Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V12_5/V12_518.TXT

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Subject: SPACE Digest V12 #518

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 12 : Issue 518

Today's Topics:
              Ulysses Update - 10/30/90
              Magellan Update - 10/31/90
               Re: Hiten Update
            Re: Magellan Update - 10/29/90
           Re: "NAVY WITHHOLDING EVIDENCE"
           Re: Pioneer 11 Update - 10/30/90
            Re: Ulysses Update - 10/30/90
       Re: You Can't Expect a Space Station to be Cheap
               Did they launch Almaz 2?
               stereo images of planets
     Wanted: FITS (Flexible Image Transport System) code

Administrivia:

    Submissions to the SPACE Digest/sci.space should be mailed to
  [e-mail].  Other mail, esp. [un]subscription notices,
  should be sent to [e-mail], or, if urgent, to
             [e-mail]

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

Date: 31 Oct 90 18:51:34 GMT
From: usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Subject: Ulysses Update - 10/30/90


                     ULYSSES MISSION STATUS
                        October 30, 1990

     All onboard systems were performing normally.  Today
Ulysses is about 13 million miles from Earth, traveling at a
heliocentric velocity of about 90,300 miles per hour.

     Monitoring of science instruments continues to be the
main activity for the spacecraft as the Ulysses mission nears the
completion of its fourth week after launch.

     During the week, ground controllers will continue to
watch three instruments turned on last week:  the Cosmic and
Solar Particle instrument, the Magnetic Fields instrument and the
Cosmic Dust instrument.  The Cosmic Dust instrument was switched
on Saturday, October 27, after a slight delay to allow the
temperature of its sensor to drop to an operational level.

     In addition, tests are running this week on the
Energetic-Particle Composition and Neutral Gas instrument, which
had been previously powered up.  That instrument will be switched
off Friday, November 2.

     Also on Friday, November 2, the spacecraft will execute
its second trajectory correction maneuver, fine-tuning the flight
path for its initial course to Jupiter.

     On Saturday, November 3, the Cosmic and Solar Particle
instrument and the Magnetic Fields instrument will be switched
off.  The cover on the Heliospheric Instrument for Spectra,
Composition and Anisotropy at Low Energies will be released,
although the instrument will not be powered on until November 13.
The Unified Radio and Plasma-Wave Experiment will be switched on
and the 72.5-meter (238-foot) wire booms which act as its antenna
will be deployed.  The spacecraft's X-band radio transmitter will
also be turned on for tests.

     On Sunday, November 4, the spacecraft's 7.5-meter
(24.3-foot) axial boom will be deployed.  This also serves as an
antenna for the radio wave-plasma wave experiment.  The
Energetic-Particle Composition and Neutral Gas instrument, the
Cosmic and Solar Particle instrument and the Magnetic Fields
instrument will be switched on once again.

     On Monday, November 5, plans call for relatively quiet
monitoring of the spacecraft.
      ___    _____     ___
     /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|
     | | | |  __ \ /| | | |      Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
  ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |___   Jet Propulsion Lab | [e-mail]
 /___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /|  M/S 301-355        |
 |_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/   Pasadena, CA 91109 |

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

Date: 31 Oct 90 22:57:59 GMT
From: usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Subject: Magellan Update - 10/31/90


                       MAGELLAN STATUS REPORT
                         October 31, 1990

     The Magellan spacecraft, currently in suspended operation in its
Superior Conjunction mode, is performing normally with one STARCAL (star
calibration) and two DESATS (momentum wheel desaturations) each day.  The
calibrations help orient the spacecraft's attitude. Desaturations rid the
wheels of excess energy.  No spacecraft command activity is planned for today.

     The radar sensor continues to operate, but in the standby mode. Venus
and Earth are now on opposite sides of the sun from one another; the alignment
is called Superior Conjunction.  The earliest date that mapping will resume
is November 7.  Mapping has been suspended since October 26.

     Although no mapping is taking place, four regular mosaics of images and
two special mosaics covering the north polar area were produced here at JPL
during the past 24 hours using data collected earlier.  The pace of SAR
(Synthetic Aperture Radar) processing is now being limited by the rate of
production of new SAR EDRs (Experiment Data Records).

     During this superior conjunction period, flight controllers are
developing modifications to the spacecraft software to prevent the unwanted
back-and-forth motion of the solar arrays.  Although the oscillation does not
present an immediate threat to the spacecraft, stopping it will prevent any
long term fatigue of the solar array mechanism by which it moves about its
axis.

