Skylab 2 Press Conferences and Briefings 5 of 5

8/7/2019 Skylab 2 Press Conferences and Briefings 5 of 5

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SKYLAB NEWS CENTERHouston, Texas

Change of Shift BriefingJohnson Space CenterJune 21, 19731:29 p.m. CDT

Participants :Nell Hutchinson, Flight DirectorMilt Reim, PAO

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PAO - - here Nell Hutchinson, Flight Director.He's got a quick turn-around, he's got to come back in at8 o'clock tonight, so we'll make this a very short briefing.Go ahead, Nell.

HUTCHINSON In reference to your comment, Pete, theunfortunate thing is that I can't sleep at my console likeMr. Conrad can. (laughter) Let's see - let me just give youa quick rundown on how the day's gone. Deactivation is -you've probably all been paying a little bit of attentionto what's been going on today. The crew got up an hour earlythis morning. They are about an hour and a half ahead ofschedule right now and I fully expect them to go to bed early.They'll probably get up about on time tomorrow morning. Ididn't bring my checklist with me, which I might have knownwas a mistake, so I'm going to have to recall what the timellne looks like tomorrow from memory. But basically whenwe get up in the morning the CDR is going to be going intothe workshop - going into the CSM and start the CSM powerup and he'll be up there the entire time. The only hatchthat is closed in closeout is the MDA hatch, they're all leftopen. And the MDA hatch closure will be about 5 hours after

... roughly - well about 4 hours after wakeup; 4-1/2 somethingllke that; closer to 5. Make that 5 hours after wakeup. Andthe time line tomorrow is packed full. There is no room foranything in the retrofire day deactivation. They're - likeI said the CDR gets up in the morning, goes up in the CSMand works in the CSM all morning bringing it up while theother two guys finish off the last final transfers and turnout the lights and the fans and so and so forth, and do thefinal circuit breaker closeout. And last man out is the PLT.And - let's see, as far as today's activities go I'm sureyou all have heard by now that we had some problems with the trashairloek. In the process of deactivation the trash airlockgets a lot of heavy use. We have a lot of things we put downit. All kinds of stuff, both small packages and big packages.One of the things that we throw away is the thing called thecharcoal canister_ and itts part of the mol sieve, and itls ametal can. It's about this big around, it's about that long.It fits reasonably well in the trash airlock, which as youknow, has a diameter about like that. It's a sylinder aboutthat long. Due to some quirk in circumstance or the exactway that the thing came out, or the fact that we had someother things in the bag, although I really don't think that -I really have - it's hard to assess how much that contributedto it. Be that as it may we had a bag we were jettisoningthis morning that had one of these canisters in it and it had


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four gloves in it - four EV gloves. Two down the side andtwo in the top, and the thing got jammed in the trash airlock.And as you know, we need the trash airlock very badly, notonly today but for the rest of the mission. The basic placeit got jammed it turned out that - and by the way we haveduplicated the jam on the ground over in the trainer inBuilding 5 with the same configuration and under essentiallythe same circumstances, and best we can figure the thiscanister, which I described as about that long and aboutthat big around, it has a round lip on one end that sticksout about that far all the way around it. And the lip itgoes around the circumference of it, and it's about that wide. Nowat the bottom of the trash airlock, there is a - not a narrowerorifice but a rim where the outer door seats when it's closed -fully closed, and this rim has a little it goes in a littlebit on the sides right down there at the bottom. In otherwords if you were to look at it it would come in llke thisand there would be a slight ledge there. And it appears thatthis charcoal canister - the lip on this canister got caughton the lip on that edge. and of course, with the plungerpushing down or, it the thing became wedged in the airlock.The crew was able to free it by exerting some amount offorce. And Pete didn't say how much hut I can imagine howmuch, on it.

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HUTCHINSON Of course, with the plunger pushingdown on it, the thing became wedged in the airlock. Thecrew was able to free it by exerting some amount of force.But I can imagine how much, on the outer door. And theouter door, of course, would come down and impinge uponthis thing that was stuck part way out. And they wereapparently - I suspect that they lifted the plunger up, putsome force on the outer door, and were able to shove thething into the center of the airlock and on out. And wewere probably very fortunate in the fact that it wasapparently hung. The lips had hung together on the sameside as the outside door. So we were able to bang it offthe ledge. There's a lot of suppositions in that, as tohow accurate a description, that is. But based on whatwe're able to do and see over in the trainer, that's thebest we can figure now. You've probably heard some talksince then about urine separators. As soon as this happened,the next thing we began to ask ourselves, well what elsehave we got going out that thing today, that's bulky, andstands a chance of - in any way, shape or form of jammingthe airlock. And the only other big hard solid metal objectthat we have that we throw away in deactivation, are theurine separators. Now food overcans - there, you mightsay that's another one - they're metal objects and they'rebig, but they're long and cylindrical, and there's no waythey can get sideways in the airlock. Even if they hung upon the lip, you can back them - There's no way they canJam in there sideways and you put several of them- bind several of them together so they make a niceneat cylindrical package. After a lot of talking about it,and we ran a whole bunch of them over here in the trainerin building 5, successfully I might add, there were severalways we could get the urine separators out of there, and itturned out that the slickest way was to take some of theJoint observing program summary sheets, which are theApollo telescope mount, those big - great big sheets whichhave the observing programs on them. They're made out of that -I don't know, it's some kind of flight-qualified paper-likematerial. It's almost like hard plastic. Wrapping thosearound the urine separators so it made it a cylindricalpack - well a rectangular package that couldn't tip sideways.And it pretty much eliminated all of the sharp edges outNow, the urine separator's about like this - like about - llkethis - like about- like about that wide, and it's got lotsof little appendages and things out. Anyway, that workedfairly successfully. However, to preclude any possibilitythat we might mess up the airlock, we have chosen not to


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jettison the urine separators, and instead we have removedthem. And our old friends, the corollary guys, who seemto bail us out regularly, bailed us out again. We usedone of the T027 - the TO27 canister, which is a big canister,which had the T027 experiment in it, that, of course we've- run, and are bringing home. And we've put the separatorsin there. And you just heard a conversation about them. Thecrew was trying to pull a vacuum on that. We would havepreferred that we would have kept them in a vacuum. However,nohody's really concerned about them not being in a vacuum.So we have them stowed in there and thatts where we're goingto leave them. And, I suspect, that we'll develop someslick method to package them cleverly so there's no waythey can hang up, and use it on later missions. Otherthan that, the day today was completely normal. And Idon't have anything else.

PAO Okay. We got questions?QUERY Was there any damage to the airloekitself?HUTCHINSON Well, John. The best we could - Pete

did say - I wouldn't call it damaged. He did say that theyinspected the inside of the airlock, fairly carefully. Andthat there was some scoring on the sides and on the lidbottom. Now the 0-ring that seals the outer lid, we checkedthat, and verified it over here in the trainer when we werebanging the - attempting to Jettison some of the trialruns we made over here. The 0-rlng seal around the outerside is protected from the - It's actually down underneath,kind of a lip arrangement. So, when you bang something withthe outer door, it doesn't damage the 0-ring. Now, ofcourse, there is a surface that you can't see, and thatPete can't see. And that's the surface that that 0-rlngsets on, which of course was exposed when we were havinga problem. The fact of the matter is, that except for ashort periods of time, that thing doesn't have to hold avery good seal, the outer door. Because the only time it'sexposed to cabin is when you've got the thing open, stuffinga bag in it. And I think everyone is - of course they'veused the airlock several times since then - since the jamup, numerous times. They're using it continually all daytoday. And, I think everyone's convinced that we didn'tdo any damage to it.

QUERY When do they put the blood, urine andfeces samples on board?

HUTCHINSON Tomorrow morning.QUERY I mean, how long before they take off?


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HUTCHINSON It's about an hour and a half in themorning, tomorrow morning. So that would be like about3 or 4 hours before they leave, before they undock and thatwould be all - add up all the time and I believe the constraintis something on the order of 12 hours from the time they takethem out of the freezer there, until the time they get theminto the freezer on the ground. I'm not quite sure aboutthat tot total length of time. It's something like that.And that that tags up.

QUERY Neil. What are some of the very specificthings they' re going to be looking at on the flyaround,other than the wing and the parasol? Are they going to lookat even more specific things than that?

HUTCHINSON Boy, I - I don't know- -END OF TAPE


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QUERY - wing of the parasol, taking a lookat even more specific things than that.

