Asri-unix.196
net.columbia
utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!menlo70!sri-unix!knutsen
Thu Dec 10 01:57:38 1981
some shuttle news from the wires
!a073  0646  09 Dec 81
PM-Shuttle Experiments,480
Scientist: Clay Minerals Can Be Identified From Space
By HARRY F. ROSENTHAL
Associated Press Writer
   WASHINGTON (AP) - An experiment aboard the space shuttle Columbia
showed that deposits of petroleum, copper, gold and silver may some
day be detected from orbit, a scientist says.
   Dr. Alexander F.H. Goetz of the space agency's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said preliminary analyses show that
clay minerals can be identified from space. Clays in sedimentary rocks
are important to geologic mapping for petroleum and as surface clues
for buried metal deposits.
   The experiment on last month's trouble-shortened flight of Columbia
was designed to identify different types of rocks and soil and
sampled 50,000 miles of Earth's surface. It takes advantage of the
fact that each mineral has its own reflective ''signature'' that is
read by an instrument called a Shuttle Multispectral Infrared
Radiometer - SMIRR for short.
   The data gathered over Africa, Asia and the Middle East, Europe,
Mexico and the United States will be processed into maps. Because of
the delay in launching and the shortened flight, there was no data
from the spacecraft as it passed over Australia, southern Africa and
South America.
   NASA official Andy Stofan called the flight ''an outstanding
success.'' He spoke at a press conference Tuesday at which the chief
scientists of the seven experiments aboard the shuttle gave
preliminary reports.
   Despite mostly satisfactory reports, one scientist found his
experiment ruined, and another wished he had received more data.
   Dr. Allen Brown of the University of Pennsylvania, who designed an
experiment to measure the growth of sunflower plants in weightless
space, said ''unfortunately it (the flight) was too short to tell
anything substantive.''
   Dr. Bernard Vonnegut of State University of New York at Albany,
describing himself as ''one of a few hundred people in the world who
are still trying to find out how thunderstorms work,'' had hoped for
more photographs of lightning from the spacecraft
   ''My disappointment is with the quantity of data that we were able
to get,'' he said. ''I'm very pleased, as I told the astronauts, with
what they got for us,'' he said. ''In terms of the abbreviated
mission and the big extra load they had I think we were extremely
lucky to have gotten what they did.''
   Both experiments will be tried again on later flights.
   One scientific experiment produced a photograph covering 10,000
miles of earth, with details as small as half a football field. The
film carried aboard the Columbia for the experiment was 3,600 feet
long.
   The strip looks down on an area at least 30 miles wide and pictures
Spain and western Europe, through the Mediterranean to India,
Indonesia and Australia. It was taken over a 45-minute period as the
shuttle passed 157 miles overhead.
   The radar can photograph areas as small as 130 feet long. It is not
dependent on sunlight or other illumination sources to produce an
image, nor is it restricted by weather or lighting conditions that
would affect optical systems.

ap-ny-12-09 0945EST
**********


!a008  2240  09 Dec 81
PM-Shuttle-Space Walk, Bjt,500
First Shuttle ''Walker'' To Retrieve Ailing Satellite
By HOWARD BENEDICT
Associated Press Writer
   WASHINGTON (AP) - The first astronaut to step outside an orbiting
space shuttle will jet over to an ailing satellite, bring it into the
ship's cargo bay for repair and then return it to orbit.
   A National Aeronautics and Space Administration official disclosed
the plan Wednesday in discussing the future of the shuttle before the
Senate subcommittee on science, technology and space.
   The space walk mission, scheduled for 1983, will be an early
demonstration of the shuttle's in-orbit satellite servicing
capabilities and will restore a payload of great value to solar
scientists.
   Dr. Stanley Weiss, NASA's associate administrator for space
transportation operations, identified the target as the Solar Maximum
satellite, which was launched last year to make the most extensive
survey ever undertaken of the sun.
   But the failure of three tiny fuses has prevented the satellite's
control module from accurately pointing the scientific instruments at
the sun, rendering them useless.
   Solar Max is the first satellite built with a grappling device that
normally would permit it to be retrieved by the 50-foot mechanical
arm tested successfully on the shuttle Columbia's second flight last
month.
   Because of the loss of control, Solar Max is no longer stable enough
to be grabbed by the robot arm as originally intended, but maintains
enough stability for an astronaut to approach and steady it with a
pole-like device.
   That's what the space walker intends to do, propelling himself from
the shuttle to the satellite with a jet-powered back pack and holding
the payload steady so the arm can latch on and draw it into the
ship's 60-foot cargo bay.
   There, the astronaut is to replace the defective module before the
arm returns the payload to its own orbit 300 miles up.
   In addition to the immediate benefit of saving the damaged, $75
million scientific satellite, successful demonstration of the human
rescue technique would be important to both civil and military space
planners who will require servicing of several other satellites in the
future.
   The Defense Department, for example, plans to retrieve
reconnaissance film from spy satellites and to extend the life of
military payloads through in-orbit refurbishment. NASA says the
capability of repairing satellites in space will eliminate the need to
build expensive redundant systems into them.
   McDonnell Douglas Corp. and Johnson & Johnson, the pharmaceutical
firm, are assessing the potential for manufacturing pure serums that
can be processed only in the microgravity of space.
   The two companies are planning tests on an early space shuttle
flight, and they hope eventually such serums could be produced in
large quantities.
   A prototype unmanned processing plant is envisioned for launch as
early as 1986, with the serum to be retrieved periodically by a
shuttle crew, who also would carry up a new supply of raw materials.

ap-ny-12-10 0136EST
**********

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