Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V08/V8_339.TXT

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Date: Sun, 28 Aug 88 01:04:56 PDT
From: Ted Anderson <[e-mail]>
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Subject: SPACE Digest V8 #339

SPACE Digest                                      Volume 8 : Issue 339

Today's Topics:
             Re: Not in the line of duty
    Re: Space Station power supply (was Re: Lithium cells)
                whither Mike?
             Re: Not in the line of duty
            Re: Earth Orbit material limit
        astute pebbles; also: planets / space
              Re: Space Bloopers
    Re: Space Station power supply (was Re: Lithium cells)
                Space Station
        Re: SETI: Why don't we hear anything?
                Re: Aerospike
            Kettering Boys School
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 16 Aug 88 13:51:44 GMT
From: cfa!cfa250![e-mail]  (Jonathan McDowell)
Subject: Re: Not in the line of duty

From article <390@obi-wan>, by [e-mail] (Mike Berman):
> Ten of our astronauts' deaths have been widely publicized - namely the
> three aboard Apollo 1 and the seven aboard the Challenger. I'm curious
> as to who is no longer with us as the result of a more "normal" demise?
> Are all of the crews of the successful Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and
> shuttle missions still alive?


Jack Swigert (Apollo 13), died Dec 1982 of cancer
Donn Eisele (Apollo 7), died Dec 1987 of cardiac arrest

X-15 pilot Jack McKay (flew above 80 km), died Apr 75 of complications
from injuries in 1962 X-15 crash
X-15 pilot Mike Adams, died in crash of X-15-3, Nov 1967, 81 km apogee
X-15 pilot Joe Walker, flew above 100 km, died in F-104/XB-70 collision at Edwards, 1966.


Astronaut trainees have also died while in training...Ted Freeman
(1964), Elliot See and Charlie Bassett (1966), Robert Lawrence (1967),
Stephen Thorne (1986) in plane crashes, Ed Givens (1967) in a car crash;
and two former military astronaut trainees (Russell Rogers, 1967; James
Taylor, 1970) died in plane crashes after their programs were cancelled.

As far as I know, Swigert and Eisele are the only US astronauts or
astronaut trainees to have died 'natural' deaths, while the USSR has
lost Belyayev, Varlamov, Sorokin, Nelyubov, Lefchenko and possibly
others; as well as Komarov, Dobrovol'skiy, Volkov and Patsaev in
spaceflight, and Bondarenko and Gagarin in training.


Sorry for such a morbid article!


   - Jonathan McDowell

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

Date: 15 Aug 88 15:44:57 GMT
From: rochester!ritcv!ritcsh!ultb![e-mail]  (Andrew W. Potter)
Subject: Re: Space Station power supply (was Re: Lithium cells)

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Bob Myers) writes:
>
>>Main power on the space station is specified as 220 VAC at 20 kHz.
>
20 Khz???? I sure hope they never bring any dogs up there!


--
Andrew W. Potter                         Email: [e-mail]
Systems Programmer                              [e-mail]
Information Systems and Computing
Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester NY, 14623 [phone]

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

Date: 16 Aug 88 15:55:00 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (Mike Smithwick)
Subject: whither Mike?

[]
Well guys, it looks like all of your letters to Dukakis (sp?) has worked.
While visiting JSC yesterday Mike D. told of his changed heart regarding
the Space Station and the space program in general. He clearly supports
the space station, and talked of the "disarray" in the space program due
to bearuacracy (sp? again) and mis-management. He wants to set up Bentsen
as chairman of the National Aeronautics and Space Council or some such
thing. (Remember, Bentsen is a very strong support of NASA).

With this turn of events, and the strong pro-space plank in the Republican's
platform, things would appear to be looking up.


--
               *** mike (starship janitor) smithwick ***
"You can fool some of the people all of the time, or all of the people
 some of the time, but you can't fool Mom".
[disclaimer : nope, I don't work for NASA, I take full blame for my ideas]

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

Date: 16 Aug 88 15:19:12 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (Mike Smithwick)
Subject: Re: Not in the line of duty

[]
In article <390@obi-wan> [e-mail] (Mike Berman) writes:
>Ten of our astronauts' deaths have been widely publicized - namely the
>three aboard Apollo 1 and the seven aboard the Challenger. I'm curious
>as to who is no longer with us as the result of a more "normal" demise?
>Are all of the crews of the successful Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and
>shuttle missions still alive?
>--

The only experianced astronauts to have died from "normal" situations are
Jack Swigert the CMP from Apollo 13. He died a couple years back due to
cancer I believe, while he was running for congress. (He died before
the election, and he still won!) And just about 2 months ago, Donn Eisele
the CMP of Apollo 7 died while in Japan. (I forget what of).

