Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V13_2/V13_210.TXT

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Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #210

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 13 : Issue 210

Today's Topics:
             Re: Terraforming, sun shield
              Galileo Update - 02/27/91
            Space conference in San Diego
            Re: Japanese Space Effort, II
         NASA Headline News for 02/27/91 (Forwarded)
     Re: Commercially-funded Space Probes (was Re: Space Profits)
    Re: Government vs. Commercial R&D (Really about MSFC)
              Re: HST Guide Star CD-ROMS
             Re: Terraforming, sun shield

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: 28 Feb 91 00:18:11 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (Heidi Hammel)
Subject: Re: Terraforming, sun shield

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Henry Spencer) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Heidi Hammel) writes:
>>... Humanity (in particular Western
>>civilization) hasn't yet learned to live on the Earth without destroying
>>it; it hardly seems appropriate to move on to the next planet.
>
>On the contrary, I think making our mistakes somewhere *else* would be a
>fine idea.  We're not going to be able to learn without mistakes.  And
>it's not as if we're going to be destroying existing ecosystems on, say,
>Venus.  We could hardly leave it in worse shape than it is now.
                                     ^^^^^
Spoken from a truly geocentric (humanocentric?) point of view ;-).

>>and balances.  Humanity so far has only demonstrated a marked ability to
>>*destroy* stable ecosystems, returning them to barren wastelands.
>
>So which stable ecosystems are we going to be destroying on Venus or Mars?

Hmmm... I seem to remember that one of the experiments for detecting life on
Mars was tested in Antartica or some such unfriendly place.  It concluded
that there was no life.  We can't know for sure what may or may not exist.
I can't tell you for a fact what ecosystem might be perturbed, and
nobody else can tell you that either, because we just don't know all the
facts.  Besides, maybe there are microbial critters who *like* the Cytherian
atmosphere just the way it is ... there are some places on Earth that *I*
sure wouldn't want to visit.

>You haven't answered *my* question at all.

Just because humanity *can* alter a system doesn't mean it *should* alter a
system.  *Especially* before the other world is fully explored robotically.
What I'm trying to get across is that there is free choice is human
intervention of natural evolution - whereas plants and insects (in the
Hawaiian Island example given by Henry originally) are not making active,
informed decisions to modify the ecosystem. Does *that* answer the question?
If not, maybe you could rephrase the question?

>Incidentally, it's quite possible to find cases where plants and animals
>have destroyed stable ecosystems, starting with the greatest ecological
>disaster in Earth's history:  the evolution of photosynthesis.

And look where it eventually lead us ... purported global warming due in
large part to humanity's wanton abuse of a non-renewable resource, record
numbers of species' extinctions, significant thinning of the stratospheric
ozone layer.  Disaster is right!  At this rate, we'll soon have the Earth
right back where it started before all this messy plant and animal life
developed! Hey - maybe there's a lesson in all this for us, Henry! ;-)
--
------   Heidi B. Hammel      ([e-mail])     MIT 54-316
--       Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences

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

Date: 28 Feb 91 03:11:48 GMT
From: usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Subject: Galileo Update - 02/27/91


                      GALILEO STATUS REPORT
                        February 27, 1991

     The Galileo spacecraft is almost 33.5 million miles from
Earth; it is just over 98 million miles from the Sun.  Its speed in
solar orbit is about 75,000 mph.  Round-trip communication time
with Earth is almost six minutes.

     Spacecraft health and mission performance are excellent. On
Monday, February 25, the spacecraft was returned from the all-spin
mode at about 2.9 rpm to dual-spin at about 3.15 rpm.  In the dual-
spin mode, the lower section containing the camera and other
instruments is de-spun and held fixed relative to surrounding
space.  The spacecraft's star tracker must be able to detect a
pattern of stars to maintain this mode; at present, the spacecraft
must also orient its "top" toward the Sun for thermal protection.
For the past six weeks, in this spacecraft attitude, suitable guide
stars were not available until now.

