Return-path: X-Andrew-Authenticated-as: 7997;andrew.cmu.edu;Ted Anderson Received: from holmes.andrew.cmu.edu via trymail for +dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr1/ota/space/space.dl@andrew.cmu.edu (->+dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr1/ota/space/space.dl) (->ota+space.digests) ID ; Wed, 5 Apr 89 04:16:52 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Wed, 5 Apr 89 03:16:42 -0500 (EST) Subject: SPACE Digest V9 #339 SPACE Digest Volume 9 : Issue 339 Today's Topics: NSS Hotline Update 3/31/89 Space News, Mar 29, 1989 More Success with Fusion Solid State Fusion for Launchers Re: SPACE Digest V9 #324 Olde Tyme Measurements (No wonder the world is eating our lunch) Re: Recovery of Salyut 7 Russian unmanned missions to Mars Re: cold fusion seminar ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 1 Apr 89 22:07:00 GMT From: arisia!cdp!jordankatz@lll-winken.llnl.gov Subject: NSS Hotline Update 3/31/89 This is the National Space Society's Space Hotline for the week ending March 31, 1989. Thursday the nations first privately owned spacecraft was launched by Space Services Inc. The Starfire 1-Model rocket carried the Consort-1 payload on a ride for a total of 15 minutes. The rocket climbed to an altitude of 198 miles above the earth, the payload of experiments experienced about 7 minutes of near zero gravity. Space Services executives were very satisfied with the launch and stated that this was the first of many. White House Spokesman Marlin Fitzwater called NASA associate administrator for space flight Rear Adm. Richard Truly, a leading candidate for the position of NASA administrator. The problem is that Rear Adm. Truly's active status in the Navy puts his appointment in conflict with section 202 of the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958. The section says NASA shall be headed by an Administrator who shall be appointed from civilian life by the President with the consent of the Senate. The White House could ask Truly to resign his commission; ask Congress for a waiver or other ways around the law. But Fitzwater was unclear in confirming whether a waiver was already asked for or not. Dr. James Fletcher the resigning NASA administrator confirmed in Washington DC last Wed. that he will head a $5 million dollar effort by the University of Utah to expand experimentation into Nuclear Fusion. Last week the chairman of the Chemistry Dept. and a British Professor at the University of Utah reported they had sustained nuclear fusion in glass flasks at room temperature for several hours. If this experiment can be verified than the potential for production of clean, safe, simple electric power is enormous. Some 200 private companies have expressed interest in the process already. Meanwhile at Kennedy Space Center... Atlantis's pad has been closed since Wed. so workers can load propellants into the solid rocket booster hydraulic power units, the auxiliary power units, the reaction control system, and orbital maneuvering system pods. The last of three new oxidizer turbo pumps arrived at KSC on thursday. The new pumps will be installed on Atlantis when the pad is reopened. The launch of Atlantis is still scheduled to take place April 28, 1989. 8 of the 32 chicken embryos taken aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery's last mission were dead on arrival. One of Discovery's crew suggested that the experiment might show that life cannot begin anew in that environment. The 8 embryos that died were part of 16 which were fertilized the day before liftoff, the other 16 were fertilized nine day prior to launch. April 1st is when the first batch of chicks are expected to hatch. During the last launch of Discovery NASA engineers used a High Definition Television system to record the event. HDTV with its 1,125 line video image makes it comparable to 35mm film. Normal television has a 330 line video image. The HDTV system will allow for quicker analysis of launch related curiosities, such as the tank insulation which broke loose and damaged the heat tiles of Atlantis last time it was launched. The system was comprised of three HDTV cameras from Sony, a Southern Bell fiber optic communication link which relayed the images to video monitors and VCR's from Sony. On Wed. Soviet Scientists reported that they had lost contact with their second unmanned Mars Moon probe Phobos-2. Although all is not lost stated some scientists, there is a slight chance of reestablishing communications with the craft. Technicians are determining whether it problem is a navigational error or a auxiliary transmitter has failed. Monday April 3, the USSR will brief NASA officials and Tue. April 4, will hold a press conference. The loss of the spacecraft concerns would be space partners with the Soviets, about the risk of putting to much faith in the Soviet Planetary program. The failure should reduce some of the pressure that's been building on the US to decide whether it wants to collaborate or go forward with its own aggressive Mars exploration strategy. The USSR has gone madison avenue? In its quest to be a constant record breaker the Soviet Union will be the first country to sell advertising in space. For a mire (ha, ha) $620,000 you get your corporate logo on: cosmonauts' space suits; Launch site billboards: Three minute commercial filmed by the cosmonauts; Two 6' by 9' signs on the side of Mir! Tass announced Wed. that a Swiss Ad firm signed a contract. This has been Jordan Katz reporting for the National Space Society's Space Hotline. This message will next be updated April 7, 1989. ------------------------------ Date: 30 Mar 89 22:38:14 GMT From: cfa!cfa250!mcdowell@husc6.