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Space Digest Sun, 8 Aug 93 Volume 17 : Issue 001
Today's Topics:
6 million parts...
DC-X Update 8/6/93 (4 msgs)
Do astronauts use sleeping pills? (2 msgs)
engine failures and safety
Exploding Heads
Info on the upcomming Perseid shower
new nasa wind tunnels
Refit/Rebuild old Rockets! Low Tech? Standardize! (3 msgs)
What is ZHR?
Why I hate the space shuttle (2 msgs)
Welcome to the Space Digest!! Please send your messages to
"space@isu.isunet.edu", 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 space-REQUEST@isu.isunet.edu (Internet).
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 7 Aug 1993 15:18:54 GMT
From: Quagga <quagga@trystero.com>
Subject: 6 million parts...
Newsgroups: sci.space
In article <CBCp9n.CLp.1@cs.cmu.edu> amon@elegabalus.cs.qub.ac.uk writes:
>> Seems to me that I heard that this was actually said by one of the
>> Mercury astronauts during an interview on a Florida radio station
>and
>> went something like, "You are sitting out there on top of one of
>the
>> most complex, powerful things ever put together, and you know that
>all
>> 6 million parts were let to the lowest bidder. How would *you*
>feel?"
>>
>
>
>Not a legend. It is quoted on the To The Moon record set by
>Time/Life, circa 1970.
>
Golly, synchronicity! I was just suggesting to the keeperof the SPACE-TRIVIA
list that he perhaps start a "pithy astronaut sayings" section, and start it
with this quote. It's Michael Collins, Apollo 11 CMP, and is quoted in his
book "Carrying The Fire" which you might find interesting..
equus quagga.
quagga@trystero.com
"But you can call me Cheryl.."
"I have found that a non-opening parachute will get your
COMPLETE and UNDIVIDED attention very very quickly." -me.
------------------------------
Date: 7 Aug 1993 14:39:02 -0500
From: hvanderbilt@BIX.com
Subject: DC-X Update 8/6/93
Newsgroups: sci.space
DC-X Update, August 6th, 1993
Copyright 1993 by Henry Vanderbilt and Space Access Society.
DC-X Test Program Status
DC-X Background
DC-X is a low-speed flight regime testbed for a proposed reusable rocket-
powered Single Stage To Orbit (SSTO) transport, McDonnell-Douglas Aerospace's
"Delta Clipper". DC-X is intended to prove out rocket-powered vertical
takeoff, nose-first lifting-body to tail-first flight transition, and tail-
first landing. It is also intended to prove out rapid turnaround of a
reusable rocket by a minimal ground support crew. DC-X is being tested and
flown by approximately thirty people.
DC-X has already pretty much proved out rapid low-cost development of an
advanced aerospace X-vehicle type engineering testbed by a small highly-
motivated engineering team on a tight budget. DC-X was built by less than
two hundred people, in less than two years, for about $60 million. Of
course, this sort of thing has been done before -- just not recently.
DC-X stands 40 feet tall, is 13 feet across the base, and is roughly cone-
shaped, with a circular cross-section forward blending into a square base.
The vehicle has four maneuvering flaps, one set into each side near the base,
and sits on four landing legs. DC-X masses 22,300 lbs empty and 41,630 lbs
fully fuelled, and is powered by four 13,500 lb thrust Pratt & Whitney RL-10-
A5 liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen rocket motors, each able to gimbal +- 8
degrees. The RL-10-A5 is a special version of the RL-10-A designed for wide
throttling range (30% to 100%) and sea-level operation.
The single DC-X vehicle was officially rolled out of its construction hangar
at MDA's Huntington Beach CA plant at the start of April, then trucked out to
White Sands, New Mexico for ground and then flight tests.
Between Thursday, May 20th and Thursday, June 17th, DC-X underwent a series
of nine engine firings/vehicle systems exercises, including two firings in
one day with complete defueling/vehicle servicing/refueling in between.
On Friday, June 18th, the DC-X crew began breaking down the ground support
equipment and moving it to the White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) flight test
site, a distance of about fifty miles. Meanwhile DC-X was stored in a hangar.
