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Subject: SPACE Digest V12 #666

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 12 : Issue 666

Today's Topics:
       Japanese/Soviet crew to return from Mir early Dec. 10th
        HUT Status for 12/07/90 [1905 CST] (Forwarded)
      Astro-1 Status for 12/09/90 [1200 CST] (Forwarded)
  Science Conference transcript for 12/08/90 [2217 CST] (Forwarded)

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From: [e-mail]
Date:  9 Dec 90 11:36 -0800
To: [e-mail], [e-mail],
        [e-mail], [e-mail],
        [e-mail], [e-mail],
        [e-mail]
Subject: Japanese/Soviet crew to return from Mir early Dec. 10th

    According Radio Moscow the Japanese/Soviet mission to the Mir space station
is on schedule Japanese journalist Toyehiro Akiyama entering the older
Soyuz TM-10 craft on Dec. 10th, along with Gennadi Manakov and Gennadi
Strekalov (the current Mir crew which arrived on Aug. 2 in that capsule).
Undocking will occur at about 6:00 am Moscow Time (7 pm PST Dec. 9th) and
landing about 9 am Moscow Time (10 pm PST Dec. 9th).
    Toyehiro Akiyama is called the TBS network's "Outer Space Correspondent"
on Japanese TV.  Has had not too pleasant time of it.  His first statement
on looking outside of Mir was "It's dark out there."  He was also quite
space sick.  Some of his comments are ,it's hard work going to the bathroom
without gravity to help, his stomach feels like it is standing straight up,
his head feels like it is floating away and he badly needs a smoke (he
used to smoke 4 packs a day).  This flight was done to commemorate TBS's
40th anniversary of broadcasting, and they have spent $23 million on it.
Actually they had considered NASA for the flight but thought that it would
take too long to get things planed (it was about two years of preparation for
this with the Russians).  What is not clear is whether they have made
back some of the expenses.  The booster and capsule aerodynamic shroud were
covered with logos of TBS, plus companies such as a Japanese toothpaste
marketer and a paper diaper manufacturer (which apparently paid $2 million
for the rights - it is not certain whether to the Soviets or to TBS).  The
liftoff captured 37% of the Japanese audience, but daily reports are down
to 17% (10 minute TV reports per day) which should get them very good
advertisement rates.  (CBC newshour Dec. 6, Vancouver Sun Dec. 7,
Toronto Globe and Mail)
     The other two Soyuz TM-11 cosmonauts, Musa Manarov, Vikor Afanasyev,
are remaining as the Mir mission until May '91 when the British/Soviet
Juno mission will fly.
     It is interesting that as far as "crass" space commercialism goes the
Russians are clearly ahead.  They will sell a space flight and advertising
"space" to just about anyone who has the cash.  For years people tried to
argue that NASA could do the same, to no avail.  Clearly it works - now
will the west take the hint?

                                        Glenn Chapman
                                        School of Engineering Science
                                        Simon Fraser Univ.
                                        Burnaby, B.C. Canada
                                        [e-mail]
                                        or [e-mail]

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

Date: 8 Dec 90 20:17:40 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: HUT Status for 12/07/90 [1905 CST] (Forwarded)


     HUT Status Report #06
     7:05 p.m. CST, December 7, 1990
     5/18:16 MET
     Spacelab Mission Operations Control
     Marshall Space Flight Center

     "Unbelievable" is how Johns Hopkins University Paul Feldman
     described the spectra from four observations of Jupiter and its moon
     Io this afternoon.

     The Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope collected 35 minutes of data on
     the Jovian system, with separate observations of Jupiter's
     equatorial region, auroral zone, and torus -- the doughnut-shaped
     field of ionized particles that follows Io's path around the planet.
     The telescope also observed Io, whose active volcanoes spew reddish
     particles from Jupiter's magnetosphere.  HUT observed Jupiter in the
     extreme ultraviolet regions of the spectrum, down to 500 angstroms.

     "We have extremely high-quality data," Feldman said.  "We're very
     excited.  I think everyone around here has something to smile about
     now."

     Although Voyager 1 and 2 had more time to study Jupiter, HUT has far
     better resolution.  For a spectrometer, better resolution means a
     spectrum with much more detail, much more information about physical
     properties and chemical composition of the object.  Feldman said the
     the resolution of today's observations of the Jovian system was five
     times better than anything Voyager produced.  Also, he added, if the
     HUT team has the opportunity to observe the torus again with a
     smaller slit, the telescope will produce a spectrum with ten times
     the resolution of Voyager.

