ATI Space Email Newsletter - October 1998
In this issue of ATI Space News:
· STS-95 GLENN MISSION · SOHO IS NEARLY BACK IN BUSINESS · HUBBLE GOES TO THE LIMIT IN SEARCH OF FARTHEST GALAXIES · NEAR SATELLITE APPROACHING RENDEZVOUS WITH EROS · SEALAUNCH PLANS MARCH LAUNCH · NRO SATELLITE SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHED STS-95 GLENN MISSION --SCIENCE SPANS INNER UNIVERSE TO OUTER SPACE o Target launch date/time -- October 29, 1998, 2:00 p.m. o Shuttle flight #92; Discovery flight #25 o Mission duration -- 8 days, 22 hours, 4 minutes o Landing -- KSC, November 7, 12:04 p.m. More than thirty six years after he made history as the first American to orbit the Earth, Senator John H. Glenn, Jr. will return to space as part of a multi-national crew with the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery. The flight, designated STS-95, will involve more than eighty Scientific experiments investigating mysteries that span the realm from the inner universe of the human body to studies of our own Sun and its solar activity Back on February 20, 1962, when Glenn flew in his Friendship 7 Mercury capsule, the largest mystery facing the young NASA space program was whether humans could even survive in the hostile environment of space. In the 121 space missions since Glenn's flight, more than 200 Americans have flown in space. The STS-95 press kit is now online, inaugurating a new service that will enable members of the news media and the public to obtain access to each mission's information earlier and with more detail than ever before. The press kit can be accessed on the World-Wide Web at: http://www.shuttlepresskit.com> SOHO IS NEARLY BACK IN BUSINESS The last two issues of the ATI newsletter have followed the SOHO mission. Progress continues. High-quality new pictures of the Sun, taken earlier this week from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), have raised hopes that the mission may soon be returned to scientific operations. Engineers have successfully reactivated nine of the 12 instruments on the European Space Agency (ESA)/NASA SOHO mission, which has been out of commission for nearly four months after contact was lost on June 24. "As of today, nine of the 12 instruments on board SOHO have been turned on. Four of them are already fully functional; the other five are still undergoing careful recommissioning activities. But so far no signs of damage due to thermal stress during the deep freeze have been detected. I tip my hat to the engineers who built this spacecraft and these sensitive but robust instruments," said Dr. Bernhard Fleck, the ESA project scientist for SOHO. The remaining three instruments will be switched on over the next few weeks. The images are the latest success for the team during a complex, challenging recovery sequence. On July 23, SOHO was located using radar techniques with the 305-meter Arecibo, Puerto Rico, radio telescope of the U.S. National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center as a transmitter and a 70-meter dish of the NASA Deep Space Network as a receiver. SOHO first responded to radio transmissions on August 3, and telemetry from SOHO was received August 8, telling controllers the condition of the spacecraft and its instruments. The spacecraft's frozen hydrazine fuel was gradually thawed, and on September 16, SOHO's thrusters were fired to stop its spin and to place it in the correct orientation towards the Sun. See SOHO Recovery Site HUBBLE GOES TO THE LIMIT IN SEARCH OF FARTHEST GALAXIES Stretching the vision of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope farther across space and further back into time than ever before, astronomers have peered into a previously unseen realm of the universe. A "long exposure" infrared image taken with Hubble's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) has uncovered the faintest galaxies ever seen. Infrared sensitivity was needed because the expansion of the universe is expected to stretch the light of distant galaxies down to infrared wavelengths. Astronomers believe some of these galaxies could be over 12 billion light-years away (depending on cosmological models) Ð making them the farthest objects ever seen. A powerful new generation of telescopes will be needed to confirm the suspected distances. "This observation is a major step toward fulfilling one of Hubble's key objectives: to search for the faintest and farthest objects in the universe," said Ed Weiler, NASA's acting Associate Administrator for Space Science. In a separate discovery, Thompson also found that faint red galaxies matched up with compact blue knots of light seen in the earlier visible light image. "This means that some objects that appeared to be separate galaxies in the optical image are really hot star-forming regions in much larger older galaxies," he said. In results to be published in the Astronomical Journal, Thompson precisely measured the infrared "colors" of