Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V10_0/V10_090.TXT

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Date: Sat, 30 Sep 89 01:36:48 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: SPACE Digest V10 #90

SPACE Digest                                      Volume 10 : Issue 90

Today's Topics:
            Re: Re: Saturn V & F-1
    Re: Tombaugh's Planet Search (was: Alternate Voyager Missions)
               HIPPARCOS status report
       NASA Advisory:  STS-34/Hurricane Hugo Update (Forwarded)
         NASA Headline News for 09/21/89 (Forwarded)
       Re: Frequently Asked Questions, Higgins version
             Atlas/Agena and Titan/Agena
           ...hospital radiation machine...
            Re: Edgar Rice Quayle on Mars.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 20 Sep 89 18:00:40 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (David Palmer)
Subject: Re: Re: Saturn V & F-1

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Bob Campbell) writes:
>>>3.  If we need to redesign anyways . . .
>
>>>    Without the advantages of existing designs and production
>>>    facilities, why not try to build it better?  It possibly
>>>    could prove cheaper than a redesign and give a better
>>>    engine (and better engineers!)
>
>>"Better is the enemy of good enough."
>
>>We don't want "state of the art. We want tried and true!
>
>Which is the point.  A reengineered Saturn V is not a "Tried and true"
>system and doesn't just get stuck on the pad and launched.  If we
>had the lines intact, great.  BUT WE DON'T!

Why not just license the Energiya design from the U.S.S.R.?  This would
have multiple effects.

    1) It would help the Russian economy, thus taking some pressure off of
        everyone's favorite commie, Uncle Mikhail
    2) It would tell the Soviet people that space is worthwhile (it brings
        in hard currency) so that there is less pressure to reduce
        one of the most successful space programs around.
    3) It would shock the US gov't into saying 'How did they get so
        far ahead?'  (They will, of course, blame Drugs, the
        Democrats, the Republicans, the lack of prayer in the schools,
        flag burners, commies, pornographers, feminists, the
        military-industrial-complex, and The Queen Of England.
        [that last only if there is a LaRouchy elected by that time])
    4) We will have a Saturn V class booster.


        David Palmer
        [e-mail]
        ...rutgers!cit-vax!tybalt.caltech.edu!palmer
    "Direct quotes don't have to be exact, or even accurate.  Truth is as
    irrelevant to a newspaper as it is to a court of law"
    - Judge Alarcon, 9th circuit court of appeals (paraphrased)

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

Date: 21 Sep 89 21:04:08 GMT
From: frooz![e-mail]  (Steve Willner)
Subject: Re: Tombaugh's Planet Search (was: Alternate Voyager Missions)

In an earlier article I wrote:
>>  ... Clyde Tombaugh searched most (not all)
>>  of the ecliptic to rather faint limits and found no new outer planets.

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail]
(Mark Brader) replied:
> Tombaugh searched all of the ecliptic and then some.  People interested
> in the search for Pluto should find the 1980 book "Out of the Darkness:
> The Planet Pluto" by Clyde W. Tombaugh and Patrick Moore.  (Paperback by
> Mentor (New American Library), ISBN 0-461-61997-8.)

Mr. Brader is correct.  Another reference is Tombaugh's 1961 article in
volume 2 of the "Chicago series"  (_Planets and Satellites_, eds.
Kuiper and Middlehurst, U. Chicago Press.  These grey books are still
useful in spite of their age.)  A map of the sky area covered by the
search is given by Brady (1972, Pub. Astron. Soc. Pacific vol. 84, p. 314.

Sorry for the mistake.  Bad memory, I'm afraid.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Willner            Phone [phone]         Bitnet:   willner@cfa
60 Garden St.            FTS:      830-7123           UUCP:   willner@cfa
Cambridge, MA 02138 USA                 Internet: [e-mail]

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

Date:         Fri, 22 Sep 89 12:08:54 SET
From: Hermann Schneider <[e-mail]>
Subject:      HIPPARCOS status report


Hipparcos status report
(This is an exert from the ESOC news letter)
5 firing attempts of Apogee Boost Motor between 10th and 25th Aug 89.
A definite understanding of the reasons for the failure could not be
be obtained. On-board investigations have been given up. Ground
laboratory test now to reproduce failure.

