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Date: Wed, 24 May 89 08:47:04 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: SPACE Digest V9 #455

SPACE Digest                                      Volume 9 : Issue 455

Today's Topics:
              NSS Hotline Update
         Re: private funding of space science
          Re: space news from April 17 AW&ST
               Re: SPACE Digest V9 #442
          Re: New shuttle name: definitely ENDEAVOUR
               Re: SPACE Digest V9 #435
               Re: SPACE Digest V9 #441
               Re: SPACE Digest V9 #431
               Re: SPACE Digest V9 #439
               Re: SPACE Digest V9 #442
             Re: Andromeda Strain
             Re: Ancient asteroid impact
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 22 May 89 04:11:00 GMT
From: arisia!cdp![e-mail]
Subject: NSS Hotline Update



This is the National Space Society's Space Hotline, for the week
ending May 21, 1989.

As of May 19th, the Magellan Venus Radar Mapping Spacecraft was speeding
along at 59,970 miles per hour relative to the sun, towards Venus on its
fifteen month voyage to map the planet through its thick
cloudy atmosphere.  The spacecraft will be placed in orbit about
Venus on Aug. 10, 1990.

Incoming Nasa Administrator Richard Truly wasted no time in filling
a vacuum created by the recent migration of upper level managers
from top NASA positions.  Truly named William B. Lenoir to head
the Space Station Freedom program in a move to integrate its
management with that of the space shuttle program.  In addition
Truly appointed Richard Kohrs, a top shuttle official at JSC as
Headquarter's director of design, development and operations for
the Space Station.  Ray Tanner the current director of the program
since Jan., will become deputy director in the new management
scheme.  Recently 25 top NASA managers left the agency for private
industry over vague wording of new ethics regulations and
Congress' recent rejection of a 50% pay raise for federal workers.

NASA and the FAA are investigating the near miss of STS-30
Atlantis commander David Walker's T-38 training jet and a
commercial airliner.  The incident occurred at 6:35pm on May 17,
when Walker was on route from Ellington Airforce Base near Houston
to Andrews Air Force Base in Washington.  It was reported that the
NASA training jet was flying lower than its assigned altitude and
came too close to a jumbo jet approaching Dulles International
Airport.  Walker reported the near miss to Air Force base officials
once he landed at Andrews.

In a letter to Sen. Barbara Mikulski, former NASA acting
administrator Dale Myers wrote that cutting $400 million from the
$2.1 Billion FY '90 request for the space station program would be
a disastrous mistake.  A $600 million dollar cut from the $3
Billion FY '91 request for the space station program would decrease
the NASA budget in the short run, but would result in a $1 Billion
increase over the life of the program.  Past cuts in the space
station program has caused a two year delay in the program,
prompting managers to compact the working schedules so that there
is no slack remaining in meeting major milestone dates for
deployment of the station.

In response to a National Research Council study, NASA said that
it will not continue with a Commercially Developed Space Facility.  The
study concludes that sucha facility will cost more than $2 Billion to
build and microgravity experiments planned between now and the
deployment of the space station can adequately be carried out on the
Shuttle, Sounding Rockets and Airplanes.  NASA officials agreed with
the study and they feel that other types of programs will benefit from
private sector participation, such as Boeing's privately financed Space
Station Logistics System.  In addition SpaceHab is creating commercial
markets for its Space Shuttle Module, and the ASRM production facility
will be developed through private investment.

Stefania Follini who has been living in a plexiglas habitat 30 feet
underground in a cave since Jan. 13 as part of an experiment to
determine the effects of isolation on humans, has completely lost
track of time.  She is providing data which is closely being
followed by JSC scientists, who are interested in how the isolation
of long duration space flight will effect humans.  After four
months of isolation Follini stays awake for 24 hours at a time, and
sleeps for 10.  In reality, her perceived current date is actually
several weeks behind the actual date on the calendar.  She keeps herself
occupied with music, judo, and a paper chess set which she
constructed herself.

A leading Soviet official wants a NASA type agency for the USSR.
In addition he stated that half the instruments aboard the now
vacant MIR Space Station are inoperable.  Chief Cosmonaut-in-
training, Vladimir Shatalov, told Isvestia newspaper last Wednesday
that over the past three years cosmonauts have been wasting time
and energy on repairing faulty equipment that didn't function
properly.  He stated that much of the time instrumentation was
never tested prior to being launched.  In addition he went on to
say that the space program is not providing much in the way of spin-
offs for the Soviet economy and that they should be following the
American example by establishing a NASA like-agency that has near
complete jurisdiction over space activities.

