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 ; Sat, 1 Dec 1990 02:09:59 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: Precedence: junk Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Sat, 1 Dec 1990 02:09:26 -0500 (EST) Subject: SPACE Digest V12 #600 SPACE Digest Volume 12 : Issue 600 Today's Topics: Re: Naive HST question Magellan Update - 11/29/90 Re: Translunar/interplanetary shuttle? Hubble investigation report to be releaseed (Forwarded) KSC contractors honored at FY90 Small Business Awards Ceremony (Forwarded) Re: Spectacular event over Europe Re: Recent DoD Space System Cost Data ... Booster news from 19 November AW&ST Re: Congrats to Ted Molczan Re: Request for information on the SARSAT satellites Magellan Update - 11/28/90 Re: NASA renames Execllence Award for George M. Low (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: 29 Nov 90 19:04:31 GMT From: eru!hagbard!sunic!news.funet.fi!hydra!hylka!pahakala@bloom-beacon.mit.edu Subject: Re: Naive HST question > Do all the observations have to be made at > the same time? Does the much shorter wavelength of light require > impossible positioning accuracy? Etc. THAT's it !! Pasi Hakala Observatory Univ. of Helsinki ------------------------------ Date: 29 Nov 90 18:13:37 GMT From: julius.cs.uiuc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov!baalke@apple.com (Ron Baalke) Subject: Magellan Update - 11/29/90 MAGELLAN STATUS REPORT November 29, 1990 The Magellan spacecraft is in good health, and has completed seven successful mapping orbits and STARCALS (star calibrations) in the past 24 hours. Correcting a statement made two days ago, Magellan has completed 817 actual orbits since Venus Orbit Insertion on August 10. An adjustment was made to orbit numbers during the time prior to mapping which skipped 11 orbits. We have completed 443 orbits of radar mapping and have captured on the Earth all but 11.8 orbits. This represents about 25% of the surface area of Venus. The radar sensor continues excellent performance. We are waiting for additional radar data tapes from Goldstone to continue the analysis of the tape recorder tracks A1 & A3. Early indications were that the rate of errors or zero-filled frames was very low. ___ _____ ___ /_ /| /____/ \ /_ /| | | | | __ \ /| | | | Ron Baalke | baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov ___| | | | |__) |/ | | |___ Jet Propulsion Lab | baalke@jems.jpl.nasa.gov /___| | | | ___/ | |/__ /| M/S 301-355 | |_____|/ |_|/ |_____|/ Pasadena, CA 91109 | ------------------------------ Date: 29 Nov 90 22:24:08 GMT From: prism!ccoprmd@gatech.edu (Matthew DeLuca) Subject: Re: Translunar/interplanetary shuttle? In article <7633@eos.arc.nasa.gov> millard@eos.UUCP (Millard Edgerton) writes: >If the engines(mains) are not restartable, HOW DO THEY FIRE TO DE-ORBIT? >THINK ABOUT IT! Okay. They fire the OMS (Orbital Maneuvering System) engines to de-orbit. After MECO (main engine cutoff) at about 8 minutes into the flight, the main engines don't start up again. Um, not to be rude or anything...do you really work for NASA? -- Matthew DeLuca Georgia Institute of Technology Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, Office of Information Technology for they are subtle, and quick to anger. Internet: ccoprmd@prism.gatech.edu ------------------------------ Date: 29 Nov 90 22:16:22 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: Hubble investigation report to be releaseed (Forwarded) Sarah Keegan Headquarters, Washington, D.C. November 21, 1990 (Phone: 202/453-2754) N90-93 NOTE TO EDITORS: HUBBLE INVESTIGATION REPORT TO BE RELEASED Dr. Lew Allen, Chairman, Hubble Space Telescope Optical Systems Board of Investigation, will brief the press on the board's findings at 2:30 p.m. EST, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 1990, at the NASA Headquarters sixth floor auditorium, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. Copies of the board's final report to NASA will be available at the briefing. Also participating with Dr. Allen will be Dr. Lennard Fisk, NASA Associate Administrator for Space Science and Applications, and those members of the board whose schedules permit. The briefing will be carried on NASA Select television, Satcom F2R, transponder 13, 72 degrees West longitude, frequency 3960 MHz, audio 6.8 MHz. ------------------------------ Date: 22 Nov 90 04:32:51 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: KSC contractors honored at FY90 Small Business Awards Ceremony (Forwarded) [This posting was delayed by my travels. A question to the readers of this newsgroup: When I'm unable to post an article due to travel, would you like to see it posted on my return or just placed in the space archives for interested parties to retreive? -PEY] Bruce Buckingham 407/867-2468 Nov. 16, 1990 KSC RELEASE NO. 184 - 90 KSC CONTRACTORS HONORED AT FY90 SMALL BUSINESS AWARDS CEREMONY At the Seventh Annual Small Business Awards Ceremony held today at Kennedy Space Center's Spaceport USA, several KSC contractors were honored for their part in supporting the nation's space program. Two companies shared the award in