henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (04/12/89)
[A correction: despite the comments in AW&ST, folks from both Fermilab and CERN have pointed out that Fermilab currently holds the record as the world's biggest antimatter source. Not that that's such a massive distinction, mind you: if all the antiprotons produced to date were combined with positrons to make antihydrogen, there would be roughly enough to fill an anti-ping-pong ball at one atmosphere. (My thanks to a friend at CERN for this information.)] India asks France for technological assistance in launch-vehicle development, specifically nozzle design, cryogenic propulsion, and clustering of liquid engines. [Fat chance.] First Delta 2 launch successful Feb 14. NASA is upset about a coming personnel crisis: 70% of its senior managers are eligible for retirement within two years, and many of them are expected to leave. Fletcher says the situation is "desperate". (AW&ST's editorial this week inquires why this problem took Fletcher et al by surprise, given that it's been obvious since the hiring freezes in the 1970s that there would be few middle-aged managers to replace the old ones.) NASA is considering ideas ranging up to turning several of the NASA centers into contractor-run facilities. The problem is that NASA cannot afford to pay enough to keep its managers or hire people with equivalent experience. There has also been an unusually high number of resignations among newly-hired managers of late. [To be blunt, if NASA forgets silly ideas like privatizing some of the centers and just tries to muddle through, this could be the best thing that's happened to it in a long time. NASA's supervisor:worker ratio today is much too high, twice what it was during Apollo. Putting some of the relatively young and inexperienced people in positions of responsibility might be just what's needed to get things moving again.] Florida governor asks state legislature to set up a Spaceport Authority to establish commercial launch facilities at the Cape (preferably using some existing mothballed pads) and a sounding-rocket range on property owned by Eglin AFB. The Bush Administration supports the idea in general. Many people doubt that there is enough long-term demand to justify such a project, though. Arianespace signs contracts for the production batch of 50 Ariane 4s. The bulk buy is expected to cut costs by about 20%. Article on preparations for the first Titan 4 launch, which will carry an upgraded-version Defense Support Program early-warning satellite. The infrared telescope is expected to return useful intelligence data as well; the latest upgraded version is known to be capable of tracking aircraft if they are using afterburners. Among other minor improvements, this DSP version has computer and software improvements to manage its own systems and station-keeping if cut off from ground command. The next one, to go up on the shuttle next year, will add a laser communications system which will link it to other DSP satellites, allowing "sideways" data relay to circumvent jamming. There is a faction which wants to continue upgrading the DSP series rather than replacing it with the SDI-developed BSTS system. An interesting set of photos comparing successive generations of DSP birds, with successively more elaborate sensors and bigger solar arrays. Navy begins construction of four Lightsats for launch this fall, pulling ahead of the USAF (which fought the concept for a while). The first three, carrying various experimental packages, will go up together on a Scout (probably). The fourth, carrying an experimental system to locate sources of radio interference, is almost finished but does not have a definite launcher yet: Scout and Pegasus are possibilities. [Smells like they want to use Pegasus but don't want to say so until it flies successfully.] These are basically R&D missions, although they may have some operational utility if they work well. The official position right now is that these are "niche" spacecraft that cannot replace the big expensive ones. [That may change if they work well.] NRC report says SDI beam-weapon work implicitly assumes availability of advanced space power sources, on which little work is being done. One significant issue, for example, is whether exhaust and vibration from chemical systems make them unacceptable; only analytical studies have been done on this, with inconclusive results, and the space experiments that would settle the question are several years off and have low priority. USAF building special single-point suspension facility to study the control dynamics of large lightweight space structures. Pratt&Whitney offers various upgrades for the RL10 engine to Centaur customers; business is booming. Some of the upgrades are derived from work done on the late, lamented Shuttle-Centaur program. Study commissioned by Comsat Corp. shows satellites holding their own against fiber-optic cables for the near future. -- Welcome to Mars! Your | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology passport and visa, comrade? | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu
cdaf@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Charles Daffinger) (04/12/89)
In article <1989Apr12.030151.7181@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes: > >Pratt&Whitney offers various upgrades for the RL10 engine to Centaur >customers; business is booming. Some of the upgrades are derived >from work done on the late, lamented Shuttle-Centaur program. > What was the Shuttle-Centaur program, and why did it croak? -charles -- Charles Daffinger >Take me to the river, Drop me in the water< (812) 339-7354 cdaf@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu {pur-ee,rutgers,pyramid,ames}!iuvax!cdaf Home of the Whitewater mailing list: whitewater-request@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu
henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (04/12/89)
In article <19530@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> cdaf@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Charles Daffinger) writes: >>... Some of the [RL10] upgrades are derived >>from work done on the late, lamented Shuttle-Centaur program. > >What was the Shuttle-Centaur program, and why did it croak? Since the demise of the Space Tug early in shuttle development, any shuttle payload that wants to go beyond low Earth orbit has needed an upper stage of some kind. The Inertial Upper Stage (nee Interim Upper Stage) is okay for many things, but is short on performance for seriously demanding missions, like large deep-space missions and boosting really heavy loads into Clarke orbit. So NASA undertook to develop a version of Centaur optimized for the shuttle cargo bay. (Basically this meant fatter tanks.) This would give much higher performance, since Centaur is oxygen/hydrogen against IUS's solid fuel. Originally Shuttle-Centaur was earmarked to launch Galileo, Ulysses, Magellan I think, and at least some USAF payloads. There were some complications, like needing a way to dump the Centaur fuel if an emergency landing was needed, but things were more or less on track for Galileo and Ulysses in late spring 1986. Then Challenger exploded. In the safety hysteria that followed, Shuttle-Centaur was cancelled on the grounds that having cryogenic fuels in the payload bay somehow presented safety problems that were utterly beyond NASA's ability to solve. What this really meant was that NASA didn't feel like solving them just then, and the people who needed Shuttle-Centaur didn't have enough political clout to keep the program alive. Some of the other post-Challenger safety restrictions have since been relaxed, but the momentum was lost on Shuttle-Centaur and there is no chance of reviving it now. (If there were no other way to launch Galileo, the situation might be different, but the Galileo people have found that by making some sacrifices, they can use an IUS.) -- Welcome to Mars! Your | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology passport and visa, comrade? | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu