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Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #311

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 13 : Issue 311

Today's Topics:
          NASA Headline News - 03/20/91 (Forwarded)
                Re: "Follies"
        Re: NASA Headline News - 03/18/91 (Forwarded)
         Re: railguns and electro-magnetic launchers
        Re: Value per pound vs. cost per pound
         Re: railguns and electro-magnetic launchers
 MAJOR MAGNETIC STORM WARNING - LOW LATITUDE AURORAL ACTIVITY WARNING

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: 20 Mar 91 17:13:04 GMT
From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Subject: NASA Headline News - 03/20/91 (Forwarded)



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

  Wednesday, March 20, 1991        Audio Service: 202 / 755-1788

This is NASA Headline News for Wednesday, March 20, 1991

The terminal countdown demonstration test for the STS-37
Atlantis mission was successfully completed this morning.  The
flight crew, led by mission commander Steven Nagel, heads back for
Houston this afternoon.  The Kennedy Space Center launch readiness
review for Atlantis' Gamma Ray Observatory deployment mission
begins tomorrow.  Next Tuesday, March 26, the mission flight
readiness review for STS-37 will begin.  Atlantis is currently set for
launch on a five day mission in early April.

Discovery was refitted with one of its two fuel-line door closing
mechanisms yesterday.  Work to install the other, both of which came
from Columbia, is still underway.

KSC technicians yesterday began preparations for destacking the
STS-40 solid rocket boosters, which had been under assembly in the
Vehicle Assembly Building.  Routine tests conducted during the
stacking process determined that load distribution measurements
in the aft skirts did not meet specifications.  The right-hand SRB
skirt was removed last night.  The left-hand skirt will be removed
today.  Restacking of the STS-40 SRBs is expected to begin this
weekend.  Any impact to the planned early May launch of Columbia is
being evaluated.  In the meantime, payload workers are preparing to
move the Get-Away-Special bridge and the Spacelab habitable module
from the Operations and Checkout Building to the Orbiter Processing
Facility early this weekend.  Installation of the payloads into
Columbia's cargo bay will begin later this weekend.

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

KSC Center Director Forrest McCartney will address central
Florida community leaders on current KSC operations and future
plans at 8:30 am tomorrow at Spaceport USA's Galaxy Theater.  The
report by Gen. McCartney is an annual presentation made to mayors,
city and county commissioners, Chamber of Commerce members and
other officials in central Florida.

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

Office of Space Flight Associate Administrator Bill Lenoir's monthly
press briefing has been reset from today to tomorrow, Thursday,
March 21, at 10:30 am.

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

The 22nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference will hold a special
public session on "Venus, Earth and Moon: New Views from
Magellan and Galileo this evening at 9:00 pm EST in the Johnson
Space Center Teague Auditorium.  This year's annual public session
will feature discoveries made recently by the two spacecraft.


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

The launch of Joust 1, a commercial suborbital rocket, set to carry 10
materials and biotechnology experiments, has been rescheduled
from March 29 to mid-April.  The vehicle will lift off from  Launch
Complex 20, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.  Joust 1 managers
currently are evaluating new vibration data obtained during a
flight using similar systems.  They are also reassessing the Joust's
guidance system.  A new launch date is expected to be determined next
week.  The Joust 1 mission is sponsored by the University of Alabama-
Huntsville Consortium for Materials in Space, a NASA Center for
the Commercial Development of Space.  Orbital Sciences Corp.,
Space Data Division, Chandler, Ariz., has a contract with the UAH
consortium to provide the rocket and launch services.

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

NASA and TW Recreational Services announced they have chosen a
world-class design team to provide the conceptual plan for a major
new Kennedy Space Center tour site.  Morris Architects, Orlando,
was selected to design a facility at the Banana Creek launch guest site
which will provide a permanent, weather-proof home for the
Saturn V rocket and the Apollo-11 lunar mission show.  The new
facility will free space in the flight crew training building and also
remove heavy tourist traffic from the VAB-LCC complex.  Estimated
cost of the new facility is $30 million, which will be provided from a
special fund generated by revenue from tour-bus ticket sales.
Construction of the facility is expected to begin sometime in the 1993-
94 timeframe.


