Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT_ZIP/spacedig/V11_3/V11_317.ZIP/V11_317

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Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #317

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 11 : Issue 317

Today's Topics:
              Re: South Atlantic Anomaly
              RE: SPACE Digest V11 #243
         Re: Apollo 13, STS-1, Vostok 1 anniversaries
         Re: Apollo 13, STS-1, Vostok 1 anniversaries
               Shuttle altitude
           ISECCo Update: Meetings & dirt digging.
            Re: 2001 decompression
                  Blue Shift
         Re: How can the shuttle reach higher orbits?
             Power grid frequency
         Re: Apollo 13, STS-1, Vostok 1 anniversaries
           Hot News from AW&ST 23 April 90
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 24 Apr 90 11:18:08 GMT
From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!zardoz.cpd.com!dhw68k!ofa123![e-mail]  (Mark Perew)
Subject: Re: South Atlantic Anomaly

My thanks to all who replied in public and private to my query
on the South Atlantic Anomaly.



--
Mark Perew
...!{dhw68k,zardoz,lawnet,conexch}!ofa123!Mark.Perew                             [e-mail]
714 544-0934 2400/1200/300

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

Date: Wed, 25 Apr 90 09:07 EDT
From: "Michael N. Davis" <[e-mail]>
Subject: RE: SPACE Digest V11 #243

Why have I been banished from this list?  The last message I received
was April 12.  I will resubscribe after this message, but will whoever
please check to see if there is a problem.

Thanks.

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

Date: 25 Apr 90 16:19:26 GMT
From: skipper![e-mail]  (Mary Shafer)
Subject: Re: Apollo 13, STS-1, Vostok 1 anniversaries

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Conor O'Neill) writes:

:In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Mike McManus) writes:
:>As a big user of "Home-certified, Heavy-duty, Fix-anything, McGyver-style
:>Ductape [tm]", I would certainly want some of the stuff in *MY* space-bound
:>tool box!  And heck, $32 bucks a roll sounds like a bargain.  Where can I get
:>some of the stuff (would probably do a great job on my muffler ;-)?

:Actually, "Ductape" is spelt "Gaffer Tape" in the UK.
:I wonder who invented it first?...  :-)

Duct tape (by whatever brand name) isn't the same as gaffer tape here.
Duct tape costs about $10 a roll at the hardware store (DIY store in
the UK?) and gaffer tape costs about $50 a roll at the photography
shop.

Probably the reason you don't call it duct tape in the UK is that the
ducts referred to are for forced-air heating, which I understand is
less common in the UK than in the US.

Both duct tape and gaffer tape are more attractive than Mach 3 tape
(which is also known as EB tape, according to a submariner who posted
previously).  The first two are silvery grey and the last is olive
drab.

But no matter what color it is, what it's called, or where we bought
it, it's wonderful stuff.
--
Mary Shafer  [e-mail]  ames!skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov!shafer
         NASA Ames Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA
                   Of course I don't speak for NASA

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

Date: 25 Apr 90 12:56:11 GMT
From: mcsun!ukc!inmos![e-mail]  (Conor O'Neill)
Subject: Re: Apollo 13, STS-1, Vostok 1 anniversaries

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Mike McManus) writes:
>As a big user of "Home-certified, Heavy-duty, Fix-anything, McGyver-style
>Ductape [tm]", I would certainly want some of the stuff in *MY* space-bound
>tool box!  And heck, $32 bucks a roll sounds like a bargain.  Where can I get
>some of the stuff (would probably do a great job on my muffler ;-)?
>
>--
>Disclaimer: All spelling and/or grammer in this document are guaranteed to be
>            correct; any exseptions is the is wurk uv intter-net deemuns.
>

Actually, "Ductape" is spelt "Gaffer Tape" in the UK.
I wonder who invented it first?...  :-)










---
Conor O'Neill, Software Group, INMOS Ltd., UK.
UK: [e-mail]        US: [e-mail]
"It's state-of-the-art" "But it doesn't work!" "That is the state-of-the-art".

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

Date:     Wed, 25 Apr 1990 09:50 EDT
From: SIMMONS DONALD F  <[e-mail]>
Subject:  Shuttle altitude
To: <[e-mail]>

What altitude did the Shuttle yesterday reach? I know they were hoping for an
altitude of about 550 nm so the HST wouldn't need a reboost for a couple of
years, so what did they manage to reach?

