Return-path: X-Andrew-Authenticated-as: 7997;andrew.cmu.edu;Ted Anderson Received: from hogtown.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 ; Thu, 4 Apr 91 01:54:56 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <8bygqvC00WBw4kME5c@andrew.cmu.edu> Precedence: junk Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Thu, 4 Apr 91 01:54:51 -0500 (EST) Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #353 SPACE Digest Volume 13 : Issue 353 Today's Topics: NASA Headline News for 04/01/91 (Forwarded) Nuclear rocket Re: Railguns, EM launchers Seeing the Shuttle land at Edwards MAJOR SOLAR FLARE ALERT NASA Headline News for 04/03/91 (Forwarded) Administrivia: Submissions to the SPACE Digest/sci.space should be mailed to space+@andrew.cmu.edu. Other mail, esp. [un]subscription requests, should be sent to space-request+@andrew.cmu.edu, or, if urgent, to tm2b+@andrew.cmu.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 3 Apr 91 17:30:47 GMT From: usenet@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: NASA Headline News for 04/01/91 (Forwarded) Headline News Internal Communications Branch (P-2) NASA Headquarters Monday, April 1, 1991 Audio Service: 202 / 755-1788 This is NASA Headline News for Monday, April 1, 1991 . . . Space Shuttle Atlantis is looking real good according to the Kennedy Space Center launch team. The countdown clock begins tomorrow morning at 5:30 am. The flight crew arrives from Houston tomorrow at 3:30 pm. Activity remaining this week includes loading reactants into the power reactant storage and distribution system, which should begin Wednesday morning. Tanking the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen main tanks begins 12:58 am Friday morning. Launch is set for 9:18 am Friday. Although the launch window is 4 hours and 38 minutes, crew time-in- cockpit constraints restrict the window to two-and-a-half hours. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The weather prediction for Friday's scheduled launch is not that good at this point. The forecast calls for a 50 percent probability of violation of the launch weather constraints. The principal element in this forecast is a cold front which is moving in from the west and which is expected to bring showers and possibly thunderstorms. The front is expected to be through the Kennedy area by Friday afternoon. Saturday's launch weather prediction calls for only 20 percent probability of violation. Sunday's is even better with only a 10 percent prediction of launch weather constraint violation. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Discovery was moved at 3:16 am this morning out to launch pad 39-A, and was hard down by 9:00 am. Activity this week on the pad includes final launch pad validation tests, the shuttle interface test, re- installation of Discovery's STS-39 Department of Defense payloads, pre-launch propellant loading and ordnance operations. The flight readiness review for the STS-39 mission is scheduled for April 16 and 17 at Kennedy. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Meanwhile, inside the Orbiter Processing Facility, Columbia's pressurized tunnel adapter will be installed today between the airlock and the Spacelab Life Sciences habitable module. The SLS-1 mission aboard Columbia is presently set for a launch in May. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Agency chief Richard Truly will be at the Lewis Research Center today to speak at the Lewis Honor Award Ceremony. Following the honor awards, Adm. Truly will address the "50 Club of Cleveland." The 50 Club is a prestigious businessman's association comprised of the chief executive officers of Cleveland's top fifty industrial firms. Here's the broadcast schedule for Public Affairs events on NASA Select TV. All times are Eastern. NASA Select TV is carried on GE Satcom F2R, transponder 13, C-Band, 72 degrees W Long., Audio 6.8, Frequency 3960 MHz. Tuesday, 4/2/91 12:00 pm NASA productions will be transmitted. 6:00 pm NASA productions will repeat. Wednesday, 4/3/91 9:00 am Launch Countdown Status briefing live from the Kennedy Space Center. 1:15 pm Magellan-at-Venus status report live from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Thursday, 4/4/91 9:00 am Launch Countdown Status briefing live from the Kennedy Space Center. 