HUTCHINSON Boy, I don't know anything in particularBruce. The flyaround was a preplanned mission thing to goaround and give everybody one last good look at the cluster.I think one of the obvious things we're going to be takinga good look at is the parasol, I'm sure of that. The flyaround is being conducted in a nominal manner with no par-ticular instructions to the crew to look at anything specific.And that's about all I can tell yon. We're just going toget a good over all look at the vehicle. And there reallyisn't anything specific that they have asked them to lookat.

QUERY Well, unless something else happens, isthere anything left, any problem left in the Skylab thatyou're concerned about as regards to the next mission comingup?

HUTCHINSON No, I don't think so. I think the closeout, if we hadn't had that little glitch with the airloekthis morning, the close out was completely normal. Of courseit is not quite finished yet, they're just finishing up thewater system right now. And there is nothing that I can thinkof. We are leaving with effectively no troubleshooting undone,none of the instruments malfunctioning. Of course you knowwe're still are down about 25 percent over all electricalpower, but there is nothing we can do about that. I reallydon't think - there certainly aren't any biggies.

QUERY - - coolant loops even though they are goingto be shut down and all that equipment is going to be takenoff them?

HUTCHINSON Well, they are not going to be shutdown, and most of the equipment will not be off them ofcourse. The kind of equipment that is going off the coolantloop mainly are things like - well really not hardly anything.Most of the electronics modules stay on. Of course nowthat we have one of the solar wings out in the airlock,all that stuff stays on, all those batteries stay on, thecoolant loops stay up and running. Of course as you know,we still have a valve in the secondary airlock module loopwhich we think is stuck. However, it is stuck in a veryconvenient place. And we don't plan - of course we aren'tplanning on doing anything about that, we're not planning onchanging the loop configuration or anything like that, sothat is correct, what you said essentially.

QUERY There is nothing during that month thatwill be sitting there without anybody aboard. You don'tanticipate anything going wrong from some of these problemsthat you've had earlier?


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HUTCHINSON We sure don't.QUERY How about the gyros, you're not even

worried about ]laving to mess with those that month?HUTCHINSON Well, I think we're going to have tobabysit them a lot, Bruce. But as you recall, the unmannedphase has no maneuvers. And the gyros have historicallygiven us problems, serious problems during maneuvers. Nowthese drift updates that we're continually doing, we don'treally consider that to be - I mean it is a nuisance. Butit is something can be handled pretty coherently with the kindof station coverage that we have. Nothing really, though.

PAO Okay, thanks a lot.END OF TAPE


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SKYLAB NEWS CENTERHouston_ Texas

Commercial Benefits from Skylab Electronics TechnologyJohnson Space CenterJune 21, 19733:02 p.m. CDT

Participants:

Max Engert, NASA/JSCR. H. Webster, Ampex CorporationRoy G. Gage, SCI Systems Inc.Thomas H. Kenton, Westinghouse Electric Corporation

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PAO Good afternoon. I'd like to welcomeyou to the AIAA Briefing, this afternoon. We'll make thisas informal as possible. And we do have some handouts that willbe available after the briefing. And the briefing is being tapedand will be transcribed by NASA. And these transcriptions shouldbe out within a day or so. l'd llke to turn this meeting over toMr. Max Engert of NASA.

ENGERT Thank yon. Of course, I guess you'veseen the title of our presentation. It has to do with theapplications and commercial area of Skylab Electronics. Beforewe get to our main speaker, here, of which there will be threeI hope. (We're missing one man.) I'd like to point out justa few of the general aspects of the NASA type technologytransfer. Most of the transfer does not occur on a one toone basis. We find that the NASA equipment does not transferin its entirlty without some modification. But there are someimportant exceptions to this. Mainly, the data relay and thesensing satellites, where we find our electronic systems aretransfered more or less intact to the commercial communica-tions satellites, weather satellites, and in the future we'llhave navigation satellites, and Earth resources satellites.It'll be commercially active. Generally we find, though,that the transfer is in the areas of components, or designtechniques, manufacturing processes, - piece parts, if youwill. These have come about because NASA's developed orimproved these area, primarily because of our requirementsfor high reliability in the environments that we face. Andbecause we have concern for crew safety, we want reliablecomponents systems. And we're also forced to do a fairamount of R&D, because of our push to get our size, weight,and power down within our spacecraft limitations. Thiskind of development, though, has lead to a number of commercialbenefits, which we might classify, generally, such thingsas electronic circuits, - we have a number of codingtechniques for TV and voice and data, which overcome thelimitations of noisy communication link. A number of signaldesign approach for data systems, redundancy techniques thatwe've developed to improve reliability, test procedures.These are the kind of mundane things, but they all add upwhen you think on an overall basis. These improve qualitycontrol. There are a number of materials that have goneinto electronic devices, such as ceramics. There's the areaof computerated design, where we've found the programs thatwe've developed have helped transistor manufacturers reducetheir costs. Then certain industries have picked up NASAstandards and specifications and put them in their manufacturingline. And this has helped them to improve quality and reducetheir cost, as well. And then we have a number of electronic


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SL-II PC-70A/2Time: 15:02 CDT6/21/73components and component packaging techniques that havederived from NASA techniques. What we have today is our threesystems from the Skylab Program, that fall in these generalcategories. They're specific examples that make you realizehow we get into it. The Skylab Data Acquisition Systemhas provided the basis for pipeline control systems. TheSkylab EREP tape recorder has contributed to the commericalline of recorders. And the Skylab TV camera image tube isnow finding use in commercial TV cameras. So, we'll getinto our speakers. Our first speaker is Mr. Bob Webster, hereon my right, who's with Ampex Corporation, California. Andhe's going to talk about the Skylab EREP tape recorder. He'sthe Program Manager of that program. Bob.

WEBSTER Thanks, Max. That introduction certainlyfits our application. In spite of what you may have read,over the last year or so about the adverse conditions ofAmpex, we're still proud of our heritage, going clear backto - -

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WEBSTER In spite of what you may have read inthe last year or so about the adverse condition of Ampex,we're still proud of our heritage going clear back to pre-recording of old Bing Crosby radio programs right up throughthe developement of video tape and the instant replay, whichyou're certainly familiar with. The Ampex Corporation has7 divisions, just describing them briefly to show you howwe fit into the overall scheme. The Audio Video Systems,products for radio and television broadcasting, teleproduction,education, and recording studios, all the way from single channelprofessional audio recorders to the color television recorderscameras, switches and duplicators. The Computer ProductsDivision, peripheral devices including tape drives and electronicsdisk core memories and such. Magnetic Tape Division wherewe are one of the largest producers in the country of mag-netic tapes, ranging from high-density instrumentation tapes,computer tapes, video and wlde-band tapes, and the consumerhome tapes. We also have the music division, which marketsthe reel and casette tapes, both blank and prerecorded andhome recording devices. We have an international divisionwhich has wide distribution of all of our tape departments.Then of course Advance Technology Division to keep us aheadof the state of the art. And seventh, the InstrumentationDivision, which I represent, which did develop the EREPtape recorder used on Skylab. We manufacture, develop andmanufacture precision transports and electronics for allanalog and digital recording, and reproduction in laboratoryand portable airborne and spaceborne configurations. Specificallythe EREP tape recorder, we didn't know it at the time, butI guess it started back in the mid 60s when we developed an AR600was our model number for an airborne recorder, followed inlate 69 early 11970 we got off the drafting board with ourAR700. That AR700 which was airborne predominantly ormobile advocation recorder is the one that came closest tofilling the bill for the Skylab application. We startedwith that basic recorder to meet the EREP requirements.The, one of the most outstanding modifications that we de-veloped _from that, well the first thing we had to do wasexpand it. It was originally developed to have a 7-trackor 14-track capability on either half-inch or 1-inch in-strumentation tape. This recorder is of a coaxcial type meaningthat the driving mechanism is from a single source. The2 tapes are stacked one on top of the other, rather thanside by side, as in many of the home recorders that you may haveseen. In order to double the number of channels from 14,which is the maximum capability, we had to go to 28 tracks.Each track 7200 feet long. This nearly doubled the electronics


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it did not materially change the transport or the tape drivingmechanism. But the electronics of course had to double,so that the power supplies to provide power to those electronics.When we designed the first 28-track commercial recorder in1970, this machine required about 300 watts of primary power.NASA says too much, so back to the drawing board, and withconsiderable effort, but we felt very successfully were ableto reduce that down to 200 watts. We cut a third of thepower out of it by redesign, changing of circuitry as wellas components. That power reduction of course is a directadvantage in our commercial products. Every aircraft - -END OF TAPE


