Date: Thu, 1 Oct 92 05:14:23 From: Space Digest maintainer Reply-To: Space-request@isu.isunet.edu Subject: Space Digest V15 #268 To: Space Digest Readers Precedence: bulk Space Digest Thu, 1 Oct 92 Volume 15 : Issue 268 Today's Topics: another sad anniversary Clinto and Space Funding Disney's Man in Space Long-term investments Population Porous Silicon PUTTING VENUS IN AN ORBIT SIMILAR TO THE ORBIT OF THE EA Russia's OPERATIONAL Starwars Defense System Space FAQ 02/15 - Network Resources Space FAQ 04/15 - Calculations What is this ? Welcome to the Space Digest!! Please send your messages to "space@isu.isunet.edu", and (un)subscription requests of the form "Subscribe Space " to one of these addresses: listserv@uga (BITNET), rice::boyle (SPAN/NSInet), utadnx::utspan::rice::boyle (THENET), or space-REQUEST@isu.isunet.edu (Internet). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 30 Sep 92 23:57:05 GMT From: _Floor_ Subject: another sad anniversary Newsgroups: sci.space In article kentm@aix.rpi.edu (Michael V. Kent) writes: ] Why on earth did they turn them off? Maybe stop listening for a while, but ^^^^^^^^ Ummm...'them' were on the moon. _____ "But you can't really call that a dance. It's a walk." - Tony Banks / ___\ ___ __ ___ ___ _____________ gene@cs.wustl.edu | / __ / _ \ | / \ / _ \ | physics | gene@lechter.wustl.edu | \_\ \ | __/ | /\ | | __/ |racquetball| gev1@cec2.wustl.edu \_____/ \___/ |_| |_| \___/ |volleyball | gene@camps.phy.vanderbilt.edu Gene Van Buren, Kzoo Crew(Floor), Washington U. in St. Lou - #1 in Volleyball ------------------------------ Date: 30 Sep 92 23:18:51 GMT From: Kevin Maguire Subject: Clinto and Space Funding Newsgroups: sci.space In article <1992Sep30.181808.15779@ke4zv.uucp>, gary@ke4zv.uucp (Gary Coffman) wrote: > > In article <1992Sep29.110902.9094@vax.oxford.ac.uk> clements@vax.oxford.ac.uk writes: > > > >I would suggest one area that need serious consideration are lung cancer > >subsidies (ie. the money given to the tobacco producers which goes to subsidise > > I can't let this old chestnut pass. Tobacco is the *one* agricultural > product where growers do *not* receive money from the government. It > is the one program that works because the government limits the amount > of tobacco a given producer can sell. This keeps supply low enough that > it sells at a profit. The government does *not* pay a subsidy to the > farmer. Instead a clerk at the ACS office fills out a permit once a > year, about 5 minutes of government clerk time goes to each tobacco > farmer in the district. That's *it*. > I can't speak to the issue of whether or not direct cash subsidies are spent on tobacco crops, or whether or not it's proper for the government to restrict production to keep prices artificially high. However, it is a fact that the State Dept. applies enormous pressure, inlcuding threats of retaliation in other trade areas, to ensure minimum imports of American cigarettes/tobacco into Southeast Asian countries despite the presence of much cheaper local tobacco and serious local government anti-smoking campaigns. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kevin Maguire No, not THAT Kevin Maguire maguire@copland.jpl.nasa.gov I'm a rocket scientist, not an artist ------------------------------ Date: 30 Sep 92 23:30:59 GMT From: Stan Brown Subject: Disney's Man in Space Newsgroups: sci.space mccreary@sword.eng.hou.compaq.com (Ed McCreary) writes: >...article deleted for brevity.... >I went down to Johnson a few weeks ago. In one of the exhibit >rooms, several monitors were showing the Disney film. Surrounding >it was an exhibit of sketches and artwork done for the film. >Wonderful stuff. I Believe that these same films (or excerpts from them) are also shown continuosly at the US Space and Rocket center at Huntsville Ala. >-- >In the midst of the word he was trying to say,|McCreary@sword.eng.hou.compaq.com > In the midst of his laughter and glee, |Me, speak for Compaq? >He had softly and suddenly vanished away--- |Yeah, right. > For the Snark *was* a Boojum, you see. |#include -- Stan Brown Electric Systems Inc. Home (404) 299-2225 Atalanta Ga. (USA) Home (615) 894-5781 Chattoonaga TN (USA) Work (615) 899-1714 stan@dixie.com dixie.com = Public Access UNIX in Georgia ------------------------------ Date: 1 Oct 92 00:33:36 GMT From: John Roberts Subject: Long-term investments Newsgroups: sci.space -From: szabo@techbook.com (Nick Szabo) -Subject: Re: Lunar landing in 2002 -Date: 26 Sep 92 23:51:29 GMT -In article <1992Sep26.151124.25081@ke4zv.uucp> gary@ke4zv.UUCP (Gary Coffman) writes: ->...US private industry won't fund ->a return to the Moon because the results won't show up in their bottom ->lines in the less than six months timeframe that institutional investors ->will allow them for venture investments. -This is silly socialist rhetoric. Chevron, among others, is planning -their oil operations in Siberia out beyond 2030 -- forty years. Then Chevron is to be congratulated. Question: *how much* are they spending now on projects that won't start to pay for forty years? If it's more than a few million a year, then I'm *really* impressed. My impression is that the situation regarding long-term investment by US business is gradually improving, but that it still has quite a long way to go before it reaches an "optimum". A privately owned company might have a better chance in the long run than a public corporation, provided that it can get the money to invest in the first place. John Roberts roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov ------------------------------ Date: 1 Oct 92 00:07:10 GMT From: John Roberts Subject: Population Newsgroups: sci.space -From: sysmgr@king.eng.umd.edu (Doug Mohney) -Subject: Re: Population -Date: 24 Sep 92 18:28:19 GMT -Organization: Computer Aided Design Lab, U. of Maryland College Park -In article <17668@autodesk.COM>, dudemon@dakine (me ) writes: ->so i would like to rephrase THE QUESTION (tm) in a slightly less homocentric ->manner: ->How many species are you willing to sacrifice to save some humans from a little ->inconvience? -I suppose we should next try to restore the dinosaurs to the prominance they -had a couple million years ago? That's a *little* beyond our current capability. I believe the current (and recent) record for DNA extraction is ~25 million years, for a termite trapped in amber. Reconstructing the entire genetic code from DNA fragments and using that code to produce a living organism are additional challenges. I'd like to see the restoration of the wooly mammoth. With frozen tissue available, there's a pretty good chance that they could be cloned. John Roberts roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov ------------------------------ Date: 30 Sep 92 22:52:42 GMT From: Carl Hage Subject: Porous Silicon Newsgroups: sci.energy,sci.space : In article <3043.1460.uupcb@spacebbs.com>, howard.smith@spacebbs.com (Howard Smith) writes: : > The "cold-fusion" syndrome seems to be back. On page 33 of the : > September 22 issue of Electronic Engineering Times there is a : > report of a photovoltaic cell which measures 97% efficient. Not quite. This was measuring the efficiency of a photodetector in being able to detect photons, not the energy conversion efficiency of a photovoltaic cell. From the article (actually Sept 21), "We found the MPS (metal/porous-silicon/silicon) photodiode is comparable in performance to commercially available silicon photodiodes, but without needing an anti-reflection coating." ... "Standard silicon photodiodes need additional surface treatment to keep photons from bouncing off before they are captured in the silicon lattice. Experiments at SUNY suggest that a porous-silicon layer is able to trap 100 percent of the photons striking it eliminating the additional anti-reflection processing step." (Of course they didn't mention that making porous silicon is an additional processing step.) The advance in porous silicon is eliminating the problem of reflection. In there experiments, the 97% efficient detector had reflection measured at 2%. The article did not mention an estimated power conversion efficiency in photovoltaic applications. ------------------------------ Date: 30 Sep 92 22:26:06 GMT From: Patrick Chester Subject: PUTTING VENUS IN AN ORBIT SIMILAR TO THE ORBIT OF THE EA Newsgroups: sci.space What about the gas torus that Titan orbits inside of? Isn't that made up of