Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V11_4/V11_449.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/YaLBqjW00VcJQ14U4e>;
          Fri, 25 May 90 03:24:38 -0400 (EDT)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail]
From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Date: Fri, 25 May 90 03:23:21 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #449

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 11 : Issue 449

Today's Topics:
         NASA Headline News for 05/24/90 (Forwarded)
    Re: Terraforming Venus (was: Manned mission to Venus)
              Ulysses propulsion
             Skywatch, a new use for SDI?
              Re:  SPACE Digest V11 #444
               Re: Endangered squirrels
           Re: Consort 3 Launch Successful
       Re: NASA Headline News for 05/22/90 (Forwarded)
               NASA Image data
               Re: Splitting sci.space
            HST vibration problems
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 24 May 90 23:14:00 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA Headline News for 05/24/90 (Forwarded)

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, May 24, 1990                Audio Service: 202/755-1788
-----------------------------------------------------------------

This is NASA Headline News for Thursday, May 24...

Activities are picking up at Kennedy Space Center.  A decision to
confirm the launch date for the STS-35/Astro-1 mission is
expected this afternoon.  At this time, the night launch for STS-
35/Astro-1 is scheduled for May 30.  All repair work has been
completed on the orbiter Columbia and close out of the Astro
payload will occur today.

A date for the Delta 2/ROSAT launch will be determined either
late today or early tomorrow.  The decision hinges on the date
selected for the STS-35 liftoff.

                        * * * * * * * *

Aerospace Daily reports a RAND Corporation study says the
proposed Shuttle-C unmanned heavy-lift launch vehicle is "too
expensive for routine transporattion" and has questioned its need
under any level of U.S. space activities, except "in the case of
unique operational benefits".  The critical report was prepared
with U.S. Air Force funding.

                        * * * * * * * *

Jet Propulsion Laboratory mission controllers say the Galileo
spacecraft continues to operate in a stable and healthy manner.
During its present cruise phase the spacecraft continues data
gathering on interplanetyary fields, particles and ultraviolet
phenomena.  The spacecraft is now 96 million miles from Earth,
and 98 million miles from the Sun.  It has completed 382 million
miles of its 2.4 billion miles path to Jupiter.

                        * * * * * * * *

Reuters reports that 13 Japanese companies have formed a
consortium to produce launch vehicles and compete in the
international satellite-launching business.  The effort is led by
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.


                        * * * * * * * *











-----------------------------------------------------------------
Here's the broadcast schedule for NASA Select TV.  All times are
EDT.

Thursday, May 24.....

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

                   12:00 P.M.            The Hubble Space
                                         Telescope
                                         first test pictures.

                   12:50 P.M.            HST: Exploring the
                                         Depths of the
                                         universe.

                    1:00 P.M.            The Eagle Has Landed:
                                         The Flight of Apollo 11

                    1:30 P.M.            Apollo 11 Crew Interview

Friday, May 25.......

                    9:00 A.M.-8:00 P.M.  5201 Validation Testing


All events and times are subject to change without notice.  These
reports are filed daily, Monday through Friday, at 12:00 P.M.
EDT.  This is a service of the Internal Communications Branch,
NASA HQ.  Contact:  JSTANHOPE on NASAmail or at FTS 453-8425.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
NASA Select TV:  Satcom F2R, Transponder 13, C-Band 72 Degrees
West Longitude, Audio 6.8, Frequency 3960 MHz.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: 17 May 90 00:42:48 GMT
From: usc!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!physics.utoronto.ca![e-mail]  (Christopher Neufeld)
Subject: Re: Terraforming Venus (was: Manned mission to Venus)

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Mark SOKOLOWSKI) writes:
>The only thing I would like to
>add to the discussion here is that it is extremely dangerous to try to
>send comets on this planet (of Love... :-) ), for many of this stuff can
>reach the Earth, and the kinetic energy contained brought in by such a
>meteorite when it crashes at 12 to 100 km per second is sufficient to
>vaporize it hundreds of times (remember what happened in Siberia in 1908,
>was there really some kind of cooling down?).

   Hitting the Earth is a non-issue. Course corrections would be made
with full knowledge of the positions of all the planets, and it would
not be possible to hit the Earth by accident. Another thing to remember
when planning celestial pot shots is that the planets don't all orbit in
the same plane. A course which intercepts Venus' orbit has no reason to
intercept the Earth's orbit. It might, but it's more likely that it
wouldn't. Despite the pictures in books, space is not two dimensional.
   In fact, one could argue that by removing one comet from circulation,
we would be lessening the chance that the Earth would be hit.
   One question about intercepting and deflecting comets: how does the
force from the vapour jets outgassing compare to the force which a human
thrust unit could impart on the comet? Might it be necessary to shroud
the comet in a reflective sheet to prevent the outgassing from swamping
the steering thrust? Maybe it would be possible to put a rigid cover on
the comet with a hole at one end as a reaction jet, and use a heater to
drive the steam.


