Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V16_9/V16NO998.TXT

Text File | 1993-08-13 | 17KB | 422 lines

Space Digest                Sat,  7 Aug 93       Volume 16 : Issue 998

Today's Topics:
                        Astronaut Biographies
                             black holes
                           Exploding Heads
                          Future War? Ideas!
                         Happy Birthday, NASA
                     Mar's Observer's First Photo
                 Mars Observer's First Photo (3 msgs)
                   Mars Observer Update - 08/02/93
                        new nasa wind tunnels
    Renaming Mars Observer (was Mars Observer Update - 08/02/93)
                           Titan IV Failure

    Welcome to the Space Digest!!  Please send your messages to
    "[e-mail]", and (un)subscription requests of the form
    "Subscribe Space <your name>" to one of these addresses: listserv@uga
    (BITNET), rice::boyle (SPAN/NSInet), utadnx::utspan::rice::boyle
    (THENET), or [e-mail] (Internet).
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sat, 7 Aug 1993 00:35:11 GMT
From: "Gerald G. Marfoe" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Astronaut Biographies
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article [e-mail], [e-mail] () writes:
>
> I am looking for detailed biographical information for all NASA
> astronauts in all programs. Anyone know how I can get this information?
>
>
> Thanks!
> -Scott
>

Try the NASA Spacelink BBS. You can telnet to it -
type "telnet spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov" and follow the instructions. The
astronaut biographies are in one of the menus. They may be a bit dated
though - last time I looked, they hadn't been updated since June 1992.

---

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gerald G. Marfoe                    |"Mirabile visu. Mirabilia/Et itur ad astra
InterNet: [e-mail]    |... Suus cuique mos. Suum cuique.../
          [e-mail]   |Memento, terrigena./Memento, vita brevis."
                                    |- "Afer Ventus", Enya, "Shepherd Moons"

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

Date: 7 Aug 1993 03:00:32 GMT
From: "David B. Lapadula" <[e-mail]>
Subject: black holes
Newsgroups: sci.space

[e-mail] wrote:
: The event horizon of a black hole is not some magical boundry. It is the point
: from which a BALI
: STIC partical would have to be traveling ftl to escape.
: If the partical were acelerated by an adjasent gravity well it could be pulled
: out of the previous boundry. Actualy what would happen is that the gravity
: well of a nearby object would change the shape of the event horizon.IMHO

The event horizon IS where you have to travel faster than light (ftl) to
escape, whether you are a particle or a wave. Hence, ignoring unproven items
such as tachyons, nothing escapes a black hole. (You can circle the black
hole at the event horizon, but not escape it. Since light is also bent as
you travel around, given enough magnification, as you circled at the EH you
would see in front of you your behind! And if you looked in back of you,
you'd see the back of your head!)

The shape of an EH cannot be changed by another object. (Aside from 2 black
holes merging and creating a larger one, or the current BH gaining mass and
extending its reach.) Think of it as the start of an infinitely deep well -
even if you could create a bulge in the side it is STILL  infinitely deep.
Besides, anything that might affect the continuum would be close enough to
be drawn into the BH itself. Actually, it MIGHT be drawn in.

Anyways, due to time dilation, as you approach the EH the outside universe
would appear to speed up when, in actuality, it is you who are slowing
down. (Assuming a stationary BH, 'natch.) So forget about it. For all
practical purposes, the EH is where you wave bye bye to the universe.

Dave Lapadula

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

Date: Sat, 7 Aug 1993 06:41:34 GMT
From: Henry Spencer <[e-mail]>
Subject: Exploding Heads
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
>DCI is more of a long term disorder, it takes hours...  The various lung
>expansion injuries and arterial gas emboli are more likely to do a quick kill.

Actually, the biggest problem (probably) is the obvious one:  anoxia.
Pressure-related injuries of any kind aren't all that quick; skin is
tough stuff and holds pressure moderately well.  But you would run out
of oxygen much more quickly than in any Earth-surface accident.  On
Earth, there is several *minutes* worth of oxygen in your lungs, if
you can suppress the breathing reflex by minimizing CO2 buildup (which
is what hyperventilation does -- it doesn't add extra oxygen), but
trying to hold your breath in vacuum is likely to cause the lung
injuries Dillon mentions.  And if you avoid lung injury by not holding
your breath, not only do you lose the air in your lungs, but you will
be losing oxygen out of the blood steadily through your lungs.  Both
the period of consciousness and the time before serious damage sets
in will be considerably shorter than the Earth-surface equivalents.
--
Altruism is a fine motive, but if you   | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
want results, greed works much better.  |  [e-mail]  utzoo!henry

