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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 0825.PDF
794 FLIGHT International, 30 May 1963 Mission completed: Major Gordon Cooper and "Faith 7" aboard USS "Kearsarge" on May 16 after the 22-orbit Mercury-Atlas 9 flight, with Dr Richard Pollard (second from right), head of the medical team aboard the carrier Missiles and Spaceflight be less than 250,000kg, or no more than 2| times that of the present ELDO vehicle, but the payload would be about 20 times that of the latter. In addition the large and expensive part of the structure of the launching vehicle would be used again and again, so that a very modest fleet of these boosters could carry out an extensive lift of material into orbit, which would be limited only by the cost of the expended second stages. "As a later development the size of the booster might be extended by a factor of two and a recoverable second stage might be con templated. This accomplishment would make orbital transport ation a viable, economic proposition. Finally, on this point, it is worth bearing in mind that the development of this vehicle might be exploited in designing future supersonic air transport which, of course, would have considerable commercial implications. "While the main emphasis of European effort should be put on the vehicle just described, the other long-term aspects should not be ignored. Nuclear propulsion is an area which must be given serious consideration, though the timetable for this development must be a sensible one. In the opinion of the writer the American programme in this area is premature, in that no useful purpose can be served by having low-performance nuclear propulsion stages by the late 1960s. "Where nuclear propulsion is likely to provide a breakthrough is in operations, beyond the Earth-orbital stations, e.g., in deep- space flight, particularly in the phase of space transportation that depends upon supply from the Earth's surface. Thus one might consider, as a complement to the Earth-surface to Earth-orbital vehicle which has been described above, a nuclear rocket vehicle of single-stage construction to operate between the Earth-orbital station and the lunar surface. Such a vehicle might be designed to operate over and over, with facilities for replacing the reactor after a few transits to and from the lunar surface. It would require perhaps one-third of the material to maintain it from the Earth's surface that a chemical system would demand. Such a vehicle would complete the link between the surfaces of the Earth and the Moon." (To be continued) MAN AND MILITARY SPACE Before the Royal Aeronautical Society in London on May 23, Prof C. D. Perkins of Princeton University presented "Man and Military space," the Society's fifty-first Wilbur Wright Memorial Lecture. This extract is taken from Prof Perkins' paper. PROBABLY the greatest enigma of the total national space programme is the importance of man to the military space capabilities accepted today and that are possibilities for the future. The problem arises from the fact that, although man has many capabilities that could be of value to most space missions, the cost of including him in a system not well configured for his presence can be very large indeed. For the types of military space systems in development today the cost-effectiveness of manned systems is very low. The argument for the development of manned space systems for possible military application turns then on possible new concepts of doing our presently acceptable military missions in space or, even more vaguely, on feelings that new manned military missions will only become apparent after he is placed into this new environ ment to study new possibilities. As today it is impossible to make a convincing case for manned military space systems, and as many feel instinctively that man will become involved in such missions in ways that cannot be defined today, decisions then reduce to the question of people's prejudices on the matter, a situation historically proved to cause prolonged and heated argument. A great deal of this basic difficulty comes from the fact that, when it was first shown that technological advances would make it possible to put reasonably large payloads into Earth orbits, the majority of minds immediately concluded that this would be the next environment for nearly all military missions. The popular view was of a manned space vehicle performing the usual first-rank military missions of strategic bombing, defence against ballistic missiles, command and control, space dog-fighting, and all the rest. As the national space programme progressed, many of these concepts fell away rapidly. Attention has been focused more on the scientific and exploratory pay-offs from space, and the military missions identified only when unique or favourable cost-effective ness aspects would be realized. This is, of course, a long way from the thinking of just a few years ago and this great reorientation has had a shocking effect on the thinking of many, particularly the military minds who were ready to reorient all military missions to space. Perhaps the pendulum has swung too far but it will take a new state of the art, new concepts of operation, and better argument if the situation is to change in the near future. The inclusion of man in military space systems is argued today on grounds that in many cases are quite valid. For example, one of the most common feelings, particularly in the military, is that there is an analogy now between satellites in Earth orbits and First World War aeroplanes over the Western Front. It is claimed that both systems started out on reconnaissance missions due to their unique overflight capability. In the First World War, aircraft reconnaissance then led to aeroplanes shooting at each other, bombing, troop support, transport, and all the other roles now important to manned aircraft. It is argued that there will be similar development of new space missions, leading eventually to the performance of all major military functions from space vehicles. Arguments along these lines are not very fruitful as it can be proved that satellites can be attacked more easily from the ground than from another satellite, that delivery of nuclear warheads can still be done by ICBM more accurately and with better control than they can be delivered from an orbiting satellite. One finds that those who argue these points have little knowledge of the laws of physics, or of economics, for that matter. Another approach to the use of man in military systems is more satisfying to the scientific mind. Here it is argued that man is a very lightweight computer with built-in sensors of great capacity and acuity. Further, he is easy to programme and is in fact largely self-programming and is a very flexible and adaptable subsystem. All of this comes in a package of about 1801b. This is, of course, quite correct but, on the negative side of the balance sheet, one must also recognize that to include man in a space system may well require an additional 2,0001b to 3,0001b of additional equipment to provide life support and safety measures. All of this means a considerable increase in boosted weight and a very large increase in system cost. Under these circumstances it is imperative that if man is to be made part of a space system, the system itself must have capabilities that make it possible for him to exercise his real capabilities as a subsystem. If this is not done, he will be along just for the ride—and at great cost. For man to be included, then, he must have some unique or clearly definable job to perform, and the space vehicle he is in must be capable of using his real talents. The argument for man in military space must not be made in the abstract and on simple doctrinal arguments. Rather he must be evaluated as an important subsystem along specific lines, to be used when, and only when, a stong case can be made for using him This leads, then, to analysing man as a part of military space
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