Дата: 06 апреля 1998 (1998-04-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: Lunar Prospector Update - April 1, 1998
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Lunar Prospector Status Report #27
April 1, 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 Tues., March 31 (PST), mission
controllers executed an attitude reorientation trim maneuver. In doing
so, the spacecraft's spin axis was reoriented about 5 degrees so that
the Sun shines on the top half of the spacecraft. The maneuver required
23 pulses, as detailed by the timeline below:
Tues., March 31, 2:32 p.m. (PST) Thruster heaters on
Tues., March 31, 2:37 p.m. (PST) Maneuver parameters loaded
Tues., March 31, 2:58 p.m. (PST) Thrusters A1 and A4 fired (23 pulses)
to rotate spin axis 4.7 degrees
Tues., March 31, 3:01 p.m. (PST) Thruster parameters reset
The Lunar Prospector engineering team is still investigating the
results of the spin axis reorientation by reviewing pre-and
post-maneuver attitude data. Calibration data for the Earth-Moon Limb
Crossing Sensor requires updating based upon flight data. Until this
recalibration is complete, the precise attitude and performance of the
maneuvers cannot be analyzed.
The current state of the vehicle (as of 4:00 p.m. (PST) on Wed., April
1, 1998), according to Mission Operations Manager Marcie Smith, is as
follows:
Spacecraft Orbit Number: 968
Data Downlink Rate: 3600 bps
Spin Rate: 11.96 rpm
Spin Axis Attitude
Longitude: (see above)
Latitude: (see above)
Trajectory
Periselene: 93.4 km
Aposelene: 105.9 km
Period: 118 minutes
Inclination: 90.2 degrees
Occultations: 25 minutes in duration
Eclipses: 47 minutes in duration (maximum)
At present, Lunar Prospector is aligned with the Moon-Sun line. This
means that the spacecraft passes directly over the local noon and
midnight points on the Moon, experiencing the hottest temperatures and
longest eclipses of the entire mission. In about three months, when the
Earth (and thus the Moon) have continued around the Sun, the
spacecraft's orbit plane will be perpendicular to the Moon-Sun line,
and there will be a period of a few weeks with no eclipses before the
next eclipse season begins.
Alison Davis
Lunar Prospector Mission Office
NASA Ames Research Center
Moffett Field, Calif. 94035
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Дата: 06 апреля 1998 (1998-04-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: NASA Joins In Apple Valley Science and Technology Center Dedication
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MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
Contact: John G. Watson April 3, 1998
NASA JOINS IN APPLE VALLEY SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CENTER DEDICATION
NASA has assisted in recycling an old space communications and
tracking antenna into a radio telescope for the use of students and teachers
around the nation. The telescope is controlled through a new NASA-supported
facility to improve and expand science and technology education, dedicated
today in Southern California's Apple Valley.
The Apple Valley Science and Technology Center, renamed the Lewis
Center for Education Research in honor of supporter U.S. Representative
Jerry Lewis, features an innovative Internet- linked system that allows
students across the country to remotely control the resurrected NASA space
communications antenna to conduct radio astronomy experiments.
Among those scheduled to participate in the ceremonies today were
Mrs. Gayle Wilson, wife of Governor Pete Wilson of California; NASA
Administrator Daniel Goldin; NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Director
Dr. Edward C. Stone; retired NASA astronaut Dick Covey; and Congressman
Jerry Lewis.
Staffed by a small professional staff and hundreds of volunteers, the
Lewis Center for Education Research is a hub of learning for students of all
ages interested in meteorology, astronomy, environmental studies and
aviation, among many other subjects.
In 1996, the center took over operation of a nine-story-high tracking
antenna within the Goldstone site of NASA's Deep Space Network, near
Barstow, CA. Instead of tearing down the decommissioned antenna, JPL entered
into an agreement allowing the center and the school district to operate the
antenna as a radio telescope for use via the Internet by students from
around the United States. NASA and JPL staff and volunteers participated in
converting the antenna into a radio telescope and linking its control system
to classrooms via the Internet.
Goldin, Lewis, Stone and Wilson were scheduled to staff the center's
mission control today to join students in Michigan and Kentucky as they
operated the giant radio telescope from their classrooms.
The original Science and Technology Center, built nearly 10 years
ago, now houses an observatory, Air Force jet flight simulator, computer
center, weather station and related hands-on learning tools for students. It
has drawn more than 80,000 students and teachers from across the nation. The
center, affiliated with the Apple Valley Unified School District, has drawn
the support of many business and community leaders from its inception in
1985 for its effective experiments with new, creative educational methods.
In 1997, the center was awarded a federal grant to expand its
facilities. In addition to adding offices, the new facility offers several
innovative new educational spaces, including mission control, a high-tech
control room where students from around the world are able to control the
decommissioned Deep Space Network antenna. A digital TV studio, amateur
radio station and control room were built with support from NASA and the
Desert Community Bank and will allow students to produce and broadcast
educational programs to more than 35,000 homes in cooperation with Hi-Desert
Cablevision. The facility also features a library, sponsored by the
Assistance League of the Victory Valley; and a Gateway to Excellence
technology classroom sponsored by GTE, which includes a science education
laboratory with a climate-controlled greenhouse.
The center also operates the Academy for Academic Excellence, a K-12
California Public Charter School, chartered by the Apple Valley Science and
Technology Center. It combines classroom and lab work at the center with
parental schooling in an innovative program to explore new effective
learning programs. Classes are offered at the center for both students and
parents.
JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology,
Pasadena, CA.
-end-
NOTE TO BROADCASTERS: NASA TV will air a video file about the center
throughout the day on April 3. NASA Television is available through GE-2,
transponder 9C at 85 degrees West longitude, vertical polarization, with a
frequency of 3880 Mhz, and audio at 6.8 Mhz.
#####
NOTE TO BROADCASTERS: NASA TV will air a video file about the center
throughout the day on April 3. NASA Television is available through GE-2,
transponder 9C at 85 degrees west longitude, vertical polarization, with a
frequency of 3880 Mhz, and audio at 6.8 Mhz.
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=SANA=
Дата: 06 апреля 1998 (1998-04-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: Cassini Update - April 3, 1998
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CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENTS FOR WEEK ENDING 04/03/98
Spacecraft Status:
The Cassini spacecraft is presently traveling at a speed of
approximately 143,000 kilometers/hour (~89,000 mph) relative to the sun
and has traveled approximately 464 million kilometers (~288 million
miles) since launch on October 15, 1997.
The most recent Spacecraft status is from the DSN tracking pass on
Thursday, 04/02, over Canberra. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent
state of health and is executing the C7 sequence nominally.
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 except for the probe checkout
playbacks at 948 bps which are done over specially-requested 70m DSN
passes.
Spacecraft Activity Summary:
Orbiter:
From Friday, 03/27, through Monday, 03/30, there were no changes in
spacecraft configuration.
On Tuesday, 03/31, the first of seven data playbacks occurred for
Huygens Probe Checkout #2. The Probe checkout activity occurs
approximately every 6 months. The series of data playbacks from the SSR
will provide detailed information on the results of the checkout.
On Wednesday, 04/02, 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.
Also on Wednesday, the now standard SSR Flight Software Partition
maintenance activity was performed. This activity repairs any SSR
double bit errors (DBEs) which have occurred in the code-containing
portions of the Flight Software partitions during the preceding period.
Finally, on Wednesday, the second data playback occurred for Probe
Checkout #2.
On Thursday, 04/02, the spacecraft was commanded back to the state in
which the A unit of the Probe Support Avionics (PSA) is identified as
prime. At the termination of each Probe checkout activity, the
spacecraft switches to the B unit of the PSA. The commanding to reset
the PSA to the A unit is a standard post-checkout housekeeping activity
which establishes the desired hardware state for the next Probe
checkout.
Upcoming events:
Activities scheduled for the week of 4/03 - 4/09 include: the remaining
5 (of 7) Probe Checkout data playbacks (4/03 through 4/07), and an SSR
pointer reset (4/06).
Probe: Huygens: Second In-Flight Checkout
ESA reports that a first look at the (Probe Checkout #2) data indicates
that their overall quality is good and that in most respects the Probe
behaved as expected. However, the AGC (Automatic Gain Control)
telemetry measurements on both chains seems to have dropped further (by
3 to 4 dB), with respect to the values of the first in-flight checkout.
The AGC level is a measurement in the umbilical (mated) configuration.
ESA has formed an investigation team to understand these telemetry
measurements.
DSN Coverage:
Over the past week Cassini had 10 scheduled DSN tracks occurring from
03/27 through 4/02. In the coming week there will be 9 DSN passes.
Other Program Activities
On Friday, 3/27, the Program determined that because of navigation
accuracy, that no trim maneuver is required for the final leg of the
mission's first Venus gravity assist swingby, planned for April 26,
1998.
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=SANA=
Дата: 06 апреля 1998 (1998-04-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: Sky & Telescope News Bulletin - April 3, 1998
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SKY & TELESCOPE'S NEWS BULLETIN
APRIL 3, 1998
THE YOUNGEST PLANETARY NEBULA
Astronomers say that a picture taken by the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide
Field and Planetary Camera 2 shows the youngest planetary nebula yet
imaged. Dubbed the Stingray Nebula (Hen 1357), the sphere of glowing gas
lies about 18,000 light-years away in the southern hemisphere constellation
Ara. The nebula is some 130 times the size of our solar system, but this is
only about one-tenth the size of other known planetary nebulae. Hubble has
been the first telescope to provide a close look at this small nebula. Amid
the complex structure that includes a ring and bubbles of gas, the image
reveals that the central star is binary. Recently, astronomers have
suggested that the presence of a companion is key in the creation of varied
shapes of planetary nebulae.
A "PERFECT" EINSTEIN RING
Another Hubble image -- coupled with radio observations -- show for the
first time a complete "Einstein ring." This phenomenon arises when the
light from a background galaxy is bent around a foreground object by
gravitational lensing. A precise lineup is required to form a complete
circular "mirage" around the intervening galaxy. British researchers
announced the finding at this past week's UK National Astronomy Meeting at
the University of St. Andrews. They note that they used Hubble imagery and
data from the UK's 200-kilometer-wide MERLIN radio array to capture the
remarkable sight. The Einstein ring is only about 1 arcsecond across.
Results will be published in the April 1st Monthly Notices of the Royal
Astronomical Society.
JUPITER'S NEW DUST RING
For a ring of another sort, astronomers have found evidence for a
previously unknown 1.1-million-km-wide ring of dust around Jupiter. Joshua
Colwell (University of Colorado at Boulder) and his colleagues used data
from dust detectors aboard the Galileo spacecraft to determine the quantity
and motions of the particles. Computer models showed they the material
formed a torus or doughnut shape. Perhaps the most curious aspect of the
dust particles is that they orbit the planet "retrograde," or the reverse
way from the other moons of Jupiter's satellite system. Details of the
study appear the April 3th issue of Science.
MILKY WAY SHRINKS
According to two University of Southampton astronomers, the Milky Way
galaxy isn't as big as previously thought. Michael Merrifield and Robert
Olling examined studies of the motions of stars and conclude that the Sun
is located some 23,000 light-years from the center of the galaxy, and
moving at about 185 km per second. These values are at the lower ends of
the range of estimates from various studies. Such galactic depreciation
could have wider consequences in the sizing of the universe.
SUPERNOVA SHINES ON
Amateurs continue to follow the supernova discovered on March 2nd in the
galaxy NGC 3877 in Ursa Major. Supernova 1998S, an unusual Type IIn
supernova, has been holding steady at 12th magnitude. The 11th-magnitude
galaxy is located just 0.3 degree due south of the star Chi Ursae Majoris.
Supernova 1998S is 14" west and 46" south of the elongated galaxy's center.
Observers report that the supernova is easier to see than the galaxy
itself.
THIS WEEK'S "SKY AT A GLANCE"
Some daily events in the changing sky, from the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE.
APRIL 5 -- SUNDAY
* Daylight saving time begins at 2 a.m. for most of the United States. Turn
clocks ahead one hour.
APRIL 6 -- MONDAY
* Regulus shines to the left of the Moon this evening.
* Mercury is at inferior conjunction, nearly in front of the Sun and
therefore hidden from sight in the Sun's glare.
APRIL 7 -- TUESDAY
* The eclipsing variable star Algol is getting low in the northwest after
dusk. It should be at minimum light, magnitude 3.4 instead of its usual 2.1,
for a couple hours centered on 11:38 p.m. EDT (8:38 p.m. PDT). Algol takes
several hours before and after to fade and rebrighten.
APRIL 8 -- WEDNESDAY
* Some doorstep astronomy: The brightest star due east these evenings is
Arcturus. Far to its upper left is the Big Dipper, which is tipping leftward
on its handle.
APRIL 9 -- THURSDAY
* More doorstep astronomy: Look southwest at dusk for Sirius, the brightest
star in the sky. High above it is Procyon. A similar distance to the right or
upper right of Sirius is the constellation Orion.
APRIL 10 -- FRIDAY
* Algol is at minimum light for a couple hours centered on 8:27 p.m. EDT.
APRIL 11 -- SATURDAY
* Full Moon (exact at 6:23 p.m. EDT). Spica is to the Moon's lower right.
============================
THIS WEEK'S PLANET ROUNDUP
============================
MERCURY, MARS, and SATURN are hidden in the glare of the Sun.
VENUS shines brightly low in the east-southeast during dawn.
JUPITER is far to the lower left of Venus.
URANUS and NEPTUNE, magnitudes 6 and 8, respectively, are in Capricornus low
in the southeast just before dawn.
PLUTO, magnitude 13.8, is near the Ophiuchus-Scorpius border. It's well up
in the southeast by 1 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 Daylight Time, EDT, equals Universal Time
minus 4 hours.)
More details, sky maps, and news of other celestial events appear each month
in SKY & TELESCOPE, the essential magazine of astronomy. See our Web site at
http://www.skypub.com/. Clear skies!
SKY & TELESCOPE, P.O. Box 9111, Belmont, MA 02178 * 617-864-7360 (voice)
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
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custserv@skypub.com. SKY Online: http://www.skypub.com/. Clear skies!
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=SANA=
Дата: 06 апреля 1998 (1998-04-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: Cassini Update - April 3, 1998
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MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
Cassini Mission Status
April 3, 1998
The Cassini spacecraft remains on track for its flyby of Venus on
April 26, which due to the effects of Venus' gravity, will give the
spacecraft a 26,280 kilometer-per-hour boost (16,330 mile-per-hour) in
speed. Cassini's navigators have determined that the spacecraft is already
so accurately targeted for its 284-kilometer altitude swingby of Venus that
a scheduled fine-tuning maneuver is unnecessary and has been cancelled.
Cassini is feeling the Sun's gravitational tug since the spacecraft
last week reached its perihelion, or closest point to the Sun, and is now
flying in outbound direction. The spacecraft is traveling at a speed of
approximately 143,000 kilometers per hour (about 89,000 miles per hour)
relative to the Sun, and has traveled approximately 464 million kilometers
(about 288 million miles) since launch on October 15, 1997.
Over the past week, Cassini began transmitting previously recorded
data from last week's engineering checkout of the European Space Agency's
Huygens probe. This health-check of Huygens occurs every six months. The
data are forwarded to the Huygens team in Europe for analysis. The remainder
of the engineering checkout data from Huygens is scheduled to be transmitted
from the spacecraft next week.
