Return-path: X-Andrew-Authenticated-as: 7997;andrew.cmu.edu;Ted Anderson Received: from beak.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, 26 Sep 89 04:22:54 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Tue, 26 Sep 89 04:22:33 -0400 (EDT) Subject: SPACE Digest V10 #76 SPACE Digest Volume 10 : Issue 76 Today's Topics: Re: Saturn V & F-1 Re: Edgar Rice Quayle on Mars. Private spaceport proposal in Australia NSS Space Hotline Update Re: Face on Mars Re: Linguistic Tidbits Re: Edgar Rice Quayle on Mars. Re: Voyager status NSS Dial-A-Shuttle Release Re: Galileo Jovian atmospheric probe -- is it sterilized??? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 15 Sep 89 05:03:48 GMT From: bfmny0!tneff@uunet.uu.net (Tom Neff) Subject: Re: Saturn V & F-1 Hmm, it sounds like a cheaper compromise would be to debrief these Saturn veterans in full, for use later... -- 'We have luck only with women -- ((O Tom Neff not spacecraft!' \\\ tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET ------------------------------ Date: 15 Sep 89 05:45:04 GMT From: bungia!orbit!pnet51!schaper@UMN-CS.CS.UMN.EDU (S Schaper) Subject: Re: Edgar Rice Quayle on Mars. This was my recollection. I too, like a previous poster, don't always remember sources. I did get the impression from AWST that Quayle is actively pro-space, and these days, who's complaining? All he has to do is provide political support and let those in the know do the actuall planning. Not that he has a lot of pull in the House(!) Interesting thought, that last. I wondered why Kemp didn't get it. (well there are other reasons but not in this newsgroup). UUCP: {amdahl!bungia, uunet!rosevax, chinet, killer}!orbit!pnet51!schaper ARPA: crash!orbit!pnet51!schaper@nosc.mil INET: schaper@pnet51.cts.com ------------------------------ Date: 15 Sep 89 06:02:48 GMT From: uhccux!munnari.oz.au!murtoa.cs.mu.oz.au!ditmela!yarra!melba!baby!gnb@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Gregory N. Bond) Subject: Private spaceport proposal in Australia The following is excerpted without permission from the Financial Review, a national financial and business daily in Australia, a full-page article (pg 17, Friday 15th September 1989). Comments in [[ brackets ]] are mine. Cape York set to join space race -------------------------------- It was during the middle of the turbulent Whitlam years in 1974 [[ a time of great political upheaval and crisis in the national government ]] that the director of the European Space Agency, Mr. Roy Gibson, paid an unusual visit to Canberra. He had a unique proposition to put to the then Minister for Science, Mr. Bill Morrison. Would Australia be interested in joining the European Space Agency, the consortium made up of European governments together with the US and Canada? If so, the agency was keen to build a giant new space base on the Cape York Peninsula in Australia's far north to launch the growing number of military and communications satellites needed by these foreign governments. What eventuated is history. For reasons which remain unclear, Morrison quietly, and without publicity, turned down the offer. The suggestion didn't even find its way to cabinet. [[ Deleted - much further history of the project, and how Cape York is a suitable location. Comment on how the latest proposal is one of two private proposals, and is backed by a large property company (Essington) with strong Japanese connections. Some positive sounding comments from analysts - this is after all a business paper! ]] Plans so far advanced are for a privately run $AUS 350 million space center to be built at Temple Bay within the next two years, with rocket launches beginning from 1995. Mr. Williams [[ executive director of Essington ]] said this investment should allow a single launching pad, testing, control and computer facilities, a basic township [[ this is a *LONG* way from anywhere interesting - like a days drive...]], an industrial zone, administration offices and an airport to be built - all with private funding. These minimal developments will enable the Cape York Space Agency to offer users -- likely to be mainly telecommunication and media companies and some smaller governments -- a basic launch service. For a cost estimated at between $US 60 million and $US 100 million, satellites will arrive "pre-packaged" at the launching