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Subject: SPACE Digest V10 #351

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 10 : Issue 351

Today's Topics:
             Re: Satellites in E-W orbits
            Re: New years eve 1999
            Re: New years eve 1999
                Techno-welfare
            Re: New years eve 1999
           Payload Status for 12/14/89 (Forwarded)
              Re: shuttle as Great Satan
              GIF Voyager Images
           Hi Resolution Imaging of Canary Islands?

                 Re: Salyut 7
     Re: Space industry projects: dismantling moons and asteroids
            Re: New years eve 1999
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 15 Dec 89 19:07:47 GMT
From: samsung!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!walt.cc.utexas.edu![e-mail]  (Feulner ... Matthew Feulner)
Subject: Re: Satellites in E-W orbits

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Henry Spencer) writes:
>
>I think the stuff in sun-synchronous orbit (typically 97-99 degrees) is
>close enough to 90 for their tracks to look pretty much N-S.

Not when you are at 65 degrees latitude.

Matthew Feulner

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

Date: 15 Dec 89 20:09:27 GMT
From: mentor.cc.purdue.edu![e-mail]  (Floyd McWilliams)
Subject: Re: New years eve 1999

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Dave Dodson) writes:
>this millenium ends at the end of December in the year 2000...

>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.

    Nope.  The first millenium was year 1 through 999.  The second
millenium is 1000 through 1999.  The trick is, the first millenium got
shafted out of a year.
    It's not very fair, of course, and anybody who was around during
the first millenium is invited to sue The Calendar People at the court
of law most convenient for them.

--
"Bog khochet znat', gdye tuapyet."
Floyd McWilliams            mentor.cc.purdue.edu!acu

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

Date: 15 Dec 89 03:14:19 GMT
From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!munnari.oz.au!basser!cluster![e-mail]  (James Ashton)
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,

This point has been made on the net countless times before so I would
have thought everyone would have been fully aware of the pitfall.  The
last hour of the year 2000 and not 1999 is the last hour of this millenium.

                        James Ashton.

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

Date: 15 Dec 89 13:56:16 GMT
From: rochester![e-mail]  (Paul Dietz)
Subject: Techno-welfare

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Lou Adornato) writes:
>
>A while back someone (Tom Neff?) called the space program "techno-welfare".
>This might be true, but econometric studies have shown that every dollar spent
>on Apollo generated seven dollars worth of economic growth.  No, I don't have
>the study, but Collins cited it in "Carrying the Fire" (I always meant to write
>him and get the name of the study...).

I called it technowelfare.  I believe the "study" that "showed" the space
program paid off 7-1 just *assumed* that space R&D was as productive
as civilian R&D.

The supposed economic boon of the space program is an example of the
Big Lie technique, IMHO.

    Paul F. Dietz
    [e-mail]

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

Date: 15 Dec 89 05:22:24 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (Millard Edgerton)
Subject: Re: New years eve 1999

From article <[e-mail]>, by [e-mail] (Paul Dietz):
> 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,
> put fallout into the atmosphere, and ICBMs don't loft their warheads very
> far up.
>
>     Paul F. Dietz
>     [e-mail]
Well....l.....l! The last year of this decade is 1990 and the last year
of the millenium is 2000! THERE WAS NO YEAR ZERO!  Authur C. Clark was
correct with Space Oddesey 2001..........! Counting back 2 AD, 1 AD, 1 BC
2 BC........etc.

Zero turns out to be a very important digit.  Some Hindu(unknown, lived
not later than the ninth century) came up with 'sunya' meaning empty.  The
Arabs called it 'sifr' which has been distorted in our words 'cipher' and
from 'zefirum' into zero.
***************************************************************************
*  Intelligent people talk about ideas.   | Standard disclaimer(s)        *
*  Average people talk about things.      | Millard J. Edgerton, WA6VZZ   *
*  Small people talk about other people.  | [e-mail]      *
***************************************************************************
*                -o-                      |         -o-                   *
*      Employed by Sterling Software at NASA Ames Research Center.        *
***************************************************************************

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

Date: 15 Dec 89 05:22:41 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Payload Status for 12/14/89 (Forwarded)

Daily Status/KSC Payload Management and Operations 12-14-89


- STS-31R HST (at VPF) -

HST vertical hoist fixture installation was completed.  The
wide field planetary camera arrived at the VPF and was staged
in the facility.  ECS and facility HVAC monitoring continues.

