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Subject: SPACE Digest V12 #678

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 12 : Issue 678

Today's Topics:
          Condensed Canopus for August 1990

Administrivia:

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Date: Tue, 11 Dec 90 13:29 N
From: "Rob A. Vingerhoeds / Ghent State University" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Condensed Canopus for August 1990

I am resending this, since there may have been an error with my previous
posting.

I am taking over from Steve Willner for sending condensed versions of
CANOPUS to the newsgroup. I am open to any usefull comments and remarks
about the way you would like to see these condensed versions, as I may want
to change the layout in the near future.

The condensed versions of CANOPUS for June and July 1990 and for October
1990 are coming soon (a bit delayed...).

I hope to hear from you soon,


Rob Vingerhoeds

================================================================================

Here is the condensed CANOPUS for August 1990. There are three articles
condensed or in full and eight articles by title only. CANOPUS is copyright
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, but distribution is
encouraged. See full copyright information at end.

-----------CONTENTS --  3 ARTICLES CONDENSED OR IN FULL-----------------

can900801.txt - 8/1/90

WE CAN GO TO MARS, BUT...
A look at the Space Exploration Initiative
July 10, 1990

Although the technology for going to Mars is largely at hand, a gamut of
political, economic, and institutional issues must be resolved before the
human race can strike off for Mars, according to a Space Summit held June
3-6 in Huntsville, Alabama. In particular, linking the many spacefaring
nations in a Mars campaign will require arguments that appeal to many
nations, not just to the needs of the United States or USSR.

At "The Space Summit, An International Conference on Manned Space
Exploration." a strong note reverberated that the Space Exploration
Initiative (SEI) is the best, perhaps only, way to supply the two resources
Earth needs, educated people, and raw materials, to break the limits of
growth that loom in the 21st century. There has been an enormous diversity
of opinion expressed since President Bush announced SEI, which lead to the
organisation of this summit.

The summit sessions discussed various national space programs, cooperative
space efforts, missions to the Moon and Mars, resource requirements,
implementation issues, alternative strategies, and public and educational
issues. A summary was given by a special panel of attendees who observed
but did not participate in the previous sessions.

Opinions expressed in this summary are those of the Conference Committee
only.

MISSION FOR PLANET EARTH

Saving planet Earth emerged as a chief concern in the summary session held
by three space veterans who observed the earlier sessions.

William Ramsey, the former deputy commander of the U.S. Space Command, said
that he is "befuddled" by the lack of integration of various agencies
involved in space, especially with the logistical support that foreign
launchers boosters might provide, and the lack of common ground "where all
involved feel comfortable."

The most sobering problem, he said, is education: "It is related to and not
a fall-out of space, a precursor to major programs," especially since
today's 10- and 12-year-olds are tomorrow's space scientists.

Mark Hempsell of British Aerospace testified that "I am proof positive that
an active space program can enthuse the young". But he is now frustrated
because there are only two people in space, both Soviet "and I had nothing
to do with it." He said that programs should be based on what the public
needs, not what aerospace companies want. Dr. Michael Duke, director of
planetary exploration at NASA's Johnson Space Center, said that, "I'm going
to do the science that saves the world." In a separate session, student
Dennis Wingo said that "There is no reason for going to Mars without
helping the environment" on Earth and building an infrastructure that will
supply raw materials for industry. Hempsell continued that 100 years from
now the planet will need 20 times as much industry as it has now. SEI can
really be offered in just two aspects -- business as usual, or "do it or
die."

TECHNICAL ISSUES

The technologies required for lunar and Mars missions are well understood
and can be developed. The principal area of concern is crew life support
and health, with recycling water described as a key technology problem. The
long-term effects of space travel on the human body also have many
unknowns, both in effects and countermeasures. These may drive technology
decisions such as high-speed propulsion vs. artificial-g designs. While
technology advancement has been advocated as a justification for SEI, there
were counter-arguments that near-term technologies should be used to reach
Mars as soon as possible. This also raised the question of whether
technology is developed to support the missions, or comes as a result of
the missions happening. One speaker advocated using a modified Space
Shuttle orbiter as an Earth orbit-to-lunar orbit shuttle, and other
existing systems for lunar missions.