site, and there be installed in the ready-to-go Soviet Zenit unmanned rockets which the CYSA has contracted to use as its principle work-horses. [[ More comments about how Essington and the Japanese companies add respectability to the bid, despite Essington's somewhat shady past. Comment on the need for capital, and how Kumagai Gumi, Mitsubishi, Toshiba, NEC and other Japanese companies have expressed interest. Possible public listing. ]] Essington has also signed a deal with the giant United Technologies Corp, one of the 20 biggest companies in the US with an annual turnover of $US 20 billion. [[ Not Martin-Marietta as I have previously mentioned. ]] Subject to US government approval -- necessary owing to the close Soviet involvement in the project and the $US 4 billion worth of annual contracts UTC has with the US government -- UTC is likely to take responsibility for project management and operation of the base once it is completed. It is also likely to acquire a $US 25 million stake in the private operating company. Essington's deal with the Soviet Union's space agency, Glavcosmos, is more straightforward than either the Japanese or US arrangements. Put simply, the CYSA has secured exclusive rights to buy the Soviet Zenit rocket to use as the satellite launcher for Cape York. The rockets will be delivered in a finished form at an agreed, and undisclosed, price [[dammit!]] -- which should make it unlikely that the base "will be crawling with Ruskies", as one space expert delicately put it. [[ more deleted ]] -- Gregory Bond, Burdett Buckeridge & Young Ltd, Melbourne, Australia Internet: gnb@melba.bby.oz.au non-MX: gnb%melba.bby.oz@uunet.uu.net Uucp: {uunet,pyramid,ubc-cs,ukc,mcvax,prlb2,nttlab...}!munnari!melba.bby.oz!gnb ------------------------------ Date: 15 Sep 89 10:23:06 GMT From: cdp!jordankatz@labrea.stanford.edu Subject: NSS Space Hotline Update This is the National Space Society's Space Hotline updated Wednesday, September 13. The Senate Appropriations Committee subcommittee on Va, HUD and Independent Agencies marked-up the 1990 NASA appropriation on Tuesday. The subcommitte chairwomen, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, oversaw a session in which the committee set an overall spending mark of twelve billion, 339 million dollars for NASA overall spending (with an additional 217 million dollars to come from the Dod and Air Force for STS launches). The mark also appropriates one billion, 85 million dollars for the Space Station Program. The full Appropriations Committee was to take up the NASA funding bill today. Next would come a full Senate vote on the Va, HUD-IA appropriations bill, and then a conference committee meeting between House and Senate leaders to work out a compromise between the two. A compromise document would then have to pass muster of both chambers once again - all this without the dreaded floor amendments which are very likely. Also, if these actions don't progress quickly they are likey to run over the time limit for the passage of appropriations bills this session and the entire NASA bill, as well as others, will become a part of something called a continuing resolution which spells trouble. The subcommittee zeroed out the NASP program funding, something which is sure to raise eyebrows, and it funded the ACTS program, the Gravity Probe-B experiment and the TOMS satellite. NASA's 1990 new start, the CRAF/Cassini mission, won $20 million, which is $10 million less that the House's mark. Anti-nuclear demonstrators are gearing up for protests of the Galileo launch aboard the Atlantis. They were plannning to picket in Washington and in Florida this week. And a story in the Miami Herald says the risk of a plutonium leak from the space shuttle in the upcoming Galileo mission is greater than previously reported. Dr Thomas Rona, a White House science advisor is reportedly reviewing documents provided by NASA and a government interagency panel. At the Cape, technicians are preparing for the Countdown Demonstration Test which is scheduled for Thursday and Friday with the STS-34 five member crew and its Galileo spacecraft. The crew will arrive at the Cape on Tuesday evening for the test. The possibility of unusual free play movement in the space shuttle body flap during the STS-28 mission as indicated by photographic evidence has led to a tests of