Donald Simmons  27000@AECLCR

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

Date:     Wed, 25 Apr 90 12:21:51 -0900
Sender: "ACAD3A::FNRJH"  <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: "Robert J. Hale III"  <[e-mail]>
From: "Robert J. Hale III"  <[e-mail]>
Subject:  ISECCo Update: Meetings & dirt digging.

ISECCo Update: Meetings & dirt digging.
     I have had a couple of people from out of state suggest that
I start sending these meeting notices to them because they have a
lot  of  information in them and show the progress  that  we  are
making  and  how  far we have gotten.  This seems to  be  such  a
popular idea that I am going to simple append my "Update" mailing
list  into  my  "Meeting" mailing list and so  all  of  you  will
recieve meeting notifications.  I shall continue to maintain  two
separate mailing lists though, so feel free to let me know if you
would rather not recieve these meeting notifications!

ISECCo  Meeting: Tuesday, April 24, at 7 pm.  We will be  meeting
at  my house--if you need a ride let me know and we will  arrange
it.  If you need directions please see EXPL FSRRC FINDME.
     Origionally  we  were planning to have  a  meeting  tomorrow
night  (Sunday), but, because we had an impromptu meeting  called
"Fix  Elisa's Car" that lasted all afternoon today we have  opted
not  to have it as planned.  (Elisa's car broke down Friday  just
as  she was arriving at our meeting; her CV joint broke.   Scott,
Terry,  Elisa  and myself spent most of the afternoon  taking  it
apart...and  tomorrow  I shall try [!] to put it  back  together.
{Not quite an ISECCo event, but we have to help those members who
devote so much time to us that they remain perpetually broke!})
     Including  this  "meeting"  today (in which we  also  did  a
little dirt work and worked on cleaning out the trailer) we had 2
other  meetings: Thursday night, which was primarily involved  in
the  planning needed to buy enough food staples to last 3  people
for  4 months without spending more than $250 (yes, this  can  be
done,  believe  it  or not!)  We also did a little  work  on  the
greenhouse,  but  we  were all tired and when we  fouled  up  the
flooring (made it 1.5" too big) so we gave up!
     Friday  we had a very productive day; I spent about 5  hours
on  the  Cat,  pushing dirt, Scott & Terry  spent  over  6  hours
cleaning out the trail (which, as many of you already know, is to
be used to house some of our volunteer workers), and Elisa helped
on  the trailer and took pictures of me driving the Cat.   I  can
report  excelent progress on digging; the hole is getting  pretty
humongous--17'  deep in the deepest point.  Since we will need  a
little freeway on the edges it will be a 40'x40' square (roughly)
that is close to 25' deep.  As soon as Scott and Terry get out of
school  (so  they can start working for us) I expect  that  we'll
really  make progress, and anticipate finishing the  hole  before
the  end of May.  Then it will be a matter of raising  the  money
before we can progress from there!
     The biosphere is, as most of you know, going to be burried 2
meters (6') underground.  Since the biosphere is a hemisphere  11
meters  (35.75') in diameter we will need a hole almost 8  meters
(24+') deep.  We have dug 7,800 cubic feet of dirt from the hole,
and have aproximately 32,000 cubic feet to go.  Thus we have  dug
close to 1/5 of the dirt.  For the most part the dirt I have been
digging  I have hauled to the uphill side of the hole, which  has
greatly  slowed dirt removal.  But, when it comes time  to  burry
(backfill)  the  biosphere  having the dirt  there  will  greatly
reduce  the  amount  of  work  it  is  worth  the  extra  effort.
Unfortunately  this area is under the powerline and I have  built
it  up  as  far  as I could without  getting  too  close  to  the
powerline.  So we are now taking the dirt off to the side,  which
is greatly speeding things up now, but I think I didn't get quite
enough on the uphill side so it will slow backfilling.
     I  have done at least SOME digging on every portion  of  the
hole.  The downhill side, which is 7' lower than the uphill,  has
been dug down less than 1'.  But one back corner is very deep (as
reported  above)  and  the  other back corner  is  close  to  7'.
Because  we  are taking the dirt out sideways and  the  going  is
essentually level we can move a great deal of dirt at a time, and
I expect the next quarter of the hole to go quite quickly.  After
that  it will gradually slow as the hole gets deep enough  so  we
have  to start carrying the dirt out of the hole with  the  front
end loader (as opposed to just pushing it).

