Дата: 06 мая 1998 (1998-05-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - May 1998 [1/17]
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This is the May 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 May 7, 1998, 7:30pm
8th floor, 545 Main Street (Tech Square), Cambridge; see "Upcoming Boston
NSS Events"
Bruce Mackenzie on "One Way to Mars: Establishing a Base
on the First Mission"
Future meetings are on the first Thursdays of each month:
June 4, July 2, August TBD
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 5
May 1998
http://www.spaceviews.com/1998/05/
*** News ***
Hughes Uses Moon to Salvage Satellite
Shuttle Mission Winds Down
Cosmonauts Complete Mir Thruster Replacement
NASA Releases Space Station Report
Astronomers Discover Planetary System Forming Around Star
Kistler and Australia Sign Accord
SOHO Observes Solar Storms
Astronauts Blamed for SPARTAN Satellite Failure
Delta, Ariane Launches Successful
SpaceViews Event Horizon
Other News
*** Articles ***
Doing Space: Speedbumps on the Road to Space
Sputnik 3: An IGY Orbiting Research Laboratory
The Mars "Face" and Lowell's "Canals"
Staking Claims in Space
*** Book Reviews ***
Spaceflight and the Myth of Presidential Leadership
Star Trek on the Brain
Quick Looks at Three Books
*** NSS News ***
Upcoming Boston NSS Events
Boston NSS HBO Viewing Party Report
NSS Chapter Updates
*** Regular Features ***
Jonathan's Space Report No. 357
Space Calendar
Editor's Note: Thanks to everyone who filled out the 1998 survey: we
received over 300 repsonses! We'll be going through them in the next
future and using your opinions to make any changes to SpaceViews.
Also, if you're not already planning to go, consider attending the 1998
International Space Development Conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, this
May 21-25. The conference is packed with dozens of interesting speakers
and other events. More information on how to register is online at
http://www.nss.org/isdc .
-- Jeff Foust, Editor
jeff@spaceviews.com
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Дата: 06 мая 1998 (1998-05-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - May 1998 [2/17]
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*** News ***
Hughes Uses Moon to Salvage Satellite
Satellite maker Hughes announced Wednesday, April 29, plans to
salvage a communications satellite stranded in a transfer orbit by using
an experimental trajectory that will swing the spacecraft around the
Moon in a first-of-its-kind mission.
The satellite, launched last December as AsiaSat 3, was stranded
in a geostationary transfer orbit when the upper stage of the Russian
Proton rocket that launched it failed. AsiaSat, the company that owned
the satellite, filed an insurance claim in February and received $200
million in compensation for the failure.
However, Hughes, the makers of the satellite, have worked with
the insurers in an effort to salvage some aspect of the mission. Over
the last several weeks, engineers have been using the satellite's own
thruster to slowly raise its orbit, originally 350 by 36,000 km (215 by
22,300 mi.).
The last thruster firing, scheduled for May 7, will send the
spacecraft on a 9-day mission to go around the Moon and back to the
Earth. The spacecraft will use the Moon's gravity to adjust its orbit
so that the spacecraft can enter a geostationary Earth orbit.
The satellite, an HS-601 spacecraft, is using its largest
thruster, a 490-newton liquid bipropellant thruster intended for
stationkeeping. Most of the spacecraft's 1.8 tons of fuel will be
expended during the series of maneuvers.
The spacecraft has completed 10 perigee burns to raise its
altitude, with an eleventh scheduled for early Thursday, April 30. The
12th burn will place the spacecraft on a lunar trajectory.
"While NASA has used gravity assists to send spacecraft off on
interplanetary missions, no one has ever tried it to bring a
communications satellite back into Earth orbit," said Ronald Swanson,
president of Hughes Global Services (HGS), the branch of Hughes working
on the mission.
Engineers don't know into what orbital slot the spacecraft will
end up, or how long it will be able to work. The satellite is being
considered for use to augment existing satellites in times of additional
demand.
If the satellite, now named HGS-1, can be put into service,
Hughes will split the profits with the insurer. Hughes is also working
with Analytical Graphics, Inc. (AGI), makers of the Satellite Tool Kit
software package, to plan the mission.
"We are excited to be part of the effort that will help put this
satellite back on track," said AGI President & CEO Paul Graziani.
Hughes officials said they had planned to wait until the
maneuvers were completed to announce the project, but that work of the
meneuvers leaking out via the Internet and the trade press "forced their
hand." The project was first widely reported April 24, when the Space
Frontier Foundation issued a press release.
"With water ice having been discovered at the lunar poles, and
the coming revolution in space transportation, commercial missions to
the Moon could become commonplace in the next decade," said David
Anderman, a member of the board of directors of the foundation.
Shuttle Mission Winds Down
Experiments aboard the space shuttle Columbia began to wind down
late this week as mission controllers decided not to extend the 16-day
Neurolab mission.
NASA announced April 30 that it would not extend the STS-90
mission, noting weather problems that might crop up if the shuttle
landed later than its scheduled Sunday, May 3 landing.
"The weather is looking a little bit better on Sunday than on
succeeding days," said spokesman John Petty. "The science people want
badly to get as soon as possible the results of their experiments back
on Earth."
The mission, launched April 17 after a one-day delay, has been
devoted to the study of the effects of weightlessness on the nervous
system. More than two dozen experiments, from studies of rats and mice
to virtual reality experiments among the seven-person crew, have looked
at how the nervous system reacts.
Much of the attention has been focused on the plight of 90 baby
rats, after over half of them unexpectedly died earlier this week. They
apparently died when their mothers experienced problems with lactation
and could not provide the babies with enough food.
Some of the remaining rats were subjected to surgery to see how
their muscles developed in the absense of gravity. The number operated
on was cut back after the deaths of some of the babies.
Other experiments on board the shuttle have proceeded with fewer
problems. The only major problem was when a carbon dioxide scrubber
broke down late in the evening April 24. The breakdown could have
threatened an early end to the mission, but the unit was repaired the
following day by shuttle commander Richard Searfoss.
NASA has yet to make a decision regarding a Neurolab reflight,
which, if approved, would take place in August. The reflight would fill
a gap in the shuttle schedule caused by delays in the launches of the
AXAF spacecraft and the first American element of the International
Space Station. The AXAF flight, originally planned for August, is now
scheduled for December, while the ISS flight is likely to be delayed
from July to at least September.
Columbia is scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space Center at
12:09pm EDT (1609 UT) May 3.
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Дата: 06 мая 1998 (1998-05-06)
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Тема: SpaceViews - May 1998 [3/17]
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Cosmonauts Complete Mir Thruster Replacement
Two cosmonauts on the Russian space station Mir completed the
replacement of an attitude control thruster module on the station during
two spacewalks on April 17 and 22.
Cosmonauts Talgat Musabayev and Nikolai Budarin spent 6 hours
and 21 minutes outside Mir Wednesday, April 22, installing the VDU
thruster module on a boom attached to the Kvant module. The
installation was successful, and mission control reported that all
connections to the module were working by the time the spacewalk ended.
Five days earlier Musabayev and Budarin spent a little over six
hours outside Mir, completing prepartions for the installation. The
cosmonauts removed the new thruster from its cargo hold in the Progress
resupply spacecraft, among other tasks.
The spacewalks were the fourth and fifth to take place outside
Mir in April. During spacewalks on April 1 and 6, Musabayev and Budarin
repaired a damaged solar panel on the Spektr module. The panel and
other parts of Spektr were damaged in a collision between Mir and a
Progress cargo spacecraft last June.
The old VDU module was removed from the Sofora boom during an
April 11 spacewalk. The module, which could not be refueled, was
allowed to drift free of Mir and will eventually burn up in the Earth's
atmosphere.
On all five spacewalks, American astronaut Andy Thomas remained
within Mir, monitoring systems and filming the cosmonauts as they
worked.
The crew is expected to take a break from the series of
spacewalks and tend to experiments and other work within Mir. Another
spacewalk, to retrieve scientific equipment mounted outside Mir, is
planned for some time in May, before the arrival of the space shuttle on
the final Mir-Shuttle docking mission.
Russian officials also announced plans to begin deorbiting Mir.
A Progress resupply spacecraft, scheduled for launch in May, will carry
extra fuel to begin the process of lowering the space station's orbit.
The deorbiting process will not be completed until the end of 1999.
NASA Releases Space Station Report
NASA released an independent report on the status of the
International Space Station Thursday, April 23, which concludes that
more time and money is needed to complete the station.
The Report of the Cost Assessment and Validation Task Force on
the International Space Station, also known as the Chabrow Report after
committee chair Jay Chabrow, was released on the Internet by NASA on
Thursday afternoon. Portions of the report had been leaked to the press
and to members of Congress in the past month.
The report concludes that funding for the space station, which
was capped by the President and Congress at $2.1 billion a year and
$17.4 billion overall in 1993, is insufficient for the "size,
complexity, and ambitious schedule goals" of the project. The panel
recommends an additionl $130-250 million in funding for fiscal year 1999
alone.
The report also noted that it is unlikely that the station will
be completed in 2003, as planned, because of recent delays and an
ambitious schedule. The report estimates a one to three year delay in
the completion of the station.
The committee listed several areas of risk to the station. They
conclude that the most serious risk to the station is continued delays
by Russia in the completion of key equipment, such as the long-delayed
Service Module, now unlikely to launch before March 1999.
The committee recommends support for additional contingency
activities, such as the development of an American-built Interim Control
Module, to temporarily replace the Service Module. "The Task Force
believes the level of exposure to increased cost from Russian delays
justifies the funding of additional contingency activities," the
committee wrote.
Several domestic problems with the space station were also
identified by the panel. They cited delays in hardware qualification,
crew return vehicle development, multi-element integrated testing, and
the construction of the U.S. Laboratory Module as problems which could
delay the launch of key American station elements and drive up program
costs.
Other problems cited by the panel include the complexity of
on-orbit assembly of the station, training readiness, and shortages of
parts and spares for station equipment.
As reported in the Wall Street Journal last month, the panel
believes the total cost of the station will rise to $24.7 billion
between the 1994 station redesign and the completion of station assembly
in orbit. That amount is $3 billion higher than recent NASA estimates.
NASA released the report Thursday without any additional comment
on its findings.
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Astronomers Discover Planetary System Forming Around Star
Two independent teams of astronomers have discovered a disk of
dust around a distant star that may be evidence of a solar system under
formation, NASA reported Tuesday, April 22.
Astronomers found a disk of dust around the star HR 4796A, a
young star 220 light-years from the Earth in the constellation
Centaurus. Within the dust disk around HR 4796A astronomers found a
empty zone that may have been cleaned out by newly-formed planetary
bodies.
"What we may be looking at is a solar system like our solar
system but at a much earlier stage," said Charles Telesco of the
University of Florida, one of the astronomers involved in the discovery.
Astronomers believe the finding serves as a "missing link"
between the formation of stars themselves and mature solar systems like
our own. "With HR 4796, we're seeing a picture of a young adult star
starting its own family of planets," said David Koerner of JPL. "This
is the link between disks around very young stars and disks around
mature stars, many with planets already orbiting them."
