[FPSPACE] Re: FPSPACE Digest, Vol 24, Issue 5

Wed Feb 8 21:51:28 EST 2006

Dear Sir,
  I thank you for publishing by letter "The Avatar Spceplane" in FPSPACE Digest, Vol 24, Issue 5.
  I shall be happy to reply to any reader's response, should they arise.
  With kind regards,
  R.Gopalaswami 

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Today's Topics:

1. FW: Cosmic Vision - Part 3 (LARRY KLAES)
2. Canceling NASA's Terrestrial Planet Finder: The White House's
Increasingly (LARRY KLAES)
3. ARRL: "SuitSat-1" Designated as AO-54; Signal Reported Weaker
(Jim Oberg)
4. Re: Canceling NASA's Terrestrial Planet Finder: The White
House's I... (DSFPortree at aol.com)
5. SOFIA also on the cutting block it seems (Matula, Thomas L.)
6. ISS EVA videos (Pratibha Kumar)
7. The Avatar Spaceplane (Raghavan Gopalaswami)
8. A conclusion to the "Big Bang" story, for now (LARRY KLAES)
9. More on myopic Vision (DSFPortree at aol.com)

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Message: 1
Date: Tue, 07 Feb 2006 13:28:45 -0500
From: "LARRY KLAES" 
Subject: [FPSPACE] FW: Cosmic Vision - Part 3
To: fpspace at friends-partners.org
Message-ID: 
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed

>From: SciTech.editorial at esa.int
>To: ljk4 at msn.com
>Subject: Cosmic Vision - Part 3
>Date: Tue, 07 Feb 2006 18:51:40 +0100 (CET)
>
>COSMIC VISION 2015-2025: FUNDAMENTAL LAWS
>Theme 3 - What are the fundamental physical laws of the Universe?
>The most important challenge facing fundamental physics today is to
>understand the foundations of nature more deeply. Physicists know that
>the laws of physics as formulated at present do not apply at extremely
>high temperatures and energies, so that events in the first fraction of
>a second after the Big Bang are not at all understood. Matter as we
>know it today did not then exist; protons and electrons formed later.
>http://sci.esa.int/jump.cfm?oid=38657
>
>=====================================================
>FUTURE MISSION - UPDATES
>
>PLANCK
>The Planck Flight Model is currently being prepared for transport from
>the prime contractor Alcatel Alenia Space (located in Cannes, France)
>to the cryogenic test facility at Centre Spaciale de Liege (Belgium)
>where the spacecraft will undergo thermal balance testing.
>http://sci.esa.int/jump.cfm?oid=38729
>
>
>HERSCHEL
>The completed Herschel Structural and Thermal Qualification model
>satellite has been mounted onto the HYDRA platform in preparation for
>mechanical vibration and shock tests to complete the environmental
>qualification campaign. This test is to ensure the satellite can cope
>with the vibrations experienced during launch by the Ariane V launcher.
>http://sci.esa.int/jump.cfm?oid=38735
>
>=====================================================
>STATUS REPORTS
>
>VENUS EXPRESS
>Report for Period 27 January - 02 February 2006
>
>During the reporting period the Thermal Characterization Scenario with
>Sun illumination of the cryo face (-X) and the Main Engine face (Z)
>has been completed. The MAG instrument has
>been switched ON, the Star Tracker Stray Light Test has been performed,
>and a TM bit rate test with the Cebreros Ground Station has been
>performed.
>http://sci.esa.int/jump.cfm?oid=38728
>
>=====================================================
>KEEP IN TOUCH
>
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------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Tue, 07 Feb 2006 14:30:58 -0500
From: "LARRY KLAES" 
Subject: [FPSPACE] Canceling NASA's Terrestrial Planet Finder: The
White House's Increasingly
To: fpspace at friends-partners.org
Message-ID: 
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed

Canceling NASA's Terrestrial Planet Finder: The White House's Increasingly
Nearsighted "Vision" For Space Exploration

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1092

To quote:

According to President Bush, as he unveiled his Vision for Space 
Exploration: "We do not know where this journey will end, yet we know this: 
human beings are headed into the cosmos."

If there was one singular mission that embodied humanity casting its 
collective "vision" outward "into the cosmos" so as to look for places to 
"head" toward, it was the Terrestrial Planet Finder.

