Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V13_3/V13_395.TXT

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Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #395

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 13 : Issue 395

Today's Topics:
            Re: Launch Technology
             Re: Space technology
         NASA Headline News for 04/11/91 (Forwarded)
           Galileo Status for 04/10/91 (Forwarded)
      Current CD-ROMs on-line at the Ames SPACE archive

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: 10 Apr 91 01:49:51 GMT
From: van-bc!rsoft!mindlink![e-mail]  (Bruce Dunn)
Subject: Re: Launch Technology

> [e-mail] writes:
> Person: James Davis Nicoll
>
>
>         What's the cost per tonne of lithium, fluorine and hydrogen,
> what's the cost of storing and using them and how do those two costs
> compare to the costs associated with standard fuels? A wild guess might
> that the higher Isp is nice, but that the problems of handling fluorine
> drove costs up above the level of standard fuels.
>
>                                                         James Nicoll


Selected data from "Advanced Liquid Propellant Systems for Chemical Propulsion"
by John Q. Weber of Rockwell (Rocketdyne Division); published in "Orbit Raising
and Maneuvering Propulsion: Research Status and Needs", Leonard H. Caveny ed.,
Volume 89 of the series Progress in Astronautics and Aeronautics, American
Institute of Astronautics and Aeronautics, N.Y. (1984):

Propellant    Density      Cost per lb. (1982)
N2O4          1.433        $   0.45
O2            1.149        $   0.43
F2            1.505        $  20.00
H2            0.071        $   4.50
MMH           0.870        $   6.60
RP-1          0.802        $   0.27
N2H4          1.004        $   7.00
NH3           0.607        $   0.10
Li            0.512 (Liq)  $  20.00
Be            1.85         $ 166.00

MMH is monomethyl hydrazine, and RP-1 is Rocket Propellant-1 (a special grade
of kerosene-like hydrocarbon).

The quoted cost per pound presumably includes the cost of handling the
material.  The lithium is presumed to be injected as a liquid into the
combustion chamber - however this introduces all sorts of problems such as how
do you keep the lithium lines hot so that they don't plug with solid lithium at
the end of a test stand run.

In considering first stage launchers, the choice generally seems to have
settled down to three systems: solid fuel, RP-1 and O2, and some form of
hydrazine burned with N2O4.  RP-1 and O2 are clearly the cheapest, but this
seems to be outweighed by the hassles of handling a cryogenic propellant.  The
Ariane chose a hydrazine/N2O4 system in spite of the vastly greater costs of
the propellants (relative to RP-1 and O2), presumably because of the fact that
both propellants are storable.  Interestingly, both hydrazines and N2O4 are
quite toxic, so it seems that the launch industry is already handling some
materials that would cause a fair size disaster if there were a tank rupture.

     Adding lithium in any manner helps the performance of propellant systems
which use fluorine, but does nothing for systems in which oxygen is the
oxidizer.  In theory, adding beryllium to propellant systems in which oxygen is
the oxidizer improves performance, however beryllium can't be injected as a
liquid, suffers from incomplete combustion, forms a solid oxide which gives
two-phase flow losses in nozzles, is extremely toxic, and costs a fortune.  In
spite of this, I have been told that the technology exists for high performance
solid rocket motors incorporating beryllium as solid metal particles
(presumably for use in space where the toxic exhaust won't give an
environmental disaster).
--
Bruce Dunn   Vancouver, Canada    [e-mail]

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

Date: Thu, 11 Apr 91 17:07:51 EDT
From: [e-mail]
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                        A SPACE CONFERENCE FOR YOU!!

            National Space Society's 10th Annual International

                        Space Development Conference


                           Hyatt Regency Riverwalk
                              San Antonio, Texas

                                May 22-27,1991


Technical, Advocacy, and General Tracks of speakers addressing the
theme:
                        SPACE: A CALL FOR ACTION


Art Show   Entertainment   Exhibits   Workshops   Tours     Kids Mini Con


Meet:

Joe Allen, Mark Albrecht, Ben Bova,
Franklin Chang-Diaz, John Denver,
Richard Truly, Charles Walker,
among many others!


For more information, write or call:

Beatrice Moreno
Southwest Research Institute
6220 Culebra Road
San Antonio TX  78228-0510
[phone]
Internet: [e-mail]

or call NSS [phone]

SPECIAL RATE AVAILABLE UNTIL MAY 1

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

Date: 12 Apr 91 03:37:33 GMT
From: prism![e-mail]  (Matthew DeLuca)
Subject: Re: Space technology

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Robert W Murphree) writes:
>I like what Carl Sagan said, if you want to develop non-stick frying pans
>you're better off funding a program for developing non-stick frying pans
>99% of the time(rather than a program for sending box cars with men in them
>to space).

