Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V10_4/V10_405.TXT

Internet Message Format | 1991-07-08 | 18KB

Return-path: <[e-mail]>
X-Andrew-Authenticated-as: 7997;andrew.cmu.edu;Ted Anderson
Received: from beak.andrew.cmu.edu via trymail for +dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr11/tm2b/space/[e-mail] (->+dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr11/tm2b/space/space.dl) (->ota+space.digests)
          ID </afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr1/ota/Mailbox/kZehShW00VcJ43S04G>;
          Wed, 10 Jan 90 01:35:26 -0500 (EST)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail]
From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Date: Wed, 10 Jan 90 01:35:00 -0500 (EST)
Subject: SPACE Digest V10 #405

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 10 : Issue 405

Today's Topics:
            Re: Nuclear Reactors in Space
         NASA Headline News for 01/09/90 (Forwarded)
            Soviet Mir Crew update
            Re: Nuclear Reactors in Space
            Re: Nuclear Reactors in Space
            Re: Nuclear Reactors in Space
        Fwd: [postmaster: Returned mail: Host unknown]
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 9 Jan 90 18:30:31 GMT
From: crdgw1!crdos1![e-mail]  (Wm E Davidsen Jr)
Subject: Re: Nuclear Reactors in Space

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Mike Van Pelt) writes:

| It's an unfortunate fact of life that there are a number of people out
| there who react to any mention of the "N-word" with mindless,
| unreasoning, superstitious dread, and no arguments, no matter how well
| reasoned and firmly based in fact, will sway them in the slightest.

  And now you know why the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) medical
imaging project was a failure. People would rather have exploratory
surgery than "something nuclear." They are now happy to submit to
Magnetic Resonance Imaging instead. Same hardware, nothing changed but a
few signs on the equipment and the department doors...
--
bill davidsen    ([e-mail] -or- uunet!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen)
"The world is filled with fools. They blindly follow their so-called
'reason' in the face of the church and common sense. Any fool can see
that the world is flat!" - anon

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

Date: 9 Jan 90 19:16:35 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA Headline News for 01/09/90 (Forwarded)

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, January 9, 1990                      Audio: 202/755-1788
-----------------------------------------------------------------


This is NASA Headline News for Tuesday, January 9.....


The space shuttle Columbia was successfully launched
today at 7:35 A.M., Eastern time.  With good weather at the
Kennedy Space Center this morning...the countdown went flawlessly
and the STS-32 mission began on time as the launch window opened.
KSC Launch Director Bob Sieck said the launch process was nearly
flawless.


Shortly after achieving orbit, the payload bay doors were opened
and flight operations began.  Activities today include checkout
of the remote manipulator arm that will be used to grapple the
Long Duration Exposure Facility later this week.


Wednesday's major activity will be deployment of the SYNCOM
satellite.  The flight schedule calls for retrieval of the Long
Duration Exposure Facility to occur Friday morning.



The launch of a Delta rocket carrying a Global Positioning
Satellite from Cape Canaveral has been delayed until next week.
NASA Select TV will carry the launch.



The New York Times says the world's most powerful optical
telescope will become partially operational this spring.  The
396-inch Keck telescope is located on Mauna Kea...a dormant
13,700 foot mountain in Hawaii...highest in the Pacific basin.
Testing and operation of the telescope will occur following
installation of nine mirror segments.  Installation of all 36
segments will not be completed until next year.  Even with nine
segments, the telescope will have more power than the 200-inch
Palomar telescope in California.


And a final note....Roald Sagdeev, a leading Soviet space
scientist and Susan Eisenhower, granddaughter of President Dwight
Eisenhower say they will wed next month in Moscow.  Sagdeev was a
key figure in the cooperative Halley comet investigation and has
participated in numerous U.S. and Soviet space science
discussions.


                *           *            *


-----------------------------------------------------------------
Here's the broadcast schedule for public affairs events on NASA
Select TV.   All times are Eastern.


Extensive live coverage of the STS-32 mission continues on NASA
Select TV.  Here is a list of mission highlights scheduled as of
January 9.

Wednesday, January 10....

    5:25 A.M.     Replay of flight day 1 activities.

    7:05 A.M.     Pre-deployment checkout of SYNCOM

   10:55 A.M.     Playback of SYNCOM deploy operations

    1:00 P.M.     NASA total quality management colloquium

   10:25 P.M.     Replay of flight day 2 activities


Thursday, January 11...

    6:25 A.M.     Replay of flight day 2 activities

    9:30 A.M.     Playback of flight deck operations

    9:25 P.M.     Replay of flight day 3 activities

Friday, January 12....

