Return-path: X-Andrew-Authenticated-as: 7997;andrew.cmu.edu;Ted Anderson Received: from hogtown.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 ; Mon, 11 Mar 91 01:34:32 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: Precedence: junk Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Mon, 11 Mar 91 01:34:27 -0500 (EST) Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #253 SPACE Digest Volume 13 : Issue 253 Today's Topics: NASA Headline News for 03/07/91 (Forwarded) Payload Summary for 03/07/91 (Forwarded) Re: Japanese Space Effort, II Re: German conference highlights doubts about ESA's manned space plans Ulysses Update - 03/04/91 Neptune CD-ROMs? Re: Government vs. Commercial R&D Administrivia: Submissions to the SPACE Digest/sci.space should be mailed to space+@andrew.cmu.edu. Other mail, esp. [un]subscription requests, should be sent to space-request+@andrew.cmu.edu, or, if urgent, to tm2b+@andrew.cmu.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 8 Mar 91 02:13:04 GMT From: usenet@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: NASA Headline News for 03/07/91 (Forwarded) Headline News Internal Communications Branch (P-2) NASA Headquarters Thursday, March 7, 1991 Audio Service: 202 / 755-1788 This is NASA Headline News for Thursday, March 7, 1991 NASA management yesterday gave the go ahead for Atlantis to be mated to its launch stack in preparation for the STS-37 Gamma Ray Observatory mission. The decision follows an investigation into small cracks found on the external tank door drive mechanism housing. Tests on the housing and subsequent analysis showed that the cracks pose no threat to vehicle performance -- either on the ground or in flight. Atlantis will be rolled over to the Vehicle Assembly Building tomorrow for mating operations. Launch of STS-37 is targeted for early April, though the official launch date will be set at the flight readiness review later this month. Rollback of Discovery from Launch Pad 39-A to the VAB began at 5:15 am this morning. Discovery should be inside VAB high bay #3 by noon. Once Discovery is demated, it will be moved to the OPF where its fuel-line door-closing mechanism will be replaced with hardware from Endeavour. The Endeavour's door mechanisms arrived at Kennedy Space Center yesterday. Meanwhile, activity on Columbia and its Spacelab Life Sciences -1 payload continues to move smoothly toward a planned launch in May. The STS-40 payload readiness review was successfully completed yesterday. The Spacelab habitable module is set to move from the Operations and Checkout Building to the OPF around March 23. The two fuel-line door-closing mechanisms on Columbia are being removed today. They will be shipped to Rockwell International's Downey manufacturing plant for grinding and lug replacement. The repaired hardware is expected to be returned to the Cape for re-installation into Columbia within 20 days. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS-E) arrived at KSC Tuesday. The spacecraft has been placed in the Vehicle Processing Facility where it will remain until launch processing for its STS-43 mission begins. The STS-43 mission is currently scheduled for July. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Spacecraft activity onboard Ulysses continues uneventfully, with routine science observations and housekeeping as the main activities. Ulysses is now 214 million miles from the Sun, and 159 million miles from Earth. It is traveling at a heliocentric velocity of 58,000 miles per hour. All spacecraft systems and science instruments are functioning normally. Flight controllers have seen no return of the wobble in the spacecraft's rotation that occurred several weeks after launch last fall. In just one year, February 1992, the Ulysses will fly by Jupiter, using that planet's gravity to go into a polar orbit over the Sun. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Magellan has been performing normally since the attitude computer interruption which occurred Monday night during a planned star calibration. Five of the seven star calibrations during the past 24 hours have been completely successful and two have been partially successful. During the period of interruption, the on-board command computer continued with its programmed sequences. Because the attitude computer was off-line for a very brief period, when it came back online, it introduced pointing errors during the subsequent mapping sequence. These errors resulted in three and one-half orbits of mapping data being lost with an additional orbit having a one degree pointing error. Jet Propulsion Laboratory flight engineers sent a new command sequence to Magellan on Tuesday. The new command list includes memory readouts of both the A-side and B- side attitude and articulation control systems and resets the fault protection logic. Otherwise, things are going well. The spacecraft's orbit continues partly in the shadow of Venus and temperatures are well within the expected range. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Tomorrow in the NASA Headquarters auditorium, Dr. Charles S. Finch, III, the Assistant Director of International Health at the Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, will speak to NASA employees on the subject of the "African Origin of Medicine." Here's the broadcast schedule for Public Affairs events on NASA Select TV. All times are Eastern. NASA Select TV is carried on GE Satcom F2R, transponder 13, C-Band, 72 degrees W Long., Audio 6.8, Frequency 3960 MHz. Thursday, 3/7/91 12:00 pm Starfinder program "Gravity and Weight." 