Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V10_2/V10_219.TXT

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Subject: SPACE Digest V10 #219

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 10 : Issue 219

Today's Topics:
              Re: galileo and me
            Re: Moon Colonies / Ant Tanks?
           PROSPACE ACTIVIST ALERT (time critical)
         Re: Voyager/Galileo Camera function
            NASA Headline News (Forwarded)
             Re: If There Were No Shuttle
                 space stamp
              Weapons labs in peacetime
              Re: SPACE Digest V10 #208
              Re: Advice?? (asking for)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 7 Nov 89 10:13:23 GMT
From: uokmax![e-mail]  (Michael F Lawson)
Subject: Re: galileo and me

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Doug Phillipson 5-0134) writes:
>
>   ... I don't know about you but I want my children
>   to be able to live and work in space exploring the unknown.
>
>It was a thrill to watch the launch and I would work for free to get into
>space (or at least for room and board)...

Isn't this sad.  There are so many of us who would give up most of our free
time to work toward getting into space.  I would really not mind paying more
taxes to fund it, either, if the job were done 'right'.  It seems to me that
a volunteer, engineering-based organization could really make some miracles
happen, since the major costs would be hardware, not salaries.  I suppose that
the biggest problem with this approach would be to coordinate people all across
the country or world.

Maybe one day this country/government/space agency will realize that
bureaucracy only seems to produce more of the same.

Mike Lawson
[e-mail]

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

Date: 7 Nov 89 20:22:59 GMT
From: uceng![e-mail]  (daniel mocsny)
Subject: Re: Moon Colonies / Ant Tanks?

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Henry Spencer) writes:
> In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (daniel mocsny) writes:
> >... While the European pioneers were entering a rather
> >hostile environment, they certainly did not face any fundamental
> >environmental obstacles compared to living in Europe...
>
> The Donner Party would be interested to hear that.  (They starved.)

Several of the emigration waves resulted from famine in Europe. I was
under the impression that only the very first pioneers into a given
undeveloped region had a mortality rate significantly higher than that
of people who stayed in Europe.

Leaving Europe was not a picnic, but for many people it was not a
picnic to stay either. In any case, the basic technologies that worked
in Europe (agriculture, herding, hunting, etc.) all worked just as
well in North America, when the *necessary* *infrastructure* was in
place. That is what I meant when I referred to "fundamental
environmental obstacles." Nothing about North America made it a
fundamentally harder place to survive than Europe. Going to the Moon,
however, will require fundamental re-thinking of every major industry.

> As I've commented in the past, for an unprotected human, the survival time
> in a -40C Saskatchewan blizzard is not much longer than on the surface of
> the Moon.  I grew up there.  Schoolkids safely cope with that environment.

How many hours of labor would that schoolkid have to invest (or have
invested on her behalf by an adult) to construct the necessary
enabling garments and shelter? The schoolkid could readily learn to
kill a polar bear, skin it, scrape its hide, and sew it into a parka.
(Note: I'm not saying those are trivial skills, only that they are
within the ability of an individual starting with very little.) How
long would the schoolkid have to study and labor before being able to
construct a space suit, extract air from rocks, and recycle her own
wastes with 99% efficiency? Small groups of people can live on the
tundra, requiring only the skills and information they can master by
hand. Surviving on the Moon, on the other hand, requires the output of
a fantastically complex and differentiated (and hence fragile)
industrial society. Whether that society will be materially productive
enough to afford living there any time soon is questionable.

> There is plenty of oxygen -- about the only component of air that really
> matters -- in lunar rock.  There *is* a shortage of water, but humans
> have handled that before.

Obtaining O_2 from rocks will price it on the order of other
commodities obtained from readily available materials with moderate
processing. For example, portland cement. This will consume a big
chunk of the wealth-creating power of a Moon colony. How big, I can't
say. But I am quite sure that few if any existing industries on earth
could turn a profit if they had to rely on extracting O_2 from rocks.

Humans have "handled" water shortages, but only by shifting their
indirect water consumption elsewhere. That is, by siting heavy
industries in locations with adequate water, and shipping finished
goods instead of water. If this is how we will "handle" the
water shortage on the Moon, then heavy industry will not exist
there. That gives you a Moon base, not a colony. I'm not saying
that is a bad idea.

