The Newsletter of
The Seattle Chapter
Of The National Space Society
»»»»»»»»»» February 1999 ««««««««««
The National Space Society is an international membership group dedicated to furthering the exploration and development of space. The Seattle chapter mission is to facilitate Space Activism and all pro-Space activities; and to provide a gathering place for space enthusiasts to meet, exchange information and ideas.
»»»»»»»»»» Chapter Officers ««««««««««
President: Vince Creisler VinceLC@hotmail.com
Vice President: Chris Vancil CLVANCIL@aol.com
Secretary/Editor: Randy Rumley rjrumley@juno.com
Treasurer: David Stuart DSTUART@prodigy.net
»»»»»»»»»»Board of Directors««««««««««
Gary Harrison Christopher Erickson
Susan Harrison Tony Rusi
»»»»»»»»»»Advisors««««««««««
Terry Burlison
Chapter meetings are held at 7:00 PM on the second Saturday of each month, at the Museum of Flight; parking is available in the lot North of the museum. To receive information regarding upcoming events, please send your name and address to: Randy Rumley; 12008 SE 223rd Drive, Kent, WA 98031
XXVII
sojourn (sò jûrn ), to stay for a time in a place; live temporarily
President's Message
As NSS Seattle begins 1999, we need to look at how our chapter can build upon its earlier accomplishments. Our chapter's speed in establishing itself is certainly no small feat. We are one of the most active NSS chapters in the western United States, with regular meetings featuring distinguished speakers, a newsletter, web site, television broadcasts and presence at regional Science Fiction conventions and local Space events - all attributes of a well functioning chapter.
Now is the time to ask if being a functional NSS Chapter is an end in itself, or the foundation to build future accomplishments on. Our local chapter members, and interested non-members, have a broad spectrum of experience, knowledge, and skills applicable to activities for generating public interest in Space. Those with ideas should come forward and share them with the group, perhaps submitting them within the pages of Sojourner, so NSS Seattle's resources can be placed at their disposal. 1999 could be the year when NSS Seattle joins the ranks of chapters leading the Space Movement forward.
Vince Creisler
President, NSS Seattle
Mars Interest URLs:
Mars Society Puget Sound: http://www.jburk.com/mars/
Mars Society: http://www.marssociety.org/
Mars Society online magazine: http://www.newmars.com
Map of Mars: http://maps.jpl.nasa.gov/mars.html
For our ever-growing list of URLs on the web, visit our web site. Chris Vancil keeps it updated. Including online versions of this newsletter.
http:// NSS.AC/wa/seattle/index.html
February 13, 1999
Meeting
Our speaker this time will be Terry Burlison, Former NASA Mission Control FIDO.
He will be giving us insights into mission control operations and events. If you have seen Terry speak before, you know it will be interesting, fun, and informative. His past discussions of Orbital Mechanics and Orbital Rendezvous are quite useful when watching Shuttle / International Space Station (ISS) visits
Chris Erickson will be giving a short description (with discussion) about a planned mass mapping mission project. For information on this, see the article by Chris later in this issue.
Also, if anyone is interested, we have our 'Let's go to the New World' T-shirts available. The Mars Society Puget Sound Chapter will have a couple of interesting books on Mars available for sale as well.
Randy J. Rumley
(Ed.)
Meeting Summary, January 9, 1999
This meeting was primarily for organization of the chapter's participation in Rustycon. We had no speaker scheduled. We had to make decisions on what would be cancelled from our planned program due to changes in the Rustycon schedule. We were able to come up with compromises for some of our discussion panels, but some were canceled.
One of those cancelled was Terry Burlison's speech on Mission Control (see above). Chris Vancil had a panel on Science in Space Art, which had been moved to a small room with a nice table in it, so he will be giving his discussion at a later meeting for the NSS Seattle crowd.
In all, it was a very informative discussion. It was nice to have enough people available to go over operations at sci-fi conventions.
Ed.
Stardust Mission Status
February 7, 1999
Media Relations Office
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Pasadena, California 91109
Telephone: (818) 354-5011
NASA's Stardust spacecraft successfully shot into a clear blue sky atop a Delta II rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Station at 4:04:15 p.m. EST (1:04:15 p.m. PST) today to become the first U.S. mission destined for a comet, and the first-ever spacecraft sent to bring a sample of a comet sample back to Earth.
The Stardust team reported that the spacecraft was in excellent health and that its power and temperature levels are normal. The spacecraft is in communication with NASA's Deep Space Network, and is controlled through the mission operations area at Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, Colorado, and monitored at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, where the mission is managed.
