Orbit issue 86 (June 2010) by kiwi36

ORBIT

Editorial

ISSN 0953 1599 THE JOURNAL OF THE ASTRO SPACE STAMP SOCIETY Issue No 86 June 2010

The End of the Beginning ?

Patron:

Cosmonaut Georgi Grechko, Hero of the Soviet Union

This edition marks the first of a series of articles which will commemorate the beginning of the Soviet Vostok (Korabyl-Sputnik) flights which first carried dogs then the manikin Ivan Ivanovich and finally Yuri Gagarin and half a dozen other cosmonauts into space.

COMMITTEE Chair :

Margaret Morris, 55 Canniesburn Drive, Bearsden, Glasgow GS1 1RX (E-mail: MMorris671@aol.com)

Hon. Secretary: Brian J.Lockyer, 21, Exford Close,Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset BS23 4RE (E-mail : brian.lockyer@tesco.net)

Compiler of Checklist / Hon Treasurer / Postal Packet Organiser Harvey Duncan,16, Begg Avenue, Falkirk, Scotland FK1 5DL (E-mail: duncan1975@btinternet.com)

Orbit : Editor

Jeff Dugdale, Glebe Cottage, Speymouth, Mosstodloch, Moray. Scotland IV32 7LE (E-mail: jefforbited@aol.com)

12th April 2011 is going to be a very big celebration indeed, though tinged with sadness that we don’t seem to be going anywhere further in space soon. Our next edition will complete the potted history of the shuttle which has been running for several years now and the second part of our major history of the International Space Station which overlaps the shuttle series in this issue. The shuttle will then be confined to museum exhibit status, much like Concorde, though the ISS will continue to operate probably for a further ten years. Although the U.S.Congress may yet have a say in President Obama’s relatively unambitious future plans for NASA, there’s little doubt that the exciting days of space exploration are over. Who would have thought that after the Moon Landings we would have achieved so little in the following 40 years ? And how exciting to think that the future of space exploration is now in the hands of Sir Richard Branson !

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Life Members: UK - Harvey Duncan, George Spiteri, Ian Ridpath, Margaret Morris, Michael Packham, Dr W.R. Withey, Paul Uppington, Jillian Wood. Derek Clarke (Eire,) Charles Bromser (Australia.) Tom Baughn (U.S.A.,) Ross Smith (Australia,) Vincent Leung Wing Sing (Hong Kong.) Mohammed K.Safdar (Saudi Arabia)

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ORBIT

Part Three

Gamma On July 11, 1990 the Russians together with the French launched a satellite called Gamma into space. The satellite orbiting at an altitude of 375 km contained a gamm telescope for measurements at an altitude of 375 km of far-away pulsars and galaxies and sources measured by COS B. COS B is the name of an ESA satellite launched on August 9, 1975 for the measurement of cosmic radiation (Cosmic Radiation Satellite, Option B).

John Beenen concludes his feature on the star at the centre of our solar system. Yohkoh (Guinee, Roentgen and Yohkoh, 2006, Lollini 10389 GUI 4) On August 30, 1991 the Japanese solar mission Yohkoh (sun beam) also known as Solar-A, was launched from the base Kagoshima Space Centre. The instrument measured solar flares and the corona. However through malfunction the mission did not last too long and was ended prematurely in December 1991. A spectrometer did experimentation with regard to soft gamma rays, the temperature and the movements of hot plasma. Another instrument covered the whole gamma area and two telescopes made pictures of the soft and hard gamma rays. The results were a useful addition to those made by the Apollo Skylab missions.

SAMPEX On March 1, 2008 the contact with Gamma was renewed.

Ulysses (Hungaria, Ulysses, 1991, Europe, Magyarorszag WB1, Guinea 2006) After that there were some years of silence with regard to solar missions. The first new series started with the American Ulysses satellite on October 6, 1990. Its primary goal was the investigation of the heliosphere as a function of latitude, especially in the region of the sun’s poles. During its travel through space Ulysses collected unique data. As the only spacecraft outside the level of the equator Ulysses contained an instrument for the measurement of gamma radiation and to detect its location in co-operation with other spacecrafts. Ulysses discovered that the magnetic field of the sun was much more complicated and in the period 20072008 also much weaker than expected. It was also discovered that 30 times more space dust was entering our solar system from deep space than assumed before.

The Sampex (Solar, Anomalous and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer) is the first one in the range of NASA’s small satellite missions called SMEX (Small Explorer). Sampex was launched on July 3, 1992 for the measurement of energy, composition and charge of four groups of charged particles in the upper layer above earth, galactic cosmic rays, abnormal cosmic rays, high energetic particles originating from the sun and electrons in the atmosphere captured by the earth from the solar wind. Sampex delivered a wealth of information about their composition and their isotopes.

Spartan 201 The Spartan experiment was part of the Space Shuttle programme. Spartan-101 was ejected from STS-51-G (STS-18) in June 1985 and studied galaxies in the Perseus constellation. Spartan-210 flew as many as five times, first launched on April 11, 1993 with STS-56, containing two telescopes for measurement at the very hot parts of the corona and the transition region of the solar wind. On its fourth flight the payload bay launch did not succeed and Columbia did not have enough fuel to try it another time. Spartan-203 should have been a mission to study Halley’s comet in the UV region and should have been launched from STS-51-L (STS-25) in January 1986, but was lost with the Challenger accident. 3

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Spartan 401 flew in February 1995 on STS-63 for a UV investigation of diffuse sources from human and natural cause. The natural measurements included diffuse nebula, galaxies, galactic background radiation and space dust. The measurement re human sources were surface measurement of the shuttle itself and emissions of the ‘Reaction Control System’ (RCS).

CORONAS (KORONAS) (Complex Orbital Observation of Near-Earth Activity of the Sun) Both Coronas-1 (March 2, 1994) and Coronas-F (July 31, 2001) carried out experiments with respect to the sun. The Coronas-series of satellites should not be confused with the American military observation satellites launched from the 1960s onwards and called ‘Corona’. Besides the Coronas experiments the Russians also carried out such investigations with the Vertikal 1 tot 10, launched as a part of the Interkosmos project as previously mentioned. The first Vertikal was launched on November 28, 1970. Further, a new Coronas project called CoronasPhoton, and part of the ‘Living with a Star’ programme is specifically meant for the investigation of energy-rich particles and their mechanism. The heavy (1900 kg) Coronas-Photon was launched on January 29, 2009 with a Tsyklon-3 rocket form its base at Plesetsk and brought into a near circular orbit at an altitude of 500 km.

INTERBOL (INTERBALL) (Russia, Interball, 3-8-1995, Prognoz M-2)

Interball (or Interbol) is a project of mainly EasternEuropean countries via four spacecraft, two of the Prognoz-type and two subsatellites of the Magion-type. The main goal is the study of physical mechanisms responsible for the energy transport of the solar wind to the magnetosphere of the earth, the storage and the dissipation in the earth’s magnetotail and the aurora.

The first spacecraft, the ‘Tail Probe’ with its subsatellite S2-X observes the magnetic tail, the second, the ‘Auroral Probe’ with its subsatellite S2-A investigates the aurora in the van Allen radiation gird. The Interball 1 (Prognoz-11), the ‘Tail Probe’, was launched on August 2, 1995 together with the Magion-4, the Interball 2 (Prognoz-12), the ‘Auroral Probe’ on August 29, 1996, together with the Magion 5 and the Argentinean MuSat1. The whole is a collaborative project between Russia, the Czech Republic, the ESA and Japan.

WIND An important mission by NASA is WIND, the first one comprising two parts: the GGS (Global Geospace Science) experiment within the framework of ISTP (International Solar-Terrestrial Physics) programme and POLAR. For the first time since a co-operation was started with Russia, a Russian instrument was flown on board a US launched satellite. The aim of the experiments is to investigate the behaviour of the SunEarth system and to predict how solar wind influences the earth magnetosphere. T 1200 kg WIND satellite was launched from Cape Canaveral on November 1, 1994 with a maximum apogee of 250 Re (earth diameters) during the first two years.

SOHO (Gambia, Soho, 2000 Antigua & Barbuda, Soho, Guinee, Sekhar/Bethe, Soho, 2006)

One of the most important solar missions of 2008 was SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory), a collaboration between ESA and NASA to study the sun from its deepest core out through its corona and solar wind. The mission has to be seen in connection with the Cluster and Ulysses missions. In particular SOHO’s ‘Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope’ (EIT) showed many very spectacular images of solar bursts. SOHO was launched December 2,1995. At the end of June 1998 the craft was nearly lost after a calibration of the gyroscopes, but after a long series of adjustments it was rescued at the end of that September; In any case 4

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a clever achievement. Looking at the images at the Internet (sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/) is very worthwhile.

POLAR As mentioned the Polar mission should be considered in co-operation with WIND. As the name suggests Polar investigates the regions over the poles of the earth. The craft was launched on February 24, 1996 in a very elliptical orbit (5500-50500 km) and weighed 1300 kg. Within the ISTP programme Polar had been designed to follow the energy contents of plasma until its arrival into the earth magnetosphere and ionosphere. With respect to the ionosphere, the outside directed flows have to be mapped. The auroral regions are investigated up to the upper layers of the atmosphere. The influence of solar storms, the energy balance of the magnetosphere and the loss of electrons to the solar wind are part of the investigations. The Polar mission was concluded in 2008.

Equator S (EQS) (Guinee, Raymond Davis (atomand astrophysicist), EQS, 2006) Equator-S also was part of the ISTP-programme and a low-cost mission to investigate the magnetosphere at the level of the equator out to a distance of 67,000 km. The satellite was launched on 2 December 1996 with a Ariane-4 rocket and brought into an orbit of 20038.500 km meant for a mission of about two years. Unfortunately the signals ceased after fewer than eighteen monthsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; service. Contact had been maintained by the German GSOC (German Space Operations Center) of the DLR at Oberpfaffenhofen. The satellite was mainly meant for testing of new more advanced apparatus.

ACE (Guinee, Hans Bethe (atomic physicist and mathematician), Ace, 2006) A better known Satellite is ACE, the Advanced Composition Explorer, aka Explorer 71. The spacecraft measured particles of all possible origin starting from ions in the solar wind and including nuclei originating from cosmic radiation. The Satellite was launched on August 25, 1997 from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida and circles at the socalled L1 point (Lagrange point), a location about 1,5 million km of the Earth and 148,5 million km of the Sun where the gravities of both celestial bodies are in equilibrium. SOHO is located in a similar orbit.

SNOE The SNOE, Student Nitric Oxide Explorer, is a small scientific Satellite designed by the University of Colorado in Boulder, USA. Its purpose is the measurement of the variation in the density of nitric oxide in the lower earth atmosphere (100-200 km) as a function of the energy input of the sun and the magnetosphere. The satellite was launched on February 26, 1998 and was meant as the first one of a series of three satellites within the Student Explorer Demonstration Initiative Program (STEDI). The other two were TERRIERS (18 May1999) of the Boston University for investigation of the ionosphere and Space weather and the cancelled mission CATSAT of the Universities of New Hampshire and Leicester for the measurements of gamma bursts. This satellite should not be confused with the satellite apparatus of the same name used for fishery. It was demonstrated that the variation in nitric oxide is closely related to the activity of both aurorae, hence, with the 27 days cycle of gamma activity by the sun.

TRACE (Guinee, Wolfgang Pauli (quantum physicist), Trace, 2006) As its name suggests, the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer, TRACE, of Explorer 73, has to carry out three-dimensional telescopic observations at the magnetic structure of the photosphere, the transition region and the corona. As such, in the meantime Trace offers hundreds of very spectacular views of loops in the corona, solar bursts, solar flames and sun spots. See (http://trace.Imsal.com/POD/TRACEpodoverview.html, much recommended!). TRACE was launched April 1, 1998 and in early 2009 was still active.

SUNSAT Allthough its name is not really transparent this first South-African Satellite was meant in the first place for communication purposes. The apparatus was developed by the University of Stellenbosch and was put into orbit on February 23, 1999 from the American base at Vandenberg. Its weight was 64 kg and its orbit 641-854 km. The satellite is also known as Oscar 35. With respect to its tasks in solar investigation it measured magnetic fields. A second satellite, Sunsat 2004, should have been launched in 2005 but probably was cancelled.

CLUSTER II The Cluster mission of ESA implies the launch of four satellites (Salsa, Samba, Rumba en Tango) launched in two subsequent series. The magnetosphere of the 5

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RHESSI (Guinee, Raymond Davis, M.Koshiba; Top: Rhessi, 2006)

earth is measured by all four satellites simultaneously on especially variable and temporarily effects. The satellites were launched on July 16, and August 9, 2000 by a Russian Fregat missile. Their orbit is 19.000119.000 km. A previous launch at June 4, 1996 failed due to a failure in the then new developed Ariane-r rocket. The Cluster project was very successful and delivered much insight in the behaviour of the ‘ bow shock’ of the solar wind where it hits the magnetosphere, the transition area ‘magnetopause’ and the magnetic tail of the earth, the ‘magnetotail’. The mission also cleared up the origin of both the aurorae.

