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Space Digest Fri, 23 Jul 93 Volume 16 : Issue 908 Today's Topics: >Re: Apollo 11: For All Mankind (transcript) Asteriod catastrophe AstroFlex Cable to Ground. Bean Stalk! How? DC-X (2 msgs) DC-X Prophets and associated problems GPS FAQ? Hubble SOlar Arrays, How'd they fould up. message from Space Digest Michael Jackson's Space/World Tour 95. Nothing Higher. Moon Cable/Beanstalk. Popular Science Article: SPACE after the race! Preidents (USA) email address! SHUTTLE WASTE MANAGEMENT Space Lottery! Any ideas? (3 msgs) Why fund space (WAS:Re: DC-X) Welcome to the Space Digest!! Please send your messages to "space@isu.isunet.edu", and (un)subscription requests of the form "Subscribe Space <your name>" to one of these addresses: listserv@uga (BITNET), rice::boyle (SPAN/NSInet), utadnx::utspan::rice::boyle (THENET), or space-REQUEST@isu.isunet.edu (Internet). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1993 12:59:57 GMT From: gregb <gregb@den.mmc.com> Subject: >Re: Apollo 11: For All Mankind (transcript) Newsgroups: sci.space >I incorrectly stated Buzz's name in the Apollo 11: For All Mankind transcript. >It is Edwin `Buzz' Aldrin (not Edward `Buzz' Collins). Jeepers! I don't how I >let this one slip through. My original handwritten transcript had the right >name written down and I re-read it twice. My humblest apologies to Buzz. >Thanks to Dave Michelson of the University of British Columbia for pointing >this out to me. > >Steven S. Pietrobon, Australian Space Centre for Signal Processing >Signal Processing Research Institute, University of South Australia >The Levels, SA 5095, Australia. steven@spri.levels.unisa.edu.au The transcript appears to be incomplete - The "alarms" which occured during the final seconds of lunar descent are missing from the transcript (the guidance computer failed). Only Armstrong's training averted a catastrophic crash landing into the moon. The "coded" message in the transcript notified Mission Control the LEM descent was off-nominal. This is why Houston says "you've got a bunch of guys about to turn blue." -- Use this address: gregb@tosgcla.den.mmc.com, NOT the other one. ------------------------------ Date: 22 Jul 93 02:01:42 GMT From: boslough mark b <mbboslo@ca.sandia.gov> Subject: Asteriod catastrophe Newsgroups: sci.space Arthur C. Clarke has just come out with another book on this subject, called "Hammer of God" (sounds a lot like Lucifer's Hammer, do esn't it?) It just hit the bookstores a couple weeks ago. It`s a fast read, but contains a number of factual, geographical, and technical errors (starting with the title of the first chapter). See how many mistakes you can find. Mark Boslough ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1993 14:36:00 +0200 From: Andre Knoefel <starex@tron.gun.de> Subject: AstroFlex Newsgroups: sci.space AstroFlex - a new service on the Internet ----------------------------------------- AstroFlex is an e-mail reflector operating at the University of Technology Chemnitz (Germany). The reflector distributes articles from minor amateur astronomical journals from Germany, Austria and Switzerland (in german language). What is the idea of the service? Most people who are active in amateur astronomy are interested in publishing some results of their work. Nationwide distributet journals are unable to print all. The author of a good article often has to wait for more than a year. A lot of clubs, public observatories an planetariums all over Germany, Austria and Switzerland create local astronomical journals, usually with some hundred copies. An article printed here would not become really public. For that reason minor astronomical journals are no alternative. This could be changed, if all the minor journals would be available on the net. With respect to the fact, that a lot of sources and readers are not located at the Internet, the service was created as an e-mail reflector and not as a ftp-source or newsgroup. You can subscribe to the AstroFlex e-mail reflector sendig a message to astroflex-request@tu-chemnitz.de . XX X X X X XXXX XXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX X XXXX X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X XXXXXX XXXX X XXXX X X XXX X XXXX X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X XXXX X X X XXXX X XXXX