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Aviation History
1989
1989 - 2318.PDF
OPERATIONS: SPACE High-level support for US lunar base ts to adjust to extra-terrestrial conditit US Vice-President Dan Quayle, chairman of the National Space Commission, supports NASA's proposed ideas for a lunar base, rather than a manned Mars mission, as America's next goal in space after the international Space Station Freedom. The base could provide a launching site for a manned Mars mission much later, according to NASA. Although much design and technology research has been completed on the proposal, NASA's administrator, Richard Truly, says that the lunar base—like Freedom—can only materialise with "support from the top", namely presidential commitment. Such a base, however, would not result from a politically motivated, Apollo-style crash programme, and could not be realistically completed until about 2007 at the earliest, says Jeffrey Rosenhal, of NASA's Office of Exploration: "We are looking for a long-term presence, and you don't get that with a crash programme." EUROPE APPROACHED Rosenhal has already discussed the manned lunar base proposal with several European Space Agency (ESA) member countries, with a view to their participation. He says ESA "is far too locked into Columbus and Hermes to have given much thought to these other goals", but that he has stim ulated some ideas within the European agency. Rosenhal, speaking at a conference to mark the 20th anniversary of the Apollo 11 flight, admitted that a lunar base would have "significant funding problems". He estimated the cost at around $100 billion. The base, proposed and detailed in the 1981 NASA Ride report prepared by Shuttle astro naut Sally Ride, would have five astronauts, research facili ties, a roving vehicle, and a pilot plant to investigate the feasibility of extracting oxygen from the lunar soil to make rocket propellant. Getting to the Moon would be no easier than it was with Apollo, A lunar outpost would allow astronc said Rosenhal. "We cannot re create Saturn 5 immediately. We would have to start all over again. NASA is not the same institution that it was in the Apollo days. We would have to revive many things from Apollo." He believes that the latest moves by Congress to cut NASA's budget, and particularly the Freedom space station, were "not critical", although they could result in a year's delay to the completion of the Freedom programme that is seen as "an essential stepping stone to the lunar base". Freedom is the Man is fit for M Soviet space doctors are "optimistic" that man is physically and mentally capable of flying to Mars. Col Yuri Romanenko, one of three Soviet cosmonauts who have spent more than 300 days in space, says that "the doctors stopped asking me to perform tests two months after I had landed". He has felt no ill effects from his record 326 days in Mir in 1987. Through an interpreter he told a packed Royal Aeronautical Society lecture theatre in London: "Our doctors have gath ered a lot of information from our long space flights. They have an optimistic approach to bio- "largest and most highly complex international project ever under taken," and will provide station assembly and operational experi ence that is "absolutely crucial," says Rosenhal. Apollo astronaut Fred Haise, now chief of Grumman Aero space's space station team, who survived the aborted Apollo 13 mission in 1970 with the command and lunar modules being operated for four days on the power the equivalent of two light bulbs, says that "emergency management" of Freedom will become "an important evolutio- rs, say Soviets medical changes on a long mission to Mars, but there are still technical limitations. "We can see many equipment and technology problems. In a space station you can get new water and meals, and in case of fire or emergency you can land. On a Mars flight there are no such possibilities." Such a flight would have several advantages over a long stay in Mir: "It won't take 12 months, and Mars will provide gravity to help us to rest and be stronger for the return flight. We don't think there will be too many problems with biomedical changes in the human being". • nary aspect of the programme," in the same way that planned, rather than hitherto contingency repair and maintenance outside Freedom will become an important feature of operations. Commenting on proposals for a US/Soviet joint manned mission to Mars, both Rosenhal and Haise believe that two major barriers remain—apart from political and financial support. Rosenhal says that, to co-operate with the Soviet Union on such a long-term programme, aiming at 2015, is risky, given the "instability of the [Soviet] politi cal system". PSYCHOLOGICAL BARRIERS Haise believes that the psycho logical barriers of such a flight are enormous. The Mars crew would be the first to "cut off the umbili cal with Earth", losing sight of it altogether. This could have a fundamental adverse reaction in a human. The boredom factor during a nine- to 15-month flight, depending on planetary windows, could be considerable. "There will be a lot of dwell time en route, and there will be noth ing to see out of the window." In addition, Rosenhal says, although the Soviets have com pleted a year-long manned mission in Earth orbit. "There will be no medical team waiting for the Mars crew when they land on the planet." • 16 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 29 July 1989
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