[Launch Alert] Miscellaneous
Brian Webb
[email protected]
Sat, 11 Oct 2003 09:51:13 -0700
ASTRONOMY/SPACE ALERT FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Brian Webb
Ventura County, California
E-mail: [email protected]
Web Site: http://home.earthlink.net/~kd6nrp
Reaching more than 2,280 e-mail addresses worldwide
2003 October 11 (Saturday) 09:34 PDT
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SUBSCRIBING, ADDRESS CHANGES, AND UNSUBSCRIBING
I often requests from people asking me to add or remove them from
the Launch Alert mailing list or to change their e-mail address. This
is a self-service newsletter. Please try to handle these tasks using
the instructions posted at:
http://home.earthlink.net/~kd6nrp/newsletter.htm
If you've tried to perform the above tasks using the instructions,
but encountered problems, feel free to contact me.
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DONATIONS
Astronomy/Space Alert for Southern California is free. Al Waller,
K3TKJ, a fellow ham operator in Delaware graciously provides the
newsletter server and server maintenance services at no cost.
As a matter of fact, he hosts, at his own expense, hundreds of
e-mail newsgroups. Al routinely upgrades his servers and software for
better performance and to combat spam, viruses, and the unauthorized
harvesting of mailing list addresses. These upgrades are not cheap.
>From time to time you'll receive an e-mail message from Al that
includes a request for your financial support. If you can afford it,
I urge each of you to donate $2 (U.S.) twice per year to keep his
operation going.
You can donate as follows:
Credit Card
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LAUNCH PHOTO POSTED
I recently posted an interesting photo of a Vandenberg AFB rocket
launch on my web site. This was a very difficult shot, but it turned
out surprisingly well. To see it, go to:
http://home.earthlink.net/~kd6nrp
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PHOTO DISTRIBUTION MAILING LIST
In addition to editing this newsletter, I have other interests
including photographing missile launches and astronomical subjects.
Every few months I receive photos from the lab and share the results
via e-mail.
I maintain a photo distribution mailing list that I allow a limited
number of my readers to join. If you're interested in my work and
agree not to distribute, copy, publish, or otherwise use my photos
without permission, send me a note at:
[email protected]
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ICESAT'S LASERS MEASURE ICE, CLOUDS AND LAND ELEVATIONS
NASA Headquaters News Release
(This satellite was launched from Vandenberg AFB
earlier this year - Editor)
(Washington, D.C., OCT 6) NASA's Ice, Cloud and land Elevation
Satellite (ICESat) has resumed measurements of the Earth's polar ice
sheets, clouds, mountains and forests with the second of its three
lasers. Crisscrossing the globe at nearly 17,000 miles per hour, this
new space mission is providing data with unprecedented accuracy on
the critical third dimension of the Earth, its vertical
characteristics.
"The first set of laser measurements is revealing features of the
polar ice sheets with details never seen before, and is detecting
dust storms, cloud heights, tree heights and smoke from forest fires
in new and exciting ways," said Jay Zwally, ICESat Project Scientist
at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
The principal mission of ICESat is to measure the surface elevation
of the large ice sheets covering Antarctica and Greenland.
Measurements of elevation-change over time will show whether the ice
sheets are melting or growing as the Earth's climate undergoes
natural and human-induced changes.
The Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) instrument on ICESat
sends short pulses of green and infrared light though the sky 40
times a second, all over the globe, and collects the reflected laser
light in a one-meter telescope. The elevation of the Earth's surface
and the heights of clouds and aerosols in the atmosphere are
calculated from both precise measurements of the travel time of the
laser pulses, and ancillary measurements of the satellite's orbit and
instrument orientation. This marks the first time any satellite has
made vertical measurements of the Earth through the use of an onboard
light source.
Operating in a near-polar orbit, ICESat is adding to our
understanding of the mass-balance of the Greenland and Antarctic ice
sheets. ICESat's first topographic profiles across Antarctica
revealed details of features such as the ice streams of the Siple
Coast and the Amery Ice Shelf, as well as the atmospheric phenomena
above them.
ICESat is also making unique measurements of cloud heights and global
distribution. ICESat detects distributions of aerosols from sources
such as dust storms and forest fires. And because its laser pulses
continuously, ICESat also measures the Earth's topography with high
accuracy.
"ICESat has already demonstrated the unique capability of lasers to
make a variety of Earth Science measurements. When the calibration
experiments are completed, we believe the accuracy and sensitivity
will exceed previous capabilities by nearly an order of magnitude,"
stated Bob Schutz, GLAS Science Team Leader, of the University of
Texas at Austin.