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

Battery conditioning continues today and will continue daily
until Pad A clear begins.

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

Impact ring installation, pick board removal, HUT GSE patching,
GSE installation and cable routing are all complete.  MLI ball
fastener repair, installation of the EPDB tent, guide star
simulator removal and HUT camera MLI installation were all
completed as well.  Power up is planned for this morning to
troubleshoot a WUPPE experiment.  Once this is completed the
remainder of the preps for the move to cite will begin.

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

Eddy current checks were performed and will continue today.
Condensate water sensor preps/validation and ground air
conditioning maintenance worked yesterday.  Pyrell foam, FDRS
mods and gas component work continues.  MVAK familiarization
is in work and will continue today.

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

Container mod single H&T kit in worked yesterday.

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

Date: 15 Dec 89 20:32:04 GMT
From: bfmny0![e-mail]  (Tom Neff)
Subject: Re: shuttle as Great Satan

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Doug Mink, OIR) writes:
>The shuttle does do science; one project paid my salary for four years.

Ah yes, the Salary Payment Experiment Module (SPEM) :-)

(no disrespect to Doug Mink intended, but it *is* true that paying someone's
salary - even a scientist's - doesn't itself constitute doing science.)
--
There's nothing wrong with Southern California that a    || Tom Neff
rise in the ocean level wouldn't cure. -- Ross MacDonald || [e-mail]

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

Date: 15 Dec 89 21:23:44 GMT
From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!srcsip!herky![e-mail]  (Tom Palm)
Subject: GIF Voyager Images


Several months ago there was discussion about GIF Voyager images,
including an anonymous ftp site where they were stored.  Could
somebody please send me a mail message telling me the site name
and ip number?   Thanks!  (We just got a color postscript printer
here at work, and I gotta test it)

[e-mail]

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

From: cgch![e-mail]
Date: Fri, 15 Dec 89 09:03:15 mez
Subject: Hi Resolution Imaging of Canary Islands?


    I need a high resolution picture (the more recent
the better), of the island of Lanzarote in the Canary
Islands.  Color isn't that important, I want it to be
able to identify individual buildings, etc.  Actually,
I need only the northern half of the island.

    I know that LANDSAT is available of most of the
world, but not how to get it.  Is there anything else
that might be better out there?  The purchaser will
be a US citizen if that makes a difference.

    Please reply directly, as I'm not sure I'm
getting the distribution of this list...
                    -jcp-
 ======================================================================
 Joseph C. Pistritto               'Think of it as Evolution in Action'
   Ciba Geigy AG, R1241.1.01, Postfach CH4002 Basel, Switzerland
   Internet: [e-mail]                  Phone: [phone]
   Bitnet:   [e-mail]   Fax:   [phone]
   From US:  cgch![e-mail]

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

Date:     Fri, 15 Dec 89 12:59 EST
From: <[e-mail]>
Subject:

Subj:   Asteroid harvesting


      I also wonder how it will be done, if it ever gets to that point.  I'd
imagine it would be a matter of how much energy is there to use.  A solar
mirror could be used to melt sections of the surface while a ceramic armored
slag sucker could crawl around and collect the molten debris before it cools.
This is assuming that moving the whole thing is out of the question--not a
totally impossible feat.  The slag suckers could fill up a heated ceramic tank
with molten rock and metal and eject it when full, letting it settle to the
surface in collectible chunks or spit it out where a craft could grab it when
it radiated away enough heat to solidify (maybe eject it only in the shadow
 region).

        There most likely is less energy intense methods using conventional
mining equipment to burrow in and around with. (grammar--- most likely ARE,
so don't flame me as ignorant, eh?).  :)
I wonder if sensors could be used to penetrate the surface (x-rays, gamma?)
to see where the highest concentrations of useful elements are to save time
in collecting them.  I wouldn't use Nukes, it might make a lot of the material
on one side's surface unusable for anything but later reaction mass.  With
the state of space exploration being a slow as it is currently, I wouldn't
expect much activity here for a few decades (sigh).  Maybe we'll be suprised
by some private group getting together in a shorter time to take the risks
that the corporate mega-entities are reluctant to.  More power to 'em, I hope
I get a chance to be in on it.  Comments?   (criticisms assumed)

                                Korac MacArthur
                                [e-mail]

"Death before disclaimer!" ---- K.M.