This has been Jordan Katz reporting for the National Space
Society's Space Hotline.  Hope to see you at next week's Space
Development Conference in Chicago. The Hotline will be updated
next on May 30th.

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

Date: Tue, 16 May 89 16:52:04 PST
From: Peter Scott <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: private funding of space science
X-Vms-Mail-To: EXOS%"space%andrew.cmu.edu@jato"

unmvax!polyslo![e-mail]  (Dr. Dereference) writes:

> As for
>government involvment in operations, the best people to operate the hardware
>built for R&D are usually the scientists doing the R&D, who are usually
>government employees (ie JPL).

Minor point, but virtually no-one at JPL is a government employee.  We
work for Caltech.  I have heard no complaints.

Peter Scott ([e-mail])

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

Date: 20 May 89 17:40:00 GMT
From: m.cs.uiuc.edu!s.cs.uiuc.edu![e-mail]
Subject: Re: space news from April 17 AW&ST


I think we'd get much better results if NASA took the budget for Freedom
(N billion dollars), cut it in 2, and put $(N/2) gigabucks in a Swiss Account
and said "First one to build a space station able to support X people
and ship Y pounds to&from it a year gets it". We (the taxpayers) would save
money, get a better product faster this way. My anarchist friend claims that
the current setup is a classic example of the triumph of process over result.

Alan M. Carroll                "And there you are
[e-mail]           Saying 'We have the Moon, so now the Stars...'"
CS Grad / U of Ill @ Urbana    ...{ucbvax,pur-ee,convex}!s.cs.uiuc.edu!carroll

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

Date: Sun, 21 May 1989 20:36-EDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: SPACE Digest V9 #442

>I don't think so.  I haven't read it, but I keep meaning to stop by the
> library and read "As We May Think" by Vannevar Bush, which appeared in
> the July 1945 (no kidding, nineteen forty-five!) issue of the ATLANTIC

Memex is the name of the machine he designs. The article is reprinted
in a book called "The New Papyrus", a book containing everything you
ever wanted to know about CD-ROM. And more. I picked up a copy at the
CMU bookstore a couple years back. It might be floating around other
university bookstores and is certainly orderable. I've also seen it in
some B Daltons.

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

Date: 21 May 89 15:26:23 GMT
From: frooz!cfa250![e-mail]  (Jonathan McDowell)
Subject: Re: New shuttle name: definitely ENDEAVOUR

From article <[e-mail]>, by [e-mail] (Peter Scott):
> If they named if after this particular ship, agreed.  AW&ST uses the name
> "Endeavor" several times in the current issue with no allusion to any
> alternate spelling, however, so it'll be interesting to see what actually
> winds up on the side.

The NASA press release consistently used the British spelling in its
press release and specified that it was named after Cook's ship.

 Aviation Week is simply *wrong*, and I have written to them to point
this out.

Here are extracts from the NASA press release...


5/10/89: PRESIDENT BUSH NAMES REPLACEMENT ORBITER "ENDEAVOUR"

RELEASE:  89-70


     President Bush today chose the name "Endeavour" for the new
Space Shuttle orbiter, currently under construction.

     The name Endeavour resulted from a nationwide orbiter-naming
competition [...]

     In the Division II category (grades 7 through 12), the winning team
[...] developed a math magazine, "Math Exploration with James Cook,"
[...] and created a play, "Where On Earth?...," comparing Cook's
18th-century sea exploration to the Space Shuttle "Endeavour's"
20th-century space exploration.  [...] The name had to be that of a
seafaring vessel used in research or exploration.  Both winning teams
proposed the name "Endeavour."

     Endeavour was the first ship commanded by James Cook, a
British explorer, navigator and astronomer.  In August 1768, on
Endeavour's maiden voyage, Cook observed and recorded the transit
of the planet Venus.  In the view of the students, Cook's
navigations, explorations and discoveries eventually led man to
the possibilities of space exploration.

     "In selecting the name Endeavour, the students and the
President have identified a name that symbolizes perfectly NASA's
goals of space exploration and discovery," said Dale D. Myers,
NASA's Acting Administrator.  "The nation can rest assured that
we will use this ship with the same commitment that Captain Cook
used his in the pursuit of new knowledge to benefit all mankind."

[...] Endeavour is scheduled to be completed in 1991 with her maiden
voyage scheduled for March 1992.
                            -  end  -

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

Date: Sun, 21 May 1989 19:21-EDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: SPACE Digest V9 #435

> have been space development advocates for even longer, having joined
> the L5 Society in 1977.  We are dismayed by Charles Miller's
> wishy-washy comments in the February Space Politics Forum, including

While I agree with the letter 100%, I wish to point out that Charlie
Miller is really a very good person, and in fact came into NSS from the
L5 side of the merger.

