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Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #399

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 11 : Issue 399

Today's Topics:
              Re:  SPACE Digest V11 #387
              Re:  SPACE Digest V11 #390
             Re: Re: Naming stars
    Re: Moving & Terraforming Venus (was: Manned mission to Venus)
          Re: space news from April 2 AW&ST
         NASA Headline News for 05/11/90 (Forwarded)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Date:     Mon, 14 May 90  08:52:09 EDT
Subject:  Re:  SPACE Digest V11 #387

> Mark S. also questions the ability of Space Industrialization to make
> a difference in how we live here, saying the military will eat all of the
> benefits and nothing here will change.
>
> I severely disagree with this. Solar Power sattelites could provide a
> cheap source of renewable energy indefinately. Asteroid mines could
> provide us with metals without destroying biosphere. It would be exporting
> our problems, but wouldn't it be prudent to export them to somewhere where
> there is _no_ life whatsoever?
>
I must agree with Mark S.' assessment of the situation, as must any reas-
oning person. The percentage of materiel being lifted into orbit that is
of a military nature is increasing logarithmically. The u.s. "space program"
has been completely militarized (the desired outcome of the Challenger affair),
and with deployment of SDI weapons systems on the way, I don't really see
any sort of improvement in life on Earth, unless you call the very REAL threat
of nuclear death from the sky replacing the UNLIKELY POSSIBILITY of nuclear
death from the ground an improvement.

We are as far from being able to mine the asteroid belt as we are from
finding Oz at the end of the yellow brick road. They are both farfetched
fantasies. The space program of lunar exploration followed by Mars ex-
ploration that would have led to our eventual mastery of space travel
has been replaced by the "space program" that explores new and better
ways of launching new and better weapons systems into orbit around the
Earth, that will eventually lead to confrontation and nuclear-armed
conflict in space. There are no benefits for mankind to be derived from
this course of action, unless you loosen the definition of mankind to
include the profiteering weapons-builders who derive their vast incomes
from producing horrifying devices to kill humans on a massive scale.
They, as always in our "society," will benefit.

> Given the several tens of thousands of asteroids out there, there are more
> than enough for us to supply ourselves with metals well into the fourth
> millenium, build space colonies, and still have enough left over for
> Dr. Sagan to find out the ultimate Answer to Life, the Universe, and
> Everything. (42!).
>
Before we can capture and mine asteroids for metals, and build "space colonies,"
we must learn to keep men alive and HEALTHY in space for more than seven days at
a time, must develop REAL spacecraft that are not just bullets with men in their
noses, develop human psyches that will not become deranged by close confinement
with other humans for more than 30 days at a time, develop equipment that can
do more in space than just open its doors and pop weapons satellites into orbit,
and develop the intellectual advancement necessary to produce a world whose
population cooperates for the mutual good of mankind and the planet Earth, in-
stead of a planet of warring nations still fighting each other over moronic
thousand-year-old territorial claims, and finally a world population that
recognizes that organized religion is a racket from which thousands profited
for nearly two thousand years, while BILLIONS HAVE DIED. And all of this develop-
ment shouldn't take more than another two or three thousand years. Now, con-
sidering that at our present rate of destruction of the planet Earth, we have
perhaps between 50 and 100 years left to exist, well..., you get the idea.
>
> One of the main problems with the U.S. space program has been that it
> contains so many programs, such as Hubble, the Neptune Probes, etc. that
> cater mostly to pure scientists that it seems to be a vehicle mainly
> for the studies of those _high priesthood_ projects of finding the
> origin of the universe, what was God thinking when he did it, and other
> such things.
>
THE main problem with the u.s. "space program" is that everyone is being
fooled by this misnomer. It should immediately be corrected to the far
more truthful, "orbital weapons deployment program." Then everyone can stop
pipe-dreaming about colonizing space, and concentrate on being scared
s**tless of nuclear death from the skies.
>
> If we make the program mainly a spectator sport, it will fail. Football
> is cheaper.
Football, baseball, basketball, soccer, hockey, tennis, wrestling, boxing,
lacrosse, and gladiatoring are all CHEAPER than conquering space, and in
fact are the DIRECT CAUSE of the u.s.' failure to do so. So, batter up...

