Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V13_1/V13_139.TXT

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Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #139

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 13 : Issue 139

Today's Topics:
              Ulysses Update - 02/06/91
          Re: Salyut 7 to reenter Feb. 6-7th
    Re: Japan's Space Industry (was Re: Humanity's Launch Window)
              Magellan Update - 02/06/91
    Re: Japan's Space Industry (was Re: Humanity's Launch Window)
    Re: Japan's Space Industry (was Re: Humanity's Launch Window)
               Private space investment
             Re: Rope and anchor
         Mir Sweepstakes Organizers Arrested

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

Date: 6 Feb 91 15:36:37 GMT
From: pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Subject: Ulysses Update - 02/06/91


                           ULYSSES STATUS REPORT
                             February 6, 1991

     On February 5 at 11:35 AM (PST), the Ulysses project declared a
spacecraft emergency for the Ulysses spacecraft.  It was confirmed that
the spacecraft was responding to command at 3:55 PM the same day, so the
project lifted the spacecraft emergency.  The uplink command subcarrier
freqency was modified to 16001.600 Hz, and the change appears to have
rectified the problem.
      ___    _____     ___
     /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|      Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
     | | | |  __ \ /| | | |      Jet Propulsion Lab |
  ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |___   M/S 301-355        | It's 10PM, do you know
 /___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /|  Pasadena, CA 91109 | where your spacecraft is?
 |_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/                      | We do!

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

Date: 6 Feb 91 17:49:20 GMT
From: snorkelwacker.mit.edu!usc!cs.utexas.edu!hellgate.utah.edu!csn!tramp.Colorado.EDU![e-mail]  (GRUSIN MICHAEL)
Subject: Re: Salyut 7 to reenter Feb. 6-7th


...can we get updated orbital elements for this event,
or running commentary from someone who's 'tracking' it
as to when / where it's going to finally fall?

(The re-entry's going to be something to see, for those
in the right place (especially at night!)).

[e-mail]

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

Date: 6 Feb 91 17:56:21 GMT
From: rochester!sol![e-mail]  (Brian Yamauchi)
Subject: Re: Japan's Space Industry (was Re: Humanity's Launch Window)

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
   In article <[e-mail]>,
   [e-mail] (Brian Yamauchi) says:
   >Japanese companies also seem to have more of a long-term vision with
   >regard to space development.  I've heard that Shimizu has plans for an
   >orbital space station (for tourism), a lunar base, and a Mars base,
   >and that Ohbayashi has plans for a lunar mining complex.
   >
   >Whether these plans will be translated into reality is another issue,

   I"ve read lots of similar plans for american-based companies, but
   like you said, there's a world of difference between paper dreams/
   studies and metal bending reality.

True, but I'd still be interested in hearing about any large-scale
plans for commercial space development that are being considered by
American companies.  I've already heard the plans for government-funded
bases on the moon and Mars, as well as near-term commercial plans such
as ET farms.
--
_______________________________________________________________________________

Brian Yamauchi                University of Rochester
[e-mail]        Department of Computer Science
_______________________________________________________________________________

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

Date: 6 Feb 91 19:20:28 GMT
From: sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Subject: Magellan Update - 02/06/91


                           MAGELLAN STATUS REPORT
                             February 6, 1991

     The Magellan spacecraft and its radar system are performing nominally.
All STARCALS (star calibrations) and DESATS (desaturations) of the past 24
hours were successful with attitude updates averaging 0.048 degree.

     Temperatures of several spacecraft subsystems have been near their alarm
limits, and mission controllers are monitoring them closely.

     Last night, the M1037 command sequence was successfully sent to the
spacecraft, with the associated radar control parameter and mapping quaternion
files, and began execution this morning.
      ___    _____     ___
     /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|      Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
     | | | |  __ \ /| | | |      Jet Propulsion Lab |
  ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |___   M/S 301-355        | It's 10PM, do you know
 /___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /|  Pasadena, CA 91109 | where your spacecraft is?
 |_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/                      | We do!

