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Дата: 17 февраля 1999 (1999-02-17) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: SpaceViews - 15 February 1999 [1/4] Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... S P A C E V I E W S Issue 1999.02.15 1999 February 15 http://www.spaceviews.com/1999/0215/ *** News *** Mir Investor Backs Out Soyuz and Proton Launch American Satellites Results of NEAR Eros Flyby Reported New Hubble Images Reveal Planetary Dust Disks SPACEHAB Feels Effects of ISS Delays NASA Assigns Cosmonauts to Shuttle Missions Berkeley Announces New Radio Telescope Devoted to SETI SpaceViews Event Horizon Other News *** Book Reviews *** This New Ocean Nothingness *** CyberSpace *** Deep Cold Solar Sails Home Page Cosmological Parameters Poll New Mars: A Journal of the Martian Frontier Editor's Note: In association with Amazon.com, we are now providing links directly to the bookseller's Web site from book reviews in this and future issues. This gives you the ability to easily order books reviewed here at significant discounts, while we earn a small percentage of those sales to help support this publication. We're also working on a book review archive on our Web site, which should be completed in the near future. -- Jeff Foust Editor, SpaceViews jeff@spaceviews.com *** News *** Mir Investor Backs Out The mysterious private investor who was to support Russia's Mir space station has reportedly backed out, endangering plans to continue use of the station beyond this year, Russian officials announced Thursday, February 11. Russian Space Agency chief Yuri Koptev said that claims that Energia, the company that operates Mir for the RSA, had found an unnamed foreign investor to support Mir for the next three years were just "wishful thinking." "They have indeed carried out serious work with an investor who had the money," Koptev told the Associated Press. "But the investor has some problems." Energia announced in December that it had found an investor to support continued operations of Mir for the next three years. At that time they refused to reveal the name of the investor, wanting to wait first for government approval of investment guarantees. On January 22, Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov signed a decree extending Mir's life to 2002, contingent on Energia finding private funding needed to support operations. Energia did not, however, reveal the name of the sponsor. The Russian government warned at the time the decree was signed that no government money would be used to continue the continued operation of Mir, as the country's already-small space budget was devoted to he International Space Station. "If Energia can find non-budgetary money, or putting it bluntly, sponsors, then the Mir station will continue to exist," Alexander Botvinko, deputy head of the Russian Space Agency, told Reuters in January. "If they don't find the money, then we'll follow the plan [to deorbit the station this summer] that was earlier approved." Rumors circulated both online and in the Russian media that the mystery investor was China, who is developing its own manned space program. Koptev, however, denied those reports. "If they had been interested in flying on our station, they would have done it a long time ago," he said. Without private funding, Koptev said, Russia will abandon the station in August or September, only slightly later than its original plan, which called for deorbiting the station in June or July 1999. An August date would allow Russia to complete one final six-month crew rotation on the station. A Soyuz spacecraft is scheduled for launch February 20 carrying Russian cosmonaut Viktor Afanasyev and guest cosmonauts Jean-Pierre Heignere of France and Ivan Bella of Slovakia. Afanasyev and Heignere and current Mir flight engineer Sergei Avdeyev will remain on Mir while Bella returns with current Mir commander Gennady Padalka in early March. Soyuz and Proton Launch American Satellites Russian Soyuz and Proton boosters launched communications satellites for Globalstar and Loral last week, after a January agreement cleared the way for continued launches of American payloads on Russian boosters. A Soyuz booster, with an Ikar upper stage, lifted off from Baikonur, Kazakhstan at 10:54 pm EST February 8 (0354 UT February 9). There were no problems with the launch and the four Globalstar satellites carried on the booster were acquired by ground controllers several hours after launch. Globalstar has an ambitious launch schedule in an effort to complete its constellation of 52 satellites (48 operational and 4 spare) by the end of the year. Three more Soyuz-Ikar launches are planned through April, followed by three Delta 2 launches in May through August. Two more launches each of the Soyuz-Ikar and Delta are planned from September through December. Each