Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V13_0/V13_069.TXT

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Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #069

SPACE Digest                                      Volume 13 : Issue 69

Today's Topics:
             Re: Humanity's Launch Window
             Re: THE BLUE PLANET
             Some far away places
        Re: Fwd: NASA Plans To Redesign Space Station
              Re: 2 dimensional objects
              Re: SPACE Digest V13 #041
               * SpaceNews  21-Jan-91 *

Administrivia:

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

Date: 17 Jan 91 22:40:37 GMT
From: hpfcso!hpfcdc![e-mail]  (Alan Silverstein)
Subject: Re: Humanity's Launch Window

Thank you for your feedback, here and by mail.

> In an actual article, I would expect more concrete examples of the
> benefits designed to mute space expansion critics...

Good point.  On the other hand, I don't want to water down the emotional
impact of the article.  I'll see what I can work into it.

>> Our precious Earth is crowded.  Our raw materials are being consumed.
>> *Our launch window will close*.

> This needs expansion, and justification; Club of Rome, etc.

Again, it's a matter of judgement and something I don't want to water
down with footnotes.  :-)  But I'll see what I can do.

> Maybe.  I think the more likely scenario is that another culture,
> perhaps Japanese will cross the threshold.  I say this because we seem
> too pre-occupied with militarism and the Europeans with happenings east
> of them to have a PLAN for space.

I have also heard the same by mail.  Well, call me a pessimist, but I'm
concerned that we're all interconnected and if the US can't make it
happen, no one can.

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

Date: 19 Jan 91 02:42:59 GMT
From: usc!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: THE BLUE PLANET

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Daniel Fischer) writes:
>a flat screen ('5 stories high' or so go the ads), the other one working inside
>a planetarium dome - which one of these is the actual 'IMAX' system? Is the
>generic term for the planetarium-based version OMNIMAX?

Imax is the flat screen, Omnimax is the dome.  Both are products of the
Imax Corporation here in Toronto.

> do both versions
>use exactly the same footage ...

I expect they work from the same originals, but the actual film used for
projection is different.  The Omnimax format is predistorted in a seriously
peculiar way so that it comes out right when run through their strange
projection lenses and viewed on the dome.
--
If the Space Shuttle was the answer,   | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
what was the question?                 |  [e-mail]   utzoo!henry

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

Date: 19 Jan 91 17:23:56 GMT
From: sdd.hp.com!think.com!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!quiche![e-mail]  (Mark SOKOLOWSKI)
Subject: Some far away places

Ten thousand times a hundred thousand dusty years ago,
Where now extends the Plain of Gold did once my river flow.
It stroked the stones and spoke in tongues ans splashed against my face
Till ages rolled - the Sun shone cold on this unholy place.

So many stars bedeck my skies, when once there were but few,
But oh, to know again the clouds that hid them from my view.
My ochred cliffs and rusted sands stand regal and serene,
But oh, my wan and wasted world, I miss your blue and green.

But it's just the weight of waiting, not a deathwatch o'er a friend.
Tomorrow has a starting as does yesterday an end.
For the water of my river and the air that was my wind,
Though bound in rocks and wintry wastes, I pray may flow again.

My ochred cliffs and rusted sands stand regal and serene,
but oh, my wan and wasted world, I miss your blue and green.

Mark S. (1991)

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

Date: 19 Jan 91 04:57:41 GMT
From: cs.utexas.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!zardoz.cpd.com!dhw68k!ofa123![e-mail]  (Wales Larrison)
Subject: Re: Fwd: NASA Plans To Redesign Space Station

Jonathan Leech writes
>If adopted, this would help vindicate Oliver Harwood's modular
>tetrahedral station approach. Having the temerity to propose it got
him
>kicked out of Rockwell in the mid-80s.

   I've heard different opinions expressed by members of Rockwell
management.  It should be noted that Ollie Harwood retired under
full retirement pay from Rockwell - if he was really "kicked out" he
would have grounds for a really good law suit, and there are lots of
local shark lawyers who would love to hear from him regarding a
"wrongful discharge" lawsuit.
  Back in about 1985-86 I had an office near Ollie, and talked to
him a lot about his designs.  (I've since moved on...) He is a very
good and innovative designer, and I saw the NASA, Aerospace Corp,
Rockwell and an independent design review of his design.
   It was very interesting and some parts of it were very innovative
- and some were used in the LOSING Rockwell Space Station proposal
for Work Package 4 (?? the truss and structural work package - won
by McDonnell Douglas).  Unfortunately, some of his ideas weren't any
better than the standard way of doing a Space Station design (using
modules in a rectangular layout rather than a tetrahetral array)-
and while his design was different  - it didn't meet the system
requirements any better.  Overall, his design was worse in meeting
the total expressed system requirements - for GN&C, ACS and
microgravity environments, his tetrahedral design was much worse,
according to the design reviews.
   Many aspects of his design were adopted, but after Rockwell lost
the competition for that work package, they were not picked up by
the winning MDSSC design team.  (Interestingly enough, Ollie was
from MDSSC originally....).
   And it didn't help that Ollie did a few things that didn't
enamour Rockwell management of him - like designing stuff on company
time, then publishing it in the press without company permission
(during a closely contested competitive procurement, when management
is very sensitive...), calling the potential customer an "idiot" in
writing and in public forums, and testifying to Congress that both
Rockwell and NASA management were "morons".

