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Дата: 01 марта 1998 (1998-03-01) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: SpaceViews -- March 1998 by Boston NSS [1/14] Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... This is the March 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 Thursday, March 5, 1998, 7:30pm 8th floor, 545 Main Street (Tech Square), Cambridge; see "Upcoming Boston NSS Events" Speaker: Robert G. Hohlfeld, Boston Univ. and HyperKinetics "Supersonic Projectiles Producing Thrust by External Combustion: A Potential System for Low-Cost Access to Space" Future meetings are on the first Thursdays of each month: April 5 [Sunday], May 7, June 4 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 3 March 1998 http://www.spaceviews.com/1998/03/ *** News *** Station Module Likely to Be Delayed Again Japanese Experimental Comsat Fails Acceleration of Universe Puzzles Astronomers Glenn Begins Flight Preparations NASA Cancels Clark Mission Soyuz Capsule Returns to Earth Space Junk May Have Hit Minuteman Missile Launchers Overcome Weather Delays Millions Witness Solar Eclipse SpaceViews Event Horizon Other News *** Articles *** Vanguard 1: The Little Satellite That Could [continued in part 2] Commercial Space in the 21st Century: Revolutionary or Evolutionary? *** Book Reviews *** A New Space Policy Paradigm Exploring the Ninth Planet Quick Looks at Three Books *** NSS News *** Upcoming Boston NSS Events Boston NSS February Lecture Summary Philadelphia Area Space Alliance News *** Regular Features *** Jonathan's Space Report No. 350 Space Calendar Editor's Note: Thanks to everyone who has commented on uor new Web site. Traditionally each March we send out a reader survey to get feedback from you about the publication. Because of the work the new site has taken up, we're planning to send the survey out with the April issue instead. Thanks! -- Jeff Foust, Editor Correction: In the February 15 issue of SpaceViews Update an article reported that NASA was asking for $750 million in additional funding for the X-33. This is incorrect: NASA is asking for the funding for additional RLV research, including possible follow-on vehicles to the X-33, but the funds are not for the X-33 proper. We regret the error. *** News *** Station Module Likely to Be Delayed Again NASA believes the Russian-built Service Module, a key element of the International Space Station, will be delayed by several more months, a top official said at a Congressional hearing February 25. Joseph Rothenberg, the new associate administrator for space flight, told members of the House Science Committee's space subcommittee that schedule delays and a missing payment by the Russian government to a contractor may delay the launch of the module to March 1999. Russian Space Agency head Yuri Koptev reportedly gave NASA a plan that would allow the module to be finished and launched as scheduled late this year, but Rothenberg said he was skeptical of the plan. "Even if they [the module contractors] do get the money, we believe the schedule may slip to February or March," he said. The module was to be completed and launched early this year, according to the original schedule, but was pushed back due to delays in the assembly of the module. That pushed back the launch of the first station elements, the Russian-built Control Module and a U.S.-built docking node, from late 1997 to this summer. Earlier in February NASA Administrator Dan Goldin told Congress the agency was considering delaying the launches of the first station elements until this fall to balance the shuttle schedule, caused by a delay in the launch of the AXAF satellite from August to December. The docking node would be launched on the shuttle Endeavour while the Control Module would be carried into orbit atop a Russian Proton rocket. Rothenberg said the delay would not result in any extra cost to the program. However, plans to redirect $173 million in the 1998 budget from science and aeronautics programs to the station, and reports that the total cost of the station may exceed the original budget by nearly $4 billion drew fire from some members of Congress. "I'm leaning toward listening to Rep. Roemer more than I ever have before," said Rep. Ralph Hall (D-TX), referring to Rep. Tim Roemer's annual efforts to cut funding for the station. Noting the total funds redirected to the station from science programs over the last three years, Hall added, "When $462 million gets transferred out of science into station, that's a sorry situation." Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
Дата: 01 марта 1998 (1998-03-01) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: SpaceViews -- March 1998 by Boston NSS [2/14] Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... Japanese Experimental Comsat Fails The launch of Japanese rocket early Saturday carrying an experimental communications satellite designed to test technologies for use in a new generation of comsats failed when an upper stage failed to fire as planned. An H-II rocket launched the Communications and Broadcasting Test Satellite (COMETS) satellite at 2:55am EST (0755 UT, 1655 JST) from the Tanegashima launch center on the island of Kyushu in southern Japan. The rocket reached orbit successfully, according to initial Japanese reports. However, a second firing of the upper stage of the booster was much shorter than planned, stranding the satellite in an orbit much lower than its planned geosynchronous destination. The second stage was to burn for over three minutes to raise COMETS to its final orbit, but burned for only 44 seconds. Officials with the Japanese space agency NASDA said they will try to raise the orbit of COMETS with the satellite's own thrusters, but it was unclear into what orbit those thrusters could put the satellite. An investigation into the cause of the booster failure is underway. The spacecraft was to enter geostationary orbit over Japan for a three-year mission to test new technologies. Included in those tests is the use of Ka-band frequencies to transmit high-bandwidth data, such as HDTV signals; inter-satellite communications; and advanced mobile satellite communications. The launch of COMETS was originally scheduled for August of last year but was delayed when a similar Japanese satellite, the Advanced Earth Orbiting Satellite (ADEOS), failed. That failure was traced to problems with the satellite's solar panels. Acceleration of Universe Puzzles Astronomers Astronomers have discovered, to their great surprise, that the expansion of the universe is speeding up, and now slowing down as once thought, implying the possible existence of a fifth "antigravity" force. In a paper published in the February 27 issue of the journal Science, the High-Redshift Supernova Search Team, an international team of 15 astronomers, reported on measurements of distant supernovae, observed with the Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based observatories. The redshift caused by the supernovae's motion away from the Earth was measured and compared to nearby supernovae. The astronomers expected to find that the rate of expansion of the universe, provided by the redshift measurements, would slow down as the universe aged. Instead, the team found that the universe was expanding faster now than it was 5-7 billion years ago. "People thought... the universe was just coasting," Robert Kirshner of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics told CNN. "Instead, we found it is actually speeding up." Astronomers had believed the universe would slow down as its collective gravity pulled against the explosive force of the Big Bang, estimated to take place 10-15 billion years ago. The fact that the universe appears to be speeding up implies that a new, unknown force is it work. "We are scratching our heads to think if there could be an alternative explanation for it -- something more mundane than a repulsive force," said Adam Reiss of the University of California at Berkeley. A fifth force that works against gravity could be related to the cosmological constant, a factor in relativity equations added by Einstein when he realized, to his horror, that general relativity allowed the universe to expand. He later retracted the constant, calling it his "greatest blunder." Reiss said the constant "is the only explanation we have" for the acceleration. The news comes just a few months after the same team found that the mass of the universe was far too small to bring its expansion to a halt. Both findings could have serious implications for cosmology, which has wrestled with issues such as the mass and age of the universe for decades. Team leader Brian Schmidt of Australia's Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories described his reaction to the findings as "somewhere between amazement and horror," he told the Washington Post. "Amazement, because I just did not expect this result," he said, "and horror in knowing that [it] will likely be disbelieved by a majority of astronomers who, like myself, are extremely skeptical of the unexpected." Glenn Begins Flight Preparations U.S. Senator John Glenn completed his first week of flight training earlier this month in preparation for his space shuttle flight this October, defending his role in the mission as a test subject for geriatrics research. "The basic purpose of why I'm going is not just to go sight-seeing," Glenn said at a February 20 press conference, 36 years to the day after his Mercury flight. "It's to do basic research, and I'm going to do the very best job I can do because I think it's important for millions of people into the future." Glenn spent the week ending February 20 in Houston, beginning training for the STS-95 mission scheduled for launch October 29. Glenn took advantage of a one-week recess in Congress to train. Glenn's training included a spin in a centrifuge at Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio. With doctors watching and an ambulance standing by, Glenn completed an 18-minute test in the centrifuge, handling accelerations up to three G's without any complaint. Glenn dismissed reports that two astronauts on the mission who are doctors, Scott Parazynski and Chiaki Mukai, were assigned to monitor Glenn. "There were no doctors assigned to this just because I was on the flight," he said. "You don't need two doctors just for me, that's for sure!" Those comments were echoed by Air Force Col. John Marshall, a doctor who monitored Glenn's centrifuge test. "He's had a complete cardiopulmonary work-up," Marshall said. "He's in excellent physical condition." Glenn expressed the hope the research related to his flight would be followed up in the future. "You have to start somewhere," he said. "I think this is a starting point, and I look forward to it expanding from here on. I don't look at this as a one-shot deal." Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
Дата: 01 марта 1998 (1998-03-01) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: SpaceViews -- March 1998 by Boston NSS [3/14] Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... NASA Cancels Clark Mission A NASA mission intended to take high-resolution images of the Earth was canceled by the space agency Wednesday, February 25, citing delays and cost overruns. The Clark spacecraft, named after famous explorer William Clark, was "partially terminated" by NASA, which cited schedule delays, cost overruns, and concerns about the spacecraft to meet the goals of the mission. Clark, intended to be an early example of NASA's "faster better cheaper" philosophy, was at least 15 percent over its budget and two years behind schedule. NASA awarded the $55 million Clark contract to CTA, a small Maryland satellite company which since has been purchased by Orbital Sciences Corporation, in June of 1994. Martin Marietta (now part of Lockheed Martin) was to provide the launch vehicle. The mission was to be launched in mid-1996. NASA said it expects to recover some of the money spent on the mission through the acquisition of some spacecraft components and payloads, and will retain its launch contract with Lockheed Martin. The Clark spacecraft was to provide high resolution stereo images of the Earth with a resolution of as high as 3 meters (10 feet). The data would have been used by NASA for earth sciences studies and also made available commercially. Clark was one of two spacecraft in NASA's Small Spacecraft Technology Initiative. The other, Lewis, was launched in August but failed shortly after entering orbit when the spacecraft apparently went into an uncontrolled spin. Soyuz Capsule Returns to Earth A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying two Russian and one French cosmonaut safely landed early Thursday, February 19 in Kazakhstan despite a blizzard at the landing site. The Soyuz TM-26 spacecraft landed at 4:10am EST (0910 UT) near the city of Arkalyk in Kazakhstan. Heavy snow and winds were reported at the landing site, delaying efforts to retrieve the crew. The Soyuz carried Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyov and Pavel Vinogradov, who spent over six months on Mir, and French guest cosmonaut Leopold Eyharts, who spent three weeks on Mir performing European experiments. Solovyov and Vinogradov spent much of their time on Mir repairing the station, which suffered from a number of problems, from faulty computer and life support systems to reduced power and a depressurized Spektr module. By the end of their stay most station systems were back to normal, although the Spektr module remained depressurized. Remaining on Mir is the new crew of Talgat Musabayev, the station commander; flight engineer Nikolai Budarin; and NASA astronaut Andy Thomas. Musabayev and Budarin are expected to stay on Mir for six months, while Thomas will remain on Mir until the final Mir-shuttle docking mission at the end of May. The station is in good health, with the exception of an overheated valve in an air purification system which created a small amount of smoke and carbon monoxide on the station February 26. The problem was quickly corrected, NASA officials said. Space Junk May Have Hit Minuteman Missile A piece of orbital debris may have collided with and destroyed the upper stage of a Minuteman missile during a test flight in January, the Boston Globe reported Thursday, February 19. In an article in the February 19 issue, the Globe cited unofficial reports that the third stage of a Minuteman ICBM was destroyed in a collision with an unidentified piece of space debris during a January 15 flight. The third stage was on a ballistic trajectory about 385 km (240 mi.) above the Pacific when it disappeared on the radar screens of ground controllers. A small, unidentified object was reportedly spotted on radar and in tracking telescopes moving on a trajectory that would have collided with the stage. Space News reported that the radar track of the unidentified object then disappeared, while the radar profile of the third stage changed from that of a single large object into a "cloud of targets". Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. Rick Lehner told the Globe that while there was no proof a piece of space junk destroyed the stage, "the consensus is that it looks like it may have been struck by some space debris." Analysts believe that if debris destroyed the stage, it probably came from a Pegasus rocket that exploded after launch in June of 1996. The debris would have been about 12 to 15 cm (5 to 6 in.) in diameter, too small to be tracked by ground radars that keep track of larger pieces of debris. The Minuteman was launched on January 15 as part of a flight to test ballistic missile tracking systems and was targeted for Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands. The collision took place about 30 minutes after launch, after the rocket had deployed its payload. If confirmed, the January collision would mark the first time that a rocket was disabled by a collision with orbital debris. Spacecraft in orbit have been damaged by collisions in the past, such as the French-built Cerise satellite, which collided with a piece of an Ariane rocket in 1996. The shuttle has been dinged a number of times by tiny pieces of debris, requiring the replacement of cockpit windows on several occasions. A recent study by the National Research Council reported that up to 95 percent of the debris capable of seriously damaging the shuttle cannot be tracked by ground based systems. Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
