Дата: 22 июня 1998 (1998-06-22)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - June 1998 [1/16]
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This is the June 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 June 4, 1998, 7:30pm
8th floor, 545 Main Street (Tech Square), Cambridge; see "Upcoming Boston
NSS Events"
Rainier Anacker on "Designing a Small Rocket for L.E.O."
Future meetings are on the first Thursdays of each month:
July 2, August TBD, September 3
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 6
June 1998
http://www.spaceviews.com/1998/06/
*** News ***
New Space Station Plan Approved
Hubble Sees Possible Extrasolar Planet
Shuttle Launch on Schedule Despite Mir Problems
Satellite Failure Disrupts Pager Service
Instrument Errors May Explain Away Small Comets
MGS Finds New Evidence of Watery Past on Mars
HGS-1 to Make Second Lunar Flyby
X Prize Announces Sweepstakes
More Near-Earth Asteroid Searches Needed
SpaceViews Event Horizon
Other News
*** Articles ***
The Soviets Reach for the Moon
[part 2]
Doing Space: Why Do We Go?
Space Burial: An Analysis
*** Book Reviews ***
Quick Looks at Four Books
*** NSS News ***
Upcoming Boston NSS Events
The 1998 International Space Development Conference
Mars Society Founding Convention Announcement
*** Regular Features ***
Jonathan's Space Report No. 361
Space Calendar
Editor's Note: Check out our updated section of the SpaceViews Web site on
the Russian space station Mir. We've added new links, updated information,
and a poll on the future of the station. We'll be adding an article search
engine there soon as well. It's at http://www.spaceviews.com/features/mir
Also, we've finishing up going through the several hundred repsonses to our
reader survey we mailed with the April issue. Look for some changes in
SpaceViews, based on the results of that survey, in the coming month or so.
-- Jeff Foust, Editor
jeff@spaceviews.com
*** News ***
New Space Station Plan Approved
Representatives from the 16 countries participating in the
International Space Station (ISS) program approved Sunday, May 31, a
revised assembly schedule that officially delays the first launch of a
station component until this November and shuts down Mir next July.
The meeting, held at Cape Canaveral, Florida, also revised
downward the Russian contribution to the station by deleting two
life-support modules and a storage chamber from the station design.
Under the new plan, the first module, the Russian-built control
module, will be launched on a Proton from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, November
20. The module was also renamed Zarya -- Russian for "sunrise" -- at
the meeting.
The first ISS shuttle flight was scheduled for December 3, when
the shuttle Endeavour will launch the Unity docking node into orbit.
Astronauts will perform several spacewalks to attach Unity to Zarya.
Earlier in May NASA officials admitted that the first station
launches, first planned for late 1997, then pushed back to this summer
and then this August and September, would not take place before late
1998.
The long-delayed service module, which has delayed the beginning
of station assembly by a year, is now planned for an April 1999 launch.
That launch will be followed up by a Soyuz launch of the first ISS crew,
commanded by American astronaut William Shepherd, in July.
At that time Russia plans to abandon its current space station,
Mir. Russian officials had hoped to keep the station operating until
the end of the year but admitted they don't have the money to support
both ISS and Mir operations at the same time.
Last week, Russian Space Agency head Yuri Koptev hinted he would
shut down Mir up to a year early to make up for a shortfall in funding
for the agency. He later backed off those plans after a meeting with
top Russian officials, who urged the agency to seek outside, commercial
funding to continue to support ISS and Mir.
Russia plans to deorbit Mir after the station is abandoned in
July 1999.
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=SANA=
Дата: 22 июня 1998 (1998-06-22)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - June 1998 [2/16]
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Hubble Sees Possible Extrasolar Planet
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have found what may
be an extrasolar planet -- the first seen directly -- that has been
ejected from its parent stars.
The object, named TMR-1C, was seen in an infrared image of a
star-forming region in the constellation Taurus some 450 light-years
from the Earth. The image shows the object with a tendril of light
stretching back to a binary star system 210 billion km (130 million mi.)
away.
"If the results are confirmed, this discovery could be telling
us gas giant planets are easy to build," said astronomer Susan Terebey
of the Extrasolar Research Corporation (ERC) of Pasadena, California.
"It seems unlikely for us to happen to catch one flung out by the stars
unless gas giant planers are common in young binary systems."
Terebey and a team of astronomers from ERC and the Jet
Propulsion Lab made the discovery in an image taken by Hubble's NICMOS
infrared camera and spectrograph.
"This is incredibly exciting, seeing a possible extrasolar
planet for the first time," said Alan Boss, an astrophysicist at the
Carnegie Institution of Washington. "This is a major, unprecedented
observation. It is as important as the first indirect observation of an
extrasolar planet."
The size of the planet is dependent on its age. If the body is
very young -- a few hundred thousand years old -- it should be no larger
than a few times the mass of Jupiter. However, if it is much older -- up
to ten million years old -- the body would be much heavier, and more
likely a brown dwarf or giant protoplanet.
If it is young, then then planet challenges current theories of
planetary system formation which require millions of years for planets
to form. "This observation pushes back the clock on planet formation
and offers short time scales which allow us to see how things form,"
Terebey said.
"If this is a planet and the system is about 300,000 years old,
then the slower, conventional theory doesn't fit," Boss said.
The object might have been dismissed as a background star had it
not been for the strange filament of light stretching from the star to
the object. Terebey thinks it might be a "tunnel" cut by the object
through the surrounding dust cloud, creating a path for light to escape.
Astronomers still believe there is a 2 percent chance that the
object is a background star coincidentially located at the end of the
tendril.
The object was likely ejected from the binary star system in a
gravitational slingshot maneuver. "We know that many triple star
systems eventually toss out the lowest mass object," Terebey said.
TMR-1C is moving away from its parent stars at an estimated 10 km/sec (6
mi/sec).
Future observations are planned to confirm the motion of the
object and to take its spectrum, in an effort to find if it is a planet,
brown dwarf, or protoplanet.
"These future observations will be critical in verifying that
the object is truly a planet and not a brown dwarf," said Ed Weiler,
director of NASA's Origins program charged with looking for extrasolar
planets.
"If the planet interpretation stands up to the careful scrutiny
of future observations," Weiler said, "it could turn out to be the most
important discovery by Hubble in its 8-year history."
Shuttle Launch on Schedule Despite Mir Problems
The countdown began late Saturday, May 30 for the June 2 launch
of the shuttle Discovery on the ninth and final docking mission with the
Russian space station Mir despite problems with a computer on the
station.
Mission STS-91 is scheduled for launch on Tuesday, June 2, at
6:10 pm EDT (2210 UT). No problems have been reported with the shuttle
since the countdown began.
However, a key computer system on Mir failed May 30, taking out
the station's attitude control system. Without the system functioning
Mir's solar panels cannot maintain the proper alignment with the Sun,
and thus generate less power for the station.
The two Russian cosmonauts and one American astronaut on Mir
turned off non-essential systems while making repairs to the computer
system. They believe that the system can be up and running as early as
Sunday night.
NASA officials said that while the attitude control system needs
to be operating for the shuttle to successfully dock with Mir, they
believe it will be working by Tuesday afternoon's launch.
Weather, however, may yet delay the launch. Meteorologists over
the weekend predicted a 40 percent chance that clouds and scattered
showers could delay a launch attempt Tuesday.
The shuttle crew includes five astronauts, commanded by veteran
astronaut Charlie Precourt, and Russian cosmonaut Valery Ryumin. On the
trip back the crew will include American astronaut Andy Thomas, who will
be returning from a four-month stay on Mir.
Also on board the shuttle is the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer
(AMS). This instrument, developed by an international consortium led by
Nobel laureate Dr. Samuel Ting of MIT, is designed to search for
evidence of antimatter in the universe. The instrument will later by
carried on the International Space Station (ISS).
The mission will also feature the first use of the new
lightweight external fuel tank. The tank, needed to increase the
payload of the shuttle for future space station missions, was
successfully tested on the pad May 18.
The STS-91 mission is the last shuttle mission for several
months. Earlier in May NASA officials admitted that STS-88, the first
ISS shuttle mission, will launch no earlier than November. The launch
was scheduled first for December 1997, and then this July.
With the delay of STS-93, the flight of Columbia to launch the
AXAF X-ray satellite, from August until December, the next scheduled
shuttle launch is not until October 29, when Columbia launches on
STS-95, a mission featuring Senator and former astronaut John Glenn.
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 22 июня 1998 (1998-06-22)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - June 1998 [3/16]
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Satellite Failure Disrupts Pager Service
The failure of a communications satellite late Tuesday, May 19,
disrupted pager service to up to 90 percent of American pager users as
well as caused problems for some television transmissions as the owner
of the satellite began moving another satellite in position.
The Galaxy 4 satellite, operated by PanAmSat, suffered a failure
in its control system around 6pm EDT (2200 UT). Company officials,
reporting the problem about six hours later, blamed a problem with an
on-board processor that keeps the satellite pointed towards the Earth.
The processor failure caused the satellite to rotate and lose
contact with the Earth, although ground controllers were still able to
receive telemetry from the satellite and upload commands.
Robert Bednarek, senior vice president of PanAmSat, said in a
press release company engineers were working on a solution to the
problem, but the company later reported that the satellite would likely
not come back online.
"We don't want to hold out false hope to our customers,"
Bednarek told CNN. "We will continue to monitor it, but at this point
we are not advising anyone to rely on the restoration of this
satellite."
The company initated a backup plan, moving another of its
satellites, Galaxy 6, from 74 degrees West longitude to 99 degrees West,
the current poition of Galaxy 4. Galaxy 6 reached its new position in
about 6 days, Bednarek said.
PanAmSat has also made available services on the nearby Galaxy
3-R satellite, and is working with other companies to restore services
for its customers. "Satellite capacity has been identified and made
available to customers," Bednarek said, "and PanAmSat is making every
effort to assist those customers in migration to that spare capacity."
Galaxy 4, an HS-601 satellite built by Hughes Space and
Communications Company and launched in June 1993, handles an estimated
80 to 90 percent of the telephone pager traffic for the U.S. and Canada.
Scott Baradell, a spokesman for PageNet, a company hard-hit by
the satellite failure, told CNN that there are 40 to 45 million pagers
in use in the United States. The failure is the first wide-spread
outage ever recorded for pager services, according to experts.
