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Date: Thu, 22 Oct 92 05:00:02 From: Space Digest maintainer <digests@isu.isunet.edu> Reply-To: Space-request@isu.isunet.edu Subject: Space Digest V15 #332 To: Space Digest Readers Precedence: bulk Space Digest Thu, 22 Oct 92 Volume 15 : Issue 332 Today's Topics: DCX Status? (2 msgs) Federation gives a decent explantion to you GEORGE BUSH'S DRUG WAR: CLAIMING VICTORY, COVERING UP LOSSES GEORGE BUSH: RELEASE THE APRIL GLASPIE CABLES GEORGE BUSH CAN'T RAILROAD VIRGINIA AND AMERICA. IMAX movie of Venus! (was Re: Magellan Update - 10/19/92) NASA/KSC news releases to include metric references [Release 143-92/KSC] (Forwarded) Query Re: pluto direct/ o Space for White People only? (2 msgs) Spaceship talk in Chicago: Delta Clipper TheSouth rose (was Re: Weather satellites & preventing property damage) (2 msgs) Weather Information Weather satellites & preventing property damage Welcome to the Space Digest!! Please send your messages to "space@isu.isunet.edu", and (un)subscription requests of the form "Subscribe Space <your name>" to one of these addresses: listserv@uga (BITNET), rice::boyle (SPAN/NSInet), utadnx::utspan::rice::boyle (THENET), or space-REQUEST@isu.isunet.edu (Internet). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1992 02:01:42 GMT From: "S. Fenton McDonald" <fenton@su19a.ess.harris.com> Subject: DCX Status? Newsgroups: sci.space -- ============================================================================ S. Fenton McDonald fenton@su19a.ess.harris.com Harris Corporation Office (407) 727-5739 Palm Bay FL ============================================================================ ------------------------------ Date: 21 Oct 92 05:08:53 GMT From: "Simon E. Booth" <sbooth@lonestar.utsa.edu> Subject: DCX Status? Newsgroups: sci.space I get the impression that eventually SSTO vehicles could be built on an assembly line versus the one-off approach taken with 6 shuttle orbiters over several years. The biggest flaw, IMHO with the shuttle is the fact that it literaly became obsolete on the drawing board. I've heard a few rumors about how old some elements of the design were-our spaceraft for the 80s and 90s is flying with 60s technology! 've wondered how different the Endevour is compared to the other shuttles, if more modern hardware was employed. I figure that an SSTO would be an excellent step towards the privatazation of space travel--one firm builds the vehicles and sells them ------------------------------ Date: 21 Oct 92 04:50:44 GMT From: "Simon E. Booth" <sbooth@lonestar.utsa.edu> Subject: Federation gives a decent explantion to you Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.skeptic,alt.alien.visitors This looks like the junk that some joker(s) keep posting in alt.alien-visitors. The psuedoscientific info sounds interesting but the "Federation" part shot down all credibility for the poster. You know, this reminds me of the stuff you read in the "technical manuals" that are written as companion books for various SF stories. I like good SF but not in the legitamate tech groups. This isn't a flame, just my $.02 worth. Simon ------------------------------ Date: 21 Oct 92 04:15:32 GMT From: Clinton for President <75300.3115@compuserve.com> Subject: GEORGE BUSH'S DRUG WAR: CLAIMING VICTORY, COVERING UP LOSSES Newsgroups: sci.space FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 20, 1992 GEORGE BUSH'S DRUG WAR: CLAIMING VICTORY, COVERING UP LOSSES [Statement by Bob Boorstin, Deputy Communications Director] George Bush just doesn't get it. He's shown time and time again he doesn't understand America's economic problems. Now he's showing again he doesn't understand America's drug problem. On January 27, 1992, George Bush announced, "We've made real progress in this fight against drug abuse." He peddled this pollyanna view as late as October 15th in the Richmond debate when he said, "The good news is, and I think it's true for Richmond, teenage cocaine use is down [sic], substantially, 60 percent in the last couple of years." But an important annual survey shows that Bush is wrong. Dead wrong. And worse, news reports show that the Bush Administration tried to suppress the survey from coming out. The Parents' Resource Institute for Drug Education (PRIDE) yesterday released the findings from its annual survey on drug use among students, and the prognosis isn't good. Drug use is up across-the-board for junior high students and