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Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #639

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 13 : Issue 639

Today's Topics:
               Re: The Un-Plan
               * SpaceNews  27-May-91 *
               Re: The Un-Plan

Administrivia:

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Date: 26 May 91 03:22:03 GMT
From: usc!jarthur!nntp-server.caltech.edu![e-mail]  (Steinn Sigurdsson)
Subject: Re: The Un-Plan

You forgot to include insurance costs of aerobraking n kilotons of
material over populated areas, and political costs of persuading
some rather paranoid nations that skimming 10 kT through the
atmosphere over their capital/missile silos by a private (US?)
capitalist institution!
I think you'd better forget about aerobraking any large quantities
of material in the Earth's atmosphere for quite a few decades,
I think the people on the ground would not appreciate you cost-
benfit calculations :-(

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

Date: 24 May 91 19:29:01 GMT
From: agate!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!masscomp!ocpt!tsdiag!ka2qhd![e-mail]  (John Magliacane)
Subject: * SpaceNews  27-May-91 *


Subject: * SpaceNews  27-May-91 *
SB NEWS @ AMSAT < KD2BD $SPC0527
* SpaceNews  27-May-91 *

Bulletin ID: $SPC0527


                              =========
                              SpaceNews
                              =========

              MONDAY MAY 27, 1991


SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA.  It
is published every week and is made available for unlimited distribution.



* NOAA-12 NEWS *
================
NOAA-12 is currently transmitting APT images on a frequency of 137.50 MHz,
the same as NOAA-10, with AOS about 45 minutes later.  Several satellite
users have noted that so far, NOAA-12 was transmitting visible light
images only, without any infrared images.  Reports received so far indicate
the spacecraft is transmitting high-quality images.


* MIR NEWS *
============
The Soviet/British Juno flight on Soyuz TM-12 successfully docked with
the Mir space station on 20-May-91 at about 17:25 Moscow Time (9:25
EDT).  On board were cosmonauts Anatoli Artsebarski and Sergei Krikalev,
plus Helen Sharman, the first British astronaut.  This mission was delayed
from its original launch date of May 12th.  They were greeted by
Viktor Afanasyev and Musa Manarov, who were launched on Soyuz TM-11 on
02-Dec-90.  Afanasyev and Manarov will be brought Sharman down on May 26th.
Artsebarski and Krikalev will be staying on board Mir for the next 6 months.
They will be doing several space walks, including one to repair the antenna
damage that caused the Progress M-7 to have problems docking at the
March 19th attempt.   In addition, Radio Moscow stated the two would be
installing a new solar panel set to be delivered by their space shuttle.

[Information via Glenn Chapman]


* ASTRO MISSION TO REFLY *
==========================
NASA announced that a second Astro mission will fly aboard the Space
Shuttle.  The success of the earlier mission and the demonstrated
ability of the instruments to acquire high-quality scientific data are
among the major reasons for reflight of the Astro payload.

Astro-2, like Astro-1 which flew in December of 1990 aboard Space
Shuttle Columbia, will be dedicated to a single scientific discipline -
astrophysics.  The following three instruments will fly on Astro-2 and
observe energetic objects in space in the ultraviolet portion of the
electromagnetic spectrum:

  The Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope  (HUT), developed at Johns Hopkins
  University, performs spectroscopy, breaking light into its constituent
  colors, allowing scientists to analyze the chemical composition and
  temperature of the objects HUT observes.

  The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT), developed by NASA's Goddard
  Space Flight Center, produces images of especially hot components of
  nebulae, stars and galaxies. These images help to explain the physical
  structure of such objects.

  The Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photopolarimeter Experiment (WUPPE),
  developed at the University of Wisconsin, measures a subtle
  characteristic of light, its polarization.  These measurements probe
  the orientation and detailed physics of the distant regions in which
  the light originates.

During the Astro-1 mission, new results were obtained at wavelengths
observable only from space.  Astronomers gained insights into the
properties of diffuse dust found between stars as well as details of
the formation of new stars in distant galaxies.  They also learned that
the predicted decay of certain sub-atomic interstellar particles did
not occur, at least not at the expected level.

[Information via NASA]


* HAPPY BIRTHDAY! *
===================
SpaceNews wishes a belated (24-May-91) Happy Birthday to U.S. astronaut
and Amateur Radio operator Dr. Ron Parise, WA4SIR!


* SPACENEWS SURVEY *
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------------------------------

Date: Sat, 25 May 91 08:11:05 PDT
From: [e-mail] (Jim Bowery)
To: crash![e-mail]
Subject: Re: The Un-Plan

Nick Szabo writes:
> I am _extremely_ hestitant to do write such a plan, because people
> take long-range "plans" far too seriously.  There are _so many_
> possibilities that need to be explored, and we do _not_ know which
> ones are the best.  The best ones we probably haven't even thought of
> yet.  Focusing on one narrow plan will be extremely destructive towards
> progress towards the eventual goal (which for this plan is space
settlement).

