The Newsletter of
the Seattle Chapter
of
The National Space Society
»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»» March 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.
President:
Vince Creisler
vincelc@hotmail.com
Vice President: Chris
Vancil
CLVANCIL@aol.com
Secretary/Editor:
Randy Rumley
rjrumley@juno.com
Treasurer:
David Stuart
xsxs80a@prodigy.com
Special Projects Manager:
Christopher Erickson
aster@wolfenet.com
----------Board of Directors---------
Kelly Caviezel Gary Harrison Christopher Erickson
Susan Harrison Toni 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 addresses
to: Randy Rumley; 12008 S.E. 223rd Drive Kent, WA 98031
XXVIII
so·journ(sò jûrn), to stay for a time in a place; live temporarily.
President's Message
NSS Seattle will once again be participating in Norwescon, a Science Fiction convention held April 1-4, at the Sea-Tac Double Tree Hotel. We will be hosting the Science track on Saturday, April 3, which will feature several of our previous speakers--Dr. John Slough, Joe Cassady and Al Krininger, plus Dr. Robert Forward and additional Science notables. We will be holding an open meeting at the convention that Saturday night, and will be hosting a room party. Our club table will need staffing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and will feature a video player with Space Science programming and our attention grabbing Space scene display as backdrop.
Here is a chance for anyone willing to pitch in and promote the cause of Space to contribute their time and effort.
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
Mars News: http://www.marsnews.com
(New site! Give it a shot! Ed.)
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
March 13, 1999 Meeting
We will be starting off with discussion of the upcoming Science Fiction Convention NORWESCON. Our featured speaker will begin at approximately 7:30 due to prior commitments.
Speaking to us will be Scott Fitzsimmons, Vice President of adventure travel firm Zegrahm Expeditions. Based in Seattle for 10 years, Zegrahm specializes in travel to the world's most remote destinations. They are leading the way in two new innovative travel fields: expeditions on high-tech, deep-diving submarines – to see the Titanic and erupting hydrothermal vents for instance – and space tourism. Zegrahm Space Voyages has been taking reservations on a 7-day total space experience program, featuring a suborbital space flight, with commercial operations slated to begin in 2002.
It should bring interesting discussion for those interested in inexpensive access to space. I'd like to go.
For those 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, February 13, 1999
Our featured speaker was Terry Burlison, Former NASA Mission Control FIDO. He showed us how mission control operations and events actually happened. If you have seen Terry speak before, you know it was interesting, fun, and informative.
His past discussions of Orbital Mechanics and Orbital Rendezvous are quite useful when watching Shuttle / International Space Station (ISS) visits. His experiences will help us understand what is going on over the headsets during launches and orbital operations.
Chris Erickson our new special projects manager gave a short description (with discussion) about a planned mass mapping mission project. Chris has a letter to space enthusiasts later in this issue.
Ed.
The Space Station Era ?
It is quite likely that the studies that are to be conducted aboard the International Space Station can be done on Earth for a fraction of the cost. It is true that many of the materials that can only be manufactured in orbit will be of better quality if produced on unmanned platforms. So what are we building if not a facility that will change the world ?.
Someone is going to be put aboard the ISS to do this work; and since the previous astronaut has found that he had some spare time - and upon his advice, this new arrival will be running a side business. She will have a box of circuit boards, some wires and rods, and some chassis assemblies, and she will be building satellites for LEO constellations. With the aid of a small, reusable delivery vehicle, she will be keeping up the supply for Iridium and the like. Her satellites will be cheap, on time, and fully operational, and she'll clean up! The researcher replacing her is going to have a fresh supply of material, and a deal to use the delivery vehicle to retrieve a satellite that failed after launch.
Not to be outdone, Joey next door is going to build an observatory around some mail order mirrors and a CCD camera, and find small nations and fishing fleets lining up to buy snapshots. Before any nation develops the capability to construct spacecraft for planetary missions aboard the ISS, a payload specialist is going to buy a box of parts and a motor, and build one.
One day, Nation X will realize that its participation in ISS is subsidizing Nations Y and Z. They'll unhook their hunk of the ISS, and buy man-rated launchers from the lowest bidder. Without the support of Nation X, Nation Y will fold-up its operation, and Nation Z will start filming on-orbit commercials for Nike. That lowest bidder is going to find tourists pounding at the door, cash in hand; and Hilton is going to build a rest stop.
Space is a place; like Seattle, Florence, Bombay, and Glasgow; and if you give a person a place, they will find something profitable to do with it. These and other such entrepreneurial ventures need only a place , and that's what we're building.
Will the ISS change the world ? No. It will be business as usual.
Christopher Erickson
Special Projects Manager, NSS Seattle
This has already appeared in the Space News Letters column.
Ed.
