Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V11_3/V11_372.TXT

Internet Message Format | 1991-07-08 | 18KB

Return-path: <[e-mail]>
X-Andrew-Authenticated-as: 7997;andrew.cmu.edu;Ted Anderson
Received: from beak.andrew.cmu.edu via trymail for +dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr11/tm2b/space/[e-mail] (->+dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr11/tm2b/space/space.dl) (->ota+space.digests)
          ID </afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr1/ota/Mailbox/kaFa:::00VcJMBnk40>;
          Tue,  8 May 90 02:09:15 -0400 (EDT)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail]
From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Date: Tue,  8 May 90 02:07:50 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #372

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 11 : Issue 372

Today's Topics:
                Re: Apollo 12
          Re: space news from March 26 AW&ST
      Truly presented space model by Canadian school (Forwarded)
             Re: trivia question
             Re: Manned mission to Venus
            B-70 Featured On Wings
           Re: Two communications satelllites to b
 Re: Two communications satelllites to be launched in May (Forwarded)
               Re: Apollo 11-17
                  Our Galaxy
              Re: SPACE Digest V11 #285
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 7 May 90 17:23:26 GMT
From: hplabsb![e-mail]  (David Smith)
Subject: Re: Apollo 12

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Bob Mosley III) writes:
> The decision to
>launch despite the weather came down from high up (read: The Trickster) as
>
>...The next launch window was sometime in March of 1970, which I believe
>was the window that Apollo 13 used.

Can you cite any authority for these statements?  I have seen Pete Conrad
on TV discussing the flight decision and its consequences.  He had the
final decision on whether to go ahead.  He said nothing about anyone
outside NASA, or political considerations.  He said that if they put off
the launch, they would have to wait a month -- not several months.
about
--
    David R. Smith, HP Labs
    [e-mail]
    [phone]

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

Date: 7 May 90 16:11:42 GMT
From: usc!jarthur!aqdata![e-mail]  (Michael T. Sullivan)
Subject: Re: space news from March 26 AW&ST

:From article <[e-mail]>, by [e-mail] (Henry Spencer):
>
> satellites.  When it came time to set up software and wiring for the
> one-satellite Intelsat mission, the software people found it most
> convenient to treat a single payload as the forward of two, while the
> hardware engineers found that using the aft-payload wiring harness
> was preferable.  So the software sent a deploy-forward-payload signal,
> and got no response.  The hardware people were supposed to communicate
> with the software people about the wiring revisions, and they thought
> they had, but proper procedures weren't followed and the message did
> not get through.  The same mixup has been found on the Commercial Titan

In simpler terms, the software people were using wire A, the hardware
people hooked up wire B.  Ah, the high-tech world of aerospace.
--
Michael Sullivan          uunet!jarthur!aqdata!sullivan
aQdata, Inc.              [e-mail]
San Dimas, CA             [phone]

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

Date: 7 May 90 21:33:25 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Truly presented space model by Canadian school (Forwarded)

Debra J. Rahn
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                        May 7, 1990
(Phone:  [phone])


RELEASE:  90-65

TRULY PRESENTED SPACE MODEL BY CANADIAN SCHOOL

     NASA Administrator Richard H. Truly met today in Ottawa with
representatives from the Highly Gifted and Talented Student
program of the Manitoulin Island Board of Education, Ontario,
Canada.  Seventh grade student J.D. Wisner from C.C. Mclean
Public School and Dianna Shaffer, program teacher, represented
the students and faculty.

     As a part of their curriculum, Shaffer's students have spent
the last year studying the development of NASA since its
inception in 1958 and each student has completed one or two
authentic scale models of a rocket, Skylab, the Space Shuttle and
the Space Station.  Wisner presented Admiral Truly with a scale
model of Skylab.

     In recognition of the student's outstanding efforts to
expand their knowledge and understanding of space exploration,
Truly presented the school with a framed montage of photos from
NASA's Space Shuttle mission 41G flown in October l984 whose crew
included Canada's first astronaut, Marc Garneau.  Also included
with the photos were flags of the United States and Canada flown
on that Space Shuttle mission.

     Truly was in Canada meeting with Dr. Larkin Kerwin,
President, Canadian Space Agency, to discuss ongoing cooperative
projects.  Truly also met with Canada's Minister of Industry,
Science and Technology, the Honorable Benoit Bouchard and
Canada's Minister of Science, the Honorable William Winegard.

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

Date: 8 May 90 03:20:43 GMT
From: uoft02.utoledo.edu![e-mail]
Subject: Re: trivia question

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Shirley Peters) writes:
>
> I figure this would be the best place for a question like this...
>
> There was an astronaut named Scott something,  he 'blasted into orbit'
> sometime in 1962 (most likely this month.)  Does anyone know the date?
>
> If anyone knows, please e-mail me.
>
> Thanx,  Shirley
>
> Shirley Peters                                           [e-mail]
>                        I'd rather be sleeping!
> --
> Shirley Peters                                            [e-mail]
>                            I'd rather be sleeping!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think you are looking for Scott Carpenter aboard Aurora 7 launched
May 24, 1962.  He made only 3 orbits.

