Дата: 16 марта 1998 (1998-03-16)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: Lunar Prospector Update - March 11, 1998
Привет всем!
Вот, свалилось из Internet...
Lunar Prospector Status Report #24
March 11, 1998
7:00 p.m. EST (4:00 p.m. PST)
The Lunar Prospector spacecraft continues to perform very well, and all
instruments continue to collect good data, according to Mission Control
at NASA's Ames Research Center. On Sat., March 7 (PST), mission
controllers sent commands to fire the spacecraft's thrusters to correct
its orbit. In addition, on Tues., March 10 (PST), two commands were
executed to tweak the gamma ray spectrometer's HV (high voltage) gain.
The current state of the vehicle (as of 4:00 p.m. (PST) on Wed., March
11, 1998), according to Mission Operations Manager Marcie Smith, is as
follows:
Spacecraft Orbit Number: 711
Data Downlink Rate: 3600 bps
Spin Rate: 12.18 rpm
Spin Axis Altitude Longitude: 281 degrees
Latitude: 87.6 degrees
Trajectory Periselene: 94 km
Aposelene: 106 km
Period: 118 minutes
Inclination: 90.7 degrees
Occultations: 44 minutes in duration
Eclipses: 45 minutes in duration
Last Saturday, mission controllers executed the first orbit trim
maneuver, in which two axial burns were fired: one to raise periselene
(closest distance from the Moon) and the other to lower aposelene
(furthest distance from the Moon). The target orbit (87 X 113 km) was
designed to be biased to compensate for periodic perturbations in order
to keep the actual orbit as close as possible to the desired 100
+ 20 km orbit for as long as possible. The
actual maneuver was very close to target, resulting in an orbit of 87.7
X 112.3 km. The precise command timeline was as follows:
Sat., March 7, 7:26 p.m. (PST) Thruster heaters on
Sat., March 7, 7:49 p.m. (PST) Thrusters A3 and A4 fired for 46.5 seconds
Sat., March 7, 7:50 p.m. (PST) Thruster parameters reset
Sat., March 7, 8:32 p.m. (PST) Thruster heaters on
Sat., March 7, 8:53 p.m. (PST) Thrusters A3 and A4 fired for 45.9 seconds
Sat., March 7, 8:54 p.m. (PST) Thruster parameters reset
Tues., March 10, 7:00 a.m. (PST) Gamma Ray Spectrometer command sent
On March 12 (PST), the Moon will see the Sun partially blocked by the
Earth. Mission controllers will carefully monitor this event to ensure
full battery recharging after normal once-per-orbit passages over the
nightside of the Moon. Also on that day, controllers plan to execute
small attitude and spin trim maneuvers.
Alison Davis
Lunar Prospector Mission Office
NASA Ames Research Center
Moffett Field, Calif. 94035
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 16 марта 1998 (1998-03-16)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: Mars Surveyor 98 Update - March 13, 1998
Привет всем!
Вот, свалилось из Internet...
Mars Surveyor 98 Project Status Report
March 13, 1998
John McNamee
Mars Surveyor 98 Project Manager
Orbiter and lander integration and test activities are proceeding on
schedule with no significant problems. Orbiter electromagnetic
compatibility testing was completed successfully on March 9. The orbiter
spacecraft is being prepared for thermal vacuum testing scheduled to begin
on April 8. The lander vehicle was inserted into the backshell on March 12.
The lander/backshell combination will be mated with the cruise stage on
March 14 and the heat shield will be installed on March 19. The lander
spacecraft in full cruise configuration will be transported to the acoustics
lab at Lockheed Martin on March 20.
For more information on the Mars Surveyor 98 mission, please visit this
website:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98/
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 16 марта 1998 (1998-03-16)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: Earth-Viewing Satellite Would Focus On Educational, Scientific Benefit
Subject: Earth-Viewing Satellite Would Focus On Educational, Scientific Benefit
Привет всем!
Вот, свалилось из Internet...
