Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V13_3/V13_376.TXT

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Date: Tue,  9 Apr 91 01:29:33 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #376

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 13 : Issue 376

Today's Topics:
            Re: railguns,superguns
             Re: Fred on the Moon
              Re: Genesis Rock?
              Re: "Face" on Mars
           Ulysses Status for 04/05/91 (Forwarded)
              Re: Ariane Launch
             Re: Fred on the Moon
          Proceedings of PARSEC '91 (Solar Sailing)
         Re: Space Stations, Money, Startrek

Administrivia:

    Submissions to the SPACE Digest/sci.space should be mailed to
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----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 4 Apr 91 23:38:24 GMT
From: eru!hagbard!sunic!mcsun!ukc!cam-cl![e-mail]  (Kish Shen)
Subject: Re: railguns,superguns


>[I will admit to having watched this on "The 5th Estate" and then
>feeling gypped when the "Frontline" version was indistinguishable from
>what I had just seen, but for narration.  I imagine it was the same
>with the British version, as well.]

Well, I have seen two British programs about the Supergun. One was shown on
ITV (the commercial stations) and the other was as a BBC "Panorama" program.
The ITV program was shown first, during the War, I think, and the BBC program
was shown near or after the end of the fighting. However, apparently the BBC
program was delayed from January to allow special programs about the War.

These two programs were definitely different. I would guess that if the
US version
is the same as one of these, then it is probably the ITV version, which
concentrated more on Bull whereas the BBC program was more about the gun
(or rather guns). The reason I say that the ITV program is more likely
to be the
same as the US program is that the narrator was off-camera, whereas in the BBC
program, the reporter was shown quite a lot. It is interesting to note that in
the BBC program they interviewed one of the British scientist involved with the
project, and he claimed that he thought at the time that the gun was
going to be
used for launching satellites (he doesn't think so anymore).

Kish Shen
Computer Lab.
University of Cambridge
UK
[e-mail]

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

Date: 9 Apr 91 00:43:19 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (Adam R. Brody)
Subject: Re: Fred on the Moon

[e-mail] (Jose Pina Coelho) writes:

>WORST REASON:
>Emergency: 3 days to get some kind of assistance from earth. (Assuming
>something as energetic as a saturn V is fueled and on launch pad)

Antarctica in winter (hundreds winter over ea yr) as well as remote
jungles and other places you could imagine are all further than 3
days from help.

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

Date: 8 Apr 91 10:09:08 GMT
From: dog.ee.lbl.gov!hellgate.utah.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!spool.mu.edu!munnari.oz.au!uniwa!cc.curtin.edu.au![e-mail]  (Liam Gumley)
Subject: Re: Genesis Rock?

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Doug Josephson) writes:
>
> From "To Rule the Night" (Irwin's autobiography with William Emerson):
>
> "...the University of New York at Stony Brook has age-dated it at 4.15
>  billion years, plus or minus 0.25 billion years."
>
> It also mentions the oldest object found on Earth is 3.3 billion years
> old.

I am bound to mention that the oldest object found on Earth (as listed by
the Guinness Book of Records) is (was?) a rock fragment discovered in outback
Western Australia by geologists from this University.  It was dated at
(I think) over 4.4 billion years old.  I don't have any information as to
what method was used for the dating, or the accuracy claimed.

However I have a sneaking suspicion that an older relic may have been
discovered recently.  Look at Guinness for details I guess....

Cheers,
Liam.

--
[e-mail]
#Liam E. Gumley, Department of Applied Physics, Curtin University of Technology#
#Perth, Western Australia.   >>>Opinions expressed here are exclusively mine<<<#

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

Date: 8 Apr 91 21:47:10 GMT
From: mips!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi![e-mail]  (Jim Kasprzak)
Subject: Re: "Face" on Mars

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (will) writes:
>    Ok, 4 years ago there was a show on JTV (of course), well, the show was
>about Atlantis, life on Mars, etc, etc..  Now the Objective of the show was to
>point out that the Japanese may have came to earth after they destroyed mars in
>a nuclear war, and that is why the Japanese feel uncomfotable about Nuclear
>Weapons, and are different from other forms of life on earth.
>

 Are you sure this wasn't just science fiction?

