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Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #180

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 13 : Issue 180

Today's Topics:
            ONE SMALL STEP - REPLY
              Magellan Update - 02/18/91
           Cost of Living in a New Frontier
             Re: Martian mystery?
         NASA Headline News for 02/19/91 (Forwarded)

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

Date: WED, 20 FEB 91 02:09 CDT
From: BARRY BOWDEN <[e-mail]>
To: ALL <[e-mail]>
Subject: ONE SMALL STEP - REPLY

In response of Allen Sherzer's article of "One Small Step for a
Space Activist ..."

It appears that the commercial procurement system, as used for the so
called 'Zenith Star" proposal of sending a payload into LEO was
successful because it allowed a commercial contractor to come up with a
solution for a HLV that would cost less than the proposed 10B dollars
NASA is proposing. Why can't NASA put more of its projects into the
commercial procurement system? Is it afraid it will not have as much
control over the projects it turns over to commercial interests? Would
this not stimulate commercial interests into getting into space and
make getting into space less expensive over the next 10-20 years?

I also saw in my local paper a picture of the proposed new space
station. It seems like another company out of Denver (OSI??)
has been developing a similiar approach using external tanks (ETs)
as the living/work modules and an instrument package on one end.
It seems like NASA would be better off designing the truss/instrument/
power part of the truss as a backbone, then let OSI?? use the ET and
sell a conversion package to convert the ET into whatever module
is needed. It would seem that this would take fewer shuttle flights
and less money to put a station into orbit. Also, the whole space
station package could be sold to other nations/interests as an
'inexpensive' means of using a space staion. They could be sold or
leased by NASA and provide some money back into the space stations
to help pay for costs and expenses.

Note: Credit for "One small Step ..." should go to Allen Sherzer and
      Tim Kyger.


PS. If this sounds like a good idea, how do I forward this to NASA??
    BB

Barry Bowden
[e-mail]

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

Date: 19 Feb 91 03:44:35 GMT
From: elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Subject: Magellan Update - 02/18/91


                        MAGELLAN STATUS REPORT
                          February 18, 1991

     The Magellan spacecraft is performing nominally.  All STARCALS (star
calibrations) and DESATS (desaturations) during the weekend were successful.

     The spacecraft temperatures remained stable, some slightly lower.
Battery #1 is peaking at 24.8 degrees C.  The gyroscopes are at 68.5 degrees C.
The gyros are in a compartment which is still picking up some reflected
sunlight from the solar panels and will probably be the last area to see
temperatures drop as we move away from the period of maximum solar heating
during the mapping pass.
      ___    _____     ___
     /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|      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.

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

Date: 18 Feb 91 22:29:28 GMT
From: zephyr.ens.tek.com!tektronix!sequent!crg5![e-mail]  (Nick Szabo)
Subject: Cost of Living in a New Frontier

In article <2_-&*}^@rpi.edu> [e-mail] (Michael V. Kent) writes:
[Responding to my answer to the query re: cost of living in a new
frontier]
>
>I don't know much about the cost of ancient caravels, but I think I know
>I little about the cost of Freedom.  Your numbers are a little of, I think.
>Correct me if I am wrong, but the FY91 budget for Freedom was about $1.8G,
>and the estimated GNP is about $5.5 trillion.  That puts the cost of Freedom
>at 0.033% of GNP / 4 persons = 0.0082% GNP / person.  Or 1/122 % of GNP/person.
>This puts it at 4 times as costly as a caravel if your Portugese numbers are
>correct.  Significant, but not three orders of magnitude.

You are wrong, and shall be corrected.  :-)  My figures for both Fred
and the caravels are for total costs per person, not cost/year and
certainly not mere paper design costs.  GNP is a way to compare the
costs to the ability of society to pay for it.  The caravel mean
lifetimes and projected Fred lifetime are both around 20-50 years
(if Fred ever becomes more than stacks of paper and lives up to its
promises, that is), so per year can be factored out.

The total cost of Fred is projected at $30 billion.  ($30e9+historical
NASA overuns)/$5.5e12 ~= 1% or 1/4% per person.  Two orders of magnitude
difference in %GNP/crew costs.  Adjusting for the number of taxpayers
(20 million vs. 220 million) that gives us three orders of magnitude
difference.

One final difference is the most significant -- spice trade paid
for the caravels; taxpayers pay for Fred.


>     1) Freedom has been in the design stage for only about three years.

