Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V13_1/V13_158.TXT

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Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #158

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 13 : Issue 158

Today's Topics:
              Re: SPACE Digest V13 #102
               Re: Controversy
              Ulysses Update - 02/05/91
              Re: Solar Impact Mission.
            Re: Ulysses Update - 02/12/91
        Re: O(n) n-body simulation? Feng Zaho?
              Ulysses Update - 02/12/91
                 Mars
         NASA Headline News for 02/05/91 (Forwarded)

Administrivia:

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Date: Tue, 12 Feb 91 18:20:21 EST
From: Tommy Mac <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: SPACE Digest V13 #102
In-Reply-To: Message of Sat, 2 Feb 91 03:38:01 EST from
 <space-request+%ANDREW.CMU.EDU@CARNEGIE>
To: [e-mail]

I read that thing on the moon.  It reminded me of an interesting idea I heard.

Perhaps the proof of God is our moon.
Consider:

The only binary planet in our system is Earth/moon
The only terrestrial with a moon is Earth
The moon appears the same size (or nearly so) giving incredible eclipses
    -which make possible solar corona observations
The moon made agriculture possible (planting periods)
The moon was the first calendar (month)
The moon inspired Newton's idea's for gravitation
The moon will make extended settlement of space possible

Maybe God is a far-fetched conclusion to reach, despite the coincidences.
But what other developments is the moon responsible for?

Tommy Mac   -If God wanted us to travel in space...
                 he wold have given us a large moon made of metal oxides.
Acknowledge-To: <18084TM@MSU>

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Date: 13 Feb 91 00:58:51 GMT
From: sdd.hp.com!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!samsung!umich!dgsi![e-mail]  (Greg Cronau)
Organization: Cimage Corp, Ann Arbor, MI
Subject: Re: Controversy
References: <[e-mail]>, <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
>In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Craig Tanaka) writes:

>|> A friend and I are having an argument over the pictures of the first steps
>|> upon the Moon.  I was wondering if someone could clarify whether or not
>|> it was taken by a remote camera or was restaged afterwards.  (the video of
>|> Armstrong jumping off the ladder on the descent module down to the surface.)
>|> I am sure that questions such as this have been asked many times, and for
>|> that I apologize, but if someone could help me out, I would be very
>|> grateful.
>
>Simple answer: the shot of an astronaut climbing down from the ladder as
>seen from about 30' from the lander was taken by Neil Armstrong and showed
>Buzz Aldrin stepping out.  The 'one small step' video is the (less seen)
>shot from the lander hatch that mostly shows Armstrong's head.
>Since the later video is more photogenic, it is more often used and often
>has Armstrong's words juxtaposed on it, leading to the confusion.
>
>--
>Marty Ryba                      | slave physics grad student
>Princeton University            | They don't care if I exist,
>Pulsars   Unlimited             | let alone what my opinions are!
>[e-mail]      | Asbestos gloves always on when reading mail

Huh? Are you talking about some motion picture film that was shot from the
astronauts hand-held cameras and then developed later on Earth? I'm thinking
of the black and white, very low-fidelity, real-time video that was
broadcast from the LEM as Armstrong descended the ladder for the first time.
It was shot from a B/W tv camera in an equipment bay on the side of the LEM.

[e-mail]

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Date: 5 Feb 91 18:00:44 GMT
From: att!linac!uwm.edu!caen!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA.
Subject: Ulysses Update - 02/05/91
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                           ULYSSES STATUS REPORT
                              February 5, 1991

     The Ulysses spacecraft is not responding to commands transmitted
over the 34 meter antenna in Madrid yesterday.  The station performed
a manual tune last night with 18 kw transmitter output.  The Project
then transmitted commands to the Low Gain Antenna on the spacecraft.
The commands are hitting the spacecraft, but the CDU (Command Decoder
Unit) is not executing.  The station then swapped from CPA-2 (Command
Processor Assembly - 2) to CPA-4 and commands were again sent, but there
is still no executing by the spacecraft.  The 34 meter antenna at Goldstone
also provided support last night, but again there is still no command
execution by the spacecraft.  The Project will make a formal annoucement
later today.
      ___    _____     ___
     /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|      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!

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Date: 5 Feb 91 21:50:55 GMT
From: att!linac!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Subject: Re: Solar Impact Mission.
References: <[e-mail]>, <[e-mail]>, <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail]
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In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Disaster Preparedness) writes:
>     These are very interesting ideas that, I agree, would allow a probe
>to change its direction in a hurry.  The problem I see is that when the
>vehicle enters an atmosphere, it loses kinetic energy in favor of thermal
>energy.  The idea of using this aero-assist method would seem to work okay
>for a solar impact mission, but I don't see how a probe could reach Pluto
>in four years after losing kinetic energy...