     Since mapping began on September 15th, Magellan has performed 40 days of
radar mapping, producing 301 image strips covering 60 degrees of longitude
around Venus, about one-sixth of the planet.
      ___    _____     ___
     /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|
     | | | |  __ \ /| | | |      Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
  ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |___   Jet Propulsion Lab | [e-mail]
 /___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /|  M/S 301-355        |
 |_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/   Pasadena, CA 91109 |

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

Date: 31 Oct 90 18:08:12 GMT
From: abvax!iccgcc![e-mail]
Subject: Re: Hiten Update

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Daniel Fischer) writes:
> Reply-To: [e-mail] (Daniel Fischer)
> Organization: Max-Planck-Institut fuer Radioastronomie, Bonn
>
> In article <[e-mail]>
>    [e-mail] (Henry Spencer) writes:
>>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Andy Clews) writes:
>>>please post some summary information about the mission objectives for
>>>the Hiten craft? ...
>>
>>Mission objectives are to test Japanese navigation and control facilities
>>for spacecraft operating beyond low Earth orbit.  Period.  It is an
>>engineering mission with no attempt at science return.
>
> Wrong! There is one scientific instrument on-board, the MDC = Munich Dust
> Detector from the Techn.Univ. of Munich. It's aperture can be seen on most

You're saying the Japanese researchers sent a vacuum cleaner into space
and didn't call it a Hoover?

dan herrick

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

Date: 31 Oct 90 19:22:14 GMT
From: usenet.ins.cwru.edu!abvax!iccgcc![e-mail]
Subject: Re: Magellan Update - 10/29/90

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Ron Baalke) writes:
>                          MAGELLAN STATUS REPORT
>                            October 29, 1990
>
>
>      Radar mapping was suspended on October 26, at 6:23 AM PDT, for Superior
> Conjunction.  This suspension will last for approximately 12 days until early
> November, while Venus and the spacecraft pass behind the Sun as viewed from
                                                !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> Earth.  Earliest mapping start-up date is November 7.
  !!!!!!
>
>      The spacecraft will keep its High Gain Antenna pointed directly toward
> Earth throughout the Superior Conjunction period, so as to permit the
> transmission of engineering telemetry at 40 bps and the reception of commands
> from Earth.  It will turn away from Earth only to perform star scan maneuvers
> in order to update its inertial reference sensors.  This attitude will shade
> the spacecraft's electronics from the Sun and keep the temperature cool.
> Telemetry and commanding should be possible throughout Superior Conjunction.
  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOW!

sounds like ELF.

dan herrick
[e-mail]

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

Date: 31 Oct 90 18:35:51 GMT
From: eru!hagbard!sunic!news.funet.fi!tukki.jyu.fi!jyu.fi![e-mail]  (Otto J. Makela)
Subject: Re: "NAVY WITHHOLDING EVIDENCE"

In article <[e-mail]>
[e-mail] (Crash Gordon) writes:
   Excuse me.  I thought I'd logged into sci.space.shuttle, but I made an
   obvious typo and ended up here in alt.mouth.foam.

Don't worry.  You DID end up in sci.space.shuttle...

Here's a forwarded message from [e-mail] (followups to alt.flame):
--
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 90 13:01:12 -0800
From: cdp![e-mail]
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: "NAVY WITHHOLDING EVIDENCE"

Apologies for the UFO postings from cdp.uucp, into
various news groups.  The posting has the title :
"NAVY WITHOLDING EVIDENCE".

One of our users is involved in a vocational training
program with a veterans group.  A veteran trainee was given
the task of periodically posting material to our private
news groups and to Usenet news groups.  One day this week
he sort of lost it, and posted this notice about the NAVY
witholding evidence about UFO's to 18 different Usenet
groups, and to about 25 of our own groups.  Needless to
say, this is an embarrasment.

Suffice it to say, the user no longer has access to our
system.

Thanks all for your patience,
Steve Fram
Institute for Global Communications
cdp!steve
--
   /* * * Otto J. Makela <[e-mail]> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * */
  /* Phone: [phone], BBS: [phone] (CCITT, Bell 24/12/300) */
 /* Mail: Kauppakatu 1 B 18, SF-40100 Jyvaskyla, Finland, EUROPE         */
/* * * Computers Rule 01001111 01001011 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * */

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

Date: 31 Oct 90 08:55:18 GMT
From: mcsun!ukc!icdoc!syma![e-mail]  (Andy Clews)
Subject: Re: Pioneer 11 Update - 10/30/90

From article <[e-mail]>, by [e-mail] (Jay Maynard):
>>     The Pioneer 11 spacecraft emergency was terminated at 3:29PM (PST)
>>yesterday.
>
> OK, I'll bite...how was it terminated? Did we get it back? Is it lost for
> good?
> Is some of it working, but not all? Inquiring minds want to know.

Try READING Ron's posting this time.  The man said that the EMERGENCY was
terminated, NOT the spacecraft.  Unless of course you want the emergency
brought back to life and the problems to start all over again....


--
Andy Clews, Computing Service, Univ. of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QN, England
JANET: [e-mail]   BITNET: [e-mail]

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

Date: 31 Oct 90 19:15:57 GMT
From: usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!ub!uhura.cc.rochester.edu!rochester![e-mail]  (Paul Dietz)
Subject: Re: Ulysses Update - 10/30/90

Does Ulysses have a gamma ray detector?  I thought it was going to, to
help pin down the position in the sky of gamma ray bursters falling
near the ecliptic, but I don't recall reading about it in the updates
that have been posted so far.

