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Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #103

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 11 : Issue 103

Today's Topics:
      NASA's first 'A' marks 75 years of achievement (Forwarded)
                Re: Space Poem
              Magellan Update - 03/02/90
                Re: Cheap DSN?
         Re: In Search of Voyager Design Info
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 1 Mar 90 22:59:51 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA's first 'A' marks 75 years of achievement (Forwarded)

Mary Sandy
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                      March 1, 1990

Cam Martin
Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.


RELEASE:  90-35

NASA'S FIRST 'A' MARKS 75 YEARS OF ACHIEVEMENT


     With just a $5,000 initial outlay 75 years ago on March 3,
1915, Congress established the National Advisory Committee for
Aeronautics (NACA), which would in 1958 form the foundation for
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).  Even
today that first small investment -- made only a dozen years
after Orville Wright's famous flight -- is still paying enormous
dividends.

     Although the United States could claim the first heavier-
than-air flight by the Wright brothers in 1903, American aviation
had been surpassed by European technology at the outbreak of
World War I, and no American-designed aircraft flew in combat.
The NACA was created to help regain the nation's position of
aeronautical preeminence.

     From its beginnings as a simple government entity, NACA grew
into the world's premier aeronautical research organization,
pushing back the frontiers of flight for more than 4 decades.
Aviation pioneers such as Wright, Jimmy Doolittle, Charles
Lindbergh and Eddie Rickenbacker were among the early NACA
members.

     The 1915 law directed NACA to "supervise and direct the
study of the problems of flight, with a view to their practical
solution."  The committee also was to facilitate the exchange of
information within the aeronautical community.

     At that time, the United States had virtually no
aeronautical engineers.  NACA focused American scientific,
technological and industrial talent on the potential of aircraft,
and in effect, created the academic discipline of aeronautical
engineering and its related fields.

     Though NACA was begun later than similar European efforts,
it eventually put the United States in the lead in aviation.
Today, three-quarters of a century later, NASA scientists and
engineers continue to solve the problems of flight, both in and
beyond Earth's atmosphere.  But it was NACA that first built key
facilities and devised organizational methods for advancing what
is now called aerospace technology.

     The practical-minded engineers and scientists of NACA
incubated the ideas and hatched the technology that first allowed
American aviation to take off and fly.  The returns on the
nation's investment in NACA remain clearly visible today in
numerous ways.

     By recognizing the needs of manufacturers and the military,
NACA contributed extensively to every generation of commercial,
civilian and military aircraft and developed the foundations for
the modern aviation and space industries.  The economic benefits
of this long-term American competitiveness are a particularly
clear part of the NACA legacy.  In 1989, for instance, the U.S.
aerospace industry saw a trade surplus of some $18 billion.

              Facilities for Aeronautical Research

     The inception and subsequent major periods of growth for the
NACA were spurred by some of the century's major historical
events.  World War I demonstrated the military value of
aircraft.  Charles A. Lindbergh's 1927 solo Atlantic crossing
caught the world's imagination.  World War II required massive
research and development in aviation, as did the events of the
decades that followed.

     The growth spurred by these events was evident in another
visible aspect of the NACA legacy:  research facilities.

     By the early 1920s, aeronautical research had begun in
earnest at NACA's Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory,
Hampton, Va., Hampton, Va., whose personnel formed the nucleus
for two newer laboratories.  On the eve of World War II, Ames
Aeronautical Laboratory was begun in Mountain View, Calif., and
the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory began operations in
Cleveland.  These three NACA laboratories are now known as NASA
Langley, Ames, and Lewis Research Centers, respectively.

     The challenge for NACA researchers in the 1920s was to
improve virtually every characteristic of aircraft.  The struts
and wire braces of biplanes caused severe, speed-reducing drag.
The planes had poor lift-to-drag ratios, bad propellers and
underpowered, unreliable engines.  Basic understanding of the
principles of flight was limited.

     The primary research tool for overcoming these problems was
the wind tunnel.  NACA's first wind tunnel was dedicated at
Langley in 1920.

     Since that time, aerospace researchers have used wind
tunnels to test their ideas.  By moving an airstream across an
aircraft, component or model, they can gather test data reliably,
inexpensively and safely.

     NACA's first Full-Scale Tunnel was built after NACA had
risen to international aviation research preeminence during the
1920s.  By the end of that decade, NACA's work had pointed the
way for aircraft to evolve toward the basic aerodynamic shapes
still seen today.