ICESat was launched January 12, 2003, on a Boeing Delta II rocket
from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. On March 29, ICESat's Laser 1
unexpectedly stopped working after providing 36 days of data. NASA
will issue a report shortly on the reason for the anomaly.
"Despite the problem with the first laser, ICESat is providing a new
perspective on elements within the Earth System with amazing
accuracy. We are especially looking forward to the information this
capability will provide on how the polar ice sheets are changing,"
said Waleed Abdalati, ICESat Program Scientist at NASA Headquarters,
Washington.
The ICESat scientists will convene a special session to present the
latest results from ICESat at the 2003 Fall Meeting of the American
Geophysical Union in San Francisco.
ICESat is the latest in a series of NASA's Earth observation
spacecraft designed to study the environment of our home planet and
how it may be changing. NASA's Earth Science Enterprise is dedicated
to understanding the Earth as an integrated system and applying Earth
System Science to improve prediction of climate, weather and natural
hazards using the unique vantage point of space.
For more information and images on the Internet, visit:
http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/2003/0920icesatfirst.html
http://icesat.gsfc.nasa.gov
For more information about NASA's Earth Science Enterprise on
the Internet, visit:
http://www.earth.nasa.gov
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NASA SELECTS ALLIED TEAM TO PROVIDE HYPERSONIC VEHICLES
NASA Headquarters News Release
(These vehicles will be prepared at Edwards AFB and
tested off of the California coast - Editor)
(Washington, D.C., OCT 8) NASA has selected Allied Aerospace
Industries of Tullahoma, Tenn., to provide three flight-ready
experimental demonstrator vehicles that will fly approximately 5,000
miles per hour or seven times the speed of sound. The multi-year
project, called X-43C, will expand the hypersonic flight envelope for
air-breathing engines.
The cost-plus-fixed-fee completion type contract carries performance
incentives and is valued at nearly $150 million over 66 months. The
base activity covers all work through completion of the Preliminary
Design Review, and the optional effort covers the final design,
hardware fabrication and all associated support activities.
The X-43C is the next logical step, following the Hyper-X (X-43A),
vehicle that aims at demonstrating short duration scramjet powered
flight at Mach 7 and Mach 10. The X-43C will demonstrate free flight
of a scramjet-powered vehicle with acceleration capability from Mach
5 to Mach 7, as well as operation of a hydrocarbon fuel-cooled
scramjet.
NASA's Langley Research Center (LaRC), Hampton, Va. is leading a
combined U.S. Air Force/industry team in the design and development
of the X-43C demonstrator vehicle and its propulsion system. The
engine, which will be provided by the Air Force, will be a dual-mode
scramjet capable of running as a ramjet or scramjet.
Allied Aerospace, Flight Systems Division, will team with Pratt &
Whitney, West Palm Beach, Fla.; Boeing Phantom Works, Huntington
Beach, Calif.; and RJK Technologies, Blacksburg, Va.
Work will be performed primarily in Tullahoma and West Palm Beach.
Some contract work will also take place at Huntington Beach,
Blacksburg, St. Louis, LaRC and NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center
(DFRC), Edwards, Calif.
Future air-breathing space access vehicles offer advantages over
conventional rocket-powered vehicles that must carry all of the
oxidizer needed to burn their fuel. Air-breathing engine-powered
vehicles obtain oxygen from the atmosphere in flight. By minimizing
the need to carry oxidizer, smaller and more efficient vehicles can
be designed for space access
missions.
'When fully developed, these advanced propulsion systems will offer
increased safety, payload capacity and economy of operation for
future, reusable space access vehicles," said Paul Moses, manager of
the X-43C project. "The X-43C project will validate advanced
technologies, design tools and test techniques that will enable
design of such vehicles in the future," he said.
For the three demonstration flights, a Pegasus-derived rocket booster
will be air-launched by a carrier aircraft to boost the X-43C
demonstrator vehicles to Mach 5 at approximately 80,000 feet. The
X-43C will separate from the booster and continue to accelerate to
Mach 7 under its own power and autonomous control.
Flights will originate from DFRC. Flight paths of the vehicles will
be over water within the Pacific Test Range.
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NEW CONTRACTOR SUPPORTS WESTERN RANGE
After a run of more than 40 years, ITT Industries handed over support
of the Western Range to InDyne Inc. For more information, go to:
http://www.lompocrecord.com/articles/2003/10/10/news/news13.txt