Date: Sat, 3 Oct 92 18:03:38 From: Space Digest maintainer Reply-To: Space-request@isu.isunet.edu Subject: Space Digest V15 #278 To: Space Digest Readers Precedence: bulk Space Digest Sat, 3 Oct 92 Volume 15 : Issue 278 Today's Topics: Electronic Journal of the ASA (EJASA) - October 1992 [Part 1] Welcome to the Space Digest!! Please send your messages to "space@isu.isunet.edu", and (un)subscription requests of the form "Subscribe Space " to one of these addresses: listserv@uga (BITNET), rice::boyle (SPAN/NSInet), utadnx::utspan::rice::boyle (THENET), or space-REQUEST@isu.isunet.edu (Internet). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 17:26:44 GMT From: Larry Klaes Subject: Electronic Journal of the ASA (EJASA) - October 1992 [Part 1] Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.space,sci.misc,sci.skeptic THE ELECTRONIC JOURNAL OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF THE ATLANTIC Volume 4, Number 3 - October 1992 ########################### TABLE OF CONTENTS ########################### * ASA Membership and Article Submission Information * Soviet Spacecraft Docking Experience - Adam R. Brody * First International Conference on Optical SETI - Dr. Stuart A. Kingsley ########################### ASA MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION The Electronic Journal of the Astronomical Society of the Atlantic (EJASA) is published monthly by the Astronomical Society of the Atlantic, Incorporated. The ASA is a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of amateur and professional astronomy and space exploration, as well as the social and educational needs of its members. ASA membership application is open to all with an interest in astronomy and space exploration. Members receive the Journal of the ASA (hardcopy sent through United States Mail - Not a duplicate of this Electronic Journal) and the Astronomical League's REFLECTOR magazine. Members may also purchase discount subscriptions to ASTRONOMY and SKY & TELESCOPE magazines. For information on membership, you may contact the Society at any of the following addresses: 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. asa@chara.gsu.edu ASA BBS: (404) 564-9623, 300/1200/2400 Baud. or telephone the Society Recording at (404) 264-0451 to leave your address and/or receive the latest Society news. ASA Officers and Council - President - Don Barry Vice President - Nils Turner Secretary - Ingrid Siegert-Tanghe Treasurer - Mike Burkhead Directors - Bill Bagnuolo, Eric Greene, Tano Scigliano Council - Bill Bagnuolo, Bill Black, Mike Burkhead, Frank Guyton, Larry Klaes, Ken Poshedly, Jim Rouse, Tano Scigliano, John Stauter, Wess Stuckey, Harry Taylor, Gary Thompson, Cindy Weaver, Bob Vickers 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: klaes@verga.enet.dec.com or - ...!decwrl!verga.enet.dec.com!klaes or - klaes%verga.dec@decwrl.enet.dec.com or - klaes%verga.enet.dec.com@uunet.uu.net You may also use the above addresses for EJASA back issue requests, letters to the editor, and ASA membership information. When sending your article submissions, please be certain to include either a network or regular mail address where you can be reached, a telephone number, and a brief biographical sketch. Back issues of the EJASA are also available from anonymous FTP at chara.gsu.edu (131.96.5.29) DISCLAIMER - Submissions are welcome for consideration. Articles submitted, unless otherwise stated, become the property of the Astronomical Society of the Atlantic, Incorporated. 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). Opinions expressed in the EJASA are those of the authors' and not necessarily those of the ASA. This Journal is Copyright (c) 1992 by the Astronomical Society of the Atlantic, Incorporated. SOVIET SPACECRAFT DOCKING EXPERIENCE Copyright (c) 1991 by Adam R. Brody Sterling Software @ NASA Ames Research Center Any discussion of spacecraft docking operations would be incomplete without mention of the accomplishments that the Soviets have had in this area. In 1991, the Soviets inhabited their eighth Earth-orbiting space station, named MIR. Through July of 1990, the Soviets have had thirty-five successful autonomous dockings in space (Friedman and Heinsheimer, 1990). Cosmonauts inhabit the MIR space station for many months at a time and unmanned vehicles automatically dock for resupply. Most of the information that follows was gleaned from the ALMANAC OF SOVIET MANNED SPACE FLIGHT, by Dennis Newkirk (1990). The Soviets began contemplating spacecraft docking operations when they realized these techniques were necessary for racing the United States to place the first humans on Earth's Moon in the 1960s. Their first plan was an Earth orbital rendezvous (EOR) leading to a lunar fly-by. They were to use the same A-2 boosters and launch facilities being developed for the VOSKHOD (meaning "Sunrise") program and unmanned missions. Each mission would involve five launches. SOYUZ V tankers would automatically rendezvous and dock and then fuel the SOYUZ B rocket waiting in Earth orbit. The manned SOYUZ (meaning "Union") would dock with the fueled rocket and then be launched around the Moon. By 1964, the Soviets realized they were not developing the docking techniques fast enough to beat the U.S. to the Moon. They decided