforreflections of humanhabitationonMars.See colonial andpost-colonialperiods ahead tochallengesposedbythe from StephenAshworthlooking month some“requiredreading” end onasournote. great worktheteamshavedoneto would beinappropriateforthe ISS willendinjustoverayear. It partner astronautstogetthe reliance onRussianseatsfor flights mayberesumingsoon.The successful operationsandthat launch abortin35yearsof Hague survivedthefirstSoyuz It’s goodnewsthatOvchininand fromLetter the Editor promotes the exploration and to create, educate and inspire, and advance knowledge in use of space for the benefit all aspects of astronautics. Finally, Iamdelightedtopublish More newsiscomingoutabout I amdelightedtopublishthis Features 40 36 34 6 3 2 Regulars 46 42 26 22 14 11 storage orretrieval system withoutwritten permissionfor thePublishers. Photocopying permitted by licenseonly. or transmitted inany form orby any means,electronicormechanical, includingphotocopying orrecording by any information © 2018 2017 Society BritishInterplanetary Nopartofthismagazinemay ISSN0038-6340. All rightsreserved. bereproduced 250556. is acompany Society limitedby guarantee. PrintedThe BritishInterplanetary in England by Latimer Trend & Co. Society. Registeredthe EditororCouncilofBritishInterplanetary Company No:402498.Registered charity No: Society. Opinionsinsignedarticles arethoseofthecontributorsanddonotnecessarilyreflectInterplanetary theviews of Society,Published monthly by SpaceFlightisapublicationthatpromotesthemission oftheBritish theBritishInterplanetary England Tel: +44(0)2077353160 Email:[email protected] Fax: +44(0)1778391 000 393668SpaceFlight, Arthur C. Clarke House,27-29 SouthLambethRoad, London SW81SZ, Distribution Warners GroupDistribution, Lane, Bourne, LincolnshirePE10TheManor Maltings, 9PH,England Tel: +44(0)1778 MP3 Media Editor

uilding the LunarGateway  uttling to the Moon

 ew age of Enlightenment [on Mars?]

 S Report ISS The longwait /Impetus orinspiration? Letters to the Editor 551 –September2018 Satellite Digest The flightof Apollo8,December 1968 Flashback 9 September–8October2018  Opinion Poor controlblamedfor quality Soyuz failure Behind the news What’s happened/ What’s comingup Society news /Diary The latestspace-relatedbooks,games,videos Multi-media might thingschange evolves? asMartiansociety principles willguidethefirstcolonists–andhow their potentialfor adoptiononMars. What moral at thebeliefsystems onEarthandconsiders incisive Stephen writing, Ashworth takesalook Known toBISmembersandmany othersfor his lander thatcouldprovide logistics support. describes Lockheed Martin'sproposalfor a potential for exploiting lunarresourcesand journey intolunarorbit,theEditor surveys the of On the50thanniversary Apollo 8'shistoric to Mars,ormerelyamirror oftheISS? the Gateway agenuinelycriticalstepontheroad and considersthedifferent orbitoptions.Butis basepointforan orbital future Moonexploration, The Editorreviews current plansfor assembling person inspace–orjustacynicalpoliticalmove? toputa push tobecomeonlythefourth country stunning successes,isitdriven by asensible an astronautinorbit.Comingoff theback of Gurbir Singhreflects onIndia’s decisiontoplace Heading for the Heavens Sh A n ISS2 –B David Baker, PhD, BSc,FBIS, FRHS

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11 26 22 14 2 SpaceFlight Vol 60 December 20181 Andrée Wilson

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BEHIND THE NEWS

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine (right) talks to Nick Hague back at Baikonur shortly after the aborted landing. THE TROUBLE WITH SOYUZ Soyuz's failure has been blamed on poor quality control. Can the reputation of the Russian space programme survive such a cascade of troubles?

SHORTLY AFTER LAUNCH at 2.40 pm local time on Carrying rookie NASA astronaut Nick Hague and 11 October from site 1/5 at Baikonur Cosmodrome, veteran cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin, the launch the Soyuz-FG rocket carrying the Soyuz MS-10 vehicle was to have placed the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft began to fail, triggering an automatic abort spacecraft in pursuit of the International Space as attitude excursions threatened a breakup of the Station with rendezvous just four orbits and six launch vehicle. The four boosters had separated as hours after lift-off. Instead it provided the first ascent planned and the core stage was under power when abort experienced by a NASA astronaut. After the abort occurred, releasing the spacecraft and docking, the two crewmembers were to have joined causing a train of events which saw separation of the the Expedition 57 team on board the ISS, occupying Orbital Module and the Service Module, allowing the the station when the existing crew returned on 13 Descent Module to fall free. This initiated a ballistic December, to welcome the following crew seven descent incurring accelerations no greater than 7 g days later. prior to deployment of the parachute recovery Before that, a Progress cargo-tanker was to have system and a safe touchdown 34 minutes later about been launched at the end of October and at the time 20 km east of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. of writing that was said to be still possible with

2 Vol 60 December 2018 SpaceFlight BEHIND THE NEWS

In-flight TV showing the ascent of Soyuz MS-10 on a Soyuz-FG launcher with Ovchinin occupying the centre couch (left) and Hague to his left.

Expedition 56 blasts off in June. It's successors weren't so lucky. Safely aborted, the crew are reunited with their families

another two launch vehicles of this type set for flight TRENDS prior to the next crewed space mission to the ISS, Considerable time in pre-flight Soyuz training is thus using interim launches to re-qualify the vehicle. Russian spent in preparation for contingency situations and But Russian sources tell SpaceFlight that there will the high safety record of the Soviet and Russian be a quick turnaround for this and NASA’s boss Jim sources tell crewed space programme is a product of that. Bridenstine concurs. During the Soviet era the space programme was Of the experience itself, Nick Hague was highly SpaceFlight under considerable pressure from the political complementary of the malfunction detection system that there will leadership but within the engineering fraternity in and the way in which the abort system provided a both that era and the post-Soviet period, safety has safe means of recovery: be a quick been a consistent part of high-risk endeavours, “The response time for that system is normalised into embedded abort capabilities. unbelievably fast, as soon as it senses anything turnaround for To date, more than 1,700 Soyuz rockets have wrong with the booster it’s trying to get us out of been launched since the current generation began

IMAGES: (1) NASA, (2) AND (4) ESA, (3) ROSCOSMOS (3) ROSCOSMOS AND (4) ESA, (2) (1) NASA, IMAGES: there as quick as possible. That’s the system that this and NASA flights in 1966, lifting crewed and uncrewed payloads saved our lives and Alexei and I are standing now into orbit. The MS-10 launch was the 139th crewed because of that. I’ve got to send out a huge thanks boss Jim Soyuz spacecraft launch since the first on 23 April to the people who work on that system. It’s on every 1967. In that time there have been two previous rocket and for manned launches on the Soyuz, they Bridenstine failures with the launch vehicle. haven’t had to use that system for 35 years but it’s concurs The first was on 5 April 1975 when Soyuz 18A (a always been there and it’s always been ready and 7K-T type) carrying Lazarov and Makarov aborted we proved that last week so I’ve got a huge amount with a peak altitude of 192 km for a flight duration of of gratitude to all the people that work at the Samara 21 min 27 sec. Due the spacecraft’s Earthward rocket company and all the hard work that they put attitude orientation the abort motor accelerated the in making sure that it’s always ready for us.” velocity at re-entry inducing a load of 21 g.

SpaceFlight Vol 60 December 2018 3 Vladimir Komarov lost his life. The second was with Soyuz 11, launched on 26 June 1971, when Dobrovolsky, Patsayev and Volkov lost their lives before re-entry when a pressure equilisation valve opened prematurely. Over the 139 Soyuz attempts there have been 136 safe launches and 134 successful flights with the loss of four cosmonauts on two failed missions, the last more than 47 years ago. There will be those who make comparisons with the US record in which the Shuttle made 135 launches of which one From little things… mini-Moon lander test by Mastin. (Challenger in 1986) was a failure. Another mission (Columbia in 2003) Briefing Occurring uncomfortably close to caused the loss of seven the joint Apollo-Soyuz docking astronauts on re-entry bringing to MASTIN NASA SOLICITATION mission it allowed unusually close 14 the total number lost in Shuttle analysis by US teams. disasters. The loss of Challenger’s Experimental packages carried to the lunar The second event occurred on crew occurred because NASA surface on small, commercial landers are 26 September 1983 as Titov and made a deliberate decision to requested by NASA as part of a programme Strekalov were preparing for launch delete the planned abort system that envisages up to 12 payloads for when a failure in one of the booster and opt for the flawed intact-abort selection in 2019 and flight the following year. turbopumps caused a fire which concept, which would probably Within an overall budget of $24-36 million, rapidly engulfed the entire vehicle never have worked anyway. NASA is looking for payloads to expand the triggering a pad abort, carrying the commercial opportunities afforded by Moon crew to safety in a sequence that CONSEQUENCES missions to “advance capabilities for did not go according to plan when As we go to press the situation is science, exploration, or commercial separation of shroud and spacecraft unfolding but confidence is growing development”. The agency is keen to push became fouled at several locations. that Soyuz-FG flights will resume the idea of the Moon as a platform for Overall, and in the history of quickly, the Russian State astrophysical, astronomical and Earth Russian crewed space flights since Commission appearing to now observation. The biggest challenge is limiting that of Yuri Gagarin on 12 April already know the exact cause and the experiment mass to 15 kg and a power 1961, the Russians have had only to have indicated that it is a quality use of no more than 8W. two missions end in fatalities. The control issue. If that is the case, first was on 23 April 1967 when the three uncrewed flights with a VULCAN POWER first Soyuz spacecraft failed and vehicle of this type will be required United Launch Alliance (ULA) has selected the Blue Origin BE-4 motor to power the first Opinion stage of its new Vulcan rocket, which will replace existing Atlas V and Delta IV launch vehicles. With a lift-off thrust of up to 16,900 kN from two BE-4 engines and up to six solid AN ENLIGHTENED VIEW? rocket boosters, Vulcan will lift 25,400 kg into low Earth orbit, 14,970 kg to geosynchronous TURN TO PAGE 33 OF THIS ISSUE and you will find the “ten transfer orbit, or 7,255 kg to geostationary Commandments” of Stephen Ashworth FBIS, our “resident philosopher”. Or orbit. It will be offered in two versions, one perhaps more importantly, food for thought as to whether he is arguing for a with a Centaur upper stage and one with the constitution or a proscribed period of enlightenment. Where? On Mars of course. more powerful Advanced Cryogenic Evolved As invited some months ago for deliberations on what sort of society to consider Stage (ACES). ULA rejected the Aerojet for initial Mars colonies, Stephen has come up with a reasoned argument Rocketdyne AR1 and by selecting the BE-4 is slightly more pragmatic than many of the idealistic thinkers of our day when funding a future competitor – the New Glenn considering the type of constraints and guidelines to lay down for the initial launcher also powered by the BE-4 (below). Martians, emigrants from Earth establishing a New World in literal as well as relative terms. The transfer of colonial rule, from Imperialist control by Britain, to the Declaration of Independence by the founding fathers of the United States in the late 18th century provides a lot of lessons here. This is not going to be a free- wheeling libertarian society with a fully elected democratic rule of majority- verdict, for that would not survive the rigour demanded by a hostile environment and a need for commercial success to ensure fiduciary balance. Democracy is not a definition but a bifurcated channel to options so

BKUE ORIGIN divergent that they demand explanation: is it the will of the people enacted by a

4 Vol 60 December 2018 SpaceFlight BEHIND THE NEWS before they put people up again, confidence and hope, as well as a despite uncertainties, and a still sense of disappointment at having Briefing open investigation into the issue of got so close to living his dream: NO OPPORTUNITY a hole discovered in the Orbital “There was a point where we Hopes of reviving the Mars Exploration Module of Soyuz MS-09 got to the apex of our trajectory Rover Opportunity are fading fast (SpaceFlight Vol 60, No 11, p 14). and I looked out the window and I following a complete shutdown during However, the existing crew saw the curve of the Earth and the the recent global dust storm. Forced into aboard the ISS must return to Earth blackness of space and it was a hibernation on 10 June, it has not been within approximately 200 days of bitter-sweet, fleeting moment heard of since – despite efforts to revive their launch on 6 June, a limitation knowing that I got that close but the long-lived spacecraft that launched driven by the properties of the that it wasn’t going to work out that on 7 July 2003 and landed on the surface hydrogen peroxide propellant time – what can you do, sometimes on 25 January 2004. Designed to operate carried aboard. That takes them to you don’t get a vote! This time we’ll for 90 days, it has endured for more than 24 December, although a few days roll with the punches and you just 14 years and travelled 45.16 km. Its into the beginning of January 2019 try to celebrate the little gifts you companion, Spirit landed 4 January 2004 is permissable. If the ISS is get, like walking the boys to school but became stuck in a sand trap on 1 May abandoned it is capable of being this morning.” 2009 after covering 7.73 km and was last operated uncrewed but US As to whether he would be heard from on 22 March 2010. commercial providers are not ready to fly another Soyuz, Nick expected to be operational before Hague was confident: “This has mid-year at earliest. only helped to solidify my TICKETS PLEASE! On the issue of confidence appreciation for how robust that Energia Rocket and Space Corporation about Soyuz, perhaps astronaut system is. There is a launch abort would like your money – up to $180 million Nick Hague should have the final system that protects me in fact – for a ticket aboard Soyuz on a word. Speaking a few days after continuously from about an hour flight around the Moon. Not to be outdone the incident he expressed both before launch until I’m in orbit”. SF by Elon Musk and his agreement with billionaire Yusaku Maezawa for a circumlunar trip (has anyone actually given him a physical and psychological assessment for this?), RSC Energia sees a gap in the market and is pitching in with its own deal. Launched by a Soyuz-2 rocket, the spacecraft would be propelled to the Moon by a transfer stage lifted by an Angara launcher that would also carry a habitation module for the journey out and back. No date has yet been fixed!

Three's company – but when will the remaining Expedition 56 crew be home? UAE ON THE UP Russia has announced that an astronaut from the United Arab Emirates is to fly to the ISS next year on a “tourist” flight that was to have launched on 5 April 2019 and To be applauded is his appeal for an eventual retured 11 days later with the crew of the aborted MS-10. A new date has yet to be transition to a free society of Martians untethered by fixed for the flight, which will carry Sultan Nayadi or Hazza Mansouri – originally the constraints of heavy-handed legislation assigned a seat on Soyuz MS-12 with Oleg Skripochka and NASA astronaut legislature and carried out by an executive; or is it delegation of authority for Christina Koch. Both have been cleared compounded decisions at a specified level by specialists in complex fields – as candidates and a follow-on flight for acting upon the intent of the people but not the will.

NASA the back-up has not been discounted. Not for the first time can I refer readers to the constitutional debates by Jefferson, Maddison, Paine and Hamilton, whose words are as relevant to understanding how Mars colonies can survive, or why they might fail, as they were to the North American colonists. There is a lot of this in Ashworth’s credo and I find it resting in parallel to the great debates that flowered in the various Congresses leading up to the first Constitutional Congress of the United States. On matters of religious freedom, science and its role in society, the need for a military-style constraint on a free-wheeling and indiscriminate hotch-potch of cranky ideas will mirror what many see today on Earth as the ill-founded basis of a fragmenting society, spearing off in all directions, intolerant and dysfunctional. Equally too, and to be applauded, is his appeal for an eventual transition to a free society of Martians untethered by the constraints of heavy-handed legislation. A New World? Indeed it will be! SF David Baker The UAE from space – but who will get to admire the view?

