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 ; Sat, 21 Apr 90 02:10:13 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Sat, 21 Apr 90 02:09:41 -0400 (EDT) Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #296 SPACE Digest Volume 11 : Issue 296 Today's Topics: Re: Apollo 13, STS-1, Vostok 1 anniversaries Re: Pegasus launch planes - Altitude First, speed later? Payload Summary for 04/20/90 (Forwarded) Re: "Family Portrait" (Has anyone seen it?) Re: Pegasus launch from Valkyrie (or ... Re: Apollo 13, STS-1, Vostok 1 anniversaries Re: Quick launches ( was: Intelsat Payload Status for 04/20/90 (Forwarded) NASA scientific instruments to observe Comet Austin (Forwarded) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 20 Apr 90 18:47:30 GMT From: skipper!shafer@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer) Subject: Re: Apollo 13, STS-1, Vostok 1 anniversaries In article <89@newave.UUCP> john@newave.UUCP (John A. Weeks III) writes: >In article <5684@hplabsb.HP.COM> dsmith@hplabsb.UUCP (David Smith) writes: >>to get back, and naturally ;-) the cartridges for command and lunar modules >>were incompatible. So they adapted the CM cartridges to the LM with duct >>tape. > ^^^^ ^^^^ >Duct Tape? Why on earth did they have duct tape on the Apollo? >How much did this flight certified duct tape cost? Did any of the >LM's that landed on the moon carry duct tape? I believe that Mach 3 tape (i.e. flight-certified duct tape) costs about $16 a roll, but I get it from the tool crib and am not certain of the precise cost. I'm sure we get a big quantity discount. I would expect space-flight-certified tape to cost about twice that, or $32 a roll. -- Mary Shafer shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov ames!skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov!shafer NASA Ames Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA Of course I don't speak for NASA ------------------------------ Date: 21 Apr 90 02:40:50 GMT From: usc!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!watserv1!watdragon!watyew!jdnicoll@ucsd.edu (Brian or James) Subject: Re: Pegasus launch planes - Altitude First, speed later? There's a well known technique for converting Ep to Ek. Just put your launch vehicle into the very high altitude aerostat supported launch platform, take it up as high as you can, and drop the sucker. I think conservation of energy says the launch vehicle isn't going to get back up to the altitude it was dropped from on freefall generated Ek, but it is an alternate to speed the vehicle up [There are so few launches that involve subsurface orbits, alas]. I suspect it isn't a useful one... JDN ------------------------------ Date: 21 Apr 90 04:11:18 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: Payload Summary for 04/20/90 (Forwarded) Payload Status Report The Great Observatories Friday, April 20,1990 George Diller 407/867-2468 FTS 823-2468 HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE Following the scrub of the STS-31 launch on April 10, a decision was made to remove the flight batteries from the Hubble Space Telescope and take them to the KSC battery lab located in the Vehicle Assembly Building. There, the nickel hydrogen bat- teries could be charged at a temperature of 32 degrees F., ena- bling them to take on a charge more readily. When they are within HST in Discovery's payload bay, a 45 degree F cold air purge must be used, charging them in a warmer environment, thus more slowly. In the battery lab, a full charge could be obtained during the scrub turnaround period. There are two sets of six batteries which were removed and transported to the battery lab, chilled down, and the charging started on Saturday, April 14. The payload bay doors of Discovery were closed during the 130 hours of battery charging and the parallel pad activity to change out Discovery's #1 auxilary power unit. A purge of super- clean, cool and dry air was circulated around the telescope in the payload bay during this time, making it essentially unneces- sary to reinstall the aperature door contamination cover. Wit- ness plates were installed on the telescope before door closure to document the clean environment. Battery charging was concluded at Noon on Thursday and a full charge was successfully obtained. Preparations were com- pleted this morning at 6:00 a.m. to ready the batteries for transporation to the pad. They payload bay doors of Discovery were reopened at 8:30 a.m. today. Reinstallation of both battery sets will be performed on second shift this evening. On Saturday morning a 4-hour electrical verification test will be peformed. The payload bay doors will be closed for Tuesday's launch at approximately 8:00 p.m. Saturday night. HST will be powered up shortly before 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning. GAMMA RAY OBSERVATORY Four of the five astronauts assigned to the STS-37 Gamma Ray Observatory mission were at KSC on Monday to inspect the spacecraft and to participate in GRO testing from associated test and data display terminals. This enabled the crew to see data generated by the spacecraft first hand and to interact with the satellite in a way similar to the predeploment