Of course, if you have never conceived of non-stick frying pans, it is
kind of hard to fund a program to develop them.  The whole concept of
spinoffs is based around the idea that technologies and materials developed
for the space program and the military will later find applications in the
civilian sector that were not thought of when development first started.
Granted, the spinoff effect is somewhat overrated, but it is in fact there,
and is important.

--
Matthew DeLuca
Georgia Institute of Technology      "I'd hire the Dorsai, if I knew their
Office of Information Technology      P.O. box."  - Zebadiah Carter,
Internet: [e-mail]    _The Number of the Beast_

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

Date: 11 Apr 91 23:47:08 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA Headline News for 04/11/91 (Forwarded)


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

  Thursday, April 11, 1991    Audio Service: 202 / 755-1788

This is NASA Headline News for Thursday, April 11, 1991 . . .

Atlantis landed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, this
morning at 9:55 am EDT following a nearly perfect flight.  The
Gamma Ray Observatory, deployed Sunday, is doing fine and presently
undergoing orbital checkout.

The STS-37 crew awoke this morning at 12:30 am EDT to begin
preparations for today's landing.  The choice of a landing site was
predicated on which site, Edwards or Kennedy, had the better weather
the earliest.  As it turned out, weather at Dryden was good enough to
support the first of several California landing opportunities.

Atlantis travelled over 2 1/2 million orbital miles during the nearly six
days the STS-37 crew were up.  This brings to eight the number of
missions Atlantis has flown since its first flight in October,
1985.  Atlantis has deployed several of NASA's highest science priority
payloads -- its previous cargo included the Galileo and Magellan
planetary spacecraft.

The crew is expected to depart Edwards for Houston early this
afternoon.  Meanwhile, on the East Coast, Discovery is nearing
completion of preparations for its end-of-the-month mission.  Main
engine flight readiness tests will be done today and ordnance
installation will begin tomorrow.  The Flight Readiness Review for
Discovery's STS-39 mission begins Monday, April 15, at the
Kennedy Space Center.

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

After 244 days orbiting Venus, the Magellan spacecraft and its
remarkable imaging radar system continue to perform
nominally.  Star calibrations used to update Magellan's onboard
navigation systems continue to produce occasional filter rejections of
the reference stars.  This is of little practical concern since the attitude
updates remain acceptable and spacecraft pointing accuracy is very
precise.  Yesterday marked the passage of one Venusian year of
Magellan orbital operations.  Radar mapping of the planet began 36
days after Magellan entered orbit.  On May 15, Magellan will have
completed one radar-imaging cycle of the cloud-shrouded and
geologically active planet.
                   * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

    Rep. George Brown is hosting a luncheon today in Rayburn
House Office Building, Room 2318, at 12:00 pm to honor the first ten
years of manned space flight using the space shuttle.  Honorees at
the luncheon include John Young and Robert Crippen, commander and
pilot of Columbia on STS-1, April 12, 1981.  Adm. Richard Truly, J.R.
Thompson, Sam Keller, Bill Lenoir and the other associate
administrators and most of the center directors also will be attending.

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

NASA astronaut Col. Guy S. Gardner has been named
Commandant of the USAF Test Pilot School at Edwards Air
Force Base.  He will leave the astronaut corps in June to assume his
new position.  Gardner was pilot on two shuttle missions:  STS-27, a
Department of Defense flight aboard Atlantis in Dec. 1988; and STS-
35, the Astro-1 astronomy laboratory aboard Columbia this past
December.  Gardner has been assigned to Johnson Space Center since
his selection in May 1980.

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

The Marshall Space Flight Center last night successfully test
fired a 20-foot long, 48-inch-diameter, subscale solid rocket
motor for approximately 30 seconds.  The 8:30 pm EDT test at
Marshall's East Test Area initiated a series of 10 firings which will
support the development of the Advanced Solid Rocket Motor program
candidate materials for the motor nozzle.  The test motor weighs
approximately 40,000 pounds and includes two propellant cartridges,
each weighing about 10,000 lbs.  Test measurements taken by the 150
sensors included temperatures, pressures, strains and other motor
characteristics during the firing.  The next Advanced Solid Rocket
Motor subscale test is scheduled to occur in early summer.


Here's the broadcast schedule for Public Affairs events on NASA Select
TV.  All times are Eastern.  NASA Select TV is carried on GE Satcom
F2R, transponder 13, C-Band, 72 degrees W Long., Audio 6.8,
Frequency 3960 MHz.

Thursday, 4/11/91

    1:00 pm    Replay of House Subcommittee on VA-HUD & Independent
          Agencies hearings on NASA FY 1992 budget request (Chairman
          Robert Traxler, D-Mich.)(taped 4/9/91).

    approx. 5:00 pm    Replay of House Subcommittee on Space hearings
          on Space Station Freedom (Chairman Ralph Hall, D-
          Texas)(taped beginning 9:00 am, 4/11/91), this replay will follow
          immediately the Traxler replay.

