On Feb 18, 10:46 am, columbiaaccidentinvestigation
wrote:
On Feb 18, 10:21 am, BradGuth wrote:



On Feb 17, 9:56 pm, columbiaaccidentinvestigation

wrote:
On Feb 17, 7:53 pm, BradGuth wrote:

On Feb 17, 6:11 pm, columbiaaccidentinvestigationcolumbiaaccidentinve wrote:
On Feb 17, 4:44 pm, BradGuth wrote:" Ever notice
how others that always claim as being all-knowing are not bothering to
contribute to your silly rants?"

laughing, first i never thought this identity would win me any
popularity contests, so na i don't care. But the funnier thing is
that you just made an illogical appeal to the masses, which inherently
means that you do care what people think of you on usenet. Now that
is something you will have to get over because if you look to get ego
boosts from your posts, or you look to usenet to determine your status
in life, you are a very pathetic man (still laughing)..... So how
about expedition 16's experiments...

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/st...iments/Expedit....

That's true enough, whereas I actually care about things that matter
to the greater good of humanity and of salvaging our badly failing
environment (perhaps the exact opposite of yourself).

BTW, I never laugh unless others like yourself are into proving how
dumbfounded past the point of no return you've gotten. Also, I've
noticed that Earth isn't flat, and Muslims didn't put one of their own
kind on a stick for a faith-based PR stunt.
. - Brad Guth

Theater shows us that whether it be complicated ironic twists of fate,
or just simple slapstick, humor has, is and always will be part of
human nature, so you should try to laugh more often, maybe it will
make you more human. Now lets see even though part of the dark side
of human nature is comes out when religious antagonism shows its ugly
head (in attempts by some to divide and cause anger) i would rather
find commonalities with people or cultures, for example in science i
choose to focus on somebody like Abu Ali Mohammed Ibn al Hazen who was
an Arab scientist that contributed to the understanding of how the
human eye works.

Now with respect to my citation and excitation concerning the solar
experiment on the Columbus module, one of the reasons i am excited
about the experiment, is because it is directly related to studying
earths environment, so you are not on such high ground as you think,
nor am i what you think either. (and im still laughing)

SOLAR payload on ISS Columbus module

STS-122 The Voyage of Columbus
Press Kit
Page 42 (pdf page 46)

External Facilities: SOLAR
Apart from contributing to solar and stellar physics, knowledge of the
interaction between the solar energy flux and Earth's atmosphere is of
great importance for atmospheric modeling,
atmospheric chemistry and climatology. SOLAR, will study the sun with
unprecedented
accuracy across most of its spectral range. This is currently
scheduled to last two years. It will
be located on the Columbus External Payload Facility zenith position
(i.e., pointing away
from the Earth).

The SOLAR payload consists of three instruments complementing each
other to allow
measurements of the solar spectral irradiance throughout virtually the
whole electromagnetic
spectrum from 17 nm to 100 nm in which99% of the solar energy is
emitted. The threecomplementary solar science instruments a

SOVIM (SOlar Variable & Irradiance Monitor), which covers near UV,
visible and thermal regions of the spectrum (200 nm - 100 ìm)
isdeveloped by PMOD/WRC (Davos, Switzerland) with one of the
instrument's radiometers provided by IRM (Brussels, Belgium).

SOLSPEC (SOLar SPECctral Irradiance measurements) covers the 180 nm
3,000 nm range. SOLSPEC is developed by CNRS (Verrièresle Buisson,
France) in partnership with IASB/BIRA (Belgium) and LSW
(Germany).

SOLACES (SOLar Auto Calibrating Extreme UV/UV Spectrophotometers)
measures theEUV/UV spectral regime. SOLACES is developed by IPM
(Freiburg, Germany).SOVIM and SOLSPEC are upgraded versions of
instruments that have already accomplished several space missions.
SOLACES is a newlydeveloped instrument."

Word stew or salad? or is it hypology?

I never said anything against terrestrial or LEO science as related to
benefiting Earth as being a bad thing. Most all terrestrial and LEO
obtained science is in one way or another good for the intellectual
soul as well as for salvaging our badly failing environment.

