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    Архив RU.SPACE.NEWS за 20 апреля 1998

    Дата: 20 апреля 1998 (1998-04-20) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: Space Access '98 Detailed Schedule Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... Space Access '98 Conference Schedule (Speakers - we've tried to accomodate everyone's schedules - if you have a problem, contact us ASAP, if possible before noon Eastern time (9 am MST and PDT) Friday 4/17 so we have time to make changes in the printed program schedules.) Friday, April 17th - 4 pm - SA'98 Hospitality opens in suite 311. - SA'98 Registration and display setup open in Safari Ballroom B. - 8 pm - Friday evening introductory sessions begin in Safari Ballroom B. 8:00 - Henry Spencer, "Basic Issues & Introduction To the Major Controversies" 8:50 - Dave Salt, "Europe's Future Launcher Activities" 9:30 - Panel, "Access Politics 1998" - Tim Kyger (USL), Charles Miller (ProSpace), Rick Tumlinson (SFF), Henry Vanderbilt (SAS) late - hospitality closes Saturday, April 18th - 7:30 am - Hospitality opens, suite 311 - 8:00 am - Registration opens, Ballroom B - 8:30 am - SA'98 Saturday sessions begin, Ballroom B 8:30 - Gary Hudson, Rotary Rocket Company 9:10 - Jordin Kare, Tethers Unlimited 9:30 - Shubber Ali, KPMG Space and Technology Practice, "The Space Market Outlook" - 10:10 - midmorning break 10:50 - Bob Conger, Microcosm 11:30 - Panel. "Space Transport Investment In Transition: Accessing The Capital Markets" - Shubber Ali (KPMG), Stephen Fleming (Alliance Technology Ventures), Rick Giarusso (Rotary Rocket Company), Paul Hans (The Enterprise Institute) - 12:20 pm - lunch break - 2 pm - Saturday afternoon session begins 2:00 - Jerry Rising, Lockheed-Martin X-33/RLV 2:40 - Ron Schena - "Military Spaceplane: Flight Test and Operational Flight Issues" 3:20 - midafternoon break 4:00 - Tim Pleasant, University of Phoenix SoCol, "Will They Let You Launch?" 4:40 - Panel. "Regulatory Reform and Reusable Rockets" - Gary Hudson, Mike Kelly, Charles Miller, Tim Pleasant, Les Tennen. 5:30 - TBA, then dinner break. - 8 pm - Saturday evening session begins 8:00 - Panel. "Reusable Launcher Design Approaches: Lots Of Ways Not To Do It" (Mitchell Clapp, Gary Hudson, Max Hunter, TBA, Henry Spencer [moderator]) 8:50 - Pat Bahn, TGV Rockets Group, "Demonstrating Low Cost DDT&E" 9:10 - Joe Carroll, "The SEDS Tether Deployer As A Fractional Upper Stage" 9:40 - David Buehler, "Lowering Cost To Orbit With Extraterrestrial Resources" 10:10 - Tom Jaquish, "Circulating Ion Beam For Space Propulsion" 10:40 - Michael Wallis, Experimental Rocket Propulsion Society late - hospitality closes Sunday, April 19th - 7:30 am - Hospitality opens. - 8:00 am - Registration opens. - 8:30 am - SA'98 Sunday sessions begin. 8:30 - Tim Kyger, Universal Space Lines 9:10 - Tim Lewis, Orbital Sciences Corporation, "Upper Stage Flight Experiment" 9:50 - midmorning break 10:30 - Mitchell Burnside Clapp, Pioneer Rocketplane 11:10 - Bruce Dunn, University of British Columbia, "Inexpensive Expendable Upper Stages" 11:40 - Phil Sumrall, NASA Future-X - 12:20 - lunch break - 2 pm - Sunday afternoon session begins 2:00 - Max Hunter, "Trivial Utilization", "Happy Engineers?" 2:40 - Mike Kelly, Kelly Space & Technology - 3:20 - midafternoon break 4:00 - Rand Simberg, InterGlobal Spacelines, "We're In LEO - What Now?" 4:30 - Laurie Wiggins, "So It Flies The First Time: RLV System Design For Profitability" 5:00 - Wrapup Panel - Participants TBA End of Space Access '98 Program - Hospitality Remains Open Till Late. Space Access '98 is Space Access Society's sixth annual conference on the near term prospects for radically cheaper space transportation - we look at the business, technology, and politics of this rapidly emerging industry, in an informal gettogether of many of the key players. The conference takes place at the Safari Resort, 4611 N Scottsdale Rd in Scottsdale Arizona. At the door admission is $120 ($30 student rate). For further details check our web site, www.space-access.org. Space Access Society space.access@space-access.org www.space-access.org 602 431-9283 "Reach low orbit and you're halfway to anywhere in the Solar System." - Robert A. Heinlein, as passed along by G. Harry Stine Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
