Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V10_0/V10_061.TXT

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Subject: SPACE Digest V10 #61

SPACE Digest                                      Volume 10 : Issue 61

Today's Topics:
Re: Progress M-1 (new type of cargo craft) launched to USSR's Mir station
       Re: NASA Headline News for 09/06/89 (Forwarded)
     Re: Galileo Jovian atmospheric probe -- is it sterilized???
     Re: Galileo Jovian atmospheric probe -- is it sterilized???
       Re: NASA Headline News for 09/06/89 (Forwarded)
            Laser propulsion and Dean Ing
              Re: Neptune fly-by
                Voyager update
             Re: Ballute systems
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 31 Aug 89 01:24:10 GMT
From: mailrus!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!attcan!ncrcan!ziebmef![e-mail]  (Matthew Francey)
Subject: Re: Progress M-1 (new type of cargo craft) launched to USSR's Mir station

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Glenn Chapman) writes:
>
>     The Soviets announced on Radio Moscow (Aug. 23) the launching
>of a new cargo carrier, Progress M1, to the Mir/Kvant space station.
>This will dock at the rear (Kvant) docking port in about 2 days.

  An un-manned vehicle will dock with an un-manned space station?  Is this
possible? (Well, of course it is possible... can anyone do it?)
--
Name: Matthew Francey             Address: N43o34'13.5" W79o34'33.3" 86m
[e-mail]                uunet!{utgpu!moore,attcan!telly}!ziebmef!mdf

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

Date: 7 Sep 89 15:54:16 GMT
From: deimos.cis.ksu.edu!cveg!hcx![e-mail]  (6079 Smith James)
Subject: Re: NASA Headline News for 09/06/89 (Forwarded)


In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Mike Shawaluk) writes:
> [Soviets painting ads on their launchers]
> On a related note, would there be any problem caused by the weight of the
> paint, or drag caused by it, etc., if such a thing were to be actually done?

Yes.  The reason that the Shuttle external tanks are orange (insulation-
colored) instead of white is that they realized they could save $$ and
about 1000 pounds by not painting them.  I believe an accident caused
this discovery.

The economics would probably favor Coke ads on the shuttle.  However, by
the time the feasibility studies and paperwork were complete, plus hiring
a staff of union painters at $35/hr, it would probably not be a net gain.


 /--------------------------------------------------------------------------\
|  James W. Smith, University of Arkansas  |  hcx![e-mail]   |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|  I'm so depressed.  If I didn't have so much to do, I'd be a nihilist.     |
 \--------------------------------------------------------------------------/

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

Date: 7 Sep 89 19:46:43 GMT
From: mailrus!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!csri.toronto.edu![e-mail]  (Wayne Hayes)
Subject: Re: Galileo Jovian atmospheric probe -- is it sterilized???

In article <[e-mail]>
I wrote:

>a few lines saying that if the probe wasn't sterilized, then we should
>re-consider not launching it into the atmosphere of Jupiter.

In article <you name it>, <nearly everyone> writes:

>[many reasons why we shouldn't worry]


and

In article <a few>, <not nearly everyone> writes:

>Gee, maybe Wayne's right.


Well, if it helps, I for one have been pretty well convinced that the
danger is negligible.  The differences in chemistry, the lack of phosphers,
and *especially* James R. White's article
(Message-ID: <[e-mail]>) about water droplets not able to
propagate any surviving Earth bacteria, all seem to make it clear that my
lack of knowledge of biology (and lack of thinking about micro surface
tension effects) got me here.

    I'm even mostly convinced that the same droplet barrier will
stop any evolving indigenous life in its tracks, on ANY gas giant.  Does
anyone know how proponents of life in gas giant atmospheres get past this
barrier?  (Proponents, you know, those people with the same silly ideas
that I once had, a looong, looong time ago. :-)

    However, if there IS indigenous life on Jupiter (and I'd like to
know how it could evolve, how it could get past the very same droplet
barrier mentioned above), and oceans of liquid water as the people of the
Christic Institute believe, and Earth life DOES kill it off and take over
the place, don't be surprised if [e-mail] in 2056, just
after our manned probe into the Jovian atmosphere finds pterydactils, claims

        I TOLD YOU SO !!!!  :-) :-)

--
Don't forget: 600 times the daily oral human intake of Sacharin injected
directly into the bloodstream of a lab rat might cause it bladder cancer.
Spelling lessen: a class designed to lessen your ability to spell.
Wayne Hayes    INTERNET: [e-mail]    CompuServe: 72401,3525

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

Date: 7 Sep 89 19:42:19 GMT
From: mailrus!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!csri.toronto.edu![e-mail]  (Wayne Hayes)
Subject: Re: Galileo Jovian atmospheric probe -- is it sterilized???

In article <[e-mail]>
I wrote:

>a few lines saying that if the probe wasn't sterilized, then we should
>re-consider not launching it into the atmosphere of Jupiter.

