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 ; Mon, 10 Apr 89 00:18:44 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <4YE2gPy00UkZQJnk47@andrew.cmu.edu> Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Mon, 10 Apr 89 00:18:36 -0400 (EDT) Subject: SPACE Digest V9 #353 SPACE Digest Volume 9 : Issue 353 Today's Topics: Re: Babies in Space Hubble Space Telescope Re: Building a fusion-based rocket Re: Astrology Re: Hubble Space Telescope Re: Babies in Space Re: more on Liberty Bell 7 (and other s'craft) Re: Civilians in space (Was Re: First concert from space--update) Re: Cold fusion: chemical explanation? Re: Furnace Effect?..no worries Re: Astrology Re: Unmanned shuttle advantages Re: Magellan's Trajectory DSN mission launch dates Re: Success with cold fusion reported ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 6 Apr 89 15:32:37 GMT From: uflorida!mailrus!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!henry@gatech.edu (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: Babies in Space In article CHUNTER@UMAB.BITNET (Colin Hunter) writes: >... You really need fertilisation and normal gestation time >in a micro-gravity environment. Embryological experiments should wait >until Freedom is operational. Why wait? Fly them on Mir. It's cheaper, too. -- Welcome to Mars! Your | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology passport and visa, comrade? | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu ------------------------------ Date: 6 Apr 89 18:23:26 GMT From: pv04+@andrew.cmu.edu (Philip Verdieck) Subject: Hubble Space Telescope This maybe the stupidest question, especially if its allready been asked and answered since the point where I saw an article here mentioning it (early march/late feb). So if its been discussed, ignore this cause I'll catch up, but..... What are the capabilities for rotating this baby and using it for spying purposes??? ------------------------------ Date: 4 Apr 89 15:15:49 GMT From: mailrus!wasatch!uplherc!esunix!bpendlet@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (Bob Pendleton) Subject: Re: Building a fusion-based rocket From article <7473@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>, by kpmancus@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Keith P. Mancus): > > I've been trying to figure out how to get a "heat-pump" effect > to use the fusion system to pump up a heat exchanger to a reasonable > temperature. What follows has so many assupmptions and so much speculation in it that I'd call it science fiction rather than speculation. From all I've heard and read about FP fusion I'd try to make precharged lattice pellets. That is, pellets of some fusion catalyst already charged with fusile material. It look like these pellets could be ignited by passing a current through them. You would feed pellets one at a time into a chamber and detonate them. Sort of a tame Orion. Fusion aided chemical explosives might also become reality. Micro pellets could be imbedded in a solid explosive or floated in a chemical fuel, like kerosene, with fusion being started by the heat released by burning the fuel. Fusion assisted solid and liquid fuel rockets may be possible. Wild speculation. But it's fun. Bob P. -- - Bob Pendleton, speaking only for myself. - UUCP Address: decwrl!esunix!bpendlet or utah-cs!esunix!bpendlet - - Reality is stranger than most can imagine. ------------------------------ Date: 6 Apr 89 14:15:22 GMT From: haven!uvaarpa!hudson!astsun1!gsh7w@purdue.edu (Greg Hennessy) Subject: Re: Astrology James C. Benz writes: #Not to lend any support to pseudo-science, but an interesting thing to look #at in this respect is the police blotter of any large urban area on the #night of a full moon. I have heard the same story from several police #officers here in Pittsburgh - craaazy things happen when there's a full #moon, not just your run-of-the-mill stabbings and domestic violence, but #the truly bizzarre. Nick Sandulek, an astronomer at Case-Western Reserve in Cleveland, did a 13 year study of police records and found NO correlation of crimes with the phase of the moon. He did fine a LARGE correlation of the day of the week, Friday and Saturday. Published in The Skeptical Inquirer. -Greg Hennessy, University of Virginia USPS Mail: Astronomy Department, Charlottesville, VA 22903-2475 USA Internet: gsh7w@virginia.edu UUCP: ...!uunet!virginia!gsh7w ------------------------------ Date: 6 Apr 89 22:20:26 GMT From: ccoprmd@pyr.gatech.edu (Matthew T. DeLuca) Subject: Re: Hubble Space Telescope In article , pv04+@andrew.cmu.edu (Philip Verdieck) writes: > > What are the capabilities for rotating this baby and using it for > spying purposes??? According to the NASA material I have, the HST is a low-light telescope, meaning that it cannot view bright objects like the sun, moon, or the Earth. However, the KH-12 reconaissance satellite (wasn't this launched recently?) is a close cousin of the HST, except it can view the earth. -- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Matthew DeLuca : Georgia Institute of Technology : Remember, wherever you go, there you are. ARPA: ccoprmd@pyr.gatech.edu : -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: 6 Apr 89 19:59:43 GMT From: mailrus!