Электронная библиотека астронома-любителя. RU.SPACE.NEWS

Электронная библиотека астронома-любителя. Книги по астрономии, телескопостроению, оптике.

главная

библиотека

архив RSN

ссылки

Ru.Space.News:

год:

Интернет-магазин
Любимых игрушек!

Обзоры оружия и снаряжения

m31.spb.ru

0.056

Архив RU.SPACE.NEWS за 11 августа 1998

Дата: 11 августа 1998 (1998-08-11) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: * SpaceNews 10-Aug-98 * Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC0810 * SpaceNews 10-Aug-98 * BID: $SPC0810 ========= SpaceNews ========= MONDAY AUGUST 10, 1998 SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA. It is published every week and is made available for non-commercial use. * SAFEX NEWS * The SAFEX team is interested in hearing from those who have had recent contact with the SAFEX repeater module on Mir. Joerg, DL3LUM asks that reports be sent to either of the following e-mail addresses: tom.kieselbach@t-online.de jh.hahn@gmx.net * CANADIAN SPACE TELESCOPE PLANNED * Saint-Hubert, August 5, 1998 -- The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) announced today that Dynacon Enterprises Limited of Toronto has been selected as the lead contractor to develop and build the world's smallest astronomical space telescope, capable of measuring the ages of stars, and perhaps even unlocking mysteries of the universe itself. Other key partners include the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS). The $4-million contract is subject to the successful completion of federal contract procedures and negotiations. The project -- called the Microvariability and Oscillations of Stars project, or MOST -- will bring together teams from Canada and the United States to design a low-cost, 50-kilogram satellite. The satellite's telescope, no bigger than a pie plate in diameter, will be secured to a suitcase-sized platform. The ability to use such a small satellite for a space telescope is made possible by Dynacon's new, lightweight gyroscope technology that corrects the wobbling motion of the satellite, and controls accurately where the satellite is pointing. Although relatively tiny in size, the satellite and its telescope will be a powerful tool to help astronomers probe the internal structures of stars to determine their ages. The MOST telescope will be able to detect and characterize the rapid oscillations in light intensity of stars -- a scientific feat not currently possible with any other telescope on earth or in space, including the Hubble Space Telescope. As part of the MOST team, the University of British Columbia will design and build a telescope of unprecedented photometric capabilities. Dynacon Enterprises, together with UTIAS, will design the microsatellite bus that will provide the high-precision pointing capability needed for both this and future CSA space science missions. Other MOST partners include: the Centre for Research in Earth and Space Technology (CRESTech) of Toronto; the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), which includes both Canadian and US Chapters; AeroAstro Corporation of Herndon, Virginia; the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC); and a team of consulting scientists from across Canada and the United States, led by the Principal Investigator, Prof. Jaymie Matthews of the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of British Columbia. The MOST project falls under the Small Payloads Program, sponsored by the CSA's Space Science Branch. The CSA is providing $4 million of the total cost. An additional $1.2 million is being provided from the Ontario Government Challenge Fund, while the balance is being financed by the University of British Columbia and the University of Toronto. Traditionally, the development and implementation of satellite technology and programs have been lengthy and expensive. With the Canada-led microsatellite project, the cost of having a satellite in orbit would be dramatically reduced. "The goal of the CSA's Small Payloads Program is to provide low-cost, frequent access to space for Canadian scientists, said Glen Campbell, the CSA's Project Manager for MOST. Lower cost means we can fly more experiments, keeping Canada at the forefront of innovative technologies that push the frontier of space research". [Info via the Canadian Space Agency] * TMSAT NEWS * TMSAT's gravity gradient boom was deployed on Friday 1998-Aug-07 under an automatic sequence on board the spacecraft. This was commanded from the Bangkok control station HS0AM. Telemetry data from the deployment showed that the 6.2 meter boom deployed perfectly with less than 1.5 degrees of oscillation from vertical. The satellite is now stabilised earth pointing and spinning at a rate of 0.6 degrees per second for thermal stabilization. The libration rate is currently 10 degrees and this is reducing as the attitude control task controls the stabilization process. Over the weekend, the attitude was improved, and testing of spacecraft payloads commenced. The satellite downlink is was still only being used over Bangkok and Europe as of late last week. [Info via Chris Jackson G7UPN / ZL2TPO] * FUJI-OSCAR-29 NEWS * The Fuji-OSCAR-29 satellite will remain in Mode JA as controllers investigate the spacecraft's on-board computer bit errors. The command team is asking amateurs to monitor the FO-29's CW telemetry and report when the telemetry value for channel 5 changes from 00. Channel 5 is the fifth telemetry item sent after "HI HI" in the telemetry sequence. Reports should be directed to lab@jarl.or.jp. FO-29 will be in constant sunlight through mid-August. The operating schedule may be changed in late August to cope with the rising temperatures the constant sunlight is expected to have on the spacecraft. [Info via Kazu Sakamoto, JJ1WTK] * THANKS! * Thanks to all who recently sent messages of appreciation to SpaceNews, especially: DL3LUM EI2FSB WA3YDZ * FEEDBACK/INPUT WELCOMED * Comments and input for SpaceNews should be directed to the editor (John, KD2BD) via any of the paths listed below: WWW : http://www.njin.net/~magliaco/ PACKET : KD2BD @ KS4HR.NJ.USA.NA INTERNET : kd2bd@amsat.org, magliaco@email.njin.net SATELLITE : AMSAT-OSCAR-16, LUSAT-OSCAR-19, KITSAT-OSCAR-25 <<=- SpaceNews: The first amateur newsletter read in space! -=>> <<=- Serving the planet for over 10 years -=>> /EX -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- John A. Magliacane, KD2BD -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Internet : kd2bd@amsat.org | Voice : +1.732.224.2948 Satellite : AO-16, LO-19, KO-25 | Morse : -.- -.. ..--- -... -.. Packet : KD2BD @ KS4HR.NJ.USA.NA | WWW : http://www.njin.net/~magliaco/ Video : 426.250 MHz/439.250 MHz | FAX : +1.732.224.2060 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Titanic '12, Hindenberg '37, Windows '98 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=

