Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V12_6/V12_650.TXT

Internet Message Format | 1991-06-28 | 18KB

Return-path: <[e-mail]>
X-Andrew-Authenticated-as: 7997;andrew.cmu.edu;Ted Anderson
Received: from beak.andrew.cmu.edu via trymail for +dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr11/tm2b/space/[e-mail] (->+dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr11/tm2b/space/space.dl) (->ota+space.digests)
          ID </afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr1/ota/Mailbox/IbNnDNC00VcJMPjk4z>;
          Thu, 13 Dec 1990 02:55:06 -0500 (EST)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Precedence: junk
Reply-To: [e-mail]
From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Date: Thu, 13 Dec 1990 02:54:33 -0500 (EST)
Subject: SPACE Digest V12 #650

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 12 : Issue 650

Today's Topics:
        HUT Status for 12/07/90 [1100 CST] (Forwarded)
           Re: ASTRO status at 4/16:00 MET
      Astro-1 Status for 12/06/90 [2030 CST] (Forwarded)
    Re: Good Bye  (Quite possibly my last posting from this site)
          WUPPE Status for 12/07/90 [AM] (Forwarded)
      Astro-1 Status for 12/07/90 [0430 CST] (Forwarded)
      Astro-1 Status for 12/07/90 [0700 CST] (Forwarded)
      Astro-1 Status for 12/06/90 [2200 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: 8 Dec 90 05:17:43 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: HUT Status for 12/07/90 [1100 CST] (Forwarded)


         HUT Status Report 4
         11 a.m. Dec. 7, 1990
         Spacelab Mission Control Center
         Marshall Space Flight Center
         Huntsville, AL


         The Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope observed an extremely faint quasar
         and an important elliptical galaxy last night.

         HUT had three full night passes --  about 100 minutes -- to observe
         NGC1399, an elliptical galaxy in the constellation of Fornax about 50
         million light-years away.  The observation yielded the first detailed
         ultraviolet spectrum of light in an elliptical galaxy.

         Twenty years ago, astronomers discovered that much more ultraviolet
         light radiates from elliptical galaxies than anyone expected.
         Measurements since then have shown that the light is stronger in the
         shorter wavelengths approaching the far ultraviolet.  But until last
        night, no detailed spectrum of any elliptical galaxy at any
         ultraviolet wavelength existed.

         "Now we should be able to solve this mystery," said Arthur Davidsen,
         principal investigator for the HUT team.  "We should discover what
         kinds of stars are emitting this ultraviolet light -- if they are
         stars."

         "People have been writing papers and counter-papers, arguing back and
         forth, for years," he added.  "The big question is whether these
         galaxies are filled with old, dying stars or whether hot young stars
         are being formed in these galaxies formerly believed to be old and
         quiescent."

         In addition, the team collected 51 minutes of data on Q1821+64, a
         quasar so faint that the HUT team couldn't see it on their video
         screens when the quasar came into the telescope's field of view.  They
         used quide stars to lock onto the nearly invisible object.

         The quasar is located about 6 billion light-years from Earth.  Quasars
         are the most powerful objects in the universe, generating 100 billion
         times as much energy as the sun from a region no bigger than our solar
         system.  HUT is studying them to determine whether they are fueled by
         black holes as their core.  According to theory, the disappearing
         material swirls above the black hole, forming a whirlpool, and
         releasing an enormous amount of energy just before it disappears
         forever as it falls into the black hole.  The emission of light from
         this disk of material, mostly at far ultraviolet wavelengths, is what
         HUT hopes to detect.
     HUT astronomer Jerry Kriss said he was very excited with the results.
         Quasars are his particular interest, and he is eager to return to
         Baltimore and analyze this one.

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

Date: 7 Dec 90 14:07:20 GMT
From: usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu![e-mail]  (Harry P Bloomberg)
Subject: Re: ASTRO status at 4/16:00 MET


   To all those posting the inside story of the ASTRO mission, I give a
hardy THANKS!

   The postings have provided an insight into what it's really like to work
on one of these high-profile projects.  This viewpoint is simply ignored
by the general media.  This is USENET at its best.

   Now get back to work and fix those *&(*&^% star trackers! :-) :-) :-)

Harry Bloomberg
[e-mail] or
[e-mail]

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

Date: 7 Dec 90 16:37:29 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Astro-1 Status for 12/06/90 [2030 CST] (Forwarded)


         Astro-1 Shift Summary Report #15
         8:30 p.m. CST, Dec. 6, 1990
         4/19:45 MET
         Spacelab Mission Operations Control
         Marshall Space Flight Center,
         Huntsville, AL


         Implementation of a new plan of operation for the Astro-1
         ultraviolet telescopes became the order of the day during the
         afternoon and early evening hours of Thursday.  The change
         was necessary due to the failure earlier in the day of the
         second of two Spacelab data display units.  These are the
         computer terminals on Columbia's aft flight deck which
         normally provide the crew with their primary means of
         controlling the Instrument Pointing System and the three
         ultraviolet telescopes.  Following loss of the second data
         display unit, ground controllers at Spacelab Mission
         Operations Control in Huntsville and Mission Control in
         Houston prepared a plan for remotely commanding the IPS and
         the three telescopes -- the pointing system from Houston and
         the ultraviolet instruments from Huntsville.