This is a bad decision. A really bad one. In making it, one has to question 
whether this White House really meant what it said 2 years ago when it 
raised everyone's expectations, invoking an expansion "into the cosmos" in 
so doing.

With every passing year this "vision" is becoming increasing nearsighted.

-- Planetary Society Charges Administration with Blurring its Vision for 
Space
Exploration

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=18944

"The NASA Budget released today shortchanges space science in order to fund 
17
projected space shuttle flights. Despite recent spectacular results from 
NASA's science programs, this budget puts the brakes on their growth within 
the agency.

"It seriously damages the hugely productive and successful robotic 
exploration of our solar system and beyond."

------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 13:54:05 -0600
From: "Jim Oberg" 
Subject: [FPSPACE] ARRL: "SuitSat-1" Designated as AO-54; Signal
Reported Weaker
To: , "Kylie Clem"

Message-ID: <006601c62c20$409f5fc0$0202a8c0 at dell2004>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

"SuitSat-1" Designated as AO-54; Signal Reported Weaker
http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/02/06/103/?nc=1

NEWINGTON, CT, Feb 6, 2006--Based on recent reports, the already-puny 145.99 MHz signal from "SuitSat-1" may be getting even weaker. The unusual Amateur Radio transmit-only satellite, which consists of a discarded Russian Orlan spacesuit equipped with ham radio gear, was released February 3 by International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 12 Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev as he and Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, began a six-hour spacewalk. The crew stuffed some of its laundry into the spacesuit to help it to keep its form as it orbits Earth. Over the weekend, AMSAT-NA officially designated SuitSat-1 as AMSAT OSCAR 54 (AO-54). Tony Hutchison, VK5ZAI, in Australia, reported that on its second pass over his location February 6, SuitSat's signal was down. 

"It appeared that signals had deteriorated since yesterday on both passes," said Hutchison, who's the Australia coordinator for the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program, SuitSat's sponsor. "It may be the angle that SuitSat was when it passed, but on yesterday's passes it was possible to detect it rolling," Hutchison continued. "I did detect voice this last pass, but it was well down in the noise, and I didn't hear any SSTV this last pass." 

Bob King, VE6BLD, in Alberta, who's managed to copy SuitSat fairly well on several passes, also noted that the signal's strength had declined from what it was during the previous two passes he'd heard. Located in DO32, King says he's using an FT-847 transceiver with the preamplifier on and a 22-element crossed Yagi with right and left circular polarization providing 19 dB of gain. A preamp at the antenna feeds into half-inch hardline to the shack. "The bird was almost overhead, so the signals were about S6 when clear," he reported over the weekend. "I also received the SSTV signal with some noise." 

SuitSat-1 identifies by voice, "This is SuitSat-1, Amateur Radio station RS0RS," which was recorded in several languages. The telemetry is digital voice. There's also a CW ID that reportedly says "Spacesuit-1" instead of "SuitSat-1." SuitSat-1 also is transmitting a single slow-scan TV image. 

SuitSat-1's very weak VHF signal notwithstanding, reports have come from stations and listening posts literally around the globe. ARISS International Secretary Rosalie White, K1STO, reports the ARISS Team was continuing to receive files containing some SSTV audio as well as snippets of voice and CW. "You can hear deep fades in the signal as the suit spins--something we learned from this experiment," she said. "The team is coming up with ideas including things that students can do with all the data we collect from recordings, such as looking at spin rate and transmission fading." White notes that the SuitSat Web site has logged some 5 million hits since the beginning of February, and media interest in the project remains high. 

A.J. Farmer, AJ3U, in Maryland, has invited the Amateur Radio and monitoring communities to post audio clips to his Web site. Farmer reported earlier today that SuitSat's orbit was some two miles below and one minute ahead of the ISS's. He points out that several reports indicate that NA1SS aboard the ISS is re-transmitting SuitSat-1's 2-meter signal on 70 cm by using the ARISS Phase 2 transceiver as a crossband repeater. The crossband repeater downlink frequency is nominally 437.800 MHz, but Doppler effect can be substantial on UHF. 