escaped gas? Would that also affect the atmosphere of Titan? No flames please, just curious. -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patrick Chester |"The earth is too fragile a basket in which to keep wolfone@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu | all your eggs." Robert A. Heinlein Politically Incorrect |"The meek shall inherit the earth. The rest of us Future Lunar Colonist | are going to the stars." Anonymous -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: 30 Sep 1992 22:10:47 GMT From: Robert Andrew Knop Subject: Russia's OPERATIONAL Starwars Defense System Newsgroups: sci.space nickh@CS.CMU.EDU (Nick Haines) writes: >I love this guy. Best laugh of the morning. Indeed. And, since it is difficult for others to see in a net post, that you're a wide eyed, frothing-at-the-mouth lunatic, this guy did a good job of CAPITALIZING every word that he thought needed EMPHASIS, DAMMIT so that we got the idea that he was RANTING and RAVING with YOUR TAX DOLLARS! (Oops, sorry about that last bit, got carried away.) -Rob Knop rknop@cco.caltech.edu ------------------------------ Date: 30 Sep 92 23:06:39 GMT From: Jon Leech Subject: Space FAQ 02/15 - Network Resources Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.space,news.answers Archive-name: space/net Last-modified: $Date: 92/09/30 18:59:19 $ NETWORK RESOURCES OVERVIEW You may be reading this document on any one of an amazing variety of computers, so much of the material below may not apply to you. In general, however, systems connected to 'the net' fall in one of three categories: Internet, Usenet, or BITNET. Electronic mail may be sent between these networks, and other resources available on one of these networks are sometimes accessible from other networks by email sent to special 'servers'. The space and astronomy discussion groups actually are composed of several mechanisms with (mostly) transparent connections between them. One mechanism is the mailing list, in which mail is sent to a central distribution point which relays it to all recipients of the list. In addition to the general lists for space (called SPACE Digest for Internet users, and SPACE on BITNET), there are a number of more specialized mailing lists described below. A second mechanism is Usenet 'netnews'. This is somewhat like a bulletin board operating on each system which is a part of the net. Netnews separates contributions into hundreds of different categories based on a 'group name'. The groups dealing most closely with space topics are called 'sci.space.news', 'sci.space', 'sci.space.shuttle', 'sci.astro', and 'talk.politics.space'. Contributors 'post' submissions (called 'articles' in netnews terminology) on their local machine, which sends it to other nearby machines. Similarly, articles sent from nearby machines are stored locally and may be forwarded to other systems, so that an article is posted locally and eventually reaches all the Usenet sites interested in receiving the news group to which the article was posted. Gateway machines serve to redirect Usenet netnews into Internet and BITNET mailing lists and vice versa. If you can receive netnews, its more flexible interface usually makes it the preferred option to getting on one of the main mailing lists. MAILING LISTS SPACE Digest is the main Internet list, and is now being run by the International Space University (in only its second change of management in over a decade). Email space-request@isu.isunet.edu (message body should be in the format 'subscribe space John Public') to join. Note that the moderated SPACE Magazine list is defunct at present for lack of a moderator. Elements is a moderated list for fast distribution of Space Shuttle Keplerian Elements before and during Shuttle flights. NASA two line elements are sent out on the list from Dr. Kelso, JSC, and other sources as they are released. Email to elements-request@telesoft.com to join. Space-investors is a list for information relevant to investing in space-related companies. Email Vincent Cate (vac@cs.cmu.edu) to join. Space-tech is a list for more technical discussion of space topics; discussion has included esoteric propulsion technologies, asteroid capture, starflight, orbital