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I S S U E 5 V O L U M E 4 5

T H E M A G A Z I N E O F T H E A M E R I C A NA S T R O N A U T I C A L S O C I E T Y

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006

2 SPACE TIMES • September/October 2006

T H E M A G A Z I N E O F T H E A M E R I C A N A S T R O N A U T I C A L S O C I E T Y

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006

ISSUE 5 – VOLUME 45

6352 Rolling Mill Place, Suite 102Springfield, VA 22152-2354 U.S.A.Phone: 703-866-0020 Fax: [email protected] www.astronautical.org

AAS OFFICERSPRESIDENT

Mark K. Craig, SAICEXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT

Peggy Finarelli, Finarelli AssociatesVICE PRESIDENT–TECHNICAL

Arun K. Misra, McGill UniversityVICE PRESIDENT–PROGRAMS

Barbara B. PfarrVICE PRESIDENT–PUBLICATIONS

Ronald J. Proulx, Charles Stark Draper LaboratoryVICE PRESIDENT–MEMBERSHIP

Steven D. Harrison, Northrop GrummanVICE PRESIDENT–EDUCATION

John E. Cochran, Jr., Auburn UniversityVICE PRESIDENT–FINANCE

Michael F. Zedd, Naval Research LaboratoryVICE PRESIDENT–INTERNATIONAL

Lyn D. Wigbels, Rice Wigbels InternationalVICE PRESIDENT–PUBLIC POLICY

Ian Pryke, CAPR, George Mason UniversityLEGAL COUNSEL

Franceska O. Schroeder, Fish & Richardson P.C.EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

James R. Kirkpatrick, AAS

AAS BOARD OF DIRECTORSTERM EXPIRES 2006Shannon Coffey, Naval Research LaboratoryAshok Deshmukh, Technica Inc.Angela P. DiazGraham Gibbs, Canadian Space AgencyRobert E. Lindberg, National Institute of AerospaceG. David Low, Orbital Sciences CorporationArthur F. ObenschainTodd Probert, Honeywell Technology Solutions, Inc.Frank A. Slazer, The Boeing CompanyTrevor C. Sorensen, University of Kansas

TERM EXPIRES 2007Paul J. Cefola, MIT/ConsultantMichael L. CianconeJohn W. Douglass, Aerospace Industries AssociationG. Allen FlyntRobert G. Melton, Penn State UniversityLinda V. Moodie, NOAAArnauld Nicogossian, George Mason UniversityFrederic Nordlund, European Space AgencyJames A. Vedda, The Aerospace CorporationThomas L. Wilson

TERM EXPIRES 2008Peter M. Bainum, Howard UniversityJohn C. Beckman, Jet Propulsion LaboratoryDavid A. Cicci, Auburn UniversityLynn F. H. ClineNancy S. A. Colleton, Institute for Global

Environmental StrategiesRoger D. Launius, Smithsonian InstitutionJonathan T. Malay, Lockheed Martin CorporationClayton Mowry, Arianespace, Inc.Kathy J. Nado, Computer Sciences CorporationRichard M. Obermann, House Committee on Science

SPACE TIMES EDITORIAL STAFFEDITOR, Jonathan M. Krezel

PHOTO & GRAPHICS EDITOR, Dustin DoudPRODUCTION MANAGER, Cathy L. EledgeBUSINESS MANAGER, James R. Kirkpatrick

SPACE TIMES is published bimonthly by the AmericanAstronautical Society, a professional non-profit society. SPACETIMES is free to members of the AAS. Individual subscriptionscan be ordered from the AAS Business Office. © Copyright2006 by the American Astronautical Society, Inc. Printed in theUnited States of America.

PERIODICALSSPACE TIMES, magazine of the AAS, bimonthly,volume 45, 2006—$80 domestic, $95 foreignThe Journal of the Astronautical Sciences, quarterly, volume54, 2006—$160 domestic, $180 foreignTo order these publications, contact the AAS business office.

REPRINTSSee a story you’d like to share? Reprints are available for allarticles in SPACE TIMES and for all papers published in TheJournal of the Astronautical Sciences.

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGEAAS and the Flow of Discovery 3

FEATURESLunar Interferometery: The Future Home of Astronomy 4A little over forty years ago, the Moon was an alien place, still untouchedby the hand of man. With the dawn of the space age, humanity’s view ofthe Moon began to change. No longer was the Moon merely a barrenexpanse of dust and rock; now it was possible for the Moon to serve asa springboard for further human activity in space and a platform foradvanced astronomical observations. The first step could lie in placing astructure, an observatory, on the Moon that can be robotically controlled.One kind of observatory that may be ideally suited to the lunar surface isan array of interferometric telescopes.by Megan C. Kirk

A Leader from Apollo: Rocco Petrone 8Rocco A. Petrone, 80, an Apollo-era NASA executive known for histoughness and drive to see NASA succeed, passed away August 24at his home in Palos Verdes Estates, CA.by Richard Faust

Visualizing the Vision 19Turning engineering and policy concepts into a compelling, visual story isa critical part of transforming vision into reality. Dramatic, technicallyaccurate images can help audiences imagine how the various pieces of aspace exploration architecture will come together years down the road,making the whole concept more real and more supportable. But engineersand scientists need high-quality visual materials, too, particularly when theact of creating these images helps technical experts refine their designs.John Frassanito & Associates has been in the forefront of this effort, andalong the way has already created iconic images that have already becomesynonymous with the Vision for Space Exploration.by Keitha Nystrom

IN ORBITA Case For Exploration 9In his article “A Different Vision for Space Exploration” in the July/August2006 issue of Space Times, Donald Beattie raised a number of interestingpoints concerning the value of lunar science and the wisdom of investing moneyin returning astronautics to the lunar surface. Like Mr. Beattie, I have beeninvolved in various aspects of space science since the Apollo era. However, Iwould like to propose a different perspective, one that is significantly less pessi-mistic about the potential for lunar exploration than that offered by Mr. Beattie.by Yoji Kondo

UPCOMING CONFERENCESAAS National Conference and 53rd Annual Meeting 12

11th Space Conference of Pacific-basin Societies 15

AAS NEWSIPC Welcomes Shana Dale - AAS/AIAA Seminar Planned 14

NOTES ON A NEW BOOKSpacecraft Technology: The Early Years 17reviewed by Jonathan Krezel

SPACE TIMES • September/October 2006 3

The last issue of Space Times contained two excellent articles on Mars entitled“Thirty Years After: The Science of the Viking Program and the Discovery of a ‘NewMars’” by Dr. Joel Levine and “The Golden Age of Mars Exploration” by Dr. MichaelMeyer. These articles remind us of how Viking revolutionized our view of Mars (and ofEarth) and they paint the broad outline of the flow of discovery as missions are undertakento search for life and now, more specifically, to “follow the water.”

The flow of discovery will continue with the recently-arrived MarsReconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) as it returns more data about Mars than all previousmissions combined. The size of a bus, MRO carries the most powerful camera everflown on a planetary exploration mission. Previous Mars cameras were able to identifyobjects no smaller than a dinner table; this camera will be able to spot something as small as a dinner plate. The MRO also carriesa sounder to find subsurface water. In addition, it will serve as the first element of an “interplanetary Internet” to provide acommunications link back to Earth for several international Mars spacecraft in coming years.

MRO is the leading edge of another flow of discovery, one in space flight mechanics and in guidance, navigation and control.To increase the instrument complement by 600 kilograms, the need for thruster fuel was reduced by that amount using aerobraking toshrink and shape the orbit to the nearly circular, low-altitude configuration required to observe the planet. MRO dipped into the upperfringe of Mars’ atmosphere 426 times between early April and Aug. 30 to gradually decrease the apoapsis from 45,000 kilometers to486 kilometers. The periapsis ranged from 98 to 105 kilometers. When it arrived at Mars on March 10, the spacecraft took more than35 hours to complete an orbit. During the final weeks of aerobraking, it was flying more than 10 orbits a day. And finally, on September11, MRO fired its thrusters for 12.5 minutes to shift the periapsis to stay near the Martian south pole and the apoapsis to stay near thenorth pole. Quite a dance!

The space flight mechanics and the guidance, navigation and control required to plan and execute these maneuvers at Mars arediscoveries themselves based on experience and years of hard work by dedicated professionals, many of whom are members of oursociety. To hone and share expertise, and to pass it along to the next generation, each year the AAS sponsors three world-classconferences devoted to the professionals in these disciplines:

• The AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Meeting (Jan. 28 - Feb. 1, 2007)• The AAS Guidance and Control Conference (Feb. 3-7, 2007)• The AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference (Aug. 19-23, 2007)

We are very proud of these conferences and the contributions that they, and our members, make to the flow of discovery in spaceexploration.