         The plan came together more quickly than ground controllers
         had initially anticipated, and by shortly before 5 p.m.
         (CST), it was given its first test for a target acquisition.
         That opportunity came with a pass in which the Supernova
         1987a was the desired subject.  With Payload Specialist Sam
         Durrance guiding the ultraviolet telescopes by means of the
         manual pointing controller, or joystick, Alternate Payload
         Specialist Ken Nordsieck in Huntsville provided
         second-by-second pointing instructions over air-to-ground.
         The result was a good "lock" on the supernova by the
         Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope and a successful exposure with
         the telescopes cameras.

         The Broad Band X-ray Telescope (BBXRT) was unable to acquire
         data of Supernova 1987A because of instrument alignment
         problems. BBXRT will have several upcoming opportunities to
         observe this brilliant target later in the mission.

         The plan to recover from loss of the second Spacelab computer
         terminal called for going step by step to successively more
         complex operations until, it is hoped, all three of the
         ultraviolet telescopes can be brought back into simultaneous
         observation through this coordinated air-ground approach.
         And, shortly before 8 p.m., the second step in the process
         appeared to have been achieved, when an acquisition of the
         white dwarf star HZ 43 was successful with the Hopkins
         Ultraviolet Telescope.  Later, the plan calls for attempting
         the procedure with the most sensitive instrument, the
         Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment.

         During this period of recovery with the ultraviolet
         instruments, science planners gave as much observation
         opportunity as possible to the x-ray telescope, and the BBXRT
         team acquired good data on several targets of special
         interest to them.  Around 6 p.m., however, the x-ray
         telescope was plagued by a recurrence of the misalignment
         which has occurred previously.  Ground controllers at the
         Goddard Space Flight Center and in Huntsville began efforts
         to correct the problem.

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

Date: 7 Dec 90 18:25:00 GMT
From: agate!stew.ssl.berkeley.edu![e-mail]  (Eric J. Korpela)
Subject: Re: Good Bye  (Quite possibly my last posting from this site)


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Shawn Joel Dube) writes:
>|>
>|> This brings up a question.  How many people subscribe to this
>|> newsgroup???  I'm curious to know.
>|>
>|> Just EMail a small letter and I'll post a total count in about a week.
>|>
>
>Sorry I ask!!!!  It's well over 70 so......Please, no more mail :-)
>

In case you didn't notice you posted your message to 6 (yes, count 'em)
news groups.  You're lucky your system wasn't swamped with mail messages.
(It may yet happen as the network delay is on the order of days in some
cases.)

Many news groups have thousands of readers.  Some have tens of thousands.
You're lucky you picked six groups with moderate traffic.   (If you had
sent that message to rec.arts.startrek you would not be a happy person
right now.)

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

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

Date: 8 Dec 90 05:19:10 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: WUPPE Status for 12/07/90 [AM] (Forwarded)


         WUPPE Status Report 11
         AM, Friday, Dec. 7, 1990
         Spacelab Mission Control
         Marshall Space Flight Center
         Huntsville, AL


         Last night the Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment was
         able to make three observations.

         Eta Hor, a rapid rotator, was observed for just a few minutes at about
         9:40 p.m. CST.  The observation was used to test ground command
         capabilities of the Wisconsin telescope  aboard the Space Shuttle
         Columbia.

         The WUPPE telescope next co-observed with the Johns Hopkins telescope
         the HUT primary target Q1821, a quasar.  The Wisconsin telescope was
         able to obtain excellent spectral data on this object which will
         complement the data obtained by HUT and can be used in separate
         scientific investigations.

         Beginning at 7:10 a.m., the WUPPE instrument began its second
         observation of Gamma Geminorum.  "Gamme Gem" is a very important WUPPE
         calibration target.  This very bright blue star is situated some 88
         light years away from Earth in the constellation Gemini.  It is of
         import to the WUPPE science team because it is known from ground-based
         observations to have essentially no polarization and can thus be used
         to determine to high precision the WUPPE signal that corresponds to
         zero polarization at the various ultraviolet wavelengths.

         The WUPPE instrument itself continues to perform well, exhibiting high
         sensitivity.

