Vol. 39 No.1, October 2013 Editor: Jos Heyman FBIS

In this issue:

Satellite Update 3 Cancelled Projects: ELDO Space Tug 5 News AOneSat 2 Australian QB50 satellites 4 Cubesat Launch Initiative #5 2 -1 8 Deep Impact 4 ICO-2 3 InSight 3 Iran's Manned Space Programme 7 Minotaur V 8 Morelos-3 3 NEOWISE 2 NEXT 2 QB50 Project 4 RD-180 rocket engines 3 Sirion 3 Soyuz TMA-10M 8 SPRINT-B 3 Telstar-12 Vantage 4 Turksta-6A 2 US Sequestration impact 3

QB50 (source: VKI)

TIROS SPACE INFORMATION NEOWISE 86 Barnevelder Bend, Southern River WA 6110, Australia Tel + 61 8 9398 1322 NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) which was launched on 14 December (e-mail: [email protected]) 2009 to investigate cool dust-shrouded stars, luminous distant galaxies and numerous The Tiros Space Information (TSI) - News Bulletin is published to promote the scientific exploration and asteroids and comets, will now conduct the Near Earth Objects WISE (NEOWISE) mission. commercial application of space through the dissemination of current news and historical facts. Over a period of three years the satellite will scan the inner solar system for asteroids and In doing so, Tiros Space Information continues the traditions of the Western Australian Branch of the other objects that may be potential destinations for human exploration. Astronautical Society of Australia (1973-1975) and the Astronautical Society of Western Australia (ASWA) The satellite was put into hibernation when the hydrogen coolant for the infrared detectors ran (1975-2006). out in October 2010. The new mission will be conducted with two on-board detectors that do The News Bulletin can be received worldwide by e-mail subscription only. Subscriptions can be requested by not require this cooling. sending an e-mail address to [email protected]. Tiros Space Information reserves the right to refuse any subscription request without the need to provide a reason. All opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Editor or Tiros Space Information. NEXT and Cubesat Launch Initiative #5 All material contained in this publication may be reproduced provided due acknowledgment is made. NASA is looking for a dedicated launch vehicle for cubesats without having to rely on ride- along opportunities as they occur these days. The programme, known as NASA Launch Calling card... Services Enabling eXploration & Technology (NEXT), envisages a launch vehicle that can simultaneously place three 3U cubesats into a 425 km , with a mass of about 15 kg. For many years I have been classifying satellites by – amongst others – ‘country of origin’ NASA envisages that the cost to launch a 3U cubesat should be not more than $300,000. and, a long time ago, I recognised that there were some multinational organisations involved in satellite launches, such as Intelsat, ESA and Inmarsat. On 13 August 2013, NASA invited applications for the fifth Cubesat Launch Initiative that envisages the winner to have a pigguback ride sometime between 2014 and 2017. These days it becomes more and more difficult to attach a ‘country of origin’ to a satellite. For In the previous rounds of the initiative 89 cubesats were selected of which 12 have already instance, the recently launched WGS-6 military comsat – is that an Australian satellite been launched and another 21 are scheduled for launch later this year. This leaves more than (because we funded the hardware and the launch) or is it a US satellite (they operate the 50 cubesats waiting for a launch opportunity. system). Some months ago we had Alphasat I-XL, also called Inmarsat 4A-F4. Is it an Inmarsat NASA previously conducted the Nano-Satellite Launch Challenge, a competition that would satellite or an ESA satellite? have awarded $3 million to the first company to undertake two single-unit cubesat launches in two weeks. The competition was cancelled in November 2012. At that time only a few And talking about Inmarsat, it is no longer the international United Nations sponsored contestants were close to the design of a viable rocket. organisation established in 1979 but a private company in the United Kingdom. And Intelsat, once owned by over 100 nations has been a Luxembourg based company since 2001. And what about the Intelsat commercial spin-off New Skies Satellites. That was established as a company in The Netherlands in 1998 but has since then been acquired by Luxembourg’s AOneSat SES. And then there is the Sri Lankan Supremesat system that I referred some months ago. Anyway, I have made some executive decisions: WGS-6 belongs to the US, Intelsat and Switzerland based company AOneSat Communications has ordered an Ekspress 1000N Inmarsat remain international agencies in my data base and NSS – whoever owns it – satellite from ISS Reshetnev for launch in 2016. The satellite will be fitted with C, Ku and Ka remains Dutch. And Supremesat remains – for the time being – the name of a transponder on band transponders and will provide communications and TV broadcasting services to Latin a Chinese satellite. America. AOneSat was founded in 2009 and is promoted by interests in India and Switzerland. And if this all sounds confusing to you, remember that any method of classifying satellites – It has plans to eventually place another two satellites in orbit to service the African continent be it country or purpose or whatever other means - is prone with inconsistencies and is merely as well as the Middle East and South East Asia. a tool to find information back in a database with close to 7500 items of information.. Turksat-6A

