This is just a short note to thank everybody who responded to the survey that went out with last month's issue. The response has been astounding: more than five times as many people responded in 1996 as in 1995! People supplied a number of interesting ideas for features in future issues of SpaceViews in addition to feedback on current features and proposals. Some of these ideas will be tried, at least on an experimental basis, starting with the April 15 issue of SpaceViews Update and the May issue of SpaceViews. Of course, if you have any comments, questions, or suggestions about the issue, don't hesitate to contact me anytime!
Ad astra per ardua,
Jeff Foust
Editor, SpaceViews
jeff@astron.mit.edu
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The brightest comet in at least 20 years has put on quite a show for observers in the northern hemisphere, leaving amateur and professional astronomers alike dazzled by its appearance.
Comet Hyauktake, discovered at the end of January by the Japanese amateur astronomer whose name the comet bears, made its closest approach to the Earth late Sunday night, March 24, passing less than 16 million kilometers (10 million miles) from the Earth.
By the weekend of March 23rd, the comet was easily visible to the naked eye to observers in even the most light-polluted urban skies. Those observing from darker skies could easily see the comet's tail extending for up to 40 degrees.
At MIT, over 150 people turned up on the roof of one building on campus on a Saturday night to observe the comet through binoculars and an eight-inch telescope despite 10 degree F wind chill temperatures and hazy high clouds. The turnout was even more impressive because much of the student body had already left campus for spring break, which started that weekend.
While millions of amateurs turned their binoculars and telescopes on the comet, professional astronomers geared up for observations at telescopes around the world, as well as from spacecraft.
Several teams of astronomers had plans to use the Hubble Space Telescope during Hyakutake's close Earth flyby. One group, led by Dr. Hal Weaver of the Applied Research Corporation, hoped to image the small nucleus of the comet during the time of closest approach to the Earth.
Early April observations by groups led by John Brandt of the University of Colorado and Michael A'Hearn of the University of Maryland will study the near-nuclear region around the comet's nucleus and look for water and diatomic carbon emissions from the comet.
The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft, launched in February on a three-year mission to the asteroids Mathilde and Eros, planned to turn its instruments towards the comets. The images will primarily be for calibration purposes only, since the camera on NEAR is not designed for long-range observations of objects.
Among the other telescopes announcing plans to observe the comet were the Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii, and the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope in New Mexico.
The comet's bright appearance left even experienced observers groping for superlatives. "This is the most unbelievable sight that I have ever seen in the sky," said Charles Morris of JPL. "The motion of the comet was obvious in a matter of minutes...in fact, there was a sense of motion just looking at it."
"God's artistry here is so awesome, I am having difficulty describing it," wrote New Mexico astronomer Bruce Bawcom to readers of an Internet astronomy mailing list.
The comet was discovered in the early morning hours of January 30 by Yuji Hyakutake, a Japanese amateur astronomer. The discovery came less than two months after he discovered another, much dimmer comet, C/1995 Y1.
Describing his discovery of a comet-like object in the area of the sky near his previous discovery, he said, "I was very familiar with the star map of this area because I had often confirmed 1995Y1 there! I had thought I already knew the pattern of these stars well!"
"I said to myself, 'I must be dreaming,'" he said. "I left my binoculars for a while to calm myself down."
Ironically, Hyakutake decided not to observe the comet as it made its close flyby to the Earth. "The media are camped out in the mountains where I watch the stars, so I'll just stay in tonight," he explained.
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The shuttle Atlantis successfully docked with the Russian space station Mir late Saturday night, March 23, the third time the two spacecraft have met in space in less than a year.
The shuttle dropped off astronaut Shannon Lucid, who will spend the 140 days aboard the ten-year-old space station. Her arrival marks the beginning of 26 months of continuous American habitation aboard Mir.
The shuttle also brought up 1,700 kg (3,740 lbs.) of food and equipment for Mir. Atlantis also provided Mir with over 630 kg (1,400 lbs.) of water produced by the shuttle's fuel cells. The shuttle will return with over 450 kg (1,000 lbs.) of experiment samples and unwanted or broken equipment from the station.
After the shuttle docked with Mir, the two crews exchanged the tradition greetings and gifts. The two-man Mir crew gave the six-person Atlantis crew collinearities medallions. The shuttle astronauts, in turn, gave the cosmonauts each a shirt, a chocolate Easter bunny, and a copy of the book Lost Moon signed by its author, Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell.
Atlantis's mission, the 76th in the nearly fifteen-year shuttle program history, was in jeopardy shortly after launch when a leak in one of the shuttle's hydraulics systems was discovered. The systems control key landing systems link the landing gear and wing flaps.
Shuttle managers decided not to cut the mission short, though, when the leak stopped after the shuttle reached orbit. Atlantis has two backup hydraulic systems should the leaking system fail.
The shuttle landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California Sunday, March 31, when poor weather prevented landing attempts at Florida's Kennedy Space Center. The shuttle nearly made an emergency landing attempt on Saturday when the cargo bay doors failed to open after the landing attempts were scrubbed. The shuttle must keep its cargo bay doors open while in orbit to radiate heat that would otherwise damage vital spacecraft components.
Two major satellite consortiums announced in late March that they had cancelled launch contracts for the troubled Chinese Long March booster, whose crash seconds after a February 15 launch may have been much more devistating that originally reported.