Dan Mocsny
[e-mail]

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

Date: Tue, 7 Nov 89 09:42:45 PST
From: mordor!lll-tis!oodis01!riacs!rutgers!pnet01.cts.com![e-mail] (Jim Bowery)
To: ucsd!nosc!crash![e-mail]
Subject: PROSPACE ACTIVIST ALERT (time critical)

Contact Rep. Bill Nelson's office at the US House of Representatives
202/224-3121 with the following message:

Congressman Nelson's attempt to defuze HR2674 by diluting the Nov. 9
hearings on that vital bill with legislative oversight matters involving
implementation details of prior legislation has caused the Dept. of Commerce
and other key players to stay away from these hearings.  As a grassroots
space activist, I look to Congressman Nelson for leadership, not obstruction,
when it comes to the commercialization of launch services.  I expect
Congressman Nelson to correct the damage that has been caused by this
cheap political maneuver and, further, to begin taking a leadership
position in the reform of procurement of launch services.  The only
evidence I will accept is cosponsorship and a visible leading position
in the timely passage of HR2674.

END OF MESSAGE

Background

Hearings on HR2674, the Space Transportation Services Act of 1989, were
scheduled for 9:30am, Nov. 9 in room 2325 Rayburn House Office Building.
If you get this message before that time, encourage any friends you have
in the D.C. area to attend -- we need to show interest in this bill.

The chairman of the full committee on science, space and technology, Rep. Roe,
had encouraged Rep. Nelson to hold these hearings on behalf of the sponsors
Rep. Brown and Rep. Packard.  Having scheduled the hearing, set up
witnesses and prepared testimony, Rep. Roe left on international travel
last week.  In Rep. Roe's absence, just a few days before the hearings,
Rep. Nelson "expanded the scope" of the hearings to include details of
oversight of legislation which was passed in 1984 -- a move which prompted
the Commerce Dept. to withdraw from the hearings and caused consternation
among supporters of HR2674 and the witnesses which had worked hard preparing
to testify.  Washington insiders suspect Nelson is concerned that since
he did not originate the bill, and since it would have such a profound
effect on space policy, that it would make him appear to be less of a
leader, just as he is preparing to make a bid for the office of Governer
of Florida.  Therefore, he is attempting to place it on the back burner
in hopes it will not become an issue before his bid for the Governership.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Bowery      PHONE: [phone]     BE A SPACE ACTIVIST
PO Box 1981            GET OFF THE NET AND SET UP AN APPOINTMENT WITH YOUR
La Jolla, CA 92038                         CONGRESSMAN!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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ARPA: crash!pnet01![e-mail]
INET: [e-mail]

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

Date: 6 Nov 89 21:43:51 GMT
From: bungia!orbit!pnet51![e-mail]  (S Schaper)
Subject: Re: Voyager/Galileo Camera function

You bet, There are programs that mathematically simulate the geometry of a
voila!  Image sort of as though taken through a real lens!
Too bad we missed the opportunity for a publicity shot at Jupiter. After that
the pics were too valuable data/time wise.

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

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

Date: 7 Nov 89 18:24:19 GMT
From: cs.utexas.edu!usc!henry.jpl.nasa.gov!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!forsight!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Subject: NASA Headline News (Forwarded)


-----------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, November 7, 1989                     audio: 202/755-1788
-----------------------------------------------------------------

This is NASA headline news for Tuesday, November 7......


NASA Space Shuttle officials have set November 20 as the launch
date for the STS-33 Department of Defense classified mission.  A
four hour launch period will begin at 6:30 p.m., eastern time.
The flight readiness review found no major issues are being
worked which would preclude launch on the 20th.

The announcement came as workers on the pad were preparing for
the main engine flight readiness test tomorrow.  During the past
24 hours the heat shields on Discovery's engines 2 and 3 have
been installed and late yesterday the helium signature test of
the main propulsion system was completed.


The American Astronomical Society says the federal government
should take steps to improve U.S. competitiveness in commercial
space activities.  An A-A-S position paper, released Friday, says
some anti-trust statutes should be set aside, the patent approval
process should be accelerated and tax incentives should be given
to stimulate commercial space ventures.  The report will be sent
to the National Space Council, Congress and the White House.