     The first Full-Scale Tunnel began as one of a trio of
innovative tunnels.  Later, it was the center of the World War II
effort to speed up military planes by finding ways to reduce
their aerodynamic drag -- an effort that contributed
substantially to Allied air power.

     In 1990, this same tunnel is about to enter its 7th decade
of churning out valuable aerodynamic data.  As one of scores of
American tunnels conducting research into every kind of flight,
including flight through and out of Earth's atmosphere, tunnels
are used in studies of military, general aviation and commuter
aircraft.  In fact, this circa-1930 facility has a backlog of
demand and is staffed for double shifts.

     Another example of the NACA legacy in research tools -- and
therefore also of continuing returns on original investments in
the organization -- is the world's largest wind tunnel located at
Ames Research Center.  The tunnel's largest test section was 40
feet by 80 feet.

     This facility was built during World War II and could test a
complete fighter plane with its engine running.  The tunnel was
still the world's largest in 1987 when its size was increased to
80 by 120 feet and the power of its huge fans was nearly
quadrupled.  It now can accommodate even larger aircraft.

     A supersonic tunnel at Lewis, built in the early 1950's ,
tackled the special problems of testing full-scale jet and rocket
engines.  The tunnel, which is still in use, has been used for a
wide range of aircraft, airbreathing missiles and manned
spacecraft tests.

     Wind tunnels today still constitute a large part of the
American investment in aeronautical research tools.  In 1988, a
special committee of the National Research Council valued the
combined replacement cost of American tunnels in the billions of
dollars and wrote that the health of these facilities is
integrally linked with the health of the entire national
aeronautical development effort.  The research heritage of wind
tunnels -- and many of the tunnels themselves -- come from the
NACA era.


                        NACA Achievements

     NACA/NASA innovations won six Collier trophies, America's
most prestigious aviation award, for outstanding contributions to
aeronautics technology.  In innumerable other instances, NACA
contributions paved the way for other immediate or longer-term
improvements in aircraft.  By the post-World War II era, the work
of NACA even began paving the way toward the Space Age.

     The first Collier Trophy was given in 1929 for the
innovative NACA cowling, which was placed around the radial air-
cooled engine of the day to reduce drag while allowing the needed
cooling.  In 1946, NACA won the Collier Trophy for developing a
thermal ice-prevention system for aircraft.

     After World War II, NACA began extensive work in jet engine
research, and led advances in high-speed aerodynamics with
programs like the X-1, in which Chuck Yeager surpassed the speed
of sound in 1947, and the X-15, the first winged vehicle to fly
into space.  The 1947 X-1 flight led to NACA's third Collier
Trophy in 1948.

     NACA's fourth and fifth Collier trophies came in 1951 and
1955.  One was for a wind-tunnel technology innovation called the
slotted throat, which enabled tunnels to simulate the conditions
of transonic flight or flight near and exceeding the speed of
sound.  The other was for the transonic "area rule," a principle
of aerodynamic shaping that greatly enhanced the designs of
supersonic aircraft.

     Building on NACA's proud heritage, NASA was awarded a sixth
Collier trophy in 1987 for developing the technology for and
testing of advanced turboprop propulsion systems that offer
dramatic reduction in fuel usage for future subsonic transport
aircraft.

     The NACA research tradition lent itself well to work on
concepts for aerospace craft that would need to return to Earth
from orbit or from spaceflight.  Many NACA researchers worked
years ahead of existing technology in the post-World War II era,
much as NASA researchers often do today.  They established the
fundamental atmospheric re-entry during these pre-NASA years.

                75 Years of Returns on Investment

     As the world's premier organization for aeronautical
research, NACA provided the foundation -- the people, the
institutions, the research tools -- on which NASA and the
American aerospace industry have been built.  The extent of the
NACA-era legacy to NASA and to the nation shines through in a
recent celebration of engineering achievements by the National
Academy of Engineering.

     The academy cited NASA's Apollo moon landing as one of the
greatest engineering achievements of all time and listed nine
other achievements as the greatest of the past quarter-century.
In addition to Apollo, three of these nine involve some large
degree of NASA contribution:  unmanned satellites, advanced
composite materials and the jumbo jet.  Four other cited
achievements fall within the sphere of daily activity throughout
NASA:  micro-processors, computer-aided design, lasers and fiber-
optic communication.

     Even after 75 years, that first $5,000 appropriated by
Congress in 1915 is still paying off throughout the American
economy and in NASA -- a scientific and technological
organization that spurs American competitiveness, spans the
continent and reaches for the heavens.

