SpaceFlight A British Interplanetary Society publication

Volume 61 No.2 February 2019 £5.25 Sun-skimmer phones home

Rolex in space Skyrora soars

ESA uploads 02> to the ISS

634089 From polar platform

770038 to free-flier 9

CONTENTS Features 18 Satellites, lightning trackers and space robots Space historian Gerard van de Haar FBIS has researched the plethora of European payloads carried to the International Space Station by SpaceX Dragon capsules. He describes the wide range of scientific and technical experiments 4 supporting a wide range of research initiatives. Letter from the Editor 24 In search of a role Without specific planning, this Former scientist and spacecraft engineer Dr Bob issue responds to an influx of Parkinson MBE, FBIS takes us back to the news about unmanned space vehicles departing, dying out and origins of the International Space Station and arriving at their intended explains his own role in helping to bring about a destinations. Pretty exciting stuff British contribution – only to see it migrate to an – except the dying bit because it unmanned environmental monitoring platform. appears that Opportunity, roving around Mars for more than 14 30 Shake, rattle and Rolex 18 years, has finally succumbed to a On the 100th anniversary of the company’s birth, global dust storm. Philip Corneille traces the international story Some 12 pages of this issue are behind a range of Rolex watches used by concerned with aspects of the astronauts and cosmonauts in training and in International Space Station, now well into its stride as a research space, plus one that made it to the Moon. facility, and a further six pages 34 Reach for the Skyrora reflect on how the UK got involved during the 1980s courtesy of a Ken MacTaggart FBIS tracks down the company former President of the BIS who building the first domestic UK satellite launcher was central to those in 50 years and explains how it can revolutionise developments. low-cost services for small satellites, as well as 24 Forward to the future again and igniting a resurgence in rocket development. a fascinating insight into a company based in Edinburgh that plans to put Britain back in the launcher business, this time Regulars sending small satellites into space. This is a long overdue feature of 4 Behind the news Britain’s resurgent presence in a Feeling the heat / …what now, Voyager? / broader spectrum of space Opportunity: is this really the end? industry activities. And who knows where they will end up! 10 Opinion 30 But there is much more and a 12 ISS Report lot besides as we move toward momentous celebrations in this, 9 November – 8 December 2018 the year of Apollo at 50! 36 Multi-media The latest space-related books, games, videos 38 Satellite Digest 553 – November 2018 David Baker 42 Letters to the Editor [email protected] The long wait / Impetus or inspiration? 44 Society news / Diary 34 COVER: PARKER SOLAR PROBE IMAGINED AS IT MIGHT APPEAR APPROACHING ITS CLOSE PASS OF THE SUN / NASA/APL OF CLOSE PASS ITS APPROACHING APPEAR MIGHT IT AS IMAGINED SOLAR PROBE PARKER COVER: What’s happened/ What’s coming up

OUR MISSION STATEMENT Editor David Baker, PhD, BSc, FBIS, FRHS Sub Editor Ann Page Creative Consultant Andrée Wilson Design & Production MP3 Media Promotion Gillian Norman Advertising Tel: +44 (0)20 7735 3160 Email: [email protected] The British Interplanetary Society Distribution Warners Group Distribution, The Maltings, Manor Lane, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH, England Tel: +44 (0)1778 promotes the exploration and 391 000 Fax: +44 (0)1778 393 668 SpaceFlight, Arthur C. Clarke House, 27-29 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1SZ, use of space for the benefit England Tel: +44 (0)20 7735 3160 Email: [email protected] www.bis-space.com Published monthly by the British Interplanetary Society, SpaceFlight is a publication that promotes the mission of the British of humanity, connecting people Interplanetary Society. Opinions in signed articles are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of to create, educate and inspire, the Editor or the Council of the British Interplanetary Society. Registered Company No: 402498. Registered charity No: and advance knowledge in 250556. The British Interplanetary Society is a company limited by guarantee. Printed in England by Latimer Trend & Co. © 2019 British Interplanetary Society 2017 ISSN 0038-6340. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced all aspects of astronautics. or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording by any information storage or retrieval system without written permission for the Publishers. Photocopying permitted by license only.

SpaceFlight Vol 61 February 2019 3 BEHIND THE NEWS

Members of the Parker Solar Probe mission team at Johns Hopkins APL celebrate on 7 November 2018, after receiving a beacon indicating the spacecraft is in good health following its first perihelion. FEELING THE HEAT Weeks after Parker Solar Probe made the closest-ever approach to a star, the data it returned is now falling into the hands of mission scientists.

IT IS A MOMENT THAT many in the field have been associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission anticipating for years, thinking about what they'll do Directorate. “Parker is the culmination of six decades with never-before-seen data that has the potential to of scientific progress. Now, we have realized shed new light on the physics of our star, the Sun. humanity’s first close visit to our star, which will have Engineers and controllers report that Parker Solar implications not just here on Earth, but for a deeper Probe is alive and well after skimming the Sun just understanding of our universe.” 24.8 million kilometres above the surface. This is far Mission controllers at the Johns Hopkins closer than any spacecraft has gone before – the University Applied Physics Lab (APL) received the previous record was set by Helios B in 1976 – and status beacon from the spacecraft at 4:46 pm EST has exposed Parker to intense heat and solar on 7 November 2018. The beacon indicates status "A" radiation in a complex solar wind environment. – the best of all the four possible status signals, “Parker Solar Probe was designed to take care of meaning that Parker Solar Probe was operating well itself and its precious payload during this close with all instruments running and collecting science approach, with no control from us on Earth — and data. If there were any minor issues, they were now we know it succeeded”, said Thomas Zurbuchen, resolved autonomously by the spacecraft.

4 Vol 61 February 2019 SpaceFlight BEHIND THE NEWS IMAGES: NASA/JOHNS HOPKINS APL (LEFT) / NASA/NAVAL RESEARCH LABORATORY (RIGHT) LABORATORY RESEARCH APL (LEFT) / NASA/NAVAL HOPKINS NASA/JOHNS IMAGES:

This image, taken by Parker's WISPR instrument when the probe was about 16.9 million miles from the Sun's surface, shows a coronal streamer over the east limb of the Sun. The bright dot in the middle of the picture is Jupiter.

At its closest approach on 5 November (perihelion) began downlinking to Earth. Parker Solar Probe reached a top speed of 213,200 At about 6:00 pm EST on Friday 16 November, km/hr, setting a new record for spacecraft speed. Parker is the mission controllers at the Johns Hopkins Applied Along with new records for the closest approach to Physics Lab in Laurel, Maryland, received the report the Sun, it will repeatedly break its own speed culmination of from the spacecraft, which also included information record as its orbit draws it closer, travelling faster and about the data collected by the four instrument faster at perihelion with each successive pass. six decades of suites during its first solar encounter. The solid state During its first pass, the intense sunlight heated scientific recorder indicated that the four suites had recorded a the Sun-facing side of Parker Solar Probe's heat significant amount of data as planned. This was shield to about 438 °C. This will climb up to around progress downloaded to Earth via the Deep Space Network 1,370º C as it makes even closer approaches – its over several weeks, starting on 7 December. instruments and systems protected all the while by In addition to helping scientists answer the heat shield, which keeps them at a relatively fundamental questions about the physics of our star, balmy 29 ºC. the data from the initial perihelion will help mission controllers calibrate Parker Solar Probe’s instruments ARRIVAL and plan future observations. Parker Solar Probe's first solar encounter phase “The team is extremely proud to confirm that we began on 31 October, and it continued collecting have a healthy spacecraft following perihelion”, said data until the end of the phase on 11 November. Five APL’s Nick Pinkine, mission operations manager for days later, the spacecraft reported that all systems Parker Solar Probe. “This is a big milestone, and were operating well in the first detailed performance we’re looking forward to some amazing science data and health update to be sent to Earth since the coming down in a few weeks.” encounter began. Even so, it took several weeks During the 11-day solar encounter, the spacecraft after the end of the phase before the science data executed only one autonomous “momentum

SpaceFlight Vol 61 February 2019 5 BEHIND THE NEWS

dump” – a procedure in which are waiting in the corona", she said. Briefing small thrusters are used to adjust Parker Solar Probe is named for the speed of Parker’s reaction Eugene Parker, the physicist who wheels. The wheels' rate of spin is first theorized the existence of the

VIRGIN GALACTIC VIRGIN adjusted to maintain the desired solar wind – the Sun's constant orientation of the spacecraft relative outpouring of material – in 1958. to the Sun. Momentum dumps are "This is the first NASA mission to be expected during solar encounters, named for a living individual”, said as the wheels spin up to counter Fox. "Gene Parker’s revolutionary increased torque from the paper predicted the heating and gravitational effects of the solar expansion of the corona and solar environment. Executing only one wind. Now, with Parker Solar Probe, dump indicates that the spacecraft we are able to truly understand is well balanced, minimizing the what drives that constant flow out need for dumps during future solar to the edge of the heliosphere.” encounters and saving propellant. Our Sun's influence is far- Parker Solar Probe’s second reaching. The solar wind fills up the perihelion will occur on 4 April 2019. inner part of our solar system, However, during its seven-year creating a bubble that envelops the mission lifetime, it will perform a planets and extends far past the total of 24 perihelia, the last three orbit of Neptune. Embedded in its of which will bring it to within seven energised particles and solar million kilometres of the solar material, the solar wind carries with surface – a mere whisker given the it the Sun's magnetic field. Sun’s diameter of 1.4 million km. Additional one-off eruptions of solar OH SO CLOSE! material, coronal mass ejections, Virgin Galactic’s first revenue-earning flight, COLLATION also carry this solar magnetic field SpaceShip Two, exceeded the US Air Force On 12 December, four researchers and in both cases the magnetised definition of the Earth-Space boundary on 13 gathered at the fall meeting of the material can interact with the December when it achieved a record altitude American Geophysical Union in Earth's magnetic field and cause of 82.7 km – still somewhat short of the Washington, D.C., to discuss what geomagnetic storms. Such storms internationally recognised and legally they hope to learn from Parker Solar can trigger the aurora or even defined boundary of 100 km known as the Probe. power outages, while other types Karman line. Carrying four NASA science "Heliophysicists have been of solar activity can give rise to experiments, SpaceShip Two was piloted by waiting more than 60 years for a communications problems, disrupt Mark “Forger” Stucky and Frederick “CJ” mission like this to be possible", satellite electronics and even Sturckow, qualifying them for space wings said Nicola Fox, director of the endanger astronauts – especially from the Federal Aviation Administration. As Heliophysics Division at NASA HQ. beyond the protective bubble of a four-time Shuttle pilot, Stuckow will be the (Heliophysics is the study of the Earth's magnetic field. first recipient of both NASA and FAA wings. Sun and how it affects space near Other worlds in our solar system Earth, around other worlds, and experience their own versions of throughout the solar system). "The these effects, and far beyond the GOING, GOING… solar mysteries we want to solve planets, the Sun's material butts up Massive planets so close to their parent star that they are evaporating are so rare that only one had been found. Now, a second PARKER SOLAR PROBE IN CONTEXT with an evaporating atmosphere has been found by the Hubble Space Telescope at a As the newest addition to NASA's “Meanwhile, from a distance, we can distance of only 5.95 million km from its host fleet of heliophysics missions, Parker observe the Sun's corona, which is (GJ3470b). These Neptune-size bodies are Solar Probe works alongside driving the complex environment satellites like NASA's Solar Dynamics around Parker.” losing their atmospheres at a prodigious rate Observatory, the Solar and Terrestrial Modelling is another critical tool and while they are not likely to be eroded, Relations Observatory, and the for painting the complete picture others not so lucky may ablate under intense Advanced Composition Explorer. For around Parker's observations. “Our radiation from their parent star. More such years, decades in some cases, these simulation results provide a way to planets are expected to be found. spacecraft have scrutinised the Sun interpret localised measurements and its outflowing material, changing from in situ instruments like FIELDS

JPL the way we see our star. But they are and SWEAP, as well as the more limited by their location. global images produced by WISPR”, Even as Parker reveals new data, said Pete Riley, a research scientist scientists working with it will rely on at Predictive Science Inc., in San the rest of NASA's heliophysics fleet Diego, California. to put it in context. “Parker Solar Models are a good way to test Probe is going to a region we've theories about the underlying physics never visited before”, said Terry of the Sun. By creating a simulation Kucera, a solar physicist at NASA's of a particular mechanism to explain Goddard Space Flight Center. coronal heating – for example, a

6 Vol 61 February 2019 SpaceFlight BEHIND THE NEWS

against the interstellar medium that fills the space between the stars. The interactions in this region UCL MAPS influence the way high-energy cosmic rays penetrate the solar system. All of these effects result from complicated systems, but they all start back at the Sun, making it vital to understand the fundamental physics that drive its activity.

THE “WHY” OF IT ALL Parker Solar Probe is designed to address three major questions about the physics of the Sun. First: how is the Sun's outer atmosphere, the corona, heated to temperatures about 300 times higher than the visible surface below? Second: how is the solar wind accelerated so quickly to the speeds we observe? And finally: how do some of the Sun's most energetic particles rocket away from the Sun at more than half the speed of light? “Parker Solar Probe is providing us with the measurements Expected now to launch in 2020, ESA’s next Sun-seeker, the Solar Orbiter spacecraft leaving the Airbus Defence and Space satellite facility at Stevenage, UK, as Europe’s contribution to solar science. essential to understanding solar phenomena that have been puzzling us for decades", says Nour Raouafi, atmosphere. coronal mass ejections Parker Solar Probe project scientist For example Parker Solar Probe's Measurements of energetic particles at APL. "To close the link, local imagers in the WISPR suite will give gathered as the spacecraft travels sampling of the solar corona and a new perspective on the young through such waves will shed light on the young solar wind is needed and solar wind, showing how it evolves the problem. Parker is doing just that.” as the spacecraft travels through The electric field antennas of the Parker's instruments the corona. Similarly, the ISʘIS spacecraft's FIELDS instrument suite (SpaceFlight Vol 60, No 10) are suite will help scientists dig down can pick up radio bursts that could designed to look at these into the causes of energetic particle explain the causes of coronal heating. phenomena in ways that haven't acceleration. At present, theories And the Solar Probe Cup instrument, been possible before, giving diverge on how solar energetic which extends beyond the heat shield scientists the opportunity to make particles are accelerated within the and is fully exposed to the solar new strides in the study of the solar thin shock waves usually driven by environment, measures the thermal properties of different ion species in the solar wind. Coupled with data PARKER SOLAR PROBE IN CONTEXT from FIELDS, these may reveal how the solar wind is heated and certain kind of plasma wave called an that drive much of its activity move accelerated. Alfvén wave – scientists can check along with it. That creates a problem The science team also expects to the model's prediction against actual for scientists, who can't always tell if be surprised by some of what they data from Parker Solar Probe to see if the variability they see is driven by learn. "We don't know what to expect they line up. If they do, that means the actual changes to the region so close to the Sun until we get the underlying theory may explain what's producing the activity – known as data, and we'll probably see some actually happening. temporal variation – or by solar new phenomena", said Raouafi. “We’ve had a lot of success material from a new source region – predicting the structure of the solar known as spatial variation. For part of "Parker is an exploration mission — corona during total solar eclipses,” its orbit, at least, Parker Solar Probe the potential for new discoveries is said Riley. “Parker Solar Probe will will outrun that problem. At certain huge." supply measurements that will further points, it travels fast enough to almost Although Parker Solar Probe's constrain the models and the theory exactly match the Sun's rotational reports indicate that good science that’s embedded within them.” speed, meaning that it “hovers” over data was collected during the first Parker Solar Probe is in a unique one area of the Sun for a brief time. encounter, thanks to the relative position to help improve the models Scientists can be therefore be certain positions of the probe, the Sun and – in part, because of its record- that changes in data during this the Earth and their effects on radio breaking speed. The Sun rotates period are caused by actual changes transmission, some of it won't about once every 27 days as viewed on the Sun, rather than simply by its from Earth, and the solar structures rotation. downlink until after the second encounter in April 2019. SF

SpaceFlight Vol 61 February 2019 7 BEHIND THE NEWS

LEFT 3-D rendition of Voyager 2.

BELOW Two diverging plots showing its detection of cosmic rays and the number of solar particles over time.