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

Date: 6 Feb 91 18:29:29 GMT
From: crdgw1!gecrdvm1![e-mail]
Subject: Re: Japan's Space Industry (was Re: Humanity's Launch Window)

In article <[e-mail]>,
[e-mail] (Brian Yamauchi) says:
>
>
>True, but I'd still be interested in hearing about any large-scale
>plans for commercial space development that are being considered by
>American companies.  I've already heard the plans for government-funded
>bases on the moon and Mars, as well as near-term commercial plans such
>as ET farms.
>--
The only one that comes to mind immediately is the proposed venture
by some company (great reference eh?) that tried to convince NASA
to loan/rent/build them a shuttle to ferry approximately 100 people
into space for a quick spin around the planet. I forget whether
it required a new shuttle or whether this company had a pop in
people carrier for an existing shuttle. I read it in ad astra some
while back.
I think the builders of Space hab have some kind of commercial plan
to fly a commercial experiment package on a shuttle, IF they can
convince NASA to go along.
Memory is coming back now :-), I've thought of some more!  Someone
had a brilliant idea of orbiting cremated human remains, but couldn't
get govt approval, and (I think) couldn't get their rocket to work.
then there was Hummingbird Inc's plan to build their PHoenix launch
vehicle to send up tourists into space.  I believe they actually had
paying customers/investors with cash on the dotted line, but then the
challenger accident scared them off.
then too, I'm sure AWS would be more than happy to tell you about this
great space station/launcher package which is real cheap :-). It's an
empty shell, so I'm sure that it would make a great space hotel!



>______________________________________________________________________________
>_
>
>Brian Yamauchi                          University of Rochester
>[e-mail]               Department of Computer Science
>______________________________________________________________________________
>_

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

Date: 6 Feb 91 11:50:48 GMT
From: sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!crdgw1!gecrdvm1![e-mail]
Subject: Re: Japan's Space Industry (was Re: Humanity's Launch Window)

In article <[e-mail]>,
[e-mail] (Brian Yamauchi) says:
>
>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Paul
>Blase) writes:
>
>    NS> The only thing the Japanese really have over us is efficiency --
>
>   The key is that Japanese Industry is taking the initiative and not merely
>   relying upon government funding.  Maybe we're more innovative, but they
>   are DOING it.
>
DOING what? the last I heard, they were having mega-problems with
their first truly home-grown rocket launcher.  True, they are making
good headway with their adapted-imports, but why is it that everyone
worries about competition from Arianespace,the chinese, and potential
Soviet commerce than from the Japanese.
>Japanese companies also seem to have more of a long-term vision with




>regard to space development.  I've heard that Shimizu has plans for an
>orbital space station (for tourism), a lunar base, and a Mars base,
>and that Ohbayashi has plans for a lunar mining complex.
>
>Whether these plans will be translated into reality is another issue,
>but, still, I wonder whether one could suggest similar ideas to an
>American Fortune 500 company without being laughed out of the
>boardroom... (or whether one would get to the boardroom in the first
>place).
>--

I"ve read lots of similar plans for american-based companies, but
like you said, there's a world of difference between paper dreams/
studies and metal bending reality.

>______________________________________________________________________________
>_
>
>Brian Yamauchi                          University of Rochester
>[e-mail]               Department of Computer Science
>______________________________________________________________________________
>_

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

Date: Wed, 6 Feb 91 20:34:46 EST
From: John Roberts <[e-mail]>
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are those of the sender
    and do not reflect NIST policy or agreement.
Subject: Private space investment


>From: [e-mail] (Nick Szabo)
>Newsgroups: sci.space
>Subject: Re: Japan's Space Industry

>I challenge anybody on the net to present a business plan -- the market
>plan, R&D plan, projected financing and cash flows will suffice -- for
>any one of the following:

>* space station
>* lunar base
>* Martian base

>using current launch costs, historical R&D costs for manned
>space capsules, space-qualified machinery, etc.   Fact is, nobody
>on this net or anywhere else on this planet can present a sound
>business plan that is within even two orders of magnitude in cost
>to being profitable.