XXXX X X =================================================== minor astronomical journals by electronic mail ------------------------------ Date: 22 Jul 93 13:55:45 GMT From: nsmca@acad3.alaska.edu Subject: Cable to Ground. Bean Stalk! How? Newsgroups: sci.space How to get the cable down... Hum, okay here goes.. I think the cable or the one you let down will have to be much longer than the "REAL" cable, you leed it out, and let the atmosphere cushion in, combined with centrifical force, and the length of the cable, you can "gently" lay it down.. Of course you will have some worries. The torque of the sattellite letting out the line (cable) needs to be stationary), and such, also maintaining orbit.. Why not use the same principles of "sky surfing". Im not uite sur ehow to describe what is in my head.. I need a scanner or not sure.. === Ghost Wheel - nsmca@acad3.alaska.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1993 12:11:27 GMT From: Gary Coffman <ke4zv!gary> Subject: DC-X Newsgroups: sci.space In article <8s3y7B3w165w@cybernet.cse.fau.edu> voss@cybernet.cse.fau.edu (stephen voss) writes: >This is a public (repond with a post) question > >1)Could DC-1 replace the space shuttle for all manned surface to orbit >needs at a much lower cost,if so how much lower Maybe, if we restructured manned missions, had a station, and didn't attempt on orbit repair missions. If the claims of DC advocates hold true, the DC could be as much cheaper to operate than the Shuttle as the C-130 is to the C-5A. But no number of C-130 flights can deliver a battle ready M1A to Europe from Ft. Knox, but a C-5A can. There are some payloads where volume, throw weight, or time on orbit still count. >2)If DC-1 is going to be so much better than other programs then why >does Mcdonnel Douglas need govt backing at all . Im sure private >companies would be piling in to fund it or McDonnell Douglas could >issue stock There's insufficient identified market for the craft. If it can achieve 50 flights a year as claimed, *one* DC would absorb a very large fraction of total world flight requirements. To make money, MacDac has to build more than one copy, probably many more than one. Until there's a market for that many medium launches, there's no market for DC. Payloads, and their ground support operational costs, are generally much more expensive than the launch costs they incur. That's the limiting factor on market size that DC will face. The hope, of course, is that DC will act as a driver to reduce payload costs since replacement payloads would be cheaper to launch so payloads could be made less robust, but that's just speculation at this time and not something private companies want to risk a lot of time and money on. It's likely that payloads will continue to be expensive because their costs are more closely tied with their on orbit performance than with issues of reliability. IE DBS needs high power and high gain spot beams, Hubble needs a big expensive mirror and detectors, etc regardless of launch costs. >3) Why should we be funding space programs at all when we have (fill in >your favorite social cause) here at home The poor we'll always have with us, anything we do to ease their lot only breeds more poor. Unless we enforce equality of *result* by law, there will always be differences between the haves and the have nots. If we enforce equality of result, then all we'll have is have nots. Therefore, money spent on social causes is money wasted. Money spent on space, and other technological boundary expanders, increases wealth, expanding the pie so there are more slices to go around. Therefore spending on high tech has lasting impacts on social goods in the sense that a poor person in a rich society is better off than a poor person in a poor society. Gary -- Gary Coffman KE4ZV | You make it, | gatech!wa4mei!ke4zv!gary Destructive Testing Systems | we break it. | uunet!rsiatl!ke4zv!gary 534 Shannon Way | Guaranteed! | emory!kd4nc!ke4zv!gary Lawrenceville, GA 30244 | | ------------------------------ Date: 22 Jul 93 15:30:19 GMT From: Henry Spencer <henry@zoo.toronto.edu> Subject: DC-X Newsgroups: sci.space In article <1993Jul22.121127.7028@ke4zv.uucp> gary@ke4zv.UUCP (Gary Coffman) writes: >>1)Could DC-1 replace the space shuttle for all manned surface to orbit >>needs at a much lower cost,if so how much