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, 24 Apr 90 01:34:50 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Tue, 24 Apr 90 01:34:11 -0400 (EDT) Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #307 SPACE Digest Volume 11 : Issue 307 Today's Topics: Galileo Update - 04/17/90 Other Big Bangs Our galaxy Galileo Update - 04/23/90 Re: Funding space travel with tourists and business travel? Re: Dyson spheres? SPACE Digest V11 #287 Re: Fermi paradox Re: Vandeburg Launch Schedules Re: NASA to brief media on Hubble Space Telescope instrument test Re: Dyson spheres? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 23 Apr 90 16:34:26 GMT From: sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov!baalke@ucsd.edu (Ron Baalke) Subject: Galileo Update - 04/17/90 GALILEO MISSION STATUS April 17, 1990 The Galileo spacecraft is 87,395,218 miles from Earth today traveling at 75,200 miles per hour relative to the sun. It takes a radio signal more than 15.5 minutes to make the trip to the spacecraft and back to Earth. Galileo has traveled more than 323 million miles since its launch from Earth toward Venus in October last year. It is on a trajectory back toward Earth for a gravity assist on its long journey to Jupiter. The spacecraft continues in excellent condition. The first four-day portion of a complicated trajectory correction maneuver was completed April 12, which reduced the spacecraft's velocity by about 55 miles per hour. The second part of the maneuver, expected to require two days, will be in mid-May. The maneuver recently completed and the upcoming maneuver in May make up the first of several maneuvers planned this year to shape the flight path for the flyby of Earth in December. Ron Baalke | baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov Jet Propulsion Lab M/S 301-355 | baalke@jems.jpl.nasa.gov 4800 Oak Grove Dr. | Pasadena, CA 91109 | ------------------------------ Date: 23 Apr 90 19:19:34 GMT From: sam.cs.cmu.edu!vac@pt.cs.cmu.edu (Vincent Cate) Subject: Other Big Bangs I predict that within 10 years we will have solid evidence of other big bangs. The space telescope may provide this evidence or it could come from other telescopes (space based or ground based, optical, radio, ... ). The evidence will reliably show that there are stars expanding from a few other points in similar numbers to what we see expanding away from the location of our big bang. This will invalidate all theories which claim "time started" or "the laws of physics were determined" at the time of our big bang. I predict that we will then conclude that black holes collect low grade energy and mater and concentrate it (violating our current "laws" of thermodynamics). They then release this concentrated energy/mater in a big bang after getting to some very large "critical mass". In other words, the only thing special about our big bang is that it is ours (just the same as we found out about our planet and our star). I think the theories about curved space will be dropped as it will become clear that space is "flat" and truly infinite - not of finite volume as some have hypothesized. A prediction for the record, -- Vince ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Apr 90 8:17:12 CDT From: Will Martin Subject: Our galaxy The radio program "Stardate" that was aired on Sunday, April 22, described our galaxy as a spiral like Andromeda. I had thought I had heard some recent news items reporting that new discoveries or interpretations have provided evidence that our galaxy is instead a barred spiral. Were there indeed such news reports, and were they accurate? If they were, was what they were reporting more speculation than definite findings? Or was this "Stardate" based on obsolete data? In a related topic, is there any "better" name for our galaxy than "the Milky Way"? Something that sounds more like a proper name and is more dignified? I would think there is some astronomic term, perhaps a designation like "number 1 in the local group" or the like? Or perhaps a Latinized name like we use "Terra" instead of "Earth"? [Since, actually, both of those words can be translated to "dirt", they really are not very dignified names for the home planet. I suppose every intelligent extraterrestrial species has a name for their home planet that means "dirt"... Is there *any* Earth language that has a name for the planet that is different from the word for "dirt" or "soil" or "ground"?] Regards, Will wmartin@st-louis-emh2.army.mil OR wmartin@stl-06sima.army.mil ------------------------------ Date: 23 Apr 90 20:33:32 GMT From: usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov!baalke@ucsd.edu (Ron Baalke) Subject: Galileo Update - 04/23/90 GALILEO MISSION STATUS REPORT April 23, 1990 The Galileo spacecraft is now 88,910,660 miles from the Earth, 16,274,760 miles from Venus and traveling at a heliocentric velocity of 73,980 miles per hour. Round trip light time is 15 minutes, 52 