The Joint Newsletter of
The Seattle Area Chapters of
The National Space Society
NSS Seattle
And
The Mars Society Puget Sound
»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»» August 1999 «««««««««««««««««««««
Volume 1, Issue III
Contents:
Chandra X-ray Observatory
Tuesday, July 27, 1999
The Chandra X-ray observatory flight operations team this afternoon began a functional test of one of the telescope's key science instruments, the Advanced Charge-coupled Device Imaging Spectrometer. As part of the test procedure, the focal plane temperature will be raised to minus-90 degrees C and the power will be turned on to the charge-coupled devices. Raw data will be collected from each of the ten detectors over the next several hours, at varying temperatures, before returning back to minus-120 degrees C.
The Advanced Charge-coupled Device Imaging Spectrometer is housed in the science instrument module and is capable of recording not only the position, but the "color" - or energy levels - of x-rays.
Over the next several days, activities will continue to focus on the activation of Chandra's science instruments, and additional burns of the Integral Propulsion System. The next burn of Chandra's liquid apogee engines, the third of five, is expected at approximately 6:37 p.m. EDT Saturday, July 31st. The burn will be conducted at perigee to raise Chandra's apogee and is expected to last 21 minutes and 20 seconds.
Continued, See Space Shuttle News
NSS SEATTLE Proceedings
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@galaxy-7.net
Vice President: Chris Vancil
CLVANCIL@aol.com
Secretary/Editor:
Randy Rumley
rjrumley@juno.com
Treasurer:
David Stuart
DSTUART@prodigy.net
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 Sunday 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
so·journ(sņ jūrn), to stay for a time in a place; live temporarily.
President's Message
Help build a limitless future.
Do you want to help posterity live in a space-faring civilization, enjoying continuously improving quality of life in a society expanding on all frontiers? Join the National Space Society. The National Space Society is a non-profit organization open to citizens of all nations, formed by a merger of the National Space Institute and The L-5 Society in 1987. The NSS has the affiliated organization SpacePac for engaging in pro-space political activities.
The NSS promotes interest in space exploration, research, development and habitation, toward the purpose of establishing a space-based civilization, economically self-sufficient and supported by a free enterprise structure utilizing the nearly limitless resources of the Solar System. The NSS focuses its efforts on:
Lowering the cost of access to space.
Learning how to work in space and utilize space resources.
Ensuring supportive government space policies and practices.
Fostering private space initiatives.
Current NSS officers include former Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin, scientist Robert Zubrin, and astronaut Charles Walker as President. Dues are $35.00 a year ($20.00 for students and seniors) including a subscription to the NSS Publication Ad Astra. Those interested in joining, or seeking more information, can contact the NSS at:
National Space Society
600 Pennsylvania Ave., S.E. Suite 201
Washington, DC 20003-4316
1-800-376-ORBIT
http://www.nss.org
Vince Creisler
President NSS Seattle
July 11, 1999 Meeting (Our first Sunday meeting. online ED)
This past month, Dr. Robert Forward came in and discussed the MERITT system for getting people and cargo to Mars as well as the Lunavator system for placing cargo and people on the moon. He has AIAA papers written on both subjects (as well as other subjects).
A few years ago, Dr. Forward talked to us about using tethers to get to the moon. His partner (Dr. Hoyt) talked to us about the use of tethers for dropping space debris and defunct satellites out of orbit. I think tethers are going to be a growth industry in the future of space flight.
His talk is scheduled to go on Public Access (TCI 29). It will show on August 2 from 4:00 to 6:00PM.
August 8 Meeting
This month, Thom Johnson will be talking to us about the other Aerospace company that is located in the Puget Sound region; Kistler Aerospace. This company has been hard at work to bring a real reusable launch vehicle into the market. Thom has been with the company for some time and has worked on a get-away special launched on the Shuttle for the UW previous to working for Kistler
Members of the chapter have been anticipating this talk for some time. It'll be good to hear what is going on now and how soon we can expect a launch.
As always, we will continue discussion of various space-related subjects until we are kicked out of the room.
We will also have our 'Let's go to the new world' T-shirts available, and The Mars Society Puget Sound Chapter will have a couple of interesting books on Mars available for sale.
Mars Society Puget Sound Proceedings
The Mars Society was founded in August 1998 and is an international organization dedicated to furthering the goal of the exploration and settlement of the Red Planet.
