Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V15_0/V15NO009.TXT

Internet Message Format | 1993-07-13 | 31KB

Date: Fri, 17 Jul 92 05:02:37
From: Space Digest maintainer <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Subject: Space Digest V15 #009
To: Space Digest Readers
Precedence: bulk


Space Digest                Fri, 17 Jul 92       Volume 15 : Issue 009

Today's Topics:
                              apollo 10
               Energy from Dirt! (was Re: Space Power)
Fate of Magellan Operations (was Re: Magellan Update - 07/16/92) (2 msgs)
                              FTL drives
                 Interplanetary communications relays
                      Looking gif horse in mouth
                            Mir diary pt.1
        Need Testers for MS Windows Astronomy Program (3 msgs)
                    Propulsion questions (2 msgs)
                   Solar Power Satellites (2 msgs)
       Space Transportation Infrastructure Costs (Was Re: Inter
   Space Transportation Infrastructure Costs (Was Re: Interstates)
                 UFO-pic from Phobos2-probe posted !
                    Visual acuity for MS (2 msgs)

    Welcome to the Space Digest!!  Please send your messages to
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----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 17 Jul 92 05:33:19 GMT
From: John Roberts <[e-mail]>
Subject: apollo 10
Newsgroups: sci.space

-From: [e-mail] (Charles Frank Radley)
-Subject: Re: apollo 10
-Date: 16 Jul 92 16:50:13 GMT

-   Nobody seems certain of the origin of "Mascons", they might
-be massive buried meteorites.

Relatively thin layers of lava (slightly more dense than the surrounding
material) are thought to be the cause of the positive gravity anomaly mascons.
Apparently modeling them as surface phenomena rather than buried meteorites
fits all the observed data. The main "mascons" are therefore the maria and the
other large filled impact craters. (As mentioned in my previous post, there
are also "negative mascons".)

John Roberts
[e-mail]

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

Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1992 21:22:18 GMT
From: Sherwood Botsford <[e-mail]>
Subject: Energy from Dirt! (was Re: Space Power)
Newsgroups: sci.space

Goody.  20 Kg chunks of this and that moving at 10^4 km/sec or so.  Stay out of
the way of these.  One could ruin your day for sure.

Of course there's lots of room to miss...

Seems to me that using the moon/asteroids as a source of kinetic/potential
energy is superfluous.  You already have an energy density of 2 Kw/m^2 in the
form of sunlight.  Blowing a polymer bubble a Km in diameter, and then boiling
a pound of aluminum inside with an appropriate nozzle gives you a giant
christmas tree bulb silvered on one half.  Spherical aberation limits the focus
to about 100m, but that 100 m circle has an energy density of .2 MW/m^2.

Can you say industrial strength heating?


Besides, you want to use asteroids and lunar regolith as raw materials.

Figure the worth of a 1 Km asteroid firstly as just iron.  Then figure it out
as raw material in LEO.  The latter is in the trillions of bucks.  (So lets
snag Icarus next time around...

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

Date: 16 Jul 92 21:25:04 GMT
From: Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey <[e-mail]>
Subject: Fate of Magellan Operations (was Re: Magellan Update - 07/16/92)
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Ron Baalke) writes:
>                      MAGELLAN STATUS REPORT
>                          July 16, 1992
[troubles with a spacecraft transmitter]
> 7.  Magellan's objective of obtaining a full cycle of gravity
>     data during Cycle 4 is unaffected by the transmitter
>     concerns because only the carrier signal is required.

Yeah, but is there money for this in the budget?  I'm unclear on what
happened after the attempted "cancellation."