Sixty-six seconds after liftoff, the four solid rocket motors on the Delta were discarded and the first stage continued to burn until it shut down and fell away about 4 minutes, 30 seconds into the mission. A few seconds later, the Delta's second stage ignited and burned for about 5 minutes, cutting off at 9 minutes, 55 seconds into the mission. Almost immediately after the second-stage ignition, the fairing or nose-cone enclosure around the Stardust spacecraft was jettisoned.
After coasting for about 11 minutes, the second-stage engine restarted and burned for about 2 minutes. The third stage separated from the second stage 24 minutes, 27 seconds into the mission; the Star 37 third stage ignited 25 minutes, 4 seconds into the mission, burning for about 2 minutes. At 27 minutes, 19 seconds into the mission -- or 4:31:34 p.m. EST -- the Stardust spacecraft separated from the Delta's third stage, stopping its spinning by firing onboard thrusters. About 4 minutes after separation, Stardust's solar arrays began to unfold and pointed toward the Sun. The spacecraft's signal was successfully acquired by the NASA Deep Space Network complex in Canberra, Australia, 51 minutes after launch at 4:55 p.m. EST.
Stardust is on a flight path that will deliver it to CometWild-2 (pronounced "Vilt-2" on January 2, 2004. The spacecraft will gather particles flying off the nucleus of the comet. In addition, Stardust will attempt to gather samples from a stream of interstellar dust that flows through the solar system. Captured in a glass foam called aerogel, the comet and interstellar dust samples will be enclosed in a clamshell-like capsule that will be dropped off for reentry into Earth's atmosphere in January 2006. Equipped with parachutes, the capsule will float to a pre-selected spot in the Utah desert, where it will be retrieved and its contents delivered to scientists for detailed analysis.
Contributed by Jim Burk
If you happened to have watched this on UWTV, it was quite a site. They showed the launch through several minutes into the flight using a camera pointed to the rear of the launch vehicle. It was quite an excellent view to watch the separation of boosters, staging, and the fairing falling back away from the still accelerating craft.
Ed.
Here is a re-run for you
Some conversion factors
AU (Astronomical Unit) = 1 earth radii (distance from earth to sun = 92,955,734
miles
[149,597,800 km]
1 km (kilometer) = 0.621 mi.
1 mi. (mile) = 1.609 km
Km/s Kilometers per second
1 m (meter) = 3.281 feet
1 ft (feet) = 0.3048 m
1 cm (centimeter) = 0.394 in
1 in (inch) = 2.54 cm
1 kg (kilogram) = 2.205 lb.
1 lb. (pound) = 0.4536 kg
1 Metric Ton = 1000 kg = 2205 lb. = 1.102 tons
(short ton, U.S.)
1 Ton (U.S.) = 907.18 kg = 2000 lb. = 0.907 tons
(metric)
g (Gravitational constant) = acceleration due to gravity on earth, 'one gee'
= 980.665 cm/sec2
= 9.80665 m/sec2
= 32.1725 ft/sec2
Geepounds X 1 = Slugs
X 14.5939 = kilograms
Angstroms X 1.0 x 10-8 = Centimeters
X 3.9370079 x 10-9 = Inches
Bars
X 0.986923 = Atmospheres
X 100 = kilopascals
X 14.5038 = pounds/square inch (psi)
Hogsheads X 0.5 = Butts
X 0.23848 = cubic meters
Kilowatts X 1 x 1010 ergs/sec.
X 1.34102 = horsepower (hp)
X 1000 = joules/sec.
Light years X 63239.9 = astronomical
units (AU)
X 9.46055 x 1012 = kilometers (km)
X 5.878513 x 1012 = Miles
X 0.3067882 = Parsecs
On the 1st of February the effort to define a planetary mission began. Conceived by David Stuart, Randy Rumley, Chris Vancil, and myself, the mission will consist of up to six satellites distributed in orbit between Jupiter and Saturn. Each of these satellites will carry sensors that are sensitive to gravitational acceleration, and as masses are passed, we will record their attraction. The things we expect to find are:
The icy bodies that are the source of short period comets
Details of the interactions between the gravitational fields of Jupiter, Saturn, and the Sun
Verification of the LaGrange points ahead and behind the orbits of these planets
Any passing massive dark object – brown dwarfs or large free planets
The mission objectives sound good, but it isn't that simple. The satellite and attached sensor will accelerate toward a mass equally (no difference, no detection), so another reference needs to be found. Studies performed since the sixties have looked at gravity gradient measurement. If two satellites are tethered at sufficient distance, each will feel a different gravitational attraction – a gradient. What is then measured is the strain on the tether. Another possibility is to place the units on solar sails. The pressure of the solar wind will oppose or support the attraction by a mass causing the satellite to resist
while the sensor is effected. Of course, magnetic field repulsion will work as well. In the next few weeks we will be reviewing the studies that are available, and hopefully speaking to those who participated.
