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From: [e-mail] (Jon Leech)
Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.space,sci.answers,news.answers
Subject: Space FAQ 01/15 - Introduction
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Keywords: Frequently Asked Questions

Archive-name: space/intro
Last-modified: $Date: 93/05/03 12:08:04 $

    FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ON SCI.SPACE/SCI.ASTRO

    INTRODUCTION

    This series of linked messages is periodically posted to the Usenet
groups sci.space and sci.astro in an attempt to provide good answers to
frequently asked questions and other reference material which is worth
preserving. If you have corrections or answers to other frequently asked
questions that you would like included in this posting, send email to
[e-mail] (Jon Leech).

    If you don't want to see the FAQ, add 'Frequently Asked Questions' to
your KILL file for this group (if you're not reading this with a newsreader
that can kill articles by subject, you're out of luck).

    The FAQ volume is excessive right now and will hopefully be trimmed down
by rewriting and condensing over time. The FAQ postings are available in
the Ames SPACE archive in FAQ/faq<#>.

    Good summaries will be accepted in place of the answers given here. The
point of this is to circulate existing information, and avoid rehashing old
answers. Better to build on top than start again. Nothing more depressing
than rehashing old topics for the 100th time. References are provided
because they give more complete information than any short generalization.

    Questions fall into three basic types:

    1) Where do I find some information about space?

    Try your local public library first. The net is not a good place to ask
    for general information. Ask INDIVIDUALS (by email) if you must. There
    are other sources, use them, too. The net is a place for open ended
    discussion.

    2) I have an idea which would improve space flight?

    Hope you aren't surprised, but 9,999 out of 10,000 have usually been
    thought of before. Again, contact a direct individual source for
    evaluation. NASA fields thousands of these each day.

    3) Miscellanous queries.

    These are addressed on a case-by-case basis in the following series of
    FAQ postings.


    SUGGESTIONS FOR BETTER NETIQUETTE

    Read news.announce.newusers if you're on Usenet.
    Minimize cross references, [Do you REALLY NEED to?]
    Edit "Subject:" lines, especially if you're taking a tangent.
    Send mail instead, avoid posting follow ups. (1 mail message worth
    100 posts).
    Internet mail readers: send requests to add/drop to SPACE-REQUEST
    not SPACE.
    Read all available articles before posting a follow-up. (Check all
    references.)
    Cut down attributed articles (leave only the points you're
    responding to; remove signatures and headers). Summarize!
    Put a return address in the body (signature) of your message (mail
    or article), state your institution, etc. Don't assume the
    'reply' function of mailers will work.
    Use absolute dates. Post in a timely way. Don't post what everyone
    will get on TV anyway.
    Some editors and window systems do character count line wrapping:
    keep lines under 80 characters for those using ASCII terminals
    (use carriage returns).


    INDEX TO LINKED POSTINGS

    I've attempted to break the postings up into related areas. There isn't
    a keyword index yet; the following lists the major subject areas in each
    posting. Only those containing astronomy-related material are posted to
    sci.astro (indicated by '*' following the posting number).

    #    Contents

    1*    Introduction
        Suggestions for better netiquette
        Index to linked postings
        Notes on addresses, phone numbers, etc.
        Contributors

    2*    Network resources
        Overview
        Mailing lists
        Periodically updated information
        Warning about non-public networks

    3*    Online (and some offline) sources of images, data, etc.
        Introduction
        Viewing Images
        Online Archives
        NASA Ames
        NASA Astrophysics Data System
        NASA Jet Propulsion Lab (Mission Information and Images)
        NASA Langley (Technical Reports)
        NASA Spacelink
        National Space Science Data Center
        Space Telescope Science Institute Electronic Info. Service
        Starcat
        Astronomical Databases
        Astronomy Programs
        Orbital Element Sets
        SPACE Digest
        Landsat & NASA Photos
        Planetary Maps
        Cometary Orbits

    4*    Performing calculations and interpreting data formats
        Computing spacecraft orbits and trajectories
        Computing planetary positions
        Computing crater diameters from Earth-impacting asteroids
        Map projections and spherical trignometry
        Performing N-body simulations efficiently
        Interpreting the FITS image format
        Sky (Unix ephemeris program)
        Three-dimensional star/galaxy coordinates

    5*    References on specific areas
        Publishers of space/astronomy material
        Careers in the space industry
        DC-X single-stage to orbit (SSTO) program
        How to name a star after a person
        LLNL "great exploration"
        Lunar Prospector
        Lunar science and activities
        Orbiting Earth satellite histories
        Spacecraft models
        Rocket propulsion
        Spacecraft design
        Esoteric propulsion schemes (solar sails, lasers, fusion...)
        Spy satellites
        Space shuttle computer systems
        SETI computation (signal processing)
        Amateur satellies & weather satellites
        Tides

    6*    Constants and equations for calculations

    7*    Astronomical Mnemonics

    8    Contacting NASA, ESA, and other space agencies/companies
        NASA Centers / Arianespace / ESA / NASDA / Soyuzkarta / Space
        Camp / Space Commerce Corporation / Spacehab / SPOT Image
        Other commercial space businesses

    9    Space shuttle answers, launch schedules, TV coverage
        Shuttle launchings and landings; schedules and how to see them
        Why does the shuttle roll just after liftoff?
        How to receive the NASA TV channel, NASA SELECT
        Amateur radio frequencies for shuttle missions
        Solid Rocket Booster fuel composition

    10    Planetary probes - Historical Missions
        US planetary missions
        Mariner (Venus, Mars, & Mercury flybys and orbiters)
        Pioneer (Moon, Sun, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn flybys and orbiters)
        Ranger (Lunar lander and impact missions)
        Lunar Orbiter (Lunar surface photography)
        Surveyor (Lunar soft landers)
        Viking (Mars orbiters and landers)
        Voyager (Outer planet flybys)
        Soviet planetary missions
        Soviet Lunar probes
        Soviet Venus probes
        Soviet Mars probes
        Japanese planetary missions
        Planetary mission references

    11    Upcoming planetary probes - missions and schedules
        Cassini
        Galileo
        Magellan
        Mars Observer
        TOPEX/Poseidon
        Ulysses
        Other space science missions
        Proposed missions

    12    Controversial questions
        What happened to the Saturn V plans
        Why data from space missions isn't immediately available
        Risks of nuclear (RTG) power sources for space probes
        Impact of the space shuttle on the ozone layer
        How long can a human live unprotected in space
        How the Challenger astronauts died
        Using the shuttle beyond Low Earth Orbit
        The "Face on Mars"

    13    Space activist/interest/research groups and space publications
        Groups
        Publications
        Undocumented Groups

    14    How to become an astronaut

    15    Orbital and Planetary Launch Services


    NOTES ON ADDRESSES, PHONE NUMBERS, ETC.

    Unless otherwise specified, telephone numbers, addresses, and so on are
    for the United States of America. Non-US readers should remember to add
    the country code for telephone calls, etc.


    CREDITS

    Eugene Miya started a series of linked FAQ postings some years ago which
    inspired (and was largely absorbed into) this set.

    Peter Yee and Ron Baalke have and continue to spend a lot of their own
    time setting up the SPACE archives at NASA Ames and forwarding official
    NASA announcements.

    Many other people have contributed material to this list in the form of
    old postings to sci.space and sci.astro which I've edited. Please let me
    know if corrections need to be made. Contributors I've managed to keep
    track of are:

    [e-mail] (Francis Reddy)    - map projections
    [e-mail] (Steven Fisk)        - publication refs.
    [e-mail] (Richard Akerman)   - crater diameters
    [e-mail] (Lisa Weigel)    - SEDS info
    [e-mail] (Srinivas Bettadpur) - tides
    [e-mail] (Alan Wm Paeth) - map projections
    [e-mail] (Allen W. Sherzer)        - Great Exploration
    [e-mail] (Ron Baalke)    - planetary probe schedules
    [e-mail] (Timothy Banks)    - map projections,
    variable star analysis archive
    [e-mail] (Jochen Bern)        - German mnemonic translation
    [e-mail] (Bernie Rosen)    - Space Camp
    [e-mail] (Barry Schlesinger)   - FITS format
    [e-mail] (Craig E. Ward)        - space group contact info
    [e-mail] (Tom Chapin)        - planetary positions
    [e-mail] (D. Alan Cunningham)    - NASA Spacelink
    [e-mail] (Cliff Yamamoto) - orbital elements
    [e-mail] (Anthony Datri)        - PDS/VICAR viewing software
    [e-mail] (Dave Rickel)        - orbit formulae
    [e-mail] (Phil Fraering)        - propulsion
    [e-mail] (Dani Eder)        - Saturn V plans, SRBs
    [e-mail] (Eugene N. Miya)    - introduction,
    NASA contact info, started FAQ postings
    [e-mail] (Patrick M. French)    - space group contact info
    [e-mail] (Gary Morris)        - amateur radio info
    [e-mail] (Terry Gaetz)        - N-body calculations,
    orbital dynamics
    [e-mail] (Steve Grandi)        - planetary positions
    [e-mail] (Dale M. Greer)   - constants
    [e-mail] (Henry Spencer)    - survival in vacuum,
    astronaut how-to, Challenger disaster, publication refs, DC-X
    [e-mail] (William Higgins)    - RTGs, publishers,
    shuttle landings, spysats, propulsion, "Face on Mars"
    [e-mail] (Hal Mueller)    - map projections,
    orbital dynamics
    [e-mail] (Josh Hopkins)    - launch services
    [e-mail] (Jim Bowery)        - propulsion, launch services
    [e-mail] (James N. Head) - atmospheric scale heights
    [e-mail] (Jim Scotti)    - planetary positions
    [e-mail] (Kieran A. Carroll)- refs for spacecraft design
    [e-mail] (Kenneth Ng)        - RTGs
    [e-mail] (Ken Jenks)    - shuttle roll manuever
    [e-mail] (Larry Klaes)    - planetary probe history
    [e-mail] (Jon Leech)        - crater diameters
    [e-mail] (Lou Adornato)            - orbital dynamics
    [e-mail] (Maury Markowitz)   - propulsion
    [e-mail] (Erik Max Francis)    - equations
    [e-mail]        - N-body calculations
    [e-mail] (Marc Wayne Mcconley)    - space careers
    [e-mail] (Mark Brader)            - Mariner 1 info.
    [e-mail] (Mark Maimone)            - SPACE Digest
    [e-mail] (Dr. Nick Watkins)    - models, spysats
    [e-mail] (Olivier R. Hainaut)    - publishers, STARCAT
    [e-mail] (Graham O'Neil)    - Lunar Prospector
    [e-mail] (Kenneth W Durham)    - cometary orbits, IAU
    [e-mail] (Paul Blase)    - propulsion
    [e-mail] (Pete Banholzer)    - Clementine
    [e-mail] (Peter Scott)    - RTGs
    [e-mail] (Paul W. Schleck)    - AMSAT, ARRL contact info
    [e-mail] (Rodney Brown)        - propulsion refs
    [e-mail] (Ran Atkinson)    - FTPable astro. programs
    [e-mail] (R. Michael Jungclas)- models
    [e-mail] (Curt Roelle)    - German mnemonic translation
    [e-mail] (David Seal)    - Cassini mission schedule
    [e-mail] (Mary Shafer)    - photos, shuttle landings
    [e-mail] (Willie Smith)    - photos
    [e-mail] (Stephen Dixon)    - shuttle audio frequencies
    [e-mail] (Ray Sterner)    - planetary positions
    [e-mail] (Phil Stooke)    - planetary maps
    [e-mail] (Ted Anderson)    - propulsion
    [e-mail] (Terry Hancock)    - NASA center info
    [e-mail] (Bill Thorson) - FITS info
    [e-mail] (Todd L. Masco)    - SPACE Digest
    [e-mail] (Tom Horsley)    - refs for algorithms
    [e-mail] (Veikko Makela)    - orbital element sets
    [e-mail] (Wales Larrison) - groups & publications
    [e-mail] (Wayne Hayes)    - constants
    [e-mail] (Matthew P Wiener) - Voyager history
    [e-mail] (Yoshiro Yamada)    - ISAS/NASDA missions
    [e-mail] (Peter Yee)        - AMES archive server,
    propulsion

    In Net memoriam:
    Ted Flinn

NEXT: FAQ #2/15 - Network Resources

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From: [e-mail] (Jon Leech)
Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.space,sci.answers,news.answers
Subject: Space FAQ 02/15 - Network Resources
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Date: 3 May 1993 12:14:28 -0400
Organization: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Lines: 241
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Expires: 7 Jun 1993 16:14:26 GMT
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NNTP-Posting-Host: mahler.cs.unc.edu
Keywords: Frequently Asked Questions

Archive-name: space/net
Last-modified: $Date: 93/05/03 12:08:09 $

NETWORK RESOURCES

OVERVIEW

    You may be reading this document on any one of an amazing variety of
    computers, so much of the material below may not apply to you. In
    general, however, systems connected to 'the net' fall in one of three
    categories: Internet, Usenet, or BITNET. Electronic mail may be sent
    between these networks, and other resources available on one of these
    networks are sometimes accessible from other networks by email sent to
    special 'servers'.

    The space and astronomy discussion groups actually are composed of
    several mechanisms with (mostly) transparent connections between them.

    One mechanism is the mailing list, in which mail is sent to a central
    distribution point which relays it to all recipients of the list. In
    addition to the general lists for space (called SPACE Digest for
    Internet users, and SPACE on BITNET), there are a number of more
    specialized mailing lists described below.

    A second mechanism is Usenet 'netnews'. This is somewhat like a bulletin
    board operating on each system which is a part of the net. Netnews
    separates contributions into hundreds of different categories based on a
    'group name'. The groups dealing most closely with space topics are
    called 'sci.space.news', 'sci.space', 'sci.space.shuttle', 'sci.astro',
    and 'talk.politics.space'. Contributors 'post' submissions (called
    'articles' in netnews terminology) on their local machine, which sends
    it to other nearby machines. Similarly, articles sent from nearby
    machines are stored locally and may be forwarded to other systems, so
    that an article is posted locally and eventually reaches all the Usenet
    sites interested in receiving the news group to which the article was
    posted.

    Gateway machines redirect the Usenet sci.space group into Internet and
    BITNET mailing lists and vice versa; the other Usenet groups are not
    accessible as mailing lists. If you can receive netnews, its more
    flexible interface and access to a wider range of material usually make
    it the preferred option.

MAILING LISTS

    SPACE Digest is the main Internet list, and is now being run by the
    International Space University (in only its second change of management
    in over a decade). Email [e-mail] (message body
    should be in the format 'subscribe space John Public') to join. Note
    that the moderated SPACE Magazine list is defunct at present for lack of
    a moderator. Old copies of SPACE Digest since its inception in 1981 are
    available by anonymous FTP. Retrieve
    julius.cs.qub.ac.uk:pub/SpaceDigestArchive/README
    for further details.

    Elements is a moderated list for fast distribution of Space Shuttle
    Keplerian Elements before and during Shuttle flights. NASA two line
    elements are sent out on the list from Dr. Kelso, JSC, and other sources
    as they are released. Email to [e-mail] to join.

    GPS Digest is a moderated list for discussion of the Global Positioning
    System and other satellite navigation positioning systems. Email to
    [e-mail] to join.

    Space-investors is a list for information relevant to investing in
    space-related companies. Email Vincent Cate ([e-mail]) to join.

    Space-tech is a list for more technical discussion of space topics;
    discussion has included esoteric propulsion technologies, asteroid
    capture, starflight, orbital debris removal, etc. Email to
    [e-mail] to join. Archives of old digests and
    selected excerpts are available by anonymous FTP from
    gs80.sp.cs.cmu.edu (128.2.205.90) in /usr/anon/public/space-tech,
    or by email to space-tech-request if you don't have FTP access.

    SEDS-L is a BITNET list for members of Students for the Exploration and
    Development of Space and other interested parties. Email
    [e-mail] with a message saying "SUBSCRIBE SEDS-L your
    name". Email saying "INDEX SEDS-L" to list the archive contents.

    SEDSNEWS is a BITNET list for news items, press releases, shuttle status
    reports, and the like. This duplicates material which is also found in
    Space Digest, sci.space, sci.space.shuttle, and sci.astro. Email
    [e-mail] saying "SUBSCRIBE SEDSNEWS your name" to join.
    Email saying "INDEX SEDSNEWS" to list the archive contents.

    Ron Baalke ([e-mail]) runs a mailing list which
    carries the contents of the sci.space.news Usenet group. Email him
    to join the list.

    As a general note, please mail to the *request* address to get off a
    mailing list. SPACE Digest, for example, relays many inappropriate
    'please remove me from this list' messages which are sent to the list
    address rather than the request address.

PERIODICALLY UPDATED INFORMATION

    In addition to this FAQ list, a broad variety of topical information is
    posted to the net (unless otherwise noted, in the new group
    sci.space.news created for this purpose). Please remember that the
    individuals posting this information are performing a service for all
    net readers, and don't take up their time with frivolous requests.

    ACRONYMS
    Garrett Wollman ([e-mail]) posts an acronym list around the
    first of each month.

    ASTRO-FTP LIST
    Veikko Makela ([e-mail]) posts a monthly list of
    anonymous FTP servers containing astronomy and space related
    material to sci.space and sci.astro.

    AVIATION WEEK
    Henry Spencer ([e-mail]) posts summaries of
    space-related stories in the weekly _Aviation Week and Space
    Technology_.

    BUYING TELESCOPES
    Ronnie Kon ([e-mail]) posts a guide to buying telescopes to
    sci.astro.

    ELECTRONIC JOURNAL OF THE ASA
    Don Barry ([e-mail]) posts the monthly Electronic Journal
    of the Astronomical Society of the Atlantic to sci.astro.

    FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL
    Swaraj Jeyasingh ([e-mail]) posts summaries of
    space-related news from _Flight International_. This focuses more on
    non-US space activities than Aviation Week.

    LARGE ASTRONOMICAL PROJECTS
    Robert Bunge ([e-mail]) posts a list describing many
    "Large Telescope Projects Either Being Considered or in the Works"
    to sci.astro.

    NASA HEADLINE NEWS & SHUTTLE REPORTS
    Peter Yee ([e-mail]) posts a variety of NASA material,
    including NASA Headline News (with the schedule for NASA SELECT),
    shuttle payload briefings and flight manifests, and KSC shuttle
    status reports. For Usenet users, much of this material appears in
    the group sci.space.shuttle.

    NASA UPDATES
    Ron Baalke ([e-mail]) posts frequent updates from
    JPL, Ames, and other centers on the Ulysses, Gailileo, Pioneer,
    Magellan, Landsat, and other missions.

    ORBITAL ELEMENT SETS
    TS Kelso ([e-mail]) posts orbital elements from
    NASA Prediction Bulletins.

    Mike Rose ([e-mail]) posts orbital elements for the Hubble
    Space Telescope to sci.astro.

    Jost Jahn ([e-mail]) posts ephemerides for asteroids,
    comets, conjunctions, and encounters to sci.astro.

    SATELLITE LAUNCHES
    Richard Langley ([e-mail]) posts SPACEWARN Bulletin, which
    describes recent launch/orbital decay information and satellites
    which are useful for scientific activities. Recent bulletins are
    available by anonymous FTP from nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov in
    ANON_DIR:[000000.ACTIVE.SPX].

    SHUTTLE MANIFEST
    Ken Hollis ([e-mail]) posts a compressed version
    of the Space Shuttle launch manifest to sci.space.shuttle. This
    includes dates, times, payloads, and information on how to see
    launches and landings.

    SOLAR ACTIVITY
    Cary Oler ([e-mail]) posts Solar Terrestrial reports
    (describing solar activity and its effect on the Earth) to
    sci.space. The report is issued in part from data released by the
    Space Enviroment Services Center, Boulder Colorado. The intro
    document needed to understand these reports is available by
    anonymous FTP from solar.stanford.edu (36.10.0.4) in
    pub/understanding_solar_terrestrial_reports. nic.funet.fi
    (128.214.6.100) also has this document in
    /pub/misc/rec.radio.shortwave/solarreports and is an archive site
    for the reports (please note this site is in Europe, and the
    connection to the US is only 56KB). A new primary archive site,
    xi.uleth.ca (142.66.3.29), has recently been established and will be
    actively supported.

    SOVIET SPACE ACTIVITIES
    Glenn Chapman ([e-mail]) posts summaries of Soviet space
    activities.

    SPACE ACTIVIST NEWSLETTER
    Allen Sherzer ([e-mail]) posts a newsletter, "One Small Step for
    a Space Activist," to talk.politics.space. It describes current
    legislative activity affecting NASA and commercial space activities.

    SPACE EVENTS CALENDAR
    Ron Baalke ([e-mail]) posts a calendar including
    anniversaries, conferences, launch dates, meteor showers and
    eclipses, and other space-related events.

    SPACE NEWS
    John Magliacane ([e-mail]) posts "SpaceNews" (covering
    AMSATs, NOAA and other weather satellites, and other ham
    information) to rec.radio.amateur.misc and sci.space.

    SPACE REPORT
    Jonathan McDowell ([e-mail]) posts "Jonathan's Space
    Report" covering launches, landings, reentries, status reports,
    satellite activities, etc.

    TOWARD 2001
    Bev Freed ([e-mail]) posts "Toward 2001", a weekly
    global news summary reprinted from _Space Calendar_ magazine.


WARNING ABOUT NON-PUBLIC NETWORKS

    (Included at the suggestion of Eugene Miya, who wrote the item)

    NASA has an internal system of unclassified electronic mail and bulletin
    boards. This system is not open for public use. Specifically, NASA
    personnel and procurement operations are regarded with some sensitivity.
    Contractors must renegotiate their contracts. The Fair and Open
    Procurement Act does not look kindly to those having inside information.
    Contractors and outsiders caught using this type of information can
    expect severe penalities. Unauthorized access attempts may subject you
    to a fine and/or imprisonment in accordance with Title 18, USC, Section
    1030. If in fact you should should learn of unauthorized access, contact
    NASA personnel.

    Claims have been made on this news group about fraud and waste. None
    have ever been substantiated to any significant degree. Readers
    detecting Fraud, Waste, Abuse, or Mismanagement should contact the NASA
    Inspector General (24-hours) at 800-424-9183 (can be anonymous) or write

    NASA
    Inspector General
    P.O. Box 23089
    L'enfant Plaza Station
    Washington DC 20024

NEXT: FAQ #3/15 - Online (and some offline) sources of images, data, etc.

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From: [e-mail] (Jon Leech)
Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.space,sci.answers,news.answers
Subject: Space FAQ 03/15 - Data Sources
Supersedes: <[e-mail]>
Followup-To: poster
Date: 3 May 1993 12:15:18 -0400
Organization: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Lines: 463
Approved: [e-mail]
Distribution: world
Expires: 7 Jun 1993 16:15:16 GMT
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
References: <[e-mail]>
NNTP-Posting-Host: mahler.cs.unc.edu
Keywords: Frequently Asked Questions

Archive-name: space/data
Last-modified: $Date: 93/05/03 12:08:00 $

ONLINE AND OTHER SOURCES OF IMAGES, DATA, ETC.


