Aucbvax.4903
fa.space
utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!space
Mon Nov  2 05:09:12 1981
SPACE Digest V2 #25
>From OTA@S1-A Mon Nov  2 04:54:36 1981

SPACE Digest                                      Volume 2 : Issue 25

Today's Topics:
                            Missing digest.
                                shuttle
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Date:  1 Nov 1981 2139-PST
From: Ted Anderson <OTA AT S1-A>
Subject: Missing digest.
To: space at MIT-MC

Due to hardware problems the digest of the day before yesterday, issue #23
was not sent correctly.  Some people received it twice, some not at all,
perhaps a few people got it exactly once.  I you didn't receive the digest
#23, dated Oct 31, let me know and I will forward you a copy.
       -Ted Anderson

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Date:  1 Nov 1981 2139-PST
From: Stuart McLure Cracraft <MCLURE AT SRI-AI>
Subject: shuttle
To: space at MIT-MC


!n105  2035  01 Nov 81
BC-FLIGHT-2takes-11-02
   By Russ Robinson
   (c) 1981 The Baltimore Sun (Field News Service)
   KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. - It will take 607 people to launch the
Space Shuttle on its second flight Wednesday, but within 10 years,
NASA hopes to reduce that number to three people.
    Only when the shuttle program can operate like a modern day airline
will it be economically feasible and open up space to the average
man, officials say.
    Once space flight is routine, NASA planners forsee hotels in space,
orbiting cities where workers will manufacture goods that can only be
produced in a weightless environment, giant power plants that convert
unfiltered sunlight into electricity and ultimately, mining on the
moon.
   By the 1990s, NASA hopes to be making a minimum of 40 flights a
year. To do that, the shuttle will have to pay for itself, said
Andrew Pickett, manager of advanced planning and technology at the
space center.
    ''NASA has toyed with the idea of turning the shuttle over to a
private corporation which would operate it in a quasi-commericial
manner, much like an airline,'' Pickett said. Several aerospace firms
are interested enough in the idea to conduct feasibility studies on
it, he said.
    If the shuttle does develop into a space age airline, it could open
space up to the ''average'' man, Pickett said. Although he refused to
name it, Pickett said that currently a major hotel firm is examining
plans for vacations in space.
    NASA has had a private consultant look into the idea and a report
issued by the space agency indicates that a 100-room ''space hotel''
could be feasible bythe year 2000.
   The consultant estimated that a round trip aboard the shuttle and a
few days in the hotel would cost about $5,000 in today's currency.
    A study group from NASA's Ames Research Center and Stanford
University took the concept a step further. The group drew up plans
for a 10,000-person space city placed between the earth and the moon.
Their report indicates that the city might be b r9k)moon.
    The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics said in its
study of both concepts that space colonies could be self-supporting.
    ''It's almost certain that studies on plants will lead to being
able to culture plants for space colonies and that these plants will
be able to use human waste products to generate food and oxygen,''
the AIAA said in a recent report.
    The report sees the city workers operating materials processing
plants, producing metals, drugs and chemical solutions that would be
possible only in the weightless environment and vacuum of space.
   The colonies could be powered by giant solar panels that convert
sunlight into electricity. A giant sunlight conversion unit - perhaps
miles wide-circling the earth could provide pollutant free
electricity in the future, engineers believe.
    Once the orbiting station had converted the sunshine to
electricity, it would be beamed to earth as microwaves, engineers
said. The space shuttle makes such a plant possible because the
shuttle can make repeated trips into orbit to carry the parts
necessary to assemble the orbiting power station.
    But the first step is to make spaceflight much more simp5e tis.
    NE&S S SP 1/8ACF IS STILL IN 5/8VELOPMENTAL STAGES, SAID Alfred M.
Carey, director of launch operations for Rockwell International,
chief contractor for the shuttle.
   MORE

nyt-11-01-81 2335est
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!n106  2041  01 Nov 81
BC-FLIGHT-1stadd-11-02
   x x x for the shuttle.

   Theoretically, he said, the shuttle could be launched with just 45
technicians in the space center firing room. To launch an Apollo
mission to the moon, it took 450 workers, checking various systems
and monitoring computer programs.
    ''It took 84 hours to count down a Saturn 5 mission to the moon,''
Carey said. ''Once the shuttle is completely operational, the final
countdown should take two hours.
    ''The amazing thing is that the shuttle is 10 times more complex
than the Apollo or Saturn vehicles,'' he said. In the moon program,
the Apollo was the capsule in which the astronaut rode and the Saturn
5 was the rocket that put them in space.
    ''Ultimately, we want a guy to be able to launch himself'' (in the
shuttle), Carey said. ''Eventually you can eliminate the whole
countdown.''
    The secret is computers, he said. It was a problem with the
computers that temporarily delayed the Shuttle's maiden voyage in
April.
    Five computers aboard the Shuttle control almost all the craft's
functions, said Gary Coen, a flight director at Johnson Space Center.
The computers at the Kennedy site and Johnson Space Center are
basically for monitoring the craft, he said.
    Once technicians and engineers are sure that the computers and
programs aboard the shuttle are reliable, the ground monitoring won't
be necessary, he said.
    NASA envisions shuttle pilots becoming the equivalent of space
airline pilots. When the system is complete, the astronaut should be
able to climb aboard his ship on the launch pad, run through a
computer check of his systems, get takeoff clearance from a space air
traffic controller, push the button and be on the way.
    At Johnson Space Center in Houston, a flight controller will be
monitoring the takeoff, but he might be monitoring several other
shuttle flights at the same time, Coen said. Hence the three people
need to make the flight: the pilot, the space air traffic controller
and the flight controller.
    NASA officials admit it all sounds pretty far-fetched. But Kennedy
Space Center Director Richard Smith pointed out that although
Wednesday's launch is only the shuttle's second test flight, there
are already customers for Shuttle flights through 1986. Most of the
launches have been reserved by communications satellite companies,
but about 30 percent of them are for the U.S. Air Force.
    And remember too, Smith said, the Wright Brothers never dreamed in
1903 that aviation would advance to the point that in 1981 there
would be an air traffic controllers strike.
   END

nyt-11-01-81 2341est
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End of SPACE Digest
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