"This is great news since the SuitSat transmitter output is very low," Farmer said of the crossband arrangement. He advised tuning about 10 kHz higher at the start of the pass, moving down to 437.800 when SuitSat-1 is overhead and to 437.790 by the end of the pass. He provided Keplerian elements for use in satellite tracking software: 

1 28933U 05035C 06035.17648092 .00150877 00000-0 98827-3 0 18 

2 28933 51.6460 151.5234 0008831 241.8711 118.1817 15.74747302 34 

During a series of VHF contacts from NA1SS following the spacewalk, Expedition 12 Commander McArthur expressed surprise that was unable to hear SuitSat-1 from the ISS shortly after coming inside from the spacewalk. He initially believed the unique satellite was dead. "We should have been pretty close but didn't hear anything," he told one station. Scott Avery, WA6LIE, provided downlink audio of the QSOs. 

Some early speculation about SuitSat-1's difficulty has centered on whether SuitSat-1's batteries might somehow have been adversely affected by the temperature extremes of space. Telemetry copied by VE6BLD indicated a voltage of 7.0 V, while the nominal battery voltage is 28 V, but it's not known if the telemetry was accurate. 

"It's the same battery we use in our spacesuits," McArthur told another station in a post-spacewalk QSO, "and so I would think they would handle the temperature, but it's hard to say." McArthur noted that the batteries on an Orlan spacesuit are in an external compartment that's already exposed to the harsh space environment. 

McArthur remained upbeat about a future SuitSat mission. "Where there's a will there's a way," he philosophized. "We've got more suits that need to be jettisoned." He said the SuitSat-1 project "was pretty well set up and wasn't that difficult for us to execute." 

ARISS Ham Radio Project Engineer Kenneth Ransom, N5VHO, told ARRL today that he had not seen the low voltage report. "But since the initial reports from Japan were weak signals, then the issue is likely to have been present from the start," he said, adding that premature media reports of SuitSat-1's demise were based on a lack of reports for several orbits. "Little did we know that the output was so diminished," he said. "It is now apparent that everything is functioning but that the output level is extremely low." He expressed hopes that additional telemetry would "help support or dismiss the current list of potential causes for the low output" and help ARISS to pin down the problem's cause. 

ARISS International Chairman Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, said over the weekend that evidence to that point in the mission suggested a problem with the antenna, the feed line, the transmitter output power "and/or any of the connections in between." Bauer called on stations around the world to help narrow down what's causing the weak signal by making an extra effort to listen for SuitSat-1 on 145.99 MHz and especially to copy the voice telemetry. 

Early on February 4, Bauer was able to hear one overhead pass that included at least part of the English-language ID, recorded by his daughter, Michelle. "Keep your spirits up, and let's continue to be optimistic," he urged later in an official SuitSat-1 status report. "And please keep monitoring!" 

------------------------------

Message: 4
Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 15:24:04 EST
From: DSFPortree at aol.com
Subject: Re: [FPSPACE] Canceling NASA's Terrestrial Planet Finder: The
White House's I...
To: ljk4 at msn.com, fpspace at friends-partners.org
Message-ID: 
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Larry:

Thanks for the link to Keith's comments.

> This is a bad decision. A really bad one. In making it, one has to question 
> 
> whether this White House really meant what it said 2 years ago when it 
> raised everyone's expectations, invoking an expansion "into the cosmos" in 
> so doing.

Jeff Goldblum's flakey character has my favorite line in JURASSIC PARK - 
"Gee, I hate being right all the time."

Of course Bush never intended to follow through on the VSE. As I first said 
in January 2004, the VSE is about shutting things down. How could it be 
otherwise?

David

David S. F. Portree
author & educator
dsfportree at aol.com
Flagstaff Arizona USA

DSFP homepage
http://members.aol.com/dsfportree/dsfp.htm

"A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their 
spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their 
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are 
suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of 
enormous public debt. If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must 
have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning 
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at 
stake."

- Thomas Jefferson, 1798, after passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts

------------------------------

Message: 5
Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 14:49:25 -0600
From: "Matula, Thomas L." 
Subject: [FPSPACE] SOFIA also on the cutting block it seems
To: 
Message-ID: 
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Hi All,

Looks like SOFIA is on the block as well.

