Date: Mon, 21 Dec 92 05:00:03 From: Space Digest maintainer Reply-To: Space-request@isu.isunet.edu Subject: Space Digest V15 #575 To: Space Digest Readers Precedence: bulk Space Digest Mon, 21 Dec 92 Volume 15 : Issue 575 Today's Topics: aurora Biosphere 2 update Breeder reactors (was Re: Justification for the Space Program Breeder reactors... Galileo's atmospheric probe Galileo's Atmospheric Probe Passes Health Checks GPS prediction software (SRI International) Micro-g in KC-135 Space Calendar - 12/20/92 Voyager UVS shutdown (2 msgs) Yuri's descent module in situ still ? Welcome to the Space Digest!! Please send your messages to "space@isu.isunet.edu", and (un)subscription requests of the form "Subscribe Space " to one of these addresses: listserv@uga (BITNET), rice::boyle (SPAN/NSInet), utadnx::utspan::rice::boyle (THENET), or space-REQUEST@isu.isunet.edu (Internet). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 20 Dec 92 15:01:52 GMT From: Dean Adams Subject: aurora Newsgroups: sci.space gary@ke4zv.uucp (Gary Coffman) writes: >I think I may have just solved the Aurora question. Sorry, no such luck. :-) >Attend the following press release. Yep... I've been following this program for a while. It is quite interesting, but it bears absolutely no actual resemblance to the "Aurora". Unfortunately seeing the terms NASA, high altitude, and Aurora in the same paragraph HAS confused some people at times though... >Perseus, designed and built for NASA by Aurora Flight Sciences Corp., >is the first aircraft designed specifically for atmospheric science. >It will carry up to 110 pounds (50 kilograms) of instruments to a >maximum altitude of 82,000 feet (25 kilometers). The plane is made >of lightweight composite materials, much like sailplanes or gliders. >Perseus' engine is based on the 4-cycle, 4-cylinder Rotax engine that >powers ultralight aircraft around the world ... This vehicle has a max speed in the 100mph range and is powered by a reciprocating engine. Sorry, it ain't gonna go Mach 6-8. :-> ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Dec 92 11:07:30 PST From: Taber MacCallum Subject: Biosphere 2 update Biosphere 2 Update: Several people have asked me to post a general description of Biosphere 2 as well as updates during the remainder of our first test run. I'm Taber MacCallum, a crew member inside Biosphere 2 for the first full test. So here I go. Biosphere 2 is a privately financed closed ecological system that is now supporting eight humans and nearly 4000 documented species of plants and animals in seven biomes. There is a rain forest, savannah, desert, marsh, ocean, farm and a human habitat with a kitchen, apartments, laboratory, workshop, command room, animal bay, storage, fully equipped medical facility, recreation and living rooms. Biosphere 2 has a foot print of 14 thousand square meters with an atmospheric volume of 161 thousand cubic meters. Almost all of the energy used for growing plants, waste recycling and atmosphere maintenance is derived directly from sunlight through the glass. In this closed environment all the air, water and waste is recycled and purified by plants and microorganisms. In summary the system is essentially materially closed with a leak rate of less than 9% per year and energetically open, meaning that information, electricity, light and heat go in and out as needed. I am responsible for the analytical chemistry inside Biosphere 2, and primarily concerned with the biogeochemistry. For instance, research into the mechanisms responsible for the decreasing atmospheric oxygen may bear significantly on the mechanisms involved in the decreasing global oxygen and show us what to avoid in future large closed system designs. (See the R.F. Keeling paper in the August issue of Nature for global decrease data.) I also work with Dr. Walford on the medical research involving the crew. Our caloric intake now is about 2100 calories per day/per person and the oxygen is now at 14.8%, so the partial pressure is the equivalent of about 13,000 feet. While low food and