to adopt a direct ascent profile, which involved launching directly from Earth to the Moon, eliminating the need for docking. After a series of unmanned failures, ZOND 5B (meaning "Probe") achieved the first lunar fly-by and return in September of 1968. The spacecraft contained plants, turtles, flies, and worms. Some modifications were needed, however: The returning capsule experienced between ten and sixteen g's (Earth gravities), more than a human could endure. ZOND 6 performed a similar mission in November of that year, but with g-forces reduced by one-half. Technical difficulties delayed the December launch of ZOND 7A (which most likely would have been manned) by one month, allowing the U.S. the first manned lunar orbital mission with APOLLO 8 in December of 1968. The race to the Moon was not without a high cost to both the Soviets and the Americans. On January 27, 1967, during a launch pad rehearsal for APOLLO 1, astronauts Virgil I. Grissom, Edward H. White II, and Roger Chaffee died in a fire which happened aboard their spacecraft. Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov plunged to his death when the SOYUZ 1 parachute shroud lines twisted while returning from Earth orbit in April of 1967. These accidents delayed both the APOLLO and SOYUZ manned launches for over one year. "APOLLO 1 and SOYUZ 1 taught the world that victories in space would be neither easy nor cheap." (Aldrin and McConnell, 1989, page 172) In October of 1967, two SOYUZ vehicles, modified after the SOYUZ 1 tragedy, tested and perfected automatic docking operations. KOSMOS (Cosmos) 188 was launched three days after KOSMOS 186 and completed a rendezvous on the first revolution. KOSMOS 186 became the active vehicle and docked with KOSMOS 188, which was cooperatively main- taining a stable attitude. KOSMOS 186 was the first SOYUZ to have maneuvered in orbit. This was also the first automatic docking and the first to be achieved by unmanned vehicles. Six months later, in April of 1968, KOSMOS 212 and KOSMOS 213 repeated this procedure. Television cameras transmitted the undocking to ground control. These vehicles were essentially stripped-down SOYUZ spacecraft and the procedure they pioneered is similar to what is used today. A brief description follows. Radar contact between the two spacecraft is established in the capture phase. Both vehicles align themselves to a common axis. The chaser vehicle closes with a range rate of about two meters per second at 350 meters. This is about six times faster than suggested by NASA's "0.1 percent rule," which limits approach velocity to no greater than 0.1 percent of the range per second (Sedej and Clarke, 1985; Oberg, 1988). The target vehicle, such as a space station, then uses attitude control rockets to maintain orientation in the mooring phase. The chaser craft extends a probe to effect a soft docking. "The extended probe prevents the airtight seals of the two spacecraft docking collars from being damaged if the initial contact is hard or off-center" (New- kirk, 1990, page J65). The vehicles complete soft docking when small latches on top of the probe catch the center of the drogue. "In the docking phase, the active ship reels its probe in and the ship's butt docking collars make an airtight connection" (Newkirk, 1990, page 66). Latches in both collars hold the spacecraft together so electrical connections for communication and power may then be made. With the unmanned PROGRESS supply spacecraft, refueling connections also are consummated. Springs are used for disengaging. In October of 1968, Colonel Georgiy Beregovoy attempted docking maneuvers in SOYUZ 3. This was the first time the Soviets launched the passive target vehicle, SOYUZ 2, just as the U.S. did in the GEMINI program two years earlier. An automatic system guided SOYUZ 3 from direct ascent to a range within 180 meters. Television cameras transmitted the image of the approaching target to the Soviets. This flight was intended to accomplish the first Soviet manned docking, but all docking attempts failed (Newkirk, 1990). In one instance, ground control directed a maneuver calculated from data transmitted by the rendezvous antennae on each vehicle (Baker, 1982). "Only 10 weeks after SOYUZ 3,...the shortest gap between non- related manned space missions to that time" (Clark, 1988, page 50), the Soviets launched SOYUZ 4. "The launch [sic] of SOYUZ 4 and SOYUZ 5 in January 1969 marked the first winter launch in the Soviet manned space programme, suggesting that the flights had to be urgently completed" (Clark, page 51). Another descendent of the lunar fly-by mission was the first manned docking in January of 1969 with SOYUZ 5. After practicing almost eight hundred dockings in the simulator at Star City, cosmonaut Vladimir Shatalov accomplished an objective of the failed SOYUZ 1 mission, i.e., the first Soviet manned docking. In SOYUZ 4, Shatalov flew a manual approach to within a few kilometers of SOYUZ 5. He then activated the automatic system, which reduced the range to one hundred meters. Shatalov regained control and docked during a live Soviet television broadcast. This docking set a precedent in that it did not occur during the first orbit. The Soviets announced the combined spacecraft "as the world's First Experimental