Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V13_0/V13_036.TXT

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Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #036

SPACE Digest                                      Volume 13 : Issue 36

Today's Topics:
               OSC stock price
    Re: What are the qualifications needed for astronauts
            Voyager I/II question
           Re: Humankind's Second Off-world Colony
           Re: Humankind's Second Off-world Colony
             Re: Salyut Question
             Wanted: Frequ. of Satelittes
     ARTIFICIAL AURORA ALERT - SPECIAL SOLAR TERRESTRIAL BULLETIN

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: 10 Jan 91 23:02:06 GMT
From: o.gp.cs.cmu.edu![e-mail]  (Vincent Cate)
Subject: OSC stock price


OSC's stock has dropped $2 3/4 today to $11 1/2.  Is it just the
market and gulf or something more immediately relevant to OSC?

Would people be interested in a "space-investor" mailing list?  The
idea would be to get faster access to information concerning investment
in space development.

   -- Vince

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

Date: 11 Jan 91 03:53:49 GMT
From: news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: What are the qualifications needed for astronauts

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Matt Harrington) writes:
>I know that to be a fighter pilot, one must meet rigorous
>physical and mental requirements.  Does anyone know the
>requirements for astronauts?  For example, do they need to
>have perfect vision?  Do they need to be fighter pilots
>first?  From where are the people chosen, an academy?

Here's the latest iteration of my standard response to this:

Q. How do I become an astronaut?

A. We will assume you mean a NASA astronaut, since it's probably impossible
    for a Westerner to get into the Soviet program, and the other nations
    have so few astronauts (and fly even fewer) that you're better off
    hoping to win a lottery.  Becoming a shuttle pilot requires lots
    of fast-jet experience, which means a military flying career; forget
    that unless you want to do it anyway.  So you want to become a
    shuttle "mission specialist".

    If you aren't a US citizen, become one; that is a must.  After that,
    the crucial thing to remember is that the demand for such jobs vastly
    exceeds the supply.  NASA's problem is not finding qualified people,
    but thinning the lineup down to manageable length.  It is not enough
    to be qualified; you must avoid being *dis*qualified for any reason,
    many of them in principle quite irrelevant to the job.

    Get a Ph.D.  Specialize in something that involves getting your hands
    dirty with equipment, not just paper and pencil.  Forget computer
    programming entirely; it will be done from the ground for the fore-
    seeable future.  Degree(s) in one field plus work experience in
    another seems to be a frequent winner.

    Be in good physical condition, with good eyesight.  (DO NOT get a
    radial keratomy or similar hack to improve your vision; nobody knows
    what sudden pressure changes would do to RKed eyes, and long-term
    effects are poorly understood.  For that matter, avoid any other
    significant medical unknowns.)  If you can pass a jet-pilot physical,
    you should be okay; if you can't, your chances are poor.

    Practise public speaking, and be conservative and conformist in
    appearance and actions; you've got a tough selling job ahead, trying
    to convince a cautious, conservative selection committee that you
    are better than hundreds of other applicants.  (And, also, that you
    will be a credit to NASA after you are hired:  public relations is
    a significant part of the job, and NASA's image is very prim and
    proper.)  The image you want is squeaky-clean workaholic yuppie.
    Remember also that you will need a security clearance at some point,
    and Security considers everybody guilty until proven innocent.
    Keep your nose clean.

    Get a pilot's license and make flying your number one hobby;
    experienced pilots are known to be favored even for non-pilot jobs.

    Work for NASA; of 45 astronauts selected between 1984 and 1988,
    43 were military or NASA employees, and the remaining two were
    a NASA consultant and Mae Jemison (the first black female astronaut).
    If you apply from outside NASA and miss, but they offer you a job
    at NASA, ***TAKE IT***; sometimes in the past this has meant "you
    do look interesting but we want to know you a bit better first".

    Think space:  they want highly motivated people, so lose no chance
    to demonstrate motivation.

    Keep trying.  Many astronauts didn't make it the first time.
--
If the Space Shuttle was the answer,   | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
what was the question?                 |  [e-mail]   utzoo!henry

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

From: [e-mail]
Date: 9  Jan 91 11:30
Subject: Voyager I/II question


Hi there,
I'm looking for the partial orbital elements (trajectories) of the two
VOYAGER spacecrafts, which describe the (elliptic/hyperbolic) motions from one
planet to the other.

Thanks, Robert              Mail Address: [e-mail]

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

Date: 9 Jan 91 23:56:46 GMT
From: swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!noose.ecn.purdue.edu!mentor.cc.purdue.edu![e-mail]  (Mark Gellis)
Subject: Re: Humankind's Second Off-world Colony

I like your initial set-up.  I, too, and curious about what happens
when you build an extensive heat source on ice.  On the other hand,
don't we have military and scientific research bases near the North
Pole?  My own guess (please correct me if I'm wrong) is that if you
can radiate the heat over a large area, the ice will melt slowly
enough that it will refreeze before melting becomes a problem.  If
this is true, by the way, it could be a useful plot device--yes, the
terrorists have taken control of the heat dispersal computers...we
have to give in to their demands, or beat them, or it's THE BIG
SINK for all of us!  (This idea is copyright 1991 Mark Gellis.)

