Return-path: X-Andrew-Authenticated-as: 7997;andrew.cmu.edu;Ted Anderson Received: from hogtown.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, 9 Apr 91 01:29:43 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: Precedence: junk Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Tue, 9 Apr 91 01:29:33 -0400 (EDT) Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #376 SPACE Digest Volume 13 : Issue 376 Today's Topics: Re: railguns,superguns Re: Fred on the Moon Re: Genesis Rock? Re: "Face" on Mars Ulysses Status for 04/05/91 (Forwarded) Re: Ariane Launch Re: Fred on the Moon Proceedings of PARSEC '91 (Solar Sailing) Re: Space Stations, Money, Startrek Administrivia: Submissions to the SPACE Digest/sci.space should be mailed to space+@andrew.cmu.edu. Other mail, esp. [un]subscription requests, should be sent to space-request+@andrew.cmu.edu, or, if urgent, to tm2b+@andrew.cmu.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 4 Apr 91 23:38:24 GMT From: eru!hagbard!sunic!mcsun!ukc!cam-cl!news@bloom-beacon.mit.edu (Kish Shen) Subject: Re: railguns,superguns >[I will admit to having watched this on "The 5th Estate" and then >feeling gypped when the "Frontline" version was indistinguishable from >what I had just seen, but for narration. I imagine it was the same >with the British version, as well.] Well, I have seen two British programs about the Supergun. One was shown on ITV (the commercial stations) and the other was as a BBC "Panorama" program. The ITV program was shown first, during the War, I think, and the BBC program was shown near or after the end of the fighting. However, apparently the BBC program was delayed from January to allow special programs about the War. These two programs were definitely different. I would guess that if the US version is the same as one of these, then it is probably the ITV version, which concentrated more on Bull whereas the BBC program was more about the gun (or rather guns). The reason I say that the ITV program is more likely to be the same as the US program is that the narrator was off-camera, whereas in the BBC program, the reporter was shown quite a lot. It is interesting to note that in the BBC program they interviewed one of the British scientist involved with the project, and he claimed that he thought at the time that the gun was going to be used for launching satellites (he doesn't think so anymore). Kish Shen Computer Lab. University of Cambridge UK ksh@cl.cam.ac.uk ------------------------------ Date: 9 Apr 91 00:43:19 GMT From: brody@eos.arc.nasa.gov (Adam R. Brody) Subject: Re: Fred on the Moon jpc@fct.unl.pt (Jose Pina Coelho) writes: >WORST REASON: >Emergency: 3 days to get some kind of assistance from earth. (Assuming >something as energetic as a saturn V is fueled and on launch pad) Antarctica in winter (hundreds winter over ea yr) as well as remote jungles and other places you could imagine are all further than 3 days from help. ------------------------------ Date: 8 Apr 91 10:09:08 GMT From: dog.ee.lbl.gov!hellgate.utah.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!spool.mu.edu!munnari.oz.au!uniwa!cc.curtin.edu.au!tgumleyle@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Liam Gumley) Subject: Re: Genesis Rock? In article <7470009@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM>, ddj@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (Doug Josephson) writes: > > From "To Rule the Night" (Irwin's autobiography with William Emerson): > > "...the University of New York at Stony Brook has age-dated it at 4.15 > billion years, plus or minus 0.25 billion years." > > It also mentions the oldest object found on Earth is 3.3 billion years > old. I am bound to mention that the oldest object found on Earth (as listed by the Guinness Book of Records) is (was?) a rock fragment discovered in outback Western Australia by geologists from this University. It was dated at (I think) over 4.4 billion years old. I don't have any information as to what method was used for the dating, or the accuracy claimed. However I have a sneaking suspicion that an older relic may have been discovered recently. Look at Guinness for details I guess.... Cheers, Liam. -- tgumleyle@cc.curtin.edu.au #Liam E. Gumley, Department of Applied Physics, Curtin University of Technology# #Perth, Western Australia. >>>Opinions expressed here are exclusively mine<<<# ------------------------------ Date: 8 Apr 91 21:47:10 GMT From: mips!