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Subject: SPACE Digest V9 #299

SPACE Digest                                      Volume 9 : Issue 299

Today's Topics:
          NASA Prediction Bulletins:  Space Shuttle
      USSR's Phobos II makes orbital adjustment at Mars
          USSR's Progress 41 docks with Mir
          NASA Prediction Bulletins:  Space Shuttle
             space news from Jan 9 AW&ST
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 17 Mar 89 01:04:03 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (TS Kelso)
Subject: NASA Prediction Bulletins:  Space Shuttle


The most current orbital elements from the NASA Prediction Bulletins are
carried on the Celestial RCP/M, [phone], and are updated several times
weekly.  Documentation and tracking software are also available on this
system.  As a service to the satellite user community, the most current
elements for the current shuttle mission are provided below.  The Celestial
RCP/M may be accessed 24 hours/day at 300, 1200, or 2400 baud using 8 data
bits, 1 stop bit, no parity.

STS-29
1 19882U 89021  A 89075.63222967  .00000000  00000-0  00000-0 0 00153
2 19882 028.4619 204.9202 0024308 220.5990 139.3286 15.84275610000486
--
Dr TS Kelso                           Asst Professor of Space Operations
[e-mail]          Air Force Institute of Technology

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

Date: Sat, 18 Mar 89 23:34:39 EST
From: Glenn Chapman <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail], [e-mail],
        [e-mail]
Subject: USSR's Phobos II makes orbital adjustment at Mars

     On Mar. 15th the USSR announced that the Phobos II probe's orbit
was adjusted to make a closer match to the orbit of the Martian moon.
This does not appear to be the final burn, which will occur shortly
before rendezvous, but just an smaller adjustment.   Current passes
(Feb. 19 and Feb. 28th) yielded closest approaches of 300 - 440 Km
(188 - 275 mi), not as near as the 100 - 150 Km (63 - 94 mi) the
Russians have been desiring.  After the final matching (about the end
of this month) the Soviets will eject the main retro engine section,
and last approach will be done using hydrazine thrusters.  Timing
for these burns will probably be set by the next set of pictures which
should quantify the orbits of both probe and Phobos much better.
    To date the only pictures that I have seen printed of Phobos were
in the New Scientist (Mar. 4).  That article also described the next
Soviet Mars mission, slated now for 1994.  This will use the Proton
booster (20 Tonnes to orbit), rather than the much newer Energiya
(100 Tonnes to orbit) due to the reliability of the Proton (standard
conservative Soviet design - Energiya has only flown twice).  The main
bus of the probe will be similar to that of the current Phobos probes,
but with two main orbital instrument sections.  The first, massing
160 Kg (352 lbs), will observe the Mars itself, while the second, 40 Kg
(88 lbs) will inspect the solar wind around the planet.  Lander sections
will contain one or two balloon systems (probably French/Soviet designs),
which will use solar heating to lift off the surface and fly during the
day, then land at night as they cool for ground measurements.  There will
also be a couple of penetrators which will be implanted in the soil.
While the article does not state it all previous discussions have
noted that there will be two such probes launched to the planet.
Considering the loss of Phobos I that conservative approach will
probably be continued by the Soviets.
    The Phobos mission now within weeks of its most critical period -
can the Russians pull it off?  Nothing that I have seen in the past
few weeks says they will not.

                                             Glenn Chapman
                                             MIT Lincoln Lab

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

Date: Sun, 19 Mar 89 22:49:19 EST
From: Glenn Chapman <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail], [e-mail],
        [e-mail]
Subject: USSR's Progress 41 docks with Mir

     The Soviets announced the docking of the Progress 41 tanker with
the Mir/Kvant space station Mar. 19th, after its launch on Mar. 17.
This will bring about 1 tonne of supplies and 1.3 tonnes of
fuel/air/water to Mir.  This is the 17th supply craft, and the 26th
vehicle to dock to Mir.  A comparison of how much Mir has been used
over the older Salyut 6 and 7 space stations is that those previous
systems had only had 12 Progress craft each dock with them.  Also note
that Progress 40 left Mir on Mar. 5th.  This is a somewhat longer
time during which no Progress was attached to Mir than expected,
especially if they are going to get another cargo craft up before
the mid April crew switch off.  This in turn is indicative of
no expansion module being launched before that switchoff, as had
been originally planned.  Rumors to that effect have been circulating
for several weeks.
    On board the station Dr. Valrey Polyakov has just exceeded 202 days
in orbit, putting him in 14th place in zero G experience.  More
interesting is on the 14th the short wave stated that he had just
given the crew a complete physical.  In the 19th report again
Alexander Volkov and Sergei Krikalev (Soyuz TM-7, up for 113 days)
were mentioned as the crew, which will be coming down.  However,
Polyakov was talked about separately.  This is giving yet
more indications that Dr. Polyakov may not be landing in April.
In addition the replacement cosmonauts are now described as "another
long duration crew", a term which has not been used for the Soyuz TM-7
team.  The term appears to be applied to cosmonauts exceeding 1/2 year
in space now.  Thus the new mission may be another space endurance
record mission, again confirming the good results of the year long
mission of Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov in 1988.
    When a nation has an operating space station it has the flexibility
to change mission plans in orbit quickly.  The US, Europe and Japan
will only have that capability only when they have their own home
in orbit.

