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Aviation History
1998
1998 - 0551.PDF
SPACEFLIGHT Ice find leads to renewed interest in lunar probe TIM FURNISS/LONDON PROSPECTS FOR an eventual mission to one of the poles of the Moon to obtain ice samples have been boosted because data returned from the Lunar Prospector orbiter show a "high probability" that water ice exists. NASA, however, will be unable to support a fully funded mission as the majority of its budget is com mitted to the International Space Station and Space Shuttle pro grammes, already under heavy crit icism from Congress because of cost overruns and delays. Although no NASA follow-on missions have been funded, several organisations in the USA, Europe and Japan have proposed Moon flights, which could be refocused to probe the lunar poles to confirm the findings and later to bring sam ples back to Earth. NASA is inves tigating ways to co-operate and contribute to these. One project is the European Space Agency's Euromoon polar lander and orbiter, which could be given the go-ahead later this year. Japan is planning an orbiter land ing mission, called Selene, for launch in 2003, but this is not now targeted for a polar landing. The US Carnegie Mellon Uni versity proposed the Lunar Ice rover mission in 1997 as a candi date for NASA's Discover ' pro gramme, but failed to win approval. This could now be reconsidered. Another project, called Lunar Retriever, has been proposed by Applied Space Resources of New York. This could become the first to bring samples back from one of the lunar poles. The mission, which could be launched as early as 2001, requires private financing by organisations interested in exam ining or selling samples and capi talising on further commercial possibilities, including developing ways to process the soil to extract the water. As NASA has now agreed that instruments and experiments can be proposed for funding to fly on privately financed craft as part of the Discovery programme, the space agency could part-fund a sample-return mission, such as the Lunar Retriever, by supporting some of the payloads flying on it. The much publicised possibility of a manned Moon base - using water for life support and as the raw material for rocket propellant, have been played down by NASA. The space agency warns that a "...cost effective method to mine the water crystals from within this huge volume of soil would have to be developed if it were to become a real resource for drinking water or as the basic components of rocket fuel to support any future human explorers". Although the presence of water is "...strongly indicated" by the Lunar Prospector's neutron spec trometer, the water ice is not con centrated in polar ice sheets, a mission scientist has cautioned. "While the evidence of water ice is quite strong, the water signal itself is relatively weak," says Dr William Feldman, co-investigator and spectrometer specialist at the US Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory, New- Mexico. NASA says that there could be up to 300 million tonnes of lunar water ice, most of it at the north pole. J Hughes to construct Asiasat replacement ASIA Satellite Communicat ions has ordered an Asiasat 3 S from Hughes to replace the Asiasat 3 satellite stranded in orbit after an ILS International Launch Services Proton launch failure on 25 December last year (Fliglft Inter national, 7-13 January). Asia Satellite received $200 mil lion insurance compensation for die loss and will use the funds for the 3S satellite. This will be launched within 15 months on a Proton, "subject to satisfactory- results from the failure investiga tion", the company says. The Proton K's second stage cut off Is into its planned 110s firing after the failure of a fault)' gasket in the fuel turbopump. • Polar Lander construction is under way LOCKHEED MARTIN ASTRONAUTICS is constructing the Mars Surveyor '98 Polar Lander which is due to be launched on 3 January, 1999, to land at the southern polar cap of the Red Planet on 3 December, 1999. The Mars Polar Lander will be equipped with cameras, robotic arms and instruments to mea sure the composition of the Martian soil. NEWS IN BRIEF • CAUSE OF FAILURE Japan's National Space De velopment Agency says that the failure of die H2 launcher to place the Comets satellite into the correct orbit on 21 February was likely caused by gas leaking from die combus tion chamber of the LE-S sec ond stage. This caused the engine parts to overheat and damaged the electrical sys tem, resulting in premature shutdown (Flight Internat ional, 25 February-3 March). • SHUTTLE FIRST US Air Force Lt Col Eileen Collins has been named as the first female commander of a Space Shuttle mission. Collins, who has flown two missions to the Mir space sta tion as pilot, will command the five-day STS93/Columbia mission to deploy the X-Ray Astrophysics Facility in December. • RADARSAT CONTRACT Orbital Sciences' Vancouver subsidiary MacDonald Dett- wiler has won the S225 mil lion contract from the Canadian Space Agency to develop and manage the Radarsat 2 commercial radar imaging satellite system, due to be launched in 2001. • PAYLOADS UP US market forecaster The Teal Group,says diat more than 2,000 payloads will be launched in the next decade, 65% of them accounted for by the USA. Russia will send more dian 240 missions into space, the rest of Europe will be responsible for 200, while 140 craft will be launched for Asia and Pacific Rim countries, and 50 for Latin America. • FIRST COMPONENT The first major flight compo nent of the NASA/Lockheed Martin X-33 sub-orbital re usable launcher technology demonstrator vehicle has arrived at the Skunk Works, Palmdale, California. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 18 - 24 March 1998 25
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