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Subject: SPACE Digest V10 #84

SPACE Digest                                      Volume 10 : Issue 84

Today's Topics:
        Re: How the "Face" imaging data was processed
         NASA Headline News for 09/18/89 (Forwarded)
           Re: NASA forced to photo Cydonia
            Re: Edgar Rice Quayle on Mars.
      Re: Neptune images - help with MAC-II data format
     Re: Galileo Jovian atmospheric probe -- is it sterilized???
         Re: Saturn V- Were they ever in production?
                 Galileo RTGs
            Re: Re: Saturn V & F-1
       Atlas/Centaur launch, news conference delays (Forwarded)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Mon, 18 Sep 89 09:41:36 PDT
From: Peter Scott <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: How the "Face" imaging data was processed

>[Describes pixel-weighting algorithm for increasing apparent
>resolution of an image]

Aha.  Computer graphics fans will recognize this as a close variant
of a tiling algorithm in solid object modelling.  It has the same
effect in that field, viz, to make an object look as though it is
being represented at a higher resolution than you actually have.
Say you model a Volkswagen with polygons, shade them wrt some
light source, then display the result.  Of course you get a VW
that looks like it's covered with flat facets.  Then you tile
the facets by altering the shading on each facet according to
the shading on the neighboring facets (there are several
algorithms).  The end result looks like a smooth VW, although you
only modelled the thing at a much coarser resolution.

All that's happening is that the algorithm assumes that the object
you're looking at has smooth, even curves, and removes the aliasing
effect of the square pixels.  Like all image processing algorithms,
it merely makes it easier for the human eye/brain to process the image,
and does *not* add information.

Peter Scott ([e-mail])

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

Date: 18 Sep 89 19:10:33 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA Headline News for 09/18/89 (Forwarded)

-----------------------------------------------------------------
                          NASA Headline News
Monday, Sept. 18, 1989                        Audio: 202/755-1789
-----------------------------------------------------------------


This is NASA Headline News for Monday, September 18.....


Officials at Kennedy Space Center are closely watching Hurricane
Hugo as it churns west-northwesterly in the southern Carribean.
The Class Four storm could threaten the East Coast of the U.S.
with extremely high winds and heavy rains.  If the storm zeros in
on Florida it could force NASA to roll the Atlantis back from the
launch pad to the Vehicle Assembly Building.  Cape personnel are
developing a contingency schedule in the event the storm heads
for Florida.

The White House has approved the launch of the Galileo spacecraft
aboard the Atlantis.  The Executive Office decision was required
because Galileo carries Radioisotope Thermoelectric
Generators...RTGs...that use nuclear material to generate
electrical power for the spacecraft.  A coalition of anti-nuclear
activists says it will file suit to stop the launch.  They claim
a catastrophic launch failure could release nuclear material that
would endanger the health of people in central Florida.  The
protest group says they will carry their protest all the way to
the launch pad, if necessary.

Following completion of the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test
last week, the crew of the Atlantis flew to Washington, Saturday,
for a breakfast visit with Vice President and Mrs. Quayle.  Mr.
Quayle, Chairman of the National Space Council, said he will be
at the Cape for the launch of the Atlantis to underscore the fact
that there is no danger from the RTGs during launch.


On Capital Hill....the Senate expects a floor vote on the NASA
appropriations bill either today or tomorrow.  Friday, the Senate
appropriations committee released a report saying that a
descoping of the Space Station Freedom was "unacceptable" and
they eliminated funding for the National Aerospace Plane to
protect the station.

The HUD, Veterans and Independent agencies bill is now expected
to go to a joint House-senate conference later this week to iron
out differences.

And...a FltSatCom satellite is scheduled for launch from the
Cape this coming Friday.  The launch window opens at 4:15 A.M.,
Eastern time, for 30 minutes.  A pre-launch briefing will be
conducted at the Kennedy Space Center, Wednesday, at 2:00 P.M.,
Eastern time.  It will be be carried on NASA Select TV.

               *          *       *        *


-----------------------------------------------------------------
Here's the broadcast schedule for public affairs events on NASA
Select television.  All times are Eastern.

Wednesday, September 20......

     2:00 P.M.      Briefing on launch of FltSatCom aboard an
                    Atlas-Centaur from KSC.


Thursday, September 21.....

     11:30 A.M.     NASA Update will be transmitted.


Friday, September 22......

      3:00 A.M.     NASA Select programming begins for FltSatCom
                    launch at KSC.  Launch window opens at 4:15
                    A.M.