     Many commonly accepted ideas about conditions in Jupiter's upper
     atmosphere are based on models drawn from Voyager observations.
     After analysis, Feldman and the HUT team hope to resolve questions
     about the energy of the particles in Jupiter's torus and the amount
     of sulfur-and oxygen-containing molecules in the atmosphere of Io.

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

Date: 9 Dec 90 23:52:14 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Astro-1 Status for 12/09/90 [1200 CST] (Forwarded)


         Astro-1 Shift Summary Report #23
         12:00 noon CST, Dec. 9, 1990
         7/11:10 MET
         Spacelab Mission Operations Control
         Marshall Space Flight Center,
         Huntsville, AL


         During this period (4 a.m. to 12 noon CST), all four of the
         Astro-1 instruments continued to perform well.  Early in this
         timeframe, the crew acquired a calibration star (HD25443) for
         the Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment
         (WUPPE).  It was a highly polarized standard star in the
         northern sky with approximately five percent of its total
         light being polarized.  According to WUPPE science
         investigation team members, this percentage is relatively
         high and made the star an excellent calibration target.  Once
         the calibration was confirmed as successful, the crew moved
         to acquire the next target -- G70D8247, known for being the
         first magnetic white dwarf to be discovered.  With a magnetic
         field a billion times that of Earth's, this collapsed star
         was an excellent source for ultraviolet and polarization
         studies.  The target was closely studied by both WUPPE and
         the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT).

         Shortly after observation of the magnetic dwarf had ended,
         the investigation team of the Broad Band X-Ray Telescope
         (BBXRT) acquired Centaurus X-3, a binary system with enormous
         output of X-ray radiation.  Its X-ray luminosity alone is
         10,000 times that of the Sun's total luminosity (radio,
         microwave, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, X-ray and gamma
         ray emissions).

         About midway through this timeframe, the Astro-1 crew
         acquired binary star Z-Cam, a large red and white dwarf
         double star in the constellation Camelopardalis.  All
         ultraviolet instruments obtained good scientific data on this
         celestial object.  Afterward, the crew turned to Abell 426, a
         cluster of galaxies centered on the constellation Perseus.
         The principal instrument for observation of this enormous
         target was the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT), and HUT
         and WUPPE joined in the study.

         A brief acquisition of the M49 galaxy yielded good data for
         the science teams of the UIT and HUT, while WUPPE performed
         an aperture comparison which also proved successful.

         About 11:30 a.m., the crew acquired 3C273, a quasi-stellar
         object (QSO) (popularly called a "quasar") that is the
         brightest known QSO and was the first to be identified
         optically.  All instruments, including the BBXRT, followed
         the scientific data closely in the observation of this strong
         ultraviolet and X-ray source.

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

Date: 9 Dec 90 23:51:34 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Science Conference transcript for 12/08/90 [2217 CST] (Forwarded)


      Science Conference (unabridged transcript)
      December 8, 1990
      10:17 p.m. CST; 6:21:28 MET


      PAO Commentator John Dumoulin:  Crew Interface Coordinator Michelle
      Snyder will be hailing the crew here in just a minute, and she will
      enable communications with each of the science principal
      investigators.  She will first be talking to the Broad Band X-ray
      Telescope team's Greg Medejski; and then the Hopkins team's Knox
      Long; UIT's Susan Neff, John Deily and Frank Bauer; and Principal
      Investigator for the Wisconsin Telescope team Art Code.

      Michelle Snyder:  Astro Huntsville.

      Ron Parise:  Go ahead, Michelle.

      Michelle:  Well, we're all ready down here for this science
      briefing.  Are you guys ready?

      Ron:  Yeah, we're just looking out the window.

      Michelle:  O.K. Well, BBXRT is going to go first, followed by HUT,
      UIT, and WUPPE.  So, I will go ahead and enable BBXRT.

      Ron:  O.K. Thanks.

      Greg Medejski:  U.S. Astro crew, this is BBXRT planner on
      air-to-ground loop.  And we want to thank you very much for keeping
      us going.  I know it has been a little difficult in the beginning.
      But I think that we are getting fantastic results now.  We have seen
       excellent X-rays from all the objects that we wanted to look at so
      far.  And we appreciate the efforts.  I know it was probably a
      little frustrating not to get everything going right according to
      schedule, but I think it was worth it.  Your perseverance really
      paid off.

      We have absolutely great results on a lot of extra-galactic sources.
      And one of my favorite targets is the BL Lec object that you might
      be hearing about pretty soon -- PKS 2155-304.  Other than that we
      are very much anticipating the analysis of the data that we have
      sitting on magnetic tapes.  We simply cannot keep up; there is so
      much fantastic stuff coming in.  We are really, really glad that we
      had this opportunity.  And I think all those years of hard work
      really paid off.  And again, this is really great, and I really hope
      this is not the last Astro mission.

