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Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #58

SPACE Digest                                      Volume 11 : Issue 58

Today's Topics:
          Re:   HASA select & Operacio 9000
         NASA Headline News for 02/16/90 (Forwarded)
           Re: Why we would need a planet.
           Payload Summaryfor 02/16/90 (Forwarded)
           Re: Why we would need a planet.
           Re: Why we would need a planet.
            Re: Kepler fudged the Numbers?
               Re: HST damage in orbit
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 16 Feb 90 18:22:19 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (Joseph Beckenbach)
Subject: Re:   HASA select & Operacio 9000

In his article Jordi Iparraguirre ([e-mail]) writes:
>On the other hand, On Feb/18/1990 will begin in Catalonia (Europe)
>OPERACIO 9000. In this operation, a man called Emili Reyes will be living
>alone in a grot for 9000 days. He will be monitored by doctors, and his unique
>link with the surface world will be a computer (Mac).

    This borders on unbelievability.  I can see 900 days (2 years 5 months)
but spending over 24 years looking at any one screen would drive anyone over
the edge. :-)  More accurately, I've not even been alive that long, and I
cannot even conceive of anyone wanting to spend nearly 1/3 his life alone
in a cave.  [Though medieval hermits did so....]
--
Joe Beckenbach         [e-mail]    VEGGIES FOREVER!
    Toto, kansasoseum nun est cognito.  -- Farley

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

Date: 16 Feb 90 17:03:46 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA Headline News for 02/16/90 (Forwarded)


-----------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, February 16, 1990                     Audio: 202/755-1788
-----------------------------------------------------------------

This is NASA Headline News for Friday, February 16....


Workers at Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center are finishing work on
the orbiter Atlantis in preparation for picking up the count for
launch at 8:00 P.M., Eastern time, Sunday.  Thursday, the
external tank's liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen tanks were
purged.  Today, ordnance installation begins and will continue
through the weekend.  Closing of the aft doors is expected early
Monday.

The five man crew of mission commander John Creighton, Pilot John
Casper, and Missions Specialists Pierre Thuot, David Hilmers and
Richard Mullane arrive at KSC Sunday evening.  Liftoff of the DoD
mission is scheduled between midnight and 4:00 A.M. on Thursday,
February 22.


Also at the Cape....closeout operations began yesterday on the
Hubble Space Telescope which will be launched in mid-April.
Among the closeout operations will be installation of flight
batteries, closeout of the solar arrays, configuration of the
high gain antenna and a final cleaning of the telescope.

Meanwhile....techncians are moving ahead on readying the Gamma
Ray Observatory for flight later this year. The GRO arrived at
KSC February 6 from California.  Following an inspection of the
spacecraft in the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, it was
determined that insulation repair must be made to the energetic
gamma ray experiment telescope and six solar cells on a solar
panel must be replaced.  The GRO will be powered up for the first
time February 23.


There's been another successful test firing of an advanced Space
Shuttle main engine.  Engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight
Center say the engine was fired for 150 seconds in the center's
technology test bed facility, yesterday.  It was the 15th firing
in the structure which was activated in September 1988.   Tests
will lead to improved engine performance by the shuttle engines.


A Soviet cosmonaut likes the way NASA is run.  Vladimir Titov,
one of two cosmonauts who spent 366 days in space aboard the Mir
space station, said at a Washington appearance he wants to see a
Soviet version of NASA established in his country.  Titov is
unhappy with the way the Soviet program is operated.  Titov, a
guest of the Smithsonian Institution, has been on a speaking tour
in the national capital area.
                          *    *   *    *

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


Wednesday, February 21.......

     11:00 P.M.      Coverage begins of STS-36 mission launch
                     only.  Liftoff is scheduled between midnight
                     and 4:00 A.M., February 22.


Thursday, February 22

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


All events and times are subject to change without notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
These reports are filed daily, Monday through Friday, at 12 noon,
Eastern time.  Please note...Headline News will not be filed on
President's day, Monday, February 19.  We'll return Tuesday,
February 20.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
A service of the Internal Communications Branch (LPC), NASA
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

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

Date: 16 Feb 90 22:26:01 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (Paul B. Callahan)
Subject: Re: Why we would need a planet.