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

From: Richard Hyde <[e-mail]>
Subject: Future War? Ideas!
Newsgroups: sci.space

Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL8]
References: <[e-mail]>
Distribution: sci
Date: Sat, 7 Aug 1993 01:16:11 GMT
Lines: 24
Sender: [e-mail]
Source-Info:  Sender is really [e-mail]

[e-mail] wrote:
: > Weapons of choice for maximum nastiness are biowar and gragu
: > (grey-goo:  omnivourous nanotechnology.)  Biowar would require that


: And I for one would heartily back the automatic death penalty for
: anyone taking part or authorizing, or assisting in the construction
: of such a gross abuse of nanotechnology. I would word it such that
: the guilty parties identities would be advertised world wide and that
: a large bounty would be paid by the United Nations (or other) for the
: confirmed death of each one of them.

Too little, too late.  We had better have a crash program to develop
nano-vaccines (nano-antibodies?) as a first priority for the technology.

If "gragu" can be made, it will, and legislating the death penalty for
suicide has always been a useless idea.

-r

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|   Richard Hyde  |  [e-mail]  |  This space intentionally left blank  |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: 7 Aug 93 01:37:56 GMT
From: "S.H." <[e-mail]>
Subject: Happy Birthday, NASA
Newsgroups: sci.math,sci.space

>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
> A simple montage camera I designed has an array of pinholes arranged on
>a box. Sheet film goes in the box. Uncover each pinhole to expose each
>part of the film. Making pinhole cameras is excellent therapy :-)
>
>=========================================================================
>>-Jim Michael      Standard disclaimers    Ask me about my vow of silence.


May I see the schematics of you Montage camera ?

Where have you tested you camera ?

What kind of film have  you used ?



S.H. | " IBM is sold."
     | " Who bought it ? "

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

Date: 7 Aug 93 06:40:25 GMT
From: "S.H." <[e-mail]>
Subject: Mar's Observer's First Photo
Newsgroups: sci.space

Donald L. Savage
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                     August 5, 1993
(Phone:  [phone])


NOTE TO EDITORS:  N93-43

FIRST PHOTOGRAPH OF MARS FROM MARS OBSERVER AVAILABLE

     NASA's Mars Observer spacecraft returned its first image of
Mars taken last week when the spacecraft was 3.6 million miles
(5.8 million kilometers) from the red planet.
                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^
                      ?

     The photograph was taken using the Mars Observer Camera's
(MOC) high resolution narrow-angle telescope as a technical
check-out of the camera, the data management system and other
systems on board the spacecraft and on Earth, including NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and the MOC
operations facility at Malin Space Science Systems, Inc., San
Diego. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^^^^^    ???

     Mars Observer will orbit Mars on Aug. 24 and global mapping
operations will begin Dec. 16.

     The B & W photograph is available by calling NASA's
Broadcast and Imaging Branch at 202/358-1900.  Photo number is
93-H-398.


- end -
     ___    _____     ___
    /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|     Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
    | | | |  __ \ /| | | |     Jet Propulsion Lab |
 ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |__   M/S 525-3684 Telos | When given a choice between
/___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /| Pasadena, CA 91109 | two exciting things, choose
|_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/                     | the one you haven't tried.
                            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

                                      ????,????


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

Date: Sat, 7 Aug 1993 01:04:33 GMT
From: "Stephen M. Linscott" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Mars Observer's First Photo
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.astro,alt.sci.planetary

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

>
>In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] writes...
>>> It won't be available for FTP until somebody gets a copy and scans it in.
>>> NASA's PR people are still in the dark ages when it comes to electronic
>>> availability of such things.
>>> --
>>Not always true.  As I recall, Ron Baalke has on occation provided
>>images for ftp shortly after an announcement.  I assume that he scans
>>itimself, which, therefore depends on his free time.  But I've
>>gotten a few images while waiting for the mail to arrive.
>>
>

   Ron replies:

>I can't speak for the other NASA centers, but the Public Information Office
>at JPL purchased a color scanner last year specifically to scan in the
>public released photos and convert them to GIF images.  The Mars Observer
>image is now available at the JPL ftp site (see my previous post).
>I don't do the actual scanning, but I may prod the PIO people every
>once in a while.

   Ron - Thanks for replying to the whining and sarcasm in your usual
professional manner.  I appreciate the information you post.

