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A summary of the technical results and conclusions is presented of the hazards analyses of earth orbital operations in conjunction with the space shuttle program. The space shuttle orbiter and a variety of manned and unmanned payloads delivered to orbit by the shuttle are considered. The specific safety areas examined are hazardous payloads, docking, on-orbit survivability, tumbling spacecraft, and escape and rescue.
Technology related to liquid-propellant interactions with space shuttle vehicles is reviewed. Potential problems unique to the shuttle include liquid-structure interactions resulting from coupled lateral and longitudinal deformations, traveling wave phenomena at shallow propellant levels, and liquid impact during abort, staging, or docking. Technology efforts to define the slosh dynamics under shuttle operating conditions are described with emphasis on analytical representations of the liquid by finite-element and marker-and-cell methods. In addition, slosh suppression is discussed and includes baffle damping and pressure loads for tanks fitted with multiple baffles both above and below the undisturbed liquid surface.
Supplemental analyses conducted to verify that safe, feasible, design concepts exist for accomplishing the attendant interface activities of the orbital operations mission are presented. The data are primarily concerned with functions and concepts common to more than one of the interfacing activities or elements. Specific consideration is given to state vector update, payload deployment, communications links, jet plume impingement, attached element operations, docking and structural interface assessment, and propellant transfer.
A design for a transoceanic, dry cargo-carrying freighter is suggested; its use and operation in port are discussed. With a gross weight of 4500 metric tons (5000 tons), more than 50 percent of which is cargo, it will cruise at 50 meters per second (100 knots) in waves 2.4 meters (8 ft) high. Its peripheral jet-flexible skirt air cushion concept and air thrustors will let the freighter go over waves 8 meters high at reduced velocity. Power comes from a 1280 megawatt, helium-cooled thermal reactor. It could dock at any major port in the world, but because it needs no surface contact, it could also travel inland to land-locked ports. A modular terminal design and methods of cargo transfer are suggested. The concept of cargo containerization influences both the freighter and terminal design.
This paper studies the feasibility of the use of an atmospheric rendezvous concept to increase the efficiency and flexibility of space transportation systems. In this concept the second stage of a recoverable orbital launch vehicle or hypersonic transport would be built without wings, landing gear, or subsonic flight propulsion, and would be received in an atmospheric rendezvous by a carrier vehicle at the terminal point of flight for subsequent ferry to a landing site. Significant possibilities for weight improvement are shown and the attractiveness of a subsonic form of atmospheric rendezvous in either a towing or docking mode is illustrated.
Development of laser systems to acquire and track targets in applications such as the rendezvous and docking of two spacecraft. A scan technique is described whereby a narrow laser beam is simultaneously scanned with an equally narrow receiver field-of-view without the aid of mechanical gimbals. Equations are developed in order to examine the maximum acquisition and tracking rates, and the maximum target range for a scanning laser radar system. A recently built prototype of a small, lightweight, low-power-consuming scanning laser radar is described.
The formal training for the crew was conducted over a time span of 20 months. The levels of vibration and oscillation, reported by earlier crews, were essentially unchanged during the launch of Apollo 14. A total of five attempts were required before docking was successfully achieved. Navigation was the most difficult problem encountered during lunar surface activities. A loose gray mantle of material covered the entire surface to an undetermined depth. Solar wind and magnetic field measurements were conducted during the time on the lunar surface.
In Project SKYLAB, the Command and Service Module which ferries astronaut crews to and from the Orbital Workshop is required to have the capability of providing attitude control for the entire Orbital Assembly during docked phases of the mission. A digital autopilot has been designed which meets this requirement. It is a direct descendant of the digital autopilot designed for and used extensively in project Apollo. There is a major difference however. For Apollo, it was reasonable to design an autopilot that treated the roll, pitch, and yaw axes independently. Because of the geometry of the Orbital Assembly, however, it is of considerable advantage to design the jet selection logic for SKYLAB such that the roll and pitch axes are treated as coupled, and also that the roll and yaw axes are treated as coupled. This paper discusses how inter-axis dependence has been incorporated in the Command and Service Module's digital autopilot while working within the limitations of the onboard computer.