The satellite also handled some television traffic for the three
major American networks and some other services. CBS, the largest user
of the satellite, moved to its backup, Galaxy 7, and reported no serious
disruptions. The networks mainly used the satellite for transmitting
prerecorded programming to affiliates a few days in advance of
broadcast.
Some other networks, such as CNN's Airport Channel, which
provides CNN programming in selected airport terminals, were also hit by
the satellite outage. National Public Radio reported it could not
deliver its programming to affiliates, and Reuters news stories sent via
satellite were also not arriving.
Instrument Errors May Explain Away Small Comets
In a series of presentations punctuated with often heated debate
Tuesday, May 26, several scientists presented evidence that dark spots
seen in images of the Earth by one satellite may be caused by instrument
errors, not "small comets" striking the atmosphere.
However, Louis Frank, the leading proponent of the small comet
theory, defended his position before a packed audience during the
American Geophysical Union's spring meeting in Boston, a year after
first presenting the new data.
Several presentations at the meeting focused on the idea that
problems with the instrument, perhaps exacerbated by data analysis
techniques, may cause the black spots seen in images by a camera on the
Polar spacecraft.
George Parks of the University of Washington compared images
taken with Polar's VIS camera, which showed the black spots, with images
taken with an ultraviolet camera on the same satellite.
He found that both generated the same number of dark spots, even
though the smaller pixel size of the ultraviolet camera should mean it
should see four times as many if the dark spots were real. The dark
spots "are caused by the instruments themselves," he concluded.
Another hypothesis was forwarded by Larry Paxton of the Applied
Physics Lab of The Johns Hopkins University. He found evidence that a
large amount of long wavelength light was leaking into the VIS camera,
allowing it to see deeper into the Earth's atmosphere and observe
clouds, which should not be visible in the short-wavelength light the
VIS camera is designed to see.
Paxton believes the dark spots could then be gaps in the cloud
cover inadvertently observed by the VIS camera. This would also explain
why more dark spots are seen in the morning than the afternoon, as cloud
cover is usually lower in the morning.
Efforts to detect the small comets themselves were also
presented. Searches for the comets using the Spacewatch telescope in
Arizona and a Navy radar system designed to detect satellites both
failed to find any objects resembling the hypothesized small comets.
Frank, however, remained convinced that the dark spots seen in
the Polar data represent small comets. He claimed that he could detect
variation in the number of dark spots as a function of both altitude of
the satellite and time of the year, correlating the latter with meteor
impact rates measured separately.
The debate between Frank and other scientists was often heated.
"Why people don't do this work is beyond me," he said at one point in
his presentation. Another time he claimed his work was being
misrepresented by another presenter, calling that "simply detestable."
The session was the latest salvo in a debate dating back over
more than a decade on whether the dark spots see in data from two
spacecraft represent objects striking the Earth, or are just
instrumental noise.
Frank, who originally proposed the small comets theory in 1986
based on dark spots seen in images from the Dynamics Explorer 1
satellite, revived the theory last year when he presented the data from
Polar at the AGU's spring meeting.
The announcement was, at the time, hailed as a vindication for
Frank's theory, which had not gained wide acceptance from the scientific
community after the 1986 announcement. The announcement was even
heralded with a NASA press release.
In that release Frank's findings were supported by Thomas
Donahue, an atmospheric physicist at the University of Michigan. "The
Polar results definitely demonstrate that there are objects entering the
Earth's upper atmosphere that contain a lot of water," he said last
year.
Donahue is more skeptical of the validity of the data now,
calling Frank's claims "seriously challenged." "There's a strong
likelihood that it is instrumental," he said.
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 22 июня 1998 (1998-06-22)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - June 1998 [4/16]
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MGS Finds New Evidence of Watery Past on Mars
New data returned by the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft
have provided additional evidence that the planet was once much warmer
and wetter, scientists announced Wednesday, May 27.
Other new MGS findings reported at the American Geophysical
Union's spring meeting in Boston include the discovery of deep chasms in
Mars's north pole, a crater that once held a pond of water, and a pair
of bulges in the planet's upper atmosphere.
The new evidence for liquid water on ancient Mars comes from the
discovery of a large deposit of hematite crystals, detected using MGS's
Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES). The TES detected the region, about
500 km (300 mi.) in diameter, along the Martian equator.
Hematite was already known to exist on Mars; fine grains of the
iron-rich mineral help give the Red Planet its distinctive color. The
deposit found by MGS, though, is a coarse-grained sample that on Earth
is formed by hydrothermal systems, as the large crystals grow in warm
waters.
"The existence and location of these deposits will provide a
positive indication that hot water once existed near the Martian
surface," said Arizona State University's Phil Christensen, principal
investigator of the TES instrument. "Even more intriguing is the
possibility that the hematite may have initially precipitated from a
large body of water."
The heat and liquid water required to form the crystals are also
two of the primary ingredients needed for life to form, making the site
of the deposit one of the likeliest locations to find evidence of past
Martian life. "This is one of the best places to look for evidence of
life on Mars," Christensen said.
Data from MGS's laser altimeter have given planetary scientists
a new view of the planet's northern polar cap. The data show the cap
reaches a peak altitude of 2 to 2.5 km (1.25 to 1.5 mi.) above the
surrounding terrain. However, embedded within the cap are large, deep
chasms that cut up to 1.6 km (1 mi.) deep.
Although the laser altimeter was designed to measure the
elevation of the surface of Mars, it has also detected clouds above the
polar cap. Principal investigator David Smith of NASA's Goddard Space
Flight Center said additional work is needed to determine the type of
clouds observed.
Images of the southern regions of Mars turned up an interesting
crater. Mars Orbiter Camera principal investigator Michael Malin showed
an image of the unnamed crater, whose walls show evidence of fluid
seepage. A dark area in the bottom of the crater is also visible.
Malin suggested that the easiest interpretation is that water
seeped out of the side of the crater relatively recently in the planet's
history and accumulated at the bottom. The dark area may be sediment
left behind in the crater's pond.
Data from the accelerometer on the spacecraft, used to monitor
the aerobraking of the spacecraft, has uncovered two large bulges in the
Martian atmosphere. The bulges rotate with the planet on opposite sides
and cause variations in pressure of the upper atmosphere by up to a
factor of two.
The findings announced Wednesday mainly came from data collected
late last year and earlier this year, after the spacecraft stopped
aerobraking in March. The spacecraft will remain in this aerobraking
hiatus, collecting data, until September, when it begins the final phase
of aerobraking to bring it into a circular mapping orbit by March 1999.
MGS instruments, which were turned off in early May while Mars
passed behind the Sun as seen from Earth, are being turned on again,
project officials reported.
HGS-1 to Make Second Lunar Flyby
Hughes Global Services (HGS), who sent the HGS-1 satellite
around the Moon earlier this month as the first commercial spacecraft to
fly to the Moon, will send the spacecraft around the Moon again in an
effort to better improve its orbit, company officials reported Monday,
May 18.
The spacecraft, which rounded the Moon on May 13, arrived back
in the vicinity of Earth May 16. Instead of firing the satellite's
thrusters to put the spacecraft into orbit around the Earth, a shorter
burn was used to put the spacecraft on a looping 15-day orbit.
A second burn, scheduled for June 1, will put the spacecraft on
course for its second lunar flyby on June 6. Two final burns on June 12
and 13 will put HGS-1 into geosynchronous orbit.
HGS President Ronald Swanson said the change in plans was an
effort to improve the orbit of the spacecraft. "A second lunar flyby
will make the orbit even better and will increase the satellite's
attractiveness to potential customers," he said.
Swanson said Hughes orbital analysts "said one more loop around
the moon would improve the orbit, with little impact on the satellite's
operational life -- so we're going for it."
No additional lunar flybys are planned, Swanson said, because
additional flybys would provide diminishing returns on the quality of
the orbit.
The satellite, originally named AsiaSat 3, was launched on
Christmas Day 1997 by a Russian Proton rocket from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
The upper stage of the Proton failed to fire, stranding the satellite in
a useless elliptical, inclined, transfer orbit.
After insurers took ownership of the satellite from Hong
Kong-based AsiaSat, they gave the title over to Hughes, who started a
series of thruster burns in April to raise the satellite's orbit in
preparation for a lunar flyby. Hughes and the insurers will share any
profits from the use of the satellite, should it arrive in a usable
orbit.
The idea of using the Moon to salvage HGS-1 came from outside
Hughes. Rex Ridenoure of Microcosm told SpaceViews that Ed Belbruno, of
Innovative Orbital Design, suggested a trajectory that used the Moon to
salvage the satellite, and following some analysis and validation at
Microcosm, Ridenoure passed that information on to Hughes in
mid-January.
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=SANA=
Дата: 22 июня 1998 (1998-06-22)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - June 1998 [5/16]
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X Prize Announces Sweepstakes
The X Prize Foundation, an organization sponsoring a $10-million
prize to promote space tourism, announced a contest of a different kind
May 20: a sweepstakes open to the public that will award as grand prize
a trip into space.
The contest will award hundreds of prizes four times a year,
including flights in Russian MiG jet fighters and airplane flights to
simulate weightlessness. The grand prize, a suborbital flight into
space, will be awarded shortly after the X Prize is won.
The X Prize Foundation is promoting the contest with a new set
of affinity credit cards from Banc One. People who sign up for the
cards are automatically entered in the sweepstakes, but the credit cards
are not required to enter the contest.
A portion of each purchase made with the cards will go to
support the X Prize Foundation's efforts.
The $10 million X Prize will be awarded to the first private
team to launch a suborbital, reusable spacecraft capable of carrying at
least three people to an altitude of at least 62 miles (100 km). The
spacecraft much be launched twice in a two-week period to win the award.
More Near-Earth Asteroid Searches Needed
More searches for comets and near-Earth asteroids are needed to
find potentially-hazardous objects before they strike the Earth,
scientists told a Congressional subcommittee May 21.
The panel of scientists and NASA officials told the House
Science Committee's Space and Aeronautics subcommittee that an asteroid
could hit the Earth without warning and "threaten the future of modern
civilization."
Only 12 percent of the estimated 2,000 1-km diameter near-Earth
objects (NEOs) have been discovered in telescopic searches, said Clark
Chapman of the Southwest Research Institute.
A slightly larger NEO, around 1.6 km (1 mi.) in diameter, would
be enough to threaten modern civilization by darkening skies for a year
and making crop growth all but impossible, Chapman said.