9:15 am Gamma Ray Observatory Briefing live from KSC. 10:00 am Gamma Ray Observatory Science Briefing live from KSC. 11:00 am STS-37 Pre-Launch Status briefing live from KSC. 1:00 pm Commercial Payloads briefing live from KSC. 3:00 pm Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment briefing live from KSC. 3:15 pm EVA Development Flight Experiment briefing live from KSC. All events and times may change without notice. This report is filed daily, Monday through Friday, by 12:00 pm, Eastern. It is a service of NASA Headquarters Office of Public Affairs. Contact: CREDMOND on NASAmail or at 202/453-8425. ------------------------------ Date: 3 Apr 91 17:22:05 GMT From: idacrd!mac@princeton.edu (Robert McGwier) Subject: Nuclear rocket An extremely interesting article was on the front page of the New York Times this morning. It claimed (FOI got them some documents) that a nuclear reactor based rocket was not only on the drawing board, but that an Antarctic launch site was being proposed for a test launch, and that test firings had already been conducted by Sandia National Labs (I suppose at Tonopah, Nevada). CNN has been carrying this story since early morning. Go to your local library and read the NYT April 3 issue. Bob -- ____________________________________________________________________________ My opinions are my own no matter | Robert W. McGwier, N4HY who I work for! ;-) | CCR, AMSAT, etc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: 3 Apr 91 19:14:18 GMT From: swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!rex!rouge!dlbres10@ucsd.edu (Fraering Philip) Subject: Re: Railguns, EM launchers In article <1991Apr3.174348.27778@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes: >Unfortunately, those chemical rockets aren't designed for a horizontal >takeoff. You could get useful gains by catapulting them at such speeds >*vertically*, and in fact there was a recent Japanese proposal to do >just that. I was looking at the Japanese paper (or rather an English translation therof) just yesterday and I think that for the reference launch vehicle they used, they got a 20 % or so boost in payload for a launcher speed of just under mach 1. Keep in mind that they used the term launcher for the catapault. There may have been more tangible improvements in vehicle gross weight, dry weight, and the like. I think Nick Szabo was talking about this system a while back; any comments? Phil Fraering dlbres10@pc.usl.edu BTW, should I have cross-posted to here the discussion on alt.pagan on the mechanics of dropping cats from great heights? :-) (This is a subtle reminder: let's have some technical discussions of space stuff, pleeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaassssssseeee? The posting on the Nova special and the NY Times' "expose" of a secret Nerva-like project was one attempt to move this place over there). ------------------------------ Date: 3 Apr 91 20:57:41 GMT From: pioneer.arc.nasa.gov!shafer@icarus.riacs.edu (Mary Shafer -- OFDD) Subject: Seeing the Shuttle land at Edwards There are two ways to see the next Shuttle landing at Edwards AFB. 1. The public viewing area on the lakebed. Take Hwy 14 to Avenue F and follow the signs. This area is opened about 2 days before the scheduled touchdown. The viewing area is an unimproved area so don't expect many amenities. I think that there are sanitary facilities and that food and drinks can be purchased. It's suggested that you bring food and water Nothing is required for access to this area. (I've never been to this area, so I can't speak from personal knowledge.) 2. The hillside viewing area. This is on the hillside, just above Ames-Dryden, and requires a special pass. This pass is good for one vehicle, with any number of passengers. You can't enter the Ames-Dryden complex but you can walk down the hill to the cafeteria and the giftshop, etc. More amenities, including radio transmissions from the Shuttle and JSC. Some of us believe that this area has the BEST view of the landing. To obtain a hillside pass or official guest badges, write to: NASA Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility Attn: Ms. Cei Kratz Public Affairs Office P.O. Box 273 Edwards, CA 92523-5000 Do this early, because there is a limited amount of space. If you get these and then discover that you can't attend, please try to pass them on to someone else who can use them. Incidently, there is _no_ charge for any of these. Come see the Shuttle land--it's great. Dress in numerous layers--it's cold in the morning and warm in the afternoon. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 3 Apr 91 01:18:54 MST From: oler%HG.ULeth.CA@BITNET.CC.CMU.EDU (CARY OLER) Subject: MAJOR SOLAR FLARE ALERT X-St-Vmsmail-To: st%"space+@andrew.cmu.edu" -- MAJOR SOLAR FLARE ALERT -- APRIL 02, 1991 Flare Event Summary Potential Impact Assessment -------- MAJOR ENERGETIC EVENT SUMMARY A major class M6.1/2B flare erupted from Region 6562 today at a location of N14E01. The event was of long duration (100 minutes). It began at 22:55 UT on 02 April, peaked at 23:27 UT on 02 April and ended at 00:35 UT on 03 April. It was associated with a moderate intensity Type IV emission and may have ejected protons (too early to tell presently). This event was accompanied by a moderate intensity SID/SWF over sunlit areas. Region 6562 (N14E02) is a moderately complex region of moderate size and moderate magnetic complexity (beta-gamma type). There are no exceptionally large spots in this region, although the spot count is fairly high (50). This region had previously only produced sporadic low-level subflares and weak C-class flares and was not expected to produce any major activity. POTENTIAL TERRESTRIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT A firm prediction regarding this latest event is not yet available since we are waiting to see if this flare will generate any protons. We are currently experiencing a proton enhancement at geosynchronous altitudes (which began earlier on 02 April from an unknown source). The present proton count is at near 5 p.f.u. at greater than 10 MeV as of 07:30 UT on 03 April. There is an estimated 60% to 70% chance that this latest flare could push the proton levels above event thresholds. Current projected proton levels are estimated to reach near 50 p.f.u. at greater than 10 MeV, if this flare indeed ejected protons. A PCA event could materialize if protons do impact with the Earth from this latest flare. Polar regions should be on the alert for possible increases in ionospheric absorption, and accompanying degradation in HF radio propagation over (or through) these regions. Protons are expected to arrive within the next four to six hours (if they arrive at all), between 08:00 UT and anytime near or after 12:00 UT. A more definitive terrestrial impact forecast will be issued later this UT day. However, preliminary analysis suggests there is a low to moderate probability for a terrestrial impact from this latest flare. We are waiting to see if any protons arrive before giving possible quantitative figures regarding potential terrestrial impacts. A bulletin stating the forecast will be released around 18:00 UT on 03 April. It should be noted that this flare was not particularly powerful and was not really associated with any strong radio bursts. The integrated x-ray flux was also relatively low (0.180 J/m^2). If any terrestrial impacts do occur, they will likely be rather low. But a determination of this is somewhat dependent upon the possible arrival of protons. Due to the recent major flare, the following warnings have been re-issued: - POTENTIAL SATELLITE PROTON EVENT WARNING - POTENTIAL POLAR CAP ABSORPTION EVENT WARNING - POTENTIAL POLAR LATITUDE RADIO SIGNAL BLACKOUT WARNING The following warnings have been extended and remain IN PROGRESS: - POTENTIAL MAJOR SOLAR FLARE WARNING - POTENTIAL PROTON FLARE WARNING Additional notes: Geomagnetic activity has been at unsettled to active levels for the past 24 hours. Some brief periods of high latitude minor storming have been observed, although nothing significant has been reported. The coronal hole which was previously forecasted to affect the Earth later this week has expanded in size and is now expected to begin affecting the Earth within the next 24 hours. Activity should remain generally unsettled to active with possible isolated periods of minor storming, particularly over the higher latitudes. Activity is expected to remain below storm thresholds over middle and low latitudes. The activity will likely persist for the next three to five days at these elevated levels (A-indices near 20). High latitude auroral activity should increase on 04 April. Northerly middle latitudes should witness periods of low to moderate auroral activity on 04 April as well. No low latitude auroral activity is expected. ** End of Alert ** ------------------------------ Date: 3 Apr 91 18:51:42 GMT From: usenet@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: NASA Headline News for 04/03/91 (Forwarded) Headline News Internal Communications Branch (P-2) NASA Headquarters Wednesday, April 3, 1991 Audio Service: 202 / 