Feb 14 1974
From The Space Library
Tentative NASA plans for launching 810 payloads into space in the next two decades were outlined by Dr. James C. Fletcher, NASA Administrator, in an address before the National Space Club in Washington, D.C. The total, for late 1973 to 1991, included non-NASA pay-loads for Government agencies (other than the Dept. of Defense) , foreign agencies, and private industry. The tentative payload model-presented to Congress in October 1973 to show "what could be done in the 1980s" when the space shuttle was in use-included as many as 10 missions to the outer planets Uranus, Neptune, Jupiter, and Saturn. In 1990 and 1991 two very heavy payloads might be sent to orbit one of Jupiter's moons and land an instrument package. Tentative missions to the inner planets included five missions to Venus, one of them with a lander, and two spacecraft to orbit Mercury. Tentative Mars missions included one spacecraft to orbit the planet, two landers, and two to return samples from the two moons of Mars. Lunar missions under consideration included a lunar polar orbiter in 1979, two other orbiters in the 1980s, two lunar rovers in the 1980s, a lunar halo satellite to ensure communications with the hidden side of the moon, and two lunar rovers in 1990 and 1991 that could return samples to the earth from any point on the moon. Other plans under consideration were a flyby and rendezvous with Comet Encke and a landing on the nucleus, a flyby of Haley's Comet in 1985, and two missions to asteroids in 1986.
Of the 810 total payloads, 57 were designated for planetary exploration and 753 for earth orbit. Scientific satellites for earth orbit were Large Space Telescopes, High Energy Astronomical Observatories, Large Solar Observatories, Large Radio Astronomy Observatories, and x-ray telescopes. The large spacecraft would be unmanned but visited regularly by space shuttle crews and brought back to earth for refurbishing. In the applications field were large Earth Observatory Satellites. And NASA expected to orbit 120 communications and navigation satellites for other agencies or private industry through 1991, not including those for DOD.
Of some 300 payloads to be flown in the Spacelab, most would be NASA payloads in the fields of astronomy, physics, earth observations, earth and ocean physics, communication and navigation, life science, and space technology. Of non-NASA payloads, 10 would be for private industry space processing, beginning in 1985. Some 10% were expected to be flown for foreign users.
The large number of contemplated missions, even with the increasing number of U.S.S.R. launches, was expected to have very little impact on the environment. Effects of the major constituents of the solid-fueled rocket booster exhaust-water vapor, carbon dioxide, hydrogen chloride, and aluminum oxide-would be negligible. (Text)
France reluctantly decided to cut back construction of the Anglo-French Concorde supersonic airliner and to scrap production of the Mercure short-range twin-jet airliner, at a special meeting of Premier Pierre Messmer and five ministers. France had been demanding production of eight Concorde aircraft but would now accept as few as six in the knowledge that, with a Labor Party victory in the 28 Feb. British elections, the U.K. might be willing to scrap the entire project. The press said the French decision came after a report from France's rocket testing center suggesting a $90-million fuel-tank modification to boost range at the expense of reduced transatlantic loads. A suggested 10% increase in engine thrust, requiring 8% more wing area at a cost of as much as $400 million, was believed rejected at the meeting.
The decision to scrap the 120-seat, 1200-km range Mercure was taken after an initial production run of 10 aircraft and writeoff costs reported by the press at $120 million. Competition from the already established DC-9s and Boeing 727s and 737s was too great for the Mercure, whose one buyer was Air Inter, the internal French airline. (Randal, W Post, 17 Feb 74, Al)
NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for Applications Leonard Jaffe-U.S. Representative to the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space Working Group and Task Force on Remote Sensing-reviewed U.S. environmental and earth resources programs before the Working Group and Task Force. The U.S. had designed tape recorders and studies on ERTS 1 Earth Resources Technology Satellite (launched 23 July 1972) for foreign use of the data, but the "extent and vigor of foreign interest was perhaps greater than we expected." Brazil and Canada had built ground stations to receive data directly and, by agreement with the U.S., were disseminating data. Italy also would establish a ground station, and nine other countries had expressed interest.
ERTS 1 performance had shown that data collection with a spatial resolution of 100 m was economical and adequate for a wide range of significant applications. Although total discontinuance of photographic imagery was not planned, the speed, reliability, and flexibility found in computer analysis indicated that future systems would increasingly use automated methods.
The mapping accuracy of the satellite's instruments was adequate for 1:1 000 000 and even 1:250 000 scale when system errors were removed by computer processing. Processing and disseminating data was a key factor in the cost of an earth observation program. No one data-processing and dissemination facility would ever be able to meet the needs of the world efficiently. Estimates put the cost of an additional system similar to the ERTS 1 data-collection system-aside from spacecraft costs-at $11 million for the facility and $9.9 million for five years of data processing. A minimal system with only multispectral scanner and real-time observations would cost $2.5 million for the facility and $3.6 million for five years of data processing. (Text; NASA OA, interview)
French, Canadian, and U.S. scientists were participating in projects to ex-pand Univ. of Hawaii facilities on top of 5000-m Mauna Kea into one of the world's greatest centers for celestial observations. In addition to NASA's planned 3-m infrared telescope announced 4 Feb., Hawaii had recently concluded an agreement with the National Research Council of France and the National Research Council of Canada for a $20-million enterprise to operate a new 3.8-m telescope for general astronomical observations. The university already had three telescopes on Mauna Kea. (Durdin, NYT, 14 Feb 74, 33; NASA Release 74-23)
A Washington Star-News editorial commented on the triumph of the Skylab program: Although a "fellow wondering where his next tank of gas is coming from has difficulty getting excited about the cosmos," the country "could take much encouragement from the successful completion of the $2.6-billion Skylab program." We could expect that this had been well worth the effort and that a similar crash program on energy could meet with the same success. Americans would not venture into space again until the space shuttle project at the end of the decade, except for the 1975 linkup of U.S. and Soviet spacecraft. If all went well, that "could be the most fascinating and heartening adventure since that first landing on the moon." (W Star-News, 14 Feb 74, A18)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
