Date: Wed, 28 Oct 92 05:02:15 From: Space Digest maintainer Reply-To: Space-request@isu.isunet.edu Subject: Space Digest V15 #351 To: Space Digest Readers Precedence: bulk Space Digest Wed, 28 Oct 92 Volume 15 : Issue 351 Today's Topics: A career in the Space Program - or Forget It!? Comet Collision (2 msgs) Image format question nasa shake up rumor? NASA Town Meetings -- Program Agenda Smith-Tuttle Comet a threat to earth? (6 msgs) Spaceborne Imaging Reveals Unknown Earthquake Faults Space Calendar - 10/27/92 Swedish Freja Spacecraft (2 msgs) Welcome to the Space Digest!! Please send your messages to "space@isu.isunet.edu", and (un)subscription requests of the form "Subscribe Space " to one of these addresses: listserv@uga (BITNET), rice::boyle (SPAN/NSInet), utadnx::utspan::rice::boyle (THENET), or space-REQUEST@isu.isunet.edu (Internet). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 27 Oct 92 19:06:41 GMT From: Andy Cohen Subject: A career in the Space Program - or Forget It!? Newsgroups: sci.space In article , romachek@golem.ucsd.edu (Jack Romachek) wrote: > > Should I try some new approach to job hunting in aerospace, or should > I totally concentrate on my other interest which is molecular biology? It all depends on you. If working in Aerospace is of such high intrinsic value to you, then you should push for it and nothing else, but ya got to be willing to go anywhere for it.... JPL may not be the best place to start off from....in fact anywhere in So Ca will be a waste.... Aerospace jobs are to be had, but in Georgia and Arizona..... Remember, it has to be of great importance to you....otherwise the grass will always seem greener when you look at other industries or professions.... Andy Cohen | | | Support Freedom! MDSSC | / OO / | | ----------------------- | | | | | | ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1992 01:04:49 GMT From: Dave Tholen Subject: Comet Collision Newsgroups: sci.space Faust writes: > I was amazed and want to find out more. I'm suprised that sci.space > seems to have almost no discussion of this discovery. Does this mean > that the whole story is a hoax --or have you pro's out there been > caught with your pants down? It's not a hoax, and there has been discussion on sci.space. Maybe the propagation to your site is slow. Or maybe it appeared first on sci.astro and took a while to propagate to the other newsgroups. And I'm not aware of any pro who was caught with their pants down. > Does anyone out there in Net Land (preferably those close to the > heart of NASA) have any information? If so, please post it. Although many university astronomers have research grants from NASA, please understand that NASA is not responsible for all of U.S. astronomy! In fact, no NASA-salaried scientists were involved in any of this. I've already posted information, and I don't consider myself all that close to the heart of NASA. I'm a state-salaried university employee with some NASA research money. Why the instinctive reliance on NASA for information? ------------------------------ Date: 27 Oct 1992 22:04:59 GMT From: Carl J Lydick Subject: Comet Collision Newsgroups: sci.space,alt.sci.planetary In article , csh019@cch.coventry.ac.uk (Faust) writes: > Would the Christian Fundies start claiming it as God's Judgement > on the human race? First AIDS...now the Comet! Please see _Lucifer's_Hammer_ by, I think, Niven and Pournelle. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Carl J Lydick | INTERnet: CARL@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU | NSI/HEPnet: SOL1::CARL Disclaimer: Hey, I understand VAXen and VMS. That's what I get paid for. My understanding of astronomy is purely at the amateur level (or below). So unless what I'm saying is directly related to VAX/VMS, don't hold me or my organization responsible for it. If it IS related to VAX/VMS, you can try to hold me responsible for it, but my organization had nothing to do with it. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1992 21:46:00 +0000 From: P & S Ltd - Accounts Dept Subject: Image format question Newsgroups: sci.space The other day I downloaded one of the images from the online photo library at sseop.jsc. The image has a 512-byte header followed by 3 blocks of 512 x 512 pixels - one each for red, green and blue. Having got the thing, I don't know what format it's in, what can read/display/convert it! Can anyone out there help? (I have access to Unix and/or DOS if it helps). Thanks, Paul --------------------------< Who 'zat >----------------------------------- Paul Wilson, P-and-S Ltd, P O Box 54, Macclesfield, SK10 5EH, UK pands@cix.compulink.co.uk ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 92 17:17:28 -0600 From: pgf@srl04.cacs.usl.edu (Phil G. Fraering) Subject: nasa shake up rumor? >>In article 14284@iti.org, aws@iti.org (Allen W. Sherzer) writes: >>It won't be ten years since Clinton will be a one term president. At the >>end of which (if we are successful lobbying Congress) we will have an >>operational SSTO at which point we may not need the government any more. >Quayle/Buchannan in '96 to ensure no more government! --- >Gerald Cecil cecil@wrath.physics.unc.edu 919-962-7169 >Physics & Astronomy, U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3255 USA Actually the thing that scares me most about a Clinton/Gore presidency will be the backlash: people are prob. going to want _anyone_ instead of these guys, and the Republicans just might think it's their chance to try the Robertson/Buchanan ticket... -- Phil Fraering pgf@srl0x.cacs.usl.edu where the x is a number from 1-5. Phone: 318/365-5418 SnailMail: 2408 Blue Haven Dr., New Iberia, La. 70560 --------------------- Disclaimer: Some reasonably forseeable events may exceed this message's capability to protect from severe injury, death, widespread disaster, astronomically significant volumes of space approaching a state of markedly increaced entropy, or taxes. The world will end tomorrow. NASA scientists note that this was the way the system was designed to operate. - From the Nov. Focus in Sky and Telescope, on a hypothetical NASA press release on something hitting the Earth... ------------------------------ Date: 27 Oct 92 19:52:39 GMT From: Gerald Cecil Subject: NASA Town Meetings -- Program Agenda Newsgroups: sci.space This just in from NASA: Each town meeting will feature short presentations by top NASA officials, local university researchers, business people, educators and space enthusiasts. Audience members then will have an opportunity to briefly present their views and to question the presenters. Written submissions also will be accepted. Pre-registration is encouraged, at least 1 wk beforehand, but on-sit registration is available. More info (and reg. form) from (202)-453-3006. Nov 9 NC State U, Raleigh NC (I'll go to this 1st meeting & summarize) Nov 17 Lincoln Theater, U of Hartford, West Hartford CT Nov 20 University Place Conference Center, Indiana U - Purdue U at Indianapolis IN Dec 3 Ramo Auditorium, CalTech, Pasadena CA Dec 11 Theatre 1, U. of South Florida, Tampa FL Dec 15 Student Union Building, U. of Washington, Seatle WA All meetings run from 2 - 6:30 pm. Agenda: 2:00 - 2:40 Opening Remarks by Host University Remarks by NASA Administrator NASA Vision, Strategic Plan Viewing of NASA Video 2:40 - 3:15 Administrator Answers Questions from Audience 3:15 - 3:30 Break 3:30 - 4:30 Presentation & Discussion of NASA Review Team Activities Aeronautics, Mission to Planet Earth, Exploration, Space Station Open Microphone and Discussion (5 min limit for remarks) 4:30 - 4:45 Presentation & Discussion by Local Panel Members on Role of Civil Space Program Academia, Industry, Community Leaders 5:45 - 6:30 Open Microphone & Discussion (5 min remark limit) I attended the Paine Commission meetings in 1986, in Honolulu. They were quite interesting, although the ``questioners'' tended to use their 5 mins to load prepared testimony into the record, with no panel interaction. (I recall Katherine Sullivan and Harrison Schmidt looking particularly bored by it all. Remembering past glories perhaps ... ) --- Gerald Cecil cecil@wrath.physics.unc.edu 919-962-7169 Physics & Astronomy, U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3255 USA ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1992 16:35:00 GMT From: IGOR Subject: Smith-Tuttle Comet a threat to earth? Newsgroups: sci.space In article , mcdonald@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (J. D. McDonald) writes... >In article steinly@topaz.ucsc.edu (Steinn Sigurdsson) writes: > > >>Speed relative to Earth is 50 km/s >Lord Almighty! 