After exiting the heliosphere… FOR THE SECOND TIME IN from the heliosphere came from Together, the two Voyagers have HISTORY an object made by its onboard Plasma Science given us a glimpse of how the humans has reached the space Experiment (PLS) – an instrument heliosphere interacts with the between the stars. NASA's that stopped working on Voyager constant interstellar wind flowing Voyager 2 probe now has exited 1 in 1980, long before that probe from beyond. Their observations the heliosphere – the protective crossed the heliopause. complement data from NASA's bubble of particles and magnetic Until recently, the space Interstellar Boundary Explorer fields created by the Sun. surrounding Voyager 2 was filled (IBEX). NASA is also is preparing Comparing data from different predominantly with plasma the Interstellar Mapping and instruments aboard the flowing out from the Sun. The Acceleration Probe (IMAP), due to trailblazing spacecraft, mission PLS uses the electrical current of launch in 2024, to capitalise on the scientists determined the probe the plasma to detect the speed, Voyager observations. crossed the outer edge on 5 density, temperature, pressure “Voyager has a very special November. and flux of the solar wind. The place in our heliophysics fleet”, This boundary, called the PLS aboard Voyager 2 observed a said Nicola Fox, director of the heliopause, is where the steep decline in this speed on 5 Heliophysics Division at NASA HQ. tenuous, hot solar wind meets November. Since then, the "Our studies start at the Sun and the cold, dense interstellar instrument has observed no solar extend out to everything the solar medium. Voyager 1 crossed it in wind flow, which makes mission wind touches. To have the 2012, but Voyager 2 carries an scientists confident the probe Voyagers sending back information instrument that will provide has left the heliosphere. about the edge of the Sun's first-of-its-kind observations of In addition to the plasma data, influence gives us an the nature of the gateway into Voyager's science team has unprecedented glimpse of truly interstellar space. evidence from three other uncharted territory." Voyager 2 now is slightly more onboard instruments: the cosmic But while the Voyager probes than 18 billion km from Earth. ray subsystem, the low energy may have left the heliosphere, Mission controllers can still charged particle instrument and they have not yet departed the communicate with it as it enters the magnetometer. Data from solar system, whose boundary is this new phase of its journey, but these may well give an even considered to be beyond the Oort signals take around 16.5 hours to clearer picture of the Cloud – a collection of small reach Earth. The most compelling environment through which objects that are still under the evidence of the spacecraft's exit Voyager 2 is now travelling. influence of the Sun's gravity. The

8 Vol 61 February 2019 SpaceFlight BEHIND THE NEWS Briefing WHO IS PAXI? No, not the pithy former BBC presenter IMAGES : NASA/JPL IMAGES but ESA’s updated education mascot, which aims to appeal to a younger audience with space-inspired STEM content for primary school age. The website is available in English, German, Dutch, Spanish, French and Italian.

MORE KIDS' STUFF The UK Space Agency is awarding £325,000 to the UK Association for Science and Discovery Centres (ASDC) to bring space science to young families ABOVE across the UK by creating new resources A diagram showing the relative positions of the Voyager probes in 2012. In the six years since, both spacecraft are thought to have safely crossed crossed the heliopause. based on real scientific and engineering challenges – including those facing the operation of UK spaceports, rockets and spaceplanes. Up to 14 UK science centres and museums will deliver activities to 200,000 children and adults until March 2021, building on the success of ASDC’s After exiting the heliosphere… what now, Voyager? Destination Space education programme, which reached more than 900,000 people width of the Oort Cloud is not five years, and to conduct during Tim Peake’s Principia mission. known precisely, but is estimated close-up studies of Jupiter and to begin about 1,000 Saturn. But as the mission astronomical units (AU) from the progressed, additional flybys RUSSIAN HEAVY Sun and to extend to about were made of the two outermost Russia’s space agency Roscosmos has 100,000 AU. (One AU is the giant planets, Uranus and announced plans for a super-heavy distance from the Sun to Earth.) Neptune, and remote-control launcher at an estimated cost of $22.6 It will take about 300 years for reprogramming endowed the billion. Tentatively given a 2028 launch Voyager 2 to reach the inner edge Voyagers with greater capabilities date, the rocket is intended to support of the Oort Cloud and possibly than they possessed when they circumlunar flights with a next-generation 30,000 years to fly beyond it. left Earth. At 41 years, and still spacecraft yet to be funded. Roscosmos The Voyagers are powered by going strong, Voyager 2 is NASA's is urging the government to make a radioisotope thermal generators longest running mission. SF decision by 15 January 2019 and is keen (RTGs), whose power output to offer fee-paying flights around the diminishes by about four watts Moon under a separate initiative. per year. As a result, various parts of the spacecraft, including their cameras, have been turned ARTES ALOFT off over time to conserve power. Two 5 kg satellites, designed and built by “I think we're all happy and Spire Global, and unique due to their tiny relieved that the Voyager probes size, low cost and quick build time, were have both operated long enough launched from Sriharikota, India, on 29 to make it past this milestone”, November 2018. This style of satellite said Suzanne Dodd, Project could revolutionise work in space, which Manager at NASA's Jet has traditionally been slow and expensive Propulsion Laboratory. “Now for business and science to access. The we're looking forward to what satellites were developed under the we'll learn from having both European Space Agency’s ARTES Pioneer probes outside the heliopause." ABOVE programme, of which the UK is the largest Heliocentric velocity over distance from Voyager 2 launched in 1977, 16 the Sun for Voyager 2 showing how the funder, and will aim to prove the value of days before Voyager 1. The spacecraft received escape velocity at nanosats in weather monitoring by using spacecraft were intended to last Jupiter almost 40 years ago. them to measure refracted radio signals passing through the Earth’s atmosphere.

SpaceFlight Vol 61 February 2019 9 passive listening efforts for several months in the hope that a Is this really the end? “dust devil” literally sweeps the arrays clean. Such “cleaning WITHOUT SO MUCH as a But on 11 September 2018, events” were first discovered by “goodbye”, NASA’s Mars rover data from MARCI showed that the Mars rover teams in 2004 Opportunity has fallen silent and the tau estimate – a measure of when, on several occasions, may never be heard from again. Its the amount of haze in the Martian battery power levels aboard both last communication with Earth was atmosphere – in the skies above Opportunity and its twin Spirit on 10 June, just before it was the rover's current resting place in increased by several percent overwhelmed by a major dust Perseverance Valley was below during a single Martian night. storm. Its current health is 1.5 for two consecutive readings. Even if the team hears back unknown. Now, Opportunity A month after that, JPL engineers from Opportunity, there is no engineers are relying on data from reported they were employing a guarantee that it will still be the Mars Color Imager (MARCI) on combination of listening and operational. However, the team is NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance commanding methods in case cautiously optimistic, knowing Orbiter (MRO) to estimate the Opportunity is still operational. that the little rover has overcome opacity near the rover’s position. In the unlikely event that the many such challenges during its “The dust haze produced by the rover's solar arrays are simply 14-plus years on Mars. In 2005, it global dust storm of 2018 is one of blocked by dust, starving it of lost its right front steering, the most extensive on record”, said energy, the team plan to continue followed by its left front steering MRO Project Scientist Rich Zurek in August. “If we don't hear back after 45 days, we'll be forced to conclude that the Sun-blocking dust and the Martian cold have conspired to cause some type of fault from which the rover will more than likely not recover”.

Briefing Opinion COMSAT CANCELLED Boeing has cancelled a contentious satellite order financed via a Chinese government- HUMANS OR ROBOTS? owned firm on the basis of default by non-payment. Nearing completion, the AS WE ALL BECOME A LITTLE STARRY-EYED reflecting on the magnificent satellite will probably be sold to another success of the dramatic Apollo missions 50 years ago, spare a thought for the customer. The move follows an investigation largely unsung heroes who daily tend the less dramatic but equally laudable of China’s veiled and circuitous route to constellation of unmanned, deep-space emissaries that bring results pivotal to obtaining the satellite, ostensibly our understanding of the solar system and of life itself. manoeuvring its way around regulations and A progression of discovery, enabled by innovation, sustains a deepening US export controls in funding the $200 million commitment to planetary exploration – and to autonomous and semi-robotic order. Security concerns had been expressed probes that define the content of our celestial back-yard. Investment in this broad regarding the intent of the buyer. band of investigation is essential, for it is through basic research that the fundamental principles governing the very origin of matter rub shoulders with a better understanding of structures at physical, chemical and biological levels.

BOING As we move toward a bigger investment in human space flight, should we be worried that its voracious demand on budgets will stunt the work that underpins basic exploration and exciting discoveries that ensue? Are we locked into human space flight for its own sake? Its costs have frequently been at the expense of essential, but less popularly dramatic, unmanned programmes. Is this something we should guard against; something we should avoid? Since President Kennedy chastised NASA Administrator James Webb for attempting to engage the agency in broader objectives than the Moon alone, science has paid the bills demanded by high-cost, vote-catching manned space projects. It happened again during the 1970s, when NASA’s budget fell through the floor – and again in the 1980s, when the Space Shuttle demanded yet more

10 Vol 61 February 2019 SpaceFlight BEHIND THE NEWS in June 2017, and its 256 Mb flash memory is no longer functioning. In fact, almost everything aboard the rover is well beyond its warranty period. Opportunity and Spirit were both built for 90-day missions, yet Spirit lasted 20 times longer than this and Opportunity nearly 60 times longer. Equally, the rovers were designed to travel 1,000 metres, whereas Opportunity has logged an incredible 45.16 km. Through thick and thin, it has soldiered on. Now, engineers and scientists are hoping this latest dilemma is just another bump in the Martian road. “In a situation like this you hope for the best, but plan for all eventualities”, said Project Manager John Callas. “We are all pulling for our tenacious rover to pull her feet from the fire one more time. And if she does, we will be there to hear her.” The windy period on Mars, known to the team as “dust- clearing season”, occurs from November to January, so NASA will review the situation at the end of January 2019 and decide whether to pursue attempts to NASA/JPL IMAGES: contact the rover, 15 years after it landed. SF

The last resting place for Opportunity? A view across Perseverance Valley on Sol 4959 in January 2018. Briefing ADELAIDE ON THE “UP” The success of relatively low-cost science and planetary Australia’s new National Space Agency missions should not be upstaged by popular, PR- (ANSA) is to be located at Lot 14 of the old Royal Adelaide hospital. With an annual grabbing headlines on sending humans into space budget of $41 million it will engage with industry and commercial organisations to connect indigenous assets with the global money. In fact, by proclaiming a capacity to launch 60 flights year, the budget for space market. Australia has a long and the actual payloads to fly on Shuttle missions was completely left out. proud history in space, being with the site Over time, a balance between manned and unmanned programmes was sought of British rocket tests in the 1940s, 50s but hardly realised. Today the International Space Station is only just getting into and 60s, and later of NASA deep-space its stride for want of funds among its user-base. Now we are faced with a tracking and communications, including a scramble for dollars once more and already the costly SLS/Orion programme is prominent role in the Apollo missions. scraping the barrel for money. At the cost of science and unmanned programmes? Not quite so much this time, but the writing is on the wall.

One very big elephant in the room where money is concerned is the balance ANSA between what we do because of what we ”can” and what we do because we “should”. The success of relatively low-cost science and planetary missions should not be upstaged by popular, PR-grabbing headlines on sending humans into space – laudable as that is, so long as it is productive. But if there is no compelling need to do so: remember the many scientists, engineers, technicians and managers who each day, around the clock, proudly guide our robotic emissaries to inaccessible places where no human feet will ever tread. SpaceFlight applauds and supports a sustainable human presence in space – but synergistically, and not at the expense of the funding essential to push the frontiers of space far beyond human access SF David Baker

SpaceFlight Vol 61 February 2019 11 ISS REPORT

ISS Report BELOW ROSCOSMOS / RIGHT: NASA / RIGHT: ROSCOSMOS BELOW 9 November – 8 December 2018

Expedition 57 is into its second month of operations. The crew returned to six in early December, when ESA German commander Alexander Gerst, American Serena Auñón- Chancellor and Russian Sergey Prokopyev were joined by new Soyuz arrivals American Anne McClain, Russian Oleg Kononenko, and Canadian David Saint-Jacques. Report by George Spiteri

12 Vol 61 February 2019 SpaceFlight ISS REPORT

time) and was retrieved by Japanese recovery ships over three hours later. Meanwhile, Prokopyev cleaned and stowed the chamber of the PK-4 experiment and assisted his colleagues with regular maintenance and household chores during the crew’s light-duty weekend 10/11 November. On 12 November, Gerst and Auñón-Chancellor conducted further work with the PK-4 study and checked and watered the plants inside the Veg-03 facility, whilst Prokopyev took part in the Morze psycho-physiological test and the Splanh biomedical experiment. The following day, Gerst began four days of work inside Columbus with ESA’s Crew Interactive MObile companioN (CIMON) free-flying robot which aims to obtain the first insights into the effects on crew support with the help of artificial intelligence. He admitted in a tweet he “had so much FUN” testing his “skills for the first time” on the station with the German built device. Auñón- Chancellor performed various maintenance tasks and worked with the Life Sciences Glovebox (LSG) before the United States Orbital Segment (USOS) crew joined Prokopyev for a series of routine eye n 9 November the three person crew of ABOVE examinations in conjunction with doctors on the Gerst, Auñón-Chancellor and Prokopyev Two spacecraft at the ISS: ground. the Northrop Grumman worked with NASA’s Veg-03 and Cygnus cargo craft from the Gerst teamed up with Prokopyev on 14 Biomolecule Extraction and Sequencing United States (left) attached November to practice manual docking techniques Technology (BEST) experiments. Gerst to the Unity module and for the imminent arrival of the next Progress O still in the grip of the also studied how astronauts perceive time in space unmanned vehicle in case the automatic system and configured a specialised microscope for further Canadarm2 robotic arm, and failed. The Station’s commander moved on to assist the Russian Soyuz MS-09 protein crystal observations, whilst his Russian crew ship from Roscosmos Auñón-Chancellor to practice robotics operations colleague continued his week-long research with docked to the Rassvet for Cygnus’ arrival. the joint Russian/ESA Plasma-Kristall-4 (PK-4) module. On 15 November, the trio conducted further investigation. eye tests, worked with NASA’s Meteor experiment, JAXA reported that the Kounotori-7 (White which examines the chemical composition Stork-7) unmanned cargo craft “successfully of meteors entering Earth’s atmosphere and re-entered the atmosphere after the third de- completed another of NASA’s Food Acceptability orbit manoeuvre” at 21:14 UTC on 10 November questionnaires, which look at the nutritional intake resulting in the spacecraft conducting a planned of ISS crewmembers. destructive re-entry over the north western Pacific Ocean. Following the de-orbit burn Kounotori PROGRESS AT LAST ABOVE RIGHT released the HTV Small Re-entry Capsule (HSRC) Serena Auñón-Chancellor Progress MS-10/71P was launched from Baikonur containing approximately 20 kg of science performs plumbing duties at 18:14 UTC on 16 November (00:14 17 November experiments, including samples from a Japanese inside the International local time) atop a Soyuz-FG rocket. This followed Protein Crystal Growth investigation. The 840 Space Station's toilet, also the recent Soyuz MS-10 abort (SpaceFlight Vol known as the Waste and mm diameter capsule splashed down in the Pacific Hygiene Compartment, 61, No 1, pp 7-8) and paved the way for the Ocean off the south eastern Japanese coast at 22:06 located in the Tranquility next crewed Soyuz mission. Progress docked UTC on 10 November (07:06 11 November local module. to the aft port of Zvezda at 19:28 UTC on 18

SpaceFlight Vol 61 February 2019 13 ISS REPORT

LEFT Expedition 58 crew members Anne McClain of NASA (left), Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos (centre) and David Saint- Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency hold “launch keys” presented to them during a tour of the launch facility at Baikonur. On 3 December they lifted off safely aboard Soyuz flight MS-11 (top).

