Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V11_5/V11_519.TXT

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Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #519

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 11 : Issue 519

Today's Topics:
           Voyager group portrait: Copies of images
         Re: Voyager group portrait: Copies of images
  Re: US/Soviet Planetary Activity (was Re: Manned mission to Venus)
            Rapid Decompression of Mammals
              Re: NASA Select TV
Re: Public Perception Of Space (was Re: US/Soviet Planetary Activity)
            Space Station Freedom Software
  Re: US/Soviet Planetary Activity (was Re: Manned mission to Venus)
             Re: Lichens on Mars?
           Hubble Space Telescope Update - 06/09/90

Administrivia:

    Submissions to the SPACE Digest/sci.space should be mailed to
  [e-mail].  Other mail, esp. [un]subscription notices,
  should be sent to [e-mail], or, if urgent, to
             [e-mail]

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

Date:     Mon, 11 Jun 90 14:08 CST
From: William Higgins <[e-mail]>
Subject:  Voyager group portrait: Copies of images
Original_To:  SPACE

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California has released unique
"group portrait" images of our solar system.  The Voyager 1 spacecraft, sailing
on a course 32 degreees above the ecliptic, took these pictures on 13 February
while it was 3.7 billion miles from the Sun.  The portrait consists of a  large
64-frame mosaic, which included images of all the planets except Mars, Mercury
and Pluto.

Readers of Space Digest are frequently asking [Hi, Eugene] for copies of
Voyager images.  Thanks to friends at JPL I have obtained copies of the six
frames which show planets.  I have done a little processing to remove camera
noise.   Here they are:

-------------------------------------------------------------
|         |         |         |         |         |         |
|         |         |         |         |         |         |
|    .    |    .    |    .    |    .    |    .    |    .    |
|         |         |         |         |         |         |
|         |         |         |         |         |         |
|         |         |         |         |         |         |
|         |         |         |         |         |         |
| JUPITER |  EARTH  |  VENUS  |  SATURN | URANUS  | NEPTUNE |
-------------------------------------------------------------

                                    Bill Higgins
Engineer of Hijacked Train:
"Is this a holdup?"                 Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

Masked Gunman:                      Bitnet: [e-mail]
(Hesitates, looks at partner,
looks at engineer again)            SPAN/Hepnet/Physnet: 43011::HIGGINS
"It's a science experiment!"
                                    Internet: [e-mail]

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

Date: 11 Jun 90 23:31:29 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (RAMontante)
Subject: Re: Voyager group portrait: Copies of images

[e-mail] (William Higgins) <[e-mail]> :
| Readers of Space Digest are frequently asking [Hi, Eugene] for copies of
| Voyager images.  Thanks to friends at JPL I have obtained copies of the six
| frames which show planets.  I have done a little processing to remove camera
| noise.   [ ... ]

Perhaps the nicest thing about this mosaic is the lovely way it illustrates
just what "the plane of the ecliptic" really is all about  :-)


(Yeah, yeah, I realize V'ger isn't *in* the plane of the ecliptic.  Gee,
maybe a previously unsuspected dark mass is acting as a gravitational lens?)

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

Date: 12 Jun 90 00:53:28 GMT
From: swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!uflorida!stat!sun13!prism![e-mail]  (Matthew DeLuca)
Subject: Re: US/Soviet Planetary Activity (was Re: Manned mission to Venus)

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Mark SOKOLOWSKI) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Henry Spencer) writes:
>>Why don't *you* do something about it?  You're the one who's excited about
>>Venus.  I can think of plenty of things that should have higher priority,
>>like resuming the exploration of the Moon.
>
>Sorry, I find the Moon terribly boring and unexciting since men have been
>there.

And should we ever be silly enough to send people to Venus, would you then
be terribly bored and unexcited after they get back?  Or, as is more likely,
after they die?

I just don't understand your one-shot mentality...to spend billions and
billions of dollars on something that will not be sustainable is the absolute
height of folly.  The money we spent on infrastructure for Apollo was, in the
end, almost a complete waste, because we didn't follow it up...and you want
to spend 10 or 20 times as much for the same thing?  I just don't understand...

--
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: 12 Jun 90 03:43:48 GMT
From: uokmax![e-mail]  (Robert W Murphree)
Subject: Rapid Decompression of Mammals

Followup-To:Nothing in particular
Distribution: Sci.space, Sci.astro
Organization: Engineering Computer Network, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK
Keywords:

What happens when you shove a mammal out of the airlock with no suit?

Does it explode like in the movie "Outland"?  I would expect some mechanical
work as the pressure decreases and the body expands, possibly some gas in
the body blowing up a little but not like in Outland.  After the mechanical
part was over I expect the corpse would 1)freeze and 2) dessicate and 3)
oxidize(if in low earth orbit) due to oxygen attack.  Of course there's
quite a bit of UV,X-ray, cosmic rays, free radicals , etc to consider as
well.