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WEBSTER That power reduction, of course, is adirect advantage in our commercial products. Every aircraftapplication, of course, has a simular type problem of wantingless power drain so that is one of the examples of a NASAdevelopment which will be directly applicable to our standardproducts. Another peculiar one to NASA was the reliabilityaspect. We completed design (garble) analyses, singlepoint failure analyses, to try to upgrade the circuitry inthe components that we use throughout our system. This,resulted in replacement of some components, redesign ofsome circuitry, redundancy in some cases and in others justmore testing of the components that we were using to getthrough the infant mortality rate and to make sure thatthe components that we were selecting and were going to usewere of the highest reliability available. Now that hasmixed application to commercial use, of course, because itcost money to select components and to use the higherreliability components. The circuitry improvements wouldn'twould or have been incorporated in our standard products,those are all advantageous. Depending on the application,some of the higher reliability components in the prescreeningtesting may be applicable. The (garble) disc assembly, the motorthat actually moves the tape very accurately so that youcan put precise data and know exactly where it is on tape,required some redesign for NASA's extreme environmentalshock conditions, not during operation but during non operatingperiods. So we did do some redesign in the method of assemblyof this motor. Again that has limited application. Theassembly technique was more complicated, therefore morelengthy, more expensive that the commercial version, sowould not be directly applicable unless the commercial applicationreally needed lit. And in some case aircraft or some mobilapplications will need it, so there's another advantagethat will have limited application. The real drive motors,the motor that drives these concentric reels themselves,had quite a little, probably as much as any other singleassembly, as much evaluation and analysis and modificationto meet the needs as any other assembly here. The brushhardness; the contamination from the brushes. We're inherentlyused to building recorders that we can periodically maintain.And periodic maintenance normally takes care of cleaninessproblems for us. Cleaning heads and cleaning surfaces thatmight get brush dust or dust from tape. Every time you pulla piece of tape through a machine there are microscopic butvery real contamination and dirt from that tape and fromthe brushes from these motors. So we had to add extra


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filtering in the motor assembly itself to retain - not to preventthe brush dust from accumulating it will always be there.But to retain it, to keep it off of the critical areas andaway from the outside atmosphere that the astronauts willbe breathing. The breaking system. Oh, I guess all I couldsay there is to modify it to make it more nearly perfect, sothat each time that break had to be applied, that it operatedperfectly and net randomly or with variations in its operation.Residual magnetism oddly enough worked in reverse. As wetried to become more proficient and use closer tolerancesin the machining, the fabrication and the assembly of thesemotors we found that low and behold the operators could getsurfaces too fiat and too smooth. And we actually had someresiduals magnetism where two flat plates would literallyring together. When you went to pull them apart with smallsolenoid force, you couldn't get enough force because of theresidual magnetism. So we had to make design modifications inreverse there to prevent from getting too flat.END OF TAPE


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WEBSTER is in where two flat plates wouldliterally ring together. And when you went to pull them apartwith a small solenoid force, you couldn't get enough forcebecause of residual magnetism. So we had to make design mod-ifications in reverse to prevent from getting too flat. Anddisassembly and assembly - reassembly techniques were improved,so that we didn't demagnetize these motors during the operation.Something called a pinchroller actuator - this is a devicethat actually signals mechanisms to come in and grab hold ofthe tape and pull it. We had to increase both the pulse am-plitude and pulse duration of this circuitry to assure positiveenergizing of that actuator when demand was called for. Again,we found that maybe one out of a thousand times you push astart button and the recorder didn't move yet. And we wereaccustomed to perhaps contributing that to operator error -maybe he didn't push the button hard enough, or somethinghappened - rather inclined to ignore it. But we found wecouldn't ignore it, it was real, and we did have to redesignthis circuitry to make sure every time the demand was placedon the system that it worked flawlessly. That is anothermodification that - well, a version of which is incorporatedin the standard product today. Environmental evaluationswere extensive, as you can well imagine, on this NASA effort.Electromagnetic interference susceptibility was of prime con-cern. So we spent quite a little time evaluating the suscep-tibility of the recorder to outside radiation. As a result ofthat improved grounding, power and signal line filters wereadded. These again are not currently part of our standardproduct, but our technology that we may be called upon at anytime to need, many aircraft applications, depending on someof the mobile applications they may also be in areas wherethey are susceptible to outside radiation. Other transmittersor other motors, or X-ray machines, similar device, so - thatwas valuable information for us to gain. Temperature effectsobviously advantageous. We did find a limitation that wasunknown to us due to some low-temperature testing that theNASA specifications required. Generally these standard productsof ours, and this particular AR700 standard products, hasa heater in it. So, at lower temperatures there is a heaterprimarily to heat up the tape and moving parts to get betteroperation. For this application we could not use the heater,so we at least gained further engineering knowledge in justhow far we can go without a heater, and what the limitationsare, and some of those limitations have since been removed.High temperature effect, as far as the recorders are concerned,is primarily one of a complete mapping of the wattage andtemperatures within the recorder. We now know not only where


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the power is being dissipated in great detail throughout themachine, but what the individual temperatures are throughoutthe machine. And as we expected, our biggest problem is notgetting transistors, diodes, and electronic components tooperate within the temperature range expected for the entirerecorder, but to get tape to operate within the range. Tapeis very critical of temperature. Long before you get up tothe temperature where you might burn your finger if you touchedsomething, why the tape becomes - it doesn't like to operatein those higher temperature ranges, so most recorders aredesigned to keep the heat away from the tapes. So the elec-tronics is all on one side of a large casting, the tape andtransport moving assemblies on the other side of the casting.So this temperature study and evaluation and minimizing ofthe extremes that the tape transport side, which were obviousadvantages to our entire product line. Atmospheric content - -END OF TAPE


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WEBSTER - - advantages to our entire product line.Atmospheric content wasn't planned on in the original contracts,but when Skylab got up there, the first question we were asked,I think, was, "What is the effect of the recorder on a hardvacuum? As most of you have heard, there was temporary problemwhere they had to do some outgassing, and in order to do that,they wanted to know what the effect might be on the recorderto go down to a pure vacuum. And we're very happy to reportthat won'd admit to it being accidental, but at least wewere fortunate in that our design did allow us to go clear toa hard vacuum and not damage any of the components. It wouldnot operate in that environment - shouldn't say that - don'tknow that it will operate - how it will operate in that kindof environment, but we know that having been subjected tothat and then coming back to a more normal environment, themachine does operate satisfactorily. That has now been proven.Lubrication - we changed a large number of the lubricants.The majority of lubricants that we use in commercial productsbegan with the idea that we could provide maintenance andrelubricate. We did have to change the lubricants to NASAapproved lubricants throughout the machine, primarily forretentivity, to make sure they didn't evaporate, didn't disseminateduring long periods of storage and use. Outgaassing of materialsand components was related to the high reliability study Igave you. Our standard products, designed normally foreconomy in mind, use the more inexpensive components. But inmany cases, those which are subjec t to outgasing over longperiods of time giving out toxic fumes, which might becontaminating the air or toxic to the astronauts themselves.So many of the wire insulation, for example, and componentsand boards, PC boards, and components of that type that areprone to outgas were replaced with more suitable NASA approvedmaterial. Again, the flammability of these materials wasalso a consideration. Not only the outgasing but also thenonflammable materials were selected. We've gained a greatdeal of experience in encapsulating techniques and materials.We at AMPEX have used a number of conformal coating materialsfor coating our PC boards, printed wiring assemblies withthe components on them. We had never specifically used theone that NASA wished us to use and that was an approved material;turned out to he a very difficult material to handle andto get used to using. We managed to achieve that and areable to remove it, rework boards, replace components anddo rework on the boards, put it back together good as new.So that's been a tremendous advantage to us to be able to usetheir fine encapsulating materials. The high density andlow bit error rate requirements of this recorder were rather


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SL-II PCTOE/2Time: 15:02 CDT6/21/73extreme. On the 28 tracks, 7200 feet long, we had a require-ment to be able to record and reproduce on a differentmachine, which complicates the problem. Now we have machineswhere you can record and reproduce on the same machine. Muchmore difficult in the industry to record on one machine,remove the tape from that machine, put it on another machineand play it back, and still not lose more than one error inevery million bits of information that you put on that tape.Now 1 in ten to the 6th or i in 1 million bits is a verysmall, very low error rate for digital data in recordingtechniques. We've been able to accomplish that quiteregularly. We have some machines now that we have beensuccessful - -END OF TAPE


