Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V10_0/V10_006.TXT

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Date: Thu, 31 Aug 89 00:23:57 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: SPACE Digest V10 #6

SPACE Digest                                       Volume 10 : Issue 6

Today's Topics:
            BSB Satellite launch?
            bad Neptune News on TV
          Soviet boosters and lunar program
          Solar System Planets' Masses & Velocities
         Re: Economies of Scale in Launchers
             Re: Books about Space Flight
             Re: new space goals
              Re: voyager audio
                Neptune update
                Triton update
                  New Soyuz
             Re: How is Voyager powered?
            Re: NSS Hotline Update
                Triton update
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 24 Aug 89 15:44:49 GMT
From: mcsun!ukc!inmos![e-mail]  (Conor O'Neill)
Subject: BSB Satellite launch?


Does anyone know the status of the BSB Satellite?
(BSB is ``British Satellite Broadcasting'')
This was due to be launched by a Thor-Delta in early August from KSC,
but has slipped somewhat.

The commercial operation of the satellite is still targetted at
early next year.

I also heard that this launch was special in that it is the first launch
to be paid for only when the satellite is working and in orbit.
So special, that apparently Bush was going to see it.
(They couldn't get Maggie Thatcher!)
--
Conor O'Neill, Software Group, INMOS Ltd. UK: [e-mail]
Disclaimer: All views are my own,         US: @col.hp.com:conor@inmos-c
            not those of INMOS.
"It's state-of-the-art" "But it doesn't work!" "That is the state-of-the-art".

------------------------------

Date:         Thu, 24 Aug 89 20:22:01 HAE
From: Louis Robichaud <[e-mail]>

Just a test (excuse me...)

------------------------------

Date: 24 Aug 89 13:56:54 GMT
From: philmtl!philabs!briar.philips.com![e-mail]  (Robert Casey;6282;3.57;$0201)
Subject: bad Neptune News on TV

This morning I was watching the news on TV and they did a 20 second story on
Voyager.  They showed NASA anamation and pictures of scientists, but *no*
images from Voyager itself!   Come on!  I have seen anamations before, and I
know what scientists look like!  Let's see some actual images.  Tell me
something I don't know.

I don't have cable, so maybe I'm missing the good reports?  I hope my local
PBS station does the flyby coverage tonight.

------------------------------

Date: 24 Aug 89 23:07:36 GMT
From: mnetor!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Soviet boosters and lunar program

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Nick Watkins) writes:
>Risking Henry's wrath I would say this is the first admission of the
>existence of the G1...

I *think* this is true, with the possible exception of earlier vague
allusions.  Just before the first flight of Energia there was a very
interesting paper in JBIS (I think -- might have been Spaceflight) trying
to prove that the Soviet superboosters were myths.  Although the part
of it addressing modern developments quickly became ridiculous, it did
point out that the evidence for the G1 was pretty thin.

>and near conclusive proof that there WAS a manned
>lunar programme, unless the G1 was a long term space station related
>project...
>land men on the moon though.

As Michael Collins observed in "Carrying The Fire", the fact that some
of the cosmonauts were training on helicopters is very hard to reconcile
with anything *but* a lunar-landing project.  Vertical powered landings
are a somewhat specialized technique...
--
V7 /bin/mail source: 554 lines.|     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
1989 X.400 specs: 2200+ pages. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry [e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: 25 Aug 89 02:14:14 EDT
From: Colin Hunter <[e-mail]>
To: <[e-mail]>
Subject: Solar System Planets' Masses & Velocities

From: J. Colin R. Hunter

About a month or so ago, somebody posted a request for data on the mass and
velocity of each of the planets in the solar system.  I do not recall him
posting any information to the net since, and am curious to know if he received
the information that he was seeking.  If he did, could whoever it was E-mail me
whatever he found out, or alternatively provide a summary of responses to the
net.

