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Subject: SPACE Digest V10 #321

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 10 : Issue 321

Today's Topics:
                   Signoff
         NASA Headline News for 12/07/89 (Forwarded)
             NRC assistantship...
        Re: Manned vs Unmanned Mission to Mars
               Re: Mars Mission Agenda
              Re: SPACE Digest V10 #317
      Prizes vs Subsidies (was Re: Mars Mission Agenda)
             Hearings on HR2674 (1 of 6)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Thu,  7 Dec 89 12:27:56 EDT
From: [e-mail] (Smile, and foil those who have evil
 plans for thee)
Subject: Signoff

Signoff
------------

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

Date: 7 Dec 89 19:12:58 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA Headline News for 12/07/89 (Forwarded)

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, December 7, 1989                    Audio: 202/755-1788
-----------------------------------------------------------------

This is NASA Headline News for Thursday, December 7....


The Jet Propulsion Laboratory reports that all is well aboard the
Galileo spacecraft.  The interplanetary craft is presently 9 and
quarter million miles from Earth.  Since launch, fifty days ago,
Galileo has traveled 71 million miles along its curved path to
Venus where it will get its first gravity assist boost on an
almost 2-1/2 billion mile, six year journey to Jupiter.

The Galileo's operational systems continue to be checked out.
scientific instruments will be undergo a thorough check out later
this month.


The reduction to the NASA FY 1990 budget will amount to $155.2
million.  The cut is much less than the $589 million that would
have been slashed had congress permited the 5.3 percent across-
the-board cut under the Gramm-Rudman deficit reduction act.
Aerospace Daily reports that an agency operating plan due on
Capitol Hill December 9 may be extended to allow NASA offices
more time to adjust to the reductions.


Launch preparations for the next space shuttle mission continue
at Kennedy Space Center.  Although December 18 has been set for
launch of the Columbia, the first use of Launch complex 39A in
several years may create some prelaunch problems and result in a
possible launch delay.  Shuttle launch managers report that so far
they have not run into any problems in the prelaunch processing.


An unmanned module has finally been docked with the Soviet's Mir
space station.  The 40-ton Kvant-2 will add a shower and sink to
the Mir station living facilities, an experiment area and a Buran
space shuttle docking port.  The module also carries a manned
maneuvering unit...or as described by the Soviets...a "space
motorcycle".


The Washington Post says a new computer simulation of the
"greenhouse effect" around the Earth indicates that over the next
100 years the northern hemisphere will possibly heat up more
rapidly than the southern hemisphere. It also predicts that
Antarctica may even cool.  The new computer model was developed
by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and for
the first time includes the movement of ocean currents in the
data.

             *            *         *           *


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

Sunday, December 10....


NASA Select will carry the launch of the Global Positioning
Satellite-05 aboard a commercial Delta II rocket.  The launch
window is from 12 noon to 3:30 P.M.  NASA Select will join the
countdown at T-30 minutes.

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: Thu 7 Dec 89 09:23:47-PST
From: Jay Glass <[e-mail]>
Subject: NRC assistantship...
Cc: [e-mail]
Mail-System-Version: <VAX-MM(228)+TOPSLIB(132)+PONY(228)@PLUTO.ARC.NASA.GOV>

Following Eugene Miya's note yesterday ...

I am looking for a new Ph.D. interested in symbolic control, including AI-based
 fault detection, identification, and recovery, of complex space subsystems
(e.g., thermal management, life support, navigation and communications) for
a one-year NRC post-doc research associateship. Pay is not great (mid-30s)
but includes relocation. It's a good starting point for further searches in
NASA-Ames or the rest of Silicon Valley.

I'm currently working on automating the monitoring and control of a
prototype Freedom thermal control system -- we have a brassboard at
Ames. Appropriate backgrounds would be in engineering or physics with some
AI work, or a computer scientist with a strong interest in reasoning about
physical systems. If you match this and/or are interested, you are
encouraged to apply.

Reply to my net address if interested, and I'll express an application --
it must be postmarked by 12/15 for Feb. review (i.e., June hiring).

Summer students are separately encouraged (see Miya's message).

