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 ; Tue, 18 Dec 1990 02:00:22 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: Precedence: junk Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Tue, 18 Dec 1990 01:59:44 -0500 (EST) Subject: SPACE Digest V12 #678 SPACE Digest Volume 12 : Issue 678 Today's Topics: Condensed Canopus for August 1990 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ReSent-Message-ID: Resent-Date: Tue, 11 Dec 90 12:20:51 EST Resent-From: Harold Pritchett Resent-To: Space discussion group Date: Tue, 11 Dec 90 13:29 N From: "Rob A. Vingerhoeds / Ghent State University" Subject: Condensed Canopus for August 1990 I am resending this, since there may have been an error with my previous posting. I am taking over from Steve Willner for sending condensed versions of CANOPUS to the newsgroup. I am open to any usefull comments and remarks about the way you would like to see these condensed versions, as I may want to change the layout in the near future. The condensed versions of CANOPUS for June and July 1990 and for October 1990 are coming soon (a bit delayed...). I hope to hear from you soon, Rob Vingerhoeds ================================================================================ Here is the condensed CANOPUS for August 1990. There are three articles condensed or in full and eight articles by title only. CANOPUS is copyright American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, but distribution is encouraged. See full copyright information at end. -----------CONTENTS -- 3 ARTICLES CONDENSED OR IN FULL----------------- can900801.txt - 8/1/90 WE CAN GO TO MARS, BUT... A look at the Space Exploration Initiative July 10, 1990 Although the technology for going to Mars is largely at hand, a gamut of political, economic, and institutional issues must be resolved before the human race can strike off for Mars, according to a Space Summit held June 3-6 in Huntsville, Alabama. In particular, linking the many spacefaring nations in a Mars campaign will require arguments that appeal to many nations, not just to the needs of the United States or USSR. At "The Space Summit, An International Conference on Manned Space Exploration." a strong note reverberated that the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) is the best, perhaps only, way to supply the two resources Earth needs, educated people, and raw materials, to break the limits of growth that loom in the 21st century. There has been an enormous diversity of opinion expressed since President Bush announced SEI, which lead to the organisation of this summit. The summit sessions discussed various national space programs, cooperative space efforts, missions to the Moon and Mars, resource requirements, implementation issues, alternative strategies, and public and educational issues. A summary was given by a special panel of attendees who observed but did not participate in the previous sessions. Opinions expressed in this summary are those of the Conference Committee only. MISSION FOR PLANET EARTH Saving planet Earth emerged as a chief concern in the summary session held by three space veterans who observed the earlier sessions. William Ramsey, the former deputy commander of the U.S. Space Command, said that he is "befuddled" by the lack of integration of various agencies involved in space, especially with the logistical support that foreign launchers boosters might provide, and the lack of common ground "where all involved feel comfortable." The most sobering problem, he said, is education: "It is related to and not a fall-out of space, a precursor to major programs," especially since today's 10- and 12-year-olds are tomorrow's space scientists. Mark Hempsell of British Aerospace testified that "I am proof positive that an active space program can enthuse the young". But he is now frustrated because there are only two people in space, both Soviet "and I had nothing to do with it." He said that programs should be based on what the public needs, not what aerospace companies want. Dr. Michael Duke, director of planetary exploration at NASA's Johnson Space Center, said that, "I'm going to do the science that saves the world." In a separate session, student Dennis Wingo said that "There is no reason for going to Mars without helping the environment" on Earth and building an infrastructure that will supply raw materials for industry. Hempsell continued that 100 years from now the planet will need 20 times as much industry as it has now. SEI can really be offered in just two aspects -- business as usual, or "do it or die." TECHNICAL ISSUES The technologies required for lunar and Mars missions are well understood and can be developed. The principal area of concern is crew life support and health, with recycling water described as a key technology problem. The long-term effects of space travel on the human body also have many unknowns, both in effects and countermeasures. These may drive technology decisions such as high-speed