lower > >Maybe, if we restructured manned missions, had a station, and didn't >attempt on orbit repair missions. Why can't DC-1 do on-orbit repairs? On the contrary, DC-1 may actually make on-orbit repair cost-effective. It certainly isn't now, which is (partly) why designing satellites for it has gone out of fashion. >...the DC could be as much cheaper to operate than the Shuttle as >the C-130 is to the C-5A. But no number of C-130 flights can deliver >a battle ready M1A to Europe from Ft. Knox, but a C-5A can. There >are some payloads where volume, throw weight, or time on orbit still >count. Precious few, once the current backlog is disposed of. The problem with a military tank is that it doesn't disassemble easily. (The armor, in particular, typically is welded and doesn't disassemble at all.) Fortunately, we're not launching M1As; space payloads do disassemble without much trouble. Note, in particular, the studies which have concluded that in-orbit assembly is *cheaper* than integrating and testing the thing to survive launch fully-assembled. I'm sure the USAF would insist on keeping a few Titans, just in case, and it would probably be a sensible thing to do. The museums will want them. >... It's likely >that payloads will continue to be expensive because their costs >are more closely tied with their on orbit performance than with >issues of reliability. IE DBS needs high power and high gain >spot beams, Hubble needs a big expensive mirror and detectors, >etc regardless of launch costs. Except that the same sort of hardware for Earthside applications is far cheaper, even when it has to operate unattended for long periods in extreme environments. Payload costs are not driven through the roof by performance; they are driven through the roof by performance PLUS extreme reliability PLUS extremely light weight PLUS having to get it right the very first time. And these nasty extras are the result of high launch costs and long launch lead times. Try comparing the pricetags for Hubble and Keck. Keck is a much bigger telescope, built with more advanced technology, on a shorter schedule, with a much smaller budget. -- Altruism is a fine motive, but if you | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology want results, greed works much better. | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry ------------------------------ Date: 22 Jul 93 13:18:32 GMT From: Paul Dietz <dietz@cs.rochester.edu> Subject: DC-X Prophets and associated problems Newsgroups: sci.space In article <pgf.743296829@srl03.cacs.usl.edu> pgf@srl03.cacs.usl.edu (Phil G. Fraering) writes: >mjensen@gem.valpo.edu (Michael C. Jensen) writes: >>I feel compelled to note a historical similarity in recent posting to an >>event in the recent past, and hopefully help aviod a repeat. Currently, >>those DC-X/1 Prohpets are fortelling of a glorious time when the DC >>is flying. Cost per pound will be unbeleivably low. Man-ratings will be >>simple and easy. The system will be so remarkable as to completely >>revolutionize the world and all we know.. or at least something roughtly >>along those lines. > "The shuttle made claims, and failed. Therefore the whole thing > must be impossibly hard." > > Why can't we just realize the shuttle itself is a failure and doesn't > say anything about the physics of launching spacecraft? This cavalier dismissal of concerns is very disturbing. Come on, skepticism is warranted about any very different technology. For the DC, there are things we should be concerned about... Are the engines really going to require little servicing? Hell, the engines for the full scale thing aren't even developed yet! How much testing are they going to require before they are as reliable as RL-10s (or SSMEs)? The flip-up maneuver is untested. Getting fuel to flow properly to the engines of a vehicle as it gyrates through the air is nontrivial. Is there a market for DC big enough to justify the rosey cost projections? Some of these will be tested by DC-X, but perhaps the funding for the next phase should wait until those tests are in. Failure is not guaranteed, but neither is success. The Shuttle experience may not say all that much about the physics of launchers, but it does say a lot about the judgement and honesty of salesmen. Paul F. Dietz dietz@cs.rochester.