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Subject: SPACE Digest V9 #316

SPACE Digest                                      Volume 9 : Issue 316

Today's Topics:
              Re: Rockoon's (was Sanger)
              Re: volatiles on the Moon
     Re: Room Temperature fusion - possible indications?
      Re: Room Temperature Fusion - possible indication?
          Re: Soviet space and life science
     Re: Room Temperature fusion - possible indications?
      Re: Were remote manipulators ever called Waldoes?
      Re: Were remote manipulators ever called Waldoes?
             Sources of hydrogen?
             Re: Primordial Hydrocarbons
     Re: Room Temperature fusion - possible indications?
                Re: Astrology
     Re: Room Temperature fusion - possible indications?
     Re: PHOBOS INFO (was NSS Hotline Update for 3/17/89)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 24 Mar 89 22:58:41 GMT
From: mailrus!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Rockoon's (was Sanger)

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
>He also said that realistically, the Sanger developement was in its
>early stages.  The Sanger craft will probably not fly before 2050.

I trust this date is an error or misunderstanding.  It would be laughably
obsolete, probably in an unpredictable way, by then.
--
Welcome to Mars!  Your         |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
passport and visa, comrade?    | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry [e-mail]

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

Date: 25 Mar 89 00:35:35 GMT
From: mailrus!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: volatiles on the Moon

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Wayne D. T. Johnson) writes:
>Wouldn't the light being reflected from the moon show spectrum signatures from
>the various elements located in the moon, or at least the surface? ...

Nobody expects volatiles to be sitting within a few light wavelengths of the
surface, which is all this will tell us about.  What we need are more
penetrating forms of radiation, like gamma rays.  For practical reasons,
these have to be sensed from close up.  Hence the importance attached to
a lunar polar orbiter with a gamma-ray spectrometer.
--
Welcome to Mars!  Your         |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
passport and visa, comrade?    | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry [e-mail]

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

Date: 24 Mar 89 09:20:21 GMT
From: oliveb!pyramid!ncc!apss![e-mail]  (Neil McCulloch)
Subject: Re: Room Temperature fusion - possible indications?

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Michael Frank) writes:
> I'm wathing an interview with the discoverers right now on MacNeil-Lehrer.
> You know, it just sounds too good to be true.  Maybe these guys are pulling
> an elaborate April Fools' joke.  Either that, or it's going to be
> bigger than the high-temperature superconductors.  Guaranteed Nobel prizes.

Yes sounds very much like an April Fools' joke. Especially since there's
an international connection.

But darn it, if it is, it's not fair since April Fools' jokes should be
confined to the first of April on pain of death!

However, I am reminded of when I first read in the New Scientist of the
plutonium release from Windscale decades ago, complete with diagrams
of leukemia rates and so on. It was so dramatic and being in their April 1
issue, I didn't believe it. It was only several years later that I realised
it was a true report based on fact. Or was it...

neil

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

Date: 24 Mar 89 19:18:17 GMT
From: vsi1!v7fs1![e-mail]  (Mike Van Pelt)
Subject: Re: Room Temperature Fusion - possible indication?

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Paul Dietz) writes:
>Nuclear proliferation may have just become a lot easier.  I am
>moderately surprised that it wasn't classified.  Maybe it will be
>now? :-)

Maybe that's why they announced their discovery in such a (for
a scientific discovery) funny way.  With a short-notice press
conference and media coverage, the secret is out.  The newspaper
article I looked at seemed to imply that some of the skepticism
of the scientific community was based on the unorthodox method
of the announcement.  (Plus the sheer effrontery of a couple of
_chemists_ claiming to fuse hydrogen in an electrolytic cell!)
--
The powers not  delegated to the United States by the | Mike Van Pelt
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are | Video 7
reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.| ..ames!vsi1!v7fs1!mvp
U. S. Constitution, Ammendment 10.  (Bill of Rights)  |

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

Date: 24 Mar 89 21:19:33 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (Jim Giles)
Subject: Re: Soviet space and life science

From article <[e-mail]>, by [e-mail] (Eugene Miya):
> [...]
> And don't expect them to tell you anything if they themselves don't
> learn anything either.

