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Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #296

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 11 : Issue 296

Today's Topics:
         Re: Apollo 13, STS-1, Vostok 1 anniversaries
       Re: Pegasus launch planes - Altitude First, speed later?
           Payload Summary for 04/20/90 (Forwarded)
         Re: "Family Portrait" (Has anyone seen it?)
          Re: Pegasus launch from Valkyrie  (or ...
         Re: Apollo 13, STS-1, Vostok 1 anniversaries
          Re: Quick launches ( was: Intelsat
           Payload Status for 04/20/90 (Forwarded)
   NASA scientific instruments to observe Comet Austin (Forwarded)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 20 Apr 90 18:47:30 GMT
From: skipper![e-mail]  (Mary Shafer)
Subject: Re: Apollo 13, STS-1, Vostok 1 anniversaries

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (John A. Weeks III) writes:

>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (David Smith) writes:
>>to get back, and naturally ;-) the cartridges for command and lunar modules
>>were incompatible.  So they adapted the CM cartridges to the LM with duct
>>tape.
> ^^^^                                                                 ^^^^
>Duct Tape?  Why on earth did they have duct tape on the Apollo?
>How much did this flight certified duct tape cost?  Did any of the
>LM's that landed on the moon carry duct tape?

I believe that Mach 3 tape (i.e. flight-certified duct tape) costs
about $16 a roll, but I get it from the tool crib and am not certain
of the precise cost.  I'm sure we get a big quantity discount.

I would expect space-flight-certified tape to cost about twice that,
or $32 a roll.


--
Mary Shafer  [e-mail]  ames!skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov!shafer
         NASA Ames Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA
                   Of course I don't speak for NASA

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

Date: 21 Apr 90 02:40:50 GMT
From: usc!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!watserv1!watdragon!watyew![e-mail]  (Brian or James)
Subject: Re: Pegasus launch planes - Altitude First, speed later?


 There's a well known technique for converting Ep to Ek. Just
put your launch vehicle into the very high altitude aerostat
supported launch platform, take it up as high as you can, and
drop the sucker. I think conservation of energy says the launch
vehicle isn't going to get back up to the altitude it was dropped
from on freefall generated Ek, but it is an alternate to speed
the vehicle up [There are so few launches that involve subsurface
orbits, alas]. I suspect it isn't a useful one...
                            JDN

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

Date: 21 Apr 90 04:11:18 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Payload Summary for 04/20/90 (Forwarded)


                              Payload Status Report
                              The Great Observatories
                              Friday, April 20,1990
          George Diller
          407/867-2468
          FTS 823-2468

          HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE

               Following the scrub of the STS-31  launch  on  April  10,  a
          decision  was made to remove the flight batteries from the Hubble
          Space Telescope and take them to the KSC battery lab  located  in
          the Vehicle Assembly Building.   There,  the nickel hydrogen bat-
          teries could be charged at a temperature of 32 degrees  F.,  ena-
          bling  them  to  take  on  a charge more readily.   When they are
          within HST in Discovery's payload bay,  a 45 degree  F  cold  air
          purge must be used,  charging them in a warmer environment,  thus
          more slowly.  In the battery lab, a full charge could be obtained
          during the scrub turnaround period.   There are two sets  of  six
          batteries  which were removed and transported to the battery lab,
          chilled down, and the charging started on Saturday, April 14.

               The payload bay doors of Discovery were  closed  during  the
          130  hours  of  battery charging and the parallel pad activity to
          change out Discovery's #1 auxilary power unit.  A purge of super-
          clean,  cool and dry air was circulated around the  telescope  in
          the payload bay during this time,  making it essentially unneces-
          sary to reinstall the aperature door contamination cover.    Wit-
          ness  plates  were installed on the telescope before door closure
          to document the clean environment.

               Battery charging was concluded at Noon  on  Thursday  and  a
          full  charge  was successfully obtained.   Preparations were com-
          pleted this morning at 6:00  a.m.  to  ready  the  batteries  for
          transporation  to  the pad.   They payload bay doors of Discovery
          were reopened at 8:30 a.m. today.  Reinstallation of both battery
          sets will be performed on second shift this evening.  On Saturday
          morning a 4-hour electrical verification test will be peformed.

               The payload bay doors will be closed  for  Tuesday's  launch
          at approximately 8:00 p.m.  Saturday night.   HST will be powered
          up shortly before 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning.