"Do you know the asteroids, Mr.Kemp?...    Bill Higgins
Hundreds of thousands of them.  All
wandering around the Sun in strange        Fermilab
orbits.  Some never named, never
charted.  The orphans of the Solar         [e-mail]
System, Mr. Kemp."
                                           [e-mail]
"And you want to become a father."
  --*Moon Zero Two*                        SPAN/Hepnet: 43011::HIGGINS

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

Date: 17 Jul 92 13:50:12 GMT
From: Ron Baalke <[e-mail]>
Subject: Fate of Magellan Operations (was Re: Magellan Update - 07/16/92)
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey) writes...
>In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Ron Baalke) writes:
>>                      MAGELLAN STATUS REPORT
>>                          July 16, 1992
>[troubles with a spacecraft transmitter]
>> 7.  Magellan's objective of obtaining a full cycle of gravity
>>     data during Cycle 4 is unaffected by the transmitter
>>     concerns because only the carrier signal is required.
>
>Yeah, but is there money for this in the budget?  I'm unclear on what
>happened after the attempted "cancellation."

The Magellan project is funded through May 1993 and this includes Cycle 4.
The question is will Congress fund the project for $50 million for a
three year extension or turn off the spacecraft?
     ___    _____     ___
    /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|     Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
    | | | |  __ \ /| | | |     Jet Propulsion Lab |
 ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |__   M/S 525-3684 Telos | Most of the things you
/___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /| Pasadena, CA 91109 | worry about will never
|_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/                     | happen.

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

Date: 16 Jul 92 18:58:26 GMT
From: Gary Coffman <ke4zv!gary>
Subject: FTL drives
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Howard Fink,Ed Site,83422,_) writes:
>The Lensmen series used an inertialess drive.  Somehow, the ship lost
>its inertia, and a reaction drive sped the ship to the limit of heating
>caused by skin friction with the ether.  Ships were streamlined and
>refrigerated to go faster.

I always liked this method, it was so Victorian. It also presented some
pretty problems in weapon design.

Gary

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

Date: 17 Jul 92 02:31:36 GMT
From: John Roberts <[e-mail]>
Subject: Interplanetary communications relays
Newsgroups: sci.space

-From: [e-mail] (Don M. Gibson)
-Subject: Re: Interplanetary communications relays
-Date: 16 Jul 92 16:58:36 GMT
-Organization: Motorola Inc., Austin, Texas

[e-mail] (Gary Coffman) writes:
->True, but I would like to belabor the obvious for just a while longer.
->A relay at Jupiter orbit for a Saturn mission would still require a

-this assumes that jupiter and saturn are in conjunction.  if they aren't,
-then it is *real* dumb to put a relay satellite around jupiter for
-a saturn mission.

That's why I said "for a few years of every Jupiter orbit". They don't
have to be exactly in conjunction.

As others have pointed out, DSN is so good that such a relay (long distance
to both the Earth and space probe) built with current technology wouldn't
really give any advantage.

John Roberts
[e-mail]

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

Date: 16 Jul 92 23:12:35 -0500
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Looking gif horse in mouth
Newsgroups: sci.space

Does anybody know if you can get gifs on discs (or send them
a disc with a wish list) from Ames?  I am ftp-ing them through
school but it takes _forever_ to get them onto my machine via
Kermit.  I am losing valuable sack time, what with the time
differences and all.

Thanks in advance,
Thomas Freebairn   [e-mail]

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

Date: 17 Jul 92 05:42:21 GMT
From: TIMOTHY FREER <[e-mail]>
Subject: Mir diary pt.1
Newsgroups: sci.space

MIR DIARY Pt.1 (Feb86 to Jul89)
-------------------------------
    This is the first in a series of 'Salyut' diaries that I will be
presenting. The purpose of these is that they will provide readers with an
accurate reference, which lists all major events surrounding Soviet/CIS
space station activities since 1977.
    This first diary lists major events involving the Mir space station
during it's first three years of manned operations. This period begins with
the launch of the core module in February 1986, and ends with the four
month gap in manned activities during mid 1989. Listed are all launches to
Mir, all dockings, port transfers, space walks, undockings, and re-enries,
that occured during this period. All dates are in GMT , and are reasonably
accurate. If you have any corrections, please post them to me with your
sources.

