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Subject: SPACE Digest V9 #339

SPACE Digest                                      Volume 9 : Issue 339

Today's Topics:
              NSS Hotline Update 3/31/89
               Space News, Mar 29, 1989
               More Success with Fusion
           Solid State Fusion for Launchers
               Re: SPACE Digest V9 #324
   Olde Tyme Measurements (No wonder the world is eating our lunch)
               Re: Recovery of Salyut 7
          Russian unmanned missions to Mars
               Re: cold fusion seminar
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 1 Apr 89 22:07:00 GMT
From: arisia!cdp![e-mail]
Subject: NSS Hotline Update 3/31/89


This is the National Space Society's Space Hotline for the week ending
March 31, 1989.

Thursday the nations first privately owned spacecraft was launched by Space
Services Inc.  The Starfire 1-Model rocket carried the Consort-1 payload on
a ride for a total of 15 minutes.  The rocket climbed to an altitude of 198
miles above the earth, the payload of experiments experienced about 7
minutes of near zero gravity.  Space Services executives were very
satisfied with the launch and stated that this was the first of many.

White House Spokesman Marlin Fitzwater called NASA associate administrator
for space flight Rear Adm. Richard Truly, a leading candidate for the
position of NASA administrator.  The problem is that Rear Adm. Truly's
active status in the Navy puts his appointment in conflict with section 202
of the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958.  The section says NASA
shall be headed by an Administrator who shall be appointed from civilian
life by the President with the consent of the Senate.  The White House
could ask Truly to resign his commission; ask Congress for a waiver or
other ways around the law.  But Fitzwater was unclear in confirming whether
a waiver was already asked for or not.

Dr. James Fletcher the resigning NASA administrator confirmed in Washington
DC last Wed. that he will head a $5 million dollar effort by the University
of Utah to expand experimentation into Nuclear Fusion.  Last week the
chairman of the Chemistry Dept. and a British Professor at the University
of Utah reported they had sustained nuclear fusion in glass flasks at room
temperature for several hours.  If this experiment can be verified than the
potential for production of clean, safe, simple electric power is enormous.
Some 200 private companies have expressed interest in the process already.

Meanwhile at Kennedy Space Center...

Atlantis's pad has been closed since Wed. so workers can load propellants
into the solid rocket booster hydraulic power units, the auxiliary power
units, the reaction control system, and orbital maneuvering system pods.
The last of three new oxidizer turbo pumps arrived at KSC on thursday.  The
new pumps will be installed on Atlantis when the pad is reopened.  The
launch of Atlantis is still scheduled to take place April 28, 1989.

8 of the 32 chicken embryos taken aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery's last
mission were dead on arrival.  One of Discovery's crew suggested that the
experiment might show that life cannot begin anew in that environment.  The
8 embryos that died were part of 16 which were fertilized the day before
liftoff, the other 16 were fertilized nine day prior to launch.  April 1st
is when the first batch of chicks are expected to hatch.

During the last launch of Discovery NASA engineers used a High Definition
Television system to record the event.  HDTV with its 1,125 line video
image makes it comparable to 35mm film.  Normal television has a 330 line
video image.  The HDTV system will allow for quicker analysis of launch
related curiosities, such as the tank insulation which broke loose and
damaged the heat tiles of Atlantis last time it was launched.  The system
was comprised of three HDTV cameras from Sony, a Southern Bell fiber optic
communication link which relayed the images to video monitors and VCR's
from Sony.

On Wed. Soviet Scientists reported that they had lost contact with their
second unmanned Mars Moon probe Phobos-2.  Although all is not lost stated
some scientists, there is a slight chance of reestablishing communications
with the craft.  Technicians are determining whether it problem is a
navigational error or a auxiliary transmitter has failed.  Monday April 3,
the USSR will brief NASA officials and Tue. April 4, will hold a press
conference.  The loss of the spacecraft concerns would be space partners
with the Soviets, about the risk of putting to much faith in the Soviet
Planetary program.  The failure should reduce some of the pressure that's
been building on the US to decide whether it wants to collaborate or go
forward with its own aggressive Mars exploration strategy.

The USSR has gone madison avenue?  In its quest to be a constant record
breaker the Soviet Union will be the first country to sell advertising in
space.  For a mire (ha, ha) $620,000 you get your corporate logo on:
cosmonauts' space suits; Launch site billboards: Three minute commercial
filmed by the cosmonauts; Two 6' by 9' signs on the side of Mir!  Tass
announced Wed. that a Swiss Ad firm signed a contract.

This has been Jordan Katz reporting for the National Space Society's Space
Hotline.  This message will next be updated April 7, 1989.