the structure on the orbiter Atlantis. The test indicated that the flap was well within specifications. Hypergolic fuel and hydrazine will be loaded into the orbiter this week indicating that technical milestones are moving along smoothly for an October 12 launch. This is David Brandt reporting for the NSS Space Hotline. This tape will be updated as information warrants. ------------------------------ Date: 11 Sep 89 16:32:34 GMT From: pikes!udenva!isis!csm9a!japplega@boulder.colorado.edu (Joe Applegate) Subject: Re: Face on Mars In article <755@hutto.UUCP>, henry@hutto.UUCP (Henry Melton) writes: > > What did the image look like when enhanced? Did it retain its > > "faceness"? > > > > Mary Kuhner > > mkkuhner@enzyme.berkeley.edu > > If you have ever seen any picture of the face, then what you saw _was_ > the enhanced version. In the raw version, it is practically invisible. I beg to differ.... The raw data was recently posted to the net and I took that data and loaded into my Landsat Image Processing System and other then the spikes the face was the only visible feature! No one has had any problem seeing the face... even in the raw, unstretched, unspiked, unrotated image! In fact I have been showing it off as an example of image enhancement... but everyone who has seen the raw images has been able to imediately see the face, even when they were not told what to expect! Of course, despiking, contrast stretching, and edge enhancement definately improve the image! But such processing is not necessary to see this feature! Now as to WHAT the feature is... your guess is as good as mine. I only wish I could get more of the surrounding image than 100X100 so I could get a feel for what type of gelologic phenomena are occuring in the region and any geomorphic clues that might explain the feature (which looks like an impact modified dune to me)! If the original poster would be so kind as to pull out about 1024X1024 of data around the same feature and post it or mail it, I would be happy to generate gifs of the raw, and variously processed images and post on some easy to access archive (Simtel20???)... - Joe Applegate - ======================STANDARD DISCLAIMER============================ All views and opinions are my own and do not represent the views or opinions of the Colorado School of Mines, whatever they might be. ===================================================================== ------------------------------ Date: 15 Sep 89 05:45:10 GMT From: bungia!orbit!pnet51!schaper@UMN-CS.CS.UMN.EDU (S Schaper) Subject: Re: Linguistic Tidbits Yeesh! I thought everybody knew that Venus was really the starship Vingelot piloted by Earendil the Mariner. Whatever DO they teach in these schools today? UUCP: {amdahl!bungia, uunet!rosevax, chinet, killer}!orbit!pnet51!schaper ARPA: crash!orbit!pnet51!schaper@nosc.mil INET: schaper@pnet51.cts.com ------------------------------ Date: 15 Sep 89 06:46:18 GMT From: bfmny0!tneff@uunet.uu.net (Tom Neff) Subject: Re: Edgar Rice Quayle on Mars. Lack though he may even a cereal-box comprehension of the Solar System, J. Danforth Quayle (a living model for Mark Alan Stamaty's Congressman Forehead if ever there was one) and his handlers know everything they need to know about space: that it is a political win/win guaranteed to show J. Danforth Quayle in a favorable light without actually having to accomplish anything, which as full fledged Dumb VP he would not be allowed to do anyway. Unlike drugs or education which have significant downside risk attached, as space cheerleader Dan can pose and make hopeful statements without having to back them up, since VPs don't submit budgets or appropriate money. Even the gaffes (and there will be plenty) don't hurt because the average citizen knows even less than Dan and would do even worse. Don't kid yourself, this has worked for JDQ for a number of years now. What our more trusting (and well meaning) readers here will realize in another couple of years is that it ain't being "pro space" (this always sounded to me like being "pro weather") that counts, or even your Astro 101 scores, but raw political muscle. LBJ was a "pro space" VP who probably didn't know a lot more than Dan Quayle does about what orbits what, but he was a hellatious people- and dollar-mover who knew an opportunity to build an empire when he saw one. Quayle is a flyweight looking for an open ended photo opportunity, and he'll get his wish too -- but you and I won't. -- 'We have luck only with women -- ((O Tom Neff not spacecraft!' \\\ tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET ------------------------------ Date: 15 Sep 89 05:45:07 GMT From: bungia!orbit!pnet51!schaper@UMN-CS.CS.UMN.EDU (S Schaper) Subject: Re: Voyager status Maybe that is what Dan Quayle was trying to do. Sorry, I was just being hopeful. UUCP: {amdahl!bungia, uunet!rosevax, chinet, killer}!orbit!pnet51!schaper ARPA: crash!orbit!pnet51!schaper@nosc.mil INET: schaper@pnet51.cts.com ------------------------------ Date: 15 Sep 89 10:23:09 GMT From: cdp!jordankatz@labrea.stanford.edu Subject: NSS Dial-A-Shuttle Release Eavesdrop on space shuttle Atlantis by calling the National Space Society's Dial-A-Shuttle (1-900-909-NASA) program as the astronauts deploy NASA's Galileo spacecraft during the STS-34 mission scheduled for launch on October 12. Callers to Dial-A-Shuttle will hear up-to-the-minute live reports, interviews and features about the STS-34 space shuttle mission and crew as well as live astronaut communication as it is available. The primary mission of the astronauts aboard the Atlantis will be to deploy a three-ton spacecraft called Galileo which will make a six year voyage to the planet Jupiter. Galileo's unique design includes both an orbiter and an atmospheric probe, enabling scientists to study for nearly two years Jupiter's atmosphere, its' moons and the surrounding magnetosphere. After leaving Atlantis' payload bay, the spacecraft will be boosted out of Earth orbit by a solid rocket. Galileo will first fly past Venus and then twice by the Earth, using gravity assists from the two planets to pick up enough speed to reach Jupiter, which is five times further from the Sun than Earth. The two extraordinary Earth encounters, which will occur in 1990 and 1992, will provide the first ever deep space look at our own planet. The commander of the STS-34 mission is U.S. Navy Capt. Donald E. Williams, the pilot is U.S. Navy Cmdr. Michael J. McCulley, and the mission specialists who will deploy the satellite as well as conduct other experiments are Dr. Shannon W. Lucid, biochemist, Dr. Franklin R. Chang-Diaz, physicist, and Ellen S. Baker, M.D. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California has prepared the Galileo spacecraft for NASA. The spacecraft and its mission are named for 17th-century Italian Renaissance scientist Galileo Galilei who discovered Jupiter's major moons with the first astronomical telescope. Dial-a-Shuttle is a special service offered by the National Space Society (NSS), a nonprofit, publicly-supported membership organization dedicated to the creation of a spacefaring civilization. The Society has more than 22,000 members and 120 chapters, conducts annual conferences, operates the Space Phone Tree and the NSS Computer Bulletin Board Service and publishes AD ASTRA magazine. The toll charge for this call is $2.00 for the first minute and 45 cents for each minute thereafter. For more information about the Society and their exciting programs, write: NSS, 922 Pennsylvania Ave., S.E., Washington, D.C. 20003-2140 or call (202) 543-1900. . ------------------------------ Date: 15 Sep 89 18:58:52 GMT From: ubc-cs!alberta!calgary!ctycal!ingoldsb@beaver.cs.washington.edu (Terry Ingoldsby) Subject: Re: Galileo Jovian atmospheric probe -- is it sterilized??? I'm baffled. We are losing many species of life each year (the number 2/day sticks in my mind) here on earth and there seems to be more commotion about Jovian life that may or may not exist, and certainly isn't as important to me even if it does exist. I realize that this is a *very* earth centered viewpoint (for which I will surely be flamed) but I live on this planet and I'm more concerned about protecting earth's environment than the (exceedingly) primitive life that *might* exist on Jupiter. If the space probes give us info that might be of use in predicting/protecting earth's environment then the possible demise of a few Jovian bugs does not upset me unduly. -- Terry Ingoldsby ctycal!ingoldsb@calgary.UUCP Land Information Systems or The City of Calgary ...{alberta,ubc-cs,utai}!calgary!ctycal!ingoldsb ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V10 #76 *******************