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Mir diary pt.1 (Feb86 to Jul89).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1986
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
19 FEB    Mir launched by Proton rocket into 172 x 301km orbit at 51.6
          degrees inclination.
06 MAR    Mir established in its 332 x 342km operational orbit.
13 MAR    Soyuz T-15 launched with Leonid Kizim and Vladimir Solovyev aboard.
15 MAR    Soyuz T-15 docks with the extreme forward port.
19 MAR    Progress 25 launched.
21 MAR    Progress 25 docks with the rear port.
17 APR    Mir's orbit adjusted to match Salyut-7's - the two laboratories
          are now flying in formation at 4000km separation to avoid radio-
          interference.
20 APR    Progress 25 undocks and is directed into the atmosphere to burn up.
23 APR    Progress 26 launched.
25 APR    Progress 26 unable to dock because of problems with Mir's radio-
          communications system.
26 APR    Progress 26 docks with the rear port.
04 MAY    Mir's orbit is lowered, causing it to catch up with Salyut-7.
05 MAY    Soyuz T-15 undocks, carrying Kizim and Solovyev across to Salyut-7.
21 MAY    Soyuz TM, an updated design of the Soyuz T craft, launched on an
          unmanned test mission.
23 MAY    Soyuz TM docks with the extreme foward port.
29 MAY    Soyuz TM undocks.
30 MAY    Soyuz TM re-enters unmanned.
22 JUN    Progress 26 undocks.
23 JUN    Progress 26 directed into the atmospere to burn up.
25 JUN    Soyuz T-15 leaves Salyut-7 with Kizim and Solovyev aboard.
26 JUN    Soyuz T-15 docks for a second time with the extreme forward port.
16 JUL    Soyuz T-15 undocks and re-enters with Kizim and Solovyev aboard.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1987.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
16 JAN    Progress 27 launched.
18 JAN    Progress 27 docks with the rear port.
05 FEB    Soyuz TM-2 launched with Yuri Romanenko and Alexsandr Laveikin