SpaceFlight Vol 60 December 2018 5 ISS REPORT ISS Report 9 September – 8 October 2018

Expedition 57 is under the temporary three- person control of new commander Alexander Gerst and flight engineers Sergey Prokopyev and Serena Auñón-Chancellor. Oleg Artemyev and his US colleagues Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold returned to Earth in early October. Report by George Spiteri

n 9 September, the six-person crew of RIGHT Expedition 56 enjoyed a light-duty day, Hurricane Florence is pictured from the followed on 10 September by Prokopyev International Space Station floating inside the Soyuz MS-09/55S as a category 1 storm Orbital Module to reassure TV viewers as it makes landfall near O Wrightsville Beach, about the leak that was discovered 29 August (SpaceFlight Vol 60 No.11 pp 13-14). North Carolina.

He added that “everything is calm on board… BELOW and no one is plugging the hole with their fingers Gerst prepares to install as it was written in the media”. Feustel was clearly the German Space Agency annoyed about rumours circulating in some media (DLR) Earth Sensing outlets that the astronauts were responsible for Imaging Spectrometer (DESIS), which verifies causing the leak when he told ABC’s Bob Woodruff and enhances the use of the following day that “unequivocally…the crew space-based hyperspectral had nothing to do with this from orbit…the only imaging. thing the crew did was react appropriately”. NASA and Roscosmos issued a joint statement on 13 September which reaffirmed the US space agency’s “ongoing support of the Roscosmos- led Soyuz investigation” which will stretch into November and they “acknowledged the entire crew ALL IMAGES: NASA ALL IMAGES: is dedicated to the safe operation” of the ISS “and all docked spacecraft to ensure mission success”. In a further twist Roscosmos announced on 16 September that photographs taken of Soyuz MS-09 at Energia’s machine building plant “show no holes in the fabric (of the spacecraft)”. An unnamed source told RIA Novosti that “the hole emerged during 180 days between its transportation from the shop in the Energia space corporation and the orbital launch”. Veteran Russian space analyst Anatoly Zak said the Russians have tentative plans to conduct an EVA in mid-November “to see whether the hole was sealed from the exterior of the spacecraft (obviously on the ground)” and there was even the possibility of a joint US-Russian

6 Vol 60 December 2018 SpaceFlight ISS REPORT

spacewalk “to ensure maximum trust among the The crew teamed up on 12 September to do partners in this politically sensitive investigation”. further research on how living in space affects Feustel was clearly microbes living inside the gastrointestinal system A NEW DAY of rodents and continued to monitor the progress Gerst began the working week on 10 September by annoyed about of Hurricane Florence. Auñón-Chancellor took wrapping up activity on the Airway Inflammation time out to answer questions from students at her experiment inside Quest. Feustel and Arnold the rumours former high school in Fort Collins, Colorado and examined the mice on board the ISS as part of the circulating in some praised her teachers who “believed in me”. Rodent Research-7 (RR-7) study and Arnold also Feustel and Auñón-Chancellor practised captured footage of Hurricane Florence over the media outlets that rendezvous techniques and robotics manoeuvres Atlantic Ocean as it headed for the US coast of on 13 September ahead of the arrival of Japan’s North and South Carolina. the astronauts HTV-7 Kounotori (White Stork) unmanned cargo The United States Orbital Segment (USOS) vehicle. The rest of the crew continued working crew continued preparations on 11 September for were responsible with the RR-7 facility and collected saliva samples the next two spacewalks and together with their for NASA’s Microbial Tracking-2 experiment. Russian colleagues did further research with the for the leak Artemyev and Prokopyev worked with a suite of RR-7 facility, swabbed their own bodies to collect Russian experiments including the Proboy study, microbe samples for analysis and devoted two days which appropriately is developing on-board studying liquid atomization and the composition of systems for immediate determination of puncture meteorites entering Earth’s atmosphere. coordinates on the station.

SpaceFlight Vol 60 December 2018 7 8 Vol 60 November 2018 SpaceFlight ISS REPORT

On 14 September the crew took part in ESA’s the SpceTex-2 experiment, collected more blood Time Perception in Microgravity experiment, and urine samples for the HRF Biomedical Profile which involves the study of the accurate perception “…the hole study and took part in Earth observation and of objects in the environment – a prerequisite for photography operations. Artemyev conducted spatial orientation and reliable performance of emerged during maintenance to a CIR for the Advanced motor skills. The crew also continued to send down Combustion Microgravity Experiment (ACME) footage of Hurricane Florence and worked with the 180 days between and Auñón-Chancellor replaced syringe samples Binary Colloidal Alloy Test – Cohesive Sediment and a water trip for a session with the Atomization (BCAT-CS) physics experiment. The weekend of its transportation study which uses a high-speed camera to observe 15/16 September were light-duty days, although the from the shop in the disintegration processes of low-speed water jets crew still found time to work with the RR-7 and the under various conditions. Microbial Tracking-2 experiments. the Energia space WHITE STORK FINALLY FLIES GENES AND T-SHIRTS corporation and After several delays due to technical issues and Feustel reconfigured a rack inside Kibo on 17 weather, JAXA launched its H-II Transfer Vehicle September and Auñón-Chancellor restocked the the orbital launch” (HTV-7) Kounotori-7 atop a H-IIB rocket from Human Research Facility-2 (HRF-2) with medical the Tanegashima Space Centre in southern Japan at supplies. Arnold extracted DNA from microbe 17:52 UTC on 22 September (02:52 23 September samples swabbed from inside the station. The DNA local time). underwent further sample preparation and was The weekend of 22/23 September was another later sequenced using the Biomolecule Sequencer light-duty period for the crew. Feustel tweeted and Genes in Space hardware. Gerst continued to that the entire crew settled down for their weekly prepare for the EVAs and Artemyev tweeted film “Saturday Movie Night” to watch the Hollywood and still photos of him giving his “friend Sergey blockbuster First Man starring Canadian actor Prokopyev” a haircut with “hair clippers fashioned Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong. with a vacuum device to garner freshly cut hair”. On 24 September, Auñón-Chancellor did more On 18 September, the USOS crew conducted work with the Atomization experiment, whilst LEFT further work with the BCAT-CS study and The H-II Transfer Vehicle-7 Feustel, Arnold and Artemyev began preparing collected blood and urine samples for the (HTV-7) is being remotely for their return to Earth which included an Biochemical profile investigation whilst the Russian guided with the Canadarm2 undocking and descent rehearsal on 26 September cosmonauts conducted the ongoing Separatsiya towards its attachment in conjunction with Korolev Mission Control. point on the Harmony experiment. module. HTV-7 took a Feustel and Auñón-Chancellor entered the Gerst conducted further research with the four and a half day trip to Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) on SpceTex-2 investigation on 19 September. This the space station after 25 September for routine maintenance and stowage looks at whether a custom designed T-shirt can launching 22 September work. The astronauts reinforced and stiffened struts provide comfort and thermal efficiency during a from the Tanegashima inside BEAM to increase its safety margin and Space Centre in Japan. space workout. Arnold and Auñón-Chancellor extend its operational life, which ISS programme worked with the Combustion Integrated Rack BELOW managers have agreed to extend beyond its original (CIR) and removed samples from inside the During his stay aboard two-year life until the end of ISS operations Electrostatic Levitation Furnace (ELF). Auñón- the ISS, Alexander Gerst (SpaceFlight Vol 60, No 2, p 10). participated in the Grip Chancellor joined Feustel to perform further study aboard the Columbus On 26 September, Feustel and Auñón- robotics training for Kounotori’s arrival, whilst module. Grip is an ESA- Chancellor went through a final practice run Artemyev and Prokopyev worked with the sponsored experiment with the station’s robotic arm prior to the arrival Cosmocard biomedical study, the Kontent researching how the of Kounotori, whilst the remainder of the crew (Content) psychophysiological experiment and nervous system adapts to continued work with the BCAT-CS and the Sally microgravity, observations NASA’s Interaction-2 investigation, which looks at which may help patients Ride EarthKAM experiments. the interpersonal factors that can impact crew and on Earth with neurological Kounotori was grappled by Canadarm2 some ground support performance. diseases. 26 min ahead of schedule at 11:34 UTC on 27 The station’s altitude was raised by 0.49 km when Zvezda fired its engines at 18:05 UTC on 20 September for 17 sec to place the ISS in a 423.32 x 403.35 km orbit in preparation for the next Soyuz departure and arrival. Arnold and Auñón-Chancellor conducted a variety of biomedical research on 20 September as Feustel and Gerst worked on housekeeping tasks inside Unity, installing computer network gear on an EXPRESS rack. All six crewmembers spoke to US Presidential advisor Ivanka Trump who was visiting NASA’s Johnson Space Center. She told the crew “you have my dream job”. Feustel thanked her for her support and interest, and Artemyev made Ms Trump laugh, telling her “when I see you my mood improves”. The crew ended their working week the following day conducting further research with

SpaceFlight Vol 60 December 2018 9 ISS REPORT

September as the station flew 403.9 km above Artemyev continued with their preparations for the northern Pacific Ocean and was berthed to the landing and the remainder of the crew resumed Earth facing port of Harmony over two and a half Auñón-Chancellor Kounotori cargo transfers. hours later at 14:09 UTC. The vehicle delivered 6,200 kg of pressurised and unpressurised cargo thanked JAXA for RETURN OF SOYUZ MS-08/54S including six new lithium-ion batteries and adapter Amidst crew departure activities on 2 October, plates which will replace the aging nickel-hydrogen the “beautiful Auñón-Chancellor conducted botany research with batteries that make up the station’s electrical power the Plant Habitat-1 located inside Columbus. Gerst system, two CubeSats and a variety of scientific fruits and worked on hardware for the Mobile Procedure hardware including a new glovebox for life science vegetables…from Viewer (MobiPV) study which is examining ways investigations. For the first time there was a HTV to increase productivity between the astronauts and Small Re-entry Capsule (HSRC), similar to the several areas Mission Control and Feustel and Arnold cleaned VBK-Raduga re-entry capsule used on Russian up their crew quarters in preparation for the Progress flights to Mir, which will return scientific in Japan” next arrivals. Arnold also took part in a Q and A samples to Earth once Kounotori departs the ISS. session to end NASA’s Year of Education on Station Wearing protective goggles and masks, Gerst outreach programme which involved both himself and Auñón-Chancellor entered Kounotori on 27 and fellow school teacher turned astronaut Joe September to begin several days of transferring Acaba who flew back to back missions to the ISS. what Feustel described in a tweet as “much needed Feustel relinquished command of the station to science and supplies” to the ISS. Auñón-Chancellor Gerst on 3 October. Gerst became only the second thanked JAXA for the “beautiful fruits and ESA commander of the ISS (SpaceFlight Vol 51, vegetables…from several area in Japan”, including No.12, p 459) and during the traditional ceremony peppers, onions, oranges and grapes adding that was handed a piece of anorthosite from Mount “we know how important they are for our health Erebus in Antarctica from fellow geophysicist and also improves the mood and well-being in Feustel. everyone on board” and looked forward to a The hatches between Soyuz and the station “cheeseburger night” on the station! were closed at 05:06 UTC on 4 October and with By 28 September the USOS crew had already Artemyev in command of Soyuz, the spacecraft completed eleven and a half hours of cargo undocked from Poisk nearly three hours later at transfers from Kounotori whilst their Russian 07:57 UTC as the complex flew 410.3 km above counterparts worked on the Profilaktika-2 Madagascar to signal the official start to Expedition experiment which measures the physical 57. Immediately after undocking, with Artemyev performance of the cosmonauts and the at the controls, Feustel floated into the Orbital Vzaimodeystvie-2 study which examines the Module whilst Soyuz performed a unique fly interaction between the crew and ground control. around of the ISS to capture video and still footage During the crew’s final weekend together, of the station in honour of the upcoming 20th 29/30 September, Feustel took a leaf out of Chris anniversary of the launch of the first element of the Hadfield’s book and teamed up with Canadian rock BELOW ISS (SpaceFlight Vol 41, No 1, p 9). Oleg Artemyev of band The Tragically Hip to record a music video Roscosmos signs the Soyuz conducted a 4 min 40 sec de-orbit from the station where he described his emotions outside of the Soyuz burn at 10:51 UTC on 4 October and following as his six months in space came to an end MS-08 spacecraft just the separation of the spacecraft’s three modules, On 1 October, NASA celebrated its 60th minutes after he, Drew the Descent Module came through re-entry anniversary and Auñón-Chancellor tweeted that Feustel and Ricky Arnold of 37 min later with Artemyev reporting “G load NASA, landed in a remote she was “thrilled to be doing valuable” research area near the town of is decreasing…..we’re feeling just fine”. Soyuz aboard the ISS adding; “Here’s to many more years Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan landed under clear blue skies near Dzhezkazgan, of exploring the cosmos”. Feustel, Arnold and on 4 October. Kazakhstan at 11:44 UTC (17:44 local time) to complete a mission of 196 days 18 hr 0 min. Artemyev, Feustel and Arnold were extracted almost immediately from the spacecraft and following post-landing medical tests, the US astronauts were flown by NASA private jet to Houston. Artemyev returned to Star City, Moscow. Gerst, Auñón-Chancellor and Prokopyev continued with transferring cargo from Kounotori on 5 October and worked with NASA’s Lighting Effects experiment which examines the crew’s circadian rhythm and sleep patterns. Space analyst Jonathan McDowell tweeted that three CubeSats “were deployed from the ISS Kibo module” at approximately 08:00 UTC on 6 October whilst the crew devoted the weekend of 6/7 October to light-duty housekeeping chores and further Kounotori transfer activities. On 8 October, the crew continued conducting Kounotori cargo operations and also took time out to celebrate US Columbus Day. SF

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Heading for the Heavens On 15 August, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that India will launch the “first manned space mission by 2022“. Many people say this is a political statement in advance of the upcoming elections. It is. by Gurbir Singh

he motivation for the spaceflights that took behind the headlines, what material benefits will this Yuri Gagarin (USSR in 1961), Alan Shepard costly mission deliver for the people of India? (USA in 1961) Yang Liwei (China in 2003) to India’s first astronaut, Squadron Leader Rakesh space were the technological achievements Sharma spent eight days aboard the Russian space T but also end products of a clear-cut political station Salyut-7 in April 1984. It was at the invitation objective. While this is exhilarating and welcomed of the then Soviet government at no cost to India. The news, India should not yet embark on this goal. then Indian PM Indira Gandhi took this offer to ISRO India certainly has the technological capability and (Indian Space Research Organisation) which declined experience to succeed in human spaceflight by 2022 but on the basis that the agency was not ready and there after the first flight - what then? The prime minister’s was no long-term structured plan that could follow this announcement is just that - an announcement. What is ABOVE flight. So it was the member of the Indian Air Force, really required is detailed, costed, thought out long- A successful test not ISRO that represented India in space. of a pad abort in term strategy. preparation for the When Sharma’s mission was successfully concluded, Human spaceflight is an exciting and powerful launch of an Indian the ISRO chairman at the time, Professor UR Rao, astronaut within the national endeavour but does not deliver the cost- next five years took assessed it to be “isolated artefacts of curiosity”. That effectiveness, the bang for the buck, for which the place in July this is where things have remained since Sharma’s 1984 frugal Indian space programme is best known. The year. The parachute mission. In the absence of a long-term structured recovery system estimated $1.4 billion price tag for this mission is came through with plan that integrates the private sector, academia and

ISRO about the same as ISRO’s annual budget. Nevertheless, flying colours. industry, India’s first crewed mission could again be

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an “isolated artefact” again. But it does not have to be. In the UK, Tim Peake’s space flight launched in December 2015 and lasting six months was accompanied by a sophisticated programme of outreach in schools and universities and motivated the private sector. Arguably, on the back of Time Peake’s success, the UK recently announced plans to build the infrastructure on mainland Britain to launch spacecraft into low earth orbit. In July 2017, the UK Space Agency ABOVE Award winning was given $126 million for the construction of facilities Indian scientist Dr for assembly, integration and testing of instruments, Lalithambika has satellites and spacecraft. been appointed to head ISRO’s The UK’s private sector has been contributing to human space flight the development of the national economy, even during programme. the difficult periods of recession. Today the UK space RIGHT industry employs 38,000 people, generating $17 billion Rakesh Sharma, to the economy and it continues to grow at 8% whereas India’s only spaceman to date, other sectors in the UK languish at less than half that. who was launched Combining a clear political vision with a financial to Russia’s Salyut 7 commitment, the UK’s example demonstrates that space space station on 2 April 1984. projects can lift national spirits as well as its economy. TEDX / LEFT GURBIR SINGH LEFT: FAR

GETTING IT RIGHT space flight, can deliver a significant boost to national The space programme in the UK has had bumps BELOW economies. Preparing for the along the way. In 1971, the UK built its own satellite, launch of Polar Putting people in space is expensive and the benefits Prospero, and launched it from Australia with its own Satellite Launch are not as tangible as those provided by a constellation launcher – Black Arrow. The programme was cancelled Vehicle (PSLV-C42), of communication, remote sensing and navigation which successfully even before that final launch took place. The UK is the launched two satellites. From a standing start in 1963, India has built only country to have developed an indigenous launch SSTL satellites a remarkable space-based infrastructure delivering a capability and then discarded it. The global space sector into orbit on 16 multitude of services. However, despite the progress, September 2018 has been growing and continues to do so. Long term from Sriharikota in the demand in India for communication satellites well-structured space programmes, including human Andhra Pradesh. services far outstrips the supply currently available.

