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 ; Wed, 23 May 90 01:31:39 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <8aKW0L200VcJQe=k4h@andrew.cmu.edu> Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Wed, 23 May 90 01:31:04 -0400 (EDT) Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #439 SPACE Digest Volume 11 : Issue 439 Today's Topics: Re: Venus and Mars and Asteroids O MY! Magellan Update - 05/22/90 Re: Terraforming Venus (was: Manned mission to Venus) Re: Australian spaceport Splitting sci.space Dial-A-Shuttle and STS-35 APPLICANTS FOR ASTRONAUTS Re: Manned mission to Venus Payload Status for 05/21/90 (Forwarded) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 17 May 90 19:12:30 GMT From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!dali!ogicse!emory!hubcap!ncrcae!ncrlnk!ncrwic!encad!ensub!msjohnso@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Mark Johnson) Subject: Re: Venus and Mars and Asteroids O MY! In article dlbres10@pc.usl.edu (Fraering Philip) writes: > >1. Incomprehensibility of space: > >The problems with the SSME's are not due to the fact that they were liquid >hydrogen fuelled, but that our favorite bureaucracy has made them much >more complex and advanced than an engine should be (see all the recent >postings about the Six Blind Men and the Shuttle RFP...:-) > >In fact, the most unsafe part of the shuttle was and is the SRB's. Without >their vibration loads, the SSME's would be much more reusable than they are >now. The shuttle would have exploded or crashed if it were fuelled with > hydrogen, methane, gasoline, or old tires when the flame from the SRB >joint was held against the External Tank. Most designs for shuttle >replacements I have seen use Liquid Hydrogen but no solids (for safety as >well as economic reasons.) Sounds reasonable...the whole rationale for liquid hydrogen was and is that it is the only fuel available to get sufficient mass to orbit in a reasonable size vehicle. That is, it's the only fuel combination with enough Isp (specific impulse) to get the required end velocity without a god-awful mass ratio (equation V = Isp * g * ln (mass ratio) ). Replacing the solids with a like mass of hydrogen/oxygen would in fact INCREASE velocity, or allow it to be traded off for more mass to orbit. Unfortunately for the existing system, the other thing that had to be done to get to the required Isp was to run the engines at an outrageously high chamber pressure (about 3500 psi--anybody know the exact figure) compared to any existing motors. I don't remember any US engine chamber pressure figures, but the old (and still used, I think) Soviet RD-104, the Vostok and Soyuz booster, used a whole raft of little motors burning kerosene with chamber pressure of about 1150 psi. MUCH easier to build equipment to maintain this kind of pressure than shuttle type levels. We COULD build the often-discussed 'Big Dumb Booster' with old technology motors, which could be built extremely reliable now, but it would require much more fuel expenditure per pound of payload to orbit. Perhaps the other cost reductions would make the whole thing worthwhile. -- Mark Johnson WB9QLR/0 NCR Peripheral Products Division Mark.Johnson@Wichita.NCR.COM 3718 N. Rock Rd. (316) 636-8189 NAR #14025 Wichita, KS 67226 ------------------------------ Date: 22 May 90 15:13:08 GMT From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov!baalke@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Ron Baalke) Subject: Magellan Update - 05/22/90 MAGELLAN MISSION STATUS REPORT May 22, 1990 The Magellan project is in the midst of conducting a Cruise Radar Mapping Test. The test consists of 3 parts: Radar Turn-on Test, Radar Functional Test, and Radar "Mapping" Test. The Radar Turn-on Test was conducted on Monday, May 14, when each component of the Radar was first switched ON and OFF sequentially followed by the entire Radar System being powered ON and then OFF. The radar was inhibited from radiating during this test. Analysis of the data has shown that the test was totally successful and the Radar Team gave the "Go" for the Functional Test. The Radar Functional Test was conducted on Wednesday, May 16. In this test the Radar was powered ON in cruise configuration and commanded to radiate for eight minutes. The spacecraft then played the data back at 115.2 Kbits/second (so that the 34 meter antenna station in Goldstone, California (DSS 12) and the 34 meter antenna station in Australia (DSS-42) could ship the data to JPL in real-time for analysis). Both Deep Space Network (DSN) stations acquired both playbacks in less than 1 minute. Additionally a star calibration (STARCAL) was performed between the two parts of the playback yielding an update of 0.008 degrees. Again, analysis of the data has shown that the test was totally successful. The Radar "Mapping" Test will be conducted on from May 21 through May 25, with the Magellan spacecraft performing some 27 simulated orbits. The spacecraft will function as if it is in orbit turning to mapping attitude; the radar radiating ("mapping"); turning to Earth for playback; playing back the data; performing Star Calibrations and momentum wheel desaturations; playing back the remaining data and readying itself for the next orbit. All teams will be in place and the data will flow through the DSN, Space Flight Operations Center (SFOC), the Magellan High Rate system, the image processing lab and finally to the Data Management and Archive Team (DMAT). This test is planned to provide all the Project's teams with a real-time training exercise as part of an End-to-End test. _ _____ _ | | | __ \ | | Ron Baalke | baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov | | | |__) | | | Jet Propulsion Lab | baalke@jems.jpl.nasa.gov ___| | | ___/ | |___ M/S 301-355 | |_____| |_| |_____| Pasadena, CA 91109 | ------------------------------ Date: 22 May 90 15:48:10 GMT From: usc!samsung!rex!rouge!dlbres10@ucsd.edu (Fraering Philip) Subject: Re: Terraforming Venus (was: Manned mission to Venus) In article <24888@netnews.upenn.edu> rubinoff@linc.cis.upenn.edu (Robert Rubinoff) writes: > I've got an idea! Let's ship it back here and use it to veneraform Earth! Actually, the venusians are trying to veneraform earth; why do you think the first clean air act mandated the use of sulfur-rich coal? (more Co2, more SO2...) Given these facts, do you think they'd let you terraform Venus? ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ + ++ + ++ ++ ++ ++ Philip Fraering dlbres10@pc.usl.edu ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 22 May 90 11:15:30 EDT From: John Roberts Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are those of the sender and do not reflect NIST policy or agreement. Subject: Re: Australian spaceport >From: swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!munnari.oz.au!metro!cluster!nuts!cc!c8919865@ucsd.edu >> The way you build up experience is to build a spaceport and start using >> it, which is what Australia is doing! :-) Most technicians and the like >> will have to be trained almost from scratch anyway, since there are no >> Western technicians with Soviet booster experience. Australia has enough >> of an aerospace industry -- the space side of it isn't large but isn't >> quite zero -- to supply a lot of the people needed. It might be desirable >> to have experienced US or European people in the top-level jobs for the >> early stages, though. > The are enough of us down here with more enthusiasm than you give us >credit for. Give us a text book and a day or two and coffee aside, we'll have >it down pat! >Luke. There's plenty of technical ability in Australia. To start, they could hire the people who built those outlandish vehicles for Australia's cultural treasure, the "Road Warrior" movies. :-) :-) :-) (There was one on TV last night.) John Roberts roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov ------------------------------ Date: 22 May 90 15:21:30 GMT From: mcsun!ukc!inmos!conor%wren.inmos.co.uk@uunet.uu.net (Conor O'Neill) Subject: Splitting sci.space While I hate arguments which tend to occur concerning newsgroup splitting, yet again I arrive to find hundreds of articles in sci.space. We run a seven day expire here, and we have 272 articles spooled, in 150 subjects. Could we perhaps have a discussion on splitting sci.space into a few smaller groups. A *very provisional* suggestion might be: sci.space.nasa -- Peter Yee's and Ron Baalke's postings, etc. (Also HST, Voyager, Magellan, Gallileo, etc) sci.space.manned -- Non shuttle manned discussions (Mars, etc) sci.space.seti -- Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (maybe should be talk.space.seti until proved (:-)) sci.space.henry -- the definitive question-and-answer group (:-) sci.space.misc -- anything else Maybe sci.space.misc should be left just as sci.space. I was not reading sci.space when sci.space.shuttle was split off. Did this cause any controversy? I have cross posted this to news.groups, with all followups directed there too. I have not cross posted to news.announce.newgroups because I would not want to run the vote myself. Once (if ever) we have established a consensus, then someone with more net experience could run a vote. --- Conor O'Neill, Software Group, INMOS Ltd., UK. UK: conor@inmos.co.uk US: conor@inmos.com "It's state-of-the-art" "But it doesn't work!" "That is the state-of-the-art". ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 22 May 90 10:11 CDT From: Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey Subject: Dial-A-Shuttle and STS-35 Original_To: SPACE Dial-A-Shuttle service: 900-909-NASA You can eavesdrop on the crew of Columbia during the STS-35 mission with the National Space Society's Dial-A-Shuttle service. Callers will hear a concise, informative report on the mission and live astronaut communications with Mission Control in Houston and the Payload Operations Control Center in Huntsville. Dial-A-Shuttle will carry, live, mission events such as launch, landing, Space Classroom sessions, and press conferences. Dial-A-Shuttle runs from 4 hours preceding liftoff until the mission lands. The service is available for every unclassified Shuttle mission. Toll charge for the service is $2.00 for the first minute and 45 cents for each minute thereafter. I believe the service is not available outside the USA (correct me if I'm wrong). The STS-35 mission's major payload is the so-called ASTRO observatory. This collection of five telescopes works with ultraviolet light and X-rays. It will give astronomers a comprehensive view of phenomena that are invisible to ground-based observatories. Three ultraviolet telescopes are mounted in the center of Columbia's payload bay. Two X-ray telescopes are mounted on another platform in the rear of the payload bay. The largest of the three ultraviolet telescopes is the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope, or HUT, which was developed by Johns Hopkins University. Its 90-centimeter mirror feeds light into a sensitive spectrograph. The HUT can determine the chemical composition and energy states of such targets as stars, active galaxies, and quasars. It does this by measuring their spectra in the far-ultraviolet and extreme-ultraviolet wavelengths. It will also probe the gas and dust lying between the stars. The second instrument on this platform is the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope, or UIT, developed at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. This is the only telescope on board that will