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November as the complex flew 405.5 km above in Station history that two cargo spacecraft Algeria. Progress delivered 1,300 kg of dry cargo, had arrived “in one day” and praised the “great including food, experiments and spare parts, Asked what they teamwork” that made it possible. 725 kg of propellant, 420 kg of water and 50 kg of compressed air and oxygen to replenish the missed most, the BIRTHDAY FEASTS atmosphere on the ISS. Three hours later, following It was a red-letter day on 20 November, marking leak checks, Prokopyev began immediately station’s the 20th anniversary of the launch of Zarya, the unloading critical science hardware to the station. commander listed first element of the station in 1998 (SpaceFlight Vol Following two delays due to weather, Northrop 40, No12, p 457). To commemorate the event Gerst Grumman launched their Cygnus unmanned several things tweeted; “Congratulations” to all ISS partners and cargo spacecraft, (NG-10) atop an Antares 230 past crews, adding that he felt “privileged to serve rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport including “really on the greatest machine ever built”. The crew also (MARS) launch pad 0A at Wallops, Virginia at took time out to answer questions via Facebook 09:01 UTC (04:01 local time) on 17 November. great food, like Live. Asked what they missed most, the station’s Cygnus was grappled by Canadarm2 at 10:28 UTC commander listed several things including “really on 19 November as the Station flew 421.6 km above salads” in addition great food, like salads” in addition to “taking a the southern Indian Ocean. Named in honour of shower….November rain” and “a walk in the forest”. pioneer astronaut John Young, the spacecraft was to “taking a Auñón-Chancellor spent most of the following berthed onto the Earth facing port of Unity over shower…. day inside Kibo working on life support gear and two hours later at 12:31 UTC. Cygnus delivered later joined Gerst for a debriefing about the progress 3,268 kg of pressurised cargo, including a new 3D November rain” of Cygnus cargo operations. Prokopyev worked printer and an experiment which aims at growing on Russian life support gear and continued with crystals to fight Parkinson’s disease and 82 kg of and “a walk in the unloading items from Progress. unpressurised cargo. The crew enjoyed US Thanksgiving Day on Auñón-Chancellor and Gerst began several forest”. 22 November with light-duty activities. Gerst days of unloading Cygnus. NASA Deputy ISS and Auñón-Chancellor sent down a short video Programme Manager, Joel Montalbano reassured message wishing everyone their best wishes from reporters that having a crew of three was “not an space for the holiday. Auñón-Chancellor told issue” when transferring cargo from two newly viewers “we’ve got everything from turkey to arrived spacecraft, “critical science samples will candied yams, to stuffing, to special spicy pound get unloaded first….then we unload as necessary”. cakes, we’re very excited”. Gerst proudly tweeted that this was first time On 23 November, the crew resumed unloading

MAY THE FOREST BE WITH YOU! An acronym for the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation, GEDI, pronounced like JEDI of Star Wars fame, is a first of its kind laser instrument designed to map the world’s forests in 3D. GEDI will aim to provide answers as to how deforestation has

contributed to atmospheric C02 concentrations, how much carbon forests will absorb in the future and how habitat degradation will affect global biodiversity. GEDI will observe nearly all tropical and temperate forests using a self-contained laser altimeter on the ISS. The data will be of great value for forest and water resource management, carbon cycle and weather predictions. PI Dr. Dubayah said “scientists have been planning for decades to get comprehensive information about the structure of forests from space to deepen our understanding of how this structure impacts carbon resources and biodiversity across large regions and even The GEDI instrument gets a checkout before launch. globally, as well as a host of other science issues”. GEDI's three lasers will produce eight ground tracks – two of the lasers will generate two ground tracks each, and the third will mission in mid-2019, but the team at Goddard who is building and generate four. As the space station and GEDI orbit Earth, laser testing GEDI was always on track to deliver a finished instrument pulses will reflect off clouds, trees and the planet's surface. by the fall of this year”, said Project Manager Jim Pontius, While the instrument will gather height information about making the move to an earlier resupply mission feasible. everything in its path, it is specifically designed to measure NASA selected the proposal for GEDI in 2014 through the Earth forests. The amount and intensity of the light that bounces back Venture Instrument programme, which is run by NASA’s Earth to GEDI's telescope will reveal details about the height and System Science Pathfinder (ESSP) office. ESSP oversees a density of trees and vegetation, and even the structure of leaves portfolio of projects ranging from satellites, instruments on the and branches within a forest's canopy. space station and sub-orbital field campaigns on Earth that are NASA has flown multiple Earth-observing lidars in space, designed to be lower-cost and more focused in scope than larger, notably the ICESat (Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite) and free-flying satellite missions. CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite GEDI was built at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre and is a Observation) missions. But GEDI will be the first to provide joint NASA/University of Maryland project. GEDI will be moved high-resolution laser ranging of Earth's forests. from Dragon’s trunk and mounted on the Japanese Experiment “GEDI originally was scheduled to launch aboard a resupply Module-External Facility (JEM-EF).

SpaceFlight Vol 61 February 2019 15 ISS REPORT

items from Cygnus and Progress. They also worked with the Multi-use Variable-g Platform (MVP) facility and conducted a status check on NASA’s Microgravity Experiment Research Locker Incubator (MERLIN) freezer. The crew continued with cargo transfers during their light-duty weekend 24/25 November. Gerst began the working week on 26 November observing protein crystals associated with Parkinson’s disease, whilst Auñón-Chancellor jotted down her space experiences as part of CSA’s At Home In Space (AHIS) psychological study and later set up hardware for a semiconductor crystal experiment. Gerst devoted a second day to working with the protein crystals study on 27 November, whilst Auñón-Chancellor researched how cement hardens in space and continued setting up hardware for the semiconductor study. Prokopyev spent most of the day configuring the Russian segment for a rescheduled space walk in mid-December (SpaceFlight Vol 61, No1, p 8) and the following day he began preparing the Soyuz spacecraft for its return to Earth. The crew were photographed inside the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) on 29 ABOVE for an impending Russian EVA to inspect the November as Bigelow Aerospace tweeted that Serena Auñón-Chancellor damage which caused the pressure leak to Soyuz is pictured mixing protein “BEAM has successfully completed its mission as a crystal samples to help MS-09 the previous August (SpaceFlight Vol 60, technology demonstration”. BEAM was “officially scientists understand No11, pp 13-14). certified by NASA for a life extension on the space how they work. Proteins Following a one day delay to allow ground teams station”. crystallized in microgravity to replace contaminated food bars aboard Dragon On 30 November, Auñón-Chancellor conducted are often higher in quality for 40 mice who are part of the Rodent Research-8 than those grown on Earth more work solidifying cement in microgravity and and present opportunities (RR-8) experiment, SpaceX launched Dragon atop worked with the Cemsica technology experiment, for the development of new a Falcon 9 rocket on the Commercial Resupply whilst Prokopyev continued to prepare for the drugs to treat disease. Services-16 (CRS-16) mission at 18:16 UTC (13:16 upcoming spacewalk and Gerst ended the week local time) on 5 December from Space Launch with further experiments on protein crystals. Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station The crew enjoyed another light-duty weekend (CCAFS). 1/2 December conducting regular housekeeping …landing intact, it This particular Dragon was making its second chores, exercising and talking to family and friends. visit to the ISS having previously flown on the CRS- tipped over in the 10 mission in 2017 (SpaceFlight Vol 59, No 5, p SOYUZ SUCCESS 169). Approximately eight minutes after launch, the ISS programme managers breathed a collective sigh water about 3.21 booster’s first stage failed to land as planned back at of relief when Soyuz MS-11/57S was successfully Landing Zone 1 at CCAFS; although landing intact launched from Baikonur’s Site 1 at 11:31 UTC km off the Florida it tipped over in the water about 3.21 km off the (17:31 local time) on 3 December atop a Soyuz-FG coast Florida coast. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted this rocket carrying spacecraft commander, Russian was due to a “Grid fin hydraulic pump” stalling and aeronautical engineer Oleg Kononenko (54) on his the booster “Appears to be undamaged”. fourth spaceflight, and rookies, US Army Colonel Dragon was grappled by Canadarm2 some 1 Anne McClain (39) and Canadian astrophysicist hr 21 min later than planned at 12:21 UTC on 8 and doctor David Saint-Jacques (48). Soyuz docked December due to a communications problem with to Poisk after four orbits and over six and a half a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) hours later at 17:33 UTC as the Station flew 403.9 as the complex flew 400.7 km above the Pacific km above the Atlantic Ocean. RIGHT Ocean north of Papua New Guinea. Over three The hatches were opened over two hours later A current view of the ISS and a quarter hours later at 15:36 UTC ground from above the Russian at 19:37 UTC returning the ISS to a six person Service Module (bottom) controllers berthed Dragon on the Earth facing port complement. The new arrivals spoke to space with its solar cells and the of Harmony. Dragon delivered 2,523 kg of supplies, officials, family and friends during the traditional MRM-2 module on top at hardware and experiments to the ISS. welcoming ceremony inside Zvezda, which was the docking port with the Two key investigations housed in Dragon’s Functional Cargo Block followed by the mandatory safety drill headed by – the second of Russia's unpressurised trunk were the Robotic Refueling Gerst. main pressurised modules Mission-3 (RRM-3) which Project Manager Jill On 4 December, Kononenko, McClain and attached to NASA's PMA-1 McGuire said will “help satellites to live longer” and Saint-Jacques began several days familiarising and the Unity module at the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation themselves with their new orbital home, whilst top. Note the Bigelow (GEDI) laser altimeter, whose goal according to expendable module on Gerst and Auñón-Chancellor prepared for the Node 3 at top left and the Principal Investigator (PI) Dr Ralph Dubayah “is arrival of the next unmanned Dragon spacecraft Airlock Module just visible really fairly simple, it’s to use laser beams to and Prokopyev joined Kononenko in preparations at top right. measure how tall trees are globally”. SF

16 Vol 61 February 2019 SpaceFlight

ISS ESA

Catch a satellite… track lightning… …or chat with a space robot

Research payloads from Europe or with a European contribution are on nearly all US cargo vessels to the International Space Station. Here, we describe the larger ISS science payloads with European involvement launched on SpaceX Dragon capsules in the period February 2017 to June 2018. by Gerard van de Haar FBIS

he SAGE-III, Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas ABOVE flew 1979-81 on board the AEM-B satellite and had Experiment-III, is a NASA instrument built ESA astronaut only four spectral channels but was instrumental in Alexander Gerst as part of the EOS (Earth Observing System) gets up close gathering data on the ozone hole above Antarctica for programme, and consists of an grating and personal nearly three years. spectrometer that measures near-UV/visible/ with the seventh It was followed by SAGE-II in 1984 on the ERBS T crewmember near-IR energy through the Earth's limb during solar satellite (launched on Shuttle 41G with astronaut and lunar occultations and limb scattering during the aboard the ISS Sally Ride shaking a stuck solar panel free) and – the robo-head daytime side of the orbit. The goal is to determine the CIMON, first on SAGE-II operated until 2005 making many important spatial distributions of stratospheric aerosols, ozone, a path to true AI observations in seven wavelengths on the chemistry nitrogen dioxide, water vapour and cloud occurrence data banks. and dynamic motions of the Earth's upper troposphere by mapping vertical profiles and calculating monthly and stratosphere (10-40 km high). averages of each. Next up was the first SAGE-III instrument which As the name implies, SAGE-III comes from an operated on the Russian Meteor-3M satellite 2001-6. earlier series of instruments. First up was a small A duplicate SAGE-III is now on the ISS; it operates precursor device called SAM flying on the nine-day as a true follow-on instrument in multi-wavelengths, Apollo-Soyuz manned flight back in 1975; SAGE-I measuring the whole atmosphere. A third SAGE-III is

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kept in storage. “MUSES is the first multiuser platform facility for SAGE-III weighs 527 kg (including its Nadir truss mounted external payloads on the ISS”, said Paul Viewing Platform, NVP) and is approximately 2 x “MUSES is Galloway, its programme manager at TBE, days before 1 x 1 m large; the instrument was built by NASA the launch. “It has huge data downlink capability (and) Langley, Ball, ESA’s ESTEC and TAS-Italy with ESA’s not a science gives us multiple viewing angles too. MUSES is not a Hexapod device being instrumental in keeping SAGE’s science instrument, it’s a technology. It expands one ISS tracking as stable as possible. SAGE-III was installed instrument, external payload site into four.” by the Canadarm2 on ISS’s external ELC-4 platform it’s a The MUSES pointing accuracy is better than 30 on 5 March 2017, two weeks after launch. First data arc seconds, which corresponds to about 60 m on the products were released in October 2017 showing technology. It ground at the nominal ISS altitude of 400 km. “The evidence of further ozone layer recovery, initially repeated exposure to the Earth’s land masses gives you observed by SAGE-II; a year later first results were expands one a good revisit time for target areas. MUSES’ ability presented at a NASA Colloquium. to point and track ground targets also enhances the ISS external revisit opportunities and viewing angles”, Mr. Galloway EARTH GAZERS pointed out. MUSES (Multiple User System for Earth Sensing) payload site In a recent phone interview Mr. Jack Ickes, TBE is an external platform developed specifically to into four“ Senior Vice-President of Geospatial Solutions, added: carry multiple 50-100 kg class Earth observation “Early during construction of MUSES, contact with instruments. It was developed by Teledyne Brown DLR was established and soon the German Aerospace Engineering (TBE) in Huntsville, Alabama, who Centre expressed their intention to provide a large supplies other ISS payloads like the glovebox remote sensing sensor for one of the four slots.” series, crystal growth furnaces, and Earth science MUSES is a relatively small platform with a mass of 305 experiments. The company is also the prime contractor kg and is about 1 x 1x 0.5 m in size. It was installed by on the ISS Mission Operations and Integration contract Canadarm2 on the external ELC-4 fixture a week after for the Payload Operations and Integration Center at launch and was soon declared fully operational. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. The DLR Earth Sensing Imaging Spectrometer

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(DESIS), launched in June 2018 aboard CRS-15, was unpacked by astronauts Gerst and Feustel on 20 August and transferred by the Dextre arm from the Kibo airlock to the MUSES platform on 27 August. DESIS is a hyperspectral visible/IR detector (400-1000 nm) with 30 m resolution, weighing 88 kg and 0.9 x 0.6 x 0.5m in size. Initial Operating Capability (when the first images were received) was achieved after only two days. Commissioning was completed in October with Full Operating Capability achieved before the end of 2018. DESIS will provide information to assess the situation following environmental disasters, to help farmers manage their land in a targeted manner, and provide scientists with a basis for innovative atmospheric correction algorithms. This 235 channel ground- controlled instrument can operate 5-7 years. First results presented by DLR in October show great promise.

STAR TRACK NICER (Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer) is a finely tuned spectrometer with 56 telescopes that are capable of spotting the thermal and non-thermal emissions of fast rotating neutron stars (also called pulsars) in the distant universe. It operates by scanning with a soft X-ray Timing Instrument (XTI), which will be able to see the inner-workings of these complex objects to understand the forces that create them. They are “small” stellar objects containing ultra-dense matter at the threshold of collapsing into black holes; presently about 2,000 pulsars are known. In addition to its principal science goals, NICER will enable the first demonstration of spacecraft navigation using pulsars as beacons, through the Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology (SEXTANT) enhancement. ABOVE magnetic objects known.” Of SEXTANT he said: "The “Neutron stars are fantastical stars that are Designed to fact that we have these pulsars apparently flashing away chase storms and extraordinary in many ways”, said Zaven Arzoumanian, investigate violent in the sky (hundreds of times per second) makes them NICER’s deputy principal investigator and science lead lightning bursts, interesting as [navigation] tools." at NASA Goddard, shortly before launch. “They are the ASIM is attached NICER weighs 372 kg and measures approximately densest objects in the universe, they are the fastest- to the exterior 1.5 x 1.5 x 1.5 m. Next to NASA Goddard and MIT, spinning objects known, they are the most strongly platorm of ESA’s the company MOOG and the Technical University of Columbus module. Denmark (DTU) are involved. On 12 June 2017, a week after Dragon CRS- 11 docked to ISS, NICER was picked-up by the Canadarm2 from Dragon’s trunk and two days later installed on the external ELC-2 platform, very close to the AMS-2 particle physics module which was already

placed there in 2011 on STS-134. After a check-out (ABOVE) DE HAAR (LEFT); ESA VAN GERARD IMAGES: month, NICER began science operations on 17 July. In January 2018 the first data proved that pulsars can indeed be used as a universal GPS. In May 2018 NICER found two stars that revolve around each other every 38 minutes – the record for the shortest known orbital period for a certain class of pulsar binary system, being only 300,000 km apart LEFT from each other (less than the distance from Earth to Prof. Dr. Torsten the Moon – 384,000 km). Already after eight months Neubert from the of observations the NICER data archive was opened in Danish Technical March 2018 with records of over 3,000 observations. University hopes to provide Data gathering is planned to last 18 months. In significant September NASA also allowed guest scientists to use understanding NICER. of lightning and the transient EXCESS ENERGY lights above such phenomena from Research that started with balloons now culminates his work with data in a three-year stint aboard the ISS as scientists work from ASIM. . on solving a fundamental astrophysics mystery: what

20 Vol 61 February 2019 SpaceFlight ISS

SCIENCE PAYLOADS IN FOCUS SPACEX

ABOVE Europe’s ASIM lightning instrument (on the right) aboard the trunk in the Dragon logitics capsule.

gives cosmic rays such incredible energies, and how does that affect the composition of the universe? RIGHT The MUSES-DESIS CREAM (Cosmic-Ray Energetics and Mass) is the imaging spectrometer first instrument designed to detect cosmic rays at such was supplied by the DLR. TBE higher energy ranges (up to 100,000 trillion eV), and over such an extended duration in space. Scientists hope to discover whether cosmic rays are accelerated BELOW by a single cause, which is believed to be supernovae. A televised The new research also could determine why there view of the Dragon trunk are fewer cosmic rays detected at very high energies carrying NICER than are theorized to exist. Overall CREAM addresses and MUSES these long-standing fundamental science questions: equipment along • Do supernovae supply the bulk of cosmic rays? with the ROSA (Roll-Out • What is the history of cosmic rays in the Galaxy? Solar Array) on CRS-11. • Can the energy spectra of cosmic rays result from a single mechanism?

• What is the origin of the steepening ("knee") SPACEX around 3 x 1015 eV in the cosmic ray all-particle energy spectrum? ISS’s CREAM is pretty big, with a mass of 1,258 kg, measuring 1.85 x 1 x 1 m. The device was relocated from the Dragon trunk to the Kibo outside balcony a week after launch; following power-up it started ground controlled operations after a check-out period. Ground stations are located in the US (Washington, Huntsville) and Japan (Tsukuba). First results are pending. Earlier versions of the instrument have been thoroughly tested, having already flown six times at 40 km altitude in 2004-10 for a total of 161 days on long-duration balloons circling the South Pole, where Earth's magnetic field lines are essentially vertical. The instrument is a collaboration between the US, the Republic of Korea, Mexico and France.