Thank you for prefacing your "plan" with this comment, Nick.  It
adds an air of reality to your whole post.

> (3) Converting several DoD, DOE and NASA labs into Department of
> Commerce labs, charged to meet international challenges with the
> most efficient and advanced of technologies, whether they be
> earth based or space-based.  This provides an economic backbone
> to support government budgets and a market for future space industries.

This is a bad idea.

Just in case people start yammering about MITI, the actual numbers for
U.S. vs Japanese, public vs private technology R&D funding is:

                R&D Funding Sources
                Public          Private
Unite States    67%             33%
Japan           22%             78%

Examples of successesful, low cost, R&D efforts that "meet international
challenges" with the financial risk taken by the private sector:

Wright Bros., the automobile, the telephone, Spirit of St. Louis, lasers,
the transistor, Seymour Cray/supercomputer (1604 - Cray-3), railroads,
microcomputers, the light bulb, radio, television, electrical generators,
communications satellites,
....
and just about every other technology that has kept the United States
in a position of "international competitiveness", including most of
the ones claimed by government labs and as NASA spin-offs.

The private sector can't, however, claim credit for nuclear reactors.
Particularly not the Tokamak.

The government has served technology advance best when it:

1) Procured advanced technology goods and/or services from the private
sector in a commercially reasonable manner.  That means someone in
the government actually had a USE for the good and/or service, the
FINANCING came from the private sector and the PURCHASE ORDER came
from the government.

2) Supported education and scientific (unpatentable) research.

3) Found ways to encourage, rather than discourage, private sector
risk-investment.

4) Engaged in "infrastructure building" itself only when the technology
had already reached maturity in the commercial market.

5) is actually in a war with an enemy that really might threaten the
 U.S.  (Like the Civil War, WW I and WW II.  The Cold War/Viet Nam
 did more to destroy our "international competitiveness" than to
 help it.)

> * Our sample size of earth-crossing and Jupiter-crossing asteroids and
>   comets is increased 1,000-fold, so that we find several small objects
>   that can be captured into earth orbit for less than 500 m/s impulse
>   delta-V.

Another bad idea on 2 counts:

1) Ever read "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"?  Even "small" objects that
hit the earth from space are exceedingly destructive.  If they break
the objects up into "bite sized" chunks of box-car size or so before they
get anywhere near Earth, I'll consider not assassinating them.  Box-cars
would only cause H-Bomb devistation if they hit the Earth.  That's
acceptable compared to wiping out a continent or so.

Keep in mind that even an impact on the Moon or Mars of an
asteroid would create enough flux, for a few minutes, to ignite
flammable material in the Earth's biosphere.

BTW, one theory of mass-extinction I've thought of is that Tycho
(which is about the right age) is the source of the iridium we've
found scattered all over the Earth, and that's the crater we've been
looking for.  I haven't published this idea... that is until now. :-)

2) Delta-V isn't the overriding consideration -- round-trip mission
time is.  As with airlines, costs are dominated by amortization rates
on the flight equipment.  The correlation between low delta-V and
low round-trip time isn't good.  As with other trans-lunar missions,
nuclear propulsion is very attractive in asteroidal resource utilization.

> * By concentrating on neglected paradigms, private industry produces
>   the following breakthrough space industries:
&
> * technology advances:

You missed fusion.  I predict that within 10 years of the termination
of the DoE fusion program, we will have privately financed, ANEUTRONIC,
compact fusion PROPULSION from the likes of Bussard or Koloc, lifting
people, animals, cars, trucks, houses, spoons, etc., into space.  This
would be a rather important advance.  Currently, they can't get financing
 because Wall St. investors just can't believe the government and all those
 ivy league physicists would waste ALL their fusion money on a bad idea.
(Dear pro-nuke dweebs -- don't whine about how the "environmentalists"
 would stop it just because it was nuclear.  There really are serious
 problems with atmospheric fission propulsion and Cooper/SDIO should
 be taken out and shot for doing it.)

With Fred and SSC coming under attack, Tokomak is a reasonable next
target.  Anyone wanna help bury this dead albatross?

> * Solar Power Satellites, built from asteroid materials.

I am SSI Senior Associate 401.  One of my best friends is editor of
Space Power Journal (started by Peter Glaser).

Due to the probability of our achieving economical fusion in the near
future, I seriously doubt SPS will ever be important.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Bowery      619/295-3164               The Coalition for
PO Box 1981                                   Science and
La Jolla, CA 92038                             Commerce
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

End of SPACE Digest V13 #639
*******************