Mark [email protected]

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

FRONT: Soyuz TMA-9 blasts off from Baikonur Cosmodromein Kazakhstan carrying Astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria,Cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, and the worlds first femaleSpaceflight Participant Anousheh Ansari. (Source: NASA/BillIngalls)

BACK: A view of the recently installed 240ft solar wingsof the International Space Station. Installed by the crewaboard STS-115, the solar wings will double the poweravailable to the ISS when they are brought online duringthe next shuttle flight currently scheduled for December2006. (Source: NASA)

ON THE COVER

AAS and the Flow of Discovery

There were three errors on page 4 in the July/Augustfeature article Thirty Years After: The Science of theViking Program and the Discovery of a "New Mars."The Viking 1 landing date was erroneously given as20 June 1976; the correct date was 20 July 1976. Also,the lander that touched down on Utopia Planitia on 3September 1976 was Viking 2, not Viking 3. Finally,Mariner 6 made its closest approach to Mars on 31July 1969. Space Times regrets these errors.

CORRECTIONS


Lunar Interferometery:The Future Home of AstronomyA little over forty years ago, the Moon was an alien place, still untouched by the hand of man. With the dawn of thespace age, humanity’s view of the Moon began to change. No longer was the Moon merely a barren expanse ofdust and rock; now it was possible for the Moon to serve as a springboard for further human activity in space anda platform for advanced astronomical observations. The first step could lie in placing a structure, an observatory,on the Moon that can be robotically controlled. One kind of observatory that may be ideally suited to the lunarsurface is an array of interferometric telescopes.by Megan C. Kirk

Two major goals of astronomy inthe past couple decades have been to cre-ate better imaging systems and to findextrasolar terrestrial planet with qualitiessimilar to Earth. It would be far easier tospot these extrasolar terrestrial planetsfrom the Moon than from the Earth be-cause the Earth’s atmosphere interfereswith images produced by ground-basedinstruments, greatly increasing the chal-lenge of finding the faint signals of Earth-like planets. Without the radio noise andatmosphere of Earth, the far side of themoon would be the best choice for a ra-dio observatory close to home.

Interferometery was first used tomeasure the positions and structures ofdiscrete radio sources. An interferometer

Images like this one, a 400x900 light-year mosaic of images captured by the space telescope Chandra, provide new perspectives onthe nature of our universe. An interferometric telescope could provide more detail than any of NASA’s Great Observatories cancurrently supply. (Source: NASA/UMass/D. Wang et all)

collects the electromagnetic radiation froma celestial object (say, a star or planet)along two different paths using, in thecase of a radio telescope, two antennas.The radio waves strike the antennas atdifferent times, thus giving each antennaa different part of the wave. Thedifference between the two waves is thenmeasured. Since the difference in thewaves depends on the angle of their sourcewith respect to the telescopes, it is easy,at least conceptually, to find the origin ofthe waves.

Yet radio interferometry, whileproven immensely useful in researchingthe cosmos over the years, provides only“audio” imaging, and an audio imagingis but a fragment of the larger picture that

is the universe. Within the past twentyyears, the science of optical interferometryhas appeared to fill in the gaps that radiointerfermotery has left. Great strides inthis field have been made with the opticalinterferometer on Mount Wilson,Georgia, which has emerged as a world-class instrument capable of providingastronomers with unprecedented data andbeautiful images of some of the mostdistant celestial object ever seen.

However, even with current opticaltechnology, astronomy still strives toachieve a clearer picture of the sky. Thisclearer picture depends on the resolvingpower of a telescope. If the optics areperfect, the resolution of a telescopedepends on the diameter of its mirror. The


In order to maintain the extreme accuracy of the Hale Telescope primary mirror, themirror surface must be re-aluminized periodically to maintain its accuracy. The topphoto shows the original primary mirror before only 3 millionths of an inch of aluminumwere applied (bottom). (Source: Caltech)

larger the mirror, the better resolution onecan achieve. An enormous telescopewould have excellent resolution, but thisit is not a straight forward case of biggeris better. As with most dreams, physicalimpossibilities get in the way.

The biggest problem inconstructing a telescope of this magnitudewould be its own, massive size. To thehuman eye, glass does not appear to sagover time, mostly because its movementis too slow to see. Yet gravity does act onglass, and the heavier that glass is thegreater the tendency to bend under its ownweight. Normally, sagging doesn’t affectthe performance of an average, everydaymirror because it does not have to conformto a certain shape. However, in an opticalinstrument such as the mirror of atelescope, the exact shape of the mirrormakes an enormous difference in gettinga clear picture. The mirror in a telescopeshould be a perfect parabola to get a clearimage. If that parabola is off only by asmall fraction of an inch here and there,then it will distort the image. The 200inch mirror of the Hale telescope, forexample, possesses a surface that isaccurate to two millionths of an inch. Twomillionths of an inch is the requirementto get the mirror to reflect perfectlyproperly, a requirement if the telescopeis to return scientifically useful data.

This leads to two other problemswith building such a large telescope: costand construction. Making a small andaccurate mirror isn’t an inexpensive ven-ture, but neither is it a simple one. A largetelescope has the same problems, onlyamplified. Plus there’s the added ques-tion of how to move an extremely largetelescope, say one that is on the order ofone kilometer in diameter. Location is alsoa problem for such a large telescope be-cause there is no obvious place on Earthwhere one could construct such an instru-ment that would have suitable atmo-spheric properties (such as the clear, non-turbulent air on a mountain top). Clearlythe idea of building such a large, singlemirror telescope is impractical. So whatcan be done to increase the resolution of

the telescope within the constraints ofpracticality?

The answer is to use an interfero-metric array. An interferometric array usesseveral individual telescopes linked to-gether to produce a resolution equal to amirror the size of the spread of the tele-scopes. For example, if telescopes that arelinked by fiber optics cover a distance ofone kilometer, then the interferometersjointly have the resolving power of onemirror one kilometer in diameter in thedirection of two linked mirrors. Not onlyis such an array more economical tobuild, but it’s also less cumbersome tooperate. It takes less time to position sev-eral smaller telescopes than to move onelarge one. Also, if anything breaks on alarger telescope, then data can no longerbe collected on that telescope until theproblem is fixed. If something breaks on

an individual telescope in an array, thenthe problem is isolated to that telescopeonly and data can still be received fromthe other telescopes in the array.

There has already been an attemptat building an interferometric array withgreat success. CHARA, the Center forHigh Angular Resolution astronomy, isan optical and infrared interferometrictelescope. Often considered the most pow-erful telescope of its kind in the world,CHARA can resolve details as small astwo-hundred micro-arc seconds. This isroughly the resolving capability of onetelescope a fifth of a mile in diameter.Each one of the telescopes in the array isequipped with a one meter mirror. If suchan array can be built on the Earth, whereall the terrestrial factors such as highgravity and atmospheric turbulence mustbe considered, imagine what kind of in-


“As the next phase in space age comes about, there is littledoubt that more and more people will arrive on the Moon inthe next century and, as is common with human expansion,industry will come as well. This Moon-based industry will beable to service, repair and expand the array.”

strument can be built in the right locationon the low-gravity, airless lunar surface.

The surface of the Moon consistsof dust and rock and is almost flat in thecraters. This removes the need of clear-ing a site for construction. Another con-venient aspect of the Moon’s landscape isthe fact that it lacks significant seismicactivity that could jostle and break thetelescope. Recent studies have attemptedto challenge the stability of the Moon forinterferometry, claiming that the moonwas unstable due to “tidal and meteoroidinduced-seismic disturbances.” This con-

tention, however, is immediately negatedby the data collected by the Apollo flights.In the 127 collisions that occurred in thecourse of a typical year, only one criticaldisturbance impact was record by theApollo 14 station. This makes the rateand magnitude of asteroid impacts a neg-ligible concern for the array unless it takesa direct hit which, statistically speaking,is highly unlikely.

The atmosphere of Earth envelopsthe planet and, fortunately, protects theEarth from the various negative effectsof space weather. However, the Earth’satmosphere also absorbs infrared wavesfrom space, while the radio noise gener-ated from our planet frequently makes itdifficult to discern signals from furtherout in space. Earth’s weather, such asstorms, fog and diurnal cycles, can alsoprevent a terrestrial telescope from see-ing the sky for indefinite periods of time.

The atmosphere also frequentlyblurs the images taken by telescopes.Blurring can be offset by adaptive opticswhich compensates for the movement ofthe atmosphere. Most modern observato-ries make use of adaptive optics and the

results have been excellent, but even themost sophisticated techniques still can notcompletely compensate for all the blur-ring. Orbiting telescopes like Hubble flyabove the tenable atmosphere, but thesetelescopes tend to have very small mir-rors, and are costly to operate. In free-fall telescopes have to be oriented usinggyros. This takes far more effort thanwould be needed on the Moon because itis a lot easier to orient the telescope indifferent direction against the large massof the Moon then using moment wheel(gyros).

