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Date: Mon,  8 Jan 90 01:34:40 -0500 (EST)
Subject: SPACE Digest V10 #390

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 10 : Issue 390

Today's Topics:
               Re: Antigravity
            Re: Antigravity found?
           Payload Status for 01/03/90 (Forwarded)
Astronaut crew named to international microgravity mission (Forwarded)
Advanced Tracking and Data Relay Satellite Phase B RFP released (Forwarded)
         Re: The time thread that won't die.
           Re: Computational Fluid Dynamics
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 31 Dec 89 22:59:12 GMT
From: cs.utexas.edu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Antigravity

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Daniel P. Esmond) writes:
>The results were obtained by dropping objects inside an outrageously
>long vacuum tube mounted inside a deep cavern. Rate differences where
>often less than 0.1%, but they were convinced they were on to something.

There are several groups doing research into the hypothetical existence of
either a fifth force (beyond gravity, electromagnetism, the nuclear force,
and the weak-interaction force) or hitherto-unsuspected fine print in
the behavior of gravity.  There have been a few experiments that have
suggested such a thing, but there have also been some well-conducted
experiments with completely negative results.  Gravity is a very weak
force and doing high-precision experiments on it is difficult.  (As
witness the fact that the fundamental gravitational constant is still
known to only about four digits.)  Any complicating factor has got to
be weaker still, or it would have been obvious long ago.  The odds are
very much against any practically-useful result.
--
1972: Saturn V #15 flight-ready|     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
1989: birds nesting in engines | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry [e-mail]

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

Date: 3 Jan 90 07:50:15 GMT
From: voder!dtg.nsc.com![e-mail]  (Lord Snooty @ The Giant Poisoned Electric Head )
Subject: Re: Antigravity found?

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] writes:
> This reminds me of the claims of Prof. Eric Laithwaite some years ago.
> In a memorable BBC TV broadcast of the Royal Society's Christmas
> Lectures sometime in the the early 70s (I was about 10 years old at
> the time, I think) he asserted that the behaviour of gyroscopes could
> not be properly described by existing physics, and that something
> really fundamentally odd was going on.....
> Some years later I remember him appearing on the BBC's "Parkinson"
> chat show.  He was still convinced that something revolutionary was
> waiting to be discovered, and said that he booked a package on a
> future Shuttle to prove whether the effect was genuine (this was
> several, maybe 6 or 7, years before the first shuttle launch).
> Clearly, it must have been some sort of effect influenced by gravity
> (or possibly friction).
>
> Does anybody out there (presumably older than me :-)) remember this,
> or what became of Laithwaite's claims (or even the man himself; he was
> a very good presenter of science)?  Did he fly a package on the
> Shuttle?  Were his claims disproved, was he ignored, or did he just
> change his mind?         > Mario Wolczko
---
---
---
---
i wrote:
--
Re gyroscope thread: Professor Eric Laithwaite, well-known British
eccentric at Imperial College, London, did a lot of weird stuff with
gyros in black boxes about 15 (?) years ago. They would sit around
and then "inexplicably jump sideways", and similar stuff. He was
doing this in the context of engineering lectures, his intention
being for you to apply creative methods to work out what could
possibly be inside the black box. Perhaps someone over in the UK
can fill in the blanks here - i.e. references - as this may be
germane to the Japanese results?
---
---
---
--
...........................................................................
Andrew Palfreyman    a wet bird never flies at night        time sucks
[e-mail]    there are always two sides to a broken window

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

Date: 3 Jan 90 18:56:31 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Payload Status for 01/03/90 (Forwarded)

Daily Status/KSC Payload Management and Operations 01-03-90


- STS-31R HST (at VPF) -

Cite/MUE installation worked yesterday and will continue today.
Aft shroud wasp tent build up is active.  Aft shroud
clean/inspection followed by MLI installation is scheduled for
today.

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

Battery conditioning was in work yesterday and will continue
today.  CNCR, FEA and PCG experiment off line operations are
continuing daily.

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

MUE installation completed.  ASTRO-1/BBXRT pre-IVT walkdown was
accomplished.  HDRR leak check completed.  Installation of
ASTRO-1 tent for holidays was accomplished.  MLI installation
and PR work off continued late yesterday.  Have two remaining
PRS to complete.  The IPS NSI rework has been moved to Thursday
morning.  Cite testing due to begin today.

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

Rack 3 and rack 7 mod work picked up yesterday.

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

installed the standard cable tie struts on rack 9.

- sts-45 atlas-1 (at o&c) -

Began work on the installation of removal plugs and inserts.

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

Date: 3 Jan 90 19:02:22 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Astronaut crew named to international microgravity mission (Forwarded)

Edward Campion
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                    January 2, 1989

Jeff Carr
Johnson Space Center, Houston

RELEASE:  90-1

ASTRONAUT CREW NAMED TO INTERNATIONAL MICROGRAVITY MISSION

     USAF Col. Ronald J. Grabe has been named to command STS-42,
a 9-day mission aboard Space Shuttle Columbia in December 1990.
Stephen S. Oswald will be the pilot, and William F. Readdy will
fly as a mission specialist.

     Columbia will carry the International Microgravity
Laboratory in which five NASA astronauts and two payload
specialists will conduct a variety of studies and experiments in
the fields of materials processing and life sciences.

     Mary L. Cleave, Ph.D., and Norman E. Thagard, Ph.D., were
assigned to the flight as mission specialists in June 1989.  Two
payload specialists will be named in the near future.

     Grabe, commanding his first Shuttle mission, flew previously
as pilot on STS-51J in October 1985 and on STS-30 in May 1989.
He was born June 13, 1945 in New York.

     Oswald will make his first space flight.  Born June 30,
1951, in Seattle, he considers Bellingham, Wash., his hometown.

     Readdy, also making his first flight, was born Jan. 24,
1952, in Quonset Point, R.I., but considers McLean, Va., his
hometown.

     Cleave, mission specialist on STS-61B in November 1985 and
on STS-30 in May 1989, was born Feb. 5, 1947, in Southampton,
N.Y.

     Thagard, mission specialist on STS-7 in June 1983, STS-51B
in April 1985 and on STS-30 in May 1989, was born July 3, 1943,
in Marianna, Fla., but considers Jacksonville, Fla., his
hometown.

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

Date: 3 Jan 90 19:34:15 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Advanced Tracking and Data Relay Satellite Phase B RFP released (Forwarded)

Dwayne C. Brown
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                    January 3, 1990

Carter Dove
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.


RELEASE:  90-2

ADVANCED TRACKING AND DATA RELAY SATELLITE PHASE B RFP RELEASED

     NASA today released the request for proposal (RFP) for the
Advanced Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (ATDRSS).  The
RFP requests that companies demonstrate their ability and
capacity to design, manage, integrate and test large, modern
communications spacecraft and associated ground facilities.

     In the recently completed study phase, Goddard Space Flight
Center, Greenbelt, Md., had awarded contracts in September 1987
totaling approximately $9.3 million to five contractors -- Ford
Aerospace and Communication Corp.; General Electric Astrospace;
Hughes Space and Communications Group; Lockheed Missiles and
Space Company, Inc.; and TRW Space and Technology Group -- for an
18-month design feasibility study of the ATDRSS.

     The first ATDRSS spacecraft tentatively is scheduled for
delivery in July 1997, when it could be used to replace one of
the Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS) currently in use.
"A four-satellite constellation of ATDRSS is expected to be in
orbit and operational by 2001," according to Thomas C. Underwood,
Assistant Chief for the TDRS System at Goddard.  ATDRSS is
intended to maintain the present NASA track and data relay system
through the first decade of the 21st Century.

     The current TDRS system, which includes geostationary
satellites and one operational ground facility and a second
ground facility to become operational in 1993, has replaced most
of the ground network of tracking stations used by NASA to track
and communicate with its low Earth-orbiting spacecraft.  The TDRS
system provides improved communications coverage for the Space
Shuttle.  Future missions that will use the system include the
Hubble Space Telescope, Space Station Freedom and the Earth
Observation System.
                            - more -






                              - 2 -


     NASA currently has three TDRS satellites in orbit and three
more in various phases of construction.  By the end of the next
decade, these satellites are expected to reach the end of their
useful life and will require replacement.  The ATDRSS satellite
sought by NASA will provide the necessary continuation to meet
user needs.

     "The advanced satellites," explained William S. Guion of
Goddard's Tracking and Data Relay project office, "will differ
from the existing TDRS spacecraft in two important respects:  a
new frequency band with a high-data rate capability of 650
million bits per second; and an enhanced multiple access system
which will increase the data rate provided each of several
simultaneous users from the current 50 thousand bits per second
to 3 million bits per second."

     These higher communication rates will be needed primarily
for relaying to Earth the high resolution images resulting from
scientific and application missions on Space Station Freedom.

     Three TDRS currently in orbit are:  TDRS-3 (TDRS-West), 171
degrees west longitude, over the Pacific Ocean southwest of the
Hawaiian Islands and just east of the Gilbert Islands; TDRS-4
(TDRS-East), which recently replaced TDRS-1 at the east location,
41 degrees west longitude, over the Atlantic Ocean off the
northeast coast of Brazil; and TDRS-1, which has been moved to
approximately 79 degrees west longitude, over the west coast
above the Equador, as an on-orbit spare.

     The current TDRS spacecraft, the largest and most complex
operational communication satellites in the world, are built by
TRW, Redondo Beach, Calif., and are owned and operated by CONTEL
Federal Systems, Fairfax, Va.

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

Date: 2 Jan 90 20:55:24 GMT
From: ns-mx![e-mail]  (Jacob Hugart,134E LC,[phone],)
Subject: Re: The time thread that won't die.

From article <[e-mail]>, by [e-mail]
(Michael L. Starr):

> This will be beaten to death for the next 11 years, but a millennium
> is any 1000 year period, and can start and end at any point in
> time (just like a fiscal year can start at any time of the year).
> What ends on Dec 31, 2000 is the 20th century, with the 21th century
> beginning on Jan 1, 2001.

If this is true (it is!), then doesn't the last decade of the 20th Century
(i.e., the "Nineties") begin on January 1st, 1991?  Or will we have an eleven
year decade on our hands?

Jacob Hugart <[e-mail]>
Database Consulting Group, Weeg Computing Center, University of Iowa

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

Date: 2 Jan 90 23:09:30 GMT
From: amelia!wk02![e-mail]  (Karen L. Gundy-Burlet)
Subject: Re: Computational Fluid Dynamics


     I am a researcher in CFD....but in the subsonic/transonic
regimes so I can't fully answer your question.  One of the best
references I have found for general information on CFD is:

        Computational Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer
                               by
                Anderson, Tannehill, and Pletcher

We do have a Aerothermodyanics Branch here at NASA-Ames.  They do
both experimental and computational work.  You could try sending
them a letter requesting a survey paper, or a selection of their
recent papers.  The address of the Branch Chief is:

     Dr. George Deiwert
     Chief, Aerothermodynamics Branch
     Mail Stop 230-2
     NASA-Ames Research Center
     Moffett Field, CA  94035-1000

Good luck!

Karen L. Gundy-Burlet                       [e-mail]
Applied Computational Fluids Branch
NASA-Ames Research Center

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

End of SPACE Digest V10 #390
*******************