Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V12_6/V12_644.TXT

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Subject: SPACE Digest V12 #644

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 12 : Issue 644

Today's Topics:
           Re: Sending Sen. Garn into space
             Re: Fluorine/ammonia engines
             space news from Oct 22 AW&ST
       Re: Thanks from "star gazer...maybe"..Bob and 8 year old
      Astro-1 Status for 12/06/90 [0815 CST] (Forwarded)
              Re: Another Russian first
      Astro-1 Status for 12/05/90 [2215 CST] (Forwarded)
             ASTRO status at 4/16:00 MET
                 10th planet?
           Re: Sending Sen. Garn into space

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: 6 Dec 90 06:01:42 GMT
From: sdd.hp.com!samsung!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Sending Sen. Garn into space

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Mark Gabriele ) writes:
>... So, Senator Garn "studied" the effects of motion
>sickness in a low-g environment.  Rumor has it that he was well suited
>for the task.  Thus, the name "Barfin' Jake".

In fact, rumor hath it that the unit of spacesickness is the Garn, normally
on a scale of 0 to 10.  Garn came in at 12.
--
"The average pointer, statistically,    |Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
points somewhere in X." -Hugh Redelmeier| [e-mail]   utzoo!henry

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

Date: 6 Dec 90 06:05:54 GMT
From: swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Fluorine/ammonia engines

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Norman Yarvin) writes:
>>Answer 2:  Hydrogen and fluorine   - better but still wrong
>
>Can this really be used near populated areas?  I'd imagine it'd make some
>pretty noxious acid rain...

Unless you're launching Saturn-sized vehicles, the amounts are tiny compared
to other man-made garbage.  There are severe hazards in the immediate vicinity
of the launch site, however, which is one major reason why NASA decided to
pursue hydrogen/oxygen rather than fluorine.
--
"The average pointer, statistically,    |Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
points somewhere in X." -Hugh Redelmeier| [e-mail]   utzoo!henry

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

Date: 6 Dec 90 05:53:01 GMT
From: swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: space news from Oct 22 AW&ST

Tests of the shuttle drag chute, using the NASA B-52, underway at Edwards.

Taiwan abandons plans to build its own satellite launcher, mostly because
of US refusal to permit transfer of crucial technology (on the grounds,
officially, that it could be used for missiles).  Taiwan still plans to
build its own satellites.

Picture of the latest Ariane launch, carrying a pair of US commercial
comsats.  This is the fifth Ariane launch of the year, despite the hiatus
after the February failure.

Richard Malow, staff chief of the House subcommittee that handles NASA,
warns NASA that the best it can expect is 8-10% annual budget growth over
the next five years.  That's better than most of the other agencies, but
it is not enough for another orbiter, EOS, Fred, ALS, NASP, Moon/Mars, etc.
NASA needs to bring its budget planning back into reality, he says.  His
comment on the space station:  "The problem is the de-scoping has never
matched the budget envelope".

SDI gets deep cuts in the House/Senate budget compromise, plus partitioning
of funds into five categories to limit SDIO's obsession with near-term
Phase One deployment plans.  Money for tactical missile defense, on the
other hand, actually rose.  Prediction is that the White House will accept
this budget because of concessions elsewhere.

H/S budget gives the USAF $600M for the Milstar strategic comsat, on the
condition that the program shift firmly away from its preoccupation with
strategic nuclear warfare.

White House expresses willingness to make major changes to space station
if the Augustine committee recommends them.  Widespread feeling that major
redesign is coming:  the station is too costly, not useful enough, and too
tied to the shuttle.  There is some sentiment that it would be better to
redesign for launch on a new heavy booster.

White House has not yet decided whether to seek FY92 money for another
shuttle orbiter (after Endeavour).

Quayle announces that planning is underway to send a US astronaut on a
Soyuz flight to Mir, and a Soviet cosmonaut on a US shuttle flight.  No
specific timetable yet.