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1993 09:34:30 GMT From: Jens Andersen <jens@tfs.com> Subject: GPS FAQ? Newsgroups: sci.space Is there a FAQ on GPS in general? If so, can somebody pls. forward a copy to me via email? I'm looking for portable/handheld GPSs. Can anybody give me some info on such units, and what one should expect to pay for an acceptable unit? email would be great - on the other hand it may have common interest... Thanks! +============================================================================+ ! Jens Andersen - jens@tfs.com ! ! Phone: +47 2289 8298 - Home: +47 6486 7379 ! ! Fax.: +47 2221 7026 - Pager: +47 96 77600 ! +============================================================================+ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1993 15:14:13 GMT From: Brad Whitehurst <rbw3q@rayleigh.mech.virginia.edu> Subject: Hubble SOlar Arrays, How'd they fould up. Newsgroups: sci.space In article <22kejf$ogn@access.digex.net> prb@access.digex.net (Pat) writes: > >Everyone knows in aching detail the who's how's and whatfor's >of the Main mirror problem of the HST. However a larger >problem has received very little attention. That is the >Solar Array vibration problem. THese were fabricated under >contract to ESA by British Aerospace? and now spend >about 20% of the mission time shaking the damn thing >around enough that guidance is disrupted. > >What i was wondering is how could this kind of design flaw >sneak past any sort of reasonable test procedure? I would think >that thermal/vacuum testing would show this kind of behavior >of the solar arrays? > >what happened. did NASA not spec out any testing? or >did the ESA people bury the problem? > Thermally induced stresses and vibrations are NOT well understood, at least in real world applications like this. Some coworkers are, in fact, doing research under contract to NASA to develop a more fundamental understanding of the phenomena. Some of their rigs are quite sensitive to initial and boundary conditions (chaotic? I dunno). Testing something like HST's panels would be difficult, on the ground, in 1g, etc. And you don't know if you've got the right transients any way. Just because something doesn't work perfectly doesn't indicate conspiracy or incompetence. Leave that thinking in alt.conspiracy! -- Brad Whitehurst | Aerospace Research Lab rbw3q@Virginia.EDU | We like it hot...and fast. ------------------------------ Date: 22 Jul 93 13:23:22 GMT From: Daniel Briggs <dbriggs@Mr-Hyde.aoc.nrao.edu> Subject: message from Space Digest Newsgroups: sci.space In article <CAKCMB.A9A.1@cs.cmu.edu> MAILRP%ESA.BITNET@vm.gmd.de writes: >The International Space University is a non-profit, educational >institution specializing in international and multidisciplinary >advanced space studies programs. The ISU 1993 Summer >Session hosts more than 100 students from 30 nations. The >International Space University - which will have its permanent >home in Strasbourg, France as of 1995- has so far held >courses in Boston (USA) in 1988, Strasbourg (France) in >1989, Toulouse (France) in 1990, Montreal (canada) in 1991 >and Kitakyushu (Japan) in 1992. Does anyone have a contact address or experience with these folks? I'd love to get some literature from them, and maybe think about sneaking in a session in between postdocs! -- | Daniel Briggs (dbriggs@nrao.edu) | USPA B-14993 | New Mexico Tech / National Radio Astronomy Observatory | DoD #387 | P.O. Box O / Socorro, NM 87801 (505) 835-7391 | Support the League for Programming Freedom (info from lpf@uunet.uu.net) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1993 11:23:59 GMT From: nsmca@acad3.alaska.edu Subject: Michael Jackson's Space/World Tour 95. Nothing Higher. Newsgroups: sci.space Celebraties who have observatories and who might be interested in space.. I hate using "cheap" publicity plouz(sp), but what they heck why not. Space is worth it.. Mayeb fidn out the celebrities who do have observatories or who are just interested in space, and maybe,like "help put them in space" or what about a "concert" from space.. It sure would get peoples interest peeked.. Imagine being a roadie for it.. And besides no one else has done it, what a publicity coup.. Imagine having madonna in space, she can get soem interesting moves in zero/near zero G's...Or liek the man said, Maybe Michael Jackson or Whitney Houston... Why not, its a great way to get people involved or atleast interested in space.. After all if the "save the starving kid" people can do it, why not do it for the "starving" space program.. Yes I'M SERIOUS.. so don't laugh.. okay, a smirk is okay.. === Ghost Wheel - nsmca@acad3.alaska.