   Heck, if I was Rockwell management I would have fired him.
   I consider Rockwell very (almost amazingly) tolerant of what he
did.





--
Wales Larrison
Internet: [e-mail]
Compuserve: >internet:[e-mail]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: 19 Jan 91 23:39:03 GMT
From: uokmax![e-mail]  (Jonathan A Bishop)
Subject: Re: 2 dimensional objects

[e-mail] (Jason J. Levit) writes:

>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Jonathan A Bishop) writes:
>>[e-mail] (Jason J. Levit) writes:
>>     What do you mean by 4 dimensional?  Three of space and one of time or
>>four of space?  Either way, our universe may have more dimensions of space
>>than we can perceive, so two dimensional creatures in a four dimensional
>>(or higher) universe are just as plausible as three dimensional creatures.

>  3 of space, 1 of time.  These guys were claming that these creatures
>  didn't have any height.  I find that very hard to believe!

     We don't KNOW that the universe only has three dimensions of space;
theories have been proposed suggesting that there are actually 11 (!).  We
just can't perceive that.  So, a five dimensional creature might not believe
that three dimensional creatures could exist: "These guys were claiming that
these creatures didn't have any (insert noun describing size in 4th and 5th
dimensions).  I find that very hard to believe!"
--
[e-mail]

"Ground Control to Major Tom: Your circuit's dead; there's something wrong.
Can you hear me, Major Tom?" -- David Bowie

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

Date: Sat, 19 Jan 91 21:38:41 EST
From: Tommy Mac <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: SPACE Digest V13 #041

Next Colony After THe Moon on Ganymeade?  Are you nuts?

No offense guys, but I think your missing some pretty important steps.  Maybe
you'd rather use ganymeade because of it's interesting location, but it's too
far away and there's not much (unique) that's there.

There are people in ohio that own property that's described in the dumbest ways
because it was in ohio that the surveyors starting out across this huge land
began experimenting with different standards before they settled down the the
township system we see in most of the midwest and all of the west.  I mention
this because that arbitrary action on the part of the surveyors changed things
for people they could not even imagine, hundreds of years later, in stupid but
significant ways.  It's bound to happen as we move into space, and you might
find some interesting twists by thinking about the steps leading up to the
second colony and what could change.

Anyway, I think a second colony (assuming the first is on the moon) could more
easily and practically be built in:

Solar orbit at 1 A.U   :  Energy harvesting or Apollo Asteroid Mining Station

Solar orbit at any A.U.:  Energy , Materials if between 3+6 A.U (Asteroids)

Earth orbit            :  Stopover, cheap tourism, convenience stores

L-5                    :  Alternative to Earth Orbit


Thinking about it some more;  Since the asteroids have the same stuff in them
that the moons of Jupiter have, and since asteroids have more sunlight and less
gravity, I wouldn't think a colony would get established there unless the rest
of the resources in the solar system were getting expensive enough to warrant
the longer trip and harder time once you get to the Jupiter System.  And once
you decided to go, the Trojan Asteroids would be easier to use anyway.  a base
on Ganymeade would either be some obscure religious or social group, or part of
a huge space-faring infrastructure, I would guess.

Sorry if I sound like I don't like ganymeade, but it's 900,000 miles away.

Tommy Mac
Acknowledge-To: <18084TM@MSU>

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

Date: 19 Jan 91 02:19:13 GMT
From: ka2qhd![e-mail]  (John Magliacane)
Subject: * SpaceNews  21-Jan-91 *


SB SPACE @ ALLBBS < KD2BD $SPC0121
* SpaceNews  21-Jan-91 *

Bulletin ID: $SPC0121


                              =========
                              SpaceNews
                              =========

                       MONDAY JANUARY 21, 1991

SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA.  It
is published every week and is made available for unlimited distribution.