12:15 pm NASA Life Sciences Program. 12:30 pm Assignment "Shoot the Moon." 1:00 pm Science Education Lecture. All events and times may change without notice. This report is filed daily, Monday through Friday, by 12:00 pm, Eastern. It is a service of NASA Headquarters Office of Public Affairs. Contact: CREDMOND on NASAmail or at 202/453-8425. ------------------------------ Date: 8 Mar 91 02:13:29 GMT From: usenet@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: Payload Summary for 03/07/91 (Forwarded) PAYLOAD TEST AND ACTIVITY SHEET Kennedy Space Center, Florida March 7, 1991 George Diller 407/867-2468 FTS 823-2468 GAMMA RAY OBSERVATORY STS-37/Atlantis HISTORICAL ACTIVITY Arrival of Spacecraft at PHSF: 2/6/90 First functional test begins: 2/26 Install High Gain Antenna: 11/8 Final functional test complete: 12/4/90 Spacecraft Fueling complete: 1/11/91 Install Flight Batteries: 1/15 Airborne Electrical Support Equipment (AESE) arrives: 1/24 Install orbiter Airborne Electrical Support Equipment (AESE): 2/1 Transfer GRO to Vertical Processing Facility: 2/7 Installation into west test cell: 2/9 VPF Standalone Functional Test: 2/12-13 Interface Verification Test (IVT) of AESE: 2/17 IVT of GRO (orbiter interfaces simulated): 2/23 End-to-End (ETE) communications test (MILA/GSFC/TDRS): 2/25 MILA RF communications test: 3/4 ACTIVITY FORECAST * denotes change Transfer to payload canister: 3/9* Roll to Pad 39-B/Transfer to PGHM: 3/11* Initial GRO Battery Charging: 3/12* Payload installation into Atlantis: 3/15 TCDT: 3/18-19 Astronaut payload bay walk down: pending Interface Verification Test: 3/17 GRO/orbiter end-to-end test: 3/23 Battery reconditioning: 3/24-28 GRO Flight Closeout operations: 3/30 Close payload bay doors: 3/31 ------------------------------ Date: 6 Mar 91 20:43:01 GMT From: dog.ee.lbl.gov!hellgate.utah.edu!caen!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!pitt!nss!Paul.Blase@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Paul Blase) Subject: Re: Japanese Space Effort, II >>Uh, Nick, I think you are letting your prejudices get in your way. :-) >>Almost certainly they are using "autonomous" to mean not "unmanned" but >>"all-Japanese", i.e. not dependent on US launchers. BY> If this is the same station mentioned in a recent IEEE Spectrum BY> article on Japanese robotics, they really do mean *autonomous* BY> -- as in robotic and non-teleoperated... They're working on both. There are plans for a manned station. --- via Silver Xpress V2.26 [NR] -- Paul Blase - via FidoNet node 1:129/104 UUCP: ...!pitt!nss!Paul.Blase INTERNET: Paul.Blase@nss.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ Date: 7 Mar 91 23:24:42 GMT From: zephyr.ens.tek.com!tektronix!sequent!crg5!szabo@uunet.uu.net (Nick Szabo) Subject: Re: German conference highlights doubts about ESA's manned space plans In article <9245@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> jmck@norge.Eng.Sun.COM (John McKernan) writes: >...Therefore the purpose of manned space research should be to do the >basic R&D needed to develope the technology for the mass colonization >of space. Note that this basic research is likely to be quite >different from a mammoth engineering project to drop a few people onto >Mars and bring them back. This is a good direction to go. A very fruitful, and relatively efficient, long-term space adaptation experiment would be the following: two small capsules at either ends of a tether that can provide variable gravity, from 0 to 1 g's. The main stops would be microgravity, lunar, Martian, and 1 gravity. With 20 mice and 20 kg of life support, experimental shielding, and tether per mouse, the whole thing is launchable on a Pegasus. 10 such experiments could be launched over 10 years into various orbits to test out the biological effects of various kinds of gravity, radiation and shielding. The results of earlier experiments would feed back into the design of later experiments. Since mice and humans share 96% of our genetic code, most of the results will apply to human biology. The entire experiment should run about $50 million plus $8 million per launch = $130 million, or $0.13 billion. Both in terms of gravity level and radiation, these experiments will teach us more about biological adaptation to space environments than many of the more expensive experiments currently envisioned. -- Nick Szabo szabo@sequent.com "What are the _facts_, and to how many decimal places?" -- RAH ------------------------------ Date: 8 Mar 91 22:38:00 GMT From: elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov!baalke@decwrl.dec.com (Ron Baalke) Subject: Ulysses Update - 03/04/91 ULYSSES STATUS REPORT March 4, 1991 As of 9 AM (PST), March 4, 1991, the following orbital data was taken on the Ulysses spacecraft: Distance from Earth 156,754,214 miles (252,271,454 km) Distance from Jupiter 284,293,580 miles (457,526,167 km) Velocity relative to the Sun 58,167 mph (93,610 kph) Velocity relative to the Earth 86,994 mph (140,004 kph) Tape recorder operations based on recovering data acquired during the 16 hours out of view periods are continuing on a routine scheduled basis. Experiment reconfigurations have been carried