Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT_ZIP/spacedig/V12_5/V12_588.ZIP/V12_588

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Subject: SPACE Digest V12 #588

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 12 : Issue 588

Today's Topics:
             Re: The Space Plane
           Re: The great light bulb debate
           Re: Pity The Much Abused Shuttle
              Re: USENET Apology
              Magellan Update - 11/21/90
             Re: The Space Plane
        Re: STS 38 Observation Reports -- red?
             GIF/TIFF pictures ..
                Re: Little Joe
              Ulysses Update - 11/21/90
            Black holes and gravity boost
              Ulysses Update - 11/20/90
              HST Media Briefing

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

Date: 20 Nov 90 13:32:08 GMT
From: usc!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!ub!ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu![e-mail]  (Craig L Cole)
Subject: Re: The Space Plane

>I'm fairly certain NASP is a commercial venture. What I'm not sure of
>is, is NASP the same as the X-29? Maybe the X-29 is the military vehicle
>you're talking about.

>*OUCH*<

Of course, I meant the X-30.

Duh.

Craig Cole
[e-mail]
[e-mail]

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

Date: 22 Nov 90 01:29:24 GMT
From: solo!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!aries![e-mail]  (Doug McDonald)
Subject: Re: The great light bulb debate

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (John Roberts) writes:
>
>
>The mantles for gas lanterns are made with radioactive thorium oxide
>(presumably because of its mechanical properties at high temperatures).
>A reference book I have also states that it is included in trace quantities
>in the tungsten filaments of light bulbs (!).

Very very doubtful in light bulbs. It IS used in the filaments of
certain vacuum tubes: the thorium migrates to the surface and coats the
tungsten, producing a material with a lower work function, and hence
it emits electrons at lower temperatures. The treatment of the material
to get this to work is somewhat of a black art - I spent quite
a bit of my graduate career playing with various potions and
incantations over this stuff. Once you get it right, though, it works very
well.

Doug McDonald

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

Date: 18 Nov 90 17:45:14 GMT
From: timbuk!cs.umn.edu!kksys!wd0gol!newave![e-mail]  (John A. Weeks III)
Subject: Re: Pity The Much Abused Shuttle

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Fraering Philip) writes:
>You don't get it. The shuttles cost billions a piece, and would
>cost only a couple million to destroy.

>Then the Russians have wonders of wonders destroyed 25% of the entire fleet.
>Their next _expendable_ shot would destroy another billion dollar jeep...

I think that it would be safe to assume that destroying a shuttle in flight
would probably be an act of war.  Since this certainly would result in total
destruction of the Soviets (and the USA also), I doubt that the Soviets
would attempt this.  In any case, the war that would result would cost far
more than a billion or so dollars, so the cost factor is moot.

Perhaps a greater worry would be a terrorist organization destorying/damaging
a shuttle.  We know where the Soviets are...but seems to be very hard to
track down and capture terrorists.  Killing a shuttle would be a very
spectacular stunt with a chance of not getting caught.  Terrorists, by their
very nature, are difficult to predict, while I would assume that the military
watches every move that the Soviets make.

-john-

--
===============================================================================
John A. Weeks III               [phone]               [e-mail]
NeWave Communications                ...uunet!rosevax!bungia!wd0gol!newave!john
===============================================================================

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

Date: 21 Nov 90 15:52:24 GMT
From: csus.edu!beach.csulb.edu!nic.csu.net!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!dsinc!netnews.upenn.edu!netnews![e-mail]  (Manhattan Chess Club Reject)
Subject: Re: USENET Apology


I guess some people sent him /etc/termcap, huh?
--

 In some sense a stochastic process can do better; at least it has a chance.
Mark-Jason Dominus                       [e-mail]

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

Date: 21 Nov 90 21:42:44 GMT
From: usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Subject: Magellan Update - 11/21/90


                     MAGELLAN STATUS REPORT
                        November 21, 1990

     The Magellan spacecraft is performing well in its mapping
mode with 385 mapping orbits to date.  The two momentum wheel
desaturations and seven star calibrations of the past 24 hours
were successful, with normal attitude updates.

     A Deep Space Network transmitter went down temporarily
yesterday while uplinking data to the B-side memory.  Of five blocks
of data, three were received successfully, and two were missed.
An attempt to repeat them later failed, but they were
repeated today along with a read-out of the memory.

     The image data processing team completed the digital
processing of 12 new full resolution image mosaics, and check
prints of the products will be produced early next week.

     Magellan radar mapping of Venus thus far includes 348
mapping orbits with data acquired from 344 of them.  The area
covered on Venus is 93.2 degrees of longitude, less the superior
conjunction gap of 22 degrees.  That was when Venus and Earth were
on opposite sides of the sun and high data rate communication was
not possible.