CU-Boulder Researchers to map Polar Ice on Mars
NASA's Office of Space Science has selected a group of University of Colorado at Boulder researchers to spend three years mapping the polar ice on Mars using satellite data.
The research team from the National Snow and Ice Data Center will create a "virtual sensor" by combining data from two instruments currently orbiting the Red Planet on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor satellite, said principal investigator and glaciologist Anne Nolin. The scientists will apply remote-sensing techniques to study the Mars data and help them to both identify the surface composition of Mars' polar ice and plot its perimeters.
In addition to increasing the human understanding of Mars' climate and geophysical properties, the scientists believe the $225,000 project may help explain some of Earth's evolutionary processes, she said.
"Mars is the planet most similar to Earth," Nolin said. "There used to be a lot of liquid water on Mars, but not any longer. We want to know what has caused a planet relatively similar to ours to change so much, and how and why it evolved. Ice provides a long-term archive of climate change."
Although Nolin said distinctions between Mars ice and Earth ice will influence the study, both planets have large polar ice caps that play a role in their hydrological cycles, temperature gradients and atmospheric circulation. The northern ice cap on Mars is mainly fresh water, but the southern ice cap is thought to be almost entirely composed of frozen carbon dioxide.
"Ice on Earth is comparatively close to the melting point, and is therefore the most dynamic type of surface cover due to seasonal changes in ice and snow extent," she says. "The lower temperatures on Mars mean that the poles experience fewer seasonal changes, but still experience changes in frost-covered areas."
Ice on Mars extends to lower latitudes than ice on Earth and there is probably more frozen ground on Mars than on Earth, Nolin said.
In addition to the presence of carbon dioxide ice on Mars, the substantial amount of dust in the Martian atmosphere and within the ice caps indicates that Martian ice differs greatly from Earth's polar ice and presents the greatest challenge in studying Martian ice.
To address such difficulties, the researchers plan to combine images from the Mars Orbital Camera with reflectance information from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter to create a multi-spectral "virtual" sensor. The camera on the Mars Global Surveyor satellite is sensitive to the visible characteristics of ice and dust, while the altimeter measures both the near-infrared reflectance of ice and its surface height characteristics.
By analyzing the combined data through a series of "refining steps," the researchers will be able to measure the relative abundance of dust to ice or snow and possibly identify other surface components, Nolin said. The virtual sensor also will allow the CU-Boulder researchers to see temporary events on Mars like frost, snow and clouds.
The National Snow and Ice Data Center is part of the CU-Boulder-headquartered Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. CIRES is a joint institute of CU and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
From: University of Colorado-Boulder
Stardust Mission Status
March 13, 1999
Media Relations Office
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Pasadena, California 91109
Telephone: (818) 354-5011
STARDUST was successfully placed into its Cruise 2 configuration last Sunday March 7 where the spacecraft turns to point the medium gain antenna to Earth for communications at a higher data rate than the low gain antenna used when the spacecraft was much closer to Earth. Also, testing of the star camera was started late Monday in preparation to use it in a "tracking" mode to relieve control of the spacecraft attitude by the gyro inertial measurement unit (IMU). Moving to "all stellar" control will preserve operating life on the IMU for the encounter and other gyro-required operations. After an hour of successful testing, as the tracking mode was introduced, a star camera data-read error occurred. This caused the spacecraft to automatically move to its previous "safe" mode (Cruise 1 configuration), switching back to the low gain antenna and minimizing operations until it received new commands from controllers on Earth.
The flight operations team moved back to communications with the spacecraft over the low gain antenna and verified that the spacecraft was in its expected state and in excellent health. Late Tuesday March 8, the data history on the testing was "downlinked" to mission controllers so that a detailed trace could be done on what caused the data error and subsequent automatic action by the spacecraft's fault protection system. Detailed analysis of the data and track mode software sequence is underway to understand the suspect operation and correct it.
Wednesday and Thursday, STARDUST was again moved to Cruise Phase 2 configuration that places the spacecraft on the medium gain antenna during communication passes over the Deep Space Networks's (DSN) ground antennas. At the higher data rate, data from the Dust Flux Monitor (DFM), Cometary and Interstellar Dust Analyzer (CIDA), and the image taken by the star camera during the track-mode test operations were brought down. These had been "backlogged" on board during the low data rate Cruise 1 Phase. The star camera engineering test image (first image from STARDUST) shows Mars very bright against the star background as seen from STARDUST's view. The image will be posted on the STARDUST web site (http://www.STARDUST .jpl.nasa.gov) early next week. The DFM continues to operate nominally and high voltage was switched on for CIDA for the first time.
Ed.
Mars Orbital Camera finds evidence
for extensive volcanism on Mars
New photos from the Mars Global Surveyor show that horizontal layers extend deep into the canyons of Mars. The structure and composition of the layers suggest that volcanism played a far greater role in the early geology of the Red Planet than previously believed, scientists report in this week's issue (Feb. 18) of Nature.
