Date: Fri, 12 Feb 93 17:50:50    
From: Space Digest maintainer <digests@isu.isunet.edu>
Reply-To: Space-request@isu.isunet.edu
Subject: Space Digest V16 #157
To: Space Digest Readers
Precedence: bulk


Space Digest                Fri, 12 Feb 93       Volume 16 : Issue 157

Today's Topics:
                          ** HELP WANTED **
                   BUSSARD.PCX (part 1/2) [Part 2]
                        BUSSARD.PCX (part 2/2)
                       ESA press release 04-93
                          Satellite Imagery
         Terror Stalks the Astronomers(was Re: MIR reflector)

	Welcome to the Space Digest!!  Please send your messages to
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----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sun, 07 Feb 93 19:01:24 PST
From: Jason Cooper <lord@tradent.wimsey.com>
Subject: ** HELP WANTED **
Newsgroups: sci.space

As many of you may know, I have been working for the past few
months on a project on the Bussard ramscoop.  Thanks to the help
of the users of this area, I have been doing reasonably well up
to this point, too.  However, I have now run into a few
problems, and thought I'd run them by the people here.  For
reference, I will also be uploading a UUENCODED PCX of my plan
thus far.  If anybody has any questions about the PCX, they are
more than welcome in my mail.  My questions are the following:

Is there a method besides a UV laser that will ionize both H and
H2?  If not, then a laser can be dealt with, but something
somewhat more durable than a laser and it's lens (and preferably
more efficient) would be nice.

Is a lithium blanket as in the PCX (composed of tubes that
basically surround the expansion chamber) the BEST way to
create electricity from the reaction?  Also, is anybody out
there familiar with the methods of converting the heat from this
blanket into electricity?

Is anybody aware of a method besides that which has already been
discussed (antimatter) to heat the incoming protons?  Keep in
mind that this method must be usable in a vaccuum, meaning (as
far as I know) that it has to rely on either a reaction of some
sort with the protons (as in the antimatter idea), or some sort
of radiant energy.  The reason I am asking for other methods is
that the antimatter method turned out to be rather impractical,
whether you wanted to store ready-made antimatter, or produce it
on-the-run.

How can protons be "picked" off of an incoming stream?  It would
be nice to have a small reserve of the protons (as in the PCX),
but I can't figure a way to pull them off of the stream.
Physical means are not desirable, but I'm willing to listen to anything.

Does anybody have access to R.W. Bussard's original paper on the
ramscoop?  I just got a book of his called "Nuclear Rocket
Propulsion" from inter-library loan, thinking it may be of
assistance, and it seems this book was written years before he
came up with the idea.  Or, does anybody know of where I might
look in the book to FIND the ramscoop?  I can't find anything.

Does carbon-catalyzed fusion rely on any rare reactions, like
beta decay?  I ask this because at the moment, it's a critical
part of my slow-end processes, and wouldn't work very well if it
was rare :).

Does anybody have any proposals as to methods of getting to the
approx. .015c at which the reaction SHOULD kick in?

As I believe I said before, ANY input is VERY welcome.  Please
reply by mail _if_possible_, as that's much easier for me to
keep a record of (both so that contributions may be accordingly
credited, and so that I may keep them for future reference).
Thanks.


                                            |||||
                                           ( o o )
-----------------------------------------oooO-O-Oooo-----------------
 
 |_      |_|_|_  |_|_|_  |_|_|_                         Jason Cooper
 |_     |_    |_ |_   |_ |_   |_           lord@tradent.wimsey.bc.ca
 |_     |_    |_ |_|_|_  |_   |_
 |_|_|_  |_|_|_  |_   |_ |_|_|_   "Happy, happy.  Joy, joy" - Stimpy
 

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

Date: Sun, 07 Feb 93 19:02:45 PST
From: Jason Cooper <lord@tradent.wimsey.com>
Subject: BUSSARD.PCX (part 1/2) [Part 2]
Newsgroups: sci.space

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sum -r/size 64956/58922 section (from "begin" to last encoded line)

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

Date: Sun, 07 Feb 93 19:08:50 PST
From: Jason Cooper <lord@tradent.wimsey.com>
Subject: BUSSARD.PCX (part 2/2)
Newsgroups: sci.space

section 2 of uuencode 5.10 of file bussard.pcx    by R.E.M.