--
 Christopher Neufeld....Just a graduate student  |  "Spock, comment?"
 [e-mail]              |  "Very bad poetry
 [e-mail]          Ad astra! | captain."
 "Don't edit reality for the sake of simplicity" |

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

Date: 24 May 90 15:22:11 GMT
From: attcan!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Ulysses propulsion

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Chip Salzenberg) writes:
>On a related note, would any of the Soviet boosters be powerful enough
>to send Ulysses up out of the ecliptic without help from Jupiter?

An Energia might do it, if you stack on a few more upper stages.  It's
a really ugly propulsion problem, though, the sort of thing where you'd
really like to use solar sails or ion rockets.  (A severely out-of-
ecliptic orbit is one reason why Halley-rendezvous proposals specified
exotic propulsion.)
--
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: 20 May 90 03:50:14 GMT
From: news-server.csri.toronto.edu!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!physics.utoronto.ca![e-mail]  (Christopher Neufeld)
Subject: Skywatch, a new use for SDI?


   A few days ago I saw a two paragraph newspaper article which claimed
that Dan Quayle had expressed an interest in setting up an official
asteroid watch in hopes of detecting and possibly deflecting rocks which
might hit the Earth.
   What surprised me in the article, though, was the claim that the SDI
machinery might be used for this purpose, since it seemed that there
would be little use for it in its initial intended purpose. Was this
just something the editor of the Toronto newspaper made up, or did
Quayle actually say something to this effect? Is there anything in the
SDI arsenal which could be of any real use in an asteroid detection and
deflection scenario? The detectors which would pick up missile launches
would seem to me to be quite useless for spotting an inbound asteroid
from the orbit of Mars. The beam weapons would be completely ineffective
at any useful range, and the kinetic weapons would not transfer nearly
enough momentum to a body which was large enough to be considered
dangerous, even if aiming were possible.
   While on the subject, what do people think will become of this
skywatch? Will it die a quiet death, or will something be set up to
perform the functions mentioned by Dan Quayle?


--
 Christopher Neufeld....Just a graduate student  | He's the kind of person
 [e-mail]              | who'd follow you into a
 [e-mail]          Ad astra! | revolving door and come
 "Don't edit reality for the sake of simplicity" | out first.

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

Date: 24 May 90 13:32:16 GMT
From: usc!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!watserv1!maytag!watdragon!watyew![e-mail]  (Brian or James)
Subject: Re:  SPACE Digest V11 #444


 I'll grant Mr. Arlen point one [the squirrels are there, the observatory
is not], and points 2a, 2b, and 2c [The squirrels can find each other,
procreate, and have a small population]. Point 2d is shakier; did Mr.
Arlen read the little tree rat's minds to see if they are 'happy'? and
point 2e is pointless, since I would be hard pressed to find anything
not capable of being regarded as a product of 'NATURE' [Nuclear reactors
are just another energy source being exploited by a tool using species].
Point 3 should read '>some< squirrels thrive as a result of human
presence.' Some species of squirrels do not. Point 4, while validly
pointing out that squirrels can be a pain in civilised surroundings,
also describes small children. I would argue that the contribution
the squirrels make to human existence is highly dependent on the
observer. Some folks actually like tree rats. In any case, they give
cats something to do with their spare time.
    Point 1, section 2 I would agree with. Point 2, section 2
is very arguable [aren't there *any* Sierra Club types reading this
news group?], and also misses the point of the discussion. Not
building the observatory is hardly artificial welfare, and the
question was 'Will the Red Squirrel species survive the building
of an observatory?' not 'Should we pull funding from astronomy
to help spread the Crimson Tree Vampire in the hopes scientific
progress will be undermined and the human race plunged back into
the dark ages?' Point three, section 2 seems to regard the 'forces
of nature' as a hostile and foolish organisation. Point 4, section 2
[given a much larger population of healthy squirrels] I wouldn't
argue with, since squirrels can be quite tasty, properly prepared.
You'll want to learn how to recognise diseased or parasite ridden
squirrels, though.
    The really silly thing is that personally, I loath
squirrels. They have always struck me as pretentious rats
with toupees. I just thought Mr. Arlen's arguments flawed.
                        JDN

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

Date: 21 May 90 22:31:45 GMT
From: att!tsdiag![e-mail]  (Dave Tiller N2KAU)
Subject: Re: Endangered squirrels

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Robert Casey) writes:
>I see squirrels (grey ones) all around in surburban NYC.  They don't seem to
>mind the presence of homo sapiens.  Are the red ones on this mountian very
>different from the grey squirrels I see lots of?  I would guess, as long as
>you don't knock down too many trees, that the squirrels wouldn't be much
>bothered.
>
>But I'm no squirrel expert.

