Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V13_0/V13_076.TXT

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Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #076

SPACE Digest                                      Volume 13 : Issue 76

Today's Topics:
         NASA Headline News for 01/23/91 (Forwarded)
               Re: Ulysses SRM
              Re: 2 dimensional objects
             Re: Ultimate Weapon
              Galileo Update - 01/23/91
               Re: Firm Fred Decisions
            More on space cameras
         Re: List of remaining CRRES release windows
          Re: Chemical release last night (1/19/91)
             Re: THE BLUE PLANET

Administrivia:

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

Date: 23 Jan 91 20:23:05 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA Headline News for 01/23/91 (Forwarded)


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

  Wednesday, January 23, 1991    Audio Service: 202 / 755-1788

This is NASA Headline News for Wednesday, January 23, 1991

At the Kennedy Space Center, work on Discovery continues
on schedule.  Work in progress today includes re-testing of the
orbital maneuvering system crossfeed lines, following the
installation of new seals on all primary and backup lines.
Ongoing activities to prepare the orbiter for rollover to the
Vehicle Assembly Building, by the end of the month, are also on
schedule.  These include flushing of the auxiliary power unit
lubrication system, potable water system servicing, final tire
pressure measurements, and installation of the thermal barrier
between the external tank doors.  In the VAB, Discovery's
STS-39 stack continues to be built.  Currently, the right solid
rocket booster forward segment is being transported to the VAB
for installation.  The left SRB is completed.

Work on Atlantis, in preparation for its scheduled April flight
on the STS-37 Gamma Ray Observatory deploy mission, also
continues in the Orbiter Processing Facility.  A replacement
window is being installed in the cabin window 6 position.
Other ongoing work this week involves routine servicing of the
potable water and waste containment systems.

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

Paul F. Bikle, director of the Flight Research Center (now the
Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility) Edwards, Calif. from
1959 to 1971, died Jan. 19 in Salinas, Calif.

There will be no services.  The family requests that any
donations be made to the American Heart Association.

While director of the Flight Research Center, Bikle was
responsible for a number of major aeronautical research
programs, including the rocket-powered X-15, and the lifting
bodies, forerunners of today's space shuttle.  All 199 X-15
flights were conducted while he was director.  Another
program managed by Bikle was the lunar landing research
vehicle, which was flight tested at Edwards and later used for
astronaut training there.

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

The Johnson Space Center has named the four flight
control teams for the STS-39 mission.  Flight directors and
capsule communicators for the mission are: Alan (Lee) Briscoe
and Brian Duffy, ascent/entry; Robert Castle, Jr. and Kathy
Thornton, Orbit 1; Ronald Dittemore and Marsha Ivins, Orbit 2
and Lead; and Robert Kelso and Ken Bowersox, Orbit 3.

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

Marshall Space Flight Center's education staff have met with
representatives of Alabama A&M University to discuss
support for a three-week summer educational program for the
region's teachers.  Alabama A&M is a historically black
university in Huntsville.  Marshall has offered to schedule 10
morning programs at the Center's Discovery lab and elsewhere
onsite for up to 25 teachers.  They supported a similar program
last year.




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

Wednesday, 1/23/91
     9:30 am    **STS-39 Flight Director briefing from JSC.
    11:00 am    **STS-39 DOD payload briefing from JSC.
     1:15 pm    **Magellan at Venus report from JPL.
     2:00 pm    **STS-39 crew briefing from JSC.

Thursday, 1/24/91
    12:00 pm    NASA Productions will be transmitted.
     1:00 pm    NASA Update will be transmitted.




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.

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

Date: 21 Jan 91 19:57:35 GMT
From: psuvm![e-mail]  (BUMBLE)
Subject: Re: Ulysses SRM

>Again, ???  Unless I am badly mistaken, Ulysses is going direct to
>Jupiter, no delta-VEGA involved.  Only Galileo gets to bat around
>the inner system for a while first.

   Why was Galileo not launched on a direct route, using the more powerful
boosters that Ulysses used?

                                     Larry Rossi
                                     <LPR100@PSUVM>         Bitnet
                                     <[e-mail]> Internet

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

Date: 23 Jan 91 03:35:44 GMT
From: fluke!ssc-vax![e-mail]  (Jeff Carroll)
Subject: Re: 2 dimensional objects

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Jason J. Levit) writes:
>
>  The plot was a bunch of 2 dimensional objects (no height) surrounded
>  the Enterprise and was dragging it along.  I won't bore you with the
>  other details, as that was the main plot.

If you haven't read them yet, check out "Flatland" by Edwin Abbott,
and "The Planiverse" by A. K. Dewdney; both are discussions of what
2-D reality would be like.

Dewdney actually goes to a surprising level of detail in designing
life forms, deriving physical laws, etc. I haven't read Abbott,
myself.