Further, volcanism that lasted for the first billion years of Mars' geologic history might have continually resupplied the martian atmosphere with carbon dioxide that sustained its warm and wet early climate, according to Alfred S. McEwen of The University of Arizona in Tucson and co-authors of the article.
McEwen is director of the Planetary Image Research Lab at the UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. Co-authors are Michael C. Malin of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, Michael H. Carr of the U.S. Geological Survey and William S. Hartmann of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson. Theirs is one of four articles in the Feb. 18 Nature analyzing close-up images of Mars taken during the aerobraking phase of the Mars Global Surveyor mission.
The new images from the Mars Orbital Camera show horizontal layers at least as deep as 8 kilometers (5 miles) in the canyons spanning the entire 4,000-kilometer (2,480-mile) canyon system, Valles Marineris, McEwen and colleagues report. Earlier studies predicted the photographs would show large chunks of breccia and bedrock fractured by impacts during the heavy bombardment phase of solar system formation, between 3.5 billion and 4.3 billion years ago, and that these coarse layers would be laced with thin lava layers at the planet's uppermost crust.
Contrary to the expected impact-generated disorder, the Mars Orbital Camera captured evidence of layered deposits spanning at least the entire length of Valles Marineris. The chasm walls consist of dark and bright banding that represent layers 5 to 50 meters (16 to 64 feet) thick. The light bands appear to be dust-covered shallower slopes while the dark bands are steeper cliffs. The layers generally follow the topographic contour lines of the great canyon system. That these layers remain largely intact shows they were deposited after the end of heavy bombardment.
The scientists say that while they do not rule out the possibility that the layers are largely sedimentary rock, the structure and spectral properties of the layers show the strata more likely are the deposits of lava floods.
The scientists estimate that 10 times more lava than previously believed erupted over Mars during 4 billion years of its geologic history. That much lava would cover an area the size of the United States to a depth of 6.4 kilometers (4 miles), McEwen said.
"We conclude that volcanism on early Mars has probably been much more extensive than previously documented, and it must have affected the climate and near-surface environment," the team wrote.
Scientists have theorized that a thick carbon-dioxide atmosphere sustained a warm, wet climate on early Mars. But carbon dioxide would have been lost from the atmosphere as carbonate minerals formed in the presence of liquid water. Some mechanism must have continuously resupplied the atmosphere with carbon dioxide. Scientists had proposed two mechanisms for recycling gas into the atmosphere: impacts and extensive volcanism.
"Extensive volcanism on Mars could have maintained a thick atmosphere for a significant period of time after the heavy bombardment," McEwen and his colleages conclude. "The layers seen by Mars Orbital Camera provide evidence for voluminous volcanism: but a thick atmosphere could have been sustained only if sufficient carbonates exist in the crust of Mars, which has not yet been confirmed."
In another article in the Feb. 18 Nature, Hartmann, Malin, McEwen and others discuss how they used high-resolution images to extend the census of martian craters down to craters as small as 16 meters (52 feet) across. Planetary scientists use impact craters to map the age of different regions on a planetary surface. Their results indicate a wide range of surface ages. One region -- lava flows within the caldera of Arsia Mons, one of the great shield volcanoes of the Tharsis plateau -- is possibly no older than 40 million to 100 million years, they found. That suggests that volcanism is a continuing process on Mars, the scientists said.
From: University of Arizona
February 17, 1999
In other news from the red planet...
Mars gives us a look at his real face. This image was one returned since the circularization of the Global Surveyor's orbit was completed. The MOC image shows a natural impact formation which happens to look familiar to us humans. It may be the wrong color, but hey, we can't be picky. At least this one isn't a mesa with eye sockets that disappear. Don't worry, be happy.
The Mars '98 missions are also going well. Both the Climate Orbiter and the Polar Lander are well on their way. The orbiter is scheduled to be at Mars on September 23, 1999, and the Lander should be falling through the Martian atmosphere on December 3, 1999.
Ed.
The Ulysses Mission is still going
A Deep Space Voyage to High Latitudes over the Solar Poles
A mission from the past is still in operation and working on collecting new data:
Expanding gasses from the solar corona dominate the properties of interstellar space over a large region around the Sun known as the heliosphere. Launched by the Space Shuttle Discovery in October, 1990, Ulysses flew by Jupiter in February, 1992, where a gravity assist manoeuvre placed the spacecraft in a unique solar polar orbit, allowing it to fly over the south pole of the Sun in 1994 and over the north pole in 1995. The Ulysses mission explored for the first time the high latitude heliosphere away from the plane of the ecliptic. The primary results of the mission have been to discover at these high latitudes the properties of the solar corona, the solar wind, the heliospheric magnetic field, solar energetic particles, galactic cosmic rays, solar radio bursts and plasma waves. Other investigations include study of cosmic dust, gamma ray bursts, and studies of the Jovian magnetosphere obtained during the Jupiter fly-by. With the first phase of its mission successfully completed, Ulysses has now embarked on a second orbit of the Sun; it will for the first time investigate the high latitude properties of the solar wind during the maximum of the solar activity cycle. Ulysses is a joint project of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
For more information on this and many other ongoing missions, check out the NASA JPL web site (http:// www.jpl.nasa.gov/).