The potential for astronomy on theMoon is therefore based on at least twotraits – its small but non-negligible grav-ity and its lack of atmosphere. The factthat there is nothing between the telescopeand the sky it is trying to study, alongwith the gravitational mass of the Moonserving as a means of telescope control,makes the Moon an excellent potentialsite for an astronomical observatory.

The last thing that makes the Moona perfect site for interferometric telescopearrays is its endless future possibilities.Assuming that there is regular access tothe lunar surface, it would be far easierto increase the size of the interferometricarray on the Moon then it would be onEarth or with satellites. This is not with-out reason. Various surface features onEarth are not suitable for building gigan-tic astronomical instruments, while manyof the most prime pieces of real estatelike the top of Mauna Kea in Hawaii arealready nearly oversubscribed. Further-more, an array-type instrument in par-ticular needs space to grow if it is to real-ize its full potential over the long term,further constraining the potential loca-

tions for such an instrument. Prime as-tronomical real estate is on the Moon isnot likely to be an issue anytime soon.

The next question is how we mayconsider building such an array. One ofthe more common array designs envisionsa hub-and-wheel type structure. At thecenter is one primary telescope, or a hub,that is elevated. Surrounding it are sev-eral other interferometers linked to thehub by fiber optic cables.

Weight will be a deciding factorfor the materials used to build the tele-scope. If an optical interferometer wouldrequire carrying significant amounts ofmass to the lunar surface, then the over-all cost of the project might become pro-hibitively expensive. A large part of themass of such an array would come fromthe heavy and, not to mention, fragilemirrors required by the imaging systemin the telescopes. Recent advances mayhelp in this regard. NASA recently de-veloped a sturdy and lightweight com-posite fiber resin mirror specifically fortelescopes that may be as effective as theglass mirrors found in terrestrial obser-vatories. A mirror made of this materialmay also have a self-repair capability. Ifthe mirror is damaged, an electric cur-rent can be applied to the fiber laminateof the mirror. The electric current willmelt the resin to form a smooth surfaceon cooling. Such self-repair capabilitiesare essential for a telescope that won’thave contact with humans for some de-cades.

Crews will be able to visit the ar-ray sporadically to repair and upgrade it,but the system design must be inherentlyrobust and reliable, able to be used forlong periods of time with minimal needfor maintenance. A telescope drive andbearing mechanism needs to be capableof very slow and very smooth move-ments. Since this telescope is on theMoon, it needs to be able to operate in anenvironment that is very cold, dusty, andvery close to a hard. High TemperatureSuperconductors (HTS) might work wellfor this purpose. In an HTS bearing, therotor (a magnet) and the stator (the HTS)never come in contact with one another.


High temperature ceramic superconductors, like the one pictured above, are madefrom a material that has only very low alternating-current resistance and thus dissipateless power. The magnetic forces between ceramic superconductor and magnet allowthe magnet to float above the superconductor. (Source: Pacific Northwest NationalLaboratory)

If these two parts don’t touch, the poten-tial for wear and tear is greatly reduced.Using HST bearings, it may be possiblefor the telescope’s mechanisms to survivefor a long period of time, perhaps evenindefinitely, without intervention.

Most of the newer technologyneeded to operate such a telescope is al-ready developing. However, the technol-ogy to needed to take the telescope to theMoon is slightly more speculative. Whilea telescope by itself is a slightly heavyload, hauling only one up with a stan-dard rocket shouldn’t be a problem. Un-fortunately, one telescope does not an ar-ray make. It is neither economical norpractical to haul all of the telescopes intoLow Earth Orbit (LEO) and on to theMoon at once.

In one scenario, an array is as-sembled in space. Using standard rock-ets, pieces of the array are brought intoLEO, where they are assembled at a spacestation. This space station will have to bean entirely new space station; the Inter-national Space Station CANNOT satisfythis requirement. A far more adequateorbit would be a near equatorial orbitaround the Earth.

The next step is to place the as-sembled pieces on a specially designed,robotically-controlled interplanetary shipand send them to the Moon. Forefficiency’s sake, this ship will use an iondrive for propulsion. An ion drive is es-sentially a rocket engine that, instead ofusing a chemical reaction, uses an elec-tric propulsion system. In the engine, ions(generally the ions of hydrogen, heliumand cesium) are accelerated across an elec-tric field at 100 kilometers per second ormore. Solar arrays would create the elec-tricity needed to power the drive.

Within a couple days the ship wouldthen enter a low moon orbit (LMO). Oncein LMO, a part of the ship similar to alunar excursion module will descend tothe lunar surface. From there telescopes,which are equipped with rover-like mod-ules at their base, will move into the po-sitions dictated to them from controllerson Earth.

A prime spot on the Moon for thisarray would be the shadowed crater be-low Malapert Mountain, located 122 ki-lometers from the lunar South Pole. Themountain itself is five kilometers high,but what makes it appealing is the lack ofsharp, steep slopes along the peak, whichwould simplify construction. Anotherthing to keep in mind about this perfectpeak is that it gets sunlight more then 90%of the time, making it an excellent plat-form for solar energy generation. Finally,the Earth is always in the direct view ofthis peak, thus making communication toand from Earth relatively simple by set-ting up relay stations.

The passage of time will changehow the telescope is crewed and serviced,and will dictate its eventual overall size.The array will initially start with two tele-scopes. As flights to the Moon becomemore regular, it will be relatively easy tolink more telescopes into this array, withthe potential of eventually covering sev-eral kilometers of the Moon’s surface.

The Moon is prime real estate forbuilding an interferometeric telescope.Not only does it lack the atmosphere andnoise of Earth that normally interferes

with an Earth-based telescope, but it alsohas vast stretches of untapped land nec-essary for building such a large instru-ment. The only real cost will come fromits space-based assembly and transporta-tion to its location. Yet, these costs willbe well worth the results of the telescopeas it continues to search the sky for moreEarth-like bodies and expands the knowl-edge of the space frontier. As the nextphase in space age comes about, there islittle doubt that more and more peoplewill arrive on the Moon in the next cen-tury and, as is common with human ex-pansion, industry will come as well. ThisMoon-based industry will be able to ser-vice, repair and expand the array. Thearray will be the first step in a line ofhuman occupation and the services usedfor its construction will be able to be usedin similar extra-terrestrial constructionprojects in the future.

The Moon is for the taking; it’s amatter of reaching out to touch it. ■_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Megan Kirk is currently an under-graduate student a Georgia Tech major-ing in Civil Engineering.


Mr. Petrone, who truly believedthat spaceflight could serve towards thebetterment of humanity, was a tirelessworker and promoter of NASA and themanned spaceflight program in particu-lar. Upon his retirement from NASA, hesaid:

I see man in the programas the essential element of adven-ture and discovery that we need.You start talking about adventureand discovery and anyone whotells you what’s going to comeout of it has got to be a fool totry, because out of discovery manhas moved from the caves towhere he is today, and we ain’tfinished moving.

I look upon all thosethings out there (in space) aschallenges, put there by someonefor us to try to understand, andin trying to understand, we’regoing to be better. (Los AngelesTimes, April 23, 1975)

Mr. Petrone graduated from WestPoint in 1946 and attained the rank ofLieutenant Colonel during his career inthe U.S. Army. He received a master’sdegree in mechanical engineering fromthe Massachusetts Institute of Technologyin 1951 and began working as a mechani-cal engineer working on the Redstoneballistic missile system. In 1960, the armyloaned Mr. Petrone to NASA, where heworked as Saturn Project Officer focus-ing on the development and constructionof the Saturn launch system. He retiredfrom the army in 1966 and joined NASAas Director of Launch Operations at theKennedy Spaceflight Center, a position

A Leader from Apollo:Rocco PetroneRocco A. Petrone, 80, an Apollo-era NASA executive known for histoughness and drive to see NASA succeed, passed away August 24 at hishome in Palos Verdes Estates, CA.by Richard Faust

Dr. Rocco Petrone, NASA’s third Directorof Marshall Space Flight Center, standsbefore a Saturn V rocket. Dr. Petronesupervised the Apollo 11 Lunar Landingand later directed the Apollo program in1969. (Source: NASA)

he held until September 1969, when hewas appointed Apollo Program Directorat NASA Headquarters.

