Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V11_2/V11_241.TXT

Internet Message Format | 1991-07-08 | 14KB

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/wa8LOBy00VcJMGA045>;
          Tue, 10 Apr 90 02:00:46 -0400 (EDT)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail]
From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Date: Tue, 10 Apr 90 02:00:21 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #241

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 11 : Issue 241

Today's Topics:
         NASA Headline News for 04/04/90 (Forwarded)
              Re: Pegasus scrub
              Re: National Space Society
              HST Images (long)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 9 Apr 90 21:24:45 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA Headline News for 04/04/90 (Forwarded)

-----------------------------------------------------------------
April 4, 1990                         Audio Service: 202/755-1788
-----------------------------------------------------------------
This is NASA Headline News for Wednesday, April 4.....


The winged air-launched Pegasus orbital booster is scheduled to
be launched today.  A NASA B-52 will carry the three-stage
booster out over the Pacific Ocean off the California coast where
it will be released at an altitude of 41-thousand feet.  The
Pegasus carries a DOD satellite which is to be placed into a
370-mile high polar orbit.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency satellite package
carries a small data relay satellite, a NASA
instrumentation package and two barium release canisters.

Release of the 49-foot-long booster from the B-52 is scheduled
for 3:05 p.m., EDT.  The mission will be carried on NASA Select
TV.  Coverage begins at 1:00 p.m.; B-52 takeoff is scheduled for
2:05 p.m. and a post flight news conference at 5:30 p.m.

                      *            *
Functional testing and battery charging of the Hubble Space
Telescope resumed Tuesday at 6:00 p.m., at Kennedy Space Center.

The telescope servicing continued following a period in which a
number of computers, some being used to conduct the test of the
telescope, were shut down because of a power failure that
affected the Launch Control Center.

Also on the pad, technicians will begin closeout work on the aft
compartment on the Discovery.  The pad will be shut down to all
but necessary personnel Thursday to do final ordnance work.

Launch is scheduled for 8:47 a.m., EDT, Tuesday, April 10.  NASA
Select TV coverage begins at 4:00 a.m.

                       *            *
A commercial launch is schedule for Thursday, April 12 from Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station.  A Palapa communications
satellite...one that was retrieved by NASA astronauts in
1985...will be put into a geosynchronous orbit by a Delta 2
commercial launch vehicle.

                        *            *

U.S. aerospace firms are elated with a U.S.-Japan trade agreement
which will allow Japanese government agencies and domestic firms
to purchase communications satellites made in the United States.
The New York TIMES says U.S. technology is five years ahead of
Japanese communications satellite technology.

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







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


Today.....

    1:00 P.M.     Television coverage of the Pegasus launch from
                  Dryden Flight Research Facility. B-52 departure
                  at 2:05 P.M.; Pegasus release at 3:05 P.M.,
                  followed by a post launch news conference at
                  5:30 P.M.


Friday, April 6...NOTE: TIME CHANGE FOR NASA UPDATE

    11:30 A.M.    NASA Update will be transmitted.



Sunday, April 8.....

     9:00 A.M.    STS-31 status report

     9:30 P.M.    Hubble Space Telescope briefings through
                  noon.

     1:30 P.M.    Secondary payload briefing


Monday, April 9...

    11:00 A.M.    STS-31 Pre-launch News Conference


Tuesday, April 10....

      4:00 A.M.   NASA Select TV coverage of the STS-31 mission
                  from Kennedy Space Center begins.

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

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

Date: 5 Apr 90 17:48:35 GMT
From: skipper![e-mail]  (Steve Belle)
Subject: Re: Pegasus scrub

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (benjamin.reytblat) writes:
> I just heard that todays launch of Pegasus was scrubbed because of the weather.
> Does anyone know when the next attempt is scheduled?
>
> Ben Reytblat
> [e-mail]

Another attempt is to be made today.  B-52 takeoff about 11:00 PDT, Pegasus launch about
12:07 PDT.  I just checked; at this moment the launch is still go.

Steve Belle
[e-mail]

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

Date: 9 Apr 90 19:27:28 GMT
From: usc!venera.isi.edu![e-mail]  (Craig E. Ward)
Subject: Re: National Space Society

I haven't seen the survey that Dave Smith alludes to; however, from his
description, I know the type of questionnaire he is talking about.  I've
gotten lots of them from many different types of groups: other space groups
such as the Planetary Society, both Democratic and Republican Parties,
environmental groups such as the Sierra Club, liberal and conservative causes
and various animal rights groups.  Such questionnaires are annoying and I
wish groups would stop using them.  Unfortunately, getting them from so many
different kinds of groups leads me to believe that this is the style that the
conventional-wisdom-of-mass-mailings says will work.  In this case, the
National Space Society is trying to promote itself using tested and reliable
tactics.  That they didn't work with Mr. Smith (and probably wouldn't have
worked on me either) doesn't mean that a significant number of other people
won't respond favorably.  The NSS should be given some good marks for at
least trying to broaden its support with proven methods.

I'm getting tired of the "NSS as NASA cheerleader" chorus.  I have been
deeply involved with the local NSS chapter (OASIS), the state-wide chapters
group (California Space Development Council (CSDC) -- I believe that all but
the newest NSS chapter in San Diego participate in the Council) and NSS
nationally since 1987.  The accusation isn't true.  The NSS supports a wide
range of development paths, government is just one of them.