Space Station" (Clark, page 51). Fellow cosmonauts Yevgeniy Khrunov and Aleksey Yeliseyev used the opportunity to perform the first transfer from one spacecraft to another. The SOYUZ spacecraft was later modified for use as a space station ferry. SOYUZ 10 and 11 were the only flights with the original SALYUT ferry. The most important change was the introduction of a crew transfer system, which precluded the necessity to go EVA (Extra- Vehicular Activity) to board the station. The Soviets used Volga trainers to prepare for the docking operations. The Volga consisted of movable mockups of both SOYUZ and SALYUT mounted on rails. They would respond to commands made by the cosmonauts. A television view of the SALYUT was presented to the SOYUZ model's periscope system to give the crew a simulation of an actual approach to the space station (Clark, 1988). While manual control has been relegated to a back-up position for unmanned supply vehicles, the Soviets have utilized manual control for manned dockings to space stations. This began with SOYUZ 10, in April of 1971, which brought the first crew of Vladimir Shatalov, Aleksey Yeliseyev, and Nikolay Rukavishnikov to SALYUT 1. SALYUT 1 (meaning "Salute"), humanity's first true space station, was launched in April of 1971 aboard the Soviet Union's most powerful space launcher, the PROTON, known in the West as the D-1. SALYUT 1 returned to Earth upon burning up in the atmosphere in October of the same year. The SALYUT assisted in the docking maneuver not only by maintaining attitude control, but "also made four orbit changes to match orbit with the approaching SOYUZ" (Newkirk, 1990, page 99). At a range of 180 meters, Shatalov took over control from the automatic system and performed a manual docking. Problems, most likely with the SOYUZ, prevented the crew from boarding. The Soviets and the Americans both advocate manual back-up for automatic docking maneuvers. However, the Soviets only resort to the manual system upon failure of the automatic one, while the Americans tend to use manual control whenever it is available, not just as a back-up control mode. Such is the case with Space Shuttle (and other advanced aircraft) landings, where the mere existence of a manual control capability is cited as a justification for using pilot control instead of the automated system. In an October, 1970 meeting in Moscow, the United States and the Soviets started formulating plans for the APOLLO-SOYUZ Test Project (ASTP). During a June, 1971 meeting in Houston, Texas, "[Boris] Petrov expressed the preference of the Soviet Academy of Sciences for a joint docking flight employing the androgynous docking system" (Baker, 1982, page J408). This could be accomplished either with a SOYUZ docking with a SKYLAB/APOLLO or an APOLLO docking with a SALYUT/SOYUZ. The latter was established as the baseline mission. In June of 1971, SOYUZ 11 was the next (and last) vehicle to dock with SALYUT 1. The automated system reduced the range from six kilometers to 100 meters. Georgi Dobrovolsky then took over control at a range of 100 meters and a velocity of 0.9 meters per second (m/s) (This is nine times faster than suggested by the 0.1 percent rule). By sixty meters, he reduced the range rate to 0.3 m/s. Dobrovolsky then completed the docking maneuver. The crew of SOYUZ 11 became the first to inhabit the space station. After a record twenty-four-day stay in space, the mission ended in disaster when the air in SOYUZ 11 escaped through an open valve eleven minutes before the craft entered the atmosphere. Twelve pyrotechnic devices, used for separation, fired simultaneously rather than sequentially, releasing a seal on the spacecraft's pressure equalization valve. The atmosphere escaped in approximately thirty seconds while the cosmonauts were in the middle of a sixty-second procedure to close the valve manually. All three men suffocated in space. Worst of all, the cosmonauts were not wearing their pressure suits, which was a common procedure during return at the time. Shatalov consequently replaced General Nikolai Kamanin as head of the cosmonaut corps. A redesign of the space station was necessary, but since this would take longer than the SALYUT's lifetime in space to complete, the station was de-orbited. More than two years passed before the next manned Soviet mission. The SOYUZ Ferry was created to bring crews to SALYUT space stations. It contained an automatic rendezvous and docking system known as Igla, or "needle". As in earlier SOYUZ docking missions, both spacecraft maneuvered actively. The SOYUZ Ferry had its first manned flight, SOYUZ 12, in September of 1973. Since both SALYUT 1 and 2 had failed in the previous year, this flight was able only to simulate transport to a space station. SALYUT 2 most likely had an attitude control thruster stuck on and broke up in orbit before it could be manned. SOYUZ 13, launched in December of 1973, was an independent mission and did not dock with a station. SOYUZ 14 was the first operational use of the ferry and took the only SALYUT 3 crew to orbit in July of 1974. Automated rendezvous was used to reduce the range from one thousand meters to within one hundred meters. Pavel Popovich then performed manual docking. This procedure of manual control takeover at approximately 