Spaceflight A British Interplanetary Society Publication Health risks! Peake interview BRICS for space UK Thor sites Vol 58 No 9 September 2016 £4.50 www.bis-space.com 321.indd 321 7/28/2016 9:10:26 AM REFLECTION 322 Spaceflight Vol 58 August 2016 322.indd 322 7/28/2016 9:06:58 AM CONTENTS Editor: Published by the British Interplanetary Society David Baker, PhD, BSc, FBIS, FRHS Sub-editor: Volume 58 No. 9 September 2016 Ann Page Production Assistant: Ben Jones 331-333 The RAF’s Thor Sites Spaceflight Promotion: John Boyes follows up his latest book on the British deployment of Gillian Norman the Thor missile with a summary of the choices available supporting a Spaceflight deployment which was at best a short-lived political move. Arthur C. Clarke House, 27/29 South Lambeth Road, London, SW8 1SZ, England. 334-335 ESA head aims for innovation Tel: +44 (0)20 7735 3160 David Todd interviewed ESA Director-General Johann-Dietrich Woerner Fax: +44 (0)20 7582 7167 to seek his views on a range of critical issues as a challenging period Email: [email protected] ahead brings questions concerning direction and future policy. www.bis-space.com ADVERTISING 336-341 Humans in Space and Chemical Risks to Health Tel: +44 (0)1424 883401 Email: [email protected] A government expert on health issues, Dr John R. Cain explores the many ways in which future space explorers should manage health risk DISTRIBUTION Spaceflight may be received worldwide by and about the chemical cocktails that could threaten life. mail through membership of the British Interplanetary Society. Details including Library 342-343 Peake reflections subscriptions are available from the above address. On returning to Europe after his historic six-months in space between December 2015 and June 2016, UK astronaut Tim Peake speaks about * * * his memorable stay aboard the ISS. Spaceflight is obtainable from UK newsagents and other retail outlets in many countries. In the event of difficulty contact: Warners 344-347 BRICS in Space Group Distribution, The Maltings, Manor Lane, Spaceflight contributor Gurbir Singh reports on a unique and progressive Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH, England. Tel: +44 (0)1778 391 000 organisation which brings together a group of space-faring countries Fax: +44 (0)1778 393 668 to pool assets for civilian applications and asks whether this could be a model for the future. * * * Spaceflight is a publication which promotes the mission of The British Interplanetary Society. Opinions in signed articles are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor or the Council of the British Regular Features Interplanetary Society. 324-326 News Analysis – JUNO at Jupiter * * * Back issues of Spaceflight are available from the Society. For details of issues and prices go 326 A Letter from the Editor to www.bis-space.com or send an sae to the address at top. 327 Briefing notes – news shorts from around the world * * * Published monthly by the British Interplanetary 328-330 ISS Report – 15 June-16 July 2016 Society. Registered Company No: 402498. Registered Charity No: 250556. Printed in the UK by Latimer Trend & Company Ltd. 348-350 Satellite Digest – 524 June 2016 * * * Copyright © British Interplanetary Society 351 Obituaries – Hartmut Sänger – Harry Oskar Ruppe – Hervé Moulin 2016 ISSN 0038-6340. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced 352-353 Flashback – A regular feature looking back 50 years ago this month or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photo- copying or recording by any information storage 354-355 Correspondence – Rocket Planes – An appreciation – For humanity – Site or retrieval system without written permission survey from the Publishers. Photocopying permitted by license only. * * * 356 Society News – With gratitude The British Interplanetary Society is a company limited by guarantee. 358 What’s On Mission The British Interplanetary Society promotes the exploration and use of space for the benefit of humanity, by connecting people to create, Cover image: NASA astronaut Michael Fincke wears a Russian Orlan space suit during a spacewalk in educate and inspire, and advance knowledge in August 2004. Exploring space will bringing hazards completely different to anything experienced before all aspects of astronautics. (see pages 336-341). NASA Spaceflight Vol 58 September 2016 323 323.indd 323 7/28/2016 9:06:40 AM NEWS ANALYSIS Juno at Jupiter The spin-stabilised Juno spacecraft is 3.5 m high and 3.5 m in diameter and at launch weighed 3,625 kg including 2,032 kg of propellant. NASA-JPL ASA’s Juno spacecraft arrived at gases that existed almost 5 billion years ago. trajectory, courtesy of a United Launch Alliance Jupiter on 4 July after a journey of Moreover, the physical characteristics of Atlas V-551 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Juno 