All events and times are subject to change without notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
These reports are filed daily, Monday through Friday, at 12 noon,
Eastern time.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
A service of the Internal Communications Branch (LPC), NASA
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

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

Date: 18 Sep 89 16:00:59 GMT
From: ames.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Mike Smithwick)
Subject: Re: NASA forced to photo Cydonia

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Tom Neff) writes:
<
<It would make a nice control for NASA to deliver Hoagland a digitized
<image of a segment of actual living room rug mislabeled as Cydonia, just
<to see what findings he announced, but I doubt they have the guts. :-)
<--
<                                    \\\
<'We have luck only with women --   *-((O    Tom Neff
<         not spacecraft!'             \\\   [e-mail]


Someone oughta take the Pyramid photo and superimpose Hoagland's face
on it, or Groucho Marx's, or Opus, or, or, Santa Claus, or Morgan
Fairchild, yeah, that's the ticket. . .
                                                      *** mike smithwick ***

"Los Angeles : Where neon goes to die"
[disclaimer : nope, I don't work for NASA, I take full blame for my ideas]

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

Date: 19 Sep 89 02:44:41 GMT
From: zephyr.ens.tek.com!orca!pooter![e-mail]  (Kendall Auel;685-2425;61-028;;pooter)
Subject: Re: Edgar Rice Quayle on Mars.

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
>
>        In an August 11 interview on Cable Network News, the head of the
>    National Space Council, Vice President Dan Quayle, explained why the
>    United States should undertake a manned mission to Mars:  "Mars is
>    essentially in the same orbit.  Mars is somewhat the same distance
>    from the Sun, which is very important.  We have seen pictures where
>    there are canals, we believe, and water.  If there is water, there is
>    oxygen.  If oxygen, that means we can breathe."

Yes, Dan Quayle is a bit lacking in mental quickness.  But I found
his statement to make perfect sense to me!  His translation into
lay terms is a bit lacking, but I'll bet there's lots of you folks
out there that have trouble telling your parents (or kids) what it
is you do all day.  Here's my translation:

   If you look at the orbits of all nine planets, Mars and
   Earth are essentially in the same orbit.  For this reason,
   and others, Mars is more like the Earth than any other
   planet in the solar system, which is very important.
   We have seen pictures where there are very deep canyons,
   and we believe that water ice exists at the bottom of those
   canyons.  If there is water, then we can produce oxygen.
   If we can produce oxygen, then we can breathe it.

   [Every translation needs a good summary...]
   The upshot of all this is that Mars lends itself to
   permanent human habitation, and the United States should
   be leading this inevitable colonization of Mars.

Yeah, well, this is a bit lame.  But I don't think Quayle is too far
off the mark.  The thing that bugs me is not Quayle's poorly worded
statements, but Bush's almost total lack of interest.

Kendall Auel                       |  [e-mail]
Tektronix, Inc.                    |  P.O. Box 1000, m/s 61-028
Visual Systems Group               |  Wilsonville, Oregon 97070
Interactive Technologies Division  |  (This message composed on a TEK w/s)

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

Date: Mon, 18 Sep 89 09:50:08 PDT
From: Peter Scott <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Neptune images - help with MAC-II data format
Cc: oliveb!tymix!opus![e-mail]

oliveb!tymix!opus![e-mail]  (Bruce Thomson) writes:

>Does the value of the byte represent a "grey-scale" density?  If this is
>the case, the file sizes are too small.  I think that I remember the
>images where something like 640 by 480 pixels.  This would result in a
>file size of 307200 bytes.  The files vary in size, but some are far too
>small if this is the case.

The images that JPL receives are 800*800 by 8 bits.  These are rebroadcast
at 1/4 that resolution so they can be fitted into a standard video frame,
which also includes other stuff around the edges, e.g. text and histograms.
According to the original poster, these images you are talking about were
digitized off a TV signal, which one would expect to yield what you say,
frames of about 640*480 by 8 bits; however, if the poster then edited out
everything except the image, you'd have less.  Furthermore, considering
transmission noise, and NTSC limitations, I'm afraid you really can't
trust more than 4 or 5 bits per pixel by the time you've received the
TV picture.  Don't take this as gospel; I'm not an image processing
wizard.

Peter Scott ([e-mail])

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

Date: 19 Sep 89 13:45:00 GMT
From: hsi!mfci![e-mail]  (Paul Rodman)
Subject: Re: Galileo Jovian atmospheric probe -- is it sterilized???

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Steve L Vissage II) writes:
>If some Earth bugs actually do have the tenacity to travel sevaral hundreds
>of millions of miles to Jupiter, is it not likely that most life on Jupiter
>will have the tenacity to survive it?            ^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
Most life??!?? You mean _some_ won't?!?!? And that doesn't bother you?
Sheeesh.

Everyone agrees the probability of wiping out any
possible Jovian life is small. The question is: at what level is
the "risk" acceptable?

IMHO, the risk is very, very, small, but the _possible_ is quite
horrific (although we'd probably never know it).  I think
some sort of planetary Golden Rule applies here: I would like the earth
to be treated the same way by any other life forms, please.

