Observatories in Earth Orbit and Beyond: Proceedings of the 123RD Colloquium of the International Astronomical Union, Held in Greenbelt, Maryland, U. S. A. , April 24-27,1990

When I became President of International Astronomical Union Commission 44 for the triennial period 1985-1988, several members of the Organizing Committee and I agreed that it would be a good idea for our Commission to host a conference on observatories in space in view of their increasingly important role in astronomi cal research. IAU Colloquium Number 123 "Observatories in Earth Orbit and Beyond" is the first colloquium sponsored by IAU Com mission 44 on Astronomy from Space, although Commission 44 has co-sponsored numerous colloquia and symposia in the past. The past two decades have seen a flourishing of astronomical observatories in space. Over a dozen orbiting observatories have opened up a new window on the universe, providing hitherto una vailable data in the electromagnetic spectral range from gamma-ray, X-ray, ultraviolet to infrared and radio. This has clearly demon­ strated the crucial nature of astronomical observations from space. The invited talks of present colloquium consist primarily of reviews of currently operating observatories in space, future observatories that have been approved by sponsoring government or space agencies, the launch systems of U.S.A., E.S.A., U.S.S.R. and Japan, discussions of various orbits and sites (such as the Moon), and alternate approaches in designing space observatories. Several panel discus­ sions addressed those issues as well as the major unsolved problems of astronomy. Contributed poster papers included descriptions of space observatories that are in planning stage. Front Matter....Pages i-xii Front Matter....Pages 1-1 The Hubble Space Telescope....Pages 3-7 Early Results From The Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE)....Pages 9-18 The Status of the Dirbe Instrument on the COBE....Pages 19-19 The Automatic Spacecraft Granat ....Pages 21-25 The Hipparcos Mission: Will it be a Scientific Success?....Pages 27-33 The International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE)....Pages 35-40 X-Ray Astronomy Satellite Ginga....Pages 41-48 Extreme and Far Ultraviolet Astronomy from Voyagers 1 and 2....Pages 49-57 Front Matter....Pages 59-59 Röntgen Satellite....Pages 61-62 The Gamma-Ray Observatory....Pages 63-70 The Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility....Pages 71-79 The Astro-D Mission....Pages 81-87 The X-Ray Timing Explorer....Pages 89-110 The Joint European Telescope for X-Ray Astronomy (Jet-X)....Pages 111-118 Sodart Telescope on Spectrum-Röntgen-Gamma and its Instrumentation....Pages 119-128 ESA’s X-Ray Astronomy Mission, XMM....Pages 129-140 The Sax Mission for X-Ray Astronomy....Pages 141-150 The Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer Mission....Pages 153-169 Lyman the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer....Pages 171-176 Far and Extreme Ultraviolet Astronomy with ORFEUS....Pages 177-184 Front Matter....Pages 59-59 International VLBI Satellite (IVS)....Pages 255-262 VSOP, A Space VLBI Programme....Pages 263-269 VLBI with TDRSS....Pages 271-274 Soho — An Observatory to Study the Solar Interior and the Solar Atmosphere....Pages 277-284 An Overview of the Orbiting Solar Laboratory....Pages 285-285 The Planetenteleskop Mission....Pages 286-286 The Astrometric Imaging Telescope: Near-Term Discovery and Study of Other Planetary Systems....Pages 287-287 Ultraviolet Polarimetry....Pages 291-291 The Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope....Pages 292-292 The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope for Astro 1....Pages 293-293 The Broad Band X-Ray Telescope (BBXRT) on Astro-1....Pages 294-294 The SPECTRUM-UV Project....Pages 185-190 Future Solar System Missions....Pages 297-306 The Ulysses Mission in the High Latitude Heliosphere....Pages 307-313 The Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF)....Pages 193-203 The Infrared Space Observatory....Pages 205-214 IRTS: Infrared Telescope in Space....Pages 215-222 First — Far Infrared and Submillimetre Space Telescope....Pages 223-230 A Submillimeter Mission for the 1990s: SMMM....Pages 231-249 The Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite....Pages 251-251 Front Matter....Pages 59-59 Science Operations for Future Space Astrophysics