Thanks,

J. Colin R. Hunter
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
University of Maryland at Baltimore

------------------------------

Date: 24 Aug 89 18:54:18 GMT
From: mnetor!utzoo![e-mail]  (Kieran A. Carroll)
Subject: Re: Economies of Scale in Launchers

[e-mail] (Bob Pendleton) writes:
>
> From article <[e-mail]>, by [e-mail] (Henry Spencer):
> --MORE--(37%)
> > Either there's something going on that I've never heard of -- which *is*
> > possible, my backround in these things being informal and somewhat spotty --
> > or you've misunderstood.  *Low* molecular weight is very badly wanted in
> > the exhaust of any thermal rocket (which includes all chemical rockets and
> > some others).
>
> Nope, high molecular weigth exhaust is better in a high pressure
> environment.  That is why there are solid fuel strap ons on so many
> boosters. In a vacuum you want the lowest possible weight exhaust.
>

Hmm. I thought that the reason to use solid fuel strap-on rockets
was because they enjoy a high thrust-to-weight ratio (specific thrust),
so that they can accelerate a vehicle very rapidly for a given mass of
solid strap-on. However, they have a relatively poor impulse-to-weight
ratio (specific impulse), so that the mass ratio for a purely solid
rocket, delivering payload to orbit, would be very high. Nowhere in there
does molecular weight interact directly with atmospheric pressure;
in my main reference (H.H. Koelle's "Handbook of Astronautical
Engineering"), atmospheric pressure affects only the expansion ratio of
your rocket nozzle.
Please do correct me if I'm wrong, and let me know where my error lies.
--

     Kieran A. Carroll @ U of Toronto Aerospace Institute
     uunet!attcan!utzoo!kcarroll [e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: 24 Aug 89 10:29:05 GMT
From: mcsun!ukc!icdoc!syma![e-mail]  (Nick Watkins)
Subject: Re: Books about Space Flight

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Jeff Okamoto) writes:

>_Carrying the Fire_, Mike Collins
Apparently this has been reissued in hardback this year.

>_13: The Flight that Failed_, Gordon(?) Cooper
No, Henry S.F. Cooper Jr. In Britain was later ('75) issued as a
paperback under title "Moonwreck". Good book, as is his "A House in
Space" about Skylab.

>_???_, Walt Cunningham
"The All American Boys".



--
Nick Watkins, Space & Plasma Physics Group, School of Mathematical
& Physical Sciences, Univ. of Sussex, Brighton, E.Sussex, BN1 9QH, ENGLAND
JANET: [e-mail]   BITNET: [e-mail]
Voice: [phone]

------------------------------

Date: 8 Aug 89 21:37:22 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (Jonathan Patrick Leech)
Subject: Re: new space goals

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Brian Yamauchi) writes:
>But the most important thing is that space
>exploration (whether public or private) must become as important to
>society as prosperity, defense, welfare/charity, or the environment.
>...
>I think society *is* ready for exploration-oriented values.

    I think people love space - as long as they don't have to pay for
it.  Families who realize they can't ever afford a house are not
likely to support massive increases in the space budget.

    The only reason for going into space which bypasses the fickle
public and government has nothing to do with exploration or science.
It has to do with money.
--
    Jon Leech ([e-mail])
    Apple Integrated Systems
    __@/

------------------------------

Date: 24 Aug 89 15:37:02 GMT
From: sco![e-mail]  (Hiram Clawson)
Subject: Re: voyager audio

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Adam Glass) writes:
>I would like to get a copy of the audio from the voyager's gold LP (you know,
>the one with the pictures of the man and woman, and the sounds of earth?)
>Where can I get a tape (preferred medium) of the "sondes of earth"?

I asked Frank Drake about this, and he explained that
copyright laws on the various pieces of music made
it impossible to assemble the collection in commercial
form.

However, I do have a list of what is on the tape.
With an intensive collection effort, you may
be able to make your own recording.
This would only be the music items though,
the natural sounds would a bit more challenging.

