Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/DAILY_1/930330.DFC

Text File | 1993-03-31 | 16KB | 415 lines

30-Mar-93 Daily File Collection
   These files were added or updated between 29-Mar-93 at 21:00:00 {Central}
                                         and 30-Mar-93 at 21:00:12.

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KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT 3/30/93







                DAILY SPACE SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT
                         March 30, 1993


George H. Diller
Kennedy Space Center



Vehicle:  OV-103/Discovery               Mission number: STS-56
Location:  Pad 39-B                      Orbital altitude: 184 sm
Primary payload: ATLAS-2                 Inclination: 57 degrees
Launch timeframe: NET April 6            Landing site: KSC
Mission duration: 8 days                 Crew size: 5



STS-56 IN WORK:

- installation of replacement check valve on main engine #1

- orbiter aft compartment closeouts

- avionics bay closeouts

- mate and leak check orbiter mid-body umbilical unit

- stowage of flight crew mission items into crew compartment

- troubleshooting crew cabin instrument panel electrical system

- countdown preparations in Firing Room 3



STS-56 WORK SCHEDULED:

- leak check replacement check valve tonight

- ordnance installation and connections Wednesday

- pressurization of hypergolic propellant tanks Wednesday

- external tank purges Thursday

- final orbiter aft confidence test Friday

- remove main engine protective covers Friday

- install aft compartment flight doors Friday




STS-56 WORK COMPLETED:

- completed removal of leaking check valve on main engine #1

- completed ATLAS-2 payload closeouts

- closed payload bay doors for flight

- installed crew escape pole

- performed crew hatch functional check

- topped off pad liquid oxygen storage sphere



ISSUES AND CONCERNS

STS-56:

     In repeating the combined test as well as individual leak
checks of Discovery's #1 main engine check valves yesterday, one
valve did not pass these tests.  While it is the same valve which
failed on Columbia it is not known at this time if there is any
correlation.  Overnight it was removed and today it is being
flown to Rocketdyne in California for failure analysis.  A spare
valve is being installed today and will be leak checked tonight.



SPECIAL TOPICS

STS-55:

     At Pad 39-A, the changeout of Columbia's three main engines
is underway.  Yesterday main engine #2 was removed and replaced.
Main engine #3 is being removed and replaced today. Main engine
#1 is scheduled to be removed and replaced on Wednesday.




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     Source:NASA Spacelink    Modem:205-895-0028  Internet:192.149.89.61
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Daily News/Tv Sked 3/30/93

Daily                News
Tuesday, March 30, 1993       Two Independence Square, Washington,
D.C..                   Audio Service: 202/358-3014

 % SEDS Successfully launched;
 % Discovery Update;
 % Mars Observer Status;
% New Technology Reinvestment Project
seminar April 1.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Yesterday, after several delays, NASA's Small Expendable-tether Deployer System
(SEDS) was successfully launched aboard a U.S. Air Force Delta II rocket.
According to NASA engineers, SEDS first mission is going smoothly.

The SEDS payload, a 57-pound instrument box, was spring-ejected from a deployer
system mounted on the DELTA II second stage 63 minutes into the flight, from an
altitude of approximately 720 kilometers (390 nautical miles).  The deployment
direction was downward, toward the Earth.

"We wanted to verify that a system like SEDS will deploy a tethered object
successfully, and what we've seen tonight indicates that it will.  Of course,
we'll be studying the data in detail to get a complete understanding of how
well the system operated, " states Jim Harrison, SEDS project manager.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

A firm launch date for the STS-56 mission will not be set until after test
results from Discovery's main engine check valves are complete.  A combined
test of the five engine valves showed unexplained leakage.  The Space Shuttle
Discovery's STS-56 mission is scheduled to last 8 days and carry the ATLAS-2 as
its primary payload.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

All spacecraft subsystems and instruments payload are performing well as the
Mars Observer spacecraft begins to close in on Mars. At present the spacecraft
is about 27 million kilometers (17 million miles) from Mars, and is traveling
at a velocity of about 9,700 kilometers per hour (6,000 miles per hour) with
respect to the red planet.

Extra fuel from good launch conditions will permit ground controllers to use
more propellant after Mars orbit insertion and drop the spacecraft into its
low-altitude mapping orbit faster.  Science operation will start 21 days of
ahead of schedule, beginning on Nov. 22, 1993 rather than Dec. 12.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

NASA officials and officials from other Federal agencies participating in a
Technology Reinvestment Project will hold a seminar this Thursday, April 1, in
the NASA Headquarters Auditorium. The seminar will be carried live on NASA TV
beginning at 9:00 a.m.  EST and concluding at 1:00 p.m.

