Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V11_4/V11_406.TXT

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Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #406

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 11 : Issue 406

Today's Topics:
      Consort 3 launch advisory for 05/14/90 (Forwarded)
             Re:  Galileo Update
                Hubble Wobble
               Re: Sagan vs. asteroids
              aliens' view of us
            Re: Niven's Inertialess Drive
           Jonathan's Space Report (May 15)
              Re:  SPACE Digest V11 #387
         NASA Headline News for 05/14/90 (Forwarded)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 15 May 90 16:11:56 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Consort 3 launch advisory for 05/14/90 (Forwarded)

Barbara Selby
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                       May 14, 1990
(Phone:  [phone])


EDITORS NOTE:  N90-33

CONSORT 3 LAUNCH ADVISORY


     The launch of Consort 3, a commercial suborbital rocket
carrying 12 microgravity experiments, has been moved forward a
day to May 16 at 10:30 a.m. EDT, by the University of Alabama-
Huntsville's Consortium for Materials Development in Space, a
NASA Center for the Commercial Development of Space.

     Consort 3 will be launched from the Naval Ordnance Missile
Test Station facilities at the U.S. Army's White Sands Missile
Range, N.M., by Space Services, Inc., Houston, using its Starfire
rocket.

     A delayed broadcast of the Consort 3 launch will be aired at
Noon EDT, May 16, on NASA Select television via Satcom F-2R,
Transponder 13, C-Band located at 72 degrees west longititude,
frequency 3960.0 MHz, vertical polarization, audio monaural 6.8
MHz.

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

Date: 15 May 90 17:32:32 GMT
From: usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Subject: Re:  Galileo Update

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (SERRE GLENN) writes:
>The subject line says it all. ("What is a SITURN?")
>
A SITURN is a small maneuver to keep the front end of Galileo pointed precisely
at the sun, so that most of its instruments are shaded from the sun's heat.

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

Date: 15 May 90 19:11:17 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (Todd L. Masco)
Subject: Hubble Wobble


What suggestion are there for the causes of the "Wobble" in the HST?
I have a few ideas, probably both resulting from a life spent immersed
in science fiction and physics:

    1)  Light pressure - From Ron Baalke's reports, I gather that
the "wobbles" have some correlation with relative sun up/down.  The
effects of light pressure should be small, but with the scale we're
concerned about, it might become relevant.

    2) Tidal effects - It seems to me that tidal effects should
have a similar frequency;  Again, the effects for something the size
of the HST in a gravity well like the Earth's should be small, but we
*are* concerned about a fairly small scale.  [If this is indeed what
is happening, it'll be vaguely amusing;  The idea comes to mind from
Niven's "Neutron Star"]

    3) E/M effects from the Earth's B field - I'm not certain
where the HST is in relation to the Earth's magnetic field, but moving
a ferromagnetic structure through a magnetic field should induce some
effect, dependent upon the orientation to the B field (not to mention
Eddy Currents!);  Again, this would have a similar frequency, as the
HST moves in its orbit.

    These are, of course, (almost) complete shots in the dark,
without any number-work with which to back them [I'm a lazy physics
student recovering from finals, with a little more than a year left
til I receive my degree].

    Thoughts/Opinions/Refutations?
--
| Todd L. Masco        |  Quantum Mechanics: The dreams stuff is made of.
| [e-mail]  |        ( ...!harvard!andrew.cmu.edu!tm2b )

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

Date: 15 May 90 09:06:37 GMT
From: mcsun!ukc!icdoc!syma![e-mail]  (Nick Watkins)
Subject: Re: Sagan vs. asteroids

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Henry Spencer) writes:
>One should remember that Chairman Carl seems to have heavy-duty ulterior
>motives of the political kind these days, and that colors his views, to
>put it mildly.
As did LBJ's, JFK's, Kruschev's, ... Before you reply Henry, just
consider how much is ever likely to be done in space for reasons of
science or exploration, as compared to geopolitics, war, or your own
favorite (commercial) drivers. Sagan has made some spectacular U-turns
(notably on manned flight, as has Brian O'Leary for example) but he does
at least understand this.

"This film is abbout much more than just science" - ACC on 2001.

