[FPSPACE] Ferma-Postroital? URS?

[DSFPortree at aol.com]

Anatoli:

I'm updating and correcting my 1997 EVA chronology, hence my effort to make 
sure I have the terminology correct. FYI, here's the current versions of the 
EASE/ACCESS and URS EVA chronology entries. Mayak was the vibration experiment, 
BOSS was the relay experiment. At least according to my sources - I'm willing 
to have those corrected.

David

November 29
1985 EVA 5
World EVA 66
Mission:  STS 61-B
Crew:  Brewster Shaw, Bryan O’Connor, Sherwood Spring, Mary Cleave, Jerry 
Ross, Charles Walker, Rodolfo Neri Vela
Spacewalkers:  Jerry Ross, Sherwood Spring
Duration:  5:32
Purpose:  Assemble experimental erectable truss structures

In January 1984, President Ronald Reagan called upon NASA to build an 
Earth-orbital space station within a decade. NASA envisioned launching station 
components in the Shuttle payload bay for spacewalking astronauts to assemble. The 
two EVAs planned for STS 61-B were meant to demonstrate EVA assembly techniques 
that might be used in station assembly. The first, the 50th U.S. spacewalk, 
focused on astronaut performance. The astronauts first assembled the Assembly 
Concept for Construction of Erectable Space Structures (ACCESS) assembly jig in 
Atlantis's payload bay. After a truss cell was assembled in the jig, the 
astronauts pushed it up so that the next cell could be assembled. Ross later 
called this "a neat way to build a truss." Assembling the 3.4-meter ACCESS truss 
needed 58 minutes in the WETF, while the conservative EVA timeline allotted two 
hours for a single ACCESS assembly. Ross and Spring needed only 55 minutes to 
build the truss in orbit, however, so they disassembled it and built it again. 
As they worked, sensors in their EMUs precisely measured their oxygen 
consumption. They then turned to the Experimental Assembly of Structures in EVA 
(EASE) task, which assessed the capabilities of free-floating astronauts. It 
involved assembling 29-kilogram beams to make a 3.6-meter-wide three-sided pyramid. 
EASE was scheduled to be assembled six times, but the astronauts managed eight 
assemblies. During the first four assemblies, they used foot restraints. 
Spring reported in his post-flight debriefing that his fingers grew numb during 
the third EASE assembly and very tired during the fourth. At the end of the EVA, 
he assembled and hand-deployed a passive 0.9-meter satellite for use after 
the EVA as a station-keeping target for Atlantis, which would play the role of 
an automated orbital maneuvering vehicle in rendezvous software tests.

EASE/ACCESS Postmission Management Report, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center 
(MSFC) (no date); "Shuttle Mission EVAs to Demonstrate Space Station Assembly 
Techniques," Craig Covault, Aviation Week & Space Technology, November 25, 
1985, pp. 63-69; "Shuttle EVAs Utilize Techniques Planned for Space Station 
Assembly," Craig Covault, Aviation Week & Space Technology, December 9, 1985, pp. 
21-23; Interview with Jerry Ross, January 11, 1996.

December 1
1985 EVA 6
World EVA 67
Mission:  STS 61-B
Crew:  Brewster Shaw, Bryan O’Connor, Sherwood Spring, Mary Cleave, Jerry 
Ross, Charles Walker, Rodolfo Neri Vela
Spacewalkers:  Jerry Ross, Sherwood Spring
Duration:  6:41
Purpose:  Assemble and manipulate experimental erectable truss structures; 
demonstrate RMS use in assembly