ON  OTHER  MATTERS:   Our  fish  are  currently  divided  into  6
different  tanks; one for the latest brood, one for  the  females
(we keep them separated from the males--we have more than we know
what to do with now!!), three for the previous brood and one  for
the males.  One of the three has a dozen fish in it, and they are
being  fed  on strictly biosphere-type food--i.e.  leaves,  table
scraps,  etc--and  while they aren't growing half as  fast  as  a
control  group  being  fed  a commercial  growth  food  they  ARE
growing.   The origional fish, obtained in October,  are  getting
quite large; the largest is close to 7".  We shall probably breed
once more, which, added to the first brood of 85+ and the  second
of 50+, should give us well over 200 fish.  This will probably be
the  maximum  number  of fish we can support right  now;  we  are
running  out  of  tanks space!  We have 1-10  gallon  tank,  2-15
gallon   tanks,  1-20  gallon  tank,  1-30  gallon  tank  and   a
bathtub...and  a second bathtub we expect to set up before  long!
Portions of these systems will probably end up in the biosphere.
     Late  last  month  we made close  to  800  pre-plants.   The
majority  of these we will be planting in a garden, some will  go
in   the  greenhouse  and  some  will  be  planted   in   outside
hydroponices.  All the produce we will use to gain experience  in
growing  different kinds of vegtables and will help us  determine
the  best ways to grow stuff, and will provide an  excelent  food
source  for our volunteer workers.  These plants are  doing  very
nicely,  and  some  are beginning  to  outgrow  their  containers
already--we  had better get the greenhouse up pretty soon  so  we
can get them transplanted!
     The  greenhouse  is more than half done.  All 4  walls  have
been made, the 4 doors (!) are all done, the roof rafters are all
cut  and  the floor has been started.  I am hoping  that  we  can
finish  it with another 10-15 man-hours of work...and it will  be
the primary labors of our next meeting!
     We are looking into raising chickens this summer, so we  can
gain  experience with them; we are uncertain that they will be  a
good source of food for the biosphere because they may not thrive
on foods that will be readily available.  So we are going to  get
about  3 dozen chickens and will do a few experiments with  them,
trying  to  determine  what different kinds  of  foods  they  can
survive on.
        We have a couple other projects, but I seem to  have  run
out of time here, so I will go into them later!  At any rate  you
can see the progress we have been making!!

     Any of you who are not on our mailing  list  and/or  wish to
know more about us feel free to write me at FSRRC@ALASKA.

                                       --Ray :: President, ISECCo

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

Date: Wed, 25 Apr 90 17:58:55 EDT
From: John Roberts <[e-mail]>
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are those of the sender
    and do not reflect NIST policy or agreement.
Subject: Re: 2001 decompression


>Date:         Fri, 20 Apr 90 16:13:29 CDT
>From: John Nordlie <[e-mail]>
>Subject:      Re: 2001 Decompression

>I too have heard that you can survive about 30 seconds in a hard
>vacuum, but don't hold your breath (ruptured lungs cause internal
>bleeding and eventually you will drown in your own blood).  This
>value was determined in the '50s (I think), when goats were placed
>in chambers and exposed to a hard vacuum.  The animals expanded to
>about twice their normal size (blood at body temp in a hard vacuum
>boils quite vigorously).  The animals were hurt, but survived exposure
>times of up to about 30 seconds.  I didn't see Dave swell up like
>a balloon in 2001, but the scenes from 'Outland' where more realistic
>(I think, anyway).

I don't think you could survive swelling up full of bubbles to twice normal
size for any period of time - the goats may have had their hair stand on end.
Even if your body were to swell up, your head wouldn't, which is what was
shown in 'Outland'.

'Outland' is interesting as an adventure movie, but it has many scientific
errors, most notably the exploding heads. I also liked the weapon of choice,
a sawed-off shotgun with a computerized telescopic sight (so you could aim
within a minute of arc the 20-degree swath of destruction? :-) They managed
to shoot out several windows during the course of the movie.