Other options for colonies, by the way, include Mars and the asteroid
belt, but your reasons for choosing Ganymede are very good.  Gregory
Benford, I think, has an article on colonizing the Jovian moons; I
believe it appeared in an Issac Asimov SF magazine sometime during the
last two or three years (sorry I don't have a better reference).  On
problem with the Jovian moons, by the way, is Jupiter's teensy little
radiation problem (we're talking about something a little more impressive
than a tanning booth here).  But I think a few meters of ice or rock
should provide enough shielding.

The other option for space colonies, of course, is habitats.  These
might have other problems, but the reading that I have done on the
subject convinces me that once we get space industrializing technology
developed (mass drivers, etc.) and especially once we have self-
replicating machinery that doesn't CARE if it's been dropped on a
hideous, barren, airless moon with enough radiation to fry eggs on
your skin, but will gleefully chunk out copies of itself, or other
products (like mining robots, mass drivers, chemical processing
equipment, etc.) as long as it gets raw material and solar power
(or water ice to be distilled into deuterium for fusion power)...
anyway, once we have these things (next two hundred years?) building
habitats will become much easier, and habitats are effectively small
worlds to order.  They will, of course, share one of the great
drawbacks of all space colonies--they will be fragile, not physically
fragile (the radiation shielding will give them walls a few meters
thick...you need anti-tank weapons to knock a hole in something like
that) but environmentally fragile.  The environment of any space
colony, even one with millions of people, will be far more fragile
than the environment of an Earth-like planet.  It will have to be
carefully regulated and maintained, or else disaster ensues.  This,
of course, provides writers with wonderful plot opportunities.  Yes,
the terrorists have gotten control of the environment computers and
we have to give in to their demands, or beat them, or it's THE BIG
CHOKE...etc., etc., etc.

I hope this has been useful.  Or at least entertaining.  :)

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

Date: 10 Jan 91 00:00:12 GMT
From: zephyr.ens.tek.com!tektronix!sequent!crg5![e-mail]  (Nick Szabo)
Subject: Re: Humankind's Second Off-world Colony

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Jon Monsarrat x6227) writes:

>[role-playing game, Ganymede colony in 2180]

>Where should Man's first colony after a moon colony be?

Our first colony will likely be on or beside an asteroid, not the Moon, and
I agree with you the second colony will likely be in the Galilean system.
IMHO the timeline is sooner than 2180.  If nothing else, the incredible
changes in computation we are undergoing now, the probable rise of something
like virtual reality and nanotechnology, make 2180 totally unpredictable
and perhaps too weird to be enjoyable as a game to people of our
contemporary culture.  Keith Henson might choose 2020; I would compromise
and pick 2080.  (That way if nanotech *doesn't* happen you'll be dead and
gone and won't have to worry about people picking nits in your
predictions :-).


> OUR GUESS: Ganymede because of its water supply and proximity to Jupiter
>  which is a good source of gases possibly used in fusion. Also I read
>  about it in a very old Heinlein book! :)

>What would the motivations for having a colony be?

Paul Dietz came up with an idea in sci.space, which I have expanded
upon, about generating several terawatts of power from a superconducting
cable and plasma web based on the inner moon Metis.  The velocity of
this moon through Jupiter's powerful magnetic field can generate .6 V/m
(if memory serves correctly).  If we develop technology to manufacture
large amounts of superconducting cable with A/m^2 near current
laboratory maximums, we could launch a power generating plant from
Earth at *today's launch prices* for a cost similar to the present
costs of building Earth-based power plants.  Lower launch prices
would lower costs proportionately. Manufacturing the cable from space
resources (eg Ganymede) would lower the cost dramatically, to where
we could generate power for 1/1000 the current Earth costs.  Like
any other sf/far future scenario this is highly speculative, but I have
worked the figures and can retrieve the spreadsheet from tape for
anyone interested.

Using Dr. Forward's interstellar laser propulsion technology from *Flight of
the Dragonfly* and disussed recently on sci.space, we could transmit
this power around the solar system.  If we can tranmit it to Earth *and*
through the atmosphere without losing more than 90% of it or causing
environmental disruption on Earth, it would be far cheaper than Solar
Power Satellites, and potentially provide copious amounts of electrical
energy on Earth.

In this milieu power transmission, especially to Earth, is more expensive
than power generation.  The cost of power on Earth is probably over an
order of magnitude greater than the cost at Ganymede, but still much lower
than today's prices.  Thus, most heavy industry will move to Ganymede.
(BTW the site for the human colony should be well outside Jupiter's
radiation belt; Metis is too far in for anything but robots.  I think
Ganymde is probably OK.) There will also be many new industries based
around the much lower energy prices (antimatter production, asteroid
mining, space colony construction, etc.)  It will also be a center of
microgravity industry (GaAs, pharmaceuticals, etc.) and high value/mass
materials (diamond, platinum, nuclear isotopes, etc.)

