Return-path: X-Andrew-Authenticated-as: 7997;andrew.cmu.edu;Ted Anderson Received: from beak.andrew.cmu.edu via trymail for +dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr1/ota/space/space.dl@andrew.cmu.edu (->+dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr1/ota/space/space.dl) (->ota+space.digests) ID ; Wed, 11 Oct 89 05:23:30 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Wed, 11 Oct 89 05:23:06 -0400 (EDT) Subject: SPACE Digest V10 #136 SPACE Digest Volume 10 : Issue 136 Today's Topics: NEWS UPDATE: SSI LUNAR POLAR PROBE Galileo Update Ecosystemic Contamination Re: Happy Birthday, Robert Goddard and Konstantin Tsilkovsky. Re: Galileo--- history repeats itself Re: AuAustralian Launch pPad ? Re: NASA seeks Space Station Assured Crew Return Vehicle proposals (Forwarded) re: Galileo Mission Design ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 9 Oct 89 21:46:49 GMT From: EWTILENI@pucc.princeton.edu (Eric William Tilenius) Subject: NEWS UPDATE: SSI LUNAR POLAR PROBE SPACE STUDIES INSTITUTE -- LUNAR POLAR PROBE UPDATE =================================================== The Space Studies Institute, a non-profit organization located in Princeton, New Jersey, is dedicated to opening the High Frontier by using resources found in space - rather than bringing materials with us from Earth. As part of their mission, they fund unique scientific research designed to utilize space resources. One of their major current projects is the development of a small, dedicated lunar orbiting probe. This probe, called the Lunar Polar Probe (or Lunar Polar Prospector - either way, I'll refer to it as LPP), will provide a chemical map of the entire moon and discover whether frozen water and other volatiles exist at the lunar poles. Frozen water would be tremendously valuable in the construction of a lunar base and in space manufacturing - and the search for this water has been recommended by both the President's National Commission on Space and the Ride Report. What makes LPP unique is that it is a privately initiated and funded project. The goal is to launch it early in the 1990's - well ahead of NASA's Lunar Observer spacecraft, which will be a more sophisticated craft, but which may not launch until the end of next decade. SSI has recently issued an RFP (Request for Proposal) for spacecraft manufacturers - bids are being submitted and considered. As part of the spacecraft, SSI has sought to use a Gamma Ray Spectrometer developed by NASA for use on Apollo missions. The GRS is not being used by NASA at present, and there are no current NASA plans for its use. Three Congressmen - Robert Torricelli (D-NJ), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), and Thomas McMillen (D-MD) - wrote a letter to NASA on SSI's behalf asking that NASA give the Gamma Ray Spectrometer to SSI for use on LPP. * NEW NEWS! * NEW NEWS! * NEW NEWS! * About a week ago, the Congressmen received a letter back from NASA saying that NASA could see no reason in principal why the GRS could not be given to SSI. The letter, while bureaucratic in tone, was very positive about the possibilities of giving the GRS to SSI. NASA agreed to appoint someone to study how the instrument could be hooked up to best benefit SSI. During a Congressional hearing with NASA Administrator Richard Truly, one of the Congressmen (I believe it was either Rohrabacher or Torricelli, or perhaps both) confronted Truly with the matter and asked why the letter was so bureaucratic and if the device could really be made available to SSI. The original letter was written by someone in charge of Congressional relations, not Truly's office. As a result of the encounter at the hearing, Admiral Truly has taken a personal interest in SSI's LPP project and has decreed that no letter be sent out about it without first being cleared by his office. Thus, chances look very good that the GRS WILL be made available to SSI in the near future. SSI and the Congressmen are working to make sure this does not slip under a stack of studies and ensure that SSI gets an okay shortly so it can proceed with its plans for LPP. On the whole, however, while much remains to be done, it looks like SSI WILL have access to this device as part of its Lunar Polar Probe. The Space Studies Institute's Lunar Polar Probe is well on the road to becoming the FIRST privately-financed "planetary" science mission! -- INTERESTED? MORE INFORMATION? -- This information is not an official Space Studies Institute release - I happen to know these facts because my group, the Princeton Planetary Society, works closely with SSI on many matters. I can vouch for its accuracy, but if you quote it, please quote ME, not SSI, as the wording has not been approved by them. If you would like more information about LPP, SSI, or if you would like to become a member of the Space Studies Institute to further their crucial work in opening the High Frontier, here's the necessary info: Space Studies Institute P.O. Box 82 Princeton, NJ 08542 Telephone: 609-921-0377 Membership is $25/year and includes a subscription to the bi-monthly newsletter SSI Update. You also get an SSI decal and membership card. For $35, you can receive a 1 year membership AND a copy of the new edition of Dr. Gerard K. O'Neill's classic, THE HIGH FRONTIER. (Dr. O'Neill is President and Founder of Space Studies Institute.) - ERIC - Eric W. Tilenius | Princeton Planetary Soc. | ewtileni@pucc.BITNET 523 Laughlin Hall | 315 West College | ewtileni@pucc.Princeton.EDU Princeton University | Princeton University | rutgers!pucc.bitnet!ewtileni Princeton, NJ 08544 | Princeton, NJ 08544 | princeton!pucc!ewtileni 609-734-7677 | 609-734-7677 | DELPHI: TILENIUS ------------------------------ Date: 10 Oct 89 00:10:29 GMT From: gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!henry.jpl.nasa.gov!