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The European Copernicus Earth observation constellation is supported by a rich set of tools for receiving, analysing, processing and sharing of the publicly available images shortly after they are taken. These images and the enabling tools to effectively utilise this data are available to the public – wherever they happen to be on the globe, not just in Europe. India’s echo-system for remote sensing images is weak in comparison. The same is true of its recently completed navigation constellation of seven satellites – NavIC. The ground infrastructure, but especially the applications for use by the armed services, commerce and industry, is far from being mature.

ROCKETS FOR WHAT? ISRO Another area where India needs to focus efforts is heavy lift launch capability. By mid-August 2018, India ABOVE Sputnik in 1957 used semi-cryogenic technology. An experimental had completed three launches, while China and the crew module ISRO should have developed semi-cryogenic engine USA had completed 22 each. The highest number of bobbing in technology by now, as it has done with solids, liquid launches in one year for India was seven, in 2016. Why the Andaman and cryogenic engines. Sea following such a lacklustre record? India has just one operational splashdown on 18 ISRO has been working on elements of the human launch site, Sriharikota with two launch pads and one December 2014. space programme for years. Completing a crewed vehicle assembly building although the second VAB has mission by 2022 is an ambitious challenge but well just come online. within its technical capability. However, it is probably There are just two operational launch vehicles – unlikely to make this timeline because ISRO’s internal the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and the processes and management structures are insufficiently Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle GSLV MII. ISRO has been flexible. The management hierarchy lacks a modern The heavy-lift GSLV Mk III has been successfully tested agile project management skillset and is weighed down but not yet declared operational. As an illustration of working on by procedural red tape that inhibits innovation. Despite the absence of long-term planning, earlier this year, the recent efforts, India’s private sector remains small, ISRO got the go-ahead to develop a semi-cryogenic elements of unsupported and unengaged. BELOW: ISRO / BELOW RIGHT: GURBIR SINGH RIGHT: / BELOW ISRO BELOW: engine for the GSLV-Mk III. The rocket that launched the human Human-rated systems are complex, require a demanding test regime and are significantly more space expensive. Not only is the value of such missions inherently limited but the funds it soaks up are denied programme to other projects. Investing the same $1.4 billion in expanding the communication satellites, developing for years an enhanced ecosystem for the Earth observation programme or accelerating the launch vehicle programme will produce more tangible and effective outcomes from which many more ordinary Indian citizens will directly benefit. In addition to refining management structures, this money should also be used to increase the salaries of BELOW ISRO employees. That will help attract and retain a new SpaceFlight generation of talented scientist, engineers and contributor Gurbir Singh at Mission managers that can take India’s space programme and Control, Sriharikota. equip it to face the challenges of the 21st century. SF

SpaceFlight Vol 60 December 2018 13 HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT ISS2 Building the Lunar Gateway On the 50th anniversary of the first flight by humans to another world in space and 20 years after the first-element launch of the Earth-orbiting ISS, NASA is planning a circumlunar space base. by David Baker

nshrined in Space Policy Directive No 1, Cancelled outright in 2010 by former US President signed by the President, NASA is to “Lead Barack Obama on cost grounds, it was to Congress an innovative and sustainable program of NASA looked for approval to resuscitate Orion and exploration with commercial and international build a super-heavy rocket called the Space Launch E partners to enable human expansion across the System, while supporting the commercial development solar system…The United States will lead the return of support systems for cargo and humans to the ISS. of humans to the Moon for long-term exploration and Now all three elements are key to the Lunar Gateway utilization”. and progress toward ISS Mk. 2 is accelerating with US The strategic principles underpinning this policy and international agencies. involve fiscal realism, commercial and international partnerships, scientific exploration, technology pull DEFINITION and push, gradually expanding operational capabilities, The platform will consist of at least a power and open and resilient architecture, global collaboration propulsion element and habitation, logistics and airlock and continuity of human spacecraft. And it is to grow capabilities. While specific technical and mission OPPOSITE commensurate with the long-term goal of placing The Lunar capabilities as well as partnership opportunities are humans on the surface of Mars. Gateway is as under consideration, NASA plans to launch elements of It has been a long time coming, a series of shifts much about the gateway on the Space Launch System or commercial that go back to 2004 when deliberations over the research on the rockets for assembly in space throughout the 2020s. Moon as providing future of US human space flight concluded that the a stepping stone “The Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway will give us Shuttle should be retired after assembly completion to Mars, enabling a strategic presence in cislunar space. It will drive our of the International Space Station and that NASA measured activity with commercial and international partners should return to the Moon. The story involving the examination of and help us explore the Moon and its resources”, said Constellation programme is well known: Ares I and both the near William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator, Human side and the far Ares V rockets, assembled from legacy elements of the side in a search Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, at Shuttle programme, delivering an Orion spacecraft to for optimum base NASA HQ in Washington. “We will ultimately translate

Moon orbit supporting a surface lander called Altair. locations. that experience toward human missions to Mars.” NASA ALL IMAGES:

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Building the

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The 50 kW spacecraft will have a 40 kW electrical propulsion system capable of power transfer to other Gateway elements. It will have provision for passive docking with the international docking system and the capability to be an attitude-strongback for other elements which will dock to it. It is required to carry a 2 tonne xenon supply, refuellable for both chemical and electric propellants. Design life is 15 years and it must also have provision for accommodating other payloads. The power and propulsion element will also provide data high-rate and reliable communications for the Gateway including space-to-Earth and space-to-lunar uplinks and downlinks, spacecraft- to-spacecraft crosslinks, and support for spacewalk communications. Finally, it also can accommodate an optical communications demonstration – using lasers to transfer large data packages at faster rates than traditional radio frequency systems. NASA released the final version of the Power and Propulsion Element Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) 6 September. Reflecting much of the feedback from an Industry Day NASA hosted 10 July, and The power and propulsion element will be the ABOVE several follow-on communications with potential initial component of the gateway, and is targeted to With a European bidders, NASA has made a number of updates to the Service Module launch in 2022 on a commercial launch vehicle. Using providing power, final solicitation. These clarify content and context, advanced high-power solar electric propulsion, the communications, encourage industry innovation and creativity, element will maintain the gateway’s position and can life-support and enhancing the public-private partnership and aligning move the gateway between lunar orbits over its lifetime propulsion, Orion the approach for NASA requirements more closely with is key to ferrying to maximize science and exploration operations. As part four-person crews industry practices. of the agency’s public-private partnership, work under to and from the The “Power and Propulsion Element” BAA outlines Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships, Gateway. NASA’s objectives for the development, build and flight or NextSTEP, five companies are completing four- demonstration of the envisioned spacecraft. NASA is month studies on affordable ways to develop the power BELOW targeting one or more contract awards in the March The full Gateway and propulsion element. NASA will leverage capabilities as envisioned 2019 timeframe to support a launch of the power and and plans of commercial satellite companies to build the by NASA and its propulsion element in 2022 on a partner-provided next generation of all electric spacecraft. partners. commercial rocket followed by a demonstration of up to

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one-year duration. After successful completion, NASA ABOVE ESPRIT will permit telecommunications with radio intends to have the option to acquire the spacecraft for Elements of the assets on the lunar surface. The launch of the European Gateway showing use as the first Gateway element. (left) the ESPRIT ESPRIT module is planned for the end of 2023. OHB System AG, a subsidiary of the European module with the Also in 2023, together with ESPRIT, NASA will space and technology group OHB SE, has been selected interim habitation launch the US Utilization Module on the same to participate in one of two parallel studies concerning module ready to Exploration Mission 3 (EM-3) flight, the third flight the planning of a European module with the evocative receive a visiting of the Space Launch System. The Utilization Module Orion spacecraft name ESPRIT (European System Providing Refuelling, in the early build will provide initial habitation for a four-person crew Infrastructure and Telecommunications). OHB will phase. for up to 15 days and is expected to remain docked be handling key development tasks in a contract as a functional component of the Gateway. However, worth €1.7 million as a subcontractor for French with only 55 m³ of habitable volume it will have limited aerospace group Thales Alenia Space. ESPRIT is being capacity to support a crew without the additional executed on behalf of the European Space Agency volume of the Orion spacecraft. As a temporary ESA in a project worth a total of €5 million in the first habitation it will be replaced with the permanent development phase (A/B1). habitation module the following year. “The Gateway marks the next major step in manned space flight and promises to substantially broaden what LIVING IN STYLE is feasible for humankind. OHB will be contributing a As yet uncertain on delivery date, enhanced science and large share to the technically demanding definition of “The Gateway operations will be possible through the launch of the the European elements”, explains Mathias Rohrbeck, logistics module and robotic arm assembly provided in lead system engineer at OHB System AG for ESPRIT. promises to a partner-agreement with NASA. OHB will be responsible for design work on the Enhanced habitation capabilities launching in 2024 structure of the module, the thermal system and the substantially will further broaden the ability for science, exploration, xenon-refuelling system. “Simply put, the structure is and partner (commercial and international) use. The the shell that envelops the ESPRIT module. The thermal broaden what Gateway’s habitation capabilities will be informed by system controls the waste heat and the refuelling entails NextSTEP partnerships, and also by studies with the the supply of the noble gas xenon which is needed for is feasible for ISS partners. With this capability, crew aboard the the ion thrusters of the Gateway”, adds Dr. Matthias Gateway could live and work in deep space for up to Boehme, ESPRIT project manager at OHB System AG. humankind” 30 to 60 days at a time. Crews will also participate in The European ESPRIT module will handle further a variety of deep space exploration and commercial important functions such as the science airlock for activities in the vicinity of the Moon, including possible exterior experiments on board the Gateway. Refuelling missions to the lunar surface. will also be possible with hydrazine fuel. In addition, Currently, five commercial competitors are

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planning to deliver full-size, ground prototypes providing a habitable volume of at least 125 m³. These include: Lockheed Martin with heritage hardware Currently, five refurbished for low-cost; Northrop Grumman which will utilise the existing Cygnus cargo module; Bigelow commercial Aerospace with an expandable module; Boeing, also leveraging existing technology; and Sierra Nevada competitors Corporation with a modular concept. A latecomer, are planning NanoRacks is proposing an evolution of converted Centaur upper stages. to deliver Adding an airlock to the Gateway in the future, probably for launch no earlier than 2025-2026 will full-size, enable crew to conduct spacewalks, enable science activities and accommodate docking of future elements. ground NASA is also planning to launch at least one logistics module to the gateway, which will enable cargo resupply prototypes deliveries, additional scientific research and technology demonstrations and commercial use. The type of orbit selected for the Gateway is biased by several criteria embracing access, environment, scientific research, communications and surface operations support. Circular or elliptical, low lunar orbits with a period of two hours are very good for remote sensing and imaging of surface features but poor for stability and endurance; heterogeneous composition of the lunar interior produces variable levels of mass concentrations (mascons and minicons) BELOW Halo orbits have many advantages. They are fuel- which affect the orbit and require frequent re-boost for Capable of efficient, in that rotate around neutral gravity points in sustained continuity. growing as the Earth-Moon-Sun system, and with an orbital period Very large, circular but stable distant retrograde budgets permit, of one to two weeks they are accessible. It is for these the Gateway is orbits with periods of up to two weeks have the flexible and can reasons that the Gateway will reside in a near-rectilinear advantage of being easy to reach from Earth, are far less be adapted for a halo orbit (NRHO) with periapsis of 1,500 km and influenced by differential concentrations of mass in the variety of evolving apoapsis of 70,000 km and an orbital period of six days. lunar subsurface but are far away from the Moon itself. requirements, In an NRHO path, access is open to all current and This poses problems for accessibility to polar, equatorial flexibly being projected national and commercial launch systems shaped by or surface equipment emplaced for scientific survey, its purpose and can provide a staging location for minimum- except for spacecraft and surface installations operated as objectives energy transfer to lunar and deep space destinations, remotely from the Gateway or from Earth. change. particularly useful for the DST. This is also a useful

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PUTTING OUT THE TRASH NASA has selected Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) and UTC Aerospace Systems (UTAS) to develop equipment that can reduce trash volume, and process the resulting atmosphere contaminants during deep space missions. Managing trash aboard the International Space Station is a continuous challenge for astronauts, who must manually compact and store waste material until they can offload it in departing spacecraft bound for touchdown on Earth or directed into a controlled incineration during the descent through Earth’s atmosphere. Missions to the Moon or Mars will not have the benefit of the space station’s robust supply chain with regular visiting vehicles, so NASA is investing early to tackle the challenge of trash management in deep space. SNC and UTAS will have approximately 18 months to develop and test their trash compaction and processing systems under Phase A, to a point at which a preliminary design review (PDR) can be conducted. Phase B will be a separate, follow-on procurement with a 24-30 month period of performance to complete flight hardware design in preparation for a flight to demonstrate the capability on the International Space Station. Both companies proposed trash compaction chambers that would use heat cycles to reduce and isolate gas or liquid contaminants to be vented outside the spacecraft. orbit for testing radiation and for evaluating protection ABOVE SNC also is designing a complementary system to recover systems for missions to the Moon or Mars. It also The Gateway is water from solid waste and developing options to determine conceived with favours an equitable balance between prioritising if it’s possible to treat contaminants for safe integration man-machine with onboard recycling systems. Earth, Sun and deep space observations. For human interface for habitation it affords continuous communications with extensive SNC and UTAS have already demonstrated their Earth and as a relay for farside operations and it is the application of microgravity waste management competencies. UTAS is on optimum orbit for lunar surface operations, either with robotic and human contract with NASA to manage a different kind of waste capabilities, – their Universal Waste Management System will be the robotic spacecraft, sample return or human habitation astronauts even toilet that astronauts in deep space use. SNC has on the surface. visiting and experience designing space trash processing concepts There is one further element which NASA considers servicing support under NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research satellites in lunar important for connecting the Gateway to its aspirations programme. orbit. for missions to Mars: the Deep Space Transport (DST) The UTAS trash compaction and processing system system which would support deep space missions of removes the majority of the air and water from the trash at up to 1,000 days in duration. It is not yet proposed or low temperatures. The system recovers about 85 percent of factored into the Gateway programme plan, other than air in the trash chamber, and about 90 percent of water to build facilities in the NRHO path which would not suspended in the trash. inhibit or prevent the development of such a capability. As with other NextSTEP partners, SNC and UTAS each It is the DST, after all, that would be in the vanguard of will contribute 20 percent of their own corporate resources carrying humans to Mars. toward the overall effort – a measure to encourage Propelled by 24 tonnes of electrical propellant and 16 simultaneous investment in potential commercial tonnes for chemical propulsion, the DST would carry In an NRHO applications of their designs. a 48 tonne payload consisting of a 21.9 tonne habitat with 26.5 tonnes of logistics and supplies to support a path, access SNC crew of four. With solar arrays providing 470 kW at the is open to all start of the mission, 20 kW would be for the spacecraft and the payload with 300 kW for the electric propulsion current and system. This would be optimised for a mission in which the crew spend 306 days on the outbound Hohmann projected transfer ellipse, 438 days orbiting Mars for remote observations and 291 days returning to the Gateway. national and Under very preliminary planning schedules, the DST would be launched in 2027 on EM-8 and conduct commercial shakedown trials before supporting the first Mars launch mission in 2033. Like elements of the Gateway, the DST could be commercially developed and used much systems later for routinely supply logistics and equipment to a Mars-orbiting gateway station which would serve as a delivery node for onward conveyance to surface bases using landers. Or it could be provided by international SNC's trash compactor for clean living in the Gateway. partners.

