Book Review: X-15 Diary

Today, private companies are researching hypersonic vehicles designed to reach Earth orbit at speeds up to Mach 25 (25 times the speed of sound).  The last quarter of the 20th century was the era of the Concorde, a passenger plane flying at Mach 2; and of course, there was the space shuttle, lasting up to 2011.  All of these planes and spaceships owe their existence to the now legendary X-15, the first supersonic jet/rocket plane to reach into space, short of Earth orbit, other than rockets.

  This craft, with its beginnings in 1954, was intended to be a test plane, but then came the dawn of the space age in 1957, with the Soviets sending up the world’s first spacecraft and satellite.  In a panic, the U.S. scrambled in an effort not to be left behind during the Cold War, so they deemed the X-15 to become an experiment spacecraft, in addition to the planned project Mercury.  In the U.S., there was controversy on what type of spacecraft would be their workhorse for space, the rocket with its space capsule, or a spacecraft resembling a jet.

Only three X-15s were built, by North American.  The engines, and there were several types, were build by Reaction Motors.  Only two B-52s were used to carry them up to before release.

The competition here is that while a rocket with a space capsule and astronaut would blast off in space and come back down, uncontrolled with only a parachute, the X-15 could be steered and controlled from take-off to landing, at the pilot’s discretion, at all times.

This book is a diary by Richard Tregaskes, a journalist and writer having full access to the testing of the X-15 (X meaning experimental).  This diary dates from February 1959, before the first test, to November 1960, in the early successful runs, with many failures in between these runs.  The X-15 continues to be tested until 1968, to the flight of Apollo 7.  

What should be noted is that this diary tells of the history of rocketry, from 16th century China to the early pioneers like Robert Goddard, Konstantin Tsiokovsky, and Werner Von Braun.  It tells of how the U.S. acquired rocket technology from these pioneers, including the seizing of German rockets and scientists during the war, testing in White Sands, New Mexico, and includes the first plane to break the sound barrier, the X-1, piloted by Chuck Yeager, continuing on to the development of America’s first rockets and the establishment of Cape Canaveral.

It also tells of test pilots of other planes, and how many of these pilots were killed, being part of the process of testing these advanced aircraft.

This diary mostly covers each individual test of the X-15 air/spacecraft and with trials it has endured.  

The three main pilots mentioned here are Scott Crossfield, who tested the majority of the flights logged here, along with Bob White and Joe Walker.  Neil Armstrong, the first man on the Moon, was also a test pilot, but not in these early flights.

The X-15 was shaped like a cigar, with stubbed wings, and small enough to fit under the wing of a B-52.  The B-52 would take the X-15 to heights up to 45,000 feet or more, release the plane, where it would ignite its jets and soar to the edge of space.  In order to protect the pilot, the X-15 was escorted by chase planes, being F-100s, F-104s, choppers, and a C-130 weather ship.

The X-15 was painted black, hence the name Blackbird, and carried only one pilot.  It was tested at Edwards Air Force Base in California, by the Air Force.  If successful, it would be turned over to NASA for use.

Most of the plane, a good two-thirds, carried fuel.  The fuel was:  1,200 gallons of anhydrous ammonia (water alcohol), 1000 gallons of liquid oxygen, with smaller tanks of hydrogen peroxide, liquid helium, and liquid nitrogen.  The water alcohol and liquid oxygen mix forming a controlled explosion powering the plane, and the other fuels keep the liquid oxygen cold at sub-zero temperatures, and prevents overheating of the engines.

The metal has to be heat resistant at high speeds against the friction of the atmosphere.  Hoses, pressure valves, bolts, all must be tight with no leaks, the engines cannot overheat, and oxygen must be supplied to the pilot to breathe, the cabin must be pressurized, and meters must have perfect readings.  One little glitch can range from failure of the plane to function correctly to the plane exploding and killing the pilot.  This factors determined the tests.

For the first year and a half, each test was recorded in this diary with all the details.  At first, there were failures like smoke in the cockpit before the plane was released.  For the first three tests, the X-15 flew captive, meaning it was not released from the B-52.  From the fourth test on, the plane at first flew at low speeds and altitude to check for flaws, and there were many:  leaks in the hose to inaccurate meters, leading the plane to abort the test. 

There were successes, from flying to 70,000 feet at Mach 2 to flying up to 136,600 feet at Mach 3.3.  Two successful flight tests, however, were rare, if they occurred.  This is due to constant breakdowns in the entire system of the plane.

