Plans For Laboratory Orbiting In Space

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31942, 20 March 1969, Page 19

Plans For Laboratory Orbiting In Space

f.V.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

HOUSTON (Texas).

At the Manned Spacecraft Centre in Houston, most of the talk has been of flying to the moon, which American astronauts are scheduled to do this summer.

But on the blackboard. of the centre’s advanced, spacecraft design office, are sketches of vehicles! for an entirely new era of spaceflight, beyond the Apollo project or the moon, beyond 1975, but closer than the year 2001. The drawings are of what' space agency engineers call j orbiting space stations, which' are expected to play a key role in the United States 1 space exploration in the next decade. These are earth-orbiting: platforms in which weather-, men, astronomers, geologists,’ physicists and biologists could I spend months or years living in space, learning what it is, like, conducting experiments and observing what cannot be seen from other perspectives. Some concepts envisage stations housing 100 men at a time in orbits moving at alti-| tudes of 250 to 300 miles. | One drawing showed a' giant core vehicle sprouting! long cylindrical attachments: like spokes of a rimless ; wheel. Men would live in the spokes, where a slow rotation would create artifi-' cial gravity, and work in the core laboratory. “We have the feeling we’re i on to a new good thing," said Mr Caldwell Johnson, chief’ of the centre’s spacecraft design office, pointing to the drawings—“something that’s going to open space as a place to work in and not just visit” ENTHUSIASM Mr Johnson’s enthusiasm is sweeping the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and many major aerospace companies. After years of searching, they believe they have hit upon a postApollo programme that might win the support of Congress, the Administration and the! public. Although only SUS9O million is being requested for: space stations in the budget i for the year 1970, N.A.S.A. is I understood to be pressing the Nixon administration to clear! the way for greater expenditures, possibly reaching SUSIO.OOO million for the next decade. President Nixon has asked his science advisers to consider these requests and to report in September on what future space priorities should’, be. N.A.S.A.’s arguments for ■ an accelerated space station [ programme anticipate most of I the Administration’s demands for a “balanced” space programme in the future. . - Such orbiting laboratories,; the space agency says, could, serve a military function, ■ being possible outposts for surveillance or anti-missile; defence. They could pay practical ; dividends in weather forecast-( ing, communications, aircraft;

I, traffic control or earth ; resources surveying. J They could be laboratories ■ I for science, places to study >; high-energy particle physics, ; to observe stars or to deteri mine the effects of long-dura-tion weightlessness on human ! organisms. SOVIET PROGRESS In addition, they might help keep American space exploration apace with Soviet t efforts. By joining two manI! ned vehicles in orbit and ! transferring two crewmen !;from one to the other, the ’ i Soviet Union demonstrated in . January that it soon could have the capability to J assemble an orbiting labora!,tory. One Soviet astronaut resported that “the time is not ; far away when multi-seat ;; scientific research labora- ’ stories will appear in round- ’ the-earth orbits, their crews ' being regularly replaced.” Dr Wernher Von Braun, Director of the Marshall ’ Space Flight Centre at Hunts--1 ville, Alabama, said in a ’ recent interview: “Our next ' big spacecraft programme J! will be manned space labora- ■' tories.” ’j George Mueller, N.A.S.A., ’associate administrator for ' manned flight, contends that! i space stations should receive a ’ higher priority than extended : ! lunar exploration beyond the ; initial Apollo landings. | ■ One of the firmest backers; Hof space stations is Robert ! I Gilruth, director of the man- ; ned spacecraft centre. • Recalling the time in 1961 ’ when it was decided to aim ' for a lunar landing, Mr Gil- ‘ ruth said recently: “I thought the next step then ought to be a large space station, but ; most people thought a lunar ■ flight ought to be the next • step.” “MANY USES” , ’ Mr Gilruth has directed Mr '! Johnson, a chief designer of i the Mercury and Apollo ; ; spacecraft. and a small group; ■; of engineers to produce the; 'basic outlines for space; stations beyond 1975. “We had been talking! ! about things for 9 to 12; •people,” Mr Johnson said. 'I “But Mr Gilruth said ‘let’s’| make it right. Let’s go for 50 ! to 100. Let’s have a real facility in the sky. Don’t design it for some special thing, like just astronomy on earth sensing, but make it a facility that can be adapted I to many uses’.” N.A.S.A. officials liken whati they have in mind to a large! I research laboratory on earth. I 1 Mr Johnson said that their | !working idea was to develop! a giant core laboratory,. i launch it and then send up. I ! one at a time, separate living-; ’ quarters attachments to be! ; linked to the core. Electricity! ! would be generated by | nuclear reactors. Oxygen | would be reclaimed from .carbon dioxide. ; The entire laboratory ! would stay in orbit for five or more years. It would be ! designed to make repairs J fairly simple. Smaller ferry

vehicles would be developed to shuttle men and supplies back and forth, Mr Johnson said. By rotating the combined vehicle slowly, about three and a half times a minute, it would be possible to create an almost earthlike feeling of gravity. Thus, occupants could move around, work and prepare meals almost as effortlessly as they would on earth. FOR SCIENTISTS “Everybody’s not an astronaut,” Mr Johnson said. “This laboratory would be designed not for astronauts, but for scientists, guys like you and me. Can you imagine trying to mix a martini in zero-gravity?” In the next month or so, N.A.S.A. is expected to ask aerospace companies to submit their own detailed proposals on future space station concepts. They will be asked to recommend the type of rockets, core laboratories and ferry spacecraft used to shuttle men to the stations. Three corporate combines are expected to bid for the contracts. They are: The Grumann Aircraft Engineering Corporation, with the Lockheed Space and Missiles Company, the General Dynamics Corporation and T.R.W.. Inc. The McDonnell, Douglas Corporation, with the International Business Machines Corporation and the Martin-Marietta Corporation. The North American Rockwell Corporation with the General Electric Company. The competition is fierce. Grumann, for example, has spent more than two years making preliminary studies of Its own. It has hired a Fifth Avenue architectural firm to draw up plans for the most habitable interiors for men who could be living in space for months on end.