10 AMAZING RETRO FAILS OF SPACE EXPLORATION

Mad Science: 10 Amazing Retro Fails of Space Exploration
By Debra Kelly, Urban Ghosts Media, 5 June 2015.

For as long as we’ve looked to the stars, we’ve dreamed of travelling to them. The Space Race was one of the defining endeavours of the Cold War, rooted in an ideological contest between rival superpowers the Soviet Union and the United States. We know how the whole thing turned out, but right now, we’re interested in the plans that didn’t work during that time or in later years… Some of them were highly eccentric, while others seemed downright crazy.

10. Stanford Torus

Image: Don Davis

In 1975, NASA outsourced the task of creating a sustainable, manned, long-term settlement in space. A handful of different ideas were put forward, but one idea seems to have absolutely enamoured the minds of space enthusiasts and science fiction fans everywhere.

The Stanford Torus wouldn’t just become incredibly iconic. It was ultimately selected by NASA as the most practical design that was submitted. A circular craft formed by bending a hollow tube, the Stanford Torus has been the basis of countless sci-fi movies and books…but, we’re calling it a Retro Fail because it never made it off the drawing board due to a few logistical problems that still haven’t been solved.

Students calculated that if the station was formed from a tube of specific measurements (130 meters in diameter, 5.6 km long, and the circle was 1.8 km across), spinning it at a rate of exactly one revolution per minute, those on board would be subjected to the same effects as The Earth’s gravitational pull. It would also have enough room to support 80,000 people, and could be fitted with all manner of creature comforts from parks and gardens to homes like we have on earth.

Unfortunately, it’s proved to be not nearly as straightforward as it seems. While a station like the Stanford Torus would allow for increased freedom within it, it’s also a prohibitively expensive undertaking. Finding the right balance of size, rotation rate, and determining just what kind of effects such a design would actually have on the body (from disorientation to difficulty moving) has sadly kept this one on the drawing board.

9. Jim LeBlanc’s Space Suit Fail

While this one’s a complete and total fail for the suit, it’s an utter win for NASA spacesuit technician Jim LeBlanc. When ‘test subject’ is in your job description, going to work every day has its risks. For LeBlanc, his risks became very, very real on December 14, 1966. As one of the early test subjects for the prototypes of the spacesuits that were going to be used on the moon, part of LeBlanc’s job was to don the suit and get inside the innermost room of a triple-door vacuum chamber…and see if it worked. On that day, it didn’t.

LeBlanc quickly became the first person ever to survive being exposed to such low pressure. When a hose on the suit became disconnected, he was able to signal his distress before losing consciousness. Technicians outside re-pressurized the chamber in just around a minute, a process that, done properly, should have taken about 30 minutes. Before it was complete, a technician in a nearby and partially-pressurized chamber reached him, and a doctor was there not long after.

Miraculously, he suffered no ill effects from the incident, although before he lost consciousness, he did remember one terrifying little detail. After just a few seconds, the saliva in his mouth had begun to bubble. Afterwards, he had only a minor earache for his trouble.

8. The Mars Polar Lander

Image: NASA

The Mars Polar Lander was part of the Mars Surveyor Program of the late 1990s. The goals were basically to get a read on the general climate and composition of Mars - the lander would be taking soil samples, looking for water, mapping climate patterns, and recording surface conditions from wind speed and humidity to the presence of dust in the air.

The Mars Polar Lander was equipped with a combination of equipment from both the United States’ NASA and the Russian Space Agency, but unfortunately, we never got the wealth of data back that we were hoping for. We sort of lost it. Launch date was January 3, 1999 and it got to Mars on December 3 of the same year. We know that much, but as soon as it landed, communications were cut off. Why, NASA isn’t sure, and where it is…they’re not sure about that, either.

In the years since, there’s been something of an almost mythic search for the lander, especially as technology has advanced and the images we have of the surface of the planet improve. As the seasons change and the area where the lander crashed emerged into the light in 2005, scientists were almost certain they’d found it. But by 2012, nothing concrete had been established, with problems stemming from the impossibility of getting a good, clear look at the difficult terrain.

The project wasn’t a complete write-off, though. It established a set of guidelines on what would need to be included on future missions - like tracking equipment - and led to the development of technology now used on other missions.

