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/usr1/ota/space/space.dl@andrew.cmu.edu (->+dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr1/ota/space/space.dl) (->ota+space.digests) ID ; Tue, 12 Sep 89 18:58:19 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Tue, 12 Sep 89 18:57:54 -0400 (EDT) Subject: SPACE Digest V10 #29 SPACE Digest Volume 10 : Issue 29 Today's Topics: More details about the Soyuz TM-8 docking Soviet's Soyuz TM-8 docking time at Mir space station space news from Aug 7 AW&ST future happenings Anon-UUCP for Voyager Pics?? Re: Exotic Thrusters (was Re: Where the hell are electric...) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 8 Sep 89 14:44:51 EDT From: Glenn Chapman Subject: More details about the Soyuz TM-8 docking Some more information was given on the shortwave about the USSR's Soyuz TM-8 mission. About 48 hours after launch the Soyuz approached the Mir station slowly at its Kvant (rear) end. A few meters from the docking port the autodock system failed. The crew of Alexander Viktorenko and Alexander Serebrov then pulled the capsule away from the station. After a conference with the ground controllers it was decided to go ahead and try a manual docking rather than another automatic attempt. This was quickly accomplished. One point here, during the flight to the station the shortwave mentioned that they were checking out the docking radar, not something that they normally talk about. This, and their quick response to the problem, may indicate that the crew knew well in advance that trouble might occur in the docking. After checking the mechanical locks, and equalizing the pressure, they entered the station. In addition to the traditional Russian guest gifts of bread and salt there was a note from Dr. Valrey Polyakov (Soyuz TM-6/TM-7, Aug. 29 '88) of the last crew giving them some final advice. The station was clean with no dust, but the air smelled slightly of plastic. Some more details about the plans for this mission. The experimental module, to be added in October, will contain significantly more supplies, a larger airlock, and the "Space Chair" or "Space Bicycle". The crew will be doing 5 space walks, at least some to test out this Manned Maneuvering Unite type system. The technical module is their name for the February '90 expansion section. Both additions will definitely be 20 Tonnes in mass. It has not been stated at what point the first module will be transfered to one of the side docking ports of Mir's docking ball. Probably this will occur only slightly before the February addition to minimize the asymetry in the station shape and thus aid in its control. They say that Mir will be permanently manned starting with this mission. The Russians keep rolling along, even when problems develop. People used to say that was the hallmark of the US program. Glenn Chapman MIT Lincoln Lab ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Sep 89 09:05:55 EDT From: Glenn Chapman Subject: Soviet's Soyuz TM-8 docking time at Mir space station The USSR's Soyuz TM-8 mission, which began on Sept. 5, is now scheduled to arrive at Mir about 4:00 am Moscow time on Fri. Sept. 8 (8:00 pm EDT Thur). Cosmonauts Alexander Viktorenko and Alexander Serebrov have been checking out the docking system in preparation for reaching the station. One point, this mission seems to be taking longer than usual to dock with Mir. This may be due to Mir's orbit (which may still be higher than standard; I have not seen the latest orbital elements), or it may indicate that they expect the docking to be tricker than most (launch to dock time is typically less than 2 days). For those that wish to follow this on shortwave the best frequencies now at the east coast of North America are 7165 and 9600 KHz. Listen on the hour for the Radio Moscow news report. The expansion modules to be added in October and February are now stated as being about the same size and mass as Mir itself (ie about 20 tonnes and nearly 100 cubic meters of volume). This means they are much larger than the current Kvant addition which is less than half Mir's mass and volume. They will contain extra gyroscopic systems to maintain the station position. One of them (the first to arrive?) will have substantial equipment for semiconductor crystal growth. The Feb. module has a docking port which will mate with the Buran shuttle. One interesting sidelight in recent broadcasts was some statements on what cosmonauts get paid. Typical ground pay is 300-400 rubles per month about 50% more than the average pay if I remember correctly (the official rate puts the ruble about equal to the dollar, though on the black market it is much less). For a mission they get a bonus of 2000-15,000 rubles, though the higher number is for a 1 year flight (ie. 5-6 years regular pay for a year on Mir - not bad). Speaking of money, the pictures of the launch show a giant advertisement on the side of the booster for an Italian insurance company. I wonder if they offered to insure the cosmonauts themselves as part of that. News reports in the west speak of this mission showing how the costs of manned space flight are causing the Russians to cut back. A 6 month flight, which plans to include the doubling of their space station's volume and mass is indications of a reduction in the program? The US should have such scaled back goals instead of the incredible shrinking Freedom station. Glenn Chapman MIT Lincoln Lab ------------------------------ Date: 11 Sep 89 02:01:20 GMT From: jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!henry@rutgers.edu (Henry Spencer) Subject: space news from Aug 7 AW&ST Editorial urging that before any decisions are made about schedule slips for NASP, it should be reviewed by people with aerospace-industry experience but no direct stake in the program. First flight of Pegasus delayed to October from Aug 22; things are slightly behind schedule, notably the testing of the carrier-aircraft pylon. The first flight is still "as planned" in other respects, including the DARPA/NASA payload. Dept of Truly Ridiculous Pork Barrel: House urges NASA to give more space station contracts to firms owned by women and minorities. Asiasat gets preliminary deal for Thailand's first comsat, and an agreement under which Thailand will lease half of Asiasat 1 until Thaisat is ready. Asiasat 1 itself is in trouble from the new ban on high-technology transfer to China, however: not only does this cause problems for launching on Long March next year, the fact that the satellite is partly for China may interfere with getting it launched at all. (Asiasat does have a backup reservation on Ariane.) OTA report says it is time to fund a fifth shuttle orbiter, because at current planned launch rates there is a 72% chance of writing off an orbiter before space station assembly begins. This assumes that shuttle reliability is 98%, but this is by no means certain; the 29 launches so far provide only 50% confidence that reliability is at least 94.3%. If 94.3% is the actual reliability, the odds are better than even that an orbiter will be lost within a couple of years. OTA concludes that NASA will have to find funding for one or more additional orbiters in the next five years, and must restrict shuttle use to payloads that cannot fly on anything else. OTA says the matter is urgent, with a decision required this year or next if the situation is to be under control in time for station assembly. Funding in FY90 (which starts Oct 1!) would be needed if the next orbiter is to be available in 1996. OTA also notes that existing orbiters will be 15 years old when station assembly starts, with a 25-year old design. Rep. Bill Nelson (Democrat, head of House Sci/Space/Tech subcommittee on space) says the administration needs to make up its mind about its plans in light of the OTA report. He says another orbiter is needed, and NASA also needs to put more payloads on expendables to provide some slack in the shuttle schedule in case of trouble. Nelson also says that the public needs to be informed about all this to avert political disaster when (not if) another orbiter is lost. NASP officials and contractors say the 2.5-year program slip proposed by various people is longer than necessary, with a 1-year slip sufficient to let the program's technology catch up with flight requirements. Congress is also casting a suspicious eye on the 2.5-year slip, with the thought that the USAF and NASA don't seem to be quite as committed to the program as they claim. The USAF in particular seems reluctant to spend much on it. Soviets visit Japan to talk about launcher technology. They are interested in cooperative work on single-stage-to-orbit launchers, and have offered to transfer Energia technology to Japan (!). The possibility of exporting or transferring other launchers, e.g. Proton, was also raised. Japan is a bit cool to the idea right now, as it would violate the COCOM agreements on technology transfer to the USSR. Space Commerce Corp. (the Houston firm that currently represents much Soviet space activity in the US) and Technopribor (the Soviet organization that builds the SS-20 IRBM, now being scrapped under INF) agree to investigate jointly developing and marketing a new commercial space launcher! The new launcher, named Start, will carry 300 lbs into a 500-km orbit. It will be a three-stage solid-fuel launcher, based on SS-20 technology but an entirely new design to avoid trouble with the INF treaty. INF safeguards need to be sorted out so that military use is not possible; the Soviets say that Start facilities would be open to inspection. Start will be launched from a transporter/launcher vehicle, like the SS-20, eliminating the need for fixed pads [and, more significantly, avoiding the need to ship payloads to the USSR!]