Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/pc/text/spacedig/v12_5/v12_523.txt

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Subject: SPACE Digest V12 #523

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 12 : Issue 523

Today's Topics:
              Magellan Update - 11/01/90
             Pioneer 11 Update - 11/01/90
           Payload Status for 10/31/90 (Forwarded)
              Galileo Update - 11/01/90
                 Re: Apollo 6
                 Re: Apollo 6
           SUMMARY: Looking for NASA videos

Administrivia:

    Submissions to the SPACE Digest/sci.space should be mailed to
  [e-mail].  Other mail, esp. [un]subscription notices,
  should be sent to [e-mail], or, if urgent, to
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Date: 1 Nov 90 22:27:08 GMT
From: usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Subject: Magellan Update - 11/01/90


                    MAGELLAN STATUS REPORT
                      November 1, 1990

     The Magellan spacecraft continues to send engineering telemetry at both
S and X-band, indicating that it is performing nominally in its Superior
Conjunction mode with one STARCAL (star calibration) and two DESATS
(desaturations) each day.  No spacecraft command activity is planned for today.

     The Sun-Earth-Magellan angle will be .87 degree at Superior Conjunction
which occurs at 5:00 pm PST today.  The radar sensor has continued to operate
normally in the standby mode.  The earliest date that mapping will resume is
November 7.

     Only one standard image swath was produced in the past 24 hours due to
the lack of new SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) experiment data records.  The
Image Data Processing Team completed 8 full resolution mosaics, called
engineering F-MIDRs.  These are part of a 13 mosaic set from which ten images
will be selected for recording on compact disks.  The disks will be
distributed to scientists in various parts of the country for further analysis
of Venus surface features.
      ___    _____     ___
     /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|
     | | | |  __ \ /| | | |      Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
  ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |___   Jet Propulsion Lab | [e-mail]
 /___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /|  M/S 301-355        |
 |_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/   Pasadena, CA 91109 |

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

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Date: 2 Nov 90 00:38:09 GMT
From: usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA.
Subject: Pioneer 11 Update - 11/01/90
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                            Pioneer 11 Update
                            November 1, 1990

     The Pioneer project at Ames Research Center cancelled the Pioneer 11
spacecraft's "State of Emergency" for DSN (Deep Space Network) service on
October 29.  The following is an outline of what happened and the present
status of the spacecraft.

     Downlink communications failed on October 7, 1990, beginning with noise
and worsening to inability to lock on downlink in a matter of a few minutes
during a track of one-way signal (ie: with no uplink a 9 hour RTLT (round
trip light time) earlier).   Subsequent tracks permitted only sporadic bits of
data which indicated nonresponsiveness to uplink commands and showed no reason
for the failure mode.  Emergency priority was necessary to provide for
round-trip scheduling of high power uplink with "real-time" monitoring of
effects of attempts at correction, so a spacecraft emergency was declared on
October 10.  A series of trials has resulted in recovery of an operable
condition and has disclosed the following interpretation of the problem.

     Receiver-B, connected to the high gain antenna on the spacecraft, has
developed an internal noise source.  That source renders its receiver (B)
inoperative in terms of receiving and decoding commands, and it intermittently
signals the transponder and the receiver antenna switch logic that Receiver-B
is operating.  The noise also disrupted the down link via the transponder, as
shown when the coherent mode was eventually commanded off.  Furthermore, that
noise is suspected as the source of signal which upset the logic in Receiver-A.
Receiver-A is connected to the medium gain antenna, making it slightly beyond
the the DSN's high power uplink according to link budget.  However, Receiver-A
has been successfully commanded several times after transmitting a logic reset
code never previously used; and uplink of 200 KW or more appears successful at
its present distance.  The received signal strength is about 5 dB below
specification sensitivity of the spacecraft.  The switch to reverse antenna
connections to place Receiver-A on the spacecraft's high gain antenna has not
responded to 5 attempts.

     The current status of Pioneer 11 is that it is operable only with 200 KW
(to be increased with distance) and without coherent signal.  Receiver-A
developed a less troublesome noise in its coherent mode in 1983.  Measurement
of spin axis orientation is being attempted, and might be a continuing
difficulty.  Further investigation and possible attempts to improve
configuration will be made in the coming weeks.