If its already been discussed in the archives, would somebody please send me
the article numbers and/or the key word(s) involved?

Thanks.

                                 Robert W. Murphree
                                 Internet address: rwmurphr.uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu    internet address:  rwmurphr.uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu

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

Date: 11 Jun 90 21:00:17 GMT
From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!zardoz.cpd.com!dhw68k!ofa123![e-mail]  (Rick Ellis)
Subject: Re: NASA Select TV

On Jun 08 05:11 David Gaba M.D. ([e-mail]) writes:

 DGM> For that matter, does anyone in SF Bay Area have experience with
 DGM> reception quality of NASA Select TV?  I would like to get a dish
 DGM> to see it, but it's really not worth the $$$ just for that --

In the Los Angeles area the reception isn't perfect but is usually ok with a
9' dish.


--
uucp:     Rick Ellis
Internet: [e-mail]
BBS:      714 544-0934   2400/1200/300

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

Date: 12 Jun 90 03:12:12 GMT
From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!uupsi!uhasun![e-mail]  (Jon Bloom)
Subject: Re: Public Perception Of Space (was Re: US/Soviet Planetary Activity)

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (John A. Weeks III) writes:
>
> I really enjoy reading the NASA press releases and information provided
> on the net (especially those posted by Peter Yee), and the perspective
> that the other net people always seem to add (especially the "Canadian"
> viewpoint).  The information that the general public gets from NASA is so
> watered down and out of context to be virtually meaningless.
>

Mostly that's because the press presents it that way.  The media get the
same info you enjoy reading (or more), but then they feel they have to
make the information understandable to an eighth grader (the approximate
reading level newspapers are pitched to).  The result is easy to read but
with a near-zero information content.

To be fair, newspapers and electronic media are giving the public what
they want.  Nobody cares if a new galaxy is discovered or high-resolution
photos of the Jovian moons are obtained.  But if there's a failure of
some kind, boy, that's news!  Then the witch hunt can begin.  There's
nothing like seeing some poor bastard trying to explain a failure to
Congress to liven up the 6 PM news.  There's an old saying among the
working press that their job is to "comfort the afflicted and afflict
the comfortable."  Unfortunately, they see NASA (and scientists in
general) as being among the comfortable rather than the afflicted.

Gee, I didn't start this out to be so bitter!

Jon

--
Jon Bloom, KE3Z                              | American Radio Relay League
Internet: [e-mail]         |
Snail:    225 Main St., Newington, CT 06111  | "I have no opinions."

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

From: [e-mail]
Date: Mon, 11 Jun 90 11:35:35 EST
Subject: Space Station Freedom Software
Source-Info:  From (or Sender) name not authenticated.





     People who have posted inquiries about software for the space station
Freedom might be interested to know that Arthur D. Little, Inc. in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a software contractor.  I learned this from a
help wanted ad placed in the _Boston Globe_ of Sunday, June 10, 1990.  (They
were looking for software engineers and electronics engineers for the space
station.)

                                   David R. Brierley
                                   [e-mail]

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

Date: 11 Jun 90 16:42:07 GMT
From: sdd.hp.com!samsung!rex!rouge![e-mail]  (9240 Fraering Philip)
Subject: Re: US/Soviet Planetary Activity (was Re: Manned mission to Venus)

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Mark SOKOLOWSKI) writes:

<< If we have to spend 100 billion on a "Industrial" Moon base that will
   finally be 1/10th as big as predicted, will accomodate 10 people after
   killing 20 more in various accidents (in the same manner as Challenger),
   and will run on a disastrous year round deficit, then I prefer to fight
   with all my forces to get 400 billion for a one shot Venus mission, in
   which everybody will know that there will be one and only (no stupid
   and irrealistic expectations...) launch. I simply think that we are
   in a position equivalent to that of the roman empire: Romans didn't
   send a big fleet to the americas, they simply didn't needed to, and when
   the Vikings tried, they failed miserably. Only progressively and with
   much more advanced technology (fusion engines making the interplanetary
   trips as easy as on airplanes now) is it reasonable to settle for more
   than exploration.

   Mark S.
   ------->>

But Mark, the Romans could have made it to the Americas easily; so (it is
thought) could people before the Romans such as the Celts, the Basque, and
the Phoenicians. There is even evidence that around the year 7300 BPE or BC
(I forget which) an American Indian civilization based in the Maritime
provinces (called the Maritime Archaic) crossed the Atlantic to Europe
(much easier than the Vikings going in the other direction; the current
is with you) and provided the impetus to the Megalith Builder civilization.
For more detail on this, watch _Secrets of the Lost Red Paint People_ which
was recently on _Nova_. Or if you want a transcript or tape, I'll _BUY_
you one and send it to you.

