People say: "Give me Space!"

Space Foundation; April 5, 2000; Company Press Release: "America's Space Poll Finds Strong Support for NASA, Space Exploration- Survey of Voters Shows Higher than Last Year"
"The results of the poll, conducted during March in a survey of 1,000 registered voters, were released here at the 16th National Space Symposium. Three-fourths of the voters have a favorable rating of space exploration, a jump of ten percentage points since 1999. NASA also saw a 10% increase in its rating, with more than eight out of ten voters expressing a favorable opinion of the agency. In the survey, voters expressed a strong desire to see the space industry produce scientific breakthroughs that have a direct impact on their lives, specifically in the areas of health, the environment, communications and education. Nearly 7 out of 10 voters said using technology and space research on health related research and the environment was important. In questions regarding NASA's budget, more than four in ten (43.1%) say it should be increased, up from 32.5% in last year's poll. An additional 45.5% say NASA's slice of the federal budget should remain the same. NASA currently receives less than one percent of the government's spending. The nationwide survey of 1,000 registered voters was conducted by Shandwick World Research and has a margin of error of three percent." 

Trick or Treat?

Sky & Telescope, June 2000, NewsNotes: "Mild Comet Shower Forecast"
Joan García-Sánchez of the University of Barcelona reports that a visitor will enter the neighborhood in 1.36 million years.  Analysis of astrometric data from the Hipparcos satellite indicates that an orange dwarf (HD 168442) should pass between 0.5 and 1.7 light-years from our solar system.  Currently a small telescope is needed to see the magnitude 9.7 star, but it will be readily visible as a 1st magnitude object at the time of closest approach.  Our current closest neighbor is over 4-light-years away. 

While a treat for astronomers alive at the time there is a trick to this.  Gravity effects, from the dwarf’s proximity to the cloud of comets found at the edge of our solar system, will send new comet’s our way.  Astronomers believe that visitations such as these caused the Earth to be bombarded by comets at various times in pre-history.  García-Sánchez predicts only a 25% increase in the number of comets being cast toward the inner solar system.

Big Telescope May Use Small Mirrors

Mechanical Engineering, Feb 2000, Technology Focus: "Micromirrors Evaluated For Space Telescope"
Sandia National Laboratories, in Albuquerque, N.M., is developing  micromirrors for possible use on NASA's Next Generation Space Telescope.  Micromirrors -- each about the width of a human hair -- will be grouped together in a 2,048 x 2,048 array measuring 8" square.  Each mirror is independently movable by electrostatic forces to allow redirection of optical signals to an infrared detector on the telescope. The mirrors consist of thin films of polycrystalline silicon on a silicon wafer. Because silicon is slightly transparent to infrared, gold will be deposited on the top layer. Work is being done to determine the thinnest layer of gold that will work and not cause excessive stress due to differences in thermal expansion between silicon and gold.  Alternatives to gold are also being sought.

School Ambitions Can Come True!

Minor Planet Center and the Spacewatch Project; May 10, 2000; Press Release: “Long-Lost Asteroid Found”
While a student in England, Gareth V. Williams had hopes of recovering the lost asteroid know as “Albert”.  Now, as the Associate Director of the Minor Planet Center (MPC), in Cambridge, MA, he was in a good position to make his dream come true.

As recently as the late 1970s about 1% of the then 2000 documented asteroids were “lost.”  There had been enough confirmation of their existence to issue each a number and perhaps a name, but their orbit and physical characteristics was not known well enough to locate them again.  Albert was one of these – completely lost soon after the initial observations made in 1911.  But these observations, from various observatories, were enough to garner the “space-rock” a preliminary orbit and designation in the ever growing list of known asteroids.  The “missing list” shrank down to two by 1990 -- the year Williams joined the MPC.  Williams re-identified one of these (Mildred) within a year of joining the organization.  Williams committed to memory the orbital elements for Albert and vigilantly checked every asteroid report for a match.

