Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V10_0/V10_076.TXT

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Subject: SPACE Digest V10 #76

SPACE Digest                                      Volume 10 : Issue 76

Today's Topics:
              Re: Saturn V & F-1
            Re: Edgar Rice Quayle on Mars.
           Private spaceport proposal in Australia
               NSS Space Hotline Update
               Re: Face on Mars
            Re: Linguistic Tidbits
            Re: Edgar Rice Quayle on Mars.
              Re: Voyager status
              NSS Dial-A-Shuttle Release
     Re: Galileo Jovian atmospheric probe -- is it sterilized???
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 15 Sep 89 05:03:48 GMT
From: bfmny0![e-mail]  (Tom Neff)
Subject: Re: Saturn V & F-1

Hmm, it sounds like a cheaper compromise would be to debrief these Saturn
veterans in full, for use later...
--
'We have luck only with women --   ((O    Tom Neff
         not spacecraft!'           \\\   [e-mail]

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

Date: 15 Sep 89 05:45:04 GMT
From: bungia!orbit!pnet51![e-mail]  (S Schaper)
Subject: Re: Edgar Rice Quayle on Mars.

This was my recollection. I too, like a previous poster, don't always remember
sources. I did get the impression from AWST that Quayle is actively pro-space,
and these days, who's complaining? All he has to do is provide political
support and let those in the know do the actuall planning. Not that he has a
lot of pull in the House(!) Interesting thought, that last. I wondered why
Kemp didn't get it. (well there are other reasons but not in this newsgroup).

UUCP: {amdahl!bungia, uunet!rosevax, chinet, killer}!orbit!pnet51!schaper
ARPA: crash!orbit!pnet51![e-mail]
INET: [e-mail]

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

Date: 15 Sep 89 06:02:48 GMT
From: uhccux!munnari.oz.au!murtoa.cs.mu.oz.au!ditmela!yarra!melba!baby![e-mail]  (Gregory N. Bond)
Subject: Private spaceport proposal in Australia

The following is excerpted without permission from the Financial
Review, a national financial and business daily in Australia, a
full-page article (pg 17, Friday 15th September 1989). Comments in [[
brackets ]] are mine.

Cape York set to join space race
--------------------------------
It was during the middle of the turbulent Whitlam years in 1974 [[ a
time of great political upheaval and crisis in the national government
]] that the director of the European Space Agency,  Mr. Roy Gibson,
paid an unusual visit to Canberra.

He had a unique proposition to put to the then Minister for Science,
Mr. Bill Morrison.  Would Australia be interested in joining the
European Space Agency, the consortium made up of European governments
together with the US and Canada?

If so, the agency was keen to build a giant new space base on the Cape
York Peninsula in Australia's far north to launch the growing number
of military and communications satellites needed by these foreign
governments.

What eventuated is history.  For reasons which remain unclear,
Morrison quietly, and without publicity, turned down the offer.  The
suggestion didn't even find its way to cabinet.

[[ Deleted - much further history of the project, and how Cape York is
a suitable location.  Comment on how the latest proposal is one of
two private proposals, and is backed by a large property company
(Essington) with strong Japanese connections.  Some positive sounding
comments from analysts - this is after all a business paper! ]]

Plans so far advanced are for a privately run $AUS 350 million space
center to be built at Temple Bay within the next two years, with
rocket launches beginning from 1995.

Mr. Williams [[ executive director of Essington ]] said this
investment should allow a single launching pad, testing, control and
computer facilities, a basic township [[ this is a *LONG* way from
anywhere interesting - like a days drive...]], an industrial zone,
administration offices and an airport to be built - all with private
funding.

These minimal developments will enable the Cape York Space Agency to
offer users -- likely to be mainly telecommunication and media
companies and some smaller governments -- a basic launch service.

For a cost estimated at between $US 60 million and $US 100  million,
satellites will arrive "pre-packaged" at the launching site, and there
be installed in the ready-to-go Soviet Zenit unmanned rockets which
the CYSA has contracted to use as its principle work-horses.

