Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V12_6/V12_646.TXT

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Date: Thu, 13 Dec 1990 01:55:29 -0500 (EST)
Subject: SPACE Digest V12 #646

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 12 : Issue 646

Today's Topics:
      Re: Two questions:  Lunar shuttle missions, pseudo-gravity
               Re: 10th planet?
      Astro-1 Status for 12/06/90 [1307 CST] (Forwarded)
               Re: The Space Plane X-30
      Astro-1 Status for 12/06/90 [0140 CST] (Forwarded)
                 Black Holes
          NASA Prediction Bulletins:  Space Shuttle
         NASA Headline News for 12/06/90 (Forwarded)

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 22:21:37 GMT
From: swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!masscomp!ocpt!tsdiag![e-mail]  (Dave Tiller N2KAU)
Subject: Re: Two questions:  Lunar shuttle missions, pseudo-gravity

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
-
-2.  Pseudogravity:  Could someone give me an equation to calculate a
-rate of spin for an object, given the dimensions of the object and
-the desired "gravity," necessary to simulate that gravity?  And how
-noticeable would the Coriolis "force" be?

For a circular object, the acceleration due to rotation is equal to

        2
   a = v
      ---
       r

Example: Dave (while fixing the main antenna) is tethered to the
mother ship on a 10m cable.  Dave's velocity about the circumference
of his leash is 13.86 m/s.  His acceleration directed away from the
center of the mother ship is 19.21 m/s2.  This corresponds to 0.6g.
Simalarly, if Dave is inside a cylinder of the same dimensions, and
is standing on the inner surface, he feels 0.6g holding him to the
cylinder when it is spinning at the same speed.  If you'd like to use
angular velocity, substitute:

     v       =  v        *   2 * pi * r
      linear     angular     ----------
                              <circle>
Where V(angular) is in any of degrees/s, or radians/s. The term <circle>
refers to 360 degrees/circle or 2pi radians/circle. Note that the radian
case reduces to V(angular) * r.  Lets try one:

Dave (after fixing the antenna) asks HAL to open the pod bay doors. While
he waits for HAL to comply, he observes that he subtends 79.45 degrees of
arc per second.  79.45 * 2 * 3.14 * 10 / 360 = 13.86 m/s - just like before.
Hope this helps, feel free to send me email at [e-mail] if you
have further questions.
--
David E. Tiller         [e-mail]  | Concurrent Computer Corp.
FAX:  [phone]      Ph: [phone] (w) | 2 Crescent Place, M/S 117
UUCP: ucbvax!rutgers!petsd!tsdiag!davet        | Oceanport NJ, 07757
ICBM: 40 16' 52" N      73 59' 00" W           | N2KAU @ NN2Z

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

Date: 6 Dec 90 20:45:20 GMT
From: usc!wuarchive!rex!rouge![e-mail]  (Fraering Philip)
Subject: Re: 10th planet?

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Henry Spencer) writes:

hs>The chances of a tenth outer planet are not too bad, although evidence for
hs>it is slim to nonexistent.  (A very careful reassessment of observations
hs>of the orbit of Neptune by some folks at JPL concluded that there are no
hs>unexplained perturbations.)  Precise ranging of the Pioneers and Voyagers
hs>have already put tight bounds on it, however:  it has to be small, a long
hs>way out, well away from the ecliptic, or some combination.

There is more than one model for Planet X's orbit that shows it to
be perpendicular to the ecliptic and as eccentric as Pluto's...

Which means that sometimes it is interacting with the outer planets,
and sometimes not.

Phil Fraering
[e-mail]

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

Date: 6 Dec 90 23:22:43 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Astro-1 Status for 12/06/90 [1307 CST] (Forwarded)


      Astro 1 Mission Report #26
      1:07 p.m. CST, December 6, 1990
      4/12:17 MET
      Spacelab Mission Operations Control
      Marshall Space Flight Center


      "I'm not sure whether to smile from ear to ear or to cry," admitted
      William Blair, Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope assistant project
      scientist, as he related the latest results from the Astro mission
      during a press briefing this morning.  He was referring to the
      elation experienced by the science teams during the night, when they
      were able to observe 100% of the celestial objects planned, and the
      disappointment they felt as failure of a second Data Display Unit
      (DDU) shut down ultraviolet operations at about 6:15 CST this
      morning.