Дата: 01 марта 1998 (1998-03-01) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: SpaceViews -- March 1998 by Boston NSS [4/14] Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... Launchers Overcome Weather Delays Weather conditions improved enough in late February to launch long-delayed Delta and Pegasus boosters and permit the on-time launch of an Ariane and an Atlas on the same day. A Delta booster lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, February 18 at 8:58am EST (1358 UT), after six previous launch attempts dating back to January 31 were scrubbed by weather. The booster successfully placed five Iridium satellites into orbit. A Pegasus XL rocket launched two small satellites into orbit off the coast from Vandenberg February 26 at 2:07am EST (0707 UT) after being delayed for three weeks by weather. The rocket carried the Student Nitric Oxide Explorer (SNOE), a student-built satellite from the University of Colorado designed to measure nitric oxide levels in the Earth's atmosphere. The Pegasus also carried Teledesic T1, the first satellite to be launched by the communications firm. The experimental satellite, known as the Broadband Advanced Technology Satellite (BATSAT) before launch, was built by Boeing and Orbital Sciences for Teledesic. Teledesic plans to use the satellite to test on-orbit operations before launching its nearly 300-satellite constellation in 2001. An Ariane 4 booster successfully launched on its first try February 27 at 5:38pm EST (2238 UT) from Kourou, French Guiana. The rocket carried Hot Bird 4, a communications satellite for Eutelsat, the European Telecommunications Satellite Organization. The satellite has a special computer processor named Skyplex designed to better handle multimedia communications. Less than two hours later, an Atlas IIAS rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 7:21pm EST (0021 UT Feb. 28). The Atlas carried the Intelsat 806 communications satellite into orbit. The satellite will provide direct broadcast television services for the Americas and Europe. Millions Witness Solar Eclipse Millions of people in the Caribbean and northern South America observed a total solar eclipse February 26, the last visible in the Western Hemisphere this millennium. The path of totality of the eclipse, the region where the moon completely blocks the disk of the Sun, followed a narrow path less than 160 km (100 mi.) wide from the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific, across portions of extreme southern Panama, extreme northern Colombia and northwestern Venezuela and into the Caribbean. Caribbean islands in the path of totality included Aruba, Curacao, Montserrat, Antigua, and Guadelupe. Weather, as forecast, was cloud-free for most areas, giving scientists and the general public a clear view of the event. Many regions in the path of the eclipse are in their dry seasons, with many areas sunny up to 80 percent of the time during this season. The path of totality did not cross any portion of the United States, but many Americans, particularly in the southern and eastern U.S., were still able to see a partial eclipse. Viewers in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands saw up to 90% of the sun eclipsed. The eclipse was be the last total solar eclipse visible in the Western Hemisphere until 2017. That, combined with the excellent viewing opportunities in the Caribbean, drew thousands of spectators to the region. Several cruise companies chartered special eclipse cruises to help people witness the event. Scientists also took advantage of the eclipse. One team, led by Jay Pascacoff of Williams College in Massachusetts, observed the eclipse from Aruba to look for temperature variations in the solar corona. They planned to coordinate their observations with the SOHO spacecraft, which will observe the Sun at the same time. Another team from Harvard University planned to listen for signals from the Galileo spacecraft orbiting Jupiter, which is presently located on the opposite side of the Sun from the Earth. The observers, based in Guadeloupe, hoped to detect variations in the solar corona as the radio signals pass through it on their way to Earth. While many people traveled from around the world to view the eclipse, many in or near the path of the eclipse feared its effects. Superstitions in Nicaragua and Venezuela kept pregnant women from looking at the eclipse, fearing the effects it might have on their unborn children. Shops closed and children were sent home from school in at least one Haitian town. "There's a lot of people who fear this eclipse," said Zaira Busby, a member of Curacao's Solar Eclipse Committee, told CNN. "But to me this is great. It's a once in a lifetime experience." SpaceViews Event Horizon March 1-7 Spaceweek March 1-6 ProSpace "March Storm" Congressional lobbying effort, Washington, DC March 12 Astrobiology Symposium, George Washington University, Washington, DC March 15 Progress M-38 launch, Baikonur, Kazakhstan March 16 Atlas II launch of Navy UHF satellite, Cape Canaveral, FL March 18 Long March launch of Iridium satellites, Taiyuan, China April 17-19 Space Access '98 conference, Scottsdale, AZ May 21-25 1998 International Space Development Conference, Milwaukee, WI Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
Дата: 01 марта 1998 (1998-03-01) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: SpaceViews -- March 1998 by Boston NSS [5/14] Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... Other News NASA Departures: A leading NASA administrator and three veteran astronauts announced their retirements in late February. On February 18 Wes Huntress, NASA's associate administrator for space science, announced his plans to leave the space agency "in the near future." "I have served in this position for more than five years now," Huntress, a planetary scientist at JPL before going to NASA HQ, said, "and it is simply time to move on." On February 23 astronauts Jerry Linenger, Rhea Seddon, and Blaine Hammond announced their retirements from the astronaut corps. Linenger is best known for his four-month stay on Mir in early 1997, while Seddon, one of NASA's first female astronauts, flew on three shuttle missions. Hammond, a two-time shuttle pilot, was retiring to join an unnamed aerospace firm in California. Solar Orbit Transfer Vehicle: The Air Force has awarded a $48 million contract to Boeing to develop a vehicle that will use solar power to transfer satellites from one orbit to another, saving fuel. Solar energy would be used to heat hydrogen, a process for efficient that chemical thrusters, allowing the system to send payloads into geostationary orbit 50 to 100 percent heavier than current satellites. The same system would also be able to provide electrical power to the satellite once in its final orbit. Boeing and the Air Force plan to fly the SOTV for the first time in October 2001. Mars Surveyor 98 Logo: JPL has selected a logo for its 1998 Mars missions, the Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander. Designed by JPL engineer and space artist David Seal, the logo depicts a two-faced Mars: one half shows how Mars looks today; the other, how it might have looked in the ancient past, with clouds and water. "This illustrates the science objectives of the mission, which are to study the history of Mars' climate and the behavior of related volatiles, such as water vapor and ground ice," Seal said. The logo also includes the Earth and images of the two spacecraft. The selection came after the Mars Surveyor 1998 project ran a contest to solicit logo designs. Alternative Space Computing: A recent Wired News article on the wild success of 3Com's PalmPilot, a handheld computer, provided another interesting use for the PalmPilot. "...one PalmPilot user employed a PalmPilot [terminal] emulator to communicate with the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft," the article reported. 'He was actually logging into to some computer at NASA,' said [PalmPilot retailer Kenny] West. 'Whenever he was updating things he was updating it with his Pilot.'" Meanwhile, a small group is advocating the adoption of Linux, a freeware version of Unix, for computers used on the International Space Station. "Reports indicate that these laptop computers [issued to station crew members] will have MS Windows95 installed. We see this as a problem," said Nathan Myers, head of the Linux-Equipped Astronauts Project (LEAP). The group plans to port required software to Linux to give astronauts the freedom of choice in computer operating system. In Brief: As rumors of the discovery of water ice on the Moon by Lunar Prospector come and go, expect a press conference March 5 that may -- or may not -- make a definitive announcement on the issue... The February issue of The Atlantic Monthly featured a detailed article debating whether or not Pluto was a planet. The article, while going into depth on both sides of the issue, ignores the fact that most astronomers don't care, since there's no widely-accepted definition of a "planet"... Be sure to pick up the March issue of Wired, and check out the letters section. There are two letters rebutting some of the claims of the "Lost in Space" article Wired published in its December issue, an article that had been very critical of any human presence in space. One of the letters is by Jeff Foust, your fearless SpaceViews editor... *** Articles *** Vanguard 1: The Little Satellite That Could by Andrew J. LePage [For more background on the Vanguard program, see "Vanguard: America's Answer to Sputnik" in the December 1997 issue of SpaceViews] Recovering from Disaster After the disastrous failure of the Vanguard TV-3 launch attempt on December 6, 1957, Vanguard's NRL (Naval Research Laboratory) team had to pick up the pieces and get ready for the launch of TV-3BU (Test Vehicle-3 Back Up). The contractor for the first stage, the Martin Company (now part of the aerospace giant Lockheed-Martin), and the builder of the engine, General Electric, were able to track down the cause of the TV-3 failure to a loose fuel line connection. This loose connection caused a pressure drop in the GE X-405 engine's fuel injector assembly which allowed combustion products to travel up the fuel lines resulting in a catastrophic failure. Modifications were immediately made to TV-3BU and its processing procedures to avoid a repeat of this incident. Work to repair the damage caused by the TV-3 explosion at launch complex 18A proceeded quickly and was completed ahead of schedule. This allowed TV-3BU to be erected on the launch pad before the end of December of 1957 for the start of its long prelaunch checkout. Like TV-3 before it, this launch vehicle would not carry an operational Vanguard satellite. Instead it would loft a simple test satellite. This satellite was a 16 centimeter (6.4 inch) in diameter polished aluminum alloy sphere weighing only 1.47 kilograms (3.25 pounds). It was equipped with a pair of transmitters operating at a frequency of about 108 MHz that used six short aerials sticking out of the tiny sphere. One of these transmitters was powered by batteries and would last just a few months. The other transmitter made use of solar cells mounted on the exterior for power as part of a test to determine their usefulness on future spacecraft. These solar cells were divided among six banks set equidistant around the satellite's spherical exterior so that they could provide power regardless of the satellite's orientation. The only actual instrument carried by the satellite was a pair of thermistors to measure the tiny satellite's temperature. These measurements would help assess the sphere's thermal protection measures. The primary purpose of this payload, in addition to verifying that it went into orbit, was to provide an opportunity to exercise the Vanguard tracking network. As a by product, data on the evolution of the satellite's orbit would provide some scientifically useful information. The first attempt to launch the rocket on January 23, 1958 was called off when heavy rains shorted out some of the cables used by ground instrumentation. The next three days saw three more scrubs caused by a variety of problems. When it was discovered on January 26 that the second stage AJ-10 engine was damaged, the launch of TV-3BU was pushed back to February 3 so that a replacement engine could be ordered and installed. Since the Cape Canaveral test range could only support one launch at a time, this delay gave the ABMA team led by Wernher von Braun a brief three-day window to squeeze in a launch attempt with their Juno 1 launch vehicle. The ABMA attempt succeeded in placing the United States' first satellite into orbit on the night of January 31, 1958 as envious Vanguard personnel watched on (see "Explorer: America's First Satellite" in the February 1998 issue of Space Views for more information on this mission). The team that was suppose to orbit America's IGY (International Geophysical Year) satellite would have to be content to take second place to their Army colleagues. As it turned out, the new February 3, 1958 launch date was overly optimistic and it was not until February 5 before TV-3BU was finally ready to fly. When TV-3BU lifted off, all seemed to be going well at first. But at an altitude of 460 meters (1,500 feet) the rapidly accelerating rocket's control system malfunctioned. Spurious electrical signals from the balky system caused the ascending rocket to rapidly pitch down. The structural loads this maneuver caused were more than the pencil-thin TV-3BU could take and it broke in two at the aft end of the second stage after 57 seconds of flight. Vanguard's second attempt to launch a satellite had ended in failure. This set back, along with the launch failure of ABMA's Explorer 2 one month later, was quite disheartening to the Vanguard team. They felt that if the tried and true Jupiter C/Juno 1 could succumb to failure, how could the far more complex Vanguard succeed? Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
