Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/17/84; site hao.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!oliveb!hplabs!hao!hull
From: hull@hao.UUCP (Howard Hull)
Newsgroups: net.rumor,net.physics,net.space
Subject: Re: ASAT
Message-ID: <1777@hao.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 29-Sep-85 15:59:57 EDT
Article-I.D.: hao.1777
Posted: Sun Sep 29 15:59:57 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 2-Oct-85 00:33:51 EDT
References: <1764@hao.UUCP> <652@ucsfcgl.UUCP> <31163@lanl.ARPA>
Distribution: net
Organization: High Altitude Obs./NCAR, Boulder CO
Lines: 87
Xref: watmath net.rumor:1115 net.physics:3308 net.space:4585

> > In article <1764@hao.UUCP> pete@hao.UUCP (Pete Reppert) writes:
> > >Guess what? The "defunct military satellite" shot down
> > >by ASAT as a test was really a functioning scientific
> > >satellite called SOLWIND or something like that ( at least
> > >that`s how the rumor goes ). Tsk tsk. 
> > >-- 
> > > Pete Reppert
> > 
> > No rumor.  Fact, actually.  From the Washington Post, as published in
> > the (well, it's what I've got) San Francisco Chronicle, Fri, 20 Sept.,
> > .
> > .
> > .
> > 	Yesterday, an Air Force spokesman said the Pentagon was not
> > 	ready to provide complete answeres to queries about Solwind's
> > 	functions and choice as a target.  He said the satellite was
> > 	originally intended to operate for three years at most after
> 		   ^^^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ ####
> > 	launching in 1979.
> 
> Seems that this is carrying *planned* obsolescence to the extreme!
> -- 
> Charlie Sorsby

No no no! Youse guys don' git it.  Youse wan' da Congres' t' be responsible,
don' ya?  Well, dey is.  Dey alocates a certin amoun' a money fer da program,
an' dat translates inta a certin 'mount of time ta git an' figger oud da data.
Aftr dat, youse guys eidher gotten yer money's wurth or ya didn'.  Dey don'
wan' spend no mo, so dey go boom boom!  Kill two birds 'w one smart rock, eh?
							Gras	Bartholomew.

Aaactuallly, there were numerous gross errors in the Wash Post article.
Whereas it is likely that our director here, Dr. R.M. Macqueen, did speak many
or all of the *words* retained in quotes in the article, the sentences bear
no resemblance to anything he said.  All ye be forewarned; telephone interviews
with the rapacious press are extremely hazardous.  You can ask that they send
you copy for review before they publish, but be assured, they will not comply.

A few for instances:

	"MacQueen, whose organization designed Solar Max
				      ^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^
HAO did not design Solar Max.  HAO designed the solar coronagraph instrument
that is one of (I think, seven) the instruments on board the spacecraft.  HAO
did not build *any* part of the spacecraft.  The coronagraph was built by the
Ball Aero-Space Division (here in Boulder).  The SMM core was designed by NASA
and is maintained, operationally speaking, by the Modular Mission Spacecraft
group at the Goddard Space Flight Center, Beltsville, MD.  And when I say
maintained, I mean MAINTAINED!  (The craft was repaired by the Space Shuttle
crew (STS 41C) over a year ago in April).
	                                                 and runs it for
	the Air Force,
Wrong again.  The SOLWIND satellite was Air Force Property, as are the many
many teeny weeny little pieces of it now running around in LEO along with
whatever junk the Ruskies made testing *their* ASAT system (anyone want
to speculate on how big the biggest remaining chunks might be, and how long
it will take for it all to come down?).  The NRL experiment was a "piggyback"
instrument on board the satellite.  Under the circumstances, the NRL folks
can be assumed to be "muzzled" for reasons relating to the National Defense.
	said the "continuous observations" of the
	Solwind satellite, stretching from a period of maximum solar
	activity in 1980 through minial activity recently, were "very
	valuable".
True.  The observations can be considered to be part of a general data set
which will allow cross calibration of other instruments.  Data sets that span
a long period of time while taken with a consistent data handling algorithm
do not suffer badly from temporal aliasing.

In spite of the indignation suffered, MacQueen's interview does accomplish one
worthy purpose.  Everyone in the world who ever doubted it now knows the USA
can cream a satellite in orbit as opposed to a cooperative balloon [launched?]
target system with problems in its telemetry packages.

Now for a little humor.  Since we here at NCAR are being eyed as a qualified
candidate for budget hacks to do something about the National Deficit, we are
told that we should be more innovative and try to align our activities with
current National Priorities.  It has been suggested by one our members that
we change the design of some of our upcoming instruments for NASA platforms
(i.e. Spartan 201) to have a dual function.  They will, as usual, gather data
concerning solar atmospheric physics; they will, in addition, have special
systems added including decoy, evasive maneuvering, backscatter countermeasure,
and solar wind focusing apparatus to "perturb" the test ASATs in an appropriate
fashion.  :-)
								     Howard Hull
[If yet unproven concepts are outlawed in the range of discussion...
                   ...Then only the deranged will discuss yet unproven concepts]
        {ucbvax!hplabs | allegra!nbires | harpo!seismo } !hao!hull


Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com