out as required. An average of 96.2% data recovery was achieved during the past week. An Earth pointing maneuver was performed on February 28. The slew caused a reduction in received signal strength since the off-pointing of the spacecraft antenna was changed from 0.2 degrees trailing to 1 degree ahead of the center of Earth point. This factor, combined with a low elevation pass (less than 30 degrees and descending) and rain at the ground station, reduced the level of received signal to below the threshold of the ground receiving system. The result was that during the period of playback, poor quality data were received resulting in some data losses. Command equipment problems at Madrid on March 1 caused a delay in the daily commanding activity. No data were lost as a result of these problems. The spacecraft is currently configured with receiver 2 as the prime unit fed via the High Gain Antenna and with receiver 1 as backup fed through the LGA-F (Low Gain Antenna). A close watch is being kept for the possible return of nutation. Procedures are available to control it should it occur. A slew maneuver will be carried out on March 7. Routine data gathering operations will continue together with experiment reconfigurations as required. ___ _____ ___ /_ /| /____/ \ /_ /| Ron Baalke | baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov | | | | __ \ /| | | | Jet Propulsion Lab | Is it mind over matter, ___| | | | |__) |/ | | |___ M/S 301-355 | or matter over mind? /___| | | | ___/ | |/__ /| Pasadena, CA 91109 | Never mind. |_____|/ |_|/ |_____|/ | It doesn't matter. ------------------------------ Date: 7 Mar 91 05:14:20 GMT From: van-bc!rsoft!mindlink!a186@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Harvey Taylor) Subject: Neptune CD-ROMs? A month ago in <1991Jan28.055722.16167@jato.jpl.nasa.gov>, baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov [Ron Baalke] writes: | | I've received a number of inquiries about the Voyager images available | on CD-ROMs. | [...] | | A set of four CD-ROMs containing the Neptune images taken by Voyager 2 is | due to be released at the end of February 1991, and these CD-ROMs will | also be available at NSSDC. | Ron, Do you know if the Neptune images got released? If so, what is the cost? Will University of Colorado LASP have these CDs? -het "Oh and Father, would you bless the bombs?" Harvey Taylor Meta Media Productions uunet!van-bc!rsoft!mindlink!Harvey_Taylor a186@mindlink.UUCP ------------------------------ Date: 8 Mar 91 02:28:47 GMT From: zephyr.ens.tek.com!tektronix!sequent!crg5!szabo@uunet.uu.net (Nick Szabo) Subject: Re: Government vs. Commercial R&D In article <6947@mace.cc.purdue.edu> dil@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Perry G Ramsey) writes: >In article <236.27D4C8A6@nss.FIDONET.ORG>, Paul.Blase@nss.FIDONET.ORG (Paul Blase) writes: >> The military and NASA have two things in common: Each must have the very >> best equipment in order to preserve lives - indeed in order to get the >> job done at all, and each has the money to pay for state-of-the-art >> technology to ensure that it has the very best. > >Of course, in the 'Upgrading Shuttle Computers' thread we've been seeing >how NASA spares no expense in getting only the very latest in computer >technology. (1000 :-)). NASA, by and large, in not pushing the limits >of any technology anywhere. Back in the old days, when I was on Space >Station, one of the big shots said that there were no real technical >issues with SS, only managerial ones. I heartily agree. This is an important point. The "spinoff" argument directly contradicts the notion that space projects should be done with "current" or "off-the-shelf" technology. >If NASA was doing its >job right, it would be supporting real technical pathfinder efforts >like you're talking about. (Ion engines are one thing that comes to mind; >less expensive chemical rockets are another.) Unfortunately, they aren't. I agree, with the nit that making things cheaper can probably be done better by industry. NASA tried to make things cheaper with the Shuttle and failed; we have had industry success both with incremental ELV improvements and the Pegasus launcher which, while not reducing cost/lb. for low volumes, has lowered the entry level cost of access to space by a factor of 5. For the long term, if we want the cost of going to a space colony (eg L-5) to be in the range of first class airfare to Tokyo, we are looking at improvement by over a factor of 10,000. For this, large advances beyond chemical rockets are required. Laser launch, tethers, etc. may fit the bill; these technologies are desirable for NASA research and prototyping. EML, gas gun, and other launch technologies promise to drop freight costs well below those of chemical rockets, and should also be researched vigorously. Ion (electric), nuclear, and solar engines for upper stages, laser communications, and most important of all, the mining and manufacturing technologies critical to the development of large-scale space industry, all need research. Experimenting with advanced technologies will allow NASA to once again produce spinoffs, while avoiding operations and services that compete with industry. -- Nick Szabo szabo@sequent.com "What are the _facts_, and to how many decimal places?" -- RAH ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V13 #253 *******************