INTRODUCTION

    A wide variety of images, data, catalogs, information releases, and
    other material dealing with space and astronomy may be found on the net.
    A few sites offer direct dialup access or remote login access, while the
    remainder support some form of file transfer. Many sites are listed as
    providing 'anonymous FTP'. This refers to the File Transfer Protocol on
    the Internet. Sites not connected to the Internet cannot use FTP
    directly, but there are a few automated FTP servers which operates via
    email. Send mail containing only the word HELP to [e-mail]
    or [e-mail], and the servers will send you instructions
    on how to make requests.

    The sources with the broadest selection of material are the NASA Ames
    SPACE archive and the National Space Science Data Center.

    Don't even ask for images to be posted to the net. The data volume is
    huge and nobody wants to spend the time on it.


VIEWING IMAGES

    The possible combinations of image formats and machines is forebodingly
    large, and I won't attempt to cover common formats (GIF, etc.) here. To
    read PDS and VICAR (and many other) formats on Unix systems running X,
    use XV 2.11, available by anonymous FTP from export.lcs.mit.edu
    (18.24.0.12) in contrib/xv-2.11.tar.Z and the other standard X11 FTP
    sites.

    The FAQ for the Usenet group alt.binaries.pictures discusses image
    formats and how to get image viewing software. A copy of this document
    is available by anonymous FTP from the Usenet FAQ archives at
    pit-manager.mit.edu (18.72.1.58), in directory
    pub/usenet/alt.binaries.pictures.


ONLINE ARCHIVES

    NASA AMES

    Extensive archives are maintained at NASA Ames and are available via
    anonymous FTP or an email server. These archives include many images and
    a wide variety of documents including this FAQ list, NASA press
    releases, shuttle launch advisories, and mission status reports. Please
    note that these are NOT maintained on an official basis.

    FTP users should connect to ames.arc.nasa.gov (128.102.18.3) and look in
    pub/SPACE. pub/SPACE/Index contains a listing of files available in the
    archive (the index is about 200K by itself).

    To access the archives by email, send a letter to
    [e-mail] (or ames!archive-server). In the
    subject of your letter (or in the body), use commands like:

    send SPACE Index
    send SPACE SHUTTLE/ss01.23.91.

    The capitalization of the subdirectory names is important. All are in
    caps. Only text files are handled by the email server at present; use
    one of the FTP email servers described in the introduction to this
    section for images or programs.

    The Magellan Venus and Voyager Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus CD-ROM image
    disks have been put online in the CDROM and CDROM2 directories. The
    disks will be rotated on a weekly basis. Thousands of images are
    available in these collections.

    The GIF directory contains images in GIF format. The VICAR directory
    contains Magellan images in VICAR format (these are also available in
    the GIF directory). A PC program capable of displaying these files is
    found in the IMDISP directory (see the item "VIEWING IMAGES" below).

    The NASA media guide describes the various NASA centers and how to
    contact their public affairs officers; this may be useful when pursuing
    specific information. It's in MISC/media.guide.

    Any problems with the archive server should be reported to Peter Yee
    ([e-mail]).


    NASA ASTROPHYSICS DATA SYSTEM

    The ADS is a distributed data retrieval system which is easy to use and
    provides uniform access to ground-based and space-based astronomy data
    from NASA data centers across the country. It currently has over 140
    data catalogs of radio, infrared, optical, UV, and X-ray data which can
    be queried by position or any other parameter in the catalog. The ADS
    also provides tools to manipulate and plot tabular results. In addition,
    ADS has a Beta version of an Abstracts Service which allows users to
    query over 125,000 abstracts of astronomy papers since 1975 by authors,
    keywords, title words, or abstract text words.

    ADS use requires direct Internet access. For more info and to sign up to
    become a user, email [e-mail]. The User's Guide and
    "QuickStart" Guide are available by anonymous FTP to sao-ftp.harvard.edu
    in directory pub/ads/ADS_User_Guide (PostScript files).

    Contact Carolyn Stern Grant ([e-mail]).


    NASA JET PROPULSION LAB (MISSION INFORMATION AND IMAGES)

    pubinfo.jpl.nasa.gov (128.149.6.2) is an anonymous FTP site operated by
    the JPL Public Information Office, containing news releases, status
    reports, fact sheets, images, and other data on JPL missions. It may
    also be reached by modem at (818)-354-1333 (no parity, 8 data bits, 1
    stop bit).

    Contact [e-mail] or phone [phone].


    NASA LANGLEY (TECHNICAL REPORTS)

    techreports.larc.nasa.gov is an anonymous FTP site offering technical
    reports. To get started, cd to directory pub/techreports/larc/92 and
    retrieve files README and abstracts.92. Most files are compressed
    PostScript. The reports are also in a WAIS database with the following
    description:

    (:source
     :version 3
     :ip-name "techreports.larc.nasa.gov"
     :tcp-port 210
     :database-name "nasa-larc-abs"
     :cost 0.00
     :cost-unit :free
     :maintainer "[e-mail]"
     :description "NASA Langley Research Center Technical Reports

    Contact [e-mail].


    NASA SPACELINK

    SpaceLink is an online service located at Marshall Space Flight Center
    in Huntsville, Alabama. The system is specifically designed for
    teachers. The data base is arranged to provide easy access to current
    and historical information on NASA aeronautics, space research, and
    technology transfer information. Also included are suggested classroom
    activities that incorporate information on NASA projects to teach a
    number of scientific principles. Unlike bulletin board systems, NASA
    Spacelink does not provide for interaction between callers. However it
    does allow teachers and other callers to leave questions and comments
    for NASA which may be answered by regular mail. Messages are answered
    electronically, even to acknowledge requests which will be fulfilled by
    mail. Messages are generally handled the next working day except during
    missions when turnaround times increase. The mail system is closed-loop
    between the user and NASA.

    SpaceLink also offers downloadable shareware and public domain programs
    useful for science educators as well as space graphics and GIF images
    from NASA's planetary probes and the Hubble Telescope.

    You can dial in at (205)-895-0028 (300/1200/2400/9600(V.32) baud, 8
    bits, no parity, 1 stop bit), or telnet to spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov
    (128.158.13.250, also known as xsl.msfc.nasa.gov) if you're on the
    Internet. Anonymous FTP capability (password guest) is now available.

    Most of this information is also available from the Ames server in
    directory SPACELINK.


    NATIONAL SPACE SCIENCE DATA CENTER (NSSDC)

    The National Space Science Data Center is the official clearinghouse for
    NASA data. The data catalog (*not* the data itself) is available online.
    Internet users can telnet to nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (128.183.36.23) and
    log in as 'NODIS' (no password). You can also get the catalog by sending
    email to '[e-mail]'.

    You can also dial in at (301)-286-9000 (300, 1200, or 2400 baud, 8 bits,
    no parity, one stop). At the "Enter Number:" prompt, enter MD and
    carriage return. When the system responds "Call Complete," enter a few
    more carriage returns to get the "Username:" and log in as 'NODIS' (no
    password).

    The system is menu-driven; topics available as of 3/93 are:

    1   -    Master Directory - NASA & Global Change
    2   -    Personnel Information Management System
    3   -    Nimbus-7 GRID TOMS Data
    4   -    Interplanetary Medium Data (OMNI)
    5   -    Request data and/or information from NSSDC
    6   -    Geophysical Models
    7   -    CANOPUS Newsletter
    8   -    International Ultraviolet Explorer Data Request
    9   -    CZCS Browse and Order Utility
    10  -    Astronomical Data Center (ADC)
    11  -    STEP Bulletin Board Service
    12  -    Standards and Technology Information System
    13  -    Planetary Science & Magellan Project Information
    14  -    Other Online Data Services at NSSDC
    15  -    CD-ROMS Available at NSSDC

    For users with Internet access, datasets are made available via
    anonymous FTP once you select the desired datasets from the online
    catalog. For other users, data may be ordered on CD-ROM and in other
    formats. Among the many types of data available are Voyager, Magellan,
    and other planetary images, Earth observation data, and star catalogs.
    Viewers for Macintosh and IBM systems are also available. As an example
    of the cost, an 8 CD set of Voyager images is $75. Data may ordered
    online, by email, or by physical mail. The postal address is:

    National Space Science Data Center
    Request Coordination Office
    Goddard Space Flight Center
    Code 633
    Greenbelt, MD  20771

    Telephone: [phone]

    Email address:     [e-mail]


    SPACE TELESCOPE SCIENCE INSTITUTE ELECTRONIC INFORMATION SERVICE

    stsci.edu (130.167.1.2) has a large amount of information about the
    Hubble Space Telescope available by anonymous FTP, such as status
    reports and newsletters, in addition to material oriented towards HST
    observers and proposers. Get the top level README file to begin with.
    Contact Pete Reppert ([e-mail]) or Chris O'Dea
    ([e-mail]).


    STARCAT

    The Space Telescope European Coordination Facility, at ESO/Garching
    provides on-line access to a huge astronomical database, featuring

    - Observation log files of several satellites/telescopes
        (IUE,IRAS,HST,NTT...).
    - Spectra and images (IUE, HST).
    - Most of the astronomical catalogues (SAO, HR, NGC, PPM, IRAS,
        Veron, GSC and many others, more than 50) in a very convenient
        way (give center+radius+kind of objects, and you get the
        corresponding files!).

    Log on as ``starcat'' (no password) on node stesis.hq.eso.org
    (134.171.8.100) or on STESIS (DECnet). The files created can be
    retreived by FTP. Contact: Benoit Pirenne, [e-mail] (phone +49
    89 320 06 433) at ST-ECF


    ASTRONOMICAL DATABASES

    The full SAO stellar database is *NOT* available online, probably due to
    the 40 MB size. It may be ordered on magnetic tape from the NSSDC. A
    subset containing position and magnitude only is available by FTP (see
    "Astronomy Programs" below).

    nic.funet.fi (128.214.6.100) has a large collection of astronomical
    programs for many types of computers, databases of stars and deep sky
    objects, and general astronomy information in directory /pub/astro. This
    site is mainly for European users, but overseas connections are
    possible.

    The Ames archives contain a database of 8,436 galaxies including name,
    RA, declination, magnitude, and radial velocity in MISC/galaxy.dat.
    Supplied by Wayne Hayes ([e-mail]).

    iris1.ucis.dal.ca (129.173.18.107) has a number of GIFs from Voyager,
    Hubble, and other sources available by anonymous FTP in pub/gif (most of
    this data is also in SPACE/GIF on the Ames server). Please restrict
    access to 5pm - 8am Atlantic time.

    pomona.claremont.edu has the Yale Bright Star catalog for anonymous FTP
    in directory [.YALE_BSC]. Contact James Dishaw
    ([e-mail]).

    The Hubble Guide Star catalog is available on CD-ROM for the Mac and PC
    for $49.95 US (catalog # ST101).

    Astronomical Society of the Pacific
    390 Ashton Ave.
    San Francisco, CA 94112
    Phone: [phone] AM - 3 PM Pacific Time
    FAX: [phone]

    For German (and possibly other European) readers, Jost Jahn has a
    service to distribute astronomical data to interested amateurs at cost.
    About 30-40 catalogs are available for DM 6..8/disk. Several floppy disk
    formats are available. Because of the expense of receiving email on his
    system, he asks that you contact him by physical mail:

    Jost Jahn
    Neustaedter Strasse 11
    W-3123 Bodenteich
    GERMANY
    Phone: FRG-5824-3197


    ASTRONOMY PROGRAMS

    Various astronomy-related programs and databases posted to the net in
    the past are archived for anonymous FTP at multiple sites, including
    ftp.uu.net (137.39.1.9). Also see the ASTRO-FTP list posted to sci.astro
    monthly, which is more complete than this list.

    Astonomical/Space-related sources of interest in comp.sources.unix:

    Volume 8:        phoon    moon phase and date routines
    Volume 12,13:   starchart    starchart program & Yale Star data
    Volume 15:        moontool    shows moon phase picture on Suns
    Volume 16:        sao        reduced SAO catalog

    Astonomical/Space-related sources of interest in comp.sources.misc:

    Volume  8:        moon    another moon phase program
    Volume 11:        starchart    starchart program, version 3.2
    Volume 11:        n3emo-orbit orbit: track earth satellites
    Volume 12:        starchart2    starchart program, update to version 3.2.1
    Volume 13:        jupmoons    plotter for Jupiter's major moons [in perl]
    Volume 13:        lunisolar    lunisolar (not sure what this does)
    Volume 14:        ephem-4.21    astronomical ephemeris, v4.21
    Volume 14:        n3emo-orbit patch to orbit 3.7
    Volume 18:        planet    planet generation simulator

    Elwood Downey ([e-mail]), the author of
    "ephem", has offered to mail copies to people who can't find it on one
    of the archives.

    XSAT, an X Window System based satellite tracking program, is
    available by anonymous FTP from export.lcs.mit.edu (18.24.0.12) in
    contrib/xsat1.0.tar.Z. Contact Dave Curry ([e-mail])
    for more information.

    Xsky, a computerized sky atlas for the X Window System, is available for
    anonymous FTP on arizona.edu in the directory [.SOFTWARE.UNIX.XSKY] as
    xsky.tarz. Contact Terry R. Friedrichsen ([e-mail]) for
    more information.

    The "Variable Stars Analysis Software Archive" is available via
    anonymous FTP from kauri.vuw.ac.nz (130.195.11.3) in directory
    pub/astrophys. This is intended for specialists in this field, and they
    would appreciate people from outside New Zealand confining their FTP
    access to the astrophys directory, as they pay a significant amount for
    Internet access. Contents are relatively sparse at present due to the
    youth of the archive - contributions are encouraged. Contact the archive
    administrator, Timothy Banks ([e-mail]) for more
    information.

    The "IDL Astronomy Users Library" is available by anonymous FTP from
    idlastro.gsfc.nasa.gov (128.183.57.82). This is a central repository for
    general purpose astronomy procedures written in IDL, a commercial image
    processing, plotting, and programming language. Contact Wayne Landsman
    ([e-mail]) for more information.


    ORBITAL ELEMENT SETS

    The most recent orbital elements from the NASA Prediction Bulletins are
    carried on the Celestial BBS, (513)-427-0674. Documentation and tracking
    software are also available on this system. The Celestial BBS may be
    accessed 24 hours/day at 300, 1200, or 2400 baud using 8 data bits, 1
    stop bit, no parity.

    Orbital element sets are available via anonymous FTP from the
    following sites:

    archive.afit.af.mil (129.92.1.66)        NASA,TVRO,Shuttle
    directory: /pub/space

    ftp.funet.fi (128.214.6.100)        NASA,TVRO,Molczan,CelBBS,
    directory: /pub/astro/pc/satel        Shuttle (*)

    kilroy.jpl.nasa.gov (128.149.1.165)     NASA,Molczan
    directory: /pub/space/


    SPACE DIGEST ARCHIVES

    Copies of back issues of Space Digest are archived on
    [e-mail]. Send mail containing the message "INDEX SPACE" to
    get an index of files; send it the message "GET filename filetype" to
    get a particular file.


LANDSAT AND NASA PHOTOS

    You can get black-and-white 1:1M prints, negatives, or positives for
    $10, $18, $12 respectively for any Landsat data more than 2 years old
    from EDC, (Eros (Earth Resources Orbiting Satellite) Data Center). Call
    them at (605)-594-6511. You get 80 meter resolution from the MSS
    scanner, 135x180 kilometers on a picture 135x180 mm in size. I think you
    have to select one band from (green, red, near IR, second near IR), but
    I'm not sure. Digitial data is also available at higher prices.

    Transparencies of all NASA photos available to the public can be
    borrowed from the NASA photo archive; you can have copies or prints
    made.

     NASA Audio-Visual Facility
     918 North Rengstorff Ave
     Mountain View, CA  94043
     (415)-604-6270


PLANETARY MAPS

    The USGS address for maps of the planets is:

    U.S. Geological Survey,
    Distribution Branch,
    Box 25286, Federal Center, Bldg. 41
    Denver, CO 80225

    Maps cost $2.40 to $3.10 per sheet (a few come in sets of 2 or 3 sheets).

    The best global maps of Mars based on Viking images are 1:15,000,000
    scale in 3 sheets. These maps are:

    I-1535 (2 sheets only) - relief, albedo, names
    I-1535
    I-1618 (3 sheets) - relief, names
    I-2030 (3 sheets) - relief, topographic contours
    I-1802-A,B,C (3 sheets) - geology

    There are many other maps as well: 30 sheets at 1:5,000,000 scale in
    relief, albedo, geology, photomosaic forms (not all 30 sheets available
    in all formats); 140 sheets at 1:2,000,000 scale as photomosaics of the
    whole planet, about 100 sheets of interesting sites at 1:500,000 scale
    in photomosaic format, and lots of special sheets.

    Then there are maps of Mercury, Venus, the Moon, the four Galilean
    Satellites, six moons of Saturn and five of Uranus. [Phil Stooke
    ([e-mail]), the author of this item, has offered to
    respond to email requests for information on any topic relating to lunar
    and planetary maps.]


COMETARY ORBIT DATA

    The Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams and the Minor Planet
    Center announce the sixth edition of the Catalogue of Cometary Orbits in
    IAU Circular 4935. The catalogue contains 1292 entries which represent
    all known comets through November 1989 and is 96 pages long.
    Non-subscribers to the Circulars may purchase the catalogue for $15.00
    while the cost to subscribers is $7.50. The basic catalogue in ASCII
    along with a program to extract specific orbits and calculate
    ephemerides is available on MS-DOS 5.25-inch 2S2D diskette at a cost of
    $75.00 (the program requires an 8087 math coprocessor). The catalogue
    alone is also available by e-mail for $37.50 or on magnetic tape for
    $300.00.

    Except for the printed version of the catalogue, the various magnetic
    media or e-mail forms of the catalogue do not specifically meantion
    non-subscribers. It is possible that these forms of the catalogue may
    not be available to non-subscribers or that their prices may be more
    expensive than those given. Mail requests for specific information and
    orders to:

    Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
    Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
    Cambridge, MA 02138, USA


NEXT: FAQ #4/15 - Performing calculations and interpreting data formats

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PERFORMING CALCULATIONS AND INTERPRETING DATA FORMATS

    COMPUTING SPACECRAFT ORBITS AND TRAJECTORIES

    References that have been frequently recommended on the net are:

    "Fundamentals of Astrodynamics" Roger Bate, Donald Mueller, Jerry White
    1971, Dover Press, 455pp $8.95 (US) (paperback). ISBN 0-486-60061-0

    NASA Spaceflight handbooks (dating from the 1960s)
    SP-33 Orbital Flight Handbook (3 parts)
    SP-34 Lunar Flight Handbook   (3 parts)
    SP-35 Planetary Flight Handbook (9 parts)

    These might be found in university aeronautics libraries or ordered
    through the US Govt. Printing Office (GPO), although more
    information would probably be needed to order them.

    M. A. Minovitch, _The Determination and Characteristics of Ballistic
    Interplanetary Trajectories Under the Influence of Multiple Planetary
    Attractions_, Technical Report 32-464, Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
    Pasadena, Calif., Oct, 1963.

    The title says all. Starts of with the basics and works its way up.
    Very good. It has a companion article:

    M. Minovitch, _Utilizing Large Planetary Perubations for the Design of
    Deep-Space Solar-Probe and Out of Ecliptic Trajectories_, Technical
    Report 32-849, JPL, Pasadena, Calif., 1965.

    You need to read the first one first to realy understand this one.
    It does include a _short_ summary if you can only find the second.

    Contact JPL for availability of these reports.

    "Spacecraft Attitude Dynamics", Peter C. Hughes 1986, John Wiley and
    Sons.

    "Celestial Mechanics: a computational guide for the practitioner",
    Lawrence G. Taff, (Wiley-Interscience, New York, 1985).

    Starts with the basics (2-body problem, coordinates) and works up to
    orbit determinations, perturbations, and differential corrections.
    Taff also briefly discusses stellar dynamics including a short
    discussion of n-body problems.


    COMPUTING PLANETARY POSITIONS

    More net references:

    Van Flandern & Pullinen, _Low-Precision Formulae for Planetary
    Positions_, Astrophysical J. Supp Series, 41:391-411, 1979. Look in an
    astronomy or physics library for this; also said to be available from
    Willmann-Bell.

    Gives series to compute positions accurate to 1 arc minute for a
    period + or - 300 years from now. Pluto is included but stated to
    have an accuracy of only about 15 arc minutes.

    _Multiyear Interactive Computer Almanac_ (MICA), produced by the US
    Naval Observatory. Valid for years 1990-1999. $55 ($80 outside US).
    Available for IBM (order #PB93-500163HDV) or Macintosh (order
    #PB93-500155HDV). From the NTIS sales desk, (703)-487-4650. I believe
    this is intended to replace the USNO's Interactive Computer Ephemeris.

    _Interactive Computer Ephemeris_ (from the US Naval Observatory)
    distributed on IBM-PC floppy disks, $35 (Willmann-Bell). Covers dates
    1800-2049.

    "Planetary Programs and Tables from -4000 to +2800", Bretagnon & Simon
    1986, Willmann-Bell.

    Floppy disks available separately.

    "Fundamentals of Celestial Mechanics" (2nd ed), J.M.A. Danby 1988,
    Willmann-Bell.

    A good fundamental text. Includes BASIC programs; a companion set of
    floppy disks is available separately.

    "Astronomical Formulae for Calculators" (4th ed.), J. Meeus 1988,
    Willmann-Bell.

    "Astronomical Algorithms", J. Meeus 1991, Willmann-Bell.

    If you actively use one of the editions of "Astronomical Formulae
    for Calculators", you will want to replace it with "Astronomical
    Algorithms". This new book is more oriented towards computers than
    calculators and contains formulae for planetary motion based on
    modern work by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the U.S. Naval
    Observatory, and the Bureau des Longitudes. The previous books were
    all based on formulae mostly developed in the last century.

    Algorithms available separately on diskette.

    "Practical Astronomy with your Calculator" (3rd ed.), P. Duffett-Smith
    1988, Cambridge University Press.

    "Orbits for Amateurs with a Microcomputer", D. Tattersfield 1984,
    Stanley Thornes, Ltd.

    Includes example programs in BASIC.

    "Orbits for Amateurs II", D. Tattersfield 1987, John Wiley & Sons.

    "Astronomy / Scientific Software" - catalog of shareware, public domain,
    and commercial software for IBM and other PCs. Astronomy software
    includes planetarium simulations, ephemeris generators, astronomical
    databases, solar system simulations, satellite tracking programs,
    celestial mechanics simulators, and more.

    Andromeda Software, Inc.
    P.O. Box 605
    Amherst, NY 14226-0605


    COMPUTING CRATER DIAMETERS FROM EARTH-IMPACTING ASTEROIDS

    Astrogeologist Gene Shoemaker proposes the following formula, based on
    studies of cratering caused by nuclear tests.

