Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V11_3/V11_370.TXT

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Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #370

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 11 : Issue 370

Today's Topics:
               * SpaceNews 07-May-90 *
             Re: Manned mission to Venus
                Re: Apollo 12
Recovering old spacecraft (was Re: (How to get rid of) space garbage)
          looking for space image databases
      Progess 42 cargo ship docks with Soviet Mir space station
 Re: Two communications satelllites to be launched in May (Forwarded)
              Re: space garbage
           Payload Summary for 05/07/90 (Forwarded)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 5 May 90 02:48:10 GMT
From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!crdgw1!ge-dab!tarpit!peora!tsdiag!ka2qhd![e-mail]  (John Magliacane)
Subject: * SpaceNews 07-May-90 *


Bulletin ID: SPC0507

                              =========
                              SpaceNews
                              =========

                          MONDAY MAY 7, 1990

SpaceNews is published and distributed weekly around the world on USENET
and Amateur Packet Radio.  It is available for unlimited distribution.


* STS-31 NEWS *
===============
STS-31 POSTFLIGHT CREW PRESS CONFERENCE SET

The STS-31 astronaut crew will meet with news media at the Johnson Space
Center on Wednesday, May 9, to discuss the recent mission to deploy the Hubble
Space Telescope.  The event will begin at noon EDT and consist of a slide and
video presentation by the astronauts, followed by media questions.

News media may participate in JSC building 2, room 135, or via two-way
communications from NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C., the Goddard Space
Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., the Kennedy Space Center, Fla., or the Marshall
Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.

Live NASA Select television coverage will be carried on Satcom F2R,
transponder 13, 72 degrees west longitude, frequency 3960.0 MHz.

[From: Peter E. Yee @ NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA.]


* STS-35 NEWS *
===============
Launch of Columbia on the  STS-35/Astro-1 mission remains targeted for May 16.
The official launch date will be set at the Flight Readiness Review to be held
May 7-8.

Astronaut and ham-radio operator Dr. Ron Parise (WA4SIR) will be carrying an
Amateur Radio station with him on this mission and will contact other
ham-radio operators on the earth below from the space shuttle.


* OSCAR-11 NEWS *
=================
ASCII Single Event Upset (SEU) downloads have been suspended.  OSCAR-11 is now
transmitting Whole Orbit Data (WOD) and SEU data in a new "packetized" format.
The general format is as follows:

S0 S1 ID T0 T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 F0 F1 D0 D1...D63 C0 C1

S0,S1  : SYNC MSB,LSB
ID     : Data Ident
T0..T5 : Timestamp
F0,F1  : Frame Counter MSB,LSB
D0..D63: 64 Data bytes
C0,C1  : Checksum MSB,LSB


Here is an On-Board Computer (OBC) status information bulletin received from
OSCAR-11 on 05-May-90 at 01:47:17 UTC:

* UOSAT-2 OBC STATUS INFORMATION *

DIARY OPERATING SYSTEM V3.1 SMH MLJM MSH

 Today's date is 5 /5 /90  (Saturday)
 Time is 1 :47 :17 UTC
 Auto Mode is selected
 Spin Period is - 274
 Z Mag firings  = 0
 + SPIN firings = 3
 - SPIN firings = 1
 SEU count      = 6
 RAM WASH pointer at E20D
 WOD commenced 5 /5 /90 at 0 :0 :9
 with channels 10 ,11 ,19 ,29 ,
 Last cmnd was 109 to 0 , 0
 Attitude control initiated, mode 1
 Data collection in progress
 Digitalker active


* NEW PACKET PATHS *
====================
SpaceNews has been sent out to: SPACE @ AMSAT for several weeks now, but
judging from the mail I have received, I am returning to: SPACE @ ALLBBS.
This change should clear up the distribution problems that have been occuring
recently.  Any comments on this change would be appreciated.


* FEEDBACK WELCOMED *
=====================
Feedback regarding SpaceNews can be directed to the editor (John) via any
of the following paths:

UUCP   : ...uunet!masscomp!ocpt!tsdiag!ka2qhd!kd2bd
AX.25  : KD2BD @ NN2Z.NJ.USA.NA

MAIL   : John A. Magliacane
         Department of Electronics Technology
         Advanced Technology Center
         Brookdale Community College
         Newman Springs Road
         Lincroft, New Jersey 07738
         U.S.A.



<eof>

--
AMPR : KD2BD @ NN2Z (Neptune, NJ)
UUCP : ucbvax!rutgers!petsd!tsdiag!ka2qhd!kd2bd
       "For every problem, there is one solution which is simple,
       neat and wrong." -- H.L. Mencken

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

Date: 7 May 90 19:31:20 GMT
From: unmvax!ariel!carina.unm.edu![e-mail]  (Bruce Carlson)
Subject: Re: Manned mission to Venus


        How long would it take to bioform Venus to acceptable limits?