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

Date: 14 Dec 89 22:15:10 GMT
From: timbuk![e-mail]  (Lou Adornato)
Subject: Re: Salyut 7

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Mark Earnshaw) writes:
>Of course, this would be a fast cheap way for the Western world to get a space
>station.  All we have to do is buy Salyut 7 from the Russians.  They get
>desperately needed hard currency, and we get a working (?) space station a
>decade ahead of schedule (possible much more given the way deadlines have been
>slipping  :-( ).
>
>:-)  :-)
>

(I >hate< smileys!)

Before anyone extends the Japanese purchase of the backup Mir to this thread,
we are missing two important elements of the American space experience.

A while back someone (Tom Neff?) called the space program "techno-welfare".
This might be true, but econometric studies have shown that every dollar spent
on Apollo generated seven dollars worth of economic growth.  No, I don't have
the study, but Collins cited it in "Carrying the Fire" (I always meant to write
him and get the name of the study...).  That kind of growth certainly doesn't
hold for "regular" welfare unless you include the Muskatel brewers and crack
dealers.  Buying Russian trash certainly won't help us develop spinoff
technology, it won't incite our kids to enter math and engineering specialties,
and it won't keep our young engineers from getting MBAs 'cause "that's where
the money is".

The second factor is national pride (I can hear you snorting out there, Tom
Neff.  Stop it).  Twenty years ago this country had problems, sure, but we
where the largest creditor nation in the world, and we tended to concentrate
on our strengths.  Today, we are the biggest debtor nation in the world, we
have more lawyers than engineers, and the whole damn govornment can't stop a
bunch of illiterate drugged out street punks from turning L.A. into a free
fire zone.  I'd say $40e9 for something to be proud of is a fair deal (I'm
sure glad I don't have to diagram that sentance).

I guess what it boils down to is, if America is going to have a space station,
it should come out of the engineering department and not out of the finance
department.  You can't buy first place out of petty cash.

Lou Adornato    |  Statements herein do not represent the opinions or attitudes
Cray Research   |  of Cray Research, Inc. or its subsidiaries.
[e-mail]    |       (...yet)

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

Date: 15 Dec 89 17:39:36 GMT
From: cs.utexas.edu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Space industry projects: dismantling moons and asteroids

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Steve Nuchia) writes:
>My plan is to set off a small nuke near one to get it moving more or
>less earthward, on about a 5 year trajectory...

I'd recommend doing some numerical calculations before setting out. :-)
Unless your rock is already an Earth-approacher (in which case you don't
need that initial kick at all), you will need not one small nuclear bomb,
but many large ones.  Assuming your rock is fairly sizable, that is.
The rule of thumb is that getting a 1km lump from the asteroid belt to
very high Earth orbit takes 1000 hundred-megaton bombs.  Actually, with
a well-chosen asteroid, the maneuvering at Earth encounter is the hard
part:  pick one that's already in about the right orbit, and whatever
propulsion system you plan to use for Earth encounter will suffice for
the rest of the job too.

>Match speeds with it
>again, stop its spin, and clamp onto the cool side...

I'd be interested to hear how you plan to stop the spin.

>Deploy a large
>solar concentrator, arranged so the light pressure is generally
>braking your orbital velocity...

Unless the concentrator is many kilometers across and the asteroid is
quite small, light-pressure effects on the orbit will be negligible.

>Start feeding chunks of asteroid
>into the nice vacuum furnace at the focus.  Form the nice stainless
>steel (Ni & Fe, right?) Into structural shapes, and spit the slag
>out in whatever direction will get you home fastest without bumping
>into home when you get there...

If you can spit the slag out at a good high velocity, say with a mass-driver,
this is a reasonable way of doing slow orbit changes.
--
1755 EST, Dec 14, 1972:  human |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
exploration of space terminates| uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry [e-mail]

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

Date: 15 Dec 89 17:16:23 GMT
From: eru!luth!sunic!tut!hydra!hylka![e-mail]
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,

   According to what I have read, the coming of the next millenium should
   be celebrated towards the end of the year 2000, since there was no year
   0 according to our calendar (except that in astronomy 1 B.C. is counted
   as the year 0, 2 B.C. as the year -1, etc.). Thus it would more appropriate
   to postpone the celebration until new year's eve 2000, but I wonder if
   anybody (except for chronology fans) have thought of it?


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
! Tom Sundius                          Department of Physics         !
! Internet: [e-mail]     University of Helsinki        !
! BitNet:   SUNDIUS@FINUH              SF-00170 Helsinki, Finland    !
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

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

End of SPACE Digest V10 #351
*******************