The odds of an object that side striking the Earth in a given
year is small -- just one in a few hundred thousand -- Chapman admitted.
However, he noted the odds are better than drawing a royal flush in
poker: 1 in 649,000.
NASA agrees its funding for NEO and comet searches is
inadequate, Carl Pilcher, NASA science director for solar system
exploration, said. The agency is doubling its funding for such searches
in the 1999 budget, to $3 million, with the goal of detecting 90 percent
of all 1-km NEOs within ten years.
Pilcher also said NASA was establishing a "NEO Program Office"
to coordinate work in the field. "This office will coordinate
ground-based observations, ensure that calculated orbital elements for
NEOs are based on the best available data and support NASA Headquarters
in the continuing development of strategies for the exploration and
characterization of NEOs," he said.
Pilcher said the office would also coordinate the dissemination
of information about any potentially hazardous object to both the
scientific community and the public.
NASA currently funds three NEO search programs: the Spacewatch
telescope at Kitt Peak, Arizona; the Near Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT)
telescope in Hawaii; and the new Lowell Near Earth Asteroid Survey
(LONEOS) at Lowell Observatory in Arizona.
Such programs "deserve much more attention", said subcommittee
chairman Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA). He criticized NASA for spending
so little on asteroid research while planning to spend several times
more on what he dubbed "GoreSat", the Triana Earth-observing satellite
proposed by Vice President Al Gore.
SpaceViews Event Horizon
June 1 HGS-1 begins second lunar flyby.
June 2 Launch of STS-91, Discovery, on 9th and final Mir
docking mission. Launch is from the Kennedy Space
Center at 6:10pm EDT (2210 UT).
June 9 Delta II launch of the Thor 3 satellite from Cape
Canaveral, Florida.
June 12 Landing of shuttle DIscovery, mission STS-91, at the
Kennedy Space Center (assumes June 2 launch.)
June 18 Atlas IIAS launch of the Intelsat 803 satellite from
Cape Canaveral, Florida.
July 4 Launch of a Japanese M-5 booster carrying the Planet-B
mission to Mars
August 13-16 Mars Society Founding Convention, Boulder, Colorado
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 22 июня 1998 (1998-06-22)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - June 1998 [6/16]
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Other News
Launch Successes: A comsat, five Iridium satellites, and a resupply
spacecraft all were successfully launched in late May. A Soyuz booster
launched the Progress M-39 late Thursday, May 14 from Baikonur,
Kazakhstan. The spacecraft successfully docked with Mir two days later,
carrying supplies and equipment for the crew. A Delta II launched five
Iridium satellites May 17, completing the 66-satellite constellation.
However, the failure of up to five satellites on orbit will mean at
least one launch of replacement satellites will be needed before the
system goes online in September. A Chinese Long March 3B launched the
Chinastar-1 communications satellite May 30 from Xichang, China.
Motorola, Teledesic Merge Efforts: Motorola will drop its planned
Celestri communications satellite network in exchange for becoming the
prime contractor for Teledesic's network, the two companies announced
May 21. Motorola supercedes Boeing as the prime contractor to design
and build the 288 satellites in the Teledesic system, although Boeing
remains a partner in the program and may provide launch services. The
companies are currently planning to launch all 288 satellites in a
14-month period, an ambitious effort to be operational by 2003.
First Light at VLT: The first element of the European Southern
Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) saw first light on the night of
May 25, the observatory reported. The first of four planned 8.2-m
(323-inch) telescopes made several observations to test the system.
When completed, the four-telescope array will have the resolving power
of a single 16-meter telescope, making it the most powerful telescope in
the world. The telescope, located in Chile about 1000 km (600 mi.)
north of Santiago, is scheduled to become operational in April of 1999.
Not So NEAR Sighting: An Australian amateur astronomer has made the most
distant sighting of a man-made object, when he captured images of the
NEAR spacecraft 33.6 million km (20.8 million mi.) from Earth. Gordon
Garradd, of western New South Wales, took several images of the Near
Earth Asteroid Rendezvous spacecraft April 1 when sunlight reflected off
the solar panels of the spacecraft towards Earth. Garradd took five
images using his 25-cm (10-inch) telescope and then added them together
to detect the spacecraft. NEAR will arrive at the asteroid Eros late
this year.
Shuttle Web Server: Researchers flying experiments on the upcoming
shuttle mission will have a new way to keep track of their experiments:
via the Web. A Web server will be installed on Discovery to allow
researchers to monitor the progress of their experiments from their own
computers. Although the data transfer rate will only be 64 kilobits a
second, it's being billed as the fastest Web server: it will be
traveling at 8 kilometers (5 miles) a second!
In Brief: Debate over tobacco legislation may push back consideration of
two space bills in the U.S. Senate, SpaceNews reported. The Commercial
Space Act and the NASA authorization bill were to be considered as early
as this week, but may be delayed to July, the paper reported. The
tobacco legislation issue, combined with a short election-year working
session, may make it difficult to get the bills through the Senate...
Already seen "Deep Impact" and can't wait for "Armageddeon"? This week
the cable network USA is showing its own TV movie, "Meteorites!" The
story line: a meteor storm created by colliding comets threatens "to
level a dusty Arizona town during its annual UFO festival." Hmmmm...
well, if you have a morbid sense of curiosity, it's on Wednesday, June
3, at 9pm EDT...
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 22 июня 1998 (1998-06-22)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - June 1998 [7/16]
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*** Articles ***
The Soviets Reach for the Moon
by Andrew J. LePage
Introduction
The launching of the first Sputniks caused such a stir in the
West that Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev could not help but exploit the
propaganda value of Soviet space missions. But with the successful
launching of the first three Sputnik satellites, all the "easy" space
spectaculars had already been achieved. By the beginning of 1958 the
Soviet Union's infant space program had set its sights on the Moon.
Even in the opening months of the Space Age, Soviet engineers
and scientists had already spent years preparing for lunar missions.
While serious work on Earth satellites was moving forward during the
early to mid-1950s, a handful of Soviet theoreticians and designers were
quietly making the first tentative steps required to explore the Moon.
At this point in time, the most basic questions had to be answered:
What sort of missions were needed? What are the velocity requirements
for these missions? How long would these missions take?
Over time a number of missions types were identified and
investigated including lunar orbiters and "cycling stations" that would
orbit continuously between the Earth and Moon. By far the most advanced
concept publicly announced by Soviet authorities was revealed on April
26, 1955 by Radio Moscow and later detailed in a Russian-language
magazine article by Yuri S. Khlebtsecich the following November. Plans
were outlined for a radio-controlled lunar "tankette" that would be
launched by a large, multi-stage rocket. This remote-controlled rover
could make observations over large stretches of the lunar surface and
report its findings back to Earth. However, this sort of mission was
still years away.
The Lunar Program Takes Shape
Lunar missions were always part of Chief Designer Sergei
Korolev's space plans. When his satellite program was approved by the
Soviet government in the beginning of 1956, work on more advanced
missions also began to move forward not only at Korolev's OKB-1 but at
other institutions as well. Among these was a group at MIAN
(Mathematical Institute of the Academy of Sciences) under Academician
Mstislav V. Keldysh who began making detailed calculations of over 600
trajectories to precisely define the requirements for various lunar
missions.
Based on scientific objectives and the projected availability of
technology, a three-step strategy for long-term lunar exploration was
eventually devised. The first step, which could make use of current or
soon to be available technology, consisted of a series of flyby, impact,
or hard landing missions. With a few more years of development, the
second step would become possible. In this phase, payloads would be
delivered to the lunar surface and into orbit. The last phase, which
would require many years of work, involved delivering automated probes
to the Moon and returning a payload of surface samples or exposed film
back to Earth.
In April of 1957 the project department for the development of
spacecraft at OKB-1 under Mikhail Tikhonravov submitted a report on the
exploration of the Moon and the launching of manned satellites. The one
point that was immediately made clear was the need to build a launch
vehicle more capable than the existing derivatives of the two-stage R-7
that would launch the first satellites. As early as 1955, Korolev had
anticipated this need and considered attaching a third stage on top of
the basic R-7 ICBM (also known as the SS-6 or Sapwood in the West) to
greatly improve its performance. By the summer of 1957 development of
this stage, called Blok E, had begun.
The Gas Dynamics Laboratory at OKB-456 under the direction of
Valentin P. Glushko was given the assignment of developing an engine,
designated RD-109, for the Blok E. Glushko and his engineers felt that
a fuel other than kerosene, which the R-7 used, should be employed.
Ultimately they chose UDMH (unsymmetrical dimethyl hydrazine). Since
there was little experience in developing a large engine to burn such an
exotic (not to mention corrosive and toxic) fuel, Korolev felt that
developing the RD-109 would take much longer than Glushko expected. In
order to avoid delays and despite Glushko's protests, Korolev started
parallel development of his own engine, the RO-5, at OKB-1 that burned
the more conventional fuel, kerosene. Based on the S1.25800 steering
rockets OKB-1 developed for use with the RD-107 engine that powered the
R-7, the RO-5 would only be half as powerful as Glushko's RD-109.
Despite its smaller size, the RO-5 still provided the performance needed
to reach the Moon.
The Start of the Moon Program
With the successful launch of the first Sputnik and the furor
that ensued, Krushchev bypassed the existing chain of command and
quickly conferred directly with Korolev to determine what other space
spectaculars were possible. With Krushchev's backing, Korolev's dreams
for space exploration were to advance much more quickly than he could
have ever imagined. The launching of additional satellites, such as
Objects PS-2 and D (which became Sputnik 2 and 3 respectively), was
immediately approved. Resources were also made available for the
development of manned spacecraft as well as probes to the Moon and
planets. Upon returning from his meeting with the Soviet leader,
Korolev directed Tikhonravov and his project department to begin work on
vehicles to explore the Moon. Tikhonravov delegated the task of
designing and building the first Soviet lunar probes to a team of young
engineers and scientists at OKB-1 affectionately known as "Lunatics".
By December of 1957 the outline for two lunar launch vehicles
based on the R-7 ICBM, or 8K71, had been worked out. Both launch
vehicles would use a stripped down version of the R-7 designated
8K71/III. The first rocket, the 8K72 (eventually called SL-3 in the
West), would use a Blok E third stage built around Korolev's RO-5 engine
which by this time was being jointly developed with OKB-154 under Semyin
A. Kosberg. This engine produced 49.9 kilonewtons (11,200 pounds) of
thrust for 450 seconds by burning about 6.93 metric tons (15,300 pounds)
of kerosene and LOX (liquid oxygen) held in separate torroidal tanks.