GENESIS (Guinee, M. Koshiba (atom and astrophysicist), Genesis, 2006) On August 8th, 2001 a satellite of the name Genesis was launched. For two years it was to collect particles from the solar wind at the Lagrange Point. Samples were to be brought back to earth after the mission. The very small measuring device, not larger than a watch-glass, consists of small scales made from silica, gold, diamond and sapphire, each one with the potential to enclose certain parts of the solar wind. The apparatus reached its orbit on November 16 and after collection of material returned at September 8, 2004. Unfortunately the Genesis did not make the planned soft landing but due to a design failure in the parachute hit earth very hard through which the device was heavily damaged. The measuring device, however, survived the heavy landing and precious data could be recovered. Unfortunately it turned out later that also these data were polluted by the strike. The Genesis mission should not be confused with the mobile telephone system and inflatable satellite system launched in 2006/7 of the same designation.

RHESSI (Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscope Imager) was launched on February 5, 2002 and meant for the study of solar flames. Although not especially designed for that purpose Rhessi showed the Sun not to be a perfect round sphere but with a very small flattening at the poles of 6 km (on a radius of 700.00 km). RHESSI, also HESSI, is a project of the University of Berkeley and to date is a very successful project with respect of the sun’s magnetic action.

SORCE The Solar Radiation and Climate experiment was launched on January 25, 2003 into an orbit of 645 km. It had to measure incoming gamma and ultraviolet radiation, visible light, infrared and total solar radiation. The aim was to collect from these data long-term information with respect to climate change, natural variation, climate prediction, atmospheric ozone and UV -B radiation. The mission is now extended until 2012.

Probe-1 Within the framework of the Chinese ‘Double Star’ project at December 30, 2003 the first of two Chinese satellites was launched from its base Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in SW China. It is to study the effects of the sun on the earth and its spacial environment, especially its ‘magnetotail’. It reached an orbit of 55578051 km—for China the highest altitude at that time. The programme was carried out in co-operation with ESA’s Cluster-II Project. Probe-1 was intended to operate for 18 months. The satellite in an equatorial orbit was followed by the second one in a polar orbit on June 25, 2004. This time launched from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre at NorthChina (Shanxi).

Hinode (Solar B) (Guinee, Max Born (quantum physicist), Solar B, 2006) The Japanese Solar Optical Telescope Hinode (sunrise in Japanese) was the first space instrument measuring the strength and direction of the magnetic field in the photosphere of the sun. The satellite, carrying three telescopes, was launched on September 22, 2006 from the Japanese base at 6Uchinura.

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The quality of its telescopes was much better compared with its predecessors Yohkoh and Soho. The satellite should show answers to the following questions: - Why is there a hotter corona on top of a cooler chromosphere? - Which is the driving force behind the origin of solar flames? - How do the magnetic fields of the sun originate ? In all these areas Hinode delivered interesting results such as the existence of Alfvén-waves in the corona, unexpected movements in the chromosphere and photosphere, continuous emissions of plasma as a source for the solar wind and insight in the magnetic structure of sun spots and the solar surface. Solar-C is planned for 2016.

STEREO (Guinee, Hannes Alfvén (astrophysicist), Stereo, 2006) After TIMED and Hinode the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) is the third mission within NASA’s Solar Terrestrial p r o g r a m m e ( S T P ) . Two nearly identical spacecraft (Ahead and Behind) will three-dimensionally map the energy and particle flows of the sun to the earth. The investigation is pointed at CME’s and large magnetic storms dangerous for satellites and astronauts. The STEREOs were launched on October 25, 2006 but were active only from April 2007. In the meantime STEREO delivered some very spectacular images of solar eruptions and unexpectedly also detected particles from the border of our solar system, the so-called ENA’s (Energetic Neutral Atoms).

THEMIS THEMIS (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms) is a project for the clarification of substorms in the magnetic tail of the earth through which suddenly solar wind energy is released. Themis does it by means of five identical small satellites in precisely chose orbits. Three probes orbit in an inner orbit of 10 Re, the other in orbits of 20 to 30 Re. The five satellites were launched together on February 17, 2007.

IBEX The next system which launched on October 5, 2008 was IBEX (Interstellar Boundary Explorer), a spacecraft underway to the remote corners of our solar system. In the ‘termination shock’ and the ‘heliopause’ the IBEX will measure particles. Also galactic cosmic radiation is the subject of a study together with the interaction of solar wind and the galactic wind.

FUTURE MISSIONS SDO Solar Dynamics Observatory is the first mission within the framework of NASA’s programme ‘Living with a Star’ (LWS). The programme is developed to detect the origin of the variations of the sun and its influence on the earth. The SDO is especially designed for the study of the magnetic fields of the sun, the transfer and release of magnetic energy in the heliosphere and geosphere in the form of solar wind. SDO carries therefore the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) by which these processes can be observed. Next, SDO carries instruments for the measurement of the hot outer regions of the sun and corona and UV-radiation. Initially the mission was planned for the December 1, 2008 but was delayed until early 2010.

SUMI In 2009 astronomers hoped to investigate the secret layer of the sun with an experimental telescope SUMI (Solar Ultraviolet Magnetograph Investigation). This layer in the atmosphere of the sun is positioned at an altitude of 5000 km over the surface where magnetic flows start to surpass the forces of the mass of the sun and its gases. It is the region from which sun flares and CME’s start and where the solar wind is accelerated by unknown forces until its speed is nearly one million km an hour, in short the region where space “weather” originates. The mission will be short, lasting only 8 minutes, in which window the probe will carry out its mission at an altitude of 300 km and a speed of 3500 km an hour and hopefully will be recovered.

ADITYA The Aditya is an Indian spacecraft intended to be launched in 2012 for a mission to the sun’s corona. The satellite will weigh about 100 kg and will probably make its investigations from an orbit at 600 km. Aditya will be launched by ISRO (Indian Space research Organization) in combination with some other satellites and is designed for a service of a couple of years. Aditya is the name of a group of ancient Indian Sun gods. 7

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Sentinels As part of the AWS programme the Sentinel programme is still under development. It should detect the connection between phenomena at the sun and their influence on interplanetary interferences. It will measure the acceleration and transport of energy -rich solar particles (SEPs), the origin and effect of CMEs (Coronal Mass Ejections) and interplanetary wave shocks in the heliosphere. The programme is especially meant for the detection of radiation risks for astronauts on their way to the Moon or Mars.

Solar Orbiter (Guinee, H.Alfvén and W.Röntgen, Top: Solar Orbiter, 2006) Solar Orbiter is an ESA programme to study the sun at distances closer than ever before. Together with NASA Sentinels it forms a kind of a co-operation activity called HELEX (Heliophysical E x p l o r e r s ) . The probe will make detailed images of the poles of the sun and its far side and will orbit in a solar stationary orbit to detect certain regions for longer periods.

Solar Probe Plus The Solar Probe Plus finally will investigate the last region within the solar system not visited by one of the spacecrafts, the outer region of the sun, the corona. On regularly basis the satellite will carry out investigations to explain the heating of the corona and the solar wind.

Solar (Odissee)

Sails

A small plan in the field of sun investigations are the so-called ‘solar sails’. This is a project by which spacecraft are not driven by a form of synthetic drive but just by the solar wind or light.

It also is thought that the boost of speed by so-called fly-by of planets could be obviated and as such flying times could be decreased. However, there are scientists who think that such a drive is not possible. The initiative of such a project has started at the German DLR (Deutsches Zentrums für Luft- und Raumfahrt, German Center for Air and Space Travel). The first sail was launched on June 22, 2005 with Cosmos 1, but the missile failed after 83 seconds. The apparatus weighed 100 kg and should have been orbited at an altitude of 800 km.

RUSSIAN PROGRAMMES OF 2006-2015 The Russians are pursuing a small scientific programme for investigation of the sun. Hence, probably around 2014 the Interhelioprobe will be launched for investigation of the sun’s atmosphere and active regions such as solar wind, turbulences etc. As its name suggests, the Resonance, will apply itself to the natural magnetic resonance effects. The satellite will be positioned in a magnetosynchrone orbit of 50028000 km. Clipper (or Kliper) first is the successor of the manned Soyuz space capsule. Moreover it will be a continuous surveying system of space to detect dangerous deviations in time. Therefore this satellite will be positioned at the L1 point. The satellite will be driven by a solar sail. Finally there is Therion F-2, a project which shows much similarity with TIMED,

AND FINALLY, Yet these are not all satellites for solar investigation. Many Shuttle missions contained some instruments for solar investigation. Accordingly we know a long list of satellites of programmes which we did not mention until now presented here in alphabetical order: Aeros (1972, co-operation NASA-Germany), AIM (2007, Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere), Akebono or Exos-D (1989), AMM (2003, Auroral Multiscale Midex), ASCE (1999, Advanced Solar Coronal Explorer Mission), AZUR (1969, co-operation NASA-Germany), BARREL-1 (2012, Balloon Array for Radiation-Belt Electron Losses)/ RBSP (2012, Radiation Belt Storm Probes), Champ (2000, Challenging Microsatellite Payload), CINDI (2008, Coupled Ion-Neutral Dynamics Investigations)/CNOFS-programme (Communication/ Navigation Outage Forecast System), CRRES (1990, Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite), FAST (1996, Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer) Freja (1992), GED (after 2012, Global Electrodynamics), GEOTAIL (1992), IMAGE (2000, Imager for magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration), ISIS (1969, 1971, International satellites for ionospheric

The idea behind is not new. In 1924 pioneers of space travel like Tsiolkovsky and Tsander had suggested it. It is thought that such a drive could be used for the investigation of the planet Mercury, the asteroid gird, investigations of comets and even recovery 8 experiments.

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studies, Canadian), Kuafu (Chinese, 3 sats, prediction space weather, 2012), MMS (2014, Magnetospheric Multiscale), SMESE (2011, Small Explorer for the study of Solar Eruptions (French-Chinese co-operation) S3 (2010, together with the Japanese Planet-C, Small Secondary Satellites), ST-5 (2006, Space Technology), TIMED (2001, Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics), TWINS A en B (2008, Two Wide-Angle Imaging Neutral-Atom Spectrometers Satellites), UARS (1991, Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, launched by STS-48) etc.

LITERATURE

http://aim.hamptonu.edu/ AIM satellite http://arc.iki.rssi.ru/history/prognoz.htm Prognoz http://en.wikipedia.org Different solar subjects http://ilrs.gsfc.nasa.gov/satellite_missions/list_of_satellites Champ http://ircamera.as.arizona.edu/NatSci102/images/extstamps.htm Astronomy in stamps http://nasascience.nasa.gov/ Nasa Science: Heliophysics http://nl.wikipedia.org Different solar subjects http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008 Living with a star http://sec.gsfc.nasa.gov/ Heliophysics CONCLUSION http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/ Beautiful images made by the Solar investigation is a very important part of the SOHO satellite scientific aspect of space travel. It provides a deeper http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov Solar Physics http://solarsystem.nasa.gov Different solar subjects insight into the processes inside the sun and its direct http://stp.gsfc.nasa.gov/missions/mms/ Magnetospheric multiscale environment, but all missions also gave us a better satellite http://trace.Imsal.com/POD/TRACEpodoverview.html Beautiful images understanding of the processes on and around earth. made by TRACE http://umbra.nascom.nasa.gov/ SADC (Solar Data Analysis Center) Yet everything is still not clear. Even after all those www.answers.com Different solar subjects investigations by probes and spacecraft many processes www.astronautix.com/ Different solar subjects on the surface of and within the sun are just partly www.chinaembassy.org.ro/rom/kjwh/ Sino-French mission to explore the sun understood or are still unknown. www.cira.colostate.edu/cira/ramm/hillger/ Excellent site for satellites on stamps That also means that their influence on the phenomena www.cv.nrao.edu/fits/www/yp_solar.html Solar astronomy, on our earth is still not exactly known. The origin of the encyclopaedic site: everything about the Sun larger temperature rise within the corona is not fully www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/ Different solar subjects www.geocities.com Different solar subjects understood. There are theories, but they do not explain www.hardpen.com/Bio The sun is freaking out everything. Also the mechanism which www.hinguonnet.com/2008 ISRO planning to launch Satellite to study the sun creates the solar wind is not well known. It is interesting that, although we are in that only human activity www.history.nasa.gov/explorer.html Explorer www.iki.rssi.ru/interball/mt.html Magion History a period of nearly no sun spots the sun www.irf.se/program/sspt/rpg/interball.html causes our present for 70 years is in its most active period Interball/Promics-2 for 8000 years. Further, the satellite climate problems does not www.jaxa.jp Hinode (Solar B) www.kp.dlr.de/solarsail Solarsail Homepage Ulysses discovered that the magnetic www.michielb.nl/od95/home.htm The centre of go down well with me field of the sun is much more the sun complicated that assumed by earlier www.mreclipse/MrEclipse.html Stamps of solar eclipes investigations, that its magnetic activity in the period 2007-2008 was much less strong and that www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/ Marshall space flight center www.psywarrior.com Poison cornflakes for breakfast much more solar dust is floating around than expected. www.redorbit.com/news/space/ NASA set to explore sunâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s secret In short, despite our good will the influence of solar www.skepticalscience.com Solar activity & climate www.space.skyrocket.de/ GĂźnthers Space page: different solar processes on earth is certainly not well fathomed. subjects www.spaceref.com/news/ a.o. IMAGE For me is it therefore very unlikely that our present www.spacetoday.org/China Chinese (solar) missions climate problem is to be blamed fully on our www.tmgnow.com/repository/solar/lassen1.html Solar activity and carbondioxide or methane emissions from human climate

activities. Of course I support the opinion that all unnecessary and dangerous emissions of human origin should be kept as low as possible, but that only human activity causes our present climate problems does not go down well with me. For me such an opinion is too simple and neglects the a major source of our human existence, the sun. Hoorn, 31 Januari 2009

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The Naming of Craters The word crater was adopted by Galileo from the Latin word for cup. Galileo had built his first telescope in late 1609, and turned it to the Moon for the first time on November 30, 1609. He discovered that, contrary to general opinion at that time, the Moon was not a perfect sphere, but had both mountains and cup-like depressions, to the latter of which he gave the name craters. Scientific opinion as to the origin of craters swung back and forth over the ensuing centuries. The competing theories were (a) volcanic eruptions blasting holes in the Moon, (b) meteoric impact, (c) a strange theory known as the Welteislehre developed in Germany between the two World Wars which suggested glacial action creating the craters. Evidence collected during the Apollo Project and from unmanned spacecraft of the same period proved conclusively that meteoric impact, or impact by asteroids for larger craters, was the origin of almost all lunar craters, and by implication, most craters on other bodies as well. (Ex Wikipedia)

Atlas (Diam 69km Lat °N 47 Long °E 44) E of Hercules and SE of Frigoris this is a very prominent feature named after the Greek mythical hero.