      Michelle:  Astro Huntsville.

      Ron:  Go ahead.

      Michelle:  Did you copy?

      Ron:  Yeah, loud and clear.  We copied that and we appreciate the
      comments there, and we are working hard.

      Michelle:  O.K., well, I think HUT's ready.

      Ron:  O.K.  Go ahead.

      Knox Long:  Hello, Astro. This is HUT down here.  We are having a
      good, but busy time.  It seems like one long rocket flight, at
      times.  But it's great.  And the data is really superb.  HUT is
      performing above everybody's expectations.  We have data on lots of
      different types of sources.  And we are hopeful of getting more.

      I know, Sam, that you are interested in the spectrum of Jupiter.
      Warren has told me that I should tell you about it.  They did detect
      O-plus at 834 Angstroms in the Jupiter spectrum.  And it's
      definitely not airglow.  And they said you would understand what
      that meant.

      Some of the other things that we've done:  We have observed G191-B2B
      in second order.  And as one can clearly see, the helium edge in the
      data looks like there is about one optical depth of absorption at
      the edge.  Helium 1 along the line of sight between us and G191-B2B
      looks great!

      A couple of other things for Bob:  We have a spectrum of the Crab
      Nebula that shows the continuum almost all the way down to 900
      Angstroms.  It's also spectacular.  We are amazed that we could see
      it against the reddening in that direction, which you know about.

      And Bill Blair is truly excited about the Cygnus Loop observations.
      I don't know if you know this, but we looked at two filaments there.
      One is a non-radiative filament out on the northeast limb of the
      Cygnus Loop.  And 0VI is just booming through in that spectrum,
      which comes from the region where the primary shock is running into
      the interstellar medium.  And then there was that spectrum, which
      had a multitude of lines of a radiative filament.  That is also in
      the northeast side, and also omits 0VI, which was sort of surprising
      to us.

      And then today, we got these two spectra of UX UMa.  And they are
      pretty spectacular, even though we missed the eclipsed portion of
      the light curve a bit.  We really don't understand the spectra.
      They have lines that are definitely not seen in IUE, and they look
      like they are double and triple.  We are not quite sure what is
      going on.  It's as if we are seeing individual blobs and the
      accretion.  So it has been just great.

      I wondered if you all had any questions about any of that, and maybe
      I can tell you something.

      Sam Durrance:  Uh, no Knox that is great.  In fact, that sounds very
      fantastic.  And I do know what they mean by the 0-plus ions in the
      Jovian  spectrum.  That's fantastic.  We have been looking at that
      phenomenon for a long time.  And yes, Bob was aware of the 0VI
      discovered in Cygnus, and he was pretty excited about it.

      Sounds great.  It is great to hear that you discovered the helium in
      G192-B2B.  That sounds really great.  The spectra Jeff got today of
      UX UMa was really wild.

      Knox:  Yes, it surely was.  I should tell you that we have been kept
      in a good mood by Bill Blair who seems to be able to write either a
      poem or put words to lyrics of various things every day.  One of
      them is called "The Night Before Astro."  If you have a moment, I'll
      read you a little bit of it.

      Sam:  Yes, go ahead. Sounds great.

      Knox:  It starts out:
      Twas the night before Astro, and all through the POCC
      Not a creature was stirring; we were all in our spots.
      The posters were hung on the walls and the door
      In hopes that we'd soon hear the Astro launch roar.
      The blue team was nestled all snug in their beds
      While visions of "real data" danced in their heads.
      The MUM and her kerchief and the PAP in his cap
      Had just settled their brains from some JSC flap.
      When out on the loops there arose such a clatter
      We put on our headsets to hear all the chatter.
      To VT-240s we flew like a flash
      We signed onto OMIS, RRs to rehash.
      (The moon in the midst of the cluster Virgo
      Caused a lot of RRs in the systems below.)
      When what to our wondering ears should we hear,
      But the shuttle was fixed!  There's no leak in the rear!
      Like wild leaves before a wild hurricane fly
      When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
      So out on the pad they were ready to sail,
      Thanks to their friend "Uncle Max" and his crew biting nails.
      The suits were hung on the crew with much care
      In hopes that the shuttle would launch like a flare!
      The little clean room at the top of the gantry
      Was smaller than most people's kitchen or pantry.
      The astronauts enter Columbia's port,
      They strap themselves in -- "All is well" they report.
      In the POCC back in Huntsville we sat and we waited
      (Although more than one veteran's mood was quite jaded.)
      The countdown went smoothly; the APU's worked.
      The SRB's fired, it lurched and it jerked.
      It cleared the launch tower, we hooted and whistled,
      And away they all flew on the back of that missile!
      The smoke it encircled the pad like a wreath
      And we all breathed a big heavy sigh of relief.
      And we heard KSC as they rose out of sight,
      "Happy lift-off to all, and to all a good flight!"