The disk is estimated to be 200 astronomical units (30 billion
km, 18.6 billion miles) across. The clear zone closer to the star is
about 100 AUs in diameter, or slightly larger than the diameter of our
own solar sytem. The star itself is about 10 million years old.
Astronomer Lee Hartmann of Harvard noted that the star is part
of a binary system, with a companion star, HR 4796B, 500 AU away. "This
discovery could also tell us about how binary companions affect disks,"
Hartmann said. "Perhaps this disk is truncated on the outside at a
radius of about 125 AU because of the companion star's gravity."
Follow-up studies of HR 4796A and similar young stars are
planned for later this year, in the hopes of better understanding the
new planetary system under formation and to discover other such young
solar systems. "This will become a very famous object, I guarantee
you," Telesco said.
The discovery was made by one team of astronomers from the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Franklin and Marshall College in
Pennsylvania, and a separate team of astronomers from The University of
Florida and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
The JPL group used MIRLIN, a mid-infrared camera, with the giant
Keck II telescope on Manua Kea, Hawaii, to make the discovery. The
Florida/Harvard group used a similar instrument, OSCIR, at the National
Optical Astronomical Observatory's 4-meter telescope in Cerro Tololo,
Chile.
Kistler and Australia Sign Accord
The Australian government signed an agreement Tuesday, April 28,
with the American firm Kistler Aerospace to allow the company to launch
its reusable K-1 booster from a site in South Australia.
The agreement will allow Kistler to develop a spaceport at the
existing launch range at Woomera, South Australia. The agreement also
sets the terms for obtaining a launch license from the government and
sets the terms for the launches of the two-stage reusable K-1.
The company had previously won environmental approval for
Australian launches. The company still must obtain a launch license and
sign a lease with the government of South Australia.
Austrialian officials hailed the accord, which they hope will
help the economy and lead to future deals with other launch providers.
"In the 12 years after start-up, the project is expected to contribute
$2.9 billion to Australia's GDP, up to $1.4 billion to our Balance of
Payments, and create over 3,000 person-years of employment," John Moore,
Australian Science Minister, said.
"Today's agreement with the Commonwealth shows significant
progress toward our mission of providing the world's first reusable
launch vehicle," Kistler chairman Robert Wang noted.
Construction of the Kistler facilities at Woomera will begin in
May, with the first test flights scheduled for as early as late 1998.
The company hopes to put the booster into commercial service in 1999.
The company has also looked at launches from a site in Nevada,
but regulaatory problems have prevented them from moving forward on
this. The FAA, which grants launch licences, currently does not have
the authority to license the reentry of reusable spacecraft. This
oversight is addressed in legislation that passed the House last year
and is currently on the floor of the Senate.
SOHO Observes Solar Storms
Astronomers studying data from the Solar and Heliospheric
Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft have discovered a new type of solar storm:
a powerful, localized "tornado" nearly as large as the Earth with wind
speeds of up to 150 kilometers a second (93 mi/sec).
Astronomers at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) and
Cambridge University have discovered about a dozen of these powerful
tornadoes, concentrated at the north and south poles of the Sun. The
winds in these tornadoes averaged 15 km/sec (9.3 mi./sec) with gusts up
to ten times faster.
"We see the hot gas in the tornadoes spiralling away from the
Sun and gathering speed," said David Pike of RAL, who discovered the
tornadoes with Helen Mason of Cambridge. "These spectacular events in
the Sun's atmosphere must have widespread effects."
Some astronomers believe the tornadoes may contribute to the
solar wind, particularly to the part of the wind that comes from
relatively cool portions of the solar atmosphere, known as coronal
holes.
"Our next step will be to try to relate the solar tornadoes to
observations of the fast solar wind farther out in space, as seen by
other instruments in SOHO," Pike said.
The discovery was made with SOHO's scanning spectrometer, using
the Doppler effect to measure the wind speeds in the powerful storms.
The instrument is one of several on the joint ESA/NASA spacecraft, which
began science operations in April 1996.
The two space agencies recently agreed to extend the mission of
SOHO into the year 2003. The decision will allow scientists to monitor
the Sun in detail as it passes the peak of its 11-year activity cycle,
expected to occur in 2000.
During this time of increased activity, the number and intensity
of solar storms increase, which can affect the Earth and satellites in
orbit around the Earth. During the last solar maximum, in 1989-1991,
solar storms damaged seveal satellites and also caused problems with the
power grids of Canada and Sweden, as charged particles emitted by the
Sun interacted with the Earth's magnetic field.
SOHO, located at the Earth-Sun L1 point about 1.5 million
kilometers (900,000 mi.) from the Earth on the Sunward side, is being
heralded as the "world's chief watchdog" for the Sun. Several of its
instruments can monitor solar storms and provide forecasts of solar
activity and warnings of impending storms.
"While SOHO provides early warnings of solar outbursts, it also
looks for unknown and basic features of the Sun that may make
forecasting better," said Roger Bonnet, ESA's director of science. "In
SOHO the distinction between 'useful' and 'fundamental' science is
abolished."
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Дата: 06 мая 1998 (1998-05-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - May 1998 [5/17]
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Astronauts Blamed for SPARTAN Satellite Failure
NASA has placed the blame for the failure last year of the
SPARTAN solar science satellite on the crew of the shuttle Columbia who
failed to release it correctly and retrieve it with the robot arm when
it failed.
The review board concluded that STS-87 astronaut Kalpana Chawla
failed to send a command to the satellite initializing its systems so it
could fly free of the shuttle. Moreover, her crewmates failed to catch
the error before she released the satellite November 21.
Those problems were compounded when the crew attempted to
retrieve the satellite using the shuttle's robot manipulator arm.
Rookie astronaut Chawla, at the robot arm controls, closed the grip of
the arm before it could latch onto the satellite. Instead of capturing
the satellite, the arm bumped it, sending it into a slow tumble.
The satellite was later retrieved on a November 24 spacewalk by
astronauts Winston Scott and Takao Doi, who grabbed the spacecraft with
their hands and hauled it into the cargo bay.
The review panel made several recommendations to prevent a
similar problem from recurring on a future mission. It suggested
changing the software on the satellite so that an alarm is triggered if
a key command is not sent. The panel also suggested additional training
for astronauts who use the robot arm and improved procedures for
satellite rescues.
The SPARTAN satellite, which is designed to fly free for the
shuttle for several days at a time while studying the Sun, is scheduled
to fly again on shuttle mission STS-95 in late October.
Delta, Ariane Launches Successful
A Delta II successfully launched four Globalstar satellites in
late April while an Ariane 4 placed two geosynchronous communications
satellites into orbit, but the launch of the final two Iridium missions
were delayed by weather and technical problems.
A Delta II lifted off from Cape Canveral, Florida on Friday,
April 24 in the second in a series of launches of the Globalstar
communicatiions satellite system. The Delta II launched at 6:38:34pm
EDT (2238:34 UT) at the beginning of its 15-minute launch window. The
launch went smoothly, with no problems reported. The launch had been
scheduled for Thursday evening, April 23, but high upper level winds
forced a one-day delay.
The launch placed four Globalstar satellites into orbit,
bringing the total number of Globalstar satellites in orbit to eight.
The first four were launched on a Delta II from Cape Canaveral February
14.
An Ariane 4 booster launched two commercial satellites Tuesday
evening, April 28, designed to provide direct broadcast television
services for different parts of the world.
Nilesat-101 will provide direct broadcast television for much of
north Africa, the Middle East, and Persian Gulf regions. It's the first
direct broadcast satellite to cover any part of Africa. BSAT-1b is the
second direct broadcast satellite for the Japanses market operated by
B-SAT.
A Delta II was scheduled to launch five Iridium satellites from
Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on April 26, but the launch was
delayed when a leak was found in the second stage of the booster. No
new launch date has been set, but the launch is expected to occur in
early May.
The launch of two Iridium satellites on a Chinese Long March
2C/SD booster, scheduled for April 30, was scrubbed by high winds at the
Taiyuan launch site. The launch has been rescheduled for May 1.
Sixty-five Iridium satellites have been launched. Two
experienced failures shortly after launch, while a third developed
problems earlier in April. A fourth satellite may also be developing
problems, sources report.
When completed, Iridium will have 66 satellites in orbit. An
additional Delta II launch is being held in reserve at Vandenberg Air
Force Base in late May should additional launch or satellite problems
develop.
SpaceViews Event Horizon
May 1 Launch of a Long Marsh 2C/SD from Taiyuan, China,
carrying two Iridium satellites
May 2 Astronomy Day
May 2 Launch of Chinastar-1 on a Long March 3B from Xichang,
China
May 3 Landing of the space shuttle Columbia, mission STS-90,
at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida
May 5 Launch of ORBCOMM-3 on a Pegasus XL
May 5 Launch of Progress M-40 Mior resupply spacecraft from
Baikonur, Kazakhstan
May 6 Titan 4B launch of the Milstar-3 satellite
May 13 Titan 2 launch of the NOAA-K satellite
May 21 Space Day
May 21-25 1998 International Space Development Conference,
Milwaukee, WI
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Other News
Cassini's First Flyby: The Cassini spacecraft completed the first leg
of its seven-year mission to Saturn on Sunday, April 26 when it made a
successful gravity assist past the planet Venus. Cassini passed within
284 km (176 mi.) of Venus at 9:52 am EDT (1352 UT) Sunday morning,
picking up 7 km/sec (4 mi/sec) in velocity. Another Venus flyby in June
1998, an Earth flyby in August 1998, and a Jupiter flyby in 2000 are
scheduled before Cassini reaches Saturn in July 2004.
Mission Delays: NASA has delayed the launch of STS-91, the final
Mir-Shuttle docking mission, by almost one week to June 2. Officials
cited technical problems with getting the shuttle Discovery ready in
time for the docking mission. The shuttle will pick Andy Thomas, who
has been on Mir since late January... Meanwhile, JPL's first advanced
technology "New Millennium" mission, Deep Space 1 (DS1), has been
delayed from July to October. The spacecraft delay, announced April
17, was blamed on the late delivery of key components and an "ambitious"
software development schedule. DS1, which features an ion engine, solar
concentrators, and an autonomous navigation system, was to fly by an
asteroid, comet, and Mars during its mission. A new set of targets,
based on an October launch date, is expected to be announced by the end
of May.
Names and Naming: JPL officials have decided to add a second microchip
to their Stardust spacecraft, which will carry the names of anyone who
addes their names at the Stardust Web site
(http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/microchip/signup.html). The chip will be
included on the spacecraft, a Discovery-class mission to return samples
from the comet Wild-2, is scheduled for launch in February 1999.... NASA
is sponsoring a contest to name the Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility
(AXAF) spacecraft, scheduled for launch on the shuttle this December.
The contest, open to anyone, runs through June 30. The grand prize
winner gets a trip to Florida to see the AXAF launch, and all entries
will receive an AXAF poster. More information is on the Web at
http://asc.harvard.edu/contest.html.