Please forward any information or questions to Chris Erickson at Aster@wolfenet.com or contact any NSS Seattle officer.
Pluto the Planet
Griffith Observatory Press Release
Pluto Resumes Status as Most Distant Planet on February 11.
For the last twenty years, Pluto has been inside the orbit of Neptune, and Neptune has held the title of "most distant planet." On February 11, Pluto
moves farther from the sun than Neptune and regains its title as the solar system's most distant planet. Ironically, recent research is now prompting some astronomers to question Pluto's status as a planet, and if Pluto is demoted, Neptune will again be considered the most distant planet.
Pluto travels around the sun on an orbit that is highly elliptical, and its distance from the sun varies from 2.7 billion miles (in 1989) to 4.6 billion miles (in 2113) during its year, which is 248 earth-years long. It is the only planet whose orbit crosses another, and it is within Neptune's orbit for 20 years of its 248-year orbit.
According to calculations provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Pluto resumes its status as ninth planet at 2:08 a.m., P.S.T., on Thursday morning, February 11. Tables that list Neptune as the most distant planet will have to be revised that day. When Pluto crosses Neptune's orbit on an outbound trajectory on the 11th, both planets will be 2,788,880,000 miles from the sun.
Pluto is in the constellation Ophiuchus, where it rises at 1:30 a.m. It is too faint to be seen without a large telescope.
When Pluto was discovered in 1930, it was designated the solar system's ninth and most distant planet. Since then, we have learned that Pluto is far smaller than originally thought and smaller than the other planets (it is even smaller than our moon!) and - more to the point - that it is the largest of a group of thousands of icy objects that orbit at the edge of the solar system. Some astronomers have proposed reclassifying Pluto as the largest of these supercomets, which are also called Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs). The International Astronomical Union, which has authority over astronomical names, has rejected the proposed status change (see http://www.ss.astro.umd.edu/IAU/div3/pluto.shtml).
Pluto will remain the most distant planet until it crosses Neptune's orbit again in April, 2231.
Contributed by:
Chris Vancil
Vice President, NSS-Seattle
NEAR Spacecraft Reveals Major Features of Eros
8 February 1999
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Asteroid 433 Eros is slightly smaller than predicted, with at least two medium-sized craters, a long surface ridge, and a density comparable to the Earth's crust, according to measurements from NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft.
NEAR's science instruments observed about two-thirds of Eros on Dec. 23, 1998, as the spacecraft flew by the asteroid following an unsuccessful firing of its main engine a few days earlier. A subsequent successful firing of the engine put NEAR on course
to rendezvous with Eros to begin its planned year long orbital mission starting in mid-February 2000.
Scientists and engineers at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, MD, which manages the mission, and science team members from affiliated institutions quickly planned the valuable flyby observations in the wake of the unsuccessful engine burn on Dec. 20.
During the flyby, 222 photos and supporting spectral observations were taken from as close as 2,375 miles (3,830 kilometers) from the asteroid by the spacecraft's multispectral imager, infrared spectrometer, and radio science experiment. "The flyby of Eros has given us fundamental information that will help us plan a better orbital mission at Eros," said Dr. Andrew F. Cheng, NEAR project scientist at APL. "It has taken some of the risk out of our orbit insertion maneuver and early operations."
First observed from the Earth more than 100 years ago, Eros was known to be an S-type asteroid with high concentrations of silicate minerals and metal. However, few details about its structure or composition are observable from the ground. The NEAR flyby produced evidence of variations in surface color and reflected light (or albedo) that suggest the asteroid has a diverse surface makeup. Closer observations during the comprehensive yearlong orbital study of Eros will be needed to determine its precise composition.
The science team has determined that Eros is slightly smaller than originally estimated from ground-based observations, with a size of 21 by 8 by 8 miles (33 by 13 by 13 kilometers), versus an estimate of 25.3 by 9 by 8 miles (40.5 by 14.5 by 14 km). The asteroid rotates once every 5.27 hours and has no discernible moons.
The asteroid's density is approximately 1.55 ounces per cubic inch (2.7 grams per cubic centimeter), close to the average density of Earth's crust. This makes Eros about twice as dense as asteroid 253 Mathilde, a C-type, carbon-rich asteroid that NEAR flew past in June 1997, and about the same density as S-type asteroid 243 Ida, which NASA's Galileo spacecraft flew past in 1993. Eros and Ida are the only S-type asteroids for which a mass and density have been determined.
Flyby imaging of the asteroid's surface revealed a prominent elongated ridge that extends along its length for as much as 12 miles (20 km). "This ridge-like feature, combined with the measurements of high density, suggests that Eros is a homogeneous body rather than a collection of rubble" such as Mathilde appears to be, said Dr. Joseph Veverka, of Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, who heads the mission's imaging team. "It might even be a remnant of a larger body that was shattered by an impact."