the category for Large Prime Contractor of the Year. Honored for their support of small business were Lockheed Space Operations Company and McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Company. These same two companies also received "Category A" awards from the Southeast Region of the Small Business Administration for their use and support of Small and Disadvantaged Businesses. Lockheed currently holds the KSC Shuttle Processing Contract. McDonnell Douglas currently holds the KSC Payload Ground Operations Contract. Honored as the Small Disadvantaged Prime Contractor was Arcata Associates, Inc. for their work as the base operations contractor at Vandenberg, AFB, Ca. Honored as the Small Woman-Owned Prime Contractor was V.A. Paving, Inc. for its work on contracts to pave roads and parking facilities at KSC. Honored as the Small Business Subcontractor was Connecting Point Computer Centers for their performance under numerous subcontracts for supplying computer hardware and software. Honored as the Small Business Contractor was BRPH Architects-Engineers for work under several contracts providing architectual and engineering services. ------------------------------ Date: 26 Nov 90 12:51:33 GMT From: eru!hagbard!sunic!mcsun!unido!mpirbn!p515dfi@bloom-beacon.mit.edu (Daniel Fischer) Subject: Re: Spectacular event over Europe Reply-To: p515dfi@mpirbn.UUCP (Daniel Fischer) Organization: Max-Planck-Institut fuer Radioastronomie, Bonn In article <1990Nov19.104044.745@uni2a.unige.ch> pfennige@uni2a.unige.ch writes: > [...] >Third, a journalist told us that the Munich group of experienced observers >(leaded by Heinlein) had first proposed the meteorite option and sent this news >to AFP (Agence France Press). So experienced observers can be mislead. Just to set the record straight: the initial meteor explanation was indeed coming from Munich (its Public Observatory), but they were contacted by the German news agency dpa. At this time, only the shape of the phenomenon was known (a bright trail with scattered brilliant points of light) and thus the idea of a bolide was the most likely one. Heinlein was not involved: he spent the whole week in Belgium, installing more meteor cameras. Soon, however, it became clear that the thing had moved very slowly and the reentry hypotesis gained support. Next thing: a strange report in the media said to have originated from CNES, Toulose, saying that since 'it' moved horizontally it must have been *powered* flight. And again one day later, several news agencies report from *Paris* that NORAD had identified the rocket. Why does NORAD meet the press in Paris? Shouldn't there be a more direct way to get their opinion? ------------------------------ Date: 27 Nov 90 00:07:40 GMT From: isis!gaserre@uunet.uu.net (Glenn A. Serre) Subject: Re: Recent DoD Space System Cost Data ... 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). > Note also, the current average cost per unit of the Titan IV is >about $226.8 Million with 75 vehicles to be produced, and at about >40,000 lbs into LEO, this is $5670/lb! This was very suprizing to Shouldn't be too suprising, it's built using the standard government acquisition process (I think, corrections are welcome). >me, moreover since this cost cannot include upper stage costs since >IUS costs (used on the Titan IV) are called out as a separate >system. ... Actually, the IUS (of which not many more will be flown, probably because of the (very suprising to me) cost), is procured differently from the Centaur. The IUS contractor is an associate contractor, while the Centaur contractor is a subcontractor. Therefore, while the IUS costs are called out separately, the Centaur costs probably aren't. -- Glenn Serre gaserre@nyx.cs.du.edu ------------------------------ Date: 26 Nov 90 14:54:19 GMT From: ksr!clj%ksr.com@uunet.uu.net (Chris Jones) Subject: Booster news from 19 November AW&ST The first says that the Soviets have conducted extensive design work on an unmanned flyback booster with a payload capacity 50% greater than that of the Energia. The drawings show what resembles a shuttle with a payload fairing on its nose and four strap-ons mounted above its wings (the strap-ons are equipped with wings and jets and are recoverable). The main booster would use LH2 and LO2 engines, and would be 60 meters long. The payload fairing would open to deploy the cargo, then close and slide back down the booster body to shorten its length to 44 meters for reentry. They're trying out various wing configurations in wind tunnel tests. Also mentioned is the possibility of using actively cooled structures to protect the booster during reentry (no further details; perhaps they mean circulating liquids?). The second article concerns the possible launch of a solar storm warning satellite (the increase in solar storms in 1992 and 1993 has the potential for causing damage to the power grid--a 1989 storm caused a 9 hour blackout in Quebec and damage to transformers over a wider area). The satellite would be launched into a halo orbit around the Earth-Sun L1 point, about a million miles from Earth toward the Sun. The interesting