This Blok E third stage, called 8K72E, was 2.66 meters (8.73 feet) in
diameter and stood 5.0 meters (16 feet) tall with its conical nose
shroud in place. It was attached to the top of the 8K71/III "basic
packet" by a simple open truss. Depending on the mission profile, the
8K72 could send up to about 400 kilograms (880 pounds) of useful payload
on a direct ascent trajectory to the Moon.
The second lunar launch vehicle, called the 8K73, would have a
Blok E third stage incorporating the much larger RD-109 being developed
by Glushko's OKB-456. The RD-109 produced 101.6 kilonewtons (22,800
pounds) of thrust and would consume 8.05 metric tons (17,700 pounds) of
UDMH and LOX during a 330 second burn. Despite the different engine,
the 8K73E stage's construction was very similar to the 8K72E. The 8K73E
stage had the same diameter as the 8K72E but was 1.1 meters (3.6 feet)
taller to accommodate the larger propellant load. With 16% more
propellant, an engine that was 2% more efficient, and a 26% shorter burn
time that cut gravity losses during a direct ascent towards the Moon,
the 8K73E was better than the 8K72E for missions to the Moon and beyond.
The 8K73 would be able to loft over 550 kilograms (1,200 pounds) of
payload towards the Moon. Which ever upper stage was used, these new
launch vehicles could lift more than ten times the payload of the
rockets that would be assembled for the first American Moon project,
"Operation Mona" (see "Operation Mona: America's First Moon Program" in
the April 1998 issue of Space Views).
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Дата: 22 июня 1998 (1998-06-22)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - June 1998 [8/16]
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The Plan
In December of 1957 Korolev formally submitted his lunar plans
for approval. The primary objective of the first mission would be to
impact the Moon. In order to determine what instrumentation should be
carried on this and subsequent lunar missions, Korolev met with Soviet
astronomers to get their input. Given the secrecy that enveloped the
development of Soviet space hardware and the fact the Space Age had just
begun, these astronomers were amazed to discover that a flight to the
Moon was not only possible but almost at hand. Eventually it was
decided that the first lunar probes would measure magnetic fields,
assess the radiation environment, and determine the density of
micrometeoroids during its flight. These missions would only require a
simple probe that could be quickly developed weighing about 170
kilograms (375 pounds).
This Moon probe, designated E-1 ("E" being the next letter after
Object "D"), would use the 8K72 which was scheduled to make its first
test flight in June or July of 1958. In order to maximize the payload,
the launch was restricted to a two to three-minute window during a
three-day period when the Moon was either about 10 or 23 days old,
depending on the season. A short flight time of about 34 hours would
insure that the probe would be visible from the Soviet Union during its
lunar encounter. This type of trajectory also had the benefit of
minimizing the effects of aiming and final velocity errors. To help
reduce the latter, the 8K72E stage would use radio commands to shutdown
the RO-5 engine when the proper velocity had been achieved.
In the original proposal, post-launch tracking of the receding
lunar probe would be aided by either an inflatable 30-meter (100-foot)
in diameter aluminized balloon or, as proposed by Soviet astronomer
Professor Iosef Shklovsky, an artificial comet of lithium or sodium
vapor released from the spent Blok E. Depending on the available
payload margin of the 8K72, additional engineering and scientific
equipment could be carried by the Blok E to supplement investigations by
the E-1 probe. Korolev scheduled this flight to take place around
August or September of 1958.
The next set of missions would use more advanced, three-axis
stabilized probes designated E-2 and E-3. These probes, weighing about
280 kilograms (620 pounds) each, would image the unseen farside of the
Moon using an automated photographic system. In addition to this
primary instrument, these probes could carry other sensors to continue
investigations of the cislunar environment. Because of the alignments
of the Earth, Moon, and Sun these missions required, the E-2 and E-3
could only be launched in October-November or April-May. The
development of these more sophisticated probes, which was made the
responsibility of Yuri A. Mozzhorin, would require more time than the
E-1. If all went according to schedule, the 8K73 would be available to
launch the first of these probes in October or November of 1958.
One last lunar "probe" that was considered at this time was the
E-4. Its mission would be to set off a nuclear explosion on the lunar
surface that could be viewed from the Earth leaving no doubt that a
Soviet probe had reached the Moon. Weighing in at about 400 kilograms
(880 pounds), the E-4 would require the lifting capability of the 8K73.
While an interesting publicity stunt, Korolev was not enthusiastic about
beginning an era of lunar exploration with the nuclear bombardment of
the Moon. Ultimately the project was canceled. After these lunar
missions Korolev intended to move on and use the 8K73 to launch the
first probe to Venus, designated V1, in June of 1959.
A Bad Start
Just as Korolev had feared, the development of the RD-109
dragged on much longer than planned. This delay along with problems
with the R-7 and its engines uncovered during development flights and
bench tests threatened to scuttle Korolev's original (and overly
optimistic) lunar exploration schedule. But by May 1958 the first
8K71/III, serial number B1-14, had been modified in the shops at OKB-1
outside of Moscow and in early June it was delivered to the NIIP-5 range
in Kazakhstan. Because of the lagging development of the RO-5, an
engine-less Blok E equipped only with telemetry and control systems
would be carried on this suborbital test flight.
The first 8K71/III finally lifted off on July 10, 1958. While
there are conflicting accounts of what exactly happened, all the sources
agree that the test was unsuccessful. With only a month until the first
American lunar probe launch attempt, Korolev and his team would have to
work hard to beat the Americans once again.
Bibliography
Wayne R. Matson (editor), Cosmonautics: A Colorful History, Cosmos
Books, 1994
Ari Shternfeld, Soviet Space Science, Basic Books, 1959
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 2:
Space Rockets for Lunar Probes", Spaceflight, pp. 49-52, Vol. 38, No. 2,
February 1996
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Дата: 22 июня 1998 (1998-06-22)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - June 1998 [9/16]
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Doing Space: Why Do We Go?
by Timothy K. Roberts
[Editor's Note: This article is the second in a three-part series.
Part one, "Speedbumps on the Road to Space," was published in the
May issue. The conclusion will be published in the July issue.]
Now that we've cleared our minds of some pernicious
misconceptions, we can go on to the next step in our analysis process.
That is, we can determine why we really want to go to space. For many
of us, this question may seem to have an obvious answer, but it's well
worth examining what we believe and why we believe it. Only then can we
make some serious decisions about spending money and committing lives to
the quest to settle the Solar System.
The very first thing that we must do is understand why we want
to go to space. There are a number of reasons, even at a macro level,
that we as Americans or humans might want to explore and exploit space.
There is science - astronomy, life sciences, geology, physics, chemistry
. . . the list goes on as far as there are sciences. There is national
defense - ours or anyone else's. As has been exhaustively discussed in
the press, space is the new "high ground" that an armed force would want
to occupy. One can see better, hear better, and communicate better from
space than from any location on Earth. That alone is of great value to
the Department of Defense, to the tune of tens of billions of dollars
every year. That same ability to see, hear, and communicate better from
space than anywhere else is also the reason civil governmental agencies
want to go to space. Weather forecasting became a science when we could
see weather patterns developing thousands of miles and weeks away from
home. Environmental monitoring, characterizing natural disasters, all
sorts of needs are met best in or from space. And these same needs are
being met by a small but growing commercial space industry. We're all
familiar with communications satellites of various types - telephone,
radio, television - but there are also people making money selling
images of the Earth. This is a new and growing business. Regrettably,
materials processing and manufacturing in space are still unrealized
potentials. Oh, there are many reasons to go to space.
But look at the preceding paragraph more closely. There are
actually only two reasons to go anywhere - space, the ocean, the next
country, it doesn't matter. To explore and exploit. These are basic
human urges. They have driven almost all of human activity for the past
40,000 years or so that we've been recognizably Homo Sapiens. Coming
out of Africa, across Eurasia, over the Bering land bridge, throughout
the Americas - all this expansion has been driven by the twin human
needs to know what's over the next ridge and to find a better
hunting/planting/mining ground. These twin needs have driven human
expansion into alien, hostile environments - the sea, air, and now
space. We go to know and to use. Pure and simple. Everything reduces
to these two needs. Let's look at both of these in some more detail in
the context of space.
Exploration is something most people feel they understand and
can support. The second may be true, but the first usually isn't. We
tend to equate exploration with Scott and Amundsen trekking to the
poles, Stanley and Livingston in Africa, etc. In space, the concept of
exploration is usually embodied in astronauts and cosmonauts. In
reality, though, the real explorers are the scientists sitting back on
Earth collecting and analyzing data. And they're usually looking for
things most of us don't know about and have a hard time understanding.
Black holes. Solar magnetospheres. Jovian weather. Venusian geology.
The age of the universe. Neutrino fluxes. This is the exploration we
do in space. The astronauts and cosmonauts are merely technicians -
albeit very highly paid ones that take tremendous risks - performing the
experiments at someone else's direction. We won't get to the Scotts and
Amundsens of the Space Age until we can go - cheaply, dependably, and
regularly - to the moons and planets in the Solar System. No,
exploration today is a very technical, expensive affair.
But we have to do this. Exploration is about knowing. We know,
for instance, about the threat of asteroid impacts on Earth because
three astronomers were interested in comets and how they interacted with
the major planets in the Solar System, Jupiter in particular. We know
of the astounding possibility of real life on Mars because of
scientists' interest in an obscure class of meteors found only in
Antarctica. The point is that one individual's interest in a scientific
question often yields unexpected results far from where one starts.
Another point is that exploration is done by a small number of people.
The very act of exploring the unknown takes a special mind, a unique
interest, a surprising dedication. Explorers - those in laboratories
and those in the field - are unique and few in number. Their results
and impact are greatly out of proportion to their number and usually
can't be predicted. We have become almost inured to wondrous pictures
of planets, stars, and galaxies that result from our new explorers'
quests. But we really don't understand the lasting impact of their
discoveries. Who could have guessed, for instance, the impact of Apollo
8's Earth rise over the Moon picture in 1968? Who could have predicted
that that photo would energize a purely terrestrial, politically
effective environmental movement that has stretched over 30 years -
surely a record in American culture? Who can guess today the impact of
images of nova remnants, those glorious celestial double helices?
Neither you nor I can.