             (1/3.4)
    D = S  S  c  K  W        : crater diameter in km
     g  p  f  n

           (1/6)
    S = (g /g )            : gravity correction factor for bodies other than
     g      e  t              Earth, where g = 9.8 m/s^2 and g    is the surface
                        e              t
                  gravity of the target body. This scaling is
                  cited for lunar craters and may hold true for
                  other bodies.

        (1/3.4)
    S = (p / p )        : correction factor for target density p  ,
     p      a   t                                t
                  p  = 1.8 g/cm^3 for alluvium at the Jangle U
                   a
                  crater site, p = 2.6 g/cm^3 for average
                  rock on the continental shields.

    C                : crater collapse factor, 1 for craters <= 3 km
                  in diameter, 1.3 for larger craters (on Earth).

                                (1/3.4)
    K                : .074 km / (kT TNT equivalent)
     n                  empirically determined from the Jangle U
                  nuclear test crater.

          3           2               19
    W = pi * d    * delta * V  / (12 * 4.185 * 10  )
                : projectile kinetic energy in kT TNT equivalent
                  given diameter d, velocity v, and projectile
                  density delta in CGS units. delta of around 3
                  g/cm^3 is fairly good for an asteroid.

    An RMS velocity of V = 20 km/sec may be used for Earth-crossing
    asteroids.

    Under these assumptions, the body which created the Barringer Meteor
    Crater in Arizona (1.13 km diameter) would have been about 40 meters in
    diameter.

    More generally, one can use (after Gehrels, 1985):

    Asteroid        Number of objects  Impact probability  Impact energy
    diameter (km)               (impacts/year)       (* 5*10^20 ergs)

     10                10             10^-8        10^9
      1             1 000             10^-6        10^6
      0.1           100 000             10^-4        10^3

    assuming simple scaling laws. Note that 5*10^20 ergs = 13 000 tons TNT
    equivalent, or the energy released by the Hiroshima A-bomb.

    References:

    Gehrels, T. 1985 Asteroids and comets. _Physics Today_ 38, 32-41. [an
    excellent general overview of the subject for the layman]

    Shoemaker, E.M. 1983 Asteroid and comet bombardment of the earth. _Ann.
    Rev. Earth Planet. Sci._ 11, 461-494. [very long and fairly
    technical but a comprehensive examination of the
     subject]

    Shoemaker, E.M., J.G. Williams, E.F. Helin & R.F. Wolfe 1979
    Earth-crossing asteroids: Orbital classes, collision rates with
    Earth, and origin. In _Asteroids_, T. Gehrels, ed., pp. 253-282,
    University of Arizona Press, Tucson.

    Cunningham, C.J. 1988 _Introduction to Asteroids: The Next Frontier_
    (Richmond: Willman-Bell, Inc.) [covers all aspects of asteroid
    studies and is an excellent introduction to the subject for people
    of all experience levels. It also has a very extensive reference
    list covering essentially all of the reference material in the
    field.]


    MAP PROJECTIONS AND SPHERICAL TRIGNOMETRY

    Two easy-to-find sources of map projections are the "Encyclopaedia
    Brittanica", (particularly the older volumes) and a tutorial appearing
    in _Graphics Gems_ (Academic Press, 1990). The latter was written with
    simplicity of exposition and suitability of digital computation in mind
    (spherical trig formulae also appear, as do digitally-plotted examples).

    More than you ever cared to know about map projections is in John
    Snyder's USGS publication "Map Projections--A Working Manual", USGS
    Professional Paper 1395. This contains detailed descriptions of 32
    projections, with history, features, projection formulas (for both
    spherical earth and ellipsoidal earth), and numerical test cases. It's a
    neat book, all 382 pages worth. This one's $20.

    You might also want the companion volume, by Snyder and Philip Voxland,
    "An Album of Map Projections", USGS Professional Paper 1453. This
    contains less detail on about 130 projections and variants. Formulas are
    in the back, example plots in the front. $14, 250 pages.

    You can order these 2 ways. The cheap, slow way is direct from USGS:
    Earth Science Information Center, US Geological Survey, 507 National
    Center, Reston, VA 22092. (800)-USA-MAPS. They can quote you a price and
    tell you where to send your money. Expect a 6-8 week turnaround time.

    A much faster way (about 1 week) is through Timely Discount Topos,
    (303)-469-5022, 9769 W. 119th Drive, Suite 9, Broomfield, CO 80021. Call
    them and tell them what you want. They'll quote a price, you send a
    check, and then they go to USGS Customer Service Counter and pick it up
    for you. Add about a $3-4 service charge, plus shipping.

    A (perhaps more accessible) mapping article is:

    R. Miller and F. Reddy, "Mapping the World in Pascal",
    Byte V12 #14, December 1987

    Contains Turbo Pascal procedures for five common map projections. A
    demo program, CARTOG.PAS, and a small (6,000 point) coastline data
    is available on CompuServe, GEnie, and many BBSs.

    Some references for spherical trignometry are:

    _Spherical Astronomy_, W.M. Smart, Cambridge U. Press, 1931.

    _A Compendium of Spherical Astronomy_, S. Newcomb, Dover, 1960.

    _Spherical Astronomy_, R.M. Green, Cambridge U. Press., 1985 (update
    of Smart).

    _Spherical Astronomy_, E Woolard and G.Clemence, Academic
    Press, 1966.


    PERFORMING N-BODY SIMULATIONS EFFICIENTLY

    "Computer Simulation Using Particles"
    R. W. Hockney and J. W. Eastwood
    (Adam Hilger; Bristol and Philadelphia; 1988)

    "The rapid evaluation of potential fields in particle systems",
    L. Greengard
    MIT Press, 1988.

        A breakthrough O(N) simulation method. Has been parallelized.

    L. Greengard and V. Rokhlin, "A fast algorithm for particle
    simulations," Journal of Computational Physics, 73:325-348, 1987.

    "An O(N) Algorithm for Three-dimensional N-body Simulations", MSEE
    thesis, Feng Zhao, MIT AILab Technical Report 995, 1987

    "Galactic Dynamics"
    J. Binney & S. Tremaine
    (Princeton U. Press; Princeton; 1987)

        Includes an O(N^2) FORTRAN code written by Aarseth, a pioneer in
        the field.

    Hierarchical (N log N) tree methods are described in these papers:

    A. W. Appel, "An Efficient Program for Many-body Simulation", SIAM
    Journal of Scientific and Statistical Computing, Vol. 6, p. 85,
    1985.

    Barnes & Hut, "A Hierarchical O(N log N) Force-Calculation
    Algorithm", Nature, V324 # 6096, 4-10 Dec 1986.

    L. Hernquist, "Hierarchical N-body Methods", Computer Physics
    Communications, Vol. 48, p. 107, 1988.


    INTERPRETING THE FITS IMAGE FORMAT

    If you just need to examine FITS images, use the ppm package (see the
    comp.graphics FAQ) to convert them to your preferred format. For more
    information on the format and other software to read and write it, see
    the sci.astro.fits FAQ.


    SKY (UNIX EPHEMERIS PROGRAM)

    The 6th Edition of the Unix operating system came with several software
    systems not distributed because of older media capacity limitations.
    Included were an ephmeris, a satellite track, and speech synthesis
    software. The ephmeris, sky(6), is available within AT&T and to sites
    possessing a Unix source code license. The program is regarded as Unix
    source code. Sky is <0.5MB. Send proof of source code license to

    E. Miya
    MS 258-5
    NASA Ames Research Center
    Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000
    [e-mail]


    THREE-DIMENSIONAL STAR/GALAXY COORDINATES

    To generate 3D coordinates of astronomical objects, first obtain an
    astronomical database which specifies right ascension, declination, and
    parallax for the objects. Convert parallax into distance using the
    formula in part 6 of the FAQ, convert RA and declination to coordinates
    on a unit sphere (see some of the references on planetary positions and
    spherical trignometry earlier in this section for details on this), and
    scale this by the distance.

    Two databases useful for this purpose are the Yale Bright Star catalog
    (sources listed in FAQ section 3) or "The Catalogue of Stars within 25
    parsecs of the Sun" (in pub/SPACE/FAQ/stars.data and stars.doc on
    ames.arc.nasa.gov).


NEXT: FAQ #5/15 - References on specific areas

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REFERENCES ON SPECIFIC AREAS

    PUBLISHERS OF SPACE/ASTRONOMY MATERIAL

    Astronomical Society of the Pacific
    1290 24th Avenue
    San Francisco, CA 94122

    More expensive but better organized slide sets.

    Cambridge University Press
    32 East 57th Street
    New York, NY 10022

    Crawford-Peters Aeronautica
    P.O. Box 152528
    San Diego, CA 92115
    [phone]

    An excellent source of all kinds of space publications. They publish
    a number of catalogs, including:
        Aviation and Space, 1945-1962
        Aviation and Space, 1962-1990
        Space and Related Titles

    European Southern Observatory
    Information and Photographic Service
    Dr R.M. West
    Karl Scharzschild Strasse 2
    D-8046 Garching bei Munchen
    FRG

    Slide sets, posters, photographs, conference proceedings.

    Finley Holiday Film Corporation
    12607 East Philadelphia Street
    Whittier, California 90601
    [phone]
    (800)FILMS-07

    Wide selection of Apollo, Shuttle, Viking, and Voyager slides at ~50
    cents/slide. Call for a catalog.

    Hansen Planetarium (Utah)

    Said to hold sales on old slide sets. Look in Sky & Telescope
    for contact info.

    Lunar and Planetary Institute
    3303 NASA Road One
    Houston, TX 77058-4399

    Technical, geology-oriented slide sets, with supporting
    booklets.

    John Wiley & Sons
    605 Third Avenue
    New York, NY 10158-0012

    Sky Publishing Corporation
    PO Box 9111
    Belmont, MA  02178-9111

    Offers "Sky Catalogue 2000.0" on PC floppy with information
    (including parallax) for 45000 stars.

    Roger Wheate
    Geography Dept.
    University of Calgary, Alberta
    Canada T2N 1N4
    (403)-220-4892
    (403)-282-7298 (FAX)
    [e-mail]

    Offers a 40-slide set called "Mapping the Planets" illustrating
    recent work in planetary cartography, comes with a booklet and
    information on getting your own copies of the maps. $50 Canadian,
    shipping included.

    Superintendent of Documents
    US Government Printing Office
    Washington, DC 20402

    Univelt, Inc.
    P. O. Box 28130
    San Diego, Ca. 92128

    Publishers for the American Astronomical Society.

    US Naval Observatory
    202-653-1079 (USNO Bulletin Board via modem)
    202-653-1507 General

    Willmann-Bell
    P.O. Box 35025
    Richmond, Virginia 23235 USA
    (804)-320-7016 9-5 EST M-F


    CAREERS IN THE SPACE INDUSTRY

    In 1990 the Princeton Planetary Society published the first edition of
    "Space Jobs: The Guide to Careers in Space-Related Fields." The
    publication was enormously successful: we distributed 2000 copies to
    space enthusiasts across the country and even sent a few to people in
    Great Britain, Australia, and Ecuador. Due to the tremendous response to
    the first edition, PPS has published an expanded, up-to-date second
    edition of the guide.

    The 40-page publication boasts 69 listings for summer and full-time job
    opportunities as well as graduate school programs. The second edition of
    "Space Jobs" features strategies for entering the space field and
    describes positions at consulting and engineering firms, NASA, and
    non-profit organizations. The expanded special section on graduate
    schools highlights a myriad of programs ranging from space manufacturing
    to space policy. Additional sections include tips on becoming an
    astronaut and listings of NASA Space Grant Fellowships and Consortia, as
    well as NASA Centers for the Commercial Development of Space.

    To order send check or money order made payable to Princeton Planetary
    Society for $4 per copy, plus $1 per copy for shipping and handling
    (non-US customers send an International Money Order payable in US
    dollars) to:

    Princeton Planetary Society
    315 West College
    Princeton University
    Princeton, NJ  08544


    DC-X SINGLE-STAGE TO ORBIT (SSTO) PROGRAM

    SDI's SSRT (Single Stage Rocket Technology) project has funded a
    suborbital technology demonstrator called DC-X that should fly in
    mid-1993. Further development towards an operational single-stage to
    orbit vehicle (called Delta Clipper) is uncertain at present.

    An collection of pictures and files relating to DC-X is available by
    anonymous FTP or email server in the directory

    bongo.cc.utexas.edu:pub/delta-clipper

    Chris W. Johnson ([e-mail]) maintains the archive.


    HOW TO NAME A STAR AFTER A PERSON

    Official names are decided by committees of the International
    Astronomical Union, and are not for sale. There are purely commercial
    organizations which will, for a fee, send you pretty certificates and
    star maps describing where to find "your" star. These organizations have
    absolutely no standing in the astronomical community and the names they
    assign are not used by anyone else. It's also likely that you won't be
    able to see "your" star without binoculars or a telescope. See the back
    pages of Astronomy or other amateur astronomy publications for contact
    info; one such organization may be found at:

    International Star Registry
    34523 Wilson Road
    Ingleside, IL 60041

    This is not an endorsement of ISR.


    LLNL "GREAT EXPLORATION"

    The LLNL "Great Exploration", a plan for an on-the-cheap space station,
    Lunar base, and Mars mission using inflatable space structures, excited
    a lot of interest on the net and still comes up from time to time. Some
    references cited during net discussion were:

    Avation Week Jan 22, 1990 for an article on the overall Great
    Exploration

    NASA Assessment of the LLNL Space Exploration Proposal and LLNL
    Responses by Dr. Lowell Wood LLNL Doc. No. SS 90-9. Their address
    is: PO Box 808 Livermore, CA 94550 (the NASA authors are unknown).

    Briefing slides of a presentation to the NRC last December may be
    available. Write LLNL and ask.

    Conceptual Design Study for Modular Inflatable Space Structures, a
    final report for purchase order B098747 by ILC Dover INC. I don't
    know how to get this except from LLNL or ILC Dover. I don't have an
    address for ILC.


    LUNAR PROSPECTOR

    Lunar Exploration Inc. (LEI) is a non-profit corporation working on a
    privately funded lunar polar orbiter. Lunar Prospector is designed to
    perform a geochemical survey and search for frozen volatiles at the
    poles. A set of reference files describing the project is available in

    ames.arc.nasa.gov:pub/SPACE/LEI/*


    LUNAR SCIENCE AND ACTIVITIES

    Grant H Heiken, David T Vaniman, and Bevan M French (editors), "Lunar
    Sourcebook, A User's Guide to the Moon", Cambridge University Press
    1991, ISBN 0-521-33444-6; hardcover; expensive. A one-volume
    encyclopedia of essentially everything known about the Moon, reviewing
    current knowledge in considerable depth, with copious references. Heavy
    emphasis on geology, but a lot more besides, including considerable
    discussion of past lunar missions and practical issues relevant to
    future mission design. *The* reference book for the Moon; all others are
    obsolete.

    Wendell Mendell (ed), "Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st
    Century", $15. "Every serious student of lunar bases *must* have this
    book" - Bill Higgins. Available from:

    Lunar and Planetary Institute
    3303 NASA Road One
    Houston, TX 77058-4399
    If you want to order books, call [phone].

    Thomas A. Mutch, "Geology of the Moon: A Stratigraphic View", Princeton
    University Press, 1970. Information about the Lunar Orbiter missions,
    including maps of the coverage of the lunar nearside and farside by
    various Orbiters.


    ORBITING EARTH SATELLITE HISTORIES

    A list of Earth orbiting satellites (that are still in orbit) is
    available by anonymous FTP in:

    ames.arc.nasa.gov:pub/SPACE/FAQ/Satellites


    SPACECRAFT MODELS

    "Space in Miniature #2: Gemini" by
    Michael J. Mackowski
    1621 Waterwood Lane, St. Louis, MO 63146
    $7.50

    Only 34pp but enough pictures & diagrams to interest more than just the
    modelling community, I feel.

    Marco's Miniatures of Dracut, Mass. have produced a 1/144 Skylab in an
    edition of 500 & a 1/48 Lunar Rover (same scale as Monogram and Revell
    Lunar Modules) in a similar edition. Prices are $45 for Skylab, $24 for
    LRV. Check with them for postage etc. I have no connection with them,
    but have found their service to be good and their stock of rare/old kits
    *is* impressive. Prices range from reasonable ($35 for Monogram 1/32
    scale Apollo CSM with cutaway details) to spectacular ($145 for Airfix
    Vostok).

     Four Star Collectibles
     P.O. Box 658
     Dracut Mass 01826, USA.
     (508)-957-0695.

    Voyager, HST, Viking, Lunar Rover etc. kits from:

    Lunar Models
    5120 Grisham
    Rowlett, Texas 75088
    (214)-475-4230

    As reviewed by Bob Kaplow:

    Peter Alway's book "Scale Model Rocketry" is now available. Mine
    arrived in the mail earlier this week. To get your own copy, send
    $19.95 + $2.50 s/h ($22.45 total) to:

            Peter Alway
            2830 Pittsfield
            Ann Arbor, MI 48104

    The book includes information on collecting scale data, construction
    of scale models, and several handy tables. Appendicies include plans
    for 3 sport scale models, a 1:9.22 D Region Tomahawk (BT50), a 1/40
    V-2 (BT60), and a 1/9.16 Aerobee 150A (BT55/60).

    I've only begun to study the book, but it certainly will be a
    valuable data source for many modellers. Most vehicles include
    several paragraphs of text describing the missions flown by the
    rocket, various specs including "NAR" engine classification, along
    with a dimensioned drawing, color layouts & paint pattern, and a
    black & white photograph.

    The vehicles included are the Aerobee 150A, Aerobee 300, Aerobee Hi,
    Arcas, Asp, Astrobee 1500, Astrobee D, Atlas Centaur, Atlas-Agena,
    Atlas-Score, Baby WAC, D-Region Tomahawk, Deacon Rockoon, Delta B,
    Delta E, Gemini-Titan II, Iris, Javelin, Juno 1, Juno 2, Little Joe
    1, Little Joe 2, Mercury-Atlas, Mercury-Redstone, Nike-Apache,
    Nike-Asp, Nike-Cajun, Nike-Deacon, Nike-Tomahawk, RAM B, Saturn 1
    Block 1, Saturn 1 Block 2, Saturn 1B, Saturn 5, Scout, Standard
    Aerobee, Terrapin, Thor-Able, Titan III C, Titan III E, Trailblazer
    1, V-2, Vanguard, Viking Model 1, Viking Model 2, and Wac Corporal.


    ROCKET PROPULSION

    George P. Sutton, "Rocket Propulsion Elements", 5th edn,
    Wiley-Interscience 1986, ISBN 0-471-80027-9. Pricey textbook. The
    best (nearly the only) modern introduction to the technical side of
    rocketry. A good place to start if you want to know the details. Not
    for the math-shy. Straight chemical rockets, essentially nothing on
    more advanced propulsion (although earlier editions reportedly had
    some coverage).

    Dieter K. Huzel and David H. Huang, "Design of Liquid Propellant
    Rocket Engines", NASA SP-125.
    NTIS N71-29405        PC A20/MF A01    1971  461p
    Out of print; reproductions may be obtained through the NTIS
    (expensive). The complete and authoritative guide to designing
    liquid-fuel engines. Reference #1 in most chapters of Sutton. Heavy
    emphasis on practical issues, what works and what doesn't, what the
    typical values of the fudge factors are. Stiff reading, massive
    detail; written for rocket engineers by rocket engineers.


    SPACECRAFT DESIGN

    Brij N. Agrawal, "Design of Geosynchronous Spacecraft",
    Prentice-Hall, ISBN 0-13-200114-4.

    James R. Wertz ed, "Spacecraft Attitude Determination and
    Control", Kluwer, ISBN 90-277-1204-2.

    P.R.K. Chetty, "Satellite Technology and its Applications",
    McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0-8306-9688-1.

    James R. Wertz and Wiley J. Larson (editors), "Space Mission
    Analysis and Design", Kluwer Academic Publishers
    (Dordrecht/Boston/London) 1991, ISBN 0-7923-0971-5 (paperback), or
    0-7923-0970-7 (hardback).

        This looks at system-level design of a spacecraft, rather than
        detailed design. 23 chapters, 4 appendices, about 430 pages. It
        leads the reader through the mission design and system-level
        design of a fictitious earth-observation satellite, to
        illustrate the principles that it tries to convey. Warning:
        although the book is chock-full of many useful reference tables,
        some of the numbers in at least one of those tables (launch
        costs for various launchers) appear to be quite wrong. Can be
        ordered by telephone, using a credit card; Kluwer's phone number
        is (617)-871-6600. Cost $34.50.


    ESOTERIC PROPULSION SCHEMES (SOLAR SAILS, LASERS, FUSION...)

    This needs more and more up-to-date references, but it's a start.

    ANTIMATTER:

    "Antiproton Annihilation Propulsion", Robert Forward
        AFRPL TR-85-034 from the Air Force Rocket Propulsion Laboratory
        (AFRPL/XRX, Stop 24, Edwards Air Force Base, CA 93523-5000).
        NTIS AD-A160 734/0       PC A10/MF A01
        PC => Paper copy, A10 => $US57.90 -- or maybe Price Code?
        MF => MicroFiche, A01 => $US13.90

        Technical study on making, holding, and using antimatter for
        near-term (30-50 years) propulsion systems. Excellent
        bibliography. Forward is the best-known proponent
        of antimatter.

        This also may be available as UDR-TR-85-55 from the contractor,
        the University of Dayton Research Institute, and DTIC AD-A160
        from the Defense Technical Information Center, Defense Logistics
        Agency, Cameron Station, Alexandria, VA 22304-6145. And it's
        also available from the NTIS, with yet another number.

    "Advanced Space Propulsion Study, Antiproton and Beamed Power
        Propulsion", Robert Forward

        AFAL TR-87-070 from the Air Force Astronautics Laboratory, DTIC
        #AD-A189 218.
        NTIS AD-A189 218/1      PC A10/MF A01

        Summarizes the previous paper, goes into detail on beamed power
        systems including " 1) pellet, microwave, and laser beamed power
        systems for intersteller transport; 2) a design for a
        near-relativistic laser-pushed lightsail using near-term laser
        technology; 3) a survey of laser thermal propulsion, tether
        transportation systems, antiproton annihilation propulsion,
        exotic applications of solar sails, and laser-pushed
        interstellar lightsails; 4) the status of antiproton
        annihilation propulsion as of 1986; and 5) the prospects for
        obtaining antimatter ions heavier than antiprotons." Again,
        there is an extensive bibliography.

        "Application of Antimatter - Electric Power to Interstellar
        Propulsion", G. D. Nordley, JBIS Interstellar Studies issue of
        6/90.

