Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V10_1/V10_197.TXT

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Subject: SPACE Digest V10 #197

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 10 : Issue 197

Today's Topics:
          1989 AANC Astronomical Conference
           Magellan Status for 10/31/89 (Forwarded)
               Jupiter Balloon
              Re: SPACE Digest V10 #165
               Voyager 1 Update
            Re: Moon Colonies / Ant Tanks?
               Re: Confederacy posting
              Galileo Update (Forwarded)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 1 Nov 89 02:37:01 GMT
From: unisoft!bdt![e-mail]  (Vance Chin)
Subject: 1989 AANC Astronomical Conference



    The 1989 Astronomical Conference will be held November 18 & 19 at the
Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley, 9a.m. to 5p.m., sponsored by the
Astronomical Association of Northern California.The public is invited to
attend.
     Major speakers include: Dr. David Morrison (NASA Ames) "A Deeper Look at
Neptune Results"; Dr. Alexei Filippenko (UC Berkeley) "Quark Star:
Understanding Supernova 1987A"; Kodak's George Keene ("wrote the book" on
astrophotography) "The Differences Between Photographic Emulsions and
Electronic Cameras"; John Wright Briggs (Sky & Telescope/Mt. Wilson) "An
Expedition to Observe Aurorae over Greenland"; Robert Sheaffer (Bay Area
Skeptics) "Why Most UFO Reports Don't Turn Out To Be Alien."
     A variety of talks by amateur astronomers and educators feature Percival
Lowell, the 18th Century expedition to observe a transit of Venus in Baja
California, CCD's and video techniques in amateur astronomy, the "SPARKS"
astronomy education program (Bob Ferguson), the "Spectre of Mt. Diablo" (Carl
 Services, Door Prizes, and
info about Astronomy Clubs from all over Northern California.
     Registration fee: $16 for 2 days (until 11/10) or $10/day at door.
Awards/Banquet on 11/18 at 6pm at Shenanigan's in Oakland requires separate
reservation.  Exhibitor/vendor tables (free) still avail  .Contact Don Stone
[phone] (Sun-Thur, 7-10pm) for info or send checks to: AANC, Conference
Registration, Chabot Science Center, 4917 Mountain Blvd., Oakland, CA 94619.
All registration packets will be available at the registration desk.

Please repost to other BBS / systems that would be interested.

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

Date: 1 Nov 89 21:03:30 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Magellan Status for 10/31/89 (Forwarded)


                     MAGELLAN WEEKLY STATUS
                          Oct. 31, 1989


     This is the weekly Magellan status report. Magellan on
Tuesday, Oct. 31, was 80,889,686 miles from Earth. Having passed
through perihelion on Oct. 7, the spacecraft is slowing as it
begins its return to the orbit of earth and is now traveling at a
speed of 83,205 miles per hour relative to the sun.

     With the exception of several failed star calibrations,
Magellan continues to operate nominally during the second third
of its cruise.

     None of the seven scheduled star calibrations performed last
week provided a complete autonomous attitude update. On Oct. 24,
although the star Beta Gruis was rejected due to the magnitude
check, all four star crossings were found to be valid. The
attitude control system analysts were then able to use the data
to generate an attitude knowledge correction. It was tested and
uplinked on Oct. 27.

     During the weekend, the command file to change star pairs
was tested and is expected to be uplinked Thursday, Nov. 2.
Additionally, the flight software patch to put the first star
scanner in place to help alleviate the star calibration problem
was uplinked to the spacecraft today, Oct. 31.

     Preparations for Cruise load 14 and 15 are proceeding on
schedule. The start of Cruise 14 stored sequence is scheduled for
Nov. 6 and Cruise 15 on Nov. 28.



     SPACECRAFT
     Distance from Earth (mi)             80,889,686

     Velocity Geocentric                  66,573 mph
              Heliocentric                883,205 mph

     One-way light time (Oct. 30)         7 mins, 10 secs

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

Date: 1 Nov 89 22:30:52 GMT
From: agate!sandstorm.Berkeley.EDU![e-mail]  (George William Herbert)
Subject: Jupiter Balloon


    A friend and I (George and Frank Crary) just worked out
specs for a nuclear heated balloon for dropping into the Jovian
atmosphere and leaving for an indefinite amount of time (years?).

    Using the core off an SP-100 reactor, heating a 40m radius
balloon, we got a payload of 2-5 tons (conservatively).  The total
balloon package was 6-8 tons excluding the aerobrake shell.

    The altitude target would be the five-bar altitude, though
the baloon should be able to handle from the two or three bar to the ten
bar levels.

    Anyone interested?  More data to follow.

george william herbert                           frank crary (not posting)
[e-mail]                             [e-mail]

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

Date:         Wed, 01 Nov 89 15:56:07 EST
From: J Metz <[e-mail]>
Subject:      Re: SPACE Digest V10 #165

   I was just wondering.  Coming onto the net within the past year, I was
 not able to see if there was a Space Digest or a NASA Space Headlines on
 or just before Jan. 28, 1986 (the Challenger explosion).  For my own
 curiosity, I wanted to know what expectations NASA had published about the
 crew, the ship, and the mission.   Any information would be appreciated.
                                   Thank you.

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

Date: 1 Nov 89 22:46:06 GMT
From: gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!henry.jpl.nasa.gov!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Subject: Voyager 1 Update


                      Voyager 1 Update
                      27 October 1989

     NASA restored full contact with Voyager 1 after the space probe
stopped sending data to Earth this week--the first such
malfunction since it was launched in 1977 to explore Jupiter and
Saturn.

     "We're relieved, of course.  But now there's the question of why
did it happen and is it going to happen again?"  said John Tullius,
senior mission controller for Voyagers 1 and 2 at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory.