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!jimcat@decwrl.dec.com (Jim Kasprzak) Subject: Re: "Face" on Mars In article <224@rins.ryukoku.ac.jp> will@rins.ryukoku.ac.jp (will) writes: > Ok, 4 years ago there was a show on JTV (of course), well, the show was >about Atlantis, life on Mars, etc, etc.. Now the Objective of the show was to >point out that the Japanese may have came to earth after they destroyed mars in >a nuclear war, and that is why the Japanese feel uncomfotable about Nuclear >Weapons, and are different from other forms of life on earth. > Are you sure this wasn't just science fiction? If it was presented seriously, it sounds to me like the Japanese equivalent of "Chariots Of The Gods", and I'd grant it about the same amount of credibility. -- Jim Kasprzak kasprzak@mts.rpi.edu (internet) RPI, Troy, NY userfe0u@rpitsmts.bitnet "A spirit with a vision is a dream with a mission." -Rush ------------------------------ Date: 8 Apr 91 22:38:50 GMT From: usenet@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: Ulysses Status for 04/05/91 (Forwarded) ULYSSES MISSION STATUS April 5, 1991 Routine mission operations and data collection continued to be the primary activities this week as the Ulysses spacecraft cruised through the ecliptic plane on its way to Jupiter. The spacecraft's science experiments collected significant amounts of data about 10 days ago during a major solar flare that caused a huge outpouring of electrons and protons from the sun. Ulysses is approaching the halfway mark on its journey to Jupiter. Nine days from now, on Sunday, April 14, the spacecraft will be 242 million miles from Earth and 242 million miles from Jupiter. Ulysses will reach the gaseous giant on Feb. 9, 1992. At nearest approach, the spacecraft will pass by Jupiter at a distance of approximately 6.3 Jupiter radii -- 450,481 kilometers or about 279,300 miles -- from the center of the planet. (By contrast, both Voyager and Galileo were designed to pass by Jupiter at much closer ranges. Voyager passed by the planet at about 1.86 Jupiter radii. The Galileo spacecraft will orbit Jupiter at an average distance of just over 3 Jupiter radii, or within about 133,000 miles of the planet's center.) The spacecraft remains in good condition. No recurrence of the wobble has been detected, or is expected, until Ulysses nears the sun's south pole in 1994. Today Ulysses is approximately 358 million kilometers (222 million miles) from Earth, traveling at a heliocentric velocity of approximately 86,400 kilometers per hour (53,770 miles per hour). ------------------------------ Date: 8 Apr 91 14:38:19 GMT From: elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!freedom!xanth!mcdowell@decwrl.dec.com (Jonathan McDowell) Subject: Re: Ariane Launch etssp@levels.sait.edu.au writes: >telecommunications and broadcast satellite. The Anik-E2 [I think this should >be Anik-E1] satellite was put into orbit 19 minutes after Ariane's lift-off. No, I think it is Anik E2. Anik E1 will be launched later in the year. Space agencies are notoriously messy about the order in which they launch their spacecraft (e.g STS-31,41,38,35,37...) - Jonathan McDowell ------------------------------ Date: 9 Apr 91 01:44:14 GMT From: elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!sdd.hp.com!spool.mu.edu!cs.umn.edu!sialis!rjg@lll-winken.llnl.gov (Robert J. Granvin) Subject: Re: Fred on the Moon In article <8018@eos.arc.nasa.gov> brody@eos.arc.nasa.gov (Adam R. Brody) writes: |jpc@fct.unl.pt (Jose Pina Coelho) writes: | |>WORST REASON: |>Emergency: 3 days to get some kind of assistance from earth. (Assuming |>something as energetic as a saturn V is fueled and on launch pad) | |Antarctica in winter (hundreds winter over ea yr) as well as remote |jungles and other places you could imagine are all further than 3 |days from help. Gah... Just try calling for a tow truck if your car stalls on the freeway. -- Robert J. Granvin \\\\\\\\ rjg@sialis.com : INTERNET University of Minnesota \\\ ...uunet!rosevax!sialis!rjg : UUCP School of Statistics \\\\\\\ rjg%sialis.com@uunet.uu.net : BITNET Cleared by Network Censors ------------------------------ Date: 7 Apr 91 20:38:09 GMT From: mcsun!ukc!edcastle!hwcs!sfleming@uunet.uu.net (Stewart T. Fleming) Subject: Proceedings of PARSEC '91 (Solar Sailing) Continuation of the report of proceedings for PARSEC '91. Stewart -- sfleming@cs.hw.ac.uk ...ukc!cs.hw.ac.uk!sfleming "But February made me shiver/With every paper I delivered" - Don Maclean on the rigours of attending winter seminars. --------------Continuation PARSEC : Pro-Amateur Rocketry & Spaceflight Conference. Queen Margaret College, Edinburgh, 6th April 1991. Afternoon Session 2.30pm Colin McInnes, "Solar Sailing" With a focus on the Columbus 500 Mars Race, this talk gave a description