United Space Exploration Authority
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Mixpetzoaliztli Tlayacanatl Citlalli | |
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| Abbreviation |
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|---|---|
| Formation | 29 July 1968 |
| Headquarters | Angatahuaca |
Parent organisation | Zacapine-Pulatec union |
The United Space Exploration Authority (Nahuatl: π£π¨ππΉπ―π»ππ¬π°ππ¨ππ»ππ¨ πππ°π·π°πΏπ°ππ°π»π ππ¨π»ππ°πππ¨, 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 as the Hueyi Tlemitl (H-T) program spearheaded by the YAT 250 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 YAT 250'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 (ππΈπΆπ¨πΏπ°π¨ππ¨ππ¨, "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 (ππ―ππ°π»ππ°π»ππ¨ππ¨π, "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. As far back as 1964, shortly after the success of the first orbit of the planet by a human centlanaut, plans were being made to take a manned mission to the moon. These early planners understood that any such mission would be far more complex and technically demanding than the Ihuicaixili missions, involving larger and more advanced spacecraft, delicate maneuvers and more powerful carrier rockets. The long awaited Tematlatzilin program, once it had finally been given approval by the MTC, set forth to push these avenues of development and test the technical capacities and procedures that would be instrumental in carrying out the dream of a manned mission to the moon in any form. The spacecraft would be designed for longer periods in orbit than either of the Ihuicaixili spacecrafts, and would enable its crew of 2-3 centlanauts to engage in spacewalks, rendezvous maneuvers and other technical demonstrations and live experiments.
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 of Tema 1, the first rendezvous exercise was held in December of the same year after the failed launch of Tema-2, 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 (Tema 3 and Tema 4) completing the first docking procedure on December 25th, 1970. Multiple variations of the Tematlatzilin spacecraft would be made for specific missions, as the MTC carried on a practical and hardware-oriented development practice of making technical decisions for future iterations of spacecraft based on realized launches used as tests of existing equipment which would provide solid data to guide the process. The Tematlatzilin spacecraft began to diverge into three derivative variants to be tested as part of the program, a lunar flyby spacecraft with a crew of 2, the large lunar surface mission spacecraft that would carry the crew of 3 centlanauts along with a lander spacecraft to the moon, and finally a strictly orbital spacecraft designed to ferry crews to and from future space stations of the MTC and later the IAU. The Tematlatzilin program would complete a total of 27 missions accounting for all of the variants produced and tested as part of the program.
Lunar Missions
The Metzcualo (π£π―π»ππΏπΆπ°ππ¬, "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. Through the duration of the Tematlatzilin program, MTC development teams set about designing the spacecraft that they indended to one day carry centlanauts to the moon. Most of all, the engineers faced the difficult question of how they could bring such spacecraft to the moon. By this time the T-7 derived Tematlatzilin rocket had proven both effective and reliable in getting spacecraft into low orbit, but engineers quickly realized that creating a new derivative rocket to not only bring a craft to low orbit but through trans-lunar injection, lunar orbit and the return voyage would be pushing the T-7 rocket far beyond its limits. The MTC rocket development division understood that an entirely new, more powerful rocket system would need to be implemented if the goal of a manned lunar landing was to be achieved.
A superheavy carrier rocket proposal was given the nod to begin development, planned to carry a lander-spacecraft complex in a single launch into orbit and through a lunar orbit rendezvous to land centlanauts on the moon and return them safely. This proposal reached the prototype stage in 1969, with three stage superheavy rocket being by far the most powerful rocket ever built by the MTC or its predecessor and among the most powerful rockets in the history of humanity in space. The MTC engineers opted to use an large array of smaller engines to circumvent the significant challenges posed by a smaller number of more powerful engines, a design choice which would ultimately doom the prototype as the highly complex inner workings of the fuel system especially in the first stage of the rocket proved to be highly volatile and prone to failure. Following the catastrophic explosion of the superheavy prototype seconds after its test launch in April 1971 at the Itztaaco centladrome, the project would be suspended indefinitely and later canceled due to the many problems with the design. The costly venture would not be a total loss for the MTC however, as the engineers of the project had in the process of the rocket's development created an innovative new staged combustion cycle rocket engine that provided greater thrust and fuel efficiency compared to earlier rocket engines and would serve as a technological milestone for future rocket projects to improve on.
In the face of the failures of the superheavy launch vehicle, the rocket development program would have to come to terms with their inability to launch the complete unit of the lander-spacecraft at once. A less powerful heavy lift rocket later designated Tlachalani (πππ°π½π°ππ°ππ¨, "Thunder") was already being developed as part of the MTC's space station program as a carrier rocket for space station modules to be assembled in space, offering a payload capacity far exceeding that of the T-7 based rockets used by the MTC to that point although far lower than that of the canceled superheavy rocket project. Using the same principle as the space stations planned to be assembled in orbit along with the Tlachalani rocket, the Metzcualo program saw an alternative that would enable them to launch the necessary components and spacecraft to complete the moon mission. The MTC now sought to design a lunar lander spacecraft that would be launched by itself as an unmanned payload on a Tlachalani rocket into low orbit, where a second Tlachalani launch carrying the modified Tematlatzilin lunar spacecraft with crew aboard would rendezvous with the lander in space and carry it along through the trans-lunar injection into a lunar orbit where the lander could be deployed to carry the centlanauts to the lunar surface. It would later be decided to reduce the lander's launch system to a modified T-7 carrier rocket to save costs.
