Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V13_1/V13_140.TXT

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Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #140

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 13 : Issue 140

Today's Topics:
              Re: nuclear ramjet
  NASA to play key role in national computing initiative (Forwarded)
         Salyut 7 reentry now 1:00 - 8:00 UTC Feb 7th
              Galileo Update - 02/06/91
        Re: Spy satellite coverage of the Gulf
            Salyut 7 to reenter Feb. 6-7th
             Re: Whatever Happened To...

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

Date: Wed, 6 Feb 91 18:35:47 EST
From: John Roberts <[e-mail]>
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are those of the sender
    and do not reflect NIST policy or agreement.
Subject: Re: nuclear ramjet


>From: [e-mail] (Ian Stirling)
>Newsgroups: sci.space
>Subject: nuclear ramjet
>Date: 6 Feb 91 00:28:00 GMT

>|Air & Space ran an article about a year or two back about project "Pluto",
>|which was a nuclear powered ram-jet.  The idea was to create a supersonic
>|missile with an almost unlimited range.  They did test a prototype, but
>|it never went into full scale testing.

It was successfully tested in a stationary testbed. Several miles of large
pipes filled with compressed air provided the airflow for the test.
There may have been a test on rails too (read the article).

>|The Pluto missile had a few startling side effects.  It left a trail of
>|radiation that severly contaminated its path.  It also left any animal or
>|person in its path deaf.

I think it would have killed a large percentage of the people it flew over,
whether from radiation or the shock wave.

>Finally, with unlimited range, it was possible
>|that one could get loose and not be stopped, eventually killing all life
>|on Earth.  Sounds like fun...

It couldn't kill all life on Earth, but it could sure cause a lot of damage
if it came down in a city, and with its great range there was no way at the
time to guarantee that it couldn't do so in a flight test. The difficulty
of setting up a safe flight test was one of the factors that killed the
program, along with:
 - Advances in the development of ICBMs
 - There wasn't any good place to put them so they could get to the USSR
   without overflying friendly countries, who might be offended by large
   swaths of their population being wiped out.

>Would'nt this kind of engine be perfect for long term atmospheric
>probes in the Saturn/Jupiter atmosphere.It would also need little
>surplus weight in the form of radiation sheilds (on the long voyage
>from Earth to Saturn/Jupiter.). Is this possible or do the gas giants
>atmosphers/gravity feilds make this impossible,or is the weight of
>the engine too high.(How long term could this be (erosion of reactor
>core by atmosperic gases at high speed)

The heat exchanger was made of a ceramic material supplied by Coors (they
make ceramics as well as beer - I suppose that's how they cold filter the
beer), running at a high temperature. I don't know how long it would last
in operation. With the intense radiation of the ramjet, I don't think the
normal radiation encountered in space would be much of a consideration,
since the probe electronics would already have to be *very* radiation
resistant.
     John Roberts
     [e-mail]

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

Date: 6 Feb 91 21:57:57 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA to play key role in national computing initiative (Forwarded)

Sarah Keegan
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                   February 6, 1991
(Phone: [phone])


RELEASE:  91-20

NASA TO PLAY KEY ROLE IN NATIONAL COMPUTING INITIATIVE

     NASA will be a major participant in the multi-agency High
Performance Computing and Communication (HPCC) Program slated to
begin in Fiscal Year 1992.  This ambitious federal effort will
extend U.S. leadership in state-of-the-art computers and
communications, disseminate and apply HPCC technology to critical
national challenges and will spur gains in U.S. productivity and
industrial competitiveness.

     NASA has the lead role in coordinating interagency software
and algorithm research and development.  In addition, the
agency's program has significant activities in all four
components of the Federal program.

     In the High Performance Computing Systems (HPCS) area, NASA
centers will purchase advanced testbeds from industry and use
testbeds developed by the Department of Defense (DoD) to evaluate
and build initial applications.  Results will be fed back to the
HPCS vendors and DoD for use in succeeding generations of
computers.

     Under the Advanced Software Technology and Algorithms (ASTA)
component, NASA research teams will develop software to solve
major computational challenges in scientific modeling,
engineering design and real-time robotic control.

     To support the National Research and Education Network
(NREN) goal of a coast-to-coast research linkup, NASA centers
will be equipped with the latest network communications and
routing technology.  These systems will be used for intercenter
collaboration and to support non-NASA users of the advanced HPCS
testbeds.

   In connection with the Basic Research and Human Resources
(BRHR) component of the Federal program, NASA will expand the
HPCC research program executed by NASA-funded research institutes
and through NASA grants to universities.