This will be done by:
*Broad public outreach to instill the vision of pioneering Mars.
*Support of ever more aggressive government-funded Mars exploration programs around the
world.
*Conducting Mars exploration on a private basis.
Officers of Mars Society Puget Sound
Jim Burk, President
Dustin Green, Vice President
V Mark Tye, Secretary
David Stuart, Treasurer
Randy Rumley, Editor, Sojourner
From the Founding Declaration of The Mars Society
The time has come for humanity to journey to Mars.
We're ready. Though Mars is distant, we are far better prepared today to send humans to Mars than we were to travel to the Moon at the commencement of the space age. Given the will, we could have our first teams on Mars within a decade. .
…We must go for the challenge. Civilizations, like people thrive on challenge and decay without it. The time is past for human societies to use war as a driving stress for technological progress. As the world moves towards unity, we must join together, not in mutual passivity, but in common enterprise, facing outward to embrace a greater and nobler challenge than that which we previously posed to each other. Pioneering Mars will provide such a challenge. Furthermore, a cooperative international exploration of Mars would serve as an example of how the same joint-action could work on Earth in other ventures. …
Visit us at www.marssociety.org
Links to local chapters and other Mars sites.
President's Report
This past July 20th, the world celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing and the 23rd anniversary of the Viking 1 Mars lander's touchdown on the red planet. The significance of these two historic events were not lost on our chapter, and we and others in the Mars Society planned many months in advance to do something special for that day.
Our chapter held a night about Mars discussion at the Everett Library, our first primarily family audience. Dustin Green, our chapter Vice President, gave what I thought was a wonderful, down-to-earth talk about a mission to Mars, using the new official Mars Society slideshow. Afterwards we all had the opportunity to answer questions on a wide range of topics.
While we've given talks in the past, I think the significance of the day was not lost on anybody and made it special. Other chapters around the world held similar activities -- the Caltech chapter actually had a talk by director James Cameron (who will also be appearing at the Mars Society convention this month).
There are many exciting things happening in the Mars Society as we head into this year's convention, and we'll have a full report upon the return of those of us who are going. I know I'm really looking forward to giving my talks on how the Mars Society can become an Internet Superpower and about the MarsNews.com website we maintain.
Until next month, on to Boulder and Mars!
Jim Burk
President, Mars Society Puget Sound
Space Shuttle News: Chandra Continued
(from page 1)
Other steps in the fine tuning process on the spacecraft's systems will include: additional tests of Chandra's aspect camera; opening of the door on the Advanced Charged-couple Device Imaging Spectrometer; opening of the sunshade door on the largest end of the spacecraft; focusing and calibration of the science instruments; and removal of launch locks on the gratings, which disperse x-ray light according to wavelength. Chandra's Integral Propulsion System will also be deactivated.
All systems onboard Chandra continue to function as expected. Regular updates on the mission will be posted at the Chandra news website at: http://chandra.nasa.gov
Did you know?
The Chandra X-ray Observatory is the world's most powerful X-ray telescope. It has eight-times greater resolution and will be able to detect sources more than 20-times fainter than any previous X-ray telescope. The Chandra X-ray Observatory, with its Inertial Upper Stage and support equipment, is the largest and heaviest payload ever launched by the Space Shuttle.
The Chandra X-ray Observatory's operating orbit will take it 200-times higher than the Hubble Space Telescope. During each orbit of the Earth, Chandra will travel one-third of the way to the Moon.
The Chandra X-ray Observatory's resolving power is – 0.5 arc-seconds -- equal to the ability to read the letters of a stop sign at a distance of 12 miles. Put another way, Chandra's resolving power is equivalent to the ability to read a 1-centimeter newspaper headline at the distance of a half-mile.
If the State of Colorado were as smooth as the surface of the Chandra X-ray Observatory mirrors, Pike's Peak would be less than an inch tall.
Another of NASA's incredible time machines, the Chandra X-ray Observatory will be able to study some quasars as they were 10 billion years ago.
The Chandra X-ray Observatory will observe X-rays from clouds of gas so vast that it takes light more than five-million years to go from one side to the other.
Although nothing can escape the incredible gravity of a black hole, not even light, the Chandra X-ray Observatory will be able to study particles up to the last millisecond before they are sucked inside.
