Return-path: X-Andrew-Authenticated-as: 7997;andrew.cmu.edu;Ted Anderson Received: from corsica.andrew.cmu.edu via trymail for +dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr1/ota/space/space.dl@andrew.cmu.edu (->+dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr1/ota/space/space.dl) (->ota+space.digests) ID ; Tue, 5 Sep 89 00:18:10 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Tue, 5 Sep 89 00:18:01 -0400 (EDT) Subject: SPACE Digest V10 #20 SPACE Digest Volume 10 : Issue 20 Today's Topics: Voyager II Images Available Re: Where the hell are electric-ion thrusters???? 1964 AAAS survey on the space program Watch for those Old Articles (was Re: Impossible Space Goals) Neptune Orbiter Voyager Pics Re: BSB Satellite launch? JPL GURPS GAME--FINALLY. VOYAGER DATA GRAPHICS FORMAT REQUEST orbital debris Re: Galileo's RTG's. NASA Headline News for 08/29/89 (Forwarded) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 29 Aug 89 21:10:46 GMT From: mailrus!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!ctrsol!seth@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Seth Robertson) Subject: Voyager II Images Available sol.ctr.columbia.edu [128.59.64.40] will also be allowing anonymous ftp of Voyager Images (both in raster && pure bitmapped form) Look in /pub/neptune/* Note: The number of ftp sessions might well be limited, so if you get a connection refused, try later. Please try and restrict your ftps to non working hours (11-7 :-) EDT All restrictions applying to the other images apply here since they are one and the same! -- -Seth Robertson seth@ctr.columbia.edu ------------------------------ Date: 29 Aug 89 18:26:24 GMT From: vsi1!daver!lynx!neal@apple.com (Neal Woodall) Subject: Re: Where the hell are electric-ion thrusters???? In article <1989Aug29.124837.23692@cs.rochester.edu> dietz@cs.rochester.edu.UUCP (Paul Dietz) writes: >A reason to use mercury is its higher atomic mass. This answers one of the questions I posted just minutes ago. Thanx. >>50 lbs thrust is TOTAL B.S. for an (electrostatic) ion drive, >>certainly any one tested. >Perhaps he was thinking of a magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) engine. Please, some details!! Perhaps we can start a thread on "exotic" thrusters which would be good for the next generation of planetary probes. I am interested in any engine that allows continuous thrust for long periods of time, and will probably be of very high specific impulse. I have no info on the MPD engine you speak of...... Neal ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 Aug 89 15:46:47 PDT From: fermat!r@la.tis.com (Richard Schroeppel) Subject: 1964 AAAS survey on the space program In space-digest v10 #2, John (edstrom%UNCAEDU.bitnet@ugw.utcs.utoronto.ca) reprints a 1964 editorial from Science, reporting the results of a survey of the attitudes of the AAAS membership toward the space program. The results of this survey should be interpreted in the proper context. Some additional information: (1) The reason for joining AAAS is to receive the magazine Science. The main subject matter of the magazine is biological sciences, and I think the membership is mostly biological scientists. (The editor works hard to achieve more balance; every year he makes a plea for more non-bio submissions. They have had special issues on Jupiter, chemistry, and materials science. But the typical article is "Osteoclastic Bone Resorption by a Polarized Vacuolar Proton Pump".) Polling the AAAS membership is not the same as polling a cross-section of all American scientists. Presumably, physicists, chemists, astronomers, mathematicians, archeologists, and electrical engineers were underrepresented in the poll. (2) The mid 1960s were an era of easy money for the biological sciences: there was a period of exponential growth in federal funding, and people who were receiving more and better federal grants might be inclined to be generous toward other endeavors. The situation today is roughly level funding for bio-science, and more effort preparing longer, more complex grant applications that are more likely to be rejected. A $300M shuttle mission could instead fund perhaps 20,000 grad-student-years. We should not be surprised if the space program is unpopular with other contestants for federal research money. Rich Schroeppel rcs@la.tis.com ------------------------------ Date: 29 Aug 89 13:15:42 GMT From: bfmny0!tneff@uunet.uu.net (Tom Neff) Subject: Watch for those Old Articles (was Re: Impossible Space Goals) People, it is a fact that someone's disgusting broken machine is causing very old news articles to be regurgitated with different (but still old) dates. When you read a posting, CHECK THE DATE