Douglas Isbell March 13, 1998
Headquarters, Washington, DC
(Phone: 202/358-1753)
RELEASE: 98-46
EARTH-VIEWING SATELLITE WOULD FOCUS ON EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC BENEFITS
Keying off a concept proposed by Vice President Al Gore, NASA
is developing plans for a small satellite which could provide
continuous views of the Earth by the year 2000.
NASA plans to issue educational, scientific and possibly
commercial announcements of opportunity within the next few weeks,
following the Vice PresidentХs call today for NASA to design,
build and launch the satellite by 2000.
"Vice President Gore has given us an exciting challenge,"
said NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin. "In the coming weeks,
we plan to solicit ideas from the academic, environmental,
scientific and commercial communities. We will synthesize these
ideas and communicate with the Congress as we go forward."
Goldin said NASA envisions "down-to-Earth" applications:
"This view of our planet can help us plan as fires ravage
wilderness areas, it may be able to save lives as we watch
hurricanes and typhoons form and threaten coastlines across the
grand sweep of ocean basins. Moreover, we think it is important
to inspire young minds, provide new perspectives on the planet for
our scientific community, and perhaps provide commercial
applications as well. We're going to pave the way for an Earth
Channel."
The satellite concept would place a high definition
television camera--paired with an eight-inch telescope--into an
orbit at a unique vantage point a million miles from Earth where
it could provide 24-hour views of the home planet. It would orbit
at a point in space where the gravitational attraction of the Sun
and the Earth essentially cancel one another out, allowing the
satellite to constantly view a fully sunlit hemisphere.
"We want to directly involve university students, teamed with
industry and government, in the design, development, operations
and data analysis from this unique venture," said Dr. Ghassem
Asrar, NASA Associate Administrator for Earth Science. "It would
allow scientists to track natural events such as hurricanes, large
fires and volcano plumes. We expect further innovative
applications to blossom as we let this singular view inspire the
imaginations of all the citizens of planet Earth."
Early plans envision a 330-pound satellite linked to Earth
through three simple, low cost ground stations equally spaced
around the globe to provide continuous downlink capability. One
new image would be downlinked every few minutes. The satellite
would be developed and launched within two years of a competitive
selection process. College students would participate in the
design and development of the spacecraft, and student teams would
operate the ground stations. The total mission cost, including
launch and operations, would not exceed $50 million.
- end -
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 16 марта 1998 (1998-03-16)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: New Mars Global Surveyor Data Reveals Deeply Layered Terrain
Привет всем!
Вот, свалилось из Internet...
Douglas Isbell
Headquarters, Washington, DC March 13, 1998
(Phone: 202/358-1547)
Diane Ainsworth
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
(Phone: 818/354-5011)
Cynthia M. O'Carroll
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
(Phone: 301/286-6943)
RELEASE: 98-45
NEW GLOBAL SURVEYOR DATA REVEALS DEEPLY LAYERED TERRAIN,
MAGNETIC FEATURES AND GENESIS OF A MARTIAN DUST STORM
For the first time in Mars exploration, a spacecraft has
captured the full evolution of a Martian dust storm. NASA's
Mars Global Surveyor mission also has returned new insights
into the deeply layered terrain and mineral composition of the
Martian surface, and to highly magnetized crustal features that
provide important clues about the planet's interior.
These findings are among the early results from the Mars-
orbiting mission being reported in today's issue of Science
magazine.
This first set of formal results comes from data obtained
in October and November 1997, while the spacecraft was just
beginning to use the drag of Mars' upper atmosphere to lower
and circularize its highly elliptical orbit in a process called
aerobraking. At the time, a dust storm was brewing on Mars and
had grown to about the size of the South Atlantic Ocean.
The Global Surveyor data suggest that the event began as a
set of small dust storms along the edge of the planet's
southern polar cap, according to Dr. Arden Albee of the
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, the Mars
Global Surveyor mission scientist. By Thanksgiving, it had
expanded into a large regional dust storm in Noachis Terra that
covered almost 180 degrees longitude, while spanning 20 degrees
south latitude to nearly the tip of the Martian equator.
