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Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #445

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 13 : Issue 445

Today's Topics:
      NASA to launch NOAA-D meteorological satellite (Forwarded)
           Launch Advisory for 04/22/91 (Forwarded)
             Mir & Progress near accident
            Re: Airships R-100/101
           Re: Uploading to alpha Centauri
            PBS Monday Night *Astronomers*
              Re: Transportation Tethers
     R100/101 (was Re: comsat cancellations and lawsuits)
           RUSSIAN SCIENCE: PLEASE HELP !!!

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: 22 Apr 91 23:51:29 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA to launch NOAA-D meteorological satellite (Forwarded)

Brian Dunbar
NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                April 22, 1991
(Phone:  [phone])

Frank Lepore
NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data & Information
Service, Suitland, Md.
(Phone:  [phone])

Bud Littin
NOAA National Weather Service, Silver Spring, Md.
(Phone:  [phone])

Jim Elliott
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
(Phone:  [phone])

RELEASE:  91-60

NASA TO LAUNCH NOAA-D METEOROLOGICAL SATELLITE

    NASA has scheduled the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration's NOAA-D meteorological satellite for launch no
earlier than May 14, officials from NOAA and NASA announced
today.

    Like other NOAA satellites, NOAA-D will collect
meteorological data and transmit the information free of charge
directly to users around the world to enhance local weather
analysis and forecasting.  The users include more than 100
national governments.

    In addition to assisting local weather forecasting, the
satellite data are used for agriculture, fishing, forest
management, flood control, fire detection, volcano emission
detection, vegetation mapping, oceanography and global climate
change research.

    Launch time for the 3,127-pound spacecraft is planned for
11:52 a.m. EDT.  The satellite will be launched from Vandenberg
Air Force Base, Calif.  To be known as NOAA-12 once it is in
orbit, the satellite will be launched on a U.S. Air Force Atlas-E
launch vehicle into a 450-nautical-mile circular, near polar,
sun-synchronous orbit with an inclination angle of 98.70 degrees
to the Equator.  Orbital period will be 101 minutes, with the
spacecraft crossing the Equator at 7:30 p.m. northbound and 7:30
a.m. southbound, local solar time.

    NOAA-D will carry five primary instruments:  the Advanced
Very High Resolution Radiometer, a radiation detection instrument
to determine cloud cover and surface temperature; the High
Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder and the Microwave Sounding
Unit, which combine to detect and measure energy from the
troposphere to construct a temperature profile from the surface
to an altitude of about 6 miles.

    Also onboard the spacecraft is the Space Environment Monitor
to measure the population of the Earth's radiation belts and the
particle precipitation phenomena resulting from solar activity,
and the ARGOS/Data Collection System which receives signals from
approximately 2,000 platforms (buoys, balloons and remote weather
stations) and transmits the data to a central processing facility
on the ground.

    Operational ground facilities include Command and Data
Acquisition stations in Fairbanks, Alaska, and Wallops Island,
Va.; the Satellite Operations Control Center and Data Processing
Services Subsystem facilities in Suitland, Md.; and a data
receiving station in Lannion, France.

    The NOAA-D is a TIROS-N (Television Infrared Observation
Satellite) class spacecraft, built by the General Electric Astro
Space Division.  The world's first weather satellite was a TIROS,
launched April 1, 1960.

    The TIROS program is a cooperative effort of NOAA, NASA, the
United Kingdom, Canada and France for providing day and night
environmental and associated data on a daily basis.  NOAA is
responsible for establishing the observational requirements and
for operating the system, and NASA, through its Goddard Space
Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., is responsible for procuring and
developing the spacecraft and for conducting on-orbit checkout of
the satellite before turning the system over to NOAA for
operational control.  The U.S. Air Force provides launch support
with its Atlas-E launch vehicle, built by General Dynamics Space
Systems Division.

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

Date: 22 Apr 91 23:50:41 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Launch Advisory for 04/22/91 (Forwarded)

Barbara Selby
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                      April 22, 1991
(Phone:  [phone])

Rick Mould
University of Alabama-Huntsville
(Phone:  [phone])

George Purvis
Orbital Science Corp., Space Data Div., Chandler, Ariz.
(Phone:  [phone])


JOUST 1 LAUNCH LAUNCH ADVISORY


      The launch of Joust 1, a commercial suborbital rocket
carrying 10 materials and biotechnology experiments, has been
reset for 8:30 a.m. EDT on May 6 from Launch Complex 20 at the
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.

      "Work on the guidance and control systems is complete, and
we are ready to fly," said George Purvis, Prospector Program
Manager for Orbital Sciences Corp., Space Data Division, Chandler,
Ariz.