On Friday, July 16th, the ground support equipment move was completed. DC-X
was taken out of storage, trucked out to the flight test site, and hoisted
upright onto its launch pad.
On Monday, July 19th, the DC-X crew began running a series of ground tests to
make sure everything had made it over intact and was hooked back together
properly.
Latest DC-X Flight Date Estimates
DC-X is currently at the White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) flight test site,
undergoing final ground checkout before flight test gets underway.
The pre-flight checkout looks like culminating in a "burp test" this weekend.
This will be a four-second "hot firing" of DC-X's engines, with DC-X locked
down on the launch pad, to check that all the plumbing is OK. The plan is to
do this tomorrow, Saturday. If things run late they'll come back and do it
Sunday. Up till now they've generally been taking Sundays off.
If this hot firing test doesn't find any problems, the "bunny hop" flight
stability test series should start one week later. The first of these
stability test flights is tentatively set for -- wait for it -- Friday the
13th, with Saturday and Sunday of that weekend as the backup dates.
These flights will consist of takeoff, sideways transition of several hundred
feet, and landing, done under varying wind conditions. A lot of people will
be keeping their fingers crossed during the initial "bunny hop", as it will
be the first real-world test of DC-X's stability at low speed and altitude, a
critical and hard-to-simulate part of the VTOL (Vertical Takeoff and Landing)
flight envelope.
The official "first" DC-X flight will actually be the initial flight of the
second test series, when they'll be going for higher speeds and altitude.
This will be the one with speeches, hoopla, VIP's, and media coverage, but
alas still no admission of the general public. Chances are good for TV
coverage though, between NASA Select, local TV stations, and the national
networks. Chances are too that you'll have a better view on TV, since the
"VIP" viewing site will be five miles from the pad.
At this point the "first" flight looks like taking place two weekends from
now. McDonnell Douglas says "no later than Monday August 23rd", assuming all
goes well in the meantime. Given that the invitations mention a tour of the
test site the day before, with the actual flight at 8 am local time (10 am
Eastern), Sunday the 22nd seems most likely, with the 23rd as backup date.
This assumes that they want to let the invitees fit the trip into a weekend.
This may not be the DC-X crew's highest priority, however, and rightly so.
The end-for-end transition maneuver won't be tried until the third, final
flight test series.
DC-X Followon: Political Status
Background
The current DC-X program is funded through flight test and data analysis this
fall, and ends after that. There is an ongoing effort to get the US Congress
to fund a three-year followon program, currently called SX-2 (Space
Experimental 2). This tentatively looks like being a reusable suborbital
vehicle powered by 8 RL-10-A5 engines, capable of reaching Mach 6 (about 1/4
orbital velocity) and 100 miles altitude, built with orbital-weight tanks and
structure, and able to test orbital grade heat-shielding.
The SX-2 program goal will be to demonstrate all remaining technology needed
to build a reusable single-stage-to-orbit vehicle. Once SX-2 has been
tested, all that should be necessary to produce a functioning reusable SSTO
is to scale up the SX-2 structures and install new larger rocket engines.
Proposed FY '94 funding for SX-2 startup is $75 million. Total SX-2 program
cost over the next three years would be very much dependent on the contractor
chosen and the details of the design, but would be on the order of several
hundred million. This is the same order of magnitude as typical recent X-
aircraft programs such as the X-29 and X-31.
The $75 million SX-2 startup money now looks like being added to the Advanced
Research Project Agency (ARPA) budget, with at least some of the funding in
following years to come from other interested arms of the government. SX-2
would still be run by the current BMDO (formerly SDIO) DC-X management team,
even though funded via ARPA, at least under the current House version of the
FY '94 Defense Authorization Bill.
The House of Representatives now seems favorably disposed toward SX-2. The
biggest hurdle ahead this year will probably be convincing the Senate to go
along when the House-Senate conference committee meets to work out the
differences between the two versions of next year's Defense budget.