It took almost four centuries to advance from Galileo's first telescope to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope — an increase in observing power of about a half-billion times. NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is about one-billion times more powerful than the first X-ray telescope, and we have made that leap in slightly more than three decades.
STS-93, Mission Control Center
Exerpted from: Status Report # 01, & #12
Friday: The Space Shuttle Columbia blasted off late Thursday night carrying five astronauts to orbit for the long-awaited deployment of Chandra X-Ray Observatory, which will unveil previously invisible mysteries of the universe.
After two previous postponements, Commander Eileen Collins, Pilot Jeff Ashby and Mission Specialists Cady Coleman, Steve Hawley and Michel Tognini lit up the skies at Kennedy Space Center at 9:31 p.m. Pacific time Thursday (12:31 a.m. Eastern time Friday), to kick off the 95th mission in shuttle program history. It was the 20th nighttime launch.
About 5 seconds after liftoff, flight controllers noted a voltage drop on one of the shuttle's electrical buses. Because of this voltage drop, one of two redundant main engine controllers on two of the three engines shut down. The redundant controllers on those two engines -- the center and right main engines -- functioned normally, allowing the engines to fully support Columbia's climb to orbit. The left engine was unaffected. Main engine controllers receive commands from the shuttle's general purpose computers, and send commands to main engine components. Flight controllers and the crew continue to work to identify more precisely the cause of the voltage drop.
Less than nine minutes after liftoff, the first female shuttle commander and her crew were in orbit.
Tuesday: Columbia's astronauts glided to a smooth landing tonight at the Kennedy Space Center, wrapping up their five-day mission to deploy the Chandra X-Ray Observatory.
Commander Eileen Collins flew Columbia to a textbook touchdown at 8:20 p.m. Pacific time on Runway 3-3 at the Cape's Shuttle's Landing Facility, swooping out of darkness to complete a mission spanning almost 1.8 million miles. Pilot Jeff Ashby, Flight Engineer Steve Hawley and Mission Specialist Cady Coleman joined Collins on the flight deck for entry and landing. Mission Specialist Michel Tognini of the French Space Agency was seated alone down in the middeck. It was the 19th consecutive Shuttle landing at the Florida spaceport and the 12th night landing in Shuttle program history.
A few minutes earlier, Columbia provided a light show for residents in Houston as it sped overhead about 15 minutes before landing, visible in the nighttime skies as an orange streak headed for Florida. Columbia was at an altitude of about 200,000 feet at the time, travelling about 15 times the speed of sound.
Left behind in orbit is the Chandra Observatory, which was released from Columbia's cargo bay last Friday morning. Telescope controllers at the Chandra Operations Control Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts say the Observatory is in excellent shape in the first week of its checkout for scientific operations.
The Source for most of this information: http://station.nasa.gov/shuttle/index.html
Ed.
Robotic Spacecraft Mission updates
Compiled from:
Media Relations Office
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Pasadena, Calif. 91109 Telephone (818) 354-5011
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mars Surveyor 98 Mission Status
July 21, 1999
Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO)
Preparations are nearing completion for the MCO spacecraft's third course correction, designated Trajectory Correction Maneuver-3 (TCM-3). The spacecraft will perform a 3.3 m/s burn early on the morning of July 25, targeting directly for the point at which the orbit insertion burn will begin, 60 days later on September 23. The TCM-3 command sequence is in its final stages of testing, and will be transmitted to the spacecraft on Friday (July 23).
Mars Polar Lander (MPL)
Last week the flight team completed the first preliminary Operational Readiness Test for the early surface mission, working in conjunction with the MPL and MCO simulators to simulate the first four days of the surface mission, including UHF radio contacts with the orbiter. The team is presently reviewing all of the data generated during this test from the simulators, to identify errors or potential problems that need to be remedied.
In addition, the Deep Space 2 (DS2) microprobe team participated in the first Operational Readiness Test for data relay from the probes to the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft on Wednesday and Thursday of last week. A test sequence executed successfully on board the actual MGS spacecraft, operating the UHF-band Mars Relay (MR) radio system for the first time in over two years, and routing simulated microprobe data stored within the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) memory buffer to the spacecraft data bus for return to Earth. Stanford University's 40 meter radio astronomy antenna also participated in this test.