House/Senate conference trims NASA budget somewhat.  Overall, NASA got a
13.6% increase -- most unusual -- but the space station was cut quite
noticeably and Moon/Mars was zeroed completely.  The station lifeboat
was eliminated, as was the OMV.  CRAF and Cassini were left alone.

As predicted, Congress is decidedly angry about SDIO's proposal to slash
long-term funding for projects like the free-electron laser in favor of
more money for Brilliant Pebbles (which is now being touted as a key
component of a system to defend against accidental or third-world attacks).

Atlantis's secret military payload reported to be an imaging spysat with
Gulf coverage as a high priority.  Launch set for late evening Nov 10-11,
a time that puts both transatlantic-abort sites in darkness [!].  Atlantis
rolled out Oct 13, after being moved back to the VAB temporarily due to
bad weather.  A tanking test to check on hydrogen leaks is imminent.

Columbia with Astro-1 moves to pad 39B Oct 15, after another crushed seal
was found and tentatively blamed for the hydrogen leaks.  A hydrogen
tanking test has been set for Oct 29.  Launch is hoped for before the end
of December.  [As everyone knows, this time something actually went well,
and Columbia is up.]

Pictures of Ulysses atop its IUS, outbound from Discovery's cargo bay.
That taken care of, the crew ran some other experiments, notably a
membrane-growth experiment for Battelle and monitoring of 16 lab rats
being used in drug research by Genentech.  The Battelle experiment was
a striking success, with the resulting membranes of unusually high
quality; Battelle's industrial partners are most interested.  Details
of the Genetech experiment are confidential, but the general idea is
that exposing rats to free fall might be a useful way of evaluating
drugs for use against bone and muscle deterioration.
--
"The average pointer, statistically,    |Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
points somewhere in X." -Hugh Redelmeier| [e-mail]   utzoo!henry

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

Date: 6 Dec 90 14:08:43 GMT
From: att!cbnews![e-mail]  (erik.j.kramer)
Subject: Re: Thanks from "star gazer...maybe"..Bob and 8 year old

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Bob Egan) writes:
>
>
> I want to thanks you all for responding to my earlier post.
> ...
>
> Last week, I gave her a copy of the Saturn postscript picture taken
> by the Hubble...she was impressed :)
>

Could someone please post (compressed would be fine) the postscript
version of the Hubble shot of Saturn? I think a posting of representative
sample here and there would be OK since a lot of us do not have access
to FTP.

    Erik Kramer
    att!mvups!ejk

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

Date: 6 Dec 90 23:13:04 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Astro-1 Status for 12/06/90 [0815 CST] (Forwarded)


      Astro 1 Mission Report #25
      08:15 a.m. CST, December 6, 1990
      4/07:25 MET
      Spacelab Mission Operations Control
      Marshall Space Flight Center


      At approximately 6:15 a.m. CST, the second Data Display Unit on the
      aft flight deck of the orbiter unexpectedly powered off.  Since the
      crew uses the DDU to command the Astro payload, their first response
      to the shutdown was to safe the instruments.  Now flight controllers
      at Houston and mission management and science teams at Huntsville
      are studying possible work-arounds.

      Although no science data is presently being taken, "This has been an
      extremely good night for the Astro scientists!" reported Astro 1
      Assistant Mission Manager Stu Clifton.  "All targets have been
      acquired.  Many of them with very long observing periods.  And many
      of the targets recorded have been high priority targets for the
      scientists."

      Mission Scientist Gene Urban affirmed: "Tonight, we've been getting
      over 90% of the required time completed for a series of very
      successful observations."

      When Payload Specialist Ron Parise acquired Cygnus Loop B at
      approximately 12:15 a.m. CST he said: "This may be the most
      important observing of the mission."

      Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope Replanner Bill Blair certainly agreed
      with Parise's comment.  "It was great!  I have been waiting for this
      for 6 1/2 years.  To see it (Cygnus Loop B) pop up on the screen,
      well, it was a feeling I can't describe.   We got 31 minutes of data
      on it.  It was a wonderful solid observation, the longest one we've
      gotten.  And it happens to be one of my favorite targets."