The squirrels in Virginia run like hell when they see a homo sapien - we
tend to shoot them and eat them, see? :-)  They know they're food.  As for
the ones on the mountain where the telescopes are going, I'd guess they'd be
naturally wary of people, as are most wild animals that don't regularly
frequent the same bars and nightclubs as people.
--
David E. Tiller         [e-mail]  | Concurrent Computer Corp.
FAX:  [phone]      Ph: [phone] (w) | 2 Crescent Place, M/S 117
UUCP: ucbvax!rutgers!petsd!tsdiag!davet        | Oceanport NJ, 07757
ICBM: 40 16' 52" N      73 59' 00" W           | N2KAU @ NN2Z

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

Date: 24 May 90 21:44:23 GMT
From: convex![e-mail]  (Edward V. Wright)
Subject: Re: Consort 3 Launch Successful

[e-mail] (Phillip Harbison) writes:

>The following is a summary of information carried in newspaper
>articles by The Huntsville Times, The Huntsville News, and the AP wire.

>Deke Slayton, a former Mercury astronaut, is the president and founder
> of SSI.

Not true!  Deke Slayton did not join SSI until after the Percheron
rocket, built for SSI by GCH Inc., exploded during a static engine
test and SSI decided to switch to solid-fueled rockets.

Also, I believe that the official name of the company is now
SSI of America.

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

Date: 23 May 90 17:58:28 GMT
From: vsi1!hsv3![e-mail]  (Mike Van Pelt)
Subject: Re: NASA Headline News for 05/22/90 (Forwarded)

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Peter E. Yee) writes:
>Significant milestones have been met by the Hubble Space Telescope.
 ...
>It appears after traveling from darkness to light, the sudden
>heating of the solar panels causes them to slightly vibrate.

Yep.  They should have used a nuke.

   (hemi-demi-semi- :-)
--
"It was more dangerous to drive                 Mike Van Pelt
away from Three Mile Island than                Headland Technology/Video 7
to stay there." -- Dr. Bruce Ames.              ...ames!vsi1!v7fs1!mvp

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

Date: Thu, 24 May 90 07:46:40 -0500
From: [e-mail] (Richard Murphy)
Subject: NASA Image data

Concerning the query about image data availability. Not only does the
NSSDC maintain archives of data, but NASA publishes CD-ROMs with
quite a big chuck of the Voyager imagery. The Jupiter and Saturn
sets are available now and Uranus will be when the stock is restored.
Neptune disks are supposed to be out in July.

The NSSDC e-mail address is:   [e-mail]
             or SPAN       :   ncf::request


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Richard Murphy                             Division 15
[e-mail]              Southwest Research Institute
...convex!pemrac!richard                   6220 Culebra Rd.
swri::richard (SPAN)                       San Antonio, TX 78228-0510

"It's not what you know, it's what you think you know."
                                          -- Steve Martin
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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

Date: Thu, 24 May 90 20:22:52 EDT
From: John Roberts <[e-mail]>
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are those of the sender
    and do not reflect NIST policy or agreement.
Subject: Re: Splitting sci.space


>From: mcsun!ukc!inmos![e-mail]  (Conor O'Neill)
>Subject: Splitting sci.space

>While I hate arguments which tend to occur concerning newsgroup splitting,
>yet again I arrive to find hundreds of articles in sci.space.

>Could we perhaps have a discussion on splitting sci.space into a few
>smaller groups. A *very provisional* suggestion might be:

>I was not reading sci.space when sci.space.shuttle was split off.
>Did this cause any controversy?

>Conor O'Neill, Software Group, INMOS Ltd., UK.
>UK: [e-mail]        US: [e-mail]

Please have mercy on us Internet folks. Right now, there's *one* space
gateway to Usenet, which Todd Masco and CMU are kind enough to manage.
We lose anything that's split off - for instance, we don't get
sci.space.shuttle. Unless someone wants to gate each new group separately? :-)
(Remember, cutting off Internet may cut off a lot of NASA people. How are
they going to read your brilliant ideas and implement them? :-)

(I wouldn't object to splitting off sci.space.flames. It could even be
further divided into sci.space.flames.religion, sci.space.flames.ecology,
sci.space.flames.nasa, sci.space.flames.humans-are-rotten, and
sci.space.flames.personal-attacks. :-)
     John Roberts
     [e-mail]

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

Date: 24 May 90 05:16:45 GMT
From: sdd.hp.com!samsung!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: HST vibration problems

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Steve Friedl) writes:
>> heating of the solar panels causes them to slightly vibrate.
>> Controllers say it can be easily fixed.
>
>Does this mean "really fixed" or "compensated for by software" ?

For a guess, the latter.
--
Life is too short to spend    |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
debugging Intel parts. -Van J.| uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry [e-mail]

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

End of SPACE Digest V11 #449
*******************