You lose some energy to air drag in the waverider concept.  However, you
are doing a turn around a *moving* planet, and there is momentum transfer
from planet to probe (or vice versa), just like with a gravity-assist
maneuver.

>... Does it kind of bounce off
>of the Martian atmosphere and gain a whole bunch of kinetic energy somehow...

Viewed from a distance, either a gravity-assist maneuver or a waverider turn
looks very much like bouncing off the planet.  Remember, the planet is moving,
so bouncing off it can give you a velocity gain or loss, depending on which
direction you come in from and the angle of the bounce.  The waverider's
advantage is that it can give you a much more drastic bounce, because the
aerodynamic forces are much stronger than gravity.
--
"Maybe we should tell the truth?"      | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
"Surely we aren't that desperate yet." |  [e-mail]   utzoo!henry

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Date: 14 Feb 91 15:02:26 GMT
From: elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA.
Subject: Re: Ulysses Update - 02/12/91
References: <[e-mail]>, <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail]
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In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Greg Cronau/10000) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Ron Baalke) writes:
>>
>>                            ULYSSES STATUS REPORT
>>                              February 12, 1991
>>
>> A Doppler off-set of 1.6 hz. was introduced making
>>the new radiated uplink frequency 16001.6 hz.
>>
>
>Are you really transmitting commands to the spacecraft at that *low* of a
>frequency? 16000Hz? Are you sure that isn't 16000 Mhz? Just curious.
>

16000 Hz is the correct value.  None of the deep space spacecraft use a
uplink frequency over 1 Mhz.
      ___    _____     ___
     /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|      Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
     | | | |  __ \ /| | | |      Jet Propulsion Lab | Is it mind over matter,
  ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |___   M/S 301-355        | or matter over mind?
 /___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /|  Pasadena, CA 91109 | Never mind.
 |_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/                      | It doesn't matter.

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

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Date: 11 Feb 91 13:07:04 GMT
From: cs.yale.edu![e-mail]  (Page Starr)
Organization: Yale University Computer Science Dept., New Haven, CT 06520-2158
Subject: Re: O(n) n-body simulation? Feng Zaho?
Sender: [e-mail]
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The following paper describes O(n) algorithms for n-body simulations:

L. Greengard and V. Rokhlin, "A fast algorithm for particle simulations,"
Journal of Computational Physics, 73:325-348, 1987.

There are several implementations floating around.

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Date: 13 Feb 91 00:00:36 GMT
From: usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!mahendo!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA.
Subject: Ulysses Update - 02/12/91
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                            ULYSSES STATUS REPORT
                              February 12, 1991

     The following orbital data was taken on the Ulysses spacecraft as of
9AM (PST), February 11, 1991:

        Distance from Earth               115,207,284 miles (185,408,151 km)
        Distance from Jupiter             310,061,044 miles (498,994,881 km)
        Velocity relative to the Sun           61,985 mph        (99,756 kph)
        Velocity relative to the Earth         73,783 mph       (118,742 kph)

     Tape recorder operations based on recovering data acquired during the 16
hours out of view periods are continuing on a routine scheduled basis.
Experiment reconfigurations have been carried out as required.  An average of
97% data recovery was achieved during the past week.

     On February 4, analysis and testing continued to resolve the commanding
problem which had first appeared on February 1.  The problem had worsened and
it was no longer possible to obtain command acceptance on either decoder.
Many combinations of on-board systems were selected but there was no success.

     On February 5, the investigation continued. In order to make the 70 meter
antenna site available for further testing, a spacecraft emergency was declared
which released it from its scheduled support.  Following the declaration a
suggestion was received from a JPL telecommunications expert that it may be
necessary to apply a Doppler correction to the command sub-carrier uplink
frequency due to the current velocity of the spacecraft relative to the Earth
(69,108 mph on February 4). A Doppler off-set of 1.6 hz. was introduced making
the new radiated uplink frequency 16001.6 hz.

     The command sequences scheduled for this day were then transmitted.  The
command sequences were successful with the exception of one block which was
rejected on board due to 2 missing frames.  However, the daily tape recorder
operations commands were successful and no data loss occurred as a result of
command problems.

     On February 6, normal daily commanding yielded a 5% rejection rate and
caused several commands to be re-transmitted.  Since command acceptance had up
to this point not been a problem it was felt that optimization of the
sub-carrier frequency was required and the actual frequency was therefore
varied in steps of 0.4 hz. to try and establish a pattern of success rate
against frequency.  This testing is very time-consuming due primarily to the
two way light time which is currently in the order of 20 minutes.  The
investigation is continuing in parallel with the daily transmission of mission
related commands.  The effect on the mission is to significantly increase
overall uplink times due to the need to re-transmit commands frequently.

