At the 14th Annual International Space Development Conference in Cleveland in May, the NSS Board of Directors unanimously approved a resolution naming SpaceViews as an official electronic newsletter of the National Space Society. This means that SpaceViews will soon be going out to more people, carrying up-to-date information and opinions about current and future efforts in space.
There will be a few changes to SpaceViews as a result of this. The NSS headquarters will be contributing a national NSS news section for future issues. NSS chapters, which have always been wlcome to submit reports on chapter activities and other news to SpaceViews, will be especially encouraged to do so now. News stories and other articles will still be found in SpaceViews.
Also at the ISDC, the Boston chapter of the NSS received an award for its work on publishing the paper and electronic versions of SpaceViews. Special thanks should go to Bruce Mackenzie, who has handled the electronic mailing lists for quite some time; and Roxanne Warniers, who has tirelessly taken care of the copying and mailing of the paper version. We'll certainly try to keep up the good work.
Ad astra per ardua,
Jeff Foust
Editor, SpaceViews
[PS: Look for a full report on the ISDC in an upcoming SpaceViews issue. A lack of time between the end of the conference and this issue, plus a bad head cold for the editor, prevents a summary from appearing in this issue.]
Space exploration, utilization, and colonization are an integral part of our civilization. We would be at a standstill in many areas without satellites and the technology spawned from them.
Yet even today many people neither understand nor appreciate the benefits and goals of our presence in space. Much of this stems from a lack of proper education on the subject in the public schools. What a child does or does not learn during these critical years will affect them for the rest of their lives. We have seen that a lack of knowledge about even the most basic aspects of space leads people to believe that space exploration is a distant dream that has little or no relation to their lives. How wrong this view is, but how often it is perpetuated because there are few educators to correct this problem.
Fortunately, though, this situation can be remedied by you and all the members of the Boston NSS and beyond. Recently the officers discussed the goals we desired for the Chapter and its members. One of them was the desire to form an education outreach program. Our plan is to go into the various schools - be they elementary, high, or college - and talk to the students and teachers about the wonders and benefits of going into space.
We hope that the readers of SpaceViews, be they members of the NSS or not quite yet, will volunteer your time, knowledge, and information to educate our youth about the amazing Universe around them and how vital it is for humanity's future.
You do not need to be an expert on any particular space subject. However you can assist in this endeavor will be more than enough to attain our goals. Please contact your chapter's officers with your ideas for educating students - and others - about the benefits of space.
Thank you for helping to make a better future for all of us.
Several months ago I asked the members of the Boston NSS to come forward with any ideas they may have regarding any space projects they have been working on.
It doesn't matter if your project is something that can't be done in the next few years or is some grand cosmic scheme. The point is that the Boston NSS, or any other NSS chapter, is the place where you can share your concepts with fellow space enthusiasts. You can simply let us know what your project is about, or gather a small group together to work on it with you. Your NSS chapter is a place to share ideas that cannot be easily done so elsewhere.
For example, Bruce Mackenzie has been working on a variety of space colonization concepts. He presented them at the April lecture series. Bruce now has several members working with him on expanding the ideas he shared with the rest of us.
I know you have ideas on utilizing space. Now please feel free to share them with the rest of us. Who knows what good may come of it and whose lives you can make better. Taking part in a society like the Boston NSS is what it is all about. We happen because individuals make it happen.
Please contact the officers or directors of your NSS chapter about your space concept and how you would like to present it to your Chapter. My thanks to you.
Under pressure to cut its budget by $5 billion over the next five years, NASA Administrator Dan Goldin announced a sweeping restructuring program that will result in over 25,000 fewer civil service and contractor jobs by the turn of the century, but without closing centers or cutting programs.
Under Goldin's plan, the number of civil service employees in NASA will drop from the current level of 21,060 to approximately 17,500. This would be the smallest employment level at NASA since early in the Kennedy administration. An additional 25,000 contractor positions would be lost.
Almost all NASA facilities will face significant cuts, but some centers will be especially hard-hit. The Ames Research Center, near San Jose, would lose 35 percent of its work force over next five years, and Lewis Research Center in Cleveland would lose 33 percent of its work force in the same period. Only the Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California, would see an increased work force, caused by the consolidation of aircraft from flight programs currently scattered among several NASA facilities.
