> In article <1992Dec6.141449.761@ualr.edu> hdgarner@acs.harding.edu writes:
> >In light of the fact that a geostationary orbit above only one pole is
> >not possible, I have another question that concerns an idea that I've been
> >working on for the past few months. Is it possible to keep a body at
> >relatively the same point say about 20000 or so miles above the north pole
> >or south pole of the earth?
>
> It would require exactly as much continous thrust as it weighs. Thus it
> would run out of fuel quickly. Being stationary over the Earth, and at
> only 20,000 miles, it would weigh almost the same as it weighs on the
> surface. Things in space aren't "weightless", only things in *orbit*
> are "weightless."
>
>A point well taken: that things in space are still subject to the Earth's
>gravity. But, the Earth's radius is only about 30,000 / 6 = 5,000 miles.
>At an altitude of 20,000 miles above the surface, you'd only weigh about
>1/25 of your surface weight due to the r-squared falloff in the g field.
>
>But you still can't support anything useful for any reasonable amount
>of time... :-P
>
>--zowie
>--
>DON'T DRINK SOAP! DILUTE DILUTE! OK!
I can see how a liquid fueled bidy could not remain in a stationary polar
position for very long, but what about if instead of liquid fueled thrusters
the body was equipped with ion thrusters and a solar array to power them. The
solar array would be positioned so that it faced the sun at all times.
Any thoughts?
hdgarner@harding.edu
------------------------------
Date: 8 Dec 92 20:48:47 GMT
From: Richard Ottolini <stgprao@st.unocal.COM>
Subject: dialog between D. Goldin and C. Sagan
Newsgroups: sci.space
was sponsored by the Planetary Society at Caltech last Friday. The head of
JPL (Stone) moderated. The format was: ten minute intro by both, followed
by 50 minutes of questions to each other and then an hour of questions
from the audience. They were supposed to focus on topic of space exploration.
(Goldin held a NASA town meeting in LA the previous night. Any remarks?)
Goldin took the position of "an outsider". He wanted to streamline the
NASA bureaucracy to launch more and smaller spacecraft. He didn't care for
projects like Ulysseus to Saturn, now a four billion dollar, 20-year monster.
By the time the craft is launched, the technology is years out of date.
He challanged NASA engineers to develop rapid, light-weight, low-cost craft
employed leading-edge technology. Rapid means 4-6 years, light-weight <1000 lbs, and low cost, a couple hundred million. There will only be a couple large
projects like Ulysseus in the 90s, when there should be many more things
going on.
Sagan basically agreed with Goldin's stance, but said the natural progression
of exploration was towards more sophisticated craft- first flybys, then
orbiters, and landers. There must be some generality in the craft, because
we won't know what we may discover until we get there.
Manned planetary exploration came up next. Goldin cited town hall audiences
enthusiastic for a manned Mars expedition in their lifetime. Carl said there
many reasons to go to Mars, but no compelling sum of reasons to spend an
equivalent of a "S&L bailout" to make an attempt in the next decade.
Russia came up in this discussion. Goldin outlined a number of joint US-Russian
expeditions involving cosmonaunts on each other's craft and Mir-shuttle
rondevous over the next three years. His impression was the CIS was
very proud of its space accomplishments and it would be one of the last items
to go in a severe economic cutback.
Goldin deplored the state of NASA's public education attempts. Said scientists
can't communicate well with the public. TV news shows images of tin cans
blasting off and landing, but not much of what was occuring during the mission.
Said he centralizing and beefing up NASA's education and public affairs
departments.
One of the early questions from the audience accused NASA of a coverup
during the upcoming Mars Observer mission. Flyovers of the "Face" and
pyramids were going to be encryted and classified to hide evidence of alien
intelligence. The questioner could not say why NASA wanted to hide such
evidence. Both Goldin and Sagan said they was no coverup. Evidence of alien
intelligence would be welcome, although not expected. Goldin directed JPL's
Stone to facilitate access of data to that questioner.
Scattered throughout the evening were references to national politics.
Sagan joked about Republican party follies. Goldin said there was strong
bi-partison support of the space program. Even Bush personally asked for
better public education. Goldin was not partison, perhaps hoping to keep
his job in the next administration :-)
------------------------------
Date: 8 Dec 1992 20:42:55 GMT
From: steve hix <fiddler@concertina.Eng.Sun.COM>
Subject: Rush Limbaugh says problems with HST are a DoD hoax!
Newsgroups: sci.space
In article <1992Dec7.105248.1@max.u.washington.edu> games@max.u.washington.edu writes:
