TRIP REPORT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP63-00313A000500010057-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 23, 2002
• Sequence Number: 57
• Publication Date: May 4, 1962
• Content Type: MF

Approved Fors Release 2002/09/03 CIA-RDP63-00313A000500010057-4
(?R0HAS O1
NRO REVIEW COMPLETED
MELIORANDUN FOR Chief, Development Branch, DPD
SUBJECT Trip report
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olp 1 or J. I
4 Hay 1962
1. PURPOSE: Attended an A.ROON meting in Boston 2 May and
the Systems Engineering briefing on CORONA/LlUffARD on 3 :Clay,
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NRO
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2. ARGON: An informal mee=ting was held in a room at the
to discuss general problem areas on the
AWA)N pro-gram. Representatives were there from Headquarters, SSD,
and 12-10C. The following is an outline of the general dlsr uetion:
as Inatraim onfi S?i; .turn E Inst: ::ent i is the primary pay-
load for the current 1.6 Hay miens on with Instrument r''r 6 as
back-up. A message has been received from Autorretrics
verifying that the recant pt -pai,io tests on these iterspl.aced
them both within specification, ttrhi~th was the final action
required for flightreadi.ncse ceeU?""lcation, Serial # 9 has
been am .ned by FOIC in their Long; Island plant and found to
be fightworthy after a fern emulsion build-up areas were re-
movedm and is presently waiting sh pment back to LNSC, It was
decided in this meeting that there was no present urgency in
returning 511-9 to LMSC, therefor;, II 9 will remain in its
packing case at FCIG until after le ssion 9034A. The primary
reason for leaving the instrument In Long Island is to
provide a potential source of an acaeptable lens for one of
the new instruim nts if necessary. Thee is no need to
expedite SN.9 to the West Coast unless Mission 9034A is a
failure and/or another ARGON mission is planned for the
neat futux m In the new order of ARGON instruments, serial
numbers 109 11, and 1.2, one of these items is ,;oin, to be
ue to fabrication of a new lens asses bly by
It is felt that this is of no significance
since we in essence complete the ARGON program with three
spare instruments, On the other hand if an ARGON mission is
scheduled earlier than the present September date,, it would be
desirable to use one of the new in;3t,ruments with several
'el.1ability improver nts rather than SP1--6 or 9, as schedules
permit.
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ARGON
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b, Data F. o : The group was informed that the reports
control ?anual would be published in. the near future:e, This
will take care of most of the data :f:? eta problems up to and
during actual r^3 za 1 o i A The fol1o 3.nf; loose ends;, haws-ever,
were Vnoove d.2
to Bphe arcs and otter data.a The CORC IA. program and
also the ARGOT program have a Beres Of exchanges of 4--o Lputer
data outside the cz-7r^ent capability of corimnuiicat`? ons systems
(card de ,ks, magnetic taps , specific;, ca ibration daata, books
and dra-ewings). it was pr v,ously set uxp between I' I.SC and Autcw
metrics that Autometr?ics Mulct s ~pp:'.y the magi :tic La,I
ephemeris for use on the IBM 704 pr 709 computer as soon as it
was availably after a fight, Iq,-LrWi atrlcs h,-Ds been and v,111
be at least for i?.issiort 0,034A (unless it is othexwi.se
aierera by C0!?DR) the recipient of this tape and the
repository for c bra;l;ion data on the instri nt, It was
prev ous.lay ax-ranged that Airtomstra.ce would supply a. photo plot
of coverage to all users. This prob..en, as well as the general
specification for producing rep c uctions of AI ON rz aerial.