In article <you name it>, <nearly everyone> writes:

>[many reasons why we shouldn't worry]


and

In article <a few>, <not nearly everyone> writes:

>Gee, maybe Wayne's right.


Well, if it helps, I for one have been pretty well convinced that the
danger is negligible.  The differences in chemistry, the lack of phosphers,
and *especially* James R. White's article
(Message-ID: <[e-mail]>) about water droplets not able to
propagate any surviving Earth bacteria, all seem to make it clear that my
lack of knowledge of biology (and lack of thinking about micro surface
tension effects) got me here.

    I'm even mostly convinced that the same droplet barrier will
stop any evolving indigenous life in its tracks, on ANY gas giant.  Does
anyone know how proponents of life in gas giant atmospheres get past this
barrier?  (Proponents, you know, those people with the same silly ideas
that I once had, a looong, looong time ago. :-)

    However, if there IS indigenous life on Jupiter (and I'd like to
know how it could evolve, how it could get past the very same droplet
barrier mentioned above), and oceans of liquid water as the people of the
Christic Institute believe, and Earth life DOES kill it off and take over
the place, don't be surprised if [e-mail] in 2056, just after
our manned probe into the Jovian atmosphere finds pterydactils, claims

        I TOLD YOU SO !!!!  :-) :-)

--
Don't forget: 600 times the daily oral human intake of Sacharin injected
directly into the bloodstream of a lab rat might cause it bladder cancer.
Spelling lessen: a class designed to lessen your ability to spell.
Wayne Hayes    INTERNET: [e-mail]    CompuServe: 72401,3525

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

Date: 7 Sep 89 21:19:40 GMT
From: ubc-cs!eric!liszt![e-mail]  (Richard W. Desaulniers)
Subject: Re: NASA Headline News for 09/06/89 (Forwarded)

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Mike Shawaluk) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Peter E. Yee) writes:
>>station tomorrow.  The rocket which lifted the two cosmonauts
>>into space was painted with ads for an Italian insurance company,
>
>Has NASA ever thought of this idea before (i.e., selling advertising space on
> .....
>On a related note, would there be any problem caused by the weight of the
>paint, or drag caused by it, etc., if such a thing were to be actually done?


Actually it is my understanding that the extra weight is the reason why
the main booster tank was left a primer red!




Regards;               |
                       |
Richard W. Desaulniers | InterNet: [e-mail]

Regards;               |
                       |
Richard W. Desaulniers | InterNet: [e-mail]

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

Date: 8 Sep 89 03:05:28 GMT
From: galaxy.rutgers.edu!andromeda.rutgers.edu![e-mail]  (Michael T Ruane Sr)
Subject: Laser propulsion and Dean Ing


Howdy net folk-

    With all this talk of low cost launchers and laser powered
    launch systems, I was wondering if anyone has read _The
    Big Lifters_ by Dean Ing? He is a engineer-turned-writer.
    This book deals with (among other things) a low cost launcher
    which piggyback launches off of a mag-lev train, and gets a boost
    from a ground-based laser. Good reading about a possible not-so-
    distant future (1995)
    In the introduction he acknowledges LLNL and there work on laser
    propulsion systems. Has anybody in real life thought about matching
    these two (or other) systems?
    And although this may be the wrong newsgroup, does anybody have
    any information about Mr. Ing?
    One other question, what is AMROC up to? When will they launch?


                        Kaor!

                        Mike Ruane

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

Date: 8 Sep 89 04:11:36 GMT
From: jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Neptune fly-by

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Terry Hancock) writes:
>...If I'm not mistaken, Galileo will beat Magellan to Venus
>despite its later launch, since it will have a higher encounter velocity
>for gravity assist reasons (while Magellan will have a low encounter
>velocity, allowing it to be captured into Venus orbit).

You're right that Galileo beats Magellan to Venus, but for much more
mundane reasons:  Galileo goes up in the prime Venus launch window,
taking half an orbit to reach Venus, while Magellan gets to take one
and a half orbits.  Since Galileo has a long trip ahead of it anyway,
it got priority for the quicker trip to Venus, while Magellan gets to
twiddle its thumbs for a while waiting for Venus to show up.
--
V7 /bin/mail source: 554 lines.|     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
1989 X.400 specs: 2200+ pages. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry [e-mail]

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

Date: Fri,  8 Sep 89 12:13:56 PST
From: Peter Scott <[e-mail]>
Subject: Voyager update
X-Vms-Mail-To: EXOS%"[e-mail]"
Lines:  100

Extracted from NASA's _Voyager Bulletin_, Mission Status Report No. 93,
August 27:

The ring-count at Neptune stands at three or six, depending on whether or not
sheets of particles between the discrete rings are considered rings in
themselves.  [...]  [If you have seen the backlit image of the rings formed
from two images placed on either side of a dark band where Neptune would be,
then...] Two gaps in the upper part of the outer ring in one of the images
[left] are due to blemish removal in the computer processing [same software
that got rid of all those nasty spots on Uranus before we ironed the bugs
out... ;-)]  Numerous bright stars are evident in the background.  Both bright
rings have material throughout their entire orbit, and are therefore
continuous.