>Nick Szabo            [e-mail]

OK, you made your point, private industry should not undertake these
projects at this time. Nor should they undertake:

HST
Voyager
Magellan
Galileo
ground-based astronomical telescopes
Mars Observer
CRAF/Cassini
asteroid sampling

Sure money-losers, every one. There might be great appreciation of the data
collected, but that doesn't show up on ledgers. There might eventually be
benefits from the information gained and from spinoffs of technology, but there
is no solid assurance that these benefits will go to the organization that
made the investment. There are possibly eventually-profitable ventures in
the tourist/souvenir industry, mining operations, etc., but in most cases
the payoff is in a good number of years, and thus unacceptable to US business
practices.

So I agree with you that in the near term, aside from earth-orbit,
information-handling satellites, there is very little in space to attract
purely private investment by US companies. That's not to say it will
always be thus. This also ignores the possibility of government financing
of some space activities.
   John Roberts
   [e-mail]

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

Date: Wed, 6 Feb 91 12:49:55 EST
From: John Roberts <[e-mail]>
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are those of the sender
    and do not reflect NIST policy or agreement.
Subject: Re: Rope and anchor


>From: [e-mail] (Jack Jansen)
>Newsgroups: sci.space
>Subject: Manoeuvring using rope and anchor(was: Solar Impact Mission.)
>Date: 6 Feb 91 00:02:06 GMT

>Would it be technically possible to extend the idea of dipping into
>the atmosphere by throwing an anchor out to a planet and swinging
>around it? What I'm thinking of is, say, a 10Km Kevlar (or Twaron,
>for us Dutch:-) cable with something like an anchor at the end,
>have the anchor impact a reasonably sized asteroid (a couple Km
>diameter, enough orders of magnitude difference in mass that you
>don't accidentally send the asteroid somewhere you don't want it
>to be), and release anchor and cable once you're facing the direction
>you want to go?

>I miss even a feeling for too many numbers (tensile strength required,
>tensile strength of available materials, positioning accuracy
>needed and attainable, g-forces survivable by the average spacecraft)
>to start calculating, but maybe someone else wants to give it a try
>(or, probably, tell me why this is a ridiculous idea in the
>first place)...

>Een volk dat voor tirannen zwicht    | Oral:     Jack Jansen
>zal meer dan lijf en goed verliezen    | Internet: [e-mail]
>dan dooft het licht            | Uucp:     hp4nl!cwi.nl!jack

Of course you would need great accuracy and a very strong (therefore heavy)
cable. I think the cable would also have to be longer. The following table
gives the maximum velocity of the incoming spacecraft with respect to the
asteroid, as a function of cable length and maximum permitted G-force on the
spacecraft. These velocities seem a little on the low side for most
applications:

Cable length(km)      Max G    |    Max V (m/s)
-------------------------------+---------------
        10              1      |    313
        10             10      |    990
       100              1      |    990
       100             10      |   3130

Also note that the jerk (sudden change in acceleration) could be a serious
problem.

There might be some application for a cable permanently attached to an
asteroid, to be used by multiple spacecraft.
    John Roberts
    [e-mail]

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

Date: 6 Feb 91 22:41:17 GMT
From: rochester!sol![e-mail]  (Brian Yamauchi)
Subject: Mir Sweepstakes Organizers Arrested


According to a UPI story on Clarinet (clari.tw.space), the organizers
of the Mir Sweepstakes were arrested today (2/6) and charged with
running an illegal lottery by the local DA.  This is a felony charge
which carries a penalty of 2-10 years in prison.

There is a truly mind-boggling level of hypocrisy involved when state
governments can put people in jail for "promoting gambling" through
lotteries at the same time that state governments themselves are
running lotteries.  I don't know whether Texas has a state lottery,
but New York does -- maybe someone should arrest Cuomo and toss him in
jail...

It's sadly ironic that the project to launch Americans on a Soviet
rocket was not stopped by the totalitarian oppression of the Soviet
government, but by the that of American state and local governments.
--
_______________________________________________________________________________

Brian Yamauchi                University of Rochester
[e-mail]        Department of Computer Science
_______________________________________________________________________________

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

End of SPACE Digest V13 #139
*******************