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/usr11/tm2b/space/space.dl@andrew.cmu.edu (->+dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr11/tm2b/space/space.dl) (->ota+space.digests) ID ; Wed, 14 Mar 90 02:05:18 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <0ZzSoJC00VcJ826E5k@andrew.cmu.edu> Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Wed, 14 Mar 90 02:04:53 -0500 (EST) Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #144 SPACE Digest Volume 11 : Issue 144 Today's Topics: Re: Space Probe Communications Re: Artificial Gravity Re: Solar System Questions from a Novice Re: Sci. Am. Lunar Telescope Article Re: Artificial Gravity Treasure Hunt for capsules Re: Artificial Gravity rephrased Re: United Space Federation (International organization) Re: SR-71 Record Flight Information Subscription to AW&ST in UK ? Re: SR-71: LA to DC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 12 Mar 90 17:34:58 GMT From: cs.utexas.edu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!ists!yunexus!utzoo!henry@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: Space Probe Communications In article CHR%UTRC@UTRCGW.UTC.COM (Chuck Rothauser) writes: >The bit error probability was given as 1/10000....... is this reasonable? >Seems to me that there is a lot of 'noise' out there, resulting in many >requests for retransmission of data frames. Perhaps higher power trans- >mitterrs, lower temperature receivers, and larger antennas overcome the >requirement to retransmit many data frames? Mostly, error-correcting codes are used. When propagation delays are measured in minutes or hours, you do *not* want to have to retransmit messed-up packets much. One in 10000 is probably reasonable as raw error rate, given Earthside facilities along the lines of DSN (good receivers, powerful transmitters, *big* antennas), but you'll definitely want to use a good error-correcting code on top of that to largely eliminate retransmissions. -- MSDOS, abbrev: Maybe SomeDay | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology an Operating System. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu ------------------------------ Date: 12 Mar 90 21:59:19 GMT From: bfmny0!tneff@uunet.uu.net (Tom Neff) Subject: Re: Artificial Gravity In article <561@fsu.scri.fsu.edu> pepke@gw.scri.fsu.edu (Eric Pepke) writes: >Another thing is that, while the cylinder is spinning, you wouldn't be >able to change the direction of the ship, so you would have to stop it for >direction changes. This turns out not to be true. Gyroscopic effects only occur when the delta-vee is out of the plane of rotation! So long as course corrections are in-plane, you can handle it with coordinated thrusters. So how do you change the plane of rotation? Flywheels. -- Annex Canada now! We need the room, \) Tom Neff and who's going to stop us. (\ tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET ------------------------------ Date: 12 Mar 90 13:25:46 GMT From: uhccux!munnari.oz.au!cluster!jaa@ames.arc.nasa.gov (James Ashton) Subject: Re: Solar System Questions from a Novice In article <7569@hacgate.scg.hac.com> lori@hacgate.scg.hac.com (Lori + 8/9) writes: >Can someone answer a few questions about Mercury? Its temperature is >hundreds of degrees F on the sunny side, and (fewer) hundreds of degrees F >below zero on the dark side. The poster also says that it 88 days to >rotate. What would Mercury's climate be like if it rotated as fast >as the earth? How fast would it have to rotate to produce a moderate >or life-supporting climate, at least at certain latitudes (longitudes?)? The reason for the extreme differences in this case is that the 88 day rotational period exactly matchs the 88 day orbital period. Mercury keeps one face to the Sun all the time just as the Moon keeps one face to the Earth permanently. This is not as unusual as it might seem as gravitational forces acting between orbiting bodies tend to slow down rotation until the length of the `day' matches the length of the `year' for one or both objects. Almost any rotation period for Mercury other than 88 days - be it longer or shorter - would bring the nearside and farside temperatures much closer to each other. James Ashton ------------------------------ Date: 13 Mar 90 01:34:35 GMT From: stan!marvin!tonyj@uunet.uu.net (Tony Jackson) Subject: Re: Sci. Am. Lunar Telescope Article >The interesting thing about the article was the artwork. A nice >array of telescopes deployed without disturbing the lunar soil. >The litle moon buggy they show *is* leaving tracks, so either >the 'scopes were placed from above (an unseen boom attachment >for the buggy?) or the people doing the initial placement were >nice enough to return the site to its original boot-print and >tire-trackless condition. > James Nicoll >PS: Smilies for those that need them, of course. If you look at the shadows, there also seems to be a rather dense atmosphere present, judging by the amount of diffusuion. Also, the