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell) Subject: Space News, Mar 29, 1989 Jonathan's Space Report Mar 29, 1989 (No. 9) The third US satellite launch of the year was carried out successfully on Mar 24. The Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) Delta Star satellite was orbited by a Delta 3920 launch vehicle from Kennedy Space Center. Delta Star's mission is to detect and observe rocket launches, in order to develop antimissile weapons. Space Shuttle Mission STS-30 is on Pad 39B and due for launch at the end of April. The Magellan probe to Venus will be deployed from orbiter OV-104 Atlantis on its fourth mission. Crew are David Walker, Ron Grabe, and mission specialists Dr. Norman Thagard, Dr. Mary Cleave and Mark Lee. Dr. Cleave will be the first woman to fly in space since the Challenger accident. The Soviet Union lost contact with its Phobos-2 probe on Mar 27. Attempts continue to contact the probe, but it is not likely to be recovered. Another orbital manever had been made on Mar 15 to continue the rendezvous with the Martian moon Phobos. It had been planned to attempt a landing on Phobos in the coming weeks. Other news: Kosmos-2006, launched on Mar 14, is a medium resolution spy satellite operated by the GRU (Soviet Military Intelligence). Kosmos-2007 was launched on Mar 23. No data yet. Kosmos-2008,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014, and 2015 were launched by a single Kosmos booster on Mar 24. They are believed to be small communications relay satellites used by the Soviet Navy. Space Services Inc carried out its first commercial launch of a suborbital Starfire sounding rocket on Mar 29. The payload was Consort 1, a set of materials processing experiments. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- (c) 1989 Jonathan McDowell, all rights reserved --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ From: ota Date: Mon, 3 Apr 89 01:44:52 MDT Subject: More Success with Fusion I received some really neat information from some "highly placed sources at Los Alamos National Labs." A quick synopsis: Supposedly, LANL has managed to reproduce the reaction. "According to destroying a hood, the experiment melted a four inch hole through a concrete floor. No one was killed, amazingly enough. [...] Los Alamos measured incredible quantities of gamma radiation and fast neutrons. Kids, don't try this at home." This is quoted from someone else, who got it direct from LA. However, the public relations officer (Jeff Schwarts) for LA specifically denies that the experiment has been duplicated...yet. All I know is that I'm excited...let's hope that this IS true and not another scientific mistake. Some of this (I can't tell how much) came from the physics digest, so check over there for more information. David Birnbaum. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Find me at: dbirnbau@nmsu.edu VTIS001@NMSUVM1.bitnet /dev/null | | | | "It shouldn't be a suprise to anyone when the network screws up; | | the suprise should be that the dang thing works at all!" | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ ------------------------------ Date: 31 Mar 89 21:30:50 GMT From: rochester!dietz@cu-arpa.cs.cornell.edu (Paul Dietz) Subject: Solid State Fusion for Launchers The apparent absence of major neutron emission and hot waste from the solid state fusion discovery raises the possibility of resurrecting nuclear rockets for launchers. I see two possibilities. The first is to use heat from a solid state fusion reactor to heat hydrogen, NERVA style. This would require that the power density be a couple of orders of magnitude higher than that claimed by Pons & Fleischmann. For on-orbit use the power density need not be as high. The second possibility is to use a smaller fusion reactor to preheat fuel and/or oxidizer before injection into a conventional chemical engine. This would increase the Isp beyond that possible with chemical fuels alone. For use in launchers, we'd want a fusion reactor that (1) can be shut down in seconds, (2) has high power density, and (3) operates at high temperature. (3) might mean we want a material with a higher melting point than palladium (hafnium, maybe?). Paul F. Dietz dietz@cs.rochester.edu ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Mar 1989 14:42-EST From: Dale.Amon@H.GP.CS.CMU.EDU Subject: Re: SPACE Digest V9 #324 > if cold fusion becomes the crack-cocaine of energy production? I can imagine > a thousand fanatics in 750 terrorist cells making an H-bomb in their kitchen. This could well be true in a way you are not considering. Attempts to force individuals into a particular mold has graudally pushed people from relatively safe marijuana from known sources to more and more potent (and more easily smuggled) drugs from unknown and dangerous sources. Likewise, with a technology this simple, attempts to prevent its use will lead to a new growth industry for organized crime. They'll be selling D2O, platinum and palladium right along with the crack and assault guns and everything else that governments try to stop. And like crack, the jusry rigged home built generators will kill people and have a vast social cost that would not occur if the thing were out in the open and usable within a reasonable legal system. If people want something and it is possible for it to be