--Hiram  (uunet!sco!hiramc  ||  [e-mail])

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 25 Aug 89 02:01:31 PST
From: Peter Scott <[e-mail]>
Subject: Neptune update
X-Vms-Mail-To: EXOS%"[e-mail]"

Latest info from a personal viewpoint: ring arcs are out, rings (with
some parts fatter than others) are in.  Triton is beginning to look like
the real reason for coming here.  Interesting images showing roughly
parallel short dark streaks.  Apparently some imaging staff claim they
can see impact craters.   Speculations as to the nature of Triton run the
entire gamut of planetary satellite models.  About all they agree on is
that it appears to be one of the most unusual things we've ever laid
sensors on, and the later it gets the more likely speakers are to confuse
its name with Titan.  A color close-up and the high-resolution terminator
pictures will be recorded for transmission about 24 hours from now.
However, a series of overlapping pictures will come back around 3:30 this
morning, and if Ed Stone thinks it's worth coming in to see them, so do I.
I'm setting my NeXT to play a rousing Japanese piece at that time, and
laying my sleeping bag out in my office.  The lab is humming.

Peter Scott ([e-mail])

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 25 Aug 89 13:51:08 PST
From: Peter Scott <[e-mail]>
Subject: Triton update
X-Vms-Mail-To: EXOS%"[e-mail]"

Well, now we're all flushed with enthusiasm from the visit of Dan Quayle...
hourly updates resume.  Atmospheric haze found over *parts* of Triton.
Possibly condensates migrating from warm to cold areas.  The lake-like
features I commented on earlier are still interpretable as such, although
the Y-shaped parallel groove tracks now look like a single, wide Y-groove
under enhancement.  Unless they happened to be looking at a similar feature
elsewhere on the moon.  Thought to be tectonic activity; there is ample
evidence of such.  Rumor in my group is that parts of Triton have an
observed albedo approaching 1... the albedo of fresh snow is 0.8 so if
this is true it is a humdinger.  I noticed from the input histograms of
the images as they arrived that Triton is much brighter than Neptune
(per unit solid angle, of course).  Much analysis is now awaiting the
arrival of the prerecorded sequences VTCOLOR (color images of most of
the moon) and VTTERM (pictures along the terminator with a 0.8km resolution,
twice what we currently have).  Interpretation of some areas with apparent
debris is that it was thrown up from a nearby impact crater.  Several small
domes near the resolution limit spotted, one with a pit on top.

VTCOLOR and VTTERM arrive tomorrow morning.  Voyager hit the occultation
window (Triton) on the nose.  Stay tuned.

Peter Scott ([e-mail])

------------------------------

Date: 24 Aug 89 19:20:00 GMT
From: mcsun!ukc!icdoc!syma![e-mail]  (Nick Watkins)
Subject: New Soyuz

Recently seen in "Spaceflight News" for July '89:
"The Soviet Union is developing an enlarged version of the Soyuz manned
spacecraft. Apparently the new craft weighs 13 tons-twice the weight of
the existing Soyuz-TM model. It will be launched by the new J-1 medium
lift rocket [aka SL16], which is called Zenit."

Anybody know any more about this?

Nick
--
Nick Watkins, Space & Plasma Physics Group, School of Mathematical
& Physical Sciences, Univ. of Sussex, Brighton, E.Sussex, BN1 9QH, ENGLAND
JANET: [e-mail]   BITNET: [e-mail]
Voice: [phone]

------------------------------

Date: 25 Aug 89 15:51:41 GMT
From: crdgw1![e-mail]  (Dennis M. O'Connor)
Subject: Re: How is Voyager powered?

tim@cayman (Tim Olson) writes:
] ... Voyager ... don't really know how it is powered.
] I thought it was nuclear, but ... only ... we knew of ...steam/turbine.
] ... I can't imagine Voyager ... blowing its steam whistle ;-)

I believe Voyager uses one or more RTGs. RTGs contain a sub-critical
mass of a fissionable material ( plutonium, I think ? ). The
fission occuring causes the fuel to be hot. This heat is applied
to one end of a "pile" of thermocouples. The other end of the
thermocouples is attached to a radiator. The thermocouples
are wired togther, and supply electricity.