"As this storm obscured the Martian landscape, we followed
it in detail using several instruments onboard Mars Global
Surveyor," Albee said. "The Thermal Emission Spectrometer
mapped the temperature and opacity of the atmosphere while the
camera followed the visual effects. The effects of the storm
extended to great heights of about 80 miles (130 kilometers)
and resulted in great increases in both atmospheric density and
variability from orbit to orbit. These atmospheric measurements
have great significance to future Mars missions that will be
using aerobraking techniques too."
Before the storm, atmospheric dust was generally
distributed very uniformly, Albee said. Observations of the
limb of the planet in the northern hemisphere revealed both
low-lying dust hazes and detached water-ice clouds at altitudes
of up to 34 miles (55 kilometers). Movement of these clouds was
tracked by the spectrometer as the planet rotated. Atmospheric turbulence
disrupted these cloud patterns as the small storms began to
rise and kick more dust into the air. As the storm began to
abate, small local storms began to crop up again along the
edges of the south polar cap, and ice clouds formed in
depressions as the carbon dioxide cap continued to retreat.
In addition to these unprecedented observations of a full-
blown Martian dust storm, measurements from the spacecraft's
Magnetometer and Electron Reflectometer have yielded new
findings about Mars' strong, localized magnetic fields. These
patches of the crust, which register high levels of magnetism,
are beginning to unlock some of the mysteries surrounding Mars'
internal dynamo and when it died, said Dr. Mario Acuna of
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD.
"These locally magnetized areas on Mars could not form
without the presence of an overall global magnetic field that
was perhaps as strong as Earth's is today," says Acuna. "Since
the internal dynamo that powered the global field is extinct,
these local magnetic fields act as fossils, preserving a record
of the geologic history and thermal evolution of Mars."
Magnetic fields are created by the movement of electrically
conducting fluids, and a planet can generate a global magnetic
field if its interior consists of molten metal hot enough to
undergo convective motion, similar to the churning motion seen
in boiling water.
"The small size and highly magnetic nature of these crustal
features, which measure on the order of 30 miles (50
kilometers), are found within the ancient cratered terrain
rather than within the younger volcanic terrain," Acuna said.
"By correlating crustal age with magnetization, we have a
perfect window on Mars' past, which will help us to determine
when Mars' internal dynamo ceased operating."
High-resolution images of dunes, sandsheets and drifts also
are helping reveal earlier chapters of Martian history.
Landforms shaped by erosion are almost everywhere, according to
Albee, and many bear a striking resemblance to
Colorado's Rocky Mountains. Rocky ridges poke through the
Martian dust just as the jagged edges of cliffs pierce through
a blanket of snow in the Rockies. Martian dust appears to have
spilled down the sides of ridges just as fresh snow slides down
a ski slope.
"One almost expects to see ski tracks crisscrossing the
area," Albee added. "These images present a sharp contrast to
the images of boulder-strewn deserts found at the Viking and
Pathfinder landing sites."
Newly released images from the Mars Global Surveyor camera,
developed by principal investigator Dr. Michael Malin of Malin
Space Science Systems, Inc., San Diego, can be viewed on the
Internet at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/marsnews or www.msss.com/
The Martian crust also exhibits much more layering at great
depth than was expected. The steep walls of canyons, valleys
and craters show the Martian crust to be stratified at scales
of a few tens of yards, which is an exciting discovery, Albee
noted. "At this point we simply do not know whether these
layers represent piles of volcanic flows or sedimentary rocks
that might have formed in a standing body of water," he said.
The Thermal Emission Spectrometer, led by principal
investigator Dr. Philip Christensen of Arizona State
University, is beginning to obtain a few infrared emission
spectra of the surface, although it is still too cold on the
surface for the best results. The best spectra clearly
indicate the presence of pyroxene and plagioclase, minerals
which are common in volcanic rocks, with a variable amount of
dust component. No evidence was found for carbonate minerals,
clay minerals or quartz. If present in these rocks, their
abundance must be less than about ten percent.