take photographs. Ultraviolet light gathered by its 36-centimeter mirror will be recorded on film. One of eleven filters can be placed in the path of the light, to show the appearance of the target object in one of the invisible colors of the ultraviolet region. After Columbia lands, the film will be developed and analyzed. The University of Wisconsin has built the third telescope, known as the Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment, or WUPPE. This 50-centimeter instrument measures POLARIZATION, or the direction in which light is vibrating. It will study astronomical objects with intense magnetic fields, which can produce polarized light. It will also study interstellar dust grains, which can polarize starlight scattering from them. All three ultraviolet instruments are mounted together on the Instrument Pointing System, or IPS. They point in the same direction, so all three can observe a target simultaneously. The three telescopes complement each other: The Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope takes a spectrum. The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope takes a picture. The Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment measures polarization. These three kinds of data will lead to a deep understanding of the target object. Columbia's crew is controlling the three telescopes from the flight deck. Complementing the ultraviolet instruments is the BBXRT, the Broad Band X-ray Telescope, in the aft payload bay. The BBXRT, developed at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, has two identical 20-centimeter X-ray telescopes which measure the energy of X-ray photons. They will determine the spectrum of cosmic X-ray sources such as quasars and active galaxies. Since the Broad Band X-ray Telescope is mounted on its own Two-Axis Pointing System (TAPS), it can be pointed independently of the ultraviolet telescopes, but will often be used in conjunction with them to study the same targets. /// Bill Higgins E /// |8D:O: occc))))<)) Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory E /// /// Bitnet: HIGGINS@FNALB.BITNET Bumper sticker seen on a Soyuz: SPAN/Hepnet/Physnet: 43011::HIGGINS MY OTHER SPACESHIP IS A BURAN Internet: HIGGINS@FNALB.FNAL.GOV ------------------------------ Date: 22 May 90 17:16:18 GMT From: m2c!wpi!horshac@husc6.harvard.edu (Matthew J Rosenwasser) Subject: APPLICANTS FOR ASTRONAUTS In reading the March issue of Spaceflight, for the recently selected group of astronauts, there were only 1,300 applicants. If memory serves me correctly, applications for Group 1 astronauts were at about 30,000. Can it be possible that the numbers of people applying for astronauts is decreasing? I find it hard to believe, but hope to believe it. Does anyone know more than what is presented here? ------------------------------ Date: 22 May 90 18:33:32 GMT From: usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!IDA.ORG!pbs!pstinson@ucsd.edu Subject: Re: Manned mission to Venus In article <3434@calvin.cs.mcgill.ca>, msdos@quiche.cs.mcgill.ca (Mark SOKOLOWSKI) writes: > In article <8524.26527a0f@pbs.uucp> pstinson@pbs.uucp writes: >>Maybe the average person does not care about Moon colonies now because they ARE >>just imaginary. But a real colony on the Moon that has grown large enough to >>be visible from Earth will have a profound impact on humanity. Imagine looking >>up at the Moon some evening and noticing the glow of manmade lights and other >>indirect signs of human activity up there. It is sometimes said "Out of sight >>... out of mind." No activity on any of the other planets in the solar system >>will be noticible to the unaided eye and perhaps the man in the street would >> care less what happens way out there, but big active moon colonies would be >> hard to ignore and will have a definite cultural impact we underestimate now. > > It depends. This kind of thing is already achieved by Mir which I was able > to see many times each month just by looking up a few minutes after dusk > every clear evening, not talking about the tens of other large satellites > having a lower but still proeminant visibility. Does it really make a > big cultural impact???? > ------- Active colonies changing the face of the moon will be at least several orders of magnitude more noticible than the rapid overflights of Mir. Just about anyone can find the moon in the sky. How many people really know when or where to look for Mir? Watching tiny Mir fly overhead is not the same thing at all. One final thought related to names. The day is coming when this corner of the cosmos will be known as Terraluna, in much the same way as we now speak of Budapest which used to be two separate cities. ------------------------------ Date: 22 May 90 23:39:43 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: Payload Status for 05/21/90 (Forwarded) Daily Status/KSC Payload Management and Operations 05-21-90. - STS-31R HST (at VPF) - Post launch GSE removal continues. - STS-35 ASTRO-1/BBXRT (at Pad-A) - The BBXRT T-O retest was completed Friday. No payload activities are scheduled for today - STS-40 SLS-1 (at 0&C) - Power up IPR troubleshooting and MVAK training will be performed today. - STS-41 Ulysses (at ESA 60) - PAM-S spin balance operations will continue today at ESA 60. At the VPF, VPHD preps continue. - STS-42 IML-1 (at O&C) - Module pyrell foam replacement, floor staging, and rack staging continues. - STS-45 Atlas-1 (at O&C) - VAS and coldplate installations will occur today. - STS-46 TSS-1 (at O&C) - No activities are scheduled for today. - STS-47 Spacelab-J (at O&C) - No work is scheduled for today. - STS-55 SL-D2 (at O&C) - Rack 12 staging will continue today. ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V11 #439 *******************