    Дата: 20 апреля 1998 (1998-04-20) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: April 21 Space Science Update: "Planets Under Construction" Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... Donald Savage Headquarters, Washington, DC April 16, 1998 (Phone: 202/358-1547) Jane Platt Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA (Phone: 818/354-5011) Andrew Perala W. M. Keck Observatory, Mauna Kea, Hawaii (Phone: 808/885-7887) NOTE TO EDITORS: N98-28 APRIL 21 SPACE SCIENCE UPDATE: "PLANETS UNDER CONSTRUCTION" The next Space Science Update (SSU), set for 11 a.m. EDT, Tuesday, April 21, 1998, at NASA Headquarters, will feature the discovery astronomers are calling the clearest evidence yet of a solar system forming around a nearby star. Two independent teams of astronomers used telescopes in Hawaii and Chile to image the region near the star where it appears planets may be forming, or may recently have formed, a 'missing link' of planetary formation between dust disks and systems with planets already formed. Panelists will be: * Dr. Michael Werner, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech, Pasadena, CA. * Dr. David Koerner, JPL/University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. * Dr. Michael Jura, University of California, Los Angeles. * Dr. Lee Hartmann, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA. * Dr. Ed Weiler, Director of NASA's Origins Program, Washington, DC, panel moderator. The SSU will originate from NASA Headquarters Auditorium, 300 E St., S.W., Washington, DC, and will be carried live on NASA TV with two-way question-and-answer capability for reporters covering the event from participating NASA centers. NASA Television is broadcast on the GE2 satellite which is located on Transponder 9C, at 85 degrees West longitude, frequency 3880.0 Mhz, audio 6.8 MHz. Audio of the broadcast will be available on voice circuit at the Kennedy Space Center on 407/867- 1220. - end - Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
    Дата: 20 апреля 1998 (1998-04-20) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: NASA Announces Contest To Name X-Ray Observatory Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... Donald Savage Headquarters, Washington, DC April 16, 1998 (Phone: 202/358-1727) Dave Drachlis Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL (Phone: 205/544-0034) Wallace Tucker AXAF Science Center, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA (Phone: 760/728-7103) RELEASE: 98-63 NASA ANNOUNCES CONTEST TO NAME X-RAY OBSERVATORY NASA is searching for a new name for the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF), currently scheduled for launch Dec. 3, 1998, from the Space Shuttle Columbia. AXAF is the third of NASA's Great Observatories, after the Hubble Space Telescope and the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. Once in orbit around Earth, it will explore hot, turbulent regions in the universe where X-rays are produced. Dr. Alan Bunner, director of NASA's Structure and Evolution of the Universe science program, will announce April 18 at the National Science Teacher's Association meeting in Las Vegas, NV, the start of a contest, open to people worldwide, to find a new name for the observatory. Entries should contain the name of a person (not living), place, or thing from history, mythology, or fiction. Contestants should describe in a few sentences why this choice would be a good name for AXAF. The name must not have been used before on space missions by NASA or other organizations or countries. The grand prize will be a trip to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, FL, to see the launch of the satellite aboard the Space Shuttle. Ten runner-up prizes will be awarded and all entrants will receive an AXAF poster. The grand prize is sponsored by TRW Inc., AXAF's prime contractor. The AXAF Science Center in Cambridge, MA, will run the contest for NASA. NASA will announce the final selection of the winning name later this year. Contest rules, electronic entry forms, and additional information can be found on the Internet at: http://asc.harvard.edu/contest.html Entries also can be mailed to: AXAF Contest, AXAF Science Center, Office of Education and Public Outreach, 60 Garden Street, MS 83, Cambridge, MA 02138. Mailed entries must be postmarked no later than June 30, 1998. All entries must state a name for the mission, along with the reason the name would make a good choice. The observatory, now in the final stages of assembly and testing at TRW's facility in Redondo Beach, CA, is more than 45 feet long and weighs 10,500 pounds. AXAF is the largest and most powerful X-ray observatory ever constructed, and its images will be more than ten times sharper than any previous X-ray telescope. This focusing power of the telescope is equivalent to the ability to read a newspaper at a distance of half a mile. Cosmic X-rays are produced by violent events, such as when stars explode or galaxies collide. X-rays also are emitted by matter heated to many millions of degrees as it swirls toward a black hole. The only way to observe these and other extremely hot astronomical sources is with a space-based X-ray telescope. -end- Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
