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Subject: SPACE Digest V12 #639

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 12 : Issue 639

Today's Topics:
    E. Journal of the Astro. Soc. of the Atlantic, Vol. II, No. V

Administrivia:

    Submissions to the SPACE Digest/sci.space should be mailed to
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Date: 4 Dec 90 02:38:54 GMT
From: eedsp!chara![e-mail]  (Astro. Society of the Atlantic)
Subject: E. Journal of the Astro. Soc. of the Atlantic, Vol. II, No. V


                        THE ELECTRONIC JOURNAL OF
                THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF THE ATLANTIC

                    Volume 2, Number 5 - December 1990

                       ###########################

                            TABLE OF CONTENTS

                       ###########################

         * ASA Membership/Article Submission Information

         * The Great Moon Race: The Soviet Story, Part One

              - Andrew J. LePage

         * Mad for the Stars: Visions of Astroutopiae, Part Two

              - Craig M. Levin

                       ###########################

                       ASA MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION

        The Electronic Journal of the Astronomical Society of the
    Atlantic (EJASA) is published monthly by the Astronomical Society
    of the Atlantic, Inc.  The ASA is a non-profit organization dedicated
    to the advancement of amateur and professional astronomy and space
    exploration, and to the social and educational needs of its members.

        Membership application is open to all with an interest in
    astronomy and space exploration.  Members receive the ASA Journal
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    ASTRONOMY, DEEP SKY, SKY & TELESCOPE, and TELESCOPE MAKING magazines.

        For information on membership, contact the Society at:

         Astronomical Society of the Atlantic (ASA)
         c/o Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA)
         Georgia State University (GSU)
         Atlanta, Georgia  30303
         U.S.A.

          [e-mail] or [e-mail]

          ASA BBS: [phone], 300/1200 Baud.

        or telephone the Society recording at [phone] to leave
    your address and/or receive the latest Society news.

        ASA Officers and Council -

         President - Don Barry
         Vice President - Bill Bagnuolo
         Secretary - Ken Poshedly
         Treasurer - Alan Fleming
         Board of Advisors - Edward Albin, Jim Bitsko, Bill Hartkopf
         Council - Jim Bitsko, Bill Crane, Toni Douglas, Eric Greene,
                   Larry Klaes, Paul Pirillo, Tano Scigliano, Michael Wiggs


        ARTICLE SUBMISSIONS -

        Article submissions to the EJASA on astronomy and space exploration
    are most welcome.  Please send your on-line articles in ASCII format to
    Larry Klaes, EJASA Editor, at the following net addresses or the above
    Society addresses:

        [e-mail]
        or - ...!decwrl!advax.enet.dec.com!klaes
        or - [e-mail]
        or - [e-mail]

        You may also use the above net addresses for EJASA backissue
    requests, letters to the editor, and ASA membership information.

        Please be certain to include either a network or regular mail
    address where you can be reached, a telephone number, and a brief
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        DISCLAIMER -

        Submissions are welcome for consideration.  Articles submitted,
    unless otherwise stated, become the property of the Astronomical
    Society of the Atlantic, Inc.  Though the articles will not be used for
    profit, they are subject to editing, abridgment, and other changes.
    Copying or reprinting of the EJASA, in part or in whole, is encouraged,
    provided clear attribution is made to the Astronomical Society of the
    Atlantic, the Electronic Journal, and the author(s).  This Journal is
    Copyright (c) 1990 by the Astronomical Society of the Atlantic, Inc.


                            THE GREAT MOON RACE:
                         THE SOVIET STORY, PART ONE

               Copyright (c) 1990 by Andrew J. LePage

        The author gives permission to any group or individual wishing
        to distribute this article, so long as proper credit is given
        and the article is reproduced in its entirety.

        It has been almost thirty years since United States President John
    F. Kennedy gave his famous speech which committed the United States,
    then far behind in the Space Race with the Soviet Union, to landing a
    man on Earth's Moon by the end of the 1960s with the APOLLO lunar
    program.  Both during and after the APOLLO missions there were those
    who wondered if a bona fide race to the Moon between the Americans
    and Soviets actually existed.  Many Western politicians, engineers,
    historians, analysts, and space enthusiasts have examined official and
    unofficial statements made by Soviet figures, their space hardware,
    space launches, and declassified American intelligence and other
    government documents over the past decades.  Their goal was to deter-
    mine what the Soviets' intentions were during those years when the
    American space program was committed to placing astronauts first on
    the Moon.

        Despite all these efforts, no Westerner could confidently resolve
    the issue one way or the other.  The often conflicting evidence could
    be used to make a case for both sides of the issue.  The problem was
    that the Soviet government never made a definitive public statement as
    to what their goals in space were during those early years.  As a
    result of glastnost, however, many important pieces of the puzzle have
    been supplied.  Scores of magazine and newspaper articles with inter-
    views of various key Soviet space figures, recent Soviet books and U.S./
    Soviet exchanges let us confidently say that the Soviet Union did in-
    deed have a serious intensive program to be the first to send a man to
    the Moon.  In fact, the race to the Moon was "neck and neck" right up
    to the 'end' in 1968-1969.  If the American program had just one mishap
    during a key mission, or if the Soviets had handled their program better,
    or just had a bit more luck, a Soviet cosmonaut and not an American
    astronaut would have been the first to set foot on the surface of the
    Moon.  If that had happened, there might have followed a new race to
    the planet Mars.