(Greece 1906 shows Atlas offering the apples of Hesperides to Hercules).

(GB 1970), between Herschels)

Bessel (Diam 19km Lat °N 22 Long °E 18) Is the main feature on Serenitatis, just below the “N” opposite. Named after German mathematician and astronomer Friederich Wilhelm Bessel (1784— 1846). (W. Germany 1984)

1: The Moon : First Quadrant (North-East) This is largely occupied by seas, many bordered by mountain ranges, viz the whole of the Mare Serenitatis and Mare Crisium, most of the Mare Tranquilitatis (site of Surveyor 5, Rangers 6 and 8 and the first Apollo landing) and Mare Vaporum and parts of Mare Frigoris and Mare Foecunditatis. Close to the limb you find small seas (Smythii, Marginis and Humboldtianum) foreshortened to our view from Earth. Selected Craters illustrated….. Arago (Diam 29km Lat °N 6 Long ° E 21) At 8 o’clock on Tranquitatis, this is a well formed crater just NE of Manners crater and near a large congregation of domes. Named after François Arago (1786 -1853), French mathematician and astronomer. (France

Baily (Diam 26km Lat °N 50 Long °E 30) The remnant of a crater on the boundary between Mare Frigoris to the N and Lacus Mortis to the S, named after British astronomer Francis Baily (1774—1844).

(Yugoslavia 1987)

Boscovich (Diam 43km Lat °N 10 Long °E 11) Almost completely eroded by later impacts this crater in just NW of Julius Caesar and S-SE of Manilius. Named after the widely travelled Roger Boscovich, (1711—1787) Croatian astronomer and mathematician.

Da Vinci (Diam 38km Lat °N 9 Long °E 45) Located to the NW of Mare Fecunditatis and named after the famous Italian scholar Leonardo da Vinci (1452—1519) (France 1952) Franklin (Diam 56km Lat °N 39 Long °E 48) Situated S-SE of Cepheus and near Berzelius, this is named in honour of American polymath Benjamin Franklin (1706— 1790). (USA 2006)

1986)

Aristotles (Diam 97km Lat °N 50 Long °E 18) Along with Eudoxus immediately to the South this crater creates a prominent pair of walled plains. Some of the walls rise to 3300 metres. Named after Greek philosopher Aristotle (384—322 B.C.)

(Greece 1978)

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Gauss (Diam 136km Lat °N 36 Long °E 80) A large crater, rather a walled plain, located on the NE limb, named after German Mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777— 1855). (W. Germany 1955) Hahn

(Diam 84km

Julius Caesar (Diam 71km Lat °N 9 Long °E 15) West of Tranquilitatis, this is a low walled irregular formation with a very dark floor, named after the first Roman Emperor. (Italy 1929) Kirchhoff (Diam 25km Lat °N 30 Long °E 39) A small crater located in the Northern part of Montes Taurus to W. crater Newcomb and SE pf Hall and G.Bond. Named after German physicist Gustav Kirchhoff (18242—1887) (E. Germany

Lat °N 31 Long °E 74) Located near the NE limb, this crater appear oval when viewed from earth because of fore shortening. Named after Otton Hahn (1879—1968) German Nobel laureate in chemistry. (E. Germany

1979)

1974) Linné

Hercules (Diam 72km Lat ° N 46 Long °E 39) A prominent feature to the east of Atlas this lies on the Eedge of a southward extension of Frigoris. Named after the Roman name for the Greek mythical hero Heracles, son of Zeus.(Monaco 1983)

(Diam 11km Lat °N 28 Long °E 12) A small bowl shaped crater on a bright patch of the Moon in Serenitatis, named after Carl Linnaeus (1707—1778) Swedish botanist and zoologist. (San Marino 1982)

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Oersted (Diam 42km Lat °N 43 Long °E 47) This crater has been flooded by lava leaving only a crescent shaped rim with gap to the SW. Named after Danish physicist Hans Christian Ørsted (1777—1851).(Denmark

Who Decided on These Names ? I am grateful to our Chairman Margaret Morris for the following information gleaned from the Dictionary of Astronomical Names by Adrian Room, Routledge (1988)….

1951)

Plinius 24)

(Diam 48km Lat °N 15 Long °E

Borders the two seas Serenitatis and Tranquilitatis. Named after author, naturalist and natural philosopher, Pliny the Elder (23— 79 A.D.) uncle of Pliny the Younger, shown on

The first person to name features on the Moon was Michel Florent van Langren, Court Astronomer to Philip IV, who published a moon map in 1645 with some 300 names mostly of biblical characters and saints plus royal family members and courtiers. Ony 3 survive - Catharina, Cyrillus and Theophilus.

this 1961 Italian issue.

Römer (Diam 37km Lat °N 25 Long °E 37) Lying E of Serenitatis has a large central peak crowned by a craterlet. Named after Ole Rømer (1644—1710), Danish astronomer. (Denmark 1944)

In 1647 Hevelius, shown here on Poland 1987 publishe "Selenographia". Most of his names have fallen into disuse.

W.C. Bond (Diam 156km Lat °N 65 Long °E 4) An irregularly shaped walled plain to the N of Mare Frigoris, named after American astronomer Willian Cranch Bond (1789—1859).

( Nic ar agu a 1 9 9 4 , w r o n gly inscribed), “William Granch”)

Chandrasekhar Stamp Commenting on page 19 of the January 2009 (#80) issue of Orbit, Dutch ASSS member Bert van Eijck wondered (cf p 28 of Orbit 81) if there was ever a stamp showing a portrait of Subramanyan Chandrasekhar, the Indian born Nobel laureate and astrophysicist. Bert mentioned an Indian stamp for an Indian namesake Samanta Chandrasekhar, “the greatest naked eye astronomer”. It now appears that there is, as you may already have noticed on page 3 of this edition.

Francesco Grimaldi published a map of the Moon with about 300 names in 1651. Grimaldi was a pupil of Riccioli who published "Almagestum Novum" which contained some of Grimaldi's names. The next step forward was in 1791 when Schröter made a new map and added more than 70 new crater names. He also introduced the designation of an unnamed crater by giving it the name of a nearby known feature and adding "A", "B", etc., and other such designations by Roman numerals, Greek small letters etc. After this, things remained in a rather confused and random state with selenographers giving and altering names independently of one another until in the 20th century two leading astronomers determined to bring some order out of the chaos and to draw up a unified nomenclature for the features on the Moon. These were Miss Mary Blagg and Dr Karl Müller of Vienna. The results of their joint work were a map of the Moon and an accompanying catalogue prepared in 1926 and officially approved by The International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 1932. It was then published in book form "Named Lunar Formations". Most names of lunar features today are those recognised by the IAU at its 14th General Assembly in 1970 when 513 new names were put forward for acceptance.

Guinea 200 6 within a minisheet

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For your interest and fascinationâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;reproduced from STAMP magazine for April 2010â&#x20AC;&#x201D;look at the prices being asked !

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Astro Covers for Sale @ £1 / €1.50 / $2 From time to time I am sent covers instead of cash, as payments for subscriptions – now it’s time for a clear out, writes our Treasurer Harvey Duncan. All are Russian launch covers unless stated otherwise At these prices he suggests you include any purchase price with your renewal subscription this year Orders by email please—details of Harvey’s email and postal addresses are on page 2 on a first come basis – He will scan a copy of any cover(s) potential buyers wish to see. KOSMOS 2422 2429 2430 2445 2446 2447-8-9 2450 2451-2-3 2455

PROGRESS

SATELLITES

M52 (see below) M53 M54 M55 M56 M57 M61 M63 M65 M66 M67 M01 M M02 M

ASTRA 1M BURAN - 20th Anniv. CRYOSAT EUTALSAT W2A EUTELSAT W3A FOTON M2 FOTON M3 GIOVE A 0(AMC 23) GALAXY 16 GALILEO INMARSAT 4 F3 JCSAT 2 { DEIMOS, DUBAL SATSMOS/PROBA 2 ANOSAT 1B, UK-DMC2 APRIZE SAT 3, APRIZESAT 4 }

KASAT KOMPSAT 2 PROTOSTAR 2 RADUGA 19 RESURS DK/PAMELA SAR-LUPE TELSTAR 11N TELESAT ZARJA ZYKLOV ZYKLOV VENUS EXPRESS EXPRESS MD1, EXPRESS AM 44 (illustrated below)

SOYUZ Manned Flights 35 (Mongolian Stamps), TM 6 Launch cover, docking & a landing cover TM 26, TM 29, TMA 5, TMA 6, TMA 7, TMA 8, TMA 10,TMA 11, TMA 12TMA 13, TMA 14, TMA 15, TMA 16

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First Official Missile Mail

ASTEROIDS

Via USS Barbero (SS-317)

Some Bits and Pieces

Launched 12 December 1943 Decommissioned 30th June 1964 Astrophilately - Beatrice Bachmann’s Displacement 1526 tons nd She had an interesting career starting with the 2 World collection in auction sale War in which she was credited with sinking three Japanese merchant ships totaling 9,126 tons while A Large-Gold collection in astrophilately will be on sale patrolling in the Java and South China Seas. on June 3rd, 2010. Past member of the ASSS, Mrs. Beatrice Bachmann of Switzerland, former President Following a conversion to a cargo submarine in 1948, of the Astro Commission in F.I.P. and Large-Gold Medal she took part in an experimental programme to evaluate winner wants to close her collection and has offered it her capabilities as a cargo carrier In 1955 she was for sale by auction in June 2010. converted once more to equip her to launch Regulas nuclear missiles. She then operated off the coast of California until April 1956 when she transited the Every collector, young and old, aerophilatelist or astrophilatelist, will surely want to have a good look at Panama canal and joined the Atlantic fleet this wonderful collection, which includes exclusive Barbero conducted nuclear deterrence patrols in the material Mrs. Bachmann has collected over the past 40 Atlantic for the next eight years, through the Cuban years. Missile Crises and other tensions of The Cold War.

The collection is on sale at Rapp Auktionen in Switzerland. Visit the site’s home page and click within the panels on the right which contain the heading “Auction-Catalogues 1-3 now on line”. Scroll down to In 1959 Barbero assisted the then United States Post the bottom for the “Astrophilatelie, Lose 2204-2231” Office Department (Now the United States Postal link where you will find images of all the Bachmann Service) (USPS) in its search for faster, more efficient collection, whose 128 pages can be viewed as a book ! forms of mail transportation. Enjoy this collection before it will probably disappear in some investor's bank safe ! On the 8th June 1959 Barbero was stationed 100 miles off the coast of Florida and launched a Regulus training (As noted on www.fisa-web.com . Thanks to Chris missile towards the Naval Auxiliary Air Station, Mayport, Hargreaves of Canada for this information.) FA. Twenty two minutes later the missile landed at its target, its war head having been converted to contain 3000 items of mail.