oxygen would not be a good situation if we were in an isolated space colony, it's why we're doing it first on the ground. We are now 14.7 months into our two-year exploratory mission and even though we could just walk out the door, we treat air, food and water as matters of life and death. Someday, hopefully, they will be. The restricted calorie intake has serendipitously provided a research opportunity. Our cholesterol level, blood pressure, fasting blood sugar and other basic measures of health have all improved dramatically. This is one of the first highly controlled long term dietary studies that has ever been conducted on humans. The results thus far were published in the December 1, 1992 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Now at over 14 months, we have surpassed the 6 month record for living in a closed life support system, previously set by Russian researchers working in Siberia. We live and work in a computerized paper-free environment, monitor and maintain the various technical systems, collect data, communicate with a team of outside scientific consultants and researchers, prepare reports, and somehow find time for individual research projects and creative endeavors like writing, painting, video documentation, music and computer network postings. The project is located north east of Tucson in Arizona, near the town of Oracle and is open to visitors. The space exploration and settlement aspects of Biosphere 2 are my primary interests, especially from the aspect of technological development and first hand experience with the management of a total life support system, crew relations and mission control support etc. on a two year mission. One of the things that has become very important is feasts in Biosphere 2, having become an invaluable and inseparable part of life inside Bio 2. So when Thanksgiving came along I slaughtered and roasted a young pig whole on a spit after stuffing it with guavas, bananas and papaya. Oh... The fruit made the pork wonderfully tender and sweet. We also had Indonesian rice with peanuts, stir-fried vegetables, baked beans, salad, chutney, crepes with ice cream, sweet potato pie, and cheese cake, bread, soup and home brew. The complexity of the experience is hard to relate, from farming and analytical chemistry to giving emergency medical treatment and exploring the wilderness all in a day's events. It's like hearing several sources of different music all at once, that are somehow not discordant, albeit a little jarring at times. It is imperative that space travelers be able to find a way to relate the experience, or society is cheated out of a large part of the returns from the large endeavor required to colonize space and other worlds. A year ago I was not totally sure if Biosphere 2 would work, even to the degree that it has. Before Biosphere 2, nobody knew if complex closed ecological systems on this scale would even survive, let alone support humans. To have objective, living proof that nature thrives on a scale and condition so radically different from the one we evolved in, is a major change in our understanding of the nature of nature. During the winter solstice period, basically between Thanksgiving and mid January, the sunlight on a full sunny day at the latitude of Tucson falls to less than 40% of the summer solstice sunlight and the frequency of long storms that obscure the sun is much greater. This is the time of maximum impact on the carbon dioxide level in Biosphere 2, due to diminished photosynthesis by the plants, the CO2 can rise to above 4,000 ppm during stormy weather as compared to its summer minimum of under 1000 ppm. In preparation for these stormy episodes I tested the carbon dioxide recycler and it is now being used due to the storms we are experiencing. In the absence of storms we would not need to use the system at all. The carbon dioxide is scheduled to be re-released in the atmosphere during the sunny, clear days of Spring. The recycling action differentiates it fundamentally from precipitation only units (CO2 scrubbers) used