Exploitation is also a topic most folks think they understand.
The word conjures up images of strip mines scarring the Earth, forests
falling to make veneer for coffee tables, unchecked urban sprawl. And
yet everything we do that makes and consumes is really exploitation in
the service of humanity. To survive we must exploit. We must farm,
mine, manufacture. All these actions have results beyond the direct
object - food, metals, things. There is waste, there is impact to the
Earth. We know this and we're starting to manage it. The common view
of exploitation is myopic and unfair. We need to view it as the human
use of the Earth. And we need to start thinking about the human use of
space, the planets, and the moons. We need to really think about the
exploitation of space. This is, after all, what many of us want. We
want manufacturing in space. We want orbital hotels. We want
world-wide space-based communications. These things will drive what
people will do in space. The millions that will eventually live off
Earth won't do science. They won't continually invent new technologies.
They will make things, run restaurants, hospitals, factories. They will
fly ships and command stations. This is true exploitation - the human
use of space. We want this. And, to survive as a successful species,
we must have it.
The reason for that last statement is actually quite simple.
Mankind will not, of its own free will, control its population. This is
a sad fact. Over time, there will either be more human beings or there
won't be any. We may invent regimes that force population control on a
portion of humanity but it won't be total and it won't work in the long
run. The urge to have babies is a very strong one indeed and it has
made more history than all other causes combined. All the people that
will be born in the future will need goods and services. They'll need
food, clothing, all sorts of things. And they'll need something to do -
a reason to live. We can see the time now that these things won't be
available on Earth. We can already compute when and how we'll run out
of some critical resources - arable land, petroleum, iron ore, to name a
few. And, as these resources disappear, one of only two things will
happen. We will either find new resources elsewhere or we will become
extinct as a species. In the long term, there is no third option. We
already know that Earth's resources are finite - this has been beaten to
death in the media for the past two decades, starting with the infamous
Club of Rome report. There is really only one place to go to meet our
needs - into space to exploit other planets and moons. And we will do
it. We'll go to space to mine, to manufacture. There's no guarantee
that the people who do this will be American or even Western. But they
will certainly be human. So we must exploit space. No species
voluntarily surrenders to extinction. Neither will we. We may well
inadvertently remove ourselves from the active list but we certainly
won't deliberately choose that result. In the words of the song,
"there's only one way to go from here . . . one way to go!" To space.
So now we understand. We go to space to explore and to exploit.
Both of these imperatives have been part of our history since we've been
human. The next step, and the last one we can do before we commit
people and dollars, is to decide how we're going to go to space. Not
the "nuts and bolts" of rocketry or even the larger question of what the
strategy will be, but the most fundamental question of how we'll make
decisions. Will we continue to allow our need to know and use to be
subservient to lesser questions of national security or private gain?
Or will we try to build this need, this imperative into our culture so
that we measure all the other things we do by our plans to settle the
Solar System? This will be the topic of the last article in this
mini-series. So remember:
We're going out! Lead, follow, or get out of the way!
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Дата: 22 июня 1998 (1998-06-22)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - June 1998 [10/16]
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Space Burial: An Analysis
by Dr. Elizabeth B. Ward
Considering the primordial star dust of which the solar system
originated, it seems appropriate that people are returning to their
origins aboard various spacecraft. The concept of burial in space, or
burial of ashes and dust among the primordial star dust, has finally
come of age. A new commercial market in space has begun to develop.
History of Space Burials
The most recent space burial event took place on 9 February 1998
when Celestis 02 launched the cremated remains of 30 persons from
Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. In early January 1998, the
cremated remains of planetary scientist Gene Shoemaker rode aboard the
Lunar Prospector on its mission to explore the Moon's surface. Though
this was not a commercial launch, it marked the first 'burial in space'
launched from US soil.
The pioneer commercial launch, accomplished by Celestis 01 in
April 1997, left Earth from the Canary Islands aboard Orbital Sciences
Corpoation's L-1011 aircraft. This mission put 24 sets of ashes into
orbit, including those of several deceased celebrities-- Star Trek
creator Gene Roddenberry, the controversial Timothy Leary, and space
colony advocate Gerald O'Neill. The company maintains a web site with
names and other details of its customers.
Though Celestis was the first to enter the market, competition
is coming swiftly. Several other interests have entered the arena with
active recruitment of customers, including a non-profit organization
called the SpaceLaunch Foundation, who sells 'burial trusts' to
prospective travelers. This foundation has not yet made any launches
and information about it comes only from its site on the World Wide Web.
Economic Analysis
In 1998 only Celestis is launching burials. The launch vehicles
are Pegasus or Taurus rockets, both provided by Orbital Sciences
Corporation. The vehicles carry other primary payloads and the Celestis
capsules ride piggyback. The price of the last launch was $4,800 per
person. SpaceLaunch plans to launch customers on varying plans that
start at $2,000. Costs are based on launching cargo at normal cargo
rates. The typical burial cargo weighs in at less than an ounce, so the
expense is not huge. Also, no special conditions have to be met with
regard to the cargo's environment which also reduces cost compared to
costly and sensitive scientific instrumentation. Celestis has found a
way to make space burial less expensive than the average land-based
variety. At this writing there are no known foreign suppliers although
the market could absorb some.
Most cremations take place outside the US. The country with
the highest cremation rate (90%) is Japan, followed by Scandinavian
countries (85%) and Great Britain (75%). In 1985 the US rate of
cremation was a mere 20%. As Americans become more environmentally
conscious, the rate for cremations is expected to increase. It is
estimated to increase to 30% by the year 2000. Celestis reportedly has
taken thousands of requests for burial in space. SpaceLaunch has also
received a number of inquiries, but they have not sold any trusts as of
March 1998. Both Celestis and SpaceLaunch expect the demand for space
burial to rise as more successful launches are completed and more
publicity about them is generated.
As the cost for launch continues to fall, it will likely become
the preferred method of burial to the educated and environmentally
conscious citizens of the world. Demand is higher in foreign countries
where cremation is more common and space for burial on land is costly.
The potential market spans the globe.
Prices vary with the cost of the launch as noted above. However,
what are the others costs associated with burial in space? Celestis
does not cremate the body, that has to be handled by the customer before
sending the ashes to Celestis. Typical cremation costs can be under
$500 and can be handled through direct service providers.
Assuming the average cost of cremation to be $500 and the weight
of the average urn plus ashes is five pounds, the only additional cost
would be that of mailing the urn and contents to the Celestis
corporation, at a cost under $100. The total cost for space burial, if
the last Celestis launch can be taken as the standard, would not exceed
$5,500. SpaceLaunch promises a rate that will be half that amount. By
comparison, the average land-based US burial with casket approaches
$8,000.
Conclusion
To date, the Celestis company has launched the most burials in
space, but competition waits in the wings. SpaceLauch corporation
actively seeks participants in its space burial trust foundation. The
trust assures participants of a launch into space beyond Earth's orbit,
or at double the cost, to the Moon or Mars. Costs for such launches are
estimated on a per pound of cargo basis. The company plans to use half
the payment to launch other cargo, thus effecting not only a burial, but
a mission-oriented package simultaneously. As of this writing, no actual
launches of this nature have been attempted, though many are planned.
It will be interesting to watch this commercial sector develop
over the next few years as more companies discover the potential market
and the potential profit-making capacity of delivering multiple low-cost
payloads. As more companies enter the arena, and as the cost of launch
declines, the cost for burial in space will also decline, making it more
economical than a land-based burial alternative.
Elizabeth B. Ward, Ed.D. works as a postdoctoral fellow for a federally
managed education and research program. Her interest in the
commercialization of space stems from her involvement as a graduate
student in the University of North Dakota's Department of Space Studies.
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Дата: 22 июня 1998 (1998-06-22)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - June 1998 [11/16]
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*** Book Reviews ***
by Jeff Foust
The Astronomy Cafe: 365 Questions and Answers from "Ask the Astronomer"
by Sten F. Odenwald
W.H. Freeman and Co., 1998
softcover, 256 pp., illus.
ISBN 0-7167-3278-5
US$14.95
For the last several years astronomer Sten Odenwald has been answering
questions about astronomy posed by visitors to his "Astronomy Cafe" Web
site (http://www2.ari.net/home/odenwald/cafe.html). By the end of 1997
he had answered over 3000 questions at that site and more at another
site sponsored by NASA. "The Astronomy Cafe" book is a collection of
the most popular questions submitted at the site, synthesized into book
form.
Odenwald does a good job answering questions on all aspects of
astronomy, from the solar system to the Big Bang to life as an
astronomer. If you've visited his site or have access to it on the Web,
there's not much reason to buy this book, since the material is freely
available online. However, if someone you know is interested in
astronomy but isn't online (or if you want to support Dr. Odenwald's
work), then "The Astronomy Cafe" is a good wide-ranging introduction to
some major questions in astronomy.
Alien Life: The Search for Extraterrestrials and Beyond
by Barry Parker
Plenum Publishing Corp., 1998
hardcover, 250pp., illus.
ISBN 0-306-45795-4
US$27.95/C$38.95
The possibility of life elsewhere in the solar system, or intelligent
life elsewhere in the universe, has captured the attention of
astronomers and the general public in recent years. Witness the
development of "astrobiology" as a separate discipline, now with its own
virtual institute sponsored by NASA. Astronomer Barry Parker writes a
good introduction to the field in "Alien Life".
Parker's book takes a broad look at life in the universe, starting with
the basics of life itself through the possibility of past or present
life on Mars or Europa to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
There's a final chapter that takes a neutral look at the UFO phenomena.
Given such a wide range of topics, Parker does not go very deep into any
subject. However, for the beginner looking for an introduction to
astrobiology, "Alien Life" is a good place to start.
Night Has A Thousand Eyes: A Naked-Eye Guide to the Sky, Its Science,
and Lore
by Arthur Upgren
Plenum Publishing Corporation, 1998
hardcover, 300pp., illus.
ISBN 0-306-45790-3
US$27.95/C$38.95
Ever wonder what stories the night sky has to tell? Yale astronomer
Arthur Upgren shares many tales of the stars and planets visible in the
night sky in "Night Has A Thousand Eyes". Upgren takes the reader on a
tour of the night skies as seen from the northern hemisphere, studying
the stars and constellations, and later the planets. He shares
interesting trivia about mythology, history, and science of the stars
and planets. However, there's a lack of focus to the book: we seem to
go from one topic to the next, often without seeing the connection from
one to the other. Still, Upgren has many interesting tales and tidbits
to share, making his book an interesting exploration of the night sky.