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, 3/20/91
        11:30 am        STS-40 Joint Integrated Simulation between JSC,
          MSFC and GSFC.

        1:15 pm        Magellan-at-Venus status report live from the Jet
          Propulsion Laboratory.

        1:30 pm        Continuation of coverage of STS-40 Joint Integrated
          Simulation between JSC, MSFC and GSFC.  Continues through
          9:00 pm.

      ___    _____     ___
     /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|      Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
     | | | |  __ \ /| | | |      Jet Propulsion Lab |
  ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |___   M/S 301-355        | Change is constant.
 /___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /|  Pasadena, CA 91109 |
 |_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/                      |

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

Date: 20 Mar 91 22:11:37 GMT
From: agate!bionet!uwm.edu!rpi!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: "Follies"

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Perry G Ramsey) writes:
>The obvious differences are that both Massachusetts and northern Utah
>support human life quite readily.  Food, water, building materials,
>etc. are all readily and cheaply available.

Well, yes and no.  As I recall, the Plymouth Rock colony very nearly starved
the first winter.  And a number of exploring parties into places like
California did literally starve to death.  Water is decidedly scarce in
large areas of the southwest, and building materials are very sparse on
the great plains (you don't think homesteaders built sod huts because
they *liked* them, do you?).  The settlers in all these places needed
tools, brains, and effort to live; the necessities of survival often
were *not* "readily and cheaply available".

>... Salt Lake City quickly could become self
>supporting; Luna City won't cut its  umbilical for years.

There isn't a single self-sufficient city on Earth today, never has been,
and probably never will be.  As witness the classic siege tactic called
"starving the defenders out".  The question is not whether crucial supplies
have to come in from outside, because that is always true.  The question
is whether the settlement in question is producing enough goods for export
to pay for its imports (including transportation costs).  [Actually even
that is too stringent a criterion, since (to pick a random example) the
United States of America has been living beyond its means for years now,
but for a new colony it's a reasonable rule.]

So what does the trade balance of Luna City look like?  Not too favorable,
alas, unless there is extensive space activity elsewhere.  Transport is
costly -- although arguably the city wouldn't even be founded before that
situation improved -- and there are few things it can produce that are
worth the shipping costs.  Free fall is a better location for industry,
for the most part.  The Moon's major asset will be access to materials,
but that will matter only if there are customers elsewhere in space who
will find lunar materials cheaper than ones launched from Earth.

>I like to be hopeful, but hoping that a few hundred families are
>going to drop everything to go live alone on the moon and pay for it
>themselves is going a bit far.

Line forms on the right.  There would be no shortage of people willing
and eager to do it, if it were financially practical.  Right now, it is
too costly for the families in question to finance themselves (as the
Mormons did for Utah) and there is too little prospect of export trade
for borrowing the money to be viable (as it was for the Plymouth Rock
colonists, who were deep in debt for the first twenty years or so).
--
"[Some people] positively *wish* to     | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
believe ill of the modern world."-R.Peto|  [e-mail]  utzoo!henry

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

Date: 19 Mar 91 15:52:09 GMT
From: elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!samsung!rex!rouge![e-mail]  (Fraering Philip)
Subject: Re: NASA Headline News - 03/18/91 (Forwarded)

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Ron Baalke) writes:(I should add that he is writing on behalf of Peter Yee,
although I don't know why I should add that. Just trying to avoid confusion,
I suppose - P.F.)



>NASA has terminated the operation of the Dynamics Explorer-1
>(DE-1) spacecraft.  The spacecraft, which acquired the first global
>images of the aurora, was launched on August 3, 1981.  It was
>designed to last three years and to study the coupling of energy,
>electric currents and mass between the Earth's upper atmosphere,
>ionosphere and magnetosphere.  Project scientist Dr. Robert Hoffman
>said the quality and quantity of data returned from DE-1, and a
>companion spacecraft, far exceeded their expectations.  The
>spacecraft was terminated because it had refused to accept commands
>since Nov. 17 and because of operation cost considerations and the
>diminishing value of the data returned.

Wasn't this the spacecraft whose data touched off (or helped touch off)
the mini-comet controversy?

Speaking of which, I ask again: has there been any new evidence for or
against the theory, such as Galileo was possibly (I'm not sure) supposed
to gather?

Phil Fraering
[e-mail]

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

Date: 20 Mar 91 15:32:07 GMT
From: borg!cassatt![e-mail]  (Jonathan Leech)
Subject: Re: railguns and electro-magnetic launchers

In article <[e-mail]>,
[e-mail] (John Prentice) writes:
|> I don't know what accelerations
|> are contemplated for EM launchers for putting a payload into space, but
|> I would have to assume they are not significantly smaller.  Does anyone
|> know what accelerations are involved?

    SSI's Mass Driver III did something like 1500 Gs. The application
is sending bulk payload from the lunar surface, however.
--
    Jon Leech ([e-mail])    __@/
    "A compact set can be controlled by a finite police force no
     matter how dumb." H. Weyl ca. 1938

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

Date: 20 Mar 91 17:29:53 GMT
From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!rex!rouge![e-mail]  (Fraering Philip)
Subject: Re: Value per pound vs. cost per pound

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Henry Spencer) writes:

NS>Sorry, I'm not interested in learning the details of a dead-end technology.

HS>Ah, I see.  "I've made up my mind, don't confuse me with facts."

Nick is stating an argument in his posts and in e-mail that billions
upon billions of dollars was spent on the shuttle in an attempt to
lower costs and that this has been a failure and that therefore
further research money should be spent elsewhere. I have heard this
argument many times before from many different people. It is important
that we come up with a _very_ convincing counterproposal. 20 billion
dollars spent with no real results seems to make arguments based
merely on physics and engineering very weak.

Phil Fraering
[e-mail]

P.S.: Perhaps we should just research _everything_ with all research
projects independent of the outcome of the others.
(?)
(?)

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

Date: 21 Mar 91 16:47:06 GMT
From: agate!bionet!uwm.edu!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: railguns and electro-magnetic launchers

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Craig DeForest) writes:
>Lesse: the bullet of a `typical' hunting rifle comes out at the
>speed of sound, after accelerating from rest inside the (1m) barrel.

Actually, Mach 1 is a pretty slow bullet, more typical of pistols than
modern rifles.  700-1000 m/s is more typical for a high-velocity rifle.
That's also a reasonable velocity range for medium-performance artillery.
1000m/s in a 5m barrel is an average of 10000G, and the peak will be
somewhat higher.

>Can we make precision instrumentation that can undergo 1000 g's? ...

The manufacturers of the Copperhead laser-guided artillery shell would
undoubtedly tell you "yes"...

Gun-launched payloads are going to have to be carefully selected, and bulk
materials are clearly going to be favored over experimental animals :-),
but many things can be built to take it if the need arises.
--
"[Some people] positively *wish* to     | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
believe ill of the modern world."-R.Peto|  [e-mail]  utzoo!henry

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

Date: Sat, 23 Mar 91 13:28:20 MST
From: [e-mail] (CARY OLER)
Subject: MAJOR MAGNETIC STORM WARNING - LOW LATITUDE AURORAL ACTIVITY WARNING
X-St-Vmsmail-To: st%"[e-mail]"

                /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

                  POTENTIAL MAJOR GEOMAGNETIC STORM WARNING

                /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

                          Issued:  16:00 UT, 23 March

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

WARNINGS ISSUED:

  - POTENTIAL LOW LATITUDE AURORAL ACTIVITY WARNING
  - POTENTIAL MAJOR TO SEVERE GEOMAGNETIC STORM WARNING
  - POTENTIAL SATELLITE ANOMALY WARNING
  - POTENTIAL ELECTRICAL GEOMAGNETIC INDUCTION WARNING
  - POTENTIAL MAJOR SOLAR FLARE WARNING (PROTON)

