Robotic and Human Spaceflight

Staff at Ames crafted several Cosmos biosatellite experiments specifically to complement projects on US human-rated spacecraft, beginning with the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. James Connolly, chief of the Payload and Facilities Engineering Branch of the Life Sciences Division, functioned as ARC’s project manager on Bion satellite experiments from 1986 through 1993. When inter­viewed, Connolly recalled some of the pros and cons of flying instruments on human or robotic craft. For one thing, “you have a lot more paperwork on a Shuttle mission,” he explained, due to the safety considerations for astronauts. Bion satellites also had a quick turnaround: whereas the 3-4 year lead time on a Shuttle mission afforded advantages for more complex instrument and experi­ment development, the average Bion satellite permitted only 12-18 months preparation time (allowing for quicker turnover or faster revisions to studies). In the end, ARC staff found that they could use Soviet biosatellites as something of a test bed for Shuttle instruments. Connolly elaborated: “One advantage that we saw in the Cosmos program, as compared to the Shuttle, was that we could acquire technology components, do proof-of-concept development of a system, fly it, and then transition it into a Shuttle mission if the opportunity presented itself.”83 Looking to the future of biomedical cooperation, Connolly predicted that transferring experiments to the International Space Station would pose an entirely new set of demands on ARC equipment, having to function in space for long-duration flights of roughly 90 days (as opposed to the two – or three-week runs on Bion or the Shuttle). “On the Shuttle, we don’t even consider changing out a filter. We have done some inflight refurbishment of water supplies and, of course, there were animal food change-outs that we dealt with in shorter flights.” Perhaps these considerations contributed to his preference for robotic craft: “I’m in favor of as much automation as you can get,” Connolly explained. Automated experiments allowed for greater consistency in operations and when sent on manned missions, require less attention from crews. Although auto­mated missions accelerated the rate of experimentation and eliminated a consid­erable amount of red tape, biosatellites did have their costs.

For the most part, materials and organisms could only be viewed on Bions, not manipulated. This meant that in the event of a malfunction, it was nearly impossible for investigators to repair equipment. In spite of the scrupulous quality control and the necessity for high-reliability hardware to overcome such risks, the flight of nonhuman spaceflight experiments placed a significantly smaller burden on NASA budgets than did manned.84 This relatively low-bud­get ceiling (paired with an equally low profile in the public eye) might well have made it possible for Bion cooperation to continue, even after NASA/Soviet Academy of Sciences 1977 Bilateral Agreement in the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space lapsed in 1982.85

Carter, China, and "Inducing Soviet Flexibility"

NASA and the Soviet Academy of Sciences signed the 1977 Bilateral Agreement in the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space as diplomatic relations were unraveling rapidly at the state level. In the late 1970s, President Jimmy Carter observed Soviet human rights violations against the Polish Solidarity movement with increasing frustration. This, coupled with involvement in conflicts in Ethiopia, Angola, Shaba, Yemen, Cambodia, Cuba, and Iran all reached a climax with the December 1979 invasion of Afghanistan. Cold War historian Odd Arne Westad characterizes Carter’s response as that of “an activist president who was deter­mined to make the Soviets pay a high price for their invasion of Afghanistan.”86 The Carter administration retaliated on a number of diplomatic fronts: recalling their ambassador, boycotting the Moscow Olympics, suspending the Senate con­sideration of SALT II, discontinuing various cultural and economic exchanges, restricting fishing rights in US waters, effecting an embargo on high-tech exports to the Soviet Union, and, most alarmingly, cancelling a 17-million-ton shipment of grain.87

At this time, President Carter flirted with capitalizing on Nixon’s advance­ments in China to isolate and embarrass the Soviet Union as much as possible. Pondering cooperation across a broad spectrum of activities including space and nuclear energy, the Carter administration sought to reinforce diplomatic rela­tions with the People’s Republic of China. American technologies, together with scientific cooperation, were intended to “serve as a positive and constructive force in deepening US relations with the People’s Republic, exerting influence on the PRC’s future domestic and international orientation and, perhaps, mod­erating Soviet foreign policy conduct.” In particular, scientific and technological exchanges stood to “place the USSR on notice that provocative Soviet behavior could stimulate increasingly intimate Sino-US ties with security overtones.”88

In the fall of 1978, the president’s Policy Review Committee met regarding science and technology programs with China. Acting on the president’s instruc­tions that they “move ahead” with student exchanges, technical aid in the field of energy, and space, the committee communicated a few suggestions. In particular, they noted that the Departments of State and Defense, the Central Intelligence Agency, and NASA each agreed that the United States could consider “allowing the PRC to procure” two 12-transponder C-band Westar Class satellites “from US industry under carefully designed controls that would limit undesirable tech­nology transfer and unfavorable domestic and international reactions.”89 The satellite would be purchased and delivered in “turnkey” condition—that is to say, in geosynchronous orbit. Though no satellite hardware would enter the PRC, the committee did allow that US tracking-telemetry-control ground sys­tem technologies would have to be exported. As of negotiations in 1978, the Chinese would “pay all costs associated with activities which benefit them,” and the United States would do likewise.

Up-to-date geosynchronous telecommunications satellites were, in Science Advisor Frank Press’s opinion, the “definitive test of future US-PRC scientific and technological relationships.” Carter also considered PRC interest in acquiring a Landsat ground station, capable of receiving multispectral data from the 1981 Landsat-D thematic mapper.90 At the same time, the Department of Commerce began meeting with counterparts in the PRC discussing possible fields of sci­entific collaboration including metrology, meteorology, oceanography, fish­ery research and management, data center management and data interchange, and patents.91 The committee acknowledged that these actions were calculated specifically to “help induce Soviet flexibility.” Regarding the so-called Soviet – American Factor in Sino-American cooperation, the Committee reported:

In [Soviet] propaganda they condemned the Frank Press visit and they can be expected to cast specific projects in the worst possible light. Yet, the prospects of expanded S&T contact may have helped induce Soviet flexibility. Clearly, they will be especially sensitive to any Sino-US collaboration which they see as enhancing the PRC’s military capabilities vis-a-vis the Soviet Union.92

While this “turnkey” export of satellites to China never came to be, it does illus­trate the lengths the Carter administration would consider.