7. The Manned Orbiting Laboratory

Image: NASA via Space

If there’s one thing that the world’s space programs can’t be accused of, it’s thinking too small. In 1964, the Air Force was working to put a manned space station into orbit. The general idea was that it would be based around a modified Gemini capsule with a laboratory compartment attached.

It was hoped that it would be able to support a crew for anywhere from two to four weeks in orbit; after the mission was completed, the capsule would detach from the lab and return to earth. The lab itself would stay in orbit, waiting for the next group. And the plans got pretty far along, and six years of work yielded a single, unmanned test flight. Seventeen men were tapped to be a part of the mission, and the mission goals are still classified. We do know that the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) was an Air Force-backed project, making it likely that there were more military aims than scientific ones.

The original launch date was supposed to be December 15, 1969 but was ultimately pushed back to 1971. By the time the original launch date came around, though, spending on the program was astronomical (no pun intended). They’d already sunk US$1.3 billion into the MOL program and those costs were expected to more than double before they had a working program. One reason put forward for scrapping the project was the development of another technology that was going to make the MOL obsolete - spy satellites.

That’s absolute conjecture, but it’s an educated guess. It’s also noteworthy to mention that it wasn’t all for nothing - many of the men that had been tapped to pilot the Manned Orbiting Laboratory program were transferred to NASA. Some, like Richard Truly, not only flew the Space Shuttle but ended up becoming a NASA administrator.

6. The Personal Rescue Ball

Image: NASA

The idea that something might go wrong out in space is a terrifying one, reminding us that not only are astronauts among the smartest people on (and certainly off) the planet, they’re also incredibly brave. But the dangers were always alarmingly real, and in the 1980s, NASA developed a plan for contingencies. They were looking at the Space Shuttle orbiter and, knowing that those working on board wouldn’t normally be wearing space suits, they needed a way to protect astronauts needing to get from the orbiter to a rescue craft quickly. And the answer was just as terrifying as the scenario.

The Personal Rescue Ball was a 34-inch ball consisting of three layers: urethane, Kevlar, and an outer, protective thermal shell. The ball was airtight once sealed, and had communications as well as a life support system with enough power and oxygen to last an hour. The astronaut in question would curl up into a ball, be zipped in, and then…into space they would go. NASA examined a number of options for getting the rescue pod from one spacecraft to another. Proposals ranged from a line tied between the two craft, attachment to a manipulator arm, and even an astronaut in full space suit charged with pulling the Personal Rescue Ball along manually. Ultimately, prototypes were made of the rescue pod, but none were ever put to use.

5. Project MOOSE

Image: US Government

Originally, MOOSE stood for Man Out of Space, Easiest. Once it became a serious program, though, it was changed to the more respectable-sounding Manned Orbital Operations Safety Equipment. The name change didn’t make the rest of the plan sound any better, though.

The piece of equipment developed under Project MOOSE was meant to be a last resort, and would have made for one wild ride. Pitched and developed by GE, it was an emergency craft that weighed about 200 pounds and, before it was deployed, was the size of a piece of luggage. It was something that an astronaut could grab on his way out of the spacecraft - and if he was grabbing it, that meant that he wasn’t going to be coming back.

The rocket-powered craft was essentially an air bag for a space landing. The astronaut would climb inside the kit’s bag, made of a thin, heat-resistant material. Inflating it would fill the rest of the bag with an insulating foam, and the rocket motor would push the craft toward the earth. In theory, the motor would control at least some of the descent, and once the craft was 30,000 feet above the ground, a parachute would open. The whole idea was ultimately abandoned, and never went into use.

4. SNAP-10A

Image: NASA via Gizmodo

There’s a lot of space junk up in Earth’s orbit, launched with what were perhaps the best of intentions. NASA estimates that it’ll be somewhere around 3,000 years before the orbit of the failed SNAP-10A generator will degrade, and until then, it’s a reminder of lofty ambitions and unforeseen consequences.

SNAP stands for Systems for Nuclear Auxiliary Power, and it was a 1960s program that was designed to explore the possibilities of launching a nuclear reactor into space. The craft was a fully functioning nuclear reactor, carrying enough uranium to generate around 600 watts of power over the course of a whole year. It was launched on April 3, 1965 and came online after 12 hours.