It might be useful to move asteroids and comets to orbits nearby Ganymede
or Metis.  For this purpose, gravity assist can be combined with the
technique of cometary aerobraking, whereby the object to be moved is
put on collision course with a comet.  Just before it hits, the comet
is exploded into a shaped gas (cones towards and away from the object's
approach path).  This requires extensive computation power for explosive,
aerodynamic, and orbital mechanics simulations; I have little doubt we
will have this capabity in 10-20 years.

There are also many natural wonders in the Galilean system to spice
up the game: rings, volcanoes on Io, the hundred-million-amp flux tube
between Jupiter and Io (plus lesser ones to the other inner moons),
liquid water under Europa, etc.  Gosh I can't wait for Galileo to
get there. :-)

Enjoy!



--
Nick Szabo            [e-mail]
These views do not reflects those of any organization I may be
affiliated with.

--
Nick Szabo            [e-mail]
Embrace Change...  Keep the Values...  Hold Dear the Laughter...

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

Date: 9 Jan 91 12:55:44 GMT
From: swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!maize.engin.umich.edu![e-mail]  (Ken Sheppardson)
Subject: Re: Salyut Question

[e-mail] (Henry Spencer) writes:
>[e-mail] (Leo Wikholm) writes:
>
>>  How big is the Salyut-7 Space Station?
>
>About the size of one Mir module.  Rather smaller than Skylab.  You could
>more or less fit it into a shuttle payload bay, I think.

  More or less. Salyut-7 itself is about 13m long and approximately 4m in
  diameter. This makes is roughly the same size as a 'full length' Space
  Station Freedom module.

  The basic Salyut module has a mass of around 19,000 kg. (or 19.000 kg
  for our friend overseas)

  The 'full length' U.S. Lab module for SSF is/was right around 13,000 kg.


--
===============================================================================
 Ken Sheppardson                                  Email: [e-mail]
 Space Station Freedom Advanced Programs Office   Phone: [phone]
 NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton VA         FAX:   [phone]
===============================================================================

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

Date: 9 Jan 91 16:03:37 GMT
From: bu.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!ira.uka.de!iras8![e-mail]  (Wolfgang Tremmel)
Subject: Wanted: Frequ. of Satelittes

Where can I get the frequence of some satellites (weather etc.) from?

Wolfgang Tremmel

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

Date:    Thu, 10 Jan 91 00:29:57 MST
From: [e-mail] (Cary Oler)
Subject: ARTIFICIAL AURORA ALERT - SPECIAL SOLAR TERRESTRIAL BULLETIN
X-St-Vmsmail-To: ST%"[e-mail]"

                        /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

                    SPECIAL SOLAR TERRESTRIAL BULLETIN

                         Artificial Aurora Alert
                             09 January, 1991

                        /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\


At approximately 01:45 UT on 11 January (Thursday evening for the U.S. and
Canada), an artificially created aurora will become visible over many Canadian
and U.S. areas.  Over most middle latitude locations, the auroral display will
occur near the zenith (straight up).  Southern Canada will see the aurora to
the south of the zenith.  Lower latitudes will see the aurora to the north of
the zenith.  Seeding will occur near 01:45 UT (5:45 pm PST, 6:45 pm MST,
7:45 pm CST, and 8:45 pm EST).  There will be seven seedings take place, but
the exact times of the other six seedings is not known.

This will be an excellent opportunity for people to observe an aurora.  Much
of the continental U.S. should be able to witness this aurora.  Each seeding
will produce a very intense aurora for approximately 5 to 10 minutes.  To
witness the aurora, get outside and away from city lights.  Be at your
observing site (ie. the countryside) by at least 01:15 UT to 01:30 UT.  To
observe the greatest auroral detail, give your eyes at least 15 to 30 minutes
to become accustomed to the darkness.  The auroral activity will be bright
enough to capture on film, or to record with your Camcorder.  Take hot drinks
and warm clothing.  The seedings may be spread out over several hours.

Radio propagation conditions during these periods of auroral activity will
become notably disturbed over paths affected by the aurora.  It may also be
possible to accomplish auroral backscatter communications over VHF frequencies.
Higher HF frequencies may also yield some interesting results.  However, be
aware that the auroral activity will be short-lived, hence any unusual radio
communications achieved will likewise be short-lived.

PLEASE SEND A NOTE OF VISUAL CONFIRMATION OF THE AURORAL ACTIVITY IF YOU ARE
ABLE TO SPOT THE AURORA.  Send confirmations to "[e-mail]".
Please include your observation location and a brief description of the
activity you witnessed.

PLEASE ALSO SEND ANY NOTES OF DEGRADED RADIO COMMUNICATIONS TO THE SAME
ADDRESS GIVEN ABOVE.  Again, please state your transmitter or receiver
location and a description of the radio anomalies experienced (strong fading,
intense flutter, distortion or noise, etc.).  Also please state the frequencies
affected during your observations.

To all who send confirmation reports, thanks very much!


**  End of Bulletin  **

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

End of SPACE Digest V13 #036
*******************