Edmond Halley: Charting the Heavens and the Seas
by Alan Cook
Oxford University Press, 1998
hardcover, 540pp., illus.
ISBN 0-19-850031-9
US$37.95
Edmond Halley is recognized today primarily for his work determining
comet orbits, including the successful prediction of the return of a
bright comet that now bears his name. However, Halley's work goes far
beyond comets, as Alan Cook describes in his detailed biography of the
man. Halley made contributions in a wide range of fields, from
observational astronomy to geomagnetism, and also helped Issac Newton
publish his classic "Principia Mathematica". Cook's biography of Halley
is no light read, but for anyone interested in Halley's life, it is one
of the most comprehensive examinations of Halley's distinguished career.
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 22 июня 1998 (1998-06-22)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - June 1998 [12/16]
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*** NSS News ***
Upcoming Boston NSS Events
Thursday, June 4, 7:30 pm
Designing a Small Rocket for L.E.O.
by Rainier Anacker
This talk will invite the audience to explore available options, when
using rocket vehicles, to put up an instrument package weighing 100 kg
(~220 lbs.) We will seek the answers to such questions as: What is
REALLY required, in terms of propellant weight? Cost? and actual rocket
hardware? Would a local Boston-area group have the resources to build
and launch such a vehicle?
The contents of the talk are outlined as follows:
I.Introduce the basic concepts and equations used by the designer
II.Walk through an example using a Single-Stage-to-Orbit (SSTO) vehicle.
III.Examine a second example using a Two-Stage-to-Orbit (TSTO) vehicle.
IV.Compare and contrast the above two vehicles
NOTE: I suggest that interested students bring their calculators to
confirm/check the results presented. The results will be in the form of
graphs with data, most of which can be reproduced using a calculator on
the spot.
The 1998 International Space Development Conference
by Jeff Foust
Nearly 500 space activists traveled to Milwaukee over the
Memorial Day weekend last month to attend a series of intriguing,
exciting presentations about the future of space at the National Space
Society's International Space Development Conference.
The 17th annual conference, held May 21-25 at the Hyatt Regency
hotel downtown, had the theme "Space: Under Development". Several
tracks took different looks at the prospects of space exploration and
development in the near future.
As the conference was sponsored by the Lunar Reclamation
Society, Milwaukee's NSS chapter, a key focus of the conference was on
the past, present, and future of lunar exploration and
commercialization. This included a special presentation on the findings
of Lunar Prospector, given by project scientist Alan Binder.
Binder also participated in a panel on the history of Lunar
Prospector, whose roots trace back more than ten years to private
efforts by activists and the Space Studies Institute. (Look for more
about the history of Lunar Prospector in a future issue of SpaceViews.)
Several people presented plans on the future of lunar
exploration and development. Rick Tumlinson of LunaCorp and Beth Elliot
of Applied Space Resources discussed their companies' plans for
commercial missions to the Moon, using rovers (LunaCorp) or sample
return missions (ASR). Several representatives of the Artemis Society
and The Lunar Resources Corporation discussed their plans to develop a
human base on the Moon, funded from a variety of sources, from
merchandising to movie rights.
Space commercialization in general, from low-cost launch
vehicles to space tourism, was also a key focus of the conference.
Several presentations on current reusable launch vehicle projects took
place, including Robert Zubrin of Pioneer Rocketplane and a team from
Advent Launch Systems' Civilian Astronauts Corps (CAC).
There was some concern raised about another RLV project, the
X-33. A panel of industry experts and former Congressional staffers
discussed their problems with the X-33. These concerns were with both
the technical issues with the X-33 and the political and commercial
issues regarding the full-scale version, VentureStar.
The panelists, including David Anderman of the Space Frontier
Foundation and Charles Miller of ProSpace, noted that the first flight
of the X-33 has been pushed back to as late as the end of 1999 (instead
of early 1999) and the number of test flights and the planned top speed
have been cut back. Commercially, the estimated $4-5 billion cost to
develop VentureStar could cause Lockheed Martin to seek loan guarantees
or promises to purchase launch services from the government, which the
panel thought detrimental to other commercial launch services.
While there are concerns at the high end of the spectrum of
launch services, development continues at the very low end. Greg
Allison and Bill Brown of Project HALO updated attendees on the status
of the balloon-launched hybrid rocket, which first flew a little over a
year ago to an altitude of 65 km (36 nautical mi.)
While no HALO rockets have been launched since then, the group
is planning another launch this summer. SL-2 will launch from a balloon
released from a barge in the Gulf of Mexico and fly to an altitude of
125 km (70 nautical miles), crossing the boundary into space.
Jim Benson, president of SpaceDev, provided an update on his
company's Near Earth Asteroid Prospector (NEAP) mission. NASA has
recently allowed scientists to submit proposals under two different
programs -- Discovery and MIDEX -- to get funding for instruments
scientists could fly on NEAP. Benson added that the company was
planning more announcements in the near future.
Space tourism was also a hot topic at the conference. In
addition to the presentation by the CAC, Buzz Aldrin discussed his
"ShareSpace" concept at a luncheon talk. Aldrin's proposal, which is
included in the May/June issue of Ad Astra magazine, would feature a
lottery to give ordinary people, and not just the rich, the opportunity
to fly into space as tourists.
Many of these plans for space commercialization require changes
to existing laws, and efforts along those lines were also discussed.
ProSpace's Miller and Mark Hopkins of Spacecause noted that HR1702, the
Commercial Space Act, could come up on the Senate floor as early as the
first week of June (it's now more likely to be discussed in July,
according to SpaceNews.) That bill wouldremove many of the hurdles
commercial space interests currently face.
Miller also called on people to participate in the March Storm
effort to promote their "Citizen's Space Agenda" to members of Congress.
Their most recent effort reached nearly 250 Congressional offices, plus
41 more in a brief "May Breeze" followup earlier in the month.
So how big is our future in space? Jim Benson, who worked in
the computer industry for twenty years before starting SpaceDev, drew
analgoies between the two in his talk. The upcoming wave of commercial
space startups will be "bigger than the microcomputer wave," he said,
"because space is a lot bigger." The goal of Benson, and others
attending the conference, is to ride that wave as far as it will take
them.
Awards: Several Space Pioneer awards were presented at the conference.
Alan Binder won the Space Pioneer Award for science for his role in the
Lunar Prospector mission, while George French won the award for business
and entrepreneur effort for Moonlink, which provides Lunar Prospector
data to schools. George Sensenbrenner, chairman of the House Science
Committee, won the Space Pioneer Award for legislator, and Peter Kokh,
conference chairman, won the activist of the year award. NSS awarded
the Heinlein Award posthumously to Carl Sagan for his lifetime
achievement in space efforts.
The new Apollo Awards for space filk songs were also awarded at
the conference. The winner, Mike Penkova, was on hand to accept the
award and sing his song, "Now's the Time to Touch a Star." (While not
yet available online, the second place song, "Queen Isabella", is
available on the Web at
http://www.prometheus-music.com/eli/virtual.html.) Among chapters, the
Orange County (California) Space Society won the award for most
outstanding chapter, while Huntsvilla Alabama L-5 (HAL5) and the
Oklahoma Space Alliance won awards for chapter excellence.
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 22 июня 1998 (1998-06-22)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - June 1998 [13/16]
Привет всем!
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Mars Society Founding Convention Announcement
Mars Society Founding Convention
August 13-16, 1998
University of Colorado, Boulder
Dr. Robert Zubrin, author of The Case for Mars, would like to invite you
to participate in the Founding Convention of the Mars Society.
This summer, over 1000 scientists, engineers, visionaries, philosophers,
explorers, businessmen, journalists, historians, politicians, and other
citizens will join in a historic gathering to found an association
committed to the exploration and settlement of Mars by both public and
private means. Be there.
Sessions Announced!
Thirty Six sessions are now planned for the conference. These sessions
include:
1. Concepts for Privately Funded Mars Missions
2. Current Plans for Robotic Mars Exploration
3. Mars Meteorite AH84001: Evidence for Life?
4. Latest Findings of the Pathfinder and Mars Global Surveyor Missions
5. The Search for Life on Mars
6. The Contamination Hazard: Fact or Fiction
7. Concepts for Future Robotic Mars Exploration Missions
8. Piloted Mars Exploration Missions
9. Use of Local Resources
10. Methods of Construction on Mars
11. Advanced Propulsion
12. Options for Producing Power On Mars
13. Gaining Access to the Martian Hydrosphere
14. Biomedical Issues in Mars Exploration
15. Space Launch Options for Mars Exploration and Settlement
16. Life Support Technology
17. Human Factors
18. Technologies for Achieving Long Range Mobility on Mars
19. Concepts and Technologies for a Permanent Mars Base
20. The Economics of Mars Colonization
21. Social Aspects of Mars Colonization
22. Timekeeping and Calendar Systems for Mars
23. Mars as a Way Station to Worlds Beyond
24. Terraforming Mars
25. Mars Exploration and American Public Policy
26. International Collaboration as a Path to Mars
27. The Need for Law on Mars
28. Risk and Exploration: How Much is Acceptable?
29. Methods of Public Outreach
30. Mars and Education
31. Mars and the Arts
32. The Role of Women in Exploration and Settlement
33. Potential Philosophical Impacts of Mars Exploration
34. The Human Need to Explore
35. The Significance of the Martian Frontier for Future Human History
36. The Founding Declaration of the Mars Society
Conference Registration Fee: $140 before June 30, 1998, $180 afterwards.
Call for Papers
Papers for presentation at the convention are requested dealing with all
matters (science, engineering, economics, and public policy) associated
with the exploration and settlement of Mars. Abstracts of no more than
300 words should be sent by 5/31/98 to: Mars Society, Box 273, Indian
Hills, CO 80454 USA
Written papers are not required for presentation at the conference.
However papers submitted in writing will be published in a series of
special issues in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society and
compiled for publication in book form to be published by Univelt Inc.
Co-sponsors Boost Effort
The following organizations have stepped forward to co-sponsor the
Founding Convention of the Mars Society:
The National Space Society
The British Interplanetary Society
The World Space Bar
United Societies in Space
Pioneer Astronautics
The Boulder Center for Science and Policy
Fisher Space Pen
Journal Founded!