The second EASE/ACCESS spacewalk sought to assess RMS station assembly 
capability and astronaut ability to handle large structural elements. Ross and 
Spring assembled nine ACCESS bays, then placed parts for the tenth on the RMS. Ross 
then stepped into the MFR and RMS operator Mary Cleave positioned him within 
reach of the top of the ACCESS truss. He assembled the tenth bay, then 
performed a cable run assembly simulation by attaching a tether along the side of the 
truss while Cleave positioned him. Spring then released the truss from its 
assembly jig so Ross could handle it while riding the RMS. He replaced it in the 
jig to demonstrate astronaut ability to assemble a truss in one place and 
install it in another. Spring then spelled Ross on the MFR and changed a beam on 
ACCESS to simulate structural repair. Ross released it from the jig and Spring 
pointed it at the moon to assess his precision handling ability. The 
astronauts then took down ACCESS, and Spring assembled EASE while on the RMS. Before 
finishing, he joined two beams to simulate handling a thermal control heat 
pipe. Ross unlatched the EASE pyramid so his partner could maneuver it, then 
replaced Spring on the MFR to duplicate the EASE activities. The astronauts 
reported that the most difficult part of the EVAs was shifting their own masses while 
holding EASE beams. "This is probably not the preferred way of building a 
space station," Ross said later. The astronauts judged that performing six-hour 
EVAs every other day over a five- or six-day period was feasible, and 
recommended EVA glove changes to reduce hand fatigue. Ross noted in his EVA debriefing 
that the crew had tried to have the MMU manifested for use in the second EVA, 
because "for certain applications it would be very useful... in particular if 
you were building portions of a space station attached to the orbiter, then 
moving those portions farther than the manipulator arm could transport them."

EASE/ACCESS Postmission Management Report, NASA MSFC (no date); "Shuttle 
Mission EVAs to Demonstrate Space Station Assembly Techniques," Craig Covault, 
Aviation Week & Space Technology, November 25, 1985, pp. 63-69; "Shuttle EVAs 
Utilize Techniques Planned for Space Station Assembly," Craig Covault, Aviation 
Week & Space Technology, December 9, 1985, pp. 21-23; "Astronauts Believe 
Lengthy EVA Building Sessions are Feasible," Aviation Week & Space Technology, 
December 16, 1985, p. 20-21; interview, David S. F. Portree with Jerry Ross, 
January 11, 1996.

May 28
1986 EVA 1
World EVA 68
Mission:  Salyut 7 PE-6
Crew:  Leonid Kizim, Vladimir Solovyov
Spacewalkers:  Leonid Kizim, Vladimir Solovyov
Duration:  3:50
Purpose:  Test experimental deployable truss; remove space exposure cassettes 
from Salyut 7's exterior for return to Earth

Seven-time EVA veterans Solovyov and Kizim first visited the new Mir station, 
then transferred to Salyut 7 on May 5 to tie up loose ends left by the Salyut 
7 PE-5 crew. PE-5 commander Vladimir Vasyutin Vasyutin and flight engineer 
Alexandr Volkov were to have performed EVA assembly experiments outside Salyut 7 
while Viktor Savinykh monitored them from inside the station, but Vasyutin 
became ill, forcing the crew to make an early Earth return. Solovyov and Kizim 
removed and placed inside the transfer compartment space exposure cassettes and 
the Franco-Soviet space dust collector deployed in August 1985. The exposure 
cassettes included Spiral, Istok, Resurs, and Meduza, respectively for the 
study of space effects on cables, threaded connectors (nuts and bolts), metals, 
and biopolymers. The cosmonauts then attached the cylindrical 150-kilogram URS 
space assembly device to the hull outside the airlock hatch. The URS device 
deployed a 20-kilogram, 15-meter tubular metal truss held together by hinges and 
springs. URS was designed and built by the Paton Institute of Electric 
Welding in Kiev, which had also developed the URI tool used by Svetlana Savitskaya 
during her 1984 EVA. The URS truss was deployable, as opposed to the erectable 
EASE and ACCESS structures Ross and Spring had assembled during STS 61-B seven 
months before. Pravda, quoting Paton Institute sources, reported that truss 
length could be increased to a kilometer or more by adding additional folded 
cassettes. Kizim operated the three buttons that controlled deployment, then 
climbed halfway up the truss. He found it sturdy, with oscillations limited to a 
few centimeters of amplitude. The cosmonauts installed the BOSS visible light 
communications system on a work compartment view port, then refolded the URS 
girder and closed out their EVA. Portions of the spacewalk were televised live 
in the Soviet Union. The cosmonauts spent the next two days cleaning their 
Orlan-DM suits and undergoing debriefing.