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

Date: 30 Mar 89 22:38:14 GMT
From: cfa!cfa250![e-mail]  (Jonathan McDowell)
Subject: Space News, Mar 29, 1989


Jonathan's Space Report

Mar 29, 1989 (No. 9)

The third US satellite launch of the year was carried out successfully
on Mar 24.  The Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) Delta
Star satellite was orbited by a Delta 3920 launch vehicle from Kennedy
Space Center.  Delta Star's mission is to detect and observe rocket
launches, in order to develop antimissile weapons.

Space Shuttle Mission STS-30 is on Pad 39B and due for launch at the end
of April.  The Magellan probe to Venus will be deployed from orbiter
OV-104 Atlantis on its fourth mission.  Crew are David Walker, Ron
Grabe, and mission specialists Dr.  Norman Thagard, Dr.  Mary Cleave and
Mark Lee.  Dr.  Cleave will be the first woman to fly in space since the
Challenger accident.

The Soviet Union lost contact with its Phobos-2 probe on Mar 27.
Attempts continue to contact the probe, but it is not likely to be
recovered.  Another orbital manever had been made on Mar 15 to continue
the rendezvous with the Martian moon Phobos.  It had been planned to
attempt a landing on Phobos in the coming weeks.


Other news:

Kosmos-2006, launched on Mar 14, is a medium resolution spy
satellite operated by the GRU (Soviet Military Intelligence).

Kosmos-2007 was launched on Mar 23. No data yet.

Kosmos-2008,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014, and 2015 were launched by a
single Kosmos booster on Mar 24.  They are believed to be small
communications relay satellites used by the Soviet Navy.

Space Services Inc carried out its first commercial launch of a
suborbital Starfire sounding rocket on Mar 29.  The payload was Consort
1, a set of materials processing experiments.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------
(c) 1989 Jonathan McDowell, all rights reserved
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

From: ota
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 89 01:44:52 MDT
Subject: More Success with Fusion

I received some really neat information from some "highly placed sources
at Los Alamos National Labs."  A quick synopsis:

Supposedly, LANL has managed to reproduce the reaction.  "According to
destroying a hood, the experiment melted a four inch hole through a
concrete floor.  No one was killed, amazingly enough.  [...]  Los Alamos
measured incredible quantities of gamma radiation and fast neutrons.
Kids, don't try this at home."  This is quoted from someone else, who
got it direct from LA.

However, the public relations officer (Jeff Schwarts) for LA
specifically denies that the experiment has been duplicated...yet.

All I know is that I'm excited...let's hope that this IS true and not
another scientific mistake.

Some of this (I can't tell how much) came from the physics digest, so
check over there for more information.

David Birnbaum.

+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|  Find me at:   [e-mail]    [e-mail]   /dev/null  |
|                                                                         |
|   "It shouldn't be a suprise to anyone when the network screws up;      |
|    the suprise should be that the dang thing works at all!"             |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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

Date: 31 Mar 89 21:30:50 GMT
From: rochester![e-mail]  (Paul Dietz)
Subject: Solid State Fusion for Launchers

The apparent absence of major neutron emission and hot waste from the
solid state fusion discovery raises the possibility of resurrecting
nuclear rockets for launchers.

I see two possibilities.  The first is to use heat from a solid state
fusion reactor to heat hydrogen, NERVA style.  This would require that
the power density be a couple of orders of magnitude higher than that
claimed by Pons & Fleischmann.  For on-orbit use the power density
need not be as high.

The second possibility is to use a smaller fusion reactor to preheat
fuel and/or oxidizer before injection into a conventional chemical
engine.  This would increase the Isp beyond that possible with
chemical fuels alone.

For use in launchers, we'd want a fusion reactor that (1) can be shut
down in seconds, (2) has high power density, and (3) operates at high
temperature.  (3) might mean we want a material with a higher melting
point than palladium (hafnium, maybe?).

    Paul F. Dietz
    [e-mail]

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

Date: Fri, 31 Mar 1989 14:42-EST
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: SPACE Digest V9 #324

> if cold fusion becomes the crack-cocaine of energy production?  I can imagine
> a thousand fanatics in 750 terrorist cells making an H-bomb in their kitchen.

This could well be true in a way you are not considering. Attempts to
force individuals into a particular mold has graudally pushed people
from relatively safe marijuana from known sources to more and more
potent (and more easily smuggled) drugs from unknown and dangerous
sources.

Likewise, with a technology this simple, attempts to prevent its use
will lead to a new growth industry for organized crime. They'll be
selling D2O, platinum and palladium right along with the crack and
assault guns and everything else that governments try to stop.

And like crack, the jusry rigged home built generators will kill people
and have a vast social cost that would not occur if the thing were out
in the open and usable within a reasonable legal system.

If people want something and it is possible for it to be supplied, (ie
it exists or can be made to exist) it WILL be supplied, regardless of
the size of the effort made to stop it.

The price will rise until it is sufficient to counter the enforcement
efforts with arms, bribery, overthrow and control of small governments
and corruption of large ones.

