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Date: Wed, 23 May 90 02:28:59 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #443

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 11 : Issue 443

Today's Topics:
		Re: Venus and Mars and Asteroids O MY!
			   Re: wooden ships
		   MIR problems, another question.
	      Name That Neutrino (was Re: Naming Stars)
		       Re: Cape York Space Port
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 22 May 90 15:17:18 GMT
From: usc!samsung!rex!rouge!dlbres10@ucsd.edu  (Fraering Philip)
Subject: Re: Venus and Mars and Asteroids O MY!

But as has been pointed out here and on the space-tech list, fuel costs are
a _very_ small fraction of the spacecraft launch costs.

Philip Fraering
dlbres10@pc.usl.edu

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Date: 22 May 90 13:14:41 GMT
From: usc!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!watserv1!maytag!watdragon!watyew!jdnicoll@ucsd.edu  (Brian or James)
Subject: Re: wooden ships

In article <1990May22.041549.6888@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
>In article <1990May21.155840.6288@cs.wayne.edu> pbh@pandora.cs.wayne.edu (Patrick B. Haggood) writes:
>>Besides, Magellan didn;t have to throw his boat away after the trip (yeah, 
>>I know he died, I'm trying to make a point!) :-)
>
>It wasn't uncommon for wooden ships to last only one major voyage, or for
>that matter for an expedition to come back with fewer ships than it started
>with, because of things like shipworm.

	And, of course, a prime example of ship attrition was Christopher
Columbus' abortive trip to Asia. He didn't just use up his ships; he was
a pioneer in the field of expendible crewmember usage ['I have invented
a new form of ablative armour. I call it 'other people'']. At least the
modern voyages of exploration are by people who believe in adapting to
their environment. The British, for example, took a very long time to
realise that clothing that was proper for England was not suited for use
in the Arctic [Actually, I can say from experience that the clothes 
kids wore in England 1961 to 1964 is not really suited to *English*  
weather, either]. Gross managerial incompetence is not an invention of
NASA's. I don't even think they're in the running for the top ten in
the 'Most poorly run program of exploration' contest.
							JDN

------------------------------

Date: 22 May 90 21:57:26 GMT
From: usc!samsung!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!dali!milton!maven!games@ucsd.edu
Subject: MIR problems, another question.

I must be missing something in regards to the MIR crisis.
Did not the russians send up a SPACE BYCICLE recently?  with some
kind of tether for testing it?

Why do they need a ladder when they can just hop on the bike and fly
to where the repairs are needed?  What gives...

					John Stevens-Schlick

------------------------------

Date:     Tue, 22 May 90 06:40 CST
From: Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey <HIGGINS%FNAL.BITNET@UICVM.uic.edu>
Subject:  Name That Neutrino (was Re: Naming Stars)
Original_To:  SPACE,BERMAN,NAGY,DEVL::LONGO,DEVL::TJOHNSON


A flood of replies greeted Jason Edward Floyd's [jfloyd@cscwam.umd.edu]
reasonable question in Space Digest:

>    I have heard that it is possible to name a star or galaxy. Is this
>true? If so how does one go about doing it?

In a very informative followup, Michael P. Collin  [mikec@phx.mcd.mot.com]
explained:

>  There is at least one organization, the International Star Registry, which
>will, for a fee, provide anyone with a very authentic looking certificate
>assigning your name to a designated star... If you question them carefully, or
>check the small print in their agreement, you'll learn that their registry of
>star names is not referenced by anyone in the world's astronomical community.
>In other words, for their price, you get a fancy piece of paper.  Nothing more.

This reminded me of a scheme I've been brooding over for some time.  The flaw
in the ISR scam is that the stars involved *already have names*, and have been
the objects of study by astronomers for many years.  Hence nobody will pay any
attention to the names ISR gives to stars.

Now, here at Fermilab, we have a facility which can manufacture elementary
particles and point them in certain directions.

In particular, we have one of the few neutrino-production facilities in the
world.  We could offer to produce a NEW neutrino, one WHICH HAS NEVER EXISTED
BEFORE, give it a name you suggest, and CATAPULT IT OFF INTO THE DISTANT
COSMOS at the SPEED OF LIGHT!  This is an object that HAS NEVER BEFORE HAD A
NAME! All for a modest fee.

Think of it. Your neutrino, a living remembrance of you or your sweetie,
speeding through the void indefinitely.  Stars BURN OUT and DIE... but your
neutrino is GUARANTEED TO LAST AS LONG AS THE UNIVERSE-- or your money back!
[See Technical Note below.]

Along with the certificate proving that your neutrino has been manufactured,
named, and launched, we can tell you its destination: coordinates on the sky,
and perhaps the nearest known object to that location. We need a program that
figures out the right ascension and declination of the Neutrino beam line as
the Earth turns (if anybody cares, it's 22 degrees east of North, at Batavia,
Illinois, 41 51 13 N, 88 18 41 W, and tangent to the ground, 745 feet above sea
level).  Couple this with a database of astronomical catalogue objects, and the
program can print out a message like:

  Your neutrino, NAME_HERE, will pass within DISTANCE light-years of
  the GALAXY_OR_QUASAR known as OBSCURE_CATALOGUE_DESIGNATION in the year
  DISTANT_FUTURE_YEAR.

I think this idea is much neater than getting a crummy old star named after
you.  Definitely worth millions.

The catch is that all the necessary equipment belongs to the U.S. federal
government.  I've never asked them whether my Intergalactic Neutrino Registry
business could use it, or what it would cost.  I fear they'd put too much red
tape in my way. It might be a good way for the Department of Energy to raise
supplemental funding, too.  After all, they rent out Fermilab's cornfields to
farmers.  But are they farsighted enough to see the brilliance of my proposal?

[Technical Note: There is a finite chance the neutrino will get absorbed by
intergalactic matter, but it's rather small, and our business can well afford
paying such refunds.  If the universe is closed, all our neutrinos will be
absorbed just a few minutes (how long?? good physics exam exercise) before the
Big Crunch. But I'm willing to bet that most customers won't bother to collect
on our claim in the final minutes of the universe-- they'll probably be busy
with other matters.  If the universe is open or flat, we have no worries.

One other danger: It's conceivable that neutrinos might someday be discovered
to decay or oscillate into some other kind of particle.  But in the fine print,
we can put language that'll void the gurantee if that happens.]


                      ______meson   Bill Higgins
                   _-~
     ____________-~______neutrino   Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
   -   -         ~-_
 /       \          ~----- proton   Bitnet: HIGGINS@FNALB.BITNET
 |       |
 \       /                          SPAN/Hepnet/Physnet: 43011::HIGGINS
   -   -
     ~                              Internet: HIGGINS@FNALB.FNAL.GOV

------------------------------

Date: 22 May 90 16:18:03 GMT
From: usc!samsung!rex!rouge!dlbres10@ucsd.edu  (Fraering Philip)
Subject: Re: Cape York Space Port

Sonetimes I wonder where we'd be in space if the major launch contractors
has spent as much of their own money on launcher R & D as they have on
lobbying for a favorable political enviornment (i.e. guaranteed contracts,
closed markets) for their converted ICBM launchers.

Phil
dlbres10@pc.usl.edu

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End of SPACE Digest V11 #443
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