From JamesOberg@aol.com Thu Feb 11 13:06:58 1999
Date: Fri, 5 Feb 1999 02:12:38 EST
From: JamesOberg@aol.com
Subject: Eyewitness Account of Znamya Failure

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Here's an eyewitness view of the mirror failure. This unexplained Progress
antenna deploy command has some implications for ISS -- what happened at the
TsUP? Operator error?

I got this letter off the web site
The ZNAMIA Flight (from http://www.ec-lille.fr/%7Eu3p/ZNA/znama.html)
webmaster mikhailm@post.cz

"The 4th of February, the solar mirror Znamia should be launched in space from
the russian space station MIR. Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties,
the operation was canceled. From the email of Vladimir Syromiatnikov, the
russian "architect" of the Znamia project, Guy Pignolet send us more
information about the experience. Olivier Boisard - 4/2/99 - 21h30 French
time.  oboisard@compuserve.com"

Message de Guy Pignolet, Président de l'U3P -- translated by Jim Oberg.
Il est 21 heures, heure de Moscou, le 4 fevrier 1999 [It's 9 PM Moscow Time on
Feb 4]
Grosse deception [great disappointment] : l'experience Znamia 2 1/2 a echoue a
cause de l'une de ces erreurs betes et catastrophiques comme nous en
connaissons de temps en temps dqns le monde spatial [the experiment Znamya 2.5
has failed due to one of these foolish and catastrophic errors which we are
familiar with from time to time in space] : la sortie inattendue d'une antenne
d'aide au pilotage a reduit a neant une tentative de deployement qui autrement
s'annoncait sous les meilleurs auspices [the unexpected deployment of a flight
control antenna has reduced to nothingness an attempt at deployment which
quite otherwise began under the best circumstances]. Cet apres-midi [This
afternoon], alors que la separation et les premieres manoeuvres du vaisseau
progress s'etaient deroulees parfaitement [even as the separation and the
first maneuvers of the Progress ship took place perfectly], pour une raison
encore inexpliquee [for a reason as yet unexplained], une antenne dont la
fonction normale est d'assister a l'amarrage du vaisseau progress [an antenna
whose normal function is to assist the docking of the Progress ship] a ete
deployee par erreur [was deployed by mistake], penetrant dans la zone de
deployement de la voile Znamia [penetrating into the zone of deployment of the
Znamya foil]. Les techniciens du TSOUP ont commande le deployement de la voile
[The Mission Control operators commanded the deployment of the Znamya], et ils
ne se sont apercus de l'erreur [and they did not perceive the error] qu'au
moment ou le bord de la voile a commence a se prendre dans l'antenne [until
the moment when the edge of the Znamya began to tangle in the antenna]. Il
faut comprendre que le deployement de la voile par effet de la force
centrifuge met en jeu deux mouvements de rotation [You have to understand that
the deployment of the Znamya, as an effect of centrifugal force, created two
rotational motions] : un mouvement de rotation general autour de l'axe du
Progress [one general rotational motion around the axis of the Progress], et
des mouvement des rotation synchronises des 8 tambours sur lesquels la voile
est enroulee [and some rotational motions synchronized with the eight drums on
which the foil is rolled up]. Si le mouvement general a pu etre arrete des que
le probleme a ete constate [If the general motion could be stopped when the
problem was noticed], il a fallu par contre pres de 7 minutes avant de pouvoir
interrompre le deroulement des tambours [it had on the other hand failed about
seven minutes before the ability to abort the unrolling of the drums]. La
dynamique precise necessaire au deployement a ete interrompue et de ce fait
plusieurs metres de voile ont continue a se derouler autour de l'antenne [The
precise dynamics necessary for deployment were interrupted and from this fact
several meters of the foil continued to wrap themselves around the antenna].
L'antenne perturbatrice a ensuite ete retractee [The troublemaker antenna was
subsequently retracted], occasionnant des dechirements apparemment mineurs
dans le materiau de la voile [causing some apparently minor tears in the foil
material], et une nouvelle tentative de deployement a ete tentee [and a new
attempt at deployment was tried], mais sans succes [but without success],
l'ensemble de la voile s'etant deporte du meme cote au lieu de s'etaler en
cercle [the structure of the foil was lined up on the same side instead of
expanding in a circle]. L'impossibilite de resoudre le probleme ayant ete
constatee [The impossibility of sorting out the problem having been
recognized], l'operation a ete arretee au bout de quelques minutes pour ne pas
mettre en danger le controle du vaisseau Progress lui-meme [the operation was
concluded after several minutes so as not to endanger the control of the
Progress ship], mettant ainsi prematurement fin a l'experience Znamia 2 1/2
[putting as well a premature end to the Znamya 2.5 experiment]. C'est une
grande deception pour l'ingenieur Vladimir Syromiatnikov et pour tous ceux qui
ont participe [This is a great disappointment for the engineer Vladimir
Syromyatnikov and for all those who participated], le plus souvent
benevolement [most often without pay], a la realisation de ce programme
[towards the realization of this program]. C'est aussi une grande deception
pour tous ceux qui [It's also a great disappointment for all those who],
particulierement en France [particularly in France], s'apretaient [were
getting ready], partout ou le temps l'aurait permis [where the weather
permitted], a regarder un spectacle exceptionnel [to view an exceptional
spectacle]. Malgre la polongation des operations de MIR maintenant envisagee
[Despite the prolongation of Mir operations now envisaged], il n'est pas sur
que l'experience Znamia puisse etre reproduite dans un avenir proche [it is
not sure that the experiment Znamya can be repeated in the near future], non
seulement a cause des problemes financiers [not only due to the financial
problems], mais encore et surtout a cause de la difficulte de trouver un
creneau de vol a bord d'un vaisseau spatial [but also even more due to the
difficulty to find a flight slot aboard a space vehicle].
Il n'en reste pas moins les splendides images de l'experience du 4 fevrier
1993 [At least there remains the splendid images of the experiment of 4 Feb
1993], et l'espoir, si ce n'est la certitude [and the hope, if not the
certainty], que les Znamia, a l'egal des Spoutnik il y a une qurantaine
d'annees [that the Znamya foils, on par with the Sputniks forty years ago],
marquent un passage d'epoque [mark the passage of an epoque], celui d'une
premiere generation qui a vu le developpement des lanceurs, l'acquisition des
techniques sptiales et la maitrise des satellites [that from the first
generation which saw the development of launchers, the acquisition of space
technology, and the mastery of satellites], avec les principales applications
dans les communications et l'observation de la Terre [with the principle
application in communications and Earth observation] vers une deuxieme ere
spatiale [to a second space era] majeure des ressources du systeme solaire au
service de notre planete, de son environnement et de notre survie [matured
with the resources of the Solar System in service to our planet, its
environment, and our survival].
Moscou, le 4 fevrier 1999
Guy Pignolet, President de l'U3P