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, 30 Nov 1990 03:24:54 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: Precedence: junk Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Fri, 30 Nov 1990 03:24:19 -0500 (EST) Subject: SPACE Digest V12 #596 SPACE Digest Volume 12 : Issue 596 Today's Topics: Re: MIR broken? NASA Headline News for 11/20/90 (Forwarded) Re: ELV Support to Space Station (1 of 2) Re: Apollo LightCraft and Lasers Re: Recent DoD Space System Cost Data ... Russia and Mars? NASA Headline News for 11/15/90 (Forwarded) 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: 27 Nov 90 18:50:17 GMT From: shlump.nac.dec.com!star.dec.com!hughes@decuac.dec.com (Gary Hughes - VMS Development) Subject: Re: MIR broken? In article <9011270645.AA07783@rhmr.com>, r@fermat.UUCP (Richard Schroeppel) writes... >I was talking to someone who works on Fred design at a Thanksgiving dinner. >He claimed that MIR is sufficiently disabled that it should be regarded >as broken: that the damaged air-lock hinges -> they can't pressurize the >main large module -> they must wear suits in this module, which prevents >their accomplishing useful work; and that the remaining two pressurized >modules were disconnected, and going from one to the other required a suit, >and probably used up a lot of air every time they opened a door. > Well, he must have a unique source of information. From my reading of 'Spaceflight' etc, they cannot close the outer hatch on the large airlock on the Kvant-2 module (from memory, it definitely one of the expansion modules). This means that they effectively cannot use this airlock (without depressurizing the Kvant-2 module) which restricts their EVA activity somewhat. It may also impact their use of their MMU. It does not affect the presure integrity of the main module, or any of the expansion modules. Even the main body of the Kvant-2 is useable, and there are other airlocks on Mir. I believe they are sending up replacement parts in the next Progress-M. Or they already have. gary hughes @star.dec.com ------------------------------ Date: 29 Nov 90 21:32:51 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: NASA Headline News for 11/20/90 (Forwarded) Headline News Internal Communications Branch (P-2) NASA Headquarters Tuesday, November 20, 1990 Audio Service: 202 / 755-1788 This is NASA Headline News for Tuesday, November 20, 1990 Atlantis is still in orbit, doing fine as is its crew. There are enough expendables onboard to support orbital operations through Thursday. With just 90 seconds left before loss-of- signal and less than four minutes to go to the scheduled deorbit maneuver, which would have put Atlantis down at Edwards Air Force Base yesterday afternoon at 5:25 pm EST, Johnson Space Center mission controllers waived STS-38 off. The moderate media drama which this created was caused by shifting winds at EAFB which created a no-go landing condition for all runways due to unacceptable crosswinds. The winds preceded a strong front which moved through the Southern California area last evening and which is continuing to cause no-go conditions for an Edwards landing today. Predicted Edwards weather today calls for winds out of the NE at 15 knots with gusts to 25 knots. Weather predictions for the Kennedy Space Center area call for light winds with scattered clouds at 4,000 and 30,000 feet. JSC flight management is watching the weather situation very carefully and is prepared to have the STS-38 Atlantis crew try for any of three possible landing opportunities at Edwards today. They are: 1) Deorbit on REV 79 at 3:37 pm EST with landing at EAFB at 4:35 pm; 2) Deorbit on REV 80 at 5:12 pm EST with landing at EAFB at 6:09 pm; and 3) Deorbit on REV 81 at 6:47 pm EST with landing at EAFB at 7:43 pm. There is also one landing opportunity for Kennedy Space Center on REV 79 at 3:46 pm EST with a landing at 4:43 pm. Meanwhile at launch pad 39-B at Kennedy Space Center, tankers are delivering to the pair of large storage spheres the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants which will be used to fill Columbia's external tank for the STS-35 mission. On the fixed service structure, the orbiter mid-body umbilical will be connected today and leak checked. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Marshall Space Flight Center officials recently hosted a tour of the Center for a group of international journalists. The group included reporters from Bulgaria, Singapore, Germany, United Kingdom, Spain, Bophuthatswana, Zimbabwe, Denmark, South Africa, Canada, Portugal, USSR, and Norway who were visiting on a tour organized by CNN. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The second NASA Educators Videoconference, produced for NASA Headquarters by Oklahoma State University, will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 27. The program topic will be the Astro-1 astronomy mission. A portion of the program will originate from Marshall's Payload Operations Control Center. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Carl McNair, brother of 51-L astronaut Ron McNair, is working with a number of Atlanta area schools on several science and math education initiatives. Marshall center education staff have been assisting in his efforts. Here's the broadcast schedule for Public Affairs events on NASA Select TV. All times are Eastern. **indicates a live program. Tuesday, 11/20/90 1:00 pm **Augustine Group meeting from George Washington University, Washington, DC. All events and times may change without notice. This report is filed daily, Monday through Friday, at 12:00 pm, EST. It is a service of Internal Communications Branch at NASA Headquarters. Contact: CREDMOND on NASAmail or at 202/453-8425. NASA Select TV: Satcom F2R, Transponder 13, C-Band, 72 degrees West Longitude, Audio 6.8, Frequency 3960 MHz. ------------------------------ Date: 29 Nov 90 15:00:09 GMT From: sumax!amc-gw!thebes!polari!crad@beaver.cs.washington.edu (Charles Radley) Subject: Re: ELV Support to Space Station (1 of 2) + My guesses: If, at the moment it is dropped, the velocity of the +spanner wrt station is at rightangles (either plane) to the orbital + velocity of the station, then spanner and station should meet twice + per orbit. Parallel velocities and the spanner will move in or out + and they won't meet. Inbetween, interpolate! Max collision velocity: + (2x?) spanners' initial speed wrt station (i.e. very slow, as orbital + collisions go). - No they would not meet twice per orbit, because they would have different orbital periods. Ignoring regression, they would pass through the same points in space twice per orbit, but at different times. In practise, objects orbiting at different altitude experience nodal regression at different rates, so as soon as the spanner is dropped, the planes of the orbits of the spanner and station will diverge. In order to collide, many orbits would have to occur such that both objects arrive at the intersection at the same time, and that in turn must coincide with a moment where regression has caused both orbital planes to become coincincident. Therefore the chances of them meeting during a 30 year station life are negligible. ------------------------------ Date: 26 Nov 90 20:50:26 GMT From: rochester!dietz@louie.udel.edu (Paul Dietz) Subject: Re: Apollo LightCraft and Lasers In article <1990Nov26.172825.18549@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes: >Since lasers are inefficient, you will need several gigawatts of power. >Your local power company simply won't sell you that much. They don't >have that kind of capacity lying around, especially when you want it in >bursts of a few minutes at random times. You will have to build your >own power plant, and it will be among the world's biggest. Henry, you know better than that. The most economical source of electrical power to for delivery over a period of minutes is a stack of lead-acid batteries (granted, a sizeable stack in this case). The utility would be happy to sell you a few tens of megawatts of power to charge your batteries so you could launch one payload per day. One need not generate one's own power. Paul F. Dietz dietz@cs.rochester.edu ------------------------------ Date: 26 Nov 90 12:05:50 GMT From: swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!van-bc!rsoft!mindlink!a752@ucsd.edu (Bruce Dunn) Subject: Re: Recent DoD Space System Cost Data ... > gaserre@isis.cs.du.edu writes: > Person: Glenn A. Serre > > In article <1653.274BF76A@ofa123.fidonet.org> > Wales.Larrison@ofa123.fidonet.org (Wales Larrison) writes: > > >... The IUS (Inertial Upper Stage), > >which has had a troubled cost history, is very expensive - costing > >about 5 X the cost of at least one satellite it deploys (the DSP). > > Shouldn't be too suprising, it's built using the standard government > acquisition process (I think, corrections are welcome). > What is particularly ironic is that the "Inertial Upper Stage" initially had a different name - the "Interim Upper Stage". When initially conceived, it was a stopgap, quick and dirty solid fuel booster to be used only until proper liquid fueled orbital transfer vehicles were built. When plans for the latter were dropped, the name was changed to "Inertial" because the stage was no longer "Interim" and they wanted to leave the acronym "IUS" unchanged. -- Bruce Dunn Vancouver, Canada a752@mindlink.UUCP ------------------------------ Date: 29 Nov 90 05:38:16 GMT From: agate!bionet!uwm.edu!src.honeywell.com!msi.umn.edu!cs.umn.edu!uc!noc.MR.NET!nic.stolaf.edu!thor.acc.stolaf.edu!raich@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Thomas Raich) Subject: Russia and Mars? Well, what is know about these craft? The one at Mars, what is it doing, what is it's mission and has anyone besides the USSR seen some of the returned matherial, are they sharing? What happened to the other craft? Is there a better idea of the error than what I have said? Any info would be appreciated. I will summarize and post to the net or send to intested parties. Thanks for your time, Thomas >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Thomas R. Raich It's what you Microcomputer Coordinator/ do with the beans User Services that counts... Academic Computer Center --Jack St.Olaf College Internet: raich@acc.stolaf.edu Applelink: UO691 <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< 1. PV = NRT 2. F = MA 3. You cant push on a rope. Learn any two of the three and get your college degree. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ------------------------------ Date: 29 Nov 90 20:42:25 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: NASA Headline News for 11/15/90 (Forwarded) Headline News Internal Communications Branch (P-2) NASA Headquarters Thursday, November 15, 1990 Audio Service: 202 / 755-1788 This is NASA Headline News for Thursday, November 15, 1990 The countdown for the launch of STS-38 continues to go smoothly. No hardware anomalies have been reported and presently there are no constraints to tanking operations. However, weather at launch time remains somewhat of a concern. A high pressure area over the Carolinas is pushing easterly winds and stratocumulus clouds across the Florida peninsula. The principal concerns are scattered to broken clouds at the 4,000 to 7,000 foot level in the area, and crosswinds which might exceed 12 knots at the launch pad and the Shuttle Landing Facility. The probability of violating launch and Return-to-Launch-Site abort constraints has risen from yesterday's 40 percent to 60 percent today. The prediction for a 24-hour launch delay calls for a probability of no more than 30 percent violation of launch or RTLS constraints. Activities associated with the Columbia STS-35 Astro-1 mission continue to progress smoothly. Yesterday, orbiter operations included topping off the hydrazine tanks for the onboard auxiliary power units. Also yesterday, Johnson and Marshall Space center personnel participated in another joint integrated simulation of the 10-day astronomy mission. The Flight Readiness Review for this mission is currently set for Tuesday, Nov. 27, at the Kennedy Space Center. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Science instrument turn-on activities on the Ulysses spacecraft will conclude this week, as the last of the nine experiments is activated. Jet Propulsion Laboratory flight controllers executed a pair of maneuvers yesterday which more precisely aimed Ulysses' high gain antenna at Earth. Starting today, the spacecraft will begin to transmit its data on X-band. The X-band offers higher data transmission rates. The flight control team has continued to analyze a slight wobble which was noticed just after the deployment of the Ulysses axial boom, nine days ago. The analysis team is still considering what, if any, corrective action to take. As of yesterday, Ulysses is 22 million miles from Earth moving outward at a heliocentric velocity of 86,000 miles per hour. This is about 26,000 mph faster than Galileo at the current time. Following the Earth 1 Gravity Assist Flyby, Saturday, Dec. 8, Galileo will be travelling at about 72,000 mph relative to the Sun. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Magellan project officials will hold a mission news conference tomorrow at 1:00 pm EST to discuss current spacecraft status and recent science results. A Venus radar image 3-D computer animation sequence will be featured during the press briefing. Project manager Anthony Spear, project scientist Dr. Stephen Saunders, MIT scientists Dr. Gordon Pettengill and Dr. Sean Solomon, and Washington University scientist Dr. Ray Arvidson will participate. The press briefing will be shown on NASA Select TV. Magellan, meanwhile, continues to perform well since its mapping mission resumed last Saturday. On Tuesday, flight controllers transmitted a software patch to correct oscillation of the onboard solar panels. The new software patch corrects an onboard computer conflict which was causing the oscillations. Spacecraft performance analysis has indicated that there may be some degradation in one track of the onboard A-side tape recorder. JPL is studying data management strategies which would work around the use of that track. Another problem with timing, which affects pointing of the radar antenna beam, is also being studied. This timing problem may cause minor to moderate image quality degradation, however the onboard processor may be able to be compensate for it. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * NASA has selected the principal investigators and science teams for the Saturn Orbiter portion of the Cassini mission, scheduled for launch in 1996. The investigators come from 11 U.S. universities, 3 NASA centers and 3 other U.S. laboratories, as well as 13 foreign countries. The Saturn Orbiter will include 62 investigations encompassing analysis of the structure and composition of Saturn's atmosphere, the physical properties of ring particles, a survey of moonlets within the rings, and a close look at several moons. The NASA centers are the Ames Research Center, the Goddard Space Flight Center, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Here's the broadcast schedule for Public Affairs events on NASA Select TV. All times are Eastern. **indicates a live program. Thursday, 11/15/90 11:30 am NASA Update will be transmitted. 4:30 pm **NASA Select will begin coverage of STS-38. All events and times may change without notice. This report is filed daily, Monday through Friday, at 12:00 pm, EST. It is a service of Internal Communications Branch at NASA Headquarters. Contact: CREDMOND on NASAmail or at 202/453-8425. NASA Select TV: Satcom F2R, Transponder 13, C-Band, 72 degrees West Longitude, Audio 6.8, Frequency 3960 MHz. ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V12 #596 *******************