Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT_ZIP/spacedig/V12_6/V12_720.ZIP/V12_720

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Subject: SPACE Digest V12 #720

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 12 : Issue 720

Today's Topics:
              MIR SWEEPSTAKES REAL!!!!!!
           Hubble Space Telescope Update - 12/13/90
          Suggestion to space list-meisters
         U.S.T.R. Availability through Anonymous FTP
          Re: How long does it take to get to Mars?
Truly to implement immediately some committee recommendations (Forwarded)
               Re: Holes,station,vulcan

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]

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Date: 19 Dec 90 11:05:12 GMT
From: usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!lavaca.uh.edu!jetson.uh.edu![e-mail]
Organization: University of Houston
Subject: MIR SWEEPSTAKES REAL!!!!!!
Sender: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]

THE ULTIMATE ADVENTURE IS REAL!!!!  IT IS NO HOAX!

TASS IS WRONG!!!!  THERE IS A CONTRACT WITH GLAVCOSMOS AND ENERGIA!

AND THE SWEEPSTAKES IS LEGAL!!  IT IS **NOT** A LOTTERY!


YES a trip to MIR is the prize!!!    The sweepstakes is totally
and completely FREE.  You can register after the message when you call
the 900 line, or you can mail your entry in. If you wish to enter by
mail, the address is: Space Travel Services Ultimate Adventure, P.O.
Box 580249, Houston, TX 77258-0249. You will need to write for entry
rules.


I know all 3 of the officials of Space Travel Services very well. They
have been involved in Houston Space Society, National Space Society,
the L5 Society, Students for the Exploration and Development of Space,
and the Lunar Prospector project for many years. Jim Davidson is the
current chair of the NSS Chapters Assembly and is just leaving the
board of directors of NSS.  I was the only one involved in the original
conversation that lead to this venture that is not directly involved.
These guys are 1000% commited to advancing man in space. Sure they want
to make money, but there are simplier ways to do that. THEY WANT AN
AVERAGE PERSON TO FLY IN SPACE.

On Tuesday, a couple of glitches occured. The first is that the right
people in the USSR were NOT contacted to confirm the story. Whoever
the press contacted knew nothing about the deal and got all of the
press, including TASS, calling it a hoax. It is NOT a hoax, Art Dula
got the contracts signed by three of the very top people in the
Soviet Space Program. It is just a matter of time now before the
RIGHT soviets speak up and confirm it.

The other glitch is our local DA is calling the 3 guys up before a
grand jury to show proof that the sweepstakes is not an illegal lottery
under Texas law.  The sweepstakes was designed by a professional
sweepstakes firm in New York, they have to know their business, it
is legal. Once they give the DA the rules, the DA should be satisfied.

Once these problems are resolved, the sweepstakes will have had more
exposure than expected, and a clean bill of health!


Please put most responses on SCI.SPACE.  this is not my account.


                              Ad MIR per 900


                              +*,  (Ad Astra)

                                  Alvin Carley
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                .............                    |       Rikhit Arora
 And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod  |    [e-mail]
    The high untrespassed sanctity of space,     |       [e-mail]
  Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.  |    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Date: 18 Dec 90 19:09:02 GMT
From: swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA.
Subject: Hubble Space Telescope Update - 12/13/90
Sender: [e-mail]
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                          HST STATUS REPORT
                          December 13, 1990

     Activities during the early part of this period were postponed due to
the safing event involving the failure of rate gyro 6, which occurred on
December 3. One of the two powered-off spare rate gyros (#2) was brought
on line, and the observatory was recovered from safemode over the weekend.
Science assessment activities began again on Monday, December 10.  During the
safemode period, engineers regenerated a health and safety software load,
quality checked it and loaded it into the HST.  Safemode recovery was started
at 01:00 EST on Saturday, December 8.  In addition, recovery of the
Wide Field/Planetary Camera (WF/PC) was initiated.  A high temperature
decontamination effort is used to clean the Charge Coupled Devices (CCDs) of
contaminants which may have collected there when power had been removed. The
procedure calls for the use of heaters for 8 hours and then returning to normal
configuration.  The CCDs cool down sufficiently in 90 minutes to allow
resumption of normal operations.  Also recovered from safemode were the Goddard
High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS), the High Speed Photometer (HSP), the Faint
Object Spectrograph (FOS), and the Faint Object Camera (FOC).  Other items of
interest:

     SPHERICAL ABERRATION: The final prescription for the WF/PC2 corrective
optics is expected to be sent to the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena,
California, in the next 10 days.  This is a slip of about a week from the
planned December 15 date, but continues to support the WF/PC2 development
schedule.