Exactly.  But a negative result on an experiment is just as valuable
as a positive one.  The Soviets are somewhat reticent to discuss
expensive failures however.

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

Date: 24 Mar 89 19:32:32 GMT
From: att!mtuxo![e-mail]  (54317-T.EBERSOLE)
Subject: Re: Room Temperature fusion - possible indications?

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Glenn Chapman) writes:
>
>     A very astounding breakthrough just may have been made in nuclear
> fusion.  According to both the Financial Times (Mar 23, pg. 1, 26, and 22)
-----Stuff deleted----
>     The process they are using consists of the following.  Consider an
> electrochemical cell (like a battery) with a platinum electrode, a heated
> palladium electrode in a bath of heavy water (deuterium oxide).  Flow current

I read somewhere not very authoritative (I can't remember, but I don't read
autoritative magazines much) that "cold," or muon-catalyzed, fusion would
be expected to occur at about 900 C or so. I can hardly wait for real news
on how this "Pd-Pt catalyzed" fusion can be sustained with essentially no
rise in temperature. Any speculations available?

My trusty dictionary indicates Palladium is used as a catalyst in
hydrogenation processes, so there is some justification for why it might
be useful in a process involving Deuterium. However, this reaction is not
all that interesting to me since it produces nasty fast neutrons. I know
there are reactions which eject fast-moving ions (electrons, etc.) with
no gamma rays or neutrons; I seem to recall these involve carbon as one
of the "reactants." Anyone know what these particular fusion reactions
are, or have a reference I could look this up in? Perhaps this
fusion-catalyzing process will turn out to be more general once it's
understood. (I like to leap before I look.) I'd even accept a process
which had to occcur at 100 C, if it was clean in a non-gamma ray,
non-neutron producing sort of way. If I had any choice in the matter.

===============
--
Tim Ebersole ...!att!mtuxo!tee
                 or {allegra,ulysses,mtune,...}!mtuxo!tee

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

Date: 24 Mar 89 17:08:36 GMT
From: mailrus!uflorida!haven!aplcen!aplcomm!stdb.jhuapl.edu![e-mail]  (Jim Meritt)
Subject: Re: Were remote manipulators ever called Waldoes?

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey) writes:
}Here's what I think may have happened:
}
}1. Heinlein writes a popular story in *Astounding Science Fiction* in which
}remotely controlled hands are called "waldoes."

I do not believe that they were named at all in the book.  Waldo was the
name of the more than a little odd individual (with MS?) who lived in
orbit and was REAL weak that invented/used them both locally and as
teleoperators onto earth.

I believe "Waldo and Magic, Inc." was the name of the book...


Disclaimer:  "It's mine!  All mine!!!"
                    - D. Duck

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

Date: 24 Mar 89 20:05:07 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (Steve Kanefsky)
Subject: Re: Were remote manipulators ever called Waldoes?

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Jim Meritt) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey) writes:

>>1. Heinlein writes a popular story in *Astounding Science Fiction* in which
>>remotely controlled hands are called "waldoes."

>I do not believe that they were named at all in the book.  Waldo was the
>name of the more than a little odd individual (with MS?) who lived in
>orbit and was REAL weak that invented/used them both locally and as
>teleoperators onto earth.

>I believe "Waldo and Magic, Inc." was the name of the book...

Actually, there were two novelettes contained in the one book.  One
was _Waldo_, and the other was _Magic,_Inc._


----------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Kanefsky
CSci Department, University of Minnesota Twin Cities
[e-mail]
----------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: 23 Mar 89 14:36:00 GMT
From: texbell!merch!cpe!hal6000!trsvax![e-mail]
Subject: Sources of hydrogen?


