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, 27 Jun 91 04:52:04 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: Precedence: junk Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Thu, 27 Jun 91 04:52:00 -0400 (EDT) Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #726 SPACE Digest Volume 13 : Issue 726 Today's Topics: Toward 2001 - 10 Jun Re: Microsat-EOS (Was: Re: Fred's Operatic Death) Excavating (minig) gold in the space by NASA. Re: Traxler says: WAKE UP!!!! Re: Space Station Objectives 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: 10 Jun 91 01:11:04 GMT From: cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!pitt!nss!freed@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Bev Freed) Subject: Toward 2001 - 10 Jun *********** TOWARD 2001 *********** Week of 10 June 1991 A Weekly Feature of SPACE CALENDAR + = Domestic (USA) Earth event * = Domestic (USA) space event o = International Earth event # = International space event -------------------------------------------------------------------- REPRINT INFORMATION This information is reproduced by permission of the Space Age Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Copyright June 10, 1991. Reproduction in any form without written permission violates federal statute with penalty of up to $50,000. SPACE CALENDAR is edited and published on the Big `Space' Island of Hawaii. ==================================================================== * * * * * * * * STS 40 Columbia LEO / Edwards AFB CA The 41st Space Shuttle mission should touch down this week after 9 days in space, provided its launch stays on schedule for the first days of June. Among experiments done by the seven crew members will be examination of 19 kinds of plants using seeds provided by Sakata Seed Corp of Japan. * * * * * * * * Spaceport Florida Eclipse Mission Tuxpan, Mexico The small town of Tuxpan, Mexico, located between Mazatlan and Guadalajara, will be the site of Florida's first rocket launch -- a mission to measure the solar corona during the 11 July solar eclipse. * * * * * * * o German Space Policy Bonn DARA, the German Space Agency, is expected to release a 10 year funding plan later this year which will take into consideration the costs of reunification with the former East Germany. Earth observation reportedly will receive special emphasis. * * * * * * * o Space Station Budget Fallout Tokyo, Japan High level officials in Japan are threatening to pull out of big science joint ventures with the USA if funding is not restored to the Space Station Freedom program. Specifically, Foreign Minister Nakayama indicated $1 billion participation in the superconducting supercollider would be withdrawn. * * * * * * * + Shuttle Processing Center NASA KSC FL Construction is underway on a new three-story, 99,000 sq ft building which will be used for launch crew training, launch equipment maintenance, and support of Shuttle orbiter processing. The $8.9 million facility will be located in the Launch Complex 39 area. * * * * * * * o More CRRES Experiments The Caribbean During July and August the Combined Release and Radiation Effects satellite will set loose another batch of barium in the upper atmosphere as part of Earth atmosphere experiments. * * * * * * * o German / Japanese `Express' Bonn / Tokyo Deutsche Aerospace MBB-Erno is working with Japan's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science to develop an 800 kg recoverable capsule that will carry 200 kg of payload. The capsule will be launched aboard an ISAS Mu-3S2 rocket. * * * * * * * o Koreasat Seoul, S Korea According to Space Calendar contributor Theo Pirard, South Korea plans to operate a domestic comsat system by 1995. Two spacecraft with 15 Ku-band transponders are to be ordered by late 1991 or early 1992, Pirard said. * * * * * * * + Lunar Power System Pasco WA The money for a system to provide solar energy to the Earth from facilities on the Moon "has to be fought for" participants in the Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratory Power Beaming Workshop learned in May. Dan Greenwood, founder of the Lunar Solar Power Coalition, added significant progress is being made. * * * * * * * + Lunar Footnote (Statistic) 6,752 days since Moon last visited by humans. * * * * * * * o International Space Year 1992 (Quotation) "The most important policy objective of the ISY . . . is to instill a new Space Age frame of reference in the thoughts and actions of governments and individuals." -- The late U S Senator Spark M Matsunaga, Hawaii -------------------------------------------------------------------- ABOUT SPACE CALENDAR Space Calendar provides a weekly preview of upcoming events in the space industry. It