     Controllers never lost Voyager 1's "carrier signal,"
a single tone that allows them to track the probe's location,
which is now above the plane of the solar system some 3.7 billion
miles from Earth.  But sometime between 6 a.m. and 4 p.m. PDT
October 23, Voyager 1 stopped sending its "telemetry signal," which
transmits scientific data collected by the probe and information
about how the spacecraft is functioning, Tullius said.

     At noon on October 24, engineers sent commands to reset Voyager 1's
"telemetry modulation unit," ordering it to start working again.
The commands took 5 1/2 hours to reach the spacecraft, and the
same amount of time for Voyager to confirm the commands worked.
It was after 11 p.m. on the same day when engineers knew full contact was
restored, Tullius said.

     Although engineers at times have shut off Voyager
telemetry signals intentionally, this week's partial loss of
contact was the first time it has happened accidentally.  The
cause is under investigation, but Tullius said a cosmic ray may
have hit the telemetry unit, or a circuit simply malfunctioned
because of age.


 Ron Baalke                       |    [phone] x260
 Jet Propulsion Lab  M/S 301-355  |    [e-mail]
 4800 Oak Grove Dr.               |
 Pasadena, CA 91109               |

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

Date: 2 Nov 89 01:41:47 GMT
From: gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu![e-mail]
Subject: Re: Moon Colonies / Ant Tanks?


In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Tom Neff) writes:
>> Oh by the way, if you have to burrow underground to survive in a
>> Moon colony, why bother to go?  Why not just build underground
>> colonies here?  Sure is easier to ship stuff here.  If you have
>> to spend your whole life in the basement, how much does it matter
>> which basement?

Henry Spencer replies:
>If you have to ask, you aren't ever going to know.

Herman Rubin replies:
>Clearly Mr. Neff cannot see the difference, but that does not give him
>any status in telling the rest of us.  If you have to spend your whole
>life in some statist country, how much does it matter which country?
>
>Of course it matters.  I would expect any reasonably intelligent person
>to give many reasons why someone would want to live on the moon.  And
>living underground does not mean all the time is spent underground.

Neither of these are answers to the question.  They are responces to an
insult or threat.  Can we stop considering this to be a religious issue
long enough to reply to the original posting with a good and
intellegent responce?  If you can't, don't expect congress to ever be
convinced enough to fork over the necessary capital to fund such a
project!

-- Daniel Pommert
 [e-mail]
Computing Services Office
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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

Date:     Wed, 1 Nov 89 10:16:28 CST
From: Will Martin <[e-mail]>
Subject:  Re: Confederacy posting

HELP! HELP! Over here on the MILNET side of things we get the SPACE Digest,
and in it we have seen two comments on the fabled "Confederacy in Space"
posting commenting on how funny it is, but we have *never* seen the
original posting itself! It might be that things are being lost as input
to the Digest -- it has been arriving out-of-sequence here lately, and
there were two different ones numbered "167".

I'd appreciate it if someone would mail me a copy of the "Confederacy
in Space" original. I will then submit a single copy of it as input to
the Digest so the rest of the mailing-list community can see it. (That
should avoid a dozen copies of it showing up in future Digest issues;
it won't matter if I alone get a dozen mailed copies.)

Regards, Will
[e-mail] OR [e-mail]

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

Date: 1 Nov 89 20:44:55 GMT
From: swrinde!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!henry.jpl.nasa.gov!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Subject: Galileo Update (Forwarded)


                      GALILEO WEEKLY STATUS
                        October 30, 1989


          This is a weekly Galileo status report.  Today,
October 30, 1989, the spacecraft is about 2.5 million miles from
Earth, and has gone 16.7 million along its 2.4-billion-mile
spiral course to Jupiter.  Its velocity around the Sun is almost
60,000 mph.  All subsystems are working well.

          Since launch, operators have sent hundreds of real-
time commands to the Galileo spacecraft. The S-band transmitter
has been switched to 30 watts, and the propulsion system has been
exercised twice in maintenance maneuvers (primarily to move
oxidizer and fuel along in the plumbing.)  The telemetry rate is
7.68 kilobits per second.

          As of this morning, the spacecraft is spinning at 2.9
rpm around an axis within 1 degree of the Sun line.  As Galileo
progresses around towards Venus, the Sun angle changes; this is
held to less than 14 degrees, by commanded or automatic
maneuvers, to assure a shaded spacecraft.

          The atmospheric entry probe was checked out last
Thursday, October 26, and its condition is satisfactory.  The
imaging system and the near-infrared mapping spectrometer
were checked out Friday, with good results.  Preparatory
activities for various other science instruments are being
done, but the only instruments actually turned on and taking
data are the magnetometer and the HIC.

          The heavy ion counter, an engineering instrument
modified from parts of a Voyager cosmic-ray sensor, was
turned on ten days ago and detected the latter part of the
solar flare of October 19.  Heavy ions of energies up to 130
MEV (million electron volts) have been detected, but the
spacecraft has experienced no single-event upsets (i.e., no
ill effects.)

          Today the star sensor on the spinning section is to
be checked out, in preparation for Wednesday's start of dual-
spin operations.  The lower section of the Galileo spacecraft
will be spun in reverse, with electric motors, stopping the
rotation and despinning the science scan platform.

          The first trajectory-correction maneuver, TCM-1, is
scheduled, in three instalments, for November 9, 10 and 11.


 Ron Baalke                       |    [phone] x260
 Jet Propulsion Lab  M/S 301-355  |    [e-mail]
 4800 Oak Grove Dr.               |
 Pasadena, CA 91109               |

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

End of SPACE Digest V10 #197
*******************