Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V12_4/V12_452.TXT

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Subject: SPACE Digest V12 #452

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 12 : Issue 452

Today's Topics:
              Hydyne discovered!
      U.S/U.S.S.R. space meetings to be held (Forwarded)
     Re: Deep Space Network use (Was: Ulysses Update - 10/06/90)
              Ulysses Update - 10/12/90
              TDRSS, Security Trading, &
            Re: N-waste sea water dilution
     Re: Deep Space Network use (Was: Ulysses Update - 10/06/90)
            Re: Ulysses Update - 10/10/90
              Re: Iron asteroid in orbit

Administrivia:

    Submissions to the SPACE Digest/sci.space should be mailed to
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----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 12 Oct 90 21:34:48 GMT
From: mentor.cc.purdue.edu!mace.cc.purdue.edu![e-mail]  (Jeff Smith)
Subject: Hydyne discovered!

In case anybody still cares what hydyne is (was), I have finally
uncovered the answer.

>From 'Space Travel:  A History', by von Braun, Ordway, and Dooling ,
(c) 1985 published by Harper and Row, p. 128:

  Jupiter C, officially known as the Jupiter Composite Re-entry Test
  Vehicle ... provided the capability of a rudimentary carrier
  for placing a satellite in orbit, and later was known in this capacity
  as the Juno I. ...  The Redstone first stage was lengthened to hold
  more propellant, and the engine was modified to operate on a new
  mixture called hydyne, a [60/40] mixture of unsymetrical dimethylhydrazine
  [UDMH] and diethylene triamine.

On the facing page, a table indicates that the Redstone was LOX-ethanol.
Items in [] are my additions.

That seems to be about as definitive a word as there is.

pgr


--
Perry G. Ramsey           Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
[e-mail]   Purdue University, W. Lafayette, IN USA
[e-mail]    We've looked at clouds from ten sides now,
              And we REALLY don't know clouds, at all.

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

Date: 12 Oct 90 23:53:08 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: U.S/U.S.S.R. space meetings to be held (Forwarded)

Debra J. Rahn
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                   October 12, 1990
(Phone:  [phone])


RELEASE:  90-138

U.S./U.S.S.R. SPACE MEETINGS TO BE HELD


     United States and Soviet space and aeronautics officials
will hold three separate meetings next week.  Richard H. Truly,
NASA's Administrator, will lead a U.S. Government delegation to
the Soviet Union for general discussions on U.S./U.S.S.R. civil
space programs and for visits to Soviet space facilities, October
15-19, 1990.

     In addition, the fourth U.S./U.S.S.R. Solar System
Exploration Joint Working Group (JWG) meeting will be held
October 15-22, in Crystal City, Virginia.  A Soviet aeronautics
team will also visit NASA's aeronautics centers to be briefed on
our aeronautics programs, October 15-25.

     The U.S. Government delegation's visit to Moscow is in
response to long-standing invitations to visit senior Soviet
space officials and installations.

     The group will visit a number of Soviet organizations and
facilities, including, tentatively, the Ministry of General
Machine Building; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the U.S.S.R.
Academy of Sciences; the Space Research Institute; Star City, the
cosmonaut training center; the Ministry of Health's Institute of
Biomedical Problems; NPO Energia; and the Flight Control Center
in Kaliningrad.

     In addition to Admiral Truly, members of the U.S. delegation
are NASA officials Samuel W. Keller, Associate Deputy
Administrator; Margaret G. Finarelli, Acting Associate
Administrator for External Relations; and Arnauld Nicogossian,
Director of Life Sciences; John Boright, Deputy Assistant
Secretary for Science and Technology Affairs, Department of
State; Raymond Walters, Director of Policy and International
Coordination, National Space Council; and John Thomas, Special
Assistant for Soviet Affairs, Defense Technology Security
Administration.