Jos Heyman Turksat intends to order the Turksat-6A for launch in 2018. The satellite will be located at 46 o East and will carry 16 Ku band transponders to be used for domestic communications.

Tiros Space Information – News Bulletin, October 2013, page 2

Satellite Update SPRINT B

Launches in August 2013 Following the successful launch of SPRINT A on 14 September 2013, Japan is now working towards SPRINT B, also referred to as Energization and Radiation in Geospace (ERG). This Int.Des. Name Launch date Launch vehicle Country Notes satellite will study the relativistic electron acceleration mechanism in the context of the cross- 2013 040A HTV-4 3-Aug-2013 H 2B-304 Japan Docked with ISS energy coupling via wave-particle interactions as well as the dynamics of space storms during 2013 041A WGS-6 7-Aug-2013 Delta 4 USA Military comsat a solar maximum and subsequent declining phase. It will be launched with an Epsilon launch Medium+(5,4) vehicle during 2014/2015. 2013 042A Arirang-5 22-Aug-2013 Dnepr 1 Korea Earth observation 2013 043A Advanced KH 28-Aug-2013 Delta 4 Heavy USA Military 11-7 2013 044A Eutelsat 25-B 29-Aug-2013 Eutelsat Communications RD-180 rocket engines 2013 044B Gsat-7 29-Aug-2013 Ariane 5 India Military comsat 2013 045A Amos-4 31-Aug.2013 Zenit 3SLB Israel Communications Russia’s security council is consider to prohibit the use of the RD-180 rocket engines as the first stage of the Atlas 5 launch vehicles, with a particular reference to the use of these launch Other updates vehicles for military satellites such as the AEHF and X-37 as well as future programmes such as the UHF Follow-on satellite. None. Such a ban would most likely also impact on scientific launches to be undertaken by NASA. Should the ban come into place, it would, however, be to a commercial disadvantage for Energomash that manufactures the rocket engines. Sirion and ICO-2 To date Energomash has delivered 63 engines to Pratt & Whitney with a new contract for another 31 being considered now. Sirion Global, an Australian company, has now purchased capacity on board of the defunct ICO-2 satellite as the start of its proposed low-orbiting constellation of 10 satellites for two- way messaging and machine-to-machine (M2M) communications. The ten satellites will InSight operate in two orbital planes at 6,500 km altitude. No satellites have been ordered yet. The Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) Sirion was originally formed in 2003 and was initially funded through the Australian is scheduled to be launched in March 2016 and will land on Mars six months later. government’s International Livestock Resource and Information Center, which at the time was Four potential landing sites have now been selected all of which are in the Elysium Planitia looking at satellite-based solutions to monitor livestock in rural Australia. area, near the equator. A final decision will be made based on imageries to be provided by the Mars Reconnaissance (MRO). ICO-2 was launched on 19 June 2001 and was built by Boeing as the first of a constellation of (The InSight mission was described in the September 2012 issue of the News Bulletin) 10 satellites owned by ICO Global Communications, a subsidiary of Inmarsat. The additional satellites were mostly built but were never launched and the company failed in August 2009 but the satellite was kept operational, albeit without usage, until March 2012, when it was US Sequestration impact decided to abandon the satellite. It is not expected that Sirion will purchase the uncompleted Boeing satellites. The head of the US Air Force Space Command has warned that the on-going budget sequestration in the United States “will prove more devastating to US space capabilities than any threat an adversary could think up”. He stated that if there is no budget flexibility soon the Morelos-3 impact on post-Afghanistan operations of missile warning, meteorological and navigation satellites, which are considered “must haves” for military operations, may be in danger. The Mexican Ministry of Communications and Transportation has booked an Atlas V-421 launch for its Morelos-3 communications satellite. (Sequestration is a procedure in United States law that limits the size of the federal budget. It To be launched in 2015, the satellite is being constructed by Boeing and will be positioned at involves setting a hard cap on the amount of government spending within broadly-defined 116.8 o West. categories; if Congress enacts annual appropriations legislation that exceeds these caps, an The satellite will expand mobile telecommunications services in Mexico's rural regions and across-the-board spending cut is automatically imposed on these categories, affecting all provide secure communication links to support Mexican law enforcement and military departments and programs by an equal percentage.) personnel. Tiros Space Information – News Bulletin, October 2013, page 3