before following up. If it's about two weeks old, forget it. -- "We walked on the moon -- (( Tom Neff you be polite" )) tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 Aug 89 09:57:31 PDT From: greer%utd201.dnet%utadnx@utspan.span.nasa.gov X-Vmsmail-To: SPAN::AMES::"space+@andrew.cmu.edu" Subject: Neptune Orbiter In space research, a project usually will not be seriously proposed by someone who might not be around to reap its benefits. We shouldn't expect to see a Galileo type spacecraft sent to Neptune without quite an energetic propulsion system, since it would take about 30 years, so I've heard, to get there via Hohmann transfer orbit. How big would the propulsion system have to be to get such a probe to Neptune in five years if the whole system was launched from Earth orbit? ---- "Drive Friendly or Die" | Dale M. Greer Proposed Texas License Plate Motto | Center for Space Sciences -- Anonymous | University of Texas at Dallas | UTSPAN::UTADNX::UTDSSA::GREER The opinions are my own, and may or may not reflect those of my employer. ------------------------------ Date: 29 Aug 89 19:24:18 GMT From: tank!eecae!cps3xx!usenet@mimsy.umd.edu (Usenet file owner) Subject: Voyager Pics So, does anybody know when these fabulous pics of neptune will be available in sun workstation format, or in .GIF format? P.S. How about earlier pics of Jupiter/Saturn & moons? In the rare case that original ideas Kenneth J. Hendrickson N8DGN are found here, I am responsible. Owen W328, E. Lansing, MI 48825 Internet: hendrick@frith.egr.msu.edu UUCP: ...!frith!hendrick ------------------------------ Date: 28 Aug 89 21:11:58 GMT From: mcsun!ukc!icdoc!syma!nickw@uunet.uu.net (Nick Watkins) Subject: Re: BSB Satellite launch? In article <152@bmers58.UUCP> hwt@bmerh490.UUCP () writes: >So what kind of DBS is already in use [in the UK] ? (Direct Broadcast >Satellite). It is called Astra and was launched with Britain's first Skynet 4 military comsat on an Ariane. It carries Rupert Murdoch's Sky Channel. -- Nick Watkins, Space & Plasma Physics Group, School of Mathematical & Physical Sciences, Univ. of Sussex, Brighton, E.Sussex, BN1 9QH, ENGLAND JANET: nickw@syma.sussex.ac.uk BITNET: nickw%syma.sussex.ac.uk@uk.ac Voice: +44 273 678072 ------------------------------ Date: 28 Aug 89 19:42:39 GMT From: att!mtuxo!mtgzz!drutx!druhi!suelh@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Sue Hendrix) Subject: JPL GURPS GAME--FINALLY. I have finally mailed out the JPL GURPS game. If you requested it and don't get it soon, let me know. (I'd blame my mailer, but I think it's me--lots of things bounce.) Or, if you are new and interested, give me a buzz and I'll send it out to you. At 900 lines, I won't post. -- Sue Hendrix, net.goddess att!drutx!druhi!suelh "Grenades in the halls? I don't think I can get that authorized." ------------------------------ Date: 30 Aug 89 00:49:02 GMT From: adam@media-lab.media.mit.edu (Adam Glass) Subject: VOYAGER DATA GRAPHICS FORMAT REQUEST Could someone with all of the Voyager pics (that were originally on the Stanford machine in EPS format) kindly convert them to raw data (i.e., the bits, the whole bits, and nothing but...). I think that would be StartupScreen (SCRN) format on the Mac, and you've got me as to what it would be on other machines. I have successfully downloaded but unsuccessfully tried to view the EPSF and GIF pictures. However, if the pictures were in bit form, anyone with special needs could just make a program to convert the data to whatever format they wanted, as they'd have the original data. Well, maybe not NASA's data, but they'd have all the info, and it would be in a VERY straightforward format. N'est pas? Adam ...I think it's time to change my .sig. But once more for good luck... -- "He didn't fall? Inconceivable!" Internet email: adam@media-lab.media.mit.edu "You keep using that word... I do not think it means what you think it means." (All stolen quotes taken from The Princess Bride) Hmm... 18 spaces left. Moof! ------------------------------ Date: 29 Aug 89 10:23:05 GMT From: n8emr!uncle!oink!docwrk!srh@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Steven R. Houser) Subject: orbital debris I'm looking for a video tapes about orbital debris, for grades 6 to 8 and adults. My local library doesn't seem to have anything like this. Are there videos on this subject out there? Please reply by e-mail, since I'm not sure if I receive this newsgroup. Thanks in advance. Steve -- ========================================================================== Steven R. Houser The Document Workshop | "No man but a blockhead ever uunet!osu-cis!n8emr!uncle!oink!docwrk!srh | wrote except for money." CompuServe 71401,373 | Samuel