Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V09_5/V9_515.TXT

Internet Message Format | 1991-07-08 | 16KB

Return-path: <[e-mail]>
X-Andrew-Authenticated-as: 7997;andrew.cmu.edu;Ted Anderson
Received: from corsica.andrew.cmu.edu via trymail for +dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr1/ota/space/[e-mail] (->+dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr1/ota/space/space.dl) (->ota+space.digests)
          ID </afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr1/ota/Mailbox/4YdoMMy00UkVMLuE4Z>;
          Tue, 27 Jun 89 05:17:13 -0400 (EDT)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail]
From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Date: Tue, 27 Jun 89 05:17:05 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: SPACE Digest V9 #515

SPACE Digest                                      Volume 9 : Issue 515

Today's Topics:
           Re: Children born July 20, 1969
           NSS/SpaceCause Legislative Alert
              Re: Gold Deposits
              Re: Don't mess with NASA?
              Re: Gold Deposits
               Re: SPACE Digest V9 #500
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 23 Jun 89 14:47:53 GMT
From: usc!orion.cf.uci.edu![e-mail]  (Doug Krause)
Subject: Re: Children born July 20, 1969

In article <[e-mail]6> [e-mail] writes:
>I don't know of anyone named "Module", but this makes me wonder when Frank
>Zappa's daughter "Moon Unit" was born.  I know she was about sixteen when
>she recorded "Valley Girl", and that was a few years ago.  Hmmmmm...

I think Valley Girl came out around 79 or 80 so she would have been
born about 5 years too early for the landing.

Douglas Krause                     CA Prop i:  Ban Gummie Bears(tm)!
--------------------------------------------------------------------
University of California, Irvine   ARPANET: [e-mail]
Welcome to Irvine, Yuppieland USA  BITNET: DJKrause@ucivmsa

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

Date:         Fri, 23 Jun 89 11:39:50 EDT
From: Steve Abrams <[e-mail]>
Subject:      NSS/SpaceCause Legislative Alert

 Pt. 1 - CRAF-Cassini

FROM SPACECAUSE (RPromoting Space Development Through Legislative
ActionS):

Dear Supporter:

    Because of the critical importance of this legislative year to the space
program, a united effort is being made, to support the NASA budget as a
whole and the new start on CRAF-Cassini -- which involves a comet
rendezvous, asteroid fly-bys, a Saturn orbiter and an entry probe into the
organic clouds of Titan down to its unexplored surface.  The NASA budget is
currently under close scrutiny in Congress.  CRAF-Cassini is the first truly
post-Apollo new start of a planetary mission.

    The National Space SocietyUs family of organizations and The Planetary
Society are joining together in this effort.  Both organizations are
recommending that their supporters contact appropriate members of
Congress to authorize CRAF-Cassini along with the requested NASA budget.

    We urge you to read the enclosed.

                    Cordially,

                    (signature)
                    Carl Sagan
                    President, The Planetary Society

                    Charles Walker
                    President, National Space Society


Dear SpaceCause or SpacePAC contributor or National Space Society member,

    The strategy of Spacecause is to politically organize those who are
already pro-space.  The same techniques which have made other movements
powerful can also make the space movement powerful.  In this context, the
preceeding letter of agreement between The Planetary Society and the
National Space SocietyUs family of organizations (SpaceCause, SpacePAC, and
NSS) is a milestone.  This agreement was originally suggested by Lori Garver,
NSS Executive Director.  It was negotiated by Louis Friedman, Executive
Director of the Planetary Society and myself and was ultimately signed by
Carl Sagan and Charles Walker.  Cooperation is the most effective way for the
space movement to make progress.

    Support for the NASA budget is particularly important this year
because of the intimate relationship between the budget and the Space
Station program.  NASA has publicly stated that if its budget is cut by the
$600-800 million or more, the agency will recommend that the program be
terminated.  According to former NASA Administrator James Beggs, Rsuch a
reduction is looming for the agency.S  The letter from Charles Walker which
follows in this package explains in terms of our goals why the Space Station
is the top priority short-term legislative goal of SpaceCause and the National
Space Society.  The CRAF-Cassini mission is important to science and to our
goal of creating a space-faring civilization that will establish communities
beyond the Earth.  It will chart valuable resources like asteroidal minerals
and cometary ice that may be of considerable importance to the
industrialization of space and to the development of space settlements.

    The mission has two components, CRAF and Cassini, which use
separate spacecraft.  The Mariner II spacecraft bus is to be developed and
used for both components.  This type of bus - a considerable advance over
existing technology -  is also expected to be used for other probes.