          GAMMA RAY OBSERVATORY

               Four of the five astronauts assigned to the STS-37 Gamma Ray
          Observatory  mission  were  at  KSC  on  Monday  to  inspect  the
          spacecraft and to participate in GRO testing from associated test
          and  data  display terminals.   This enabled the crew to see data
          generated by the spacecraft first hand and to interact  with  the
          satellite  in  a  way  similar  to  the  predeploment activities.
          Astronauts involved in Monday's activities were Steve Nagel, Ken
          Cameron, Linda Godwin, and Jerome Apt.

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

Date: 20 Apr 90 07:16:18 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (Patricia Winter)
Subject: Re: "Family Portrait" (Has anyone seen it?)

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (David Solana) writes:
>
>By the way, is there a good book about planetary probes or
>about the Voyagers in particular?

Try _Distant Encounters_ by Mark Washburn (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich).


Patty

--
*****************************************************************************
Patty Winter N6BIS                        INTERNET: [e-mail]
AMPR.ORG: [44.4.0.44]                     UUCP: {decwrl,nsc,sun}!apple!winter
*****************************************************************************

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

Date: 20 Apr 90 15:30:30 GMT
From: skipper![e-mail]  (Mary Shafer)
Subject: Re: Pegasus launch from Valkyrie  (or ...

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Henry Spencer) writes:

:In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Mary Shafer) writes:
:>The only way that the Concorde shows a profit is that the acquisition
:>costs was written off rather than amortized.  It's a lot easier to make
:>a profit on an airplane if someone gives you the airplane...

:On the other hand, it's virtually impossible to make a profit on the
:airplane if they insist on getting back all the development costs of a
:very ambitious project by selling a production run of less than 20.
:Given the impossibility of ever recovering the investment, giving the
:things to the national airlines wasn't an unreasonable thing to do.
:The cost situation isn't that dissimilar to what it would have been if
:zillions of them had been sold -- they'd have purchase prices to repay
:but maintenance would be quite a bit cheaper (getting spares made is
:very costly for such a small fleet).

I wasn't criticizing them for writing off the debt.  Once the market
didn't prove out, the Concorde production run was obviously going to
be short and expensive.  When I was working at Lockheed during the FAA
certification phase of the L-1011 Tristar they told us that the
company wouldn't start to make a profit until the breakeven airplane,
which was about number 200.  There's no way that the Concorde even
approached the breakeven point.

I'll mention that the bookkeeping legerdemain was part of the UK
privatization drive and it was just as sensible as any other
accounting procedure is.  However, I'll leave it as an exercise for
the reader to determine how sensible accounting is.

My point was that developing and operating limited-run or one-off
aircraft is expensive and difficult.  The fact that British Airways
"makes a profit" on such an aircraft, the Concorde, is the result
of bookkeeping techniques.  A small company like OSC (versus a
huge national airline) can't hide reality with these techniques.

--
Mary Shafer  [e-mail]  ames!skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov!shafer
         NASA Ames Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA
                   Of course I don't speak for NASA

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

Date: 18 Apr 90 23:44:22 GMT
From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!srcsip!jhereg!wd0gol!newave![e-mail]  (John A. Weeks III)
Subject: Re: Apollo 13, STS-1, Vostok 1 anniversaries

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (David Smith) writes:
>to get back, and naturally ;-) the cartridges for command and lunar modules
>were incompatible.  So they adapted the CM cartridges to the LM with duct
>tape.
 ^^^^                                                                 ^^^^
Duct Tape?  Why on earth did they have duct tape on the Apollo?
How much did this flight certified duct tape cost?  Did any of the
LM's that landed on the moon carry duct tape?

Maybe NASA could put duct tape on the booster joints to reduce the
chances of another accident 8-).

-john-

--
===============================================================================
John A. Weeks III               [phone]               [e-mail]
NeWave Communications                ...uunet!rosevax!bungia!wd0gol!newave!john
===============================================================================

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

Date: 20 Apr 90 17:11:33 GMT
From: convex![e-mail]  (Edward V. Wright)
Subject: Re: Quick launches ( was: Intelsat


As far as quick launchers go, the US Navy did seriously consider a
proposal to make one Trident bird on each of its ballistic missile
submarines an emergency communications satellite launcher instead
of a warhead carrier.  I believe there were earlier proposals to do
the same thing with Polaris and Poseiden missiles.

Launching a military satellite from a submerged ship has obvious
advantages.  Launching a civilian satellite from a submarine does
not, but there is no reason why Trident *has* to be launched submerged.


Related question: does anyone know what's become of the Poseiden
missiles the Navy is now retiring?  Space Services Inc. of America
considered building a space booster using Polaris stages a few years
ago, but dropped the idea because the remaining Polaris motors were
in pretty bad shape.  The Poseiden motors, being somewhat newer,
might be in better shape.