Mission is redefined. Orbit change to a perigee between 450 and 550 km
and apogee between 35800 and 35900 km. Orbital period 10h40mins. Last
orbit adjustments on 18th Sept. Solar arrays + fill in antenna deployed
on 12 Sept. First payload telemetry data expected for last week Sept.
Additional ground stations needed (Perth is in, Kourou ?). Lifetime
depends on solar array degradation due to Van Allen belts. Expected
life time is until June 1990. Position measurements for about 100.000
stars will be obtained with an accuracy far exceeding those of on-ground
observations.

Regards Hermann Schneider
        (Communication Systems Programer)
        ESOC (European Space Agency's Operations Center)

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

Date: 21 Sep 89 16:07:01 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA Advisory:  STS-34/Hurricane Hugo Update (Forwarded)

Sarah Keegan
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                 September 21, 1989


NASA ADVISORY:  STS-34/Hurricane Hugo Update


     Shuttle program managers have concluded that there is no
credible scenario relative to hurricane Hugo which would require
a rollback of Atlantis to the Vehicle Assembly Building at
Kennedy Space Center, Fla., and therefore, have decided that the
vehicle should remain on the launch pad.

     For about the next 12 hours, KSC personnel will be preparing
to resume work readying Atlantis for launch.  During this time,
officials will continue monitoring the weather to determine if
the pad area might see winds of a velocity which would require a
"ride out" configuration, although this is not forecast.  This
period also will provide an opportunity for rest for the KSC work
crews.

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

Date: 21 Sep 89 16:59:25 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA Headline News for 09/21/89 (Forwarded)

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, Sept. 21, 1989              Audio report:  202/755-1788
-----------------------------------------------------------------

This is NASA Headline News for Thursday, September 21st......

After a weather briefing early this morning, Shuttle program
mangers have concluded that hurricane Hugo no longer poses a
severe threat to Kennedy Space Center.  Early this afternoon
technicians will begin reconnecting fuel lines and electrical
cables prior to resuming normal launch processing.  The
processing had been running ahead of schedule and at the end of
last week, there were five full days of "contingency time"
available to handle unexpected problems.  Processing Director
Conrad Nagel said those five days were being used up this week by
the rollback preparations.  Atlantis is currently scheduled for
launch on October 12th.

A hearing will be held today in Richmond, Virginia Circuit to
determine whether the state should enforce a request by the
Attorney General to temporarily shut down Avtex Fibers, Inc.  The
state maintains Avtex continues to discharge large amounts of
PCBs into the Sheandoah River.  Avtex is the sole supplier of a
rayon fiber used by NASA and the Defense Department in solid
rocket motors.  Both agencies said yesterday that they had no
plans to intervene on Avtex's behalf.









                        **************



















-----------------------------------------------------------------
Here's the broadcast schedule for public affairs events on NASA
Select television.  All times are Eastern.

Friday, Sept. 22.....

     11:30 A.M.      News briefing on the FltSatCom launch from
                     Kennedy Space Center.

Monday, Sept. 25.....

      3:00 A.M.      NASA Select TV coverage begins of FltSatCom
                     launch at KSC.  Launch window opens at 4:12
                     A.M., Eastern.

Thursday, Sept. 28...

     11:30 A.M.      NASA Update will be transmitted.

      1:00 P.M.      Galileo-probe briefing from Ames Research
                     Center.

All events and times are subject to change without notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
These reports are filed daily Monday through Friday at 12 noon,
Eastern time.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
A service of the Internal Communications Branch (LPC), NASA Hdqs.

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

Date: 21 Sep 89 21:02:29 GMT
From: bfmny0![e-mail]  (Tom Neff)
Subject: Re: Frequently Asked Questions, Higgins version

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey) writes:
>I have been irritated every time Eugene posts something about Frequently Asked
>Questions, for two reasons:  A lot of F.A.Q.'s don't seem to be on his list,

the list is admittedly very incomplete!  No need for irritation, just good
new ideas like the ones Bill adds below.

>and some of the things he's answering don't seem to be Asked all that
>Frequently.  ...

Good!  That's the purpose of such a posting, innit -- to forestall endless
re-asking.  By definition, if a periodic FAQ posting does its job, question
frequencies exhibit entropy. :-)

One of the few advantages to the way a BBS or commercial timeshare
service like CompuServe works, compared to Usenet, is that you can have
permanent Data Libraries around in addition to the message base, so
reference material (astronaut requirements, Saturn V specs etc) can stay
around and not expire, and be pointed to by name when people want
information.  Here you don't have such a thing in general -- the Internet
allows FTP'ing but UUCP and other interfaces are out of luck.

