Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V12_6/V12_679.TXT

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Subject: SPACE Digest V12 #679

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 12 : Issue 679

Today's Topics:
           Re: space news from Oct 6 AW&ST
      Astro-1 Status for 12/08/90 [1200 CST] (Forwarded)
           Re: ASTRO status at 4/16:00 MET
              Re: Another Russian first
        UIT Status for 12/07/90 [1600 CST] (Forwarded)
               Re: Black Holes
      Astro-1 Status for 12/10/90 [0430 CST] (Forwarded)
Re: Who killed Nuclear Rockets? (was Re: The Next Ten Years In Space)
         Re: Shuttle Status for 12/06/90 (Forwarded)
           Re: ASTRO status at 4/16:00 MET
              Ulysses Update - 12/10/90

Administrivia:

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

Date: 9 Dec 90 23:47:06 GMT
From: usc!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: space news from Oct 6 AW&ST

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Nick Szabo) writes:
>... What goes around comes around, astronaut fans.  We are entering
>a new era where the funding proportions for "manned" stunts and real
>exploration and industry will be reversed, leading to a new Space Age...

Not if the Planetary Society has its way, since one of their big priorities
is the biggest and most short-sighted manned stunt in the history of space
travel:  the one-shot international manned Mars mission.
--
"The average pointer, statistically,    |Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
points somewhere in X." -Hugh Redelmeier| [e-mail]   utzoo!henry

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

Date: 9 Dec 90 19:30:31 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Astro-1 Status for 12/08/90 [1200 CST] (Forwarded)


         Astro-1 Shift Summary Report #20
         12:00 noon CST, Dec. 8, 1990
         6/11:10 MET
         Spacelab Mission Operations Control
         Marshall Space Flight Center,
         Huntsville, AL


         During this period (4 a.m. to 12 noon CST), the Astro-1
         observatory continued to gather useful scientific data in
         joint observation of a number of celestial targets.  The
         Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo Polarimeter telescope observed
         Zeta Tauri, a hot Be star and sixth brightest in the
         constellation Taurus, early on in this timeframe.

         Afterward, the Alpha Orionis star (sometimes called
         "Betelguese") was observed by the Hopkins Ultraviolet
         Telescope (HUT) and the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT).
         The UIT was the prime observer of NGC891, with the other two
         ultraviolet instruments joining in on target NGC 891, an
         edge-on galaxy possessing a radio emission "halo."

         Toward the end of this timeframe, the Astro-1 crew acquired
         HD 62452, a dwarf star in the Gum Nebula.  This target served
         as another "beacon" in the study of polarization of the dust
         in the interstellar medium, and WUPPE was the primary
         instrument for observation.  Just prior to noon, the crew
         turned to Alpha Camelopardalis, a supergiant star in the
         constellation Camelopardalis ("the Giraffe").  Because of its
         strong polarization features, WUPPE was again the primary
         observing instrument.

         Data gathering was going well for the Broad Band X-Ray
         Telescope (BBXRT) also.  During this time period, the BBXRT
         successfully acquired such targets as Cassiopeia A, a
         supernova remnant in the constellation Casiopeia; Zeta
         Orionis, a bright, massive star in the constellation Orion;
         and "the most exciting of all," said a BBXRT investigation
         team member, a newly discovered pulsar, with a 12-second
         interval between powerful pulses of X-rays.  It is named
         after the "Ginga," a Japanese satellite which first sighted
         the celestial object about two weeks ago.

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

Date: 7 Dec 90 16:49:26 GMT
From: idacrd![e-mail]  (Robert McGwier)
Subject: Re: ASTRO status at 4/16:00 MET

From article <[e-mail]>, by [e-mail] (Greg Hennessy):
> 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
>



Just another example of when you should NOT send a man to do a robot's job.
From the exercises fouling up the stability to lint from uniforms clogging
air intakes, to residue from the huge thrusters (which are only necessary
because it is a huge plane carrying men and the HEAVY life support equipment)
the evidence is overwhelming that good science in astronomy done from
orbit and human presence don't mix.  The entire astro concept made no sense
after they spent umpty dumpty million dollars and then refused to fly
it but once.  If they fly it again, its cost MIGHT come close to being
justified.