Дата: 01 марта 1998 (1998-03-01) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: SpaceViews -- March 1998 by Boston NSS [6/14] Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... Success at Last After the TV-3BU failure, TV-4 was subsequently modified and prepared for another attempt to launch a grapefruit-sized test satellite. All during early March of 1958 the launch team had to wrestle with repeated electrical and mechanical problems as well as intermittent bad weather. After three scrubbed launch attempts, the Vanguard team started yet another two-day long countdown on March 16, 1958 in the hope of getting their bird off the ground. As before, there were a series of minor delays in the countdown. At the last second there was yet another delay this time to allow the passage of Explorer 1 overhead. Engineers wanted to avoid the Space Age's first "traffic jam" because the ABMA satellite's transmissions might interfere with the reception of Vanguard's signal. Finally at 7:15:41 am EST on March 17, 1958, TV-4 lifted off and climbed into the sunny Florida sky. Telemetry streaming back to the Vanguard tracking stations showed that the first stage operated as intended. A near perfect performance by the second then the third stage followed. There was now every reason to believe that the test satellite had succeeded in reaching orbit. Confirmation that Vanguard had achieved orbit finally came around 9:30 am EST when the minitrack station in San Diego, California picked up signals from both transmitters. Vanguard 1 had made it into a 650 by 3,968 kilometer (404 by 2,466 mile) orbit with a period of 107.9 minutes inclined 34.25 degrees to the equator. Initial calculations estimated that the satellite would remain in orbit until around the year 4000 AD. Vanguard had finally succeeded in meeting its commitment of launching one satellite during the IGY two years, six months and eight days after receiving authorization. Any successes after this would be a welcomed bonus. Even though they were not the first in orbit, the Vanguard team's success was nonetheless an impressive engineering achievement. While the Soviet Sputnik and ABMA Explorer satellites had made use of military rockets adapted to the task of launching a satellite, the launch of Vanguard 1 marked the first time where a satellite was launched into orbit with a high performance rocket specifically designed for the task. As Soviet authorities and even some in the West scoffed at the diminutive size of Vanguard 1 and its lack of sophisticated instrumentation, it was proving to be a very useful tool. The battery-powered transmitter continued to operate until the mercury cells were exhausted in June of 1958. But the tiny satellite's solar cell-powered transmitter continued to operate until 1965. After this optical tracking allowed scientist to track the changes in its orbit. These changes and their causes provided much valuable data. First it was noticed how the minute force caused by sunlight reflecting off the little satellite perturbed its orbit. This combined with atmospheric drag whose magnitude waxed and waned noticeably with the level solar activity decreased estimates of Vanguard's orbital life from 2,000 to only 240 years. Other perturbations in the orbit lead to a more refined estimate of the Earth's oblateness. It was also discovered that the Earth's geoid was distorted by a few meters into a pear shape with the pointed end at the north pole and the flattened end in the south. These measurements indicated that there was large scale convection taking place inside the Earth which supported the then-new theories of continental drift and seafloor spreading. Although they had earlier avoided involvement in orbiting satellites, the Department of Defense, whose military branches were quickly becoming interested in accurately lobbing nuclear warheads over intercontinental distances, took note of these discoveries. Moving Towards Operational Launches With the successful launch of Vanguard 1, its backup launch vehicle, TV-4BU was returned to the Martin Company's Maryland facility for removal of test instrumentation and upgrades to critical systems so that the rocket could be used later in the program. The final test flight, TV-5, would attempt to launch the first "operational" Vanguard satellite. This payload was a 51 centimeter (20 inch) in diameter lightweight magnesium alloy sphere weighing 9.8 kilograms (21.5 pounds). Unlike the simple Vanguard 1, this new satellite would carry scientific instruments to measure the intensity of solar X-ray emissions in the 1 to 8 Angstrom band as well as make space environment measurements. The first stage of TV-5 was erected on the launch pad during the first week of April 1958. The attachment of the upper stages had to wait for some time as problems with hydraulic disconnects identified in the film footage of the Vanguard 1 were solved. These problems were quickly resolved and the last Vanguard test vehicle smoothly lifted off at 9:53 am EST on April 28, 1958. While the first stage operated perfectly, the second stage firing sequence failed to complete itself electrically. As a result, the third stage was never armed and subsequently did not fire to place the payload in orbit. With the completion of Vanguard's test flight, flights with production rockets could commenced. First up was SLV-1 (Satellite Launch Vehicle-1). The satellite carried on this mission was identical to that on TV-5 except that the solar X-ray instrument was replaced with one to measure solar Lyman-alpha emissions in the 1,100 to 1,300 Angstrom band of the ultraviolet. Launched on May 27, 1958, SLV-1 operated perfectly until the second stage shutdown. At that time some sort of disturbance caused a loss of the attitude data from the control system's pitch gyro. As a result of the malfunction, the third stage was pointing 63 degrees off course when it fired and the payload failed to reach orbit. On June 26, 1958 SLV-2 lifted off with a satellite payload identical to that carried by the ill-fated TV-5 launch vehicle. But this flight would fare no better than the last two. A restriction in the second stage's oxidizer feed system caused its engine to cease firing after a burn of only 8 seconds. This premature shut down in turn caused the stage's propellant tanks to overpressurize. While the payload never made it into orbit, the fact that the second stage withstood the excess pressure verified the structural integrity of the tank design under adverse flight conditions. The flight of SLV-3, launched on September 26, 1958, was to carry a 10.6 kilogram (23.3 pound) satellite into orbit. This orbital payload was equipped with a set of simple infrared photocells that would use the spinning motion of the spherical satellite to produce crude images of the Earth's cloud cover. A tape recorder was also carried so that data could be stored for later transmission to the ground. Unfortunately this flight also proved to be unsuccessful. This time the problem was traced to contamination in the second stage fuel system which reduced its performance. By the time the third stage had burned out, the payload was traveling only 76 meters per second (170 miles per hour) too slow to achieve orbit. The would-be satellite reached a peak altitude of 426 kilometers (265 miles) before it arced back towards the Earth and burned up on reentry about 15,000 kilometers (9,200 miles) downrange. With these latest failures, Martin Company's Corrective Action Team had their work cut out for them. While these flights failed to place their payloads into orbit, they were successful from the engineering point of view. Without exception, every flight returned plenty of good telemetry which in addition to other data, such as tracking photography, allowed the engineers to pin down the source of the problem and correct it on subsequent flights. But while Vanguard launches were suspended for a few months to allow modifications to be made to the last of the Vanguard launch vehicles, changes in the political climate were overtaking the Vanguard program and the rest of the United States' space programs. With the formation of NASA on October 1, 1958 as the sole civilian space agency, most space science programs run by the military as well as the Vanguard project were passed to the new agency. While the NRL was still responsible for the management of the Vanguard program, NASA was now running the show. Bibliography Richard Lewis, Appointment on the Moon, The Viking Press, 1968 Constance McLaughlin Green and Milton Lomask, Vanguard, A History, NASA SP-4202, 1970 J.A. O'Keefe, "Determination of the Earth's Gravitational Field", in Space Research: Proceedings of the First International Space Science Symposium, edited by Hilde Kallmann Bijl, Interscience Publishers, 1960 Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
Дата: 01 марта 1998 (1998-03-01) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: SpaceViews -- March 1998 by Boston NSS [7/14] Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... You Say You Want An Evolution Not all panelists shared the enthusiasm and rosy outlook of those promoting the impending fall in launch costs and opening of new markets. Representatives of some of the current industry heavyweights saw incremental change, linked with international cooperation, as a way to slowly reduce launch costs. Greg Gilmore, a vice president for International Launch Services, saw international cooperation between Lockheed Martin in the U.S. and Khrunichev and Energia in Russia as one way to meet market demand. Gilmore said ILS could launch as many as 30 Atlas and Proton boosters a year from Cape Canaveral, Vandenberg, and Baikonur. ILS also plans to add Lockheed Martin's Athena launch vehicle to serve small payloads, an area of increasing demand. Sea Launch, an international consortium led by Boeing, plans to offer 6 to 7 launches a year from the mid-Pacific starting late this year, according to Boeing's Marc Nance. Minor technical problems have pushed back the launch date from the summer, according to Nance. While Sea Launch's Zenit rockets are targeted at traditional comsats in geostationary orbit, the venture is also considering looking at the low-earth orbit market. Ray Johnson of the Aerospace Corporation discussed a recent report which provides a somewhat grimmer view of the launch industry in the near future. The growth in size and increase in lifetimes of geostationary communication satellites translates in to a "probable oversupply" of medium to heavy launch vehicles over the next ten years, as the focus switches to low-Earth orbit systems. He also sees "no compelling innovative application" of space that would be strong enough to support the large expenditure needed to develop launch vehicles capable of reducing the cost of space access by a factor of 100. Johnson also expressed concerns about VentureStar, the proposed full-scale reusable launch vehicle for which the X-33 is a subscale test vehicle. Johnson said it was unlikely private capital of more than $1 billion would be invested in RLV development. With VentureStar development costs estimated on the order of $5 billion, it means Lockheed Martin will be unlikely to develop the vehicle on its own, as had been initially assumed, and may turn to NASA for help. If launch costs remain high, innovative space applications won't be tried because they will be too expensive to risk, noted Shubber Ali, a consultant with KPMG Peat Marwick. If current launch costs of $1,000-10,000 a pound remain, he theorized that commercial space applications will remain limited to communications and remote sensing, and NASA will be unable to afford human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit. However, "highly reduced" launch costs would allow additional commercial applications in space and could also allow NASA to consider a return to the Moon or human missions to Mars. Don't expect change in near future in the commercial launch market, predicted Brenda Forman, director of academic liaison and federal technology policy at Lockheed Martin. "Barring some technological breakthrough, the commercial space industry will not change in the next decade or so," she said. She did, however, discuss several scenarios which showed what might happen if certain events occurred. A breakthrough in spacecraft propulsion could lead to a shakeout in the launch industry and the rise of space tourism, while a fusion power breakthrough on the Earth would raise interest in the Moon and its deposits of helium-3 in its regolith. Government Struggles to Keep Up The federal government is trying to keep up with the rapid pace of change in the commercial space industry, particularly in regulatory issues. "Ten years ago there was no commercial space industry in the U.S.," said Patricia Smith, acting associate administrator for commercial space at the FAA. By 1996, though, commercial space revenue surpassed government space expenditures for the first time, "and that trend seems irreversible." The FAA currently has 16 pages of regulations relevant to commercial space on the books, according to Manuel Vega, with more in the works. Financial responsibility and licensing regulations are the farthest along, with launch site licensing, commercial launch operations, and reentry regulations in various planning stages. However, the relatively slow pace of regulatory reform may mean new commercial launch systems, particularly those that use reusable vehicles that must reenter, may be ready to go before the regulations are ready. Would that mean the vehicles would be grounded until the regulators catch up, since the FAA only has the authority to license launches, not reentries? "We'd have to look at the entire mission as a launch," should that occur, one official said. Although panelists may have disagreed on the pace of change, all thought that commercial space will become more important than ever as the next century dawns. The barriers will lie more with the economics of space access than with the technology needed to get there. In the words of Gregg Maryniak, "ROI [return on investment] is much more important that Isp [specific impulse]." Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
Дата: 01 марта 1998 (1998-03-01) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: SpaceViews -- March 1998 by Boston NSS [8/14] Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... *** Book Reviews *** by Jeff Foust A New Space Policy Paradigm Space, the Dormant Frontier: Changing the Paradigm for the 21st Century by Joan Johnson-Freese and Roger Handberg Praeger Publishers, 1997 hardcover, 288pp. ISBN 0-275-95887-6 US$59.95 American space policy was founded on the Cold War some forty years ago. Since then, particularly in recent years, events have made that foundation irrelevant, and perhaps even damaging, to America's civilian and military space efforts. The world view upon which space policy is based, its paradigm, must be changed to revitalize the space program, Joan Johnson-Freese and Roger Handberg argue in "Space, the Dormant Frontier". A key problem, the authors argue, is that while both civilian and military programs have been shaped by the Cold War-based paradigm, there has been little interaction between the two. They suggest that more interaction and cooperation between the two to enhance their relative strengths. Any new paradigm, they also note, must also take into account the commercialization of space, and allow the continued growth of private space operations. The authors provide a compelling argument on how broken current space policy is, although few would disagree with that in any event. They don't focus as much on the government's role as an enabler of commercial space (though such items as launch regulations, a current industry concern), but do take a close look on the interaction between the civilian and military sides of government space. Although an academic treatise, the book is quite readable. Overall, "Space, the Dormant Frontier" provides a compelling look at what's wrong with current space policy and how it can be fixed. Exploring the Ninth Planet Pluto and Charon: Ice Worlds on the Ragged Edge of the Solar System by Alan Stern and Jacqueline Mitton John Wiley and Sons, 1998 hardcover, 216pp., illus. ISBN 0-471-15297-8 US$27.95 Poor planet Pluto. Lurking in the outer solar system unnoticed until 1930, it was then largely forgotten in the astronomical community for decades. While Pluto is now the subject of much greater interest, and plans for an eventual spacecraft mission there, a few people want to strip the world of its planet status and consign it to a belt of small planetoids. Nonetheless, Pluto and its large moon, Charon, are fascinating worlds that are just now beginning to reveal their secrets. The history of our study of these two worlds is the subject of an excellent new book, "Pluto and Charon" The authors, one of whom (Stern) is a leading Pluto scientist, look at the history of Pluto studies, dating back to the early searches for a hypothesized "Planet X" that was perturbing the orbits of Uranus and Neptune. By chance and circumstance, and no lack of hard work, this search led to Pluto's discovery in 1930 by the young Clyde Tombaugh. In the following decades the distant, dim world frustrated astronomers who tried to learn more. The advent of larger telescopes, better detectors, and spacecraft, however, gave astronomers crucial new tools with which learn more Pluto, including finding its moon, Charon; its almost-disappointingly small size; its tenuous atmosphere; and its surface of nitrogen, carbon monoxide, and methane ices. Stern and Mitton do a wonderful job of communicating both the history of Pluto studies and the science behind it. There is also a detailed look at the proposed Pluto Express mission (including how a postage stamp helped start the project!) and what we can expect to find out about Pluto in the future. The writing style of the book makes it entertaining and informative for both Pluto neophytes and long-time Pluto experts. Until we send a spacecraft to explore Pluto up close, "Pluto and Charon" will likely be the best general Pluto book available. Quick Looks at Three Books Sharing the Sky: A Parent's and Teacher's Guide to Astronomy by David Levy and Larry and Nancy Lebofsky Plenum Publishing, 1997 softcover, 308pp., illus. ISBN 0-306-45639-7 US$18.95 Astronomy can be one of the most fascinating subjects to study, but without the ability to effectively communicate the wonders of the night sky, the solar system, and the galaxy to children, it can become one of the more difficult, frustrating subjects. The authors (the co-discoverer of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, a professional astronomer and an educator) have been working for several years to help teach astronomy to students, and to help teachers teach astronomy. Their book is a guide for anyone interested in teaching astronomy -- sharing the sky -- with children. A lengthy, detailed list of exercises show how to explain astronomical concepts, and the book includes star charts and other information on objects in the night sky. "Sharing the Sky" is a great resource for anyone interested in helping communicate the wonders of astronomy. Alternate Realities: How Science Shapes Our Vision of the World by Joel Davis Plenum Publishing, 1997 hardcover, 309pp., illus. ISBN 0-306-45629-X US$27.95 A book with a title like "Alternate Realities" sounds like it would be a book on other universes or perhaps even parapsychology. Rather, this work by Joel Davis look at how science, particularly astronomy and physics, have shaped our view of "reality" over time. New discoveries have changed our view of the universe and our place in it. Davis combines history and science with a little psychology and philosophy to show how our perception of what is real has changed, and might change in the future. ...The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age by Walter A. McDougall Basic Books, 1985 (reissued by Johns Hopkins Press, 1997) softcover, 555pp., illus. ISBN 0-8018-5748-1 US$19.95 Johns Hopkins Press has recently reissued Walter McDougall's landmark work "...The Heavens and the Earth", which won the 1986 Pulitzer for history. The recent 40th anniversaries of Sputnik, Vanguard, and Explorer provide a good opportunity to go back to this classic and look at the political forces at work early in the Space Age in the United States and the Soviet Union. Reading, or rereading, this classic work will help anyone better understand the political forces at work that shaped the Space Age. McDougall has included a brief note to the Johns Hopkins edition where he argues that the way to "restart the Space Age" is to find new technologies that make spaceflight "genuinely cheap, safe, and routine," something few will disagree with. Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
Дата: 01 марта 1998 (1998-03-01) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: SpaceViews -- March 1998 by Boston NSS [9/14] Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... *** NSS News *** Boston NSS Upcoming Events Thursday, March 5, 7:30pm Supersonic Projectiles Producing Thrust by External Combustion: A Potential System for Low-Cost Access to Space by Robert G. Hohlfeld, Research Associate Professor, Center for Computational Science, Boston University, and Vice President for R & D, HyperKinetics, Inc. Air-breathing hypersonic propulsion systems have received renewed interest in recent years for use in systems for economical access to low earth orbit and in other aerospace systems. Such systems are expected to have significantly enhanced performance due to their use of atmospheric oxygen over all or part of their mission profile. We have produced and successfully tested projectiles which generate thrust by the combustion of a metallic fuel on the external, trailing surfaces of the projectile. Proposals for thrust production by external combustion date from the 1950s, but to our knowledge, this is the first tractable experimental system exhibiting thrust production by external combustion, and almost certainly the first such system for a free-flying projectile. Plans for further experimental testing and computational fluid dynamics studies to produce new projectile designs operating at higher Mach numbers will be discussed. Sunday, April 5, 7 pm Special Event: "From the Earth to the Moon" Viewing Party Join Boston NSS members and the general public to watch the premiere of the new Tom Hanks/HBO movie series, "From the Earth to the Moon" about the race to the Moon. The meeting will be held in the usual location, but at a special date and time. More details about the event will be announced in the near future -- stay tuned! Boston NSS Feburary Lecture Summary by Lynn Olson TERRIERS is one of the first two missions to be funded under the Student Explorer Demonstration Initiative (STEDI). Sixty-six proposals were submitted; Boston University with TERRIERS and Colorado were the winners. The STEDI program seeks to answer important scientific questions, develop new technologies, and train new space scientists, all at very low cost. Supriya Chakrabarti, Director of the Center for Space Physics at BU and member of the TERRIERS development team detailed the Boston University approach to this program at the February meeting of the Boston chapter of the National Space Society. Some cost comparisons: Hubble $2,000 million Explorer $200-500 million MIDEX (medium explorer) $70 million SMEX (small explorer) $35 million STEDI $4.3 million STEDI is almost ten times cheaper than the next cheapest mission. How is this possible? At the beginning of the program some "old line" people commented that all you can get for $4.3 million are toys, but TERRIER mission capabilities are similar and in some cases exceed those of more expensive missions. Two things aiding lower cost goals are less paperwork and the electronics revolution. The old order uses highly screened parts which track the materials in the parts back to the mine they came from. This leads to an immense amount of paperwork. Reduction of the paperwork leads directly to lower costs. The electronics revolution allows the use of much smaller and less power hungry components. As an example, one of the big old satellites may have used a timer similar to a washing machine timer which can be replaced today by an electronic device which is orders of magnitude lighter and draws infinitesimal electric power. One thing Boston University did not do was to use hordes of grad students as "slave labor." Instead, fewer students were used, but each one was given a great deal of responsibility. Of, course, the willingness of grad students to pull all nighters was important in keeping the program on track. The BU philosophy was to develop a process which could be repeated, i.e. to prove that the STEDI program is a good idea as well as this particular project. To this end, no "voodoo economics" was allowed. No freebies were allowed, since these could not be counted on for future missions. No special overhead rates were negotiated with the university. Whatever worked for this mission could also work in the future. BU also sought to maintain the good things of the past, such as external reviews and essential documentation. Lessons learned during the project are the importance of continuity of key personnel and contingency planning. It is also important to be aware of the differences between universities and commercial contractors, especially in money matters. TERRIERS' primary mission goal is to, for the first time, demonstrate meridional 2-D (latitude-altitude)and global 3D imaging of the ionospheric electron density and thermospheric photo-emission profiles using EUV (extreme ultraviolet) emissions and tomographic techniques. Secondary goals of TERRIERS focus on the study of several ionospheric and thermospheric phenomena through the use of this novel combination of techniques and observations. The computing revolution is what makes tomography (similar to a CAT scan of the upper atmosphere) possible now. The obvious acronym for this experiment is Tomographic Experiment using Radiative Recombinative Ionospheric EUV and Radio Sources (TERRIERS), which by a strange coincidence happens to match the BU mascot. More information on the mission and satellite can be found at http://net.bu.edu/terriers/ Part of the Student Explorer program is outreach, especially to precollege students. There is a high school experiment on the spacecraft. BU would be interested in teaming with NSS or other organizations in its outreach program. TERRIERS is paving the way to producing first class science in space at a much lower cost while training a new generation of space scientists. Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
Дата: 01 марта 1998 (1998-03-01) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: SpaceViews -- March 1998 by Boston NSS [10/14] Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... Philadelphia Area Space Alliance News by Jay Haines Contact: PO Box 1715, Philadelphia PA 19105 Earl Bennett, michelle_baker@ccgate.ueci.com 610/644-8654(H) PASA business luncheon and formal meeting from 1-3 pm, the second or third Saturday of each month. Locations vary. Scheduled PASA activities: Mar. 14th regular monthly meeting at Liberty One food court (2nd level), 16th & Market. Go toward the windows, then to the right. Public parking in Liberty on 17th St., or at 16th & Spring. Apr. 18th (N.B., 3rd Sat.) regular monthly meeting, location TBA. May 16th regular monthly meeting, location TBA. Call Earl for details. Feb. Meeting Report: The following reports were presented: Mitch Gordo n discussed plans for the PASA/World Future Society presentation at Borders; and our 1998 theme "The Solar System: Our Extended Home." Michelle Baker discussed the 1998 March Storm Congressional-contact initiative, which starts Mar. 1st; and the Apr. 5th HBO unscrambled broadcast of "Americans to the Moon" to show from 8-10 pm. PASA apparently did not get selected to participate in the April 1st kickoff event. Oscar Harris discussed the International Space Station Launch Countdown. The event will be received in Phila. at St. Joseph's College, Community College of Phila., and Temple. We have received a license to tape the event. Don Cox discussed his planned presentation at the Mar. 13th Satellites a nd Education Conference XI at West Chester Univ.; and his upcoming book Together to Mars from Prometheus books. Earl Bennett presented the technical report on: the Feb. 98 Analog magazine story "Planet of the Geezers" by John Cramer on human aging; the Jan./Feb. 98 Planetary Report magazine articles on the Galileo mission, and the Shiva Hypothesis on extinctions; and the Jan./Feb. 98 Ad Astra magazine article on Solar Power Satellites by Seth Potter, et al. Earl also reported on the 26 Jan. 98 Electronic Design magazine articl es on pin-head sized micro-mechanical gear assemblies from Sandia Labs with a 3-million-to-one gear ratio capable of moving a 1 lb. object; and the Feb. 98 Laser Focus World magazine article on Gallium Nitride lasers. Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
Дата: 01 марта 1998 (1998-03-01) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: SpaceViews -- March 1998 by Boston NSS [11/14] Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... *** Regular Features *** Jonathan's Space Report No. 350 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 Anatoliy Solov'yov and Pavel Vinogradov of the Mir EO-24 crew and Leopold Eyharts of the CNES Pegase mission undocked from the -X port on Mir at 0552 UTC on Feb 19 aboard the Soyuz TM-26 ship. Soyuz TM-26 fired its deorbit engines at 0816 UTC and the craft landed in Kazakstan at 50 11N, 67 31E at 0910 UTC. Solov'yov handed over command of Mir to the EO-25 commander, Talgat Musabaev on Feb 18 or Feb 19 (can anyone tell me when the official transfer occurred?) On Feb 20, the Mir EO-25 crew, Talgat Musabaev and Nikolai Budarin, together with Andy Thomas of the NASA-7 mission, boarded their Soyuz TM-27 transport and undocked from the Kvant +X port at 0848 UTC. They redocked with the -X port on Mir at 0932 UTC. This frees up the Kvant port for a test redocking of the Progress M-37 cargo ship, currently parked in orbit. Recent Launches Boeing/Huntington Beach (former McDonnell Douglas) carried out two Delta launches within a week in mid-Feb, placing a total of 9 payloads in orbit. The first four Globalstar satellites, built by Space Systems/Loral, were launched on Feb 14. The Boeing Delta 7420 placed them in a 1400 km orbit. Most sources are naming them Globalstar U1, U2, L1 and L2; as far as I can tell these just denote that on this particular launch they were the upper and lower pairs on the Delta dispenser, so there will be a U1,U2,L1,L2 on every Delta Globalstar launch and they don't really reflect unique names for the satellites. If anyone has the actual production or post-launch names for these satellites, please let me know. The Globalstar launch was the first Delta 7420-10 variant, one of a number of new cheaper Delta variants. The first digit in the Delta indicates the first stage variety; 7 means the Delta II first stage with Alliant GEM solid motors. The second digit indicates the number of solid motors; the third digit gives the type of second stage; and the fourth digit gives the type of third stage ( 0 means no third stage ). The fairing designation is then given after a hyphen; -10 means the 10-foot (3.1m) diameter fairing. Versions in use in 1998-99 are: Delta 7320 Delta II Lite with 3 strapons Delta 7326 Delta II Lite with 3 strapons and Star 37FM third stage Delta 7420 Delta II Lite with 4 strapons Delta 7425 Delta II Lite with 4 strapons and PAM-D (Star 48) stage Delta 7426 Delta II Lite with 4 strapons and Star 37FM Delta 7920 Delta II standard, LEO missions Delta 7925 Delta II with PAM-D third stage for GEO and escape missions - Delta III with GEM LDXL strapons and LH2/LOX second stage Boeing hasn't announced a corresponding designation for the Delta III yet. For consistency with the existing 28-year-old tradition, I suggest it should be the Delta 8930, with the 8 indicating the change to the LDXL strapons, 9 indicating the number of strapons, and 3 indicating a new type of second stage. They'll need some designation like this as soon as someone orders a slightly different kind of Delta 3, say one with fewer strapons, and they could then denote the planned Delta 4 variants as 9020/9025, 9030, and 9240 in the same system. However, since consistency of nomenclature has never been the space program's strong point, I expect they'll ignore my suggestion and introduce an entirely different scheme. Five more Motorola/Lockheed Iridium satellites were launched on Feb 18 by a Boeing Delta 7920-10C from Vandenberg. The five satellites will use their own on-board propulsion systems to reach their final orbits. The two recently launched Orbcomm satellites are Orbcomm G1 and G2, production numbers FM3 and FM4. With Iridium, Globalstar and Orbcomm launches now underway, the expected shift of commercial emphasis from geostationary to low orbit constellations is now a fact. Kosmos-2349, launched on Feb 17, is an imaging satellite for the Russian Defense Ministry. On Feb 19, Kosmos-2349 was in a 212 x 276 km x 70.4 deg orbit. The satellite is built by TsSKB-Progress of Samara and is based on the Yantar' bus. It is probably a Kometa mapping satellite, using the 11F660 Yantar'-1KFT spacecraft. The last Kometa launch in May 1996 was a failure. Japan's largest launch vehicle, the H-II, suffered its first failure this week during launch of the Kakehashi satellite. The Japanese applications space agency NASDA carried out the launch of H-II No. 5F on 1998 Feb 21. This was actually the 6th H-II launch, as H-II No. 6F was launched last November with the TRMM and ETS-7 satellites. The payload for the new flight was COMETS, or Communuications and Broadcasting Experimental Test Satellite. COMETS, based on the ETS-6 bus, carries an experimental Ka-band communications payload and a payload for inter-satellite data relay. The H-II was meant to deliver COMETS and its attached LAPS transfer engine into geostationary transfer orbit with 35000 km apogee, but orbital tracking data indicate a much lower 250 x 1883 km x 30.0 deg orbit. This was reportedly due to premature shutdown 44s into the H-II second stage's second burn. COMETS, renamed Kakehashi now it is in orbit, has successfully deployed its solar arrays and checked out its on-board systems. It may still be possible to use the LAPS-derived UPS (Unified Propulsion System) apogee engine to raise COMETS to some kind of useful orbit. This engine itself failed the last time it was used, on the ETS-6 flight in 1994. Meanwhile, troubles with control of the ETS-7 satellite continue, and it is not clear when the rendezvous/docking experiments will take place. NASDA have run into a lot of trouble recently, also suffering the failure of ADEOS and problems in their engine development program. However, their previous record of success, and the fact that all 6 H-II flights have at least reached orbit, suggests they have the expertise to eventually overcome their current difficulties. I now understand that the informal name change of the USAF operated pads at Cape Canaveral from LC (Launch Complex) to SLC (Space Launch Complex) was made official at some point during 1997, so I am adopting the change in my launch listings. I'm guessing, however, that NASA KSC retains the honorable name of LC39 for their Shuttle pads. Vandenberg introduced the SLC abbreviation for their orbital pads in July 1966. Erratum: Apogee motor for Inmarsat is Star 37FM, not Star 30. Table of Recent Launches Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. DES. Jan 7 0228 Lunar Prospector Athena-2 Canaveral SLC46 Probe 01A Jan 10 0032 Skynet 4D Delta 7925 Canaveral SLC17B Comsat 02A Jan 22 1256 'Ofeq-4 Shaviyt Palmachim Imaging F01 Jan 23 0248 Endeavour Shuttle Kennedy LC39A Spaceship 03A Jan 29 1633 Soyuz TM-27 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 04A Jan 29 1837 CAPRICORN Atlas IIA Canaveral SLC36A Comsat? 