On a recent NOVA, (The world is full of oil), they featured an atronomer
(sorry, I don't remember his name) who suspects that a large amount of the
Earth's hydrocarbons are of non-organic origin.  To support his theory, a
test well was drilled in Sweden, with no conclusive results.
The program mentioned that non-organic Methane was found, but that it was
not in "large quantities".  I have no idea what their idea of large is, but
that any Methane was found at all leads me to the following queries...


If Methane does exist "deep within the Earth", would it be at all resonable
to assume that this might be the case for the Moon also?

If the answer to part one is maybe, would Methane recovered from deep wells
on the Moon be a more viable option for obtaining Lunar Hydrogen than
extracting the Hydrogen deposited in Lunar soil by the Solar wind?

If the answers to part one and two are both maybe, what would be the logical
way to proceed with prospecting likely Lunar sites?

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

Date: 24 Mar 89 16:48:22 GMT
From: cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx![e-mail]  (Ethan Tecumseh Vishniac)
Subject: Re: Primordial Hydrocarbons

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Mike Van Pelt) writes:
> In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (John Sahr) writes:
> <In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (ERIC WALLIS) writes:
> <>Volatiles in the moon? Unlikely, as a geology major I can say that
> <>volatiles(if you mean hydrocarbons such as gas) would require the burying
> <>and heating of dead plants and animals... unlikely on a lifeless body.

I'm not sure what compounds are beings discussed here.  However, the
solar system is full of "organic" compounds in places where no life
has been found, or is likely to exist.  Carbon is a very common atom
in the universe and its compounds occur under a wide variety of
conditions.  Carbon chains have even been detected in interstellar
space.  In any case, methane, ammonia and all sorts of other gunk
are found on the outer planets and most of their moons.

> <Thomas Gold, an astronomer/geologist, has suggested that there are plenty of
> <hydrocarbons on Earth that are _not_ due to metamorphosis of dead plant
> <and animal matter.  Having heard him speak on this topic, I can say that
> <he makes a convincing case.  Some outfit in Sweden is digging for some of
> <his "primordial" hydrocarbons on the rim of an ancient meteor strike.

The reason Gold is treated as an child idiot by most the geological community
has nothing to do with the plausibility of non-biological hydrocarbons.
Rather it is firmly believed that the primordial Earth lost the overwhelming
majority of these early on.  The claim that a negligible amount is left
is based on an analysis (I have been told) of drilling success rates.  If
Gold were right then random drilling should be far more effective than
it is.

--
 I'm not afraid of dying     Ethan Vishniac, Dept of Astronomy, Univ. of Texas
 I just don't want to be     {charm,ut-sally,ut-emx,noao}!utastro!ethan
 there when it happens.      (arpanet) [e-mail]
    - Woody Allen            (bitnet) [e-mail]

These must be my opinions.  Who else would bother?

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

Date: 24 Mar 89 23:54:16 GMT
From: steinmetz!nuke![e-mail]  (Dennis M. O'Connor)
Subject: Re: Room Temperature fusion - possible indications?

An article by [e-mail] (Mike Van Pelt) says:
] There is, however, a rather large fly in the ointment.  There are two
] places on this planet you can get platinum-group metals in quantity.
] [...] One of them is the Soviet Union. The other is South Africa.

There's a third large source : auto junkyards. TONS of platinum anyway.
I don't know if palladium is in catalytic converters or not.

My Rubber Bible says palladium can be found in North America, Australia,
and Ethiopia as well as USSR and SA. It says Ontario is a "considerable"
source of Platinum and Palladium.

Palladium can absorb 600 times it's own volume (at STP) of hydrogen,
and hydrogen difuses readily through it according to the CRC. Platinum
also absobs lots of hydrogen.

Palladium melts at 1552 degrees-C, platinum at 1772 degrees-C, so these
little fusion cells can run easily hot enough to generate high-pressure
steam for turbines if melting the electrodes is the only limitation.

Be careful with platinum around hydrogen : if any oxygen gets mixed in,
the mess will explode do to platinum's catalytic properties, says CRC.