Washington, DC-based Intelsat announced March 26 that it had cancelled two launch contracts with the Great Wall Industry Corporation. The 136-nation consortium stated that it did not believe Great Wall could launch the satellites as planned next year.
Earlier in March, Asiasat, an Asian satellite consortium one-third-owned by the Chinese government, scrapped plans to use the Long March for the 1997 launch of the Asiasat 3 satellite. The consortium instead will use the Russian Proton launcher.
In a Sunday, March 31 interview in the China Daily Business Weekly, a Great Wall vice president stated that Asiasat chose to go with the Proton because of the Proton's lower price and the Long March's busy launch schedule, not due to concerns about the reliability of the Chinese booster.
A third company, Colorado-based Echostar, also cancelled plans to use a Long March rocket for the launch of a television-broadcasting satellite.
As these cancellations took place, video footage taken by an Israeli engineer one day after the February launch explosion showed a nearby village devistated by the accident. Western observers believe the death toll from the explosion was on the order of one hundred or more, much higher than Chinese claims of six dead.
Geologists studying radar images taken from the space shuttle have discovered a chain of craters in the African nation of Chad that may prove that the Earth was hit by a fragmented comet, like Shoemaker-Levy 9, over three hundred million years ago.
The radar data, taken during two missions of the shuttle Endeavour in 1994, revealed two craters in northern Chad near the site of a previously-known crater. The radar observations have yet to be confirmed by fieldwork.
The craters were dated to have been created approximately 360 million years ago, around the time of a major biological extinction event. "These impacts in Chad weren't big enough to cause the extinction, but they may have contributed to it," said Adriana Ocampo, the JPL geologist who presented the results at a conference in Houston.
"These craters are highly eroded and buried by wind-blown sand. They are hard to see even if you are standing on the ground," said Dr. Kevin Pope, a member of the shuttle radar team.
A new analysis of the data returned by the Galileo spacecraft showed that the ratio of helium to hydrogen in the giant planet is approximately the same as the Sun, showing that Jupiter has changed little since its formation in the solar nebula over four and a half billion years ago.
A previous analysis of the probe data, announced in January, had found a helium-to-hydrogen ratio only half as large as found on the Sun. This had led planetary scientists to propose mechanisms for eliminating helium from the Jovian atmosphere, such as a "helium rain" into the planet's interior. Such a mechanism is believed to be at work in Saturn's interior.
"This then confirms that Jupiter is much hotter in its interior than its neighbor Saturn, the next largest planet in the Solar System. It also may force scientists to revise their projections for the size of the rocky core believed to exist deep in the center of Jupiter," said Dr. Richard Young, Galileo probe project scientist.
Scientists also revised upward estimates of Jupiter's strong winds. Previous analysis of the probe data found winds of up to 530 kmph (330 mph). The reanalysis found wind speeds more than 640 kmph (400 mph), evidence that Jupiter's winds are driven by an internal heat source, and not solar radiation as on Earth.
Historic notebooks, equipment, and even a video game that were part of the Soviet and Russian space programs sold at a Sotheby's auction Saturday, March 18, but a space capsule that was the centerpiece of the auction went unsold.
Among the items sold at auction were notes taken by Colonel Yevgeny Kaprov, Yuri Gagarin's commander during Gagarin's historic 1961 flight. The notes indicated that Gagarin's descent capsule failed to separate from another part of the Vostok spacecraft as planned just before re-entry. The two sections took ten minutes, instead of the planned ten seconds, to separate. Had the sections not separated Gagarin may have died during re-entry.
Kaprov's notebook went for US$12,650 at the auction. A report with a sanitized version of events, written by Gagarin himself, was also sold for US$32,200.
A Vostok capsule flown in 1961 shortly before Gagarin's flight was not sold, however, when no bidder offered the minimum amount. Sotheby's expected the capsule to sell for at least US$1 million.
Other items sold at the auction included a Nintendo GameBoy flown by a Russian cosmonaut in 1993 (for US$1,200) and a prototype of a space suit designed for a dog, which went for US$25,300.
Robert Overmyer, who commanded one of the last Challenger missions, died in a plane crash near Duluth, Minnesota, on March 22. Overmyer commanded STS-51B, the 17th shuttle mission, in late April 1985, on a flight that carried the Spacelab module. Overmyer died while test flying a plane for the Cirrus Design Corportation... Oscars Nix Apollo 13 Pix: The hit movie Apollo 13 won only two out of nine possible Oscars awarded March 25. The movie won awards for Film Editing and Achievement in Sound. The academy selected Braveheart over Apollo 13 for Best Picture. Apollo 13 also lost in the Achievement in Visual Effects category to the only other nominee, Babe, a movie about a talking pig... The next time you take a deep breath, and cough, in the smoggy air of Los Angeles, Mexico City, or elsewhere, you may be breathing stardust. Astronomers, using advanced spectroscopic techniques, have identified a number of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in interstellar dust. PAHs are created on earth by partial combustion events, from diesel exhaust to charcoal grills, and are a major air pollutant.
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[originally published in the February 1996 issue of Odyssey, the newsletter of the OASIS chapter of the NSS - Ed.]
One characteristic that may prove important for engines to be used on future Reusable Launch Vehicles (RLVs) is the ability to throttle the thrust levels over a great range. Two engines, or their derivatives, are candidates for use on NASA's proposed X-33 rocket. The X-33 is intended to demonstrate technologies needed for Single-Stage-To-Orbit (SSTO) Reusable Launch Vehicles (RLVs). Whether either of these engines are rated good enough to be chosen for the X-33 contract will depend on how well they promise to meet the demanding levels required for SSTO.