      The Joust 1 mission is sponsored by the University of
Alabama in Huntsville's Consortium for Materials Development in
Space (UAH CMDS), a NASA Center for Commercial Development of
Space.  Space Data Division, under a contract with UAH CMDS, is
providing the Prospector rocket and launch services.

-end-

      EDITORS NOTE:  A preflight press briefing will be conducted
at 1 p.m. EDT, on Friday, May 3, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center
Launch Complex 39 News Center, followed by a photo opportunity at
Launch Complex 20.

      Both the pre-mission press briefing and the Joust 1 launch
will be carried live via NASA Select television, Satcom F2R,
transponder 13, located at 72 degrees West longitude; frequency
3960 MHz, audio 6.8 Mhz.

      News media planning to cover the Joust 1 flight should
direct their request for accreditation to:

      Lisa Fowler, PA-PIB
      John F. Kennedy Space Center, NASA
      Kennedy Space Center, FL 32899
      Phone [phone]      FAX [phone]

      Letters of accreditation should be written on the letterhead
of the requesting organization, be signed by a management
official, and list the name, function and Social Security number
of the individual(s) for whom press credentials are requested.

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

Date: 22 Apr 91 13:13:04 GMT
From: world!ksr![e-mail]  (Chris Jones)
Subject: Mir & Progress near accident

The 15 April AW&ST has a little blurb on the near collision between Progress M7
and the Mir complex, adding a little to what's been posted here.  Two points of
interest are that the misalignment between Progress and Mir is thought to have
been caused by the cosmonauts bumping into a rendezvous antenna during an EVA.
This implies that they have been working outside near the aft end of the
station.  The Soviets have previously announced that they intend to move the
solar panels from one of the large modules docked at the other end to Kvant-1
(which is at the aft end).  They also want to place some attitude control
thrusters at the ends of booms extending from Kvant-1 to effect a larger moment
arm.

The other interesting point is that they tested the automatic rendezvous system
by reboarding Soyuz TM11 and docking it with the aft port (the automatic system
failed in the same way so the docking was done manually).  Progress was later
docked at the front port.  I'm pretty sure there is no refuelling capability at
that port, so I don't know what is planned to refuel Mir.  Probably they'll
have to fix the antenna somehow.
--
Chris Jones    [e-mail]    {uunet,harvard,world}!ksr!clj

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

Date: 22 Apr 91 14:32:28 GMT
From: swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!rex!rouge![e-mail]  (Fraering Philip)
Subject: Re: Airships R-100/101

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Kieran A. Carroll) writes:

>I suppose there is an interesting historical lesson here.
>Perhaps the US Congress should buy a second-source space station
>from a private company, with a fixed-price contract. M<ind you,
>if the analogy is too close, the result would be the cancellation of
>]all future spaceflight endeavours in the US the first time
>there's a fatal accident involving SSF...

 First of all, to Mr. Carroll: you may want to have someone look at
your terminal, there are some ['s and <'s scattered in the text. Or
maybe that's some sort of rich text format (I don't know, I'm not
making fun or anything, I work from a vt100 or a tvi912+ 99 percent of
the time, and a broken vt100 the rest).

Anyway, it worries me that with two contractors competing for the same
contract, that one company could completely fail at its task, and they
not only loose the contract, but the other company loses its
contract... Of course, all this happened in 1930's Britian, and
therefore isn't likely to happen here... after all, you'd need a
nearly totally government-dominated industry where politics was more
dominant than technical or economic merit.

I like the idea about second-sourcing the SSF. I know it's too late,
but could they have 'second-sourced' the contract, with the second
consortium going with a totally different design?


--
Phil Fraering
[e-mail]
"The Soviet Union has neither soviets nor unions." - Eric Hoffer (in 1974).

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

Date: 22 Apr 91 14:31:26 GMT
From: agate!bionet!uwm.edu!caen!news.cs.indiana.edu!noose.ecn.purdue.edu!en.ecn.purdue.edu![e-mail]  (/dev/null)
Subject: Re: Uploading to alpha Centauri



Hey!  Let's make millions of clones that way.

It would open the way for a whole new kind of hacking!


