Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V13_2/V13_295.TXT

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Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #295

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 13 : Issue 295

Today's Topics:
             Toward 2001 - 18 Mar
Re: German conference highlights doubts about ESA's manned space plans
Re: Nick's latest statement re: launch costs, and a suggestion about un

Administrivia:

    Submissions to the SPACE Digest/sci.space should be mailed to
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----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 16 Mar 91 15:10:21 GMT
From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!pitt!nss![e-mail]  (Bev Freed)
Subject: Toward 2001 - 18 Mar


                            ***********
                            TOWARD 2001
                            ***********
                       Week of 18 March 1991
                 A Weekly Feature of SPACE CALENDAR
                   + = Domestic (USA) Earth event
                   * = Domestic (USA) space event
                   o = International Earth event
                   # = International space event
--------------------------------------------------------------------
                        REPRINT INFORMATION
This information is reproduced by permission of the Space Age
Publishing Company.  All rights reserved.  Copyright March 18,
1991.  Reproduction in any form without written permission violates
federal statute with penalty of up to $50,000.  SPACE CALENDAR is
edited and published on the Big `Space' Island of Hawaii.
====================================================================
                           * * * * * * *
+ STS 37 Atlantis
NASA Kennedy Space Center FL

Discovery of hairline cracks in the hinges of the orbiter's fuel
line doors will not delay the mission, scheduled for 4 April. Until
OV-105 Endeavour makes its maiden flight in 1992, bringing the
Shuttle fleet back to its operational minimum of four, NASA is
showing exemplary caution.
                           * * * * * * *
# Meteosat Program / MOP-2
GeoStationary Orbit

Technicians at ESA's Space Operations Center at Darmstadt, Germany,
expect the recently launched MOP-2 satellite rocket to become
operational by May 1991. ESA will operate the satellite on behalf of
Eumetsat.
                           * * * * * * *
+ Space Travel Services Inc
Houston TX

Texas may lose the company to a midwestern state where officials are
more receptive to their plan to send an individual to the Mir 1
space station. Texas called the offer a lottery last month and
closed it down.
                           * * * * * * *
o Spar Aerospace Ltd
Mississauga, Canada

Work on the RadarSat and Space Station programs is mainly
responsible for a revenue gain of 44 percent during 1990. The
company cleared C$2.7 million on overall revenues of C$336 million.
                           * * * * * * *
+ International Fusion Research Project
Livermore CA

A prototype fusion reactor could be built by 2005, according to
Alexander Glass, project head of a 15 nation effort to develop
fusion energy technology. Nations involved include the USA, the
USSR, Japan, India, and the 12 member nations of the European
Community.
                           * * * * * * *
o India Earth Observation
Bangalore

Officials at the Indian Space Research Organization report they are
using the IRS-1A satellite to keep track of fire and smoke emissions
coming from large oil slicks around Basra, Iraq.
                           * * * * * * *
+ Joust-1 Launch
Cape Canaveral AFS FL

Scheduled for 29 March at 08:30, the first Joust microgravity launch
will carry 10 materials and biotechnology experiments for the
Consortium for Materials Development in Space in Huntsville. The
one-stage Space Data Corp rocket will provide 13 minutes of
microgravity.
                           * * * * * * *
+ New Shuttle Turbopump
Stennis Space Center MS

The testing program at NASA Stennis under the Alternate Turbopump
Development Program will keep both the B-1 and A-1 test stands busy,
according to Earl White, resident manager of the Pratt & Whitney
office at Stennis.
                           * * * * * * *
+ Pacific Telecommunications Council
Honolulu HI

Just weeks after the largest ever PTC conference, organizers are
calling for papers and recommendations for the 1992 conference. The
focus of PTC'92 will be "social, political, and economic integration
at the national and regional level in the Pacific hemisphere."
                           * * * * * * *
+ Lunar Footnote (Statistic)

6,668 Days Since Moon last visited by humans.
                           * * * * * * *
o International Space Year 1992 (Quote)

      The most important policy objective of the ISY . . . is
  to instill a new Space Age frame of reference in the thoughts and
               actions of governments and individuals."
                  -- The late U S Senator Spark M Matsunaga, Hawaii
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INTERNET: [e-mail]

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

Date: 12 Mar 91 00:56:00 GMT
From: sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!linus!philabs!ttidca!quad1!bohica!mcws!p0.f851.n102.z1.fidonet.org![e-mail]  (Kieran A. Carroll)
Subject: Re: German conference highlights doubts about ESA's manned space plans

From: [e-mail] (Kieran A. Carroll)
Path: wciu!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!rutgers!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utzoo!kcarroll
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: German conference highlights doubts about ESA's manned space plans
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 11 Mar 91 16:56:26 GMT
Nick Szabo [e-mail] write:
Subject: Re: German conference highlights doubts about ESA's manned space plans
Date: 8 Mar 91 01:53:56 GMT

> In article <[e-mail]>
> [e-mail] (Henry Spencer) writes:
>
> >Experience so far says very strongly that if you plan to do in-space repairs,
> >you had better plan to have humans (or the imaginary just-as-flexible
> >teleoperated robots which will be available almost right away now for sure,
> >really, trust us) on hand.
>
> Or, if you prefer not to pay the $1,000,000++/hour cost of an EVA, you
> could make sure it works before you launch it.

