Spaceflight A British Interplanetary Society Publication MARS! IAC in Mexico Eye damage in space 75th birthday for RMI Vol 58 No 12 December 2016 £4.50 www.bis-space.com Soyuz MS-02 crewmembers (from left) Shane Kimbrough, Sergei Ryzhikov and Andrei Borisenko were launched to the ISS on 19 October. NASA 442 Spaceflight Vol 58 December 2016 CONTENTS Editor: Published by the British Interplanetary Society David Baker, PhD, BSc, FBIS, FRHS Sub-editor: Volume 58 No. 12 December 2016 Ann Page 451 The Eyes Have It! Production Assistant: Added to multiple concerns about the health risks of long duration Ben Jones weightlessness, evidence is now growing that long-term and sometimes Spaceflight Promotion: permanent damage to the ocular system is being seen as astronauts Gillian Norman spend more time in space. Spaceflight 453-456 Mexico hosts IAC 2016 Arthur C. Clarke House, th 27/29 South Lambeth Road, David Todd sampled the mood at the 67 International Astronautical London, SW8 1SZ, England. Congress and reports for Spaceflight on the atmosphere at this annual Tel: +44 (0)20 7735 3160 gathering of space officials, dignitaries and personalities. Fax: +44 (0)20 7582 7167 Email: [email protected] 458-462 Musk on Mars www.bis-space.com Following in the tradition of some of the great space visionaries of the ADVERTISING past, Elon Musk has outlined a grand plan for colonisation of Mars and Tel: +44 (0)1424 883401 envisages vast fleets of giant space liners to achieve his dream. Email: [email protected] DISTRIBUTION 463 What future for human space flight? Spaceflight may be received worldwide by Nick Spall previews the key decisions vital for sustained commitment mail through membership of the British to UK participation in human space flight coming up at the Ministerial Interplanetary Society. Details including Library subscriptions are available from the above meeting in Europe in December. address. * * * 464-466 America’s First Rocket Company Spaceflight is obtainable from UK newsagents Celebrated space historian Frank H. Winter remembers the 75th and other retail outlets in many countries. anniversary of Reaction Motors Incorporated, the first US rocket In the event of difficulty contact: Warners company. Group Distribution, The Maltings, Manor Lane, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH, England. Tel: +44 (0)1778 391 000 467 New Paths to Mars Fax: +44 (0)1778 393 668 Andrew Jackson reports on the 19th annual conference of the Mars * * * Society in Washington DC and reflects on the various proposals Spaceflight is a publication which promotes the discussed. mission of The British Interplanetary Society. Opinions in signed articles are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the Regular Features views of the Editor or the Council of the British Interplanetary Society. 444-445 News Analysis – ExoMars A Qualified Success * * * 446 A Letter from The Editor Back issues of Spaceflight are available from the Society. For details of issues and prices go to www.bis-space.com or send an sae to the 447 Briefing notes – news shorts from around the world address at top. * * * 448-450 ISS Report – 16 September 2016-15 October 2016 Published monthly by the British Interplanetary Society. Registered Company No: 402498. 468-469 Satellite Digest – 527 September 2016 Registered Charity No: 250556. Printed in the UK by Latimer Trend & Company Ltd. * * * 470-472 Flashback – A regular feature looking back 50 years ago this month Copyright © British Interplanetary Society 2016 ISSN 0038-6340. All rights reserved. 473 Correspondence – Flying High – Shuttles in contention No part of this magazine may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photo- 474-477 Society News – World Space Week - Battle in Space - ExCel Indeed! copying or recording by any information storage or retrieval system without written permission 478 What’s On from the Publishers. Photocopying permitted by license only. * * * NOTICE TO JBIS READERS The British Interplanetary Society is a company limited by guarantee. A small number of copies of the previous issue of the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society (JBIS) (April 2016) were misprinted and mailed to members. If your copy of JBIS was incomplete, Mission or incorrectly paginated, please email the Editor - [email protected] and the BIS will post a new The British Interplanetary Society promotes the exploration and use of space for the benefit copy to you. of humanity, by connecting people to create, educate and inspire, and advance knowledge in Cover image: An artist imagines the separation of Schiaparelli from the Trace Gas Orbiter on 16 all aspects of astronautics. October (see pages 444-445). ESA Spaceflight Vol 58 December 2016 443 NEWS ANALYSIS A QUALIFIED SUCCESS An artist depicts how Schiaparelli should have looked had it made it intact to the surface of Mars. ESA fter more than a decade of effort by the atmosphere. Since the Schiaparelli EDL