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Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #020

SPACE Digest                                      Volume 13 : Issue 20

Today's Topics:
        Re: Recent Newsstand Magazine Articles
      Information sources for frequent space questions (1 of n)
      Re: You can help clear cloud over MIR SWEERSTAKES.
      Re: You can help clear cloud over MIR SWEERSTAKES.
        Re: Recent Newsstand Magazine Articles
            Remote Sensing Images
          Re: Could weather sat snap umbra 11-7-91?
 Satellite releases planned in study of auroral displays (Forwarded)

Administrivia:

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

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

Date: 2 Jan 91 03:47:18 GMT
From: uvaarpa!murdoch!faraday.clas.Virginia.EDU![e-mail]  (Laura Hayes Burchard)
Subject: Re: Recent Newsstand Magazine Articles

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Henry Spencer) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Laura Hayes Burchard) writes:
>>"... a NASA investigator has confirmed suspicions that the
>>astronauts were conscious of their fate, and that among the last words
>>from the craft were those of one astronaut saying to another, "Give me
>>your hand."

>I would class this as somewhat improbable, given that the recorder was not
>battery powered and hence lost power immediately when the breakup began.

Like I said; just because it's leaked doesn't mean it's true, and major
disasters due tend to be breeding grounds for rumor.  One of my history
of Apollo books notes that the Apollo 1 fire led to rumors far more
gruesome than the reality.  On the other hand, NASA's behavior before
and after Challenger doesn't lead one to much comforting faith in
the verity of their pronouncements (no insult meant to you personally,
Henry) and considerable cynicism about their ability to cover their
asses.

>Such a request also strikes me as seriously out of character for the sort
>of people who become astronauts.  Yes, even Christa McAuliffe.
>Much more likely is the suggestion that Smith's "uh-oh" was really more
>along the lines of "oh shit", apparently the most common "last words" in
>such situations.

Don't know enough about astronauts to psychoanalyze them.  I would find
it unlikely in the case of a crew working to survive, but not totally
impossible in the case of a crew waiting.  I'll agree that it sounds
a trifle romanticized.

As for the "uh-oh"; that I'll believe, from the evidence of air crash
investigators.


--
Laura Burchard    [e-mail]    [e-mail]
October 3:  After 45 bitter years of separation, East and West Germany
unite to form a single nation, chastened by the past, hopeful for the future.
October 4:  Germany invades Poland.      --Dave Barry's Year in Review 1990

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

Date: 1 Jan 91 12:01:48 GMT
From: eagle!data.nas.nasa.gov!amelia![e-mail]  (Eugene N. Miya)
Subject: Information sources for frequent space questions (1 of n)


Many space activies center around large Government or International
Bureaucracies.  In this country that means NASA.  If you have basic
information requests: (e.g., general PR info, research grants, data,
limited tours, and ESPECIALLY SUMMER EMPLOYMENT (typically resumes
should be ready by Jan. 1), etc.), consider contacting the nearest
NASA Center to answer your questions.

EMail typically will not get you any where, computers are used by
investigators, not PR people.  The typical volume of mail per Center is
a multiple of 10,000 letters a day.  Seek the Public Information Office
at one of the below, this is their job:

NASA Headquarters (NASA HQ)
Washington DC 20546

NASA Ames Research Center (ARC)
Moffett Field, CA 94035
[Mountain View, CA, near San Francisco Bay, you know Silicon Valley 8-) ]

NASA Ames Research Center
Dryden Flight Research Facility [DFRF]
P. O. Box 273
Edwards, CA  93523

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
Greenbelt, MD 20771
[Outside of Washington DC]

NASA Lewis Research Center (LeRC)
21000 Brookpark Rd.
Cleveland, OH 44135

NASA Johnson Manned Space Center (JSC)
Houston, TX 77058

NASA Kennedy Space Flight Center (KSC)
Titusville, FL 32899

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC)
Huntsville, AL 35812

NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC)
Hampton, VA 23665
[Near Newport News, VA]

Not a NASA Center, but close enough:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory [JPL/CIT]
California Institute of Technology
4800 Oak Grove Dr.
Pasadena, CA 91109

There are other small facilities, but the above major Centers are set up
to handle public information requests.  They can send you tons of information.

Specific requests for software must go thru COSMIC at the Univ. of Georgia,
NASA's contracted software redistribution service.  You can reach them
at [e-mail].  If this gives you problems, tell me.

NOTE:  Foreign nationals requesting information must go through their
Embassies in Washington DC.  These are facilities of the US Government
and are regarded with some degree of economic sensitivity.
Centers cannot directly return information without high Center approval.
Allow at least 1 month for clearance.  This includes COSMIC.

EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY        (O) 202/488-4158
955 L'Enfant Plaza S.W., Washington, D.C.  20024

 Arianespace Headquarters
 Boulevard de l'Europe
 B.P. 177
 91006 Evry Cedex
 France

ARIANESPACE, INC. (O) 202/728-9075
1747 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite 875, Washington, DC  20006

SPOT IMAGE CORPORATION           (FAX) 703/648-1813    (O) 703/620-2200
1857 Preston White Drive, Reston, VA 22091

National Space Development Agency (NASDA), 4-1 Hamamatsu-Cho, 2 Chome
          Minato-Ku, Tokyo 105, Japan

SOYUZKARTA
45 Vologradsij Pr., Moscow 109125, USSR

SPACE COMMERCE CORPORATION (U.S. agent for Soviet launch services)
504 Pluto Drive, Colorado Springs, CO  80906   (O) 719/578-5490
69th flr, Texas Commerce Tower, Houston, TX 77002  (O) 713/227-9000

Additionally information is frequent asked about:
Space camp:

        Alabama Space and Rocket Center
        1 Tranquility Base
        Huntsville, AL 35805
        205-837-3400

    U.S. SPACE CAMP
    6225 Vectorspace Blvd
    Titusville FL  32780
    [phone]
    (registration and mailing list are handled through Huntsville --
     both camps are described in the same brochure)

There is talk of a space camp to be located next to NASA Ames.
Watch that space.

    "It's not a message.  I think it's a warning." -- Ripley

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

Date: 2 Jan 91 05:24:34 GMT
From: agate!shelby!neon!Neon![e-mail]  (John McCarthy)
Subject: Re: You can help clear cloud over MIR SWEERSTAKES.

My opinion is that the Attorney General of Texas should ask the
promoters of the MIR sweepstakes to show financial competence
to carry out the obligation they are assuming.  For example,
they could put $10 million in escrow and show a contract with
the Soviets to do the job.

Otherwise, there is a possibility that the money put up by
the sweepstakes players will be dissipated by the promoters
paying themselves high salaries as administrators and their
saying after a few years, "Sorry folks, not enough money was
put up."

Does anyone object to people gambling for the prize of a ride
in space if the existence of winners is adequately guaranteed?

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

Date: 1 Jan 91 23:40:43 GMT
From: unixhub!shelby!neon![e-mail]  (Andy Freeman)
Subject: Re: You can help clear cloud over MIR SWEERSTAKES.

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (M. Edward Borasky) writes:
>Let me get this straight -- someone is selling tickets to a drawing?
>The winner gets a trip into space, and the sponsor of the lottery gets
>the difference between what the trip cost and the total ticket revenues?
>And the local DA thinks this is a ripoff and is bringing action against
>the lottery?
>
>Well, Buster, I DO think it's a ripoff!

This lottery is surely evil.  It gives people a chance at something
they can't otherwise afford, and the people who are running it will
make a buck.  Space should be reserved for those who can pay full
price up front.

-andy

ps - If you think the lottery organizers are making too much money,
start your own lottery and drive the profit down.  You will, of
course, donate your profits to charity or extra prizes.  What?  You're
not willing to dirty your hands?  Then stop trying to protect me from
something I want and am willing to pay for.  If you don't want
it, don't buy.
--
UUCP:    {arpa gateways, sun, decwrl, uunet, rutgers}!neon.stanford.edu!andy
ARPA:    [e-mail]
BELLNET: [phone]

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

Date: 2 Jan 91 01:52:29 GMT
From: cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Recent Newsstand Magazine Articles

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Laura Hayes Burchard) writes:
>"... a NASA investigator has confirmed suspicions that the
>astronauts were conscious of their fate, and that among the last words
>from the craft were those of one astronaut saying to another, "Give me
>your hand."

I would class this as somewhat improbable, given that the recorder was not
battery powered and hence lost power immediately when the breakup began.

Such a request also strikes me as seriously out of character for the sort
of people who become astronauts.  Yes, even Christa McAuliffe.

Much more likely is the suggestion that Smith's "uh-oh" was really more
along the lines of "oh shit", apparently the most common "last words" in
such situations.
--
"The average pointer, statistically,    |Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
points somewhere in X." -Hugh Redelmeier| [e-mail]   utzoo!henry

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

Date: 3 Jan 91 11:59:35 GMT
From: mcsun!ukc!axion!uzi-9mm.fulcrum.bt.co.uk![e-mail]  (Ian G Batten)
Subject: Remote Sensing Images


I'd like to buy remote sensing images of parts of the UK.  Can anyone
suggest a good source of satellite and high-flying aircraft pictures in
various wavebands?  I have an address for the National Remote Sensing
Centre at the RAE, but I've not had an answer back yet.  Are there
commercial outlets for NASA stuff?  ESA?

ian

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

Date: 3 Jan 91 21:29:02 GMT
From: swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Could weather sat snap umbra 11-7-91?

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (David Cortesi) writes:
>There are these fine weather satellites looking down on the west
>coast and pacific.  Would it be possible for one of them to take
>pictures of the umbra, a 300 kilometer oval of shadow, as it
>sweeps over Baja or Mexico on that day?