[...] Voyager 2 was designed to operate at 10AU [...] yet its reach has been
extended by a factor of three [...].

Extracted from Mission Status Report No. 94, August 28:

"Imagine Jupiter orbited by Mars..." -- Dr. Laurence Soderblom, Deputy
Team Leader, Voyager Imaging Science Team.

[...] Triton has something for everyone, noted Dr. Soderblom, of the U.S.
Geological Survey in Tucson, AZ: complex geology [? Tritology ? -PJS], polar
ices, complex chemistry, and hazes.  Dr. Soderblom proposes that perhaps ice
volcanoes are active even now.

The boundary betwween Triton's bright southern hemisphere and the darker
northern hemisphere is clearly visible (due to Triton's tilt and inclined
orbit, the southern hemisphere receives more direct sunlight).  Patterns of
light and dark regions cover most of the southern hemisphere.  Also evident are
long, straight lines that appear to be surface expressions of internal,
tectonic processes.  No large impact craters are visible in the southern
hemisphere, suggesting that the crust of Triton has been renewed relatively
recently -- that is, within the past billion years or so.

One "crazy idea" currently under study is that ice volcanoes are resurfacing
the moon.  About 50 dark plumes or "wind streaks" can be seen in early
evaluations of images of the southern polar terrain.  The plumes originate at
very dark spots generally a few miles in diameter.  Some are more than 100
miles long. The spots, which clearly mark the source of the dark material, may
be vents where gas has erupted from beneath the surface and carried dark
particles into Triton's nitrogen atmosphere.  Southwesterly winds may then have
transported the erupted particles, forming the gradually thinning deposits seen
to the northeast of most of the vents.  It is possible that the eruptions have
been driven by seasonal heating of very shallow subsurface deposits of
volatiles, and the winds transporting particles may be seasonal winds.

The polar terrain, upon which the dark streaks have been deposited is a region
of bright materials mottled with irregular, somewhat dark patches. The pattern
of irregular patches suggests that they may correspond to lag deposits of
moderately dark material that cap the bright ice over the polar terrain.

In Triton's northern hemisphere, there are large tracts of peculiar terrain
unlike anything seen elsewhere in the solar system [sounds like a sensor report
from Mr. Spock -PJS].  Most of the area is covered by roughly circular
depressions separated by rugged ridges.  The depressions are probably not
impact craters since they are too similar in size and too regularly spaced.
Their origin is currently unknown, but may involve local melting and collapse
of the icy surface.  A conspicuous set of grooves and and ridges cuts across
the landscape, indicating fracturing and deformation of Triton's surface.

Three irregular dark areas, surrounded by brighter material, may be dark
substrate below a bright frost cover.  Once a hole burns through the frost, for
whatever reason, the region warms and defrosts, but a cold rim spreads around
the area.

Other features include what appear to be frozen lakes or old calderas, which
have multiple floor levels, perhaps due to massive flooding and re-freezing in
a sea of ice-like lava.  In one scenario, fluid rises on the floor of the
crater and then solidifies.  The next era of melting allows the next floor to
also rise and then refreeze.  These types of floods are probably not localized
to the caldera areas of the moon.

Triton's atmosphere has been found to be primarily nitrogen-based, with some
methane.  The atmosphere may extend as much as 800 km (500 mi) above the
surface of the 2720-km (1690-mi) diameter moon.  In addition, images show a
thin haze layer extending 5 to 10 km (3 to 6 mi) above the moon's limb.  The
haze may be condensation of subliming (evaporating) materials.

A false-color map of Triton shows several compositionally distinct terrain and
geologic features [referring to a picture designated "P-34720"].  At center is
a gray-blue unit referred to as "cantaloupe" terrain [I told you it was a
hungry night for the imaging team] because of its unusual topographic texture.
The unit appears to predate other units to the left.  Immediately adjacent to
the cantaloupe terrain is a smoother unit, represented by a reddish color, that
has been dissected by a prominent fault system.  This unit apparently overlies
a much-higher-albedo material, seen farther left.  A prominent angular albedo
boundary separates relatively undisturbed smooth terrain from irregular patches
that have been derived from breakup of the same material.  Also visible at the
far left are diffuse, elongated streaks, which seem to emanate from circular,
often bright-centered features.  The parallel streaks may represent vented
particulate materials blown in the same direction by winds in Triton's thin
atmosphere.


Peter Scott ([e-mail])

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

Date: 8 Sep 89 21:00:37 GMT
From: agate!sandstorm.Berkeley.EDU![e-mail]  (George William Herbert)
Subject: Re: Ballute systems

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Kenichiro Tanaka) writes:
>Are ballutes a viable system for use in aerobraking?

Yes.  They're planned for several proposed planetary probes.

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

End of SPACE Digest V10 #61
*******************