Jeff Carroll
[e-mail]

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

Date: 23 Jan 91 13:01:34 GMT
From: vax5.cit.cornell.edu![e-mail]  (T. Joseph Lazio, Cornell University)
Subject: Re: Ultimate Weapon

In article <[e-mail]>,
[e-mail] (Roland Stolfa) writes:
> If both of the two previous questions can be answered "yes", then consider
> the following Ultimate Weapon.
>
> A.   Take two areas and collect in each one half of a black hole's mass.
>      These two areas should be far enough appart that they will not be
>      pulling each other together, yet.
>
> B.   Once the mass has been achieved, start both pieces in motion
>      towards an "enemy", while also moving the pieces towards each
>      other.
>
> C.   Arrange it so that the two pieces collide and form our black
>      hole before reaching the "enemy", hopefully far enough away
>      from "us" to not cause us any problems.  If it needs some energy,
>      make the collision point some star that already has a good
>      chunk of the mass, as well as the energy that might be needed.
>
> D.   Once the black hole has been formed, it could travel along
>      (Newtons's law ???), and quite simply suck the entire solar
>      system of the "enemy" to oblivion.

       While we are speaking of Ultimate Weapons...Stan Woosley once
       published a paper on Type I supernovae (which I cannot currently
       find).  In it, he spends about a paragraph detailing how a
       degenerate carbon white dwarf could be turned into a massive
       thermonuclear bomb.  He concludes that it is not currently
       feasible, in part, because it is not clear how to place a
       detenator near the center of the white dwarf to start the
       explosion.

--
      T. Joseph Lazio
      Cornell University  [phone]
      [e-mail]
      [e-mail]

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

Date: 23 Jan 91 18:48:51 GMT
From: swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Subject: Galileo Update - 01/23/91


                         GALILEO STATUS REPORT
                           January 23, 1991

     Yesterday, the CDS "A" (Command Data Subsystem) prime and extended
memory readout was successfully completed on the Galileo spacecraft; no
anomalies or parity errors were observed.

     Today, a sun acquisition will be performed to maintain the required
thermally safe sun pointed attitude.  This will be the fifth sun acquisition
since going to all-spin operation on January 16.

     No spacecraft activity is planned for tomorrow, but a command will be
sent to reset the Command Loss Timer to 144 hours.
      ___    _____     ___
     /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|
     | | | |  __ \ /| | | |      Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
  ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |___   Jet Propulsion Lab | [e-mail]
 /___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /|  M/S 301-355        |
 |_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/   Pasadena, CA 91109 |

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

Date: 24 Jan 91 15:23:47 GMT
From: eagle![e-mail]  (Ronald E. Graham)
Subject: Re: Firm Fred Decisions

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Charles Radley) writes...

>Delting the nodes and pressurized hab module appears to
>make "safe Haven" rathr tricky......dos this mans mean the
>Shuttle must remain attached when the station is manned ?

Mr. Radley, you type too fast.  Take your time.

Yes, it not only means that the Shuttle must remain attached when
Fred is manned, but it means (slightly more powerful wording) that
Fred can only be manned when the Shuttle docks.  The Shuttle will
literally serve as the habitation module.  Experiments (and I still
haven't yet heard which experiments we're talking about) will be based
in the lab module, which itself does not get attached until the fifth
assembly element launch.  Hence, MTC only.

I wish I could tell you more, but my ears are on the rail listening
for the train, at any rate.

RG

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

Date:         Thu, 24 Jan 91 21:49:38 EST
From: "Charles J. Divine" <[e-mail]>
Subject:      More on space cameras

I have been reading the various comments about the use of space rated
Hasselblads on the Apollo missions.  I think it is time for me as a part time
professional photographer to offer my observations.

Cameras used on space missions are exposed to conditions far more extreme
than cameras on earth.  They are exposed to vacuum, extreme heat and extreme
cold.  As a photographer I have encountered conditions ranging from Killington
(-10F at the lowest) to track side at auto races (110F at max).  Even under
these conditions, many -- if not most -- cameras become inoperable.  If NASA
had simply gone out and bought the cheapest cameras available at a camera
store, we might not have gotten any -- or at least very few -- photographs
back from our voyages to the Moon.

Beyond this problem, we might ask, why bother with photographs at all?  What
good do they do?  Let's consider just three photographs -- and what might
have happened if they had been done with lesser equipment than Hasselblads.

First, there is Buzz Aldrin standing on the Moon.  Then there is Earthrise.
Finally there is perhaps the most famous photograph of all time:  Full Earth.
All three have moved millions -- if not billions -- of people.

What would have become of these images if the camera gear had been of less
than excellent quality?  The photos might have gotten into the weekly news
magazines once -- as a memory of an incredible event.  People are just not
very interested in poor quality photographs.  One of the reasons I -- and
thousands of professional photographers -- pay top dollar for top rated
equipment is because the images produced are so much better that even the
photographically illiterate can see the difference without trying.