POLTICAL ISSUES

In its current incarnation, SEI's start--Space Station Freedom--and
end--the surface of Mars--are defined. Trying to sell a 30-year program to
accomplish everything in between will be difficult. "Packaging" a series of
goals would satisfy each successive political administration and the voters
within the same time periods.

International involvement has been raised as a key issue in SEI, but
arguments seen as compelling in the U.S. are less so elsewhere. The
audience was reminded that what Americans so often call Europe is actually
a patchwork of nations, each with its own space program. {To my opinion,
this is however a wrong view of the situation, which has lead in the past
to misunderstandings between the Americans and the Europeans and apparently
this is happening all over again. Of course European countries do have
their own space programs, some in cooperation with NASA, others in
cooperation with the USSR, but the main activities appear to be coming from
ESA. ESA is THE European Space Agency, where the decisions on the space
programs are taken jointly and the actual realisations are done by European
industries from all over Europe in a good coperation. --RV} The needs for
technical prowess and educational excellence are perceived or met
differently in Europe. There is concern that NASA's invitation to the other
spacefaring nations is only half-hearted and that it really wants to go
alone.

Assuming that a partnership is formed, the first question then is how to
evolve each nation's low-Earth-orbit (LEO) components to serve the greater
SEI goal. Each nation or space agency is completing a basic LEO
infrastructure comprising launchers and jack-of-all-trades space stations.
Expanding each of those fully in all areas would be too expensive.
Aeritalia is studying an alternative where the space agencies agree on
areas that each will develop while the others are surrendered to other
nations. The formation of an Intelsat-like international exploration agency
was also suggested and merits further study.

ECONOMIC ISSUES

The cost of going to the Moon and Mars--$200 to $400 billion, by many
accounts--was identified as perhaps the biggest single objection facing the
program, especially given the high cost of other programs. Just bailing out
the U.S. savings and loan industry is comparable in cost and duration. How
the SEI is financed and the real and perceived returns on investment must
be defined. The role of private investment in SEI has been discussed, but
it is at least doubtfull whether it can exist. The government will be the
ultimate customer and leasing arrangements usually will cost more in the
long run. Whether business should continue in the same fashion, or
innovative methods developed, must be investigated.

INSTITUTIONAL ISSUES

President Bush has cited improved education as a spin-off from SEI, but the
conference attendees also believed that it will be a pacing item in letting
SEI happen. And once built, the workforce must be maintained and cultivated
for continued operations rather than being given the "pink slip" as the
Apollo team was after the landing on the Moon. Specifically, without great
improvements in the output of the U.S. school system, from elementary
school through doctoral programs, there will be no qualified workforce to
send the nation to the planets; this problem has been recognized by a
Congressional task force and is being addressed by several Federal
agencies. Ironically, the only student speaker at the Summit made the
biggest impression as he told the attendees that he was less concerned
about their views of manifest destiny than with saving the world where he
and his children must live. He said that the most promising route was by
way of the resources available on the Moon, Mars and other extraterrestrial
bodies.

A major issue, raised by different voices, is whether SEI necessarily has
to be as big, expensive, tough, or long-term as the various architectures
indicate. This issue can be approached from at least two angles. First is
the question of near-term vs. far-term technology. Second is the cultural
issue of how governments procure products through regulations that seemed
to be designed to insure the costly purchase of out-of-date technology.
Tough, innovative management techniques and changes may be necessary to
allow space agencies to break out of self-imposed constraints.

IGNORED ISSUES

Several key issues were not addressed in the conference. Foremost was a
lack of discussion about the potential Soviet contribution to an
international SEI venture. The Soviets now have the world's best heavy-lift
launch capability, and the most experience in long-term space operations.

Defining the limits to growth is necessary if the industrial nations are to
understand what their economies will be able to support in space
exploration and to determine whether tapping extraterrestrial resources
will allow them to break through those limits without destroying what is
left of the terrestrial environment.