debris removal, etc. Email to space-tech-request@cs.cmu.edu to join. Archives of old digests and selected excerpts are available by anonymous FTP from daisy.learning.cs.cmu.edu (128.2.218.26) in /usr/anon/public/space-tech, or by email to space-tech-request if you don't have FTP access. SEDS-L is a BITNET list for members of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space and other interested parties. Email LISTSERV@TAMVM1.BITNET with a message saying "SUBSCRIBE SEDS-L your name". Email saying "INDEX SEDS-L" to list the archive contents. SEDSNEWS is a BITNET list for news items, press releases, shuttle status reports, and the like. This duplicates material which is also found in Space Digest, sci.space, sci.space.shuttle, and sci.astro. Email LISTSERV@TAMVM1.BITNET saying "SUBSCRIBE SEDSNEWS your name" to join. Email saying "INDEX SEDSNEWS" to list the archive contents. Ron Baalke (baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov) runs a mailing list which carries the contents of the sci.space.news Usenet group. Email him to join the list. As a general note, please mail to the *request* address to get off a mailing list. SPACE Digest, for example, relays many inappropriate 'please remove me from this list' messages which are sent to the list address rather than the request address. PERIODICALLY UPDATED INFORMATION In addition to this FAQ list, a broad variety of topical information is posted to the net (unless otherwise noted, in the new group sci.space.news created for this purpose). Please remember that the individuals posting this information are performing a service for all net readers, and don't take up their time with frivolous requests. ACRONYMS Garrett Wollman (wollman@UVM.EDU) posts an acronym list around the first of each month. ASTRO-FTP LIST Veikko Makela (veikko.makela@helsinki.fi) posts a monthly list of anonymous FTP servers containing astronomy and space related material to sci.space and sci.astro. AVIATION WEEK Henry Spencer (henry@zoo.toronto.edu) posts summaries of space-related stories in the weekly _Aviation Week and Space Technology_. BUYING TELESCOPES Ronnie Kon (ronnie@cisco.com) posts a guide to buying telescopes to sci.astro. ELECTRONIC JOURNAL OF THE ASA Don Barry (don@chara.gsu.edu) posts the monthly Electronic Journal of the Astronomical Society of the Atlantic to sci.astro. ESA BULLETIN Harm Munk (munk@prl.philips.nl) posts summaries of articles in the quarterly _ESA Bulletin_ and the _ESA Journal_. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL Swaraj Jeyasingh (sjeyasin@axion.bt.co.uk) posts summaries of space-related news from _Flight International_. This focuses more on non-US space activities than Aviation Week. LARGE ASTRONOMICAL PROJECTS Robert Bunge (rbunge@access.digex.com) posts a list describing many "Large Telescope Projects Either Being Considered or in the Works" to sci.astro. NASA HEADLINE NEWS & SHUTTLE REPORTS Peter Yee (yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov) posts a variety of NASA material, including NASA Headline News (with the schedule for NASA SELECT), shuttle payload briefings and flight manifests, and KSC shuttle status reports. For Usenet users, much of this material appears in the group sci.space.shuttle. NASA UPDATES Ron Baalke (baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov) posts frequent updates from JPL, Ames, and other centers on the Ulysses, Gailileo, Pioneer, Magellan, Landsat, and other missions. ORBITAL ELEMENT SETS TS Kelso (tkelso@blackbird.afit.af.mil) posts orbital elements from NASA Prediction Bulletins. Mike Rose (mrose@stsci.edu) posts orbital elements for the Hubble Space Telescope to sci.astro. Jost Jahn (j.jahn@abbs.hanse.de) posts ephemerides for asteroids, comets, conjunctions, and encounters to sci.astro. SATELLITE LAUNCHES Richard Langley (lang@unb.ca) posts SPACEWARN Bulletin, which describes recent launch/orbital decay information and satellites which are useful for scientific activities. Recent bulletins are available by anonymous FTP from nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov in ANON_DIR:[000000.ACTIVE.SPX]. SHUTTLE MANIFEST Ken Hollis (gandalf@pro-electric.cts.com) posts a compressed