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Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #531

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 11 : Issue 531

Today's Topics:
             hydrogen penetration
             Re: Space Sail Race
Re: NASA announces next steps in Space Exploration Outreach Program (Forwarded)
NASA announces next steps in Space Exploration Outreach Program (Forwarded)
             Re: Space Sail Race
  Re: US/Soviet Planetary Activity (was Re: Manned mission to Venus)
           Payload Status for 06/15/90 (Forwarded)
             Re: Space Sail Race
            Equations and numbers?
          Article about Soviet space program
Re: Public Perception Of Space (was Re: US/Soviet Planetary Activity)
              Re: NASA 91 Appropriation

Administrivia:

    Submissions to the SPACE Digest/sci.space should be mailed to
  [e-mail].  Other mail, esp. [un]subscription notices,
  should be sent to [e-mail], or, if urgent, to
             [e-mail]

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

Date: 10 Jun 90 13:59:45 GMT
From: voder!pyramid!unify!csusac!csuchico.edu!csuchico.edu![e-mail]  (Ralph Reid)
Subject: hydrogen penetration

Hydrogen has been known to penetrate some metals, and collect in pockets
within the walls of pipes (in oil refineries), and other inconvenient
places.  What is being done to insure that this kind of penetration
has not taken place in the hydrogen fuel tank on board the space
shuttle Columbia (the tank has been partially filled several times)?
Are any tests really necessary, given the limited exposure time and
temperature involved?

--
Ralph.
ARS N6BNO
[e-mail]

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

Date: 15 Jun 90 12:56:40 GMT
From: sun.udel.edu![e-mail]  (Andrew Salamon)
Subject: Re: Space Sail Race

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Jim Kingdon) writes:
......
>For more information on this stuff, there is a book out on solar sails
>that the lecturer recommended.  I don't remember the title, but
>perhaps "The book on solar sails" is enough to unambiguously identify
>it.

The book is called "Project Solar Sail", edited by A.C. Clarke
(published by Penguin books, ISBN# = 0-451-45002-7).  It is a
collection of short stories, poems and essays.  It is copyrighted by the World
Space Foundation and is meant to raise funds to support their entry in
the Columbus Regatta.

Magic in my Mind                     |   /Andrew/
Music in my Heart                    |   soi-disant Bleydion op Rhys
Laughter in my Soul                  |   [e-mail]
And...A Sword in my Fist (sigh)      |

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

Date: 16 Jun 90 03:38:38 GMT
From: thorin!homer![e-mail]  (Jonathan Leech)
Subject: Re: NASA announces next steps in Space Exploration Outreach Program (Forwarded)

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] ( M.sean Bennett) writes:
>How in the name of god can you ask people to come up with new ways of
>of getting to the moon when the funding for these projects is vanishing up
>its only congresional commitee! This is rather too awful - if we (the west)
>do not do it, then corporations or other non accountable groups will
>move into space- and we, the people, will never see the fruits of space
>only an economic tyrany.

    Less rhetoric, more facts, please.
    Corporations are highly accountable to their stockholders.    People
who support space might think about investing in it rather than
expecting their almighty government to make it fruitful.  Why you
expect any government could make space economically productive is
incomprehensible to me.
--
    Jon Leech ([e-mail])    __@/
    ``God is more interested in your future and your relationships
      than you are.'' - Billy Graham

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

Date: 14 Jun 90 18:07:23 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA announces next steps in Space Exploration Outreach Program (Forwarded)

Vera Hirschberg
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                      June 13, 1990
(Phone:   [phone])


RELEASE:  90-81

NASA ANNOUNCES NEXT STEPS IN SPACE EXPLORATION OUTREACH PROGRAM


     NASA today has taken the next steps in its Space Exploration
Initiative (SEI) Outreach Program to solicit innovative ideas on
how to return to the Moon permanently and to begin human
exploration of Mars.  NASA Administrator Richard H. Truly
announced the Outreach Program on May 31.

     The steps included a mass mailing from Truly to institutions
and individuals, the announcement of a telephone number for
public requests for response packets and publication of an
announcement soliciting ideas in the Commerce Business Daily,
which reaches both aerospace and non-aerospace industries.

     In a personal solicitation, Truly sent more than 3,200
letters to presidents of U.S. colleges and universities, deans of
engineering schools, chairs of college and university science and
engineering programs, presidents of science and engineering
professional associations and others.