     Galileo will continue gathering and reading out scientific
data, checking out instruments and other subsystems, and conducting
routine maintenance operations in the cruise mode.  On the ground,
the Galileo team is developing and testing future sequences and
planning for the asteroid encounter late this year.
      ___    _____     ___
     /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|      Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
     | | | |  __ \ /| | | |      Jet Propulsion Lab | Is it mind over matter,
  ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |___   M/S 301-355        | or matter over mind?
 /___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /|  Pasadena, CA 91109 | Never mind.
 |_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/                      | It doesn't matter.

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

Date: 25 Feb 91 18:39:37 GMT
From: swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!zardoz.cpd.com!dhw68k!ofa123![e-mail]  (David Anderman)
Subject: Space conference in San Diego

On February 17th, 1991, San Diego L5, a chapter of the National Space Society,
was designated as the host of the seventh California Space Development
Conference, to be held February 16-17, 1992. Under the new, expanded format for
the conference, several hundred space activists, aerospace industry leaders, and
political figures are expected to attend.

The California Space Development Council (CSDC), the sponsor of the event, is a
coalition of California chapters of the National Space Society, and has over
1,000 members. CSDC recently successfully staged the 1990 International Space
Development Conference in Anaheim.

San Diego L5, founded in 1982, promotes space development via public education,
political activity, and communication with other special interest groups.

For more information about the 1992 California Space Development Conference,
please contact Flint Webb, Conference Chairman, at 619/295-3690.

San Diego L5
P.O. Box 4636
San Diego, CA 92164



--
David Anderman
Internet: [e-mail]
Compuserve: >internet:[e-mail]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: 27 Feb 91 09:26:39 GMT
From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!ccut!tansei1!tansei![e-mail]  (Takahiro YAMADA)
Subject: Re: Japanese Space Effort, II

In article <[e-mail]>
 [e-mail] (Henry Spencer) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Nick Szabo) writes:
>>>  *Autonomous Japanese space station....
>>
>>"Automomous" -- that's certainly not the traditional Western conception
>>of a "space station".    Sounds more like the Fairchild concept which
>>NASA killed in the early 80's for automated microgravity research and
>>production.
>
>Uh, Nick, I think you are letting your prejudices get in your way. :-)
>Almost certainly they are using "autonomous" to mean not "unmanned" but
>"all-Japanese", i.e. not dependent on US launchers.

I think in this case "autonomous" means "unmanned" not "all-Japanese",
although I am sure we will use Japanese launch vehicles to launch a
Japanese unmanned space station.

One of my colleagues at my institute (ISAS) is conducting a study on
an unmanned space station which utilizes space robotics. The concept
of the station is quite similar to that of an unmanned orbiting service
vehicle with a lot of robot arms.

>>They have shrugged off the obsessions with "manned" projects and
>>mis-scaled technology...
>
>Again, I think your prejudices are getting in the way.  The Japanese are
>very interested in manned projects.  NASDA's Christmas card this year
>featured the impending (although not as impending as they thought!) Japanese
>Spacelab mission.

That's right. NASDA is very interested in manned projects, for example,
Spacelab on the Space Shuttle and the Japanese Experimenta Module of
the Space Station Freedom. But in both cases the transportation means
is the American Space Shuttle. We do not have any plan to develop a manned
launch vehicle on our own at the moment.

Takahiro YAMADA, Spacecraft Engineering Division,
The Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), JAPAN.

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

Date: 27 Feb 91 22:35:00 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA Headline News for 02/27/91 (Forwarded)


             Headline News
Internal Communications Branch (P-2) NASA Headquarters

  Wednesday, February 27, 1991    Audio Service: 202 / 755-1788

This is NASA Headline News for Wednesday, February 27, 1991

Resolution of the cracked hinge issue on Discovery awaits the STS-39 Flight
Readiness Review, scheduled to begin at the Kennedy Space Center Monday,
March 4.  In the meantime, technicians continue processing Discovery to
support a planned early March launch for the eight-day dedicated
Department of Defense mission.

