AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF AERONAUTICS AND ASTRONAUTICS /ALABAMA SECTION
February 1966
Volume 3
Number 5
Lunar Orbiter Feature of March 9 Meeting
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LUNAR ORBITER· This is how the unmanned, camera-carrying lunar orbiter will look os it circles the moon within 28 miles of its surface to toke
sharp, close-up photos of likely landing sites for Apollo astronauts.
Robert J. Heiberg, Boeing Manager
For Lunar Orbiter Program, Speaker
As l:..V€mg's program mana- group engineer on the electrical
ger, Robert J. Helberg will systems for the C-97 Stratadirect construction of NASA's freighter.
lunar orbiter.
See HELBERG Page 2
Helbert graduated from the
University of Washington in
1932 with a degree in aeronautical engineering. He worked for Goss Humidity Control
Company of Seattle for three
years before joining Boeing.
In addition to work on the
YB-17, Helberg worked on the
first pressurized transport airplane, and on later models of
the Flying Fortress. From 1942
to 1946, Helbert was group engineer of electrical systems on
the B-29 Superfortress. From
1926 to 1949, he was senior
ROBERT J. HELBERG
Members of the Alabama Section of the American Institute
of Aeronautics and Astronautics
will hear ahout the lunar orbiter
at their meeting on March 9.
The
meeting,
sponsored
jointly with the Huntsville section of the Institute of Electrical
and Electronics Engineers, will
be at the Redstone Arsenal
officers club.
Robert J. Helberg 91- the
Boeing Company will present
the program,
beginning at
8 p.m. A social hour is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Mr. Helberg is program
manager for the design of the
lunar orbiter. He will discu'ss
the mission of the orbiter that
Boeing is developing under a
contract with NASA.
The primary mission of the
lunar orbiter is to take sharp,
close-up photographs of the
moon so scientists can pinpoint the best possible landing
sites for Apollo astronauts.
Secondary missions are to
photograph specific areas ofthe
moon other than possible
landing sites; to continue in
orbit after its film has been
exhausted to transmit to earth
valuable
information about
micrometeroids, radiation and
gravitational fields around the
moon.
The spacecraft is an unmanned
850-pound
open-truss
structure. Space-proven, highreliability components with the
flexibility to fulfill several mission assignments have been
used throughout. Not counting
the solar panels and antennas,
See ORBITER Page 3
EXPLORER
Publ i shed by
Communications Dept.
of the
Alobomo Section
AMERICAN INSTITUTE
OF AERONAUTICS
BY JOSEPH C. MOQUIN
A~D ASTRO~AUTICS
Huntsville, Alabama
Hubert Murray, Jr., Editor
SECTIONS OFFICERS
JOSEPH C. MOQUIN
Chainnan
JA.MES S. FARRIOR
Vice Chairman
TED. B. TAYLOR
Secretary
PAUL D. SORACCO
Treasurer
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
DR. WLLLIAM F. AREND ALE
WILLIAM E. DOUGLASS
JOHN H. GOODLOE
DR. OSWALD H. LANGE
WLLLIAM P. LLOYD
DR. W1LLIAM R. LUCAS
DR. )1.1LLIAM A. MRAZEK
CARL A. PINYERD
COMMITTEE CHAIRMEN
AWARDS
Emil A. Hellebrond
Max D. Murray
PROGRAMS AHO ARRANGEMEIHS
Ted P. Snow
EDUCATION
Max W. Stone
MEMBERSHIP
Charles A. Thomson
TECHI'liCAL REQUIREMENTS
Dr. Oswald H. Lange
PLANNING
Dooley E. Culbertson
TECHNICAL MEETINGS
Holm Hinrichs
COMMUNICATIONS
Oov id L . Christensen
INTER SOCIETY/ SECTION
Dr. William A, Mrazek
EXPLORER
The time is here when we need to be thinking about naming
new officers and directors for our section.
The section
chairman, vice chairman, treasurer and three directors are
to be elected annually. These new officials will take office
in May.
A nominating committee has been appointed and will submit
a slate of candidates to the section secretary by March 15.