        Could we develope a ramjet for Venus probes? (carring some of
        it's own oxygen)

        What is the temp. at the poles of Venus?


:wq

B
D
D
A
A

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

Date: 7 May 90 07:23:55 GMT
From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!milano!peyote![e-mail]  (Bob Mosley III)
Subject: Re: Apollo 12

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Jonathan A Bishop) writes:
>
>      Lately, I've been wondering something.  Why was the decision made to
> launch Apollo 12 in a thunderstorm?  A Saturn V is probably the world's
> biggest lightning rod; we seemed to be inviting a strike.  Was it the last
> launch window for a month or something?

...as I recall, it was the last launch window for the DECADE. The decision to
launch despite the weather came down from high up (read: The Trickster) as
a way of adding insult to injury towards a certain Communist government
over who beat who to the moon first.

...The next launch window was sometime in March of 1970, which I believe
was the window that Apollo 13 used.


                                OM

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

Date: 4 May 90 04:37:40 GMT
From: usc!samsung!munnari.oz.au!metro!wolfen!wyvern![e-mail]  (Rev Dr Phil Herring)
Subject: Recovering old spacecraft (was Re: (How to get rid of) space garbage)

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Doug
  Mohney) writes:
>
>ALSO, what would be be possibility of "flying back" an old space probe
>into LEO, rather than letting them drift around for years and years. You'd
>need some propellant leftover and some communications capabilities to
>tell it what to do, but I'm amazed as to what one can do with a couple
>of large planets for assistance....

Re the last remark about using large planets for assistance: gravitational
assist only works if you want to accelerate the craft as well as re-point
it. It always comes out of the encounter faster than it went in. If you
want to get a craft in a distant orbit back to LEO, you'd have to slow it
down by quite a bit when it got here.

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

Date: 7 May 90 17:15:11 GMT
From: swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!rpi!pawl13.pawl.rpi.edu![e-mail]  (Scott E. Wright)
Subject: looking for space image databases

Salutations all!

   I am looking for databases of images collected as a result a result of
our space program, including images from weather satellites, shuttle
missions, and inter-planetary probes.  CD-ROM is preferable, but videodisk
and nine-track formats are ok.  Any suggestions/recommendations as to where
I should look/inquire?

Thanks in advance,
...Scott

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

Date: Tue, 8 May 90 00:24:11 -0400
From: Glenn Chapman <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail],
        [e-mail], [e-mail],
        [e-mail], [e-mail]
Subject: Progess 42 cargo ship docks with Soviet Mir space station

     On May 5 a new cargo ship, Progress 42, was launched to the Soviet's
Mir space station.  It docked with Mir early in the morning of May 8 and is
said to have carried 2.5 Tonnes of food/fuel/supplies to the station. The
Radio Moscow announcement stated that this is the last of the older
Progress series, with the newer M being a reusable replacement (M series
has flown 3 times, beginning in Aug. '89). It may be that this has been
utilized because of the problems with the large Krystall expansion module
which was to have flown to Mir early in April.  That type of module
typically brings about 7 tonnes of supplies (with a total module mass of 20
tonnes).  Note that the older Progress M-3 had separated from Mir on Apr.
28th and was burned up in the atmosphere. (Radio Moscow May 5, 7, TASS
announcements Apr. 29, May 6)
    Anatoly Solovyov and Alexander Balandin have now been in orbit for 87
days, exceeding the 84 day Skylab 4 mission (Nov. '73), the longest US
flight.  Indeed Solovyov, who also spent 9 days in zero G during the Soyuz
TM-5/Mir mission in June '88, is now the 25th most experienced man in
weightless flight.  All these top 25 positions are now occupied by Soviet
cosmonauts.
     It has been confirmed that the Soyuz TM-10 flight to Mir set for July
will not carry a Soviet journalist to the station.  Earlier Russian
reporters had asked that the Soviet Journalist in Space mission be moved up
to that date so that their countrymen could fly before the Japanese NHK
reporter goes on the Soyuz TM-11 mission in Dec.  However technical and
training manners were too difficult to make this change according to a TASS
announcement.  Speculation is that the $12 million payment by the NHK
television network for the Japanese visit is more important for their
program than the prestige of having the first reporter in space being from
the USSR.  Of course many journalist in the west do not consider Soviet
reporters all that highly so the gain by flying a Russian first would not
be all that great.  (Space News Apr. 23, TASS announcement)

