Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT_ZIP/spacedig/V10_3/V10_348.ZIP/V10_348

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Subject: SPACE Digest V10 #348

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 10 : Issue 348

Today's Topics:
     NASA Select Radio Programs for 12/15/89 (Forwarded)
       Re: Are We Exploring Space? (also: Manned vs. Unmanned)
             henry spencer as Great Satan
              RE: SPACE Digest V10 #346
            Re: New years eve 1999
           Re: henry spencer as Great Satan
         NASA Headline News for 12/15/89 (Forwarded)
              Re: Japanese MIR?
            Re: New years eve 1999
     Re: Space industry projects: dismantling moons and asteroids
            Re: Pilgrimage to KSC
           Payload Status for 12/15/89 (Forwarded)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 15 Dec 89 19:16:41 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA Select Radio Programs for 12/15/89 (Forwarded)

The next series of NASA radio programs will be on NASA Select
Monday, December 18th at 1:00 p.m. Eastern.  The shows include:

#1356  Earthquake:  Satellite to the Rescue
(Feat:  Art Anzic, LeRC)
USE:  12/18/89 THRU 12/24/89

#1357  Getting to Know Earthquakes
(Feat:  Herb Frey, GFSC)
USE:  12/25/89 THRU 12/31/89

#1358  Easy to Fly Airplanes
(Feat:  Eric Stewart, LaRC)
USE:  01/01/90 THRU 01/07/90

#1359  Painting the Sky Red and Blue
(Feat:  David Reasoner, MSFC)
USE:  01/08/90 THRU 01/14/90

NASA Select is on Satcom F-2R, Transponder 13, 72 West Longitude.

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

Date: 15 Dec 89 22:41:48 GMT
From: bfmny0![e-mail]  (Tom Neff)
Subject: Re: Are We Exploring Space? (also: Manned vs. Unmanned)

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (M. A. Pasek) writes:
>From my perspective (No, I'm not a "scientist" with 20 PhD's ;-) ), the ONLY
>reason for doing anything in space is to allow us (read "humans") to someday
>be able to travel and live there.  All the preliminaries, such as "data
>gathering" or "exploration" or "research", are just that: PRELIMINARIES.

Presumably this is also the reason for studying the Earth's core, or
the atmosphere of the Sun, correct?

Not to mention quasars and distant galaxies.

Nice of us to get started early...
--
"The country couldn't run without Prohibition.       ][  Tom Neff
 That is the industrial fact." -- Henry Ford, 1929   ][  [e-mail]

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

Date: Thu, 14 Dec 89 11:17:01 PST
From: mordor!lll-tis!ames!scubed!pnet01.cts.com![e-mail] (Jim Bowery)
To: crash![e-mail]
Subject: henry spencer as Great Satan

Henry Spencer writes:
>The real problem is that the planetary-science people got caught in
>a vicious circle of bigger and more complicated and less frequent missions.
>
>The vicious cycle was well advanced long before the lack of launch slots
>became evident.  One sophisticated project after another died in the 70s
>and early 80s, when plentiful launch slots were still considered imminent.
>I recommend reading the SSEC report on the subject.  It makes it very
>plain that those projects died, pure and simple, because they were too
>ambitious and too expensive.

Because each planetary probe requires a "new start" via act of Congress/OMB,
and because the Shuttle Program had already been authorized -- starting in
1975 planetary scientists found themselves trying to get NASA HQ to submit
new starts for them in the face of Shuttle Program over-runs.  NASA HQ
refused to make such submissions, choosing, instead, to invest its clout
in what it saw as its primary source of welfare in the future:  Shuttle.
It was quite natural for SOME (not all!) of them to recommend larger
and larger missions which would be perceived as welfare programs by
NASA HQ.  There were more keep-it-simple-stupid missions ideas during
the mid-late seventies than exotic missions.  Even so, the exotic
missions were being proposed in a panic over HQ's priorities which
gave precedence to welfare programs such as Shuttle.

While we have had a few planetary starts recently, this is a doomed
situation by the same logic, except this time it will be Space Station
over-runs instead of Shuttle over-runs that do us in.

This was the primary motivation behind the SSEC's recommendation to
get ONE program authorized (the Mariner II series I believe) which
would handle the "core" planetary science objectives, leaving more exotic
missions to fight it out with the JSC welfare programs.

By the time Shuttle was to go into operation, production of alternatives
had been all but shut down and it was clear Shuttle would provide
very few launch slots in the 1980s.  That's where the logic for
the Galileo Syndrome really started.

