🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <8901280512.AA29429@ll-vlsi.arpa> glenn@LL-VLSI.ARPA (Glenn Chapman) writes:
>   Glavcosmos general manager Dimitri Poletayev, in charge of marketing space 
>material, said that there was uncertainty in the design of the Mir 2 station 
>to replace Mir.  Five expansion modules will be added to Mir at about 6 month 
>intervals starting in April, and reaching competition in 1991.  If Mir proves 
>sufficient for their needs at that point the replacement station will be 
>delayed, and they will not operate both station simultaneously. 

I hope no one is too surprised at this.  The Soviet space program, for
all the chic Western talk of its "stability," is clearly in upheaval.
In the past year or two the advent of Energiya, Buran and _glasnost_
have completed the revolution that Mir and Sagdeyev started back in the
chilly days of Andropov and Chernenko.  Energiya and Buran suddenly
give the entire program a dizzying new flexibility, and _glasnost_ does
two things: it enlists the support of the West and it clears the way
for PROFIT as a space program motive.  Not to be forgotten, either, is
the Afghan pullout.  The war down there required a significant amount
of spysat and military comsat investment over a decade.  Money will be
freed up, specifically for Star Wards research unless I miss my guess.

Mir 2 may well be abandoned and a military station lofted instead,
while Mir 1 is augmented with handfuls of profit making facilities.  It
would be ruinously expensive to maintain two Mirs at once in the
current configuration.

>     The USSR's first launch of the year used a Proton booster to put Glonass 
>navigation satellites and an Etalon laser geodesic satellite.  The Etalon was 
>described as a 1.4 Tonne hollow sphere 1.3 meters (51 inches) in diameter 
>covered with about 2000 quartz tetrahedral shaped prisms, which reflect laser 
>beams back towards their source.  

I can't help but wonder whether the Soviets can tell if anyone ELSE 
illuminates this thing... :-)

> ...  With the grounding of the Discovery today due, to moisture in the main 
>engines causing the cracking of the bearing race way, it will be a while 
>before the US catches up.

Uh, let's not confuse the large with the small here.  From what I understand
the bearing race was a disturbing one time affair - the moisture was 
present *when the bearing was cast* and that's what ultimately led to the
crack.  They can and will test for anything similar in the other bearings.
Work on Discovery proceeds on schedule - nothing is "grounded."
-- 
Tom Neff                  tneff@well.UUCP
                       or tneff@dasys1.UUCP