I suspect that the answer is no.  The trouble is that the Clarke-orbit
metsats typically spend about half an hour doing a raster scan of the
Earth for each image.  They're not built for stop-motion photography,
even motion as slow as this.
--
"The average pointer, statistically,    |Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
points somewhere in X." -Hugh Redelmeier| [e-mail]   utzoo!henry

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

Date: 3 Jan 91 21:40:25 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Satellite releases planned in study of auroral displays (Forwarded)

Brian Dunbar
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                    January 3, 1991
(Phone:  [phone])                                 4 p.m. EST

Jerry Berg
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
(Phone:  [phone])


RELEASE:  91-2

SATELLITE RELEASES PLANNED IN STUDY OF AURORAL DISPLAYS


     In January 1991, NASA will conduct experiments from an
orbiting satellite to test the possibility of creating an
artificial aurora.  The Combined Release and Radiation Effects
Satellite (CRRES) will release clouds of barium and lithium vapor
in the Earth's magnetosphere, the region above the atmosphere.

     The CRRES program is a joint NASA-U.S. Air Force effort to
study the Earth's ionosphere and magnetosphere and to monitor the
effects of the space radiation environment on sophisticated
electronics.  Through the CRRES program's artificial cloud-
release experiments, scientists seek to understand the processes
which cause auroras by using artificial charged-particle clouds
to induce them.

     The releases, which have no adverse environmental effects,
will result in clouds of artificially injected charged particles,
temporarily and locally changing the structure of the charged
particles and the magnetic fields where they occur.  Illuminated
by the sun, these clouds will show up as bright patches in the
night sky.  Project officials estimate the patches will be about
the size of a full moon and nearly as bright.

     The releases should be visible from the entire continental
United States, most of Canada, Central America, the Caribbean,
and much of South America.  During some of the release
opportunities, the clouds may be visible low in the western skies
from western Africa and Europe, several hours before dawn.  Two
previous releases from the CRRES satellite have been made.  They
occurred in September over the South Pacific Ocean.

     The magnetosphere is the region where the Earth's magnetic
field forms a "bubble" in the solar wind, trapping energetic
electrons and ions.  These charged particles are locked into
spiral orbits around the lines of magnetic force, spinning like a
rock whirled around on a string.  These particles also bounce
back and forth along the field lines from one end to the other,
coming close to the Earth at each end but turning around or
"reflecting" just above the atmosphere.

     "Sometimes, though, these charged particles act like they're
jumping the tracks," said Dr. David L. Reasoner, CRRES Project
Scientist at the Marshall center.  "They leave their stable paths
and go racing up into the high, thin atmosphere.  There they
smash into the atoms and molecules of air, causing them to glow,
almost like a big TV screen.

     "We call this glow the aurora," Reasoner continued.  "At
times the particles leak out of the magnetic field trap in a slow
drizzle and make only weak, barely visible auroras.  At other
times they pour out like a heavy downpour, making very bright
auroras or an auroral storm."  Scientists are not sure why these
particles behave in strange, unpredictable ways.

     "The ever-changing nature of the aurora stands as brilliant
evidence of these uncontrolled processes," said Reasoner.
"They're not only responsible for visible effects -- that is, the
aurora.  They also cause disruptions in high-frequency
communications, occasionally produce damaging currents in
terrestrial power systems and create magnetic storms which affect
sensitive instruments on Earth and in space," he added.

     A total of seven releases are planned, three in which
lithium will produce a red glow and four of barium, which will
glow green and purple.  The opportunities for the releases occur
on the nights of Jan. 10, 12, 14, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 24 and
25.  Exact times for the releases will be announced - after being
determined by scientists monitoring the state of the
magnetosphere by means of instruments on the CRRES satellite.

     "In essence, we are attempting to duplicate nature on a
small scale by artificially triggering a natural process in a
controlled experiment," said Reasoner.  The effects will be
studied with an extensive network of cameras and other
instruments both on the ground and in specially instrumented
aircraft scattered throughout the United States, the Caribbean
and South America and staffed by scientists from universities,
both U.S. and foreign, government laboratories and industry.  The
actual releases will be over South America at altitudes between
3,000 and 21,000 miles.

     For viewers in the United States and Canada, the releases
will be in the southern sky at elevations between 10 and 50
degrees above the horizon.  Since the moon will be down or near
new phase for the releases (a requirement for the highly
sensitive scientific cameras), observers in locations with clear
skies and away from city lights should have excellent viewing
conditions.  The lithium releases are expected to be visible for
about 5 minutes, and the barium releases for about 15 minutes.

     The satellite originally was launched from Cape Canaveral
Air Force Station, Fla., last July 25 aboard an Atlas-Centaur
rocket.  CRRES is a joint program of NASA, through its Marshall
Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and the Department of
Defense's Space Test Program.  CRRES is operated and controlled
from the Consolidated Space Test Center located in Sunnyvale,
Calif.

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

End of SPACE Digest V13 #020
*******************