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Subject: SPACE Digest V8 #342

SPACE Digest                                      Volume 8 : Issue 342

Today's Topics:
               American Rocket Company
         Re: Brian Eno's _Apollo_ soundtrack
       Re: SETI (was Re: Time dilation affecting SETI)
        Re: SETI: Why don't we hear anything?
              Re: Kettering Boys School
                   Re: Seti
            Re: Space Station power supply
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted-Date: Thu, 18 Aug 88 16:14:00 PST
From: "Craig E. Ward" <[e-mail]>
Subject: American Rocket Company
Date: Thu, 18 Aug 88 16:14:00 PST
Sender: [e-mail]


[Below is the article I wrote for the OASIS Odyssey summarizing a
lecture meeting last November.  Soon after this talk, AMROC lost its
financial backers and had to lay off almost all of its workers.  Earlier
this year, AMROC found new backers and they are back in business, though
they have yet to launch anything.  (OASIS may get invited!)  The July 88
issue of Discover mentions AMROC in the article "The Launch Gap."  Has a
picture of AMROC founder and NSS board member George Koopman. - CEW]

               A Slingshot Heard Round the World

By Craig E. Ward

     The  force  of  Friday the 13th was felt by  OASIS  when  the
scheduled speaker for the November general meeting,  James Bennett,
was  unable  to attend due to out-of-town  business  commitments;
however,  his  place was more than adequately filled my  James  R.
French.

     Mr.  French  is  Vice  President  of  Engineering  and  Chief
Engineer  for  American  Rocket  Company,  AMROC.  His  background
includes a BSME from MIT (1958);  nineteen years with JPL  working
on the Mariner,  Viking and Voyager programs;  four years with TRW
working on the Lunar Module Descent engine and advanced propulsion
experiments;  and five years with Rocketdyne working on  H-1,  F-1
and  J-2  engines  for  the Saturn  Launch  Vehicles.   He  is  an
Associate  Fellow of AIAA and a Fellow of the BIS.   He is also  a
Civil Air Patrol Search Pilot.

     AMROC  is one of several small,  startup companies trying  to
fill  the  current gap in the nation's  launch  capabilities  with
privately financed launch services.

     The  company  was founded in 1985 by  George  Koopman,  James
Bennett and Bevin McKinney.  Originally, the company was located in
Menlo Park but was moved to Camarillo,  California to be closer to
the launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base and to take advantage
of a more varied technical workforce.

     This has been a year of major growth for the company,  at the
beginning of 1987 it had only 15 employees, now that number is 84.
One of the young company's biggest problems has been molding  this
group of people into a team.  They feel they have succeeded.

     The  key word in AMROC's approach to launches  is  "service".
Unlike the way todays launches are run,  AMROC will not be selling
the actual rocket but the service of putting a certain payload  at
a  certain location at a certain time.   Payment for  the  service
will be after it has been successful, not before.  (The concept of
payment  after-the-fact  has  proven  to  be  very  popular   with
potential launch customers.)

     The shift from selling rockets to selling services is AMROC's
method  of reducing the amount of paperwork associated  with  most
rocket  manufacture.    Current  government  procurement  policies
require  that  each  component conform to  a  particular  agency's
standards  and  that there be miles of papertrails  to  prove  it.
Instead  of  going  this route,  AMROC goes  out  to  the  various
suppliers with a set of requirements and then buys the best priced
component that meets or exceeds those requirements.

     AMROC is basing its first series of vehicle on clusters of  a
hybrid rocket engine.   A hybrid engine uses a mixture of a  solid
fuel and liquid oxygen.   The fuel is a rubber-like substance that
is  so stable it can easily be handled in standard  light-industry
facilities.  (The Camarillo Fire Marshal considers AMROC's factory
to be less of a fire hazard than a neighboring packaging plant.)

     Under  a  1984 National Security Decision  Directive  by  the
Reagan  administration,   AMROC  has  been  able  to  use  certain
government facilities.   The directive allows government  agencies
to  lease  unused  facilities to  private  companies.   AMROC  has
refurbished  an engine testing facility at the  Rocket  Propulsion
Laboratory on Edwards Air Force Base and an old Thor launch pad at
Vandenberg.