QB50 Project orbit with an inclination of 98 o and will also carry radio amateur payloads for AMSAT-UK, AMSAT-F and AMSAT-NL. In 2009 the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics (VKI) in Belgium proposed the launch of The status of the QB50 Project is continuously communicated with the cubesat developing 50 2U and 3U cubesats in a worldwide programme for long-duration measurements in the organizations and the scientific audience through QB50 Workshops (at least twice a year), lower thermosphere to greatly increase the knowledge and understanding of the E and F CubeSat Symposia and Conferences, QB50 Newsletter and QB50 email lists. layers of the ionosphere. In addition the satellites will carry out experiments on re-entry research and perform in-orbit demonstration of the newly developed technologies. The Project was kicked off officially in November 2011 with the financial support from the EU FP7 Australian QB50 satellites Programme. The three Australian teams involved in the QB50 project are SUSat, being developed by the The cubesats are to be constructed by universities all over the world. It is planned that all 50 University of Adelaide, UNSW-EC0, by the University of New South Wales and i-Inspire by the satellites will be launched in 2015 with a single launch vehicle and be placed in circular orbit University of Sydney. of between 350 and 380 km altitude with an inclination of 98.6°. The satellites will be separated in orbit naturally by atmospheric drag forces and they will form a uniform network The SUSat will carry, in addition to the primary QB50 payload, two locally developed around Earth within about 3 weeks. payloads.