     Ames hops to complete related activities under normal scheduling, but
subject to regular use of high powered uplink from 70 meter stations and to
possible infrequent additional support for measuring orientation.
      ___    _____     ___
     /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|
     | | | |  __ \ /| | | |      Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
  ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |___   Jet Propulsion Lab | [e-mail]
 /___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /|  M/S 301-355        |
 |_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/   Pasadena, CA 91109 |

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

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Date: 1 Nov 90 16:57:41 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Subject: Payload Status for 10/31/90 (Forwarded)
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    Daily Status/KSC Payload Management and Operations 10-31-90


    - STS-35 ASTRO-1/BBXRT (at Pad-B)

    Experiment monitoring continues.

    - STS-39 AFP-675/IBSS/STP-01 (at CCAFS)

    CITE preps continue.

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

    Power on experiment and subsystem checks will
    continue today along with MVAK training.

    - STS-37 GRO (at PHSF)

    Functional testing continues.

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

    Module and experiment staging will continue today.

    - STS-45 Atlas-1 (at O&C)

    Experiment and pallet staging continue.

    - STS-46 TSS-1 (at O&C)

    Power on active thermal control systems checks
    continue.

    - STS-47 Spacelab-J (at O&C)

    Rack staging continues.

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

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Date: 1 Nov 90 19:09:51 GMT
From: usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA.
Subject: Galileo Update - 11/01/90
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                     GALILEO MISSION STATUS
                        November 1, 1990

     The Galileo spacecraft is now 19.4 million miles from Earth,
and more than 107 million miles from the Sun. Its speed in orbit
around the Sun is 56,580 mph, and the round-trip communication
time to Earth is just under 3 1/2 minutes.

     Spacecraft health and mission performance continue to be
excellent.  Last Friday, October 26, the spacecraft performed a
scheduled turn to keep its delicate equipment shaded from solar heating;
today it conducts a scheduled propulsion subsystem maintenance
activity to clean out the propellant plumbing.  Also today the
protective sunshade is being retracted from the plasma instrument
in preparation for its Earth observations.

     Tuesday and Wednesday the Orbiter Engineering Team
completed a real-time simulation of parts of the Earth encounter
sequence on the Galileo test bed.  This test system includes
breadboard or flight-hardware versions of the command and data
subsystem, attitude and articulation control, data storage,
imaging electronics, and parts of the power distribution and
cabling, as well as ground support equipment.  Because of time
limitations, only certain key activities such as sun occultation,
antenna transfer, and selected science observations were actually run.
Data from the simulation were received, stored, and analyzed in the
same manner as flight data.  Earlier, the Sequence Team
tested other parts of the sequence on their simulator, which
includes a version of the command and data subsystem.
      ___    _____     ___
     /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|
     | | | |  __ \ /| | | |      Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
  ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |___   Jet Propulsion Lab | [e-mail]
 /___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /|  M/S 301-355        |
 |_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/   Pasadena, CA 91109 |

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

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Date: 1 Nov 90 19:41:54 GMT
From: uokmax![e-mail]  (Jonathan A Bishop)
Organization: Engineering Computer Network, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK
Subject: Re: Apollo 6
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[e-mail] (Abe Lockman) writes:

>Also I found the may 1979 smithsonian article and it talks
>about skylab.  It says the skylab was an S-IVB with the ATM
>(Converted MOL)  and it was launched on an S-2.

>    So did they short stack an Saturn 5, just 1st and 2nd
>stages, and then use teh skylab to top the stack?

>maybe the article just used screw ball terminology.  I was just
>wondering what happened to the third stage.

     Yes.  The Saturn V which launched Skylab had only two stages.  The
Orbital Workshop was a converted third stage, so mating was not a significant
problem.

--
[e-mail]

"Ground Control to Major Tom: Your circuit's dead; there's something wrong.
Can you hear me, Major Tom?" -- David Bowie

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

Date: 2 Nov 90 04:26:28 GMT
From: sdd.hp.com!wuarchive!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Apollo 6

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Abe Lockman) writes:
>    So was this flight in trouble?,  Did the robust design
>of the S5 save it?  what modifications resulted form lessons
>learned?

Apollo 6 was the second unmanned Saturn V test.  It had pogo oscillations
in the first (not second) stage, a double engine failure in the second
stage, and the failure of the third (not fourth) stage's engine to relight
on command.