     During the playback of on-board data on February 6, bad quality data were
experienced at the Madrid ground station causing several hours of the data to
be lost.  The problem was believed to have been in the ground station.  There
has been no reoccurance of this problem since this date.

     The spacecraft is currently configured with receiver 2 as the prime unit
fed via the High Gain Antenna and with receiver 1 as backup fed through the Low
Gain Antenna (LGA-F).  Received downlink level is at -124 dbm (34 meter)
X-band.  Variations of up to 20 db. can be expected as a result of station in
use, local weather conditions, and spacecraft antenna off-pointing.  Received
uplink level is at -110 dbm.

     A close watch is being kept for the possible return of nutation and
procedures are available to control it should it occur.  No detectable
nutation has been observed during the past week.
      ___    _____     ___
     /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|      Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
     | | | |  __ \ /| | | |      Jet Propulsion Lab | Is it mind over matter,
  ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |___   M/S 301-355        | or matter over mind?
 /___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /|  Pasadena, CA 91109 | Never mind.
 |_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/                      | It doesn't matter.

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

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Date: 9 Feb 91 09:57:00 GMT
From: usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!zardoz.cpd.com!dhw68k!ofa123!f4.n104.z1.fidonet.org![e-mail]  (Michael Corbin)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:104/4
Subject: Mars
Sender: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]

I would like any information anyone might have regarding the recent Soviet
satellite failure which occurred during the probes of the Martian moons?

Thanks,

Mike


--
Michael Corbin
Internet: [e-mail]
Compuserve: >internet:[e-mail]
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Date: 5 Feb 91 18:57:33 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Subject: NASA Headline News for 02/05/91 (Forwarded)
Sender: [e-mail]
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             Headline News
Internal Communications Branch (P-2) NASA

  Tuesday, February 5, 1991    Audio Service: 202 / 755-1788

This is NASA Headline News for Tuesday, February 5, 1991

Technicians working on Discovery continue to make good
progress in preparing that vehicle for roll over to the Vehicle
Assembly Building.  That rollover is now expected to be no
earlier than late Friday, Feb. 8, and possibly early Saturday,
Feb. 9.  Inspection of the thruster heater, which had failed in an
earlier check, showed an open circuit in one of the control wires.
That is being spliced now, and will be tested later today.  Weight
and center-of-gravity measurements are expected to be taken
later this week.

Atlantis' flow is also continuing on schedule.  Workers installed
the right orbital maneuvering system pod over the weekend.
Tests of that pod should begin tomorrow.  Technicians are still
preparing the orbiter cabin for installation of windows #1 and
#6.  Activity today includes work on the window frames.  The
external tank was mated to Atlantis' STS-37 solid rocket
booster stack yesterday.  Field joint closeouts and inspections
on both SRBs were also completed.

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

NASA yesterday issued its February 1991 Mixed Fleet
Manifest for Space Shuttle and expendable launch vehicle
planned flights.  Nearly 70 percent of the 26 shuttle flights
planned for the next 3 years are for NASA payloads or joint
NASAJ/Jinternational payloads.  Seven shuttle flights are
planned this year, eight in 1992 and eleven in 1993.

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

NASA yesterday released its 1992 Fiscal Year budget
request.  The request seeks $15,754 billion, with 46 percent
going for research and development activities and another 35
percent allocated for space flight operations.  The FY 1992
request represents a 13.6 percent increase over the current
year's appropriation.  The request includes two significant new
initiatives:  a New Launch System to be jointly developed with
the Department of Defense; and Lifesat, a multi-launch
recoverable biosatellite system.  The new budget request also
includes funding for construction of an Earth Observing System
Data Facility at Goddard and construction of the Space Station
Processing Facility at Kennedy.  NASA's FY 1992 request
represents only one percent of the total Federal Budget.

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

This is Black History Month, and as part of its observation,
NASA has scheduled four special events to be held in the
Headquarters auditorium.  Tomorrow, at 11:00 am, NASA will
present Dr. Edward Fort, Chancellor of North Carolina
A&T State University, Greensboro.  Dr. Fort will address the
theme of this year's Black History observation and comment on
"Historically Black Colleges and Universities."  The
presentation will be shown live on NASA Select TV.



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

Tuesday, 2/5/91
    12:00 pm    NASA Video Productions will be transmitted.

     6:00 pm    NASA Video Productions repeats.

Wednesday, 2/6/91
    11:00 am    **"Historically Black Colleges and Universities,"
            presentation by Dr. Edward Fort, Chancellor of
            North Carolina A&T State University.

     1:15 pm    **Magellan-at-Venus update from Jet Propulsion
            Laboratory.




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.

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End of SPACE Digest V13 #158
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