Conference 7.286::space

There is also an exhibit currently at the Boston Museum of Science
called "Space Spinoffs".  It looks at the history and future of the
US space program and highlights some 100 spinoffs resulting from space
research.  It runs until April 24.

						Mike

    I visited the Soviet Space exhibit in Boston last week.
    
    All in all, I thought it was pretty good.  Admission was $6, less
    for the kids - and that included admission to the rest of the science
    museum too.
    
    A short (10-15 minute) slide show, occasionally narrated by a cosmonaut
    starts off the exhibit.  Lots of nice pictures and a little background
    on the Soviet space program.
    
    The exhibit hall starts off with historical tidbits - early rockets,
    Sputnik model, etc.
    
    The main hall was quite impressive.  Along one wall were full-scale
    models (possibly engineering prototypes) of:
          
     Granat - an orbiting gamma/x-ray telescope
     Phobos - the Mars probe
     Vega   - the Venus probe
    
    At the end of the hall was a lunar rover on a turntable.
    
    In the center was a scale model of a Soviet launch site - that "really
    works".  Essentially an elaborate model train, it depicts the launching
    of a mid-size (possibly a Proton) rocket.  The demonstrations run on
    the hour and take about 15 minutes.  Quite a bit of fun.  Older folks
    should watch from the sides, but send the kids nearer the end (they'll
    enjoy the liftoff exhaust :-) )
    
    Along the other wall were lunar exploration equipment - drill, sample
    return capsule, etc.
    
    The rest of the wall was devoted to the manned program - space suits,
    cosmonaut food, advanced engines, a videotape on spacecraft recovery,
    pictures and models of Salyut, Mir.  A Soviet MMU (space bicycle)
    hangs over a picture of Mir.  The exhibit ends with a scale model of
    their space shuttle.
    
    I skipped the play -- I've never been fond of that stuff.
    
    
    Personally, I thought the exhibit was worth the price just for the
    three ships they had there.  Having read about Phobos and Vega over the
    past couple of years, to actually see them was quite a thrill --
    especially because they are so incredibly huge.
    
    Granat was interesting because it looked a lot like the Astro lab
    currently slated for STS-35 (not surprisingly).  It made me appreciate
    how large Astro must be.
    
    Phobos and Vega were also quite impressive, both from their size and
    complexity.  All three are "international" missions - flags
    representing various countries adorn the craft showing who contribited
    which components.
    
    Two Soviet specialists were there to answer your questions.  I,
    unfortunately, didn't have any until later that night when I was
    mulling over what I saw.  Sigh!
    
    
    I'm not sure where else the exhibit will be, but try to take some time
    and see it.
    
    - dave

    re. .2
    
    I also was impressed with the size of the Phobos and Vega probes.  I
    had always envisioned them as a lot smaller and was surprised by the
    size.  I got a definite sense that the Soviets have always been very
    proud of their space program.  The historical data presented (from
    their point of view) displayed this very well.   
    
    There was a play being offered in an alcove in the exhibit, on the day 
    that I and my daughter went, that stressed the strong points of a joint 
    mission to Mars.  My daughter was recruited to be a sample analysis 
    machine (I always knew that she had it in her :')).  
    
    Overall, a fascinating glimpse into their space program with a chance
    to ask a lot of questions.... 
    

I think I may have put a couple comments about this exhibit in a different note,
but the previous reminds me of a couple other things:

1.  I thought it was really ***NEAT*** that they had the Zond 7 actual sample
return capsule there, all out in the open (just a rope in front).  Just about
anything else I have seen that has been on the surface of the moon is surrounded
by armed guards ( 1/2 :-)

2.  I found that the Soviets who were there were trying to be helpful and
friendly, but only one could speak a few words of halting English.  They all
depended heavily on a translator, whom I thought was a real pain.  He generally
translated a question and then ran off leaving the poor Soviet specialist to
fend for himself.  Also, he seemed a lot more interested in getting kid's
questions than adults.  (I suppose I can't fault him too much for that)

3.  My wife, who has been to the USSR's main space exhibit in Moscow (the one
with the great sculpture dedicated to Tsilkovsky).  In any case, she said that
this exhibit looked very similar, so she asked.  Yep...it is the same stuff.
They denuded the Moscow exhibit for this one.  I guess we should be honored.
(She said, "At least the signs are now in English, so I can understand them
better." )

Burns

    	The lunar soil sample return capsule you mention was LUNA 24,
    not ZOND 7.  LUNA 24 was launched in 1976 and is at present the last
    probe to have landed on Earth's Moon.
    
