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 ; Fri, 14 Dec 1990 02:41:29 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: Precedence: junk Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Fri, 14 Dec 1990 02:40:57 -0500 (EST) Subject: SPACE Digest V12 #655 SPACE Digest Volume 12 : Issue 655 Today's Topics: Voyager Update - 12/05/90 Lookng ofr info on NASA Re: Astro-1 Status for 12/08/90 [0400 CST] (Forwarded) SPACE Digest space news from Oct 29 AW&ST Re: * SpaceNews 10-Dec-90 * Re: Another Russian first Need LANDSAT Imaging Software Re: Shuttle Status for 12/06/90 (Forwarded) Astro-1 Status for 12/08/90 [1430 CST] (Forwarded) Administrivia: Submissions to the SPACE Digest/sci.space should be mailed to space+@andrew.cmu.edu. Other mail, esp. [un]subscription notices, should be sent to space-request+@andrew.cmu.edu, or, if urgent, to tm2b+@andrew.cmu.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 11 Dec 90 04:26:06 GMT From: snorkelwacker.mit.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov!baalke@bloom-beacon.mit.edu (Ron Baalke) Subject: Voyager Update - 12/05/90 VOYAGER STATUS REPORT December 5, 1990 Voyager 1 The Voyager 1 spacecraft collected routine UVS (Ultraviolet Spectrometer) data on sources HD 193322, HD206165, and HD217675. On November 20 and 27, PWS (Plasma Wave) data recorded on the DTR (Digital Tape Recorder) for future playback. Round trip light time is 12 hours, 14 minutes. TLC (Tracking Loop Capacitor) tests were performed on the spacecraft by the 70 meter station in Spain on November 23 and November 27. Voyager 2 The Voyager 2 spacecraft collected routine UVS data on sources F7, Mark 335, and 3C273. On November 27 a frame of PWS data was recorded on the DTR for future playback. Round trip light time is 9 hours, 30 minutes. On November 19, TWNC was turned off so 3-way doppler could be accomplished from the Goldstone 70 meter antenna to the 34 meter antenna in Australia. On November 20, one frame of high-rate PWS was recorded, DTR maintenance was performed, science calibrations for PLS (Plasma), MAG (Magnetometer), and LECP (Low Energy Charged Particles) instruments were completed, and 3-way was collected at Australia and Spain. CONSUMABLE STATUS AS OF 12/05/90 P R O P E L L A N T S T A T U S P O W E R Consumption One Week Propellant Remaining Output Margin Spacecraft (Gm) (Kg) Watts Watts Voyager 1 6 36.2 + 2.0 366 55 Voyager 2 7 39.3 + 2.0 370 61 ___ _____ ___ /_ /| /____/ \ /_ /| | | | | __ \ /| | | | Ron Baalke | baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov ___| | | | |__) |/ | | |___ Jet Propulsion Lab | baalke@jems.jpl.nasa.gov /___| | | | ___/ | |/__ /| M/S 301-355 | |_____|/ |_|/ |_____|/ Pasadena, CA 91109 | ------------------------------ ReSent-Message-ID: Resent-Date: Tue, 11 Dec 90 11:42:51 EST Resent-From: Harold Pritchett Resent-To: Space discussion group Date: Sat, 8 Dec 90 15:56 CST From: KURT MILES 329-7303 Subject: Lookng ofr info on NASA Original_To: BITNET%"space@uga" My daughter is in the 6th grade and has a report due on Astronauts, (e.g., their training, their selection, the food they eat in space, etc... pick one of the above.), or NASA. I was hoping a few kind souls out in netland who work at NASA could help by perhaps sending a paragraph or so on what they do at NASA, or on some aspect of the astronaut program. If one of the kindly readers is actually an astronaut themselves (i.e. any catagory), a short note on your job would be really appreciated. (short paragraph or short note is only 4 or 5 lines) Her name is ERIN MILES. Please e-mail, as I do NOT read or subscribe to this discussion group. Thanks for your time. Kurt ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Greyman -------> and the <-----------DRAGON Remember... Sometimes the DRAGON wins!!! ------ kmiles@uokucsvx (bitnet) kmiles@aardvark.ucs.uoknor.edu (internet) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: 11 Dec 90 17:05:02 GMT From: sdd.hp.com!news.cs.indiana.edu!msi.umn.edu!cs.umn.edu!sialis!orbit!pnet51!schaper@ucsd.edu (S Schaper) Subject: Re: Astro-1 Status for 12/08/90 [0400 CST] (Forwarded) A Smoke Ring! ? ************************************************************************** Zeitgeist Busters! UUCP: {amdahl!bungia, uunet!rosevax, chinet, killer}!orbit!pnet51!schaper ARPA: crash!orbit!pnet51!schaper@nosc.mil INET: schaper@pnet51.cts.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 Dec 90 11:46:58 +0100 From: sch8921@math5.uni-bielefeld.de (Andreas) Subject: SPACE Digest Interested. Please send information about your mailing list. Thanks. ------------------------------ Date: 10 Dec 90 07:38:19 GMT From: elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utzoo!henry@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Henry Spencer) Subject: space news from Oct 29 AW&ST The cover story on this one is the X-30 design selection. It's a slim lifting body with very small delta wings far aft, a pair of vertical tails, and a cockpit blister (with side-facing windows) near the nose. Exact size not yet set, expected to be 150-200ft long and 250-300klbs takeoff weight. The X-30's wing is mostly there as a mounting for control surfaces. The body size needed to provide inlet and exhaust aerodynamics for the scramjets at high speed turned out to provide ample lift by itself. Exact control-surface layout is still being settled, as are the details of the engines. There will be a small rocket engine, 50-70klbs thrust, for the final push into orbit, in-orbit maneuvering, and retrofire, and also as a reserve propulsion system for safety during testing. Early