Friday, 4/12/91
    10:30 am    "Moonbase America," educational show originating in
          Cleveland.


All events and times may change without notice.  This report is filed
daily, Monday through Friday, by 12:00 pm, Eastern.  It is a service of
NASA Headquarters Office of Public Affairs.  Contact:  CREDMOND
on NASAmail or at 202/453-8425.

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

Date: 11 Apr 91 23:39:23 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Galileo Status for 04/10/91 (Forwarded)


                      GALILEO STATUS REPORT
                         April 10, 1991


          Galileo will unfurl its 16-foot-diameter main
communications antenna Thursday, setting the stage for
transmission of high volumes of science data when Galileo flies
by the asteroid Gaspra later this year.

          The umbrella-like high-gain antenna, made of metal
mesh, has been stowed behind a sun shield since Galileo's launch
in October 1989, to avoid heat damage while the spacecraft flew
closer to the sun than the orbit of Earth.

          Using one of its low-gain antennas, Galileo generally
transmits data at up to 1,200 bits per second (bps).  With the
high-gain antenna, Galileo will be able to transmit at up to
134,000 bps (the equivalent of about one television picture each
minute) across hundreds of millions of miles of space.

          Commands to unfurl the antenna will be issued by
Galileo's computers at about 12:50 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time on
Thursday, April 11.  The unfurling will be completed in less than
10 minutes.  The first radio transmission over the antenna will
be sent May 6.

          Galileo will use the high-gain antenna during its flyby
of the asteroid Gaspra, at a distance of some 255 million miles
from Earth, on October 29.  The spacecraft will be some 580
million miles from Earth when it arrives at its final
destination, the giant planet Jupiter, in December 1995.

          In other events this week, flight controllers on
Tuesday, April 9, returned Galileo to its normal "dual-spin"
configuration, in which part of the spacecraft spins and part
remains fixed in relation to space.  Galileo will be fully
configured for normal operations by the time the next major
sequence of commands is sent to the spacecraft April 25.

          Today Galileo is 37 million miles from Earth and 122
million miles from the sun, traveling at a heliocentric velocity
of 62,800 miles per hour.  Round-trip communication time is 6
minutes, 40 seconds.

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

Date: 12 Apr 91 01:40:57 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Current CD-ROMs on-line at the Ames SPACE archive


Well, those CD-ROMs that Ron and I promised are now on-line and working.  In
fact, we have two drive slaved to the archive server.  The first CD-ROM
(directory /pub/SPACE/CDROM) currently contains volume 12 of the Voyager
data.  This disc has complete browse size and some full size images of
Jupiter as taken by the Voyagers.  I would suggest that you retrieve browse
size images (quite a bit smaller) and then figure out which full resolution
images you wish to retrieve.  Some of the full size images are on other
discs which will be rotated in on a weekly basis.  The other CD-ROM currently
on-line is attached to directory /pub/SPACE/CDROM2.  This disc is Voyager
CD-ROM 4 and contains images of Saturn.  This disc does not contain the
browse images (another disc, another week).

Software to decompress the images is found in the software directory on each
disc.  For UNIX systems you need cdcomp.c (compile and run).  PCs can use
pcdcomp.exe.  The /pub/SPACE/SOFTWARE directory on ames contains PC
software to display the images on PCs.  For UNIX systems, I suggest that you
decompress the images into FITS format and then use Jef Poskaner's excellent
PBMPlus to convert to your favorite viewing format.

Try not to do "mget *" on every directory on the discs.  If the network and
host load from the archive service becomes excessive we will have to limit
the number of ftps that can be run simulatenously.  Also note that those
CD-ROM drives have other uses and may be pulled off-line at anytime.  And
in addition, we will not mount CD-ROMs on demand -- we have other jobs to
do and can't afford to devote too much time to the archive.  On the other
hand, if you have problems with archive service, please let me know.

Now for the important facts:

Archive host: ames.arc.nasa.gov (128.102.18.3)
Login name: ftp
Password: anything you like
directories: /pub/SPACE/CDROM and /pub/SPACE/CDROM2
Mail archive-server access:  Not currently available for binary files (Real
    Soon Now (tm)).

As usual, we would like to thank and credit the following:

Dr. Bradford A. Smith, Voyager Team Leader, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Planetary Data System, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
National Space Science Data Center, Goddard Space Flight Center

Please credit these people when using the data in any report, publication,
or formal presentation.

And a special thanks to Randall Robinson, Archive Server Manager, Ames
Research Center for the use of his computer to house the archives.

                        -Peter Yee
                        [e-mail]
                        ames!yee

PS We will put the Magellan and Neptune discs on-line as soon as Ron and
I figure out how to get the Sun HSFS driver to understand the file types
used on those discs.

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

End of SPACE Digest V13 #395
*******************