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Aviation History
1974
1974 - 1773.PDF
FUGHT International, 31 October 1974 621 one happened to be correctly oriented with regard to a particular panel, the whole volume seemed strange and unfamiliar. The phenomenon persisted throughout the whole 84 days. It took an entire working day, including preparation and post-EVA tasks, to perform the extravehicular activities. In fact, much of the day prior to an EVA was often used. Spacecraft suit-cooling loops, pumps, and reservoirs had to be checked out, scientific equipment assembled and pre pared, the airlock compartment stowed, suits prepared and positioned, umbilicals attached to suits and spacecraft, and special repair tools, some of them hand-made, made ready. Tasks performed during the Skylab 4 EVAs included the repair of an Earth-resources antenna drive mechanism, freeing a jammed filter-wheel drive on one of the solar telescopes, and the use of special scientific equipment for observing the Sun and the comet Kohoutek. Orbital routine In-orbit operations on Skylab were divided into the following categories: spacecraft systems management, housekeeping, unplanned spacecraft maintenance and repair and contingency operations, spacecraft operations, experiment operations, experiment contingency operations, and schedule co-ordination between us and the ground. For in-orbit operations, Gerald Carr took care of the command module, I specialised in managing the orbital workshop systems, and Ed Gibson was responsible for the major experiment systems. Workshop operations were devoted mainly to systems management and housekeeping but also included a number of contingency operations and repairs. Planned activities included such tasks as the activation of the water system and periodic sampling tests, cleaning up, reloading the tape recorders, filter and fan replacements, caution and warning tests, and fire drills. Unplanned maintenance was performed on the coolanol loop and the water coolant loops, and we had to remove an unforeseen build-up of condensate, replace and service EVA equipment, and replace a urine dump heater probe. On one occasion I had to get sample granules from the activated charcoal atmosphere-cleaning canisters in order to determine whether the coolanol fluid lost during the first and second missions had been absorbed; this involved knocking a hole in the side of the canister housing using a hammer and punch. The experiment operations focused on three major subject areas: the Sun, using the Apollo telescope mount; the Earth, using the Earth-resources experiment package; and biomedicine, using a complex of experiments to perform closely spaced physiological observations. Solar observations were conducted daily by all three of us, but the more complex observations were made by scientist-pilot Ed Gibson who, incidentally, was largely responsible for the high quality of the scientific data obtained by Skylab 4. Earth-resources observations were made on a periodic basis with all three of us participating. Few problems arose, although attitude control problems were experienced during several of the runs. The control problem was caused by attempts to manoeuvre with only two of the three large control-moment gyros and was readily corrected. Subsidiary experiment operations were divided equally among the three of us and covered a wide range of in vestigations, from astrophysics observations to testing the astronaut manoeuvring unit. About 80 per cent of this equipment malfunctioned at one time or another and cost a lot of time in repair work and re-scheduling. Schedule planning and co-ordination between ground control and ourselves occurred on a regular basis and generally involved the Commander's approval of ground- based planning. As the mission progressed, we gained con siderable confidence in our ability to budget time and schedule tasks wisely, and by the end of the mission had concluded that crew autonomy would be essential for future long-duration missions. Reviewed in its totality, the three months in space inspired in us an irrepressible faith in Man's potential worth in space exploration. MARCONI SOFTWARE FOR ARIANE Marconi Space and Defence Systems has received a £500,000 contract from Aerospatiale for the development and supply of all of the software for Ariane's central digital computer. Functions controlled by the central com puter will include inertial navigation computation, in-flight trajectory correction and guidance, attitude control, vehicle and autopilot sequencing and stage-separation command, pyrotechnic systems inhibition, telemetry encoding, fault monitoring, and payload pointing and stabilisation. The contract also covers the provision of software for a variety of ground applications. Marconi will supply pro grammes to control the ground-based aspects of trajectory correction and mission data recovery, to produce a mathe matical model of Ariane's dynamic behaviour, and to check out the vehicle's equipment and the integrated launch system. ROCKETDYNE WINS NASA ATLAS CONTRACT Nasa has awarded a $6-5 million contract to Rocketdyne for the supply of six Atlas MA-5 liquid rocket propulsion systems. This is Nasa's first purchase of Atlas engines, although the Administration is about to take delivery of the first of an order for seven propulsion systems trans ferred from the USAF. The engines will be installed in the Atlas launchers which will be used, starting in 1976, to orbit the two HEAO X-ray astronomy observatories and a number of Comsat commercial communications satellites. MITSUBISHI SEEKS NEW SPACE PARTNER After the dissolution earlier this month of its space partnership with TRW Systems, Japan's Mitsubishi Electric Corporation is keen to continue acquiring space technology by forming a similar joint company with another Western concern. The current favourite is Philco-Ford, owing to its existing involvement with Mitsubishi on the development of a Japanese communications satellite and of the National Space Development Agency's ETS-2 engineering test satellite. The Soviet Union has launched Cosmos 687, 688 and 689. Their orbits are 292km X 717km inclined at 74°, 188kmX371km at 62-8°, and 992kmXl,032km at 83° respectively. Brazilian Erts data centre complete The Bendix Corpora tion has completed installation of an image processing facility, the last element of a $4-1 million Earth-resources data receiving and processing complex, at Cachoeira Paulista, Brazil. With the opening of a Bendix data receiving and recording facility at Cuiaba in May last year, Brazil became the first country outside North America to receive Erts data. Hughes is designing a domestic communication satellite system for Indonesia under a $800,000 contract from that country. The network is to be operational by 1976 and will comprise two satellites and 50 ground stations located in key areas of the country's 13,000 islands. It is expected to cost less than $100 million. Indian satellite delayed The launch of India's first satel lite has been delayed by "a couple of months," according to Dr U. R. Rao, project manager for the Indian Space Research Organisation. Mr Rao attributed the delay to the need to "ensure that all necessary tests, both at environ mental and ground levels, are gone through carefully." Launch will now take place in March next year, on a date to be finalised shortly. Nasa to study space power stations Nasa's Marshall Space Flight Centre has invited the US aerospace industry to submit proposals for a study of space-based solar-power conversion and delivery systems. The study will explore the technical and economic feasibility of orbital power generation and the transmission of Earth-generated power in the form of microwaves via geosynchronous relay satellites.
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