[[ More comments about how Essington and the Japanese companies add
respectability to the bid, despite Essington's somewhat shady past.
Comment on the need for capital, and how Kumagai Gumi, Mitsubishi,
Toshiba, NEC and other Japanese companies have expressed interest.
Possible public listing. ]]

Essington has also signed a deal with the giant United Technologies
Corp, one of the 20 biggest companies in the US with an annual
turnover of $US 20 billion.  [[ Not Martin-Marietta as I have
previously mentioned. ]]

Subject to US government approval -- necessary owing to the close
Soviet involvement in the project and the $US 4 billion worth of
annual contracts UTC has with the US government -- UTC is likely to
take responsibility for project management and operation of the base
once it is completed.  It is also likely to acquire a $US 25 million
stake in the private operating company.

Essington's deal with the Soviet Union's space agency, Glavcosmos, is
more straightforward than either the Japanese or US arrangements.  Put
simply, the CYSA has secured exclusive rights to buy the Soviet Zenit
rocket to use as the satellite launcher for Cape York.

The rockets will be delivered in a finished form at an agreed, and
undisclosed, price [[dammit!]] -- which should make it unlikely that
the base "will be crawling with Ruskies", as one space expert
delicately put it.

[[ more deleted ]]
--
Gregory Bond, Burdett Buckeridge & Young Ltd, Melbourne, Australia
Internet: [e-mail]    non-MX: [e-mail]
Uucp: {uunet,pyramid,ubc-cs,ukc,mcvax,prlb2,nttlab...}!munnari!melba.bby.oz!gnb

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

Date: 15 Sep 89 10:23:06 GMT
From: cdp![e-mail]
Subject: NSS Space Hotline Update



This is the National Space Society's Space Hotline updated
Wednesday, September 13.

The Senate Appropriations Committee subcommittee on Va, HUD and
Independent Agencies marked-up the 1990 NASA appropriation on
Tuesday. The subcommitte chairwomen, Sen. Barbara Mikulski,
oversaw a session in which the committee set an overall spending
mark of twelve billion, 339 million dollars for NASA overall
spending (with an additional 217 million dollars to come from the
Dod and Air Force for STS launches). The mark also appropriates
one billion, 85 million dollars for the Space Station Program.
The full Appropriations Committee was to take up the NASA funding
bill today. Next would come a full Senate vote on the Va, HUD-IA
appropriations bill, and then a conference committee meeting
between House and Senate leaders to work out a compromise between
the two. A compromise document would then have to pass muster of
both chambers once again - all this without the dreaded floor
amendments which are very likely. Also, if these actions don't
progress quickly they are likey to run over the time limit for
the passage of appropriations bills this session and the entire
NASA bill, as well as others, will become a part of something
called a continuing resolution which spells trouble.

The subcommittee zeroed out the NASP program funding, something
which is sure to raise eyebrows, and it funded the ACTS program,
the Gravity Probe-B experiment and the TOMS satellite. NASA's
1990 new start, the CRAF/Cassini mission, won $20 million, which
is $10 million less that the House's mark.

Anti-nuclear demonstrators are gearing up for protests of the
Galileo launch aboard the Atlantis. They were plannning to picket
in Washington and in Florida this week. And a story in the Miami
Herald says the risk of a plutonium leak from the space shuttle
in the upcoming Galileo mission is greater than previously
reported. Dr Thomas Rona, a White House science advisor is
reportedly reviewing documents provided by NASA and a government
interagency panel.

At the Cape, technicians are preparing for the Countdown
Demonstration Test which is scheduled for Thursday and Friday
with the STS-34 five member crew and its Galileo spacecraft.
The crew will arrive at the Cape on Tuesday evening for the test.
The possibility of unusual free play movement in the space
shuttle body flap during the STS-28 mission as indicated by
photographic evidence has led to a tests of the structure on the
orbiter Atlantis. The test indicated that the flap was well
within specifications. Hypergolic fuel and hydrazine will be
loaded into the orbiter this week indicating that technical
milestones are moving along smoothly for an October 12 launch.

