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Subject: SPACE Digest V9 #517

SPACE Digest                                      Volume 9 : Issue 517

Today's Topics:
              Re: ADA and space station
             Final Frontier Summary V2,N4
          Re: More on the SS computers and NuBUS/MCA
              Re: Don't mess with NASA?
             Final Frontier Summary N3,V1
             Final Frontier Summary N5,V1
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Mon, 26 Jun 1989 13:10-EDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: ADA and space station

> I have talked with several people who have studied Ada, and they claim that
> object oriented programming is one of the major points of emphasis in the
> design of the language.

I was unaware that ADA had classes, objects and methods. True, I can
see how to fake many of these with the visibility rules, but I'm not
sure it's quite the same.

I can believe I am mistaken though. ADA strikes me as being a language
much like PL/I. It was designed by a committee and has EVERYONE's
favorite constructs...

I am not saying that there are not interesting advances in compiler
design and software engineering brought about by ADA. What I AM saying
is that it continues the separation of government aerospace from the
rest of the marketplace and guarantees that everything will be unique
and very, very expensive...

I'll stick with private ventures that buy off the shelf and spec usage
of the prevailing commercial standards, thank you.

> There is a set of articles in the June 1 issue of Computer Design describing
> changes in military procurement of mil-spec and off-the-shelf equipment and
> relevant issues, plus the evolution and current status of Ada.

If true, maybe we'll see the end of the era of the $100 hammer ($15 for
a good 20 oz hammer, $85 for the paper)

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

Date: 27 Jun 89 01:22:51 GMT
From: beowulf![e-mail]  (Chris Riley)
Subject: Final Frontier Summary V2,N4

Final Frontier, August 1989, Vol 2, No 4.
Final Frontier is published bi-monthly: Address: FF, P.O. Box 20089,
Minneapolis, MN 55420-9829.  $14.95 per year.
[I have no connection with FF except as a reader.]

Cover:"It was 20 years ago today."

"The Observator: The Next Giant Leap" by Eugene Cernan (Apollo 17 commander).
The United States needs a long term goal to maintain its leadership
position.  A 25 year committment to achieve some goal will embed the
space program into our society.

"Notes from Earth"
  * A Yen for News: Journalists working for Japan's Tokyo Broadcasting
     System compete for the first journalist in orbit.
  * Star Tracks: ESA's plans to orbit Hipparcos (High Precision Parallax
     Collecting Satellite).
  * "Fobos" Phlops: some results from the Soviet Fobos craft.
  * Shuttlescapes: watercolors by Molly Springer based on behind the
     scenes view of shuttle preparations.
  * Moonport Alpha: Computer program to sketch blueprints for a lunar hub.
  * Getting there is Half the Fun: Galileo will look at Earth and the moon
     on the way to Jupiter.
  * Mission to OZ: Plans for a probe into the Oort Zone (Oort Cloud) early
     in the next century.
  * Cool Sounds: A refrigerator that works in space using sound.

"Global Currents: Blue Star Rising" by Eric Lee
In September 1988, Israel launched its first satelite, Ofek-1.  Discussion
of possible effects of continuous surveillance by both sides of Middle East
conflicts.

"Mission File: STS-30"
Day by day coverage of the Atlantis mission of
May 4 to May 8, 1989.

"Boundaries: In Search of The Big Bang" by Henry Fuhrmann
The Cosmic Background Explorer is scheduled to begin a year-long search
for echoes of the Big Bang.  It will conduct two complete scans of the sky
over the year.  It will use detectors to determine whether the cosmic
background radiations is as uniform as previous experiments have shown.

"Windows on the World" by Alcestis R. Oberg
Space Station Freedom's cupolas will provide spectacular view of the
Earth and stars [if it gets off the drawing board].

"The Future as it was" by Les Dorr, Jr.
The proposed space program of von Braun and co during the 1950s.

"Apollo 11" by Andrew Chaikin
Lots of great moon pictures with text talking about the mission and other
later missions.  Also includes pictures and descriptions of all the Apollo
missions and crew.

"Where have all the moon rocks gone?" by Beth Dickey
Most of the moon rocks brought back by Apollo missions reside at the
Johnson Space Center in Houston.  Also tells where some of the rest of
it is and what it has been used for.

"Luna 2009" by Miles Weiss and Greg Freiherr
Planning to celebrate Apollo's 40th anniversary on the moon again.

"Neptune at last!" by Tony Reichhardt
About Neptune and Voyager 2's upcoming rendezvous.