Nick
--
Dr. 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: 15 May 90 15:55:12 GMT
From: attcan!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: aliens' view of us

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
>If you are on a camping trip in the wilderness, protected by a flimsy
>nylon backpacking tent, and you discover,just around nightfall, that
>you are directly in the path of a hungry, savage, salivating, snarling
>pack of large, ferocious wolves, you do absolutely everything within
>your power to render your presence...
>...invisible, and then cringe in fear through the night hoping
>that you will not be discovered, and the wolf pack will pass you by.

On the other hand, if you are attacked by a hungry, savage, salivating,
snarling (well, as well as they can) pack of large, ferocious mosquitos,
you just swat the damn things, maybe put on some insect repellent, and
carry on.  You certainly don't make any attempt to be invisible:  they
simply are not a threat.
--
Life is too short to spend    |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
debugging Intel parts. -Van J.| uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry [e-mail]

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

Date: 15 May 90 13:56:56 GMT
From: eru!luth!sunic!tut!funic!finsun![e-mail]  (Pekka Kytolaakso)
Subject: Re: Niven's Inertialess Drive

In <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:


>   In reply to Fred Mccall:

>   The Kzinti, in Larry Niven's series, had developed a 'gravity gradient'
>drive of some sort.  The Inertialess drive was a human (or at least
>human-used) device.  In one of his short stories Louis Wu (a recurring
>character) speculates that some new aliens he's met are using either a
>reactionless drive or a 'kzinti-style gravity gradient drive'.

If I remember right humans got the inertialess drive from the Outsiders.
It happend during the first Man-Kzinti war. The Puppeteers had something to
do with it, read 'Ringworld Enginers' for the  whole tale.

Pekka Kyt|laakso
---------------------------------------------------------------
[e-mail]            Center for Scientific Computing
[e-mail]     PL 40   SF-02101 Espoo FINLAND
Phone: [phone]       Telefax: + 358 0 4572302

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

Date: 15 May 90 19:09:48 GMT
From: frooz!cfa250![e-mail]  (Jonathan McDowell)
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report (May 15)

Jonathan's Space Report

May 15 1990 (no.39)
----------------------------------------------------

The Hubble Space Telescope is in its Orbital Verification phase.
Focus tests are in progress but have been delayed by errors
in the Guide Star Catalog. High voltage testing of the
instruments has begun. First WF/PC image is due in about
a week.

Launch of STS-35/Columbia is due for about Jun 3 following
repairs to the orbiter cooling system.

Anatoli Solov'yov (Komandir) and Aleksandr Balandin (Bortinzhener)
continue in orbit aboard the Mir complex.  The Soyuz TM-9 transport and
the Progress-42 freighter are currently at the station.
Solov'yov and Balandin have been in space for 92 days.

Two MACSAT (Multiple Access Comsat) lightsats were orbited by
Scout G-1 from Space Launch Complex 5, Vandenberg AFB on May 9.
The satellites are a joint Navy/DARPA project.

Kosmos-2077, launched on May 7 from Plesetsk, is a film-return
imaging recon satellite with a life of two months.

(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell

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

Date: 15 May 90 07:14:08 GMT
From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi![e-mail]  (Jim Kasprzak)
Subject: Re:  SPACE Digest V11 #387

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
>> Mark S. also questions the ability of Space Industrialization to make
>> a difference in how we live here, saying the military will eat all of the
>> benefits and nothing here will change.
>>
>> I severely disagree with this. Solar Power sattelites could provide a
>> cheap source of renewable energy indefinately. Asteroid mines could
>> provide us with metals without destroying biosphere. It would be exporting
>> our problems, but wouldn't it be prudent to export them to somewhere where
>> there is _no_ life whatsoever?
>>
>I must agree with Mark S.' assessment of the situation, as must any reas-
>oning person. The percentage of materiel being lifted into orbit that is

 Excuse me? I happen to agree myself, but I don't think you should infer
that anyone who disagrees is not a 'reasoning person'. Such thinking is
not exactly a mark of reason in itself.

>of a military nature is increasing logarithmically. The u.s. "space program"
>has been completely militarized (the desired outcome of the Challenger affair),

 Desired by whom? I don't seem to recall anyone, least of all NASA or the
military, stating that space should be completely militarized after the
Challenger disaster.

>and with deployment of SDI weapons systems on the way, I don't really see

 What deployment? I have yet to see any functional SDI weapons, and you do
sort of need a working weapon before you can effectively deploy it.