The three primary STS-39 payloads, Air Force Package 675, the Infrared
Background Signature Survey, and the Space Test Payload 1, are inside
Discovery's payload bay and undergoing routine inspections and
maintenance.  Scheduled work includes cryogenic servicing on the Cirris and
Shuttle Pallet Satellite.

Work in the Orbiter Processing Facility Bay 2 is nearing completion on
Atlantis, as that orbiter is prepared for rollover to the Vehicle Assembly
Building.  Work currently underway includes tests of the orbiter's flight
control surfaces and a gimbal clearance check of the three main engines.
Technicians are evaluating a possible leaking thruster on the right
orbital maneuvering system pod.  If the thruster has to be changed, rollover
will most likely occur late next Tuesday, March 5, or early Wednesday, March
6.

Columbia's STS-40 payload, the Spacelab Life Sciences habitable module, is
still in the Operations and Checkout Building awaiting a late March move to
the Orbiter Processing Facility for installation in that orbiter's payload bay.

                   * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Johnson Space Center management has created a project office for the
development and implementation of Space Station Freedom flight
operations.  The Space Station Mission Operation Project Office will be an
element of the Mission Operations Directorate (MOD), which has overall
responsibility for the development and conduct of flight planning, training,
and operations for the shuttle and space station programs.  Eugene Kranz,
mission operations director, says the new organization will provide
more direct interaction between MOD and the space station work package
teams, institutions, and international partners in developing and defining the
space station operational concepts.  The new office will be headed by former
flight director Charles R. Lewis.

                   * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The Magellan project will hold a science briefing on recent Venus
discoveries next Tuesday, March 5, at 1:00 pm EST.  The briefers will
discuss recent radar images, including those made in the past few weeks, of a
major uplifted region of the planet.  They will also discuss the four competing
theories concerning the nature of the continent-sized highland region known
as Aphrodite Terra.  Aphrodite Terra is the largest of the Venus' highland
regions and extends nearly two-thirds of the way around the planet.
Magellan has completed radar mapping of this region.  Earlier data provided
by Pioneer Venus Radar Mapper suggested that Aphrodite Terra's regional
topography might be similar to Earth's continents.

The launch of Joust 1, a commercial suborbital rocket carrying 10
materials and  biotechnology experiments, has been scheduled for 8:30 am
EST on March 29 from  Launch Complex 20 at Cape Canaveral Air Force
Station, Fla.  The Joust 1 mission is sponsored by the University of Alabama
in Huntsville's  Consortium for Materials Development in Space, a NASA
Center for Commercial Development of Space.  Orbital Sciences Corp., Space
Data Division, Chandler, Ariz., will provide the rocket and launch  services
under a contract with UAH.  Space Data will use its Prospector launch
vehicle to lift the payload approximately 400 miles into space, providing
about 13 minutes of microgravity time for the experiments.  The Joust 1
flight will involve participation from four other NASA commercial
development centers: Advanced Materials Center, Battelle Columbus
Laboratories, Columbus, Ohio; Center for Cell Research, Pennsylvania State
University, State College; Bioserve Space Technologies, University of
Colorado, Boulder; and the Center for Commercial Development of Space
Power and Advanced Electronics, Auburn University, Alabama.


Here's the broadcast schedule for Public Affairs events on NASA Select TV.
All times are Eastern.  NASA Select TV is carried on GE Satcom F2R,
transponder 13, C-Band, 72 degrees W Long., Audio 6.8, Frequency 3960
MHz.

Wednesday, 2/27/91
     4:00 pm    Magellan-at-Venus report, taped replay of 1:15 pm
            report from Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Thursday, 2/28/91
        Validation tests will occur throughout the day.


All events and times may change without notice.  This report is filed daily,
Monday through Friday, by 12:00 pm, Eastern.  It is a service of NASA
Headquarters Office of Public Affairs.  Contact:  CREDMOND on NASAmail
or at 202/453-8425.