    CRAF (Comet Rendezvous Asteroid Fly-by) will pass by an asteroid
(449 Hamburga, an 88-km diameter carbonaceous body) for observation on
its way to rendezvous with Comet Kopff.  CRAF will fly alongside Kopff for
almost three years, observing the cometUs behavior and analyzing its
composition.

    Cassini will carry an orbiter and probe that will explore SaturnUs moon
Titan.  The probe will carry instruments to analyze the atmosphere of Titan
as the probe parachutes to the surface and will continue to radio reports
from the surface after landing.  The orbiter will image the surface of Titan,
creating radar maps with 200 meter resolution.  The orbiter will also explore
SaturnUs other moons and its rings.

    It is very difficult for new starts, like CRAF-Cassini to survive when
the NASA budget is severely cut.  We need your help to save the Space
Station and CRAF-Cassini.  There are two key upcoming votes which will
probably decide the issue.  The first will occur in congressman Bob TrazlerUs
House Appropriations sub-committee which deals with NASA.  We shall
contact you about the second later.

    The Traxler vote is imminent, which is why this letter is being mailed
first-class instead of at the less-expensive and slower non-profit rate.  We
need everyone to telephone Congressman Bob Traxler during Washington
business hours (letters may not arrive in time).  His direct number is
[phone].  In addition, please call those, if any, of the following
members of TraxlerUs subcommittee that are from your state:  Louis Stokes
(D-OH), Lindy Boggs (D-LA), Allan Mollohan (D-WV), Jim Chapman (D-TX),
Chester Atkins (D-MA), Lawrence Coughlin (R-PA), Bill Green (R-NY), and
Jerry Lewis (R-CA).  Any member of Congress cna be reached by calling
[phone] and asking for the member in question.

    Ask for full funding for NASA and in particular for the Space Station.
Also mention CRAF-Cassini as a secondary issue.  At the time I am writing
this, it is not known when TraxlerUs subcommittee will vote.  The best
strategy is to call as soon as you receive this letter.  Up-to-date information
can be obtained by calling the Space Hotline at [phone].  After you
call, ask your friends to do the same.  Then help us out by sending a financial
contribution to SPACECAUSE -- these grassroots mailings cost money, and can
be continued only with the support of space advocates like yourself.

    The next century can be the century in which America leads humanity
into space to live and work.  It will be an adventure without parallel in
human history -- grander than the great age of Earth exploration and
settlement that started several hundred years ago and has only ended in this
century.  For the adventure to take place, though, those of us with vision
must work to overcome shortsightedness and ignorance here on Earth.
Please help.

                    Sincerely yours,

                    (signature)
                    Mark M. Hopkins
                    President, Spacecause

Dear Space Supporter,

    The fundamental, long-term goal of Spacecause and the National Space
Society is to create a space-faring civilization that will establish communities
beyond the Earth.  A permanently manned space station is required to meet
this goal.

    If we are serious about opening the space frontier, we must gain long-
term experience with living and working in space.  We must have a platform
for extensive biological and medical research of the effects of low and
variable gravity on living things.  This vital research cannot be done on
Earth.  Nor can it be done on a man-tended platform.  Only a permanently-
manned space station, such as Space Station Freedom, capable of providing
continuous life support, will eet the need.

    We must have a staging base for the efforts to expand permanent
human presence beyond low Earth orbit.  A major spaceport is required to
support exploration and development, first of the moon, and ultimately of
the inner solar system.  Freedom Station is but the first step in human
expansion into space; but it is also a critical first step.  There will be no
return to the moon in the foreseeable future without Freedom Station.

    It is for these reasons that Freedom Station is the top priority short-
term legislative goal of Spacecause and the National Space Society.  we need
new starts like CRAF-Cassini to help identify resources and chart our future
course.  But exploration is only the beginning.  For the permanent occupancy
of space, we need Freedom Station.

    I urge each of you to write or call members of Congress in accordance
witht he instructions in the accompanying materials.  Only by collective
action can we obtain our goals.

                        Sincerely,

                        (signature)
                        Charles Walker
                        Chairman, Spacecause

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

Date: Fri, 23 Jun 1989 14:34-EDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Gold Deposits

MINERAL SURVEY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM ACCORDING TO DMA...

Gold will most likely be found on planets that either have:

    1) Plate Tectonics
    2) Significant vulcanism that remelts rock and allows slow
       solidification (ie the nonreactive/nonsoluble gold has a
       chance to collect in veins/pockets)
    3) Places where there is access to the core of a differentiated
       body.