. Technopribor, which badly wants to find a civilian use for its facilities and workforce, says it could build 300 launchers within five years of goahead, and could deliver loads to orbit at $10k-16k/lb. This would make it broadly competitive with Pegasus and other small launcher proposals. The final decision will be made next year after a detailed market analysis. Flight testing would begin around the end of 1990, with perhaps ten test launches over 2-3 years. Some of the tests may be in Australia and Brazil, and SCC will ask OCST approval to run one test launch in the US. NASA picks 14 initial scientific experiments for the space station, fairly modest ones that can fly during assembly. Voyager finds new moons around Neptune. Voyager's camera resolution of Neptune has been better than ground-based telescopes since late last year, so lots of new data is coming in. Voyager project people observe that a hefty fraction of the world's total radio-telescope area will be pointed at Voyager during Neptune encounter -- a total of 38 major antennas on four continents. [As said before, I'm keeping the Voyager event reporting to a minimum since it's old news by now.] Orbital Sciences signs with Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology to develop, produce, and launch a small low-orbit satellite for experimental use by Virginia universities and industry. A very nice diagram of the trajectories of the Voyagers, much the nicest 3-D visualization I've seen. [Voyager 1 is actually sort of vaguely near Pluto (emphasis on the "vaguely"!).] -- V7 /bin/mail source: 554 lines.| Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology 1989 X.400 specs: 2200+ pages. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu ------------------------------ Date: 27 Aug 89 05:23:00 GMT From: attctc!tlsi!f424.n104.z1.FIDONET.ORG!Brendan.Bayne@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Brendan Bayne) Subject: future happenings This was published in the spring _AIAA Student Journal_. I got a kick out of it, and I thought you would too, so here it is: Into the Future: An Aerospace Chronology 25 Years Hence - May 2014 by Will A. Kirschner at SUNY, Buffalo MAY 2: The Boeing company rolls the last 747-1000 Full Upper Deck (FUD) off the Far East assembly line in Outer Mongolia. Rollout of the tandem fuselage Boeing 2747 is scheduled for the following month. Boeing anticipates no delays for the 864 seat (1028 in all-tourist layout) aircraft. MAY 5: Two US astronauts return from space station Freedom after 427 M*A*S*H reruns in orbit. The National Aero-Space Plane is employed for the return home on only its eight mission in as many years. President Ricky Schroeder uses the occasion to make an appeal for congressional funding: "The lunar base is within our grasp. We can't allow Freedom to be a stepping stone to nowhere." President Schroeder is the fifth president to request, and the fifth to be denied, funding for the project. MAY 5: A Soviet MiG-29 interceptor plunges into the Bering Strait after striking the port wing of a US E-3A AWACS aircraft. Both were on routine missions: the MiG pilot ejected and the stalwart reconnaissance aircraft landed safely. The cause of the incident is disclosed two weeks later on _Nightline_ by Secretary of Defense Gary Maddox. "Our pilot held up the centerfold of last month's _Playboy_ for [the Soviet pilot's] approval. He aparently came in too tight for a better look." MAY 9: The People's Republic of China launches a communications satellite for ABC-TV. The satellite will bring 3-D smell-a-vision to households across the American continent, where available. ABC spokesman Ted Koppel, Jr. announces at press conference that technology transfer held up delivery of the satellite to the launch site in the communist country. "It was touch-and-go, give-and-take with the State Department for so long. . . In the end we got the go ahead, but had to remove the roast beef dinner and new car aromas for reasons of national security." May 15: A new heavy-lift record is set when the prototype Antonov An-427 departs after an airshow at Ronald Reagan Air Force Base. The ten-engine transport leaves the California base with 160 tons of Pez candies. A maximum take-off weight of 1.28 million pounds prevented the loading of Pez dispensers on the same aircraft. Smaller An-326 eight-engine and An-225 six-engine transports were used in that endeavor. MAY 16: The single-engine Airbus A360 is granted certification by the International Aviation Administration for Extended Range Operations. The