Post-processing of recorded signals is underway at Stanford this week, to provide independent confirmation that the Mars Relay system is functioning properly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NASA's Deep Space 1 Succeeds In Close Asteroid Flyby
Release July 29, 1999
NASA's Deep Space 1 experimental spacecraft successfully flew closely above the surface of asteroid 9969 Braille at 9:46 p.m. Pacific time Wednesday, July 28 (04:46 Universal Time July 29), using a sophisticated new space autopilot system, exceeding 100 percent of the mission's objectives.
An exultant operations team looked on as preliminary data returned to the Deep Space 1 operations control area at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, indicating that the AutoNav autopilot system skillfully flew the spacecraft to a face-to-face closeup with asteroid Braille.
"This is a dramatic finale to an amazingly successful mission," said Dr. Marc Rayman, chief mission engineer and deputy mission manager. "With AutoNav's successful piloting of the spacecraft, we've completed the testing and validation of the 12 new technologies onboard and possibly acquired important science data, including photos."
Data from the spacecraft will be analyzed in coming days to determine the actual flyby distance, which at about 15 kilometers (less than 10 miles), was by far the closest flyby of an asteroid ever attempted.
Ten minutes after the flyby, when the spacecraft signals reached Earth after a 10-minute journey, the team burst into spontaneous applause at the news that the spacecraft was turning back to face the asteroid. The turn was indicated by a marked Doppler shift, a clear early indicator of a successful encounter. Like a siren whose pitch changes after passing by, the Doppler shift indicates movement past an object.
Launched Oct. 24, 1998, Deep Space 1 is the first mission under NASA's New Millennium Program, which tests new technologies for future space and Earth-observing missions. The technologies that have been tested on Deep Space 1 will help make future science spacecraft smaller, less expensive, more autonomous and capable of more independent decision-making so that they rely less on tracking and intervention by ground controllers.
Of the 12 new technologies on board, all but the spacecraft's autonomous navigation system had been completely tested since launch. With the asteroid encounter, AutoNav finished its last five percent of testing.
Making the flyby all the more memorable -- and serving as a testimonial to the team's quick ability to think on its feet -- was the fact that the spacecraft experienced a "safing" event earlier in the day, starting at about 5 a.m. PDT on July 28 and ending at about 11 a.m. PDT. A small software glitch, now fully diagnosed, was detected by Deep Space 1's fault-detection software, which triggered a protective program that causes several events: the spacecraft halts non-critical activity, orients its solar panels toward the Sun, points light and heat-sensitive instruments away from the Sun and reverts to its low-gain antenna while awaiting new commands.
"This has been by far the most challenging, dramatic and stressful day on the project," said Rayman. "The last 16 hours before the flyby were really, really exciting. We had the safing event, we recovered from it and we managed to squeeze in a trajectory correction maneuver to update Deep Space 1's flight path."
Science results will be downlinked in a series of telemetry sessions over the next several days. During the flyby, a spectrometer and imaging instrument took black-and-white photographs and images taken in infrared light, while a second instrument observed the three-dimensional distribution of ions and electrons, or plasma, in the area.
A science update covering science results is scheduled to take place at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., on Tuesday, August 3, at 10 a.m. PDT. It will be broadcast live on NASA TV.
A Deep Space 1 asteroid flyby press kit, along with mission status reports from launch to the present, is available at www.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1news. A live videocam view of the Deep Space 1 mission control area is available at http://eis/~mbareh/MSA.html
Deep Space 1 is budgeted at $152 million, including design, development, launch and operations.
Note, apparently the camera which was supposed to look at the asteroid was pointed the wrong way. No images of more than 4 pixels were found in the data. Disappointing.
Ed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New JPL Deep Sea Probe To Be Tested In Monterey Aquarium Kelp Forest
Release July 26, 1999
A new aluminum deep sea probe, the prototype of one designed to withstand crushing pressures and extreme temperatures, is set to be lowered to depths of 9 meters (30 feet) in Monterey Bay Aquarium's giant kelp forest July 28 as part of NASA's hunt for clues to life's origins.
Scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, will sink the new package of underwater cameras, temperature sensors, optics and a spectrometer into the emerald waters of a controlled aquatic environment to test the capabilities of more advanced instruments to explore the interior of volcanic vents. These cracks in the sea floor, occurring at depths of between 500 meters and 4,000 meters (1,650 feet and 13,200 feet), are known to nurture a pageantry of macabre bottom-dwellers such as salps, siphonophores, crustaceans and gelatinous animals only recently discovered at such depths.
