Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V11_3/V11_340.TXT

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Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #340

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 11 : Issue 340

Today's Topics:
           Payload Status for 04/30/90 (Forwarded)
                decompression
                  Re: [HELP]
            Silly Science Fiction
              Re: Fermi paradox
                  Re: [HELP]
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 30 Apr 90 21:06:14 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Payload Status for 04/30/90 (Forwarded)


    Daily Status/KSC Payload Management and Operations 04-30-90.


    - STS-31R HST (at VPF) -

    Post launch GSE removal continues.


    - STS-35 ASTRO-1 (at Pad-A) -

    BBXRT T-O checks were completed Friday.  ASTRO MMU load was
    started second shift Sunday and will be completed first
    shift today.


    - STS-40 SLS-1 (at O&C) -

    Experiment train interface testing continues.  Rack
    structural modifications were also active Saturday and will
    continue today.


    - STS-42 IML-1 (at O&C) -

    Module pyrell foam replacement, floor staging, and rack
    staging were worked Friday and Saturday and will continue
    today.


    - STS-45 Atlas-1 (at O&C) -

    Coldplate installations were active Friday and Saturday and
    will continue today.


    - STS-46 TSS-1 (at O&C) -

    EMP deintegration continues.


    - STS-47 Spacelab-J (at O&C) -

    The light weight rack handling frame fit check was performed
    Friday.


    - STS-55 SL-D2 (at O&C) -

    Rack 12 staging will continue today.


    - HST M&R (at O&C) -

    ORUC interface testing continues today.

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

Date:         Mon, 30 Apr 90 11:06:55 EST
From: [e-mail]
Subject:      decompression

TO   SPACE DIGEST              FROM   WHITEMAN AT IPFWVM
DEPT                           DEPT COMPUTING AND DATA PROCESSING
SUB    DECOMPRESSION           DATE 30 APRIL 1990

     HAVE I MISSED SOMETHING?
     DURING THIS DISCUSSION I HAVEN'T NOTICED ANY COMMENT ON
     GASSES TRAPED IN THE INTESTINAL TRACT. DURING MY US AIR
     FARCE DAYS I WAS ON FLYING STATUS AND WAS REQUIRED TO TAKE
     THE PHYSIOLOGICAL (ALTITUDE CHAMBER) TRAINING. ONE OF
     THE DEMOS WAS DECOMPRESSION. THE CHAMBER WAS TAKEN FROM
     8,000 FEET TO 30,000 FEET IN A MATTER OF SECONDS. OUR
     TASK WAS TO GET AN OXYGEN MASK ON, SURVIVE AND MAKE
     SURE THAT THE PERSON NEXT TO US HAD DONE THE SAME.

     THERE TWO VIVID MEMORIES FROM THIS EXPERIENCE

     1.  THE CONDENSION OF WATER IN THE AIR MADE A THICK FOG
         AND FINDING THE OXYGEN MASK DIFFICULT.

     2.  THE GAS IN PEOPLES INTESTINES EXPANDED 7 TIMES
         WITH RESULTS RANGING FROM MILDLY FUNNY TO AGONY.

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

Date: 28 Apr 90 19:22:00 GMT
From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!m.cs.uiuc.edu!bucc2![e-mail]
Subject: Re: [HELP]


>/* Written 11:13 am  Apr 25, 1990 by gronk.UUCP!johnl in bucc2:sci.space */
>In article <16000028@bucc2> [e-mail] writes:
>>Frankly, I'm ticked off about how poor science education is getting. I
>>am, at present, a physics major at a mid-sized college. I know of
>>people IN COLLEGE who were never exposed to a math or science class.
>
>If a college believes math and science are important, they should
>revise their entrance requirements to reflect their concerns.  A high
>school can make science and math mandatory.  I thought all high
>schools required at least a year of math and science.

    The girl I knew was at ISU. I am at Bradley. There is a
    difference, but never mind. Yes, I know that there are
    graduation standards for high schools. Even the Chicago Public
    High School I went to made us take 3 of science and 3 of
    mathematics. Nevertheless, I personally met the girl, who
    lived in a rather rural area of Illinois, and asked her why
    she was being tutored by my friend, an EE, in what I called
    "jolly numbers"-pre-algebra to the educationalists-and she
    answered, "Because I never took a class in the subject." She
    appeared to be serious. I was sort of shocked.

>>The sad thing about it is that Pres. (I hate broccoli) Bush actually
>>intends for these people to understand why he wants America to
>>re-establish a forceful presence in space. He is one of the same dolts
>>who cut education funding to deprive these people of learning science
>>to fund defense projects that have gone nowhere.
>
>What does federal education funding have to do with this?  The
>responsibility for funding public education lies with the states and
>localities.  Except for special projects, I don't think the
>federal government should be involved in funding public education.

    The Feds provide some money, as I recall. But the state does
    does provide the bulk of the money. All I know is that
    someone's stiffed the American student, and I, at least, am
    not too happy about that.

>>It galls me that even
>>my teachers in grade school knew less about science in general than I
>>did at the time.
>
>That's what happens when public school systems hire people with
>'education' degrees and refuse to set minimal standards.
>
>I would like to see the public schools require courses in biology,
>chemistry, physics and mathematics (statistics and algebra).
>Why do they let students get away with 'business math' and
>'general science'?  There is no reason that most students couldn't
>take and pass these courses.  I would also require a secondary
>school teacher to have majored in the field they are teaching.