The ability of a rocket engine to vary its power over a wide range is often referred to as "deep throttling." Not all rocket engines have had happy experiences at low throttle levels as there can be unstable flow separation problems in the nozzle at these levels. That can cause severe vibrations or even destruction of the engine (and possibly anything attached to it-such as a launch vehicle).
There have been some recent news releases related to this subject with regard to two of the engines mentioned as possible RLV engines.
The first release reported on testing of the "Extended-Life Aerojet/CADB RD-0120." This is a joint project between Aerojet and the Russian design bureau CADB, to qualify an existing Russian engine for use on American launch vehicles.
The news release reported that in December of 1995, a "RD-0120 engine test article was hot fired" with NASA, Aerojet, and CADB engineers observing. "The engine was stepped through throttle levels up to 100 percent thrust, held then stepped down to eventual shutoff" demonstrating "the superior deep throttling characteristics of this engine." The engine was to be shipped to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) for "an intensive follow-on test series."
Hot on the heels of that test report came the news in January 1996 of similar test results from a possible American RLV engine competitor. On January 17, 1996, the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) Technology Test Bed (TTB) was fired at MSFC. It ran through power levels of 27 percent, 20 percent, 16 percent, and back to 27 percent of its rated thrust "with no failure identification and a normal shut down." Normally, the Shuttle engines are operated at much higher thrust levels, so demonstrating that they can be throttled down to these levels is a major step toward showing their potential as X-33/RLV engines.
Deep throttling is only one of the features that a candidate for powering future RLVs will have to demonstrate, however. A recent National Research Council report on the X-33 program also stressed that higher thrust-to-weight levels and much better operability may be needed than engines such as these have shown so far.
Some steps in the direction of operability are already being taken with the SSME to help it better serve in its current role as the main powerplant for the Space Shuttle Orbiter. It is being upgraded in steps (referred to as Block 1 and Block 2 upgrades) by incorporating new fuel and oxidizer turbopumps, and a combustion chamber with a wider throat-that will lessen pressures and temperatures required of the pumps-thereby bringing added safety and greatly reduced maintenance. It is hoped that the engines and pumps can carry out 10 flights before requiring removal or refurbishment.
It may be possible to do considerably better than either of the above engines in performance and operability in the long run. And it may be necessary to do so, to achieve the long desired goals of economic, reliable Single-Stage-To-Orbit RLVs. It will be interesting to see who wins the race. There are some other, less conventional engine designs out there that supporters think can do the job if these two can't.
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[originally published in the March 1996 issue of Odyssey, the newsletter of the OASIS chapter of the NSS - Ed.]
When NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin recently toasted leaders of America's launch industry at a breakfast meeting, it wasn't to praise them. By the time he was finished, many in the audience were toast, or at least smoldering a little.
Goldin declared that this country has become a "second rate power in access to space." And he didn't leave much doubt as to his opinion on the cause, in remarks quoted in Aviation Week & Space Technology (AW&ST) and in Space News.
"How many profit dollars have you put into pushing the state of the art out of the billions you've gotten from NASA? I think the answer is close to zero..."
Goldin blamed the government as well, noting that NASA's budget allocation for 1995 had only $5 million to spend on advanced technology for propulsion out of a $14 billion total.
He said he had made a commitment to lower the cost of launching payloads into space from $10,000 per pound to $1,000 per pound. Referring to that he said "I don't care whose feelings get hurt; I don't care which companies go under. So I am telling the contractors that are here that are working on X-33, get with the program and have a little courage."
The problem has come up as NASA under the Clinton Administration is trying a new way of business, where industry is urged to work with government on joint cooperative agreements. Both are to put up some of the money as well as facilities and personnel, etc. The hope is that with companies risking some of their own capital, final products will be more attuned to the commercial market - and another economically unsuccessful program like the Space Shuttle will be avoided. But Goldin appears to think that the industry teams working under the X-33 Cooperative Agreement Notice (CAN) are being fainthearted in their commitment to the program, both in financial and technological daring.
The Administrator went on to say, "...if you don't want the government to tell you what to do, show us some vision and leadership..." The alternative he presented was to convert the X-33 to a government type program, though there was some indication by others from NASA that it was still committed to industry partnership. Goldin was quoted in AW&ST as saying "You're whining and crying and you're spending hundreds of millions of dollars on the EELV [an expendable launcher program] and telling us you don't have a nickel for the single-stage-to-orbit [X-33 and follow on programs]."
He also indicated a willingness to turn to sources other than the traditional aerospace giants. "We're prepared at NASA... to cancel some other programs, but we are going to rebuild the launch capability of this nation and we're not stopping at just the X-33. We believe there are some small companies that have a tremendous amount to give to this country. We're going to bring them into the rocket business; we want to make a little competition."
Sounding like a spokesman for the space activist movement he said, "This is a new NASA. If you stick to your old ways and undercapitalize on commercialization approaches and then expect Uncle Sugar to underwrite you on risk... you're coming to the wrong place. But if you want to get a $1,000-a-lb. vehicle so you can go get rich and open the space frontier, you'll be working with the right place."