Mercury probably has the largest gold deposits of anywhere in the solar
system, but despite the giant size of it's core relative mantle, it is
still an inaccessable number of kilometers deep.

There is gold in small but economically viable percentages in
iron and stony iron asteroids, along with the Platinum and Palladium.
Some asteroids, from collisions over eons, are pieces of naked core
material. Merely add energy and separate using a Carbonyl process.

The Earth is most likely the richest source of mineable VEINS in the
solar system, due to the combination of vulcanism, plate tectonics and
fluid dissolution/deposition. Some think that gold veins may be largely
the result of gold dissolved in sea water that is trapped and carried
down with the plate subduction.

Some of the very large shield volcanoes on Mars and Venus would seem
reasonable but less certain propects also.

The evidence is not in yet, but Venus may have at one time in its past
had active plate tectonics. Some think it may still have. The answers
will be forthcoming when Magellan arrives ans starts sending back maps
at the higher resolution needed to answer this question. The features
are just on the edge of resolution in current images. Close enough to
make good arguments. Not close enough to buy penny mining stocks on
Beta Regio Mining & Extraction Inc.

The Moon probably has no deposits other than that left over from the
dust of asteroid collisions. There have been some theorizing about
limited differentiation in some lava flows, even of underground
volatiles to leach and carry minerals. I place my bet that there are no
lunar volatiles, polar or otherwise. I expect the private Lunar Polar
Orbiter Project will show this to be the case.

The martian moons are probably chondritic and probably have a little of
the Platinum group, but not much. Mostly they will be valuable for
their volatiles for refueling and CHON compounds for food stocks.

Mars itself might have had stillborn tectonics, but most likely was
limited to shield volcano activity, as mentioned above.

The outer moons are mostly "dirty ice's" and unlikely to have much in
the way of heavy nuclei. The furthur out you go, the large the fraction
of "volatiles" (at least things that are volatile in here close to the
solar furnace) grows rapidly.

There are probably loads of heavy metals in the cores of the gas
giants, but you might find it a little difficult to get at them...

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

Date: 24 Jun 89 08:57:32 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (Jonathan Patrick Leech)
Subject: Re: Don't mess with NASA?

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (45262-Williams,J.B.) writes:
>EMBARASSING!! EMBARASSING!!!  There is such class to crawling into
>a DC-3 at an airport that there is not even any word for such mega-
>class.  The only thing better than a DC-3 is TWO DC-3s.

    Are you sure you're not really Henry "Version 7" Spencer posting
under an alias?
--
    Jon Leech ([e-mail])
    Apple Integrated Systems
    __@/

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

Date: 24 Jun 89 19:55:42 GMT
From: rochester![e-mail]  (Paul Dietz)
Subject: Re: Gold Deposits

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
>MINERAL SURVEY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM ACCORDING TO DMA...
>
>Gold will most likely be found on planets that either have:
>
>    1) Plate Tectonics
>    2) Significant vulcanism that remelts rock and allows slow
>       solidification (ie the nonreactive/nonsoluble gold has a
>       chance to collect in veins/pockets)
>    3) Places where there is access to the core of a differentiated
>       body.

...
>There is gold in small but economically viable percentages in
>iron and stony iron asteroids, along with the Platinum and Palladium.
>Some asteroids, from collisions over eons, are pieces of naked core
>material. Merely add energy and separate using a Carbonyl process.

Asteroids were apparently melted early in the history of the solar
system, and became differentiated.  I wonder if veins or layers
enriched in various materials, like gold, could have formed when
they cooled.  Naively, I'd expect the larger asteroids to be
better differentiated, since they cooled more slowly and have
stronger gravity.

This leads to an interesting question: how deep can one dig a mine on
an asteroid?  My back of the envelope calculation says we should
be able to dig a mine to the center of all but perhaps the largest
asteroids, assuming they aren't too hot inside (I assume not).

Perhaps some smaller asteroids have had veins exposed by impact.  It
would be real nice if we had some close-up data.  It should be
possible to arrange a spacecraft's orbit around the sun so that it
encounters roughly one main belt asteroid per year for a decade or
more.  A more complete survey of the main belt would help a lot.

I hope the price of palladium goes through the roof. :-)

    Paul F. Dietz
    [e-mail]

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

Date:         Sat, 24 Jun 89 12:05:54 EDT
From: "Marc L. Overman" <[e-mail]>
Subject:      Re: SPACE Digest V9 #500

Sirs,

     Don't you still need to have an acceleration of at least 8 km/sec in order
 to even reach a stable apogee?  It should be 11 km/sec in order to escape the
earth's gravitational field.

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

End of SPACE Digest V9 #515
*******************