prepared to deliver the spacecraft to an European Space Agency and many demonstrator has no translation capability, this encounter with the atmosphere of Mars four countries across the continent, by was necessary to deliver the aeroshell to an days later. Telemetry from the orbiter reported Acompanies involved in designing and building it entry trajectory. If left uncorrected the orbiter nominal conditions aboard Schiaparelli and and by scientists and research workers around would follow right along and burn up. as separation neared communications went the world, a third space-faring organisation Several hours later, at midnight, the mission through the ESA 35 m (115 ft) deep space had hoped to land the Schiaparelli spacecraft control team started working from ESOC’s Main antenna at New Norcia. One-way signals time on Mars. Although there is overwhelming Control Room at Darmstadt, preparing ground was 9 min 34 sec. evidence that the UK’s Beagle2 did in fact tracking stations for the “delta DOR” technique land intact on 25 December 2003, the planned which had proven to be so successful with On course touchdown of ESA’s Schiaparelli marked a new Mars Express, Venus Express and Rosetta. Separation of Schiaparelli occurred at 14:42 level of hope and anticipation that a European Conventionally, ESA tracking stations at New UTC when the lander moved away from the spacecraft could send back signals from the Norcia in Western Australia, Cebreros near Trace Gas Orbiter at a speed of 30 cm/sec surface, pioneer a new landing technology Madrid, and Marlargüe in Argentina, are used (0.98 ft/sec). Irrevocably committed to entry and prepare for the planned launch of a roving to obtain Doppler shift for range information to into the atmosphere of Mars three days later, vehicle in 2020. It was never going to be easy. about 1 m (3.3 ft) and range-rate to within 0.1 Schiaparelli would encounter Mars at 21,000 After successfully traversing the distance mm/sec. But these determinations require a km/hr (13,050 mph), 121 km (75 mls) above between Earth and Mars, the primary objective lot of time, perhaps several days, and critical the surface, thermal loads on the heat shield of the mission was accomplished – to place manoeuvres planned hours ahead benefit being measured by three combined sensors Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) in an elliptical path from the use of two widely separated antennas and a radiometer on the surface. Engineers prior to a sequence of events which would to simultaneously track the spacecraft to would use this new data to improve a move it to an operational orbit in 2017. But measure the difference between the times the determination of the descent environment and the secondary objective – to place an entry, two signals arrive – the Differential One-Way the gas flow around the 2.4 m (7.9 ft) diameter descent and lander module (EDM) on the Range (DOR). These signals, however, can be heat shield. By doing so they would gain direct surface appears not to have succeeded. The influenced by solar plasma and atmospheric measurement of the environment so as to reality of events were slow in coming and not a disturbances, so a quasar in close angular better calculate the precise depth of thermal little dramatic. proximity to the spacecraft is used to measure insulation required to protect future landers the fluctuations in light from the quasar and from the heat of entry. Smooth sailing subtract that value from the spacecraft signal. But the orbiter itself initially sent only the Seven months after launch from Baikonur, at For several hours on 16 October flight carrier wave, with the Giant Metrewave Radio 08:45 UTC on 14 October ExoMars conducted controllers prepared for the departure of the Telescope near Pune, India, reporting a faint the final trajectory correction with a one minute EDL demonstrator after it switched itself on and signal to confirm that the lander had separated. firing of the 442 N thrust main propulsion began to operate on autonomous commands Tension turned to relief when the signal was system to transfer the trajectory to a grazing transferred from computers on the orbiter. on time indicating a good separation. Later that incidence flight path which, if uncorrected, Engineers from Thales Alenia Space confirmed day, full telemetry data began flowing through would encounter the outer layers of Mars’ the final set of time-lagged commands and the 35 m station in Argentina. 444 Spaceflight Vol 58 December 2016 NEWS ANALYSIS At 02:42 UTC on 17 October the orbiter Main Control Room for a 12-hour shift covering 96,000 x 400 km (59,650 x 249 mls). orientated itself and again fired its main the orbiter’s deceleration into Mars orbit and As the minutes ticked by fears grew that propulsion system for 1 min 46 sec in an 11.6 the attempted landing of Schiaparelli on the Schiaparelli had not made it to the surface and as m/sec (38 ft/sec) manoeuvre to raise the flight surface.