Conference 7.286::space

    	When is the NOVA program going to be on, or was it already?
    When will it be on again, and why didn't somebody say so sooner?
    
    	Larry
    

    
    	If it was on as I was told tues. evening, when I'm in class,
    it should be on saturday afternoon, I think. Channel 2 usually
    rebroadcasts Nova then, I think its at 2pm/1400hrs, better check
    to be sure.
    
    				Mike Gallant
    

    Ever heard of the TV Guide.....?
    
    Nova is on all of the 'local' PBS channels including a few repeats
    so even though you may have missed the first time you should have
    3 or 4 more opportunities to catch it.
    
    I suspect it is on WENH tonight.
    
    gary

    In the Boston area, Nova is on Tuesday night from 8:00PM - 9:00PM
    on channel 2 and repeats Saturdays from 2:00PM - 3:00PM.  I forgot
    to set the VCR, but I can still catch it Saturday.  I think it also
    used to repeat on channel 44 on Monday nights, but I am not sure
    if that is still the case.
    
    						-Dave

    I watched last night, good program.  It seemed to capture the
    frustration of the team quite well.  At the end of the program,
    they commented that this could be seen on Sunday at 4:00 on Ch.
    11 (Southern NH)
    
    jim
    

    	Finally saw NOVA's "The Rocky Road to Jupiter", and all I can
    say is - how the hell do corporations get ANYTHING done at all???!!!!
    
    	Larry
    

    re .6
    
    The same way DEC does...
    
    In adiition to being interesting on account of the mission/hardware
    itself, that doc. is an interesting view of now NOT to run a complex
    project. 
    
    gary

    re .6:
    
    I think if Galileo was being run by a private corporation it would
    be in orbit around Jupiter as we speak. It is the government budget
    process and all the other horse-hockey that caused it to still be
    on the ground.
                                                   
                  /
                 (  ___
                  ) ///
                 /
    

Newsgroups: sci.space
Path: decwrl!hplabs!ucbvax!ALDERAAN.SCRC.SYMBOLICS.COM!Palter
Subject: GALILEO cancellation??!!
Posted: 3 Jun 87 15:14:00 GMT
Organization: The ARPA Internet
 
From the "Washington Roundup" page of the June 1 AW&ST:
 
   NASA Administrator James C. Fletcher has discussed the possibility
   of canceling the GALILEO mission to Jupiter in meetings with other
   NASA officials.  Although space science officials believe it is very
   unlikely that the $1-billion mission will be killed, they admit that
   GALILEO could fall victim to difficult choices NASA currently faces
   associated with the Fiscal 1989 budget and the new Shuttle manifest.
   NASA is developing a new Shuttle manifest based on a June 1988 first
   launch and space scientists are once again facing a fight with other
   Shuttle users for early flight assignments.
 
    If they have the gall to cancel GALILEO, I'm writing my Congressmen 
and ask that they cancel NASA... 
 
  - Gary

    If GALILEO is canceled, the decade of the 80's may well be marked
    as the decade of no pure science.  As such, this device was the
    last remaining project that held captive my interest.  How long
    can the thirsty live without water?
    
    Les
    
    :-(

    Maybe a bit late to be adding to this note, but:
    
    Finally got to see "Rocky Road to Jupiter" on a Nova rerun the other
    night.  Depressing to say the least.
    
    Now, in this day and age of special interest groups and budget
    deficits, it would be rather difficult to stand up and say "Cut
    everything but the space exploration budget" without sounding like
    still another special interest group.
    
    On the other hand, having seen all the budgetary bumbling on that
    show, I can't help but think that if the people writing our budgets
    were destitute parents forced to make the choice between maintaining
    a cigarette habit or sending the kid to school, the kid would have
    to do without, while the parents went right on killing themselves.

From: [email protected] (Dan Tilque;1893;92-789;LP=A;60aC)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.space.shuttle,sci.astro
Subject: Six year trip for GALILEO to Jupiter.
Date: 17 Dec 87 09:28:23 GMT
Organization: Church of Christ, Secular Humanist
 
    The December 12 issue of SCIENCE NEWS had an article about NASA's
plans for the GALILEO unmanned mission to Jupiter.  [All the
quantities in the article are in English units, which gives me the
idea that they are just rehashing a NASA press release.  SN usually
uses the units of its source.]  Here is a summary: 
 
    The launch date is now set for October of 1989 on the Space
Shuttle DISCOVERY.  It will now use a less powerful booster than the
originally scheduled CENTAUR (the article did not say which booster
was going to be used), because the CENTAUR is considered too dangerous
to be launched aboard the Space Shuttle. 
 
