Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V13_1/V13_132.TXT

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Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #132

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 13 : Issue 132

Today's Topics:
         I-CON X  (Robin Curtis will appear!)
  Re: Request for Feedback on Proposed Lunar Analog Robotics Contest
            Re: liquid SCUBA -- possible?
  Re: Request for Feedback on Proposed Lunar Analog Robotics Contest

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Date: 3 Feb 91 15:41:48 GMT
From: att!cbnewsj!cbnewsi![e-mail]  (The Resource, Poet-Magician of Quality)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Quality Process Center
Subject: I-CON X  (Robin Curtis will appear!)
References: <[e-mail]>
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This just in...


             Robin Curtis, Saavik in the Star Trek Film Series
                       will be appearing at I-CON X!


                           I  -  C  O  N     X

                  The East Coast's Largest Convention of
                        Science Fact,
                                 Fiction,
                                      and Fantasy

                            April 19-21, 1991
              State University, Stony Brook, Long Island, NY


                       Special Guest: Majel Barret
                 Number One, Nurse Chapel, Lwaxana Troi,
                and the voice of the computer on Star Trek


                        Special Guest: Robin Curtis
                            Saavik on Star Trek

                         Special Guest: Tom Baker*
                                 Doctor Who


                      Guest-of-Honor: Dan Simmons
             Author of the Hugo Award winning novel Hyperion


                      Special Guest: Harlan Ellison


       Other SF, Fantasy & Horror Guests: Poul Anderson, Jim
       Frenkel, Joan D. Vinge, Larry Niven, Fred Pohl, Jack
       Williamnson. Roger MacBride Allen, Jim Baen, Ian and Betty
       Ballantine, Hal Clement, Tom Doherty, Robert L. Forward,
       Raymond Z. Gallun, Barry Malzberg, James Morrow, Thomas
       Monteleone, Pamela Sargent, John Skipp, Craig Spector, Bruce
       Sterling, Keil Stuart, Tom Weisskopf, George Zebrowski,
       David Kyle, Tracy Hickman, Patricia Kennealy, Nancy
       Springer, Margaret Weiss, and more...


                Science Guest-of-Honor: Robert L. Forward


            Science and Technology Special Guests: Deke Slayton
                       Mercury and Apollo Astronaut

          (currently negotiating with a Russian cosmonaut as well)


                    Gaming Guest-of-Honor: Ken Rolston
                          Co-creator of Paranoia

       Gaming Special Guest: Gary Gygax (Creator of Dungeons & Dragons)

         Gaming Special Guest: Steve Jackson (Developer of GURPS)


       Other Gaming Guests: Greg Costikyan, Jahn Faughnan, Stefan
       Jones, and more...


                Artist Guests: Jill Bauman, Doug Beekman,
                Tom Kidd, Ron Walotsky, and Gahan Wilson.

       Comics Guests: Micheal Jan Friedman, Bob Greenberger, Fred
       Hembeck, Steve Saffel, and Julie Schwarz.


                                  Films:

                            (To be announced)



       In addition to the personal appearances, panels and film
       program, I-CON features an Art Show, Meet the Pros Parties,
       dealers' rooms, writers' workshops, autograph party, no-
       minimum-bid auctions, gaming, filksinging, japanimation,
       model rocketry, gaming tournaments, sneak previews of
       upcoming films, videos, stargazing, ...


                              Special Event:

       I-CON Awards Banquet:         Our annual presentation of the
                                     Gallun Award.  Dinner.  Saturday,
                                     5:30pm, $20 additional.


                           Ticket Information:

       $20 until March 31, 1991 (Children 5-11 years old, $8).
       $25 at the door (Children 5-11 years old, $10).

       Children under 12 must be accompanied by a ticketholding
       adult at all times.

                          I-CON
                          P.O. Box 550
                          Stony Brook, NY  11790

       Please mark on the back of your envelope "USENET Registrant"
       so that we can get in touch with you if there is to be a
       USENET party.  To be sure of being informed of any USENET
       activities...send email to me at [e-mail]


                               Hotel List:

       The CON Hotel is the Holiday Inn in Stony Brook.  Accomodations
       there are available only through the convention: send
       $69/night/room to the above address, indicating which
       night(s) you would like accomodations for.  Other local area
       motels are listed below:

          +o Beacon Motel                        [phone]

          +o Smithtown Motor Lodge               [phone]

          +o Terryville Motor Lodge              [phone]

          +o Harborside Inn of Port Jefferson    [phone]


                               No weapons.


       For more information, send email to [e-mail].
       Please do not call...but if you call, at least leave a phone
       number so I can get back to you.