"Backyard Universe: Where the Boys Were" by Patricia Barnes-Svarney
A telescopic tour of the Apollo landing sites.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Chris Riley                                       [e-mail]
"From the moment the first flint was flaked, this landing was
 merely a matter of time." --W.H. Auden, "Moon Landing" 1969
-------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: 27 Jun 89 01:32:27 GMT
From: vsi1!daver!lynx![e-mail]  (Neal Woodall)
Subject: Re: More on the SS computers and NuBUS/MCA

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (John Taylor) writes:

>>>Why PS/2's? Why the Micro Channel bus in particular? If they want to
>>>use PC's, why not the (vastly superior) Apple Mac? Oh well... :(

>>You are joking, right? While I am no fan of the IBM PC's and PS's, calling
>>the Mac a "superior" machine is kind of like saying that an amoeba is
>>superior to a bacteria.

>I don't get the signifigance; the Mac is faster, easier to use, and has
>a better bus.

Is the Mac faster? By what benchmark? The fastest Mac I have seen runs at
16 MHz, while the fastest PC-type machine runs at 25 MHz....also, in my
experience, a PC-type machine running at 25 MHz runs the whetstone benchmark
faster than any Mac.

Of course, my point was that it is kind of silly to compare two machines that
are several "quantum numbers" behind other available machines....it is kind of
like arguing which black-powder rifle is best for military applications in the
era of full-auto assault rifles.

Why didn't the engineers go "whole hog" and design a RISC machine with some
of the newer RISC chips?

>>The only thing that makes the Mac any good at all is the Mac human interface,
>>this will probably not be of any consequence for the space station software.

>No? I think it would make things vastly easier. In additon, all the
>Mac's "Human Interface" routines are in ROM which speeds execution and
>simplifies programming, reduces RAM requirements, etc.

Since the decision has already been made to go with an Unix-like OS, the Mac's
interface stuff is not applicable. Also, why not put the Unix-like OS's
kernel in ROM? (and perhaps more of the software also....)

>>Perhaps the designers will have enough common sense
>>to put a few DMA channels on the thing.....

>Micro Channel has DMA...

The Micro channel spec may allow DMA, but I have never seen a Mac with any
kind of DMA built in.

When talking about the NuBus, remember that the Apple Mac uses a "subset"
of the full NuBus spec. I don' know why the decisions were made....you would
have to ask the engineers in charge of the project.

I would imagine that Intel chips were chosen because IBM is the prime
contractor for the Space Station computer system....I imagine that the Micro
Channel was chose for the same reason. Then again, maybe it all has to do
with the availability of radiation hardened chips for the systems.


Neal

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

Date: 26 Jun 89 15:23:20 GMT
From: skipper![e-mail]
Subject: Re: Don't mess with NASA?

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Williams) writes:

>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
>>
>>We enjoyed the Gooney-Bird, since it was much nicer than the R4D that
>>it replaced, having soundproofing and cloth upholstery, but it was
>>a little embarassing to climb into our `new' 1941 airplane.
>>--

Incidentally, the R4D was built in 1943 and the `new' Gooney was built
in 41.  The R4D still had the plexiglass dome for taking star
sightings for navigation.  I'm pretty sure the `new' Gooney was a C-47
Skytrain, rather than a DC-3.

>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.  Embarassed
>indeed.  Any slob can crawl into a Lear or a Citation or something
>with blowtorches.  It takes gobs of macho (mega-macho!) to actually
>fly a -3!

It was just fine at civil airports, where everybody looked at us
admiringly and even took photos.  The embarassement came when we
taxied down Contractor Row here at Edwards.  Slowly we'd taxi by the
Air Force's latest and prettiest fighters, smoking and thundering
along.  I'm not sure it takes machismo to fly the aircraft--the pilots
would let me fly it from the right seat for hours and I'm not very
macho (M is for Mary).

>Embarassed indeed.  The nose gear is in the right place, the controls
>are covered with the right kind of metal, the engines drip the right
>kind of juice, and the blades are big and turn slowly on nice round
>engines.

Talk about dripping the right kind of juice--you can still see where
we parked that puppy and it's been _years_.  We got rid of it the
second time it had an engine fire.  It was coming back, full of
engineers, one evening and the engine left burst into flame.  They
turned around and did an emergency landing at 29 Palms.  We sent a
crew down, they changed out the engine (maybe just the affected jugs),
brought it back to Dryden, and parked it.  The next time it flew was
the ferry flight to Ole Miss, who'd picked it up from the salvage
(excess property) list.  Our pilots refused to fly it any more.  They
wanted the R4D back, but it had gone on to Cockroach Corner and was
lost to us forever.

I know our KingAir is faster, but it sure doesn't have the class!
--

M F Shafer                                |Ignore the reply-to address
NASA Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility |Use [e-mail]

NASA management doesn't know what I'm doing and I don't know what they're
doing, and everybody's happy this way.