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov!baalke@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Ron Baalke) Subject: Galileo Update GALILEO DAILY REPORT 9 OCTOBER 1989 NOTE: This report covers the activities of 6-9 October General Spacecraft The RTGs were installed on 7 and 8 October. Spacecraft Launch Conditioning was subsequently performed and completed successfully. Final spacecraft closeouts have been performed. The spacecraft is now in a complete ready state for launch; the discrete from the IUS at L-20 min. is the only remaining prelaunch command to be sent. STS IUS: The only scheduled operation was the open circuit voltage checks on the flight batteries. This was completed successfully on 7 October. The PLBD (payload bay doors) were closed at approximately 12:45 p.m. on 9 October. Details Spacecraft At 0200 hours on 7 October, JPL performed the final preparations for RTG installations at Launch Complex 39B. During the removal of the end-blocks (used for testing the cooling loop when the RTGs are not installed) from the ACS (Airborne Cooling System), a JPL technician alertly detected a foreign object in the supply side to the RTG cooling line. Approximately 40 psi of nitrogen pressure was used in an unsuccessful attempt to clear the line. The pressure was subsequently reduced to approximately 20 psi and hemostats were used to remove the debris which was later identified as a piece of foam porous pad. The foam pads are used to temporarily seal the lines from contamination any time a joint of the system plumbing is broken. This is the same type of material previously reported as the cause of the earlier RTG cooling loop problem (see Report #78). Meetings were held between JPL and Lockheed engineers/managers. It was decided to perform a boroscope examination of the sharp bends of the cooling system immediate interface to the RTG. Test results showed the bends to be clean. Based on these results and the fact that approximately equal nitrogen flow was obtained through each RTG branch with a nitrogen flow, it was decided to proceed with the installation of the RTGs without any additional action. The RTGs were delivered to the base of the launch pad at approximately 6:30 p.m. 7 October. The first RTG was hoisted to the PCR (Payload Changeout Room) but operations were then interrupted for approximately 1 1/2 hours by lightning storms. The -x RTG was then installed without any problems except during the mating of the PRD (pressure release devices) to the RTGs; the screw lengths were too long and two additional washers had to be installed on each of the two screws. The second RTG was then hoisted and installed without any problems; washers were also installed on the PRD screws. The operation was completed at approximately 2:30 a.m. on 8 October. At 0400 hours on 8 October, during the process of applying the planned short to the -x RTG by an external S.E. box, it was discovered that the meter went to approximately 25 volts instead of near zero. The spare shorting box was then used and the appropriate reading obtained. The problem was later found to be in the meter. The process for applying RTG power to the spacecraft continued without any further problems. At the conclusion of powering the spacecraft from the RTGs, at approximately 0610 hours on 8 October, the conditioning of the spacecraft for launch commenced. Launch conditioning was completed at approximtely 6:00 p.m. on 8 October. Memory compares of the spacecraft memory contents to the memory load have been completed and it has been reported as being successful at approximately 0300 hours on 9 October. The PRD safe pins have been removed on 9 October and the carry-on umbilicals disconnected. The spacecraft portion of the carry-on umbilical connectors have been capped and the related thermal blanket installed. The PGHM and RTG installation platforms have been placed in a configuration that allowed the orbiter PLBD (payload bay doors) to be closed; the PLBDs were closed at approximately 12:30 p.m. on 9 October. Schedule Discussion and Assessment Launch is still scheduled for 12 October at 1:29 p.m. EDT. ------------------------------ Date: 9 Oct 89 21:40:36 GMT From: munnari.oz.au!csc!dxb105@uunet.uu.net (David Bofinger, Theoretical Physics, RSPhysS ANU) Subject: Ecosystemic Contamination I'm cross-posting this to sci.bio, partly to get this line of the conversation out of sci.space, and partly in the hope an expert can help out. In article <5661@portia.Stanford.EDU>, joe@hanauma.stanford.edu (Joe Dellinger) writes: > Well, I would tend to agree with you, but there are precedents to > the contrary. South America is a much larger continent than North > America, I suppose in biomass terms this is probably true. > so you would expect it to be able to "hold its own" > evolutionarily against invaders... and yet when the isthmus of Panama > formed (quite recently geologically speaking) the North American mammals > almost _immediately_ spread South and _totally wiped out_ all the native > South American mammals. I think the point was that South America was isolated. North America had a (tenuous) link to the _real_ powerhouse of terrestrial evolution- Afro-Eurasia. It wasn't North American mammals that colonised South America: it was Asian ones, via the Bering strait. ______________________________________________________________________________ David Bofinger ACSNet: dxb105@phys0.anu.oz [@munnari.oz.au] (Australia) Snail: Dept. of Theoretical Physics, RSPhysS, ANU, ACT, 2601 Annex space now. Canada wants us to, and Tom Neff can't stop us. ------------------------------ Date: 9 Oct 89 15:40:12 GMT From: sei!firth@PT.CS.CMU.EDU (Robert Firth) Subject: Re: Happy Birthday, Robert Goddard and Konstantin Tsilkovsky. In Space Digest #124, Larry Klaes sends >On October 4, 1857, Konstantin Tsilkovsky, >the Soviet founder of modern rocketry, was born exactly one hundred >years to the day when SPUTNIK 1 was launched. In article <8910081641.AA12063@doc.cc.utexas.edu> sedspace@DOC.CC.UTEXAS.EDU (abrams) writes: >Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology lists >Tsiolkovskii's birthday as September 17, 1857 and Asimov even mentions >that 100 year anniversary launching being late. I'm not saying Larry My (Russian produced) digest of Tsiolkovsky's writings ('Man in the Cosmos') has the 4 October date. Note, however, that Soviet Russian publications generally rectify historical dates, so this would correspond to 22 September in the old calendar. ------------------------------ Date: 10 Oct 89 00:18:53 GMT From: jarthur!kbennett@uunet.uu.net (D. Keith Bennet) Subject: Re: Galileo--- history repeats itself I have seen at least two articals by whom I believe are the same person, and figure I should put my $.02. Stop talking about specifics for a moment, and think about the following concept: There is an ENTIRe planet out there, don't you think that people should be able to make money out of an ENTIRE planet? I figure that the human race should die now if they can't pull off that simple feat. But to specifics... In rebuttal to a number of proposed uses of the moon (mass drivers, solar furnace) I saw an entire article which asked "why why why" Please use your brain. How do we get a mass driver on the moon? We build it there. A solar furnace? launch it into orbit, possibly from the moon. I forget the exact ratio, but it takes a LOT less fuel to launch from the moon than the Earth - shallower gravity well. As for asteroids. I liek them - we should study them. Perhaps build / mine on them. I am curious about the term "swarm" tho - even in the belt, they aren't that close. But they pale in comparison to the moon. As ofr the rest of the solar system? I would love to go visit them. But we will never make it if everyone asks "what exactly will we get out of it?" and complains when we can't answer. what do you expect? It is UNKNOWN, aka we DON'T know, and wish to find out. As for mapping teh moon, there was some article I vaguely remember from the not-so-distant past saying that the Soviets were going to launch some far side probes to map the far side, most of which has not been looked at since the 60's! Ido not call that very accurate. "Trump in Space" would be a headline I would love. disclaimer - as far as I know, I represent no one but myself. And even then I have a lousy memory. y ------------------------------ Date: 9 Oct 89 23:16:25 GMT From: vsi1!ubvax!scott@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Scott Scheiman) Subject: Re: AuAustralian Launch pPad ? In article <1989Oct6.173613.7196@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes: |In article <246900030@peg> calamari@peg.UUCP writes: |>.... What has been the story , environmentally, in the |>US, and what sort of effects could we expect in Australia? | |Think of it as an ongoing construction project. The environmental effects |of the rockets themselves are negligible unless the launch rate really |starts to get fierce. Environmental effects, if any, come mostly from |people and vehicles running around constantly, and buildings and pads |being built and modified. | |In case you weren't aware of it, KSC is a wildlife sanctuary, with huge |populations of birds and swamp animals (including alligators). They don't |seem to mind the activity. ...not to mention, lots of tourists! :-) -- "Ribbit!" Scott Scheiman (408) 562-5572 Ungermann-Bass, Inc. ` /\/@\/@\/\ scott@ubvax.UB.Com 2560 Mission College Blvd. _\ \ - / /_ ...uunet!ubvax!scott Santa Clara, CA 95054 ------------------------------ Date: 9 Oct 89 06:53:12 GMT From: jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!henry@rutgers.edu (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: NASA seeks Space Station Assured Crew Return Vehicle proposals (Forwarded) In article <33235@ames.arc.nasa.gov> yee@trident.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) writes: >... Apollo >missions were flown on lunar "free return" trajectories where the >spacecraft could circle the Moon and return to Earth >automatically... Somebody in the PR department has gotten overenthusiastic here. Some of the early Apollo missions used free-return trajectories, but the later ones did not. Apollo 13, for example, had to do an LM engine burn to get into a free-return trajectory after the explosion. -- A bit of tolerance is worth a | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology megabyte of flaming. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu ------------------------------ Date: Mon 9 Oct 89 13:23:59-PDT From: Brian Keller Subject: re: Galileo Mission Design The article on Galileo mission design is in the August Aerospace America issue, p. 20 (not Sept as I said before). BSK ------- ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V10 #136 *******************