 If it was presented seriously, it sounds to me like the Japanese equivalent
of "Chariots Of The Gods", and I'd grant it about the same amount of
credibility.
--
 Jim Kasprzak          [e-mail] (internet)
 RPI, Troy, NY         [e-mail]
 "A spirit with a vision is a dream with a mission."  -Rush

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

Date: 8 Apr 91 22:38:50 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Ulysses Status for 04/05/91 (Forwarded)


                     ULYSSES MISSION STATUS
                          April 5, 1991


     Routine mission operations and data collection continued to
be the primary activities this week as the Ulysses spacecraft
cruised through the ecliptic plane on its way to Jupiter.  The
spacecraft's science experiments collected significant amounts of
data about 10 days ago during a major solar flare that caused a
huge outpouring of electrons and protons from the sun.

     Ulysses is approaching the halfway mark on its journey to
Jupiter.  Nine days from now, on Sunday, April 14, the spacecraft
will be 242 million miles from Earth and 242 million miles from
Jupiter.  Ulysses will reach the gaseous giant on Feb. 9, 1992.

     At nearest approach, the spacecraft will pass by Jupiter at
a distance of approximately 6.3 Jupiter radii -- 450,481
kilometers or about 279,300 miles -- from the center of the
planet. (By contrast, both Voyager and Galileo were designed to
pass by Jupiter at much closer ranges.  Voyager passed by the
planet at about 1.86 Jupiter radii.  The Galileo spacecraft will
orbit Jupiter at an average distance of just over 3 Jupiter
radii, or within about 133,000 miles of the planet's center.)

     The spacecraft remains in good condition.  No recurrence of
the wobble has been detected, or is expected, until Ulysses nears
the sun's south pole in 1994.

     Today Ulysses is approximately 358 million kilometers (222
million miles) from Earth, traveling at a heliocentric velocity
of approximately 86,400 kilometers per hour (53,770 miles per
hour).

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

Date: 8 Apr 91 14:38:19 GMT
From: elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!freedom!xanth![e-mail]  (Jonathan McDowell)
Subject: Re: Ariane Launch

[e-mail] writes:
>telecommunications and broadcast satellite. The Anik-E2 [I think this should
>be Anik-E1] satellite was put into orbit 19 minutes after Ariane's lift-off.
 No, I think it is Anik E2. Anik E1 will be launched later in the year.
Space agencies are notoriously messy about the order in which they launch
their spacecraft (e.g STS-31,41,38,35,37...)

 - Jonathan McDowell

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

Date: 9 Apr 91 01:44:14 GMT
From: elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!sdd.hp.com!spool.mu.edu!cs.umn.edu!sialis![e-mail]  (Robert J. Granvin)
Subject: Re: Fred on the Moon

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Adam R. Brody) writes:
|[e-mail] (Jose Pina Coelho) writes:
|
|>WORST REASON:
|>Emergency: 3 days to get some kind of assistance from earth. (Assuming
|>something as energetic as a saturn V is fueled and on launch pad)
|
|Antarctica in winter (hundreds winter over ea yr) as well as remote
|jungles and other places you could imagine are all further than 3
|days from help.

Gah... Just try calling for a tow truck if your car stalls on the freeway.

--
Robert J. Granvin \\\\\\\\                            [e-mail] : INTERNET
University of Minnesota \\\              ...uunet!rosevax!sialis!rjg : UUCP
School of Statistics \\\\\\\             [e-mail] : BITNET
                          Cleared by Network Censors

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

Date: 7 Apr 91 20:38:09 GMT
From: mcsun!ukc!edcastle!hwcs![e-mail]  (Stewart T. Fleming)
Subject: Proceedings of PARSEC '91 (Solar Sailing)

Continuation of the report of proceedings for PARSEC '91.

Stewart
--
[e-mail]                        ...ukc!cs.hw.ac.uk!sfleming
"But February made me shiver/With every paper I delivered"
  - Don Maclean on the rigours of attending winter seminars.

--------------Continuation

PARSEC : Pro-Amateur Rocketry & Spaceflight Conference.
Queen Margaret College, Edinburgh, 6th April 1991.

Afternoon Session

2.30pm Colin McInnes, "Solar Sailing"

With a focus on the Columbus 500 Mars Race, this talk gave a description
of a number of topics related to solar sailing and gave an account of
state-of-the-art research and technology.