Jay Glass
[e-mail]
-------

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

Date: 7 Dec 89 18:34:00 GMT
From: apollo![e-mail]  (Steve Rehrauer)
Subject: Re: Manned vs Unmanned Mission to Mars

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Mark Earnshaw) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (John Arft) writes:
>>It [Apollo] caught the attention of nearly every human on the planet.
>>When was the last time JPL did that?
>
>August of this year when Voyager II encountered Neptune?

No bricks thrown at Voyager, but, no I think not.  I can round up herds of people
who were only dimly aware of what Voyager was doing, in spite of the media hype
(they simply wren't interested enough to mentally tune it in).  I can probably
even scrounge up some who have never heard of Voyager, ever.  (Sigh.)
--
>>"Aaiiyeeee!  Death from above!"<< | Steve Rehrauer, [e-mail]
   "Flee, lest we be trod upon!"    | The Apollo System Division of H.P.

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

Date: 8 Dec 89 02:32:12 GMT
From: vsi1!v7fs1![e-mail]  (Mike Van Pelt)
Subject: Re: Mars Mission Agenda

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Henry Spencer) writes:
>With budgets like that, it's easy.  I offer prizes of $10 billion each
>to the first five companies who can launch large amounts of payload into
>orbit at $200/lb or less, and similar prizes to the first five companies
>who can launch large amounts into orbit at $20/lb or less.

This sounds a bit like Pournelle's proposal:  Provide a guaranteed
market for delivery to LEO for the next ten years.  I think the figures
he used were $200/lb for the first million pounds each year for the
next ten years.  So, if one company can orbit a million pounds at
$100/lb, they can clear a profit of a cool $100 million.

With bigger budgets, either up the price per pound, or the number of
pounds to be guaranteed each year.

The proposal was modeled on the Kelly Air-mail Act, and is the best
idea I've seen yet on getting space transportation going.  Your prize
is a good idea too, but I can imagine all kinds of underhanded fiscal
legerdemain to make launch services look cheaper than they really are.
Making it just a market removes the incentive to do that.
--
Mike Van Pelt                       When the fog came in on little cat feet
Headland Technology/Video 7         last night, it left these little muddy
...ames!vsi1!v7fs1!mvp              paw prints on the hood of my car.

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

Date: Thu, 7 Dec 89 17:18 EDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: SPACE Digest V10 #317
Sender: [e-mail]
Reply-To: [e-mail]
X-Envelope-To: [e-mail]

Please delete me from the subscriber list.
Thanks
David Albert
Daalbert@Vassar

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

Date: 7 Dec 89 21:28:48 GMT
From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!image.soe.clarkson.edu!sunybcs!uhura.cc.rochester.edu!rochester![e-mail]  (Brian Yamauchi)
Subject: Prizes vs Subsidies (was Re: Mars Mission Agenda)

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Henry Spencer) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Eric C. Garrison) writes:
>>
>>The object is to design a Mars landing/sample return mission, with minimum cost
>>and maximum results.  There is a soft limit on the Budget at $200 billion, and
>>a hard limit at $400 billion...
>
>With budgets like that, it's easy.  I offer prizes of $10 billion each
>to the first five companies who can launch large amounts of payload into
>orbit at $200/lb or less, and similar prizes to the first five companies
>who can launch large amounts into orbit at $20/lb or less.  (Actually it
>might be better to spread the prizes out over the scale, rather than
>lumping them at two points, but that's a detail.  Also, definitions of
>terms like "large" will be needed.)  No development subsidies of any kind,
>just prizes for results.  It'll be the biggest scramble you ever saw.
>Forget the joys of space science and the glow of national pride and etc.;
>the power of greed beats any of them and all of them when it comes to
>getting results.

>Then we can do the unmanned mission, *and* the partially-manned mission,
>*and* the manned mission, several times over, for a whole lot less than
>the remaining $100 billion of the soft limit.  Not to mention opening up
>space to an enormous range of other activities.

Sounds like an excellent idea.  After all, for $400 billion we
*should* be able to get much more for our money than a one-shot
four-man Mars landing.