Soyuz-Ikar and Delta 2 booster can carry four Globalstar satellites. In addition, Globalstar has an option for a September Ariane 4 launch that can carry six satellites, if needed. A Proton, operated by the Russian-American joint venture International Launch Services, lifted off from Baikonur at 12:12 am EST (0512 UT) carrying the Telstar 6 satellite. The launch proceeded smoothly, with no problems reported. The satellite will go into geosynchronous orbit at 93 degrees west and provide video and data communications for North America and the Caribbean. The satellite was built by Space Systems/Loral and is owned by Loral Skynet. The launch was previously planned for late January, but a problem with a computer in the Proton's Blok-DM upper stage delayed the launch until the 15th. The launches were the first after a trilateral agreement among the U.S., Russia, and Kazakhstan was signed in Moscow last month. The agreement sets up safeguards to protect sensitive American technologies on satellites. Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=

Дата: 17 февраля 1999 (1999-02-17) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: SpaceViews - 15 February 1999 [4/4] Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... *** Book Reviews *** This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age by William E. Burrows Random House, 1998 hardcover, 724 pp., illus. ISBN 0-679-44521-8 US$34.95/C$48.95 Buy this book at Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679445218/spaceviews The concept of a one-volume history of humanity's ventures into space is hardly original. there have been dozens, if not hundreds, of books published over the years that seek to encapsulate the entire "space age" into a single volume; there are many more that limit themselves to a single but broad aspect of space history. However, there are few books that as good a comprehensive, detailed history of space exploration as William Burrow's "This New Ocean". Burrow defines the "first" Space Age from the time of Sputnik through the end of the Cold War. This is somewhat later than defined by other writers (who end the first phase of the Space age with the end of race to the Moon), but makes sense: even the post-Apollo program was driven to a degree by competition with the Soviets. The book also covers some "prehistory" of space from ancient Greek myths though World War Two and its aftermath, and also looks at the present state of and future hopes for space exploration. Burrows's approach to space history is refreshingly evenhanded and balanced. He is not trying to push a particular point of view or theory to explain why we went into space, and shaping the facts to fit that theory, but rather presenting what happened, placing individual events in the larger context of history. Unlike other works of space history, that may unduly focus on the manned space program, Burrows also provides detailed looks at military space program and space science projects, in both the U.S. and Russia (which is not surprising, since Burrows has written books on both topics in the past.) A single-volume look at such a broad topic can't cover all the details, yet Burrows manages to bring in a number of interesting nuggets not widely known, like polls that indicate that Sputnik had far less of an impact of public opinion than commonly thought, and the time the CIA "kidnapped" a Russia Lunik satellite for a night while in a Mexican exhibition to see how it worked. At $34.95 the price is a little steep, but one will be hard-pressed to find a better single book on space history than "This New Ocean." Nothingness: The Science of Empty Space by Henning Genz Perseus Books, 1998 hardcover, 340pp., illus. ISBN 0-7382-0061-1 US$30/C$43.50 Buy this book at Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0738200611/spaceviews Space is empty, right? Well, it's not completely empty, since there are atoms of hydrogen, helium, and other elements in the interstellar medium. And even if you got rid of those, there would be photons of all wavelengths passing through it, not to mention "virtual particles" that zap into and out of existence in a quirk of quantum mechanics. Physicist Henning Genz explores the topic of "empty" space in the book "Nothingness". Genz provides a history of the study of empty space, from early experiments with vacuums to present-day theoretical studies of the nature of space. The book is mostly science, with some theology and philosophy thrown in along the way. Ironically, for a book about empty space, its contents can get pretty dense along the way (perhaps as a byproduct from the translation from its original German version, "Die Entdeckung des Nichts"). However, if you're interested in just how empty "empty space" really is, check out "Nothingness". *** CyberSpace *** Deep Cold During the height of the