Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT_ZIP/spacedig/V12_6/V12_647.ZIP/V12_647

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Subject: SPACE Digest V12 #647

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 12 : Issue 647

Today's Topics:
              Re: Another Russian first
           Re: space news from Oct 6 AW&ST
    Re: Good Bye  (Quite possibly my last posting from this site)
        UIT Status for 12/06/90 [1400 CST] (Forwarded)
      Astro-1 Status for 12/06/90 [1200 CST] (Forwarded)
                 Memes author
               Re: 10th planet?
        NASA Select coverage of Astro mission
               Re: 10th planet?
           Re: Sending Sen. Garn into space
              Re: NASA Employees
             Re: * SpaceNews 03-Dec-90 *

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: 6 Dec 90 22:52:35 GMT
From: uhccux!munnari.oz.au!metro!cluster!ultima!phobos![e-mail]  (Dan Corbett)
Subject: Re: Another Russian first

>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Frank G.
>Dahncke) writes:
>> Now the USSR even has had the first paying passenger in a spacecraft.
>> Actually, I would have expected this feat to be performed by the US.


Does SpaceLab count here? I believe SpaceLab 1 was sponsored by the ESA and
had a German scientist along.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dan Corbett
University of Technology, Sydney
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: 6 Dec 90 17:45:15 GMT
From: usc!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: space news from Oct 6 AW&ST

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Nick Szabo) writes:
>>some of the attendees commented that the deck was stacked:  the choice
>>of participants seemed to be deliberately aimed at such a conclusion.)
>
>Isn't "invitation only" also true of NASA commitees, the Space Council,
>NSS commitees, etc.?  Your biases are showing, Henry.  :-)

"I don't make the news, I just report it."  The comment was in the original.

Committee-stacking is a venerable tradition in the government, but the
Planetary Society only undermines its position as a source of honest
advice by such tactics.

>Nobody wants "Fred" anymore....
>We are coming to the realization that the "space station" concept is an
>obsolete 19th-century idea...

Nonsense.  We are coming to the conclusion that trying to build a space
station that is all things to all people -- most notably, a reliable
source of income for the NASA centers and their contractors -- is a lousy
way to explore space.  That in no way indicates any fundamental failing
in the concept of a space station as a useful resource.  Even -- dare I
say it -- the Planetary Society has proposed a suitably designed space
station as an important part of their headlong-race-to-Mars project.
--
"The average pointer, statistically,    |Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
points somewhere in X." -Hugh Redelmeier| [e-mail]   utzoo!henry

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

Date: 6 Dec 90 20:50:20 GMT
From: spotted.rice.edu![e-mail]  (Shawn Joel Dube)
Subject: Re: Good Bye  (Quite possibly my last posting from this site)


There was a small mis-understanding.  I read the origanal article
in  comp.sys.atari.8bit which isn't very active and when I posted
my request for a count, it not only went to the atari newsgroup, but
all the others mentioned in the heading.  So I really didn't want
all your mail, just the people from comp.sys.atari.8bit.  :-)
My mistake....

--
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
r     ___     _              "...but then there was the         r
r    /__     | \              possibility that they were        r
r   ___/hawn |__\ube          LaRouche democrats which, of      r
r  [e-mail]        course, were better off dead."    r
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

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

Date: 6 Dec 90 23:27:06 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: UIT Status for 12/06/90 [1400 CST] (Forwarded)


         UIT Status Report #04
         2 p.m. CST Dec. 6, 1990
         Spacelab Mission Operations Control
         Marshall Space Flight Center,
         Huntsville, AL


         "We'll try to uplink the way BBXRT is currently operating," said Ted
         Stecher, of Goddard Space Flight Center, principal investigator.  "If
         all this goes well, then we're back in business!"

         Prior to the shut down of the second of two Dedicated Display Units at
         6:15 a.m. CST today, the UIT team obtained images of virtually all
         their scheduled targets.  "Last night was the best yet," Stecher
         said.  "We did very well."  Targets included the M-82 and the M-81
         galaxies.

         The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) has the largest field of view
         of any sensitive ultraviolet imaging instrument planned for flight in
         the 1990s.  This is one of the reasons UIT was selected from among the
         ultraviolet telescopes aboard Astro-1 to be the first instrument to
         test the ability of controllers to command telescope alignments from
         the ground.

         UIT can photograph an area that is 40 arc minutes in diameter, about
         25 percent wider than the full moon.  The permanent archive for UIT
         data will be the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC), located
         at Goddard

         The UIT was developed and built at Goddard Space Flight Center in
         Greenbelt, MD.