Missile Mail

References : Wikipedia

From Harvey Duncan

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Un-manned Satellites on Postage Stamps : 34 By Guest Contributors Don Hillger and Garry Toth

The Nadezhda Series This is the thirty-fourth in a series of articles about unmanned satellites on postage stamps. This article features the satellites in the Russian Nadezhda civil navigation series. The first Nadezhda was launched in 1989 and the series includes seven numbered satellites launched as of 2009. The Nadezhda satellites are included in this series of articles because they carry transponders for the COSPAS (COsmicheskaya Sistyema Poiska Avariynich Sudov [Space System for the Search of Vessels in Distress]) system, the Russian counterpart of the SARSAT (Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking) system on NOAA’s polar-orbiting and geostationary satellites. (See reference at end of article) Appropriately, Nadezhda means “hope” in Russian. These two programmes are an interesting example of Russian-American cooperation. The Nadezhda satellites are cylindrical, 2m in diameter and 2.1 m long, with an extended boom on one end and one or two much smaller striped conical omni-directional antennas on the other end. Although the series began officially with Nadezhda-1 in 1989, three Nadezhda prototypes were launched as part of the Kosmos series in 1982, 1983, and 1984, as Kosmos-1383, 1447, and 1574 respectively. Nadezhda is featured on a limited number of postal items, a couple of which show the Nadezhda-like satellites, Kosmos-318 and 381. These two (also named Ionosfernaya-1 and 2 respectively) lacked the omnidirectional antennas of the Nadezhda series necessary for the COSPAS/SARSAT programme. Images of those antennas are generally not included in the various postal items depicting Nadezhda, but are clearly seen in the Cambodian souvenir sheet (Scott 875) and Canadian souvenir sheet (Scott 2111). For the purposes of comparison, the interested reader will find a close-up view of such a conical, barber-pole-striped antenna on a stamp from Togo (Scott C344) as a detail of the Venera1 satellite featured on that stamp. A checklist of postal items identified as showing the Nadezhda-series satellites (http:// rammb.cira.colostate.edu/dev/hillger/Nadezhda.htm) is available as part of the Website developed by the authors to accompany this series of articles (http:// rammb.cira.colostate.edu/dev/hillger/satellites.htm). Email correspondence with the authors is welcome. Don A version of this article first appeared in The Astrophile for Jan/April 09, published April 2010 (sic) 16

Photos ex Encyclopaedia Astronautica : www.astronautix.com

Hillger can be reached at hillger@cira.colostate.edu and G a r r y T o t h a t garry_toth@hotmail.com. Reference Hillger, D., and G. Toth, 2007: Saving lives with satellites, Topical Time, 58(3), (May/June), 41-43.

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Shuttle Story : 2009

STS–119, -125, -127, -128, - 129

STS-119 (ISS assembly flight 15A) was flown to the International Space Station by Discovery during March 2009. It delivered and assembled the fourth starboard Integrated Truss Segment (S6), and the fourth set of solar arrays and batteries to the station. The launch took place on March 15, 2009, at 7:43 p.m. ED and Discovery successfully landed on March 28, 2009, at 3:13 p.m. EDT. STS-119 delivered the S6 solar arrays to the space station, completing the construction of the Integrated Truss Structure. STS-119 also carried several experiments, including the Shuttle Ionospheric Modification with Pulsed Local EXhaust (SIMPLEX), Shuttle Exhaust Ion Turbulence Experiments (SEITE), and Maui Analysis of Upper Atmospheric Injections (MAUI). STS-119 was also used for the "Boundary Layer Transition Detailed Test Objective" experiment. One tile of the thermal protection system was raised 0.25 inches (6.4 mm) above the others so that, at about Mach 15 during re-entry, a boundary layer transition would be initiated. This experiment was to be repeated during STS-128 with the tile raised to 0.35 inches (8.9 mm) which will trip at Mach 18 producing more heat. Three spacewalks were scheduled and completed during STS119. The cumulative time in extra-vehicular activity during the mission was 19 hours and 4 minutes. EVA 1 on March 19th Installed the Starboard 6 (S6) truss to the S5 truss, connected S5/S6 umbilicals, released launch restraints, removed keel pins, stored and removed thermal covers, and deployed the S6 photovoltaic radiator. EVA 2 two days later advanced preparation of a worksite for STS-127, saw partial installation of an unpressurized cargo carrier attachment system on the P3 truss, the installation of a Global Positioning System antenna to the Kibo laboratory and completed infrared imagery of panels of the radiators on the P1 and S1 trusses. The final EVA on March 23rd involved the relocation of a crew equipment cart, lubrication

Flight

STS-119

Commander Pilot

Lee Archambault Dominic Antonelli

MS MS MS MS MS

Joseph Acaba EA* Steve Swanson Richard Arnold John Phillips Koichi Wakata

KSC Launch Date : 15.3.09 KSC Landing : 28.3.09 Purpose / Main Payload

Delivery to ISS of Truss Segment

* Educator Astronaut of station arm grapple snares, attempted deployment of a cargo carrier. The design of the mission patch on the launch cover below is based on the shape of a solar array viewed at an angle. The truss segment to be installed is lighter in colour and just to the right of “Arnold” in the margin. With astronaut symbol at top centre. The 17 stars both within and outwith the American flag commemorate the astronauts of the Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia disasters.

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Last Service for HST STS-125, or HST-SM4 (Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission 4), was the fifth and final space shuttle servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Launch occurred on May 11, 2009 at 2:01 p.m. EDT. Landing occurred on May 24 at 11:39 a.m. EDT, with the mission lasting a total of just under 13 days.

Atlantis carried two new instruments to the Hubble Space

Telescope, the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph and the Wide Field Camera 3. The mission also replaced a Fine Guidance Sensor, six new gyroscopes, and two battery unit modules to allow the telescope to continue to function at least through 2014. The crew also installed new thermal blanket insulating panels to provide improved thermal protection, and a soft-capture mechanism that would aid in the safe de-orbiting of the telescope by an unmanned spacecraft at the end of its operational lifespan. The mission also carried an IMAX camera and the crew documented the progress of the mission for an upcoming IMAX movie. The crew of STS-125 included three astronauts who had previous experience servicing Hubble. Scott Altman visited Hubble in 2002 as commander of STS-109, the fourth Hubble servicing mission.John Grunsfeld, an astronomer, has serviced Hubble twice, performing a total of five spacewalks on STS-103 in 1999 and STS-109. Michael Massimino served with both Altman and Grunsfeld on STS-109, and performed two spacewalks to service the telescope. NASA managers and engineers declared the mission a complete success. The completion of all the major objectives, as well as some that were not considered vital, upgraded the Hubble telescope to its most technologically advanced state since its launch nineteen years before and made it more powerful than ever. The upgrades will help Hubble to see deeper into the universe and farther into the past, closer to the time of the Big Bang.

Flight

STS-125

Commander Pilot

Scott Altman Gregory Johnson

MS MS MS MS MS

John Grunsfeld Michael Massimino Andrew Feustel Michael Good Megan McArthur

KSC Launch Date : 11.5.09 KSC Landing : 24.5.00 Purpose / Main Payload

Final Servicing of Hubble S.T.

STS-125 was the first visit to the Hubble Space Telescope for Atlantis; the telescope had been previously serviced twice by Discovery and once each by Columbia and Endeavour. The mission was the thirtieth flight of Space Shuttle Atlantis and the first flight of Atlantis in over 14 years (since STS66) not to visit a space station. The mission patch design shows HST with many scientific discoveries made in the universe represented by stylised planets, stars and galaxies. The dark of the lower part of the patch symbolises the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy that HST may help us to understand. The trail behind the shuttle (in red) represented the red shifted glow of the early universe.

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500th spacefarer launched STS-127 (ISS assembly flight 2J/A) was flown to the International Space Station and was the twenty-third flight of Endeavour. The primary purpose of the mission was to deliver and install the final two components of the Japanese Kibo Experiment Module. When Endeavour docked with ISS, it set a record for the most humans in space at the same time in the same vehicle, the first time thirteen people have been at the station at the same time. It also tied the record of thirteen people in space at any one time. STS-127's sixth launch attempt was successful, on July 15, 2009 at 6:03 p.m. EDT. Pieces of foam were observed falling off of the External Tank during launch, as happened when the space shuttle Columbia was lost. In this instance Endeavour only received minor scuffs to the heat shield, which were found to be of no concern to a safe reentry.

Endeavour carried a wide variety of equipment and cargo in the payload bay, with the largest item being the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility (JEM EF), and the Kibo Japanese Experiment

Flight

STS-127

Commander Pilot

Mark Polansky Douglas Hurley

MS MS MS MS MS

Christopher Cassidy Timothy Kopra Thomas Marshburn David Wolf Julie Payette

KSC Launch Date : 15.7.09 AFB Landing : 31.7.09 Purpose / Main Payload

Delivery of Japanese Kibo Module

Logistics Module - Exposed Section (ELM-ES) The exposed facility is a part of Kibo that will allow astronauts to perform science experiments that are exposed to the vacuum of space. The exposed section is similar to the logistics module on the Kibo laboratory, but is not pressurized.

A second satellite, the Atmospheric Neutral Density Experiment (ANDE-2), is part of a United States Department of Defense project flown by the Naval Research Laboratory to provide high-quality satellites, and will measure the density and composition of the low Earth orbit atmosphere while Also inside the payload bay was a Integrated Cargo Carrier that being tracked from the ground, to better predict the contained a variety of equipment and spare components for the station. movement and decay of objects in orbit. The carrier contained six new batteries for installation on the P6 truss, that was installed during two of the mission's spacewalks, as well as a ANDE-2 consists of two spherical microsatellites, spare space-to-ground antenna and a spare linear drive unit and pump ANDE Active spacecraft (Castor) and the ANDE module which was stored on an external stowage platform on the Passive spacecraft (Pollux), and was to be tracked by station's truss during one of the spacewalks. the International Laser Ranging Service (ILRS) network as well as the Space Surveillance Network Two satellites were also carried by the orbiter, for deployment when (SSN). One of the satellites, Pollux, was running the mission ended. The Dual Autonomous Global Positioning System On Arduino libraries, with its payload programmed and -Orbit Navigator Satellite, called DRAGONSAT, gathered data on built by students. autonomous spacecraft rendezvous and docking capabilities, and consists of two picosatellites, the AggieSat2, and PARADIGM (BEVO-1), which acquire GPS data from a device at NASA and send it to ground stations at Texas A&M University and the University of Texas at Austin. After release, the two picosatellites remained attached for two orbits to collect GPS data, and separate during the third orbit.

STS-127 marked the first time that two Canadian astronauts, Robert Thirsk and Julie Payette, were in space at the same time., Thirsk having arrived via Soyuz TMA-15 in May as part of Expedition 20 crew. Christopher Cassidy was the 500th person to fly in space.

In this mission patch we see the blue earth bathed in sunlight and without boundaries to remind us we share it. The flight path of the orbiter turns into three distinctive rays of the astronaut symbol culminating in the star-like emblem of the Japanese Space Agency. Beside the name of Canadian astronaut Julie Payette we see the maple leaf symbol.

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STS-128 (ISS assembly flight 17A) was flown to the International Space Station on August 28, 2009. Discovery carried the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Leonardo, as the primary payload containing a collection of experiments for studying the physics and chemistry of microgravity. Three spacewalks were carried out during the mission, which removed and replaced a materials processing experiment outside ESA's Columbus module, and returned an empty ammonia tank assembly.[3] The launch took place at the third attempt on 28 August 2009 at 23:59 pm EDT.

Leonardo's purpose is to assist with establishing a six-man crew capacity

by bringing extra supplies and equipment to the station. The MultiPurpose Logistics Module contained three racks for life support, a Crew quarter to be installed in Kibo, a new treadmill (COLBERT) temporarily to be placed in Node 2 and later in Node 3, and an Air Revitalization System (ARS) that will temporarily be placed in Kibo and later in Node 3. It also contained three racks dedicated to science, FIR (Fluids Integrated Rack) and the first Materials Science Research Rack (MSRR-1) to be placed in Destiny and MELFI-2 (Minus Eighty Laboratory Freezer for ISS) to be placed in Kibo. The FIR enabled detailed study of how liquids behave in microgravity, a crucial detail for many chemical reactions. One experiment, for instance, examined how mixtures known as colloids behave without being stirred by sedimentation and convection. Another using the Light Microscopy Module (LMM) examined how an ideal heat pipe works without the distortions of gravity.

Flight

STS-128

Commander Pilot

Frederick Sturcow Kevin Ford

MS MS MS MS MS

Patrick Forrester Jose Hernandez Christer Fuglesang Nicole Stott John Olivas

KSC Launch Date : 28.8.09 EAB Landing : 11.9.09 Purpose / Payload

Delivery of MPLM Leonardo

Discovery undertook the testing of a catalytic

coating which is meant to be used by the Orion spacecraft. Two TPS tiles located in the protuberance downstream from the BLT tile had been fully coated with the catalytic material in order to understand the entry heating performance. The STS-128 mission (as did STS-125 and STS-127) took part in crew The tiles were[14]instrumented to collect a wide seat vibration tests that will help engineers on the ground understand variety of data. how astronauts experience launch. They will then use the information to The mission of Christer Fuglesang—see also page help design the crew seats that will be used in future NASA spacecraft. 22 - is named Alissé by the ESA. The name was STS-128 repeated the Boundary Layer Transition (BLT) Detailed Test proposed by Jürgen Modlich from Baierbrunn, Objective (DTO) experiment that was done by the same shuttle during Germany and refers to the 15th-century explorers STS-119. In this experiment, one of the thermal protection systems was who used the trade winds to follow Christopher raised to create a boundary layer transition in which the air flow Columbus across the oceans to the New World. becomes turbulent beyond a certain speed. During STS-119 the tile was raised 0.25 inches (6.4 mm) above the others, tripping the flow at Mach STS-128 also marked the first time two Hispanic 15 during reentry. In the modification being done, the tile has been Americans were on the same crew. John "Danny" Olivas of El Paso, Texas, made his second trip up raised 0.35 inches (8.9 mm) to trip at Mach 18 producing more heat. into space, and José Hernández of Stockton, California, was a rookie. Both are of Mexican heritage.

