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Dec. 17 1999
*In this Issue: From SPACEVIEWS, 1999 December 15:
SPACEHAB to Build Commercial Space Station Module (feature story)
Also-- An extensive article, "Catching Up in the Moon Race," by Andrew J. LePage, may be found at SPACEVIEWS <http://www.spaceviews.com/1999/1215/>. The article details the US's early efforts toward reaching the moon.
*In brief
Titan 2 Launch
SOHO OK
Antarctic Discovery Raises Hopes for Europan Life
Ancient Mars Ocean
The Day the Solar Wind Died
Big Dust Disks and Solar Systems
Mulville To Become Associate Deputy Administrator Of NASA
Space Toys
*Today at NASA <http://www.nasa.gov/today/index.html>
Shuttle and Terra Missions Postponed 24 Hours; Set to Launch Dec. 17
Terra and Space Shuttle Missions Delayed 24 Hours
Shuttle Launch Delayed; Terra Mission on Schedule
Today is a Double-Play Day for NASA
Chandra Catches X-ray Glow From Supernov
SPACEHAB to Build Commercial Space Station Module
American company SPACEHAB will team with a Russian company to build a new module for the International Space Station which the company consider the "first commercial real estate in orbit."
The new module, which SPACEHAB calls "Enterprise", will be used for commercial microgravity experiments and will also host a broadcast studio for television and Internet broadcasts.
"Enterprise is an historic project -- the first commercial real estate in orbit," said SPACEHAB President David Rossi. "This partnership is the first big step off planet Earth for private enterprise in space, independent of government funding."
Enterprise will be built by Russian aerospace company Energia under an agreement with SPACEHAB. The module will then be attached to the Russian segment of ISS with the cooperation of the Russian Space Agency, which will provide launch services and "other resources" to the project, according to a SPACEHAB statement.
SPACEHAB estimates that it will cost $100 million to build the module. SPAEHAB's share of that cost, $50 million, will be raised by the company through a combination of private investments, loans, and a possible additional stock offering by the public company. The module could be completed in as little as two years, depending on the availability of funding.
Company officials emphasized the possibility for using the module for television and Internet programming. "Among our new businesses will be the first independent commercial television and Internet Web-site broadcasts from space," said SPACEHAB chairman Shelley Harrison.
"SPACEHAB will provide a unique blend of space-originated news, information, education, entertainment programming and business advertising and promotion, broadcasting from Enterprise to Earth TV and Internet links as it orbits the Earth every 90 minutes," Harrison said.
A SPACEHAB subsidiary would be established to handle the television and Internet uses of the module. Harrison said the company is in negotiations with an unnamed "established" Internet company to become a partner in the venture.
NASA will play no direct role in the development of Enterprise, and NASA officials seemed interested but noncommittal about the addition of the module to ISS. John Schumacher, NASA's associate director for international relations, told the New York Times that the module concept sounded "exciting" but he needed more information to see how the module would be included on the station.
"We've always encouraged commercial interests on the station," Schumacher told the Times, "and want to see how they will meet the requirements to be included."
All ISS member nations have agreed to an assembly timeline that outlines what modules each country is to provide and when they are to be added. Adding a new module to ISS would likely require agreement of the ISS members, unless the module takes the place of an existing planned module.
Illustrations of the Enterprise module released by SPACEHAB show it attached to the Zarya module of ISS at a port designed to be used by docking and stowage module Russia plans to launch in 2003. Russia also plans to provide two research modules in 2004, either of which could possibly be replaced by Enterprise.
The announcement is seen as a boost for commercial use of the International Space Station, something NASA has been trying to encourage as a way of reducing its share of the operating costs of the station, as well as the possible commercialization of the station as a whole.
Enterprise is not SPACEHAB's first venture into commercial uses of ISS. In August the company reached an agreement with the Canadian Space Agency whereby SPACEHAB will sell experiment space in one of Canada's two experiment lockers on the station to commercial customers. In exchange, SPACEHAB will build a protein crystal growth experiment for Canada that will fly on a future shuttle mission.
