Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V12_6/V12_722.TXT

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Subject: SPACE Digest V12 #722

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 12 : Issue 722

Today's Topics:
               Re: Interstellar travel
         NASA Headline News for 12/26/90 (Forwarded)
            Magellan Update #2 - 12/14/90
NASA selects projects for commercial use of remote sensing (Forwarded)

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
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Date: 27 Dec 90 01:52:37 GMT
From: prometheus![e-mail]  (Paul M. Koloc)
Organization: Prometheus II, Ltd.
Subject: Re: Interstellar travel
References: <[e-mail]>, <[e-mail]>, <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Jonathan Leech) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Mark
>Gellis) writes:
>|>on Earth?  By the way, what would be involved in an anti-matter
>|>mass production facility, one large enough to provide a large
>|>civilization with fuel for all its spacecraft?

>    "Mirror Matter: Pioneering Antimatter Physics", Robert Forward
>and Joel Davis, Wiley, 1988.

Several problems come to mind.  Since anti-proton production is not
efficient, a sizably larger amount of energy will go into the
production of anti-protons,  then would be in found in the recoverable
energy stored in the antiprotons.  Anuetronic Fusion would be a good
power source to provide that production energy.  Space environment
is difficult because it is NOT safe;  it provides no shielding other
then the small inverse square law loss.  Star voyages would require
mega fuel amounts, so I would suggest the outer Oort, for the fuel
factories and the docking for fusion planetary shuttle exchanges with
intersteller antimatter driven star ships.

Mirrors (the magnetic confinement scheme) are notoriously "leaky",
can't be loaded very much, and would require the constant maintanence
of super conducting magnets of extraordinary size to hold the inventory.
DoE dropped the "mirror" approach to fusion (and fusion confinement
requires much less critical technology performance than "anti-proton"
confinement).  Their mothballed mirror machine, was HUGE, but would
hold a anything like a gram of antiprotons.

Besides:  antimatter ABOVE nucleii charge two  (He and up ) is
unstable; but, earthlings may not know that yet.           :-)
Otherwise, we could suspend rings anti-(superconducting)-neobium/tin
and have much greater compactness of fuel (mass=energy) storage.

So why be fanciful when we can get real with fusion?   PLASMAK(tm)
Aneutronic fusion that is.  Exploring and bio-developing the planetary
system should take some time, and during that time we can learn a
little hyper-physics and figure something to get us up and beyond the
grasp of this confining stellar system.   In other words, let's crawl
while we still can't walk.  Still, day dreams can be valuable.
+---------------------------------------------------------+**********+
|                                                         +Commercial*
| Paul M. Koloc, President          [phone]        ***FUSION***
| Prometheus II, Ltd.; College Park, MD 20740-0222        ***in the***
| mimsy!prometheus!pmk; [e-mail]               **Nineties**
+---------------------------------------------------------************

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

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Date: 28 Dec 90 01:20:49 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Subject: NASA Headline News for 12/26/90 (Forwarded)
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             Headline News
Internal Communications Branch (P-2) NASA Headquarters

  Wednesday, December 26, 1990    Audio Service: 202 / 755-1788

This is NASA Headline News for Wednesday, December 26, 1990

Activities at the various NASA research and space centers are at a
minimum this week as Agency employees continue to observe the
holidays.

Defense mission aboard Discovery, now scheduled for March, 1991.

Atlantis is in the Orbiter Processing Facility still undergoing
turnaround servicing and Columbia was towed to the Vehicle
Assembly Building late last week.  Columbia will remain in the
VAB until Discovery is rolled out to the launch pad, at which
time Columbia will be moved to the OPF bay vacated by
Discovery.


  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The Integrated System Preliminary Design Review for the Freedom space
station was completed this week, on schedule.  During the past 13
months, over 80 separate design reviews were conducted at NASA centers
and contractor facilities.  Although the current restructure
assessment, begun in November, will impact Freedom's design, space
station managers are confident that the Preliminary Design Review has
laid a solid foundation from which to begin the reassessment.
Freedom's next milestone comes this Spring when a review of the space
station configuration at each of its assembly stages will begin.  By
that time, the restructure assessment is expected to be complete and
any resulting design changes can be incorporated into the assembly
configuration review.


Here's the broadcast schedule for Public Affairs events on NASA Select
TV.  All times are Eastern.  **indicates a live program.

THERE IS CURRENTLY NO SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING ON SELECT TV.



All events and times may change without notice.  This report is filed
daily, Monday through Friday, at 12:00 pm, EST.  It is a service of
Internal Communications Branch at NASA Headquarters.  Contact:
CREDMOND on NASAmail or at 202/453-8425.


