Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V09_6/V9_607.TXT

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Subject: SPACE Digest V9 #607

SPACE Digest                                      Volume 9 : Issue 607

Today's Topics:
      New Soviet mission date set for Mir space station
             SPACE ACTIVIST ALERT
        Re: What is the Solar Impact Mission?
            Re: Questions about Apollo 11
             Proposed new ELAS newsgroup
           CNN reports on Voyager Neptune encounter
             Re: The Russians are coming!
            Re: Weather newsgroup?
           Voyager Status for 08/02/89 (Forwarded)
     Re: The Sociology of Space Inhabitants (Re: Eggs & baskets)
              Re: Single Source Failures
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Aug 89 00:27:20 EDT
From: Glenn Chapman <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail], [e-mail],
        [e-mail]
Subject: New Soviet mission date set for Mir space station

     The Soviet Union has announced on short wave (Aug. 15) that the new
manned space flight to the Mir/Kvant space complex will occur on Sept. 6th.
Mir has been unmanned for the past 110 days since it was placed in the
automatic mode after Soyuz TM-7 left on Apr. 27.
     When the new Soyuz TM-8 crew arrives its first task will be to revive
Mir.  This will be complicated by the power system failure which
contributed to the decision to abandon the station.  At that time TV Soviet
broadcasts stated the solar cells were continuing to put out the power but
the output of the batteries was declining, which suggests a system short.  No
Russian statement on this problem has appeared in the meantime.  Most
commentators in the West are focusing on economics as the reason behind this
action.
     Certainly one of the difficulties was the failure to get the expansion
modules ready for addition to Mir.  These are about 10-20 Tonne cylinders
which would first dock to the front or ball axial docking port of Mir.  Then
they will be transferred to one of the four side ports using a robot arm on
the module itself.  This inserts a cone into one of two sockets on the side of
the ball section.  The same broadcast stated that the first module would
arrive in October, while the second one would come in February '90.  Note that
later "star" module contains a docking port to allow their shuttle Buran to
dock to Mir.  A larger air lock will be added with these modules, along with a
Manned Maneuvering Unite (MMU) type system for more extensive space walk work.
     This announcement of the Mir's remanning has generated surprisingly
strong western press coverage this morning, with both the New York Times and
the Wall Street Journal at covering it.  Let us see how much publicity the
USSR gives the remanning.  That will give a clue to the support the Soviet
program is getting.
     Sorry that I have not been posting my regular reports on the Russian
program these past few months but our VAX has been having communications
problems with the rest of the world (it is now better).  I will post some
older info in the next few days to cover that period.

                                                  Glenn Chapman
                                                  MIT Lincoln Lab
                                                  [e-mail]

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

Date: 3 Aug 89 06:34:12 GMT
From: agate![e-mail]  (William Baxter)
Subject: SPACE ACTIVIST ALERT


Call the offices of Representatives Harold L. Volkmer (D-MO,202/225-2956)
and Norman Y.  Mineta (D-CA, 202/225-2631).  Ask them, as member of the
Space Science and Applications Subcommittee, to request hearings on
HR2674 a soon as possible.

Going to see your own congressman with a copy of HR2674 would help even
more.  If you need a copy of the bill, send me email.

William Baxter

ARPA: web@{garnet,brahms,math}.Berkeley.EDU
UUCP: {sun,dual,decwrl,decvax,hplabs,...}!ucbvax!garnet!web

CALL YOUR CONGRESSMAN NOW AND SCREAM AT HIM UNTIL HE UNDERSTANDS THAT
THE CDSF IS NOT A SPACE STATION.

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

Date: 4 Aug 89 02:45:51 GMT
From: jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: What is the Solar Impact Mission?

In article <24.Jul.89.09:32:[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
>OK, What is the "Solar Impact Mission"  and why is it so hard to
>hit the Sun? After all we have already had close ups of Mercury.

I don't particularly remember hearing about this one, but almost certainly
it's a mission to go straight down into the Sun, doing some observations on
the way.  The hard part is that to do it, you have to kill *all* Earth's
orbital velocity, which is about 50 km/s.  A Saturn V could have dropped a
couple of hundred kg into the Sun, as I recall.  The shuttle, forget it,
unless you use in-orbit assembly.  A beefed-up Energia with about four
upper stages could probably put a modest probe into the Sun.  Advanced
propulsion technologies would really help.