is published weekly by the SPACE AGE PUBLISHING COMPANY from offices in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. For a free sample of the printed publication, use the address, telephone, or fax numbers for the Hawaii office listed below. SPACE AGE PUBLISHING COMPANY also publishes SPACE FAX DAILY from its offices in Cupertino, California. For information about SPACE FAX DAILY use the address, telephone, or fax numbers for the California office listed below. HAWAII OFFICE: 75-5751 Kuakini Highway, Suite 209, Kailua-Kona HI 96740; 808-326-2014, fax 808-326-1825. CALIFORNIA OFFICE: 20431 Steven Creek Blvd, Cupertino CA 95054; 408-996-9210, fax 408-996-2125. ==================================================================== --- Opus-CBCS 1.20.16a * Origin: NSS BBS - Ad Astra! (412)366-5208 *HST* (1:129/104.0) -- Bev Freed - via FidoNet node 1:129/104 UUCP: ...!pitt!nss!freed INTERNET: freed@nss.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ Date: 11 Jun 91 17:19:08 GMT From: cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!spool.mu.edu!news.nd.edu!mentor.cc.purdue.edu!mace.cc.purdue.edu!dil@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Perry G Ramsey) Subject: Re: Microsat-EOS (Was: Re: Fred's Operatic Death) In article strider@acm.rpi.edu (Greg Moore) writes: >In article <1991Jun10.215310.22700@sequent.com> szabo@sequent.com writes: >>In article <1991Jun10.003344.1276@agate.berkeley.edu> you write: >>> >>> Nick, do you really think we can get 77 microsat-sized and valuable >>>space-rated environmental monitoring sensor packages for only $1 billion? >> >>I am no expert in this field, but at least one environmental monitoring >>satellite, called SeaStar and based on the Orbital Sciences Corp. PegaStar >>bus, is being is being built as we speak. The satellite costs $10 million, >>and the launch $7 million. Naively assuming no economies of production > Well, so what? One of the principal requirements of the EOS platforms is that measurements are simultaneous and consistent. In my business, we have tons on data, but unless we can put it together, we're pretty much just blowing wind (no pun intended). I've heard (and personally grilled, since I'm not generally a fan of space giantism, being an ex-fredder) some of the people directly involved in system selection, in particular Jeff Dozier of UCSB. His response to the small satellite argument is, "Hey, we're not stupid. We looked at constellations of small satellites, and to get what we want, it just costs more than one big one." These are intelligent, knowledgeable, involved, and honest people, and after reviewing all the relevant factors, they went with the big platform. Somewhere, you have to respect the opinion of the experts, particularly when they've been working full time on the problem. Another thing about EOS that's overlooked is that 40% of it is to pay guys like me to figure out what it all means. Most NASA programs start out that way, but the data analysis part of the budget gets eaten to pay the hardware cost overruns. EOS won't do that. BTW, that's something to consider when comparing ESA space science to NASA space science. ESA doesn't pick up the tab for supporting the end users of the data; NASA does. Anyway, just because you can launch 77 small communications satellites for $1e9 doesn't mean you can do EOS for that. -- Perry G. Ramsey Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences dil@mace.cc.purdue.edu Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN USA perryr@purccvm N9LFF ------------------------------ Date: 11 Jun 91 19:09:22 GMT From: agate!spool.mu.edu!caen!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!hobbes.physics.uiowa.edu!news.iastate.edu!du248-12.cc.iastate.edu!sehari@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Sehari Babak) Subject: Excavating (minig) gold in the space by NASA. This article originally was posted in misc.invest. I thought it might be interesting for this news group too. In <1991Jun11.055227.2611@nas.nasa.gov> crayfe@nas.nasa.gov (Cray Hardware Support) writes: >I recently came across this article in sci.elctronics and thought it >might be of interest since the recent discussion of where the price >of gold might be going. Anybody care to comment? >In article <7Fs532w164w@spocom.guild.org> >luns@spocom.guild.org (Luns Tee) writes: >>> >>Today's Washington Post reports that an asteroid has been found orbiting the >>Sun at a distance of about 20 million miles from Earth (closest point). It >>apparently contains 10000 tons of gold and 100000 tons of platinum, as well >>as 10 billion tons of iron and 1 billion tons of nickel. Its estimated >>worth was put at around 1 trillion dollars. This might be