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WEBSTER We have been able to accomplish thatquite regularly. We have some machines now that we havebeen successful in recording and playing back one in tenmillion bits even. The twenty million bits per inch, thepacking density of this recorder is exceptionally high forthe state of the art in addition to the low bit error rate.The Miller code format that we selected, that we use in ourrecording systems is what has helped us to be able to recordand reproduce these high density signals with low bid errorrates. The head to tape interface becomes a very significantpart of this problem. Not only is it difficult to do itelectronically, but with new transistors, new components, on themarket, we can do it electronically now. It has been difficultto do it magnetically so that you can reproduce those bitsfrom a magnetic head to the tape, and then back from the tapeback on the head again. We had produced some 28 track, andthat's 28 tracks in i inch wide track, or i inch tape. Wehad produced those heads for ground instrumentation recorderspreviously. As a matter of fact, the ERTS program uses oneof our recorders with 28 track i inch wide tape cassettes.That same general type of head is used for the reproductionof the Skylab data. A similar head had to be designed anddeveloped for the airborne recorder, this AR700 that had tobe expanded to 28 channels. So we now have a 28 track inI inch width for both the airborne and the ground recorders.We have had to devise head configurations for the intricatetape interface that is required at the speeds. The speed ofthis machine by the way is either 7-1/2 inches per secondor 60 inches per second. It can be selected and changed inflight. So the system compatability of the recording in theair from the recorder to the tape and then hand carrying thetape back to Earth in a reproducing on the ground machinewas something that we had very limited experience in priorto this time. So that's been very advantageous to us instudying the effects of head to tape interface, and improvingthe head designs themselves on both airborne and ground re-corders. Tape threading and guiding was an interesting pro-blem. I've recently seen some movies and I saw one somemonths back of an astronaut trying to thread tape. We takethis rather routinely in Ampex, because our technicians threadthousands of tapes in the course of a year. But there aren'tany of them can brag about having done it in wrightlessness. Andit is a little different effect to try to put a piece of tapethrough a recorder when that tape just hangs wherever youput it. It's an entirly different effect. The problem ofgetting off of one reel around a number of idlers and compli-ance arms and between pinch rollers and through head paths


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You see there are 4 head stacks involved in one of thesemachines, not just one head but four head stacks. Aroundturnaround idlers, back past the other two and returningit back onto another reel is a rather complicated mechanicalprocedure. And we did make some improvements, they have notyet incorporated them in our standard products but will ul-timately get them incorporated there, having to do withagain the reliability of these mechanical components. Ourproducts have primarily designed as I say again for fieldmaintenance. If a screw comes loose the man goes and repairsit. If it is on the wrong angle he can replace it, he can moveit, he can adjust it. Here again it had to be set up perfectly,and for all practical purposes stay there, no matter whathappened. So we did incorporate some redesigns and somecomliance arms, and some of the tape guiding paths wereredesigned.

END OF TAPE


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WEBSTER what happened, so we did incorporatesome redesigns and some compliance arms some of the tapeguiding paths were redesigned. Cleaning and degaussing, ofcourse, is something again we do quite regularly, and eventhe astronauts were able to get in and clean the heads fre-quently. As I mentioned earlier, there is residual no matterhow infinitesimal it may appear, from every reel of tape. Ifyou run that tape across the head, why it does shed an oxidewhich won't necessarily affect the recorder, but might affectthe breathing capability of the astronauts. So, we clean thoseheads and moving parts quite regularly. Degaussing of heads -the machine was designed and assembled and tested in such amanner that the heads did not become gaussed, which is some-thing common to recording, primarily because of the proximityof other electronic devices again, But was not necessary inthis case due to the design and test procedures that wereused. Well, all of these modifications that - and all I havelisted here or mentioned, by the way, are the modificationswhich, either have been incorporated or very soon will beincorporated in our standard products at the instrumentationdivision. I did not touch at all or mention any of thenumerous modifications, improvements and requirements thatwent into converting this AR-700 to the AR-728, known as theEREP tape recorder. But much of the subtle design experiencethat we gained in the development of this product will be usedthroughout the many divisions, including a tape division,where they are - just recently have come out with a new product,improved as a result of things that we've learned in thishigh-density, low-bit error-rate testing that we've beendoing for the last 2 or 3 years. And obviously, from problemsthat we've had with tape and tape storage and other knowledgethat we've gained over the last few months - highly conceivablethat new versions of tape coming out in the not-too-distantfuture will certainly be trying to improve bonding and manu-facturing techniques in tape, gained from the experiences onthis program. Within the instrumentation division itself,the AR-700 and its product lines - I've mentioned the improve-ments there, the heads which we use fairly commonly throughoutall of our devices, and the ground recorders, our FR1900, FR2000,which have been used for =his kind of bit error rate and highdensity on both the ERTS and now the Skylab Program.Typical commercial consumers, by the way - you might be wonderingwho other than Skylab might use a product llke the ARTO0.Since it is designed for airborne and mobile use, it's nota household item, but auto and truck manufacturers, for example,use them. Many commercial and government testing laboratories,some of which are associated with automobile testing, both


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SL-II PC- 70G/2Time: 15:02 CDT6/21/73US automobile companies and foreign companies, by the way, too,many vibration tests, many of the modern ecology shock testsand things that are instrumented with this type of recorderbecause of its portability and its environmental strength overand above standard commercial recorders. Farm and heavyequipment manufacturers for the same reason are using them.Heavy road building equipment, as well as heavy farm equipment,use these recorders, for example, due to their environmentalrigidity. And commercial aircraft there is a very largeairliner these days, which does use a recorder of this typefor recording much of the aircraft inflight conditions and healthof the aircraft during flight. So those are the typical typesof application of the 700 and how we hope to use the experiencethat we gained in modifying this standard product for NASA'suse. Thank you, Max.

ENGERT Thank you, Bob. Would there be anyquestions at tlhis time for Mr. Webster? If not, we'll go onthe next speaker who is Mr. Roy Gage. I'm - -END OF TAPE


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ENGBERT If not we'll call on the next speaker,who is Mr. Roy Gage. I believe Roy is going to tell ushow his company is going to solve the energy crisis. Didyou run out of gas on the way out here?

GAGE These gentlemen are from far off and I'mfrom a few hundred yards down the road, so guess who is late.

ENGBERT Let me tell you that Mr. Gage is withSCI Systems here in Houston. He is the President of thedivision, and he is going to speak to the flight planningcontrol application.

GAGE Just a brief word about our company. Iguess that during the Apollo program totally there were anumber of companies that really were given birth to and(garble) with NASA and with the Apollo program and ours isone of them. We now are a little over ii years old. Startedin Huntsville, Alabama, strictly as an aerospace company.And our initial formation of the company was envisioned thatwe would build and design instrumentation for satellitesand vehicles. So the name of the company that we startedwas Spacecraft Incorporated, a name which we are still ex-plaining even though we changed it to SCI Systems. Upuntil about 6 years ago, our total company volume was atleast 97 percent NASA. You could look at the various contractsand determine from that that we were contractor or supplierto most of the major contractors in the program, most ofthe prime contractors. But if you looked at where theirbudgets came from, they all came from NASA. So we were inevery sense of the word a NASA company. We had begun to adjust,we began to diversify about 6 years ago. And today we haveabout 5 percent of our total business with NASA. The restof it is divided between industry and with the various otherorganizations within the government, including DOD, EPA,and a number of others. The greatest contribution I thinkour company made to the Skylab program was involved in theinstrumentation of the vehicles themselves. We did have4 experiments on the Skylab itself that were associated withmedicine, and ihave been used quite successfully. Discussiontoday will relate to the instrumentation on the vehicles andhow that led us into the diversification that I just mentioned.The acquisition of data for experimental vehicles of courseis a prime importance. And we began to design equipment toacquire data and bring that data back in such a manner inreal time or on tape that could be examined to evaluate aflight. And we progressed from that into complex systemsthat gather data from all over the vehicle or satellite andprocessed it back to a point where it could be telemeteredback to Earth. The technology involved in that is an under-standing of measurements, understanding of how measurements