>any sort of improvement in life on Earth, unless you call the very REAL threat
>of nuclear death from the sky replacing the UNLIKELY POSSIBILITY of nuclear
>death from the ground an improvement.

 Whoa there. There are no plans by either side to put nuclear weapons
in orbit. There was a treaty way back in the 60's, I think, which
prohibited this sort of thing, and all parties involved are adhering
scrupulously to it. So much so, in fact, that the Orion spacecraft,
the only vehicle with interstellar capabilities that we could build with
current technology, has been snuffed as a serious proposal because of
its use of fission bombs for propulsion. Given the current political
scene, this is probably a good idea; I'd feel very nervous about
thousands of nuclear bombs in orbit, no matter who owned them. Accidents
(and "accidents") can happen. ("We deeply regret the loss of the
city of ______; an attitude control thruster misfired. It won't happen
again, honest.")

>THE main problem with the u.s. "space program" is that everyone is being
>fooled by this misnomer. It should immediately be corrected to the far
>more truthful, "orbital weapons deployment program." Then everyone can stop
>pipe-dreaming about colonizing space, and concentrate on being scared
>s**tless of nuclear death from the skies.

 Name one weapon that has been deployed in space with the intention of
killing people on the ground. I don't know of any in the past, and like
I said, there are no plans for such in the future.

>>
>> If we make the program mainly a spectator sport, it will fail. Football
>> is cheaper.
>Football, baseball, basketball, soccer, hockey, tennis, wrestling, boxing,
>lacrosse, and gladiatoring are all CHEAPER than conquering space, and in
>fact are the DIRECT CAUSE of the u.s.' failure to do so. So, batter up...
>
 Now there's an interesting theory if I ever heard one. Are you saying that
sports are responsible for our space program not being better than it is
today? Very, very interesting. Please share with us the logic that lead you
to such a conclusion.


--
 Jim Kasprzak          [e-mail] (internet)
 RPI, Troy, NY         [e-mail]
 "A spirit with a vision is a dream with a mission."  -Rush

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

Date: 15 May 90 16:10:24 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA Headline News for 05/14/90 (Forwarded)

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Monday, May 14, 1990                  Audio Service: 202/755-1788
-----------------------------------------------------------------

This is NASA Headline News for Monday, May 14....


Hubble Space Telescope operators now plan to lock onto guide and
target stars twice in a row.  The telescope completed a 36-hour
sequence of activities including a successful fine guidance
sensor star pattern matching test.  Operators are also scheduled
to turn on the high voltage to the faint object camera.  The
first test pictures are expected this week.

                            ********

This weekend, Kennedy Space Center ground crews drained Freon
from the shuttle Columbia's coolant system.  Changeout activities
are scheduled to begin this evening.  A protective net located
beneath the access platform covers the payload.  Work at Pad 39-A
to complete the valve change may delay the launch date
approximately two weeks.

                            ********

The Gamma Ray Observatory functions check that began May 8
concludes today. The systems activated include reaction wheels
and gyros, the attitude control system and the spacecraft's
primary power systems.  One of the four great observatories to be
launched, the Gamma Ray is scheduled to be placed in orbit late
this year.

                            ********

President Bush wants to plant an American flag as a way to
celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
During the commencement speech at Texas A&I University, he said
he believes that by the time we celebrate this historic event we
should be on the planet Mars.  The 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11
is June 20, 2019.
                            ********

An Aviation Week Editorial says the Hubble Space Telescope joins
the company of major historic explorations.  Along with the
fleets from Portugal, Spain and England in the 1400s, NASA's
"exciting planetary missions will continue" the story. The
editorial says the Hubble Space Telescope and the Great
Observatory program is a "rallying point to interest" children in
"careers that will help carry the U.S. to greater" adventures.

                            ********








----------------------------------------------------------------
Here's the broadcast schedule for Public Affairs events on NASA
Select TV.  All times are Eastern.

Wednesday, May 16

                    12:00 Noon     Launch of Consort 3.
                                   (Tape replay)


Thursday, May 17....

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










All events and times are subject to change without notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
NASA Select TV: Satcom F2R, Transponder 13, C-Band 72 Degrees
West Longitude, Audio 6.8, Frequency 3960 MHz.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
These reports are filed daily, Monday through Friday, at 12:00
Noon, EDT.  This is a service of the Internal Communications
Branch, NASA Headquarters.

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

End of SPACE Digest V11 #406
*******************