His parting shot reflected views some space advocates have been looking for from NASA for years, "I didn't come to NASA to watch the Shuttle go up and down; I came to NASA to help us open the space frontier, and together we're going to do it."
For space activists used to being voices crying in the wilderness in advocating Cheap Access To Space and more aggressive programs to develop the technology that would make it possible, the above developments are somewhat bemusing. Finding a chief government bureaucrat roasting the private sector for lacking vision and courage to lead the way in opening the space frontier is, well, different.
Now if we can convince the Administration that he works for (and the Congress that allocates the funds) to support the continuation of X-33, and to throw themselves into the effort with a little more enthusiasm, we may be figuring out how to toast each other in zero-G for a job well done. With flasks rather than flames.
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Rain of Iron and Ice: The Very Real Threat of Comet and Asteroid Bombardment
by John S. Lewis
Helix Books (Addison-Wesley), 1995
236pp., illus.
ISBN 0-201-48950-3
US$25/C$34
One of the comforts regarding the threat asteroids and comets pose to the Earth is that the events themselves are rare. No one, we learn, has yet to die directly from an impact event in recorded history, and only one person (a woman in Alabama) has been injured by a meteorite. These statements are myths unsubstantiated by facts, though, according to John Lewis in his book Rain of Iron and Ice, who theorizes that asteroid and comet impacts have been far deadlier in human history than has been believed.
Much of the book is a discussion, at the level of the layperson, of asteroids and comets and their threat to the Earth. Lewis discusses evidence for impacts in the Earth's past, such as the Tunguska event in 1908. Lewis also mentions evidence for impacts on other worlds, such as the Moon and Mars. None of this material is either groundbreaking nor uniquely presented, when compared to other recent books on asteroid and comet impacts. What sets this book apart from the others, though, is its reanalysis of commonly-held beliefs about the threat impacts play.
"No one in recorded history has eve been killed by a meteorite in the presence of a meteoriticist and a medical doctor," is Lewis's suggested revision of the statement that no one has been killed by a meteorite. The basis for this revision is his interpretation of a number of eyewitness accounts of events that appear, to the modern observer, to be meteorite impacts. Lewis quotes evidence ranging from Biblical passages to ancient Chinese records to other obscure accounts that suggests that injuries and fatalities from meteorite impacts, while rare, are not unheard of. While the threat posed by these small events is tiny compared to the potential for death and destruction from a larger impact, Lewis notes that these small events are valuable because they "put the cosmic threat in human terms": we relate much better to small-scale events, like a damaged car or an injured farm animal, than a large-scale event like the destruction of a city.
Lewis also presents the results from a number of simulations where statistical models of the population of near-earth asteroids are run over the course of a century to see what impacts, if any, take place. While some of the scenarios turn out very much like the real Earth, with few or no major impacts, some other scenarios produce much more devastating results. It would seem that we are living in a Panglossian best of all possible worlds. . . so far.
While the reader will not learn much more about the basics of asteroid and comet impacts than is already available in a number of other works, Lewis's research into impact scenarios and historical evidence for fatal impact evidences will be interesting to the layman or the professional. While the exact interpretation of many of the historical events and the validity of his statistical models could be questioned, the key premise remains valid: asteroids and comets are a significant threat to the safety of the planet.
The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance at NASA
by Diane Vaughan
University of Chicago Press, 1996
590pp., illus.
ISBN 0-226-85173-3
US$24.95
Ten years after the Challenger accident, some observers see dangerous parallels between events leading up to the launch disaster and current launch events. Recent incidents on shuttle missions, such as singed O-rings on the most recent launch of Columbia and problems with computers and hydraulic systems have led some to fear that the observed problems are only the visible tip of more serious problems which run deeper in the program. The current downsizing of NASA shuttle personnel and plans to privatize shuttle operations have worried people that safety may be less of a priority, or that not enough personnel are available to perform all the required safety checks. Are we setting ourselves up for another Challenger tragedy? That question cannot be answered until we understand why Challenger happened. Diane Vaughan provides one explanation that points towards problems within the NASA culture, and not with the technology, that led to the accident.
Vaughan, a sociology professor at Boston College, takes the view that NASA's institutional culture prevented warnings about the effects of low temperatures on the solid rocket boosters' O-rings from getting to the appropriate decisionmakers. In the process, she demolishes the old theory that shuttle managers, under pressure from high-ranking officials, pushed ahead with the launch despite the strenuous objections from the engineers. Instead, we see engineers fumble with the O-ring problem for years without coming to a satisfactory solution, or even a complete understanding of the problem. Poor communications often meant that people who could have positively contributed to the problem could not or did not. During a critical teleconference on the eve of the launch, the Morton Thiokol engineers who believed there was a problem with the O-rings gave a poorly-designed presentation which failed to provide managers with the key information that could have prevented the launch.
Vaughan uses the launch decision as part of a broader context: the study of decision making, and making mistakes, in technological, bureaucratic organizations. Indeed, this book is primarily a sociology study using the Challenger accident as a prime example than a space book that uses sociology to explain the decisions made. To the reader without a background in sociology, the text can be difficult to read in places, as Vaughan's text often becomes thick with jargon. (Be prepared to understand the difference between "the production of culture" and "the culture of production" and expect to see the phase "normalization of deviance" a large number of times in the book.) An effort to tone down the jargon in the book, replacing it with simpler prose, would have made this book much easier to read and understand.