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TRASH DISPOSAL RemoveDebris (RemDeb) is aimed at performing EUROPE TO THE ISS key Active Debris Removal (ADR) technology Dragon mission Launch date Payload with European involvement demonstrations (e.g capture, deorbiting) representative of an operational scenario during a low-cost mission CRS-10 19 February 2017 SAGE-III using novel key technologies for ADR. The mission CRS-11 3 June 2017 MUSES, NICER comprises a main satellite platform with a mass of CRS-12 14 August 2017 CREAM around 100kg that deploys two CubeSats as artificial CRS-14 2 April 2018 ASIM, RemDeb debris targets to demonstrate four technologies: net CRS-15 29 June 2018 CIMON, DESIS capture, harpoon capture, vision-based navigation and dragsail de-orbiting. On 6 June 2018, two months after launch, the including Airbus (Germany/UK/France), SSTL (UK), ISS-astronauts Feustel and Arnold unpacked the box- CSEM (Switzerland) and ISIS (the Netherlands) plus shaped 1 m big RemDeb in the Kibo module and on Stellenbosch University (South Africa). 20 June Arnold deployed RemDeb from ISS via the Kibo airlock, with ISS-cosmonaut Artemyev taking STORM CHASER video of the satellite flying by the space station. In the ESA’s ASIM platform carries instruments to study violent process, RemDeb became the largest payload ever to be actions like lightning in the upper atmosphere above deployed from the ISS. thunderstorms. ASIM (Atmosphere-Space Interaction Another two months later the commissioning had Monitor) specifically looks for Transient Luminous been successfully completed and RemDeb was ready Events (TLEs), columns of light above storm clouds, for the first technology demonstration: the net capture discovered by accident in 1989 and frequently observed BELOW of a cubesat (called DebrisSat1) which was successful Astronaut Andrew by airline pilots. The facility will also quantify the effects on 16 September. This was followed by the 3D-vision Feustel pauses for of gravity waves on the mesosphere, study high-altitude navigation test with the harpoon test of the second a photo-shoot as cloud formation, and determine the characteristics DebrisSat scheduled for February 2019, followed in he unpacks the of thunderstorms that make them effective in the March by the dragsail try-out. RemoveDebris perturbation of the high-altitude atmosphere. instrument before The project is co-funded by the European deploying it Moreover, ASIM will help improve our Commission with the Surrey Space Centre (SSC) through the Kibo understanding of the effect of dust storms, pollutants in the lead, cooperating with several companies airlock. from large cities, forest fires, and volcanoes on cloud formation and electrification, as well as the intensification of hurricanes and that relation to eye-wall lightning activity. ASIM could also lead to improvements in atmospheric models and predictions related to climatology and meteorology. Some two weeks after launch in April 2018, the facility was retracted by the Canadarm2 robot arm from the Dragon trunk and placed outside on Columbus’ lower “balcony”. The 314 kg, over 1 cubic m big payload was built by a European consortium led by Terma Denmark. Operations began after a six-week check-out period and are led by the ASIM Principal Investigator Prof. Dr. Torsten Neubert at the Danish Technical University with the data studied by a worldwide network of institutes from many European countries (incl. Scandinavia, UK, the Netherlands) but also in USA, Russia, Cuba, Brazil, Israel, Japan, S-Africa etc. during the scheduled 2 years of data gathering. The platform’s two dedicated instruments (a gamma ray detector plus a high-speed optical imager) and data handling unit are ground controlled. “We don't really know what's inside lightning. It happens so fast and it's so dangerous... it's hard to get to the real inside physics”, Neubert said shortly before launch. “Lightning processes are slowed at high altitude, making it a good laboratory for studying how electrical discharges emanate through the atmosphere. They are really lightning, except they are lightning processes in the upper atmosphere”, Neubert said of the atmospheric outbursts. “So they look a little bit different, but if we understand them, we’ll also understand normal lightning much better." So far dozens of discharges have been detected by ASIM. Before ASIM, lightning could only be pictured by ESA’s NightPod camera, first used by ISS-astronaut Kuipers in 2012.

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ROBO-HEAD ABOVE functions (augmented reality). With Robonaut’s return on CRS-14 in May 2018, the The NICER Ultrasonic sensors measure distances for collision instrument is ISS-crew got a new “seventh crew member” when a co-located with detection. Seven microphones act as “ears” for more sophisticated AI-robot called CIMON (Crew AMS-2 on the detecting where sounds are originating, and there is Interactive MObile CompanioN) was brought up ISS and will help a directional microphone for good voice recognition. onboard CRS-15. This 32 cm, 5 kg large floating detect emissions It can even show some emotion, sing and tell jokes! device is shaped like a human head able to see, hear, from fast rotating stars. Gerst activated CIMON for the first time in November, understand, speak and display information like a true putting it to work: "Wake up, CIMON!". The answer astronaut personal assistant, while Robonaut could came promptly: "What can I do for you?”; after this only carry things around. initial banter, Gerst allowed CIMON to float around CIMON was specially developed by the German freely and assist him in Columbus. DLR institute for astronaut Gerst’s second ISS stay, Today CIMON is basically still a prototype but more lasting from June to December 2018. DLR’s Dr. improved versions could be of great help for astronauts

IMAGES: NASA (OPPOSITE AND ABOVE); TBE (RIGHT) ABOVE); AND (OPPOSITE NASA IMAGES: Christian Karrasch, CIMON project manager, calls on future (deep) space trips. “For us, this is a piece of CIMON a kind of historical moment as it is “the first the future of human spaceflight. If you go out to the (real) artificial intelligence in space; with CIMON Moon or to Mars, you cannot take all (of) mankind and BELOW we are entering new territory and operating at the Teledyne Brown engineers with you, but with an artificial intelligence, threshold of technological feasibility”. Engineering puts you have, instantly, all the knowledge of mankind”, Dr. It took two years to develop the small robot which up its MUSES Karrasch said shortly after the launch. was flight-tested on parabolic aircraft flights in March team which CIMON was launched 50 years after the release of 2018. Next to Airbus (lead contractor) also IBM, ESA’s developed the the famous SF movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, featuring a platform for ESTEC and the Lucerne University in Switzerland were multiple Earth stubborn computer named HAL taking over full involved in its development. observation control of a manned spaceship en route to Jupiter; CIMON allows the astronaut to keep both hands instruments. hopefully CIMON will not follow in these footsteps! SF free, with no need to manually operate a computer, for example. Upon activation CIMON’s first words are “Hello, I’m CIMON!” announcing its readiness for work. Thanks to this fully voice-controlled access to documents and media, the astronaut can conveniently navigate through operating and repair instructions and procedures for experiments and equipment. It will thus serve as a complex database of all the necessary information for working on the ISS, and can also be used as a mobile camera for documentation purposes. CIMON can freely move and rotate in all spatial directions using 14 internal fans. It can therefore turn towards the astronaut when it is spoken to, nod and shake its head and follow the astronaut – autonomously or on command. Its “eyes” are two cameras, and it also has an additional camera for face recognition. Two side cameras are used for video documentation and could also be used for additional computer-generated

SpaceFlight Vol 61 February 2019 23 SATELLITES

In search of a role

A former British Aerospace scientist reflects on Project Columbus, the dilemmas of the UK space industry and the origins of Envisat. by Bob Parkinson FBIS

n 1 November 1982 I walked into the factory at Stevenage to begin a new career with what was then British Aerospace Space & Communications. Up to that point I had been O working as a civil servant scientist with the Ministry of Defence and I did expect some changes. However, that morning, before I had even been given a desk, I was presented with a pile of paper, perhaps 5 cm thick, with the instruction “You will need to read through this today because you are in Toulouse tomorrow”. That was my introduction to the European Space business. The meeting in Toulouse turned out to be significant. I was joining an industrial group looking at European possibilities for collaborating with NASA on the proposed Space Station. In the 1970s, during the development of the Space Shuttle, the European Space Agency (ESA) had collaborated with NASA by providing a system called Spacelab. Led by Germany, but with participation of a number of European countries, Spacelab had provided a modular, reusable payload element for the Space Shuttle. It included a pressurized Laboratory and a number of unpressurized cargo platforms or Pallets which could carry various experiments. The Pallets could be flown separately, or operate in conjunction with the Pressurized Laboratory. The UK, having no great interest in human space activities, had provided the unpressurized structural Pallets. The group I joined in Toulouse consisted of representatives from the industrial consortium that had built Spacelab, and who were now studying for ESA how these elements could be evolved to fit in with NASA’s plans for a Space Station – then being advocated as “The Next Logical Step” in Space [1]. The Spacelab Pallet proved to be a highly flexible and useful addition to the Space Shuttle. The development

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ABOVE model first flew on STS-2 and STS-3 in 1981, and With a width the final mission was in 2008. But, having produced of 3.9 m and a length of 3 m, the ten units, the project was completed as far as British Spacelab Pallet Aerospace was concerned, and after a while it was was constructed forgotten where they had even come from. In the mid- from five parallel 1990s I visited NASA Goddard, and in their assembly U-shaped frames area was a Pallet being fitted for its latest mission, but and 24 inner and 24 outer panels my hosts were not even aware that this structure had of aluminium originated in Europe. honeycomb. This By 1983, NASA’s plans for the proposed Space Station one is on display were becoming quite elaborate. It would not only at the transport IMAGES: NASA (LEFT) / DAVID BAKER (ABOVE) BAKER (LEFT) / DAVID NASA IMAGES: museum in provide a laboratory in orbit, but also act as a transport Lucerne. and servicing node. It would support orbital transfer vehicles operating beyond low Earth orbit and up to geosynchronous altitudes, and provide servicing for a number of “free flier” platforms – both manned and …such unmanned – that would carry out missions that could not be permanently attached to the main Space Station. advanced With a lot of human activities taking place on the core facility, there was a concern that the microgravity visions of the disturbance levels caused by human activities might be future too great for some of the experiments being proposed. Most of the free flier platforms would be co-orbiting seemed to be with the Space Station, providing a “quiet” microgravity environment, but plans were also made for a polar- of little orbiting Platform that would be serviced not at the Space Station but by a dedicated Space Shuttle mission interest using the same set of tools provided by the Space Station. This was before the idea of a polar orbiting Space Shuttle mission was abandoned due to concerns about the radiation environment. For the moment such advanced visions of the future seemed to be of little interest to the UK Government, so I made some simple studies of how a development of the Spacelab Pallet LEFT A Spacelab Pallet might be used as an unmanned cargo carrier. used as carrier for Canada’s ADVENT OF THE POLAR PLATFORM Canadarm2, The studies I had been introduced to in Toulouse were transferred to the being financed by a series of annual study contracts ISS on 28 April 2001 from Space from ESA. In 1983, when the next round of studies Shuttle Endeavour was being put together, I got a call from Peter Sharp, on STS-100. the Study Manager at ERNO Bremen. He explained

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that ESA now wanted the group to look beyond NASA modifications to Spacelab, and was looking for new, possibly more ambitious, things that ESA might do in collaboration with NASA. Peter explained to me that Germany, already leading Europe on human spaceflight activities, would be taking the lead on any of the manned elements that were to be studied, but “would I mind taking on the task to look at the unmanned polar platform element?”. I took that to mean that he thought that this was the least important of the various things that ESA wanted studied. The mission of the Polar Platform was Earth Observation – and that was something that the UK was interested in. The French had flown the first optical Spot satellites, and the Canadians were considering Radarsat as a means of tracking Arctic ice, but the Polar Platform could fly a multiplicity of instruments looking at the Earth in different ways to gain synergy as a consequence. As conceived, the Polar Platform would allow instruments to be serviced, replaced or added to in orbit as required. Even before joining British Aerospace I had been taking an interest in “parametric costing” as a means of getting early estimates for the cost of large projects. I was aware that the UK was not likely to spend the large amounts of money required for human spaceflight, and when I looked at what was being proposed both by ABOVE beam onto which you could plug in “whatever you ESA and industry, my reaction was that most of them The ASTRO-1 wanted”. It was unsophisticated, but I nevertheless payload on Shuttle would be very expensive – so expensive that the Polar mission STS-35 managed to provide sufficient supporting data to Platform might end up being the only element to fly. My resides on two convince the Study Managers at ERNO and ESA that we boss, Peter Conchie, agreed, and we started to talk with Spacelab Pallets had a team working on it (in fact, I there was just me, various Earth Observation users about what they were in the Orbiter part-time). interested in, developing a constituency for the idea. Processing Facility I had already looked at the Spacelab Pallet as a unit at KSC. The initial concept sketches that I made were that could be brought up in the Shuttle and mounted simple “vu-graph engineering”. At one end would be on the Space Station or a Platform, and this now BELOW a Service Module, providing power, thermal, data and The general became the basis for my “unit modules”. The solar communications, together with a Propulsion Module configuration of arrays were taken from the experimental Olympus providing attitude and orbit control. The rest was a Spacelab/Pallet. large communications spacecraft that had been built at

KEY 1 T unnel connecting Shuttle mid- 6 Twin Pallets deck to Pressurized Module 7 Infrared telescope as 2 Attachment points to Shuttle representative payload Payload Bay 8 Magnetometers 3 Foot restraints 9 External space between Spacelab 4 Science experiments and Payload Bay 5 Hyperbaric modules 10 Shuttle mid-deck NASA (BELOW) / VIA DAVID BAKER (LEFT) BAKER VIA DAVID / (BELOW) NASA

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Stevenage. ABOVE become a Man-Tended Free Flier (MTFF). The MTFF In early 1984, the then minister responsible for The initial free- would periodically dock with the main Space Station flying platform space, Sir Geoffrey Pattie, called a meeting at the Royal concept of 1984, for servicing and exchange of experiments, but in Aeronautical Society to “debate UK participation in together with between would fly in unmanned mode co-orbiting BOB PARKINSON the Space Station programme”. I had heard politicians extended solar cell with the Space Station but providing the ultra-low calling for “public debate” on various issues, and here I arrays, two Pallets “clean” microgravity environment desired by the was in the middle of one. Various worthy people stood and a radiator. experimenters. In the long term it might even have been up and listed the things that should be considered to possible to extend this capability into an independent a make a decision, and then I was put up with a large, European Space Station. projected version of the picture above to say “this is Meanwhile the French saw the need for a better what we want to do and this is how it works”. (We even launch vehicle than Ariane 4, with the capacity to made a poster of it.) And that was the end of the debate. launch large payloads into low Earth orbit. Ariane 4 This was the only game in town, and I got the feeling had been designed to launch geosynchronous satellites, that if anybody had spoken against it they would have and while it had also launched polar orbiting satellites instantly been stuffed into a sack and removed from the like Spot, it was severely compromised launching to auditorium. The UK was not only interested in the Polar The UK was lower orbits. One proposal was that the new launcher Platform, it wanted to lead it. could deliver into orbit a small, recoverable, manned not only spaceplane called Hermes. COLUMBUS AND HERMES Hermes and the Columbus MTFF fitted well When ESA was founded in 1975, the major players interested in together. Not only could the MTFF dock with the Space established their areas of interest. France was interested the Polar Station for servicing, but it could be independently in creating an independent launch vehicle (Ariane), the supplied by Hermes. The two units would dock so UK wanted to develop communications satellites, and Platform, it that astronauts could work aboard for a while, and Germany was interested in human spaceflight and led the spaceplane would return to Earth with the MTFF Spacelab. Now, with the advent of the Space Station, wanted to remaining in orbit for the next visit. If Hermes could Germany was conducting its own national studies for be launched into a polar orbit, it might also service the participation in parallel with the ESA studies and they lead it Polar Platform in between visits to the MTFF. named the new project Columbus. The “elephant in the room” was the cost. The French The original Columbus proposal was ambitious. had quoted a ridiculously low price for Hermes (around Europe would build an attached laboratory module – an 2000 MAU as I remember), but those of us familiar with extension of the Spacelab pressurized module. Then parametric costing were asking, “in what way is Hermes it would build a smaller version of this module that, going to be so much simpler than the Space Shuttle when attached to a suitable service module, would Orbiter? – after all, it must have all the same systems”.

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And the Columbus MTFF was going to cost a similar amount. Could Europe afford to develop both together? Early in 1984 President Reagan proposed that NASA should develop the Space Station, and invited “friends and allies” to join the USA in this enterprise. He brought the invitation with him to the G7 meeting of Heads of Government, to be held in London that year [2]. He arrived with a model that NASA had produced for the meeting, and pictures appeared in the media of Reagan and Margaret Thatcher discussing the details. Within ESA, the prospect of participating in the Space Station Programme and developing Ariane 5 and Hermes meant a major expansion of the long-term programme. It would double ESA’s expenditure over the next few years, and so preparation was required for the ESA Ministerial Conference to be held in Rome at the end of 1985. Political discussions led to a decision that the Columbus programme would be led by Germany, Ariane 5 and Hermes would become the responsibility, of France, and that the UK would lead the Polar Platform development.