      Sam:  That sounds great, Bill.  You have really produced some great
      poetry there.  Thanks a lot Knox.

      Knox:  Roger. Out.

      Susan Neff:  Astro, this is UIT.

      Ron:  Go ahead, Susan.

      Susan:  Hi Ron!  We can't measure up to HUT's poetry, I'm afraid.
      But we figure that we are the Little Telescope That Could.  We just
      chug along.  And we're having a great time doing ground-based
      observing.  I hope it's not too boring for you guys.  We think we
      are getting great data.

      Ron:  It's been a long time since I've worked as a night assistant,
      but I've been having a good time.  Hope you guys there are enjoying
      it.

      Susan:  Well, if you weren't holding on to our data up there, we'd
      have it back from Speedy Snap Shop already, at least some of it.  I
      just hope your thumbs are holding up ... we're a little concerned
      about the new digital pointing system.

      Ron:  We're having a good time.

      Susan:  Let me give you a quick update on our science to date.  If
      you've got any specific targets that you want to know about, I'll
      look them up for you.  We are getting nice long observations on lots
      of our prime targets.  We're greedy.  We would always like more!
      But what we are getting should keep us off the streets for a long
      time.  We have gotten two really good nights on M31.  We've gotten
      four great nights on NGC-1399 -- the Fornax Cluster; we just sat and
      took pictures while we were working out on the ground how to do this
      new joint-ops business.  That data is going to keep people real
      happy also.

      We just finished NGC-1851, and we think that one is good as well.
      We only got one long observation because of the RCS hotfire test,
      but what we got looks good.  We are plugging away down our galaxy
      list and are making good progress there.

      Ron:  Sounds good, Susan.  How are we doing on globular clusters?

      Susan:  We're doing O.K., although not as well as I'm sure you would
      like.  Those are short pointings.  And it is really hard for us to
      get long integrations on short pointings in this mode.

      Ron:  Yeah, but on the other hand, they are generally pretty
      bright.  So, it should be O.K.

      Susan:  Ron, you've got to explain to the other shift up there what
      the difference is between a globular cluster and a galaxy.

      Ron:  O.K.

      Susan:  I personally was really thrilled about the NGC-1068, Ron,
      that you got.  So my compliments to whoever pointed on that one.
      That looked good.  Right now, we have only used about 40 percent of
      our film, so as far as we're concerned, you guys can stay up there
      for an extra day or two.  We're ready to keep going.

      Ron:  We would be glad to do it, as much as we can.

      Susan:  O.K. John Deily and Frank Bauer want to give you a quick
      update on our IMCS now.

      John Deily:  Hi Ron.

      Ron:  Hi John, go ahead.

      John:  Things looks to be going really well with UIT's jitter
      performance.  Our servo is operating beautifully.  Our response to
      the IMCS signal is in the .1 - .2 arc second range.  So
      congratulations!  You guys are doing a great job pointing the IPS
      with MPC.  Here's Frank.

      Frank Bauer:  Hello Ron!  This is Frank.  Yeah, we want to let you
      know that all you guys are doing a great job up there with that IPS,
      under the manual pointing control.  We've seen on the order of 5 -
      10 arc seconds peak pointing and standard deviations on the order of
      2 arc seconds.  Really outstanding!  It's been a real team effort
      here. Great job!  And we've got a "can do" attitude -- both on the
      ground and in the air -- and it has been fantastic!  On behalf of
      the UIT team here, Bob, Ron, Sam and Jeff -- we want to issue our
      congratulations to you guys.  On behalf of us, we would like to
      officially award you the "NASA Nintendo Champion Award" for doing
      such a good job with the MPC.

      Ron:  Thanks a lot, Frank.  We are all appreciative of that, and of
      course we could not do that great pointing without your feedback
      from the ground.

      Frank:  I think like I said, it has been an outstanding team effort
      from everybody on the ground and everybody up there.  And for you,
      Ron and Vance, I personally would like to wish you the best of luck
      with your SAREX contact with the MIR in the future here.