--
Brian Charles Kohn          AT&T Bell Laboratories Quality Process Center
Quality Management System   E-MAIL: att!hoqax!bicker  ([e-mail])
Consultant                  PHONE: [phone]        FAX: [phone]

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

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Date: 3 Feb 91 21:56:59 GMT
From: pa.dec.com!shlump.nac.dec.com!sousa.enet.dec.com!sndpit.enet.dec.com![e-mail]  (Willie Smith)
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Subject: Re: Request for Feedback on Proposed Lunar Analog Robotics Contest
Sender: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]


In article <[e-mail]>,
     [e-mail] (Bill Newman) writes...
>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail]
     (Douglas E Helbling) writes:
>>
>>    I am working toward putting together a robotic competition for small
>>    rover-like vehicles.  The contest would take place on the Oregon
>>    desert at the Oregon Moonbase, an earth analog of a lunar lavatube.
>>    The Oregon Moonbase is a project of The Oregon L-5 Society, Inc., a
>>    chapter of the National Space Society.  The robotics competition,
>>    if it comes to reality, will probably take place in late 1992 or
>>    early 1993.
[...]
>>      3) Have the robot navigate the terrain between the surface and the
>>         interior of the tube; in other words, have it get safely inside.
>
>This is pushing the capability of current autonomous vehicles (like JPL's
>recent arroyo demonstration).  I am not familiar with teleoperated rover
>technology; maybe this is a bit more feasible for teleoperation.
>Having such a hard goal, and adding the later restrictions on size
>and power supply, seems a bit ambitious for your first contest.

It sounds pretty simple for teleoperated vehicles, though I must admit this
depends on some factors I don't quite understand:

- how much distance over what kind of terrain are we talking about?  If
    it's less than 1/4 mile over reasonably flat terrain with rocks of
    less than 6 inches, it won't be any problem for my Waldo teleop
    vehicle (but that exceeds the original size goal by 50%).

- what's a lavatube?  Bill Newman has been in one, so it can't be small,
    but how large is it and what does it look like?  Will we need
    lights to navigate inside it?  Does it go down at an angle?

>
>My suggestions for the contest:
>    (1) Add some less ambitious goals (e.g. A. travelling
>300 meters north over rough terrain, and B. returning to the
>starting point).

Well, it may be difficult to do this with an autonomous vehicle, but
teleoperations makes this pretty easy.  I haven't gone this far with a
3-second delay due to radio range limitations, but Waldo ought to have
almost a mile range and has a top speed of almost 5 MPH.

Willie Smith
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
{Usenet!Backbone}!decwrl!sndpit.enet.dec.com!smith

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Date: 4 Feb 91 22:08:28 GMT
From: mentor.cc.purdue.edu!mace.cc.purdue.edu![e-mail]  (Perry G Ramsey)
Organization: Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
Subject: Re: liquid SCUBA -- possible?
References: <[e-mail]>, <[e-mail]>
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In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Mike Higgins) writes:
> >>My question is, does such equipment really exist?  If so, who uses it and
> >>for what purposes?
> As I recall, most of the
> mice subjected to this DIED of pnumonia or other lung complications afterwards.
After seeing all of this, I found a real source.  A text entitled "Animal
Physiology:  Adaptation and Environment" by Knut Schmidt-Nielsen, Cambridge
U. Press, devotes a page to liquid breathing.  Incidentally, this is a
great book for engineers, because it takes a systems engineering approach
to life.  Anyway, below are a few passages relevant to the discussion.

     If water is equillibrated with pure oxygen at 8 atm, it will dissolve
     about 200 ml O2/liter, about the same amount of oxygen as 1 l of normal
     air.  ...  we must use a balanced salt solution similar to blood plasma.

     Complete submersion in oxygen-supersaturated water has been tried with
     success with both mice and dogs, and the animals have survived for
     several hours. ...

     A major drawback to liquid breathing is that water is approximately
     50 times more viscous than air, and the work of breathing is
     correspondingly increased.  Another problem is that the normal
     surfactants that line the lungs are washed away during liquid
     breathing; this causes no difficulty during the experiment, but
     after return to air breathing the lungs tend to collapse.

     A more important limitation on liquid breathing is caused by the
     need to eliminate carbon dioxide at the same rate as oxygen is
     taken up.  If the pco2 of blood is to be maintained at the
     normal 40mm Hg, several times as much liquid must be moved in and
     out of the lungs. [Experiments show] that the carbon dioxide
     concentration increases greatly.

     Another approach ... involves ... fluorocarbons.  Oxygen is extremely
     soluble ... the solubility of carbon dioxide is not as great.
     Such liquids have been tried with animals, which have survived
     several hours' breathing without complications.

--
Perry G. Ramsey           Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
[e-mail]   Purdue University, W. Lafayette, IN USA
[e-mail]    ***  IMAGINE YOUR LOGO HERE  ******
    Ten thousand low-lifes a day read this space.