NASA Select TV:  Satcom F2R, Transponder 13, C-Band, 72 degrees West
Longitude, Audio 6.8, Frequency 3960 MHz.

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

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Date: 20 Dec 90 17:14:19 GMT
From: swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA.
Subject: Magellan Update #2 - 12/14/90
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                          MAGELLAN STATUS REPORT
             RESULTS OF JPL-MARTIN-ODETICS TAPE RECORDER MEETING
                            December 14, 1990

     The Magellan spacecraft recorder is similiar to over 60 machines flown on
weather and other satellites, many of which have as much or larger usage
rates.  The Magellan problem, which is data pattern dependent, appears
to be unique.  It is manifested by a slip in clock sync during playback
which results in bit slips and flips until sync is reestablished.  The
sync slip is involved with the code/decode process and is due to either
wave form distortion or noise interference in the detection of data
transitions.  The exact cause is not known at this time.

     Currently, there is no model which can explain the progressively
worsening error rate on first track 2, then track 4, and now, tracks 1
and 3 of tape recorder A.  Problems experienced on Hubble and Galileo
recorders do not appear to be relevant to the Magellan problems.

     Areas which do NOT appear to be likely sources of the problem:

        o Encoding, decoding, bias driver de-jitter buffer, and reproduce
          equalization circuitry which are common to all tracks.
        o Tape drive servo mechanism.
        o Heads being worn.
        o Damaged or shedding tape.
        o Loss of the DC erase head coarse winding.
        o A magnetic record anomaly.

     The Magellan problem may have been caused by the launch environment,
since the problem was observed on the engineering data at low rate,
immediately after launch.  Also, the VOI (Venus Orbit Insertion) burn
may have been the cause of a temporary improvement in the low rate
performance observed immediately after VOI.

     The malfunctioning recorder A was the proto-flight unit and
experienced more severe vibration tests than recorder B.  The tape on
recorder B is from a different tape batch than used on recorder A.  However,
the tape on recorder A has a very good usage heritage.  There is no
evidence of a tape problem.

     Starting with the test plan proposed by Odetics, a joint JPL-MMC-Odetics
team will finalize a test plan including tests on the spacecraft and ground
tests using the flight spare.  Flight tests will be carefully scrutinized
as to their value as they will most likely result in some loss of mapping
data.

     There is no concern at this time in continuing to use recorder B for
mapping.  The single tape recorder strategy remains scheduled to start on
December 22.
      ___    _____     ___
     /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|
     | | | |  __ \ /| | | |      Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
  ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |___   Jet Propulsion Lab | [e-mail]
 /___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /|  M/S 301-355        |
 |_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/   Pasadena, CA 91109 |

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

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Date: 21 Dec 90 18:53:22 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Subject: NASA selects projects for commercial use of remote sensing (Forwarded)
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To: [e-mail]

Barbara Selby
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                  December 20, 1990
(Phone:  [phone])

Myron Webb
Stennis Space Center, Miss.
(Phone:  [phone])


RELEASE:  90-164

NASA SELECTS PROJECTS FOR COMMERCIAL USE OF REMOTE SENSING

     NASA today announced the selection of 12 research projects
to develop new private sector applications of space-based and
airborne remote sensing technologies.

     Funding for the Earth Observations Commercialization
Applications Program (EOCAP) projects represents a continuation
of a program aimed at increasing broader use of NASA-developed
technology for gathering and analyzing valuable information about
Earth and ocean resources through remote satellite or aircraft
observations.

     The program, sponsored by NASA's Office of Commercial
Programs (OCP), will fund over $2 million of research annually.
Investigator teams are required to provide substantial co-funding
of proposed research as a contribution to the project.

     Projects funded under the program will identify and research
new commercial products and services that might be developed from
use of existing technology and explore ways of improving and
expanding the uses of remote sensing by commercial ventures.

     The first solicitation for EOCAP was issued in late l987.
Of the more that 120 proposals received and evaluated, 20
projects were selected and funded over a 3-year period with $12
million from OCP and the Office of Space Science and
Applications.

     The second solicitation for proposals was issued in June
l990.  A total of 50 proposals were received and reviewed prior
to today's selection announcement.  Projects will be managed by
OCP through the Science and Technology Laboratory at NASA's John
C. Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.

     The 12 projects selected for negotiation leading to 1-year
funding contracts, with options to extend funding for an
additional 2 years, will be procured in two phases expected to
begin in March l99l, with the second phase as early as July l99l.