up in 7 out of 10 categories for high school students. And while cocaine use is down slightly for high school students, it has skyrocketed 15% among junior high students. More importantly, according to PRIDE, cocaine is the drug least likely to be used by students. Students are more likely to use uppers, downers, inhalants, or hallucinogens. And the use of these drugs has jumped by 15% or more among junior high students, and by 7-10% for high school students. The Administration's reaction when they saw an advance copy of the survey? To keep Americans in the dark. "You know if you [release the report], it's going to hurt us..." Terrence J. Pell ominously told Thomas Gleaton. Pell is the White House Chief of Staff for the Office of National Drug Control Policy, and Gleaton is PRIDE's president. According to news accounts, Pell telephoned Gleason to express his concern over the release of PRIDE's damaging data so close to the election. This doesn't come as a surprise to drug experts who have seen the Office of National Drug Control Policy filled with a higher percentage of political appointees than any other agency in the U.S. Government -- and who realize George Bush's hasn't won the drug war on any front. As with the economy, health care, and education, George Bush's drug war is just one more broken promise. His own administration's figures show that there are more drug addicts, more drug murders, more drug addicted babies, and more drugs entering the country than every before. Bill Clinton will lead a national and international crusade against drugs. He knows we have to tackle both demand for drugs and the supply of drugs. He sees the drug problem from a personal perspective, not a political one. And he knows we can do better than George Bush's cynical, failed drug war and attempted coverup. - 30 - ------------------------------ Date: 21 Oct 92 09:03:49 GMT From: Clinton for President <75300.3115@compuserve.com> Subject: GEORGE BUSH: RELEASE THE APRIL GLASPIE CABLES Newsgroups: sci.space FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 20, 1992 GEORGE BUSH: RELEASE THE APRIL GLASPIE CABLES Under fire for his actions leading up to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, George Bush has responded with evasions and diversions. For weeks, Sen. Al Gore has called for the release of the State Department's cables to Ambassador April Glaspie. Last night, that call was seconded by Ross Perot. Today, George Bush tried to fool the public by saying that the April Glaspie cables have been given to the Congress. That's true, but the Bush Administration hasn't declassified the cables so the American people can see them. There is no legitimate security interest in keeping these cables secret -- only George Bush's personal political interest. He should make those cables available to the press immediately, so the American people can judge the truth. Last night, Bush also said that there is "not one iota of evidence . . .that there's any U.S. technology involved" in Iraq's attempt to develop a nuclear capability. Wrong. UN inspectors in Iraq found at Saddam Hussein's main nuclear weapons complex a carbide-tipped machine tool factory which had been built with technology and equipment licensed for export by the Bush Administration [Cong. Rec., 8/10/1992, H7875-7881; NYT, 7/24/92] And in July 1990, Bush's own Secretary of State was put on notice of that possibility. A memo to James Baker said: "Iraq has been attempting to obtain items to support these proliferation activities from U.S. exporters, in some cases successfully." [Memo to Secretary Baker from William Rope, Jock Covey, Michael Matheson and Eugene McAllister, 7/19/90] George Bush should come clean to the American people. He should release publicly: * the Glaspie cables; * the text of the secret letter Bush sent to Saddam Hussein five days before the dictator invaded Kuwait; and * the text of National Security Directive 26 authorizing a government-wide policy of coddling Saddam. - 30 - ------------------------------ Date: 21 Oct 92 03:16:17 GMT From: Clinton for President <75300.3115@compuserve.com> Subject: GEORGE BUSH CAN'T RAILROAD VIRGINIA AND AMERICA. Newsgroups: sci.space FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE OCTOBER 20, 1992 [Statement of Bob Boorstin, Deputy Communications Director] GEORGE BUSH CAN'T RAILROAD VIRGINIA AND AMERICA. Today's sudden unveiling of George Bush's plan to build a new high speed rail line is