        History does not generally recognize "what ifs"; but what was the
    history of the Soviet Moon program?  In the beginning, the Soviet
    manned Moon program - indeed, it can be argued the whole Soviet space
    program - was dominated by one brilliant individual:  Sergei P. Korolev.
    Under his direction and with the political support of Premier Nikita
    Krushchev, Korolev developed civilization's first InterContinental
    Ballistic Missile (ICBM), the R-7.  This rocket made a poor ICBM but
    a superlative space launch vehicle. It was used to launch the Soviet
    Union's first satellites.  With the addition of an upper stage, it was
    used to launch the first LUNA probes to the Moon in 1959 and the manned
    VOSTOK craft into Earth orbit from 1961 to 1963.  With an improved upper
    stage, the R-7 launched more advanced probes to the Moon and the first
    generation of unmanned Soviet vehicles to Venus and Mars.  In fact,
    this family of rockets after over one thousand launches is still in use
    today, delivering everything from military reconnaissance satellites to
    manned ferries for the Soviet MIR space station.  This rocket was to
    play a central role in the Soviet Union's original manned Moon program,
    known as SOYUZ.

        The original SOYUZ concept was for a simple circumlunar mission
    that would make use of what is still the most powerful of the R-7
    launch vehicle family, now also called SOYUZ.  The plan required an
    unfueled escape stage with a maneuvering module called SOYUZ B to be
    launched into Earth orbit first.  Over the next few days, three tankers
    called SOYUZ V would be launched.  These tankers would rendezvous and
    dock with the SOYUZ B and transfer their load of fuel to it before
    undocking.  Finally, the manned SOYUZ A would be launched and would
    dock with the SOYUZ B escape stage.

        The SOYUZ A, like the SOYUZ B and V, was to weigh almost seven
    metric tons and consist of three modules.  In the rear was a cylin-
    drical service module 2.3 meters (7.5 feet) long and 2.3 meters in
    diameter.  It would have solar panels to supply electrical power as
    well as maneuvering engines, their fuel, and consumables such as air
    and water.  Next was a bell-shaped re-entry module also 2.3 meters
    in diameter and 2.2 meters long.  It would carry from one to three
    cosmonauts during launch and would later be used to bring the crew
    safely back to Earth at mission's end.  Forward of the re-entry module
    was the roughly spherical orbital module, which was 2.3 meters in
    diameter and about 3.1 meters (10.2 feet) long, including the docking
    mechanism at the front.  It would serve as the cosmonauts' living
    quarters, laboratory, air lock, and cargo hold during the mission and
    was connected to the re-entry module through a hatch.

        Once SOYUZ A and the now fully fueled SOYUZ B were docked, the
    escape stage would ignite and send the manned SOYUZ A on a one-week
    mission, where it would make a simple loop around the Moon and return
    to Earth for a low gravity controlled landing in Soviet territory.
    There appears to have been two test flights of the SOYUZ B.  The first,
    named POLYOT 1, was launched on November 1, 1963, and the second, POL-
    YOT 2, was launched on April 12, 1964.  Both spacecraft made extensive
    maneuvers in Earth orbit testing the SOYUZ B maneuvering system.  By
    the time these test flights were made, however, Korolev's original SOYUZ
    circumlunar flight plan appears to have been already scrapped in favor
    of a much more ambitious plan to meet America's challenge.  The race
    to the Moon had begun.

        In 1961, the Kremlin had broken up the Moon program into two
    sections.  One part, a simple circumlunar flight, was headed by
    Vladimir N. Chelomei.  The other more difficult part was an actual
    lunar landing.  This program was headed by Korolev himself.  This
    arrangement obviously did not sit well with Korolev.  He felt the two
    programs should be combined into one.  Two parallel projects with
    independently developed spacecraft and launch vehicles would take up
    valuable resources.  For the time being, however, the government
    insisted on two independent manned Moon programs.

        Unlike Korolev's SOYUZ circumlunar concept, Chelomei wanted a
    single powerful rocket to launch a spacecraft towards the Moon.  He
    felt that Korolev's concept, which required five launches of the SOYUZ
    launch vehicle and involved the then-unproven concept of in-orbit
    rendezvous and docking, was far too complicated and risky.  As a
    result, Chelomei had to design a new and much more powerful launch
    vehicle.  Under one of his concepts a single rocket called the UR-900
    would launch a modified VOSTOK manned spacecraft to the Moon.  The
    spacecraft would require relatively little development; there were
    several plans to modify the VOSTOK for future flights on the drawing
    boards already.  The UR-900, which would have been over twice as
    powerful as Korolev's SOYUZ launch vehicle, would require several
    years of development.

        Little is known of Korolev's earliest thinking or plans for his
    manned lunar landing program.  He definitely wanted to make use of the
    SOYUZ concept.  Its modularity made for very flexible development and
    planning.  Early on, it was obvious that a lunar landing would require
    a launch vehicle much larger than anything developed to that date.  On
    the drawing boards of Korolev's design bureau was a launch vehicle
    called N-1.  Already approved by the Soviet government in 1960, the
    N-1 was originally designed to be a modular, multipurpose launch
    vehicle capable of lifting as much as forty to fifty metric tons into
    Earth orbit.  Korolev, who was heavily influenced by the writings of
    the father of Soviet cosmonautics, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935),
    appears to have always favored assembling his Moon craft in Earth
    orbit.  It is likely that, as in his early SOYUZ concept, several N-1
    rockets would place the components for the Moon landing mission into
    Earth orbit, where they would then be assembled for the journey.

        Orbital rendezvous and docking techniques would have to be
    developed to assemble Korolev's Moonship.  Early test flights of the
    SOYUZ could be used to practice these techniques, but certain aspects
    of the mission could also be rehearsed using the existing manned VOSTOK
    spacecraft.  While the relatively primitive VOSTOK required more equip-
    ment and maneuvering rockets to perform an actual rendezvous and
    docking, the initial step of placing two ships in close orbits could
    be accomplished.  In August of 1962, VOSTOK 3 and 4 were launched just
    one day apart into orbits that let them pass within 6.5 kilometers
    (4.0 miles) of each other.  The feat was repeated in June of 1963
    with VOSTOK 5 and 6, which came within five kilometers (three miles)
    of each other while in space. The orbits were close enough that if
    these spacecraft had the proper equipment, the cosmonauts could have
    easily rendezvoused and docked with each other.