Phase I projects are:

o    Hazardous Waste Detection:  A Pilot Remote Sensing Assisted
     Environmental Audit, proposed by investigators affiliated
     with Earthscan, Inc., Austin, Texas.

o    Improved Urban Infrastructure Mapping for Market Forecasting
     using Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems
     Technology, proposed by investigators affiliated with
     BellSouth Services, Inc., Birmingham, Ala.; University of
     South Carolina, Columbia; and NASA John C. Stennis Space
     Center, Miss.

o    Development and Marketing of Land Use and Cover Change
     Analysis System (LUCAS), proposed by investigators
     affiliated with Pacific Meridan Resources, Emeryville,
     Calif.; USDA Forest Service, Portland, Ore.; and Oregon
     Department of Land Conservation and Development, Salem.

o    Integrated Software System for Analyzing Remote Sensed Data,
     proposed by investigators affiliated with Statistical
     Sciences, Inc., Seattle; University of Washington, Seattle;
     and Hewlett-Packard, Denver.

o    Application of Remote Sensing Technology for Real Time
     Disaster Assessment, proposed by investigators affiliated
     with Terra-Mar Resource Information Services, Mountain View,
     Calif.; Teale Data Center, Sacramento, Calif.; NASA Ames
     Research Center, Mountain View, Calif.; Pacific Southwest
     Forest and Range Experiment Station, Forest Fire Laboratory,
     Riverside, Calif.; Hewlett Packard Co., Fort Collins, Colo.;
     Visual Information Technologies, Inc., Plano, Texas; and
     ESL, Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif.

o    Use of Satellite Derived Estimates of Precipitation and
     Evapotransporation to Enhance Hydrologic Forecasting,
     proposed by investigators affiliated with The Electric Power
     Research Institute, Palo Alto, Calif.; C.F. Haines,
     Hydrologistics, Inc., Northport, Ala.; NASA Stennis Space
     Center; Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and
     Atmospheric Administration; National Environmental
     Satellite, Data, and Information Service, Camp Springs, Md.;
     and Alabama Power Co., Birmingham.

o    Demonstrate and Market Oil Seep Surveys, proposed by
     investigators affiliated with Earth Satellite Corp.,
     Rockville, Md.; Chevron Overseas Petroleum, Inc., San Ramon,
     Calif.; Marathon Oil Co., Houston; Arco Oil and Gas Co.,
     Plano, Texas; Geosat Committee, Norman, Okla.; and Central
     Trading System, West Islip, N.Y.

Phase II Projects are:

o    GeoStack Database for Geographic Information Systems,
     proposed by investigators affiliated with ST Systems Corp.,
     Lanham, Md.; University of Florida, Gainesville; Stennis
     Space Center, Science and Technology Laboratory; Chevron
     Overseas Petroleum, Inc., San Ramon, Calif.; and
     Weyerhaeuser Co., Tacoma, Wash.

o    Pipeline Infrastructure Monitoring and Management, proposed
     by investigators affiliated with James W. Sewall Company,
     Old Town, Maine; Algonquin Gas Transmission Co., Boston,
     Mass.; NASA Stennis Space Center, Science and Technology
     Laboratory; Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line Co. Houston; Texas;
     Eastern Gas Pipeline Co. and Trunkline Gas Co., Houston.

o    Marketing Remote Sensing Data for North Pacific Fisheries
     Development and Management, proposed by investigators
     affiliated with Natural Resources Consultants, Inc.,
     Seattle; Western Resources Analysis, Wenatchee, Wash.;
     Pacific Remote Sensing Alliance, Bothell, Wash.; NASA Ames
     Research Center; Department of the Navy, Naval Postgraduate
     School, Monterey, Calif.; University of Alaska Fairbanks,
     Fairbanks, Alaska; Alaska Factory Trawler Associations,
     Seattle; North Pacific Fishing Vessel Owners' Association,
     Seattle; University of Washington, Seattle; U.S. Department
     of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric
     Administration; Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Law
     Enforcement Division, Seattle; Washington Sea Grant Program,
     Seattle; University of New Mexico, Technology Application
     Center, Albuquerque; and RSMAS/University of Miami, Fla.

o    Satellite Remote Sensing for Agricultural Production
     Management, proposed by investigators affiliated with
     Cropix, Inc., Hermiston, Ore.; NASA Ames Research Center;
     Oregon State University, Corvallis; IRZ Consulting,
     Hermiston, Ore.; Eagle Ranch, Echo, Ore.; L & L Farms, Echo,
     Ore.

o    Wetlands Information Services, proposed by investigators
     affiliated with Applied Analysis Incorporated, Billerica,
     Mass.; and Clemson University, Clemson, S.C.

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

End of SPACE Digest V12 #722
*******************