|
|
Bristol were successful in
their proposal to base the forthcoming GIOTTO probe, which was
intended to intercept the comet Halley, on the proven design of
their earlier GEOS satellites. They were able to demonstrate that,
despite the use of a spin-stabilised design concept, it would
be possible to point a high-gain antenna very accurately at the
Earth from a very great distance in this, the very first European
deep-space mission. The dish of the high-gain antenna was "despun"
by a servo-mechanism so that it always pointed Earthwards.
GIOTTO was launched from an Ariane 5 rocket in
July 1985, and Halleys Comet was intercepted on 13th March 1986,
watched live on television by a huge, thrilled audience. The mission
produced the first colour photographs of the nucleus of a comet,
and also gained data on the composition of the comet and its tail.
Although the space vehicle had a thick dust shield, GIOTTO was
hit by a large dust particle, which knocked the craft slightly
off-course, and damaged some of the systems. The mission was deemed
to be a great success however, and the craft was in such good
condition after the encounter that it went on to intercept another
comet, Grigg-Skjellerup, on 10th July 1992.
The collection has on display a mock-up of the
spacecraft, used during the development of the mission. The real
GIOTTO is still cruising around the solar system. The last time
it came close to Earth was in 1999.
|
|
|
The Skylark, a solid propellant
3-stage sounding rocket, was first launched in 1957, a provided
a relatively cheap way of performing scientific experiments in
space. There have been many variants, with motor and payload diameters
ranging from 10 inches to 36 inches, with the most common having
a 17 inch diameter.
The scientific missions have included astronomy,
astro-physics, micro-gravity and earth sciences research. Overseas
customers included NASA, DLR (Germany), SSC (Sweden), and the
European Space Agency, but the majority of flights in earlier
years were sponsored by the UK Science Research Council, launched
from Woomera in Australia. The last Skylark mission was conducted
in Sweden in May 2005, and was the 441st Skylark launch.
The Skylark could lift its payload to an altitude
of up to 1000 km, depending on the variant. At this level the
residual air drag is so low that the payload experiences several
minutes of 'micro-gravity'. The equipment then falls to Earth
by parachute, and is recovered for analysis.
The payloads were heavy so that they could survive
accelerations at lift-off in the region of 30 g, and the extremely
high levels of vibration generated by the rocket motors and atmospheric
turbulence. When the Skylark was launched, the shock produced
by the ignition of the high thrust motor shook the ground even
a kilometre away. The vehicle disappeared out of sight, straight
up, in a blink of an eye - it was the ultimate dragster.
Our exhibit includes the Goldfinch first stage
motor and fins recovered after a 500 km mission in Sweden, and
all stages of a new Skylark 12, including the main Raven sustainer
motor and a payload module. At 9.25 metres in length, the hangar
ceiling is not high enough to demonstrate a Skylark in its launch
position.
|
|
|
In 1956, the Bristol Aeroplane
Company set up a rocket manufacturing facility at its wartime
shadow factory at Banwell, south west of Bristol. This became
a joint venture with Aerojet General of the USA three years later,
and was the main source of rocket motors in Britain until 1991.
The Collection has on display two of the British
Aerojet-built final stage rocket motors of the all-British Black
Arrow vehicle, which launched the X3 communications satellite
into orbit from the Woomera range in Australia in 1971.
|
