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Aviation History
1985
1985 - 0126.PDF
INTERNATIONAL SATELLITE DIRECTORY heliospheric and interplanetary magnetic fields, solar and galactic cosmic rays, and cosmic dust. This involves sending a spacecraft out of the ecliptic plane so that it can look down on the Sun's poles. Mission Ulysses will be launched by Shuttle and Centaur G Prime upper stage in March 1986 on to an eliptical transfer orbit to Jupiter. After a 14-month jour ney, Ulysses will be deflected out of the eliptic, into a high inclination orbit, by Jupiter's gravitation field. Two and a half years later (1990) Ulysses will pass over one pole of the Sun, re-crossing the eliptic plane eight months later on its way to the other pole. The entire mission will last five years. Owner ESA, with Nasa involvement Manufacturer Dornier, leading Star consortium Launch by Shuttle and Centaur G Prime in May 1986 Stabilisation 3-axis Power (end of life) 0-25kW Weight (after launch) 350kg Cost $56m (1979) Remarks Nasa provides half the payload, the radio-thermal power generator, launch services, and deep-space tracking. Vega The Soviet Union launched two Venus- Halley probes in December 1984. They will reach Venus in June. There they will each release a descent module which will enter the Venusian atmosphere. At an altitude of 54km, each module will release an air balloon sonde before soft-landing on the surface of Venus. The helium-filled balloons should survive at least 24hr, returning data on the circu lation, composition, temperature and pressure of the Venusian atmosphere. As each lander descends on the planet an Aerospatiale-built aerosol collector/ pyrolysis device will sample the atmos phere and gasify the sample, which will then be injected into a spectometer to determine its composition. The landers will continue to function for l^hr after touchdown, providing photographs of the planet surface, while a deployable arm will scoop up some Venusian soil for analysis. Having released their Venus landers, the Vega orbiters will set course to inter cept Halley's comet. Vega 1 will approach to within 10,000km of Halley's nucleus on March 6, 1986. Vega 2 will pass within 3,000-10,000km of Halley on March 9, 1986. Both craft are three-axis stabilised and carry a range of instruments includ ing wide-angle and narrow-angle cameras. Under an agreement with the European Space Agency the Soviet Union will supply Halley nucleus position data rela tive to its Vega craft to ESA for Giotto targeting. The Vega craft will be located by Nasa's deep space tracking network. Viking Viking is Sweden's first complete satellite programme, designed to investigate the Earth'smagnetosphere.The spacecraft will be launched by Ariane in 1985, along with France's Spot Earth-resources satellite. Owner Swedish Space Corporation Manufacturer Saab Space Orbit elliptical, perigee 820km, apogee 15,000km, inclined 98-7° Launch by Ariane in September or November 1985 Stabilisation spin Weight (at launch) 550kg Design life 8 months Cost SKr80m (1980) Remarks Uses the Boeing Aerospace Mesa bus derived from the US Air Force S3C scientific satellite. Voyager Nasa's Voyager outer planet probes continue on their way through and out of the Solar System. Voyager 1 flew past Jupiter in March 1979 and Saturn in November 1980 and is now heading out of the Solar System seeking the edge of the solar wind. Voyager 2 passed Jupiter in July 1979, Saturn in August 1981, and is heading for a Uranus encounter in January 1986 and a Neptune encounter in August 1989, before heading out of the solar system. Owner Nasa Manufacturer Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory Launch Voyager 1 Sep 1977 Titan- Centaur 2 Aug 1977 Titan-Centaur Stabilisation 3-axis Power (end of life) 0 • 3kw Weight (at launch) 2,070kg Cost $40 million (1970s) Remarks Both spacecraft use radio- thermal power generators. VRM Nasa's Venus Radar Mapper (VRM) is to complete an eight-month mission, start ing in 1988, to map the surface of Venus using a high-resolution synthetic-aperture radar, producing images of 225-300m resolution. VRM will be launched in April 1988 and will be based on the proof-test model of Nasa's Voyager outer-planet probe, using spare parts from its Galileo Jupiter probe. Mission VRM will be launched by Shuttle in April 1988 by using the Centaur G upper stage. Transit to Venus will take three months and the spacecraft will enter a near-polar, elliptical orbit with a perigee of 300km in July 1988. Mapping will be conducted on the low pass and data transmission on the high (8,000km) pass. The mission will last at least eight months and cover 90 per cent of Venus' surface. Payload S-band synthetic aperture radar Owner Nasa Manufacturer Martin Marietta (prime) Hughes Aircraft (radar) Orbit (Venus) elliptical, 300km perigee, 8,000km apogee Launch by Shuttle and Centaur G in April 1988 Stabilisation 3-axis Design life (Venus) 8 months Cost $350m Remarks Same antenna used for radar and data transmission. Nasa's Venus Radar Mapper will map the surface of Venus using synthetic aperture radar 54 FLIGHT International, 12 January 1985
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