MediaWatch (Good): Kudos to Newsweek for putting the discovery of
planetary disks forming around distant stars on the cover of the May 4
issue, and devoting several pages to an in-depth look at the research.
Sure beats another cover story on Monica Lewinsky or Ken Starr... The
May issue of Popular Science magazine is a special issue devoted to the
impending (?) start of assembly of the International Space Station.
Related articles in the feature include a look at Mir and John Glenn's
upcoming flight.
MediaWatch (Bad): The May issue of Wired provides a short but good look
at the space insurance business. However, in a separate article they
refer to Japan's Muses-C asteroid mission as a NASA mission, and calls
the NASA-built microrover to be included on the mission as something way
more exciting than Sojourner, a "Martian microbe hunter"... That's
nothing, though, compared to Project Censored, an effort at California's
Sonoma State University to highlight the ten biggest stories the news
media failed to cover in 1997. Their number six story was the fall of
Russia's Mars 96 spacecraft and its missing small canisters of
plutonium, which may have fallen somewhere in Chile and Bolivia.
However, their 1996 list (which featured Cassini as its top story)
refers to "much press coverage" given to Mars 96. A Project Censored
spokesperson told SpaceViews the decision was based on "the lack of
diplomacy and responsiblity" in the American and Russian treatment of
Chile and Bolivia, which they claim went uncovered in the media.
Rumors: While Russia is making plans to deorbit their Mir space station
by the end of 1999, there may yet be some interest in salvaging the
station for future commercial use. NASA Watch reported in late April
that Spacehab was in negotiations with Russia to reboost Mir and put it
to commercial use... The X-Prize Foundation is expected to make a "big"
announcement in late May, according to one source. The foundation,
which is sponsoring a $10 million prize to support space tourism, is
expected to finally announce that the prize is fully funded.
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От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - May 1998 [7/17]
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*** Articles ***
Doing Space: Speedbumps on the Road to Space
by Timothy K. Roberts
OK, we're in space. We've been to the Moon. We have a Shuttle.
We will soon have a space station. We have satellites and interplanetary
probes by the dozens. We've even landed on Mars - three times! And
American business, government, and the military can no longer operate
without using space as at least a place to move data through. We as a
nation certainly have a set of space-faring capabilities.
What isn't clear at all is what we're going to do with them.
In fact, you might be asking yourself the question "Now what?" As in
what do we do to really go to space? But before we answer this question,
we need to clear our minds of misconceptions that get in the way of
getting clear answers. We need to dispel some myths.
There are quite a few myths rampant in the public space interest
sector and, while attractive, they are all untrue and, in fact, actually
do damage to the ultimate goal of opening space. Let's examine some of
the more pernicious ones.
Myth #1: The Federal government has no real interest in reducing the
cost of space transportation and is actually attempting to keep
spacelift costs high.
This myth is widespread and is readily believed by those who
aren't familiar with what the Federal government is actually doing in
space. Regrettably, this myth also fits in well with the current fashion
of government-bashing. However, a look at some facts and figures soon
exposes this myth for what it is - an uninformed knee-jerk reaction
against the slow progress being made in developing cheap spacelift.
The fact of the matter is that, as the primary consumer of
spacelift services, organic or contracted, the Federal government is
supremely interested in drastically reducing transportation costs. The
three primary agencies that use spacelift - the Department of Defense
(DoD), NASA, and the Department of Commerce (DoC) - know very well that
every dollar spent of transporting a payload to orbit is a dollar that
is not spent on the mission itself. It is a fact that budgets are
effectively static or declining in all three of these agencies. A direct
result of that fact is that there is frantic competition between the
payload developers and users and those who provide transportation.
Couple that with the costs of transportation, ranging from $40 million
from a Delta II launch to $1 billion for a Shuttle launch, and you can
begin to see that there is literally no percentage in holding back
development of cheap, dependable spacelift.
Note the key word dependable. New and unusual ways of getting to
orbit must prove themselves safe and dependable. At the least, each
payload being transported costs in excess of $40 million (for "mass
produced" Global Positioning System satellites). We may be moving
people. With lives and/or that kind of money at stake, one doesn't jump
on board the latest technology simply because it promises to be cheaper
or neater or whatever. One lets the technology prove itself.
Single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) is in this stage right now. Any operator or
planner in those agencies will tell you that transportation costs must
come down before they can take full advantage of space in their agency
operations - DoD most of all!
Myth #2: The Federal government has no real interest in opening the
space frontier and is, in fact, actively attempting to limit access to a
select few.
This is a corollary to Myth #1. This myth is often promulgated
by those who are impatient with progress to date in opening space. And
there are a lot of us who are. We do remember the promise of Apollo and
the early Shuttle program. We often feel we've been sold a bill of goods
by agencies that are as interested in bureaucratic survival as they are
in going to space.
What we need to remember is that going to space is
extraordinarily difficult. The science fiction dreams of one lone
inventor developing antigravity out of three transistors, some baling
wire, and a spare circuit board are just that - dreams. There are
several things to bear in mind when confronting this myth. First and
perhaps foremost is the inescapable fact that opening space is not now
and never has been a high priority of the US government or its people. A
perusal of Federal budgets over the past forty years will bear this out.
The will of the people, as expressed by our representatives in Congress,
is that we spend money for defense and desirable social programs at a
much greater pace than we do on all space exploration and use -
military, civil, and scientific together. This is, of course, why
organizations like the National Space Society or the Planetary Society
exist - to mobilize public opinion to spend more public and private
money on space.
The second thing to remember is that going to space is very
hard. What appears routine today - a Shuttle or Delta or Titan launch -
is actually the culmination of decades of investment of blood, sweat,
tears, and dollars. Ask any engineer who works for a company actually
involved in space - Lockheed-Martin, Hughes, Boeing - and they'll regale
you with tales of how they exacted an extra pound of thrust from a
rocket engine or culled a few critical ounces of weight from a satellite
or... well, you get the picture. It ain't easy now and it will continue
thus for the foreseeable future.
Finally, we're trying to do many different things in space with
our limited dollars. We do science, we do defense, we do civil support
(weather, search and rescue, etc.), and we do commercial business. These
all are competing for what is effectively a fixed pot of money. Since we
as a nation are unwilling to not take advantage of all that space can
offer, we will continue to try to satisfy multiple, disparate
requirements all at once. Lack of progress doesn't necessarily indicate
lack of interest. It may well mean the problem is very hard.
Myth #3: Industry can and will open space better than the Federal
government, if only we would let them.
This is a very pernicious myth, one that is actually damaging to
our efforts to open space, particularly since a few vocal members of the
aerospace industry continue to actively promote it. Again, facts
interfere with the myth. The number one fact that must be remembered is
that industry - any industry, from aerospace to health care to toys - is
out to make a profit. This can be expressed a number of ways, but rate
of return is a common one used in investment circles. Based on extensive
interviews between Wall Street investors and aerospace companies on the
one hand and the members of the 1994 DoD Space Launch Modernization
Study on the other, I can fairly and accurately state that no credible
company in or out of the aerospace industry is waiting in the wings with
a new invention or process that will reduce the cost of transportation
to space by an order of magnitude.
Further, absent significant Federal government investment, no
company is willing to spend its own money on a new spacelift system.
This is because the predicted rate of return is so low - usually less
than 1% - that there is literally no percentage in investing the five to
ten billion dollars it takes to develop a new transportation system
(typical of a new airliner). The reason is that the spacelift market is
actually quite small - only a few billion dollars per year. Compare this
with sports shoes, for instance, with billions of dollars in sales per
year and one begins to appreciate the scope of the situation. No,
without some sort of bootstrap, private industry is not going to be the
savior of space development.
Once we've cleared our minds - and our debate! - of these
pernicious myths, we can engage in some serious discussion of how we'll
really go to space. Opening the Solar System to human settlement
requires the best efforts we can give - from the civil sector, from the
military sector, and especially from the general public - that's us! -
who is demanding it! Only when we've cleared our minds can we really
tell ourselves and the rest of the world:
We're going out! Lead, follow, or get out of the way!
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=SANA=
Дата: 06 мая 1998 (1998-05-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - May 1998 [8/17]
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Sputnik 3: An IGY Orbiting Research Laboratory
by Andrew J. LePage
Introduction
During the six months following the launch of the Soviet Union's
second satellite, Sputnik 2, public attention was focused on American
efforts to catch up by whatever means available. By the end of April
1958, the ABMA (Army Ballistic Missile Agency) had orbited two
satellites in three attempts while America's "official" satellite
program, Project Vanguard, had managed to get only one small test
payload into orbit after four tries. While these satellites, with a
total mass of only 29.5 kilograms (64.9 pounds), were dwarfed by the 592
kilograms (1,303 pounds) of useful payload orbited by the Soviets, they
still made some important discoveries including that of the Earth's Van
Allen radiation belt. But while leaders in the United States debated
the Soviet's capabilities, the danger they might pose, and America's
response, everyone wondered when the next Soviet satellite would be
orbited and what surprises it would bring.
Unknown to everyone in the West at the time, engineers and
scientists associated with OKB-1 (Special Design Bureau-1) under Sergei
Korolev were quite busy during this hiatus in Soviet satellite launches.
After the launch of the first two Sputniks using stripped down versions
of the R-7 rocket known as 8K71PS (also designated as SL-1 in the West),
development flights of the 8K71 ICBM version of the R-7 (designated the
SS-6 or Sapwood by NATO) continued with launches on January 30, March
29, and April 4 of 1958. While none of these tests were completely
successful, the experience gained with each flight lead to incremental
improvements in the performance and reliability of this giant machine.
By the spring of 1958 the first R-7 rocket specifically designed
to launch satellites, known as the 8A91 (or the SL-2 in the West), was
nearly ready to fly. The payload for this new launch vehicle would be
the Object D satellite developed by a team headed by Mikhail Tikhonravov
at OKB-1. Originally meant to be the first Soviet satellite when
Korolev's proposal was authorized by the Soviet government on January
30, 1956, development of Object D and its 8A91 launch vehicle dragged on
almost a year longer than originally anticipated. But finally
everything was ready for launch.
As with the launch of Sputnik 2, the timing of the third Soviet
satellite launch would be set by Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev's
political agenda. Thanks to Korolev and his team at OKB-1, the quick
development and launch of the first two relatively simple Sputniks was
able to secure an early lead in the Space Race for the Soviet Union.
But Krushchev, who took full advantage of the propaganda value of this
lead, wanted more space spectaculars to further improve Soviet
communism's image abroad and deter Western aggression.
While there were a range of projects under development that
could supply Krushchev with another important space first, none would be
ready until at least the summer of 1958. The only hardware at hand was
the nearly completed Object D and its launch vehicle. But to Krushchev,
who was not interested in science for its own sake, the launching of
just another satellite would hardly be spectacular. As a result,
Krushchev's enthusiasm for this project was lukewarm at best. But with
nothing else available, the launch of Object D was set to occur before
the upcoming Italian parliamentary elections in the hope of influencing
its results. An 8A91 rocket and an Object D satellite, along with a
backup to insure a successful flight, were prepared for launch.