M_]S_P@#$_\(`_____\C_P@#&_P#%_@#,_\(`________T/_"`/__________
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M___\_PP```"_````OP"_OP```+^_`+\`O[_`P,#`W,"FRO"`````@`"`@```
M`("``(``@(#P^_]`@("`_P!`0`#PRJ;_@`"DH*"`0`"``/^``$``0(``````
M````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
M````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
M````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
M````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
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M````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
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M````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
M``````````````````````````````#_^_"@H*2`@(#_````_P#__P```/__
(`/\`________
`
end
sum -r/size 55527/17752 section (from first encoded line to "end")
sum -r/size 46702/55628 entire input file

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

Date: Friday, 5 Feb 1993 13:51:57 CET
From: Hermann Schneider <HSCHNEID@ESOC.BITNET>
Subject: ESA press release 04-93
Newsgroups: sci.space

Press Release Nr.04-93
Paris, 25 January 1993

ESA's Spacelab once again in space for Europe

Europe and ESA will soon be once more in the forefront of manned
space flight. The launch of the second German Spacelab mission
(D-2) is scheduled for 25 February 1993. For nine days, Space
Shuttle Columbia will carry in its cargo bay the ESA developed
Spacelab on a mission to conduct fundamental research in the
fields of material sciences (fluid physics and material processes),
life sciences (biology, human physiology and radiation biology),
astronomy, Earth observation and robotics.

A crew of 7 astronauts, 5 from NASA and 2 payload specialists
from DLR -the German Aerospace Research Establishment - will
have the task of executing some 90 experiments, 32 of which have
been funded and developed under ESA responsibility for scientists
from university and research institutes spread all over Europe.

Spacelab as a manned orbiting laboratory, has already flown 6
times. Spacelab technology (unmanned, pallet-only versions of the
laboratory) has also been used several other times. The year 1993
marks both the 20th anniversary of the programme and the 10th
anniversary of the first flight which occurred in November 1983
(STS-9/ Spacelab 1).

This will be the second time that the responsibility for the
complete scientific programme of a manned space mission is fully
in German hands. As was the case for the Spacelab D-1 mission in
1985, DLR has been entrusted by the German Federal Ministry for
Research and Technology (BMFT) with the project management,
the training of the scientific astronauts and the operation of
the payload. DLR's dedicated space operations control centre
for D-2 is located in Oberpfaffenhofen, near Munich in Germany.

ESA's contribution to this mission is remarkable: five of the 32
ESA experiments flown are contained in the Advanced Fluid
Physics Module (AFPM) for investigation in fluid physics and 19
are placed in the so called Anthrorack for human physiology
research in microgravity. Furthermore, six experiments in the
field of material synthesis and two experiments for the future
Columbus Attached Laboratory -the European contribution to the
International Space Station Freedom- will also be flown on D-2.

The D-2 press centre will be set-up at DLR's Operations Control
Centre in Oberpfaffenhofen for the duration of the whole mission.



From 09h00 till 18h00 media will be able to cover the mission in all
its aspects through video and audio links and follow mission
control specialists and scientists from close by. Status briefings
will be held in German  daily and press releases will also be issued
in German and English. Interviews with  key ESA personnel can be
arranged through the ESA Public Relations desk in the press
centre.