The surface of Eros is pocked with craters. The two largest craters are four miles and 5.3 miles (8.5 and 6.5 km) in diameter, less than half the size of asteroid Mathilde's largest craters. The existence of fewer, smaller craters could be an indication that Eros has a relatively young surface when compared to Ida.
NEAR and Eros will cross paths again in February 2000. The spacecraft will then be inserted into orbit around the asteroid and begin its yearlong study. Images taken during orbit are expected to have more than 200 times better resolution than those obtained during the flyby and will be taken from as close as nine miles (15 km) from the asteroid's surface.
Flyby images of Eros and a related movie, a shape model of the asteroid, and a chart of spectral observations are available on the NEAR mission Web site at: http://near.jhuapl.edu.
ISDC
The International Space Development Conference is the annual meeting of the National Space Society (NSS). For the past seventeen years, leaders of the space community -- astronauts, politicians, administrators, and scientists -- have met with space activists and enthusiasts with one purpose in mind: to advance the day when people will live, work, and play in space.
Hosted each year by a chapter of the NSS, ISDC has been held across the United States, including the District of Columbia, New York, and Orlando. At each, local aerospace companies, institutions, and facilities have taken part in the proceedings.
Traditionally held during Memorial Day Weekend, this year's (1999) conference is being hosted by the Clear Lake Chapter in Houston, Texas. Celebrating NSS's 25th anniversary, the conference promises to be the meeting to attend for the space community.
For information on attending ISDC, go to:
http://www.nss.org/isdc/home.html
Also you may ask Dave Stuart (our Treasurer) DSTUART@prodigy.net, as he is making plans to attend.
What else is going on…
The international Space Station has had some construction work done. The next mission will be primarily a supply jaunt. Astronauts will be stocking Unity and Zarya with materials and supplies for the first crews that will be staying there. I will have more on the ISS in upcoming issues, so stay tuned.
Norwescon Preview
Members of NSS Seattle will be participating in the NORWESCON Science Fiction/Fantasy Convention on Easter Weekend. Unlike Rustycon, we don't choose the panels we will be on. However we did come up with titles etc. for several panels, and hopefully we will be assigned to panels we know something about.
Mars Society Convention
Last year, some of us went to the founding convention (last August). Afterwards, we wound up forming a Seattle chapter of the Mars Society (Mars Society Puget Sound) with other area participants. This year we are planning to go again and plans are afoot now. If you are interested in the Mars Society, contact David Stuart, Chris Vancil, or myself.
Ed.
Rustycon Review
This year, Rustycon was held at a hotel in south Everett. As we did last year, we ran our own science track panels. Unfortunately, as mentioned earlier, the schedule left a little to be desired. Chris Erickson, David Stuart, Chris Vancil, and myself had a panel on the 'History of a Space Faring Society' planned which would take two hours. We were given one. Due to this our presentation was a bit rushed and virtually incoherent. We will probably build this into a presentation at a future meeting (as well as practice).
Chris Erickson and myself (with help finishing it off by Dave) had the talk immediately following on Space Stations from ISS to actual habitats and their possibilities. Afterwards, the room was empty due to a scheduling mix-up. We could have done the two hours! Both were well attended since they were right before lunch. Terry Burlison and Vince Creisler had less luck in the morning on their Space Spin-offs panel. Only a couple of people showed up (too early for convention goers). They had a good presentation anyway. The Hotel layout left something to be desired, our chapter table was in a back corner that required visitors to go through nearly the entire place to get to. Rumor has it that next year it will be in a better location (and hotel I hope).
Ed.
Note: Randy Rumley will be Editor for the foreseeable future for Sojourner. Chris Erickson is a bit busy now with a new business and the project mentioned earlier in this issue.
We will welcome any articles, editorials, referrals, or new web sites from any Chapter member. Please let us know. If you have ideas for speakers and/or projects for the chapter, let any officer know by E-mail, or in person at a meeting. Thank you.
Here are more interesting web sites:
{Visit our web site for more}
Mars VR on CD-ROM: Full of pictures from Pathfinder: http://www.vrcamera.com/cdrom/cdrom.html
U.S. Congress on the Internet: http:// thomas.loc.gov/
Space Views Newsletter:
http:// www.seds.org/spaceviews/
Space Links:
http:// www.newspace.com/ref/links/home.html
New Space Newsletter:
http:// www.newspace.com/news/masthead.html
Mike's Spacecraft Library:
http:// www.newspace.com/ref/msl/home.html
Launchspace:
http:// www.newspace.com/home.html
Earth/Moon viewer: http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/vplanet.html
Sojourner Online List
Let us know what you think of our pages send
email to us by clicking
here at NSS Seattle's
webmaster
 |
 |