Just over a month later, SNAP-10A turned off. Snapshot, the satellite that was carrying the reactor, experienced what was officially termed a ‘anomalous event’, during which pieces of the satellite shredded off. Electrical systems failed, and the reactor shut down. Over the next few years, several more ‘anomalous events’ occurred, and while they’re not really sure whether or not there was a release of radioactive materials, the plan turned into a fail with a 3,000-year life span.

3. The Spherical Experiment #1

Image: via Neatorama

Also called the SX-1 for short, the Spherical Experiment #1 was a strange option once put forward for the space program. It was developed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Resources Laboratory as a space suit that worked without one of the biggest problems space suits tend to have - mobility issues.

If you’ve ever seen a hamster running in a clear plastic ball, that was precisely the idea behind it. Seriously. The astronaut ball, they said, would allow for complete freedom of movement within it, and in one area, the ball had more standard pressure suit arms and legs attached, for when the person inside needed to do things like enter and exit their craft. It also came with an airlock, allowing for the gathering of samples. At the same time the idea is incredible practical, it looks absolutely insane.

The Spherical Experiment #1 was pitched in 1964, when the space program was in the midst of a changing field in the design of their suits. There’s nothing to suggest it was ever taken seriously, though, having never made it past the pitch stage.

2. Boeing X-20 ‘Dyna-Soar’

Image: US Air Force

The name actually comes from a combination of the words ‘dynamic’ and ‘soaring’, but considering the project’s fate, it’s a little ironic today. Beginning in 1958, Dyna-Soar was once designed to be what the space shuttle would later become. A hypersonic glider, it was based on the World War Two Sanger-Bredt Silverbird intercontinental skip-glide rocket that had been designed by Germany for use by the Luftwaffe.

Bell picked up contracts with a number of Germany’s top engineers and scientists after the war, re-imagined the project, and presented it to the Pentagon. It was approved…and then the contract was handed to Boeing.

Dyna-Soar went through myriad changes throughout its development phase. At various times, it was imagined as a reconnaissance platform, an orbital weapons system, a delivery system for satellites, and even as an orbital bomber. The basic idea remained pretty much the same throughout, though - it was to be shot into low earth orbit, propel itself across the upper atmosphere, and make an unpowered landing. By 1959, Dyna-Soar was officially a military program, in no small part because of its potential as a weapon in the mounting Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union.

By 1962, there was a full-scale mock-up of the X-20, and a crew had been chosen to fly it. But, timing would prove fatal to the project. The Air Force was suddenly competing for funding against NASA, whose plans were seen as even grander. Competition ultimately meant that Dyna-Soar was weighed against NASA’s Gemini program, and the Air Force’s bid to take the X-20 into space was ended on December 10, 1963.

1. Zambia’s Space Program

While vast amounts of money propelled the United States and Russian space programs - not to mention the full backing of their respective governments - Edward Makuka Nkoloso wasn’t about to allow a lack of either one of those things to come between him and the final frontier.

Zambia had only recently gained its independence as a nation and, not long after, Nkoloso went public with his goals of beating both of the space race forerunners not only into orbit, but to Mars, where he planned to make contact with the natives he said he’d been watching through his telescope. He established the Zambia National Academy of Science, Space Research and Philosophy, and began a training program.

That training program included things like teaching his 12 astronauts to walk on their hands (because that’s how it’s done on the moon), and rolling them downhill in oil drums to simulate weightlessness. He only needed bit of help, he claimed - in the form of a US$700 million grant from UNESCO. Not surprisingly, he was turned down, but by that point he had other problems to think about, namely keeping his astronauts from getting pregnant.

Today, we don’t know much about Nkoloso’s personal life. We know he was a grade school teacher in a country that, at the time, had a population of 3.6 million and less than 100 college graduates. We also know that he was a leading light in his country’s independence movement and saw science as the way of the future. It’s fitting then that Zambia today has members on the Space Generation Advisory Council, focusing on increasing interest in cutting-edge science. So in the end, we’re calling Nkoloso’s failed program a win for the future.

Top image: Artist's impression of the X-20 ‘Dyna-Soar’ defunct spaceplane project. Credit: NASA/Wikimedia Commons.

[Source: Urban Ghosts Media. Edited.]