Дата: 11 августа 1998 (1998-08-11) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: Mars Surveyor 98 Update - August 7, 1998 Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... 1998 MARS SURVEYOR PROJECT STATUS REPORT August 7, 1998 John McNamee Mars Surveyor 98 Project Manager Mars Climate Orbiter: Orbiter integration and test activities continue to proceed on schedule. Testing of the repaired optical chopper assembly for the Pressure Modulator InfraRed Radiometer (PMIRR) instrument is complete and the chopper is scheduled for reinstallation on PMIRR on August 7. Mars Polar Lander: Landed thermal balance testing was completed very successfully on August 2 validating the passive thermal control approach. Actual thermal performance was within 3 degrees C of predicts. Cruise thermal vacuum testing is scheduled for August 30. For more information on the Mars Surveyor 98 mission, please visit our website at: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98/ Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=

Дата: 11 августа 1998 (1998-08-11) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: This Week On Galileo - August 10-16, 1998 Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... THIS WEEK ON GALILEO August 10-16, 1998 Galileo spends this week returning to Earth science data captured during the spacecraft's flyby of Jupiter's moon Europa in late May. The data was left intact during Galileo's most recent passage through the heart of the Jupiter system, in mid-July, when a spacecraft anomaly halted all encounter activities. Science teams will take advantage of the existing transmission time to fill in gaps in existing data sets caused by previous transmission problems, or by the fact that there is typically not enough transmission time from one encounter to the next to return all of the valuable data stored on the tape recorder. In this week's playback schedule, the near-infrared mapping spectrometer returns the final observation in a series of three designed to provide high spatial resolution information on the non-ice components of Europa's surface. The remainder of the week is spent returning observations of Io performed by the spacecraft camera. The first is designed to provide information on the size and age of sulfur grains on Io's surface. The next four were taken while Io was eclipsed from the sun by Jupiter. They are designed to allow scientists to study the changes in Io's surface temperature as the eclipse progresses. For more information on the Galileo spacecraft and its mission to Jupiter, please visit the Galileo home page: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=