Space Race both the United States and the Soviet Union proposed a number of innovative spacecraft, like the Dyna-Soar, Spiral, and Zvezda. Those spacecraft never flew, but they are remembered here at Deep Cold. The site's owner, Dan Roam, has created some computer-generated -- but extremely realistic -- images of the spacecraft as they might have flown. (The images may take a moment to download on a slow connestion, but they're well worth any wait.) Deep Cold is a fascinating look at spacecraft that never were! http://www.deepcold.com/ Solar Sails Home Page While the recent Znamya-2.5 experiment didn't succeed, there's a strong future ahead for solar sails. This site, by a French group developing their own solar sail projects, provides information on the possibilities of "photonic propulsion." The site has not only basic information and links to other resources, but some special features, including a comic based on an Arthur C. Clarke short story on solar sails and a solar sail simulator Java applet. http://www.ec-lille.fr/~u3p/ Cosmological Parameters Poll The Big Bang theory is well-established as the cause of the origin of the universe, but what of its eventual fate? Recent astronomical observations have suggested that the universe might continue to expand at an accelerating rate, and not come to a stop as once thought. You can weigh in with your opinions at this site. Provide three key cosmological parameters and see what happens to the universe. Vote for the combination you believe best matches what will happen to the universe. http://www.snafu.de/~bigbang/poll.html New Mars: A Journal of the Martian Frontier New Mars, a publication of the Mars Society, takes a look at the prospects for future robotic and human exploration of Mars. The site includes feature articles on various aspects of Martian exploration, opinion pieces, general Mars and society-specific news, an art gallery, and other features. An intriguing look at a new frontier! http://www.newmars.com/ This has been the February 15, 1999, issue of SpaceViews. SpaceViews is also available on the World Wide web from the SpaceViews home page: http://www.spaceviews.com/ or via anonymous FTP from ftp.seds.org: ftp://ftp.seds.org/pub/info/newsletters/spaceviews/text/19990215.txt To unsubscribe from SpaceViews, send mail to: majordomo@spaceviews.com In the body (not subject) of the message, type: unsubscribe spaceviews For editorial questions and article submissions for SpaceViews, including letters to the editor, contact the editor, Jeff Foust, at jeff@spaceviews.com For questions about the SpaceViews mailing list, please contact spaceviews-approval@spaceviews.com. ____ | "SpaceViews" (tm) -by Boston Chapter // \ // | of the National Space Society (NSS) // (O) // | Dedicated to the establishment // \___// | of a spacefaring civilization. - To NOT receive future newsletters, send this message to our NEW address: - To: majordomo@SpaceViews.com - Subject: anything - unsubscribe SpaceViews - E-Mail List services provided by Northern Winds: www.nw.net - SpaceViews (tm) is published for the National Space Society (NSS), - copyright (C) Boston Chapter of National Space Society - www.spaceviews.com www.nss.org (jeff@spaceviews.com) Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=

Дата: 17 февраля 1999 (1999-02-17) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: Cassini Update - February 12, 1999 Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... Cassini Significant Events for 02/05/99 - 02/11/99 Spacecraft Status: The most recent spacecraft status is from the DSN tracking pass on Thursday, 02/11, over the Goldstone tracking station. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health and is operating nominally. The speed of the spacecraft can be viewed on the "Where is Cassini Now?" web page (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/today/). Spacecraft Activity Summary: On Friday, 02/05, the VIMS High Level Decontamination Heaters were turned off as part of nominal procedures following a TCM (Trajectory Correction Maneuver) and the downlink data rate was returned to 40 bps. On Tuesday, 02/09, an SSR Pointer Reset was performed. Upcoming events: Activities scheduled for the week of 02/12-02/18 include: an SSR Pointer Reset on 02/16 and Flight Software Partition Maintenance on 02/17. Ranging only passes occur on 02/14 and 02/18. Cassini Outreach Cassini Mission to Saturn and Titan Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology National Aeronautics and Space Administration Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=