propulsion vs. artificial-g designs. While technology advancement has been advocated as a justification for SEI, there were counter-arguments that near-term technologies should be used to reach Mars as soon as possible. This also raised the question of whether technology is developed to support the missions, or comes as a result of the missions happening. One speaker advocated using a modified Space Shuttle orbiter as an Earth orbit-to-lunar orbit shuttle, and other existing systems for lunar missions. POLTICAL ISSUES In its current incarnation, SEI's start--Space Station Freedom--and end--the surface of Mars--are defined. Trying to sell a 30-year program to accomplish everything in between will be difficult. "Packaging" a series of goals would satisfy each successive political administration and the voters within the same time periods. International involvement has been raised as a key issue in SEI, but arguments seen as compelling in the U.S. are less so elsewhere. The audience was reminded that what Americans so often call Europe is actually a patchwork of nations, each with its own space program. {To my opinion, this is however a wrong view of the situation, which has lead in the past to misunderstandings between the Americans and the Europeans and apparently this is happening all over again. Of course European countries do have their own space programs, some in cooperation with NASA, others in cooperation with the USSR, but the main activities appear to be coming from ESA. ESA is THE European Space Agency, where the decisions on the space programs are taken jointly and the actual realisations are done by European industries from all over Europe in a good coperation. --RV} The needs for technical prowess and educational excellence are perceived or met differently in Europe. There is concern that NASA's invitation to the other spacefaring nations is only half-hearted and that it really wants to go alone. Assuming that a partnership is formed, the first question then is how to evolve each nation's low-Earth-orbit (LEO) components to serve the greater SEI goal. Each nation or space agency is completing a basic LEO infrastructure comprising launchers and jack-of-all-trades space stations. Expanding each of those fully in all areas would be too expensive. Aeritalia is studying an alternative where the space agencies agree on areas that each will develop while the others are surrendered to other nations. The formation of an Intelsat-like international exploration agency was also suggested and merits further study. ECONOMIC ISSUES The cost of going to the Moon and Mars--$200 to $400 billion, by many accounts--was identified as perhaps the biggest single objection facing the program, especially given the high cost of other programs. Just bailing out the U.S. savings and loan industry is comparable in cost and duration. How the SEI is financed and the real and perceived returns on investment must be defined. The role of private investment in SEI has been discussed, but it is at least doubtfull whether it can exist. The government will be the ultimate customer and leasing arrangements usually will cost more in the long run. Whether business should continue in the same fashion, or innovative methods developed, must be investigated. INSTITUTIONAL ISSUES President Bush has cited improved education as a spin-off from SEI, but the conference attendees also believed that it will be a pacing item in letting SEI happen. And once built, the workforce must be maintained and cultivated for continued operations rather than being given the "pink slip" as the Apollo team was after the landing on the Moon. Specifically, without great improvements in the output of the U.S. school system, from elementary school through doctoral programs, there will be no qualified workforce to send the nation to the planets; this problem has been recognized by a Congressional task force and is being addressed by several Federal agencies. Ironically, the only student speaker at the Summit made the biggest impression as he told the attendees that he was less concerned about their views of manifest destiny than with saving the world where he and his children must live. He said that the most promising route was by way of the resources available on the Moon, Mars and other extraterrestrial bodies. A major issue, raised by different voices, is whether SEI necessarily has to be as big, expensive, tough, or long-term as the various architectures indicate. This issue can be approached from at least two angles. First is the question of near-term vs. far-term technology. Second is the cultural issue of how governments procure products through regulations that seemed to be designed to insure the costly purchase of out-of-date technology. Tough, innovative management techniques and changes may be necessary to allow space agencies to break out of self-imposed constraints. IGNORED ISSUES Several key issues were not addressed in the conference. Foremost was a lack