THE BID Early in 1985 ESA issued a formal Invitation to tender to industry for the Phase B “Design Phase” activities on Columbus and the Space Platform. Politically the bid had already been sewn up. MBB Bremen would lead the ABOVE problem that in polar orbit the Sun moves around in design of the Columbus Pressurized Module, Dornier The concept any direction. A significant instrument visible in the of the Hermes in Friedrichshaven would lead the Man-Tended Free spaceplane picture on these pages is the synthetic aperture radar Flier, British Aerospace would lead the Polar Platform, docked to a free- antenna, designed to scan the ground below as the and Matra Toulouse would manage the overall Data flying laboratory satellite moves along its track. Management System. In ESA terms this was an module. By the time that we got to the bid, the Platform was “optional programme”, which meant that each study formed by a series of box-like structures that could would lead a multinational team following the rules of be plugged together in orbit, supported by a service “geographical distribution” where each Member State module providing power and data services, and a got work from the project in proportion to the amount We were not separate propulsion unit for attitude and orbit control. of money they contributed. The ESA deadline for submission of bids was set By this time I did have a small team working for the worst… for the Tuesday after Easter. My team, being old hands me at Stevenage. Now I had a multinational group in this business, immediately assumed that this meant of contractors knocking on my door, wanting their …Dornier that we would be working all the way through Easter, individual “pieces of the cake”. To maintain its Project scored just with some all-night sessions as well. As for me, I had a Manager role and to conduct the final assembly, the young family to go home to, and mentally set an earlier UK would have to stump up a substantial part of the 6% deadline for the Thursday before Easter. Much to my total cost (I think it was about 35%). But I remember team’s surprise, at about half past seven on the Thursday one meeting when all my potential contractors sat night, the bid packages went into their boxes. One of around a table and stated what percentages their various our number had agreed to take them across on the RIGHT) AND BELOW (ABOVE LEFT) / ESA (BELOW BOB PARKINSON IMAGES: governments would want from the project – at the end ferry to ESTEC on the Monday, and I told the rest they totalling to about 125% . It was clear that there was could go home. We could have had another three days significant support – in industry at least! BELOW to refine our bid, but as events turned out, that probably The design had already been evolving as we got to The revised Polar wouldn't have made any difference. grips with practical issues of configuring a large, polar Platform free-flier In my innocence I had assumed that the people concept of 1985 orbiting spacecraft. The concept was still modular, (left) and the we were writing the proposal for would be the same but no longer based on Shuttle Pallet modules. And evolving concept people who had been ESA representatives at our earlier the solar arrays were now having to grapple with the of one year later. meetings, and who would therefore be familiar with the background to the project. This turned out to be an unjustified assumption. There may also have been issues related to the fact that ESA had been given the project to manage from outside rather than originating it “in house”. Certainly one department in ESA had issues with British Aerospace’s management and used the proposal to fight a private battle of their own. When they scored our proposal they gave it a mark of just 25%! To put things in perspective – we were not the worst. Dornier, leading the Man-Tended Free Flier proposal, scored just 6%. As one of the ESA people later put it, “we thought that we were asking for one white flower.

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detached from the Space Station programme, and was now a separate project in its own right called Envisat. The idea that it could be a serviceable platform had been abandoned once it became clear that manned space missions to polar orbit were not realistic. In any case, by the end of the 1980s it had become clear that the Hermes space plane was unaffordable, and the Columbus pressurized module and free-flier were shrinking to a somewhat smaller laboratory attached to the Space Station. My initial reaction back in 1984 had been nearly right: the Polar Platform/Envisat was the one component with the best chance of flying. Envisat was launched on 1 March 2002 aboard an Ariane 5 rocket, with the largest mass (8,211 kg) ever flown on a polar orbiting satellite. It still retained some of the features of the original concept, with a propulsion module and a service module on one end, and a long (10 m) box-like construction. Towards the end of construction I was taken down to the integration area at Bristol and shown the monster I had given birth to. My comment was, “it all fitted on a sheet of A-4 when it left me”. Envisat had cost two billion Euros to bring to completion, and a further 300 million for its five years of operation, but in that time it had returned more than a petabyte of data – that is, over 1.5 million CD-ROMs measured in early 1980s terms. Such is the relentless You offered us a bouquet of flowers but they were all BELOW march of technology. SF red. Dornier said – forget about the flower, look at this Evolved from the Polar Platform, REFERENCES forest!” Envisat in the We spent much of the summer in negotiation clean room at Andrew J Stofan. Space Station: The Next Logical Step, NASA with ESA (on a fairly friendly level). There were ESTEC in the TM-103398 (1982) misunderstandings on both sides, which we were able to Netherlands. Jack Leeming, “HOTOL – The Political Issues”, Space Chronicle, sort out around the table. In the end, we had a package JBIS 59 Suppl.2 pp.122-124 (2006) that both sides understood and could work with. And then the senior management at British Aerospace decided that the Stevenage site had quite enough work on, and its sister site at Bristol was not only short of work but was better oriented towards a scientific/Earth observation mission. So the whole thing went to Bristol.

THE AFTERMATH That was not quite the end of my involvement with the Columbus programme. When Bristol first got a complete “bottom up” cost estimate from its sub- contractors, the total was significantly higher than we had originally estimated, and I used parametric costing to identify where the costs were high. It turned out that there were a number of places where there was double accounting for the same work, and in the course of an afternoon we managed to save 150 MAU. I got involved with costs again some time later when the whole of the Columbus programme was in danger of exceeding the budgetary limits set by the ministers. An industrial team was set up to reduce costs, but it rapidly became apparent that the key question was not “how do we reduce the costs of Columbus?” but “how much are the participating governments prepared to pay?”. Again, politics were playing a part, and we were not part of it. My small group also became involved in a series of ESA studies under the title EMSI – European Manned Space Infrastructure – looking at the possibilities or Europe, and even the early stages of the Ariane Transfer Vehicle, to launch supplies to the Space Station. In the meantime the Polar Platform had become

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30 Vol 61 February 2019 SpaceFlight SPACE MEMORABILIA Shake, rattle Rolex& Celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, the Rolex company pioneered the “tool watch” concept aimed at specific professions, including pilots, engineers – and astronauts . Rolex watches even made it to the Moon. by Philip Corneille

xactly 100 years ago, German watchmaker The Rolex GMT-master was quickly adopted Hans Wilsdorf left the UK and established by many airlines, since GMT time as standard the Montres Rolex company in Geneva. for all aviation activity. The 1960 Rolex catalogue Rolex's popularity grew during World War cleverly mentioned that both pilots and navigators E 2 and it became the timepiece of choice for considered the watch an important professional Royal Air Force pilots. aid. That same year, the GMT-Master 1675 The tool watch concept resulted from the model became available, fitted with protective development of the first ever waterproof watch crown guards and built specifically as a case, which became known as the Oyster. A cockpit crew timekeeper. This popular combination of innovative design, such as Pepsi-bezelled watch remained available the screw-down crown and rotary winding until 2007, and along the way caught the eye mechanism, coupled with clever advertising, of both astronauts and cosmonauts. skyrocketed Rolex to become the world’s best-known luxury brand. The name Rolex ROLEX IN SPACE was chosen as it was hard to misspell and easily In 1959, the United States Air Force started pronounceable in many languages. Wilsdorf’s operations with the X-15 rocket-powered aircraft strategy of continuously promoting top-quality as part of NASA’s hypersonic research programme product development, linked to the rugged use seeking data for practical use in both aircraft and of its watches by service personnel and scientific spacecraft. By 1961 all X-15 test pilots and the seven expeditions, firmly established his company's Mercury astronauts were given an Accutron tuning prestigious reputation. fork watch, which was heralded as being designed In 1953, as non-stop transatlantic travel matured, from the ground up for use in the harsh cockpit Rolex was asked by several airlines to design a environments of experimental aircraft and space wrist watch to fit the needs of airline pilots and capsules (SpaceFlight Vol 60, No 4 p 32). travellers alike. Pan American Airlines and Rolex In 1963, as NASA started recruitment for the subsequently teamed up to develop a timepiece Group 3 astronauts, Mercury astronaut John Glenn’s that could simultaneously display the time in two ABOVE goodwill tour brought him to Japan, where he was different time zones. Rolex's ground-breaking met with great enthusiasm. This event did not go In 1954, Rolex launched the GMT-Master wrist GMT-Master, with fourth unnoticed by Rolex, as the company wanted to GMT hand and distinctive watch, which featured a red/blue 24-hour bezel, a “Pepsi” coloured bezel. release a watch in tribute to the spacefarers (it had black dial with date function, and a fourth 24-hour previously commemorated legendary explorations hand with a luminous triangle at its tip that was OPPOSITE to the summit of Mount Everest and the North linked to the 12-hour hand. This Greenwich Mean X-15 jock William “Pete” Pole). In response to the Japanese fascination with Knight emerges from his Time (GMT) hand enabled airline crews to set their record-breaking Mach 6.7 astronauts and space-related science fiction, Rolex watch to another time zone, then use the rotatable flight with a GMT-Master launched a small production run of the “Space 24-hour bezel to display a second time zone. strapped to his left arm . Dweller” – a modified version of their Explorer

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model. However, this was a Japan-only special edition and was not released on the world market. In December 1964, NASA’s Gemini & Flight / Support Procurement office contacted 10 watch brands to inform them of an upcoming competitive tender to supply the agency with wrist watches for the Gemini astronauts. Only four responded, and watches from Longines Wittnauer, Rolex and Omega were submitted to a series of rigorous tests. By March 1965, NASA had adopted the Omega Speedmaster as its official flight-qualified timepiece. In 1969 this became universally known as the Moonwatch (SpaceFlight, Vol 59, No 5, p 178). Although Rolex missed out on an historic advertising coup, their watches still made it into both the American and Russian space programmes. Astronauts and test pilots privately purchased Rolex wrist watches and developed a preference for the GMT-Master 1675 model. In 1965, Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter became an aquanaut, joining the US Navy Sealab II project to test underwater habitats and help advance the science of deep sea diving. During that time he wore a Rolex Submariner and later on a Rolex Sea Dweller – the first wrist watch designed for saturation diving. In June 1967, test pilot William “Pete” Knight was pictured wearing a Rolex GMT-Master while inspecting the ablative white coating on the X-15-A2 rocket-powered research aircraft. On 3 October 1967 Knight piloted this particular aircraft ABOVE Collins. However, the first Rolex flown aboard an at a speed of Mach 6.7 (7,274 km/h)– a record that Apollo 13 astronaut Jack Apollo mission was worn by Apollo 13 Command Swigert was the first to has remained unchallenged to this day. Pete Knight’s carry a personal Rolex Module pilot John “Jack” Swigert. Just 72 hours next X-15 flight, dated 17 October 1967 brought watch aboard a NASA prior to the ill-fated Apollo 13 launch, Swigert him to an altitude of 85.5 kilometers, high enough space mission. replaced Ken Mattingly and was photographed to be awarded USAF astronaut wings. Post-flight wearing his personal Rolex GMT-Master while photos revealed that he was wearing his Rolex BELOW discussing details with Deke Slayton. Apollo 13 suit- GMT-Master on both of these X-15 flights. Cosmonaut Vladimir up photos on 11 April 1970 show Swigert wearing In 1968 and 1969, several Apollo programme Shatalov (centre) sports his personal Rolex on a bracelet at his left wrist a Rolex during simulator astronauts were seen wearing Rolex wrist watches training for the Soyuz 10 underneath the spacesuit. during training activities. They included Walter mission to the world's first On 13 April 1970, Swigert spoke the now famous Schirra, Frank Borman, James Lovell and Michael space station, Salyut 1. words “Houston we’ve had a problem”, and three days later used his Speedmaster to time the Lunar Module descent engine's trans-Earth burn at 105 hrs 18 min 28 sec. Upon the crew's return to Earth, Swigert gifted his space-flown Rolex to Rolex CEO Rene Jeanneret, who in return offered Swigert a gold, black-bezel Rolex GMT-Master on a jubilee bracelet. In December 1971, Swigert posed for his official white spacesuit portrait wearing this gold watch. The same year, cosmonaut Vladimir Shatalov was pictured during Soyuz 10 training wearing a Rolex GMT-Master with a red/blue pepsi bezel. Four years later, when Shatalov trained as a backup for the ASTP mission, he was still wearing the same watch. In November 1970, the Apollo 14 prime crew, including commander Alan Shepard, were also pictured wearing Rolex GMT-Master wrist watches during geology training. NASA astronauts were allowed to carry private items, wrist watches included, in their personal preference kit (PPK). Some of these fireproof PPK kit bags were stored in the Command Module, while others hung in the Lunar Module and made it to the lunar surface, rendering their contents of special value. During the 31 January 1971 Apollo 14 suit-up, both Command Module Pilot Stuart

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Roosa and Lunar Module Pilot Edgar Mitchell were seen wearing Rolex GMT-Master watches. Ed Mitchell also had a pair of Rolex GMT-Master 1675 watches, tucking one on each wrist under the inner cuff of his A7L space uit. Although both Roosa and Mitchell clearly wore the Rolex in the Apollo CM Kitty Hawk, there is no footage showing Mitchell wearing the watches aboard the Lunar Module Antares, or on the lunar surface. During the 21 November 1972 lunar EVA- training for Apollo 17 at Cape Canaveral, Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan was pictured wearing a Rolex GMT-Master strapped over the left forearm of his A7LB space suit. In December 1972, Command Module pilot Ronald Evans was the last to account for a space-flown Rolex during the Apollo missions. Evans asked his Moonwalking crewmates, Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt, to take his PPK-bag containing a private Rolex GMT- Master down to the Taurus-Littrow region of the lunar surface aboard Challenger, while he orbited the Moon in America. This Rolex timepiece remained on the Moon for around 75 hours before the final Apollo Moonwalker left the surface. Evans’ personal Rolex Oyster Perpetual GMT-Master 1675 wrist watch was auctioned during the October 2009 Heritage auction in Dallas, Texas, and sold for USD$131,000.

ROLEX IN A NEW ERA With an almost routine planning of Space Shuttle flights, the rules on what personal items astronauts could carry with them became somewhat more relaxed. Shuttle pilots recruited from the services always had an interest in watches – for example naval aviator Scott Altman, wore wore three different Rolex watches in space: one on Columbia STS-90 (April 1998), a Submariner on Atlantis STS-106 (September 2000) and a GMT-Master on Columbia STS-109 (March 2002). During the latter part of the Space Shuttle era, one astronaut clearly stood out by wearing ABOVE became the Canadian with the most spacewalks, his personal Rolex GMT-Master. NASA mission Canadian astronaut Dafydd surpassing Chris Hadfield in total EVA time. “Dave” Williams wears a specialist Leroy Chiao wore his Rolex watch on Rolex Sea Dweller during In October 2007, Malaysian surgeon Sheikh three different Shuttle orbiters; Columbia (STS- his flight aboard the Space Muszaphar Shukor took some of his personal 65 in July 1994), Endeavour (STS-72 January Shuttle Endeavour in watches, among them a Rolex Submariner, aboard 1996) and Discovery (STS-92 in October 2000). August 2017. Soyuz TMA-11 to the ISS. That same year, Rolex And in 2004, Chiao was assigned as commander released the certified chronometer version of the of ISS Expedition-10 and was launched aboard Submariner 14060M – considered the last of the Soyuz TMA-5 to the space station, again wearing stainless steel classic Submariners, due to its clean his trusted Rolex timepiece. During the 192-day dial, aluminium bezel insert, glass without cyclops mission, Chiao became the first American citizen …not only bubble domed magnifying date window, and case to vote in a Presidential election while in space. He with drilled-through lugs. accumulated a total of 229 days 8 hours in space, synonymous with Half a century after the release of Rolex aviation making his personal GMT-Master a record holder and dive watches, the GMT-Master, the non-date for the Rolex spending the most time in orbit. accuracy and Submariner and the Sea Dweller ensured that the In April 1998, Canadian physician Dafydd tool watch maintained its rich heritage during an “Dave” Williams wore a 1960s Rolex Submariner durability, but with age when mechanical watches were still regarded as during the Columbia STS-90 mission. Being a keen the pinnacle of technology. Rolex’s unrelenting scuba diver and NEEMO project aquanaut, he wore historic human commitment to the continuous improvement of the same Submariner – a model with an epic diving achievements their watches, designed for rugged use and pedigree – for several saturation dives aboard the appealing to active customers, made the name not Aquarius undersea research habitat. In August 2007, only synonymous with accuracy and durability, but Williams wore a Rolex Sea Dweller during the STS- with historic human achievements. SF 118 mission aboard Endeavour. This marked the The author thanks Dr Dave Williams, Jake Ehrlich and Ed 150th manned U.S. space launch and Dr Williams Hengeveld for their kind assistance with this article.

