Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/pc/text/station/stfmay89.nws

Text File | 1992-09-09 | 29KB | 570 lines

"6_10_8_2.TXT" (28040 bytes) was created on 04-08-90
STATION BREAK, VOL 1, NO. 1, MAY 1989

Dear Readers,

This is the first edition of Station Break, a bimonthly newsletter
designed to give you an inside look at NASA's and the contractors'
research, utilization, hardware production and the policy progress of the
Space Station Freedom program.  The newsletter also will keep you abreast
of the progress of our partners -- Japan, Canada and the European Space
Agency.

The program itself is well on its way toward meeting the schedule for all
major program milestones, including the first element launch in the first
quarter of 1995, and achieving a permanently manned capability in late
1996.

Station Break will serve readers, such as science, technology and
commercial users, government and industry officials, community leaders,
people involved in the formation of public policy, educators and the
media.  We created Station Break as a service to you, our readers, and so
I invite you to send us your comments and suggestions about the topics and
types of articles you would like to see in the newsletter.

James Odom
Associate Administrator
for Space Station


Space Station Freedom:
The Next Logical Step

Before the 21st century, astronauts and scientists will live and work on
an international space station that will orbit 250 miles above the Earth
for 30 years.

The new facility, Space Station Freedom, will house eight people in an
environmentally controlled cylindrical module about the same size as a
medium-sized mobile home.  It also will provide additional modules for
workshops and laboratories.  Freedom will establish a permanently manned
space outpost by 1996 for human exploration of space, scientific
experiments, technology development and Earth observation.

The modules and other equipment will be attached to a 500-foot long
transverse boom.  Solar panels to provide electrical power also will be
attached to this support system.

Connected to the trusses outside the modules will be pallets for automated
and remote-controlled experiments and observation instruments.  Scientists
also will have an automated free flying polar platform.  The unmanned
platform will accommodate an array of scientific observations.

All of the different sections of this facility will be built on Earth,
delivered into space by the Space Shuttle and assembled by astronauts with
tools designed for space work.

Once scientists and astronauts are living aboard Freedom, the Space
Shuttle will arrive every few weeks to bring new supplies and a new crew.
The previous crew then will return to Earth on the Space Shuttle.

Researchers aboard the Shuttle will carry out basic research in materials
and life sciences, medicine, astronomy, space physics and solar studies.
In addition to conducting experiments in Earth sciences and many other
scientific disciplines, crew members also will perform technology
experiments to augment developing products and services for future NASA
missions, as well as for industrial and consumer use.

But Freedom goes beyond laboratory research.  It is designed so it can
evolve into a transportation node for human exploration of the solar
system.  Whether it is enabling research or the outfitting of the
interplanetary space ship for human exploration, all roads start with
planet Earth and pass through Space Station Freedom.

The space station, perhaps before the 21st century, could evolve into an
assembly and launch base for future voyages to the Moon, Mars and beyond.


NASA and Japan Sign
Space Station Freedom
Memorandum of Understanding

NASA Administrator James C. Fletcher and the Ambassador of Japan to the
United States H.E. Nobuo Matsunaga signed a memorandum of understanding
(MOU) between NASA and the government of Japan on the cooperation in the
detailed design, development, operation, and use of the
permanently-manned, civil space station.  The agreement was signed at a
brief ceremony at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., on March 14.

Comparable MOUs with the European Space Agency and Canada along with an
intergovernmental agreement, were signed last September.

Under the agreement, Japan will provide the Japanese Experiment Module
(JEM) to the Freedom program.  The JEM, to be permanently attached to the
space station base, will consist of a pressurized laboratory module, at
least two experiment logistics modules, and an outside facility, which
will allow scientists to expose certain experiments to the space
environment.

Experimenters will conduct materials processing and life sciences research
in the laboratory module, while the logistics module may be used to ferry
materials between the station and Earth and for storing experimental
specimens and various gases and consumables.


NASA Seeks $2.05 Billion 1990 Budget
For Space Station Freedom Program

NASA is seeking a $2.05 billion budget for the space station Freedom
program in fiscal year 1990,  $1.15 billion more than the $900 million
Congress appropriated for 1989.

The increase is imperative to push the program forward in 1990, James
Odom, associate administrator for NASA's Office of Space Station told
lawmakers during congressional hearings last month.  The $2.05 billion is
included in NASA's overall fiscal 1990 budget request of $13.3 billion.