The legal impact of such expansion also was not mentioned. An international
effort might founder on the U.N. Treaty on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space
(1982) which declared extraterrestrial resources to be the "Common Heritage
of Mankind" (the U.S. has not signed this treaty).

Finally, the integration of the various components of and SEI campaign will
pose new management challenges regardless of its scale. The U.S. Space
Station program has encountered great difficulties in coordinating
activities at the field center level (within NASA) and the international
level (among the NASA and other agencies). SEI can only be an order of
magnitude more demanding and difficult.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

An historical background on the SEI showed that nothing new is being
proposed in terms of mission architecture. In particular, the basic outline
for the Mars mission was outlined in the 1940s by the British
Interplanetary Society and explored in technical detail by Wernher von
Braun and his colleagues in the 1950s. In 1969, von Braun's staff designed
a comprehensive "Integrated Space Program" that would have led to manned
bases on Mars by the late 1980s. Major elements which are missing today are
the Saturn 5, a space tug, and a nuclear stage. Nevertheless, the basic
outline from 1969 remains valid (and can be seen in NASA's "90-Day Study").

The renewal of official Administration interest in manned space exploration
stems largely from the 20th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing when
President Bush asked the nation to embark on a "journey into tomorrow" to
Mars. This was reiterated in a February 1990 speech when Bush set the 50th
anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission as the goal for a manned landing on
Mars. Policy statements that followed focused on advancing technology and
opening a dialogue with other nations to join the U.S. in the venture.

Summit reviews of other national space programs showed parallel development
by other nations. The United States, European Space Agency, USSR, and Japan
should possess reusable, manned launchers and space stations by 2001. ESA,
the U.S., Canada, and Japan are participating in Space Station Freedom and
Mission to Planet Earth. The Japanese space program is quite ambitious and
already seems to have a quiet though firm commitment to meet the many goals
outlined by President Bush in the SEI.

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

can900808.txt - 8/14/90

HST PRODUCES STRIKING IMAGE OF STAR CLUSTER
Aug. 13, 1990

Sharp on the heels of the much-needed success of Magellan's arrival at
Venus, NASA today released an image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope
which demonstrates that the observatory is capable of good science despite
the imperfection in its mirrors.

"I'm elated and I think most astronomers are," HST Program Scientist Ed
Weiler said in a press conference this afternoon. The 9 arc-sec
wide-picture of R136, a star cluster within 30 Doradus, the most prolific
stellar nursery within the local group shows that "we can still do some
unique science" on bright objects. The cluster is about 160,000 light years
away and would fill the space between our sun and Alpha Centauri.

Dr. Rick White, an associate astronomer at the Space Telescope Science
Institute, said that the picture is 10 times better than a comparable one
taken by the the 2.2-meter telescope of the European Southern Observatory
in Chile. The HST image is markedly sharper in showing a large number of
point sources in the nursery, although has a halo due to the speherical
aberration which prevents "perfect" focusing.

Knowing that each star is a point source, the science team was able to
clean the image by computer. "The encouraging thing," White said, "... is
that all the different [enhancement] techniques we have tried give
comparable results."

Future pictures "will improve significantly" when the secondary mirror is
placed in its "best" focus position -- where it was not for this image --
and after calibrating filters in the camera.

"The Wide-Field Camera is performing to specification in the area of
resolution," Weiler said. "That's not the whole story, of course" since
much of the focused energy falls outside the specified 0.1 arc-second
circle, thus giving any object a halo. Weiler said the picture of R136
shows that bright-object osbervations are possible with the
Wide-Field/Planetary Camera and the Faint Object Camera.

The image of R136 was produced to help check spectral data taken by the
Goddard High Resolution Spectrometer during its verification tests. Sally
Heap, a spectrometer co-investigator, said that the images provided to the
media were not as good as the original.

"There is more in a WF/PC picture that you can show photographically. We
can see separate stars on the image display," she said as she invited
reporters to view the images in her laboratory. The cluster originally was
thought to be a single massive star, then was resolved into some 27 large
stars in the 1980s. In the images acquired by HST, at least 60 stars were
counted when astronomers got tired and quit.