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Reach for the Skyrora The first domestic British satellite launch vehicle in half a century is currently undergoing testing at various UK locations. The ambitious plans of Edinburgh- based Skyrora Ltd include a series of small test launches, followed by a liquid- fuelled sub-orbital sounding rocket leading to a fully-fledged orbital vehicle. by Ken MacTaggart FBIS

kyrora intends to provide launch services working relationships with the relevant authorities, for small satellites of up to 350 kg to polar including the CAA. and near-polar Sun-synchronous orbits. Its orbital vehicle aims to launch from one ADDING IT UP S of the proposed vertical launch sites in the The Skyrora SK-1 is the company’s sub-orbital north of Scotland, although the company has yet to launch vehicle, or sounding rocket, that permits commit to a specific location. testing of more complex systems for the larger XL As reported in SpaceFlight, Vol 60, No 10, p orbital rocket, but will also be capable of offering 5, the first components were successfully flight commercial space services in its own right. The tested in northern Scotland in August, and plans SK-1 is 10.9 m tall with a diameter of 71 cm and are advanced to conduct test firings of the Skyrora weighs 2.3 tonnes when fully fuelled at launch. Its XL rocket’s third-stage Leo engine at Newquay in Skyforce main engine burns hydrogen peroxide Cornwall. This will be the first liquid engine test and kerosene propellants and produces a thrust of conducted by a British satellite launcher to take place 30 kN. Engine components are built by additive in the UK since Black Arrow around 50 years ago. manufacturing (3D printing) and some have already August’s demonstration launch of the Skylark been delivered. Nano successfully tested electronics, telemetry The SK-1 will be capable of attaining the lower downlink, tracking, a payload separation device and thermosphere and reaching the Kármán Line, the on-board video cameras. internationally accepted boundary of space, defined Follow-on flight test work is now concentrating as 100 km or 62 miles altitude. The first launch is on the Skyrora Hybrid (or SkyHy) rocket, which is planned for the second half of 2019, potentially a larger two-stage all-British test vehicle standing from Scotland. 6 metres tall and 0.2 metres in diameter. It uses as Once the Skyrora SK-1 has fulfilled its role as test fuel HTPB (hydroxyl terminated polybutadiene), bed for the orbital XL vehicle, there is the option or solid rubber, and HTP (high-test peroxide) as for it to be fully commercialised. In this case, it oxidiser. SkyHy is capable of exceeding the 100km- would become a “spin-off” business to cater for high Kármán Line, thus entering space. Should the sounding rocket market. In that role, the SK-1 the company move forward with one of its payload will carry payloads for commercial or scientific options, it would more likely reach 90 km altitude. microgravity research, of up to 100 kg. It will offer Subsequent flights of these small rockets from several minutes of weightless for experiments, temporary launch sites in the Scottish Highlands followed by descent, parachute landing and intact will continue the test programme with more recovery of the payload if required. sophisticated components and systems intended for ABOVE Skyrora’s orbital launch vehicle is the much An artist's impression of use on the larger vehicles, and an increased payload. Skyrora’s liquid-fuelled more ambitious Skyrora XL, which aims to cater As well as the flown hardware, they will evaluate two-stage orbital for the burgeoning small-satellite market, both ground control systems, trajectory calculations and launcher, the XL. domestically and internationally. The XL is still

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undergoing final design, and will be about 23 ABOVE metres tall and 1 metre in diameter. It will be Skyrora is launching small-scale test rockets in capable of lofting payloads of about 315 kg into northern Scotland to trial near-polar and Sun-synchronous Earth orbits at tracking, telemetry, payload around 500 km altitude. separation and recovery. The XL is a three-stage launch vehicle. The first RIGHT stage is powered by 9 Skyforce Turbo engines, each 3-D printed components of of 70 kN thrust at sea level, burning HTP (hydrogen the Skyforce engine. peroxide) and kerosene as propellants, which has interesting parallels with the UK’s original Black Arrow orbital rocket from 1971. One vacuum version of the same Skyforce engine powers the XL’s Scotland’s north coast. second stage, and achieves a higher performance at Although the UK Space Agency’s announced 80 kN thrust. investment of £2.5 million is insufficient in itself The third stage of the XL carries the payload into to create such a facility, the full funding package orbit, following depletion of the second stage. It is is now clearer. Economic development agency powered by one of the Leo engines being trialled Highlands & Islands Enterprise (HIE) has approved in Cornwall, each with 3.5 N thrust. This stage £9.8 million expenditure, and a further £5 million is also uses the propellants hydrogen peroxide and being raised as contributions from other partners. kerosene. The third stage carries a payload adaptor The total investment is therefore £17.3 million and and a split nose fairing which is jettisoned when out the project, to be led by HIE, is expected to support of the atmosphere. ABOVE around 400 jobs in the Highlands and across the Skyrora’s corporate mission aims to be The Skyforce Turbo: nine UK through the supply chain. compatible with the space ambitions of the UK power the XL's first stage. Skyrora displayed its plans and some equipment government for national access-to-space capability BELOW at the BIS-organised 16th RISpace (Reinventing announced earlier this year, which include a new Visualisation of the Moine Space) Conference and Exhibition in London from UK vertical orbital launch site in Sutherland, on site in northern Scotland. 30 October to 1 November 2018. SF

SpaceFlight Vol 61 February 2019 35 REVIEWS MULTI-MEDIA

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

SPACE MODELS SPACE COLONY ON A SMALL SCALE IMAGES THE IMAGES BY AUTHOR

n recent years model kits of spacecraft have ABOVE a diameter of 6.4 km. The surface area would have The competed model – concentrated on real craft, from Apollo through alongside Gerry O’Neill’s been 1,300 sq km, enough to house several million the Shuttle to Soyuz, the ISS, and even the seminal book, for scale. occupants. new Chinese vehicles. Models of spacecraft The cylinder was split into six equal segments, BELOW RIGHT I that could be real, but are fictional – what I The ‘paperwork’ you also or three land masses, interspersed with three very term “Factual Futuristic” – disappeared in the get. The pre-printed peel-off/ large windows. An equally large mirror, angled to 1950s and 60s. But here is an oddity from small stick-on decals are on the direct sunlight into the Colony, was placed above right. The large sheet has Japanese company, Wave, from a couple or so the interior land masses years ago – although admittedly it harks back to and mirrors, the small sheet has the ‘frames’ for the vast earlier times. It picks up on the idea of Colonies in mirrors. The plans are second Space, popularised in the early 1970s by Gerard K. from the left, and far left is a O’Neil in his book “The High Frontier”, in which booklet with many drawings, though the captions are very large structures would be positioned at the mostly in Japanese. Lagrange Points, particularly at L5, where they would remain in stable orbits. We featured Space Colonies a great deal in the BBC three-part series “Spaceships of the Mind” in 1978, but no model kit manufacturer took up the idea – until now. The kit from Wave is of what O’Neill termed “Island Three” – otherwise known as an “Advanced Cylindrical Colony” – and would have been the largest at that time, with a length of 32 km long and

36 Vol 61 February 2019 SpaceFlight REVIEWS

GAMER'S CORNER with Henry Philp KSP Vehicle Construction Kerbal Space Program is a “sandbox” game, meaning that it’s pretty much free play, with no overarching storyline or set way to play. The construction of spacecraft is very modular, with a selection of parts (ranging from fuel tanks to engines to structural and aerodynamic elements) which can be attached in various ways to create all kinds of craft – and not just spacecraft! Players have built cars, helicopters and even trains within KSP’s craft editor. The construction happens in two buildings at the “Kerbal Space Centre” (KSP’s analogue for the Kennedy Space Center) – the Vehicle Assembly ABOVE Building and the Spaceplane Hangar. The VAB (based on the real life building) Box art is striking, though the two colonies pictured would almost certainly be linked together and rotate in opposite directions. is more suited to building rockets, while the SPH is intended for building aircraft. BELOW Applying the sticky decals that represent the land masses. The way craft are constructed is simple compared to the real world – the vehicle floats in mid-air to allow the attachment of parts without the need for cranes or gantries. Most parts have editable specifications – for example, the amount of fuel in fuel tanks – so you can build a craft to suit the exact needs of your mission. Space station and surface base construction is possible too, thanks to the several sizes of docking ports and habitat modules that are available. While life support is currently not in the game, there are mods made by the KSP community that add this. Space stations or bases built in KSP can be as large as the player wants, but are limited by the number of parts. The forces acting on the parts also have to be calculated by the game, which can cause major issues due to the amount of processing power required. Even so, Death Stars, orbital rings and mass drivers have all been constructed by some of the game’s most dedicated players. each window, and could be closed down “for the night” to duplicate the Earth’s rotation. The distinctive circular structure at one end housed a wide ring of agricultural areas. The whole Colony was designed to rotate at one revolution per two minutes, generating around 1 G on the ‘floor’ of each section. For docking, and for manufacturing requiring micro-gravity, there was a de-spun section at the centre of the agricultural ring. This is exactly what you get in the kit, plus a stand to hold it – but don’t expect great detail for the interior. The land masses are pre-printed, peel- off/stick-on decals, and the same goes for the three gigantic mirrors. The 18 agricultural areas, supplied as three sections of eight coloured green or blue, also supplied as pre-cut sticky decals. There are clear The Spaceplane Hanger at KSP – the starting point for a whole range of craft. parts for the windows to go on top. The exterior colour is somewhat arbitrary. The kit is mostly moulded in light grey, and since the exterior is likely to have been be lightish in colour, this shade was retained with a top coat of US Camouflage Grey. A few extra details on the exterior were brushed on, although it is difficult with a kit where the scale is so large and the details so small. Intriguingly – while on the subject of scale – the kit is listed as “non-scale”. This is not correct. The scale may be extremely large (or small, depending how you look at it!), and not a traditional model scale, but all models have a scale of some kind. The model is approximately 16.5 cm long, representing 32 km. Doing the maths, that gives us a scale of 1:194,953,846, or rounded down, let us say 1:200,000,000. That’s certainly going to beat the The Space Shuttle hooks up with the Mir space station Kerbal-style. Death Star! Mat Irvine FBIS

SpaceFlight Vol 61 February 2019 37 SATELLITE DIGEST Satellite Digest 553 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) Beidou DW41 2018-085A Nov 1.66 Xichang Chang Zheng 3B 4,600 Nov 12.76 3.07 1,436.14 35,784 35,794 [1] Kosmos 2529 2018-086A Nov 3.85 Plesetsk Soyuz-2.1b-Fregat-M 1,480 Nov 21.73 64.81 675.70 19,099 19,161 [2] MetOp C 2018-087A Nov 7.03 CSG Soyuz-2.1b-Fregat-M 4,084 Nov 27.62 98.73 101.27 819 822 [3] CICERO 10 2018-088A Nov 11.19 Mahia Electron 10 Nov 11.81 85.03 94.75 499 517 [4] Pride of Bavaria 2018-088C 20? Nov 12.07 85.03 94.74 497 518 [5] Irvine 01 2018-088D 1 Nov 12.44 85.03 94.67 491 517 [6] Proxima 1 2018-088E 2 Nov 12.00 85.02 94.64 491 515 [7] Lemur 2 Zupanski 2018-088F 5 Nov 12.19 85.03 94.73 496 518 [8] Proxima 2 2018-088G 2 Nov 12.37 85.03 94.64 491 515 [7] Lemur 2 Chanusiak 2018-088H 5 Nov 13.36 85.04 94.67 495 514 [8] GSAT 29 2018-089A Nov 14.48 SHAR GSLV Mk 3 3,423 Nov 26.84 0.06 1,436.06 35,774 35,801 [9] Es'hail 2 2018-090A Nov 15.86 KSC Falcon 9FT 3,000 Nov 27.75 0.09 1,436.00 35,781 35,792 [10] Progress MS-10 2018-091A Nov 16.76 Baykonur Soyuz-2.1a 7,426 Nov 19.54 51.64 92.57 402 409 [11] John Young 2018-092A Nov 17.38 Wallops Antares 230 6,200? Nov 19.28 51.64 92.57 402 409 [12] Beidou DW42 2018-093A Nov 18.75 Xichang Chang Zheng 3B/YZ-1 1,014 Nov 19.71 54.99 786.97 21,523 22,194 [13] Beidou DW43 2018-093B 1,014 Nov 19.64 54.99 787.14 21,532 22,194 [13] Shiyan Weixing 6 2018-094A Nov 19.99 Jiuquan Chang Zheng 2D 500? Nov 21.44 97.41 94.50 487 505 [14] Jiading 1 2018-094B 45 Nov 20.78 97.41 94.50 489 504 [15] Tianzhi 1 2018-094C 27 Nov 20.77 97.41 94.51 488 505 [16] Tianping 1A 2018-094D 20? Nov 20.78 97.41 94.49 487 505 [17] Tianping 1B 2018-094E 20? Nov 20.65 97.41 94.50 489 504 [17] Mohammed VI-B 2018-095A Nov 21.07 CSG Vega 1,108 Dec 3.82 97.96 97.45 638 640 [18] HysIS 2018-096A Nov 29.19 SHAR PSLV-CA 380 Nov 29.31 97.97 97.44 628 648 [19] HSAT 1 2018-096B 13 Nov 29.96 97.49 94.35 478 500 [20] FACSAT 1 2018-096C 4? Dec 1.46 97.49 94.35 477 500 [21] Centauri 2 2018-096D 4? Nov 30.16 97.49 94.34 477 500 [22] Flock 3r-9 2018-096E 5 Nov 30.82 97.49 94.33 477 500 [23] Flock 3r-12 2018-096F 5 Nov 29.96 97.49 94.33 476 499 [23] Flock 3r-11 2018-096G 5 Nov 30.82 97.49 94.33 476 500 [23] Flock 3r-5 2018-096H 5 Nov 29.77 97.49 94.33 476 500 [23] Flock 3r-8 2018-096J 5 Nov 30.43 97.49 94.33 476 500 [23] Reaktor Hello World 2018-096K 2 Nov 30.16 97.49 94.32 476 499 [24] Lemur 2 Orzulak 2018-096L 5 Nov 29.64 97.49 94.32 475 499 [8] Lemur 2 Vladimir 2018-096M 5 Nov 30.23 97.49 94.30 474 500 [8] Lemur 2 Kobyszcze 2018-096N 5 Nov 30.75 97.49 94.30 472 500 [8] Lemur 2 Duly 2018-096P 5 Nov 30.03 97.49 94.29 472 499 [8] Flock 3r-4 2018-096Q 5 Nov 30.92 97.49 94.29 472 500 [23] Flock 3r-3 2018-096R 5 Nov 30.03 97.49 94.29 472 500 [23] Flock 3r-16 2018-096S 5 Nov 30.03 97.48 94.28 471 500 [23] Flock 3r-15 2018-096T 5 Nov 29.64 97.48 94.28 471 499 [23] Global 1 2018-096U 56 Nov 39.64 97.48 94.26 469 500 [25]

38 Vol 61 February 2019 SpaceFlight SATELLITE DIGEST

Spacecraft International Date Launch Launch vehicle Mass Orbital Inclin. Period Perigee Apogee Notes designation site (kg) epoch (deg) (min) (km) (km) InnoSAT 2 2018-096V 4 Nov 30.86 97.48 94.22 466 499 [26] Flock 3r-10 2018-096X 5 Nov 30.03 97.49 94.33 476 500 [23] Flock 3r-6 2018-096Y 5 Nov 30.16 97.49 94.33 476 499 [23] Flock 3r-7 2018-096Z 5 Nov 30.82 97.49 94.33 475 500 [23] 3CAT 1 2018-096AA 1 Nov 30.43 97.49 94.32 476 499 [27] CASE 2018-096AB 4? Nov 30.16 97.49 94.32 475 499 [28] HiberOne 2018-096AC 10? Nov 30.82 97.49 94.29 473 500 [29] CICERO 8 2018-096AD 10 Nov 30.82 97.48 94.29 472 500 [4] Flock 3r-1 2018-096AE 5 Dec 1.87 97.49 94.28 471 500 [23] Flock 3r-2 2018-096AF 5 Dec 1.14 97.49 94.28 471 501 [23] Flock 3r-14 2018-096AG 5 Nov 30.42 97.48 94.27 471 499 [23] Flock 3r-13 2018-096AH 5 Nov 30.03 97.49 94.27 471 499 [23] Kosmos 2530 2018-097A Nov 30.10 Plesetsk Rokot-Briz-KM 280? Nov 30.42 82.51 115.84 1,483 1,507 [30] Kosmos 2531 2018-097B 280? Nov 30.67 82.51 115.86 1,484 1,508 [30] Kosmos 2532 2018-097C 280? Nov 30.32 82.51 115.89 1,486 1,509 [30]

NOTES

1. Beidou, or Compass 3G1Q, is a navigation satellite built using radio for IoT communications. a CAST DFH-3A bus for SASTIND, first third generation type in geosynchronous orbit. Mass quoted above is at launch. Satellite is 8. Lemur 2 multi-mission 3U Cubesats built by ÅAC Clyde (formerly located over 144°E. Clyde Space) for Spire Global each carrying an AIS receiver (SENSE) to track shipping, an ADS-B receiver to track aircraft and a GPS 2. Uragan-M (757) navigation satellite replenishing the GLONASS receiver (STRATOS) for atmospheric data from occultation of GPS system, built by ISS Reshetnev. Launched into orbital plane 2 of the signals. Satellites are named after members of the Spire team. GLONASS constellation and manoeuvred into slot 15 by November 21 Lemur 2 Duly and Lemur 2 Vladimir were sponsored by the ESA to replace Kosmos 2425 (Uragan-M 716) from November 27. ARTES Pioneer programme.