in systems such as submarines and the space shuttle, that cannot recycle the gas. I designed the system to take CO2 out of the air in the fall and winter and put it back in the high light spring and summer. The release process regenerates the chemicals for use again the following fall/winter season. Carbon dioxide is stored as limestone (CaCO3) and the limestone is heated in the summer releasing the CO2 and forming CaO. While in many ways Biosphere 2 is inexorably linked to the Earth energetically, by gravity, with information and science, material closure creates for many intents and purposes another entity. The feeling inside, our attitude and actions are definitely those of people who are part of another world. The mission rules and the unspoken rules, our cravings, desires and the physical/mental transformations thus far can only be explained by a drastic departure from what I once knew to be the norm. Though I am still part of, and for my very breath and sustenance depend on a biosphere that is radically different from the one you are in right now. We as a species have found no way to live for any significant length of time except as part of a biosphere. Significance for a species is measured in generations not months or years. This is rather inconvenient because of the relative weight and size of a biosphere as we know them. Biospheres are impossible to launch and require maintenance of systems that on the surface seem to bear no direct benefit to the humans doing the maintenance, but they could potentially be reliable once we get the bugs (not insects) worked out, and it's the only system that we know definitely works. Of course nobody would launch a biosphere off the earth, but I think it is a model of what we might ultimately build in space or on a planet from local materials. Just bring the genetics. We must not forget the aesthetics and stability of a long term settlement. This may be beyond our active lifetimes but I think we must lay the proper foundations from the very beginning. The life support systems we land with, are the backup systems we live and grow old with. ***** I will endeavor to periodically post updates with more specific and current information than was in this post, during the next nine months of this closure, as we approach the end of the first full test of Biosphere 2. Taber MacCallum Analytical Systems Manager, Biosphere 2 Crew, 1991-1993 mission tmaccallum@Igc.org ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Dec 1992 18:53:59 GMT From: Paul Dietz Subject: Breeder reactors (was Re: Justification for the Space Program Newsgroups: alt.rush-limbaugh,talk.politics.space,sci.space In article <1992Dec20.044836.26997@seq.uncwil.edu> session@seq.uncwil.edu (Zack C. Sessions) writes: >>Speaking of breeder reactors, why doesn't the U.S. have more of >>them? >Because they're too damn dangerous. Gee, all kinds? Do remember that there are at least 3 fundamentally different classes of breeder reactors that we know are workable (fast breeders, thermal breeders and spallation reactors). The second of these already has instances in commercial use (Canadian CANDU PHWRs, and the related Indian PHWRs). These can be operated in the thorium/uranium fuel cycle which involves no plutonium, although currently they operated as burners with natural uranium. With natural uranium currently at $10/lb, and with fossil fuels abundant (too abundant, some might say) breeders (as such) don't currently have sufficient advantages to overcome political and economic obstacles. Paul F. Dietz dietz@cs.rochester.