     In  December of 1986,  a successful half-thrust test  of  the
engine design was conducted.   (The video tape shown by Mr. French
showed   the  test  sequence  being  controlled  with   an   Apple
Macintosh.) Plans are currently in the works for a full power test
in  mid-November.    This  test  is  behind  schedule  because  of
production problems and the planed February 1988 launch of AMROC's
first rocket has been postponed at least three months.

     The first planned orbital vehicle is dubbed "The  Slingshot".
The  configuration consists of three engines clustered as a  first
stage,  a single hybrid engine as the second and a Star 48  rocket
motor as the third stage.   (The Star 48 is the motor seen at  the
bottom  of satellites spin-launched from the shuttle.)   Depending
on  where  the customer wants it,  this  configuration  can  orbit
between 400 and 700 pounds.

     While  AMROC has secured the use of a launch site,  the  site
has several problems.  The only clear track goes west.  The tracks
for polar orbits would take any rocket over important sections  of
Vandenberg (like the runways).   One promising new site does exist
at the southern end of the base;  however,  AMROC has  encountered
the standard problem that any new building on the base encounters.
Vandenberg  is located on the ancient home of the Chumash  Indians
and  any  and  all construction on the base  must  be  okayed  and
supervised  by the Chumash Shaman.   AMROC hopes to overcome  this
obstacle and build a new launch complex there.

     Some  more serious obstacles have been encountered with  mid-
level bureaucrats within the Air Force,  NASA and other government
agencies.   Most  of  this  is due  to  inertia;  AMROC  is  doing
something  differently and this pushes these people out  of  their
normal  day-to-day  routines.   Sofar,  nothing  catastrophic  has
happened.   This  may be because the top-level people at NASA  and
the Air Force think AMROC's approach has great merit.

     Another  source of support from within the  government  comes
from the people with small,  scientific payloads to launch.   Even
before the grounding of the shuttle fleet,  these spacecraft  were
receiving  such  a  low priority that they could  not  get  launch
space.  It is worse now.

     All  things  considered,  the  future of  AMROC  and  private
enterprise in space looks very good.   None of the problems  sofar
seem  insurmountable.   (Although no one,  including this  writer,
thought  to  ask about the liability insurance problem.)   In  the
future,  we may find the nation's space activities better balanced
between private industry and government.

Copyright 1988 Organization for the Advancement of Space
Industrialization and Settlement (OASIS)

Used by permission.

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

Date: 18 Aug 88 23:18:15 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (Manavendra K. Thakur)
Subject: Re: Brian Eno's _Apollo_ soundtrack

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Bill Carson) writes:
> Having just read the liner notes of Brian Eno's 1983 album, _Apollo_,  it
> mentions that most of this music was composed for a movie/documentary of
> the Apollo space missions.  Directed by Al Reinert,  it is supposed to have
> been compiled from the some 6 million feet of film shot by NASA during this
> fantastic and mystical period of space exploration.

This is a fascinating album, and I love listening to it.  My favorite
piece is the track called "Deep Blue Day" (track nine on the CD).
It's a brilliant piece of music that eptiomizes what film music is all
about.  The higher frequencies have beautiful and ethereal synthesizer
sounds on it that are "spacey" without being sappy or evoking the
negative connotations of "new age" music.  That's a welcome
acomplishment.  But what's absolutely amazing is that the lower
frequencies are dominated by a twangy guitar and a slow, walking bass
that impart a country/western music feel to the piece -- which is the
last thing one would expect to hear in a film about the Apollo moon
missions.

But it works, and it works splendidly.  The point of the piece --
which can be discerned entirely from the music itself and the title of
the film -- is that humankind is now as suited to outer space as it is
used to sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch and watching the
world go by.  The purpose of the film is to convey the awe, mystery,
beauty, and most of all the new familiarity of human presence in
space.  And this piece of music is central to that goal.  It succeeds
wonderfully.

> My question is,  does this film exist as a released production?
> And if so,  who could I contact to obtain more information about it?
> I truely hope that the project was not scrapped!

Unfortunately, though, Eno's artistry was for naught.  Al Reinert
never finished the film.  I looked into finding a copy of the film
when I gave a talk on film music last January at MIT.  A person at
EG & G Records said Reinert either ran out of money or interest (or
perhaps both), and the film was never completed.  Eno had already
written enough music for an album, so the record label decided to
release the soundtrack anyway.  It's a shame that the project was
scrapped.  But the music exists, and stands on it own merits as well
as a poor -- but welcome -- substitute for the film.