    Paul F. Dietz
    [e-mail]

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

Date: 31 Oct 90 18:03:23 GMT
From: usc!wuarchive!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: You Can't Expect a Space Station to be Cheap

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Charles Frank Radley) writes:
>+One bad effect of this is that it hurts the domestic launch
>+ industry.
>
>No, it does not.  NASA is prohibited by Executive Order from
>competing with the commercial ELV industry.   The shuttle is not
>used for launching commercial payloads, unless they require
>manned presence.

Ho ho.  So how does, say, Geostar rate shuttle launches for its navsats?
(Yes, it still has shuttle launch slots.)  In *theory* the shuttle is not
supposed to carry anything that could go up on a commercial expendable,
but in practice there is a very long list of exceptions to that.

>+This is an important question when you realize you can buy them
>+off the shelf for under $10 million.
>
>Not in the West...

The Soviets are perfectly happy to sell to the West.  There is a difference
between "not available" and "not available from a supplier we like".

>Apollo took a great deal of effort to obtain meaningful failure
>rate data which was used to reduce risk...

Actually, for most purposes Apollo explicitly rejected the idea of trying
to get statistical failure rates, because of the excessive testing involved.
Reference:  the NASA History Series book "Moonport".  (Details and page
numbers available on request.)
--
"I don't *want* to be normal!"         | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
"Not to worry."                        |  [e-mail]   utzoo!henry

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

Date: 31 Oct 90 21:05:56 GMT
From: mnemosyne.cs.du.edu!isis!scicom![e-mail]  (Bruce Watson)
Subject: Did they launch Almaz 2?


I observed a` bright (1st mag) object travelling from the SW to
the NW in a 72 degree inclined orbit.

T(eq xing) = 90 303.0254
incl       = 71.8
omega(cap) = 296.4
meanmo     = 13.89

This would fit a Zenit rocket body (or payload) if it weren't
so bright.

The first Almaz was named Cosmos 1870 and weighed 18000-20000 kg
and was in a similar orbit (but much lower).

Anyone heard about this launch?  Almaz 2 was to be launched
on a Proton sometime in November 1990.

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

Date: 31 Oct 90 13:05:45 GMT
From: news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!watserv1!ria!uwovax![e-mail]
Subject: stereo images of planets

Stereo images:

     Many images of the planets are available in stereo format. Some stereo
pairs are fortuitous, others deliberately planned to aid in topographic
mapping and geological analysis. The NASA Atlas of Mercury has many stereo
pairs of Mercury made by combining first and second encounter Mariner 10
images. Mariner 9 and Viking made thousands of stereo pairs, now being used
by USGS to create a new and very detailed topographic map series for Mars.
The Defence Mapping Agency in the 1970s produced hundreds of Lunar Topographic
Orthophotomaps from Apollo stereo pairs. Contour maps of parts of Miranda
and Ariel, satellites of Uranus, have been made at the U.S. Geological
Survey in Flagstaff by Sherman Wu, and he has also made a contour map of
Phobos from Viking images. The plumes on Triton were discovered in stereo
pairs, I believe. A stereo pair of Hyperion was published in the Voyager
2 Science special issue in 1982, and I have recently discovered that I can
see very poor stereo in a pair of Voyager 1 images of Amalthea taken in
1979, as part of some shape modelling work I am doing on that body. I would
anticipate HST FOC images of the larger asteroids (when the MIRRORS-R-US
optics are sorted out) could be detailed enough to show some worthwhile stereo
effects, if taken at suitable intervals. Very useful!

Phil Stooke,
Department of Geography,
University of Western Ontario,
London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5C2

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

Date: 1 Nov 90 04:56:41 GMT
From: usc!cs.utexas.edu!hellgate.utah.edu!cs.utah.edu![e-mail]  (Rich Thomson)
Subject: Wanted: FITS (Flexible Image Transport System) code

I recently FTP'd some images from NASA that were in FITS format, yet
another image format from the astronomy community.  I have to admit
that the FITS format is pretty verbose in what it allows (and similar
in some respects to the format for "fields" used by Stardent's AVS
software).

Hoping to not have to re-invent the wheel, I'd like pointers to some
FITS code that I could use as a portion of or model for a program to
read FITS files into AVS.  I don't particularly care what language its
in, but I'd prefer C or FORTRAN.

If nothing presents itself, I will continue working on a reader that
I've been creating (so far it just scans the file without really doing
anything).  Once that reader is done, I'll be glad to post the source
to some appropriate place.

                        -- Rich
Rich Thomson    [e-mail]  {bellcore,hplabs,uunet}!utah-cs!thomson
``If everybody is thinking the same thing, is anybody thinking?'' --Bob Johnson

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

End of SPACE Digest V12 #518
*******************