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Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #332

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 13 : Issue 332

Today's Topics:
         NASA Headline News for 03/28/91 (Forwarded)
                Re: Discovery
                Re: Minicomets
                Re: "Follies"
             Re: I want to go to orbit...
              Re: More cost/lb. follies
         Re: Commercial Space News (2 of 12)

Administrivia:

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

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

Date: 28 Mar 91 18:22:20 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA Headline News for 03/28/91 (Forwarded)


             Headline News
Internal Communications Branch (P-2) NASA Headquarters

  Thursday, March 28, 1991    Audio Service: 202 / 755-1788

This is NASA Headline News for Thursday, March 28, 1991

Work at the Kennedy Space Center, to prepare Atlantis for its
targeted launch on April 5, continues on schedule.  The spacesuits
have been installed into Atlantis' airlock.  Aft closeouts on the orbiter
are still underway.  Other activity today includes hypergolic fuel
system pressurization and continuation of ordnance operations.

Discovery is hard-mated to its external tank in the Vehicle Assembly
Building.  The vehicle is powered up and currently undergoing
electrical interface tests.  It will be rolled out to launch pad 39-A
on Monday, April 1, at 4:00 am.

The Spacelab-Columbia electrical interface verification tests
have not started yet due to some minor cabling problems which were
encountered during electrical hook-up procedures.  The interface tests
are scheduled to begin this afternoon.  The pressurized tunnel will
be installed between Columbia's airlock and the Spacelab Life Sciences
habitable module on Tuesday, April 2.

Kennedy Space Center management has scheduled operational
activities this week and early next week to allow most of the center's
staff to have Easter Sunday off.

                   * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The 39th annual National Science Teachers Association
convention got underway yesterday at the George R. Brown
Convention Center in Houston.  NASA has committed a large number
of resources to support this important meeting.  There are daily tours
of the Johnson Space Center for teacher groups.  The LASER Mobile
Teacher Resource Center is stationed outside the convention center
and open throughout the rest of the week.  More than 60 NASA
scientists, engineers and technicians representing the agency's
field centers are on hand, and staffing exhibits to demonstrate and
discuss their work.  NASA is also presenting special sessions on a large
number of the agency's scientific and education programs, including
the SEEDs project, the Hubble Telescope, and the International Space
Year.  NASA astronaut Mae Jemison is also a guest speaker at
the NSTA 39th Annual Banquet.

                   * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Dr. Ed Weiler, Hubble Space Telescope program scientist, will discuss
the scientific findings and show images taken from the Hubble
telescope during an educational video conference to be
transmitted on Tuesday, April 2, from 2:30 pm to 4:00 pm.  The
conference is expected to be seen by more than 30,000 educators
throughout the nation.  The program will be a 90-minute interactive
conference which will include phoned-in questions from teachers at
various sites.  It will be transmitted on the Westar IV satellite, channel
19.  Teachers interested in registering for the video conference should
call 405/744-7015.

                   * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Following the rollout of Discovery to Pad B on Monday, NASA and the
U.S. Army will collaborate on a series of Army "Be All You Can Be"
promotion photographs to be used later this  year by the service.  The
Army's Golden Knights, a precision parajump team, will fly down
in front of Pad B from 8,000 feet, landing in the parking lot in front
of the pad.  The team will be photographed from both the air and the
ground.  The Golden Knights will be forming a variety of shapes to
frame and highlight the Discovery and Pad-B as they descend through
the 8,000-foot drop.  The activity is expected to begin at 11:00 am,
assuming no change in Discovery's rollout schedule.

                   * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

In yet another example of NASA collaborative educational
assistance, Kennedy biologist, Dennis Chamberland, recently assisted
with a Melbourne school project.  The elementary school was trying
to grow tomato plants but was having problems getting healthy plants.
The teacher, who was supervising the 3rd graders trying to grow
the plants, called NASA.  NASA put her in touch with Chamberland,
who then contacted colleagues he has been working with at the Disney
Epcot Center.  NASA and Disney then assisted the Melbourne class
and provided enough guidance so that the plants are now reported
to be growing and quite healthy.


Here's the broadcast schedule for Public Affairs events on NASA Select
TV.  All times are Eastern.  NASA Select TV is carried on GE Satcom
F2R, transponder 13, C-Band, 72 degrees W Long., Audio 6.8,
Frequency 3960 MHz.

Thursday, 3/28/91
    12:00 pm    Starfinder Program - "Energy Transfer."

    12:15 pm    29th AAS Goddard Symposium, "Humans & Machines
            in Space," Session 1: "The Vision" (recorded 3/14/91).