#####
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=SANA=
Дата: 06 апреля 1998 (1998-04-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: * SpaceNews 30-Mar-98 *
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SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC0330
* SpaceNews 30-Mar-98 *
BID: $SPC0330
=========
SpaceNews
=========
MONDAY MARCH 30, 1998
SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA. It
is published every week and is made available for non-commercial use.
* NEW SPUTNIK PLANNED *
The spare Sputnik satellite that was delivered to Mir along with the Sputnik
model that was deployed from Mir late last year is expected to undergo an
upgrade and be deployed from Mir in the latter part of 1998. The upgrade
will consist of replacing the battery and control boards, and install
circuitry that will allow the satellite to make voice announcements in
French, Russian, and English.
[Info via Miles Mann, WF1F]
* OSCAR-11 UPDATE *
After ground control operations that took place during the third week of
March, the 145.826 MHz VHF-FM beacon is now transmitting normally. Strong
signals have been received from UoSAT-OSCAR-11. Telemetry shows that the
S-band beacon is ON. Telemetry also indicates that there is a reduction
in the 14 volt line current of about 50 mA and a reduction in the +5 volt
current of about 25 mA. The reason for these changes is not widely known.
A new WOD survey of channels 1, 2, 3, 61 (magnetometers) dated 19-Mar-98
has been started. Anyone using this survey should note the unusual starting
time of 16:00:05 UTC.
[Info via Clive Wallis, G3CWV]
* TECHSAT LAUNCH NEWS *
Speaking on behalf of AMSAT, Shlomo Menuhin 4X1AS announced that at long
last (barring any major difficulties) the Israeli Amateur Radio TECHSAT
II produced at the Technion University in Haifa will be launched in late
April or early May 1998. The satellite will sport a packet radio store
and forward mailbox operating at 9600 baud. The satellite will be
launched from Kazakhstan, and Shlomo will be on hand to represent AMSAT.
[Info via Assi Friedman, 4X1KX/KK7KX]
* STS-90 ORBITAL DATA *
The nominal orbital data for STS-90 was posted on the AMSAT web page at:
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/sarex/orbit.html
STS-90 is scheduled for launch on 16-Apr-98 at 18:19 UTC. Based on this
launch date and time, the following Keplerian elements were computed from
a nominal NASA state vector:
STS-90
1 99990U 98106.79323509 .00057478 13761-7 95196-4 0 12
2 99990 39.0116 358.0277 0021068 2.9536 200.1873 16.01509467 13
Satellite: STS-90
Catalog number: 99990
Epoch time: 98106.79323509
Element set: 1
Inclination: 39.0116 deg
RA of node: 358.0277 deg
Eccentricity: 0.0021068
Arg of perigee: 2.9536 deg
Mean anomaly: 200.1873 deg
Mean motion: 16.01509467 rev/day
Decay rate: 5.74780e-04 rev/day^2
Epoch rev: 1
Checksum: 302
[Info via Ken Ernandes, N2WWD]
* MIREX FILTER PROJECT ARRIVES ON MIR *
The Progress 38 cargo rocket that arrived at Mir in mid-March delivered the
new MIREX-DCI antenna filter to the Russian Mir space station. The filter
will be used to prevent interference from a commercial VHF-FM transmitter
on-board Mir from affecting the sensitivity and performance of the 2-meter
packet radio station on-board Mir. The MIREX-DCI filer is a custom designed
antenna cavity filter that will block the offending signal with a combination
of passband and notch filters. The filter system is tentatively planned for
installation in the April/May time frame.
The MIREX team would like to thank all of the supporters of the filter project,
including DCI Digital Communications, Inc, SAFEX, and the SAREX Working Group.
[Info via Miles Mann, WF1F -- MIREX Director of Educational Resources]
* FEEDBACK/INPUT WELCOMED *
Comments and input for SpaceNews should be directed to the editor (John,
KD2BD) via any of the paths listed below:
WWW : http://www.njin.net/~magliaco/
PACKET : KD2BD @ KS4HR.NJ.USA.NA
INTERNET : kd2bd@amsat.org, magliaco@email.njin.net
SATELLITE : AMSAT-OSCAR-16, LUSAT-OSCAR-19, KITSAT-OSCAR-25
<<=- SpaceNews: The first amateur newsletter read in space! -=>>
<<=- Serving the planet for 10 years -=>>
/EX
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- John A. Magliacane, KD2BD -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Internet : kd2bd@amsat.org | Voice : +1.732.224.2948
Satellite : AO-16, LO-19, KO-25 | Morse : -.- -.. ..--- -... -..
Packet : KD2BD @ KS4HR.NJ.USA.NA | WWW : http://www.njin.net/~magliaco/
Video : 426.250 MHz/439.250 MHz | FAX : +1.732.224.2060
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Linux: An OS That Doesn't Break Like Glass -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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=SANA=
Дата: 06 апреля 1998 (1998-04-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: * SpaceNews 06-Apr-98 *
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SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC0406
* SpaceNews 06-Apr-98 *
BID: $SPC0406
=========
SpaceNews
=========
MONDAY APRIL 6, 1998
SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA. It
is published every week and is made available for non-commercial use.
* MIREX SCHOOL DAY TEST PLANNED *
To permit maximum participation by schools and students in a joint MIR
communicatons experiment, the MIREX team has authorized a special MIREX
School Day test on April 27th 1998 between 1000 and 2300 UTC. The purpose
of the test is to improve the understanding of students about the Space
Station and demonstrate the factors involved in space communications using
amateur radio. Of the many schools to participate, even schools for the
deaf and disabled will be able to experience the event through their
computer displays.
There is no limit to the number of stations that can participate, since any
amateur radio station at any school in the world may monitor the downlink of
the test. All stations will be able to capture and log communications from
both MIR itself and the other schools authorized to transmit. Due to the
limited capacity on the uplink, however, the number of stations authorized
to transmit will be limited to under 100 per footprint area. In general,
only schools and other youth group demonstrations will be authorized to
transmit. For planning purposes, schools intending to transmit should
send Email to wb4apr@amsat.org including the following brief information:
1) Callsign and Point of contact
2) School Name or affiliation
3) Number of students that might participate
4) Equipment used at the School (power and antenna type)
After the test, the MIREX team would like to hear about any media coverage
or any interesting observations or special events at your site.
To allow the maximum probability of success on each orbit, schools will
transmit via UI frames and the experiment will proceed in phases. As each
phase is successfully accomplished, then additional complexity may be added
to the experiment. This phased approach makes sure that everyone gets an
equal chance of success without congestion while allowing for additional
capacity if it exists.
The MIR packet system will downlink a brief BULLETIN once every 3 minutes.
Each school should expect to capture these bulletins at some time during
the pass.
Concurent with the Bulletin Phase, the next objective is for each transmitting
school to successfully relay a position/status report via MIR and for all
other schools to receive them. A position packet will look something like
this:
W3ADO>GGggGG,R0MIR*:]k[ US Naval Academy. 75 Students 35w. Hi MIR!
Here, the GGggGG is the stations grid square which is sufficient to locate
the school to within about 3 miles. The ]k[ is the map ICON for a school.
Stations may transmit these single packets at about a one-a-minute rate
until successful. Once they see their position in the downlink, then they
should stop sending their position.
After each school has captured one full page of position packets (16
stations) from other schools, indicating others are being successful and
their station is hearing the downlink, then the authorized schools may send
a single message packet to any other station. For each additional page of
16 positions that each school captures, it may send additional packets up
to a maximum of 5.
A special version of packet software called MIRMON has been donated for
unlimited use during this experiment. MIRMON will capture all position
reports, bulletins and messages and give schools a consistent display of
the event. The software may be downloaded and further test details as well
as a replay of the last such experiment are available on the Naval Academy
MIREX WEB page at the following URL:
http://web.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/mirex.html
Schools with at least a 2m FM 25 watt transceiver, an omni-directional
antenna, and a conventional TNC should be successful. Individual hams
wishing to participate are welcome to monitor the test in RECEIVE ONLY,
or to visit a school and set up a demonstration to qualify to transmit.
This means all stations should be manned and not operated unattended.
Even schools without current ham radio equipment can monitor the event
via the live Web pages above and also at www.mirex.net. The MIREX Team
is trying to find dedicated ground stations, at least one per continent,
that can link their receiver to a growing MIREX network. Currently there
are feeds in the Eastern USA, Mexico, and Spain under construction. To
see the combined feed from these stations, browse the web site above or
telnet to www.mirex.net. For school info contact Bob at: wb4apr@amsat.org.
[Info via Dr. Dave Larsen, N6CO -- MIREX President]
* FUJI-OSCAR-29 NEWS *
On a pass at 0800 UTC on 27-Mar-98, the FO-29 spacecraft command station
detected two bit errors in the satellite's On Board Computer (OBC) while
attempts were made to switch the satellite into mode JD 1200. Resetting
the computer and reloading software will take a while, so the satellite
will remain in Mode JA until further notice.
[Info via Kazu Sakamoto, JJ1WTK]
* FEEDBACK/INPUT WELCOMED *
Comments and input for SpaceNews should be directed to the editor (John,
KD2BD) via any of the paths listed below:
WWW : http://www.njin.net/~magliaco/
PACKET : KD2BD @ KS4HR.NJ.USA.NA
INTERNET : kd2bd@amsat.org, magliaco@email.njin.net
SATELLITE : AMSAT-OSCAR-16, LUSAT-OSCAR-19, KITSAT-OSCAR-25
<<=- SpaceNews: The first amateur newsletter read in space! -=>>
<<=- Serving the planet for 10 years -=>>
/EX
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- John A. Magliacane, KD2BD -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Internet : kd2bd@amsat.org | Voice : +1.732.224.2948
Satellite : AO-16, LO-19, KO-25 | Morse : -.- -.. ..--- -... -..
Packet : KD2BD @ KS4HR.NJ.USA.NA | WWW : http://www.njin.net/~magliaco/
Video : 426.250 MHz/439.250 MHz | FAX : +1.732.224.2060
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Linux: An OS That Doesn't Break Like Glass -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 06 апреля 1998 (1998-04-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: Space Access '98 Hotel, Speakers Update
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Space Access '98 Hotel Info, Latest Speakers List/Schedule
** SA'98 Hotel Room Reservations Info (April 17-19) **
The latest from the Safari Resort is that our conference hotel is
fully booked for the nights of Friday April 17th and Saturday April
18th. If you're looking for a room for Space Access '98, we still
recommend you call the Safari first (602 945-0721) since some
cancellations will undoubtedly occur as the conference approaches.
Unless the hotel falls back to 80% or less booked (unlikely) they
are no longer obliged to offer our $64 "Space Access" rate on rooms
that do open up - though it can't hurt to ask. Our information is
that regular rates for our weekend run $75 and up.
If you have no luck with the Safari, here's a list of other hotels
nearby. The Days Inn is right across the street; the rest are from
a half mile to a mile away, scattered about downtown Scottsdale.
Reserve a room ASAP; it's looking like a heavily booked weekend.
- Days Inn, 4710 N Scottsdale, 947-5411 (right across the street)
- Hampton Inn, 4415 N Civic Plaza, 941-9400
- Holiday Inn, 7353 E Indian School, 994-9203
- Ramada Valley Ho, 6850 Main st, 945-6321
- Rodeway Inn, 7110 E Indian School, 946-3456
** Space Access '98 Presenters/Panelists List **
(confirmed)
- NASA Future-X (Phil Sumrall)
- Lockheed-Martin (Jerry Rising)
- Kelly Space & Technology (Mike Kelly)
- Universal Space Lines (Tim Kyger)
- Pioneer Rocketplane (Mitchell Burnside Clapp)
- Rotary Rocket Company (Gary Hudson)
- Max Hunter
- Manuel Vega, FAA AST
- Microcosm (Bob Conger)
- Henry Spencer
- USAF Phillips Lab
- Shubber Ali, KPMG
- Bruce Dunn, on a Low Cost Upper Stage
- ERPS (Michael Wallis)
- Orbital Sciences Corporation (Tim Lewis)
- Tim Pleasant, on Space Law & Regulatory Issues
- Rick Tumlinson, SFF and The CATS Prize
- Les Tennen, of Stearns & Tennen
- Rand Simberg, Interglobal Spacelines
- Advent/CAAC (Harry Dace)
(invited)
- Kistler Aerospace
- Boeing
- Space Access PLC
** Space Access '98 Schedule **
(We should have a detailed list of confirmed presentations, panels,
and times by early next week.)
Friday April 17th
4 pm - registration and display space setup (call 602 431-9283 for
display rates) opens in the Safari "B" conference hall,
SA'98 Hospitality opens in suite 311.
8 pm - introductory presentations and panels, kicking off with
Henry Spencer on various controversies in the field.
Saturday April 18th
8 am - registration and hospitality suite open.
8:30 am to 12:30 pm - presentations, with half-hour break midway.
12:30 pm to 2 pm - lunch break, your chance to check out the many
fine restaurants within a few minutes walk and perhaps do a bit of
business too. (There are no formal meal functions at SA'98.)
2 pm to 6 pm - presentations, with half-hour break midway.
6 pm to 8 pm - dinner break.
8 pm - evening presentations and panels begin.
Sunday April 19th
8 am - registration and hospitality suite open.
8:30 am to 12:30 pm - presentations, with half-hour break midway.
12:30 pm to 2 pm - lunch break.
2 pm to 6 pm - presentations, with half-hour break midway.
6 pm - SA'98 formal program ends. Our hospitality suite will stay
open till late for those not flying out Sunday.
SA'98 Background Info, Registration Form
Space Access '98 is Space Access Society's sixth annual conference
on the technology, politics, and business of radically cheaper space
transportation, with increased emphasis this year on the
entrepreneurial sector. SA'98 is two weeks away, Friday evening
April 17th through Sunday evening April 19th, at the Safari Resort,
twenty minutes via "Super Shuttle" van from Phoenix airport, at 4611
N Scottsdale Road (a block north of Camelback Road, at the "Fashion
Square" mall entrance stoplight) in downtown Scottsdale Arizona with
plenty of fine dining and shopping in easy walking distance.
Our conference style is informal, with no papers required or
proceedings published - we try to bring together the players in the
emerging cheap access industry, ask them for talks on what they
think, where they are, and where they're headed, and give them an
opportunity to talk and make deals with each other and other
interested parties in an informal relaxed atmosphere. The results
have been good to date. Be there!
Phoenix is a hub for Southwest and America West airlines, and served
by most of the other majors. By the way, if you want to head home
Sunday night, book your flight ASAP, as this is still a time of year
when lots of people from colder places like to weekend in Phoenix,
and flights out on Sunday nights fill up early. (Our formal program
ends 6 pm Sunday, but we will keep our famous hospitality suite open
late Sunday night for those staying over.)
SA'98 registration is $100 in advance, $120 at the door. $10 off for
SAS members. SAS membership is $30/year. SA'98 student rate $30, no
SAS membership discount. (Cash or check only - sorry, we're not set up
to handle credit cards.) Mail checks for advance conference
registration with a printout of this form to:
SAS, 4855 E Warner Rd #24-150, Phoenix AZ 85044
Name ____________________________________________
Organization ______________________________________
(optional, will appear on SA'98 badge)
Address __________________________________________
City _____________________ State ____ Zip ___________
Email ______________________________________
(needed for emailing Space Access Updates if you join SAS)
Phone ______________________________________
(optional, please indicate day or evening)
** SAS Info **
Space Access Society's sole purpose is promoting radically cheaper
access to space, ASAP. We think it's possible within ten years,
with a little luck and a lot of hard work. Join us and help us make
it happen! SAS membership is $30 for one year, which gets you
emailed Space Access Updates the instant they pass final edit, plus
discounts on our annual conference (Space Access '98, April 17-19
1998 in Scottsdale AZ). Donations also gratefully accepted, as long
as you're not a government aerospace contractor potentially affected
by our policies.