3. Meteorological satellite built using a SPOT Mk3 bus by Airbus 9. Communications and technology demonstration satellite built using for Eumetsat carries an AVHRR/3 visual/infra-red radiometer for an ISRO I-3000 bus and launched by ISRO. Mass quoted above is cloud cover, an ASCAT radar scatterometer for surface winds, six at launch. Payloads in addition to the communications system are instruments (MHS, IASI, GRAS, GOME-2, AMSU-A and HIRS/4) for Q-band and V-band transponders and an optical communications detailed atmospheric properties, a SEM-3 instrument to monitor system (OCT) for performance test and a telescope and camera radiation, a SARSAT transponder for locating emergency beacons (GHRC) for Earth imaging. The satellite is located over 55°E, co- and an Argos-3/A-DCS transponder to relay data from remote located with GSAT 8 and GSAT 16, to provide a high-throughput terrestrial stations. Orbit is co-planar with those of MetOp A and B. service to India.

4. Community Initiative for Cellular Earth Remote Observation is a 10. Telecommunications and direct broadcast satellite built using a technology development 6U Cubesat built using the Endeavour bus Mitsubishi DS2000 bus and launched for Es'hailSat by SpaceX. by Tyvak for GeoOptics Inc. and carrying a GPS/Galileo receiver Carries add-on payload Amsat P4A transponder for amateur (Cion) for atmospheric and ionospheric data from occultation of communications. Mass quoted above is at launch. The satellite is signals. located over 24°E for test and will be stationed at 25.5°E to provide a service to the Middle East and North Africa. First stage, originally 5. Pride of Bavaria or NABEO (Nanosat Bremssegel Entfaltversuch used to launch Telstar 19 Vantage, successfully landed on the Of im Orbit, Nanosat dragsail orbital deployment test) technology Course I Still Love You barge about 650 km downrange. development payload built by HPS (High Performance Space Structure Systems), a 1 kg payload with a deployable ADEO-N 1.6 m 11. Unmanned freighter mission to the International Space Station, square sail to hasten decay. It was attached to the Kick Stage and mission ISS-71P, with 2,564 kg of cargo. Spacecraft docked at ISS/ deployed shortly after launch on the first Rocket Labs commercial Zvezda port November 18.81. mission, “It's Business Time”. 12. Cygnus freighter spacecraft named in honour of the late astronaut, 6. Irvine 01 educational and technology development Cubesat built ISS Mission NG-10, built and launched by NGIS as part of NASA’s by Irvine Public Schools Foundation, California, carrying a camera CRS programme for transport to ISS, with 3,416 kg of cargo including for images of stars and other celestial targets, an ultraviolet new experiments. Spacecraft captured by the ISS arm November transmitter for communications and an electric propulsion system 19.44 and docked at the ISS/Unity nadir port November 19.52. for performance test. Three Cubesats are to be deployed from NRCSD-E deployers after Cygnus departs from ISS. These are: MYSAT 1, an educational 7. Proxima are a pair of communications technology 1.5U Cubesats and technology development 1 kg 1U Cubesat built by Masdar built by Fleet Space Technologies, each carrying a software-defined Institute of Science and Technology, with assistance from YahSat

SpaceFlight Vol 61 February 2019 39 SATELLITE DIGEST

and NGIS, carrying a camera for Earth imaging and a coin-cell ESA lithium-ion battery for performance test; CHEFSat 2, Cost-Effective High E-frequency Satellite, a technology development 4 kg 3U Cubesat built by NRL carrying COTS consumer electronics systems, particularly rf communications, for performance test and KickSat 2, the NASA ELaNa 16 mission, a crowd-funded technology development 6 kg 3U Cubesat from Stanford University and NASA Ames carrying a device to deploy 105 Sprite satellites. Sprites are 5 g circuit boards each with miniature instruments, computer and amateur-band transmitter sponsored by numerous organisations and individuals including the BIS and some of its members.

13. Pair of third-generation Beidou navigation satellites, also known as Compass 3M17 and 3M18, built by CAST for SASTIND. Launched into plane C of system.

14. Shiyan Weixing is a science and technology development satellite built by DFH Satellite to study the space environment and carry out related technical tests. It is currently not clear which payload corresponds to which object.

15. Jiading (the location of the company) or OKW 1 is a communications technology satellite built using an OKW-Sat-50 bus by SpaceOK (Shanghai Spaceok Technology Co.) carrying a transponder for IoT communications. Pathfinder for the Xiangyun constellation.

16. Tianping (Balance) are two satellites built using the Pina bus by DFH Shenzhen for ADA Space. 1A is a radar calibration target and 1B carries equipment to calibrate ground stations.

17. Tianzhi 1 (Heavenly knowledge) technology development satellite built by IAMCAS carrying a camera, four smartphones and a computer. It is a software-defined satellite to form part of the Internet cloud. ESA readies the MetOp-C satellite for launch on 7 November 2018.

18. Earth observation satellite built using an Airbus AstroSat-1000 bus for Thales Alenia Space acting as agents for the Kingdom of by Reaktor Space Lab for Reaktor Radio Archive with an infra-red Morocco and launched by Arianespace. Payload is probably similar hyperspectral imager (VTT) for Earth observation, UHF and S-band to that of the CNES Pléiades system: a HiRI panchromatic and multi- amateur-band transmitters and systems of the new Hello World bus spectral visible/infra-red scanner for high-resolution Earth images for performance test. and a DORIS precision tracking system. Lack of information about the payload suggests a military mission. Orbit is co-planar with that 25. Global 1 is an Earth survey satellite built by Spaceflight Services of Mohammed VI-A. for BlackSky Global carrying an SV-24 0.24 m telescope and high- resolution colour scanner for Earth imaging. 19. Hyperspectral Imaging Satellite remote sensing satellite built using an IMS-2 bus by ISRO with two visual/infra-red hyperspectral 26. Innovation Satellite is a technology development 3U Cubesat built by imaging spectrometers (VNIR and SWIR) for Earth survey. ATSB carrying a dosimeter for radiation, a CMOS camera for Earth imaging and a reaction wheel for performance test. 20. Harris Satellite is a communications technology 6U Cubesat built by Harris Corp carrying a panchromatic camera for Earth imaging, 27. Cube Cat is a technology development 1U Cubesat built by UPC an AIS receiver to track shipping and a deployable antenna for (Catalonia Polytechnic University) with a Geiger counter for particle performance test. Apart from HysIS and most of Flock 3r, it is not radiation, a CMOS camera, a Peltier cell powering a UHF beacon clear which satellite corresponds to which object. transmitter, a MEMS detector for monatomic oxygen, a graphene transistor (GFET) and a wireless power transfer system. 21. FACSAT is a survey and technology development 3U Cubesat built by Fuerza Aérea Colombiana using a GOMSpace bus carrying a 28. CASE, named for a fictional robot, or Kepler 1, is a communications medium-resolution camera for Earth imaging. technology development 3U Cubesat built by ÅAC Clyde for Kepler Communications carrying a Ku-band software-defined radio to test 22. Centauri 2 communications 3U Cubesat built by Pumpkin for Fleet IoT and M2M store-and-forward communications. Space Technologies carrying a software-defined radio for IoT communications. 29. HiberOne is a communications 6U Cubesat built by ISIS for Hiber Global carrying a transponder for IoT communications. 23. Flock 3r constellation of 16 Dove survey 3U Cubesats built by Planet each carrying a visible/infra-red camera for Earth observation. 30. Trio of Rodnik-S (Strela 3M) store-dump military communications satellites built by ISS Reshetnev for MORF. Launched into same 24. Reaktor Hello World is a technology development 2U Cubesat built plane as Kosmos 2482 trio.

40 Vol 61 February 2019 SpaceFlight SATELLITE DIGEST

ADDITIONS AND UPDATES DESIGNATION COMMENTS DESIGNATION COMMENTS

1977-076A Voyager 2 crossed the heliopause and became the trackers, but inadvertently omitted from Satellite second probe to enter interstellar space November 5. Digest 529. 1993-068A Navstar 35 (USA 96, SVN 34) was taken out of 2016-050A JCSat 16 was manoeuvred off station at 150°E operation November 17. November 7 and relocated at 144°E, co-located with 1997-051G Iridium 31 was manoeuvred from a reserve orbit to a Superbird C2, November 12. disposal orbit November 29. Add orbit: 2016-075A WGS 8 (USA 272) was moved from its test station at Dec 9.52 86.42° 92.59 min 152 km 654 km 122°W to 150°E 2017 June to July. This satellite and 1999-063A UFO 10 (USA 146) was manoeuvred off station at 72°E WGS 9 were confused by amateur trackers, but official May 2 and relocated at 22°W June 28. orbital data is now available. 2001-046A USA 162, according to amateur trackers, has been 2017-016A WGS 9 (USA 275) was moved from its test station at relocated from 30°W to 75°E 122°W to 56.8°E 2017 August to October. 2002-004A RHESSI was decommissioned August 16. 2017-025A Inmarsat 5 F4 was manoeuvred off station at 11°E November 29 and is drifting to the east. 2002-055A TDRS 10 was relocated at 171°W, a reserve location, November 9. 2018-022A GOES 17 was relocated at the new GOES-West station at 137.2°W November 13. 2002-062A Nimiq 2 was manoeuvred off station at 28°W November 20 and is drifting to the west. 2018-039A Sentinel 3B was declared operational November 28. 2009-070C Kosmos 2458 (Uragan-M 734) was decommissioned 2018-042A-C InSight landed successfully on Mars November 26.82 November 6. in Elysium Planita. MarCO-A and B relayed entry and landing telemetry from InSight as they flew by Mars at 2010-008A GOES 15 was relocated at 128°W November 7 as back- 1,627 and 1,752 km respectively. up to GOES 17 which has a minor imager problem. 2018-070B-E Identities of the Cubesats on this launch are 2011-074A Luch 5A was manoeuvred off station at 168°E confirmed. November 19 and relocated at 165.8°E November 27. 2018-073A Kounotori 7 was unberthed from ISS/Harmony on 2014-043A,B GSSAP 1 (USA 253) and GSSAP 2 (USA 254), according November 7.48 using the ISS arm and released to amateur trackers, have both reversed drift from November 7.70. Spacecraft was de-orbited November eastward to westward. 10.88. HSRC capsule was ejected and landed in the 2014-076A Hayabusa 2 descended to 2.3 km from Ryugu Pacific Ocean about 2,200 km from the coast of Japan November 1 to check visibility of target marker November 10.92. before returning to 20 km November 5. Manoeuvred November 23 to move away from Ryugu prior to 2018-078B Beidou DW40 (3M16) manoeuvred to slot 7 in plane A the approaching solar conjunction and break in by November 29. Add orbit: communications. Nov 29.67 55.02° 773.18 min 21,515 km 21,541 km 2014-087A Resurs-P 2 was announced as no longer operational 2018-084B Ibuki 2 appears to have reached its operational orbit. November 26, but had reportedly failed in 2017. Add orbit: 2015-036A WGS 7 (USA 263) was moved from 134°E to 175°E 2016 Nov 19.83 97.83° 96.98 min 615 km 617 km August to September. This was detected by amateur

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION ACTIVITY RECENTLY DETAILED ORBITAL DECAYS There were no orbital manoeuvres of ISS during October. International Object name Decay Designation End-of-October orbital data: Nov 30.91 51.64° 92.56 min 401 km 409 km 1998-010A Iridium 52 Nov 5.9 1998-021A Iridium 62 Nov 7.26 1998-066D Iridium 84 Nov 4.25

ESA 1998-066E Iridium 83 Nov 5.5 1998-067KL Flock 2e'-15 Nov 10.6 1998-067KM Flock 2e'-18 Nov 7.23 1998-067KX AOBA-Velox-III Nov 1 1998-067LE Lemur 2 TrutnaHD Nov 13 1998-067LX UPSat Nov 12.99 1998-067ML i-INSPIRE 2 Nov 24.77 1998-067MP ExAlta 1 Nov 14.34 1998-067NC Sfera-53 2 Nov 29.6 2018-042A InSight Nov 26.82 (on Mars) 2018-073A Kounotori 7 Nov 10.90

MetOp-C serves the Eumetsat multi-orbit polar system operation in conjunction with the NOAA agency in America.

SpaceFlight Vol 61 February 2019 41 CORRESPONDENCE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

A lexicon of interpretations will tend to be magnified - “uneasy lies the head that wears a crown”. Sir: With regard to the announcement of Yusaku Concerning (the film) “First Man”, and Neil Maezawa, as the first SpaceX passenger (SpaceFlight Armstrong's quiet, reserved character, there were Vol 60 No 11, p 22), complete with artistic retinue, actually a number of complaints concerning the way I can remember reading Arthur C. Clarke's in which Armstrong avoided publicity, failing to non-fiction book, “Profiles of the Future”. In one use his substantial prestige to “advocate” for space section, he quotes an anthropologist as suggesting travel. It is another interesting example of the effect that there may be a connection between the of the individual on history. intellectual “potential” of a society and its physical In the film Apollo 13, one of the NASA staff potential – that it was not coincidence that the Age monitoring the launch actually complains about of Sir Francis Drake was also the Age of William the comparative lack of public interest in what Shakespeare. was intended to be only the third manned lunar On the other hand, the Chinese voyages along expedition. No doubt they would have something the East Coast of Africa caused so much intellectual to say about the only unsuccessful Apollo mission ferment that the authorities cancelled the project, ABOVE getting publicity ahead of the first successful mission. Arthur C. Clarke’s book even destroying the records. Following this, the had a prescient link to the We face something of a paradox – if things go Chinese turned in on themselves, until the Western first Moon missions (image well, there is likely to be a rapid fall-off in public Powers forced themselves to their attention. There courtesy of Pan Books). interest; on the other hand, if things go badly, there is some speculation now as to how far the Chinese is likely to be a rapid fall-off in political interest. It can go in enforcing an open economy and a closed shows the importance of education. political system. The commentator Jerry Pournelle once quoted Clarke wondered what a production of “Swan a NASA official who expressed his anger at the Lake” would look like on a body like the Moon or “greatest enterprise in human history” being run on Mars, with a gravitational field substantially lower the same basis as a “popularity contest”. He himself than ours. Under present circumstances, we might once complained about the way in which NASA's see a production in zero gravity. We might even see publicity department had made the Moon landings a production of “A Midsummer Night's Dream” on seem dull and boring. . Oberon or Titania – the satellites On the positive side, Robert A Heinlein, in With regard to the question of “commerce” (and Mr Musk's a speech to the United States Naval Academy, war), there has been some long-term speculation described the Apollo astronauts as: about that, as well: interesting “Behaving on a still higher moral level were the astronauts who went to the Moon, for their For I dipt into the future, “eccentricities”, actions tend toward the survival of the entire race of Far as human eye could see, mankind. The door they opened leads to hope that Saw the vision of the world, as recently homo sapiens will survive indefinitely long, even And all the wonder that would be; displayed, help to longer than this solid planet on which we stand tonight. As a direct result of what they did, it is now Saw the heavens fill with commerce, expose the possible that the human race will NEVER die. Argosies of magic sails, “Many short-sighted fools think that going to the Pilots of the purple twilight, contrast between Moon was just a stunt. But those astronauts knew Dropping down with costly bales; the meaning of what they were doing, as is shown public and private by Neil Armstrong's first words in stepping down Heard the heavens fill with shouting, onto the soil of Luna: “One small step for a man, And there rain'd a ghastly dew enterprise one giant leap for mankind”. Let us note proudly From the nations' airy navies that eleven of the Astronaut Corps are graduates of Grappling in the central blue; this our school. And let me add that James Forrestal Tennyson –“In Memoriam” was the FIRST high-ranking Federal official to come out flatly for space travel.” Let us hope that only the first part of the verses Arthur C Clarke once pointed to a curious comes to pass. coincidence in Heinlein's writings. In “The Man Mr Musk's interesting “eccentricities”, as recently Who Sold the Moon”, the principal character is displayed, help to expose the contrast between called D. D. Harriman, one of the two “D”s standing public and private enterprise. Public enterprise for “Delos”, which also happens to be the name of can be long-winded, bogged down in bureaucracy, a Greek island. According to Greek mythology, and liable to sudden changes in direction, but can Delos was the birthplace of Apollo. Let us hope generate a number of different options. Private that Heinlein's speech carries the same quality of enterprise can achieve that much more rapidly, with prophecy. far less bureaucracy, and division of purpose. On the other hand, any flaws in the leadership Peter Davey (via email)

42 Vol 61 February 2019 SpaceFlight CORRESPONDENCE

Hamilton Technologies Inc, developing a business around the next-generation of software design paradigms. Ed)

Reflecting on Enlightenment

Sir: I question whether there exists a theory born of a materialistic paradigm that comes anywhere near to adequately describing how life might emerge from simply minerals and water. When I consider the magnificent complexity of living things, and the manner in which such complexity is encoded in order to replicate with such precision through countless generations, I am reminded of these wise words which are often attributed to Sir Isaac Newton: “I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.” In our endeavour to understand the universe and our origins, let us have the wisdom to know that those words are just as relevant today as they were back in the Sir Isaac Newton’s time.

