Spacecraft News RENDEZVOUS PLANS

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30540, 8 September 1964, Page 10

Spacecraft News RENDEZVOUS PLANS

It has been decided that the third manned Gemini flight, scheduled for late next year, will make the first attempt to rendezvous in space with an Agena-D target missile. This is one of the main objectives of Project Gemini, and its success is essential for the Apollo lunar exploration project, because the lunar landing vehicle must rendezvous with the command module to return the moon explorers to earth. Three rendezvous techniques were proposed: direct ascent, intercepting orbits, concentric orbits. The direct ascent to rendezvous is fine if everything performs perfectly, otherwise it is by far the worst technique. The other two techniques are much the same in their requirements, but the concentric orbit technique has several points in its favour; for example, the spacecraft always approaches the target from the same angle and it is easy to ensure that the target is seen against a star background during the rendezvous. But best of all, it is the easiest method for ensuring a good manual rendezvous if the radar or computer on board the Gemini should fail. With the concentric orbit technique the Gemini spacecraft is fired into an orbit as close as possible to that of the Agena target vehicle, but about 20 miles lower all round. The Gemini therefore circles the earth faster and catches up with the Agena. When Gemini is some 20 miles behind it will alter orbit slightly and head directly for the Agena—a manoeuvre which can be accomplished under manual control or with various degrees of automatic assistance. Nothing has been made public concerning the Russian rendezvous techniques. However, it seems likely that the next Russian manned spaceflights will be made early next year and will include a rendezvous attempt Shoestring Research A recent issue of the journal, “Aviation Week and Space Technology,” was devoted to international space programmes. New Zealand managed to rate one page (three a country was the average), of which the University of Canterbury won the lion’s share. This is how the page started: “In New Zealand, where science is considered to be synonymous with agriculture, a small group of physical scientists . are developing a modest, but significant space research ' programme.” The journal then goes on to point out that New Zealand devotes only 0.3 per cent of its gross national product

to research and development in all fields, compared with 2.8 per cent for the United States. This amounts to '5.32 dollars for every New Zealand citizen, as against 78.4 dollars for every American. It makes dismal reading, especially to some of the “small group of physical scientists,” who know that their work would have been stifled had American support not been forthcoming. To quote “Aviation Week” once more: “Unlike most other countries currently engaged in space research, New Zealand has no national space programme as such. Rather, the New Zealand programme is a collection of individual experiments, which may or may not receive Government funds, carried out by universities and research organisations.”

This sums up the situation nicely. We might add that the level of Government spending on space is sb low that most of the experimenters receive far less from the Government for their research than they themselves pay in taxation.