Meanwhile...the American Institute of Aeronautics and
Astronautics will release a similar report this week calling for
major U.S. policy changes to allow the U.S. to win a substantial
share of commercial space markets.  Aviation Week magazine says
the report states emphatically that in the future "space will be
commercialized by the private sector, not the government". A news
conference on the AIAA report is scheduled for tomorrow.


Space Services Incorporated will launch their Consort 2
suborbital sounding rocket November 15 from White Sands missile
range, New Mexico.  The rocket will carry another payload for the
NASA-supported University of Alabama-Huntsville consortium for
materials development in space program.   The 12 experiment
payload will experience seven minutes of microgravity.


Damage to facilities at NASA's Ames Research Center in California
from the October 17 earthquake has been estimated at $4 million.
Among those facilities damaged was the national full-scale
aerodynamics complex.  It suffered about $1.5 million in damages.
The center was closed for two days following the 7.1 magnitude
earthquake.


 Ron Baalke                       |    [phone] x260
 Jet Propulsion Lab  M/S 301-355  |    [e-mail]
 4800 Oak Grove Dr.               |
 Pasadena, CA 91109               |

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

Date: 7 Nov 89 16:40:22 GMT
From: cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!uwm.edu!mailrus!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: If There Were No Shuttle

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Gregory Milligan) writes:
>    If there were no shuttle, we would still be building and flying
>Saturn 1-Bs and Saturn Vs...

I'm not at all sure of that.  The Saturn programs were winding down severely
well before the shuttle was approved.
--
A bit of tolerance is worth a  |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
megabyte of flaming.           | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry [e-mail]

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

Date: Tue, 7 Nov 89 21:05:47 EST
From: [e-mail] (Alan Duester)
Subject: space stamp

I don't know if you're all aware of it, but there is currently a space
stamp at the US Post Office. It's a $2.40 priority mail stamp of some
kind, and it depicts two astronauts planting a US flag on the lunar
surface.

The craters on the stamp make the astronauts seem tens of miles tall,
and the shadows are kind of funky, but it's space.

========================================================================
Al Duester, Ocean Engineer, MS S201   #  SPAN: 6308::capnal
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution  #  INTERNET: [e-mail]
Woods Hole, MA  02543                 #  GEnie:  A.DUESTER
[phone] x2474
[phone] auto-receptionist for touch tone phones
========================================================================

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

Date: 6 Nov 89 21:43:12 GMT
From: bungia!orbit!pnet51![e-mail]  (S Schaper)
Subject: Weapons labs in peacetime

If peace does break out, put the weapons labs on advanced propulsion
techniques.

Glavcosmos will handle space exploration

  :-)  ???

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

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

Date:         Tue, 07 Nov 89 18:16:05 EST
From: OSWALD <[e-mail]>
Subject:      Re: SPACE Digest V10 #208


   Hey, if my wife will let me I would go too.
   I don't know the protocol for sending mail on the net, so please excuse if I
 do anything wrong. I think that Americans are too soft as far as their *produc
tivity * in the modern world is concerned. I am not American so

                   I DON'T CARE WHO GETS THERE FIRST
   I just want to see us as human beings all get together and do something with
out hearing about the Russians or the Europeans or the Japs. The earth is alrea
dy too small for that sort of petty foolishness.


      MY FOOTER ::: ( Stolen from Sesame Street )
       " Watch the witches cooperate,   | I don't know my exact address
         and cook up something          | but I hope I see this under lights
         really great "                 |

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

Date: 7 Nov 89 23:27:00 GMT
From: cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!mailrus!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Advice?? (asking for)

In article <[e-mail]> I wrote:
>... For results, you want space science, which
>tends to be classed as physics and astronomy...

An addendum is in order here:  one particular subdivision of space science,
to wit planetary science (which is *not* all of space science even though
Chairman Carl tends to give that impression at times...), is sometimes
found in geology departments.
--
A bit of tolerance is worth a  |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
megabyte of flaming.           | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry [e-mail]

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

End of SPACE Digest V10 #219
*******************