The pogo was not particularly serious, and was considered a common problem
of new rockets.  A minor change in the first stage plumbing, adding "shock
absorbers" (so to speak) in the oxidizer feed lines, cleared it up.

One of the second-stage failures and the third-stage failure were traced
to the same cause:  thermal-expansion bellows in a minor hydrogen line
that vibrated to destruction.  This had been masked during ground tests
by condensation of liquid air on the hydrogen plumbing, which damped
the vibration.  The fix was to allow for thermal expansion by putting some
bends in the line, and eliminate the bellows.

The second engine failure in the second stage was a wiring error that sent
the "shut down" command for the failing engine to its neighbor instead.

The Saturn V sort of limped into orbit after the double second-stage failure,
although with a trajectory rather different than originally planned.  This
was creditable performance, since a double failure had been thought likely
to result in an abort.

>    So did they short stack an Saturn 5, just 1st and 2nd
>stages, and then use teh skylab to top the stack?

Precisely.

>wondering what happened to the third stage.

It never flew.
--
"I don't *want* to be normal!"         | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
"Not to worry."                        |  [e-mail]   utzoo!henry

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

Date: 24 Oct 90 20:47:51 GMT
From: sei!taos.cert.sei.cmu.edu![e-mail]  (Paul Holbrook)
Subject: SUMMARY: Looking for NASA videos

I sent out a query at the end of September looking for sources of NASA
videotape of space shuttle missions and the like.  Here are the
responses I received.

My thanks to those who responded.

   Paul Holbrook
   SEI/CMU  [e-mail]

------- Forwarded Messages

From: mdivax1![e-mail] (John Sture)
Organization: Mobile Data International, Richmond, B.C., Canada

I bought a NASA video at the local Fred Meyer in Bellingham, Wa. that
gives about an hour history of NASA including space and aircraft
triumphs, milestones and general hoopla that I still find very
interesting.  Cost $19 and the kids are still subjected to it on a
bimonthly basis.  I also recorded a PBS 4 hour documentary narrated
by Martin Sheen that is priceless, and delves in much detail into areas
like Apollo.  Contact Public Broadcasting Services to get more info.

John Sture - a Motorolian sortof...

------- Message 2

From: [e-mail] (Tony Farnham)
To: [e-mail]

A few good general purpose tapes are:

NOVA: 25 YEARS IN SPACE.    This was a NOVA episode that should
be out on tape now.  It is a well done collection of scenes that
has been put together with no narration.  Only the actual sounds
of the action that is taking place.  It spans Mercury through
the shuttle. Very good.

THE SPACE MOVIE:  This is a collection of scenes that was put
together for the 10th anniversary of Apollo 11.  The scenes
show the story of a mission to the moon, but films of all the
missions are put together, so someone who didn't know better
would say that Apollo 11 had a moonbuggy etc.  Great for
images though.

CONQUEST:     Conquest is a 2-tape set, and Spaceflight was
 and        a 4-part PBS series that is now available on
SPACE FLIGHT:    tape.  Both are about the history of Space
        exploration.  Well done as histories.
From: Denise DiFilippo <[e-mail]>

I don't own any of them, so can't tell you what is on them but...
I know that last time I was through the visitor center at JSC, I saw
video tapes with titles like "APPOLLO". Its just across the street from
work, so if you are willing to buy blind, I'd be glad to go over and
get a title & price list for you. I did once ask the clerk what was on
the tapes, but she didn't know; and the text on the outside wasn't
very informative either. I know this isn't *much* help. I hope you
get some more definite responses.
                    Denise DiFilippo
                    [e-mail]

------- Message 3

From: [e-mail]

    Radio Shack had a couple Space related videos out
for the Christmas season a couple years back, I don't know
is they still carry them.  I believe they are only about 30
mins long and sound just like what your're looking for.  There
is one on the Apollo mission with lots of interesting pictures,
another is on space in general.  Both of which I use as a
motivational aid when I see things such as Space budget cuts.
A good one I belive produced by NASA called Seven Days in Space
is probably a little dry for a youngster but is very intense in
the space shuttle area.    Good-Luck!    Jay

[e-mail]
       ...ncar!boulder!ccncsu!longs.lance.colostate.edu!jn190068

  ^  ^
  |/\|
  |  |  "Save the earth, develop space."  -  Bumper Sticker
  /  \
  ----
  |  |

------- End of Forwarded Messages

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

End of SPACE Digest V12 #523
*******************