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Aviation History
1973
1973 - 1522.PDF
Salvaging Skylab H OPES THAT A large percentage of the Skylab mission could be salvaged were increasing early last week among Nasa officials as preparations were being made for a crew launch only ten days behind schedule. An intensive effort to find means of controlling the problems that were seriously endangering the damaged station had enabled Nasa to train and equip the crew suitably in time to reschedule the launch for last Friday, May 25. Any further problem was to have held the launch over until May 30. As this page went to press, Nasa was reporting plans for providing the crew with optional means of erecting a cover over the Skylab workshop section to protect it from the Sun. Three different thermal blankets were being rapidly built for storage aboard the Apollo command module. The blankets, similar to the Mylar material which covered the lanar modules, are made of aluminium-covered plastic and coated with highly reflective inconel. The plan was for the Apollo capsule to rendezvous with Skylab about 7J2hr after launch and circle it to make a thorough photographic reconnaissance, and, if possible, for one crewman to use a pole to try to prod loose the main solar arrays. The Apollo was then supposed to dock with Skylab and FLIGHT International, 31 May 1973 the blanket be deployed by a crewman standing in a special instrument-exposure hatch in the airlock module unit of Skylab itself. The blanket is a 20ft X 23ft rectangle which is attached to the end of a 48ft-long pole made up • of 4ft sections. A 20ft length of pole was already aboard Skylab, designed for ATM film retrieval, and further sections were to be carried in the Apollo to make up the length. After extension, the furled blanket was to be turned by springs to form a T with the rod and the astro naut was then to draw it out like a blind with an attached line. This operation was gaining favour as the prime method but a back-up device using an inflatable blanket was also being considered for deployment from the same position. Another blanket is trapezoid in shape, about 42ft long and about 12ft across at the broad end and 12ft at the other. This was designed to be secured before docking. Following the reconnaissance circuit, the Apollo was to be stationed close to the workshop while one of the crew stood up through the hatch. The blanket was to be affixed by means of a telescopic, pincer-equipped pole. Two lines attached to the corners of the broad end of the blanket were to be clipped to the after end of the workshop. It was proposed that this should be achieved by use of an expansion device fitted into the ridged surface, while a self-locking cleat would hold the single line from the other end against itself after it was looped around the Apollo Telescope Mount structure. The decision on which method to use rested with mission commander Charles Conrad after the workshop had been inspected. The second method enabled the attempt to be made soonest after arrival but was the most risky because of the difficulty of keeping in accurate formation with the Skylab. There was also some possible danger to the exposed crewman from thruster blasts as the Apollo manoeuvred to keep station. A 901b weight allowance had been estimated for carriage of the blankets and the necessary tools in the Apollo capsule. Stowage space had been allotted on the assump tion that the crew will board Skylab, so that no extra food was to be carried. There was no guarantee that the sunshield would provide adequate protection and it meant that the spacecraft would have to be kept in a constant inertial position in relation to the Sun, which would limit the scope of some of the directional experiments. There was also the possibility that it could prove too efficient and overcool the spacecraft. By early last week Nasa was, however, seriously con sidering a further launch delay to rest the crew after the intense extra training that has been necessary. Each delay must last five days, this being the time required for Skylab's precessing orbit to return the spacecraft to a suitable position for launch and rendezvous. Some measure of control had been achieved over the heat problem by keeping Skylab angled at 50° to the Sun, thereby obtaining maximum Sun exposure of the ATM solar panels while taking much of the main body out of direct sunlight. Internal temperature had been stabilised at between 100°F and 105°F. Mission controllers believed that, if a sunshield can be erected, most of the experi ments will be operable, although only one at a time and for reduced periods. The station is now dependent upon the 10-5kW generated by the ATM solar panels, having lost about 12-5kW by the failure of the main panels to open. It has even been speculated that one of the panels has been torn off. The other, either fractionally open or hanging almost loose, is producing about 25W. If the panels are both still in position and can be opened, most of the original mission plan is still attainable, depending on whether any experiments have been damaged by heat. In any case, surplus power from the Apollo capsule will allow the first crew to spend 17 days in a modest experiment programme. They may also attempt The last Saturn V lift-off from launch pad 39 at Cape Kennedy. The launch of the Skylab orbital workshop on May 14 was the 18th and final launch of the Saturn V. The total includes six launcher develop- shots, plus 11 manned flights as well as the Skylab launch
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