100 meters continued with Alesksei Gubarev on SOYUZ 17 in January of 1975. Pyotr Klimuk performed similarly in May of 1975 with SOYUZ 18B. SOYUZ 19, better know as the APOLLO-SOYUZ Test Project, "was the first Soviet manned launch ever whose time was announced in advance and was the first to be televised live" (Newkirk, 1990, page 140). APOLLO 18 was the active vehicle because of its greater fuel supply. The SOYUZ merely had to maintain a fixed attitude toward the approaching APOLLO and match roll rates during the historic docking in July of 1975. SOYUZ 20 was a test of the PROGRESS automated cargo transport system in November of 1975. PROGRESS 1, however, did not fly until January of 1978. The PROGRESS, based on the SOYUZ, carried twice as much rendezvous and docking instrumentation as the SOYUZ Ferry. A second video camera was mounted on the outside to give ground controllers a stereo view of the automatic docking. "Simultaneous transmissions of telemetry from PROGRESS to SALYUT and the ground enabled both the control center and the cosmonauts to assist with docking if necessary" (Baker, 1982, page 524). PROGRESS 1 took two days approaching SALYUT 6 as SOYUZ 20 had done approaching SALYUT 4. Manned spacecraft typically perform the approach in one day. "Since the PROGRESS was unmanned, the crew did not retreat to the SOYUZ during the docking as when the SOYUZ 27 docked. They instead manned the station's controls ready to maneuver away from the approaching PROGRESS in case of a malfunction" (Newkirk, 1990, page 179). Since the PROGRESS was expendable, plume impingement upon it caused by an emergency SALYUT separation maneuver was not a concern. None of the PROGRESS missions through May of 1988 had any docking problems, although there were occasional problems with manned missions. The SOYUZ T was the replacement for the SOYUZ Ferry. It "included a new computer system and was claimed to be more automated than the earlier SOYUZ variants; however, in flight the cosmonauts often had to take over manual control when the automatic systems apparently malfunctioned during docking maneuvers" (Clark, 1988, page 98). SOYUZ T-1 flew in an unmanned configuration in December of 1979. In June of 1980, the Argon docking computer flew its maiden launch on the first manned SOYUZ T flight, SOYUZ T-2. Argon selected which of several possible approaches to fly to a space station and then flew it with manual override capability. It similarly controlled descent. Its operation required that the crew study computer programming. This training may have saved the mission, as the automated docking system failed at a range of 180 meters from SALYUT 6. "This was a problem which would be regularly repeated during SOYUZ-T missions" (Clark, 1988, page 120). Yuri Malyshev, a rookie cosmonaut, took over control and completed a successful manual docking. Aleksey Yeliseyev explained that the crew and flight controllers had not practiced the approach the computer selected, so the crew decided to take over control to be better prepared in the event of an emergency. The crew claimed the automated system would have been successful if given the opportunity (Newkirk, 1990). SOYUZ 38, the seventh international crew, was launched in September of 1980 with the first black cosmonaut, a Cuban. The automated system controlled not only the rendezvous but also the docking. The next manned flight, SOYUZ T-3, was launched in November of 1980. Its Argon automatic docking system performed the docking maneuver from a range of five kilometers. The Soviets' MIR (meaning both "World" and "Peace") space station evolved from earlier SALYUT designs and was launched in February of 1986. The station contains five docking drogues with a manipulator system that moves incoming modules from the forward port where they have docked to a side port. The Kurs ("Course") docking system was incorporated into the forward port. This eliminated the need for attitude control by the station during the docking maneuver (Newkirk, 1990). Clark (1988) claims the rear port was also outfitted with the Kurs system in addition to the old Igla system, which would accommodate PROGRESS freighters. MIR's first crew was launched March of 1986 on SOYUZ T-15 with live Soviet television coverage. The Igla system controlled the approach to within 200 meters of MIR's aft docking port, which was compatible with SOYUZ T and PROGRESS. Leonid Kizim then flew around to the forward port, which was instrumented with the new Kurs system to be used with SOYUZ TM and STAR modules. The SOYUZ was incapable of automatic docking at the forward port. However, the laser range finder that was first used on the SOYUZ T-13 flight in June of 1985 aided Kizim. Kizim completed a manual docking from an initial range of sixty meters. In May, the crew performed the first station-to-station transfer by flying over to SALYUT 7 to reactivate it. Again, the hand-held laser range finder was used to generate range data. The automatic system was used from five kilometers until Kizim took over manual control and docked. The crew returned to MIR at the end of June. After the crew used the Igla rendezvous system to reduce the range from 200 meters, Kizim took over control at a range of fifty meters from the rear docking port and maneuvered