In addition, I invite members to come up with their own recommendations for new officers and directors for consideration
by the nominating committee. The short time still remaining
for submitting suggestions to the nominating committee will
necessitate prompt action. Nominations should be made on or
before March 11.
~
You may call any of the members of the committee: Dr.
William F. Arendale , chairman, 837-4700/881-4631; William
P. Lloyd, 876-3552/ 536-2534; Konrad K. Dannenberg, 8764948/ 534-5939; Ted P. Snow, 881-2530/ 539-3955 ; Max W.
Stone, 881-1611 / 536-7570.
The section secretary will send the nominating committee's
slate to members within 10 days after the committee reports.
Additional nominations may be made by written petition to the
secretary, stating the name of the nominee and the office for
which he is being nominated.
The petition should be signed by at least 10 voting members
of the section. In addition, the petition must carry a statement
that the nominee has been contacted by the nominating members
and has expressed his willingness to serve.
The chairman, vice chairman and treasurer are not eligible
to succeed themselves, if they have served a full term.
Nominations by petition should reach the section's secretary
no later than April 8.
Ballots will be mailed to members on April 15, and the
ballot closing date will be May 5.
Results will be announced and new officers installed at our
annual installation banquet in mid-May.
HELBERG
(Continued from Page 1)
He was promoted to project
engineer in 1950 on Project
Brass Ring, an experimental
version· of a pilotless B047
Stratojet.
Helberg's association with
the Bomarc program included
service as assistant project en-
gineer for design and development of guidance and data systems.
He holds a patent on a automatic control cable tensioner
used in Boeing bombers.
Helberg and his wife, Helen,
live in Normandy Park, a
suburb of Seattle.
PAGE 1WO
0RB ITER
(Continued from Page 1)
the spacecraft is five feet wide
and five and one-half feet tall.
With Lt)e panels and antennas
deployed, the maximum span
is 18 1 2 feet along the antenna
booms. and 12 feet 2 inches
across the solar panels.
The launch vehicle will be the
Atlas-Agena D, scheduled to be
launched by mid-1966.
System management of the
progr~"TT is handled by NASA's
MISSION PROFILE-An artist's sketch outlines the mission of the lunar
Langley
Research Center.
orbiter unmanned spacecraft after it has been hurled into space by an
Overall direction of the proAtlas-Agena D booster. Separated from its booster, the 850-pound vehicle
gram is being handled by the
uses its own rocket to make a course correction (1) as it approaches the
Office of Space Science and moon on its photographic mission. Later, the rocket engine fires again to
Applications, NASA Headquar- decelerate the spacecraft into an elliptical orbit around the moon (2). It
ters.
remains in this orbit long enough for earth command stations to make final
The Boeing Company is prime course adjustments and t-olte a series of pictures (3) which are relayed to
contractor, responsible for de- earth. Leaving this orbit (4), the craft moves into a tighter elliptical orbit
sign,
development and pro- and approaches within 28 miles of the moon for a series of sharp, detailed
duction of the spacecraft, as pictures (5) of suitable landing sites for manned missions to follow.
well as mission support. Major system, and Radio Corporation this one coming within 28 miles
subcontractors are Eastman of American for electrical of the moon's surface.
Kodak for the photographic sub- power and
communications
Each spacecraft will carry a
equipment.
camera equipped with both a
Five flight models and three medium and a high-resolution
ground-test models will be lens. From an altitude of 28
built.
miles above the moon, each
The cost will be approxi- high-resolution photograph will
mately $95 million. This in- cover 20 square miles of lunar
eludes operation of photo- surface. A medium-resolution
acquisition equipment at track- photograph will cover a 350ing stations in Australia, Spain square-mile area.
and California.
In a single mission, the lunar
The lunar orbiter spacecrafts orbiter's high-resolution lens
are being built at Boeing's Mis- could photograph an area of the
sile
Production Center in moon roughly equal to a conSeattle, Washington, and ap- tinuous one-mile wide strip exproximately 1,000 employees tending from Los Angeles
TARGETS· These 10 areas on the
are assigned to the lunar to New York, and with enough
moon have been selected by NASA
orbiter program.
clarity to show objects a yard
as likely targets to be photographed
Following
launch
and
separasquare.