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SL-II PC-70H/2Time: 15:02 CDT6/21/73have to be made, and an understanding of how you processmeasurement and electronics in order to accurately obtainthe data and zecord it. Those are the exact same technologythat is required in a number of industries today. So ourapproach was to reduce to the fundamentals, those things thatwe had applied on vehicles and satellites and seek applicationsfor those outside of NASA. And the industrial applicationsthat we found for that were very much related to the thingswe had done there. An example of that is the pipeline in-dustry. One of the prime parameters, a lot of which has beendiscussed already today was reliability of equipment, andthe lengths that you go to in order to be sure your equipmentisn't going to fail. In many commercial applications youdon't need perhaps that much but there are many applicationswhen it is almost that important. Another prime requirementof space oriented systems is weight. You need to have thingsas light as possible. Another is of course the power require-ments, you need to minimize the amount of power required.Because if you don't, you are generally operating on solarcells and batteries. We found that in the applicationsindustrially that required remote data acquisition, as opposedto data acquisition that you can all bring from a pointprocessed locally, those same things are important as wellas economy. So we attacked the - -END OF TAPE


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GAGE - can all bring in from a point processedlocally, and so on. Those same things were important, as wellas economy. So we attacked the pipeline and process control,and the petroleum industries as places where they might havethe same requirements. And one of the first programs that webegan to get involved with, once we had designed a productfor remote data acquisition and control, was a requirementfor obtaining data and controlling undersea oil productionplatforms. And one of the first of these was a program fundedjointly by North American and by Mobile Oil. And the conceptwas in their undersea platform - that you go down to the surface -to the subsurface by submarine and perform maintenance in analmost human environment where the production equipment islocated. But you only go there for repair or maintenanceunder an - error condition. So if you're controlling thepump operation, the separation mechanisms, the measurementoperations from the surface, it's extremely important you don'tlose control, as youl re, I'm sure, quite aware. It's alsoextremely important that your failures just be absolutelyminimized, because of the expense of going out and maintainingthe equipment. So the same things that had made our successin the instrumentation of vehicles was applicable here:reliability, light weight, power - minimum power, because thereagain was, for a large part, a battery backup system, and the waywe package the equipment. It was small, it could put into acasting, could be sealed with an inert gas with water-proofconnectors, and left. And during the entire time we've hadto use it, it's never required, have fault in such that itwas required actually to make a trip down below to Service ourequipment. We then began to back out of that - I think it wassort of natural to go to extreme requirements first with ourbackground. We began to back then into the routine applica-tions of data acquisition systems, into the surface applica-tions of oil field control, oil and gas production field control,and to pipeline transmission and distribution systems for thesame purpose. And again you have, typically for example, ourfirst land system was one that is centered in Kentucky and coversfive states and about 850 miles of pipeline. These are con-trolled through eight different telephone companies at acentral station in Ashland, Kentucky, where an operator canget a total vision of everything that's happening on thispipeline - each substation, the pressures involved, the suctionsinvolved, the temperatures, the vibration levels involved - have themdisplayed immediately on request, and have fault conditionsalarm immediately when they occur. So that application,after five years, is still working fine; in addition tothat, we now have similar type systems, that is, pipeline


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control systems - about 25 in the United States, plus systemsin South America, in Libya, in Canada, and Australia. And weare currently negotiating for ones in Iran. The productionfields, the oil and gas production fields, require the exact samehardware, and in addition, they require something that wedidn't anticipate initially, and that was that in some of thesour gas fields that you find around, particularly in westTexas, you can a leave a penny out, and go back in about amonth, and it's gone. The sulphur attack on copper is phenomenal.So you get into some of the subjects we've heard discussedbefore, the necessity for covering and sealing components,and preventing the environment from attacking them. And again,the exact same technology that we used in covering assembliesand coating them and testing them to that sort of environmentwas extremely valuable. It was quite easy, really, to makethe change from the space application to that. Our variationson that have been quite a bit. We also have the same hardwarenow operating in process control plants throughout the UnitedStates and one or two foreign operations. I could go on quitea bit in the types of things that we've done relative to that.The product line now is based directly on experience we gotin utilizing computers. And there's one other aspect I thinkthat all three of us would probably agree to, that the NASAprograms that have been useful in running large system programsindustrially, and that is that you have a tight - -END OF TAPE


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GAGE - - in running large system programsindustrially. And that is that you have a tight schedule anda tight budget in NASA, and when you get into large systemswhere you're coordinating like we do, for example, through8 or lO telephone companies through remote stations thatlie in five, six, seven different states and sometimes inforeign countries, where you have the problems - the logisticsproblems of support and the distribution problems orcustoms problems, the management problems interior to yourplan. A lot of the management techniques that - that welearned in dealing with NASA in scheduling and meetingrigid schedules has been very valuable, and it's been adirect takeover. And if there's anything in our companythat we can brag about for - in the management structureas far as program control is concerned, a lot of credit forthat would be due to the influence of NASA on scheduling.

SPEAKER Will there be any questions for Mr. Gageat this point?

SPEAKER Okay, our last speaker is Mr. Tom Kenton,and he is with Westinghouse. He's vice-president of thesouthwest region, and he's going to speak to us about theTV camera applications.

KENTON Thank you, Max. As you can see, I broughtmy television coverage with me and, having kind of spent mostof my life in marketing, I know the value of a demonstrationover a rather dry speech. Westinghouse furnished two typesof very sensitive low light level television tubes alongwith the television camera and other equipment to the Skylabproject. One type of camera tube, called an SEC tube, ismounted on the Skylab's solar photographic cameras. And theSEC tubes act as sort of a super viewfinder for these cameras.The other camera tube helps to bring the activities of ourastronauts to home television sets live. This other tube iscalled a EBS tube, and is a development and outgrowth of theSEC tube. Both television pickup or camera tubes were manufacturedat our electronic tube division. This division's work isalmost equally divided between commercial products, such ascolor television picture tubes for home TV sets and the moreexotic high technology products such as radiation detectors,hollow cathode speetographic light sources, and SEC and EBS tubes.The monitor is turned on now_ and you should be getting aclear if unexciting picture of me speaking. At any rate,naturally in a division whose business is divided commercially,militarily, and industrial our engineers and managers arealways looking for overlaps and occasions when a highly technical


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product might also have excellent commercial possibilities.Such is the case with the SEC and the EBS tubes. And nowto the demonstration. As I mentioned, the picture you'reseeing is rather typical of images that conventional cameratubes can present. Now I'm going to ask that the room lightsbe turned down. There will be some momentary shifts in thepicture while we adjust the amplification of the tube. But asyou can see, as it gets progressively darker in the room we,still are able to present a picture that is bright and well-deflned.The light is going for the point now I'm going to pass it tothe control booth.

SPEAKER The picture you are seeing is heing pickedup by an EBS tube mounted in a closed circuit industrialcamera designed for the tube. While not television broadcastquality, as you can see, the image is on a par withconventional closed-circuit systems, even at these low lightlevels. We could have just as easily used an SEC tube inthe camera, even though it is about twenty times less sensitivethan the tube that is being used. Both SEC and EBS tubesare able to function under this and even more extreme lowlight conditions because of the inherent ability of bothtubes to greatly amplify electronic signals. Light raysentering the tube are turned into electrons. These electronsare propelled against either an SEC or EBS target. Whenan electron strikes the target, it can release as many as2,000 new electrical charges. That is where the unique light-amplifying ability of the two tubes comes from. Forcomparison, typical television studio illumination is 500 foot-candles. This EBS camera will operate down to i0 to theminus 6 foot-candles. That is one with five zeros in frontof it. Or five -END OF TAPE


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GAGE illumination is 500 foot-candles. Thisis EBS camera will operate down to i0 to the minus 6 foot candles.That is 1 with 5 zeroes in front of it, or 500 million timesless light than typical studio conditions. That means itwill operate under light levels as low as those you haveexperienced on dark moonless nights. Yet, you noticed atthe beginning of the demonstration that the tube works wellat normal light levels. Actually, it is largely a matter ofmaking some simple adjustments in the gain or amplifyingability of the tube. In fact, the tube works well throughJust about the whole range of lighting conditions from ex-treme darkness to high brightness. And now, back to Mr.Kenton.