An Orbiting Research Laboratory
While Krushchev could care less, Object D promised to make the
most comprehensive geophysical survey of the environment above Earth's
atmosphere for the IGY (International Geophysical Year). Object D was
roughly conical shaped with a height of 3.57 meters (11.7 feet) and a
base diameter of 1.73 meters (5.68 feet). To help cut development time
and simplify the design, it was decided that Object D would not be
outfitted with an attitude control system and would be left to drift
instead. Like its predecessors, Object D would be powered by a bank of
silver-zinc batteries. With a total mass of about 1.3 metric tons
(2,900 pounds), Object D was more than twice as massive all the other
Soviet and American satellites combined.
In addition to being the largest satellite ever launched up to
this point, Object D would be the most sophisticated scientific
satellite ever orbited. A commission of scientists and engineers
established by the Soviet Academy of Sciences headed by Korolev's ally,
Academician Mstislav V. Keldysh, with Korolev and Tikhonravov as his
deputies decided what instruments Object D would carry. In the end they
chose a dozen experiments that investigated virtually every area of
interest to IGY scientists around the world. These included direct
measurements of the density, pressure, and composition of the Earth's
upper atmosphere. Measurements of the concentration of charged
particles, cosmic rays, solar radiation, terrestrial magnetic and
electrostatic fields, as well as the flux of micrometeorites would also
be made. To round out the investigations, radio propagation studies
would be performed using the satellite's transmitters that operated at
frequencies of 20 and 40 MHz. All together 968 kilograms (2,130 pounds)
of instrumentation and power supplies would be carried inside the
pressurized interior of Object D.
To support all this instrumentation, Object D was equipped with
a sophisticated high speed telemetry system called Tral D that would
handle the flow of data. A tape recorder was also included in the
system to store all of the instruments' observations when the satellite
was not in contact with its controllers. Its contents could be
downloaded via radio when the satellite was in sight of one of the new
Soviet tracking stations.
In order to maximize the scientific return of the mission, it
was decided to place Object D in an elliptical orbit with a apogee of at
least 1,500 kilometers (930 miles). Combined with the impressive array
of instruments and the tape recorder, this orbit would allow the
radiation belts first observed by the American Explorer 1 satellite to
be systematically mapped in detail by a large array of instruments for
the first time.
The first launch of the 8A91, with Object D mounted beneath an
conical aerodynamic fairing on the nose, took place from the NIIP-5 Test
Range in Soviet Kazakhstan on April 27, 1958. The 8A91, serial number
B1-2, lifted off smoothly and all seemed to be going well at first. But
as the rocket ascended, longitudinal resonance vibrations (an effect
called "pogo") in the strap-on boosters increased in intensity as the
propellant tanks emptied. The launch vehicle finally shook itself apart
88 seconds after launch. The debris reached a peak altitude of 13 to 15
kilometers (43,000 to 49,000 feet) and fell to the ground some distance
downrange. The remains of the top secret Object D were subsequently
recovered after a low profile search to keep it away from prying eyes.
While the flight was a total loss, the ruggedness of the payload was
aptly demonstrated when some of the would-be satellite's instruments
continued to operate despite the explosively short ride. Unlike the
American satellite program, the Soviet government made every effort to
conceal the failure.
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 06 мая 1998 (1998-05-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - May 1998 [9/17]
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Sputnik 3 is Launched
After this first Soviet satellite launch failure, the backup
8A91 launch vehicle, serial number B1-1, was quickly prepared to launch
a spare Object D. But while prelaunch checks of the payload's
instruments showed everything to be in order, there were indications
that the tape recorder was not operating properly. The engineer in
charge of the telemetry system and recorder, Chief Designer Alexei F.
Bogomolov of OKB MEI, did not want to be the one to hold up this
important launch. Bogomolov insisted that the errant signals from the
recorder were the result of electromagnetic interference from other
sources in the testing room and that the unit was actually working
properly. With increasing pressure from the Kremlin to launch, Korolev
accepted Bogomolov's explanation despite the protests of the other
engineers and preparations to launch the second Object D proceeded.
On May 15, 1958 the second 8A91 rocket lifted off from its pad
in the Kazakh steppes for the fourth Soviet satellite launch attempt.
This time the rocket operated perfectly placing its 1,327 kilogram
(2,922 pound) payload, now called Sputnik 3, into a 230 by 1,880
kilometer (143 by 1,168 mile) orbit inclined 65.2 degrees to the
equator. Once in orbit, Sputnik 3 separated from the spent core of its
launch vehicle to start its mission. While this flight did not give the
Soviets any new space firsts, the immense size of the satellite was a
shock to the West and provided leaders with more evidence that the
Soviet Union possessed an viable ICBM capability.
But as the Soviet propaganda machine hailed their latest space
success, in reality all was not well with the new satellite. Much to
the chagrin of everyone involved in the project, the suspect tape
recorder failed to operate once in orbit. Because of the secrecy
associated with the project, Soviet authorities did not share with the
rest of the world the information needed to receive and decode Sputnik's
signals thus losing the opportunity to recover data gathered over the
most of the globe. This limited the new Sputnik's measurements to the
times it was over Soviet territory. Since Sputnik 3 was near the
perigee of its orbit during these periods, it could only make
observations up to an altitude of about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles).
While extremely useful data could still be gathered, project scientists
would be unable to make the systematic series of measurements they hoped
to make.
It was only after the scientific results of the first American
and Soviet satellites were studied in detail was it was realized how the
loss of the tape recorder prevented Soviet scientists from making an
important scientific find. After the discovery in late 1958 by American
scientists that the Van Allen radiation belt is in fact composed of
distinct inner and outer portions, Soviet physicist Sergei Vernov
realized that Sputnik 3 had returned the first measurements from the
outer belt. But because of the loss of the tape recorder, he and his
colleagues were unable to place their spotty data into the broader
context required to recognize the significance of their observations.
With hindsight, Soviet authorities claimed on March 6, 1959 that
Vernov had discovered the outer belt and that this result had actually
been reported at an IGY meeting the previous August - long before the
American's announcement of their discovery. Unfortunately the Soviet
claim was rejected since such a statement was not explicitly made in
their August 1958 report and there was no way to unambiguously identify
the outer belt from the Soviet data published up until that time.
Still, a popular Russian joke at the time proposed that the Van Allen
belt be renamed the "Van Allen-Vernov Belt".
Aftermath of the Mission
While many of the more power hungry instruments finished their
observations in the first few weeks of flight, Sputnik 3 continued to
return useful data until its orbit finally decayed and the satellite
burned up on May 6, 1960. Despite the fact that the mission was largely
successful, there was no support in the Soviet government for follow-up
missions. Krushchev was far more interested in space spectaculars than
the systematic exploration of space. This combined with limited
resources at OKB-1 and its network of other design bureaus resulted in
continual reassessments of project priorities during 1958.
In the end, three nearly-completed scientific satellites in the
shops at OKB-1 that were to follow Sputnik 3 into Earth orbit were never
launched. Development of oriented versions of the Object D and other
proposed satellites that would use the 1.5 metric ton (3,300 pound)
payload capability of the 8A91 launch vehicle were also eventually
scrapped. Since the next round of missions would require launch
vehicles with much greater payload capabilities, the 8A91 was quietly
retired after only two launches.
Experience gained from the 8A91 flights was not wasted and
helped Korolev's engineers iron out problems with the development of the
R-7 ICBM and its derivatives. In the mean time the basic 8K71 would be
modified to carry larger payloads into space in support of the next
round of space spectaculars. With the relatively "easy" space firsts
achieved, Krushchev charged Korolev and his team with attaining the next
goal: The first probes to the Moon.
Bibliography
James Harford, Korolev: How One Man Masterminded the Soviet Drive to
Beat America to the Moon, John Wiley & Sons, 1997
Wayne R. Matson (editor), Cosmonautics: A Colorful History, Cosmos
Books, 1994
John Rhea (editor), Roads to Space: An Oral History of the Soviet Space
Program, Aviation Week Group, 1995
Asif A. Siddiqi, "Before Sputnik: Early Satellite Studies in The Soviet
Union 1947-1957 - Part 2", Spaceflight, pp. 389-392, Vol. 39,
No. 11, November 1997
Timothy Varfolomeyev, "Soviet Rocketry that Conquered Space Part 1: From
First ICBM to Sputnik Launcher", Spaceflight, pp. 260-263, Vol. 37,
No. 8, August 1995
Timothy Varfolomeyev, "Sputnik Era Launches", Spaceflight, pp. 331-332,
Vol 39, No. 10, October 1997
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 06 мая 1998 (1998-05-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - May 1998 [10/17]
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The Mars "Face" and Lowell's "Canals"
by Larry Klaes
In light of the Mars "face" controversy, I offer up this quote
from an article written in the Wall Street Journal (!) in 1907:
"The most extraordinary development (in 1907) has been the proof
afforded by the astronomical observations (showing) that conscious,
intelligent human life exists upon the planet Mars... Dr. Lowell,
director of the Lowell Observatory in Arizona... gives a number of
photographs taken of Mars. . He sums up the testimony of these
photographs by saying that they reveal to laymen and astronomers that
markings exist on Mars which are, of course, the lines of the great
canals constructed on Mars for the purpose of irrigating that globe..."
Starting in the 1890s, wealthy Boston astronomer Percival Lowell
saw what he thought were straight lines crossing the surface of Mars.
While he was not the first to see them, he was among the first and most
vocal to make the radical interpretation that these lines were much too
straight to be natural features. Therefore, they had to have been built
by an advanced intelligence.
The next thing you know, Lowell had populated Mars with an
ancient and noble civilization of highly intelligent Martians trying
desperately to survive its dying planet by bringing water from the poles
to their great cities along the equator.
All this from the small and blurry images of Mars he viewed
through his ground-based telescopes at the bottom of Earth's ocean of
shimmering air, never closer than 35 million miles from our planet.
Thanks to the wonders of the World Wide Web (WWW), you can read
one of Lowell's books on this subject, titled simply Mars and published
in 1895, by going to this URL:
http://www.bibliomania.com/NonFiction/Lowell/Mars/index.html
British author H. G. Wells imagined in his great 1898 science
fiction novel, The War of the Worlds, that Lowell's Martians decided it
would probably be easier just to conquer Earth and take all of its
bountiful resources for themselves from those noisy, primitive little
monkeys walking around on that alluring blue globe. You can read this
novel as well from this Web site URL:
http://hot.virtual-pc.com/mjbstein/wotw/wwindex.htm
The public was entranced by Lowell's vision of Mars populated by
alien beings. Newspaper editors from such prestigious papers as The New
York Times vigorously defended Lowell and scolded other astronomers who
said they only saw dark smudges instead of lines. Many astronomers
theorized that the "canals" were merely optical illusions produced by
the limited seeing of natural surface features from tens of millions of
miles away.
The media and public accused the astronomers of not being
open-minded to the possibility. In reality, all most astronomers were
saying was they wanted more evidence and that Lowell was making a major
claim from very little data.