All events and times may change without notice.  This report is filed
daily, Monday through Friday, by 12:00 pm, Eastern.  It is a service of
NASA Headquarters Office of Public Affairs.  Contact:  CREDMOND
on NASAmail or at 202/453-8425.

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

Date: Thu, 28 Mar 91 14:17:15 EST
From: John Roberts <[e-mail]>
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are those of the sender
    and do not reflect NIST policy or agreement.
Subject: Re: Discovery


>From: [e-mail] (Peter E. Yee)
>Subject: NASA Headline News for 03/28/91 (Forwarded)

>Discovery is hard-mated to its external tank in the Vehicle Assembly
>Building.  The vehicle is powered up and currently undergoing
>electrical interface tests.  It will be rolled out to launch pad 39-A
                                                                  ----
>on Monday, April 1, at 4:00 am.

>                   * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

>Following the rollout of Discovery to Pad B on Monday, NASA and the
                                       -----
>U.S. Army will collaborate on a series of Army "Be All You Can Be"
>promotion photographs to be used later this  year by the service.  The
>Army's Golden Knights, a precision parajump team, will fly down
>in front of Pad B from 8,000 feet, landing in the parking lot in front
>of the pad.  The team will be photographed from both the air and the
>ground.  The Golden Knights will be forming a variety of shapes to
>frame and highlight the Discovery and Pad-B as they descend through
>the 8,000-foot drop.  The activity is expected to begin at 11:00 am,
>assuming no change in Discovery's rollout schedule.

Looks like Discovery is really going places! (I hope they figure out
where by Monday...)    :-)  :-)  :-)

Actually, that sounds pretty spectacular. I hope they make it into
television commercials. Also hope nobody lands on the razor wire.

John Roberts
[e-mail]

"...providing your late night with a dose of the gleeful mindless violence
you need when you need it most..."  [Nickelodeon Channel commercial proclaiming
the advent of a new midnight "Looney Tunes" program]

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

Date: Thu, 28 Mar 91 09:41:38 PST
From: [e-mail]
X-Vmsmail-To: UTADNX::UTSPAN::AMES::"[e-mail]"
Subject: Re: Minicomets


In SPACE Digest V13 #309,
zephyr.ens.tek.com!tektronix!sequent!crg5![e-mail]  (Nick Szabo) writes:

>Some questions about minicomets:

>* If I understand the theory correctly, it predicts that c. 1 minicomet/hr
>  is hitting earth's moon?

To jibe with the DE-A UV-imager dark pixel rate of 1 per 800 pixels, small
comets must be hitting the Earth at about 20 per minute.  This works out to
a rate of about 1/minute hitting the Moon.

>* This frequency corresponds to what size range (eg 1-10 meters diameter)?

When the satellite is near its perigee of 1100km the size has to be 10-15
meters to account for the pixel darkening.  On the other hand when it's
near its apogee of 23,300km, the small comets must be about 250 meters in
diameter.

>* Using the theory, how many minicomets have been captured into earth
>  orbit?

0

>* Do we have any way of detecting these comets (radar, optical, infrared,
>  etc.)?

Instrumentation which has proven successful in the field of UFO detection
would be your best bet.

>  thanks in advance,

My pleasure.

>--
>Nick Szabo            [e-mail]
>"If you want oil, drill lots of wells" -- J. Paul Getty
>The above opinions are my own and not related to those of any
>organization I may be affiliated with.

_____________
Dale M. Greer, whose opinions are not to be confused with those of the
Center for Space Sciences, U.T. at Dallas, UTSPAN::UTADNX::UTDSSA::GREER
                       "Facts are stupid...uh...stubborn things." -- RRR

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

Date: 28 Mar 91 20:53:27 GMT
From: agate!bionet!uwm.edu!wuarchive!rex!rouge![e-mail]  (Fraering Philip)
Subject: Re: "Follies"

I'd like to call a truce on the subject of chemical launchers.
Earlier this month I tried to 'bail out' of the argument but
I did so in a highly personal and offensive manner. To everyone,
and esp. to Nick, I would like to apologize. And for the record,
I don't even know how to use a kill file (especially in gnus!).

This decision followed yet another several hundred words exchanged
with Nick over e-mail over the past two weeks.

Well, on with the flamefest:

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Nick Szabo) writes:

>There is room for incremental improvement of chemical rockets --
>by _private industry_.  Only private industry can judge the true
>limits of lauch costs.  Let government work on those technologies
>that can provide the large, curve-changing breakthroughs.

This sounds like a good statement to start a peace treaty on
the whole thing. To wit, how do we know that any more massive
gov't projects to lower costs won't end up like the shuttle and
simply be a lot of money spent with nothing to show for it...