The mission patch represents the hardware, people and partner nations involved in the flight. Discovery is shown with Leonardo in the payload bay.

The banner unfurled around the astronaut symbol, earth and ISS contains both the US and Swedish flags. 21

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Arne Christer Fuglesang (born March 18, 1957 in Stockholm) is a Swedish physicist and an ESA astronaut. He was first launched aboard the STS-116 Shuttle mission on December 10, 2006, at 01:47 GMT, making him the first Swedish citizen in space. Married with three children, he is a Fellow at CERN and taught mathematics at the Royal Institute of Technology before being selected to join the Astronaut Corps of the European Space Agency in 1992. To date he has participated on two Space Shuttle missions and five spacewalks, and is the first astronaut outside of the United States or Russian space programmes to participate in more than three spacewalks.

Four of five maxim cards produced by the Swedish post office on 24.9.09 to celebrate the achievements of the first Swedish astronaut. The fifth stamp shows the launch of STS-116. See Orbit for January 2010 with details of Fuglesangâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first mission and reference to the Abba lyric microprinted on the diamond shaped stamp.

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Final ISS Crew Rotation Flight STS-129 (ISS assembly flight ULF3) was flown to the International Space Station by Atlantis on 16 November 2009, at 14:28 EST (UTC-5) and landed at 9:44 a.m. EST on 27 November 2009 on runway 33 at the Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility. STS-129 focused on staging spare components outside the station. The 11-day flight included three spacewalks. The payload bay carried two large ExPRESS Logistics Carriers holding two spare gyroscopes, two nitrogen tank assemblies, two pump modules, an ammonia tank assembly, a spare latching end effector for the station's robotic arm, a spare trailing umbilical system for the Mobile Transporter, and a highpressure gas tank. STS-129 was the first flight of an ExPRESS Logistics Carrier. The completion of this mission left five scheduled space shuttle flights remaining until the end of the program. The primary payload of STS-129 was the ExPRESS (Expedite the Processing of Experiments to the Space Station) Logistics Carrier (ELC-1) and the ELC-2. The mass capacity of each ELC is 9,800 pounds (4,400 kg) with a volume of 30 meters cubed (total with spares, ELC-1: 13,850 pounds (6,280 kg) and ELC-2: 13,400 pounds (6,100 kg)).[10] Goddard Space Flight Center served as the overall integrator for ELC-1 and ELC-2. The spare hardware stored on ELC-1 includes an Ammonia Tank Assembly, a Battery Charger Discharge Unit, a station robotic arm Latching End Effector, a Control Moment Gyroscope, a Nitrogen Tank Assembly, a Pump Module, a Plasma Contactor Unit and two empty Passive Flight Releasable Attachment Mechanisms.

Flight

STS-129

Commander Pilot

Charles Hobaugh Barry Wilmore

MS MS MS MS

Leland Melvin Michael Foreman Randy Bresnik Robert Satcher

KSC Launch Date : 16.11.09 KSC Landing : 27.11.09 Purpose / Payload

ExPress Logistics Carrier delivery

ELC-1 (in photo) was installed on t h e U n p r es su r i z ed Cargo Carrier Attachment System #2 (UCCAS 2) on the P3 (port side) segment of the main truss. ELC-2 was installed on the Upper Outboard Payload Attach System on the S3 (Starboard Segment 3) of the main truss

ELC-2 was launched with an oxygen-filled High Pressure Gas Tank (HPGT), a Cargo Transport Container (CTC-1), a Mobile Transporter Trailing Umbilical System Reel Assembly (MT TUS-RA), a Control Moment STS-129 was the second flight to carry two African Gyroscope, a Nitrogen Tank Assembly, a Pump Module, MISSE attach -American astronauts, Leland Melvin and Robert hardware and one empty site for future payloads. Satcher. The first was STS-116, which included Robert Curbeam and Joan Higginbotham.

The shining sun represents the bright future of US human spaceflight whilst the integrated shape signifies the two carriers providing equipment. The 13 stars on the emblem are significant of the children of the future.

The Moon and Mars either side of the ISS and astronaut symbol represent the next targets in NASAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s space programmes, the ground work for which is being laid by current missions.

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For the uninitiated, which you are probably not, the Wikipedia text (given in a slightly edited form below) in midFebruary 2010 told us that…. “The International Space Station is an internationally developed research facility, which is being assembled in low Earth orbit. On-orbit construction of the station began in 1998 and is scheduled for completion by 2011. The station is expected to remain in operation until at least 2015, and likely 2020. With a greater mass than that of any previous space station, the ISS can be seen from the Earth with the naked eye, and, as of 2010, is the largest artificial satellite orbiting the Earth. The ISS serves as a research laboratory that has a microgravity environment in which crews conduct experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy and meteorology. The station has a unique environment for the testing of the spacecraft systems that will be required for missions to the Moon and Mars. The ISS is operated by Expedition crews, and has been continuously staffed since 2 November 2000— and so is approaching the current record, set aboard Mir, of 9 years and 257 days. As of 1 December 2009 (2009 -12-01), the crew of Expedition 22 is aboard. “The ISS is a synthesis of several space station projects that includes the American Freedom, the Soviet/Russian Mir-2, the European Columbus and the Japanese Kibō. Budget constraints led to the merger of these projects into a single multi-national programme. The ISS project began in 1994 with the ShuttleMir programme, and the first module of the station, Zarya, was launched in 1998 by Russia. Assembly continues, as pressurised modules, external trusses and other components are launched by American space shuttles, Russian Proton rockets and Russian Soyuz rockets. As of November 2009, the station consisted of 11 pressurised modules and an extensive integrated truss structure (ITS). Power is provided by 16 solar arrays mounted on the external truss, in addition to four smaller arrays on the Russian modules. The station is maintained at an orbit between 278 km (173 mi) and 460 km (286 mi) altitude, and travels at an average speed of 27,724 km/h (17,227 mph), completing 15.7 orbits per day. “Operated as a joint project between the five participant space agencies, the station's sections are controlled by mission control centres on the ground operated by the American National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Russian Federal Space Agency (RKA), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), and the European Space Agency (ESA). The ownership and use of the space station is established in intergovernmental treaties and agreements that allow the Russian Federation to retain full ownership of its own modules, with the remainder of the station allocated between the other international partners. The cost of the station has been estimated by ESA as €100 billion over 30 years, and, although estimates range from 35 billion dollars to 160 billion dollars, the ISS is believed to be the most

expensive object ever constructed. The financing, research capabilities and technical design of the ISS programme have been criticised because of the high cost. The station is serviced by Soyuz spacecraft, Progress spacecraft, space shuttles, the Automated Transfer Vehicle and the H-II Transfer Vehicle, and has been visited by astronauts and cosmonauts from 15 different nations”.

Reagan’s Remit In 1984, fourteen years before the launch of the first elements of the ISS, President Ronald Reagan, in an echo of President John F. Kennedy’s call to go to the Moon in the early 1960’s, challenged NASA to build a space station within a decade. The vision, at this point, was to build Space Station Freedom, with partners from Europe and Japan which were “free” of oppression, compared to the Soviet Union. The Americans intended not just to match the Soviet success story which was Mir, the long duration station built up of several components, crewed by rotating teams of three, but to do something which was at least twice as grand with a complex that could support visiting crews of six astronauts, in a major show of envious one-upmanship. Space Station Freedom therefore was conceived on a grand scale, with several pressurised modules built around a huge girder, similar to the projected space station shown in this Kazakhstan Cosmonautics Day issue for 1993 (SG 25). Such a complex was even to have a repair shop in which unmanned satellites would be repaired and re-launched. To provide emergency escape whilst no shuttle was visiting, a Crew Return Vehicle which could carry six astronauts was to be developed. All of the above was still at the planning stage when financial realism returned and the plans were gradually pared away, with most modules much reduced in size and the “garage” idea dropped. The ambitious European elements of a free-flying laboratory called Columbus which could dock with Freedom, yet be serviced by its own manned mini-shuttle called Hermes were also dropped as being too expensive but not before a handful of stamps were issued, now something of an embarrassing reminder about what might have been !

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Artists’ impressions of the projected Hermes and Columbus craft shown mainly on 1991 Europa issues from Sweden (SG 1585), Belgium (SG 3056), Gibraltar (SG 649), Italy (SG 2125) and on 1989 St Vincent (1232)

An equally ambitious plan by the Japanese to build a minishuttle was also abandoned and it seemed that plans for Space Station Freedom were being scaled down year on year before metal was cut for any of it. However the collapse of Communism in the Soviet Union, at the end of 1991, permitted rapprochement with the West and plans from U.S. President Bill Clinton to involve the Russians in a new station project were tabled, mainly to stop the Russians selling their missile technology to hostile states. The term “International Space Station” (and sometimes “Space Station Alpha”) now replaced “Freedom” on all the plans and American astronauts now began to visit Mir via Soyuz craft with a return on a Shuttle. The first American shuttle to rendezvous with Mir was STS 63 in February 1995, significantly with a Russian cosmonaut on board.

A new design was then established for the ISS involving some Russian elements which would have been part of Mir2 which was also being planned before the collaboration was agreed.

Zarya

(launched 20.11.98)

The first of the components of the ISS to be launched, via a Proton rocket, FGB Zarya (“Dawn” or “Sunrise” - indicative of a new beginning) provided Thereafter there was a series of visits including long term stays electrical power, storage, on Mir by Americans and this new international partnership was propulsion, and guidance during inevitably reflected in stamp issues: e.g. below Russia 1992 SG initial assembly. The module— shown here on a 1999 Cosmonautics Day issue from Kazakhstan—now serves as a storage facility, both inside the pressurised section and in the externally mounted fuel tanks.

STS-88

(launched 4.12.98)

initiated construction of the longed for ISS. This was ISS assembly flight 2A, whose remit was mating 6358/9 and 1995 SG 6539/40; the US Node 1 “Unity” docking node Marshall Islands 1995 SG 611/2. to Zarya, as shown in the mission patch of the landing and launch Above right: Palau 1999 SG cover, and on Sierra Leone SG 4479 1387b; Bulgaria 1994 SG 3980 (2006). Unity had six docking ports and was designed as the early hub of the space station, providing berthing and Poland 1995 SG 3584. locations for the Z1 truss, Quest airlock, Destiny lab and Tranquility node., which would follow. It was mated to Zarya using the shuttle’s robotic arm (RMS) on 6th

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Palau 1999 SG 1454b The text at the bottom of the minisheet reads, “Commander Bob Cabana and Russian Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalyev opened the hatch in the U.S. built Unity connecting module at 1.54 p.m. Central time Thursday December 10th 1998 and floated into the new station together”.

December, so creating the ISS in embryonic form. After Unity was powered up the hatches were opened between the two craft and US Commander Robert Cabana and shuttle Russian MS Sergei Krikalev were able to float into the ISS. In a further three EVAs shuttle crew members, sometimes using SAFER (space chair) units—worked on the complex to prepare it for future arrivals. Inside Zarya shuttle crew performed a full check before returning to their craft for a fly around and photographic inspection of the complex which at this point looked a bit like the American Spacelab or a Salyut station. This bare two-module core of the ISS remained unmanned for the next one-and-a-half years. In July 2000 the Russian module Zvezda was added, allowing a maximum crew of three to occupy the ISS continuously. The first resident crew, Expedition 1, arrived in November 2000 on Soyuz TM-31, midway between the flights of STS-92 and STS-97. These two Space Shuttle flights each added segments of the station's Integrated Truss Structure, which provided the embryonic station with communications, guidance, electrical grounding (on Z1), and power via solar arrays located on the P6 truss.

STS-92

was quickly rectified by moving some equipment in the module. The crew then transferred over 1618kg of logistics into the ISS—clothing, sleeping bags, spare parts, medical equipment and water.

STS-101

(launched 19.5.2000)

(launched 27.5.99)

was the first logistics flight to the ISS in preparation for the arrival of the Zvezda (“Star”) module scheduled for late 1999. A series of delays in the US (to the External Tank to be used for STS-96 launch) and in Russia with Zvezda being much postponed meant that the arrival of the first resident ISS crew was rescheduled for 2000. In due course, however, two days after launch Discovery completed the first docking with the ISS, where it remained for almost 140 hours, allowing the crew over 80 hours inside the ISS and almost 8 hours EVA on further preparation. However, on entry to the complex the American crew were concerned about the quality of air circulation in Zarya which

Extended delays in preparing the Russian Service Module Zvezda, which was not to be launched until July 2000 produced maintenance concerns with Unity/Zarya, orbiting unused for almost a year, particularly to do with the complex’s batteries which ought to have been recharged from Zvezda by then. Accordingly the STS 101 mission was revised. Originally it was going to arrive at the Unity-ZaryaZvezda complex to prepare it for the first resident crew, but now the remit and crew were divided into two new missions, with STS 106 charged with preparing the complex for the first Expedition crew. Accordingly Yuri Usachev, James Voss and Susan Helms, slated for a future mission, found themselves at the station a year before they expected to be. After a launch which was itself delayed by a month, STS 101 docked with Unity-Zarya on 20th May 2000 and whilst at the station its crew installed the first Strela units of PMA-1, handrails and a camera cable. The shuttle remained docked for over 138 hours with hatches open to the mated ISS for over three days, doing essential maintenance and transferring logistics. Before undocking, Atlantis boosted the orbit of the ISS by 45km with three bursts of its on board engines.

