Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V15_4/V15NO482.TXT

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Date: Wed,  2 Dec 92 05:00:06
From: Space Digest maintainer <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Subject: Space Digest V15 #482
To: Space Digest Readers
Precedence: bulk


Space Digest                Wed,  2 Dec 92       Volume 15 : Issue 482

Today's Topics:
         Antarctic video relay (was Re: Dante on "Nightline")
               Astro-FTP list, November issue (2 msgs)
                FREE-ENERGY TECHNOLOGY For Spacecraft
            Graduate student fellowship in helioseismology
    HST black hole pix *or* Hubble Hype? (Was: HST black hole pix)
             Kuiper belt planetesimals and Planet X claim
NASA has 5 hand grenades still on the moon from Apollo missions (3 msgs)
                     Shuttle replacement (3 msgs)
     Soyuz escape system (was:  Re: Shuttle replacement) (3 msgs)
             Spaceborne Artificial Intelligence, Anyone?
           Terminal Velocity of DCX? (was Re: Shuttle ...)
                        What comes after DC-1
                What is the SSTO enabling technology?
                        who was Jack Parsons?

    Welcome to the Space Digest!!  Please send your messages to
    "[e-mail]", and (un)subscription requests of the form
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    (THENET), or [e-mail] (Internet).
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 1 Dec 92 11:18:35 -0600
From: Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey <[e-mail]>
Subject: Antarctic video relay (was Re: Dante on "Nightline")
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Kurt Schwehr) writes:
> I can't really comment on the CMU Dante project but I can give a bit of
> info about Carol Stoker's telepresence ROV project.  There are three
> primary objectives of her program in Antartica:
[...]
>      2) Communications - They (both groups) are the first to set up live
>          video from the Antarctic.  The idea is to have a telepresence
>          operator trying to drive the vehicles in Antarctic from the
>          continental USA.

Kurt, can you tell us more about how this is achieved?  I know it's
difficult to talk to geosynchronous comsats from the polar regions--
both because they're low on the horizon (or below it) and because the
satellite's antenna footprint usually doesn't cover high latitudes
well.

Are they using GEO satellites anyway, or are they relaying video
through some polar-orbiting spacecraft?


     O~~*           /_) ' / /   /_/ '  ,   ,  ' ,_  _           \|/
   - ~ -~~~~~~~~~~~/_) / / /   / / / (_) (_) / / / _\~~~~~~~~~~~zap!
 /       \                          (_) (_)                    / | \
 |       |     Bill Higgins   Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
 \       /     Bitnet:     [e-mail]
   -   -       Internet:  [e-mail]
     ~         SPAN/Hepnet:      43011::HIGGINS

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

Date: 1 Dec 92 12:07:07 GMT
From: M{kel{ Veikko <[e-mail]>
Subject: Astro-FTP list, November issue
Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.space

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

>How 'bout a FAQ list?


   FAQ list of sci.astro and sci.space newsgroups will posted
   monthly to the newsgroup by Jon Leech.  This list is also
   available via FTP from:

      ames.arc.nasa.gov:pub/SPACE/FAQ/faq*
      ftp.funet.fi:pub/astro/general/faqlist.txt


                     Veikko Makela
                    Computing Centre
                    Univ. of Helsinki
                        Finland

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

Date: 28 Nov 92 22:04:19 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Astro-FTP list, November issue
Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.space

How 'bout a FAQ list?

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

Date: 30 Nov 92 15:36:30 GMT
From: Cameron Newham <[e-mail]>
Subject: FREE-ENERGY TECHNOLOGY For Spacecraft
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:

 >
 > third time I read about "free energy" and he replied in the same haughty,
 > sensationalist style (with many capitalized words!) which characterizes his
                         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
It is because he is probably using a special filter called "capword" that
capitalises scientific words and a random selection of other words in
everything he writes. :)

I think there is a man page for it here somewhere.......