Vaughan devotes part of the last paragraph of the book to a look at the current state of NASA, including its severe budget cuts. Noting that while NASA officials stress safety publicly, they are forced to make cutbacks required by the budget, and most of the decision makers in NASA at the time of the Challenger accident are no longer at NASA, meaning "economy and production are again priorities." Once you get beyond the sociological jargon in the book, Vaughn skillfully describes the NASA decision making system of 1986... and perhaps also 1996.
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Knowing where to look in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is important. With millions of potential targets available, a means of rating these targets in order to obtain a short target is essential. Local free-lance writer and researcher Andrew LePage has developed such a rating system that was first described in SETIQuest Magazine and later presented at the OSETI II conference in San Jose, CA this past January. At the April meeting, he will talk about this proposed rating system, the habitability of planets, and the impact of the recently discovered extra-solar planets on SETI.
Solar power satellites were first proposed by Peter Glaser in the late 1960s as a way to provide nearly limitless amounts of energy to the Earth cleanly. Since that proposal, SPS's have been believed by many to be an important long-term benefit of space exploration and development, but we are no closer to building an SPS today than we were nearly 30 years ago. Peter's talk will look at the history of the SPS concept, and future directions for solar power from space.
[Note: this is rescheduled from the March meeting, which was cancelled due to weather.]
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The National Space Society's Southwest Regional Space Conference was held in Arlington, Texas (a suburb of Dallas/Fort Worth), on March 16, 1996, with the theme "Space Station: Two Years and Counting". More than 60 people attended, including many members of the host chapter, NSS of North Texas. Astronaut Donald Thomas and four other speakers gave six lectures to an enthusiastic and appreciative audience. Other events included a poster session, a brief auction, door prize drawings, and, after the conference, a tour of the facility at Loral Vought Systems in Grand Prairie, where the radiators for the space station are being constructed. For NSS chapter members, a short chapters' meeting was also convened.
Gregory Bennett of McDonnell Douglas warmed up the crowd with an amusing lecture entitled "International Space Station: Some Assembly Required". After briefly covering the background in getting the space station on the drawing board ("Politicians do what politicians do for political reasons."), Mr. Bennett described the difficulties of assembling such a large structure in space. "It looks like it comes together like Tinkertoys but there's a little more to it." He told a few anecdotes, such as the story of the astronaut who punctured his glove during an EVA but didn't know it, and concluded by promising, "Space stations are like Disneyland; they'll never be completed."
Ray French of Loral Vought Systems followed with a technical talk about "Space Station Radiators". He described Loral Vought's role as a subcontractor and the procedure for constructing the heat rejection subsystem. "Since there is no air, the rejection of heat in space takes about 150 times the size of a terrestrial machine that would dump heat," said Mr. French. He explained in detail the components and characteristics of the radiators, plus the ground equipment required to manufacture and test them. Each radiator is comprised of Orbital Replacement Units, which are designed to be easily handled by an EVA astronaut or by the remote manipulation system. If a radiator panel is damaged, the ORU will be replaced in space and returned to Earth for repair.
Time was allotted after Mr. French's lecture for a poster session. In the back of the room, participants mounted information on backboards for attendees to examine, like at a science fair. Topics included a proposal for a space university, teleoperated robotics, and poetry in space (from local poet Marsha Griggs, whose poetry really was flown aboard the Space Shuttle).
After lunch, Dr. Donald Thomas described his astronautical experiences in a slide presentation entitled, "Operations in Space: From Space Shuttle to Space Station". He flew aboard Shuttle flights STS-65 (involving the International Microgravity Laboratory) and STS-71 (involving a docking with Mir as part of phase 1 in the development of the International Space Station). On his first flight, his first task after launch was to photograph the external tank after separation. Dr. Thomas was so focused that it wasn't until the task was completed that he realized, "Oh my God! I'm in space!" He described some of the experiments which he performed, such as stimulating "astro-newts" to lay eggs and observing the visual sensitivity of goldfish. The astronaut also talked about the daily rituals of living in space. In a sleep box, said Dr. Thomas, "you can see the cosmic rays and charged particles hitting your eyeball." He showed views of Earth and the rendezvous with Mir. Before concluding his lecture, he quickly covered the planned operations of the space station.
The fourth lecture was "Engineering a World Wide Project: The International Space Station" by Dr. Jack Bacon of NASA. He started with the history of space station designs dating from 1869 (the fictional "Brick Moon"). After covering Salyut and Skylab, Dr. Bacon examined Mir and its modules. "If you were going to try to merge U.S. and Russian systems together, you would start with a device that they built more of -- their own core module," said Dr. Bacon, whose current job is the integration of U.S. systems with the Russian RGB module. "What the Russians have in space is good heritage in space station design." He compared the original Freedom design to the current efforts for the ISS, then emphasized the technical and political problems that the international community must overcome to construct "the largest thing thrown into space by a factor of two or three." Dr. Bacon concluded, "It's refreshing to be able to sit down across the table and see the same look in the eye.... Everybody worldwide is sharing that vision and that problem."
After a break, NASA scientist Andrew Sexton lectured about the "Research Plans for Space Station". He examined various planned scientific payloads to be placed aboard the space station, including the Microgravity Science Glovebox and Gravitiational Biology Facility. He described recent Shuttle experiments that involved combustion science and protein crystal growth. Mr. Sexton also mentioned that a "nadir window" on the station will be a platform for Earth observation science. Finally, he covered Russia's utilization plans.