Goldin pointed out at this series of cuts managed to avoid closing any centers or eliminating any major programs. However, Goldin noted that if the latest round of cuts proposed by Congress, programs may be lost and centers closed. The current Congressional proposal calls for an $11 billion annual budget for NASA in 2000, $2 billion less than present plans.
A board of inquiry created by the French space agency CNES has ruled that a missing drain plug in an exchanger caused the deaths of two workers during a test of the new Ariane 5 rocket in early May.
The four-member board, headed by former CNES and Arianespace official Mathias Trotin, announced that a missing drain plug in a nitrogen/cold water pipe exchanger caused a leak of nitrogen gas that asphyxiated Luc Celle and Claude Dhainault on May 5. The reason why the drain plug was missing has not been determined. A final report from the board is expected in June, and a separate judicial inquiry is in progress.
Meanwhile, a test of an Ariane 5 rocket motor was aborted Tuesday, May 23, 39 seconds before ignition. The test was planned to be rescheduled in a week.
After a series of minor delays, NASA launched the latest in a series of advanced weather satellites Tuesday, May 23. The new satellite, along with a similar satellite launched last year, will provide high-quality data in time for this summer's hurricane season, and end American reliance on an aging European weather satellite.
The GOES 9 satellite was launched by an Atlas booster shortly before 2am EDT on May 23. The launch, originally scheduled for the previous week, had been delayed by high winds at Cape Canaveral and a bad battery in the Atlas rocket. The satellite was placed in a geostationary orbit 36,000 km (22,300 mi) above the Earth.
GOES 9, as well as the GOES 8 satellite launched last April, represent a new generation of weather satellites. They provide better, higher-resolution data than earlier weather satellites. The GOES 8 satellite has already provided meteorologists with data that has allowed them to issue severe weather advisories well in advance of threatening storms, reducing the possibility of property damage or injury from unexpected severe storms.
The successful GOES 9 launch also helps NASA and NOAA put the problems plaguing weather satellites behind them. Two weather satellites were lost due to launch explosions or spacecraft failures, forcing the US to rely on data from an aging European Meteosat weather satellite. The US will discontinue using Meteosat data on June 1.
Nearly a year after its last, aborted, test flight, the DC-X experimental reusable vehicle flew a successful test flight May 16th at White Sands, the first in a new series of flights for the SSTO testbed.
In the test flight, the DC-X flew up to an altitude of 1300 m (4350 ft) while flying 350 m (1150 ft) down-range. The vehicle then flew horizontally 105 m (350 ft) to position itself directly above the landing pad before descending to a normal landing.
The next test flight, scheduled for early June, will test the vehicle's performance at higher speeds. Later flights will include a test of the "flip" maneuver from a nose-first reentry attitude to a tail-first landing attitude. After the test flights NASA will take over the DC-X and upgrade the vehicle with advanced technologies.
The C.I.S. manned space station Mir with cosmonauts Commander Vladimir Dezhurov, Flight Eng. Gennady Strekalov and Astronaut Norm Thagard, will be appearing in the pre-dawn skies May 27th to June 16th. They will then appear in the evening skies with Atlantis June 11th to July 5th.
Amateur radio operators can log into the Mir 'Packet' (R0MIR-1) BBS on 145.550 MHZ. The cosmonauts also use this freq. to talk to amateur radio operators on the ground during their off-hours. Mir BBS users please be sure to log off at least 2 min before they go out of range. If you don't log out others will not be able to log in until after you time out.
Here is a sample message from Norm on the Mir BBS:
From: R0MIR Subject: hello Well, I am truly living in space this time as opposed to just visiting on my previous four flights. Not only that, I got to ride on a Russian rocket, something no other American has done. Volodya, Gennady, and I, I believe, will land in a different country and on a different continent from the one we launched. I even had to turn in my unused return airline ticket from Moscow to Houston. Delta probably was disappointed about that. Best wishes from Norm and the Mir 18 Crew
For exact times and locations to see the space station over your backyard call MN MIRWATCH Coordinator Ben Huset at (612) 639-9109. This info is also available on the MN SFS computer BBS at (612) 459-0892 (300-14,400 baud) You can also look for Mirwatch and other great space stuff on my web page at http://www.skypoint.com/subscribers/benhuset
WWW surfers check out http://spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov/Spacelink.Hot.Topics/Mir.18/ for the latest status reports about Mir from Mission Control Center, Kaliningrad. Many NASA sites and the MN SFS BBS have photos on-line from STS-63 of Mir.