part is that a Pegasus booster and an orbital transfer stage would be used to place the satellite there. The article doesn't say give a figure for the mass of the satellite, but it must be pretty light given the distance it has to go and the limited payload capacity of Pegasus. It's also mentioned that a Pegasus booster already in fabrication would be used for the mission. The booster was to have been used for the second Pegasus flight carying seven micro-sats for DARPA communicatins tests, but their deployment has been delayed, though the article doesn't say why. -- Chris Jones clj@ksr.com {world,uunet,harvard}!ksr!clj ------------------------------ Date: 27 Nov 90 12:26:29 GMT From: eru!hagbard!sunic!mcsun!unido!mpirbn!p515dfi@bloom-beacon.mit.edu (Daniel Fischer) Subject: Re: Congrats to Ted Molczan Reply-To: p515dfi@mpirbn.UUCP (Daniel Fischer) Organization: Max-Planck-Institut fuer Radioastronomie, Bonn In article <8384@scicom.AlphaCDC.COM> wats@scicom.AlphaCDC.COM (Bruce Watson) writes: >In article <15754@venera.isi.edu*, rogers@wlf.isi.edu (Craig Milo Rogers) writes: >* I noticed a similar article in the Los Angeles Times. It was >* attributed to United Press International. Do you suppose UPI treats >* the Usenet as an incoming newsfeed? It would be interesting to investigate this matter further as there must have been such a link in the past! Remember the 'Lynch the HST designers'- "debate" this June? One week later Newsweek in its long HST story mentioned that crazed astronomers were planning to murder the HST opticians, and that they were discussing that on an electronic network - obviously Usenet was meant. Hey folks, we're INFLUENTIAL! Dan ===<<>>=== ------------------------------ Date: 27 Nov 90 22:22:39 GMT From: dftsrv!nnjkg@ames.arc.nasa.gov Subject: Re: Request for information on the SARSAT satellites In article <673@kb2ear.UUCP>, you write... > >I am looking for any information about the SARSAT search and rescue > >satellites. The SARSAT project was managed by Goddard Space Center, however, there is no longer a listing in the current (10/90) or previous (4/90) internal phonebooks for the SARSAT project manager. This means the project is no longer operational or that management has been transfered to another agency. You could try the GSFC Public Affairs Office (301-286-6255) or possibly NOAA. Sorry I can't be more help. Joel Gallun Internet: nnjkg%robots.span@ames.arc.nasa.gov NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Voice: (301) 286-4435 #include Snail: GSFC, Code 735, Greenbelt MD 20771 ------------------------------ Date: 28 Nov 90 22:56:53 GMT From: att!linac!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov!baalke@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Ron Baalke) Subject: Magellan Update - 11/28/90 MAGELLAN STATUS REPORT November 28, 1990 The Magellan spacecraft is performing normally today and all seven star calibrations of the past 24 hours were fully successful with attitude updates averaging about 0.02 degrees. A new mapping sequence was uploaded yesterday and no commanding was scheduled for today. The engineering telemetry indicates that the radar sensor continues to operate normally. During the first 40 days of mapping the radar data tapes were delivered daily from the Deep Space Network stations. The schedule has been changed to weekly deliveries, as planned, so the processing schedule of new image swaths and mosaics has been affected. The project reports that there have been, as of Tuesday, 428 orbits of radar mapping with 416.2 orbits of radar image data on the ground. ___ _____ ___ /_ /| /____/ \ /_ /| | | | | __ \ /| | | | Ron Baalke | baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov ___| | | | |__) |/ | | |___ Jet Propulsion Lab | baalke@jems.jpl.nasa.gov /___| | | | ___/ | |/__ /| M/S 301-355 | |_____|/ |_|/ |_____|/ Pasadena, CA 91109 | ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Nov 90 09:47 CST From: Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey Subject: Re: NASA renames Execllence Award for George M. Low (Forwarded) Original_To: SPACE From yet another NASA press release: >RELEASE: 90-143 >NASA RENAMES EXCELLENCE AWARD FOR GEORGE M. LOW > NASA Administrator Richard H. Truly today announced that the >NASA Excellence Award has been renamed the George M. Low >Trophy. It is NASA's quality and excellence award to honor one >of America's outstanding space pioneers.... >The award >recognizes NASA prime contractors, subcontractors and suppliers >for outstanding achievement in quality and productivity >improvement and [Total Quality Management]. I am not sure this is the best way to honor George M. Low. I mean, if you were a contractor, would you be proud of having won NASA's Low Quality Award? O~~* /_) ' / / /_/ ' , , ' ,_ _ \|/ - ~ -~~~~~~~~~~~/_) / / / / / / (_) (_) / / / _\~~~~~~~~~~~zap! / \ (_) (_) / | \ | | Bill Higgins \ / Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory - - Bitnet: HIGGINS@FNALB.BITNET ~ Internet: HIGGINS@FNAL.FNAL.GOV SPAN/Hepnet/Physnet: 43011::HIGGINS ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V12 #600 *******************