News from One year ago yesterday
GenCorp Aerojet Successfully Test Fires Kistler K-1 Rocket Engine
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (March 12, 1998)
Today GenCorp Aerojet successfully test fired the first U.S.-modified NK-33 Russian engine to be used on the Kistler Aerospace K-1, the world's first fully reusable
launch vehicle. The 145-second test, varying in thrust from 177,000 to 354,000 pounds, exceeded actual launch flight duration of 135 seconds and demonstrated the performance and control needed for the entire K-1 vehicle boost phase.
"This test validates the large scale commercial application of rocketry and the use of off-the-shelf components to quickly develop and produce a fully reusable launch vehicle," said Bob Harris, vice president, Aerojet Strategic and Space Propulsion product sector.
"We are very pleased with the performance of these engines," said Dr. George Mueller, CEO of Kistler Aerospace Corporation. "This successful test is a major milestone toward our goal of being the first to launch a fully reusable commercial launch vehicle."
Originally built by N.D. Kuznetsov Joint Stock Company Scientific-Technical Complex, Aerojet modified the NK-33 to perform on the vehicle. New U.S. replacement components include, the addition of a gimbal system for vehicle steering, solid propellant gas generator, numerous electrically-operated valves, main combustion chamber pyrotechnic igniters, and harness assembly.
Kistler contracted with Aerojet for rights to 58 NK-33 and 18 NK-43 engines. The engines were produced during the late 1960s and early 1970s for Russia's N-1 moon launch vehicle program which was terminated in 1974.
Aerojet is providing the propulsion systems for both the first and second stages of the K-1 launch vehicle, including the main engines, main feed lines and propellant tank pressurization systems, and attitude control systems. The first stage of the Kistler K-1 will use three NK-33 engines. The second stage includes one NK-43 engine and two new liquid oxygen and alcohol-fed Orbital Maneuvering Subsystems engines for attitude adjustment and deorbit.
Scheduled for its first launch in the second half of 1998 (obviously this didn't happen, it is supposed to happen later in 1999…Ed.), the Kistler Aerospace K-1 is designed to provide a low-cost alternative to single-use launch vehicles. Lower cost access to space will hasten the development of wireless global telecommunications services for consumers.
N.D. Kuznetsov designed a thrust takeout structure to accommodate the new gimbal system. "Aerojet and N.D. Kuznetsov have developed an excellent, technical relationship to accommodate these and other improvements to the engine system," said Frank DeLange, Aerojet's Kistler program manager.
Further additions include electromechanical actuators (EMAs) to integrate modern electronics and offer extended control range. During the test fire, the EMAs helped throttle the engine from 50-100 percent 1.75 seconds after initiation.
Kistler Aerospace is a privately-funded, U.S. company with corporate offices in Kirkland, Wash. and executive offices in Los Angeles.
Aerojet, a leader in propulsion, electronic systems, smart munitions and armaments, is a segment of GenCorp, a technology-based company with positions in polymer products, automotive, aerospace and defense industries.
From: Aerojet web site http://www.aerojet.com
International Space Station news
The Shuttle, Discovery, will conduct the next mission to the ISS. It will continue with mostly internal assembly work after performing the first Station docking since the initial assembly mission a few months back. An international crew of seven will become the first visitors to the new International Space Station when Discovery lifts off on Space Shuttle mission STS-96 in May.
Discovery will spend five days linked to the station, transferring and installing gear that could not be launched aboard the modules due to weight limitations. Discovery's mission sets the stage for the arrival of the first station living quarters, the Russian-provided Service Module, scheduled to be launched by Russia later this year (hopefully).
Ed.
Norwescon Preview
Members of NSS Seattle will be participating in the NORWESCON Science Fiction/Fantasy Convention on Easter Weekend. This takes place at the Double Tree Hotel across Highway 99 from SeaTac Airport. We helped the Norwescom organization with some panel ideas, and some of us will be participating in these panels. We will also have a booth set up in the hotel lobby of the Hotel. The convention is not free, but it can be a lot of fun (just looking at all the nuts in costume is entertaining). Drop by if you can.
Ed.
Interested in Humans to Mars?
The Mars Society Convention is in August this year at the University of Colorado, Boulder. 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. Please Contact David Stuart, Chris Vancil, or myself if you are interested in the Mars Society or the convention.
Ed.
Note:
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.
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