          aboard.
07 FEB    Soyuz TM-2 docks with the extreme forward port.
23 FEB    Progress 27 undocks.
25 FEB    Progress 27 directed into the atmosphere to burn up.
03 MAR    Progress 28 launched.
05 MAR    Progress 28 docks with the rear port.
26 MAR    Progress 28 undocks.
28 MAR    Progress 28 directed into the atmosphere to burn up.
31 MAR    Kvant-1 module, carrying the Rontgen astrophysical observatory,
          launched by Proton rocket.
06 APR    Kvant-1 arrives, but a problem on its final approach to Mir causes
          the docking to be postponed.
09 APR    Kvant-1 links-up with the rear port, but an obstruction in its
          docking unit prevents the two craft from being sealed together.
11 APR    Romanenko and Laveikin make a 3 hour 40 minute spacewalk to examine
          the docking units of Mir and Kvant-1 - Laveikin removes 'a twisted
          piece of cloth', and ground control completes the docking by remote
          control while the cosmonauts look on.
12 APR    Kvant-1's 'space tug' departs, leaving a new docking unit open at
          the rear of the complex.
21 APR    Progress 29 launched.
23 APR    Progress 29 docks with Kvant-1's rear port, creating the worlds
          first four-spacecraft link-up.
11 MAY    Progress 29 undocks and is directed into the atmospere to burn-up.
19 MAY    Progress 30 launched.
21 MAY    Progress 30 docks with Kvant-1's rear port.
12 JUN    Romanenko and Laveikin make a 1 hour, 53 minute spacewalk to
          commence the assembly of a third panel of solar cells on the
          outside of Mir.
16 JUN    Romanenko and Laveikin make a 3 hour, 15 minute spacewalk to
          complete assembly work on the solar panel.
?? JUL    Prorgess 30 undocks and is directed into the atmosphere to burn-up.
22 JUL    Soyuz TM-3 launched with Aleksandr Viktorenko, Alexsandr
          Alexsanderov and Muhammand Faris (Syria) aboard.
24 JUL    Soyuz TM-3 docks with Kvant-1's rear port.
29 JUL    Soyuz TM-2 undocks carring Viktorenko, Faris and Laveikin,
          returning because of 'an irregularity in his heart rhythm'.
30 JUL    Soyuz TM-2 re-enters.
30 JUL    Soyuz TM-3 is transfered from Kvant-1's rear port to Mir's
          extreme forward port by Romanenko and Alexanderov.
03 AUG    Progress 31 launched.
05 AUG    Progress 31 docks with Kvant-1's rear port.
21 SEP    Progress 31 undocks and is directed into the atmosphere to burn-up.
23 SEP    Progress 32 launched.
26 SEP    Progress 32 docks with Kvant-1's rear port.
10 NOV    Progress 32 undocks from Kvant, edocking 98 minutes later in a test
          of new fuel saving software for Mir.
17 NOV    Progress 32 undocks and is directed into the atmosphere to burn-up.
20 NOV    Progress 33 launched.
23 NOV    Progress 33 docks with Kvant-1's rear port.
19 DEC    Progress 33 undocks and is directed into the atmosphere to burn-up.
21 DEC    Soyuz TM-4 launched with Vladimir Titov, Musakhi Manarov and
          Alexsandr Levchenko aboard.
23 DEC    Soyuz TM-4 docks with Kvant-1's rear port.
29 DEC    Soyuz TM-3 undocks and re-enters carring Romanenko, Alexsanderov
          and Levchenko. Romanenko sets new endurance record.
30 DEC    Soyuz TM-4 is transfered to Mir's extreme forward port by Titov
          and Manarov.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1988.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
20 JAN    Progress 34 launched.
23 JAN    Progress 34 docks with Kvant-1's rear port.
26 FEB    Titov and Manarov make a 4 hour, 25 minute spacewalk to install an
          experimental solar cell on the third solar panel outside Mir.
04 MAR    Progress 34 undocks and is directed into the atmosphere to burn-up.
23 MAR    Progress 35 launched.
25 MAR    Progress 35 docks with Kvant-1's rear port.
05 MAY    Progress 35 undocks and is directed into the atmosphere to burn-up.
13 MAY    Progress 36 launched.
15 MAY    Progress 36 docks with Kvant-1's rear port.
05 JUN    Progress 36 undocks and is directed into the atmosphere to burn-up.
07 JUN    Soyuz TM-5 launched with Anatoly Solovyov, Viktor Savinykh and
          Alexsandr Alexsanderov (Bulgaria) aboard.
09 JUN    Soyuz TM-5 docks with Kvant-1's rear port.
17 JUN    Soyuz TM-4 undocks and re-enters carring Solovyov, Savinykh and
          Alexsanderov.
18 JUN    Soyuz TM-5 is transfered to Mir's extreme forward port by Titov
          and Manarov.
30 JUN    Titov and Manarov make a 5 hour, 10 minute spacewalk to commence
          repairs on the Kvant-1 module.
18 JUL    Progress 37 launched.
20 JUL    Progress 37 docks with Kvant-1's rear port.
12 AUG    Progress 37 undocks and is directed into the atmosphere to burn-up.
29 AUG    Soyuz TM-6 launched with Valery Lyakhov, Valery Poliakov and Abdol
          Muhamand (Afghanistan) aboard.
31 AUG    Soyuz TM-6 docks with Kvant-1's rear port.
05 SEP    Soyuz TM-5 undocks with Lyakhov and Muhamand aboard.
06 SEP    Soyuz TM-5 re-entry delayed 24 hours by retro-rocket malfunction.
07 SEP    Soyuz TM-5 lands.
08 SEP    Soyuz TM-6 is transfered to Mir's extreme forward port by Titov,
          Manarov and Poliakov.
09 SEP    Progress 38 launched.
12 SEP    Progress 38 docks with Kvant-1's rear port.
20 OCT    Titov and Manarov make a 4 hour, 12 minute spacewalk to complete
          repairs on the Kvant-1 module.
23 NOV    Progress 38 undocks and is directed into the atmosphere to burn-up.
26 NOV    Soyuz TM-7 launched with Alexsandr Volkov, Sergei Krikalyov and
          Jean-Loup Chretien (France) aboard.
28 NOV    Soyuz TM-7 docks with Kvant-1's rear port.
09 DEC    Volkov and Chretien make 5 hour, 7 minute spacewalk to install
          French instruments. First spacewalk by a French 'spationaut'.
21 DEC    Soyuz TM-6 undocks and re-enters with Titov, Manarov and Chretien
          aboard. Titov and Manarov establish a new endurance record of
          365 days in orbit.
21 DEC    Soyuz TM-7 transfered to Mir's extreme forward port by Volkov,
          Krikalyov and Poliakov.
25 DEC    Progress 39 launched.
27 DEC    Progress 39 docks with Kvant-1's rear port.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1989.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
07 FEB    Progress 39 undocks and is directed into the atmosphere to burn-up.
10 FEB    Progress 40 launched.
12 FEB    Progress 40 docks with Kvant-1's rear port.
03 MAR    Progress 40 undocks and is directed into the atmosphere to burn-up.
16 MAR    Progress 41 launched.
18 MAR    Progress 41 docks with Kvant-1's rear port.
25 APR    Progress 41 undocks and is directed into the atmosphere to burn-up.
27 APR    Soyuz TM-7 undocks and re-enters with Volkov, Krikalyov and
          Poliakov aboard. Mir left vacant.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
end.    My next diary will be Mir pt.2, which will list major events
     involving Mir from Aug89 to Jul92. In the near future I will also be
     posting diaries for Salyut-7 and Salyut-6 operations.