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LEARNING FROM STUDENTS process, the teams will complete engineering design For the next decade, NASA has its sights set closer to reviews and provide three project status briefings to home and wants to leverage the Gateway for scientific For the next NASA, before presenting final prototypes for evaluation investigation of the Moon. The agency recently in May 2019. completed a call for abstracts from the global science decade, NASA The X-Hab 2019 Academic Innovation Challenge community, supporting a workshop discussion on the projects fall within six categories based on sponsoring unique scientific research the Gateway could enable. has its sights organizations or projects: Advanced Exploration NASA and the National Space Grant Foundation set closer to Systems Gateway & Transport, Life Support, In-Space have selected 10 university teams to design systems, Manufacturing, Space Life & Physical Sciences, Human concepts and technologies to potentially support the home Research Program, and Logistics Reduction. agency’s deep space exploration capabilities, including Proposals were submitted in early 2018, and the the Lunar Gateway. The selections are part of the selections kick off a year-long process to develop “eXploration Systems and Habitation (X-HAB) 2019 the prototypes. The projects will be consistent with Academic Innovation Challenge” and include proposals senior- and graduate-level design curricula while to advance 3D printing in space, improve spacecraft emphasizing hands-on design, research, development environmental recycling systems, refine plant growth and manufacturing. Project teams will work toward a systems and create conceptual habitat designs. series of milestones to design, manufacture, assemble “The X-Hab challenge is a great example of and test their systems and concepts in close cooperation how NASA is using non-traditional approaches to with NASA experts. developing important technology, while providing BELOW Through a competitive process, NASA selected the unique technical student experiences that can inspire In an evolution National Space Grant Foundation in August to future careers”, said Jason Crusan, director of Advanced of the Lunar administer X-Hab grants to universities through 2022. Exploration Systems at NASA Headquarters in Gateway, Mars Grants totalling up to $50,000 were awarded to each Washington. missions may university team. The X-Hab Academic Innovation utilise hardware The X-Hab teams will develop their proposed from, or developed Challenge supports NASA research efforts to study systems and structures into functional prototypes for, the lunar sustained and affordable human and robotic space during the 2018-2019 academic year. As part of this outpost. exploration. SF

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HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT Shuttling to the Moon Exchanging weightlessness for a one-sixth gravity-well may not be the best reason for landing on the Moon, but it could provide a new spur to commercialisation. by David Baker

here are many reasons to go back to the Moon mineral resources on the Moon and provide base – as many as there are for justifying a Gateway camps for intensive scientific research and reserves for first rather than doing a Direct Ascent from experiments with habitats, surface transportation and Earth to a specific place on the lunar surface. sustainable ecosystems independent of the Moon. Mars advocate Robert Zubrin has said that he Those imperatives are identical to requirements T OPPOSITE believes the Gateway is the wrong decision because The Lunar Lander driving similar elements on the surface of Mars because there is nothing to do in lunar orbit and plenty to do on conceived by both worlds are hostile to a shirt-sleeve environment the surface. Lockheed Martin and incapable of sustaining life without protection and But what the Gateway enables is a much more incorporates support. Only the Lander would be different: Mars accessible technology for getting to the surface, and four RL-10 rocket has an atmosphere and facilitates aerobraking for a motors supporting what it prevents is a limited option for global lunar a four-person significant portion of the deceleration phase, the Moon exploration requiring costly and over-sized landers. All crew and up does not and requires rocket propulsion for a safe the arguments that supported the mission mode finally to 1,000 kg of touchdown. selected in the 1960s for Apollo flights are here today equipment or This is why the Gateway is an essential prerequisite with the Gateway/Lander concept. experiments. for both Moon and Mars and the opportunity to test As a central hub for focusing national and BELOW surface infrastructure on the Moon could qualify international efforts, the Gateway is sensibly priced The Lunar Lander hardware designs for similar requirements at a Mars and affordable. But it is an enabler in that it allows about to slip surface base. With Zubrin’s Direct Ascent for Earth- an evolutionary development which will support its berth at the Moon flight, much is left untested which would be Gateway before both a cislunar and a lunar based architecture for descending to essential for getting from Earth or lunar orbit to space applications, turning a “dust and flags” mission the surface of the the vicinity of Mars. Moreover, the energy to move into a long-term effort which can effectively utilise Moon. the Gateway to Mars (or deliver a second dedicated LEFT: NASA, OPPOSITE: LOCKHEED MARTIN OPPOSITE: NASA, LEFT:

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All the arguments that supported the mission mode selected for the Apollo flights are here today

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Gateway) is much less than lifting off from the surface of either body before heading straight for Mars.

DIGGING FOR GOLD Lunar resource utilisation is a hot topic for debate on the economic and material benefit from expanding a lunar presence, one lost on those who still advocate a push on to Mars as a priority over a cislunar economy. There are many materials on the Moon that could effectively support requirements for such an infrastructure, something close to “living off the land” for sustainable habitats, propellant and protection from radiation; semi-buried pressurised modules with over- cover from piled regolith as an example.

Anorthositic materials would produce aluminium NASA AND BELOW: LEFT ores and extracting oxygen from lunar rocks is a candidate for early installation of appropriate ABOVE into surface satellite stations for scientific research or equipment. Using high temperatures and hydrogen gas, NASA’s Altair material for extraction. lander docked itself obtained from regolith, the extraction formula to the original Using lunar materials for more than one purpose is well defined: FeO + H2 → Fe + H2O. In general, concept for the can incentivise growth, amortising developments costs, material from the lunar highlands could find wide Orion developed enhancing reusability and ensuring an enduring and application and if smelting was accorded, calcium for the cancelled expanding space industry – one not formed of providers metal, silica-glass products and purified aluminium Constellation (rockets, satellites and spacecraft) but users (mining programme. could be delivered. operations, resource distributors, materials specialists, The application of 3D printing is an enabling tool etc). And there is a very wide range of those which await for fabricating all forms of construction materials, a viable cislunar transportation system to a microgravity many of which if produced in the hard vacuum of the Lunar node anchored off our nearest celestial neighbour. Moon would be of higher purity than similar products Apart from cryogenic rocket propellant extracted on Earth, glass in particular since it could be formed resource from the ice already known to be on the Moon, and without constituent water. Manufacturing no longer hydrogen peroxide that can also be extracted from the requires tooling, formers, frames or jigs since 3D can utilisation is a ice, manufacturing could utilise existing and known be employed for fabricating almost any product from hot topic for indigenous lunar materials such as silicon, aluminium any appropriate material – with the chemistry of the and glass for solar cell production with the vacuum product tailored to the requirements of a one-sixth debate aiding deposition of thin-film cell overlays. In the gravity environment. very far future, solar arrays configured as solar power Propellants, too, can be produced from processed satellites could be manufactured on the Moon, laid out materials found on the Moon. From water-ice on the surface and set up with a fixed orientation, as discovered at selected spots on the lunar surface, solar power satellites, once considered for geostationary through electrolysis oxygen and hydrogen can be orbit providing electrical energy to Earth through produced for short-term cryogenic storage but at BELOW microwave links and rectennas. a cost. This process requires very large amounts of Future mining Nearer term, a considerable amount of research is energy but a nuclear reactor could deliver that and operations shift under way to develop an integrated energy production provide both chemicals for use in propulsion systems. from Gateway- and sustenance programme to meet daunting Availability of propellant if scaled proportionate to reliant operations challenges: two weeks of day followed by two weeks of to an indigenous the amount of work involved could provide a true fabrication of night. One concept delivers a combined solar-cell/fuel- “living off the land” process, providing large surface-to- facilities using cell approach, whereby electrical power is provided by surface transport capabilities, expanding single bases lunar materials. solar energy when that is available, some of that power being used to split the water into hydrogen and oxygen for use in fuel cells for the two weeks of night. Power demands will be too high to rely on accumulators or batteries and a self-sustaining cycle provided by a mixed supply is within current technology and is also efficient.

REPLACING ALTAIR In the overall concept of the Lunar Gateway, the only remaining element for uniquely Moon-based operations is the spacecraft built to carry a crew of four to and from the surface. Projected as the lunar lander for NASA’s Constellation programme until cancelled in 2010, Altair was envisaged in a two-stage configuration with a total mass of 45,900 kg. Powered by cryogenic propulsion utilising RL-10 rocket motors, in other respects it followed the design concept of the Apollo Lunar Module in that the descent stage carried supplies, propulsion elements for landing and consumables, while the ascent section would have

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carried the crew back to Orion. ABOVE Operationally, the Lander could stay on the The focus for the proposed lunar lander concept Moon Express surface for up to two weeks. It is independent of any is one of several has shifted to a sustainability which drives a single- commercial support at the landing site and would not require stage design involving cryogenic propellants for a fully organisations maintenance or refuelling at the surface. Payload reusable spacecraft capable of functional adaptation already planning options include an open roving vehicle and the to crewed or uncrewed assignments. The concept for lunar resource reconfiguration into an uncrewed logistical freighter developed by Lockheed Martin has a propulsion utilisation. for cargo delivery. Reusability is an enabling asset system package with a ΔV of 5,000 m/sec for the round providing low cost support for base build-up until trip from and to the Gateway, maximising the potential indigenous site-support facilities can be fabricated from the lowest wet mass/maximum dry mass payload The Lander through the use of lunar materials and 3D printing. achievable with current technology. Design of the Lunar Lander is entirely As conceived the Lunar Lander would have a dry could stay on commensurate with the broadest application of mass of 33 tonnes and a loaded wet mass of 62 tonnes investment in the minimum amount of hardware, capable of carrying a payload of 1,000 kg in scientific the surface being directly applicable to Mars missions where the equipment, experiments or cargo to the surface on spacecraft could be carried through the atmosphere each flight. Much of the propulsion design comes for up to two in an aeroshell and released for propulsive descent to off the Centaur programme with four RL-10 engines the surface at low altitude. Sortie missions facilitated providing a unified thrust of 440 kN. Selection of four weeks by the Lander could be adapted for the higher gravity engines over three ensures a safer engine-out attitude field and atmosphere-induced drag through more compensation while retaining a full abort-to-orbit powerful rocket motors while retaining a high degree option in the event of an engine failure at any point of commonality between the spacecraft used for the prior to touchdown. lunar missions and that for Mars-base support. SF

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A new age of Enlightenment [on Mars?]

What beliefs might motivate the settlers in a human colony on Mars? Would they be tolerant or intolerant of dissent? Might they impose their own religion, or would their ethics be grounded on atheist principles? What is to be learned from historic analogues on Earth? by Stephen Ashworth FBIS

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ABOVE Michelanglo's mural The Creation of Adam in the Sistine Chapel, Vatican City. Many bad things have been done in the name of religion, but many great things too. Might not colonists on Mars (opposite) find its pull inescapable?

ack in 2017, Konrad Szocik noted that organisations assert their doctrines in vigorously religious beliefs remained widespread on dogmatic terms and attempt to stifle dissent; others 21st-century Earth, and speculated that are self-effacing and tolerant of variety. colonists on Mars might find it useful to Perhaps the one thing all religions have in Bcreate a new Martian religion in order to common is that they each prescribe specific promote social cohesion and psychological support practices which are understood to benefit the in such a hostile and isolated environment [1]. His adherent in some way. Usually, the practices are thesis provoked a range of responses in subsequent social with a prescribed schedule of meetings, correspondence to the Editor [2]. but they may also be carried out in solitude, and In his article Szocik was mainly interested in may include: prayer to an invisible deity; silent materialist concepts of religion. He described the meditation; singing, chanting or reciting of sacred two main schools of scientific thought concerning texts; and group discussions for teaching and the origin of religious belief: cognitive science, sharing experiences. Spreading the faith through in which religion is a non-functional by-product missionary activity and performing charitable of the working of the brain, and evolutionary functions for the poor and the sick are also psychology, in which it was actively selected for commonly found. in prehistoric times as an inherited trait useful for There is considerable overlap between religion reproductive success. and other aspects of culture, particularly music Clearly, there is a third possible explanation and art. I would suggest that humans have a of religion: the human response to an intuitive fundamental need to engage in some therapeutic recognition that a supernatural level of reality activity which has no economically useful function, actually exists. Szocik touched on this only but does have the specific psychological function briefly, and his suggestion “to prepare and apply of focusing one’s attention outside oneself, whether a special Martian religion that could be a part of it be through religious ritual, or through music, the education given to offspring of settlers born the arts, theatre, sport, poetry, or model-making. on Mars” (p.94) was offered in the same mundane These activities are widely practised on Earth, spirit as one might prescribe such measures as for both relaxation and stimulation, and it would taking vitamins for good health. seem essential that they be both permitted and encouraged in space and planetary colonies as well. DEFINITION We should first clarify what is meant by “religion”. A TEMPLATE FOR MARS? The term covers a wide range of beliefs and When thinking ahead to such societies in the practices, with some monotheistic sects committing future, we need to recognise that they will certainly themselves to highly specific beliefs about the world be different from those of today, either through or historical events, while on the other hand some having developed further along the path of Asian forms of religion entertain no such beliefs technological and economic progress, or through and, with their stress on meditation, are more having collapsed as a result of some natural or akin to psychological exercises that an agnostic or human-induced catastrophe. Here we assume that

LEFT: NASA / ABOVE P-D ART P-D ABOVE / NASA LEFT: atheist might be comfortable with. Some religious disaster has been avoided and that a confident,

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prosperous civilisation is both consolidating its presence on the mother planet and expanding deeper into the Solar System. It is worth remembering that these goals are mutually reinforcing. The current trend towards ever greater efficiency in our use of energy and material resources is making cities on Earth more sustainable at the same time as developing technologies for the first cities on Mars. The long-term trend in which modern city-dwellers spend a larger proportion of their time than earlier generations within artificial structures (indoors at home, in an office or factory, in a shopping mall, in a car, bus or other vehicle) is moving us, without our noticing it, towards the lifestyle of our Martian descendants. Perhaps the most significant foreseeable difference between, say, London in 2018 and Mars City (or indeed London) in 2118 will be the further development of artificial intelligence. Like traditional computer programming, AI is at present still confined to specific modules for well-defined purposes, such as recognising objects and faces, matching advertising against personal profiles, or playing “Go”. Humans also have single-purpose modules in the brain, but in addition there is ABOVE project, a collaboration between NASA and the clearly some kind of central intelligence which Apollo 8 Commander Frank University of Edinburgh. The construction robots Borman, a lay preacher constructs a model of the world based on our himself, delivered his would need a high degree of autonomy from Earth, sensory data and memories, creates the subjective famous 'Genesis' reading in given the radio time lag between the planets. but extremely vivid impression of existence which response to stimuli his mind Because of this, they may even serve as a driver we all experience, and enables us to decide what to could comprehend in no for progress in machine intelligence, unless that do next. other way. progress has already taken place for Earth-based There has long been great interest in creating purposes. At least some of them would need a lifelike robots able to mimic a human being, humanoid form in order to move about within especially in human intellectual capacities. Given structures designed for eventual human habitation continued progress in compressing ever greater – a role which would no doubt continue even after computational capacity into an ever smaller humans had begun to arrive. volume, and meanwhile reducing the electrical This, however, throws the whole issue of power required (and so the production of waste religion, ethics and social organisation wide open. heat), it can hardly be doubted that such intelligent For if the robots – or synthetic humans, in the machines will be commonplace one hundred years BELOW terminology of a recent television drama serial – from now. Quite possibly, artificially possess human-equivalent intelligence, then they The case of Mars is especially relevant: robots intelligent robots will will presumably also have views on this issue which colonise other worlds could be extremely useful for constructing before humans arrive, and will need to be taken into account. habitable accommodation on the surface before will have views on religion Channel 4’s Humans serial portrays its colonists arrive. This is the idea behind the Valkyrie just like everything else. synthetics as humanlike to the extent that the usual way of interacting with them is through normal human speech, and the synthetics become just another national group, portrayed very much like immigrant workers, with the corresponding potential for estrangement from their human creators. The reality will clearly be different. Just as computer power continues to increase, so does the intimacy of human interaction with machines: from punched cards, to keyboard, to point and click, to voice recognition, and now with the first experiments being made with the direct wiring of computer chips into neurons in a living human brain. Michael Chorost conjures up a near-future scenario in which a group of police officers are able to catch a criminal by virtue of being essentially telepathic (Chorost uses the word telempathic), thanks to their near-instantaneous brain-to-brain links [3]. The author is himself congenitally deaf, but can hear thanks to the computers implanted in his ears and wired into his brain.