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

Date: 6 Dec 90 23:18:02 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Astro-1 Status for 12/06/90 [1200 CST] (Forwarded)


     Astro-1 Shift Summary Report #14
         12:00 noon CST, Dec. 6, 1990
         4/11:10 MET
         Spacelab Mission Operations Control
         Marshall Space Flight Center,
         Huntsville, AL


         During this period (4 a.m. to 12 noon CST), a substantial
         amount of science data was obtained by the Astro-1
         observatory instruments before the Data Display Unit (DDU)
         aboard the Columbia automatically shut down from overheating
         at approximately MET 4/05:20, or 6:10 a.m. (The Broad Band
         X-Ray Telescope (BBXRT), controlled independently from the
         Goddard Space Flight Center, was affected when the orbiter
         was placed in a safe attitude which subsequently caused the
         instrument door to be closed and placed the BBXRT too near a
         line of sight with the Sun.)  The DDU was the second of two
         on board the orbiter to power down, and it left the Astro-1
         crew without means to control the Instrument Pointing System
         (IPS) payload from the aft deck of the Columbia.  A backup
         plan to control the instruments remotely from the ground --
         with Johnson Space Center controlling the IPS and Marshall
         Space Flight Center controlling the three ultraviolet Astro-1
         instruments -- is now under study.  If carried out, the
         procedure will call for each instrument to be activated one
         at a time, beginning with the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope
         (UIT), then the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT), and
         finally the Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter
         Experiment (WUPPE).  Once confidence is high that each can be
         remotely controlled from the ground, a procedure will be
         carried out to obtain joint observations from all three
         instruments.

         At approximately noon, the BBXRT team opened the instrument
         door and proceeded to perform calibration procedures and was
         scheduled to study the 1987A supernova later in the
         afternoon.

         Prior to the DDU shutdown during this timeframe, the WUPPE --
         as primary instrument -- was able to observe scheduled target
         NGC 7023, the most brilliant of the reflection nebulae.  Both
         HUT and UIT joined in the observation since the target is a
         strong ultraviolet source.

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

Date: Thu, 06 Dec 90 20:56:12 CST
From: "Bill Ball" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Memes author

About a year ago I monitored Space and there was an occasional contribution
by someone who wrote on "memes". I believe the person's name was Keith
Hensen, but I am not sure. I would appreciate any help in getting a hold of
of this person via e-mail. I no longer read the list so please send any
suggestions to me directly. I have already searched subscriber lists and
cant seem to figure out to get logs of the list--so those routes have been
tried to no avail.

Bill Ball
c476721@umcvmb

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

Date: 6 Dec 90 23:36:20 GMT
From: dweasel![e-mail]  (Loren Petrich)
Subject: Re: 10th planet?

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
>I know this will sound stupid and uninformed, but I'm interested in opinions.
>
>Does anyone out there believe there are more than the 9 planets we know of now
>in our solar system.  I had heard something many years ago about a 10th planet
>named Vulcan.  Does anyone know of any hard evidence to back this up?

    This was a hypothetical object intended to account for the
excess advance of the periapsis of Mercury (43" per century). It was
proposed to be inside the orbit of Mercury, because there was no such
noticeable discrepancy for the other planets.

    Searches for an intra-Mercurian planet, conducted during
several solar eclipses, have failed to reveal any intra-Mercurian
object brighter than about 8th magnitude.

    The discrepancy in the periapsis advance is successfully
accounted for by General Relativity, which predicts an advance almost
exactly equal to the observed advance.


$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Loren Petrich, the Master Blaster: [e-mail]

Since this nodename is not widely known, you may have to try:

[e-mail]

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

Date: Thu, 6 Dec 90 14:10:45 EST
From: John Roberts <[e-mail]>
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are those of the sender
    and do not reflect NIST policy or agreement.
Subject: NASA Select coverage of Astro mission


Thanks to NASA for excellent coverage of the Astro mission so far on
NASA Select. Some of the features I have particularly enjoyed:
  - Launch coverage, with replays of the launch as seen from many camera
angles. I haven't seen the slow-motion replays on previous missions. (I
only saw them the morning after the launch. Were they taken with film cameras?)
  - The new tracking display, depicted to resemble a globe, with orbiter
attitude and a circle showing the horizon as seen from the orbiter.
  - The live video from space, including the astronauts at work, scenes
from the payload bay cameras, and downlink from the instruments.
  - Running commentary describing the current situation, and giving the
names and responsibilities of many of the ground crew. (These folks deserve
the credit for their hard work.)
  - The periodic press briefings, with summaries every few hours.
  - The daily program "Today in Space", summarizing mission accomplishments
and presenting a broader view of the significance of the mission.
  - The coverage of the close encounter with Mir.

The "mascots" on display at some of the centers also add an amusing touch
to the NASA Select coverage:
  - Huntsville:                     "Astro" (the Jetson's dog)
  - Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope:  "Jabba the Hutt" (from 'Star Wars')
  :-)                                          ---
       John Roberts
       [e-mail]

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

Date: 6 Dec 90 16:59:31 GMT
From: csus.edu!wuarchive!usc!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: 10th planet?