* U2MIR NEWS *
==============
ZL2AXJ contacted U2MIR on 15-Jan-91 at 18:10 UTC on 145.550 MHz.  U2MIR
was heard contacting a station in VK on a following pass.  According to
ZL2AXJ, U2MIR acknowleged callsigns and did not exchange signal reports.
Apparently a callsign exchange is all that is required for QSL purposes.


* RS SATELLITES *
=================
In what is considered a major suprise to AMSAT-DL officials, RS-12/13 will be
launched before RS-14/RUDAK-2.  According to the latest information coming to
AMSAT-DL officials from the USSR, RS-12/13 will be launched on January 20,
1991.  Then about one week later RS-14/RUDAK-2 will be launched!  RS-12/13
has been in storage for over a year awaiting an opportunity to be placed into
orbit.  RS-14/RUDAK-2 has also been delayed over a year.  AMSAT-DL officials
can only explain these delays from the standpoint of economic pressures and
efforts to minimize launch costs.

[Information via ANS and DB2OS]


* SALYUT-7 NEWS *
=================
The decaying Soviet space station Salyut-7 has been causing false alarms
to troops fighting the war in the middle east.  Salyut-7 is rapidly
decaying and is expected to fall to Earth shortly.  Salyut-7 will be
visible to people living on the east coast of the US shortly after
local sunset.


* FLASHING SATELLITES *
=======================
The Solar Mesosphere Explorer and PegSat satellites can be seen under
ideal viewing conditions shortly before sunrise or after sunset.  These
satellites appear to "flash" with a period of two cycles per second.

SME was launched with OSCAR-9 in 1981.  OSCAR-9 decayed in the Earth's
atmosphere on 13-Oct-89.

NASA "two-line" Keplerian orbital data for these objects follows:

SME
1 12887U 81100  A 91 10.17428589  .00149731  00000-0  83283-3 0   534
2 12887  97.5951  78.2554 0002064 137.2187 222.8947 15.79052268513576

PegSat
1 20546U 90 28  A 91 10.39518899  .00014614  00000-0  83807-3 0  3909
2 20546  94.1399 325.5229 0139030 306.5241  52.3247 15.04646247 41196


* THOUGHT OF PEACE *
====================
Give us O God the vision which can see thy love in the world
in spite of human failure.
Give us the faith to trust the goodness
in spite of our ignorance and weakness.
Give us the knowledge that we may continue to pray
with understanding hearts, and show us what each one of us
can do to set forward the coming of the day of universal peace.

Amen.

- First prayer from space - Apollo 8 - December 24, 1968 -


* STS-37 NEWS *
===============
US Space Shuttle mission STS-37, currently scheduled for launch at
14:14 UTC on 08-Apr-91, will be carrying an ALL amateur radio crew.
Crew members for STS-37 include:

Commander            : Steve Nagel, N5RAW
Pilot                : Ken Cameron, KB5AWP
Mission Specialist 1 : Linda Godwin, N5RAX
Mission Specialist 2 : Jerry Ross, (awaiting call)
Mission Specialist 3 : Jay Apt, N5QWL

2-meter FM voice, SSTV, and robot packet operations are planned during
the five day mission.  An orbital inclination of 28 degrees will limit
the area of SAREX coverage to those areas close to the equator, as was
the case with STS-35.


* TNX QSL! *
============
A special thanks to all those who sent QSLs and letters to SpaceNews:

FC1HUJ : Raynier Di Lenarda, Antibes, France
ON1CFI : Jan Moeyersons, Tisselt, Belgium
N5QWC  : Gary Morris, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, USA
N6UCJ  : P.J. Mead, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
SM7BHM : Ewe, Hakansson, Kristianstad, Sweden

...and e-mail messages:

KA1UKM, VE2MAA, ZL2AXJ, KD5RI, W5YI, N7PDF, N8LZE


* FEEDBACK WELCOMED *
=====================
Feedback regarding SpaceNews can be directed to the editor (John) via any
of the following paths:

INTERNET : [e-mail]
PACKET   : KD2BD @ NN2Z.NJ.USA.NA
UUCP     : ...uunet!rutgers!ka2qhd!kd2bd

MAIL     : John A. Magliacane, KD2BD
           Department of Electronics Technology
           Advanced Technology Center
           Brookdale Community College
           765 Newman Springs Road
           Lincroft, New Jersey 07738
           U.S.A.



/EX
--
John A. Magliacane                 FAX  : [phone]
Electronics Technology Department  AMPR : KD2BD @ NN2Z.NJ.USA.NA
Brookdale Community College        UUCP : ...!rutgers!ka2qhd!kd2bd
Lincroft, NJ  07738  USA           VOICE: [phone] ext 607

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

End of SPACE Digest V13 #069
*******************