"Our budget for fiscal year 1990 is barely adequate," Odom forewarned
congress.  "Underfunding Freedom at this critical phase of the program
would reduce its performance, and thus its usefulness.  At the same time,
it would increase program risk, and increase total long term costs."

If Congress approves the $2.05 billion request,
$1.556 billion would go to the four work package centers to manage the
design, testing and development of Freedom.  The four centers are: Work
Package 1, Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.; Work Package
2, Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas; Work Package 3, Goddard Space
Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.; and Work Package 4, Lewis Research Center
in Cleveland, Ohio.

Other funding requests include:

* $184 million for design and development of equipment, facilities, and
capabilities required to operate and use Freedom efficiently and
effectively.

* $230 million to integrate the program's management and technical systems
engineering.

* $25 million for the Transition Definition Program to ensure Space
Station Freedom is designed for growth and meeting future needs over its
expected 30-year lifespan.

* $25 million for operations and $15 million for a radar system to detect
debris in space and to gather data that will help designers who will build
Freedom's pressurized modules.

New Robotics Facility Nears Completion

A new state-of-the-art robotics facility, expected to play an important
role in the development of a space robot, will be operating at Goddard
Space Flight Center by late April.

The Goddard robotics team will use this highly sophisticated facility to
test and evaluate new robotic technologies required to support Space
Station Freedom.

As a part of the Freedom project, Goddard manages the development of the
flight telerobotic servicer (FTS), a robotic device that combines
teleoperation (using a human operator to direct the machine) and
autonomous capabilities for performing tasks by itself but supervised by
an astronaut.

Currently, Grumman Corporation and Martin Marietta Astronautics Group are
competing for the contract to develop FTS.  NASA will select a contractor
this summer.

Plans call for FTS to assist astronauts in the assembly of Freedom, said
Stanford Ollendorf, chief of the telerobotics engineering office.   "After
assembly is completed, FTS will perform minor spacecraft servicing and
maintenance tasks at the station.  Ultimately, FTS will be able to reach,
retrieve, and service unmanned satellites such as polar platforms, which
are currently unreachable by the Space Shuttle, saving millions of dollars
annually," he said.

The new facility contains a gantry robot 40 feet wide (1200 cm), 60 feet
long (1800 cm) and 20 feet high (600 cm) with six degrees of freedom,
capable of lifting up to 4000 pounds (1800 kg) of payload and applying
4000 foot pounds of torque.  Suspended from one mast of the gantry will be
a set of six degree of freedom industrial arms, which will be used as an
FTS operational simulator.  The other mast carries a grapple to emulate
Freedom's remote manipulator system, which will be used primarily to
transport payloads to and from the work site.

The facility also includes an operator workstation installed in a mockup
of the Space Shuttle's aft flight deck.  This simulator will permit
teleoperation  of the robot, providing valuable information about
operating the FTS in the constrained environment of the shuttle.

Located in a glass enclosed mezzanine overlooking the gantry robot is what
David Provost, head of the robotics data systems and integration section,
called one of the unique technologies being developed  by Goddard for the
FTS project -- the Graphic Robot Simulator.

"This computerized simulator uses animated graphics to determine such
things as the robot's reach capability and collision avoidance
information," said Provost.  "It allows our engineers to use engineering
and design concepts to evaluate what would be seen at Freedom six or seven
years from now.

"The simulator is a very cost effective system," said Provost.  "It
reduces the construction costs considerably for major spacecraft and
instrument subsystems and makes results available in a much shorter time."

Commenting on the utilization of the robotics facility with the FTS
project, Ollendorf said, "The center has been given a technical challenge
to build a robot to do things that have never been done before in space.
With this facility, the team we've put together and with help from
universities, industry, and other NASA centers, Goddard will have a
positive impact not only on Freedom and the nation's space program but
improve the United States' ability to compete in world markets through
technology transfer to private industry."

TMIS Provides Quick, Easy Information Access

Without an efficient way to organize and communicate the information
managers and engineers working on Space Station Freedom need, the program
would quickly grind to a halt.  One critical NASA program, however, is
working to prevent this.

The program is called TMIS -- Technical and Management Information System
-- and is being operated for NASA by Boeing Computer Services, a division
of the Boeing Company.  TMIS is a set of communication'tools' that
includes technical and management processes, automated data processing
(ADP) equipment, software, communication networks and procedures intended
to support the design, development and operation of Freedom.  The system,
when completed, will provide 16 major ADP capabilities to help NASA
perform 28 space station program management and technical processes.  The
system will provide database management, project management, document
management, electronic mail, workstations, hardware, interface and
networking.