flights will not have a go-around capability on landing, but this is just to go easy on the large, fragile aircraft early on; later it will be possible. [At one point there was a faction saying that go-arounds were unnecessary and the X-30 should be planned around shuttle-style no-room-for-error landings, but that idiotic idea seems to have died quietly, probably about one minute after the pilots heard about it.] Lots of X-30 coverage, much of it not very interesting. X-30 flight-test planning is starting, particularly insofar as it affects the aircraft design. One big issue is windows: the pilots, after some limited-visibility tests at Dryden, badly want at least some direct view. Hence the side windows. Forward view is still being debated: the engineers like television-based systems, but the pilots are concerned about reliability and time lag, and want to see something like a retracting periscope instead. Escape systems are also uncertain; the current leading notion is to follow the SR-71 and use high-performance ejection seats plus spacesuits. Mir hatch-repair spacewalk set for Oct 19 postponed; Strekalov has a cold. Picture of Boeing's concept of a "lunar utility vehicle", essentially the Apollo rover upgraded for longer life, on-site maintenance, and modern technology. Atlantis clears its fueling test. NTSB hands down recommendations concerning three near-misses between NASA astronaut T-38s and airliners. The astronauts are told to pay closer attention to instructions and to write them down, the controllers are told to be more on the ball, and NASA is urged to upgrade the 1960s-vintage radios and other electronics of its trainers. NASA says it is working on the electronics upgrades already. Antarctic ozone hole re-opens, worse than ever. Satellite images. NASA talks about ideas being worked on for shuttle upgrades. Prominent among them is a nine-screen "glass cockpit" closer to modern airliner cockpit technology than the rather dated equipment the orbiters now have. Another notion is using complex castings and plasma-spray technology to build SSMEs with many fewer welds, significant because the welds are tricky and hard to inspect; the SSME will probably get a bit heavier in the process, although its performance may increase slightly to match. The Hardware Interface Module which connects the launch processing system to the ground-support equipment will be redesigned and replaced, cutting costs because the current HIM design uses obsolete components that are increasingly difficult to get. Several other ideas, farther away, are also being looked at. Replacing the hydrazine-burning APUs in the SRBs with a solid-motor-gas-generator design would eliminate one messy and hazardous subsystem. Newer materials in the orbiter's fuel cells could improve power output and extend life. Modernizing the whole orbiter electrical system might be worthwhile. And tests are being done to study using a lidar system to measure high- altitude winds more quickly and more accurately than current systems, giving better weather prediction for launches and reentries. Picture of Rockwell's mockup of the cryogenic pallet, to be carried in the orbiter cargo bay to extend fuel-cell power supply up to 16 days on Columbia and Endeavour. The first extended-duration flight is set for March 1992, by Columbia. Other changes needed include regenerative carbon-dioxide removal, a better waste collector system, more nitrogen tanks, and "crew cabin improvements". Rockwell is funding the cryogenic- pallet development temporarily, and will be reimbursed by NASA over the next three years. [Surprisingly brave of them, actually.] Soviet space program currently faces uncertain prospects due to political and economic upheaval. A new space policy is needed. The future of Glavkosmos in particular is uncertain: it was meant as the point of contact for commercial space activity, but now the individual "companies" are authorized to negotiate and sign their own deals. The Intercosmos program, providing low-cost flights for socialist nations, is also in doubt, since the Soviet Union is going to be less willing to provide free rides in future. Its customers are also skeptical; Romania, for example, says it benefited little from its 1981 cosmonaut flight, and is much more interested in joining ESA. The German space program is also facing some uncertainty due to the recent reunification and the coming financial strains of modernizing East Germany. One firm decision, though, is that the separate East and West German imaging instruments being built for the Soviet 1994 Mars mission will be combined. Soviets are modernizing their manned maneuvering unit for improved thrust (needed for handling heavy components), better telemetry, and a remote- control capability allowing the MMU to be controlled from Mir in an emergency, e.g. incapacitated cosmonaut. Letter from Rick Rezabek suggesting that ESA needs to step back and rethink Hermes, since the recent inclusion of an expendable "resource module" carrying several important systems indicates that Hermes is simply too small to carry out its missions. -- "The average pointer, statistically, |Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology points somewhere in X." -Hugh Redelmeier| henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry ------------------------------ Date: 10 Dec 90 15:13:58 GMT From: pasteur!agate!bionet!