    4:25 A.M.     Replay of flight day 3 activities

    8:50 A.M.     Live downlink of LDEF grapple operations

   10:50 A.M.     Live downlink of LDEF photo survey

   10:25 P.M.     Replay of flight day 4 activities

All events and times are subject to change without notice.
---------------------------------------------------------------
These reports are filed daily Monday through Friday at 12 noon,
Eastern time.
---------------------------------------------------------------
A service of the Internal Communications Branch (LPC), NASA
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

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

Date: 9 Jan 90 23:50:32 GMT
From: vlsi![e-mail]  (Glenn Chapman)
Subject: Soviet Mir Crew update


     On board the Mir space station on Dec. 25th Alexander Viktorenko and
Alexander Serebrov activated the Protein crystal growth experiments for
Payload Systems, which will continue for the 56 days. This commercial
experiment was brought up on the Progress M-2 cargo capsule on Dec. 22. In
the west Protein crystal growth experimental results have been announced
from work done on the Sept. 1988 shuttle flight. Comparing growths done on
the ground by the best equipment with that done in orbit showed in many
cases the zero G samples were had less defects, and were larger. The
importance of such crystal growth lies in the ability to determine the
structure of unusual proteins, which are required by pharmaceutical
companies to better produce the compounds. (New Scientist Dec 18, Science
Dec., Radio Moscow Dec. 24, and Payload Systems press release)
     On New Year's Eve they had a day of celebration complete with a
plastic fir tree, canned sturgeon, fruit sticks, black current juice, and
fresh lemons (but not the traditional champagne: that is prohibited in
orbit). Both crew and mission control, along with the crew's family,
exchanged greeting at the stroke of midnight. On Jan. 6th the crew finished
one set of extremely pure crystal growth experiments which took 150 hours
to run. They also began preparations for their first space walk, which was
announced for Jan. 8th. (Our mailer was down for this posting which was to
go out on Friday, but a quick update: the space walk will begin at 20:24
Moscow Time, about 12:24 EST) This will probably test out the new airlock
on the Kvant 2 module. Viktorenko and Serebrov have now been up there for
123 days. (Radio Moscow Dec. 25, Jan. 1-6, TASS press Jan 1)
     More details have been released about the next module addition to Mir.
Called the Technology module (possibly Kvant 3) it will be launched in
March or April of this year, for the use of the Soyuz TM-9 crew that will
arrive in February. Massing 19.5 tonnes, its length is 12 meters (39 ft.)
and adds 20 Kilowatts of power to Mir. If correct the stated power addition
is the same as all of the present supplies of Mir, Kvant 2 and the space
mounted tower erected in June '87 and would require almost twice the solar
panel area of Mir's initial 76 sq. meters (817 sq. ft.). In addition the
front end of the module contains a ball shaped multiple docking port
similar to that on Mir itself. This will be used to dock their shuttle
Buran to Mir in the early 1990's. The main experimental equipment on board
will be large furnaces for semiconductor processing (almost pilot line
production levels are planned), a KFA-1000 camera system for earth
observations, a greenhouse and large 100 liter (3.5 cu. ft.). The high
power capacity is required to run all the processing equipment. (AW&ST Jan
1)
Extensive agreements for cooperation in space medicine and biology were
arranged in December between the US and USSR. These cover the creation of
compatible data bases for the manned medical information (Soviet long term
data is being traded for US short term mission results). There has been a
problem in comparing biological experimental results of the two programs
for years, and the aim of this is to eliminate the difficulties. Bone
density measurements have been one area of conflict and uniform methods
will be created there. Also NASA will supply heart monitoring equipment to
be used on an upcoming Mir mission. (AW&ST Jan 1)  Sojuzkarta has a
contract with the British firm Sigma to market earth observation pictures
from the Soviet film return style satellites. The important selling point
of these photos is their 5 meter (16 ft.) resolution, compared with the 10
meter capability of the French Spot, and 30 meter resolution of the current
Landsat. (New Scientist Dec. 16)
     So the Russians have begun using Mir for commercial processing
purposes.  Now they must see if the Kvant 2 air lock is up to specs.

                                             Glenn Chapman
                                             MIT Lincoln Lab

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

Date: 9 Jan 90 23:47:00 GMT
From: lectroid!jjmhome!cpoint!frog![e-mail]  (John Woods)
Subject: Re: Nuclear Reactors in Space

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Tom Neff) writes:
> Well, reactors don't care how far from the sun they are per se (as long
> as you don't get too close!), but they do need fuel, and when that runs
> out you have a lot of complicated hardware doing nothing.  Solar arrays
> diminish in effectiveness as distance from the sun increases, but while
> they are effective at all they are just about *permanently* effective.

But they don't have to go very far away to become *in*effective.  As I recall,
the solar flux at Earth is something like a kilowatt per square meter (I am
certain this is wrong, but not by an order of magnitude).  At the orbit of
Jupiter, the flux will be 1/27th this (483M miles versus 93M miles, squared).
If we had 50% effective solar cells, maybe Gallileo could indeed have
gotten by with a 50 m2 solar cell array (anyone know Gallileo's power budget?).
What is that going to weigh, and what does 2Kw of RTG weigh?  Out at the orbit
of Neptune, on the other hand, the solar flux is about 1/900 what it is at
Earth.  Pluto, 1/2446 (perihelion).  Voyager is expected to keep doing
something useful well past this point.  And just how do you power the
proposed TAU (Thousand Astronomical Unit) project?

