From: "Michael K. Heney" <mheney@access.digex.com>
Subject: Apollo fire
Newsgroups: sci.space,alt.sci.planetary
In article <BxIzDp.6q2@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> mechalas@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (John Mechalas) writes:
>
>First off, it was Apollo 12, and not Apollo 1, that caught fire. The cause
>of the fire was indeed the overpressure of test of the O2. As it turned
>out, what killed the astronauts was not the fire, but the velcro inside the
>spacecraft.
Sorry, John, but the 1967 pad fire which killed 3 astronauts (Grissom,
White, and Chaffee) was designated Apollo 1. This designation was
assigned *after* the fire, I believe.
Apollo 12 was a successful lunar landing, with Pete Conrad and Alan Bean
walking around on the moon. I remember this flight especially well, as 1)
my 13th birthday fell during the flight, and 2) I was *seriously* bummed
when Bean pointed the color camera at the sun and fried it. No live
video from this flight after the 1st half hour or so.
Finally, the image of being killed by Velcro is mind-boggling. (Lunatic
Loop-strips! Hook-strips from Hell!) Toxic fumes in the smoke were the
cause of death - burning velcro could have been one source, but wiring,
insulation, etc also contributed.
--
Mike Heney | Senior Systems Analyst and | Reach for the
mheney@access.digex.com | Space Activist / Entrepreneur | Stars, eh?
Kensington, MD (near DC) | * Will Work for Money * |
------------------------------
Date: 11 Nov 92 14:06:13 GMT
From: Charles Frank Radley <3001crad@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu>
Subject: Automated space station construction
Newsgroups: sci.space
In article <1992Nov8.064256.7682@ucsu.Colorado.EDU> fcrary@ucsu.Colorado.EDU (Frank Crary) writes:
>Is anyone looking into robots with very limited autonomy? That is,
>under direction from a human, but able to execute instructions on
>their own for periods of, say, ten seconds?
Yes, there are programmable mechanical systems on Freedom.
They do not have arms legs and heads, and they do not look like androids,
by they are intelligent machines, and therefore you can call them robots.
The Mobile Transporter is controlled by a 386 MDM and contains very complicated control algorithms and decision making routines to
carry payloads of different weights along the rail.
It can faul-find itself, and report failures.
(fault-find)
It varies its acceleratioin and speed depending on the mass of the
payload.
It can be programmed to travel different distances, and to connect
and disconnedt itself from space station main power, and transfer power back and forth to internal battery power, . Its battery power modeule contains
sophistiacted algorithms to control the state ofc charge of the bbattery, and the control its charging and discharging.
A obot by any other name.
robot
When you tell it to move to worksitee-N itk knows exactly what to do, and howe to do it, and will proceed autonomoulsly unl;ess it is interrupted, or unless it detects that something is wrong.
> Frank Crary
> CU Boulder
------------------------------
Date: 10 Nov 92 16:01:14 GMT
From: Jack Hudler <jack@cscdec.cs.com>
Subject: Collisions and P/Swift-Tuttle
Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.space
In article <1992Nov9.081839.1@uwovax.uwo.ca> pbrown@uwovax.uwo.ca writes:
>be in its orbit, not whether that orbit crosses the Earth's path.
>
>Please let me re-iterate what I previously stated in a message: The chance
>of being hit by some asteroid or comet as yet undiscovered, and yet large
>enough to have global effects (i.e. end of civilization as we know it),
>before 2126 is of order 10 times as high as the chance that P/ST will
>strike Earth in that year.
Of course... you could be wrong. :-)
--
Jack Hudler - Computer Support Corporation - Dallas,Texas - jack@cs.com
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 92 09:34:31 EST
From: John Roberts <roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov>
Subject: Coverup - gravity doesn't exist?
-From: dj@ekcolor.ssd.kodak.com (Dave Jones)
-Subject: Re: Coverup - gravity doesn't exist?
-Date: 9 Nov 92 20:22:15 GMT
-Organization: Vonnegut Tent Rentals, Inc.
-John Roberts (roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov) wrote:
-> There's an apple tree on the NIST grounds that's a direct descendant of the
-> tree Isaac Newton was sitting under when he thought up the laws of gravitation.
-Hmmm. After that fact was disclosed in your first-day orientation class,
-were you sent out to fetch a can of striped paint ?
Don't be silly - polka-dot is the current state of the art. Though we are
working on a new instant-drying, non-toxic, zero-mass, non-protective
invisible paint. It's for use on brick and natural wood, where you don't
want to hide the appearance of the original surface. It has many advantages -
no cleanup needed, can safely be sprayed on windy days, and if you spill some,
nobody will ever know. There are still three bugs to be worked out: 1) hard to
assure a uniform coating, 2) costs $50 per gallon, and 3) you can't tell
when the can's empty.
We also made up a batch of single-can camouflage paint for the military, but
somebody set the cans outside and now we can't find them. Maybe we shouldn't
have painted the labels to show the color of the contents...
Hm, I guess I'll actually have to go out there and see what the sign says...