Missions....Pages 317-321 Front Matter....Pages 323-323 United States Launch Vehicle Systems....Pages 325-332 ESA’s Space Transportation Programme....Pages 333-338 Launch Vehicles of ISAS....Pages 339-342 U.S.S.R. Launch Systems....Pages 343-343 Launch Vehicles of the Future: Earth to Near-Earth Space....Pages 347-354 Future Deep Space Propulsion Systems....Pages 355-362 Front Matter....Pages 363-363 Lunar-Based Astronomy....Pages 365-375 Relative Merits of Low-Earth, Eccentric, Geosynchronous, and Interplanetary Orbits and Sites in Space....Pages 377-379 Humanity or Robotics in Space?....Pages 380-380 Astrophysics from the Moon....Pages 381-390 Use of Libration-Point Orbits for Space Observatories....Pages 391-395 Major Observatories Versus Economy-Class Observatories in Space....Pages 399-405 Front Matter....Pages 407-407 Does Theory Advance with Technology?....Pages 409-412 Occultation Astronomy....Pages 413-415 Comments....Pages 417-419 The Astrophysics of the Future....Pages 421-426 Evolution of the Unsolved Problems....Pages 427-430 Front Matter....Pages 431-431 Sixa: The Solid State Spectrometer Array Onboard Spectrum-X-Gamma....Pages 433-438 The X-Ray Large Array....Pages 439-442 Front Matter....Pages 431-431 The Stellar X-Ray Polarimeter for the SPECTRUM-X-Gamma Mission....Pages 443-449 The All-Sky Extragalactic X-Ray Foreground....Pages 451-455 A Low Energy Gas Scintillation Proportional Counter for the SAX-X-Ray Astronomy Satellite....Pages 457-461 The EXOSAT Results Database....Pages 462-462 An X-Ray All Sky Monitor for a Japanese Experimental Module on the Space Station....Pages 463-468 The Astro Mission....Pages 469-469 The UV Imager for the Israeli Scientific Satellite....Pages 471-474 ORFEUS-SPAS: The Berkeley Euv Spectrometer....Pages 475-480 An Observatory for Mapping the Far Uv Diffuse Galactic Emission Line Background....Pages 481-486 Project of a Three Reflection Telescope for Wide Field Ultraviolet Observations....Pages 487-491 SANTA MARIA: An Orbiting Multispectral Observatory....Pages 493-496 Cryogenic Testing of Optics for ISOCAM....Pages 497-499 EDISON: A Second Generation Infrared Space Observatory....Pages 501-505 Merits of Space VLBI Missions for Geodynamics....Pages 507-507 Low Frequency Radio Astronomy from Earth Orbit....Pages 508-508 High-Resolution Imaging Spectroscopy at Terahertz Frequencies....Pages 509-515 Science Observations with the IUE Using the One Gyro Mode....Pages 517-520 New Methods of Determining Spacecraft Attitude....Pages 521-524 Knowledge Based Automated Scheduling and Planning Tools for IUE....Pages 525-530 Earth Observation System Plans of India....Pages 531-531 Front Matter....Pages 431-431 The Stability of the Planetary Triangular Lagrange Points....Pages 533-536 Cosmic Rays and the Dynamic Balance in the Large Magellanic Cloud....Pages 537-541 Limitations of Observational Cosmology....Pages 543-550 Structure of Radiatively Cooled Jets....Pages 551-554 A New Way for Testing of Light Deflection in Earth Orbit or Beyond....Pages 555-558 Studying the Galactic Central Engine from Space Observatories....Pages 559-561 Back Matter....Pages 563-572

The present volume contains the texts of the invited talks and contributed papers presented at IAU Colloquium No. 123 on 'Observations in Earth Orbit and Beyond', which was held at Goddard Space Flight Center on 24-27 April 1990. The Colloquium featured invited reviews of virtually all current and approved future projects in space astronomy, over the entire electromagnetic spectrum from gamma-ray to radio, of all major space faring nations of the world. The reviewer was typically either the project scientist or principal investigator of a given project. Also included are reviews and panel discussions of current and future launch systems, advantages and disadvantages of various orbits and sites in space for astronomical observatories, and major unsolved problems of astronomy. A number of contributed papers were also given at the meeting and are included in the current proceedings. This volume contains an Olympian view of the space astronomy program, while serving as a handy reference to researchers who often have difficulties in keeping up with the development in the multidisciplinary field of space astronomy.

Proceedings of the 123rd Colloquium of the International Astronomical Union, held in Greenbelt, Maryland, April 24-27, 1990