    BUSSARD RAMJETS AND RELATED METHODS:

    G. L. Matloff and A. J. Fennelly, "Interstellar Applications and
    Limitations of Several Electrostatic/Electromagnetic Ion Collection
    Techniques", JBIS 30 (1977):213-222

    N. H. Langston, "The Erosion of Interstellar Drag Screens", JBIS 26
    (1973): 481-484

    C. Powell, "Flight Dynamics of the Ram-Augmented Interstellar
    Rocket", JBIS 28 (1975):553-562

    A. R. Martin, "The Effects of Drag on Relativistic Spacefight", JBIS
    25 (1972):643-652

    FUSION:

    "A Laser Fusion Rocket for Interplanetary Propulsion", Roderick Hyde,
    LLNL report UCRL-88857. (Contact the Technical Information Dept. at
    Livermore)

        Fusion Pellet design: Fuel selection. Energy loss mechanisms.
        Pellet compression metrics. Thrust Chamber: Magnetic nozzle.
        Shielding. Tritium breeding. Thermal modeling. Fusion Driver
        (lasers, particle beams, etc): Heat rejection. Vehicle Summary:
        Mass estimates. Vehicle Performance: Interstellar travel
        required exhaust velocities at the limit of fusion's capability.
        Interplanetary missions are limited by power/weight ratio.
        Trajectory modeling. Typical mission profiles. References,
        including the 1978 report in JBIS, "Project Daedalus", and
        several on ICF and driver technology.

    "Fusion as Electric Propulsion", Robert W. Bussard, Journal of
    Propulsion and Power, Vol. 6, No. 5, Sept.-Oct. 1990

        Fusion rocket engines are analyzed as electric propulsion
        systems, with propulsion thrust-power-input-power ratio (the
        thrust-power "gain" G(t)) much greater than unity. Gain values
        of conventional (solar, fission) electric propulsion systems are
        always quite small (e.g., G(t)<0.8). With these, "high-thrust"
        interplanetary flight is not possible, because system
        acceleration (a(t)) capabilities are always less than the local
        gravitational acceleration. In contrast, gain values 50-100
        times higher are found for some fusion concepts, which offer
        "high-thrust" flight capability. One performance example shows a
        53.3 day (34.4 powered; 18.9 coast), one-way transit time with
        19% payload for a single-stage Earth/Mars vehicle. Another shows
        the potential for high acceleration (a(t)=0.55g(o)) flight in
        Earth/moon space.

    "The QED Engine System: Direct Electric Fusion-Powered Systems for
    Aerospace Flight Propulsion" by Robert W. Bussard, EMC2-1190-03,
    available from Energy/Matter Conversion Corp., 9100 A. Center
    Street, Manassas, VA 22110.

        [This is an introduction to the application of Bussard's version
        of the Farnsworth/Hirsch electrostatic confinement fusion
        technology to propulsion. 1500<Isp<5000 sec. Farnsworth/Hirsch
        demonstrated a 10**10 neutron flux with their device back in
        1969 but it was dropped when panic ensued over the surprising
        stability of the Soviet Tokamak. Hirsch, responsible for the
        panic, has recently recanted and is back working on QED. -- Jim
        Bowery]

    "PLASMAKtm Star Power for Energy Intensive Space Applications", by
    Paul M. Koloc, Eight ANS Topical Meeting on Technology of Fusion
    Energy, special issue FUSION TECHNOLOGY, March 1989.

        Aneutronic energy (fusion with little or negligible neutron
        flux) requires plasma pressures and stable confinement times
        larger than can be delivered by current approaches. If plasma
        pressures appropriate to burn times on the order of milliseconds
        could be achieved in aneutronic fuels, then high power densities
        and very compact, realtively clean burning engines for space and
        other special applications would be at hand. The PLASMAKtm
        innovation will make this possible; its unique pressure
        efficient structure, exceptional stability, fluid-mechanically
        compressible Mantle and direct inductive MHD electric power
        conversion advantages are described. Peak burn densities of tens
        of megawats per cc give it compactness even in the
        multi-gigawatt electric output size. Engineering advantages
        indicate a rapid development schedule at very modest cost. [I
        strongly recommend that people take this guy seriously. Bob
        Hirsch, the primary proponent of the Tokamak, has recently
        declared Koloc's PLASMAKtm precursor, the spheromak, to be one
        of 3 promising fusion technologies that should be pursued rather
        than Tokamak. Aside from the preceeding appeal to authority, the
        PLASMAKtm looks like it finally models ball-lightning with solid
        MHD physics. -- Jim Bowery]

    ION DRIVES:

    Retrieve files pub/SPACE/SPACELINK/6.5.2.* from the Ames SPACE
    archive; these deal with many aspects of ion drives and describe the
    SERT I and II missions, which flight-tested cesium ion thrusters in
    the 1960s and 70s. There are numerous references.

    MASS DRIVERS (COILGUNS, RAILGUNS):

    IEEE Transactions on Magnetics (for example, v. 27 no. 1, January
    1991 issue). Every so often they publish the proceedings of the
    Symposium on Electromagnetic Launcher Technology, including hundreds
    of papers on the subject. It's a good look at the state of the art,
    though perhaps not a good tutorial for beginners. Anybody know some
    good review papers?

    NUCLEAR ROCKETS (FISSION):

    "Technical Notes on Nuclear Rockets", by Bruce W. Knight and Donald
    Kingsbury, unpublished. May be available from: Donald Kingsbury,
    Math Dept., McGill University, PO Box 6070, Station A, Montreal,
    Quebec M3C 3G1 Canada.

    SOLAR SAILS:

    Starsailing. Solar Sails and Interstellar Travel. Louis Friedman,
    Wiley, New York, 1988, 146 pp., paper $9.95. (Not very technical,
    but an adequate overview.)

    "Roundtrip Interstellar Travel Using Laser-Pushed Lightsails
    (Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, vol. 21, pp. 187-95, Jan.-Feb.
    1984)

    TETHERS:

    _Tethers and Asteroids for Artificial Gravity Assist in the Solar
    System,_ by P.A. Penzo and H.L. Mayer., _Journal of Spacecraft
    and Rockets_ for Jan-Feb 1986.

        Details how a spacecraft with a kevlar tether of the same mass
        can change its velocity by up to slightly less than 1 km/sec. if
        it is travelling under that velocity wrt a suitable asteroid.

    GENERAL:

    "Alternate Propulsion Energy Sources", Robert Forward
        AFPRL TR-83-067.
        NTIS AD-B088 771/1      PC A07/MF A01   Dec 83 138p

        Keywords: Propulsion energy, metastable helium, free-radical
        hydrogen, solar pumped (sic) plasmas, antiproton annihiliation,
        ionospheric lasers, solar sails, perforated sails, microwave
        sails, quantum fluctuations, antimatter rockets... It's a wide,
        if not deep, look at exotic energy sources which might be useful
        for space propulsion. It also considers various kinds of laser
        propulsion, metallic hydrogen, tethers, and unconventional
        nuclear propulsion. The bibliographic information, pointing to
        the research on all this stuff, belongs on every daydreamer's
        shelf.

    Future Magic. Dr. Robert L. Forward, Avon, 1988. ISBN 0-380-89814-4.

        Nontechnical discussion of tethers, antimatter, gravity control,
        and even futher-out topics.


    SPY SATELLITES

    *Deep Black*, by William Burrows;
    "best modern general book for spysats."

    1) A Base For Debate: The US Satellite Station at Nurrungar, Des Ball,
    Allen and Unwin Australia, 1987 ISBN 0 04 355027 4 [ covers DSP early
    warning satellites]

    2) Pine Gap: Australia and the US Geostationary Signals intelligence
    satellite program, Des Ball, Allen and Unwin Australia, 1988 ISBN 0 04
    363002 5. [covers RHYOLITE/AQUACADE, CHALET/VORTEX, and MAGNUM signals
    intelligence satellites]

    3) Guardians: Strategic Reconnaissance Satellites, Curtis Peebles, 1987,
    Ian Allan, ISBN 0 7110 17654 [ good on MOL, military Salyut and Soviet
    satellites, less so on others. Tends to believe what he's told so flaws
    in discussion of DSP, RHYOLITE et al..]

    4) America's Secret Eyes In Space: The Keyhole Spy Satellite Program,
    Jeffrey Richelson, 1990, Harper and Row, ISBN 0 88730 285 8 [ in a class
    of its own, *the* historical reference on the KEYHOLE satellites]

    5) Secret Sentries in Space, Philip J Klass, 1971.
    "long out of print but well worth a look"


    SPACE SHUTTLE COMPUTER SYSTEMS

    %J Communications of the ACM
    %V 27
    %N 9
    %D September 1984
    %K Special issue on space [shuttle] computers

    %A Myron Kayton
    %T Avionics for Manned Spacecraft
    %J IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems
    %V 25
    %N 6
    %D November 1989
    %P 786-827

    Other various AIAA and IEEE publications.

    Computers in Spaceflight: The NASA Experience
    James E.  Tomayko
    1988?


    SETI COMPUTATION (SIGNAL PROCESSING)

    %A D. K. Cullers
    %A Ivan R. Linscott
    %A Bernard M. Oliver
    %T Signal Processing in SETI
    %J Communications of the ACM
    %V 28
    %N 11
    %D November 1984
    %P 1151-1163
    %K CR Categories and Subject Descriptors: D.4.1 [Operating Systems]:
    Process Management - concurrency; I.5.4 [Pattern Recognition]:
    Applications - signal processing; J.2 [Phsyical Sciences and Engineering]:
    astronomy
    General Terms: Design
    Additional Key Words and Phrases: digital Fourier transforms,
    finite impulse-response filters, interstellar communications,
    Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence, signal detection,
    spectrum analysis


    AMATEUR SATELLIES & WEATHER SATELLITES

    A fairly long writeup on receiving and interpreting weather satellite
    photos is available from the Ames SPACE archive in
    pub/SPACE/FAQ/WeatherPhotos.

    The American Radio Relay League publication service offers the following
    references (also see the section on AMSAT in the space groups segment of
    the FAQ):

    ARRL Satellite Experimenters Handbook,        #3185, $20
    ARRL Weather Satellite Handbook,        #3193, $20
    IBM-PC software for Weather Satellite Handbook, #3290, $10

    AMSAT NA 5th Space Symposium,            #0739, $12
    AMSAT NA 6th Space Symposium,            #2219, $12

    Shipping is extra.

    The American Radio Relay League
    Publications Department
    225 Main Street
    Newington, CT 06111
    (203)-666-1541


    TIDES

    Srinivas Bettadpur contributed a writeup on tides, available from the
    Ames SPACE archive in pub/SPACE/FAQ/Tides. It covers the following
    areas:

    - 2-D Example of Tidal Deformation
    - Treatment of Tidal Fields in Practice
    - Long term evolution of the Earth-Moon system under tides

    The writeup refers to the following texts:

    "Geophysical Geodesy" by K. Lambeck
    "Tides of the planet Earth" by P. Melchior

NEXT: FAQ #6/15 - Constants and equations for calculations

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CONSTANTS AND EQUATIONS FOR CALCULATIONS

    This list was originally compiled by Dale Greer. Additions would be
    appreciated.

    Numbers in parentheses are approximations that will serve for most
    blue-skying purposes.

    Unix systems provide the 'units' program, useful in converting
    between different systems (metric/English, etc.)

    NUMBERS

    7726 m/s     (8000)  -- Earth orbital velocity at 300 km altitude
    3075 m/s     (3000)  -- Earth orbital velocity at 35786 km (geosync)
    6371 km         (6400)  -- Mean radius of Earth
    6378 km         (6400)  -- Equatorial radius of Earth
    1738 km         (1700)  -- Mean radius of Moon
    5.974e24 kg     (6e24)  -- Mass of Earth
    7.348e22 kg     (7e22)  -- Mass of Moon
    1.989e30 kg     (2e30)  -- Mass of Sun
    3.986e14 m^3/s^2 (4e14)  -- Gravitational constant times mass of Earth
    4.903e12 m^3/s^2 (5e12)  -- Gravitational constant times mass of Moon
    1.327e20 m^3/s^2 (13e19) -- Gravitational constant times mass of Sun
    384401 km     ( 4e5)  -- Mean Earth-Moon distance
    1.496e11 m     (15e10) -- Mean Earth-Sun distance (Astronomical Unit)

    1 megaton (MT) TNT = about 4.2e15 J or the energy equivalent of
    about .05 kg (50 gm) of matter. Ref: J.R Williams, "The Energy Level
    of Things", Air Force Special Weapons Center (ARDC), Kirtland Air
    Force Base, New Mexico, 1963. Also see "The Effects of Nuclear
    Weapons", compiled by S. Glasstone and P.J. Dolan, published by the
    US Department of Defense (obtain from the GPO).

    EQUATIONS

    Where d is distance, v is velocity, a is acceleration, t is time.
    Additional more specialized equations are available from:

        ames.arc.nasa.gov:pub/SPACE/FAQ/MoreEquations


    For constant acceleration
        d = d0 + vt + .5at^2
        v = v0 + at
      v^2 = 2ad

    Acceleration on a cylinder (space colony, etc.) of radius r and
        rotation period t:

        a = 4 pi**2 r / t^2

    For circular Keplerian orbits where:
        Vc     = velocity of a circular orbit
        Vesc = escape velocity
        M     = Total mass of orbiting and orbited bodies
        G     = Gravitational constant (defined below)
        u     = G * M (can be measured much more accurately than G or M)
        K     = -G * M / 2 / a
        r     = radius of orbit (measured from center of mass of system)
        V     = orbital velocity
        P     = orbital period
        a     = semimajor axis of orbit

        Vc     = sqrt(M * G / r)
        Vesc = sqrt(2 * M * G / r) = sqrt(2) * Vc
        V^2  = u/a
        P     = 2 pi/(Sqrt(u/a^3))
        K     = 1/2 V**2 - G * M / r (conservation of energy)

        The period of an eccentric orbit is the same as the period
           of a circular orbit with the same semi-major axis.

    Change in velocity required for a plane change of angle phi in a
    circular orbit:

        delta V = 2 sqrt(GM/r) sin (phi/2)

    Energy to put mass m into a circular orbit (ignores rotational
    velocity, which reduces the energy a bit).

        GMm (1/Re - 1/2Rcirc)
        Re = radius of the earth
        Rcirc = radius of the circular orbit.

    Classical rocket equation, where
        dv    = change in velocity
        Isp = specific impulse of engine
        Ve    = exhaust velocity
        x    = reaction mass
        m1    = rocket mass excluding reaction mass
        g    = 9.80665 m / s^2

        Ve    = Isp * g
        dv    = Ve * ln((m1 + x) / m1)
        = Ve * ln((final mass) / (initial mass))

    Relativistic rocket equation (constant acceleration)

        t (unaccelerated) = c/a * sinh(a*t/c)
        d = c**2/a * (cosh(a*t/c) - 1)
        v = c * tanh(a*t/c)

    Relativistic rocket with exhaust velocity Ve and mass ratio MR:

        at/c = Ve/c * ln(MR), or

        t (unaccelerated) = c/a * sinh(Ve/c * ln(MR))
        d = c**2/a * (cosh(Ve/C * ln(MR)) - 1)
        v = c * tanh(Ve/C * ln(MR))

    Converting from parallax to distance:

        d (in parsecs) = 1 / p (in arc seconds)
        d (in astronomical units) = 206265 / p

    Miscellaneous
        f=ma    -- Force is mass times acceleration
        w=fd    -- Work (energy) is force times distance

    Atmospheric density varies as exp(-mgz/kT) where z is altitude, m is
    molecular weight in kg of air, g is local acceleration of gravity, T
    is temperature, k is Bolztmann's constant. On Earth up to 100 km,

        d = d0*exp(-z*1.42e-4)

    where d is density, d0 is density at 0km, is approximately true, so

        d@12km (40000 ft) = d0*.18
        d@9 km (30000 ft) = d0*.27
        d@6 km (20000 ft) = d0*.43
        d@3 km (10000 ft) = d0*.65

            Atmospheric scale height    Dry lapse rate
            (in km at emission level)     (K/km)
            -------------------------    --------------
        Earth        7.5                9.8
        Mars        11                4.4
        Venus        4.9                10.5
        Titan        18                1.3
        Jupiter        19                2.0
        Saturn        37                0.7
        Uranus        24                0.7
        Neptune        21                0.8
        Triton        8                1

    Titius-Bode Law for approximating planetary distances:

        R(n) = 0.4 + 0.3 * 2^N Astronomical Units (N = -infinity for
        Mercury, 0 for Venus, 1 for Earth, etc.)

        This fits fairly well except for Neptune.

    CONSTANTS

    6.62618e-34 J-s  (7e-34) -- Planck's Constant "h"
    1.054589e-34 J-s (1e-34) -- Planck's Constant / (2 * PI), "h bar"
    1.3807e-23 J/K    (1.4e-23) - Boltzmann's Constant "k"
    5.6697e-8 W/m^2/K (6e-8) -- Stephan-Boltzmann Constant "sigma"
    6.673e-11 N m^2/kg^2 (7e-11) -- Newton's Gravitational Constant "G"
    0.0029 m K     (3e-3)  -- Wien's Constant "sigma(W)"
    3.827e26 W     (4e26)  -- Luminosity of Sun
    1370 W / m^2     (1400)  -- Solar Constant (intensity at 1 AU)
    6.96e8 m     (7e8)     -- radius of Sun
    1738 km         (2e3)     -- radius of Moon
    299792458 m/s      (3e8)  -- speed of light in vacuum "c"
    9.46053e15 m      (1e16) -- light year
    206264.806 AU      (2e5)  -- \
    3.2616 light years (3)     --  --> parsec
    3.0856e16 m     (3e16)  -- /


Black Hole radius (also called Schwarzschild Radius):

    2GM/c^2, where G is Newton's Grav Constant, M is mass of BH,
        c is speed of light

    Things to add (somebody look them up!)
    Basic rocketry numbers & equations
    Aerodynamical stuff
    Energy to put a pound into orbit or accelerate to interstellar
        velocities.
    Non-circular cases?


NEXT: FAQ #7/15 - Astronomical Mnemonics

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ASTRONOMICAL MNEMONICS (This is the last FAQ section posted to sci.astro)

    Gathered from various flurries of mnemonic postings on sci.astro.

    Spectral classification sequence: O B A F G K M R N S

    Oh Be A Fine Girl Kiss Me Right Now, Sweetheart. (a classic)

    O'Dell's Big Astronomical Fiasco Gonna Kill Me Right Now Surely
    Obese Balding Astronomy Found Guilty; Killed Many Reluctant
        Nonscience Students.
    Octopus Brains, A Favorite Gastronomical Kitchen Menu,
        Requires No Sauce
    Odd Ball Astronomers Find Generally Kooky Mnemonics
        Really Nifty Stuff
    Oh Big And Ferocious Gorilla, Kill My Roomate Next Saturday
    Oh Boy, A Flash! Godzilla Kills Mothra! Really Not Surprising!
    Oh Boy, An F Grade Kills Me
    On Bad Afternoons Fermented Grapes Keep Mrs. Richard Nixon Smiling
    On, Backward Astronomer, Forget Geocentricity; Kepler's Motions
        Reveal Nature's Simplicity
    Our Bad Astronomy Faculty Gets Killed Monday
    Oven Baked Ants, Fried Gently, Kept Moist, Retain Natural Succulence
    Overseas Broadcast: A Flash!  Godzilla kills Mothra!
        (Rodan Named Successor)
    Overweight Boys and Fat Girls Keep Munching
    Only Bored Astronomers Find Gratification Knowing Mnemonics
    Oh Bloody Astronomy!  F Grades Kill Me

    Order of the planets:

    Sun
    Mercury
    Venus
    Earth (Terra)
    Mars
    (Asteroids)
    Jupiter
    Saturn
    Uranus
    Neptune
    Pluto

    My Very Earnest Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas
    Mother Very Thoughtfully Made A Jelly Sandwich Under No Protest
    My Very Erotic Mate Joyfully Satisfies Unusual Needs Passionately
    Men Very Easily Make Jugs Serve Useful Nocturnal Purposes
    Man Very Early Made A Jug Serve Useful Noble Purposes
    My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets
    My Very Eager Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets
    My Very Exhausted Mother hAs Just Swept Up a Planetary Nebula
    Most Voters Earn Money Just Showing Up Near Polls
    My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizza-pies
    Many Viscious Elephants Made John, Suzy and Uncle Need Protection
    Solar Mass Very Easily Makes All Jupiter's Satellites Undergo
        Numerous Perturbations.

    Mein Vater erklaert mir jeden Sonntag unsere niedlichen Planeten
        (My Father explains to me every Sunday our nine planets)
    Man verachte einen Menschen in seinem Unglueck nie -- Punkt
        (Never scorn/despise a person in his misfortune/bad luck/misery
        -- period!)

    Colors of the spectrum: Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet
    ROY G. BIV  (pronounce as a man's name)
    Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain
    Read Out Your Good Book In Verse

    Galilean Satellite of Jupiter: Io Europa Ganymede Callisto
    I Expect God Cries
    I Eat Green Cheese
    I Embarrass Good Christians

    Ich erschrecke all guten Christen
        (I scare all good Christians)

    Saturnian Satellites
    MET DR THIP
    Miriam's Enchiladas Taste Divine Recently. Tell Her I'm Proud.
    (Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Titan, Hyperion,
        Iapetus, Phoebe)

    Uranian Satellites:
    MAUTO
    Mispronunciations Afflict Uranus Too Often
    My Angel Uriel Takes Opium
    (Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, Oberon)

NOTE: the remaining FAQ sections do not appear in sci.astro, as they cover
    material of relevance only to sci.space.

NEXT: FAQ #8/15 - Contacting NASA, ESA, and other space agencies/companies

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Subject: Space FAQ 08/15 - Addresses
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CONTACTING NASA, ESA, AND OTHER SPACE AGENCIES/COMPANIES

Many space activities center around large Government or International
Bureaucracies.    In the US that means NASA.  If you have basic information
requests: (e.g., general PR info, research grants, data, limited tours, and
ESPECIALLY SUMMER EMPLOYMENT (typically resumes should be ready by Jan.  1),
etc.), consider contacting the nearest NASA Center to answer your questions.

EMail typically will not get you any where, computers are used by
investigators, not PR people. The typical volume of mail per Center is a
multiple of 10,000 letters a day. Seek the Public Information Office at one
of the below, this is their job:

NASA (The National Aeronautics and Space Administration) is the
civilian space agency of of the United States Federal Government.
It reports directly to the White House and is not a Cabinet
post such as the military Department of Defense.  Its 20K+ employees
are civil servants and hence US citizens.  Another 100K+ contractors
also work for NASA.

NASA CENTERS

    NASA Headquarters (NASA HQ)
    Washington DC 20546
    (202)-358-1600

    Ask them questions about policy, money, and things of political
    nature. Direct specific questions to the appropriate center.

    NASA Ames Research Center (ARC)
    Moffett Field, CA 94035
    (415)-694-5091

    Some aeronautical research, atmosphere reentry, Mars and Venus
    planetary atmospheres. "Lead center" for Helicopter research,
    V/STOL, etc. Runs Pioneer series of space probes.

    NASA Ames Research Center
    Dryden Flight Research Facility [DFRF]
    P. O. Box 273
    Edwards, CA  93523
    (805)-258-8381

    Aircraft, mostly. Tested the shuttle orbiter landing
    characteristics. Developed X-1, D-558, X-3, X-4, X-5, XB-70, and of
    course, the X-15.

    NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
    Greenbelt, MD 20771
    [Outside of Washington DC]
    (301)-344-6255

    Earth orbiting unmanned satellites and sounding rockets. Developed
    LANDSAT.

    Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
    California Institute of Technology
    4800 Oak Grove Dr.
    Pasadena, CA 91109
    (818)-354-5011

    The "heavies" in planetary research probes and other unmanned
    projects (they also had a lot to do with IRAS). They run Voyager,
    Magellan, Galileo, and will run Cassini, CRAF, etc. etc.. For
    images, probe navigation, and other info about unmanned exploration,
    this is the place to go.

    JPL is run under contract for NASA by the nearby California
    Institute of Technology, unlike the NASA centers above. This
    distinction is subtle but critical. JPL has different requirements
    for unsolicited research proposals and summer hires. For instance in
    the latter, an SF 171 is useless. Employees are Caltech employees,
    contractors, and for the most part have similar responsibilities.
    They offer an alternative to funding after other NASA Centers.

    A fact sheet and description of JPL is available by anonymous
    FTP in

        ames.arc.nasa.gov:pub/SPACE/FAQ/JPLDescription

    NASA Johnson Manned Space Center (JSC)
    Houston, TX 77058
    (713)-483-5111

    JSC manages Space Shuttle, ground control of manned missions.
    Astronaut training. Manned mission simulators.

    NASA Kennedy Space Flight Center (KSC)
    Titusville, FL 32899
    (407)-867-2468

    Space launch center. You know this one.

    NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC)
    Hampton, VA 23665
    [Near Newport News, VA]
    (804)-865-2935

    Original NASA site. Specializes in theoretical and experimental
    flight dynamics. Viking. Long Duration Exposure Facility.

    NASA Lewis Research Center (LeRC)
    21000 Brookpark Rd.
    Cleveland, OH 44135
    (216)-433-4000

    Aircraft/Rocket propulsion. Space power generation. Materials
    research.

    NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC)
    Huntsville, AL 35812
    (205)-453-0034

    Development, production, delivery of Solid Rocket Boosters, External
    Tank, Orbiter main engines. Propulsion and launchers.

    Michoud Assembly Facility
    Orleans Parish
    New Orleans, LA 70129
    (504)-255-2601

    Shuttle external tanks are produced here; formerly Michoud produced
    first stages for the Saturn V.

    Stennis Space Center
    Bay St. Louis, Mississippi 39529
    (601)-688-3341

    Space Shuttle main engines are tested here, as were Saturn V first
    and second stages. The center also does remote-sensing and
    technology-transfer research.

    Wallops Flight Center
    Wallops Island, VA 23337
    [phone]
        Aeronautical research, sounding rockets, Scout launcher.

    Manager, Technology Utilization Office
    NASA Scientific and Technical Information Facility
    Post Office Box 8757
    Baltimore, Maryland 21240

    Specific requests for software must go thru COSMIC at the Univ. of
    Georgia, NASA's contracted software redistribution service. You can
    reach them at [e-mail].

    NOTE: Foreign nationals requesting information must go through their
    Embassies in Washington DC. These are facilities of the US Government
    and are regarded with some degree of economic sensitivity. Centers
    cannot directly return information without high Center approval. Allow
    at least 1 month for clearance. This includes COSMIC.

The US Air Force Space Command can be contacted thru the Pentagon along with
    other Department of Defense offices. They have unacknowledged offices in
    Los Angeles, Sunnyvale, Colorado Springs, and other locations. They have
    a budget which rivals NASA in size.

ARIANESPACE HEADQUARTERS
    Boulevard de l'Europe
    B.P. 177
    91006 Evry Cedex
    France

ARIANESPACE, INC.
    1747 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Suite 875
    Washington, DC 20006
    (202)-728-9075

EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY (ESA)
    955 L'Enfant Plaza S.W.
    Washington, D.C. 20024
    (202)-488-4158

NATIONAL SPACE DEVELOPMENT AGENCY (NASDA)
    4-1 Hamamatsu-Cho, 2 Chome
    Minato-Ku, Tokyo 105, JAPAN

SOYUZKARTA
    45 Vologradsij Pr.
    Moscow 109125
    USSR

SPACE CAMP
    Alabama Space and Rocket Center    U.S. SPACE CAMP
    1 Tranquility Base            6225 Vectorspace Blvd
    Huntsville, AL 35805        Titusville FL  32780
    (205)-837-3400            [phone]

    Registration and mailing list are handled through Huntsville -- both
    camps are described in the same brochure.

    Programs offered at Space Camp are:

    Space Camp - one week, youngsters completing grades 4-6
    Space Academy I - one week, grades 7-9
    Aviation Challenge - one week high school program, grades 9-11
    Space Academy II - 8 days, college accredited, grades 10-12
    Adult Program - 3 days (editorial comment: it's great!)
    Teachers Program - 5 days

SPACE COMMERCE CORPORATION (U.S. agent for Soviet launch services)
    504 Pluto Drive            69th flr, Texas Commerce Tower
    Colorado Springs, CO 80906        Houston, TX 77002
    (719)-578-5490            (713)-227-9000

SPACEHAB
    600 Maryland Avenue, SW
    Suite 201 West
    Washington, DC 20004
    (202)-488-3483

SPACE INDUSTRIES, INC.
    101 Courageous Dr.
    Leage City, TX 77573
    [phone]

SPOT IMAGE CORPORATION
    1857 Preston White Drive,
    Reston, VA 22091
    (FAX) (703)-648-1813    (703)-620-2200


OTHER COMMERCIAL SPACE BUSINESSES

    Vincent Cate maintains a list with addresses and some info for a variety
of companies in space-related businesses. This is mailed out on the
space-investors list he runs (see the "Network Resources" FAQ) and is also
available by anonymous ftp from furmint.nectar.cs.cmu.edu (128.2.209.111) in
/usr2/anon/space-companies.


NEXT: FAQ #9/15 - Schedules for space missions, and how to see them

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Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.answers,news.answers
Subject: Space FAQ 09/15 - Mission Schedules
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SPACE SHUTTLE ANSWERS, LAUNCH SCHEDULES, TV COVERAGE

    SHUTTLE LAUNCHINGS AND LANDINGS; SCHEDULES AND HOW TO SEE THEM

    Shuttle operations are discussed in the Usenet group sci.space.shuttle,
    and Ken Hollis ([e-mail]) posts a compressed version
    of the shuttle manifest (launch dates and other information)
    periodically there. The manifest is also available from the Ames SPACE
    archive in SPACE/FAQ/manifest. The portion of his manifest formerly
    included in this FAQ has been removed; please refer to his posting or
    the archived copy. For the most up to date information on upcoming
    missions, call (407) 867-INFO (867-4636) at Kennedy Space Center.

    Official NASA shuttle status reports are posted to sci.space.news
    frequently.


    WHY DOES THE SHUTTLE ROLL JUST AFTER LIFTOFF?

    The following answer and translation are provided by Ken Jenks
    ([e-mail]).

    The "Ascent Guidance and Flight Control Training Manual," ASC G&C 2102,
    says:

    "During the vertical rise phase, the launch pad attitude is
    commanded until an I-loaded V(rel) sufficient to assure launch tower
    clearance is achieved. Then, the tilt maneuver (roll program)
    orients the vehicle to a heads down attitude required to generate a
    negative q-alpha, which in turn alleviates structural loading. Other
    advantages with this attitude are performance gain, decreased abort
    maneuver complexity, improved S-band look angles, and crew view of
    the horizon. The tilt maneuver is also required to start gaining
    downrange velocity to achieve the main engine cutoff (MECO) target
    in second stage."

    This really is a good answer, but it's couched in NASA jargon. I'll try
    to interpret.

    1)    We wait until the Shuttle clears the tower before rolling.

    2)    Then, we roll the Shuttle around so that the angle of attack
    between the wind caused by passage through the atmosphere (the
    "relative wind") and the chord of the wings (the imaginary line
    between the leading edge and the trailing edge) is a slightly
    negative angle ("a negative q-alpha").    This causes a little bit of
    "downward" force (toward the belly of the Orbiter, or the +Z
    direction) and this force "alleviates structural loading."
    We have to be careful about those wings -- they're about the
    most "delicate" part of the vehicle.

    3)    The new attitude (after the roll) also allows us to carry more
    mass to orbit, or to achieve a higher orbit with the same mass, or
    to change the orbit to a higher or lower inclination than would be
    the case if we didn't roll ("performance gain").

    4)    The new attitude allows the crew to fly a less complicated
    flight path if they had to execute one of the more dangerous abort
    maneuvers, the Return To Launch Site ("decreased abort maneuver
    complexity").

    5)    The new attitude improves the ability for ground-based radio
    antennae to have a good line-of-sight signal with the S-band radio
    antennae on the Orbiter ("improved S-band look angles").

    6)    The new attitude allows the crew to see the horizon, which is a
    helpful (but not mandatory) part of piloting any flying machine.

    7)    The new attitude orients the Shuttle so that the body is
    more nearly parallel with the ground, and the nose to the east
    (usually).  This allows the thrust from the engines to add velocity
    in the correct direction to eventually achieve orbit.  Remember:
    velocity is a vector quantity made of both speed and direction.
    The Shuttle has to have a large horizontal component to its
    velocity and a very small vertical component to attain orbit.

    This all begs the question, "Why isn't the launch pad oriented to give
    this nice attitude to begin with?  Why does the Shuttle need to roll to
    achieve that attitude?"  The answer is that the pads were leftovers
    from the Apollo days.  The Shuttle straddles two flame trenches -- one
    for the Solid Rocket Motor exhaust, one for the Space Shuttle Main
    Engine exhaust.  (You can see the effects of this on any daytime
    launch.  The SRM exhaust is dirty gray garbage, and the SSME exhaust is
    fluffy white steam.  Watch for the difference between the "top"
    [Orbiter side] and the "bottom" [External Tank side] of the stack.) The
    access tower and other support and service structure are all oriented
    basically the same way they were for the Saturn V's.  (A side note: the
    Saturn V's also had a roll program.  Don't ask me why -- I'm a Shuttle
    guy.)

    I checked with a buddy in Ascent Dynamics.    He added that the "roll
    maneuver" is really a maneuver in all three axes: roll, pitch and yaw.
    The roll component of that maneuver is performed for the reasons
    stated.  The pitch component controls loading on the wings by keeping
    the angle of attack (q-alpha) within a tight tolerance.  The yaw
    component is used to determine the orbital inclination.  The total
    maneuver is really expressed as a "quaternion," a grad-level-math
    concept for combining all three rotation matrices in one four-element
    array.


    HOW TO RECEIVE THE NASA TV CHANNEL, NASA SELECT

    NASA SELECT is broadcast by satellite. If you have access to a satellite
    dish, you can find SELECT on Satcom F2R, Transponder 13, C-Band, 72
    degrees West Longitude, Audio 6.8, Frequency 3960 MHz. F2R is stationed
    over the Atlantic, and is increasingly difficult to receive from
    California and points west. During events of special interest (e.g.
    shuttle missions), SELECT is sometimes broadcast on a second satellite
    for these viewers.

    If you can't get a satellite feed, some cable operators carry SELECT.
    It's worth asking if yours doesn't.

    The SELECT schedule is found in the NASA Headline News which is
    frequently posted to sci.space.news. Generally it carries press
    conferences, briefings by NASA officials, and live coverage of shuttle
    missions and planetary encounters. SELECT has recently begun carrying
    much more secondary material (associated with SPACELINK) when missions
    are not being covered.


    AMATEUR RADIO FREQUENCIES FOR SHUTTLE MISSIONS

    The following are believed to rebroadcast space shuttle mission audio:

    W6FXN  - Los Angeles
    K6MF   - Ames Research Center, Mountain View, California
    WA3NAN - Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, Maryland.
    W5RRR  - Johnson Space Center (JSC), Houston, Texas
    W6VIO  - Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, California.
    W1AW Voice Bulletins

    Station    VHF       10m       15m       20m      40m     80m
    ------     ------  ------  ------  ------  -----    -----
    W6FXN     145.46
    K6MF     145.585             7.165    3.840
    WA3NAN     147.45  28.650  21.395  14.295  7.185    3.860
    W5RRR     146.64  28.400  21.350  14.280  7.227    3.850
    W6VIO     224.04         21.340  14.270
    W6VIO     224.04         21.280  14.282  7.165    3.840
    W1AW         28.590  21.390  14.290  7.290    3.990

    W5RRR transmits mission audio on 146.64, a special event station on the
    other frequencies supplying Keplerian Elements and mission information.

    W1AW also transmits on 147.555, 18.160. No mission audio but they
    transmit voice bulletins at 0245 and 0545 UTC.

    Frequencies in the 10-20m bands require USB and frequencies in the 40
    and 80m bands LSB. Use FM for the VHF frequencies.

    [This item was most recently updated courtesy of Gary Morris
    ([e-mail], KK6YB, N5QWC)]


    SOLID ROCKET BOOSTER FUEL COMPOSITION

    Reference: "Shuttle Flight Operations Manual" Volume 8B - Solid Rocket
    Booster Systems, NASA Document JSC-12770

    Propellant Composition (percent)

    Ammonium perchlorate (oxidizer)            69.6
    Aluminum                        16
    Iron Oxide (burn rate catalyst)            0.4
    Polybutadiene-acrilic acid-acrylonitrile (a rubber) 12.04
    Epoxy curing agent                    1.96

    End reference

    Comment: The aluminum, rubber, and epoxy all burn with the oxidizer.

NEXT: FAQ #10/15 - Historical planetary probes

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From: [e-mail] (Jon Leech)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.answers,news.answers
Subject: Space FAQ 10/15 - Planetary Probe History
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PLANETARY PROBES - HISTORICAL MISSIONS

    This section was lightly adapted from an original posting by Larry Klaes
    ([e-mail]), mostly minor formatting changes. Matthew
    Wiener ([e-mail]) contributed the section on
    Voyager, and the section on Sakigake was obtained from ISAS material
    posted by Yoshiro Yamada ([e-mail]).

US PLANETARY MISSIONS


    MARINER (VENUS, MARS, & MERCURY FLYBYS AND ORBITERS)

    MARINER 1, the first U.S. attempt to send a spacecraft to Venus, failed
    minutes after launch in 1962. The guidance instructions from the ground
    stopped reaching the rocket due to a problem with its antenna, so the
    onboard computer took control. However, there turned out to be a bug in
    the guidance software, and the rocket promptly went off course, so the
    Range Safety Officer destroyed it. Although the bug is sometimes claimed
    to have been an incorrect FORTRAN DO statement, it was actually a
    transcription error in which the bar (indicating smoothing) was omitted
    from the expression "R-dot-bar sub n" (nth smoothed value of derivative
    of radius). This error led the software to treat normal minor variations
    of velocity as if they were serious, leading to incorrect compensation.

    MARINER 2 became the first successful probe to flyby Venus in December
    of 1962, and it returned information which confirmed that Venus is a
    very hot (800 degrees Fahrenheit, now revised to 900 degrees F.) world
    with a cloud-covered atmosphere composed primarily of carbon dioxide
    (sulfuric acid was later confirmed in 1978).

    MARINER 3, launched on November 5, 1964, was lost when its protective
    shroud failed to eject as the craft was placed into interplanetary
    space. Unable to collect the Sun's energy for power from its solar
    panels, the probe soon died when its batteries ran out and is now in
    solar orbit. It was intended for a Mars flyby with MARINER 4.

    MARINER 4, the sister probe to MARINER 3, did reach Mars in 1965 and
    took the first close-up images of the Martian surface (22 in all) as it
    flew by the planet. The probe found a cratered world with an atmosphere
    much thinner than previously thought. Many scientists concluded from
    this preliminary scan that Mars was a "dead" world in both the
    geological and biological sense.

    MARINER 5 was sent to Venus in 1967. It reconfirmed the data on that
    planet collected five years earlier by MARINER 2, plus the information
    that Venus' atmospheric pressure at its surface is at least 90 times
    that of Earth's, or the equivalent of being 3,300 feet under the surface
    of an ocean.

    MARINER 6 and 7 were sent to Mars in 1969 and expanded upon the work
    done by MARINER 4 four years earlier. However, they failed to take away
    the concept of Mars as a "dead" planet, first made from the basic
    measurements of MARINER 4.

    MARINER 8 ended up in the Atlantic Ocean in 1971 when the rocket
    launcher autopilot failed.

    MARINER 9, the sister probe to MARINER 8, became the first craft to
    orbit Mars in 1971. It returned information on the Red Planet that no
    other probe had done before, revealing huge volcanoes on the Martian
    surface, as well as giant canyon systems, and evidence that water once
    flowed across the planet. The probe also took the first detailed closeup
    images of Mars' two small moons, Phobos and Deimos.

    MARINER 10 used Venus as a gravity assist to Mercury in 1974. The probe
    did return the first close-up images of the Venusian atmosphere in
    ultraviolet, revealing previously unseen details in the cloud cover,
    plus the fact that the entire cloud system circles the planet in four
    Earth days. MARINER 10 eventually made three flybys of Mercury from 1974
    to 1975 before running out of attitude control gas. The probe revealed
    Mercury as a heavily cratered world with a mass much greater than
    thought. This would seem to indicate that Mercury has an iron core which
    makes up 75 percent of the entire planet.


    PIONEER (MOON, SUN, VENUS, JUPITER, and SATURN FLYBYS AND ORBITERS)

    PIONEER 1 through 3 failed to meet their main objective - to photograph
    the Moon close-up - but they did reach far enough into space to provide
    new information on the area between Earth and the Moon, including new
    data on the Van Allen radiation belts circling Earth. All three craft
    had failures with their rocket launchers. PIONEER 1 was launched on
    October 11, 1958, PIONEER 2 on November 8, and PIONEER 3 on December 6.

    PIONEER 4 was a Moon probe which missed the Moon and became the first
    U.S. spacecraft to orbit the Sun in 1959. PIONEER 5 was originally
    designed to flyby Venus, but the mission was scaled down and it instead
    studied the interplanetary environment between Venus and Earth out to
    36.2 million kilometers in 1960, a record until MARINER 2. PIONEER 6
    through 9 were placed into solar orbit from 1965 to 1968: PIONEER 6, 7,
    and 8 are still transmitting information at this time. PIONEER E (would
    have been number 10) suffered a launch failure in 1969.

    PIONEER 10 became the first spacecraft to flyby Jupiter in 1973. PIONEER
    11 followed it in 1974, and then went on to become the first probe to
    study Saturn in 1979. Both vehicles should continue to function through
    1995 and are heading off into interstellar space, the first craft ever
    to do so.

    PIONEER Venus 1 (1978) (also known as PIONEER Venus Orbiter, or PIONEER
    12) burned up in the Venusian atmosphere on October 8, 1992. PVO made
    the first radar studies of the planet's surface via probe. PIONEER Venus
    2 (also known as PIONEER 13) sent four small probes into the atmosphere
    in December of 1978. The main spacecraft bus burned up high in the
    atmosphere, while the four probes descended by parachute towards the
    surface. Though none were expected to survive to the surface, the Day
    probe did make it and transmitted for 67.5 minutes on the ground before
    its batteries failed.


    RANGER (LUNAR LANDER AND IMPACT MISSIONS)

    RANGER 1 and 2 were test probes for the RANGER lunar impact series. They
    were meant for high Earth orbit testing in 1961, but rocket problems
    left them in useless low orbits which quickly decayed.

    RANGER 3, launched on January 26, 1962, was intended to land an
    instrument capsule on the surface of the Moon, but problems during the
    launch caused the probe to miss the Moon and head into solar orbit.
    RANGER 3 did try to take some images of the Moon as it flew by, but the
    camera was unfortunately aimed at deep space during the attempt.

    RANGER 4, launched April 23, 1962, had the same purpose as RANGER 3, but
    suffered technical problems enroute and crashed on the lunar farside,
    the first U.S. probe to reach the Moon, albeit without returning data.

    RANGER 5, launched October 18, 1962 and similar to RANGER 3 and 4, lost
    all solar panel and battery power enroute and eventually missed the Moon
    and drifted off into solar orbit.

    RANGER 6 through 9 had more modified lunar missions: They were to send
    back live images of the lunar surface as they headed towards an impact
    with the Moon. RANGER 6 failed this objective in 1964 when its cameras
    did not operate. RANGER 7 through 9 performed well, becoming the first
    U.S. lunar probes to return thousands of lunar images through 1965.


    LUNAR ORBITER (LUNAR SURFACE PHOTOGRAPHY)

    LUNAR ORBITER 1 through 5 were designed to orbit the Moon and image
    various sites being studied as landing areas for the manned APOLLO
    missions of 1969-1972. The probes also contributed greatly to our
    understanding of lunar surface features, particularly the lunar farside.
    All five probes of the series, launched from 1966 to 1967, were
    essentially successful in their missions. They were the first U.S.
    probes to orbit the Moon. All LOs were eventually crashed into the lunar
    surface to avoid interference with the manned APOLLO missions.


    SURVEYOR (LUNAR SOFT LANDERS)

    The SURVEYOR series were designed primarily to see if an APOLLO lunar
    module could land on the surface of the Moon without sinking into the
    soil (before this time, it was feared by some that the Moon was covered
    in great layers of dust, which would not support a heavy landing
    vehicle). SURVEYOR was successful in proving that the lunar surface was
    strong enough to hold up a spacecraft from 1966 to 1968.

    Only SURVEYOR 2 and 4 were unsuccessful missions. The rest became the
    first U.S. probes to soft land on the Moon, taking thousands of images
    and scooping the soil for analysis. APOLLO 12 landed 600 feet from
    SURVEYOR 3 in 1969 and returned parts of the craft to Earth. SURVEYOR 7,
    the last of the series, was a purely scientific mission which explored
    the Tycho crater region in 1968.


    VIKING (MARS ORBITERS AND LANDERS)

    VIKING 1 was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on August 20, 1975 on
    a TITAN 3E-CENTAUR D1 rocket. The probe went into Martian orbit on June
    19, 1976, and the lander set down on the western slopes of Chryse
    Planitia on July 20, 1976. It soon began its programmed search for
    Martian micro-organisms (there is still debate as to whether the probes
    found life there or not), and sent back incredible color panoramas of
    its surroundings. One thing scientists learned was that Mars' sky was
    pinkish in color, not dark blue as they originally thought (the sky is
    pink due to sunlight reflecting off the reddish dust particles in the
    thin atmosphere). The lander set down among a field of red sand and
    boulders stretching out as far as its cameras could image.

    The VIKING 1 orbiter kept functioning until August 7, 1980, when it ran
    out of attitude-control propellant. The lander was switched into a
    weather-reporting mode, where it had been hoped it would keep
    functioning through 1994; but after November 13, 1982, an errant command
    had been sent to the lander accidentally telling it to shut down until
    further orders. Communication was never regained again, despite the
    engineers' efforts through May of 1983.

