Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V12_5/V12_535.TXT

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Subject: SPACE Digest V12 #535

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 12 : Issue 535

Today's Topics:
Re: LLNL Astronaut Delivery (was Re: You Can't Expect a Space Station)
            Re: Galileo Update - 11/02/90
              SUN Astro Software
Re: LLNL Astronaut Delivery (was Re: You Can't Expect a Space Station)
             Re: LNLL Inflatable Stations
               Galileo question
         NASA Headline News for 11/06/90 (Forwarded)
              Soyuz mission TM9 summary

Administrivia:

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

Date: 6 Nov 90 15:40:22 GMT
From: swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!ub!ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu![e-mail]  (Craig L Cole)
Subject: Re: LLNL Astronaut Delivery (was Re: You Can't Expect a Space Station)

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Charles Radley) writes...
>
>
>>How *is* LLNL planning to get astronauts up to the station?
>+Put a capsule on a Delta.

Is LNLL sure the Delta can be made man-rated? Cheaply? Just throwing a
capsule on top of a Delta doesn't sound particularly safe. I know
Delta has a great launch record, but I doubt it was ever designed
for manned-flight.

Craig Cole
[e-mail]
[e-mail]

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

Date: 6 Nov 90 16:27:30 GMT
From: usc!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Galileo Update - 11/02/90

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Ron Baalke) writes:
>>Probably because Ulysses is a European project ...
>
>Ulysses is a joint mission between NASA and the European Space Agency...

Oh yes, I forgot.  When a project is done by NASA with modest ESA involvement,
it's a US project (e.g. HST), but when it's done by ESA with modest NASA
involvement, it's a joint project. :-) :-)

ISPM would have been a joint project.  Ulysses is a European project with
minor NASA participation.
--
"I don't *want* to be normal!"         | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
"Not to worry."                        |  [e-mail]   utzoo!henry

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

Date:     Tue, 6 Nov 90 02:01:12 MST
From: Dan Charrois <[e-mail]>
Subject:  SUN Astro Software

  I am wondering if anyone is aware of an anonymous ftp site which
supports Astronomy software for a Sun or Sparcstation.  I am currently
interested in anything astronomy-related that can be compiled on one of
these machines. (or where an executable code can be ported over)
  Thanks for your help.
               Dan Charrois

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

Date: Tue, 6 Nov 90 08:42:34 -0500
From: "Allen W. Sherzer" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: LLNL Astronaut Delivery (was Re: You Can't Expect a Space Station)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Cc:

In article <[e-mail]>:
>Soyuz is not available,

Yes it is. I spoke with a vice president of Space Commerce Inc. recently.
He told me that for $50M he would deliver you a Soyuz. I'm sure you could
also get a quanity discount.

>how can LLNL have it in their plan?

They don't as far as I know. I am only demonstrating that it can be done.

>A capsule of $ 200 M is inadequate, as a minimum a Gemini type vehicle
>is required which is more like $ 2 - 3 B.

You have yet to justify that number in any way. Why won't ACRV work?
Also, for $2 to 3 billion (assuming your numbers are correct) you could
build and launch ~5 Earth Stations. If the first one fails, the second
one will. This second one will be built and launched for less than the cost
of ONE shuttle flight.

>Remember you need long
>duration EVA, it may take a couple of weeks to get a failed LLNL
>fully deployed.

Or it might not. Skylab didn't need two weeks.

>  If we had access to Soyuz and Soviet technology, the cheapest
>approach would be to scrap LLNL and use Mir.

Mir does not provide artificial gravity. It is also not clear that
the Soviets would sell it (after all, it is starting to show a profit).

  Allen

--
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Allen W. Sherzer| I had a guaranteed military sale with ED-209. Renovation |
|   [e-mail]  | programs, spare parts for 25 years. Who cares if it      |
|                | works or not?  - Dick Jones, VP OCP Security Concepts    |

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

Date: Tue, 6 Nov 90 08:47:10 -0500
From: "Allen W. Sherzer" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: LNLL Inflatable Stations
Newsgroups: sci.space
Cc:

In article <[e-mail]>:
>As far as I can tell, Freedom will never be completly integrated on
>the ground.

You are going to take a first of its kind system the size of Freedom
and do its first integration *AND* integration testing is space? And
you think LLNL is risky?

Doesn't that scare the hell out of you? (It would me).

    Allen
--
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Allen W. Sherzer| I had a guaranteed military sale with ED-209. Renovation |
|   [e-mail]  | programs, spare parts for 25 years. Who cares if it      |
|                | works or not?  - Dick Jones, VP OCP Security Concepts    |

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

Date: 6 Nov 90 18:47:56 GMT
From: emanon![e-mail]  (Kenneth Arromdee)
Subject: Galileo question

I know I asked this some time back, but I wonder if anything more de-
finite has been decided.  And I don't think this is in a "frequently
asked questions" posting.  And...  Aw heck, forget the disclaimers....

What is Galileo going to be doing so far as taking pictures of the
Earth and Moon goes?