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Zvezda docked to the after port of Zarya on 26th July with Progress M 1-3 arriving at the after port a fortnight later. Now the ISS had flight control and orbit maintenance functions and quarters for the first crews, which now work on the complex without a shuttle mated to what was essentially Mir 2.

STS-106

(launched 8.9.2000)

truss. Later PMA-3 was installed on Unity and the truss prepared for future attachment of solar arrays which would come with STS 97.

Soyuz TM 31

(launched 31.10.2000)

The new shuttle docked to Unity on 10th September and remained there for 189 hours with hatches open for two thirds of that time. During an EVA astronauts Lu and Malenchenko connected power and data communications cables between Zvezda and Zarya, which can be identified on the mission patch with Unity above “Mokurov”, and Zarya, Zvezda and a Progress craft lined up beyond it. These two astronauts ventured 30.4 metres away from the complex, further than any tethered crew member had previously done. Work inside focussed on preparing Zvezda for use by the first crew, for example installing the Elektron system designed to separate water into oxygen and hydrogen and further batteries.

This was the pioneering mission that began the permanent occupation of the ISS, which foresaw crews rotating every four to sixth months. The objectives of the crew (Yuri Gidzenko, Sergei Krikalev and William Shepherd, the first ISS Commander) were to debug the complex and make it habitable. Most of their work involved setting up the station and evaluating procedures before the real science work could commence with the arrival of the US Destiny lab. Left Palau 1999 1454c

The text at the bottom of the minisheet begins— inaccurately as it turned out... “In July 1999 a crew of three will begin living aboard the ISS…. ”

Compare photo right taken by the retreating STS 106 used on Sierra Leone SG 4480 (2006) with Russia SG 6913 of 2000 showing respectively projection and reality. It would be several years before the complex looked like this.

STS-92

(launched 11.10.2000)

Discovery

on assembly mission 3A docked with the ISS on 13th October and remained mated for 165 hours, but with only 27 hours of hatches open such was the amount of external work required of this crew in installing the Z1 Zenith Truss with the RMS, shown working here on Canada SG 1204 of 1986. The truss was lifted out of the payload bay and onto the uppermost (or zenith) docking port of Unity. Thereafter in a series of EVAs each of around seven hours relays of astronauts connected electrical umbilicals for power to heaters and conduits on the

The crew who however were correctly identified were host to two visiting shuttle crews. During the residency of the 2R crew Shepherd kept a log of events much of which was later posted on the NASA

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website, providing a fascinating insight into the life of the Assembly flight 5A saw the delivery of the US laboratory station. Destiny, seen being lifted out the payload bay by the RMS in the mission patch on the launch cover below left. The crew returned via shuttle STS 102 on 21st March 2001 having spent almost 141 days in space. During four hours of joint operations with the ISS Expedition

STS-97

1 crew, transferred from the shuttle were 45.4 litres of water, a spare Zvezda computer, cables for powering up Destiny and personal family gifts. Atlantis remained docked for 165 hours with hatches open to the complex for 63 hours of that time. On flight day 4 Destiny was relocated to the forward port of Unity. The next day ISS-1 commander Shepherd and STS 98 commander Cockrell entered Destiny for the first time to activate air and alarm systems and film with an IMAX camera. The addition of Destiny had increased the internal volume of the habitable modules to 10.75m³, making the ISS by far the biggest space station ever created, so fulfilling an American political objective.

(launched 30.11.00)

STS-102

(launched 8.3.01)

Assembly flight 4A carrying P6 solar arrays produced a very noticeable change in the appearance of the complex, as suggested in the mission patch on the above launch cover, one of the few all–signed shuttle covers in your editor’s collection. Docking with the ISS occurred during flight day 3 at the newly installed PMA 3 located on the nadir port of Unity. Endeavour was docked to the station for 167 hours but the hatches were open for not more than 24 hours in total because of the EVA work required, so there was hardly time to say hello to the neighbours ! The P6 array was lifted by the RMS and mated to the Z1 Truss. Both sides of the array were successfully unfurled over two days, as the first two of eight arrays which would power the ISS. A later EVA on 7th December saw an S-band antennae moved. The photo right taken by the departing STS 97 shuttle shows the r e m a r k a b l e transformation made to the station in December 2000.

STS-98

(launched 7.2.01)

Mission 5A.1 delivered the ISS-2 resident crew (of James Voss, Susan Helms and Yuri Usachev, who had helped to kit out the complex in May 2000) and returned the ISS-1 crew as the lower segment of the mission patch on the above cover indicates. It also carried the Italian built MPLM-1 Leonardo logistics module, which contributed almost five tons of supplies for the station. Two EVA were accomplished during the mission including the longest ever on record by Voss and Helms on 11th March lasting nearly nine hours. During the 214 hours docked to ISS, also a record, the hatches were open for 142 hours. The successful operations allowed a smooth hand-over between the crews. Following the departure of STS 102 the ISS-2 crew were fully occupied with the commencement of science work and activation of the Destiny laboratory.

STS-100

(launched 19.4.00)

Mission 6A delivered the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (aka Canadarm 2) and carried another MPLM logisitics module, Raffaello. Endeavour docked on 21st April carrying astronauts from the US, Canada, Italy and Russia. On this occasion, though the shuttle was docked for 195 hours, the hatches between shuttle and ISS were not opened in order to preserve respective air pressure levels in the two craft. Several EVA (including the first by a Canadian—see Canada stamp SG 2228 of 2003 above) were

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carried out, with a Spacelab pallet lifted to a cradle on Destiny and the new robotic arm secured to the pallet. The complexity of Canadarm 2 is suggested its various “fingers” in the detail of this 2000 Millennium issue from Canada, within SG MS 1985 which shows (bottom right) the pallet and cradle assembled during the mission.

TM 32 was intended to be the mission that exchanged TM 31 which carried up the first resident crew—the mission was also known as Taxi 1—but to confuse things the Russians decided to rename these missions (and the Progress ones) by order of flight sequence to the ISS so it came to be known as Soyuz 2. However for several years the main crews for the station would be carried up and down by shuttles, with the parked Soyuz ferry reserved for emergencies only. This meant that there was a spare seat in any Soyuz ferry which could be used as the Russians saw fit, including a new wave of Intercosmos cosmonauts. The visiting crew returned home in TM 31 or Soyuz 1 (!) on 6th May, overshooting their landing by 56km and making a hard landing, requiring commander Musabayev to check that Tito was still alive !

STS-104

(launched 12.7.01)

With the shuttle mated to the ISS its crew were advised of the launch of Soyuz TM 32 carrying the first “space tourist” but had left 14 hours before the ferry docked, in a gesture consistent with NASA’s attitude to space tourism !

Soyuz TM 32

(launched 21.4.01)

This mission (7A) completed the second phase of ISS assembly by providing an airlock facility called Quest, installed to the right side of Unity, that allowed future EVA to be conducted from the station without the need for a shuttle to be docked to it. Atlantis arrived on 13th July and spent 196 hours mated to the growing space station.

NASA was not happy about less than fully trained crew members flying to the ISS, but as the Russians were ferrying the passenger, American businessman Denis Tito, whose planned visit to Mir had been postponed and who had reportedly paid over $17M for the privilege, NASA had no veto. They did try to restrict his access to the Russian elements of the station, yet Tito paid visits to the American parts as well. The resident Americans were advised by NASA to have only formal relations with the “tourist”. Tito took photographs, helped prepare meals and did not hinder any of the regular work but it was decided that futurist tourists would have to have a stronger science programme to occupy them. The crew of TM 32— Musabayev, Baturin and Tito—were featured in a 2002 Cosmonautics Day issue from Kazakhstan. SG 355.

The last of four EVA conducted by the visiting crew was the first via the Quest facility, shown here being moved into position by Canadarm 2.

STS-105

(launched 10.8.01)

Flight 7A.1 carried the MPLM Leonardo logistics module and the Expedition 3 crew of Frank Culbertson, Mikhail Tyurin and Vladimir Dezhurov as the second crew rotation exercise, referenced in the lower element of the crew patch.

Discovery docked on flight day three and the craft were mated for 188 hours. Leonardo carried a mass of equipment including 12 racks of experiments. Two EVA were carried out during which the crew prepared for the delivery of the S0

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Insignia for ISS Expeditions EO1â&#x20AC;&#x201D;EO3

Truss by installing heater cables and handrails on both sides of the Destiny lab. Above, a photo of one of the three Multi-Purpose Logistics Modules (MPLM) built by the Italian Space Agency which is here docked to Unity before being unloaded via an internal hatch. The EO-3 crew were to remain on the station for nearly 129 days, researching biology, radiation, geophysics, protein crystal growth, medical and materials science, technology and education to name just a few of the fields they worked in. One of the most difficult periods on board was in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks on the Twin Towers. Soon after the atrocity the shuttle flew over New York and saw the huge plume of smoke and dust from the attack.

To be continued over the next several editions 30

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American Astrophilately :The First 50 Years

by David S. Ball

Book Review by Jim Reichman I have to admit, up front, that I harbor misgivings about some of the tenets that form the foundation of the philatelic study field being labeled “astrophilately”. In particular, these concerns relate to the exclusionist guidelines these collectors have adopted which disqualify otherwise world-class, philatelic exhibits relating to the history of spaceflight. On the other hand you have to admire the tenacity these astrophilatelists employ to seek out and document the details of philatelic, commemorative, space covers and their backgrounds. Such attention to detail is the “right stuff” that turns any regular space collector into a true cosmic-philatelist. David Ball’s book on American astrophilately is one that few aspiring astrophilatelists should be without. Although narrowly focused on the space programs of the United States, it does provide guidelines and useful examples of how astrophilatelists around the world should address and model their own philatelic research and documentation energies. I would even go so far as to recommend the book to the rest of the space collectors/philatelists, i.e., those of us whose cosmic collecting and exhibiting interests tend to violate one or more boundaries of the astrophilatelists’ precepts. One of the main reasons for these recommendations is that a major portion of David’s book is filled with an interesting collection of philatelic monograms, vignettes, and even some short theses written by the experts and first-hand participants in the field of astrophilately. These articles address a wide variety of philatelic subjects related to the American space program. Although not a new approach¹ to adding authenticity and scope to a space book’s content, it certainly enlivened the discussions of what could have quickly devolved into a matter-of-fact documentation of acceptable and unacceptable astrophilatelic exhibition materials. One of these articles was of particular interest to my own Russian spaceflight philatelic interests. This was a fascinating story about how one enterprising stamp dealer was able to get two, same-day postmarks (one from Moscow and one from Cape Canaveral) on the same covers commemorating both launches (Soyuz and Apollo) of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. Given the number and variety of these types of discussions in the book, it would be fair to say that almost every space ¹ Highly recommended, for those interested in the Soviet space program, is the non-philatelic book Roads to Space, An Oral History of the Soviet Space Program, which is a compilation of short memoirs written by many behind-the-scenes participants of that nation’s space program. This book was edited by John Rhea and published by the Aviation Week Group in 1995.

One row of postmark samples for the Mercury-Atlas 6 launch. The book contains 300+ similar rows for other US space events.

collector will find at least one and probably many of these articles that will pique their own personal interests. Interspersed in and around these articles are others written personally by David that introduce and supplement those astrophilately subjects. Included in his writings are discussions supporting the foundations for and justification of the astrophilatelic tenets that deal with issues like acceptable postoffices, time zones, postmark classifications, and backdating. Interestingly, some of these discussions address the problems associated with blindly applying some of these tenets. One case in point, brought up by the author, is the astrophilatelic tenet requiring covers be postmarked on the event date at/near the ground station controlling the spacecraft. Strict adherence to this requirement makes no sense when, e.g., postmarking philatelic covers commemorating a deepspace probe event when telemetric news of that event (i.e., whether it actually happened and/or was successful) would not reach the ground station until the day after these covers were required to be postmarked because of how far out in deep-space the probe was at. Since this book is being billed as a resource that would help novice collectors identify envelopes which meet the International Philatelic Federation guidelines for exhibiting, I went on eBay and randomly selected US space covers being offered there that fit within the timeline and space-mission boundaries addressed in David’s book. Each such cover selected was then compared against the reference materials and guidelines of the book. Many were fairly easy to categorize and were, in fact, even included in the hundreds of the full-color, example covers shown in the “World of Covers” section. Unfortunately, there was almost as many for which an assessment was in doubt or could not be made. Were it not for an open email dialog with the author to help resolve these issues, I would have been left wondering. My

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concern is that other readers/collectors will probably not have such access to help resolve their questions. From my perspective, these problems arise because of two issues. First is the lack of adequate introductory explanations on how to read, interpret, and relate the information, matrices, postmark/cachet images, and associated comments found in Parts II and III of the book and the files on the accompanying computer disk (CD). Without such information, the average reader will easily get lost amidst all the philatelic details. Second is the lack of an adequate editorial review which should have caught and resolved those deficiencies as well as several other mistakes that were found in the book. Bottom line is that this is probably too valuable a resource to pass up, especially for committed astrophilatelists. However, readers need to buy it with the understanding that the book does have a number of content issues. My recommendation is for purchasers to first read the Part I astrophilatelic articles and similar materials located in the “Articles” folder on the CD then read the seminar briefing slides (also on the CD) labeled “Section for Astrophilately” before venturing into the other materials in this book. With any luck, even die-hard, cosmic-philatelists like myself can learn a thing or two from these astrophilatelists. As advertised in our last issue

ASSS Members at Scottish Congress The 81st Annual Congress of the Association of Scottish Philatelic Societies was held at its customary venue, the Dewar’s Centre, Perth on Friday 16th and 17th April. In attendance representing The ASSS were Scottish members Chairman, Margaret Morris, Treasurer Harvey Duncan and Orbit Editor Jeff Dugdale who manned a section of the Societies Tables, Also spotted was George Fox. A small number of astrophilatelic items were included in the competitive displays.