      Blair has done work on the Cygnus Loop with the International
      Ultraviolet Explorer and is currently finishing up some work with
      the Voyager spacecraft that observed the supernova remnant at very
      low resolution.  "To see the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope spectra
      with 10 times better resolution and all the other lines in the
      spectra is just wonderful!"

      The Cygnus Loop is a large object, three degrees across the sky.
      Tonight HUT looked at a shock wave being driven into an interstellar
      cloud on the edge of the supernova remnant.  From the data acquired,
      the team will determine the density, the temperature and the
      chemical composition of the interstellar gas tha
      [Article damaged here. -PEY]
      of shock waves and eventually to a more complete picture of the
      universe.

      The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope team was especially pleased with
      the science they were acquiring.  Ralph Bohlin, co-investigator on
      the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope, said "Tonight, we have crossed
      the threshold of getting routine observations 80 - 90% of the time,
      and this is the way we hope the rest of the mission goes.  We are
      really quite happy."

      Co-investigator with the UIT team Andrew Smith spoke of the nature
      of one particular prime target that was a successful acquisition --
      M-82 galaxy.  "This extraordinarily active galaxy has been in
      collision with another galaxy called M-81, causing a lot of tidal
      influence between the two galaxies.  This is producing a tremendous
      amount of star formation in the central part of this galaxy, which
      is blowing material out," said Smith.  "We will be looking for star
      formation everywhere."

      UIT Astronomer Susan Neff noted that "the total amount of observing
      time for all previous ultraviolet imaging from rocket flights has
      been about 30 minutes, and tonight we've increased that by a factor
      of 10."  Neff continued:  "It is exciting that we got data on all
      our targets!"

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

Date: 6 Dec 90 10:21:49 GMT
From: bfmny0![e-mail]  (Tom Neff)
Subject: Re: Another Russian first

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] () writes:
>I believe there is plenty of evidence that Russian cosmonauts were
>killed more than once, prior to Challenger, but the details have not
>all been made public.

Those pesky cosmonauts!  You gotta drive a stake through their hearts or
they won't stay dead!

--
Don't be afraid to take a big step if it is  \_       _/  Tom Neff
indicated.  You can't cross a chasm in two     \_   _/    [e-mail]
small jumps.  -- David Lloyd George              \_/      uunet!bfmny0!tneff

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

Date: 6 Dec 90 23:10:46 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Astro-1 Status for 12/05/90 [2215 CST] (Forwarded)


      Astro 1 Mission Report #23
      10:15 p.m. CST, December 5, 1990
      3/21:27 MET
      Spacelab Mission Operations Control
      Marshall Space Flight Center

      "We're getting great spectral data," commented Principal
      Investigator Arthur Davidsen of the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope
      team, as he praised and congratulated the Astro-1 crew for
      successfully acquiring a targeted quasar.

      Davidsen's comments conveyed the growing feelings of excitement and
      delight of the many scientists and astronomers working from Spacelab
      Mission Operations Control in Huntsville, Alabama as the flow of
      science observations continues.

      The Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope gathered valuable ultraviolet data
      on the brightest quasar in the sky, 3C273. The HUT science team
      hopes to unlock the mysteries behind the enormous energy emitted by
      these objects by examining its spectrum.

      The Broad Band X-Ray Telescope is aligned with the Two-Axis Pointing
      System and is also currently collecting data.