Be sure to include an email address (for Updates) with your SAS
membership, or get (slightly delayed) Updates on our website,
www.space-access.org
"Reach low orbit and you're halfway to anywhere in the Solar System."
- Robert A. Heinlein, as passed along
by G. Harry Stine
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 06 апреля 1998 (1998-04-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: Dust Ring Discovered Around Jupiter
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MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
Contact: Jane Platt April 3, 1998
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
NEW CLASS OF DUST RING DISCOVERED AROUND JUPITER
Scientists have found evidence for a new ring of dust that
occupies a backward orbit around Jupiter, based on computer
simulations and data from NASA's Galileo spacecraft, it is
reported in today's issue of Science magazine.
A team led by researchers at the University of Colorado at
Boulder reported that a faint, doughnut-shaped ring of
interplanetary and interstellar dust some 1,126,000 kilometers in
diameter (about 700,000 miles) appears to be orbiting the giant
planet. Evidence for the new ring's existence comes from
computer simulations that correlate with data collected by a dust
detector aboard the Galileo spacecraft has detected this ring by
capturing some of its dust, said Dr. Joshua Colwell, a research
associate at the university's Laboratory for Atmospheric and
Space Physics.
Surprisingly, the researchers say, most of the interstellar
and interplanetary dust particles appear to be in a "retrograde"
orbit -- that is, moving in the opposite direction of the
rotating planet and its moons, Colwell said. The reason for the
backward orbit of the tiny particles is not yet clear, he said.
The paper in Science magazine was authored by Colwell,
research associate Dr. Mihaly Horanyi, also of the Laboratory for
Atmospheric and Space Physics, and planetary scientist Dr.
Eberhard Grun of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in
Heidelberg, Germany, who is the principal investigator on
Galileo's dust detector.
The Galileo mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA. JPL is a division of the
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA.
NASA's Voyager 2 detected an uneven dust ring around Jupiter
in 1979 that scientists believe was created by the collisions of
small moonlets with micrometeoroids in the Jovian system. But
the newly identified ring of dust with smoke-size particles
originating from beyond the Jovian system appears to be much
larger, more sparse and, possibly unique in the solar system.
"I suspect we may wind up seeing something similar at
Saturn," said Colwell. Launched in 1997, NASA's Cassini
spacecraft will reach the ringed planet in 2004.
#####
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 06 апреля 1998 (1998-04-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - April 1998 [1/17]
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This is the April 1998 "SpaceViews" (tm) newsletter, published by the
Boston chapter of the National Space Society.
For a description of related e-mail lists maintained by the Boston NSS, or
to stop receiving this SpaceViews newsletter, see the instructions at the
end of this message.
The next Boston meeting is Sunday, April 5, 1998, 7:00pm
8th floor, 545 Main Street (Tech Square), Cambridge; see "Upcoming Boston
NSS Events"
Special Event: "From the Earth to the Moon" Viewing Party
Future meetings are on the first Thursdays of each month:
May 7, June 4, July 2
SpaceViews is available on the WWW at http://www.spaceviews.com (NEW!)
and by FTP from ftp.seds.org in directory /pub/info/newsletters/spaceviews
See the very end for information on membership, reprinting, copyright, etc.
Copyright (C) 1997 by Boston Chapter of National Space Society,
a non-profit educational 501(c)3 organization.
All articles in SpaceViews represent the opinions of the authors and do not
necessarily represent the views of the Editor, the National Space Society
(NSS), or the Boston chapter of the NSS.
S P A C E V I E W S
Volume Year 1998, Issue 4
April 1998
http://www.spaceviews.com/1998/04/
*** News ***
Report: Station Costs and Delays Bigger than Expected
Space Tourism Report Released
New Evidence for Past Mars Life
Astronauts Discuss Life on Mir
NASA Plans "Face on Mars" Images
Busy International Launch Schedule
Europe Drops Moon Mission Plans
Iridium Makes Pact with Radio Astronomers
Asteroid Threat Discussed in Online Chat
Russian Comsat Fails
SpaceViews Event Horizon
Other News
*** Articles ***
Operation Mona: America's First Moon Program
In the Eye of March Storm
"Mars: The Living Planet" Rebuttal
*** Book Reviews ***
Sharing the Universe
Two Books on Exotic Astrophysics
Heavenly Knowledge
Outer Space Directory
*** NSS News ***
Upcoming Boston NSS Events
Boston NSS March Lecture Summary
Europa Ocean Explorer Project
NSS Sponsors Live Online "From the Earth to the Moon" Chats
NSS Chapter Updates
*** Regular Features ***
Jonathan's Space Report No. 353
Space Calendar
Editor's Note: Please take the opportunity some time in the near future to
complete the 1998 SpaceViews Survey, which will be mailed shortly after
this issue. It's your opportunity to help shape the future of the
publication!
Also check out our new "Space in the Movies" special section on the
SpaceViews Web site (http://www.spaceviews.com/features/movies) with
information about upcoming space-related movies.
-- Jeff Foust, Editor
jeff@spaceviews.com
*** News ***
Report: Station Costs and Delays Bigger than Expected
In a report to be delivered to Congress and NASA, an independent
panel estimates that space station costs will be up to $3 billion more
than even the highest NASA estimates, and completion will be delayed by
up to 3 years.
The report, according to the Monday, March 23 issue of the Wall
Street Journal, estimates that the total cost of the station could go as
high as $24 billion. Earlier this month, NASA Administrator Dan Goldin
estimated the total cost of the station at $20.6 billion, about $3
billion more than 1993 estimates.
The report places the blame on the overruns on "overly
optimistic" cost estimates by NASA and Boeing, the prime contractor for
the International Space station; Russian delays; the addition of new
equipment like the X-38 crew return vehicle; and too-low spending caps
set by Congress in 1993.
"Hopefully, Congress is going to accept this as the realistic
estimate," Jay Chabrow, chair of the independent panel, told Florida
Today. "They can either give NASA what they need or they can come up
with some political polemic which has nothing to do with the facts."
At least one member of Congress is planning action based on the
report. "This thing is continuing to spiral out of control," Sen. John
McCain (R-AZ), chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, told the Wall
Street Journal. "There may be a requirement for some kind of
restructuring. We just can't keep up."
McCain told the Journal that he plans to hold hearings on the
report in the near future.
Some members of Congress, however, challenged Chabow's assertion
that the fault for the cost caps should be placed on Congress. McCain
and House Science Committee head James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) issued a
joint press release March 27, pointing out that the $2.1 billion a year
cost cap was chosen by President Clinton in 1993.
"We have repeatedly expressed concern about the escalating cost
overruns for the Space Station," McCain said. "It is unconscionable that
now NASA is trying to blame us for its problems of mismanagement and
poor planning."
A NASA spokesman told Florida Today that they would withhold
comment on the report until they received and reviewed a copy of the
report.
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 06 апреля 1998 (1998-04-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - April 1998 [2/17]
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Space Tourism Report Released
A report by NASA and a private group, released Wednesday, March
25, concluded that "serious national attention" by government, aerospace
companies, and tourism companies, should be given to promoting space
tourism.
The "General Public Space Travel and Tourism" report by NASA and
the Space Transportation Association was released at a press conference
March 25 that featured the authors of the study as well as three members
of Congress. The report was the cumulation of two years of study, which
included a conference on space tourism last year.
"This study concludes that serious national attention should now
be given to activities that would enable the expansion of today's
terrestrial space tourism businesses, and the creation of in-space
travel and tourism businesses," the summary of the report stated.
The reported noted that the current market for space tourism is
small because of the high cost of space access, but that the market
could grow dramatically as cheap access to space becomes viable. The
study stated that improvements in technology and operations should allow
passenger prices to fall to at least $50,000, and perhaps $10,000 to
$20,000, ten years from now.
At a per-ticket price of $50,000, "it is believed that there
could be [on] the order of 500,000 space trip passengers/year," the
report concluded. Transporting that many people to and from orbit would
require roughly 1,000 times the current annual American space payload,
the report concluded, but would still be far less than commercial
airline traffic.
The report made a number of recommendations to further space
tourism. The study authors called on NASA to continue research in
reduced launch costs, and also suggested that the space shuttle and
International Space Station be used for "public tourist R &;D [research
and development] and initial 'demonstration' merchandising activities."
The report also called on a number of private companies, from
aerospace firms to cruise lines, hotels, and adventure tour operators,
to consider the possibilities of space tourism. The report suggested
the use of lotteries and auctions for early space tourism programs so
that they are "conducted in an egalitarian fashion" and paid for with
private funds.
The report got a positive response from space activists. "It is
clear with the release of today's study that the question to ask about
developing a space tourism industry is no longer 'can it ever happen,'
but rather 'how long until it does,'" Pat Dasch, executive director of
the National Space Society, said.
Commenting on the presence of the Congressmen, including Rep.
Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), chair of the space subcommittee of the House
Science Committee, Dasch noted, "To hear our elected officials recognize
and articulate the value of space tourism as an industry is encouraging.
We heartily agree with Mr. Rohrabacher's assessment of that value as
'permitting the dreamers to participate personally.'"
New Evidence for Past Mars Life
Scientists have found new evidence that a meteorite from Mars
does contain evidence of ancient primitive life on the Red Planet, the
Boston Globe reported Saturday, March 21.
At the annual Lunar and Planetary Sciences Conference in Houston
Friday, March 20, scientists announced that meteorite ALH 84001, in
which a NASA-academia team first reported evidence for past life in
1996, contains a mineral in a crystal form only produced on Earth by
organisms.
The new research, performed by some of the same scientists who
were involved with the 1996 announcement, studied a crystalline form of
magnetite, a magnetic mineral that can be produced both by basic
chemical processes and by living organisms on Earth. However, the
crystals of magnetite seen within ALH 84001 have the same unusual
hexagonal form seen in those created only by terrestrial microbes.
"We don't know of any nonbiological process" than could produce
the crystals, the Globe quoted Kathie Thomas-Keprta as saying.
Thomas-Keprta reported the new findings Friday and was also one of the
researchers in the original Mars life analysis.
David McKay, the Johnson Space Center scientist who was the lead
author of the original Mars life paper, called the new findings "our
strongest evidence" for past life on Mars, he told the Globe.
Another presentation disputed recent claims that the meteorite
was contaminated by organic compounds in the Antarctic ice is landed in
over 10,000 years ago. Simon Clemett of Stanford University reported
that some compounds found in the meteorite are very different that
organic compounds found in the ice, making it possible to distinguish
between terrestrial contamination and Martian organic material.
Two studies published in January claimed the meteorite had been
contaminated by terrestrial organic materials, putting in doubt one of
the key pieces of evidence for life from the meteorite, the discovery of
organic compounds possibly formed by living organisms on Mars.
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 06 апреля 1998 (1998-04-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - April 1998 [3/17]
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Astronauts Discuss Life on Mir
The current astronaut on the space station Mir described life on
the space station during a live Webcast March 23, while a former Mir
astronaut spoke out about conditions on the station a few days later.
Andy Thomas, who has spent two months on Mir, spoke for twenty
minutes with actor Alan Alda March 23 in an interview that was broadcast
live on the Internet. Alda, host of the PBS series "Scientific American
Frontiers", interviewed Thomas for a future episode.
In the interview, Thomas said he had adapted quite well to life
on the station. Noting that life in weightless in a cramped space
station is a "completely unnatural state", he noted that at first "I
thought I would never adapt."
However, Thomas said he quickly adjusted to life on Mir. "It's
amazing how quickly it's become the natural state of things," he said.
"It's one of the biggest challenges I've had, and certainly one of the
most rewarding."
A few days later, former astronaut Jerry Linenger, who spent
four months on Mir a year ago, told the Orlando Sentinel that the time
had come to retire the aging station. "You need to know when somebody's
ready to retire and retire with dignity," he said.
Linenger described a brief but harrowing fire on the station in
February 1997, when at times it appeared uncertain that the crew would
be able to escape alive. He said the smoke was so thick he could not
see his hand in front of his face, and had problems finding a working
air mask.
Linenger also described communications problems between the
ground and Mir, including the inability to get regular e-mail messages.
Andy Thomas has experienced similar problems while on Mir, as Russian
officials have refused to radio e-mail messages for Thomas to Mir.
Life on Mir continues to be fairly normal. On April 1 the two
Russian cosmonauts on Mir, Talgat Musabayev and Nikolai Budarin, began a
series of five spacewalks scheduled for the next three weeks to make
repairs outside the station.
The April 1 spacewalk was to stabilize a bent solar panel on the
damaged Spektr module. However, delays in setting up the equipment
needed for the repair, including mounting handholds and footrails, have
delayed the repairs until an April 6 spacewalk.
NASA Plans "Face on Mars" Images
NASA announced Thursday, March 26, plans to return images next
month from the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft of specific regions
on the Red Planet, including the infamous "Face on Mars" feature which
some claim to be an artifact made by an extraterrestrial intelligence.
The imaging of the Martian surface will begin on March 27,
shortly after the spacecraft suspends its aerobraking procedure. NASA
plans to image certain areas of interest on the planet, including
spacecraft landing sites and the Cydonia region, where the Face is
located, in the first month after aerobraking.
"Global Surveyor will have three opportunities in the next month
to see each of the sites," said MGS project manager Glenn Cunningham.
"The sites will be visible about once every eight days, and we'll have a
30- to- 50-percent chance of capturing images of the sites each time."
The reason the odds of capturing images of the sites is low is
from uncertainties in the spacecraft position and the direction its
camera is pointing. Moreover, previous MGS observations showed that
errors of up to 1 to 2 km (0.6 to 1.2 mi.) in the location of objects
exist in maps made of the surface from Viking spacecraft images in the
1970s.
NASA is taking great steps to show that the Face, seen in Viking
data and interpreted by some as a relic from a past Martian
civilization, is nothing more than a natural phenomenon. Carl Pilcher,
acting space science director at NASA headquarters, said most scientists
agree the Face is natural, but, "we also believe it is appropriate to
seek to resolve speculation about features in the Cydonia region by
obtaining images when it is possible to do so."
A small but vocal group of people have claimed the feature was
artificial, and possibly an alien artifact, and have claimed that NASA
has withheld evidence about the face and obstructed plans for future
observations. Those people include Richard Hoagland, author of the book
"The Monuments of Mars"
NASA also announced plans to image the landing sites of the two
Viking landers and Mars Pathfinder. Scientists will combine the images
with the data collected by the landers to provide some "ground truth" to
tie the two sets of observations together.
An exact timetable of the observations, and schedule of release
of images from those observations, was announced as the orbit was
finalized. The first Cydonia mapping attempt will be on April 5.
MGS will collect images and other data about Mars during a
nearly six-month break in the aerobraking process. The extended
aerobraking process was dictated by the bending of a solar panel which
did not properly lock into position after launch in 1996. Aerobraking
will resume in September and finish in March 1999, when the spacecraft
is placed in its final mapping orbit.
Busy International Launch Schedule
The latter half of March was marked by a series of Russian,
Chinese, European, and American launches of satellites, from Mir cargo
to more Iridium satellites.