to dock at the forward port. The Kurs rendezvous system was demonstrated in May of 1986 with an unmanned SOYUZ TM-1. This system does not require target vehicle transponders and can dock with a station at any relative attitude. It "makes contact with the station at a range of 200 km and docking lock-on begins at 20 to 30 km distance" (Newkirk, 1990, page 313). Kurs presents closing rate data from the docking radar to the cosmonauts. On March 31, 1987, the KVANT ("Quantum") module, the first to be sent to MIR, was launched one degree out of plane with MIR in an approach similar to that of STAR modules. During its approach to MIR on April 5, the cosmonauts were suited up in the SOYUZ TM in case of a collision. The spacecraft started its approach at seventeen kilometers distance using the old Igla docking system. At 500 meters distance, the KVANT's forward docking camera was activated and the docking probe extended. When KVANT was only 200 meters from the station and preparing for final docking maneuvers, Flight Director Ryumin radioed to the cosmonauts that KVANT had lost its lock-on to MIR's docking transponders. "[KVANT drifted slightly and] was rotating slightly as it passed within 10 meters of MIR" (Newkirk, 1990, pages 321-322). "The KVANT thrusters failed to slow down the module and it flew past MIR" (Clark, 1988, page J155). Mission controllers spent several days analyzing the problem during which time the KVANT drifted to a range of 400 kilometers. Ground controllers brought KVANT back to the vicinity of MIR. The Igla automatic docking system was activated at a range of twenty-two kilometers. Lock-on to MIR's docking transponder signal was achieved. At a range of one thousand meters, the approach velocity was 2.5 meters per second (This is 2.5 times the rate suggested by NASA's 0.1 percent rule). The relative velocity was decreased to 0.32 meters per second at 26 meters (12.3 times the 0.1 percent rule rate of 0.026 meters per second). Soft docking was achieved within twenty-one minutes of Igla lock-on. During the docking of PROGRESS 33 in November of 1987, the Soviets experimented with new station orienting procedures since the Igla system, used by the PROGRESS, required active maneuvering by the target vehicle. Typical fuel expenditures for docking a PROGRESS to MIR were approximately 192 kilograms using the old system. "The new Igla procedure reduced this amount to about 82 kg" (Newkirk, 1990, page 322). The first launch of the PROGRESS M, a modified PROGRESS, occurred in August of 1989. It has an increased on-orbit stay time, "an improved automated docking system and also is able to transfer unused fuel to the space station" (Rains, 1990b, page 8). The PROGRESS M also possesses a return capsule, which was successfully tested on the PROGRESS M5 mission in November of 1990 (Kiernan, 1990). Docking Failures Despite their great experience with docking both manned and unmanned spacecraft, the Soviets have had several failures during docking maneuvers. Failures occurred with SOYUZ 15 in August of 1974, SOYUZ 23 in October of 1976, SOYUZ 25 in October of 1977, SOYUZ 33 in April of 1979, and SOYUZ T-8 in April of 1983. The failure of SOYUZ 15 to dock with SALYUT 3 was due either to a repeated system failure to initiate the manual control phase at a range of 100 meters (Clark, 1988), or "the automatic system malfunctioned twice, pushing the ship out of control with excessive engine burns while only 30 to 50 meters from the station" (Newkirk, 1990, page 128). With a limited battery and fuel supply, the vehicle had to de-orbit when the docking failed. In October of 1976, SOYUZ 23 was aborted because of a malfunction in the automatic docking system. This occurred before the range of the SOYUZ to the SALYUT 5 station was reduced to 100 meters. Since the crew of Vyacheslav Zudov and Veleri Rozhdestvenski were trained to take over from 100 meters, but not before, the crew were forced to land as soon as possible. The manual back-up mode was not extensive enough to save this mission. As the Tass news agency reported: "The spaceship SOYUZ 23 was put into the automatic regime for the approach to SALYUT 5. Docking with the SALYUT 5 station was canceled because of an unplanned operation of the approach control system of the ship" (Clark, 1988, page 74). Viktor Grobatko flew a successful docking of SOYUZ 24 in February of 1977 after taking over control at a range of eighty meters. The Soviets' success was short-lived, however, as failure plagued SOYUZ 25 in October of that year. Vladimir Kovalyonok began the docking maneuver from 120 meters, but five docking attempts to the SALYUT 6 station failed, due to a faulty docking fixture on the SOYUZ. As the news release stated: "At 07.09 [sic] Moscow Time today [10 October] the automatic rendezvous of the SOYUZ 25 ship and the SALYUT 6 station was begun. From a distance of 120 metres, the vehicles performed a docking maneuver. Due to deviations from the planned procedure for docking, the link-up was called off. The crew has begun making preparations for a return to Earth (Clark, 1988, pages 104-105)." While soft docking was achieved, hard docking enabling electrical connections to be made was not. This failure resulted in the prohibition of all-rookie crews. Romanenko and Ivanchenkov