Also, I recall that Galileo took some pictures at Venus.  When do they
get transmitted?  (I recall that something was done to get some of the
data back a bit early.  If this includes pictures, where can I find them?)
--
"Thinking small-minded is when you see your bus on the other side of the
 street and wish you could teleport across to catch it."

Kenneth Arromdee (UUCP: ....!jhunix!arromdee; BITNET: arromdee@jhuvm;
     INTERNET: [e-mail])

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

Date: 6 Nov 90 19:32:27 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA Headline News for 11/06/90 (Forwarded)


             Headline News
Internal Communications Branch (P-2) NASA
Headquarters

  Tuesday, November 6, 1990    Audio Service: 202 / 755-1788

This is NASA Headline News for Tuesday, November 6, 1990

At the Kennedy Space Center, work to prepare Atlantis for the
STS-38 DoD flight continues.  Workers will install the two
contingency space suits in Atlantis tomorrow.  The external tank
will also be purged tomorrow.  Aft compartment closeout
activities also continue.

On Columbia, the helium signature leak test of the main
propulsion system oxygen side went well yesterday.  Columbia's
number one auxiliary power unit is being replaced today.  The
replacement APU will be hot fired next week.

Discovery's heat shield is being removed today in preparation
for removal, on Friday, of the three main engines.  Other work
today on Discovery includes electronics and crew compartment
systems checks.

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

New Hubble Space Telescope photographs will be released
today at 1:00 pm EST.  The photos are of the Orion nebula and
include images of features of the nebula never seen before.  This
is one of the richest star birthing regions in our local
neighborhood, and has been of interest to astronomers for
centuries.

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

During the deployment of Ulysses' 24.3-foot axial boom on
Sunday, Jet Propulsion Laboratory flight controllers noticed a
slight wobble in the spacecraft's spin axis.  The JPL team
expected some slight perturbation, but is investigating this
situation.  The motion does not affect Ulysses operations nor the
communications link with Earth.  Instrument turn-on and
check-out activities continue with no anomalies.  Ulysses is now
about 18 million miles from Earth and moving outward from the
Sun at a velocity of nearly 88,000 miles per hour.


    NASA Select TV Feature Presentation

    Thursday, NASA Select TV will transmit a special NASA
Production featuring highlights from the recent Eisenhower
Symposium "Look to the Future."  The symposium was co-
sponsored by the Eisenhower Institute and the Smithsonian
Institution.  The Select TV program features opening remarks
by Susan Eisenhower, granddaughter of the former President,
and includes speeches by Adm. Richard Truly, Father Theodore
Hesburgh (Notre Dame University President Emeritus), and Dr.
James Snelling (University of Maryland Distinguished
Professor.)



Dr. William Lenoir will hold another monthly space flight
press briefing tomorrow at 3:00 pm EST, in room 531,
Building 10-B.  Shuttle chief Robert Crippen and space station
chief Richard Kohrs will also participate.  The briefing is on the
television conference system and will not be broadcast on NASA
Select TV.

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

Arnold Aldrich yesterday announced an organizational
change at two West Coast NASA facilities.  Ames Flight
Research Center has a new Deputy Center Director, Kenneth
Szalai, who will be located at the Dryden Flight Research
Facility and serve as Director of the Dryden operation.  Aldrich
said this change will let NASA take full advantage of Ames
institutional capabilities, and will enhance recognition for the
unique flight-test programs conducted at Dryden.  Szalai, who
had been Dryden chief of research engineering, will assume the
Dryden duties from Martin Knutson, who will return to Ames to
direct flight operations there.


Here's the broadcast schedule for Public Affairs events on NASA
Select TV.  All times are Eastern.  **indicates a live program.

Tuesday, 11/6/90

    12:00 pm    "Why a Graduate Degree in Science and
Engineering," a NASA Production.

    6:00 pm    Repeat of "Why a Graduate Degree in Science and
Engineering."

Wednesday, 11/7/90
    1:15 pm    **Magellan-at-Venus report from JPL.


Thursday, 11/8/90
    11:30 am    NASA Update will be transmitted.

    12:00 pm    Videotape playback of "Look to the Future"
symposium highlights.



All events and times may change without notice.  This report is
filed daily, Monday through Friday, at 12:00 pm, EDT.  It is a
service of Internal Communications Branch at NASA
Headquarters.  Contact:  CREDMOND on NASAmail or at
202/453-8425.


NASA Select TV:  Satcom F2R, Transponder 13, C-Band, 72
degrees West Longitude, Audio 6.8, Frequency 3960 MHz.