of discussion about the potential Soviet contribution to an international SEI venture. The Soviets now have the world's best heavy-lift launch capability, and the most experience in long-term space operations. Defining the limits to growth is necessary if the industrial nations are to understand what their economies will be able to support in space exploration and to determine whether tapping extraterrestrial resources will allow them to break through those limits without destroying what is left of the terrestrial environment. The legal impact of such expansion also was not mentioned. An international effort might founder on the U.N. Treaty on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (1982) which declared extraterrestrial resources to be the "Common Heritage of Mankind" (the U.S. has not signed this treaty). Finally, the integration of the various components of and SEI campaign will pose new management challenges regardless of its scale. The U.S. Space Station program has encountered great difficulties in coordinating activities at the field center level (within NASA) and the international level (among the NASA and other agencies). SEI can only be an order of magnitude more demanding and difficult. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND An historical background on the SEI showed that nothing new is being proposed in terms of mission architecture. In particular, the basic outline for the Mars mission was outlined in the 1940s by the British Interplanetary Society and explored in technical detail by Wernher von Braun and his colleagues in the 1950s. In 1969, von Braun's staff designed a comprehensive "Integrated Space Program" that would have led to manned bases on Mars by the late 1980s. Major elements which are missing today are the Saturn 5, a space tug, and a nuclear stage. Nevertheless, the basic outline from 1969 remains valid (and can be seen in NASA's "90-Day Study"). The renewal of official Administration interest in manned space exploration stems largely from the 20th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing when President Bush asked the nation to embark on a "journey into tomorrow" to Mars. This was reiterated in a February 1990 speech when Bush set the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission as the goal for a manned landing on Mars. Policy statements that followed focused on advancing technology and opening a dialogue with other nations to join the U.S. in the venture. Summit reviews of other national space programs showed parallel development by other nations. The United States, European Space Agency, USSR, and Japan should possess reusable, manned launchers and space stations by 2001. ESA, the U.S., Canada, and Japan are participating in Space Station Freedom and Mission to Planet Earth. The Japanese space program is quite ambitious and already seems to have a quiet though firm commitment to meet the many goals outlined by President Bush in the SEI. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ can900808.txt - 8/14/90 HST PRODUCES STRIKING IMAGE OF STAR CLUSTER Aug. 13, 1990 Sharp on the heels of the much-needed success of Magellan's arrival at Venus, NASA today released an image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope which demonstrates that the observatory is capable of good science despite the imperfection in its mirrors. "I'm elated and I think most astronomers are," HST Program Scientist Ed Weiler said in a press conference this afternoon. The 9 arc-sec wide-picture of R136, a star cluster within 30 Doradus, the most prolific stellar nursery within the local group shows that "we can still do some unique science" on bright objects. The cluster is about 160,000 light years away and would fill the space between our sun and Alpha Centauri. Dr. Rick White, an associate astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute, said that the picture is 10 times better than a comparable one taken by the the 2.2-meter telescope of the European Southern Observatory in Chile. The HST image is markedly sharper in showing a large number of point sources in the nursery, although has a halo due to the speherical aberration which prevents "perfect" focusing. Knowing that each star is a point source, the science team was able to clean the image by computer. "The encouraging thing," White said, "... is that all the different [enhancement] techniques we have tried give comparable results." Future pictures "will improve significantly" when the secondary mirror is placed in its "best" focus position -- where it was not for this image -- and after calibrating filters in the camera. "The Wide-Field Camera is performing to specification in the area of resolution," Weiler said. "That's not the whole story, of course" since much of the focused energy falls outside the specified 0.1 arc-second circle, thus giving any object a halo. Weiler said the picture of R136 shows that bright-object osbervations are possible with the Wide-Field/Planetary