During his time with Apollo Mr.Petrone was instrumental in all aspectsof the missions. He worked tirelessly onquality control and held his people to thehighest level of standards. He took theApollo I fire and the loss of the three as-tronauts particularly hard. His toughnessearned him the respect and dedication ofhis people. His longtime colleague andfriend Jim Odom, who went on to be-come Associate Administrator for SpaceStation, recalls Mr. Petrone as “a veryintense person. He could be demanding,but fair.” Mr. Odom “thoroughly enjoyedworking with him and for him becauseof those attributes.” Axel Roth, who re-tired from NASA as the Marshall Space-flight Center Associate Director, dates hisinteraction with Mr. Petrone back to 1961.He recalls Mr. Petrone as a “pretty hardtask master” who “held people’s feet to thefire,” noting that while “he may have beena tough task master, he was very fair.”

The value of the work that Mr.Petrone and other engineers and design-ers contributed to the success of Apollocannot be overstated. Dr. Roger Launius,Chair of the Division of Space History atthe National Air and Space Museum saysin regard to Mr. Petrone that “he was oneof a band of brothers captured by thedream of spaceflight. While they didn’tget to go themselves they are the oneswho made it real.”

While Mr. Petrone may not havebeen as famous as the Apollo astronauts,he was certainly known and respectedwithin NASA and the aerospace commu-nity. The Washington Post put him on a

short list for the position of NASA Ad-ministrator at the beginning of both theCarter and Reagan administrations.

Mr. Petrone ended his Apollo ca-reer as the Program Director for theNASA component of the Apollo-SoyuzTest Project. On January 26, 1973, hebecame Center Director for the MarshallSpaceflight Center. This move broughthis career full-circle to where he startedin 1952 at the Redstone Arsenal. Thistime his reputation preceded him. In theannouncement of his appointment onJanuary 24, 1973, The Huntsville Timesnoted that “‘The Rock’ is what some ofhis associates call Rocco Petrone. It is asobriquet that is much more a reflectionof solid dependability than a mere playon a name.”

Mr. Petrone left Marshall in March1974 and returned to Headquarters tobecome NASA’s Associate Administrator– the third-highest position in the agency.He retired from NASA in April 1975 atthe age of 46. Even though he left theagency at a young age, Mr. Odom notesthat “he was an extremely strong propo-nent of NASA throughout his career.”

Continuted on page 18


A Case For ExplorationIn his article “A Different Vision for Space Exploration” in the July/August 2006 issue of Space Times, DonaldBeattie raised a number of interesting points concerning the value of lunar science and the wisdom of investingmoney in returning astronauts to the lunar surface. Like Mr. Beattie, I have been involved in various aspects ofspace science since the Apollo era. However, I would like to propose a different perspective, one that is significantlyless pessimistic about the potential for lunar exploration than that offered by Mr. Beattie.by Yoji Kondo

An artist’s conception of NASA astronauts using an unpressurized bulk transport vehicleto assemble components of a distributed lunar telescope. (Source: NASA)

Central to the arguments in thatarticle seems to be the notion that goingback to the Moon will not answer the 125questions raised in the July 2006 issue ofScience magazine. I don’t think that any-one who supports the idea of returning tothe Moon claimed that it would answerany of those 125 questions. Althoughthose 125 questions are quite interestingfrom a purely scientific standpoint, manyof those have little or nothing to do withthe space program.

The article appears to support thestatus quo in the space program; i.e., letus keep doing what we are doing now,and it is certainly consistent with opin-ions expressed by some in the 1950s and1960s about “all that money in space”.[The money for the space program hasall been spent here right on Earth. Noneof the work has been out-sourced to theputative Martians or ETs.] Some support-ers of spending the money here com-plained that for the price of one OrbitingAstronomical Observatory, we couldbuild ten Palomar Mountain 5-meter classtelescopes, the largest in the world at thattime. In turn, the supporters of the ro-botic telescopes in space argued that weshould spend all our money in roboticmissions in space. Manned missions inspace, according to this view, are a wasteof money. Anything a human astronautcan, a robotic experiment could accom-plish better, cheaper, and with less risk.

But, is such an argument valid?I am one of those who believes that

the desire to explore new and unknownfrontiers is deeply embedded in our genes.Our intellectual drive to understand theuniverse is related to our desire to ex-plore the unknown territories – our in-

born curiosity about the universe we havebeen born into. If you stifle one, you stiflethe other. Both manned and unmanned(e.g., robotic) exploration of space gohand in hand whenever and whereverpractical. We have seen that, when thefinancial support for manned space flightshas declined, so has the support for ro-botic missions.

In general, opening a new frontierwould open new possibilities, both physi-cally and culturally, for the society un-dertaking it. Let me cite a few examplesof what they could be for us in this in-stance, particularly if we use this uniquemoment in history to develop a signifi-cantly better way of getting to and fromspace.

First, let’s look at what going backto the Moon economically and safely cando for us. A significant part of the costsof going anywhere in space is associated

with jettisoning space ships after using itonly once – the way we have been doingit. Think how expensive it will be to pur-chase a seat on a flight from New Yorkto Paris if we must throw away or junkthe airplane every time. It would prob-ably cost several orders of magnitudemore. That is how expensive reachinglow-Earth orbit (LEO) is now. The SpaceShuttle, although it is a fine piece of en-gineering from an era a few decades ago,is not exactly a completely reusablelaunch vehicle. You might call it a“rebuildable” space ship. It takes someten thousand engineers and technicians toput it in a flyable condition and to keep itflying a few times a year.

Once we have an entirely reusablespace vehicle (such as those envisionedin DC-X, originating in the U.S. AirForce Space Command, and by severalentrepreneurial groups like Mojave

IN ORBIT


In this concept drawing, NASA astronauts are deploying a field site for scientific datacollection away from their lunar base with the assistance of a lunar transport vehicle anda lunar robot. (Source: NASA)

Desert neighbors Scaled Composite andXCOR), some studies have shown that thecost of reaching LEO could potentiallybe reduced to one percent of the presentcost of using the Space Shuttle, i.e., from$10,000 per pound using the Shuttledown to $100 per pound using the reus-able launch vehicle. DC-X, for example,was serviced by only a dozen or so engi-neers for a reflight within a day or two in

performed in a work station – a new spacestation – in an orbit economical to reachfrom a U.S. launch site, such as theKennedy Space Center at Cape Canav-eral in Florida. The present InternationalSpace Station has a highly inclined orbitrelative to the equator, a compromisemade in the early 1990s to facilitate ac-cess by Russian launch vehicles launchedfrom a site in Central Asia. While this

away, for building a new space station asa mid-way port to the rest of the solarsystem. Combined with a new generationof space suits that do not require pre-breathing and that incorporate lessonslearned from the International Space Sta-tion assembly experience, lunar shuttlesoptimized for trans-lunar flight could bebuilt at the new orbiting facility. Once atthe Moon, lightweight, highly-optimizedlunar landers could be dropped on nearlyany part of the lunar surface. Such anarchitecture would be a significant im-provement over that which was deployedduring the Apollo era, and would in factbe much more in line with pre-Apollonotions of how one builds out a usefulinterplanetary transportation infrastruc-ture.

Once we solve the (not-inconsid-erable) problem of ensuring economicaland safe access to space, the frontier sud-denly becomes much easier to explore,and the opportunities for science areblown wide open. Ready access to thelunar surface would enable a whole hostof new, radically more capable scientificinstruments like the interferometric ar-ray discussed on pages 4 - 7 in this maga-zine. Such an array, built in the nearvacuum of lunar surface using indigenouslunar materials, would enable the collec-tion of more and better types of data thanany astronomical instrument in history,at wavelengths and resolutions far beyondthe capabilities of any similar instrumentbuilt either on the Earth’s surface or infree space.

The Moon is also a great platformfor constructing and launching interplan-etary probes and crew facilities out intothe solar system at high speed. For ex-ample, solar-powered magnetic catapults(sometimes called mass movers) havebeen proposed since at least the 1970s.The potential for high-g acceleration fromthe lunar surface opens up fantastic pos-sibilities for the exploration of Mars andother celestial bodies.

Of course, these scenarios abovewould assume an easy and economic waysto get to the Moon so we can have a num-ber of workers on the Moon for construc-

“In general, opening a new frontier would open newpossibilities, both physically and culturally, for the societyundertaking it. Let me cite a few examples of what they couldbe for us in this instance, particularly if we use this uniquemoment in history to develop a significantly better way ofgetting to and from space.”

a public demonstration flight at WhiteSands a decade ago.

In LEO, we could assemble Moonshuttles that will not have to punchthrough the Earth’s atmosphere, makingit unnecessary to protect the ship withmassive outer skins and without the needto break away from the heavy Earth grav-ity. Such an assembly work would be

orbital inclination makes life easier forRussian launch vehicles, it severely im-pacts the ability of the United States totake maximum advantage of the Interna-tional Space Station as a staging point formissions beyond LEO.