The mission will gather preliminary data and serve as a stepping stone in the development of technology and instrument housing required in the search for evidence of life in extreme, high-pressure liquid environments. This information will aid in NASA's proposed efforts to develop technologies capable of exploring more extreme liquid and ice environments, such as Lake Vostok in Antarctica, and eventually, to send instrumented probes to the Martian polar caps and frozen oceans on Jupiter's moon, Europa, and Saturn's moon, Titan.
The discovery of gelatinous material in underwater volcanic vents has opened a new chapter in the search for life and organisms that can survive in extreme environments. Hydrothermal vents and the biological communities thriving in these remote pockets of the sea floor are found primarily at tectonic plate junctions at temperatures ranging from nearly 80 to almost 400 degrees Celsius (170 to 750 degrees Fahrenheit) and at pressures as high as 6,000 pounds per square inch. Typical water temperatures inside the vents range from 200 to more than 350 degrees C (392 to 662 degrees F) and drop quickly to ambient temperatures of about 4 degrees C (39 degrees F) outside of the vents.
To date, organisms living near the vents are known to inhabit only the waters outside of the vents. Layers of gelatinous material attached to the vents are presumed to be organic and the product of living organisms. Researchers have reported that on at least one occasion the gel appeared to emanate directly from a vent throat.
"If there are indeed life forms present inside these vents, their presence may challenge accepted notions of the temperature ranges at which life can function," Lane said.
During the mission this August and September, scientists will use the French research vessel L'Atalante to test their instrument probe in several deep ocean volcanic vents in the South Pacific. Using a deep submersible called Nautile, equipped with a robotic arm, they will place the 142-centimeter (56-inch) titanium tube housing the instruments inside several vents in the area to investigate the presence and nature of organic matter.
Once the technology has been developed and demonstrated to work at depths of 4,000 meters (13,200 feet), the probe's external shell will be modified for use in sub-glacial lakes like Lake Vostok, an ancient freshwater lake that appears to extend about that deep beneath Antarctic's surface. The design may also become a prototype for a probe that could penetrate Mars' icy polar caps and search for microbial life, or explore a liquid ocean thought to lie 7 kilometers to 8 kilometers (about 4 miles to 5 miles) below the icy surface of Europa.
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Sun Never Sets, For Long, On Fast-Spinning, Water-Rich Asteroid
Release July 22, 1999
Spinning faster than any object ever observed in the solar system, a lumpy, water-rich sphere known as 1998 KY26, about the diameter of a baseball diamond, is rotating so swiftly that its day ends almost as soon as it begins, NASA scientists report.
Asteroid 1998 KY26 {An Asteroid in serious need of a name change}, where the Sun rises or sets every five minutes, was observed June 2-8, 1998, shortly after it was discovered and as it passed 800,000 kilometers (half a million miles) from Earth, or about twice the distance between Earth and the moon. Publishing their findings in the July 23rd issue of Science magazine, Dr. Steven J. Ostro of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, and an international team of astronomers used a radar telescope in California and optical telescopes in the Czech Republic, Hawaii, Arizona and California to image the 30-meter (100-foot), water-rich ball as it twirled through space. It is the smallest solar system object ever studied in detail.
"These observations are a breakthrough for asteroid science and a milestone in our exploration of the small bodies of the solar system," Ostro said. "Enormous numbers of objects this small are thought to exist very close to Earth, but this is the first time we've been able to study one in detail. Ironically, this asteroid is smaller than the radar instruments we used to observe it."
The asteroid's rotation period was calculated at just 10.7 minutes, compared to 24 hours for Earth and at least several hours for the approximately 1,000 asteroids measured to date. In addition to these findings, the minerals in 1998 KY26 probably contain about a million gallons of water, enough to fill two or three olympic-sized swimming pools, Ostro said.
"This asteroid is quite literally an oasis for future space explorers," he said. "Its optical and radar properties suggest a composition like carbonaceous chondrite meteorites, which contain complex organic compounds that have been shown to have nutrient value. These could be used as soil to grow food for future human outposts. And among the 25,000 or so asteroids with very reliably known orbits, 1998 KY26 is in an orbit that makes it the most accessible to a spacecraft."
The solar system is thought to contain about 10 million asteroids this small in orbits that cross Earth's, and about 1 billion in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. However, only a few dozen of these tiny asteroids have ever been found and, until now, hardly anything was known about the nature of these objects.