      Ron:  We're going to try it!  Although, I don't know if we'll get a
      chance or not, because it is getting towards the end of the mission.

      Frank:  O.K. Take care.  On behalf of UIT, great job guys!

      Ron:  Thanks Frank.

      Art Code:  Hi there!  This is Art.  One of the things that I have
      really hoped is that you've been able to get some sense of the
      euphoria that the WUPPE team has experienced whenever this neat data
      comes down on objects that are real close to their hearts.  So I
      hope you've heard that.

      We've got observations on all kinds of interesting objects.  One of
      the important WUPPE programs, as you know, is to study the
      interstellar dust.   And we've got a number of real good
      interstellar probes.  And among the things we see is confirmation of
      an identification that Ted Stecher made 25 years ago:  the 2,200
      Angstrom extinction bump is due to graphite.  And if it were we
      wouldn't see any polarization across the bump.  And Ted seems to be
      right.

      We got neat polarization measurements on rapid rotators, magnetic
      white dwarfs, Wolf-Rayet stars like Regina's EZ Canis Majoris,
      massive super-giant like P Cygni which throws off mass
      periodically.  We got one of Ken's favorite reflection nebula, and
      we've done some interesting co-science with the other instruments.
      Some of it to our surprise.

      Of course, this is a "Ken Program," but Sam would be interested in
      looking at our field observations, I guess.  One of the co-pointings
      is a quasar Q1821, which is a real good spectrum.  It has several
      percent polarization.  Seyfert galaxy 1068, that's great results.  I
      heard UIT saying how great they thought it was.  Well, you know the
      model for 1068, or any active galactic nucleii, depends upon
      polarization to establish that that is the correct model.  And the
      ground-based polarization suggests it, but it's contaminated by the
      background radiation in the galaxy.  And you have to make large
      corrections to the polarization.

      In the UV galaxies, all the red stars go away, and we don't have to
      make these corrections for the background.  And we've got only 20%
      polarization range for the 1068, which is like you ought to get.

      That's a quick sample of our data up to now.  And we are really
      greatful for the fantastic job you've done to help us get this first
      UV polarization in space.  As an old-fashioned astronomer, I'm
      really pleased to see that you are doing old-fashioned astronomy by
      manually pointing.  So thanks again Bob, Ron, Sam, Jeff.  We are
      really grateful.

      We have been looking at the stars and sky for centuries from the
      ground here.  And there is plenty left to do in space.  So let's do
      it again!  Thanks a lot.

      Bob Parker:  Thank you Art. That is really nice to hear.  We were a
      little worried that we were having trouble with some of the WUPPE
      observations.  And we realized that WUPPE relied on almost all of
      the systems on board, IMC and everything else.  And it is good to
      hear that everything is working out anyhow.  Thanks.

      Ron:  The only difficulty on board, at least on the Red Shift, is
      that I can never get the manual pointing control away from Bob.
      He's always having such a good time guiding the exposures, we end up
      fighting over who gets the next target.

      Art:  Yeah, well, he's my kind of astronomer.

      Bob:  We old-fashioned guys have to stick together, Art.

      Art:  Well, O.K., great.  Have fun.  We're having fun down here.

      Bob:  Thanks a lot. We are too.  The Earth is beautiful from here.

      Michelle:  Astro, that completes our science briefing.  And I guess
      we are going to pick up again at MET 6:23:15 with Target 9305-13.

      Ron:  O.K.  We will be ready to go.  Michelle, we will talk to you
      later, and we just crossed the equator and are north-bound to the
      Carolinas in the Pacific.  And we see BBXRT back there moving toward
      the target.  How about that.  We haven't seen that since the first
      day in the mission.  That's really neat to see that doing something
      back there.  We can't see it when Astro is erected.  So nice to have
      a view of them for a change.

      Michelle:  Alright, that sounds terrific.

      Commentator:  Crew Interface Coordinator signing off with the crew
      on orbit.  Just completing a science briefing with some of the
      leaders on the science teams here at Spacelab Mission Operations
      Control Huntsville.  Briefing on BBXRT was Greg Madejski, the team
      planner. Knox Long, a co-investigator with the Hopkins team briefed
      Sam Durrance and Bob Parker on the progress from the Johns Hopkins
      telescope.  The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope team's Susan Neff gave
      science briefing for UIT, and John Deily and Frank Bowers gave some
      updated information on the Image Motion Compensation System and the
      Manual Pointing Control System.  And Principal Investigator Art
      Code, saying "let's do it again" from the Wisconsin team briefing on
      the progress of the Wisconsin Telescope.

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

End of SPACE Digest V12 #666
*******************