Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site ucbvax.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!ihnp4!ucbvax!rover.ri.cmu.edu!Hans.Moravec From: Hans.Moravec@ROVER.RI.CMU.EDU Newsgroups: net.space Subject: Exploration Message-ID: <497455851.hpm@ROVER.RI.CMU.EDU> Date: Sun, 6-Oct-85 10:10:00 EDT Article-I.D.: ROVER.497455851.hpm Posted: Sun Oct 6 10:10:00 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 7-Oct-85 06:05:09 EDT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.ARPA Organization: The ARPA Internet Lines: 239 a295 2017 05 Oct 85 BC-APN--Exploring Universe, adv20-2 Takes,1206 $adv 20 AGENCIES AND RADIO OUT For release Sun., Oct. 20 >From AP Newsfeatures APN PRINT SUBSCRIBERS HAVE BEEN MAILED ONE PHOTO EDITOR'S NOTE - The United States led the way in space exploration for two decades before Washington started cutting back NASA's funds in the late 1970s. The nation seemed ready to relinquish its leadership in space to the Soviet Union and two emerging space powers, Japan and the 10-nation European Space Agency. But then President Reagan discovered space, and became a fan. By HOWARD BENEDICT AP Aerospace Writer CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - An international armada of unmanned spaceships is streaking toward a rendezvous with Halley's comet over seven days next March. Two are Soviet, two are Japanese, one is European. None is American. The United States, the world's leading space-faring nation, will be on the sidelines for the most examined, most studied and most photographed celestial event in history as the celebrated comet makes an appearance near the sun, something it does only once every 76 years. True, the United States will view the comet from afar with instruments aboard two space shuttle missions, on Earth-orbiting satellites, and on a seven-year-old spacecraft that is orbiting Venus. And American scientists are directing an International Halley Watch, which will help coordinate the flights and findings of the five spacecraft. But it's not the same as having a ringside seat. America is not going to Halley's comet because the Carter administration cut funds for such a project in 1979 and the Reagan administration did the same two years later. That was a period of sinking budgets for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. And most of the funds NASA got went into shoring up the lagging space shuttle program. Science was the loser. And after two decades in which the United States led the way in probing the planets, the stars and distant galaxies, this nation seemed ready to relinquish that leadership to the Soviets and two emerging space powers, Japan and the 10-nation European Space Agency. But then President Reagan discovered space, and became a fan. NASA's budgets improved, boosting space science, and in 1984 the president directed the agency to develop a permanent manned space station within a decade. Among its functions, the station will serve as an orbiting science laboratory. Reagan said the station would enable the United States to maintain its space leadership. But the Soviets also are developing a permanent manned station, and should have it in orbit several years before the American facility. And they are pursuing an aggressive space program, even though their technology trails that of the Americans. Soviet planetary exploration has been limited by technology to the close-in planets Venus and Mars, while U.S. spacecraft have probed Venus, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn. Voyager 2, which reconnoitered Jupiter in 1979 and Saturn in 1981, will rendezvous with Uranus next January and with Neptune in 1989, leaving faraway Pluto as the only uncharted planet. The American advantage is the use of miniature components, high-powered upper-stage rockets, and nuclear generators to power the probes. Steered by tiny gas jets, these robot spacecraft with names like Mariner, Pioneer, Viking, Voyager, Venera and Mars have traveled to exotic landscapes stranger than any myth or legend. At their destinations, some skimmed close, snapping pictures and gathering a few days of data before soaring toward another planet or into interstellar space. Some orbited their targets to examine them at length, and some descended to the surface to study mysteries there. Humans as a result have caught their first close views of the great storm systems and rings of Jupiter; the active volcanoes on its salt-covered moon, Io; the parched and cratered wasteland of Mercury; ancient river bottoms, raging winds and a volcano almost 80,000 feet high on Mars; sulfuric acid clouds, lightning, an active volcano and hellish temperatures on Venus; the thousand rings and tantalizing moons of Saturn, and several stars that may be centers of solar systems like our own. From these flights, scientists are assembling a vast mosaic about the solar system and its intricate workings. A basic goal is to learn more about planet Earth, fitting it into the cosmic puzzle that is the origin, the evolution and the structure of the universe. Roald Sagdeyev, director of the Soviet Institute of Space Research, says the American and Soviet roles in planetary exploration, although not coordinated, are clearly defined by the relative technology of the two nations. With much better electronic miniaturization and long-lived spacecraft, he says, the United States is more suited to probe the distant planets, while the Soviets concentrate on those closer in. ''This approach is quite complimentary because both sides share their data,'' he said. Sagdeyev noted the Soviets postponed Mars exploration after America's 1976 Viking landers ''made an important contribution to Martian science.'' He added that ''everybody now must stop and think about what the next approach should be.'' The United States has not launched a planetary explorer since 1978. In that period, the Soviets have dispatched eight, all to Venus. Sagdeyev said the Americans, with their expertise, are playing the role of coordinators of International Halley Watch. ''There should be such an international division of duties,'' he said. ''If everybody would be rushing toward Halley's comet, there would be a traffic jam.'' Sagdeyev says comets are debris left over from the creation of the solar system some 4.6 billion years ago and contain primordial matter in pristine form. ''They preserve the matter in its original state,'' he says. ''It could tell us much about the birth and history of the solar system.'' One of the two Soviet spacecraft will be the first to fly near Halley's comet. But it won't be the first to probe a comet. Some innovative thinking by a group of NASA scientists produced that first for the United States. The scientists mounted a bargain basement mission to the comet Giacobini-Zinner, using a satellite that had been in space since 1978, studying solar particles while orbiting the sun about half a million miles ahead of the Earth. They guided the International Sun-Earth Explorer, called ISEE, close