1/6 the speed of light!!!!!! ??????? In your dreams, the last I heard about the speed of light is roughly 299,792 km/s. As somebody would say (?) what is a factor of 1000 between friends. One can extrapolate on this one since the shuttle is rougly doing 28,000 km/hr, is NASA taking into account the time distortion between the crew and JSC? > >Doug McDonald Igor Texas A&M University ------------------------------ Date: 27 Oct 92 18:35:31 GMT From: Steinn Sigurdsson Subject: Smith-Tuttle Comet a threat to earth? Newsgroups: sci.space In article yamauchi@ces.cwru.edu (Brian Yamauchi) writes: In article steinly@topaz.ucsc.edu (Steinn Sigurdsson) writes: >In article <1992Oct26.184231.1@cc.helsinki.fi> tavaila@cc.helsinki.fi writes: >The current best solution has it missing the Earth in July 2126, >but a 15 day delay places it on collision on August 14th. >As a matter of interest, the best orbit fit for its return once >it was realised which returning comet it was off by 17 days. >Swift-Tuttle is >virtually certain to hit the Earth at some point during the next >few million years >As is we can't even rendezvous with >the thing, would be nice to put a transceiver on it for future >reference ;-) Maybe this would be a good justification for reviving CRAF -- complete with penetrator. :-) Hmm, last I checked I don't think CRAF was up to a delta v of 50 km/s or is this a incipient resurgence of the never-ending ion drive thread ;-) Of course, it's too late for Swift-Tuttle, but surely we can find another Earth-crossing comet which is posing an imminent threat to all life on the planet... Probably can, but most will be dominated by Jupiter perturbations, Swift-Tuttle doesn't look like it's going anywhere (caveat: this is guesstimate from eyeballing the orbit parameters, somebody will actually have to find out for real bu integrating the sucker), ie it will keep coming by until it hits as far as I can tell, but that's most probably a few million years off... * Steinn Sigurdsson Lick Observatory * * steinly@lick.ucsc.edu "standard disclaimer" * * The laws of gravity are very,very strict * * And you're just bending them for your own benefit - B.B. 1988* ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 92 16:58:35 GMT From: Dave Jones Subject: Smith-Tuttle Comet a threat to earth? Newsgroups: sci.space J. D. McDonald (mcdonald@aries.scs.uiuc.edu) wrote: > In article steinly@topaz.ucsc.edu (Steinn Sigurdsson) writes: > > > >Speed relative to Earth is 50 km/s > Lord Almighty! 1/6 the speed of light!!!!!! ??????? > > Doug McDonald I think you'll find that the speed of light is 300,000 km/s, not 300. -- ||)) There is no truth to the rumor that:)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))| ||)) Lotus are suing Apple for copying the look and feel of their lawsuits )| ||))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))| ||Dave Jones (dj@ekcolor.ssd.kodak.com) | Eastman Kodak Co. Rochester, NY | ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 92 18:37:05 GMT From: "Bradford B. Behr" Subject: Smith-Tuttle Comet a threat to earth? Newsgroups: sci.space >>>Speed relative to Earth is 50 km/s >>Lord Almighty! 1/6 the speed of light!!!!!! ??????? > >In your dreams, the last I heard about the speed of light is roughly >299,792 km/s. As somebody would say (?) what is a factor of 1000 >between friends. Arthur C. Clarke, I think... (I saw it in somebody's .sig on this group.) >One can extrapolate on this one since the shuttle is rougly doing >28,000 km/hr, is NASA taking into account the time distortion between >the crew and JSC? Shuttle velocity = 28000 km/hr = 7.78e3 m/s Lightspeed = 3.00e8 m/s v/c = 2.60e-5 Time dilation formula: T = T0 / sqrt(1 - (v/c)^2) (v/c)^2 = 6.73e-10 (1 - x)^(1/2) = 1 - (1/2)x for x << 1 so dilation factor = 1 - 3.37e-10 Mission duration = 10 days = 8.64e5 sec so Shuttle clocks will lag JSC clocks by 2.91e-4 sec at mission end. A third of a millisecond? Significant? Some timing links might conceivably get thrown off by a deviation of