     NASA's program has three main projects closely related to
the agency's primary missions and a crosscutting basic research
element.  The Computational Aerosciences (CAS) project is led by
Ames Research Center, Mountain View, Calif., with contributions
from Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., and Lewis Research
Center, Cleveland.  CAS technology will make it possible to model
critical system interactions in advanced aerospace vehicles, such
as next-generation supersonic transports, that cannot be done due
to the limitations of today's supercomputers.

     The Earth and Space Sciences (ESS) computing project is led
by Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., with
contributions from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,
Calif.  The major goal of ESS is to support collaborative
simulation and modeling of complex, large-scale,
multidisciplinary Earth and space phenomena.

     For instance, the interactions among Earth's atmosphere,
oceans and land masses must be modeled with sufficient spatial
resolution to produce accurate long-term predictions of
atmospheric circulation.  Existing computers restrict spatial
resolution to unreasonably large scales and require execution
times that are prohibitively long.

     The third major NASA project is Remote Experimentation and
Exploration (REE), led by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, with
Langley Research Center as a partner.  REE will develop a
prototype high performance computing system that could serve as
an on-board supercomputer to support future space missions.

     In robotic exploration of Mars, for example, the great
distances separating Earth and the Red Planet produce a time lag
of up to 45 minutes between transmission of a command and receipt
of confirmation that the command has been executed.  Automated
Mars explorers must be equipped with highly autonomous systems
that, in turn, require considerable computational power.

    With HPCC funding, NASA will increase the high performance
computing and communication budgets of its university-based
Centers of Excellences and research institutes affiliated with
NASA centers.  In addition, the agency may create new university
centers of excellence as funding allows.  A portion of the
funding will be set aside to encourage students to work at NASA's
field centers, which will allow the students to get first hand
experience in NASA HPCC applications and mission requirements.

     NASA has been heavily involved in the planning and
coordination of the HPCC program for several years through the
Federal Coordinating Council on Science, Engineering and
Technology (FCCSET).  As directed by Congress, NASA began to
increase its high performance computing activities in FY 1991.

     Other agencies participating in the HPCC program are the
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the National Science
Foundation, the Department of Energy, the Environmental
Protection Agency, the National Institutes of Health, the
National Institute of Standards and Technology and the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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

From: [e-mail]
Date:  6 Feb 91 12:20 -0800
To: [e-mail], [e-mail],
        [e-mail], [e-mail],
        [e-mail], [e-mail],
        [e-mail]
Subject: Salyut 7 reentry now 1:00 - 8:00 UTC Feb 7th

     The Soviets have updated the times for the reentry of the older Salyut
7 space station.  At 18:00 UTC (10 am PST) Radio Moscow stated that Salyut
7 would enter the atmosphere between 1:00 and 8:00 hours UTC on Feb. 7th (5
pm Feb 6th - 1 am Feb 7th PST).  Exact determination of reentry will not be
possible until an orbit or two before it occurs.  Orbital period is about
87.6 minutes currently by my calculations (assuming a circular orbit).  At
the time of the 18:00 report it was stated the complex was at 160 Km
altitude, which means it has fallen 40 Km since the Feb. 4th announcement.
The Salyut 7 complex currently consists of the Salyut 7 main body, and the
Kosmos 1686 expansion module for a combined mass of about 40 Tonnes.  This
is expected to disintegrate, with about 250 pieces in the kilogram (2.2
pound) range hitting the earth from most of the facility.  The major worry
is the 2 tonne reentry module on the Kosmos 1686 which will probably survive
intact.  Russian mission control is in contact with the several
international agencies to provide warning in the affected areas.  Little
comment was made about the mission centre trying to control the reentry
point this time (as compared to the Feb. 5th announcement). Perhaps they
have tried some adjustments and got nowhere.
     This should be a real fireball when it comes down.

                                                       Glenn Chapman
                                                       Simon Fraser Univ.
                                                       [e-mail]

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

Date: 6 Feb 91 19:17:04 GMT
From: sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Subject: Galileo Update - 02/06/91


                        GALILEO STATUS REPORT
                          February 6, 1991

     Yesterday, no spacecraft activity was planned for the Galileo spacecraft.
Today, a planned sun acquisition will be performed to maintain a thermally
safe sun pointed attitude.  Tomorrow, a cruise science memory readout is
planned for the MAG (Magnetometer) and DDS (Dust Detector) science instruments.
      ___    _____     ___
     /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|      Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
     | | | |  __ \ /| | | |      Jet Propulsion Lab |
  ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |___   M/S 301-355        | It's 10PM, do you know
 /___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /|  Pasadena, CA 91109 | where your spacecraft is?
 |_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/                      | We do!