aircraft features new technology fly-by-telepathy controls and is powered by the 130,000-pound thrust CFM56-10. General Electric and SNECMA, CFM International partners, forsee only slight sales growth for the world's mot powerful powerplant as, after all, only one powerplant is required per airframe. Some analysts also say the engine will be done in by its own dependability. MAY 21: New York developer Donald Trump sell Manhattan Island, which he had acquired in its entirety, back to the Indians for Peter Minuet's price of twenty-four dollars. Said Trump, "It's what I planned to do all along. I'm keeping the air shuttle, though, just to spite the labor unions who've been giving me trouble since 1988." MAY 21-26: The Space Shuttle Friendship makes its final mission, STS 341L. Friendship launches a television satellite for the Ivory Coast. The satellite will allow both smell-a-visions in the country to receive an upcoming live MTV concert. The shuttle also includes an experiment on reverse peristalsis in outer space. Ten college students were chosen from fraternities through out the nationand were each sent up with a case of Milwaulkee's Best. MAY 25: Trans World Airlines chairman Michael J. Fox was on hand for the delivery of the first of 100 MD-99 propfan powered twins. Mr. Fox priased himself during the festive event. "The MD-90 series of aircraft made us the only domestic airline to show a profit during the 2001 oil embargo, and even though McDonnell Douglas' only customer so far for the ultrea-high bypass technology, we're proud of those funny looking engine mounts. MAY 28: While on a routine mission, the B-2 Stealth bomber mysteriously appears on radar over the Bermuda Triangle. MAY 30: Singer/actor John Denver finally gets his wish and is sent into space by the Soviets. The news agency TASS said there are no immediate plans for his return. I know not all of this is space related, but I felt enough of it was to post. There are some uncomfortably possible scenarios in here, aren't there? Brendan -- --+--+ +------+ Internet: Brendan.Bayne@f424.n104.z1.FIDONET.ORG | | | | UUCP : ...!attctc!tlsi!104!424!Brendan.Bayne | | +---+ | Note : TLSI is a FREE gateway for mail between | | | | : Usenet and Fidonet. For more informations + +----+---+ + : write to root@tlsi or attctc!tlsi!root TLSI: The Hard Drive Specialists - (214) 263-0707. We repair most brands. ------------------------------ Date: 30 Aug 89 07:58:16 GMT From: attctc!tlsi!Nanook@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Keith Dickinson) Subject: Anon-UUCP for Voyager Pics?? Does anyone know where I can PEP an anon-UUCP copy of the Voyager pics?? I would be VERY interested in them (in GIF please). Thanks Keith --- msged 1.99S ZTC * Origin: TLSI: The DFW/Usenet Gateway (1:124/2202) -- __ Fidonet : 124/2202 [(214) 399-0094] / \ Internet: nanook@TLSI.Fidonet.Org / oo|\ or : nanook@f124.n2202.z1.Fidonet.Org (_\ |_) UUCP : attctc!tlsi!nanook _ /__\@'__ USnail : 2725 W. Pioneer #208, Irving Tx. 75061 // / | | (( / | (*) | "Speak UUCP Fido, Speak!" \\/ \ |__U__| ______ \ /_ || \\_ / FIDO \ tlsi is a FREE gateway for mail between \____)|_) \_) (________) Usenet and FidoNet. For info write to Root. ------------------------------ Date: 30 Aug 89 22:32:19 GMT From: oliveb!pyramid!octopus!vsi1!daver!lynx!neal@bu-cs.bu.edu (Neal Woodall) Subject: Re: Exotic Thrusters (was Re: Where the hell are electric...) In article <4280@utastro.UUCP> terry@astro.UUCP (Terry Hancock) writes: >According to the same papers I used to give the specifications >for the 30-cm drive, another, more powerful drive was tested. Although >I'm not certain it was the same drive, a 150-cm drive and one capable >of generating 4 N (~1 lb) thrust were mentioned. I can imagine the >power requirements must have been enormous. Well, as someone has suggested already, maybe we can use the Soviet's Topaz reactor for the power....we have the thrusters, they have the reactor. and this might make a "winning combination". >I don't think 3000 lbf-s/lbm is a physical or engineering >limit -- it is, rather, an ideal value to trade-off the amount of >fuel required with the size of the Power Processing Unit The Power Processing Unit.....don't know what this is, but it sounds as if it is the device that generates the electricity and then converts it to the correct volt/amp combination that keeps the thruster happy....is this right? >By the way, the source, (ION Propulsion for Spacecraft, >Publication of NASA Lewis Research Center 1977) Thanx for the reference! >I hope this is interesting to some people, sorry it's so long. Not at all....this discussion is one of the more interesting in the last few months, IMHO. Neal ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V10 #29 *******************