Update, Friday, August 6th
** This is the section of the House Defense Authorization Bill approved last
** week that covers DC-X (SSRT) Followon.
Section 217, Single Stage Rocket Technology
(a) Program Funding -- the Secretary of Defense shall establish a Single
Stage Rocket Technology program and shall provide funds for that program
within funds available for the Advanced Research Projects Agency. That
program shall be managed within the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense
for Acquisition.
(b) Funding -- Of the amount appropriated pursuant to section 201 for
Defense-wide activities, $79,880,000 shall be available for, and may be
obligated only for, Single Stage Rocket Technology.
** This is the section of the report accompanying the House Defense
** Authorization Bill that covers DC-X Followon. The report language is
** intended to clarify the intent of the bill.
From The House of Representatives Committee on Armed Services
Report on the FY '94 Defense Department Authorization Bill, H.R. 2401
H. Rpt. 103-200, 103rd Congress, 3rd Session; July 30th, 1993, pp. 172-173
Single Stage Rocket Technology
The budget request included $4.88 million for single stage rocket technology
(SSRT), also known as single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO), within the Ballistic
Missile Defense Office (BMDO) follow-on technologies program to complete the
final testing in phase one of the program.
The United States spends over $30 billion each year on space programs. Yet,
unlike many other commercial activities that have benefitted and achieved
greater efficiencies from military research and development, U.S. commercial
launch costs are at least twice -- and in some instances as much as ten times
-- the costs of foreign competitors. Similarly, it takes the United States at
least four times as long to provide launch services to any given user.
The Congress must remain skeptical and avoid fully embracing the sometimes
overly optimistic claims regarding SSRT/SSTO technology. Yet, if the United
States is to regain its international competitiveness in this critically
important military and economic area, it must pursue promising enabling space
launch technologies that have the potential of dramatic reductions in launch
costs.
Accordingly, the committee recommends the following:
(1) Transitioning SSRT/SSTO from BMDO to a "Space Launch Technology" program
element within the Advanced Research Projects Agency.
(2) Continuing with the current management team.
(3) Adding an additional $75 million to begin phase two of the program.
(4) Conducting an open competition among aerospace companies for phase two of
the program.
(5) Examining options for DOD, other government agencies/departments, and
industry cost sharing opportunities.
None of the additional funds recommended to be authorized may be obligated
until the congressional defense committees have been provided with a phase
two program plan outlining objectives and technical milestones and certifying
that funding support has been established for fiscal years 1995 and 1996.
** End of report excerpt
On the whole, this looks good. The open competition clause is no great
surprise -- McDonnell-Douglas obviously would have liked a no-bid contract
that would guarantee them another major step toward an operational Delta
Clipper, but a no-bid on a program of this size would be extraordinary. As
it is, MDA will probably have the inside track on SX-2 _if_ DC-X flight test
goes well. Chances are though that Lockheed, and possibly Boeing and
Rockwell too, will also bid. General Dynamics, alas, seems too busy
dismantling itself to take an interest.
One possible problem with this report language is in the last paragraph, the
phrase about "certifying funding support for fiscal years 1995 and 1996".
Our best guess as to what this means is that ARPA will have to find major
funding sponsors in other government agencies and/or private industry for the
hundred million-plus '95 and '96 SX-2 budgets, before ARPA can go ahead with
any major SX-2 startup spending. Multi-agency/multi-company funding is
likely to complicate SX-2 politically, with some danger of it bogging down
the way NASP has. We will need to watch for signs of this over the next few
years, assuming we do get SX-2 startup funded.
Meanwhile, Congress has left on its August recess. They won't be back in
session until the second week of September, barring national emergencies.
Both the House and Senate left town with Defense Authorization bills out of
committee but not yet approved "on the floor" (by the entire membership).
The House version contains the above language, the Senate version contains
much less favorable language mentioning SSTO along with NASP and Spacelifter
in a single $30 million USAF line item.
Neither the House nor the Senate is likely to amend the SSRT sections of their
Defense Authorization bills during floor debate. We could wish for favorable
amendment on the Senate floor, and it's worth asking for, but it doesn't seem
likely to happen.