05A Feb 4 2329 Brasilsat B3 ) Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 Comsat 06A Inmarsat 3 F5 ) Comsat 06B Feb 10 1320 GFO ) Taurus Vandenberg 576E Altimeter 07A Orbcomm G1 ) Comsat 07B Orbcomm G2 ) Comsat 07C Celestis-02 ) Burial 07D Feb 14 1434 Globalstar 1 ) Comsat 08A Globalstar 2 ) Delta 7420 Canaveral SLC17A Comsat 08B Globalstar 3 ) Comsat 08C Globalstar 4 ) Comsat 08D Feb 17 1030? Kosmos-2349 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC31? Recon 09A Feb 18 1358 Iridium 50 ) Delta 7920 Vandenberg SLC2 Comsat 10A Iridium 51 ) Comsat 10B Iridium 52 ) Comsat 10C Iridium 53 ) Comsat 10D Iridium 54 ) Comsat 10E Feb 21 0755 Kakehashi H-II Tanegashima Y Comsat 11A Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
Дата: 01 марта 1998 (1998-03-01) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: SpaceViews -- March 1998 by Boston NSS [12/14] Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... Current Shuttle Processing Status __________________________________ Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 3 STS-90 Apr 2 OV-103 Discovery OPF Bay 2 STS-91 May 28 OV-104 Atlantis Palmdale OMDP OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-88 Sep 17? MLP/SRB/ET/OV stacks MLP1/ MLP2/RSRM65 VAB Bay 3 STS-90 MLP3/ Space Calendar by Ron Baalke [Ed. Note: visit http://newproducts.jpl.nasa.gov/calendar/ for the complete calendar] March 1998 Mar 01-07 - Spaceweek Mar 02 - Comet Kowal 2 Perihelion (1.397 AU) Mar 02 - Asteroid 1998 BP26 Near-Earth Flyby (0.353 AU) Mar 02-04 - Workshop on Climate Variability and Water Resource Management in the Southwest, El Paso, Texas Mar 03-04 - JPL 10th Annual High-Tech Small Business Development Procurement Conference, City of Industry, California Mar 04 - NEAR, Thruster Calibration (CAL-1) Mar 04 - Galileo Exits Solar Conjunction Mar 04 - Moon Occults Aldebaran Mar 04 - Comet Shoemaker-Levy 3 Perihelion (2.817 AU) Mar 04 - Mercury Occults 146752 (6.5 Magnitude Star) Mar 05 - Asteroid 111 Ate at Opposition (11.0 Magnitude) Mar 05 - Comet P/1997 C1 (Gehrels) Closest Approach to Earth (4.582 AU) Mar 05 - Comet C/1997 BA6 (Spacewatch) Closest Approach to Earth (5.575 AU) Mar 05 - Kuiper Belt Object 1994 ES2 at Opposition (44.414 AU - 24.0 Magnitude) Mar 06 - Asteroid 115 Thyra at Opposition (11.0 Magnitude) Mar 06 - Asteroid 1998 BZ7 Near-Earth Flyby (0.113 AU) Mar 07 - Venus Passes 3.8 Degrees From Neptune Mar 07 - Wagman Winterfest VI, Russellton, Pennsylvania Mar 09 - Asteroid 1993 JE Closest Approach to Earth (1.798 AU) Mar 09-13 - International Conference on Substorms, Lake Hamana, Japan Mar 10 - Galileo, Orbital Trim Maneuver #43 (OTM-43) Mar 10 - Mercury Passes 1.0 Degree From Mars Mar 10 - Comet C/1997 J2 Meunier-Dupouy Perihelion (3.058 AU) Mar 10 - Asteroid 3648 Raffinetti Closest Approach to Earth (1.347 AU) Mar 10-13 - Numerical Astrophysics 1998, Tokyo, Japan Mar 11 - Asteroid 7822 (1991 CS) Closest Approach To Earth (0.901 AU) Mar 11 - Asteroid 5189 (1990 UQ) Closest Approach To Earth (1.113 AU) Mar 11-13 - 9th Annual Advanced Propulsion Research Conference, Pasadena, California Mar 12 - Astrobiology Symposium, Washington DC Mar 14 - Mercury at Perihelion Mar 14-21 - Meeting on Dwarf Galaxies and Cosmology, Savoie, France Mar 15 - 25th Anniversary (1973), San Juan Capistrano Meteorite Fall Mar 16 - Intelsat 806 Atlas IIAS Launch Mar 16 - UHF-F8 Atlas 2 Launch Mar 16 - Asteroid 511 Davida at Opposition (10.7 Magnitude) Mar 16-20 - 29th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC), Houston, Texas Mar 17 - Asteroid 116 Sirona at Opposition (10.7 Magnitude) Mar 17 - 40th Anniversary (1958), Vanguard 1 Launch (2nd Successful US Launch) Mar 17 - 10th Anniversary (1988), IRS-1A (1st Soviet Commerical Launch) Mar 18 - Venus Passes 3.3 Degrees From Uranus Mar 18 - Comet P/1997 T3 (Lagerkvist-Carsenty) Perihelion (4.161 AU) Mar 18 - Asteroid 1991 EE Closest Approach to Earth (0.932 AU) Mar 18 - Asteroid 6456 Golombek Closest Approach to Earth (1.572 AU) Mar 19 - TRACE Pegasus XL Launch Mar 19 - Mercury At Its Greatest Eastern Elongation (18 Degrees) Mar 19 - Asteroid 275 Sapientia Occults PPM 94539 (8.9 Magnitude Star) Mar 19 - Synthetic Aperture Radar Lecture, Pasadena, California Mar 20 - Spot-4 Ariane 4 Launch Mar 20 - Vernal Equinox (19:54 UT) Mar 20 - Asteroid 3 Juno at Opposition (9.1 Magnitude) Mar 20 - Kuiper Belt Object 1994 GV9 at Opposition (41.180 AU) Mar 20-28 - SPIE Symposium on Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, Kona, Hawaii Mar 21 - Mercury Passes 5.0 Degrees From Saturn Mar 21 - Gathering At The Equinox, Rock Hill, South Carolina Mar 21-22 - Telescope Optics Workshop, Bellingham, Washington Mar 21-28 - 1998 IEEE Aerospace Conference, Aspen, Colorado Mar 23 - Cassini, Perihelion (0.68 AU) Mar 23 - Asteroid 1995 BL2 Closest Approach to Earth (0.496 AU) Mar 23-28 - Meeting on Structure and Kinematics of Quasar Broad Line Regions, Lincoln, Nebraska Mar 23-29 - FIDAE '98 International Air and Space Fair, Santiago, Chile Mar 24 - Moon Occults Venus Mar 24 - 5th Anniversary (1993), Discovery of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 Mar 24 - Walter Baade's 105th Birthday (1893) Mar 25 - Clark Athena 1 Launch Mar 25 - Asteroid 1995 OO Closest Approach to Earth (0.517 AU) Mar 26 - Galileo, Orbital Trim Maneuver #44 (OTM-44) Mar 26 - Moon Occults Jupiter Mar 26 - Asteroid 1996 EN Closest Approach to Earth (0.490 AU) Mar 26-27 - 1st Annual Supplier Conference, Mesa, Arizona Mar 27 - Venus, Greatest Western Elongation (46 Degrees) Mar 27 - Asteroid 22 Kalliope at Opposition (10.9 Magnitude) Mar 27-28 - ICECUBE Neutrino Detector Workshop, Irvine, California Mar 27-30 - 1st Australian CCD Workshop, Trunkey Creek, Australia Mar 29 - Galileo, Europa 14 Flyby Mar 29 - Moon Occults Saturn Mar 30 - Asteroid 1997 WT22 Near-Earth Flyby (0.277 AU) Mar 31 - IKONOS-1 Athena Launch Mar 31 - Mercury Passes 3.8 Degrees From Mars Mar 31 - Asteroid 5145 Pholus at Opposition (12.128 AU - 18.2 Magnitude) Mar 31 - 20th Anniversary (1978), Cosmos 1000 Launch (Soviet Union) Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
Дата: 01 марта 1998 (1998-03-01) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: SpaceViews -- March 1998 by Boston NSS [13/14] Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... April 1998 Apr ?? - Insat 2E/Nilesat-1 Ariane 4 Launch Apr ?? - Chinastar-1 Long March 3B Launch (China) Apr 01 - Asteroid 1993 BX3 Near-Earth Flyby (0.377 AU) Apr 01-03 - Laboratory Space Science Workshop, Cambridge, Massachusetts Apr 01-03 - 29th Meeting of the Division of Dynamical Astronomy (AAS), Charlottesville, Virginia Apr 02 - Galileo, Orbital Trim Maneuver #45 (OTM-45) Apr 02 - Mars Passes 1.9 Degrees From Saturn Apr 03 - 25th Anniversary (1973), Salyut 2 Space Station Launch (USSR) Apr 04 - 15th Anniversary (1983), STS-6 Launch (Challenger), TDRS-1, 1st Launch of Challenger Apr 04 - 30th Anniversary (1968), Apollo 6 Launch Apr 04-09 - 7th Workshop on the Physics of Dusty Plasmas, Boulder, Colorado Apr 05 - Daylight Savings - Set Clock Ahead 1 Hour (North America) Apr 05 - Asteroid 23 Thalia Occults TAC +311855 (10.4 Magnitude Star) Apr 05 - Kuiper Belt Object 1993 FW at Opposition (41.002 AU - 23.2 Magnitude) Apr 05 - Kuiper Belt Object 1995 HM5 at Opposition (31.271 AU - 23.1 Magntude) Apr 06 - 25th Anniversary (1973), Pioneer 11 Launch (Jupiter/ Saturn Flyby Mission) Apr 07 - 30th Anniversary (1968), Luna 14 Launch (Soviet Moon Orbiter) Apr 07-10 - 1998 National Space Symposium, Colorado Springs, Colorado Apr 08 - Asteroid 1995 DW2 at Opposition (17.973 AU - 21.7 Magnitude) Apr 08 - 5th Anniversary (1993), STS-56 Launch (Discovery), Atlas-2 Spacelab Apr 08-09 - ISTP Workshop, Greenbelt, Maryland Apr 10 - Asteroid 7413 (1990 SH28) Occults Regulus (1.3 Magnitude Star) Apr 10-13 - 18th National Australian Convention of Amateur Astronomers, Sydney, Australia Apr 11 - Comet Harrington-Wilson Perihelion (1.889 AU) Apr 12 - Easter Sunday Apr 14 - Kuiper Belt Object 1994 EV3 at Opposition (43.692 AU - 23.5 Magnitude) Apr 14 - 10th Anniversary (1988), Foton 1 Launch (USSR - Material Processing Satellite) Apr 15-16 - 2nd Workshop on Galactic Sources With Relativistic Jets, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom Apr 15-17 - Faraday Discussion #109: Chemistry and Physics of Molecules and Grains in Space, Nottingham, United Kingdom Apr 16 - STS-90 Launch, Columbia, Neurolab Apr 16 - Comet 1997 G2 (Montani) Perihelion (3.084 AU) Apr 16 - EOS Lecture, Pasadena, California Apr 17 - Ulysses At Jupiter's Orbit Apr 17 - Comet Peters-Hartley Closest Approach to Earth (1.390 AU) Apr 17 - EOS Lecture, Pasadena, California Apr 18 - Iridium 8 Delta 2 Launch Apr 19 - Comet Tsuchinshan 1 Perihelion (1.496 AU) Apr 19-26 - 1998 Texas Star Party, Fort Davis, Texas Apr 20 - Lyrids Meteor Shower Peak Apr 20 - Asteroid 2941 Alden Closest Approach to Earth (1.276 AU) Apr 20 - Asteroid 887 Alinda Closest Approach to Earth (1.567 AU) Apr 20-24 - 23rd General Assembly of the European Geophysical Society, Nice, France Apr 21-24 - 3rd International Conference on Library and Information Services in Astronomy (LISA III), Puetro de la Cruz, Tenerife, Spain Apr 22 - Venus Passes 0.3 Degrees From Jupiter Apr 22 - Asteroid 1991 CB1 Near-Earth Flyby (0.299 AU) Apr 23 - Moon Occults Venus Apr 23 - Moon Occults Jupiter Apr 23 - Asteroid 433 Eros Closest Approach To Earth (0.502 AU) Apr 24 - Globalstar-2 Delta 2 Launch Apr 24 - Moon Occults Mercury Apr 24 - Asteroid 25 Phocaea at Opposition (10.1 Magnitude) Apr 24 - Asteroid 5653 (1992 WD5) Closest Approach to Earth (0.682 AU) Apr 24 - Asteroid 2368 Beltrovata Closest Approach to Earth (1.372 AU) Apr 26 - Cassini, 1st Venus Flyby Apr 26 - Kuiper Belt Object 1994 JQ1 at Opposition (41.980 AU - 23.3 Magnitude) Apr 26 - 5th Anniversary (1993), Discovery of Asteroid 7066 Nessus by Spacewatch Apr 26 - 5th Anniversary (1993), STS-55 Launch (Columbia), Spacelab D2 Apr 26 - 150th Anniversary (1848), Graham's Discovery of Asteroid 9 Metis Apr 26-30 - Space 98 & Robotics 98 Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico Apr 27-28 - Leonid Meteorid Storm and Satellite Threat Conference, Manhattan Beach, California Apr 27-30 - AIAA 8th International Space Planes and Hypersonic Systems and Technologies Conference, Norfolk, Virginia Apr 27-May 01 - 3rd IAA Low Cost Planetary Missions Conference, Pasadena, California Apr 27-May 01 - Euroconference on Extrasolar Planets: Formation, Detection and Modeling, Lisbon, Portugal Apr 27-May 03 - Astronomy Week Apr 28 - Islamic New Year Apr 28 - Asteroid 1243 Pamela Occults SAO 162175 (8.2 Magnitude Star) Apr 28 - Eugene Shoemaker's 70th Birthday (1928) Apr 28-May 01 - 35th Space Congress: Horizons Unlimited, Cocoa Beach, Florida Apr 29 - Asteroid 191 Kolga Occults SAO 95322 (8.0 Magnitude Star) Apr 30 - Eutelsat W1 Atlas IIAS Launch Apr 30 - Galileo, Orbital Trim Maneuver #46 (OTM-46) Apr 30 - Asteroid 32 Pomona at Opposition (10.2 Magnitude) Apr 30 - Asteroid 216 Kleopatra Occults GSC 56961723 (10.8 Magnitude Star)) Apr 30-May 01 - Workshop on In Situ Resources for Construction of Planetary Outposts, Albuqueque, New Mexico Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
Дата: 01 марта 1998 (1998-03-01) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: SpaceViews -- March 1998 by Boston NSS [14/14] Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... This is the current issue of "SpaceViews" (tm), published by the Boston Chapter, National Space Society (NSS), distributed in electronic form. It is also sent as a 8 to 12 page double column newsletter via US Mail. You may re-distribute this electronically for non-profit use as long as the entire contents (including this notice) are intact, and you send us the names of all recipients (include us in your distribution list). MAILING LIST INFORMATION: Subscribing and Unsubscribing: To stop receiving the large monthly 'SpaceViews' newsletter, send this e-mail message: To: MajorDomo@ari.net Subject: anything UNsubscribe SpaceViews To receive electronic copies of this SpaceViews newsletter and/or other information about space and NSS, send an e-mail message similar to the following. This example subscribes you to 4 separate mailing lists which are described below. Of course, fill in your own Internet address where is says "YourAddress@StateU.edu" and your real name inside the parenthesis. Try to send it from you own account on your own computer, so that the message appears to be from you. To: MajorDomo@ari.net Subject: anything subscribe SpaceViews YourAddress@StateU.edu (Full Name) which YourAddress@StateU.edu help These subscriptions requests are now handled automatically. The subject line is ignored. The body of the message should contain commands such as: help - send me more information about these commands, which - which lists am I on, info - mail me a description of a list, UNsubscribe - remove me from a list, Subscribe - add me to a list, Although it is possible to omit your address and name, please include them when subscribing so that we know who you really are, and to avoid problems like having the name of a workstation inadvertently embedded in you address. Problems: To get a message to a real person, mail to: SpaceViews-Approval@ari.net ARTICLE SUBMISSIONS: Articles, letters to the editor, chapter updates, andother similar submissions for SpaceViews are always welcome. The deadline for each month's issue is the 20th of the month before (i.e. the August deadline is July 20). The preferred method of submission is ASCII text files by e-mail; send articles and other submissions to jeff@spaceviews.com. If you would like to submit articles in other formats, or would like to submit articles by another method than e-mail, contact the editor, Jeff Foust, at the above e-mail address. COPYRIGHT INFORMATION: Copyright (C) 1997 by Boston Chapter of National Space Society, a non-profit educational organization 501(c)3. Permission is hereby granted to redistribute for non-profit use, provided: 1. no modifications are made (except for e-mail delivery info.) 2. this copyright notice is included, 3. you inform Boston NSS of the names of all recipients This permission may be withdrawn at any time. All other rights reserved. Some articles are individually copyrighted (C) by their authors. Excerpts cannot be used, except for reviews and criticisms, without written permission of NSS, Boston Chapter. (We will try to respond by e-mail within four business days.) -Jeff Foust (editor, jeff@spaceviews.com), -Bruce Mackenzie (email distribution, bam@draper.com) -Roxanne Warniers (mailings, rwarnier@colybrand.com) ____ | "SpaceViews" (tm) -by Boston Chapter // \ // | of the National Space Society (NSS) // (O) // | Dedicated to the establishment // \___// | of a spacefaring civilization. President: Elaine Mullen Board of Directors: Michael Burch Vice President: Larry Klaes Jeff Foust Secretary: Lynn Olson Bruce Mackenzie Treasurer: Roxanne Warniers John Malloy Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
