US Space Program, NASA Culture

Karen J. Meech, Astronomy 281

Early History of Rocketry

!  Chinese contribution !  200 BC (lacking in proof!..?) !  Fire arrows (firecrackers)

!  Late 13th century " first “rockets” !  1240 earliest Arab text on refining salpetre

(potassium nitrate – burns fiercely) !  “Black powder” (gunpowder)

!  7:5:5 salpetre, charcoal, sulfur !  From 1247 Roger Bacon annotation on composition

!  Sulfur & coal (fuel), salpetre (oxidizer) !  Only explosive until 19th century

!  Guns in use in Europe by 1393

!  Newton’s 3rd law " reaction devices !  For every action, there is an equal and

opposite reaction

SF: Star Trek Mythology . . .

Salpetre, KNO3

Charcoal, Carbon – residue from burning

Sulfur

Early History of Rocketry

!  Military uses !  Spread from China in 13th century !  Used in Europe beginning in 16th century !  Use in the US 19th century

!  Battle of New Orleans (Jan 8, 1815) !  Star Spangled Banner “rocket’s red glare . . .” !  “annoyance factors” " 25 hrs; 4 fatalities

!  WW1 – used for signaling

Early Ideas – Space Travel !  Lucian of Samosata (2nd cent A.D.)

!  Icaromennipus & Vera Historia – sailing vessel lifted from the sea toward the moon

!  Edward Everett Hale (1869) !  Fiction “The Brick Moon” !  1st description of an artificial satellite

!  Jules Verne (1865) !  “From the Earth to the Moon”

!  Moon Gun – engineering principles !  2.74 m shell launched at 16.5 km/s !  Launch from 274 m deep well in Florida !  0.3 m thick Al walls

!  Similar to Apollo !  Florida launch !  3 person crew !  Similar sizes !  “Columbiad” – Apollo 11 capusule:

Columbia

Rockets for Space Travel !  Science breakthrough

!  Realization: rocket propulsion only feasible means for space

!  Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1853-1935) !  Mathematics of rocketry

!  Hermann Oberth (1894-1989) !  Popularization of rocketry !  Developed ideas for space flight

!  Robert Goddard (1882-1945) !  Rocket design & construction ’31 “Father of modern rocketry”

!  Lunar travel “uninteresting”

!  Early 20th Century advances !  Influence of science fiction !  Heat engine development !  Liquification of gases !  Developments in metallurgy !  Interest in “engineering” sciences

Pre-WWII Development – Germany !  VfR – late 1920’s – WWII end

!  German Rocket Space Society !  PhD student von Braun (1930-1934)

!  1932 – head of German army rocket corp !  Design / production of V1, V2 (WWII)

!  Precursor of long-range missiles !  Range 200 mi, 27,000 lbs !  46 ft tall, diameter 65 in !  1937 required to join the Nazi party !  1940 joined the SS (political)

!  1945 Surrender to Americans !  Soviets close to his lab – feared Soviet take over "We knew that we had created a new means of warfare, and the question as to what nation, to what victorious nation we were willing to entrust this brainchild of ours was a moral decision more than anything else.“

Pre-WWII Development – US

!  Historic Flight of the Wright Brothers (1903) !  US beginning to fall behind in Aeronautical research

!  National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics NACA (1915) !  Formed as emergency measure in WW 1 to promote

industry-academic-government collaboration during war !  Congress passes legislation after a 2 year fight !  Goal: Scientific study of flight " practical solutions !  Budget $5000 / year !  3 labs were set up in the U.S. in the 1920’s:

!  1920’s " Langley airfield !  1939 " Ames, Moffett Field !  1945 " Lewis (Cleveland): engines

!  100 employees in 1922, 426 by 1938

First meeting, 1915 NACA Credo

Post-WWII Era

!  US hires 127 German scientists (1945) – Ft. Bliss TX !  Includes von Braun !  Continued V2 development !  Transferred to Huntsville (1950)

!  US fear USSR ballistic missile superiority !  ABMA – Huntsville AL

!  Army Ballistic Missile Agency !  Sub-orbital flight !  Jupiter rockets – Redstone Pgm

!  Naval Research Lab !  Sounding rocket program !  Carries atm science packages

!  Eisenhower (1955) !  Part of IGY 1957 (US)

!  Satellite announcement !  Had to select where to build

!  DoD Selection of NRL !  Vanguard Program

The USSR & Sputnik !  Sputnik – October 4, 1957

!  USSR – First artificial satellite !  83 kg, 58 cm sphere – broadcast radio pulses !  Spent 3 mo in orbit