the objects. He found some objects that had the expected color of a galaxy too distant to be detected in Hubble's optical deep field image. NEAR SATELLITE APPROACHING RENDEZVOUS WITH EROS The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous, or NEAR, spacecraft will fire rockets on Dec. 20 to settle into an orbit of an asteroid called Eros. Andy Cheng, a Johns Hopkins University (JHU/APL) researcher and the project scientist for NEAR, said that all instruments on the spacecraft are working well. NEAR is a successful example of a faster, better, cheaper space mission. Eric Hoffman of JHU/APL covers the design of NEAR satellite as a case study in ATI's Small Satellite Design & Technology class scheduled on Jan 25-28, 1999 in the Washington DC area and on February 22-25,1999 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. If all goes according to plan, NEAR will begin will start orbiting EROS on Jan 10,1999. Six instruments aboard NEAR will analyze the composition, magnetic field and mass of the asteroid, sending the data back to Earth by radio. The Jan/Feb classes will have the latest information. SEALAUNCH PLANS MARCH LAUNCH Sea Launch will demonstrate the capabilities of its ocean-based commercial launch system with its first launch in March 1999, the Company said. The first launch will carry a demonstration payload having the same mission and physical characteristics (weight, size, etc.) as an HS 702 commercial communications satellite. Originally, the first Sea Launch payload was to have been an HS 702, built by Hughes Space and Communications. "We are proceeding with preparations to bring Sea Launch on line and this will be accomplished through the demonstration launch," said Allen B. Ashby, Sea Launch president, "While Sea Launch has revised its payload for the first launch, the Company is committed to meeting the requirements of its customers." Ashby announced plans for the launch after the Odyssey arrived from Russia at the Sea Launch Home Port in Long Beach, Calif. The Odyssey is the program's self-propelled launch platform from which Sea Launch rockets will carry communication satellites into orbit from the Equatorial waters of the Pacific. Sea Launch uses a Ukrainian- and Russian-built rocket, the Norwegian-built floating launch platform and an Assembly and Command ship the Sea Launch Commander, also based at the Home Port. Sea Launch currently has a manifest of 18 firm launch contracts signed to date through the year 2004. The Sea Launch Company is a joint venture of The Boeing Company (40%), RSC-Energia of Moscow (25%), KB Yuzhnoye/PO Yuzhmash of Ukraine (15%) and Kvaerner Maritime of Norway (20%). NRO SATELLITE SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHED The National Reconnaissance Office's Space Technology Experiment satellite was successfully launched aboard an Orbital Science Corporation Taurus booster on October 3. The Space Technology Experiment (STEX) satellite will test lightweight, high performance spacecraft technologies that have been proven in the laboratory aboard an experimental satellite. The experiment helps the NRO decide if the technology under testing is right, if it can be effectively incorporated into an operational spacecraft system, and if it can be operated in space. STEX was built by Lockheed-Martin Astronautics Corporation and takes advantage of the NRO's partnerships with industry and the Air Force and Naval Research Labs. ANTARCTIC OZONE DEPLETION SETS NEW SIZE RECORD NASA and NOAA satellites show that the Antarctic ozone thinning covers the largest expanse of territory since the depletion developed in the early 1980s. The measurements were obtained this year between mid-August and early October using the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) instrument aboard NASA's Earth Probe (TOMS-EP) satellite and the Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet Instrument (SBUV) aboard the NOAA-14 satellite. Preliminary data from the satellites show that this year's ozone depletion reached a record size of 10.5 million square miles (27.3 million square kilometers) on Sept. 19, 1998. The previous record of 10.0 million square miles was set on Sept. 7, 1996. NEW ATI SPACE TRAINING SCHEDULE POSTED ON INTERNET The new schedule of ATI space and satellite technical training has been posted on our web site. Call Casey at 410-531-6034 if you would like a printed brochure. See http://catalog.com/hitekweb/sked.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ /|\ APPLIED TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE tel.(410) 531-6034 |A| 12960 Linden Church Road fax (410) 531-1013 |T| Clarksville, Maryland 21029 e-mail: atiinfo@aol.com |I| ||| ATI world wide web: http://catalog.com/hitekweb/ ||| Space directory editor: http://www.newhoo.com/Science/Space/ / | \ James Jenkins, Executive Director '' `` The Leader in Space Technical Training since 1984 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~