from the all-rookie back-up crew were each paired with veteran cosmonauts. SOYUZ 33, with the fourth international crew (Bulgaria), was launched in April of 1979. The Igla system was implemented at a range of nine kilometers. While approaching a range of one kilometer from SALYUT 6, the SOYUZ automatically fired its main engine for only three of its scheduled six seconds, causing tremendous shaking. The second attempt with Igla also failed when it immediately shut down the engine. As Tass reported: "During the process of approach there occurred deviations from the regular mode of operation of the approach correc- ting propulsion unit of the SOYUZ 33 spacecraft, and the docking of the craft with the SALYUT 6 was aborted" (Clark, 1988, page 114). The Soviets determined the problem to reside in the SOYUZ main engine, which was terminating thrust upon a failure to attain normal combustion pressure. This was the first on-orbit failure of the SOYUZ propulsion system. The crew returned to Earth without docking. This amounted to the second failed visit to a SALYUT for Nikolay Rukavish- nikov, the Soviets' first civilian commander. As a result, the SOYUZ 32 crew in SALYUT 6 did not receive supplies until PROGRESS 6 brought them in May. Another failure occurred in April of 1983 with the aborted SOYUZ T-8 mission. Although the launch shroud accidentally removed the rendezvous radar antenna, mission controllers decided to violate their own rules and let Vladimir Titov attempt an optical rendezvous from ten kilometers. This had never been done before by the Soviets and was particularly risky since Titov later claimed he had not previously trained for manual approach and docking. Flight directors assisted Titov by computing the range rate after Titov reported SALYUT size estimates. After a range of 330 meters was passed, the SOYUZ slipped out of contact with the ground. Without his range rate source, Titov was not sure of his closing rate. Although he was able to reduce his range to 75 meters with the aid of the SOYUZ's floodlight, he approached at too high a velocity and, fearing a collision, fired thrusters to change orbits and abort the docking (Newkirk, 1990). There had been ten manned launches to SALYUT 1, 3, 4, and 5. Of these, one had failed to reach orbit (SOYUZ 18A), two had failed to dock with their SALYUTs (SOYUZ 15 and 23), one had docked but the crew was unable to transfer to their SALYUT (SOYUZ 10), and one crew had perished during their return to Earth (SOYUZ 11). This left the Soviets with a fifty percent success rate if we deem SOYUZ 21 as a successful mission, even though it was terminated earlier than planned. From 1977 to 1981 there were sixteen SOYUZ spacecraft launched towards SALYUT 6. Of these only one failed to dock (SOYUZ 33) and one docked but the crew could not transfer (SOYUZ 25). In addition, there were four launches of SOYUZ T craft, twelve launches of PROGRESS craft, and the KOSMOS 1267 mission, all of which successfully docked with SALYUT 6. The success rate for SALYUT 6 was ninety-four percent (Clark, 1988, pages 126-127). Docking Recoveries Not all failures resulted in the loss of the mission. During the SOYUZ T-6 mission in June of 1982, cosmonaut Vladimir Dzhanibekov rescued the docking with a manual maneuver after the automatic system failed. After turning the spacecraft around to perform the braking maneuver, at nine hundred meters from SALYUT 7, the Argon computer failed and would not realign with the station. Dzhanibekov disconnected the computer and maneuvered the SOYUZ along all three axes to resume pointing at the station. His successful docking from such a far range under manual control was a major achievement (Newkirk, 1990). The regular failure of the SOYUZ T system during final approach was usually followed by manual recovery and presumably led to computer improvements in the SOYUZ TM spacecraft (Clark, 1988). Vladimir Dzhanibekov was no stranger to docking operations: The SOYUZ T-6 mission was his third. After five flights he was the Soviet Union's most experienced cosmonaut. He was the first cosmonaut to fly more than three space missions. Dzhanibekov served as back-up commander to Alexei Leonov (the first man to "walk" in space during the VOSKHOD 2 mission of 1965) for ASTP. He did not fly in space until January of 1978 with the SOYUZ 27 mission, where he achieved the first double docking with a manned space station. In March of 1981, Dzhanibekov flew his second flight in SOYUZ 39 with Mongolian cosmonaut Jugerdemidiin Gurragcha. In July of 1984, on SOYUZ T-12, he accompanied Svetlana Savitskaya in the first extra-vehicular activity (EVA) by a female (Hillyer, 1986). As prime commander of the SOYUZ T-13 mission, Dzhanibekov had the privilege of testing a new manual docking system in June of 1985. The primary purpose of this flight was to rescue SALYUT 7 after it had lost all power and was tumbling aimlessly in Earth orbit. As Dzhanibekov said: "There were great difficulties with preparation for docking with this object. The station seemed to us as a dead space object and nothing more. And specialists were afraid that it would rotate in space at too high a speed in three axes. So we had to train and to find out this optimum way to maneuver around the station to find the best