Oct 17 1985
From The Space Library
NASA Administrator James Beggs confirmed this week that NASA cancelled a mission to send an unmanned spacecraft to comet Wild 2, citing budgetary constraints, the Washington Post reported. “However, the comet rendezvous proposal is a very promising candidate for a new start” in FY 88, Beggs said. NASA had expected the mission from FY 87 to 1992 to cost $400 million, which was within the budgetary limits NASA established in 1981 for new planetary missions. The NASA budget the Reagan Administration was drafting eliminated the mission.
Delaying a decision on a comet rendezvous by even one year meant the spacecraft could not fly to Wild 2, the favorite candidate of space scientists because it was a bright, fresh comet. Discovered in 1978, the comet would make its third and fourth appearances in 1990 and 1996. In order to rendezvous with the comet when it passed near the earth, NASA in 1986 would have to begin work on the mission to have the spacecraft ready by 1991 for launch from the Space Shuttle. The announcement followed NASA decisions in 1980 and 1981 not to attempt a mission to fly by Halley's Comet.
Once again, the United States is passing up an opportunity to initiate the exploration of the comets, which contain the most unblemished record of the origins of our solar system,” the Post quoted Dr. Laurel Wilkening, dean of the graduate school at the University of Arizona and vice chairman of President Reagan's Commission on Space. “The decision is a major setback for the U.S. planetary exploration program,” he concluded.
Space scientists were also upset because NASA's science advisory groups recommended that a comet rendezvous be the next new mission in planetary exploration [see Astronomy, Oct. 8]. Scientists pushed for a mission to Wild 2 because the spacecraft could travel with the comet for 850 days, observing it before its long dust tail formed and obscured the comet's nucleus or damaged the spacecraft. It would have been NASA's most ambitious mission to explore the solar system.
The next comet that NASA could approach would be Tempel 2, which would pass by earth in 1998. Such a mission, also costing $400 million, required a NASA decision by the middle of 1986. (W Post, Oct 17/85, A21)
Soviet cosmonauts Vladimir Vasyutin, Viktor Savinykh, and Aleksandr Volkov continued their work aboard the Salyut 7/Soyuz T-14 orbital station following the October 2 docking with Cosmos 1686, FBIS Moscow in English to North America reported. Soviet space officials designed Cosmos 1686 to function as a heavy transport vehicle, an inter-orbit tug, or as a specialized module for research or production. During docking, the Soviet's flight control center and crew on the orbiting complex guided search for the satellite, approach, and mooring.
Cosmos 1686 delivered equipment and various other cargo for continued functioning of the complex; the cosmonauts would test satellite equipment and elements of its construction and develop methods of controlling orbital complexes of large dimensions and masses.
Soviet science correspondent Boris Belitskiy said of the Cosmos 1686 mission: “The experience gained in recent years in operating such modular spacecraft with the Salyut 6 and Salyut 7 stations showed that such satellites can considerably extend the active life of future orbital complexes and make their operation more fruitful. Satellites of this new type have an advanced computerized control system, a large supply of propellant, and a power system incorporating solar batteries. The satellite's control system makes possible the automatic search for an orbital station, rendezvous, and docking, all in an unmanned mode. The onboard computer enabled mission control to transmit flight assignments that would over several days, if necessary months, assure the autonomous functioning of the satellite's control system.
Also, the satellite's control system is highly economical,” Belitskiy continued. “The control system itself could select an optimal mode dictated by considerations of saving propellant. A previous heavy satellite of this new type, Cosmos 1443, was tested in 1983 as a transport craft of large cargo capacity. It was fitted with a recoverable capsule which returned a 350-kg payload to earth. The present Cosmos 1686 is a modular version. Such a modular design of future extraterrestial colonies is particularly promising because long-term orbiting stations can most reasonably be assembled directly in orbit from separate modules.
Can such automatic craft make space research significantly more efficient?” Belitskiy continued. “That is the questionthe flight of Cosmos 1686 is expected to answer. The total weight of the craft with its payload exceeds 20 tons, and it's almost as long as the Salyut 7station. The diameter of its widest part exceeds four meters and it carries over three tons of propellant and five tons of cargo. Docked with the Salyut 7 station, Cosmos 1686 has almost doubled the working space available aboard the orbital station and made conditions for the crew more comfortable. Its flight program provides for extensive research for economic needs.” (FBIS Moscow in English to North America, Oct 17/85, Oct 2/85)
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