Ostro and his colleagues used the 70-meter-diameter (230- foot) Goldstone, CA, antenna of NASA's Deep Space Network to transmit radar signals continuously to the asteroid and turned a 34-meter-diameter (112-foot) antenna on it to collect echoes bouncing back from the object.
1998 KY26's color and radar reflectivity showed similarities to carbonaceous chondrites, primordial meteorites which formed during the origin of the solar system, and unlike any rocks formed on Earth. They contain complex organic compounds as well as 10 % to 20 % water. Some carbonaceous chondrites contain amino acids and nucleic acids, which are the building blocks of proteins and DNA, and hence, are of interest to scientists trying to unravel the origins of life.
A second team of astronomers used optical telescopes to track 1998 KY26, which was discovered by the University of Arizona's Spacewatch telescope, the world's first instrument dedicated to searching for near-Earth asteroids. Dr. Petr Pravec of the Czech Republic's Academy of Sciences said collisions likely gave 1998 KY26 its rapid spin.
But one way or another, Pravec said, this object's 10.7- minute "day" is the shortest of any known object in the solar system. "The motion of the sky would be 135 times faster than it is on Earth," he said. "Sunrises and sunsets take about two minutes on Earth, but on 1998 KY26, they would take less than one second. You'd see a sunrise or sunset every five minutes."
Dr. Scott Hudson of Washington State University in Pullman found the asteroid's shape particularly surprising. Asteroids thousands of times larger have spherical shapes as a result of their large masses and strong gravitational fields, he said. 1998 KY26 is very unusual, however, because gravity and mass play no significant role in its shape. Instead, the spheroid shape is the result of collisions with other asteroids.
While much larger near-Earth asteroids could pose a long- term collision hazard, 1998 KY26's size makes it harmless if it were on a collision course. The asteroid would most likely explode in the upper atmosphere and its fragments would fall harmlessly to Earth. Moreover, 1998 KY26 is in an orbit whose shape and low inclination with respect to the ecliptic plane make it unusually easy to intercept.
Tracking of 1998 KY26 by Ostro and his colleagues in the international scientific community was supported by NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC, and by the Czech Republic's Academy of Sciences in Prague. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA.
Its Asteroids like this one that we need to hunt up for manned living on the moon.
Ed.
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The Lunar Prospector Crash
July 28, 1999
A stay of execution for Lunar Prospector -- The spacecraft has survived the July 28 lunar eclipse and is on track for a scheduled July 31 2:52 AM impact with the Moon. By the time you read this it will have either have hit its mark, or crashed (same thing in this case).
For more information, check the web site at: http://www.lunarimpact.com/
Ed.
Subcommittee Places NASA Space Science In Grave Danger
From E-mail from the Mars Society Headquarters:
Bob Kopp, Washington Intern, The Mars Society
And Bruce Mackenzie, Executive Director, The Mars Society
A US House subcommittee action is threatening most of NASA's future science programs, including the robotic Mars exploration program. It would also greatly delay any follow on human Mars missions. This is not the NASA budget with which we want to start the 21st century !
It is critical that Mars Society members act upon this as soon as possible. All members of the Puget S. chapter are urge to write to the committee leaders listed at the bottom, and also to your nearest committee members:
George R. Nethercutt, Jr. (R-WA5)
202/225-2006 vox
202/225-3392 fax
509/353-2374 district office
1527 LHOB george.nethercutt-pu-@mail.house.gov
Norman D. Dicks (D-WA6)
202/225-5916 vox
202/226-1176 fax
253/593-6536 district office
2467 RHOB
If you do not live in Washington, you might find a closer member of the House Appropriations Committee Members in the full list, posted at:
http://home.marssociety.org/usa-political/news/alert-19990727.html
The budget approved Monday, July 26, by a House subcommittee threatens most of NASA's science programs, including its robotic Mars exploration program.
The VA, HUD and Independent Agencies subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee approved a budget that funds NASA at $1.3 billion less than the President's recommended budget. Seventy five million dollars of the cuts come from future Mars missions and $774 million come from other science and aeronautics programs.
No NASA science program has a particularly large budget to begin with. NASA's FY1999 budget for Mars exploration totaled only $228 million, so the $75 million cut amounts to one-third of the program's budget. The cut places at risk all future missions, including the 2001 Orbiter and Lander, which are ready to begin assembly, as well as missions planned for 2003 and 2005.
