Apollo to Mars & Venus: North American Aviation's 1965 Plan for Piloted Planetary Flybys in the 1970s (4)
The Syrtis Major hemisphere of Mars. Syrtis Major Planum is the dark feature at the center of the image; the light area to its left is Arabia Terra and the dark area on the limb at left is Meridiani Terra. Image credit: NASA.The Tharsis hemisphere of Mars. Patches of cloud mark the four great shield volcanoes; Olympus Mons is above and to the left of center. Western Valles Marineris is on the limb at center right. Image credit: NASA.All of these surface features would be visible to the four astronauts during the Mars flyby. NAA assumed that only robotic precursors of minimal capability would precede them to Mars, so they would become the first humans to glimpse its wonders.
NAA compared its piloted flyby with planned robotic Mars missions. The company told NASA MSC managers that the Voyager probe proposed for launch in 1975 (not to be confused with Voyager outer planets probes launched in 1978-1979) would transmit data at a rate of between 100 and 350 bits per second. The piloted flyby mission, in stark contrast, would return 2000 bits per second and would deliver rolls and cassettes of high-resolution film to cartographers and researchers on Earth. NAA declared that its analysis had shown that "types, ranges, accuracies, and quantities of data obtained [by a piloted Mars flyby mission] should exceed (by orders of magnitude in some cases) that which could be returned to Earth with equivalent instruments on unmanned systems."
With Mars flyby activities tapering off, the crew would return to their regular daily schedule and commence the 550-day voyage home. They would begin Mars data analysis and, as they skirted the Asteroid Belt, observe any nearby asteroids using their telescope.
The crew would also pay close attention to the health of their spacecraft's systems during the long trip home. They would have at hand tools and carefully selected spares to perform repairs. These would be available in part as a result of the two-month study of piloted Mars flyby spacecraft systems reliability NASA MSC added to NAA's original study task.
The company estimated that 57% of piloted Mars flyby spacecraft subsystems — which included life support, power, propulsion, guidance, communications, and data handling — could be provided by 164 hardware "assemblies" designed for Apollo lunar missions. Another 22% (63 assemblies) could take the form of modified Apollo hardware, and 15% (44 assembles) could comprise hardware borrowed from other programs, such as the U.S. Air Force Manned Orbiting Laboratory.
This meant that 94% of piloted Mars flyby hardware would have a test record and failure history by the time the piloted Mars flyby mission left Earth in 1975 even if the Phase I Venus flyby did not fly in 1973. The remaining 6% (just 17 assemblies) would require new development and testing.
Based on existing Apollo reliability predictions, NAA calculated that from six to 85 failures would occur during the 1975 piloted Mars flyby mission. Most would occur in subsystems that could be repaired or replaced by the crew. Those assemblies that could not be repaired or replaced — for example, the large thermal radiator on the outside of the MM — could be modified during the design phase to avoid failure or backed up by a redundant system.
NAA became concerned that some subsystems would take so long to repair that the crew could be harmed by the malfunction before they could finish. Analysis showed, however, that no repair time would exceed allowed downtime. A failed cabin heat control system, for example, could be repaired in an hour but would need from eight to 24 hrs to create a problem sufficiently serious that it would harm the crew.
The company found that up to 185 spares weighing about 900 pounds would be required as insurance against all possible failures. Of course, very few were likely to be used. Repair time spread over the mission would amount to only about 15 minutes per day.
Return to Earth would occur on 5 August 1977. As Earth grew large outside the portholes, the flyby spacecraft crew would prepare to abandon their home of 700 days. They would reel in the CSM for the last time and load it with film and other data. About two hours before planned reentry they would separate the CSM from the drogue docking unit and the artificial-gravity collar on the MM and back away.
The crew would orient the Mars flyby CSM so its three engines pointed in its direction of travel and, 30 minutes before planned reentry, would ignite the two outboard engines. Flyby mission Earth-return speed would depend on many factors: for example, a close Mars flyby typically would mean a fast Earth-atmosphere reentry.
The Apollo CM was designed to reentry Earth's atmosphere at 36,000 feet (10,970 meters) per second. NAA told MSC that the CM's bowl-shaped heat shield could, in theory, be beefed up to withstand reentry at 52,000 feet (15,850 meters) per second. The company argued, however, that "engineering conservatism" made such high-speed reentries unattractive. Hence the retro burn, which would slash reentry velocity to no more than 45,000 (13,715 meters) feet per second. NAA told NASA MSC that the Apollo CM heat shield would need only modest modifications to withstand reentry at that velocity.
