Asri-unix.1221 net.space utzoo!decvax!cca!sri-unix!WMARTIN@OFFICE-3 Wed Apr 14 06:57:24 1982 Space in the news From: WMartin at Office-3 (Will Martin) Electronic Engineering Times, 12 April 82, page 28: This entire page has five items relating to space which may be of interest to people on the list; there's too much to type in -- I will mention the topics and recommend that you locate the publication (it's a newspaper) at your local library. THE SECRECY OF THE FOURTH SHUTTLE FLIGHT The columnist predicts problems for NASA resulting from the secrecy of the payload on the fourth flight, and speculates that video transmissions showing the payload bay will be prohibited. He guesses the payload will be a cryogenic infrared sensor to demonstrate technology for future surveillance spacecraft. SPACE-BASED DOLLARS Defense spending for space-based systems is likely to double in the next seven years, according to Frost & Sullivan. Much of the money will go into particle-beam and high-energy laser hardware. In constant 1980 dollars, will go from $477 million in fiscal 1981 to $959 million in fiscal 1987. They also predict a shift from defensive or retaliatory capability to offensive roles. ...AND WHERE THEY'LL BE SPENT A plan for an integrated high-energy laser weapons development effort will involve DARPA, the USAF, and the Army. DARPA will manage it initially and it may then move to a new USAF Space Command, built from the current USAF Space Division. An RFP is expected soon for studies, with $9 million in initial funding to each participating company. Expected entrants include Martin Marietta, Eastman Kodak, Lockheed, Rockwell Int'l, and TRW. These companies have repeatedly stated that laser battle stations could be demonstrated in five years, given adequate funding. MARTIN MARIETTA SPACE EFFORTS This company seems to be pushing the development of a technological base to put it at the forefront of directed-energy space weaponry development. Areas emphasized are: Acquisition tracking and pointing -- though it lost the full Talon Gold project to Lockheed, Martin has been working on a DARPA contract for this critical area. Survivability -- continued operation of spacecraft in a hostile environment. Uses Stealth technology plus thermal signature reduction to prevent infrared sensing. Contaminants -- Effects of radiation and weapon operation on spacecraft components, under contract to NASA and the USAF Materials Lab. Robotics -- Trying to get a DARPA contract to work in this area to eliminate the need for "full-time human control". Advanced Automation -- an example is the feature identification and location experiment, flown on the second shuttle mission (to be re-flown due to the shortened flight). Automatic recognition of desired features and keeping satellite observation time from being wasted on clouds. NASA:SPACE SHUTTLE ENVIRONMENT EXPERIMENTS The third payload operated "extremely well"; all but one were a success. The eight experiments involved were meant to monitor the shuttle's effect on its immediate environment and vice versa. Regards, Will Martin ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.