This is David Brandt reporting for the NSS Space Hotline. This
tape will be updated as information warrants.

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

Date: 11 Sep 89 16:32:34 GMT
From: pikes!udenva!isis!csm9a![e-mail]  (Joe Applegate)
Subject: Re: Face on Mars

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Henry Melton) writes:
> > What did the image look like when enhanced?  Did it retain its
> > "faceness"?
> >
> > Mary Kuhner
> > [e-mail]
>
> If you have ever seen any picture of the face, then what you saw _was_
> the enhanced version.  In the raw version, it is practically invisible.

I beg to differ....

The raw data was recently posted to the net and I took that data and loaded
into my Landsat Image Processing System and other then the spikes the face
was the only visible feature!

No one has had any problem seeing the face... even in the raw, unstretched,
unspiked, unrotated image!  In fact I have been showing it off as an example
of image enhancement... but everyone who has seen the raw images has been
able to imediately see the face, even when they were not told what to expect!

Of course, despiking, contrast stretching, and edge enhancement definately
improve the image!  But such processing is not necessary to see this feature!

Now as to WHAT the feature is... your guess is as good as mine.  I only wish
I could get more of the surrounding image than 100X100 so I could get a feel
for what type of gelologic phenomena are occuring in the region and any
geomorphic clues that might explain the feature (which looks like an impact
modified dune to me)!

If the original poster would be so kind as to pull out about 1024X1024 of
data around the same feature and post it or mail it, I would be happy to
generate gifs of the raw, and variously processed images and post on some
easy to access archive (Simtel20???)...

               - Joe Applegate -

    ======================STANDARD DISCLAIMER============================
     All views and opinions are my own and do not represent the views or
     opinions of the Colorado School of Mines, whatever they might be.
    =====================================================================

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

Date: 15 Sep 89 05:45:10 GMT
From: bungia!orbit!pnet51![e-mail]  (S Schaper)
Subject: Re: Linguistic Tidbits

Yeesh! I thought everybody knew that Venus was really the starship Vingelot
piloted by Earendil the Mariner.   Whatever DO they teach in these schools
today?

UUCP: {amdahl!bungia, uunet!rosevax, chinet, killer}!orbit!pnet51!schaper
ARPA: crash!orbit!pnet51![e-mail]
INET: [e-mail]

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

Date: 15 Sep 89 06:46:18 GMT
From: bfmny0![e-mail]  (Tom Neff)
Subject: Re: Edgar Rice Quayle on Mars.

Lack though he may even a cereal-box comprehension of the Solar System,
J. Danforth Quayle (a living model for Mark Alan Stamaty's Congressman
Forehead if ever there was one) and his handlers know everything they
need to know about space: that it is a political win/win guaranteed to
show J. Danforth Quayle in a favorable light without actually having to
accomplish anything, which as full fledged Dumb VP he would not be
allowed to do anyway.  Unlike drugs or education which have significant
downside risk attached, as space cheerleader Dan can pose and make
hopeful statements without having to back them up, since VPs don't submit
budgets or appropriate money.  Even the gaffes (and there will be plenty)
don't hurt because the average citizen knows even less than Dan and would
do even worse.  Don't kid yourself, this has worked for JDQ for a number
of years now.

What our more trusting (and well meaning) readers here will realize in
another couple of years is that it ain't being "pro space" (this always
sounded to me like being "pro weather") that counts, or even your Astro
101 scores, but raw political muscle.  LBJ was a "pro space" VP who
probably didn't know a lot more than Dan Quayle does about what orbits
what, but he was a hellatious people- and dollar-mover who knew an
opportunity to build an empire when he saw one.  Quayle is a flyweight
looking for an open ended photo opportunity, and he'll get his wish
too -- but you and I won't.
--
'We have luck only with women --   ((O    Tom Neff
         not spacecraft!'           \\\   [e-mail]

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

Date: 15 Sep 89 05:45:07 GMT
From: bungia!orbit!pnet51![e-mail]  (S Schaper)
Subject: Re: Voyager status

Maybe that is what Dan Quayle was trying to do.
   Sorry, I was just being hopeful.