Bob Dempsey
Ritter Observatory

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

Date: 8 May 90 04:32:52 GMT
From: usc!samsung!emory!mephisto!prism![e-mail]  (Matthew DeLuca)
Subject: Re: Manned mission to Venus


     On the topic of terraforming Venus, for a pretty good sci-fi treatment of  the topic, I would recommend reading Pamela Sargent's _Venus of Dreams_ and
_Venus of Shadows_.  There's supposed to be a third book in the series, but it
has yet to show up on the shelves of the local B. Dalton.



--
Matthew DeLuca
Georgia Institute of Technology      Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards,
Office of Computing Services         for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
ARPA: [e-mail]

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

Date: 6 May 90 16:49:11 GMT
From: usc!samsung!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!nic.MR.NET!jhereg!wd0gol!newave![e-mail]  (John A. Weeks III)
Subject: B-70 Featured On Wings


With all of the talk about the B-70, I thought I would pass on the
following tidbit:  "Wings" is showing the XB-70 show on Saturday
May 12 at 8:00 PM CDT on the Discovery channel.  Check your local
listing.

The B-70 footage on the F-15 show this week was a nice warm-up!

-john-

--
===============================================================================
John A. Weeks III               [phone]               [e-mail]
NeWave Communications                ...uunet!rosevax!bungia!wd0gol!newave!john
===============================================================================

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

Date: 5 May 90 17:11:00 GMT
From: swrinde!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: Two communications satelllites to b


>/* Written  9:56 pm  May  3, 1990 by quiche.cs.mcgill.ca!msdos in bucc2:sci.space */
>I would like to start a new discussion about a manned mission to Venus.
>I know that given the inferno that's there, it sounds crazy, but Venus has
>many advantages over Mars:
>- 3 month flight instead of 9, and lower energy requirements to go there.
>- 8 times the mass of Mars, which means that it can trap any spaceship more
>  easily than the red planet.
>-  Notwithstanding its athmosphere, Venus is the TRUE twin of our Earth, and
>   it should be therefore our main target from the cultural point of view.
>- The athmosphere of Venus has the same quantity of oxygen as here.
>
>And for those that doubt about my seriousness, I am glad to tell that I
>will be the first to volunteer to go there... After all our technology
>can enable us to make life bearable even at 900 F and 90 athmospheres
>
>Mark S.
>-------
I have several problems with your proposal for a manned mission ( I
assume you mean a landing mission, not an orbit-and-return mission
like Apollo 8) to Venus. I have no argument with your first argument,
that of time and energy. That's celestial mechanics, and not my cup of
tea; your second argument, that of orbit acqusition, is similarly not
my cup of tea.

However, your third argument, that of a "TRUE twin", totally escapes
me. None of the planets, pop science notwithstanding, is a sister of
any other. Least of all, Venus to Earth. Mars is much more like the
Earth, for a number of reasons: A>Evidence of liquid water having
existed on Mars. B>The Martian sol (day) is about as long as ours, and
its weather is similar to ours. C>It has evidence of at least a start
of continental drift. D>It has at least a small magnetic field,
protecting it from mean things like cosmic rays. Venus does not. As to
your fourth argument, that of atmospheric composition, I'm afraid that
both Venus and Mars are sorely lacking in molecular oxygen. Neither
atmosphere is breatheable. Your fifth argument, that of survivability,
is also flawed. Even the best probes-inanimate and probably better
able to take more temperature/pressure stress than a mere human-have
only lasted for around a day, at most.

Mind you, I'm fully for manned space colonization and exploration. I
simply would like to return after I make planetfall. Mars looks, at
this point and IMHO, more survivable and interesting for a manned
mission than Venus.


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: 7 May 90 15:53:06 GMT
From: frooz!cfa250![e-mail]  (Jonathan McDowell)
Subject: Re: Two communications satelllites to be launched in May (Forwarded)

From article <[e-mail]>, by [e-mail] (Michael A. Simpkins):
>>     The Scout program is managed by NASA's Langley Research
>>Center, Hampton, Va.
> They
> call them Blue Scout's, I think this name goes back to the early days
> of the program. Is this true?

This is a perennial problem.  The 'Blue' in Blue Scout means USAF rather
than NASA (the USAF people wear blue suits, OK?).  But strictly, Blue
Scout was a different variant of Scout, produced for USAF, which was
used in 1960-1962.  There was also a Blue Scout Jr which used Stages
2,3,4 of Scout as its stages 1,2,3.  Blue Scout has long been abandoned.
However common usage has often (technically incorrectly) referred to
NASA Scouts with DoD payloads as "Blue Scouts". Formally, they are not.
 References: Joel Powell's articles in Spaceflight and JBIS in the
1970s and 1980s.