(i.ncl ding p .'iorriti es and numbers of copies) is now the
responsibility of and IIt'IC in coordination with
directive receive- rrom .
co 3, at, , Feed Backs A requt.rc=,ent was stated by L-IC for
an early feed back of actual plotted ephemeris from t ze ARGON
product to verify and assist in the evaluation of guidance
systems and control of space vehicles. Automatrics has stated
that quick evaluation of this type could not be produced,
rather, LI1SC would have to wait a number of months until the
majority of geodetic positioning had been extrapolated through
their automatic readout system, There appears to bar an
incompatibility of design in the type of readout. produced by
the Au ometrics equipment in conjunction with ' the requirement
as stated by LM C. Undoubtedly, a black box could be designed
to extract the data required by LING from the Autometrics
equipment., however, this would take time and money. Lt, Colonel
Howard felt that ACIC could produce this data in a timely
fashion and accepted the action item to investigate this
possibil'lty.
d. Model : I,IMSC has worked up cL plastic modal of the
ARGON angular relationships between the stellar E, I. terrain
camas, on orbit. They feel that this may be a useful tool
for exploitation* plans to bring this item
down to shoos to NP a+, an ear y date,
CQWM. A ARGON
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CURONA ON
e. Selectivity of Ire ~ee.ti 1~ When any injection
angle other than the normal polar orbit is used, there are
problems of available star field for the stellar ca sera.
Also, there are times when the stellar camera may be in an
unfavorable relationship to the Tan. Rather than discuss
this at this meeting, it is suggested that LMC submit any
such data or proposals through Lt.. Colonel Murphy to the
operations people at Headquarters for analysis of this
concept. Also involved in this a:cea of discussion was the
R-19 orso the R-35 readiness requi ements. Lt. Colonel Ho rd
stated that the requirement for maintaining an R-19 in the
ARGON program is still in ef'f'ect.
3, CORONA/LANYARD: This is the first official meeting on this
subject that I attended. It is apparent that the design parammtcrs.s
production schedules and program plans have reached a rolatively
stable position. :lat. Colonel Haoard was surprised to find the
earliest flight date to be the Pirst of March 1963 instead of the
23rd of January 3.963. Itek was asked to explain this apparent
difference in a memorandum for Dr. Charykt. I feel per ssonal.ly,
that this difference is primarily caused by the difference in the
optimistic proposal and the realistic 3chaduls. Even this 1 March
date is predicated on .no serious problems, therefore,, I believe
it relatively safe to assume that our .first flight wil2 probably
occur the first part of April 1963,
a. Yaw Control: Itek presented several possible solutions
to controling yaw during flights BrlietlY, the 66 inch focal
length combined with a relatively low orbit (30 to 140 NM)
and an f/5 lens system with a 1/250 second shutter speed
presents image motion due to earth rotation. This could be
attacked by IT? control of the mirror portion of the optics
but this procedure is not recommended due to complications
of the system and the potential degradation if this technique
is not exactly correct. A more practical approach would be
to utilize the vehicle control system to actually ysss the
satellite of orbit to correct for "drifted This is the
procedure recommended by LMSC, havrever, it was felt that the
personnel in the tracking stations would be able to interpret
this maneuver as one associated with photography.
took the action item to investigate this with Seca
a requirement to obtain approval.. if possible, to devise a
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logical cover story , and perhaps consider clearing about
20 additional people from the tracking stations and VAFB
in order to plug any possible conjecture.
b.I'3.lirri TyM: Itek stated that, S0-132 was required to get
the max mums from the primary camera subsystem.. 50-330 would
permit higher shutter speeds and reduce the yaw effect
mentioned above., but would limit the system capability from a
resolution standpoint. In order to obtain the optiraLm lens
film combination, the film promised by Eastman-Kodak
which lies betwe=en these two emulsions in speed and resolution
is optimum. I accepted the action to put pressure on Ed Green
to produce this material.