Clive Tester (via email)

Unsung star of Apollo ABOVE Margaret Hamilton on the day she received the Presidential Hinged windows Sir: In SpaceFlight Vol 60, No 11, p 32, you Medal of Freedom from published a photo of Margaret Hamilton, with the President Obama on 22 Sir: Given that the American launch windows were November 2016 (image caption “…primarily performed managerial and courtesy of the White House). calculated by hand from a number of key input administrative tasks…”. This is not quite correct, as parameters such as, safe recovery from the sea a caption elsewhere (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ in the event of an abort during launch, optimum Margaret_Hamilton_(scientist) states "Hamilton in lighting angles at the Moon’s surface, location 1969, standing next to listings of the software she of primary splashdown zones, etc., were these and her MIT team produced for the Apollo project", calculations also undertaken for possible launches where she was the Director of Apollo Flight from the USSR? Geographical locations are Computer Programming MIT Draper Laboratory. obviously different but there would presumably be similar considerations and constraints at the Moon. John Fairweather (via email) If so were these launch opportunities used to influence the timing of Apollo launches or to warn (Reader John Fairweather is right to point this out of possible Soviet launch attempts? if only to provide the opportunity to expand upon her role. Those who worked with MIT at the time Mark Yates (via email) and knew Ms Hamilton testify that a description of her as indicated in the feature by Fabrizio (Mark asks a question arising from the lecture at BIS- Bernardini significantly understates her role. It has HQ on 21 November describing cislunar trajectories been pointed out by those who worked with her …those words are and launch windows. Launch dates were determined that this is a common diminution of her position, by the relative position of the Moon in its orbit of the which unquestionably made a major contribution just as relevant Earth so as to reach a specific site with the correct to the development of flight software for the Apollo low-angle sunline from behind the descending Lunar programme. NASA acknowledged that without today as they were Module. Time of day was determined by the preferred her guidance and intuition to create a culture of azimuth and the antipode of the Moon’s position. designing software “right” from the outset, users back in the Sir There was some concern about the possibility of a are relieved of ending up with “fixes” to flawed circumlunar attempt by a Zond-derivative vehicle design. Indeed, Margaret has several times received Isaac Newton’s in December 1968. That was the most evident time commendations from NASA and on 22 November time in which the Russians influenced, albeit marginally, 2016 she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom the effective alignment of mission modes, although it from President Obama in a presentation at the White must be emphasised that the overriding concern was House. Outside her work for government, Margaret to await the availability of the Lunar Module, which Hamilton has forged several unique career-spaces forced a delay for that qualification until Apollo 9 in in her life, including being founder and CEO of March 1969. Ed)

SpaceFlight Vol 61 February 2019 43 SLUGSOCIETY NEWS

Alan Bond (right) receives his certificate of Honorary Fellowship from BIS President Gerry Webb at the BIS Christmas Get-Together. SCOTT ALISTAIR IMAGES: JOLLY GOOD FELLOWS Two giants of the UK space industry receive the highest honour the Society can bestow.

THE HONORARY FELLOWSHIP, introduced in Fellowship Certificate from BIS President Gerry 1945, is considered to be the highest honour the Webb on 1 November 2018 at the Reinventing British Interplanetary Society (BIS) can award. Space Conference Gala Dinner. Alan Bond accepted Made to those who have contributed to the the Council’s invitation and was presented with his development of astronautics and to the support of Certificate again by Gerry Webb on 5 December at the BIS, only ten Honorary Fellowships are allowed the BIS Christmas Get-Together. at any one time. Over many years this honour has been awarded INDUSTRY’S INSPIRATION to many famous names and well-known space Sir Martin Sweeting has for many years made a personalities, from Hermann Oberth, Eugen Sänger, massive contribution to astronautics, both in Philip E. Cleator and Wernher von Braun in 1949 to industry and in education, and has worked tirelessly Les Shepherd and Val Cleaver in 1962 and Arthur C. to promote space and the UK space industry to the Clarke in 1967. Current awardees are Helen UK government, the international market and the Sharman and Tim Peake in 2016, Freeman Dyson in general public. With a PhD in HF antennas and a 2017 and “Al” Warden in 2018. passion for space, he began by setting up a tracking The Society is now pleased to announce two station at the University of Surrey, in the late 1970s, new awards. Sir Martin Sweeting accepted the to receive images from weather satellites, and an Council’s invitation and received his Honorary amateur radio telecommand station. In 1979 he

44 Vol 61 February 2019 SpaceFlight SOCIETY NEWS

started designing and building microsatellites and Rolls-Royce. The result was the HOTOL project persuaded NASA to launch his first, UOSAT-1, in which ran for several years to the end of the 1980s. 1981. He established a research group that The Society Alan, John Scott-Scott and Richard Varvill were GEIR ENGINE developed more sophisticated and capable satellite very reluctant to let the work on HOTOL die without subsystems and in 1985 formed the University- welcomes Sir trace and so in 1989 created Reaction Engines Ltd. owned spin-off company, Surrey Satellite Alan thought that the following 15 years were the Technology Limited (SSTL) to exploit the Martin most creative and inspiring of his career and in 2013 commercial potential of its small satellites. the government invested in the SABRE engine SSTL developed a unique “Know-How Transfer and Sweeting and development. Success breeds success and at the Training” (KHTT) programme which, over 22 Alan Bond as end of 2015 Mark Thomas, the newly appointed international programmes, provided up to 150 CEO of Reaction Engines, led the investment from young engineers and scientists with a combination Honorary BAE Systems with the UK government now a of academic and hands-on technical training. Thus strong proponent of the project. small satellites made the transition from research Fellows. As Alan retired from Reaction Engines in October novelty to powerful providers of operational 2017, leaving his team of world-leading engineers services, as clearly demonstrated by the Disaster stalwarts of and scientists to continue his life’s work as they Monitoring Constellation (DMC) and specialist move towards testing engine hardware in the 2020s missions such as RapidEye, FormoSat-7, Kanopus the UK space while he returns to studying the advanced concepts and DMC-3. sector, the he abandoned in 1982 to focus on simply getting SSTL's capabilities grew rapidly and it was into orbit! This work picks up from his earlier ideas selected to build 22 navigation payloads for ESA/ awards are and experiments on magneto-hydro-dynamics EU’s Galileo Full Operational Constellation of three (MHD). He has since founded a new company, high-resolution (1 metre) Earth observation mini- extremely well Mirror Quark Ltd, to develop these concepts. satellites and its first 4,000 kg geostationary Throughout his life and to this day, Alan has communications satellite, “Quantum”, for EutelSat. deserved. always managed to find time to support the Society In 2016, SSTL built eight new satellites including the in every way, inspire and instruct newcomers to the UK’s low-cost medium-resolution radar mini- space field and light the road to new and satellite, NovaSAR, which was launched in revolutionary concepts in the field of astronautics. September 2018. The Society welcomes Sir Martin Sweeting and In early 2009, the University sold its shareholding Alan Bond as Honorary Fellows. As stalwarts of the in SSTL to EADS Astrium NV and today, as a part of UK space sector the awards are extremely well Airbus Defence and Space, the company has a deserved. The complete list of those who have larger order book than at any time in its past. With received the award is available on www.bis-space. Sir Martin at its helm, SSTL has grown now to 500 com/what-we-do/the-british-interplanetary- staff with an annual turnover of £100m and exports society/awards. Alistair Scott exceeding £700m.

ROCKET MAN! Alan Bond has also made a significant contribution to astronautics and has been an inspirational leader at the forefront of the UK’s burgeoning space industry. He has spent most of his working life in SCOTT VIA ALISTAIR space, joining Rolls Royce as a rocket engineer in 1963 and becoming manager of the Cryogenic Performance Office in 1967. In 1976 he joined the UK Atomic Energy Authority working on nuclear fusion, but always keeping one eye open for better space propulsion systems. At the same time he took on a leading role in the BIS’ Daedalus Interstellar spacecraft design study. This project, the final report of which was published in 1978, proved to be of great significance and inspiration to the interstellar studies field. It also pulled together a BIS team contributing many varied technical skills and ideas which continued long afterwards to produce diverse spin-offs, such as Commercial Space Technologies, which Alan founded with Gerry Webb, resulting in a career-long relationship. For the Society, the founding of the interstellar studies issues of JBIS with Tony Martin as editor was one of the more important outcomes. However, it turned out that nuclear propulsion was still a long way off and in 1982 he began looking at combined air-breathing and rocket systems based on thermodynamic concepts he had “Women in Aerospace” hosted a breakfast at which came as no surprise to learn that Sirspace Martin is hiring Sweeting more (right)women accepts engineers his awardand scientists at the 2018 than RiSpace any other dinner. industry. developed to improve nuclear fission rockets back at

SpaceFlight Vol 61 February 2019 45 SOCIETY NEWS

A new force in

space Space writer, historian and author, Gurbir Singh enthralls his audience at BIS HQ.

ON THURSDAY, 29 NOVEMBER, writer and to a space-faring nation? He explained that India historian Gurbir Singh presented his talk “The spent only 0.6% of its annual budget on space, that Indian Space Programme” at BIS headquarters in aid to India was ending, and that India was in fact a London, painting a fairly detailed picture of the donor of aid to poorer nations. The use of Indian Space Programme. He began by introducing communications satellites and Village Resource himself. Born in India, he now lives near Centres has enabled thousands of teachers and Manchester and, when not writing, works in the IT surgeons to bring their expertise to bear. industry and writes blogs on Astrotalk UK. Gurbir has been interested in space and the universe all EVOLUTION his life and his first book,Yuri Gagarin in London The origins of space research in India lie in its and Manchester, published in 2011, was inspired by scientific traditions and its historic interest in his learning that Gagarin, the world’s first space astronomy. Sparked by the launch of the world’s traveller, visited Manchester in 1961. first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1 in 1957, the Indian The research Gurbir undertook for his second Space Research Organization established its lead book, The Indian Space Programme, formed the facility for launch vehicle development in the capital basis of his talk, which covered the Indian Space of Kerala state and named it after the scientist Research Organisation ISRO’s current and future Vikram Sarabhai – widely regarded as the “Father launch vehicles and its Human Space Flight (HSF) of the Indian Space Programme”. India’s first launch plans. In all the book took six years to write with was in 1963. three trips to India, many meetings and letters and Supported by the United States, Russia and extensive use of Skype and Facebook. Gurbir France, India has made 68 orbital launches, carrying pointed out that he was not an astronaut, had a 240 satellites from 28 countries. Operational “mixed” level of technical familiarity, and that the spacecraft currently include everything from Earth views expressed by him were his alone. observation and search and rescue satellites to Gurbir answered some key questions: Given the astronomical telescopes and a Mars orbiter. level of poverty in the country, should India be in ISRO plans to continue its scientific research of space and should the West continue to provide aid the Moon, Mars and Venus and expects its first

46 Vol 61 February 2019 SpaceFlight SOCIETY NEWS IMAGES: GEIR ENGINE (LEFT) / ISRO (RIGHT) GEIR ENGINE (LEFT) / ISRO IMAGES:

Space writer, historian and author, Gurbir Singh enthralls his audience at BIS HQ.

independent crewed space flight to take place before the end of 2022. An Indian cosmonaut, Rakesh Sharma, flew with the Russians in 1984; but two Indian astronauts were denied the chance to fly in 1986 due to theChallenger disaster. Sadly a woman of Indian origin, Kalpana Chawla, died aboard Columbia in 2003. ISRO’s human space flight project is called Gaganyaan, which means "Sky craft" and Indian astronauts will be known as “vyomanauts”, from the Sanskrit word meaning “Sky”. The GSLV Mark III launch vehicle, with a payload capability of 4 Carrying 20 satellites, PSLV-34 blasts off from Sriharikota, 22 June 2016. tonnes, will be used for the launch of the Gaganyaan capsule. ISRO is setting itself a high ethical and moral standard, with no animal testing and there will probably be a woman in the first crew. India will CORRECTION inevitably find itself in competition with China. A Pakistani space-farer has already been invited to Phil Mills FBIS writes to tell us that a photograph of models above the visit China’s space station. picture of K9 in the article in SpaceFlight Vol 60 No 12, p 47 “A hive of India regards her space programme as activity” should not have been attributed to Mat Irvine but to Phil Mills FBIS. Phil points out that the display “Spaceflight Special Interest Group” extremely important for her international image and was of his models. Both displays were very popular with visitors and with for the impact it will have on the economy. Gurbir other participants on the day. Phil was even featured in the local Singh’s talk gave a fascinating insight into a vibrant Worcester newspaper, with photographs of him and his display published space effort, the capabilities and ambitions of online along with photographs of Mat with the Dr Who dog. Sorry Phil – which may well be unfamiliar to many. but thanks for telling us in time to set the record straight. Ed Griffith Ingram

SpaceFlight Vol 61 February 2019 47 SOCIETY NEWS

BIS LECTURES & MEETINGS MEMBERSHIP NEWS

THE TOOLS OF APOLLO 22 January 2019, 7.00pm VENUE: BIS, 27/29 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1SZ Mark Yates looks at three artefacts from the Apollo programme, each with a fascinating story behind them. APOLLO MISSIONS: THE MECHANICS OF RENDEZVOUS & DOCKING BY DAVID BAKER 20 February 2019, 7.00pm VENUE: BIS, 27/29 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1SZ Starting with Apollo 9 launched on 3 March 1969, a key feature of the Apollo missions was the ability to rendezvous and dock in orbit – a capability that NASA had evolved over the preceding four years.

APOLLO 9 – TESTING THE LUNAR MODULE The annual Christmas Get-Together: great minds think alike – well almost!. 6 March 2019, 7.00pm VENUE: BIS, 27/29 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1SZ Jerry Stone gives his uniquely personal take on the story of Apollo 9 – the first test of the full lunar landing Your Society needs YOU! package and second outing of the Lunar Module.

WEST MIDLANDS BRANCH: ONE OF THE MOST NEW MEMBERS A NEW SPACE RACE? & PROJECT CHEVALINE endearing aspects of 16 March 2019, 1.45pm belonging to an advocacy The BIS is growing! 33 more new members VENUE: Gardeners Arms, Droitwich, Worcestershire WR9 8LU group is that, while subtle in November – 25 from the UK, 2 from Italy, 2 from the USA, and 1 each from Russia, Gurbir Singh posits the beginning of a new space race differences make the association interesting, you Belgium and Australia. Welcome! between India and China, while John Harlow and Paul know you are among Jackman look back to the days of Project Chevaline friends who generally think along the same lines but with sufficient and the famed Twin Chamber Propulsion Unit. variation to stimulate creative thinking. The part members play in the support and general infrastructure of ARTISTS IN SPACE: THE EARLY YEARS the BIS is in itself remarkable, and the Society is more than grateful 3 April, 7.00pm – at the Christmas Get-Together on 5 December, our President, Gerry VENUE: BIS, 27/29 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1SZ Webb, paid tribute to all those who have volunteered their time and David A. Hardy FBIS, the “longest established astro- effort to ensure the Society keeps going from strength to strength. nomical artist”, uses art from Lucian Rudaux, Chesley But there is always more to be done. If you have an interest in Bonestell and our own R.A.Smith, plus other ‘lesser- supporting the BIS – either by helping directly at events, or by letting us known’ artists (and of course his own!) to trace the know of space-related activities in schools, astronomy clubs or other genre of space art from its inception in 1874. relevant societies that you think would benefit from BIS involvement – then tell us and help us spread the word. The same goes for telling APOLLO 10 – DRESS REHEARSAL FOR THE MOON others about the Society, our proud heritage, and the work we do. LANDING Only a few of our members live within reach of our London HQ – 22 May 2019, 7.00pm something we hope to address with improved online access to our VENUE: BIS, 27/29 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1SZ talks. But no matter where you are in the world, we need you and others like you to participate in what promises to be an exceptionally Jerry Stone continues his coverage of Apollo with the exciting time in the history of space exploration. After all, we are only first flight to carry both the Apollo spacecraft and the as strong as the strength of our membership. Lunar Module on a full dress rehearsal of a landing. David Baker, Chair, Publications Committee Call for Papers RUSSIAN-SINO FORUM 1-2 June 2019, 9.30 am to 5pm (tbc) VENUE: BIS, 27/29 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1SZ New JBIS issues The BIS has now scheduled its 39th annual Russian- TWO NEW ISSUES of JBIS have just Sino Forum – one of our most popular and longest been published. May 2018 includes running events. Papers are invited. selected papers from the BIS Mars Symposium held in London back in APOLLO MISSIONS: LANDING ON THE MOON BY DAVID BAKER February, while June 2018 is 12 June 2019, 7.00pm devoted entirely to the knotty VENUE: BIS, 27/29 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1SZ problem of the Fermi Paradox, including contributions from SpaceFlight's editor looks at the systems evolved by Anthony Martin, Stephen Baxter, NASA for calculating optimum lunar landing Stephen Ashworth and Alan Bond. trajectories, and at the descent procedures needed to achieve the maximum chance of success.

48 Vol 61 February 2019 SpaceFlight