In article <26033*@rpi.edu> [e-mail] (Jim Kasprzak) writes:
>
> Paul Dietz:
>>I predict future generations will decide to exploit the earth by
>>dismantling it completely, from crust to core.
>
>I really hope this prediction doesn't come true. There'll probably be
>a significant fraction of the human race who enjoy life on a planet

I, too, hope this prediction never comes true.  Though I would disagree
that it would be good to have a "significant fraction" of the human race
on Earth. If we make it through the next few centuries, or millenia, or
whatever it takes, and produce a self-sustaining civilization in space, I
would like to see the Earth kept as a sort of "national park" (replace
"national" with some more appropriate word).  Ideally, the only humans
on earth should be a small number of custodians and visitors.
Those desiring an Earth-like planetary life could presumably terraform
another planet, assuming sufficient technology.

We have already scarred the earth.  If we continue to live here we will
transform it completely.  Right now we need the kinds of industries that
pollute the Earth; I don't want to be unrealistic.  But if we ever reach the
point where we can exploit the much greater resources of space,
I think it would be nice to let this poor fragile planet lick its
wounds.  It seems like the least we can do.  I think of Earth
as the cradle of the human race rather than as its home.

Paul Callahan
[e-mail]
[e-mail]

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

Date: 16 Feb 90 17:05:39 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Payload Summaryfor 02/16/90 (Forwarded)


                                 Payload Status Report
                                 Friday, February 16, 1990


          George H. Diller
          Kennedy Space Center
          NASA PA-PIB


          HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE

               Prelaunch testing of the Hubble Space Telescope in the
          Vertical Processing Facility at KSC continues to go smoothly and
          on schedule.

               Functional testing of the HST science instruments is nearing
          completion and is scheduled to be finished about 4:00 a.m. on
          Saturday, Feb. 17.  The telescope will be powered up again from
          time to time to reverify test data, to meet a requirment to apply
          power periodically to the Faint Object Camera, and later to test
          the flight batteries after their installation.

               Three days of launch pad confidence testing was held on Feb.
          5-7 with a final test on Feb. 13.  This exercise verified the
          health of the HST using its associated test equipment at Pad A.

               A concluding end-to-end communications test was run on
          Saturday, Feb. 10.  This test was conducted by using TDRS East to
          interconnect the payload interfaces of Discovery in its hangar,
          the Hubble Space Telescope in the Vertical Processing Facility,
          and the Space Telescope Operations Control Center at the Goddard
          Space Flight Center.

               HST closeout operations began on Feb. 15.  This work
          includes removal of nonflight items, closeout of the solar
          arrays, configuration of the high gain antenna in preparation for
          installation into the payload canister, installation of the
          flight batteries, and a final cleaning of the telescope.

               An HST processing schedule to ready the telescope for launch
          by Apr. 12 has been developed.  If this schedule is adopted, the
          flight batteries will be installed within the telescope on Mar.
          16, HST installation into the payload canister will occur on Mar.
          23,  the move to the launch pad will be on Mar. 26, and
          installation of the telescope into the payload bay of Discovery
          will occur on Mar. 29.


          GAMMA RAY OBSERVATORY

               The Gamma Ray Observatory (GRO) arrived at the Kennedy Space
          Center on Feb. 6, shipped from TRW in California aboard a C5-A
          transport plane.  The aircraft touched down at the Shuttle
          Landing Facility at 7:18 a.m.   After offloading operations were
          completed, the spacecraft and its associated ground support
          equipment were moved to the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility
          (PHSF) located in the KSC Industrial area.  The spacecraft was
          moved into the airlock of the facility at about 7:20 p.m.

               On Feb. 7, GRO was moved into the PHSF high bay and the lid
          was removed from the shipping container.  On Feb. 8, the
          spacecraft was hoisted from its tranporter into a test stand and
          access platforms were moved into place around the satellite.
          Receiving inspections occupied the two following days.

               As a result of the receiving inspections, a minor repair is
          being made to the insulation of the Energetic Gamma Ray
          Experiment Telescope (EGRET).  This is the result of water
          spotting believed to have been caused from the retention of water
          in the protective foam layer of the shipping container which was
          steam cleaned.  Eight water spot locations were found, but only
          one requires any repair.  The other surfaces will be cleaned with
          alchohol and are acceptable for flight.

               Work has been underway this week to install two electronics
          boxes which are elements of the spacecraft's command processing
          chain.  A routine leak check of the orbit adjustment thrusters
          has been conducted which is required periodically.  One of these
          thrusters will be test cycled next week.  Also being checked this
          week is the crystal of the Total Absorption Shower Counter which
          must be examined for evidence of moisture periodically.

               Preparations are being made to replace six of the solar
          cells on one of the solar panels next week.   These were cracked
          during installation of the solar array cover prior to shipping.
          There are approximately 3,200 solar cells on each panel and there
          are eight panels on the spacecraft.