    Дата: 20 апреля 1998 (1998-04-20) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: Lunar Prospector Update - April 16, 1998 Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... Lunar Prospector Status Report #28 April 16, 1998 - 12:00 midnight GMT NOTE: There was no status report last week. The Lunar Prospector spacecraft continues to perform well and all instruments continue to collect good data. The attitude data has been reprocessed, verifying that the last two maneuvers have executed as planned. The reason for the conflicting attitude data was that the effects of gravity gradient on the attitude had not been accounted for. The attitude model is being updated to include that effect. The next attitude reorientation is scheduled for 4/27. ----------------------------------------------------- Current spacecraft state (00:00 4/16/98 GMT): Orbit: 1139 Downlink: 3600 bps Spin Rate: 11.96 rpm Spin Axis Attitude: Latitude: 83 deg Longitude: 125 deg Trajectory: Periselene Alt: 87.6 km Aposelene Alt: 110.9 km Period: 118 minutes Inclination: 90.0 deg Occultations: 35 minutes Eclipses: 46 minute Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
    Дата: 20 апреля 1998 (1998-04-20) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: SA'98 Hotel Info, Speakers Schedule, Travel Info Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... Space Access '98 (April 17-19) Hotel Info, Presentations Schedule, Finding The Place, Expected Weather ** SA'98 Hotel Room Reservations Info ** The latest from the Safari Resort is that a few cancellations have come in for rooms at our conference hotel for the nights of Friday April 17th and Saturday April 18th. If you're still looking for a room for Space Access '98, we recommend you call the Safari first thing in the morning (602 945-0721). They are no longer obliged to offer our $64 "Space Access" rate on rooms that do open up, but it can't hurt to ask. Our information is that regular rates for this weekend run $75 and up. If you have no luck with the Safari, here's a list of other hotels nearby, none more than a mile away. - Days Inn, 4710 N Scottsdale, 947-5411 (right across the street) - Hampton Inn, 4415 N Civic Plaza, 941-9400 - Holiday Inn, 7353 E Indian School, 994-9203 - Ramada Valley Ho, 6850 Main st, 945-6321 - Rodeway Inn, 7110 E Indian School, 946-3456 ** Space Access '98 Conference Schedule ** (Speakers - we've tried to accomodate everyone's schedules - if you have a problem, contact us ASAP, if possible before noon Eastern time (9 am MST and PDT) Friday 4/17 so we have time to make changes in the printed program schedules. Email to hvanderbilt@bix.com will reach us, or you can call 601 431-9283 and leave a message.) Friday, April 17th - 4 pm - SA'98 Hospitality opens in suite 311. - SA'98 Registration and display setup open in Safari Ballroom B. - 8 pm - Friday evening introductory sessions begin in Safari Ballroom B. 8:00 - Henry Spencer, "Basic Issues & Introduction To the Major Controversies" 8:50 - Dave Salt, "Europe's Future Launcher Activities" 9:30 - Panel, "Access Politics 1998" - Tim Kyger (USL), Charles Miller (ProSpace), Ben Muniz (SFF), Henry Vanderbilt (SAS) late - hospitality closes Saturday, April 18th - 7:30 am - Hospitality opens, suite 311 - 8:00 am - Registration opens, Ballroom B - 8:30 am - SA'98 Saturday sessions begin, Ballroom B 8:30 - Gary Hudson, Rotary Rocket Company 9:10 - Jordin Kare, Tethers Unlimited 9:30 - Shubber Ali, KPMG Space and Technology Practice, "The Space Market Outlook" - 10:10 - midmorning break 10:50 - Bob Conger, Microcosm 11:30 - Panel. "Space Transport Investment In Transition: Accessing The Capital Markets" - Shubber Ali (KPMG), Stephen Fleming (Alliance Technology Ventures), Rick Giarusso (Rotary Rocket Company), Paul Hans (The Enterprise Institute) - 12:20 pm - lunch break - 2 pm - Saturday afternoon session begins 2:00 - Jerry Rising, Lockheed-Martin X-33/RLV 2:40 - Ron Schena - "Military Spaceplane: Flight Test and Operational Flight Issues" 3:20 - midafternoon break 4:00 - Tim Pleasant, University of Phoenix (Southern Colorado), "Will They Let You Launch?" 