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 ; Fri, 19 Oct 1990 03:32:47 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: Precedence: junk Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Fri, 19 Oct 1990 03:31:50 -0400 (EDT) Subject: SPACE Digest V12 #469 SPACE Digest Volume 12 : Issue 469 Today's Topics: Pioneer 11 Update - 10/17/90 Re: Hubble Magellan Update - 10/16/90 Re: Voyager question Re: Homebuilt Manned Rockets Re: michael mattock :Unknown ML Re: Cassini mission? Re: Venus/Magellan, poles Saturn background for Macintosh NASA can you help me. Ulysses Update - 10/17/90 Re: Man-rated SRBs (was Re: Junk the shuttle?) Saturn's Great White Spot article Administrivia: Submissions to the SPACE Digest/sci.space should be mailed to space+@andrew.cmu.edu. Other mail, esp. [un]subscription notices, should be sent to space-request+@andrew.cmu.edu, or, if urgent, to tm2b+@andrew.cmu.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 17 Oct 90 16:06:29 GMT From: usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov!baalke@apple.com (Ron Baalke) Subject: Pioneer 11 Update - 10/17/90 Pioneer 11 Update October 17, 1990 The Pioneer 11 spacecraft emergency continues. Yesterday, the 70 meter antenna in Spain used it high power transmitter at 400 kw, and Ames Research Center reported receiving telemetry intermittently for 8 minutes, 11 minutes, 8 minutes and 19 minutes. The 70 meter station in Goldstone also provided uplink support at 400 kw. The station was able to verify a 3-way downlink with the 70 meter antenna in Spain, although receiver lock remained intermittent. The maximum AGC (Automatic Gain Control) was at -172 DBM. There was no telemetry data acquired during this pass. ___ _____ ___ /_ /| /____/ \ /_ /| | | | | __ \ /| | | | Ron Baalke | baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov ___| | | | |__) |/ | | |___ Jet Propulsion Lab | baalke@jems.jpl.nasa.gov /___| | | | ___/ | |/__ /| M/S 301-355 | |_____|/ |_|/ |_____|/ Pasadena, CA 91109 | ------------------------------ Date: 17 Oct 90 16:22:52 GMT From: sun-barr!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!henry@apple.com (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: Hubble In article <1348@beguine.UUCP> Bill.Green@samba.acs.unc.edu (Bill Green) writes: >So, what's the status of the Hubble telescope? I haven't seen anything posted recently >and haven't heard much about it on the news. Anyone have a current update? It's working. They're still sorting out the optics, but they've already gotten some very encouraging results from the combination of the existing optics and image enhancement; the cameras are not as useless as some people thought. -- "...the i860 is a wonderful source | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology of thesis topics." --Preston Briggs | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry ------------------------------ Date: 16 Oct 90 18:44:38 GMT From: agate!bionet!uwm.edu!caen!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov!baalke@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Ron Baalke) Subject: Magellan Update - 10/16/90 Magellan Mission Status October 16, 1990 All of Magellan's spacecraft systems are performing nominally as Magellan starts its 229th orbit. The 7 star calibrations and the 2 desaturations of the reaction wheels of the past 24 hours were fully successful with nominal attitude updates. Yesterday the set points of the Battery 1 heaters were changed to avoid both heaters coming on at the same time. Today the AACS (Atitude and Articulation Control Subsystem) memory B will be filled with an alternating bit pattern of 1's and 0's, and mapping sequence M0290 will be uploaded. The actual vs software commanded position of the solar array drive has continued to diverge. This problem is believed to be a related to the present Sun position causing the solar panel rotation to be constrained by the physical stops. Because of cable wrap, the solar panels cannot rotate 360 degrees and there is a tracking dead band. The build up of error on each orbit between the command panel position and the reported position may be due to non-linearities building up in a potentiometer or an A-D converter. Moving the software stops further away from the physical stops did not help. Investigation is continuing. From Sun sensor data, we know the solar panels are pointing to the Sun within 0.5 degrees, well within what is required to charge the battery on each orbit. The fault protection remains disabled and the solar panels are correctly pointed at the sun reference to the sun sensors. The angle between the Sun, Earth and Magellan is now down to 4.4 degrees. The predicted limit of S-Band communications thru the High Gain Antenna is 3.4 degrees, which we will reach on Saturday, 20 October. The radar system continues to operate normally. Eleven new standard image swaths, and one test swath were produced by the SAR Processor yesterday. Six orbits of altimeter data were also processed to test the data quality. ___ _____ ___ /_ /| /____/ \ /_ /| | | | | __ \ /| | | | Ron Baalke | baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov ___| | | | |__) |/ | | |___ Jet Propulsion Lab | baalke@jems.jpl.nasa.gov /___| | | | ___/ | |/__ /| M/S 301-355 | |_____|/ |_|/ |_____|/ Pasadena, CA 91109 | ------------------------------ Date: 17 Oct 90 17:23:32 GMT From: swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars!baalke@ucsd.edu (Ron Baalke) Subject: Re: Voyager question In article <1990Oct17.171744.27262@jato.jpl.nasa.gov> baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov (Ron Baalke) writes: >dwj@cnd.hp.com (Dave Jerzycki) writes: >> >> Ron, >> Just a few quick questions regarding the Voyager spacecraft... >> >> 1) What is the approx. location of Voyager 1? Voyager 2? > > Voyager 1 is south of the ecliptic plane, leaving the solar system > at a 35 degree angle. Voyager 2 left south at a 48 degree angle. > Correction: Voyager 1 is north of the ecliptic plane. ------------------------------ Date: 18 Oct 90 09:07:11 GMT From: mintaka!olivea!samsung!umich!sharkey!msuinfo!news@bloom-beacon.mit.edu (Patrick J Draper) Subject: Re: Homebuilt Manned Rockets In article yamauchi@cs.rochester.edu (Brian Yamauchi) writes: > >About a year ago, I remember reading an article in Popular Mechanics >about someone who had built a supersonic jet (a single-seater, I >believe, which looked something like a mini-F-15) and was planning to >sell it in kit form. He had previously sold a number of subsonic >homebuilt jet airplane kits. > >Is there anything inherently more complex about building a manned >(suborbital) rocket than building a manned supersonic jet? Would it >be possible for a wealthy individual with the appropriate skills (or a >wealthy individual + people with the appropriate skills -- say, EAA I'm sure it would be MUCH more complex than building and operating a jet plane. Mercury and Gemini were hardly simple. Rocket fuel is more explosive than jet fuel. In fact, a rocket fuel explosion can equal the force of a similar weight of TNT. The Gemini rockets used hypergolic fuels. That way the only ignition system required were valves to allow the fuel to mix and spontaneously ignite in the combustion chamber. Even people with experience with rocket fuel can make mistakes, thus, the whole set of procedures associated with fuel handling must necessarily be more complex to avoid any possibility of error. Patrick Draper ---- Michigan State University ------------------------------ Date: 18 Oct 90 11:08:24 GMT From: eru!hagbard!sunic!mcsun!unido!mpirbn!p515dfi@bloom-beacon.mit.edu (Daniel Fischer) Subject: Re: michael mattock :Unknown ML Why are there suddenly so many old SPACE Digests on the net - with the 'headers' *behind* the text? And, who is Michael Mattock ??? ------------------------------ Date: 18 Oct 90 15:09:35 GMT From: usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars!baalke@ucsd.edu (Ron Baalke) Subject: Re: Cassini mission? In article <6974.271dab6f@abo.fi> mlindroos@abo.fi writes: > > I've heard very little of the proposed Cassini/Huygens mission to >Saturn. All I know is that it's supposed to leave Earth in 1996 and will reach >its destination in about 2002 and drop a probe (Huygens) on Titan. Will >Cassini map Titan by radar, for example? Is the Huygens-lander to be equipped >with a camera? Hopefully somebody (JPL) can send a brief mission description! Cassini will be launched in 1996 and will conduct detailed studies of Saturn's atmosphere, rings and magnetosphere. It will also conduct close-up studies of the moons of Saturns, including a probe to Titan. The orbiter will carry six optical sensors, nine fields & particles detectors, a Titan radar mapper, and a radio science instrument. The Titan probe, Huygens, will have five instruments to measure the atmosphere of Titan, a descent imager and radiometer, lightning and radio-emission detector, and a surface science package. If Huygens survives its descent on Titan, it will continue to relay data from the surface. The Cassini orbiter will be built by JPL, the Titan probe will be built by ESA. Here are the key scheduled dates for Cassini: Cassini Mission ------------------------- 04/08/96 - Launch 03/29/97 - Asteroid Maja Flyby 06/08/98 - Earth flyby (gravity assist) 02/06/00 - Jupiter flyby (gravity assist) 12/06/02 - Saturn Arrival 03/17/03 - Huygens Probe Descent to Titan 12/31/06 - End of primary mission ___ _____ ___ /_ /| /____/ \ /_ /| | | | | __ \ /| | | | Ron Baalke | baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov ___| | | | |__) |/ | | |___ Jet Propulsion Lab | baalke@jems.jpl.nasa.gov /___| | | | ___/ | |/__ /| M/S 301-355 | |_____|/ |_|/ |_____|/ Pasadena, CA 91109 | ------------------------------ Date: 18 Oct 90 15:47:33 GMT From: sdd.hp.com!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!samsung!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!henry@ucsd.edu (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: Venus/Magellan, poles In article <9920@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu> tholen@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (David Tholen) writes: >The choice is arbitrary. On the Earth, London was chosen because Britain >was the main seafaring nation of the time, so their choice is the one that >caught on... Actually, it's not hard to find old maps which still have the zero meridian centered on Berlin or Paris. Universal acceptance of Greenwich is relatively recent, although it's been the de facto standard for a long time. -- "...the i860 is a wonderful source | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology of thesis topics." --Preston Briggs | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry ------------------------------ Date: 18 Oct 90 18:42:08 GMT From: robotman!saari@sun.com (Michael Saari x63609) Subject: Saturn background