United Space Exploration Authority
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Mixpetzoaliztli Tlayacanatl Citlalli | |
 | |
| Abbreviation |
|
|---|---|
| Formation | 29 July 1968 |
| Headquarters | Angatahuaca |
Parent organisation | Zacapine-Pulatec union |
The United Space Exploration Authority (Nahuatl: 𐐣𐐨𐑇𐐹𐐯𐐻𐑆𐐬𐐰𐑊𐐨𐑆𐐻𐑊𐐨 𐐓𐑊𐐰𐐷𐐰𐐿𐐰𐑌𐐰𐐻𐑊 𐐝𐐨𐐻𐑊𐐰𐑊𐑊𐐨, Mixpetzoaliztli Tlayacanatl Citlalli, MTC) is the space agency of the Zacapine-Pulatec bi-lateral partnership organization. The agency has been a pioneer of expendable and reusable launch systems, artificial satellites and human spaceflight. As the successor to the Zacapine national MCZ space agency pre-dating it by more than a decade, the MTC inherited the technological developments and ambitious plans of the Zacapine aerospace engineering and science establishment, pushing the MTC larger and more complex space projects promising to advance human understanding, science and technology. The foundation of the MTC represented a significant expansion to the Zacapine-Pulatec partnership as well as the resources and scope of the Zacapine aerospace project in civil space exploration with the integration of the Pulatec academic and technological resources into the effort. The MTC carried forward the Zacapine legacy of space exploration let forward by the revolutionary Citlalpol-1 satellite launched in 1961 and its pioneering Ihuicaixili human spaceflight program, pursuing ever more ambitious projects including unmanned missions across the solar system, manned lunar missions and the establishment of a permanent human presence in space.
The organization is headquartered in the Zacapine city of Angatahuaca, where much of its administration and engineering work is conducted, with its mission control center in Cuicatepec in southern Pulacan. The Citlalpan Centlanaut Training Center is the central training facility for MTC Centlanauts, located in the environs of Angatahuaca in the Zacapine Aztaco Republic. As a member organization to the International Aeronautical Union, the MTC primarily makes use of the Otse-Tsogwane-Ramotswe (OTR) Centladrome located in northern Pulacan and in general use by several IAU agencies. However, the MTC also operates the Itztaaco Centladrome in the northern Zacapine Xallipan Republic, which serves as an exclusive MTC facility used for testing, development and as a secondary launch site to the OTR Centladrome. The MTC missions primarily make use of the workhorse T-7 rocket, a system of Zacapine origin, but has also employed the CVD Phoenix 2 and other IAU partially reusable launch vehicles especially for unmanned missions carrying heavy payloads into orbit.
History
H-T Program
The origins of the modern MTC lay with the foundation of the Mixpetzoaliztli Citlalli Zacapiyotl (MCZ) in 1953. As one of the first space agencies in the world, the MCZ served as a trailblazer in the first stages of the human exploration of space and in the development of orbital and sub-orbital rockets. The origins of this project lie in a secret strategic missile development program created to replace the intercontinental strategic bomber fleet of the Zacapine Air Force with ballistic missile technology in the early 1950s. This began was the Hueyi Tlemitl (H-T) program spearheaded by the NTT 501 bureau, which produced several early ballistic missiles which captured the interest of non-military scientific authorities in Zacapican, leading to the establishment of MCZ agency to develop derivatives of NTT 501's military missiles for the purposes of space exploration and experimentation.
The first missile to see some success as an MCZ civilian rocket was the T-5, which had been developed as a proof of concept for the strategic missile program and became the first ballistic missile to enter Zacapine military service, although it did so in small numbers due to its limited range and applications. The T-5 was only capable of sub-orbital flight reaching the edge of space, but proved to the directors of the MCZ that their project had merit and could potentially allow them to place an artificial satellite in orbit. The opportunity to fulfill this ambition would come in the form of the larger and more powerful T-7 rocket, a fully intercontinental missile system which had the capability to enter orbit. A modified T-7 carrier rocket successfully placed the Citlalpol-1 satellite into low orbit on October 19th, 1960, making a major turning point in the Zacapine space program and the human exploration of space. Derivatives of the T-7 would remain the MCZ and later the MTC's primary launch vehicle for all missions, with modernized variants of the system still in service as the MTC's reliable workhorse vehicle. The T-7 was considered far too cumbersome for its original military intentions and to this day has never been formally accepted into military service, remaining an exclusively civilian rocket system.