4:40 - Panel. "Regulatory Reform and Reusable Rockets" - Gary Hudson, Mike Kelly, Charles Miller, Tim Pleasant, Les Tennen. 5:30 - TBA, then dinner break. - 8 pm - Saturday evening session begins 8:00 - Panel. "Reusable Launcher Design Approaches" (Mitchell Clapp, Gary Hudson, Max Hunter, TBA, Henry Spencer [moderator]) 8:50 - Pat Bahn, TGV Rockets Group, "Demonstrating Low Cost DDT&E" 9:10 - Joe Carroll, "The SEDS Tether Deployer As A Fractional Upper Stage" 9:40 - David Buehler, "Lowering Cost To Orbit With Extraterrestrial Resources" 10:10 - Tom Jaquish, "Circulating Ion Beam For Space Propulsion" 10:40 - Michael Wallis, Experimental Rocket Propulsion Society late - hospitality closes Sunday, April 19th - 7:30 am - Hospitality opens. - 8:00 am - Registration opens. - 8:30 am - SA'98 Sunday sessions begin. 8:30 - Tim Kyger, Universal Space Lines 9:10 - Tim Lewis, Orbital Sciences Corporation, "Upper Stage Flight Experiment" 9:50 - midmorning break 10:30 - Mitchell Burnside Clapp, Pioneer Rocketplane 11:10 - Laurie Wiggins, "So It Flies The First Time: RLV System Design For Profitability" 11:40 - Phil Sumrall, NASA Future-X - 12:20 - lunch break - 2 pm - Sunday afternoon session begins 2:00 - Max Hunter, "Trivial Utilization", "Happy Engineers?" 2:40 - Mike Kelly, Kelly Space & Technology - 3:20 - midafternoon break 4:00 - Rand Simberg, InterGlobal Spacelines, "Implications Of Orbital Operations For Cheap Access" 4:30 - Bruce Dunn, University of British Columbia, "Inexpensive Expendable Upper Stages" 5:00 - Wrapup Panel - Participants TBA End of Space Access '98 Program - Hospitality Remains Open Till Late. ** SA'98 Background Info ** Space Access '98 is Space Access Society's sixth annual conference on the technology, politics, and business of radically cheaper space transportation, with increased emphasis this year on the entrepreneurial sector. SA'98 is this weekend, Friday evening April 17th through Sunday evening April 19th, at the Safari Resort, twenty minutes via "Super Shuttle" van from Phoenix airport, at 4611 N Scottsdale Road in downtown Scottsdale Arizona with plenty of fine dining and shopping in easy walking distance. SA'98 registration is $120 at the door. $10 off for SAS members. SAS membership is $30/year. SA'98 student rate $30, no SAS membership discount. (Cash or check only - sorry, we're not set up to handle credit cards.) - presentations You'll notice that presentation slots are short, generally forty minutes. We apologize for rushing you if you're presenting (though we won't apologize for all the excellent speakers who've agreed to come) but we do suggest that you prepare to get your main points across in a half-hour or so, to leave a few minutes for audience Q&A. We may be able to give you a few extra minutes, depending on cancellations or earlier speakers finishing early, but don't count on either. How you actually organize your talks is of course up to you. We will have a viewgraph projector and a VHS VCR set up for all talks - if you need additional equipment, let us know ASAP. - style On style, we run a fairly informal conference. The forecast for this weekend is low eighties and sunny days, high fifties at night - shirtsleeves are fine, and don't forget your swimsuit if you're so inclined. You'll notice we have no formal meal functions - we've found it more productive to schedule plenty of breaks, have a well- stocked hospitality suite, and locate in a hotel with a restaurant plus a decent coffee shop on the premises, then let people arrange their own groups to go off, trade ideas, and make deals. The entire conference staff is volunteers, by the way - they're very good at what they do and we're very lucky to have them. Bear with us if you get caught by one of our occasional glitches - we'll do our best to fix it ASAP. - finding the place From the Phoenix Airport, with no car, look for the blue van "Super Shuttle" dispatchers at curbside outside baggage claim, tell them where you want to go (The Safari in Scottsdale) and have $15 ready for the driver. Additional passengers in your party get a discount. Via taxi, the Safari is 10-15 miles, $25 and up - cab rates vary here, ask the driver or check the listing on the taxi door. Once you're at the Safari, there's plenty of shopping and dining within easy walking distance; you can get by without a car. From the Phoenix Airport, driving, follow the signs for Rt 202 east, out the east end of the airport. Take the Rt 202 freeway east about five miles to the Scottsdale Road exit. Take Scottsdale Road north about five miles until you cross Camelback Road - Camelback is one