While I am on a roll, there is a statement of profound significance in
the scientists remarks concerning 3C273 "I've waited 13 and a half years
. . . ."  We bellyache constantly in the US about the constant advances
by the Japanese and Germans and then do not give adequate support to
doing basic science and basic technology research.  It is pitiful.


Bob

--
____________________________________________________________________________
    My opinions are my own no matter    |    Robert W. McGwier, N4HY
    who I work for! ;-)            |    CCR, AMSAT, etc.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: 9 Dec 90 19:17:41 GMT
From: agate!shelby!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!usc!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx![e-mail]  (Srinivas Bettadpur)
Subject: Re: Another Russian first

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Bev Freed) writes:
>As for first passengers -- Sultan Salman Abdul Azziz Al Sa'ud is
>a good candidate for that category.  The first Saudi astronaut (on

  An even better, and earlier candidate would be the Indian cosmonaut
Rakesh Sharma, who went up with the Soyuz T11 in 1984, for 7 days
and 22 hrs.  We used to refer to it as a "joy-ride",
although the guy did do some experiments on using Yoga to handle
space-sickness, and muscle atrophy due to weightlessness.
   It was rather neat, though, to have one of our countrymen go up
in space.  It did do a lot to promote interest among students to go
into the space sciences, and the government did step up the activities
after the event (though there haven't been many spectacular successes
since then).
                                 Srinivas Bettadpur

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

Date: 8 Dec 90 20:14:31 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: UIT Status for 12/07/90 [1600 CST] (Forwarded)


     UIT Status Report #05
     4 p.m. CST Dec. 7, 1990
     Spacelab Mission Operations Control
     Marshall Space Flight Center
     Huntsville, AL


     Principal Investigator Ted Stecher and other members of the
     Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope Team worked even harder than usual,
     with ground command of their instrument added to their normal
     duties.  But, "I'd even say that commanding from the ground is fun,"
     said UIT member Barbara Pfarr.

     Targets observed today by UIT included the cluster of galaxies Abell
     2597, Supernova 1987A, and the Andromeda galaxy (M31).

     UIT was developed at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD.

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

Date: 9 Dec 90 20:05:14 GMT
From: news-server.csri.toronto.edu!qucdn![e-mail]  (Arnold G. Gill)
Subject: Re: Black Holes

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Norman Yarvin) says:
>
>I have heard this explanation many times, and find it hard to understand
>using a simple-minded or 'intuitive' view of relativity.  Granted that if
>the star's escape velocity exceeds the speed of light, then a photon
>starting from the star's surface can't make it out.  But it seems to me that
>if one can propel some piece of matter any distance away from the black
>hole, then one can lift fuel up to that distance; using this fuel one can
>lift the next piece of matter even farther away from the center; and thus by
>degrees something could escape entirely from the black hole.

     No, that won't work, as Henry has posted already.  Think of it in terms
of orbits around a massive body, in this case a black hole.  Until you reach
escape velocity, you will always be describing some type of orbit around the
black hole.  When you are outside the black hole (but nearby), the orbits are
not too different from your normal orbits, but they are squashed a bit, so
that only certain orbits actually lead away from the black hole.  Most of the
rest intersect the "surface" -- the event horizon.  The closer you come to the
"surface", the more orbits end up intersecting it.  When you reach the event
horizon, all orbits intersect the "surface" and the number of orbits that
could leave the black hole decreases to zero.  Inside the event horizon, no
orbits exist that cross the event horizon (because that is, in part, how the
event horizon is defined).  In fact, depending on the model used, all orbits
inside the black hole hit the singularity in some finite local time.