     A similar mapping area on Earth would stretch from Los
Angeles to Iceland with the superior conjunction gap appearing
through central Greenland.
      ___    _____     ___
     /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|
     | | | |  __ \ /| | | |      Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
  ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |___   Jet Propulsion Lab | [e-mail]
 /___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /|  M/S 301-355        |
 |_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/   Pasadena, CA 91109 |

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

Date: 19 Nov 90 10:37:26 GMT
From: ncrlnk!ncr-mpd![e-mail]  (Darin Hauer)
Subject: Re: The Space Plane

>>>>> On 15 Nov 90 23:16:40 GMT, [e-mail] (DAVIS, SW) said:
:> News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.3-4
:> Nntp-Posting-Host: vaxa.isc.rit.edu


:>     I was curious if anyone out there knew anything about a possible space
:> plane. Some magazines mentioned a experimental high altitude "space plane" that
:> could be used to ferry cargo into low earth orbit and could be used commercialy
:> to fly passengers from say...New York to Sydney in five hours. I believe it was
:> called the "X-87" or something like that. Does anyone know what I'm talking
:> about??

I'm not sure about the plane itself, but I know that work is being done
on an engine that could drive a plane into a low earth orbit.  The engine
would be a "turbo-ram" engine that would use a turbine for take-offs and
landings, where there is enough air for it, and a ram-jet once it reached
an altitude where the turbine is no longer effective.  Ram-jets don't need
significant amounts of air, and they create impressive thrust, but I
understand that they are damaging at lower altitudes.(Maybe someone on the
net could explain specifics.)  Turbines (Turbo-jets) use more oxygen, create
less thrust, and aren't terribly damaging at lower altitudes.  This engine
could make a New York to Sydney run relatively quickly, requiring about
an hour to get to an altitude where the ram-jet could be used, 2-3 hours for
the actual flight, and another hour in descent.
--
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Darin Hauer       | [phone] x493          [e-mail]
CAE Systems      |
NCR MPD          |  Stop being childish in your thinking.  In respect to
Fort Collins CO.  |  evil be like infants, but in your thinking be mature!
                  |      - 1 Corinthians 14,20

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

Date: 20 Nov 90 15:12:19 GMT
From: usc!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!aries![e-mail]  (Doug McDonald)
Subject: Re: STS 38 Observation Reports -- red?

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Clayton Cramer) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (John Logajan) writes:
>> [e-mail] (Ted Molczan) writes:
># #Bill noted that as the object neared the shadow it became red, and
># #made a bright orange flash.
>#
># Pardon my ignorance, but isn't it possible that the red color is due
># to the same thing that occasionally gives red sunrises and sunsets?
># --
># - John Logajan @ Network Systems; 7600 Boone Ave; Brooklyn Park, MN 55428
>
>No.  The red color at sunrise and sunset is caused by the atmosphere.
>There's no atmosphere where the shuttle is; unless you are observing
>the shuttle at a very flat angle to the horizon, you aren't going
>to see red.
>
>--
>Clayton E. Cramer {pyramid,pixar,tekbspa}!optilink!cramer

Ummmm. No again. I believe the point is that even though there is no
atmosphere where the shuttle is, it is quite possible for the sun's light
to pass through the atmosphere on its way to the shuttle. To the
people on the shuttle this would be referred to as "sunset" or
"sunrise". And it would occur close to the point of maximum visibility
of the shuttle on the ground.

Doug McDonald

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

Date: 21 Nov 90 00:23:58 GMT
From: unmvax!nmt.edu![e-mail]  (Oguz Tosyali)
Subject: GIF/TIFF pictures ..

Hi ;
 Is there anonymous ftp site for space GIF/TIFF pictures ?

Thanks in advance ..
Oguz Tosyali

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

Date: 21 Nov 90 00:02:02 GMT
From: world!ksr![e-mail]  (Chris Jones)
Subject: Re: Little Joe

In article <[e-mail]>, stanfiel@testeng1 (Chris Stanfield) writes:
>I have seen references to the above
                [Little Joe]
>                     by Wales Larrison and Henry
>Spencer. At first I thought that it meant the Apollo escape system,
>but Henry's post makes me think that it is something else altogether,
>seemingly to do with the qualification program for Apollo. So my
>question is, what is (was) Little Joe?

Little Joe was a suborbital rocket.  It was used to test both Mercury and
Apollo capsules (I don't recall any use of it during Gemini).  It was used to
test the functioning of the escape system during flight.  (I believe there was
something called a Little Joe II which was used for Apollo).  It may have used
to test the parachute and landing systems as well.
--
Chris Jones    [e-mail]    {world,uunet,harvard}!ksr!clj

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

Date: 22 Nov 90 03:03:29 GMT
From: csus.edu!beach.csulb.edu!nic.csu.net!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Subject: Ulysses Update - 11/21/90


                        ULYSSES STATUS REPORT
                          November 21, 1990

     Today, the Ulysses spacecraft performed a precession maneuver of 1.6
degrees to keep the high gain antenna pointing at Earth.  The peak-to-peak
nutation level of the spacecraft is between 2.2 and 3.2 degrees.  The trend
is downward since the spin was increased to 5.2 degrees on November 17.  There
is an unexplained variation of approximately 1 degree that has a period of
approximately 20 hours.  The next planned activities for Ulysses are scheduled
for November 26.
      ___    _____     ___
     /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|
     | | | |  __ \ /| | | |      Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
  ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |___   Jet Propulsion Lab | [e-mail]
 /___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /|  M/S 301-355        |
 |_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/   Pasadena, CA 91109 |