    An interesting side note: VIKING 1's lander has been designated the
    Thomas A. Mutch Memorial Station in honor of the late leader of the
    lander imaging team. The National Air and Space Museum in Washington,
    D.C. is entrusted with the safekeeping of the Mutch Station Plaque until
    it can be attached to the lander by a manned expedition.

    VIKING 2 was launched on September 9, 1975, and arrived in Martian orbit
    on August 7, 1976. The lander touched down on September 3, 1976 in
    Utopia Planitia. It accomplished essentially the same tasks as its
    sister lander, with the exception that its seisometer worked, recording
    one marsquake. The orbiter had a series of attitude-control gas leaks in
    1978, which prompted it being shut down that July. The lander was shut
    down on April 12, 1980.

    The orbits of both VIKING orbiters should decay around 2025.


    VOYAGER (OUTER PLANET FLYBYS)

    VOYAGER 1 was launched September 5, 1977, and flew past Jupiter on March
    5, 1979 and by Saturn on November 13, 1980. VOYAGER 2 was launched
    August 20, 1977 (before VOYAGER 1), and flew by Jupiter on August 7,
    1979, by Saturn on August 26, 1981, by Uranus on January 24, 1986, and
    by Neptune on August 8, 1989. VOYAGER 2 took advantage of a rare
    once-every-189-years alignment to slingshot its way from outer planet to
    outer planet. VOYAGER 1 could, in principle, have headed towards Pluto,
    but JPL opted for the sure thing of a Titan close up.

    Between the two probes, our knowledge of the 4 giant planets, their
    satellites, and their rings has become immense. VOYAGER 1&2 discovered
    that Jupiter has complicated atmospheric dynamics, lightning and
    aurorae. Three new satellites were discovered. Two of the major
    surprises were that Jupiter has rings and that Io has active sulfurous
    volcanoes, with major effects on the Jovian magnetosphere.

    When the two probes reached Saturn, they discovered over 1000 ringlets
    and 7 satellites, including the predicted shepherd satellites that keep
    the rings stable. The weather was tame compared with Jupiter: massive
    jet streams with minimal variance (a 33-year great white spot/band cycle
    is known). Titan's atmosphere was smoggy. Mimas' appearance was
    startling: one massive impact crater gave it the Death Star appearance.
    The big surprise here was the stranger aspects of the rings. Braids,
    kinks, and spokes were both unexpected and difficult to explain.

    VOYAGER 2, thanks to heroic engineering and programming efforts,
    continued the mission to Uranus and Neptune. Uranus itself was highly
    monochromatic in appearance. One oddity was that its magnetic axis was
    found to be highly skewed from the already completely skewed rotational
    axis, giving Uranus a peculiar magnetosphere. Icy channels were found on
    Ariel, and Miranda was a bizarre patchwork of different terrains. 10
    satellites and one more ring were discovered.

    In contrast to Uranus, Neptune was found to have rather active weather,
    including numerous cloud features. The ring arcs turned out to be bright
    patches on one ring. Two other rings, and 6 other satellites, were
    discovered. Neptune's magnetic axis was also skewed. Triton had a
    canteloupe appearance and geysers. (What's liquid at 38K?)

    The two VOYAGERs are expected to last for about two more decades. Their
    on-target journeying gives negative evidence about possible planets
    beyond Pluto. Their next major scientific discovery should be the
    location of the heliopause.


SOVIET PLANETARY MISSIONS

    Since there have been so many Soviet probes to the Moon, Venus, and
    Mars, I will highlight only the primary missions:


    SOVIET LUNAR PROBES

    LUNA 1 - Lunar impact attempt in 1959, missed Moon and became first
         craft in solar orbit.
    LUNA 2 - First craft to impact on lunar surface in 1959.
    LUNA 3 - Took first images of lunar farside in 1959.
    ZOND 3 - Took first images of lunar farside in 1965 since LUNA 3. Was
         also a test for future Mars missions.
    LUNA 9 - First probe to soft land on the Moon in 1966, returned images
         from surface.
    LUNA 10 - First probe to orbit the Moon in 1966.
    LUNA 13 - Second successful Soviet lunar soft landing mission in 1966.
    ZOND 5 - First successful circumlunar craft. ZOND 6 through 8
         accomplished similar missions through 1970. The probes were
         unmanned tests of a manned orbiting SOYUZ-type lunar vehicle.
    LUNA 16 - First probe to land on Moon and return samples of lunar soil
          to Earth in 1970. LUNA 20 accomplished similar mission in
          1972.
    LUNA 17 - Delivered the first unmanned lunar rover to the Moon's
          surface, LUNOKHOD 1, in 1970. A similar feat was accomplished
          with LUNA 21/LUNOKHOD 2 in 1973.
    LUNA 24 - Last Soviet lunar mission to date. Returned soil samples in
          1976.


    SOVIET VENUS PROBES

    VENERA 1 - First acknowledged attempt at Venus mission. Transmissions
           lost enroute in 1961.
    VENERA 2 - Attempt to image Venus during flyby mission in tandem with
           VENERA 3. Probe ceased transmitting just before encounter in
           February of 1966. No images were returned.
    VENERA 3 - Attempt to place a lander capsule on Venusian surface.
           Transmissions ceased just before encounter and entire probe
           became the first craft to impact on another planet in 1966.
    VENERA 4 - First probe to successfully return data while descending
           through Venusian atmosphere. Crushed by air pressure before
           reaching surface in 1967. VENERA 5 and 6 mission profiles
           similar in 1969.
    VENERA 7 - First probe to return data from the surface of another planet
           in 1970. VENERA 8 accomplished a more detailed mission in
           1972.
    VENERA 9 - Sent first image of Venusian surface in 1975. Was also the
           first probe to orbit Venus. VENERA 10 accomplished similar
           mission.
    VENERA 13 - Returned first color images of Venusian surface in 1982.
        VENERA 14 accomplished similar mission.
    VENERA 15 - Accomplished radar mapping with VENERA 16 of sections of
        planet's surface in 1983 more detailed than PVO.
    VEGA 1 - Accomplished with VEGA 2 first balloon probes of Venusian
         atmosphere in 1985, including two landers. Flyby buses went on
         to become first spacecraft to study Comet Halley close-up in
         March of 1986.


    SOVIET MARS PROBES

    MARS 1 - First acknowledged Mars probe in 1962. Transmissions ceased
         enroute the following year.
    ZOND 2 - First possible attempt to place a lander capsule on Martian
         surface. Probe signals ceased enroute in 1965.
    MARS 2 - First Soviet Mars probe to land - albeit crash - on Martian
         surface. Orbiter section first Soviet probe to circle the Red
         Planet in 1971.
    MARS 3 - First successful soft landing on Martian surface, but lander
         signals ceased after 90 seconds in 1971.
    MARS 4 - Attempt at orbiting Mars in 1974, braking rockets failed to
         fire, probe went on into solar orbit.
    MARS 5 - First fully successful Soviet Mars mission, orbiting Mars in
         1974. Returned images of Martian surface comparable to U.S.
         probe MARINER 9.
    MARS 6 - Landing attempt in 1974. Lander crashed into the surface.
    MARS 7 - Lander missed Mars completely in 1974, went into a solar orbit
         with its flyby bus.
    PHOBOS 1 - First attempt to land probes on surface of Mars' largest
           moon, Phobos. Probe failed enroute in 1988 due to
           human/computer error.
    PHOBOS 2 - Attempt to land probes on Martian moon Phobos. The probe did
           enter Mars orbit in early 1989, but signals ceased one week
           before scheduled Phobos landing.

    While there has been talk of Soviet Jupiter, Saturn, and even
    interstellar probes within the next thirty years, no major steps have
    yet been taken with these projects. More intensive studies of the Moon,
    Mars, Venus, and various comets have been planned for the 1990s, and a
    Mercury mission to orbit and land probes on the tiny world has been
    planned for 2003. How the many changes in the former Soviet Union (now
    the Commonwealth of Independent States) will affect the future of their
    space program remains to be seen.


JAPANESE PLANETARY MISSIONS

    SAKIGAKE (MS-T5) was launched from the Kagoshima Space Center by ISAS on
    January 8 1985, and approached Halley's Comet within about 7 million km
    on March 11, 1986. The spacecraft is carrying three instru- ments to
    measure interplanetary magnetic field/plasma waves/solar wind, all of
    which work normally now, so ISAS made an Earth swingby by Sakigake on
    January 8, 1992 into an orbit similar to the earth's. The closest
    approach was at 23h08m47s (JST=UTC+9h) on January 8, 1992. The
    geocentric distance was 88,997 km. This is the first planet-swingby for
    a Japanese spacecraft.

    During the approach, Sakigake observed the geotail. Some geotail
    passages will be scheduled in some years hence. The second Earth-swingby
    will be on June 14, 1993 (at 40 Re (Earth's radius)), and the third
    October 28, 1994 (at 86 Re).


    HITEN, a small lunar probe, was launched into Earth orbit on January 24,
    1990. The spacecraft was then known as MUSES-A, but was renamed to Hiten
    once in orbit. The 430 lb probe looped out from Earth and made its first
    lunary flyby on March 19, where it dropped off its 26 lb midget
    satellite, HAGOROMO. Japan at this point became the third nation to
    orbit a satellite around the Moon, joining the Unites States and USSR.

    The smaller spacecraft, Hagoromo, remained in orbit around the Moon. An
    apparently broken transistor radio caused the Japanese space scientists
    to lose track of it. Hagoromo's rocket motor fired on schedule on March
    19, but the spacecraft's tracking transmitter failed immediately. The
    rocket firing of Hagoromo was optically confirmed using the Schmidt
    camera (105-cm, F3.1) at the Kiso Observatory in Japan.

    Hiten made multiple lunar flybys at approximately monthly intervals and
    performed aerobraking experiments using the Earth's atmosphere. Hiten
    made a close approach to the moon at 22:33 JST (UTC+9h) on February 15,
    1992 at the height of 423 km from the moon's surface (35.3N, 9.7E) and
    fired its propulsion system for about ten minutes to put the craft into
    lunar orbit. The following is the orbital calculation results after the
    approach:

    Apoapsis Altitude: about 49,400 km
    Periapsis Altitude: about 9,600 km
    Inclination    : 34.7 deg (to ecliptic plane)
    Period        : 4.7 days


PLANETARY MISSION REFERENCES

    I also recommend reading the following works, categorized in three
    groups: General overviews, specific books on particular space missions,
    and periodical sources on space probes. This list is by no means
    complete; it is primarily designed to give you places to start your
    research through generally available works on the subject. If anyone can
    add pertinent works to the list, it would be greatly appreciated.

    Though naturally I recommend all the books listed below, I think it
    would be best if you started out with the general overview books, in
    order to give you a clear idea of the history of space exploration in
    this area. I also recommend that you pick up some good, up-to-date
    general works on astronomy and the Sol system, to give you some extra
    background. Most of these books and periodicals can be found in any good
    public and university library. Some of the more recently published works
    can also be purchased in and/or ordered through any good mass- market
    bookstore.

    General Overviews (in alphabetical order by author):

      J. Kelly Beatty et al, THE NEW SOLAR SYSTEM, 1990.

      Merton E. Davies and Bruce C. Murray, THE VIEW FROM SPACE:
       PHOTOGRAPHIC EXPLORATION OF THE PLANETS, 1971

      Kenneth Gatland, THE ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SPACE
       TECHNOLOGY, 1990

      Kenneth Gatland, ROBOT EXPLORERS, 1972

      R. Greeley, PLANETARY LANDSCAPES, 1987

      Douglas Hart, THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SOVIET SPACECRAFT, 1987

      Nicholas L. Johnson, HANDBOOK OF SOVIET LUNAR AND PLANETARY
       EXPLORATION, 1979

      Clayton R. Koppes, JPL AND THE AMERICAN SPACE PROGRAM: A
       HISTORY OF THE JET PROPULSION LABORATORY, 1982

      Richard S. Lewis, THE ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE
       UNIVERSE, 1983

      Mark Littman, PLANETS BEYOND: DISCOVERING THE OUTER SOLAR
       SYSTEM, 1988

      Eugene F. Mallove and Gregory L. Matloff, THE STARFLIGHT
       HANDBOOK: A PIONEER'S GUIDE TO INTERSTELLAR TRAVEL, 1989

      Frank Miles and Nicholas Booth, RACE TO MARS: THE MARS
       FLIGHT ATLAS, 1988

      Bruce Murray, JOURNEY INTO SPACE, 1989

      Oran W. Nicks, FAR TRAVELERS, 1985 (NASA SP-480)

      James E. Oberg, UNCOVERING SOVIET DISASTERS: EXPLORING THE
       LIMITS OF GLASNOST, 1988

      Carl Sagan, COMET, 1986

      Carl Sagan, THE COSMIC CONNECTION, 1973

      Carl Sagan, PLANETS, 1969 (LIFE Science Library)

      Arthur Smith, PLANETARY EXPLORATION: THIRTY YEARS OF UNMANNED
       SPACE PROBES, 1988

      Andrew Wilson, (JANE'S) SOLAR SYSTEM LOG, 1987

    Specific Mission References:

      Charles A. Cross and Patrick Moore, THE ATLAS OF MERCURY, 1977
       (The MARINER 10 mission to Venus and Mercury, 1973-1975)

      Joel Davis, FLYBY: THE INTERPLANETARY ODYSSEY OF VOYAGER 2, 1987

      Irl Newlan, FIRST TO VENUS: THE STORY OF MARINER 2, 1963

      Margaret Poynter and Arthur L. Lane, VOYAGER: THE STORY OF A
       SPACE MISSION, 1984

      Carl Sagan, MURMURS OF EARTH, 1978 (Deals with the Earth
       information records placed on VOYAGER 1 and 2 in case the
       probes are found by intelligences in interstellar space,
       as well as the probes and planetary mission objectives
       themselves.)

    Other works and periodicals:

    NASA has published very detailed and technical books on every space
    probe mission it has launched. Good university libraries will carry
    these books, and they are easily found simply by knowing which mission
    you wish to read about. I recommend these works after you first study
    some of the books listed above.

    Some periodicals I recommend for reading on space probes are NATIONAL
    GEOGRAPHIC, which has written articles on the PIONEER probes to Earth's
    Moon Luna and the Jovian planets Jupiter and Saturn, the RANGER,
    SURVEYOR, LUNAR ORBITER, and APOLLO missions to Luna, the MARINER
    missions to Mercury, Venus, and Mars, the VIKING probes to Mars, and the
    VOYAGER missions to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

    More details on American, Soviet, European, and Japanese probe missions
    can be found in SKY AND TELESCOPE, ASTRONOMY, SCIENCE, NATURE, and
    SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN magazines. TIME, NEWSWEEK, and various major
    newspapers can supply not only general information on certain missions,
    but also show you what else was going on with Earth at the time events
    were unfolding, if that is of interest to you. Space missions are
    affected by numerous political, economic, and climatic factors, as you
    probably know.

    Depending on just how far your interest in space probes will go, you
    might also wish to join The Planetary Society, one of the largest space
    groups in the world dedicated to planetary exploration. Their
    periodical, THE PLANETARY REPORT, details the latest space probe
    missions. Write to The Planetary Society, 65 North Catalina Avenue,
    Pasadena, California 91106 USA.

    Good luck with your studies in this area of space exploration. I
    personally find planetary missions to be one of the more exciting areas
    in this field, and the benefits human society has and will receive from
    it are incredible, with many yet to be realized.

    Larry Klaes  [e-mail]

NEXT: FAQ #11/15 - Upcoming planetary probes - missions and schedules

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UPCOMING PLANETARY PROBES - MISSIONS AND SCHEDULES

    Information on upcoming or currently active missions not mentioned below
    would be welcome. Sources: NASA fact sheets, Cassini Mission Design
    team, ISAS/NASDA launch schedules, press kits.


    ASCA (ASTRO-D) - Japanese (ISAS) Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and
    Astrophysics. ASCA is an X-ray astronomy satellite launched into Earth
    orbit on 2/20/93. Equipped with large-area wide-wavelength (1-20
    Angstrom) X-ray telescope, X-ray CCD cameras, and imaging gas
    scintillation proportional counters.


    CASSINI - Saturn orbiter and Titan atmosphere probe. Cassini is a joint
    NASA/ESA project designed to accomplish an exploration of the Saturnian
    system with its Cassini Saturn Orbiter and Huygens Titan Probe. Cassini
    is scheduled for launch aboard a Titan IV/Centaur in October of 1997.
    After gravity assists of Venus, Earth and Jupiter in a VVEJGA
    trajectory, the spacecraft will arrive at Saturn in June of 2004. Upon
    arrival, the Cassini spacecraft performs several maneuvers to achieve an
    orbit around Saturn. Near the end of this initial orbit, the Huygens
    Probe separates from the Orbiter and descends through the atmosphere of
    Titan. The Orbiter relays the Probe data to Earth for about 3 hours
    while the Probe enters and traverses the cloudy atmosphere to the
    surface. After the completion of the Probe mission, the Orbiter
    continues touring the Saturnian system for three and a half years. Titan
    synchronous orbit trajectories will allow about 35 flybys of Titan and
    targeted flybys of Iapetus, Dione and Enceladus. The objectives of the
    mission are threefold: conduct detailed studies of Saturn's atmosphere,
    rings and magnetosphere; conduct close-up studies of Saturn's
    satellites, and characterize Titan's atmosphere and surface.

    One of the most intriguing aspects of Titan is the possibility that its
    surface may be covered in part with lakes of liquid hydrocarbons that
    result from photochemical processes in its upper atmosphere. These
    hydrocarbons condense to form a global smog layer and eventually rain
    down onto the surface. The Cassini orbiter will use onboard radar to
    peer through Titan's clouds and determine if there is liquid on the
    surface. Experiments aboard both the orbiter and the entry probe will
    investigate the chemical processes that produce this unique atmosphere.

    The Cassini mission is named for Jean Dominique Cassini (1625-1712), the
    first director of the Paris Observatory, who discovered several of
    Saturn's satellites and the major division in its rings. The Titan
    atmospheric entry probe is named for the Dutch physicist Christiaan
    Huygens (1629-1695), who discovered Titan and first described the true
    nature of Saturn's rings.

     Key Scheduled Dates for the Cassini Mission (VVEJGA Trajectory)
     -------------------------------------------------------------
       10/06/97 - Titan IV/Centaur Launch
       04/21/98 - Venus 1 Gravity Assist
       06/20/99 - Venus 2 Gravity Assist
       08/16/99 - Earth Gravity Assist
       12/30/00 - Jupiter Gravity Assist
       06/25/04 - Saturn Arrival
       01/09/05 - Titan Probe Release
       01/30/05 - Titan Probe Entry
       06/25/08 - End of Primary Mission
        (Schedule last updated 7/22/92)


    CLEMENTINE - joint mission of the Strategic Defense Initiative
    Organization and NASA to flight test sensors developed by Lawrence
    Livermore for SDI. The spacecraft, which is being built by the Naval
    Research Lab, will be launched in late January 1994 and will go into a
    400 km by 8300 km orbit of the Moon for a 2 month mapping mission.
    Instruments onboard include UV to mid-IR imagers, including an imaging
    lidar that may be able to also obtain altimetric data for the middle
    latitudes of the Moon. In early May the spacecraft will be sent out of
    lunar orbit toward a flyby (11 km/sec ?) of the 4 km x 1 km asteroid
    1620 Geographos on August 31 at less than 100 km.


    GALILEO - Jupiter orbiter and atmosphere probe, in transit. Has returned
    the first resolved images of an asteroid, Gaspra, while in transit to
    Jupiter. Efforts to unfurl the stuck High-Gain Antenna (HGA) have
    essentially been abandoned. JPL has developed a backup plan using data
    compression (JPEG-like for images, lossless compression for data from
    the other instruments) which should allow the mission to achieve
    approximately 70% of its original objectives.

       Galileo Schedule
       ----------------
       10/18/89 - Launch from Space Shuttle
       02/09/90 - Venus Flyby
       10/**/90 - Venus Data Playback
       12/08/90 - 1st Earth Flyby
       05/01/91 - High Gain Antenna Unfurled
       07/91 - 06/92 - 1st Asteroid Belt Passage
       10/29/91 - Asteroid Gaspra Flyby
       12/08/92 - 2nd Earth Flyby
       05/93 - 11/93 - 2nd Asteroid Belt Passage
       08/28/93 - Asteroid Ida Flyby
       07/02/95 - Probe Separation
       07/09/95 - Orbiter Deflection Maneuver
       12/95 - 10/97 - Orbital Tour of Jovian Moons
       12/07/95 - Jupiter/Io Encounter
       07/18/96 - Ganymede
       09/28/96 - Ganymede
       12/12/96 - Callisto
       01/23/97 - Europa
       02/28/97 - Ganymede
       04/22/97 - Europa
       05/31/97 - Europa
       10/05/97 - Jupiter Magnetotail Exploration


    HITEN (MUSES-A) - Japanese (ISAS) lunar probe launched 1/24/90. Made
    multiple lunar flybys and released Hagoromo, a smaller satellite, into
    lunar orbit. This mission made Japan the third nation to orbit a
    satellite around the Moon. Hiten impacted the lunar surface on 4/10/93.


    MAGELLAN - Venus radar mapping mission. Has mapped almost the entire
    surface at high resolution. Currently (4/93) collecting a global gravity
    map.


    MARS OBSERVER - Mars orbiter including 1.5 m/pixel resolution camera.
    Launched 9/25/92 on a Titan III/TOS booster. MO is currently (4/93) in
    transit to Mars, arriving on 8/24/93. Operations will start 11/93 for
    one martian year (687 days).


    TOPEX/Poseidon - Joint US/French Earth observing satellite, launched
    8/10/92 on an Ariane 4 booster. The primary objective of the
    TOPEX/POSEIDON project is to make precise and accurate global
    observations of the sea level for several years, substantially
    increasing understanding of global ocean dynamics. The satellite also
    will increase understanding of how heat is transported in the ocean.


    ULYSSES- European Space Agency probe to study the Sun from an orbit over
    its poles. Launched in late 1990, it carries particles-and-fields
    experiments (such as magnetometer, ion and electron collectors for
    various energy ranges, plasma wave radio receivers, etc.) but no camera.

    Since no human-built rocket is hefty enough to send Ulysses far out of
    the ecliptic plane, it went to Jupiter instead, and stole energy from
    that planet by sliding over Jupiter's north pole in a gravity-assist
    manuver in February 1992. This bent its path into a solar orbit tilted
    about 85 degrees to the ecliptic. It will pass over the Sun's south pole
    in the summer of 1993. Its aphelion is 5.2 AU, and, surprisingly, its
    perihelion is about 1.5 AU-- that's right, a solar-studies spacecraft
    that's always further from the Sun than the Earth is!

    While in Jupiter's neigborhood, Ulysses studied the magnetic and
    radiation environment. For a short summary of these results, see
    *Science*, V. 257, p. 1487-1489 (11 September 1992). For gory technical
    detail, see the many articles in the same issue.