TMIS also will work with existing NASA data processing resources and help
organize these resources into the integrated information system.  In the
future, NASA managers and engineers, contractors and foreign partners will
use TMIS as a common way to communicate, store, access and retrieve
Freedom's many information resources.  Boeing is expected to have an
electronic mail system in place within six months that will connect all
space station program users.  Peter Dube, TMIS project manager, said,
"With TMIS in place, the NASA Program Office [in Reston, Va.], can control
the schedules, technical quality and costs across all space station
developers, despite the large and dispersed numbers of companies and NASA
centers contributing to the program."

Michael Synge, TMIS interface manager, said Boeing currently is preparing
for the next big event in the space station program - the preliminary
design review, a built-in review period to make sure the program is on
track.  "The TMIS program will play a significant role in sending
information back and forth among both national and international
participants involved in the review."

As the space station program changes and evolves, TMIS will change and
evolve with it.  TMIS is designed to accommodate tomorrow's technology,
Synge said.  "One of the TMIS objectives has been to accommodate new
technology, and one of the areas we are currently working on is improving
the user/computer interface."

Future TMIS applications will help astronauts keep Freedom in tip top
shape, said Phil Dupriest, director of space programs for Boeing Computer
Services.

"I can visualize a day when a piece of space station hardware goes down,
astronauts can -- through the resources of TMIS -- go to a workstation and
pull up the data that will allow them to test, repair or replace a
malfunctioning component," Dupriest said.


NASA Seeks Private Investors
for Space Station Freedom Program

NASA is committed to promoting commercial use of Space Station Freedom and
space by United States firms, and the Commercial Development Division in
the Office of Commercial Programs manages those efforts.

Along with managing Freedom's commercial planning and definition, the
Commercial DevelopmentDivision develops  current and projected commercial
payload and infrastructure requirements; it also serves as the Space
Station Freedom Program Office liaison.

A Commercial Space Station Planning Team has been established with
representatives from NASA's Office of Commercial Programs with support by
Symbiont Inc., the Ames Research Center representing commercial life
sciences ventures with support by Lockheed, Marshall Space Flight Center
representing commercial materials processing ventures with support by
Brown Teledyne, and the Stennis Space Center representing commercial Earth
observation and remote sensing ventures with support by Lockheed.

These members support the space station Freedom panels, working groups,
and studies to identify commercial payload user requirements that could
influence the design, accommodations and resources of Freedom.
Representatives from the Centers for Development of Space have been
invited to participate in the planning for commercial ventures aboard
Freedom to fold their payload requirements into the planning efforts.

Corabi International Telemetrics Inc. and NASA/ Office of Commercial
Programs have signed a memorandum of understanding supporting the
commercial development of telemedicine services for Freedom.  Corabi, a
telemedicine systems company based in Alexandria, Va., is interested in
commercially providing a workstation that transmits a high resolution
video image of a patient or sample specimen to a ground workstation
anywhere in the world.

The firm also plans to provide associated equipment and services for
information storage and analysis.  This agreement is expected to lead to a
proposal from Corabi for proof-of-concept Shuttle flights of a prototype
system before considering an agreement involving the Freedom program.


Canadian Government Creates Space Agency

The Canadian government last month created its own space agency, the
Canadian Space Agency (CSA), to manage programs such as the international
Space Station Freedom program and other research projects.

The Canadian government also appointed Larkin Kerwin as CSA's
president-designate.  Kerwin most recently served as Rector of Universite
Laval (Quebec) and as president of the National Research Council of
Canada.

Based in Montreal, the CSA will comprise the executive, administrative and
most research functions as well as the management of Freedom, RADARSAT,
Astronaut and European Space Agency programs.  A liaison office will be
set up in Ottawa, and the David Florida Laboratory and the Space Science
Program will remain in the Ottawa region.

For more information, contact Susan Francis, Space Communications,
Canadian Space Agency, 7th Floor West, 240 Sparks St., Ottawa, Ontario,
Canada K1A1A1, [phone].


Space Science Organizes for the Station

Space Station Freedom will play an important role in the overall science
program of Office of Space Science and Applications (OSSA) for the
foreseeable future.