Camera and the Faint Object Camera. The image of R136 was produced to help check spectral data taken by the Goddard High Resolution Spectrometer during its verification tests. Sally Heap, a spectrometer co-investigator, said that the images provided to the media were not as good as the original. "There is more in a WF/PC picture that you can show photographically. We can see separate stars on the image display," she said as she invited reporters to view the images in her laboratory. The cluster originally was thought to be a single massive star, then was resolved into some 27 large stars in the 1980s. In the images acquired by HST, at least 60 stars were counted when astronomers got tired and quit. WF/PC principal investigator James Westphal of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory said that he was one of the biggest skeptics of the computer-processing technology, and is encouraged that the camera will be able to provide good images of Jupiter. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ can900809.txt - 8/14/90 HUBBLE INVESTIGATION ADVISORY Aug. 9, 1990 Analyses of the possible causes of the observed spherical aberration in the HST suggest that the "reflective null corrector" may have been flawed. The reflective null corrector is an optical reference device which was used to measure very precisely the surface figure of the HST primary mirror during its manufacture. The test setup incorporating the reflective null corrector remains essentially unchanged from when it was used in measurements during the final polishing and coating of the primary mirror in 1981. The HST project/contractor team, led by Lew Allen, Chairman of the HST Optical Systems Board of Investigation, has been concentrating its efforts looking for an error in the reflective null corrector. Over the last two weeks tests have been run, systematically checking various aspects of this device. Preliminary results of a test conducted at Hughes Danbury Optical Systems (HDOS) Aug. 8 to look at the spacings of the elements in the corrector have revealed a clear discrepancy of approximately 1 millimeter between the design of the null corrector and the device as it exists. One millimeter is about 1/25 of an inch (about the diameter of the point of a ball-point pen). Preliminary analysis indicates that a discrepancy of this magnitude could cause spherical aberration similar to that observed in the HST primary mirror. The investigation board will now concentrate its efforts in two areas: refining the measurement of the observed reflective null corrector spacing discrepancy and continuing to examine all aspects of the reflective null corrector and associated test apparatus as they were constructed and used in the fabrication of the primary mirror. The board is scheduled to meet at HDOS on Aug. 15-16. This meeting will be the first opportunity for the full board to review the test procedures and resulting data. -----------------8 ARTICLES BY TITLE ONLY------------------------------- MAGELLAN STATUS REPORT (Aug. 6, 1990) - can900802.txt - 8/6/90 NASA ASTROPHYSICS SEEKS VISITING SENIOR SCIENTISTS (Aug. 6, 1990) - can900803.txt - 8/6/90 NASA RESEARCH ANNOUNCEMENT (NRA 90-OSSA-18) - can900804.txt - 8/7/90 Long-Term Space Astrophysics (LTSA) Research Program NASA RESEARCH ANNOUNCEMENT (NRA 90-OSSA-16) - can900805.txt - 8/7/90 High-Energy Astrophysics X-ray Astronomy Research and Analysis 1990 NASA RESEARCH ANNOUNCEMENT (NRA 90-OSSA-19) - can900806.txt - 8/14/90 Astrophysics Data Program (ADP) MAGELLAN STATUS REPORT (Aug. 13, 1990) - can900807.txt - 8/14/90 NASA RESEARCH ANNOUNCEMENT - can900810.txt - 8/29/90 Ultraviolet Detector Development for Space Astronomy NASA RESEARCH ANNOUNCEMENT - can900811.txt - 8/29/90 Origins of Solar Systems Research Program ------------------END OF CONDENSED CANOPUS--------------------------- This posting represents my own condensation of CANOPUS. For clarity, I have not shown ellipses (...), even when the condensation is drastic. New or significantly rephrased material is in {braces} and is signed {--RV} when it represents an expression of my own opinion. The unabridged CANOPUS is available via e-mail from me at any of the addresses below. Copyright information: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CANOPUS is published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Send correspondence about its contents to the executive editor, William W. L. Taylor (taylor%trwatd.span@star.stanford.edu). Send correspondence about business matters to Mr. John Newbauer, AIAA, 1633 Broadway, NY, NY 10019. Although AIAA has copyrighted CANOPUS and registered its name, you are encouraged to distribute CANOPUS widely, either electronically or as printout copies. If you do, however, please send a brief message to Taylor estimating how many others receive copies. CANOPUS is partially supported by the National Space Science Data Center. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V12 #678 *******************