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

Date: 19 Nov 90 18:07:16 GMT
From: att!linac!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!uupsi!sunic!news.funet.fi!tukki.jyu.fi!jyu.fi![e-mail]  (Otto J. Makela)
Subject: Black holes and gravity boost

I just read a interesting article in Scientific American about black holes
(er, frozen stars, whatever -- since there shouldn't be any major black holes
ready yet if I remember my relativity right) in galactic central regions.
One of the "signatures" for black holes mentioned were 1/2 of binary star
systems being ejected at over 10000km/s, while the other half is shredded in
the black hole's acceleration disk.
Can someone explain this kind of gravity boost ?  All the explanations for
gravity boost I've seen all require a boost "source" that is moving at an
angle in relation to the boosted object.  Is the explanation here that the
1st half of the binary is the moving boost source before it's destruction
in the black hole's tidal forces ?  Or have I been misinformed about G-boost ?
--
   /* * * Otto J. Makela <[e-mail]> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * */
  /* Phone: [phone], BBS: [phone] (CCITT, Bell 24/12/300) */
 /* Mail: Kauppakatu 1 B 18, SF-40100 Jyvaskyla, Finland, EUROPE         */
/* * * Computers Rule 01001111 01001011 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * */

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

Date: 21 Nov 90 00:33:10 GMT
From: julius.cs.uiuc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!forsight!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Subject: Ulysses Update - 11/20/90


                       ULYSSES STATUS REPORT
                         November 20, 1990

     Today, Ulysses is about 41 million kilometers (26
million miles) from Earth, traveling at a heliocentric velocity
of about 135,000 kilometers per hour (84,000 miles per hour).

     Ground controllers are continuing to study a wobble in
the Ulysses spacecraft's rotation and consider possible
corrective action.  The wobble was first detected on November 4 after
the deployment of Ulysses's 7.5-meter (24.3-foot) axial boom, used as
an antenna for the mission's Unified Radio and Plasma-Wave
experiment.  Initially the wobble was estimated to total about
0.4 degree in side-to-side motion.  Since then, however, it has
grown to as much as 4.5 degrees.

     Ground controllers have varied the spacecraft's spin
rate from its normal 5 revolutions per minute (rpm) in order to
study the wobble in detail.  Currently Ulysses has been spun up
to 5.2 rpm; the wobble's intensity has lessened and is now about
2.6 degrees.

     In order to use X-band radio through Ulysses's high
gain dish antenna, ground controllers believe it is necessary to
reduce the wobble later in the mission to less than about 1.4
degree side-to-side.  (X-band radio permits a faster rate of
sending data than the currently used S-band transmitter.)

     Currently the Ulysses Project is evaluating how science
experiments would be affected by going to a higher spin rate,
which may reduce the wobble by the needed amount.  Ground
controllers also believe the wobble may decrease as the
spacecraft travels farther from the Sun and the axial boom is
shaded more by the spacecraft.

     In other activities, all science experiments on Ulysses
are now turned on.  Relatively quiet experiment monitoring and
housekeeping functions are planned for the week ahead.  A
precession maneuver -- a thruster firing to correct the
spacecraft's pointing at Earth -- was scheduled for today.
      ___    _____     ___
     /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|
     | | | |  __ \ /| | | |      Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
  ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |___   Jet Propulsion Lab | [e-mail]
 /___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /|  M/S 301-355        |
 |_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/   Pasadena, CA 91109 |

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

Date: 19 Nov 90 15:20:15 GMT
From: att!linac!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Subject: HST Media Briefing

HST IMAGES OF SATURN'S GREAT WHITE SPOT MEDIA BRIEFING SET

    Recent Hubble Space Telescope images of Saturn's Great White
Spot will be the subject of a press briefing at the NASA
Headquarters auditorium, 400 Md. Ave., S.W., Washington, D.C. on
Tues., Nov. 20, at 10 a.m. EST.

    Participants will include Professor James Westphal, Principal
Investigator for Wide Field/Planetary Camera, and Dr. Andrew
Ingersoll, Professor of Planetary Science at California Institute
of Technology.

     The briefing will be carried live on NASA Select television,
Satcom F2R, transponder 13 at 72 degrees West Longitude, 3960.0
MHz, audio 6.8 MHz, with two-way question and answer capability.

    Photographs in color and in black and white and a time-lapse
movie will be released.
      ___    _____     ___
     /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|
     | | | |  __ \ /| | | |      Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
  ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |___   Jet Propulsion Lab | [e-mail]
 /___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /|  M/S 301-355        |
 |_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/   Pasadena, CA 91109 |

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

End of SPACE Digest V12 #588
*******************