Their absence indicates that carbonates are not widespread
over the surface of the planet, but they may still be found in
specific locations that either favored their initial deposition
or their subsequent preservation. This finding could have
important implications for identifying areas that may preserve
signs of ancient life on Mars, since carbonate minerals are
commonly formed in biological processes, Albee said.
Striking results also have been obtained from Global
Surveyor's laser altimeter over Mars' northern hemisphere,
which is exceptionally flat with slopes and surface roughness
increasing toward the equator, according to principal
investigator Dr. David Smith of Goddard. The initial data for
this region helps scientists interpret a variety of landforms,
including the northern polar cap, gigantic canyons, ridges,
craters of all sizes and shield volcanoes. Most surprising are
views of extraordinarily mundane regions -- as flat as the
Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah - that extend over vast northern
regions of the planet.
Mars Global Surveyor will complete the first phase of its
two-part aerobraking strategy at the end of March, at which
time the science instruments will be turned on again for most
of the next six months. Over this period, the spacecraft will
stay in an 11 1/2-hour orbit and collect an additional bounty
of data at a closest approach of about 106 miles (170
kilometers) above the surface, much closer than the spacecraft
will pass over the planet once it has reached its formal
mapping orbit in March 1999. This closer orbit will allow the
science teams to take more detailed measurements of the Martian
atmosphere and surface without magnetic interference from the
solar wind.
"When we decided to slow the pace of aerobraking to reduce
the force on the solar panel that was damaged after launch, we
knew we would get a bonus -- the ability to collect much more
science data closer to the planet than will be possible during
the prime mapping mission," said Glenn E. Cunningham, Mars
Global Surveyor project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. "Additionally, the six-month period
between the end of March and early September will yield an
extraordinary opportunity as the lowest point of the orbit
migrates over the northern polar cap. All of this information
that is coming back now is really icing on the cake, a
spectacular precursor to the global mapping data expected to
start flowing next year."
Mars Global Surveyor is part of a sustained program of Mars
explorationknown as the Mars Surveyor Program. The mission is
managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of
Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL's industrial partner is
Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, CO, which developed and
operates the spacecraft. JPL is a division of the California
Institute of Technology.
-end-
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 16 марта 1998 (1998-03-16)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: Sky & Telscope News Bulletin - March 13, 1998
Привет всем!
Вот, свалилось из Internet...
SKY & TELESCOPE'S NEWS BULLETIN
MARCH 13, 1998
NEAR-EARTH ASTEROID CAUSES COMMOTION
Although currently no known asteroids are on a collision course with the
Earth, there are nevertheless more than 100 bodies worrisome enough for the
Minor Planet Center to catalog them as "potentially hazardous objects." The
purpose of this list is to identify asteroids and comets that astronomers
should routinely check to refine their orbits.
On March 11th, Brian Marsden of the Central Bureau for Astronomical
Telegrams announced a new contender. The asteroid, designated 1997 XF11,
was discovered by University of Arizona asteroid hunter James Scotti on
December 6, 1997, as part of the Spacewatch project. Using additional
observations made over the next three months, Marsden calculated a
preliminary orbit for the 1.4- to 2.7-km-wide rock that showed it would
pass only 40,000 kilometers above Earth's surface on October 26, 2028.
However, the margin of error was still relatively large -- the only near-
certainty was that 1997 XF11 would pass by us at a distance closer than the
Moon.
The circumstances of the flyby seemed to continually change during the
following day as other astronomers made their own analyses. Orbital
calculations by Donald Yeomans and Paul Chodas (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
showed that closest approach would be some 80,000 km, with errors only half
as great. Furthermore, the "target plane" of the asteroid did not intersect
the Earth, and thus the probability of impact was zero. Eleanor Helin (JPL)
reports finding a prediscovery image of the object. Incorporating positions
from this 1990 observation moved the nominal flyby distance out to a
comforting 950,000 km. Additional observations over the next weeks and
years will continue to firm up these figures.