of the well-marked major streets you'll cross every mile, the previous two majors being Thomas then Indian School. The next traffic light you'll see, about a hundred yards north of Camelback, will be marked "Fashion Square" for the mall across the street. Turn right (east) at this light then left once you're in the driveway, and you're at the Safari. The Safari is at 4611 N Scottsdale, and their local phone is 945-0721. Driving out Interstate 10 from the west, look for the Rt 202 east exit right after you pass 7th Avenue/the downtown tunnel/7th Street. Take Rt 202 east to the Scottsdale Road exit and head north as above. Driving down Interstate 17 from the north, exit to I10 east the first time I17 crosses it. Take I10 east to Rt 202 east, then proceed as above. If you miss the first I10 exit off I17, you'll run into I10 a second time a few miles later - but you'll be past the Rt 202 exit, so you'll need to take I10 west for a mile or so to get back to 202 east. Confused, or coming via a different route entirely? Give us a call and we'll be glad to help you find your way. Space Access Society space.access@space-access.org www.space-access.org 602 431-9283 "Reach low orbit and you're halfway to anywhere in the Solar System." - Robert A. Heinlein, as passed along by G. Harry Stine Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
    Дата: 20 апреля 1998 (1998-04-20) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: Deep Space 1 Launch Rescheduled To October Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... Douglas Isbell / Don Savage Headquarters, Washington, DC April 17, 1998 (Phone: 202/358-1547) John Watson Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA (Phone: 818/354-5011) RELEASE: 98-64 DEEP SPACE 1 LAUNCH RESCHEDULED TO OCTOBER The planned July 1998 launch of NASA's Deep Space 1 technology validation mission from Cape Canaveral, FL, has been rescheduled for October. The delay is due to a combination of late delivery of the spacecraft's power electronics system and an ambitious flight software development schedule, which together leave insufficient time to test the spacecraft thoroughly for a July launch. The power electronics system regulates and distributes power produced by not only the solar concentrator array, a pair of experimental solar panels composed of 720 cylindrical Fresnel lenses, but also by an on-board battery. Among many other functions, it helps the solar array to operate at peak efficiency, and ensures that the battery is able to cover temporary surges in power needed so that the ion propulsion system (which needs electricity for its basic operations) receives a steady power supply. "With a new launch date for this bold mission, we can be more confident that we will be ready to fully exercise our payload of important technologies," explained Chief Mission Engineer Dr. Marc Rayman of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA. "The entire DS1 team looks forward to this opportunity to make a significant contribution to science missions of the future through the capabilities we are testing on DS1." Deep Space 1 is the first launch in NASA's New Millennium program, a series of missions designed to test new technologies so that they can be confidently used on science missions of the 21st century. Among the 12 technologies the mission is designed to validate are ion propulsion, autonomous optical navigation, a solar power concentrator array and an integrated camera and imaging spectrometer. The earlier July launch period for DS1 allowed it to fly a trajectory encompassing flybys of an asteroid, Mars and a comet. By the end of May, the mission design team is scheduled to finalize new target bodies in the Solar System for DS1 to encounter based on an October launch date. The New Millennium Program and Deep Space 1 are managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology. - end - Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