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

Date: 6 Feb 91 14:02:11 GMT
From: mentor.cc.purdue.edu!mace.cc.purdue.edu![e-mail]  (Perry G Ramsey)
Subject: Re: Spy satellite coverage of the Gulf

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Nick Watkins) writes:
> From article <[e-mail]>, by [e-mail] (Conor O'Neill):
> > 5) Are they affected by the dark, or by cloud cover, or is much of the
> > sensing done in the Infra Red?
> Radar isn't, apparently, I think IR will be affected by cloud cover
> though. Maybe somebody who knows about weather satellites can help.

Radar should work fine in cloud cover.  Magellan does.
IR imaging of the surface will be impossible under any but the lightest
cloud cover.  Very thin high clouds are undetectable with IR weather
satellites, but that doesn't mean that you can image the ground through
them.  Also remember that because of the longer wavelength, IR has lower
resolution than VIS.  If you're looking through the window (~10 microns),
you have about 1/20 the resolution you have in the visible (~.5 microns).
I'm not sure that's where the spy sats operate, though.


--
Perry G. Ramsey           Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
[e-mail]   Purdue University, W. Lafayette, IN USA
[e-mail]    ***  IMAGINE YOUR LOGO HERE  ******
    Ten thousand low-lifes a day read this space.

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

From: [e-mail]
Date:  6 Feb 91  0:31 -0800
To: [e-mail], [e-mail],
        [e-mail], [e-mail],
        [e-mail], [e-mail],
        [e-mail]
Subject: Salyut 7 to reenter Feb. 6-7th

     The Soviets have announced that the older Salyut 7 space station will
renter the earth's atmosphere sometime on Feb. 6th or 7th, according to
Radio Moscow.  On Feb. 4th the station had an altitude of 200 Km (125 mi).
The Salyut 7 complex currently consists of the Salyut 7 main body, launched
in April '82, and the Kosmos 1686 expansion module (added in Oct. '85), for
a combined mass of about 40 Tonnes.  According to mission control only the
2 tonne rentry module still attached to the station will survive the
atmosphere.  The exact point of reentry will not be known until about 4
hours before but could range anywhere between 51.6 degrees north and south
latitudes.  The head of NPO Energiya has stated that there are no
radioactive or other dangerous chemicals left on board.  There is no fuel
left on board to control the reentry, but radio control will be maintained
to try an make it come down in ocean areas.
     The Salyut 7 complex hosted 10 Soyuz missions for a total of 712 days
of occupation during is 1529 day operational period. Some 1821 man days of
crew time were spent on it. It was not without problems, suffering a
problem with the fueling system in Aug. '83, and a major failure of the
solar power system which required an emergency repair flight by the Soyuz
T-13 crew in June '85.  It was last visited in May '86 by the Soyuz T-15
crew of Leoind Kizim and Vladimir Solovyov.  That flight was actually a
transfer from the Mir station to Salyut 7, and back again.  In Aug. '86
Salyut 7 was boosted into a 492 x 474 km (309 x 296 mi) orbit, with the
intention of being recovered by their Buran space shuttle.  However, like
Skylab before it, delays in the shuttle program prevented such an attempt,
while a Progress tanker mission to allowed a controlled reentry was
scratched due to lack of funds. (Radio Moscow Feb 4/5, Spaceflight Feb '91)
     A sad end to a station that for four years was the only semipermanent
base of mankind in space.

                                                       Glenn Chapman
                                                       Simon Fraser Univ.
                                                       [e-mail]

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

Date: Thu, 7 Feb 91 11:28:21 PST
From: [e-mail]
X-Vmsmail-To: UTADNX::UTSPAN::AMES::"[e-mail]"
Subject: Re: Whatever Happened To...


In SPACE Digest V13 #128,
  crash![e-mail]  (Dan Gookin) writes:

>The Soviet shuttle--the one that looked so strikingly familiar?
>I remember them making a BIG DEAL about it. But all I recall is
>that the Soviet Shuttle went up and landed, unmanned, and that
>was that.

>If that's the case, why did the Soviets make it? Did they decide
>they didn't need a shuttle? If so, why build one?

>Just curious.

    Buran was a Breshnev Baby, something he just wanted to do to
show how the Soviet Union could keep up with the US.  It wasn't even
developed by Glavkosmos, the Soviet space agency at the time, but by the
Soviet Air Force.  Glavkosmos never asked for it, never had any use for
it, probably never will have a use for it.  Buran cost about 14 billion
rubles to develop and build.

_____________
Dale M. Greer, whose opinions are not to be confused with those of the
Center for Space Sciences, U.T. at Dallas, UTSPAN::UTADNX::UTDSSA::GREER
"Those who secede will doom themselves to failure." -- M.I.Gorbachev
"If we do not succeed, then we run the risk of failure." -- J.D.Quayle

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

End of SPACE Digest V13 #140
*******************