Дата: 17 февраля 1999 (1999-02-17) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: Китай планирует запустить свой собственный "шаттл" Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... Китай планирует запустить свой собственный "шаттл" Китай собирается в конце будущего года запустить свой первый беспилотный корабль многоразового использования. О его названии пока не сообщается. Сейчас в Китае ведутся активные работы по запуску пилотируемого космического корабля. Если это произойдет, то Китай станет третьей страной, способной запустить своего космонавта в космос на своей собственной ракете. Китай уже давно собирался отправить человека в космос. В 1979 г. в китайской прессе появились фотографии тренировок китайского астронавта, но вскоре работы по проекту были прекращены. В конце 80-х годов в Китае начались разговоры о создании небольшого пилотируемого корабля многоразового использования. Hо дело опять кончилось ничем. Однако в 1991 г. Китай начал космическое сотрудничество с Россией. Тогда 2 китайских космонавта прошли базовый курс подготовки в Звездном городке и вернулись в Китай для передачи своего опыта другим кандидатам. В 1996 г. глава Российского космического агентства Юрий Коптев был с визитом в Китае, во время которого было подписано соглашение о космическом сотрудничестве между двумя странами. Hекоторые аналитики подозревают, что Китай купил стыковочную систему, использующуюся на российских космических кораблях. Ходили даже слухи, опровергаемые Российским космическим агентством, что китайцы собираются заплатить за дальнейшее пребывание станции "Мир" на орбите. Hо нет никаких сомнений в том, что Китай имеет все необходимое для запуска человека в космос. Китайцы уже запускали в космос крыс и мышей и возвращали их на Землю. Сейчас Китай ведет разработку модифицированной версии ракеты-носителя Long March 2E, которая могла бы доставить человека в космос. Ходят слухи, что полет состоится уже в октябре этого года и будет приурочен к 50-летию образования КHР (1 октября 1949 г.). Источник: InfoArt News Agency Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=

Дата: 17 февраля 1999 (1999-02-17) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: SpaceViews - 15 February 1999 [2/4] Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... Results of NEAR Eros Flyby Reported The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous spacecraft's first close encounter with the asteroid Eros shows that the asteroid is slightly smaller than originally thought but is most likely a solid body and not a rubble pile, scientists reported Monday, February 8. The results were collected during NEAR's December 23 flyby of the asteroid, which occurred when a spacecraft glitch prevented NEAR from going into orbit around Eros as planned in January. The spacecraft took over 200 images and spectral observations of the asteroid at distances as close as 3,830 km (2,375 mi.). The data showed that Eros is slightly smaller than Earth-based radar data originally indicated. Images show that Eros is 33 by 13 by 13 km (20.5 by 8 by 8 mi.) in size. Radar data previously indicated that Eros was somewhat larger, 40.5 by 14.5 by 14 km (25.1 by 9 by 8.7 mi.). The images revealed a number of craters on the surface of Eros, as expected, with the two largest about 8.5 and 6.5 km (5.3 and 4 mi.) in diameter. Scientists saw fewer craters on Eros than seen in Galileo images of the main belt asteroid Ida, suggesting that Eros may be significantly younger that Ida. Also seen on Eros was a long ridge 20 km (12 mi.) long. That, coupled with a measured density of 2.7 grams per cubic centimeter (1.55 ounces per cubic inch), suggests to scientists that Eros is a solid body, and not a collection of rubble. In contrast, the large craters and low densities seen on Mathilde, a main-belt asteroid NEAR flew by in June 1997, made it likely that Mathilde was a loosely-bound collection of rubble and not a solid body. Some scientists have suggested that a significant fraction of asteroids may be such "rubble piles." While the data returned by NEAR was useful for scientific purposes, mission planners will also use it to prepare for the next time NEAR encounters Eros, in February 2000. NEAR is scheduled to go into orbit at that time and spend a year studying the asteroid in detail in an orbit that goes to within 15 km (9 mi.) of the surface. "The flyby of Eros has given us fundamental information that will help us plan a better orbital mission at Eros," said Andrew F. Cheng, NEAR project scientist at APL. "It has taken some of the risk out of our orbit insertion maneuver and early operations." NEAR was to go into orbit around Eros in January, but the first of four thruster burns required failed December 20 when software onboard the spacecraft aborted the burn just as it started. The faulty software has since been corrected. New Hubble Images Reveal Planetary Dust Disks New Hubble Space Telescope images of young stars have revealed the existence of dust disks that may be evidence of planetary systems forming around these stars, astronomers reported Tuesday, February 9. Images of