Jun 9 1978
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (1MB PDF)
NASA Deputy Administrator Dr. Alan Lovelace, addressing members of LeRC's launch directorate, had termed the launch-vehicle team "probably the best in the world. The record speaks for itself," the Lewis News reported. Lovelace had visited LeRC to discuss the role of launch vehicles in NASA's overall plans and to be briefed on other Lewis work. The expendable vehicles would make 13 launches through 1980, when the Space Transportation System (STS) would begin carrying payloads into space. Members of the STS team responsible for launching the Space Shuttle who would work with the LeRC launch-vehicle group "can learn team development, discipline, and mental rigor from the exemplary record of the Lewis team," Lovelace said. (Lewis News, June 9/78,1)
In its "Profile of a Mission," Lewis News reported that a new era of opportunity in space had become available. The Space Transportation System (the Space Shuttle) would open the door to activities ranging from experiments in' basic research on physical and chemical process, to using the weightlessness and vacuum of space as an environment for manufacturing products. LeRC's Space Experiments Integration Office (SEIO) would help principal investigators proposing experiments that needed a space environment, by preventing duplication of effort and standardizing paperwork required for project approval.
SEIO had management responsibility for one facility and four experiments, three of which were to fly on the long-duration exposure facility (LDEF) managed at LaRC: The advanced photovoltaic experiment (APEX) on the LDEF consisted of three related approaches to investigating the solar spectrum and the effect of exposure to space on advanced photovoltaics and materials. For the first time, space-calibrated solar cells would be available as laboratory standards for assessing performance of new solar cells.
The space power experiment (SPEX) on the LDEF would evaluate the use of commercially available components for a space-power system. With three LDEF trays carrying commercially available terrestrial solar cells and a fourth carrying commercial power electronics and batteries, successful operation of these components in space could significantly reduce costs of future space-power systems.
In the ion-beam texturing and surface-coating experiment on the LDEF, which would expose such surface samples to launch stress and near-earth space, ground tests before and after exposure would record the optical properties of the surface of each sample and compare durability of ion-beam-textured surfaces with that of state-of-the-art surfaces. If the ion-beam-textured surfaces exhibited higher durability, use of thermal-control coatings for spacecraft would increase.
The cryogenic fluid-management experiment (CFME), a payload attached to a Spacelab pallet, would obtain long-duration low-gravity engineering data on systems for storage/acquisition/supply of liquified gas (subcritical) to verify the possibility of successfully operating such a system in space.
The zero-gravity combustion facility (OGCF), a versatile reusable assembly that would permit a Spacelab experimenter to study combustion free of earth's buoyancy forces, would carry out tests ranging from rapid burning to long-term smoldering of a variety of liquid, solid, and gaseous fuels. (Lewis News, June 9/78, 3)
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