Huh? Fred was announced in 1983, and much design work was carried on
even before that during the 70's and 80's.  Space station design work was
also done on the USAF MOL in the 60's and Skylab in the 70's. Fred has
been shuffling paper for so long people have forgotten when it started.  :-(


>So far, about $3.7 billion have been spent on it.  Parts fabrication is to
>begin in about one year.

More for paper and CAD files than the cost of 10 communications
satellites.  I'm so proud.


>That is not out of line with other major aerospace
>projects, even those that do no leave the atmosphere.

The subject was the cost of living in new frontiers, not the cost
of other aerospace projects.  But on the latter point, $3.7 billion
is near the all-time high -- up there with Apollo adjusted
for inflation -- on pre-prototype design costs for civilian aerospace
projects.

Also, it is ridiculous to spend the same amount of R&D on something
that will serve millions of customers (a modern airplane) who
will pay those costs, and something that will serve only a few
dozen who won't.


>Considering spaceflight
>is one or two orders of magnitude more difficult than air flight,

If you use manned spaceflight as a measure, this is an understatement:
cost/person on a Shuttle flight ($10-$100 million depending on how you
want to count it) is at least four orders of magnitude higher than the
cost of a trans-Pacific plane ticket ($1,000-$2,000).  However, the cost
of developing Pegasus was 60 times less than the cost of developing the
the MD-100.  It just depends what kind of spaceflight you are talking
about.


>we are
>not doing too bad.

Manned spaceflight does worse (three orders of magnitude) than
De Gama, Columbus and company, which is the answer to the original
question.  It does worse (four order orders of magnitude) than
air flight which is the answer to your question.


>     2) The federal government is not in the money-making business.

Last time I looked at my paycheck, I noticed this.


>...
>Nick, I mean this as a polite question:  What does your company do.  I'd be
>surprised if it is an aerospace company.

One could infer we make computers.  :-)

I have extensive knowledge of the space field, economics, business,
and history.  I have also worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
doing Deep Space Network scheduling (for Voyager, Galileo, Magellan,
etc.) and took the time to look into many of the different projects
(microdevices, Mars Rover, electric propulsion, SP-100, TAU, getaway
special probe, laser communications, neural nets,...) going on there
and at Caltech.  JPL was a life-changing experience for me; among other
things I lost my enthusiasm for Fred and contemporary manned spaceflight
It was mind-blowing to see a large, bureaucratic project side-by-side with
small, innovative projects -- one hell of a contrast.


--
Nick Szabo            [e-mail]
Embrace Change...  Keep the Values...  Hold Dear the Laughter...

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

Date: 19 Feb 91 02:01:46 GMT
From: phoenix![e-mail]  (Michael Woodhams)
Subject: Re: Martian mystery?

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Kevin William Ryan) writes:
>    The funniest thing I've seen so far was the Weekly World News of
>Feb. 19th, where they show some airbrushed shots of the 'Mars face',
>claiming that "Scientists have photographed the lips moving!!"
[.....]
>    Of course, they also have had an articles about the Soviet Phobos
>(sp?) probe "photographing the entrance to heaven", the ever popular
>"Boy with two brains", and others along the line of "Sasquatch seen in
>downtown New York posing as a broker."

Not only Phobos, but also COBE took photos of heaven. Computer
enhancement of the famous DIRBE (diffuse infrared background
experiment) picture of the galaxy shows "Greek-style buildings" on
either side of the nucleus.

'Other experts, like the German astrophysicist Frank Bauer, believe
that the interpretation was accurate and called for an international
effort to get a space probe to the area right away.

'"The disc is over 28,000 light years away so it's imperative that we
move without delay," said Dr. Bauer.'

(From the font of all scientific knowledge, the Weekly World News,
August 28, 1990, pgs 4-5. In true scientific fashion, they give a
reference to the earlier Phobos story, which curiously enough involves
a German astrophysicist named Kurt Bauer. Is Bauer a very common
German name, or is their random-German-surname-list not very long?)

Michael Woodhams.