      Mission Scientist Ted Gull reported on plans for recovering from the
      problem and "doing astronomy in the near term."  Observing that each
      instrument team had practiced controlling their experiment from the
      ground during simulations, Gull said, "We know that it will be
      difficult, but we are going to try it so we can continue to do
      science for the remainder of the mission.  Acquisition is going to
      be the difficulty, but we think we can do it with Johnson
      controlling the Instrument Pointing System, then in turn our
      controlling the instruments from the Marshall Space Flight Center.
      It certainly is going to be a close teamwork effort.  Instead of one
      mission specialist and one payload specialist on the aft flight
      deck, there are going to be a lot of people in the loop, each having
      to do something in sequence to get the task accomplished."

      Gull explained that the process would be to operate each of the
      three ultraviolet telescopes in sequence, going from the Ultraviolet
      Imaging Telescope (with the largest field of view) to the Hopkins
      Ultraviolet Telescope.  Then, using the Hopkins telescope's TV
      camera, controllers will attempt to center celestial objects in the
      Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment's viewing slit.

      The scientist gave credit to the many pre-mission simulations for
      preparing the ground control team to respond to the challenge.
      Though the present scenario was not simulated, Gull said the many
      problems the teams worked through during the sims  had "prepared and
      steeled" them.  "There's no panic.  People are willing to sit down
      and work the problem.  It's really remarkable how well people are
      working under duress."

      Gull predicted that it would be more than 12 hours before the
      alternate procedure could be put into practice.  In the meantime,
      priority is being given to observations by the Broad Band X-Ray
      Telescope.  Since it is controlled remotely from the Goddard Space
      Flight Center, the X-ray instrument is not affected by the loss of
      the Spacelab Data Display Unit.

      In spite of the problems, Mary Jane Taylor of the Wisconsin
      Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment team was obviously ecstatic
      as she reported on data received from the instrument overnight. When
      asked about the mood among the scientists this morning, she replied,
      "I would be lying if I said I wasn't frustrated, because I am
      frustrated, but not any of us thought that this was going to be
      error free.  I think you have to keep in mind that we're doing
      something that has never been done before. We are getting some
      fantastic results, and we're going to learn a lot from it.  And that
      to me is worth all the long hours we have put into this.  We have a
      fantastic team, and I am sure that we are going to be back on track,
      and we're going to get a lot of science out of this mission!"

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

Date: 6 Dec 90 07:43:00 CST
From: "86FTSCCQ" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: The Space Plane X-30
To: "space+" <[e-mail]>


Actually the latest "public" X plane is the X-31 that flew last month.
Although not as high flying and fast as the proposed NASP this one is
real and does fly. Here is a copy of an article I got on the thing...
sorry can't remember the source.
----
----------------
X-31 MAKES FIRST SUCCESSFUL FLIGHT


     The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)/U. S. Navy X-31A
Enhanced Fighter Maneuverability demonstrator aircraft today successfully
completed its first flight.

     The X-31 took off from runway 07 at Rockwell International's Palmdale,
Calif., facility at 12:36 p.m. (PDT).  During the 38-minute flight, the X-31
accelerated to a speed of   approximately 340 mils per hour and reached an
altitude of 10,000 feet.   The plane returned to Palmdale and will now undergo
additional air worthiness tests and then begin to fully expand its operating
envelope in subsequent lights, which are expected shortly.

     During the flight, the plane, flown by Rockwell chief test pilot Ken
Dyson, exhibited the expected flying qualities and subsystem performance.

     The X-31's operating envelope includes controlled flight beyond the
aircraft's aerodynamic lift limit ("high angles of attack").  This capability
is achieved through a highly sophisticated digital flight control system that
includes an integrated vectored thrust system using thrust vectoring paddles.
The X-31 is intended to demonstrate whether it is possible to controllably
exploit this high angle of attack flight regime and thus allow a fighter
aircraft to achieve tighter, faster turns, which would be a definie tactical
advantage during close in combat.

     After watching the first flight Lt. Col. John "Tack" Nix, the X-31
program manager at DARPA, stated that, "We really are anxious to expand the
flight envelope and put the X-31 through its paces.  This first flight repre-
sents a triumph of trust and perseverance of the integrated Rockwell/MBB/U.S.
Navy/German/DARPA team.   The flight test phase will continue to require the
very best efforts of all organizations involved to fully demonstrate the unique
maneuvering potential contained in the two X-31 airframes."

     The X-31 is the first international experimental aircraft development
program undertaken by the U.S.  The U.S. contractor building the two demonstra-
tor aircraft is Rockwell International; Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm (MBB) is the
German contractor.  The Naval Air Systems Command is DARPA's agent for the U.S.
portion of theprogram and is providing both technical management and contract-
ing support.

-----------------end

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

Date: 6 Dec 90 23:03:53 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Astro-1 Status for 12/06/90 [0140 CST] (Forwarded)


      Astro 1 Mission Report #24
      01:40 a.m. CST, December 6, 1990
      4/00:50 MET
      Spacelab Mission Operations Control
      Marshall Space Flight Center


      "The amount of science recorded on Astro-1 continues to grow, on
      this the beginning of the fourth day of the mission," said Stu
      Clifton, assistant mission manager.  "Despite the fact that we often
      don't get as much time as we would like on targets, that time has
      been sufficient to precipitate a number of new and exciting
      scientific discoveries by the instruments.  Target acquisitions by
      the Instrument Pointing System continue to improve, and the Astro
      scientists are very pleased with the data that they're getting."

      "This is the highlight of my career!" exclaimed Project Scientist
      Geoff Clayton with the Wisconsin Ultraviolet Telescope team.  "We
      are getting some really great data that I have been waiting for all
      my life -- data that nobody has ever gotten before."

      "One of my personal interests is interstellar dust:  no one has ever
      observed the polarization of interstellar dust in the ultraviolet
      before," said Clayton.  "The data we're getting now disagrees with
      all previous predictions."

      Scientists don't know what interstellar dust is.  Yet, they know it
      has a big effect on many physical processes in astromony.  It is
      theorized that everything in the universe was inside another star
      previously and that interstellar dust, composed of rare heavier
      elements, is the birthplace of stars and the universe itself.

      Principle Investigator Arthur Code for the Wisconsin Ultraviolet
      Telescope agreed with Clayton:  "The data we have gotten from the
      observations so far has been great!   WUPPE is working with higher
      sensitivity and better than we expected it to.  And I'm sure there
      are going to be fascinating things in the data.  There may be just
      that one golden nugget there, the unexpected, and that can make it
      all worthwhile."

      As of 1:40 CST, all telescopes are working nominally.  The Broad
      Band X-ray Telescope has aligned with the Two Axis Pointing System
      and the team has been getting good science from several primary
      targets.

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

Date: 7 Dec 90 00:56:36 GMT
From: usc!samsung!noose.ecn.purdue.edu!mentor.cc.purdue.edu![e-mail]  (Raymond Seibert)
Subject: Black Holes

Ok, the space shuttle is on the search for black holes which brings up one
of my oldest questions.  According to what I know about the current theory
about them, they begin as regular supergiant stars, then collapse in on
themselves.  Here is what I don't understand, it then procedes to turn
inside out, leaving a void in the center.  Now let me tell my version of the
story.  It keeps collapsing until it can collapse no more -- possibly forming
a donut(sp?) shape?.  It can still behave as the above theory's black hole
does, but matter keeps sticking onto the top of the existing matter.  Now
according to this theory, the black hole should at some point consume enough
matter to make it unstable.  This in turn would cause all the compressed
matter to be spewed out in a tremendous explosion.  Of course I have no
mathematics to back it up, but I think it is conceptually possible.  Believe
me; its better than that 4D crap that they try to pull on us.  Maybe Henry
can help me out on this one.

                Ray
                [e-mail]

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

Date: 6 Dec 90 23:11:43 GMT
From: ncis.tis.llnl.gov!blackbird![e-mail]  (Thomas S. Kelso)
Subject: NASA Prediction Bulletins:  Space Shuttle


The most current orbital elements from the NASA Prediction Bulletins are
carried on the Celestial BBS, [phone], and are updated several times
weekly.  Documentation and tracking software are also available on this
system.  As a service to the satellite user community, the most current
elements for the current shuttle mission are provided below.  The Celestial
BBS may be accessed 24 hours/day at 300, 1200, or 2400 baud using 8 data
bits, 1 stop bit, no parity.