    	As for the Soviet technicians, their main knowledge base are
    the rocket boosters.  I too asked them many questions about various
    aspects of the Soviet space program, but they essentially know just
    what they have been working on.  This is a common practice in the
    Soviet space program.
    
        I have found the Soviet space exhibit to be wonderful and well
    displayed for information.  At least now some more of the public
    will be better aware of an entire space program that more often
    than not does not receive the attention in the Western news that
    it should.
    
    	Larry
    
              

    
    	I got to see the exhibit two weeks ago and loved it! I'm hoping to
    go back and take some more slides sometime soon.
    
    Re: .2
    	The rocket model they had on display was not of the Proton. It was
    of a Vostok (A-1) space launcher. The assembly and launch sequence is
    however quite similar.
    
    
    Re: .4
    	The lunar sample return capsule that was shown was not Zond 7. It
    was Luna 24. The Zond 4 through 7 capsules would have been MUCH larger
    (essentially they were modified Soyuz reentry capsules).
    
    
    	In addition to the hardware already mentioned there was also:
    
    - The Venera 7 lander
    - A Vega lander
    - The Vega balloon probe
    - Small models of Venera 9/10 and Mars 2/3
    - A "generic" Kosmos research satellite
    - A rocket engine from the Proton first stage (RD-253 I think)
    - An experimental rocket engine that used flourine (RD-301 I think)
    - Models of the Proton, Vostok, Energia, and Buran/Energia boosters
    - A Vostok capsule
    - A Bio-Kosmos spacecraft (essentially a modified Vostok)
    - The "Splav" furnace used on Soviet space stations
    - A Soyuz capsule
    
    	And of course MUCH MUCH more! Be sure to poke around the rest of
    the museum; there are a few other Soviet space items scattered around
    other portions of the museum. Near the other regular space exhibits
    there is even a Soyuz capsule couch that you can sit in. It was REAL cramped
    especially for me (I'm 6 feet 1 inch tall).
    	I've had the chance to see space museums and space centers all over
    the country including the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. I consider
    this a definite "must see".
    
    
    				Drew
    
    

    When I visited the exhibit on July 7th, the Soviet's were handing out
    'lapel pins' of the logo of the Baikonur cosmodrone to the people who
    asked the best questions. It was quite fun watching the kids trying to
    outdo each other. 
    I also thought the movie that was shown at the introduction help to
    create the sense of awe the really should accompany the visitors as
    they wonder through the exhibits.
    The handout brochure was also more informative than I expected. Turned
    out to be a good read.
    
    Impresive, a must for locals and visitors to Boston. 

Re Zond vs Luna.  Right, of course.  Engage brain before using fingers.

Re the pin:  Yes, my daughter got a Baikonur pin.  The translator said she had
asked a good question, but we did not know that was *why* she got the pin.  We
did not even know what it was until we sort of laboriously worked through the
Cyrillic (sp?) pronunciation.

Burns

    	The technicians were not handing pins out just to kids who asked
    good questions.  They gave pins to my friends who accompanied me on
    my first trip, and they had asked nothing at all.
    
        Larry
    

    	I asked a whole bunch of good questions and got three different
    pins as well as an extra one (for my wife, of course). The Soviet
    technicians are more than willing to answer (technical) questions from
    adults and don't give pins only to kids.
    
    				Drew
    

      Is this exhibit going to move from city to city (which ones?) or
    is Boston the only show?
    
    Chris

    Re:.11
    	From what I have heard there are a whole slew of museums across the
    country negotiating with the Boston Museum of Science and the Soviets
    to have this exhibit "hit the road". It seems very likely that this
    exhibit will be shown at several other museums after it closes in
    Boston this September.
    
    				Drew
    

    Another interesting thing about the probes shown was how much 
    they had in common.  Items like solar panels and sun sensors were 
    the same in probes that were built many years apart.  It really 
    demonstrated the evolutionary approach that the Soviets take. 
    