Our Chairman Mrs Margaret Morris beside her exhibit in the Inter-federation competition “Under an Artificial Sky”. Margaret’s other frame, in the Postcard Competition, “The Zeiss Planetarium Projector” was Highly Commended with 91 pts. Left an overview of the Congress showing dealers’ tables and displays. 32

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THEY PAWED THE WAY TO THE STARS FOR MAN Russian space systems specialist and writer Alexander Zheleznyakov, who contributes articles to our pages writes about the canine cosmonauts who 50 years ago paved/pawed (!) the way for the likes of Yuri Gagarin. In his article he reveals information about some failed dog flights which is not widely known. Lots of people probably remember photos that filled the front pages of all world newspapers in the early 1960’s when the dogs Belka and Strelka returned from space. The privileged people in the space programme considered it an honour to be somewhere nearby. And there were many tributes of admiration for the dumb animals, as they had leaded the way to the stars for the mankind. However, “dog euphoria” in the mass media of those days passed quickly enough and shortly after that one of the brightest pages of space history annals was being slowly forgotten. This year is the 50th anniversary of beginning of the "Vostok" test flights and so is a fine occasion to recollect the events of those days and the "personalities” involved so let us take an advantage of it. By the time "Vostok" development had begun, and the first cosmonauts had started to prepare for flights, physicians knew practically nothing about the effects of space flight conditions on a human body. There were only guesses based on experience of aviation medicine. Therefore it was decided that during the test flight programme there should be some animals on board spacecraft. Considering the question of which would fly there were no special disputes. Dogs had been flying for many years on board of geophysical (ballistic) rockets and a wide experience, which could be used, had been gained. Moreover, it was necessary for all systems of the spacecraft to be proven reliable as human life depended on them. And it was necessary to do it not on cardboard models of human or training apparatus.

height no more than 35 centimeters and weight no more than 6 kg. These parameters were specified by the parameters of the spacecraft, and the breed— more precisely, its absence - was taken into consideration based on previous experience. Mongrels had proved to b excellent "material" for physicians and biologists. They were not so fussy as their pedigree contemporaries and were more clever. In general, the first dog space-group was gathered from off the streets They were prepared for flight almost the same way as people were: spun on a centrifuge, placed in pressure chambers, accustomed to stay in closed room and so on. And at last the moment came when both techniques and "pilots" were ready for the flight. The first spacecraft-sputnik launched on May, 15th, 1960. It was not exactly like the one, on which the first ever cosmonaut would launch in less than a year. The spacecraft had neither the heat-shielding screen, nor a number of vitally important on-board systems. There was still a lot of work to do, but this flight should give answers to some questions. Nevertheless it was a pity to have sent the dogs, which everybody cared for while training, to their doom.

Laika Laika’s fate is still remembered, having met its awful death in space only a month after the beginning of the space age. However, the spacecraft-sputnik launched successfully, on 3rd November 1957. It was planned to be de-orbited on the 18th of May. So at the exactly calculated moment the command was transmitted on board a space vehicle. But the orientation system failed to choose the right direction of the retroburn and the engine misdirected the spacecraft not to the Earth but in the opposite direction. The first spacecraft-sputnik maintained an orbit from 320 km to 690 km and for a long time, till 5th September 1962, in fact.

At the end of 1959 two projects were being pursued simultaneously: the "human" one - the first Soviet group of cosmonauts, and "the dog" one, which had to precede it. The requirements here were not so severe as for humans, but naturally there were some restrictions. The dogs were mostly crossbreeds, in

Mongolia and Hungary 1982 marking the 25th anniversary of Laika’s flight

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A cold shiver ran down the designers’ spines when they imagined what would happen if it were a man who found himself in such situation. And some most jealous western newsmen insisted that there were people on board who became the “prisoners of the Universe”. I have already written in the pages of Orbit about the “prisoners of orbit” as well as other “victims of astronautics”. Yes, the first flight of the first spacecraft-sputnik appeared to be “not such a successful experiment” as it had meant to be. Somebody might have lost heart but not Sergei Korolev. It was he, looking at their sour faces, who was telling his colleagues that the flight was nevertheless a great stride forward. In his dreams he had already seen spacecraft manoeuvring in orbit, making rendezvous and so on. But this had to be done in future and in the year 1960 it was necessary to make the spacecraft-sputniks fly.

Chaika and Lisichka

The next spacecraft-sputnik launched was designed as if a man were on board. The descent module had the thermal protection cover and life support systems were installed on board. For the first time in the practice of space flight it had to return back to Earth. At that time this problem wasn’t solved either in Soviet Union or in the USA. What is more not only the module had to return but also the passengers of the spacecraft-sputnik – dogs Chaika (Seagull) and Sergey Korolev’s favourite red Lisichka (Foxie).

However “over the top” it sounds, at least four Soviet cosmonauts owe their lives to these dogs: Vasiliy Lazarev and Oleg Makarov, (in the Soyuz 18a “anomaly” of 5.4.75) and Vladimir Titov and Gennady Strekalov in Soyuz T-10 I of 27.9.83). In each case the emergency recovery system saved their lives, the first two at the height of 192 km when the third stage of their booster failed to operate, and the two others - at the flight pad when the rocket exploded under them. Meanwhile at Baikonur cosmodrome the third spacecraft-sputnik was being prepared for flight. Though in the TASS messages it was referred to as “the second” but what was really important was not the number. It was a complete spacecraft with a much larger set of instruments for realization of scientific research. Study of peculiarities of the animals’ vital signs under space flight conditions, space radiation effects, check of workability of waste recovery system, nutrition, water supply and sanitation. In the pressurized cabin of the spacecraft in addition to two dogs there were two white rats, a lot of white and black mice, seeds of various plants.

Belka and Strelka

On the 16th of August the rocket was moved to the pad, and the launch was planned for the day after. Unexpectedly the main oxygen valve on the launch vehicle was rejected as defective, and the flight was postponed. It was necessary to urgently deliver the new valve by plane from Kuibyshev (nowadays, known as Samara).

The spacecraft was prepared much better than its predecessor: all possible situations were carefully studied to avoid the mistakes of the orientation system and generation of the deorbiting command. But, alas, Lisichka and Chaika were not meant to be in space. The rocket was planned to launch on the 28th of June 1960 but a fatal accident occurred in the 23 rd second of the flight. Debris of the rocket flew across the steppe fortunately unattended by any loss of human life. But the dogs died. TASS (Soviet Union news agency) made no announcement about the accident and for a long time, so for years we knew nothing about the tragic fate of these two canine pioneers of space. The accident demonstrated everybody how necessary it was to develop an emergency recovery system for space vehicles and their crew which would operate from the moment of launch. It was all the more acute a problem because very soon the first men would fly to into space. The deaths of Lisichka and Chaika stimulated development of such systems.

Belka and Strelka : USSR 1960, N.Korea 1974 and Kazakhstan 2000

The rocket (Sputnik 5) did launch on August 19, 1960. In general, everything was successful, though during this flight there also were moments about which designers worried a lot. But everything turned out well. On the 20th of August, when the landing capsule had returned to Earth and the searchers had opened its hatch, they heard Belka and Strelka barking excitedly, and this sound appeared to them to be more pleasant than listening to any opera performance. The only black mark in the next triumph of the Soviet cosmonautics was the fact that Americans became the first to return a satellite from space to the surface of our planet. It had been achieved only nine hours (!) earlier. 34

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But alas, even this small period of time is considered, when one concerns precedence. Therefore the descent of the reconnaissance satellite "Discoverer14" capsule became the first successful return of a capsule from orbit in the history of cosmonautics. And there is nothing to do but tickle the vanity of Soviet people that we have been the first who returned living beings to the Earth. And, in the long run, it is impossible to be the first all time, especially when there is a fierce competition, and your opponent is no fool. But let’s return to the heroines of space. The Dogs felt excellent and for the second day on their return when they were conducted to post-flight press conference in the TASS building at the Tverskoy boulevard, they had a dog fight ! Probably, for the dog glory. In fact this was them behaving quite naturally. Soon many newspapers carried the headlines “Now a man will fly to space !”

A further launch of the spacecraft-sputnik could take place only within two and a half months. All possible and impossible things had been made for the troubles of 1960 not to be repeated. And that was successfully done.

Chernushka, Zvezdochka

On March 9, 1961 a new spacecraft-sputnik Sputnik 9) launched with a dog Chernushka and a manikin onboard. The single-orbit flight programme similar to those which were planned for a manned flight, was realized.

Pchelka and Mooshka

And all events tended towards that. The next spacecraft-sputnik (Sputnik 6) launched on December 1, 1960. Two dogs on board - Pchelka and Mooshka (Bee and Fly) flew to space. Both the launch and the flight passed normally but troubles happened when searchers on the Earth were preparing to meet their little friends. The “descent” command had been sent onboard, but the brake engine had worked for less than the estimated time, and the trajectory of the spacecraft’s decrease had turned out to be such that it possibly would land somewhere out of the territory of the USSR. To prevent state secrets from falling into the hands of enemies, a system of emergency destruction of the article (EBO) had been installed onboard the spacecraft. By the way in the given concrete case the dogs onboard were as valued as the other secret equipment.

USSR 1961 : 2K Zvezdochka and 4K Chernushka

All stages of flight passed normally, and the descent module made its landing 260 kilometers from Kuibyshev. Successful was also the flight of the fifth spacecraft-sputnik on March 25, 1961 with the dog Zvezdochka (Starlet) onboard. In general we can say that Zvezdochka (Starlet) was given its name only a day before the launch, having earlier being called Lucky Yury Alekseevich Gagarin (simply one of candidates on flight at that time), had said: “We are not superstitious people, but we need Luck as well.” As a result, Lucky was renamed “Starlet”. And under this name it came into history. Translated by Boris Spassky and Vera Chukantsova, edited by Jeff Dugdale. Thanks to John Beenen for assistance with stamp images.

The EBO worked normally and destroyed the spacecraft transforming it into a cloud of small fragments. The dogs were lost again.

Zhemchughina and Alpha

The next launch of the spacecraft-sputnik took place on December 22, 1960. Two dogs - Zhemchughina (Pearl) and Alpha (in the literature one can find the other names of these dogs, but I will name them in a way I have heard about them for the first time), mice, rats and other living creatures were taken into space. But during the work of the third stage had failed, and the command for spacecraft separation was given. The lander descended in Yakutia. How happy the designers were when they learnt that dogs were alive. Again it became possible to check on the work of the emergency recovery system in the conditions of real flight. 35

Niger (Lollini) 1999 showing Laika top right and Korolev with other space dogs (real and imaginary) dogs in margin.

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Some Notes about Space Mail by Brian G Vincent

I have recently finished reading Peter Bond’s excellent book on “Heroes in Space” (“Heroes in Space; From Gagarin to Challenger”, Peter Bond, published 1987, Basil Blackwell Ltd) and came across several references within its pages to mail in space. I thought that this might be of interest to our members. Most of the references regarding mail are related to the various Soviet launches and early space stations. However the first mention of any space mail is that of Apollo 15. Apollo 15 was launched on 26 July 1971 with astronauts Scott, Worden and Irwin on board. During the moon landing Bond notes, on p264, that “Scott used a small franking machine to cancel the first and second stamps of a new US Postal service issue commemorating American achievements in space.” Later, on p266, it was noted that after their return hone “NASA discovered that all three men had been involved in an undercover operation to gain a massive profit from the sale of 100 unauthorised envelopes which they had franked on the moon.”

the departure of Soyuz T-6 in June, bringing welcome mail and supplies…”. On page 383 there is another similar reference, this time in 1983, “and Progress 17 had pulled in at the near entrance with welcome supplies and mail”. Finally, on p390, “Progress 21 replaced its sister ship on 10 May, bringing more equipment for installation as well as the usual mail…”. This would now be in 1984 and Salyut’s crew was by then Leonid Kizim, Vladimir Solovyov and Oleg Atkov. Clearly these items are of historical importance and would be cherished items by any collector who was able to include one or more in their “space” philatelic collections.