light conditions of the Sun. And of course to train our hand... everything had to be done manually" (Hillyer, 1986, page 17). Equipped with a laser range finder, Dzhanibekov compared the measured range to SALYUT 7 with the range computed by his spacecraft. At ten kilometers, Dzhanibekov interrupted the automated approach to input SALYUT 7 attitude data into the SOYUZ docking computer. The automatic approach resumed until "3 km distance, at a rate of 12, and later 6 meters/second when Dzhanibekov took control" (Newkirk, 1990, page 270). At three kilometers, "there started to be a difference between our measurements and the radar-calculated data. So I had to take the handles and step in to direct manually" (Hillyer, 1986, page 17). "At 2 km, the crew used a new optical guidance system, hand-held laser range finder and a night vision instrument, to see and measure distance to the station" (Newkirk, page 270). At a range of two hundred meters, Dzhanibekov nulled the approach velocity because the Sun was behind the station, making visibility poor. For ten minutes he circled the station on damage patrol. Then, in a roll-matching maneuver, he docked with the station. "Later Dzhanibekov would say, 'Docking is like driving a seven-ton truck with fragile freight on an icy road into a narrow gate at the end of this road'" (Kramer, 1990, page 57). The docking was successful and Dzhanibekov has similar opinions about manual control as APOLLO 11 astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin: "He shares Aldrin's skepticism about automated systems and claims that manual control gives the ability to 'operate in [a] wider range'" (Hillyer, page 18). SALYUT 7 entered Earth's atmosphere on February 7, 1991 ("Soviet SALYUT 7", 1991, page 15). The SALYUT 7-KOSMOS 1686 system was the largest object (43 tons) to re-enter since SKYLAB re-entered over Australia on July 11, 1979. The SALYUT's demise was accelerated by a peak in solar flare activity during 1989. Earth's atmosphere was heated by the flares and subsequently rose, causing more drag on the SALYUT (and other spacecraft in Earth orbit) than would have occurred with a less active Sun. Admittedly, one of the main reasons for manual control is emotional or political: Namely, pilots would rather fly than watch. However, the successful rescues mentioned previously would not have been possible without human intervention. Another recovery was made with SOYUZ TM-5 (the thirteenth international crew, a Bulgarian) in June of 1988. Although the Kurs system malfunctioned during the final approach, flight controllers diagnosed the problem and a successful docking was completed within two days of the launch. In June of 1990, a docking recovery was achieved with an unmanned vehicle. Docking of the KRISTALL ("Crystal") module with the MIR space station was automatically aborted when a KRISTALL computer discovered a malfunction in one of its attitude control thrusters. Ground controllers used a backup set of thrusters to complete the docking operation successfully (Rains, 1990a). References - Aldrin, Edwin B., and M. McConnell, MEN FROM EARTH, Bantam Books, New York, 1989 Baker, D., THE HISTORY OF MANNED SPACE FLIGHT, Crown Publishers, Inc., New York, 1982 Clark, Phillip, THE SOVIET MANNED SPACE PROGRAM, Orion Books, New York, 1988 Friedman L. H., and T. Heinsheimer, "Build a U.S.-Soviet Team for Mars", SPACE NEWS, July 2-8, 1990, pages 15-16 Hillyer, M. S., "Cosmonauts Have the Right Stuff, Too: A Conver- sation with Vladimir Dzhanibekov", SPACE WORLD, September, 1986, pages 17-20 Kiernan, V., "New PROGRESS Capsule Completes Successful Sample- Return Mission", SPACE NEWS, December 3-9, 1990, page 28 Kramer, S. B., "The Rescue of SALYUT 7", AIR & SPACE SMITHSONIAN, February/March, 1990, pages 54-59 Newkirk, Dennis, ALMANAC OF SOVIET MANNED SPACE FLIGHT, Gulf Publishing Company, Houston, Texas, 1990 Oberg, James E., RENDEZVOUS AND PROXIMITY OPERATIONS HANDBOOK, (JSC-10589), NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center Mission Operations Directorate Flight Design and Dynamics Division, Houston, Texas, 1988 Rains, L., "KRISTALL, MIR Dock on Second Try; Space Walk Next", SPACE NEWS, June 10-16, 1990a, pages 1, 4, 21 Rains, L., "Soviets Seek to Solve MIR Bottleneck with PROGRESS M", SPACE NEWS, September 10-16, 1990b, page 8 Sedej, D. T., and S. F. Clarke, RENDEZVOUS AND PROXIMITY OPERATIONS WORKBOOK (RNDZ 2102), NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center Mission Operations Directorate Training Division Flight Training Branch, Houston, Texas, 1985 "Soviet SALYUT 7", AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY, February 11, 1991, page 15 Related EJASA Articles - "The Great Moon Race: The Soviet Story, Part One", by Andrew J. LePage - December 1990 "The Great Moon Race: The Soviet Story, Part Two", by Andrew J. LePage - January 1991 "The Great Moon Race: New Findings", by Andrew J. LePage - May 1991 About the Author - Adam R. Brody received S.B. and S.M. degrees in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a diploma as a member of the founding conference of the International Space University (ISU). Adam also received his M.A. degree in Psychology from San Jose State University in California. Adam is a senior aerospace engineer/experimental