SpaceFlight A British Interplanetary Society publication Volume 60 No.7 July 2018 £5.00 Deep impact: InSIGHT to Mars 07> Beagle 2 found 634072 Space age prophet 770038 9 Soyuz landing sites CONTENTS Features 14 Along paths trod by Vikings NASA’s InSIGHT Mars mission is off and running but how does it fit within the general pattern of Mars exploration and what can we expect of it, with its twin CubeSats designed to relay communications during the crucial descent? 14 18 Lost & Found Letter from the Editor Dr Jim Clemmet explains how Beagle 2 came to Just as we were going to press, be found residing apparently intact on the news broke of the death of Alan surface of Mars and how images from Mars Bean, Lunar Module Pilot for Reconnaissance Orbiter have helped rewrite the NASA’s second Moon landing and final chapter of this so very nearly successful Commander of the second mission. expedition to Skylab. An exceptional astronaut, we will 26 Prophet of the Space Age carry a formal obituary of Alan Author of a seminal biography of the renowned next month. In the meantime, for a 18 very personal insight into this space age publicist Willy Ley, Jared S Buss gets remarkable man, please see the behind this sometimes enigmatic character and letter from Nick Spall on page 42. helps us understand how he planted the first Elsewhere in this issue, we look seeds of expectation before Wernher von Braun into the mission of NASA’s next picked up the baton. Mars lander, now on its way to the planet, and hear from the chief 30 Happy landings engineer for the Beagle 2 Phillip S. Clark gives us another deeply insightful programme about the spacecraft’s analysis of the Russian space programme and remarkable discovery on the examines 135 Soyuz landing times and recovery Martian surface – albeit still with a conditions, providing data which can be useful in reluctance to call home! We are 26 predicting future landings. sure Colin Pillinger is looking down with a broad grin and a wry smile! We also reflect on the life and achievements of Willy Ley – a rocket engineer turned publicist Regulars for a space programme that had yet to emerge, and a man who 4 Behind the news probably did more than any other Getting to the gate – is it always better to to herald the dawn of the Space travel than to arrive? Age. Talking of which… don’t forget 6 Opinion to firm up your plans for World 30 Space Week in October and do 8 ISS Report the country proud! 9 April – 8 May 2018 36 Satellite Digest 546 – April 2018 40 Flashback July 1968 42 Letters to the editor David Baker 46 Society news / Diary [email protected] 42 COVER: A GRAPHIC VISUALISATION OF THE INSIGHT LANDER AS IT WILL APPEAR APPROACHING MARS. NASA/ESA MARS. APPROACHING APPEAR WILL IT AS LANDER THE INSIGHT OF VISUALISATION A GRAPHIC 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 beneft England Tel: +44 (0)20 7735 3160 Email: spacefl[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. © 2018 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 persmission for the Publishers. Photocopying permitted by license only. SpaceFlight Vol 60 July 2018 3 BEHIND THE NEWS Lunar Cargo Transportation and Landing by Soft Touchdown (CATALYST) programme and recent extensions to the original three-year contracts add two years of work ahead. Under these agreements, GETTING TO the no-funds activity within the Space Act Agreement envisage commercial deliveries of cargo to the lunar surface in the next few years. The initiative is small but it is viable lunar research in parallel with the heavy-lift hardware being developed by the ISS partners. THE GATE This is merely the vanguard of at least 20 robotic Moon lander initiatives over the next 10 years from agencies and countries around the globe. These Is it better to travel than to arrive? active precursors will provide resource inventorying, survey analysis, data extraction, sustained IN THIS NEW AGE OF SPACE the question has a measurement of the lunar environment, and special poignancy. With a change at the top in communications relay for several instruments set management of Rozcosmos, uncertainties about down on the surface and left to provide data for schedules for the Space Launch System (SLS), a many years. desire to push commercial contenders up-front with The three companies involved – Astrobotic future deep-space plans and tight funding at NASA, Technology Inc, Masten Space Systems, and Moon the path to the Lunar Orbit Platform-Gateway Express – are all making remarkable progress. “We (LOP-G) – the lunar orbiting equivalent of the expect that the demand for lunar cargo delivery International Space Station (ISS) – is still uncertain. services will increase in the next decade, and we Major long-term commitments by the European want to support U.S. industry efforts to meet that Space Agency (ESA) depend on approval by the demand”, said Jason Crusan, director of NASA’s Council of Ministers over the next several years and Advanced Exploration Systems in Washington. “All with major programmes already in work it could be a three partners have shown remarkable growth in the tough struggle to fund that as well as other past three years, so we’re optimistic that they could development programmes. There is a major push on begin delivering small payloads to the Moon as early environmental science satellites, new pressures on as next year.” the Galileo programme over the political Moon Express’s MX-1 Scout Class Explorer will management of this European navigation system carry 30 kg to the lunar surface while Astrobotic’s and development of a new Ariane launcher. Peregrine Lunar Lander will carry 35 kg of equipment The LPO-G has evolved over the last year into a and Masten’s XL-1 a whopping 100kg. But the semi-formalised stepping stone to expanded lunar information they provide from the instruments they exploration and to expeditions bound for Mars carry could provide data from which commercial carrying astronauts to orbit the planet, dock with one operations could begin to utilise of the two moons or set down on the surface. The this information in planning partners in the International Space Station have destinations for human space summarily agreed to support this approach, largely flights. due to financial and technical/physiological research requirements. In fact, the only people advocating a UNCERTAINTIES Mars mission ahead of the LPO-G are those from Preliminary preparations and the development advocacy groups or external commentators outside of hardware capable of carrying experiments to the space industry itself. the Moon are but one part of an integrated But, to bring them to reality the sound intentions network of activities and there are need consolidation through deeper commitments widespread changes in play which could backed by rational schedules. At present, only some confuse the clarity sought by ISS partners. of those elements are in place and there are Not least because the new head of significant obstacles ahead which, because they are Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, has been in very separate categories, are not perhaps giving a overseeing the Russian space industry as Deputy true indication of the integrated picture. While the Prime Minister since 2011 but lost out when Putin SLS encounters further modest delays with rearranged the cabinet in early May this year. uncertainties regarding the date of the first flight (at While this has gone largely unnoticed in the latest count into 2020), the date the Block 1B system West, Rogozin was implicated in scandals and labour will be available moves further to the right. Yet this is disputes which delayed activation of Russia’s new countered by a significant move by NASA, spaceport in the Far East. Since then, as a close ally encouraged by the new administrator’s enthusiasm of Putin, he was sanctioned by the United States in for commercial space, and by discussions to have 2014 as part of the response to Russia’s stance over some commercial ISS partners move in to help lift the Ukraine and the Crimea. At the time, Rogozin some of the early element supporting the LOP-G. made inflammatory statements about what the Three companies stand out for early delivery of Americans could do with “their space station”, cargo to the surface of the Moon under NASA’s taunting them with demands that they should get 4 Vol 60 July 2018 SpaceFlight BEHIND THE NEWS Briefng ROCK STAR Inspired by new analytical techniques, which promise to reveal fresh secrets about the Earth’s nearest neighbour, scientists have opened a metre-long tube of surface soil (regolith) that has lain sealed for more than 47 years since it was collected by the crew of Apollo 17.