 > public bulletins.  I keep telling him to post on sci.skeptic, but he ignores
 > me.  :)

WHY should he post to sci.skeptic!  He OBVIOUSLY believes what he writes
and THINKS the world does too!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|Cameron    _@/           |"Welcome to the jungle.  We take it day by day.    |
|[e-mail]  | If you want it you're gonna bleed,                |
|[e-mail]          | but it's the price you pay."  -- Guns 'N Roses    |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: 1 Dec 92 17:40:58 GMT
From: Frank Hill <[e-mail]>
Subject: Graduate student fellowship in helioseismology
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.physics

       Graduate Student Research Fellowship in Helioseismology
                      National Solar Observatory
                           Tucson, Arizona

     The National Solar Observatory (NSO), a division of the  Na-
     tional  Optical  Astronomy  Observatories  (NOAO) located in
     Tucson, Arizona, has a research opportunity for  a  graduate
     student  in  the field of helioseismology.  This position is
     in support of the NASA/Stanford Solar Oscillations  Investi-
     gation  (SOI) project, but the successful candidate will re-
     side in Tucson. Applicants must  be  currently  enrolled  in
     good standing in a doctoral graduate program at an accredit-
     ed university, must have an  official  thesis  advisor,  and
     must have completed all course work and passed any necessary
     qualifying examinations at their university.   The  research
     topic  must  also be approved by the candidate's thesis com-
     mittee.

     The topic should be in  the  area  of  helioseismology,  the
     study  of  solar  oscillations  and their use in probing the
     solar interior.  Although theoretical studies will  also  be
     considered,   preference  will  be  given  to  observational
     helioseismology  using  moderately  high-resolution   images
     similar  to  those  that will be obtained by the SOI experi-
     ment.  NSO  will  soon  begin  operating   the   High-Degree
     Helioseismometer  (HDH)  at  the Kitt Peak Vacuum Telescope.
     This instrument will obtain 1024 X 1024 full-disk Ca  K  in-
     tensity  solar  images, which provide a useful proxy for the
     SOI data. Possible research topics include  the  development
     of  techniques  to measure the parameters of high-degree os-
     cillations,  the  development  of  four-dimensional  Fourier
     transform  techniques to study wave propagation in the solar
     atmosphere, the development of inversion  methods,  and  the
     theoretical  and observational study of wave trapping in su-
     pergranules.

     The research advisor at NSO will be Dr. Frank Hill, the Glo-
     bal  Oscillation  Network  Group (GONG) Data Scientist.  The
     GONG Project is a  ground-based  helioseismology  experiment
     that will be deploying six observing stations in California,
     Hawaii, Australia, India, the Canary Islands, and  Chile  in
     1994.  Further information can be obtained from:

                            Dr. Frank Hill
                      National Solar Observatory
                             PO Box 26732
                        Tucson, AZ 85726-6732
                        Phone: [phone]
                         Fax: [phone]
                  E-mail: [e-mail] (Internet)

     A CV and three letters of recommendation should be sent to

                             Revell Rayne
                          Personnel Director
               National Optical Astronomy Observatories
                             PO Box 26732
                        Tucson, AZ 85726-6732

     Applications should be received by December 31, 1992.

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

Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1992 17:25:25 GMT
From: Gerald Cecil <[e-mail]>
Subject: HST black hole pix *or* Hubble Hype? (Was: HST black hole pix)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.astro

In article [e-mail], [e-mail] () writes:
>Well Craig, I've no idea what you saw on TV but there IS a public domain
>image of something that looks a lot like an accretion disk around a
>(suspected -- with pretty good reason) black hole.

Hey people, stop listening to the Hubble Hype for a moment and *look* at
the image!  You will *not* see an accretion disk.  You *will* see a bright
ring that ends 170 parsecs (= 1 arcsec for a more reasonable distance of
35.1 Mpc [Nearby Galaxies Catalog, Tully]) from a bright smudge in the
center. Bright nuclear rims are common (our own Galaxy has one, much closer
in).  The smudge is potentially interesting.  It is roughly conical and
about 0.2 arcsec across (= 17 pc radius) at its base. Now, a 2x10^9 Msun black
hole has a Schwarzschild radius of 10^-4 pc.  The size of the luminous part
of an accretion disk for a hole of this mass is uncertain (especially if it is
illuminated from above by a hot corona or jet shocks) but is almost certainly
<100 Schwarz. radii = 0.1 pc.  Thus, nothing new has been resolved in this
image.  Even the radiation cone, which extends from the central smudge
and which is aligned with the large-scale radio jet, has been better seen in
nearer AGN's, notably NGC 1068, from space and from the ground.  Spectroscopy
of the nuclear filaments with the FOS after COSTAR installation may show
non-circular gas motions, but the fueling channel hasn't even been identified
in our own Galaxy where the spatial resolution of superior instrumentation is
orders of magnitude better.
---
Gerald Cecil [e-mail]  919-962-7169
Physics & Astronomy, U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3255 USA

