Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V09_2/V9_298.TXT

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Subject: SPACE Digest V9 #298

SPACE Digest                                      Volume 9 : Issue 298

Today's Topics:
          JPL's Space Science Sampler CD-ROM
              Re: Babies born in space.
             hearing impairments in space
               International Standards
          NASA Prediction Bulletins:  Space Shuttle
NASA and Japan sign Space Station Memorandum of Understanding (Forwarded)
             Re: Moronic TV news coverage
          Soviets and collapsing Telescopes
Re: Discovery's return-to-flight photographs record many firsts (Forwarded)
               Re: Black hole trolling
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 15 Mar 89 13:26:04 GMT
From: jumbo![e-mail]  (Jorge Stolfi)
Subject: JPL's Space Science Sampler CD-ROM

Eric Harnden wriets:
>
>   Fairly recently, some mention was made of interest in obtaining
>   data on star positions in a machine-readable format.  I have
>   heard that NSSDC has just installed a CD-ROM pre-mastering
>   workstation.  The first CD-ROM developed by them conatins 31
>   astronomical source catalogs from the archives of the
>   Astronomical Data Center.

I don't know if it is the same thing, but I just bought from NSSDC
a CD-ROM with several astronomical catalogs, tables, maps and planetary
images.

The disk was produced by JPL and is called the Interactive Data
Interchange (IDI) 1986 Science Sampler Disk.  Apparently it is a
grab-bag of files collected during a workshop whose primary goal was to
test the feasibility of exchanging and collecting space data via
computer networks.  The files that made their way into the IDI disk are
a quite mixed lot.  Many of the files are random samples of larger data
sets that hopefully one day will be published on their own.

The data on the disk (some 600 Megabytes) includes, among other things

  * some star catalogs.

  * the IRAS (Infra-Red Astronomy Satellite) point
    source catalog.

  * a few radar and landsat(?) images of the Earth.

  * altitude maps (artificial images where brighter = higher)
    of the continental US, almost complete.

  * some images of the oceans (temperature and clorophyll concentration).

  * a table of planetary features (craters, mountains, etc)
    with names and locations.

  * miscellaneous Halley Watch observations for comet Crommelin.

  * some geological maps and miscellaneous data for Mars.

  * a dozen images of Phobos (Viking? Mariner?).

  * a couple hundred Voyager images of Jupiter, Saturn, and their satellites.

So far I have only had time to browse through the Voyager images.
Note that these are RAW images, with all the pixel defects,
registration marks, missing scanlines, exposure errors, and so forth.
They are *monochrome* images (taken through several filters, though),
with 800x800 pixels at 8-bits per pixel.  (That is about 650KBytes per
image, so don't ask me to post them to the net!) Whether you will find
them exciting or boring will depend on how interested you are in
planetary exploration: their visual impact is is not great, but the
resolution is the best you can get on this planet.

Obviously, you need access to a computer with a
greyscale display and a CD-ROM drive to make use of this disk.
It won't play on a Videodisc player...

Bundled with the CDROM comes a floppy disk with IMDISP, an Image
Display Program written by JPL that runs on MS-DOS PC's with
VGA/EGA/PGA/CGA cards.  The package also includes a 60-page manual for
IMDISP and the IDI CD-ROM.  All this for $50 (Well worth it, IMHO).

It seems that JPL is preparing a (multi-volume?) CD-ROM with all
Voyager images taken during the Uranus encounter, which eventually will
be available through NSSDC.

The address to write to is

  Attn: Patricia Ross, Manager, Request Coordination
  National Space Science data Center (NSSDC)
  Central data Services Facility
  Goddard Space Flight Center
  Code 633.4
  Greenbelt, Maryland 20771
  Phone [phone]

Enjoy

                Jorge Stolfi @ DEC Systems Research Center
                [e-mail], ...!decwrl!stolfi
------------------------------------------------------------------------
COMPACTDISCLAIMER: I am not a relative, employee, or stockholder of the
U. S. Government.  My only relation to JPL and the NSSDC is that of a
satisfied armchair astronomer.  Digital Equipment Corporation neither
endorses nor disawows the opinions expressed herein; quite the opposite.
Any errors or omissions in the above should be regarded as valuable
contributions to the reader's life experience.  Void where restricted
or prohibited by law.

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

Date: 14 Mar 89 12:01:15 GMT
From: mcvax!ukc!strath-cs!glasgow![e-mail]  (Jack Campin)
Subject: Re: Babies born in space.

In all this attention to foetal development, the mother seems to been forgotten
about.  Since bones lose a lot of calcium in zero-G, and pregnancy requires a
lot of calcium for the baby, there may well be serious problems for her; and
some of the chemical fixes that might prevent decalcification are hazardous
to the foetus.