I highly recommend these two works on this amazing event in
planetary astronomy history for more information.
Lowell and Mars, by William Graves Hoyt, University of Arizona
Press, Tucson, 1976 (reprinted 1996).
http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/books/bid691.htm
The following book is available in its entirety on the Web:
The Planet Mars: A History of Observation and Discovery by
William Sheehan, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1996.
http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/online.bks/mars/contents.htm
As it turned out, when the first unmanned Mariner probes began
imaging Mars close up in the 1960s and 1970s, the canals Lowell saw were
indeed optical illusions created by his human mind connecting indistinct
and disconnected natural features on the Martian surface. Actually,
there are "canals" on Mars, but they are natural waterways created eons
ago when Mars apparently had large amounts of liquid water flowing
across its land.
People really want to know if we are alone or not in the
Universe. It is a subject that has certainly compelled me all of my
life. For all I know, there could indeed be alien artifacts on Mars, or
a big, black Monolith buried under the lunar crater Tycho. It is not
impossible that some ETI have the capability and the will to explore
other star systems, including our own, either with robot probes or in
person.
But I find it unfortunate that for the last two decades, some
people have expended a large amount of time, energy, and effort on a
surface feature that looked like a face based on a couple of distant
images taken by the Viking orbiter. Had they been as clear as the ones
recently taken by Mars Global Surveyor (MGS), at least this Martian
controversy probably never would have happened. I know, people can
spend their time and energy focusing on whatever they please.
In summation, there likely is life beyond Earth spread
throughout our galaxy and beyond. But since I have no proof of this, I
won't say so for certain. I am much less certain that there is evidence
of alien visitation in our own solar system, especially with the Mars
"face".
Why? Because with 400 billion stars in our vast Milky Way
galaxy, I do not think our solar system, Mars, Earth, and humanity are
the most well-known or popular visiting spots around, despite our
culturally egocentric view as to humanity's importance in the greater
scheme of things. But again, if evidence can be found to the contrary,
I will be as happy, fascinated, and eager to know more about it as
anybody else.
I just hope that when it comes to the "face", the "pyramids",
the lunar "spires", and other such items seen only vaguely in blurry
images, that we will keep Percival Lowell and his "canals" in mind
before we turn rocks into alien artifacts without further evidence.
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 06 мая 1998 (1998-05-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - May 1998 [11/17]
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Staking Claims in Space
by Alan Wasser
In 1991, when Space News published my commentary "Open Lunar Era
with Land Grants" [June 24-July 7, page 21], the problem was convincing
people that there could be land ownership in space and that real estate
on the moon and Mars might someday be valuable. Since then, most space
activists and even NASA headquarters and key congressmen have begun to
accept that once-radical idea. Now, the problem is the opposite:
resisting the urge to squander that value on quick, easy missions like
robotic surveys, instead of saving it to pay for true privately funded
space settlements.
To keep even one human being alive on the moon, Mars or an
asteroid requires at least one spacecraft that continually travels
between the settlement and Earth. To do that at a profit, you have to
develop cheap human access to space. Land ownership reserved for human
settlement thus becomes the prize and the economic justification for
investing in cheap human access to space.
As space activists, our primary goal always has been the
establishment of permanently inhabited settlements with transportation
open to all paying passengers. If land ownership could buy us our
primary goal, it would be very foolish to waste it on lesser
accomplishments. At even a very conservative $10 per acre, a grant of
land on the moon the size of the state of Alaska, about 4% of the moon's
surface, would be worth at least $4 billion and a grant of land on Mars
the size of the United States would be worth at least $23 billion, so
they really could pay for a settlement.
It will be much easier to get a property rights regime started
if the United States initiates and administers the process until an
international body is formed to do it, rather than trying to get a new
international agreement first. But the 1967 Outer Space Treaty prohibits
national appropriation or sovereignty over the moon, Mars and other
celestial bodies, so the United States does not have the right under
international law to confer ownership of land in space.
The way to finesse the treaty is for the United States to pass a
law directing American courts to grant recognition to an
extra-terrestrial land claim made by any private entity that has
established a true space settlement. Actual settlement is a traditional
basis for making land claims, and the United States could set reasonable
conditions for its recognition, such as maximum size, and the openness
of the base. On the other hand, a law in which the United States tried
to confer specified incremental rewards for specified incremental steps
would be much harder to justify, and probably would require the United
States to openly violate the 1967 treaty or negotiate a new one.
Requiring human settlement as the necessary basis for
recognizing a claim also makes congressional passage more likely, as
settlement seems so far away to potential opponents that support will
seem just a costless, symbolic statement.
Lunar and Martian land is, of course, worth very little now when
potential buyers cannot get to it, but if a true settlement is
established the land's value will increase tremendously. The dollar
value of a given tract of land will be vastly greater if ownership is
awarded only after there is a ship capable of carrying humans back and
forth. Some people have proposed claim registries, mining patents and
other mini-awards that aren't real ownership but would, in effect, hold
claimants' places in line. But why would we want to give someone a land
grant for some small step and allow them to do nothing more for the next
20 years except stop anyone else who is ready to settle and develop the
land?
Instead, I want to start a competitive race to design and build
affordable human transport as soon as possible. For that to happen, all
competitors must fear that, if they don't rush to establish a settlement
soon, someone else (perhaps from another country) will get there first.
The existence of a permanently inhabited settlement is the economic
point of no return for development. Only then is it easier to justify
going forward than delaying. Settlements will find plenty of ways to
make money, including exports of raw materials and manufactured items
and services to tourists and scientists. Unfortunately, none of those
means can pay for the original development of the transport and
settlement. But once those are built to win the land grant, exports will
add a great deal to operating income, and eventually provide all of it.
It will cost much more to develop cheap human access to space
than to do a robotic survey, but even that has an advantage. It means
the consortium that gets a land grant will need lots of investors from
all over the world, giving everyone a chance to buy shares in the
settlement enterprise. It also will need the revenue from selling
passage on the ship and pieces of the land.
Under most plans, mini claims based on robotic surveys wouldn't
confer enough rights to make them saleable. They wouldn't even make
enough to repay the cost of a survey. They do the recipient little good
and reinforce the idea that the land is basically worthless. Mini claims
also would detract from the psychological value of a real claim; the
boost in ego investors could get by being able to look up and say, "I
own a piece of that."
The first step in the development and use of any mini land claim
earned by some halfway measure would be to establish an affordable
transport system to get to and from the claim. Why not reserve
ownership of the land for those who pay to do that in the first place?
Alan Wasser is a member of the Boards of Directors of both the National
Space Society and ProSpace.
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=SANA=
Дата: 06 мая 1998 (1998-05-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - May 1998 [12/17]
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*** Book Reviews ***
by Jeff Foust
Spaceflight and the Myth of Presidential Leadership
Spaceflight and the Myth of Presidential Leadership
by Roger D. Launius and Howard E. McCurdy, eds.
University of Illinois Press, 1997
softcover, 262pp.
ISBN 0-252-06632-4
US$19.95
It's widely believed that presidential leadership has played a key role
in shaping the American space program. This belief is usually anchored
by President Kennedy's 1961 speech calling for a manned lunar landing by
the end of the decade. However, is this speech representative of the
role of presidential leadership in space, or is it an anomaly? Roger
Launius and Howard McCurdy edit a collection of essays from leading
historians that address this issue.
The essays in this book take a look at presidential leadership from
Eisenhower through Bush (the book is based on a 1993 symposium, so
Clinton's record, or lack thereof, in space leadership is neglected
here.) The book carries a theme of the rise of the "imperial
presidency" through the Johnson and Nixon administrations, and its fall
in the aftermath of Watergate. Space supporters found comfort in the
increased power of the presidency, since they thought it would be easier
to get support. However, as the power of Congress grew through the
1980s, this philosophy needed reconsideration.
This book brings together an impressive list of historians, including
Michael Beschloss on John Kennedy and Robert Dallek on Lyndon Johnson.
The theme of this book, that the influence of presidential leadership on
the space program was far less than most thought, may be jarring to
some, but it is key to understanding why the space program is where it
is today, and why it has not accomplished more. The importance of the
presidency on the space program, and the importance of the space program
for the presidency, may have been critically overestimated.
Star Trek on the Brain
Star Trek on the Brain: Alien Minds, Human Minds
by Robert Sekuler and Randolph Blake
W.H. Freeman and Company, 1998
hardcover 256pp., illus.
ISBN 0-7167-3279-3
US$21.95
You might argue the phenomenon has gotten a little out of hand. After
the success of 1996's "The Physics of Star Trek" there has been a surge
of books attempting to use the various television series and movies to
study everything from biology to metaphysics. In "Star Trek on the
Brain", arguably the "psychology of Star Trek", Robert Sekuler and
Randolph Blake use the series as a way to understand how the human brain
works.
The authors use anecdotes combed from all the Star Trek series and
movies to explore how the brain works, and how it allows us to interact
with our world and each other. Want to talk about emotions in general?
Compare us with Spock and Data. What about anger? There's no better
example than an enraged Klingon. How our brain processes vision can be
compared with Geordi LaForge's visor. And so on.
It's clear that both authors know their Star Trek very well, given their
ability to dredge up passages from hundreds of episodes to support their
discussion of the human brain. The book is an entertaining read for
anyone who has followed the series (although a glossary in the back
provides descriptions for those who don't know the difference between
Spock and Sisko) and is a good introduction for anyone interested in how
the brain works.
Quick Looks at Three Books
Eye in the Sky: The Story of the Corona Spy Satellites
by Dwayne A. Day, John M. Logsdon, and Brian Latell (eds.)
Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998
hardcover, 304pp., illus.
ISBN 1-56098-830-4
US$29.95
Considerable attention has been devoted to Corona, America's early
reconnaissance satellite program, since the program was declassified in
1995. this book, a collection of essays based on a conference held
shortly after the declassification that featured both historians and
participants in the program. Like Curtis Peeble's "The Corona Project",
this book provides a detailed look at the Corona program. However,
unlike the strict chronological approach of Peeble's work, the
contributors to "Eye in the Sky" look at different aspects of the
project. One chapter also looks at Zenit, the Soviet reconnaissance
satellite program developed as a response to Corona. "Eye in the Sky"
is a comprehensive look at a historic satellite system.
Adventures in Celestial Mechanics
by Victor G. Szebehely and Hans Mark
Wiley-Interscience, 1998
hardcover, 210pp., illus.
ISBN 0-471-13317-5
US$59.95
"Adventures in Celestial Mechanics" doesn't sound like the name of a
textbook, but the book is a good introductory text in the field of
celestial mechanics. The book assumes the reader has some background in
calculus and vectors, but little background in celestial mechanics
itself, which is explained in detail through the book. What could be a
try subject is enlivened with some historical discussion of the people
who shaped the field, and use of the subject to real-life applications,
such as Earth-orbiting spacecraft and planetary missions. The book is
not for the casual reader, but is useful for someone seeking a thorough
academic introduction to the field.
"The Observer's Year: 366 Nights of the Universe"
by Patrick Moore
Springer-Verlag, 1998
softcover, 368 pp., illus.