It was envisaged that 34 cubesats would be provided by European universities in 19 UNSW-EC0 will carry the INMS payload as well as four other experiments: countries, 11 by universities in the US, 2 by universities in Canada and 3 by Japanese • UNSW Namuru Space GPS, to carry out atmospheric sounding using radio occultation; universities. After the call for proposals made in February 2012 the VKI received proposals for • NICTA seL4 Computer, to demonstrate the use of the seL4 operating system in critical 81 cubesats from 41 countries. system operation in the space environment; VKI and QB50 Consortium are now finalizing the selection based on technical and • UNSW RAMSES, a Rapid prototyped satellite structure, to demonstrate the use of a rapid programmatic merits of the proposed cubesat teams. The technical merit is measured by a prototyped structure in the space environment; and successful Preliminary Design Review (PDR) of the proposed cubesats. The cubesats that • RUSH: Rapid recovery from SEUs in reconfigurable hardware, to demonstrate and have successfully passed or that are in the phase of passing the PDR are from validate new approaches to rapidly recovering from Single Event Upsets (SEUs) in universities/institutions in Australia (3), Austria (3), South Africa (1), Belgium (5), Brazil (1), reconfigurable hardware. Canada (3), China (7), Colombia (1), Czech Republic (2), Denmark (1), Egypt (1), Estonia (1), Ethiopia (1), Finland (1), France (5), Germany (4), Greece (2), India (1), Ireland (1), Israel (1), The Initial-Integrated Spectrograph, Imaging, and Radiation Explorer (i-INSPIRE) will carry Italy (2), South Korea (2), Lithuania (2), The Netherlands (2), New Zealand (1), Peru (1), three science instruments: a photonic spectrograph, a radiation counter and an imaging Poland (1), Portugal (1), Romania (2), Russia (1), Serbia (1), Singapore (1), Slovak Republic camera. (1), Spain (1), Sudan (1), Taiwan (1), Turkey (2), Ukraine (2), United Kingdom (6), USA (4) and Vietnam (1). Since funding of the cubesat developments is something that has to be undertaken by the universities and institutions concerned, VKI will only make the final Deep Impact selection after the availability of funding has been confirmed. And indeed some of the submissions, including the New Zealand one, have already been withdrawn due to a lack of funding. Communications between the Deep Impact spacecraft and controllers on Earth was lost on 8 August 2013 and efforts to re-establish contact have failed so far. Deep Impact was launched on 12 January 2005 and flew past comet Tempel 1 on 4 July Three instruments are being developed: 2005. The mission was then extended and the spacecraft flew past comet Hartley 2 on 4 • an Ion/Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS), by the Mullard Space Science Lab, UK; November 2010. • a Flux-Φ-Probe Experiment (FIPEX), by the Technical University of Dresden, Germany; Whilst running out of fuel, it was decided in 24 November 2011 to set the spacecraft on a flyby and with asteroid 2002 GT that will occur on 4 January 2020. • a multi-Needle Langmuir Probe (m-NLP), by University of Oslo, Norway. It is assumed that one of these instruments is selected for each cubesat, along with corner cube laser retroreflectors (CCR) and Thermistors/thermocouples/RTD (TH). Besides, the teams have the freedom to add a payload that they develop and they also have the freedom Telstar-12 Vantage to design the cubesat as they wish as long as they satisfy the top-level mission requirements. The Canadian Telesat company has ordered the Telstar-12 Vantage satellite from Astrium to It is now intended to place two precursor 2U cubesats in orbit in the first half of 2014 to test replace the current Telstar-12 located at 15 o West. The satellite will be launched towards the key payload components for the QB50 satellites. These satellites would be placed in a 600 km end of 2015.

Tiros Space Information – News Bulletin, October 2013, page 4

Cancelled Projects: ELDO Space Tug This resulted in a space system that consisted of four building blocks: • a module; By Jos Heyman • a craft; • a space tug; and In the wake of the success with the Apollo lunar missions, NASA began planning the • an orbital transfer vehicle. equipment for its next generation in the exploration and utilization of space through its Integrated Program Plan of 1969. These four elements working together would provide the United States not only with the means to operate in , but also to continue the exploration of the . The feature of the plan, to the extent that it concerned hardware, were at least three As history tells us, of these elements, only the space shuttle craft materialized. (It is characteristics: suggested that the ISS space station was not directly related to the 1969 plan). • Commonality: to reduce overall costs, hardware had to be made common to mission areas (Earth orbit, lunar, and planetary) and user agencies (NASA and DOD) and The Space Tug concept had to maximize use of common subsystems (such as auxiliary propulsion system, electrical power system, guidance and navigation) and components (engines and It was anticipated that future United States space activities would require extensive orbit fuel cells); transfer and maneuvering capabilities to meet the needs of Earth oriented as well as lunar • Reusability: to further reduce costs, hardware had to have a capability of being and interplanetary missions. reused many times without significant refurbishment cost or operational complexity It was suggested that this requirement could be met by a Reusable Space Tug that would be and with no degradation of mission reliability; and transported into space by means of the Space Shuttle where it would be left in a convenient • Flexibility: to assure rapid response to new mission requirements, hardware had to orbit to be serviced by further Space Shuttle flights. be flexible enough to grow or be combined with other available hardware to satisfy requirements that are not and cannot be fully defined at this time. In addition, it had to be to function effectively even if some hardware elements would be removed from the space inventory

Space Tug modules and functions Elements of NASA’s post-Apollo space transportation system

Tiros Space Information – News Bulletin, October 2013, page 5

The Space Tug was envisaged as a highly versatile, multi-application, manned or unmanned system comprised of a crew module, a propulsion module, an intelligencer module and a cargo module each of which could operate independently or with other modules. In addition auxiliary modules were envisaged such as Lunar Landing Legs, Power, Manipulator Systems and Satellite Repair Kits. Each of these modules was intended to be reusable in an effort to greatly reduce the recurring costs of space operations. It was further envisaged that the main propulsion system would employ the same oxygen/hydrogen fuelled engines as planned for the Space Shuttle.

