From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: space news from July 27 AW&ST
To: sci-space-news@news.arc.nasa.gov
Followup-To: sci.space
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 05:56:47 GMT

DSN hopes to have the 70m antenna at Goldstone operating again this week.
Its subreflector was knocked off its mountings by the June quake.

Japan is considering flying an experimental satellite that would communicate
by laser with ESA's Artemis comsat.  It would fly in 1997.

TRW and Lockheed teams win second-stage contracts for the Follow-on Early
Warning Satellite program, with the Rockwell team losing out.

International space programs are not doing well...  ESA's recent problems
are well-known, but they're getting worse:  French officials have just
called for further ESA budget reductions.  [Sour grapes over losing Hermes?]
Everyone is approaching cooperation with Russia rather gingerly.  France,
however, is miffed that it's happening at all:  they'd seen themselves in
the position of a monopoly supplier for Russian space cooperation, but now
see themselves shut out by US-Russian cooperation.  To make it worse, the
US consent for launch of one US-built comsat on a Proton is seen as the
foot in the door for a major threat to Arianespace.

The one bright spot for ESA is that the idea of ESA building the space-
station lifeboat is being examined seriously again.  One possibility being
mentioned is use of Soyuz as an interim solution for early operations,
with an ESA craft replacing it later (avoiding the need for extensive
re-engineering of Soyuz for longer stay time etc.).

Progress M-13 had to abort its first docking attempt (July 2) with
Mir when the automatic docking system acted up.  A software problem was
found, and a second attempt July 4 was successful.  Goldin is unhappy
that when he visited associated Russian facilities a few days later,
the matter wasn't mentioned.

Russian space activity is down 40-50% against last year.

Clinton/Gore space platform differs from the Administration's only in
small ways; the lack of major change is seen as an attempt to avoid
mortally offending the battered aerospace industry.

Goldin says that US-Russian space cooperation will proceed carefully,
and the objective will be to combine capabilities rather than buy
goods and services (although he comes out against paying US contractors
to duplicate Russian capabilities just to keep US workers busy).  He
says his trip to Russia did allay some concerns, and that the Russians
appear committed to an ongoing space program, although a more limited
one than previously.  He notes one difference between the two nations'
philosophy:  "The Russians test and the Americans analyze...  They
built twelve different modules of Mir for tests..."  [A cynical man
would undoubtedly suggest that they learned things from those tests
that the US missed in its analyses and will learn the hard way on the
"operational" hardware.  Who, me, cynical?]

F-18 flight tests successfully demonstrate the "external burning" process
probably planned for the X-30, paving the way for higher-speed tests on
one of the NASA SR-71s.

Story on X-30 spinoffs, mostly new alloys and processing techniques.

India aims at becoming a commercial satellite supplier, pointing to the
(hoped for!) success of Insat 2A as proof of its capabilities.  It will
start by selling subsystems, hoping to eventually sell complete satellites.
This will be complicated by sanctions imposed by the US after India bought
upper-stage technology from Russia; the US claims violation of rules meant
to stop missile technology from proliferating.

Meanwhile, India's ASLV launcher finally had a successful flight in May.
Even this flight was marred by problems, with the final stage not spinning
up to its full intended RPM before ignition, and the resulting orbit having
a lower perigee than intended.

Magellan radar mapping has been stopped temporarily.  Magellan's transmitter
A is no longer capable of sending radar data due to a modulator failure,
but it is still in use for gravimetry work.  Transmitter B is still usable,
despite a spurious whistle that requires using only part of the original
bandwidth (limiting transmission rate), but it seems to be deteriorating,
and it has been turned off to extend its life and allow time for closer
study of the problem.  The highest priority right now is to have things
in the best possible condition for a period of mapping in September, to
cover an area which was missed in both previous mapping cycles.  The
last time B was turned on, in January, no whistle was seen for the first
20 minutes of operation, and JPL is exploring the possibility of running
it intermittently, in hopes that the ability to use the full data rate
would make up for the need to turn it off regularly.  Previously this
approach had been ruled out for fear of damage from too much thermal
cycling, but the progressive deterioration is now considered to be a
greater threat.

Magellan is funded through May 1993.  After the September gap is filled,
further priorities are picking up remaining missing spots, revisiting
areas where signs of change have been seen, and experimenting with
aerobraking to lower the orbit for more precise gravimetry and radar work.
The aerobraking effort would start in summer 1993, if money is available.

Two Magellan images, eight months apart, of an area in the Imdr region.
Patchy bright areas and other features have appeared for the second one.
This has happened in a few other areas as well.  One complication is
that the radar images were taken from opposite directions, and it is
just possible that this is causing the apparent differences, although
explaining just how that could happen is difficult.  [One of those areas
has since been re-examined from the original angle, and it looks like
the changes are indeed artifacts of the viewing angle.  There is still
no good theory of how that would occur.]
-- 
There is nothing wrong with making      | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
mistakes, but... make *new* ones. -D.Sim|  henry@zoo.toronto.edu  utzoo!henry
Newsgroups: sci.space.news