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Dec 1992 10:47:43 -0600 From: pgf@srl03.cacs.usl.edu (Phil G. Fraering) Subject: Breeder reactors... \bboerner@novell.com (Brendan B. Boerner) writes: />Speaking of breeder reactors, why doesn't the U.S. have more of \>them? /Because they're too damn dangerous. \Zack Sessions /sessions@seq.uncwil.edu \University of North Carolina at Wilmington (Alumnus) /"Good health is merely the slowest form of dying." Same reason we don't have automobiles, eh? There isn't anything inherently dangerous about breeders. It's just that there are a bunch of lobotomized idiots out there who are more concerned with making policy than actually knowing anything about nuclear physics. Of course, these same people have prevailed upon the government to ban nuclear fuel recycling. I had a hard time trying to convince a friend of my dad's the other day that there was a solution to the nuclear waste problem, and the gubbimint, "will ofthepeeble" (or the feeble minded) had _banned_ a way to reduce the "dangerousawfulearthdestroyingnucularwaste" problem by a couple orders of magnitude. -- Phil Fraering "...drag them, kicking and screaming, into the Century of the Fruitbat." <<- Terry Pratchett, _Reaper Man_ PGP key available if and when I ever get around to compiling PGP... ------------------------------ Date: 17 Dec 92 23:37:51 GMT From: _Floor_ Subject: Galileo's atmospheric probe Newsgroups: sci.space In article zowie@daedalus.stanford.edu (Craig "Powderkeg" DeForest) writes: ] If you drop a Timex watch (``takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'\ '') from ] a height of 1m onto a cement floor, carefully holding it so it falls flat, ] and it stops in 1mm, then it underwent 1000G's of acceleration! ] ] And, being a Timex, it (usually) still works! ] ] We talked about this about a year ago on sci.physics. Everyday things ] undergo a lot more acceleration than we give 'em credit for. ] ] Other examples: a light aluminum hunting arrow experiences 1000G's on ] release from a good compound bow; a car piston with a 10cm stroke ] undergoes 900G's at the top and bottom of its stroke, at 3000rpm (and ] a whopping 3600 at 6000 rpm!); and dropped personal stereos routinely ] take >300 G's and survive. I think there's a bit of a difference here. You're talking about forces and accelerations experienced for milliseconds at a time. This probe will be experiencing this accleration for several minutes! Things can be damaged to prolonged exposure to acceleration! _____ "But you can't really call that a dance. It's a walk." - Tony Banks / ___\ ___ __ ___ ___ _____________ gene@cs.wustl.edu | / __ / _ \ | / \ / _ \ | physics | gene@lechter.wustl.edu | \_\ \ | __/ | /\ | | __/ |racquetball| gev1@cec2.wustl.edu \_____/ \___/ |_| |_| \___/ |volleyball | gene@camps.phy.vanderbilt.edu Gene Van Buren, Kzoo Crew(Floor), Washington U. in St. Lou - #1 in Volleyball ------------------------------ Date: 19 Dec 92 18:55:13 GMT From: Paul Campbell Subject: Galileo's Atmospheric Probe Passes Health Checks Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.astro,alt.sci.planetary In article <1992Dec15.213937.21958@nntpd2.cxo.dec.com> j_butler@ponil.enet.dec.com () writes: >How does NASA and JPL expect the probe to survive the deceleration? It must >be pretty close to slamming into a piece of boilerplate! I think that the jokes about NASA and lawyers are getting a bit stale :-) Paul -- Paul Campbell UUCP: ..!mtxinu!taniwha!paul AppleLink: CAMPBELL.P Use up your Quayle jokes now while they're still good "Quayle for Pres. in '94" Q: Why is Marilyn Quayle like Marion Barry? A: They both suck a little dope. ------------------------------ Date: 20 Dec 92 15:02:06 GMT From: Greg Price Subject: GPS prediction software (SRI International) Newsgroups: rec.aviation.ifr,sci.space,sci.electronics Hi there! I have some public domain GPS satellite simulation/prediction software written by SRI International (Menlo Park, CA), it's great software, the only problem being that I have version 1.62 (March '88) and I'm after a more recent version. I you have a more recent version of the software, please drop me a line, or if you know how to contact SRI International via email, etc. please let me know. The author of the software is Dr. Glenn Siebert. If you are interested in seeing this software, send me some mail and I will see about mail a copy, or putting it on some ftp site. Thanks, Greg Price (greg@coombs.anu.edu.au) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Dec 92 13:21:57 EST