Satgen 204 Russian Space Scene by GM4IHJ 20th Feb 93 BID of this msg is SGEN204 Please use that BID if you retransmit the msg Despite their enormous economic problems , there has been no lack of interesting space activity from Russia. UA3CR reports a new agreement with the Controllers of the RadioSport satellites, and there has been lots of very interesting HF sub horizon reception, particularly in respect of Arctic Winter trans polar propagation, whilst the Mir Cosmanauts continue to provide the No 1 Amateur Radio Station in space. Equally interesting the Solar Reflector experiment from Mir/Progress had a few surprises, as it provided full moon illumination whilst moving over a narrow strip of Europe. The press naturally went crazy, saying whole areas of the Russian Arctic would soon be permanently lit from space. But this ignores the fact that an average Mir pass over a darkened Earth, whilst Mir can still see and reflect the Sun, lasts 8 minutes or less, and continuous realignment of the reflector would be necessary to light up one spot even for that short time. Also unreported by the press was the Drag problem. How do you keep a large volume , lightweight reflector up, when the upper atmosphere winds drag it down remorselessly. Whilst attached to Progress the Drag was so great, Progress could not be controlled. Once released from Progress the reflector lost 50 kms altitude in the first day, eventually entering the lower atmosphere and burning up after just 3 days. So "Lighting from Space" has a bit to go yet before it becomes a practical proposition, and equally interesting this excellent experiment revealed just how much difficulty faces those who plan to use Solar sails for Space Yatch racing. Getting the sails to unfurl and then getting the whole assembly under control must clearly occur much higher than 400 kms, or the sail will simple race back to earth, rather than out into space. A different problem facing the Russians was also highlighted this month. Will the Russians be able to continue to launch from Baikonur in Kazakstan ?. UK press talked as if the Russians would simply transfer all space launches, including manned ones ,north to Arctic Plesetsk. Problems are :- 1. Safety of Manned Flights. Plesetsk launches must go to orbit inclinations greater than 63 degs, and launches are to the north to avoid flying over cities in the dangerous early launch phase. No manned flight has ever gone about 57 deg inclination to date.There are no emergency recovery sites in the Arctic, and equally bad, a 60 + inclination puts the space craft over the Arctic or Antarctic for more than a third of the flight time. Not very nice if you have to make an emergency landing. 2. Launch Velocity versus Launch Latitude. The higher the latitude of the launch site the less Earth rotation assist ( 1600 km/hr at Equator ), you get. A Soyuz taxi from Baikonur can carry 3 people to Mir. From Plesetsk it could only take two. Worse still if Mir stays where it is at 51 deg inclination, it would be very fuel expensive to match orbits from a Plestsk launch. In fact as "The Space Pilotage by the Seat of your Pants Handbook" says. If you must change orbit inclination after launch, it is cheaper in fuel to come back to earth and then launch to the exact final inclination than to try to alter from one inclination to another whilst in space. EXTRA It may be coincidence but the recent radiation damage which hit the packet sats and RS1, was accompanied some time around Feb 14th by what seems to have been a total reversal of the Interplanetary Magnetic Field . In consequence of which RS12 /RS10 signals over a winter arctic are presently massively enhanced. 73 de GM4IHJ @ GB7SAN