    Дата: 20 апреля 1998 (1998-04-20) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: Cassini Update - April 17, 1998 Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENTS FOR WEEK ENDING 04/17/98 Spacecraft Status: The Cassini spacecraft is presently traveling at a speed of approximately 139,000 kilometers/hour (~86,000 mph) relative to the sun and has traveled approximately 511 million kilometers (~317 million miles) since launch on October 15, 1997. As of Wednesday this week, the Cassini spacecraft has been flying for 6 months. Cassini's first planetary gravity assist, a technique used to increase spacecraft velocity, is approaching; the Venus-1 flyby scheduled for Sunday morning, April 26th. The most recent Spacecraft status is from the DSN tracking pass on Thursday, 04/16, over Canberra. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health and is executing the C7 sequence nominally. Inertial attitude control is being maintained using the spacecraft's hydrazine thrusters (RCS system). The spacecraft continues to fly in a High Gain Antenna-to-Sun attitude. It will maintain the HGA-to-Sun attitude, except for planned trajectory correction maneuvers, for the first 14 months of flight. Communication with Earth during early cruise is via one of the spacecraft's two low-gain antennas; the antenna selected depends on the relative geometry of the Sun, Earth and the spacecraft. The downlink telemetry rate is presently 40 bps. Spacecraft Activity Summary: On Friday, 04/10, the two of the three components of the second quarterly Periodic Engineering Maintenance activity were performed. The AACS BAIL Maintenance occurred first and was followed by the Engine Gimbal Actuator (EGA) exercise. (The third component - a Reaction Wheel Assembly exercise - is scheduled for early May.) The AACS BAIL software is stored on EEPROMs for the purpose of providing basic AACS capabilities for use in the recovery from a deep undervoltage anomaly, should one ever occur. The BAIL maintenance, planned every 3 months, is intended to detect and repair any Single Bit Errors (SBEs) that may have occurred on the EEPROMs in the preceding period. The activity will also identify, but not repair, any Double Bit Errors (DBEs); DBEs would then be repaired by further ground commanding at a later time. The EGA actuator exercise moves both Cassini main engines through their range of motion to assure that gimbal lubricant remains evenly distributed. Both activities were accomplished successfully. Telemetry indicated no SBEs or DBEs had occurred in the BAIL EEPROMs. On Saturday, 04/11, the Solid State Recorder (SSR) record and playback pointers were reset, according to plan. This housekeeping activity, done approximately weekly, maximizes the amount of time that recorded engineering data is available for playback to the ground should an anomaly occur on the spacecraft. On Sunday, 04/12, and Monday, 04/13, there were no changes in spacecraft configuration. On Tuesday, 04/14, a maintenance activity was performed on the SSR Flight Software Partitions. This activity repairs any SSR double bit errors (DBEs) which have occurred in the code-containing portions of the Flight Software partitions during the preceding period. On Wednesday, 04/15, there were no changes in spacecraft configuration. On Thursday, 04/16, the second Periodic Instrument Maintenance activity (PIM) began execution, as planned. This activity is carried out every three months by 11 of the 12 Orbiter instruments. This activity concludes Friday evening (04/17). PIM results will be reported in next week's Significant Events Report. Also on Thursday, the Solid State Recorder (SSR) record and playback pointers were reset, according to plan. Upcoming events: Activities scheduled for the week of 4/17 - 4/23 include: conclusion of the Periodic Instrument Maintenance (4/17), an SSR pointer reset (4/21), and uplink of the RPWS/Radar Venus-1 Minisequence (4/22). Venus-1 gravity assist flyby occurs early Sunday morning, 4/26/98. DSN Coverage: Over the past week Cassini had 9 scheduled DSN tracks occurring from 04/10 through 4/16. In the coming week there will be 10 DSN passes. Huygens Probe Status: No report Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
    Дата: 20 апреля 1998 (1998-04-20) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: Mapping The Heliopause From Earth May Be Possible Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... PHYSICS NEWS UPDATE The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Physics News Number 367 April 15, 1998 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein [snip] MAPPING THE HELIOPAUSE FROM EARTH might be possible by deciphering reflected solar ultraviolet radiation. The heliopause is the boundary where the outgoing solar wind meets the incoming plasma of the local interstellar medium. The Voyager 1 spacecraft, now at a distance of 67 astronomical units, might actually sample the heliopause (at an expected distance of 125 AU or more) in the future, but scientists at USC and the University of Bonn contend that UV rays bouncing off the heliopause and returning toward the Earth might be brighter than the general UV background, and hence would offer a way of probing the heliopause shape, which is expected to be nonspherical, and the magnetic field of the interstellar medium. (Gruntman and Fahr, Geophysical Review Letters, 15 April.) Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