The Mars Society has initiated an electronic magazine entitled, New
Mars: The Journal of the Martian Frontier. New Mars will feature news of
technical advances, scientific findings, political developments, as well
as feature articles discussing scientific, engineering, social,
historic, and public policy issues relating to the exploration and
settlement of Mars. The editor of New Mars will be Richard Wagner, the
former editor of the National Space Society's Ad Astra Magazine.
Contributions are solicited.
Further information on both the Founding Convention and the New Mars
journal can be found at: http://www.nw.net/mars
*** Regular Features ***
Jonathan's Space Report No. 361
by Jonathan McDowell
[Ed. Note: Go to http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html
for back issues and other information about Jonathan's Space Report.]
Shuttle and Mir
Launch of the Station seems to be slipping further, with a probable
delay of STS-88 to December according to news reports. This would push
STS-93 to January according to the AP report.
Progress M-39 remains docked to the Mir orbital complex, and the crew
are unloading it. STS-91 is on the pad, ready for the final US trip to
Mir. In addition to Andrew Thomas, much of the US scientific equipment
aboard Mir will also be brought home.
For mission STS-91, Discovery's payload bay has a new configuration.
Forward in the bay is the external airlock and docking system. Behind
this is the tunnel adapter, which on most earlier missions was between
the docking system and the main cabin. The tunnel adapter has a hatch
for spacewalks. Behind the tunnel adapter is the Spacehab tunnel,
followed by a single Spacehab module. The Spacehab module carries water,
food, and equipment for Mir. Further aft in the payload bay is the Alpha
Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS). This particle physics experiment uses a new
cross-bay carrier, containing a large (3000 kg) magnet and scintillator
detectors which will be used in a search for antiprotons and antinuclei
in cosmic rays. A later version of AMS will be installed on the Space
Station.
Eight GAS canisters are also installed in the payload bay. Bay 6 port
has SEM-3, with high school experiments, and an inert canister
containing commemorative flags. Bay 6 starboard has G-648 (Canadian
space agency organic thin films experiment) and another canister of
flags. Bay 13 port has G-765 (Canadian space agency fluids experiment)
and SEM-5 (high school passive experiments). Bay 13 starboard has two
small size (2.5-cubic foot) containers, G-090 and G-743.
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 22 июня 1998 (1998-06-22)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - June 1998 [14/16]
Привет всем!
Вот, свалилось из Internet...
Recent Launches
HGS-1 completed its first lunar flyby on May 13, and returned to a
perigee of about 36000 km at about 0300 UTC on May 17. HGS has decided
to send the satellite on a second lunar flyby on Jun 6 to further
improve the orbit. Current orbit is 35646 km x 475763 km x 18.2 deg.
Galaxy 4H, a Hughes HS-601 satellite, failed on May 19, disrupting pager
services across the United States. A computer failure resulted in loss
of attitude control. Ku-band traffic is being transferred to Galaxy 3R,
while Galaxy 6 is being moved to the Galaxy 4H orbital position to
replace its C-band coverage.
Echostar 4 has reportedly had problems deploying its solar panels.
Orbits
The following discussion is for technically oriented pedants only.
There's been a lot of discussion lately about the exact definitions of
varous kinds of orbit: what is the difference between Low Earth Orbit
(LEO) and Medium Earth Orbit (MEO)? There's no right answer, since these
names are arbitrary. I have my own definitions, which I give below. The
boundaries I use are motivated by the physical boundaries in the
atmosphere and by historical practice.
My proposed definitions:
(1) Atmospheric (ATM): suborbital trajectory with apogee less than
80 km (mean height of the mesopause, and same as old USAF definition of
50 miles for astronaut wings)
(2) Suborbital spaceflight (SO): suborbital trajectory with apogee more
than 80 km.
(3) Transatmospheric orbit (TAO): orbital flight with perigee less than
80 km but more than zero. Potentially used by aerobraking missions and
transatmospheric vehicles, also in some temporary phases of orbital
flight (e.g. STS pre OMS-2, some failures when no apogee restart)
(4) LEO: Low Earth Orbit. Orbits with perigee above 80 km and apogee
less than L km. It's not clear what the value of L should be. A
histogram of apogee heights for objects currently in orbit shows a big
peak from 100 km to about 2500 km, followed by an almost empty region,
followed by a small peak at 19000 km (GLONASS and GPS) and another peak
at 36000 km (GEO). Why are there so few satellites in the 3000 - 19000
km range? It's because of the radiation belts. Of course polar orbit
satellites pass through the radiation belts even at low altitude (the
magnetosphere dips into the auroral circle). But at 3000 km and up you
pass through the belts at all latitudes. What is the lower level of the
radiation belts? I'm still researching this. However, if you look at the
apogee histogram in more detail, you see that the lower orbit satellites
have two broad peaks: one from 300 km to 1300km peaking at 800-1000 km;
and another at 1300-2200 km peaking at 1500 km. This analysis is
compromised by the fact that the histogram may be dominated by debris
objects from a small number of explosions; it would be better to plot
payloads only. Redoing the analysis with only international designations
"A" and "B" (e.g. 1997-04B, but not 1997-04F) gives a similar result
but with narrower peaks. In particular, there are very few payloads or
rocket stages with apogees in the 1100 to 1400 km or 1600 to 2000 km
ranges. I therefore suggest that the LEO/MEO boundary value L should be
set at either:
apogee 1000 km, a round number definition which would exclude the large
number of satellites in the 1000-1100 km range including Parus/Tsikada and
Transit navsats. I think 1000 km is a little too low to exclude.
apogee 1100 km, a strict definition of LEO
apogee 1600 km, a definition including Globalstar and Strela/Gonets and
older ESSA/NOAA polar satellites
apogee 2000 km, a safe 'round number' definition including all LEO
payloads and debris objects.
period 120 minutes ( 2 hours ). Another 'round number'.
This has an average height of 1680 km and a maximum apogee of 3280 km.
With the 2000 km or 2 hr definitions, MEO (Medium Earth Orbit) would be the
relatively unpopulated region between LEO and the geosynch corridor, which
contains the Glonass and GPS satellites and the old Midas early warning sats,
and not much else. I have decided to use the 2 hr definition, but I suspect
that the industry may end up using something toward the lower end, say
the 1100 km definition.
I consider several subcategories of LEO sorted by inclination. The physically
motivated one is LEO/S or SSO: Sun Synchronous orbit, when the orbital plane
precesses to keep the same sun angle. This requires a period (hh:min) of
T = 3:47 * ( - cos i )** (3/7) +/- 0:10, for i = 97.0 - 103.0 degrees.
It's probably good enough to use a less strict but simpler definition of SSO:
LEO/S Sun Synch T = 1:26 - 2:00, i = 95.0 - 104.0
One might also usefully define
LEO/R Retrograde: T = 1:26 - 2:00, i = 104.0 - 180.0
LEO/P Polar: T = 1:26 - 2:00, i = 85.0 - 95.0
LEO/E Equatorial T = 1:26 - 2:00, i = 0.0 - 20.0
Of course technically `retrograde' is anything with i more than 90.0 degrees,
but one is more likely to refer to orbits with i below 104 deg as polar or
sun-synchronous.
The next boundary of interest is between MEO and the 'geosynchronous
corridor'. To study the geosynchronous corridor, it's most helpful to
work in orbital period and consider drift rates. For a pure equatorial
orbit, non-Keplerian perturbations introduce drifts of order 0.05
degrees per day. These dominate Keplerian drift in longitude if the
period is roughly between 23h 55.5m and 23h 56.5 min. I call this
'geostationary orbit'. Satellites which are still operational but are
being moved from one slot to another usually are drifting at between 0.1
and 10 degrees per day. I find the 10 degree per day drift rate one
convenient boundary, corresponding to periods from 23h 17m to 24h 37m
(that's what I used to use in my geo.log file). An alternative criterion
is to make a period cut from 23h to 25h: 1 hour either side of the
geosynch period.
MEO is then everything vaguely circular below 23 hours and above LEO.
Objects which are in elliptical orbits and with MEO-type orbital
periods, I call HEO (highly elliptical orbits). A special case of HEO is
the Molniya orbit, with inclination 63 degrees and period 12 hours,
giving zero perigee precession and an apogee stabilized in longitude
every other orbit. Another special case is geostationary transfer orbit
(GTO), subclasses of which I defined in JSR 310 back in Jan 1997
(included in the summary table below).
I now use personal definitions as follows:
Period (hh:mm) Inc (deg) Ecc
Three with the synchronous period:
GEO/S Stationary 23:55.5 - 23:56.5 0.0 - 2.0 0.00 - 0.01
(the good stuff, circular and equatorial)
GEO/I Inclined GEO 23:55.5 - 23.56.5 0.0 - 2.0 0.01-0.05
and 23:55.5 - 23.56.5 2.0 - 20.0 0.00-0.05
(still circular and somewhat equatorial)
GEO/T Synchronous 23:55.5 - 23.56.5 0 - 20.0 0.05 - 0.85
and 23:55.5 - 23.56.5 20.0-180.0 0.00 - 0.85
(synchronous but not circular equatorial)
The corresponding three cases with periods not equal to the magic one:
GEO/D Drift GEO 23:00 - 25:00 0.0 - 2.0 0.00 - 0.05
GEO/ID Inc. Drift GEO 23:00 - 25:00 2.0 - 20.0 0.00 - 0.05
GEO/NS Near-Sync 23:00 - 25:00 0 - 180 0.05 - 0.85
and 23:00 - 25:00 20 - 180 0.00 - 0.85
Rather than High Earth Orbit (too easily confused with Highly Elliptical
Orbit) I use Deep Space Orbit (DSO), for anything circular above GEO,
and Deep Highly Eccentric Orbit (DHEO) for elliptical deep orbits.
Finally, I summarize the categories I am suggesting in the table below.
If you would like to propose alternative definitions, please forward
them to me.