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

Date: 7 Dec 90 16:44:17 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Astro-1 Status for 12/07/90 [0430 CST] (Forwarded)


         Astro-1 Shift Summary Report #16
         4:30 a.m. CST Dec. 7, 1990
         5/03:38 MET
         Spacelab Mission Operations Control
         Marshall Space Flight Center,
         Huntsville, AL



         Within the span of 22 hours, the crew aboard Columbia, and
         operators at the Johnson Space Center, Marshall and Goddard
         Space Flight Centers, have recycled what appeared to be a
         serious problem -- the loss of two dedicated display screens
        aboard the orbiter -- into routine commanding and
         observations.

         Operators worked through the night to refine time-intensive,
         ground-based setup commands, to make the commands easier and
         faster to uplink to the Shuttle-borne Astro ultraviolet
         telescopes.

         As reflection of the smoothing of observation setup
         procedures, during a 3:40 a.m. CST observation of Q1821, a
         radio-quiet quasar, operators uplinked setup commands minutes
         early.  Just as the orbiter passed out of satellite
         communications, the Johns-Hopkins telescope locked onto the
         target.  At acquisition of signal (AOS), all four telescopes
         were observing the target.  By the time the star passed out
         of view, the telescopes had completed 106 percent of their
         scheduled observation time.

         Having the largest aperture, the Ultraviolet Imaging
         Telescope was the prime telescope for most of the night. At
         11:40 p.m., the UIT team began a short observation of target
         NGC 1633, the second of four acquisitions of this target
         during this shift. Immediately following the UIT acquisition,
         the Broad Band X-ray Telescope team at the Goddard Space
         Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, completed sending
         inertial alignment commands to their Two Axis Pointing System
         (TAPS).  During the night, BBXRT made two successful
         observations of NGC 1399 in the southern constallation
         Fornax, or Furnace; Q1821+64, a radio-quiet quasar; and Abell
         2256, a spiral-poor galaxy cluster.  BBXRT and TAPS continue
         to operate without problems.

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

Date: 8 Dec 90 05:14:10 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Astro-1 Status for 12/07/90 [0700 CST] (Forwarded)


         Astro-1 Shift Summary Report #17
         7:00 a.m. CST, Dec. 7, 1990
         4/07:10 MET
         Spacelab Mission Operations Control
         Marshall Space Flight Center,
         Huntsville, AL


         During this period (4 a.m. to 7 a.m. CST), the Astro-1 crew
         continued its successful joint observations of ultraviolet
         and X-ray stellar sources by ground commands.  Alternate
         Payload Specialist John-David Bartoe complimented Payload
         Specialist Ron Parise for an "excellent job" in obtaining the
         correct guide stars and locking on to the targets by use of
         the joy stick in the aft deck of the orbiter.

         At the conclusion of the flow of scientific data from Q1821
         -- a quasi-stellar object (more popularly called a "quasar")
         -- Bartoe noted that 51 minutes of observation had been
         obtained when 48 had been scheduled, and he congratulated the
         crew.  All four instruments had been observing this strong
         ultraviolet and X-ray source.

         About 45 minutes later the crew again proceeded to acquire
         Q1821, with all four instruments observing.  The Broad Band
         X-Ray Telescope (BBXRT) was also able to study 0614, a binary
         X-ray star used for calibration, and the BBXRT science
         investigation team was also scheduling U Geminorum, a binary
         star in the constellation Gemini ("the twins"), shortly
         thereafter.

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

Date: 7 Dec 90 16:39:37 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Astro-1 Status for 12/06/90 [2200 CST] (Forwarded)


      Astro 1 Mission Report #28
      10:00 p.m. CST, December 6, 1990
      4/00:00 MET
      Spacelab Mission Operations Control
      Marshall Space Flight Center

      It was "business as usual" for the Astro-1 observatory as it resumed
      science observations beginning with the Ultraviolet Imaging
      Telescope as it successfully locked onto its target using a new
      ground based command technique to help coordinate observations.

     "Looks great!" noted Ken Nordsieck, Alternate Payload Specialist as
      he verbally guided Payload Specialist Sam Durrance to refine their
      achieved target, Supernova 1987A at 4:16:10 MET. Teams at the
      Johnson Space Center and at the Marshall Space Flight Center worked
      together in devising a system to control the Instrument Pointing
      System and Image Motion Compensation System from the ground.

      The UIT scientists were pleased as their instruments collected
      approximately six minutes of data from this acquisition. Supernova
      1987A, located 170,000 light-years away from Earth, is an important
      target to scientists because it releases ultraviolet radiation
      through light "echoes."

      The Broad Band X-Ray telescope experienced a minor alignment problem
      during this observation and was unable to acquire science data from
      this target. Meanwhile, the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope and the
      Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter are on "stand-by mode" as
      they await their turns for observation.

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

End of SPACE Digest V12 #650
*******************