ISBN 3-540-76147-0
US$29.95
Although the night sky changes only very little from night to night,
each (clear) night provides the opportunity to explore something new in
the heavens. Noted astronomer Patrick Moore uses this night-by-night
approach to discuss stars, galaxies, constellations, and planets visible
throughout the year. Each night Moore writes a few paragraphs on an
object visible in the night sky at that time. Solar system objects,
which are visible at different times in different years, are a little
harder to cover, but Moore will devote a day to a particular planet for
an upcoming year that is particularly significant for it, such as when
it is at opposition. (The book also lists the phases of the Moon from
1998 through 2003). This book is a good guide to what's significant in
the night sky on a particular night, or what you could be seeing if it
was clear!
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 06 мая 1998 (1998-05-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - May 1998 [13/17]
Привет всем!
Вот, свалилось из Internet...
*** NSS News ***
Upcoming Boston NSS Events
Thursday, May 7, 7:30 pm
"One Way to Mars - Establishing a Base on the First Mission"
by Bruce Mackenzie
Many proposals for human missions to Mars mention: "a series of missions
leading to a permanent Mars base".
Consider these points:
1.Coming back from Mars may be the most hazardous part of the
journey.
2.Transporting people back from Mars is more expensive than
transporting them to Mars.
3.The major reason to go to Mars is to establish permanent human
settlements.
4.The secondary reason to go to Mars, scientific investigations,
would be greatly aided by a permanent Mars settlement.
5.Robotic instruments can provide far more information about
Mars than pioneers had at any time in history.
6."Opening a New World" is a stronger motivation for governments
and individuals, than the "Flags and Footprints" from Apollo.
For the regular May Boston NSS meeting, Bruce Mackenzie will provide
some background information. Then, let's start a discussion of the
questions:
"Why Come Back?"
"Can a Permanent Mars Base be Established on the First Mission?"
Boston NSS HBO Viewing Party Report
by Elaine Mullen
The Boston Chapter "had a blast" on Sunday night, April 5th! We
gathered in our usual meeting room at M.I.T. at 7pm. 40 people showed
up, and we were a bit relieved that there weren't many more than that!
The room has a large screen TV, and with the addition of a small
surround sound system it worked out nicely.
The evening started off with pizza, popcorn, and some
introductory words from Elaine Mullen (me). I said something along the
lines of, "blah blah blah"..."As you watch the first episode, notice how
President Kennedy made a definitive decision to send men to the moon
with only 15 minutes of human flight experience in Earth orbit. Now that
we have accumulated 40 years of robotic and human flight experience,
we're more than ready to go back to the Moon and to send humans to Mars.
So, tonight we not only want to reflect on Apollo, but we want to
celebrate the future. We're celebrating the day when humans will live
and thrive in Earth Orbit and beyond."
I had watched it the night before and the 2nd episode was a real
tear jerker, so we tried our best to keep the evening focused on the
future with an optimistic tone.
After the first episode we listened to a couple of my songs
which were entered in the NSS's song writing contest, while people had
some more pizza & refreshments. A petition for the Space
Commercialization Act was passed around. Everyone sat down again while I
read a few trivia questions out of the HBO Viewer's Guide. The last
question about the Space Pen saving the lives of the Apollo 11
astronauts lead nicely into the topic of NSS membership. We offered free
Fisher Space Pens to any new members who signed up before the evening
was over. Eight people signed up at the end of the night, and I'm sure
those space pens had something to do with it!:-)
After the second episode, 40 glasses of TANG were filled and we
had a giant "TANG toast" to the future of humans in space!
We owe lots of thanks to HBO and the Fisher Space Pen Co. for
all the great stuff, and for the funding! And thanks to NSS for mailing
ALL of that stuff and for the great advice!
Other NSS News
Compiled by Amanda Honeycutt
-Region 1-
ORANGE COUNTY SPACE SOCIETY
The California Orange County Space Society will have their regular monthly
meeting at 5pm on Sunday May 19. The business meeting will be followed by our
program: EXPLORING EUROPA-OCEAN UNDER ICE, by Richard Shope of the Jet
Propulsion Lab. The program starts at 7pm.
May 21 Disneyland Grand Opening of the Tomorrowland. OCSS is working with
Disneyland to see about our chapter participating in this event.
June 21 OCSS monthly meeting will be held at 5pm at our new meeting
location of Fuddruckers at 23621 El Toro Road in Lake Forest. Our 7pm program
will be:
"SPACE TOURISM SOCIETY" by Charles Carr.
-Region 3-
Clear Lake Area NSS
There will be a meeting of the Clear Lake Chapter of the National Space
Society on Friday May 8th, 1998. there will also be a meeting of the ISDC '99
Committee immediately following the regular meeting.
Time: 6:30-9:30 pm
Place: Radisson Hotel - Hobby Airport, 9100 Gulf Fwy,
in the Deer Park Room
Price: free to the public
The agenda for the May 8th meeting is:
6:30-7:30 pm Social Hour & Registration
7:30-8:30 pm SPEAKER - Dr. Kenneth J. Cox
" 'A Futurist' Perspective for Space"
8:30-8:45 pm Business meeting -- (very short this month to allow time for
ISDC ' '99 meeting)
BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Kenneth J. Cox earned both his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering
in 1953, and his master's degree in electrical engineering in 1956 from UT in
Austin where he also served as an instructor in the EE Department from
1955-1958. He began his professional career in aerospace at TEMCO in Dallas
in 1958 developing control systems for missles and airplanes. In 1960, he
move to the Martin Company in Denver, and there, singularly initiated and
developed the first advanced digital avionics design for the Titan III.
Dr. Cox returned to Texas in 1962 and earned his Ph. D. in electrical
engineering from Rice University in 1966. Beginning in 1963, he joined NASA
Manned Spacecraft Center and became the technical manager for the Apollo
digital control systems including the lunar module and the command service
module. Starting in 1974, Dr. Cox served as Shuttle technical manager for
Integrated Guidance, Navigation, and Control Systems involving first
generation digital design development. He was promoted to Chief of the
Avionics Systems Division in 1987. Dr. Cox nas been a national director and
board member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)
for the past 6 years.
As a futurist in the Space Movement, Dr. Cox has developed concepts and ideas
for interweaving science and humanities needed for Earth/Space exploration and
settlement Evolutionary scenarios have been identified as a way to lay out
developmental choices for both exploration and settlement. Dr. Cox has
presented emerging ideas to the World Futures Society, to International
Creativity Conferences, and to AIAA. At present he continues to be an active
participant in the National AIAA Distinguished Lecturer Program.
Note: The regular meetings of CLA-NSS are held on the second Friday of every
month at the same time and place. For information call Murray Clark at (281)
367-2227 after 7:00 pm week-days or on weekends, or e-mail MClark637@aol.com.
CLS-NSS has been having weekly Sunday evening meetings at Damon's Sports Bar
in the Radisson Hotel to watch HBO's Apollo episodes on the four big screen
TV's. We are happy to report that there have been very large crowds in
attendance at these weekly parties.
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 06 мая 1998 (1998-05-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - May 1998 [14/17]
Привет всем!
Вот, свалилось из Internet...
-Region 5-
NSS ATLANTA
Contact Avery Davis avery@mindspring.com
The April meeting of the Atlanta chapter of the National Space Society has
been changed from what was previously announced.
We had originally scheduled Capt. Vaughn Cordle, who was recently selected as
the first pilot for the (CAC) Civilian Astronaut Corps of Houston, Tx. a
contender for the X-Prize, a $10 million award for the first successful
private space flight. Mr. Cordle was to give an overview of CAC and answer
specific questions to be given before the meeting. However, Capt. Cordle was
recently asked to be a guest on David Letterman's show the same day as
Atlanta's April meeting, so they will try to get Capt. Cordle for the May
meeting.
(It was estimated that over 10 million viewers watched the Letterman show on
April 23rd, to see Capt. Cordle talk about the Civilian Astronauts Corps.
This would no doubt be a coup for commercial space enterprise, and CAC is
pleased to have done their part in introducing the concept of private space
travel to the TV public. Harry Dace, CAC Director is a member of CLA-NSS
Houston).
The program for April was changed to the following: THE SPACE SOLAR POWER
WORKSHOP.
The SPACE SOLAR POWER WORKSHOP asked a very simple question - "What would
(baseload) electrical power cost that originated from SSP at GSO
(GeoSynchronous Orbit)?"
Answering that "simple" question well requires a vast amount of study on the
part of many extremely well qualified people. For about the last year
Darrell has organized, chaired (and now webmastered)
The Space Solar Power Workshop - http://classweb.gatech.edu/con/sspw
(furnished by Georgia Tech)
The fascinating project is far from over, although it is scheduled to report
interim results at it's host conference. Space 98 & Robotics 98 April 30; an
ASCE conference scheduled for April 26-30 in Albuquerque. The SSPW has made
an effort to draw upon and update the two SSP studies done to date. It has
two base designs - 1 an earth material supplied "Sun Disk" system of 60
supplying 300,000 MW to rectenna downlink sites on earth 2 - the same sized
system largely supplied through In-Situ resource utilization from a lunar
colony.
The Space Solar Power Institute, a new tax-exempt organization, came into
being to support funding the educational goals of the SSPW, which he also
chairs.
Until last year Darrell Preble worked as a senior System Analyst in Nuclear
Systems and then Technology Planning for Southern Company. He holds Masters
degrees in R&D Simulation Forescasting from George Washington University
(1973) and in Theoretical Nuclear Physics from GSU (1980) and also webmasters
The Space Solar Power Newsletter - http://www.netdepot.com/~preble.
All members of NSS are welcome to attend the next meeting of the Atlanta
chapter of the National Space Society:
Location: Fernbank Science Center, Classroom 2
Heaton Park Dr., Decatur, GA
Time: 7:30pm, Thursday, 1998
-Region 6-
Illinois North Shore NSS
Chapter contact, Joseph Ausmann. (847) 470-8972 or JAusmann@aol.com No
notices received.
-Region 7-
DC-L5
In 1998 the Metro Washington, DC area chapter will meetin on the first Sunday
of each month at the Tyson's-Pimmit Library 7584 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church,
Virginia.
Each month's meeting is preceded by a presentation on a current space-related
topic, as follows:
May 3 - SSTO Vehicles
June 7 - Space Shuttle Operations
For more information contact DC-L5 President Ms. Donnie Lowther (703) 370-3063
or e-mail to okl1@erols.com
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.
Philadelphia Area Space Alliance news for May 98
[N.B., corrected e-mail address, new Web site]
Contact:
PO Box 1715, Philadelphia, PA 19105
Earl Bennett, michelle_baker@ccgate.ueci.com
610/644-8654(H)
www.libertynet.org/pasa
#...# -> bold
^...^ -> italics
#PASA regular# business luncheon/formal meeting from #1-3 pm#, the #3rd
Saturday# of every month at #Liberty One# food court, 16th & Market. Go
toward the windows, then to the #left#. Public parking in Liberty on
17th St.