    Because of the less powerful booster, GALILEO will have to make
three planetary flybys in the inner Sol System to gain the necessary
velocity to make it to Jupiter.  There will also be two asteroid flybys. 
 
    Flyby 1 is to Venus in February 1990, closest approach 9,300
miles.  Some follow up work to PIONEER 12 will be done at Venus. 
 
    Flyby 2 is Earth at 620 miles in December 1990.  Infrared mapping
of the far side of Luna will be done on this flyby. 
 
    Flyby 3 is asteroid Gaspra at 620 miles in October 1991.  First
closeup look at an asteroid. 
 
    Flyby 4 is Earth (again) at 200 miles in December 1992.  Again
mapping of Luna in infrared. 
 
    Flyby 5 is asteroid Ida.  Date and distance were not given.
 
    In July 1995 the atmospheric probe will be released.
 
    Insertion into Jovian orbit will be in December 1995, six years
after launch. 
 
    What the article left out:  Anything about possible problems.  For
example, it did not give the launch window (I would expect it to be
narrow to make all the flybys), and what happens if there is a delay
in the Space Shuttle schedule which makes it impossible to make the window? 
 
Dan Tilque
[email protected]  or [email protected]
 

    It was on a CNN segment last week, so I expect NASA did release
    something.
    
    It will  be launched out of LEO by an IUS.
    
    gary

>    It will  be launched out of LEO by an IUS.
    
  Sounds good.  What's an IUS? (LEO is presumably Low Earth Orbit).

John

    Originally 'Interim Upper Stage' but when the space tug got cancelled
    it became Inertial Upper Stage. It is a large, two stage, solid
    propellant vehicle used to launch larger satellites (e.g. TDRS)
    from the shuttle. It also functions as an upper stage system for
    the Titan 34D and the Titan 4.
    
    gary

    DEC 14 Aviation Week also had an article.  The window is not as
    tight as you might imagine.  Several big disadvantages:
    
    	1.  Longer time before the main mission means that the main
    mission is closer to the probably failure time.  Given the way most
    of our deep space probes have performed (or been made to perform
    at least) this may not be a problem.
    
    	2.  Going in so close to the sun means extra heat shielding
    and special pointing requirements to avoid having critical pieces
    pointing at the sun at the wrong time.  The pointing requirements,
    in turn, mean that G. must cruise for some time without the hi gain
    antenna pointing at us.  That, in turn, means they had to add another
    omni antenna so we can keep in touch while it is close to Venus.
    More mass, fewer experiments.
    
    	3.  The launch delay is bad enough, but now with the extra transit
    time as well, the RTG (radioactive thermal generator) power sources
    will be able to supply less power, and thus stuff must be changed
    to avoid drawing what used to be the max amount of power.
    
    	4.  I don't think it is related to the other changes, but the
    penetrator is to be released some large number of months before
    it penetrates.  During this time, the probe is incommunicado.  We
    hear NOTHING till it decides to switch itself on.  If it does not
    so decide, pfffft! no engineering data to help figure out what went wrong.

    Burns

From: [email protected] (Michael J. Farren)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Six year trip for Galileo
Date: 20 Dec 87 22:57:35 GMT
Organization: Sci-Fido - Unix in Oakland
 
    In article <[email protected]> dant@tekla (Dan Tilque) writes:

>The Dec 12 issue of Science News had an article about NASA's plans for
>the Galileo mission to Jupiter.
[...]
>Insertion into Jovian orbit will be in Dec 1995, six years after launch.
>
>What the article left out: anything about possible problems.
 
    No kidding, possible problems.  First off, the spacecraft has been
sitting on the ground at JPL for almost ten years now.  There have
been signs of subsystem failure simply because of the long wait in an
environment for which it was not designed.  Second, the earth flyby is
at an incredibly low altitude for a flyby of an atmospheric body -
there is, basically, zip margin for error.  They'd better get this one
right, first time.  Third, the spacecraft was never designed to fly
TOWARD the sun - it's entire trip was supposed to be outward. Although
there have been measures taken which will, supposedly, alleviate the
extra heat dissipation problems involved in a Venus flyby, it's not
clear they will be sufficient.  Can't tell until we try it, anyway. 
 