     Discussions during the Solar System Exploration JWG will
include the status of planned cooperation on the Mars Balloon
Relay mission; the Antaractic Balloon Flight Program;
coordination of the Soviet Vesta (Mars '94) and U.S. Mars
Observer missions and the exchange of scientific data; exchange
of U.S. and Soviet scientists on the Magellan, U.S. Mars Observer
and Soviet Mars '94 missions; and possible cross-support of the
Mars Observer and Mars '94 missions.

     The U.S.S.R. Ministry of Aviation Industry (MAI) hosted a
NASA aeronautics team in Moscow last May and arranged visits to
its facilities conducting aeronautical research.  NASA will host
a reciprocal visit by a Soviet aeronautics team in October.  The
Soviet team will be led by Deputy Minister V. M. Chuiko.  They
will visit NASA's Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards,
Calif., Ames Research Center, Mountain View, Calif., Langley
Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, Lewis Research Center,
Cleveland, Ohio, and NASA Headquarters.  The exchange of visits
will give both sides an opportunity to become acquainted with
their ongoing aeronautical research programs.

     Space cooperation between the two nations was established by
the U.S./U.S.S.R. Civil Space Agreement signed in Apri1 1987.

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

Date: 12 Oct 90 21:02:22 GMT
From: sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!forsight!jato!mars![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Subject: Re: Deep Space Network use (Was: Ulysses Update - 10/06/90)

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Trevor Green) writes:
>[e-mail] (Jim Barnes) writes:
>>If Ulysses needs 8 hours per day of coverage, Magellan is returning radar
>>images several times a day, and Galileo is doing some interesting things
>>at the same time, are there enough minutes in the day?  Will we just
>>ignore the Voyagers/Pioneers/etc. for a while?  How much extra bandwidth
>>does the DSN have?
>
>Well, for starters, DSN has 72 hours per day.  The three receivers
>(Madrid, Canberra and West Virginia(?)) each operate continuously
>except for maintenance and power failures.
>

Deep Space Network has 3 tracking facilities located throughout the world,
one in Canberra, Australia, another in Madrid, Spain, and the third in
Goldstone, California.  Each tracking facility has 4 antennas: one 70 meter,
two 34 meter, and one 26 meter antenna.  DSN tracks several spacecraft,
including Galileo, Magellan, Ulysses, Voyager 1 & 2, Pioneers 10 & 11,
ICE, Nimbus-7, and DSN also backups the Hubble Space Telescope and the
Space Shuttle. Since Magellan, Galileo and Ulysses are in the prime
mission phase, they get top priority.  However, the Pioneers and Voyagers
need DSN support for survival requirements.  Magellan is currently receiving
36 hours of DSN support every day.   DSN is very busy at the moment, and
scheduling of antenna time is done well in advance to iron out any conflicts.
      ___    _____     ___
     /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|
     | | | |  __ \ /| | | |      Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
  ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |___   Jet Propulsion Lab | [e-mail]
 /___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /|  M/S 301-355        |
 |_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/   Pasadena, CA 91109 |

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

Date: 12 Oct 90 22:40:32 GMT
From: snorkelwacker!usc!jarthur!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Subject: Ulysses Update - 10/12/90


                     ULYSSES MISSION STATUS
                        October 12, 1990

     Ulysses today is completing a two-day series of
maneuvers that will turn the large dish of the spacecraft's high-
gain antenna toward Earth.  On Saturday morning, October 13,
communication will be switched to the high-gain antenna; since
launch the craft has been using its low-gain antennas.  The high-
gain antenna eventually will permit Ulysses to send science data
at rates of up to 8,192 bits per second (bps).  Currently the
craft is transmitting engineering data at rates up to 1,024 bps.

     The flight team has also been completing plans for a
trajectory correction maneuver next week, in which Ulysses will
fire its thrusters to fine-tune its course to Jupiter.  Beginning
at about 9 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) Monday, October 15,
and ending at about 3 a.m. PDT Wednesday, October 17, Ulysses
will pulse thrusters on and off firing for a total of 26 hours to
speed itself up by 99 meters per second, or 222 miles per hour.
This -- combined with the slightly greater-than-expected velocity
following launch last Saturday -- will move Ulysses's Jupiter
closest approach 60 hours sooner than originally planned, now
occurring at 12:00 Universal Time (UTC) (4 a.m. Pacific Standard
Time (PST)) on February 8, 1992.  The earlier arrival will
enhance the mission's science objectives by giving the spacecraft
235 days above 70 degrees solar latitude, instead of a planned
228 days.  It will also allow Ulysses to reach a maximum solar
latitude of more than 80 degrees, instead of a planned 79
degrees.

