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 ; Wed, 12 Dec 1990 21:09:10 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: Precedence: junk Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Wed, 12 Dec 1990 21:07:20 -0500 (EST) Subject: SPACE Digest V12 #642 SPACE Digest Volume 12 : Issue 642 Today's Topics: Re: Correction to my list of Firsts... NASA Headline News for 12/05/90 (Forwarded) ASTRO status at 3/11:48 MET Astro-1 Status for 12/05/90 [1239 CST] (Forwarded) atmospheric pressure on Mars ASTRO status at 3/20:54 Martian atmosphere/Total Recall Re: * SpaceNews 03-Dec-90 * 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: 5 Dec 90 00:59:43 GMT From: usc!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!newstop!exodus!concertina.Eng.Sun.COM!fiddler@ucsd.edu (Steve Hix) Subject: Re: Correction to my list of Firsts... In article <1990Dec4.235755.7124@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>, sfn20715@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Steve "il-Manhous" Norton) writes: > BTW, If I may point out something to all of the most kind people who have > responded: The Hubble does not do what it was designed to do. It fails > to do so because it has flaws. Consequently, I called it broken. Ever built an airplane? As in one that you can fly in? If you've done your work right (and the designer has done all his/her/its homework), then it's kick the tires and light the fires. Normally, however, (and especially if this is a new design) the first flight shows any number of problems. Some less minor than others. It might take quite a while to iron out the bugs and wrinkles and rough spots, but eventually you either get it all working right, or give up in disgust and trash it. The HST is a one-off, first-time, no-prototype item. And it's showing bugs, wrinkles,... A lot of the problems aren't even up in space right now, there were errors in procedures, etc. that were done down here. (And a bunch of 'em got re-elected, too.) Frankly, I'm a bit suprised that it workds as well as it does. The functional problems are irritating, but they can be fixed. What are the chances that the ground-based problems are going to be fixed? The people who worked on this are going to be working on other things in the future. Want to bet on how many lessons learned on this are going to be applied in future efforts, as opposed to how many errors will be repeated elsewhere? > I'm entirely aware that the Hubble might be brought up to speed sometime > in 1993, but that does not make it any less flawed. You probably wouldn't like working in some consumer-engineering field. There are few new products that don't come out with some problem or other than has to be fixed after the fact. (Not even if you're based in Stuttgart or Kobe.) A big budget is no guarantee of perfection...it's just a big budget. And this isn't necessarily all due to stupidity or laziness, just human imperfection. Sorry about that. -- ------------ The only drawback with morning is that it comes at such an inconvenient time of day. ------------ ------------------------------ Date: 5 Dec 90 18:00:30 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: NASA Headline News for 12/05/90 (Forwarded) Headline News Internal Communications Branch (P-2) NASA Headquarters Wednesday, December 5, 1990 Audio Service: 202 / 755-1788 This is NASA Headline News for Wednesday, December 5, 1990 "We have an observatory that's really coming alive now. ... We're starting to make science!" exclaimed Mission Scientist Ted Gull, reaffirming the improving status of the mission, as Astro-1moved farther from a checkout mode to its science mode. The Shuttle-borne observatory has made complete science observations and the Instrument Pointing System has greatly improved in its operation. Observations of significant targets have come with increasing regularity since early yesterday. Marked improvements in Astro-1's ability to execute automatic stellar acquisitions were the result of ground efforts in feeding the star tracker system successively refined calibrations. Pointing stability still remained below specifications, and because control of Spacelab, the IPS and the experiments is still done on a single computer terminal, acquisitions require more time than expected. Both conditions are expected to improve. Yesterday evening, the Broad Band X-ray Telescope alignment, with its Two-Axis Pointing System, was completed, clearing the way for the team to press on with their science observations. During this period, the X-ray telescope made observations of the Crab Nebula and the binary star system Cygnus X-3. Observations made by the Ultraviolet telescopes yesterday and last night included the globular cluster M92, a cluster of some 100,000 stars 25 light- years from Earth containing many very hot, old, ultraviolet producing stars. Also observed was the star Theta Muscae, a Wolf-Rayet star, which exhibits a very strong stellar wind, and the supernova remant Cygnus Loop, which exploded some 50,000 years ago. The M81 spiral galaxy was observed, as well as an elliptical galaxy, M87, a strong X-ray source. Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope scientist Dr. Randy Kimble described a "delightful spectrum" obtained from an Earth-sized white-dwarf star, only weakly detected prior to Astro-1. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Over 34 million miles from Earth, and traveling 79,500 mph relative to the sun, the Ulysses solar probe is gaining stability from the wobble in its rotation. The wobble has decreased steadily this week, as the spacecraft's axial boom moves further into the shade of the body of the probe, and as its distance from the sun increases. The wobble has decreased from six degrees side-to-side motion, to about three degrees. Controllers have adopted a wait-and-see stance before taking any immediate action to attempt to reduce the wobble further. Here's the broadcast schedule for Public Affairs events on NASA Select TV. All times are Eastern. **indicates a live program. Wednesday, 12/5/90 Mission coverage of the STS-35/Astro-1 flight will continue live throughout the week ... 1:15 pm Magellan Status Report from JPL 2:46 pm Science TV from Astro-1 3:30 pm "Today in Space with Dr. Frank Six from MFSC 5:00 pm Change of shift flight director briefing from JSC 6:00 pm Mission Manager briefing from MSFC 7:15 pm Science TV from Astro-1 8:57 pm Science TV from Astro-1 10:19 pm Blue/Red crew handover 11:06 pm Science TV from Astro-1 Thursday, 12/6/90 12:12 am Flight deck activities from Columbia 1:00 am Change of shift flight director briefing from JSC 3:14 am Science TV from Astro-1 7:51 am Science TV from Astro-1 9:00 am Change of shift flight directors briefing from JSC 10:30 am Mission science briefing from MSFC 12:24 pm Flight deck activities from Columbia 1:47 pm Science TV from Astro-1 3:30 pm "Today in Space" with Dr. Frank Six from MFSC 4:35 pm Science TV from Astro-1 5:00 pm Change of shift flight directors briefing from JSC 6:00 pm Mission manager briefing from MSFC 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: 5 Dec 90 18:38:57 GMT From: uvaarpa!murdoch!news@mcnc.org (Greg Hennessy) Subject: ASTRO status at 3/11:48 MET The situation on ASTRO continues to improve, but is by no means as good as possible. BBXRT is observing, and getting almost all of its data, although there was a temporary glitch of the Two Axis Pointing System (TAPS). HUT works well, but has still not aquired any targets. It has observed 10 objects that WUPPE aquired when WUPPE was primary, or by manuan acquisition, and gotten VERY nice data. WUPPE has observed 10 objects, and has one exciting result already, even before the instrumental polarization is fully finished. There is a well known dip in UV spectra around 2300 angstroms, which is attributed to graphite, probably in dust grains. The question is wheter or not the light is scattered off the grains, or absorbed by the grains. This all was pointed out 25 years ago by Ted Stecher, the PI of the UIT telescope. If the light was being absorbed, the polarization would not be changed, but if the light was scattered, there would be a large polarization induced into the starlight. The WUPPE team found that the polarization did NOT change across the line, meaning that the light is being absorbed not scattered. The UIT telescope made five long exposures, and 3 short ones. There long observations included the Perseus cluster, NGC2992, and the Crab Nebula, and M87. The science teams are still not happy with with the tracking. When the star trackers acquire the stars, the stability is very nice, but the trackers often do not work. Another patch was uplinked last night and another test will be this shift. On shift four there was 0 percent of science being done, on shift five there was 17, and on shift six there was 35 percent. However that 35 percent counted the time lost for a test as the star trackers as zero time achieving science, but took in the time. If you only consider the times that the teams attempted to observe, then the teams achieved 44 percent. The mission is being replanned to take longer exposures, so better data of fewer objects will be done. -- -Greg Hennessy, University of Virginia USPS Mail: Astronomy Department, Charlottesville, VA 22903-2475 USA Internet: gsh7w@virginia.edu UUCP: ...!uunet!virginia!gsh7w ------------------------------ Date: 6 Dec 90 03:40:45 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: Astro-1 Status for 12/05/90 [1239 CST] (Forwarded) Astro 1 Mission Report #21 12:39 p.m. CST, December 5, 1990 3/11:49 MET Spacelab Mission Operations Control Marshall Space Flight Center Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope Deputy Project Scientist Randy Kimble has good reason to be excited about spectra from a white dwarf star tagged G191B2B which the telescope recorded last night. "I tried to make a measurement of this star with a sounding rocket in 1982 for my Ph.D thesis, but it didn't quite work," Kimble recalled during a press science briefing this morning. "Now I am delighted eight years later I could have this spectrum in my hand!" Kimble said that his desire to study the star was one of the reasons he joined Principal Investigator Arthur Davidsen's Hopkins telescope team. The scientist reported that the Astro crew, using a contingency target acquisition procedure, was able to lock onto the star quickly and get two good spectra with a total of 25 minutes observing time. (The typical telescope observation launched by a sounding rocket might provide 5 minutes of data.) Emissions from the white dwarf were recorded both in the far ultraviolet and the extreme ultraviolet, at one time called the "unobservable ultraviolet," Kimble said. Also at the briefing, Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope Co-Investigator Morton Roberts explained some of the rationale for studying stars. "Star formation is of interest because we want to know how we got here," Roberts stated. "After all, the sun is a very important star. If we can