NASA's Office of Advanced Concepts and Technology has signed a Memorandum of
Understanding to join a multi- agency effort to help American industry respond
to both decreasing defense budgets and global technical competition from both
developed and emerging countries.

The program will use about $500 million in appropriated Defense Department
funds to attempt to create new products and process technologies in nearly a
dozen specific technological areas and to promote and foster the transfer of
existing Federally-produced technology or processes into the commercial sector
from existing Defense industry areas.


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


         Here's the broadcast schedule for Public Affairs events on NASA TV.
Note that all events and times may change without notice and that all times
listed are Eastern. Live indicates a program is transmitted live.




Tuesday, March 30, 1993

                12m        Planetarium
                12:15 pm        Aeronautics & Space Report
                12:30 pm        Our Violent Universe/UARS
                  1:00 pm       NOVA:  The Fastest Planes in the Sky
                  2:00 pm       Staer #28:  Live via satellite
                  2:30 pm       Images of the Universe from the HST
                  3:00 pm       TQM 67



NASA  TV is carried on GE Satcom F2R, transponder 13, C-Band, 72
degrees West Longitude, transponder frequency is 3960 MHz, audio
subcarrier is 6.8 MHz, polarization is vertical.
     Source:NASA Spacelink    Modem:205-895-0028  Internet:192.149.89.61
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3/30/93: NASA AND CALIFORNIA WINE GROWERS JOINTLY BATTLE PEST DAMAGE

RELEASE:  93-55






Charles Redmond
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                   March 30, 1993


Diane Farrar
Ames Research Center, Mountain View, Calif.



        NASA's Ames Research Center, Mountain View, Calif., and California wine
growers will use aerial and satellite images to battle a serious insect problem
facing California's $10 billion-a-year wine industry.

        Sensitive electronic scanners on aircraft and satellites will help a
team from government, industry and several universities map and analyze root
louse damage in northern California's premier wine growing region this summer.

        "Scanners can detect plant stress before it is visible to the naked
eye," said Joan Salute, AMES Project Manager for the Grapevine Remote sensing
Analysis of Phylloxera Early Stress (GRAPES) project.

        "This will help vineyard managers develop replanting plans.  Replanting
with resistant roots is the only way to rid the vineyards of the pest," she
said.

        About 65 percent of Napa and Sonoma counties' vineyards are planted
with a grape rootstock vulnerable to a new strain of phylloxera.  Phylloxera is
an aphid-like insect that kills grapevines by sucking juice from the plants'
roots.  The bug nearly destroyed the vineyards of France and California more
than a century ago, causing severe economic hardship.

        The team includes Ames Research Center; Robert Mondavi Winery, Napa
Valley; University of California Cooperative Extension, Napa; University of
California, Davis; and California State University, Chico. Robert Mondavi,
which plans continued use of the technology, will make the results from the
jointly financed $350,000-a-year, 3-year study available to other wine growers.

        Field work using ground-based scanners to make initial measurements of
leaves will begin in mid-April as the leaves develop.  Images from infested and
non-infested grapevines will be analyzed to determine the earliest detectable
spectral differences.

        The first remote sensing flights will be scheduled in mid-summer as the
grapevine foliage increases.

        "The spatial analysis offered by remote sensing and the potential for
early damage detection are valuable tools for wine growers," Salute said.

        "Satellite and aircraft scanners can map very large areas.  When
combined with a computerized geographic data base, they will provide crucial
overviews of phylloxera spread patterns.

        "Differences in soil and surrounding land use that may affect the
spread patterns can then be assessed.  We hope to learn enough about how, why
and where phylloxera spreads to be able to develop relative risk maps for
future infestations," she said.

        "Understanding the spread of new infestation sites is critical," said
Phil Freese, Robert Mondavi's Vice President of wine growing.

        "Replanting is costly -- about $20,000 an acre.  If we can determine
the risk and pace of vine decline, we can better manage the financial
investment of replanting.  Developing methods for predicting phylloxera spread
also will help us manage less catastrophic pests in the future," he said.

        "Phylloxera damage is not usually visible until 2 or 3 years after the
insect has been feeding on the plant," Salute said. "At that point, the plant
declines rapidly and cannot mature the fruit for harvesting.

        "Our multi-sensor, multi-scale approach will allow us to measure
several early indicators of plant health.  Scanners that record the visible and
near- infrared light from grapevine leaves will detect nutrient deficiencies
that eventually turn the leaves yellow."