From: John Roberts Subject: Micro-g in KC-135 -From: stick@lopez.marquette.MI.US (Stick,CommoSigop) -Subject: Re: Micro-g in KC-135 -Date: 15 Dec 92 22:19:31 GMT -Organization: Great White North/UPLink -In henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes: ->In article <1gfti1INNaqj@rave.larc.nasa.gov> claudio@nmsb.larc.nasa.gov (Claudio Egalon) writes: ->>What causes the microgravity in the KC-135, the centripetal ->>acceleration at the top of the parabola, which may cancel the gravity ->>acceleration, or something else??? ->You don't "cancel" the gravitational acceleration, you fall with it. The ->KC-135 flies the exact trajectory that it would follow if it were falling ->free in a vacuum. ->That trajectory isn't exactly a parabola; it is in fact a segment of an ->elliptical orbit (one that intersects the Earth's surface). It's very ->close to being a parabola. It would *be* a parabola if the Earth were ->flat and gravity did not diminish with altitude. - Interesting. The way I see it, the -135, after nosing up, pushes over -in such a manner that its acceleration towards the Earth's surface exactly -matches the acceleration of gravity. And, I don't know for sure if its -flight path would be that of a parabola, it doesn't maintain its lateral -velocity vector. The speed vector parallel to the Earth's surface would be -at its greatest when the aircraft was in level flight. The horizontal velocity vector *has* to remain essentially the same, or you won't get zero-G. While the trajectory might technically be an ellipse, I think it's more practical to use the approximation that the Earth is flat, the gravitational field is constant, and the trajectory is a parabola. After all, over the course of a 30-second zero-G trajectory, the local intensity of the Earth's gravitational field should show an altitude-related variation of only about one part in 3000, and the Earth beneath the airplane should curve by only about 1/16 of a degree. The trajectory of the plane isn't precise enough to reflect such small differences. Approximations of this type are useful in many fields of engineering. For instance, among those who build their own amateur telescopes, a 4-inch f/10 primary mirror used to be one of the popular choices, in part because for that size mirror, a spherical curvature (much easier to grind than a parabolic curvature) is sufficiently close to a parabola that further figuring isn't really needed. John Roberts roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov ------------------------------ Date: 21 Dec 92 03:16:55 GMT From: Ron Baalke Subject: Space Calendar - 12/20/92 Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.astro,sci.space.shuttle,alt.sci.planetary Here's the latest Space Calendar. Send any updates or corrections to the calendar to Ron Baalke (baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov). Note that launch dates are subject to change. The following people made contributions to this month's calendar: o Keith Gendreau - Updated Astro-D Launch Date (02/12/93) o Michael Hamilton - SeaWIFS Launch Date (08/93) o Dennis Wingo - Updated Consort 6 Launch Date (02/93) ========================= SPACE CALENDAR December 20, 1992 ========================= * indicates change from last month's calendar December 1992 22 - Ursid Meteor Shower (Maximum: 10:00 UT, Solar Longitude 258.7 deg.) 23 - Partial Solar Eclipse, East Asia to Alaska *23 - Optus B-2 Long March 3 Launch 25 - Isaac Newton's 350th birthday (or January 4) 28 - Galileo, Dual Drive Actuator Hammer Test #1 (DDA-5) *29 - Biomedical Spacecraft Launch (Soviet) January 1993 ?? - Eutelsat II F-5 Ariane Launch ?? - NASA Town Meeting - Denver, Colorado ?? - Galaxy 4 Ariane Launch 03-4 Quadrantid Meteor Shower (Maximum: 10:00 UT, Solar Lon 283.13 deg.) *03 - Mars at Opposition (58 million miles from Earth) *04 - Mars Observer, High Gain Antenna (HGA) Activated *06 - Galileo, Dual Drive Actuator Hammer Test #2 (DDA-5) 07 - 25th Anniversary, Surveyor 7 Launch (Moon Soft Lander) *07 - SCD-1 Pegasus Launch (Brazil) 10 - Geotail, 