understand the general process of star formation, we can better understand the formation of the solar system." ------------------------------ Date: 6 Dec 90 02:32:38 GMT From: news@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu (Bill Seward) Subject: atmospheric pressure on Mars Here is a question that occured to me for a really silly reason: In the movie "Total Recall" [no flames on my taste in films, please :-) ], several people who were exposed to the Martian atmosphere without the benefit of a pressure suit died from what I can best term semi-explosive decompression. That is, they slowly blew up like balloons and popped. I remember reading, way back somewhere, that a human could survive at the Martian equator during the summer with only a respirator. Of course, this was pre-Viking. So the question is, what is the atmospheric pressure of Mars at the surface and could suck a thing happen? Or was Hollywood just wanting to add a little gore for the masses? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | Bill Seward -- Analyst, Programmer, System Manager, User Training, | | Operations and whatever else needs doing. | | Cutaneous Pharmacology & Toxicology Center, NC State University | | SEWARD@NCSUVAX.BITNET SEWARD@CCVAX1.CC.NCSU.EDU | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: 6 Dec 90 03:44:18 GMT From: uvaarpa!murdoch!news@mcnc.org (Greg Hennessy) Subject: ASTRO status at 3/20:54 The observational efficiency of the ASTO observatory continues to increase, but not as quickly as hoped. The star trackers work perfectly whenever tested, but still have not worked on a real object. All science done so far ahas been by the astronauts hand guiding the telescopes, which results in much less stable images than the nominal star trackers. The star trackers can be made to work in a certain fashion, a complicated procedure, but this procedure takes so much time that it often eats up most of the observing time. The last tests on teh star tracker show that the three tubes that compose the star trackers are misaligned by 0.9 degrees. They are supposed to be coplanar. During the eigth shift, two problems occured that lost observing time. One was the crew exercising on the treadmill diring an observation of P Car. The premission understanding was that the crew would only excercise during handovers (times when so science was being done) but this was apparently not written down anywhere. The crew will now only excercise when the shuttle is in an SAA, a region of higher radiation where the instruments do not work. Also during the mission the verniers (small rockets which keep the shuttle pointed in the proper position). Since this meant that the shuttle had to manuver using the large rockets, the shuttle doors were closed to prevent contamination from the fuel, which contains hydrazine. Three observations were missed, unfortunately the high priority targets the Pleiades, VW-Hydra, and the cluster Abell 2199. (Talk about rotten luck). These four targets had zero science done, and specified observation times of 16, 23, 40, and 34 minutes. Sucessful observations were made of the galaxy 0558-504 with 10 of 15 minutes (67%), M79 (14 of 27, 52%), SK69-239 (18 of 33, 55%), M79 again (31 of 45, 69%), NGC 1399 (10 of 26, 38%), P-Cyg (33 of 38, 65%), 3C273 (everybody's favority quasar) 41 of 47, 87%, Capella, 12 of 28, 43%, and HD99264, 20 of 29 minutes for 70 percent. All in total, 39 percent of the scheduled time was done, compared with 36% for shift 7, 17% for shift 6, and 0% before that. The next shifts observations will be done with a software patch to correct for the misalighed star tracker. -- -Greg Hennessy, University of Virginia USPS Mail: Astronomy Department, Charlottesville, VA 22903-2475 USA Internet: gsh7w@virginia.edu UUCP: ...!uunet!virginia!gsh7w ------------------------------ Date: 6 Dec 90 06:19:18 GMT From: usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!mintaka!bloom-picayune.mit.edu!news@ucsd.edu (Matthew T Velazquez) Subject: Martian atmosphere/Total Recall The Martian atmosphere is something like .005 to .008 bars at the surface. Earth's sea level atmosphere is about 1 bar. The squirming and gagging you saw in Total Recall would have looked more like this: ******** ******** * * ******* * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * ******** * * * * * * * * ********** * * * * *** * * * * * * * * * ******** * * * ******* ******* Personally, I think it would have been a better effect. But that's me. -T ------------------------------ Date: 4 Dec 90 18:37:21 GMT From: sdd.hp.com!wuarchive!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!henry@ucsd.edu (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: * SpaceNews 03-Dec-90 * In article <1990Dec3.183522.25647@qualcomm.com> antonio@drzeus.qualcomm.com (Franklin Antonio) writes: >So, the basic work was done 371 years ago! This is one of the humbling things >about celestial mechanics... Kepler is not the really humbling example in celestial mechanics. That honor goes to Isaac Newton, not much later. After deducing that gravity followed an inverse square law, he explored the consequences of that (including deriving Kepler's Laws) so thoroughly that the greatest mathematicians of the next two centuries basically just added footnotes to his work. -- "The average pointer, statistically, |Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology points somewhere in X." -Hugh Redelmeier| henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V12 #642 *******************