A Russian Progress spacecraft was launched March 15, and docked
with the station two days later. The spacecraft carried food and other
supplies for the station, including new wrenches to replace ones broken
during an aborted March 4 spacewalk effort. Progress also carried a new
attitude control thruster module that will be mounted outside the
station later this month.
An Atlas II booster launched a Navy communications satellite
from Cape Canaveral March 16. The Navy Ultra High Frequency (UHF)
Follow-On F8 satellite is the first of three new geosynchronous
communications satellites the Navy will use to broadcast messages to new
mobile receivers.
An Ariane 4 booster launched the SPOT 4 remote sensing satellite
Monday evening, March 23, from Kourou, French Guiana. The satellite,
funded largely by the French space agency CNES, will spend five years in
a Sun-synchronous orbit using instruments that include a multispectral
camera and a visible/infrared camera optimized for studying vegetation.
Two launches in late March placed seven more Iridium satellites
into orbit. A Chinese Long March 2C launched two satellites from the
Taiyuan launch site March 25, while a Delta II placed five more in orbit
March 30 from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The Delta II launch had been
delayed a week by high winds.
The two Iridium launches now mean 56 satellites of the
66-satellite cluster are currently in working orbits. Three more
launched scheduled for April, including a Proton, Long March, and Delta
launch, will place the remainder in orbit as well as several on-orbit
spares.
The Iridium system of global wireless phone service is scheduled
to become operational this September.
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 06 апреля 1998 (1998-04-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - April 1998 [4/17]
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Europe Drops Moon Mission Plans
The European Space Agency has dropped plans to send a pair of
unmanned spacecraft to explore the Moon early next decade, just a few
weeks after publicly announcing the proposal.
At a meeting of ESA member nations March 26, the Euromoon 2000
program was dropped. ESA director-general Antonio Rodota said the
"financial risks inherent in the mission" were too great for the member
nations to shoulder, according to UPI.
The Euromoon 2000 mission would have featured a small orbiter,
LunarSat, launched in the year 2000 as a secondary payload on an Ariane
5 booster. The spacecraft would have mapped the area where, the
following year, the Euromoon Lander would have set down.
ESA planned to target the lander for the south polar regions of
the Moon, where deposits of ice crystals are believed to exist in
permanently-shadowed patches of regolith. The project had been under
study for 10 months when ESA announced its existence on March 6, one day
after Lunar Prospector scientists reported evidence of water ice in the
regolith.
ESA had what it termed an "innovative and ambitious
implementation plan" which required partnerships with industry and
sponsorships to raise some of the funds for the mission. ESA planned to
contribute 50 million ECU (US$53 million) of the 200 million ECU (US$212
million) cost of the program.
Rodota said the very fast schedule for the mission would require
"serious overspending" to keep on track, which would discourage industry
investors. General ESA funding problems, which also threaten other
science missions like Mars Express, contributed to the decision.
No new NASA or ESA missions to the moon are currently funded.
Two American companies, LunaCorp and Applied Space Resources, are
planning their own missions to the Moon in the next several years using
private investments, not government funds.
Iridium Makes Pact with Radio Astronomers
Motorola and a key radio astronomy center reached an agreement
Wednesday, March 18, to allow several hours a day of interference-free
observing at the world's largest radio telescope.
The agreements means that the Arecibo radio telescope will be
free of radio interference from the constellation of 66 Iridium
satellites for eight hours a day when Iridium goes online this fall.
Under the agreement, satellites will avoid broadcasts when
passing over the Arecibo site between 10pm and 6am Eastern time. The
agreement also allows for additional protected times for specific
scientific opportunities as they arise.
Radio astronomers were concerned about the Iridium system's
interference at a key radio frequency, 1612 megahertz. Hydroxyl (OH)
ions, commonplace in the galaxy, emit at that frequency, and their
signals would be drowned out by the more powerful Iridium broadcasts.
Hydroxyl ions are produced in red giant stars and are seen in
interstellar dust clouds, and serve as a tracer for galaxy evolution.
"This agreement is a good compromise in protecting astronomers'
ability to observe at this frequency," said Paul Goldsmith, a Cornell
University astronomy professor and director of the National Astronomy
and Ionosphere Center (NAIC), which operates Arecibo.
"Some radio astronomers may have felt that they were entitled to
24 hours a day, but I'm happy that both sides could agree to eight,"
Goldsmith said. "The agreement should help radio astronomy and
communications' use of the spectrum to coexist productively."
Arecibo is operated by the NAIC, which receives its funding from
the National Science Foundation. The NAIC is headquartered at Cornell
University.
The Arecibo telescope, 305 meters (1,000 feet) in diameter, was
recently upgraded to improve its sensitivity. "We're very pleased that
the agreement will help us fully exploit the newly upgraded Arecibo
telescope," said Hugh Van Horn, director of astronomy programs at the
NSF.
While the Iridium agreement will help Arecibo, radio astronomers
are concerned in general about the proliferation of communications
systems that threaten the ability of Arecibo and other radio
observatories to do science. "We must worry about interference with
observations at other frequencies and at other radio telescopes as
well," said Michael Davis, chair of the National Research Council's
Committee on Radio Frequencies. "It's vital to protect access to these
very faint whispers of natural radiation that tell us so much about the
universe."
Asteroid Threat Discussed in Online Chat
The dangers of an asteroid or comet impacting the Earth, both in
reality and on the big screen, were discussed Thursday evening, March
19, in an online chat that featured scientists and cast members of an
upcoming movie.
"Killer Asteroids" was the subject of an online chat on Yahoo!
sponsored by the National Space Society, Time Magazine, and Paramount
Pictures. Featured guests in the chat included astronomer Dr. Pete
Worden, former Johnson Space Center director Gerry Griffin, and two key
figures from the upcoming movie "Deep Impact", co-producer Richard
Zanuck and actor Jon Favreau.
The dangers of an asteroid or comet impact, concerns of which
were heightened last week by the discovery of an asteroid that will pass
within a million kilometers (600,000 mi.), was a key portion of the
chat. Worden and Griffin pointed out the dangers of a large asteroid
impact.
Worden noted that an asteroid 1 kilometer (0.62 mi.) in diameter
striking land would create a crater 16-32 km (10-20 mi.) in diameter and
kill all life within hundreds of miles of the impact site. A water
impact could generate tidal waves that would inundate coastlines
thousands of miles away, killing tens or hundreds of millions.
Such an impact "would be a global catastrophe, but not a
terminal catastrophe," Worden said, who also noted that the odds of
dying in an impact are about the same as dying in a plane crash: about 1
in 20,000.
The previous week's announcement of the future close pass by
asteroid 1997 XF11 has helped promote the upcoming film "Deep Impact,"
about a large comet on a collision course with the Earth, even if the
facts weren't quite clear. "We read all last week how there is in fact
a comet headed towards Earth," Zanuck said, apparently confusing the
fictional comet from his movie with a real asteroid that will miss the
Earth.
Zanuck and others said realism was a major emphasis for the
movie. "In terms of the realism of the movie, it's as real as one could
make it," Griffin, who served as the science advisor for the movie,
said.
"Because there was so much attention to detail in the astronaut
portion, the film was actually quite grueling by acting standards," said
Favreau, who plays an astronaut sent on a mission to intercept the
comet.
Zanuck, who previously co-produced movies like "Jaws" and "The
Sting", believed the movie would raise as much "interest and excitement
as Jaws did when it was released in 1975."
"Deep Impact" is scheduled for release May 8.
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=SANA=
Дата: 06 апреля 1998 (1998-04-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - April 1998 [5/17]
Привет всем!
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Russian Comsat Fails
A Russian communications satellite launched late last year
failed last week, Russian officials reported Monday, March 23.
The Kupon satellite, designed to provide communication services
for Russian's central bank, lost contact with ground stations last week,
apparently when two stabilizers on the spacecraft failed.
A spokesman for NPO Lavochkin, the satellite manufacturer, told
UPI that the failure of Kupon was completely unexpected. "Our engineers
are completely baffled, this is the first failure of this kind in the
history of space flights," he said.
The satellite, located in geostationary orbit, allowed the
Moscow-based Central Bank of Russia to communicate with offices across
the sprawling country. Two more Kupon satellites were planned to
provide global services. It was launched November 12, 1997, on a Proton
rocket from Kazakhstan.
The satellite had an insured value of $70 million.
SpaceViews Event Horizon
April 1 Launch of TRACE satellite on a Pegasus XL off the coast
from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California
April 2 Launch of a Russian Proton rocket carrying seven Iridium
satellites, from Baikonur, Kazakhstan
April 6 Mir spacewalk
April 11 Mir spacewalk
April 16 Mir spacewalk
April 16 Launch of the shuttle Columbia on STS-90, Neurolab
mission
April 17-19 Space Access '98 Conference, Scottsdale, AZ
April 21 Mir spacewalk
April 26-30 Space 98 conference, Albuquerque, NM
May 21-25 International Space Development Conference, Milwaukee,
WI
Other News
Sagan Suit: Publisher Random House has filed a $1.2 million lawsuit
against the estate of the late astronomer Carl Sagan for the return or
book advances, the Wall Street Journal reported March 27. The publisher
claims it gave Sagan and his wide Ann Druyan $1.5 million in an advance
for a book, the third planned in a four-book deal between Sagan and
Random House. The book was due a year ago but never completed; Sagan
died of cancer in December 1996. Druyan wasn't available for comment,
the Journal reported.
Blame It on El Nino: El Nino, the warm-water current that has been
blamed for a variety of abnormal weather conditions around the world, is
also responsible for something else: slowing down the Earth's rotation,
according to scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. El Nino
has caused the Earth's rotation to slow down such that the day is now
0.6 milliseconds longer than it was before it started. The slow down is
caused by the conservation of angular momentum, as the Earth slows down
to compensate for a increase in atmospheric speeds caused by El
Nino-generated spins. The slowdown is temporary, and the Earth will
return to its normal rotation rate after El Nino dissipates. A 1982 El
Nino caused a temporary 0.9 millisecond increase in the length of the
day.
More Kuiper Belt Objects Found: A team of British astronomers have
found two new Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs), each no more than 150 km (93
mi.) in diameter and orbiting about 45 astronomical units (6.75 billion
km, 4.19 billion mi.) from the Sun. The astronomers, led by Alan
Fitzsimmons of Queens's University of Belfast, had expected to find more
objects using a more sensitive camera mounted on a 2.5-meter (100-inch)
telescope at La Palma, Canary Islands, suggesting that fewer KBOs may
exist. Meanwhile, two American scientists have found that KBOs fall
into two color classes: a neutral color and an "extraordinarily red"
color. The color difference suggests different surface compositions for
the two classes of KBOs.
Relativistic Frame Dragging: Scientists using two orbiting spacecraft
have found evidence that the Earth drags spacetime around itself as it
rotates, as predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity, NASA
announced March 27. The American and Italian scientists used data from
two laser-ranging to precisely measure their orbits, and found that the
plane of the orbits of the spacecraft shifted by about two meters (6.5
feet) per year. This shift is about 10 percent greater than that
predicted by theory, but is within their 20-percent margin of error.
Gravity Probe B, a future NASA mission scheduled for launch in 2000,
should reduce the error in the measurements to within one percent.
In Brief: At an aerospace meeting in Beijing last month, Chinese
officials announced plans to launch manned missions in the near future.
It's not the first time China has expressed an intent in human space
flight, though, and no timetable for the missions was announced... Two
small meteors struck the small town of Monahans, Texas, March 22. One
of the two, weighing about 1.4 kg (3 lbs.), landed just 15 meters (50
feet) from a group of boys playing basketball, while another of similar
size landed several hundred meters away. Town officials planned to ship
the meteorites to the Smithsonian Institution... The theme restaurant
craze, which has included restaurants based on music, films, sports, and
fashion, is now reaching out to space. "Mars 2112" is the name of a
theme restaurant scheduled to open in midtown Manhattan this summer.
The restaurant will feature a 400-seat main restaurant and 200-seat
lounge, all done in "an interactive Martian environment" according to
restaurateur Paschal Phelan. "The Martian world is a place where the
natives are friendly, civilized, hospitable and dedicated to fun,"
Phelan said. "The food and atmosphere will be 'out of this world'."
Some might argue that "friendly and hospitable" people would truly be
alien in New York...
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 06 апреля 1998 (1998-04-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - April 1998 [6/17]
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*** Articles ***
Operation Mona: America's First Moon Program
by Andrew J. LePage
Introduction
During the opening months of the Space Age, the American space
program was in total disarray as a wide range of civilian and military
interests vied for control. In the hopes of quickly unifying the
military's research projects and securing a major share of the nation's
future space program for the Department of Defense (DoD), Secretary of
Defense Neil H. McElroy established the Advanced Research Projects Agency
(ARPA) on February 7, 1958. ARPA was charged with coordinating all the
DoD's advanced research, including their space projects, to help eliminate
duplicate efforts. Since the entire space program at this time was
connected in some way to the military, by default ARPA would be in charge
of the American space program until Congress and the Administration made
other arrangements.
On March 27, 1958 President Eisenhower approved McElroy's plan for
ARPA to undertake its first series of space missions. The most ambitious
of these was labeled "Operation Mona" which called for the launching of
five probes to the Moon. Three of these would be lofted by the U.S. Air
Force (USAF) Ballistic Missile Division while the Army Ballistic Missile
Agency (ABMA) would be responsible for the last two. ARPA believed that a
successful military lunar mission would not only help the United States
leap frog ahead of the Soviet Union in the space race but also add
credibility to the military presence in space. It was felt by some that
these missions could help prevent any civilian space agency that Congress
might create from taking an important share of the space program from the
DoD. In addition, the long-distance guidance and tracking experience
gained in the project would be useful for future scientific and weapons
programs.
USAF Moon Probe
The USAF would have the first shot at the Moon with the more
ambitious of the two sets of ARPA probes. For these missions the USAF
planned to use their new Thor-Able rocket as the basis of a launch vehicle.
The two-stage Thor-Able 0 had been cobbled together from existing rocket
components to perform reentry tests of the Atlas ICBM warhead design. USAF
planners felt the Thor-Able 0 could be modified with relative ease into the
three-stage Thor-Able I Space Carrier for their lunar mission.
The first stage of this rocket was the Thor intermediate-range
ballistic missile (IRBM) with a range of 2,600 kilometers (1,600 miles).
The Thor, built by the Douglas Aircraft Company (which became
McDonnell-Douglas and much later merged with Boeing) for the USAF, was
about 18.6 meters (61 feet) long and 2.4 meters (8 feet) in diameter at the
base. The Thor DM1812-6 variant used for the Thor-Able I incorporated a
Rocketdyne MB-3 powerplant burning kerosene and liquid oxygen (LOX) to
produce 668 kilonewtons (150,000 pounds) of thrust.
In the Thor-Able configuration, Thor's nuclear warhead was replaced
with an adapter upon which the upper stages were mounted. These stages
were modified versions of the ones originally developed for the Navy's
Vanguard program. The second stage was modified by STL (Space Technology
Laboratory - a division of TRW) for Douglas Aircraft for the Thor-Able
program. In the Able configuration, the second stage retained its original
0.85 meter (2.8 foot) diameter but it was shortened to 5.8 meters (19 feet)
to optimize its size for the Thor-Able mission. The second stage's
original Aerojet General AJ10-37 liquid propellant rocket engine was
replaced with the substantially improved AJ10-41 engine for the Thor-Able
I.
