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Aviation History
1969
1969 - 2968.PDF
On this figure, some 60 per cent was allocated to the Apollo programme, initiated by President Kennedy in 1961; the total Apollo expenditure has actually been $25.4 thousand million to date. By comparison, it appears that the proposed manned voyage to Mars would cost between • $75 thousand million and $80 thousand million on present reckoning. The maximum yearly expenditure of some $8 thousand million a year (for options I and 2, more for option 3) would presumably mean a total annual NASA budget of $12 thousand million to $13 thousand million (taking into account other programmes), a figure approaching three times the previously accepted budgets of the 1960s, and there is no doubt that President Nixon is going to have an extremely tough time inducing Congress to give its assent; opposition will be strongest from those of the Administration who were hoping that, after the expensive and purely scientific Apollo programme, NASA would devote a much greater proportion of its energies to the development of commercial space technology. Further opposition is likely in the scientific community at large and within NASA, where scientists will argue that the channelling such huge budgets in such a narrow direction will prejudice the balanced scientific investigation of the solar system by cheaper, unmanned probes. The adoption of a FLIGHT PLAN FOR APOLLO 12 Final testing of Apollo 12, America's second Moon-landing flight, and a check on the spacecraft and ground-support equipment, began during the last week in September with a flight-readiness test of the last 2hr of the countdown. Problems with test equipment temporarily delayed the simulated lift-off just before ignition, but this equipment is not used during the actual countdown. The crew for Apollo 12 comprises Charles Conrad, 39, Apollo 12 commander, Richard F. Gordon, also 39, command- module pilot, and Alan L. Bean, 37, lunar-module pilot. All are officers of the US Navy, and the Apollo 12 emblem is a nineteenth-century clipper ship. Conrad was one of the group of nine astronauts selected by NASA in 1962. He was back-up command pilot for Gemini 8 and command pilot of the Gemini 11 flight of September 12, 1966. Gordon, one of the 14 astronauts chosen in October 1963, was teamed with Conrad for these two Gemini missions; he was back-up pilot on Gemini 8 and pilot of Gemini 1.1. Bean, who was selected (along with Gordon) in 1963, was command pilot of the Gemini 10 back-up crew, and has not previously flown in space. The preliminary flight plan calls for Apollo 12 to be launched on a ten-day mission at 1622 BST on November 14, and enter lunar orbit at 0351 BST on November 18. Separation of the LM will take place at 0420 BST on November 18, followed by descent to the surface and landing, the latter scheduled for 0657 BST the same day. Two walks on the Moon are planned; Conrad and Bean will emerge at 1052 BST on November 19 for a 3.5hr examination before returning to the lunar module, and the second venture out on to the Moon will begin in the earliest hours of the follow ing morning. The LM will begin its return journey at 1427 BST on November 20, and will rendezvous with Gordon in the orbiting command module at 1802 BST. Apollo 12 will be FLIGHT International, 9 October 1969 more broadly based programme (it will be argued) would involve more scientists and engineers in a wider range of disciplines than with the Mars flight, and would be of greater value to the furtherance of science. The technological difficulties will be immense. The greatest will probably be the development of the nuclear engine, which is essential if the mission is to be accomplished in a reasonable time. The 75,0001b-thrust Nerva (nuclear engine for rocket vehicle application), under development by NASA and the Atomic Energy Commission for both manned and unmanned flights, has already cost about $1.2 thousand million since 1961; it is estimated that a further $1.1 thousand million will be needed to qualify the engine for flight at the existing thrust rating. At the time of writing it is not known whether this thrust level will be adequate for the mission. Some form of re-useable shuttle will have to be designed to ferry astronauts and their equipment down to the surface from the spacecraft in orbit around the planet. The final design of this will probably have to await the results of the 1971 Mars-orbiting Mariner and the 1973 Viking spacecraft which will land an instrumented science payload on the surface: from these flights will come better knowledge of the density and composition of the atmosphere and surface, vital to the design of the braking and landing systems. Another severe problem will be the provision of life-support systems (probably of a closed-cycle nature) for up to ten astronauts for a period of about 640 days. Not least of the difficulties is the present uncertainty regarding the physiological and psychological effects of such an extended voyage to the men themselves (although the results of recent Russian experi ments in which Russian scientists were isolated for a period of one year are reassuring). NASA has so far not divulged its proposals for the space craft, but reports from Washington indicate that the mission would be made in two identical spacecraft, each some 270ft long and weighing initially nearly 800 tons. The vehicles would be assembled in Earth orbit, the elements being flown up from Earth in developed Saturn V vehicles. fired into the Earth-return transfer orbit at 2047 BST on November 21, and splashdown is expected at 2121 BST on November 24. The landing site is in the Oceanus Procellarum—the Ocean of Storms—within (NASA hopes) easy walking distance of the American spacecraft Surveyor 3, which soft-landed on the Moon on April 20, 1967, to gather and radio back to Earth data on the Moon's soil. If the astronauts can reach Surveyor, they will bring back its TV camera for examination. The Apollo 12 payload will comprise a more refined version of the seismometer carried on Apollo 11 to record moonquakes and meteor impacts, an improved solar-wind detector, a new experiment to measure electric field strength at the Moon's surface, and a magnetometer. One hundred pounds of soil will be collected, and much more attention will be given to documenting samples. ESRO-1B FLIES The fourth satellite to be designed and built by the European Space Research Organisation, ESRO-1B was successfully launched by NASA Scout rocket from the Western Test Range (Vandenberg AFB) in California on October 1. The satellite, now designated Boreas, is identical structurally to its pre decessor, ESRO-1 (Aurorae), which was launched from Van denberg on October 3 last year; eight experiments (from four countries) on board the satellite are identical in nature to those of the earlier satellite, but embody minor technical improve ments. The 1871b satellite is designed to study ionospheric and auroral phenomena (particularly over northern polar regions in winter) and was placed in a near-circular orbit, varying between 250 miles and 284 miles, at an inclination of 86°. (ESRO-1 had an initial orbit height of 960/160 miles and an inclination of 93.8°.) The planned lifetime is between four and six months (Aurorae, built for six months operation, is still operating satisfactorily).
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