4th Lunar Flyby *11 - Galileo, Dual Drive Actuator Hammer Test #3 (DDA-5) *12 - Soyuz TM-16 Launch (Soviet) *13 - STS-54, Endeavour, TDRS-F *15 - Galileo, Dual Drive Actuator Hammer Test #4 (DDA-5) *30 - Soyuz TM-15 Lands (Soviet) February 1993 ?? - ALEXIS Pegasus Launch *?? - Consort 6 Starfire Launch 01 - 35th Anniversary, Explorer 1 Launch (1st U.S. Satellite) 08 - Mars Observer, 2nd Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM-2) *12 - Astro-D Launch (USA/Japan) 18 - Jules Verne's 165th Birthday 19 - Copernicus' 520th Birthday 25 - STS-55, Columbia, Spacelab Germany (SL-D2) March 1993 ?? - Hispasat 1B & Insat 2B Ariane Launch ?? - Galileo, 10 RPM Spinup Test ?? - DFH-3 Long March 2E Launch (China) *?? - UHF-1 Atlas Launch *?? - GPS/SEDS-1 Delta II Launch 01 - Ulysses, 3rd Opposition 18 - Mars Observer, 3rd Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM-3) 23 - STS-56, Discovery, Atmospheric Lab for Applications and Science (ATLAS-2) 31 - Commercial Experiment Trasporter (Comet) Launch April 1993 *?? - First Test Launch of the DC-X 06 - 20th Anniversary, Pioneer 11 Launch (Jupiter & Saturn Flyby Mission) *19 - Venus/Moon Occultation, Visible from North America 22 - Lyrid Meteor Shower (Maximum: 02:00 UT, Solar Longitude 32.1 degrees) 23 - Pi-Puppid Meteor Shower (Solar Longitude 33.3 degrees) 29 - STS-57, Endeavour, European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA-1R) May 1993 ?? - Advanced Photovoltaic Electronics Experiment (APEX) Pegasus Launch *?? - Radcal Scout Launch *?? - Astra 1C Ariane Launch *?? - GPS/PMQ Delta II Launch 04 - Galileo Enters Asteroid Belt Again *05 - Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower *21 - Partial Solar Eclipse, Visible from North America & North Europe *25 - Magellan, End of Mission? June 1993 ?? - Temisat Meteor 2 Launch *?? - UHF-2 Atlas Launch *?? - NOAA-I Atlas Launch 04 - Lunar Eclipse, Visible from North America 14 - Sakigake, 2nd Earth Flyby (Japan) 22 - 15th Anniversary of Charon Discovery (Pluto's Moon) by Christy July 1993 *?? - MSTI-II Scout Launch *01 - Soyuz Launch (Soviet) *08 - Soyuz Launch (Soviet) 09 - STS-51, Discovery, Advanced Communications Technology Satellite(ACTS) *14 - Soyuz TM-16 Landing (Soviet) *21 - Soyuz TM-17 Landing (Soviet) *28 - S. Delta Aquarid Meteor Shower 29 - NASA's 35th Birthday August 1993 ?? - ETS-VI (Engineering Test Satellite) H2 Launch (Japan) ?? - GEOS-J Launch ?? - Landsat 6 Launch *?? - SeaWIFS Launch *?? - ORBCOM FDM Pegasus Launch 08 - 15th Anniversary, Pioneer Venus Orbitor 2 Launch 09 - Mars Observer, 4th Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM-4) 12 - Perseid Meteor Shower (Max: 04:00 UT, S.L. 139.6 deg and 15:00 UT, S.L. 140.1 deg.) 24 - Mars Observer, Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI) 26 - STS-58, Columbia, Spacelab Life Sciences (SLS-2) 28 - Galileo, Asteroid Ida Flyby September 1993 ?? - SPOT-3 Ariane Launch ?? - Tubsat Launch *?? - Seastar Pegasus Launch *?? - EPOT-3/ASAP-4 Ariane Launch October 1993 ?? - Intelsat 7 F1 Ariane Launch *?? - SLV-1 Pegasus Launch *?? - Telstar 4 Atlas Launch 21 - Orionid Meteor Shower (Solar Longitude 208.4 degrees) November 1993 ?? - Solidaridad Ariane Launch 03 - 20th Anniversary, Mariner 10 Launch (Mercury & Venus Flyby Mission) *03 - S. Taurid Meteor Shower 04 - Galileo Exits Asteroid Belt *06 - Mercury Transits Across the Sun, Visible from Asia, Australia, and the South Pacific *13 - Partial Solar Eclipse, Visible from Southern Hemisphere 16 - STS-60, Discovery, SPACEHAB-2 28-29 - Total Lunar Eclipse, Visible from North America & South America December 1993 *?? - GOES-I Atlas Launch *?? - NATO 4B Delta Launch *?? - FAST Scout Launch *?? - TOMS Pegasus Launch *?? - DirectTv 1 & Thiacom 1 Ariane Launch *?? - ISTP Wind Delta-2 Launch *?? - STEP-2 Pegasus Launch *01 - Mars Observer, Mapping Orbit Established *04 - SPEKTR-R Launch (Soviet) *05 - 20 Anniversary, Pioneer 10 Launch (Jupiter Flyby Mission) *07 - STS-61, Endeavour, Hubble Space Telescope Repair *08 - Mars Observer, Mars Equinox *13 - Geminids Meteor Shower *20 - Mars Observer, Solar Conjunction *25 - Mars Observer, Mapping Phase Begins ##### ___ _____ ___ /_ /| /____/ \ /_ /| Ron Baalke | baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov | | | | __ \ /| | | | Jet Propulsion Lab | ___| | | | |__) |/ | | |__ M/S 525-3684 Telos | Choose a job you love, and /___| | | | ___/ | |/__ /| Pasadena, CA 91109 | you'll never have to work |_____|/ |_|/ |_____|/ | a day in your life. ------------------------------ Date: 20 Dec 92 16:41:45 GMT From: Jonathan McDowell Subject: Voyager UVS shutdown Newsgroups: sci.space From article <1992Dec17.154409.1@fnalf.fnal.gov>, by higgins@fnalf.fnal.gov (Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey): [ Reacting to:] >> The Voyager Ultraviolet Spectrometer (UVS) Guest Observer (GO) Program >> Scientist, Bob Stachnik/NASA HQ and the UVS GO Project Scientist, Ron >> Oliversen/GSFC regretfully announce the termination of the UVS GO program. > > Ouch! Bummer. You ain't heard nothing yet, Bill. All of the Mission Ops and Data Analysis programs (IUE, Einstein, EUVE, GRO, ROSAT, etc) were called to D.C. last week for an emergency review and further major cuts. The usual Congress smarts - spend half a billion on getting a mission up, then cut the one percent of that that would let you do a good job with the results. MO&DA is one of the cheapest and most important things NASA does but one of the first to get cut. [Declaration of interest: of course, my salary comes out of this budget, so I would say that, wouldn't I.] - Jonathan McDowell ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 01:30:51 GMT From: Ron Baalke Subject: Voyager UVS shutdown Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.space In article <1992Dec20.061437.27570@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>, rkornilo@nyx.cs.du.edu (Ryan Korniloff) writes... >Yeah, that really is a shame. But let me ask this.. Does this mean that >Voyager has discontinued to look for the helopause? Or does this mean that >only one of the instuments have been shutdown, and there are still others >that are active.. > This only applies to the UVS instrument. The VIM (Voyager Interstellar Mission) for Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 is funded through the year 2019, which means we'll be tracking the spacecraft as long as we can. Of course, neither spacecraft is expected to last to 2019. As time goes on and the power level drops from the plutonium decay from the RTG's, additional instruments will have to be turned off. The spacecraft's signal is getting weaker and weaker as it moves farther away, and will probably be out of range of the DSN stations by 2019. Pioneer 10 and 11 are also being used for the search for the heliopause boundary, but they are not expected to last beyond 1996. ___ _____ ___ /_ /| /____/ \ /_ /| Ron Baalke | baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov | | | | __ \ /| | | | Jet Propulsion Lab | ___| | | | |__) |/ | | |__ M/S 525-3684 Telos | Choose a job you love, and /___| | | | ___/ | |/__ /| Pasadena, CA 91109 | you'll never have to work |_____|/ |_|/ |_____|/ | a day in your life. ------------------------------ Date: 20 Dec 92 22:45:02 GMT From: johnwl@kean.ucs.mun.ca Subject: Yuri's descent module in situ still ? Newsgroups: sci.space Hello, I happened to be dial grazing the other night and watched part of the Moscow to Paris "auto" relay. At one point the soviet commentator said that the crews stopped to examine "Yuri Gagarin's" space craft. The video showed a couple of people walking through some scrub brush in the middle of nowhere (apparently) and looking over what sure looked like a stripped descent module ! (with little rust - must be titanium ;-) Could this be truly just "left out there" ? Or, would they have left this module as an in situ display or monument. You see the weirdest things on cable TV ... happy holidays ! Jack Lawson johnwl@kean.ucs.mun.ca ------------------------------ End of Space Digest Volume 15 : Issue 575 ------------------------------