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It will be in this kind of world that the issues of that science and religion are complementary, not religion and ethics on Mars will be resolved. in conflict. He used the phrase “non-overlapping magisteria” to describe the way in which science THE GREAT DEBATE deals with factual questions, while religion asks In the 1960s, religion in space was a simple matter. how we should live and why the universe exists, the Soviet cosmonauts from the atheist state didn’t two sets of questions supposedly not coming into profess religion; US astronauts did, despite the conflict because they do not overlap. constitutional separation of church from state in But Dawkins condemned the concept. And their country. The 29 Apollo astronauts included 23 it is true that, in practice, some scientists do try Protestants and 6 Catholics, and a high proportion to explain human consciousness in a way that of them served as church officials. excludes the supernatural, while some religious Aldrin, a Presbyterian, served holy communion sects do try to determine the age of the Earth or to himself inside Eagle on the Moon, and quoted the mechanism of the origin of species in ways that the Psalms in a television programme broadcast exclude science, so Dawkins wins this round of the ABOVE by the Apollo 11 crew on the last evening of Dawkins' The God Delusion: debate. their flight. But the most memorable intrusion the atheists' bible. Given the fact that the claims of science and of religion into the dry astronautical litany of of religion do in practice overlap, and given the roll, pitch and yaw was when the crew of Apollo critical reliance of space technology on science 8 concluded their broadcast from lunar orbit on and rationalism, the prospect for religion playing a Christmas Eve 1968 with a reading of the first ten leading role on Mars or anywhere else in the Solar verses of the Book of Genesis. What the debate System seems doubtful. Since then religion has become a touchy issue Is it in fact the case that the collision between due to the resurgence of the more aggressive fundamentally atheist science and supernatural religion is identical

LEFT: NASA / BELOW LEFT: SHUTTERSTOCK / BELOW RIGH P-D ART RIGH P-D / BELOW SHUTTERSTOCK LEFT: / BELOW NASA LEFT: extremes of monotheism in the family of religions with that of enlightened reason versus fantasy, which make up Judaism, Christianity and Islam. comes down to is prejudice and superstition? Continued violence in the Middle East spilled over the way one into attacks on the USA in September 2001, with IS THE SUPERNATURAL REASONABLE? other high-profile terrorist murders subsequently understands one’s Debates about the existence of God have dragged committed in London, Paris, Berlin and elsewhere. on over the centuries without coming to any The clash of Islam with the unbelieving West own conscious generally acceptable conclusion. I believe there was seen as a key motivating factor, though other is a more illuminating way of approaching factors such as the Iraq war and the conflict experience the question. In my view, what the debate between Israel and Palestine were arguably just as fundamentally comes down to is the way one relevant. Meanwhile, the Christian Right in the understands one’s own conscious experience. USA renewed its campaign against the teaching of A materialist, for example, believes that all Darwinian evolution in schools, and in favour of reality must be identified with the material world the biblically correct but scientifically nonsensical of spacetime, mass-energy, and the forces and theory of intelligent design in its place. fields which are the study of physics. The subjective In response to these trends, from the mid-2000s sensation of being alive is therefore, on this a number of public intellectuals began to campaign BELOW view, not mysterious at all, but fully explained in in broadcast and print media in favour of scientific The Second Coming of terms of brain activity. Electro-chemical sensory Christ, as described in atheism. Some of the most powerful broadsides Revelations, ch 22 v1-2 – but information processing occurs in a brain; there is against religion have come from the so-called Four is belief in the supernatural an evolutionarily adaptive internal impression that Horsemen of Atheism: Richard Dawkins, Daniel so unreasonable? an individual person exists; it lasts for a while; Dennett, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens. Their views have become known as the “new atheism”, though in fact their arguments go back to the criticisms of Christianity published by Bertrand Russell in the 1920s. Indeed, as far back as 18th- century authors such as Thomas Paine and Voltaire (who were themselves deists, but highly critical of the organised religion of their day and of the horrors they found in the Bible). Books such as Dawkins’s The God Delusion and Harris’s The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason quickly became best-sellers. A great number of videos featuring the debate, from one point of view or another, are easily found on the internet. To judge from the pronouncements of the Horsemen, religion in general equates with superstition and backwardness, is anti-science and anti-reason, and should be rejected by all right- thinking people. Not all scientists agree. The paleontologist and science writer Stephen Jay Gould, although an atheist himself, argued

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then it goes away. That is all. the philosopher Nick Bostrom turned the virtual On the other hand, a supernaturalist judges reality idea into a serious scientific debate with that one’s own conscious experience is a different his paper entitled “Are You Living in a Computer kind of thing from anything that can be conceived Simulation?”. of within the frame of physics. Conscious self- For the present, the conclusion must be a awareness is clearly not a measurable property nuanced one. Science cannot disprove the existence of atoms, molecules or even biological cells, and of God – when Dawkins tries to do this in The therefore our experience of it at the whole-brain God Delusion, basing his reasoning on his natural level cannot be reduced to those lower-order assumptions as an evolutionary biologist, the result phenomena. Reality is seen as hierarchical, with is not pretty. The question of whether the universe the conscious observer on a higher level than the – or multiverse or super-multiverse or hyper-super- sensory data which are observed. One lives inside multiverse or whatever is appropriate to encompass a sensory bubble; the illusion is created of living in everything that exists – is single-level, with the a material world; one day the bubble will burst and same ultimate laws of physics applying everywhere ABOVE / BELOW one will then find oneself in some other kind of Three views of illusory life and at all times, or hierarchical, like dreams nested world, though exactly what that will be like is not in the future: (top) Total within dreams (like the 2010 movie Inception), known in advance. Speculations about heaven, hell, Recall (2012), (above) The is beyond the current competence of science to purgatory or reincarnation may follow. Matrix (1999) and (below) answer. Inception (2010) in which The question for science is whether an artificial intelligence blurs The scientists who disagree with today's “atheist experiment can be devised to distinguish the boundaries of human fundamentalists” are therefore right when they between a world in which the materialist view of perception. All the films claim that belief in the possibility of a supernatural consciousness is correct, and one in which the ask: 'What is real?' realm is consistent with reason. These scientists supernaturalist view is correct. When one adds the condition that the experimenter should still be alive after the experiment is complete in order to publish the results, it is clear that this is a difficult problem. Might future advances in brain science and artificial intelligence be able to solve the problem? Science fiction has taken on the challenge in its own way: in the movie The Matrix, released in 1999, an apparently normal life turns out to be an illusion, inevitably suggesting that we could ourselves be in the same boat with respect to some higher level of reality. Another movie, Total Recall, based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, shows its hero (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in its original 1990 version, Colin Farrell in the 2012 remake) uncertain as to whether or not he is living in a computer simulation of a Mars colony. In 2003

30 Vol 60 December 2018 SpaceFlight HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT are “not particularly rare”, according to Dawkins, and would include Owen Gingerich, a Harvard astronomer and author of a book entitled God’s Universe, and Francis Collins, a geneticist and author of his own best-seller entitled The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief. The cosmologists Fred Hoyle and Paul Davies, while not religious men, have shown themselves willing to contemplate the possibility of a transcendent but unknown intelligence fixing the laws of physics in such a way as to allow for the subsequent emergence of complex life on a planet like Earth, and even this mild position contradicts the strictly purpose-free materialism of the new atheists. If something analogous to Gödel’s incompleteness theorem is applicable to the laws of physics, it would be in principle impossible, while living in the current material universe, to decide the question one way or another.

A PRACTICAL SOLUTION ABOVE extraterrestrial colonies. Religions (in the plural) Meanwhile, rules for living on Mars must be An Enlightenment will be tolerated on Mars, but only as private, masterpiece: Reading developed, and they will naturally take what lessons Voltaire's tragedy personal, devotional activities, and never as a they can from their precursors on Earth. What 'L'Orphelin de la Chine' at guiding motivation for the colony as a whole. recommendations might one make from a fair- Madame Geoffrin's salon In The God Delusion, Dawkins is perfectly minded viewpoint that is agnostic on the question (1812) by Gabriel Lemonnier. correct to point out that we do not in fact derive of religion versus materialist atheism? our ethics from religious scriptures, and that ethics If there is one principle above all others that I evolve over time. It was not so long ago that women would wish to promote, it is the recognition of our were denied the vote even in Western democracies, common humanity and the consequent rejection “I disapprove of and a progressive (for his time) writer such as H.G. of fanaticism and of the violence which all too Wells was able to openly assert the superiority of often follows on as a consequence. This was a what you say, but I the European race and ask whether it might not major theme of the 18th-century Enlightenment be better for humanity if the supposedly inferior in works such as John Locke’s A Letter Concerning will defend to the races were exterminated. Our standards have come Toleration, and Voltaire’s Traité sur la tolérance. Of a long way since then, and we still have a long way the latter, Voltaire scholar Nicholas Cronk wrote: death your right to to go, but the key point is that there is a direction of “Voltaire’s name is synonymous with a set of say it” progress which is evidenced by the general health, values that transcend his writing: dislike of bigotry complexity and creative power of society [5]. and superstition, belief in reason and toleration, Evelyn Beatrice Hall The astronomer Carl Sagan in The Demon- freedom of speech” [4]. (attributed to Voltaire) Haunted World is very much a modern Voltaire: There appears at first sight to be a contradiction he condemns the pseudo-science which so many between, on the one hand, toleration and freedom accept, mistakenly thinking it is the real thing, of speech extended to conflicting groups of and he discusses at length the alien abduction religious believers, and on the other, the use phenomenon and the gullibility of the public of reason to expose religious bigotry, lies and BELOW for new-age fakery. He gives heart-rending superstition. But there is no contradiction in fact. Might Martian society be descriptions of the cruelty of the 15th- to 17th- While Voltaire never actually wrote the famous similarly enlightened? century witch-mania, based equally on the line attributed to him, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”, it is an authentic reflection of his philosophy, and neatly summarises the double-sided nature of freedom of speech. Monotheistic religions tend not to welcome critical points of view. The answer to centuries of religious conflict in Europe has been the modern separation of church and state. Religion is effectively privatised, and in this form, which we may call its devotional mode, it is an important human right. It is only a problem for society when it is allowed to spread intolerance by means of violence, and this can be called religion in its militant mode. To the extent that militant religion is intolerant of other points of view, its own existence cannot be tolerated in a law-abiding society. This lesson will surely carry forward to

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uncritical acceptance of lies and nonsense [6]. Sagan’s final chapter, “Real Patriots Ask Sagan strongly links scientific scepticism and the Questions”, written with his wife Ann Druyan, “obsession with reality” with the ability to apply the argues strongly for the Constitution and the same standards to political life. He writes: Bill of Rights of the USA as a worthy blueprint “Sceptical scrutiny is not only the toolkit for for any society. They quote historian Clinton rooting out bunkum and cruelty that prey on Rossiter: “Science and its philosophical corollaries those least able to protect themselves and most in were perhaps the most important intellectual need of our compassion, people offered little other force shaping the destiny of eighteenth-century hope. It is also a timely reminder that mass rallies, America…the twin doctrines of separation radio and television, the print media, electronic of church and state and liberty of individual marketing, and mail-order technology permit conscience are the marrow of our democracy, if not other kinds of lies to be injected into the body indeed America’s most magnificent contribution to politic, to take advantage of the frustrated, the the freeing of Western man”. unwary and the defenceless in a society riddled But there is one problem: the US Constitution with political ills that are being treated ineffectively and Bill of Rights were designed for a terrestrial if at all. Baloney, bamboozles, careless thinking, society with an open frontier. Dissidents had flimflam and wishes disguised as facts are not the option of walking out of any town that was restricted to parlour magic and ambiguous advice becoming oppressive and supporting themselves on matters of the heart. Unfortunately, they ripple with the local natural resources: air, water, wildlife. through mainstream political, social, religious and By contrast, a young colony growing on Mars economic issues in every nation”. would be subject to physical constraints unknown It is striking that Sagan’s prescription for the to American settlers 200 years ago. ABOVE good society is the polar opposite of the one put Enemies of pseudo-science The condition of confinement to cramped forward by Szocik, who writes: “production of false and fakery: Richard quarters in an unremittingly hostile environment conclusions meets the criteria of natural selection. Dawkins (top) and the late will demand from colonists a military level of […] Truth is not a feature that is favoured by Carl Sagan. discipline if the survival of the community is not natural selection. […] However, cognition to be put into jeopardy, with escape extremely produces false beliefs that can be useful […] BELOW difficult if not impossible. Charles Cockell discussed Confined to quarters: as False beliefs can be very pragmatic like religious, communities on other this problem in a series of papers published in political, or other fictional belief systems that were, worlds grow, they will need JBIS, concluding that tyranny is all too likely, and and still are, shared by human beings”. to set their own rules. suggesting ways in which that might be avoided [7].

a colony on Mars would be subject to physical constraints unknown to American settlers