this magnitude. But presumably they resync throughout the mission... -- ----------------------------------- Bradford B. Behr bbbehr@sunspot.sunspot.noao.edu ----------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1992 21:19:59 GMT From: Nick Haines Subject: Smith-Tuttle Comet a threat to earth? Newsgroups: sci.space In article steinly@topaz.ucsc.edu (Steinn Sigurdsson) writes: [about Swift-Tuttle vs. other comets, stuff deleted] Probably can, but most will be dominated by Jupiter perturbations, Swift-Tuttle doesn't look like it's going anywhere (caveat: this is guesstimate from eyeballing the orbit parameters, somebody will actually have to find out for real bu integrating the sucker), ie it will keep coming by until it hits as far as I can tell, but that's most probably a few million years off... I keep reading this, and have a couple of questions to ask: 1. S-T crosses Earth orbit twice every 120 years. The risk of encounter is something very small, like 1e-6. So the expected time until impact is 6e7 years. So any concern about S-T should also apply to the bodies in the ecliptic, which I assert have an (order of magnitude) similar expected time before impact (because there are far more of them). Now obviously this calculation depends on my `1e6' assertion, but I can defend that (brief handwave: in order to hit, S-T has to be at the right angle and distance from the sun when it crosses the ecliptic. One can visualize the possible positions of S-T (as perturbed by outgassing) at that point as a long oval. The length can be judged from the fact that S-T was 17 days late this time, so S-T can be perturbed between orbits by times of 17 days. 17 days = 27 million km at Earth orbital speed, 73 million km at S-T orbital speed). 2. On any encounter, it's much more likely that S-T will pass very close to Earth (say, within 10 radii) than actually hit (could be a cool display :->). Wouldn't such an encounter radically change S-T's orbit? Could it throw it into the ecliptic? OK, whatever orbit results will be an earth-encounter one, but what are the chances that it will also be, say, a Jupiter-encounter one (i.e. an ecliptic one), throwing it into the planetary bar-billiards game (and therefore equally to be accounted with the other ecliptic bodies)? A simplistic momentum-conservation argument occurs to me, saying "no chance, S-T's ecliptic-perpendicular momentum will be conserved," but I intuit that that is flawed (but can't see why). Anyone want to help me out with more handwaving? Anyone got any PD software (for Unix) that lets me play planetary bar-billiards? Nick Haines nickh@cmu.edu ------------------------------ Date: 27 Oct 92 23:15:16 GMT From: Steinn Sigurdsson Subject: Smith-Tuttle Comet a threat to earth? Newsgroups: sci.space In article nickh@CS.CMU.EDU (Nick Haines) writes: In article steinly@topaz.ucsc.edu (Steinn Sigurdsson) writes: [about Swift-Tuttle vs. other comets, stuff deleted] Probably can, but most will be dominated by Jupiter perturbations, Swift-Tuttle doesn't look like it's going anywhere (caveat: this is guesstimate from eyeballing the orbit parameters, somebody will actually have to find out for real bu integrating the sucker), ie it will keep coming by until it hits as far as I can tell, but that's most probably a few million years off... I keep reading this, and have a couple of questions to ask: 1. S-T crosses Earth orbit twice every 120 years. The risk of encounter is something very small, like 1e-6. So the expected time It's more like 1e-5 per orbit, basically its node is near Earth's orbit and the question is where along the orbit the Earth is. until impact is 6e7 years. So any concern about S-T should also apply to the bodies in the ecliptic, which I assert have an (order of magnitude) similar expected time before impact (because there are far more of them). Now obviously this calculation depends on my `1e6' assertion, but I can defend that (brief handwave: in order to hit, S-T has to be at the right angle and distance from the sun when it crosses the ecliptic. One can visualize the possible positions of S-T (as perturbed by outgassing) at that point as a long oval. The length can be judged from the fact that S-T was 17 days late this time, so S-T can be perturbed between orbits by times of 17 days. 17 days = 27 million km at Earth orbital speed, 73 million km at S-T orbital speed). No, the delay is along the orbit, perturbations orthogonal to the orbit are small, basically there is an uncertainty in the aphelion and small outgassing at perihelion is effective in shifting the period due to changes in the aphelion - note the limit as eccentricity approaches 1 infinitesimal changes in perihelion velocity can produce arbitary changes in period but not in the nodes. 