There is another kind of "no-moving-part" radioisotope generator.
Don't know the name. It uses isotopes that emit charged particles
( usually beta particles, I think. i.e. high-energy electrons ). The
beta-emitter is in the middle of an exacuated sphere. The
electrons are emmited by the beta-emitter and travel to the
sphere wall. The sphere wall becomes negatively charged,
and the central mass of beta-emitting material becomes
positive. Connect wires to each and you have a battery.

I've heard that high-power radarsats use actual reactors
( with control rods, coolant, et cetera ), but have no idea
how the heat is made into electricity.
--
  Dennis O'Connor      [e-mail]      UUNET!CRD.GE.COM!OCONNOR
  Science and Religion have this in common : you must take care to
  distinguish both from the people who claim to represent each of them.

------------------------------

Date: 25 Aug 89 12:09:15 GMT
From: mcsun!ukc!icdoc!syma![e-mail]  (Nick Watkins)
Subject: Re: NSS Hotline Update

In article <246900031@cdp>, [e-mail] writes:

> A Soviet cosmonaut, Valeri Bykovsky, has written a book in which
> he states that he was slated to pilot a spacecraft to the Moon
> prior to the US Apollo 11, but that the death of a top Soviet
> rocket designer slowed the lunar program. This is the first time
> the Soviets have suggested that they had plans to land men on the
> Moon before the Apollo landing.

Further details: The September "Spaceflight" (p.293 ) reports that the book
is called "Cosmonaut No.5" and that Bykovsky "was to have been the first
cosmonaut to walk on the moon". Design of the Soviet lunar spacecraft
Zond, "began soon after the launch of Sputnik. Bykovsky says his
...[Vostok flight] ... was to prepare him [sic] for flights to the Moon.
... Soviets were set to land a man on the moon in 1968 says Tass". But
the death in 1968 of Korolev "hampered and retarded the Lunar programme".
 Tass also says that the Proton booster would have been used to launch a
cosmonaut into lunar orbit [sic].
 Flight International also has an item saying essentially same thing.
 If there has been "sloppy reporting" (Henry) then it seems to have been Tass.
Anyone with access to Tass bulletins care to post or precis the original?

Nick


--
Nick Watkins, Space & Plasma Physics Group, School of Mathematical
& Physical Sciences, Univ. of Sussex, Brighton, E.Sussex, BN1 9QH, ENGLAND
JANET: [e-mail]   BITNET: [e-mail]
Voice: [phone]

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 25 Aug 89 05:20:52 PST
From: Peter Scott <[e-mail]>
Subject: Triton update
X-Vms-Mail-To: EXOS%"[e-mail]"

Well folks, Triton is one weird satellite.  A sequence of clear-filter
images just came in that look spectacular.  Parts of Triton look just like
the Moon; smoother, darker areas bounded by lighter areas with very sharp
and irregular boundaries, small, round, smooth craters, some overlapping.
One apparently very old crater was just a vaguely circular wall enclosing
newer craters.  The craters are quite smooth for the most part, suggesting
either an ice-like surface or maybe atmospheric erosion.  No atmospheric
features apparent, though it would be hard to tell from just these images.
Some areas have chaotic streaking of dark matter that looks as though it
overlays the surface, much like a barbeque pit scar.  One streak appear
next to a white roud spot and looks like an ejecta blanket thrown in a
narrow fountain.  There is a giant Y-shaped feature that looks just like
a giant jeep made tracks - parallel grooves (or maybe ridges).  None of
us watching had any idea what it could be.  Near the South Pole some
evidence for the darker areas being lower than the light shows in a series
of lake-like structures enclosing dark surface.  There are long straight
ridges, mountain ranges, and a soft donut feature with no apparent relief
that we speculated could be a crater filled in over time by ice slush.
The resolution is terrific.  The color pictures of this moon promise to
be awesome.

Peter Scott ([e-mail])

------------------------------

End of SPACE Digest V10 #6
*******************