Дата: 11 августа 1998 (1998-08-11) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: NASA Managers Consider Postponing Deployment Of MGS Antenna Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... Douglas Isbell Headquarters, Washington, DC August 10, 1998 (Phone: 202/358-1547) Diane Ainsworth <b style="color:black;background-color:#ffff66">Jet</b> Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA (Phone: 818/354-5011) RELEASE: 98-146 NASA MANAGERS CONSIDER POSTPONING DEPLOYMENT OF MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR ANTENNA Concern over the deployment mechanism for the high-gain communication antenna on the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft has caused NASA managers to consider postponing the antenna's deployment in order to maximize the probability of mission success. The project team is studying a postponement of up to nine months in the antenna deployment, which currently is scheduled to take place in March 1999. The spacecraft, now in orbit around Mars, uses the undeployed high-gain antenna to communicate with Earth, but the entire spacecraft must be turned to point the antenna toward Earth during each communication session. "We have not made any decisions yet, but we want to take a conservative approach in order to protect the mission as fully as possible," said Glenn E. Cunningham, Mars Global Surveyor project manager at NASA's <b style="color:black;background-color:#ffff66">Jet</b> Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA. "A delay in the antenna deployment would reduce the flow of imagery and science data somewhat, but we have some ideas about how to compensate for that." Launched in November 1996 and in Mars orbit since September 1997, Mars Global Surveyor carries a dish-shaped high-gain antenna that is to be deployed on a 6.6-foot-long (two-meter) boom for the global mapping portion of the mission. The antenna is stowed during launch and the early orbital phase at Mars so that it is not contaminated by the exhaust plume from the spacecraft's main engine. The mission plan calls for the antenna boom to be deployed following the final use of the main engine next spring, at the completion of the spacecraft's orbit-shaping aerobraking activity. During deployment, the boom is pushed outward by a powerful spring. A damper mechanism cushions the force of the spring and limits the speed of the deployment, somewhat like an automobile shock absorber or the piston-like automatic closer on a screen door. In recent months, however, engineers have become aware of problems with similar damper devices on deployable structures such as solar panels on other spacecraft. New data suggest that, in the vacuum of space, air bubbles may develop in the viscous fluid inside the damper. This may allow the boom to move through a considerable range of motion at a high speed before any cushioning effect begins to occur. "To the best of our knowledge, we could deploy the antenna boom without any adverse effect," said Cunningham. "However, the forces that the damper and boom would be subjected to as a result of the bubble formation are close enough to the maximum force that they are designed to withstand that we want to take a cautious approach in evaluating the deployment." In a worst-case scenario, damage resulting from damper failure could render the spacecraft unable to communicate with Earth. "The advantage of deploying the high-gain antenna is that we can then use its gimbals to point the antenna at Earth to send data at the same time science instruments are pointed at Mars acquiring science data," said Cunningham. "Until we deploy the antenna, we must store data on the spacecraft's onboard recorder and then turn the entire spacecraft periodically to transmit data to Earth." A similar approach was used on NASA's Magellan spacecraft, which orbited Venus from 1990 to 1994. The project team is considering postponing the antenna deployment until after the landing of another spacecraft, the Mars Polar Lander, which will reach Mars in December 1999. Mars Polar Lander carries an experiment called the Deep Space 2 microprobes, which will penetrate the soil of Mars in search of subsurface water. Deep Space 2 relies on Global Surveyor as its only possible communication link with Earth. If the high-gain antenna remains undeployed when Mars Global Surveyor begins its prime mapping mission next March, Cunningham said that small gaps would exist in coverage of the Martian surface by the spacecraft's camera and other instruments, due to the periods when the spacecraft is turned to communicate with Earth. Those gaps could be filled in later in the orbital mission. The project team is not yet certain how a postponed deployment would affect the total amount of data returned by the spacecraft. An initial estimate for the first 30 days of the global mapping mission found that it could return approximately 40 percent of the data that could be sent with a fully articulated antenna. However, the data return rate could be improved by strategies such as using larger ground antennas on Earth so that the spacecraft could transmit data more quickly, Cunningham noted. A final decision on the antenna deployment will not be made until a review scheduled for Feb. 3, 1999, before the spacecraft's prime mapping mission begins the following month. Mars Global Surveyor is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology. The spacecraft was built by Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, CO. -end- Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=