seconds. The spacecraft is in cruise dual spin mode with a spin rate of 3.15 rmp. The spacecraft attitude sun point angle is at 2.1 degrees and the telemetry rate is 40 bps Two SITURNS to lead the sun were successfully performed on April 16 and April 19. The spacecraft performance for these activities was as expected and without incident. Cruise Science Memory Readouts (MROs) were successfully completed for the Magnetometer (MAG), Dust Detector Subsystem (DDS), and Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) instruments on April 16, 17, and 20. The Venus-Earth (VE-3) sequence memory load was successfully transmitted and received without incident on April 20. The VE-3 sequence controls spacecraft activities from April 23 to June 11. Major activities include nine SITURNS, three RPM flushing events, fourteen cruise science MROs and four time windows for the Trajectory Course Maneuver (TCM-4B) planned between May 11 and May 14. Real Time transmission of a Delay Action Command (DAC) occurred on April 17 for spacecraft execution on April 19. The DAC was required to change the scan platform control mode from Scan Type 4 to 6, i.e., from celestial-based position control to encoder-based position control for the Scan Actuator Subassembly (SAS). This control mode change precludes unwanted SAS motions resulting from software commanded peak torques which are likely in Scan Mode 4 when the spacecraft is also in the inertial mode. Operation in inertial mode with scan Type 4 was planned as a part of the VE-2 sequence on April 19. The DC imbalance measurement fluctuated about 3.3 volts from about 17 volts to 20 volts. During this same period the AC imbalance measurement remained fairly stable changing just over 1 volt from 46.5 to 47.7. Some small time correlation between these measurements was observed; investigation into any spacecraft event correlation is in process. Deep Space Network (DSN) reports that the Mission Readiness Tests (MRT) at the 34 meter antenna in Spain (DSS-65) have been completed qualifying that station for Galileo support when X-band becomes available in April 1991. This completes the MRTs for the 34-meter High Efficiency (HEF) antennas at all sites. Ron Baalke | baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov Jet Propulsion Lab M/S 301-355 | baalke@jems.jpl.nasa.gov 4800 Oak Grove Dr. | Pasadena, CA 91109 | ------------------------------ Date: 23 Apr 90 03:51:35 GMT From: munnari.oz.au!ditmela!yarra!melba.bby.oz.au!gnb@uunet.uu.net (Gregory N. Bond) Subject: Re: Funding space travel with tourists and business travel? In article <133168@looking.on.ca> brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton) writes: [re: 1000KM long mass driver, for US->Far East commuting etc] Hell, it's 1000KM long already. Why not just build a bridge? -- 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: 24 Apr 90 00:52:33 GMT From: oliveb!tymix!hobbes!pnelson@apple.com (Phil Nelson) Subject: Re: Dyson spheres? In article <15404@bfmny0.UU.NET> tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET (Tom Neff) writes: >One Dyson sphere might radiate visible infrared, but build enough >concentric Dyson spheres and little waste might escape. Define enough. >-- >Perestroika: could \O\ Tom Neff > it happen here? \O\ uunet.uu.net!bfmny0!tneff Phil Nelson . uunet!pyramid!oliveb!tymix!hobbes!pnelson . Voice:408-922-7508 When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is prudent. -Proverbs 10:19 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Apr 90 07:50:15 CST From: Andy Edeburn To: Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #287 > > > Grissom was not just a Gemini astronaut, but one of the original seven > > > What? I thought Grissom flew in the first Gemini? What gives? He did. The Unsinkable Molly Brown. It was Gemini 3, I believe. The pilot was John Young. > Bob | Andy Edeburn {CC62@SDSUMUS} | "Is this a paycheck or is this | | University Computing Services | how you people insult someone | | South Dakota State University | in America?" -Anonymous | ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Apr 90 17:59:36 SET From: RZANDBER%ESOC.BITNET@vma.cc.cmu.edu Comment: CROSSNET mail via MAILER@CMUCCVMA Comment: File SPACE MESSAGE A Subject: Re: Fermi paradox Subject: Re: Fermi paradox In several postings the following possible solution to the Fermi paradox was given: we don't see any other civilization because we're in some sort of a reservation or otherwise fenced-off area. At first, my opinion on this was that it didn't seem very likely. If we take a look at the earth: what percentage of our planet is a reservation, or in any way protected? Sure, maybe this statistic cannot be applied to the super-space-aliens, who may be very wise beings, and have none of the human shortcomings. But then I reconsidered: because the fence is there, all around us, even though we cannot see it. I mean: what *is* stopping us from travelling to another