2,800 million km to begin a lengthy Jupiter are close to those which would have is named after the Roman god of protection Nperiod of scientific discoveries. To carry this been prevalent at the beginning of the Sun’s and wise counsel. Which is appropriate since out Juno is unique in several respects and is evolution and it is this characterisation which wise planning was needed to get up close the first polar-orbiting planetary spacecraft. Juno seeks to explore. to the planet itself due to intense toroidal Its mission builds upon the results of previous Jupiter itself as a body within the solar radiation belts surrounding Jupiter, radiation flights and Juno is the first of three spacecraft system has been vital for the survival and which would fry an unprotected spacecraft scheduled to arrive at Jupiter over the next two evolution of terrestrial planets which formed flying straight through the main belt. decades. closer in to the Sun. Recalculation of the The only real data that trajectory planners It is already 21 years since the Galileo planet’s orbit indicates that it probably formed had to go on to ameliorate the situation was from spacecraft entered orbit about the solar where it is today, influencing, pulling and telescopes on the ground and from data sent system’s biggest planet and spent eight years tugging at the other outer giants and playing a back by the atmospheric entry probe released returning a wealth of data. Answering some major role in the overall geometry of the solar from Galileo. This presented a realistic, if long-standing questions raised from the fly- system. Accounting for 71% of the mass in daunting perspective on the challenges posed bys of Pioneers 10 and 11 and Voyagers 1 and the solar system outside the Sun, Jupiter has by mission requirements to get close in to the 2 during the 1970s, Galileo raised far more always been the dominant planetary body. planet. However, Jupiter’s radiation belts are questions than it solved during its 35 orbits of Jupiter is likely to have formed quickly, like the Van Allen belts surrounding Earth, in Jupiter. taking probably less than a million years for that there are gaps within separate toroidal The productive operating life of Galileo, the planet to accrete its core, which accounts shells formed by the magnetic field lines. And the first spacecraft to orbit the giant planet, for 20% of its mass, with icy particles cold- therein lies the solution. ended in September 2003 when the spacecraft welding together far from the Sun over time. The preferred trajectory for Juno was to have plunged into the atmosphere. Now, a second By contrast, terrestrial planets forming in the the spacecraft approach the planet over one spacecraft – Juno – has arrived at Jupiter to warmer region of the solar system accreted of its two poles, similar to the flight path flown begin a protracted survey of the planet with through the electrical forces of opposing by the NASA/ESA Ulysses solar-polar mission a battery of scientific instruments defined by magnetic polarity and grew small gravity-wells, launched in 1994. By entering a polar orbit Juno the information from previous fly-bys and from agglomerations which increased in size and would reach perijove (the closest approach to Galileo. which stuck together. Jupiter) over the polar cusp of the torus shaping The motivation for Juno was a desire to It is to decipher the precise nature of these these belts, receiving much less radiation better understand the physics of the solar events and to measure the properties and exposure than if it had entered a path with a system as it pertains to the origin of the Sun characteristics of the sub-atmospheric shells lower orbital inclination where the radiation fields and its attendant worlds, a far more complex of Jupiter that Juno began its journey almost are at their most intense. That was a solution and diverse range of structures than had been five years ago. which the engineers could live with. previously thought. Because it is believed that The design of the trajectory and the shape of Jupiter was the first of the planets to form Choices the orbit was determined by the requirement to around the Sun, it contains the same primordial Launched on 5 August 2011 to a direct ascent get close in to the planet, approaching to within 324 Spaceflight Vol 58 September 2016 324-326.indd 324 7/28/2016 9:06:25 AM NEWS ANALYSIS 4,200 km of the outer atmosphere. That was The spacecraft’s magnetometer (MAG) was measures electrons in the range 100 ev to 95 necessary to answer the scientific questions provided by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight keV and ions in the range 10 ev to 46 keV, about Jupiter’s radiation belts and about the Center and is configured to build a three- with a resolution of 50 km.