Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V11_4/V11_440.TXT

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Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #440

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 11 : Issue 440

Today's Topics:
                  Cape York
          Opportunity for space activists: Forensics
               Re: Endangered squirrels
               Re: Endangered squirrels
             The Magellan analogy
               Re: terraforming sources
             FREQUENT FLYER MILES
           Payload Status for 05/18/90 (Forwarded)
NASA to brief media on Hubble Space Telescope instrument test (Forwarded)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 22 May 90 07:11:21 GMT
From: cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!pikes![e-mail]  (Nicholas Dimas)
Subject: Cape York

Hello everyone, my name is Nicholas Dimas.  Can someone please explain to
me why Cape York is the "spaceport of the 21st century"?  I keep reading about
it on the net but I can't figure it out.

Send mail via Internet:
            [e-mail]


                    Thank You
                    Nicholas Dimas

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

Date:     Tue, 22 May 90 10:30 CDT
From: Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey <[e-mail]>
Subject:  Opportunity for space activists: Forensics
Original_To:  SPACE,jnet%"skar@plains"


Eric Lybeck, posting through his friend Keith Skar ([e-mail]),
said:

>I am a High School Debater... The Nation Forensics League (NFL) has selected
>the Resolution for High School Debate Next year.  It is: resolved: That the
>federal gov't should significantly increase exploration of space.

This seems to be a great opportunity for space activists.  We (such folk as the
readers of this net) are the people who know where to dig up the information
the high-school debaters need.  We could make ourselves useful to them.

The least thing you might do is phone up your favorite local high school,
introduce yourself to the forensics coach, and offer your time and phone number
to answer the questions debaters will have in the fall.  A bull session or two
with somebody who knows about space issues might be of great benefit to them.

If you wanted to put in a bit more work, dig up a list of resources and type
'em into a file you can hand the students.   Good books you know of that help
answer the questions.  Relevant magazine articles.  Good quotes (they love
quotes).  Old net postings you have lying around.  Addresses where you can get
free stuff.  NASA/ESA/NASDA/Glavkosmos centers, aerospace companies, local
universities that use satellites or rockets.

You could even (if you were really ambitious) write your own outline of the
subject, and explain how you think about the pros and cons.  Dust off your
vacation slides of KSC and your Voyager slides, and offer to give a
presentation to high schools.

The benefits include helping a whole raft of young people to think critically
about space.  Many of them will not particularly be space buffs, so you can
give them exposure to the subject they wouldn't have gotten otherwise.  You
can't just propagandize-- remember that they must be equipped to argue either
side of the question!-- but you can leave them much more aware of space issues,
and much better informed than they would be depending on just the popular
magazines.

Then, in a couple of years, they will hit college and get Usenet accounts.
Being sharp, witty, trained debaters, they will raise the standard of discourse
on Space Digest/sci.space.  Their skill will blow all of us old fogies out of
the water on every argument... (-:

I should apologize to Eric.  If a number of netters take up my idea, large
numbers of his competitors will benefit, and he'll be up against stiffer
resistance.  Still, he was smart enough to be the first to suggest this, and
the three-month lead he's got will be tough to beat. ;-)  Besides, I've already
sent him my list of resources!

                      ______meson   Bill Higgins
                   _-~
     ____________-~______neutrino   Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
   -   -         ~-_
 /       \          ~----- proton   Bitnet: [e-mail]
 |       |
 \       /                          SPAN/Hepnet/Physnet: 43011::HIGGINS
   -   -
     ~                              Internet: [e-mail]
 _______________
|   Coming      \      The centennial of Herman Hollerith's
|   soon...     |      little card from the 1890 Census
|_______________|

of the water

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

Date: 22 May 90 18:55:21 GMT
From: uc!nic.MR.NET!hall![e-mail]  (Greg Titus)
Subject: Re: Endangered squirrels

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
>...  Estimates of
>the Mt. Graham red squirrel population range from 50 to 150 individuals.
>   [quite a bit deleted]
>...  Since the
>squirrels' habitat spans about 10,000 acres, ...

I have a hard time reconciling these numbers.  If we assume
100 squirrels for the population, then we've got a population
density of 0.01 squirrel/acre.  This is way too low for a
small rodent -- I would expect something in the range 1 to 10
squirrels/acre, or 100 to 1000 times as great a density.
Squirrels just don't range very far.  At 0.01 squirrel/acre,
they couldn't even breed.