Manned Spaceflight
Spurred on by the success of the Citlalpol satellite program and multiple successful launches of the T-7 C-Carrier used by these missions, the MCZ was given additional funding by the government to pursue the objective of manned missions to space. The Citlalpol-5 had successfully launched Milli, a nine-banded armadillo, into space and would later recover her alive after her capsule touched down in the Xallipan desert on April 4th, 1962. While Milli was not the first living thing the MCZ had put in space, she was the first to be recovered alive, reassuring scientists and engineers that the capability to put a human being in space and return them to the planet alive was within reach. The project to bring a Zacapitec centlanaut to space received the designation Ihuicaixili (𐐀𐐸𐐶𐐨𐐿𐐰𐐨𐑇𐐨𐑊𐐨, "Heaven-piercer"), beginning development in November, 1964. By early 1964, the T-7 derived Ihuicaixili vehicle began its unmanned tests, completing two successful test launches from the Itztaaco centladrome in June 1964. Design limitations of the craft left no viable escape system for the crew in the event of an accident within the first 20 seconds of launch, which presented a significant concern for the MCZ engineers and the centlanauts slated to fly in the vehicle. Additionally, the re-entry capsule of the Ihuicaixili spacecraft had a seriously limited maneuvering capacity and so adopted a spherical design that was heat-shielded on all sides, as it could not fully control the angle of descent.
On August 1st, 1964, female centlanaut Xilotl Cozcaton became the first human being to travel through space in the Ihuicaixili-1 spacecraft. The craft's retrorocket used to decelerate and begin the descent failed during this maiden flight, forcing Cozcaton to wait for a period of nearly ten days inside the descent capsule while her orbit decayed naturally into the atmosphere where the friction would slow down the vehicle in descent as planned. Fortunately, the Ihuicaixili engineers had anticipated the possibility of such a technical failure and stocked the capsule with sufficient food and water rations to allow Cozcaton to survive and be recovered alive. Three subsequent flights of the Ihuicaixili program were flown through 1964 and 1965 before mounting concerns with the technical inadequacy of the vehicle would lead to the program's premature cancelation. Nevertheless, the Ihuicaixili program had accomplished its main goal and paved the way for further development.
A follow-up to the Ihuicaixili program, known as I-2, was set up in 1965 to complete the planned human spaceflights intended by its predecessor to study the effects of spaceflight and microgravity on humans. The I-2 vehicle re-used many of the components of its predecessor, with several modifications to the spacecraft included a new solid-fuel retrorocket system. The new spacecraft was much heavier than the earlier types, requiring a new and more powerful T-7 rocket with an expanded third stage and larger launch shroud to protect the bulkier I-2 capsule. I-2 spacecraft had a crew of 2 as opposed to the sole centlanaut of the earlier I-1s, and were equipped to conduct simple experiments notably with lizards to study the effects of microgravity on living beings and biological processes, such as the regeneration of a lost tail. These experiments validated further spaceflight by human crews with potentially longer durations in space. However, by the conclusion of the I-2 initiative in 1967 the MCZ agency was beginning to suffer from financial pressures in the face of its ever expanding scope. The successes of both the Citlalpol launches and the two Ihuicaixili programs were extremely popular with the Zacapine public and had earned the Zacapine state international acclaim and prestige for the tremendous technical and scientific accomplishments of its space program, placing pressure at the highest level of the political system to find the resources to pursue further projects in space.
Unification
The resolution of the Zacapine space program's financial crunch came in the form of the Union of Unions, a bi-lateral treaty organization between Zacapican and Pulacan. The unorthodox proposal for a unified Space Exploration Authority which would serve as the national space agency for both nations at once was first put forward by Pulatec diplomats in the Union of Unions in 1961 and again in 1965, being turned town on both occasions. The Pulatl interests stood to benefit significantly from such a partnership, as their investment in funding and academic resources towards such a joint program would be repaid in the technical expertise made available to them, as well as the expansion of the high technology sectors associated with rocketry into Pulacan from Zacapican, advancing the Pulatec economy and its own technological capabilities. It would ultimately fall to the Zacapine component of the Union of Unions to put forward the third and final proposal for a unified bi-national space exploration initiative which would be accepted by the Pulatecs on January 27th, 1968. The accepted proposal transferred the Zacapine MCZ, thereafter to be known as the Mixpetzoaliztli Tlayacanatl Citlalli or MTC, to the control of the Union of Unions organization thereby bringing it under the joint control of both nations and opening up much needed funding, academic resources and institutional support for the Zacapine ambitions in space.
The newly established MTC inherited extensive facilities, personnel and most of all unfinished plans for future projects from its predecessor, all of which were based in Zacapican. Expansion of the MTC to Pulacan was to begin at once, with ground being broken for the new Otse-Tsogwane-Ramotswe centladrome in June of 1968. The OTR centladrome would provide a launch site much closer to the equator than the Itztaaco facility, a boon for the agencies future launches due to the equatorial launch effect. A new mission control center to accompany the OTR centladrome was built in the southern Pulatec city of Cuicatepec, reducing the existing Citlalpan mission control center to supervising the activities that remained at the Itztaaco centladrome. However, the Citlalpan complex would be expanded to accommodate the new Centlanaut Training Center, an expanded training facility planned in anticipation of a more intensive human spaceflight program which would now serve to train a large number of Pulatec candidates from the Union Air Force into centlanauts with the aim of providing bi-national crews to the majority MTC spaceflights, while a general staffing initative aimed to integrate Pulatec academics and engineers into the new MTC's engineering division and scientific corps.