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1993 15:20:33 GMT From: "David L. Jones" <dlj@cci632.cci.com> Subject: Moon Cable/Beanstalk. Newsgroups: sci.space Henry Spencer (henry@zoo.toronto.edu) wrote: > In article <1993Jul17.115237.27343@infodev.cam.ac.uk> sl25@pmms.cam.ac.uk (Steve Linton) writes: > >|> >Local govermental problems along the equator... > >|> If you've got the sort of money you would need to build a beanstalk... > >|> ... you can just buy yourself a suitable local > >|> government while you're at it. :-) This will be a minor expense. > > > >Actually, you will need to buy up, or at least buy off ALL the local governements > >along the equator. In a worst-case catastrophe the cable will come down in pieces > >the whole way round. > > Most of it will burn up on reentry. All but the lowest sections will be > falling from great heights, and will hit at near-orbital velocities. It > ought to be spectacular, but it shouldn't be very dangerous. > > In any case, you don't *need* the approval of those governments -- they > don't have any legal power to stop you -- although it might be smart to > buy a bit of insurance against pieces surviving reentry. The only local > government whose goodwill you absolutely must have is the one that rules > the area where your cable touches down. Not in this world of brigands and thieves. If the honeypot is big enough all kinds of wildlife will show up demanding a share. The best hope is to engineer a standoff so no one govt. tries to interfere for fear of how the others will react. -- | dlj@sunsrvr3.cci.com -----Dave Jones Northern Telecom Rochester NY| |...Home of the week-old newsfeed. Better never than late!.........| |-------------------------------------------------------------------| | We coulda done it. We coulda saved da woild, but we wuz too cheap| |-------------------------------------------------------------------| ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1993 14:11:39 GMT From: nsmca@acad3.alaska.edu Subject: Popular Science Article: SPACE after the race! Newsgroups: sci.space Popular Science Article on Space. "SPACE: after the race".. Has anyone seen it yet, and what do you think of it?? I just got it today and Im trying to look thru it, but the world is not reading, darn.,.. === Ghost Wheel - nsmca@acad3.alaska.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1993 14:34:36 GMT From: nsmca@acad3.alaska.edu Subject: Preidents (USA) email address! Newsgroups: sci.space Must not forget the presidents and vicepresidents "email" address.. president@whitehouse.gov and vicepresident@whitehouse.gov (I might have this one wrong, I only deal with the big boss and not his pions..).. So if you have a need to talk to the Prez, then do it.. (okay all you'll get is a email reciept form letter, saying they recieved your email and .... what ever), but you never know.. === Ghost Wheel - nsmca@acad3.alaska.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1993 12:41:28 -0800 From: Liana White <Liana.White@f776.n153.z1.ship.net> Subject: SHUTTLE WASTE MANAGEMENT Newsgroups: sci.space I discovered that my whole reply didn't get downloaded to you. The message was kinda unfinished. I just wanted to end up by saying that there is no need to spend on something we'll only use temporarily on a limited basis. We already have something that works sufficiently well for the time being until we iron out the problems. Money should be spent on a real solution for a "real zero-g toilet". Not something that will never be used again. It can't even be used as stepping stone technology. If we spin anything it will be a space station, and then we wouldn't need a spinning toilet. ;-) K >How about teflon lining the tanks to make them easier to clean? Teflon! (slapping forehead) That's using the ol' bean! You should let NASA in on that idea. They just might try it if they can squeeze it in under their present funding. :-[ (major pout) If only they'd listen to us amateurs. Eyes to the skies! Liana White PS: Can I use your real name to post to you? I