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

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Date: 2 Feb 91 17:16:25 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (Bill Newman)
Organization: Cornell Theory Center
Subject: Re: Request for Feedback on Proposed Lunar Analog Robotics Contest
References: <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Douglas E Helbling) writes:
>
>    I am working toward putting together a robotic competition for small
>    rover-like vehicles.  The contest would take place on the Oregon
>    desert at the Oregon Moonbase, an earth analog of a lunar lavatube.
>    The Oregon Moonbase is a project of The Oregon L-5 Society, Inc., a
>    chapter of the National Space Society.  The robotics competition,
>    if it comes to reality, will probably take place in late 1992 or
>    early 1993.
>
..
>    The basic goals of the contest:
>
>      1) Demonstrate the feasibility of usings small, relatively inexpensive
>         robotic vehicles on productive off-planet missions.
>
>      2) Provide a forum for academic and industrial robotic enthusiasts to
>         meet and exchange ideas and information.
>
>      3) Further demonstrate the feasibility of lavatubes as useful for the
>         eventual proliferation of humans in lunar and martian settlement.
>
>    The basic goals of the robots in the contest:
>
>      1) Deploy (from contained) a robot in the proximity of a lavatube.

A somewhat vague goal.

>      2) Send the robot out to locate a lavatube (or a specific lavatube
>         among several at the site).

This is a job probably better done from orbit.

>      3) Have the robot navigate the terrain between the surface and the
>         interior of the tube; in other words, have it get safely inside.

This is pushing the capability of current autonomous vehicles (like JPL's
recent arroyo demonstration).  I am not familiar with teleoperated rover
technology; maybe this is a bit more feasible for teleoperation.
Having such a hard goal, and adding the later restrictions on size
and power supply, seems a bit ambitious for your first contest.

>      4) Have the robot reach a particular location within one or more of
>         the lavatubes, said location to be marked by concentrated metal
>         (tin foil) or mineral deposit (powdered sugar) markings detectable
>         with some form of simple sensor capability.

As above, only more so.

>
>    The framework for the contest currently allows for four categories:
>
>      Category One:  Autonomous (non-telemetry) Operation, Custom Hardware
>
>        Essentially, this is for self-contained rovers of unique
>        physical construction.
>
>      Category Two:  Autonomous Operation, Off-the-Shelf Hardware
>
>        This is for self-contained rovers of commercially available design
>        (hobbyist or pro), with custom programming to meet the objectives
>        of the contest and the site.
>
>      Category Three:  Remote Operated Operation Custom Hardware
>
>        This is for remote-operated rovers of custom design.
>
>      Category Four:  Remote Operated Operation, Off-the-shelf Hardware
>
>        This is for remote-operated rovers of commercially available design.

Why build in the distinction between custom and standard hardware?  The
lunar rover is unlikely to be off-the-shelf, and putting arbitrary limits
(size and power supply) on the entrants eliminates most off-the-shelf
designs from competition anyway.

My suggestions for the contest:
    (1) Add some less ambitious goals (e.g. A. travelling
300 meters north over rough terrain, and B. returning to the
starting point).  But I've been in a number of lava
tubes, and I think that most of them would be
hard to get into with little battery-powered rovers: my bet is
this won't happen before the second half of the decade, unless you
have a very tame lava tube in mind.
    (2) Open  the contest to larger and internal-combustion-
-powered prototypes (which can be scaled down later using technologies
which are currently too expensive for prototypes).  Amateurs might want
to use wire-wrapped boards, single-sided PCB's, or off-the-shelf
controllers, and surplus or at least standard motors
and machinery.  Any lunar mission would use custom IC's and
machinery (so many things need to be redesigned for vacuum and extreme
temperatures, and launch costs would probably exceed fabrication costs)
and could be much smaller.  A prototype which was 'way
too large and used an internal combustion engine would still be a nice
step toward a lunar rover if it could accomplish your goals.  (at least
as long as it did them without using Earth's atmosphere to fly..)
    (3) I second the suggestion that 3-second teleoperation delay
should be included.  Get rid of the standard/custom categories, which
seem irrelevant to the goal of lunar explorer prototyping, and
instead make these 4 categories: teleoperated class 0 (operators are allowed
to wander around and inspect and watch their machine and the terrain
directly, instead of relying entirely on the machine's
observations), teleoperated class 1 (operators must rely completely on
machine's observations), teleoperated class 2 (like class 1 but with 3-second
control delay), and autonomous.
    (4) Some solutions might require a lot of time,
e.g. to recharge batteries with solar cells or to use a medium-powered
computer to build up a map from a large number of visual observations.
Make it clear how much time the contestants will be allowed.  (As much
as possible, I hope!)

Good luck, however you decide to do it.

  Bill Newman
  [e-mail]

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

End of SPACE Digest V13 #132
*******************