                                      Bye for now Tim Freer.

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

Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1992 22:33:45 GMT
From: "Mr. 2030 on my GRE! " <[e-mail]>
Subject: Need Testers for MS Windows Astronomy Program
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms,comp.windows.ms.programmer,sci.astro,sci.space,sci.edu,comp.ibm.pc.misc

I have a problem:

    I was trying to respond to the post regarding testing for
Windows software, and I replied, but I got a message back that said there
is no such user as:
[e-mail]


    so...what to do now?

    thomas ehardt
    [e-mail]

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

Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1992 23:20:57 GMT
From: Steve Emmett <[e-mail]>
Subject: Need Testers for MS Windows Astronomy Program
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms,comp.windows.ms.programmer,sci.astro,sci.space,sci.edu,comp.ibm.pc.misc

So was mine!  I'd like to be a tester Eric.

Steve Emmett

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

Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1992 03:19:53 GMT
From: David Harper <[e-mail]>
Subject: Need Testers for MS Windows Astronomy Program
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms,comp.windows.ms.programmer,sci.astro,sci.space,sci.edu,comp.ibm.pc.misc

Add me to the list too, please - my mail bounced as well.  How about another
address?

Dave Harper    -     Convex Computer Corp.            E-mail address:
3000 Waterview Pky.  Richardson, TX 75081             [e-mail]
[phone] (W)   [phone] (H)

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

Date: Thu, 16 Jul 92 21:42:35 GMT
From: Joshua Bell <[e-mail]>
Subject: Propulsion questions
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Thomas J. Nugent) writes:

>  Also, back
>in the 60's the idea was actually proved (unintentionally I suspect) by
>some weather satellite/balloon which was in orbit but had some aluminized
>mylar balloon about 30 ft across.  Can't remember what it was called,
>but supposedly light pressure affected the perigee of its orbit by some
>500 km!

Dunno where this stands on the fact-fiction continuum (someone
out there's bound to know for sure :), but I'd read/heard that
one of the early Venus orbiters, out of fuel for stationkeeping,
was reprogrammed with instructions to rotate its solar pannels to
do limited solar sailing (solar tacking?) to maintain its orbit
for a little while longer. Confirmation anyone?

Joshua

"Why is it you get formal when you're about to say something stupid?"
    / _ \                                           - Princess Leia
   |=(_)=|  [e-mail]
    \   /   Academic Computing Services, University of Calgary


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

Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1992 05:01:57 GMT
From: Henry Spencer <[e-mail]>
Subject: Propulsion questions
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Joshua Bell) writes:
>one of the early Venus orbiters, out of fuel for stationkeeping,
>was reprogrammed with instructions to rotate its solar pannels to
>do limited solar sailing (solar tacking?) to maintain its orbit
>for a little while longer. Confirmation anyone?