     SOLAR ARRAYS: The revised software for the Solar Array Gain Augmentation
(SAGA) was uplinked on November 27 and activated on several occasions with
encouraging results.  Further testing was deferred as work centered on recovery
from the safemode.  Further tests are planned for early January or early
February.

     SECONDARY MIRROR: On Sunday, December 16, activities will begin to remove
1.75 arc minutes of the 3.5 arc minutes total tilt in the position of the
secondary mirror.  This tilt was introduced earlier in the mission when
erroneous conclusions regarding secondary mirror tilt were derived Wave Front
Sensor #1 and 3 calibration data files.  Problems with the logic of those
conclusions versus prelaunch and observed orbital data led to a review of the
involved ground support software.  Later, engineers determined that Wave Front
Sensors 1 and 3 were reversed in the ground analytical software logic.

     Analysis of the effects of the current tilt on optical system performance
indicated that significant improvement in performance would result from
reduction in or elimination of the existing 3.5 arc minutes.  This conclusion
was confirmed during an orbital mirror tilt test two weeks ago, during which
1.75 arc minutes of the tilt were temporarily removed.  Work to finalize the
ultimate "best focus" secondary mirror position will continue into January.
      ___    _____     ___
     /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|
     | | | |  __ \ /| | | |      Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
  ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |___   Jet Propulsion Lab | [e-mail]
 /___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /|  M/S 301-355        |
 |_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/   Pasadena, CA 91109 |

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Date: Tue, 18 Dec 90 13:10:54 EST
From: "Paul M. Karagianis" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Suggestion to space list-meisters
To: Space Digest <[e-mail]>

" Date: 10 Dec 90 03:00:40 GMT
" Subject: Usable Booster Tanks?
"
" HELLO TO EVERYONE OUT THEREIN THE BIG WIDE WORLD!
" This is myn first foray into the newsnetwork so please bear with me.
"
" With regard to the high cost of launch of materials etc that can be
" expected wiuth the construction of a permanent orbital station,
" what are the constraints on using the main external tank
" from each shuttle launch?.
                 <Typically reasonable questions deleted>
" LAURIE BARTLETT
" [e-mail]

    Lotta good it does this *new* user to find out after the fact she's
asked one of the "commonly asked questions" (CAQ) that's been beaten to
death and is included in a file that also contains current best answers.

    The BITNET side of "space" sends out a form letter in response to
subscriptions, and UGA seems to be (generously) keeping back issues in
a filelist that could be extended to include the CAQ.  It would be nice
if the standard "welcome to space" message mentioned the CAQ file and
described how to get a copy.  I'm assuming that similar mechanisms exist
in the "real" (non-bitnet) world.

     +-------------- * standard disclaimers apply * --------------+
     |     Prior to observation, this space was simultaneously    |
     |   occupied by the infamous "Schrodingers Road-kill" joke.  |
     +------------  40o 43' 20" N  --  73o 47' 35" W  ------------+

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Date:    Tue, 18 Dec 90 14:30:17 MST
From: [e-mail] (Cary Oler)
Subject: U.S.T.R. Availability through Anonymous FTP
To: [e-mail]
X-St-Vmsmail-To: ST%"[e-mail]"

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Note:

     For those of you who have been unable to contact [e-mail]
regarding the document "Understanding Solar Terrestrial Reports", or for
those of you who have not received a reply, please note that the document
is now available for anonymous FTP from the site:  nic.funet.fi.
Thanks Kauto.

     If any of you place the document at other sites for anonymous FTP, please
notify "[e-mail]" so a list can be maintained for referral
purposes.  Thanks.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

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Date: 19 Dec 90 08:50:08 GMT
From: mcsun!cernvax!chx400!ugun2b!ugun2a![e-mail]
Organization: University of Geneva, Switzerland
Subject: Re: How long does it take to get to Mars?
References: <[e-mail]>, <[e-mail]>, <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Richard A. Schumacher) writes:
> In <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Christopher Neufeld) writes:
>>   If you have thrust and fuel to burn (so to speak) you can go into a
>>high energy transit, so that the shortest time it will take you to get
>>to Mars is limited by the speed of light.
>
> Well, sure, but the acceleration would squish you like a bug.
>
> Has anyone worked out the time for a physiologically-benign trip at a
> constant one G acceleration, with a turn-over near the midpoint? Assume
> the most favorable aspects for the planets' positions if you like.
> The energy required would be huge, but at least miracles like anti-gravity
> and "inertia damping" aren't required...

