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 ; Tue, 3 Apr 90 02:34:20 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Tue, 3 Apr 90 02:33:55 -0400 (EDT) Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #210 SPACE Digest Volume 11 : Issue 210 Today's Topics: Space Pioneer Gerry Bull Murdered * SpaceNews 02-Apr-90 * Re: Shuttle landings Re: Fun Space Fact #1: Launcher Development Costs Gif pictures CALL FOR DISCUSSION -- talk.education Hubble Window ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 31 Mar 90 19:22:44 GMT From: snorkelwacker!usc!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!kcarroll@bloom-beacon.mit.edu (Kieran A. Carroll) Subject: Space Pioneer Gerry Bull Murdered Southam News reported today (p. A13 of the 31/3/90 Toronto Star) that Canadian Gerald Bull was murdered last week. Bull, who has been involved in international arms dealing in recent years, was shot dead in his Brussels apartment. "The killing -- two bullets to the neck from a silenced 7.65 millimetre pistol -- appears to have been the work of a professional." The Toronto Star story suggests that the intelligence services of both Isreal and Iran might have had a motive for the killing, as Bull was involved in a venture that could have developed sufficient weapons technology in Iraq to allow that country to "achieve strategic superiority in the Middle East." Gerald Bull was an engineering professor at Montreal's McGill University in the 1960's (prior to that, I believe that he was a student at the University of Toronto's Institute for Aerospace Studies, in whose library a number of his technical papers are lodged). While there, he began a series of rocketry experiments involving the use of large military cannons to act as a "first stage" booster. In these experiments, small (about 100 kg) rockets were launched from old Navy guns; the rockets fired their own motors after leaving the gun barrel. The gun-launch allowed these small rockets to reach altitudes much higher than they could have achieved on their own. Bull suggested that this method could be used to reduce the cost of some satellite launches, as -- unlike the expendable first stages of "standard" satellite-launching rockets -- the gun hardware could easily be re-used, and the rockets being launched were relatively inexpensive, being small. As Bull's experiments proceeded, he transferred them to the Carribean (while at McGill, his rocket launches took place in the Gaspe Peninsula, directed southwards -- Americans to the south were understandably nervous about large guns being fired in their direction!). With funding from the US Navy, his Project HARP (High Altitude Research Project) saw many high- altitude launches take place. However, he never realized his ambition of gun-launching a satellite into orbit, mainly because the guns he used couldn't provide enough of a velocity increment to his rockets. Typically, a muzzle velocity of 1 to 2 kilometres per second was achieved in the launches; orbial velocity, on the other hand, is in excess of 7 kilometres per second. After Project HARP was wound down, Bull appears to have taken his gun- design experience "on the road", designing an advanced 155 millimetre howitzer for South Africa. Last year, his design team offered a 50-km range, 203-millimetre field gun for sale at a military trade fair in Baghdad. Christopher Foss, editor of the magazine Jane's Defence Weekly, described Bull as "perhaps the greatest gun designer of the century." Bull's arms- dealing had landed him in trouble in the past -- the US government sentenced him to a term in prison for selling some of his surplus Project Harp equipment (radars, I believe) to South Africa. Bull appears to have kept working on his idea of gun-launching satellites into orbit right until his death; a London-based magazine, "The Middle East", reported in its March edition that Iraq had developed an interest in "firing satellittes or weapons into low earth orbit." I can't help but feel that Bull was not an arms dealer entirely by choice. I can easily imagine him as a space enthusiast with a vision for a revolutionary technology, one that could greatly benefit the development of space (by bringing about lowered launch costs), who turned to arms trading as a means of bringing in money to keep his research going. Perhaps if Canada and the United States had not given up on developing new space launch technologies in the late 1960's, Gerry Bull would be alive today (or perhaps not...) On a final note, Bull's early research may eventually bear fruit. A later generation of space enthusiasts has continued development of the satellite gun-launching concept, using electromegnetic mass-drivers rather than chemical guns. Work by Henry Kolm of MIT, and the Space Studies Institute of Princeton, NJ into lunar mass-drivers in the late 1970's has led to a recent Sandia Labs proposal for a Hawaii-based mass- driver rocket-launcher, or "coil-gun". With a muzzle velocity of about 6 kilometres per second, such a device would overcome the main limitation of Bull's experimental apparatus. Coil-guns face severe problems in the design of their projectiles; many of those problems were addressed and solved by Bull in the 1960's during Project HARP. Whatever his activities as a arms dealer, Bull's most lasting legacy may yet be the work that he did as a rocket engineer. -- Kieran A. Carroll @ U of