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, 6 Dec 1990 01:54:27 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: Precedence: junk Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Thu, 6 Dec 1990 01:53:33 -0500 (EST) Subject: SPACE Digest V12 #624 SPACE Digest Volume 12 : Issue 624 Today's Topics: Another Russian first Re: Translunar/interplanetary shuttle? Re: Translunar/interplanetary shuttle? Fueling Columbia Re: Photon engine Re: Another Russian first Astro-1 Status for 12/04/90 [1521 CST] (Forwarded) Astro-1 Status for 12/03/90 [2130 CST] (Forwarded) Astro-1 Status for 12/04/90 [0550 CST] (Forwarded) Astro-1 Status for 12/05/90 [0500 CST] (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: 2 Dec 90 23:15:11 GMT From: lime!techno@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Frank G. Dahncke) Subject: Another Russian first Now the USSR even has had the first paying passenger in a spacecraft. Actually, I would have expected this feat to be performed by the US. Are there any other spaceflight "firsts" that the USA has achived exept for the first man on the moon ? Curious, Techno -- | techno@zelator.in-berlin.de ||| Please do not e-mail from outside Germany ! | | techno@lime.in-berlin.de / | \ Hardcore ST user ! ====================== | | Nothing that's real is ever for free, you just have to pay for it sometime. | | (Al Stewart) | ------------------------------ Date: 3 Dec 90 12:17:09 GMT From: pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!uupsi!sunic!news.funet.fi!ra!abo.fi!mlindroos@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Subject: Re: Translunar/interplanetary shuttle? In article <3550@orbit.cts.com>, rambler@pnet51.orb.mn.org (Dan Meyer) writes: > AEGQC@CUNYVM (Audra G.) writes: >>The latest issue of _Analog_ has an article describing how the shuttle >>could be adapted as a moon ship. Apparently if the ship either carried >>two extra boosters or was refueled in orbit, it would be able to reach >>and return from lunar orbit, using a LEM-like craft carried in the cargo >>bay to get people to the surface of the Moon and back. If this is indeed >>doable (and the article had a lot of mathematics), I would like to ask if, >>if still more tanks were added in orbit, the shuttle could be used to reach >>further celestial bodies as well. Any thoughts? --Shangti > > What about 1/2 the cargo bay for fuel, and half the cargo bay for an LEM ? > or maybe pick the LEM up in earth orbit, and drag it along behind as sort of a > "Space Trailer", using all of the cargo bay for fuel. maybe even send the LEM > to a Lunar Orbit, then making an EVA to it from the shuttle. > > Just some dangerous random thoughts As for the problem with the main engines (we've been told here that they are not restartable), would it be possible to use the extra fuel for the OMS engines instead...? (my guess is it won't be, anyway). BTW, do you think the shuttle would survive the atmospheric re-entry: a spacecraft returning from the moon is after all moving at higher velocities (11 km/s?) when it hits the upper atmosphere than the shuttle was designed for (6-7 km/s). Or would it be possible to avoid the problem by first performing an aerobraking maneuver, the re-enter and land? The soviet Zond 5-8 lunar probes used this technique in the late sixties. MARCU$ ------------------------------ Date: 3 Dec 90 17:58:51 GMT From: ubc-cs!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!watserv1!maytag!watdragon!watyew!jdnicoll@beaver.cs.washington.edu (Brian or James) Subject: Re: Translunar/interplanetary shuttle? It seems a bit inefficient to haul along those parts of the shuttle that exist to deal with the problem of re-entry. I doubt that NASA could (for absurd example) disconnect the wings, etc. in order to only pay the fuel needed to move those parts of the shuttle *useful* in a Earth-Moon transfer orbit. Anyone out there know how much of the shuttle is components needed to deal with re-entry? I suspect a specialised orbiter would be better, although I doubt funding could be gotten for same. Why bother using a launcher specialised for the Earth surface to LEO environment if you don't have to? James Nicoll ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Dec 90 10:14 EST From: LANGFORD@CRC.CRC.VCU.EDU Subject: Fueling Columbia X-Envelope-To: space+@andrew.cmu.edu My girlfriend asked a good question the other day, while we were waiting to watch the shuttle launch on TV: Did they fill up Columbia's tanks before the federal