The Mercury flyby was done with a Venus gravity assist.  But Mercury is
still a long way out from the Sun, and the last few million km are the
really hard ones, deep in that monstrous gravitational field.
--
1961-1969: 8 years of Apollo.  |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
1969-1989: 20 years of nothing.| uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry [e-mail]

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

Date: 1 Aug 89 12:35:49 GMT
From: b.gp.cs.cmu.edu![e-mail]
Subject: Re: Questions about Apollo 11

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] wrote:
}it had more than its share of inflight catastrophic self disassemblies. The piece that is
                               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
You've been listening to NASA too long....
--
UUCP: {ucbvax,harvard}!cs.cmu.edu!ralf -=-=-=-=- Voice: [phone] (school)
ARPA: [e-mail]  BIT: ralf%cs.cmu.edu@CMUCCVMA  FIDO: Ralf Brown 1:129/46
FAX: available on request                      Disclaimer? I claimed something?
"I don't want to sound like I'm avoiding answering your question; I just want
to avoid answering your question."  -- Alan Demers

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

Date: 3 Aug 89 14:47:39 GMT
From: mailrus!uflorida!beach.cis.ufl.edu![e-mail]  (Ray Seyfarth)
Subject: Proposed new ELAS newsgroup


    I want to know if there are other ELAS users on the net who would
like to have a newsgroup devoted to ELAS.  If you aren't aware of ELAS,
it is a remote sensing software system developed by NASA.  I prefer
that the ELAS group be unmoderated and would like to get started soon.
The ELAS newsgroup could serve a valuable service to the ELAS users
on the net.

    If you would like to start an ELAS newsgroup, please email to me or
post to "news.groups".  Then you should subscribe to news.groups and
watch for a call for a vote.  I've never tried to start a newsgroup and
I'm not sure of the protocol required, but I think a formal vote is
required.  I'm sure someone will inform me of the requirements soon.

    Later.
--
In Real Life:        UUCP: {gatech|mailrus}!uflorida!beach.cis.ufl.edu!brs
Ray Seyfarth        Internet: [e-mail]
University of Florida    "Ninety percent of life is just showing up." Woody Allen

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

Date: 3 Aug 89 21:43:43 GMT
From: cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx![e-mail]  (Steve Poole)
Subject: CNN reports on Voyager Neptune encounter


CNN is running reports on the Voyager 2 Neptune encounter
every weeknight.  They say the reports run at 8 and 10 pm
Eastern time.  But they don't actually run the reports on the
hour.  Sometimes not even close.  The first report airs
anywhere from 8 to 9, and the second anywhere from 10 to 11.

The best thing about these reports is the images.  Last night
they showed a rotation movie.  You could see the storm that
looks like Jupiter's Red Spot, and a smaller storm.

--
Steve Poole
ARPA: [e-mail]
UUCP: {ames,angband,exodus,gatech,harvard,mordor,rutgers,utah-cs}!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!poole

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

Date: 2 Aug 89 13:51:22 GMT
From: mcdchg!illusion![e-mail]  (Marcus Hall)
Subject: Re: The Russians are coming!

In article <58.M02d=[e-mail]> [e-mail] (T.S. Reddy) writes:
>    TO NORTH AMERICA AT LEAST!
>    I saw an ad in this week's "Aviation Week" that the Soviets will be there
>with the Mig-29 and other planes at an airshow in British Columbia, Canada.
>The AN-225 is also a possibility.
>    The show will be around August 8th.
>    Check out the magazine!

The Russians are already here!!

There was an An-124 on display at the EAA Fly-in in Oshkosh Wisconsin this
past weekend.  No Russian fighters there, just the cargo plane.  It was
sitting there with its nose opened up and they were letting people walk up
the loading ramp into the plane, relatively unsupervised.  It was odd
seing switch panels and instuctions written in Russian, it just didn't look
``real''.  It really makes one think about how big the An-225 must be!

Later on the day I was there, an SR-71 flew in (also REALLY impressive!) and
they parked it facing the An-124.  Interesting face-off.  Probably the closest
that a russian plane has ever gotten to a blackbird!

marcus hall

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

Date: 3 Aug 89 12:01:57 GMT
From: uvm-gen![e-mail]  (Steve Cavrak,Waterman 113,656-1483,)
Subject: Re: Weather newsgroup?

From article <[e-mail]>, by [e-mail]
    (CUP/ASG, MLO5-2/G1 6A, 223-3283):  Is there a sci.meteorology
    newsgroup on USENET?  If not, would anyone like to create one?
    Thanks,

     Larry


Strangely enough, nothing like this show up in the ARPANET or BITNET
listing either.  Even stranger considering that NCAR is so "close".
I guess the professionals don't talk about the weather, they do
something about it !

In anycase, a group would be an interesting idea.  And daily weather
maps would be quite interesting.  I recall reading an article several
years ago describing how to hook an Amiga/Atari to a satellite receiver
and download your own satellite photographs.  It seemed pretty straight
forward.

Could be useful.

The usual way to get a group started is to build up a posting level
on some "almost appropriate" group to a level where the regular users
of that group ask you to take your conversations somewhere else.  Then
you use that evidence to convince the NetCommanders that you deserve
your own group.