     He asked for ideas on mission concepts and their
architectures and for ideas on the systems and technologies
required for travel to the Moon and Mars and for living and
working productively on both worlds.  His letter included a
response packet to be forwarded to the RAND Corp. in Santa
Monica, Calif.  NASA asked RAND to conduct an initial analysis
and evaluation of the responses.

     RAND has established a toll-free telephone number for
requesting an SEI Outreach response packet.  The number is
1-800/677-7796.


     In announcing the SEI Outreach Program, Truly said that NASA
would "leave no stone unturned to reach out to the very best and
brightest in our nation" to gather information, concepts and data
to carry out SEI.

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

Date: 15 Jun 90 14:30:13 GMT
From: vtserf![e-mail]  (Ron Jarrell)
Subject: Re: Space Sail Race

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Henry Spencer) writes:
>is not a silly frill.  The original RFP made it quite clear that things
>like publicity were just as important as technical issues.  The MIT folks
>seem to have overlooked this...
>
Our design at Virginia Tech was very cognizant of the fact that this was
a race, not a science experiment - the thing is designed for SPEED and
maneuverability, not research.

It's also a simple project - our design was done by seniors in
Aerospace Engineering as their senior project - harrased and frantic
seniors, but seniors none the less, who did it for peanuts, and a grade.

Hey, maybe THAT's how we should get back to the moon - Hand the project
to a bunch of grad students, tell them "Want a degree? Build a colony"
:-)

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

Date: 15 Jun 90 14:07:26 GMT
From: pyuxp!pyuxe!nvuxr![e-mail]  (David Lewis)
Subject: Re: US/Soviet Planetary Activity (was Re: Manned mission to Venus)

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Mark SOKOLOWSKI) writes:
> In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Henry Spencer) writes:
> >Why don't *you* do something about it?  You're the one who's excited about
> >Venus.  I can think of plenty of things that should have higher priority,
> >like resuming the exploration of the Moon.
>
> Sorry, I find the Moon terribly boring and unexciting since men have been
> there.

Right.  And I guess you find Antarctica terribly boring and unexciting
since men have been there, and find Mt Everest terribly boring and
unexciting since men have been there, and would find sailing through
Tierra del Fuego terribly boring and unexciting since men have been
there...

I've been watching this discussion, and I find the attitude that 'the
only worthwhile things to do are those which haven't been done' rather
distressing.  If that were the common attitude, there would never be any
progress -- because nothing would ever get improved, refined, developed.
Do you want to be reading news on a 1950-era Univac by the light of an
Edison lightbulb?  Not I, thanks.

--
David G Lewis                    ...!bellcore!nvuxr!deej
    (@ Bellcore Navesink Research & Engineering Center)
            "If this is paradise, I wish I had a lawnmower."

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

Date: 15 Jun 90 22:16:40 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Payload Status for 06/15/90 (Forwarded)


    Daily Status/KSC Payload Management and Operations 06-15-90.


    - STS-35 ASTRO-1/BBXRT (at Pad-A) -

    Rollback support continues.


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

    CITE interface testing continues.


    - STS-41 Ulysses (at ESA 60) -

    CITE MUE validation at the VPF and goal software debug and
    MMU load at the O&C will be active today.


    - STS-42 IML-1 (at O&C) -

    Rack, floor, and module staging is continuing.


    - STS-45 Atlas-1 (at O&C) -

    Pallet cable brackets, orthogrid struts, and plumbing will
    be installed today.


    - STS-46 TSS-1 (at O&C) -

    PR's against the pallet hardware will be worked today.


    - STS-47 Spacelab-J (at O&C) -

    Rack 11 staging continues.


    - STS-LON-3 HST M&R (at O&C) -

    No work is scheduled for today.

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

Date: 15 Jun 90 08:58:16 GMT
From: cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Space Sail Race

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Jim Kingdon) writes:
>He does not include much allowance for instruments or sensors.  As he
>put it "Why do second-class science?" when the real goal of the thing
>is to demonstrate the working of a solar sail...

No, the real goal of the sail race is to publicize the 500th anniversary
of Columbus's landing.  In that context, doing even a little bit of science
is not a silly frill.  The original RFP made it quite clear that things
like publicity were just as important as technical issues.  The MIT folks
seem to have overlooked this...

I have also heard some doubts expressed about things like the MIT group's
mass budget for communications gear, but I have not seen details.
--
As a user I'll take speed over|     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
features any day. -A.Tanenbaum| uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry [e-mail]

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

Date: 16 Jun 90 00:04:48 GMT
From: sun.udel.edu![e-mail]  (Andrew Salamon)
Subject: Equations and numbers?

