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Date: Tue, 17 Jul 1990 02:51:39 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: SPACE Digest V12 #79

SPACE Digest                                      Volume 12 : Issue 79

Today's Topics:
              Re: Titan boosters
               People in space
                COSTS
    Gravity Probe B :(was Re: Anti-Gravity Devices (LONG))
               * SpaceNews 16-Jul-90 *
              Re: Why drop the shuttle?
          Re: LOOK FOR (SOVIET) UNION LABEL

Administrivia:

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  [e-mail].  Other mail, esp. [un]subscription notices,
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----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 14 Jul 90 13:26:41 GMT
From: snorkelwacker!usc!jarthur!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!zardoz.cpd.com!dhw68k!ofa123![e-mail]  (Charles Radley)
Subject: Re: Titan boosters

When vibration reaches a certain point (also G loads) the astronaut will
be PERMANENTLY incapacitated, or dead !!


--
Charles Radley
Internet: [e-mail]
BBS:      714 544-0934   2400/1200/300

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

Date: Sun, 15 Jul 90 17:03:18 EDT
From: [e-mail] (Keith F. Lynch)
Subject: People in space
Cc: [e-mail]

Swaraj Jeyasingh writes:
> Regardless of undoubted cost and safety benefits of the unmanned
> approach, getting a man (or woman) out there must be the MAIN
> impetus (even if initial exploratory work is done by a machine).

I agree.  Space exploitation and colonization is the goal.  But it
doesn't follow that putting anyone in space in the near future does
anything to further that goal.

> Moreover, the only way to get the taxpayer to fund ANYTHING in space
> is to send a human, not a box with wheels and knobs no matter how
> intelligent.

I don't agree that taxpayers should be subsidizing space activity.

                                ...Keith

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

Date: 16 Jul 90 12:46:19 GMT
From: crdgw1!gecrdvm1![e-mail]
Subject: COSTS

In light of all the recent speculations about what launch systems are
cheaper, I would have a few questions about the costs of various capsules,
with and or without their launchers.
    to help quantify our discussions, I ask that any of the following be
included if available (if not I'll take anything):
 -year dollars (a 1970 dollar is not equal to a 1990 dollar)
 -does this cost include development costs, or launch facility costs
I would appreciate any info on any of the following:

 - mercury
 - gemini
 - apollo
 - launch price expected for hermes
 - launch price expected for x-20 dynasoar (i dont ask for much do i?)
 - soyuz

I've heard 'somewhere' that apollo cost 30 million per capsule to make,
although I don't know if that included the moon lander, or in what year
dollars that is. If it's in then dollars for capsule alone, that's a pretty
hefty sum today (over 150-200 million?)

I've heard 'somewhere' that we could buy a soyuz for 12 million dollars
today.  Seems like this is a bit low, or is it a bargain introductory offer?

Any info at all would be welcome, except for mindless flames.
                            Pete

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

Date: 16 Jul 90 16:31:27 GMT
From: mcsun!ukc!icdoc!mvax.cc.ic.ac.uk!sund![e-mail]  (M.S.Bennett Supvs= Prof Pendry)
Subject: Gravity Probe B :(was Re: Anti-Gravity Devices (LONG))

In Article <[e-mail]> (David Ray) writes
......
>
>   The curvature of spacetime near earth, which is approximately
>steady-state (unchanging) on the timescale of gravity waves, is going to
>be measured by a satellite called the Gravity Probe B. This satellite
>will orbit the earth and look for a very slight curvature in spacetime
>as it moves from one side of the earth to the other. The satellite does
>this by using three gyroscopes which are designed to be sensitive to
>gravity pertubations only. The GPB is being developed now by Stanford
>University and Lockheed.
>
........

Here is a little review of Gravprobe B as metioned in the above...

                   G R A V I T Y    P R O B E    B
Gravity has long been a mystery to man. Seeking to unlock the secret
of the force that drew objects to one another, 18th-century physicist
Issac Newton first formally proposed a theory that would be applied as
a matter of course over the next two centuries--until Albert Einstein.

In 1910, Einstein shook the scientific world with his postulation of
the General Theory of Relativity. In his complex description of the
physical universe, he saw a cosmos in which space was curved, and time
and speed inexorably related.

Since that momentous day when Einstein turned the traditional laws of
physics upside down, scientists around the world have sought to
prove--or disprove--his theory. At NASA, a special team of engineers
and scientists have joined with members of a prestigious academic
community to advance a design for a machine that would test part of
Einstein's famous pronouncements.