KENTON Well, as I have said, it was natural forengineers with a high technology product like this to searchfor commercial applications. And in comparing these tubesto conventional TV camera tubes, I've hinted at some of thepossibilities. We had designed the sophisticated camerasfor Skylab, and even before that for NASA's Apollo program.One of the things Westinghouse engineers did next was designa series of standard cameras with solid state components likethe NASA cameras, but for industrial and commercial uses.In addition, we began selling the tube to other camera manu-facturers. Probably one of the first significant develop-ments was the construction of a commercial television broad-cast camera using an SEC tube. A West Coast firm has beenmarketing this camera for some three years now, and it is indaily use of many TV stations throughout the United States.In fact, NASA has one which you may see in the rear of theroom. Their reports back to us indicate that the SEC camerasprovide several advantages. In studio work_ the SEC tube-equipped cameras mean that studios can operate at i0 to i00times lower studio elimination levels. This is not onlyeasier on the people who appear in front of those usuallyhot lights, but also means reduced power consumption ofelectricity, and lower operating costs. On location, thecameras require very few supplemental lights. And that'seasier on the camera crew. But it is also an advantage whenyou are shooting live action such as night sporting events ornews coverage. Another thing, SEC and EBS tubes are moresensitive to a broader range of spectral colors than con-ventional broadcast camera tubes. And this means that theyprovide inherently better color rendition under all lightingconditions. In addition to TV broadcast, these tubes havemany other applications. Currently, Westinghouse low-lightlevel tubes are helping to train commercial and militaryaircraft pilots in flight simulators. In the aircraft simulator,


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SL-II PC-70K/2Time: 15:02 CDT6/21/73a pilot actually flies a minute probe over a minaturizedlandscape. The pilot looks through the cockpit window ofthe simulator, which is really a big television picture tube,and sees the landscape model as if it were real terrain. Themodel landscape view is picked up by a tiny wide-angle lensmounted in the nobe. The lens permits almost the samevision of the landscape model that a pilot would have lookingout of his own cockpit. Because of its unique design andsmall size, however, the lens collects only a small amountof light, even though the miniature landscape is lighted withhigh intensity bulbs. So the Westinghouse low-level lighttube picks up the light from the lens and greatly amplifiesit for the pilot's TV monitor. Other aircraft applicationinvolved nondestructive testing. Instead of having to dis-assemble jet engines to look for material stresses or cracks,the tube has been mated to a long Optical probe. The probe pene-trates the dark interior of the aircraft engines, and the EBStube picks up the image, amplifies it, and shows it on theconventional television monitor like the one that we havehere. Maintenance engineers watch the monitor for danger-ous flaws in the jet engines, and at the same time, a video-tape record can be made from the monitor to record the in-spection. One thing about the tubes that I have not mentioned,by changing their photo cathodes, that is, the light sensitivefront end of the tube, you can alter the tubes to pick upradiation other than visible light, such as X-rays, infrared,and ultraviolet light. The amplifying ability of the tubeis not changed. Several commercial - -END OF TAPE

f


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SPEAKER Right. Such as X-rays, infrared, andultraviolet light. The ampilfylng ability of the tube isnot changed. Several commercial application of the tubeusing this ability to detect unseen radiation. Inone application, the tube is coupled to X-ray difractioningequipment. Defractioning equipment is used to studycrystal structures and orientation both for scientificpurposes, and is part of manufacturing of transistors,integrative circuits, and other solid state electronicproducts. An X-ray application under development rightnow uses an EBS tube to examine the structure of automobiletires on the assembly line. And this process, "soft" - thatis low energy - X-rays are used to enhance the contrastof the different organic materials within the tires. SoftX-rays cannot be effectively picked up by flouroscopescreens, while if the tire manufacturing used photographicfilm, as in conventional chest X-rays, his production linewould have to be slowed down while the film is developed.Another advantage, of course, using the television systemis the at the tire inspector can sit at the monitory and beshielded from the X-ray area. The third X-ray applicationis called auto radiography by television. This is amethod for checking all types of turbine blades from aircraftturbines to power turbines for cracks that might occurthrough use. The turbine blade is treated with a radio-active material. And the radioactive particles collectin any cracks silhouetting them. The low light level tubewith the radiation sensitive front end, views the turbineblades showing the crack silhouettes on a television monitor.Frequently SEC and EBS tubes are used to monitor industrialprocesses that cannot be viewed directly. For example;the camera we demonstrated here, has been used to guidethe loading of light sensitive film. The darkened work areais illuminated by infrared light to protect the film fromexposure. Consequently, the workers inside this area cansee nothing. An EBS tube with a infrared sensitive frontend, views the action and permits the worker at a TV monitoroutside the darkroom, to guide the loading of the filmcassettes. As you might expect, any camera tube with a lowlight level capacity, would eventually find its way intosecurity and surveillance work. For example; we are lookinginto mounting a system aboard police helicopters. Mostlyfor traffic surveillance and Spotting - especially at night -and during ground fog conditions. Seeing in the dark isnot only a problem in police work, but also in another kindof detection. The detection of air pollution emanatingfrom smoke stacks. We have experimented with EBS tube system,that will pierce darkness to do regular checks on thecharacter and type of smoke coming from a factory. One of


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SL-II PC-70L/2Time: 15:02 CDT6/21/73problems with viewing during haze conditions, is a situationcalled back scatter. Most of you have probably all experiencedback scatter when driving in a heavy fog. You switch fromlow beam to high beam, but the extra light doesn't help. Infact, most of it is reflected right back at you. The sameproblem exists at certain depths under water. A scenetoo dark to be photographed by conventional equipment withoutextra light. But when lights are turned on, the sea waterreflects much of the light back, blanking out the viewentirely. To counter this, low-light level tubes have been mountedin under sea television camera systems. The tubes' low lightlevel ability means that accessory lights are not needed andback scatter is essentially eliminated. While these systemsare primarily for research work, they can also be used forunderseas drilling and salvage. Underseas camera are allone example of more general use of these tubes and scientificresearch. Earlier I mentioned that the SEC tubes were beingused as viewfinders aboard Skylab. On Earth, the tubes area part of the viewfinder and guidance system of the mechanism forthe 200-inch reflecting telescope at Mount Palomar Observatory,and 150-inch reflecting telescope at Kitt Peak. As you know, theseare the largest, and second largest visible light telescopesin the worlds. The television viewfinder equipment enablesthese very expensive facilities to be used more efficiently.SEC tubes are also being used by astro - -END OF TAPE


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KENTON the facilities to be used more effic-iently. SEC tubes are also being used by astronomers asreplacements for photographic film in the basic data re-cording process. The equipment is capable of recordingthe precise quantitative measurements of stars a milliontimes fainter than those that you can see with the nakedeye, In addition these systems cut the required observationtime from hours to minutes. In the laboratory EES tubesare being mated to electron microscopes. Currently onemicroscope camera system is in use in the nuclear testfacility of the Westinghouse Hanford Company. The electronmicroscope is being used to analyze the metal structureaS part of the test facilities investigation of nuclearbreeder reactors as an important source of future energy.At several medical research centers Westinghouse low levelcamera systems are being used on electron microscopes de-voted to cancer research. These, then are some of thecommercial applications of these tubes, and it's interestingto me to note that the Westinghouse tubes gave us livetelevision cow, rage of the astronauts on the Moon andSkylab, are presently being used to televise night gamesof the Green Bay Packers and one day they may also bringus the Houston Astros. Thank you.

PAO Thank you. And if we have any questionsnow for any of these gentlemen.

QUERY For Westinghouse, Mr. Kenton, was theSEC tube, when it was originally being developed, developedfor a space program application, or was it developed for oneor more of the many general applications it seems to have?

KENTON I have a few experts here in the roomwith me. Don, would you care to make a statement aboutthe early application of the tube?

SPEAKER A bit of the funding did comefrom NASA on the original part of the SEC development andalso some of the EBS cameras that also were developed forthem.

ENGERT Any other questions? Well if we have no morequestions, that concludes the presentation. Thank you very much.END OF TAPE


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SKYLAB NEWS CENTERHOUSTON, TEXAS

CHANGE OF SHIFT BRIEFINGJOHNSON SPACE CENTERJUNE 22, 19735:28 AM CDT

PARTICIPANTS :

NEIL B. HUTCHINSON, FLIGHT DIRECTORDAVID GARRETT, PAO

PC-71


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PAO Okay. We have Neil Hutchinson_ FlightDirector for the last shift who will give a briefing.

HUTCHINSON Okay, does somebody know how long we haveuntil AOS here, at the States? I guess somebody will giveus a signal.