        In October of 1964, Kremlin politics shifted:  Krushchev was ousted
    from power after the three-man flight of VOSKHOD 1.  Korolev seized
    this opportunity and took over the manned circumlunar project from
    Chelomei.  Over the next several years, Korolev gradually consolidated
    his power base and in the process finally defined the design and plans
    of the Soviet response to the American challenge for a manned lunar
    landing.  This period of uncertainty and debate, however, cost the
    Soviet efforts valuable time.  Important hardware, especially the
    all-important Moon rocket, the N-1, was constantly redesigned and
    upgraded.  In addition, there was a deep disagreement between Korolev
    and his engine designer, Valentin P. Glushko, over fundamental N-1
    design issues.  Korolev wanted to make use of kerosene and liquid oxy-
    gen as propellants, perhaps even liquid hydrogen.  Glushko wanted to
    use fluorine, nitric acid, dimethylhydrazine, and other exotic and
    toxic fuels.  Glushko thought that there was no practical application
    for liquid hydrogen as a fuel; it was very light and would require
    prohibitively large tanks to hold it.  In addition, Korolev wanted to
    make use of a large sychronized cluster of medium thrust engines.
    Glushko wanted a smaller number of high-thrust engines.

        In the end, Korolev and Glushko could not reach an agreement.
    Glushko and his design bureau boycotted the N-1 project.  Needing
    engines for his N-1, Korolev turned to N. D. Kuznetsov and his design
    bureau.  Kuznetsov had developed and built only aircraft engines in
    the past, such as those used in the Tu-144 SuperSonic Transport (SST)
    and other TUPOLEV aircraft, but in the early 1960s the Soviets started
    to back off their aircraft production.  Kuznetsov and his factories in
    Kuibyshev needed work and this would be the perfect opportunity to
    diversify.

        In its final configuration, the N-1 was the largest rocket of its
    day, much larger than its American counterpart, the SATURN 5.  The N-1
    consisted of four stages and was about one hundred meters (330 feet)
    long and fifteen meters (49 feet) across at its base.  Its thirty
    first-stage engines would produce about five thousand metric tons
    (eleven million pounds) of thrust at lift off and it could place 95
    metric tons (210,000 pounds) of payload into Earth orbit.  Its two
    upper stages were developed by Chelomei.  A specially designed booster
    stage producing one thousand metric tons (2.2 million pounds) of
    thrust could be used with these stages to produce an interim launch
    vehicle.  Called the PROTON, this 44.3-meter (145-foot) long launch
    vehicle could be used to place twenty metric ton (44,000-pound)
    payloads into Earth orbit or, with the addition of a special escape
    stage developed by Korolev, 5.5 metric tons (12,000 pounds) of payload
    could be launched towards the Moon.  In addition to being able to test
    the upper stages of the N-1, the PROTON would be valuable in the Moon
    program on its own merits.

        With the launch vehicles he needed, Korolev finalized the plans
    for the hardware that would carry cosmonauts to the Moon.  He designed
    three spacecraft based on his original SOYUZ concept.  The L-1 was to
    be used for the circumlunar mission.  It was essentially a SOYUZ
    without an orbital module.  Without this module, the L-1 would weigh
    about 5,500 kilograms (12,000 pounds), just enough for the four-stage
    PROTON to launch the craft on its mission to make a simple loop around
    the Moon and head back to Earth with a single cosmonaut on board.

        The actual Moon landing mission would make use of two spacecraft.
    The L-2 was virtually identical to Korolev's original SOYUZ concept.
    The only significant difference was the addition of a torroidal fuel
    tank that could hold the large amounts of additional fuel needed for
    the Moon mission.  With this tank empty, the L-2 would weigh about
    6,600 kilograms (14,500 pounds) and could be launched for test flights
    in Earth orbit using the SOYUZ launch vehicle.  Fully fueled for its
    trip to the Moon, the L-2 would weigh about 8,400 kilograms (18,500
    pounds).

        The L-3 lunar cabin was the Soviet equivalent of America's APOLLO
    Lunar Module (LM).  Like its American counterpart, the L-3 consisted
    of two stages:  A descent stage and an ascent stage.  During the
    descent to the lunar surface, the twenty metric ton (44,000 pound) L-3
    made use of three engines, two mounted on the descent stage and one
    mounted on the ascent stage, all drawing fuel from the fuel tanks on
    the descent stage.  If any problems occurred during the descent, the
    ascent stage with its single engine still firing could switch to its
    own fuel tanks, cut loose from the descent stage, and head back to
    lunar orbit.  Otherwise, the craft could safely land a single cosmonaut
    on the lunar surface.  The 7,500 kilogram (16,500 pound) ascent stage
    was essentially a modified SOYUZ orbital module with a propulsion
    system attached.  Its primary purpose was to serve as a cockpit for
    the cosmonaut and to boost him from the lunar surface into orbit.