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

Date: 26 Feb 91 06:25:47 GMT
From: zephyr.ens.tek.com!tektronix!sequent!crg5![e-mail]  (Nick Szabo)
Subject: Re: Commercially-funded Space Probes (was Re: Space Profits)

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Robert McGwier) writes:
>
>A Microsat bus is available from Interferometrics, Inc. in Vienna, Va.
>for about $1000000  (10^6) WITHOUT the instrument....

This sounds interesting!  Is there a detailed reference to which we
could refer?


--
Nick Szabo            [e-mail]
Forward in all directions!

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

Date: 27 Feb 91 19:09:49 GMT
From: sun-barr!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Government vs. Commercial R&D (Really about MSFC)

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Fraering Philip) writes:
>I thought I might mention on the side that Marshall is supposed to be
>doing a lot of research on space science itself, such as the Sun
>itself and the solar wind. I believe the Solar Max mission was run
>from Marshall. I thought _Lewis_ was supposed to be doing the lion's
>share of the advanced propulsion research...

The crucial fact here is that the roles of the various centers got
thoroughly muddled during the post-Apollo cutbacks, when they were all
scrambling for some work, any work, to avoid cutting staff.  Things
have only gotten worse since.

Historically, Marshall did launchers in particular and chemical rockets in
general.  Lewis was involved with space power systems, I think, which
also got them involved in electric propulsion systems.

It is a mistake to assume that "advanced propulsion" and "chemical rockets"
are mutually exclusive.
--
"But this *is* the simplified version   | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
for the general public."     -S. Harris |  [e-mail]  utzoo!henry

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

Date: 27 Feb 91 20:01:31 GMT
From: dftsrv!stars.gsfc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Archie Warnock)
Subject: Re: HST Guide Star CD-ROMS

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Paul A. Scowen) writes...
>remember rightly.  Also watch out for the so-called "guidestars", we identified
>5 of them in one field to be giant extragalactic HII regions - hardly point
>sources!  Hope HST really isn't using this list.  Useful for reference though.

It really _is_ using them.  There are flags in the catalog to indicate
whether the object was recognized as "stellar" by their software
(generation of the catalog was pretty much fully automated).  Still,
some non-stellar things slipped through, which is why there are two
possible pairs of guide stars for each scheduled observation.

-- Archie Warnock                     Internet:  [e-mail]
-- ST Systems Corp.                   SPAN:      STARS::WARNOCK
-- Laboratory for Astronomy and
     Solar Physics
-- Goddard Space Flight Center        "Unix - JCL for the 90s"

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

Date: 26 Feb 91 14:08:09 GMT
From: sdd.hp.com!spool.mu.edu!news.cs.indiana.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!bradley.bradley.edu!buhub![e-mail]  (Craig Levin)
Subject: Re: Terraforming, sun shield

In <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (David Fuller) writes:

>I find the concept that humans find "uninhabited" planets fertile ground
>for cultivation repulsive, ignorant and a propulsion of the status quo.

    A "propulsion"? Are you sure you've used the right word?
By the by, if some of us leave for parts unearthly, it does mean that
those who stay behind get more room here and the chance for more
resources from here.

>Without understanding the greater nature of the universe, we propose to
>make a planet habitable inasmuch as sticking some giant terrestrial penis
>into Venus' vagina without understanding in any real sense why
>Venus is there or whether there is something more subtle to be learnt.

    What's this? Why is Venus there? Nobody knows. It just is, and
IMHO, this place would be better off without odd phallic fantasies
about deities and planets.

Craig\The Moonman\Levin      ***[]***  ///////
[e-mail]       )`-----//
      You are Here               ```````
\~         V
 |~  .  o  o  .    :;:    ()    -O-    0     . O
 |~        Wouldn't you rather be out there----->
/~

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

End of SPACE Digest V13 #210
*******************