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Aviation History
1966
1966 - 1423.PDF
814 FLIGHT International, 12 Spaceflight May One of three military communication- satellite ground stations designed ond built by Marconi for the Ministry of Aviation is located at the Signals Research and Development Estob. lishment at Signal Point, Christchurch, Hampshire. It has a 40ft diameter dish aerial (left), housed in on inflatable double-skin nylon rodome (below) and will be used to communi- cate with US satellites in America's Initial Defense Communications Satel- lite Project COMSATS VERSUS CABLES First major area of conflict between communication satellites and undersea cables is likely to be the Caribbean. The US Communication Satellite Corporation has objected to applica- tions by American Telephone & Telegraph Co and 111 Com- munications Inc to lay and operate a submarine cable between the US mainland and St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. Instead, the corporation has requested authority from the Federal Communications Commission to construct a satellite Earth station on the nearby island of St Croix. The high-capacity St Croix station, the corporation states, would serve the expanding communications needs of the Caribbean area and provide reliable service between the USA and Puerto Rico, South America, Europe and Asia. It would use a large aerial 85 to 97ft in diameter. "Since the substantial benefits to be derived from making satellite communications available in this area far outweigh those to be derived from the creation of additional cable capacity," the corporation claims, "the public interest will best be served by the granting of Comsat's Earth station applica- tion and the denial of the cable applications of AT&T and ITT." In its application to construct the St Croix station the cor- poration states: "Satellite channels can ... be used to provide high-quality television channels simultaneously with a variety of other services, including voice and broadband data channels, without the limitations which would apply in the case of a cable. "The capability of the St Croix Earth station to meet future telecommunications requirements will be well beyond the 720 voice-channel capacity cf the proposed submarine cable." Earlier, the corporation had opposed an application by ITT Cable & Radio Inc to construct a satellite Earth Station in Puerto Rico. The proposed Comsat Corporation station at St Croix is said to be within easy reach of Puerto Rico and the nearby islands of St Thomas and Tortola via microwave links. Estimated cost of the St Croix station is approximately $6 million. SIMULATED LUNAR EXPLORATION Two engineers from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center recently completed 18 days lhr 40min of simulated lunar ex- ploration—for most of the time inside a simulated lunar surface shelter/vehicle with a living/working space of only 115 cu ft. The test was performed at Honeywell Inc, Minneapolis, in support of NASA's Apollo applications programme. Main purposes of the experiment, in Marshall language, were: "To validate the results of previous short-term studies using a minimal volume cabin which would compromise neither physiological-psychological requirements nor task efficiency; to develop and validate vehicle cabin living-duty station configura- tions; to develop and test representative lunar mission task schedules; and to evaluate crew performance during a 2-3 week representative lunar surface mission by closely monitoring per- formance of simulated vehicle operation and mission-oriented scientific tasks." The experiment was planned to duplicate as closely as pos- sible the activities of two astronauts landed on the Moon in an Apollo lunar excursion module to conduct a 14-21 day explora- tion mission using a shelter (mobile laboratory or fixed base) placed on the Moon earlier by a LEM descent stage. The two men, Michael J. Vaccaro and Haydon Y. Grubbs, followed a daily routine and performed set tasks (including geological work) until notified that the experiment was complete. For tasks outside the cabin the two men wore Apollo-type suits pressurised to 3.51b/sq in and carried back-packs. This external activity included quarter-mile treadmill walks up a 4 per cent gradient and short periods of running. Four emergencies were imposed on the crew unexpected! - These included a micrometeorite puncture of the cabin and one of the airlock, resulting in simulated decompression, and rescue of one man by the other. In this the inside crewman hadL^OVUW \JJ. 171AW IL1O.IL LJ y U1V Ullll-1. 1U 1111.3 III** IUJ1W" » . to perform a simulated emergency "depressurisation" ot cabin, go outside in his space suit, bring his partner back insl the airlock using a winch, close the outer airlock hatch an "repressurise" the cabin airlock.
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