According to a press release put out by the Appropriations committee, the budget:
Funds NASA at $12.3 billion, $1.3 billion below the President's request and $1.4 billion below FY99.
Funds the International Space Station at $2.4 billion, $100 more than FY99 and $100 million below the President's request.
Reduces funding for future Mars missions by $75 million.
Eliminates future missions of the Earth Observing System and cuts the EOS Data Information System $50 million from the President's request, bringing FY00 funding to $191 million.
Reduces future planning for Explorer and Discovery program missions by $60 million each. Explorer is funded at $47 million for FY00. Discovery is funded at $18 million.
Eliminates Triana.
Eliminates LightSAR.
Eliminates SIRTF (Space Infrared Telescope Facility), one of NASA's Great Observatories.
Eliminates Contour.
The $1.3 billion cut, which comes as a result of the spending caps to which the President and the Congress agreed in 1997, is the largest NASA has faced in its history. It has prompted NASA administrator Dan Goldin to comment that "the NASA budget has been devastated." If the cuts go through, NASA will probably close two or three of its ten space centers around the country. "The layoffs," Goldin said, "will be very, very significant."
The full House Appropriations Committee will consider the NASA budget on Friday. The Senate VA-HUD subcommittee will likely vote on a similar bill sometime soon.
If these budget cuts go through, there will be little chance for a government-supported humans-to-Mars program any time soon. Please make your feelings known to the Vice President, your Representative and Senators, the leaders of the House Appropriations committee, and committee members from your state or a neighboring state. Note that a faxed letter carries more weight with staffers than an e-mail. These cuts should also serve as a reminder to local chapters of the importance of meeting with all the Representatives and Senators in your area.
After contacting legislators, please drop a note to Bob Kopp, Mars Society Washington Intern, at r-kop-@uchicago.edu. Also send a note if you wish to be kept informed about other times US citizens can help affect our future exploration and settlement of Mars.
For more information:
space.com http://www.space.com/news/nasa_budgetcuts.html
SpaceViews http://www.spaceviews.com/1999/07/27a.html
The subcommittee report is available online at
http://home.marssociety.org/usa-political/news/house-app-vahud-19990727.html
To find contact information for your members of Congress, visit the Project Vote Smart Congressional index at http://www.vote-smart.org/congresstrack/c-index.html
You can contact the Vice President at:
Vice President Al Gore
Room S-212
United States Capitol
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-456-2326
Fax: 202-224-0291
Note that, when he awarded medals to the crew of Apollo 11 at the National Air and Space Museum on July 20, Gore said, "I am deeply committed to an aggressive, forward-looking space program, a space program that dares to push the limits of the heavens."
Here is contact information for the members of the Appropriations committees, with thanks to Tim Kyger, author of the Space Science Political Alert.
The full list House Appropriations Committee Members is posted at:
http://home.marssociety.org/usa-political/news/alert-19990727.html
My Take on these matters.:
It seems that our fine elected officials are up to no good again. House Republicans are demanding huge NASA cuts. Just a week after America celebrated the 30th anniversary of the first Moonwalk, a House appropriations sub-committee votes to slash the agency's funding to $12.3 billion in 2000.
With a budget this low, NASA would have to cancel current and upcoming missions. Possibly including the continuing Mars robotic missions that have been launching every couple of years. If this is curtailed, Manned Mars missions (at least NASA run missions) are in serious jeopardy.
Considering the current pace of space work being done in the world, including the International Space Station, these cuts are the most devastating in the 41-year history of NASA.
These cuts could even lead to the closure of one of NASA's three main space centers.
NASA chief Dan Goldin is understandably upset by these events "We are talking about gutting space exploration….Am I going to fight? You bet," he said. He also warned that cuts could jeopardize Space Shuttle safety.
All this at a time when Republicans are trying to pass through a huge tax cut.
When everything that the government does that enriches the mind of the nation is cut, all that will be left is an overfed, couch-potato country with no new and exciting horizons.
Please let your congress-critter know what you think of this. If enough of us speak out, maybe we can make a difference. If not, Elections are coming up.
Ed.
Interested in the Cassini mission to Saturn? Cassini is approaching a rendezvous with earth this month. Check it and other spacecraft out at: http://www.nasa.jpl.gov/
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