This is a garbled account of Mariner 10's experience.  M10 did Venus
and Mercury flybys.  It was reprogrammed to use solar-panel tilt to
help with *attitude control*, to economize on fuel a bit.  No spacecraft
ever flown has had enough solar-array area to produce any useful amount
of propulsive thrust from light pressure.
--
There is nothing wrong with making      | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
mistakes, but... make *new* ones. -D.Sim|  [e-mail]  utzoo!henry

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

Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1992 01:39:56 GMT
From: "Phil G. Fraering" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Solar Power Satellites
Newsgroups: sci.space

[e-mail] (Thomas J. Nugent) writes:

>[e-mail] (Ralph Buttigieg) writes:

>> to make it worse. Most people will live on Earth for some time to come,
>> to have humanity denied the sight of the stars would be tragic.
>> ta

>Well, if you live anywhere near any half pint city, you are mostly denied
>the sight of the stars.  I live in Urbana, with the local population on
>the order of 100,000.  You have to go really far out of town to see more
>than a dozen stars or so.

That's what bothers me about all the people griping about light pollution
from the SPS's. They probably won't be much brighter than Jupiter, and
in most major cities, the light pollution will be so bad you'll be lucky
to see the powersats to begin with.

--
Phil Fraering [e-mail] where the x is a number from 1-5.
Phone: [phone]
"There are still 201969 unread articles in 1278 groups" - nn message
"57 channels and nothing on" - Bruce Springsteen

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

Date: 17 Jul 92 05:39:46 GMT
From: John Roberts <[e-mail]>
Subject: Solar power satellites
Newsgroups: sci.space

-From: [e-mail] (Thomas J. Nugent)
-Subject: Re: Solar Power Satellites
-Date: 16 Jul 92 18:08:29 GMT
-Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana

[e-mail] (Ralph Buttigieg) writes:
-> to make it worse. Most people will live on Earth for some time to come,
-> to have humanity denied the sight of the stars would be tragic.

-Well, if you live anywhere near any half pint city, you are mostly denied
-the sight of the stars.  I live in Urbana, with the local population on
-the order of 100,000.  You have to go really far out of town to see more
-than a dozen stars or so.

Also, they'd just trace a narrow line across the sky, not cover it entirely.
At GEO, I doubt they'd be anywhere near bright enough to wash out the sky
entirely.

Related question: are there any current GEO satellites that are bright enough
to be seen by the naked eye? That would be interesting to see - one "star"
stays in place while the other stars move by.

John Roberts
[e-mail]

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

Date: 17 Jul 92 03:42:07 GMT
From: Bruce Dunn <[e-mail]>
Subject: Space Transportation Infrastructure Costs (Was Re: Inter
Newsgroups: sci.space

> Allen W. Sherzer writes:
> Or consider this idea I have been tossing about inside my head:
>
> 1. The Feds form a non-profit company and for five to ten years invest in
>    it what they now spend on the Shuttle (about $5B/year).
>
> 2. The compnay invests the money in bonds with a target yeild of about 10%.
>     (Could be a bit more or less).
>
> 3. The compnay uses the interest to buy water (or whatever) delivered to
>    a useful orbit. They pay $1,000 per pound first come first served until
>    the interest income for that year runs out. (if nobody buys then the money
>    is re-invested and the market will be larger next year).
>
>    In the first year they should be able to buy ~500,000 pounds of water and
>    an additional 500,000 pounds per year after.
>
> 4. Any year where more than 80% of the available funds are spent the offering
>    price of water to LEO will drop by 10%.
>
> 5. When the price drops to $250/pound or so the effort ramps down with other
>    launch service users taking the slack.
>
> 6. When the company is no longer buying launch services, the company is
>    liquidated and the principle returned to the government.
>


       Add two steps:

7.  Send up a solar powered electrolysis unit and a cryogenic storage tank
    farm.  Sell the cryogenic propellants produced to those wishing to go
    beyond low earth orbit.

8.  As the cryogenic propellants in orbit are exhausted, pay for replenishment
    water or matching amounts of hydrogen and oxygen from any source,
    including extraterrestrial sources.