Earlier this month, while looking-over recent data from the Spacewatch asteroid survey project, Williams found a newly discovered asteroid who’s orbit looked similar to Albert’s.  Matching the data from 1911 with that of the “new discovery” resulted in Albert finally being recovered.  Little lost Albert, with an estimated diameter of two-miles, has now been found 89 years after its original discovery.  The “family” of confirmed asteroids has grown considerably in that time-span.  Albert was originally confirmed as the 719th asteroid, there are now 14,788 in all.

By Fire or By Ice

Analytical Graphics, Inc.; Apr 12, 2000; Company Press Release: "Analytical Graphics, Inc. Rewrites History With New Apollo 13 `What If' Scenario Analysis Results"
On the 30th anniversary of the ill-fated flight of Apollo 13, Analytical Graphics, Inc. announced an analysis of that spacecraft's trajectory following the explosion that crippled the mission.  The belief at the time was that Apollo 13 would miss the Earth by 40,000 miles after rounding the Moon if the astronauts were unable to make any maneuvers. With no rescue system the crew would perish and be forever frozen in space. AGI contends the true distance would have been 2,300 miles followed by a swing-back and eventual steep, fiery re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere on May 20, 1970 over the eastern Atlantic Ocean.

Now You See It

SPACE.com; April 26, 2000; News: “Bigger Telescopes Seek Killer Asteroids”
Arthur C. Clarke is well known as the popularizer of the geosynchronous communications satellite concept decades before it was implemented.  Another example of his abilities as a techno-profit can be found in his 1973 novel Rendezvous with Rama.  Here he describes a future where Earth people have developed the "Spaceguard" system to find and deflect asteroids and comets that  imperil the Earth.  The past decade has seen an increase in scientific and public interest in this subject.  In 1992 the "Spaceguard Report" -- named for Clarke's vision -- recommended building six ground-based telescopes powerful enough to discover, within 10 years, about 90 percent of the asteroids that threaten the Earth.  But while several of the current asteroid observation teams in the U.S. have upgraded their equipment, several foreign efforts have shutdown or been curtailed.  This hampers the goal of having six scopes of at least 1-meter in diameter working on the project.  The good news is that when the Bisei Spaceguard Center in Japan upgrades to a 1-meter instrument in September, there will be a total of five such telescopes worldwide.  Japan’s entry is expected to detect new asteroids and perform follow-up observation for orbit determination.

Propulsion Technologies Roundup

NASA Looks to the Past for the Future
Mechanical Engineering, Feb 2000, News & Notes: "The Unbearable Lightness of Air”
“Dusting off” research done in the 1960s and 1970s, NASA is exploring the use combined cycle engines to lift payloads into space.  Engines would use atmospheric air for combustion, then switch to using an on-board oxidizer at Mach 10.  This reduces the amount of propellant carried by a spacecraft and impacts the cost-per-mass to orbit.  Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama is overseeing the wok with wind-tunnel testing of the engine in various modes of operation at the General Applied Sciences Laboratory in Ronkonkoma, N.Y.  Other NASA centers, industrial and educational and partners are also participating.

Go NAVY!
Mechanical Engineering, Feb 2000, Features: "Induction for the Birds"
A U.S. Navy study in the use of magnetic propulsion to launch planes from the deck of aircraft carriers parallels studies being done by NASA to do the same for spacecraft launches.  Both studies share a sub-contractor, Foster-Miller of Waltham, MA. The NASA maglev effort would employ 1.5 miles of horizontal track on which a sled would levitate and be accelerated at 2g.  The sled would carry a winged craft that would ignite engines and fly-off near the end of the 9.5 seconds run at 400 mph. NASA calculates that maglev systems could reduce vehicle weight by 20%.  An informal estimate puts the electricity cost of accelerating a 120,000-lb. launch vehicle at only $75.00.

05/15/2000