version of the Space Shuttle launch manifest to sci.space.shuttle. This includes dates, times, payloads, and information on how to see launches and landings. SOLAR ACTIVITY Cary Oler (oler@hg.uleth.ca) posts Solar Terrestrial reports (describing solar activity and its effect on the Earth) to sci.space. The report is issued in part from data released by the Space Enviroment Services Center, Boulder Colorado. The intro document needed to understand these reports is available by anonymous FTP from solar.stanford.edu (36.10.0.4) in pub/understanding_solar_terrestrial_reports. nic.funet.fi (128.214.6.100) also has this document in /pub/misc/rec.radio.shortwave/solarreports and is an archive site for the reports (please note this site is in Europe, and the connection to the US is only 56KB). A new primary archive site, xi.uleth.ca (142.66.3.29), has recently been established and will be actively supported. SOVIET SPACE ACTIVITIES Glenn Chapman (glennc@cs.sfu.ca) posts summaries of Soviet space activities. SPACE ACTIVIST NEWSLETTER Allen Sherzer (aws@iti.org) posts a newsletter, "One Small Step for a Space Activist," to talk.politics.space. It describes current legislative activity affecting NASA and commercial space activities. SPACE EVENTS CALENDAR Ron Baalke (baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov) posts a calendar including anniversaries, conferences, launch dates, meteor showers and eclipses, and other space-related events. SPACE NEWS John Magliacane (kd2bd@ka2qhd.UUCP) posts "SpaceNews" (covering AMSATs, NOAA and other weather satellites, and other ham information) to rec.radio.amateur.misc and sci.space. SPACE REPORT Jonathan McDowell (mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu) posts "Jonathan's Space Report" covering launches, landings, reentries, status reports, satellite activities, etc. TOWARD 2001 Bev Freed (freed@nss.fidonet.org) posts "Toward 2001", a weekly global news summary reprinted from _Space Calendar_ magazine. WARNING ABOUT NON-PUBLIC NETWORKS (Included at the suggestion of Eugene Miya, who wrote the item) NASA has an internal system of unclassified electronic mail and bulletin boards. This system is not open for public use. Specifically, NASA personnel and procurement operations are regarded with some sensitivity. Contractors must renegotiate their contracts. The Fair and Open Procurement Act does not look kindly to those having inside information. Contractors and outsiders caught using this type of information can expect severe penalities. Unauthorized access attempts may subject you to a fine and/or imprisonment in accordance with Title 18, USC, Section 1030. If in fact you should should learn of unauthorized access, contact NASA personnel. NEXT: FAQ #3/15 - Online (and some offline) sources of images, data, etc. ------------------------------ Date: 30 Sep 92 23:06:51 GMT From: Jon Leech Subject: Space FAQ 04/15 - Calculations Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.space,news.answers Archive-name: space/math Last-modified: $Date: 92/09/30 18:59:15 $ PERFORMING CALCULATIONS AND INTERPRETING DATA FORMATS COMPUTING SPACECRAFT ORBITS AND TRAJECTORIES References that have been frequently recommended on the net are: "Fundamentals of Astrodynamics" Roger Bate, Donald Mueller, Jerry White 1971, Dover Press, 455pp $8.95 (US) (paperback). ISBN 0-486-60061-0 NASA Spaceflight handbooks (dating from the 1960s) SP-33 Orbital Flight Handbook (3 parts) SP-34 Lunar Flight Handbook (3 parts) SP-35 Planetary Flight Handbook (9 parts) These might be found in university aeronautics libraries or ordered through the US Govt. Printing Office (GPO), although more information would probably be needed to order them. M. A. Minovitch, _The Determination and Characteristics of Ballistic Interplanetary Trajectories Under the Influence of Multiple Planetary Attractions_, Technical Report 32-464, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., Oct, 1963. The title says all. Starts of with the basics and works its way up. Very good. It has a companion article: M. Minovitch, _Utilizing Large Planetary Perubations for the Design of Deep-Space Solar-Probe and Out of Ecliptic Trajectories_, Technical Report 