I like 2001 and 2010 partly because they have so few errors. There's
nothing in 2010 that's glaringly obvious except for the floating pens.
                              John Roberts
                              [e-mail]

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

Date: 25 Apr 90 22:25:43 GMT
From: munnari.oz.au!uhccux![e-mail]  (Tim Hogan)
Subject: Blue Shift


 I predict the HST will discover Blue Shifted Quasars.  It is because the universe is really infinite.  What we have thought was the edge of the "known" universe was only the end of our local universe/cluster.  Is this possible?  Why not?


Tim Hogan/Hawaii

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

Date: 26 Apr 90 01:34:17 GMT
From: thorin!homer![e-mail]  (Jonathan Leech)
Subject: Re: How can the shuttle reach higher orbits?

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Henry Spencer) writes:
>be hauled around at great expense.  You really want to take the stuff up
>into low orbit with the shuttle, and transfer it there to a tug which
>will do a more efficient job of hauling it up higher.

    I really want to take the payloads up in an aeroshell, unless
there's some compelling need to return them to earth or have people
along.    Taking a shuttle to a minimum orbit is still largely wasted
energy.
--
    Jon Leech ([e-mail])    __@/
    "Opossums ran amok in Chapel Hill this weekend..."
    _The Daily Tar Heel_, 11/1/88

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

Date: 24 Apr 90 21:35:15 GMT
From: philmtl!philabs!ttidca![e-mail]  ( Avatar)
Subject: Power grid frequency

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Mahan) writes:
+>Date: 20 Apr 90 17:45:14 GMT
+>From: nuchat![e-mail]  (Steve Nuchia)
+>Subject: Re: Drake Equation (was Re: Interstellar travel)
+>
+>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Andrew Pettifer) writes:
+
+     The power grids in the US do NOT maintain an exact frequency of 60 hz.
+The generators are allowed to change speed in response to changing loads and
+the frequency is typically slightly below 60 Hz.  The heavier the load the
+slower the system runs.

 It's only fair to point out he fact that the Pacific/Canadian Intertie Grid
is actually high voltage DC. Hence no frequency....;-)
 It's also only fair to mention that radiant propagation at frequencies
much below 500KHz (hell, 2.5MHz for that matter..) are quite well attenuated
at 100 miles above the Earth's surface, nothing to worry about in terms of
a visible electromagnetic signature. Unless you assume some differential form
of remote sensing that is very unlike common radio. Consider this thread to
be moot on that basis. ciao!
--
-Avatar-> (aka: Erik K. Sorgatz) KB6LUY           +-------------------------+
Citicorp(+)TTI                          *----------> panic trap; type = N+1 *
3100 Ocean Park Blvd. Santa Monica, CA  90405     +-------------------------+
{csun,philabs,psivax,pyramid,quad1,rdlvax,retix}!ttidca!sorgatz **

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

Date: 25 Apr 90 18:24:52 GMT
From: quanta.eng.ohio-state.edu!math-cs.kent.edu![e-mail]  (John R. S. Mascio)
Subject: Re: Apollo 13, STS-1, Vostok 1 anniversaries

This really belongs under rec.humor, but I thought with the current thread
of conversation I would throw this tid-bit in:

Duct tape is like the FORCE.  It has a light side and a dark side and holds
the universe together.
        -- UNKNOWN (or at least forgotten)
---
John Raymond Stone Mascio ([e-mail])
KSU Department of Math/CS, KSU
Merrill Hall  Kent, Ohio 44242 USA
Bus # [phone] / 672-2430

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

Date: 24 Apr 90 23:11:00 GMT
From: oliveb!orc!bu.edu!lectroid!jjmhome!cpoint!frog![e-mail]  (John Woods)
Subject: Hot News from AW&ST 23 April 90

The National Research Council has announced that the U.S. should not
mount a joint mission to Mars with the Soviet Union, because "a highly
interdependant effort would make science a potential hostage to
political events."

Excuse me?  Did I miss something?  When did it STOP???
Does anyone know if this has a precedent, or has the NRC generated the
government's first self-referential document?
--
John Woods, Charles River Data Systems, Framingham MA, [phone]
...!decvax!frog!john, [e-mail], ...!mit-eddie!jfw, [e-mail]

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

End of SPACE Digest V11 #317
*******************