                                                 Marlen
                                                 AZM@NIHCU

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

From: [e-mail]
Date:     Mon, 14 May 90  09:42:57 EDT
Subject:  Re:  SPACE Digest V11 #390

> ]In "A Step Farther Out" by Jerry Pournelle (many years old now) he advocates
> ]using blue-green algae dropped in massive clouds from above. He assumes that
> ]these will gradually cause rain to precipitate rainstorms, which will
> ]slowly descend through the Venusian atmosphere, will eventually hit the
> ]ground and thereby cool it.
>
> ]Anyone read this and/or could comment?
>
> I think I heard/read it from Carl Sagan first.  Using bio-engineering
> is clearly the best way to proceed because once you introduce your
> bugs, they'll self-replicate as long as they find a favorable
> environment.  It would probably be necessary to "evolve" a whole
> series of bugs that would make successive alterations in the
> "ecosphere".
>
> When I first heard the idea, I think the paucity of H2O in the
> atmosphere was not known.  How much hydrogen is available (isn't
> there H2SO4 in the atmosphere?) is something I don't know but
> that would seem to be a serious problem.  Also, I don't know
> the quantity of nitrogenous compounds present.  I wouldn't think
> that it would be possible to bio-engineer the Venusian atmosphere
> down to pure oxygen (for obvious reasons) -- does anyone know
> offhand what the atmospheric pressure would be if all of the
> CO2 were converted to O2?  My guess is that it would be necessary
> to react a lot of the O2 with native minerals to get it out of the
> atmosphere.  This means that the carbon that our bugs precipitate
> out has to be "buried" somehow lest it react with the O2 and
> re-enter the atmosphere, rendering the whole project a Sisyphean
> nightmare.
>
It seems to me that if you dropped "clouds" of blue-green algae into
the Venusian atmosphere, the poor little algae would be carbonized by
contact with the H2SO4, and "clouds" of carbon particles would drift
down into the blast furnace to be incinerated into something or other
that wouldn't do anybody any good.

If there was any O2 in the Venusian "atmosphere" it would react quite
nicely, and violently explosively I might add, with any and all metal
and mineral substances available as a serendipitous result of the
900+degree F temperature. So if we did figure out some way to create
large quantities of O2 in the Venusian "atmosphere," Venus would indeed
make a spectacular "morning star." I think the effort should be planned
to take place on July 4, or July 14, or May 1, or some other appro-
priate date.

>
> Having come from Enormous State University, as Tank McNamara puts it, I've
> often wondered whether the thing to do to get a space colony would be to go
> to the ESU Alumni and say "you know, <fill in name of player> could pass/kick
> a football N times as far on <fill in name of astronomical body or manmade
> space environment> because of the lower gravity."  Sort of displays a benefit
> that many people can understand. :-(
>

>     James Jones
If you could guarantee the good ol' boys that 200,000 fans would show up
for the kickoff, and they could get the TV rights for the next millenium,
the bucks would be on the table so fast that your mind would boggle.

                                           Derdin Valpar
                                  aka      Marlen
                                           AZM@NIHCU

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

Date: Mon, 14 May 90 21:18:21 EDT
From: John Roberts <[e-mail]>
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are those of the sender
    and do not reflect NIST policy or agreement.
Subject: Re: Re: Naming stars


>From: swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
>Subject: Re: Naming Stars

>>    I have heard that it is possible to name a star or galaxy. Is this
>>true? If so how does one go about doing it?

>(1) Discover it.
>(2) Propose the name to the International Astronomical Union.
>(3) Hope they agree with you about the choice of name.

