FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1963
1963 - 0972.PDF
TELEMETRY AERIALS FLIGHT International, 13 June 1963 This sketch of UK-3, the first satellite to be built in the United Kingdom, was released by British Aircraft Corporation on June 6. Weighing approximately 1501b, the satellite will be launched in 1967 by a Scout vehicle provided by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (see "First British Satel lite") Missiles and Spaceflight 943 FOUR ACCESS DOORS FOUR FERRITE ROD AERIALS FOR SHEFFIELD UNIVERSITY AID RADIO RESEARCH STATION CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LOOP AERIAL BIRMINGHAM UNIVERSITY EXPERIMENT SENSORS FIRST BRITISH SATELLITE The British Aircraft Corporation's Guided Weapons Division has been awarded the development contract for UK-3, the first all- British satellite. Based on specifications issued by the Space Department of the Royal Aircraft Establishment, the spacecraft will be the third in a series of joint US/UK scientific research satellites. The first two in the series are American-built and fitted with British instruments. The first, Ariel, is in orbit, and the second is to be launched later this year. The proposed date for launching UK-3 is 1966, when the satellite will carry five scientific experiments into a circular orbit 400 miles above the Earth. It will transmit experimental data for a year, after which its transmitter will be switched off. The five experiments which UK-3 will carry are for the Universi ties of Cambridge, Birmingham and Sheffield, the Meteorological Office and the Radio Research Station at Slough. Chosen by the Royal Society, the experiments will include the mapping of noise sources in the galaxy; the measurement of electron density near the satellite; the study of low-frequency radio signals; the distribution of oxygen in the atmosphere; the intensity and distribution of lightning over the Earth's surface; and anomalous propagation from world radio beacons. With an overall height of 5ft, and a span of 7ft, the satellite will weigh H cwt. Its shape has been determined partly by the Scout rocket which will inject it into orbit, and partly by the requirements of experiments, power supplies, thermal control, aerials, structural strength and access. The 30-inch diameter of the main body of the satellite is the largest which can be carried by the Scout vehicle. To control the experiments, and to store data for subsequent re transmission, the satellite will carry several other electronic units, including timers, coding devices, battery chargers, a transmitter, a receiver to accept commands from Earth, and a tape recorder. Electrical power for these units and the experiments will be provided by 6,000 solar cells which convert the Sun's radiant energy directly into electricity. They will also re-charge the storage batteries which take over when the satellite passes into the Earth's shadow. The Stevenage works of the British Aircraft Corporation's Guided Weapons Division will be the main contractors for UK-3. The Corporation's Bristol works provided a proportion of the instrumentation for the first two US/UK satellites, while the Steven age works have been actively engaged on design studies of various types of satellites, including those for communications purposes. The BAC contract is one of a number being placed by the Ministry of Aviation in connection with the UK-3 satellite. Further contracts will cover electronic equipment and other special ized items. Overall co-ordination of the project will be handled by the Space Research Management Unit of the Office of the Minis ter for Science, acting in co-operation with NASA. ELDO BLUE STREAK FOR AUSTRALIA A complete Blue Streak first stage of the European Launcher Development Organization's three-stage launch vehicle is being shipped out to the Weapons Research Establishment range at Woomera, South Australia, by the Ministry of Aviation. The stage completed exhaustive tests at the Ministry's Spadeadam Rocket Establishment prior to despatch. In Australia, the vehicle will be used initially to prove the ELDO launch-pad installation and a number of other associated range facilities. These proving tests will include a series of static firing trials in preparation for the first flight vehicle, which will leave the factory towards the end of 1963 to be launched at Woomera in March 1964. F-1 PROBLEMS Combustion instability problems experienced with the Rocketdyne F-1 engine were referred to in Congressional testimony recently by Mr D. Brainerd Holmes, Director of NASA's Office of Manned Space Flight. Mr Holmes said that a major test effort was under way on all the engines required for the Saturn launch vehicles, and continued:— "The largest of these engines, the F-1 engine, delivers a thrust of 1 Jm pounds and consumes about three tons of liquid oxygen and kerosene every second. Five of these engines will power the S-1C stage, the first stage of the Saturn V. In nine recent test firings of this engine, it has demonstrated its full thrust of 1 £m pounds over the full 2imin of operation. While the development of this engine has turned up some combustion instability problems, we are confi dent that these problems—as with those encountered in nearly all past engine developments; that is, combustion instability—will be solved. 1 should perhaps elaborate, because it sounds somewhat sanguine. We do have serious combustion instability problems with the F-1 engine. In the past the approach to solving combustion instability in rocket engines of this type has been primarily by experiment and probably not enough analytical work has gone into this analysis. "We are presently carrying on a very extensive analytical oper ation to try to understand this complex problem. At the same time, we are carrying on experimental work. With an engine as large as the F-1—it is about 15ft in diameter across the bottom of the skirt— it is more difficult to do experimental work, slower than it has been in other engines. For instance, the injector—which is similar to a shower head and injects both liquid oxygen as well as kerosene into the combustion chamber through holes, and then the combustion takes place—is no longer something a man can just turn over. You have to use a handcrank to turn it over because of its size. "However, using the best brains in the country in this work, including consultants from universities, particularly from Princeton,
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