Of course there have been a number of other rookie astros who
died or were killed. Elliot See and Charles Bassett were killed when the
plane they were flying crashed into the hanger that contained their
Gemini spacecraft. The were the prime crew for Gemini 10 I think. ( I don't have
my books here at work so I can't verify that). And the original Apollo 12
LMP, Theodore "CC" Freeman was killed in an car accident.
Al Bean took his place.

More recently, a couple of years ago a Shuttle rookie astronaut (forgot
his name) was killed in a plane accident.

--
               *** mike (starship janitor) smithwick ***
"You can fool some of the people all of the time, or all of the people
 some of the time, but you can't fool Mom".
[disclaimer : nope, I don't work for NASA, I take full blame for my ideas]

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

Resent-Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
Resent-Date: Tue, 16 Aug 88 13:01:38 -0400 (EDT)
Resent-From: Ted Anderson <[e-mail]>
Resent-To: [e-mail]
Return-Path: <[e-mail]>
Date:     Tue, 16 Aug 88 12:39 EST
From: <[e-mail]>
Subject:  Re: Earth Orbit material limit

Thomas Hacker writes:

>   In the news recently, I noticed a small article pertaining to the
>limiting of certain projects that would put objects into geosynchinous
>orbit.  One of the projects was a piece of art created by a French
>sculpter that would reflect light onto the planet's surface and appear
>as a bright object to the viewers below.  The article proceeded to
>mention that many astronomers were against this because they feared that
>the sky would become too "washed out" with light, thus decreasing the
>visibilty in the night sky already filled with "light pollution".
>
>   Has anyone heard of what there was behind this and what the outcome
>will be?

     Where have you been for the last two years?  :-)

     The French part of the story was an attempt by some French artist
to put 100m diameter, highly reflecting balloons into orbit, ringed
around the entire Earth, as part of the 100th anniversary celebrations
of the Eiffel Tower.  That amount of light would have disrupted
astronomical observations around the world for years, as well as filled
space with more junk.  The idea was proposed several years ago, and
abandoned sometime last year, because of the outcry (and expense
probably).

     It was a really stupid idea, and hopefully no other concerns,
especially commercial ones, will try such trash.  If not, we may be
subjected to a giant "Golden Arches" covering the face of the moon!  And
that is a scary thought.

                                         -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Arnold Gill                             | If you don't complain to those who  |
Queen's University at Kingston          | implemented the problem, you have   |
gill @ qucdnast.bitnet                  | no right to complain at all !       |
                                         -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

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

Date: 16 Aug 88 19:27:29 GMT
From: spdcc![e-mail]  (Steve Elias)
Subject: astute pebbles; also: planets / space

In <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Keith Lofstrom) writes:

    ... a nice treatment of the 'smart pebbles' idea ...  and...

>I DO want to show that space is a BIG place;  the Earth is not too small,
>either.  Village-scale thinking doesn't work any more.

    "Space is small.  The planets are big."

    this quote has stuck with me for many years.
    i think it belongs to Heinlein.
    i hope it makes someone out there smile...

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

Date: 16 Aug 88 19:35:52 GMT
From: concertina![e-mail]  (Steve Hix)
Subject: Re: Space Bloopers

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Mark William Hopkins) writes:
>>From article <[e-mail]>, by [e-mail] (Steve Hix):
>>
>>Ranger 3    missed moon...
>
> What did they call IT after it missed the moon?

Ranger 3 (at least when "Ranger what?" didn't work) :}

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

Date: 16 Aug 88 21:03:21 GMT
From: phri!cooper!dasys1![e-mail]  (Tom Betz)
Subject: Re: Space Station power supply (was Re: Lithium cells)

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Alan Larson) writes:
>my opinion:
>The best reason for 220 VAC at 20 KHz is that it provides the contractors
>with the opportunity to engineer custom parts at great profit.  It seems
>unlikely that the savings in size by 20 KHz power are worth the trouble.

The reason NASA offered for using 20KHz AC is that just about any desired
frequency can be obtained by using filters, obviating the need for much
heavier transformers.

This was at a NASA forum on the Space Station at EAA/Oshkosh last year.

Anyone at NASA care to comment?

--
  "Through practice, I have become one of the      |Tom Betz
      better liars in the English language.        |ZCNY, Yonkers, NY 10701-2509
I wouldn't say it if I didn't know it wasn't true" |UUCP: [e-mail] or
           - Emmanuel Transmission -               | ...!cmcl2!phri!dasys1!tbetz

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

Date: 16 Aug 88 07:56:02 GMT
From: cs.utexas.edu!sm.unisys.com!csun!polyslo![e-mail]  (The Math Hacker)
Subject: Space Station

Could someone e-mail me a copy of the full set of modules for the
space station, and their respective functions.  I seem to have lost mine in
some shuffle somewhere...