                                                  Glenn Chapman
                                                  MIT Lincoln Lab

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

Date: 8 May 90 01:40:46 GMT
From: clyde.concordia.ca!mcgill-vision!quiche!calvin![e-mail]  (Mark SOKOLOWSKI)
Subject: Re: Two communications satelllites to be launched in May (Forwarded)

Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Two communications satelllites to be launched in May (Forwarded)
Summary:
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Sender:
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Mark SOKOLOWSKI)
Followup-To:
Distribution:
Organization: SOCS, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
Keywords:

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Bruce Carlson) writes:
>
>        How long would it take to bioform Venus to acceptable limits?
>
From a few centuries to a few thousand years, depending on the scheme you
implement
>
>        Could we develope a ramjet for Venus probes? (carring some of
>        it's own oxygen)
>
Well, CO2 is difficult to oxydize...
>
>        What is the temp. at the poles of Venus?
>
Same as on the equator. Everywhere on the surface, it is of about 480 C
+/- 10 C. And the inclination of the Equator over the orbit is of 3 degrees
which simply means that Venus has no seasons.
>

Mark S.
-------

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

Date: 7 May 90 19:39:50 GMT
From: zephyr.ens.tek.com!tektronix!sequent!crg5![e-mail]  (Greg Smith)
Subject: Re: space garbage


Sorry if this was already covered in this thread, but my inquiring mind wants
to know:

Does anyone know what kind of survival procedure NASA has in place in the
event of a suit puncture, during EVA, by 'space garbage' or other particles?
Is there some type of automatic mechanism that would seal small holes?

Also I would assume that judging by the degree of damage to the shuttle window
caused by a very small particle, (was it a paint chip?) a similar collision
during EVA would pass cleanly through the unlucky person in the suit, or is it
somehow reinforced to stop most particles? TIA for any insights.
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Greg Smith                     ..!uunet!sequent!gsmith
Sequent Computer Systems, Inc.                 [phone]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: 7 May 90 21:32:41 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Payload Summary for 05/07/90 (Forwarded)


                            STS-35 PAYLOAD STATUS REPORT
                            MONDAY, MAY 7, 1990 --   3 P.M.


          Patricia E. Phillips
          NASA Public Affairs/KSC
          407/867-2468


          ASTRO-1/STS-35

               Payload operations toward  the  STS-35  flight  continue  at
          Launch Pad 39A. On second shift Sunday, the final pre-flight mass
          memory unit (MMU) subsystem load for Astro-1 was completed.  This
          approximate five-hour operation included verification testing.

               Today,  technicians will again renew the  Broad  Band  X-Ray
          Telescope (BBXRT) liquid argon cooling.  The next scheduled argon
          servicing will provide solidified argon, and will be completed at
          about L-61 hours before the launch of Columbia and her crew.

               The BBXRT coolant servicing has  been  designed  to  protect
          both  the  planned  mission  flight  time for BBXRT,  and also to
          provide the greatest amount of flexibility in the launch environ-
          ment.  Based on current mission planning,  the payloads team  ap-
          proach  will provide up to 6 launch opportunity days beginning 60
          hours after argon servicing.

               Prelaunch operations will deplete about 2.5 days  of  argon,
          which,  in  a  solidified form,  will provide 16 days of cooling.
          With a possibility for a  10-day  flight,  3.5  days  remain  for
          launch  attempts.  However,  the  primary  science objectives for
          BBXRT can be accomplished in 8 flight days.  Therefore,  the mis-
          sion team has agreed to provide two additional launch opportunity
          days,  if  required.  Those  2  days,  plus  the 3.5 days and the
          original launch day, provide the 6-window opportunity. The launch
          director and mission management team will  determine  the  actual
          launch scrub/recycle, should any be required

               "The  payloads team has done a really good job of responding
          to a demanding and rapidly-changing environment.  We've  met  our
          timelines  and  were  also able to work out a way to increase the
          launch  opportunities  while  still  protecting  the  science  of
          BBXRT," said NASA KSC Payload Manager Glenn Snyder.

               Film installation in the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT)
          will be accomplished about 5 days before flight.  After flight, a
          specially-fitted platform will be used at Edwards Air Force Base
          to remove the UIT film. Astronaut Jeff Hoffman used this platform
          in the Orbiter Processing Facility to perform  a  fit  check  and
          also  to  verify  that  the film was readily accessible in case a
          spacewalk was required on orbit.

               Engineers  and  scientists  have  decided  to  upgrade   the
          system's capability to maintain argon temperature,  pressure, and
          venting by the addition of three pressure  relief  valves.    The
          proposed  change  will increase the safety redundancy for nominal
          argon venting during on-orbit operations.

               At present, no impact is seen to the STS-35 launch schedule,
          since the operation can be performed on the pad in parallel  with
          other activities.

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

End of SPACE Digest V11 #370
*******************