2. On any encounter, it's much more likely that S-T will pass very close to Earth (say, within 10 radii) than actually hit (could be a cool display :->). Wouldn't such an encounter radically change S-T's orbit? Could it throw it into the ecliptic? OK, whatever orbit results will be an earth-encounter one, but what are the chances that it will also be, say, a Jupiter-encounter one (i.e. an ecliptic one), This is the interesting bit, P/Swift-Tuttle has inclination of about 117\deg - ie it is mildly retrograde and near orthogonal! It does not come near the other planets and I don't think the very weak perturbations it sees can build up enough to get it away from Earth crossing. The Earth can't give it a delta v of more than about 3 km/sec, enough to drop it from Oort cloud orbit to 50AU aphelion, nowhere near enough to perturb it significantly towards the ecliptic, the Earth can perturb it back up into higher aphelion orbit, but those are still Earth crossing. The short period comets in the ecliptic (suspected Kuiper belt comets) are dominated by giant planet encounters which are likely to eject them (or collide with them) so although there are many of them the Jovian planets effectively form a barrier that reduces Earth collision probability drastically - part of the reason Nemesis was proposed to increase the comet rate enough to get decent collision probabilities. throwing it into the planetary bar-billiards game (and therefore equally to be accounted with the other ecliptic bodies)? A simplistic momentum-conservation argument occurs to me, saying "no chance, S-T's ecliptic-perpendicular momentum will be conserved," but I intuit that that is flawed (but can't see why). Anyone want to help me out with more handwaving? Anyone got any PD software (for Unix) that lets me play planetary bar-billiards? PD software is not adequate to track P/S-T for more than a couple of orbits. * Steinn Sigurdsson Lick Observatory * * steinly@lick.ucsc.edu "standard disclaimer" * * The laws of gravity are very,very strict * * And you're just bending them for your own benefit - B.B. 1988* ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1992 03:47:27 GMT From: Ron Baalke Subject: Spaceborne Imaging Reveals Unknown Earthquake Faults Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.geo.geology,ca.earthquakes Brian Dunbar Headquarters, Washington, D.C. October 27, 1992 (Phone: 202/358-1547) Mary A. Hardin Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. (Phone: 818/354-5011) RELEASE: 92-186 NASA SPACEBORNE IMAGING REVEALS UNKNOWN EARTHQUAKE FAULTS Geologists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., and Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, have discovered several previously unknown earthquake faults in California's northeastern Mojave Desert by analyzing remote sensing images at optical, infrared and radar wavelengths. In a paper presented today at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Cincinnati, JPL's Dr. John Ford outlined how spaceborne imaging technology has helped scientists find these newly observed faults, many of which are located within Fort Irwin, Calif., an active military training area. Analysis of the remote sensing images, combined with field observations and earthquake information, indicate that the area is crossed by many young faults. These faults are part of the same system that produced the magnitude 7.5 earthquake that occurred June 28, 1992, at Landers, Calif. The faults are visible on computer processed images taken by the Thematic Mapper instrument on Landsat 5 which obtains images simultaneously in seven bands at optical and infrared wavelengths. Corresponding