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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 0989.PDF
FLIGHT International, 21 June 1962 987 It is recommended that:— (a) ESRO should carry out a more detailed assessment with costing and time scale of such a project, together with the cost of such a sounding rocket in production. In order to obtain answers quickly, ESRO might place a contract for such a study, the result of which would be evaluated by ESRO; (b) ESRO should provide the detailed information from this to the participating countries, which should then provide ESRO with their measure of interest in such a development and the numbers they would be prepared to purchase for their national programmes. Equally ESRO at that phase should consider its own interest in the development and applicability of such sounding rockets for international programmes; (c) If the assessment indicated the feasibility of such a develop ment (particularly in terms of safety requirements) it would probably be necessary to carry out a launching programme with progressive increases in performance from the particular ranges with restricted areas. Such increases in performance refer both to the velocity of the rocket and the elevation angle of its trajectory. By this means a full test of the system on particular ranges could be made with safety. It is considered that an assessment of possible costs falling on ESRO would be premature. The small costs of the detailed study and evaluation work are covered by the estimates already made. Secondly, the need for applied research in advanced forms of propulsion and power generation is agreed. These two areas of applied research are coupled together since the advanced forms of propulsion, at the present time, refer to electrical methods. The difficulty arises in the lack of a clear definition of the role of ESRO and the possible future existence of another European organization to carry out research and development work on launching vehicles. With this in mind the following recommendations are made:— (a) In the event of no other European organization undertaking work on electrical methods of propulsion, ESRO must under take such work itself; (b) Even with another European organization undertaking such work, ESRO would have a legitimate interest in electrical methods of propulsion for low levels of thrust both for control purposes and for the adjustment of orbits. If the proposals of the other organization do not cover these legitimate in terests of ESRO in a satisfactory manner, then ESRO must undertake the additional work necessary. Furthermore, if at the time that ESRO is set up, there are no proposals for such work or only proposals for work on high-thrust methods, then the following recommendations are made:— (a) ESRO should set up a study group under the aegis of ESTeC for the purpose of defining desirable directions of applied research on electrical methods of propulsion. The essential purpose of this group would be to assess the present state of knowledge and to define precisely specific scientific and technical problems requiring solution, prior to any of the various possible methods of electrical propulsion being developed. These precise definitions should indicate (whenever possible) the type of work required for solution of the physical problem. The group should also suggest possible laboratories in Europe suitable for undertaking work on one or more of these problems. For example, there will no doubt be specific problems associated with plasma physics and already there exist a number of laboratories pursuing studies in this field, not at present necessarily in aid of rocket propulsion or power generation in satellites; (b) It is suggested that the group should consist of members of the participating countries, knowledgeable in the field of electrical methods of propulsion or related applied research. During this study phase, which should be not less than one year and possibly longer, the members of the group would work fulltime for ESRO. It might be necessary to ask for the help of consultants for shorter periods. The members of the group would be on loan from their parent laboratories and be paid by ESRO; (c) The chairman of the group should be a staff member of ESRO, probably the Assistant Director (Applied Research) of ESTeC. Three or four members of the group should, if possible, be directly engaged on applied research in the field of electrical propulsion at their parent laboratories. A similar number should be knowledgeable in the field, but not directly engaged in specific work of the propulsion type. The latter are needed to avoid an unbalanced and biased assessment of the applied research needed; (d) It is probable that the group would provide brief reports of their progress about every three months for consideration by the Council; (e) A final report with recommendations should be submitted to the Council for consideration and action if so desired. This report should state and explain the choice of particular problems for research and the reasons for particular lines of research out of the very great number of possibilities. In the above it is assumed that the recommendations of this group would be for research on specific problems of a physical rather than engineering nature and that suitable facilities will already exist at a number of European laboratories. Under these conditions the costs of such applied research would be low. In general it is thought that the application of such research to the development of rocket motors is probably five or more years away (except for certain cases requiring very low thrust over very long periods). At present it is not considered necessary to modify the costs given in this report, since it is considered that the costs of the study group and the possible applied research which follows, are well within the margin of error of the estimated costs for ESTeC. Conclusions Many of these suggestions are intended as examples. This is particularly true of the proposed organization of ESTeC which was a necessary preliminary to costing. It is considered that the Director of ESTeC would expect to be told the task to be under taken, together with the staff and finance proposed. It would be his responsibility under the Director-General of ESRO to organize ESTeC in the most efficient manner for the task. It is considered that the major projects should not only have fixed target dates for a first launching, but that they should be the subject of progressive development. Thus a second launching might have improvements incorporated and later launchings might be carried out with completely redesigned satellites for more refined measure ments. Such improvements or redesigns would be the outcome of the applied research carried out by ESTeC. The programme of ESTeC would be periodically under review by the Council. Two flights by Mariner spacecraft to the vicinity of Venus are planned by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for this summer. The 60in by 29in solar-cell panels aboard Mariner are built by Ryan for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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