               The spacecraft is scheduled to be fully powered up for the
          first time at KSC next Friday, Feb. 23, to start the scheduled
          series of functional tests.

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

Date: Sat, 17 Feb 90 14:11:14 PST
From: Peter Scott <[e-mail]>
Subject:  Re: Why we would need a planet.
X-Vms-Mail-To: EXOS%"[e-mail]"

usc!cs.utexas.edu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]
(Henry Spencer) writes:

>In article <26033*@rpi.edu> [e-mail] (Jim Kasprzak) writes:
>>Aesthetic, if nothing else. People who considered our planet of origin
>>to be useless and disposable would probably no longer be human...
>
>I think this is going a bit overboard.  I hope folks will preserve the
>place for sentimental value, if nothing else, but I can see it going
>the other way.  How many of the folks reading this are sentimentally
>attached to the building they were born in?  (How many even *know*
>which building they were born in?)

I, for one, am, since I spent the next 20 years of my life living there
and my parents still do.

Of course, one data point does not a trend make... but I think you would find
enough people attached to the old homestead at any future point in time that
it would be preserved.  Also it would seem possible that one of the best ways
of learning the rules which good habitats should be designed to follow would
be by learning how to take care of this one first...  And then there's
economic reasons.  It would be far cheaper to maintain the Earth as a viable
habitat for human beings than to cannibalize it to make some other habitat.
If you want to build another place to live, there are surely better choices
than this planet for raw material.  Jeez, look what you could do by crashing
two Galilean moons together :-)

Peter Scott ([e-mail])

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

Date: 16 Feb 90 19:25:12 GMT
From: ucsdhub!celit![e-mail]  (Dave Smith)
Subject: Re: Why we would need a planet.

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Paul Dietz) writes:
 >In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Patrick Brewer) writes:
 >>    YES, we need planets so long as we are carbon based, oxygen
 >>breathing organisms. If all humans were in ships and the ships began
 >>malfunction then the race would most likely die!
 >
 >ALL the ships and colonies malfunctioning at the same time?  Uh huh.
 >

Sure.  It'll happen in the year 3000 when all the computers in existance
go belly up because of the date changeover.  (That's only a half :-) ).


--
David L. Smith
FPS Computing, San Diego
ucsd!celerity!dave or [e-mail]
"I'm trying to think, but nothing happens!" - Curly Howard

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

Date: 16 Feb 90 21:29:14 GMT
From: galaxy.rutgers.edu!argus![e-mail]  (Kenneth Ng)
Subject: Re: Kepler fudged the Numbers?

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Jim Sankey) writes:
: In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Robert M. Panoff) writes:
: >I have heard (or read) recently that Kepler fudged his numbers.
: >He claimed to have an independent check on his theory, but the charge
: >is used the theory to calculate the numbers he said verified his theory.
: >Could someone point me to a specific published article that gives
: >the particulars of this subterfuge? Thanks.
: I found the article in _The New York Times_ dated 14 Jan 1990.
: I'm almost positive it was the 14th.  If not, it is definitely in
: either the 7th or 21st.

Tuesday 23 January 1990, I have it in front of me.

--
Kenneth Ng: Post office: NJIT - CCCC, Newark New Jersey  07102
uucp !andromeda!galaxy!argus!ken *** NOT [e-mail] ***
bitnet(prefered) [e-mail]  or [e-mail]

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

Date: 18 Feb 90 04:22:47 GMT
From: frooz!cfashap![e-mail]  (Bill Wyatt)
Subject: Re: HST damage in orbit


>  There was an interesting article on ablation by atomic oxygen in Earth orbit
> in a recent Scientific American. The corrosion rates they mentioned made HST
> look *extremely* vulnerable - has this been considered in the HST design, and
> if so what has been done to combat it?

I don't know for sure, but at the HST intended altitude, the ablation
should be one or more orders of magnitude less. Otherwise, the HST could
just point backwards (just what we need, another pointing constraint!!!).

>                                        (I can't believe that something well
> enough known to get into Sci. Am. wouldn't have been considered by the HST
> team, but I've never heard the topic mentioned)

But it wasn't well know until quite recently. Besides, remember that
the HST goes back to the 60's in concept and mid-70's in design; no one
knew this was a problem then.

Bill Wyatt, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory  (Cambridge, MA, USA)
    UUCP :  {husc6,cmcl2,mit-eddie}!harvard!cfa!wyatt
 Internet:   [e-mail]
     SPAN:   cfa::wyatt                 BITNET: wyatt@cfa

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

End of SPACE Digest V11 #58
*******************