ANCIENT CRATER CHAIN ON EARTH
The Earth already has many visible scars of cosmic collisions. Now
researchers have linked five impact features and suggest that they all
formed at the same time as a shattered comet or asteroid struck the Earth
-- much as the pieces of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 hit Jupiter in 1994. In the
March 12th NATURE, David Rowley (University of Chicago), John Spray
(University of New Brunswick), and Simon Kelley (The Open University)
explain how after moving the drifting continents back to their arrangement
214 million years ago, impact scars in France, Canada, Ukraine, and
Minnesota lined up. The largest of the craters is 100 km across. These
impacts are a likely influence on the mass extinction of life at the end of
the Triassic period, where 80 percent of the species then living on the
Earth disappeared.
NEW FARTHEST OBJECT
While some astronomers were worrying about very nearby cosmic objects,
others announced the most distant. Observations Arjun Dey (Johns Hopkins
University) and his colleagues using the 10-meter Keck II telescope atop
Hawaii's Mauna Kea picked up the faint light from a galaxy called
0140+326RD1 (RD1 for short). With a redshift of 5.34 -- the first object to
break the 5.0 "barrier" -- this young galaxy is seen as it was when the
universe was only 6 percent of its present age (about 820 million years
after the Big Bang). This is nearly 90 million light-years farther than any
previously discovered object. Details of the study will appear in
Astrophysical Journal Letters.
PATHFINDER R.I.P.
NASA scientists made a final try to contact Mars Pathfinder on March 10th.
The last full transmission from the lander came in on September 27th, but
signals were regularly sent to the lander in the faint hope that contact
would be restored. Those transmissions ended Tuesday, marking the official
end of the mission.
THIS WEEK'S "SKY AT A GLANCE"
Some daily events in the changing sky, from the editors of SKY &
TELESCOPE.
MARCH 15 -- SUNDAY
* Spica is to the right of the bright waning gibbous Moon after they
rise in midevening.
MARCH 16 -- MONDAY
* Telescope users in the Far East with good sky conditions can look for
Mercury passing barely north of the 6th-magnitude star 60 Piscium around
13:00 Universal Time -- so closely as to just miss occulting it.
MARCH 17 -- TUESDAY
* Look southwest in the evening this week for Orion. As winter gives way
to spring Orion moves lower toward the west, and its three-star Belt,
diagonal for most of the winter, becomes nearly horizontal.
MARCH 18 -- WEDNESDAY
* The eclipsing variable star Algol is at minimum light, magnitude 3.4
instead of its usual 2.1, for a couple hours centered on 8:53 p.m. EST. It
takes several additional hours before and after to fade and rebrighten. For
a complete schedule of Algol's eclipses, see
http://www.skypub.com/whatsup/algol.html.
MARCH 19 -- THURSDAY
* Mercury is at its greatest elongation in the west at dusk (19 degrees
east of the Sun).
MARCH 20 -- FRIDAY
* The March equinox occurs at 2:55 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. This is
when the Sun crosses the equator moving north, marking the start of spring
in the Northern Hemisphere and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere.
MARCH 21 -- SATURDAY
* Last-quarter Moon (exact at 2:38 a.m. EST). For tips on viewing our
nearest celestial neighbor, see "Touring the Moon with Binoculars" at
http://www.skypub.com/whatsup/moontour.html
============================
THIS WEEK'S PLANET ROUNDUP
============================
MERCURY and SATURN are low in the west as twilight fades. Mercury is the
brighter of the two. Early in the week Mercury is to Saturn's lower right.
By Thursday or Friday it's more directly to Saturn's right (about 5 degrees
from it) and fading.
VENUS shines brightly in the southeast during dawn.
MARS, quite faint, is disappearing into the sunset below Mercury.
JUPITER is hidden in the glare of sunrise.