--
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Brent L. Irvine                    These are MY opinions
Malt Beverage Analyst
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

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

Date: 22 Apr 91 08:37:18 GMT
From: agate!bionet!uwm.edu!spool.mu.edu!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!suned1![e-mail]  (Everett F Batey)
Subject: PBS Monday Night *Astronomers*

Hope that by now all space junkies have caught on that PBS is airing a
several week series on Astronomy ( multi spectrum ).  In the Pacific zone
PBS satellite  area it is Monday evening.
--
 +  [e-mail]  [e-mail]  [e-mail] +
 +  [e-mail]   WA6CRE    Gold Coast Sun Users   Vta-SB-SLO DECUS  gnu +
 +  Opinions, MINE, NOT Uncle Sam_s | b-news postmaster xntp dns  WAFFLE  +

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

Date: 22 Apr 91 23:47:45 GMT
From: agate!stew.ssl.berkeley.edu![e-mail]  (Eric J. Korpela)
Subject: Re: Transportation Tethers

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Glenn A. Serre) writes:
>
>Another use for tethers:  If you are orbiting in a planet's magnetic field,
>you can transform your orbital velocity into electric power.  Using this
>technique, you can get >100% chemical efficiency from the propellents you
>bring up for station-keeping (some of the kinetic energy of the propellent
>gets converted to electricty).  Also, you can reverse the effect and use
>electric power for propulsion.

Let's violate the laws of physics while we're at it.  The using the
tether to generate electricity doesn't get you something for nothing.
The energy has to come from somewhere.  That somewhere is the kinetic
energy of the space station.  Using a tether to generate electricity
causes an additional drag on the space station and thereby increases
the station's use of propellant.

This, of course, means that using this electrical energy to propel
the space station doesn't work either, as efficiency for conversion
of kinetic energy to potential energy is not 100% efficient.

    /\                      [e-mail]              Internet
   /__\  rioch              BKYAST::KORPELA    42215::KORPELA     DecNet
  /    \   of Chaos         korpela%bkyast@ucbjade                Bitnet
 (_____________________     <aka Eric Korpela>

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

Date: 22 Apr 91 20:27:15 GMT
From: dog.ee.lbl.gov!hellgate.utah.edu!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!cunews!mitel!testeng1![e-mail]  (Chris Stanfield)
Subject: R100/101 (was Re: comsat cancellations and lawsuits)

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Fraering Philip) writes:
>I suggest everyone here read something on the R100 and the R101. I am
>continually struck by the resemblance to a _lot_ of things going on in
>the space program today.

A good book to start with would be "Slide Rule" by Neville Shute.
Shute, whose real name was Neville Norway, was an aeronautical
engineer before he became a novelist. He was Chief Engineer on the
R100, and flew on most of the test flights, including the
transatlantic proving flight. "Slide Rule is his autobiography, and
includes extensive information on the R100 and the R101. While he may
not be entirely unbiased, he was there, and much of what he states is
verifiable from other sources. It is also a very interesting book to
read in any case.

Chris Stanfield, Mitel Corporation: E-mail to:- uunet!mitel!testeng1!stanfiel
[phone] Ext.4960
We do not inherit the world from our parents - we borrow it from our children.

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

Date: 21 Apr 91 23:40:44 GMT
From: eru!hagbard!sunic!mcsun!ukc!uos-ee!moria.ee.surrey.ac.uk![e-mail]  (Ata Etemadi)
Subject: RUSSIAN SCIENCE: PLEASE HELP !!!

Dear Colleagues

In this message I will try to be brief and to the point.
If interested, please contact me for further information.

Would you be willing to help Russian space scientists ?
The problem is one of shortage of computing facilities.
There is very little capital available. Mostly what is
needed is hardware for analysing the years of wonderful
spacecraft data just gathering dust.

I am asking for contributions of hardware and/or software
of any type, age or description. Your old terminals, your
PC's gathering dust in the basement, any old tape drives,
any micros or minis of whatever make, in short anything
that works but you no longer need, or use. On the S/W
front the same things apply. All contributions are welcome.

We have managed to overcome the problem of delivering the
items to the scientists. When I know what maybe on offer I
can check further about export licences etc.. Also its
possible there may be funds for obtaining any cheap
second-hand equipment on offer. Arrangements maybe made for
sharing the spacecraft data in return.

PLEASE HELP!! Just imagine the data from the fleet which
met Halley.


    regards

        Dr A. Etemadi

===============================================================================
Dr. A. Etemadi,                           | Phone: [phone] Ext. 2311
V.S.S.P. Group,                           | Fax  : [phone]
Dept. of Electronic and Electrical Eng.,  | Email:
University of Surrey,                     |   Janet: [e-mail]
Guildford,                                |          [e-mail]
Surrey GU2 5XH                            |   SPAN : ata@mssl
United Kingdom                            |          ata@msslc
===============================================================================

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

End of SPACE Digest V13 #445
*******************