more evidence that he's reached the end of the line. Just as he did on college aid and job training, George Bush is following Bill Clinton's lead. After a decade of neglecting investment in America's rail system, Bush's new proposal for a Washington-Richmond-Charlotte line is just another election year promise to buy votes for his flagging re-election effort and to cover up a failed record of investment in America's rail system. The voters of Virginia won't be railroaded by the empty promises of the Bush Administration. They know George Bush won't invest in high speed rail. Look at the record. George Bush had a chance to modernize the Boston-Washington rail corridor, the nation's most traveled. He didn't. His administration has failed to proceed with any of the high-speed programs authorized by the Intermodal Surface Transportation Infrastructure Act (ISTEA) of 1991; his own Department Transportation's Inspector General reported that $722 million of the department's funds were being underutilized; and he's tried to eliminate all federal subsidies for Amtrak. Bill Clinton and Al Gore know that just as constructing interstate highways in the 1950s ushered in two decades of unparalleled growth, creating the pathways of the 21st century will help put Americans back to work and spur economic growth. Bill Clinton and Al Gore are committed to building a high-speed rail system to link our major cities, by investing $20 billion a year in federal dollars in transportation and other critical areas. George Bush wants Americans to believe he will invest in American's transportation system. But the voters know if America wants a world class rail system, they should vote for Bill Clinton and Al Gore. -- 30 -- 30 -- 30 -- BUSH AND HIGH SPEED RAIL BUSH HAS YET TO IMPLEMENT MANDATED HIGH-SPEED PROGRAMS: * Bush, until the middle of a difficult re-election campaign, refused to proceed with the magnetic levitation prototype development as well as the high-speed demonstration program mandated by Intermodal Surface Transportation Act (ISTEA) of 1991, disrupting the ability of contractors to prepare magnetic levitation plans. [Hearing before the Senate Surface Transportation Subcommittee, 8/6/92] * Bush's Office of Management and Budget has thwarted most attempts to spend funds on high-speed rail, despite nominal support from Transportation Secretary Card and Federal Railroad Administrator Gilbert Carmichael. [Washington Post, 10/18/92] * Bush's FY 1993 Department of Transportation budget fails to fund a high-speed technology demonstration program or high-speed rail loan guarantees provided under ISTEA. [President's Proposed Budget, FY 1993] BUSH TRIED TO HALT BOSTON-WASHINGTON CORRIDOR UPGRADE: * In his FY 1993 budget proposal, Bush proposed eliminating federal funds for the Northeast Corridor Improvement Project (NECIP), which would upgrade the Boston-Washington rail corridor. [Washington Post, 10/18/92] * High-speed rail between Boston and Washington, according to the Coalition of Northeastern Governors, would save 24.5 million gallons of gas and jet fuel annually, and reduce toxic emissions in the Northeast by more than 2,600 tons each year. [States News Service, 9/18/92] * NECIP, according to the New England Council, could provide 9,000 construction jobs over the next nine years, and 4,900 permanent jobs, create $894 million in new business sales during construction, and generate $440 million annually in economic activity. [States News Service, 9/18/92] BUSH OPPOSED TRANSPORTATION BILL: * In 1991, then-Transportation Secretary Sam Skinner formally threatened to veto the transportation bill that authorized funds for the rail corridors Secretary Card and Administrator Carmichael are currently announcing. Although Bush supported the legislation, Senator Daniel Moynihan, (D-NY), is generally credited with pushing through the ISTEA legislation. [Letter from Samuel Skinner, 10/15/91; Boston Globe, 9/21/92] BUSH OPPOSES AMTRAK FUNDING: * The Bush Administration tried for three years to kill all federal subsidies for Amtrak. [Washington Post, 10/18/92] ------------------------------ Date: 21 Oct 92 03:52:11 GMT From: Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey <higgins@fnalo.fnal.gov> Subject: IMAX movie of Venus! (was Re: Magellan Update - 10/19/92) Newsgroups: sci.space Did you notice this? In article <1992Oct19.230537.24784@news.arc.nasa.gov>, baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov (Ron