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
>Does anyone out there believe there are more than the 9 planets we know of now
>in our solar system.  I had heard something many years ago about a 10th planet
>named Vulcan.  Does anyone know of any hard evidence to back this up?

Vulcan was the name informally assigned to a planet reported inside the
orbit of Mercury last century.  It is just possible that the sightings of
Vulcan were really sightings of Icarus or some other inner-system asteroid
at perihelion.  It definitely does not exist as a planet.

The chances of a tenth outer planet are not too bad, although evidence for
it is slim to nonexistent.  (A very careful reassessment of observations
of the orbit of Neptune by some folks at JPL concluded that there are no
unexplained perturbations.)  Precise ranging of the Pioneers and Voyagers
have already put tight bounds on it, however:  it has to be small, a long
way out, well away from the ecliptic, or some combination.
--
"The average pointer, statistically,    |Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
points somewhere in X." -Hugh Redelmeier| [e-mail]   utzoo!henry

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

Date: 6 Dec 90 21:22:19 GMT
From: orca.dsd.es.com!es.com![e-mail]  (Bob Pendleton)
Subject: Re: Sending Sen. Garn into space

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Henry Spencer) writes:

|> In fact, rumor hath it that the unit of spacesickness is the Garn, normally
|> on a scale of 0 to 10.  Garn came in at 12.

Jake "the Snake" Garn is one of the Senators from my home state.  To
defend myself I have to say that I've never voted for any of the
Senators from the state of Utah. Though I've always voted in those
elections...

Jake was subjected to tests that were designed to make him spacesick.
He was the experimental subject for tests specifically designed to
fool and foul the middle ear.  He accepted that as a precondition to
going.

As much as I hate to say anything nice about Snakey Jake, He is/was a
reserve colonel USAF qualified to fly large multi-engined jets, and
has many many hours of flight time. He is very knowlegable about both
aviation and space.

--
              Bob Pendleton, speaking only for myself.
   [e-mail] or  decwrl!esunix!bpendlet or utah-cs!esunix!bpendlet

                      X: Tools, not rules.

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

Date: 5 Dec 90 22:45:44 GMT
From: agate!linus!philabs!ttidca![e-mail]  ( Avatar)
Subject: Re: NASA Employees

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Ken  Sheppardson) writes:
[e-mail] (Matthew DeLuca) writes:
+>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Millard Edgerton) writes:
+>>If the engines(mains) are not restartable, HOW DO THEY FIRE TO DE-ORBIT?
+>>THINK ABOUT IT!
+>Okay.  They fire the OMS (Orbital Maneuvering System) engines to de-orbit.
+>After MECO (main engine cutoff) at about 8 minutes into the flight, the
+>main engines don't start up again.
+>Um, not to be rude or anything...do you really work for NASA?
+   I was going to make a comment about the fact that NASA employees may
+   or may not be posting from a nasa.gov net address and that some non-NASA
+   employees may be posting from other systems and that just because a
+   person is a NASA employee and/or posting from a NASA system he/she
+   may not necessarily know what he/she is talking about, but I think that's
+   rather obvious and I wouldn't want to offend anyone, so I won't bother.

 Offense or not, and Ken's exellent points notwithstanding, NASA  is  like
every  other  large  organization  on  the  planet; in  that  the ratio of
Scientists to papershufflers looks like the signal-to-noise  ratio  for  a
deep-space probe!

-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 **
(OPINIONS EXPRESSED DO NOT REFLECT THE VIEWS OF CITICORP OR ITS MANAGEMENT!)

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

Date: 6 Dec 90 12:18:59 GMT
From: qualcom.qualcomm.com![e-mail]  (Franklin Antonio)
Subject: Re: * SpaceNews 03-Dec-90 *

> [e-mail] (Bill Newman) writes:
>> [e-mail] (Henry Spencer) writes:
>>> [e-mail] (Franklin Antonio) writes:
>>>So, the basic work was done 371 years ago!  This is one of the humbling
>>>things about celestial mechanics...

>>Kepler is not the really humbling example in celestial mechanics.  That
>>honor goes to Isaac Newton, ...
>>mathematicians of the next two centuries basically just added footnotes
>>to his work.

>Newton certainly killed the 2-body gravitational problem, but ...
>200 years of perturbation theory revealed enough to make it plausible that
>the solar system could be stable for billions of years
>without invoking the hand of God to fix things up.

I agree with Henry.  Newton humbles us all.  As for the following 370 years of
many-body perturbation and stability theory: bah!  "plausible" and "could be"
are waffle-words.  How can this billions of years stability stuff be science
if you can't test the result of the theory?  Meet me in two billion years
for pizza.  If it turned out that the solar system WAS stable, i'll buy you
a beer.

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

End of SPACE Digest V12 #647
*******************