        The Soviet lunar landing mission would take place as follows:
    A PROTON launch vehicle would place a fully fueled L-2 carrying two
    cosmonauts into Earth orbit.  Within a day, an N-1 would follow
    carrying the L-3, a braking stage, and an escape stage into Earth
    orbit.  The L-2 would rendezvous and dock with this complex launched
    by the N-1, after which the escape stage would ignite and head towards
    the Moon.  After it exhausted its fuel, the escape stage would be
    jettisoned.  Upon reaching the Moon, the braking stage would ignite
    and place the L-2 and L-3 into lunar orbit.  After casting off the
    braking stage, one of the cosmonauts would enter the L-3 lunar cabin
    and separate from the orbiting L-2.  It would then fire its engines,
    leave orbit, and land on the lunar surface.  After he collected samples
    and performed his experiments, the cosmonaut would re-enter the L-3 and
    lift off towards lunar orbit.  The L-3 ascent stage and the L-2 would
    rendezvous and dock.  After the cosmonaut transferred to the L-2 along
    with his samples, the L-3 would be jettisoned.  Making use of the fuel
    in its torroidal fuel tank, the L-2 would leave lunar orbit and head
    back to Earth for a landing in Soviet territory.  If all went well,
    the landing could take place by 1968.

        Meanwhile, the L-1, L-2, and L-3 designs were eventually finalized
    and prototype hardware could now be built.  Other items were tested
    also:  On the VOSKHOD 2 mission, launched on March 18, 1965, cosmonaut
    Alexei Leonov made the first "space walk" (EVA, or ExtraVehicular
    Activity) using a prototype of the pressure suit that would be used
    for the excursions on the lunar surface.  No longer under political
    pressure from the Kremlin for space firsts after the ouster of Krush-
    chev, Korolev canceled the remaining manned VOSKHOD missions and
    put all his resources into the Moon project.  Much valuable time had
    been lost developing these essentially dead-end missions.

        On July 16, 1965, the first piece of N-1 hardware was flight
    tested.  The third stage of the N-1 was used in a two-stage version
    of the PROTON to launch a test satellite, named PROTON 1, into Earth
    orbit.  Weighing 12.2 metric tons (26,800 pounds), it was the heaviest
    payload ever placed into orbit.  A second test on November 2, 1965,
    which orbited PROTON 2, was equally successful.  The third test flight,
    launched on March 24, 1966, was a failure.  It would prove to be an
    ominous sign of things to come.

        Flight testing of the L-1 and L-2 hardware finally began in
    December of 1965.  These sub-orbital flights, which continued until
    June of 1966, were to test the performance the spacecraft's recovery
    systems; an important prelude to in-orbit tests.  Unfortunately, Kor-
    olev would not live to see it.  He died on January 14, 1966, apparently
    from a botched operation to remove intestinal tumors.  The Soviet space
    program in general and their lunar program in particular would never
    be the same after Korolev's passing.

        Shortly after Korolev's death, Premier Leonid Brezhnev put Korolev's
    assistant, Vasily P. Mishin, in charge of the Man-to-the-Moon program.
    Mishin quickly finished the consolidation process that Korolev began.
    No time could be lost now:  The Americans had begun inflight testing
    of their Moonship, APOLLO.

        The first APOLLO flight, designated SA-201, was the first test of
    a fully functional APOLLO spacecraft launched on the new SATURN IB
    booster.  The successful suborbital flight of February 26, 1966, went
    off without a hitch.  An orbital test of the SATURN IB, SA-203, was
    launched on July 5 with a dummy payload.  SA-202, launched on August
    25, repeated SA-201's successful flight.  Plans called for the first
    manned test of APOLLO in Earth orbit in the first quarter of 1967.

        From a hardware standpoint, the Soviets and Americans were neck
    and neck in the race to the Moon.  Both nations had successfully
    tested their Moonships in suborbital tests.  Both had tested the third
    stage of their Moon rockets as the second stage of smaller launch
    vehicles:  The Soviets on their PROTON and the Americans with the
    SATURN IB.  The Americans, however, had more in-flight experience.  As
    their GEMINI program was drawing to a close in 1966, the Americans had
    accumulated much more flight time with longer missions, more EVA time,
    and - most importantly - they had more practical experience with the
    techniques of in-orbit rendezvous and docking.

        Despite continuing management problems, the Soviets pushed ahead
    with the first orbital tests of the L-1 spacecraft.  On November 28,
    1966, they finally launched the first L-1 into orbit aboard a SOYUZ
    launch vehicle.  KOSMOS 133, as it was called, remained in Earth orbit
    for almost two days before it was brought down.  During re-entry
    something went wrong:  As a result of a manufacturing defect, the
    heatshield failed.  While the capsule was successfully recovered,
    there was still significant damage to the module's interior.  Further
    work on the L-1 was needed.

        Meanwhile in The United States, preparations for the first manned
    APOLLO flight, known as both APOLLO 1 and SA-204, were in full swing.
    The SATURN IB rocket was assembled and the APOLLO spacecraft was mated
    to its launch vehicle in January of 1967.  During an on-pad countdown
    rehearsal on January 27, tragedy struck.  While the three astronauts,
    Virgil I. Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee, were proceeding
    with the countdown rehearsal inside their spacecraft, an electrical
    fire started.  Because of the pure oxygen atmosphere in the Command
    Module (CM) and an unforeseen availability of combustible materials,
    the flames quickly spread and in seconds the three astronauts, unable
    to escape quickly enough, died of suffocation.  The tragedy stopped
    the APOLLO program in its tracks.  A board of inquiry was formed and
    the whole APOLLO spacecraft design re-evaluated.

        The Soviets saw their chance to pull ahead.  A second L-1 flight,
    KOSMOS 140, was launched on February 7, 1967, in a repeat of the
    failed KOSMOS 133 mission.  Again the spacecraft left orbit after
    almost two days in space; and again, there was some sort of failure.
    The exact nature of the failure is not known, but it involved either
    the temperature control system, attitude control system, or the
    parachutes.  While this time the heatshield worked well, there were
    still problems to be worked out on the L-1 and its sister, the L-2.