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

Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1992 08:26:25 GMT
From: Dave Tholen <[e-mail]>
Subject: Kuiper belt planetesimals and Planet X claim
Newsgroups: sci.space

Anita Cochran writes:

> Tom Van Flandern writes:

>>      The one such object recently sighted apparently is not a Kuiper belt
>> comet, but a possible member of the Saturn family of asteroids or comets. All
>> other searches for Kuiper belt objects have so far proved fruitless.  And the
>> reasons for expecting a Kuiper belt at all have now been called into
>> question.  The whole concept is close to being ready to file away next to
>> "cold fusion."

> Gee, I was not aware that 1992QB1 was NOT a Kuiper object.  Actually,
> as I understand it (unless there is a new orbit in the last week) there
> are two possible solutions.  One is a circular orbit with the distance
> putting it as a Kuiper Belt distance and the other is the Saturn
> family object that Tom mentions.  But, as of a little over a week ago,
> the orbit was still indeterminate.  That is why Brian Marsden has asked
> that I try to get a new position in late December or January.  Jan Luu
> (one of the discovers of QB1) was supposed to observe it Thanksgiving
> but I am not sure if she got anything.  Our run was pretty well weathered
> out.  Thus, there is still a possibility of 1 object in an orbit which
> matches the predicted Kuiper belt.

I've heard rumors of some astrometry from the southern hemisphere (AAT?)
in the last couple of weeks that satisfies the circular orbit better than
the elliptical one, though I'll reserve judgment on the matter until a
new orbit solution is published.  This much I will say:  I agree with
Anita that it is premature to discard the Kuiper Belt hypothesis.  Tom's
conclusion that the one sighted object is not a Kuiper Belt object is
extremely premature, and the above rumor would seem to contradict that
claim.

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

Date: 1 Dec 92 14:03:01 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: NASA has 5 hand grenades still on the moon from Apollo missions
Newsgroups: sci.space

I was listening to the radio this morning when the announcer
stated "The most expensive junk yard is out-of-this world".  He
went on to say that NASA has over $500 million of salvageable
junk up on the moon.  Among the items listed were golf balls,
color TV sets, flags, and 5 hand grenades.

What are 5 hand grenades doing on the moon and why would NASA
send them up with the astronauts???

Inquiring mines want to know...

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

Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1992 16:02:48 GMT
From: Edmund Hack <arabia!hack>
Subject: NASA has 5 hand grenades still on the moon from Apollo missions
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] () writes:
>I was listening to the radio this morning when the announcer
>stated "The most expensive junk yard is out-of-this world".  He
>went on to say that NASA has over $500 million of salvageable
                                                   ^^^^^^^^^^^
Dubious use of "salvageable", but then most in the press never took a
science course beyond "Rocks for Jocks" or "Twinkle, Twinkle Little
Star" (as we called the science for the math-illiterate in college).

>junk up on the moon.  Among the items listed were golf balls,
>color TV sets, flags, and 5 hand grenades.
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
probably cameras.
>
>What are 5 hand grenades doing on the moon and why would NASA
>send them up with the astronauts???

The "hand grenades" ar probably the small mortar rounds from the active
seismic systems that were sent up.  They had a few mortar rounds that
were fired off (after the crew left, I think) to produce shock waves for
analysis.  Similar charges are used in oil exploration, except they are
emplaced in holes drilled in the ground.
>
>Inquiring mines want to know...

Claymore, perhaps???
--
Edmund Hack - Lockheed Engineering & Sciences Co. - Houston, TX
[e-mail] - I speak only for myself, unless blah, blah..
"You know, I think we're all Bozos on this bus."
"Detail Dress Circuits" "Belt: Above A, Below B" "Close B ClothesMode"

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

Date: Tue, 1 Dec 92 15:26:24 GMT
From: Dave Jones <[e-mail]>
Subject: NASA has 5 hand grenades still on the moon from Apollo missions
Newsgroups: sci.space

[e-mail] wrote:
> I was listening to the radio this morning when the announcer
> stated "The most expensive junk yard is out-of-this world".  He
> went on to say that NASA has over $500 million of salvageable
> junk up on the moon.  Among the items listed were golf balls,
> color TV sets, flags, and 5 hand grenades.
>
> What are 5 hand grenades doing on the moon and why would NASA
> send them up with the astronauts???
>
> Inquiring mines want to know...