                             - end -

     Beginning March 15, 1990, NASA news releases and other NASA
information will be available electronically on CompuServe and
GEnie, the General Electric Network for Information Exchange.  On
the same date, NASA information on the Dialcom electronic service
will be discontinued.  For information on CompuServe, call 1-
800/848-8199 and ask for representative 176.  For information on
GEnie, call 1-800/638-9636.

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

Date: Fri, 2 Mar 90 08:06:23 PST
From: [e-mail]
X-Vmsmail-To: UTADNX::UTSPAN::AMES::"[e-mail]"
Subject: Re: Space Poem

     One of the Dallas papers ran an article last Sunday about the new book
"Eyewitness at the Revolution" (I may have garbled the title slightly) by
Peggy Noonan.  Ms. Noonan worked in the Reagan White House and was one of
their best scriptwriters (oops...speechwriters.   Well, there I go again...).
This is the person you can credit (or blame) for Bush's "thousand points
of light", but she is best known for writing the speech Reagan gave after
Challenger exploded.  In the article she told the story about finding the
poem "High Flight" and including part of it in the speech.  When the rough
draft was circulated among the White House staff, someone opposed her using
the phrase "...they reached out and touched the face of God" and suggested it
be replaced with "...they reached out and touched someone".  According to
Noonan "he had heard that phrase in a commercial and thought it sounded good".
Noonan threatened to kill and the phrase was left intact.

Marc Hairston--Center for Space Sciences--Univ of Texas at Dallas
SPAN address  UTSPAN::UTADNX::UTD750::HAIRSTON

Any resemblance between my opinions and the official positions of the University
of Texas system is purely coincidental.

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

Date: 2 Mar 90 21:29:10 GMT
From: elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Subject: Magellan Update - 03/02/90



                     MAGELLAN STATUS REPORT
                         March 2, 1990

     The Magellan spacecraft is 111,126,334 miles from Earth, traveling at
a speed of 60,034 miles per hour relative to the sun. One way light time is
9 minutes and 58 seconds. Magellan is also 72,023,216 miles from Venus.

     The spacecraft continues in normal, quiet cruise and has successfully
achieved all STARCALs since February 10. Magellan reached aphelion on
March 1 and began its final arc inward toward the Sun and Venus Orbit
Insertion (VOI) currently on Cruise 19.

     A successful attitude reference hold using the thrusters was
accomplished on February 23. This is an important pre-VOI test since VOI
uses the same sequence of attitudes.

     Flight software will be changed to add a background filter to the star
scan process which will allow for all crossing data in an interrupt window
to be buffered. The filter will then select the two best crossings, based on
magnitude of each star. This change will reduce the number of failed star
scans.

     SPACECRAFT

     Distance from Earth (mi)             111,126,334

     Velocity Heliocentric                60,034 mph

     One-way light time                   9 min 58 sec


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

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

Date: 3 Mar 90 03:49:08 GMT
From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!jarthur!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!turnkey!orchard.la.locus.com!prodnet.la.locus.com![e-mail]  (Todd Johnson)
Subject: Re: Cheap DSN?

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
>Could we build a better one using a helluva lot of generic satellite reciever
>dishes, a helluva a lot of not-top-of-the-line PC's and a helluva lot
>of very good software written by cheap programmers?

You have the basic problem of signal loss. At a very great distance with
a very small power source (any satellite) you will need a very good very
large receiving antenna to pick up a decent signal which has a decent
bandwidth (they were talking 64 bps for the Venus probes that we dropped
in the atmosphere many years back).
--
lcc![e-mail]
{randvax,sdcrdcf,ucbvax}!ucla-se!lcc!todd
{gryphon,turnkey,attunix,oblio}!lcc!todd

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

Date: 28 Feb 90 16:33:59 GMT
From: snorkelwacker!usc!cs.utexas.edu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: In Search of Voyager Design Info

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
>I am interested in learning about the engineering and design of the Voyager
>set of spacecraft.  What I am trying to do is to put together a presentation
>for an audience of undergraduate engineering students...

You might try asking NASA if you can get a copy of the Voyager press kit.
It may not be available now, but it's worth a try.  The NASA press kits
contain a surprising amount of technical detail.
--
"The N in NFS stands for Not, |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
or Need, or perhaps Nightmare"| uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry [e-mail]

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

End of SPACE Digest V11 #103
*******************