one of the first real applications of Space technology. I say NASA should issue stocks to built a space craft to go and bring that thing down. This could open up another very lucrative investment, a side from satellites. The technology we gain could help us mine other things in the space too. Then, boldly going were no man has gone before makes business sense to. I assume this could be possible if the price of gold goes much higher. Let us forget about mars and concentrate on this, for now. After all, who needs cheap marsian dart. With highest regards, Babak Sehari. ------------------------------ Date: 11 Jun 91 16:50:58 GMT From: mcsun!inesc!unl!unl!jpc@uunet.uu.net (Jose Pina Coelho) Subject: Re: Traxler says: WAKE UP!!!! In article <12013@hub.ucsb.edu> 3001crad@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (Charles Frank Radley) writes: > ahem, Freedom is hardly a 60's vintage tin can...... > It is the latest in the state of the art, That is used to mean "it has a transistor/chip/computer on it" :-) Seriously now, what is state of the art in fred ? What sets it apart of Skylab (a 60's vintage tin can) ? The Appolo on-board computer had 4Kb of memory (I think), if it were launched today with a 1Gb RAM/100 Mips/50 Mflops computer, still it wouldn't be state of the art today. State of the art would be a bus (like in computer bus) in which you could start pluging modules without problems. State of the art is something you can't wait for, because when it hits the market, it's no longer state of the art. Skylab wasn't state of the art, it was garbage recicling, and it worked. It wasn't much more than a fish bowl and a life support system. It's from that base that you have to start. I've seen the most ridiculous fights in this group, like "Does a space station need to rotate?". I don't know, nobody knows, but as long as we keep sitting down here looking up and discussing if a station should spin, we aren't collecting medical data on wether we need it or not. It's not with a paper plane that can't stay up there a fourth-night that you are going to study prolonged stay. Make a non spinning station. The astronauts stay healthy ? Good. The astronauts don't stay healthy ? GOOD, study them, get a small centrifugator module up there and check if it is possible to compensate the lack of gravity with dayly/weekly/whateverly centrifugation. The astronauts insist on not beeing ok ? Well, build a spinning station. The taxpayer will growl, the oposition will celebrate, but you got more 0G medical research than in all the past space history. Even if the centrifugator isn't enough, you can still have shifts. Two months up, two months down should take care of most (is not all) of the problems. > and wil be the most advanced spacecraft ever flown ( at least ------------------------------ Date: 10 Jun 91 18:00:57 GMT From: ssc-vax!bcsaic!hsvaic!eder@beaver.cs.washington.edu (Dani Eder) Subject: Re: Space Station Objectives >So basically, was there ever a set mission or purpose to work towards in >building Fred, or were there only the wishy washy possiblities? > > H. Peter White " Whoever undertakes to set himself > white@nereid.sal.ists.ca up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge > fs300367@yusol.bitnet is shipwrecked by the laughter of > 665-5448 (SAL/ISTS) the Gods. " - Albert Einstein [The following are quoted from the "Space Station Program Program Requirements Document, February 24, 1988] PREFACE "This Space Station Program Requirements Document (PRD) establishes the highest level requirements associated with the Space Station Program (SSP). . . ." SECTION 2 PROGRAM OBJECTIVES The SSP objectives are: (a) Establish a permanently manned multipurpose facility in low Earth orbit in the 1990's; (b) Enhance and evolve mankind's ability to live and work safely in space; (c) Stimulate technologies of national importance (especially automation and robotics) by using them to provide SSP capabilities; (d) Provide long-term, cost effective operation and utilization of continually improving facilities for scientific, technological, commercial, and operational activities enabled or enhanced by the presence of man in space; (e) Promote substantial international cooperation in space; (f) Create and expand opportunities for private-sector activity in space; (g) Provide for the evolution of the SS to meet future needs and challenges; (h) Provide unmanned platforms from which to perform long-duration research and operational observations. [end quote] [The extent to which the current SSF implementation meets these objectives is left as an exercise for the net-reader. Dani Eder] ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V13 #726 *******************