feel silly calling you "KennelMeister". ------------------------------ Date: 22 Jul 93 11:05:33 GMT From: nsmca@ACAD3.ALASKA.EDU Subject: Space Lottery! Any ideas? Newsgroups: sci.space A Space Lottery is a great idea, now question is how do WE do it. Now to get people who can make a difference know we want it.. And that its a great idea.. Maybe include the request/idea in a FAX to your local congressmember.. Anyone have a better idea?? === Ghost Wheel - nsmca@acad3.alaska.edu ------------------------------ Date: 22 Jul 1993 12:35:02 GMT From: "Thomas A. Baker" <tombaker@bumetb.bu.edu> Subject: Space Lottery! Any ideas? Newsgroups: sci.space In article <1993Jul22.030533.1@aurora.alaska.edu> nsmca@aurora.alaska.edu writes: >A Space Lottery is a great idea, now question is how do WE do it. > >Now to get people who can make a difference know we want it.. And that its a >great idea.. Maybe include the request/idea in a FAX to your local >congressmember.. The first hurdle that came to mind is that, as of Challenger, NASA is not flying regular citizens, but military and government people only. It's a safety-related issue, and ties in withwhether the shuttle is officially not an experimental vehicle. Therefore, the "people who can make a difference" would include the NASA folk who need to hear that there is interest out here in "When do *we* get to fly again?" I'd love to see a dialog with NASA started, which includes the issues of "how safe is safe enough" and of regular citizen participation. I'd suggest all the people you mentioned for contacts, and especially add NASA Administrator Dan Goldin. Don't forget the white house. Tom ------------------------------ Date: 22 Jul 93 17:30:57 GMT From: Bob Kirkpatrick <bobk@dogear.spk.wa.us> Subject: Space Lottery! Any ideas? Newsgroups: sci.space tombaker@bumetb.bu.edu (Thomas A. Baker) writes: > In article <1993Jul22.030533.1@aurora.alaska.edu> nsmca@aurora.alaska.edu wri > >A Space Lottery is a great idea, now question is how do WE do it. > > > >Now to get people who can make a difference know we want it.. And that its a > >great idea.. Maybe include the request/idea in a FAX to your local > >congressmember.. > > The first hurdle that came to mind is that, as of Challenger, NASA is not > flying regular citizens, but military and government people only. It's > a safety-related issue, and ties in withwhether the shuttle is officially > not an experimental vehicle. > > Therefore, the "people who can make a difference" would include the > NASA folk who need to hear that there is interest out here in "When do > *we* get to fly again?" I'd love to see a dialog with NASA started, > which includes the issues of "how safe is safe enough" and of regular > citizen participation. > > I'd suggest all the people you mentioned for contacts, and especially add > NASA Administrator Dan Goldin. Don't forget the white house. There are, of course, many liability problems involved. The relative health of the "winner" is a prime one. NASA would be considered negligent if they sent someone through the rigors of launch, the wonder of zero-g, and the stress of reentry knowing (or remaining purposely ignorant) of a heart con- dition or something. That's just for starters. So I wouldn't be too sure that we're looking at an easy path. But I posted the Space Lottery idea because I think it *is* workable. I also believe it could do a great deal of good for the space program in general. If it is to work, then we need to apply 'pressure' to more than just NASA. At the moment, much of the government believes that the space program isn't a priority. A false view to be sure. Perhaps the way to grease the wheels is to continually press the idea that economic expansion for our country lies off-planet, and that a lottery could enrich the government (!) to let it happen --because a lottery would get much of the nation contributing without complaining about taxes. It's funny. People will raise hell about a tax increase that will cost them $1 a week. But they'll gladly spend a few times that voluntarily if they believe there is the remotest possi- bility that there's something in it for them. :-) -- Bob Kirkpatrick -- Dog Ear'd Systems of Spokane, WA I love my country. I'm just not fond of it's people and I hate the government. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1993 17:45:20 GMT From: John McGlaughlin <lazarus@mac.dev.cdx.mot.com> Subject: Why fund space (WAS:Re: DC-X) Newsgroups: sci.space gary@ke4zv.uucp (Gary Coffman) writes: >>3) Why should we be funding space programs at all when we have (fill in >>your favorite social cause) here at home >The poor we'll always have with us, anything we do to ease their lot >only breeds more poor. Unless we enforce equality of *result* by law, >there will always be differences between the haves and the have nots. >If we enforce equality of result, then all we'll have is have nots. >Therefore, money spent on social causes is money wasted. Money spent >on space, and other technological boundary expanders, increases >wealth, expanding the pie so there are more slices to go around. >Therefore spending on high tech has lasting impacts on social >goods in the sense that a poor person in a rich society is better >off than a poor person in a poor society. >Gary >-- >Gary Coffman KE4ZV | You make it, | gatech!wa4mei!ke4zv!gary >Destructive Testing Systems | we break it. | uunet!rsiatl!ke4zv!gary >534 Shannon Way | Guaranteed! | emory!kd4nc!ke4zv!gary >Lawrenceville, GA 30244 | | Gee, Rush Limbough (sp) here..... I'll give a MEGA DITTO to this -- -jftm- ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Jul 93 17:21:18 EST From: MAILRP%ESA.BITNET@vm.gmd.de Press Release Nr.35-93 Paris, 17 July 1993 International Space University students to talk to shuttle astronauts in orbit Students attending the International Space University's (ISU) 1993 Summer session in Huntsville, Alabama, will have the opportunity to ask questions to the astronauts on board Space Shuttle Discovery (mission STS-51) on Monday July 19, 1993. Out of the group of 15 students scheduled to talk to the astronauts, 10 come from European countries. Scholarships granted by ESA, national Space Agencies and industry allow them and other colleagues (20 in total), to attend the ten week long ISU Summer Session this year. One of the crew members on Space Shuttle Discovery, James H. Newman, is the first ISU graduate in space (ISU 1989). The International Space University is a non-profit, educational institution specializing in international and multidisciplinary advanced space studies programs. The ISU 1993 Summer Session hosts more than 100 students from 30 nations. The International Space University - which will have its permanent home in Strasbourg, France as of 1995- has so far held courses in Boston (USA) in 1988, Strasbourg (France) in 1989, Toulouse (France) in 1990, Montreal (canada) in 1991 and Kitakyushu (Japan) in 1992. Each year, ESA fosters a group of European students to attend the University courses. This year students will be exposed to over a dozen academic or research courses, including: Space Architecture, Space Business and Management, Space Engineering, Space Life Sciences, Space Policy and Law, Space Resources and Manufacturing, Satellite Applications, Space Physics, Space Humanities and Space Informatics. The students scheduled for the 'space-talk' will gather at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama and will be engaged in a real-time conversation with the STS- 51 crew as they orbit the Earth aboard Space Shuttle Discovery. Space Shuttle Discovery is scheduled to be launched from Kennedy Space Center on Saturday 17 July at 09:22 hrs (KSC time), 15:20 hrs Paris time. In a mission which will last nine or ten days, the crew of five astronauts will deploy a NASA telecommunications satellite (ACTS, Advanced Communications Technology Satellite) and will then deploy and retrieve a German built scientific platform jointly developed under a co-operative endeavour between the German Space Agency DARA and NASA. The German/US Orbiting and Retrievable Far and Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometer-Shuttle Pallet Satellite (ORFEUS- SPAS) mission is the first in a series of missions designed to investigate the very hot and very cold matter in the universe, thus allowing to study the birth and the death of stars. Once deployed from the Shuttle by its Remote Manipulator System (on the second day of the mission), the ASTRO-SPAS satellite operates quasi- autonomously for several days in the Shuttle vicinity. The satellite is then retrieved by the RMS and returned to Earth at the end of the Shuttle mission.