UUCP: {amdahl!bungia, uunet!rosevax, chinet, killer}!orbit!pnet51!schaper
ARPA: crash!orbit!pnet51![e-mail]
INET: [e-mail]

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

Date: 15 Sep 89 10:23:09 GMT
From: cdp![e-mail]
Subject: NSS Dial-A-Shuttle Release



Eavesdrop on space shuttle Atlantis by calling the National Space
Society's Dial-A-Shuttle (1-900-909-NASA) program as the
astronauts deploy NASA's Galileo spacecraft during the STS-34
mission scheduled for launch on October 12.

Callers to Dial-A-Shuttle will hear up-to-the-minute live
reports, interviews and features about the STS-34 space shuttle
mission and crew as well as live astronaut communication as it is
available.

The primary mission of the astronauts aboard the Atlantis will be
to deploy a three-ton spacecraft called Galileo which will make a
six year voyage to the planet Jupiter. Galileo's unique design
includes both an orbiter and an atmospheric probe, enabling
scientists to study for nearly two years Jupiter's atmosphere,
its' moons and the surrounding magnetosphere.

After leaving Atlantis' payload bay, the spacecraft will be
boosted out of Earth orbit by a solid rocket. Galileo will first
fly past Venus and then twice by the Earth, using gravity assists
from the two planets to pick up enough speed to reach Jupiter,
which is five times further from the Sun than Earth. The two
extraordinary Earth encounters, which will occur in 1990 and
1992, will provide the first ever deep space look at our own
planet.

The commander of the STS-34 mission is U.S. Navy Capt. Donald E.
Williams, the pilot is U.S. Navy Cmdr. Michael J. McCulley, and
the mission specialists who will deploy the satellite as well as
conduct other experiments are Dr. Shannon W. Lucid, biochemist,
Dr. Franklin R. Chang-Diaz, physicist, and Ellen S. Baker, M.D.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California has
prepared the Galileo spacecraft for NASA. The spacecraft and its
mission are named for 17th-century Italian Renaissance scientist
Galileo Galilei who discovered Jupiter's major moons with the
first astronomical telescope.

Dial-a-Shuttle is a special service offered by the National Space
Society (NSS), a nonprofit, publicly-supported membership
organization dedicated to the creation of a spacefaring
civilization. The Society has more than 22,000 members and 120
chapters, conducts annual conferences, operates the Space Phone
Tree and the NSS Computer Bulletin Board Service and publishes AD
ASTRA magazine.

The toll charge for this call is $2.00 for the first minute and
45 cents for each minute thereafter.

For more information about the Society and their exciting
programs, write: NSS, 922 Pennsylvania Ave., S.E., Washington,
D.C. 20003-2140 or call [phone].
.

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

Date: 15 Sep 89 18:58:52 GMT
From: ubc-cs!alberta!calgary!ctycal![e-mail]  (Terry Ingoldsby)
Subject: Re: Galileo Jovian atmospheric probe -- is it sterilized???

I'm baffled.  We are losing many species of life each year (the number 2/day
sticks in my mind) here on earth and there seems to be more commotion about
Jovian life that may or may not exist, and certainly isn't as important to
me even if it does exist.  I realize that this is a *very* earth centered
viewpoint (for which I will surely be flamed) but I live on this planet and
I'm more concerned about protecting earth's environment than the (exceedingly)
primitive life that *might* exist on Jupiter.  If the space probes give us
info that might be of use in predicting/protecting earth's environment then
the possible demise of a few Jovian bugs does not upset me unduly.
--
  Terry Ingoldsby                       ctycal![e-mail]
  Land Information Systems                           or
  The City of Calgary         ...{alberta,ubc-cs,utai}!calgary!ctycal!ingoldsb

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

End of SPACE Digest V10 #76
*******************