Nick, to ``make sure'' that a satellite ``works'' before you launch it,
you might have to spend anywhere from millions to tens of millions of
dollars, depending on the complexity of the spacecraft. What level of
reliability do you want to design into the satellite, and verify via
ground testing? 99%? Or three nines? Or four? Do you want dual-string
redundancy? Or are you going to make your designers hate you forever,
and insist on triple-string?

All those satellites that we've seen fail on orbit, including the ones that
the Shuttle was sent up to repair, were designed by people who tried
to ``make sure that it works'' befoire launch. Many of the people involved
in design of these are very smart, and very conscientious, probably more so
than you and I. Satellites don't typically fail because of sloppy design or
construction. They fail because >nobody< can imagine beforehand >all< the things
that might go wrong with a complicated, custom-built device.

My view is the cost of using spacecraft could be made cheaper if moderately-priced
on-orbit check-out and servicing facilities were available to be rented out.
That way, a great deal of the expense in designing spacecraft could be eliminated
(``the NASA way'' of design wouldn't have toof the expenses of ground-testing the beasts. However, this assumes that
you have >people< in orbit to do the testing and repair --- because the things that
will go wrong with your satellite will be exactly those that you didn't anticipate,
and so you won't have built your teleoperated robot to handle that
unexpected contingency, and so the robot won't be able to effect the repair.


--

     Kieran A. Carroll @ U of Toronto Aerospace Institute
     uunet!attcan!utzoo!kcarroll [e-mail]


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

Date: 14 Mar 91 04:22:00 GMT
From: agate!linus!philabs!ttidca!quad1!bohica!mcws!p0.f851.n102.z1.fidonet.org![e-mail]  (Fraering Philip)
Subject: Re: Nick's latest statement re: launch costs, and a suggestion about un

From: [e-mail] (Fraering Philip)
Path: wciu!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!rex!rouge!pc.usl.edu!dlbres10
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Nick's latest statement re: launch costs, and a suggestion about un
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 13 Mar 91 20:22:37 GMT
[First, I would like to apologize to those of you who are seeing
this article twice; in the first draft, I had offered to try to
put Nick in touch with a prominent spacecraft engineer so he could
put across his side of the story. However, I should have realized that
the engineer in question probrably has better things to do than that,
and besides, the arguments already exist on paper. Nick has only to go
to his nearest college library and look them up. Henry Spencer's
suggestions were good. I would like to suggest two more: _Mechanics_
by Symon and _Mechanics_ by Fowles. After all, a little physics
background could help a lot. I thought about omitting Symon, but maybe
you deserve to struggle through an ambiguous text, or maybe not :-) ]

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Nick Szabo) writes:

>Essentially, space transportation customers want what every other
>transportation customer wants (surprise!).  Chemical rockets seem
>to be only capable of meeting these needs at a rate over
>$5,000/lb.


>--
>Nick Szabo            [e-mail]
>"What are the _facts_, and to how many decimal places?"  -- RAH

Two comments:

1. Okay, I want to see the facts on that assertion about the limiting
factor in chemical rocket price, and to several different decimal
places. To paraphrase RAH, it's math, or it's opinion.

[ Here also was previously an argument I was making about Pegasus.
Since I seem to be wrong about it, I won't repeat it.]

I would also like to suggest a more rational choice for units for
calculating the cost of putting some mass in orbit: instead of dollars
per pound, put Canadian dollars per kilogram. Much more rational that
way. But wait! It can be reduced further: If we substitute the British
Pound for the Canadian dollar, we can renormalize the units totally
into the metric system! Because take out a one pound note. Look at it.
It has ONE NEWTON!

So if you can, give the cost in Newtons/Kilogram, which I think is a
unit of acceleration.

Phil Fraering
[e-mail]
"Why not furlongs per fortnight?" - many of the Apollo program
astronauts. I _think_ they were joking.


--
: Fraering Philip - via FidoNet node 1:102/851 [phone]
: ARPA/INTERNET: [e-mail]
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------------------------------

End of SPACE Digest V13 #295
*******************