Long ago I worked out exercise 6.1 in "Gravitation" by Misner, Thorne &
Wheeler, finding that the *proper* time for any space travel with a constant
acceleration g is 'human'.  Getting to Mars lasts 1-2 days, to the Galactic
center 20 yr, to Andromeda about 28 yr, crossing the Universe 45 yr.
Of course at constant g the speed is rapidly close to c, and this exercise
ignores energetics problems.

    Daniel Pfenniger, University of Geneva

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Date: 18 Dec 90 22:12:35 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Subject: Truly to implement immediately some committee recommendations (Forwarded)
Sender: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]

Jeff Vincent
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.              December 18, 1990
(Phone:  [phone])

RELEASE:  90-162

TRULY TO IMPLEMENT IMMEDIATELY SOME COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS


     Richard H. Truly, NASA Administrator, in a holiday
message to agency employees, announced today that he would
implement immediately two recommendations made by the Advisory
Committee on the Future of the U.S. Space program and planned "to
move out aggressively across the board" on all the panel's
recommendations.

     Truly announced that he was acting on the recommendations
to:

o  Create a new Office of Exploration under an associate
administrator.  He said the initial duty of the office would be
to lay out "well thought-out" options to meet the challenges of
returning to the moon and exploring Mars.

o  Create a new Office of Human Resources to insure that NASA
has the engineering, scientific and administrative talent
necessary to fulfill its missions.  These include the high
priority space science program, the 75-year old aeronautical
research program, Mission to Planet Earth to help protect the
environment and the planetary exploration program - the Mission
from Planet Earth.

     Truly pledged that NASA will seek ways to implement the
committee report.  He said  that the agency would place
considerable emphasis on initiating the committee's
recommendations to develop a heavy lift launch vehicle and to
insure the robustness of the nation's entire civil space
transportation system.

     The committee recommended development of a heavy lift
vehicle to insure access to space.

     The backbone of U.S. access to space is the Space Shuttle,
which will celebrate its 10th anniversary of flight next April.
The advisory committee said that the United States will be
"unalterably committed to the Space Shuttle for many years".
Thus, "NASA must take those steps needed to enhance the Shuttle's
reliability, minimize wear and tear, and enhance launch schedule
predictability."

     "The Space Shuttle is essential to America's civil space
program for the next decade or more," the panel declared.

     Truly also noted his appointment of Donald R. Puddy to "drop
the other things he was doing" in order to head a small team to
assist him in determining how best to implement the advisory
committee's recommendations.  Puddy currently is Director of the
Flight Crew Operations Directorate at the Johnson Space Center,
Houston.

     The advisory committee was headed by Norman R. Augustine,
Chairman of the Board of Martin Marietta, and consisted of 11
other persons with distinguished records in the fields of
engineering, science, business, government and education.

     Truly pointed out to the NASA employees that the committee
declared in the report that "in spite of imperfections, by far
the greatest body of space expertise in any single organization
in the world resides within NASA".

     "NASA, and only NASA, realistically possesses the essential
critical mass of knowledge and expertise upon which the nation's
civil space program can be sustained."

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Date: 19 Dec 90 19:29:05 GMT
From: usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!sdd.hp.com!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!dali.cs.montana.edu!ogicse!emory!emcard!wa4mei!ke4zv![e-mail]  (Gary Coffman)
Organization: Gannett Technologies Group
Subject: Re: Holes,station,vulcan
References: <[e-mail]>, <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Christopher Neufeld) writes:
>it doesn't have to start in the form of degenerate matter. The radius
>of a black hole (Schwarzschild radius) is proportional to the mass of
>the body, while the volume goes as the cube of the radius. If all the
>stars in the galaxy were placed in a sphere whose radius was that of
>our solar system, the stars wouldn't touch each other, but the
                       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>resulting construct would be a black hole.

!! I know the solar system seems big to us, but is it really big enough to
contain all the stars in the galaxy without the stars touching? Forget
for a moment niggles about gravitational stability of such a thing, I thought
there were individual stars that are bigger than our solar system.

Gary

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End of SPACE Digest V12 #720
*******************