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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 1 Nov 1981 2139-PST From: Ted Anderson 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 ------------------------------ Date: 1 Nov 1981 2139-PST From: Stuart McLure Cracraft 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 ********** !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 ********** ------- ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest ******************* ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.