April 1983:space activities report

ESA LOOKS TO THE FUTURE

On 16 December 1982 the ESA Scientific Advisory bodies recommended that five of the 20 new scientific mission proposals recently received should be studied further with a view to considering them as candidate missions in the Agency's Scientific Programme in the late 1980's or early 1990's.

Groups of experts evaluated the quality of the expected results from each mission, the suitability and technical feasibility of the instrumentation, the interest the proposal is likely to arouse throughout the scientific community at large, the relationship of the proposals with national or international programmes and, finally, the possibility of carrying out the mission as a collaborative venture with other agencies. ESA has decided that the following proposals should be evaluated further:

FIRST

Far Infra Red and Sub-millimeter Space Telescope, for the study of galactic, extra-galactic and cosmological emissions. Payload mass would be about 2,050 kg; the main instrument an 8 m deployable telescope.

XMM

X-ray Multi-Mirror, designed to carry out deep X-ray surveys of galaxies and clusters as well as high resolution X-ray imaging and spectroscopy. The 2,750 kg payload consists of 27 grazing incidence imaging telescopes.

SOHO

Solar High-Resolution Observatory, for the investigation of the dynamics and of the mass loss of the solar outer atmosphere. The 470 kg payload would include a grazing incidence spectrometer and a stigmatic normal incidence spectrometer, EUV imaging telescopes, and a UV and white light coronograph.

CLUSTER

A mission to study in three dimensions plasma turbulence and small-scale structure in the Earth's magnetosphere. This mission requires a main spacecraft with a 56 kg payload, plus three companion spacecraft, each with a 22 kg payload. This cluster of four satellites is carefully controlled in position as it passes through the many different regions of plasma surrounding the Earth.

AGORA

Asteroid Gravity, Optical and Radar Analysis, designed to study the properties of three main belt asteroids, e.g. regolith thickness, shape (volume), mineralogy, topography and mass. This mission has a model pay- load of between 100 and 230 kg consisting of a wide angle camera, an infrared spectrometer, a radar alti¬ meter and a number of experiments for cruise science; a high resolution camera could also be included.

Besides making recommendations for these five proposals, ESA's scientific advisory bodies, prompted by the mission proposal for a VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry) radio astronomy observatory in space (QUASAT), also recommended that the Executive begins discussions with other agencies on setting up an international VLBI system. In connection with a proposal for a Saturn Orbiter and Titan probe (Cassini), they felt the Executive should begin negotiations with NASA on a cooperative approach.

1983 AT THE CAPE

A combination of Shuttle and expendable vehicle launches will assure ample work for the Kennedy Space Center in 1983: five Shuttles, seven Deltas and two Atlas Centaurs.

Shuttle Challenger made its debut with STS-6. The second launch will take up Anik-C (Telesat, Canada), Palapa-B (Indonesia), SPAS-1 (West Germany) and OSTA-2 (NASA experiments). Challenger's third mission will involve the first night Shuttle launch this summer. The orbiter will carry TDRS-B and INSAT 1-B (India). Columbia will return to duty in September with Spacelab 1, while Challenger will round out the Shuttle year with a Defense satellite identified only as DOD 84-1 in November.

Other 1983 launches are;

Feb

Intelsat V

Atlas Centaur

Mar

RCA-F

Delta

Apr

GOES-F

Delta.

Jun

Galaxy-A

Delta

Jul

Telstar 3A

Delta

Aug

RCA-G

Delta

Sep

Galaxy-B

Delta

Oct

NATO IV

Delta

Oct

Intelsat VA

Atlas Centaur

Hughes Communications enters the burgeoning field of private communications satellites with the Galaxy series while American Telephone & Telegraph returns to the scene it pioneered with Telstar. GOES is a geostationary weather satellite. An eighth Delta launched the IRAS observatory from California in late January.

SHUTTLE MISSION CHANGES

Norman Thagard and William Thornton have been added to the crews of Shuttle flights STS-7 and STS-8, respectively. Both medical doctors, they will help to study the problems of space sickness, (which has affected about half of the astronauts on Shuttle missions). The planned EVA on STS-5 was postponed because of Lenoir's ill-health.

Thagard will join STS-7 Commander Bob Crippen, Pilot Fred Hauck, and Mission Specialists John Fabian and Sally Ride. The six-day mission is scheduled for launch in May or June.

Thornton will accompany STS-8 Commander Dick Truly, Pilot Dan Brandenstein, and Mission Specialists Dale Gardner and Guion Bluford for the four-day mission this summer.

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THE ASTRONAUTS OF STS-7

Robert Laurel Crippen

STS-7 will be Bob Crippen's second flight into space, having been pilot of STS-1. He will also be the first man to fly two different Shuttles.

Crippen has been an astronaut since 1969 and was selected for STS-7 in April 1982.

Frederick Hamilton Hauck

Frederick Hauck was born on 11 April 1941 in Long Beach, California. He earned a B.S. in physics from Tufts University in 1962, followed by an M.S. in nuclear engineering from MIT in 1966. He entered the US Navy in 1962 and between 1964 and 1966 attended USN post graduate school, studying mathematics, physics and Russian; flight training was undertaken between 1966 and 1968.

Hauck was selected by NASA in January 1978 and completed the 12 months training programme before being named as .support crew member for STS-1. He served as backup CapCom for the re-entry phase of that mission and also as re-entry CapCom for STS-2. He was named for STS-7 in April 1982.

Sally Kristen Ride

Sally Ride was born on 26 May 1951 in Los Angeles. She received a B.A. in English and a B.S. in physics from Stanford University in 1973, followed by an M.S. in physics in 1975 arid a Ph.O. in 1978. Her research at Stanford included work in experimental general relativity and X-ray astrophysics.

Ride was selected as a Mission Specialist in January 1978. She acted as backup orbit CapCom for STS-2 and prime orbit CapCom for STS-3. She was named as an MS for STS-7 in April 1982.

John McCreary Fabian

The second Mission Specialist for STS-7 will be John Fabian. Born on 28 January 1939 in Goosecreek, Texas, he was awarded a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Washington State University in 1962. This was followed by an M.S. in aerospace engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology in 1964 and a Ph.D. in aeronautics and astronautics from the University of Washington in 1974. Fabian entered the Air Force in 1962 and saw combat action in South-East Asia. Between 1974 and 1978 he was assistant professor of aeronautics at the USAF Academy in Colorado. He was selected by NASA in January 1978.

Norman Earl Thagard

Thagard, selected as a Group 8 astronaut in 1978, was added to the STS-7 crew last December specifically to study the problems of space sickness. As a qualified doctor, he has worked in that field during his Shuttle training.