PAO One minute and 30 seconds.HUTCHINSON Okay. Well, we'll make this short - do

you want us to just press on right through the stateside?PAO Well, why don't you go as much as you

can say right now, and then we'll stop. Okay?HUTCHINSON Okay. Well, I guess you'll have been

listening to loops and you probably know that we hada little tough time there during the latter part of deactivation.And the basic problem that we have run into is that all ofa sudden one of the few systems that appears not to be -at least that we thought was working very normally and hasevery since the very beginning of Skylab, has started actingup. And that's namely the refrigeration system, the thingthat chills our urine and blood and keeps our food - frozenfood, cold; and of course cools our water. The - we're a longways from understanding what's wrong with it. We took somesteps, some fairly drastic steps tonight before the crewleft to try and see if we could cover the situation. It'shard to say yet whether we've been successful, but it doesn'tlook very good at the moment. The basic anomaly is notunderstood. For some reason neither the primary nor thesecondary refrigeration systems seem to be able to cool thefreezers. And that's about all I can say about it. We'redoing an awful lot of data and also some scurrying around.As you know, we did a rather drastic maneuver to try andstick the radiator up in the Sun because one of the predominanttheories, and still is a pretty good one, although it doesn'tlook as likely now as it did, was that we had indeed possiblyf_ozen a portion of the radiator up and therefore couldn'tget coolant flow through it, and therefore caused the loopto heat up. The reason we delayed the undocking a littlebit was because in the process of doing the maneuver wehad some more problems with the rate gyros are - we had ourusual problems. A couple of them got kicked offline. Wealso had a situation where we were - we did the maneuverin a - we started out with a momentum situation that wasnot definitely not totally squared away, and of course, themaneuver didn't help it any, and so we had to get themomentum in the workshop all sorted out before we couldget it in the :tight mode to let the crew undock in. Andthat's basically the reason we delayed undocking. And itwas a matter of configuring the APCS to support the undocking.


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Deactivation other than the refrigeration system was completelynormal. And we got a good closeout in the workshop, andeverything else in the workshop looks great. That's quickand dirty.

PAO Okay, we decided that if we could justgo in there for a few questions, and we'll tape this statesidepass and play it back. Any questions? Mary.

QUERY Okay. You say it doesn't look good atthe moment - -PAO You're not getting her on the mike.PAO Mary, could you come up here and just

sit up here if you have some questions? And - - What'sthe problem? Okay, all right, we'll have a mike here ina minute. You just wait just a second. In the meantimeif you could come up here it'll be good. We could start the - -

QUERY Maybe you can repeat my question so Iwon't delay you. You say it doesn't look good at the moment.Do you mean can you explaine further?

HUTCHENSON Well, I was referring specifically tothe coolant loops and the - I mean the refrigeration loop andwhat we have done so far. It appears as though our thermalshock maneuver was unsuccessful. However, I think it'sreally too early to tell. I think we're going to have tolook at it for a while. I'd like to reemphasize that thewhole problem that we seem to be having is not well understood.However, we discussed in a great amount of detail whetheror not there was anything that the crew could do first. Andwe were then, I'm still convinced now, and everyone elseis convinced that there was nothing the crew could do for us.We did send them down there once to check some circuit breakersfor us and they were in. Those loops are automatic. Theyhave a completely automatic control system that controlsone loop switching over to the other, and so on and so forth.They're also completely commandable from the ground, as faras turning pumps on and off, switching loops, etc. So wefeel like we'll be able to do anything they could have done.And of course, they did check all the freezers and everythingto make sure that they got the doors all shut after theywere in them today. And that's not symptomatic of the thingwe're seeing anyway, a freezer door open or something, becausethe entire loop is not performing properly.PAO Next.

QUERY Well Nell, first of all, did yon considerkeeping the crew there to see if they could do anything? And thensecondly, if this thing doesn't settle itself out, what happens?Do yon - do the temperatures keep going on up in the freezerand yon lose your food and ruin your chances for the next


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HUTCHINSON Well, first questions first. Yes, wedid consider keeping the crew there. And I answered thequestion already, we discussed it thoroughly and are convinced,were convinced then and are convinced now,that the crew - therewas nothing the crew could do for us.END OF TAPE


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HUTCHINSON are convinced, were convinced thenand are convinced now that the crew - there was nothing thecrew could do for us. As far as the temperatures going up,it's not at all clear where they are going or whether theyare going to go up any more because it is not at all clearexactly what the loop configuration is. The kind of thermalresponse we're seeing it would appear that we have a looptemperature situation that ought to be demanding i00 percentflow through the radiators, and it looks like we're gettingsomething on the order of 20 percent. That is the kind ofthing that the loop temperatures say now. It's not clearthat we understand exactly what the loop temperatures are saying.Thermal problems are very hard to analyze in a quick fashion.In fact, I'm sure it will be days before we figure out exactlywhat is going on. I am not sure, I don't have any informationas to where the loop will stabilize if indeed the radiators -we've got a blockage in the radiators. We can't - we'regoing to be completely bypassed or some other anomaly. It'snot clear where they are going to stabilize. Right now thefreezers are somewhere in the order of i0 to 12 degreesFahrenheit, where they are normally down below 0. Of coursethe food that is in there is no where near our total Skylabfood supply. In fact I don't hardly - well, I consider ita problem, but the food situation - we probably have about -about 15 percent of our total food supply is in the freezers.The rest of it is the food we call ambient food. Obviouslythat food - if they warm up enough to ruin that food, we'vegot some kind of a food resupply situation, certainly notan insurmountable one. The one thing that does come to mindthat I'm not sure how we would handle is the urine and bloodand microbiology work on Skylab III and IV, because thatfacility is also required for that storage of that stuff.And you know, it is too early to say where the loop is goingto stabilize. And until we understand that, there is noway to really say what it is going to do to the food. Ob-viously it is in a posture right now - I mean if it stabilizedright where it was it's certainly not good. I don't haveany numbers on what 30 days at i0 degrees Fahrenheit woulddo to the food:, but it is bound to degrade it some. Now thereis of course obviously some point where it makes it totallyunusable. But I don't think the food is the primary concernhere. I think the concern is really - it's certainly a concern,but it would be more of a concern to me anyway as to how wewould handle the urine and blood on Skylab III and IV.

QUERY Could you take some sort of back up systemfor the urine and blood?HUTCHINSON It's certainly possible. As a matter of


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fact, l've already heard one person suggest we ought totake a refrigerator up that plugs in. But yes, that'scertainly possible.

QUERY This is kind of a more general versionof that question. Is there anything that the next crewcould do, as far as repairing the present system or takingsomething along?

HUTCHINSON Well, obviously - I really don't think atthis point that there is anything that they can do to trouble-shoot the system that we've got. I think anything that isgoing to be done can be done from the ground. And we are -it is either going to recover itself or we're going to piecetogether what happened to it and figure out that it's brokenor it will stay like it is and we'll never figure it out.As far as them bringing something else up there, that's alwaysa possibility. I really wouldn't want to comment on that.I really - you know, I mean it is certainly within the realmof possibility.

QUERY Do I understand you correctly, you thinkthat even if this thing goes to hell and you can't use itat all, that you still would conduct your other 2 missionsand the main thing that would be jeopardized would be yourbiological things, you know urine and blood and what have yon?

HUTCHINSON I think that is a reasonable statement.There is going to he - certainly going to have to be some assessmentof several things. For example, if the - if indeed it spoils thefood, the food program that we currently had envisioned isgoing to have to be revised because we're going to have tosupplement for those foods that we lost. And that's going to -I really don't know what that is going to do to that. Weprobably would be wanting to figure out some way to be ableto continue to do the blood and urine programs under someother circumstances, which would probably mean we'd try andfigure out something to take up there with us. I'm not sure.I really don't know. I would think it's fair to say thatit isn't going to jeopardize anything on Skylab IIl and IV,as far as the overall missions go.

QUERY Could it delay it? You know like - -SPEAKER I don't know. I think that would depend

on if they decided to try and fly some fix up or whatever.I really doubt it, frankly, very seriously.END OF TAPE


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HUTCHINSON I really doubt it, frankly, very seriously.QUERY Yon doubt the fix up, you mean.HUTCHINSON No. I doubt that it would delay it.QUERY Oh, I see. In the mean time, what are

your hopes at the moment of fixing this thing?HUTCHINSON I really don't know, Mary. It's still

too soon to - I mean, it only happened a few hours ago andwe're still trying to understand what happened the firsttime, let alone to fix it. We have basically done everythingwe know, to fix it, at the moment. We have switched loops,we've switched pumps. We've had the crew check all thecircuit breakers. And we have done the thermal shock thing,which we thought, where if we had - if we had a freeze updown there. So, we've basically done all the troubleshootingthat we know how do to. However, things like that have atendency to, after you've had a little time to think aboutthem, you think about some little clever trick that you mightbe able to do, like turning one loop off and immediatelyturning the other one on, or turning one off and lettingit sit for 3 hours and turning it on, so on and so forth, thatmight prove to be successful. I don't think we're abso -In fact, I would say, we're not absolutely certain that wehaven't already been successful. It doesn't appear asthough the thing is responding the way it ought to. However,the thermal world has fooled us before. And this obviouslyis a thermal situation.