Дата: 01 марта 1998 (1998-03-01) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: Lunar Prospector Update - February 18, 1998 Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... Lunar Prospector Status Report #20 Feburary 18, 1998 - 7:00 p.m. EST (4:00 p.m. PST) The Lunar Prospector spacecraft continues to perform very well, and all instruments continue to collect good data, according to Mission Control at NASA's Ames Research Center. The current state of the vehicle (as of 4:00 p.m. (PST) on Wed., Feb. 18, 1998), according to Mission Operations Manager Marcie Smith, is as follow: Orbit Number: 455 Data Downlink Rate: 3600 bps Spacecraft Spin Rate: 11.94 rpm Spin Axis Attitude: Longitude: 350 deg Latitude: 88.6 deg Trajectory: Periselene: 85km Aposelene: 115 km Period: 118 minutes duration Occultations: 43 minutes duration Inclination: 90.3 deg Eclipses: 42 minutes duration Last week, a small re-orientation maneuver was performed in order to reposition the spacecraft so that the sun shines slightly atop the vehicle. Mission controllers performed the maneuver on Tues., Feb. 10, 1998 according to the following schedule: Thruster heaters turned on: 2:29 p.m. (PST) A1/A4 thrusters fired (12 0.2 second pulses): 2:55 p.m. (PST) Thruster parameters reset: 2:57 p.m. (PST) A total of 13 commands were executed to perform this maneuver, which was expected to shift the spacecraft's spin axis by 1.7 degrees. This would have placed the sun equatorial angle at 1.0 degrees. Actual performance was slightly higher than expected, shifting the vehicle's spin axis approximately 1.84 degrees and putting the sun equatorial angle at 1.25 degrees. Alison Davis Lunar Prospector Mission Office NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, Calif. 94035 Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
Дата: 01 марта 1998 (1998-03-01) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: NASA Sponsors Space Station Business Videoconference Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... Michael Braukus Headquarters, Washington, DC February 25, 1998 (Phone: 202/358-1979) NOTE TO EDITORS: N98-21 NASA SPONSORS SPACE STATION BUSINESS VIDEOCONFERENCE NASA's International Space Station Program is sponsoring a live, interactive, 2-hour telecast on Thursday, Feb. 26, 1998, from 1 - 3 p.m. EST. The program, called "Open for Business," will give research and business professionals an inside look at the areas of scientific and commercial research being pursued on the station. The International Space Station, scheduled to begin assembly this year, will be a world-class research laboratory enabling long-term research in the nearly gravity-free environment of space. The program will feature briefings on how space station research can advance the fields of biotechnology, materials processing and agriculture. Participants also will learn more about space-based research plans, benefits and opportunities. Viewers will be placed in touch with a panel of NASA experts, university and commercial researchers, and investors, who will take questions regarding the commercial possibilities aboard the space station. "Open for Business" will be viewed by a national audience via satellite downlink at more than 600 sites. To find a downlink site near you, go to the PBS Web site at: http://www.pbs.org/als/programs/live - end - Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
Дата: 01 марта 1998 (1998-03-01) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: NASA Terminates Clark Earth Science Mission Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... David E. Steitz Headquarters, Washington, DC February 25, 1998 (Phone: 202/358-1730) RELEASE: 98-35 NASA TERMINATES CLARK EARTH SCIENCE MISSION After an extensive review, NASA has partially terminated the Clark Earth science mission due to mission costs, launch schedule delays, and concerns over the on-orbit capabilities the mission might provide. NASA will retain launch vehicle services. The Clark mission was part of NASA's Small Satellite Technology Initiative (SSTI) program, originally scheduled for launch in mid-1996. Named after the famous American explorer William Clark, the Clark spacecraft was to provide a very high resolution optical element with stereo imaging capabilities that would provide NASA's former Office of Mission to Planet Earth (the current Earth Sciences enterprise) with useful environmental data. Imagery provided from Clark also would have been available commercially with applications such as helping city planners assess community growth from the unique perspective of space and providing space surveys of construction sites. The Clark mission's prime contractor was originally a company named CTA, with a launch vehicle to be provided by Martin Marietta Astronautics. Since the start of the program, CTA has been purchased by Orbital Sciences Corp., Dulles, VA, and Martin Marietta Astronautics was merged with the Lockheed Corporation which formed a new company, Lockheed Martin Aerospace, Bethesda, MD. In June 1994, there was an industry-led competition to build, launch and operate Clark, based on a March 1996 launch. To date, NASA has invested approximately $55 million in Clark. The Agency expects to recover some assets of the mission, such as some spacecraft payloads, components and subsystems which may be used on other NASA projects. -end- Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
Дата: 01 марта 1998 (1998-03-01) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: Spaceweek - March 1-7 Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... Spaceweek International Association 1110 NASA Road One, Suite 100 Houston, TX 77058 Toll-Free: 800-20-SPACE www.spaceweek.org Contact: Lynda Wright Phone: 281-333-3627 Fax: 281-335-0229 Email: admin@spaceweek.org For Immediate Release Spaceweek -- March 1-7 Spaceweek, March 1-7, will feature former President George Bush, a world convention of students, and thousands of teachers using space in the classroom. Numerous activities are planned. Major events during Spaceweek this year will include: * World convention of Young Astronauts March 7 in Tampa's Museum of Science & Industry * Rotary National Space Award presented to Bush at Space Center Houston on March 6 * Members of ProSpace lobbying Congress throughout Spaceweek in Washington, D.C. * K-12 teachers in Silicon Valley, Houston, and elsewhere using space to teach math and science "Spaceweek is an annual event that involves the public in space in a variety of ways," said Dennis Stone, President of Spaceweek International Association. Participants include science museums, NASA centers, aerospace companies, and schools across the U.S. Events are also planned in other countries. The Association, which recently moved Spaceweek into the school year, placed 4,000 Spaceweek Teacher Kits into schools with assistance from Space Systems/Loral, Lockheed Martin, Hughes Space and Communications, AlliedSignal Technical Services, and other corporations. Spaceweek International Association is a non-profit organization founded in 1981 to strengthen the relationship between government and the public on space. In 1997, it expanded its program to include direct support to schools, including teacher grants and student scholarships. Teachers this year are competing for grants and OMEGA Speedmaster Original Moon Watches by creatively using Spaceweek in the classroom. Students are competing for scholarships by doing projects during Spaceweek, such as designing a new sport that can only be played in space. "We invite everyone to participate in Spaceweek, the first week of March each year," Stone said. For more information, call 800-20-SPACE or visit www.spaceweek.org. "Space: For All Mankind" is the theme for Spaceweek 1998. "In 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left a plaque with these words on the Moon. In 1998, this vision unfolds with the first planned launch of the International Space Station," Stone said. "As we remember Apollo, the International Space Station heralds a new era of global cooperation in space," he added. Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
Дата: 01 марта 1998 (1998-03-01) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: WDC-A R&S Launch Announcement 12921: SNOE and BATSAT Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... COSPAR/ISES WORLD WARNING AGENCY FOR SATELLITES WORLD DATA CENTER-A FOR R & S, NASA/GSFC CODE 633, GREENBELT, MARYLAND, 20771. USA SPACEWARN 12921 COSPAR/WWAS USSPACECOM NUMBER SPACECRAFT INTERNATIONAL ID (CATALOG NUMBER) LAUNCH DATE,UT SNOE 1998-012A 25233 26 FEBRUARY 1998 BATSAT 1998-012B 25234 26 FEBRUARY 1998 ..JOSEPH H. KING, DIRECTOR, WDC-A-R&S. [PH: (301) 286 7355. E-MAIL: KING@NSSDCA.GSFC.NASA.GOV 26 FEBRUARY 1998, 13:50 UT] Dr. Edwin V. Bell, II _/ _/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/ Mail Code 633 _/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ NASA Goddard Space _/ _/ _/ _/_/ _/_/ _/ _/ _/ Flight Center _/ _/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ Greenbelt, MD 20771 _/ _/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/ +1-301-286-1187 ed.bell@gsfc.nasa.gov NSSDC home page: http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/ Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
Дата: 01 марта 1998 (1998-03-01) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: Cambridge Conference Digest - February 27, 1998 [1/2] Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... CAMBRIDGE-CONFERENCE DIGEST, 27 February 1998 (1) SORRY PEOPLE, BUT I MADE A BIT OF A BOO-BOO Charles Darwin (2) A MODEL OF MASS EXTINCTION M.E.J. Newman, CORNELL UNIVERSITY (3) EJECTA LAYER AT THE K/T BOUNDARY IN NEW JERSEY R.K. Olsson et al., RUTGERS STATE UNIVERSITY (4) ROADBLOCKS ON THE KILL CURVE: TESTING THE RAUP HYPOTHESIS C.W. Poag, US GEOLOGICAL SURVEY (5) MASS EXTINCTIONS AND THE SUN'S ENCOUNTERS WITH SPIRAL ARMS E.M. Leitch and G. Vasisht, CALTECH (6) LOOKING AT THE K/T BOUNDARY IN THE WESTERN PYRENEES E. Apellaniz et al., EUSKAL HERRIKO UNIBERTSITATEA (7) EVALUATING THE FLUCTUATION OF MASS EXTINCTIONS AND RECOVERY M.L. Droser et al., UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE (8) THE CRETACEOUS-TERTIARY BIOTIC TRANSITION N. Macleod et al., NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM (9) NONLINEAR DYNAMICS AND MASS EXTINCTIONS R.V. Sole et al., UNIVERSITY POLITECHNIC OF CATALUNYA (1) SORRY PEOPLE, BUT I MADE A BIT OF A BOO-BOO From: Charles Darwin Hi folks, Having followed your research and debates for some while, I think it's about time to confess that I no longer adhere to the main conclusions (attached below) of my controversial book published some 140 years ago. I am sure you will be lenient with me; after all, I used to be a fellow catastrophist in my early days. I've come to realise that I got it terribly wrong when I converted to Lyell's uniformitarian creed. After more than 90 years of sessions with my psycho-analyst, I now believe that the crisis which triggered this sudden conversion was not so much due to my relationship to my mother but rather caused by post-traumatic stress syndrom from which I suffered under the impact of the Chilean earthquake. So leave Oedipus out of the deabte. Cheers, Charly P.S. I have attached the main paragraph of my flawed theory which has now become merely of historical interest: "As all living forms of life are the lineal descendants of those which lived long before the Silurian epoch, we may feel certain that the ordinary succession by generation has never been broken, and that no cataclysm has desolated the whole world. Hence we may look with some confidence to a secure future of equally inappreciable length. And as natural selection works solely by and for the good of each being, all corporeal and mental environments will tend to progress towards perfection" (On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 1859) (2) A MODEL OF MASS EXTINCTION M.E.J. Newman: A model of mass extinction. JOURNAL OF THEORETICAL BIOLOGY, 1997, Vol.189, No.3, pp.235-252 CORNELL UNIVERSITY, CTR THEORY, RHODES HALL, ITHACA, NY, 14853, USA In the last few years a number of authors have suggested that evolution may be a so-called self-organized critical phenomenon, and that critical processes might have a significant effect on the dynamics of ecosystems. In particular it has been suggested that mass extinction may arise through a purely biotic mechanism as the result of 'coevolutionary avalanches'. In this paper we first explore the empirical evidence which has been put forward in favor of this conclusion. The data center principally around the existence of power-law functional forms in the distribution of the sizes of extinction events and other quantities. We then propose a new mathematical model of mass extinction which does not rely on coevolutionary effects and in which extinction is caused entirely by the action of environmental stress on species. In combination with a simple model of species adaption we show that this process can account for all the observed data without the need to invoke coevolution and critical processes. The model also makes some independent predictions, such as the existence of 'aftershock' extinctions in the aftermath of large mass extinction events, which should in theory be testable against the fossil record. (C) 1997 Academic Press Limited. (3) EJECTA LAYER AT THE K/T BOUNDARY IN NEW JERSEY R.K. Olsson*), K.G. Miller, J.V. Browning, D. Habib, P.J. Sugarman: Ejecta layer at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary, Bass River, New Jersey (Ocean Drilling Program Leg 174AX). GEOLOGY, 1997, Vol.25, No.8, pp.759-762 *) RUTGERS STATE UNIVERSITY, DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGICAL SCIENCE, PISCATAWAY, NJ, 08855 A continuously cored borehole drilled at Bass River, New Jersey, recovered a Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) succession with a dcm-thick spherule layer immediately above the boundary. Below the spherule layer, the Cretaceous glauconitic clay is extensively burrowed and contains the uppermost Maastrichtian Micula prinsii calcareous nannofossil zone. Spherical impressions of spherules at the top of the Cretaceous indicate nearly instantaneous deposition of ejecta from the Chicxulub impact. The thickest ejecta layer shows clearly that a single impact occurred precisely at K-T boundary time. Above the spherule layer, the glauconitic clay contains the planktonic foraminiferal PO and Pa Zones, indicating (1) a complete K-T succession and (2) continuous deposition interrupted only by fallout of the ejecta layer. Clay clasts within a 6 cm interval above the spherule layer contain Cretaceous microfossils and may be rip-up clasts from a tsunami or possibly a megastorm event. Extinction of the Cretaceous planktonic foraminifers and burrowing organisms occurs abruptly at the K-T boundary. Thus, the Bass River K-T succession unequivocally links the Chicxulub bolide impact to the mass extinctions at the end of the Mesozoic. Copyright 1998, Institute for Scientific Information Inc. (4) ROADBLOCKS ON THE KILL CURVE: TESTING THE RAUP HYPOTHESIS C.W. Poag: Roadblocks on the kill curve: Testing the Raup hypothesis. PALAIOS, 1997, Vol.12, No.6, pp.582-590 US GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, 384 WOODS HOLE RD, WOODS HOLE, MA, 02543 The documented presence of two large (similar to 100-km diameter), possibly coeval impact craters of late Eocene age, requires modification of the impact-kill curve proposed by David M. Raup. Though the estimated meteorite size for each crater alone is large enough to have produced considerable global environmental stress, no horizons of mass mortality or pulsed extinction are known to be associated with either crater or their ejecta deposits. Thus, either there is no fixed relationship between extinction magnitude and crater diameter, or a meteorite that would produce a crater of > 100-km diameter is required to raise extinction rates significantly above a similar to 5% background level. Both impacts took place similar to 1 - 2 m.y. before the ''Terminal Eocene Event'' (= early Oligocene pulsed extinction). Their collective long-term environmental effects, however, may have either delayed that extinction pulse or produced threshold conditions necessary for it to take place. Copyright 1998, Institute for Scientific Information Inc. Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