US GOVERNMENT TO ALLOW SPACE ALIENS TO LAND IN AMERICA! Now that I have your attention, for the first time the US Immigration and Naturalization Service, after some prodding by the US State Department, will officially allow two aliens from space to land in the US. It seems that US entry visas for cosmonauts Vladimir Dezurov and Gennady Strekalov were forgotten before the launch of Mir-18. They were launched from Kazakhstan on March 14th and are scheduled to land either in Florida or California in early July aboard space shuttle Atlantis STS-71. The US State Department has for the first time asked for a waiver for 'aliens from outer space'. The INS has agreed not to arrest the cosmonauts for illegal entry into the United States.
Meanwhile Norm continues with his weekly TV updates from Mir showing recent activities aboard the station and answering reporters questions. Here is some of what's been happening 'on-orbit'.
Recently they have been learning about micro gravity embryo development by performing experiments on quail eggs.
The Lower Body Negative Pressure (LBNP) 'Chibis', experiment is studying fluid shifts in the human body due to micro gravity. They are doing fluid loading procedures, similar to shuttle activity just before landing (drinking a quart or two of Gatoraid). The crew has participated in experiments to assess the body's ability to absorb and use drugs effectively in micro gravity.
They are taking inventory of all the connecting wires and ducts running between the various modules before they have to be disconnected to allow movement of the modules to different docking ports. (After looking at the video downlinks, I can tell you this is NO small task.)
They have also been throwing out the trash and into the Progress-M27 before it was jettisoned in late May.
The cosmonauts have also been exercising a lot as part of preparations for performing EVA activities. Five space walks (EVAs) were performed by cosmonauts Vladimir and Gennady to move solar arrays from Kristal to Kvant and other prep work to allow Atlantis to dock with Mir. The first EVA was May 12th and the 2nd May 17th and a third May 22nd. Norman watched from inside and assisted by reading out instructions when Mir was out of contact with mission control and sent computer commands to fold the solar arrays. (While I'm writing this two space walks have occurred and they are running behind schedule forcing an unplanned 5th walk to be added to catch up). They have encountered problems detaching the arrays and moving them to the Kvant. This forced them to lash the array to the outside and reschedule reattachment and electrical connections during the next EVA.
Filling out the schedule is deploying a small German satellite (GFZ-1), and some crystal growth experiments.
Smile for the history videos. Plans are underway for Anatoly Solovyev and Nikolai Budrain to undock from Mir aboard Soyuz TM and video record the first UN-DOCKING of the Space shuttle Atlantis from Mir. In turn Atlantis would film the re-docking of the Soyuz with Mir. I predict this will become 'stock footage' to be used for years to come. Future space shots will come from German built unmanned satellites called Inspector and/or NASA developed Aercam. These 'SeaQuest' whisker-like satellites would provide extra points of view of outside station activities.
Space station module Spektr was launched on May 20th. The 20 ton module brings supplies and 1,660 lbs of instruments to Mir. This includes notebook computers, centrifuges and an ergometer. It was originally scheduled to be launched last winter but numerous delays postponed the launch.
Plans continue towards the launch of STS-71 on June 24th but may be moved up to June 22nd. On board will be Robert 'Hoot' Gibson and Anatoliy Y. Solovyev, mission commanders for STS-71 and Mir-19, respectively. Gregory J. Harbaugh, Ellen S. Baker, Charles J. Precourt, Bonnie J. Dunbar and Nikolai M. Budarin are the rest of the crew. They are going up, staying for five days and then leaving Anatoliy and Nikolai and bringing back Vladimir Dezhurov, Gennady Strekalov and Norm Thagard after their 3+ month stay aboard Mir.
The launch of STS-70 (TDRS-G) and STS-71 (1st Mir Docking) were swapped to keep NASA's tight schedule of 3 launches (70, 71 & 69) in six weeks.