for Macintosh If you're a Macintosh user and a space buff, read on. After some fooling around with my Macintosh, trying to find an aesthetically pleasing background pattern with the standard 8x8-pixel, monochrome repeating pattern, I came up with the following. I call it "Saturn". It looks nice on my system, and also reminds me of space looking at it. You're welcome to use it. (It looks better at the final, small size than it will here...) . . . . . . . . . . . O . . . . . . . . . o O . . . O O O O . . . . O O O . . . . O O O O . . . O o . . . . . . . . . . . . . . This can be done as either a white planet on black background, or vice versa. If you're doing a white planet on black background, make all O's and o's white and the .'s black. If you're doing an inverse image (black planet on a white background), which is actually my preference, make *only* the O's black (NOT the o's). This makes a more pleasing, "thinner" ring effect (but it just doesn't work the other polarity). Enjoy! Michael Saari Sun SBus Technical Support Group saari@robotman.Eng.sun.COM (415) 336-3609 Michael Saari c/o saari@Eng.sun.com (415) 336-3609 "Roly-poly fish heads are never seen drinking cappucino in Italian restaurants with Oriental women." Barnes & Barnes, "Fish Heads" ------------------------------ Date: 18 Oct 90 15:37:42 GMT From: mcsun!ukc!stc!billyk@uunet.uu.net (Billy Khan) Subject: NASA can you help me. Greetings all, Could anyone in your establishment please provide me with the names of all the shuttles, along with their date of release and breifly detail what each are used for (if there is any difference). The reason I ask is just that I was recently involved in an argument about this and I need some back up from the people who know (YOU LOT). Many Thanx Billy. The TURBO-SWIFTER. ------------------------------ Date: 17 Oct 90 17:27:16 GMT From: swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov!baalke@ucsd.edu (Ron Baalke) Subject: Ulysses Update - 10/17/90 ULYSSES MISSION STATUS October 17, 1990 Today the flight dynamics team is evaluating results of thruster firings performed the past two days as part of the first Trajectory Correction Maneuver for Ulysses. A final thruster burn concluding this week's maneuver will be performed Thursday, October 18, beginning at about 11 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) (1800 Universal Time (UTC)) and ending at about 9 p.m. PDT (0400 UTC October 19). The second of Ulysses's two Trajectory Correction Maneuvers is scheduled to be performed on Friday, November 2. That maneuver will make final adjustments in the spacecraft's flight path on its way to Jupiter encounter in February 1992. On Friday, October 19, flight controllers will begin to turn on Ulysses's nine science instruments. All covers on the science instruments will be released with the exception of the HISCALE (Heliospheric Instrument for Spectra, Composition and Anisotropy at Low Energies) instrument. The first instrument to be turned on will be the Energetic-Particle Composition and Neutral Gas instrument. In addition, heaters for the Solar-Wind Ion-Composition Spectrometer will be started in preparation for that instrument to be turned on Saturday, October 20. All onboard systems were operating normally. ___ _____ ___ /_ /| /____/ \ /_ /| | | | | __ \ /| | | | Ron Baalke | baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov ___| | | | |__) |/ | | |___ Jet Propulsion Lab | baalke@jems.jpl.nasa.gov /___| | | | ___/ | |/__ /| M/S 301-355 | |_____|/ |_|/ |_____|/ Pasadena, CA 91109 | ------------------------------ Date: 17 Oct 90 17:16:37 GMT From: sdd.hp.com!samsung!umich!umeecs!msi.umn.edu!cs.umn.edu!kksys!orbit!pnet51!schaper@ucsd.edu (S Schaper) Subject: Re: Man-rated SRBs (was Re: Junk the shuttle?) How to the throttleable solids developed by a private US company using LOX for the oxidizer measure up in this evaluation? UUCP: {amdahl!bungia, uunet!rosevax, chinet, killer}!orbit!pnet51!schaper The necktie is a device of Mordor ARPA: crash!orbit!pnet51!schaper@nosc.mil INET: schaper@pnet51.cts.com ------------------------------ Date: 17 Oct 90 18:07:15 GMT From: swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov!baalke@ucsd.edu (Ron Baalke) Subject: Saturn's Great White Spot article Washington Times -- 10/17/90 "Saturn Storm a Spectacle" "A gargantuan storm 1 1/2 times as wide as Earth has developed suddenly in Saturn's atmosphere, and the Hubble Space Telescope will be used to watch it, astronomers said today." The Washington Times reports that an oval-shaped white spot some 12,500 by 3,100 miles in size has formed in the atmosphere of the solar system's second largest planet. The story cites information from astronomer Reta Beebe at the New Mexico State University, who says that two smaller white spots have developed along with the huge oval spot and that the three spots together cover about 50,000 miles, nearly one third of Saturn's circumference. The report says that astronomers are so excited about this planetary storm that the Hubble Space Telescope will be used to study it. ___ _____ ___ /_ /| /____/ \ /_ /| | | | | __ \ /| | | | Ron Baalke | baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov ___| | | | |__) |/ | | |___ Jet Propulsion Lab | baalke@jems.jpl.nasa.gov /___| | | | ___/ | |/__ /| M/S 301-355 | |_____|/ |_|/ |_____|/ Pasadena, CA 91109 | ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V12 #469 *******************