Another response in this thread claimed that the NSS national leadership
doesn't listen to members.  This is also bunk.  NSS leaders not in the
Southern California area have made several trips out here to meet with local
chapter people.  Last February, NSS president Charles Walker attended the
CSDC meeting in Anaheim.  NSS Executive Director Lori Garver has attended
several other CSDC meetings over the last two years and she has never refused
to talk with anyone.  (CSDC meetings alternate between Nothern and Southern
California locations.)

Many of the people who cry "cheerleader" or "deaf ear" are really just
admitting that their ideas are not standing up to criticism when presented to
NSS leaders.  The "cheerleader defense" might make good net flame material,
but it doesn't make for good argument.

The National Space Society is a pluralistic organization that has to balance a
wide variety of views and interests.  I believe it is fast becoming the
paramount space activist group in the world.  It can be an important tool for
"creating a spacefaring civilization that will establish communities beyond
the Earth."
--
Craig E. Ward <[e-mail]>     Slogan:    "nemo me impune lacessit"
USPS:    USC/Information Sciences Institute
    4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 1100
    Marina del Rey, CA 90292

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

Date: 9 Apr 90 20:22:57 GMT
From: uhccux![e-mail]  (Jeff Goldader)
Subject: HST Images (long)

There has been a great deal of discussion lately as to why NASA
won't make all the HST images available publicly.  Here's one
future astronomer's 10 cents worth of thought on the subject.

I understand why everyone wants these images!  I heard a neat idea
quite a while ago (on the net, I think) that a few images be turned
over to the networks every day and shown at the end of the evening news
or something.  Being an observational-type myself, I certainly would
like that.

However, as has been pointed out, the people who've been working on these
instruments and observing programs have spent, in some cases, more than
a decade of their careers getting ready to get this data.  I saw an article
in Science or Nature (I tried to find it but failed; it was in the last
18 months or so) which stated their viewpoints clearly:  Almost every image
HST takes will see something for, essentially, the first time.  HST is
expected to resolve individual stars in the centers of globular clusters,
for example, which cannot be done from the ground.  The dynamical behavior
of these objects is of great importance in the understanding of globular
clusters, which are some of the oldest objects in the universe.

Now, put yourself in the position of someone who wrote a proposal
to observe one.  Imagine your image appearing on TV, and someone with a
frame-grabber getting it and performing some analyses.  Someone gets your
data maybe even before you do!  Somehow, this person spreads the news
faster than you, and gets credit for the discovery; you're stuck.  I
know scientists are supposed to share and share alike, but wouldn't you
feel badly if everybody in your family got to see your newborn baby even
before you yourself?  That's the way these astronomers would feel.

Also, let me point out that the Wide Field/Planetary Camera images are 8
800x800 CCD fields, and at, say, 16 bits per pixel for decent dynamic
range, would take up 10 megabytes of disk space.  Do many of you have
room for storing lots of these images?  I doubt it.

As has been pointed out recently, most of the images are going to be pretty
boring to people who don't know at what they're looking.  Do you *really*
want to look at 500 calibration star images to every 30-40 object images?
I doubt it; I hate doing so.  (The figures are just a guess, but I hope
you get the picture)

There is certainly no conspiracy among astronomers to greedily hide their
data from the public.  As the HST special edition of Sky & Telescope
reports, "Aware that the public will be eager for some early razzle-
dazzle... a group  of scientists close to the project has prepared a list
of so-called early-release observations that could be targeted as soon as
three weeks after reaching orbit... the following [are] possible
camera subjects during the first month or two in orbit: Saturn and Titan,
Jupiter and Io, the nucleus of the Andromeda Galaxy, and the young star
system Eta Carinae."

I had heard that an image of Comet Austin might be taken, but this may be
dropped due to the Kohoutek Syndrome/Halley Hype striking again.

The images which will be released to the public promise to fascinate
everyone.  For example, an astronomer here has recently obtained infrared
images which show Io as a disk, with volcanoes visible on the disk!  What
will HST show???

Well, this is getting a bit longer than I had intended.  I just wanted to
make my opinions, as someone acquainted with astronomy, known.
I'm looking forward to all those images as much as everyone else.
Remember, the images HST takes as part of general work won't just
disappear - the people who took them will certainly be eager to get
the results out to the world.  Keep a watch on Science, Nature,
Astronomy, Sky & Telescope, The Astronomical Journal, The Astrophysical
Journal, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Publications of the Astronomical
Society of the Pacific, and Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical
Society, as well as the tens of other astronomical journals for results;
I'd start looking about 8 months after launch, less in Science and Nature.
The technical astronomical journals should be available in the library of
any astronomy department in a college or university; they aren't that
hard to find.  Some of the results should be available in Science and
Nature because of their faster turnaround times, and those are often
available at decent newsstands.

So don't despair!  It might take a while, but within a year or so,
I predict there'll be HST images adorning the popular astronomy
magazines every month or two, and lots appearing in general science
magazines you can buy at the newsstand.

Jeff Goldader                        University of Hawaii
[e-mail]      Institute for Astronomy
Just a low-life grad student

"It was the Biker of the Apocalypse..."

Disclaimer: They don't know what I say, I don't care what they think, and
we're all happy that way.

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

End of SPACE Digest V11 #241
*******************