32-849, JPL, Pasadena, Calif., 1965. You need to read the first one first to realy understand this one. It does include a _short_ summary if you can only find the second. Contact JPL for availability of these reports. "Spacecraft Attitude Dynamics", Peter C. Hughes 1986, John Wiley and Sons. "Celestial Mechanics: a computational guide for the practitioner", Lawrence G. Taff, (Wiley-Interscience, New York, 1985). Starts with the basics (2-body problem, coordinates) and works up to orbit determinations, perturbations, and differential corrections. Taff also briefly discusses stellar dynamics including a short discussion of n-body problems. COMPUTING PLANETARY POSITIONS More net references: Van Flandern & Pullinen, _Low-Precision Formulae for Planetary Positions_, Astrophysical J. Supp Series, 41:391-411, 1979. Look in an astronomy or physics library for this; also said to be available from Willmann-Bell. Gives series to compute positions accurate to 1 arc minute for a period + or - 300 years from now. Pluto is included but stated to have an accuracy of only about 15 arc minutes. _Interactive Computer Ephemeris_ (from the US Naval Observatory) distributed on IBM-PC floppy disks, $35 (Willmann-Bell). Covers dates 1800-2049. "Planetary Programs and Tables from -4000 to +2800", Bretagnon & Simon 1986, Willmann-Bell. Floppy disks available separately. "Fundamentals of Celestial Mechanics" (2nd ed), J.M.A. Danby 1988, Willmann-Bell. A good fundamental text. Includes BASIC programs; a companion set of floppy disks is available separately. "Astronomical Formulae for Calculators" (4th ed.), J. Meeus 1988, Willmann-Bell. "Astronomical Algorithms", J. Meeus 1991, Willmann-Bell. If you actively use one of the editions of "Astronomical Formulae for Calculators", you will want to replace it with "Astronomical Algorithms". This new book is more oriented towards computers than calculators and contains formulae for planetary motion based on modern work by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the U.S. Naval Observatory, and the Bureau des Longitudes. The previous books were all based on formulae mostly developed in the last century. Algorithms available separately on diskette. "Practical Astronomy with your Calculator" (3rd ed.), P. Duffett-Smith 1988, Cambridge University Press. "Orbits for Amateurs with a Microcomputer", D. Tattersfield 1984, Stanley Thornes, Ltd. Includes example programs in BASIC. "Orbits for Amateurs II", D. Tattersfield 1987, John Wiley & Sons. "Astronomy / Scientific Software" - catalog of shareware, public domain, and commercial software for IBM and other PCs. Astronomy software includes planetarium simulations, ephemeris generators, astronomical databases, solar system simulations, satellite tracking programs, celestial mechanics simulators, and more. Andromeda Software, Inc. P.O. Box 605 Amherst, NY 14226-0605 COMPUTING CRATER DIAMETERS FROM EARTH-IMPACTING ASTEROIDS Astrogeologist Gene Shoemaker proposes the following formula, based on studies of cratering caused by nuclear tests. (1/3.4) D = S S c K W : crater diameter in km g p f n (1/6) S = (g /g ) : gravity correction factor for bodies other than g e t Earth, where g = 9.8 m/s^2 and g is the surface e t gravity of the target body. This scaling is cited for lunar craters and may hold true for other bodies. (1/3.4) S = (p / p ) : correction factor for target density p , p a t t p = 1.8 g/cm^3 for alluvium at the Jangle U a crater site, p = 2.6 g/cm^3 for average rock on the continental shields. C : crater collapse factor, 1 for craters <= 3 km in diameter, 1.3 for larger craters (on Earth). (1/3.4) K : .074 km / (kT TNT equivalent) n empirically determined from the Jangle U nuclear test crater. 