WF/PC principal investigator James Westphal of the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory said that he was one of the biggest skeptics of the
computer-processing technology, and is encouraged that the camera will be
able to provide good images of Jupiter.

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

can900809.txt - 8/14/90

HUBBLE INVESTIGATION ADVISORY
Aug. 9, 1990

Analyses of the possible causes of the observed spherical aberration in the
HST suggest that the "reflective null corrector" may have been flawed. The
reflective null corrector is an optical reference device which was used to
measure very precisely the surface figure of the HST primary mirror during
its manufacture.

The test setup incorporating the reflective null corrector remains
essentially unchanged from when it was used in measurements during the
final polishing and coating of the primary mirror in 1981.

The HST project/contractor team, led by Lew Allen, Chairman of the HST
Optical Systems Board of Investigation, has been concentrating its efforts
looking for an error in the reflective null corrector. Over the last two
weeks tests have been run, systematically checking various aspects of this
device.

Preliminary results of a test conducted at Hughes Danbury Optical Systems
(HDOS) Aug. 8 to look at the spacings of the elements in the corrector have
revealed a clear discrepancy of approximately 1 millimeter between the
design of the null corrector and the device as it exists. One millimeter is
about 1/25 of an inch (about the diameter of the point of a ball-point
pen). Preliminary analysis indicates that a discrepancy of this magnitude
could cause spherical aberration similar to that observed in the HST
primary mirror.

The investigation board will now concentrate its efforts in two areas:
refining the measurement of the observed reflective null corrector spacing
discrepancy and continuing to examine all aspects of the reflective null
corrector and associated test apparatus as they were constructed and used
in the fabrication of the primary mirror. The board is scheduled to meet at
HDOS on Aug. 15-16. This meeting will be the first opportunity for the
full board to review the test procedures and resulting data.

-----------------8 ARTICLES BY TITLE ONLY-------------------------------

MAGELLAN STATUS REPORT (Aug. 6, 1990) - can900802.txt - 8/6/90

NASA ASTROPHYSICS SEEKS VISITING SENIOR SCIENTISTS (Aug. 6, 1990)
- can900803.txt - 8/6/90

NASA RESEARCH ANNOUNCEMENT (NRA 90-OSSA-18) - can900804.txt - 8/7/90
Long-Term Space Astrophysics (LTSA) Research Program

NASA RESEARCH ANNOUNCEMENT (NRA 90-OSSA-16) - can900805.txt - 8/7/90
High-Energy Astrophysics X-ray Astronomy Research and Analysis 1990

NASA RESEARCH ANNOUNCEMENT (NRA 90-OSSA-19) - can900806.txt - 8/14/90
Astrophysics Data Program (ADP)

MAGELLAN STATUS REPORT (Aug. 13, 1990) - can900807.txt - 8/14/90

NASA RESEARCH ANNOUNCEMENT - can900810.txt - 8/29/90
Ultraviolet Detector Development for Space Astronomy

NASA RESEARCH ANNOUNCEMENT - can900811.txt - 8/29/90
Origins of Solar Systems Research Program

------------------END OF CONDENSED CANOPUS---------------------------

This posting represents my own condensation of CANOPUS. For clarity, I have
not shown ellipses (...), even when the condensation is drastic. New or
significantly rephrased material is in {braces} and is signed {--RV} when
it represents an expression of my own opinion. The unabridged CANOPUS is
available via e-mail from me at any of the addresses below.

Copyright information:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CANOPUS is published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and
Astronautics. Send correspondence about its contents to the executive
editor, William W. L. Taylor ([e-mail]). Send
correspondence about business matters to Mr. John Newbauer, AIAA, 1633
Broadway, NY, NY 10019. Although AIAA has copyrighted CANOPUS and
registered its name, you are encouraged to distribute CANOPUS widely,
either electronically or as printout copies. If you do, however, please
send a brief message to Taylor estimating how many others receive copies.
CANOPUS is partially supported by the National Space Science Data Center.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

End of SPACE Digest V12 #678
*******************