Dr. Norm actually got to practice some space medicine. Gennady injured his hand while he was reaching behind a control panel. The hand did become inflamed but not enough to postpone the EVA activities.
[reprinted with permission from the April/May issue of Inside NSS]
On Chicago's National Public Radio station (WBEZ-FM) on March 11, NSS Vice President Alan Wasser discussed property rights in space and his proposals for Lunar and asteroid "Land Grants" as an economic incentive for space settlement. He was interviewed for half an hour by talk show host Aaron Freeman.
The WBEZ interview was arranged by NSS Director Karen Mermel, who peviously had arranged a similar interview for NSS Director Robert Zubrin.
Wasser proposed that those who establish permanent space settlements (which necessarily implies regular transportation systems between the settlement and Earth) should immediately receive legal title to hundreds of square miles of land around the settlement. They could then sell off pieces of that "Land Grant" to others, in order to start recouping their investment immediately. Wasser envisioned the formation of large international consortiums of companies to seek such prizes
Speaking by telephone hook-up from New York, Alan explained his belief that, throughout history, the right to claim newly settled land has been the traditional economic motivation for most human exploration and expansion. He cited the European rush to colonize and claim the Americas and the US Government's system of land grants to the companies that built the transcontinental railroads.
When a caller asked if it wouldn't be nobler if space settlement could be done for non-mercenary reasons, Wasser agreed but pointed out that it just was not happening and probably will not, because it goes against human nature. Wasser also agreed that it would also have been better if there were some miracle product available only on the moon that was so valuable it could pay the cost of transport and settlement, but that, too, just doesn't seem to be happening.
Wasser told the WBEZ audience, "Capitalism may be messy, undignified and sometimes wasteful, but it gets the job done better than any other system ever invented." He added that without any settlement or transport, Lunar land is now almost valueless. Therefore, he argued, a consortium that pays for establishing the settlement has actually created whatever value the land has acquired after the settlement exists, and is entitled to the fruits of its labors.
This is the 65th anniversary of the discovery of Pluto by Clyde Tombaugh who was an astronomer at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. Pluto is the only planet to which we have not yet sent a spacecraft. Therefore, it is truly the final space frontier in our exploration of this oddly unique solar system. Presently JPL is developing a probe called Pluto Express to meet the requirements of a set of NASA design parameters.
DiscussionThe search for Pluto began last century, after the discovery of Uranus, when it was found that its orbit was being perturbed by another body. This led to the discovery of Neptune, but there was still an unknown mass, called "Planet X", perturbing Neptune's orbit. Tombaugh searched the skies using Percival Lowell's refractor, and a comparator to look for changes in star fields. This was a very tedious job in those days and required plenty of patience and experienced help. The planet he discovered was named Pluto after the god of the underworld, and to honor Percival Lowell. It was not by accident that the first two characters PL are Lowell's initials.
Pluto has several oddities. It is smaller than the earth's moon, and orbits the sun at a mean distance of six billion km. It appears as a fifteenth magnitude star, so low that even the Hubble Space Telescope cannot make out surface details. It also has the most eccentric and tilted orbit of any of the planets, and at perihelion it is closer to the sun than Neptune. This lasts for 20 years out of its two and a half century orbital period. The astronomer Littleton thought that Pluto might have been a wayward satellite from Neptune. In the 1950's, with the war over, larger telescopes began to come on line and Pluto became of interest as efforts were made to determine its size and to see if it had any satellites. Then, in the 1960s, an occultation took place with a star which provided a rough approximation of its size which was not greater than six thousand km.
In the sixties, improved equipment and film, plus the advent of semiconductors created an astrophysical revolution which continues to this day. At that time a thin atmosphere was hypothesized which was further studied in the seventies from the Mauna Kea telescope facility on the Big Island of Hawaii. From spectroscopic studies astronomers discovered that the surface consisted of methane ice which is extremely cold, about 40 Kelvin, but highly reflective, with an albedo that caused Pluto to appear larger than it really was. Another size estimate was needed. This had to wait until 1988 when Pluto passed directly in front of a star, and an occultation measurement was made by the telescope on NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory which reduced its diameter to 2400 km, and also found a tenuous atmosphere of 3 microbars which is mostly nitrogen and traces of carbon dioxide.