!  Sputnik 2 Nov 3, 1957 !  508 kg, 4 m tall capsule with compartments !  Live passenger (Laika, dog) !  Detected van Allen radiation belts (significance unremarked)

Sputnik and NASA Formation !  Vanguard (NRL)

!  December 1957 !  US 3.5 lb satellite (JPL) !  Amid press " rises 4 ft &

explodes

!  Explorer 1 – Second try !  January 31, 1958 !  US first science satellite !  ABMA Jupiter C rocket

Early JPL Tracking station

Early “Computers” at JPL – orbit calculation

Movie of Explorer 1 launch: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1958-02-03_First_US_Satellite_Launched.ogv

Sputnik and NASA Formation !  Panic caused by Vanguard

!  Soviet superiority !  Eisenhower forms NASA 10/1/1958

!  National Aeronautics & Space Administration !  Client: military !  Product: basic research !  Decisions: based on science

!  Marshall Space Flight Center !  Huntsville AL !  Von Braun as director !  Goal: vehicle into space

NASA – 1958

!  NACA !  3 research labs !  Langley !  Ames !  Lewis

!  ABMA !  Redstone Pgm !  4500 employees

!  JPL !  Jet Propulsion Lab !  Army Contractor

under Caltech

!  NRL !  Vanguard

satellites

NACA: Ames, Lewis, Langley ABMA: NASA Marshall

NRL: Naval Research Lab JPL: Jet Propulsion Lab

Houston, Kennedy, Goddard, Glenn, Mars Lab

The Mercury Program

!  First Human Space flight program !  Put human in orbit around Earth !  Do it before the Soviets

!  Proceeds in 3 phases: !  Redstone missiles " Ballistic flight !  Jupiter missiles (longer flights) !  Atlas ICBMs: orbit manned capsule

!  Test flights begin 1959 !  1960 – Manned flights postponed

!  Rockets 75% reliable !  Apollo program conceived

The Race to the Moon !  4/12/61 – Yuri Gagarin (Vostok 1)

!  Orbits earth once !  5/5/61 – Alan Sheppard

!  Mercury Freedom 7 !  First sub-orbital flight

!  US worries: USSR superiority !  US options

!  Quit !  Stay in 2nd place !  Do something dramatic

Kennedy Speech 5/25/61 “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth. No single project in this period will be more exciting, or more impressive to mankind or more important for the long-range exploration of space, and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.”

Reactions

!  Accelerated space program was expected !  Some thought the announcement was a joke !  NASA director “aghast”

June & July !  s/c hardware specs complete for the rocket development

Aug !  first hardware contract awarded !  FL spaceport site bought

Sep !  Saturn V production facility chosen !  Manned space center site acquired

Oct !  Land acquired for Saturn V test site

Nov !  First Saturn C-1 launched !  Award contract for command modules

Dec !  Award contract for Saturn 1st stage

Jan !  Construction begun at all sites !  Development at all contractors

The Race

!  2/20/62 – John Glenn !  1st US astronaut in orbit – Mercury 7

!  5/24/62 – Carpenter (3 orbits) !  US Gemini Program

!  3/23/65 – 3 orbits: Young/Grissom !  6/3/65 – E. White space walk !  12/4/65 – Gemini 7 – 206 orbits !  12/15/65 – Gemini 6 & 7

!  1st space rendezvous !  1965 – US logs 1353 space hrs !  Jan 1967 – Apollo 1 fire !  10/11/68 – Apollo 7 (1 earth orbit)

!  First manned Apollo mission !  12/21/68 – Apollo 8

!  1st Saturn V launch !  7/20/69 – Apollo 11 Moon Landing

!  8/6/61 – Vostok 2 !  Titov day-long orbit

!  6/16/63 – Vostok 6 !  1st woman – V. Tereshkova !  Earth orbit 48 times

!  3/18/65 – Voskhod 2 !  First space walk – Leonov

!  2/3/66 – Luna 9 !  First to soft land on Moon

!  9/15/68 – Zond 5 !  First to orbit the Moon

!  Jan 1969 – Soyuz 4 & 5 !  First s/c docking & transfer

Apollo 11

Apollo 11 Science !  Photographic studies !  Lunar field geology

!  Collection & documentation of lunar rocks !  21 kg collected

!  Solar Wind Composition !  Elemental & isotopic comp of nobel gases

!  Passive Seismic study !  Lunar seismology !  Meteoroid impacts

!  Laser Ranging retro-reflector (LRRR) !  Precise lunar-Earth distances !  Continental drift on Earth

!  Lunar dust collector !  Dust accumulation !  High E radiation damage measurements

!  Soil Mechanics

Legacy of the Moon Race !  Motivations

!  US prestige – first in Space means first in world technology !  Defense of the US !  Science of the Lunar surface !  Human exploration / curiosity

!  Costs !  $25 billion !  Lives of 3 men

!  Successes !  New technologies / spin offs (computers, medicine !..) !  Culmination on 7/20/69 with manned moon landing !  Inspired a generation of scientists

!  Last Lunar mission 1972

For Discussion – What made the US Space Program So Successful?