The third stage was the fiberglass-cased X-248 Altair solid motor
built by Allegheny Ballistic Laboratory. This innovative lightweight motor
had been developed by the Navy as a backup for the more conventional motor
developed by the Grand Central Rocket Company for Vanguard. The X-248 was
later incorporated into several other rocket designs including a high
performance version of the Vanguard. All together, the Thor-Able I was 27
meters (88 feet) tall from its base to the top of its hemispherical
"mushroom cap" payload fairing.
Since the Able stages were essentially the same as those used by
Vanguard, they unfortunately shared many of its problems. By the end of
the summer of 1958, malfunctions in the second stage of the Vanguard were
responsible for four of Vanguard's five failures. During this period the
upper stages of the Vanguard operated correctly only once to place Vanguard
1 into Earth orbit on March 17, 1958 (see "Vanguard 1: The Little Satellite
That Could" in the March 1998 issue of SpaceViews).
The Thor-Able 0 reentry tests were the only additional successes
for this upper-stage design during this time. The first Thor-Able 0 was
launched on April 23, 1958 but blew up 146 seconds into the flight because
of a turbopump failure in the Thor No. 116 first stage. While the payloads
were not recovered, the Thor-Able 0 itself operated successfully on the
flights launched on July 9 and 23 of 1958. Theoretically, the Thor-Able I
could place 160 kilograms (350 pounds) of payload into a 480-kilometer
(300-mile) high orbit or 39 kilograms (85 pounds) into a direct ascent
escape trajectory.
Only months after the launch of the first Earth satellites, the
USAF planned to send its three Moon probes into lunar orbit. Under
contract by the USAF, STL built three 38-kilogram (84-pound)
spin-stabilized probes each carrying 18 kilograms (39 pounds) of scientific
instruments. The orbiter consisted of a wide cylindrical belt joining two
flattened fiberglass cones. At the end of the bottom cone was a ring of
eight vernier solid rockets which could be fired to correct the probe's
trajectory. At the other end of the probe was a single Thiokol Falcon
solid rocket motor that would be fired 65 hours after launch by to slow the
probe into lunar orbit. Removable black and white stripes applied to the
probe's exterior before launch were used for passive thermal control.
The probe's wide belt carried the control systems, batteries,
radio, and scientific instruments to measure magnetic fields, radiation,
and micrometeorites. The USAF probe also carried a simple camera in the
hopes of obtaining the first close-up images of the Moon. This camera
weighed only 400 grams (14 ounces) and consisted of a small parabolic
mirror that focused infrared radiation received from the Moon onto a
special cell. One line of the image would be obtained for each revolution
of the spinning probe. The scene could then be slowly built up one line at
a time as the probe moved in relation to the Moon. On the remote chance
that the probe should accidentally impact the Moon, the spacecraft was
decontaminated to minimize the chances that organisms from Earth would
corrupt any future biological investigations on the Moon. The original
plan called for all three USAF probes to be launched during the summer of
1958.
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Дата: 06 апреля 1998 (1998-04-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - April 1998 [7/17]
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The ABMA Moon Probe
After the USAF launched their three probes, the ABMA was authorized
to proceed with theirs. The ABMA Moon project had its origins in an
early-1956 proposal with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to use a
modified ABMA-developed Jupiter IRBM to launch two deep space probes during
the IGY. With ARPA's approval, Wernher von Braun and his team set out to
build the launch vehicle that they needed for the mission: The Juno 2.
This new launch vehicle consisted of a modified Jupiter IRBM topped with an
improved version of the JPL solid rocket cluster used on the Juno 1 launch
vehicle (see "Project Orbiter: Prelude to America's First Satellite" in the
January 1998 issue of SpaceViews).
As the first stage of the Juno 2, the kerosene and LOX tanks of the
Jupiter retained their original 2.67 meter (8.75 foot) diameter but were
lengthened by a total of 0.92 meters (3.0 feet) making the rocket 16.84
meters (55.24 feet) long. This prolonged the burn time of the 668
kilonewton (150,000 pounds) thrust Rocketdyne S3D engine by 20 seconds to a
total of 182 seconds. Mounted on top of the first stage under an
aerodynamic shroud was the instrument compartment and a JPL-developed,
three-stage solid rocket cluster similar to that used by the ABMA Jupiter C
and Juno 1 rockets. Modifications of this cluster from these earlier
versions included filling the third and fourth stages with a higher
performance propellant and changing the original stainless steel casing of
the fourth stage to a lighter weight titanium casing.
The upper stage cluster of the Juno 2, when used with the Jupiter C
and Juno 1 launch vehicle, was quite reliable if somewhat inaccurate due to
the inconsistent performance of early solid rocket motors. The three
Jupiter C flights were largely successful and two of the three Juno 1
failures were due to an upper stage malfunction. It operated successfully
three times, orbiting Explorers 1, 3, and 4 (see "Explorer: America's First
Satellite" in the February 1998 issue of SpaceViews). Theoretically, the
Juno 2 could place 43 kilograms (95 pounds) of payload in a 480-kilometer
(300-mile) high Earth orbit or up to 7 kilograms (15 pounds) of useful
payload on a direct ascent escape trajectory.
On May 2, 1958 ABMA contracted the builder of the first Explorer
satellites, JPL, to build a pair of tiny probes that the Juno 2 could
launch towards the Moon. Weighing just 5.9 kilograms (13 pounds) each, the
probes were essentially a 23-centimeter (9-inch) wide cone with a
8-centimeter (3-inch) spike antenna on the top. They were 51 centimeters
(20 inches) long and constructed of gold-washed fiberglass. The exterior
was gold plated and striped with paint for passive thermal control. The
electrically conductive gold plating on the cone also served as an
unsymmetrical dipole antenna element in conjunction with the spike antenna.
At the squat cylindrical base of the probe was a despin mechanism
consisting of two 1.5-meter (60-inch) long weighted wires. As the wires
unwound, the payload's spin rate would decrease from 415 to 11 revolutions
per minute. Located inside the probe was a 500-gram (1.1-pound)
transmitter with an effective power of 180 milliwatts. The power supply
for the transmitter and instruments consisted of a set of eighteen mercury
cells.
Originally these JPL-built Moon probes were to carry a tiny
photographic package capable of obtaining a single photograph of the Moon's
far side during a close flyby. A photoelectric triggering device would
trip the camera's shutter when the Moon was in the detector's field of view
and closer than 32,000 kilometers (20,000 miles). But with the discovery
of the Van Allen radiation belts by the first Explorer satellites, the ABMA
Moon probes' primary instrument was changed to a pair of Geiger-Mueller
tubes to obtain data on the radiation environment between the Earth and
Moon. The original photoelectric triggering device was retained as an
engineering test for future systems.
With the new instrument, the mission of this probe was also
changed. Instead of a close flyby, the probe was now destined to impact
the surface of the Moon 33 hours and 45 minutes after launch. Given the
inherent inaccuracy of direct ascent trajectories, the relatively crude
nature of the Juno 2 solid rockets and guidance system, as well as the lack
of any course correction capability, the ABMA Moon probe would be lucky to
make it anywhere near the Moon never mind hit it. Nonetheless, at this
early stage of space exploration a lunar flyby was just as valuable
scientifically as a direct hit. Since the ABMA had to wait until after the
USAF probe launches, September of 1958 was set as the tentative launch date
for their first Moon shot. With luck the ARPA-sponsored Moon probes, in
addition to providing valuable IGY data, would get America ahead of the
Soviet Union in the Space Race.
Bibliography
Kenneth Gatland, Robot Explorers, MacMillan Co., 1972
Andrew J. LePage, "The Great Moon Race: In the Beginning...", EJASA, May 1992
Charles A. Lundquist, "Progress in the Design and Implementation of
Scientific Spacecraft", in Space Research: Proceedings of the First
International Space Science Symposium, edited by Hilde Kallmann Bijl,
Interscience Publishers, pp. 540-562, 1960
William H. Pickering, "History of the Juno Cluster System", in
Astronautical Engineering and Science, edited by Ernst Stuhlinger,
Frederick I. Ordway III, Jerry C. McCall, and George C. Bucher, McGraw-Hill
Book Co., pp. 201-214, 1963
Joel W. Powell, "Thor-Able: America's First Large Multistage Launch
Vehicle", Quest, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 44-45, Summer 1995
Joel W. Powell, "Juno II", Quest, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 58-59, 1996
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Дата: 06 апреля 1998 (1998-04-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - April 1998 [8/17]
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In the Eye of March Storm
by Jeff Foust
It can be hard to believe that a handful of private citizens can
make a significant difference in space policy. Positions seem to be too
entrenched, special interests appear to be to powerful, and elected
officials seem to be too apathetic towards space for any group of citizens
to make a difference.
Yet, over the last few years, the weeklong "March Storm" lobbying
effort, organized by ProSpace, has proven surprisingly effective in shaping
national space policy through the support of specific programs and
legislation. What started with 9 people meeting with 52 Congressional
offices in 1995 had grown to over 50 people meeting with 220 offices just
two years later. Those efforts helped successfully support everything from
Air Force reusable launch vehicle funding to X-33 and the Commercial Space
Act.
How can a few dozen space activists meeting with Congressional
staffers have that much power? I took part in March Storm this year to see
how effective such an effort can be. After walking the halls of Congress
for just a couple days, I'm glad I did.
Training
The 1998 version of March Storm actually started on February 28,
with an optional two-hour briefing session on a Saturday evening, going
over some basic details about how Congress works. The week really got
started early (8:30am) on the following Sunday morning, when all of us --
about 50 -- participating in the event gathered in a meeting room at the
Quality Inn Iwo Jima Hotel in Arlington, Virginia. It was there that we
would go over the presentation we would give to Congressional staffers, and
practice that presentation under a number of circumstances.
To get started, though, we went through a little ice-breaking
exercise. We mingled around the room, and on command, stopped, paired up
with someone, and briefly explained why you spent your own time and money
coming to Washington for March Storm. The idea was to help articulate your
vision, a key towards a successful meeting with a staffer. The exercise
turned out to be quite fun: you got the opportunity to better explain why
you were doing this, and to exchange ideas with other people to help
augment and revise your vision.
After this, the meeting got down to the nuts and bolts of the
presentations we would be giving in the coming week. We went over "A
Citizen's Space Agenda", a ProSpace briefing packet that would be the basis
for our presentations and would also be given to the staffers we met. The
emphasis of the packet was to gain support for three projects and pieces of
legislation that would provide near-, mid-, and long-term support for
opening the space frontier.
The first, immediate objective was to seek support for the
Commercial Space Act. The Act, H.R.1702, passed the House last November and
was at the time about to be considered by a Senate committee. (A week after
March Storm the Senate Commerce committee approved the Act, passing it on
to the full Senate for its consideration.) In addition, we also sought
support for the Civilian Space Authorization Act, another piece of
legislation that had passed the House and was being debated in the Senate
(it, too, was approved by the committee the following week). Both bills
included provisions that would support commercial space.
The second objective was to seek support for new launch vehicle
technology development. This funding would focus on leading-edge
technologies companies were not willing to invest in yet, but could in the
future if they were proven to work. NASA's Future-X program is designed to
do exactly that: test specific new technologies that promise to reduce
launch costs. A major goal of March Storm was to get additional funding,
$100 million for fiscal year 1999, for Future-X, as well as $50 million in
1999 for the Air Force's Military Space Plane, which could have similar
benefits.
The third objective, long-term in scope, was a re-examination of
solar power satellites (SPS). A "Fresh Look" study released last October
showed that SPS could be a feasible source of power, provided that cheap
access to space -- the focus of the first two objectives -- became a
reality. While functioning SPS systems are at least a decade down the road,
studies are needed now to further refine the concept and see what was truly
feasible. The goal of March Storm was to raise this funding from the $5
million planned in 1999 to $25 million.
Once we had gone over the briefing material, we practiced giving
presentations to staffers. While we had a folder stuffed with briefing
packets and supporting material to give to each staffer, we had to be able
to communicate more effectively than by leaving through a packet of
handouts. We weren't there to walk a staffer through a handout page by
page; we were there to communicate our vision of an open space frontier,
and to press upon them the importance of the legislation and programs we
wanted their Congressmen to support.
The practice took us through a series of scenarios, from an
indifferent staffer to one openly hostile to space. We learned the things
to do, and not to do, to effectively communicate with them. By the end of
the day we at least had some idea of what the presentations were going to
be like. Despite the preparation, though, I still felt at least a little
nervous about the presentations that would begin tomorrow. Sunday's
practice had been with fellow space activists. Tomorrow would be the real
thing, trying to convince Congressional staffers of the merits of our
ideas.
Before we adjourned for the night we split up into teams and got
our list of appointments for Monday. Briefings were done in teams of 2 to 4
people. Teams help provide support during your presentation: if you didn't
know the answer to a staffer's question, then someone else on the team
could step in. At least one member of a team would be a veteran of past
March Storms and thus provided guidance for the first-timers. Teams also
allowed one person to concentrate on taking detailed notes of the meeting,
which would be used for followup action and as a reference for future March
Storms.
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Дата: 06 апреля 1998 (1998-04-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - April 1998 [9/17]
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Walking the Halls of Power
On Monday morning we headed over as a group to the Rayburn House
Office Building, whose large basement cafeteria would be our meeting place
during the week. I got together with the others on my team: Frank Johnson,
a March Storm veteran who is a graduate student at MIT; and David Richey, a
fellow first-timer who drove up with several other students from
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida. We had six appointments
Monday, all with staffers for members of the House of Representatives.
Our first meeting Monday morning was with a staffer for a
Republican congressman from upstate New York. I felt a little nervous going
into the meeting, which we held with the staffer in the Congressman's
office (he was out of town). Then we just started to talk. We talked about
our vision of an open space frontier, and why it was important, and what
the staffer's boss could do to support that through legislation and
research programs. All the nervousness went away. We were really just
communicating our vision to yet another person. This was going to be fun.
We soon fell into a rhythm. Before the meeting our team would have
a "pre-briefing" where we went over the background information ProSpace
provided on the member and staffers, and discussed what issues to
emphasize. Not all issues would get the same weight with all staffers: a
meeting with one whose boss is on a defense-related committee might hear
more about the military spaceplane, while a staffer for another Congressman
who's interested in the environment might hear more about the benefits of
solar power satellites. We also planned who would take the lead in giving
the briefing and who would play a supporting role or take notes.
After each briefing we would immediately meet (after walking a safe
distance from the Congressman's office!) for a debriefing to discuss the
results and our impressions. We made note of any specific issues the
staffer raised, their reaction to our request for support for the
legislation and programs, and any interest in follow-up on specific
issues. We'd then move on to the next appointment and repeat the process.
Not all meetings were the same. Some staffers seemed disinterested;
our meetings with them were fairly short. Others, though, took a great
interest in what we were doing, and we had much longer meetings with them
to go into our issues into greater detail. Some meetings were pleasant
surprises. We met with a staffer with the office of Rep. Joseph Kennedy
(Frank's congressman) on Monday. Frank had gone there last year and found
the staffer disinterested. This year, though, were was a new staffer who
took a keen interest in the issues, particularly solar power
satellites. What we had anticipated to be a perfunctory 10-minute meeting
turned into a discussion lasting over a half-hour.