Wasn't there an Urban Legend to the effect that Armstrong & Co. were
issued .45 automatics just in case?

--
||------------------------------------------------------------------------
||Dave Jones ([e-mail])|Eastman Kodak Co. Rochester, NY  |

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

Date: 1 Dec 92 13:57:37 GMT
From: "Allen W. Sherzer" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Shuttle replacement
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Brian Stuart Thorn) writes:

>    I don't know about the DC, but it probably will avoid
>    a blackout zone, too, if Mc-D leases TDRS space from NASA or something.

No, American Airlines will avoid blackout if they lease TDRS space. Mc-D
builds them but likely won't want to operate them if and when there is a
large demand for them.

  Allen
--
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Allen W. Sherzer | "A great man is one who does nothing but leaves        |
|  [e-mail]     |  nothing undone"                                       |
+----------------------144 DAYS TO FIRST FLIGHT OF DCX----------------------+

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

Date: 1 Dec 92 14:35:09 GMT
From: "Allen W. Sherzer" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Shuttle replacement
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Robert B. Whitehurst) writes:

>    I'd be very surprised if the pad is "just" a support.  One of
>the problems with the recent (test? use?) of an MX booster as a
>commercial launcher was severe acoustic loading due to its launch from
>an unimproved site.

I think the fact that they use solids would also be a major factor.

>I would expect a pad with exhaust diverters, water quenching, etc. to
>reduce similar loads on a DC (or any big rocket for that matter).

Nope. In fact, acoustic load is actually better than an airliner since
it goes straight up and doesn't fly low over populated areas.

>>Total turnaround is expected to cost around $10 million. I have seen figures
>>for ground crew size and from memory is was on the order of 10 people.

>    I'd be REAL skeptical of this.

Well that's what their task analysis says. We will know for sure in a year
or so.

   Allen
--
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Allen W. Sherzer | "A great man is one who does nothing but leaves        |
|  [e-mail]     |  nothing undone"                                       |
+----------------------144 DAYS TO FIRST FLIGHT OF DCX----------------------+

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

Date: 1 Dec 92 18:23:46 GMT
From: Pat <[e-mail]>
Subject: Shuttle replacement
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Gary Coffman) writes:
>
>Well that's true, but that three year delay wasn't the fault of Shuttle,
>it was the fault of the managers who refused to listen to MT engineers
>who said it was too cold to launch. And it was the fault of a bureaucracy
>who stopped the world instead of putting strip heaters on the joints, or
>saying "Gee I guess we *really* shouldn't launch when it's that cold" and
>continuing to launch. It was the fault of a risk averse America.
>

Gary,  i reccomend you read the rogers commision report.  Henry has
and he doesnt think this way.  There were numerous problems with the SRBs
and it took a significant period of time, i.e. 3 years before they
finished arguing about the cause of the shuttle loss.  remember  that
even in warm weather they were getting o-ring burn through.  remember
that it turned out the aft struts had significantly less margin of safety
then they were supposed to.  realize that the Field joint mechanical
characteristic was exactly the reverse of what they had intended.

the three year hiatus was vital for fixing numerous problems, many of which could have led to total loss of the shuttle.   now if this were an
experimental test program, you push on.  The X-15 was losing aircraft/space
craft.  they were killing pilots,  they were having major problems,  but it was an   experimental research program.
losing a shuttle with the HST would have been an unmitigated disaster.
losing the CGRO would have been a disiaster.  lsoing galileo would have
been a major problem.   Cargo carrying,  crewed  semi-operational
vehicles would have been a major problem.......

Gary  i think you should study under what conditions risk is applied,
before you grandly declare it was a risk averse america.
Remember,  we ground entire airline fleets and military birds when
problems are detected and fixes are applied.  the AH-64 spent half its
life until 1988 grounded for one problem or another.  the F-14s spent
months flying under restricted conditions because they kept stalling
and falling into the water.  the DC-10 spent months grounded after
chicago.  they forced groundings of 747s pening emergency inspections
of cargo hatches after the UAL problem..... operational aircraft are
always restricited until they know and understand the problem.  we dont
want anymore comets.