Other Factors Inspiring a Generation . . . .

!  Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek (1966-1969) !  6 series !  10 films !  100’s of books !  conventions

Development a Shuttle Program

!  Benefits of a strong space program !  Prestige, profit, power, productivity

!  The challenge !  Need an economic, versatile space transportation system !  Need to maintain world leadership in space program !  At the end of 1987

!  1736 payloads in space " 1045 from USSR!

“Whatever impedes the intercourse of the extremes with this, the center of the republic, weakens the nation . . . Let us then bind the republic together with a perfect system of roads and canals. Let us conquer space.” – John Calhoun, 1816

Shuttle Development !  Von Braun (1970)

!  Proposed original shuttle design !  VP Spiro Agnew – 4 stage plan

!  Rejected by Congress !  Cost $14 billion (Actual $209B)

!  NASA downsizes !  Limits reusability !  Drove up per mission costs

!  Nixon’s Announcement ‘72

“ . . . All these possibilities can never be more than fractionally realized so long as every trip from Earth to orbit remains a matter of special effort and staggering expense!..”

!  Purpose

!  Deliver payload to LEO !  Mission duration 7 days !  Re-useable !  Replace US expendable LV !  Contracts awarded in 1972-3

Payload to Orbit Capabilities

Engine Thrust [kg] Payload [kg]

Delta IV 3.4x105 2.6x104

Proton 7.7x105 2.0x104

Energia 3.6x106 8.8x104

Saturn V 1.2x107 1.3x105

Space Shuttle 1.3x106 2.4x104

HLLV >2.5x105

Launch Capability

The Saturn V Rocket

Space Shuttle Design !  Orbiter

!  Payload 15 tons !  SRB (solid rockets)

!  Thrust: 5.3x 106 lbs !  External Tank

!  LOx, LH2 8.5min burn !  Not reused

Space Shuttle Interior

Soviet Shuttle – Buran / Energya End of an Era !  Early termination of Apollo program 1975

!  Cancelled all other launch vehicle development !  To save money for Shuttle program !  Hiatus from 1975-1981

!  Jan. 28, 1986 – Challenger disaster !  Failure of O-ring in SRB in cold weather

Leading to a Space Station

1984 – R. Reagan – Space Station initiative !  Motive

!  An economic / scientific resource for the west !  An orbital research observatory / facility

!  $8 billion ceiling from Congress !  Design

!  Dual keel, 500 feet long !  50 ft long, 14 ft diam. science modules !  Free flying science platforms

Space Station Freedom

Space Station History Station Launch Mission Description

Salyut 1 1971 !  20.4 tons, mission 24 dys !  Cosmonauts died on return

Salyut 2 4/3/83 !  Fell into Earth’s atm & burned up

Skylab 5/14/73 !  82.2 tons (Saturn booster) !  3 successful missions (28, 59, 84 dys) !  Supposed to be rescued by Shuttle !  Not competitive with Soviets

Salyut 3 6/24/74 !  1 successful mission

Salyut 4 12/26/74 !  2 missions (incl. Apollo-Soyuz docking)

Salyut 5 6/76 !  2 successful visits of 18 and 49 dys

Salyut 6 9/77 !  2 docking ports – allows re-supply !  operated until mid 1981

Salyut 7 1982 !  additions in 1983 increase size 2 times

Mir 1986 !  Enlarged to Mir II: still in orbit

SkyLab – Shuttle Space Lab

!  Goals !  To prove humans could

live & work in space !  Duration: 171 dys

!  300 experiments !  Return – 7/11/1979

Inside SkyLab

MIR – Russian Space Station

!  1986-1996 longest in space !  Humanities first continuously

inhabited station in space !  Reentry 3/23/2001

Space Station Chronology 4/19/85 !  Preliminary contract awarded, design complete in 1985 1/28/86 !  Challenger accident " new NASA director

!  Decision to make station an international effort 1987 !  Congress cuts back funds; NASA scales down design