location of the sun is, to say the least a little odd. (Compare the shadow angles with the location of the terminator on the Earth in the background, for example) Tony Jackson ------------------------------ Date: 12 Mar 90 20:11:56 GMT From: mephisto!prism!fsu!gw.scri.fsu.edu!pepke@rutgers.edu (Eric Pepke) Subject: Re: Artificial Gravity Another thing is that, while the cylinder is spinning, you wouldn't be able to change the direction of the ship, so you would have to stop it for direction changes. Sure, you could probably keep the cylinder spinning, but you wouldn't want to have to have the extra bulk of the structure needed to keep the ship from snapping under that much torque. If the cylinder's moment is small compared to the moment of the rest of the ship, you should be able to recover most of that energy, but it probably won't be. Here's another idea, which I saw first in a Piers Anthony book. When the ship is under acceleration, you've already got artificial gravity. When it isn't, tumble it end over end. Gravity in the aft part is in the same direction as when accelerating. In the fore part, walk on what used to be the ceiling. (BTW, please don't infer from this that I am a Piers Anthony fan.) Eric Pepke INTERNET:pepke@gw.scri.fsu.edu Supercomputer Computations Research Institute MFENET: pepke@fsu Florida State University SPAN: scri::pepke Tallahassee, FL 32306-4052 BITNET: pepke@fsu Disclaimer: My employers seldom even LISTEN to my opinions. Meta-disclaimer: Any society that needs disclaimers has too many lawyers. ------------------------------ Date: 12 Mar 90 16:54:10 GMT From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!aero!smith@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Thomas F. Smith) Subject: Treasure Hunt for capsules HELP! I'm looking for the Reentry Capsules left over from the Discover Satellite (program WS-177 or WS-117). It started in January 1958 with a letter contract with Lockheed [AF04(647)-181]. McDonnell Douglas got in on it somewhere. And GE made some smaller Biomedical capsules for monkey flight tests. It's the program where the film capsules were captured in mid air over the Pacific Ocean by a special aircraft with a V shaped rig on the front. The program split into Discover, SAMOS and MIDOS later Any info could help. A Federal Stock Number would be the most help since it could be checked on the big Logistics computer (somewhere? in Utah?). Aparently hundreds were made and at least a hundred were left over and could be used for small satellite launches. -- This space reserved. Space Not Reserved. Space Commercialization Office, Space Systems Division, Los Angeles AFB, CA. Newsgroups: sci.space Subject: Treasure Hunt for RVs Expires: References: Sender: Reply-To: smith@aero.UUCP (Thomas F. Smith) Followup-To: Distribution: usa Organization: The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA Keywords: DISCOVER, SAMOS and MIDOS programs. HELP! I'm looking for the Reentry Capsules left over from the Discover Satellite (program WS-177 or WS-117). It started in January 1958 with a letter contract with Lockheed [AF04(647)-181]. McDonnell Douglas got in on it somewhere. And GE made some smaller Biomedical capsules for monkey flight tests. It's the program where the film capsules were captured in mid air over the Pacific Ocean by a special aircraft with a V shaped rig on the front. The program split into Discover, SAMOS and MIDOS later Any info could help. A Federal Stock Number would be the most help since it could be checked on the big Logistics computer (somewhere? in Utah?). Aparently hundreds were made and at least a hundred were left over and could be used for small satellite launches. -- This space reserved. Space Not Reserved. Space Commercialization Office, Space Systems Division, Los Angeles AFB, CA. ------------------------------ Date: 12 Mar 90 21:08:11 GMT From: cs.utexas.edu!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!prls!philabs!briar.philips.com!rfc@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Robert Casey) Subject: Re: Artificial Gravity rephrased If I was in that spaceship that was in _2001_, in the spinning section, seems that I could throw a baseball in such a way as to cancel the spin speed. Then the baseball would seem to take a circular path thru the spinning section at the height from the floor where I threw it. Then I better duck at one rotation! :-) Seen from outside the spinning section of the ship, the baseball would be staying put in one spot. So, the artifical gravity wouldn't grab the ball. Make sense? ------------------------------ Date: 13 Mar 90 04:03:42 GMT From: lazlow!pezely@louie.udel.edu (102SMI) Subject: Re: United Space Federation (International organization) Hasn't anyone read this yet? There's no discussion! So, the article was a bit long... It sounds like this guy is actually going to do *something* which is more than many organizations can say. In article <13497@nigel.udel.EDU>: > > WHAT IS THE UNITED SPACE FEDERATION > >The United Space Federation (USF) is a non-military. non-govermental, >non-profit international organization which promotes, pursues, and >undertakes civil space projects and missions for industry, commerce, and >science. [ ... ] >Important Update: > > The United Space Federation is now in the process of being accepted >in non-goverment organization (NGO) status with the United Nations. Also, >at present papers are pending with the Department of State, State of New >York, for official non-profit status. Presently the organization is >establishing volunteer officer detachments at universities and colleges >around the world. If you are interested in obtaining more information or >have further questions about the United Space Federation then send SASE to: > > Rick R. Dobson > Founder and First Director > United Space Federation > POB 4722 > Ithaca, NY 14852 I posted a few months ago about an organization which I thought was necessary, but unfortunately, other things had to have priority in my personal life so I was unable to put the time required until now. I'm going to offer my services and ideas, which consist of a liaizon and information service for the space industry, government, organizations, and individuals, to this organization so as to `get things off the ground' sooner. I heard about hits guy a while ago and heard that he was very serious and very dedicated. Considering what the second paragraph above says, it looks like he hasn't wasted any time and is accomplishing *something*. Sounds good. And Henry, it looks like he is putting in more than his one hour a week for space. :-) I'm not part of this organization yet, nor have I met Rick yet, but I'm planning on contacting him this week. Let's get some discussions going here so I can give him some feedback. (He has no net account yet; thus, he can't read it for himself.) -Daniel >============================================================================ > > It is my dream to see the United Space Federation realized within >my lifetime. So it is my hope that others will see the importance of this >quest for the stars and the many benfits it will have for humankind in the >future. > Thank you for your time and support, Godspeed, > Sincerely, > Rick R. Dobson > United Space Federation Like I said before: I'll make it to space, or I'll die trying!!! -- Daniel Pezely (NSFnet) 728 Bent Ln, Newark, DE 19711 Comp Sci Lab, 102 Smith Hall, U of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716; 302/451-6339 ------------------------------ Date: 13 Mar 90 13:02:32 GMT From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!crdgw1!ge-dab!puma!andrew.ATL.GE.COM!jnixon@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (John F Nixon) Subject: Re: SR-71 Record Flight Information lowerre@Apple.COM (Bruce Lowerre) writes: >The SR-71 was >developed to replace the U-2. The U-2 became obsolete when the Russians >developed a cannon ball that could be blasted high enough to shoot it down. >The SR-71 became obsolete when satellites were developed with telescopic >cameras good enough to photograph the license plate of a car. But satellites cannot provide the "unexpected" coverage of the SR-71! You Know where a satellite is, and where it will be, all the time. There aren't that many in orbit (on the US side, anyway :-). One never knows when a quick look could be vitally important. This issue has been argued before. I can't believe that *some aircraft* didn't replace the 71. Maybe something unmanned, smaller, with similar performance, but surely something... ---- jnixon@atl.ge.com ...steinmetz!atl.decnet!jnxion ------------------------------ Date: 12 Mar 90 12:29:56 GMT From: mcsun!ukc!axion!vision!simon@uunet.uu.net (Simon Taylor) Subject: Subscription to AW&ST in UK ? Does anyone know where one can get hold of Aviation Week in the UK ? Thanks Simon Simon Taylor VisionWare Ltd UUCP : simon@vision.uucp 57 Cardigan Lane BANGNET : ...!uunet!mcsun!ukc!vision!simon Leeds PHONE : +44 532 788858 Ext. 228 LS4 2LE FAX : +44 532 304676 England ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------- VisionWare: The Home Of DOS-UNIX-X Integration --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: 13 Mar 90 00:07:32 GMT From: manta!simpkins@nosc.mil (Michael A. Simpkins) Subject: Re: SR-71: LA to DC >>Smithsonian made the trip from Los Angeles to Washington DC >>in 68 min, 15 sec. The target time was 64 minutes. >Their flight path was such that they watched the sun rise and set 3 times (this >from an interview with the pilot). A truley awsome experience. > >-- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm afraid I don't understand how this could be if they were flying directly West to East. Were they on some kind of zig-zag course? COULD THEY ZIG-ZAG COAST TO COAST IN ONE HOUR! Boy what show-offs! :-) wow. somebody 'xplain please. ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V11 #144 *******************