        Pressure from the Kremlin was beginning to build on those in the
    Soviet space program.  The Soviet government gave formal approval to
    the plan to land a man on the Moon by the end of 1968.  Failing this,
    the L-1 would be used to make a manned circumlunar flight using the
    PROTON.  At the same time the N-1 Moon rocket project was put into
    high gear, with the third quarter of 1967 being the goal for the start
    of flight hardware construction.

        Despite two less than successful orbital test flights of the L-1,
    the next phase of flight testing was begun.  The ultimate goal of the
    L-1 was to make a circumlunar flight; a flight to the Moon at his
    point would have been too big a leap because of the complexities of
    navigation and spacecraft control.  As an interim step, it was decided
    to use the PROTON vehicle to launch an L-1 into an extended Earth
    orbit away from the influences of the Moon.  This would allow the
    problems of long-range communications and spacecraft control to be
    worked out.  It would also give the L-1 a realistic test of the re-
    entry conditions it would experience returning from an actual mission
    to the Moon.

        On March 10, 1967, the first four-stage version of the PROTON
    booster lifted the 5,017-kilogram (11,037-pound) L-1 test vehicle,
    KOSMOS 146, into a 177 by 296-kilometer (110 by 184-mile) parking
    orbit.  After a short time, the PROTON's Block D escape stage would
    ignite and send KOSMOS 146 into its elongated orbit.  Come time for
    ignition, though, nothing happened.  The escape stage failed to ignite
    and KOSMOS 146 was stranded in space.  Hoping to salvage at least some
    information from the mission, the spacecraft was separated from its
    useless booster, whose Earth orbit was rapidly decaying.  KOSMOS 146
    then used its own engines to lift itself into a higher 185 by 350-
    kilometer (115 by 218-mile) orbit.  By the next day, the Block D
    escape stage fell out of orbit.  KOSMOS 146 continued on in low Earth
    orbit for over eight days before it was commanded back.  Again, the
    L-1, either during its flight or recovery, experienced some sort of
    system failure in its onboard control systems or its parachute.

        The problems were quickly corrected and another test flight,
    KOSMOS 154, was launched on April 8, 1967.  As before, the PROTON's
    Block D escape stage failed to push the L-1 into the intended elon-
    gated Earth orbit.  Again the spacecraft separated from its useless
    escape stage in hope of salvaging part of the mission.  This time,
    however, there was yet another onboard system failure that prevented
    KOSMOS 154 from moving into a higher orbit.  After eleven days in
    space, the lifeless spacecraft's orbit decayed and KOSMOS 154 burned
    up in Earth's atmosphere.

        After four unmanned orbital test flights of the L-1, the
    spacecraft had failed to perform as intended.  Under normal
    circumstances there would have been more design evaluations and
    testing, but pressure on Mishin and the other space program managers
    was mounting.  The government insisted that they catch up to and pass
    the United States during their reevaluation of the APOLLO program.
    Despite the problems of the L-1, its sister, the L-2, was to be
    pressed into service for the first Soviet manned spaceflight in two
    years.

        In the first L-2 flight, the Soviets wanted to catch up to and
    even surpass America's achievements of the GEMINI program.  The plan
    called for an L-2 to be launched on a SOYUZ booster with one man on
    board.  The large torroidal fuel tank would be empty on this flight to
    lighten the L-2 enough so that the SOYUZ launch vehicle could place it
    into orbit.  The L-2's internal fuel reserves would be sufficient to
    carry out this and any future Earth orbital mission.  The day after
    launch, a second L-2 would be launched into orbit, this time with a
    crew of three cosmonauts.  The two spacecraft would rendezvous and
    dock.  After docking, two of the crew members of the second L-2 would
    don spacesuits, depressurize the orbital module, and perform an EVA
    to transfer to the first L-2.  After the crew transfer, the two space-
    craft would undock and perform independent missions.  Each would
    return after spending about three days in Earth orbit.

        If this mission was successful, the Soviets would have performed
    the first docking of two manned spacecraft and the first crew
    transfer.  In addition, they would gain the flight experience they
    needed to assemble their Moon craft in Earth orbit and later redock
    the L-2 and L-3 in lunar orbit.  The mission had to succeed, but Mishin
    refused to approve the launch.  He felt that it was too dangerous to
    commit the L-2 to a manned mission until the problems with the similar
    L-1 were solved.  Moscow overruled him and the mission proceeded.

        The first L-2 would be manned by space veteran Vladimir Komarov,
    who flew on VOSKHOD 1 in 1964.  The second L-2 was to be manned by
    cosmonauts Valeriy Bykovsky, Yevgeniy Khrunov, and Aleksey Yeliseyev.
    Khrunov and Yeliseyev would perform the EVA transfer.  On the morning
    of April 23, 1967, the 6,450-kilogram (14,190-pound) L-2 named SOYUZ 1
    was launched into orbit with Komarov aboard.  With its unique design
    and extensive automated systems, it was the most complex and advanced
    manned spacecraft to fly and almost immediately problems started.  One
    of the spacecraft's two solar panels would not deploy, depriving the
    SOYUZ of half its electrical power.  Still later problems developed
    with the attitude control system.  The launch of SOYUZ 2 was called
    off.  There was no way the mission could be accomplished.  All efforts
    were then poured into getting Komarov back.