                                                   Glenn Chapman
                                                   MIT Lincoln Lab

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

Date: 17 Mar 89 23:10:18 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (TS Kelso)
Subject: NASA Prediction Bulletins:  Space Shuttle


The most current orbital elements from the NASA Prediction Bulletins are
carried on the Celestial RCP/M, [phone], and are updated several times
weekly.  Documentation and tracking software are also available on this
system.  As a service to the satellite user community, the most current
elements for the current shuttle mission are provided below.  The Celestial
RCP/M may be accessed 24 hours/day at 300, 1200, or 2400 baud using 8 data
bits, 1 stop bit, no parity.

STS-29
1 19882U 89 21  A 89 75.88416932 -.00173436  00000-0 -74311-3 0   174
2 19882  28.4395 203.0386 0024478 222.6431 137.2274 15.84213241   522
--
Dr TS Kelso                           Asst Professor of Space Operations
[e-mail]          Air Force Institute of Technology

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

Date: 20 Mar 89 04:33:08 GMT
From: attcan!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: space news from Jan 9 AW&ST

Cosmic Background Explorer, slated for Delta launch this summer, has now
been loaded with liquid helium in preparation for launch.

NOAA and CNES begin formal negotiations aimed at possible merger of
Landsat and Spot systems.

National Academies of Sciences and Engineering report to Bush says the
space station should be undertaken after, not before, long-term goals
(e.g. return to the Moon, manned flight to Mars) are selected... which
should be a high priority.

Soviets plan two consecutive medium-duration missions to Mir, pending
full analysis of data from the year-long mission.  The current crew
will be up until April or May, followed by a two-man crew which will
stay up until October or so.

Speaking of the one-year crew...  Soviets say:  "We're one step closer
to Mars...  Our initial observations of Titov and Manarov show they are
in great shape..."

Soviet Mars-mission planning is moving ahead.  One approach would be
launch of living quarters on one Energia, followed by the Mars lander
and the Earth return module on another, followed by fuel and nuclear-
electric propulsion systems on several more.  The total crew would be
four, with two going down to the surface.

AW&ST visit to Baikonur sees second Soviet shuttle orbiter nearing
completion, as well as test models of it.  Two test models had a
pair of unusual pods, resembling jet-engine nacelles but not in
the same place as the jet pods used on the atmospheric-flight-test
model (which also had the mystery pods).  The Soviets refuse to
explain.

Soviets comment that six people is really too many for Mir -- when it
had that many recently (the two one-year cosmonauts, two visitors,
Dr. Poliakov, and Chretien), it had trouble with temperature and
humidity buildup.  They say this will be remedied when the long-awaited
expansion modules are added.

Glavkosmos signs definitive marketing agreement with Space Commerce
Corp. of Houston [this is Art Dula's bunch], giving the latter
exclusive US marketing rights for Soviet space services, hardware, and
data.  SCC has been marketing Soviet launch services for some time, but
will now also handle Mir payload space, payloads on unmanned recoverables,
Soviet comsats, data from navigation and ocean-sensing satellites, images
taken from Mir, and Soviet space-program technical literature.  In the
past, customers like Payload Systems Inc. (which is flying payloads aboard
Mir) have dealt direct with Glavcosmos.  SCC is also arranging inspection
trips to Baikonur for businessmen interested in Soviet launch services;
there is considerable interest in public tours.

Trials of telephone service from trans-Atlantic airliners, using Inmarsat
satellites, will start soon.  Two British Airways 747s will be the trial
aircraft; the price will be about $10/minute.  Experiments are also
underway to evaluate automatic position reporting for aircraft via
satellites, which could greatly simplify oceanic air-traffic control.
Position reporting is easy to do because it needs little bandwidth
and cheap antennas (voice is harder, with current satellites).  The
major obstacles to satellite-based oceanic traffic control are not
technical but political:  traditionally, responsibility for traffic
control over oceans rests with the nearest country, to get the best
use out of limited communications range, and a more efficient scheme
using satellites and a few consolidated control centers would mean
loss of revenue, employment, and prestige for some countries.

First Pegasus launch (scheduled for July) will probably carry a Glomar
experimental message-relay satellite for DoD and a pair of gas-release
canisters for NASA ionospheric research.  Launch will be into polar
orbit from off Vandenberg.  The original payload plan was a cluster
of small store/dump comsats, but they have been postponed due to the
slight element of risk in using the first launch of a new booster.
This will be the second Glomar (an earlier one went up on a shuttle
in 1985); they are aimed at demonstrating feasibility of using small
satellites to relay data from (and commands to) small military sensors.
A particular application is data relay from antisubmarine-warfare
sensors scattered on the Arctic ice, to help track Soviet submarines
under it.  NASA jumped at the chance to use the rest of the Pegasus
payload for gas-release tests, several of which had to be dropped from
the NASA/DoD CRRES satellite when it was shifted from the shuttle to
an expendable.  This will replace one of two planned Scout launches
with canisters, which would have cost more and taken longer.
--
Welcome to Mars!  Your         |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
passport and visa, comrade?    | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry [e-mail]

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

End of SPACE Digest V9 #299
*******************