URANUS and NEPTUNE are emerging from the glow of sunrise. They're far in
the background of brilliant Venus.
PLUTO, magnitude 13.8, is near the Ophiuchus-Scorpius border, well up in
the southeast by about 2 a.m.
(All descriptions that relate to the horizon or zenith are written for the
world's midnorthern latitudes. Descriptions that also depend on longitude
are for North America. Eastern Standard Time, EST, equals Universal Time
minus 5 hours.)
Full details, sky maps, and news of other celestial events appear each
month in SKY & TELESCOPE magazine. Clear skies!
Copyright 1998 Sky Publishing Corporation. S&T's Weekly News Bulletin and
Sky at a Glance stargazing calendar are provided as a service to the
astronomical community by the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE magazine.
Widespread electronic distribution is encouraged as long as these paragraphs
are included. But the text of the bulletin and calendar may not be
published in any other form without permission from Sky Publishing (contact
permissions@skypub.com or phone 617-864-7360). Illustrated versions,
including active links to related Internet resources, are available via SKY
Online on the World Wide Web at http://www.skypub.com/.
In response to numerous requests, and in cooperation with the Astronomical
League (http://www.mcs.net/~bstevens/al/) and the American Association of
Amateur Astronomers (http://www.corvus.com/), S&T's Weekly News Bulletin and
Sky at a Glance are available via electronic mailing list too. For a free
subscription, send e-mail to skyline@gs1.revnet.com and put the word "join"
on the first line of the body of the message. To unsubscribe, send e-mail
to skyline@gs1.revnet.com and put the word "unjoin" on the first line of the
body of the message.
SKY & TELESCOPE, the Essential Magazine of Astronomy, is read by more than
200,000 enthusiasts each month. It is available on newsstands worldwide.
For subscription information, or for a free copy of our catalog of fine
astronomy books and products, please contact Sky Publishing Corp., P.O. Box
9111, Belmont, MA 02178-9111, U.S.A. Phone: 800-253-0245 (U.S. and
Canada); 617-864-7360 (International). Fax: 617-864-6117. E-mail:
custserv@skypub.com. SKY Online: http://www.skypub.com/. Clear skies!
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 16 марта 1998 (1998-03-16)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: Cassini Update - March 13, 1998
Привет всем!
Вот, свалилось из Internet...
CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENTS REPORT
FOR WEEK ENDING 03/13/98
Spacecraft Status:
The Cassini spacecraft is presently traveling at a speed of
approximately 141,000 kilometers/hour (~88,000 mph) relative to the sun
and has traveled approximately 392 million kilometers (~244 million
miles) since launch on October 15, 1997.
The most recent Spacecraft status is from the DSN tracking pass on
Thursday, 03/12, over Canberra. The Cassini spacecraft is in an
excellent state of health and is operating nominally, with the C6
sequence executing onboard.
Inertial attitude control is being maintained using the spacecraft's
hydrazine thrusters (RCS system). The spacecraft continues to fly in a
High Gain Antenna-to-Sun attitude. It will maintain the HGA-to-Sun
attitude, except for planned trajectory correction maneuvers, for the
first 14 months of flight.
Communication with Earth during early cruise is via one of the
spacecraft's two low-gain antennas; the antenna selected depends on the
relative geometry of the Sun, Earth and the spacecraft. The downlink
telemetry rate is presently 40 bps.
Spacecraft Activity Summary:
On Friday, 03/06, CDS String Reset Counters were re-initialized as part of
preparations for a future CDS procedure.
Also on Friday, an SSR Partition Repair activity was performed to clear three
non-software region double bit errors (DBEs). Friday's activity cleared two of
the three. Results indicated that the spacecraft has experienced its first
"stuck" SSR memory bit, as evidenced by the inability to successfully clear the
DBE by writing over it. The stuck bit is located in an unused section of
memory
and, as such, does not pose a problem. New DBEs which occur in the affected
SSR
submodule can still be cleared with already existing procedures. If the bit
had
been located in a portion of memory which contains flight software, the
unusable
spot would be marked as such and "skipped over" in the future - a capability
designed into both ground and flight software during the design phase of the
Program. (It should be noted that such "stuck" bits were predicted to occur in
the Solid State Recorder, based on pre-Launch radiation effect studies.