Phil Fraering
[e-mail]

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

Date: 27 Mar 91 16:24:10 GMT
From: mcsun!ukc!strath-cs!str-va![e-mail]  (Theora Jones, In Person!)
Subject: Re: I want to go to orbit...

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Mark SOKOLOWSKI) writes:
>    What are the steps in order to build a reliable space-shuttle like
>spaceship in order to send myself to orbit for the summer holidays?
>

Well, first, you have to understand that the terms 'space shuttle' and
'reliable' are inherently mutually exclusive.
 second you have to get this into your head. Space shuttles are horribly
complex things, the computer systems are positively frightening!
 not to worry though, a good HP calculator manual from rom 1976 or earlier
should tell you everything you need to know.
 Assuming you only want to go once, forget heat tiles. Go ablative. it worked
for apollo. (a good shield is layers of cork painted white, with a rubber based
paint)
 as for life support systems, a good vindaloo before hand and a diving (DRY)
suit should do.
 oh, and by the way. watch for the police. this is strictly illegal, unless you
happen to be NASA, when it's only technically illegal.

(for explanation of HP calculator comment see sci.space.shuttle discussion
along the thred Re: new (!!!??!!?!) Space Shuttle Computers, slaging off core
memories and space shuttle computers in general! )

Theora.
PS> remember, if you start building now, you might beat STS37 into orbit!
PPS> if you start building in 15 years time, you >might< just beat freedom into
orbit too!
--
sig (made it through the ethernet alive!)
================================================================================
Theora Jones  Strathclyde University, SCOTLAND   || " I can fly higher than an
[e-mail] (somewhere on JANET)    ||   Eagle, with you as the
CABP10%vaxa.strath.ac.uk (elsewhere, hopefully)  ||   wind beneath my wings "
CABP10%vaxa.strath.ac.uk@ukacrl (just might work)||                 8:-) 1990
WE SUPPORTED DESERT STORM ! KUWAIT IS NOW FREE ! ||      "Lets be MAWS!"
================================================================================

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

Date: Thu, 28 Mar 91 11:12:54 -0600
From: [e-mail] (Corporate reorgs are like 120mm JHPs, a little too much)
To: "[e-mail]"@skvax1.csc.ti.com
Cc: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: More cost/lb. follies

A trip to "L5" (whatever that turns out to be) will likely be either one-way or
very long term.  After all, if you are taking a family that far in the near
term (given that we have no reason to go to LEO today), it isn't going to be
flying to Grandma's, this is getting on the boat and sailing to the New World!

Now travel to LEO is a different question.  Here, we are looking at total
package costs (spacefare, hotel, meals) in the same range as an
Around-the-World trip on the QE II.  First class.  Last time I looked, the
number was pretty stiff, but for your exotic travel, more dollars than sense
crowd, this might be appealling.

So the family migrating to space has one economic decision to make, the couple
making an excursion to Hotel LEO (however that is spelled in Japanese) will
have different priorities.

But both will require an significant drop in prices to happen.

Dillon Pyron                         | The opinions are mine, the facts
TI/DSEG VAX Systems Support          | probably belong to the company.
[e-mail]                  |
[phone]                        | "Leopold! Leopold!! Leopold!!!"
                                     |    _The Marriage of Bugs_

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

Date: 28 Mar 91 15:10:47 GMT
From: sdd.hp.com!news.cs.indiana.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu![e-mail]  (Doug McDonald)
Subject: Re: Commercial Space News (2 of 12)


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Wales Larrison) writes:
>LOCKHEED RUMORED TO HAVE WON IRIDIUM SATELLITE CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT
>   Rumor has it Motorola Inc is expected to award Lockheed Space
>Systems Division the contract to be the major manufacturer of the
>satellite buses for the 77-satellite Iridium small-satellite
>constellation.



>  The hardest part of Iridium has
>always been setting up an international consortium or organization
>to fund and operate the constellation.

"Lockheed" and "Motorola" are US companies. The biggest market for this
thing would be in North America.


>Particularly, since each
>country
The United States and Canada, perhaps Mexico too.


>has to set aside the required compatible frequencies for the
>cellular services,

true

>and also pressure the international
>Telecommunications Union at the World Administration Radio
>Conference conferences to set aside these frequencies as well.

Whay bother? Just turn off the satellites off except over North America.
If it is a succees here, we can turn them on elsewhere and charge a bundle
for their service.


Nobody but us has the ability to make such a thing.Why do we need
to bother with some silly consortium to slow the thing down and
sap the profits??


Doug McDonald

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

End of SPACE Digest V13 #332
*******************