A solar sail is a large sheet of reflective material which is driven
through space by the pressure of sunlight.  Two important basic designs
are a simple, square sail and the heliogyro.

The proposed race to Mars involves three groups : one each from the US,
Europe and Asia.  These were the three areas associated with the
original Columbus voyage in 1492.  The race would begin with an October
1992 Pegasus or Delta launch to a 2000 km circular orbit.  Solar sails
would then be deployed, performing a series of Earth orbits before a
lunar-flyby for final escape for optimal Earth-Mars flight.  The final
stage of the mission would be a Mars fly-past with orbiter release and
subsequent asteroid survey.

Two specific groups involved in this race were discussed :

o Johns Hopkins University, USA

Two proposed designs :

i) Sunflower - many individual elements plus elements used for control.
               170 m diameter sail weighing 200 kg.
               Projected acceleration of 1 mm/s/s.

ii) Parasol - attempts to solve packaging problems by providing an
              inflatable rim which is then filled with glue for
              rigidity.  Control is via torque generated by shift of
              the centre of mass.

The proposed science package includes slow-scan TV cameras.  It is
proposed to illuminate shaded regions of the asteroid belt with
reflections from the sail.

o Cambridge Consultants, UK

Proposed sail is 270 m diameter, weighing 300kg and capable of
2 mm/s/s acceleration.  The design has a unique method of packaging
and deployment.

The sail consists of a 2-micron film with carbon fibre ribs.  It is
carried in a payload bay as a 4m diameter x 4m cylinder, with the ribs
wrapped around a central hub.  At deployment, the outer casing is
discarded and the sail unfurls into the "flying pizza" configuration.

Navigation and control are nearly autonomous.  Direction is via actuators
on the ribs which deform the sail shape.  This allows control without any
moving parts.

The group are currently seeking funding (approx 10 million pounds sterling)
to cover final devlopment and launch costs.  The sail would be constructed
by MBB Aerospace, Germany.

[Author's note: This goes some way to fulfilling Arthur C. Clarke's
 prophecy of the future of space development : British design, German
 engineering and American launch technology.]

Also described was the solar sail Moon race, proposed by U3P, France.
This would involve three groups : World Space Foundation, USA; U3P, France;
and the Solar Sail Union of Japan.  The race would begin from a 50,000 km
circular orbit and finish at lunar orbit.

Other applications for solar sails allow for exotic orbits by balancing
the pressure of sunlight against gravity :

o "levitating" orbits out of the ecliptic plane to study the polar
  regions of the Sun.
o polar Earth orbit to :
  i) study geomagnetic field,
  ii) allow geosynchronous polar satellites, improving communications
      with high latitudes.
o synchronous orbits outwith the crowded GEO belt.  Using a solar sail
  allows satellites to be placed at distances of 100 Earth radii as
  opposed to 5 or 6 at present.

Solar sails are shown to be viable spacecraft capable of flying exotic
missions.  A relatively small amount of funding is required for
development costs and there is the potential for development into an
advanced space system.

[Colin McInnes is a research student in the Department of Physics and
Astronomy at the University of Glasgow.  He has published an article on
solar sailing : "New Scientist", 5 January 1991, pp31,
"On the crest of a sunbeam".]

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

Date: 8 Apr 91 19:48:49 GMT
From: prism![e-mail]  (Matthew DeLuca)
Subject: Re: Space Stations, Money, Startrek

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

>    Asking the soviets for data, they have the experience, the Know-How that
>NASA thinks it has, the I am sure, the data you require.

>    Why is it that Americans are afraid to ask for help?

The U.S. and the Soviet Union have been exchanging data on the biological
effects of extended zero-gee for some years now.  I believe a new agreement
was recently signed not too long ago, to exchange yet more information.

Nobody is 'afraid' to ask for help.  But you never learn anything if all
you do is copy from your neighbor.

--
Matthew DeLuca
Georgia Institute of Technology      "I'd hire the Dorsai, if I knew their
Office of Information Technology      P.O. box."  - Zebadiah Carter,
Internet: [e-mail]    _The Number of the Beast_

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

End of SPACE Digest V13 #376
*******************