Apr 2 1985
From The Space Library
NASA Administrator James Beggs, testifying today before the U.S. House HUD and independent agencies appropriations subcommittee on NASA's FY 86 budget request, said that orbiter processing constraints at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) made it difficult for NASA to consider adding Space Shuttle flights to get the year's planned commercial launches back on schedule, Aerospace Daily reported.
When asked by Chairman Edward Boland (D-Mass.) if reports were true that NASA was considering launching three commercial satellites on Deltas rather than the Space Shuttle to get the Space Shuttle's manifest back on schedule, Beggs responded that it was an option the agency "had to look at" but one that probably would not be exercised. He said NASA talked to several Space Shuttle customers about flying payloads on Deltas and some were interested. Another option NASA considered was adding another Space Shuttle flight to the manifest, but orbiter processing constraints posed problems. "We just can't push the orbiters through the processing facility quickly enough," he said, although NASA still "may be able to squeeze another launch" into the year's manifest.
He pointed out the hardware for another flight was available and NASA proposed building a third orbiter processing facility high bay and Space Shuttle tile facility at KSC with FY 86 funds. (AID, Apr 3/85, 1)
Transatmospheric Vehicle
Robert Cooper, director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), said in testimony delivered in late March before the U.S. House Armed Services Committee research and development subcommittee that a space plane capable of flying to anywhere on the earth within half an hour to intercept enemy bombers or perform space spy missions might be possible within the next 10 years, the Washington Times reported.
The U.S. Space Shuttle, which had limited ability to maneuver in space, was put in orbit only after a lengthy and complicated rocket launch. So the U.S. Air Force wanted a "transatmospheric vehicle" that would be able to quickly reach and return from space like an ordinary aircraft. Cooper said a recent breakthrough in so-called ramjet technology might make possible an aircraft capable of taking off from a runway and reaching speeds of Mach 25 (times the speed of sound), the velocity necessary to escape earth's gravity.
Cooper noted the plane would weigh about 100,000 lb., take off from and land on a 10,000-foot runway, and probably use hydrogen as a fuel. Only a small amount of rocket power would be required to "deorbit" the plane, he said.
DARPA proposed to build two full-scale model ramjet engines for testing on the ground. "There are a number of very interesting technical problems here . . . none of them insurmountable. They're all within our grasp," Cooper said.
Cooper explained that the ramjet combustion providing the extra boost took place only when the air flowing through the jet engine chamber was at supersonic speeds. Ordinarily, to get air flowing at this speed through the entire length of the chamber, the aircraft itself had to be moving at Mach 6. However, "a way has been found," he said, "to use a subsidiary scheme for driving the air through the engine up to supersonic speeds, even though the vehicle on which the engine is attached is sitting on the runway." By slightly varying the geometry of the engine, it might be possible to fly the aircraft from takeoff to Mach 6, and "with slight variations" fly from Mach 6 to 14 and then to Mach 25, Cooper said.
The Air Force and Navy were interested in the engine, development of which marked a resurgence in hypersonic speed research that had been "put on a back burner" in the late 1960s, Cooper commented. (W Times, Apr 2/ 85, 3A)
NASA announced that a group of researchers led by Dr. Lelia Coyne, San Jose University, working at Ames Research Center (ARC) discovered new clay-energy storage and transfer processes that supported a clay origin-of-life theory, which contradicted the theory that organic life arose from an accidental combination of chemicals and energy in a primordial "soup" on the primitive earth.
Basic to the clay origin-of-life theory were observations suggesting that clay, although composed of inorganic material, exhibited life-like characteristics in its ability to select out certain chemicals and to serve as a catalyst for chemical reactions. Some scientists also theorized that clay might be able to perform additional chemical functions basic to life including self-replication, growth, and transfer of chemical information to other chemical systems. They believed that organic chemicals that eventually "learned" to reproduce themselves and create life could have come together in an orderly process that first appeared in the structuring and reproductive processes attributed to clay.
The work at ARC strengthened this theory by finding that clay had the ability to absorb, store, and transfer energy, a necessary process of organic life. This work introduced a new and important aspect to the clay-life theory-that clay minerals were capable of engaging in energetic processes that were necessary conditions if it was to be shown that clay had life-like properties.
The NASA-sponsored investigation grew out of 20 years of research at ARC in studies of the chemical basis for the origin of life. Other scientists working on various aspects of clay research at ARC were Drs. Sherwood Chang, Ted Bunch, James Lawless, Noam Lahav, David White, and Glenn Pollock. (NASA Release 85-48)
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