It would be nice if someone could hack LISTSERV into some kind of
functioning mail-driven "data library" for a newsgroup like this,
including submissions, catalog searches and file extraction.  Perhaps
this has already been done, I dunno.  If it were, the FAQ posting could
contain six-word cryptic summary answers and pointers to library files
explaining everything.

Anyway,

MORE ZOMBIE QUESTIONS FROM HELL

--How do I get a permit to watch the Shuttle land at Edwards?

--Why can't we launch Enterprise? Where is it now?
--What was on the Pioneer/Voyager plaque/record? Where can I get a copy?
--Isn't there another Shuttle launch pad at Vandenberg AFB?
--When will Mir/Shuttle/satellite X be visible over my hometown?

--Tell me about the Shuttle's computers.
--Tell me about radioisotope thermal generators (RTGs).
--Is anyone else into UFOs, the Mars Face, Elvis, Lee Oswald, Bigfoot etc.
--I heard there was some kind of NASA BBS you could dial into. [Spacelink]
--Isn't there a 900 number you can call to listen to the shuttle launch?

--
"We walked on the moon --       ((      Tom Neff
     you be polite"              ))     [e-mail]

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

Date: 21 Sep 89 15:57:24 GMT
From: mcsun!ukc!icdoc!syma![e-mail]  (Nick Watkins)
Subject: Atlas/Agena and Titan/Agena

I am trying to find out more about the launchers used with Agena D vehicles
by the USAF from the late 1960s.

One was the Atlas, in the SLV 3C version as far as I am aware. Did this
use a long fairing compared with earlier Atlas Agena vehicles? There is
a drawing on page 25 of "Outer Space: A New Dimension of the Arms
Race" (SIPRI, 1982) which shows an Agena of 7.07 m topped by an 8.93 m fairing.
The diameter is 1.59 m compared to the Atlas width of 3.05 m. Has
anybody seen photographs of any of the late Atlas Agena launches from
Cape Canaveral? Also is there a good reference on the Atlas Agena launch
history up to 1978, after which LC 13 was decommissioned?

The other was the Titan IIIB/34B. I have seen this described ("Space Handbook")
as using the Ascent Agena (i.e. the Agena controls all stages of the launch).
Were all IIIB launches with the Ascent Agena? If not, when was the
change made, and are there different versions of the IIIB? Finally, why
do drawings of the Titan 34B Ascent Agena show it with a wide (3.05 m) shroud
while early photos of the IIIB show a narrow shroud like the Atlas Agena D?
Also is there a good historical reference on the IIIB/34B?

Nick

--
Nick Watkins, Space & Plasma Physics Group, School of Mathematical
& Physical Sciences, Univ. of Sussex, Brighton, E.Sussex, BN1 9QH, ENGLAND
JANET: [e-mail]   BITNET: [e-mail]

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

Date: Thu, 21 Sep 89 11:55:38 EDT
From: "Gregory E. Gilbert" <[e-mail]>
Subject: ...hospital radiation machine...

Neal Woodall mentioned in V10 #58 some unfortunate individuals who came across
an old Cobalt Therapy machine and started playing with the source.  Does anyone
have a full account of this incident?  I would be most interested in a more
detailed account.  Bye the way, I am new to this digest what's an RTG?
Radiation _____________ Generator?  Thanks much!

Gregory E. Gilbert
Academic Consultant
University of South Carolina
Columbia, South Carolina   USA   29208
[phone]

             __________________________________________________
            |                                                  |
            |                                                  |
            |    Reply soon I might not be here after HUGO!    |
            |                                                  |
            |__________________________________________________|

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

Date: 19 Sep 89 14:26:38 GMT
From: m2c!jjmhome!cloud9![e-mail]  (Carl Ellison)
Subject: Re: Edgar Rice Quayle on Mars.

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Kelton Flinn) writes:
> Its one thing for the Vice President to make a silly statement
> because his staff didn't brief him properly. Thats bad enough. Its far
> worse for a member of the media to make a blatantly false statement
> that is easily checkable.


Sorry -- *this* makes me mad.  It seems that ever since Reagan, we've learned
to accept having a President or Vice President with the IQ of a carrot.
The reporter I read as having left out the adjective "breathable" -- a
relatively minor mistake compared to little Danny's.


--Carl Ellison                      UUCP::  [e-mail]
SNail:: Stratus Computer; 55 Fairbanks Blvd.; Marlborough MA 01752
Disclaimer::  (of course)

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

End of SPACE Digest V10 #90
*******************