Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V12_6/V12_668.TXT

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Subject: SPACE Digest V12 #668

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 12 : Issue 668

Today's Topics:
         NASA Headline News for 12/10/90 (Forwarded)
        Japanese/Soviet space crew successfully lands
              Galileo Update - 12/06/90
              Ulysses Update - 12/03/90
               Galileo article
             space news from Nov 5 AW&ST

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: 10 Dec 90 20:05:43 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA Headline News for 12/10/90 (Forwarded)


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

  Monday, December 10, 1990    Audio Service: 202 / 755-1788

This is NASA Headline News for Monday, December 10, 1990

Shuttle mission controllers at Johnson Space Center this morning
decided to bring Columbia and its seven-person crew home
tonight.  The decision to come home tonight was based on expected
unacceptable weather conditions at Edwards Air Force Base for both
tomorrow and Wednesday.  The planned deorbit maneuver for tonight's
landing will occur at 11:49 pm EST with an Edwards landing on
runway 22 at 12:51 am tomorrow morning.  The Astro-1 crew will spend
the rest of today stowing equipment, including the payload bay
telescopes, closing the payload bay doors, testing the ship's reentry
systems and, in general, making Columbia shipshape for its return.

Astro-1 science activities this morning consisted of joint observations
with all three ultraviolet telescopes of several galaxies and the nearby
supergiant star Betelgeuse.  The X-ray telescope observed several
binary star systems and a quasar during this same period.  The science
management team, at this morning's press briefing, remarked that they
consider the mission a complete success and expect the science gain
from this Spacelab flight will exceed all previous such science flights.

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

The final report of the Advisory Committee on the Future of the
U.S. Space Program was presented at a press briefing at 11:00
am today from the Old Executive Office Building.  Participants
included Vice President Dan Quayle, Committee Chairma7hNorman R.
Augustine, and NASA Administrator Adm. Richard Truly.

Admiral Truly later today will conduct a press briefing at the NASA
Headquarters Auditorium to discuss the report 's findings.  The briefing
will be held at 4:00 pm and will be carried live on NASA Select TV.

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

The Honorable James Baker, Secretary of State, and the Honorable
Eduard A. Schevardnadze, Foreign Minister of the U.S.S.R, will both
be guests in JSC's Mission Control Center this afternoon at 1:50
pm EST.  The two are in Houston for a continuation of the arms
limitation discussions and will take this opportunity to observe shuttle
mission activities.

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

The Galileo Earth 1 gravitational assist flyby went according to
the plan this past Saturday.  At 3:35 pm EST, Galileo flew above the
Earth, over the Carribean Basin, at an altitude of 597 miles.  Columbia
was on an ascending pass moving toward the coast of Chile at that
time.  Galileo gained about 10,800 miles per hour during the flyby.  A
photo of the moon and another of Australia were downlinked within
minutes of the flyby.  More than 2,000 images of the Earth and moon
are scheduled to be downlinked in the next few days.



Hubble Space Telescope flight controllers at the Goddard Space
Flight Center expected to have the spacecraft up and running
again today following the failure of a redundant gyro which placed
Hubble in a safe mode since last Monday.  A preliminary assessment as
to the cause indicates a possible wiring fault in the electronics
associated with gyro 6.  Following the entry into safe mode, Goddard
controllers brought one of the two backup gyros on line and began gyro
alignment activities and a routine recovery from safe mode.  An inquiry
board has been established to define the most probably cause of the
failure and to provide recommendations concerning further actions.
The gyro is one of many on-orbit replaceable units and planning to
permit the inclusion of a replacement pair of gyros on the 1993 orbital
servicing mission.
  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Kennedy Space Center named a new director of engineering
development last week.  Walter T. Murphy, formerly deputy, was
named director last Wednesday.  He replaces Jim Phillips, who recently
retired.  Murphy has previously been manager of all shuttle
engineering activities at Vandenberg and prior to that was manager for
the checkout of shuttle avionics.

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

Monday, 12/10/90
    11:00 am    **Committee on the Future of the U.S. Space Program
            report from Old Executive Office Building.
    1:00 pm        **Galileo status report from JPL.
    4:00 pm        **Adm. Truly press briefing on Augustine committee
            report from NASA Headquarters.

    Throughout the day mission coverage of the STS-35 Astro-1
    mission will continue live, except as noted above.