Also, IMHO, I tend to think the probability of Jovian life is at least
as great as Martian life. Jupiter has a lot more interesting raw
materials and sources of energy, granted the chemistry would be
different. Given that we don't know much about the origins of life, we
really should have sterilized the probe.  Is that really a lot to ask?

Should our decision be influenced by the fact that the probe is already
built and ready and it can't be done now?

I guess its Que Sera time.......

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

Date: 20 Sep 89 02:20:57 GMT
From: galaxy.rutgers.edu!andromeda.rutgers.edu![e-mail]  (Michael T Ruane Sr)
Subject: Re: Saturn V- Were they ever in production?


Greetings Net-folk!

    Concerning all the recent talk about the Saturn V, I believe
that 2 posters said that the S5 production line was shut down by NASA.
I didn't think that S5 ever went into *production*. I thought that they
were still pretty much custom built. Any engineers out there able to set me
straight? How about Henry or Tom?

Thanks in advance-

Mike

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

Date: 19 Sep 89 16:51:16 GMT
From: gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!mailrus!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Galileo RTGs

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Peter Scott) writes:
>>>    How would the RTGs handle an extreme high velocity reentry ...
>>
>>This is actually considered the worst reasonably-likely accident (since
>>it takes pretty unlikely ones to break the RTGs open during launch).
>
>Not clear here if you are talking about the *really* worst reasonably-likely
>accident, since you use the term "re-entry", implying that this is happening
>after orbit and hence SRB and ET separation.  The worst case I have seen
>studied seriously is loss of control shortly after launch resulting in the
>entire stack diving back into the ground.  The velocity would confine the
>ET propellant explosion enough to create an explosion of about 10kT.
>Of course, this suggests that the shuttle somehow manages to get back over
>land before the RSO can (wait for it) blow his stack...

NASA may goof off, but the USAF range-safety people don't... which is why
I don't class this as a "reasonably-likely" accident.

>Considering the
>other toxics on board the shuttle, I think RTG breakage would be a minor
>component of the total disaster...

The other toxic stuff on the shuttle is mostly (I *think* entirely) the
nitrogen tetroxide and various flavors of hydrazine, for the small engines
and the assorted APUs.  That stuff isn't fun if you're at close range, but
since it's all volatile liquids, it disperses into the atmosphere and does
not present a long-range hazard.  Apart from the scare value of the name,
the plutonium in the RTGs is legitimately a bit more of a concern; droplets
of volatile fuels evaporate, but solid particles don't.
--
"Where is D.D. Harriman now,   |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
when we really *need* him?"    | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry [e-mail]

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

Date: 18 Sep 89 22:17:04 GMT
From: hpda!hpcuhb!hpcllla!hpclove![e-mail]  (Bob Campbell)
Subject: Re: Re: Saturn V & F-1

>>Of course, the main competition to the S5 would be the shuttle-C. The main
>>engines for the shuttle-C are flying today. By your own argument, it must
>>be cheaper to build shuttle-C using existing components than to reconstruct
>>the Saturn V from rusting originals.
>
>It might indeed be cheaper to do this if an industrial consortium hired
>the engineers and said, "do it."  If we wait for NASA to do it, however,
>it will cost much more.
>
>A good rule of thumb is: whatever NASA finally does ends up costing more
>than anything else they might have done.

Like I said, two of my favorite R&D idols had the same first step.

1.  Get the money first.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bob Campbell                Some times I wish that I could stop you from
[e-mail]        talking, when I hear the silly things you say.
Hewlett Packard                                    - Elvis Costello

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

Date: 19 Sep 89 17:34:21 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Atlas/Centaur launch, news conference delays (Forwarded)

Jim Cast
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                 September 19, 1989


N89-65

NOTE TO EDITORS:  ATLAS/CENTAUR LAUNCH, NEWS CONFERENCE DELAYS


     Launch of Atlas Centaur-68/FLTSATCOM, is now scheduled for
no earlier than 4:13 a.m. EDT, Sunday, September 24.
Accordingly, the planned L-2 day prelaunch news conference has
been delayed until 2:00 p.m., Friday, September 22.

     The delays are due to Hurricane Hugo.  Precautionary
measures are being taken on the launch pad in case it becomes
necessary to demate the FLTSATCOM spacecraft from the launch
vehicle and transport the spacecraft to safety.  In preparation
for such a move, RP-1 fuel was detanked from the Atlas last
night.  Operations at Launch Complex 36B are now on hold pending
updated weather forecasts.  The Atlas/Centaur launch vehicle,
itself, is capable of withstanding winds as high as 125 mph.

     The Sunday launch date assumes normal resumption of
activities on the pad beginning tommorrow.

     Updates on the launch status of A/C-68 will be made as soon
as information becomes available.

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

End of SPACE Digest V10 #84
*******************