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

Date: 21 Apr 90 04:14:32 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Payload Status for 04/20/90 (Forwarded)


    Daily Status/KSC Payload Management and Operations 04-20-90.


    - STS-31R HST (at pad-B) -

    HST battery charging continues.


    - STS-35 ASTRO-1 (at OPF) -

    Support for VAB operations continues.


    - STS-40 SLS-1 (at O&C) -

    Module leak checks, rack and floor installation into the
    module, and preps for experiment train interface test will
    continue today.


    - STS-42 IML-1 (at O&C) -

    On Thursday module pyrell foam replacement, floor staging,
    and racks 4, 7, 9 and 12 staging operations were performed.
    Pyrell foam replacement and floor staging will continue
    today along with racks 6, 7, 8, and 11 staging.


    - STS-45 (Atlas-1)-

    Bonding straps will be installed today.


    - STS-55 SL-D2 (at O&C) -

    Rack 12 staging will continue today.


    - HST M&R (at O&C) -

    ORUC interface testing continues.

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

Date: 21 Apr 90 04:31:20 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA scientific instruments to observe Comet Austin (Forwarded)

Michael Braukus                                April 20, 1990
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
(Phone:  [phone])

Joyce B. Milliner
Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va.
(Phone:  [phone] )


RELEASE:  90-57

NASA SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS TO OBSERVE COMET AUSTIN


     Two NASA sounding rockets are scheduled to be launched from
the White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, carrying scientific
instruments above the Earth's atmosphere to observe the recently
discovered Comet Austin (1989c1).

     Both rockets are two-stage, sub-orbital Black Brant IXs.
One is tentatively scheduled to be launched no earlier than April
21, during the evening, and the other no earlier than April 28,
just before dawn.

     The first rocketborne payload will carry Johns Hopkins
University's faint object telescope (FOT) and a spectrograph to
observe the comet in the far ultraviolet spectral range.  Using a
special Westinghouse camera, the image is sent to the ground
station so that real-time maneuvers of the payload can be made
for precise pointing in the sky.

     The launch window for this experiment extends from April 21
through April 30, 1990.  Favorable observing conditions require
that the sun must be at least 23.5 degrees below the horizon and
the moon must be at least 25 degrees away from Comet Austin which
must be above the horizon.

     The second experiment will carry a far ultraviolet
spectrometer for the University of Colorado (CU).  Scheduled to
be launched on the morning of April 28, the payload will study
the spectral emissions from Comet Austin.

     According to CU's Dr. James Green, "Since comet Austin is
suspected to be a "first time" comet, i.e., this is believed to
be the comet's first trip into the inner solar system, the study
of the concentration of its noble gases is a powerful probe of
the conditions in the Oort cloud, (the region of the solar system
from where comets come).  For the same reason, the chemical
composition of Comet Austin also is a strong indicator of the
initial conditions in our solar system."

     Both payloads are programmed to descend from parachutes and
be recovered from the desert.  The experiments then will be
refurbished to make future galactic astronomy studies.

     Comet Austin was discovered by an amateur comet hunter from
New Zealand, Rodney R. D. Austin, on the evening of Dec. 6, 1989,
when it was still far from the sun.  At the time of the first
rockets' observation, Comet Austin will be approximately 27
degrees from the Sun as viewed from the Earth.

     The most widely accepted theory of comet composition is the
"dirty snowball" model, suggested by Fred Whipple in the
1950's.  As a comet approaches the sun, the water molecules at
the surface of this "dirty snowball" begin to sublimate (change
from a solid to a gaseous state).  These rocketborne studies
should provide valuable information for scientists to better
understand the formation and composition of comets.

     The Black Brant IX solid propellant rocket vehicle is 46
feet long and 18 inches in diameter.  These scientific missions
are part of the overall NASA Sounding Rocket Program managed at
the Goddard Space Flight Center's Wallops Flight Facility in
Virginia.  This program consists of approximately 35 sounding
rockets launched each year from various worldwide locations,
under the sponsorship of NASA's Office of Space Science and
Applications.

     Dr. Paul Feldman of Johns Hopkins University is the
principal investigator for the first launch; co-investigators are
Drs. David Sahnow, Mel Martinez and Stephen McCandliss.  For the
second mission, Dr. Webster Cash is the principal investigator
from the University of Colorado and Dr. Jim Green and Timothy
Cook are the project scientists.  Wallops Flight Facility project
managers are Anel Flores and John van Overeem, respectively, for
the two missions.

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

End of SPACE Digest V11 #296
*******************