This expectation is what led to writing the appropriate ground and flight
software pre-Launch to deal with the phenomenon.)
From Saturday, 03/07, through Monday, 03/09, there were no changes in
spacecraft configuration.
On Tuesday, 03/10, the Solid State Recorder (SSR) record and playback
pointers were reset, according to plan. This housekeeping activity,
done approximately weekly, maximizes the amount of time that recorded
engineering data is available for playback to the ground should an
anomaly occur on the spacecraft.
On Wednesday, 03/11, the Cruise 6 sequence auto-deregistered, on schedule, when
its final command executed on the spacecraft.
On Thursday, 03/12, AACS Fault Protection Log Maintenance was performed, as
scheduled. Also on Thursday, the C7 sequence was uplinked to the
spacecraft.
Upcoming events:
Events for the week of 03/13 through 03/19 include: turning off of the VIMS
Infrared Optics decontamination heaters (03/15), uplink and execution of the
SRU-B Decontamination Mini sequence (03/17 - 03/18), and SSR FSW Partition
Maintenance (03/18). The C7 sequence will begin executing on Sunday, 3/15/98,
at 4pm local Pacific time.
DSN Coverage:
Over the past week Cassini had 8 DSN tracks occurring daily from Friday
(03/06) through Thursday (03/12). In the coming week there will be 9
DSN passes.
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 16 марта 1998 (1998-03-16)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: NEAP Eligible for Funding Under NASA Discovery Program
Привет всем!
Вот, свалилось из Internet...
NEAP Eligible for Funding Under NASA Discovery Program
http://www.SpaceDev.Com/SpaceDev/NEAP.html
Scientists and researchers will be able to submit proposals
for flying instruments and experiments on NEAP (our Near
Earth Asteroid Prospector mission), and for purchasing data
from SpaceDev's NEAP instruments under the next NASA
Discovery Announcement of Opportunity, due out on March 20.
Below is the content of a recent letter from the NASA Office
of Space Science (emphasis added):
National Aeronautics and
Space Administration
Headquarters
Washington, DC 20546-0001
January 22, 1998
Mr. James Benson
P. O. Box 2121
31557 Aspen Ridge Road
Steamboat Springs, CO 80477
Dear Mr. Benson:
The Near Earth Asteroid Prospector (NEAP) mission represents
an innovative and interesting approach to acquiring
scientific data through a private sector initiative. You
have asked us to assess the possible place of NEAP in the
Discovery program. The Discovery Program addresses the
scientific goals of the Solar System Exploration Theme and
the Extra-Solar Planetary Systems goals of the Astronomical
Search for Origins Theme. NEAP clearly falls within this
scientific scope. In short, proposals to participate in the
NEAP mission are within the scope of the Discovery Program.
In addition, the Discovery Program objectives (section 2.2
of the draft AO) include: as a practical goal "Perform
frequent, high-quality scientific investigations that assure
the highest science value for the cost"; and as a supporting
objective "Pursue innovative ways of doing business." The
basic approach envisioned by the developers of the NEAP
initiative is clearly an innovative new way of doing
business. Because this approach is new and untried, we
cannot, a priori, determine that the particular opportunity
afforded will be the most cost-efficient. Such a
determination must come from the detailed review process.
Finally, we note that proposing user provided instruments
for the available pods [canisters] would appear to be
potential "Mission of Opportunity" (section 2.3)
investigations.
As the present draft is intended for comment, you should
examine the draft, and may offer suggested changes. We
should note that actual success or failure of any new
concept proposed in response to the Discovery AO will depend
on the quality of the science, the reasonableness of cost,
and other factors, and will be judged in the likely context
of a number of excellent competing proposals to the program.