of a number of topics related to solar sailing and gave an account of state-of-the-art research and technology. A solar sail is a large sheet of reflective material which is driven through space by the pressure of sunlight. Two important basic designs are a simple, square sail and the heliogyro. The proposed race to Mars involves three groups : one each from the US, Europe and Asia. These were the three areas associated with the original Columbus voyage in 1492. The race would begin with an October 1992 Pegasus or Delta launch to a 2000 km circular orbit. Solar sails would then be deployed, performing a series of Earth orbits before a lunar-flyby for final escape for optimal Earth-Mars flight. The final stage of the mission would be a Mars fly-past with orbiter release and subsequent asteroid survey. Two specific groups involved in this race were discussed : o Johns Hopkins University, USA Two proposed designs : i) Sunflower - many individual elements plus elements used for control. 170 m diameter sail weighing 200 kg. Projected acceleration of 1 mm/s/s. ii) Parasol - attempts to solve packaging problems by providing an inflatable rim which is then filled with glue for rigidity. Control is via torque generated by shift of the centre of mass. The proposed science package includes slow-scan TV cameras. It is proposed to illuminate shaded regions of the asteroid belt with reflections from the sail. o Cambridge Consultants, UK Proposed sail is 270 m diameter, weighing 300kg and capable of 2 mm/s/s acceleration. The design has a unique method of packaging and deployment. The sail consists of a 2-micron film with carbon fibre ribs. It is carried in a payload bay as a 4m diameter x 4m cylinder, with the ribs wrapped around a central hub. At deployment, the outer casing is discarded and the sail unfurls into the "flying pizza" configuration. Navigation and control are nearly autonomous. Direction is via actuators on the ribs which deform the sail shape. This allows control without any moving parts. The group are currently seeking funding (approx 10 million pounds sterling) to cover final devlopment and launch costs. The sail would be constructed by MBB Aerospace, Germany. [Author's note: This goes some way to fulfilling Arthur C. Clarke's prophecy of the future of space development : British design, German engineering and American launch technology.] Also described was the solar sail Moon race, proposed by U3P, France. This would involve three groups : World Space Foundation, USA; U3P, France; and the Solar Sail Union of Japan. The race would begin from a 50,000 km circular orbit and finish at lunar orbit. Other applications for solar sails allow for exotic orbits by balancing the pressure of sunlight against gravity : o "levitating" orbits out of the ecliptic plane to study the polar regions of the Sun. o polar Earth orbit to : i) study geomagnetic field, ii) allow geosynchronous polar satellites, improving communications with high latitudes. o synchronous orbits outwith the crowded GEO belt. Using a solar sail allows satellites to be placed at distances of 100 Earth radii as opposed to 5 or 6 at present. Solar sails are shown to be viable spacecraft capable of flying exotic missions. A relatively small amount of funding is required for development costs and there is the potential for development into an advanced space system. [Colin McInnes is a research student in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Glasgow. He has published an article on solar sailing : "New Scientist", 5 January 1991, pp31, "On the crest of a sunbeam".] ------------------------------ Date: 8 Apr 91 19:48:49 GMT From: prism!ccoprmd@gatech.edu (Matthew DeLuca) Subject: Re: Space Stations, Money, Startrek In article <225@rins.ryukoku.ac.jp> will@rins.ryukoku.ac.jp (will) writes: > Asking the soviets for data, they have the experience, the Know-How that >NASA thinks it has, the I am sure, the data you require. > Why is it that Americans are afraid to ask for help? The U.S. and the Soviet Union have been exchanging data on the biological effects of extended zero-gee for some years now. I believe a new agreement was recently signed not too long ago, to exchange yet more information. Nobody is 'afraid' to ask for help. But you never learn anything if all you do is copy from your neighbor. -- Matthew DeLuca Georgia Institute of Technology "I'd hire the Dorsai, if I knew their Office of Information Technology P.O. box." - Zebadiah Carter, Internet: ccoprmd@prism.gatech.edu _The Number of the Beast_ ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V13 #376 *******************