Hello all,

   Someone once (or more, I dunno) posted a list of numbers that are
usefull for space calculations (orbit radii, planetary masses etc).
Could that kind soul please repost it and/or mail it to me?  What I am
looking for right now is the amount of sunlight falling (?) on a unit
area at both Earth orbit and Mars orbit, or better yet a way to
calculate them.

Many thanks.

Slightly unrelated:
   To

From: [e-mail] ( Avatar)
> In short Old Man, the preaching of space doctrine to politicians is
>quite like trying to teach a pig to sing..it annoys the pig and it wastes
>your time. We should simply bypass the bastards, form a rational public
>corporation and do it! Screw the "budget crunches", to bloody-hell with the
>need for NASA's "executive leadership", abandon all the traditional rituals
>associated with such ventures..LET'S DO IT!
                                ^^^^^^^^^^^
>-Avatar-> (aka: Erik K. Sorgatz) KB6LUY           +-------------------------+

If you can get it started I will gladly work in the Bio division!
(preferably in space, as soon as that becomes possible)
(no smiley's, BTW)

Magic in my Mind                     |   /Andrew/
Music in my Heart                    |   soi-disant Bleydion op Rhys
Laughter in my Soul                  |   [e-mail]
And...A Sword in my Fist (sigh)      |

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

Date: 14 Jun 90 12:42:54 GMT
From: decvax.dec.com!jfcl.dec.com!imokay.dec.com![e-mail]  (Doug Borsom)
Subject: Article about Soviet space program


The current issue (June, 11)  of the _New_Yorker_ has the
first of a two-part article by Henry Cooper about the
Soviet space program. "Annals of Space (The Planetary
Community)".

The first part focuses on the Phobos  program and uses it
to explore more general aspects of the Soviet space program.

Cooper has spent time at the Space Research Institute in
Moscow and at the Kaliningrad control center.

An interesting article.

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

Date: 14 Jun 90 16:26:35 GMT
From: att!cbnewsh![e-mail]  (lawrence.m.geary)
Subject: Re: Public Perception Of Space (was Re: US/Soviet Planetary Activity)

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Tom Neff) writes:
>>>Mostly that's because the press presents it that way.  The media get the
>>>same info you enjoy reading (or more), but then they feel they have to
>>>make the information understandable to an eighth grader (the approximate
>>>reading level newspapers are pitched to).  The result is easy to read but
>>>with a near-zero information content.
>
>In practice this tends not to be true unless one's reading is restricted
>to USA TODAY captions, but read on.
>
>>True. But it's also probably accurate to say that most members of the press
>>have an understanding of science corresponding to eighth grade level, if that.
>>They studied journalism in college, not physics.
>
>This is probably true for journalists as a class, counting the vast
>majority who have nothing to do with science reporting.  But standards
>for science reporting in major media are higher.  And good reporters
>know whom to ask for the answers they don't have.

I think we're talking past each other. My comments were directed at the
quality of science reporting on television, while you are tallying the
number of high quality articles in newspapers. We're both right, but
we're talking about different things. Unfortunately, unless I'm mistaken,
Joe Average gets most of his news from television.
--

Larry Geary: [e-mail] | Dislexics of the world, untie!
         [e-mail]         |

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

Date: 15 Jun 90 15:10:04 GMT
From: ox.com!itivax!vax3.iti.org![e-mail]  (Allen W. Sherzer)
Subject: Re: NASA 91 Appropriation

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Stephen Okay) writes:

>>I just received a copy of the markup for the NASA 91 appropriation. This
>>is out of the subcommittee on VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies. In a...

>Truly sad....truly sad....but then again, we have no one to blame but our
>selves as a nation, giving us one more thing to explain to our children...

I agree it is truly sad. Did you call Congressman Traxler and tell him
that? The Sanate vote is going to be soon. Have you written to Senator
Mikluski and told her? If we don't to that at a minimum, it isn't going
to happen.

Please call your representatives in the House and Senate on this. I'ts
still not too late to affect the Senate vote. Last year NASP funding
was eliminated by one house but got back in because of support from the
other house.

  Allen

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Allen W. Sherzer         |          Death to all extremists!              |
|   [e-mail]            |                                                |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

End of SPACE Digest V11 #531
*******************