 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
|  Arnold Gill                        |   - If I hadn't wanted it heard,      |
|  Queen's University at Kingston     |         I wouldn't have said it.      |
|  InterNet:  [e-mail]  |   - Astrophysician in training        |
 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

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

Date: 10 Dec 90 20:08:13 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Astro-1 Status for 12/10/90 [0430 CST] (Forwarded)


         Astro-1 Shift Summary Report #25
         4:30 a.m. CST Dec. 10, 1990
         8/03:40 MET
         Spacelab Mission Operations Control
         Marshall Space Flight Center,
         Huntsville, AL


         All four telescopes -- the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope
         (HUT), the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT), the Wisconsin
         Photo-Polarimeter Experiment (WUPPE), and the Broad Band
         X-ray Telescope (BBXRT) -- continued to unveil images of
         planets, stars, and galaxies.  All four telescopes operated
         without problem throughout the night.

         The Hopkins Telescope and the Goddard Space Flight Center's
         UIT gathered 45 minutes of spectographic data and images of
         Jupiter, beginning approximately 8:15 last night.

         All three ultraviolet telescopes -- HUT, UIT, and WUPPE --
         performed joint observations on the elliptical, radio-bright
         galaxy NGC 1316 at 9:30 p.m.; Omega Centauri, 16,500 light
         years away, at approximately 10:50 p.m.; U Geminorum in the
         constellation Gemini at 11:30 p.m.; NGC 2146, a galaxy
         apparently capturing matter around itself to create new
         stars, at 12:40 a.m.; a large, spiral galaxy in the
         constellation Ursa Major, M81, at 2:30 a.m.; and
         AlphaOrionis, an M-type supergiant better known as
         Betelgeuse, at approximately 3:45 a.m.

         The BBXRT gathered scientific data on each of its scheduled
         targets, including OJ286, an energetic radio source acquired
         twice during the night; PHL 8462, a radio-loud quasar;
         QX301-2, a massive X-ray binary star sytem; VV Puppis, a
         cataclysmic binary system made up of a small white dwarf and
         a star similar to our Sun; and M81.

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

Date: 10 Dec 90 19:03:34 GMT
From: sdd.hp.com!know!news.cs.indiana.edu!maytag!watmath!watdragon!watyew![e-mail]  (Brian or James)
Subject: Re: Who killed Nuclear Rockets? (was Re: The Next Ten Years In Space)


    I dimly recall a Donald Kingsbury article on a high thrust
nuclear rocket called (I think) 'Jumbo' or 'Dumbo'. Mid 70s, but it
was in Analog Magazine, whose articles on high tech occasionally
sacrifice accuracy and careful evaluation in favour of enthusiasm.
The Analog is in my magazine collection, which means I can specify its
location only to within a few feet :( and I don't feel like sorting through
a dozen boxes. Anyone have anything concrete on this?

                            James Nicoll

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

Date: 10 Dec 90 01:07:38 GMT
From: sun-barr!newstop!texsun!csccat!adept![e-mail]  (Alan Ruffer)
Subject: Re: Shuttle Status for 12/06/90 (Forwarded)

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Henry Spencer) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Steve "il-Manhous" Norton) writes:
>>So here's the $6e6 question for the day: What's going to happen to Astro
>>when it gets back to Florida?  (Aside from some scientists cursing and
>>screaming at the IPS electronics for a while :-) ) ...
>
>After the cursing and screaming stops, it goes into storage in hopes that
>there might someday be an Astro-2 mission after all.

Lets hope that a little bacwards engineering occurs to determine what exactly
the problem IS with the IPS and star trackers and what can be done to
prevent this sort of thing from happening in the future.
Also there needs to be some detailed study of the DDUs that failed and some
re-engineering there to prevent any future occurance of this problem.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Alan R. Ruffer      UUCP: {csccat,chinacat!holston}!adept!alan           |
| Route 1, Box 1745   Voice: [phone] (Home)                         |
| Sulphur, LA 70663   BBS: [phone], 19200(PEP)/9600(V.32)/2400/1200 |
|                                                                          |
| "A witty saying proves nothing." -- Voltaire                             |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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