    For a good, simple, exposition of Galileo's trials and
tribulations, I recommend the Nova episode "The Rocky Road to
Jupiter".  A little over-simplified, and possibly a little optimistic,
but a good over- view nontheless. 
 
    I was part of the team that designed and built the Attitude &
Control Electronics processor and memory subsystems.  I've got a fair
amount of work, and a lot of pride tied up in this mission.  If it had
gone as it was supposed to when I was working on it, we'd be seeing
some great data right about now.  Instead, I have to cross my fingers
and hope that we designed sufficiently well that our system, not to
mention those of all the other contractors and sub-contractors, will
work well, under conditions other than those originally planned, for
twice as long as the original equipment lifetime estimates called for.
 
    Super disclaimer:  I won't vouch for ANY of the above information.
 It's been a LONG time since I worked on that project, and I've
probably for- gotten most of the details.  My concerns, however, are
real. 

Michael J. Farren             | "INVESTIGATE your point of view, don't just 
{ucbvax, uunet, hoptoad}!     | dogmatize it!  Reflect on it and re-evaluate
        unisoft!gethen!farren | it.  You may want to change your mind someday."
[email protected] |     Tom Reingold, from alt.flame 

    Ambitious Science Campaign Planned By GALILEO Team - can871203.txt - 
12/2/87 
 
    The GALILEO Jupiter Orbiter/Probe mission will attempt a mini-
grand tour of the Solar System, with visits to two inner planets and
three minor bodies before arrival at Jupiter. 
 
    Top program officials provided a review of the program's status
today at the first press conference to be held by GALILEO management. 
 
    Despite problems caused by launch vehicle woes and delays, "What
we will do at Jupiter is everything we ever planned and more," said
Science and Mission Manager William O'Neil. 
 
    Project Scientist Torrence Johnson said the delays "have been
extremely frustrating," but the results from VOYAGER and other
activities "have whetted our appetite to get back into the [Jovian]
system." 
 
    Although the mission - using a trajectory called VEEGA for
Venus-Earth-Earth Gravity Assist - incorporates four mini-science
campaigns before reaching its ultimate objective, no firm plans for a
guest investigator program have been set. 
 
    "We have tried to avail ourselves of the expertise in the
community" and held a number of workshops, Johnson said. A guest
investigator program would have to be approved by NASA headquarters,
but the data will be made available. 
 
    Activities taking advantage of GALILEO's circuitous route to
Jupiter include: 
 
   o The first cruise science spanning the inner-to-middle solar 
     system with a single set of instruments, and exploration of 
     a large neutral hydrogen region recently found at 1 A.U.,
 
   o Flyby of Venus with instruments having capabilities beyond 
     the current PIONEER Venus Orbiter,
 
   o Two flybys of Earth, allowing outside imaging of the 
     geocorona, and infrared imaging of the farside and north 
     pole of the Moon,
 
   o Flybys of rocky, Type-S asteroids Gaspra and Ida, 16 and 32 
     km wide, respectively.
 
    Launch now is set for Space Shuttle mission STS-34 on Oct. 8,
1989. The window is 45 days long. 
 
    "We're quite comfortable being No. 9 for launch," O'Neil said of
GALILEO'S place in the Shuttle queue. "We think there's an excellent
opportunity for getting launched in October." 
 
    An alternate window is available in July 1991, but without the
asteroid encounters. 
 
    The project team has managed to stay intact during three crises
all related to launch vehicles.  Originally GALILEO was on a
three-stage version of the Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) to be launched
by the Space Shuttle.  Then it was split into orbiter and probe
missions aboard separate IUS's, then was rejoined atop a widebody
CENTAUR when the three stage IUS was dropped due to a combination of
technical and cost problems.  Each change delayed the program. 
  
    In the wake of the CHALLENGER disaster, the widebody CENTAUR was
cancelled as too risky, and the GALILEO team had to find another path
to Jupiter. The current plan is to launch GALILEO atop a standard IUS
to the inner Solar System and use gravity assists at Venus and Earth
to reshape the orbit so it finally stretches to Jupiter. This will
take six years, more than double the travel time planned with a
CENTAUR boost. 
 