Galileo, the last planetary probe to be authorized prior to Shuttle
Program over-runs gutting new planetary science starts, was ready to
launch, on budget, at $300M in about '82.  It has ended up a $1,300M
program due to sitting around for 7 years waiting to get launched on
Shuttle.  While $300M is high by MY standards or even by the standards
of one of the core missions of the SSEC, it is no where NEAR the $1.3B
we ended up paying for Galileo.  This means the cost of Galileo QUADRUPLED
in response to the lack of launch slots.  Perspective helps one keep the
horse before the cart while interpreting history.

I'm sorry for this sequence dragging out so much, but since Henry
has somehow become a node for the UUCP Houston Sophistry Feed,
noise suppression is getting to be a major chore around here.
---
Typical RESEARCH grant:
$
Typical DEVELOPMENT contract:
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

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

Date: 15 Dec 89 08:37:00 CDT
From: "23BMSDO" <[e-mail]>
Subject: RE: SPACE Digest V10 #346
To: "space+" <[e-mail]>

Does anybody know of a interest group on the network that is carrying
discussions on UFO phenomenon? I'm doing research on this topic and
would like to be placed on a distribution list that carries this as a
main topic.
-----------------"And it had green eyes!"----------------------------------
David Winters            [e-mail]

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

Date: 14 Dec 89 21:36:32 GMT
From: convex!mozart![e-mail]  (Dave Dodson)
Subject: Re: New years eve 1999

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
>   When (western civilisation) enters the next millenium why not celebrate
>   with the BIGGEST fireworks ever. In the last hour of 1999 all MX:s,
>   Minutemans and Tridents with their Soviet counterparts could be launched
>   and converge at a point X at 23:59:59 GMT and then, you guessed it!
>
>   Do anyone see any technical problems about this, like people on the ground
>   being exposed to an undue amount of radiation or EMP-damage to power lines
>   and the like ?

One obvious problem is that this millenium ends at the end of December in
the year 2000 and the next millenium begins at the beginning of January
in the year 2001.  If you carried out your plan as above, you would be
celebrating one year early.

Hint: There was no year 0, so the first millenium was year 1 _through_ year
1000, the second from 1001 through 2000, and the third from 2001 through 3000.

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

Dave Dodson                                     [e-mail]
Convex Computer Corporation      Richardson, Texas      [phone]

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

Date: 15 Dec 89 15:39:28 GMT
From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!caesar.cs.montana.edu!ogicse![e-mail]  (Terry Rooker)
Subject: Re: henry spencer as Great Satan

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Jim Bowery) writes:
>in response to the lack of launch slots.  Perspective helps one keep the
>horse before the cart while interpreting history.

It's interesting to see your discussion with Henry Spencer.  You have
your biases and he has his radically different biases.  Yet your
perspective is correct?  History is a fickle mistress, be careful
when you claim her services.  You two assign different meaning to the
same events.  He cites documents in support, can you cite any
documents in support of your opinion about the NASA welfare programs?

--
Terry Rooker
[e-mail]

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

Date: 15 Dec 89 19:15:11 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA Headline News for 12/15/89 (Forwarded)

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, Dec. 15, 1989                        Audio:  202/755-1788
-----------------------------------------------------------------

This is NASA Headline News for Friday, December 15......

Because of the additional steps involved in the first use of
Launch Pad 39A for the upcoming STS-32 mission...the processing
schedule continues to run slightly behind.  As a result, it is
expected that shuttle managers will announce later today that the
launch will slip an additional day to Thursday, December 21st.
the launch window on Thursday would open at 5:55 P.M. Eastern
time.

Officials for Martin Marietta said yesterday they have moved up
the launch of the first commercial Titan III to Monday, December
18th, to avoid a conflict with the STS-32 mission.  Liftoff is
scheduled for 7:20 P.M. Eastern time from the Cape Canaveral Air
Force Station.  The launch has a 42-minute launch window.  The
booster will carry Japanese and British communications
satellites.

The New York Times says in the first detailed report since
Voyager 2's encounter with Neptune last August, mission
scientists say they are puzzled about the four distinctive rings
around the planet.  In the report being published today in the
journal "Science," scientists said the existence of three bright
arcs in the outer ring around Neptune was "an enigma."  And, they
said, they could not explain the narrow rings themselves, in the
absence of detectable gravitational forces to keep the material
in such confined orbits.













                         *************










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

Monday, Dec. 18.....