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

Date: 1 Dec 92 13:43:14 GMT
From: Chris Jones <[e-mail]>
Subject: Soyuz escape system (was:  Re: Shuttle replacement)
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]>, sbooth@lonestar (Simon E. Booth) writes:
>I read in James Oberg's book "Uncovering Soviet Disasters" that supposedly
>the first manned launch abort was in 1975 involving a Soyuz launch.  Apparently
>the cosmonauts fired the escape rockets when the booster vehicle exploded after
>lift-off.  They rode to a rough landing but otherwise survived.

As I said in <[e-mail]>, there have been two reported Soyuz launch aborts.
Your story sounds like a corruption of the two.  One abort involved firing the
escape rocket, but this was done by the launch controllers in a blockhouse (not
by the cosmonauts in the spacecraft), and, although the booster had caught
fire, it hadn't lifted off.  Whether the booster eventually exploded rather
than continuing to burn fiercely is not clear to me, so those of you who care
about such things can research further.  Seconds passed from the decision to
abort to the actual firing of the escape rockets as the first attempt to fire
the escape rockets failed due the the fire having burned through some
electrical connections.  Another system using radio was used to fire the
rockets (why they didn't just radio the cosmonauts and tell them to eject is an
interesting question--I have to believe they have the capability to fire the
tower from within the spacecraft).

The other launch abort took place after the first two stages of the rocket and
the escape tower and shroud had all been jettisoned.  While the third stage was
firing to place the Soyuz in orbit, some malfunction took place which caused it
to deviate from the correct path.  At this point the Soyuz was separated from
the booster and made a steep reentry, subjecting the cosmonauts to higher than
normal G forces.  I've read that US monitoring of their communications during
descent revealed that their greatest concern was that they would land in China
(they ended up landing in the Soviet Union, rather close to the Chinese
border).
--
Chris Jones    [e-mail]

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

Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1992 14:41:26 GMT
From: "Allen W. Sherzer" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Soyuz escape system (was:  Re: Shuttle replacement)
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Simon E. Booth) writes:

>I read in James Oberg's book "Uncovering Soviet Disasters" that supposedly
>the first manned launch abort was in 1975 involving a Soyuz launch.  Apparently
>the cosmonauts fired the escape rockets when the booster vehicle exploded
>after lift-off.

This implies that the Titan accident in 86 would also have been
survivable to a crew in a capsule with an excape rocket.

   Allen

--
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Allen W. Sherzer | "A great man is one who does nothing but leaves        |
|  [e-mail]     |  nothing undone"                                       |
+----------------------144 DAYS TO FIRST FLIGHT OF DCX----------------------+

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

Date: 1 Dec 92 17:29:34 GMT
From: Pawel Moskalik <[e-mail]>
Subject: Soyuz escape system (was:  Re: Shuttle replacement)
Newsgroups: sci.space

OK you are right, I have forgotten about this first incident. But your description is not accurate.

There have been indeed TWO occasions when Russians used their
escape system.
First accident occured on Apr 5th, 1975. The third stage of the Soyuz launcher
did not work properly (there was no fire) The escape system separated the
spacecraft from the stack. The spacecraft landed safely in Altay mountains,
although g-forces have been very high. The crew was Lazarev and Makarov.
Makarov was flying in space twice after the incident.

Second accident occured on 27 sep 1983. The rocket caught fire on the
launch pad. The crew was Titov and Strekalov. Both survived unharmed
and both have been flying in space afterwards. Titov is still active.


Pawel Moskalik


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

Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1992 08:38:05 GMT
From: "Eric A. Raymond" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Spaceborne Artificial Intelligence, Anyone?
Newsgroups: comp.ai,sci.space

Our group has two near term "AI" projects going up on shuttle in the
next few months: SHOOT AFDeX and ASA.

  AFDeX (pronounced \'af-dek\)* is a system which provides autonomous
  control, diagnosis, and error recovery of a cryogenics payload
  called SHOOT.  The system is designed to control the experiment in
  real-time without support from ground yet provide the crew with a
  high-level interface to monitor and modify the behaviour of the
  system.

