Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V10_0/V10_063.TXT

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Subject: SPACE Digest V10 #63

SPACE Digest                                      Volume 10 : Issue 63

Today's Topics:
      Voyager and Viking images on a CD-ROM for only $9!
              Re: Neptune fly-by
             Phone Tree Alert!!!
             Re: Mars Mission ship design
             Re: Booster-side advertising
               Ballute systems
             Re: Mars Mission ship design
   Re: Soviet's Soyuz TM-8 successfully docks to Mir space station
            HR 2674--please send me a copy
     Re: Galileo Jovian atmospheric probe -- is it sterilized???
             Re: Observing Oct 12 Launch
             Re: Booster-side advertising
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 9 Sep 89 01:38:56 GMT
From: haven!ncifcrf!nlm-mcs![e-mail]  (Michael D'Alessandro)
Subject: Voyager and Viking images on a CD-ROM for only $9!


Here's good news for astronomy buffs and galaxy gazers.
Meridien Data, maker of CD-ROM premastering systems, is
offering a disc that holds hundreds of images sent back to
Earth by the Voyager and Viking planetary probes. The $9 disc
contains images that can be viewed on either an IBM PC or a
Macintosh.

However, the CD does not include recently photographed images
of Neptune, which Voyager 2 passed on its way out of the solar
system. The public-domain images on the disc are from Voyager
and Viking missions during the past 10 to 15 years, said
Meridien spokesperson Lou Hoffman. That includes images of Mars
(from the Viking probes of the late 1970s), Jupiter, Saturn,
and hundreds of other shots taken by the Voyager spacecraft.

The Voyager/Viking CD is called the GRIPS (Government Raster
Image Processing Software and Data) disc. Several government
agencies, including NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and
the National Center for Supercomputing Applications,
contributed information for the disc.

Some of the images on the disc require up to 1.2 megabytes of
storage space, Hoffman said, but those aren't even close to
being the largest sent back from space. Some of the Voyager
images have been as large as 20 to 30 megabytes.

The GRIPS disc holds one set of data files that is shared by
both PC and Macintosh platforms. The disc adheres to the ISO
9660 file format; Meridien claims it's the first CD-ROM of that
format that both PC and Mac users can access.

No documentation comes with the GRIPS CD, and Meridien admits
it's not easy to locate a specific image from among the
hundreds on the platter. "There's a front-end index on the
disc, but it's difficult to use at this point," Hoffman said.
The company is working on a way to make the disc more "user
friendly," he added.

Meridien says the first pressing, of 1000 discs, is going fast
and that a second pressing of another 1000 could start in about
two weeks. "Response has been greater than we expected,"
Hoffman told Microbytes Daily. In fact, the company is
considering marketing a series of CD-ROM discs with images from
Voyager missions.

                            --- Jeffrey Bertolucci



Contact: Meridien Data, 5615 Scotts Valley Dr, Scotts Valley,
CA 95066; [phone]; fax [phone]

--
Michael D'Alessandro
The National Library of Medicine
Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications
Educational Technology Branch            Internet:  [e-mail]

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

Date: 9 Sep 89 21:54:28 GMT
From: mailrus!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Neptune fly-by

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (John E Van Deusen III) writes:
>... Also, if there is a binary
>companion to the Sun or an undiscovered planet X, the perturbation of
>the probe's trajectory might have indicated it.  Such a body seems
>unlikely to be located as far from the plane as the Voyagers are headed.

Actually, I'm told that the latest and most sophisticated analysis strongly
suggests that there is no such body.  Apparently the residual unaccounted-for
perturbations in outer-planet orbits just about go away with a *very* careful
analysis using all available data.

Also, it is difficult to explain how a major body near the ecliptic plane
could have been missed in Tombaugh's long and thorough near-ecliptic sky
search (which found Pluto, a rather small body in a well-tilted orbit).
--
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: 10 Sep 89 12:01:51 GMT
From: cdp![e-mail]
Subject: Phone Tree Alert!!!



*** Phone Tree Alert ***

The budget for the Office of Commecial Space Transportation in the
Department of Transportation is due for markup in the Senate Thursday,
September 7.  The President's budget request was for approximately $4.4
million, which was cut in the House appropriations committee by $800,000 to
$3.6 million. While not a lot compared to other space projects, this cut
represents the loss of 2 staff positions in a 12 person office, and
deferral of study contracts on safety issues with the Hawaii and Florida
commercial spaceport efforts. The cuts may also slow the processing of
license application for commercial launches.