gas tax went up 5 cents/gallon at 1-Dec-1990 00:00? Think how much they would save! :-) :-) I though about it, and I don't think so. I don't think that they can keep the thing fueled on the pad for that long (>24 hours). Am I right? (Please, I know this is silly -- the gas tax is not for non-highway fuel (i.e., farm use, space, etc.). :-) :-) Bob Langford, langford@crc.crc.vcu.edu ------------------------------ Resent-Date: Mon, 03 Dec 90 13:29:57 CST Resent-From: JD Resent-Organization: University of Missouri- Rolla Resent-Message-Id: <901203.132957.CST.S105646@UMRVMA> Resent-To: space+@andrew.cmu.edu Date: Fri, 30 Nov 90 02:14:42 EST Reply-To: space+%ANDREW.CMU.EDU@UMRVMA.UMR.EDU From: space-request+%ANDREW.CMU.EDU%CARNEGIE.BITNET@UMRVMA.UMR.EDU Subject: Re: Photon engine Comments: To: space+@ANDREW.CMU.EDU To: Jeremy Wade >Someone mentioned something about a 'Jell-o' laser. (in reference to the fact > that almost anything can lase) I was wondering if anyone had info on this, as > I have not heard of this. It sounds quite amusing if it realy works (even at > very low power. I have heard of jello lazing before. We have talked about in a physics class. It was a low power laser, but according to the report it lazed quite well in fact. JD Wade University of Missouri-Rolla (S105646@UMRVMA) Computer Science, Student ------------------------------ Date: 3 Dec 90 19:14:09 GMT From: rochester!sol!yamauchi@louie.udel.edu (Brian Yamauchi) Subject: Re: Another Russian first In article techno@lime.in-berlin.de (Frank G. Dahncke) writes: Now the USSR even has had the first paying passenger in a spacecraft. Actually, I would have expected this feat to be performed by the US. Are there any other spaceflight "firsts" that the USA has achived exept for the first man on the moon ? Well, what about: First (successful) planetary probe -- Mariner 2 (Venus) First (successful) Mars probe -- Mariner 4 First Mars orbiter -- Mariner 9 First Mars lander -- Viking 1 First Mercury probe -- Mariner 10 First Jupiter probe -- Pioneer 10 First Saturn probe -- Pioneer 11 First Uranus probe -- Voyager 2 First Neptune probe -- Voyager 2 For those keeping count, that's every planet in the solar system except Pluto. And Galileo will add: First Jupiter orbiter First Jupiter atmospheric probe -- _______________________________________________________________________________ Brian Yamauchi University of Rochester yamauchi@cs.rochester.edu Computer Science Department _______________________________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: 5 Dec 90 05:55:43 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: Astro-1 Status for 12/04/90 [1521 CST] (Forwarded) Astro 1 Mission Report #17 3:21 p.m. CST, December 4, 1990 2/14:31 MET Spacelab Mission Operations Control Marshall Space Flight Center The Astro crew continued to find success with the payload's tnstrument Pointing System and multiple target acquisitions throughout the day as the flow of science continues. With the motion compensation system responding to command, the three ultraviolet telescopes successfully locked onto the star cluster M92 and the supergiant star, Alpha Orionis or "Betelgeuse." The M92 is a globular cluster which contains 16 known variable stars. Scientists with the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope team were excited to receive ultraviolet data and spectra from this source. Science teams with the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope and the Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment also received positive downlink from these trackings. The successful observations of these targets confirm evidence of the continuing improvement of the Instrument Pointing System aboard Columbia. ------------------------------ Date: 5 Dec 90 00:35:47 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: Astro-1 Status for 12/03/90 [2130 CST] (Forwarded) Astro 1 Shift Summary #06 9:30 p.m. CST, December 3, 1990 1/20:40 MET Spacelab Mission Operations Control Marshall Space Flight Center During the past eight to nine hours, Astro-1 payload operations aboard Columbia began to settle into the type of routine which had been hoped for pre-mission. Around noon (CST), one of the major milestones to date for the mission was passed when a successful observation was made on the mission's first target outside the Earth's atmosphere. It occurred when the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope was able to acquire and observe a distant galaxy designated