  ASA (Astronaut Science Advisor) is a system which schedules crew
  experiments with an instrument, monitors data, and modifies the
  schedule (protocol) based upon it's analysis of the data and the
  time remaining.  The experiment itself deals with vestibular
  physiology using a device called a Rotating Dome.**


AFDeX runs on a standard piece of shuttle hardware called a PGSC (a
flight qualified 80386 laptop).  ASA runs on a flight qualified Apple
Macintosh Powerbook.


Although I believe there is nothing special about computer programs
running in space versus those bound to to Earth (or for that matter,
"AI" .vs. sophisticated "traditional" computer programs), I am
interested in news of other space related AI projects.

Will these programs be the first of their "type" to fly in space?


(*)  The X in AFDeX is a greek chi.  A verbal pun of Shuttle's "Aft
     Deck" or Aft Flight Deck (hence AFD in NASA'ese) where the system
     will run.

(**) I am probably not doing justice to the ASA project.  I am
     less familiar with that system than my own.

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

Date: 1 Dec 92 18:05:56 GMT
From: Pat <[e-mail]>
Subject: Terminal Velocity of DCX? (was Re: Shuttle ...)
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Josh 'K' Hopkins) writes:
>[e-mail] (Thomas Clarke) writes:
>
>>By the way.  Why not use a parachute to get rid of the final 50
>>meters per second or so.  Would a chute be lighter than the extra fuel?
>
>I believe the trade studies suggested that parachutes wouldn't save very much
>mass and that the extra effort required to repack the 'chutes after every
>mission would be significant.  Parachutes for vehicles that massive get pretty
>large and complicated themselves.
>--


High performance specialty chutes  cost a minor fortune.  they are used
for army cargo drops or weapon drogues, but they arent cheap.
Also they do increase system complexity.   if the chute fails to open
you need an extra chute or if you use triple chutes you need to
be able to eject the failed one.  unless you guarantee it wont foul
the others.   otherwise you still have to have the engines as a
backup for chute failure.   also with chutes, now you are
vulnerable to wind gusts and you lose significant descent control.
747's dont land as gliders because they need the power, nor do they pop
chutes and gently drifyt down.

Now i know this would make gary coffman happy, no more blazing balls of
ROCKET FUEL crashing into DISNEYLAND!!!!!!  so maybe we should compromise
system design, throw away the manueverability to SHUT UP GARY.

pat
(Absolutely no subliminal messages in my sig)

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

Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1992 14:26:51 GMT
From: "Allen W. Sherzer" <[e-mail]>
Subject: What comes after DC-1
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:

>DC-1, the commercial orbital version of the Delta Clipper is
>a long way off

That is largely up to us. If we can get the research prototypes (DCX and
DCY) funded then we could have a working airline certified Delta Clipper
by the end of the decade.

   Allen
--
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Allen W. Sherzer | "A great man is one who does nothing but leaves        |
|  [e-mail]     |  nothing undone"                                       |
+----------------------144 DAYS TO FIRST FLIGHT OF DCX----------------------+

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

Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1992 14:39:10 GMT
From: "Allen W. Sherzer" <[e-mail]>
Subject: What is the SSTO enabling technology?
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Gregory N. Bond) writes:

>My understanding is that an SSTO project has only just crossed the
>line of possible, hence the interest in the DC-X & followon.  What is
>the main changing technology that makes an SSTO possible?

According to the assessment of SSX done by the Aerospace Corporation, it
is now possible dur to slight improvements in the specific impulse of
engines and some new lighter materials.

Others say that it has been possible for a long time.

The main problem (as is often the case) is the preconceptions of the
people involved. This is a radical departure from the usual and that
takes time to absorb.

  Allen

--
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Allen W. Sherzer | "A great man is one who does nothing but leaves        |
|  [e-mail]     |  nothing undone"                                       |
+----------------------144 DAYS TO FIRST FLIGHT OF DCX----------------------+

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

Date: 1 Dec 92 17:11:56 GMT
From: Jim Lattis <[e-mail]>
Subject: who was Jack Parsons?
Newsgroups: sci.space

Has anyone ever heard of this guy?
He's supposed to have been an early rocket guy
at Cal Tech before the days of JPL, killed in an explosion in 1952.
I've heard he was also involved with L. Ron Hubbard (of Scientology
ill-fame) in the early days.  I'd appreciate any pointers to information
about him.  Thanks.  -jim lattis, space astronomy lab

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End of Space Digest Volume 15 : Issue 482
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