STS 35
1 20980U 90106  A 90339.82599023  .00040222  00000-0  28567-3 0   113
2 20980  28.4666 339.3089 0010614 329.2583  30.7294 15.72332324   560
--
Dr TS Kelso                           Assistant Professor of Space Operations
[e-mail]          Air Force Institute of Technology

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

Date: 6 Dec 90 22:56:39 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA Headline News for 12/06/90 (Forwarded)

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

Date: Thu, 6 Dec 90 10:53:55 PST
From: ames!daemon

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

  Thursday, December 6, 1990    Audio Service: 202 / 755-1788

This is NASA Headline News for Thursday, December 6, 1990

At 7:15 am Eastern time,  following a period of excellent science gathering, in
which nearly 100 percent of target acquisitions resulted in science data,  the
Columbia crew reported that the second of two Dedicated Display System
computer terminal units, used in operating the Astro-1 ultraviolet telescopes,
had turned itself off.  The depowering was accompanied by an overheated
smell, but no smoke was evident.

The No. 1 DDS underwent a similar power-down, nine hours into the
Astro-1 mission.  Ground controllers will attempt to restart the No. 1
DDS, though Flight Director Bob Castle reported he was not optimistic
about the chances.  Later crew inspection of DDS unit No. 1 indicated
that its cooling ducts had a considerable amount of dust or lint
blockage, but no visible evidence was found of overheating.
Controllers are also preparing to operate the Astro-1 science gathering
activities from the Payload Operations Control Center at Marshall Space
Flight Center and Johnson Space Center,  should it become necessary.
Under this plan, the ultraviolet telescope activities would be
controlled from Marshall, while the Instrument Pointing System would be
operated from Johnson, with the flight crew manually fine-pointing the
telescopes with the on-board joystick.   The Broad Band X- ray
Telescope operates independently of the DDS units, and remains
basically unaffected by their malfunctions.

In light of the DDS shutdown, Columbia's flight crew and NASA medical
officers at the Johnson Space Center have been monitoring the carbon
monoxide levels aboard Columbia and have found them to be within safe
levels.  As a precautionary measure, Shuttle Commander Vance  Brand installed a
special CO cleansing cannister in the Shuttle's air system.

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

Plans are underway to conduct a "Space Classroom" from Columbia,
tomorrow morning.  The effort is a new educational program designed to
involve students and teachers in Space Shuttle Science missions and
encourage their interest in math, science and technology.  The lesson,
"Assignment:  The Stars,"  will be taught by Astro-1 astronaut
astronomers aboard Columbia, and will focus on the electromagnetic
spectrum and its relation to the Astro-1 mission.  Students in
classrooms at Marshall and Goddard Space Flight Centers will pose
questions to the astronaut scientists, and will participate in
additional discussion, workshops  and laboratory sessions.  The
15-to-20 minute presentation from Columbia is scheduled to be broadcast
on NASA Select television at 9:49 Eastern time, Friday morning.



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

Thursday, 12/6/90     Mission coverage of the STS-35/Astro-1 flight
will continue live throughtout the week ...

  12:24 pm   Flight deck activities from Columbia
   1:47 pm   Science TV from Astro-1
   3:30 pm   "Today in Space", Dr. Frank Six from MSFC
   4:35 pm   Science TV from Astro-1
   5:00 pm   Change of shift Flight Director Briefing from JSC
   6:00 pm   Mission Manager Briefing from MSFC
   7:38 pm   Science TV from Astro-1
   9:04 pm   Middeck activities (SAREX) from Columbia
  10:36 pm   Science TV from Astro-1

Friday, 12/7/90
  12:39 am   Flight deck activities from Columbia
   1:00 am   Change of shift Flight Director Briefing from JSC
   5:04 am   Science TV from Astro-1
   8:30 am   Science TV from Astro-1
   9:22 am   Science TV from Astro-1
   9:49 am   Space Classroom on-orbit lesson from Columbia
  10:18 am   Space Classroom ground-based Lesson from MSFC
  10:49 am   Space Classroom Q&A with MSFC/GSFC classrooms
  11:43 am   Science TV from Astro-1
  12 noon     Mission Science Briefing form MSFC
   3:30 pm   "Today in Space'' with Dr. Frank Six from MSFC
   5:00 pm   Change of shift Flight Director Briefing from JSC
   5:07 pm   Science TV from Astro-1
   5:57 pm   Science TV from Astro-1
   6:00 pm   Mission Manager Breifing from MSFC

All events and times may change without notice.  This report is filed
daily, Monday through Friday, at 12:00 pm, EST.  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.

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

End of SPACE Digest V12 #646
*******************