images of the area from the French SPOT satellite and the NASA airborne synthetic aperture radar images confirmed the existence of the faults. Scientists say this study will lead to better understanding of how the entire system of faults works in southern California. In addition to Ford, the research is being conducted by geologists Dr. Robert E. Crippen of JPL and Professor Roy K. Dokka of the Department of Geology and Geophysics at Louisiana State University. The project is funded by NASA's Solid Earth Branch of the Office of Space Science and Applications, Washington, D.C. Support and safety control of the field investigations were provided by the U.S. Army at the National Training Center, Fort Irwin. - end - ___ _____ ___ /_ /| /____/ \ /_ /| Ron Baalke | baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov | | | | __ \ /| | | | Jet Propulsion Lab | ___| | | | |__) |/ | | |__ M/S 525-3684 Telos | If God had wanted us to /___| | | | ___/ | |/__ /| Pasadena, CA 91109 | have elections, he would |_____|/ |_|/ |_____|/ | have given us candidates. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1992 08:11:52 GMT From: Ron Baalke Subject: Space Calendar - 10/27/92 Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.astro,sci.space.shuttle,alt.sci.planetary Here's the latest Space Calendar. If you see any updates to the calendar, then please let me know. Note that launch dates are subject to change. The following people made contributions to this month's calendar: o Frank Knight - APEX Launch Update o Andre Knoefel - Orionid Meteor Shower ========================= SPACE CALENDAR October 27, 1992 ========================= * indicates change from last month's calendar October 1992 *27 - Galaxy 7 Ariane Launch *30 - MSTI Scout Launch November 1992 ?? - Superbird A Ariane Launch *?? - Galileo, Gaspra Data Playback 03 - Southern Taurid Meteor Shower (Solar Longitude 220.7 degrees) 07 - 25th Anniversary, Surveyor 6 Launch (Moon Soft Lander) *09 - NASA Town Meeting - Raleigh, NC - North Carolina State Univerisity 13 - Northern Taurid Meteor Shower (Solar Longitude 230.7 degrees) 13 - Galileo, Trajectory Correction Maneuver 16 (TCM-16) 17 - Leonid Meteor Shower (Solar Longitude 235.7 degrees) *17 - NASA Town Meeting - Hartford, CT - Lincoln Theater *20 - Russian Soyuz Goodwill Launch *20 - NASA Town Meeting - Indianapolis, IN - University of Hartford *25 - STS-53, Discovery, Department of Defense (DOD) December 1992 ?? - Galaxy 4 Ariane Launch *?? - Galileo, Dual Drive Actuator Hammer Test (DDA-5) *?? - Optus B-2 Long March 3 Launch *03 - NASA Town Meeting - Pasadena, CA - California Institute of Technology 08 - Galileo, Earth Flyby 08 - Asteroid 4179 Toutatis, Near Earth Flyby (.025 AU) 10 - Lunar Eclipse *11 - NASA Town Meeting - Tampa, FL - University of South Florida 14 - Geminid Meteor Shower (Solar Longitude 262.0 degrees) 14 - 30th Anniversary, Mariner 2 Venus Flyby (1st Flyby of Another Planet) *15 - NASA Town Meeting - Seattle, WA - University of Washington 19 - 20 years since man has been to the Moon (Apollo 17) 22 - Ursid Meteor Shower (Maximum: 10:00 UT, Solar Longitude 258.7 deg.) 25 - Isaac Newton's 350th birthday (or January 4) January 1993 ?? - Eutelsat II F-5 Ariane Launch *?? - NASA Town Meeting - Denver, Colorado 03-4 Quadrantid Meteor Shower (Maximum: 10:00 UT, Solar Lon 283.13 deg.) *04 - Mars Observer, High Gain Antenna Deployment 07 - 25th Anniversary, Surveyor 7 Launch (Moon Soft Lander) *08 - Mars Observer, 2nd Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM-2) *13 - STS-54, Endeavour, TDRS-F February 1993 01 - 35th Anniversary, Explorer 1 Launch (1st U.S. Satellite) 06 - Astro-D Launch (US/Japan) *08 - Mars Observer, 3rd Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM-3) 18 - Jules Verne's 165th Birthday 18 - STS-55, Columbia, Spacelab Germany (SL-D2) 19 - Copernicus' 520th Birthday March 1993 ?? - Radcal Scout Launch *?? - Hispasat 1B & Insat 2B Ariane Launch *?? - Galileo, 10 RPM Spinup Test *?? - DFH-3 Long March 2E Launch (China) *?? - Commercial Experiment Trasporter (Comet) Launch 01 - Ulysses, 3rd Opposition *11 - STS-56, Discovery, Atmospheric Lab for Applications and Science (ATLAS-2) April 1993 *?? - Astra 1C Ariane Launch 06 - 20th Anniversary, Pioneer 11 Launch (Jupiter & Saturn Flyby Mission) 22 - Lyrid Meteor Shower (Maximum: 02:00 UT, Solar Longitude 32.1 degrees) 23 - Pi-Puppid Meteor Shower (Solar Longitude 33.3 degrees) *28 - STS-57, Endeavour, European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA-1R) May 1993 *?? - Advanced Photovoltaic Electronics Experiment (APEX) Pegasus Launch 04 - Galileo Enters Asteroid Belt Again 15 - Magellan, End of Mission? June 1993 04 - Lunar Eclipse 14 - Sakigake, 2nd Earth Flyby (Japan) 22 - 15th Anniversary of Charon Discovery (Pluto's Moon) by Christy *30 - STS-51, Discovery, Advanced Communications Technology Satellite(ACTS) July 1993 29 - NASA's 35th Birthday August 1993 ?? - Seastar Pegasus Launch ?? - ISTP Wind Delta-2 Launch ?? - ETS-VI Launch ?? - GEOS-J Launch ?? - Landsat 6 Launch 08 - 15th Anniversary, Pioneer Venus Orbitor 2 Launch 12 - Perseid Meteor Shower (Max: 04:00 UT, S.L. 139.6 deg and 15:00 UT, S.L. 140.1 deg.) *09 - Mars Observer, 4th Trajectory Correction Manuever (TCM-4) 24 - Mars Observer, Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI) 25 - STS-58, Columbia, Spacelab Life Sciences (SLS-2) 28 - Galileo, Asteroid Ida Flyby September 1993 *?? - SPOT-3 Ariane Launch October 1993 *?? - Intelsat 7 F1 Ariane Launch *21 - Orionid Meteor Shower (Solar Longitude 208.4 degrees) ##### ___ _____ ___ /_ /| /____/ \ /_ /| Ron Baalke | baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov | | | | __ \ /| | | | Jet Propulsion Lab | ___| | | | |__) |/ | | |__ M/S 525-3684 Telos | If God had wanted us to /___| | | | ___/ | |/__ /| Pasadena, CA 91109 | have elections, he would |_____|/ |_|/ |_____|/ | have given us candidates. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1992 19:32:56 GMT From: Martin Connors Subject: Swedish Freja Spacecraft Newsgroups: sci.space The Freja auroral satellite was launched October 6 from the Gobi desert aboard a Chinese Long March rocket. Freja is 'Viking II' where Viking (pronounced Veeking as in Swedish to distinguish it from the U.S. Mars probe of the same name) was a highly successful auroral studies satellite launched in 1986. Freja is the name of a Swedish deity. Of interest to Canadian researchers are a plasma analyser and auroral imaging camera operating at about 130 nm in the ultaviolet. The camera will allow images to be taken every 6 seconds at down to 2 km resolution. This will enable auroral forms to be studied in detail both spatially and in time development. Coordinated studies undertaken in Canada will include correlation of magnetic observations and optical and RADAR velocity images with results from spacecraft passes over Canada. Data will be received at the Prince Albert, Saskatchewan ground station as well as at the European Space Agency's ESRANGE in Kiruna, Sweden, which is the spacecraft command centre. Leroy Cogger of the University of Calgary is the imager principal investigator. Brian Whalen of the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics in Ottawa is the PI of the plasma analyzer. Initial images from the auroral camera were presented at the second Annual Meeting of the Canadian Network for Space Research, held October 23-26 in Lake Louise, Alberta. NOTE: this is net participant information only. It is not an official comment from any agency referred to. -- Martin Connors | Space Research | martin@space.ualberta.ca (403) 492-2526 University of Alberta | ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Oct 92 23:41:12 GMT From: Mike Henderson Subject: Swedish Freja Spacecraft Newsgroups: sci.space To those interested in Freja UV imager data (for serious scientific research only); This is just a quick correction regarding the UV imager experiment. Sandy Murphree at the University of Calgary is the principal investigator (PI) for this experiment (not Leroy Cogger as stated in Martin Connors posting). Please direct any serious inquiries to Sandy Murphree at, Internet: murphree@phys.ucalgary.ca SPAN: murphree::cancal ----- Mike Henderson Space Science Group University of Calgary mgh@hobbes.ucalgary.ca ------------------------------ End of Space Digest Volume 15 : Issue 351 ------------------------------