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.

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

From: [e-mail]
Date: 10 Dec 90 12:18 -0800
To: [e-mail], [e-mail],
        [e-mail], [e-mail],
        [e-mail], [e-mail],
        [e-mail]
Subject: Japanese/Soviet space crew successfully lands

     The USSR successfully landed the Japanese/Soviet Soyuz TM-10 mission
today (Dec. 10th) from their Mir space station according to Radio Moscow
and Radio Japan.  On board were Gennadi Manakov and Gennadi Strekalov (who
were launched Aug 1'90) and Japanese journalist Toyehiro Akiayama (who came
up with the Soyuz TM-11 crew on Dec. 2).  After leaving Mir they made the
planed two orbits before reentry.  The capsule landing time was not
stated but the Radio Moscow announcement came long after it should have on
the original schedule, so there may have been some delay in leaving Mir.
After landing in the snow in Soviet south central Asia Akiayama thought
that space flight helped one see the world as a whole.  Also he really
appreciated the return to gravity (Akiayama suffered badly from space
sickness - something that one cannot predict from ground tests).
     Manakov and Strekalov have spent 138 days in orbit, rather low by
current long duration missions (about 4.6 months rather than the normal six
months).  Most of the work concentrated on materials processing in the
Krystal module. Space walks to repair the Kvant 2 airlock failed because
damage to the hinges was larger than expected.  The replacement crew of
Musa Manarov and Vikor Afanasyev will remain until May '91.  Manarov, who
spent 365 day on Mir in the Soyuz TM-4 flight of Dec. '87 - Dec. '88 is set
to create a new space record. In that previous flight Manerov and Alexander
Titov became the first people to spend one full year in orbit, exceeding
the previous record of 326 days (set by Yuri Romanenko in 1987) by some 39
days.  Now by Feb. 4 '91 he will become the human with the most zero G
experience exceeding that of Romanenko whose lifetime total is 430 days,
while Leoind Kizim (of Soyuz T-10B in '84, Soyuz T-15 in '86) becomes
third with 373 days, and Titov is fourth with 367 days ( Soyuz T-8, 2 days
aborted mission in Apr. '83 in addition to the Soyuz TM-4 year).  If
Manerov stays until May '91 he will total in excess of 510 days (a
significant number as the Soviets only consider important space records
that exceed the previous by 10%).  For some comparison the experience of
the most active US astronauts: John Young at 34 days and Paul Weitz (Skylab
2 & STS-9) with 33 days.  All other US astronauts with higher experience
levels (eg. the Skylab 4 crew with 84 days) have retired (some possibility
of error here as my recent records of US astronauts totals are not complete
for the last year). Actually the French cosmonaut Jean-Loup Chretien also
has 34 days (Soyuz TM-7 Dec. '89 and Soyuz T-6/Salyut 7 in June '82).
     This last flight did some interesting work, but the next crew will be
breaking records.  Just as important, consider whether the existence of
their own cosmonaut help promote space exploration in Japan?

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

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

Date: 11 Dec 90 04:34:13 GMT
From: usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Subject: Galileo Update - 12/06/90


                         GALILEO STATUS REPORT
                           December 6, 1990

     Yesterday, in preparation for the Earth flyby, the Galileo spacecraft
attitude control system was successfully commanded from cruise mode to
inertial mode using gyros for control.  Also yesterday, the VE-11
(Venus-Earth 11) Earth 1 Encounter sequence program was successfully
transmitted and received by the spacecraft.  The encounter sequence will
become active at 8 a.m. PST tomorrow.  Tomorrow a command will be sent to
reset the Command Loss Timer to 3 days, its planned value for this mission
phase.
      ___    _____     ___
     /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|
     | | | |  __ \ /| | | |      Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
  ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |___   Jet Propulsion Lab | [e-mail]
 /___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /|  M/S 301-355        |
 |_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/   Pasadena, CA 91109 |

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

Date: 11 Dec 90 04:08:38 GMT
From: julius.cs.uiuc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Subject: Ulysses Update - 12/03/90


                         ULYSSES STATUS REPORT
                            December 3, 1990

     As of 10 AM (PST), Monday, December 3, the Ulysses spacecraft is
33,066,892 miles (53,216,005 km) from Earth, and 411,796,739 miles
(662,722,612 km) from Jupiter.  The spacecraft is traveling at 80,203 mph
(129,074 kph) relative to the Sun, and 26,908 mph (43,304 kph) relative to
the Earth.

