Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/pc/text/spacedig/v12_6/v12_652.txt

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Subject: SPACE Digest V12 #652

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 12 : Issue 652

Today's Topics:
          WUPPE Status for 12/08/90 [PM] (Forwarded)
              Re: Another Russian first
         Soviets sell Mir flight to Americans
      Astro-1 Status for 12/08/90 [1130 CST] (Forwarded)
      Astro-1 Status for 12/09/90 [1252 CST] (Forwarded)
      Astro-1 Status for 12/08/90 [2245 CST] (Forwarded)
          Re: Recent DoD Space System Cost Data ...
      Astro-1 Status for 12/08/90 [0940 CST] (Forwarded)

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
             [e-mail]

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

Date: 9 Dec 90 19:32:50 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: WUPPE Status for 12/08/90 [PM] (Forwarded)


         WUPPE STATUS REPORT NO. 14
         PM, Saturday, Dec. 8, 1990
         Spacelab Mission Control Center
         Marshall Space Flight Center,
         Huntsville, AL


         The WUPPE science team today made eight observations using the
         Wisconsin telescope aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia, including
         observations of two WUPPE high priority targets.

         THe WUPPE primaries observed were HD 62542, a star used by WUPPE to
         probe the interstellar medium; and Alpha Camelopardalis, another star
         used by WUPPE ;to probe the clouds of gas and dust in interstellar
         space.

         HD 62542 is a star located in the direction of Gum Nebula in the
         southern hemisphere and was used by WUPPE like a flashlight to shine
         through a region of the interstellar medium greatly affected by
         ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds from nearby hot stars.
         WUPPE's observations should help tell astronomers how the dust in this
         region is affected by such phenomena.

         "Alpha Cam" also was used by WUPPE to illuminate the interstellar
         medium today.  This is the third time this object has been observed by
         WUPPE during the Astro mission.  One of the goals of today's
         observations was to determine the signal to noise ratio for the WUPPE
         instrument.

         WUPPE continues to perform well.  Ground command operations are also
         working well.

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

Date: 8 Dec 90 15:12:04 GMT
From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!pitt!nss![e-mail]  (Bev Freed)
Subject: Re: Another Russian first

As for first passengers -- Sultan Salman Abdul Azziz Al Sa'ud is
a good candidate for that category.  The first Saudi astronaut (on
51-G), and his country/company/family (hard to tell the difference)
paid his way.  Patrick Baudry (France) was on the same flight.


--- Opus-CBCS 1.14
 * Origin: NSS BBS - Ad Astra! [phone] *HST* (1:129/104.0)
--
Bev Freed - via FidoNet node 1:129/104
UUCP: ...!pitt!nss!freed
INTERNET: [e-mail]

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

Date: 10 Dec 90 05:05:19 GMT
From: rex!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!lavaca.uh.edu!jetson.uh.edu![e-mail]
Subject: Soviets sell Mir flight to Americans

The electronic publication SPACE FAX DAILY reported Friday, Dec. 7, that:

"a flight to MIR had been sold to an american buyer through
 SPACE COMMERCE CORPORATION.  More details available on Monday."

First Japanese, then British, and now American!  I guess the soviets
ARE cornering the commercial spaceflight market.  Next aboard for
CLUB MIR???

Has anyone else heard this one yet?  Any ideas?  Maybe SPACE FAX
will tell who it is and what's going on Monday, or at least soon.

                              Ad Astra,  (Ad Mir?,)

                                    Alvin Carley
              expires dec 15 ==>    [e-mail]
              as of dec 15  ===>    [e-mail]   (my name in subject)

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

Date: 9 Dec 90 19:28:45 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Astro-1 Status for 12/08/90 [1130 CST] (Forwarded)


      Astro 1 Mission Report #36
      11:30 a.m. CST, December 8, 1990
      6/10:40 MET
      Spacelab Mission Operations Control
      Marshall Space Flight Center


      "Oh my God, this is great data!" shouted Wisconsin X-ray Telescope
      Project Scientist Karen Bjorkman.  "This is beautiful!"  Bjorkman
      was referring to target NGC 1068, a Serfert galaxy acquired by all
      the ultraviolet instruments at approximately 2:45 a.m. CST.

      "Something is producing all kinds of hot gas down in the middle of
      that galaxy," said Bjorkman, "and we're getting great data on it.
      This may be evidence for a black hole.  You never see a black hole
      directly.  So we are looking for clues.  We're playing Sherlock
      Holmes with the universe."

      When asked what he most wanted the public to know about the mission,
      Alternate Payload Specialist John David Bartoe was quick to answer:
      "If they (the public) could just see the faces of the scientists
      right now.  We're talking about the people who really want the data
      from the flight.  All you have to do is look into their eyes, and
      you know the mission is a huge success!"

      Astro Mission Manager Jack Jones summarized the reason behind this
      success:  "What we've found with our new mode of operation is that
      the Astro payload has taken on a new personality.  It has become
      very friendly toward us, and we have found a way to get very
      friendly with it.  We are really maximizing our science now!"