    It was also interesting to see how crude the models looked.  The 
    welds were rather clumsy and the mechanisms simple.  The 
    instruments seemed to be bolted on whereever there was space. That
    might be true of the models but not the real probes, or it could
    be a sign of how the Soviets really build things.  
    
    I spoke with one of the Russians there, but had a lot of trouble 
    getting through.  I was puzzled by how the big dish antenna on the
    Phobos probe was aimed.  It seemed to be bolted in place.
    There didn't look to be any kind of steering for it.  Since the rest
    of the probe has to keep at a certain angle to the sun for the 
    sake of the solar panels, I didn't see how the probe could 
    simultaneously face the sun and face the earth.  Does anyone know 
    how they do this?  
    
    /jlr

    re:13
    
    Regard to Phobos dish not being movable, that is correct.
    In fact that was one of the reason why they lost control. Phobos
    had to be trun away from earth tracking station in order to
    take images/data of Phobos then had to find earth again
    in order to relay the data back. Not only was the dish not
    movable but so were the cammers, event the space station MIR
    has to be move in order to aim KVANT .   The US deep space 
    probes keep the dish track on earth and allowed the cammers
    to move independent of the Dish.  
    
    Yes I think the first thing that impressed me was the
    pure size of the satellites, then the strange mix of
    of clumsy hand made mechanisms allong side of state
    of the art equipment.  Maybe NASA could learn that
    you dont have to make everything high-tech and 
    the Soviet have already stated that the next deep
    space probe design will be able to move the cammers
    etc while keeping the antennas on earth or a data
    relay satellite.
    
    And yes they do use the same parts from one satellite
    to the next, it does not matter how old or how heavy
    they seem to have enought 'lift' so that a 100 lb is
    not worth 'high-teching' out.
    
    
    
    

While I don't know many about the details, NASA (in particular JPL) isn't
entirely against evolution.

If you look at the basic designs of the Voyager, Galileo, and upcoming probes,
they are quite similar.  Cassini, CRAF, and possibly one other are all based
on the Mariner Mark II design (a common bus, I think) - which is JPL's way
of saving some $.

Magellan is an excellent example of what can be done when the money gets tight.

I'm well aware of numerous counter-examples, I just didn't want people to
think that every probe we send out is designed from scratch.

- dave

    yes but would NASA use a wooden ladder tied together with
    ropes to go out of  their space station?
    
    Take a close look at the way the Soviet Models deploy their solar panels,
    the hardware is heavy, hand made (filed) etc. Outside of the
    weight problem who cares, NASA are high tech and can not
    be tested at 1G.  Both solutions have failed to work in space.
    
    Yes I agreen NASA is now using a design more then once, but they
    are still weight sensitive.  This does help in incress payload
    but makes it impossible to test on the ground.
    
    john
    
    
    

Well, I took Thursday, August 23, 1990 as a vacation day, and went
into the Boston Museum of Science to see the Soviet Space exhibit.
Great exhibit.

I talked to a Soviet through a translator at the Lunokhod moon rover
exhibit.  He talked a little about the environmental tests and I told
him that I was a product qualification engineer, and he smiled.  They
build around 10 units, test them all, then pick the best 2 units.

I also told him that I was an amateur radio operator and that I was using
the RS-10 Soviet amateur radio satellite the night before.  That got me
a pin with a space vehicle on it.  I think it was a new lunar orbiting
probe.

The woman translating was a local person who teaches Russian here in the
Boston area.  I told her that I took a course in technical Russian, way back
in 1969-70, and that I can't even say the alphabet anymore.  I could read
some of the Russian signs and markings, however.