Once the full House and Senate approve their Defense Authorizations, the next
milestone is the House-Senate Conference Committee, when the two bodies will
resolve differences in the two versions of next year's DOD budget. This will
be critical to us; we need to get the House version SSRT wording adopted. The
House-Senate Defense Authorization conference should be in mid-September.
After that, the Appropriations process starts, in which the Congress "writes
the check", so to speak, for the projects approved in the Authorizations bill.
More on this next week.
SAS Action Recommendations
If you have any contacts in the Senate Armed Services Committee, go on
working them low-key -- there's no telling who will be on the Conference
Committee, and we'll need all the help we can get on the Senate side when
that eventually gets underway.
Other than that, stay tuned for updates, and enjoy the summer.
Senate Armed Services Committee Members List
Name office# phone fax (AC 202)
("Senator XYZ", office#, "Washington DC 20510" will get mail to them)
Sam Nunn (D-GA, chairman) SD-303 224-3521 224-0072
Bob Smith (R-NH, RRM) SD-332 224-2841 224-1353
James Exon (D-NE) SH-330 224-4224 224-5213
John McCain (R-AZ) SR-111 224-2235 224-8938
Richard C. Shelby (D-AL) SH-313 224-5744 224-3416
Joseph I. Lieberman (D-CT) SH-502 224-4041 224-9750
Bob Graham (D-FL) SD-241 224-3041 224-6843
Dirk Kempthorne (D-ID) SDB40-3 224-6142 224-5893
William S. Cohen (R-ME) SH-322 224-2523 224-2693
Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) SR-315 224-4543 224-2417
Carl Levin (D-MI) SR-459 224-6221 224-1388
Dan Coats (R-IN) SR-504 224-5623 224-1966
Trent Lott (R-MS) SR-487 224-6253 224-2262
Lauch Faircloth (R-NC) SH-716 224-3154 224-7406
Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) SH-524 224-5521 224-1810
John Glenn (D-OH) SH-503 224-3353 224-7983
Strom Thurmond (R-SC) SR-217 224-5972 224-1300
John Warner (R-VA) SR-225 224-2023 224-6295
Charles S. Robb (D-VA) SR-493 224-4024 224-8689
Robert C. Byrd (D-WV) SH-311 224-3954 224-8070
Henry Vanderbilt "Reach low orbit and you're halfway to anywhere
Executive Director, in the Solar System."
Space Access Society - Robert A. Heinlein
hvanderbilt@bix.com "You can't get there from here."
602 431-9283 voice/fax - Anonymous
-- Permission granted to redistribute the full and unaltered text of this --
-- piece, including the copyright and this notice. All other rights --
-- reserved. In other words, intact crossposting is strongly encouraged. --
------------------------------
Date: 7 Aug 93 22:30:18 GMT
From: "S.H." <sr600uab@imath4.ucsd.edu>
Subject: DC-X Update 8/6/93
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.math
Any great symphony was written by One person,and only.
( Although it may have been played by many.)
S.H. | ======================================================
| " Composers and singers are not the same prefessions. "
| =======================================================
Some people writes songs
The `singers' receive the glory.
------------------------------
Date: 7 Aug 93 23:08:57 GMT
From: "S.H." <sr600uab@imath4.ucsd.edu>
Subject: DC-X Update 8/6/93
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.math
In article <53075@sdcc12.ucsd.edu> sr600uab@imath4.ucsd.edu (S.H.) writes:
>
`spellcheck':
>S.H. | ======================================================
> | " Composers and singers are not the same prefessions. "
> | ===========================================^===========
o
>Some people writes songs
>The `singers' receive the glory.
>
------------------------------
Date: 8 Aug 1993 00:44:45 GMT
From: Eric Shafto <shafto@aristotle.ils.nwu.edu>
Subject: DC-X Update 8/6/93
Newsgroups: sci.space
S.H. (sr600uab@imath4.ucsd.edu) wrote:
: In article <53075@sdcc12.ucsd.edu> sr600uab@imath4.ucsd.edu (S.H.) writes:
: >
: `spellcheck':
: >S.H. | ======================================================
: > | " Composers and singers are not the same prefessions. "
: > | ===========================================^===========
: o
:
: >Some people writes songs
: >The `singers' receive the glory.