Дата: 01 марта 1998 (1998-03-01) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: Cambridge Conference Digest - February 27, 1998 [2/2] Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... (5) MASS EXTINCTIONS AND THE SUN'S ENCOUNTERS WITH SPIRAL ARMS E.M. Leitch and G. Vasisht: Mass extinctions and the sun's encounters with spiral arms. NEW ASTRONOMY, 1997, Vol.3, No.1, pp.51-56 CALTECH,PASADENA,CA,91125 The terrestrial fossil record shows that the exponential rise in biodiversity since the Precambrian period has been punctuated by large extinctions, at intervals of 40 to 140 Myr. These mass extinctions represent extremes over a background of smaller events and the natural process of species extinction. We point out that the non-terrestrial phenomena proposed to explain these events, such as boloidal impacts (a candidate for the end-Cretaceous extinction) and nearby supernovae, are collectively far more effective during the solar system's traversal of spiral arms. Using the best available data on the location and kinematics of the Galactic spiral structure (including distance scale and kinematic uncertainties), we present evidence that arm crossings provide a viable explanation for the timing of the large extinctions. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. (6) LOOKING AT THE K/T BOUNDARY IN THE WESTERN PYRENEES E. Apellaniz*), J.I. Baceta, G. Bernaola Bilbao, K. Nunez Betelu, X. Orue Etxebarria, A. Payros, V. Pujalte, E. Robin, and R. Rocchia: Analysis of uppermost Cretaceous lowermost Tertiary hemipelagic successions in the Basque Country (western Pyrenees): evidence for a sudden extinction of more than half planktic foraminifer species at the K/T boundary. BULLETIN DE LA SOCIETE GEOLOGIQUE DE FRANCE, 1997, Vol.168, No.6, pp.783-793 *) EUSKAL HERRIKO UNIBERTSITATEA,ZIENTZI FAK,ESTRATIG & PALEONTOL SAILA, 644 POSTAKUTXA, BILBAO, BASQUE COUNTRY, SPAIN This paper summarises our current knowledge about 21 sections across the K/T boundary from the Basque Country (western Pyrenees), all of them comprising intermediate-deep basinal facies. This study allowed us to establish that Sopelana III and Bidart are the best sections for analysing the extinction of the planktic foraminifers at the K/T boundary. Detailed analyses of planktic foraminifers from four new sections allow us to differentiate four biozones, one at the end of the Cretaceous and three at the beginning of the Tertiary. These analyses further show that 63 Upper Maastrichtian planktic foraminifers species reached the boundary where 33 species became extinct. The study also shows that some species decrease markedly in abundance in the last few metres of the Cretaceous prior to the extinction event which could be related to environmental changes at the end of the Maastrichtian. More than 50 % of the planktic foraminifers, that is 33 species, became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous. However, most of the extinct species were rare and only about 20 % of the total Cretaceous assemblages are involved in the extinction event. The 30 surviving species, that is less than 50 % of the Cretaceous species, later disappear through the Pr. longiapertura and P. pseudobulloides biozones of the beginning of the Tertiary. Above the K/T boundary, samples are far poorer in planktic foraminifer specimens than those from the uppermost Maastrichtian and include 16 Tertiary species. Moreover, together with this extinction event there are impact markers (iridium and Ni-rich spinels), as well as a high concentration of soot at the beginning of the Danian at the Sopelana III section. This strengthens the hypothesis of a causal link between the impact and WT extinctions. Copyright 1998, Institute for Scientific Information Inc. (7) EVALUATING THE FLUCTUATION OF MASS EXTINCTIONS AND RECOVERY M.L. Droser*), D.J. Bottjer, and P.M. Sheehan: Evaluating the ecological architecture of major events in the Phanerozoic history of marine invertebrate life. GEOLOGY, 1997, Vol.25, No.2, pp.167-170 *) UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE, DEPARTMENT OF EARTH SCIENCE, RIVERSIDE,CA,92521 Paleoecological changes associated with Phanerozoic mass extinctions and radiations can be categorized into four nonhierarchical, nonadditive levels. First-level changes include colonization of a new ecosystem. Structural changes within an established ecosystem represent the second level, changes within an already established ecological structure are the third level, and taxonomic changes within a community represent the fourth level. Applying these levels to the Ordovician radiation, end-Ordovician extinction and Silurian recovery, as well as the end-Permian extinction and Triassic recovery, demonstrate that paleoecological changes associated with these major events can be evaluated and compared in a more rigorous manner than previously done. Results of this analysis demonstrate that use of these levels indicates that the relative magnitude of an event as measured by taxonomic criteria may be decoupled from its paleoecological significance. Copyright 1998, Institute for Scientific Information Inc. (8) THE CRETACEOUS-TERTIARY BIOTIC TRANSITION N. Macleod*), P.F. Rawson, P.L. Forey, F.T. Banner, M.K. Boudagher Fadel, P.R. Brown, J.A. Burnett, P. Chambers, S. Culver, S.E. Evans, C. Jeffery, M.A. Kaminski, A.R. Lord, A.C. Milner, A.R. Milner, N. Morris, E. Owen, B.R. Rosen, A.B. Smith, P.D. Taylor, E. Urquhart, J.R. Young: The Cretaceous-Tertiary biotic transition. JOURNAL OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 1997, Vol.154, No.Pt2, pp.265-292 *) NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM, DEPT PALAEONTOLOGY, CROMWELL RD, LONDON SW7 5BD, ENGLAND Mass extinctions are recognized through the study of fossil groups across event horizons, and from analyses of long-term trends in taxonomic richness and diversify. Both approaches have inherent flaws: and data that once seemed reliable can be readily superseded by the discovery of new fossils and/or the application of new analytical techniques. Herein the current state of the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) biostratigraphical record is reviewed for most major fossil clades, including: calcareous nannoplankton, dinoflagellates, diatoms, radiolaria, foraminifera, ostracodes, scleractinian corals, bryozoans, brachiopods, molluscs, echinoderms, fish, amphibians, reptiles and terrestrial plants (macrofossils and palynomorphs). These reviews take account of possible biasing factors in the fossil record in order to extract the most comprehensive picture of the K-T biotic crisis available. Results suggest that many faunal and floral groups (ostracodes, bryozoa, ammonite cephalopods, bivalves, archosaurs) were in decline throughout the latest Maastrichtian while others (diatoms, radiolaria, benthic foraminifera, brachiopods, gastropods, fish, amphibians, lepidosaurs, terrestrial plants) passed through the K-T event horizon with only minor taxonomic richness and/or diversity changes. A few microfossil groups (calcareous nannoplankton, dinoflagellates, planktonic foraminifera) did experience a turnover of varying magnitudes in the latest Maastrichtian-earliest Danian. However, many of these turnovers, along with changes in ecological dominance patterns among benthic foraminifera, began in the latest Maastrichtian. Improved taxonomic estimates of the overall pattern and magnitude of the K-T extinction event must await the development of more reliable systematic and phylogenetic data for all Upper Cretaceous clades. Copyright 1998, Institute for Scientific Information Inc. (9) NONLINEAR DYNAMICS AND MASS EXTINCTIONS R.V. Sole*), S.C. Manrubia, M. Benton, P. Bak: Self-similarity of extinction statistics in the fossil record. NATURE, 1997, Vol.388, No.6644, pp.764-767 *) UNIVERSITY POLITECHNIC OF CATALUNYA, DEPT PHYS FEN, CAMPUS NORD, MODUL B4,ES-08034 BARCELONA,SPAIN The dynamical processes underlying evolution over geological timescales remain unclear. Analyses of time series of the fossil record have highlighted the possible signature of periodicity in mass extinctions, perhaps owing to external influences such as meteorite impacts. More recently the fluctuations in the evolutionary record have been proposed to result from intrinsic nonlinear dynamics for which self-organized criticality provides an appropriate theoretical framework. A consequence of this controversial conjecture is that the fluctuations should be self-similar, exhibiting scaling behaviour like that seen in other biological and socioeconomic systems. The self-similar character is described by a 1/f power spectrum P(f), which measures the contributions of each frequency f to the overall time series. If self-similarity is present, then P(f) approximate to f(-beta) with 0 < beta < 2, This idea has not been sufficiently tested, however, owing to a lack of adequate data. Here we explore the statistical fluctuation structure of several time series obtained from available palaeontological data bases, particularly the new 'Fossil Record 2'. We find that these data indeed show self-similar fluctuations characterized by a 1/f spectrum. These findings support the idea that a nonlinear response of the biosphere to perturbations provides the main mechanism for the distribution of extinction events. Copyright 1998, Institute for Scientific Information Inc. THE CAMBRIDGE-CONFERENCE NETWORK The Cambridge-Conference List is a scholarly electronic network moderated by Dr Benny J Peiser at Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom. It is the aim of this network to disseminate information and research findings related to i) geological and historical neo-catastrophism, ii) NEO research and the hazards to civilisation due to comets, asteroids and meteor streams, and iii) the development of a planetary civilisation capable of protecting itself against cosmic disasters. To subscribe, please contact Benny J Peiser . Information circulated on this network is for scholarly and educational use only. The attached information may not be copied or reproduced for any other purposes without prior permission of the copyright holders. Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
Дата: 01 марта 1998 (1998-03-01) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: Mars Surveyor 98 Update - February 27, 1998 Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... Mars Surveyor 98 Project Status Report February 27, 1998 John McNamee Mars Surveyor 98 Project Manager Orbiter and lander integration and test activities are proceeding on schedule with no significant problems. Acoustic testing of the orbiter was completed successfully on Feb 25. Orbiter electromagnetic compatibility testing will be conducted next week. Mechanical integration of the lander to the cruise configuration is in process. Installation of the landing legs, medium gain antenna, and solar arrays on the lander is complete and the vehicle will be encapsulated within the aeroshell next week. The lander spacecraft in full cruise configuration will be transported to the acoustics lab at Lockheed Martin on March 9. For more information on the Mars Surveyor 98 mission, please visit the following web site: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98/ Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
Дата: 01 марта 1998 (1998-03-01) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: Sky & Telescope News Bulletin - February 27, 1998 Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... SKY & TELESCOPE'S NEWS BULLETIN FEBRUARY 27, 1998 CARIBBEAN ECLIPSE PARTY On Thursday, February 26th, thousands, if not millions, of people witnessed the total solar eclipse, either in person or virtually. Millions more viewed the partial phases, which were visible from much of North and South America. The lucky were able to journey to northern South America and Caribbean islands such as Aruba and Guadeloupe to gaze at about 3 minutes of totality. According to SKY & TELESCOPE's Leif Robinson, who witnessed the eclipse aboard Holland America's Statendam, the Caribbean was littered with floating eclipse enthusiasts. At least nine large cruise ships and countless smaller vessels huddled along the centerline. Robinson estimated that 12,000 people experienced the spectacle of the eclipse coupled with the luxury of a cruise. Meanwhile, thousands of others hid from the eclipse. Superstitions led people in Venezuela and Haiti to shield themselves from the presumed ill effects of the celestial event. For those who couldn't travel to the tropics, more than a dozen individuals and organizations attempted to serve up the eclipse as an Internet broadcast. Traffic on these Web sites was heavy, and dragged activity to a crawl in some cases. You'll be able to see the resulting images in coming weeks by checking the links to the "Webcasts" on SKY Online (http://www.skypub.com/eclipses/s980226c.html). More serious eclipse research was also performed during the eclipse. Scientists from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center studied the magnetic activity of the solar corona, and simultaneous observations were made using the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) and Ulysses spacecraft. "RECYCLING" MMT On March 1st, the Multiple Mirror Telescope (MMT) atop Mount Hopkins, Arizona, will close -- but not permanently. Over the next month and a half, the telescope will be disassembled so that MMT's current array of six 72-inch-diameter mirrors will be replaced by a single 6.5-meter mirror. The telescope's new mirror cell, telescope structure, mirror-aluminizing chamber and steel "dummy" mirror, will be moved to the top of Mount Hopkins in April. The dummy mirror will be installed in the reconfigured telescope for tests throughout the summer. First light for the 6.5-meter MMT will be mid- to late fall 1998. Astronomers will start using the telescope for science by early 1999. The facility is operated by the University of Arizona and the Smithsonian Institution. And while the telescope will no longer be "multiple," the old acronym will remain. AN EVENING OCCULTATION OF ALDEBARAN If you're in the Northeast or surrounding regions or in the eastern Caribbean, don't miss the gorgeous occultation of the bright star Aldebaran by the first-quarter Moon early in the evening of March 4th. This should be a great naked-eye event if the sky is clear! Skywatchers farther west will need a telescope to watch the occultation through bright twilight or daylight. For full details see the March SKY & TELESCOPE, page 98, or http://www.skypub.com/occults/aldebaran/980304a.html. THIS WEEK'S "SKY AT A GLANCE" Some daily events in