A successor, the Dyna-Soar, was planned to fly into Earth orbit, but because of the technical difficulties in the X-15 tests, the Dyna-Soar was never built.

Although the diary ends in November, 1960, the X-17 continued testing until 1968, when the project was discontinued, due to numerous technical problems.

Some footnotes here.  In August, 1963, Joe Walker flew up to 100 kilometers (62 miles), up to the edge of space and officially became an astronaut.

Tragically, on November 15, 1967, Michael Adain was killed when an airframe during his flight collapsed.

Many space advocated have lamented the cancellation of the X-15 project, believing that it would have been a better alternative to space than the rocket, and had these flights continued, we would be more advanced in space than we are today.

This diary reveals the truth.  The attempt was made, but back then, we lacked the technology to accomplish this, so we had no choice but to rely on the rocket, meaning Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo.  The space shuttle was an attempt to advance to the space plane, but that too was a failure, due to the fact that it took six months to refurbish it between each flight, costing literally billions of dollars. 

The X-15 did lead to later advanced in aerospace technology, creating more advanced heat resistance materials and better engines, with supersonic aircraft today that are more advanced than the X-15 ever was.  

Today, private companies are making new strides in hypersonic air/space craft.

This is simple trial and error, and try again.

How to Prepare for Mars, For The Rest of Your Life

This is not a technical or engineering book on how to get to Mars.   It is definitely not science fiction.   These are covered, but this is mostly a book on psychology in coping with a brand new situation.  I do believe that this book covers all bases on this subject.

In 2011, a tycoon from Holland announced the Mars One project, where people and equipment would be launched to Mars in groups of four, land, set up a colony, and literally spend the rest of their lives there.  Every two years, four more people would be added, leading to a settlement, and eventually, a town, a city, and then a civilization.  This isn’t mentioned here, but I assume that that is the case.

Mars has thin air, made mostly of carbon dioxide, gravity that is 38 percents that of Earths, and extremely cold temperatures.  Ranging from 60 degrees Fahrenheit at the equator during the day down to 200 degrees below zero at night, at least in the northern and southern extreme regions.  No human could presently survive there without a spacesuit and an advanced life support system, at least for the present.

I’m going to make another assumption here.  As more people come to settle on the red planet, they will have their own food supply and use the Martian resources to expand their habitats.  Eventually, they will try to terraform the planet.  That is, making Mars comparable to Earth like conditions where one can walk around the planet without any spacesuit or other forms of life support.  This may take two centuries or more, but I think that is the final goal.  This is not mentioned in the book, but I think that is a given.

What is mentioned, and what the book is focused on is the psychology of humans, how they would react one to the remote of being on a new and empty world, and how they would get along with the other settlers.

People from all over the world have applied to be one of the settlers, and they have to go through a 10 year process.  How will anyone respond to someone from another culture where mannerisms are different?  How will one get along with another?  What of personality clashes?  Can one cooperate with another?  Culture norms vary worldwide, and many of these, no matter how trivial they seem, are explained.  For example, in the Orient, when someone offers you a gift, it is customary to refuse it twice before accepting it, to insure the taker that the giver really does want to give it.

In reacting to the environment, will one get homesick?  Will one pine for Earth, its cities, and what it always provided for them?  What about family and friends?  Being in remote part of the world here on Earth can be depressing, and I myself have been to places like the Arctic in remote villages.

As for the environment, one will have to know how to fix a certain system of life support, such as air purifiers or water processes, without any new parts arriving from Earth?  One has to fix machines with what is available there on Mars, and one cannot afford to wait two years for new supplies.

This is the tip of the iceberg, but the authors have just about everything covered.  They’ve done their homework, and everything is taken into consideration.  

Candidates have been interviewed, and some of the questions they answered are featured in this book.  Requirements are also listed both in education and how they can handle stressful situations in life.

Little known facts are featured.  One surprising revelation is the story where NASA spent one million dollars for a pen able to function in zero gravity.  The Russians used a pencil.  This may make NASA look like fools, but what isn’t mentioned is that mechanical pencils were used by NASA, but when lead, and pencil shavings float around the capsule, they could cause extensive damage to computers in the ship, possibly even leading to a fire, such as what happened in Apollo 1.