Tom Matula

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/13812757.htm
Posted on Tue, Feb. 07, 2006
NASA/Ames faces more deep cuts
By Glennda Chui
Mercury News

A $600 million jumbo jet, equipped with a 50,000-pound telescope for studying black holes and destined for Mountain View's NASA/Ames Research Center, is threatened with elimination in next year's NASA budget, officials said Monday.

Full article at 

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/13812757.htm

------------------------------

Message: 6
Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 20:54:34 -0800 (PST)
From: Pratibha Kumar 

Subject: [FPSPACE] ISS EVA videos
To: fpspace at friends-partners.org
Message-ID: <20060208045434.88447.qmail at web35711.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Dear friends

Does any you record ISS EVAs either for hobby or for commercial purposes? If so, please write to me. 

Thank you.
PK

---------------------------------
Relax. Yahoo! Mail virus scanning helps detect nasty viruses!

------------------------------

Message: 7
Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2006 06:06:10 +0000 (GMT)
From: Raghavan Gopalaswami 
Subject: [FPSPACE] The Avatar Spaceplane
To: fpspace at friends-partners.org
Message-ID: <20060208060610.43590.qmail at web8605.mail.in.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

A reply to [FPSPACE] : "India's RLV - a Moving Paper Fantasy?" Keith Gottschalk kgottschalk at uwc.ac.za 
10 Aug 2001 16:50:40 +0200 

Previous message: [FPSPACE] Japan's new RLV? 

Next message: [FPSPACE] Vostok 2 

Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] 

How do professionals on FPSPACE evaluate this report from Space Daily? The report & its accompanying picture show pretty much the fuselage of Lockmart's late VentureStar, with added wingpod engines

.
REPLY
Dear Mr Kiethh Gottschalk , Please refer you article of 10 August 2001 which is reproduced below for ease of reference. I came across this by chance only on 07 February 2006. Since your email box is not receiving my reply, I am posting this to the FP Space mailbox.

I wish your observations had been based on my original AIAA Paper published in July 2001, on aerobic spaceplane design, and not the news reports only. If you had seen my full AIAA paper of 2001 it explains how and why 4% payload fraction is feasible.

I am now 70 years old and burdened with 20 years of trying to convince critics who have not actually studied our many published scientific publications, which describe this work of 18 years running, in detail at system and technology levels. However, since your views have some balance and merit I would like to reply to FP Space. 

The era of Space Shuttle, sadly, is over. Even after four decades of work by the best engineering talent ever assembled on planet earth, and with no shortage of material resources and political patronage, the US and others have failed to obtain a valid SSTO space plane design. The real reason why, in my view, lies in the fact that designers have not paid serious attention to basic orbital energy management science.

It has been shown in published aerospace science literature that is not energetically feasible to attain orbital velocity from runway takeoff, on a single stage, with combined-cycle propulsion and aircraft-like shapes, unless at least 56% of take off mass is liquid hydrogen. This hydrogen weight fraction is calculated assuming a 40% overall propulsive efficiency and thrust-to-drag ratio in excess of 3.0. These values are said to be attainable with available lightweight high temperature materials and conventional design procedures.

However, 56% hydrogen fuel fraction at take-off is possible only if a rocket vehicle, shaped like an aircraft, does not carry any liquid oxygen at take off. The Avatar design concept is the only one in the world which meets his basic design requirement of >56% hydrogen fuel fraction on the runway at take-off. Neither the VentureStar, nor the Hotol, nor Skylon come anywhere near this hydrogen fuel fraction at take-off, so there can be no comparison as you suggest in your article.

All the Avatar’s oxygen required for orbital flight is then gathered from the atmosphere, but there are several limiting conditions in this process. The merit of our design process lies here. The finding was that filling up with lox has to be done as late in its atmospheric trajectory, as high a speed and height as possible, and with an optimized acceleration that maximizes the payload fraction. 

We found after thousands of hours of numerical simulation that oxygen liquefaction and onboard storage has to start about Mach 3 to 3.5, heights from 26 to 31 kms in gentle accelerating climb, and collection ends at Mach 7 to 8. The whole collection process takes about half an hour. There is thus a very narrow corridor for airbreathing ascent to near earth orbit with in-flight oxygen liquefaction, identification of which depends on optimizing 26 design drivers. 

=== message truncated ===

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