     The Solar Aspect Angle has reduced from 35.6 degrees on November 26 to
26.3 degrees on December 3.  The Sun-Probe-Earth angle has also reduced to
35.3 degrees to 27.1 degrees.  The spacecraft is currently spinning at 5.2
rpm, with a small increase of spin rate noted during the past week.

     A precession manuever was performed on November 26 to maintain the
on-board antenna to be Earth-pointing for S-band communications.  A further
precession manuever was carried out on November 30.  The observed
nutation-like motion has been closely monitored.  The general trend is for
the motion to decrease in amplitude.

     The first tape recorder operations were carried on November 29 and 30.
However, in order to acquire the maximum of real-time data, continuous 34 meter
has been obtained until December 10.  A further request has been submitted for
maximum coverage until the end of the year.

     Following more data analysis, it has been determined that the
nutation-like motion is more complex than was originally assumed.  There is a
nutation of the spacecraft of the order of 1.5 degrees half cone but this
nutation is precessing about the angular momentum on a circle of about 1.5
degrees radius.  This produced an effective overall nutation of between 2-3
degrees half cone.  However, as the week progressed a systematic reduction of
nutation has been observed.  The current value of effective nutation is
centered around 1.7 degrees half cone.

     The stepper motor for the axial boom was turned for a period of 30
minutes on November 29 as a further experiment in the investigation of the
nutation-like motion.  A 20% decrease in the nutation level was observed,
which built up again to a new level, still slightly lower than the level
existing prior to the stepper motor turn-on.

     On Monday, December 3, the X-band downlink was switched on.  The ground
station successfully acquired the downlink and telemetry routed over this link
has been successfully processed.

     Tape recorder operations will continue for several days.  On December 5,
the KEP (Energetic Particles and Interstellar Neutral Gas experiment) EPAC RAM
load will take place.  On December 7, the GLG (Solar Wind Ion Composition
experiment) PAPS will be increased to 22.87 KV.

     The ground segment performance remains nominal. The incidence of data
dropouts is less than in previous weeks.  The switchover to routine operations
has been delayed until the end of the month.  The DSN (Deep Space Network)
is providing tracking passes to fill existing tracking gaps, including the
holiday period.
      ___    _____     ___
     /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|
     | | | |  __ \ /| | | |      Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
  ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |___   Jet Propulsion Lab | [e-mail]
 /___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /|  M/S 301-355        |
 |_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/   Pasadena, CA 91109 |

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

Date: 11 Dec 90 04:45:04 GMT
From: usc!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Subject: Galileo article

Christian Science Monitor -- 12/10/90
"Galileo Gets Earth Boost for Jupiter Trip"

"Earth received its first confirmed interplanetary visitor
Saturday as the spacecraft Galileo came within 590 miles of its
home planet's surface, scientists said."

The Monitor reports that the Earth greeted the visitor by giving
it a hefty boost to its solar orbit velocity, raising from 67,000 to
78,000 miles per hour, and assisting it toward its eventual goal
of Jupiter.

The paper quotes Galileo project manager William O'Neil as
saying "we are having a great day today.  Galileo just
completed a virtually perfect Earth gravity assist.  We hit our
target altitude to within five miles, and our arrival time to
within a half-a-second.  That's not bad for a 14-month trip or
two-thirds of a billion miles."

The paper reports that, as Galileo leaves the vicinity of the
Earth, the spacecraft will send back first-ever pictures of the
Earth and moon together as well as views of the dark side of
the moon.  It will also measure the methane in Earth's
atmosphere, according to the story.  (editor's note.  Voyager 1
took the first ever picture of the Earth and moon together, and
there is no "dark" side to the moon, there is a "far" side.)
      ___    _____     ___
     /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|
     | | | |  __ \ /| | | |      Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
  ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |___   Jet Propulsion Lab | [e-mail]
 /___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /|  M/S 301-355        |
 |_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/   Pasadena, CA 91109 |

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

Date: 11 Dec 90 05:58:32 GMT
From: usc!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: space news from Nov 5 AW&ST

OSC and Hercules get the 1990 National Air and Space Museum Trophy for
Pegasus.

House+Senate endorse USAF/NASA proposal for a joint buy of four IUSes,
for a small cost saving.