Baalke) writes: > MAGELLAN STATUS REPORT > October 19, 1992 [...] > 5. At last Friday's ceremony in Washington, D.C., at which > the Magellan Team received the Smithsonian Air & Space > award for current achievement, the IMAX film, "Magellan at > Venus," again had a sensational impact on the attendees, > including NASA Administrator Dan Goldin, JPL Director Ed > Stone, Assistant Lab Director for Flight Projects John > Casani and several hundred other invited dignitaries. Coming Soon To A Theatre Near Me, I certainly hope!! I should get on the phone and bug the folks at the Museum of Science and Industry about this... O~~* /_) ' / / /_/ ' , , ' ,_ _ \|/ - ~ -~~~~~~~~~~~/_) / / / / / / (_) (_) / / / _\~~~~~~~~~~~zap! / \ (_) (_) / | \ | | Bill Higgins Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory \ / Bitnet: HIGGINS@FNAL.BITNET - - Internet: HIGGINS@FNAL.FNAL.GOV ~ SPAN/Hepnet: 43011::HIGGINS ------------------------------ Date: 20 Oct 92 18:04:32 GMT From: Bruce Watson <wats@scicom.AlphaCDC.COM> Subject: NASA/KSC news releases to include metric references [Release 143-92/KSC] (Forwarded) Newsgroups: sci.space | | NASA/KSC NEWS RELEASES TO INCLUDE METRIC REFERENCES | | According to Public Law 100-418 and Executive Order 12770, | NASA and other government agencies are directed to implement and | use the metric system of measurement by 1995. In addition, all | NASA programs approved after October 1990 will be referenced in | metric, according to the Executive Order. | Two hundred years late, but we are finally catching up with the French. Does this mean Space Station Freedom will not be metric since it was approved prior to 1990? -- Bruce Watson (wats@scicom) Tumbra, Zorkovick; Sparkula zoom krackadomando. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1992 07:37:01 GMT From: Dave Tholen <tholen@galileo.ifa.hawaii.edu> Subject: Query Re: pluto direct/ o Newsgroups: sci.space Tomas Svitek writes: > It is, however, true that > by far the biggest problem is absolute uncertainity about the postulated > Pluto atmosphere. Pluto's atmosphere is not postulated. It has been directly observed via the stellar occultation method. The uncertainty is in the interpretation of the lightcurve, with a thermal gradient in a clear atmosphere and an isothermal atmosphere with a haze layer both being capable of reproducing the observed lightcurve. Also, as Pluto recedes from the Sun, some atmospheric collapse is expected, but how much depends on the detailed composition, and the latest spectroscopic data suggest that N2 may be the dominant species, rather than CH4. Predicting the atmospheric pressure as a function of altitude for the arrival time of an aerobraked spacecraft is rather difficult. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Oct 92 10:31:00 -0500 From: pgf@srl06.cacs.usl.edu (Phil G. Fraering) Subject: Space for White People only? >I was talking to a Hispanic Woman (a business major) who >said that we shouldn't spend a single dollar on space >because "it only benefits white people." She was rather >angry about the mere thought that any money at all was spent >on space. I intend to comment on this more fully later, but why in the first place does she talk about Hispanic people vs. white people? Am I biracial because of Mom's partial descent from Basque and my Dad's grandma that came from Caracas? If so, does this mean I "can't" benefit from space travel? Just curious... -- Phil Fraering pgf@srl0x.cacs.usl.edu where the x is a number from 1-5. Phone: 318/365-5418 SnailMail: 2408 Blue Haven Dr., New Iberia, La. 70560 --------------------- Disclaimer: Some reasonably forseeable events may exceed this message's capability to protect from severe injury, death, widespread disaster, astronomically significant volumes of space approaching a state of markedly increaced entropy, or taxes. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1992 08:51:20 GMT From: James Thomas Green <jgreen@zeus.calpoly.edu> Subject: Space for White People only? Newsgroups: talk.politics.space,sci.space I had a rather disturbing conversation Saturday evening. I was talking to a Hispanic Woman (a business major) who said that we shouldn't spend a single dollar on space because "it only benefits white people." She was rather angry about the mere thought that any money at all was spent on space. This is rather disturbing. Not because a single person has this opinion, but that because this seems to be a rather widespread opinion, both with Whites and Minorities. Perhaps this attitude is a partial result of the perception that we spend a lot more on space than we actually do. When a space shuttle blows up, it is replayed for three years over and over again in slow motion. A spacecraft is never reported as a spacecraft, but as a XXX million dollar spacecraft. By contrast, when a B1 bomber goes down in the desert, you MAY hear about it months later, and there probably won't be any motion pictures released to CBS. I don't have the exact numbers, but I understand that this year's NASA budget is approximately $10 billion. This sounds like a lot until you learn that the TOTAL Federal budget is about $1 TRILLION ($1000 billion). Thus, NASA only gets about 1/100th of the federal budget. I would argue that what we get in return for the space program is well worth the investment. New technologies for medical uses, computer technology, new materials, environmental sensing (it was a NASA sat. that discovered the ozone hole) are but a few of the many spin-offs of our investment in space technology. Another, less tangible, but no less real, spinoff is the ability to look upon our Planet as it actually is: A small fragle ball which is unique in our Solar System in supporting large quanties of water and life. The future in space is just as promising. Vast resourse await us. The metal in a single small asteroid would supply us for decades or more, without strip-mining our wilderness areas. So, what are your thoughts? /~~~(-: James T. Green :-)~~~~(-: jgreen@eros.calpoly.edu :-)~~~\ | "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving | | the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the | | Moon and returning him safely to the Earth." | | <John F. Kennedy; May 25, 1961> | ------------------------------ Date: 21 Oct 92 08:07:12 GMT From: Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey <higgins@fnalf.fnal.gov> Subject: Spaceship talk in Chicago: Delta Clipper Newsgroups: sci.space,chi.general DELTA CLIPPER: A SPACESHIP FOR THE REST OF US Allen Sherzer Friday, October 23 7:00 PM U.S. expendable launchers cost about $3000 to put a pound of payload into low earth orbit. This high cost is the major obstacle to the human expansion into space. Currently, SDIO is wiorking on a new vehicle called the Delta Clipper. By taking a different view of the problem Delta Clipper could achieve radically reduced launch costs (as low as $250 per pound). Yet politial pressures threaten this important program which could save the U.S. billions of dollars. Will Delta Clipper ever fly? What can you do to help? ========== Allen Sherzer is co-author of the political column "One Small Step for a Space Activist." He is also Vice President of the Ann Arbor Space Society, a member of the National Space Society's Chapters Assembly Policy Committee and of the NSS Policy Committee. Room 106 Wilbur Wright College 3400 N. Austin Blvd. Chicago, Illinois Free and open to the public Free parking available Presented by the Chicago Space Frontier Society A chapter of the National Space Society O~~* /_) ' / / /_/ ' , , ' ,_ _ \|/ - ~ -~~~~~~~~~~~/_) / / / / / / (_) (_) / / / _\~~~~~~~~~~~zap! / \ (_) (_) / | \ | | Bill Higgins Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory \ / Bitnet: HIGGINS@FNAL.BITNET - - Internet: HIGGINS@FNAL.FNAL.GOV ~ SPAN/Hepnet: 43011::HIGGINS ------------------------------ Date: 21 Oct 92 05:42:48 GMT From: Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey <higgins@fnalo.fnal.gov> Subject: TheSouth rose (was Re: Weather satellites & preventing property damage) Newsgroups: sci.space In article <1992Oct21.024109.4972@aio.jsc.nasa.gov>, kjenks@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov writes: [discussion of hurricanes deleted] > All in all, it makes one wonder why we put the guts of our manned space > program in geographic danger zones (Texas, California, Florida). Partly to build support for the Johnson Administration in the South. Partly as a deliberate attempt to bring high-tech industry to Southern states, an area of the USA considerably less industrialized than the North in the Fifties. (I speak of Huntsville, Alabama, and the Stennis Center in Mississippi, in addition to JSC and KSC.) It worked, too. Southerners put us on the Moon. I don't think Yankees could have done it in eight years. Bill Higgins | In the distant future, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory | nuns will be bartenders Bitnet: HIGGINS@FNAL.BITNET | aboard starships Internet: HIGGINS@FNAL.FNAL.GOV | and Sternbach paintings SPAN/Hepnet: 43011::HIGGINS | will hang on every wall. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1992 06:21:49 GMT From: Henry Spencer <henry@zoo.toronto.edu> Subject: TheSouth rose (was Re: Weather satellites & preventing property damage) Newsgroups: sci.space In article <1992Oct20.234248.1@fnalo.fnal.gov> higgins@fnalo.fnal.gov (Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey) writes: >> All in all, it makes one wonder why we put the guts of our manned space >> program in geographic danger zones (Texas, California, Florida). > >Partly to build support for the Johnson Administration in the South. >Partly as a deliberate attempt to bring high-tech industry to Southern >states... Well, it was highly desirable to put the launch site at the lowest possible latitude for reasons of orbital mechanics; only Florida and Texas were really in the running there (discounting Pacific sites like Hawaii, which won on latitude but lost on almost everything else, e.g. transport costs). And ice-free barge routes between Kennedy, Marshall, Michoud, and Stennis (launch, design+prototype, production, and test sites respectively) were considered a significant plus. NASA *did* put an electronics center in Massachusetts in the 60s, although I don't believe it survived the post-Apollo cutbacks. (The fact that it didn't coax Edward Kennedy into changing his anti-NASA voting pattern may also have had something to do with it. :-)) >It worked, too. Southerners put us on the Moon... Southerners and Canadians, Bill. :-) When one of Canada's most ignorant and anti-tech governments in history trashed our combat-aircraft industry in 1959, so many top-quality engineers headed south that it rates mention in most histories of Project Apollo. -- MS-DOS is the OS/360 of the 1980s. | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology -Hal W. Hardenbergh (1985)| henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry ------------------------------ Date: 21 Oct 92 04:01:41 GMT From: Rajminder Singh <raju@bass.bu.edu> Subject: Weather Information Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.physics Hi all, I have seen people use anonymous ftp to get the hourly updated satellite weather images and then display them on a graphics terminal. Could someone post me the address of this ftp site and the procedure to follow to access these image files. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^ (__) (__) Rajminder Singh ^ ^ (oo) (oo) ERB 07, 44 Cumm. St. ^ ^ /-------\/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ECS, Boston University ^ ^ / | || ^ ^ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (617)-353-5875 ^ ^ Cow in water Cow in trouble ^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ------------------------------ Date: 21 Oct 92 02:41:09 GMT From: kjenks@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov Subject: Weather satellites & preventing property damage Newsgroups: sci.space In article <BwFyA0.DDt@news.cso.uiuc.edu> jbh55289@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Josh 'K' Hopkins) writes: > The story I forgot to mention about Houston was the hurricane tracking > maps free in every grocery store. Anyone who really wants to can plot > the location of every tropical depression in the Carribean just by > watching the news. I can verify this part. We have one in our laundry room. It's a map of the Gulf Coast area with lat/long grid. TV's better, though, and less work. The advantage of the map is that a battery-powered radio can get you the tracking data. Power outages happen in hurricane weather. All in all, it makes one wonder why we put the guts of our manned space program in geographic danger zones (Texas, California, Florida). -- Ken Jenks, NASA/JSC/GM2, Space Shuttle Program Office kjenks@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov (713) 483-4368 "Even considering the improvements possible... the gas turbine could hardly be considered a feasible application to airplanes because of the difficulty of complying with the stringent weight requirements." -- US National Academy of Sciences, 1940 "It may not be possible to build a vehicle with single-stage- to-orbit capability in the mid 1990s." -- US National Academy of Sciences, 1990 ------------------------------ End of Space Digest Volume 15 : Issue 332 ------------------------------