The Romans, Phoenicians, etc. were inhibited in their exploration not
by their technology (read Caesar's commentaries about some battles he
fought with the Celts in Brittany; there is indication that they had
vessels capable of crossing the ocean) but because

1. Their Government was not interested in it. They had technology sufficient
   to explore and trade, but not to conquer, which the Roman Empire seemed to
   be most interested in.

2. They had no commercial organizations large enough to undertake a _large_
   expedition (tens of ships) to the Americas; they were kept from doing
   so by their instinctual secrecy (America's existance, and much of the
   technology to get there, was considered either a guild or trade secret,
   as far as we can tell) and structure of their businesses and bureaucracies.

Any of that sound familiar?

Remember, the Spanish would have probrably given up on America if they
hadn't found lots of slaves and gold to take back to Spain.

Also, about your remark about space travel being so expensive:

You seem hellbent on seeing this as a fundamental feature of the technology.
This is simply not true. Perhaps you need to become more familiar with
how launch costs, and therefore the rest of space travel, can be made cheaper.
At the risk of the wrath of everyone else on the mailing list, I suggest
you subscribe to space-tech (mail [e-mail] for details)
 and read the archives. Just lie back and read it for a while before you
post, please....

I submit that social factors more than technical ones are keeping the
prices of space travel high.

How does everyone else out there feel?

Philip Fraering
[e-mail]
"No sooner had Jehovah created man than he put them into the Garden of
Eden, _where he could watch them." - Eric Hoffer

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

Date:         Mon, 11 Jun 90 19:45:26 CDT
From: John Nordlie <[e-mail]>
Subject:      Re: Lichens on Mars?

I seem to remember reading in Carl Segan's 'Cosmos' that some
researchers recreated the condintions of Mars in the lab.  Into
these 'Mars Jars' they put various plants, molds, and similar
things, to see if they would survive the harsh climate.  I misplaced
my copy of 'Cosmos', could anyone help me out?

---------------------------------------------------------------------
John Nordlie        University of North Dakota
=====================================================================

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

Date: 11 Jun 90 16:15:38 GMT
From: sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!forsight!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Subject: Hubble Space Telescope Update - 06/09/90


                      Hubble Space Telescope Update
                             June 9, 1990

     A 24 hour Health and Safety load was completed and a 74 hour Bootstrap
Phase B part 3 (Coarse Wavefront Measurement) was begun.  Bootstrap Phase B
part 3 is off to a good start.  Out of 15 guide star acquisition and
reacquisitions attempts 14 acquired fine lock, 3 of those lost lock at the
terminator but reacquired and held fine lock after ~2 minutes.

     The sensor 1 failure was attributed to the loss of TDRSS (ground hardware
problem) at the time the Fine Guidance Electronics (FGE) were being reset,
precipitating the failed lock.  Overall, the Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS)
behavior was excellent with all acquisition and reacquisitions succeeding.
Loss of lock at the terminator is still occuring but with reacquisition and
fine lock occurring in less then 2 minutes.  The wavefront data in hand looks
good enough to do a mirror adjustment; while this is the most likely action,
a final decision on whether or not to move the mirror will be made pending
further analysis of the recent test data.

     On June 12 a new version of the SKYMAP catalog for the Fixed Head Star
Tracker (FHST) updates will be used.  Hopefully, this will improve the
effectiveness of the FHST's.

     More Wide Field Planetary Camera(WFPC) images were taken, nothing had
changed from the last time the WFPC was exercised, and the images are almost
identical to the earlier images.

     Since June 8, three wavefronts were attempted.  One failed because of
the FGS failure to acquire, one gave good data, and one probably gave good data
(it is still being processed).  The disturbance produced by the terminator
crossing is causing problems in the wavefront measurements.  The disturbance,
even avoiding the terminator region, introduces enough of an extraneous jitter
that it can overwhelm the wavefront measurement.  Even with the terminator
problem it looks as if there should be enough data to make an alignment/focus
adjustment by June 11 at the latest.

     The first light for the Faint Object Camera (FOC) is due sometime during
the week of June 18.

     The Goddard High Resulution Spectrograph (GHRS) is in hold.  A possible
radiation detector diode failure was reported -- one of the diodes was
measuring low counts while in the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA).
       _   _____    _
      | | |  __ \  | |       Ron Baalke           |  [e-mail]
      | | | |__) | | |       Jet Propulsion Lab   |  [e-mail]
   ___| | |  ___/  | |___    M/S 301-355          |
  |_____/ |_|      |_____|   Pasadena, CA 91109   |

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

End of SPACE Digest V11 #519
*******************