Date: 10 Dec 90 22:26:50 GMT
From: sdcc6!beowulf![e-mail]  (Dan Rose)
Subject: Re: ASTRO status at 4/16:00 MET

[e-mail] (Robert McGwier) writes:
>Just another example of when you should NOT send a man to do a robot's job.
>From the exercises fouling up the stability to lint from uniforms clogging
>air intakes, to residue from the huge thrusters (which are only necessary
>because it is a huge plane carrying men and the HEAVY life support equipment)
>the evidence is overwhelming that good science in astronomy done from
>orbit and human presence don't mix.  The entire astro concept made no sense
>after they spent umpty dumpty million dollars and then refused to fly
>it but once.  If they fly it again, its cost MIGHT come close to being
>justified.

Well, all I know about ASTRO is what I read here and in the papers, but
wouldn't the mission have been a total waste without the astronauts helping
out with the star tracking duties?  I thought this was evidence *for* human
presence, not against it.  (I realize that the lint might not have been there,
but something else might have gone wrong, as with HST, Magellan, etc.)
--
Dan Rose        {ucbvax,decvax,akgua,dcdwest}!sdcsvax!beowulf!rose.uucp
UC San Diego        [e-mail]

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

Date: 11 Dec 90 20:04:03 GMT
From: usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Subject: Ulysses Update - 12/10/90


                         ULYSSES STATUS REPORT
                           December 10, 1990

     As of 9 AM (PST), Monday, December 10, the Ulysses spacecraft is
37,695,997 miles (60,665,827 km) from Earth, and 399,892,460 miles
(643,564,532 km) from Jupiter.  The spacecraft is traveling at 77,765 mph
(125,006 kph) relavtive to the Sun, and 30,805 mph (49,576 kph) relative to
the Earth.

     On December 4, the X-band downlink was switched off to maintain a safe
thermal environment.  On December 5, the KEP (Energetic Particles and
Interstellar Neutral Gas experiment) EPAC RAM load took place.  Five hours of
playback data were lost due to a ground station failure.

     On December 6, a routine slew maneuver was carried out.  Also on this day,
as a part of the continuing investigation into the nutation-like motion, the
axial boom stepper motor was switched on for a period of 3 minutes, 3 times
with an interval of 1 hour between each switch-on.  No noticeable reduction in
nutation was observed from this series of tests.

     On December 7, the GLG (Solar Wind Ion Composition experiment) PAPS was
increased to 22.87 KV.  This was followed by a further test of the axial boom
stepper motor.  The motor was activated for a period of 2 hours.  The
nutation-like motion reduced from 1.3 degrees half cone to 0.85 degrees half
cone.  However, within a short period, the motion had built up to a half cone
angle of 1.1 degrees.  In the period from the December 7 to December 10, there
has been no degradation of the nutation angle.  In fact, avery small increase
has been observed.

     The 3rd meeting of the Nutation Investigation Team will take place on
December 11 to discuss future strategy.  On December 10, the X-band downlink
was switched on.  Data acquired via this downlink are being processed
successfully.  It is now expected that the thermal environment will permit the
X-band downlink to remain on.

     On December 12, a matrix re-configuration of the BAM (Solar Wind Plasma
experiment) will occur.  Some further nutation investigation operations may be
carried out.  These will arise from decisions taken by the 3rd meeting of the
Nutation Investigation Team.  Thermal re-configurations will be carried out as
necessary.

     The performance of the DSN (Deep Space Network) was nominal except for a
long duration outage at the Australia station due to antenna mechanical
failure.  Five hours of playback data were lost.  It has also been noted that
when data are being acquired from the Spain station, the frequency of data
dropouts between the station and JPL is higher than from other stations.
      ___    _____     ___
     /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|
     | | | |  __ \ /| | | |      Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
  ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |___   Jet Propulsion Lab | [e-mail]
 /___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /|  M/S 301-355        |
 |_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/   Pasadena, CA 91109 |

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

End of SPACE Digest V12 #679
*******************