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An early Mars settlement consisting of, say, a dozen people confined to the habitation modules PROVISIONAL CONCLUSIONS in which they landed will necessarily be organised like a military campaign. Later on, however, it may In this examination our exploration of a likely scenario for the Martian expand to a population in the millions inhabiting Enlightenment has covered a lot of ground. To summarise, we can offer some spacious artificial structures dozens of kilometres tentative conclusions: across, within which one is as free to move around The much-discussed topic of the place of religion in an advanced industrial as in a city on Earth. The initial dependence upon 1 society, whether on Earth, Mars or beyond, is bedevilled by the wide a small-scale oxygen plant, greenhouse, power variety of types of belief and practice which come under this heading. plant and so on for day to day survival will give way to the security of having multiple redundant Humans have a fundamental need for some mental or physical escape and highly automated infrastructural elements 2 from the needs of economic life, and the devotional practices of religion join with music, the arts and sports for this purpose. working on a much larger scale to supply all the basic services for the maintenance of life. By the time an early settlement is in place on Mars, the information The problem will then be a political one: 3 revolution may be expected to have produced robots or “synthetics” with how to relax the initially centralised control human-level intelligence. These will not only change patterns of work and over individual liberty as the colony grows and information exchange in society in unpredictable ways, but very probably becomes progressively more secure. Successive have views of their own on questions of ethics, religion and social generations of uniformed base commanders must organisation. evolve towards democratically elected presidents The claims of religious groups for a place in modern society, and the if they are not to become the autocratic despots 4 counter-arguments of the “new atheism” denying them any such place, of a military dictatorship. But as experience on have intensified since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Earth has shown, rulers do not give up their power Pentagon in 2001. easily. A belief that the supernatural does exist is in fact consistent with reason 5 and with science. The claims of the more dogmatic atheists that they can CONCLUSIVE TESTS scientifically prove that a supernatural God “almost certainly” does not exist Ultimately, the only way to test out ideas for living are exaggerated and should be rejected. on Mars is in a real settlement rather than through Religion has two distinct modes of operation. In its private, devotional armchair theorising. Since the first colonies on 6 mode it is an important human right deserving of protection under the law, Mars itself will be extremely expensive to set up but in its political, militant mode it is inconsistent with modern society by and vulnerable to collapse in the event of any virtue of its intolerance and frequent recourse to violence. breakdown of their social organisation, a better place to begin such experiments is in desert The principles of religious toleration, but at the same time of freedom of environments on Earth. 7 speech, developed during the 18th-century Enlightenment are the key to maximising liberty and preventing tyranny. They inspired the Constitution and While the ideas discussed here surely provide the Bill of Rights of the USA. strong hints as to how to proceed in order to establish an enlightened, harmonious, law-abiding Science and democracy share the fundamental principles of scepticism, and prosperous settlement beyond Earth, the 8 reasoning from evidence, and openness to alternative views. The critical conditions on Mars are unprecedented and the dependence of any Martian settlement on science and technology requires it technology to cope with them is still evolving. It at the same time to have a democratic government elected by intelligent, is this author’s expectation that people will see sceptical and well-informed citizens who are able to identify and reject lies and scams. the sense of getting a working desert settlement up and running on Earth first, with the object of An embryonic Mars colony, however, cannot enjoy such freedoms, proving not only the technologies of life support 9 because in its early years its small size and the rigours of the hostile independent of Earth’s biosphere but also the environment will force it to adopt a military style of discipline in order to political and ethical systems required for isolated survive. But as the settlement grows into a city of millions of people, the settlements of different sizes [8]. power of its government can and must be relaxed so that it ends up as a pluralistic democracy. Only when the politics of such a community becomes an experimental science will progress be Experimental settlements should be started now in desert environments made towards the point that we may be confident 10 on Earth in order to demonstrate both the technologies and the social that the first Martian settlement can be run in a systems that will be needed later on Mars. similar way. SF

REFERENCES 1 Konrad Szocik, “Religion in a future Mars colony?”, SpaceFlight, 59, Swan, 2007, 2016). p.92-97, 2017. 6 Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the 2 Correspondence, SpaceFlight, 59, p.230-231, 2017. Dark (Headline, 1997). 3 Michael Chorost, World Wide Mind: The Coming Integration of 7 Beginning with: Charles S. Cockell, “An Essay on Extraterrestrial Humanity, Machines, and the Internet (Free Press, 2011), ch.2. Liberty”, JBIS, 61, p.255-275, 2008. 4 Nicholas Cronk, Voltaire: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University 8 Stephen Ashworth, “Aridopolis: Project for a Sustainable Earth/Mars Press, 2017), p.123. Desert Settlement”, Principium: The Newsletter of the Initiative for Interstellar Studies, issue 18, August 2017, p.4-11 (available online). 5 Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (Bantam Press, 2006; Black LEFT: CREDIT? / TOP: CREDIT? / ABOVE LEFT: CREDIT? LEFT: ABOVE / CREDIT? TOP: / CREDIT? LEFT:

SpaceFlight Vol 60 December 2018 33 SPACE HISTORY FLASHBACK

A look back at the milestones in spaceflight that happened 50 years ago this month

t was not meant to happen that way but when the third Saturn V flight, the first with astronauts on board, carried crewmembers Borman, Lovell and Anders toward space they were destined for lunar I orbit, not the Earth-orbit shakedown mission they had trained for. In the sequence of precursor steps leading to the first Moon landing, the first manned Apollo flight (Apollo 7) was to have been followed by a dual test of the Apollo spacecraft and the Lunar Module (LM) in Earth orbit prior to a similar rehearsal in an elliptical orbit with an apogee of 7,400 km. The Borman flight was designated Apollo 9 and in the calculated order of things, it was to have followed Apollo 8, the first crewed test of the Apollo/LM configuration in low Earth orbit. All that changed as a result of delays to the Lunar Module which forced postponement of the first

Apollo/LM mission to early 1969 and placed the next NASA IMAGES: manned mission as a flight without a Lunar Module. The possibility that the redesignated Apollo 8 flight ABOVE at a Joint Session of Congress, was the Lunar Orbit The crew of Apollo could go all the way to the Moon and back had been 8: LM pilot Jim Rendezvous mission mode selected calling for a considered much earlier in 1968. Lovell, CM pilot separate spacecraft. The LM contract was awarded to In the overall scheme of things it was inevitable that Bill Anders and Grumman in September 1962 but this was almost two Commander Frank the Lunar Module would be late. Not for more than a Borman. years after North American had begun work on the year after the decision to go to the Moon announced Apollo spacecraft design prior to getting a contract to to the nation on 25 May 1961 by President Kennedy build it in November 1961. Tasked with developing a complex and unique Christmas vehicle for which there was no precedent, Grumman entered an intensive design and development period would prove but the challenges were almost overwhelming and the story of the development of the Lunar Module memorable in is an object lesson in time-urgent decision-making more ways and effective management, all the way down the line. Nevertheless, when the first LM assembled for crewed than one for flight arrived at the Kennedy Space Centre in June 1968 there were many flaws and Grumman estimated that it many people would not be ready to fly before February 1969. Thus it was that the Apollo 8 mission became a flight to lunar across the orbit – without a Lunar Module.

world THE SHAPE OF THINGS The story of Apollo 8 is well known. Launched at 7.51 am local time from Launch Complex 39A on 21 December 1968, Borman, Lovell and Anders were sent off with the largest gathering of spectators yet seen at the Kennedy Space Center. For many at NASA it was a LEFT The night before. memorable event, etched with connections to that very Saturn flight AS-503 special time of the year when most people, of different stands on the pad faiths, reflect on life, family and the very meaning at Launch Complex 39A, ready to make of their existence. This Christmas would prove history. memorable in more ways than one for many people

34 Vol 60 December 2018 SpaceFlight SLUG across the world. The sheer audacity of the attempt was breath- taking and despite the compression of many test objectives into a mere four pre-landing qualification flights, the decision to fly only the second manned Apollo on the first manned Saturn V, after a potentially catastrophic Apollo 6 mission, all the way to the Moon and back was a true invocation of the “Right Stuff” – in more ways than one. It displayed the bold assertiveness of the strong management team which in 1963 had replaced the “old guard” at the Office of Manned Space Flight and tipped the scales in favour of a new and braver world order at NASA. When the new management structure set up shop in September 1963 it tore up the primordial way of managing space projects and became ruthless in cutting out unnecessary steps, streamlining the programme and merging multiple tasks into homologated objectives stacked up on a single flight. This was more than “all-up-systems-testing”, stacking everything on a single unbroken set of plateaus between lift-off and landing, more a case of ABOVE (many permutations were considered, each dependent Earthrise above an integrated, single-string approach where the flight the lunar surface on total success of the previous flight) but the fact that keeps going as each stage is accomplished and every – the photograph six unmanned Saturn V flights were scheduled displays steps passed safely. that touched a the measure of the conservative approach taken by the generation. Committing Apollo 8 to a cislunar journey original Apollo team under Abe Silverstein. What is appealed to Frank Borman whose job it was to give the BELOW certain is that eleven Saturn 1/1B crewed flights were Frank Borman key approval to plans presented long before the official addresses the compressed to just one and that the first crewed Saturn commitment to fly to the Moon had been made. The crew of Apollo 8's V mission was launched on the third vehicle, crew had been training for something else and quickly recovery ship, the testimony to an entirely new way of working – USS Yorktown after descended on the simulators to prepare for the new a long wait in the eliminating 16 missions before the first crewed Saturn objective, spending more than 900 hours defining their CM in heavy seas. V flight, Apollo 8. SF adapted roles: Borman to command the mission, Lovell to take care of back-up navigational tasks (all the prime guidance and navigation solutions would be provided by Mission Control), with Anders serving as on-board flight engineer and systems manager. They reached the Moon on Christmas Eve and spent around 20 hours observing the dusty grey features of a timeless world, frozen into its present form several hundred million years before human arrived to observe it. It moved the crew, and captured the imagination of the world, an epic voyage underscored by readings from the first chapter of Genesis. On Christmas Day they burned out of lunar orbit and returned triumphant, a remarkable journey but one which only served to underscore the magnitude of the programme and the shape of things yet to come.

COMPRESSION Behind the headlines, arguably the greatest achievement of all was that NASA had made a quantum leap from a protracted, multi-flight programme to one in which very few precursor flights UPCOMING BRIEFINGS AT THE BIS would be necessary prior to the first landing attempt. This had itself been a transformation modelled by the David Baker, 21 November, BIS London, 7pm 1963 management changes. Learn more about the historic flight of Apollo 8 from a mission planning At the beginning of 1963 NASA planned six crewed perspective, how the launch windows and flight trajectory were Apollo spacecraft flights on Saturn I followed by five managed, how trajectories on successive Apollo missions were planned on the Saturn IB with nine on the Saturn V. The crewed and executed and get a video preview of the lunar trajectories for the first two flights of Orion on the Space Launch System. Saturn I and IB flights were expected to start in March 1965 and run at three-month intervals with manned Jerry Stone, 18 December, BIS London, 7pm Saturn V launches beginning with the seventh launch Relive one of the most historic missions ever flown, hear the inside story in June 1967 and spaced two months apart. of how the flight was conceived, what happened during humankind’s It is difficult to predict when the first manned lunar first flight to the gravitational environment of another world and learn landing attempt could have been anticipated in 1963 the lasting legacy of this vital step on the path to a Moon landing, achieved just seven months to the day after the launch of Apollo 8.

SpaceFlight Vol 60 December 2018 35 SATELLITE DIGEST Satellite Digest 551 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) Haiyang 1C 2018-068A Sep 7.14 Taiyuan Chang Zheng 2C 442 Sep 7.25 98.60 100.37 770 786 [1] Telstar 18V 2018-069A Sep 10.20 ETR Falcon 9FT 7,011 Sep 26.70 0.07 1,435.99 35,779 35,794 [2] ICESat 2 2018-070A Sep 15.54 WTR Delta 2 (7420) 1,514 Sep 15.78 92.01 93.80 459 465 [3] SurfSat 2018-070B 2 Sep 16.24 93.02 93.71 448 467 [4] DAVE 2018-070C 1 Sep 16.24 93.02 93.70 448 467 [5] ELFIN* 2018-070D 4 Sep 15.78 93.03 93.70 447 468 [6] ELFIN 2018-070E 4 Sep 15.78 93.03 93.70 447 468 [6] SSTL S1-4 2018-071A Sep 16.69 SHAR PSLV-CA 444 Sep 17.34 97.82 96.29 574 592 [7] NovaSAR 1 2018-071B 445 Sep 17.40 97.82 96.30 574 592 [8] Beidou DW37 2018-072A Sep 19.59 Xichang Chang Zheng 3B/YZ-1 1,014 Sep 21.64 54.97 787.16 21,533 22,193 [9] Beidou DW38 2018-072B 1,014 Oct 1.87 54.98 773.18 21,514 21,542 [9] Kounotori 7 2018-073A Sep 22.74 Tanegashima H-IIB 304 16,500 Sep 27.42 51.64 92.58 403 409 [10] Azerspace 2 2018-074A Sep 25.94 CSG Ariane-5ECA 3,500 Sep 26.01 5.96 631.20 273 35,742 [11] Horizons 3e 2018-074B 6,441 Oct 9.49 0.09 1,436.01 35,783 35,791 [12] Xiangrikui 1 2018-075A Sep 29.18 Jiuquan Kuaizhou 1A 97 Sep 29.43 98.22 98.79 697 708 [13] 

NOTES 1. Sea survey satellite built by DFH Satellite using a CAST-968 bus 5. DAVE (Damping and Vibration Experiment) or CP 7 technology for the Ministry of Natural Resources (formerly the State Ocean development 1U Cubesat built by Northrop Grumman and California Administration) carrying a four-band visible push-broom CCD Polytechnic with two particle dampers and a mechanical oscillator scanner (CZI) for coastal-zone imaging, a 10-channel visible/ for performance test. infra-red ocean colour scanner (COCTS) for ocean pollutants and sediments and sea ice, an ultraviolet imager, a calibration 6. ELFIN (Electron Losses and Fields Investigation) and ELFIN* (ELFIN- spectrometer and an AIS receiver to track shipping. STAR, Spatio-Temporal Ambiguity Resolver) are a pair of science 3U Cubesats built by UCLA, each carrying two solid-state telescopes for 2. T elstar 18 Vantage telecommunications satellite built by SSL using a relativistic electrons and ions and a fluxgate magnetometer for the 1300 bus for Telesat and launched by SpaceX. Mass quoted above is at Earth's field. launch. The satellite is located at 136.5°E for test and will be stationed at 138°E, augmenting Telstar 18/APStar 5, for high-throughput service 7. SSTL S1-4 is an Earth survey satellite built by SSTL using an SSTL- including broadband Internet and direct TV broadcast to Indonesia, 300S1 bus with a high-resolution panchromatic and visible/infra-red Malaysia and the Asian region. Part of the payload is leased by APT four-band scanner (VHRI 100) for Earth imaging. Leased to 21AT to Satellite who call it APStar 5C. First stage successfully landed on the augment the Beijing 2 constellation. Of Course I Still Love You barge about 650 km downrange. 8. NovaSAR is an Earth survey technology development satellite built 3. Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite Earth survey satellite built by SSTL using a modified SSTL-300 bus, partly financed by UKSA, using a LeoStar 3 bus by NGIS (Northrop Grumman Innovation with an integrated antenna for an S-band synthetic aperture radar Systems, formerly Orbital ATK) for NASA carrying a 0.8 m telescope (S-SAR) for Earth imaging and an AIS receiver to track shipping. and micropulse laser altimeter (ATLAS) for ice sheet topography. ATLAS also provides data on land topography and cloud heights. 9. Pair of third-generation Beidou navigation satellites, also known as Compass 3M-13 and 3M-14, built by CAST for SASTIND. Launched 4. SurfSat (Surface Charging Satellite) is a technological 2U Cubesat into plane B of system. Beidou DW38 has manoeuvred to slot 3. built by University of Central Florida with dielectric surface samples instrumented for potential and discharge current and two Langmuir 10. HTV 7 unmanned freighter mission to the International Space Station probes for plasma density. The Cubesats on this launch comprised launched by JAXA with 6,200 kg of cargo including two Express the NASA ELaNa 18 mission. It is not yet clear which payload racks, a life-science glovebox (LSG), an ACLS life-support rack, a corresponds to which object. heat-pipe radiator system (LHPR) for performance test, an HSRC

36 Vol 60 December 2018 SpaceFlight SATELLITE DIGEST

re-entry capsule for sample return and a J-SSOD Cubesat deployer. using a 1300 bus, launched by Arianespace for Azercosmos and Six large replacement batteries are to be mounted on the ISS P4 Intelsat. Mass quoted above is at launch. The satellite is to be truss. Spacecraft captured by the ISS arm September 27.48 and located at 45°E, replacing Intelsat 12, for high-throughput service docked at the ISS/Harmony nadir port September 27.59. Pallet with including broadband Internet and direct TV broadcast to Africa, batteries was extracted with ISS arm September 28.85. Cubesats Asia, Europe and the Middle East. are STARS-Me (Space Tethered Autonomous Robotic Satellite- Cube – Mini Elevator), a technology development satellite built by 12. Horizons 3e telecommunications and direct broadcast satellite Shizuoka University comprising a pair of 1U Cubesats connected by built using a Boeing 702MP bus for Intelsat and SKY Perfect JSAT to a 100 m tether, with a climber mechanism that is planned to move replace Intelsat 805. Mass quoted above is at launch. The satellite is along the tether and a camera to observe tether deployment and stationed over 164°E for test and will be located at 169°E to provide dynamics and climber operation; RSP-00 technology development 1U a service to Asia, North America and the Pacific region, including Cubesat built by Ryman Sat Project, a group of office workers, with mobile user and Internet services. Part of Intelsat's high-throughput a camera for Earth imaging, a digitalker voice synthesiser and an EpicNG series. amateur-band transmitter and SPATIUM-I (Space Precision Atomic- clock Timing Utility Mission-I), a technological 2U Cubesat built 13. Xiangrikui (Sunflower), or CentiSpace-1 S1, is a navigation by Kyushu Institute of Technology and Nananyang Technological technology development satellite built using a WN100 bus by SECM University, Singapore, with a dual-frequency transmitter to measure for Beijing Future Navigation Technology Co. and launched by ionospheric electrons and an atomic clock for performance test. ExPace, a commercial subsidiary of CASIC, carrying a test payload for a planned constellation of low-orbit navigation and positioning 11. Azerspace 2/Intelsat 38 telecommunications satellite built by SSL satellites and an inter-satellite laser communications system.