Called GRAVITY PROBE B, the two-ton spacecraft has been under study at
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL, in concert with
scientists at Stanford University in CA.

Proposed for launch in the 1990s aboard the Space Shuttle, Gravity
Probe B would employ super-accurate gyroscopes to test a portion of
Einstein's general theory of relativity.

The heart of the spacecraft is the gyroscope, a solid quartz golf
ball-sized sphere called a "rotor." Levitated in space by an electric
field, the rotor would spin completely untouched at 170 cycles per
second. The primary ability of this highly advanced gyroscope would be
its extreme stability in its spin axis. Using a highly accurate
reference telescope, the Gravity Probe B would sight on a particular
star. In its orbit of about 325 miles above the Earth, the spacecraft
would then measure the drift of the gyroscope from its aim at the star
over a given period of time. In classical Newtonian physics, an ideal
gyroscope--undisturbed by any other influences--would not drift from
its aim more than a single milli-arc-second in a year. (A
milli-arc-second is the angle of view a person would have of a single
human hair placed ten miles away.) But in recent years, scientists
using Einstein's theories have predicted that if an orbiting gyroscope
were placed near a large body of mass, like the Earth, it would drift
because of the gravitational field.

That something would drift because of gravitational pull sounds like
common sense, but in Newtonian physics that is not supposed to happen
to a gyroscope. Einstein's theory implied that it would.
Furthermore, the theory predicts that if the large mass near the
gyroscope were spinning, as the Earth does, an additional drift would
occur.

The Gravity Probe B is designed to measure both drifts. It demands
enormous accuracy in the gyroscope, but the Gravity Probe B will have
that. And if the drift due to the Earth's rotation is 44
milli-arc-seconds, as the relativity theory predicted it would be,
then that portion of the theory will have been proved.
The idea of an experiment like the Gravity Probe B was conceived in
1959 by the late Dr. Leonard Schiff, a Stanford University professor.
The precision called for in the experiment at that time was such,
however, that technology literally had to catch up to Dr. Schiff's
idea. It has taken years to be ready to attempt such a project, but
the technology is now available, and the Marshall Center is ready to
proceed toward the test of Einstein's theory.

The Center has a contract with Stanford to carry out much of the
research for the project. Marshall has developed in-house the rotor,
which is so nearly perfectly round that if it were expanded from its
golf-ball size to the size of the Earth, the highest imperfection on
its surface would be only about six feet. To give the ball a quality
of superconductivity, the Center has developed a niobium coating for
the rotor and has been instrumental in the development of a dewar, a
large vacuum bottle-like container that would provide
near-absolute-zero temperatures for the gyroscope. With this
superconductivity given by the niobium and the extreme cold, the rotor
creates a magnetic field that allows the drift of the rotor, if any,
to be detected by sensors without disturbing its motion. The extreme
cold is also necessary to help provide as stable environment for the
rotor as possible.

That the gyroscope will change its pointing direction because of the
nearness and spinning of mass is, of course, a theory. But it is
believed that Gravity Probe B will be capable of determining the
existence and magnitude of these non-Newtonian drifts.
----
NASA Fact Sheet, GRAVITY PROBE B, Dec. 1984 (64F1084) MSFC

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|          |          |      \    |          |  M. Sean Bennett         |
\-----\    |----      |       |    \-----\   |  UKSEDS TECH.OFF.        |
       |   |          |      /            |  |  Janet:[e-mail]  |
------/    -------    -----/       ------/   |  Bitnet-                 |
                                             |  SEDS%CC.IC.AC.UK@ukacrl |
                                             |  ======================  |

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

Date: 15 Jul 90 02:23:16 GMT
From: att!tsdiag!nn2z!ka2qhd![e-mail]  (John Magliacane)
Subject: * SpaceNews 16-Jul-90 *


SB SPACE @ ALLBBS $SPC0716
* SpaceNews  16-Jul-90 *


                              =========
                              SpaceNews
                              =========

                         MONDAY JULY 16, 1990

SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, United States.
It is published every week and is made available for unlimited distribution.


* CRRES INFO *
==============
The launch of the Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite (CRRES)
is scheduled for no earlier than July 17, 1990, at 3:31 PM EDT (1941 UTC).
CRRES will be placed into a highly elliptical, geosynchronous transfer orbit
of approximately 217 by 22,236 miles and will conduct complex scientific
research in the space environment just above the earth's atmosphere,
including the ionosphere and magnetosphere.