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

Date: 6 Dec 90 23:06:45 GMT
From: uvaarpa!murdoch![e-mail]  (Greg Hennessy)
Subject: ASTRO status at 4/16:00 MET

Well, the last 24 hours has brought good news, extremely bad news, and
now decent news. The good news was that during shift nine, the first
11 objects observed averaged 76 percent of the scheduled observing
time, a value that made the science teams VERY happy. Most of the
tracking was done by the astronauts by joystick, and obtained lots of
data for the spectrometers. The patch to the star tracker did not
clear the problem, but the automatic tracking was tried only three
time, suceeding once, the first time it did suceed. The stability was
excellent, and there was hope that the star trackers could be made to
work before very long. Even the manual guiding gave respectable images
for the UIT, which is most affected by loss of the star trackers.
Observations were done of M100, M74, Hercules X-1, the Cygnus Loop,
Alpha Hydra, the Vela SuperNova Remnant, and M82, among others. Then
disaster struck.

The second Data Display Unit (DDU) failed. This left the astronauts
with no way to enter commands to the instruments. This meant that the
UV instruments could not take any data whatsoever,  even though BBXRT
was unaffected. The day was understandable hectic, but a contingency
plan has been developed. All the UV instruments have a backup ground
based controls. During the past shift these instrumetns were powered
up and tested. During this time the shuttle gave priority to BBXRT
telescopes. Starting with shift 11, the data for the telescopes will
be entered on teh ground, and uploaded. The astronauts will still do
the manual guiding, but otherwise the UV instruments will be
controlled on the ground. The science observations for shift 11 were
canceled, and a system was iinstutued to first try to get UIT working,
then HUT, then WUPPE. This was in order of decreasing  field of view,
or of increasing difficulty. This scenerio was never simulated, since
loss of both DDU's was thought to be an unreasonable scenerio. UIT
will pick two targets on opposite sides of the sky, NGC 1399 at Ra 3
hours 36 min and Centaurus A at Ra 13 hours 22 min. UIT will
"ping-pong" back and forth between these two targets for 4 orbits,
then HUT will try 2 orbits trying to acquire the quasar Q1821, then
WUPPE will try 2 orbits trying to acquire GAM-GEM. On shift 12 other
targets will be tried, or increasing scientific interest and degree of
difficulty. These targets are still being worked out. Once confidence
is gained in this mode of observing, secondary observations will be
allowed.

It now appears that a 10'th day of the mission is possible.

Boy, was today hectic.

--
-Greg Hennessy, University of Virginia
 USPS Mail:     Astronomy Department, Charlottesville, VA 22903-2475 USA
 Internet:      [e-mail]
 UUCP:        ...!uunet!virginia!gsh7w

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

Date: 5 Dec 90 13:30:08 GMT
From: cs.utexas.edu!samsung!hubdub![e-mail]
Subject: 10th planet?

I know this will sound stupid and uninformed, but I'm interested in opinions.

Does anyone out there believe there are more than the 9 planets we know of now
in our solar system.  I had heard something many years ago about a 10th planet
named Vulcan.  Does anyone know of any hard evidence to back this up?

Kevin
UUCP%"[e-mail]"

"You can still Rock in America"  - Night Ranger

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

Date: 5 Dec 90 23:29:38 GMT
From: att!linac!tellab5!balr!clrcom![e-mail]  (Bob Martin)
Subject: Re: Sending Sen. Garn into space

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Richard Coleman) writes:
>I don't think it was a bad idea.  Hasn't Senator Garn been
>a big supporter of the space program.  If we could send every
>senator up on the shuttle just once, I bet that the funding for
>the space program would get a BIG boost.

It depends upon how many of them we blew up in the process.

No wait!  Maybe we should REQUIRE all congressmen and reps to
fly on the shuttle, then I think the space program would get
lots and lots of extra money....    B-)>



--
+-Robert C. Martin-----+:RRR:::CCC:M:::::M:| Nobody is responsible for |
| [e-mail]    |:R::R:C::::M:M:M:M:| my words but me.  I want  |
| uunet!clrcom!rmartin |:RRR::C::::M::M::M:| all the credit, and all   |
+----------------------+:R::R::CCC:M:::::M:| the blame.  So there.     |

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

End of SPACE Digest V12 #644
*******************