Perhaps, the netters who made contacts lobbying for HR2674 could
suggest that their friends in Congress (Rep. Packard, etc.) introduce
such a proposal.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Brian Yamauchi                University of Rochester
[e-mail]        Computer Science Department
_______________________________________________________________________________

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

Date: 6 Dec 89 19:37:46 GMT
From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!shadooby!sharkey!itivax!vax3![e-mail]  (Allen W. Sherzer)
Subject: Hearings on HR2674 (1 of 6)

Below is testimony fron the hearings on HR2674. The next step is
to pressure Congressperson Nelson of Florida to send the bill to
'mark up' so it can get to the floor.

This information comes from Tihamer Toth-Fjel of the Ann Arbor Space
Society and Catherine Rawlings of Congressperson Packard's office.

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

News from:
Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
U.S. House of Representatives

Robert A.  Roe, Chairman

Robert Walker, Ranking Republican Member

#101-122
November 6, 1989
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NELSON ANNOUNCES HEARING ON
COMMERCIAL SPACE INITIATIVES

Representative Bill Nelson (D-FL) announced today that the Subcommittee on
Space Science and Applications will hold a hearing to examine the Commercial
Space Launch Act and related legislative actions.  This hearing will be fromo
9:30 am to 5:00 pm on Thursday, November 9 in room 2325 of of the Rayburn House
Office Building.

Various Congressional, Administration, and commerical launch industry
witnesses will testify regarding implementation of the Commercial Space
Launch Act and its amendments.  The subcommittee will also review the
legislative actions proposed to suport the commercial space industry, including
H. R. 2674, the Space Transportation Services Purchase Act of 1989.

Nelson said, "In the past this subcommittee has worked hard to develop a viable
commercial space program.  I want to ensure that Congress and the Administration
is doing all it can to cut through the 'bureaucratic red tape' that too often
acts as a deterent to prospective commercial launch industry investors.  This
hearing will be the first step toward that goal."

Representative James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), Ranking Republican Member of the
Subcommitte, said, "Twice in the past five years, Congress has passed legislation
to encourage the development of a commercial launch industry.  This hearing
will permit the Space Subcommittee to assess the progress that has been made
thus far, and to identify what obstacles still need to be overcome."

The Subcommitte on Space Science and Applications is one of seven subcommittees
of the Committe on Science, Space, and Technology.  Representative Robert A. Roe
(D-NJ) is the Chairman of the Committee and Representative Robert Walker (R-PA)
is the Ranking Republican Member.


WITWESS LIST

DATE: Nogember 9, 1989
TIME : 9:30 am - 5:00 pm
PLACE: 2325 Rayburn Hou@e Office Building
RE: Commercial Space Launch Act Implementation


PANEL I:

Congressman Ron Packard
of California

Congressman Jim Kolbe
of Arizona

PANEL II:

Stephanie Lee-Miller, Director
Office of Commercial Space Tran@portation Department of Transportation

PANEL III:

Joe Mahon
Deputy Associate Administrator
Flight Systems
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

George R. Schneiter
Acting Deputy Director
Defense Research and Engineering
Strategic and Theater Nuclear Forces Department of Defense

PANEL IV:

Donald K. Slayton
Vice Chairman, COMSTAC
President of Space Services, Inc.

Dennis Dunbar
Subcommittee on Procurement/COMSTAC
Vice President, Programs and Technical Operations
Commercial Services Division
General Dynamics Corporation

James C.  Bennett, President
American Rocket

Dr. C.J. Waylan, President
GTE Spacenet

----------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks to Jim Shearer at the Industrial Technology Institute,
whose scanner we used to get these documents into electronic form.  I
edited many of the mistakes the OCR software made (but it was easier
than typing 'em all in).  In the near future, the Ann Arbor Chapter of
the National Space Society will be manually typing in the rest of the
testimony, specifically Nelson's introduction, Joseph Mahon (from NASA)
claiming that HR2674 is premature, Donald Slayton's (from SSIA and
COMSTAC) statement, Dennis Dunbar (from General Dynamics and COMSTAC
explaining that a commercial proposal requires 91 pages, while a
government proposal requires 4250 for the same launch services), and
James Bennett (from American Rocket Company - AMROC).  Stay tuned!
----------------Tihamer Toth-Fejel   ([e-mail])---------------



----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Allen W. Sherzer                    |  Is the local cluster the result   |
|  [e-mail]                        |  of gerrymandering?                |
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End of SPACE Digest V10 #321
*******************