        Temperature is also an indicator of plant health.  Stressed plants are
warmer because they cannot efficiently pass water through their membranes.
"Thermal scanners also will record subtle differences in grapevine
temperatures," she said.

        The GRAPES project is staffed by the Earth System Science Division at
Ames. Funding is provided by the Office of Advanced Concepts and Technology
(OACT), NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

        Tom Hatala, Program Manager of OACT's Commercial Remote Sensing
Program, said GRAPES is a demonstration project designed to mature the
technology associated with remote sensing applications and stimulate the remote
sensing applications industry.

        Hatala added that this partnership between government and industry
should result in a new or improved commercial project or service, helping this
applications area to expand.

- end -
     Source:NASA Spacelink    Modem:205-895-0028  Internet:192.149.89.61
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3/30/93: Planetary Mission Status

                    PLANETARY MISSION STATUS
                         March 30, 1993

VOYAGER STATUS 3/30/93

VOYAGER 1 and 2: The two Voyager spacecraft continue their
interstellar mission with fields-and-particles data acquisition.
Voyager 1, launched September 5, 1977, is currently 7.74 billion
kilometers (4.8 billion miles) from the Sun after flying by
Jupiter and Saturn in 1979 and 1980; Voyager 2, launched August
20, 1977, with flybys of Jupiter (1979), Saturn (1981), Uranus
(1986), and Neptune (1989), is now 5.94 billion kilometers (3.7
billion miles) from the Sun.


MAGELLAN STATUS 3/30/93

MAGELLAN: The Magellan spacecraft is continuing its survey of the
gravitational field of Venus, utilizing precise navigation of the
spacecraft in the near-Venus portion of its elliptical orbit
through May 15, 1993.  The science team released final global
maps of Venus's surface topography and various surface properties
at the 24th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston,
March 15-19.  The Project plans to begin maneuvers to circularize
the orbit on May 25.  Magellan was launched May 4, 1989, aboard
Space Shuttle Atlantis with an IUS injection stage; it radar-
mapped more than 98% of Venus's surface from September 1990 to
September 1992.


GALILEO STATUS 3/30/93

GALILEO:  The spacecraft is now en route to Jupiter, scheduled to
go into orbit there on December 7, 1995.  Galileo, Ulysses, and
Mars Orbiter are performing a joint radio-science gravity-wave
experiment from March 22 through April 12.  Galileo spacecraft
performance and condition are excellent except that the high-gain
antenna is only partly deployed; science and engineering data are
being transmitted via the low-gain antenna.  A 2.1-meter-per-
second trajectory-correction maneuver was performed March 9.  The
Project is now planning the Jupiter mission and the August 1993
encounter with asteroid Ida assuming dependence on the low-gain
antenna.  Galileo was launched October 18, 1989, by Space Shuttle
Atlantis and an IUS, and flew by Venus in 1990 and Earth in 1990
and 1992 for earlier gravity assists and asteroid Gaspra in
October 1991 for scientific observation.


ULYSSES STATUS 3/30/93

ULYSSES: The spacecraft is in a highly inclined solar orbit, now
more than 20 degrees south of the ecliptic plane, in transit from
its Jupiter gravity assist in February 1992 toward its solar
polar passages in 1994 and 1995.  Ulysses is participating in the
gravity wave experiment with Galileo.  Spacecraft condition and
performance are excellent, and cruise science data-gathering
continues.  The Ulysses spacecraft was built by the European
Space Agency and launched October 6, 1990 aboard Space Shuttle
Discovery, with IUS and PAM-S stages.


TOPEX/POSEIDON STATUS 3/30/93

TOPEX/Poseidon:  The satellite is healthy, and all scientific
instruments are performing normally, typically providing three
playbacks per day.  The mission to map ocean circulation has
produced interesting results related to the Central Pacific "El
Nino" phenomenon were presented in late February, and the
spacecraft has observed high North Atlantic waves associated with
this month's storms. TOPEX/Poseidon was launched August 10, 1992,
aboard Ariane 52.


MARS OBSERVER STATUS 3/30/93

MARS OBSERVER:  Spacecraft health and performance are normal, and
Mars Observer is on its planned trajectory leading to Mars orbit
insertion August 24, 1993.  It is participating with Galileo and
Mars Observer in the joint gravity-wave experiment.  A small
(0.46 meter-per-second) trajectory correction maneuver was
completed March 18.  The project has determined that propellant
reserves will allow a faster-than-planned transfer to the final
Mars orbit, allowing science observations to start November 22,
1993, three weeks earlier than planned.  Mars Observer was
launched aboard a Titan III/TOS vehicle on September 25, 1992.


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