    OTHER SPACE SCIENCE MISSIONS (note: this is based on a posting by Ron
    Baalke in 11/89, with ISAS/NASDA information contributed by Yoshiro
    Yamada ([e-mail]). I'm attempting to track changes based
    on updated shuttle manifests; corrections and updates are welcome.

    1993 Missions
    o ALEXIS [spring, Pegasus]
        ALEXIS (Array of Low-Energy X-ray Imaging Sensors) is to perform
        a wide-field sky survey in the "soft" (low-energy) X-ray
        spectrum. It will scan the entire sky every six months to search
        for variations in soft-X-ray emission from sources such as white
        dwarfs, cataclysmic variable stars and flare stars. It will also
        search nearby space for such exotic objects as isolated neutron
        stars and gamma-ray bursters. ALEXIS is a project of Los Alamos
        National Laboratory and is primarily a technology development
        mission that uses astrophysical sources to demonstrate the
        technology. Contact project investigator Jeffrey J Bloch
        ([e-mail]) for more information.

    o Wind [Aug, Delta II rocket]
        Satellite to measure solar wind input to magnetosphere.

    o Space Radar Lab [Sep, STS-60 SRL-01]
        Gather radar images of Earth's surface.

    o Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer [Dec, Pegasus rocket]
        Study of Stratospheric ozone.

    o SFU (Space Flyer Unit) [ISAS]
        Conducting space experiments and observations and this can be
        recovered after it conducts the various scientific and
        engineering experiments. SFU is to be launched by ISAS and
        retrieved by the U.S. Space Shuttle on STS-68 in 1994.

    1994
    o Polar Auroral Plasma Physics [May, Delta II rocket]
        June, measure solar wind and ions and gases surrounding the
        Earth.

    o IML-2 (STS) [NASDA, Jul 1994 IML-02]
        International Microgravity Laboratory.

    o ADEOS [NASDA]
        Advanced Earth Observing Satellite.

    1995

    o MUSES-B (Mu Space Engineering Satellite-B) [ISAS]
        Conducting research on the precise mechanism of space structure
        and in-space astronomical observations of electromagnetic waves.

    1996

    o PLANET-B [ISAS]
        Mars orbiter to study the structure and motions of the Martian
        atmosphere and its interaction with the solar winds.

    1997
    o LUNAR-A [ISAS]
        Elucidating the crust structure and thermal construction of the
        moon's interior.


    Proposed Missions:
    o Advanced X-ray Astronomy Facility (AXAF)
        Possible launch from shuttle in 1995, AXAF is a space
        observatory with a high resolution telescope. It would orbit for
        15 years and study the mysteries and fate of the universe.

    o Earth Observing System (EOS)
        Possible launch in 1997, 1 of 6 US orbiting space platforms to
        provide long-term data (15 years) of Earth systems science
        including planetary evolution.

    o Mercury Observer
        Possible 1997 launch.

    o Lunar Observer
        Possible 1997 launch, would be sent into a long-term lunar
        orbit. The Observer, from 60 miles above the moon's poles, would
        survey characteristics to provide a global context for the
        results from the Apollo program.

    o Space Infrared Telescope Facility
        Possible launch by shuttle in 1999, this is the 4th element of
        the Great Observatories program. A free-flying observatory with
        a lifetime of 5 to 10 years, it would observe new comets and
        other primitive bodies in the outer solar system, study cosmic
        birth formation of galaxies, stars and planets and distant
        infrared-emitting galaxies

    o Mars Rover Sample Return (MRSR)
        Robotics rover would return samples of Mars' atmosphere and
        surface to Earch for analysis. Possible launch dates: 1996 for
        imaging orbiter, 2001 for rover.

    o Fire and Ice
        Possible launch in 2001, will use a gravity assist flyby of
        Earth in 2003, and use a final gravity assist from Jupiter in
        2005, where the probe will split into its Fire and Ice
        components: The Fire probe will journey into the Sun, taking
        measurements of our star's upper atmosphere until it is
        vaporized by the intense heat. The Ice probe will head out
        towards Pluto, reaching the tiny world for study by 2016.


NEXT: FAQ #12/15 - Controversial questions

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Subject: Space FAQ 12/15 - Controversial Questions
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CONTROVERSIAL QUESTIONS

    These issues periodically come up with much argument and few facts being
    offered. The summaries below attempt to represent the position on which
    much of the net community has settled. Please DON'T bring them up again
    unless there's something truly new to be discussed. The net can't set
    public policy, that's what your representatives are for.


    WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SATURN V PLANS

    Despite a widespread belief to the contrary, the Saturn V blueprints
    have not been lost. They are kept at Marshall Space Flight Center on
    microfilm.

    The problem in re-creating the Saturn V is not finding the drawings, it
    is finding vendors who can supply mid-1960's vintage hardware (like
    guidance system components), and the fact that the launch pads and VAB
    have been converted to Space Shuttle use, so you have no place to launch
    from.

    By the time you redesign to accommodate available hardware and re-modify
    the launch pads, you may as well have started from scratch with a clean
    sheet design.


    WHY DATA FROM SPACE MISSIONS ISN'T IMMEDIATELY AVAILABLE

    Investigators associated with NASA missions are allowed exclusive access
    for one year after the data is obtained in order to give them an
    opportunity to analyze the data and publish results without being
    "scooped" by people uninvolved in the mission. However, NASA frequently
    releases examples (in non-digital form, e.g. photos) to the public early
    in a mission.


    RISKS OF NUCLEAR (RTG) POWER SOURCES FOR SPACE PROBES

    There has been extensive discussion on this topic sparked by attempts to
    block the Galileo and Ulysses launches on grounds of the plutonium
    thermal sources being dangerous. Numerous studies claim that even in
    worst-case scenarios (shuttle explosion during launch, or accidental
    reentry at interplanetary velocities), the risks are extremely small.
    Two interesting data points are (1) The May 1968 loss of two SNAP 19B2
    RTGs, which landed intact in the Pacific Ocean after a Nimbus B weather
    satellite failed to reach orbit. The fuel was recovered after 5 months
    with no release of plutonium. (2) In April 1970, the Apollo 13 lunar
    module reentered the atmosphere and its SNAP 27 RTG heat source, which
    was jettisoned, fell intact into the 20,000 feet deep Tonga Trench in
    the Pacific Ocean. The corrosion resistant materials of the RTG are
    expected to prevent release of the fuel for a period of time equal to 10
    half-lives of the Pu-238 fuel or about 870 years [DOE 1980].

    To make your own informed judgement, some references you may wish to
    pursue are:

    A good review of the technical facts and issues is given by Daniel
    Salisbury in "Radiation Risk and Planetary Exploration-- The RTG
    Controversy," *Planetary Report*, May-June 1987, pages 3-7. Another good
    article, which also reviews the events preceding Galileo's launch,
    "Showdown at Pad 39-B," by Robert G. Nichols, appeared in the November
    1989 issue of *Ad Astra*. (Both magazines are published by pro-space
    organizations, the Planetary Society and the National Space Society
    respectively.)

    Gordon L Chipman, Jr., "Advanced Space Nuclear Systems" (AAS 82-261), in
    *Developing the Space Frontier*, edited by Albert Naumann and Grover
    Alexander, Univelt, 1983, p. 193-213.

    "Hazards from Plutonium Toxicity", by Bernard L. Cohen, Health Physics,
    Vol 32 (may) 1977, page 359-379.

    NUS Corporation, Safety Status Report for the Ulysses Mission: Risk
    Analysis (Book 1). Document number is NUS 5235; there is no GPO #;
    published Jan 31, 1990.

    NASA Office of Space Science and Applications, *Final Environmental
    Impact Statement for the Ulysses Mission (Tier 2)*, (no serial number or
    GPO number, but probably available from NTIS or NASA) June 1990.

    [DOE 1980] U.S.  Department of Energy, *Transuranic Elements in the
    Environment*, Wayne C.  Hanson, editor; DOE Document No.  DOE/TIC-22800;
    Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., April 1980.)


    IMPACT OF THE SPACE SHUTTLE ON THE OZONE LAYER

    From time to time, claims are made that chemicals released from
    the Space Shuttle's Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) are responsible
    for a significant amount of damage to the ozone layer. Studies
    indicate that they in reality have only a minute impact, both in
    absolute terms and relative to other chemical sources. The
    remainder of this item is a response from the author of the quoted
    study, Charles Jackman.

    The atmospheric modelling study of the space shuttle effects on the
    stratosphere involved three independent theoretical groups, and was
    organized by Dr. Michael Prather, NASA/Goddard Institute for Space
    Studies.  The three groups involved Michael Prather and Maria Garcia
    (NASA/GISS), Charlie Jackman and Anne Douglass (NASA/Goddard Space
    Flight Center), and Malcolm Ko and Dak Sze (Atmospheric and
    Environmental Research, Inc.).  The effort was to look at the effects
    of the space shuttle and Titan rockets on the stratosphere.

    The following are the estimated sources of stratospheric chlorine:

       Industrial sources:    300,000,000 kilograms/year
      Natural sources:     75,000,000 kilograms/year
      Shuttle sources:      725,000 kilograms/year

    The shuttle source assumes 9 space shuttles and 6 Titan rockets are
    launched yearly. Thus the launches would add less than 0.25% to the
    total stratospheric chlorine sources.

    The effect on ozone is minimal:  global yearly average total ozone would
    be decreased by 0.0065%. This is much less than total ozone variability
    associated with volcanic activity and solar flares.

    The influence of human-made chlorine products on ozone is computed
    by atmospheric model calculations to be a 1% decrease in globally
    averaged ozone between 1980 and 1990. The influence of the space shuttle and
    Titan rockets on the stratosphere is negligible.  The launch
    schedule of the Space Shuttle and Titan rockets would need to be
    increased by over a factor of a hundred in order to have about
    the same effect on ozone as our increases in industrial halocarbons
    do at the present time.

    Theoretical results of this study have been published in _The Space
    Shuttle's Impact on the Stratosphere_, MJ Prather, MM Garcia, AR
    Douglass, CH Jackman, M.K.W. Ko and N.D. Sze, Journal of Geophysical
    Research, 95, 18583-18590, 1990.

    Charles Jackman, Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Branch,
    Code 916, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center,
    Greenbelt, MD  20771

    Also see _Chemical Rockets and the Environment_, A McDonald, R Bennett,
    J Hinshaw, and M Barnes, Aerospace America, May 1991.


    HOW LONG CAN A HUMAN LIVE UNPROTECTED IN SPACE

    If you *don't* try to hold your breath, exposure to space for half a
    minute or so is unlikely to produce permanent injury. Holding your
    breath is likely to damage your lungs, something scuba divers have to
    watch out for when ascending, and you'll have eardrum trouble if your
    Eustachian tubes are badly plugged up, but theory predicts -- and animal
    experiments confirm -- that otherwise, exposure to vacuum causes no
    immediate injury. You do not explode. Your blood does not boil. You do
    not freeze. You do not instantly lose consciousness.

    Various minor problems (sunburn, possibly "the bends", certainly some
    [mild, reversible, painless] swelling of skin and underlying tissue)
    start after ten seconds or so. At some point you lose consciousness from
    lack of oxygen. Injuries accumulate. After perhaps one or two minutes,
    you're dying. The limits are not really known.

    References:

    _The Effect on the Chimpanzee of Rapid Decompression to a Near Vacuum_,
    Alfred G. Koestler ed., NASA CR-329 (Nov 1965).

    _Experimental Animal Decompression to a Near Vacuum Environment_, R.W.
    Bancroft, J.E. Dunn, eds, Report SAM-TR-65-48 (June 1965), USAF School
    of Aerospace Medicine, Brooks AFB, Texas.


    HOW THE CHALLENGER ASTRONAUTS DIED

    The Challenger shuttle launch was not destroyed in an explosion. This is
    a well-documented fact; see the Rogers Commission report, for example.
    What looked like an explosion was fuel burning after the external tank
    came apart. The forces on the crew cabin were not sufficient to kill the
    astronauts, never mind destroy their bodies, according to the Kerwin
    team's medical/forensic report.

    The astronauts were killed when the more-or-less intact cabin hit the
    water at circa 200MPH, and their bodies then spent several weeks
    underwater. Their remains were recovered, and after the Kerwin team
    examined them, they were sent off to be buried.


    USING THE SHUTTLE BEYOND LOW EARTH ORBIT

    You can't use the shuttle orbiter for missions beyond low Earth orbit
    because it can't get there. It is big and heavy and does not carry
    enough fuel, even if you fill part of the cargo bay with tanks.

    Furthermore, it is not particularly sensible to do so, because much of
    that weight is things like wings, which are totally useless except in
    the immediate vicinity of the Earth. The shuttle orbiter is highly
    specialized for travel between Earth's surface and low orbit. Taking it
    higher is enormously costly and wasteful. A much better approach would
    be to use shuttle subsystems to build a specialized high-orbit
    spacecraft.

    [Yet another concise answer by Henry Spencer.]


    THE "FACE ON MARS"

    There really is a big rock on Mars that looks remarkably like a humanoid
    face. It appears in two different frames of Viking Orbiter imagery:
    35A72 (much more facelike in appearance, and the one more often
    published, with the Sun 10 degrees above western horizon) and 70A13
    (with the Sun 27 degrees from the west).

    Science writer Richard Hoagland has championed the idea that the Face is
    artificial, intended to resemble a human, and erected by an
    extraterrestrial civilization. Most other analysts concede that the
    resemblance is most likely accidental. Other Viking images show a
    smiley-faced crater and a lava flow resembling Kermit the Frog elsewhere
    on Mars. There exists a Mars Anomalies Research Society (sorry, don't
    know the address) to study the Face.

    The Mars Observer mission will carry an extremely high-resolution
    camera, and better images of the formation will hopefully settle this
    question in a few years. In the meantime, speculation about the Face is
    best carried on in the altnet group alt.alien.visitors, not sci.space or
    sci.astro.

    V. DiPeitro and G. Molenaar, *Unusual Martian Surface Features*, Mars
    Research, P.O. Box 284, Glen Dale, Maryland, USA, 1982. $18 by mail.

    R.R. Pozos, *The Face of Mars*, Chicago Review Press, 1986. [Account of
    an interdisciplinary speculative conference Hoagland organized to
    investigate the Face]

    R.C. Hoagland, *The Monuments of Mars: A City on the Edge of Forever*,
    North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, California, USA, 1987. [Elaborate
    discussion of evidence and speculation that formations near the Face
    form a city]

    M.J. Carlotto, "Digital Imagery Analysis of Unusual Martian Surface
    Features," *Applied Optics*, 27, pp. 1926-1933, 1987. [Extracts
    three-dimensional model for the Face from the 2-D images]

    M.J. Carlotto & M.C. Stein, "A Method of Searching for Artificial
    Objects on Planetary Surfaces," *Journal of the British Interplanetary
    Society*, Vol. 43 no. 5 (May 1990), p.209-216. [Uses a fractal image
    analysis model to guess whether the Face is artificial]

    B. O'Leary, "Analysis of Images of the `Face' on Mars and Possible
    Intelligent Origin," *JBIS*, Vol. 43 no. 5 (May 1990), p. 203-208.
    [Lights Carlotto's model from the two angles and shows it's consistent;
    shows that the Face doesn't look facelike if observed from the surface]


NEXT: FAQ #13/15 - Space activist/interest/research groups & space publications

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From: [e-mail] (Jon Leech)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.answers,news.answers
Subject: Space FAQ 13/15 - Interest Groups & Publications
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SPACE ACTIVIST/INTEREST/RESEARCH GROUPS AND SPACE PUBLICATIONS

    GROUPS

    AIA -- Aerospace Industry Association. Professional group, with primary
    membership of major aerospace firms. Headquartered in the DC area.
    Acts as the "voice of the aerospace industry" -- and it's opinions
    are usually backed up by reams of analyses and the reputations of
    the firms in AIA.

        [address needed]

    AIAA -- American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
    Professional association, with somewhere about 30,000-40,000
    members. 65 local chapters around the country -- largest chapters
    are DC area (3000 members), LA (2100 members), San Francisco (2000
    members), Seattle/NW (1500), Houston (1200) and Orange County
    (1200), plus student chapters. Not a union, but acts to represent
    aviation and space professionals (engineers, managers, financial
    types) nationwide. Holds over 30 conferences a year on space and
    aviation topics publishes technical Journals (Aerospace Journal,
    Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, etc.), technical reference books
    and is _THE_ source on current aerospace state of the art through
    their published papers and proceedings. Also offers continuing
    education classes on aerospace design. Has over 60 technical
    committees, and over 30 committees for industry standards. AIAA acts
    as a professional society -- offers a centralized resume/jobs
    function, provides classes on job search, offers low-cost health and
    life insurance, and lobbies for appropriate legislation (AIAA was
    one of the major organizations pushing for IRAs - Individual
    Retirement Accounts). Very active public policy arm -- works
    directly with the media, congress and government agencies as a
    legislative liaison and clearinghouse for inquiries about aerospace
    technology technical issues. Reasonably non-partisan, in that they
    represent the industry as a whole, and not a single company,
    organization, or viewpoint.

    Membership $70/yr (student memberships are less).

    American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
    The Aerospace Center
    370 L'Enfant Promenade, SW
    Washington, DC 20077-0820
    (202)-646-7400

    AMSAT - develops small satellites (since the 1960s) for a variety of
    uses by amateur radio enthusiasts. Has various publications,
    supplies QuickTrak satellite tracking software for PC/Mac/Amiga etc.

    Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT)
    P.O. Box 27
    Washington, DC 20044
    (301)-589-6062

    ASERA - Australian Space Engineering and Research Association. An
    Australian non-profit organisation to coordinate, promote, and
    conduct space R&D projects in Australia, involving both Australian
    and international (primarily university) collaborators. Activities
    include the development of sounding rockets, small satellites
    (especially microsatellites), high-altitude research balloons, and
    appropriate payloads. Provides student projects at all levels, and
    is open to any person or organisation interested in participating.
    Publishes a monthly newsletter and a quarterly technical journal.

    Membership $A100 (dual subscription)
    Subscriptions $A25 (newsletter only) $A50 (journal only)

    ASERA Ltd
    PO Box 184
    Ryde, NSW, Australia, 2112
    email: [e-mail]

    BIS - British Interplanetary Society. Probably the oldest pro-space
    group, BIS publishes two excellent journals: _Spaceflight_, covering
    current space activities, and the _Journal of the BIS_, containing
    technical papers on space activities from near-term space probes to
    interstellar missions. BIS has published a design study for an
    interstellar probe called _Daedalus_.

    British Interplanetary Society
    27/29 South Lambeth Road
    London SW8 1SZ
    ENGLAND

    No dues information available at present.

    ISU - International Space University. ISU is a non-profit international
    graduate-level educational institution dedicated to promoting the
    peaceful exploration and development of space through multi-cultural
    and multi-disciplinary space education and research. For further
    information on ISU's summer session program or Permanent Campus
    activities please send messages to '[e-mail]' or
    contact the ISU Executive Offices at:

    International Space University
    955 Massachusetts Avenue 7th Floor
    Cambridge, MA 02139
    (617)-354-1987 (phone)
    (617)-354-7666 (fax)

    L-5 Society (defunct). Founded by Keith and Carolyn Henson in 1975 to
    advocate space colonization. Its major success was in preventing US
    participation in the UN "Moon Treaty" in the late 1970s. Merged with
    the National Space Institute in 1987, forming the National Space
    Society.

    NSC - National Space Club. Open for general membership, but not well
    known at all. Primarily comprised of professionals in aerospace
    industry. Acts as information conduit and social gathering group.
    Active in DC, with a chapter in LA. Monthly meetings with invited
    speakers who are "heavy hitters" in the field. Annual "Outlook on
    Space" conference is _the_ definitive source of data on government
    annual planning for space programs. Cheap membership (approx
    $20/yr).

        [address needed]

    NSS - the National Space Society. NSS is a pro-space group distinguished
    by its network of local chapters. Supports a general agenda of space
    development and man-in-space, including the NASA space station.
    Publishes _Ad Astra_, a monthly glossy magazine, and runs Shuttle
    launch tours and Space Hotline telephone services. A major sponsor
    of the annual space development conference. Associated with
    Spacecause and Spacepac, political lobbying organizations.

    Membership $18 (youth/senior) $35 (regular).

    National Space Society
    Membership Department
    922 Pennsylvania Avenue, S.E.
    Washington, DC 20003-2140
    (202)-543-1900

    Planetary Society - founded by Carl Sagan. The largest space advocacy
    group. Publishes _Planetary Report_, a monthly glossy, and has
    supported SETI hardware development financially. Agenda is primarily
    support of space science, recently amended to include an
    international manned mission to Mars.

    The Planetary Society
    65 North Catalina Avenue
    Pasadena, CA 91106

    Membership $35/year.

    SSI - the Space Studies Institute, founded by Dr. Gerard O'Neill.
    Physicist Freeman Dyson took over the Presidency of SSI after
    O'Neill's death in 1992. Publishes _SSI Update_, a bimonthly
    newsletter describing work-in-progress. Conducts a research program
    including mass-drivers, lunar mining processes and simulants,
    composites from lunar materials, solar power satellites. Runs the
    biennial Princeton Conference on Space Manufacturing.

    Membership $25/year. Senior Associates ($100/year and up) fund most
        SSI research.

    Space Studies Institute
    258 Rosedale Road
    PO Box 82
    Princeton, NJ 08540

    SEDS - Students for the Exploration and Development of Space. Founded in
    1980 at MIT and Princeton. SEDS is a chapter-based pro-space
    organization at high schools and universities around the world.
    Entirely student run. Each chapter is independent and coordinates
    its own local activities. Nationally, SEDS runs a scholarship
    competition, design contests, and holds an annual international
    conference and meeting in late summer.

    Students for the Exploration and Development of Space
    MIT Room W20-445
    77 Massachusetts Avenue
    Cambridge, MA  02139
    (617)-253-8897
    email: [e-mail]

    Dues determined by local chapter.

    SPACECAUSE -  A political lobbying organization and part of the NSS
    Family of Organizations. Publishes a bi-monthly newsletter,
    Spacecause News. Annual dues is $25. Members also receive a discount
    on _The Space Activist's Handbook_. Activities to support pro-space
    legislation include meeting with political leaders and interacting
    with legislative staff. Spacecause primarily operates in the
    legislative process.

    National Office            West Coast Office
    Spacecause            Spacecause
    922 Pennsylvania Ave. SE    3435 Ocean Park Blvd.
    Washington, D.C. 20003        Suite 201-S
    (202)-543-1900            Santa Monica, CA 90405

    SPACEPAC - A political action committee and part of the NSS Family of
    Organizations. Spacepac researches issues, policies, and candidates.
    Each year, updates _The Space Activist's Handbook_. Current Handbook
    price is $25. While Spacepac does not have a membership, it does
    have regional contacts to coordinate local activity. Spacepac
    primarily operates in the election process, contributing money and
    volunteers to pro-space candidates.