    Most do. But what we have here is a case of a self-fulfilling
    prophecy. The average teacher is a liberal-arts type who
    avoided science like the plague (my mother was a teacher.
    She thought microwaves made aluminum angry.). This teacher
    is taught on how to teach-not on a subject, just how to teach.
    He/She is happy until they are hired, and told to teach,
    horrors of horrors (;-)), SCIENCE. So, the teacher tells the
    students that this stuff is hard, and that they are expected
    to have difficulties. Students are scared off by it, except
    those who are stubborn enough to say that they *will* tough it
    out, or those who are in the fortunate minority who enjoy the
    class, and later become scientists or engineers.

    Also, remember, a lot of people forget their science learned
    in high school. Most people can't even do simple physics, let
    alone chem or astronomy.

>--
>John Limpert        [e-mail]    uunet!n3dmc!gronk!johnl

Craig\The Moonman\Levin
Bitnet {?}: [e-mail]      |  uiucdcs\
Internet: [e-mail] |      noao>bradley!bucc2!moonman
I'm just an undergrad. THEY don't   |     cepu/
care if I have opinions or not.     |

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

Date: 30 Apr 90 13:57:00 GMT
From: usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sunybcs!uhura.cc.rochester.edu!rochester![e-mail]  (Paul Dietz)
Subject: Silly Science Fiction

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Daniel Ake CAROSONE) writes:

>I forgot that even inertialess drives will probably require some energy
>source.

Do recall that violation of conservation of momentum implies violation
of conservation of energy in another reference frame.  So you could
power a putative "inertialess drive" with a perpetual motion machine of
the first kind.

    Paul F. Dietz
    [e-mail]

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

Date: 29 Apr 90 19:42:27 GMT
From: mailrus!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!yunexus!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!physics.utoronto.ca![e-mail]  (Christopher Neufeld)
Subject: Re: Fermi paradox

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Phil Nelson) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Christopher Neufeld) writes:
>>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Phil Nelson) writes:
>>>
>>>With only one observable example of a planet with life on it, probability
>>>is not a useful tool for answering this question. We need more information.
>>>
>>   No, I think you can say that the probability that there is exactly
>>one life-bearing planet in the universe is no more than 1/e.
>
>  (long analysis deleted)
>
>  I assert that probability is not useful in such an extreme case, you
>answer by doing an analysis. It looks very impressive to me, but it doesn't
>change my point. I don't mean to discourage speculation, or to assert that
>life does not exist elswhere, just that the assumption that life must exist
>elsewhere because there are so many stars out there unscientific.
>
   Well, that statement would be exactly right if there were no known
stars which supported life-bearing planets, but the presence of at least
one life-bearing planet (ours) enables us to do some rudimentary
probability analysis. You are right in your last sentence, and I don't
dispute the point that the sheer number of stars cannot assure the
existence of life elsewhere. I personally believe it is very likely that
there is life elsewhere, mainly because of the analysis I presented,
along with the argument that it would be quite a coincidence if 'r' were
even within an order of magnitude of '1/N'.
   My point was merely this: if somebody came up to you tomorrow with a
machine would would, by some unknown means, count all the stars with
life-bearing planets in the universe, and before turning it on he bet
you N dollars that there would be none other than ours, you would be
well advised to take the bet at up to odds of 1.7 against you (you put
up $1.70 to win $1.00). This is from (1-1/e)/(1/e) = 1.72.
   Obviously my analysis says nothing about the actual number of stars
in the universe which support life, but _it_does_say_ that it is _more_
_likely_than_not_ that there is other life out there.

>> Christopher Neufeld....Just a graduate student
>> [e-mail]
>
>Phil Nelson . uunet!pyramid!oliveb!tymix!hobbes!pnelson . Voice:408-922-7508
>


--
 Christopher Neufeld....Just a graduate student  | "Like most
 [e-mail]              | intellectuals he is
 [e-mail]          Ad astra! | intensely stupid."
 "Don't edit reality for the sake of simplicity" |  Marquise de Merteuil

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

Date: 29 Apr 90 17:36:00 GMT
From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!m.cs.uiuc.edu!bucc2![e-mail]
Subject: Re: [HELP]


>/* Written  5:17 pm  Apr 26, 1990 by latvax8.lat.oz!CCMK in bucc2:sci.space */
>>>/* Written  1:55 pm  Apr 19, 1990 by elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!john in bucc2:sci.space */
>
>Sorry to be picky, but I thought Mars was an inner planet, as
>the distance from Mars to Jupiter is about the distance from the Sun
>to Mars (especially since the asteroid belt in between the two).

    I had been taught that (and read this in Patrick Moore's THE
    AMATEUR ASTRONOMER) any planet inside the Earth's orbit, and
    including the Earth, was an inner planet. Asimov's various
    scientific writings back me up here too.

>Or am I wrong and Australian science education is lacking as well?

    Nobody teaches anyone astronomy these days. It's submerged in
    "general science" or "earth science" courses for the dim high
    school student, upon whom it is completely lost. I have
    *never* heard of a single physics class that taught anyone
    astronomy in high school, at least in the U.S.A., where the
    "traditional" science curriculum, where it exists, is biology,
    chemistry, and physics. I could, of course, consider the
        "brilliant" ;-) idea of a single course of "physical science"
    replacing both physics and chemistry as the typical curriculum
    now.

>Mark Kosten,          phone: [phone]
>Computer Centre,      ACSnet/UUCP/Bitnet: [e-mail]
>La Trobe University,  X25: 234730008 ([e-mail])
>Bundoora,
>Victoria 3083
>Australia

Craig\The Moonman\Levin
Bitnet {?}: [e-mail]      |  uiucdcs\
Internet: [e-mail] |      noao>bradley!bucc2!moonman
I'm just an undergrad. THEY don't   |     cepu/
care if I have opinions or not.     |

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

End of SPACE Digest V11 #340
*******************