ADDITIONS AND UPDATES DESIGNATION COMMENTS DESIGNATION COMMENTS

1995-019A AMSC 1 was manoeuvred off station at 103.3°W 2001-011A Eutelsat 33C was relocated at 132.8°W September 1 September 5 and was relocated at 106.5W September and renamed Eutelsat 133 West A. 20. It has returned to service for Ligado Networks, 2002-015A JCSat 8 was manoeuvred off station at 93°E formerly LightSquared. September 18 and is drifting to the east. 1997-007A Intelsat 26 was manoeuvred off station at 66°E 2002-043A Kalpana 1 is again being tracked, confirming that it is September 21 and is drifting to the west. in a westward-drifting retirement orbit. 1997-030D Iridium 10 was manoeuvred out of the Iridium 2010-045A Michibiki drift reversed about September 15 when constellation to a disposal orbit September 14. Add orbit was centred over 130°E. It is normal for orbit: navigation and weather satellites to drift further away Sep 20.73 86.40° 93.10 min 167 km 689 km from their nominal stations than communications 1997-034A Iridium 15 was manoeuvred from a reserve orbit to a satellites do, but the 5° in this case is exceptional. disposal orbit September 28. Add orbit: 2014-043B GSSAP 2 (USA 254) has manoeuvred from a westward Oct 3.51 86.42° 93.17 min 161 km 702 km to an eastward drift orbit, according to amateur 1998-010A Iridium 52 was manoeuvred out of the Iridium trackers. constellation to a reserve orbit September 15. 2014-055A CLIO (USA 257) has been moved from 87°E to 96°E, 1998-010B Iridium 56 has completed manoeuvres to a disposal according to amateur trackers. orbit. Add orbit: 2014-076A Hayabusa 2 manoeuvred down to 600 m from Ryugu Sep 12.75 86.41° 93.31 min 181 km 695 km September 12 in rehearsal for touchdown, but cancelled descent to 40 m due to poor lidar data. 1998-010C Iridium 54 was manoeuvred out of the Iridium Second descent September 21 manoeuvred down constellation to a reserve orbit September 9. to 55 m, where probe released the two Minerva II-1 1998-010D Iridium 50 was manoeuvred out of the Iridium rovers. Rovers 1a and 1b touched down on Ryugu constellation to a disposal orbit September 1. Add September 21.19 and successfully used hopping orbit: mechanism to move around to gather images and Sep 8.42 86.73° 93.02 min 163 km 685 km temperature data at multiple locations. 1998-010E Iridium 53 was manoeuvred out of the Iridium 2015-026A DirecTV 15 was manoeuvred off station at 102.75°W constellation to a disposal orbit September 12. Add September 5 and relocated at 100.8°W September 12, orbit: co-located with DirecTV 4S, DirecTV 8 and DirecTV 9S. Sep 19.53 86.79° 92.96 min 160 km 683 km 2016-037A Beidou DW23 (G7) was manoeuvred off station 1998-032A Iridium 70 was manoeuvred from a reserve orbit to a at 144°E September 17 and relocated at 110.5°E disposal orbit September 19. Add orbit: September 24. Sep 27.19 86.59° 92.82 min 157 km 673 km 2017-004A SBIRS GEO 3 (USA 273) has been relocated back at 1998-066B Iridium 86 has completed manoeuvres to a disposal 160°W, according to amateur trackers. orbit. Add orbit: 2017-083J Iridium 153 has completed its drift to Plane 1 of Sep 10.05 86.41° 93.43 min 176 km 712 km the Iridium constellation and manoeuvred to the 1998-066D Iridium 84 was manoeuvred out of the Iridium operational altitude, replacing Iridium 14. Add orbit: constellation to a disposal orbit September 7. Add Sep 4.51 86.40° 100.37 min 776 km 779 km orbit: 2018-009A SBIRS GEO 4 (USA 282) was declared operational Sep 26.18 86.38° 93.42 min 189 km 698 km September 13. The USAF announcement referred to 1999-032A Iridium 14 was manoeuvred out of the Iridium the satellite as SBIRS GEO 3, possibly indicating that constellation to a reserve orbit September 24. the satellites are more correctly named in build order 1999-033A ASTRA 1H was manoeuvred off station at 67.1°W rather than launch order as normally used. September 1 and relocated at 80.8°W September 29. 2018-012B SES 14 was declared operational September 4. The

SpaceFlight Vol 60 December 2018 37 SATELLITE DIGEST

DESIGNATION COMMENTS DESIGNATION COMMENTS

hosted GOLD payload is being commissioned. 2018-046A More of the Cubesats have been identified. 1998- 1998-067NT DebrisSat 1 was ejected from RemoveDebris satellite 067NW is RainCube, 2018-046E is Lemur 2 Vu, 046F is September 16.96 and deployed its target assembly. Lemur 2 Alexander, 046G is Lemur 2 TomHenderson When it was 7 m away RemoveDebris deployed a net and 046H is Lemur 2 Yuasa. 1998-067PA is confirmed which successfully impacted DebrisSat 1 target and as EQUiSat. wrapped around it. Add object with orbit: 2018-067A Beidou DW35 manoeuvred to slot 2 in plane C by DebrisSat 1 and net 1998-067PM September 24. Add orbit: Sep 17.08 51.65° 93.51 min 398 km 406 km Sep 25.23 55.01° 773.19 min 21,513 km 21,543 km

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION ACTIVITY RECENTLY DETAILED ORBITAL DECAYS There were the following orbital manoeuvres of ISS during September, International Object name Decay boosted by Zvezda: Designation

Pre-manoeuvre orbit: Sep 6.25 51.64° 92.57 min 401 km 409 km 1975-063A Molniya 2 (23L) Sep 12.37 Post-manoeuvre orbit: Sep 6.44 51.64° 92.58 min 402 km 409 km 1997-030B Iridium 12 Sep 2.13 1997-069C Iridium 40 Sep 23 Pre-manoeuvre orbit: Sep 20.91 51.64° 92.57 min 402 km 409 km 1997-082C Iridium 47 Sep 1.40 Post-manoeuvre orbit: Sep 21.87 51.64° 92.58 min 403 km 409 km 1998-010D Iridium 50 Sep 23 1998-010E Iridium 53 Sep 30.59 End-of-September orbital data: 1998-067KQ Flock 2e'-20 Sep 21 Sep 30.93 51.64° 92.58 min 403 km 408 km 1998-067LV LINK Sep 23 SSTL Telstar 18 Vantage SSL High Throughput Satellite launched on 10 September for serving Asian countries.

38 Vol 60 December 2018 SpaceFlight

CORRESPONDENCE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The Long Wait… Sir: The latest articles on America’s human space flight plans (SpaceFlight Vol 60 No 9) make for depressing reading. To anyone like myself who wishes to see progress toward a genuinely spacefaring civilisation, the obsession with “ambitious” and “bold” astronaut missions to the Moon and Mars promises more decades of delay, albeit with the ever-receding prospect of a sensational but ultimately barren lunar or planetary expedition once every few years. Humanity will not begin to develop as a seriously spacefaring civilisation until its human spaceflight operations exhibit sustainable exponential growth. So let us remind ourselves of the record so far. The Space Shuttle was the vehicle which was intended to make growth in human space activities possible. Announcing the programme on 5 January 1972, President Richard M. Nixon said: “The Space Shuttle will give us routine access to space by sharply reducing costs in dollars and preparation time”. NASA Administrator James C. Fletcher added: “By the end of this decade the nation will have the means of getting men and equipment to and from space routinely, on a moment’s notice if necessary, and at a small fraction of today’s cost”. Clearly, despite the “full confidence of success” expressed at the time, these ambitions were not fulfilled. The Shuttle programme gathered increasing momentum up until the start of 1986. The previous calendar year had seen nine Shuttle launches which, ABOVE with the air travel industry. In 1950, half a century after Stephen Ashworth together with two launches of Soyuz to Salyut 7, carried has changed his the first controlled aerial flights by Orville and Wilbur a total of 63 people into space. An acceleration of the mind: he thinks it Wright at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina (in 1903), as Shuttle programme to an unprecedented total of 15 will be necessary well as by Count von Zeppelin from Lake Constance to develop a cost- flights was planned for 1986, and a further increase effective space in southern Germany (in 1900), global air passenger to 19 flights for 1987. Then Challenger exploded 73 transportation traffic stood at some 30 million people per year, with seconds after lift-off, killing all seven crew members. system around the two million passing through British airports alone. In Earth and the Moon The level of 11 manned launches with 63 astronauts before heading 2011, a similar period after the first manned space flight on board in one calendar year has been neither for Mars. by Yuri Gagarin, seven launches (three Shuttle, four surpassed nor equalled in the 32 years since the disaster. Soyuz) took a mere 28 people into orbit – one million Nixon’s and Fletcher’s intentions for the Shuttle were times fewer than for air travel after the same gestation quietly forgotten, and numerous studies for a follow- period. on programme were shelved. In 2017 a total of four It should be clear that human space flight has been manned launches carried only 11 astronauts into space, It should be held back for decades by a massive lack of interest in fewer even than the 12 astronauts orbited as long ago as developing low Earth orbit for commercial applications, 1965 on five Gemini spacecraft and one Voskhod. clear that particularly space tourism. The consequence is To be sure, the time actually spent in space has that ambitious exploration missions beyond LEO greatly increased. The 1965 flights had logged a mere 56 human space are crippled from the outset by the high costs of man-days in space. In 1985 almost 800 man-days were flight has the government monopoly paradigm. Even the spent in orbit, due partly to the Shuttle and partly to introduction of privately run astronaut taxi services to Soviet cosmonauts who occupied Salyut 7 for five and been held the ISS by SpaceX and Boeing is being delayed by that a half months. By 2010 the figure had nearly tripled to same mind set. a peak of almost 2,200 man-days in that year, but by back by a Thus the report of current discussions about 2017 the annual total had relaxed back to about 1,900. commercial human access to space in the “NASA at 60” While adding a seventh crew member to the ISS could massive lack issue (p 20) is unable to show the reader any viable path carry the total back up beyond 2,200 and as far as 2,500 from the market level where one single private space man-days in space per year, this final figure represents of interest traveller visited the ISS annually (from Dennis Tito’s a natural ceiling for astronaut space activity at present visit to the ISS in 2001 until Guy Laliberté’s in 2009) to until more habitable infrastructure is designed, built a future in which fare-paying visitors to orbital hotels and launched. number in the thousands per month. A useful perspective may be gained by comparison In the past I have myself felt the seductive attraction

40 Vol 60 December 2018 SpaceFlight CORRESPONDENCE

of rushing off to Mars before a viable space economy Turning to the Parker solar probe, I remember, whilst at in the Earth-Moon system is in place to support school, reading “The Golden Apples of the Sun”, by Ray it. But it became clear to me on reflection that any One would Bradbury, involving a manned mission to take a sample Mars programme sustainable beyond the first few of the Sun's mass. I can remember stories by a couple landings, and especially one capable of growth towards then have a of other authors, in the late 1960s, involving manned a permanent human settlement, needs to rest upon stations floating just above the solar surface. As might routine commercial access to space closer to home, scenario in be imagined, the stories pay considerable attention to thus upon a volume of traffic large enough to mature which Mars the psychological pressure on the crew. the technologies of human spaceflight, in the process Your article on the present and (long-term) future lowering its costs at the same time as raising its colonisation “paths” of the Pioneer and Voyager probes reminded

LOCKHEED MARTIN reliability. me that, whilst some of the parts will only last a I have attempted to sketch out how such an Earth- acts as the few years, the shield and associated items could last Moon-Mars pyramid of activity might work in a paper thousands of years, possibly as long as the Pioneer and which has been accepted for the forthcoming “Mars catalyst for Voyager probes; a long-term symbol of Man's existence Symposium” special issue of JBIS (my report on the and ingenuity. symposium itself was published in SpaceFlight Vol 60, the growth of Humanity is beginning to make its presence felt on a No 5, p.14). a space wider scale, as, hopefully, it will continue to do. (As My paper explores a possible pattern of exponential someone once said: sometimes the best symbol for growth of human activities in low Earth orbit, economy, something is the thing itself; the best symbol for the extending in due course to the Moon. A modest level of existence of the human race is the human race itself, activity on the order of 10,000 passenger seats to orbit rather than even if it changes – diversifies – in the course of its and back per year was projected, at a ticket price no expansion into space.) greater than a quarter of a million dollars per passenger. the other way On a final point, regarding the reference to SLS, in At such a level, astronaut missions to Mars would David Todd's article, the American astronomer, Phil arguably become sustainable by virtue of their claiming around Plait, who presents the “Bad Astronomy” Website, only a small fraction of the existing space transport complained about the rocket risking becoming a industry, and by that industry’s having developed much “second Shuttle”, suggesting that it might be used for closer to technological maturity. The downside is that a few projects in order to justify its creation, and then astronaut flights to Mars would thereby be postponed at allowed to fade into obscurity. least 40 years. The mention of Elon Musk, and the possible challenge The wild card is of course SpaceX, which is making to SLS, points up the pros and cons of the “autocratic” heroic efforts of its own to set up a sustainable Earth- style of management – on the one hand, they can push Mars transport system independently of NASA. Mr everything forward, ignoring petty restrictions, and Musk has acknowledged that he needs an economic BELOW obstacles, to reach the goal as efficiently as possible; on source of income in order to pay for the development of Could the super- the other, any developing “quirks” or “eccentricities” on heavy lift capability his Mars infrastructure. He currently envisages running of NASA’s SLS the part of the leader can threaten the entire project. a profit-making intercontinental rapid transport system Block 2 vehicle I have little doubt that there will be courses in (left) provide the based on the same BFR/BFS vehicles which he would stimulus for an Management Studies – assuming that there aren't use for Mars. expanding LEO already – that will focus on the difference between the It is certainly conceivable that my vision of a colony of private consensus and autocratic styles of management, using and government progressive buildup of the low Earth orbit economy, facilities? Or will SLS and BFR, and their creators, as examples. Let us mainly through orbital tourism and manufacturing, SpaceX lead the hope that they have a happy ending. followed by its extension to the Moon and ultimately way as Elon Musk makes plans to to Mars, could be short-circuited by a combination send his BFR (right) Peter Davey of Musk’s visionary leadership, the private-public to the Moon? (via email) partnership with NASA. One would then have a scenario in which Mars colonisation acts as the catalyst for the growth of a space economy, rather than the other way around.