Greg Bennett closed the conference with a visionary talk about "Moonbase Artemis: Your Ticket to Space". Moonbase Artemis is a privately funded project whose goal is to establish a permanent, self-supporting lunar base as a commercial enterprise. Its mission is a manned spaceflight (with 2 to 4 people) to the Moon from Low Earth Orbit, leaving in place a transportation system between LEO and the lunar surface ready for the next flight. Mr. Bennett provided details regarding spacecraft, landing site, operation, economics, and a tentative schedule. According to Mr. Bennett, "the Moon is the front door to the Universe."
During the conference, an autographed copy of Jim Lovell's book, "Lost Moon", was auctioned for $47. Periodically, drawings were held for door prizes, which included "Arts&Letters: Space Age" CD-ROMs, space-related posters, and mission patches.
At the NSS chapters' meeting which immediately followed the conference, these resolutions were approved (about 14 members were present):
Most attendees participated in the tour of the Loral Vought facility where the space station radiators are being manufactured. The tour was arranged by NSS of North Texas president Carol Johnson, who is an employee of the company. Carol and some of her colleagues served as tour guides in the high-security area. They showed us the specialized equipment needed in the manufacturing process, and explained the steps in great detail. Everybody was fascinated to see one of the folded ORUs up close, although Carol apologized that no ORU was in the deployment stage, when it would have looked most impressive. Loral Vought is planning to produce one ORU every two weeks.
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PASA meets regularly for a business luncheon and formal meeting from 1-3pm, the third Saturday of every month at Smart Alex Restaurant, Sheraton University City, 35th & Chestnut. 2 hours of free parking with validation.
Scheduled activities: Sat., Apr. 13th, formal meeting; Sat., May 11th, formal meeting. Note that these two meetings are on second Saturdays. Call Michelle for details.
March 9th meeting: Oscar Harris and Mike Fisher will be judges for space-related projects at the upcoming Philadelphia School District Science Fair. Earl Bennett gave a Technical report covering the Shuttle tether, the "First Starship" article in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact April 96 issue, and on the building-a-spinning-mirror-telescope project.
Jim Chestek's and Don Cox's book: Doomsday Asteroids: Can We Survive a Hit? has been sent to the publisher, and should be available in November. Mitch Gordon discussed the latest Inside NSS. Jay Haines discussed the latest SSI Update. Michelle Baker discussed the presentation by the Polish astronomer Dr. Alexander Wolszczan at the Franklin Institute, and upcoming events at the Franklin Institute, Rose Tree Park, and Washington DC.
Sign up for the ISDC. It's right in our back yard. Send $75 (check, MC, Visa, AE) to Space Expos of America, PO Box 71, Maplewood NJ 07040.
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The effort to build a spacefaring civilization kept the OASIS membership busy during 1995 with public events, educational activities, community and political outreach, coordination with other space groups, and amateur space work. Public interest in space increased dramatically during the past year as a result of the Shuttle/Mir space station docking, the Galileo encounter at Jupiter, and the film Apollo 13, and OASIS used this opportunity to spread the word on human settlement to people in the greater Los Angeles area and across the country.
Our public events included: coverage of the Shuttle/Mir docking, featuring a video downlink from the joined vehicles, held at Rockwell International; a panel discussion on Cheap Access to Space with representatives from the three competing teams on the X-33 Reusable Launch Vehicle program; NSS Board member Dr. Robert Zubrin speaking on means to drastically reduce the cost of reaching and colonizing Mars; and co-hosting (with the Orange County Space Society (OCSS) and the Orange County chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) a slide presentation by astronaut and NSS President Charlie Walker on his perspectives from orbit and on the Washington space scene. These events attracted hundreds of attendees and received coverage by local television stations and newspapers. In each of these forums, OASIS promoted the concepts that the costs of space access must be slashed by a factor of ten or more and that space should be made as easily accessible as taking an airline flight.
OASIS continued its work on space education in 1995 with booths at the Orange County Youth Expo and the Tustin MCAS Open House (along with OCSS), an with a booth at the Van Nuys Air Faire. Additionally, OASIS members critiqued a high school class project to design a moonbase. These provided OASIS opportunities to inform and excite the interest of thousands of people in the possibilities of spaceflight in their lifetimes. Numerous attendees commented, "I didn't know any of this was happening. Why don't they make this information more available to the public? This is exciting stuff!!!"
The debut of the film Apollo 13, about the real-life efforts to save three astronauts in a disabled spacecraft bound for the moon, aroused public interest in spaceflight around the country. The long lines to get into the movie provided OASIS a perfect opportunity to inform people about that mission and on others taking place today. NSS Headquarters provided thousands of Apollo 13 commemorative newspapers to its chapters for distribution to moviegoers, and OASIS passed these out at several locations where the film was showing.
This past year also gave OASIS numerous venues for community and political outreach. The organization's members contacted reporters, civic groups, and political leaders on space-related issues, covering such topics as reducing the cost of space access, funding for space projects, upcoming space missions, and congressional bills aimed at developing space businesses.
OASIS members Ben Muniz and David Anderman went so far as to travel to Washington DC on their own money to press the case for space access.
