henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) (01/16/91)
Soviets running pad tests on a smaller variant of Energia, with a smaller core and only two strap-ons, giving a payload to orbit of 40 tons rather than 100. Toyohiro Akiyama returns from being the first journalist in space [probably much to his relief -- he was spacesick and hadn't really kicked his tobacco habit]. TBS has no complaints about in-flight support, although they are still unhappy about financial haggling with the Soviets. McDonnell Douglas contracts for three Delta launches, with options for 12 more, for NASA science payloads. Also included are pad modifications at Vandenberg. Administration endorses Augustine Committee report, asking NASA to respond in about a month with an initial plan to implement its recommendations. The committee will reconvene later this year to assess progress. NASA has no quarrel with most of the report, but is concerned about the committee's recommendation to terminate orbiter production. [And rightly so -- it's a thoroughly dumb idea, if the shuttle fleet is to continue to be a significant part of NASA planning.] There is also doubt on how to proceed on the recommendation that NASA pursue a heavy expendable booster. Columbia and Astro land at Edwards, after a threat of bad weather cut the mission short by one day. 135 out of 200 planned observation targets actually got looked at, with extensive use of on-board control and ground control to work around failing electronics. The astronomers are pleased with the results despite the difficulties. NASA is playing down the calls for a massive shakeup of the space station, perhaps partly because it is not sure how to proceed. One problem is that the Augustine Committee said that Fred's primary mission should be life sciences, while Congress tends to back microgravity materials work more strongly, and NASA has been trying to avoid assigning priorities. There have been no serious design changes in recent weeks other than a decision to split the US lab module and the living quarters into two smaller modules each. No decision has yet been made on the fate of the truss, which most everyone except McDonnell Douglas has recommended killing. Lenoir warns contractors that it's going to hurt. One contentious area of Fred is the perennial lifeboat question. The Augustine committee strongly recommended doing it, but NASA so far has failed to convince Congress to fund it. Another hot spot is that the committee recommended putting a single NASA center in charge of each major project, and taken literally this would mean scrapping the station's paperwork HQ in Reston. A further touchy point is a strong recommendation that NASA separate development from operations, under separate associate administrators. Lenoir currently runs both. Battle brewing over radio spectrum: the space between 1435 and 1530 MHz is currently allocated entirely to aircraft/missile flight-test telemetry, but several groups proposing CD-quality audio broadcasting from satellites would like pieces of it. The aviation people are violently opposed, saying the band is intensively used and should not be sacrificed to "yet another entertainment and advertising vehicle". The FCC has already shot down the broadcasters' contention that the two groups could share the frequencies, saying this shows "fundamental misconceptions regarding the way in which flight test operations are conducted". More Magellan pictures. The planetary scientists are also starting to analyze the data Galileo got during its Venus encounter, which finally got sent to Earth in the last few weeks. There are strong hints that Venus is still volcanically active. Magellan is still experiencing occasional minor upsets, but on the whole, mapping is going well. NASA medical researchers report that injections of promethazine appear to be very effective against spacesickness. Astronauts injected with it after the onset of symptoms on their first day are generally free of severe symptoms very quickly and completely well by the end of the second day. Previous orally-administered drugs, notably scopolamine, have not worked well; it is now thought that absorption of oral drugs is unpredictable and generally poor. Energia NPO, the organization that designs and develops most of the Soviet Union's major space hardware, has assumed management responsibility for commercial sales of manned spaceflight. Glavcosmos formerly did this. -- If the Space Shuttle was the answer, | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology what was the question? | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry
dlbres10@pc.usl.edu (Fraering Philip) (01/18/91)
Comment regarding Broadcast CD-quality sound: With all of the bilge being broadcast over the airwaves today, what would be the point? After all, if people listened to more classical or jazz or maybe new-age music, I could see the point. But, quite simply, _Poison_ and _Nelson_ will still sound just as bad no matter how good the dynamic response is. ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) Phil dlbres10@pc.usl.edu