Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V13_0/V13_077.TXT

Internet Message Format | 1991-06-28 | 20KB

Return-path: <[e-mail]>
X-Andrew-Authenticated-as: 7997;andrew.cmu.edu;Ted Anderson
Received: from hogtown.andrew.cmu.edu via trymail for +dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr11/tm2b/space/[e-mail] (->+dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr11/tm2b/space/space.dl) (->ota+space.digests)
          ID </afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr1/ota/Mailbox/UbcbVBy00WBwEsSE54>;
          Sun, 27 Jan 91 01:50:54 -0500 (EST)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Precedence: junk
Reply-To: [e-mail]
From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Date: Sun, 27 Jan 91 01:50:49 -0500 (EST)
Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #077

SPACE Digest                                      Volume 13 : Issue 77

Today's Topics:
    Re: W. Larrison's Re:Fwd: NASA Plans To Redesign Space Station
              Magellan Update - 01/22/91
             Re: Ultimate Weapon
             Re: THE BLUE PLANET
"Space Tomatoes" findings featured in education video conference (Forwarded)
              Magellan Update - 01/23/91
            Status of Dryden Tours
              Re: Status of Dryden Tours
        Magellan Mapping of Venus (Forwarded)

Administrivia:

    Submissions to the SPACE Digest/sci.space should be mailed to
  [e-mail].  Other mail, esp. [un]subscription requests,
  should be sent to [e-mail], or, if urgent, to
             [e-mail]

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

Date: 22 Jan 91 18:40:51 GMT
From: snorkelwacker.mit.edu!usc!wuarchive!rex!rouge![e-mail]  (Fraering Philip)
Subject: Re: W. Larrison's Re:Fwd: NASA Plans To Redesign Space Station

Commenting on Wales Larrison's version of Oliver Harwood's ideas,
would like to say that I was probrably mistaken. There aren't that
many managers out there who would like being 'end-run' around to the
press...

BTW, could someone please explain why a tetrahedral module arrangement
isn't good for microgravity research? Why is it worse per se than the
rectangular modules?

Comments on my question:

1. A possible answer could be because of the physics of the arrangement;
for example, location of laboratory away from c.o.g....

2. In a manned station, vibration from habitation may be less easy to isolate
than in a ractangular system ... (?????) (I'm just making a wild guess).

But then again, the disturbances from people aboard, even in the rectangular
arrangement, might cause disturbances as large as the c.o.g. factor...

3. Maybe these disturbances don't really matter that much (?)(just
guessing again). After all, a lot of noisy microgravity with people on
hand might be better than a small amount of 'Perfect' microgravity.

Does anyone know how perfect the microgravity has to be in order to do
useful work?

Phil Fraering
[e-mail]
P.S.: I wrote something, and it turned out I was porobrably mistaken. Although
I was vague in this post, I will endeavour (;-) to simply write what I know
and hope that someone else is kind enough to correct me if I am wrong. But
I would like to leave on this note:
"The reserve of modern assertions is sometimes pushed to extremes, in which
the fear of being contradicted leads the writer to strip himself of almost
all sense and meaning." Winston S. Churchill, _The_Birth_of_Britian_.

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

Date: 22 Jan 91 23:46:46 GMT
From: sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Subject: Magellan Update - 01/22/91


                         MAGELLAN STATUS REPORT
                           January 22, 1991

     The Magellan Spacecraft and its radar system continue to perform
nominally, with good STARCALS (star calibrations) and DESATS (desaturations of
the reaction wheels) in the past 24 hours.  After over a month of nearly
perfect STARCALS and DESATS there has been a slight, and expected, increase
in star rejects.  Spacecraft attitude has been maintained within mission specs,
however.

     Recent temporary images strips, using preliminary ephemeris data and
radar data recently received at Goldstone, have shown some one or two minute
gaps.  These are now believed to be the result of hardware problems at the 34
meter Goldstone station.

     The Mission Control Team is responsible for 24-hour, real time monitoring
and control of the Magellan mission.  Training of the team members is
continuing for two reasons:

        o to train personnel new to the team since Venus Orbit
          Insertion.  Staffing for 24-hour, real time surveillance
          has been increased to two people.

        o to train all personnel to quickly recognize and respond to
          spacecraft or communications anomalies, i.e. the many ways
          we can lose the signal.