: >
Ah, thanks for the correction. Up until now, I had been wondering
what your posts meant, and why you were posting them to sci.space.
Now it is all much clearer
------------------------------
Date: 7 Aug 1993 20:30:06 GMT
From: Claudio Egalon <c.o.egalon@larc.nasa.gov>
Subject: Do astronauts use sleeping pills?
Newsgroups: sci.space
Sometime ago, I read an interview given by Byron
Lichtemberg, who flew the Shuttle twice as a Payload
Specialist, and, according to the interview, he
complained that it was very difficult to sleep in
the Shuttle because of all the noise in the
Shuttle due to the pumps that must be functioning
all the time to keep the spacecraft "habitable".
He claimed that he could not sleep more than 3 hours
per night so, based on that, I started wondering
whether astronauts take sleeping pills so they can
sleep in the Shuttle. Insomnia seems to be a very
natural consequence not only because of the presumed
noise inside the spacecraft but also because of the
excitement involved in all these missions.
Claudio Oliveira Egalon
C.O.Egalon@larc.nasa.gov
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 7 Aug 1993 23:20:07 GMT
From: Henry Spencer <henry@zoo.toronto.edu>
Subject: Do astronauts use sleeping pills?
Newsgroups: sci.space
In article <2413ceINNi2o@rave.larc.nasa.gov> c.o.egalon@larc.nasa.gov (Claudio Egalon) writes:
>...complained that it was very difficult to sleep in
>the Shuttle because of all the noise...
>... I started wondering
>whether astronauts take sleeping pills ...
I would expect that safety considerations preclude this. In an emergency,
it's important to be able to wake up quickly and completely.
--
Altruism is a fine motive, but if you | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
want results, greed works much better. | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 7 Aug 1993 22:53:54 GMT
From: Henry Spencer <henry@zoo.toronto.edu>
Subject: engine failures and safety
Newsgroups: sci.space
In article <23u9e6$cmf@access.digex.net> prb@access.digex.net (Pat) writes:
>Even if you are 1,000 miles off shore, you can arrange a decent
>ditch into the water and radio for Emergency assistance on the way down.
Assuming you've got good weather and relatively calm seas, that is.
In the best of conditions, ditching is a desperate-emergency procedure
involving substantial risk of a crash. Do it at night in bad weather
into high seas, and the chances of surviving it approach zero.
>I don't think i'd want to float for 12 hours waiting for pick up but
>it will happen sometime.
At 1000 miles out, 12 hours is very optimistic, unless there is shipping
nearby. 1000 miles is 2-3 days' steaming for all but the fastest ships.
--
Altruism is a fine motive, but if you | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
want results, greed works much better. | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 7 Aug 93 21:30:23 GMT
From: Daniel Briggs <dbriggs@Mr-Hyde.aoc.nrao.edu>
Subject: Exploding Heads
Newsgroups: sci.space
In article <1993Aug6.210635.7195@mksol.dseg.ti.com>
pyron@skndiv.dseg.ti.com writes:
>
>Several tests have shown that monkeys not only didn't boil or explode, but
>that they survived. At thirty thousand feet, an airliner is a long way
>towards that vaccum level, so, if say a baggage door failed and caused
>explosive decompression, most of the passengers would experience short
>term distress (but nothing like the distress of thinking the plane would
>crash).
A French skydiver by the name of Patrick de Gayardon recently did a high
altitiude jump of 38,352 feet without oxygen, so an explosive decompression
at 30,000 feet would definitely not be fatal in and of itself. I presume
that PdG was prebreathing oxygen in the plane, but I don't know this.
Ordinary skydivers routinely do jumps of 25,000 feet MSL without oxygen,
prebreathing in the plane.