The social cost of stopping people from doing what they want to do will
almost invariably be far higher than to let them alone and create
institutions able to deal with problems that are open to inspection
rather than hidden in an underground.

If this fusion technique is for real, it is going to spread faster than
a fission reaction, and there ain't NOBODY going to be able to stop it.
Those who do will get squashed flat. When it's steamboat time you
steam, and if you don't get your canoe out of the way in time, you
better know how to swim.

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

Date: 31 Mar 89 19:26:09 GMT
From: amdahl!drivax![e-mail]  (MacLeod)
Subject: Olde Tyme Measurements (No wonder the world is eating our lunch)

gatech.EDU>
Sender:
Reply-To: [e-mail] (MacLeod)
Followup-To:
Distribution:
Organization: Digital Research, Monterey, CA
Keywords:

In article <[e-mail]: [e-mail] (Matthew T. DeLuca) writes:
:In article <[e-mail]: [e-mail] (Abhay Sawant) writes:
::AAAARGH!!!!!   Why so many people here using fps?  I thought higher
::education in the US used SI only.
:
:Nope.  My aerospace engineering courses use FPS routinely.  I hate it.

WHAT? Say it ain't so.  They're probably expounding phylogiston theory over
in the chem labs and trying to find the aether in the physics department.
It's no forking wonder that US students rank so far behind other countries'
graduates.

Michael Sloan MacLeod   (amdahl!drivax!macleod)

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

Date: 1 Apr 89 19:24:36 GMT
From: deimos.cis.ksu.edu!uxc!garcon!pequod.cso.uiuc.edu![e-mail]  (Andrew Higgins)
Subject: Re: Recovery of Salyut 7

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

> mission was? I can think of several possibilities:
>       [reasons for recovery of Salyut 7]
>      3. so they can analyze the effects of long term exposure to LEO.

I've also heard a 4th reason (a bit more PR oriented) for this mission:
displaying Salyut 7 at the Paris 1992 Air Show.
--
 Andrew J. Higgins              |     Illini Space Development Society
 [e-mail]     |     a chapter of the National Space Society
 phone: [phone]            |     at the University of Illinois
          P.O. Box 2255 - Station A, Champaign, IL  61825
"We are all tired of being stuck on this cosmical speck with its monotonous
 ocean, leaden sky and single moon that is half useless....so it seems to me
 that the future glory of the human race lies in the exploration of at least
 the solar system!"                          - John Jacob Astor, 1894

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

Date: 2 Apr 89 02:02:15 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (Matthew T. DeLuca)
Subject: Russian unmanned missions to Mars


     It's interesting to note, isn't it, that for all the Russian talk about
sending men to Mars, they have yet to send one successful mission to the
planet.  I don't think that we'll be seeing any manned Soviet missions to the
red planet until they get their probes in order.  Curiously, they have good
enough luck with Venus, so it's not like they are completely deficient in
sending probes beyond the moon's orbit.  Anyone believe in jinxes?

Georgia Institute of Technology     : Remember, wherever you go, there you are.
ARPA: [e-mail]        :

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

Date: 1 Apr 89 07:35:56 GMT
From: portal!cup.portal.com![e-mail]
Subject: Re: cold fusion seminar

Well, the seminar today at U of U by Stan Pons was poorly planned.
About 2,000 people showed up for the 350 seats.  So, they had another 300
or so "over-flow" seats in a room with a live video broadcast.

Anyway, I did manage to get some data:

The cell contains D2O, and LiOH.
The Pd anode is a wire of about 4-5 mm diameter.
Since the diffusion rate of D2 into Pd is ca. 10^-7 / sec,
the apparatus must be running "a few weeks" to set up equilibrium
conditions before fusion can occur.

They have measured 2 meV gamma rays.
They have measure neutrons being emitted at ca. 2x10^4 neutrons/sec.
They have measure tritium released at the same rate as the neutrons
("within experimental error").
They have not measured the energy of the neutrons, but expect them to
be 2.4 m eV.
They have seen Helium 4, but not Helium 3 (!?), but are still looking.

They don't think the neutrons are interacting with the palladium, but
they have checked their palladium by elemental analysis after use, and
they have not seen any evidence for changes.

They had been getting out 4 times the energy put in as of last Thursday,
but now it is up to 7-10 times (ignoring the heat produced at the cathode).
That is, they are getting 26 times the energy put in, but most of it is
Joule heating of the wires and heat produced by electrolysis of D2O.

Warning by Pons:  Don't try this without the proper precautions.
Once after they had set up equilibrium conditions, they accidentally
halved the current density in the Pd, and the Pd vaporized and all the
D2O boiled away.  Also, those neutrons are nothing to fool around with.


**I am writing this with the aid of notes, but I do not guarantee that
I have not made any mistakes.  If something sounds ludicrous, I am sure
you will let me know.** :)


Jim Kowalczyk

[e-mail]

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

End of SPACE Digest V9 #339
*******************