        Ground control sent commands up to Komarov to help bring the
    malfunctioning spacecraft under control.  A retrorocket burn on the
    fifteenth orbit would bring SOYUZ 1 back home.  The attempt failed.
    As fuel ran low, Komarov got permission to try again on the seven-
    teenth orbit, but again he could not control the spacecraft.  Komarov
    finally put the spacecraft into a spin to help stabilize it.  On the
    eighteenth orbit, the cosmonaut finally succeeded and was on his way
    home.  Because of the on board malfunctions, Komarov kept the re-entry
    module spinning, resulting in a high-gravity ballistic re-entry.  The
    spinning spacecraft survived the re-entry, but when the landing para-
    chute was deployed the lines snarled, preventing it from opening fully.
    SOYUZ 1 with Komarov on board crashed into the ground at a speed of
    about 500 kilometers per hour (about 300 miles per hour) near the
    town of Orenburg in the Urals, one thousand kilometers (600 miles)
    off course.  The pilot of the first manned SOYUZ flight was killed
    on impact.

        Komarov's body was cremated and his ashes were placed in the wall
    of the Kremlin.  Like the Americans with APOLLO 1 only three months
    earlier, the haste to reach the Moon resulted in the death of one of
    the Soviet Union's best cosmonauts and a reevaluation of the design
    of the L-1 and L-2 Moon craft.

        End of Part One.

        Bibliography -

    Baker, David, THE HISTORY OF MANNED SPACE FLIGHT, 1981

    Clark, Phillip S., THE SOVIET MANNED SPACE PROGRAM, 1988

    Clark, Phillip S., "Correspondence: The PROTON Block D Stage and
         the N-1 Booster", SPACEFLIGHT (BIS), June 1990

    Clark, Phillip S., "Soviet Rocket Engine Review", SPACEFLIGHT,
         July 1990

    Gatland, Kenneth, THE ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SPACE TECHNOLOGY,
     1981 and 1988

    Harvey, Brian, RACE INTO SPACE: THE SOVIET SPACE PROGRAM, 1988

    Harvey, Brian, "Promise Unfulfilled: The Soviet Unmanned Moon
     Programme, 1969-1988", JOURNAL OF THE BRITISH INTERPLANETARY
         SOCIETY (JBIS), Volume 43, Number 9, 1990

    Hendricks, Bart, "Correspondence: Soviet Moon Rocket's Sad Fate",
     SPACEFLIGHT, December 1989

    Johnson, Nicholas L., HANDBOOK OF SOVIET LUNAR AND PLANETARY
     EXPLORATION, 1979

    Johnson, Nicholas L., HANDBOOK OF SOVIET MANNED SPACE FLIGHT, 1980

    Johnson, Nicholas L., SOVIET SPACE PROGRAMS 1980-85, 1987

    Johnson, Nicholas L., THE SOVIET YEAR IN SPACE 1989, 1990

    Kidger, Neville, "Glasnost and the Moon", SPACEFLIGHT, October 1989

    Newkirk, Dennis, ALMANAC OF SOVIET MANNED SPACE FLIGHT, 1990

    Oberg, James E., RED STAR IN ORBIT, 1981

    Pesavento, Peter, "Soviets to the Moon: The Untold Story",
         ASTRONOMY, December 1984

        Pesavento, Peter, "A Review of Rumored Launch Failures in the
         Soviet Manned Program, Part 2: The Lunar Project/1968-1969", JBIS,
     Volume 43, Number 9, 1990

    Young, Steven, "Soviet Union Was Far Behind in 1960s Moon Race",
     SPACEFLIGHT, January 1990

    "Designer Mishin Speaks on Early Soviet Space Programmes and
     the Manned Lunar Project", SPACEFLIGHT, March 1990

    "Soviet Lunar Lander Revealed", SPACEFLIGHT, July 1990

        "Soviet Manned Lunar Mission Used Modified SOYUZ Spacecraft"
     AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY, January 8, 1990

        "Soviet Moon Flight Admission", SPACEFLIGHT, September 1989

    "VOSKHOD 2 Flight Recalled", SPACEFLIGHT, June 1990

        About the Author -

        Andrew J. LePage is a member of the Boston Group for the Study
    of the Soviet Space Program, Krasnaya Orbita.  In addition to his
    interests in astronomical and space related topics, Andrew has been
    a serious observer of the Soviet space program for over one decade.

        Andrew is the author of "Mars 1994" in the March 1990 issue
    of the EJASA.


                               MAD FOR THE STARS:
                       VISIONS OF ASTROUTOPIAE, PART TWO

                               by Craig M. Levin

        The promises of a bright future for humanity in space had begun
    in the late 1950s with the first Soviet SPUTNIK and American EXPLORER
    satellites.  By the 1960s, that promise appeared to have bloomed into
    serious dedication, with grander dreams ahead in the years to follow.

        To Luna and Beyond

        The second decade of the "official" Space Age displayed the amazing
    technological strides of human science.  By the year 1970, hundreds of
    automatic satellites were circling Earth, performing tasks ranging from
    weather watching to gathering military information.  American and Soviet
    efforts had placed dozens of astronauts and cosmonauts in Earth orbit.
    The United States went even one step further and delivered several men
    to the surface of Luna and back, a goal set by President John F. Kennedy
    in 1961 with the APOLLO program.

        In the field of robot space probes, unmanned machines made
    numerous close examinations of Luna, Venus, and Mars.  Some of these
    vehicles had even landed upon those worlds, returning the first direct
    information from these alien places to their creators on Earth.  Many
    were certain that human beings would take the achievements of the
    APOLLO missions and carry them on to Mars and the rest of the solar
    system within a century.

        The Star Ships

        The steady progression being made by Earth's space programs
    through the 1960s eventually turned the visions of contemporary
    astroutopians out beyond the confines of the solar system to the
    very stars themselves.  Interstellar travel slowly became accepted
    as an actual possibility, not just an area for science fiction
    authors to cavort in.

        As early as 1964, Willy Ley wrote one of the first serious books
    on exploring the interstellar realm, BEYOND THE SOLAR SYSTEM.  By
    then several designs for possible starships had been laid out in the
    scientific community.