3 2 19 W = pi * d * delta * V / (12 * 4.185 * 10 ) : projectile kinetic energy in kT TNT equivalent given diameter d, velocity v, and projectile density delta in CGS units. delta of around 3 g/cm^3 is fairly good for an asteroid. An RMS velocity of V = 20 km/sec may be used for Earth-crossing asteroids. Under these assumptions, the body which created the Barringer Meteor Crater in Arizona (1.13 km diameter) would have been about 40 meters in diameter. More generally, one can use (after Gehrels, 1985): Asteroid Number of objects Impact probability Impact energy diameter (km) (impacts/year) (* 5*10^20 ergs) 10 10 10^-8 10^9 1 1 000 10^-6 10^6 0.1 100 000 10^-4 10^3 assuming simple scaling laws. Note that 5*10^20 ergs = 13 000 tons TNT equivalent, or the energy released by the Hiroshima A-bomb. References: Gehrels, T. 1985 Asteroids and comets. _Physics Today_ 38, 32-41. [an excellent general overview of the subject for the layman] Shoemaker, E.M. 1983 Asteroid and comet bombardment of the earth. _Ann. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci._ 11, 461-494. [very long and fairly technical but a comprehensive examination of the subject] Shoemaker, E.M., J.G. Williams, E.F. Helin & R.F. Wolfe 1979 Earth-crossing asteroids: Orbital classes, collision rates with Earth, and origin. In _Asteroids_, T. Gehrels, ed., pp. 253-282, University of Arizona Press, Tucson. Cunningham, C.J. 1988 _Introduction to Asteroids: The Next Frontier_ (Richmond: Willman-Bell, Inc.) [covers all aspects of asteroid studies and is an excellent introduction to the subject for people of all experience levels. It also has a very extensive reference list covering essentially all of the reference material in the field.] MAP PROJECTIONS AND SPHERICAL TRIGNOMETRY Two easy-to-find sources of map projections are the "Encyclopaedia Brittanica", (particularly the older volumes) and a tutorial appearing in _Graphics Gems_ (Academic Press, 1990). The latter was written with simplicity of exposition and suitability of digital computation in mind (spherical trig formulae also appear, as do digitally-plotted examples). More than you ever cared to know about map projections is in John Snyder's USGS publication "Map Projections--A Working Manual", USGS Professional Paper 1395. This contains detailed descriptions of 32 projections, with history, features, projection formulas (for both spherical earth and ellipsoidal earth), and numerical test cases. It's a neat book, all 382 pages worth. This one's $20. You might also want the companion volume, by Snyder and Philip Voxland, "An Album of Map Projections", USGS Professional Paper 1453. This contains less detail on about 130 projections and variants. Formulas are in the back, example plots in the front. $14, 250 pages. You can order these 2 ways. The cheap, slow way is direct from USGS: Earth Science Information Center, US Geological Survey, 507 National Center, Reston, VA 22092. (800)-USA-MAPS. They can quote you a price and tell you where to send your money. Expect a 6-8 week turnaround time. A much faster way (about 1 week) is through Timely Discount Topos, (303)-469-5022, 9769 W. 119th Drive, Suite 9, Broomfield, CO 80021. Call them and tell them what you want. They'll quote a price, you send a check, and then they go to USGS Customer Service Counter and pick it up for you. Add about a $3-4 service charge, plus shipping. A (perhaps more accessible) mapping article is: R. Miller and F. Reddy, "Mapping the World in Pascal", Byte V12 #14, December 1987 Contains Turbo Pascal procedures for five common map projections. A demo program, CARTOG.PAS, and a small (6,000 point) coastline data is available on CompuServe, GEnie, and many BBSs. Some references for spherical trignometry are: _Spherical Astronomy_, W.M. Smart, Cambridge U. Press, 1931. _A Compendium of Spherical Astronomy_, S. Newcomb, Dover, 1960. _Spherical Astronomy_, R.M. Green, Cambridge U. Press., 1985 (update of Smart). _Spherical Astronomy_, E Woolard and G.Clemence, Academic Press, 1966. PERFORMING N-BODY SIMULATIONS EFFICIENTLY "Computer Simulation Using Particles" R. W. Hockney and J. W. Eastwood (Adam Hilger; Bristol and Philadelphia; 1988) "The rapid evaluation of potential fields in particle systems", L. Greengard MIT Press, 1988. A breakthrough O(N) simulation method. Has been parallelized. L. Greengard and V. Rokhlin, "A fast algorithm for particle simulations," Journal of Computational Physics, 73:325-348, 1987. "An O(N) Algorithm for Three-dimensional N-body Simulations", MSEE thesis, Feng Zhao, MIT AILab Technical Report 995, 1987 "Galactic Dynamics" J. Binney & S. Tremaine (Princeton U. Press; Princeton; 1987) Includes an O(N^2) FORTRAN code written by Aarseth, a