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!know!tegra!vail@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Johnathan Vail) Subject: Re: * SpaceNews 10-Dec-90 * Given these articles in SpaceNews: * SAREX NEWS * ============== Dr. Ron Parise, WA4SIR, has made hundreds of packet radio contacts with his Amateur Radio station on board the space shuttle Columbia. Telephone bridges were set up to enable school children to talk with the latest ham in space. Ron has also been making some voice contacts. The primary downlink frequency for all SAREX operations has been 145.550 MHz. * MIR NEWS * ============ Soyuz TM-11 has successfully docked with the Mir space station complex currently on Earth orbit. The Soyuz spacecraft carried Soviet cosmonauts Musa Manarov, Viktor Afanasyev, and Japanese journalist Toyehiro Akiyama. I was wondering: If there are hams in the shuttle and hams in Mir, both running 2 meters, have there been any space-to-space (ham) QSO's? I realize that the altitude of the orbits is not enough to provide significant mutual windows but the shuttle and Mir do occasionally pass close enough to see each other. Last week I heard that they passed within 30 miles of each other so it certainly is possible. (maybe this time the Russians were too busy babysitting that whining journalist...) "Koukinaries" _____ | | Johnathan Vail | n1dxg@tegra.com |Tegra| (508) 663-7435 | N1DXG@448.625-(WorldNet) ----- jv@n1dxg.ampr.org {...sun!sunne ..uunet}!tegra!vail ------------------------------ Date: 7 Dec 90 16:28:15 GMT From: mnetor!utzoo!henry@uunet.uu.net (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: Another Russian first In article <6616@minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au> rxtgep@minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au (Glen Pill) writes: >> Interesting to note that the Soviets have had a string of workable space >> stations, while Skylab 2 is sitting inside of the National Air & Space Museum. > >I always thought skylab was splattered over Western Australia. Skylab 1 got delivered to the Australians in pieces. Skylab 2 is in the NASM. (Yes, there was a second one.) -- "The average pointer, statistically, |Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology points somewhere in X." -Hugh Redelmeier| henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry ------------------------------ Date: 10 Dec 90 04:19:17 GMT From: elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!samsung!munnari.oz.au!uniwa!vax7!tlynchmj@ames.arc.nasa.gov Subject: Need LANDSAT Imaging Software NEED CHEAP LANSAT IMAGING SOFTWARE!!! I am posting as a request for a colleague who is looking for a software package to display LANDSAT DATA on an Amiga 1000. I know of one package, called A-Image but unfortunatly this package is way out of his budget (costing amout $2000 Aus) He want to be able to display the raw data from the data files he has so any suitable display package will do. PLEASE EMail me if you know of any such soft- ware packages he could use. M.J. Lynch Curtin University of Technology Perth Western Australia. ------------------------------ Date: 7 Dec 90 16:27:27 GMT From: mnetor!utzoo!henry@uunet.uu.net (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: Shuttle Status for 12/06/90 (Forwarded) In article <1990Dec7.073019.7551@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> sfn20715@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Steve "il-Manhous" Norton) writes: >So here's the $6e6 question for the day: What's going to happen to Astro >when it gets back to Florida? (Aside from some scientists cursing and >screaming at the IPS electronics for a while :-) ) ... After the cursing and screaming stops, it goes into storage in hopes that there might someday be an Astro-2 mission after all. -- "The average pointer, statistically, |Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology points somewhere in X." -Hugh Redelmeier| henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry ------------------------------ Date: 9 Dec 90 19:32:25 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: Astro-1 Status for 12/08/90 [1430 CST] (Forwarded) Astro 1 Mission Report #37 2:30 p.m. CST, December 8, 1990 6/00:00 MET Spacelab Mission Operations Control Marshall Space Flight Center The mood projected sheer delight as the Astro-1 operations and science teams gathered to report upon the mission's status and findings at the Spacelab Mission Operations Control in Huntsville, Alabama Saturday morning. Dr. Warren Moos, co-investigator of the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope was brimming with good news as he shared results from an earlier observation of Jupiter, one of the mission's most exciting targets. "We've had a very successful observation," said Moos as he described Jupiter's glowing plasma torus and its relation to the moon, Io. This data will help determine the important discoveries of oxygen and sulfur within the planet's atmosphere. "This information certainly shows the power of the Astro observatory." Moos further commented on the hard work and "can-do" attitude of the many people involved in the Astro mission. "What you're seeing is a bunch of people pulling together," said Moos as he referred to the Columbia crew and ground teams at the Johnson Space Center and the Marshall Space Flight Center. "They're thinking of ways out of problems and doing something about it." Dr. Francis Marshall of the Broad Band X-Ray Telescope science team also shared spectral results from the elliptical galaxy NGC1399. The BBXRT team hopes to determine how a hot gas "halo" was formed around the galaxy and the origins of a "dark mass" which expands its size. ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V12 #655 *******************