The engineers at NASA might be a bit slothful, but they aren't entirely dim,
unlike the Sun at the majority of planets.
--
John Woods, Charles River Data Systems, Framingham MA, [phone]
...!decvax!frog!john, [e-mail], ...!mit-eddie!jfw, [e-mail]

Happiness is Planet Earth in your rear-view mirror.    - Sam Hurt

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

Date: 9 Jan 90 18:22:21 GMT
From: crdgw1!crdos1![e-mail]  (Wm E Davidsen Jr)
Subject: Re: Nuclear Reactors in Space

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Kieran A. Carroll) writes:

| Now, have you any reason to believe that it is possible to produce
| batteries with much higher specific energy capacity (i.e. energy
| capacity divided by mass) than those currently available? Say, two
| orders of magnitude better than NiCd batteries? I know that a >lot<
| of money has been spent on battery research in the last decade (by
| NASA, by spacecraft battery manufacturers, by the DOE, by electric-
| car proponents; even some by the electric utility companies, who
| would love to have cheaper load-leveling devices), and as far as I
| have heard that research has not turned up any physical principles
| that could be exploited to produce the sort of improvements that you
| suggest.

  You have stated the case very well. There is simply no technology
which promises to give the needed energy density, even if you could
disregard recharge issues, which you can't. Back in the 60's and 70's GE
was spending big bucks on the electric car research. We had all sorts of
batteries and fuel cells here, spent years and millions on them. About
the time of the energy crunch (1973 era) we thought the breakthrough was
here, and that higher energy prices and pollution controls would mandate
electric cars.

  You have noticed the lack of of such, I'm sure. If cost were no object
there are several companies, including GE, which could build an electric
car which would be practical on earth. I have seen nothing which would
indicate that the same technology would remotely be useful in the places
where we wre using RTGs. There is just not enough energy density.

  My hope is that in investigating cold fusion someone will get a handle
on some new physics, either energy generation or energy storage, which
will solve the problem. For now I don't see anything which could be made
to work at any price.

  Please hold any discussion of cold fusion to that group.
--
bill davidsen    ([e-mail] -or- uunet!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen)
"The world is filled with fools. They blindly follow their so-called
'reason' in the face of the church and common sense. Any fool can see
that the world is flat!" - anon

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

Date: 9 Jan 90 21:08:23 GMT
From: eplrx7![e-mail]  (Walt Leipold)
Subject: Re: Nuclear Reactors in Space

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (michael vincen conca) writes:
>Basically, you run a strong, insulated wire down from the shuttle towards
>the planet so that as the Shuttle moves, the wire intersects the magnetic
>field lines at right angles.  At each end of the wire is a plasma contactor.
>As the shuttle moves through the magnetic field, an electrical current is
>generated...

Yes, this steals kinetic energy (and hence altitude) from the spacecraft.
Of course, when you finally have some excess power, you can pump it back
through your tether to *raise* your orbit, right?

--
"As long as you've lit one candle,                         Walt Leipold
you're allowed to curse the darkness."       ([e-mail])
--
--
The UUCP Mailer

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

Date: 9 Jan 90 21:55:57 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (Todd L. Masco)
Subject: Fwd: [postmaster: Returned mail: Host unknown]

From: Nancy Sliwa <sliwa>
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
Received: by yalow.arc.nasa.gov (4.1/) id <AA09538>; Tue, 2 Jan 90 13:44:01 PST
To: sci@space [should be [e-mail]]
Subject: AIAA GNC Conference - Space Robotics Sessions

(Due to mailer problems this is a late posting)

AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference
August 20-22, 1990
Portland, Oregon

Papers are solicited for a special interest session on the use of robots
for supervision and manipulation of experiments and manufacturing processes
for moving and assembling structures of varying sizes and flexibilities
in space.  Topics of interest include the modelling of non-linear robot
dynamics and kinematics including interactions with the space-based platform,
control law formulation and simulation, and laboratory implementation and
test of robots.  Of particular interest are precision control of structurally
flexible robots, and applications of AI techniques to the design of highly
automated robot control systems.  Also of particular interest are papers dealing
with all aspects of robotics and AI applications to Space Station Freedom. Send
draft papers in triplicate to:
  Nancy Sliwa
  MS 244-17
  NASA Ames Research Center
  Moffett Field, CA 94035
  415/694-4756 (after Jan 15th, 415/604-4756)

A 100-200 work abstract is requested by Jan. 15th, 1990. Drafts of the full
paper requested by Feb. 1, 1990. Notification of acceptance by March 26, 1990.
Final manuscript and clearance approval to present and publish paper due
by July 2, 1990 at AIAA Headquarters.

Dratfs of proposed papers must be unclassified and not exceed a length of
36 standard-sized, double-spaced typed pages, including equations, figures,
and tables. Each draft must begin with a 100-200 work abstract and an introduction
-- a brief assessment of prior work by others and an explanation of the paper's
main contributions.  The names, complete mailing address, and telephone number
of all authors must be submitted.  Authors must state in their cover letter
that they have received the appropriate company and/or sponsoring agency
approval.

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

End of SPACE Digest V10 #405
*******************