     5:00 p.m.      The STS-32 flight crew is scheduled to
                    arrive at KSC.

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, 14 Dec 89 11:19:58 PST
From: mordor!lll-tis!ames!scubed!pnet01.cts.com![e-mail] (Jim Bowery)
To: crash![e-mail]
Subject: Re: Japanese MIR?

Charles Daffinger writes:
>o       TOKYO -- A Japanese firm has bought Moscow's only surplus Mir space
>o station and an experimental science module for $10 million to help
>o promote Japan's space industry, the company's president said Wednesday.
>o
>
>Say what?  I figure the price may be off by a few orders of magnitude,
>but what's this really supposed to mean?

That's right, Charles.  Space Station Freedom's cost IS off by a few
order's of magnitude.
---
Typical RESEARCH grant:
$
Typical DEVELOPMENT contract:
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

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

Date: 15 Dec 89 14:19:00 GMT
From: ecsvax.uncecs.edu!uncmed!calico![e-mail]  (Charles Balan)
Subject: Re: New years eve 1999

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Paul Haas) writes:
>It also wasn't the first decade, we can measure time back to the big
>bang.
 How long ago was the big bang, breaking it down into millenia?



                            Charles Balan
[e-mail]   ,    [e-mail]    ,   [e-mail]
%%%%%%%%%%%%%  A Witty Saying Proves Nothing - Voltaire  %%%%%%%%%%%%

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

Date: 14 Dec 89 21:51:13 GMT
From: fox!portal!cup.portal.com![e-mail]  (H Keith Henson)
Subject: Re: Space industry projects: dismantling moons and asteroids

[e-mail] (Mark Gellis) asked about dismantling moons and
asteroids.  I don't see any problems with the standard methods we use to
move dirt if the material is weak, though they would have to be adapted to
low g.  One example would be a double sided conveyor belt, the top belt
keeping the material from drifting off.

Hard brittle could be broken with hydrolic presure, like they split large
rocks for building stone (drill holes, put in hose, and pump it up.)  Hard
ductile, like the solid metal cores of some asteroids might best be melted
with an open ended induction furnace.  The liquid metal pool could be
electromagnetically pumped out where it would cool into a rod.  The rod
could be rolled/run through a die to a small enough size that it could be
treated like wire and rolled up.

Angular momentum control is going to be a problem, you want to reduce the
spin in most cases.   Keith Henson [e-mail]

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

Date: 15 Dec 89 16:20:28 GMT
From: att!cbnewsm![e-mail]  (robert.r.rowe)
Subject: Re: Pilgrimage to KSC

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Peter Armenia) writes:
>...to see a shuttle
>launch. I am sure that this question has come up before, and I know that
>many of you have posted about your own experience of seeing a launch.
>
>I would appreciate any info that would be helpful in getting as close as
>possible to the launch sight, photographing the launch, KSC tours, lodging
>etc.
>
>[]  Peter Armenia              ...!rochester!kodak!ektools!armenia      []

I would also appreciate this kind of information.  I'll be in Florida
during the week of Jan. 14, 1990.  Is there even a launch of any type
planned for this period of time.  I will not need information on lodging.
Thanks in advance.

Rob Rowe
AT&T Bell Labs

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

Date: 15 Dec 89 22:36:19 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Payload Status for 12/15/89 (Forwarded)

Daily Status/KSC Payload Management and Operations 12-15-89


- STS-31R HST (at VPF) -

The reevaluation of the HST baseline testing began yesterday and
will continue today.  No problems reported.  Aft shroud access
and shroud flooring installation was worked.  A wasp was
discovered in the VPF highbay last night, it was captured and
removed.

- STS-32R SYNCOM (at Pad A) -

Battery conditioning was completed yesterday, will run today and
will pick up again after pad-a is clear.

- STS-35 ASTRO-1/BBXRT (at O&C) -

WUPPE experiment troubleshooting and Spacelab troubleshooting
were completed.  Experiment inverter strut & installation were
completed.  The plan is not to power up today and the testing/
troubleshooting is under engineering evaluation.

- STS-40 SLS-1 (at O&C) -

Rack mods on racks 11 & 12 worked yesterday.  Front mods were
performed on racks 3, 4, 6, 7, & 8.  Eddy current inspections are
scheduled to pick up again today.  Completed cable tie struts
reconfiguration and pyrell foam work continues.

- STS-42 IML (at O&C) -

No activity.

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

End of SPACE Digest V10 #348
*******************