There are serious engineering pro-posals to use spent Space Shuttles exter-nal tanks, which are currently thrown


In this artist’s concept, two astronauts watch carefully as their drill bores down into the toplayers of the lunar surface. Using this drill, the astronauts will be able to extract an intactcore sample that will be used by Earth-based scientists to learn about the formation ofthe moon and solar system. (Source: NASA)

tion of the mass movers and other facili-ties. To make that happen, we must havereasons to go there – to justify it techno-logically and otherwise.

All of this does not consider anypossible new discoveries on the Moon andnot-yet-considered uses for both the Moonand space in general. For example, muchhas been written on how solar power sat-ellites, built using lunar materials, couldbe built using lunar materials. Utilizingour LEO equatorial space station, thesesatellites could be built and boosted togeostationary orbits with minimum fuelcosts. An SPS with a light gathering areaof several square kilometers can produceand transmit a gigawatt of electricity toground-based rectennae via microwave.A gigawatt is what a fair-sized Americancity needs and is equivalent to the outputof a typical atomic power plant. So, as a“byproduct” of developing a fleet of re-usable space transportation vehicles tosupport lunar exploration, we can addressthe looming energy problem in a forwardlooking manner.

Long-term, of course, developingthe capacity to operate easily in space isessential to the future strength of the

United States and the survival of the hu-man species. Carl Sagan noted that anyspecies limited to a single planet has onlyone ultimate fate – extinction. Whetheror not some such extinction event is im-minent for humanity, the fact of the mat-ter is that it will only be through hard-won experience that we will develop thevast array of tools and techniques required

to take full advantage of, and protect our-selves against the inevitable catastrophesfrom, the great black ocean in which wesail. Wilbur Wright summed up thisstruggle for knowledge while speaking tothe Western Society of Engineers in 1901,two years before the seemingly impos-

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Continuted on page 18


UPCOMING CONFERENCE

AAS National Conference and 53rd Annual Meeting“The Human + Machine Equation”November 14-15, 2006 at the Pasadena Hilton in Pasadena, California

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14

7:30 Registration and Continental Breakfast

9:00 Welcome and IntroductionMark Craig, AAS President and Vice President/Manager,Assurance Engineering Operation, SAIC

Opening Video

9:10 Introduction of Keynote SpeakerCharles Elachi, Director, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

9:15 Carl Sagan Memorial Lecture & Award PresentationG. Scott Hubbard, Carl Sagan Chair for the Study of Lifein the Universe, SETI Institute

10:00 Break

Video

10:15 The Exploration Systems Mission Directorate

10:35 Session 1: Robotics and the New Age of Space Explora-tion - A discussion of the potential for synergy that hu-mans and robots bring to the future of space exploration.Panelists will discuss the kind of robots humans will likelywork with in space; what they will do for us and with us;interactions that are possible between people and robots;the roles of each in space exploration; and the nature ofthese relationships over time as the “minds” of robots andcomputers become able to replicate and improve them-selves. This session provides an intellectual foundationfor the rest of the conference - don’t miss it!

Moderator: Susan Ruth, The Aerospace Corporation

Panelists:* TBD, NASA HQ* Yoseph Bar-Cohen, Robotics Engineer, JPL* Walter Sipes, Crew Psychologist, NASA JSC* Janice Voss, NASA Ames (invited)

12:00 Luncheon - Guest Speaker: Maja J. Mataric, Professor ofComputer Science and Neuroscience; Founding Director,USC Center for Robotics and Embedded Systems; Director,USC Robotics Research Lab; President, Academic SenateSenior Associate Dean for Research, Viterbi School ofEngineering, University of Southern California

1:30 Session 2: Motivating Tomorrow’s Scientists andEngineers – Strengthening the U.S. Position in the GlobalS&T Environment - In 2005 the National Academy of

Sciences was asked by members of the U.S. Congress toconduct a study to recommend what federal policy-makerscould do to enhance the science and technology enterprisein the U.S., so that the U.S. could compete, prosper and besecure in the global environment in the 21st century. Oneof the recommendations from that study was to “make theU.S. the most attractive setting in which to study andperform research so that we can develop, recruit and retainthe best and brightest students, scientists and engineers fromwithin the U.S. and throughout the world.” Congressionallegislation has now been offered which is titled “ProtectingAmerica’s Competitive Edge” and is aimed at ensuringthe U.S. successfully competes in the 21st century globalenvironment. In the session, these issues will be discussedto include perspectives on what role the federalgovernment and academia should play, and how the privatesector can play a role in addressing this issue.

Moderator: Angela Phillips Diaz, NASA Ames

Panelists:* Ronald A. Madler, Embry-Riddle* Brian Duffy, Lockheed Martin* Gabriel Elkaim, UC Santa Cruz

2:45 Session 3: Human-Robotic Cooperation - The Vision forSpace Exploration charters NASA with a return to themoon—and later Mars—through a succession of roboticprecursors, short term crew visits, and durable human-robotic outpost encampments. Opportunities for human-robotic synergy in implementing such mission sets arerich and challenging.

Moderators: Paul S. Schenker, JPL and Nancy J. Currie,NASA JSC

Panelists:* David L. Akin, University of Maryland* Robert O. Ambrose, NASA JSC* Douglas Gage, DARPA* Andrew H. Mishkin, JPL* Brian H. Wilcox, JPL

4:15 Break

4:30 Session 4: Lessons Learned From Other Industries: TheArt of Integrating Science, Technology, and Humans -Space exploration is not the only discipline working tosolve the human + robotic equation. Many industries havealready developed applications – and learned lessons –about human-robot interaction. This session examinessome lessons about human-robot interaction from otherindustries, and how space explorers can learn from them.

- CHECK WWW.ASTRONAUTICAL.ORG FOR UPDATES -


The session includes experts from the aviation andautomotive industries, where robotics and automation areused extensively. They are joined by experts from theDepartment of Defense and the entertainment industry. Afascinating application-oriented discussion!

Moderator: David Fitts (invited)

Panelists:* Michael Feary, NASA Ames* Brent Weathered, NASA Langley* Mark I. Nikolic, Boeing/JSC* Steven Shladover, UC Berkeley

7:00 Pre-Banquet Reception

7:30 Awards Banquet

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15

8:00 Registration and Continental Breakfast

9:00 Session 5: Inter-center Collaboration: Making NASA’sVision for Space Exploration Happen

Moderator: TBD

Panelists:* Charles Elachi, Director, JPL* Mike Coats, Director, NASA JSC* S. “Pete” Worden, Director, NASA Ames

11:30 Luncheon - Guest Speaker: Al Diaz, Vice Chancellor forAdministration, UC Riverside and former Goddard CenterDirector; AA for Science at NASA HQ

1:00 Session 6: Humans and Machines Exploring Space:Moon, Mars, and Astronomy - Increasingly challengingexploration goals for NASA will almost certainly requiremore ambitious human-machine interaction, whether it isremote robotic operation from the Earth’s surface or directastronaut-machine interaction. This panel will review thelessons learned from the Mars rovers and the Shuttle ser-vicing missions to HST and discuss future concepts that ad-vanced astronaut capabilities and robots will make possible.

Moderator: Harley Thronson, NASA GSFC

Video

Panelists:* John Grunsfeld (NASA JSC): The HST Experience

with Advanced Tools and Humans in Space and on theGround

* Richard Cook (JPL): The First Generation of Mars Rov-ers: Lessons Learned for Future Surface Exploration

* James Garvin (NASA GSFC): The Future of MarsRobotic Exploration

* Dan Lester (Univ of Texas): The Future of Space As-tronomy: Using Astronauts and Robots to Achieve the VSE

* Wendell Mendell (NASA JSC): Exploring the Moon:Robots and Astronauts as Partners

2:30 Break

3:00 Session 7: Human Attitudes Towards Robots - Taking acareful and considered look at the emotional responseshumans have toward robots and robotics. Working roboticsscientists and engineers discuss questions like: Does theuse of robots increase a sense of fear or risk within humanswho work with them? Can this happen in the explorationscenario? Do robots increase dependency, and decreasecompetence in humans? What causes the various attitudeshumans have, and how do we know they are realistic? Isworking with robots really safe? And how will currentattitudes affect future attitudes, as the work of spaceexploration progresses?

Moderators: Bill Bluethmann, NASA JSC and AndrewMishkin, JPL

Video: Robots in action

Panelists:* Robert Anderson, MSL Investigation Scientist, JPL* Scott Maxwell, MER Rover Planner, JPL* Nancy Currie, Astronaut, NASA JSC* Cynthia Breazeal, MIT Media Lab

4:30 Session 8: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO): Statusand UpdateRichard Zurek, MRO Project Scientist

5:00 Adjourn / Closing Reception

Apollo 12 Visits Surveyor 3. (Source: NASA)

Full Registration: includes all sessions,continental breakfasts, break refreshments, twoluncheons, and Nov. 15th reception.