!  Firms selected for building in Dec 1987 " “Freedom” 1993 !  Clinton upheaval – cancellation (current costs at $11.2B – would

cost $17.4 to complete) !  Further scales back " renamed ISS

1995 !  Construction begins !  Shuttle – Mir program

1999 !  Russian Service module ready for launch 2000 !  First international crew to live on ISS 2005 !  Goal for completing construction!!. 2010 !  Construction MUST be complete (shuttle retire). Total costs $35-

$100 Billion 2013 ! Total cost to date: $150 Billion. Assuming 20,000 person-days of

use this is $7.5 million / dy (Skylab = $19.6 million / day)

The International Space Station

!  Design !  360 ft long, 290 ft wide !  Orbit: LEO (400-460 km) !  Mass 1.04 x 106 lbs !  6 laboratories !  470 ton structure !  House crew of 7

International Space Station

ISS

Inte

rior

Hubble Space Telescope !  Begun 1971 – Launched 1990

!  2.4m diameter mirror in LEO !  Location for 6 instruments !  Diffraction limited imaging: UV-IR !  Original cost: $400M, now $2.5 Billion ($10B

with operations costs) !  Servicing missions in 1993, 97, 99, ’02, ‘09

!  Fix the optics, new solar panels, new gyros !  2 new instruments (NICMOS, STIS) FGS repair !  Replace gyros, FGS, computer !  Attitude control sys., new power, NICMOS cooler !  2 new instruments (COS, WFC3), gyros, batteries !  Orbit will decay between 2019-2032

!  James Webb Space Telescope 2018? !  6.5m mirror, primarily IR !  Original cost $4.5B, now ~$8.7B

Hubble Optics !  Mirror ground wrong !  3 tests done !  2 showed

discrepancies !  Could have been

fixed during launch delay

!  SM1 installed corrective optics

NASA Culture 1958 !  Formed by Eisenhower after Russian Sputnik

1961-1975 !  Complete Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz !  31 consecutive missions to space !  Perfection of Saturn V – 130,000 kg to LEO !  Successful Moon Landing !  Weather / communications satellites – revolutionary !  Pioneer 10, 11 and Voyager to the Outer Solar System !  Mariner to the inner solar system !  Viking to Mars

1980-1990’s !  Management/development delays Shuttle !  Shuttle fails to meet goal of low cost transportation !  1990 Challenger Accident !  Galileo Antenna problem !  HST Mirror flaw !  Loss of Mars Observer, Mars Climate Orbiter !  Columbia Accident !  Cassini launch

2000-now !  24 Earth satellite missions, 14 solar missions !  19 planetary missions including Discovery !  “Cheaper, Better, Faster” mission line (PI lead) – 12 so far !  13 astrophysics missions !  No manned missions – only shuttle

For Discussion – What do you think has been the cause for the change in success from the Early NASA

missions to the present?

NASA Motivations

!  Early Era !  Failure is part of risk !  In-house mentality !  Drew highly competitive

creative talent !  Hands on / real time !  Intellectual superiority !  Technical challenges !  Pushing the envelope

Adequate Resources

!  Evolving over Time !  Outside forces "

contractors (lack of control) !  Oversight " bureaucracy !  Tighter budgets " “risk

adverse” !  Harder to compete for

public funds !  “Science vs security”

!  Workforce Ages

NASA Funding / Staffing Evolution

Bush Moon-Mars Initiative Impact Federal Budget

$701B

$689B

$793B; 23%

$197B

Discretionary 19% $660B

FY 2010 $3,456B

Discretionary Spending FY2010E (Billions)

NASA – What does it Cost You? Agency / Program Budget (FY08 Dollars) Cost per Person today NASA Moon Race $125 billion $51/yr for 8 years Medicare & Medicade $500 billion $1655 Department of Defense $440 billion $1457 (Iraq War) $100 billion (increasing) $331 Welfare $254 billion $841 Interest on Nat. Debt. $106 billion ($530 in ‘11) $351 Nat. Inst. Health $28 billion $92 Social Security $20 billion $66 NASA $17 billion $56 FEMA $8 billion $26 Nat. Science Found. $5.5 billion $18 State of Hawaii $5.5 billion $18 UH Manoa $0.5 billion $1.65

The Future?

!  Congress and the Sequester – 2013 !  An 8.5% hit could really hurt NASA Science !  Current missions won’t be cut !  Might wipe out at least one year of new research funding !  Will delay future missions

NASA – What does it Cost You? NASA – What does it Cost You?

NASA – What does it Cost You?