Above and below, from Brian’s collection, a cover officially flown on STS 8 in 1983, and sold by USPS

While not really in the category of “space mail” Bond states on p327 that Alexei Leonov (who undertook the first space walk) was also a space artist “with his portrayals of the space walk, with his drawings, used on Soviet stamps…”. Soyuz 27 was launched on 10 January 1978. It later docked with Salyut 6 which was manned by Georgi Grechko and Yuri Romanenko (of Soyuz 26). Soyuz 27 was crewed by Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Oleg Makarov – who, it is stated on p356, were greeted with the words “Oh, they’ve brought piles of letters for us, I hope you’ve paid the postage. We’ve no money up here.” Soyuz T – 5 took the first crew for Salyut 7 (launched on 19 April 1982) into space in May 1982 – the two cosmonauts being Anatoli Berezovoi and Valentin Lebedev. On page 376 there is reference to the supply craft Progress 13 which docked on 25 May with various supplies including letters and parcels. And on p379 “three further Progress craft docked with Salyut after 36

SG 4902 for Soyuz 27, which concluded in mid-January 1978, but was not issued until June of the following year. This flight completed the first triple vehicle space station . Ironically despite being good delivery postmen the crew of Dzhanibekov (shown left of stamp) and Makarov apologized after landing on Jan 16th for forgetting to bring their fellow cosmonauts’ mail back home as well.

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SPACE HABITATS

by John Beenen

When we think of ‘living in space’ like space habitat with a diameter we don’t talk about the relatively of 500 metres based upon the short term visits of astronauts or ideas of Hale and Tsiolkovsky. cosmonauts to space constructions such as Mir and the International The idea of a space station in a Space Station but about a long geosynchronous orbit was first term and more definite stay in mooted by the Slovenian officer space of large numbers of people. Herman Potočnik (1892-1929, Artist impression, Potočnik also: Hermann Noordung) in ‘Das In such a way ‘living in space’ can Future City, Bhutan, h t t p : / / Problem der Befahrung des be described better as the W o h n r a d , 1969, WB24) colonization of space (Space disaircraft.greyfalcon.us/) Weltraums – der Raketen-Motor) Colony or Orbital Colony), Space City or Space settlement. As (The problem of space travel). such nowadays we enter only the field of science-fiction but that is not to say that we have not made up our thoughts His idea was a doughnut shaped craft with a diameter of 30 about real plans for such constructions. metres (Wohnrad, living wheel), in the centre a cylinder with an air lock having at one side a connection for a power generator and at the other an astronomical observatory, the Who came up with the idea first? whole turning around for the development of an artificial The idea of ‘living in space’ first was presented by clergyman gravity. The energy was collected from the sun and and writer Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909) in his publication transported inside by two concave mirrors to operate a steam ‘The Brick Moon’ in 1869. In this book he pictures how a engine through a construction of tubes. space city develops itself from a large stone sphere which has to be meant as a navigation point in space but unfortunately is launched with people still inside it. The idea was developed further by Jules Verne (1828-1905) in ‘On the comet’ (Hector Servadac) in 1878 and the German writer Kurd Lasswitz (1848 -1910) in ‘Auf zwei Planeten’ which suggests a progressive manner of travelling between Earth and Mar

His fanciful idea was to settle his ship at twice the distance of the earth to the sun by which he calculated that the radiation of heat not slowed down by the atmosphere became bearable.

The technicalities of the problem were treated for the first time by the Russian Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935) in his book ‘ Dreams of Earth and Heaven, Nature and Man’. In 1903 he developed the idea of artificial gravity, the use of the energy of the sun and the (Tsiolkovsky, Soviet-Union, building of greenhouses with a 1986, WB 511) closed ecology for the production of food and air in his book ‘The Rocket in the Cosmic space’.

von Braun Space Wheel, Y.A.R, 1970, WM 269/4

von Braun Space Wheel, Qu’aiti State in Hadramaut, 1967, WB 12

von Braun Space Wheel, Around 1890 and independent of him a contemporary, the Sharjah, 1972, WB 384 German entrepreneur and inventor Hermann Ganswindt (1856 -1934) developed the idea of a space ship with reaction drive and artificial gravity. He operated the ship with steel particles as he still thought that gases could not develop enough Perhaps not totally by chance, later (in 1962) the concept of the Space Wheel was taken up by Wernher von Braun (1912power. 1977) in his article ‘Crossing the Last Frontier’ (Colliers 22 Tsiolkovsky’s ideas were further elaborated by Hermann March 1952). In this article he described a rotating wheel of Oberth (1894-1989) who, in 1923, proposed platforms in reinforced nylon in a diameter of 76 meters rotating in a orbit over the poles at an altitude of 1730 km. space for further scientific research.

About at the same time the science-fiction book by Arthur C.Clarke (1917-2008) ‘Island in the sky’ on the same subject was issued. Willy Ley (1906-1969), one of the pioneers of German rocket technology, and the illustrator Chesley Bonestell (1888-1986) in their book of 1949, ‘The Conquest of Space’ presented a space wheel of three storeys and a diameter of 80 metres for a crew of 80 persons. The wheel In 1928, in his revolutionary book ‘The World, the Flesh and turned around at a speed of three revolutions per minute so the Devil’ J. Desmond Bernal (1901-1971) described a sphere delivering one third of earth’s gravity. In his book ‘Die möglichkeit der Weltraumfahrt’ the Austrian Guido von Pirquet (1880-1966), edited in 1928 by a very young Willy Ley, dealt with a system of three stations in space, one close by, one far away and one in an elliptic orbit around both stations as a fuel facility for space flight to far away distances.

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Bonestell was one of the most important illustrators of extraterrestrial landscapes. Many of his drawing can be seen on the Internet and it’s very worthwhile to see what’s there. (www.bonestell.com, www.bonestell.org). Very interesting also are the 3D animations of his drawings made by Paul S.Hoffmann (www.digitalspaceart.com). At an international astronautic congress in 1956 in Rome Dayrll Romick (†2002) described a cylinder in a length of some kilometres with a diameter of 300 metres to provide living space for 20,000 people. This idea further was worked out on by Arthur Clarke in a science-fiction work about space habitats where he settled a community at the Lagrangian Point, a point about 1.5 million kilometres from the Earth where the gravities of both celestial bodies are in equilibrium

This idea was initiated by Professor Gerard Kitchen O’Neil (1927-1992) in May 1974 at a small conference in Princeton entitled ‘First Conference on Space Colonization’. One of the participants at this conference was the scientist-astronaut Joe Allen (STS-5 and 14). A larger conference about the habitation of space took place in 1975 and was followed by a programme of 10 weeks by the American Society for Engineering Education. At the end they edited a report entitled: ‘Space Settlements: a Design Study’. In this report several space construction were discussed such as: Bernal Sphere, a cylinder like construction and a doughnut like design based upon von Braun’s Space Wheel.

Standford torus cutaway and right interior (by Don Davis) www.http://en.wikipedia.org/

NASA adopted the last design, introduced by the students of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, as the ‘Stanford Torus’ a cylinder-shaped tube 130 m wide with a length of 5,6 km bent in a circle, so forming a wheel with diameter of 1,8 km. Turning around at a speed of one revolution per minute exactly it could offer shelter to 80.000 people in an earth-like environment with cities, parks, woods and rivers.

Space Odyssey Space Wheel, Hungary, 1969, WB 177

Space Odyssey Space Wheel, Guinee Equatorial, 1973, WB 56

In 1963, Dandridge M. Cole (1921-1965) and Donald W.Cox presented the idea of excavating a nickel-iron asteroid of a length of 30 km and to expand it again by means of sun energy and slowly evaporating water, creating the so-called ‘Bubbleworld’. Also influenced by very unmanageable practice the idea of living in space has been mainly covered by science-fiction writers and not by scientists. Arthur C. Clark’s Rendezvous with Rama (1972) is a very well known book in which Romick’s idea of a cylinder of a length of several kilometres was also entertained. In 2001 the idea of a space wheel was given a new life by the film ‘A Space Odyssey’ by Stanley Kubrick (1928— 1999) based upon a short novel by Clarke called ‘The Sentinel’.

Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 A Space Odyssey Nicaragua 1994

The O’Neil cylinder

O’Neill Cylinder, http:// en.wikipedia.org)

The responsible director of NASA, Professor O’Neill, developed these ideas in ‘The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space’ (1977) and presented herein 3 designs: Island one: a 500 metre Bernal Sphere occupied by 10.000 people, Island two: also a Bernal Sphere of 1,8 km diameter or a dome-like cylinder with a diameter of 1,8 km and a length of 9 km for 140.000-200.000 people. Island three: Two very large cylinders revolving around each other, 3 km in diameter and 20 km in length with their ends connected by a rod. Since then this design has been known as the O’Neill Cylinder. According to O’Neil’s ideas different cylinders exist for living, culturing and working. That has its advantages as vegetable life is better resistant against radiation and its protection has to be less. Also artificial gravity has not been kept at 1G and mirrors to reflect the Sun’s light could be constructed more simply as for vegetable life the form and the position of the sun is less essential. Further the composition of its atmosphere can be maintained on maximum growing conditions and those have not to be the same as for humans. Finally cross-fertilization of crop can be conquered more easily by increasing for instance the temperature of the cylinder. This i d e a w a s presented later in a large number of science-fiction books.

ORBIT From left to right: Fantasy, modular system, Ajman, 1972, WB 549 Fantasy, Space Ring, Ajman, 1972, WB 547 Fantasy, modular system, Y.A.R, 1970, WB 269/3

In fact there exist only two basic concepts to build a space colony: one idea starts from one large construction, the other from a modular system consisting of a number of different elements; In principle O’Neil’s cylinders are a combination of both ideas. .

L5 Society O’Neil’s ideas were the basis for the founding of the so-called ‘L-5 Society’ later ’ National Space Society’, an institution in 1975 founded by Carlyn Henson-Meinel (b. 1946) and Keith Henson (b. 1942) for the promotion of space colonies placed at the L4 and L5 Lagrange Points in space, where their name was taken from. The L4 and L5 points are locations in space where a stable equilibrium is set. They are situated along the orbit of the Moon 60° either in front or behind. In 1980, at its culmination, the society succeeded in stopping a Moon Treaty by the American Senate, acting successfully against again any claim of sovereignty and property in space. In later years the society, which counted at their culmination 25,000 members, offered a place for borderline science such as: artificial intelligence, extropianism (working for eternal life), corpse freezing, transhumanism (intellectual and cultural movement supporting the use of science and technology to improve human mental and physical characteristics and capacities), and tether propulsion.

Bernal Sphere In the meantime Bernal’s Sphere has been mentioned several times. In 1929 for the first time the Bernal Sphere was mentioned by the IrishAmerican scientist John Desmond Bernal (1901-1971). It is a Sphere suitable for lengthy residence in space. The sphere is 16 km in diameter and constructed for the habitation of 20-30.000 people. It is filled with normal air.

In later years NASA investigated other structures such as Lewis One, a space construction connected to a counterweight or other construction by means of a cable (tether). Such a design has been proposed for a mission to Mars. Further a series of habitats coupled as beads at a string, the so-called ‘beaded habitats’. And there’s more ! Bishop Ring When bucky fibres are largely available by nanotechnology the size of invented constructions could be increased enormously. The largest could reach a diameter of 1000 km. In this way Forrest Bishop proposed an open-end construction where the atmosphere could be maintained by a centrifugal force. Eventual losses could be collected and reused by very thin membranes. The wheel should possess artificial light created by solar cells on the outside. McKendree Cylinder Closed cylindrical space structures have been surmised earlier and the largest of them was by Tom McKendree of NASA. He constructed a space wheel from bucky fibres by which thousands of kilometres in diameter could be built to a length of 10.000 km. To prevent instability they could be coupled to very large O’Neill cylinders or a kind of counterrotation could be developed. Ideas to be taken from the shelf in a thousand years’ time, perhaps ? Even further away from practice is the idea of a ‘Generation Ship’, a spacecraft which flies through space on its own. Such ships face many biological and social problems. The Rutgers University, the State University of New Jersey, USA, has calculated that the whole American population is descended from about 70 persons.

In 1975-76 the Sphere was taken as an example by O’Neill and miniaturized to 500 m. To obtain a gravity comparable to Earth it should be make 1,9 revolutions per minute. O’Neill wanted to introduce earthly landscapes and light by mirrors attached to the outside of the Sphere.

Other American investigators such as the American anthropologist Dr. John Moore thinks that with 150-180 persons for 2000 years or 60-80 generations a population can be kept. With careful selected sperm it should be possible to decrease this amount. In short, with a limited, selected crew, in principle it could be possible to establish a colony.

In the next part of this new series John Beenen considers the question, “Why Should we seek to live in space ?”

But many other interesting structures may be found on the Internet.. ….. The Dyson Sphere or Dyson Shell presented by the BritishAmerican quantum physician Freeman Dyson (1923) is a hypothetical megastructure, a system of sun energy satellites around the Sun collecting nearly all radiated energy as a solution for the forever increased human demand for energy.

The stamps on pages 37-39 are given in full colour on p 40.

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Living in Space in Colour

The “Space City” Cinderellas are John’s creations for his own amusement and not commercially available