ALERTS IN PROGRESS:

  - MAJOR PROTON FLARE ALERT
  - SATELLITE PROTON EVENT ALERT (2,500 PFU PROTONS IN PROGRESS AT > 10 MEV)
  - POLAR CAP ABSORPTION ALERT (RIOMETER MEASUREMENTS > 5.0 DB DEVIATION).
  - POLAR RADIO BLACKOUT ALERT (IN PROGRESS)


ATTENTION:

     A MAJOR middle latitude geomagnetic storm is expected to begin on 24
March.  Periods of severe geomagnetic storming is possible over middle
latitudes, while high latitudes should experience frequent severe storm
periods (K indices of 8 and 9).  The cause of this predicted activity is
the major proton flare of 22 March (class X9.4/3B proton flare at 22:47 UT).
A high risk exists for major storming.

     Satellite level protons reached event thresholds of 10 p.f.u. at 08:20
UT on 23 March and skyrocketed from there to moderately high levels of
2,500 p.f.u. thereafter.  Some satellite anomalies are possible with proton
levels at this intensity.

     A PCA event with an accompanying polar radio blackout began at 09:31
UT on 23 March and is expected to continue for the next 24 to possibly 48
hours.  Riometer measurements indicate an absorption intensity of greater
than 5.0 dB's.  A Forbush decrease is expected with the magnetic storm.

     An interplanetary shockwave is expected to impact and produce a
magnetic SSC sometime between approximately 09:00 UT and 18:00 UT on 24
March.  Minor storm level fluctuations are expected to begin shortly
thereafter, increasing to major storm levels by the end of the UT day on 24
March.  Significant storming is possible.  The flare which is producing
this event was significantly more powerful and radio-rich than the flare
which produced the previous storm warning a few weeks ago.  The probability
for magnetic storming from this event is much higher than the last warning,
due primarily to the sensitive position of the flare on the sun.

     Geomagnetic induction will be possible if this storm materializes as
expected.  Significant magnetic perturbations are forecasted for all
latitudes.  Higher latitudes (middle northern and high latitudes) will
likely experience the most intense storming.  Although it is difficult to
predict actual expected magnetic activity levels, we are predicting a
middle latitude magnetic A-index of 40 for 24 Mar, and 50 or greater for 25
March.  There is a good possibility middle latitude A-indices could surpass
75 on 25 March.  Magnetic K-indices for middle latitudes are predicted to
reach levels of 6 and 7 (a level of 9 is the top of the scale).  High
latitudes will probably see values of 8 and 9.

     A LOW LATITUDE AURORAL ACTIVITY WARNING has been issued.  Auroral
activity will be high to very high over high latitudes, and high over
middle latitudes.  Significant southward migration of the auroral zone is
possible with this event.  Low latitude auroral activity is a real
possibility.  If storm intensities surpass levels expected, auroral
activity could possibly be seen as far south as Florida.

     Significant HF disruptions are possible (if not likely) over all
latitudes.  Polar regions are already experiencing blackout conditions due
to the proton event.  High absorption could produce near blackout
conditions on many middle latitude paths.  Strong fading and distortion is
expected for low and middle latitudes.

     There is a high probability for significant VHF bistatic auroral
backscatter communications on 24 and 25 March.  Low latitude auroral
backscatter communications is also expected to be possible over many areas.
Middle latitudes will experience the best opportunities for auroral
backscatter communications.

     The most intense terrestrial activity is expected to last between 12
and 24 hours, with active to very active geomagnetic post-storm activity
persisting until 26 March (barring any further major solar flaring).

PLEASE SEND ANY REPORTS OF AURORAL ACTIVITY, AURORAL BACKSCATTER
COMMUNICATIONS OR SIGNIFICANT HF RADIO DEGRADATION TO: [e-mail]
PLEASE INCLUDE THE LOCAL AND UT TIME OF OBSERVATION, GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION
(LATITUDE/LONGITUDE) AND A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PHENOMENA OBSERVED.


                /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

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

End of SPACE Digest V13 #311
*******************