X-Andrew-Authenticated-as: 7997;andrew.cmu.edu;Ted Anderson
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Sat, 9 Mar 91 01:40:20 -0500 (EST)
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Date: Sat, 9 Mar 91 01:40:16 -0500 (EST)
Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #244
SPACE Digest Volume 13 : Issue 244
Today's Topics:
Re: New Shuttle computers
planet stats.
Ulysses Update - 03/06/91
Gold plating
Re: Government vs. Commercial R&D
Navstar GPS PRN 9 Permanently Turned Off
Re: Neptune CD-ROMs?
Re: Terraforming, sun shield
Re: New Shuttle computers
Re: Japan's Space Industry
Any upcoming launches at the Cape?
Administrivia:
Submissions to the SPACE Digest/sci.space should be mailed to
space+@andrew.cmu.edu. Other mail, esp. [un]subscription requests,
should be sent to space-request+@andrew.cmu.edu, or, if urgent, to
I would like to know about any new cd releases too, as well
as any sci. cd's I don't know about yet.
We have : Voyager disks 1-8 (Uranus, Saturn, and Jupiter)
Pre-Magellan Venus radar data
Einstein X-ray disks (source disks and image disks)
Side Looking Airbourn Radar data
Astro sources disk (not Hst or Hipparcus)
If any one knows about any other sci. cd's please write me at
carls@carina.unm.edu Thanks.
------------------------------
Date: 8 Mar 91 22:09:52 GMT
From: dog.ee.lbl.gov!hellgate.utah.edu!csn!magnus.ircc.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!linus!linus!cyclone!sokay@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (S. J. Okay)
Subject: Re: Terraforming, sun shield
In article <1991Feb27.214032.7928@athena.mit.edu> hbh@athena.mit.edu (Heidi Hammel) writes:
>henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes:
>> dafuller@sequent.UUCP (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.
[And on and on....]
>I guess my answer to your question, Henry, is that those plants and animals
>are cultivating the barren wastelands into a viable ecosystem, with checks
>and balances. Humanity so far has only demonstrated a marked ability to
>*destroy* stable ecosystems, returning them to barren wastelands.
I find it interesting that you base your conclusions on a obviously meticulous
and carefully studied sample size of 1.
>I think that what humans have done recently to the Hawaiian Islands is
>repulsive. Oahu is, for the most part, ugly and seriously overdeveloped.
>Maui is rapidly heading that way. 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.
But how are we to learn if we can't/don't deal with planets outside of our
own?. And as you and others point out, experimenting on our own planet isn't
the best idea. A lifeless gasball or rock with a environment hostile to life
seems much more preferable to one that already houses life or life-possible
conditions. I think you are also operating on the false assumption (and one
that is quite readily and eagerly propagated by the media) that every planet
we might colonize in the future will be a lush,verdant, eden-like world,
totally unspoiled by humans, when all the evidence we have seems to indicate