--
Bruce Dunn    Vancouver, Canada   [e-mail]

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

Date: 17 Jul 1992 05:10:16 GMT
From: George William Herbert <[e-mail]>
Subject: Space Transportation Infrastructure Costs (Was Re: Interstates)
Newsgroups: sci.space

[e-mail] writes:
>[e-mail] (George William Herbert) writes:
>>    If NASA were willing to look past the Shuttle, it would realize
>>that it could redesign the station in 15klb chunks (ugh), develop the
>>DC SSTO concept, and fly Freedom in it for less than it'll cost to
>>fly it on Shuttle as is.
>>    Anyone for shooting the Shuttle program office people
>>in the name of progress? 8-)
>
>Are you NUTS?
>
>Fly Russian! It's developed, it'll cut down on Shuttle flights for assembly,
>and help out people who need it.

    ...and artificially depressed right now.  If the Russian economy
recovers from the current problems, the fair market price of their
vehicles will be higher than current prices (less than Western, to be sure,
but still significant).  If they DON't recover, then their space program is
gone for a long, long time.

    I.e. while supporting the Russians is a good idea (IMHO), it's NOT
a long term solution to cheaper launch costs.  SSTO in some form
and NASP are both attempts to do that right.  NLS/ALS/whateveritisthismonth
is a halfhearted attempt.  People should be prodded (with cattle prods if
need be) into supporting these projects.

-george william herbert
[e-mail]  [e-mail]  [e-mail] until 28 aug

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

Date: 16 Jul 92 23:22:50 GMT
From: Stefan Hartmann <[e-mail]>
Subject: UFO-pic from Phobos2-probe posted !
Newsgroups: alt.alien.visitors,sci.space,alt.paranormal,sci.skeptic

Hi,

I have posted the much discussed UFO-pic from the phobos 2 probe into

alt.binaries.pictures.misc     and   alt.alien.visitors   newsgroups !

Get the uuencoded JPEG pic from there !


It is the scanned picture of one of the last frames Phobos2 send to
Earth before going malfunction !

It is an infrared exposure with 8 seconds duration, so it is
overexposed, You only see a white surface, no surface detail !

The UFO is approximately 15 and 1/2 miles long !

Thanks to Don Ecker for making this publically available and also
thanks to Kean Thomas, who send me a photocopy for scanning.

Please send Your view about it to my email adress below.

Could this be any CCD chip error, like someone on the net stated ?

Best regards Stefan Hartmann.
email to: [e-mail]


--

*************************************************************
*  Stefan Hartmann       This is how to contact me:         *
*  EMAIL: [e-mail]                          *
*  Phone : ++ 49 30 344 23 66      FAX : ++ 49 30 344 92 79 *
*************************************************************

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Date: 16 Jul 92 21:53:26 GMT
From: Claudio Egalon <[e-mail]>
Subject: Visual acuity for MS
Newsgroups: sci.space

Most of the literature  that  I have read about the visual acuity
requirements for Missions Specialists, MS, says that the applicant
must have a 20/100 uncorreted *however* last time that NASA put a
pamphelet describing the requirements for MS (which was the last
time when  they were accepting applications for the astronaut corps)
they were talking about a visual acuity of 20/150 uncorreted! Was it a
misprint, a misinterpretation of mine or NASA indeed relaxed its
requirements for  MS??? Detail: I noticed that back in the 60's the
visual acuity requirement for astronaut-scientist was more strict.

[e-mail]

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Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1992 04:58:49 GMT
From: Henry Spencer <[e-mail]>
Subject: Visual acuity for MS
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Claudio Egalon) writes:
>Most of the literature  that  I have read about the visual acuity
>requirements for Missions Specialists, MS, says that the applicant
>must have a 20/100 uncorreted *however* ...

The exact number is probably pretty much irrelevant.  You'd have to be
awfully good to overcome a handicap like poor vision.  Remember, most
of the rejected applicants meet the official requirements.  Those
requirements are just there to thin out the throngs a little bit.
In practice, having *anything* wrong with you is almost an automatic
disqualification -- there are so many other applicants who don't have
that problem, whatever it is.
--
There is nothing wrong with making      | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
mistakes, but... make *new* ones. -D.Sim|  [e-mail]  utzoo!henry

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End of Space Digest Volume 15 : Issue 009
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