the changing sky, from the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE. MARCH 1 -- SUNDAY * Look for Saturn to the lower right of the Moon early this evening. MARCH 2 -- MONDAY * The red long-period variable stars S Canis Minoris and R Aurigae should be at their maximum brightness (7th or 8th magnitude) around this date. MARCH 3 -- TUESDAY * Some twilight star watching: Lie on your back and look overhead as dusk fades this week. How early can you see the bright star Capella glimmering into view? MARCH 4 -- WEDNESDAY * Don't miss the gorgeous occultation of the bright star Aldebaran by the first-quarter Moon early this evening, if you're in the Northeast or surrounding regions or in the eastern Caribbean. This should be a great naked-eye event if the sky is clear! Skywatchers farther west will need a telescope to watch the occultation through bright twilight or daylight. Try timing it with a camcorder! For full details see the March Sky & Telescope, page 98, or http://www.skypub.com/occults/aldebaran/980304a.html. MARCH 5 -- THURSDAY * Can you spot Mercury yet, low in the western twilight? Look very low due west 30 or 40 minutes after sunset. Mercury is about 5 or 6 degrees to the lower right of Mars, which is only a tenth as bright. Watch them close in on each other for the next five days. MARCH 6 -- FRIDAY * This evening the Moon stands in the feet of Gemini, about midway between Pollux and Castor (to its upper left in early evening) and Orion (to its lower right). MARCH 7 -- SATURDAY * As twilight fades, how early can you first see Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky? Look for it in the south-southeast, far to the lower right of the Moon this evening. How early can you see fainter Procyon, about a third as far from the Moon in more or less the same direction? ============================ THIS WEEK'S PLANET ROUNDUP ============================ MERCURY should be detectable in the glow of evening twilight late this week, just above the western horizon. Don't confuse it with fainter Mars to its upper left. They're both located very far to the lower right of Saturn. VENUS shines brightly in the southeast during dawn. MARS, magnitude +1.2, is disappearing into the sunset. It's to the upper left of brighter Mercury. JUPITER is hidden behind the glare of the Sun. SATURN shines rather low in the western sky (at magnitude +0.6) during and after dusk. URANUS and NEPTUNE are barely emerging from the glow of sunrise. PLUTO, magnitude 13.8, is near the Ophiuchus-Scorpius border in the south-southeast before dawn. (All descriptions that relate to the horizon or zenith are written for the world's midnorthern latitudes. Descriptions that also depend on longitude are for North America. Eastern Standard Time, EST, equals Universal Time minus 5 hours.) More details, sky maps, and news of other celestial events appear each month in SKY & TELESCOPE, the essential magazine of astronomy. See our Web site at http://www.skypub.com/. Clear skies! SKY & TELESCOPE, P.O. Box 9111, Belmont, MA 02178 * 617-864-7360 (voice) Copyright 1998 Sky Publishing Corporation. S&T's Weekly News Bulletin and Sky at a Glance stargazing calendar are provided as a service to the astronomical community by the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE magazine. Widespread electronic distribution is encouraged as long as these paragraphs are included. But the text of the bulletin and calendar may not be published in any other form without permission from Sky Publishing (contact permissions@skypub.com or phone 617-864-7360). Illustrated versions, including active links to related Internet resources, are available via SKY Online on the World Wide Web at http://www.skypub.com/. In response to numerous requests, and in cooperation with the Astronomical League (http://www.mcs.net/~bstevens/al/) and the American Association of Amateur Astronomers (http://www.corvus.com/), S&T's Weekly News Bulletin and Sky at a Glance are available via electronic mailing list too. For a free subscription, send e-mail to skyline@gs1.revnet.com and put the word "join" on the first line of the body of the message. To unsubscribe, send e-mail to skyline@gs1.revnet.com and put the word "unjoin" on the first line of the body of the message. SKY & TELESCOPE, the Essential Magazine of Astronomy, is read by more than 200,000 enthusiasts each month. It is available on newsstands worldwide. For subscription information, or for a free copy of our catalog of fine astronomy books and products, please contact Sky Publishing Corp., P.O. Box 9111, Belmont, MA 02178-9111, U.S.A. Phone: 800-253-0245 (U.S. and Canada); 617-864-7360 (International). Fax: 617-864-6117. E-mail: custserv@skypub.com. SKY Online: http://www.skypub.com/. Clear skies! Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
Дата: 01 марта 1998 (1998-03-01) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: Cassini Update - February 27, 1998 Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... Cassini Significant Event Report For Week Ending 02/27/98 MSO Significant Events input for week of Friday, 02/20 through Thursday, 02/26: Spacecraft Status: The Cassini spacecraft is presently traveling at a speed relative to the sun of approximately 135,000 kilometers/hour (~83,000 mph) and has traveled approximately 343 million kilometers (~213 million miles) since launch on October 15, 1997. The most recent Spacecraft status is from the DSN tracking pass on Thursday, 02/26, over Canberra. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health and is operating nominally, with the C6 sequence executing onboard. Inertial attitude control is being maintained using the spacecraft's hydrazine thrusters (RCS system). The spacecraft continues to fly in a High Gain Antenna-to-Sun attitude. It will maintain the HGA-to-Sun attitude, except for planned trajectory correction maneuvers, for the first 14 months of flight. Communication with Earth during early cruise is via one of the spacecraft's two low-gain antennas; the antenna selected depends on the relative geometry of the Sun, Earth and the spacecraft. The downlink telemetry rate is presently 40 bps. Spacecraft Activity Summary: On Friday, 02/20, the Solid State Recorder (SSR) record and playback pointers were reset, according to plan. This housekeeping activity, done approximately weekly, maximizes the amount of time that recorded engineering data is available for playback to the ground should an anomaly occur on the spacecraft. On Saturday, 02/21, Sunday, 02/22, and Monday, 02/23, there were no changes in spacecraft configuration. On Monday, 02/23, the mini-sequence containing Cassini's second Trajectory Correction Maneuver was approved for uplink to the spacecraft. On Tuesday, 02/24, the TCM2 mini-sequence was uplinked to the spacecraft. Also on Tuesday, the SSR record and playback pointers were reset, per plan, in preparation for the TCM. On Wednesday, 02/25, Cassini's second Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM) was performed at approximately Noon, PST. Because the magnitude of the needed trajectory correction was very small, the TCM2 maneuver was conducted using the spacecraft's hydrazine thrusters, rather than one of its main engines. Realtime data gave preliminary indications of a good burn; this result was confirmed later Wednesday afternoon using high-resolution telemetry played back from the SSR. The total change in spacecraft velocity (delta-V magnitude) was approximately 0.18 meters/sec, as planned. All spacecraft and ground components performed superbly. The TCM2 maneuver puts the spacecraft on target for its final adjustment (TCM3, scheduled for early April) prior to the 26 April flyby of Venus. On Thursday, 02/26, there were no changes to spacecraft configuration. Upcoming spacecraft events: Events for the week of 02/27 through 03/05 include: a reset of the SSR pointers (03/03), SSR Flight Software Partition Maintenance (03/04), and an adjustment of the PCA Panel HTR thresholds and unmasking of the 158bps telemetry mode (03/05). DSN Coverage: Over the past week Cassini had 14 DSN tracks occurring daily from Friday (02/20), through Thursday (02/26). In the coming week there will be 8 DSN passes. Nicole Rappaport has left the Science Office to take up duties on the Genesis Project at JPL. She will remain, however, as a Team Member on RSS. Two new people have been hired to work in the area of "science system engineering." Both have PhDs in the fields related to planetary science. Kevin Grazier received his PhD from UCLA, and Stuart Stephens received his PhD degree at Caltech. A presentation about the Cassini Mission (including the safety of the Earth swingby) was made by Reed Wilcox at the annual meeting of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space Scientific and Technical Subcommittee (UNCOPUOS/STSC) in Vienna, Austria. During the meeting the STSC adopted a joint US/UK/Russia work plan that provides for a five year effort to develop a technical foundation for future UNCOPUOS deliberations on space nuclear power sources. The French delegation stated that within the scope of the work plan, consideration should be given to NPS safety issues (e.g., the possibility of releases) on surfaces of the moon and other planets. This concern could lead to public discussions of the controlled disposal of the Cassini RTGs later in the mission. Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
Дата: 01 марта 1998 (1998-03-01) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: * SpaceNews 02-Mar-98 * Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC0302 * SpaceNews 02-Mar-98 * BID: $SPC0302 ========= SpaceNews ========= MONDAY MARCH 2, 1998 SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA. It is published every week and is made available for non-commercial use. * SCHOOL CONTACTS WITH MIR * It has been nearly a year since the last SAREX school group talked to an astronaut on Mir. Since that time, the amateur radio community has witnessed (through the Mir ham radio link) the collision between the 12 year old Mir space station and the Progress resupply ship in June and recovery operations by the various Mir crewmembers. Until recently, the Mir crew's full attention has been focused on recovery from the collision and restarting the scientific investigations that were abruptly stopped after the accident. Monday, 23-Feb-98 marked a new era for the Mir Space Station: The return of SAREX school group contacts. On the morning of the 23rd at about 7:30 AM PST (15:30 UTC), six youngsters from the Shell Beach Elementary School in Pismo Beach, CA, made a successful contact with Astronaut Andy Thomas on the Mir space station. The students were in grades 1 through 6 and were able to ask Andy a total of 10 questions during the approximately ten minute contact. The Shell Beach School has been on the contact list for some time and they were originally scheduled to talk to astronaut Jerry Linenger last April, but due to technical difficulties on Mir, the contact was postponed until now. The school had about a weeks notice of the impending contact. During the week, the children scrambled and practiced several times, getting their performance just right. After the session with Andy, the kids were very excited and appreciative of all the effort that the SAREX Work Group, their school and their teachers put forth to make the contact possible. A group "Thank You" from the children echoed over the teleconference after contact with astronaut Thomas was lost. The contact was made using the Houston Telebridge station (W5RRR) with Matt Bordelon, KC5BTL, at the controls. About 150 people attended the SAREX contact including about 75 students. When the contact was over, one of the students commented, "This was really cool...a once in a lifetime experience". The following day, a second SAREX school also completed a successful interview with astronaut Andy Thomas, KD5CHF. The Prairie Hills Elementary School in Colorado Springs, Colorado completed a successful direct contact with Andy on Tuesday 24-Feb-98. After hearing that the second school group contact was successful, Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, AMSAT's Vice President for Manned Space Programs said, "It gives me great pleasure to know that the school group logjam is finally starting to clear. It was exciting to hear the student's reactions to the contacts and rewarding to know that we have provided an experience to the communities of Shell Beach and to Prairie Hills that they will never forget". Rob Roller, N7LV, submitted the following comments following the Praire Hills Elementary SAREX school group contact with Andy Thomas on Mir: "What a thrill! About 300-400 kids in the gym, all three networks with a video crew there, 10 excited kids waiting to ask their questions, and a great crew of radio operators and video camera operators. All of this came together at slightly after 9:07 this morning when we finally made the contact with Andy Thomas on Mir. All the people in the gym watched closely as the overhead display showed Mir on its track to Colorado Springs while they listened to the static over the gym's PA speakers. When Andy Thomas' voice broke through, I'm sure I could hear plenty of suppressed "Yea!" expressions. Andy talked for several seconds, describing what he's doing on the Mir. Then the kids asked their questions and Andy answered all that he could hear. By the seventh question, Mir was dropping rapidly toward the horizon and we were losing the signal quickly. Unfortunately only six questions were answered by Andy, but the rest were answered by our two speakers. Following the contact, two speakers answered yet more questions for about another half an hour from excited kids. Major Mike Caylor from the USAFA and Eric Joern, with about 10 years experience training the astronauts, answered many more questions for the next 30 or 40 minutes." Rob extends his sincere thanks to all who helped make this contact a reality. SAREX currently has a backlog of 60 to 80 schools that have been waiting patiently for a schedule to speak to an astronaut in space for the past several years. SAREX is not currently accepting any new applications for contacts. Further information on SAREX/MAREX school schedules can be found on the American Radio Relay League's Web Page at: http://www.arrl.org. [Info via Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, and Miles Mann, WF1F] * HONOR FOR G3AAJ * Ron Broadbent, G3AAJ, was honored by the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB) last Sunday, 22 February, when he was presented with their Louis Varney Cup; Louis' callsign, G5RV, may be familiar to some. The cup is in the gift of the RSGB's VHF Committee; it is presented annually for "advances in space communication". Ron's 20 years of service as Secretary of AMSAT-UK, before his retirement last December, make him well fitted for this honor. Many advances could not have happened without his tireless work for the good of amateur satellites and the amateur radio fraternity worldwide. [Info via Richard W. L. Limebear, G3RWL, Communications Officer, AMSAT-UK] * FEEDBACK/INPUT WELCOMED * Comments and input for SpaceNews should be directed to the editor (John, KD2BD) via any of the paths listed below: WWW : http://www.njin.net/~magliaco/ PACKET : KD2BD @ KS4HR.NJ.USA.NA INTERNET : kd2bd@amsat.org, magliaco@email.njin.net SATELLITE : AMSAT-OSCAR-16, LUSAT-OSCAR-19, KITSAT-OSCAR-25 <<=- SpaceNews: The first amateur newsletter read in space! -=>> <<=- Serving the planet for 10 years -=>> /EX -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- John A. Magliacane, KD2BD -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Internet : kd2bd@amsat.org | Voice : +1.732.224.2948 Satellite : AO-16, LO-19, KO-25 | Morse : -.- -.. ..--- -... -.. Packet : KD2BD @ KS4HR.NJ.USA.NA | WWW : http://www.njin.net/~magliaco/ Video : 426.250 MHz/439.250 MHz | FAX : +1.732.224.2060 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Linux: An OS That Doesn't Break Like Glass -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
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