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

Date: 27 Jun 89 01:17:54 GMT
From: beowulf![e-mail]  (Chris Riley)
Subject: Final Frontier Summary N3,V1

Final Frontier, August 1988, Vol 1, No 3.
Final Frontier is published bi-monthly: Address: FF, P.O. Box 20089,
Minneapolis, MN 55420-9829.  $14.95 per year.
[I have no connection with FF except as a reader.]

"The Observatory: Send Only the Best" by Walter M. Schirra (a
Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo pilot).
He argues that we should only send the best for the job so that we
get the most value for each person sent into orbit.  Thus, a Senator
and school teacher should not go.

"Global Currents: A Pan-American Space Agency" by Devera Pine.
By teaming up the US, Canada, and Latin America we could form a beneficial
tracking team in addition to helping to unite these countries with a
common goal.  Astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz is helping to organize an
international advisory board for PASO (Pan American Space Org).

"Earthly Pursuits: Lasers in Inner Space" by Ray Spangenburg and Diane Moser
NASA technology applied to the human cardiovascular system.

"Spacefarers: Remembering Challenger" by Maura J. Mackowski
Remembering the Challenger.

"Ascent: A 'rookie' gives an astronaut's eye-view of the short, fast
trip into space"  by Congressman Bill Nelson.

"At Home on the Space Station" by Ray Spangenburg and Diane Moser
Designs for the space station are discuessed as well as some pictures of
mockups and plans.

"Oceans Above" by Charles R. Pellegrino
Oceans on other planets and moons: Jupiter (Europa), Neptune (Triton),
Saturn (Enceladus and Titan).  Could these oceans harbor life?

"326 Days in Space" by Les Door, Jr.
'Typical'[!] days aboard Mir based on what cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko did.

"Little Comets BIG SPLASH" by Patrick Huyghe.
The Earth is showered by some twenty, 100-ton comets each and every
minute of every day according to Louis Frank.  They have found water
vapor in the outer fringes of the atmosphere and believe it is from
comets.

"A Discovery in Jazz" by C. J. Houtchens
Artists will create documentary art based on Discovery's coming launch.

"How to Build a Space Shuttle" by T.A. Heppenheimer.
The building of an orbiter is discussed including a discussion of the parts.
Also discussed is Enterprise, the computers, the 104%/109% engine ratings.

Insert: What the previous 25 shuttle missions accomplished 1981-1986

"Adrift on the Winds of Mars" by Greg Freiherr
Lighter-than-air spacecraft scheduled for 1994 departure for Mars.  These
craft will float across the planet to analyze soil whereever they land.

"The Rise and Fall and Rise of AMROC" by Melinda Gipson
The trials and tribulations of AMROC.

"Boundaries: The Great Lunar Helium Rush" by Maura J. Mackowski
He-3 may become the first valuable helium import from space.


-------------------------------------------------------------------
Chris Riley                                       [e-mail]
"From the moment the first flint was flaked, this landing was
 merely a matter of time." --W.H. Auden, "Moon Landing" 1969
-------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: 27 Jun 89 01:19:17 GMT
From: beowulf![e-mail]  (Chris Riley)
Subject: Final Frontier Summary N5,V1

Final Frontier, December 1988, Vol 1, No 5.
Final Frontier is published bi-monthly: Address: FF, P.O. Box 20089,
Minneapolis, MN 55420-9829.  $14.95 per year.
[I have no connection with FF except as a reader.]

"The Observatory: After Discovery" by Dave Hilmers.
What should be our goals after Discovery?  It is time to take risks.

"Special Section: Shooting the Moon"
* 1958: Pioneers. The early moon shots.
* 1968: Leaving Home. A discussion with Bill Anders of Apollo 8
* 1988: Lunar Oasis.  Is there water on the moon?  Also mentioned is a
  plan to do an inventory map of the moon.

Mission File STS-26: a complete day by day diary of the mission.

"How I Became an Astronaut" by Terry J. Hart
Terry Hart's story on how he became an astronaut.

"Space Songs"
Songs that have been written about space.  Is this a complete list?

"Summer of the Space Tigers" by Les Dorr, Jr.
The International Space University.  The article covers a lot of what
went on in their first session.

"Robonauts" by Greg Freiherr
NASA's current robotics plans.

Insert on all the Lunar Exploration Missions with Mission name, launch data,
who launched, and a description.

"Boundaries: Hunting for Near-Earthers" by Patricia Barnes-Svarney
Spotting near earth asteroids and other objects.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Chris Riley                                       [e-mail]
"From the moment the first flint was flaked, this landing was
 merely a matter of time." --W.H. Auden, "Moon Landing" 1969
-------------------------------------------------------------------

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

End of SPACE Digest V9 #517
*******************