AAS Member ................................................... $365New / Renewing Member ............................... $450U.S. Government / Academia ......................... $300One-Day Registration ..................................... $225

Special Registration: includes all sessions,continental breakfasts, break refreshments, andNov. 15th reception.

Student (full-time) / Teacher (K-12) .................. $30Retired (and over 65) ........................................ $75Press (with credentials) ....................... No Charge

www.astronautical.org


Jon Malay (Lockheed Martin), Lyn Wigbels (AAS VP International), Shana Dale (NASADeputy Administrator), and Peggy Finarelli (AAS Executive VP).

AAS NEWS

IPC Welcomes Shana Dale —AAS/AIAA Seminar Planned

The AAS International ProgramsCommittee (IPC) was honored to haveNASA Deputy Administrator Shana Daleas special guest at a recent IPC meeting,hosted Mr. Kiwao Shibukawa, Directorof the Japan Aerospace ExplorationAgency Washington D.C. office. Ms.Dale discussed NASA’s Global SpaceExploration Strategy process, and partici-pated in a spirited question and answersession with committee members. LynWigbels, Vice President International andchair of the IPC, noted that Ms. Dale’s

comments were particularly relevant inlight of an upcoming AAS/AIAA initia-tive, organized in conjunction withGeorge Mason University.

This initiative will include a se-ries of events to examine exploration ob-jectives, plans and industrial capabilitiesand develop a single integrated data baseof space exploration activities worldwide.The events will focus on the comprehen-sive range of plans, encompassing Moonand Mars programs and other missionsand precursor research that contribute to

space exploration overall. National spaceexploration objectives, plans and indus-trial capabilities worldwide will be re-viewed and presented in relation to a stan-dard template. The template approachwill aid an independent assessment of theoverall space exploration endeavor andthe roles of individual national space ex-ploration components within it. The tem-plate approach will also aid the identifi-cation of gaps, overlaps and strategic re-dundancies, providing useful input to dis-cussions on and planning for explorationactivities in the coming decades.

The initiative’s first event willbe a public seminar on November 1–2,where Ms. Dale will speak, followed byan invitation only workshop January 30–February 1, 2007. It is the first activitybeing undertaken by AAS and AIAA un-der a new collaborative agreement on in-ternational activities. A written reportcontaining the summary document andworkshop findings will be released atpublic events in Washington and at non-U.S. venues in addition to being circu-lated within space agencies. Papers sum-marizing the report will be given at In-ternational Astronautical Congress andother relevant conferences.

For further information on theNovember Seminar, and for on-line reg-istration, visit www.astronautical.org. ■

2007 CanSat Application Deadline is October 30The 3rd Annual Student CanSat Competition for college (undergraduate and graduate)and high school students from the United States, Canada and Mexico will be held inearly June, 2007 in Texas. CanSat teams are required to write a mission proposal,design and build a satellite (which must fit into a 12-oz soda can, hence the name),travel to the launch site, supervise preparations and launch to an altitude of 2000-3000 feet, then present a post-mission debrief. See www.cansatcompetition.com

for application, mission details and to viewphotos and video of the 2006 competition.


Eleventh International Space Conference ofPacific-basin Societies (11th ISCOPS)May 16-18, 2007 in Beijing, China

FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR PAPERS

Aim of the Conference

The Chinese Society of Astronau-tics (CSA), the American AstronauticalSociety (AAS) and the Japanese RocketSociety (JRS) are pleased to hold jointlythe 11th International Space Conferenceof Pacific-basin Societies (ISCOPS)from May 16 to18, 2007 in Beijing,China.

The aim of the conference is toprovide a forum for the space decision-makers, experts, engineers and techni-cians to exchange ideas and experiencesin space technology and prospect the fu-ture of space development and its appli-cations mainly in the Pacific Basin un-der the theme “Space Exploration forthe 21st Century.”

Conference Venue

The 11th ISCOPS will be held inBeijing, China. More information willbe released in 2nd announcement.

Conference Language

English will be the working lan-guage of the conference.

Main Sessions

A National and International SpacePrograms

B International Students Conferenceand Competition (graduate level)

C Technical Sessions

C1 Astrodynamics, Guidance and Con-trol (including space robotics andground operations)

C2 Satellite Communications, Broad-casting and TT & C

C3 Satellite Remote Sensing, Meteo-rology, Small Satellite Systems/Constellations, etc.

C4 Human Space Flight, Space Stationand Pacific Space Port (includingLunar Research and Exploration)

C5 Materials and StructuresC6 Space Transportation and PropulsionC7 Micro-gravity Sciences (including

Space Debris and Environment) andLife Science

Abstracts

Abstracts for proposed papers mustbe received by January 5, 2007. An ab-stract of 1000 to 1500 words in Englishshould be submitted to the regional rep-resentatives with Microsoft Word andPDF documents as attachments. Studentabstracts should indicate the level (Mas-ter or Ph.D.) and the name of the stu-dent presenter. The abstracts will be gath-ered in a bound volume and distributedto all participants at the conference.

Authors are requested to preparetheir abstracts as follows:

Use…

• A text area of 170mm X 240mm.The preferable page size is A4(210mm X 297mm).

• Single spacing, starting in the topquarter of the page.

Include ….

• Title• Author’s full name• Author’s affiliation and mailing ad-

dress• Email address and phone & facsimile

numbers• No less than two key words

Authors should suggest the mostsuitable session for their presentation.

Regional representatives:

CSA The secretariat ISCOPSChinese Society of AstronauticsP.O. Box 838Beijing 100830 ChinaFax: [email protected](for Chinese and other partici-pants)

AAS Prof. Peter BainumDept. of Mechanical EngineeringHoward UniversityWashington, D.C. 20059 USAFax: [email protected]

Prof. Arun MisraDept. of Mechanical EngineeringMcGill University817 Sherbrooke St. W.Montreal, Quebec, H3A 2K6Canada

ABSTRACT DEADLINE: January 5, 2007


Fax: [email protected](for North and South Americanparticipants)

JRS Prof. Takashi NakajimaThe Institute of Space and

Astronautical ScienceJapan Aerospace Exploration

Agency3-1-1 Yoshinodai, SagamiharaKanagawa 229-8510, JapanFax: 81 42 759 [email protected](for Japanese participants)

Proceedings and Preprints

Proceedings of the conference willbe published. The format instructions forfull papers is provided in 2nd announce-ment.

Conference Fees

Before May 15, 2007

Full Participant ............................ $500Full Participant (Retired) ............ $350Student Speaker ............................ FreeStudent Participants (not speakers) .. $70Accompanying Person ................. $150

After May 15, 2007

Full Participant ............................ $550Full Participant (Retired) ............ $400Student Speaker ............................ FreeStudent Participants (not speakers) $120Accompanying Person ................. $200

Full participant and student reg-istration fees include admission to alltechnical sessions and social programs,including the welcome reception, theaward banquet, coffee breaks and halfday technical visit, as well as a book of

abstracts and the proceedings of the con-ference.

Additional banquet tickets can bepurchased for USD 50.

Spark Matsunaga Memorial Award

During the conference, the FifthSpark Matsunaga Memorial Award willbe presented to a person from the Pa-cific region who has made distinguishedcontributions to the regional or globalspace cooperations. In order to simplifythe process of selection, the followingprinciples agreed by the three sides ofAAS, JRS and CSA will be followed:

1. Each ISCOPS in principle selectsone winner;

2. The winner should be selected fromthe candidates nominated by the hostsociety from their own country;

3. The other two societies are asked torespect the hosting society’s nomina-tion and support the selected winner;

4. One additional winner from anotherpacific-basin country not involvedwith hosting future ISCOPS mightbe possible upon the agreements bythe three societies. All the nomina-tion materials should reach CSAISCOPS Secretariat by January 5,2007.

Technical Visit

A half-day technical visit will beorganized in Beijing in the afternoon ofMay 18. Free of charge.

Social Events

The Welcome reception will beprovided on evening May 16, 2007, Ban-quet will be provided on evening May18, 2007 together with the Award Pre-

sentation for full participants and stu-dent participants. Additional banquettickets can be purchased for USD 50.

Accomodations

Accommodations are available atand nearby the conference site. More in-formation will be released in the 2nd an-nouncement.

Post-Congress Tours

More information will be releasedin the 2nd announcement.

Conference Organization

Honorary co-chairmenCSA TBDAAS TBDJRS TBD

General co-chairmenCSA Prof. Zhang QingweiAAS Mr. Mark K. CraigJRS TBD

Technical co-chairmenCSA TBDAAS Prof. Peter Bainum

Prof. Arun MisraJRS Prof. Takashi Nakajima

International Program Committeeco-chairmen

CSA TBDAAS TBDJRS TBD

For further information, contact:

Ms. Zhang ChiChinese Society of AstronauticsP.O. Box 838Beijing 100830, ChinaTel: 86-10-68768623Fax: [email protected]

Editor WantedSpace Times is seeking a new editor, beginning early next year. If you have the desire tocommunicate, the skill to lead a vigorous editorial team, and the time to volunteer toAAS, please contact the AAS business office at 703-866-0020 or [email protected] more information.