- Jonathan McDowell

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

Date: 7 May 90 22:20:31 GMT
From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!nic.MR.NET!jhereg!wd0gol!newave![e-mail]  (John A. Weeks III)
Subject: Re: Apollo 11-17

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Mike Smithwick) writes:

> I would love to get some videotape of these old broadcasts sometime. Anyone
> have contacts in the network tape libraries?

The Arts & Entertainment Channel reran about 9 hours of the NBC Apollo 11
coverage last July.  Having always watched CBS coverage, I was somewhat
disappointed with NBC.  The commentators didn't seem like they knew what
was going on.  It was nice to see the entire moon walk in one piece.

The simulations that the networks use to show were exciting at the time,
but they are quite boring now that we are used to the better quality
video that NASA sends back from the shuttle.

I wonder if we will ever be able to get video from the various Soviet
space missions.

-john-

--
===============================================================================
John A. Weeks III               [phone]               [e-mail]
NeWave Communications                ...uunet!rosevax!bungia!wd0gol!newave!john
===============================================================================

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

Date:         Mon, 07 May 90 10:27:52 EDT
From: LEONARD ABBEY <[e-mail]>
Subject:      Our Galaxy

The ancestor of today's NGC catalog was William Herschel's catalog of
non-stellar objects.  He put this together in the last two decades of
the 18th century.  William's notation was, by today's standards, archaic.
He divided non-stellar objects into seven general catagories, and numbered
objects sequentially in each category.  When an entry was refered to
the class was written as a superscript to the object number (10^4 would
be the tenth object in the Planetary Nebula class).

Sir William's work was revised, and extended to the objects in the
Southern Hemisphere by his son, John.  John Herschel eventually cataloged
nearly 8,000 objects, numbering them sequetially, in order of Right
Ascension.  This was completed by about 1860, and the work was published
as the General Catalog of non-stellar objects.  Entries were refered to
by their GC number.

Of course, this wasn't enough in the field of cataloging (people continued
to discover new objects) and the whole shebang was edited and re-published
as the New General Catalog by J. L. E. Dreyer, in 1888.  The listing was
essentially frozen at this time, and additional objects were listed in
the Index Catalog, which was essentially an appendix to the NGC.  When the
NGC was issued, almost all of the objects retained the numbers which they
had been assigned by Sir John Herschel.

In the years after '88, a total of three Index Catalogs were issued, the
last being in 1912, I think.  This meant that almost every non-stellar
object brighter than magnitude 16 was represented.

Since that time the NGC has been relatively unchanged, save for the correction
of errors.  The latest printing of it is the NGC 2000, published by
Sky Publishing Corporation last year.

Our galaxy does not have an NGC number for the same reason that you do
not know the lot and subdivision numbers of your front yard.  Because you
can already find it, you don't need to write it's identity down.

Leonard Abbey, F.R.A.S.
Georgia Tech
Research Institute
[e-mail]

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

Date:     Mon, 07 May 90  17:55:13 +0100
From: [e-mail]
Subject:  Re: SPACE Digest V11 #285

There has been a fair amount of discussion on E.T. life-forms and UFOs, so it
might be instructive to consider two phenomena I have seen, and what they
likely are:

1> whilst watching the night-sky a few years back one summer, there was a point
source of light, say 4th magnitude, that traversed across the celestial sphere,
but erratically:

                              ..  .  ---->
erratically -->     .   ..   .  ..
                     ...  ... .
                            ..

it must have taken quarter-half an hour to cross the sky.
Can anyone find a suitable explanation for this (and no, it wasn't Venus *8-)

     2>  I  was  cycling down a hill one day, when a shadow about 2.5 x 1 metre
(blockish) crossed my path. I was able to look up 15 seconds later,  and  there
was  nothing in the sky, and there had been no noise, though I didn't check for
clouds - it strikes me as a very strange cloud if it were one!

I propose these, as these are the sorts of things people might interpret as
UFOs, and would be interested in any thoughts.

ALSO, I gather that band-width for radio astronomy is constantly being erroded,
and that this must be quite restricting in my opinion - what legal rights do
the astronomers have, and are they likely to lose them (or even do lose them)?

Thank you!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|          MAC'S PLANK - THE BRIDGE BETWEEN QUANTUM AND CLASSICAL           |
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|  Behold and lo! an idiot! come again? an idiot, I say; do you not listen? |                                                                          |
|  we must prepare to meet the idiot! are you listening? look, an idiot is  |
|  coming, and you just fiff and faff like a falling leaf? get you hence, I |
|  hear him now! open the door at once, hurry! Are you not gone? ah! you    |
|  have let him in, and Oh my god! the idiot has arrived; and I am he!      |
|                                                                           |
|    - [e-mail]... lowly maths student.                     |
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|     ...I am not responsible, nor my opinions!                             |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

End of SPACE Digest V11 #372
*******************