    Дата: 20 апреля 1998 (1998-04-20) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: Sky & Telescope News Bulletin - April 17, 1998 Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... SKY & TELESCOPE'S NEWS BULLETIN APRIL 17, 1998 SHUTTLE IN SPACE AGAIN The Space Shuttle Columbia lifted off from Cape Canaveral today, at 2:19 Eastern Daylight Time, after a one-day launch delay caused by a faulty communications relay. The main goal for STS-90 is biological. The mission has been dubbed Neurolab and astronauts will conduct brain research to study neurological and behavioral changes in space on the various animals that are aboard. The shuttle will be aloft for nearly 16 days, with a possible one-day extension. Because the shuttle is orbiting the Earth at a 39-degree inclination to the equator, the spacecraft will be potentially visible from the ground by more people than when it is in its usual 28.5- degree orbit. MORE MARS IMAGES On the coattails of the reimaging of the "Face on Mars" by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor, the spacecraft spied on another area of Mars's enigmatic Cydonia region on April 14th. The original unprocessed data were placed on the JPL Internet site and its mirror sites the next day, and show a 2.5- km-wide and nearly 24-km-long swath through a region dubbed "The City." Another picture released this week is focused on the field around the Viking 1 lander, and reveals a billowing dust storm in progress. NAME A SPACECRAFT NASA and the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) Science Center are sponsoring a contest to name AXAF, the third of NASA's "Great Observatories." The names Edwin P. Hubble and Arthur H. Compton are associated with AXAF's predecessors, the Hubble Space Telescope and the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. But officials have yet to christen AXAF, which is currently slated for a December 1998 Space Shuttle launch. The winner will enjoy an expenses-paid trip to see the satellite take off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Contest rules are available on the World Wide Web at http://asc.harvard.edu/contest.html, by phone at 617-496-7941, or by writing to AXAF Contest, AXAF Science Center, Office of Education and Public Outreach, 60 Garden St., MS 83, Cambridge, MA 02138. You can also address queries to contest@cfa.harvard.edu by electronic mail. Entries are due by June 30th. VENUS AND JUPITER ARE OCCULTED TOGETHER Skywatchers around the world can look forward to a close gathering of Venus, Jupiter, and the waning crescent Moon on the morning of April 23rd. Venus and Jupiter will be only a half-degree apart -- the closest conjunction of this pair since 1992. But more is in store for parts of Africa and southern Asia. Here the Moon will occult both Jupiter and Venus, and in some places both will be behind the Moon at once! You'll find details on page 93 of the April issue of Sky & Telescope, and on SKY Online at http://www.skypub.com/occults/jupiter/980423a.html. According to Jean Meeus, there are 13 double occultations of bright planets between the years 1600 and 2200. (This does not include Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.) The most recent was of Mars and Jupiter on February 8, 1951. The next will include Mercury and Mars on February 13, 2056. THIS WEEK'S "SKY AT A GLANCE" Some daily events in the changing sky, from the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE. APRIL 19 -- SUNDAY * Last-quarter moon (exact at 3:53 p.m. EDT). APRIL 20 -- MONDAY * Some doorstep astronomy: The brightest star in the east after dark at this time of year is Arcturus. Far to its upper left is the Big Dipper. APRIL 21 -- TUESDAY * During dawn tomorrow, Venus and Jupiter, the two brightest planets, shine a mere 0.5 degree apart! That's less than half the width of your fingertip at arm's length. Look for them low in the east-southeast about 60 to 45 minutes before sunrise, before dawn gets too bright. Venus is the brighter one. The waning crescent Moon shines to their upper right. * There's another noteworthy event Wednesday morning: The peak of the annual Lyrid meteor shower. The peak usually lasts for just a few hours; its predicted time this year is about 6 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (3 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time), with