six young stars in a star-forming region 450 light-years away in the constellation Taurus, taken by Hubble's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrograph (NICMOS) instrument, show that all six have dark bands, interpreted as lanes of dust from a disk encircling the star. "While the existence of these disks has been known from prior infrared and radio observations, the Hubble images reveal important new details such as a disk's size, shape, thickness, and orientation," said astronomer Deborah Padgett of Caltech's Infrared Processing and Analysis Center. The problem with seeing dust disks directly is that the bright light from the star washes out any reflected light from the disk. The best way to see these dust disks, as with the Hubble images, is to look for disks that appear edge-on as seen from Earth, so that the disk blocks light from the star. All the disks have estimated sizes of 8-16 times Neptune's distance from the star. It's thought that planetary systems form from such dust disks, although there is no evidence in the Hubble images that planets are in fact forming. A Hubble Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) image of another star system shows evidence of dust disks around a binary star system. In this case, the disk has formed around the fainter of the two stars, to a distance of 3.5 times Neptune's distance from the Sun. "The Hubble images of this disk offer further evidence that planet formation should be possible in binary star systems," said astronomer Karl Staplefeldt of JPL. The masses of all the disks seen, based on estimated from computer models, range from 1/200th to 1/10000th the mass of the Sun. By comparison, the mass of all the planets in the solar system, thought to be a small fraction of the total mass of the dust disk from which they formed, is 1/1000th of the Sun. SPACEHAB Feels Effects of ISS Delays Continued delays in the International Space Station (ISS) project are hurting the bottom line of SPACEHAB, one of the companies involved in the project, the company reported late Thursday, February 12. SPACEHAB announced that it had a net loss of $1.9 million, or $0.17 per share, in the second quarter of its 1999 fiscal year, which ended December 31 of 1998. SPACEHAB had a net income of $5.7 million, $0.43 per share, for the same period a year ago. SPACEHAB chairman and CEO Shelley Harrison blamed the loss on delays in shuttle flights that carry SPACEHAB modules caused by ongoing delays with ISS. "While our first mission to the ISS is still scheduled for May 1999, our second resupply mission has been postponed until after the launch of the Russian Service Module that is now scheduled for September 1999," Harrison said. "The revenue for this mission was nearly $2 million below our expectations for the quarter ended December 31, 1998." The ISS delays are also having an impact on SPACEHAB payloads that fly on other shuttle missions. "The debut of our Research Double Module has been slipped to December 2000," Harrison said. "A new research mission opportunity that was supported by a $15 million Congressional appropriation added to NASA's fiscal 1999 budget is now awaiting a mid-2000 flight opportunity." SPACEHAB makes habitation modules that fit inside the shuttle's cargo bay that provide additional room for research and storage during shuttle missions. The modules are owned by SPACEHAB; NASA pays for their use for each mission at a much lower cost than what it would cost the space agency to build and own the modules themselves. SPACEHAB modules have flown on a dozen shuttle missions, including the STS-95 mission last fall that featured the second flight of John Glenn. A logistics double module, carrying supplies for ISS, will fly on the next shuttle mission, STS-96, scheduled for May. SPACEHAB stock (NASDAQ:SPAB) closed at 9 1/4 Thursday, up 1/4; the financial news was released after the close of trading. The stock closed 3/8 lower on Friday. Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=

Дата: 17 февраля 1999 (1999-02-17) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: Galileo Update - February 12, 1999 Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE JET PROPULSION LABORATORY CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011 http://www.jpl.nasa.gov Galileo Europa Mission Status February 12, 1999 NASA's Galileo spacecraft is out of safing mode and has resumed normal flight operations, including playback of pictures and other science data gathered during the January 31 Europa flyby. Four hours after that flyby, Galileo entered safing mode- -a built-in protection mode designed to turn off all non- essential spacecraft activities-- while the spacecraft was performing a sun acquisition turn. The turn was halted when onboard fault protection software determined that the turn was lasting longer than it shoul