        Project Orion was a plan originated by the U.S. Air Force (USAF)
    in the 1950s for building a nuclear-powered spacecraft for interplan-
    etary travel.  The reaction drive was quite potent, if a bit crude:
    A cargo of nuclear bombs would be shot out the stern of the vehicle
    and detonated.  The shock waves of the explosions would strike a
    large plate at the back of the ship and push it along with increasing
    velocity.  By the 1960s, it was realized that Orion also had potential
    as a starship.  Theoretically, Orion could travel to the Centauri tri-
    nary system, 4.3 light years from Sol, in about 125 years - relatively
    quick in interstellar terms.

        Another starship possibility was the Bussard Ramjet, designed
    in 1960.  The Bussard Ramjet had the beauty of not needing to carry
    its fuel, for it would scoop up interstellar hydrogen with a huge
    magnetic funnel and channel it into a series of fusion engines,
    creating the required thrust.  Theoretically, the Ramjet could move
    at ninety-nine percent of the speed of light - 300,000 kilometers
    per second (186,000 miles per second).

        The British Interplanetary Society (BIS) conceived of yet
    another starship design in the early 1970s.  Named DAEDELUS after
    the flying character in Greek mythology, this unmanned star probe
    would use a sophisticated fusion engine to propel itself to the
    red dwarf Barnard's Star, approximately six light years away, in
    only fifty years.  Barnard's Star was chosen due to the apparent
    detection a decade earlier of planets orbiting the sun.  As DAEDELUS
    plunged on its one-way trip through the star system, it would release
    a series of smaller craft to study any detected worlds and their
    surrounding medium.

        The Space Colonies

        By the 1970s, political and social realities started to intrude
    on the dreams of the astroutopians.  When APOLLO 17 left Luna for
    the trip home to Earth in December of 1972, there were no plans to
    follow up the program with lunar colonies, the next logical step.
    Manned missions to Mars were shelved for a vague future time.  Even
    the unmanned probes to neighboring worlds, financially cheap compared
    to spacecraft with human crews, were threatened with budget cuts and
    reduced mission goals.

        Despite these signs of doom for the major space programs, there
    were those who insisted on keeping alive the dream of humanity as a
    species of the Universe, not just one limited planet.  Among these
    people was Gerard O'Neill, who outlined his vision of space and our
    place in it in THE HIGH FRONTIER.

        Before manned space missions began to last more than a few days
    in orbit around Earth, there were serious questions as to whether or
    not a human could survive for long periods of time in a microgravity
    environment.  By the mid-1970s, American and Soviet experience aboard
    their SKYLAB and SALYUT space stations had proven that humans could
    live for months at a time in near weightless conditions.

        Based on these results, O'Neill, a physicist at Princeton
    University in New Jersey, drew up plan for huge cylindrical space
    stations, holding huge populations of humans, animals, and plants.
    The space colonists would grow their own food, build solar power
    satellites many times the size of football fields, and mine Luna and
    various planetoids for valuable metals and other mineral resources.

        A related idea that actually arose before O'Neill's space cities
    was the direct colonization of either Luna or the planetoids, less
    accurately known as asteroids.  Among the first to push for this route
    to populating space were Dandridge Cole and Donald Cox in their 1964
    work, ISLANDS IN SPACE.  The colonizable planetoid in their case
    studies was to be hollowed out and mined.  Mirrors would then be built
    to shine light from Sol into the shell, and farming would begin.  This
    shell resembles the space stations of O'Neill in its final stages.

        Many of these plans, especially O'Neill's, rested upon the only
    accomplished idea that arose during this time:  The Space Shuttle.
    It was one of the last of Wernher von Braun's creations, though
    variations of the craft had been described by von Braun decades
    earlier.  Many of the astroutopiae of the 1950s had winged manned
    spacecraft, but none had quite the abilities that the Space Shuttle
    was planned for.  The primary goal of the Shuttle was to make manned
    spaceflight as routine as using a jet aircraft to fly from one conti-
    nent to another.  This promise of easy access to space had a profound
    affect on the writers of astroutopiae.  To them it now seemed truly
    possible that the stars were finally to be ours.  But would they be
    in reality?

        To the Stars or Nowhere?

        By 1977, much of society had gotten used to many things with
    regards to space:  We could get there, maneuver complex pieces of
    machinery and humans to do as we pleased, and live in Earth orbit and
    on other worlds for days at a time.  The previous section described
    what the next steps in space were envisioned to be:  Colonies that
    would take over the industrial burdens on Earth, producing goods and
    power from the fruitful worlds of the solar system.  Many exponents of
    this vision continued to write in this fashion from 1977 until 1986.

        The primary thrust of these writings was well-supported by the
    proclamations from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
    (NASA):  Access to space would be both cheap and easy, due to their
    new spacecraft, the Space Shuttle.  These developments naturally led
    to works such as O'Neill's 2081, written in 1981, the first year of
    the launching of the Space Shuttle.  In 2081, O'Neill not only refined
    his ideas on space stations, but also integrated planetary colonization
    as well, though these later colonies were designed primarily to serve
    as bases for building more of his vast interplanetary habitats.

        Others writers, such as T. A. Heppenheimer in 1979 and Eric Jones
    and Ben Finney in 1985, further developed theories about interstellar
    travel.  Ideas were coming up like roses for the astroutopians.  How-
    ever, two major events brought many of these dreams to a standstill:
    The economic recession which lasted from 1978 until the mid-1980s, and
    the tragic loss of the Space Shuttle CHALLENGER and its seven-member
    crew on January 28, 1986.