I think either their range must be smaller or their population
must be larger.

greg
--------------------------------------------------------------
Greg Titus ([e-mail])                      Ada Project
Cray Research, Inc.                               Santa Fe, NM
Opinions expressed herein (such as they are) are purely my own.
Cray Research, Inc. is not in the squirrel business.

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

Date: 23 May 90 05:25:22 GMT
From: uoft02.utoledo.edu![e-mail]
Subject: Re: Endangered squirrels

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Greg Titus) writes:
> In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
>>...  Estimates of
>>the Mt. Graham red squirrel population range from 50 to 150 individuals.
>>   [quite a bit deleted]
>>...  Since the
>>squirrels' habitat spans about 10,000 acres, ...
>
> I have a hard time reconciling these numbers.  If we assume
> 100 squirrels for the population, then we've got a population
> density of 0.01 squirrel/acre.  This is way too low for a
> small rodent -- I would expect something in the range 1 to 10
> squirrels/acre, or 100 to 1000 times as great a density.
> Squirrels just don't range very far.  At 0.01 squirrel/acre,
> they couldn't even breed.
>
>
I was just out in Tucson last week where the results of the latest
survey where published.  They said the population was higher than last
year but still only about 125-150 critters.  Your math is correct but on
what grounds do you make your breeding claim?  As the squirrels seem
to have done ok so far I think your claim is absurd.



Bob Dempsey
Ritter Observatory

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

Date: 22 May 90 06:25:12 GMT
From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!munnari.oz.au!metro!cluster![e-mail]  (Raymond Lister)
Subject: The Magellan analogy

Patrick Haggood ([e-mail]) writes ...

[1] "Actually, the greater inhibitor to space exploration seems to be
    financial."

[2] "Besides, Magellan didn;t have to throw his boat away after the trip
     (yeah, I know he died, I'm trying to make a point!) :-)"

Point [1] is absolutely right - the Magellan expedition actually made a profit!

Point [2] is not so right - Magellan started with 5 ships, and only one
completed the voyage! (But not all were destroyed.)

Guys like Magellan might have wanted "to boldly go where no [European] man has
gone before" ambitions, but the guys who payed for their expeditions
certainly weren't.  They were interested in money.

Here's some relevant extracts (in terms of analogies with space exploration)
from The Encyclopaedia Americana ...

  >  Magellan (1480-1521):
  >  Portuguese navigator ... [distinguished military service] ... Magellan
  >  lost the [Portuguese] King's favour ... Thereupon ... he entered the
  >  Spanish service ... Magellan propossed that King Charles support an
  >  expedition to seek a westward route to the Moluccas and thus settle the
  >  controversy between Spain and Portugal as to the limits of the spheres
  >  of influence allotted to each country by the bull of 1493 of Pope
  >  Alexander VI.  Magellan argued that he would be able to prove that the
  >  Moluccas lay within the Spanish sphere.  ... [In Sep 1519] he set sail
  >  ... with five ships ... [In January 1520] they entered the Rio de la
  >  Plata ... The Santiago was wrecked ... but her crew was saved ... [In
  >  Oct 1520] they sighted the eastern entrance to the strait which now
  >  bears Magellan's name ... The passage through the strait took about
  >  five and one half weeks.  As the San Antanio had deserted for Spain, there
  >  were now three vessels which for 98 days sailed across the unknown waters
  >  [of the Pacific]. ... in order to stay alive [they] were forced to eat
  >  rats and the leather from the ship's rigging. They reached Guam [in March
  >  1521].  Magellan ... was killed by the natives of ... Mactan Island in his
  >  attempt to capture it.  One of the remaining ships ... returned to Spain
  >  via the Cape of Good Hope, reaching [Spain in Sept 1522] with a crew of
  >  18 and a cargo of spices that more than paid the cost of the expedition.

So why have I bored you with this?  My point is that, in the past, the primary
motivation for exploration has been profit (in Magellan's case, an attempt to
find a loophole in a papal decree on trade limits). I suspect that a very
lucrative $ reason for exploring space will need to be found before anything
much happens.  Dodgy SRBs, or NASA bureaucracy, are not the real problem, but
merely a manifestation of the lack of $ incentive for going into space.
Communications satellites and materials processing seem to be modest profit
winners, but neither requires a large presence in space.  O'Neill's power
satellites might eventually be the reason for the opening of the "high
frontier", but the world will have to go seriously green before that will
happen.