At the end of the day all of us March Stormers would gather
together for dinner to discuss the day's events: the highs, the lows, and
the just plain unusual. We exchanged notes and planned for the next day's
meetings. It was a chance to relax after a long day of meetings (each team
generally had 6-7 meetings a day) and, for those who were staying, get
ready for the next day's set of meetings. This would continue throughout
the week. By the end of the week 48 people has met with 246 Congressional
offices.
Judging March Storm's Effectiveness
There was clearly no lack of effort put into March Storm by the
people who participated or the ProSpace volunteers who helped put it
together. But how has that effort translated into results?
Charles Miller, head of ProSpace, sees the biggest progress being
made in the Senate. "Two years ago, before the 1996 March Storm, the
U.S. Senate was considered the 'black hole of space,'" he said. "Almost
nobody knew anything about it there, and there was absolutely zero Senators
who were leaders on the issue."
Former Senate staffer Tim Kyger agrees. With 435 members in the
House, he noted, a statistical distribution means that you'll have at least
a couple of strongly pro-space members. With only 100 Senators, though,
only "every once in a while" will you get a strong pro-space Senator.
That, combined with NASA's low position in a Senate committee more
concerned with communications, aviation, and transportation, meant that
space issues got little attention in the past in the Senate.
"Today, a number of Senators have stepped forward to take an active
leadership role on space, and most Senate offices know something about the
issue," Miller said. "The Senate Commerce Committee staffers responsible
for the Commercial Space Act told me they are receiving calls from staffers
all over the Senate about the bill."
Why the change? Kyger believes that Senate support for the
Commercial Space Act and a NASA authorization bill stems from a number of
reasons, and does not necessarily reflect increased internal interest in
space issues so much as more external support for the legislation,
including backing from NASA and the space industry.
However, March Storm has played a key role in increasing
Congressional awareness about space issues, because the private space
activists, taking their own time and spending their own money to
participate, lack the vested interests commercial lobbyists and government
officials have. Staffers meet with March Stormers and "it blows them away"
that citizens care enough about the issues to go to great lengths to
communicate them, Kyger noted.
Both new and veteran March Stormers saw interest in March Storm
issues from Congressional staffers. "The staffers still react the same way
that they always did, which is with polite interest," Frank Johnson,
participating in his third March Storm, said. "However, I did notice that
the staffers were somewhat more receptive to the possibility of private
space development. It was easier to get them out of the 'space = NASA'
mindset."
"I got an overwhelming sense of support for space-related issues,"
said Dale Gray, who traveled from Boise, Idaho to participate in his first
March Storm. One exception to that support, he noted, was the
International Space Station, whose cost overruns have some under some
criticism.
Both Gray and Johnson are looking forward to participating next
year, schedules and finances permitting. "To me it is important to deliver
the overall vision of private space development by individuals," Johnson
said. "If people can't see their personal future in space then we'll never
get off the ground."
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 06 апреля 1998 (1998-04-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - April 1998 [10/17]
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"Mars: The Living Planet" Rebuttal
by Barry E. DiGregorio
[Editor's Note: In the December 1997 issue of SpaceViews, we published a
review of the book "Mars: The Living Planet" by Barry DiGregorio.
Mr. DiGregorio has requested, and we have granted him, an opportunity to
rebut the review. Please note that this rebuttal and the original review
do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this publication, the National
Space Society or its Boston chapter.]
When I read the unfavorable SpaceViews review of my book "Mars: The
Living Planet" I became concerned because the issue of whether or not life
on Mars exists or existed is perhaps one of the most significant questions
in the history of science.
I became interested in writing this book because after numerous
conversations with Dr. Gilbert V. Levin and about thirty other scientists
(acknowledged in my book), I thought there was good evidence that the
Viking mission to Mars may have in fact, discovered living microbes.
The review says "Mars The Living Planet makes the bold, but
poorly-supported claim: that life has been discovered on Mars..." It is
this single point in the review that disturbed me the most. Why? Because
there is substantial evidence to support the notion the microbes were
detected on Mars in 1976.
I feel the four years of research I have put into this book shows
without question that strong evidence for life on Mars exists. The three
Viking biology experiments all returned evidence that could be interpreted
biologically, but when another instrument (the GCMS), designed to look for
the dead remains (organic matter) of life, detected nothing, was it
claimed by some scientists that no evidence for life on Mars existed. Yet
this instrument had many problems.
En route to Mars, the Viking spacecraft had the unique ability to
perform tests of the various components inside the lander. When tests where
conducted inside the GCMS, several leaks were discovered, and one of three
ovens designed to heat Martian soil samples was shown to be inoperative.
On the surface of Mars, the GCMS science team could not even get a reading
to whether they had a soil sample in their test chamber. Was it empty? All
the GCMS ever reported from its soil analysis was that there appeared to be
carbon dioxide and water vapor in it, two components of the Martian
atmosphere.
Since the scientists that now upheld the view that the GCMS was
correct about organic material on Mars, they had to construct a theory for
why it did not exist. They proposed that hydrogen peroxide was being formed
in the atmosphere of Mars through a process of water molecules being split
up by ultraviolet rays from the sun. The hydrogen peroxide would bleach any
organic material out of the soil. The problem is that hydrogen peroxide is
destroyed immediately by ultraviolet light, and since Mars has no ozone
layer to speak of, there would not be any protection to prevent these
molecules from destruction.
The SpaceViews review then comments about Levin's work on the color
of the Martian rocks. Levin did observe spots on the rocks that change with
time and seasons, yet he is criticized by the reviewer "to everyone else
the rocks appeared gray". Well, you better study your Viking and Mars
Pathfinder images better than this -- the rocks and soils of Mars are
indeed multi-colored. Some of the rocks are blue, and even white. These
studies confirm Levin's theory of green-colored patches on the rocks and in
the soil.
The reviewer says my book is a disappointing study of life on
Mars. I feel it is the most comprehensive study ever written. Clearly the
issue of life on Mars is a volatile one, due to personal agenda's,
politics, and religious beliefs, all subjects touched on in my book and
usually avoided by others.
Is not the goal of science to answer questions? One of the greatest
questions in the history of science was posed by the Viking results: is
there life on Mars, is there life in the universe, and then to have it
simply dismissed without appropriate investigation based on the GCMS
results alone, is in my opinion ludicrous. That is the point of my book.
For all those that would like a review of the scientific evidence,
I suggest you read Dr. Gilbert V. Levin's invited scientific paper
presented to last summers annual SPIE meeting in San Diego, CA where he
concludes "the Viking LR experiment detected living microorganisms in the
soil of Mars". All the current arguments are discussed in it. Levin's
scientific paper can be accessed online by going to:
http://www.biospherics.com/mars/spie/spiehtml.htm
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 06 апреля 1998 (1998-04-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - April 1998 [11/17]
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*** Book Reviews ***
by Jeff Foust
Sharing the Universe
Sharing the Universe: Perspectives on Extraterrestrial Life
by Seth Shostak
Berkeley Hills Books, 1998
softcover, 206pp., illus.
ISBN 0-9653774-3-1
US$14.95
The question of the existence of intelligent life in the universe
has generated some diverse viewpoints. Some believe the circumstances by
which intelligent life arose on Earth are so unique as to make it very
unlikely life could exist elsewhere. Others believe the universe is filled
with intelligent life, and that these aliens have made numerous visits to
Earth, carved faces into Martian mountains, etc. In between are those who
believe it's quite possible that intelligent life exists in the cosmos but
hasn't visited us; this is the rationale of Search for Extraterrestrial
Intelligence (SETI) projects around the world. Top SETI scientist Seth
Shostak makes a strong case for this middle view in his book "Sharing the
Universe".
Much of Shostak's book is an effort to destroy the myths and other
commonly-held, but incorrect, beliefs about the possibilities of
extraterrestrial intelligence. He is a strong believer in what he terms
the "Principle of Mediocrity": that is, there is nothing terribly special
about our planet and the solar system. This principle supports his
argument in two ways. Because the Earth is not terribly special, it's
reasonable to believe that other worlds exist in our galaxy that are
capable of supporting life and allowing the development of intelligent
life. On the other hand, because there's nothing special about the Earth,
there's little reason why it should be the galactic destination du jour for
a whole host of alien races, as many believe.
Because extraterrestrial life of some kind is probably out there,
but is unlikely to bother finding us, we have to search for other evidence
of its existence. Searching for radio signals from alien intelligences
quickly becomes the preferred method for searching, since its far quicker
and less expensive than any kind of direct exploration by interstellar
spacecraft. Shostak provides a good summary of SETI work to date, from
Project Ozma nearly 40 years ago to the privately-funded Project Phoenix
and BETA today.
Shostak provides a compelling argument that extraterrestrial
intelligence does exist, but in a manner nothing like that depicted by most
Hollywood movies or on the front pages of tabloids. He presents his
arguments in a writing style that is easy for a layman to understand, and
fun to read, too. Even if you're not a supporter of SETI, after reading
"Sharing the Universe" you'll be hard pressed not to agree with Shostak's
arguments about intelligent life in the universe.
Two Books on Exotic Astrophysics
Cosmic Bullets: High Energy Particles in Astrophysics
by Roger Clay and Bruce Dawson
Helix Books (Addison-Wesley), 1998
hardcover, 208pp, illus.
ISBN 0-201-36083-7
US$22.00
Ripples on a Cosmic Sea: The Search for Gravitational Waves
by David Blair and Geoff McNamara
Helix Books (Addison-Wesley), 1998
hardcover, 208pp., illus.
ISBN 0-201-36082-9
US$22.00
There's always been a fascination with some of the exotic particles
and waves in the universe. These exotic forms of matter and energy are
diagnostic tools for understanding the nature and origin of the universe.
Scientists are moving to higher energy particles and more exotic forms of
energy in their quest to understand the universe. Two books in a new
series of books by publisher Addison-Wesley, "Cosmic Bullets" and "Ripples
in a Cosmic Sea" explore these exotic phenomena.
"Cosmic Bullets" explores our understanding of cosmic rays,
subatomic particles that can travel through space at speeds within a tiny
fraction of the speed of light. Authors Roger Clay and Bruce Dawson
discuss the history of cosmic ray research, with a emphasis later in the
book on one particular cosmic ray observatory, Fly's Eye, located in the
Utah desert. The roles of cosmic rays in our understanding of phenomena
such as neutron stars and black holes are explained in a language aimed at
the layman.
"Ripples on a Cosmic Sea" explores a phenomenon still limited to
theory: gravitational waves. These waves of gravitational energy, as
opposed to the electromagnetic waves that make up light, have been
predicted by relativity theory but have yet to be observed. In a language
aimed at newcomers to the subject, they explore the theory of gravitational
waves and efforts to detect them, as well as plans for the future (although
here more attention could have been given to the current status of such
efforts as LIGO, an American gravitational wave observatory under
development.)
Both books attempt to introduce fairly exotic areas of
astrophysical research to the general reader. In that respect, both
succeed quite well. If you have an interest in these areas of research,
and trying to gain a better understanding of the universe, you'll be well
served by either book.
Heavenly Knowledge
Heavenly Knowledge: An Astrophysicist Seeks Wisdom in the Stars
by Dr. Fiorella Terenzi
Avon Books, 1998
hardcover, 224pp., illus.
ISBN 0-380-97412-6
US$22.00/C$29.00
Dr. Fiorella Terenzi has been described as "a cross between Madonna
and Carl Sagan," according to Time magazine. Let us be clear here that
Terenzi does not combine the scientific intelligence of Madonna and the
musical skills of Sagan. Terenzi has made a name for herself in both the
astronomical and musical communities with what she calls "acoustical
astronomy", converting the radio signals from astronomical sources into
sound. She describes her unique insights on the universe in "Heavenly
Knowledge".
Terenzi writes that she wants to bring the wonder back to astronomy
by treating astronomy less abstractly and mathematically, and using the
universe to gain "poetic truths" about our lives. She keeps up this theme
throughout the book, virtually personifying phenomena from supernovae to
binary stars, comparing them to events in our own lives. She aims for a
"dynamic relationship" with the universe, a "dance between the knower and
known."
It is difficult to classify this book. Although astronomy is
discussed extensively in the book, in a number of sidebars, it is not
strictly an astronomy book. Although Terenzi discusses many aspects of her
life, it is not really a biography. It is closer to a philosophical book,
trying to tie together the nature of the universe with the nature of
humankind. If you're looking for a book to explain the universe, you'll be
disappointed by the book. If you're looking for a different. novel
comparison between the cosmos and humanity, though, you will at least find
this book interesting.
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=SANA=
Дата: 06 апреля 1998 (1998-04-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - April 1998 [12/17]
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Outer Space Directory
Kope's Outer Space Directory
by Spencer Kope
Willow Creek Press of Washington, 1998
softcover, 306pp., illus.
ISBN 0-9647183-2-4
US$19.95
Looking for a planetarium in Minnesota? An astronomy club in
Texas? Or a company that sells meteorites? Then you might want to turn to
"Kope's Outer Space Directory", a comprehensive listing of space-related
resources and locations throughout the United States. The book is divided
into three primary areas: a listing of products and services; a listing of
locations of interest, such as planetaria and museums; and a listing of
astronomy clubs and other organizations.
Each listing comes with a detailed description and contact
information. Several appendices include listings of Astronomical League
societies, NSS chapters, and NASA resources. The listings are broken down
alphabetically and by state, a useful feature if you're traveling or
otherwise need to locate resources by geographical region. This book is a
very useful reference for anyone interested in exploring what space-related
resources exist in the country.
*** NSS News ***
Upcoming Boston NSS Events
Sunday, April 5, 7pm
Special Event: "From the Earth to the Moon" Viewing Party
Join Boston NSS members and the general public to watch the
two-hour premiere of the new Tom Hanks/HBO movie series, "From the Earth
to the Moon" about the race to the Moon. The meeting will be held in the
usual location, with plenty of food and refreshments. You are also
welcome to come by early -- 4pm -- and help set up for the event while
watching 2001: a Space Odyssey, which premiered in April, 1968!
Saturday, May 2, 9am-5pm
Astronomy Day at the Boston Museum of Science
The annual Astronomy Day event at the Museum of Science includes
exhibits, planetarium shows, and special features. Boston NSS will have
an exhibit table at the event and needs volunteers to help staff it. If
you're interested in spending even just a couple hours at the table,
contact Bruce Mackenzie at 617-258-2828 or e-mail bam@draper.com.
Boston NSS March Lecture Summary
by Jeff Foust
Using nothing more than the supersonic flow of air over a special
projectile may be the key to reducing launch costs in the future, according
to research by one local company that was presented at the March 5 meeting
of the Boston National Space Society.
Robert Hohlfeld, a professor at Boston University and vice
president for research and development at HyperKinetics, Inc., an
Arlington, Massachusetts, firm, discussed "Supersonic Projectiles Producing
Thrust by External Combustion" based on research conducted by his company.
Hohlfeld said he and his company were interested in ways to reduce
the cost of space access. However, HyperKinetics -- "three guys in the
basements" according to Hohlfeld -- couldn't compete in standard
technologies. Instead, they looked at new technologies that would be simple
to build and could reduce launch costs.
Hohlfeld and his colleagues turned to methods where the air flow
around a vehicle itself could be used as part of a propulsion system. If
the air flow was moving supersonically around the projectile (as a result
of firing the projectile at high speed), and the projectile shaped in the
right way, the frictional heating caused by the airflow could trigger the
combustion of fuel on the surface of the projectile, which would create a
thrust directed away from the projectile in the opposite direction of
motion, further propelling the vehicle.