        The disaster did more than put NASA under a possibly damaging
    delay in launches:  It also placed the agency under intense scrutiny
    for its future ideals and plans.  What was NASA's "master plan" for
    the future?  Many of their concepts were vague at best.  In spite of
    all this, the ever-hopeful astroutopians did their best to plot a
    course for the ailing space program.

        NASA's next major project - and the only one to be funded by
    Congress at present - is the establishment of a permanent space
    station in Earth orbit named FREEDOM.  Originally planned for
    operation by 1994, FREEDOM has been plagued with both design and
    funding problems.  Initial operation of this space station is now
    hoped for by the year 2000.

        Another goal for NASA is a return to Luna to establish a manned
    base for mining and colonization purposes.  Also in the race is an
    ambitious plan called the Earth Observation System (EOS) that would
    cover our planet with a network of satellites in an attempt to monitor
    Earth's environmental conditions.

        NASA's grandest mission project so far is the proposal to send
    humans to the planet Mars.  In a sense this effort would be much like
    the APOLLO program for NASA:  A return to the ideals that it held in
    its early years.  It is hoped, however, that unlike APOLLO, manned
    missions to the Red Planet would be more than essentially a political
    stunt.  Most astroutopian writers have already given a good deal of
    their effort to supporting a manned Mars program.  Whole organizations,
    like The Planetary Society, have become taken with the trek to Mars.

        However, reality is once again interfering with the dreams of
    those who wish to explore and settle the Universe. The United States
    continues to face major budgetary problems, and the Soviet Union is
    struggling with a sea of potentially violent political unrest.  If
    these two nations should fail to keep the dream of space alive, will
    the other spacefaring powers of Earth be able to carry on with the
    same plans?  Might they, in fact, even improve upon them?

        Have the astroutopiae changed radically as time has passed?  Perhaps
    not.  The major writers of the past - among them Tsiolkovsky, Oberth,
    and von Braun - provided solid bases for later writers with their
    imaginative thoughts about satellites, space stations, and planetary
    colonies which are still in use today.  It should be remembered that
    those early pioneers' dreams did eventually come true, despite the
    events of reality slowing their progress and changing their form along
    the way.

        Travel to other worlds and star systems has been proven possible.
    This was perhaps the biggest hurdle of all to overcome to fulfill
    the dreams of the astroutopians.  It is now up to us to realize that
    Earth is but one of many worlds in this incredibly vast Cosmos and
    that we must move out into space if our species is to do more than
    just exist.  We do not yet fully know what is waiting out there for
    us, but the human race will certainly be the poorer for it if we do
    not make that giant leap into the Universe.

        "There is nothing like dream to create the future." - Victor Hugo

        Bibliography -

        Anderton, David A., SPACE STATION, U.S. Government Printing
         Office, Number EP-211

        Calder, Nigel, SPACESHIPS OF THE MIND, Viking Press, New York,
         1978

        Cole, Dandridge M. and Donald W. Cox, ISLANDS IN SPACE, Ambassador
         Books, Ltd., Toronto, Canada, 1964

        Finney, Ben R. and Eric M. Jones, INTERSTELLAR MIGRATION AND THE
         HUMAN EXPERIENCE, University of California Press, Berkeley,
         California, 1985

        Hartmann, William K., Ron Miller, and Pamela Lee, OUT OF THE
         CRADLE, Workman Publishing Company, New York, 1984

        Heppenheimer, T. A., TOWARD DISTANT SUNS, Thomas Nelson and Sons,
         Ltd., Don Mills, Canada, 1979

        Ley, Willy, BEYOND THE SOLAR SYSTEM, Viking Press, New York, 1964

        Moore, Patrick, THE NEXT FIFTY YEARS IN SPACE, William Luscombe
         Publisher, Ltd., London, 1976

        O'Neill, Gerard, THE HIGH FRONTIER, Anchor Press, Garden City,
         New York, 1976

        SPACEFARERS, VOYAGE THROUGH THE UNIVERSE Series, Time-Life Books,
         1989

        Wilford, John Noble, MARS BECKONS, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1990

        About the Author -

        Craig M. Levin began his involvement in astronomy when, in the
    second grade, he received H. A. Rey's book, FIND THE CONSTELLATIONS,
    as a birthday present.  From Rey's work, Craig was able to find those
    few constellations visible through the bright city lights of Chicago,
    Illinois.  Craig's initial interest in astronomy later flagged,
    though, and remained at a low level for a number of years.  Comet
    Halley pulled Craig out of his freshman high school doldrums in 1985-
    1986, as the tiny ball of ice and rock made its latest appearance
    through the inner regions of the solar system.  That January, Craig
    received his first telescope (he has since gone through four sets,
    including binoculars) and began to get involved in astronomy again.
    By his sophomore year in high school, Craig was a member of Chicago's
    Adler Planetarium and The Planetary Society.  As a junior, Craig had
    his first astronomy article published in the now-defunct Small Scope
    Observers' Association's newsletter, and by his senior year in high
    school was helping to establish the ASTRONOMICAL NEWSLETTER, a now-
    defunct periodical based in Atlanta, Georgia.  At present, Craig
    is a physics major at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, who
    intends to turn his first love, planetology, into his profession.

        If you would like to contact Craig over the network, please do
    so at the following net address:

        Craig\The Moonman\Levin      ===()===   //////
        [e-mail]       ``-----//
                                         ```````

        Craig is the author of the following EJASA articles:

        "The Ice Moons of the Jovian Worlds", March 1990
        "Mad for the Stars: Visions of Astroutopiae, Part One", November 1990


      THE ELECTRONIC JOURNAL OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF THE ATLANTIC

                        December 1990 - Vol. 2, No. 5

                          Copyright (c) 1990 - ASA

------------------------------

End of SPACE Digest V12 #639
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