Return-path: X-Andrew-Authenticated-as: 7997;andrew.cmu.edu;Ted Anderson Received: from beak.andrew.cmu.edu via trymail for +dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr11/tm2b/space/space.dl@andrew.cmu.edu (->+dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr11/tm2b/space/space.dl) (->ota+space.digests) ID ; Thu, 22 Mar 90 01:48:21 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Thu, 22 Mar 90 01:47:51 -0500 (EST) Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #172 SPACE Digest Volume 11 : Issue 172 Today's Topics: NASA Headline News for 03/20/90 (Forwarded) Re: Shuttle escape systems, was Challenger's Last Words Re: Coilgun on a 747 - supplies to orbit at $20/lb? Re: Coilgun on a 747 - supplies to orbit at $20/lb? Re: Shuttle Escapes Re: NSS? Goddard Trophy ceremony planned at White House (Forwarded) Re: The Amazing Flying Coilgun Re: Attitude control system (ACS) for the HST Re: Another SR-71 comes to NASA Ames-Dryden ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 20 Mar 90 18:36:01 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: NASA Headline News for 03/20/90 (Forwarded) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, March 20, 1990 Audio: 202/755-1788 ----------------------------------------------------------------- This is NASA Headline News for Tuesday, March 20.... The countdown demonstration test for the STS-31 mission was completed today at 11:01 A.M., Eastern time, with a planned cutoff at T-5 seconds. The crew...Commander Loren Shriver, Pilot Charles Bolden and Mission Specialists Bruce McCandless, Steven Hawley and Kathryn Sullivan...entered the orbiter Discovery earlier this morning and participated in the final hours of the simulated countdown. The crew returns to Houston later today and will participate in a news conference on Thursday. NASA Select television will carry a full morning of STS-31 pre-launch briefings at that time. The Flight Director's mission overview briefing will be televised at 9:30 A.M., a secondary payloads briefing will begin at 10:30 and the STS-31 flight crew will hold their news conference at 11:30 A.M., Eastern time, Thursday. A public opinion poll has found that 80 percent of the American public approves of the U.S. space program. The survey was commissioned by Rockwell international Corporation, of El Segundo, Calif. The survey also reported 74 percent of those queried support a permanently manned space station. In other space news..... Orbital Sciences Corporation reports they are accepting bids for a large aircraft...in the 747 or L-1011 class...to air launch their Pegasus winged booster. The Company currently leases the NASA B-52 aircraft from Dryden Flight Research Facility. Japanese space scientists are elated over the successful orbiting of the moon by their Muses-A satellite they launched last month. Intelsat controllers continue to monitor the Intelsat 6 communications satellite. It's been boosted into a higher, longer life orbit. Spacehab Inc. has obtained funding to build the small manned module that's scheduled to fly aboard the Space Shuttle beginning in 1992. *********************** ----------------------------------------------------------------- Here's the broadcast schedule for public affairs events on NASA Select TV. All times are Eastern. Wednesday, March 21...... 1:00-2:30 P.M. Total Quality Management in Action Colloquium. Thursday, March 22...... 9:30 A.M. STS-31 flight directors overview briefing 10:30 A.M. Secondary payloads briefing 11:30 A.M. STS-31 flight crew briefing 1:00 P.M. NASA Update will be transmitted. All events and times are subject to change without notice ---------------------------------------------------------------- These reports are filed daily, Monday through Friday, at 12 noon, Eastern time. ----------------------------------------------------------------- A service of the Internal Communications Branch, NASA HQ. ------------------------------ Date: 19 Mar 90 01:50:40 GMT From: usc!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!henry@apple.com (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: Shuttle escape systems, was Challenger's Last Words In article <1990Mar16.201000.28046@agate.berkeley.edu> gwh@OCF.Berkeley.EDU (George William Herbert) writes: >... while a missile or air-dropped plane by definition needs to >be fully functional after such an incident, as that is 'normal operation'. If >the shuttle were to use this escape mode, it's already a vehicle-threatening >emergency; as long as the crew and hopefully the vehicle survive... Unfortunately this is a rather more demanding requirement, given the fragility of the orbiter and the requirement for a high probability of success in the presence of some ill-defined major malfunction. >... One particular advantage to the shuttle is that if it seperates >the rest of the stack [ET and SRB's] will protect it for a good while... Uh, what do you mean, "protect it"? From what? By far the biggest hazard in the vicinity is the SRBs themselves. The ET/SRB stack is no protection at all against number two hazard, the hypersonic slipstream, because it is beside the orbiter rather than in front. >as they stay stable [i dunnow, are the srb computers smatr enough to try and >steer them straight?] and the ET doesn't break up [unlikely]. The SRBs have no brains of their own and will simply run wild, as they did after the Challenger breakup. > Adding to this an [addmittedly unsubstantiated] rumor that NASA gave the >pilots a manual control override mode on the aerocontrols and the ET seperate >some time ago [" we're flying it out by the seat of our pants.." Heh? ] ... There is a much-misunderstood provision for manual SRB separation, which has been there since the beginning of the program. It is only a backup for the automatic post-burnout separation system; it does not work before SRB burnout. Without massive redesign, trying to separate still-burning SRBs would probably destroy the whole stack, and trying to separate the orbiter from the stack would cause it to hang up on the aft attachments, pitch up, and be destroyed. -- MSDOS, abbrev: Maybe SomeDay | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology an Operating System. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu ------------------------------ Date: 19 Mar 90 13:09:32 GMT From: eplrx7!leipold@louie.udel.edu (Walt Leipold) Subject: Re: Coilgun on a 747 - supplies to orbit at $20/lb? In all this discussion of recoil problems and the need to keep flying, has anyone considered shooting the coilgun out the _rear_ of the 747? If you're really launching significant masses (> 20 kg/min?), you could probably keep the 747 in the air using "mass driver" propulsion. (Now, all we've gotta do is find a power source for that sucker...) -- "As long as you've lit one candle, Walt Leipold you're allowed to curse the darkness." (leipolw%esvax@dupont.com) -- -- The UUCP Mailer ------------------------------ Date: 19 Mar 90 19:46:15 GMT From: psuvm!mrw104@psuvax1.cs.psu.edu Subject: Re: Coilgun on a 747 - supplies to orbit at $20/lb? Being an aerospace student has its advantages-- I'm not particularly interested in aerodynamics, but sometimes some of it does sink in. Anyway, I read an old AIAA Journal that had a paper about a gigantic dirigible. This thing was *huge* and it was designed to carry 25 Peacekeeper missiles, or the entire flight compliment for an aircraft carrier (70+ planes), or the equivalent weight in cargo (~3000 metric tons). From what I read, we would not be technologically straining ourselves to build such a thing. Power was supplied by a nuclear reactor, the lift by hydrogen, and it had a ceiling somewhere around 15,000 ft (I'm quoting from memory-- this may be off). Admittedly, it does not have the advantage of the same upper altitude as the 747, but in this same journal, I read of some designs that were being looked into that would have maximum ceil- ings around 100,000 ft. Now, going that high and taking 3000 tons of cargo with you is probably Buck Rogers stuff, but I thought the idea was interesting enough to present. Mike Williams mrw104@psuvm.bitnet ------------------------------ Date: 19 Mar 90 22:49:23 GMT From: snorkelwacker!usc!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!henry@bloom-beacon.mit.edu (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: Shuttle Escapes In article <5A031213361D0126-MTABWIDENER*DXANDY@widener> DXANDY@WIDENER.BITNET writes: > Modern racing cars have carbon fibre tub in which the drivers sit. This tub >provides a great deal of protection. It seems to me that if the Shuttle >cockpit was designed in a similar fashion, it wouldn't matter if the rest of >the shuttle had disintegrated... What if it *hasn't* disintegrated? One of the big problems of any scheme involving taking the whole cabin along is that the cabin is located inside some fairly durable structure, and you need to work hard to guarantee that it will separate so it can deploy a parachute. -- MSDOS, abbrev: Maybe SomeDay | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology an Operating System. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu ------------------------------ Date: 20 Mar 90 22:00:34 GMT From: mtxinu!sybase!alf!brook@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (brook mantia) Subject: Re: NSS? To join the National Space Society, send $30 (paybale to National Space Society) to 922 Pennsylvania Ave., SE * Washington DC, 20003. OK everybody, write this info down, and tell them Brook sent you! You can also call them and ask for info on local chapters (There are several in Colorado). 202/543-1900. Also, anyone interested in info on California chapters can contact me via E-Mail. Thanks! Brook Mantia Events Coordinator for the Golden Gate chapter of NSS ------------------------------ Date: 19 Mar 90 16:55:40 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: Goddard Trophy ceremony planned at White House (Forwarded) David Garrett Headquarters, Washington, D.C. March 16, 1990 RELEASE: 90-42 GODDARD TROPHY CEREMONY PLANNED AT WHITE HOUSE Vice President Dan Quayle, in a special White House ceremony on March 19, will make a special presentation of the Dr. Robert H. Goddard Memorial Trophy to the 1990 winner Dr. Lew Allen, Director of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and Vice President of the California Institute of Technology. Dr. Allen received the 1990 award "For distinguished and significant contributions to the Nation's advancement in space, earlier by service with the Air Force and the strategic defense of the country, and currently by leadership with NASA in the assurance of United States preeminence in planetary exploration." The Goddard Trophy, premier award of the National Space Club and the aerospace industry, was established in 1958 and is presented each year at the Goddard Memorial Dinner. The recipient of this award is selected annually by the Board of Governors of the National Space Club. ------------------------------ Date: 19 Mar 90 16:01:05 GMT From: csusac!csuchico.edu!petunia!usc!