The Metztlalcua (π£π―π»ππ»ππ°ππΏπΆπ°, "Moon Kisser") lander faced design constraints from the decision to use a T-7 carrier rocket for its launch, greatly limiting its size and equipment. The final model would be able to carry two centlanauts down to the lunar surface and back up to rendezvous with the orbiter up from a single centlanaut in initial plans, but the craft would not be able to accommodate a docking tube to enable the crew to transfer from the orbiter to the lander directly, forcing the centlanauts to transfer to the lander through a spacewalk out of the orbiter and into the lander, then again to return to the orbiter at the end of the lunar stage of the mission. The orbiter itself, the Tlatoca Tlacayotl (πππ°π»π¬πΏπ° πππ°πΏπ°π·π¬π»π, "Human Progress") derivative of the Tematlatzilin spacecraft, featured a greatly expanded utility module with added fuel to conduct the trans-lunar injection and return journey, the docking system to connect to the lander and the airlock needed for the centlanauts to exit the vehicle and spacewalk to and from the lander. A third component of the Metzcualo program was the Metzixtetl (π£π―π»ππ¨ππ»π―π»π, "Lunar Eye"), which would not be part of the final lunar mission but was instead planned to conduct initial flyby passes of the moon and back without a lander as a test of the trans-lunar injection and return maneuvers.
Metzcualo 1, launched on December 1st, 1975, marked the beginning of the program and served as a field test of the new Tlachalani rocket in its lunar configuration. The rocket deployed a manned Tlatoca Tlacayotl pattern spacecraft into orbit, which would allow the spacecraft to be proven in space for the first time. Metzcualo 2 added the lander component launched into orbit on its T-7 rocket to practice the first rendezvous of the lunar flight plan, succeeding in attaching to the Metztlalcua lander craft before engaging the descent protocol and returning home. This success would be repeated by Metzcualo 3 and 4, which would both advance to transferring centlanauts to and from the lander through spacewalk. From this point, the Metzcualo program would proceed to the lunar flybys using the Metzixtetl spacecraft in the fifth and sixth missions of the program. Metzcualo 7 was planned to be the first flight of the program to complete the entire mission plan and carry out the first landing on the moon. However, Metzcualo 7 suffered a major malfunction in its utility module causing a loss of power and destruction of fuel cells aboard the spacecraft while underway in the trans-lunar injection maneuver. The damage risked the lives of the centlanauts as it left the craft with very little fuel supplies insufficient to enter and exit lunar orbit and return home. Mission control in Cuicatepec ordered the moon landed canceled for Metzcualo 7, allowing for the craft to take advantage of its free-return trajectory to return from the moon to low orbit without expending its rapidly depleting fuel. The crew were able to spacewalk to transfer fuel reserves from the Metztlalcua lander to their Tlatoca Tlacayotl spacecraft and give themselves the reserves needed to fire retrorockets and begin the descent process, splashing down in the Makrian with all three crewmembers alive despite the disaster of the major malfunction aboard the craft.
It would be Metzcualo 8 that, after a retrofit addressing the malfunction that had occurred on the Metzcualo 7 mission, would become the first moon landing of the MTC. The Zacapine Necahual Tziocoatl and Pulatec Toztemal Lewatle became the first centlanauts to walk on the moon, while Kiwa Zetalin remained in the orbiter. After a stay of some 20 hours on the lunar surface, three hours of which consisted of walking outside the lander on the lunar surface to deploy scientific experiments and gather samples, the lander launched to rendezvous with the orbiter and complete the lunar stage of the voyage. The return voyage was without incident, with the splashdown of the Metzualo 8 descent capsule being one of the most accurate of the MTC's history to that point landing within 1 kilometer of the target area for a rapid recovery by the Zacapine Navy. The mission would take eight days from the launch on the 11th of August 1977 to its splashdown on the 19th, with the lunar landing itself taking place on August 16th in the 5th day of the mission. Metzualo 8 was the culmination of more than a decade of efforts by the MTC and a crowning achievement for the organization. The Metzcualo program would run for a total of 16 completed missions between its maiden flight in 1975 and the conclusion of the program in 1979, of which four would be successful moon landings.
Current Programs
Temictli Neltiya
A modernized version of the Tematlatzilin spacecraft and launcher, designated Temictli Neltiya (ππ―ππ¨πΏπ»ππ¨ π€π―ππ»π¨π·π°, "Ambition Realized") often abbreviated to TN, serves as the principal means of transport to and from space for the MTC and its centlanauts.