Дата: 11 августа 1998 (1998-08-11) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: STARDUST Update - August 7, 1998 Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... STARDUST Status Report August 7, 1998 Ken Atkins STARDUST Project Manager Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations (ATLO) activities: This week's focus was on solar array and high gain antenna installation, moving to the rotation fixture, and performing "aliveness" and functional testing. It was very clear to those of you watching the action on the webcam lots of things were occurring. Some very impressive views were available as the ATLO team moved around and worked STARDUST through its paces. Part A of the second system performance test (SPT) was successfully completed including checkout of the launch sequences, Navigation Camera imaging (windowed) and the sample return capsule (SRC) deployment sequences. The latter was done in the horizontal position in the very clean glove box enclosure. The careful handling when we open the SRC is necessary to ensure we keep the aerogel surfaces very clean when the actual flight collector is installed later this year. The opening of the SRC and the deployment of the ATLO test unit collector showed the SRC responded appropriately to the sequence of commands sent through the computer. This underscores our confidence the system will do exactly the same when it is at the comet and we place the action under full control of the on-board computer. After the horizontal SRC testing, the spacecraft was moved to the acoustic chamber to prepare for checking its capability to ride the vibration of the launch rocket. The flight system continues to show no hardware functional problems going into environmental test. The millionth name was received this week for the second microchip, and a press release announcing the milestone generated a number of media responses. Now 1,010,518 names have been collected so far for the second microchip. Combined with the first microchip (136,237), STARDUST has a total of 1,146,755 names. Welcome aboard! For more information on the STARDUST mission - the first ever comet sample return mission - please visit the STARDUST home page: http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=

