Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/pc/text/spacedig/v11_5/v11_574.txt

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Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #574

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 11 : Issue 574

Today's Topics:
           Jonathan's Space Report, Jun 26
                   Pegasus
                aluminum again
              Re:  SPACE Digest V11 #568
         Re: Jonathan's Space Report, Jun 26
             Long PostScript submissions
               Weather Sattelite Images
           Hubble Space Telescope Update - 06/25/90
           Re: NSS protests Chinese launch pricing
             NASA technical memos
           Re: Anyone Know What MOL Is/Was?
           Is there a backup HST mirror ???
              Re:  SPACE Digest V11 #563

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]

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

Date: 26 Jun 90 19:03:28 GMT
From: frooz!cfa250![e-mail]  (Jonathan McDowell)
Subject: Jonathan's Space Report, Jun 26

Jonathan's Space Report

Jun 26 1990 (no.43)
----------------------------------------------------

Launch of STS-38/Atlantis is due for mid July. Atlantis has
been mated with the STS-38 stack and rolled out to pad 39A.

OV-102 Columbia is undergoing repairs in the Orbiter Processing
Facility.

Orbital verification of the Hubble Space Telescope and the ROSAT
observatory continue.  The first image from the ROSAT PSPC detector
was made last week. The HRI imager will have its first light next
week. HST continues to show poorly focussed images and more data
is being obtained on the state of the mirror alignment.

Anatoli Solov'yov (Komandir) and Aleksandr Balandin (Bortinzhener)
continue in orbit aboard the Mir complex.  They will make an EVA to
carry out repairs to the Soyuz TM-9 transport in mid July.  The Kristall
module has been moved to a side port opposite the Kvant-2 module.

An Intelsat VI communications satellite was launched by Commercial
Titan 3 on Jun 23. It successfully separated from the Titan
and its Orbus 21S perigee kick motor fired to place it in
geostationary transfer orbit.


A Molniya-3 communications satellite was launched from Plesetsk on
Jun 13.

Kosmos-2083, a recon satellite, was launched into polar orbit
on Jun 19.

Kosmos-2084 was launched from Plesetsk on Jun 21.  Analysis indicates
that it was successfully placed in low parking orbit by a Molniya launch
vehicle, but that the final stage malfunctioned and it ended up at an
altitude of a few hundred kilometers instead of its intended elliptical
orbit with an apogee of 40000 km.  The payload is probably an early
warning satellite.


(c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell

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

Date: Sun, 24 Jun 90 14:05 EDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Pegasus
Sender: [e-mail]
Reply-To: [e-mail]
X-Envelope-To: [e-mail]


        Quite some time ago there was some discussion in this group about
launching Pegasus from an XB-70 instead of a B-52.
        My question is: why not launch from an old B-58?  Were these super-
sonic, and could they carry something as heavy as a Pegasus?
        More importantly, are there any still sitting around?

                                   Just asking,
                                   Thomas D. Blersch
                                   [e-mail]


        Disclaimer: I don't speak for Vassar.
                    Better yet, they don't speak for me.

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

Date: 26 Jun 90 03:25:44 GMT
From: usc!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: aluminum again

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail]-mrc (Paul Johnson) writes:
>>> Some soils in Hawaii contain as much as 31.7% aluminum.
>
>Reality check: if Hawaian soils contain almost 1/3 pure aluminium,
>then those Hawaians are very wealthy :-)  Aluminium in bulk is expensive
>stuff.

Reality check:  aluminum *metal* in bulk is costly.  Aluminum *compounds*
are dirt-cheap, because aluminum is one of the commonest elements in the
Earth's crust.  Any random rock is generally 10-15% aluminum by weight.
The reason why aluminum metal is moderately costly is that it's difficult
to extract, not that it's rare.
--
As a user I'll take speed over|     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
features any day. -A.Tanenbaum| uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry [e-mail]

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

From: [e-mail]
Date:     Tue, 26 Jun 90  09:18:54 EDT
Subject:  Re:  SPACE Digest V11 #568