Hohlfeld emphasized the basic nature of the concept. The theory was
based on classical methods in supersonic flow ("something a grad student in
aeronautics would be comfortable with", he quipped). The projectile would
use a double-wedge shape, another basic shape from aeronautics, to shape
the air flow around the projectile.
HyperKinetics considered testing the concept in wind tunnels, but
with Mach 3 wind tunnel time costing about $3,000 a day, they sought a
simpler test procedure: a .30-caliber rifle. Hohlfeld and his colleagues
shaped their initial projectiles like 30-06 bullets so they could be fired
from a gun. The projectiles were made with magnesium, roughened on the tail
wedge to promote combustion, with a copper sheath in the middle portion of
the projectile.
The rifle would fire the projectiles at about Mach 2.7. Hohlfeld
said this was enough to start combustion on the tail section of the
projectiles: the speed needed to be at least Mach 1.5, and preferable Mach
3 or higher. Once you got the speed to Mach 4, he said, "things really
begin to take off."
The HyperKinetics team built dozens of projectiles, testing
different shapes and different techniques to roughen the tail section to
improve combustion. They started test firing in June of 1994, using a farm
field in Holland, Massachusetts. They set up a 100-yard test range, with
the rifle at one end. Two pairs of microphones, one pair spaced a yard
apart one end of the range and the other pair at the far end of the range,
were used with microsecond-accurate timers to determine the speed of the
projectiles.
The tests, completed in November 1995, were encouraging. Various
forms of their projectiles were travelling 5-10% faster at the far end of
the track than when they were initially shot out of the rifle, evidence
that combustion was taking place and thrust was accelerating the
projectile. In comparison, test projectiles of similar shapes but not able
to combust ended up 5-10% slower at the far end. The increase in speed for
the projectiles translated into an acceleration of 45 g's!
While their tests were a success, HyperKinetics has reached the
limits of their test equipment. Each test firing was overpressuring their
gun, threatening to blow out the breech, so they had to stop testing and
seek more advanced equipment. They applied for and received a Phase 1 SBIR
from the Air Force to continue their research, gaining access to
specialized equipment at Eglin Air Force Base.
At Eglin, they had access to Doppler radar to better track the
projectiles, as well as an indoor ballistics range where they could get
shadowgraphs -- very high speed photographs -- of the vehicle in
flight. However, for safety reasons, they had to fire their projectiles at
lower velocities, which made the system seem less effective.
Their Air Force data, though, did help show that the projectile was
generating thrust by combustion of magnesium in the airflow. The radar
profile of the projectiles and shadowgraph images of the projectile and
airflow show evidence that thrust is taking place. They plan to investigate
this further in the next few months when they gain access to special
barrels in which they can fire the projectiles at higher speeds.
Still, Hohlfeld admits it's a long way from firing 30-06
projectiles from a gun to developing a new low-cost launch system. Since
the current projectiles are spinning at 300,000 rpm when shot out of the
gun, they would need to find a way to despin them if used as a launch
system. A gun launch system wouldn't have to be used, either, he said: any
way you could get the system to Mach 3, such as using a conventional
booster, would be enough to start combustion. A different fuel than
magnesium would also be desirable, he said, but that requires meter-sized
projectiles, at the very least.
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Дата: 06 апреля 1998 (1998-04-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - April 1998 [13/17]
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Europa Ocean Explorer Project
by Larry Klaes
Recently, NASA decided to fund the Europa Orbiter mission, which
would leave Earth in 2003 and arrive at this fascinating Galilean moon
three years later. Becoming the first spacecraft to orbit Europa, the
probe would photograph and radar-map in great detail the Jovian
satellite's surface to see just how thick its ice crust is and if there
are any openings in it to the proposed ocean of liquid water beneath.
If the Europa Orbiter does indeed find such an ocean and ways to
reach it through the ice, then a follow-on mission to explore those
alien seas with a series of hydrobots would be the logical next step in
planetary exploration.
Boston NSS Vice President Larry Klaes is proposing a project to
design such a mission to Europa, which may be one of the best candidate
worlds for harboring life in our solar system. Called the Europa Ocean
Explorer Mission, Larry envisions a main bus spacecraft, or
"mothership", which would either flyby or orbit the moon and drop a
number of small probes onto this world. Some of these landers would
explore the surface, while others would find their way beneath the ice
into the Europan waters and reveal their long-held mysteries.
Larry is inviting interested individuals from diverse
backgrounds to form a committee to flesh out this proposed space
mission. You do not have to be a member of the NSS, just enthusiastic
and willing to share your ideas. The goal as it presently stands is to
eventually produce a detailed mission layout, working models of the
spacecraft, and a presentation to NASA.
You may contact Larry for further details at:
lklaes@learningco.com
The Europa Orbiter Mission Web site URL is:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/pluto/europao.htm. Come and explore a new
world!
NSS Sponsors Live Online "From the Earth to the Moon" Chats
NSS press release
WHAT: A series of live Internet chats featuring astronauts and other
key figures of the Apollo program, the actors who portray them, and
creators of HBO's miniseries, "From the Earth to the Moon." Question
the astronauts about what it felt like to be in space. Ask the actors
what it was like to meet and portray these American heroes. Hear the
often unknown stories of Americans who made key decisions about Apollo
and who led the missions. Ask writers what it was like to recreate
those stories. The chats are being coordinated for HBO by the National
Space Society, a nonprofit space advocacy organization.
HBO's "From the Earth to the Moon" follows the voyages of America's
Apollo astronauts and the 12 manned Apollo missions -- from the early
U.S. space efforts in 1961 to the final Apollo lunar mission in 1972.
The exclusive 12-part miniseries will debut on HBO on six successive
Sundays, April 5 through May 10, with two, one-hour dramas airing each
night from 8 - 10 PM ET.
For the latest chat guest list, visit http://www.nss.org/apollo. For
complete information on the miniseries, visit
http://www.hbo.com/apollo .
WHEN/WHO: (NOTE: Guests confirmed as of March 30, 1998; schedule
subject to change and additions)
Saturday, April 4, 8 - 9 PM ET Astronaut James Lovell (Apollo 8 and 13),
Actor Tim Daly (James Lovell), Actor Brett Cullen; Author Andrew Chaikin
("A Man on the Moon")
Saturday, April 11, 8 - 9 PM ET Writer Al Reinert ("From the Earth to
the Moon" and "Apollo 13"), Actor Nick Searcy (Astronaut Deke Slayton),
Actor David Andrews (Astronaut Frank Borman)
Saturday, April 18, 8 - 9 PM ET Astronaut Buzz Aldrin (Apollo 11), Actor
Bryan Cranston (Buzz Aldrin)
Saturday, April 25, 8 - 9 PM ET Former Apollo Flight Director Chris
Kraft, Actor Stephen Root (Chris Kraft)
Saturday, May 2, 8 - 9 PM ET Actor Daniel Hugh Kelly (Gene Cernan),
Actor David Clennon (Lee Silver)
Saturday, May 9, 8 - 9 PM ET Astronaut Harrison Schmitt (Apollo 17),
Actor Tom Amandes (Harrison Schmitt)
WHERE: PEOPLE.com Auditorium on Yahoo! Chat at http://chat.yahoo.com
The National Space Society, founded in 1974, is an independent,
nonprofit space advocacy organization headquartered in Washington, D.C.
Its 23,000 members and 90 chapters around the world actively promote a
spacefaring civilization. In cooperation with The Boeing Company, the
Society produced the official Viewer's Guide to HBO's miniseries, "From
the Earth to the Moon." Distributed nationwide, the Guide is also
available in an interactive version at http://www.nss.org/apollo.
Home Box Office brings the space race to cyberspace with its most
ambitious Web site to date for "From the Earth to the Moon"
http://www.hbo.com/apollo . The site provides content designed to bring
users closer to the experiences and achievements of the astronauts, as
well as to complement the miniseries. Look for virtual reality
simulations, interactive activities, a kids' area, historical essays and
evaluations of the space program, interviews and inside reports from the
TV production team, games, bulletin boards and more.
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=SANA=
Дата: 06 апреля 1998 (1998-04-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - April 1998 [14/17]
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NSS Chapter Notices
compiled by Amanda Honeycutt
[Editor's Note: While the NSS publication "Inside NSS" is on hiatus,
SpaceViews will be publishing these notices of NSS chapter activities.]
-Region 1-
ORANGE COUNTY SPACE SOCIETY
OCSS meets the third Sunday of each month at 5 pm followed by a program
at 7 pm. at Hof's Hut location, 18850 Douglas Drive, Irvine, CA. For more
information contact Larry Evans, Mach25comm@aol.com (Note new location
starting in May.)
April 5 OCSS Premiere Party for "From The Earth To The Moon." Party
starts at 6 pm and will be at Judi Treble's home: 305 Lugonia, Newport Beach.
April 19 OCSS monthly meeting will be at 5 pm at our Hof's Hut location at
18850 Douglas Drive, Irvine. Our regular program will be supplanted by
viewings of episodes 5 and 6 of "FromThe Earth To The Moon": "Spider" and
"Apollo 11". Our regular business meeting will take place and then we will
adjourn to a viewing location for the episodes. Our own Dr. James Busby will
be the special guest star.
May 17 OCSS monthly meeting will be held at 5 pm at our new location of
Fuddruckers at 23621 El Toro Road in Lake Forest. Our 7 pm program will be:
"Exploring Europa-Ocean Under Ice" by Richard Shope of the Jet Propulsion Lab.
May 21 Disneyland Grand Opening of the Tomorowland. OCSS is working
with Disneyland to see about our chapter participating in this event.
June 21 OCSS monthly meeting will be held at 5 pm at our new meeting location
of Fuddruckers at 23621 El Toro Road in Lake Forest. Our 7 pm program will
be: "Space Tourism Society" by Charles Carr.
-Region 3-
Clear Lake Area NSS
There will be a meeting of the Clear Lake Area Chapter of the National
Space Society on Friday, April 10, 1998. Come join us and learn about the
X-38 and its Russian counterpart.
Time: 6:30-9:30
Place: Radisson Hotel - Hobby Airport, 9100 Gulf Fwy,
in the Deer Park room.
Price: Free to the Public
Come join us at 6:30 for a Social Hour & Registration. At 7:30 the
SPEAKER will be - Mark Pestana "Space Station Lifeboats: Soyuz and Crew Return
Vehicle".
8:30-9:30 - Business meeting.
Mark is currently the manager of Earth and Space Sciences in the Space
Station Payloads Office and the Space Station Operations Office. He is
currently a (Lieutenant Colonel) serving in the U.S. Air Force Reserve,
serving as a Space Systems Development Engineer for the Dept. of Defense
Space Test Program.
Mark Pestana was recently selected for an assignment as a Flight Test Engineer
at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards AFB, California.
Sunday, April 5, 1998 CLA-NSS is having a Party. Come and Join the
Celebration! Watch the premier of Tom Hanks' "From The Earth To The Moon" -
The New HBO miniseries - with real Apollo flight controllers and National
Space Society members on 4 big screens at Damon's Sports Bar at the Hobby
Airport Radisson Hotel. The Radisson Hotel is at 9100 Gulf Fwy. (southbound -
exit 36; or northbound - exit 38, then U-Turn.)
Marianne Dyson, National Space Society VP for Public Affairs says, "We want to
share this television event with other space fans like football fans have
parties to watch the Super bowl. It is more fun to watch it on the big
screens and have the experts right there with you to point out the little
things you might otherwise miss."
Free food and soft drinks, as well as free viewers' guide prepared by NSS and
Boeing will be distributed. Door prizes, including maps of the Moon showing
the Apollo landing sites, will be awarded. An interactive viewers guide to
the HBO miniseries is available at {http://www.nss.org/apollo}.
If you have any questions contact CLA-NSS President Murray Clark at (281)
367-2227 after 7:00 pm or e-mail MClark637@aol.com.
-Region 5-
NSS ATLANTA
Contact Avery Davis avery@mindspring.com. On April 23, 1998, at 7:30 pm, the
Atlanta Chapter of the National Space Society will meet in Classroom 2 of the
Fembank Science Center on Heaton Park Drive in Decatur, GA.
The program will feature Vaughn Cordie, who was recently selected as the first
pilot for the Civilian Astronaut Corps (CAC) of Houston, TX, a contender for
the X Prize, a $10 million award for the first successful private space
flight. Mr. Cordle will give an overview of CAC and answer questions from the
audience. He requests that specific questions be given to him before the
meeting, so please email any questions to one of the NSS Atlanta officers so
they may be forwarded to Mr Cordle before the meeting.
Avery Davis avery@mindspring.com
http://www.netvisibility.com/nssatl
-Region 6-
ILLINOIS NORTH SHORE NSS
Chapter contact, Joseph Ausmann. 847 470-8972 or JAusmann@aol.com No notices
received.
-Region 7-
DC-L5
The DC-L5 chapter is hosting a party on April 5th, for 40-50 people at the
fairfax Cable Access Channel (FCAC). We will have displays of spacecraft,
stamps, pins, etc. There will be computer simulation games of the lunar
landing and space-related board games. We will also have activities for
children (space, toys,space ink stampers, re-usable sticker book, space
coloring books, space stencil books, space mazes, paper airplanes books,
puzzles). We are going to have a series of short stories where people supply
words without knowing what the story is and then the story will be read out
loud. We are also going to play a game called Knowledge Quest, where the
participants will be given a series of questions. If they don't already know
the answers, there will be books, etc. around the room that contain the
answers. The first 4 to complete the quest will receive a prize. In
addition, there will be food, music, videos, raffles, and lots of door prizes.
We are looking to have a great time! Oh, and there will be a feature
presentation, of course, of "From The Earth To The Moon".
May 3 - SSTO Vehicles
June 7 - Space Shuttle Operations
For More Information Contact - President Ms. Donnie Lowther (703)
370-3063 or e-mail to okl1@erols.com.
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 06 апреля 1998 (1998-04-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - April 1998 [15/17]
Привет всем!
Вот, свалилось из Internet...
PHILA. AREA SPACE ALLIANCE
PASA meets regularly for a business luncheon and formal meeting from 1-3
pm, the third Saturday of every month at Smart Alex restaurant, sheraton
University City, 35th & Chestnut. 2 Hours of free parking with validation.
Next regular meeting is April 18th, Call Earl for details.
Michelle Baker discussed the 1998 Storm Congressional-contact initiative
in DC, which she attended; and the April 5th HBO unscrambled broadcast of
"Americans to the Moon" to show from 8-10 pm. She handed out posters for the
event. Oscar Harris discussed being a judge at the 1998-99 Phila. Science Fair
and the 1998-99 International Science Fair, which will be held in Phila. next
year.
At the March the following reports were presented: Mitch Gordan
discussed plans for the PASA/World Future Society presentation at Borders, in
June or July; the recent Commercial Space Act Congressionsl phone calls; a
local radio talk show on Space Island; and the proposed Future Fest in Oct. on
Rittenhouse SquareDottie Kurtz discussed ShoreCon, to be held in Sept. in
Cherry Hill this year. Jay Haines discussed the recent Space Studies
Institute SSI Update. It was also reported that Hank Smith was promoted to
Head of Science Programming for Philcon this year.
Earl Bennett presented the technical report on: Water on the Moon;
Europa and lo as possible sites for life; a Mar. 98 Laser Focus World article
on Leik Myrabo's research on using high-powered lasers for launchers; a Mar. 2
Design News article on Brian Muirhead, voted Engineer of the Year for the
Mars Pathfinder project; and a Mar. 13 Phila. Inquirer article on the
possiblility of asteroids hitting the Earth in 2028.