Discussion of planning requirements for space rescue missions in connection with an emergency situation involving a manned satellite with a small crew. A space rescue mission may be divided basically into three major operational phases including the response time phase, the phase concerned with the rescue operations, and the final phase which begins with the casting-off operation from the rendezvous position with the distressed vehicle. The types of possible emergency situations are discussed together with the space rescue equipment, a pressurized emergency module, an unpressurized emergency module, a portable airlock, an attachable docking fixture, a fluid jet type detumble system, a stick-on rocket type detumble system, and an antitumbling space vehicle.
The design requirements for space tug systems and cost analysis of the refurbishment phases are discussed. The vehicle is an integral propulsion stage using liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen as propellants and is capable of operating either as a fully or a partially autonomous vehicle. Structural features are an integral liquid hydrogen tank, a liquid oxygen tank, a meteoroid shield, an aft conical docking and structural support ring, and a staged combustion main engine. The vehicle is constructed of major modules for ease of maintenance. Line drawings and block diagrams are included to explain the maintenance requirements for the subsystems.
Data describing the individual NASA payloads for the space shuttle are presented. The document represents a complete issue of the original payload data book. The subjects discussed are: (1) astronomy, (2) space physics, (3) planetary exploration, (4) earth observations (earth and ocean physics), (5) communications and navigation, (6) life sciences, (7) international rendezvous and docking, and (8) lunar exploration.
An analysis of the critical parameters involved in designing systems for spacecraft maneuvers involved in stationkeeping, docking, orbital assembly, satellite inspection and retrieval, and payload deployment is presented. The fixed base simulation was performed on a hybrid computer and includes a cathode ray tube display so that the maneuvers can be visually monitored by a pilot located in the active vehicle. Both automatic and manual control modes are included and the pilot can switch between the two modes as desired. A complete description of the hybrid simulation is provided and simulation results are described. Major digital subroutines, flow charts, and analog wiring diagrams are provided.
Results of a three-year research effort on retrieval and deployment problems associated with orbiting payloads are summarized. Answers to several basic questions about rendezvous, docking, and deployment dynamics and controls were obtained. A basic retrieval mission profile was formulated in order to develop relevant technology. A remotely controlled retrieval package was conceived. Special deployment dynamics problems associated with high altitude deployment were investigated, and new knowledge of payload spin reorientation was obtained.
A preliminary space shuttle mission design and analysis tool is reported emphasizing versatility, flexibility, and user interaction through the use of a relatively small computer (IBM-7044). The Space Shuttle Rendezvous, Radiation and Reentry Analysis Code is used to perform mission and space radiation environmental analyses for four typical space shuttle missions. Included also is a version of the proposed Apollo/Soyuz rendezvous and docking test mission. Tangential steering circle to circle low-thrust tug orbit raising and the effects of the trapped radiation environment on trajectory shaping due to solar electric power losses are also features of this mission analysis code. The computational results include a parametric study on single impulse versus double impulse deorbiting for relatively low space shuttle orbits as well as some definitive data on the magnetically trapped protons and electrons encountered on a particular mission.
Six quartz crystal microbalance contamination monitors were flown on Skylab to monitor the deposition of material from spacecraft outgassing and from the rendezvous and docking maneuvers of the Command/Service Module. This report contains a quick-look analysis of the data from these units during the unmanned and manned portions of SL2.
Safety aspects are studied of the space shuttle orbiter, the shuttle payloads, and space stations in earth orbital operations. The tasks generated safety requirements, guidelines, recommendations, and conceptual safety devices. The tasks studied were: hazardous payloads, docking, onboard survivability tumbling spacecraft, and escape and rescue operations.
Spacecraft mass properties data are provided for use in mission planning, trajectory documentation, mission simulations, and consumable loading. Spacecraft for use in determining locations of spacecraft components and the relationship to coordinate systems in the launch and docked configuration. Mass properties and consumable loading data for the ASTP mission are included along with consumables mass property data and mission independent consumable loading information for the CSM and DM.
The Skylab orbital laboratory is described in terms of spacecraft design features, the experiment programs, and the schedule of planned missions. Attention is given to flight and crew operations, rescue measures, the Multiple Docking Adapter, the Airlock Module, the Workshop, the Apollo Telescope Mount, Saturn V booster, Command and Service Modules, the life support system, thermal and environmental control, electrical power, attitude and pointing control, instrumentation and communications, crew equipment, provisions, and stowage.