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

Date: 6 Nov 90 19:21:18 GMT
From: mcsun!ukc!icdoc!ccserver![e-mail]  (M.S.Bennett Supvs= Prof Pendry)
Subject: Soyuz mission TM9 summary

The Soyuz TM-9 Mission Ends.   by Neville Kidger

The troubled mission of Soviet cosmonauts Anatoli Solovyov and Aleksandr
Balandin ended with a safe landing in Kazakhstan at 7:35 GMT on August 9th.
Despite fears in the Soviet and western press the Soyuz TM-9 landed without
incident after the cosmonauts had conducted an EVA on July 17th to secure
two of three loose thermal blankets which had become partially detached
during the spacecraft's launch on February 11th.  The third blanket was left
floating loose after it was found to have been too badly damaged to secure.
The loose blankets had been considered a potential hazard during the
spacecraft's preparations for re-entry and were secured for this reason.
In addition the cosmonauts ensured that the unintended prolonged exposure to
space vacuum and radiation had not adversely sffected the explosive bolts
which are used to separate the Soyuz descent module from the engine section
after retrofire.
     However, at the close of the July 17th EVA the
cosmonauts encountered difficulties in securing the hatch of the Kvant-2
module through which they had exited into open space. The men were forced to
depressurise Kvant-2's second, scientific, section and enter it before they
were able to repressurise and end the EVA after a Soviet record duration of
seven hours.  Soviet reporters made no secret that the cosmonaut's lives
were threatened during the return to Kvant-2 due to the build up of carbon
dioxide in their suits.  While the men were able to replenish their oxygen
supply they were unable to exchange canisters of lithium hydroxide in the
life-support system of their EVA suits.  The lithium hydroxide removes the
exhaled carbon dioxide from the suit's atmospheres.
     During a second EVA,on July 26th, Solovyov and Balandin were able to
secure the hatch of the Kvant-2 module after determining that a hinge had
buckled.  At the time of writing the blame for the incident was being laid
on the cosmonauts for breaching the regulations governing the opening of the
hatch - at least by the deputy designer of the Salyut design beureau where
the module was designed and constructed.
     The charge is that Solovyov and Balandin did not wait for the internal
pressure of the Kvant-2 airlock to reach zero before opening the hatch.
This lead the hatch to being forced open into the space vacuum.  Despite the
fact that the cosmonauts managed to secure the hatch during their second
EVA, yet another EVA will need to be conducted by Mir's current crew of
Gennadi Manakov and Gennadi Strekalov.
     This pair will replace a hinge on the hatch door to enable it to be used
as intended. One Soviet commentator has compared the current state of the
hatch to that of a boarded-up door !  The expedition of Solovyov and Balandinwas notable for another couple of reasons as well as their Soyuz TM-9 EVAs
and subsequent problems.
     The men were the first to witness the birth, in space, of Japanese
quails from their eggs in a Czechoslovak-made incubator contained in the
Kvant-2 module. Unfortunately, the chicks grew weak and unable to feed them-
selves in their weightless environment, and the descision was made to put
them to sleep.
     The other major aspect of the cosmonaut's activities in orbit
related to their attempts to secure a profit from their work in space.
At the time of their launch, the cosmonauts were said to be ready to recoup
the cost of the mission (80 million Roubles) and even earn a further 25
million Roubles from their Earth observations and materials processing work
on the Kristall module which was to be launched in April.
     But the Kristall launch was delayed to May 31st and then the docking was
further delayed to June 10th because of thruster problems.  The late start tousing the large module's five processing units to produce semi-conductor
crystals and biotechnical materials meant that the estimate of profit which
could be expected to be made from the flight was reduced to 13 million
Roubles. The head of the Soviet space agency Glavkosmos has said, however,
that the profits are "hypothetical".  He revealed that money still had to be
transferred into the account of Glavkosmos and the amount to be recouped was
based upon the selling price of the Earth photographs that the men had taken
($1,000 each) and in the value of crystals processed in space (R500,000
each).   The current crew of Manakov and Strekalov are to continue the
processing and observations and Glavkosmos expects their flight to recoup
about the same amount as the previous one.
     The Soviets have revealed that the amount of money allocated for 1990's
manned space programmes is 220 million Roubles and one Soviet commentator
has called for a serious explanation of the amount.   But from the next
launch to Mir of a manned crew - planned for December 2nd this year - part of
the costs of each flight will be recouped by the paying presence of a
foreign cosmonaut.
     The first to go will be a reporter-cosmonaut from a Japanese TV station TBS.  He or she will accompany two cosmonauts to Mir and will return with
Manakov and Strekalov after an eight-day mission.  The reporter will make TV
and radio broadcasts from the complex during the approximately six days
aboard.
     The two candidates are a 40-year old male who used to smoke 80
cigarettes a day and a 25-year old camerawoman.
     Next up, in May 1991 should be Britain'sJuno mission, but the continuing
quest to find sponsors for the mission may mean that Tim Mace or Helen
Sharman may have to wait for their flight or even find it cancelled.
     The following year should see missions including cosmonaut
representatives from Austria, France [for the third time ed.], West Germany
and Spain.
--
/------    -------    -----\       /------   |  ======================  |
|          |          |      \    |          |  M. Sean Bennett         |
\-----\    |----      |       |    \-----\   |  UKSEDS TECH.OFF.        |
       |   |          |      /            |  |  Janet:[e-mail]  |

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

End of SPACE Digest V12 #535
*******************