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!kcarroll@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Kieran A. Carroll) Subject: Re: Babies in Space Colin Hunter (CHUNTER@UMAB.BITNET) writes: > ...how can you completely allow for all the differences > between the experimental and control groups such that micro-gravity is the > *only* variable. You really need fertilisation and normal gestation time > in a micro-gravity environment. Embryological experiments should wait > until Freedom is operational. If you want to get experimental results sometime in the next decade, embryological experiments should be done on Mir. All indications are that the Soviets are willing to coopoerate fully with anybody wishing to rent space in their lab. -- Kieran A. Carroll @ U of Toronto Aerospace Institute {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,utai}!utzoo!kcarroll ------------------------------ Date: 6 Apr 89 15:17:01 GMT From: m2c!wpi!tmurphy@husc6.harvard.edu (Tom [Chris] Murphy) Subject: Re: more on Liberty Bell 7 (and other s'craft) In article <389@cbnewsl.ATT.COM> sw@cbnewsl.ATT.COM (Stuart Warmink) writes: > >plutonium-powered thermionic generator of Apollo 13's LEM. > HUH? All American (and probably all Soviet) manned spacecraft use fuel cells for electrical generation. The U.S. doesn't make much use at all of nuclear-powered satilites, except for deep-space probes. Tom -- Thomas C. Murphy Worcester Polytechnic Institute CAD Lab Internet: tmurphy@zaphod.wpi.edu tmurphy@wpi.wpi.edu BITNET: TMURPHY@WPI CompuServe: 73766,130 "I drank what?" - Socrates ------------------------------ Date: 6 Apr 89 15:37:50 GMT From: uflorida!mailrus!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!henry@gatech.edu (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: Civilians in space (Was Re: First concert from space--update) In article <530@qvax2.UUCP> jerry@qvax2.UUCP (Jerry Gardner) writes: >>...The dream may be alive, but not at NASA headquarters. > >I'm curious, how's the Canadian space program doing these days? Lousy. Our glorious government, in its (minimal) wisdom, has tied it much too closely to the US program. -- Welcome to Mars! Your | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology passport and visa, comrade? | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu ------------------------------ Date: 6 Apr 89 06:33:23 GMT From: portal!cup.portal.com!James_J_Kowalczyk@uunet.uu.net Subject: Re: Cold fusion: chemical explanation? stolfi@jumbo.dec.com (Jorge Stolfi) writes: [portions deleted] >If this makes sense, then the extra energy detected by F&P is >energy that was stored into the electrode during the charging period. [more deleted] >Does this make any sense? (As you can tell, I am no chemist.) > > Jorge Stolfi @ DEC Systems Research Center Pons & Fleischman have apparently taken into acount all the energy put into the system during the multi-week "charge-up" time. The energy out is still calculated as more than put in. Jim Kowalczyk Kowalczyk@chemistry.utah.edu ------------------------------ Date: 6 Apr 89 00:27:18 GMT From: attcan!lsuc!ncrcan!ziebmef!mdf@uunet.uu.net (Matthew Francey) Subject: Re: Furnace Effect?..no worries In article <1410@meccsd.MECC.MN.ORG>, vin@meccsd.MECC.MN.ORG (Vincent J. Erickson) writes: > The greenhouse effect and the furnace effect could both be compensated > for in the following way: Call 3M up; order many square kilometers of > mylar; place mylar in solar orbit just indise the Earth's so it blocks > a small percentage of the sun's rays. Result; a lowering of the > Earth's temperature. Let us assume we wish to block 1% of the sun. A simple calculation shows a disk 638km in radius is needed (at least). If this disk is to be 1mm in thickness, and if mylar has a density of 50kg/m^3 (ridiculously low), a total mass of 6.39e10kg will have to be placed in 'solar orbit'. I think a shuttle can put some 30000kg into earth orbit (we will blithely assume earth orbit == solar orbit), so the Great Mylar Sun Shade will need about 2 million shuttle launches... Hey, if it will help the space program, I'm all for it... :-) -- Name: Matthew Francey Address: N43o34'13.5" W79o34'33.3" 86m mdf@ziebmef.UUCP uunet!utgpu!{ontmoh!moore,ncrcan}!ziebmef!mdf ------------------------------ Date: 6 Apr 89 15:44:55 GMT From: uflorida!mailrus!