--
| Daniel Briggs (dbriggs@nrao.edu) | USPA B-14993
| New Mexico Tech / National Radio Astronomy Observatory | DoD #387
| P.O. Box O / Socorro, NM 87801 (505) 835-7391 |
Support the League for Programming Freedom (info from lpf@uunet.uu.net)
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 7 Aug 1993 11:34:00 +0200
From: Andre Knoefel <starex@tron.gun.de>
Subject: Info on the upcomming Perseid shower
Newsgroups: sci.space
> The last info I have on this meteor shower is that it
> will start around 0100 GMT on 12 August.
>
> Any new info out there?
Maybe the storm will start around 0100 UT, but the shower is visible
in the whole night (that means your are able to see 40-80 meteors per
hour under good conditions).
Andre
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Andre Knoefel e-mail: starex@tron.gun.de
International Meteor Organization
Fireball Data Center
Duesseldorf * Germany
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
## CrossPoint v2.1 R ##
------------------------------
Date: 7 Aug 93 21:43:00 GMT
From: "S.H." <sr600uab@imath4.ucsd.edu>
Subject: new nasa wind tunnels
Newsgroups: sci.space
In article <1469100041@igc.apc.org> tom@igc.apc.org writes:
>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
Amazing. NASA_via_JPL_via_QMW builds everything He wrote.
Private Tunnels, there are so many, already built, for
transporting ___ ..
------------------------------
Date: 7 Aug 93 06:38:23 GMT
From: jack hagerty <rml!jack>
Subject: Refit/Rebuild old Rockets! Low Tech? Standardize!
Newsgroups: sci.space
In article <CB967y.CyH@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes:
>
>And the USAF has been drawing on its Atlas inventory for decades now
>as a source of launch vehicles; I seem to recall that there are *still*
>a handful of ex-missiles yet to be used up.
About a year ago I asked the question on Atlases (namely, where are
they coming from since I read about 5 years ago that the last "original"
one was used up) and it was you, Henry, that said that GD (I believe)
had actually started up the Atlas production line again!
The reasons were that all of the ground support equipment was in place,
the crews were familiar (*very* familiar) with it and it was relatively
reliable.
- Jack
=============================================================================
||Jack Hagerty, Robotic Midwives, Ltd. jack@rml.com ||
||Livermore, CA NOTE! New, improved address! ^^^ ||
||(510) 455-1143 (old ones will still work) ||
||-------------------------------------------------------------------------||
|| "If the computer is turning the world into a global village, ||
|| and I don't know how to use one, does that make me the global ||
|| village idiot?" - Perfesser Cosmo Fishhawk in "Shoe" ||
=============================================================================
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 7 Aug 1993 23:32:23 GMT
From: Henry Spencer <henry@zoo.toronto.edu>
Subject: Refit/Rebuild old Rockets! Low Tech? Standardize!
Newsgroups: sci.space
In article <John_Fleming-040893163438@192.111.236.225> John_Fleming@sat.mot.com (John Fleming) writes:
>> One big reason why refurbishing missiles has never gone anywhere as a
>> source of cheap launchers is the devastation it could cause in the US
>> commercial launch industry. You really don't want to get a bunch of
>> cheap launches in the near-term if it means bankrupting your long-term
>> launch suppliers with subsidized competition...
>
>... they should sell these ICBM's at
>auction as scrap (with the usual ITAR applying). Let
>the LV manufacturers bid for these rockets, and resell them...
Trouble is, the set of skills you need to refurbish and use those moldy
old missiles is very different from the set of skills you need to design
and operate a modern launch system. Selling them at scrap prices amounts
to a massive subsidy -- those things are *valuable* -- to people who will
not be able to continue offering launch services after the supply of
surplus missiles dries up.
There's a lot to be said for making cheap launches available. Growth in
the payload market is good for the launch suppliers in the long run. The
trick is doing it in a way that ensures that there will *be* launch
suppliers in the long run.
There are ways to do that. The simplest is to price the missiles at
something approximating replacement cost, instead of surplus-asset prices.
This has the bonus of contributing a fair bit of revenue to the government.
That money can then be used to fund a launch-voucher scheme for the
potential users, so they can buy whatever launch service is best for
them at whatever time is best for them.
>For anything less than a Titan IV, the government should only RFP for
>and buy a lbs to orbit with specified reliability commercial contract.