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

Date: 9 Dec 90 23:53:19 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Astro-1 Status for 12/09/90 [1252 CST] (Forwarded)


      Astro 1 Mission Report #40
      12:52 p.m. CST, December 9, 1990
      7/12:02 MET
      Spacelab Mission Operations Control
      Marshall Space Flight Center

      Astro Deputy Mission Scientist Gene Urban reported at this morning's
      press briefing that efficiency of the "ground-to-space and
      man-in-the-loop control operation" had risen quite rapidly.  The
      observations reported included both ultraviolet and X-ray targets.
      "We are doing exactly what we expected and hoped when we started
      these new observations," Urban stated.

      Greg Madejski,  of the Broad Band X-Ray Telescope team, reported
      that they had collected some "fantastic" X-ray data.  "When I came
      in for my shift, I got a little birthday gift from my friends, a
      spectrum of an object that is really, really wonderful to observe,"
      he said.  Madejski explained that the spectrum indicated that Parkes
      2155-304, an active galaxy known as a BL-Lac object, probably
      contains a jet of very energetic, hot material directed toward us.
      Other X-ray observations included Seyfert II objects which provided
      indirect evidence of an accretion disk surrounding a very massive
      black hole and clear spectra of the binary X-ray source (or pulsar)
      Centaurus X-3, which continued to be observed even after the orbiter
      entered the South Atlantic Anomaly.  "We are really excited,"
      concluded Madejski.  "Our instrument is performing even better than
      we expected."

      Mario Magalhaes, Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment
      project scientist, was equally enthusiastic.  "When you design and
      build an instrument, you plan for a certain performance level; then
      actually it is 95, 90 percent of what you expected--if you've
      designed your instrument well.  WUPPE has been a little more
      sensitive, in fact, than we expected it to be."  He reported that
      overnight the team had observed 100 percent of the time it was
      supposed to observe.  Accomplished during the preceding hours were
      an important calibration procedure, a study of interstellar dust in
      the Milky Way galaxy, a white dwarf star, a quasar, and the Seyfert
      galaxy also observed by the X-ray team.  The latter, NGC 1068, was
      described by Magalhaes as the most highly polarized object that the
      Wisconsin telescope has measured thus far.  "I'm really amazed.
      It's an impressive amount of data that's been collected, thanks
      again to this collective work of the people on the ground...and ...
      to that very special and important link which is the Payload
      Specialist.  All is going very, very well for WUPPE and for
      science."

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

Date: 9 Dec 90 19:34:00 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Astro-1 Status for 12/08/90 [2245 CST] (Forwarded)


      Astro 1 Mission Report #38
      10:45 p.m. CST, December 8, 1990
      6/21:57 MET
      Spacelab Mission Operations Control
      Marshall Space Flight Center

      Despite the possibility of a mission shortened by one day due to
      blockage in the Shuttle's Waste Water Ejection System, the Astro-1
      observatory continued with a busy schedule of science collecting
      throughout the day. The Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope, the
      Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope, Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo
      Polarimeter and Broad Band X-Ray Telescope were able to acquire
      excellent data and spectral images from a number of stars, galaxies
      and other stellar objects observed today.

      Earlier, Columbia's crew detected the blockage in the Waste Water
      Ejection System during a routine water dump resulting in the loss
      capability to empty the Waste Water Storage Tank. Ground crews are
      currently searching for ways to troubleshoot this situation.

      "The instruments are doing excellently," smiled Mission Scientist
      Ted Gull during the evening shift summary briefing at Spacelab
      Mission Operations Control in Huntsville, Alabama. "The trends show
      that more observations are being done with all four instruments not
      only in getting observations," continued Gull, "but increasing in
      their efficiency."

      Gull explained the busy and complex process of the coordinated
      air-to-ground based activity which is required for each Astro-1
      science activity. First, the crew directs the orbiter to move in
      different attitudes according to each target. Next, the Johnson
      Space Flight Center issues commands to the ultraviolet telescope's
      Instrument Pointing System aboard Columbia. At the same time, the
      Broad Band X-Ray Telescope's Two-Axis Pointing System receives
      target coordinates from the Goddard Space Flight Center. The
      instruments are operated individually by the science teams at the
      Spacelab Mission Operations Control. Finally, the crew completes
      final adjustments needed for accurate instrument tracking.

      Among the science highlights reported today by the mission science
      teams included HUT's observation of 3218 UX Ursae Majoris, a binary
      system located in Ursa Major, the Big Dipper during a rare eclipse;
      A revisit by WUPPE to the O-type supergiant star, Alpha
      Camelopardalis; and UIT's recorded image of NGC 891, an edge-on
      galaxy that possesses a "halo" of radio emissions. The BBXRT
      successfully collected X-ray data from a variety of targets,
      including the newly discovered "Ginga Pulsar," 0836-42, detected two
      weeks ago by a Japanese satellite.

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

Date: 10 Dec 90 17:37:44 GMT
From: isis![e-mail]  (Glenn A. Serre)
Subject: Re: Recent DoD Space System Cost Data ...