Or do like Amerigo Vespucci - write a letter describing someone else's
discovery. As I understand it, that's about all he did - and he got two
major continents named after him!
            John Roberts
            [e-mail]

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

Date: 14 May 90 13:26:13 GMT
From: news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!watserv1!maytag!watdragon!watyew![e-mail]  (Brian or James)
Subject: Re: Moving & Terraforming Venus (was: Manned mission to Venus)


 The problem with moving Venus to the Lagrange point 180 degrees around
the Earth's orbit is that that L point is not stable, and perturbations
from it get larger, not smaller. The problem with sticking Venus at either
the L4 or L5 point in the Earth-Sun system [God, I'm saying this badly]
is that I belive those points are only stable if the third member of
the triplet is much less massive than the other two. Having Venus in an
unstable orbit around Sol at roughly 1 AU would make me nervous. Of
course, a collision between Venus and Earth would solve the excess
atmosphere problem [And if we can move worlds, we should be able to
maintain their new orbits artificially. "Daddy, where did the crystal
sphere of heaven come from?" :) ].
                JDN

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

Date: 14 May 90 18:02:20 GMT
From: usc!cs.utexas.edu!mailrus!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!riverdale.toronto.edu![e-mail]  (Mark Gabriele )
Subject: Re: space news from April 2 AW&ST

[e-mail] (Henry Spencer) writes:

>NASA plans mid-April meeting to assess station EVA requirements.  One
>possibility being looked at is reviving the high-pressure space suit,
>because that would cut out an enormous amount of oxygen prebreathing
>needed with the shuttle suits.  (Of the 2284h/yr estimated EVA needs,
>only 571h/yr is actual work, and much of the rest is prebreathing.)

I don't know what "prebreathing" refers to, or why it is necessary.  Could
someone explain this?  Thanks in advance.

=Mark
([e-mail])

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

Date: 14 May 90 17:24:02 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA Headline News for 05/11/90 (Forwarded)

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, May 11, 1990                  Audio Service: 202/755-1788
-----------------------------------------------------------------
This is NASA Headline News for Friday, May 11....

Last night, the Hubble Space Telescope controllers successfully
completed a test of the pointing and control system and fine
guidance sensors.  First indications are the systems are working
properly and as they are now able to find and lock onto specific
guide stars.  The first pictures are possible within the week.

Controllers were also successful in reducing the plus or minus
three arc-second roll oscillation to at least in half.  And, they
are optimistic that further analysis of the data will provide the
information to resolve the oscillation problem completely.  That
means controllers can now proceed with the first in the long
process of steps to focus and align the two telescope mirrors.
                            ********
Kennedy Space Center ground crews at Pad 39-A are removing the
floor panels from beneath the Columbia payload bay.  Preparations
are underway to access the coolant loop valve.  Also, to
depressurize and drain the system of Freon.  For protection, a
debris shield has been placed over the payload and handling
equipment.  The launch date will be determined next week.
                            ********
UPI says a report prepared at the request of the Senate and
Congressional Committees on Science, Space and Technology was
released today.  It said a variety of options are under
consideration to meet increased needs created by new initiatives
to build a space station, returning to the moon and exploring
Mars.  Committee Chairman Rep. Robert Roe said, "we should take
the high road...and eventually begin to use these new frontiers
for scientific and economic gain."
                            ********
This weekend, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory flight team will send
the Jupiter-bound Galileo spacecraft the next computer sequence
of commands.  This series of steps will shape the trajectory for
the upcoming December flyby of the Earth.  Once reaching Jupiter
in 1995, Galileo will study Jupiter's atmosphere.
                            ********
James Leslie Gooding of the Johnson Space Center is one of this
year's ten recipients of the Arthur S. Flemming Awards.  He
recieved the prestigious federal service award for his
outstanding achievement as a research scientist, for his
significant contributions to the scientific goals of future space
missions and the educational programs in the community.
                            ********
Scientists report completing feasibility studies on producing
iron from lunar ilmenite.  The Space Studies Institute says
researchers conclude that iron could be extracted with a process
that uses hydrogen to remove oxygen from the minerals.  And, the
resulting iron "could provide the building blocks" for future
space structures.







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End of SPACE Digest V11 #399
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