several hours uncertainty. The shower's performance is less predictable; it has displayed peak rates of anywhere from 5 to 90 meteors per hour (as seen under ideal dark-sky conditions) during the last 20 years, on no discernible schedule. Best time to watch wherever you are: midnight until the first light of dawn. APRIL 22 -- WEDNESDAY * During dawn Thursday, Venus and Jupiter are still only 0.5 degree apart -- and now the crescent Moon is grouped closely with them too! This one is definitely worth setting the alarm clock for. Plan to look low in the east-southeast about 60 to 45 minutes before sunrise. APRIL 23 -- THURSDAY * The bright winter constellations are getting very low in the west these evenings. As twilight fades out, look southwest for the bright star Sirius. To its right by about two fist-widths at arm's length is the constellation Orion, with its now-horizontal Belt of three stars. Directly above the Belt by one fist-width is orange Betelgeuse. APRIL 24 -- FRIDAY * Find Orion as described for yesterday. From Orion's Belt, continue to the right by another two fists at arm's length. There you'll find the orange star Aldebaran. Farther on by a slightly lesser distance (and probably a little lower) is the Pleiades star cluster. APRIL 25 -- SATURDAY * The brightest star high in the northwest right after dark is Capella. The Pleiades are far to its lower left. ============================ THIS WEEK'S PLANET ROUNDUP ============================ MERCURY is barely above the eastern horizon as dawn brightens. It's far to the lower left of Venus and Jupiter. VENUS shines brightly low in the east-southeast during dawn, with Jupiter quite close by all week. The two planets are in conjunction, just 0.5 degree apart, on the mornings of April 22nd and 23rd. On those mornings they'll fit together in a telescope's field of view -- a rare sight! MARS is hidden behind the glare of the Sun. JUPITER is close to Venus in the east-southeast during dawn. Venus is seven times brighter. See above. SATURN is hidden behind the glare of the Sun. URANUS and NEPTUNE, magnitudes 6 and 8, respectively, are in Capricornus low in the southeast just before dawn. PLUTO, magnitude 13.8, is near the Ophiuchus-Scorpius border. It's well up in the southeast after midnight. (All descriptions that relate to the horizon or zenith are written for the world's midnorthern latitudes. Descriptions that also depend on longitude are for North America. Eastern Daylight Time, EDT, equals Universal Time minus 4 hours.) More details, sky maps, and news of other celestial events appear each month in SKY & TELESCOPE, the essential magazine of astronomy. See our Web site at http://www.skypub.com/. Clear skies! SKY & TELESCOPE, P.O. Box 9111, Belmont, MA 02178 * 617-864-7360 (voice) Copyright 1998 Sky Publishing Corporation. S&T's Weekly News Bulletin and Sky at a Glance stargazing calendar are provided as a service to the astronomical community by the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE magazine. Widespread electronic distribution is encouraged as long as these paragraphs are included. But the text of the bulletin and calendar may not be published in any other form without permission from Sky Publishing (contact permissions@skypub.com or phone 617-864-7360). Illustrated versions, including active links to related Internet resources, are available via SKY Online on the World Wide Web at http://www.skypub.com/. In response to numerous requests, and in cooperation with the Astronomical League (http://www.mcs.net/~bstevens/al/) and the American Association of Amateur Astronomers (http://www.corvus.com/), S&T's Weekly News Bulletin and Sky at a Glance are available via electronic mailing list too. For a free subscription, send e-mail to skyline@gs1.revnet.com and put the word "join" on the first line of the body of the message. To unsubscribe, send e-mail to skyline@gs1.revnet.com and put the word "unjoin" on the first line of the body of the message. SKY & TELESCOPE, the Essential Magazine of Astronomy, is read by more than 200,000 enthusiasts each month. It is available on newsstands worldwide. For subscription information, or for a free copy of our catalog of fine astronomy books and products, please contact Sky Publishing Corp., P.O. Box 9111, Belmont, MA 02178-9111, U.S.A. Phone: 800-253-0245 (U.S. and Canada); 617-864-7360 (International). Fax: 617-864-6117. E-mail: custserv@skypub.com. SKY Online: http://www.skypub.com/. Clear skies! Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=

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