News media intending to cover the mission from the D-2 press
centre will have to seek accreditation in writing or by Fax directly
at:

DLR Public Affairs Office, Linder Hohe - D-5000 Koln Porz
(Germany)
Fax: + 49 2203 601 3249
with copy to :
ESA Public Relations Office
8-10 Rue Mario Nikis - F-75015 Paris (Fax: + 33 1 42 73 7690)

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

Date: Mon, 08 Feb 93 08:24:06 GMT
From: Rick Turner <ricky@vnet.ibm.com>
Subject: Satellite Imagery
Newsgroups: sci.image.processing,sci.aeronautics,sci.astro,sci.geo.geology,sci.geo.meteorology,sci.misc,sci.space,alt.sci.image-facility

Seasat imagery can be obtained without too much difficulty. First ask NSSDC
(the National Space Science Data Centre, located at Goddard Space Flight
Centre, in Greenbelt, Ma). You should also be able to get SIR-A and SIR-B
data too (note that SIR-A data is optical, not digital; you'll probably have
to digitise the prints if you need softcopy versions). I dont know what the
costs are these days (I get mine for free) but it is not high, basically
just media costs.

If you do not specifically want images of the earth, you can of course get
the Magellan data from the same source. Mgn is an S band SAR.

If you dont have to have satellite data, some of the JPL Airborne polarimetric
SAR data may also be available, though I dont know which datasets have been
released for public distribution.

Much of my work is with SAR - drop me an e-mail offline if you have questions.

Rick

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

Date: Mon, 8 Feb 1993 07:39:53 GMT
From: "Frederick A. Ringwald" <Frederick.A.Ringwald@dartmouth.edu>
Subject: Terror Stalks the Astronomers(was Re: MIR reflector)
Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.space

In article <1993Feb5.154609.1@fnalf.fnal.gov>
higgins@fnalf.fnal.gov (Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey) writes:

> Your remarks immediately reminded me of the "a fleet of solar power
> satellites will ruin dark skies" canard.  A few months ago Fred
> Ringwald did a calculation on that one and showed that it is not true,
> except perhaps for staggeringly large numbers of SPSs. 

Say what? Let me go on record and say that I dislike lights shining in
my face.

A simple calculation will show that a flat, circular sail with a radius
of 10 meters at an altitude of 330 km, reflecting sunlight at a
45-degree angle directly toward you, will have a visual magnitude V =
-2.0. Not as bright as Venus, right now (V = -3.9), but just as bright
as Jupiter, a year ago today (V = -2.0). Did you see the Gegenschein
last winter? I doubt it, since Jupiter was too nearby. Space debris is
already a problem for Schmidt photography. It doesn't take much to ruin
a pristine environment. Not that (sigh) this will make one whit of
difference.

For now, the small consolation is that this is in low Earth orbit, so
that nearly all the time nearly everywhere, it'll be beyond your
horizon. A practical Soletta, though, should be in geostationary orbit
- or how about a long, lazy, high-inclination Molniya orbit?

The good news, if you can call it that, is that to produce enough light
from a flat mirror in geostationary orbit and opposite the Sun to make
a reflected beam as bright as the Full Moon at the area on Earth it's
pointed at, a circular mirror would have to be about 70 miles in
radius. But this might not be such good news: thin film or vapor
deposition technologies may find that easy (ask Eric Drexler, not me),
although the dynamics of such an object may not be.

> However, the goal of the system is to put a lot of light into one
> place from a reflector of finite size.  Designers would optimize to
> make skies very bad in a small place and not spill much light
> elsewhere.   If you are living in the target area, you're out of luck. 
> If you are a few dozen or hundred miles away, the reflector probably
> won't be worse than a small bright object in your sky... perhaps like
> having Jupiter at opposition.

This neglects specular reflection, which will probably be significant,
especially if the reflector is made of a flimsy material. Films of the
dynamics of the Skylab umbrella shade come to mind.

Of course, focused sunlight is another matter. It brings to mind the
defense of Syracuse from the Roman invasion in 214 B.C. by Archimedes.
Supposedly, many soldiers held polished shields to direct sunlight at
individual ships, and they caught fire. Before you go calling this
"legendary," remember that this was reproduced in 1973: see the Flying
Circus of Physics, by Jearl Walker, and references therein. Arthur C.
Clarke wrote a fictional story about something similar, too: "A Slight
Case of Sunstroke."

Fred RIngwald
Department of Physics & Astronomy
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH 03755-3528

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End of Space Digest Volume 16 : Issue 157
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