755-1788 This is NASA Headline News for Wednesday, April 3, 1991 . . . Kennedy Space Center Test Director Al Sofge this morning described the countdown for the STS-37 Atlantis mission as "textbook" perfect. He said the launch team is "cautiously" optimistic about launching on time on Friday morning at 9:18 am. The only consideration against that, at this time, is the possibility of a low pressure system moving into the Central Florida area. The Air Force weather office at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is predicting a 60 percent probability of good weather at the 9:18 am mark Friday, improving to more than 80 percent probability later in the launch window. Sofge said Atlantis' payload bay was closed out late last night. The KSC/Johnson Space Center launch-flight team has completed loading of the orbiter's general purpose computers with the flight computer load and ground-to-orbiter voice communications checks have been conducted and finished. Activity today and tomorrow includes stowage of flight crew items in the flight and mid deck areas of Atlantis. The orbiter fuel cell reactant tanks are being loaded today. The launch pad will be closed to non-essential personnel while the fuel cell liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen is being loaded. STS-37 mission commander Steve Nagel, pilot Kenneth Cameron, and the three mission specialists, Jerry Ross, Jerome Apt and Linda Godwin, all arrived yesterday afternoon from Houston. Today, Nagel and Cameron will fly the Shuttle Training Aircraft in a series of "touch-and-go" landings around the Shuttle Landing Facility. The primary Trans-Atlantic Landing site for this mission is Banjul, The Gambia. The backup sites are Ben Guerir, outside of Casablanca, and Moron, in Spain. Weather for Banjul is predicted to be fine for launch day, with no other problems being reported. The weather for Moron might be "iffy" on Friday. Weather at Ben Guerir is predicted to be fine also. The Kennedy-area forecast calls for scattered clouds at 35,000 feet, visibility of 7 miles, winds out of the Southwest at 10 to 18 knots and a chance of scattered showers. The weather prediction for external tanking operations, beginning just past midnight, Friday morning, calls for no violation of tanking constraints. The Gamma Ray Observatory is presently having its batteries trickle charged. There are no payload restrictions on the launch outside of those imposed by the launch window. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Here's the broadcast schedule for Public Affairs events on NASA Select TV. All times are Eastern. NASA Select TV is carried on GE Satcom F2R, transponder 13, C-Band, 72 degrees W Long., Audio 6.8, Frequency 3960 MHz. Wednesday, 4/3/91 9:30 am STS-40 SLS-1 Joint Integrated Simulation from Johnson Space Center and Marshall Space Flight Center. Simulation video will continue all day. Notice: some of the video will be "non-standard." Wednesday, 4/3/91 1:15 pm Magellan-at-Venus status report live from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 1:30 pm STS-40 SLS-1 simulation continues. Thursday, 4/4/91 9:00 am Launch Countdown Status briefing live from Kennedy Space Center. 9:15 am Gamma Ray Observatory Briefing live from KSC, participants will be program and project managers. 10:00 am Gamma Ray Observatory Science Briefing live from KSC, participants will be the instrument scientists. 11:00 am STS-37 Pre-Launch Status briefing live from KSC, participants will include Dr. Lennard Fisk, Robert Crippen and Robert Sieck. 1:00 pm Commercial Payloads briefing live from KSC, participants will include representatives from University of Alabama-Huntsville, Univ. of Colorado and Instrumentation Technologies Associates. 3:00 pm Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment briefing live from KSC, participant will be Louis McFadin, American Radio Relay League. 3:15 pm EVA Development Flight Experiment briefing live from KSC, participant will be project manager Ed Whitsett, JSC. Friday, 4/5/91 4:30 am Begin continuous coverage of events for Atlantis STS-37 Gamma Ray Observatory deployment mission. Launch presently set for 9:18 am. All events and times may change without notice. This report is filed daily, Monday through Friday, by 12:00 pm, Eastern. It is a service of NASA Headquarters Office of Public Affairs. Contact: CREDMOND on NASAmail or at 202/453-8425. ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V13 #353 *******************