The last section of the book covers how life can be lived on Mars, not only doing the required work, but unleashing creativity once everyone is settled and has more time.  New forms of art will definitely be created, and settlers will be creative with Mars’ resources;  i.e.  the red rocks themselves.

This book has been well researched, and different authors in their fields have contributed one chapter at a time, so you will see many different viewpoints on this subject.

A Letter to Future Space Settlers, From the 21st Century

This is for any future space settler, whether you are now living on the Moon, Mars, a space habitat, or anywhere else in the Solar System.  As of this writing, you will not be born for another century or two.  When you read this, I will be dead for that amount of time.  It doesn’t matter.  I would like to share with you my experiences and give you some advice that I think you will need.

I have been a visionary all my life.  I have seen the space movement from the very beginning.  The very first live launch I have seen on television was that of Gemini 5, carrying two astronauts, named Gordon Cooper and Charles Conrad.  I have personally met Gordon Cooper, along with many other astronauts, including the very first ones that walked on the Moon.

From then on, I have been in love with the universe and have wanted all humankind to venture into space and settle there, where you are now, hopefully.  I have talked of my vision, of humanity venturing to other planets and eventually, to other stars.  I’ve read science fiction, imagining how our future in space will be, and how it will relate to the rest of us here on Earth.  I have also written a lot of space development on the steps we should take.  As of this reading, some of these steps I’ve written have come to fruition, others have not, but that is to be expected of any writer.

I hope to see space benefit Earth in a big way;  bringing in money, not for a few but for the many, helping to alleviate poverty by creating new jobs, jobs that as of right now we cannot even begin to imagine, bringing in new resources, and products made from these resources.  Most of all, I hope that, by moving more and more polluting industries into Earth orbit, the asteroids, the Moon and beyond, it will not only reverse the effects of pollution and the damage it did to our environment, but to restore the Earth to its clean natural state;  i.e.  forests, jungles, the deacidification of the ocean, the decrease of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere leading to a reversal in climate change.

There is one more factor I hope to see;  peace in space.  If you can’t end war on Earth, and I expect it won’t be ended anytime soon, even as you read this letter, at least do not carry it with you as you venture into the final frontier.  I can think of at least one way to avoid this horror.

As people from many different countries venture into space and settle on the Moon, Mars, the asteroids, and beyond, they will bring their industries, their culture, language, and ways of life with them, and these will be settled on these planets, some right next to other colonies from different countries and cultures.

As time progresses, and you mingle with more people from other cultures on your worlds, regardless of their origin, you will learn in live on these worlds and function independently of Earth.  Of course, you will continue to do business with Earth and other space settlements, but between yourselves, you will be interdependent upon one another.  In other words, you will be closer to each other more than your respective countries on Earth.

With that, it is inevitable that you will no longer need Earth’s resources, and politically, you will decide to become independent of your respective countries on Earth, and will want to govern yourselves completely, with no outside interference.  It’s going to happen, and you will declare your independence.  This is the human side on settling far away places.  This is the way it’s always been, and always will be.

You will have my full support.

Just one thing. 

As I have stated, depending on your national origin, your settlements will be different from one another.  American space settlements will be different from European space settlements, who will be different from Russian settlements, different from the Chinese, the Japanese, the Brazilians, and so on, depending on who is up there.

When you do declare your independence, do not separate yourselves in different countries on the Moon, Mars, or any other heavenly body.  Become independent together, meaning pool all your resources, knowledge, culture, language, and become ONE country, one country to a planet or asteroid (in the form of an O’Neill space habitat).  Don’t have separate countries on the Moon or Mars, have one Republic of the Moon, a Republic of Mars.  Give yourselves any name you want, but get together and form a single country on your respective worlds.

Here’s why.  Borders are the great dividing factor.  They’re walls, separating one people from another, and on planets where life support systems are vital, and you cannot afford to be separate from one another.  You will need each other’s resources, life support systems, manufacturing facilities, and you cannot afford the inconvenience of going through customs at international borders.  

One last reason.  Should any of these “countries” conflict, it could result in war, and in the position that all of you are in, depending on each other for survival, you cannot have that.  One war in space, one space nation against another, can result in the destruction of ALL living settlements in space.  I need not go any further on this subject.

Therefore, wherever you are, unite with one another.  You will not only survive, but you will flourish.   Learn from the mistakes of Earth, and go forward, learning and benefitting from each other.  

Take the best of each culture that settles in space.  Leave the worst out of it.