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!watserv1!watdragon!watyew!jdnicoll@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu (Brian or James) Subject: Re: The Amazing Flying Coilgun As a long time fan of LTA vehicles, I *like* the balloon assisted coilgun launch system. It even can be portable, given a suitable powersource at the launch site. Let's see NASA, ESA or Glavcosmos (sp?) deliver door to door service. Hydrogen has a (largely unearned) bad rep as a lifting gas, and helium is expensive, so I would imagine hot air is the best lift source. The system even scales up nicely. If you make the balloon large enough, it can be made out of materials like steel and still have lift (Power requirements are large at this scale). If the target markets can't supply an appropriate power supply, the balloon could use something on-board given the right size (A balloon the same mass as an aircraft carrier could carry a nuclear reactor, although getting permission for overflights enroute to markets might be interesting). More seriously, balloons will probably be useful for research on planets like Venus or Titan which have dense atmospheres (I wonder what the lift strategy is for the cyntherian balloon, since a hot-air balloon would have to be hotter than the 600 degree atmosphere) and the gas giants, which have nothing *but* dense atmospheres. JDN ------------------------------ Date: 19 Mar 90 19:09:00 GMT From: agate!sag4.ssl.berkeley.edu!daveray@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (David Ray) Subject: Re: Attitude control system (ACS) for the HST I recently enquired about what attutude control systems are being used on the HST. The March 1990 issue of Aerospace America (AIAA magazine) has two different full-page ads from companies describing their ACS which they built for the HST. These are sections of the advertisements: (reproduced without permission, for information only) Page 14: Lockheed "...Motion and stability will be controlled not by rocket thrusters but by an ingenious set of reaction wheels. These wheels will transfer momentum throughout the telescope, enabling it to accelerate, coast, and decelerate to varying positions. The telescope's remarkable pointing system, designed by Lockheed, will yeild stability of 0.007 arc second... This feat is equivalent to focussing on a dime in Los Angeles while standing on a carousel in San Francisco -- of course, the carousel happens to be rotating at 17,000 miles per hour...." Page 27: BEI Motion Syetems Company "In the cold, still silence of the night, the Hubble Space Telescope will move in microscopic increments, or rates observing astral objects.... ...The Star Selector Servo System that performs the critical pointing and tracking function with unparalleled accuracy and dependability has of course been designed, developed and produced by the Digital Products Division of BEI Motion Systems Company. A .... System has been incorporated into the Star Selector design. It is capable of pinpointing an object just 6 feet tall, at a distance of 450 miles. ...(It) employs a lightweight beryllium motor-encoder with complete servo electronics and an integrated motor communication feature. Resolution and accuracy to 21 bits with rotational drive speeds varying from 0.5 arcsecond/second (one revolution every 30 days) to 16,384 arcseconds/second are provided..." And now another star tracker from the U. of Georgia (?). Looks like there are several systems on the HST that can be used for tracking and guideance. ------------------------------ Date: 19 Mar 90 21:02:28 GMT From: skipper!bowers@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Al Bowers) Subject: Re: Another SR-71 comes to NASA Ames-Dryden In article shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer (OFV)) writes: >In article shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer (OFV)) writes: >>Monday, 19 March >>0900 (Mary) Don, when's the SR-71 flyby gonna be? >> (Don) About 1030 >>0945 (Mary) Don, still on for 1030? >> (Don) Yeah, the SR-71 will call the tower, they'll call >> us, and we'll make an announcement. >>1020 (PA) The SR-71 flyby will be delayed at least 20 minutes. >> Please listen for further information. >>1030 (??) ROOOOAAAARRRRR! I was on the roof of the building during this whole time and there were only 30 or so of us on the roof during the first flyby. I wasn't looking as the PA had said 20 minutes to go but I noticed that some people were looking in a particular direction, I glance over. I can already see two engines and fuselage! And the camcorder is still in the bag! I missed the first pass completely. no more than 10 seconds since I glanced up. >>103001 (Mary and about 20 others) OH SHIT >I'm told it should be 200, not 20. >>103002 Sound of many running feet > 1031 (PA) The SR-71 has arrived. >>And back he did indeed come. Straight at us, no more than 100 ft AGL. >>Look at the smoke. Come on, burner, burner, burner! Burner light! >>OH, WOW. Did you feel that? My whole body is resonating. Look at >>the burners. OH, WOW. Is he going to do another one? Overheard as the SR takes a bead on the building. Okay, you can pull up now... Okay, you can pull up now... Okay, now pull up... Okay, pull UP... PULL UP... PULL UP!!! PULL UP!!! RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!! I did get (barely) acceptable video of the second pass, hard to hold the camcorder still when the whole building shakes. I would agree with Mary about the left burner not leaving a good plume. BTW, with the zoom all the way out (maximum wide) as the SR passed over head it does not fit in the frame. I don't think they get much closer than that. >When the SR-71 was directly overhead, I could see only one burner >cone, from the right burner. After he passed, I looked up the >tailpipe and saw the orange flame in both burners. I thought I just >didn't see the left cone--sun angle or something. After discussing it >with some other engineers, we've decided that he probably didn't get a >good light on the left burner. I'm told, however, that this flyby was >louder than that of the previous SR-71, which had both burners lit. >Anyway, you should have been here. That motion seconded and carried. Just another day on the high desert of California... -- Albion H. Bowers bowers@elxsi.dfrf.nasa.gov ames!elxsi.dfrf.nasa.gov!bowers NASA Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA Aerodynamics: The ONLY way to fly! Live to ski, ski to live... ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V11 #172 *******************