May 1980

From The Space Library

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Current revision

GSFC reported discovery by a team of its scientists of the largest gamma-ray burst ever recorded and the first tracing of such a burst to a known astronomical object, providing for the first time evidence of the vibration of a neutron star. The burst, trillions of miles away, occurred March 5, 1979, and was recorded by a network of nine satellites. The uniqueness of the event and the time needed to coordinate data from the Soviet Union, France, and West Germany delayed completion of analysis until recently; a GSFC colloquium April 24 heard a report on the theoretical developments. The GSFC team was headed by Dr. Thomas L. Cline and Dr. Reuven Ramaty.

Gamma rays, the most energetic form of electromagnetic radiation, exhibit energy from tens of thousands to tens of billions of volts. The amounts of energy required to produce gamma rays had to come from extremely high energy processes such as explosion of an atomic bomb or a star. Until the explosion of March 5, 1979, astronomers could only speculate that neutron stars went through giant vibration episodes explosively propelling their substance outward, then being pushed just as explosively by external forces back to their original shape. The theory of relativity says that these vibrations should emit gravitational waves. The March 5 burst, said to radiate more energy than the Sun could produce in 1,000 years, was measured by devices on nine spacecraft including five launched by the United States (three Velas, the Pioneer Venus orbiter, and the international Sun-Earth explorer Isee 3; three by the Soviet Union (Prognoz 7, Venera 11, and Venera 12, carrying French instrumentation); and one launched jointly by the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany (Helios 2). The satellites were widely separated in space or in Earth orbit when they detected the burst.

By timing and triangulation, scientists could trace the source of the March 5 event to a decaying star (supernova) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (one of two galaxies nearest the Milky Way) and specifically to a supernova remnant identified as N-49. A supernova would have blown its contents all over surrounding space, leaving a large compact body called a neutron star so dense that a spoonful of material from its center would weigh a billion tons. The unusually large output of energy and the fact that its release was very rapid led to the vibrating-source conclusion. Celestial gamma rays are detected only by aircraft above the atmosphere, or by spacecraft; detection of future bursts would require highly sensitive devices like the gamma-ray observatory scheduled for Shuttle launch in 1985. (GSFC Release G-80-23)

Control of motion sickness might be learned as one learns to balance or to ride a bicycle, according to ARC'S Dr. Patricia Cowings. Half of all astronauts exposed to the weightless environment of space had symptoms of motion sickness; young athletes were often the persons most sensitive to motion.

Cowings and her team had taught about 50 volunteers to suppress illness when subjected to a chair spinning ever faster; another 60 subjects were studied without the training. Of the trained subjects, 85% improved their ability to withstand effects of motion, 65 % being able to suppress their symptoms completely. The other 20 % took significant increase in rpms before becoming ill. In the control group of 60 subjects who received no training, no one showed any significant improvement with time.

The trained subjects monitored their own respiration and heartbeat during the tests, biological feedback long used by researchers and known to produce positive results. After the subjects were trained to detect the onset of sickness, 65 % were able to suppress the symptoms by using the feedback. Biofeedback was preferred to conventional treatment, which is use of drugs, because it had no side effects, such as sleepiness.

The success of the theory led Cowings to propose a life-science experiment tentatively accepted for a Spacelab flight on which two trained crew persons would wear a harness feeding eight channels of a small data recorder collecting information on heart rate and other factors and providing the subjects with a feedback display. A subject feeling ill would consciously use the feedback training for a maximum 30 minutes. When subjects succumbed to motion sickness, they would mark the point where they became ill so the researchers could learn which responses led to the sickness. So far Cowings had found no sex differences in susceptibility to motion sickness; also, of a group aged 18 to 45, older subjects appeared less likely to suffer. (NASA Release 80-57; ARC Release 80-32)

FBIS carried Tass and other Soviet news reports on the flight of Salyut 6 and Soyuz 35 with cargo ship Progress 9 On May 2, cosmonauts Leonid Popov and Valery Ryumin, in their fourth week of flight, used "bilateral television communication" to visit with their families who had come to the mission control center. A May 6 report said that for the first time in manned space flight the crew had pumped water from the freight ship to containers on the station, using a system called Rodnik. The crew had completed unloading the food, regenerators, and fresh equipment from Progress 9 and refueled the joint propulsion unit; they would use the cargo ship to dispose of used material.

On May 8, the chief of the aerogeology organization said Ryumin and Popov before the launch of Soyuz 35 had flown over certain linear and ring geological structures to acquire data for comparison with satellite observations; the Soyuz 26 crew (Romanenko and Grechko) had identified 25 such structures in the Soviet Union that proved to contain mineral deposits.

By May 13 the crew repaired the on-board videotape recorder and replaced a motor in the biogravistat and a filter in the gas analyzer; some items would be returned to Earth for study. On May 16 they were putting plant sprouts in various stages of development into a special solution for study on Earth; they also used the Progress 9 propulsion unit for another orbit adjustment. The cargo ship separated from the orbital complex May 20 at 21:15 hours Moscow time; on May 22 ground command switched on its engine, and it "ceased to exist" upon entering the atmosphere. The next big event was launch at 21:21 hours Moscow time May 26 of Soyuz 36 carrying veteran Valery Kubasov and Bertalan Farkas, first Hungarian cosmonaut, to join Popov and Ryumin who had occupied Salyut 6 since April 9. Docking occurred at 22:56 hours Moscow time, and the visitors went aboard Salyut for a 7-day program of international research. Kubasov and Farkas would return to Earth in Soyuz 35, leaving Soyuz 36 for later use. (FBIS, Tass in English, May 2-27/80)

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