Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V11_4/V11_446.TXT

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Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #446

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 11 : Issue 446

Today's Topics:
        Re: Opportunity for space activists: Forensics
         Re: nuclear policies (space probes)
               Re: Endangered squirrels
       Re: NASA Headline News for 05/18/90 (Forwarded)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 23 May 90 21:07:55 GMT
From: thorin!homer![e-mail]  (Jonathan Leech)
Subject: Re: Opportunity for space activists: Forensics

Bill Higgins writes (re the 1990-91 high school debate topic)
>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.

    There is an article titled `The Great Space Debate' in the May
issue of _Ad Astra_, which says in part:

  ``...Scott Segal, a long-time debater who teaches at a summer
    institute on debate technique, has volunteered to be our National
    Debate Advisor...  He will formulate a set of questions about
    space policy of particular interest to debaters.  NSS will the
    submit the questions to a panel of experts on space policy, such
    as the NSS Board of Advisors and Governors, and we will then
    publish the results.''
--
    Jon Leech ([e-mail])    __@/
    ``Thus Mathematics helps / our brains and hands and feet
      and can make / a race of supermen out of us.''
    - The Education of T. C. Mits

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

Date: Tue, 22 May 90 14:09:31 EDT
From: John Roberts <[e-mail]>
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are those of the sender
    and do not reflect NIST policy or agreement.
Subject: Re: nuclear policies (space probes)


>From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!know!samsung!munnari.oz.au!metro!cluster!softway![e-mail]  (Greg Rose)
>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Matthew DeLuca) writes:
>>But if there's nuclear material (RTG's or reactors) aboard the satellites to
>>be launched, won't New Zealand wimp out? (Only a half-smiley, folks.)
>Strange, one of the smallest, most isolated countries in the world
>stands up to one of the biggest and most powerful (and who the party
>of the first part relies upon for defence) and tells them that they don't
>want their nuclear weapons thanks, AND YOU CALL THIS WIMPING OUT?
>I'd like to see a lot more of this.
>Greg Rose - assistant test pilot - Softway Pty Ltd
>PHONE: [phone] FAX: [phone] NET: [e-mail]

There's a similar situation in the US - the community of Takoma Park, Md
(adjacent to DC) has declared itself "nuclear-free". I'm not sure of the
details, but I think basically they don't permit any businesses that deal
in nuclear armaments, and their local government is not allowed to deal with
such businesses. They are making a statement - they don't want to have anything
to do with nuclear weapons. Of course, being surrounded by a large country
with lots of nuclear and conventional weapons, there's very little military
risk to them for taking this lofty moral position.

Maybe in this time of reduced international tensions, we could invite the
Soviet army to conduct military exercises in Takoma Park. They would have to
agree not to kill anybody - just shoot blanks and teargas, and drive tanks
over parked cars. :-) :-)

(Takoma Park also decided to start trapping its rats alive, and release them
in neighboring Frederick County. This plan was stopped when the Frederick
County residents replied with some heat that they already had all the rats
they needed, and further imports would not be necessary.)
      John Roberts
      [e-mail]

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

Date: 23 May 90 19:47:05 GMT
From: concertina![e-mail]  (Steve Hix)
Subject: Re: Endangered squirrels

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] writes:
> 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
> > 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.

If the squirrels are spread evenly over the range, like peanut butter, then
they'll have trouble breeding.  (I've noticed that most mammals, when spread
so thinly, seem to have trouble doing much of anything.)

Squirrels tend to be mobile, and they range far enough to find other squirrels.
Doubt if their distribution throughout their range is very smooth.

------------
  The only drawback with morning is that it comes
    at such an inconvenient time of day.
------------

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

Date: 24 May 90 02:35:38 GMT
From: agate!shelby!neon![e-mail]  (John Kallen)
Subject: Re: NASA Headline News for 05/18/90 (Forwarded)

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Andrew Cowie) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Peter E. Yee) writes:
>>The Ulysses spacecraft ... As current propulsion systems are unable to
>>lift the spacecraft directly from Earth over the sun's poles, a sling-shot
>>trajectory around Jupiter will send the probe across the sun's equator in
>>February, 1995.

>I'm no expert at orbital mechanics, but how can Ulysses slingshot around
>Jupiter to get to a sun-polar orbit when it is taking Galileo 5 or so years
>and 3 slingshots to get to Jupiter? Does it have to do with the masses of
>the craft involved, or am I missing something important?

Galileo wants to be able to slow down around Jupiter to establish
orbit. Ulysses just needs a solid boot to change its orbit. Galileo's
orbit must therefore be chosen so that its velocity on approach to
Jupiter almost matches that of the planet. Not so in the case of
Ulysses....
______________________________________________________________________________
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End of SPACE Digest V11 #446
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