activities. Astronauts involved in Monday's activities were Steve Nagel, Ken Cameron, Linda Godwin, and Jerome Apt. ------------------------------ Date: 20 Apr 90 07:16:18 GMT From: winter@apple.com (Patricia Winter) Subject: Re: "Family Portrait" (Has anyone seen it?) In article <1990Apr19.194425.10269@cs.uoregon.edu> solana@spencer.cs.uoregon.edu (David Solana) writes: > >By the way, is there a good book about planetary probes or >about the Voyagers in particular? Try _Distant Encounters_ by Mark Washburn (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich). Patty -- ***************************************************************************** Patty Winter N6BIS INTERNET: winter@apple.com AMPR.ORG: [44.4.0.44] UUCP: {decwrl,nsc,sun}!apple!winter ***************************************************************************** ------------------------------ Date: 20 Apr 90 15:30:30 GMT From: skipper!shafer@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer) Subject: Re: Pegasus launch from Valkyrie (or ... In article <1990Apr20.040017.12176@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes: :In article shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer) writes: :>The only way that the Concorde shows a profit is that the acquisition :>costs was written off rather than amortized. It's a lot easier to make :>a profit on an airplane if someone gives you the airplane... :On the other hand, it's virtually impossible to make a profit on the :airplane if they insist on getting back all the development costs of a :very ambitious project by selling a production run of less than 20. :Given the impossibility of ever recovering the investment, giving the :things to the national airlines wasn't an unreasonable thing to do. :The cost situation isn't that dissimilar to what it would have been if :zillions of them had been sold -- they'd have purchase prices to repay :but maintenance would be quite a bit cheaper (getting spares made is :very costly for such a small fleet). I wasn't criticizing them for writing off the debt. Once the market didn't prove out, the Concorde production run was obviously going to be short and expensive. When I was working at Lockheed during the FAA certification phase of the L-1011 Tristar they told us that the company wouldn't start to make a profit until the breakeven airplane, which was about number 200. There's no way that the Concorde even approached the breakeven point. I'll mention that the bookkeeping legerdemain was part of the UK privatization drive and it was just as sensible as any other accounting procedure is. However, I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to determine how sensible accounting is. My point was that developing and operating limited-run or one-off aircraft is expensive and difficult. The fact that British Airways "makes a profit" on such an aircraft, the Concorde, is the result of bookkeeping techniques. A small company like OSC (versus a huge national airline) can't hide reality with these techniques. -- Mary Shafer shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov ames!skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov!shafer NASA Ames Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA Of course I don't speak for NASA ------------------------------ Date: 18 Apr 90 23:44:22 GMT From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!srcsip!jhereg!wd0gol!newave!john@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (John A. Weeks III) Subject: Re: Apollo 13, STS-1, Vostok 1 anniversaries In article <5684@hplabsb.HP.COM> dsmith@hplabsb.UUCP (David Smith) writes: >to get back, and naturally ;-) the cartridges for command and lunar modules >were incompatible. So they adapted the CM cartridges to the LM with duct >tape. ^^^^ ^^^^ Duct Tape? Why on earth did they have duct tape on the Apollo? How much did this flight certified duct tape cost? Did any of the LM's that landed on the moon carry duct tape? Maybe NASA could put duct tape on the booster joints to reduce the chances of another accident 8-). -john- -- =============================================================================== John A. Weeks III (612) 942-6969 john@newave.mn.org NeWave Communications ...uunet!rosevax!bungia!wd0gol!newave!john =============================================================================== ------------------------------ Date: 20 Apr 90 17:11:33 GMT From: convex!ewright@uunet.uu.net (Edward V. Wright) Subject: Re: Quick launches ( was: Intelsat As far as quick launchers go, the US Navy did seriously consider a proposal to make one Trident bird on each of its ballistic missile submarines an emergency communications satellite launcher instead of a warhead carrier. I believe there were earlier proposals to do the same thing with Polaris and Poseiden missiles. Launching a military satellite from a submerged ship has obvious advantages. Launching a civilian satellite from a submarine does not, but there is no reason why Trident *has* to be launched submerged. Related question: does anyone know what's become of the Poseiden missiles the Navy is now retiring? Space Services Inc. of America considered building a space booster using Polaris