Thanks.
--
James A. Salter  --  Yes, math majors can use UNIX(tm), too...
[e-mail]       | sin(x)/n = 6   (Cancel the n's!)
...!ucbvax!voder!polyslo!jsalter   |     "Type h for help." -- rn

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

Date: 17 Aug 88 04:20:54 GMT
From: silver![e-mail]  (Lucius Chiaraviglio)
Subject: Re: SETI: Why don't we hear anything?

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Peter Kinsella) writes:
|In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Mike Van Pelt) writes:
|> There's lots of talk about making self-replicating explorers to
|> go through all the galaxy collecting data and eventually returning it
|> to Earth -- Suppose a sufficiently xenophobic civilization decided
|> to use the technique for eliminated threats/rivals?  You can postulate
|> that they get along fine with each other, but are horrified at the
|> idea of "others".
    [. . .]

|     Why would would the get along fine with each other but be afraid of a
|a little puny underdeveloped planet. If we assume that the galaxy is as
|expansive as most people claim. And if we assume that the Race is
|suffiently developed [. . .]

    These assumptions make sense from the rational point of view, but the
assumption that any technologically-advanced civilization (or any that might
be capable of star-faring by any other means, for that matter, although I have
a little trouble thinking of "other means" right off hand) will also be
rational is a dangerous assumption.  This is particularly the case considering
the very forboding human example. . .

    -- Lucius Chiaraviglio
       [e-mail]
       [e-mail]    (in case the first one doesn't work)

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

Date: 16 Aug 88 15:54:03 GMT
From: attcan!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Aerospike

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (WARMINK) writes:
>> What is an aerospike?  What is meant by its being (or not being)
>> "plugged"?
>An aerospike is a sharp extension of a (usually) blunt nose cone...

Actually, if I have my history right, this is a relatively recent use of
the term.  The older use is for a variant of the "plug nozzle" engine
(which is where the "plugged" business may come from).  The normal rocket
nozzle is a sort of bell shape wrapped around the exhaust.  It is possible
to turn it inside out, and have a tapering spike in the middle with the
exhaust around it.  It turns out that this works just fine even if there
is nothing around the exhaust but air, and in fact it has an advantage:
it has automatic "altitude compensation".

A normal rocket nozzle for use at varying altitudes is invariably a
compromise.  You get to choose what pressure the exhaust will be at when
it leaves the nozzle.  If it's higher than the local atmospheric pressure,
you are wasting energy that could be used for thrust.  If it's lower than
local pressure, the exhaust can break away from the nozzle surface before
reaching the end, with various ungood results.  You can cheat on this a
bit -- the SSME exhaust pressure is less than 1 atmosphere -- but not too
much.  The trouble is that rocket engines have to function at varying
altitudes, the worst case being something like the SSME which goes from
one full atmosphere at launch to hard vacuum just before cutoff.  There
are schemes for variable-geometry nozzles, so far not very practical.  The
plug nozzle's exhaust stream sticks close to the spike at high outside
pressure and expands widely at low pressure, effectively varying the shape
of the nozzle automatically.

One obvious problem is that that spike sticking down is a problem to cool
and a nuisance to have around on the pad.  But it turns out that you can
get almost the same results if you chop off the spike fairly short and
inject some low-velocity gas -- e.g. pump-turbine exhaust -- into the gap.
This is the "aerospike nozzle", which is the form of the plug nozzle that
would actually be used in a modern design.  It works pretty well.

There are disadvantages too, mind you.  For example, at high outside
pressure with the exhaust close to the spike, air has to make a fairly
abrupt turn around the base of the rocket to follow the surface of the
exhaust jet, and that adds drag.  On the whole the plug nozzle can still
be a considerable net win, and it's somewhat surprising that it's never
been used in a major application.  Scuttlebutt has it that the shuttle
would have had a plug nozzle, and been the better for it, were it not
that one company controlled all the patents and the spectre of single-
source procurement reared its ugly political head.
--
Intel CPUs are not defective,  |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
they just act that way.        | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry [e-mail]

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

Date: 14 Aug 88 17:21:19 GMT
From: unmvax!charon!ariel.unm.edu![e-mail]  (SPACE EXPLORATION)
Subject: Kettering Boys School



Hello.  Does anyone have some information on Geoffrey Perry and activities
at the Kettering Boys School in England?  This is the group that listens to
satellite radio transmissions and uses them to find newly launched Soviet
sats.  (see National Geographic, September 1983, pg. 327)

I would like to hear from anyone who knows about this.  Anyone have an
address for this school or news about their latest activities?

Ollie Eisman - N6LTJ

SSTS Project






_______________________  [e-mail]  ____________________________
SEDS-UNM : Students for the Exploration and Development of Space
Box 92 Student Union, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM  87106
[phone]

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

End of SPACE Digest V8 #339
*******************