Raymond Lister
Department of Computer Science
University of Sydney
AUSTRALIA

Internet: [e-mail]

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

Date:     Tue, 22 May 90 04:38 CST
From: Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey <[e-mail]>
Subject:  Re: terraforming sources
Original_To:  SPACE


Henry Spencer just mentioned that the December 1989 *JBIS* was devoted to
terraforming.  I'd like to add a couple of notes on other sources.

Jim Oberg is supposed to be editing a book of technical papers on terraforming
(I think it's called *The Terraforming Papers*).  These are from the first
terraforming session held at the time of (but not part of) the Lunar and
Planetary Science Conference a few years back (1982? 1983?).  I think there has
been a second such session since; don't know if it will be included in the
book.  The book is not published yet; I think I'd have heard.

People interested in terraforming should rush out and read Oberg's 1981 book *Ne
w
Earths* published by:
    Stackpole Books
    Cameron and Keller Streets
    PO Box 1831
    Harrisburg, PA 17105
    $16.95

This is a good popular-level book, and possibly the only book-length survey of
the subject.

                      ______meson   Bill Higgins
                   _-~
     ____________-~______neutrino   Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
   -   -         ~-_
 /       \          ~----- proton   Bitnet: [e-mail]
 |       |
 \       /                          SPAN/Hepnet/Physnet: 43011::HIGGINS
   -   -
     ~                              Internet: [e-mail]

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

Date: 22 May 90 20:34:54 GMT
From: m2c!wpi![e-mail]  (Matthew J Rosenwasser)
Subject: FREQUENT FLYER MILES

Which astronaut has the most Frequent Flyer miles?  My guess would be the
Russians who stayed up for a year.  On a country scale, it would still be the
Russians.  But, if you included the unmanned probes (Unmanned Frequent Flyer
miles) then I think that the US would win.

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

Date: 22 May 90 23:39:01 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Payload Status for 05/18/90 (Forwarded)


    Daily Status/KSC Payload Management and Operations 05-18-90

    - STS-31R HST (at VPF) -

    Post launch GSE removal continues.


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

    BBXRT liquid argon servicing was completed Thursday.  The
    BBXRT T-0 retest will occur today.


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

    Power up IPR troubleshooting and MVAK training will be
    performed today.


    - STS-41 Ulysses (at ESA 60)

    PAM-S spin balance operations will continue today at ESA 60.
    At the VPF, VPHD preps continue.


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

    Module pyrell foam replacement, floor staging, and rack
    staging continues.


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

    Cable installations will continue today.


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

    High strength fasteners were replaced third shift Friday.


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

    No work is scheduled for today.


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

    Rack 12 staging will continue today.


    - HST M&R (at O&C)

    Paper closure and ORUC interface will be performed today.

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

Date: 22 May 90 23:36:16 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA to brief media on Hubble Space Telescope instrument test (Forwarded)

[Getting this out a bit late.  Travel precluded a timely posting. -PEY]

Paula Cleggett-Haleim                             MAY 19, 1990
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                    12:30 p.m.EDT
(Phone:  [phone])

Jan Ruff
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md
(Phone:  [phone])

N90-35
NOTE TO EDITORS


NASA TO BRIEF MEDIA ON HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE INSTRUMENT TEST

     On Sunday May 20, at 1:00 p.m.EDT, NASA's HST management
team will brief media on a test image of star field NGC 3532,
from the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, Md.
Media may view this engineering test image from the HST newsroom,
located at the GSFC Visitors Center.

     Prior to NASA's reception of this first test image, media
will be briefed on how an image is obtained and captured on the
ground.  The briefing will be carried live on NASA Select
television, available on Satcom F2R, transponder 13 at 3960 MHz,
located at 72 degrees W. Longitude.

     Media wishing to cover this event are advised to contact
Goddard Public Affairs, 301/286-2639,2640,2641 or 2162 beginning
noon Sunday to arrange for accreditation at the Goddard News
Center.  A taped status report is available by calling GSFC on
301/286-6397.

     The complete orbital and science verification period, which
ensures that all systems and instruments are functioning
properly, extends over an eight-month period.  The HST team is
approximately one-quarter into that verification period.

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

End of SPACE Digest V11 #440
*******************