#Scheduled PASA activities#: regular monthly meetings: #May 16th, June
20th, Aug. 15th.# Other activities: #July 19th, July 20th# (see below).
Call Earl for details.
#April Meeting Report#: Hank Smith gave the Science Fiction report,
covering recent conventions in Boston, Lunacon, Icon, and Balticon; the
upcoming Buconneer, Phila's 2001 Worldcon bid, and Philcon. As head of
science programming for Philcon, in addition to space science, he
expects presentations on dinosours and medicine.
Oscar Harris gave the Education report, covering the Carver Science
Fair for 1998-99, and our plans to judge and present an award for
space-oriented projects. Mitch Gordon gave the Public Relations report,
covering our joint presentation with the World Future Society at
Border's, the Future Fest in the Fall, a picnic meeting on Sun., July
19th at the Franklin Institute's Lunar Module, and a Moon-Day-Monday
presentation on July 20th.
Jay Haines discussed our new Web site: #www.libertynet.org/pasa#, and
suggestions were made for improvements. Earl Bennett discussed his
calling in to WWDB 96.5FM in response to some snide remarks on space
tourism. They gave him 5 mins. of air time, and invited him to call in
anytime something interesting is going on in space.
Earl also gave the Technical report, covering the Shuttle launch, with
its critters and medical studies, the 6 hr. space walk to replace
attitude jets on Mir, a March 98 ^Electronics Products^ article on new
batteries providing 200 Watt-hrs/Kg vs. 35 W-hrs/Kg previously, an April
98 ^Product Design & Development^ article on miniature (< 6")
battery-powered aeronautical vehicles, capable of flying for 16 mins,
reaching 40 mph, and carrying recon. cameras, and an April 98 ^Laser
Focus World^ article on small clad fiber optics.
Contact: Dottie Kurtz PO Box 1715, philadelphia PA 19105; Tel (609)
782-1552 (H); <lpezzuto@bellatlantic.net> Or Michelle Baker at
michelle_baker@ccgate.ueci.com or Jay Haines, Secretary at hainesjb@netaxs.com
or call (215) 986-6266 (W) (215) 855-7130 (H)
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 06 мая 1998 (1998-05-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - May 1998 [15/17]
Привет всем!
Вот, свалилось из Internet...
-Region 8-
NEW YORK SPACE FRONTIER SOCIETY
No notices received. Contact Greg Zsidisin (201) 764-3270 (H):
71055.2110@compuserve.com.
NEW YORK FRONTIER SOCIETY Of GREATER ROCHESTER
No notices received. Contact: Carl Elsbree <celsb@msn.com>
-SPECIAL INTEREST-
EDUCATION CHAPTER
Contact Carolyn Josephs. (718) 531-8375 0r
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
This past week the Education Chapter Director has been is Las Vegas, Nevada
for the National Science Teachers Association Convention. (Ms. Josephs
planned a "get-together" for NSS members in the area as well as educators at
the convention who were interested in finding out more about NSS and the
Education Chapter.)
NSS Education Chapter Contest Deadline - May 4. Contact Carolyn Josephs to
confirm times and locations.
*** Regular Features ***
Jonathan's Space Report No. 357
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.]
A brief issue this week, as I have to catch a plane.
Shuttle and Mir
Musabaev and Budarin, in a spacewalk on Apr 22, attached the new
VDU roll control engine to the end of the Sofora boom on the Kvant
module.
The STS-90/Neurolab mission continues in orbit, with the crew busy
dissecting rats. Other rats are learning how to float in zero-g. The
primary CO2 scrubber unit on Columbia failed on Apr 25 at 0345 UTC. If
it can't be repaired, the mission will have to be brought home early.
Recent Launches
Four more Space Systems/Loral Globalstar communications satellites were
launched on a Boeing Delta 7420 on Apr 24. The satellites join four
Globalstars already in orbit and will form part of a telephone
service constellation.
The Cassini probe will make a flyby of Venus on Apr 26.
Table of Recent Launches
------------------------
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
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
Mar 25 1701 Iridium 51 ) CZ-2C/SD Taiyuan Comsat 18A
Iridium 61 ) Comsat 18B
Mar 30 0602 Iridium 55 Delta 7920 Vandenberg SLC2 Comsat 19A
Iridium 57 Comsat 19B
Iridium 58 Comsat 19C
Iridium 59 Comsat 19D
Iridium 60 Comsat 19E
Apr 2 0242 TRACE Pegasus XL Vandenberg Solar obs. 20A
Apr 7 0213 Iridium 62 Proton-K Baykonur Comsat 21A
Iridium 63 Comsat 21B
Iridium 64 Comsat 21C
Iridium 65 Comsat 21D
Iridium 66 Comsat 21E
Iridium 67 Comsat 21F
Iridium 68 Comsat 21G
Apr 17 1819 Columbia ) Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 22A
Neurolab )
Apr 24 2238 Globalstar FM5?) Delta 7420 Canaveral LC17A Comsat 23A
Globalstar FM6?) 23B
Globalstar FM7?) 23C
Globalstar FM8?) 23D
Current Shuttle Processing Status
__________________________________
Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due
OV-102 Columbia LEO STS-90 Apr 17
OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-91 May 28
OV-104 Atlantis Palmdale OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-88 ?
MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks
MLP1/RSRM66/ET-96 VAB Bay 1 STS-91
MLP2/
MLP3/
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 06 мая 1998 (1998-05-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - May 1998 [16/17]
Привет всем!
Вот, свалилось из Internet...
Space Calendar
by Ron Baalke
[Ed. Note: visit http://newproducts.jpl.nasa.gov/calendar/ for the
complete calendar]
* indicates changes from last month's calendar
May 1998
May ?? - Sinosat 1 Long March 3B Launch
May ?? - Ziyuan-1 Long March 4A Launch (China)
* May ?? - EchoStar 4 Proton Launch
May 01 - Comet Klemola Perihelion (1.755 AU)
* May 01 - Asteroid 7117 Claudius Closest Approach To Earth (1.071 AU)
* May 01 - Asteroid 6832 (1992 FP) Closest Approach To Earth (1.658 AU)
May 02 - Astronomy Day
* May 02 - Space Shuttle Columbia Returns To Earth (STS-90
May 02 - Chinastar-1 Long March 3B Launch (China)
May 02 - Comet Denning Near-Jupiter Flyby (0.3389 AU)
May 03 - 2060 Chiron at Oppositon (7.937 AU - 15.9 Magnitude)
May 04 - Mercury at Greatest Western Elongation (26.5 Degrees)
* May 04 - Asteroid 4248 (1984 HX) Closest Approach To Earch (1.525 AU)
May 05 - ORBCOMM-3 Pegasus XL Launch
* May 05 - Progress M-40 Soyuz U Launch (Russia)
May 05 - Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower Peak
May 05 - Comet Barnard 3 Perihelion (Lost Comet)
May 05 - Asteroid 7088 Ishtar Closest Approach To Earth (1.349 AU)
May 05 - Asteroid 8405 (1995 GO) Closest Approach To Earth (9.147 AU -
19.0 Magnitude)
* May 06 - Milstar-3 Titan 4B Launch
May 07 - Asteroid 1992 TB Near-Earth Flyby (0.384 AU)
May 09 - Asteroid 16 Psyche at Opposition (10.4 Magnitude)
May 09 - Asteroid 4487 Pocahontas Closest Approch To Earth (1.121 AU)
* May 10 - Asteroid 1998 HK1 Near-Earth Flyby (0.272 AU)
* May 10 - Asteroid 1990 Pilcher Closest Approach To Earth (1.063 AU)
May 12 - Mercury Passes 0.8 Degrees From Saturn
May 12 - Asteroid 3103 Eger Closest Approach To Earth (1.713 AU)
May 13 - NOAA-K Titan 2 Launch
May 13 - Asteroid 25 Phocaea Occults SAO 139602 (8.3 Magnitude Star)
May 13 - Asteroid 664 Judith Closest Approach To Earth (1.598 AU)
May 13 - Asteroid 3758 Karttunen Closest Approach To Earth (1.624 AU)
May 14 - Cassini, Trajectory Correction Maneuver #4 (TCM-4)
May 14 - Comet Howell Closest Approach To Earth (1.065 AU)
May 14 - 25th Anniversary (1973), Skylab Launch
* May 15 - Progress-238 Soyuz U Launch (Russia)
* May 15 - Asteroid 4629 Walford Closest Approach To Earth (1.608 AU)
May 15 - 35th Anniversary (1963), Faith 7 Launch (Gordon Cooper)
* May 16 - Loralsat 1 Ariane 4 Launch
* May 18 - PanamSat-8 Proton Launch
* May 20 - IKONOS-1 Athena 2 Launch
May 20 - Moon Occults Jupiter
* May 20 - Asteroid 1987 WC Closest Approach To Earch (0.510 AU)
* May 20 - Asteroid 6693 (1986 CC2) Closest Approach To Earth (1.808 AU)
May 20 - 20th Anniversary (1978), Pioneer Venus Orbiter Launch
May 21 - Space Day
May 21 - Comet 1997 G2 (Montani) Closest Approach To Earth (2.870 AU)
May 21 - Asteroid 1994 JF1 Closest Approach To Earth (0.581 AU)
May 21 - Asteroid 1990 VB Closest Approach To Earth (1.767 AU)
* May 22 - Venus Visible In Daylight (-3.9 Magnitude)
May 25 - Asteroid 1997 US9 Near-Earth Flyby (0.283 AU)
* May 25 - Asteroid 6493 Cathybennett Closest Approach To Earth (1.230
AU)
* May 25 - Asteroid 6587 Brassens Closest Approach To Earth (1.567 AU)
May 25 - 25th Anniversary (1973), Skylab 2 Launch
May 26 - 15th Anniversary (1983), Exosat Launch (ESA X-Ray
Observatory)
May 27 - Asteroid 1917 Cuyo Closest Approach To Earth (1.827 AU)
May 27 - Kuiper Belt Object 1994 JS at Opposition (34.301 AU - 23.4
Magnitude)
May 28 - STS-91 Launch, Discovery, 9th Shuttle-Mir Docking
May 28 - Galileo, Orbital Trim Maneuver #47 (OTM-47)
May 28 - Venus Passes 0.3 Degrees From Saturn
* May 28 - Pluto at Opposition
May 28 - Asteroid 1995 UO5 Closest Approach To Earth (0.415 AU)
* May 29 - Iridium 10 Delta 2 Launch
May 29 - Asteroid 7025 (1993 QA) Closest Approach To Earth (0.832 AU)
May 29 - Asteroid 1994 VR6 Closest Approach To Earth (1.392 AU)
May 29 - Asteroid 2430 Bruce Helin Closest Approach To Earth (1.455
AU)
May 30 - Asteroid 1997 UF9 Near-Earth Flyby (0.385 AU)
May 30-31 - Jet Propulsion Lab Open House, Pasadena, California
May 31 - Galileo, Europa 15 Flyby
* May 31 - ORBCOMM-2 Pegasus XL Launch
This is the current issue of "SpaceViews" (tm), published by the Boston
Chapter, National Space Society (NSS), distributed in electronic form.