CharonIn 1978, James Christy at the US Naval Observatory noticed regular variations in Pluto's image and concluded that it was a companion. It was named Charon, for the boatman who ferried the dead across the River Styx. It is now known that Charon is a Plutosynchronous satellite, presenting one face to the planet and remaining fixed to a point on its surface. Due to the inclination of Charon's orbit and the orientation of the orbit as seen from Earth, Charon passed directly in front of and behind Pluto during the late 1980s. From these observations, an estimate of Charon's distance from Pluto has been determined to be approximately 20,000 km, its size is half the diameter of Pluto, and its mass is one-eighth the planet's. Both Pluto and Charon have densities of 1.5 to 2.0 grams/cc. Charon has a surface of water ice which has a low albedo, creating all sorts of problems in making measurements, since it is nearly swamped out by the brightness of Pluto.
Mission to PlutoAt one time, a Voyager flyby was considered, but it was dropped in order to route the spacecraft to view Saturn and Titan. JPL has had a study group looking into a Pluto flyby which has developed a set of mission criteria. The goals of the mission have been kept to a minimum because of the long term exposure of the spacecraft to the cryogenic space environment. Two probes will be built at a cost of 400 million dollars. These will perform the following experiments:
A weight limitation was placed on the spacecraft, between 35 to 350 kg which was later modified to 160 kg. Then, to accelerate the trajectory, the weight was reduced to 100 kg. Of this, seven kilograms was set aside for miniaturized instrumentation. These are:
The last reduction in weight radically changed the design, and could make it untenable. The original mission was to be a straight shot with a Titan 4 launch vehicle costing four hundred million dollars each to provide an eighteen minute Pluto flyby seven years after being launched. Alternate vehicles are the Delta-II with a planetary gravity assist, or straight out shot with a Russian Proton and the use of some Zond penetrators.
A Shroud for the Underworld: (Conclusion)Many spacecraft designers have faced weight problems, and the solution has usually been a matter of making tradeoffs. The payload shroud for the Pluto Express is used to protect a second stage Centaur booster in which the Pluto payload becomes insignificant in size, weight and cost. This is supposed to save money since the aeroelastic characteristics of this launch combination are well known. In many instances it turns out that the center of mass may have to be shifted, and ballast will be added to correct this condition. The 100 kg payload is well below any weight variations of the launcher, and miniaturization increases the risk of failure. If one recalls the original Titan-II and its mission, it carried a small payload bus consisting of MLRV's and had a small shroud for protecting this payload through the launch phase. The use of an ICBM adapter and shroud would reduce the weight, the cost and the transit time, and provide for a more realistic sized Pluto flyby spacecraft which would have a greater chance of success.
A personal view: by the time the probe reaches Pluto, the first generation of aerospace engineers will have died off, and will never see the results of this experiment. So, if a shroud from a ballistic missile can be adapted to increase the delta V of the launcher, maybe we can live long enough to see Pluto (Hades) before Charon ferries us across the river Styx.
STS-70 is scheduled for Jun 8.
Congratulations to Mike Cassutt who not only found all eight answers to my astronaut challenge last week, but trumped me with two more I didn't know about. The first person to fly in space having previously changed their name was Vladimir Dzhanibekov, who was born Vladimir Krysin.
EO-18 cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Gennadiy Strekalov carried out their second spacewalk on May 17. A solar array was removed from the Kristall module and transferred to the Kvant module; however, they were unable to attach it properly, and it is lashed to the mounting with string and sticky tape or the equivalent. A third spacewalk on May 22 appears to have been successful.
The Spektr TKM-O module was launched from Baykonur on May 20. Spektr carries an array of remote sensing instruments including the Grif, Astra, Taurus and Oktava-Pion sensors in the main TKS based module and the Oktava-Lira/Buton, Faza, and Elis sensors on the equipment truss. It also carries a small manipulator arm and a small science airlock for deploying materials exposure canisters. The module is based on the military TKS spacecraft which was first tested in 1977. The O module (as Spektr is also known) will attempt to dock with Mir on June 1. It will join the similar D module (Kvant-2) and the T module (Kristall).
