"LIVE FROM THE STRATOSPHERE"          P R O J E CT  U P D A T E

PART 1: Junk Email and receiving the Teacher's Guide
PART 2: Juan and the broken mirror (5/7/94)

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Please accept our apologies for the recent spate of messages from
people introducing themselves and asking questions.  The maillist
software had not been configured to block these types of messages.
This has now been corrected and you should now only be receiving 
LFS project news or journals from Kuiper personnel over the updates-lfs
list.  Later in the project (mid-September), there will be opportunities 
for teachers to meet one another and to discuss topics of mutual interest.

There seems to be some confusion about the printed Teacher's Guide.
Some folks were worried because they hadn't yet received theirs in the mail. 
Fear not!  Nobody has yet received the document because it is still being 
developed.  When complete, the Guide will be mailed along with other goodies 
(including heat sensitive paper, a NASA poster and special eye glasses) to 
the folks who sent in their $10.  This package is expected to begin
shipping shortly after Labor Day (in early September).  As we said in the
last update, the Teacher's Guide will be available online a week or so
before it ships.

Please be aware that registering for the printed Teacher's Guide package is 
a completely separate process from signing up to receive online updates.  If
you sent in ten dollars, that does not mean you will be placed on this
"updates-lfs" maillist.  Likewise, you will not automatically receive a 
printed Teacher's Guide package just because you signed up for the maillist.  
To receive the package, send a check for $10 to:
Live From the Stratosphere, PO Box 1502, Summit, New Jersey 07902-1502.

To receive updates online, send a mail message to

In the message body, write these words: subscribe updates-lfs

Thanks  for your patience during the recent confusion.

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[Editor's note: The passage below continues a series of journals from last 
year as a preview of what is to come]


  -= Flight Log for KAO 5/7/94 (Second flight in Hawaii Deployment) =-
                 Juan Rivera - Airborne Telescope Operator


Off the ground at 0655Z (2055 Local Time)

On board tonight we have a total of 13 people:
     3 Flight Crew
     5 Scientists
     1 Mission Director
     2 Computer Operators
     1 Tracker Operator
     1 Telescope Operator (Me)

We're going to be held to 27,000 for a while by Air Traffic Control for some
reason.  The flight crew will have to deal with that when the time comes.

0709Z We're passing through 26,000 feet already.  I've shut off the flow
      of liquid nitrogen which is used to pre-cool the telescope cavity.
      We do this for several reasons:  First of all the nitrogen boils off
      to a very cold dry gas which displaces the moist air in the cavity.
      We want the atmosphere in there to be free of any water vapor so it
      won't fog up the optics and freeze there.  Also, we cool the cavity
      with a huge portable air conditioner and the liquid nitrogen so that
      it will be cold when we open the aperture door and expose the optics
      to the ambient temperature at altitude.  The mirror started out...
      Oops...  Got'a run!!!!

0749Z Hmm...  We'll I spent the last 20 minutes or so attempting to repair
      a problem with our oscillating secondary mirror.  It has been very
      unreliable lately.  Tonight when I turned it on, it blew the main
      fuse in one of the power supplies that power it.  All I could really
      do in flight was to re-seat all the circuit boards and hope that the
      problem was being caused by an intermittent connection.  Last time
      this happened I was a hero because I was able to save the mission.
      This time I was not so lucky.  We are now headed back home and the
      mission has been aborted.  We'll try to get hold of the day crew
      technicians and see if they can spend some time tonight working on it.
      Most likely it will be tomorrow before anything can be done.  Last
      time this happened I found two wires that had been pulled out of the
      back of a connector on the rear of the chassis.  The only problem was
      that neither wire had anything to do with the problem!  It was like
      trying to find out why your car wouldn't start and finding a loose wire
      that went to the tail lights.  It's nice that I found it, but...
      Anyway, by the time the two broken wires were fixed the problem had
      mysteriously gone away.  It's very very difficult to fix a problem
      that won't stay bad.  We call those "intermittents".  Maybe this time
      the OSM will stay bad.  We call that "inoperative", or "inop" for
      short.  Did you get all that?  There will be a test later in the
      week!

0809Z Time to bag this and secure all the loose equipment and prepare for
      landing.  More next time...