WRESAT Background
On Wednesday November 29, 1967, Australian became only the fourth country (after the U.S.S.R. the U.S.A. and France) to launch a satellite from its own territory. This is the story –
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Key WRESAT People L-R: Des Barnsley, Project Manager; Professor J H Carver, University of Adelaide; Mr Bryan Rofe, Officer in Scientific Charge; Dr. Don Woods. Photo: Adelaide Advertiser, November 14, 1967. Preserved by Des Barnsley, scanned by Colin Mackellar. |
SPARTA
During 1966 and 1967, SPARTA, a joint US, UK and Australian research programme, collected information on re-entry conditions likely to be experienced by nuclear warheads. Ten US Redstone boosters and re-entry vehicles were shipped to Woomera accompanied by a US team.
The boosters were more successful than expected, meaning that one or more of the launch vehicles would not be needed. To send them back to the US would be a considerable expense.
WRESAT’s Project Manager, Des Barnsley, takes up the story –
Des Barnsley
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Des Barnsley in 1967. (More about Des here.) |
Towards the end of 1966 it was clear that at least one of the 10 SPARTA vehicles would be surplus to project needs and the possibility of using it to launch an Australian designed satellite was unofficially raised. This idea quickly took off and agreement between the Department of Supply and the US DoD was speedily obtained.
Without fanfare, the US provided the vehicle and launcher team from TRW at no cost and NASA agreed to provide tracking and data acquisition support from its STADAN network, also at no cost. The only proviso was that the launch take place as soon as possible after the completion of the SPARTA (second half of 1967) project but definitely before the end of 1967 – a formidable yet exciting task.
We arranged a contract with TRW to refigure the existing SPARTA inertial guidance system to insert the proposed satellite into a near polar orbit and to provide extra heat insulation on the second stage motor to withstand the higher temperatures to be encountered. Australia also placed, through NASA, a contract on a Florida-based company to produce the telemetry system which had to be compatible with NASA’s STADAN. NASA agreed to supervise the contract at no cost to us.
The external-to-WRE costs for these contracts was a few hundred thousand dollars, but without the outstanding relationship between Australia and the US DoD and NASA the project could never have been contemplated, let alone undertaken.
From our own point of view, it was made possible only because of the many years of co-operation between WRE and the Physics Department of the Adelaide University on upper atmospheric research using locally developed rocket vehicles. The project was achieved in just less than twelve months and involved the use of a variety of in-house WRE scientific and engineering resources developed over many years primarily for the Joint Australian – UK Project.
As project manager, I was enormously helped by the enthusiasm, competence and hard work of many sections of WRE and also the support of the head office of the Department of Supply, although there were a few moments when I entertained doubts about the successful outcome in the tight timescale. During this time the core activities of WRE continued without significant disturbance. The project provided a real challenge to WRE to prove it could react to such a project in a very short time frame. One interesting facet of the project was the use of an Adelaide firm to dynamically balance the satellite to fine limits to help ensure it was satisfactorily inserted into orbit – a case of older technology helping out the new!
From the WRE’s WRESAT booklet, published before the flight –
BACKGROUND TO THE PROJECT
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Project WRESAT (Weapons Research Establishment Satellite) involves the design, development and launching of a small scientific satellite from the Woomera Range by the end of 1967. A good example of international space research co- operation is reflected in this endeavour. The actual satellite is being developed by Australia. the launching vehicle and the vehicle preparation team are being provided by the Department of Defense of the United States of America and the actual launch operations are being supported by the United Kingdom through its association with Woomera activities. In addition the global satellite tracking and data acquisition network of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration will support the mission.
The Weapons Research Establishment of the Department of Supply has for many years been carrying out extensive measurements in the upper atmosphere using locally developed sounding rockets and scientific payloads. This work has been done in close association with the Department of Physics at the University of Adelaide and is primarily concerned in extending climatological studies. Close contact has been maintained with overseas experimenters in this field.
The opportunity of extending and supplementing this work was presented when, after mutual assessment by W. R. E. and the U. S. Department of Defense, arrangements were made for the provision of a SPARTA launch vehicle to orbit a small Australian scientific satellite. Project SPARTA is a tri-partite programme at present being conducted at Woomera involving the study of the physical phenomena associated with the re-entry of objects at high velocity into the earth's atmosphere. Australia. the United States and the United Kingdom are involved in this Project.
Design work on WRESAT began at W. R. E. and the University of Adelaide early in 1967 and it is planned that the launch will take place from Woomera before the end of 1967. The Adelaide University is responsible for the provision of most of the sensors for the experiment. The United States support to the Project is being provided by the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Department of Defense through the U. S. Army Missile Command which is using Thompson Ramo Wooldridge Systems in the vehicle preparation team. These organisations are already providing the U. S. support to the existing Project SPARTA.
OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT
The primary object of the Project is to take advantage of this opportunity to supplement and extend the range of scientific data at present being obtained by existing Australian and other research programmes on upper atmosphere physics. Secondary objectives include assistance to the U. S. in the provision of further data of relevance to her own programmes and the development of techniques pertinent to satellite launching trials in the ELDO, Black Arrow and other possible future programmes at the Woomera Range.
A further advantage in conducting a project of this kind accrues from the development and stimulation of the wide range of scientific and technological disciplines necessary for participation in satellite programmes and which have wide application to defence science and general national technological progress. In meeting the requirements of the project, particularly those of time-scale, many parts of a complex organisation have been usefully exercised.
The work already done by W. R. E. in the study of the effects of the upper atmosphere on climatology has attracted world wide interest. A detailed understanding of the mechanism of the heat balance between the solar and terrestrial radiation within the atmosphere is vital in the study of climatology and this may, eventually, allow more accurate and extensive meteorological forecasting to be undertaken. An understanding of the whole atmosphere and the solar-terrestrial relationship are prerequisites for the long term forecasting and perhaps eventual control of weather. Southern Hemisphere regions differ markedly from those of the Northern Hemisphere – firstly in the relationship of land mass to ocean areas and secondly in the attitudes to the solar flux. Australia is in a geographically favourable position to explore the effects of these differences.