Stephen Ashworth, Oxford, UK (via email)

Impetus or inspiration Sir: With regard to the “Opinion” column in the SpaceFlight Vol 60, Vol 10, questioning the effect of Brexit on Britain's space programme, the author, Stephen Baxter, once suggested that the place to look for “super-civilisations” was in the more violent parts of the Universe; areas of high background radiation, heavy meteorite impacts, stellar collisions, and so on; the intense pressure to survive forcing rapid technological advance. Perhaps we should look on Brexit as providing a similarly stimulating environment for the British

space programme. / SPACEX NASA

SpaceFlight Vol 60 December 2018 41 REVIEWS MULTI-MEDIA

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

SPACE MODELS GLENCOE'S RETRIEVER ROCKET if only…

ooking back at the “Golden Age of Space Travel” (or “Space As it Should Have Been”), and imaginative concepts from the early 1950s, there were several ideas that came L out of the Collier series of magazine articles written by astronomers and space advocates, including Wernher von Braun. One was the Round the Moon Rocket, or RM-1. This was the converted top stages of the ABOVE is the tip of the three stage rocket, with the wings Latest box-art by Ron Miller – immense “Three-Stage Rocket” as immortalised in all PhotoShop. removed, uses the third-stage engine, and has seven the painting by Chesley Bonestell and Rolf Klep. fuel tanks added in a circle around the aft section. This model originated as a kit by Strombecker, BELOW It also has an atomic reactor added in the nose, R-1 finished in all white as it one of the earliest kit companies in the USA. The appears in Man in Space. The tooling now resides with Glencoe Models. slight ‘flash’ around the parts (below) is easily removed with Considering the kit tooling is 60 years old, it a modelling knife. has survived remarkable well and the parts show little sign of the passing years. You get 60 parts, including clear transparencies for the cabin and cockpit windows. The notion is that the main body of the craft

42 Vol 60 December 2018 SpaceFlight REVIEWS

GAMER'S CORNER with Henry Philp Universe Sandbox 2 - playing God! Universe Sandbox 2 is not your usual space game. It’s not really a game, more a toy where you can create and destroy on a galactic scale – in effect, “play God”. In US2, you have a number of templates available (for example, our solar system) and you are free to experiment with Newtonian physics however you wish. What happens if Mars crashes into Jupiter? What does a galaxy collision look like? You can also start from a blank slate and create your own solar system, watch a star turn into a supernova, or witness New Horizons slingshot past Pluto. As many of these events take millions or billions of years in real life, US2 has time acceleration (much like Kerbal Space Program) so that that time can pass in seconds. There are even some human-sized objects. These include tennis balls, footballs, bowling balls, dice, teapots, the TARDIS and even an S-IVB stage from the real-world Saturn IB and Saturn V rockets. Universe Sandbox 2 is the sequel to the game Universe Sandbox, which had a similar premise. However, that game didn’t have as many details – there was no climate simulation or black holes at that time. The game continues to be developed by Giant Army. The website can be found at universesandbox.com.,

with the conical section acting as a radiation shield RIGHT for the crew. The March 1952 issue of Collier’s magazine began a The shape of the hull slightly belies this notion series articles that would as it doesn’t quite match up, but all these plans were propel Wernher von Braun to fame as the arch-advocate for highly speculative anyway. However, it was shown space exploration, with cover in detail in the Disney TV series Man in Space, art by Chesley Bonestall. made in 1954, where Wernher von Braun was one Fellow space artist Rolf Klep immortalised the Three-Stage of the technical consultants. Rocket as a cutaway. When Strombecker initially released the kit in 1957, it was the RM-1 – a lunar survey ship rather in the manner of Apollo 8. Glencoe Models has extended this as a recovery ship for a returning Mars mission, hence it being renamed the “Retriever Rocket”. It would be able to carry 12 returning crew, plus its own crew of two. Unfortunately there aren’t any figures in the kit, the only “figure” as such being the suit for the one- BELOW person pod – the “Bottle Suit”, best thought of as an Contemporary space artist and RM-1 box-art creator early Manned Manoeuvring Unit, positioned under Ron Miller with his the main hull. rocket ship. Usually these early factual-futuristic model kits were rarely assigned a scale, as would be natural for, say, a model of an aircraft. As they were never built in reality, giving a scale would be difficult anyway. However, because this kit has the Bottle Suit, the scale can be calculated, and is approximately that of the most common aircraft scale, 1:72. This is the second box-art for the Glencoe reissue. The first was done by a name that should be familiar to BIS members: that of the American space artist and Fellow, Ron Miller. Ron has actually done this new box-art as well, but instead of pure artwork, he has used modern techniques, combining a photo of the model with a real background image. I will declare a slight interest here, as I webmaster the Glencoe Models website: www. glencoemodels.com. SF Mat Irvine

SpaceFlight Vol 60 December 2018 43 REVIEWS

PRINTED BOOK A prehistory of space travel ost books about space concentrate including Arthur C. Clarke, Maurice Allward, Ken on events triggered by the launch of Gatland, Anthony Kunesch among others. There Sputnik 1 on 5 October (local time) is even a volume titled “The Artificial Satellite” 1957. This one is refreshingly different published by the British Interplanetary Society in M and provides a detailed bibliography 1952. of titles published prior to the dawn of the Space As befits a professional, the bibliography is far Age, the second and updated compendium of more than a compilation. It contains discrete books by a space systems engineer and noted information on the publishing format, whether or historian who himself has a not inconsiderable not a dust jacket was applied, cover types, whether collection of such titles. it was in colour or not and for each entry there is The value lies in the access it provides to a a cover picture, sometimes of each separate broad range of books, each of which provide Foreword to edition. This book is a must-have in any space a unique opportunity to read contemporary Spaceflight library and a constant source of reference for accounts of progress, conceptual planning and collectors and enthusiasts alike. You will find in by Michael L. Ciancone expectations in astronautics and space science. this bibliography books you never knew existed Apogee Books This is why historical books are so important – and then search for them on the internet! SF 978-1989-0440-25 – they tell a story of their age and provide an $48.95 David Baker insight to the deliberations, trends and popular 154 pages, colour assumptions about the future as seen at various times. In reporting on current events it is vital to have an understanding of the world-view extant when these words were set down. That is why the books themselves are so important. Self-identified as the “compiler”, Mike Ciancone is best known as the lead NASA safety and mission assurance engineer for the Orion European Service Module to some, as chair of the American Astronautical Society History Committee (since 2001) to others, and as a noted historian himself to many. Apart from which he has extensive knowledge of the subject and that is why this selection of 403 books, of which 163 are RIGHT Russian, is so important. Compiler Mike Ciancone – But there are works here which should be well lead NASA safety and mission assurance engineer for the known to SpaceFlight readers, including several Orion European Service authors who were BIS members and Fellows, Module.

PRINTED BOOK America’s first rocket company here cannot be many people who have not Institution in 2007 but serves still in the History heard of this outstanding company – if Department as curator emeritus. not by name, then by the products of their This book is a product of an intensive and design and manufacturing departments, enduring effort to record and archive the story of T pushing out rocket motors that powered RMUI from its foundation just days after Pearl everything from hypersonic aircraft to undersea Harbor was attacked in December 1941, through devices. its demise almost 25 years later. In that time they Reaction Motors Inc. (RMI), was and remains made outstanding contributions to the an iconic entry in the annals of rocket propulsion, development of rocket propulsion, to the design of having contributed to many aircraft, spacecraft and rocket packs to help heavy aircraft get off the sundry projects in its prestigious history. ground and for the primary propulsion in research This book is not just another history but a aircraft such as the Bell X-1, the first to break the work of great value emanating from the prolific “sound barrier” in October 1947, and for the North pen of a recognised historian. Born in England, Reaction Motors American X-15, the one and only hypersonic he emigrated to the US as a child and served in by Frank U. Winter research aircraft capable of speeds in excess of the US Air Force for four years from 1964, largely AIAA Mach 6 and altitudes in excess of 106,000 m. The as a journalist, and in 1966 won the Goddard 978-1-62410-441-1 book is a treasure and deserves a place on any Essay Award for his writings about the space $39.95 space enthusiast’s bookshelf. SF programme. Frank is author of several books, a 302 pages, b&w Fellow of the BIS and retired from the Smithsonian Henry Snipcock

44 Vol 60 December 2018 SpaceFlight

SOCIETY NEWS

Happiness is Space Day! From left: Bob Stanton, Rod Woodcock, Gill Norman, Mark Perman, Vix Southgate, Steve Salmon and Ian Norman. A HIVE OF ACTIVITY The West Midlands branch of the Society captures the buzz of World Space Week. AS PART OF WORLD SPACE WEEK, here in the UK Reality on Mars experience presented by Daden, the BIS West Midlands branch, in conjunction with which featured astronauts with a BIS logo mission The Hive library at Worcester, put on a Space Day badge, and the Society’s own stand with the Soyuz that included exhibits, a planetarium, talks and Simulator, manned by Ian Norman, Steve Salmon, readings. This year the event was held on Saturday and Vix Southgate. 6 October. Two talks were included in the day’s events, the Building on the success of 2017, this year’s event first was by local author and BIS council member was even bigger and better, due mainly to the Dave Shayler entitled "Project Gemini" and the sterling efforts of Mark Perman FBIS of the WM second by Dr Stuart Eves entitled "Space Traffic branch and Caryl Davies of The Hive library team. Control". Both were well attended and the many This year was faster paced, with events questions afterwards proved they were popular scheduled to take place every 15 minutes with the audiences. throughout the day. The programme included The younger visitors were enthralled by readings planetarium shows, talks, static rocket motor from Carmen Capuano’s book “The Owners” and firings, competitions and, for the first time, careers later from Vix Southgate who related the story of tours. Liz Perman eloquently announced these on a two Soviet space dogs entitled “Dogs in Space”. PA system next to the Society’s stand which added Vix’s latest book is available now from Amazon. to the atmosphere. In all there were 42 exhibitors coming to The most popular exhibits were the Virtual Worcester from around the UK, with many from the

46 Vol 60 December 2018 SpaceFlight Happiness is Space Day! From left: Bob Stanton, Rod Woodcock, Gill Norman, Mark Perman, Vix Southgate, Steve Salmon and Ian Norman. IMAGES VIA DAVID BAKER VIA DAVID IMAGES

Visitors try their hand at the ever-popular Soyuz simulator.

Midlands attending to promote their organisation or group. The exhibitors’ stands proved to be a very popular attraction, with both retired professionals and the public. The “Build a Rocket Competition” was well supported again this year, and the judges included Mat Irvine FBIS, who also exhibited a range of models and of course operated K9 to the delight of all. Clearly the message of Space Day (now the biggest Free Space event in the UK) is getting through as attendance was up on last year too with some 1,000 visitors. Indeed many travelled a long way to attend. Overall the day was a great success for both the British Interplanetary Society-West Midlands Group and the Hive to which, again, many thanks are extended. SF Models on display by the Society's own Mat Irvine, including the immortal K9. John Harlow and Bob Stanton

SpaceFlight Vol 60 December 2018 47 SOCIETY NEWS

BIS LECTURES & MEETINGS MEMBERSHIP NEWS

CATCHING STARDUST 8 November 2018, 7pm VENUE: BIS, 27/29 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1SZ Natalie Starkey, a geologist and cosmochemist, joins us to discuss her book Catching Stardust, telling the story of comets and asteroids.

Call for Papers INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION FORUM 14 November 2018, 9.30 am to 5pm (tbc) VENUE: BIS, 27/29 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1SZ 1933 – 2018 A forum to celebrate the 20th anniversary of operations aboard the ISS. Please email [email protected] with any ISS-related papers. Registration now open on our website. A birthday message WEST MIDLANDS BRANCH: STARSHIP ENGINEERING & PROJECT CHEVALINE OCTOBER MARKED THE 85TH ANNIVERSARY of the formation of the British Interplanetary Society and Gerry Webb, BIS President, 17 November 2018, 1,45pm marked the event with a reflective look at the past and the future: VENUE: The Gardeners Arms, Vines Lane, Droitwich, WR9 8LU. “What have we learned in those 85 years? To be patient and to (We regret there is no disabled access to this venue.) continue to look to the future. We are now well and truly in the Space Rob Swinney of www.i4is.org talks about how to Age, but inspiration and innovation are not all we need to move from design a starship. Imagination to Reality. Political pressures and finance play a large part John Harlow and Paul Jackman remember Project in what happens and how fast. Chevaline and the twin chamber propulsion unit. “For inspiration and guidance, the BIS must look back to its first Journal, published in January 1934, where Philip Cleator, as President APOLLO 8 – GETTING TO THE MOON stated: ‘The ultimate aim of the Society is the conquest of Space and BY DAVID BAKER thence interplanetary travel’, and added ‘(the) immediate task is the 21 November 2018, 7pm stimulation of public interest in the subject of interplanetary travel and VENUE: BIS, 27/29 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1SZ the dissemination of knowledge concerning the true nature of the difficulties which at present hinder its achievement’. SpaceFlight's editor relives his time working for the “From these early beginnings the British Interplanetary Society has NASA Mission Planning & Analysis Division defining continued its mission: To promote the exploration and use of space for the mission's phasing and flight trajectories. He also the benefit of humanity, by connecting people to create, educate and casts an expert eye over the way mission planning inspire, and advance knowledge in all aspects of astronautics. evolved during the nine Moon-bound Apollo missions. “To achieve its aims and objectives the BIS relies on a mix of space professionals and space enthusiasts with the imagination, innovation THE INDIAN SPACE PROGRAMME and vision to lead or participate in advanced technical study projects, to 29 November 2018, 7pm promote astronautics and inspire the next generation of scientists, VENUE: BIS, 27/29 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1SZ engineers, artists and thinkers. It will continue to run a programme of BIS member Gurbir Singh talks about his 2017 book The lectures, symposia and conferences to entertain and educate its Indian Space Programme – the story of India’s members and the general public. These include the Reinventing Space Conference and its Future incredible journey from Third World country to First. Histories, Fermi Paradox, NEW MEMBERS CHRISTMAS GET-TOGETHER 2018 Sino-Russian Symposia and We're delighted to say we welcomed 48 5 December 2018, 7pm many others. more new members in September – 44 from VENUE: BIS, 27/29 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1SZ “Our best future and the UK, 1 from the USA, 1 from Australia, 1 destiny is as much in space from the Netherlands, and 1 from Finland. Join us for our usual relaxed evening of drinks and now as it was in 1933.” buffet food, along with our Christmas raffle. As is customary, this is a ticketed event to raise funds for the Society – and donations towards raffle prizes are always appreciated, too. Ticket price for members and their guests is £20. Guests are welcome, although we may have to limit the number of guest places if we sell too many tickets! APOLLO 8 – MEN TO THE MOON 18 December 2018, 7pm VENUE: BIS, 27/29 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1SZ Jerry Stone takes us on the next step in his series of 50th anniversary talks covering every Apollo mission up to and including Apollo 17 by looking back at Apollo 8's historic journey into lunar orbit – a triumphant end to an otherwise turbulent and tragic year.

48 Vol 60 December 2018 SpaceFlight