                                                        - Steve -

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

Date: Sat, 7 Aug 1993 06:44:17 GMT
From: Henry Spencer <[e-mail]>
Subject: Mars Observer's First Photo
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.astro,alt.sci.planetary

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Dave Michelson) writes:
>>Has any thought been given to doing a direct (digital) VICAR=>GIF
>>conversion and skipping the Print-Scan process?
>
>You missed the point.  The original images are held back for a year until
>the science teams have a chance to complete their work and make their
>submissions to archival journals.  The "publicly released" photos are
>intended only for use by the media and their resolution is intentionally
>degraded...

Dave missed the point (partially). :-)  If all they want to do is degrade
resolution, dynamic range, etc., that is easy to do digitally, without
the cumbersome kludge of printing the image out and re-scanning it.
--
Altruism is a fine motive, but if you   | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
want results, greed works much better.  |  [e-mail]  utzoo!henry

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

Date: Sat, 7 Aug 1993 07:33:31 GMT
From: Dave Michelson <[e-mail]>
Subject: Mars Observer's First Photo
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.astro,alt.sci.planetary

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Henry Spencer) writes:
>
>>>Has any thought been given to doing a direct (digital) VICAR=>GIF
>>>conversion and skipping the Print-Scan process?
>>
>>You missed the point.  The original images are held back for a year until
>>the science teams have a chance to complete their work and make their
>>submissions to archival journals.  The "publicly released" photos are
>>intended only for use by the media and their resolution is intentionally
>>degraded...
>
>Dave missed the point (partially). :-)  If all they want to do is degrade
>resolution, dynamic range, etc., that is easy to do digitally, without
>the cumbersome kludge of printing the image out and re-scanning it.

Well, it wouldn't be the first time :-)

I suspect that NASA simply has a policy that no original data, filtered or
otherwise, can be distributed.  Scanned images of photos from press releases
would be an obvious exception since NASA has no control over the photos once
they're distributed anyway.  Once again, someone in the know would be able
to confirm or refute this.

Actually, this brings up an interesting point.  What form does the media
want imagery to be provided in?  With the increasing use of workstations
in newspaper and magazine publishing, it might not be too long before they
start asking for the imagery to be provided in digital form...

--
Dave Michelson  --  [e-mail]  --  University of British Columbia

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

Date: 7 Aug 1993 01:41:26 GMT
From: Chris DuPuis <[e-mail]>
Subject: Mars Observer Update - 08/02/93
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.astro,alt.sci.planetary

[e-mail] (Dave Michelson) writes:

>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Innocent Bystander) writes:
>>>
>>>Anyone have any bright ideas for an appropriate name?  Maybe it's not
>>>too late....   :-)
>>>
>>
>>Barsoom?

>Umm, excuse my ignorance, but what is the significance of "Barsoom"?

Barsoom is the name that Martians use for their planet, according to the
novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs. I think he wrote sometime in the '20s.
He's also the creator of Tarzan.


--
Christopher DuPuis    [e-mail]

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

Date: 06 Aug 93 22:22 PDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: new nasa wind tunnels
Newsgroups: sci.space

anyone know anything about the new wind tunnels nasa is planning to build?
they may be for commercial transport design.  size? mach no? reynolds no?
tom

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

Date: Fri, 06 Aug 93 21:40:09 PST
From: [e-mail] (John Hardin at home)
Subject: Renaming Mars Observer (was Mars Observer Update - 08/02/93)

Dave Michelson sez:
} I suppose Mars Observer could have been named after an astronomer who had
} made important early observations but I don't think that names like
} "Schroter" or "Schiaparelli" would capture the public's imagination.
}
} Anyone have any bright ideas for an appropriate name?  Maybe it's not
} too late....   :-)
}
} --
} Dave Michelson  --  [e-mail]  --  University of British Columbia
}

Percival Lowell (sp? - all my books are packed) is another obvious choice.


--
----------------------------------------------------------------
 John Hardin
 [e-mail]   [e-mail]

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

Date: 6 Aug 93 18:36:51 GMT
From: Bruce Watson <[e-mail]>
Subject: Titan IV Failure
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <23pi7k$[e-mail]| [e-mail] (Pat) writes:
|
| A correspondent tells me the T4, was carrying a triple satellitte
|payload,  the three birds were supposed to work in tandem.
|
|What are the odds this was supposed to be some sort of
|Interferometry package?  Optical?  radio?
|
NOSS (Naval Ocean Surveillance System), Radio Interferometric. The
first triple NOSS dates back to 1983.

--
Bruce Watson ([e-mail])

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

End of Space Digest Volume 16 : Issue 998
------------------------------