At the same time, the
by a lunar orbiter next summer when
tion
of
boosters,
the
lunar
orbimedium
resolution lens will
scientists send the camera-carrying
ter
will
orient
itself
in
space,
photograph
four times that area
spacecraft out to scout landing
perform
one
or
two
mid-course
with
overlap
to provide threesites for Apollo astronauts. The
corrections,
and
inject
itself
dimensional
viewing.
Enough
sites (indicated as dark spots on
into a temporary, elliptical film is carried by each lunar
the lunar map) are located within
orbit around the moon. When orbiter to photograph up to
a narrow belt along the moon's
lighting conditions in the 3,000 square miles of the
equator. The sites include lunar
"target" area are right, the moon's surface at one yard
"seas, •• highlands and crater rimsexamples of all the major types of lunar orbiter will be inserted resolution, and 14,000 square
into a second elliptical orbit, miles at nine yards resolution.
lunar surface.
PAGE THREE
EXPLORER
William P. Lloyd Named To National
Flight Testing Technical Committee
William P. Lloyd, member of as Director, Test and Rethe board of directors of the liability Evaluation Laboratory,
Alabama Section of AIAA, was Research and Development
Army
Missile
recently
appointed to the Directorate,
National AIAA Technical Com- Command.
He is a member of the board
mittee on Flight Testing.
The functions of this com- of directors of the Huntsville
Boys Club and a member of the
mittee include:
Institute
of Environmental
Submitting, for consideration
by the National Technical Activ- Sciences.
Married to the former Lillian
ities Committee, proposals for
specialists' and theme meetings Collins, he is the father of four
pertaining to their disciplines children. His hobbies are fishand appropriate to the ob- ing, hunting and water sports.
jectives
of the Institute;
organizing specialists' meetings and sessions for annual and
theme meetings; monitoringthe
publications of AIAA for quality
Dr. Tom Barr and-Charles
and adequacy of technical content appropriate to the scope of Cason of the Army Missile
the committee's interest and Command will present the first
make recommendations to the in a series of specialized
editors and/ or the Publications technical forums planned for
the Alabama section.
Committee.
Dr.
Barr will
discuss
Mr. Lloyd is a graduate of
"Plasma
Physics,"
and
Mr.
Auburn University. He began his
work with the Department of the Cason will talk on " Special
Army at Redstone Arsenal in Instrumentation--E 1 e c t r on
1952. Since 1959, he has served Beam and Faraday Probes.''
Both Dr. Barr and Mr. Cason
are associated with the Physical Sciences Laboratory of
the Research and Development
Directorate of AMC.
Their technical information
session will be March 23 at
7:30 p.m. at the Albert Pick
Motel.
This is the first of a group
of
informal meetings being
organized to provide section
members
a platform for
presenting recent developments
in their specialized areas and
to provide an initial focus point
for future meeting on related
topics. Meetings will be held
twice a month.
Such meetings will eventually
be integrated into the technical
committees, described in the
Chairman's
Letter
in the
November Explorer.
WILLIAM P. LLOYD
Technical Forum Series To Feature
Developments In Specialized Areas
EXPLORER
Dr. S.M. Murphy of Thiokol
Chemical Corporation will discuss " Air Augmentation of
Solid Rockets'' at another session at 7:30 p.m. April 12 at the
Albert Pick Motel.
Later in April, a forum on
results of the Saturn IB launch
will be held. Subjects for May
meetings are "Hypergolic Ignition" and "Selected Subjects
in Vehicle Dynamics."
Other members who would
like to sponsor one of these
technical meetings should call
Holm Hinrichs at 881-1611. To
defray meeting room costs,
persons attending will pay $1.
SHORT SUBJECTS
The end of 1965 saw AIAA at
an all-time high of 33,773 professional members and 5,625 student
members. This represents an increase of 855 professional members in the one year period.
***
The Section secretary reports
that there has been an ''enthusiastic response" to the recent article urging members to upgrade
themselves in AIAA. He says there
is still time for members to apply
to raise their grade within the or-
ganization.
PAGE FOUR