supplied, (ie it exists or can be made to exist) it WILL be supplied, regardless of the size of the effort made to stop it. The price will rise until it is sufficient to counter the enforcement efforts with arms, bribery, overthrow and control of small governments and corruption of large ones. The social cost of stopping people from doing what they want to do will almost invariably be far higher than to let them alone and create institutions able to deal with problems that are open to inspection rather than hidden in an underground. If this fusion technique is for real, it is going to spread faster than a fission reaction, and there ain't NOBODY going to be able to stop it. Those who do will get squashed flat. When it's steamboat time you steam, and if you don't get your canoe out of the way in time, you better know how to swim. ------------------------------ Date: 31 Mar 89 19:26:09 GMT From: amdahl!drivax!macleod@apple.com (MacLeod) Subject: Olde Tyme Measurements (No wonder the world is eating our lunch) gatech.EDU> Sender: Reply-To: macleod@drivax.UUCP (MacLeod) Followup-To: Distribution: Organization: Digital Research, Monterey, CA Keywords: In article <7761@pyr.gatech.EDU: ccoprmd@pyr.UUCP (Matthew T. DeLuca) writes: :In article <3276@nunki.usc.edu: sawant@nunki.usc.edu (Abhay Sawant) writes: ::AAAARGH!!!!! Why so many people here using fps? I thought higher ::education in the US used SI only. : :Nope. My aerospace engineering courses use FPS routinely. I hate it. WHAT? Say it ain't so. They're probably expounding phylogiston theory over in the chem labs and trying to find the aether in the physics department. It's no forking wonder that US students rank so far behind other countries' graduates. Michael Sloan MacLeod (amdahl!drivax!macleod) ------------------------------ Date: 1 Apr 89 19:24:36 GMT From: deimos.cis.ksu.edu!uxc!garcon!pequod.cso.uiuc.edu!ahiggins@rutgers.edu (Andrew Higgins) Subject: Re: Recovery of Salyut 7 In article <2168@wyse.wyse.com> mikew@wyse.com (Mike Wexler) writes: > mission was? I can think of several possibilities: > [reasons for recovery of Salyut 7] > 3. so they can analyze the effects of long term exposure to LEO. I've also heard a 4th reason (a bit more PR oriented) for this mission: displaying Salyut 7 at the Paris 1992 Air Show. -- Andrew J. Higgins | Illini Space Development Society ahiggins@pequod.cso.uiuc.edu | a chapter of the National Space Society phone: (217) 359-0056 | at the University of Illinois P.O. Box 2255 - Station A, Champaign, IL 61825 "We are all tired of being stuck on this cosmical speck with its monotonous ocean, leaden sky and single moon that is half useless....so it seems to me that the future glory of the human race lies in the exploration of at least the solar system!" - John Jacob Astor, 1894 ------------------------------ Date: 2 Apr 89 02:02:15 GMT From: ccoprmd@pyr.gatech.edu (Matthew T. DeLuca) Subject: Russian unmanned missions to Mars It's interesting to note, isn't it, that for all the Russian talk about sending men to Mars, they have yet to send one successful mission to the planet. I don't think that we'll be seeing any manned Soviet missions to the red planet until they get their probes in order. Curiously, they have good enough luck with Venus, so it's not like they are completely deficient in sending probes beyond the moon's orbit. Anyone believe in jinxes? Georgia Institute of Technology : Remember, wherever you go, there you are. ARPA: ccoprmd@pyr.gatech.edu : ------------------------------ Date: 1 Apr 89 07:35:56 GMT From: portal!cup.portal.com!James_J_Kowalczyk@uunet.uu.net Subject: Re: cold fusion seminar Well, the seminar today at U of U by Stan Pons was poorly planned. About 2,000 people showed up for the 350 seats. So, they had another 300 or so "over-flow" seats in a room with a live video broadcast. Anyway, I did manage to get some data: The cell contains D2O, and LiOH. The Pd anode is a wire of about 4-5 mm diameter. Since the diffusion rate of D2 into Pd is ca. 10^-7 / sec, the apparatus must be running "a few weeks" to set up equilibrium conditions before fusion can occur. They have measured 2 meV gamma rays. They have measure neutrons being emitted at ca. 2x10^4 neutrons/sec. They have measure tritium released at the same rate as the neutrons ("within experimental error"). They have not measured the energy of the neutrons, but expect them to be 2.4 m eV. They have seen Helium 4, but not Helium 3 (!?), but are still looking. They don't think the neutrons are interacting with the palladium, but they have checked their palladium by elemental analysis after use, and they have not seen any evidence for changes. They had been getting out 4 times the energy put in as of last Thursday, but now it is up to 7-10 times (ignoring the heat produced at the cathode). That is, they are getting 26 times the energy put in, but most of it is Joule heating of the wires and heat produced by electrolysis of D2O. Warning by Pons: Don't try this without the proper precautions. Once after they had set up equilibrium conditions, they accidentally halved the current density in the Pd, and the Pd vaporized and all the D2O boiled away. Also, those neutrons are nothing to fool around with. **I am writing this with the aid of notes, but I do not guarantee that I have not made any mistakes. If something sounds ludicrous, I am sure you will let me know.** :) Jim Kowalczyk Kowalczyk@chemistry.utah.edu ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V9 #339 *******************