Society of Japanese Aerospace Companies studies a recoverable spacecraft
to carry a 300kg payload into orbit for two weeks, using existing boosters.

Orbital Sciences posts its first after-tax profit, with five Pegasus launches
sold to date (all to DARPA).

First Inmarsat 2 launched, by Delta from the Cape, Oct 30.  This was the
200th Delta.

House/Senate appropriations funding for Milstar, which directed a major
re-orientation to tactical needs, also criticized the Pentagon for the
lack of a comprehensive DoD comsat plan and asked that one be produced
as part of next year's budget.

Details of the five categories into which SDI funding is now split.  Of
particular note is that the "Phase 1" category is required to cover all
Brilliant Pebbles work.  [Evidently Congress is not buying SDIO's claim
that Brilliant Pebbles is the answer to everything, including defense
against limited attacks.]  The Pentagon cannot move more than 10% of a
category's funding around without Congressional approval.

Hatch-repair spacewalk on Mir fails.  This is considered annoying but
not disastrous.

Story on SDIO's single-stage-to-orbit project.  The basic objective of
the project is to demonstrate an SSTO vehicle, in a suborbital flight,
in 1994.  The assumption is that current technology (including materials
developed for the X-30) is sufficient to make a non-airbreathing SSTO
spacecraft practical.  In August, small study contracts (circa $3M each)
went to Boeing, General Dynamics, McDonnell Douglas, and Rockwell, for
reports on basic designs and critical technologies by mid-Dec.  After
six months of "risk reduction", investigating said technologies, two
companies will be picked to build prototypes for 1994 flight.  An
operational vehicle could fly 2-3 years after that.

The SSTO companies have been asked to look at all three combinations of
takeoff and landing:  vertical/vertical, vertical/horizontal, and
horizontal/horizontal.  Some takeoff assistance, e.g. trolleys or catapults,
is allowed if needed.  Delivery of Brilliant Pebbles interceptors was
suggested as a model mission, but the contractors have wide latitude to
define payload, performance, fleet size, launch rate, and ground facilities.
Other hypothetical missions include space-station resupply and maintaining
two astronauts in orbit for a four-day mission.  Man-rating is required,
preferably with a 14.7psi cabin atmosphere and flight-crew escape systems.
Another major objective is survival of a single engine failure at any time.
The key objective is "aircraft operations", with a turnaround time of 7-10
days with at most 350 man-days of effort.  "If you can't reduce turnaround,
you might as well buy more [expendable launch vehicles]."

SDIO and industry insist that this is not another "paper program", like the
SSTO studies to date.  The objective is a vehicle, not a report.  It is a
bit unclear, however, why SDIO is doing this, given that it seems only
marginally related to missile defense.  The popular theory is that if the
early work looks good and money is available, the project will probably
be transferred to another organization for implementation, with SDIO involved
in getting things going because it is the one major organization with no
vested interest in existing launchers.

Atlantis launch "postponed indefinitely" due to secret problems with its
military payload.  The delay looks to be a week or so; apparently the
problems were not actually serious, but the bird had to be pulled out
of the payload bay for fixes.

The nature of the delay in the Titan IV launch, now set to go shortly
after Atlantis, has been revealed:  lining in a duct providing payload
cooling air flaked off and was blown into the payload fairing, which
had to be removed for cleaning.  The spacecraft itself was not affected.

First international conference on waverider aircraft, which fly on a
hypersonic shockwave.  There is great interest in using such designs for
more sophisticated versions of aerobraking, such as using the atmosphere
of Mars or Venus to make drastic changes in probe trajectory, more than
could be achieved by orthodox gravity assists.  [You can use aerodynamic
lift to hold the spacecraft *down*, rather than having to rely on the
relatively feeble gravitational field of Mars or Venus, making a much
tighter turn around the planet possible.]  There is beginning to be real
progress again, after very little effort in the 70s and early 80s.  The
major problem areas are basic aerodynamics -- no waverider has actually
flown, at least not that has been admitted -- and heat-transfer technology.
Various research projects are now being proposed, including launching a
test vehicle from a reentering shuttle orbiter.
--
"The average pointer, statistically,    |Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
points somewhere in X." -Hugh Redelmeier| [e-mail]   utzoo!henry

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

End of SPACE Digest V12 #668
*******************