Toronto Aerospace Institute uunet!attcan!utzoo!kcarroll kcarroll@zoo.toronto.edu ------------------------------ Date: 31 Mar 90 02:50:16 GMT From: att!tsdiag!ka2qhd!kd2bd@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (John Magliacane) Subject: * SpaceNews 02-Apr-90 * Bulletin ID: SPC0402 ========= SpaceNews ========= MONDAY APRIL 2, 1990 SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, NJ, and is distributed weekly around the world on USENET and Amateur Packet Radio. It is available for UNLIMITED worldwide distribution. * DOVE NEWS * ============= Following the CPU crash on-board DO-17 which left the 2m transmitter ON, command stations were unable to access the satellite receiver due to blocking. On 170390, the AMSAT Engineering Team successfully reset the CPU on DO-17 and commanded the 2M transmitter off. Dave Blaschke (W5UN), the owner of the world's largest privately owned 2 meter antenna, worked with Harold Price (NK6K) to overcome the desense problem (DO-17's command receiver is also in the 2M band). Even with 32.5 dBi gain, and nearly 2 megawatts of EIRP, it took several days of transmitting the reset sequence before they were successful. Alberto Zagni (I2KBD) reported that the transmitter power was dropping significantly at the end of the eclipse portion of the orbit which indicated that the batteries were flattening out. Bob McGwier (N4HY) then strategized with W5UN as to the two best times to reset the spacecraft CPU and turn the transmitter off. The first was at the end of the eclipse period, when transmitter power would be at its lowest point. However, if it turned out that the battery voltage was too low to maintain the GASFET preamp in the receiver, then the next time to try was just as the transmitter power was falling off (soon after it left the sun and started the voltage descent in eclipse). The latter was the time which turned out to be successful. The AMSAT Team is reviewing the events of the last week to determine the failure mode. Once they have completed their investigation, they will upload the operating system for DO-17 and continue commissioning. DO-17 is not expected to be fully commissioned until sometime in April. [From: AMSAT via OSCAR-11] * UoSAT-OSCAR-14 NEWS * ======================= The gravity boom on UoSAT-3 was deployed successfully under on-board computer (OBC) control on Thursday morning (220390), following attitude control manoeuvres to 'lock' the spacecraft to the Earth's magnetic field. The attitude manoeuvres have been complicated by offsets experienced in the on- board magnetometer (which is used for attitude determination), requiring additional software filters to be included into the attitude control algorithms running on the OBC. Following deployment of the boom and its 3.5 kg tip-mass to about 6 metres from the top of the spacecraft, delibration algorithms have been activated on the OBC to point the spacecraft towards Earth. [From: G3YJO via OSCAR-11] * SHUTTLE NEWS * ================ The Hubble Space Telescope was installed in Discovery's payload bay last week after "midges" (mosquitoe-like insects) were removed from the Payload Changeout Room. * UoSAT-OSCAR-15 NEWS * ======================= The team at Stanford, having succeeded in detecting local oscillator (LO) leakage from the UO-15 command receiver, are now listening when the satellite is in eclipse - to determine whether the on-board NiCd battery is functioning. [From: G3YJO via OSCAR-11] * JOIN THE RANKS! * =================== Interested in learning more about the Amateur Radio Service? For information on licensing requirements and operating privileges, write: The American Radio Relay League 225 Main Street Newington, Connecticut 06111 U.S.A. * FEEDBACK WELCOMED * ===================== Feedback regarding SpaceNews can be directed to the editor (John) via any of the following paths: UUCP : ucbvax!rutgers!petsd!tsdiag!ka2qhd!kd2bd PACKET : KD2BD @ NN2Z.NJ.USA.NA MAIL : John A. Magliacane Department of Electronics Technology Brookdale Community College Newman Springs Road Lincroft, New Jersey 07738 U.S.A. -- AMPR : KD2BD @ NN2Z (Neptune, NJ) UUCP : ucbvax!rutgers!petsd!tsdiag!ka2qhd!kd2bd "For every problem, there is one solution which is simple, neat and wrong." -- H.L. Mencken ------------------------------ Date: 31 Mar 90 22:57:52 GMT From: snorkelwacker!usc!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!henry@bloom-beacon.mit.edu (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: Shuttle landings In article 27000@AECLCR.BITNET (SIMMONS DONALD F) writes: >Why exactly did the shuttle make only a few landings at its special runway >outside the Kennedy Space Center, and then they switched back to Edwards? >I remember hearing somewhere that its brakes had something to do with it. The shuttle's landing gear is now considered a somewhat marginal design, and there is work underway to improve it with better brakes, a better steering system, and a braking parachute. The significance of this is that Edwards has longer runways, and I believe the lakebed runway in particular is easier on landing gear. Another major factor is that weather forecasting at KSC is very difficult, with surprise thunderstorms common, while the weather at Edwards is generally better and much more predictable. Landing at KSC tightens up schedules, because moving the orbiters back from Edwards eats up a fair bit of time. Post-Challenger safety reviews decided that the extra safety of landings at Edwards outweighed the greater convenience of landings at KSC. -- Apollo @ 8yrs: one small step.| Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology Space station @ 8yrs: .| uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 2 Apr 90 13:41:21 CDT From: mccall@skvax1.csc.ti.com Subject: Re: Fun Space Fact #1: Launcher Development Costs > henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology) > Upgrade the Cessna to match the 747 specs (scaled down in size but > keeping the stringency), and you will find it gets a lot more complex > too. Much of that complexity is things like fussier standards and > greater demands in fairly size-independent ways. There are things > like hydraulic boost for controls that the Cessna doesn't need, but > we *are* talking about two orders of magnitude of size difference in > this example. Much, but not all. I would say not even most. All that you say is quite true, Henry, but does it really have a bearing on the point of the discussion? The fact that what you say is true doesn't seem to me to be a reasonable rebuttal of what I said, although the presentation makes it sound as if it is meant to be. ============================================================================== | Fred McCall (mccall@skvax1.ti.com) | My boss doesn't agree with anything | | Military Computer Systems | I say, so I don't think the company | | Defense Systems & Electronics Group | does, either. That must mean I'm | | Texas Instruments, Inc. | stuck with any opinions stated here. | ============================================================================== ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 2 Apr 90 17:03 GMT From: "Joe Desbonnet, UCG Ireland." Subject: Gif pictures Could anyone point me to a source where I can get some impressive space pictures preferably in Gif format? I recently saw a posting about some pictures stored somewhere in Finland but I unfortunatly I can only access US servers. As a Bitnet user I must use BITFTP@PUCC.bitnet which does not support Finish nodes. BTW are there other Bitnet FTP connections out there?). Thanks in advance for any help, Joe. +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Joe Desbonnet, | Bitnet/EARN/HEANET PHYDESBONNET@VAX1.UCG.IE | | Computer Society, | ARPANET phydesbonnet%vax1.ucg.ie | | University College | PSI PSI%+27246054000551::PHYDESBONNET | | Galway, Ireland | Disclaimer: "I no nathin'" Ph.+353-91-24411 ex 2775 | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ ------------------------------ Date: 29 Mar 90 18:16:48 GMT From: cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!bionet!turbo.bio.net!wam.umd.edu@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Ian James Hawthorn) Subject: CALL FOR DISCUSSION -- talk.education I would like to start a new group - talk.education - with the following mandate. - an unmoderated group devoted to a discussion of exactly what, if anything, is wrong with the education system, and how it might be fixed. It is actually surprising that there is not a group devoted to this topic already. Many members of the net are directly involved in the education system. Even those who are not, are very concerned about educational standards - especially in mathematics and the sciences. I am sure that many of you have intelligent and original perspectives on this problem, and on possible solutions - I would like to be able to read them. It seems to me that, with so many net members influential in education circles, a talk.education group might actually generate a little light along with the heat more usual for a talk.group . While there seems to be a broad consensus that something is seriously amiss in the education system, there is no consensus at all as to the direction that should be taken to find solutions. I think this is an issue where the kind of freeranging and innovative ideas that arise in a newsgroup discussion could prove to be very valuable. By providing a forum in which these ideas could be aired, and a consensus forged, the group talk.education could actually prove to be an immensely useful undertaking. At present there is no single group which carries a discussion of this nature. I have seen sporadic articles scattered amongst the various talk.politics groups, however it is hard to extract the signal from the noise (as it were). The group sci.edu seems to be barely alive, and certainly does not carry any discussion of this kind. I suspect that the `sci' prefix leads to a perception that the group is for `education specialists', something that very few people consider themselves to be. Discussion on this proposal will last for two weeks, after which there will be a call for votes. Note that Follow-up to this proposal will be directed to news.groups . Ian Hawthorn hawthorn@wam.umd.edu ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 2 Apr 90 16:37 CST From: GOTT@wishep.physics.wisc.edu Subject: Hubble Window I read somewhere that the launch of the HST had been moved UP two days? Whyfor? Does anyone know how big the launch window is? When it opens etc? I know some people who want to catch the launch and they think I have a private pipeline to the NASA management :) George K. Ott University of Wisconsin High Energy Physics Department ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V11 #210 *******************