Natioriai Aeronautics and Space Administration Langley Research Center Hampton, Virginia 23665 AC 804 827-3966 For Release: RELEASE NO. 78-3 January 16, 1978 SPACE SEMINAR AT NASA LANGLEY Hampton, Va. --NASA's Langley Research Center will sponsor a government/industry seminar January 17 - 19 concerning the tech- nology involved in developing large space systems to support Earth- orbiting space missions during the years 1985 to 2000. Approximately 200 representatives from NASA, private industry, universities, and the Department of Defense (DOD) will attend the three-day meeting at the NASA Langley Activities Center, beginning at 8:30 a.m., January 17. Donald P. Hearth, Langley director, will welcome participants to the seminar, and a resum; of NASA's new Large Space Systems Technology (LSST) Program will be presented by Angelo Guastaferro, manager of the program at Langley. 2 The seminar is designed to create an exchange of ideas between the government and aerospace industries on the kinds of technology that will be required to build large space systems for the future. "In a sense," Guastaferro said, "we're trying to guess what missions the Space Shuttle will be doing in the 1985 to 2000 time period. The seminar is a way of organizing our research and technology to fit the multi-mission needs of the future. NASA Headquarters has named Langley as the lead center for the LSST Program. Langley will manage the LSST work of five other NASA field centers and several private companies, and will trade information with the Department of Defense. I While NASA has no definite programs scheduled for the 1985-2000 period, the technological base for any probable programs must be established now to make sure that future missions can be achieved in an efficient, economical and well-organized fashion. The LSST seminar is a kind of trading session for information. Approximately 34 technical papers will be presented on various aspects of large space systems. "The seminar will allow industry, NASA and DOD to exchange technology p1,anning information, I' Guastaferro said, "and help the government determine what specific advanced technological research is required. 'I 3 Attending the seminar will be representatives from six NASA technology and operational centers, 24 aerospace industries, eight universities, and four DOD centers. The seminar will end with a panel discussion among a dozen know- ledgeable government and industry representatives to help determine where research efforts need to be placed to get "the most benefit for every research dollar. Subjects to be discussed at the seminar include predictions of structural behavior in space, particularly the loads and stresses to which structures would be subjected; studies of advanced materials and techniques for joining various kinds of structures; concepts for the ! distribution of the controls for large structures; and the development of electronics equipment needed for the operation and control of structures. One example of a possible space system could be, if approved, a large, Earth-orbiting electronic "post office. An open platform system would be constructed of interconnected metal beams, or rods, stretching through space as far as one kilometer (about six-tenths of a mile) in diameter. To this open-beam platform would be attached a field of about 90 umbrella-like antennas. Kept pointed toward Earth, such a large structure would provide relatively inexpensive, rapid transmission of electronic messages from place to place on Earth. 4 Eugene Naumann of Langley, coordinator of the seminar, conducted a workshop on the sme subject in 1976. Naumann says that similar seminars are planned each year as a way of continuing cooperation between government agencies and industry. I . 7-r- T- - News National Aeronautics and Space Administration Langley Research Center Hampton, Virginia 23665 AC 804 827-3966 For Release: RELEASE NO. 78-4 January 30, 1978 ALASKA PIPELINE DISCUSSED IN COLLOQUIUM LECTURE Harnpton, Va. --Edward L. Patton, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, will be the guest speaker for the NASA Langley Research Center colloquium on Thursday, \ February 2. The colloquium will be held in the Activities Center, Building 1222, with a coffee at 2 p. m. and the lecture at 2:30 p. m. Patton will discuss the challenges involved in building the nearly $8 billion trans-Alaska pipeline. Since oil was discovered on Alaska's North Slope nearly 10 years ago, this pipeline has been the subject of debate, controversy and general interest. Now finished, the pipeline carries some one and one-quarter million barrels of crude oil every day from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, Alaska, a distance of 800 miles. A native of Newport News, Virginia, Patton graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a BS degree in chemical engineering. -. -- * T 2 He held a number of management positions with Exxon and was an advisor for the company’s refining operations in the Mediterranean, the Middle East and the Far East. He served as President of Alyeska, a consortium of eight energy companies, from its formation in August 1970 until he became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer in 1976. Patton will be available for interviews during the coffee and following his talk. National Aeronautics and Space Administration Langley Research Center Hampton, Virginia 23665 AC 804 827-3966 For Release: RELEASE NO. 78-5 February 13, 1978 FOUR SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS CHOSEN FOR SHUTTLE FACILITY I Hampton, Va. --Four scientific experiments have been tentatively I selected for NASA's Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF), i ~ scheduled as a major Space Shuttle payload in 1980. LDEF is managed I I by NASA's Langley Research Center. I The experiments will study the hazards to man of ion particles in space, the chemistry of micrometeoroids, the interstellar wind and cosmic ray nuclei. These experiments join 23 technology experiments chosen for LDEF earlier this year. LDEF is an unmanned, reusable, free-flying facility on which many different technical and scientific experiments can be mounted in special trays. LDEF provides an easy and economical way to conduct primarily passive experiments in Earth orbit. 2 Principal investigators for the scientific experiments represent three European universities, the European Space Agency and NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas. The new experiments were chosen from 55 proposed experiments related to scientific disciplines, including astrophysics, life sciences, lunar and planetary studies, solar terrestrial studies and upper atmos- pheric physics. A total of 190 candidate experiments were submitted to NASA in response to an announcement-of-opportunity distributed in Juno 1976. With selection of the science experiments, 80 per cent of LDEF's experiment trays are now filled with individual research projects. The other 20 per cent will contain micrometeoroid detection panels, designed to measure the number and variety of tiny meteoroid particles in Earth orbit. Nestled inside the Shuttle Orbiter's cargo bay during launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, LDEF will be placed in a circular Earth orbit of 435 kilometers (270 miles) with an inclination to the equator of 28. 5 degrees. LDEF will remain in orbit from six to nine months while its experi- ments are exposed to the space environment. At the end of the mission, LDEF will be retrieved by the Orbiter and returned to Earth. Experiments will be returned to their investigators for analysis. Selected experiments and their principal investigators are: 0 Free Flyer Biostack Experiment --Investigator: Dr. Horst Bucker, Universitat Frankfurt am iMain, West Germany. The experiment will investigate the biological effectiveness of the structured components of cosmic radiation during space flight, empha- sizing the effects of individual, very heavy ions. Information will be used to quantitatively assess the haz.ards of heavy ion particles to man in space, and establish radiation protection guidelines for man and biological experiments in future space flights. A six-month LDEF mission will yield about 360 per cent more total dose data than a typical Apollo mission. 0 Interstellar Gas Experiment--Investigators: Dr. Don L. Lind, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, and Dr. Johannes Geiss, University of Bern, Switzerland. The experiment will analyze the interstellar noble gas atoms that penetrate the heliosphere to the vicinity of Earth. The structure of the interstellar gas flux varies considerably at different points in Earth's orbit. By collecting particles at several locations, the experiment will achieve the first on-site detection of interstellar gas, and will study the dynamics of the interstellar wind as it flows through the heliosphere and ~ 4 I interacts with the solar photon flux and the solar wind. Because the dynamics of the interstellar wind depend on its density and velocity before entering the heliosphere, the experiment will investigate these characteristics of the interstellar medium outside the region of the solar system. @ High Resolution Study of Ultra-Heavy Cosmic Ray Nuclei -- Investigators: D. V. Doming0 and Dr. K. P. Wenzel, European Space Agency, The Netherlands; Prof. C. 0. Ceallaigh, Dr. D. O'Sullivan and Dr. A. Thompson, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, Ireland. The experiment will study charge and energy spectra of cosmic ray nuclei, and will search for super-heavy nuclei and heavy anti-nuclei. Information will help explain the physical processes of. ultra-heavy nuclei production and acceleration at their source in inter stellar space. Information on nucleosynthesis will also be obtained. 4 Chemistry of Micrometeoroids -- Investigator: Dr. Fred Horz, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas. The experiment is designed to obtain chemical analysis of a statistically significant number of micrometeoroids, and information about micrometeoroid density, shape and mass flux. If present hypo- theses are correct, that most micrometeoroids are derived from comets, their chemical characterization becomes of great signizicance. Comets are generally considered to be relatively unaltered objects that reflect . -_ 5 some arrested condition of early solar system condensation.