by astronomers as NGC (New General Catalogue) 4151. The brightest Seyfert galaxy known, this object has a number of interesting features including emissions of blue and ultraviolet light -- characteristics which are unusual for this type of galaxy. The Astro-1 crew was able to acquire the target using a manual pointing mode of the Instrument Pointing System. The procedure, called "contingency target acquisition," involves using data from a star tracker system developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and incorporated into Astro-1's Image Motion Compensation System. Following the successful galaxy observation, efforts continued to obtain full acquisition capabilities with the Instrument Pointing System's Optical Sensor Package. The Optical Sensor Package star trackers, along with the Spacelab computer system's stellar software, provides the normal mode of automatically acquiring and locking onto desired celestial objects. With engineering support from both Houston and Huntsville, successive refinements over a several-hour period were made to the Optical Sensor Package pointing geometry. The efforts culminated around 7:30 p.m. CST when Payload Specialist Sam Durrance reported accomplishing the first successful IDOP, or operational identification, of a desired target. The target acquired with this pointing was a magnetic white dwarf designated as G70D8427, one which is of interest in the Astro-1 observational program because it has been studied quite thoroughly in visible and near ultraviolet light, but not in the far ultraviolet region. Another key milestone during the period was bringing all three ultraviolet telescopes into observe mode simultaneously at approximately 4:30 p.m. CST. Successful acquisition of scientific data was reported by principal investigators for both the Hopkin and Wisconsin instruments, and a photographic exposure was made by the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope. During the period, ground controllers for the Broad Band X-ray Telescope continued working procedures to bring their instrument into precise alignment with its Two-Axis Pointing System, which is separate from the Instrument Pointing System used by the ultraviolet telescopes. The BBXRT team reported progress and, as of late evening, was optimistic about reaching full operating status soon. The X-ray telescope did demonstrate successful acquisition of X-ray photons during the period, while aimed at the Crab Nebula. ------------------------------ Date: 5 Dec 90 00:40:08 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: Astro-1 Status for 12/04/90 [0550 CST] (Forwarded) Astro 1 Mission Report #15 05:50 a.m. CST, December 4, 1990 2/05:00 MET Spacelab Mission Operations Control Marshall Space Flight Center "Intensive efforts continue in trying to get good optical holds with the Instrument Pointing System in order to obtain the desired science targets that we have selected," said Astro-1 Assistant Mission Manager Stu Clifton, from Huntsville's Spacelab Mission Operations Control. "Following the sub-system computer crash earlier this evening, one of the star trackers on the optical sensor package failed to return to operating condition. This has made it much more difficult to acquire the targets we've scheduled. "Efforts are under way to recycle the star tracker to bring it back to full operating condition," said Clifton. "It is in these situations that one can see the value of the many simulations that we've held on Astro. We have simulated many failures, and having done so, the procedures for resolving these failures have been developed. And this has certainly facilitated our ability to resolve the problems that we get on a real mission." Mission Scientist Gene Urban made these comments regarding the status of the mission: "Before the sub-system computer crash, we got some beautiful data. We got some extremely good spectra. The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope has been operating well, and we're waiting to get the X-ray telescope realigned." UIT's first science data was received at approximately 11:13 CST. And the Broad Band X-ray Telescope is still performing tests during night passes to coalign the telescope with its Two Axis Pointing System. Attempts to automatically acquire scheduled science targets including Supernova 1987A were not successful. Though the targets are often apparently in the field of view, the crew was unsuccessful in locking onto guide stars. Therefore, Mission