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 22 июня 1998 (1998-06-22)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - June 1998 [15/16]
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Orbit Classification Summary
(A = apogee/km, P = perigee/km, T = period/hh:mm, i = inc/deg, e =
eccentricity)
Main categories
ATM Atmospheric A < 80
SO Suborbital A >= 80, P < 0
TAO Trans-Atm A >= 80, P = 0 - 80
LEO Low T= 1:26 - 2:00 (P>80)
MEO Medium T= 2:00 - 23:00, e < 0.5
HEO Highly Ellip T= 4:03 - 23:00, e > 0.5 (implies A > 13000)
GEO Near-Synch T=23:00 - 25:00
DSO Deep Space T>25:00, e < 0.5
DHEO Deep Eccentric T>25:00, e > 0.5
HCO Heliocentric
PCO Planetocentric
SSE Solar System Escape
Subcategories
LEO/S Sun Synch T = 1:26 - 2:00, i= 95.0 - 104.0
LEO/R Retrograde: T = 1:26 - 2:00, i= 104.0 - 180.0
LEO/P Polar: T = 1:26 - 2:00, i= 85.0 - 95.0
LEO/E Equatorial T = 1:26 - 2:00, i= 0.0 - 20.0
HEO/M: Molniya orbit T = 11:30 - 12:30, i= 62.0 - 64.0, e= 0.50 - 0.77
GEO/S Stationary T= 23:55.5 - 23:56.5,i= 0.0 - 2.0 0.00 - 0.01
GEO/I Inclined GEO T= 23:55.5 - 23.56.5,i= 0.0 - 20.0 0.00 - 0.05
GEO/T Synchronous T= 23:55.5 - 23.56.5,i= 0 - 180 0.00 - 0.85
GEO/D Drift GEO T=23:00 - 25:00 i= 0.0 - 2.0, e= 0.00 - 0.05
GEO/ID Inc. Drift GEO T=23:00 - 25:00 i= 0.0 - 20.0, e= 0.00 - 0.05
GEO/NS Near-Sync T=23:00 - 25:00 i= 0 - 180, e= 0.00 - 0.85
GTO subclasses of HEO, from JSR 310
GTO/L Low GTO A = 13000 - 30000
GTO/S Sub-GTO A = 30000 - 41000
GTO Std GTO P = 150 - 700, A = 34000 - 41000,
GTO/HP High Peri. GTO P = 700- 4000, A = 34000 - 41000,
GTO/H High GTO A > 41000
(Super-GTO now superseded by GTO/H and DHEO as appropriate)
Table of Recent Launches
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Apr 2 0242 TRACE Pegasus XL Vandenberg RW30/15 Solar obs. 20A
Apr 7 0213 Iridium 62 Proton-K/DM2 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 FM6) Delta 7420 Canaveral SLC17A Comsat 23A
Globalstar FM8) 23B
Globalstar FM14) 23C
Globalstar FM15) 23D
Apr 28 2253 Nilesat 1 ) Ariane 44P Kourou ELA2 Comsat 24A
BSAT 1B ) Comsat 24B
Apr 29 0437 Kosmos-2350 Proton-K/DM-2 Baykonur Comsat? 25A
May 2 0916 Iridium 69 CZ-2C/SD Taiyuan Comsat 26A
Iridium 71 Comsat 26B
May 7 0853 Kosmos-2351 Molniya-M Plesetsk Early Warn 27A
May 7 2345 Echostar 4 Proton-K/DM3 Baykonur Comsat 28A
May 9 0138 USA 139 Titan Centaur Canaveral SLC40 Sigint 29A
May 13 1552 NOAA 15 Titan 2 Vandenberg SLC4W Weather 30A
May 14 2212 Progress M-39 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 31A
May 17 2116 Iridium 70) Delta 7920 Vandenberg SLC2W Comsat 32A
Iridium 72) Comsat 32B
Iridium 73) Comsat 32C
Iridium 74) Comsat 32D
Iridium 75) Comsat 32E
Current Shuttle Processing Status
__________________________________
Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due
OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 3 STS-93 Jan ?
OV-103 Discovery LC39A STS-91 Jun 2
OV-104 Atlantis Palmdale OMDP
OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-88 Dec 3
MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks
MLP1/RSRM66/ET-96/OV-103 LC39A STS-91
MLP2/
MLP3/
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 22 июня 1998 (1998-06-22)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: SpaceViews - June 1998 [16/16]
Привет всем!
Вот, свалилось из Internet...
Space Calendar
by Ron Baalke
* indicates changes from last month's calendar
[Ed. Note: visit http://newproducts.jpl.nasa.gov/calendar/ for
the complete calendar]
June 1998
* Jun ?? - Ziyuan-1/Cbers-1 Long March 4B Launch (China)
* Jun ?? - Sinosat 1 Long March 3B Launch
* Jun ?? - Loralsat 1 Ariane 4 Launch
* Jun ?? - Astra-2A Proton Launch
* Jun ?? - ORBCOMM-2 Pegasus XL Launch
* Jun 01 - HGS-1 Sent To The Moon
Jun 01 - Asteroid 2063 Bacchus Closest Approach To Earth (1.307 AU)
* Jun 01 - Asteroid 6633 (1986 TR4) Closest Approach To Earth (1.949 AU)
* Jun 02 - STS-91 Launch, Discovery, 9th Shuttle-Mir Docking
Jun 02 - Asteroid 6252 Montevideo Closest Approach To Earth (1.835 AU)
Jun 02 - Kuiper Belt Object 1994 JR1 at Opposition (33.748 AU - 22.9
Magnitude)
Jun 02 - 15th Anniversary (1983), Venera 15 Launch (Soviet Venus Orbiter)
* Jun 03 - Asteroid 1998 HJ3 Near-Earth Flyby (0.356 AU)
Jun 04 - Galileo, Orbital Trim Maneuver #48 (OTM-48)
Jun 04 - Asteroid 5066 Garradd Closest Approach to Earth (0.839 AU)
* Jun 04 - Asteroid 7177 (1990 TF) Closest Approach To Earth (1.951 AU)
Jun 04 - Asteroid 1995 YV3 Closest Approach to Earth (2.840 AU)
Jun 05 - Mercury Passes 0.3 Degrees From Mars
Jun 05 - Asteroid 1995 WQ5 Closest Approach to Earth (1.706 AU)
* Jun 06 - HGS-1, 2nd Moon Flyby
Jun 06 - Asteroid 6 Hebe at Opposition (9.4 Magnitude)
Jun 06 - Asteroid 1994 PN Closest Approach to Earth (1.194 AU)
Jun 07 - 15th Anniversary (1983), Venera 16 Launch (Soviet Venus Orbiter)
Jun 08 - Asteroid 1993 BW2 Closest Approach to Earth (0.809 AU)
Jun 08 - Kuiper Belt Object 1996 KV1 at Opposition (40.176 AU -
23.1 Magnitude)
Jun 09 - Thor 3 Delta 2 Launch
Jun 09 - Asteroid 4183 Cuno Near-Earth Flyby (0.2079 AU)
Jun 09 - Mercury at Perihelion
Jun 10 - 25th Anniversary (1973), Explorer 49 Launch (Moon Orbiter)
* Jun 11 - Comet C/1998 K2 (LINEAR) Closest Approach To Earth (1.511 AU)
Jun 11 - Asteroid 5370 Taranis Closest Approach To Earth (1.450 AU)
Jun 11 - Asteroid 4166 Pontryagin Closest Appoarch To Earth (1.673 AU)
Jun 13 - Asteroid 4088 (1986 GG) Closest Approach To Earth (1.359 AU)
Jun 14 - Asteroid 18 Melpomene at Opposition (9.6 Magnitude)
Jun 15 - Asteroid 211 Isolda Occults PPM 195267 (9.5 Magnitude Star)
* Jun 15 - Asteroid 1998 HH49 Near-Earth Flyby (0.209 AU)
* Jun 15 - Asteroid 5035 Swift Closest Approach To Earth (1.984 AU)
Jun 15 - 10th Anniversary (1988), First Flight of the Ariane-4 Rocket
Jun 16 - 35th Anniversary (1963), Vostok 6 Launch (1st Woman in Space)
Jun 17 - Moon Occults Jupiter
Jun 17 - Asteroid 1994 AH2 Near-Earth Flyby (0.1930 AU)
Jun 17 - Mercury Occults 78331 (6.5 Magnitude Star)
Jun 17 - Asteroid 3874 Stuart Closest Approach To Earth (1.553 AU)
* Jun 18 - Intelsat 805 Atlas IIAS Launch
Jun 18 - Asteroid 59 Elpis Occults PPM 203414 (9.6 Magnitude Star)
Jun 18 - 15th Anniversary (1983), STS-7 Launch (Challenger), Anik C2,
Palapa B1, 1st American Woman In Space (Sally Ride)
Jun 20 - FGB (Functional Cargo Block) Proton-K Launch (Element
of the International Space Station)
Jun 20 - Asteroid 72 Feronia at Opposition (11.0 Magnitude)
Jun 21 - Summer Solstice, 14:03 UT
Jun 21 - Asteroid 5660 (1974 MA) Closest Approach To Earth (0.936 AU)
Jun 21 - Asteroid 1988 PF1 Closest Approach To Earth (1.516 AU)
Jun 21 - 5th Anniversary (1993), STS-57 Launch (Endeavour), Spacehab-1,
EURECA
Jun 22 - Moon Occults Aldebaran During Daytime
Jun 22 - Asteroid 1995 LG Closest Approach to Earth (0.909 AU)
* Jun 22 - Asteroid 6013 (1991 OZ) Closest Approach To Earth (1.099 AU)
Jun 22 - 20th Anniversary (1978), Discovery of Charon (Pluto's Moon)
* Jun 23 - IKONOS-1 Athena 2 Launch
Jun 23 - Asteroid 1290 Albertine Closest Approach to Earth (1.487 AU)
* Jun 23 - Asteroid 6078 Burt Closest Approach To Earth (1.805 AU)
Jun 25 - Galileo, Orbital Trim Maneuver #49 (OTM-49)
Jun 25 - Asteroid 92 Undina at Opposition (10.7 Magnitude)
Jun 26 - Mars Occults 77221 (8.0 Magnitude Star)
Jun 27 - Asteroid 4769 Castalia Closest Approach To Earth (1.232 AU)
Jun 27 - Asteroid 3607 Naniwa Closest Approach To Earth (1.361 AU)
Jun 27 - 20th Anniversary (1978), Seasat 1 Launch
* Jun 28 - Asteroid 6894 (1986 RE2) Closest Approach To Earth (1.772 AU)
Jun 29 - Asteroid 3700 Geowilliams Closest Approach to Earth (1.924 AU)
Jun 29 - George Hale's 130th Birthday (1868)
Jun 30 - Asteroid 1990 HA Closest Approach to Earth (1.478 AU)
Jun 30 - 90th Anniversary (1908), Tunguska Explosion
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