TKS class flights:
Launch Spacecraft Cargo 1977 Jul Kosmos-929 Merkur spaceship 1981 Apr Kosmos-1267 Merkur spaceship 1983 Mar Kosmos-1443 Merkur spaceship 1985 Sep Kosmos-1686 Military payload 1987 Mar Kvant SB Kvant module 1987 May Polyus Polyus spacecraft 1989 Nov Kvant-2 Airlock module 1990 May Kristall Docking module
Intelsat 706 was launched on May 17 by an Ariane 44LP rocket. This launch marked the second use of the improved H-10-III third stage. Intelsat 706 was built by Space Systems/Loral. On May 18 it was in a 4376 x 35791 km x 4.0 deg transfer orbit.
The DC-X has returned to flight at White Sands, making a 2 minute, 1 km apogee flight on May 16.
Reports indicate that the classified USA 110 satellite probably entered geostationary orbit.
Intelsat 506 left its 50.0W station in early May to begin an eastward drift; TDRS 3 left its 171.5W station on May 1, drifting at 2 deg per day. On May 19 it was at 108E; Brasilsat B2 has moved from 60.8W to 65.0W; the Raduga satellite 1994-12A has begun to drift west from its 45.8 deg E station. Gorizont satellite 1989-04A is at 34.1 deg E. Meteosat 4 was moved off station at 8W around May 10.
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Apr 3 1348 Orbcomm 1 ) Pegasus/L1011 VAFB/PAWA Comsat 17A
Orbcomm 2 ) Comsat 17B
Microlab 1 ) Science 17C
Apr 5 1116 'Ofeq-3 Shaviyt Palamchim Technol. 18A
Apr 7 2347 AMSC-1 Atlas IIA Canaveral LC36A Comsat 19A
Apr 9 1934 Progress M-27 Soyuz-U Baykonur LC1 Cargo 20A
Apr 19 1912 GFZ-1 - Mir Geodesy 8617JE
Apr 21 0144 ERS-2 Ariane 40 Kourou ELA2 Rem Sensing 21A
May 14 1345 USA 110 Titan 4 Centaur Canaveral LC40 Sigint? 22A
May 17 0634 Intelsat 706 Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 Comsat 23A
May 20 0333 Spektr Proton Baykonur LC81 Mir module 24A
Apr 3 Kosmos-2137 Reentered Apr 4 Kosmos-2290 Deorbited over Pacific
Orbiters Location Mission Launch Due OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 3 STS-73 Sep 21 OV-103 Discovery LC39B STS-70 Jun 8 OV-104 Atlantis LC39A STS-71 Jun 22-24? Under review OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 1 STS-69 Jul 20 ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks ML1/ ML2/RSRM-44/ET-71/OV-103 LC39B STS-70 ML3/RSRM-45/ET-70/OV-104 LC39A STS-71
A complete version of the calendar is available from JPL.
* indicates changes from last month's calendar
Quasars are the most energetic sources of radiation in the universe, turning the entire mass of a star into energy every year, and often emitting powerful beams of matter at almost the speed of light. I've been studying quasars using both ground based telescopes and orbiting satellites, and will talk about the different kinds of quasars we see and the ideas we have about what the observations mean.
Much closer to home, I'll also give an update on Phase I of the International Space Station Program, which involves visits by the US Space Shuttle to the Russian Mir orbital station.
There will also be an officers' and directors' meeting at 6:30pm to discuss various projects and activities the chapter can do. Anyone with any ideas for activities or who is willing to volunteer is welcome to attend!
Originally meant to support the Soviet Union's manned lunar program, the third generation Luna missions (Luna 15 to Luna 24) became the Soviet's answer to the American Apollo missions. This series of spacecraft was designed to return samples from the Moon, deliver large rovers to the surface, as well as explore the Moon and its enviroment from orbit. In this latest lecture by local spaceflight historian Andrew LePage, we will learn about the history of this program, its scientific accomplishments, and what we can learn two decades later from this program as we again contemplate similar missions to the Moon.
Look for more information about Chip's talk in a future issue of SpaceViews.
This is a series of comic tragedies caused by poor communications, lack of knowledge, and the need of firm direction by NASA, which ended in a farce. I will let the audience decide if it was a tragedy, or a comedy. When I worked on it, I found it to be humorous.