--
Jack Campin  *  Computing Science Department, Glasgow University, 17 Lilybank
Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QQ, SCOTLAND.    041 339 8855 x6045 wk  041 556 1878 ho
INTERNET: [e-mail]    USENET: [e-mail]
JANET: [e-mail]     PLINGnet: ...mcvax!ukc!cs.glasgow.ac.uk!jack

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

Date: Wed, 15 Mar 89 17:38 EST
From: [e-mail]
Subject: hearing impairments in space

Does anyone have any information about how hearing impairments
affect performance in space?  I remember reading an article that
claimed some kinds of impairments give a benefit in terms of
balance, but I don't know if any experiments have been conducted
in a weightless environment.

Thanks,
Bob

[e-mail] or
[e-mail]

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

Date: 15 Mar 89 22:56:15 GMT
From: cfa!cfa250![e-mail]  (Steve Willner P-316 x57123)
Subject: International Standards

From article <[e-mail]>, by [e-mail] (MacLeod):
> A month or so ago I made the heretical statement that the USA ask for
> technical specs for Soviet docking and fastening interfaces and adopt them
> as an international standard.   Nobody commented on this.  On second
> thought, though, there a third set of standards, those used by the ESA.

Part of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project was the development of a new
docking adaptor.  I vaguely remember that the agreement for ASTP
included the provision that the new adaptor would be used in future
missions by the US and USSR.  Can anyone confirm or deny that this
provision was part of the agreement?  And does anyone know whether
the current Soyuz/Mir adaptors are made according to the ASTP
specifications?
--
Steve Willner            Phone [phone]         Bitnet:   willner@cfa
60 Garden St.            FTS:      830-7123           UUCP:   willner@cfa
Cambridge, MA 02138 USA                 Internet: [e-mail]

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

Date: 14 Mar 89 21:47:50 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (TS Kelso)
Subject: NASA Prediction Bulletins:  Space Shuttle


The most current orbital elements from the NASA Prediction Bulletins are
carried on the Celestial RCP/M, [phone], and are updated several times
weekly.  Documentation and tracking software are also available on this
system.  As a service to the satellite user community, the most current
elements for the current shuttle mission are provided below.  The Celestial
RCP/M may be accessed 24 hours/day at 300, 1200, or 2400 baud using 8 data
bits, 1 stop bit, no parity.

STS-29
1 19882U 89 21  A 89 73.16458310  .00000249  00000-0  00000 0 0    77
2 19882  28.4613 223.2113 0023004 194.1713  98.3518 15.84881046    80
--
Dr TS Kelso                           Asst Professor of Space Operations
[e-mail]          Air Force Institute of Technology

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

Date: 15 Mar 89 16:55:02 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA and Japan sign Space Station Memorandum of Understanding (Forwarded)

Mark Hess
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                     March 14, 1989

Debra Rahn
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.


RELEASE:  89-32

NASA AND JAPAN SIGN SPACE STATION MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING


     NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher and the Ambassador
of Japan to the United States H. E. Nobuo Matsunaga today signed
the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the U.S. National
Aeronautics and Space Administration and the government of Japan
on cooperation in the detailed design, development, operation and
utilization of the permanently-inhabited, civil space station,
which the U.S. calls Freedom.  The agreement was signed at a
brief ceremony at NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

     Comparable MOUs with the European Space Agency and Canada
were signed, along with an inter-governmental agreement, in a
ceremony held at the U.S. State Department last September.  The
MOUs signed between NASA and its three partners focus on
programmatic and technical aspects of the cooperative effort and
establish the management mechanisms necessary to carry out the
Freedom program.

     The MOU with Japan will enter into force upon written
notification by each party that all procedures necessary for its
entry into force have been completed.  Until then, Japan will
continue to work under an extension of the MOU signed with NASA
in May 1985 at the start of the space station program's
definition and preliminary design phase.

     Under the agreements, Japan will provide the Japanese
Experiment Module (JEM) to the Freedom program.  The JEM, to be
permanently attached to the space station base, consists of a
pressurized laboratory module, at least two experiment logistics
modules and an exposed facility, which will allow experiments to
be exposed to the space environment.

     Experimenters will conduct materials processing and life
sciences research in the laboratory module, while the logistics
module can be used to ferry materials between the station and
Earth and for storing experimental specimens and various gases
and consumables.

     Space Station Freedom is an international space complex
comprising a permanently-inhabited base and unmanned scientific
platforms to be placed into orbit in the mid 1990's.  The mission
of the Freedom program is to provide for the United States and
its international partners -- Canada, Japan and 9 European
nations -- a diverse set of capabilities permitting humans to
live and work in space for extended periods of time.

     The station will enable fundamental research in materials
and life sciences, support observations of the Earth, its solar
system and the universe and provide the on-orbit test bed for the
development of advanced technologies necessary for human
exploration of the solar system.

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

Date: 15 Mar 89 18:03:55 GMT
From: csd4![e-mail]  (Michael C Polinske)
Subject: Re: Moronic TV news coverage

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:

   In Portland, OR (Rogers Cable TV) there were two channels that had pure
   NASA feeds (NASA Select?).  These were a local cable access channel and
   (more importantly) CSPAN-II, one of the congressional channels.  I know
   that the local channel was set to start the NASA feeds at 12:30 am pacific
   time.  I don't know when CSPAN-II started their coverage, but there was NO
   ancher person overdubbing, other than the official NASA lady (which you
   would get even if you had a direct downlink from NASA Select.  Check to see
   if your local cable has CSPAN-II (I watched it over the local channel
   because the local had a jumpy picture).

I don't know about the lauch coverage, but I do know that a public
access channel on our cable system has a continuous coverage of the
shuttle mission.  They have done this one time before also but I do
not believe they do this for secret missions.  In the corner of the
screen it shows something like this:

SCHOOL CABLE TV
NASA [LIVE]

It shows this even when I know that I saw it early.  so the cable
system must put it in.  I was wondering what network carried such
continuous, uncommentated (word?) coverage of a space flight.

   Tim Forsyth
   Intel Corporation
   OEM Platforms Operation
   Hillsboro, Oregon
   [e-mail]

--
|snail mail: Michael Charles Polinske    |email:    [e-mail]    |
|         5730 North 68th St.    |                       |
|         Milwaukee, WI 53218    |Telephone: 1+[phone]       |

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

Date:     15-MAR-1989 12:54:47 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Subject:  Soviets and collapsing Telescopes
Site:     King's College London (U.K.)
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Sender: Malcolm_Hey <[e-mail]>

I recomend you read Scientific American FEBRUARY 1989 (Volume 260).
It contains a interesting article part written by Sally Ride,
titled 'Soviets in Space' (page 18-26).
This includes a few interesting pictures including a cutaway diag.
of Mir, and a large photo of a horizontal stacked Buran Shuttle on
its Energia in the hanger.
The articles main task is to sum-up the Soviet Space capability, and
establish a clear picture of the Soviet space plan. Nothing is left
to chance, with mention of nearly all Soviet rockets and Space stations
capabilities and roles etc. The picture painted is a worrying one,
especially when compared to the US.

Also in the same volume (page 10) is a light-hearted article titled
'In Memoriam', concerning the collapse of a 300ft radio telescope in West
Verginia in November'88. At risk of copyright, here is a short extract:

"Birds..liked to roost in the receiver horns, far above in the dish.
To avoid climbing up ...someone installed an electronic scare-crow,
a tone generator that produced cosmic sounding bleeps and bloops that
were audible all around the area. We would tell tourists that bleeps were
signals being received from space..and the visitors went away satisfied."
(Article by Tony Rothman)
                Malcolm

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

Date: 16 Mar 89 10:45:28 GMT
From: orion.cf.uci.edu![e-mail]  (Doug Krause)
Subject: Re: Discovery's return-to-flight photographs record many firsts (Forwarded)

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Peter E. Yee) writes:
>     As a result, the STS-26 photographs captured details not
>usually seen in Shuttle photography: for the first time, an
>aircraft was photographed generating a contrail; individual
>buildings could be seen in the Canary Islands; a line of
>electrical transmission pylons was seen in southern Sudan; and
>oil platform flares were seen in the Gulf of Campeche.

Could these be seen without the cameras?  I ask because we've
all been told that the Great Wall is the only manmade object
visible from space.

Douglas Krause            "You can't legislate morality" -George Bush
---------------------------------------------------------------------
University of California, Irvine    ARPANET: [e-mail]
Welcome to Irvine, Yuppieland USA   BITNET: DJKrause@ucivmsa

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

Date: 15 Mar 89 14:12:27 GMT
From: sgi!shinobu![e-mail]  (Scott Henry)
Subject: Re: Black hole trolling

>  [e-mail] in s.cs.uiuc.edu:sci.space :
>     Easy.  The forces that hold a macroscopic object together are
> electromagnetic.  They require the exchange of virtual photons between
> the particles to be held together.  When the object extends across the
> event horizon, the photons can no longer go from the atoms inside the
> black hole to the atoms outside.  Thus the tether is neatly sliced.

This is incorrect. The definition of the event horizon is the point at
which photons cannot escape to *infinity*. This in no way implies that
they cannot cross the event horizon, they just cannot make it very far
past it (depending on how deep they started). The bonds between atoms
(nucleons) would begin to behave *oddly* as the energy of the virtual
photons (gluons) would be different as seen by the higher and the lower
(gravitationally speaking) particles. How oddly? Who's interested in a PHd
thesis (maybe only a Masters)?

--
---------------------
              Scott Henry <[e-mail]>
#include <std_disclaimer.h>

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

End of SPACE Digest V9 #298
*******************