CRRES will carry 24 cannisters of various chemicals into orbit and release
them over time.  When released, the chemicals will be ionized by the Sun's
ultraviolet light creating large luminous clouds that will elongate along
the Earth's magnetic field lines, briefly "painting" these invisible
structures.  The mission will be complemented by 10 sounding rockets to
perform releases that require precise targeting of location, local time and
altitude.  Six rockets are to be launched from Puerto Rico and four from
Kwajalein, Marshall Islands.


* MICROSAT NEWS *
=================
AMSAT-OSCAR-16 is doing well and is due to receive a RAM test and BBS
software that will become operational by next month.  DOVE-OSCAR-17
suffered an apparent on-board computer (OBC) crash shortly after coming
back to life on VHF.  The cause of the crash is being investigated.
WEBER-OSCAR-18 recently received the third version of CCD color imaging
software.  Each day, several Earth images are transmitted by WO-18 and
may be viewed on computers running WeberWare 1.0 software.  LUSAT-OSCAR-19
is also doing well and is due to have a RAM test performed shortly.


* HUBBLE TROUBLE *
==================
Evidence now strongly suggests that the Hubble Space Telescope primary
mirror is at fault, having about 0.5 RMS wavelength of spherical aberration.
The radii of curvature is correct, but there is a 1% error in the
eccentricity of the perboloid.  The aberration is not correctable by either
using primary mirror actuators or by replacing the secondary mirror in
orbit.  The primary mirror actuators consist of two rings of twelve force
actuators capable of 10 pounds of force each.  They are located at 0.5 and
0.87 radii at the nodes in the spherical aberration curve.  The actuators
will not be used to correct for the aberration because it will deform the
mirror into an even more complex shape.  The final focus alignment is to
be completed today.

The HST mirror problem is believed to have been caused by a "low-tech"
error, such as mistyping the mirror dimensions into the mirror grinding
computer, or using a mislabelled null-corrector when testing the mirror.


* WALL HISTORY *
================
SpaceNews orginates from Wall Township, in central New Jersey, USA.  It
was from Wall Township that Guglielmo Marconi's 1913 American Wireless
Company transmitted the first transoceanic radio signals from a group of
radio towers located along Shark River.  On January 10, 1946, the US
Signal Corps bounced the first radar signals off the moon and back to
Earth.  The dish antenna still stands on Marconi Road.  Wall Township is
also the home town of Apollo astronaut Russell L. Schweickart, who
performed a spacewalk in March 1969 during the Apollo 9 space mission.


* FEEDBACK WELCOMED *
=====================
Feedback regarding SpaceNews can be directed to the editor (John) via any
of the following paths:

UUCP   : ...!uunet!masscomp!ocpt!ka2qhd!kd2bd
AMPR   : KD2BD @ NN2Z.NJ.USA.NA

MAIL   : John A. Magliacane
         Department of Electronics Technology
         Advanced Technology Center
         Brookdale Community College
         765 Newman Springs Road
         Lincroft, New Jersey 07738
         U.S.A.

         (The callbook address also works.)

/EX
--
AMPR : KD2BD @ NN2Z (Neptune, NJ)
UUCP : ucbvax!rutgers!petsd!tsdiag!ka2qhd!kd2bd
       "For every problem, there is one solution which is simple,
       neat and wrong." -- H.L. Mencken

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

Date: 14 Jul 90 19:13:39 GMT
From: sco!gorn!deeptht![e-mail]  (John DuBois)
Subject: Re: Why drop the shuttle?


     I can think of one thing that defunct orbiters would be good for.
It seems to me that with a bit of work they'd make *great* emergency
return vehicles for a space station.  By itself, an orbiter could carry
7-odd people; with one of those cargo bay passenger modules that were
proposed a while ago, it could carry dozens.

    John DuBois

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

Date: 15 Jul 90 05:49:00 GMT
From: usc!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!zardoz.cpd.com!dhw68k!ofa123![e-mail]  (Mark Perew)
Subject: Re: LOOK FOR (SOVIET) UNION LABEL

>I READ SOMEPLACE THAT USSR ALSO HAS
>A SPARE MIR STATION THEY'RE LOOKING TO PAWN ...

I believe that spare was purchased by a Japanesse consortium earlier
this year.  I haven't heard what the buyers planned to do with it.


--
Mark Perew
Internet: [e-mail]
BBS:      714 544-0934   2400/1200/300

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

End of SPACE Digest V12 #79
*******************