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An Air Force Titan 2 successfully launched a military weather satellite Sunday, December 12. The refurbished ICBM lifted off at lifted off at 12:38 pm EST (1738 UT) from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. It successfully placed its payload, the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Block 5D-3 satellite into a near-polar orbit. The Block 5D-3 satellite, built by Lockheed Martin, is the first in a new generation of weather satellites to be used by the DMSP, with a suite of upgraded features. The Titan 2 is one of 14 that has been refurbished by Lockheed Martin for the Air Force, and the ninth to be launched, all successfully. This launch, planned for October, was delayed when a faulty chip was discovered in a solid-state data recorder on the spacecraft during launch preparations.
Full article online at: http://www.spaceviews.com/1999/12/12b.html
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The ESA-NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft is back to normal after final maneuvers were completed late Thursday, December 9, to recover the spacecraft from a pair of safe modes. The spacecraft had been recovering from a series of problems dating back to November 28, when the spacecraft entered a safe mode after an attitude control computer reset for an unknown reason. SOHO was in the process of recovering from that safe mode when it entered another on December 1. The second problem was traced to a software bug that has since been patched.
Full article online at: http://www.spaceviews.com/1999/12/10c.html
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Antarctic Discovery Raises Hopes for Europan Life
The discovery of bacteria in a sample of ice taken from deep with Antarctica, reported in the December 10 issue of the journal Science, is the latest evidence to support the possibility that similar life may exist on the icy moon Europa. The Antarctic ice was taken from a region just above Lake Vostok, a large subterranean lake that may be similar to the subsurface oceans thought to exist under Europa's icy crust. The bacteria was very simple and not diverse, a not-unexpected finding given the lack of energy in the ice, more than three kilometers below the surface. "Microbes within the liquid water habitat of Lake Vostok may shed light on the viability of life in similar harsh environments beyond Earth, such as in the frozen ocean subsurface on Jupiter's moon, Europa," noted Chris McKay of NASA's Ames Research Center, one of the scientists involved with the research.
Full article online at: http://www.spaceviews.com/1999/12/13a.html
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Data from the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft shows that the Red Planet once had a large ocean early in its history, in contradiction to findings released just two months ago, scientists reported last week. Using a topographic map generated from the altimeter data, James Head of Brown University and others looked for boundaries between different geological units of the planet that would be consistent with shorelines. The results revealed evidence for an ocean that covers the northern regions of the planet, fed by channels coming from the Tharsis bulge and Valles Marineris canyon system through Chyrse Planitia into the northern lowland basins. However, images taken by MGS and published in October show no evidence of obvious shoreline features in regions previously identified as being likely shorelines. However, Head is confident of his results. "We can't think of anything else to explain these things," he said. "They merit much closer scrutiny."
Full article online at: http://www.spaceviews.com/1999/12/13b.html
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A sudden decrease in the intensity of the solar wind earlier this year has allowed scientists to better understand the Sun and its connection to the Earth. From late evening on May 10 through the early hours of May 12, the number of particles -- protons, electrons, and helium atoms -- in the solar wind dropped to less than two percent of its normal value of 5-10 particles per cubic centimeter. This unexpected and extended dropoff in the solar wind, the longest ever observed, caused the Earth's magnetic field to expand and also allowed scientists to see "strahl", narrow streams of electrons coming from the Sun's corona that are normally diluted by the solar wind. "Normally, our view of the corona from Earth is like seeing the Sun on an overcast, cloudy day," said Jack Scudder, a space physicist from the University of Iowa. "On May 11, the clouds broke and we could see clearly."
Full article online at: http://www.spaceviews.com/1999/12/14b.html
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Big Dust Disks and Solar Systems
Dust disks ten times the mass of the one thought to create our own solar system may explain why many newly-discovered extrasolar planets have very eccentric orbits, scientists explained in a paper published in Nature last week. "If the disk is lightweight, planet formation occurs very slowly -- over ten million years or so -- and the result could look something more like our own solar system," said Philip Armitage. "For a heavyweight disk more violent processes can occur more quickly and lead to a very different-looking set of planets." If many planets formed closely together in such large dust disks, as Armitage and colleague Brad Hansen modeled in their simulations of planet formation, the system could become "violently unstable", with some planets ejected from the solar system and the rest left in eccentric orbits. "We now know that the existence of planets themselves are common," said Armitage. "However, conditions suitable for forming habitable planets -- at least ones like the Earth -- could still be rare."