    Several design changes were required to accommodate the delay and
the tour of the inner Solar System, explained Project Manager John
Casani. 
 
    Large sunshades were added to the spacecraft bus and around the
secondary reflector on the high gain antenna, and new thermal control
surfaces were added elsewhere. 
 
    Electrical circuitry was modified to reduce the electrical power
requirement since the plutonium in the existing radioisotope thermal
generators is decaying and replacements cannot be manufactured (the
capability was discontinued some years ago).  Small radioisotope
heating units have been attached to some portions of the spacecraft to
ease that power demand. 
 
    The extended duration has raised concerns about the life of
mechanical systems like tape recorders. 
 
    "Those resources will be carefully husbanded and metered out,"
Casani said. 
 
    On the other hand, the there has been "no compromise, no reduction
of the Jupiter science," he said, and the tour of the Galilean moons
will have a better propellant margin than a direct mission would allow. 
 
    The delay has also allowed improvements in some science
instruments. 
 
    "Actually, we beat them to the punch," Casani said when asked
about resisting scientists' urges to make instruments "just a little
bit better" during the delay. "We asked the science group to consider
the delay and look at advances in technology since the selection." 
 
    A probe instrument that had fallen short of its design
specification was improved to meet it, the detector in an orbiter
instrument was upgraded, and ultraviolet capability was added to a
spectrometer. 
 
    Finally, Casani said the redesign will raise the cost of the
spacecraft from $675 million to $895 million, and the longer and later
cruise to Jupiter will double operational costs from $225 million to
$450-$500 million. 
 
    The current timetable for the GALILEO mission is:
 
Launch                                           Oct. 8, 1989
Venus gravity assist (1,000 km miss distance)    Feb. 9, 1990
Earth gravity assist 1 (1,000 km)                Dec. 8, 1990
Gaspra flyby (1,000 km)                          Oct. 29, 1991
Earth gravity assist 2 (300 km)                  Dec. 8, 1992
Ida flyby (1,000 km)                             Aug. 28, 1993
Probe release                                    Jul. 7, 1995
Jupiter arrival                                  Dec. 7, 1995
Io closest approach (1,000 km)                   Dec. 7, 1995
Probe entry and relay                            Dec. 7, 1995
Jupiter orbit insertion                          Dec. 7, 1995
Galilean satellite tour                  Dec. 1995- Oct. 1997
First Ganymede encounter                         July 1996
 

Newsgroups: sci.space
Path: decwrl!ucbvax!VENERA.ISI.EDU!rogers
Subject: Los Angeles Area Space Talk, 10 Sep 88, 7:30 PM
Posted: 31 Aug 88 23:31:44 GMT
Organization: The Internet
  
    Galileo:  Passage to Jupiter
 
    Mr. Robert B. Gounley will talk about the upcoming Galileo mission
to Jupiter.  He will present a "travelogue" of its extended journey
through the inner solar system and Jovian space, including mission
objectives, spacecraft design and anticipated scientific return. 
He'll also give a short history of the delays the project has faced,
and the efforts taken to overcome them. 
 
    Mr. Gounley is a member of the technical staff in Spacecraft
Systems Engineering at JPL.  He has worked extensively with the
design, testing and flight operations of Galileo, as well as system
engineering issues affecting the science instruments.  Mr. Gounley has
been a member of the National Space Society (formerly the L5 society)
since 1977. 
 
    This lecture is one of many activities sponsored by the
Organization for the Advancement of Space Industrialization and
Settlement (OASIS), the Los Angeles and Orange County chapter of the
National Space Society.  The organization is a non-profit educational
group which promotes space development. 
 
    The public is invited; there is no admission charge.  For more
information about this lecture or other OASIS activities call the
OASIS Message Machine at (213) 374-1381 or send email to Craig Milo
Rogers (DoD Internet address <[email protected]>). 
 
	When:	Saturday, September 10, 1988
	Where:	Von Karman Auditorium
		Jet Propulsion Laboratory
		Pasadena, CA
 
    Directions:  Get to the Foothill Fwy (I-210) travelling towards
Pasadena.  Get off on Berkshire Pl., near the Pasadena/La Canada
Flintridge border.  Go east 1 block to Oak Grove Drive.  Turn left and
drive north, less than a mile, to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory main
gate. Free parking is available in the lot to the left of the gate. 

    If ignorance is bliss, why aren't there more happy people?