Sincerely,
Carl B. Pilcher
Science Program Director (Acting)
Solar System Exploration
Office of Space Science
The Discovery program is open to all kinds of organizations
including universities, for-profit companies, individuals,
non-profits, etc. It is also open to both domestic and
international participation.
This means that prospects for NEAP are very wide and
diverse.
NEAP is an example of adding more missions to those of
traditional national space agencies, and results in more
opportunities for more scientists and researchers.
Because Discovery, and therefore NEAP, is open to both
science and new technology experiments, we expect a variety
of proposals to be sent to NASA for possible funding of
those instruments and technologies.
If you are a scientist or technology researcher, now is the
time to be preparing a proposal for NEAP under the Discovery
program.
I believe it is possible for NASA to fund one or more
complete missions, and because of the low cost of rides on
NEAP, funding several experiments for such rides would
provide NASA with the equivalent of an additional complete
mission, but at a fraction of the cost.
Finally, because the NEAP launch will be insured, NEAP
offers a very low risk approach to space and planetary
exploration. Unlike government missions, if there is a
disaster, insurance will pay for replacement instruments and
a new launch, and the only loss will be time.
Only a short amount of time is available for sending a
proposal to NASA. The official opening of the Announcement
of Opportunity is scheduled for March 20, and all proposals
must be submitted within 60 days.
Please let SpaceDev know if you or an associate is thinking
about or planning to submitting a NEAP-based proposal to
NASA under the Discovery program. We will assist you in any
way possible.
Cheers,
Jim Benson
Chairman, CEO
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 16 марта 1998 (1998-03-16)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: This Week on Galileo - March 16-22, 1998
Привет всем!
Вот, свалилось из Internet...
THIS WEEK ON GALILEO
March 16-22, 1998
Galileo continues processing and transmitting to Earth pictures and science
information obtained during the spacecraft's last complete science encounter
with Jupiter's moon Europa in December 1997. The spacecraft flew past Europa
in early February 1998, but the flyby was followed by a 2-1/2 week period of
limited communications when the sun passed between Earth and Galileo.
Therefore, during the flyby, the spacecraft only collected radio science
information which does not require on board storage and subsequent
processing and transmission. Galileo's next encounter with Europa is
scheduled to occur on Sunday, March 29, and will include more typical
gathering and storage of information by most of Galileo's instruments.
This week's processing schedule contains observations from Galileo's period
of reprocessing and retransmission of data stored on the spacecraft's
onboard tape recorder. This retransmission allows scientists to fill gaps
caused by transmission problems, add additional data to existing data sets,
or replay particularly interesting observations under different processing
parameters. This week's transmissions include a picture obtained by the
imaging camera of a region of mottled or blotchy terrain on Europa. The
resolution of this picture has allowed identification of objects as small as
a house in size.
Also returned this week is more information from a region of Europa
containing wedge shaped surface features. These wedges show that Europa's
surface has cracked and pulled apart, and provides evidence of the possible
existence of soft ice or maybe even a liquid ocean under Europa's surface.
Two observations of this region are transmitted to Earth this week, one
obtained by the imaging camera and the other by the near infrared
spectrometer. Finally, throughout the week, information is returned from the
fields and particles instruments observations of the interaction of Europa
with the magnetic and electric fields surrounding Jupiter.
Preliminary results from the test of the spacecraft's attitude control
system that was performed last week are in. Unfortunately, these results
indicate that the system's gyroscope performance has continued to degrade.
The test was designed to determine if the performance was affected by the
intense radiation exposure suffered during the spacecraft's flythrough of
the Jupiter system in early February. Further analysis is being performed to
characterize the extent of the degradation. Once understood, flight team
members are confident that the anomalous behavior of the gyroscope can be
anticipated and protective measures can be put in place to protect the
spacecraft and scientific plans.
For more information on the Galileo spacecraft and its mission to Jupiter,
please visit the Galileo home page:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
сайт служит астрономическому сообществу с 2005 года