Specialist Bob Parker, using a joy stick, called a paddle, and Payload Specialist Ron Parise, typing on a keyboard, attempted to locate targets manually to acquire science data. "Give me a paddle and a telescope and I can move the universe!" said Parker. ------------------------------ Date: 5 Dec 90 18:18:09 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: Astro-1 Status for 12/05/90 [0500 CST] (Forwarded) Astro 1 Mission Report #19 05:00 a.m. CST, December 5, 1990 3/04:10 MET Spacelab Mission Operations Control Marshall Space Flight Center "Science? -- we expect it to be very exciting!" That's the word from Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope Replanner Bill Blair regarding a target acquired around 9 p.m. last night, referred to as G191B2B. This hot white dwarf star was used as a calibration target during the first part of their observation, then the HUT team switched over to a mode that cut out the longer wavelength light, so they could acquire science in just the extreme ultraviolet light. "It is the first spectra we have obtained in the extreme ultraviolet. The payload specialist said it was well detected, and we have good signal in the extreme ultraviolet. It is very exciting. Target 2509 was one of our highest objectives for the mission." Regarding the status of HUT's portion of the mission, Blair said: "We are still regrouping from the slow start, and we certainly are concerned about the shorter observations we have scheduled right now, because acquisition is taking so long. We have a lot of replanning of high priority targets that have been missed, but we are very hopeful. The mood is swinging up rapidly." Antonio Magalhaes, project scientist for the Wisconsin Ultraviolet Telescope, was proud to share one of his team's accomplishments: "We have the first observation of a star (Alpha Camelopardalis) which is polarized by the dust in the interstellar medium, that is, dust clouds in the plane of the galaxy. This is the first time such observations are being done in the ultraviolet with such resolution and sensitivity." This target was acquired around 1:45 p.m. yesterday. Data from this target star will provide scientists with new knowledge about the nature of interstellar grains or dust -- the place where stars are born. "The Wisconsin ultraviolet telescope is doing fine, in fact, great," said an enthusiastic Magalhaes. "The next seven days promise to be very exciting." According to Broad Band X-ray Telescope Co-Investigator Francis Marshall: "We have resolved the coalignment problem, and the Two Axis Pointing System successfully realigned at 12:38 p.m. CST. Since then we have observed clusters of glaxies: Abell 754, SNR Crab Nebula, Star AR Lac, nearby galaxy M81 and SNR CAS A. Everything is working very well." Astromomer Wayne Landsman, UIT team member, was happy to report a great observation on one of their most important targets, the Perseus Cluster. "We know from X-ray observations with the BBXRT that there is gas that flows into the center of all the Perseus Cluster of galaxies. No one knows what happens to all this. Does it go into making stars? Does it collapse into dark matter? "The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope is searching for star formation in the Perseus Cluster. We can test if star formation is occuring at very low levels, and these observations with Perseus Cluster are very good science." UIT Co-investigator Andrew Smith talked about several targets that the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope will be observing later in the mission, such as edge-on galaxies. "We will be looking for phenomena occuring above and below the planes of these galaxies, which we are seeing edge-on. We might expect to see emission from hot gas that is above or below the plane or even scattering from dust that's been lifted above the plane by radiation from hot stars in the disk of the galaxy. We will also be looking for star formation in the arms of spiral galaxies, as ultraviolet light is a very good signature for this occurence." "There are certain descrepancies now in cosmology, where the ages of globular clusters are older than what people predict for the universe. So by studying ultraviolet luminosities of the stars in these clusters, we can better determine if there is a real descrepancy with the models of the universe and with new data on these very old assemblies of stars," Landsman said. ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V12 #624 *******************