to the moon, allowing lunar gravity to deflect the craft onto a path that took it 44 million miles out to Giacobini-Zinner. ICEE, renamed ICE, for Interplanetary Comet Explorer, but pronounced the same, passed through the comet's tail, 4,500 miles behind the nucleus, on Sept. 11. Scientists will spend months studying the information radioed from the probe. Among early observations: The tail was about 15,000 miles wide, three times greater than expected, and charged particles of water and carbon monoxide were detected, confirming what most scientists have suspected, that comets are basically large chunks of ice and dust. ICE survived the dash through the comet's tail and is on a path that will take it within 18 million miles of Halley's comet in March. But that's a far cry from the near approaches of the Soviet, Japanese and European craft. The European Giotto will come the closest, about 300 miles. In discussing the American space science program, Sagdeyev expressed envy over a very sophisticated Hubble Space Telescope that is to be launched next year to peer deep into the universe. ''We are very jealous of this type of project I must confess,'' he said. ''It is a very giant step forward.'' The telescope's 9-foot-diameter mirror, orbiting above Earth's obscuring atmosphere, will be able to see objects 50 times fainter and resolve objects 10 times smaller than any optical telescope has been able to do so far. It is one of three major science spacecraft NASA plans to launch from space shuttles next year. The most exciting month will be May when shuttles Challenger and Atlantis will be poised on adjacent launch pads at Cape Canaveral, to be launched six days apart, on dates determined by celestial mechanics. Challenger is to lift off May 15 with Ulysses, a joint U.S.-European craft intended to be the first to go into solar orbit around the poles of the sun. Atlantis is to blast off May 21 with Galileo, which is to intercept the asteroid 29 Amphitrite in December 1986 and then fly on to orbit Jupiter in 1988, dropping an instrumented probe into that planet's atmosphere. Other major NASA missions planned in the next few years are a Cosmic Background Explorer to search for the ''Big Bang'' origin of the universe, to be launched in 1987; a Venus Radar Mapper to provide a geological history of Venus, in 1988; a Gamma Ray Observatory to study stars and galaxies, also in 1988; a Mars Observer to determine the surface composition of Mars, in 1990; a Comet Rendezvous and Asteroid Flyby Satellite, with targets to be selected, in 1991, and a Titan Probe and Radar Mapper to chart the atmospheric chemistry and surface of the largest of Saturn's moons, in 1993. The Soviets have announced they also are planning several deep space shots, including a 1988 flight of two laser-equipped Mars spacecraft to land on two Martian moons, Phobos and Demos, and vaporize surface material for analysis; a 1989 moon orbiter to geochemically map the entire lunar surface, and the 1991 launch of two craft, one which is to intercept an asteroid and the other to drop a landing probe on Venus and then continue on to another asteroid. Manned spaceships are playing an increasing role in space science studies. On the space shuttle, this has been most evident with the three flights so far of the European-built Spacelab, carried in the cargo bay. On its most recent mission, in July, five scientists in the seven-person crew conducted extensive studies of the sun, stars and Earth's atmosphere. Many more Spacelab flights are planned with foreign astronauts aboard, including a late October journey which will have two West Germans and a Dutchman in the crew. NASA plans other non-Spacelab science missions on the shuttle, including two directed at Halley's comet. In late January, astronauts will deploy the Spartan satellite, with two ultraviolet telescopes to study the comet's chemical composition. In March, four astronomers aboard another shuttle flight will observe the comet with Astro-1, a package of three ultraviolet telescopes and two cameras. Cosmonauts orbiting for long periods aboard a series of small Salyut space stations have conducted science work, although most of their tasks are believed directed toward military objectives, materials processing experiments and learning how the human body functions in long-term weightlessness. One crew remained in orbit for 237 days. When the Soviets and Americans orbit their permanent space stations, each will have laboratory modules for astronomy and other science projects. The American goal is to have its station in place by 1992, the 500th anniversary of Columbus' discovery of the New World. U.S. observers believe the Soviets are close to launching the central core of their permanent station, but are awaiting readiness of a huge rocket in a class with the Saturn 5 which boosted American astronauts to the moon. The Russian rocket has been on a launch pad for several months undergoing tests and it's thought to be having technical problems. The American station initially will have six to eight persons on board, while the Soviets have indicated their first complement will be about 12. Space planners of both nations have talked about using a station as a steppingstone to establish a lunar science base and to mount a manned expedition to Mars. Lately, there has been increased discussion about the United States and the Soviet Union joining in establishing a lunar station or in going to Mars. President Reagan has suggested as a starter that astronauts and cosmonauts participate in a joint space rescue demonstration. The topic may be discussed at the president's November summit meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev. In 1975, there was a linkup in space between three astronauts and two cosmonauts. Sagdeyev said he was disappointed there was no follow-up to that flight. ''I would like to see joint enterprises in space - not necessarily joint manned flights,'' he said. Planetary Society president Carl Sagan says a joint superpower flight to Mars ''could have a powerful function in raising hope on Earth and providing an aperture to a benign future.'' Thomas O. Paine, a former NASA administrator who heads a presidential National Commission on Space, had this to say about the proposed venture: ''When you look at Mars, you cannot help but realize that Mars is not going to be settled as a national enterprise. Indeed, that would be grossly unfair to mankind as a whole. ''Everybody will want to participate and I think it is up to us to provide the leadership...But I think we must make available participation in this great adventure to all men, everywhere. ''And certainly, in banding together of all mankind to bring life throughout the inner solar system, this cannot help but bring to our home planet many benefits, not only in technology but also...in trying to develop here a more peaceful, more cooperative, more forward-looking and more humane planet Earth.'' END ADV AP-NY-10-05-85 2348EDT ***************