> ------------------------------
>
> Date: 24 Jun 90 21:28:35 GMT
> From: agate!sag4.ssl.berkeley.edu![e-mail]  (George C.
>  Kaplan)
> Subject: Re: claiming the Moon
>
> In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Henry Spencer)
>  writes:
> >In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
> >>A very long time ago in the 1950s, somebody advertised in the science
> >>fiction magazines of the day, that people could buy 1 inch square sec-
> >>tions of the moon for $1.00...
> >I've heard of this.  Those claims had zero legal status even at the time,
> >and the Outer Space Treaty of the early 60s rendered them completely null
> >and void, I believe.
>
> Lunar real estate prices had dropped considerably by the early 1970's.
> There was a character in Berkeley, CA who dressed up in a silver lame
> cape and sold certificates for land on the moon at $1.00 per *acre*.
> They were clearly novelty items.  The guy was just capitalizing on the
> popularity of the Apollo missions taking place at the time; he made no
> claims that his certificates had any legal standing.  I think I may
> even have bought a couple as gifts.
>
> George C. Kaplan                Internet:  [e-mail]
> Center for EUV Astrophysics                [e-mail]
> University of California        UUCP:  ...!ucbvax!sunspot.ssl!gckaplan
> Berkeley, CA  94720             [phone]
>
> ------------------------------

I am familiar with many such gimmicky stunts in the faddist, lun-
atic society of the 70s and 80s. They were clearly only stupid
novelties and have no worth or value of any kind. The incident I
am talking about occurred in the late 1950s, in world that was
far more sane, and the people selling the "lots" on the moon went
to some length to make the "deeds" look and sound real, couching
the title to the land in very legal-sounding language. It is for
this reason that I am questioning the possible validity of the
documents in today's litigation-saturated "mad" society. What I
am contending is that by virtue of their carefully worded legal-
ese, the original practitioners MAY have inadvertently created
documents that MIGHT have legal validity today. Maybe!

                                             D.V.
                                           AZM@NIHCU

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

Date: 26 Jun 90 19:58:08 GMT
From: frooz!cfa250![e-mail]  (Jonathan McDowell)
Subject: Re: Jonathan's Space Report, Jun 26

Correction:
From article <[e-mail]>, by [e-mail] (Jonathan McDowell):
> Kosmos-2084 was launched from Plesetsk on Jun 21.[...] The payload is probably an early
> warning satellite.

A press report says the Soviets have acknowledged the failure, and
describe the launch as a comsat.  K-2084 was probably intended to be a
Molniya-1 comsat; however its orbital plane appears to be almost ten
degrees off the standard positioning.

There will be no Space Report for the next two weeks, since
I will be in Paris (hooray!) (It's work, honest..)

 - Jonathan

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

Date: 25 Jun 90 10:07:15 EDT (Monday)
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Long PostScript submissions
Cc: [e-mail], [e-mail]

Recently people have taken to posting some rather huge Postscript files to
the space digest.  This causes two problems.

First, PostScript is NOT a universally used PDL - many folks have trouble
turning it into something readable.  The same is true of Interpress, etc.
Sending PostScript/Interpress/whatever files to people who can't read them
is rather pointless.

Second, such huge messages place a tremendous load on mailers.  Many
organizations use their mail systems for work as well as for play, and the
Big Cheeses get very upset to find that work mail is being delayed while
the mailers forward a long (and unreadable) recreational item to several
hundred recipients.

Perhaps it would be possible to make large and/or specially formatted
documents available via (your systems equivalent of) FTP & anonymous
logins?  This would allow those who are interested in the article, and
capable of reading it, to fetch it at their leisure.  It might also be a
good idea to store a plain text version of the article in the same place.

            Thanks,
                Chris Heiny
                Owner of Xerox SpaceDigest redistribution

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

Date:     Mon, 25 Jun 90 13:54 CDT
From: <[e-mail]>
Subject:  Weather Sattelite Images

I recently got the images that were on the FTP address posted in Space Digest
I was really impressed.  I would like to find out if there are any other
FTP addresses (anonymous) that we can get some "space" pictures from.
I would like to get the FTP addresses.  Please Post them on SDpace Disgest
so that others may benefit.  Thanks

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

Date: 25 Jun 90 19:49:27 GMT
From: usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Subject: Hubble Space Telescope Update - 06/25/90


                    Hubble Space Telescope Update
                          June 25, 1990

     The Hubble Space Telescope, after a shaky two months in orbit,
has produced its second set of test pictures.  The sharp images,
taken by the Faint Object Camera, show that controllers at
Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt have significantly
improved the focus of the telescope's mirror since the 'first
light' pictures from its other imaging system, the Wide Field and
Planetary Camera, were produced May 20.

     The new, sharper, pictures show two stars in
a cluster known as NGC 188, that is about 5,000 light years away,
and that the best ground-based images show only two fuzzy blurs.