Johnson ------------------------------ Date: 29 Aug 89 19:16:17 GMT From: ibmpa!szabonj@uunet.uu.net (nick szabo) Subject: Re: Galileo's RTG's. In article <5768@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> david@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (David E. Smyth) writes: >> >Unfortunately, just because something can be demonstrated to be promising >in a prototype effort, it takes real funding to get something workable. Agreed. In fact, it takes funding of many different projects, to come up with a few that will succeed. Most fail. The trick is to try as many avenues as possible, and don't spend too much on anything unless they are *clear* winners. >Real funding is wasted without a real plan of action. A solid plan will not >be realized until the leadership has the balls to commit the nation to >solid, long term goals and solid, long term funding. > This is where you are dead wrong. We cannot plan discovery. At best, we can say this search path looks a bit better than that one, etc. But if things fail we have to backtrack. Sticking to plans which have gone way wrong is the primary reason for U.S. failures in space. We fail to learn. We don't have 30 years of experience in space; we have 10 years repeated 3 times over. And we're shooting for #4. >I'm optimistic about the future of space >exploration and NASA's role. Otherwise, I would not be here. So am I. Despite the planners, people are still curious and turn over new stones and get things done. "Want oil? Drill lots of wells." J. Paul Getty Nick Szabo uunet!ibmsupt!szabonj These opinions are not related to Big Blue's ------------------------------ Date: 29 Aug 89 16:21:47 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: NASA Headline News for 08/29/89 (Forwarded) ----------------------------------------------------------------- NASA Headline News Tuesday, August 29, 1989 Audio:202-755-1788 ----------------------------------------------------------------- This is NASA Headline News for Tuesday, August 29.......... The Space Shuttle Atlantis was moved from the Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39-B this morning. The vehicle was secured at the pad by 10 A.M., and the rotating service structure is scheduled to be moved around the vehicle by 2 P.M. Atlantis is scheduled to be powered-up during second shift today and its payload bay doors opened tomorrow during first shift operations. Galileo, the primary STS-34 payload, is slated to be installed into Atlantis' payload bay tomorrow. Launch of STS-34 and the Jupiter-bound Galileo spacecraft remains targeted for October 12. Scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced yesterday that Neptune and its most interesting moon, Triton, have auroras similar to the northern lights which occur near the Earth's poles. The information was gathered last Friday during Voyager's closest encounter with Neptune, but it took scientists several days to understand the data. The auroras were detected by Voyager's ultraviolet detector and were recorded over almost all areas of Neptune and Triton. Two Cornell University astronomers announced that they have discovered a galaxy in the making. The giant hydrogen cloud was accidentally found by the pair last spring while they adjusted the giant optical telescope at an observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. The galaxy, which is said to be ten times larger than the Milky Way, contains no stars and is not visible by optical telescopes. Rather, the hydrogen cloud produces radio signals like those that would be emitted if a galaxy were there. Astronomers will not be able to verify the existence of the possible galaxy until next spring when it should again be detectable from Earth. * * * --------------------------------------------------------------- Here's the broadcast schedule for public affairs events on NASA Select TV. All times are Eastern......... --------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, August 29 Coverage of Voyager's encounter with Neptune concludes today with a 1 p.m. press conference from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. More televised images of the planet begin at noon, and all coverage should end by 3:30 p.m. Transponder 13 on Satcom F2R and transponder 21 on Aurora 1. All events and times are subject to change without notice. --------------------------------------------------------------- These reports are filed daily Monday through Friday at 12 noon, Eastern time. --------------------------------------------------------------- A service of the Internal Communications Branch, (LPC), NASA Headquarters. ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V10 #20 *******************