Reviewed by Jonathan Krezel

Spacecraft Technology: The Early Years

NOTES ON A NEW BOOK

Spacecraft Technology: The Early Years,Mark Williamson, The Institution ofElectrical Engineers History of Tech-nology Series (Dr B. Bowers and C.Hempstead, editors), 2006, 388 pages,$80.00, ISBN 0863415539 [hardbound]

Histories of spaceflight generallyfall into one of two categories. The firsttend to look at the rise of this peculiarcapability as a primarily human activity,

focused on the nuances of how a particu-lar piece of spaceflight technology cameto fruition (or not, as the case may be).For big projects and programs like Apolloor the Space Shuttle, there can be a lot ofoverlap between the two approaches. Forothers, like those that deal with the de-velopment and evolution of spacecraftcomputers, spacesuits, or astronomical in-struments, the intent is often to show howindividuals and small groups seek to bend

of the Apollo-era lunar exploration ar-chitecture. Though not a trained histo-rian, Williamson also takes the opportu-nity to reach back deep into the historyof spaceflight technology, and to lookahead at the political and cultural impli-cations of recent advances in both tech-nology and policy.

While Williamson does not breaka lot of new ground in terms of historicaldetail, he succeeds in drawing together ahost of technical details, personal stories,and historical background into a very en-gaging and readable summary of somekey advances in spaceflight. His insightsare also very timely, coming as they doas the U.S. and other governmental andprivate agencies look to bring a wholehost of new spaceflight hardware onlineover the next two decades. SpacecraftTechnology should be on the reading listfor decisionmakers and technology entre-preneurs alike, if only to remind the cur-rent generation how the great innovationsthat we take for granted ultimately cameto be. ■_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Jonathan Krezel is Editor ofSpace Times.

“Spacecraft Technology should be on the reading list fordecisionmakers and technology entrepreneurs alike, if only toremind the current generation how the great innovations thatwe take for granted ultimately came to be.”

and thus tend to view the history throughthe lens of the social scientist. These arethe big picture treatments, embeddingspaceflight within the context of the largersocial, economic, political, or cultural is-sues of the time. Many of the themes inthis body of literature have become in-tellectual touchstones for the spaceflightcommunity. For example, to borrow aphrase from military theorist Carl vonClausewitz, spaceflight has been seen bysome as simply politics by other means,particularly as one battle along whatPresident John Kennedy called the “fluidfront” of the Cold War. Others place theevolution of spaceflight squarely withinthe context of American exceptionalism,citing authors like Frederick JacksonTurner and concepts like the “FrontierThesis” or “Manifest Destiny.” Still oth-ers see a continuity of exploration run-ning through all of human history, per-haps reflecting some basic genetic traitthat separates homo sapiens from otherspecies on this planet.

At the other end of the spectrumare those histories that tend to be more

metal around the immutable laws of phys-ics for novel new purposes. There is of-ten an intimacy to these histories, a some-times dry but often fascinating look at theminutiae of technology development thatspeaks to the soul of the scientist and theengineer.

Mark Williamson’s SpacecraftTechnology: The Early Years certainly hasits heart squarely in the latter school (mi-nus the dry part). Drawing primarily fromsecondary source materials, Williamsonuses a number of representative space-flight technologies to drill down into theheart of the hardware design and devel-opment process. The case studies focuson the two decades from the 1950’s tothe 1970s, a timeframe Williamson calls,“one of the most important periods oftechnological development mankind hasever known.” Based on a series of talksthe author gave over the past severalyears to the Institution of ElectricalEngineers, the case studies cover thedevelopment of space launch systems,space and Earth science instruments,communication satellites, and key pieces


A Case of Exploration(Continued from page 11)

sible dream of powered flight was to be-come, not only a reality, but one of themost disruptive developments in humanhistory over the last thousand years:

Now, there are two ways oflearning how to ride a fractioushorse: one is to get on him andlearn by actual practice [and] theother is to sit on a fence andwatch the beast … It is very muchthe same in learning to ride aflying machine; if you are look-ing for perfect safety, you will dowell to sit on a fence and watchthe birds; but if you really wishto learn, you must mount a ma-chine and become acquaintedwith its tricks by actual trial.

As I have noted in the previousdiscussion of reusable launch vehicles,the details of how we execute the sweep-ing scope encompassed in the Vision forSpace Exploration is certainly a worthytopic of vigorous debate. The real bur-den of proof, however, is on those whowould assert, despite all the evidence ofhistory, that the civilization that stepsback from the brink of exploring newfrontiers, be they physical or intellec-tual, is somehow better of for doing so.Until then, the ambitions of other na-tions and the realities of our existence asinhabitants of a beautiful, lonely, frag-ile world have and will continue to com-pel the ambitions of the United States inspace exploration. ■_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dr. Yoji Kondo headed the astro-physics laboratory at the Johnson SpaceCenter during the Apollo and Skylab Mis-sions. He was also director of the IUEgeosynchronous satellite observatory for15 years. He served as President of theInternational Astronomical Union Com-mission on Astronomy from Space,among other offices. He was also profes-sor, adjunct, at several universities, in-cluding the University of Pennsylvaniaand the Catholic University of America.

Rocco Anthony Petrone was born March 31, 1926, in Amsterdam, NY, the sonof Italian immigrants. He was proud of his Italian heritage, and in February 1973the Italian Government conferred on him one of its highest honors – the Commanderof the Order of Merit. The Italian Ambassador noted that “his government wasespecially proud that a man of Italian descent had been a leader in the Apollo pro-gram” (Los Angeles Times, Sunday February 11, 1973).

He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Ruth Holley Petrone; four childrenMichael, Theresa, Nancy, and Kathryn; a brother; and a half brother. He also moveson with the respect and gratitude of the space agency and space community to whichhe gave so much. ■_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Richard Faust is a Research Analyst for Valador, Inc at NASA Headquarterswith the Academy of Program Project and Engineering Leadership. He has over 10years experience researching space policy and history. A version of this article alsoappeared in the NASA Office of the Chief Engineer newsletter Ask OCE.

A Leader from Apollo: Rocco Petrone(Continued from page 8)


Visualizing the VisionTurning engineering and policy concepts into a compelling, visual story is a critical part of transforming vision intoreality. Dramatic, technically accurate images can help audiences imagine how the various pieces of a spaceexploration architecture will come together years down the road, making the whole concept more real and moresupportable. But engineers and scientists need high-quality visual materials, too, particularly when the act ofcreating these images helps technical experts refine their designs. John Frassanito & Associates has been in theforefront of this effort, and along the way has already created iconic images that have already become synonymouswith the Vision for Space Exploration.by Keitha Nystrom

When President Kennedy first de-clared NASA’s goal of landing on theMoon, he set a standard for United Statesworld leadership in space. As we enteredthe 21st century, senior NASA managersand policy makers, under Executive di-rection, began to outline clearly definedgoals and a roadmap that could secure ournational leadership in space for cominggenerations. The results of their effortsculminated in President Bush’s announce-ment of the Vision for Space Exploration(VSE) on January 14, 2004.

One of the teams that crafted thispolicy announcement was headed by theSpace Operations Mission Directorate(SOMD) and included an early contribu-tor to strategic planning of US space en-deavors—John Frassanito. Frassanito’sNASA design and engineering team cred-its include Skylab, the International SpaceStation, Lunar inflatable habitats, Reus-able Launch Vehicles, Crew ExplorationVehicles, First Lunar Outpost, technicalsupport for Earth to orbit (ETO) trans-portation, the Space Exploration Initia-tive, and, now, the Vision for Space Ex-ploration.

This policy announcement was, inpart, one of the outcomes of the Colum-bia accident. The Columbia Accident In-vestigation Board (CAIB) found thatNASA had no clear, defining mission tofocus the agency’s activities. Without adefined mission, no one knew how longthe Space Shuttle would fly. Without aknown service life for the Shuttle, it wasdifficult to determine what investmentstrategies the nation should make withrespect to our space program.

The CAIB finding prompted theWhite House to establish the VSE, whichused multiple teams working indepen-dently on the policy formation process.John Frassanito & Associates (JF&A)worked on one team for four months,supporting this formation process.

JF&A worked on various missiondesigns, the locations and characteristics

and the benefits to the nation all had to beincorporated within a policy framework.