stages a few years ago, but dropped the idea because the remaining Polaris motors were in pretty bad shape. The Poseiden motors, being somewhat newer, might be in better shape. ------------------------------ Date: 21 Apr 90 04:14:32 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: Payload Status for 04/20/90 (Forwarded) Daily Status/KSC Payload Management and Operations 04-20-90. - STS-31R HST (at pad-B) - HST battery charging continues. - STS-35 ASTRO-1 (at OPF) - Support for VAB operations continues. - STS-40 SLS-1 (at O&C) - Module leak checks, rack and floor installation into the module, and preps for experiment train interface test will continue today. - STS-42 IML-1 (at O&C) - On Thursday module pyrell foam replacement, floor staging, and racks 4, 7, 9 and 12 staging operations were performed. Pyrell foam replacement and floor staging will continue today along with racks 6, 7, 8, and 11 staging. - STS-45 (Atlas-1)- Bonding straps will be installed today. - STS-55 SL-D2 (at O&C) - Rack 12 staging will continue today. - HST M&R (at O&C) - ORUC interface testing continues. ------------------------------ Date: 21 Apr 90 04:31:20 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: NASA scientific instruments to observe Comet Austin (Forwarded) Michael Braukus April 20, 1990 Headquarters, Washington, D.C. (Phone: 202/453-1549) Joyce B. Milliner Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va. (Phone: 804/824-1579 ) RELEASE: 90-57 NASA SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS TO OBSERVE COMET AUSTIN Two NASA sounding rockets are scheduled to be launched from the White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, carrying scientific instruments above the Earth's atmosphere to observe the recently discovered Comet Austin (1989c1). Both rockets are two-stage, sub-orbital Black Brant IXs. One is tentatively scheduled to be launched no earlier than April 21, during the evening, and the other no earlier than April 28, just before dawn. The first rocketborne payload will carry Johns Hopkins University's faint object telescope (FOT) and a spectrograph to observe the comet in the far ultraviolet spectral range. Using a special Westinghouse camera, the image is sent to the ground station so that real-time maneuvers of the payload can be made for precise pointing in the sky. The launch window for this experiment extends from April 21 through April 30, 1990. Favorable observing conditions require that the sun must be at least 23.5 degrees below the horizon and the moon must be at least 25 degrees away from Comet Austin which must be above the horizon. The second experiment will carry a far ultraviolet spectrometer for the University of Colorado (CU). Scheduled to be launched on the morning of April 28, the payload will study the spectral emissions from Comet Austin. According to CU's Dr. James Green, "Since comet Austin is suspected to be a "first time" comet, i.e., this is believed to be the comet's first trip into the inner solar system, the study of the concentration of its noble gases is a powerful probe of the conditions in the Oort cloud, (the region of the solar system from where comets come). For the same reason, the chemical composition of Comet Austin also is a strong indicator of the initial conditions in our solar system." Both payloads are programmed to descend from parachutes and be recovered from the desert. The experiments then will be refurbished to make future galactic astronomy studies. Comet Austin was discovered by an amateur comet hunter from New Zealand, Rodney R. D. Austin, on the evening of Dec. 6, 1989, when it was still far from the sun. At the time of the first rockets' observation, Comet Austin will be approximately 27 degrees from the Sun as viewed from the Earth. The most widely accepted theory of comet composition is the "dirty snowball" model, suggested by Fred Whipple in the 1950's. As a comet approaches the sun, the water molecules at the surface of this "dirty snowball" begin to sublimate (change from a solid to a gaseous state). These rocketborne studies should provide valuable information for scientists to better understand the formation and composition of comets. The Black Brant IX solid propellant rocket vehicle is 46 feet long and 18 inches in diameter. These scientific missions are part of the overall NASA Sounding Rocket Program managed at the Goddard Space Flight Center's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. This program consists of approximately 35 sounding rockets launched each year from various worldwide locations, under the sponsorship of NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications. Dr. Paul Feldman of Johns Hopkins University is the principal investigator for the first launch; co-investigators are Drs. David Sahnow, Mel Martinez and Stephen McCandliss. For the second mission, Dr. Webster Cash is the principal investigator from the University of Colorado and Dr. Jim Green and Timothy Cook are the project scientists. Wallops Flight Facility project managers are Anel Flores and John van Overeem, respectively, for the two missions. ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V11 #296 *******************