Building Vehicles To Orbit Moon

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30981, 10 February 1966, Page 11

Building Vehicles To Orbit Moon

[BU o staff reporter of “The Press who recently visited the Boeing Company works near Seattle.] As the Russian spacecraft sped towards the moon last week, the first reaction at the Boeing Company’s space centre near Seattle, Washington, was “Let’s hope they don’t put the darned thing into orbit.” That would have taken a lot of wind out of Boeing’s sails. Boeing is under contract to the National Aeronautic and Space Administration to build eight space vehicles for lunar orbit—five for flight and three for ground testing. The first Lunar Orbiter flight is planned for this northern summer. The contract is worth 95 million dollars to the giant company, plus another 7 per cent in awards for success. Boeing would be penalised for late delivery, but get no award for completing its contract ahead of schedule. Final Touches Last week technicians in nylon cover-alls, caps and slippers were giving the final touches to the first of the lunar orbiters intended for actual flight. A fine grating covered two entire walls at each end of the laboratory, and clean air flowed across the room from one end to the other, through a half-micron filter system. The technicians worked “down-wind” from the spacevehicle to ensure that any dust falling from them or their instruments would be carried away from the delicate working parts, and not fall on them. Even the chairs and tables were of highly-polished stainless steel. This week the space-vehicle will be taken to an enormous vacuum chamber for testing in conditions as close to those of space as possible. Capable of being evacuated to 1/1,000,000,000 of atmospheric pressure at sea-level, (equal to the pressure 400 miles above the earth), the

| space chamber is 50ft high and 39ft in diameter, which makes it big enough to contain almost any of the spacecraft now being made in the United States. Black aluminium shrouds produce the blackness of space, liquid nitrogen circulated behind the shrouds produces temperatures as low as minus 320 degrees Fahrenheit, and quartz lamps reproduce the sun’s light and heat equivalent to that at an altitude of 500 miles. On Vibrator When the Lunar Orbiter has been tested in the big space chamber, it will be subjected to extreme rigidity ! tests on a powerful vibrator. Boeing has fabricated all I the parts for the eight space 'vehicles, and completed two of the ground test models. With the first Lunar Orbiter N.A.S.A. hopes to scan the equator of the moon to seek out landing spots for the Appollo project astronauts. The unmanned spacecraft will fly within 28 miles of the moon s surface and take pictures of thousands of square ! miles to pinpoint suitable ■ areas. The cameras, being built by Eastman-Kodak, will be able to take high-resolution photographs which will be clear enough to show objects as small as 3ft square. At the same time, a wideangle medium resolution lens will photograph a much wider area with overlap to provide ! a three-dimensional effect Objects eight yards square are [expected to show up clearly. ■ As well as looking for i manned-craft landing sites, | the Lunar Orbiter will be able ;to measure radiation, detect 1 micrometeoroids, and provide information about the moon’s gravitational field. It will I continue with those secondary tasks long after it has completed its photographic assignment Last year the Boeing company was awarded a 49,000 dollar contract to think up some other things for the Lunar Orbiter to do. These! experiments, suggested by| N.A.S.A., involve studying the! composition of the moon’s! [surface and studying spaces jnear the moon. Delivery In May The Lunar Orbiter is to be| delivered to Cape Kennedy* early in May, and will be| launched soon after by an| Atlas-Agena D rocket. The profitability of aero-| space contracts is indicated! by the fact that the Boeings Company’s space environment! simulation chambers wereg built before Boeing was| awarded the Lunar Orbiter| contract. Possession of these| facilities almost assured Boe-3 ing of getting the job. Similarly, Boeing has al-i ready built two major space | flight simulators, although as 3 yet it has no manned space? flight vehicle contracts. One is a spacecraft cockpit facing a 30ft hemispherical screen on which can be pro-

jected space scenes televised by use of models of the earth and the moon. A computer controls the television systems, which the “astronaut” directs from the cockpit. In the blacked-out room, he can see himself surrounded by complete star systems, approaching the earth or moon for a landing, meeting other spacecraft, or orbiting a planet. The scene changes on the big screen as his spacecraft “moves” through space. Simulated Sun A simulated sun provides the brilliant light of space by use of more than 400 individual lamps producing almost parallel light rays! This produces sharp shadows on a simulated lunar surface almost exactly like those an astronaut would see if he were approaching a moon landing. The other space flight simulator, also controlled by a computer, is for practising rendezvous and docking between two vehicles in space. In an enormous matt-black room, the “astronaut” sits in a cockpit the attitude of which he can alter by means of small reaction jets. The only other thing he can see is the target spacecraft, illuminated, and suspended from an overhead crane which moves back and forth the length of the room. The cockpit makes minor attitude changes, but most of the major movements are made by the target. To the pilot it seems that the cockpit is moving through the void of space as he manoeuvers to meet the other spacecraft Boeing’s Lunar Orbiter, its first-stage booster contract for the Saturn V launch vehicle, and its associated space projects have put the 50-year-old aircraft company firmly into the space age, and helped boost its net earnings to more than 45 million dollars a year.