Tematlatzilin program
The first project undertaken by the newly unified MTC had been the second and greatly expanded manned mission program that was the cause of the financial crunch in the first place. It received the designation Tematlatzilin (𐐓𐐯𐑋𐐰𐐻𐑊𐐰𐐻𐑆𐐨𐑊𐐨𐑌, "Diving Bell"), a reference both to the bulbous appearance of the spacecraft resembling a bathysphere and to the centlanauts aboard "diving" into the vast metaphorical ocean of space. From the start, the Tematlatzilin program was intended to lay the groundwork for a future lunar program. The Zacapine MCZ had made plans as far back as 1965 to land a human being on the moon, for a spacecraft and a separate lunar lander would be created. The lunar lander would be carried into orbit without a crew, where it would be intercepted and docked to a manned spacecraft launched separately. The spacecraft and lander would then conduct a trans-lunar injection, enter into an orbit around the moon and conduct a landing using the lander. The lander's return module would then return to orbit to transfer the crew back to the main spacecraft to return home. This planned journey would require two separate rendezvous maneuvers which would carry with them significant technical challenges and require larger, more complex spacecraft. The Tematlatzilin program was intended to carry out the necessary live testing and experimentation with orbital rendezvous maneuvers and would be a proof of concept for future lunar ambitions.
Work on the Tematlatzilin launch vehicle occurred concurrently to the construction projects commissioned by the MTC in 1968, but would face a variety of problems early on due to the leap in complexity from the prior Ihuicaixili spacecraft. The Tematlatzilin spacecraft would be made up of three components, a forward habitat module, a central command module, and a rear utility module. The utility module would not be pressurized or allow for internal crew movement, and was designed to hold the main engines, stores of fuel and oxidizer, the communications equipment and two solar panels to provide power to the craft. The command module was designed to double as the descent module, and would be the only part of the craft to return home intact, and so would also house the high-G chairs for the centlanauts and the flight control systems. The habitat module would serve as the main living area of the craft, where rations would be stored and consumed and was also equipped with a microgravity toilet system. This module would also hold the docking apparatus that would enable it to attach and transfer crew and material to a second Tematlatzilin craft, another spacecraft, or a space station. Numerous additions and modifications to the design would be made in the early stages, such as the addition of a forward facing viewing port to the habitat module that would allow crew to guide the docking procedure visually in case of failure of the forward docking camera and automatic system. The launch vehicle would also undergo significant modification in development, as the designers grappled with the much larger and heavier payload it would need to carry. The first version of the Tematlatzilin rocket failed its unmanned tests due to the third stage malfunctioning or underperforming due to a delay between the cutoff of the second stage and the ignition of the third stage that would allow fuel and oxidizer to be displaced inside the tanks without the G forces of the active thrust acting on it. A revised version of the rocket would change the design to an open truss connection between the second and third stages, allowing the third stage to fire with the second stage still attached and therefore keep the third stage fuel consistently forced towards the bottom of the tank for intake into the rocket engines, resolving the third stage reliability issues.
The first manned Tematlatzilin mission launched on September 8th, 1970. Following the success of this maiden flight, the first rendezvous exercise was held in December of the same year, with two consecutive launches of the Tematlatzilin rocket and spacecraft timed so that the craft could carry out the complex maneuvers to approach each other in orbit, then safely attached and dock to one another. Although the second launch of the pair suffered from delays which complicated the mission for the craft already in space, the mission was eventually carried out with the two Tematlatzilin spacecraft completing the first docking procedure on December 25th, 1970.
Lunar Missions
The Metzcualo ( , "Lunar Eclipse") program aimed to accomplish the long established goal of the MTC and its predecessor to land a human crew on the surface of the moon. The JSA had already accomplished the feat of a manned lunar mission in 1975, months before the MTC officially announced its intentions to do the same with the Metzcualo program.
The Metzcualo program would involve two different spacecraft, as it remained largely faithful to the original lunar mission plans laid down a decade prior in 1965 by the Zacapine MCZ. Each Metzcualo mission would involve an unmanned lunar lander designated Metztlalcua, and a Tematlatzilin-based crewed spacecraft designated Tlathuic. Early plans to launch a much heavier and more complicated lunar module fell through due to the technical failures of the prototype heavy lift rocket, noted as being one of the first rockets of the MTC that was not a T-7 variant, which led to the cancelation of the heavy lander and the redevelopment of a smaller lander that would result in the final Metztlalcua spacecraft that would be light enough to be carried to orbit by a specialized T-7 type rocket. Due to the limitations of the Metztlacua's design, it could not conduct a full docking procedure to allow crew to be transferred internally. As a result, the docking system of the Tlathuic spacecraft would be modified to simply attach the two craft together after rendezvous. An airlock system would be installed in the Tlathuic's habitat module to allow crew to exit the vehicle and conduct a spacewalk to transfer aboard the Metztlacua lander through its own airlock, which would be the only way for centlanauts to move between the two spacecraft even while attached.
Current Programs
Temictli Neltiya
A modernized version of the Tematlatzilin spacecraft and launcher, designated Temictli Neltiya ( , "Ambition Realized") often abbreviated to TN, serves as the principal means of transport to and from space for the MTC and its centlanauts.