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

Date: 19 Feb 91 21:09:11 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA Headline News for 02/19/91 (Forwarded)

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

  Tuesday, February 19, 1991     Audio Service: 202 / 755-1788

This is NASA Headline News for Tuesday, February 19, 1991

The terminal countdown demonstration test for the STS-39 mission is
currently underway at the Kennedy Space Center.  The crew arrived at 10:45
am yesterday.  The TCDT countdown concludes at 11:00 am tomorrow.  Vice
President Quayle will arrive at KSC at 10:20 am tomorrow.  He will be
escorted to the Launch Control Complex where he will address the launch
team and the flight crew inside Discovery.  The Vice President will be shown
the Orbiter Processing Facility and will then speak to KSC emplyees at the
Turning Basin.  Following that address, Mr. Quayle will hold a short press
conference at 12:10.  These activities will be shown live on NASA Select TV.
The Vice President will leave KSC at 12:45 pm to head for Eglin Air Force
Base, Ft. Walton Beach, to address family members of Desert Storm troops.

KSC technicians have found cracks on three of four hinges on Discovery's
umbilical doors.  These doors, one for the liquid oxygen side and one for the
liquid hydrogen side, each have two hinges.  KSC managers are currently
assessing the problem, along with JSC flight management officials.  The team
is looking at all options including flying as is.  One option is to install hinge
doublers on top of the cracked hinges to strengthen them.  Another option is
to roll back to the VAB, destack and demate, and with Discovery in the
horizontal position, replacing the hinges.  (The hinges can be replaced while
the orbiter is in the vertical position, but the doors cannot be cycled to test
the hinge.)  Because of propellant loading activities planned for Thursday,
management expects to have this situation assessed and a plan developed by
tomorrow night.

Atlantis' orbital maneuvering system pods were tested successfully for
electrical redundancy this weekend.  That orbiter's next mission is the
Gamma Ray Observatory deployment flight scheduled for April.

Columbia's Astro-1 payload was removed Friday.  Other work on Columbia
includes tests of its radar altimeter, main engine pump torque checks, and
tests of the hydraulic system.  Columbia is scheduled for its next flight on the
STS-40 Space Life Sciences Spacelab mission in May.

Mobile launcher platform 3 will be moved into VAB high bay 3 next week to
begin preparations for stacking for the STS-40 Columbia SLS-1 mission.

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

Goddard Space Flight Center officials have terminated the contract held by
the General Electric Company, Astro-Space Division, Princeton, N. J., for the
design, development and test of the Attached Payload Accommodation
Equipment element of Space Station Freedom.  The contract, signed in 1987,
was valued at approximately $555 million.  The payload accommodation
equipment portion of Freedom was deferred indefinitely from the space
station during the early phases of a Congressionally-mandated 90-day
restructuring review of the Freedom program.


The STS-37 pre-flight mission briefings will be held on Feb. 25 and 26, next
Monday and Tuesday.  On Feb. 25, at 9 am EST lead flight director Chuck
Shaw will provide a mission overview.  At 10 am, the Gamma Ray
Observatory team will report on the status and mission of the second of the
Great Observatories.  Following the GRO briefing, investigators will brief on
the secondary payloads.  At 2 pm, the crew will brief on their flight duties.
All briefings except the GRO segment will originate from Johnson Space
Center.  The GRO briefing will originate from Goddard Space Flight Center.
The briefings will be carried live on NASA Select TV.

JSC has also planned an extra-vehicular activity workshop for Tuesday, Feb.
26, at 10 am EST.  The workshop features a briefing on EVA planning and
equipment development and will offer an opportunity to try out the
equipment.  The workshop will take place in JSC Building 9B, on the air-
bearing floor.

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

Professor Regina McConnell, concert artist and head of the Voice Faculty at
Howard University, and Dr. Dudley McConnell, Solar System Exploration
Division deputy director for advanced programs, will present "African-
American Heritage in Song and Words," to commemorate Black History
Month.  The presentation will take place at 10:30 am EST, this Thursday in
the NASA Headquarters Auditorium.

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

Tuesday, 2/19/91

     12:00 pm     Starfinder program, "Expanding Universe."

     12:15 pm     NASA Life Sciences Program.

     12:30 pm     Shuttle Mission Simulator (at Johnson Space Center) Tour.

      1:00 pm     Total Quality Colloquium replay of Uli Derickson's address.
          Mrs. Derickson was the flight purser on TWA flight 847
          when it was hijacked on the ground.

     2:00 pm      **JSC Center Director Aaron Cohen hosts "Space Basics" live
          from Johnson Space Center.

Wednesday, 2/20/91
     11:30 am     **Vice President Dan Quayle addresses employees at the
          Kennedy Space Center.



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.

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

End of SPACE Digest V13 #180
*******************