A fuzzy Full Earth would have been forgotten in a month.  A sharp, colorful
Full Earth becomes a universal symbol.  Buzz Aldrin standing on the Moon
sells how many posters?  I don't know -- but it was a best seller.  And
Earthrise?  It's even become a wall mural.  This would have been impossible
for a bad photo.

The artistic, cultural and economic benefits of sending along fine cameras
with the astronauts far outweigh the truly minor costs of these instruments.


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

Date: 21 Jan 91 06:24:43 GMT
From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!news.cs.indiana.edu!ariel.unm.edu!pprg.unm.edu!topgun!mustang!nntp-server.caltech.edu!iago.caltech.edu![e-mail]  (Horowitz, Irwin Kenneth)
Subject: Re: List of remaining CRRES release windows

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Pat Reiff [phone]-2650) writes...
(stuff about CRRES deleted...)
Last night (1/19), I was out in the California desert (Joshua Tree National
Monument) with a few friends, when we witnessed what appeared to have been
two separate releases from CRRES...one was at 7:05 p.m. PST (0305 UT on 1/20)
and was located west of the setting moon (very odd, as this would not have
been visible from most of the country) and the other release occured at
9:35 p.m. PST (0535 UT), and was located about 10-15 degrees south of Jupiter
in the southeastern sky.  The first release we followed for about 30 minutes,
using both binoculars and an astroscan...the second release we followed for
well over an hour using the finder on my Ultima 8.  While structure was quite
difficult to observe in the early release (it was low on the western horizon),
we had no problem watching the second release (I think it was barium) follow
the magnetic field lines of the earth (indeed, I was able to trace out the
full extent of nearly 5 degrees in my finder simply by moving the telescope
in the dec axis and could even tell the slight shift between the magnetic
pole and the rotational pole).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Irwin Horowitz                        |"Suppose they went nowhere?"-McCoy
Astronomy Department                  |"Then this will be your big chance
California Institute of Technology    | to get away from it all!"-Kirk
[e-mail]               |       from STII:TWOK
[e-mail]                 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: 21 Jan 91 19:26:46 GMT
From: scubed!s3mercury![e-mail]  (McLauglin)
Subject: Re: Chemical release last night (1/19/91)

It was much more spectacular at our dark sky site.
I was at the SDAA (San Diego Astronomical Assn.) site about
45 miles west of San Diego near the US-Mexico border.  The
seeing was very steady and clear.  The moon had just gone down
and the sky was dark as usual to the southeast.  We noticed
the release at 05:30 UT as a blue-green eye in the head of Hydra
between Gemini and Cancer.  The cloud quickly became elongate
in north-south direction (almost but not quite). For the first
few minutes it looked like a large sombrero with a circular halo,
and elongate rim running north-south. The north-south band was sharp
on the eastern edge and diffuse on the northern edge.  The
band extended 3 degrees in the first 15 minutes.  The circular
cloud was not visible in finder scopes, or binoculars after
4 or 5 minutes.  The north-south extended cloud was visible
for over an hour in binoculars. The sharp edge on the east side and
diffuse edge on the western side was a robust feature that lasted
as long as the cloud was visible.

Can anyone give an explanation for the assymetry in the cloud
with a sharp edge to the east and diffuse edge to the west?
I presume that the clound had spread itself north-south along the
magnetic field lines, but why the assymetry as viewed from the
west?

BTW: Jupiter was spectacular last Saturday night.  Three bands
were distinctly visible with structure evident in the equitorial
band in my 8" Casegrain.

Keith L. McLaughlin
[e-mail], [e-mail]
619-587-8436, 619-453-0060
S-CUBED, Division of Maxwell Laboratories, POB 1620, La Jolla, CA 92038

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

Date: 22 Jan 91 17:10:10 GMT
From: dftsrv!iris613![e-mail]  (Dennis Flanigan Jr.)
Subject: Re: THE BLUE PLANET

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Tom Neff) writes:
>Just a reminder that THE BLUE PLANET, the new IMAX movie featuring
>extensive footage shot from orbit, is out and showing at IMAX/NATUREMAX
>theatres.  I don't know the schedule for anywhere but New York --

It is also showing at the Science Center at Baltimore's Inner Harbor.
At least on the weekends, it is being shown every hour the Science
Center is open.  If you get the chance try and catch the IMAX movie
Chronos also.  They are playing it at 7:30 Friday and Saturday
Nights.  Both movies are nothing less then Spectacular.

-Dennis



--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dennis Flanigan Jr.               |   Goddard Space Flight Center
Applied Research Corp.            |   Code 913
[e-mail]    |   [phone]

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

End of SPACE Digest V13 #076
*******************