Apart from the shuttle and Titan IV, this is already the law of the land,
although NASA and the USAF don't like it and have done their damndest to
avoid complying with the spirit of the rules.
>... And how is it that the American taxpayer has
> absolutely no voice in this system of establishing national
> priorities, and only the faceless unelected national security
> civil _servants_ do? ...
Surely you jest. Your elected representatives, who of course listen to
and comply with your wishes :-) :-), have plenty of voice in this. Who
do you think forced NASA out of the commercial launch business?
--
Altruism is a fine motive, but if you | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
want results, greed works much better. | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 7 Aug 1993 23:37:12 GMT
From: Henry Spencer <henry@zoo.toronto.edu>
Subject: Refit/Rebuild old Rockets! Low Tech? Standardize!
Newsgroups: sci.space
In article <849@rml.UUCP> jack@rml.UUCP (jack hagerty) writes:
>>And the USAF has been drawing on its Atlas inventory for decades now
>>as a source of launch vehicles; I seem to recall that there are *still*
>>a handful of ex-missiles yet to be used up.
>
>About a year ago I asked the question on Atlases (namely, where are
>they coming from since I read about 5 years ago that the last "original"
>one was used up) and it was you, Henry, that said that GD (I believe)
>had actually started up the Atlas production line again!
Indeed they have, because *they* don't own those ex-missiles -- the USAF
does -- and they have other customers for Atlas launches. There are also
some differences in the hardware. There have been over a dozen different
Atlas versions, and the latest commercial-launcher versions -- built new
by GD -- have significantly better performance than the old missiles.
(For one thing, the tank shape of the old missiles is wrong for putting
a Centaur on top; they are restricted to smaller upper stages with lower
performance.) Even the USAF has been buying new ones for payloads that
need them.
--
Altruism is a fine motive, but if you | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
want results, greed works much better. | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 7 Aug 1993 11:35:00 +0200
From: Andre Knoefel <starex@tron.gun.de>
Subject: What is ZHR?
Newsgroups: sci.space
The Zenithal Hourly Rate is the number of meteors for one observer,
good observing conditions (limiting magnitude 6.5) and a (theoretical)
position of the radiant in the zenith.
Andre
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Andre Knoefel e-mail: starex@tron.gun.de
International Meteor Organization
Fireball Data Center
Duesseldorf * Germany
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
## CrossPoint v2.1 R ##
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 7 Aug 1993 22:54:29 GMT
From: Henry Spencer <henry@zoo.toronto.edu>
Subject: Why I hate the space shuttle
Newsgroups: sci.space
In article <1993Aug6.171627.25055@ke4zv.uucp> gary@ke4zv.UUCP (Gary Coffman) writes:
>>There are airliners that don't have big wings. (Hint: Chinook.)
>
>I thought those big things on top that go round and round were called
>rotary wings.
They aren't big by wing standards.
--
Altruism is a fine motive, but if you | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
want results, greed works much better. | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 8 Aug 1993 01:34:30 GMT
From: Dan Newman <dan@aero.ae.su.OZ.AU>
Subject: Why I hate the space shuttle
Newsgroups: sci.space
In sci.space, gary@ke4zv.uucp (Gary Coffman) writes:
>In article <CB9n5o.Ky1@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) w
>rites:
>>There are airliners that don't have big wings. (Hint: Chinook.)
>
>I thought those big things on top that go round and round were called
>rotary wings.
>
Bad choice of flight vehicle. The RAAF found its Chinooks (C models) to
be the most expensive aircraft it ever operated, had to keep about half
its fleet in storage because it couldn't keep up the supply of spares
and highly trained technicians, and in general had life cycle costs
orders of magnitude greater than the initial purchase price indicated.
If this is meant to exemplify DC-X's future, MD should stop work now.
Dan Newman dan@aero.ae.su.OZ.AU
Department of Aeronautical Engineering Ph : 61 2 692 2347
University of Sydney Fax: 61 2 692 4841
Sydney NSW 2006
AUSTRALIA
------------------------------
End of Space Digest Volume 17 : Issue 001