galaxy, or in fact anything more than a few light years away? How unthinkable is it that the speed limit of roughly 173 AU/day was put there around us by highly-advanced beings, preventing us from going out, and, why not, others from making the jump in. :-) ?? Rene Zandbergen ------------------------------------------------------------------ Because these are just my opinions, and only mine, there is no purpose in telling whom I work for. ------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: 23 Apr 90 22:48:02 GMT From: manta!simpkins@nosc.mil (Michael A. Simpkins) Subject: Re: Vandeburg Launch Schedules In article <7540003@hp-lsd.COS.HP.COM> paulc@hp-lsd.COS.HP.COM (Paul Carroll) writes: > > I went to the launch of the Delta with the COBE satellite > back in December. Since I didn't know anyone on the base > and I wasn't a VIP, I was directed to the public viewing area, > which is by the weather station just to the north-east of the > main gate. Watching a Delta is quite the experience, what with > the strap-ons falling off during launch. However, an Atlas > launch would probably be even better. >++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ >++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ That is a pretty good place to watch as long as they are launching from North Vandenberg (Delta, Minuteman, Amroc, maybe the Atlas). The place we used to watch from, when I was a wee lad, is Surf Park located about 10 miles west of Lompoc. This is a state park that lies right on the border between north and south Vandenberg. Although not as good an elevation as the first sight, it is south east of the pad so the bird almost soars right overhead! Occasionally they will close the beach for certain launches, but more often than not that's where us locals went. This is also a very good place to watch the BIG BOYS go up from the south base (Titan, Shuttle.....IT COULD HAPPEN!) :-) They are much more likely to close this park during Titan launches I think because security is higher as a rule during these launches. The best place to watch events from the south base is at Jalama Beach State Park (about 10 miles south of Lompoc, that's lom-poke, on highway 1. Take the Jalama Beach turn off and about 15 miles of TIGHT road and you are there. you can camp too.). This beach is about 10 miles south- east of SLC-6 and the Titan pads so they practically fly overhead aiso. Note that this is a very mountainous area so it is practically impossible to see the vehicles on the pad from any of these areas. If you have a boat you could get a real good view, but I don't know what the Coast Guard would have to say about that. Also it is almost always overcast on this part of the coast with many days of fog thru the entire year (that's why I left). Hope this helps. -simpkins- ------------------------------ Date: 23 Apr 90 22:49:11 GMT From: swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!motpe!mikec@ucsd.edu (Michael Collins) Subject: Re: NASA to brief media on Hubble Space Telescope instrument test To head off the inevitable questions, according to the 1987 Observer's Handbook of the RASC (most recent edition at my desk), NGC 3532 is an open cluster at RA 11h 05.5m, Dec -58d 33m (1980). Apparent integrated photographic magnitude 3.4, diameter 55 arc-minutes, distance 1400 l.y., spectral class B8. The constellation in which this cluster is located is not listed, though, of course, it much too far south to be see from North America or Europe. -- MC -- -- Michael P. Collins | mikec@phx.mcd.mot.com Motorola Microcomputer Division | {noao|asuvax}!mcdphx!mikec 2900 S. Diablo Way | These are not Motorola's official Tempe, AZ 85282 (602) 438-3776 | views or policies. ------------------------------ Date: 23 Apr 90 19:55:52 GMT From: convex!ewright@uunet.uu.net (Edward V. Wright) Subject: Re: Dyson spheres? > Dyson suggested that at some point in > the advancement of some civilizations, they would develop the > ability to transform all of the matter of their solar system into > a very thin layered hollow sphere centered on their star. In > this way they could fully utilize the total stellar energy output > as well as the maximum surface area on the interior of the sphere. > Dyson recognized that an Earth-based observer would see a very > bright infared source with no visible component. > Actually, Dyson did not propose a solid shell, but a swarm of orbiting habitats and spacecraft, which would have the same appearance to an outside observer. The idea of a solid Dyson sphere, which would require unreasonably strong materials (by our current understanding of physics) was proposed by others later on. Larry Niven wrote a very good article on Dyson spheres, Ringworlds, Alderson disks, etc. that appeared in Analog. The article is still available in one of Niven's short story collections. (Sorry, I forget which one.) ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V11 #307 *******************