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!henry@gatech.edu (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: Astrology In article <17348@cisunx.UUCP> jcbst3@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu (James C. Benz) writes: >... I have heard the same story from several police >officers here in Pittsburgh - craaazy things happen when there's a full >moon... When you correct for better light (which facilitates outdoor activities) and the tendency for the phase of the Moon to line up with weekends for several months at a time (this matters, if only because weekend alcohol consumption is much higher than on weekdays), the effect vanishes. Hospital staff say the same thing, but studies of the hospital records do not bear them out. >... Of course, this is probably purely subjective - people >see a full moon and all their inhibitions go out the window, but an >interesting phenomenon nonetheless. It's even more subjective than that: policemen, hospital staff, etc. remember weird things that happen at the full moon, discount them when they happen at other times, and forget the times when the moon was full and nothing significant happened. This is how most superstitions get started. -- Welcome to Mars! Your | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology passport and visa, comrade? | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu ------------------------------ Date: 6 Apr 89 13:57:23 GMT From: ccoprmd@pyr.gatech.edu (Matthew T. DeLuca) Subject: Re: Unmanned shuttle advantages In article <8904051901.AA12276@aristotle.Jpl.Nasa.Gov> pjs@ARISTOTLE-GW.JPL.NASA.GOV (Peter Scott) writes: > >Well, let's start with the possibilities for additional payload if you've >designed your shuttle so that you can remove the life-support systems >fairly easily (anyone know whether this can be done with Buran?) >And then you can fly missions that are outside the envelope of human >comfort/survivability, e.g. duration (no running out of air), acceleration >(high g forces), radiation (flying during solar flares),... anyone got any more ideas? > Okay , I suppose there is are possible uses for an unmanned shuttle. However, it appears to me you're going to have most of the disadvantages of manned flight with none of the advantages. You still have an incredibly complex flying machine that will be subject to the majority of the same delays, since at a cost of a billion dollars or so per shuttle, you're going to want to be *very* sure it's in working order when you go up. And if a fuse blows while it's up, there's nobody there to fix it, and you have to send a second mission up to take care of the problem. I don't think you can get much outside the envelope of human survivability, either. The shuttle generally runs at max performance anyway (the throttle-back is to keep the dynamic pressure down on the orbiter's structure), and I don't think you'd want to fly during the output of a flare; can't the radiation scramble the electronics? I suppose if you had a payload that you *had* to fly without people, you might conceive of trying it, but otherwise, I wouldn't risk it. -- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Matthew DeLuca : Georgia Institute of Technology : Remember, wherever you go, there you are. ARPA: ccoprmd@pyr.gatech.edu : -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: 7 Apr 89 01:23:18 GMT From: osu-20.ircc.ohio-state.edu!ryan-s@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (stephen) Subject: Re: Magellan's Trajectory Check out the April issue of Discover for the answer to this and other questions about Magellan. (Pretty good article.) .Steve ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Apr 89 11:40:06 PST From: Peter Scott Subject: DSN mission launch dates X-Vms-Mail-To: EXOS%"space@andrew.cmu.edu" Just discovered that this message which I tried to send out on 3/11 and had assumed was in a digest that I missed never made it, so here it is, albeit slightly dated: I just got a list of launch dates for missions supported by the DSN through 1990. I don't have a glossary, so if you don't know what one of these acronyms means, don't ask me. STS-30 (MAGELLAN) 4/28/89 DFS-1 5/5/89 (but maybe 3/31 or 4/4 depending on Ariadne manifest) TV-SAT-2 7/13/89 (6/29 is possible early launch date) COBE 5/89 SPOT-2 5/15/89 STS-28 (DOD) 7/1/89 GMS-4 8/1/89 STS-33 8/10/89 FLTSATCOM-F8 9/89 STS-34 (GALILEO) 10/12/89 STS-32 11/13/89 STS-31 (HST) 12/11/89 STS-36 12/11/89 (no, it doesn't make sense to me either) MUSES-A EARLY 90 TDF-2 1/15/90 DFS-2 1/15/90 (could be launched separately from TDF-2) ROSAT 2/90 GOES-I 3/90 STS-35 3/1/90 EUTELSAT 4/1/90 (with Ariadne; 3/1 with Atlas-Centaur) STS-37 4/5/90 STS-38 5/10/90 STS-40 6/7/90 STS-39 (GRO) 7/19/90 (Gamma-Ray Observatory) BS-3a 8/1/90 STS-41 9/10/90 STS-42 (TDRS-E) 10/5/90 STS-43 11/8/90 GOES-J 12/90 STS-44 (ULYSSES) 12/20/90 STS-45 1/31/91 There's also a note that Kourou is closed August and mid-December to mid-January. We all know how rapidly these things change, so if any of the above is completely risible by the time it reaches you, don't blame me! Peter Scott (pjs@grouch.jpl.nasa.gov) ------------------------------ Date: 6 Apr 89 20:08:23 GMT From: crdgw1!steinmetz!sunspot!blackje@uunet.uu.net (Emmett Black) Subject: Re: Success with cold fusion reported > ... put a reactor under the hood of a car... not very likely. you have a shielding and weight problem. you might see fusion powered locomotives. --Emmett J.E.Black; GE Research/K1-3C26; Schenectady, NY 12345 blackje@crd.ge.com; ...!uunet!steinmetz!crd!blackje ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V9 #353 *******************