(I don't think it would be appropriate for the group to be one devoted
to letting people know that it is 70 degrees out, looks like another
hazy, hot, and humid day outside, but that there might be a chance of
showers in the evening.  The progress of Hurricane Deane, however,
would be appropriate (Deane, by the way, is bearing down on the Virgin
Islands according to the local forecast) as would discussion of things
like the Santa Ana's, El Nino, and the upper jet stream.)

See ya
Steve

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

Date: 3 Aug 89 20:24:43 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Voyager Status for 08/02/89 (Forwarded)


        Voyager Status Report
        August 2, 1989

        Images from the Voyager 2 spacecraft have revealed
three additional new moons in orbit around Neptune, Voyager
imaging team scientists announced today.

        The discovery brings to six the total of moons known to
exist around the blue planet, including one, 1989 N1,
discovered by Voyager 2 last month.  Finding so many moons
when the spacecraft was  more than 22 million miles away from
Neptune may mean there are many more to be found in coming
weeks, according to Voyager scientists.

        The three newest Neptunian satellites, temporarily
designated 1989 N2, 1989 N3 and 1989 N4, were tracked as
candidate moons in images returned by the spacecraft over a
five)day period.  When the objects were found to follow
predicted orbits, Voyager imaging scientists yesterday were
able to confirm them as moons of Neptune.  Their temporary
names designate the order in which they were discovered.

        Preliminary calculations indicate the objects may range
from 100 to 200 kilometers (about 60 to 125 miles) in
diameter.

        Like 1989 N1, the three new moons occupy nearly
circular and equatorial orbits around the planet.  All move
in prograde orbits (in the same direction the planet
rotates), making the large moon Triton, which occupies a
retrograde orbit, even more of an oddity in the Neptune
system.

        The innermost of the new moons is 1989 N3, which orbits
at a distance of about 52,000 kilometers (32,300 miles) from
the center of the planet, or about 27,300 kilometers (about
17,000 miles) from Neptune's cloud tops.  It makes one
complete orbit of Neptune every 8 hours, 10 minutes.

        Next out is 1989 N4, orbiting about 62,000 kilometers
from the planet's center, or about 37,300 kilometers (23,300
miles) from the cloud tops.  It orbits the planet every 10
hours, 20 minutes.

        The outermost is 1989 N2, at about 73,000 kilometers
(45,400 miles) from Neptune's center, or about 48,300
kilometers (30,000 miles) from the cloud tops.  It makes an
orbit every 13 hours, 30 minutes.

        All three new moons exist in the region where partial
Neptunian rings, or "ring arcs," are thought to exist.  If
ring arcs exist, the new moons might play an important role
in "shepherding" and maintaining them, Voyager scientists
said.

DISTANCE TO EARTH:      2,708,706,000 miles
DISTANCE TO NEPTUNE:  19,416,000 miles
HELIOCENTRIC VELOCITY:  42,187 mph

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

Date: 4 Aug 89 00:04:52 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (Dan Pezely)
Subject: Re: The Sociology of Space Inhabitants (Re: Eggs & baskets)

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Brian Yamauchi) writes:
>True -- and different types of spacers may be very, very different
>from each other.  For example: colonists will probably have to be like
>you describe -- cooperative, community-oriented, team-players.  On the
>other hand, interplanetary spaceship crews will probably have to be
>the opposite -- highly self-reliant, self-confident individualists who
>can stand being away from all but a handful of other people for months
>or years at a time and who can deal with emergencies on their own
>without consulting with their superiors on Earth (or wherever).  This
>would be especially true for the pilots of any sort of single-person
>spacecraft.

Just as an interesting note, stand back for a minute and look at the
parallels to the descriptions of what we think the inhabitants of the
space station will be and then look back at what history has said about
the early American colonists.

People went to the New World for various reasons, but they had a
drive to succeed.  Without that drive, they wouldn't have made it -- as
some did not.

Who knows what will come of the society which will be created in space.
That is something which we cannot predict, just as the early settlers
could not predict.  Maybe the problems which the world's societies have
today will be handled in the future -- then again, maybe not.

Getting into space with permanent stations will be a technological
challenge and staying there could well be a sociological one.

This just goes to show that there is research to be done in EVERY area.
Please don't take this as a lame attempt to get people to see things my
way, but these thing do need to be done.

Just think about it for now, but act on it very soon.
- Daniel

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

Date: 3 Aug 89 05:36:01 GMT
From: portal!cup.portal.com![e-mail]  (Mark Robert Thorson)
Subject: Re: Single Source Failures

It seems the list is nearly infinite, unless you restrict it to items
directly purchased by NASA.  For example, during WW2, the U.S. faced
a crisis when Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, the South African industrialist
restricted the availability of industrial diamonds.  This material is used
for making tools for machining metal.  Without diamonds, it would have been
impossible to make the machines which make machines.  Only British gov't
intervention prevented catastrophic impairment of American industry.

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

End of SPACE Digest V9 #607
*******************