If the Senate approves the President's original full funding request of
$4.4 million, the bill will go to a House/Senate conference committee. If
you support full funding for the OCST, please make a quick call to:

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) chairman of the Senate appropriations
committee on transportation and related agencies [phone]

Sen. Alfonse M. D'Amato (R-NY) ranking minority member of the same
committee.

Calls by September 7th are the most important, but calls after that until
about September 14th would still be helpful assuming the bill goes to
conference (which it likely will if there are any differences between the
House and Senate appropriations).

Futher info: the House bill was H.R. 3015 and the Senate bill should be S.
920 (if gets the final number after markup). This alert is in addition two,
and slightly ahead of a broader, separate alert on the Space Station
Freedom. Other Senate committee members relevent to the OCST appropriation
are: Robert Byrd, Tom Harkin, Jim Sasser, Barbara Mikulski; and on the
minority side, Robert Kasten, Pete Domenici, and Charles Grassely. If any
other these are your Senators, they deserve a special call effort.


-- Transfer complete, hit <RETURN> to continue --

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

Date: 8 Sep 89 23:18:53 GMT
From: ns-mx![e-mail]  (Jacob Hugart,134E LC,5-5506,)
Subject: Re: Mars Mission ship design

From article <[e-mail]>, by [e-mail] (Jesse M. Mundis):
> Just some general details/suggestions for design:
> [...]

Here's some more:

o    Before sending people to Mars, send some pre-fab space platforms
    with supplies of food, water, and oxygen, so that if something 'bad'
    happens, there will be an oasis at the mission's destination.

o    Instead of a ring design for pseudo-gravity, how about a low-thrust
    engine that could be kept firing (thrusting? :-) during the trip, so
    that 'down' would be towards the engine and 'up' away from it?  This
    wouldn't work in orbit, so maybe those Martian Oases should be rings.
    (Isn't there some maneuvering problems when turning against the
    force of the spin, anyway?)

o    If no Oases will be sent, at least establish a satellite net around
        Mars so that communiaction with surface personnel can be constant.

Any other brainstormers out there?

-----

Jacob Hugart <[e-mail]>

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

Date: 11 Sep 89 16:10:25 GMT
From: jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Booster-side advertising

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (John Woods) writes:
>> 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?
>> I remember reading somewhere a long time ago that the airlines were
>> discontinuing the practice of covering their jets with paint, as the extra
>> drag and/or weight (I can't remember which) were causing a significant
>> increase in fuel consumption

Actually there are mixed views on paint on airliners.  Nobody seems to have
been able to prove a clear advantage either way.  Corrosion protection is
one reason for leaving the paint *on*, and indeed Airbus's airliners usually
are not available in bare metal for that reason.

>I think the paint burns off the boosters shortly after liftoff ...

No, they're still pretty much painted when they splash down.
--
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: 8 Sep 89 18:11:58 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (Kenichiro Tanaka)
Subject: Ballute systems

Can anyone answer my question?  I've posted this on several bboards and
people either don't know or can't agree.  Here it is;

Are ballutes a viable system for use in aerobraking?

The reason I ask is, I had seen it used in a Japanese animation called
"Z-Gundam" to allow vehicles to enter the Earth's atmosphere.  I thought
it was something the writers made up until I saw it used in the
air-braking scene in "2010."  Is this simply because it's a standard,
yet impossible, science fiction device (like warp drives) or something
that's possible at least in theory?

Thanks in advance

Ken Tanaka
[e-mail]

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

Date: 8 Sep 89 18:56:34 GMT
From: brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!ginosko!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!pawl2.pawl.rpi.edu![e-mail]  (Jesse M. Mundis)
Subject: Re: Mars Mission ship design

Just some general details/suggestions for design:

   1.  Build the main ship in space.  Make it a ring design (2001 station)
    for your artificial gravity.

   2.  Have a number of smaller shuttle/lander devices used to ferry
     equipment and people from the "mother ship" to the surface and
    back.

   3.  Re-use the big ship for earth/mars transport.

So it's not too detailed, but it is a general design type idea.

Jesse Mundis
[e-mail]

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

Date: 10 Sep 89 02:58:23 GMT
From: jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Soviet's Soyuz TM-8 successfully docks to Mir space station

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (David M VomLehn) writes:
>... some kind of treaty or agreement being signed shortly before
>or after the Apollo-Soyuz mission in the 70's which specified a common docking
>port for US and Soviet spacecraft.  This was to allow for the possibility of
>space rescues, I think...