Co Inds- Attitudes Ct 2ra: This is the now terminology
for the auxiliary frame camera in combination with a stellar
camera. The integration of the E-5 system into the CORONA
recovery bucket necessitated a rotation of the takeup spool
for the primary camera 90?. This causes no problem with the
primary camera system but does present some problems in the
film path for the auxiliary f'ra=. camera. LNSC states that
the film path for the auxiliary fr .e camera will have to be
turned '0? to the present configuration with appropriate
roller4 rather than allowing this item to track in a straight
film path to the takeup cassette. Since this item is already
tension sensitive this may cause considerable reliability
proble . Since DISC was going to have to relocate the takeup
spool for this item anyway, they proposed to Increase the film
load to 570 feet at the saner time. This would permit continuous
photography from the indexing attitude camera on every pass
during the four day operation, regardless of whether the
primary camera was operating or not. This increase in size
of the takeup spool presents a number of interface problems
within the recovery bucket including possible relocation of
the battery and at least move the T/M beacon. Captain Johnson
felt that this would necessitate re-qualification of the
recovery systems In addition, it is obvious that the entire
indexing attitude camera would hare to be enlarged to take
care of the additional supply spool. The tension problems
associated with moving a larger mass for a longer peariod of
time through the camera system could adversely affect
reliability. Due to all of these potential problems, it was
C.O M& AR,GOtN
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determined that would discuss the requirement 25X1
for an increase a.n DUE capacity through customer channels
to COIVRo It was left that the film capacity of the indexing
attitude camera would remain at approximately 130 feet unless
a new requirement was submitted from COMM to the Configuration
Control Board*
d, P ire The basic E,5 system contains an on-orbit
comer'l control capability for celective coverage of five
positions (300 left, 15? . left, ve. tical, 150 right, and 300
right), In addition, the E--5 system has a. stereo, or a mono
mode, It is evident that the requirement in the 1111 system
for pro-progrmr xig of all of these parameters will definitely
require precise selection of targets considerably ahead of
launch date, In addition, while there will be some capability
for adjustment of start pass positions, an ability to obtain
precise predetermined orbits will be mandatory, The alternative
to selecting various selected targets is to program a relatively
longer portion of the pczpa in a single nedt of op. ration. Also
the question of stereo vs. mono coverage becomes relative.
Coverage is out down to approximately one half in. the stereo
mode and we are limited by the recovery system to approximately
7800 feet of film. The stereo photographs will, be eight frames
forward and eight aft, along the vehicle flight path and there
will be a dead zone between photojraphed._ar.aa equal. in length .... .... .
to the length of -the ' target .photographed. The current proposal
has the stereo mode as primary and the monoseopie mode as
?secondary. I feel, and Colonel Howard concurred,, that the
monoscopie mode will,. probably be the primary mode of operation
due to basic system limitations inaccuracy coupled with the
necessity to pre-program targets. The decision on these items
of operational` usage rightfully belonged to COMOR and the
operations staff rather than to the Configuration Control
Board. This is an area which requires early decision and
lt. Colonel Howard s reed to submit a letter to 11r. Reber
from Dr. Charyk. will discuss this with NPIC. 25X1
e. :Theieis presently only a rough order of
magnitude on the sal gnme axing stellar camera
to the main instr mento accepted the action item ta5X1
discuss this requirement w anal submit a letter to the
Configuration Control Board on the precision required from a
customer standpoint for exploitation purposes,
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CORONA/ARGON
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a,gE~
fo S MM: Detailed rAnutee of the CORONAE LU1YMM
meeting -irM be forzsrarded by Systems Engineering (S.L) n
therefore., this trip report only covers the :rest important
highpointso As we begin to analyze the basic LANYr1RD system,
I can not help but wonder if the I4URAL 2 proposal for a 48
inch scaled -up model might not be a mre reliable and lose
costly approach. These are first thoughts, however, and
will. require further study. Obvious].y s the increase in focal
length of L( JYAPI) with the eane payload. capability is going
to cut down the area covered on the ground considerably
chile offering only about 2 feet more of ground resolution
if they resolve the potentially more hazardous VC problems.
cc: NPIC
Distributiont
1-C/DB/DPD
2-NPIC
3_DPDD/SPB
~S~ ~PD
66C faSA/DPD
7.DPDCQT
8&9-DB PD
PD
ll?.I D
la -PQ e --
DPD/DB
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