It's the extended space travels of us humans that's highly
questionable, as perhaps never paying its own way, much less
contributing to the better good or quality of life as we know it.
Because of every 19 months when Venus is so nearby is why I do not
consider the to/from trek of humans getting interactive with Venus as
being all that insurmountable or without a great potential of paying
off. Whereas most everything of humanly accomplishing Mars or further
is just plain iffy and at best spendy as hell.
. - Brad Guth- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Yeah, yeah same old stuff, but this thread is about STS-122 &
Expedition 16, so here is some more information on the solar sun
monitoring experiment, which is located on the space stations newly
added Columbus module.

http://www.spaceflight.esa.int/users...nts/external/s...
"European Space Agency
SOLAR
Specifications

The SOLAR payload consists of 3 instruments complementing each other
to allow measure the solar flux throughout virtually the whole
electromagnetic spectrum - from 17 nm to 3000 nm - in which 99% of the
solar energy is emitted. The instruments are mounted on a Coarse
Pointing Device for accurate Sun pointing and are controlled by a
Control Unit. The scientific instruments a

SOVIM (SOlar Variable & Irradiance Monitor) covers near UV, visible
and thermal regimes (200 nm - 100 µm)
SOLSPEC (SOLar SPECctral Irradiance measurements) covers the 180 nm -
3000 nm range with high spectral resolution
SOL-ACES (SOLar Auto-Calibrating EUV/UV Spectrophotometers) measures
the EUV/UV spectral regime (17 nm -220 nm) with moderate spectral
resolution.

The SOVIM and SOLSPEC are the upgraded versions of instruments that
have already accomplished several orbital flights without failure.
Significant refurbishment is nevertheless planned to enable the
instrument to meet the ISS requirements (safety, reliability and
mission duration) and to improve the instrument performance, utilising
the experience gained from the past missions.
SOL-ACES is a new development instrument.
Thanks to the Solar Package consisting of SOVIM, SOLSPEC and SOL-ACES
new topics will be investigated as was not possible in the past.

Coarse Pointing Device (CPD)
The Coarse Pointing Device is a multi-purpose system that has the
function of keeping the supported instruments pointed to a target
(e.g.: to the Sun), compensating for the orbital motion of the ISS.
During each observation orbit, the Coarse Pointing Device keeps the
instruments pointed to the Sun during an observation period of about
15 minutes per orbit.
The Coarse Pointing Device provides a movable frame, which can rotate
around two axes, thanks to a cardanic type mechanism. The motion is
controlled in closed loop, using a sun sensor located on the moving
frame, brushless motors and encoders mounted on each axis. The control
loops for the two axes are implemented in the soft ware running on the
Control Unit.
The maximum range of the Coarse Pointing Device angular motion is +/-
25° around the axis compensating for the seasonal variation of the ISS
orbit inclination, and +/- 40° around the axis compensating for the
ISS orbital motion.
The pointing accuracy is +/- 1 degree; the pointing stability is 0.3
deg over 10 seconds.
During launch and re-entry, the Coarse Pointing Device mechanism is
locked in both the degrees of freedom by means of an electrically-
actuated pin; the pin is retracted only when the payload is on-orbit,
in its operational location, such that the pointing function can be
operated.
From a structural/mechanical point of view, the Coarse Pointing Device
is designed such that it can take all launch and re-entry loads due to
the acceleration and vibro-acoustic environment typical of the Space
Shuttle, acting on its structures and payload.
The Coarse Pointing Device is developed in two versions, one for the
SOLAR payload and one for the EXPORT payload. Each version has
different instruments accommodation and mess carrying capabilities.
For SOLAR the maximum mass carrying capability is 75 kg.

The Command Unit (CU)
The Control Unit is functionally composed of two sections that perform
power conversion, protection and distribution and data handling and
communication respectively. The Control Unit supplies electrical power
(28 VDC) to the scientific instruments as well as to the Coarse
Pointing Device. The Power distribution is based on the following
availability of resources:
28 VDC Stay-Alive Power, when in Cargo Bay, provided to Coarse
Pointing Device through one feed from the Orbiter.
120 VDC Operational Power, on orbit, is drawn all from one of the two
feeds at the Columbus External Payload Facility Inter Face.
120 VDC Stay-Alive Power, when on-orbit, is drawn all from one of the
two feeds at the Columbus External Payload Facility Inter Face.

The data handling section of the Control Unit includes a
microprocessor system, mass memory, Input /Output channels.
The payload Integrated Express Pallet Adapter is electrically
interfaced to the Columbus External Payload Facility/Flight ...

read more »

Why not a TRACE-II at 10% the cost?

Why not a TRACE-II as placed at Venus L2?
. - Brad Guth