                    Ad Astra,
                    Dale Amon

PS: A general note to all: we should all agree that it is okay to disagree
strongly on issues, to flame eloquently ... and still get along as
fellow human beings.

(The mapping of ideology to the set of my friends is not a one to one
mapping ... my very closest and most trusted friend is a european
socialist.)

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

Date: Sun, 21 May 1989 20:28-EDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: SPACE Digest V9 #441

> Sorry this posting doesn't contain more specific numbers, but the
> neutrino concept seems to be off by so many orders of magnitude that
> I don't want to bother looking everything up.

Don't be sorry for posting good solid info. It's fun to toss out
creative speculation. You just happened to have the special knowledge
close to hand to squash an infant idea. Many are born, but few grow
up...

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

Date: Sun, 21 May 1989 18:40-EDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: SPACE Digest V9 #431

> posting, I would definitely love the opportunity, but cannot presently
> give any justification for my travelling to orbit.  I admit that I'd be a

I partially agree with your sentiments. However, the only valid
justification I can think of for ANY person flying in space is that
they are picking up the tab. He Who Pays, Flys.

The partial justification for the citizen is space program is that many
people are paying, and at least a few random representatives of the
people who are picking up the tab should get something for their money.

Remember, the money that is used to put astronauts in space is not the
governments money. It is my money. It is your money.

My attitude is, if they want my money, they can damn well fly me in
space to get it. Otherwise screw 'em.

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

Date: Sun, 21 May 1989 20:05-EDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: SPACE Digest V9 #439

> Blaming the NASA of the 70s for throwing away the Saturn V is pretty much
> a mistake.  The real culprit is the Congress of the 60s.

Ah Henry. The last of my preconceptions dies. I hadn't thought the real
rot went back to the mid 60's!

It's enough to make one an anarchist :-)

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

Date: Sun, 21 May 1989 20:32-EDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: SPACE Digest V9 #442

> Ever heard the variant on "life's a bitch, and then you die" that
> goes: "... unless reincarnation is true, in which case life's a
> bitch, and then life's a bitch, and then life's a bitch...."  ;-)

Or the Alcor version, "Life's a bitch, and then you freeze".... :-)

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

Date: 21 May 89 23:59:04 GMT
From: cwjcc!mailrus!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Andromeda Strain

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Joe Dellinger) writes:
>... So the question is, how
>specific to Earth-based life are the methods our immune system uses to
>recognize and zap interlopers?

Hard to say for sure.  The methods are effective across a fairly broad
spectrum of nasties.  On the other hand, there are some it seems to be
persistently unable to deal with.  Perhaps more relevant are cases when
a new disease was introduced to populations that had no experience with
it.  The results often weren't nice.  Most everyone's heard about smallpox
versus North American Indians.  Syphilis in Europe seems to have been
the other way around:  current best guess is that it was a relatively
mild and possibly even non-venereal disease among the Indians, but in
its early years in Europe, after Columbus's crews brought it back, it
was a fearful thing and quickly killed most who caught it.  It's hard
to say whether the comparatively mild short-term effects of the current
form are the result of partial immunity or of selection for milder forms
(a disease which quickly kills its host does not spread nearly as well
as one which leaves the host alive for a while).

Mind you, this is with bugs that are close enough to our own biochemistry
that they like nibbling on us.

>Could we imagine some nasty alien bug which
>likes warm, moist, carbon-rich environments as energy sources, is not very
>picky about what it eats, and which our immune system doesn't even see or
>can't even scratch?

It's possible.  Last I heard, there just doesn't seem to be any natural
immunity to AIDS, for example -- we're very lucky that it doesn't spread
easily.

>(Finally, a posting to sci.space within Henry's nominal
>field of expertise?!)

No such luck, so take the above with a grain of salt -- I'm a systems
programmer with an unusual employer, not a zoologist.
--
Van Allen, adj: pertaining to  |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
deadly hazards to spaceflight. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry [e-mail]

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

Date: 21 May 89 16:41:03 GMT
From: rochester![e-mail]  (Paul Dietz)
Subject: Re: Ancient asteroid impact

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (John Roberts) writes:

< discussion about varying rates of deposition in the ocean biasing the
  iridium levels >

This doesn't explain why the iridium layer has also been found in
continental sediments.

    Paul F. Dietz
    [e-mail]

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

End of SPACE Digest V9 #455
*******************