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Wales Larrison) writes:
>   According to my sources at USAF Space Division, it was originally
>contracted under a "commercial" contract.  However, they claim by
>the time the Martin negotiators got done with it, the only risk-
>taking commercial provisions left are those with a benefit to
>Martin...[Well, that's their opinion from one side of the table...]

I read a paper a while ago (I can't remember the title) that blamed Congress
for not allowing a more "commercial" procurement.

>USAF Space Command, and the total system cost for Titan-IV
>procurement is carried in 1 budget line under the Titan-IV program
>office.  (And I believe each SPO is reponsible for procuring their
>own program's upper stages...) Is GD a sub to MMC on the Titan-IV?

1) GDSS is a sub to MMC, the same as the SRM subs.

2) IUS is definitely procured on a different contract from the Titan IV.

3) IUS was originally procured not for use on Titan IV, but on the shuttle(?).

4) The cost of the Centaur subcontract and the number of Centaurs being
built is given in the latest Aviation Leak (but you'll have to look it up, I
don't remember).

5) Titan IV was originally just 10 Titan IV/Centaurs with no IUS or No Upper
Stage Missions.

>program satellites. [Assumption:  Centaur places a much larger
>payload on orbit.  Larger payloads are a speculative characteristic
>of some national security payloads, falling into a more secret
>category.]  Following this chain of speculation, IUS costs are

Centaur definitely places a larger payload into GSO (and at a much lower cost,
if the $152e6 cost for an IUS is correct).

>--
>Wales Larrison
>Internet: [e-mail]
>Compuserve: >internet:[e-mail]
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------

In summary, in consideration of the above, I definitely think that the
$227e6/Titan cost for the Titan IV program includes Centaur costs while IUS
costs are separate.  Also,

6) The SPOs don't procure the Centaurs separatly.  (Satellite SPOs , that is)

More ramblings from:

--

--Glenn Serre           | kicked off CU's computer 'cause I'm not taking
[e-mail]   | a night class this term :-)

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

Date: 9 Dec 90 19:26:31 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Astro-1 Status for 12/08/90 [0940 CST] (Forwarded)


      Astro 1 Mission Report #35
      09:40 a.m. CST, December 8, 1990
      6/08:50 MET
      Spacelab Mission Operations Control
      Marshall Space Flight Center


      "This was a good night for the Broad Band X-ray Telescope!" said
      Francis Marshall, co-investigator for the BBXRT team.  "We are
      expecting to release great scientific data over the next couple of
      days."

      The following is a list and description of the wide variety of
      targets successfully acquired by the X-ray telescope over the last
      shift:

      Supergiants

      Zeta Puppis.  One of the largest and brightest stars in the
      Milky Way, this star is about 60,000 times brighter than the Sun.


      AO Stars

      EV Lacertae.  This red dwarf star in the constellation Lacerta is
      known for its frequent and unusually long flare acitivity.  Some of
      this activity may be related to a possible Jupiter-sized planetary
     companion.


      Binary and Multiple Star Systems

      HO 538.  The high temperatures generated by gases being pulled
      toward the companion star in this cataclysmic binary system produces
      X-rays.  Ultraviolet radiation is emitted from the primary star.


      Low-Mass X-Ray Binaries

      LMC-X1.  This binary system is composed of a companion star and a
      neutron star so dense, a teaspoonful weighs a billion tons.


      High-Mass X-ray Binaries

      Vela-X-1.  This binary system is made up of a hot supergiant and a
      pulsar with an orbital period of about 9 days.  Extremely
      high-energy radiation in this system shows fluorescence in ionized
      iron.


      Supernova Remnants

      N 132D/0525-69.  This young (1,000-year-old) supernova remnant in
      the Large Magellanic Cloud has a mass estimated to equal 20 suns.

      SN 1987A/LMC.  This fascinating supernova, first seen February 24,
      1987, was the first supernova visible to the naked eye since the
      year 1604.  Located 170,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic
      Cloud, it was also the first supernova resulting from a star that
      has been previously identified.


      Spiral Galaxies

      NGC 253.  This starburst galaxy has high-rate star formation,
      causing a much higher emission of infrared than the visible light.
      It is located near the Milky Way in the Sculptor constellation.


      Seyfert 1 Galaxies

      NGC 4151.  The brightest Seyfert galaxy known, unlike other galaxies
      in this classification, NGC 4151 emits blue and ultraviolet light.
      This may indicate new star formation in its arms.


      Seyfert 2 Galaxies

      Markarian 3.  Believed to contain a black hole, this turbulent
      galaxy emits intense radio waves from its center.


      Spiral-Poor Clusters

      Abell 2256.  This dense, hot cluster has both spiral and elliptical
      galaxies.


      Spiral-Rich Clusters

      CL-3C295.  As bright as some quasars, this is the most powerful
      radio galaxy known.


      X-ray Selected Clusters

      Abell 262.  This cluster of galaxies, rich in spirals, is a bright
      X-ray source.  X-ray observations confirm the presence of hot, dense
      gas in its center.

      Abell 426.  Having a strong cooling flow, this cluster of galaxies
      is centered on the constellation Perseus.

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

End of SPACE Digest V12 #652
*******************