The Space Tug was seen to be able to perform a wide variety of missions including moving payloads from low-Earth to higher orbits, retrieving unmanned spacecraft, moving cargo, adjusting spacecraft orbits and general support of the space station. It would also have been compatible for transport into deep space and was to be operated in a crewed as well as uncrewed mode. It was also intended as the lander component of further lunar missions and interplanetary missions. When not in use, the vehicle would have been 'parked' in Earth orbit when not needed.

NASA Space Tug concept

In 7 July 1970 NASA made a presentation to the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO) on 7 July 1970 providing them with the details of their proposals. Whilst the presentation heavily focused on the Space Shuttle vehicle and showed some concept design by leading US aerospace corporations, the presentation – as recorded in documentation – did not directly invite Europe to take part in any specific element of the programme.

Somehow it was, however, suggested that Europe would be ideally situated to cooperate in developing the Space Tug element of the system and that it was not considered that it would mean that Europe had to adjust its plans for its scientific and applications programmes as the Space Shuttle would not come into operation until the mid 1980s. Space Tug mission frequency 1980-1989 (North American Rockwell) It also meant that the proposed Europa III launch vehicle would be able to operate for 10 years or so. One of the preliminary studies envisaged a very intensive use of the Space Tug in the 1980- 1989 period, consisting of 117 satellite deployments missions, 800 space station related Subsequently ELDO undertook studies on the feasibility of the Space Tug which could use the missions and 887 lunar missions. same propulsion techniques as those used for Europa III. These preliminary so called Phase A studies were undertaken under contract from ELDO by two The task to develop the Space Tug as well as the Space Shuttle and the intended Space separate consortiums headed by ERNO, from Germany and MBB, also from Germany whereas Station was seen too much for NASA and getting Europe involved in the overall Space other European aerospace companies, like Hawker Siddeley Dynamics, British Aircraft Corp., Transportation System seemed to be a perfect solution. Based on this President Nixon took MAN, Fokker/VFW, SABCA and Sulzer Bros were also involved. the step in October 1969 President Nixon to invite Europe to participate in this programme.

Tiros Space Information – News Bulletin, October 2013, page 6

These two extensive studies clearly showed the technological significance of the Space Tug But when President Nixon approved the Space Shuttle programme on 5 January 1972, the and its potential role in the design of missions in future decades although they did not entire programme had undergone major changes as compared to the 1970 concept. In consider, in detail, technological challenges and pre-development aspects. particular ELDO was advised in June 1972 that the Space Tug was withdrawn. European participation was still desired but now became focused on a Shuttle-borne, shirt-sleeve At the same time the European Space Research organization (ESRO) was looking at the environment laboratory for scientific research under low-gravity conditions in fields like utilization and participations in the Space Transportation System for scientific and biomedicine and materials science, which eventually resulted in Spacelab. applicational programmes. Work on the Space Tug was stopped immediately and the group of ELDO engineers who had been working on it for two years, was officially disbanded on 31 July 1972 and all of the ELDO estimated that the development of the Space Tug would cost about $500 million and in Organisation’s contractual obligations with industry were liquidated. At that time, ELDO had 1972 it was estimated that about 20 to 30 Space Tugs would be required. spent up to $ 4 million on the studies. At the same time, the US Air Force was also looking at the possibility of acquiring the SpaceTug, either being built in Europe or in the US under licence. At that time ELDO had serious problems of its own. The organization had been set up under a convention which came into being on 29 February 1964. The aim ELDO had been to provide an One of the space tug designs that was advanced, was to be 9.10 m long and 4.57 m in independent launch vehicle for European satellites. The member nations were Belgium, France, diameter. the German Federal Republic, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Australia. Denmark and Switzerland had observer status. The principal programme was the construction and launching of the Europa series of launch 1. Docking unit vehicles. However, over the years the programme ran into difficulties. With the large number of 2. Radiators countries involved in the development, many technical problems arose and modification followed 3. Attitude control modification, costs began to escalate and the time scale slipped back. Moreover, basic systems disagreement on the approaches taken, led to the withdrawal of the United Kingdom. 4. Main engine 5. Retractable The failure of the Europa F-11 launch from Kourou in 1971, resulted in a complete assessment of landing legs the programme's management systems but, evidently the writing was on the wall. There was a 6. LOX tanks lack of wholehearted enthusiasm for the Europa programme created, on one hand, by the 7. Liquid frustration caused by its failure, and, on the other hand, the ready availability of US launch hydrogen tanks vehicles. 8. Control cabin The difficulties encountered by ESRO and ELDO showed that a stricter coordination of funds was required. In addition it was considered desirable to extend into application programmes such as communications. As a result, the principle of an was advanced in December 1972.