Contact:
PO Box 1715, Philadelphia PA 19105
Earl Bennett, michelle_baker@ccgate.ueci.com
610/644-8654 (H)
Jay Haines, Secretary
hainesjb@netaxs.com
215/855-7130 (H, eve. weekends)
215/986-6266 (W)
-Region 8-
NY SPACE FRONTIER SOCIETY
No notices received. Contact Greg Zsidisin 201/764-3270 (H);
71055.2110@compuserve.com.
NEW FRONTIER SOCIETY
OF GREATER ROCHESTER
No notices received. Contact: Carl Elsbree celsb@msn.com.
-SPECIAL INTEREST-
EDUCATION CHAPTER
Contact carolyn Josephs. 718/531-8375, or
carolyn3@msil.idt.net/cjoseph.ny@siny.com. or CarolynJ@aol.com The new
address as of March 30th, 1998 is:
151 McKenzie Street
1st Floor
Brooklyn, New York
On Saturday, April 4 - 8:30 am- 4:30 pm the Science Council of NYC
Conference - Stuyvesant High School, Manhattan.
April 16-19 - National Science teachers Association Convention, Las
Vegas, Nevada. (She is planning to have a "get-together" for NSS members in
the area as well as educators at the convention who are interested in finding
out more about NSS and the Education Chapter.)
April 25 - 2 pm Location TBD
NSS Education Chapter Contest Deadline - May 4. Contact Carolyn
Josephs to confirm times and locations.
*** Regular Features ***
Jonathan's Space Report No. 353
by Jonathan McDowell
[Ed. Note: Go to http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html for
back issues and other information about Jonathan's Space Report.]
Shuttle and Mir
RKK Energiya's automated cargo vehicle Progress 7K-TGM No. 240 was
launched on Mar 14 and named Progress M-38. Vehicle 240 is specially
modified to carry the second VDU (Vynosnaya Dvigatel'naya Ustanovka,
External Engine Unit) propulsion unit. If vehicle 240 is similar to the
vehicle 209 (Progress M-14) which carried the first VDU in 1992, the
unit is mounted externally on a special structure between the cargo
module and the service module, replacing the OKD fuel section present on
normal Progress vehicles. The crew will spacewalk to extract the VDU
from Progress and place it on the end of a Sofora boom extending from
the Kvant module. The VDU is used to provide attitude control capability
for the station.
Launch mass of Progress M-38 was 7007 kg. By 0320 UTC on Mar 15 it had
successfully completed its first two orbital maneuvers. It replaced
Progress M-37 at the docking port on the Kvant module, with a successful
docking on Mar 16. Progress M-37 undocked on Mar 15 at 1916 UTC
and was deorbited at 2303 UTC over the Pacific.
Columbia was moved to the VAB on March 16 in preparation for STS-90.
On Mar 24 it was rolled out to pad 39B.
Recent Launches
NASA has begun drop testing of an X-38 test vehicle. The X-38 is a
project to develop a lifeboat (crew return vehicle) for the Space
Station. X-38 V-131 was dropped from a B-52 on Mar 12, flying 7 km over
Edwards AFB, and parachuted to the desert. Vehicle 131 is a subscale
test prototype, not a spaceworthy craft. Two other 130-series X-38's
will be drop tests prior to the space flight of the full-scale V-201 in
the year 2000.
Lockheed Martin Astronautics launched the last Atlas II, AC-132, from
Cape Canaveral on Mar 16. It placed a Hughes HS-601 satellite in orbit
for the US Navy. UHF Follow-On F8 is the first Block III UHF Follow-On
satellite, replacing the old FLTSATCOM satellites. It carries UHF, EHF
and Ka-band transponders, including a video broadcast payload. Future
Atlas launches will use the IIA and IIAS models, as well as the
forthcoming IIAR variant.
The French SPOT 4 remote sensing satellite was launched on Mar 24.
Developed by Matra Marconi Space/Toulouse for CNES, the 2755 kg
satellite provides 10-m resolution images with a wide field of view.
SPOT 4 also carries a wide field 'vegetation' imager and a laser
communications experiment. Launch was by an Arianespace Ariane 40
rocket, the base Ariane 4 model with no strap-on boosters. The
liquid hydrogen fuelled third stage of the Ariane 40 entered an 800 km
sun-synchronous orbit together with SPOT 4.
The Kakehashi satellite has begun orbit raising maneuvers.
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 06 апреля 1998 (1998-04-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - April 1998 [16/17]
Привет всем!
Вот, свалилось из Internet...
Table of Recent Launches
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Feb 4 2329 Brasilsat B3 ) Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 Comsat 06A
Inmarsat 3 F5 ) Comsat 06B
Feb 10 1320 GFO ) Taurus Vandenberg 576E Altimeter 07A
Orbcomm G1 ) Comsat 07B
Orbcomm G2 ) Comsat 07C
Celestis-02 ) Burial 07D
Feb 14 1434 Globalstar FM1 ) Comsat 08A
Globalstar FM2 ) Delta 7420 Canaveral SLC17A Comsat 08B
Globalstar FM3 ) Comsat 08C
Globalstar FM4 ) Comsat 08D
Feb 17 1030? Kosmos-2349 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC31? Recon 09A
Feb 18 1358 Iridium 50 ) Delta 7920 Vandenberg SLC2 Comsat 10A
Iridium 52 ) Comsat 10C
Iridium 53 ) Comsat 10D
Iridium 54 ) Comsat 10E
Iridium 56 ) Comsat 10B
Feb 21 0755 Kakehashi H-II Tanegashima Y Comsat 11A
Feb 26 0707 SNOE ) Pegasus XL Vandenberg Science 12A
Teledesic 1 ) Comsat 12B
Feb 27 2238 Hot Bird 4 Ariane 42P Kourou ELA2 Comsat 13A
Feb 28 0021 Intelsat 806 Atlas IIAS Canaveral SLC36B Comsat 14A
Mar 14 2246 Progress M-38 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 15A
Mar 16 2132 UHF F/O F8 Atlas II Canaveral SLC36A Comsat 16A
Mar 24 0146 SPOT 4 Ariane 40 Kourou ELA2 Imaging 17A
Current Shuttle Processing Status
__________________________________
Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due
OV-102 Columbia LC39B STS-90 Apr 16
OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-91 May 28
OV-104 Atlantis Palmdale OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-88 Sep 17?
MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks
MLP1/RSRM66 VAB Bay 1 STS-91
MLP2/RSRM65/ET-91/OV-102 LC39B STS-90
MLP3/
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 06 апреля 1998 (1998-04-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - April 1998 [17/17]
Привет всем!
Вот, свалилось из Internet...
Space Calendar
by Ron Baalke
[Ed. Note: visit http://newproducts.jpl.nasa.gov/calendar/ for the complete
calendar]
April 1998
Apr ?? - Chinastar-1 Long March 3B Launch (China)
Apr 01 -[Mar 26] TRACE Pegasus XL Launch
Apr 01 -[Mar 26] Mir Spacewalk
Apr 01 - Asteroid 1993 BX3 Near-Earth Flyby (0.377 AU)
Apr 01 - Lecture on The Moon After Apollo, Boston, Massachusetts
Apr 01-03 - Laboratory Space Science Workshop, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Apr 01-03 - 29th Meeting of the Division of Dynamical Astronomy (AAS),
Charlottesville, Virginia
Apr 02 - Galileo, Orbital Trim Maneuver #45 (OTM-45)
Apr 02 - Mars Passes 1.9 Degrees From Saturn
Apr 02 -[Mar 26] Asteroid 1998 FX2 Near-Earth Flyby (0.097 AU)
Apr 04 - 15th Anniversary (1983), STS-6 Launch (Challenger), TDRS-1, 1st
Launch of Challenger
Apr 04 - 30th Anniversary (1968), Apollo 6 Launch
Apr 04-09 - 7th Workshop on the Physics of Dusty Plasmas, Boulder,
Colorado
Apr 05 - Daylight Savings - Set Clock Ahead 1 Hour (North America)
Apr 05 - Asteroid 23 Thalia Occults TAC +311855 (10.4 Magnitude Star)
Apr 05 - Kuiper Belt Object 1993 FW at Opposition (41.002 AU - 23.2
Magnitude)
Apr 05 - Kuiper Belt Object 1995 HM5 at Opposition (31.271 AU - 23.1
Magntude)
Apr 06 - 25th Anniversary (1973), Pioneer 11 Launch (Jupiter/ Saturn
Flyby Mission)
Apr 06-07 - Workshop on Future NASA Ionospheric Physics Mission,
Greenbelt, Maryland
Apr 06-09 - ISTP Science Workshop, Greenbelt, Maryland
Apr 06-09 -[Mar 26] 7th Biennial Remote Sensing '98, Tempe, Arizona
Apr 07 - 30th Anniversary (1968), Luna 14 Launch (Soviet Moon Orbiter)
Apr 07-10 - 1998 National Space Symposium, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Apr 08 -[Mar 24] Cassini, Trajectory Correction Maneuver #3 (TCM-3)
Apr 08 - Asteroid 1995 DW2 at Opposition (17.973 AU - 21.7 Magnitude)
Apr 08 - Lecture on Comets, Asteroids, and Other Odd Bodies, Boston,
Massachusetts
Apr 08 - 5th Anniversary (1993), STS-56 Launch (Discovery), Atlas-2
Spacelab
Apr 08-09 - ISTP Workshop, Greenbelt, Maryland
Apr 10 - Asteroid 7413 (1990 SH28) Occults Regulus (1.3 Magnitude Star)
Apr 10-13 - 18th National Australian Convention of Amateur Astronomers,
Sydney, Australia
Apr 11 - Comet Harrington-Wilson Perihelion (1.889 AU)
Apr 12 - Easter Sunday
Apr 12 - Asteroid 1998 EP4 Near-Earth Flyby (0.065 AU)
Apr 13 -[Mar 23] Asteroid 1998 FF2 Near-Earth Flyby (0.396 AU)
Apr 14 - Kuiper Belt Object 1994 EV3 at Opposition (43.692 AU - 23.5
Magnitude)
Apr 14 - 10th Anniversary (1988), Foton 1 Launch (USSR - Material
Processing Satellite)
Apr 15 - Lecture On Solving Solar Enigmas, Boston, Massachusetts
Apr 15-16 - 2nd Workshop on Galactic Sources With Relativistic Jets,
Milton Keynes, United Kingdom
Apr 15-17 - Faraday Discussion #109: Chemistry and Physics of Molecules
and Grains in Space, Nottingham, United Kingdom
Apr 16 - STS-90 Launch, Columbia, Neurolab
Apr 16 - Comet 1997 G2 (Montani) Perihelion (3.084 AU)
Apr 16 -[Mar 20] Asteroid 1992 SL Closest Approach to Earth (1.033 AU)
Apr 16 - EOS Lecture, Pasadena, California
Apr 17 - Ulysses At Jupiter's Orbit
Apr 17 - Comet Peters-Hartley Closest Approach to Earth (1.390 AU)
Apr 17 - EOS Lecture, Pasadena, California
Apr 17-19 - Space Access '98, Scottsdale, Arizona
Apr 19 - Comet Tsuchinshan 1 Perihelion (1.496 AU)
Apr 19-26 - 1998 Texas Star Party, Fort Davis, Texas
Apr 20 - Lyrids Meteor Shower Peak
Apr 20 - Asteroid 2941 Alden Closest Approach to Earth (1.276 AU)
Apr 20 - Asteroid 887 Alinda Closest Approach to Earth (1.567 AU)
Apr 20-23 - Hazards Of Space Weather Conference, Boulder, Colorado
Apr 20-24 - 23rd General Assembly of the European Geophysical Society,
Nice, France
Apr 21-24 - 3rd International Conference on Library and Information
Services in Astronomy (LISA III), Puetro de la Cruz, Tenerife,
Spain
Apr 22 - Venus Passes 0.3 Degrees From Jupiter
Apr 22 - Asteroid 1991 CB1 Near-Earth Flyby (0.299 AU)
Apr 22 - Mars Exploration Lecture, Boston, Massachusetts
Apr 23 - Moon Occults Venus
Apr 23 - Moon Occults Jupiter
Apr 23 - Asteroid 433 Eros Closest Approach To Earth (0.502 AU)
Apr 24 - Moon Occults Mercury
Apr 24 - Asteroid 25 Phocaea at Opposition (10.1 Magnitude)
Apr 24 - Asteroid 5653 (1992 WD5) Closest Approach to Earth (0.682 AU)
Apr 24 - Asteroid 2368 Beltrovata Closest Approach to Earth (1.372 AU)
Apr 26 -[Mar 23] Cassini, 1st Venus Flyby
Apr 26 - Kuiper Belt Object 1994 JQ1 at Opposition (41.980 AU - 23.3
Magnitude)
Apr 26 - 5th Anniversary (1993), Discovery of Asteroid 7066 Nessus by
Spacewatch
Apr 26 - 5th Anniversary (1993), STS-55 Launch (Columbia), Spacelab D2
Apr 26 - 150th Anniversary (1848), Graham's Discovery of Asteroid 9
Metis
Apr 26-30 - Space 98 & Robotics 98 Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Apr 27-28 - Leonid Meteorid Storm and Satellite Threat Conference,
Manhattan Beach, California
Apr 27-30 - AIAA 8th International Space Planes and Hypersonic Systems
and Technologies Conference, Norfolk, Virginia
Apr 27-30 - 5th Open Young Scientists Conference On Astronomy and Space
Physics, Kyiv, Ukraine
Apr 27-May 01 - 3rd IAA Low Cost Planetary Missions Conference,
Pasadena, California
Apr 27-May 01 - Euroconference on Extrasolar Planets: Formation,
Detection and Modeling, Lisbon, Portugal
Apr 27-May 03 - Astronomy Week
Apr 28 - Islamic New Year
Apr 28 -[Mar 26] Nilesat-1/BSAT-1B Ariane 4 Launch
Apr 28 - Asteroid 1243 Pamela Occults SAO 162175 (8.2 Magnitude Star)
Apr 28 - Eugene Shoemaker's 70th Birthday (1928)
Apr 28-May 01 - 35th Space Congress: Horizons Unlimited, Cocoa Beach,
Florida
Apr 29 - Asteroid 191 Kolga Occults SAO 95322 (8.0 Magnitude Star)
Apr 29 - Galileo Lecture, Boston, Massachusetts
Apr 30 - ORBCOMM-2 Pegasus XL Launch
Apr 30 -[Mar 26] Iridium 3 Long March 2C/SD Launch
Apr 30 - Galileo, Orbital Trim Maneuver #46 (OTM-46)
Apr 30 - Asteroid 32 Pomona at Opposition (10.2 Magnitude)
Apr 30 - Asteroid 216 Kleopatra Occults GSC 56961723 (10.8 Magnitude
Star))
Apr 30-May 01 - Workshop on In Situ Resources for Construction of
Planetary Outposts, Albuqueque, New Mexico
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COPYRIGHT INFORMATION:
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Excerpts cannot be used, except for reviews and criticisms, without
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____ | "SpaceViews" (tm) -by Boston Chapter
// \ // | of the National Space Society (NSS)
// (O) // | Dedicated to the establishment
// \___// | of a spacefaring civilization.
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Secretary: Lynn Olson Bruce Mackenzie
Treasurer: Roxanne Warniers John Malloy
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