A big part of JF&A’s contributionwas via the firm’s Strategic Visualization®

process, an integral part of the VSE plan-ning process that, ultimately, providedmany of the images and animations thatthe President used for his announcement.These visuals were broadcast on televi-

“With Strategic Visualization(r) JF&A captures the ideas andcontributions of individual members of a working group andconverts them to a visual vocabulary that supports the planningprocess.”

of Earth, Lunar, and Martian venues, andthe articulation of the benefits in termsof the key imperatives of the policy—national security, economics, and science.These three tenants of the policy wereinspired in part by Theodore Roosevelt’sconcept of a Blue Water Navy—a policythat eventually established the UnitedStates as the dominate world presence.JF&A also provided technical support indeveloping the elements on which to basethe VSE mission, particularly for spacetransportation aspects, rationale and ben-efits, historical perspective, as well asmany other aspects of the policy basis.

In addition to being technologi-cally viable, the major elements of themission designs had to be explained in anon-technical, compelling way. The lo-cations and characteristics of various ven-ues, the international partner participation,

sion around the world, posted on theNASA and industry websites, and reprintedin national and international publications.

NASA first used JF&A’s StrategicVisualization® process for explorationplanning and management support in 1989during “The 90-Day Study on HumanExploration of the Moon and Mars.” TheJF&A staff worked with the differentengineering teams on a conceptual explo-ration plan, capturing their ideas insketches, then posting them on a “plan-ning wall.” Each team could see what theother teams were doing and how theirideas fit with their own team’s work.Notes, annotations, and yellow “stickies”registered comments and problems;changes were made on the sketches, andthen reposted on the wall. Some result-ing concepts of that Study (http://history.nasa.gov/90_day_study.pdf) laid a


“Since the President’s 2004 announcement, Frassanito hascontinued to support the Exploration Systems MissionDirectorate (ESMD) at a number of levels including theAdministrator’s rollout of the Exploration Systems Architecture(ESAS), the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Crew ExplorationVehicle project, the Constellation program, and other programelements.”

foundation for the planning going intoand coming out of the Vision for SpaceExploration

With Strategic Visualization®,JF&A captures the ideas and contributionsof individual members of a workinggroup and converts them to a visual vo-cabulary that supports the planning pro-cess. JF&A condenses volumes of datainto powerful images that clearly com-

municate missions, technologies, andplans to engineers and managers as wellas the general public. Now the “planningwall” is behind the firewall of NASA’swebsites, and JF&A’s NASA presentationsare used for everything from Congres-sional briefings, broadcast television, andmagazine articles to high-level technicalexchanges and publications worldwide.

“Strategic Visualization and SpaceExploration,” a paper by NASA’s DouglasCooke and John Frassanito, noted the his-torical role of visuals in space exploration:

NASA teams, such as theNASA Exploration Team(NEXT), utilize[d] advancedcomputational visualization pro-cesses to develop mission designsand architectures for lunar andplanetary missions. One such pro-cess, STRATEGIC VISUALIZA-TION®, is a tool used extensivelyto help mission designers visual-ize various design alternatives andpresent them to other participantsof their team. The participants,who may include NASA, indus-try, and the academic community,

are distributed within a virtualnetwork. Consequently, computeranimation and other digital tech-niques provide an efficient meansto communicate top-level techni-cal information among team mem-bers.

Furthermore, once theteam has developed a sound mis-sion design, STRATEGIC VISU-

ALIZATION® is used to commu-nicate that concept to the gen-eral public. This is a vital stepthat Dr. Wernher von Braun usedto enhance public support forspace exploration. In 1952, forexample, Chestly Bonestell andothers working under the direc-tion of Dr. von Braun, created theCollier’s Magazine series of eightarticles known as ‘the Collier’sspace program.’ Unlike previousworks of science fiction, these ar-ticles were based on rigorous sci-ence and technology. Virtuallyevery aspect of space flight wasconsidered: astronaut training,space stations, lunar expeditionsand missions to Mars. Space ex-ploration was greatly advancedas a national priority whenCollier’s presented the Americanpublic with a bold and feasiblevision of excursions to Moon andother planets.

Since the President’s 2004 an-nouncement, Frassanito has continued to

support the Exploration Systems MissionDirectorate (ESMD) at a number of lev-els including the Administrator’s rolloutof the Exploration Systems Architecture(ESAS), the Lunar Reconnaissance Or-biter, the Crew Exploration Vehicleproject, the Constellation program, andother program elements. The firm ar-chives and updates a library of currentarchitectures in 3D formats that it pro-vides to its NASA clients as part of its ser-vices so, when a new component or mis-sion is under development, the project teamhas the tools at hand to help do the job.

John Frassanito is a New York-bornindustrial designer who trained at Art Cen-ter in Los Angeles and, after graduationin 1968, worked as part of the famedRaymond Loewy and William Snaith de-sign team on the interior concepts forSkylab, America’s first space stationlaunched in 1973. A co-founder ofDatapoint Corporation in 1969, Frassanitolater began his own design firm design-ing products for companies such as ScottPaper, Texaco, Sani-Fresh, Daniel Indus-tries, General Foods, and EMI Corpora-tion. Since 1985 he has been a strategicplanning, mission and spacecraft designconsultant to NASA engineering, scien-tific and planning teams for the Agency’sfuture space missions, making those scien-tific visions come alive for specialists andthe general public alike.

JF&AI’s work in Strategic Visual-ization for the space program has beenrecognized in major public exhibitions in-cluding the Art Institute of Chicago and,currently, The Intrepid Aircraft CarrierAir, Sea, and Space Museum in New YorkCity, as well as in general public and tech-nical journals such as Popular ScienceMagazine, Aviation Week, Space News,Men’s Magazine, and in the book SpaceArchitecture, The Work of John Frassanito& Associates for NASA by JohnZukowsky. ■_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Keitha Nystrom is a Houston-basedwriter with a focus on harsh environmenttechnology and operations for offshore,subsea, and space industry trade publica-tions.


UPCOMING EVENTS

*AAS Cosponsored Meetings

November 1–2, 2006*AAS/AIAA Seminar“Contributions to SpaceExploration: Global Objectives,Plans, and Capabilities”George Mason UniversityArlington, Virginia703-866-0020www.astronautical.org

November 14–15, 2006AAS National Conference and53rd Annual Meeting“The Human+ Machine Equation”Pasadena HiltonPasadena, California703-866-0020www.astronautical.org

January 28–February 1, 2007*AAS/AIAA Space FlightMechanics Winter MeetingHilton Sedona Resort & SpaSedona, Arizona703-866-0020www.space-flight.org

February 3–7, 200730th AAS Guidance andControl ConferenceBeaver Run ResortBreckenridge, Colorado703-866-0020www.aas-rocky-mountain-section.org

AAS Events ScheduleAAS CORPORATE MEMBERS

a.i. solutions, Inc.The Aerospace CorporationAir Force Institute of TechnologyAnalytical Graphics, Inc.Applied Defense Solutions, Inc.ArianespaceAuburn UniversityBall Aerospace & Technologies Corp.The Boeing CompanyBraxton Technologies, Inc.Carnegie Institution of WashingtonComputer Sciences CorporationEmbry Riddle Aeronautical UniversityGeneral Dynamics C4 SystemsGeorge Mason University / CAPRHoneywell, Inc.Honeywell Technology Solutions, Inc.Jacobs SverdrupJet Propulsion LaboratoryKinetXLockheed Martin CorporationMitretek SystemsN. Hahn & Co., Inc.Northrop GrummanOrbital Sciences CorporationRaytheonRedShift VenturesSAICSpace Systems / LoralSwales AerospaceThe Tauri GroupTechnica, Inc.Texas A&M UniversityUnivelt, Inc.Universal Space NetworkUniversity of FloridaUtah State Univ. / Space Dynamics Lab.Virginia Polytechnic Inst. & State Univ.Women in AerospaceWyle Laboratories

March 20–21, 200745th Robert H. GoddardMemorial Symposium“Sputnik to Orion: Perspectives,Opportunities, and Future Directions”The Inn & Conference Center by MarriottUniversity of Maryland University CollegeAdelphi, Maryland703-866-0020www.astronautical.org

May 16–18, 2007*11th International Space Conferenceof Pacific-basin Societies (ISCOPS)“Space Exploration for the 21st Century”Beijing, China703-866-0020www.astronautical.org

August 19–23, 2007*AAS/AIAA AstrodynamicsSpecialist ConferenceMission Point ResortMackinac Island, Michigan703-866-0020www.space-flight.org

See pages 12-13for details!

See page 14for details!

See pages 15-16for details!

2nd Space Exploration ConferenceThe Boeing Company, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the American Institute ofAeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) are pleased to announce that registration is open for the 2nd Space ExplorationConference, which will be held at the George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston, Texas, 4-6 December 2006.Please join us as a united space community to implement the Vision for Space Exploration.

Register online at http://www.aiaa.org/events/exploration


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