NAA reported that, at launch from Earth, the Apollo CSM would have a mass of 57,690 pounds (26,170 kilograms). Hypergolic (ignite-on-contact) Hydrazine/nitrogen tetroxide propellants would account for 37,360 pounds (16,950 kilograms) of that total. The hefty Mars flyby CSM would have a mass of 73,080 pounds (33,150 kilograms) of which 44,770 pounds (20,310 kilograms) would constitute propellants for course corrections and the reentry retro burn.
During the retro burn, the outboard engines would fire for up to 29 minutes to slow the flyby CSM. The flyby SM would then separate, exposing the CM's modestly uprated heat shield and depriving the isotopic power system of its heat radiators (it would switch to its temporary water boil-off cooling system). During passage through Earth's atmosphere, the heat shield might attain a temperature of 5000° F (2760° C).
NAA anticipated that the Mars flyby CM would parachute to a land landing. Modifications to the shock absorbers in the crew couches would protect the astronauts from injury as the CM bumped to a stop on Earth. Soon after landing, the isotopic power system would boil off the last of its cooling water; hence, linking it to an ground-supplied auxiliary cooling system would be assigned nearly as high a priority as removing the astronauts from the CM.Direct Venus flyby and "in transit" assembly Mars flyby Saturn V launch configurations. A = Launch Escape System tower; B = piloted flyby Command and Service Module (CSM); C = Mission Module (MM); D = Probe Compartment (PC); E = Saturn V S-IVB stage; F = Saturn V S-II stage; G = Saturn V S-IC stage; H = Spacecraft-Launch Adapter (SLA); I = aerodynamic shroud. Image credit: North American Aviation/NASA.Near the end of its study, as it firmed up its spacecraft weight estimates, NAA determined that a single three-stage Saturn V, virtually identical to that used to launch Apollo lunar missions, could launch its Venus flyby spacecraft directly to Venus. The Saturn V S-IVB third stage would do the job of the S-IIB orbital launch stage. This led the company to reexamine its Mars flyby Earth-orbital launch scheme.
The company found that the heavier Mars flyby spacecraft could not launch directly onto its Mars flyby path if it were launched on a single three-stage Saturn V. It proposed instead that the Mars flyby spacecraft be split into two payloads — the CSM bearing the crew and the MC/PC combination — and that they be launched on a pair of three-stage Saturn Vs. CSM and MC/PC would then rendezvous and dock "in transit" soon after their S-IVBs placed them on course for Mars.
The CSM would play the active role in the in-transit rendezvous. As Earth shrank behind it, its crew would separate the spacecraft from the S-IVB third stage that boosted it toward Mars, rendezvous and dock the MM/PC combination, and detach it from its S-IVB. After it moved a safe distance away, piloted flyby spacecraft instrument and antenna deployment and artificial-gravity spin-up could begin.
NAA provided a cost estimate for its 1973 Phase I Venus and 1975 Phase II Mars piloted flyby missions. The Venus mission would cost $2,301,700,000 between the 1 July 1967 contract go-ahead date and return to Earth on 19 December 1974. The Mars flyby without the Venus flyby would cost $3,439,500,000.
NAA representatives told MSC managers that its study had demonstrated that "existing and currently programmed hardware and facilities and systems contemplated for other NASA space flight programs can be used to achieve early Mars and/or Venus flyby missions." The company declared that "[f]ailure to take timely advantage of this opportunity could result in a delay in the achievement of advanced [orbital] and/or landing missions to Mars until the next century."Sources"One-Year Exploration Trip Earth-Mars-Venus-Earth," G. Crocco; paper presented at the 7th International Astronautical Federation Congress in Rome, Italy, 1-7 September 1956.
"Laboratory in Space," M. Yarymovych, NASA Headquarters; paper presented at the First Space Congress in Cocoa Beach, Florida, 20-22 April 1964.
"Future Effort to Stress Apollo Hardware," Aviation Week & Space Technology, 16 November 1964, pp. 48-51.
"An Evolutionary Program for Manned Interplanetary Exploration," M. W. Jack Bell; paper presented at the AIAA/AAS Stepping Stones to Mars Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, 28-30 March 1966.
Manned Mars and/or Venus Flyby Vehicles Systems Study Final Briefing Brochure, SID 65-761-6, North American Aviation, Inc., 18 June 1965.
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