     The thrusters to be fired Monday through Wednesday to
speed up Ulysses are its radial thrusters, or small jets on the
craft's line of travel.  On Thursday, October 18, the trajectory
maneuver will conclude when Ulysses pulses its axial thrusters --
located on the spacecraft's sides -- to adjust its aim point at
Jupiter.

    On Friday, October 19, flight controllers will begin to
turn on Ulysses's nine science instruments.  Including instrument
tests, the entire operation will span a 6-1/2-week period.

     All onboard systems were operating normally.  At midday
today PDT, Ulysses was 4.29 million miles from Earth and
traveling at a velocity of 25,370 miles per hour in relation to
Earth, and at a velocity of 91,950 miles per hour in relation to
the Sun.
      ___    _____     ___
     /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|
     | | | |  __ \ /| | | |      Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
  ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |___   Jet Propulsion Lab | [e-mail]
 /___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /|  M/S 301-355        |
 |_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/   Pasadena, CA 91109 |

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

Date: 12 Oct 90 09:54:16
From: George Cross <[e-mail]>
Subject: TDRSS, Security Trading, &

        Reply to:   TDRSS, Security Trading, & Clown College
Hi,
The October 8th, 1990 issue of the  New Yorker contains a Profile of Gary
Isaacs by Lawrence Weschler (p76--97).  Isaacs worked at TRW on the
TDRSS Delta V and the article describes this and the problems
encountered with getting TDRSS-1 into orbit. After TRW he moved on to modelling
and trading mortgage-backed securities as well as enrolling
in Clown College.  This is a very nice article.

  --George
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 George R. Cross                            [e-mail]
 Contel Technology Center
 Intelligent Systems Laboratory             (703)-818-4504
 15000 Conference Center Drive
 Chantilly, VA 22021-3808

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

Date: 12 Oct 90 14:26:16 GMT
From: rochester!uhura.cc.rochester.edu![e-mail]  (Bill Haake)
Subject: Re: N-waste sea water dilution

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Alan Hepburn) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Michael Hermann) writes:
>+In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Alan Hepburn) writes:
>+>Picture this:  a supertanker modified slightly so that the nuclear
>+>waste starts out in the bow tank, being diluted 100:1 with sea water.
>+>This mix is then pumped to the next tank where it is diluted 100:1 with
>+>sea water.  And so on till the last tank, which is pumped into the open
>+>ocean.  You would be unable to detect other than background radiation
>+>in the resulting water.
>+
>+Gee, that's such a good idea. We could even do the same thing on land.
>+Perhaps in the desert. Or normal garbage headed for the landfill. I'm sure
>+Mr. Hepburn wouldn't mind us using his local landfill site. Afterall, one
>+backyard is as good as another.
>+
>+I hope you were joking.
>+
>+|  Mike Hermann  | [e-mail] ..!uunet!ubc-cs!calgary!hermann
>+_Organized_ religion is like organized crime: it preys on peoples' weaknesses,
>+generates huge profits, and is nearly impossible to eradicate.
>
>My point was that sufficient dilution would render the waste harmless.
>The human race is not creating radioactivity; it is merely concentrating
>that which is already here.  By unconcentrating what we concentrate, we
>are merely returning it to its natural form.  What is a cubic metre of
>any material when diluted with <how many millions> of cubic metres of
>seawater?  Try this experiment:  place 1 ounce of food colouring into
>a large (say 10,000 gallons) tank of clear water.  Will it be detectable?
>
>
>
>
>--
>Alan Hepburn                 "It is better to know nothing than to know
>mail: [e-mail]        what ain't so."
>                                       - Josh Billings

First off, I am not an "ecohysteric". I am not opposed to nuclear power,
launching RTG's, building spaceports or storing radioactive waste
where it will safe for a *long* time, but...