OASIS continued its efforts to establish and maintain contacts with other space-related organizations. Besides the work with the Orange County Space Society mentioned above, group members provided valuable contributions to the work of the California Space Development Council, the Space Frontier Foundation(at their Space Frontiercon in October), and the Caltech Space Society. OASIS also arranged for several guest speakers for meetings of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society. Topics included Cheap Access to Space, the Galileo program status, space art, and using virtual reality to explore the moon.
The Pacific Rocket Society's project to launch an amateur-built rocket to 50 miles altitude continued in 1995 with help from OASIS members. The AmSpace rocket team conducted several test firings with its Spacefarer X80 engine and tankset, including a full-duration firing in April.
To keep its members informed, OASIS continued publishing its newsletter, Odyssey, and maintained its space Hotline number.
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The C.I.S. space station Mir with Mir-21 / STS-76 crew, Yuri Ivanovich Onufrienko and Yuri Vladimirovich Usachyov (call sign Skif-1 and Skif-2) and Shannon Lucid will be appearing in the mid west US morning skies March 18th to April 8th and evening skies April 9th to the 26th.
Amateur radio operators can log into the Mir 'Packet' (R0MIR-1) BBS on 145.550MHz simplex and soon on 435.775MHz uplink/437.975 downlink MHz. The cosmonauts also use the frequency 145.200MHz up and 145.800MHz down or 435.725MHz up/437.925MHz down or 145.550Mhz simplex to talk or send SSTV video with amateur radio operators on the ground during their off-hours.
Look for MIRWATCH and other great space stuff on my web page at http://www.skypoint.com/~benhuset/.
On March 15th at 1:04 am UTC, Yuri and Yuri performed a spacewalk to install a second Strela crane on the other side of the Mir core module The cranes allow easy movement of crew and supplies between the various modules. The 1st crane had problems reaching Kristal module so it was decided to add a 2nd crane. Preparations to accommodate the new solar arrays was also done on the Kvant-1 module. The new arrays are to arrive with the crew of STS-76 and be installed in May.
Politically Incorrect: General Yuri Glazkov, deputy commander of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center was quotes as saying NASA Astronaut Shannon Lucid will be a benefit "because we know that women love to clean." He added "The presence of a lady on board the Mir station helps... our crew members because they simply pay more attention to the way they behave, and speak.
Shannon said she never felt any discrimination during her training in Russia. "Maybe I'm not perceiving things, but I don't have anything to complain about."
Shannon got to pick her choices of Russian foods, she likes everything except the dairy products, but added that she doesn't like those, anyhow. She also gets her own notebook computer, video tapes, including Apollo 13, books and weekly calls home.
Shannon Lucid started for her 4+ month stay aboard Mir on March 22, '96 aboard STS-76. She will lead off an 26-month continuous US presence aboard Mir. John Blaha, Jerry Linenger and Michael Foale will continue the US staffing of Mir.
As of this writing the STS-76 is scheduled to dock at Mir on Sat 3/23/96 night. [Atlantis did dock with Mir as scheduled. - Ed.]
Astronauts Rich Clifford and Linda Godwin are scheduled to perform a space walk to attach four suitcase-sized experiment containers to the docking module. Two packages will gauge the amount of debris - both man-made and from micrometeorites - around Mir. The other two will expose paints, thermal insulation and metal alloys being used to build the planned station to test how well they survive in space.
Rich and Linda will become the first astronauts to rely on small jet backpacks (SAFER) to save themselves if they accidentally are cast adrift. With the shuttle Atlantis attached to Mir, it can not easily come after them if they are cast adrift.
The Russians are trying to decide on a new president. On June 16th the primary will be between Boris Yeltsin, Gennady Zyuganov, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, and Mikhail Gorbachev. While Yeltsin and Gorbachev have a track record of supporting space, the polls currently show Zyuganov in the lead. With 136% inflation and lots of unpaid workers, it's hard to support space. NASA is preparing options if the Russian support is unavailable in the future.
Vice President Al Gore, NASA Administrator Dan Goldin, and Congressmen Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) chairman of the House Space and Aeronautics subcommittee, and Jerry Lewis (R-CA) chairman of a House subcommittee that sets NASA's annual appropriation are writing letters to Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin urging the Russian Space agency to release funds for the space station. The funds were to pay Khrunichev for building the service module. If the module is not built by Russia it could delay the station by a year and cost an extra 2 billion dollars.
If you are looking for Russian space patches check out, Space Country Souvenirs. They are a division of Hanky Panky Enterprises, Inc a wholesale distributor of space program patches, caps, and other memorabilia.
Space Country Souvenirs
1126 West Ocean Avenue
Lompoc, California 93436
(805) 735-1322 or (805) 735-6911
FAX: (805) 737-4472.
http://www2.dmatrix.com/spaceco/
spaceco10185@www1.utech.net.
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OV-104 Atlantis has been launched on the third Mir docking mission, STS-76. Liftoff was on Mar 22 at 0813:04 UTC. There was a leak in the hydraulic system during ascent; it is not yet clear whether this will affect mission duration, but at the moment it looks like there is no problem. The RSRM-46 solid rocket motors separated 2 min after launch; the main engine cutoff was at about 0821:34 and the separation of External Tank ET-77 came ten seconds later. This was the 76th Shuttle launch. The OMS-2 burn placed Atlantis in a 157 x 292 km x 51.6 deg orbit; the NC-1 burn later put it in a 226 x 294 km x 51.6 deg orbit. (Can anyone tell me when the burns happened?) Docking with the Mir station is scheduled for 0234 UTC on Mar 24. The spacewalk is due for Mar 27, and the undocking for Mar 29 with landing on Mar 31.