Iran’s manned space programme

Following two attempts to place a monkey in space and return it safely, Iran now intends to conduct the next test flight in its manned space programme using a Persian cat. Named after the historical name of Iran, the cat was selected following the evaluation of several animals. In September 2011 Iran made the first attempt to place a money in orbit, an attempt that failed. In January 2013 the country claimed to have sent a monkey into space and had it safely recovered – a claim that has been disputed as, at a subsequent press conference, a different monkey was presented. The feline mission is scheduled for March 2014, despite protests from animal rights group who claim that, apart from the unethical aspects, animals have turned out to be poor models for the human experience and that scientific non-animal methods of study are now available.

Tiros Space Information – News Bulletin, October 2013, page 7

Minotaur V Cygnus OrbD-1

The first launch of the Minotaur V launch The first flight of the Cygnus commercial cargo spacecraft took place on 18 September 2013 vehicle took place on 7 September 2013, with the launch by an Antares launch vehicle from Wallops Island. placing the LADEE lunar spacecraft into The Cygnus spacecraft has been developed by Orbital Sciences and Thales Alenia to meet orbit. NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS). It consists of a (SM) and a Pressurized Cargo Module (PCM). The SM is based on Orbital’s space Developed by Orbital Sciences, the platform that incorporates a propulsion system fuelled by N2H4/NTO or N2H4. It will also have Minotaur V is based on the previous two fixed wing solar arrays. Minotaur IV, a part of a family of launch vehicles using decommissioned three stage Peacekeeper missiles. The rocket motors for the five stages are: • Stage 1: a Thiokol SR118 (TU-903) solid fuelled motor with 2,200,000N thrust; • Stage 2: an Aerojet SR119 solid fuelled motor; • Stage 3: a Hercules SR120 solid fuelled motor; • Stage 4: a Star 48V motor; and • Stage 5: a Star-37FM motor (for spin stabilised satellites) or Star-37FMV motor (for 3-axis stabilised satellites). The launch vehicle has a capacity to place 532 kg payloads into a geostationary transfer orbit. (The LADEE spacecraft was described in the August 2013 issue of the News Bulletin)

Soyuz TMA-10M

On 25 September 2013 a Soyuz FG placed the Soyuz TMA-10M spacecraft into a trajectory to the International Space Station with which it docked on 26 September 2013. The crew consisted of Oleg Kotov The PCM is based the on the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM), developed by Thales (Commander), Sergey Ryazansky and Alenia Space for NASA. The module has a pressurized volume of 18.9 m 3 and can carry 2000 Michael Hopkins (USA). They will join the kg of crew supplies, spares and scientific experiments. The length is 3.66 m and the diameter EX-37 crew and will eventually transfer to the EX-38 crew. They are scheduled to leave the 3.07 m. The mass, without cargo, is 1500 kg. space station in March 2014. After an aborted attempt on 22 September 2013 and a delay due to the docking of Soyuz TMA-10M, the spacecraft docked with the Harmony port of ISS on 29 September 2013 when it was grappled by the Canadarm2. It will stay there for the next 30 days. It carried 750 kg of food and other equipment. After undocking the spacecraft will burn up in the atmosphere.

Tiros Space Information – News Bulletin, October 2013, page 8