    This training is taking place at JPL, Goldstone, and Denver to give the
controllers direct contact with their DSN (Deep Space Network) and Spacecraft
Team counterparts and the Magellan operational facilities.

     The SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) Data Processing Team produced 63
F-BIDRs (Full-Resolution Basic Image Data Record) during the 7-day period
ending January 16.  This included a standard F-BIDR from orbit 1038 and a
temporary F-BIDR from orbit 1275.  The temporary F-BIDRs are produced from data
recently received at Goldstone and processed using preliminary ephemeris data.
The purpose of these temporary products is to achieve timely confirmation that
the SAR data collection process is working properly.  The SAR data will be
reprocessed later using final ephemeris data.

      The Image Data Processing Team (IDPT) produced 12 new digital F-MIDR
(Full-Resolution Mosaicks) products and one digital Basic Radiometer Data
Record product.  These digital products contain data from several adjacent
orbits. The IDPT also produced photographic transparencies and check-prints
corresponding to 26 F-MIDRs.

     The 6-foot Venus Globe that is at JPL was installed in the Von Karman
Spacecraft Museum this week.  The background surface of Pioneer Venus and
Venera images will be applied to the globe during the next few weeks by
personnel from the United States Geologic Survey (USGS).  A new Magellan
exhibit has also been installed in the lobby of Building 230 at JPL.

     A set of twenty released images have been selected for a Magellan Results
Slide Set.  This slide set went to the vendor this week.

     Cosmonauts Alexander Balandin and Col. Anatoli Solovyov along with NOVA
and Lockheed representatives toured the Magellan Science Area. The two
cosmonauts were visiting NOVA to help highlight an upcoming NOVA series, "The
Soviet Right Stuff," which will be broadcast in three one-hour segments on
February 26, 27 and 28 on the Public Broadcast System (PBS).
      ___    _____     ___
     /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|
     | | | |  __ \ /| | | |      Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
  ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |___   Jet Propulsion Lab | [e-mail]
 /___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /|  M/S 301-355        |
 |_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/   Pasadena, CA 91109 |

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

Date: 23 Jan 91 03:15:47 GMT
From: swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!csri.toronto.edu![e-mail]  (Wayne Hayes)
Subject: Re: Ultimate Weapon

Black holes have mass, momentum, velocity, direction, etc, just like
any other object.  There's nothing magical about black holes unless
you get very close to them.  Even then it's not magic, because yes,
the Theory of General Relativity describes a black hole.  In fact,
Gereral Relativity is the theory that predicted the existence of
black holes.  Nobody has yet experimentally verified, once and for
all, that black holes really exist (although my money says they do).

Black holes could not be used as a weapon as you state.  A black
hole is formed when you have enough matter compressed into a small
enough space to make the escape velocity somewhere nearby equal
to the speed of light.  This can be done with *any* mass, large
or small.  To make the Earth into a black hole, you would have to
squeeze it into a ball about the size of a grape.  Even our own
Sun would make a black hole only about the size of a small city
(10 km, 6 miles or so).  The largest black holes postulated, in
the centre of some galaxies with masses of several million Suns,
*may* just be big enough to swallow a solar system.  But you'd
know a black hole that large would be coming long before it got
within a few hundred light years of you, ie, probably hundreds
of thousands of years before it "hit."

Sorry to dissapoint you, but your physics is worse than "fuzzy".  :-)
If a black hole the size of the solar system was coming, you'd see
gravitational effects long before you even saw the growing disk
of black, missing sky as it got within visual range.

--
"Dad, what should I be when I grow up?"
"Honest." -- Robert M. Pirsig, _Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenence_.

Wayne Hayes    INTERNET: [e-mail]    CompuServe: 72401,3525

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

Date: 22 Jan 91 18:08:35 GMT
From: sdd.hp.com!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!watserv1!watcgl!imax![e-mail]  (Hugh Murray)
Subject: Re: THE BLUE PLANET

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Henry Spencer) writes:
>
>I expect they work from the same originals, but the actual film used for
>projection is different.  The Omnimax format is predistorted in a seriously
>peculiar way so that it comes out right when run through their strange
>projection lenses and viewed on the dome.
>--

Henry is not quite correct here.  Film destined to be projected on an
OMNIMAX dome is shot with a fisheye lens (Zeiss 30mm F-Distagon to be exact),
and projected on to the dome with a fisheye projection lens with matched
distortion characteristics.  Although our projection lenses are custom designs
they are not "strange" in any optical sense.  Film sequences we intend to
show in both of our formats are usually shot twice, once with a rectilinear lens
and once with the fisheye.