The NASA administrator recently approved and released to Congress, as
requested, an overall science utilization plan -- the "Space Station
Science and Applications Utilization Plan" (SSSAUP).   The SSSAUP ensures
the coordination of science plans for the U.S. by providing a framework so
U.S. federally-sponsored scientific research in all fields of study will
be integrated by OSSA for implementation by the Office of Space Station
(OSS).  OSSA hopes this process will provide for the optimum use of the
capabilities of Space Station Freedom by the broad U.S. science user
community.

To provide for the integration of the various science requirements and
programs into a cohesive whole, and to interface the OSSA sponsored
science program to the Freedom program, L.A. Fisk, the associate
administrator of OSSA, has assigned programmatic responsibilities for the
space station program to the Flight Systems Division, headed by Robert
Benson.

Within the Flight Systems Division, a Space Station Utilization Branch was
set up to provide the framework to develop integrated OSSA requirements,
to work with the Freedom Program  Office, in Reston, Va., and to provide
for the technical implementation through the capabilities of the NASA
field centers.

The data and communications aspects of science investigations on Freedom
will be planned to take advantage of the tremendous growth in the fields
of electronics communication and distributed systems and capabilities made
possible by the rapid and continually evolving technology in these fields.

Following about six months of planning and analysis of the end-to-end
tasks needed to support the science users in an effective way, OSSA
Spacelab support groups recently have developed a plan to implement the
coordination and management of parallel tasks for Space Station Freedom.

The tasks, known collectively as Science Utilization Management (SUM),
have been generally accepted and endorsed by OSSA.  Appropriate NASA
center assignments and organizations now are being put in place to
implement the SUM functions.

For a copy of the "Space Station Science and Applications Utilization
Plan," contact  Phillip Cressy,  Chief of Space Station Utilization Branch
at [phone].


Space Station's Role in
OSSA's Science Program

NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications (OSSA) is responsible for
planning, directing, executing and evaluating scientific study of the
universe.

OSSA works to solve practical problems on Earth, and provides the
scientific research foundation to expand human presence in space.  OSSA's
integrated program of ground-based laboratory research; sub-orbital
flights of instruments on airplanes, balloons,
and sounding rockets; flight of instruments on the Shuttle/Spacelab
system, or on commercially developed facilities helps meet research needs.

Before the next century, OSSA will have a permanent space-based research
capability aboard Space Station Freedom and the nearby polar platforms.

By late 1996, laboratory modules and attached payload accommodations on
Freedom's manned base will offer periods of many months for experiments
previously tested on shorter Spacelab flights.

In the fields of microgravity sciences, some of this research is expected
to reveal insights into possible applications to ground-based
manufacturing and commerce.  The primary research activities for the
manned base concentrate on human and animal physiology, gravitational
biology, and biotechnology.  These scientific areas can benefit from
extensive low gravity station capabilities and from human supervision and
interaction.

Current shortcomings of limited flight duration on Spacelab missions will
greatly diminish when Space Station Freedom is operating.  No longer will
science needs be constricted within a limited and fixed flight duration.
The ability to interact with experiments and to react to changing
conditions, both in the results of an experiment and the state of nature,
promises to expand scientific knowledge in many science disciplines.

Starting with data gathered on Skylab, to the Space Shuttle, through
extended duration missions on Spacelab, to Space Station Freedom, OSSA
intends to complete the evolutionary study of reaction of biological
systems, including human beings, to low gravity and space radiation.


The Joint Science Utilization Study

An OSSA initiated study is examining ways for the United States and its
foreign partners to avoid duplicating scientific equipment aboard Space
Station Freedom.

Currently, the life sciences and materials sciences programs of the
partners, Canada, Japan and Europe, show a considerable overlap in
facilities planned for Freedom, the Joint Science Utilization Study (JSUS)
reveals.  By sharing some experiment and support equipment, OSSA hopes to
eliminate unnecessary duplication of equipment.  This is important because
volume allocations on the station are limited in comparison with volume
required to support the science planned for station.

Another study, the Multilateral Utilization Study (MUS), led by the
Freedom Program Office, considers pressurized volume payloads and attached
payloads.  The MUS objectives are to produce an international data book
that describes all of the payloads planned for space station, produce
mission guidelines that restrict each partner to his laboratory equipment
as stated in the memorandum of understanding (MOU), and a cooperative
guideline that would allow partners to share equipment, thus eliminating
unnecessary duplication of equipment.

The JSUS, led by OSSA, focuses on the pressurized volume payloads only.
Members of the JSUS are the science representatives of the partner science
organizations.  The objectives of the JSUS are to provide the coordinated
mission set to the MUS, identify opportunities for cooperation and
collaboration with respect to payload and laboratory support equipment,
explore the scientific feasibility of implementing opportunities through
international science discipline working groups, and initiate
collaboration on common issues related to science on Freedom.