"First Soviet Structure in Space," Air & Cosmos, June 28, 1986, p. 52 
(translated from French in USSR Report: Space, JPRS-USP-86-007-L, October 7, 1986, 
pp. 1-2); "Cosmonauts Deploy Girder from Salyut 7," Pravda, May 29, 1986, p. 1 
(translated in USSR Report: Space, JPRS-USP-86-006, November 12, 1986, p. 1); 
"Developer Comments on Girder Deployment Experiment," A. Tarasov, Pravda, May 
29, 1986, pp. 1, 6 (translated in USSR Report: Space, JPRS-USP-86-006, November 
12, 1986, p. 2); "New Structure for Mir," Neville Kidger, Spaceflight, 
September/October 1986, pp. 346-347; "Problems in the Exploitation of Space," Sergei 
Grishin and Sergei Chekalin, Novoye v Zhizni, Nauke, Tekhnike: Seriya 
Kosmonavtika, Astronomiya, January 1988 (excerpted and translated in JPRS Report, 
Science & Technology, USSR: Space, August 17, 1988, pp. 40-43).

May 31
1986 EVA 2
World EVA 69
Mission:  Salyut 7 PE-6
Crew:  Leonid Kizim, Vladimir Solovyov
Spacewalkers:  Leonid Kizim, Vladimir Solovyov
Duration:  4:40
Purpose:  Test experimental deployable truss; test URI tool

This 18th Soviet EVA was the ninth for the Kizim-Solovyov team and the last 
carried out on Salyut 7. The cosmonauts extended Paton Institute's URS truss 
again, then used the BOSS device they installed during their May 28 spacewalk to 
relay data on truss stability from instruments at the top of the truss. These 
included a small seismograph built by the All-Union Scientific Research 
Institute of Geophysics for tracking low-frequency vibrations imparted by the 
station's acceleration, and the Mayak experiment, in which a camera tracked 
high-frequency vibrations by filming the movements of a small orange light on the 
truss. Solovyov and Kizim then rigidized the truss by welding portions using the 
URI tool. After closing and dismantling the truss, they installed the 
Mikrodeformator device, which studied aluminum-magnesium alloy reactions to repeated 
structural loads under space conditions. At the end of the EVA, they brought 
inside the sample of solar cell material left outside by Savinykh and 
Dzhanibekov in August 1985. According to Pravda, "successful accomplishment of 
multifaceted experimental operations in open space confirms the prospects of the 
technological operations that have been developed, as well as the possibility of 
their practical application in creating complex, large-size orbiting complexes 
for scientific and economic purposes." Paton Institute's V. Lapchinsky asserted 
that, "[w]e are at the threshold of the era of space construction." The 
cosmonauts returned to Mir on June 25.

"Cosmonauts Continue Girder Experiments in Second EVA," Pravda, June 1, 1986, 
p. 1, 4 (translated in USSR Report: Space, JPRS-USP-86-006, November 12, 
1986, p. 6); "Commentary on Experiments in Second Girder Deployment," Pravda, June 
1, 1986, p. 6 (translated in USSR Report: Space, JPRS-USP-86-006, November 
12, 1986, p. 6); "Star Construction Project: Salyut 7, Mir - Our Commentary," B. 
Paton and Yu. Semenov, Pravda, August 16, 1986 (translated in USSR Report: 
Space, JPRS-USP-86-006, November 12, 1986, p. 33); "New Structure for Mir," 
Neville Kidger, Spaceflight, September/October 1986, pp. 346-347; "The Experience 
in Operation and Improving the Orlan-type Space Suits," I. P. Abramov, Acta 
Astronautica, Vol. 36, No. 1, July 1995, pp. 1-12.