The things on display are full size engineering models, unless otherwise
noted:

 - Granat Orbital Telescope (gamma & xray, Launched 12/1/89)
 - RD-253 Proton rocket engine
 - Phobos Probe (Launched 7/5, 7/12/88)
 - Oreol-1 (Auroral Density Project)
 - Venera 7 (Decending Pod - interesting, the atmosphere on Venus is so
   thick that they don't use a parachute, just an air-brake)
 - Vega Automatic Station (Comet, Venus landing, launched 12/84)
 - Lunokhod Moon Rover
 - RD301 Experimental rocket engine (runs on fluorine/ammonia)
 - Models of the space shuttle & Proton rocket
 - Bione Space Apparatus (Launched Oct 31, 1973 - carries mice & other
   biological experiments)
 - Model of the Cosmos 110 payload that carried Verterok the dog
 - A model/demonstration of Baikinor (sp) launch pad

All in all, a good visit.  The exhibit opens with a movie/slide-show that
is very good.

While there, I caught the Hayden Planetarium show too:  a tour of the
current sky over Boston and a tour of the solar system plus some
astronomy news.

Good time - get in there before they leave (Sept 23, I think).

Joe

Article        28344
From: [email protected] (Mike Santangelo)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: US - USSR SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGICAL EXHBIT / SYMPOSIUM
Date: 18 Mar 91 19:11:04 GMT
Sender: [email protected] (USENET News System)
Organization: The University of Maryland, University College
 
    My, wasn't I surprised when I walked downstairs where I work to
discover the aforementioned conference going on.  I work for the
University of Maryland, University College.  Our main building, the
Center for Adult Education, is also a conference center for the area
(Hotel, meeting rooms, big auditorium, etc).  The conference has drawn
the top brass at NASA and the USSR space agency, you name it they seem
to be here.  Also, along the main concourse they have created an
impressive exhibit area which includes a mockup/prototype of the
Soviet TOPAZ II space reactor power system (6 KW version, sign says it
will go up to 10 KW without much modification).  The exhibit area
seems to be open to the public.  Alot of press are here as well. 
Local UMCP newspaper states the Exhibit is being held March 17th -
March 20th, Sumposium March 18-19. 
 
    The Center of Adult Education is located at the intersection of
Adelphi Road and University Blvd (Rt. 193) in College Park, MD. 
 
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Michael F. Santangelo                 + Inet: [email protected]
VMS / UNIX Systems                    +       [email protected]
Academic Computing UMUC               + Bnet: MIKE@UC780
(The University of Maryland,          +       MIKE@UMUC (not visited often)
 University College)                  +<Your clever net-phrase here>

Article: 1786
From: [email protected]
Newsgroups: clari.tw.space,clari.news.gov.international
Subject: Soviet loses name, but space exhibit doesn't
Date: 28 Dec 91 22:19:25 GMT 
 
	FORT WORTH, Texas (UPI) -- The Soviet Union is no more, but
the people who operate the Soviet Space exhibit aren't changing the
name of their starry display. 

	The familiar hammer-and-sickle flags that symbolized the fallen
communist superpower nation will fly over the Amon G. Carter Jr. Exhibit
Hall and the name will remain the same when the space show moves to St.
Louis, exhibit director Robert Townsend said.

	Replicas of spacecraft from Sputnik to the current Mir space
station will be on display until Jan. 1. The next day, when most of
the eight Russian technicians will head for home, the 50,000
square-foot display will be taken apart and moved to the St. Louis
Science Center in Missouri. 

	Interest in the exhibit fell off during the attempted coup
against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in August, Townsend said.
But as events began unfolding toward the establishment of the
Commonwealth of Independent States, attendance picked up again going
into the holiday season, officials said. 

	Long lines snaked through the lobby to ticket booths Friday and
officials said some specific show times are sold out.

	On the final day, the exhibit will stay open past the normal
closing time of 9 p.m. if necessary, Townsend said. 

	``If they show up, we will keep it open,'' he said.

	In the seven months since the show arrived, the movie being
shown in conjunction with the exhibit, ``Blue Planet'', has drawn
450,000 people, while the adjacent theater usually attracts 350,000,
said Fort Worth Museum of Science and History spokeswoman Linda Johnson. 

	``Our staff is exhausted,'' she said, noting attendance at the
museum is up 60 percent. Specific attendance figures will not be
released until after the last day, Johnson said. 

	A Soviet Space shop in a nearby mall quickly sold out of most
souvenirs and Soviet flags, leaving only expensive items on the shelves,
exhibit spokeswoman Deborah Leliaert said.