pioneer in the field. Hierarchical (N log N) tree methods are described in these papers: A. W. Appel, "An Efficient Program for Many-body Simulation", SIAM Journal of Scientific and Statistical Computing, Vol. 6, p. 85, 1985. Barnes & Hut, "A Hierarchical O(N log N) Force-Calculation Algorithm", Nature, V324 # 6096, 4-10 Dec 1986. L. Hernquist, "Hierarchical N-body Methods", Computer Physics Communications, Vol. 48, p. 107, 1988. INTERPRETING THE FITS IMAGE FORMAT If you just need to examine FITS images, use the ppm package (see the comp.graphics FAQ) to convert them to your preferred format. Failing that, the basic reference for FITS may be found in the following 3 papers: Wells, D. C., Greisen, E. W., and Harten, R. H., "FITS: a flexible image transport system," Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series, 44, 363-370, 1981. Grosbol, P., Harten, R. H., Greisen, E. W., and Wells, D. C., "Generalized extensions and blocking factors for FITS," Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series, 73, 359-364, 1988 Harten, R. H., Grosbol. P., Greisen, E. W., and Wells, D. C., "The FITS tables extension, Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series, 73, 365-372, 1988. A DRAFT document describing FITS and the Floating Point Agreement defining FP storage formats is available by anonymous FTP from nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (128.183.36.23). Get ANON_DIR:[FITS]README.;1 to begin with. There are known to be errors and ambiguities in this document, so it should not be used as a fundamental reference. Questions should be sent by email to the FITS support office (bschlesinger@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov) or telephone at (301)-513-1634 A FORTRAN library for reading and writing FITS files is available by anonymous FTP from tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov (128.183.8.77) in directory pub/fitsio3. Contact the author, William Pence (pence@tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov) for more details. SKY (UNIX EPHEMERIS PROGRAM) The 6th Edition of the Unix operating system came with several software systems not distributed because of older media capacity limitations. Included were an ephmeris, a satellite track, and speech synthesis software. The ephmeris, sky(6), is available within AT&T and to sites possessing a Unix source code license. The program is regarded as Unix source code. Sky is <0.5MB. Send proof of source code license to E. Miya MS 258-5 NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000 eugene@orville.nas.nasa.gov THREE-DIMENSIONAL STAR/GALAXY COORDINATES To generate 3D coordinates of astronomical objects, first obtain an astronomical database which specifies right ascension, declination, and parallax for the objects. Convert parallax into distance using the formula in part 6 of the FAQ, convert RA and declination to coordinates on a unit sphere (see some of the references on planetary positions and spherical trignometry earlier in this section for details on this), and scale this by the distance. Two databases useful for this purpose are the Yale Bright Star catalog (sources listed in FAQ section 3) or "The Catalogue of Stars within 25 parsecs of the Sun" (in pub/SPACE/FAQ/stars.data and stars.doc on ames.arc.nasa.gov). NEXT: FAQ #5/15 - References on specific areas ------------------------------ Date: 30 Sep 92 22:52:50 GMT From: Carl Hage Subject: What is this ? Newsgroups: sci.space PHARABOD@FRCPN11.IN2P3.FR writes: : Have the U.S. some kind of RPV with such performances ? : : Seconds after Heading Speed Altitude : lock-on (degrees) (knots) (feet) : : 00 200 150 7000 : 01 200 150 7000 : 02 200 150 7000 : 03 200 150 7000 : 04 sharp 200 acceleration 150 6000 : 05 turn 270 = 22 g 560 6000 : 06 270 560 6000 : 07 270 570 6000 : 08 270 560 7000 : 09 270 550 7000 : 10 210 560 9000 It must have a warp drive since it managed 1000 feet of altitude change while going only 150 knots (253 f/s). Does anybody know what kind of accelerations are typical in an air-air or ground-air missle? What about a MARV ICBM reentry vehicle? ------------------------------ End of Space Digest Volume 15 : Issue 268 ------------------------------