Hugh Murray    [e-mail]
Imax Systems Corp.

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

Date: 23 Jan 91 20:49:22 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: "Space Tomatoes" findings featured in education video conference (Forwarded)

Terri Sindelar
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
(Phone:  [phone])                          January 23, 1991

N91-4

NOTE TO EDITORS:
"SPACE TOMATOES" FINDINGS FEATURED IN EDUCATION VIDEO CONFERENCE

     NASA's Educational Affairs Division will transmit via
satellite an educational video conference Jan. 29 to present the
results and discuss the implications derived from the data
collected by student investigators participating in the Space
Exposed Experiment Developed for Students (SEEDS).

     Budding student scientists throughout the nation planted
gardens last spring and summer to experiment with tomato seeds
which had been exposed to the harsh environment of space for
nearly 6 years aboard the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF).

     Dr. Jim Alston, Director of Research, Park Seed Company,
Greenwood, S.C., will review the SEEDS project and describe the
results of his research.  He will also share some of the
experiences he has collected from the thousands of schools
participating in the SEEDS project.

     Ken Selee, a teacher from Turlock, Calif., will give a
teacher's perspective on the SEEDS activity.

     Dr. Kenneth Wiggins, Director of the Aerospace Education
Services Program, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, will
present the preliminary findings summarized from data submitted
by participants.

     Finally, Dr. Bill Kinard, LDEF Project Scientist, NASA's
Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., will discuss results
derived from many of the other LDEF experiments.

     More than 30,000 educators in 50 states are expected to
participate in this broadcast.  These 1-1/2 hour, interactive
video conferences are designed to update teachers on NASA
programs, demonstrate aerospace activities for the classroom and
announce new programs, products and activities available to
classroom teachers.  Participating school districts will receive
transmissions from 2:30 to 4:00 p.m. EST.

     The Jan. 29 conference -- the third in a series of four --
will be transmitted on Westar IV, channel 19.  There is no charge
for registration or participation in the video conference.

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

Date: 23 Jan 91 21:01:26 GMT
From: sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Subject: Magellan Update - 01/23/91


                           MAGELLAN STATUS REPORT
                             January 23, 1991

     The Magellan spacecraft and its radar system continue to perform
nominally.  Six of the seven STARCALS (star calibrations) in the past 24 hours
were successful.

     The spacecraft controllers reported a couple of spikes in the reaction
wheel telemetry, indicating brief periods of momentum buildup near the alarm
limits.  Corrective commands are planned for later today.

     Telemetry from the CDS (Command Data Subsystem) indicated that spurious
command response flags have been set.  These occur when the spacecraft detects
incoming commands and none are expected.  The cause of the spurious signals is
being investigated.
      ___    _____     ___
     /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|
     | | | |  __ \ /| | | |      Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
  ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |___   Jet Propulsion Lab | [e-mail]
 /___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /|  M/S 301-355        |
 |_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/   Pasadena, CA 91109 |

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

Date: 24 Jan 91 02:30:33 GMT
From: skipper![e-mail]  (Mary Shafer)
Subject: Status of Dryden Tours

In the past, I've posted about the public tour of NASA Dryden.

At this time, Edwards AFB, where we're located, is in security
condition Bravo.  This means that casual visitors, those not
personally known to someone on base and not on official visits, are
not allowed on base.  This means no public tours.

When security goes to a lower level and the tours return, I'll let
you know.

I assume that this is true at all military and federal locations that
normally have limited tourist access, so you may wish to check on the
Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB, Kennedy Space Center, etc,
before you plan an excursion around one of these.


--
Mary Shafer  [e-mail]  ames!skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov!shafer
           NASA Ames Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA
                     Of course I don't speak for NASA
 "A MiG at your six is better than no MiG at all"--Unknown US fighter pilot

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

Date: 24 Jan 91 05:34:15 GMT
From: skipper![e-mail]  (Mary Shafer)
Subject: Re: Status of Dryden Tours

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Mary Shafer) writes:

   In the past, I've posted about the public tour of NASA Dryden.