Article: 45444
From: [email protected]
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Soviet Spacecraft "land" in St. Louis!
Date: 29 Jun 92 15:04:12 CST
Organization: Monsanto Company, St. Louis, MO
 
Mindless excited babbling about the St. Louis Science Center Soviet
Space exhibit follows: 
 
*WOW* what an exhibit!  A working model of the Baikonur launch
facility.  A *REAL* reentry capsule from one of their lunar specimen
retrieval missions that you can walk right up to and touch.  A real
(used) space suit and a real (presumably used ;-) cosmonaut to tell
you about it while you mess with all the neat stuff on it.  A working
full size lunar rover demo.  Full scale engineering models of unmanned
probes like Phobos and Vega.... And *LOTS* of other Soviet hardware. 
Excellent presentation, not to be missed if you're in St. Louis, if
not come here anyway.  The exhibit lasts until January 3.  The Omnimax
theater at the Center is showing "The Dream is Alive" (about the
Shuttle) for another couple of months. 
 
  TED FEUERBACH   Scientific Systems Consultant  Trilogy Consulting, Inc. 
  Lake St. Louis, MO        (314) 537-6603       [email protected]

  Disclaimer:  The opinions expressed herein are MY OWN and obviously not
  the opinions of Trilogy, Monsanto or either of my two ex-wives.           

Article: 45543
From: [email protected] (Tom A Baker)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Exhibit Review! (was Re: Soviet Spacecraft "land" in St. Louis!)
Date: 1 Jul 92 01:41:47 GMT
Organization: National Space Society, Boston Chapter
 
In article <[email protected]>
[email protected] writes:

>Mindless excited babbling about the St. Louis Science Center
 
 (but justified)
 
>Soviet Space exhibit follows:                                       
>
>*WOW* what an exhibit!  A working model of the Baikonur launch
 
I saw the very same exhibit when it debuted in Boston and the USA.
I was so absolutely thrilled that I published the following review
in our chapter's newsletter, about August of 1990.
 
(Warning: Plug follows:  The newsletter is available electronically
now, email me. -tb)
 
1) Pay especial attention to my suggestions herein.
 
2) Say, Ted, have they moved the "Manned Lunar Program" blurb?
 
----------------------------- cut here ------------------------
 
     I recently saw the Soviet Space Exhibit at the Boston Museum
of Science, and I urge you all to go.  Here are some things to
observe when there.
 
     If you go with children, make sure they get near the rocket
end of the miniature lauching pad, at its blast deflector.  It is
all mechanized, with trains and cranes that move, and when the
rocket takes off, it does so amidst a cloud of smoke (maybe they
set off a fire estinguisher for that effect).
 
     Also if you go with children, you could get them to look for
flags on the unmanned probes.  Each flag represents a component
or experiment contributed by a country other than Russia.
 
     There is a small capsule in which the Soviets launched a
monkey into space shortly after 1960.  Although almost thirty
years have passed, if you get really up close, you can still
smell the monkey.
 
     Up on a wall of a passage way, around that point, above eye
level and VERY EASY to miss, is a paragraph that constitutes the
exhibit's coverage of the "Soviet Manned Lunar Program".  It
basically admits that there was one.  Try not to overlook this
"display", although there is no hardware associated with it.
 
     Take a close, close look into either of the windows of the
Soyuz capsule (or preferably both).  It really is a tiny space
for three men (even without space suits); the instrument panel is
only about nine inches by two feet.  The interior walls are just
the bare metal of the capsule's shell, the windows are tiny and
the hatch is thick and opens the wrong way.  It all adds up to a
very claustrophobic experience, and I got the willies thinking
about being locked into that thing with two other people and
getting hurled into space.
 
     At the very end of the exhibit, there is a videotape about
Mir hosting a protein crystal experiment.  Your kids will be
utterly bored with it, but it is the experiment paid for and
administered by Payload Systems of Cambridge, MA.
 
     Also at the very end of the exhibit, you can attend a short
"play" about a proposed US-USSR robot mission to Mars.  My wife
and I liked it, even though it is geared to children.
----------
[Reminder: the above was from August (or thereabouts), 1990.
 You folks not from Boston probably won't care about a local,
 Cambridge firm making it to Mir, but, understandably, we did.]
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