This is roughly correct.

>2)  Is the Buran docking port incompatible with this standard and, if so, what
>    reasons have been given for the change?

Nobody, in either nation, has paid the slightest attention to the "standard"
docking port since Apollo-Soyuz.  The Europeans (!) have recently become
concerned enough about this (with their own manned spacecraft in the offing)
to try to get people talking about the issue again.

Nobody really knows what Buran's docking port will look like, since Buran
has not been shown with a docking adapter and the Mir end of it will go up
on one of the not-yet-seen add-on modules.
--
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: 10 Sep 89 05:15:56 GMT
From: sco!gorn![e-mail]  (William R. Ward)
Subject: HR 2674--please send me a copy

I apologize profusely for wasting net.bandwidth for this feeble
request.

Somebody please send me a copy of HR2674, if it exists in ASCII format,
or refer me to a place where I can get a copy.

I recently resubscribed to sci.space and didn't see the origin of the
HR2674 thread, but am interested by recent discussions.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program already in
progress.
--
=|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|=
 |   |  William R. Ward  |   |   |   |   |   |  [phone]   |   |
 | [e-mail]  |   |   |  ucbvax!ucscc!gorn!hermit |
=|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|=

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

Date: 11 Sep 89 15:58:12 GMT
From: jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Galileo Jovian atmospheric probe -- is it sterilized???

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Keith Elliston) writes:
>> Who are the "experts" of whom you speak?  Be specific.  Galileo will pass
>> through temperature and radiation extremes from ranging from Venus orbit
>> to Jupiter.  It will be in vacuum.  No nutrients.
>
>Such conditions would be really good for inducing mutations...

More to the point, they don't reliably kill bacteria.  The bacterial colony
that was found inside Surveyor 3's camera survived deliberate attempts at
sterilization plus 2.5 years on the surface of the Moon.
--
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: 11 Sep 89 15:52:25 GMT
From: jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Observing Oct 12 Launch

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Francis Vaughan) writes:
>        What do mere mortals get to see? How far from the launch area are
>        you put? (ie how long a focal length lens is needed?)

Unless you are with some organized group, like the NSS shuttle tours (nearly
the only thing NSS is good for...), you probably can't get into KSC itself
at all.  Some internal feuding between NASA and the USAF has resulted in
drastic cuts in the number of spectators allowed "nearby".  Expect something
like 5 miles minimum, probably more.

> Do non US citizens have any problems?

Not that I know of.  There are too many spectators to run them through a
passport check. :-)

>        Perhaps some pointers on accomodation, transport, how many other
>        spectators would one expect etc.

Things may have calmed down a bit since, but when I went, local accommodations
tended to be jammed and transport was a problem.  Leave plenty early on launch
day, you can expect traffic problems.

>        What are the odds on a delay of the launch...

Basically excellent.  NASA has seldom gotten a shuttle off exactly on time.
Allow as much flexibility as you can in your plans.  NASA will be trying
very hard to get Galileo off more or less on schedule, but a slip of a few
days would not be surprising.

>        What is the weather likly to be like?

The standard answer for non-summer Florida east coast is "warm and sunny
with frequent small thunderstorms".  Possibly someone closer could give
a better answer...
--
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: 12 Sep 89 13:46:41 GMT
From: ncspm![e-mail]  (Jay C. Smith)
Subject: Re: Booster-side advertising

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail]
(Henry Spencer) writes:
>Actually there are mixed views on paint on airliners.  Nobody seems to have
>been able to prove a clear advantage either way.  Corrosion protection is
>one reason for leaving the paint *on*, and indeed Airbus's airliners usually
>are not available in bare metal for that reason.

And I've read that paint should be left *off* because it masks corrosion
damage, making inspections more difficult.

It may be because they know they will be painted, but another reason that
Airbuses aren't available in bare metal is that they would be ugly -- Airbus
doesn't use the shiny buff stuff that is matched, and the bare skin would look
patchwork.  Airbus apparently won't even "special-order" bare metal, probably
due to lack of a supplier for the buff skin, and American Airlines had to
settle for painted jets in their recent purchase.

--
"Good.  For a minute I thought we were in trouble."
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Jay C. Smith                      uucp:     ...!mcnc!ncsuvx!ncspm!jay
Domain: [e-mail]        internet: [e-mail]

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

End of SPACE Digest V10 #63
*******************