psychologist for Sterling Software, Palo Alto, California. Among the NASA Ames Research Center organizations with which he has worked are the Centrifuge Facility Project Office, Human Interface Research Branch, EVA Systems Branch, and the Aerospace Human Factors Research Division. Adam is the author of over thirty-five research papers on various topics relating to performance aspects of humans in space. Adam pioneered a comprehensive study of the human factors and manual control aspects of orbital flight and he developed the Space Station Proximity Operations Simulator at Ames for his studies. He also initiated a research program to quantify EVA rescue requirements, and created of an orbital trajectory planning tool for the Macintosh computer system. Adam's research interests include the human factors and manual control requirements of space station proximity operations and other manned space flight operations. Recent work includes development and simulation of an EVA self-rescue technique using the Virtual Interactive Environmental Workstation (VIEW). Currently, he serves as the human factors expert on the systems engineering staff of the Centrifuge Facility Project Office at Ames, where he developed the Payload Resource In Space Monitor (PRISM) for tracking resources on the FREEDOM space station. He is currently using object-oriented rapid prototyping to develop software requirements for the space station facility. Adam is a member of the Space Operations and Support Technical Committee of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, where he is chairman of the Human Factors, Automation and Robotics Sub-committee. He is also a member of the National Air and Space Museum, the Union of Concerned Scientists, a founding sponsor of the CHALLENGER Center, and a charter member of the Technology Center of Silicon Valley. His biography is listed in Personalities of America, the Dictionary of International Biography, Who's Who of Emerging Leaders in America, Who's Who Among Young American Professionals, and Who's Who in the West. Adam may be reached through E-mail at brody@eos.arc.nasa.gov FIRST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON OPTICAL SETI Dr. Stuart A. Kingsley From the author of the January 1992 six-part EJASA article (Vol. 3, No. 6A-6F) on Optical SETI (OSETI): As a result of that article and floppy disk versions that I mailed to key members of the laser communications community, I was asked during the summer by Dr. David L. Begley of Ball Aerospace Systems Group, to organize a conference on Optical SETI for SPIE (The International Society of Optical Engineering). This was originally planned to be a single session in SPIE's Free-Space Laser Communication Technologies V conference, chaired by Dr. Stephen Mecherle of TRW, Inc. Twelve months ago, I would not have believed that one year after publication of the EJASA article, we would be in the position to organize what is effectively, though unofficially, the First International Conference on Optical SETI. Even though the summer vacation period was a difficult time to organize a conference, I was able to get so many papers at short notice, that the single session was extended into a dedicated conference with three sessions and a separate published proceedings (approximately 200 pages). The latter will be available (hopefully) shortly after the conference and will constitute the first publication on this subject. The OSETI conference follows on immediately after the Free-Space Laser Communication Technologies V conference. This event will be of particular interest to laser communications scientists and engineers. It presents the opportunity to help resolve the dichotomy within NASA that while lasers are fine for GEO to GEO, GEO to LEO, deep-space and interstellar communications, ETIs would not use such technology to signal emerging technical civilizations (us). The first session has been devised to bring the laser communications community up to speed on Microwave (Conventional) SETI (MSETI) and general SETI related matters. The second and third sessions are specifically devoted to Optical SETI topics. Since I thought it important to get a variety of opinions as to the veracity of SETI and the efficacy of the optical approach, I have included many shades of opinion. We are fortunate in being able to have Arthur C. Clarke kick off this conference from his home in Sri Lanka. We are working to set up a live international satellite link with Arthur C. Clarke but at a minimum we will have a video-taped address. These days, Clarke's health precludes extensive travelling. We are also investigating the possibility that NASA Select TV could cover the entire conference on a live or taped-delayed basis. If you cannot attend this conference but would like to see it transmitted by NASA Select, write to SPIE and NASA Headquarters requesting this coverage. The more people lobby for this the more likely we will get the cooperation of the concerned parties. For those with a TVRO (TeleVision Receive Only) satellite dish, NASA Select TV is available on Satcom F2R (72 W), Transponder 13. The "Grand Old Man" of SETI, Dr. Bernard M. Oliver, who is extremely ------------------------------ End of Space Digest Volume 15 : Issue 278 ------------------------------