   At this time, Edwards AFB, where we're located, is in security
   condition Bravo.  This means that casual visitors, those not
   personally known to someone on base and not on official visits, are
   not allowed on base.  This means no public tours.

I've gotten e-mail inquiring about the Shuttle landings.  I dunno.
I'm not sure anyone does.  As we get closer, I'll find out.

BTW, the next landing for which we are scheduled to have ramp visitors
(cookie badges for family and friends) is in May.

Not long after I find out something factual and definite, I'll post it.
--
Mary Shafer  [e-mail]  ames!skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov!shafer
           NASA Ames Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA
                     Of course I don't speak for NASA
 "A MiG at your six is better than no MiG at all"--Unknown US fighter pilot

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

Date: 24 Jan 91 15:34:40 GMT
From: swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Subject: Magellan Mapping of Venus (Forwarded)

MAGELLAN MAPPING OF VENUS PROVIDES SIGNIFICANT NEW KNOWLEDGE

     The Magellan spacecraft mapping the surface of Venus with
imaging radar has swept over nearly 55 percent of the planet, an
area comparable on Earth to the distance from Los Angeles to New
Delhi, India.  Scientists report that the radar mapping data is
providing significant new knowledge about the surface of Venus
and its atmosphere.

     All of the areas mapped show widespread evidence of
volcanism, said Project Scientist Dr. Steve Saunders, along with
evidence of tectonics, the process that produces mountains.

     "Venus and Earth are the only planets in our solar system
that have linear mountain belts," he said.  But the mountains on
Venus are not deeply eroded by rainfall and running water as are
the mountains on Earth.

     Magellan also confirmed the number of Venus impact craters
that scientists had expected to find, judging from their earlier
Earth-based radar data.  The smallest impact craters seen so far
on the surface are about 3 miles in diameter, indicating the
dense Venus atmosphere has effectively shielded the surface from
bombardment of smaller asteroids and comets.

     There also is evidence that the poisonous, thick atmosphere
of Venus was not formed recently, Saunders said.  Surface images
indicate it may be from 400 million to 800 million years old or
even older.  The Venus atmosphere is 90 times heavier than that
of Earth and is composed primarily of carbon dioxide with
significant amounts of sulfuric acid at upper levels.

     Saunders said scientists see in the images that linear
mountain belts are being pulled apart by gravitational forces on
the planet.

     New styles of volcanism have been found and lava channels
hundreds of miles long occur at several places on the plains.
Although lava channels have been found on Earth, none are as long
or as regular as those seen on Venus.

     Another new type of volcanism is being referred to by
scientists as "pancake" domes.  These structures appear to be up
to 20 miles across and nearly a mile high and form on the plains.
Scientists believe the domes are formed by an outflow of a pasty,
thick lava, similar to silicon-rich lavas on Earth.  Volcanic
domes also form on Earth, but they are much smaller and form in
volcanic calderas, Saunders said.

     The images also reveal indications of turbulent surface
winds on the planet.  The evidence is in the form of wind streaks
in the lee of topographical obstacles, such as the small, low
shield volcanoes on the plains.

     "Careful mapping of those wind streaks over the entire
planet may give us meteorological data about circulation of the
atmosphere near the surface," Saunders said.

     To date, there have been 118 days of mapping and 973
orbits.  A total of 819.6 mapping orbits have been received on
Earth, 45 percent of the planet's surface, Project Manager Tony
Spear said.

     Fifteen days of mapping were lost, as expected, to superior
conjunction, the period last November when Earth and Venus were
on opposite sides of the sun and data transmission between the
two planets was impossible.

     There have been other losses of data since mapping began
last Sept. 15, due to spacecraft problems and difficulties at the
various Deep Space Network stations, Spear said.  But of the area
covered by mapping orbits, only 2.4 percent has been lost.
      ___    _____     ___
     /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|
     | | | |  __ \ /| | | |      Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
  ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |___   Jet Propulsion Lab | [e-mail]
 /___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /|  M/S 301-355        |
 |_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/   Pasadena, CA 91109 |

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

End of SPACE Digest V13 #077
*******************