    Spacepac
    922 Pennsylvania Ave. SE
    Washington, DC 20003
    (202)-543-1900

    UNITED STATES SPACE FOUNDATION - a public, non-profit organization
    supported by member donations and dedicated to promoting
    international education, understanding and support of space. The
    group hosts an annual conference for teachers and others interested
    in education. Other projects include developing lesson plans that
    use space to teach other basic skills such as reading. Publishes
    "Spacewatch," a monthly B&W glossy magazine of USSF events and
    general space news. Annual dues:

        Charter        $50 ($100 first year)
        Individual    $35
        Teacher        $29
        College student $20
        HS/Jr. High    $10
        Elementary     $5
        Founder &     $1000+
            Life Member

    United States Space Foundation
    PO Box 1838
    Colorado Springs, CO 80901
    (719)-550-1000

    WORLD SPACE FOUNDATION - has been designing and building a solar-sail
    spacecraft for longer than any similar group; many JPL employees lend
    their talents to this project. WSF also provides partial funding for the
    Palomar Sky Survey, an extremely successful search for near-Earth
    asteroids. Publishes *Foundation News* and *Foundation Astronautics
    Notebook*, each a quarterly 4-8 page newsletter. Contributing Associate,
    minimum of $15/year (but more money always welcome to support projects).

    World Space Foundation
    Post Office Box Y
    South Pasadena, California 91301


    PUBLICATIONS

    Aerospace Daily (McGraw-Hill)
    Very good coverage of aerospace and space issues. Approx. $1400/yr.

    Air & Space / Smithsonian (bimonthly magazine)
    Box 53261
    Boulder, CO 80332-3261
    $18/year US, $24/year international

    ESA - The European Space Agency publishes a variety of periodicals,
    generally available free of charge. A document describing them in
    more detail is in the Ames SPACE archive in
    pub/SPACE/FAQ/ESAPublications.

    Final Frontier (mass-market bimonthly magazine) - history, book reviews,
    general-interest articles (e.g. "The 7 Wonders of the Solar System",
    "Everything you always wanted to know about military space
    programs", etc.)

    Final Frontier Publishing Co.
    PO Box 534
    Mt. Morris, IL 61054-7852
    $14.95/year US, $19.95 Canada, $23.95 elsewhere

    Space News (weekly magazine) - covers US civil and military space
    programs. Said to have good political and business but spotty
    technical coverage.

    Space News
    Springfield VA 22159-0500
    (703)-642-7330
    $75/year, may have discounts for NSS/SSI members

    Journal of the Astronautical Sciences and Space Times - publications of
    the American Astronautical Society. No details.

    AAS Business Office
    6352 Rolling Mill Place, Suite #102
    Springfield, VA 22152
    (703)-866-0020

    GPS World (semi-monthly) - reports on current and new uses of GPS, news
    and analysis of the system and policies affecting it, and technical
    and product issues shaping GPS applications.

    GPS World
    859 Willamette St.
    P.O. Box 10460
    Eugene, OR 97440-2460
    (503)-343-1200

    Free to qualified individuals; write for free sample copy.

    Innovation (Space Technology) -- Free. Published by the NASA Office of
    Advanced Concepts and Technology. A revised version of the NASA
    Office of Commercial Programs newsletter.

    Planetary Encounter - in-depth technical coverage of planetary missions,
    with diagrams, lists of experiments, interviews with people directly
    involved.
    World Spaceflight News - in-depth technical coverage of near-Earth
    spaceflight. Mostly covers the shuttle: payload manifests, activity
    schedules, and post-mission assessment reports for every mission.

    Henry Spencer comments: WSN and PE have recently (mid-92) mutated
    into much more expensive weekly newsletters, filled mostly with
    stuff that's already available to most sci.space readers in
    sci.space.news. There is still interesting content at times, but the
    signal/noise and benefit/cost ratios have deteriorated pretty badly.
    I can no longer recommend them.

    Box 98
    Sewell, NJ 08080
    $30/year US/Canada
    $45/year elsewhere

    Space (bi-monthly magazine)
    British aerospace trade journal. Very good. $75/year.

    Space Calendar (weekly newsletter)

    Space Daily/Space Fax Daily  (newsletter)
    Short (1 paragraph) news notes. Available online for a fee
    (unknown).

    Space Technology Investor/Commercial Space News -- irregular Internet
    column on aspects of commercial space business. Free. Also limited
    fax and paper edition.

        P.O. Box 2452
        Seal Beach, CA 90740-1452.

    All the following are published by:

    Phillips Business Information, Inc.
    7811 Montrose Road
    Potomac, MC 20854

    Aerospace Financial News - $595/year.
    Defense Daily - Very good coverage of space and defense issues.
        $1395/year.
    Space Business News (bi-weekly) - Very good overview of space
        business activities. $497/year.
    Space Exploration Technology (bi-weekly) - $495/year.
    Space Station News (bi-weekly) - $497/year.

    UNDOCUMENTED GROUPS

    Anyone who would care to write up descriptions of the following
    groups (or others not mentioned) for inclusion in the answer is
    encouraged to do so.

    AAS - American Astronautical Society
    Other groups not mentioned above

NEXT: FAQ #14/15 - How to become an astronaut

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From: [e-mail] (Jon Leech)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.answers,news.answers
Subject: Space FAQ 14/15 - How to Become an Astronaut
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Archive-name: space/astronaut
Last-modified: $Date: 93/05/03 12:07:55 $

HOW TO BECOME AN ASTRONAUT

    First the short form, authored by Henry Spencer, then an official NASA
    announcement.

    Q. How do I become an astronaut?

    A. We will assume you mean a NASA astronaut, since it's probably
    impossible for a non-Russian to get into the cosmonaut corps (paying
    passengers are not professional cosmonauts), and the other nations have
    so few astronauts (and fly even fewer) that you're better off hoping to
    win a lottery. Becoming a shuttle pilot requires lots of fast-jet
    experience, which means a military flying career; forget that unless you
    want to do it anyway. So you want to become a shuttle "mission
    specialist".

    If you aren't a US citizen, become one; that is a must.  After that,
    the crucial thing to remember is that the demand for such jobs vastly
    exceeds the supply.  NASA's problem is not finding qualified people,
    but thinning the lineup down to manageable length.    It is not enough
    to be qualified; you must avoid being *dis*qualified for any reason,
    many of them in principle quite irrelevant to the job.

    Get a Ph.D.  Specialize in something that involves getting your hands
    dirty with equipment, not just paper and pencil.  Forget computer
    programming entirely; it will be done from the ground for the fore-
    seeable future.  Degree(s) in one field plus work experience in
    another seems to be a frequent winner.

    Be in good physical condition, with good eyesight.    (DO NOT get a
    radial keratomy or similar hack to improve your vision; nobody knows
    what sudden pressure changes would do to RKed eyes, and long-term
    effects are poorly understood.  For that matter, avoid any other
    significant medical unknowns.)  If you can pass a jet-pilot physical,
    you should be okay; if you can't, your chances are poor.

    Practise public speaking, and be conservative and conformist in
    appearance and actions; you've got a tough selling job ahead, trying
    to convince a cautious, conservative selection committee that you
    are better than hundreds of other applicants.  (And, also, that you
    will be a credit to NASA after you are hired:  public relations is
    a significant part of the job, and NASA's image is very prim and
    proper.)  The image you want is squeaky-clean workaholic yuppie.
    Remember also that you will need a security clearance at some point,
    and Security considers everybody guilty until proven innocent.
    Keep your nose clean.

    Get a pilot's license and make flying your number one hobby;
    experienced pilots are known to be favored even for non-pilot jobs.

    Work for NASA; of 45 astronauts selected between 1984 and 1988,
    43 were military or NASA employees, and the remaining two were
    a NASA consultant and Mae Jemison (the first black female astronaut).
    If you apply from outside NASA and miss, but they offer you a job
    at NASA, ***TAKE IT***; sometimes in the past this has meant "you
    do look interesting but we want to know you a bit better first".

    Think space:  they want highly motivated people, so lose no chance
    to demonstrate motivation.

    Keep trying.  Many astronauts didn't make it the first time.




    NASA
    National Aeronautics and Space Administration
    Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center
    Houston, Texas

    Announcement for Mission Specialist and Pilot Astronaut Candidates
    ==================================================================

    Astronaut Candidate Program
    ---------------------------

    The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has a need for
    Pilot Astronaut Candidates and Mission Specialist Astronaut Candidates
    to support the Space Shuttle Program. NASA is now accepting on a
    continuous basis and plans to select astronaut candidates as needed.

    Persons from both the civilian sector and the military services will be
    considered.

    All positions are located at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in
    Houston, Texas, and will involved a 1-year training and evaluation
    program.

    Space Shuttle Program Description
    ---------------------------------

    The numerous successful flights of the Space Shuttle have demonstrated
    that operation and experimental investigations in space are becoming
    routine. The Space Shuttle Orbiter is launched into, and maneuvers in
    the Earth orbit performing missions lastling up to 30 days. It then
    returns to earth and is ready for another flight with payloads and
    flight crew.

    The Orbiter performs a variety of orbital missions including deployment
    and retrieval of satellites, service of existing satellites, operation
    of specialized laboratories (astronomy, earth sciences, materials
    processing, manufacturing), and other operations. These missions will
    eventually include the development and servicing of a permanent space
    station. The Orbiter also provides a staging capability for using higher
    orbits than can be achieved by the Orbiter itself. Users of the Space
    Shuttle's capabilities are both domestic and foreign and include
    government agencies and private industries.

    The crew normally consists of five people - the commander, the pilot,
    and three mission specialists. On occasion additional crew members are
    assigned. The commander, pilot, and mission specialists are NASA
    astronauts.

    Pilot Astronaut

    Pilot astronauts server as both Space Shuttle commanders and pilots.
    During flight the commander has onboard responsibility for the vehicle,
    crew, mission success and safety in flight. The pilot assists the
    commander in controlling and operating the vehicle. In addition, the
    pilot may assist in the deployment and retrieval of satellites utilizing
    the remote manipulator system, in extra-vehicular activities, and other
    payload operations.

    Mission Specialist Astronaut

    Mission specialist astronauts, working with the commander and pilot,
    have overall responsibility for the coordination of Shuttle operations
    in the areas of crew activity planning, consumables usage, and
    experiment and payload operations. Mission specialists are required to
    have a detailed knowledge of Shuttle systems, as well as detailed
    knowledge of the operational characteristics, mission requirements and
    objectives, and supporting systems and equipment for each of the
    experiments to be conducted on their assigned missions. Mission
    specialists will perform extra-vehicular activities, payload handling
    using the remote manipulator system, and perform or assist in specific
    experimental operations.

    Astronaut Candidate Program
    ===========================

    Basic Qualification Requirements
    --------------------------------

    Applicants MUST meet the following minimum requirements prior to
    submitting an application.

    Mission Specialist Astronaut Candidate:

    1. Bachelor's degree from an accredited institution in engineering,
    biological science, physical science or mathematics. Degree must be
    followed by at least three years of related progressively responsible,
    professional experience. An advanced degree is desirable and may be
    substituted for part or all of the experience requirement (master's
    degree = 1 year, doctoral degree = 3 years). Quality of academic
    preparation is important.

    2. Ability to pass a NASA class II space physical, which is similar to a
    civilian or military class II flight physical and includes the following
    specific standards:

     Distant visual acuity:
          20/150 or better uncorrected,
          correctable to 20/20, each eye.

     Blood pressure:
          140/90 measured in sitting position.

    3. Height between 58.5 and 76 inches.

    Pilot Astronaut Candidate:

    1. Bachelor's degree from an accredited institution in engineering,
    biological science, physical science or mathematics. Degree must be
    followed by at least three years of related progressively responsible,
    professional experience. An advanced degree is desirable. Quality of
    academic preparation is important.

    2. At least 1000 hours pilot-in-command time in jet aircraft. Flight
    test experience highly desirable.

    3. Ability to pass a NASA Class I space physical which is similar to a
    military or civilian Class I flight physical and includes the following
    specific standards:

     Distant visual acuity:
          20/50 or better uncorrected
          correctable to 20/20, each eye.

     Blood pressure:
          140/90 measured in sitting position.

    4. Height between 64 and 76 inches.

    Citizenship Requirements

    Applications for the Astronaut Candidate Program must be citizens of
    the United States.

    Note on Academic Requirements

    Applicants for the Astronaut Candidate Program must meet the basic
    education requirements for NASA engineering and scientific positions --
    specifically: successful completion of standard professional curriculum
    in an accredited college or university leading to at least a bachelor's
    degree with major study in an appropriate field of engineering,
    biological science, physical science, or mathematics.

      The following degree fields, while related to engineering and the
    sciences, are not considered qualifying:
      - Degrees in technology (Engineering Technology, Aviation Technology,
    Medical Technology, etc.)
      - Degrees in Psychology (except for Clinical Psychology, Physiological
    Psychology, or Experimental Psychology which are qualifying).
      - Degrees in Nursing.
      - Degrees in social sciences (Geography, Anthropology, Archaeology, etc.)
      - Degrees in Aviation, Aviation Management or similar fields.

    Application Procedures
    ----------------------

    Civilian

    The application package may be obtained by writing to:

    NASA Johnson Space Center
    Astronaut Selection Office
    ATTN: AHX
    Houston, TX 77058

    Civilian applications will be accepted on a continuous basis. When NASA
    decides to select additional astronaut candidates, consideration will be
    given only to those applications on hand on the date of decision is
    made. Applications received after that date will be retained and
    considered for the next selection. Applicants will be notified annually
    of the opportunity to update their applications and to indicate
    continued interest in being considered for the program. Those applicants
    who do not update their applications annually will be dropped from
    consideration, and their applications will not be retained. After the
    preliminary screening of applications, additional information may be
    requested for some applicants, and person listed on the application as
    supervisors and references may be contacted.

    Active Duty Military

    Active duty military personnel must submit applications to their
    respective military service and not directly to NASA. Application
    procedures will be disseminated by each service.

    Selection
    ---------

    Personal interviews and thorough medical evaluations will be required
    for both civilian and military applicants under final consideration.
    Once final selections have been made, all applicants who were considered
    will be notified of the outcome of the process.

    Selection rosters established through this process may be used for the
    selection of additional candidates during a one year period following
    their establishment.

    General Program Requirements

    Selected applicants will be designated Astronaut Candidates and will be
    assigned to the Astronaut Office at the Johnson Space Center, Houston,
    Texas. The astronaut candidates will undergo a 1 year training and
    evaluation period during which time they will be assigned technical or
    scientific responsibilities allowing them to contribute substantially to
    ongoing programs. They will also participate in the basic astronaut
    training program which is designed to develop the knowledge and skills
    required for formal mission training upon selection for a flight. Pilot
    astronaut candidates will maintain proficiency in NASA aircraft during
    their candidate period.

    Applicants should be aware that selection as an astronaut candidate does
    not insure selection as an astronaut. Final selection as an astronaut
    will depend on satisfactory completion of the 1 year training and
    evaluation period. Civilian candidates who successfully complete the
    training and evaluation and are selected as astronauts will become
    permanent Federal employees and will be expected to remain with NASA for
    a period of at least five years. Civilian candidates who are not
    selected as astronauts may be placed in other positions within NASA
    depending upon Agency requirements and manpower constraints at that
    time. Successful military candidates will be detailed to NASA for a
    specified tour of duty.

    NASA has an affirmative action program goal of having qualified
    minorities and women among those qualified as astronaut candidates.
    Therefore, qualified minorities and women are encouraged to apply.

    Pay and Benefits
    ----------------

    Civilians

    Salaries for civilian astronaut candidates are based on the Federal
    Governments General Schedule pay scales for grades GS-11 through GS-14,
    and are set in accordance with each individuals academic achievements
    and experience.

    Other benefits include vacation and sick leave, a retirement plan, and
    participation in group health and life insurance plans.

    Military

    Selected military personnel will be detailed to the Johnson Space Center
    but will remain in an active duty status for pay, benefits, leave, and
    other similar military matters.


NEXT: FAQ #15/15 - Orbital and Planetary Launch Services

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Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.answers,news.answers
Subject: Space FAQ 15/15 - Orbital and Planetary Launch Services
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Archive-name: space/launchers
Last-modified: $Date: 93/05/03 12:08:05 $

ORBITAL AND PLANETARY LAUNCH SERVICES

The following data comes from _International Reference Guide to Space Launch
Systems_ by Steven J. Isakowitz, 1991 edition.

Notes:
    * Unless otherwise specified, LEO and polar paylaods are for a 100 nm
    orbit.
    * Reliablity data includes launches through Dec, 1990. Reliabity for a
    familiy of vehicles includes launches by types no longer built when
    applicable
    * Prices are in millions of 1990 $US and are subject to change.
    * Only operational vehicle families are included. Individual vehicles
    which have not yet flown are marked by an asterisk (*) If a vehicle
    had first launch after publication of my data, it may still be
    marked with an asterisk.


Vehicle        |     Payload  kg  (lbs)   | Reliability | Price | Launch Site
(nation)       |  LEO       Polar    GTO   |        |    | (Lat. & Long.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ariane                        35/40  87.5%      Kourou
(ESA)                                 (5.2 N, 52.8 W)
  AR40        4,900      3,900    1,900    1/1          $65m
           (10,800)  (8,580)  (4,190)
  AR42P        6,100      4,800    2,600    1/1          $67m
           (13,400)  (10,600) (5,730)
  AR44P        6,900      5,500    3,000    0/0 ?      $70m
           (15,200)  (12,100) (6,610)
  AR42L        7,400      5,900    3,200    0/0 ?      $90m
           (16,300)  (13,000) (7,050)
  AR44LP    8,300      6,600    3,700    6/6          $95m
           (18,300)  (14,500) (8,160)
  AR44L        9,600      7,700    4,200    3/4          $115m
           (21,100)  (16,900) (9,260)

* AR5           18,000       ???       6,800    0/0          $105m
          (39,600)          (15,000)
           [300nm]


Atlas                       213/245 86.9%     Cape Canaveral
(USA)                                 (28.5 N, 81.0W)
  Atlas E     --       820         --     15/17      $45m     Vandeberg AFB
              (1,800)                (34.7 N, 120.6W)

  Atlas I    5,580      4,670    2,250    1/1          $70m
           (12,300)  (10,300) (4,950)

  Atlas II    6,395      5,400    2,680    0/0          $75m
           (14,100)  (11,900) (5,900)

  Atlas IIA    6,760      5,715    2,810    0/0          $85m
           (14,900)  (12,600) (6,200)

* Atlas IIAS    8,390      6,805    3,490    0/0          $115m
           (18,500)  (15,000) (7,700)


Delta                       189/201 94.0%     Cape Canaveral
(USA)                                 Vandenberg AFB
  Delta 6925    3,900      2,950    1,450   14/14      $45m
           (8,780)     (6,490)  (3,190)

  Delta 7925    5,045      3,830    1,820    1/1          $50m
           (11,100)  (8,420)  (2,000)


Energia                        2/2  100%         Baikonur
(Russia)                             (45.6 N 63.4 E)
  Energia      88,000     80,000     ???     2/2          $110m
          (194,000) (176,000)


H series                    22/22 100%         Tangeshima
(Japan)                                (30.2 N 130.6 E)
* H-2           10,500     6,600       4,000    0/0          $110m
          (23,000)    (14,500)  (8,800)


Kosmos                       371/377 98.4%     Plestek
(Russia)                             (62.8 N 40.1 E)
  Kosmos      1100 - 1350  (2300 - 3000)         $???     Kapustin Yar
          [400 km orbit ??? inclination]             (48.4 N 45.8 E)


Long March                    23/25 92.0%         Jiquan SLC
(China)                                 (41 N    100 E)
* CZ-1D         720      ???        200     0/0          $10m     Xichang SLC
        (1,590)           (440)             (28 N    102 E)
                                 Taiyuan SLC
  CZ-2C        3,200      1,750    1,000    12/12      $20m     (41 N    100 E)
           (7,040)     (3,860)  (2,200)

  CZ-2E        9,200       ???       3,370    1/1          $40m
           (20,300)          (7,430)

* CZ-2E/HO     13,600       ???       4,500    0/0          $???
          (29,900)          (9,900)

  CZ-3        ???       ???       1,400    6/7          $33m
                  (3,100)

* CZ-3A        ???       ???       2,500    0/0          $???m
                  (5,500)

  CZ-4        4,000       ???       1,100    2/2          $???m
           (8,800)          (2,430)


Pegasus/Taurus                    2/2   100%        Peg:  B-52/L1011
(USA)                                Taur: Canaveral
  Pegasus     455       365        125     2/2          $10m      or Vandenberg
        (1,000)   (800)    (275)

* Taurus    1,450      1,180     375     0/0          $15m
           (3,200)     (2,600)   (830)


Proton                       164/187 87.7%     Baikonour
(Russia)
  Proton       20,000       ???       5,500   164/187      $35-70m
          (44,100)          (12,200)


SCOUT                        99/113 87.6%    Vandenberg AFB
(USA)                                Wallops FF
  SCOUT G-1     270       210        54        13/13      $12m    (37.9 N  75.4 W)
        (600)      (460)    (120)            San Marco
                                (2.9 S    40.3 E)
* Enhanced SCOUT 525       372       110        0/0          $15m
        (1,160)   (820)   (240)


Shavit                        2/2   100%        Palmachim AFB
(Israel)                            ( ~31 N)
  Shavit     ???       160       ???        2/2          $22m
              (350)

Space Shuttle                    37/38  97.4%    Kennedy Space
(USA)                                Center
  Shuttle/SRB  23,500       ???       5,900    37/38      $248m (28.5 N 81.0 W)
          (51,800)          (13,000)          [FY88]

* Shuttle/ASRM 27,100       ???       ???        0/0
          (59,800)


SLV                        2/6    33.3%    SHAR Center
(India)       (400km)  (900km polar)                (13.9 N 80.4 E)
  ASLV        150       ???        ???     0/2          $???m
           (330)

* PSLV        3,000      1,000     450     0/0          $???m
           (6,600)     (2,200)   (990)

* GSLV        8,000       ???       2,500    0/0          $???m
           (17,600)          (5,500)


Titan                        160/172 93.0%    Cape Canaveral
(USA)                                Vandenberg
  Titan II     ???      1,905     ???     2/2           $43m
             (4,200)

  Titan III    14,515      ???       5,000    2/3           $140m
          (32,000)          (11,000)

  Titan IV/SRM 17,700     14,100    6,350    3/3           $154m-$227m
          (39,000)    (31,100)  (14,000)

 Titan IV/SRMU 21,640     18,600    8,620    0/0           $???m
          (47,700)    (41,000)  (19,000)


Vostok                        1358/1401 96.9%    Baikonur
(Russia)         [650km]                Plesetsk
  Vostok    4,730      1,840     ???     ?/149       $14m
          (10,400)    (4,060)

  Soyuz        7,000       ???        ???     ?/944       $15m
          (15,400)

  Molniya    1500kg (3300 lbs) in        ?/258       $???M
        Highly eliptical orbit


Zenit                        12/13  92.3%    Baikonur
(Russia)
  Zenit        13,740     11,380    4,300    12/13       $65m
          (30,300)    (25,090)  (9,480)