PAO Okay. Are there any more questions?All right. Thank you.END OF TAPE


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SKYLAB NEWS CENTERHouston, Texas

NASA Management Postmission Press ConferenceJohnson Space CenterJune 22, 197311:46 a.m. CDT

Participants:Dr. James Fletcher, NASA AdministratorDr. George Low, NASA Deputy AdministratorMr. Dale Myers, Associate Administrator for Manned Space FlightDr. Christopher Kraft, Director, Johnson Space CenterDr. Roceo Petrone, Director, Marshall Space Flight CenterDr. Kurt Debus, Director, Kennedy Space CenterJohn Donnelly, Asst. Administrator for Public Affairs

PC072


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PAO - - two briefings this morning. The firstbeing what we call the management press briefing, whichwe have Dr. Fletcher, NASA Administrator_ Dr. George Low,Deputy Administrator, Mr. Dale Myers, Associate Administratorfor Manned Space Flight, Dr - - What order are we in here?Dr. Dehus of JSC - KSC, Dr. Kraft and Dr. PetTone. What Iwould suggest that you do is hold your basically operationaltype of questions until the second portion of the programin which we'll have the Skylab Program Director - ProgramManager doctors and others. We'll begin with a brief openingstatement by Dr. Fletcher, and then move directly into yourquestions.

FLETCHER Well, needless to say we're all verypleased and excited that the SL-II crew has arrived safely.It was a spectacular recovery, one of the best and one ofthe smoothest. In addition to that, I think it's anothervery historic milestone in the history of manned spaceflightfor the first time a crew of astronauts has returned froman extended tour in a space laboratory. And as near as wecan tell, essentially all of the objectives that wereanticipated for this mission have been completed. And needlessto say none of us really dreamed that this could be done atthe time that the meteoroid shield failed to deploy. So itexceeded our wildest expectations at that time. I thinkbefore going much further I ought to read a message fromthe President which you may have already. It reads as follows:It's addressed to astronauts Conrad, Kerwin and Weitz. "Thesuccessful completion of the first mission of Skylab is asource of intense pride for the American people. You havedemonstrated that Just as man can conquer the elements ofEarth he can cope with the exigencies of space. You have givenconclusive evidence that even with the most advanced scientificand technological support in the world, the courage andresourcefullnss of good men are still central to the successof the human adventure. On behalf of the American people Iwelcome you home from the Skylab spaceship tospaceship Earth. I also looked forward to seeing you inSan Clemente o11 Sunday." Now, whereas the last three Apollomissions might he symbolized by a Lunar Rover, this SL-IImission can be simulized - symbolized by a hammer. And thisis a - this is it, this is the hammer that fixed the battery -replica of it. A hammer, a pair of pruning shears, andthis is an exact replica of the pruning shears, and an umbrella.And this isn't a precise replica of the umbrella but that's- that's the thing that first saved the Skylab from burningup essentially. The shears are what saved the the second


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solar panel and gave us the excess capacity, and the hammerwas a bonus. We got 250 watts extra by simply tapping inthe usual good old-fashioned American tradition, tapping onthe right place and opening - or make a relay function. SoI would say that if these people were to be characterisedin one word, it's in the old American tradition of tinkering.They are the master tinkers of space. With that we'll openfor questions.

QUERY All outstanding and commendable, it looksllke the problem with the refrigeration system may be somethinga little beyond the scope of a hammer, but of course, thatremains to be determined. Do all of these malfunctionsindicate any kind of lapse in quality control at any pointin the system?

FLETCHER I'd like to turn to Dale Myers to answerthat question. Dale.PAO Dale, could you repeat the question in

part? I don't think we're getting enough juice there.END OF TAPE


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FLETHER I'd like to turn to Dale Myers toanswer that question. Dale.

PAO Dale, could you repeat the questionin part? I don't think we're getting enough juice r there.MYERS The question is; Were the malfunctions

an indication of lack of quality control? I think theanswer is absolutely no. We have had a major complexsystem put together here for this flight. And it is afirst flight. And we had expected some problems particularlyin the eight month mission that we had ahead of us. Andwhen we look at all of the elements of the systems thathave worked perfectly, I don't think there's any indicationhere of any decrease in our quality control requirementsin the program.

QUERY Dr. Fletcher, could you estimate theaffect upon NASA's budget on the problems and the fixesthat have gone - that the Skylab has gone through?

FLETCHER Despite the fact that there was a hugeeffort, within NASA and within our contractors to make thesefixes, I don't see any major impact if any at all on thebudget at the present time. Now that doesn't mean that wedon't - won't run into any other troubles later and so forth.But at this time, I don't see any major impact of thesefixes on NASA's budget picture.

QUERY You mentioned that these astronautsare going to be San Clemente. Do you have any moredetails on what kind of reception they are going to havethere?

FLETCHER Well, the President has invited themto stop by San Clemente, Sunday morning, to visit with himand Secretary Brezhnev. We of course, have to ascertainthe health of the crew, before we actually allow them tomake this visit. But, if their health is good, and we willknow by about tomorrow noon a lot more than we know now.Although, we have a pretty good idea that they're in goodshape now. Then, probably, they will drop by as the Presidentrequested.

QUERY Could someone bring us up to date onthe study or investigation concerning what happened to themicromeoroid shield? Are there any new theories, couldwe expect anything within the next couple of weeks?

FLETCHER Well, actually we can speculate, at thistime, about what happened. But I think it would be reallyunduly compromising the investigating board that wasset up. The board was set up about 4 weeks ago, to lookinto this, and it's well underway, by now. And I thinkwe'll just have to wait for the report of that board to


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$L-II PC-72B/2Time: 10:46 CDT6/22/73really comment on something of that sort.

QUERY I have several questions, as usual.I would like to know the cause - the overall cause of allthe delays and fixes, as best you know it today. I wouldalso be interested in hearing your views on how much thefact that the heat-shield was not tested at the originalplant as originally scheduled had on the accident whichhappened. What percentage overall of - the latest up-to-datefigures, that is on the scientific objectives have beenobtained to date?

MYERS Well, we have about the same number ofpeople working on the program as we had at the time of theproblem, perhaps even a little less. We've had a lot ofovertime by a few people. And we see, in the overallSkylab Program, no change in the budget requirements. We'redoing well as far as our budget is concerned. I guess, wouldyou repeat the second question, please?

QUERY Well, way back when, it was my understandingthat the heat-shield was not tested at the, you know, at theoriginal plan, and in view of scheduling and time, at leastthe decision was made at that time to check it out in itsdeployment down at the Cape, and there was some speculation,that this might have had an impact on how thoroughly thiswas checked out and tested because - -END OF TAPE


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QUERY - - down at the Cape. And there wassome speculation that this might have had an impact on howthoroughly this was checked out and tested because the Capefacilities are not necessarily condusive to this type oftesting.

SPEAKER The effect obviously will have to besomething that the board will look into and give their opin-ion. I think in going in line with Dr. Fletcher earlier,we just don't want to compromise, we want to look at all ofthat. There was testing, however, done at the plant as well asMarshall, as well as Kennedy. Tests were done at all threeplaces. Now whether there was any interaction and effect,the board is looking into that and will render a judgement.

QUERY The percentage of the scientific objectivesthat you feel - we had some figures the other day from oneof the astronauts, but I'd like your up to date figureson it. How much we've actually achieved from scientific,you know, film data and all that kind of stuff?

SPEAKER (garble) will be on the next press con-ference, and I think he has those numbers as best as wenow have them.

QUERY There is some confusion about whetherthe crew will be meeting with the President and Mr. Brezhnev.He was scheduled I believe to leave a couple of hours beforethey were to arrive. To the best of your knowlege, is hestaying later to meet with them?

SPEAKER I rather doubt that the secretary wouldchange his schedule for this. And if he is scheduled toleave earlier, then presumably the astronauts will meet onlywith the President.

QUERY This is for Dr. Fletcher and or ChrisKraft. I know it is too early to nail down what the SL IIIis going to be exactly like. Are there any considerationsunderway at the present time to have any exrea EVAs to catchup with any experiments that might not have been able tobeen deployed in this mission or handled in this mission?

KRAFT No, not to my knowlege. We are tryingto do some things that we might be able to modify some ofthe experiments that we were doing out of the scientificairlock. But other than tha

Documents

Skylab 2 Press Conferences and Briefings 5 of 5