The MEEP PEC experiments, which will be transferred to the exterior of Mir during the spacewalk, are mounted on ICAPC (Increased Capacity Adaptive Payload Carriers), not GAS Beams as I suggested last week. They are in bays 11 Port, 11 Starboard, 12 Port, and 12 Starboard. The TRIS experiment is on bay 13 Starboard.
EO-21 astronauts Yuriy Onufrienko and Yuriy Usachyov made a spacewalk on Mar 15. They left the Kvant-2 airlock at 0104 UTC and installed a second Strela crane on the Mir base block. The Strela is used to move spacewalkers and their equipment from one side of the station to another. The existing one wouldn't reach the Kristall module, which the new one will allow. The spacewalkers also went to the Kvant (37KE) module and did preparatory work for attaching a new solar array. Duration of the space walk was 5h 51m. (Info from C vd Berg). Shannon Lucid will become one of the EO-21 crew when her Soyuz reentry couch is transferred from Atlantis after the docking.
In a classic display of leftover Soviet-era male chauvinism, Gagarin Training Center deputy commander Gen. Glazkov reported that they expected improved living conditions on Mir with NASA astronaut Lucid aboard "because we know that women love to clean" (AP report). This from the space agency which hailed Svetlana Savitskaya's 1984 first spacewalk by a woman with "now Soviet space technology is advanced enough that [even] a woman can make spacewalks". Excuse me?
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has launched IRS-P3, a remote sensing satellite, using its solid-propellant 4-stage Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV. Launch was from the Sriharikota Island range; this was the third PSLV launch, and the second success. Other IRS satellites have been launched with Russian rockets, most recently in December. IRS-P3 is in an 802 x 848 km x 98.8 deg orbit.
IRS satellites:
IRS-1A 1988 Mar 17 Vostok, Baykonur 870 x 914 km x 99.0 deg IRS-1B 1991 Aug 29 Vostok, Baykonur 862 x 918 km x 99.2 deg IRS-1E 1993 Sep 20 PSLV-D1, Sriharikota (Failed) IRS-P2 1994 Oct 15 PSLV-D2, Sriharikota 798 x 882 km x 98.7 deg IRS-1C 1995 Dec 28 Molniya-M, Baykonur 816 x 818 km x 98.6 deg IRS-P3 1996 Mar 21 PSLV-D3, Sriharikota 802 x 848 km x 98.8 deg
India's first satellite was Aryabhata, launched by a Soviet rocket in 1975. Its first domestic launch vehicle was the SLV-3, first flown in 1979 and first flown successfully in 1980. IRS-P3 is the sixth Indian launch to reach orbit.
The TSS-1 untethered satellite reentered (with its 20 km tether) at 2312 UTC on 19 Mar, according to Space Command. Late on Mar 19 it was in a 193 x 210 km x 28.5 deg orbit, and reentry was over the Middle East/Persian Gulf region.
Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Feb 1 0115 Palapa C-1 Atlas IIAS Canaveral LC36B Comsat 06A
Feb 5 0719 N-STAR b Ariane 44P Kourou ELA2 Comsat 07A
Feb 14 1901 Intelsat 708 Chang Zheng 3B Xichang Comsat FTO
Feb 17 2043 NEAR Delta 7925-8 Canaveral LC17B Space probe 08A
Feb 19 0058 Gonets-D1 ) 09A?
Gonets-D1 ) 09B?
Gonets-D1 ) Tsiklon-3 Plesetsk LC32 Comsats 09C?
Kosmos-2328) 09D?
Kosmos-2329) 09E?
Kosmos-2330) 09F?
Feb 19 0832 Raduga Proton-K/DM2 Baykonur LC81 Comsat 10A
Feb 21 1234 Soyuz TM-23 Soyuz-U2 Baykonur LC1 Spaceship 11A
Feb 22 2018 Columbia Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 12A
Feb 24 1124 Polar Delta Vandenberg SLC2W Science 13A
Feb 26 0130 TSS-1 OV-102,LEO Science 12B
Mar 9 0133 REX-II Pegasus XL L1011/Vandenberg Technol. 14A
Mar 14 0711 Intelsat 707 Ariane 44LP Kourou ELA2 Comsat 15A
Mar 14 1740 Kosmos-2331 Soyuz-U Plesetsk LC43/4 Recon 16A
Mar 21 0500? IRS-P3 PSLV Sriharikota Rem.sensing 17A
Mar 22 0813 Atlantis Shuttle Kennedy LC39B Spaceship 18A
Feb 22 Progress M-30 Deorbited over Pacific Feb 29 Soyuz TM-22 Landed in Kazakstan Mar 9 Columbia Landed at KSC Mar 1 FSW-1 capsule Reentered over Atlantic Mar 19 TSS-1 Reentered over Middle East
Orbiters Location Mission/Launch Due
OV-102 Columbia OPF Bay 2 STS-78 Jun 27
OV-103 Discovery Palmdale OMDP
OV-104 Atlantis LEO STS-76 Mar 21
OV-105 Endeavour OPF Bay 3 STS-77 May 16
ML/SRB/ET/OV stacks
ML1/RSRM-54/ VAB Bay 1 STS-77
ML2/RSRM-46/ET-77/OV-104 LC39B STS-76
ML3/
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