A position paper on the benefits of coordination and collaboration,
including international science positions on issues related to science on
the space station, will be written by the end of June.

OSSA has conducted a series of workshops over the past year to develop
science user requirements and identify and examine issues, concerns,
constraints, and approaches for optimum utilization of Freedom.

All of these activities are part of the overall planning process to
optimize the scientific utilization of Freedom.  This planning process
includes identification of functional requirements, identification of
existing capabilities, comparison of needs with existing capabilities,
development of approach(es), evaluation of approach(es), and development
of an integrated OSSA program strategy for space station.  Over the past
year, the emphasis has been on understanding the nature of the projected
science utilization of the station, and the accommodations and resources
needed to achieve that utilization.

Getting Ready for Space Station

Planning and preparation activities for scientific utilization of the
Space Station Freedom advanced significantly in 1988, and will continue
throughout this year.

In February, NASA selected investigations and investigators for the Earth
observing system (Eos) program, a multimission observation program to
study global changes taking place in Earth's environment.  The Eos will
utilize polar orbiting platforms, with the first being developed as part
of the Freedom program.  The Eos mission will create an integrated
scientific observing system enabling a multidisciplinary international
study of Earth, including its atmosphere, oceans, land surfaces, and the
solid Earth.

Selected instrument investigations will provide scientific instruments for
flight on the polar platforms and analysis of resulting data.


NASA Expects to Select
Some Payloads in June

Seventy-two flight and concept proposals for the use of the space station
for experiments during the assembly phase are undergoing evaluation, and
NASA expects to announce its selections in June.

NASA's announcement of opportunity for Space Station Attached Payloads
proposals to use the external truss of the manned base for scientific
investigations, and proposals to use facilities provided by NASA during
the assembly phase of Freedom.

Proposals for concept studies of more demanding investigations and
facilities for flight on the Space Station Freedom after completion of the
assembly phase also were invited.  The flight proposals submitted were in
the disciplines of space physics and astrophysics, although the planetary,
life sciences, and communications disciplines also were represented.


Using Space for Technology Development:
Planning for the Space Station Era

The project manager of the future will have to deal with missions that are
more complex than ever before and that demand the applications of
sophisticated, new technologies, while continuing to operate under severe
money constraints.

In order to respond to this challenge, the technologist must rethink and
plan his role to reduce the project manager's risk of using new
technologies and contribute to mission success.

Experience with Shuttle and free flying satellites as technology test beds
have shown both the feasibility and desirability of using space as a place
for technology development and validation.  For example, the Long Duration
Exposure Facility, to be retrieved this year, will supply data on the
effects of the low earth orbit environment that could not be obtained by
earth-bound simulation and will increase the knowledge of space
construction materials.  Shuttle experiments, such as the deployable solar
array experiment (SAFE) and the EASE-ACCESS structural assembly
experiment, show the value of hands-on interaction by well trained
engineers and scientists who make up the crew.  These experiments also
have trained engineers and scientists and have resulted in the use of
these technologies in the Freedom program.

Such experiments show that technology feasibility tests in orbit are a
relatively low cost way to reduce risk -- and thus the cost of applying
advanced technology to spacecraft projects.  This capability would be
greatly enhanced by a permanent space facility.  Space Station Freedom
will be such a facility and the Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology
plans to use it for technology development.

While the use of ground testing, simulations, and analytical methods will
continue to be a major part of engineering research, there are certain
technology areas, where data acquired in space are expected to be
of great benefit.  These areas are:

* Space Structures (Dynamics and Controls),
* Fluid Management,
* Space Environmental Effects,
* Energy Systems and Thermal Management,
* Information Systems,
* Automation and Robotics, and
* In-Space Operations.

The present in-space experiments program has nearly 50 experiments in
progress.  Most of these are being designed to fly on Shuttle or
expendable launch vehicle, but many will need follow-up experiments that
require long-term crew involvement.

In addition to leading NASA's space Research, Technology and Engineering
effort, the Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology serves as the
liaison for industry and universities to use Freedom and thus help build
it into a national resources equal to the aerodynamic wind tunnels.  As
the space industry matures, it will develop the same kind of successful
partnership with NASA as the NASA and the aviation industry partnership
developed.

For more information, contact the Office of Aeronautics and Space
Technology, Judith H. Ambrus, [phone].