Your argument is widely known by the phrase "The solution to pollution is
dilution". This is an incredibly short-sighted approach to waste management.
The problem is that many substances are concentrated in the
food chain until they get to the point that they *are* at levels that cause
problems. This is compounded by the fact that once certain kinds of compounds
get into an organism they stay there. This is how we almost wiped out many
birds of prey in the 60's and 70's. The fish they ate had harmful levels of
pesticides in them and this caused the eggs to be too fragile to support the
weight of the parents when they sat on them.

An example that applies to radioactive waste is iodine. It is concentrated
in mammals by the thyroid gland. How much must you dilute it
to prevent any significant accumulation over the lifetime of a whale, seal,
or some other organism that concentrates iodine? What about the same question
for strontium, uranium, plutonium, thorium, cobalt or .... ?

You say that we are just concentrating naturally occurring radioactivity. What
really matters is whether we change what that radioactivity can do in a
biological sense. If we create biologically important isotopes from ones that
are relatively inert, then we will be greatly increasing the chance that there
will be undesired consequences. We mine our isotopes from the land, if we
dumped our waste products in the oceans, then would be increasing their
concentration there. What is the naturally occurring concentration of plutonium
(or any other isotope you want to dump) in seawater?

Bill


--

Bill Haake                      [e-mail]    (128.151.80.13)
University of Rochester         [phone]

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

Date: 12 Oct 90 17:36:46 GMT
From: sdd.hp.com!wuarchive!rex!rouge![e-mail]  (Fraering Philip)
Subject: Re: Deep Space Network use (Was: Ulysses Update - 10/06/90)

What about an additional DSN dish in the S.U. as a candidate for covering
the previously mentioned 'gap' in the DSN?

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

Date: 12 Oct 90 21:47:59 GMT
From: amethyst!organpipe!achilles.lpl.arizona.edu![e-mail]  (Ron Watkins)
Subject: Re: Ulysses Update - 10/10/90

On the 10Oct90 Ulysses update, the relative speeds of the spacecraft with
respect to the sun and earth are given. I can understand how it`s possible for
the relative speed with respect to the earth is slowing, but whats confusing my
mind is how the relative speed with respect to the sun is steadily increasing?
                              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Are we using some gravity assist or slow but continous burn?
Its probably somthing simple, right???
                    Ron Watkins
                    [e-mail]

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

Date: 10 Oct 90 16:14:03 GMT
From: edsews!teemc!fmeed1![e-mail]  (Russ Cage)
Subject: Re: Iron asteroid in orbit

In <[e-mail]> roberts (John Roberts) writes:
>Actually, given the low price of most of the metals, it's hard to come up
>with anything to *do* with a huge chunk of iron that you couldn't do cheaper
>by digging and refining your own ore. It's much easier to break up a big chunk
>of rock than an equivalent piece of iron. Sawing is possible, but slow and
>probably too expensive. An electric arc or an oxygen torch *might* be
>economical, but a pulsed laser probably not. Crushing is out of the question,
>as are explosives. (Not even fission bombs would have much effect.)

Oh, I dunno.  Spinning it up, heating one of the faces with a big
mirror, and letting the molten metal fall into ingot molds of any
desired shape doesn't seem too difficult to me.  Or put it through
a carbonyl-process refinery to get all the valuable stuff separated
from the mundane stuff.  You wouldn't want to lose nickel and gold
to ablation when you can make the ablation surface of pure iron.
--
Russ Cage    Ford Powertrain Engineering Development Department
Work:  itivax.iti.org!cfctech!fmeed1!cage   (Business only, NO CHATTY MAIL PLS)
Home:  [e-mail]  (Everything else)
I speak for the companies I own, not for the ones I don't.

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

End of SPACE Digest V12 #452
*******************