There is at least one other film where a track from "Apollo" was
indeed used.  It is a 1985 film called STATIC, directed by Mark
Romanek and starring Keith Gordon.  The music in that film was
generally well suited to the film, and in particular, the Eno piece
used near the end of the film is perfect.  It's the "Weightless" track
(track 10 on the CD).  If you're at all curious as to how this track
was used in a offbeat film about an eccentric young inventor who
claims to have made a TV set that can tune into heaven, see this film.
(I posted a brief review of STATIC to rec.arts.movies last December,
and I have more info about the film and its distributor at home.
Write me if you want to know more.)

Getting back to Eno, he is one of the few popular musicians who can
truly claim to be an artist.  His ambient series continues to advance
the techniques and theories of musique concrete, and his 1975 album
"Discrete Music" is particularly interesting in that regard.  And of
course, in the rock genre, he's produced some interesting stuff too.
He has also put out two albums called "Music for Films" (Vol. 1 and
2), which are precisely that: prerecorded bits of music suitable for
insertion in a film.  I don't know of any other music composed by Eno
for a film, per se.

There can be no doubt, though, that the tracks on "Apollo" are worthy
of being called great film music and great music.

                Manavendra K. Thakur
                {rutgers,decvax!genrad,uunet}!mit-eddie!thakur
                [e-mail]
                [e-mail]

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

Date: 18 Aug 88 08:29:33 GMT
From: tektronix!percival!bucket![e-mail]  (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: SETI (was Re: Time dilation affecting SETI)

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Peter da Silva) writes:
<In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Jim Meritt) writes:
<> Want to kill 2 birds with 1 stone?  Dump all the weapons-grade plutonium
<> into the sun!
<
<> 1.  Weapons-grade plutonium is not that great thing to have on earth.
<
<Weapons-grade plutonium is a valuable substance. It can be used to
<generate electrical power. The idea of wasting it in this manner is
<abhorrent. Better to burn the Mona Lisa.

Also, as I have just remembered, putting *anything* into a sun intercept
orbit requires simply *incredible* amounts of energy. A quick check shows
that we would require almost a delta v of almost 30 km/s!!! (how did I get
that figure? Easy, Earth's orbital velocity is roughly 30 km/s. You have
to kill that to hit the Sun...)

Anybody care to figure what the cheapest *routinely usable* sun intercept
path is? Gravity assists from Jupiter would be nice, but make the flight
times rather long... the longer it is out there, the more chance of a
guidance failure, and then you have that plutonium flying who knows where.

Also, considering the delta-V requirements, they payload canister would
have to be *real* rugged to withstand a launch pad explosion.

In short, forget it...
--
Leonard Erickson        ...!tektronix!reed!percival!bucket!leonard
CIS: [70465,203]
"I used to be a hacker. Now I'm a 'microcomputer specialist'.
You know... I'd rather be a hacker."

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

Date: 18 Aug 88 04:27:52 GMT
From: att!chinet!mcdchg!clyde!watmath!looking![e-mail]  (Brad Templeton)
Subject: Re: SETI: Why don't we hear anything?

Well there are quite a few options, each with interesting implications:

a) There just aren't any advanced races out there, because
    1) They all blow themselves up
    2) Earth is a fluke

b) There's something inherently wrong with the V.N. machine idea:
    1) Too much error creeps in from duplication to duplication
    2) There aren't enough planets close enough together to get
        the resources.
c) There are races but they just don't want to make V.N. machines.
    (this is like A-2)

d) Berserkers wiped out the galaxy, but for some reason they didn't
    leave anybody waiting in this system.
    (or somebody built exploratory V.N.s that don't hang around for
    some reason.  Pretty dumb.)

e) Something has been left in this system, but a catastrophe here schmucked it.

f) Something has been left in this system (Monolith) and it has sent the
            signal back home.
    1) The signal left recently, and we have a few hundred years to wait.
    2) The signal left, but the home race is long extinct.
    3) They know about us, but they don't want us to know about them.
       (yet)

Of all these, F3 seems quite possible.  After all, how often have we come
up with "non-interference" rules in our own science fiction?  And we're
supposed to be the belligerent race, I keep hearing.  Other probable
cases are A2 and the other "F" cases.
--
Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd.  --  Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473

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

Date: 18 Aug 88 18:29:36 GMT
From: attcan!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Kettering Boys School

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