My 12-yr old CRC quotes palladium at $80/troy-ounce,
and platinum at $150/troy-ounce. For reference, gold was $200/ounce.
--
 Dennis O'Connor   [e-mail]  ARPA: [e-mail]
 "Jethro Tull won the Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Grammy. Clearly, I am a MetalHead."

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

Date: 24 Mar 89 19:52:49 GMT
From: beowulf![e-mail]  (Gabriel Velasco)
Subject: Re: Astrology


    In a previous article, it was mentioned that the moon has an influence
on humans, possibly because of its effect on the tides.
    A hint was given to ask a female about a periodic event with a cycle of
approximately one lunar month.
    When my wife was pregnant, a doctor told her that sometimes they pre-
fer to think of a full term pregnancy as 10 lunar months.

- Gabriel

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

Date: 25 Mar 89 03:52:45 GMT
From: vsi1!v7fs1![e-mail]  (Mike Van Pelt)
Subject: Re: Room Temperature fusion - possible indications?

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
>An article by [e-mail] (Mike Van Pelt) says:
>] There is, however, a rather large fly in the ointment.  There are two
>] places on this planet you can get platinum-group metals in quantity.
>] [...] One of them is the Soviet Union. The other is South Africa.
>
>There's a third large source : auto junkyards. TONS of platinum anyway.
>I don't know if palladium is in catalytic converters or not.

Just platinum, I'm pretty sure.  As for quantity, though, I think it
is somewhat less than "TONS".  There's a verrrry thin layer of platinum
flashed over a ceramic.

>My Rubber Bible says palladium can be found in North America, Australia,
>and Ethiopia as well as USSR and SA. It says Ontario is a "considerable"
>source of Platinum and Palladium.

The Sudbury nickel deposit in Ontario is, I think, the biggest source
outside of SU & SA.  Interestingly enough, it's an old impact site of
a nickel-iron asteroid.  These have a good bit of platinum group metals
mixed in with the nickel and iron.  One good earth-orbit-intersecting
asteriod could probably supply all our needs for the next millinium.
Of course, the way things are going in THAT department, we'd have to
by asteroid platinum and palladium from the Soviet Union, too.
--
"I hate trolls.  Maybe I could metamorph it into    | Mike Van Pelt
 something else -- like a ravenous, two-headed,     | Video 7
 fire-breathing dragon."  -- Willow.                | ...ames!vsi1!v7fs1!mvp

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

Date: 24 Mar 89 03:56:07 GMT
From: phoenix![e-mail]  (Matthew B. Kennel)
Subject: Re: PHOBOS INFO (was NSS Hotline Update for 3/17/89)

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Dane Meyer) writes:
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >The Soviet space probe Phobos, which is in orbit about Mars, is drawing
> >closer to its destination the moon Phobos.  On April 1 the spacecraft will
> >pass within 150 feet of the lopsided moon and deploy two landers.  One
> >lander will harpoon itself into the surface while the other hops around on
> >the surface.
>
>  ...150 *feet*!!??!!  I had no idea it planned to skim that close.  I'm used
>to figures measured in *miles*!  Ok, so here's a question for ya:  How do the
>landers decelerate, and/or what is their speed relative to Phobos?

I don't know what the speed is, but apparently they're doing laser-ranging
and real-time on-board orbital adjustments.  They're also using a
laser to burn up parts of the surface and analyze the absoprtion
properties of the gas.

Yup, they're not "catching up" with US experimental space science, they've
blown us away.  The hottest US technology of 1975 that's launched in 1990
(galileo) can't compare to 1989 Russian "3-5 years behind US" technology
that's flying in '90.


>
>Ken Scofield   Hewlett Packard, Corvallis, Oregon
>  ARPA: [e-mail]
>  UUCP: {convex rice rudgers ames}!hp-pcd!hpcvic!kas

Matt Kennel
[e-mail]

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

End of SPACE Digest V9 #316
*******************