Full article online at: http://www.spaceviews.com/1999/12/12a.html
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Mulville To Become Associate Deputy Administrator Of NASA
NASA Chief Engineer Daniel Mulville has been tapped to become the new associate deputy administrator of NASA, effective January 1, the space agency announced December 14. Mulville will replace Jack Dailey, who is leaving the space agency to become director of the National Air and Space Museum.
The loss of the Mars Polar Lander, and the Mars Climate Orbiter before it, has become something of a windfall for collectors. As with the Mars Pathfinder mission, toy company Mattel issued a "Hot Wheels" pack, including MPL, MCO, and a Deep Space 2 microprobe. The online space memorabilia site collectSPACE notes that the packs, which sold for $5-6 at JPL and Caltech at the time of the landing, are now going for up to ten times as much on online auction sites like eBay. Mattel made only 10,000 of the sets, and the failure of the mission leads collectors to believe that the toys will never reach store shelves, enhancing their value
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From Today at NASA <http://www.nasa.gov/today/index.html>
Shuttle and Terra Missions Postponed 24 Hours; Set to Launch Dec. 17
Space Shuttle Managers at Kennedy Space Center, FL, delayed launch of STS-103, the Third Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission, while they investigate a number of welds. NASA is preparing for launch at 8:47 p.m., Eastern time, on Dec. 17. On the West coast, a faulty sensor stopped launch of the Terra mission to study the Earth, just seconds before scheduled launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA, aboard an Atlas rocket. The Terra team has scheduled the next launch attempt for Dec. 17 at 1:33 p.m., Eastern time.
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Terra and Space Shuttle Missions Delayed 24 Hours
With just 39 seconds to liftoff, the computer controlling the Atlas rocket carrying the Terra mission at Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA, went into safe mode, scrubbing today's scheduled launch. A sensor appears to have caused the computer to cut off the launch sequence. Launch managers attempted to restart the sequence but could not do so before the end of the 25-minute window. The Terra mission and the today's scheduled Space Shuttle launch are both delayed by 24 hours. Space Shuttle managers plan a news conference at 2:00 p.m., Eastern time, today, to discuss the delay of STS-103, the third Space Shuttle mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.
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Space Shuttle managers have postponed today's launch of STS-103, the third Space Shuttle mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. The mission is now scheduled for launch tomorrow, Dec. 17, at 8:47 p.m., Eastern time. The delay is due to the need to conduct additional analysis of space shuttle hardware. More details are forthcoming. Meanwhile, launch of the Terra Mission is on schedule for liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA, at 1:33 p.m., Eastern time.
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Today is a Double-Play Day for NASA
NASA will launch two major missions on Dec. 16. One mission will study the complex workings of our home planet, the other will service a tool that studies the farthest reaches of the universe. At 1:33 p.m. Eastern Time, Terra will be launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA. to study Earth from the unique vantage point of space. At 9:18 p.m. Eastern Time, Space Shuttle mission STS-103 will be launched from the Kennedy Space Center, FL, with a crew of seven on a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. You can follow both missions on the Web.
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Chandra Catches X-ray Glow From Supernova
Through a combination of serendipity and skill, scientists have used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to capture a rare glimpse of X-radiation from the early phases of a supernova, one of the most violent events in nature. Although more than a thousand supernovae have been observed by optical astronomers, the early X-ray glow from the explosions has been detected in less than a dozen cases. The Chandra observation also provides an inside look at the hectic, exciting world of the international "quick response" network that scientists have set up to track and investigate supernovae.
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Submitted by
CMDR Constance Sanders
USS Yorktown
Chief, Space Activities Committee, SFC
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