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=SANA=
Дата: 06 мая 1998 (1998-05-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - May 1998 [17/17]
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ARTICLE SUBMISSIONS:
Articles, letters to the editor, chapter updates, andother similar
submissions for SpaceViews are always welcome. The deadline for each
month's issue is the 20th of the month before (i.e. the August deadline is
July 20).
The preferred method of submission is ASCII text files by e-mail;
send articles and other submissions to jeff@spaceviews.com. If you would
like to submit articles in other formats, or would like to submit articles
by another method than e-mail, contact the editor, Jeff Foust, at the above
e-mail address.
COPYRIGHT INFORMATION:
Copyright (C) 1998 by Boston Chapter of National Space Society,
a non-profit educational organization 501(c)3.
Permission is hereby granted to redistribute for non-profit use, provided:
1. no modifications are made (except for e-mail delivery info.)
2. this copyright notice is included,
3. you inform Boston NSS of the names of all recipients
This permission may be withdrawn at any time. All other rights reserved.
Some articles are individually copyrighted (C) by their authors.
Excerpts cannot be used, except for reviews and criticisms, without
written permission of NSS, Boston Chapter. (We will try to respond
by e-mail within four business days.)
-Jeff Foust (editor, jeff@spaceviews.com),
-Bruce Mackenzie (email distribution, bam@draper.com)
-Roxanne Warniers (mailings, rwarnier@colybrand.com)
____ | "SpaceViews" (tm) -by Boston Chapter
// \ // | of the National Space Society (NSS)
// (O) // | Dedicated to the establishment
// \___// | of a spacefaring civilization.
President: Elaine Mullen Board of Directors: Michael Burch
Vice President: Larry Klaes Jeff Foust
Secretary: Lynn Olson Bruce Mackenzie
Treasurer: Roxanne Warniers John Malloy
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=SANA=
Дата: 06 мая 1998 (1998-05-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: Preflight Briefings For Final Shuttle-Mir Mission Set For May 11
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Jennifer McCarter
Headquarters, Washington, DC May 5, 1998
(Phone: 202/358-1639)
NOTE TO EDITORS: N98-31
PREFLIGHT BRIEFINGS FOR FINAL SHUTTLE-MIR MISSION SET FOR MAY 11
A series of background press briefings on the STS-91
mission, the final Shuttle flight to dock with the Mir space
station, will be held on Monday, May 11, at the Johnson Space
Center, Houston, TX, beginning at 9 a.m. EDT.
The major objective of the mission is the return of Andy
Thomas from four months of research on the Mir as the seventh
and final U.S. astronaut to live and work on the Russian
complex. Thomas' departure will mark the end of more than
two years of a continuous U.S. presence in space.
The briefings will begin with an overview of the STS-91
mission followed at 10 a.m. with a briefing on the Shuttle-
Mir Phase One program. After taking a break for the daily
NASA Video File at noon, there will be a briefing on the
cargo being carried in the Spacehab module at 12:30 p.m.,
followed by a briefing on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer
(AMS) payload at 1 p.m. The STS-91 astronauts will hold
their preflight press conference beginning at 2:30 p.m. All
of the briefings will be carried live on NASA Television.
NASA Television is available through the GE-2 satellite,
transponder 9C located at 85 degrees West longitude, vertical
polarization, with a frequency of 3880 MHz, and audio at 6.8 MHz.
Following the astronauts' preflight news conference,
individual round-robin interviews with the crew members will
be held for reporters at Johnson. Media interested in round-
robin interviews with the STS-91 astronauts must fax a letter
of interest to reserve a slot in the round-robins to Eileen
Hawley in the Johnson public affairs office by close of
business on Friday, May 8. The fax number is 281/483-2000.
The round-robin interviews will not be seen on NASA TV.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The STS-91 round-robins are not part
of the International Space Station (ISS) media workshop which
starts on Tuesday, May 12. Reporters attending the ISS
workshop must issue a separate request if they wish to be
included in the STS-91 round-robin interviews. Requests
should be faxed to the Johnson newsroom at 281/483-2000.
STS-91 PREFLIGHT BRIEFINGS
Monday, May 11, 1998
(All times shown are EDT)
9 a.m. MISSION OVERVIEW
Paul Dye, STS-91 Lead Flight Director
10 a.m. PHASE ONE OVERVIEW
Frank Culbertson, Director, Shuttle-Mir Phase One Program
John Uri, Shuttle-Mir Mission Scientist
Noon NASA VIDEO FILE
12:30 p.m. SPACEHAB BRIEFING
Mike Bain, Shuttle-Mir Program Manager, Spacehab
Carolyn Overmyer, SHUCS experiment
1 p.m. ALPHA MAGNETIC SPECTROMETER (AMS) BRIEFING
Mark Sistilli, Program Manager, AMS, NASA
John O'Fallon, Director, High Energy Physics, Dept. of Energy
2:30 p.m. STS-91 CREW PRESS CONFERENCE
Charles Precourt, Commander
Dominic Gorie, Pilot
Franklin Chang-Diaz, Mission Specialist-1, Payload Commander
Wendy Lawrence, Mission Specialist-2
Janet Kavandi, Mission Specialist-3
Valeri Ryumin, Mission Specialist-4
-end-
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=SANA=
Дата: 06 мая 1998 (1998-05-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: Why Study Asteroids?
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Why Study Asteroids?
Don Yeomans
Jet Propulsion Lab
April 1998
The scientific interest in asteroids is due largely to their status
as the remnant debris from the inner solar system formation process.
Because some of these objects can collide with the Earth, asteroids
are also important for having significantly modified the Earth's
biosphere in the past. They will continue to do so in the future.
In addition, asteroids offer a source of volatiles and an
extraordinarily rich supply of minerals that can be exploited for
the exploration and colonization of our solar system in the
twenty-first century.
Asteroids represent the bits and pieces left over from the process
that formed the inner planets, including Earth. Asteroids are also
the sources of most meteorites that have struck the Earth's surface
and many of these meteorites have already been subjected to detailed
chemical and physical analyses. If certain asteroids can be
identified as the sources for some of the well-studied meteorites,
the detailed knowledge of the meteorite's composition and structure will
provide important information on the chemical mixture, and conditions
from which the Earth formed 4.6 billion years ago. During the early
solar system, the carbon-based molecules and volatile materials that
served as the building blocks of life may have been brought to the
Earth via asteroid and comet impacts. Thus the study of asteroids is
not only important for studying the primordial chemical mixture from
which the Earth formed, these objects may hold the key as to how the
building blocks of life were delivered to the early Earth.
On a daily basis, the Earth is bombarded with tons of interplanetary
material. Many of the incoming particles are so small that they are
destroyed in the Earth's atmosphere before they reach the ground.
These particles are often seen as meteors or shooting stars. The vast
majority of all interplanetary material that reaches the Earth's
surface originates as the collision fragments of asteroids that have
run into one another some eons ago. With an average interval of about
100 years, rocky or iron asteroids larger than about 50 meters would be
expected to reach the Earth's surface and cause local disasters or
produce the tidal waves that can inundate low lying coastal areas.
On an average of every few hundred thousand years or so, asteroids
larger than a mile could cause global disasters. In this case, the
impact debris would spread throughout the Earth's atmosphere so that
plant life would suffer from acid rain, partial blocking of sunlight,
and from the firestorms resulting from heated impact debris raining
back down upon the Earth's surface. The probability of an asteroid
striking the Earth and causing serious damage is very remote but the
devastating consequences of such an impact suggests we should closely
study different types of asteroids to understand their compositions,
structures, sizes, and future trajectories.
The asteroids that are potentially the most hazardous because they
can closely approach the Earth are also the objects that could be
most easily exploited for raw materials. These raw materials could be
used in developing the space structures and in generating the rocket
fuel that will be required to explore and colonize our solar system
in the twenty-first century. By closely investigating the compositions
of asteroids, intelligent choices can be made as to which ones offer
the richest supplies of raw materials. It has been estimated that the
mineral wealth resident in the belt of asteroids between the orbits of
Mars and Jupiter would be equivalent to about 100 billion dollars for
every person on Earth today.
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=SANA=
Дата: 06 мая 1998 (1998-05-06)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: Why Study Comets?
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Why Study Comets?
Don Yeomans
Jet Propulsion Lab
April 1998
Life on Earth began at the end of a period called the late
heavy bombardment, some 3.8 billion years ago. Before this
time, the influx of interplanetary debris that formed the
Earth was so strong that the proto-Earth was far too hot for
life to have formed. Under this heavy bombardment of asteroids
and comets, the early Earth's oceans vaporized and the fragile
carbon-based molecules, upon which life is based, could not
have survived. The earliest known fossils on Earth date from
3.5 billion years ago and there is evidence that biological
activity took place even earlier - just at the end of the
period of late heavy bombardment. So the window when life
began was very short. As soon as life could have formed on
our planet, it did. But if life formed so quickly on Earth
and there was little in the way of water and carbon-based
molecules on the Earth's surface, then how were these
building blocks of life delivered to the Earth's surface so
quickly? The answer may involve the collision of comets
with the Earth, since comets contain abundant supplies of
both water and carbon-based molecules.
As the primitive, leftover building blocks of the outer solar
system formation process, comets offer clues to the chemical
mixture from which the giant planets formed some 4.6 billion
years ago. If we wish to know the composition of the
primordial mixture from which the major planets formed,
then we must determine the chemical constituents of the
leftover debris from this formation process - the comets.
Comets are composed of significant fractions of water ice,
dust, and carbon-based compounds. Since their orbital paths
often cross that of the Earth, cometary collisions with the
Earth have occurred in the past and additional collisions are
forthcoming. It is not a question of whether a comet will
strike the Earth, it is a question of when the next one will
hit. It now seems likely that a comet struck near the Yucatan
peninsula in Mexico some 65 million years ago and caused a
massive extinction of more than 75% of the Earth's living
organisms, including the dinosaurs.
Comets have this strange duality whereby they first brought the
building blocks of life to Earth some 3.8 billion years ago and
subsequent cometary collisions may have wiped out many of the
developing life forms, allowing only the most adaptable species
to evolve further. Indeed, we may owe our preeminence at the top
of Earth's food chain to cometary collisions. A catastrophic
cometary collision with the Earth is only likely to happen at
several million year intervals on average, so we need not be
overly concerned with a threat of this type. However, it is
prudent to mount efforts to discover and study these objects,
to characterize their sizes, compositions and structures and
to keep an eye upon their future trajectories.
As with asteroids, comets are both a potential threat and a
potential resource for the colonization of the solar system in
the twenty first century. Whereas asteroids are rich in the
mineral raw materials required to build structures in space,
the comets are rich resources for the water and carbon-based
molecules necessary to sustain life. In addition, an abundant
supply of cometary water ice can provide copious quantities of
liquid hydrogen and oxygen, the two primary ingredients in
rocket fuel. One day soon, comets may serve as fueling stations
for interplanetary spacecraft.
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