Дата: 11 августа 1998 (1998-08-11) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: SpaceViews - August 1998 [1/13] Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... This is the August 1998 "SpaceViews" (tm) newsletter, published by the Boston chapter of the National Space Society. For a description of related e-mail lists maintained by the Boston NSS, or to stop receiving this SpaceViews newsletter, see the instructions at the end of this message. The next Boston meeting is Tuesday, August 11, 1998, 7:30pm 8th floor, 545 Main Street (Tech Square), Cambridge; see "Upcoming Boston NSS Events" Speaker: Scott Carpenter, Engineering Design Environments "Preliminary Assessment of Space Colonization Strategies Based on Nuclear Fusion Propulsion" Future meetings are on the first Thursdays of each month: Sept. 3, Oct. 1, Nov. 5 SpaceViews is available on the WWW at http://www.spaceviews.com (NEW!) and by FTP from ftp.seds.org in directory /pub/info/newsletters/spaceviews See the very end for information on membership, reprinting, copyright, etc. Copyright (C) 1997 by Boston Chapter of National Space Society, a non-profit educational 501(c)3 organization. All articles in SpaceViews represent the opinions of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Editor, the National Space Society (NSS), or the Boston chapter of the NSS. S P A C E V I E W S Volume Year 1998, Issue 8 August 1998 http://www.spaceviews.com/1998/08/ *** News *** Former Astronaut Alan Shepard Dies Could Triana Replace SOHO? Russia Shelves Plans for "Space Mirror" Test House Rejects Anti-Space Station Amendment Scientists and Activists Work on Mars Rover Replacement Budget Woes Force Mir Mission Cutbacks Galileo Glitch Disrupts Europa Flyby Mars Plane Proposed for Wright Brothers Centennial Net Pioneer Discusses Interplanetary Internet Astronomers Find Clues to Origins of Life in Distant Nebula SpaceViews Event Horizon Other News *** Articles *** The First Race to the Moon The Prehistory of Lunar Prospector, Part 1 Solar Sails for the Operational Space Community *** Book Reviews *** Sojourner's Technical and Political Challenges A Capsule History of Space *** NSS News *** Upcoming Boston NSS Events Boston NSS July Lecture Summary Mars Society Conference: "The Woodstock of Mars" *** Regular Features *** Jonathan's Space Report No. 367 Space Calendar Editor's Note: Our next issue will be August 15. *** News *** Former Astronaut Alan Shepard Dies Former astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American to fly into space and one of 12 men to set foot on the moon, died early Wednesday, July 22, after a battle with cancer. He was 74. Born in East Derry, New Hampshire in 1923, Shepard graduated from the Naval Academy in 1944. He served on a destroyer during World War II before becoming a test pilot after the war. He was selected as one of the seven original astronauts in 1959. Shepard became the first American to fly in space on May 5, 1961, when he flew in the Freedom 7 Mercury capsule on a 15-minute suborbital flight. Shepard was considered in line to command the first Gemini mission, but a serious inner-ear disorder grounded the astronaut. He remained on the ground until an operation corrected his ear problem. He headed up the astronaut office while grounded. He was originally assigned to command the Apollo 13 mission, but was pushed back with his crew, Edgar Mitchell and Stuart Roosa, for additional training. After a hiatus caused by the Apollo 13 accident, Shepard and crew flew to the Moon on Apollo 14 in late January 1971. He was best remembered from that mission not for the science he and fellow moonwalker Mitchell accomplished, but for some extracurricular activity: hitting golf balls across the lunar surface using a makeshift golf club. He retired from NASA and the Navy in 1974 and went on to a successful career in a number of ventures, from commercial property development to a beer distributorship. Shepard also played a role in the founding of the present-day National Space Society. "He was a member of the original Board of Directors soon after our organization was founded in the mid-1970s, later becoming a member of our Board of Governors," NSS president and former astronaut Charlie Walker said. "His impact on society and our organization will never be forgotten." Praise for Shepard came from all quarters. "Those of us who are old enough to remember the first space flights will always remember what an impression he made on us and on the world," President Bill Clinton said before a crime prevention speech. "The entire NASA family is deeply saddened by the passing of Alan Shepard," NASA administrator Dan Goldin said in a statement. "NASA has lost one of its greatest pioneers; America has lost a shining star." Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=

Дата: 11 августа 1998 (1998-08-11) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: SpaceViews - August 1998 [2/13] Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... Could Triana Replace SOHO? Officials from NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are considering proposals to partially replace the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) satellite that lost contact with Earth in June, including one proposal to use the controversial Triana spacecraft. Meanwhile, engineers using two radio telescopes have located SOHO, but have been unable to communicate with the disabled spacecraft, NASA reported July 27. Space News reported in its July 20 issue that several options were under consideration to replace SOHO, which is thought to have no more than a 50 percent chance for a full recovery. One proposal would place several spare SOHO instruments on Triana, an Earth-observing spacecraft proposed in March by Vice President Al Gore. Like SOHO, Triana would orbit around the L1 Lagrange point, about 1.5 million kilometers (900,000 mi.) Sunward of the Earth. Triana was proposed as a spacecraft to return high-resolution images of the sunlit Earth 24 hours a day starting in 2000. The mission has met with strong criticism from Congress and some scientists, who see little scientific value in the spacecraft, expected to cost $20-50 million. One advantage of using Triana, SOHO officials say, is that it would permit observations of the Sun during the upcoming maximum in solar activity, expected in 2001. U.S. SOHO project scientist Joe Gurman told Space News that using Triana was a "most exciting opportunity" since there are few other prospects for replacing SOHO instruments before the solar maximum. Other options being considered are flying experiments on future Mid-class Explorer (MIDEX) spacecraft, low-cost space science missions. However, MIDEX missions with SOHO instruments would not fly until at least 2003 or 2004. A full replacement of the SOHO spacecraft and instruments is not likely, though, due to a lack of funds. "If we had $200 million, we could put up a replacement in two and a half years," Phillip Scherrer of Stanf