     The telescope still has several weeks to go in its
complicated focusing process and that although things are
improving, they are still a long way from being operational.
      ___    _____     ___
     /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|
     | | | |  __ \ /| | | |     Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
  ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |___  Jet Propulsion Lab | [e-mail]
 /___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /| M/S 301-355        |
 |_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/  Pasadena, CA 91109 |

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

Date: 26 Jun 90 00:49:36 GMT
From: usc!venera.isi.edu![e-mail]  (Craig E. Ward)
Subject: Re: NSS protests Chinese launch pricing

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (David Anderman) writes:
>Hmmmm....NSS is protesting that the Chinese launch payloads too cheaply.
>Since the key factor in space development is the (present) high cost of
>getting into low Earth orbit, it isn't too surprising that NSS
>headquarters is worried that the Chinese are charging too little to get
>to LEO.

Go figure.

The National Space Society has been unfairly trashed by a vocal minority of
this group for being too pro-government and anti-private enterprise, but when
NSS does make a public statement supporting private enterprise, these same
people continue to complain.

Chinese launches are cheap because the Chinese government is willing to divert
resources from other sectors of their economy to subsidize launch services.
This gives the illusion of cheap launch services.  In reality, the cost is
great, both to Chinese and to any private launch services company.

The Chinese loose because they stifle their own ability to improve.  Why
should Chinese officials in charge of launch services change things when the
central bureaucracy will make good any deficits?  (That is, until the rest
of their society refuses to cooperate further, as is happening in the Soviet
Union.)  How can start-up companies like AMROC or SSI compete with that?  Why
should more established companies like General Dynamics or Martin Marietta
wean themselves from the U.S. government teat if they see starvation in the
market place?

Launch costs are the single greatest impediment to space development.  The
best tool we have for bringing them down is the free market system.  As long
as governments are skewing the market, costs will remain high.  This attack
on NSS is either an example of pure meanness (cutting off one's nose to spite
one's face) or the classic myopia of penny wise, pound foolish.

--
Craig E. Ward <[e-mail]>     Slogan:    "nemo me impune lacessit"
USPS:    USC/Information Sciences Institute
    4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 1100
    Marina del Rey, CA 90292

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

Date: 26 Jun 90 19:29:49 GMT
From: usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!bionet!hayes.fai.alaska.edu!acad3.fai.alaska.edu![e-mail]  (THOMAS DAVID J)
Subject: NASA technical memos

concerns the observation of greenish patches on Martian rocks photographed by
one of the Viking landers.  Does anyone know where I can obtain a copy?

Dave Thomas

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

Date: 26 Jun 90 01:46:34 GMT
From: bfmny0![e-mail]  (Tom Neff)
Subject: Re: Anyone Know What MOL Is/Was?

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Henry Spencer) writes:
>MOL was cancelled because (a) it cost a lot, (b) its mission was vague,
>and (c) after some nasty teething troubles early on, unmanned military
>satellites began to work pretty well.

NASA should hire the decision maker responsible.

--
There's nothing wrong with Southern California that a    || Tom Neff
rise in the ocean level wouldn't cure. -- Ross MacDonald || [e-mail]

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

Date: 26 Jun 90 19:52:05 GMT
From: fernwood!portal!cup.portal.com![e-mail]  (Mark Robert Thorson)
Subject: Is there a backup HST mirror ???

Now that the HST is safely in orbit, what happens to the backup mirror
(assuming there was one)?  Will it be auctioned as scrap?

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

From: [e-mail]
Date:     Mon, 25 Jun 90  12:55:54 EDT
Subject:  Re:  SPACE Digest V11 #563

>
> Date: 22 Jun 90 18:54:00 GMT
> From: usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!rpitsmts![e-mail]  (Commander
>  Krugannal)
> Subject: (none)
>
>
> Also... has anyone heard about the mysterious circles appearing in the
> fields
> of farmers in England, with no scientific explanation available?  These are
> PERFECT circles, by the way.  Not something that could occur by any natural
> means, and there are NEVER signs of any sort of human activity.  Witnesses
> usually claim seeing bright orange lights and hearing whining noises.
> Scientists are starting to get VERY serious about these things recently.
>
What is interesting to me is the way everyone takes the word of farmers,
day laborers, dishwashers, and delivery boys regarding the geometrically
perfect nature of these symbols left behind by visiting aliens. Of course,
we all realize that each of these occupations requires at the very least,
one advanced degree in mathematics.

We should also place complete faith in the testimony of these persons,
who derive their sustenance from the brown, narrow-necked bottle, as to
the lights, manifestations, and figures that they see, as well as the
noises they hear, because we all, every last one of us, know what re-
liable sources of information they are.

>    BTW, speaking of stuff like this, can anyone offer a good
>    explanation for spontaneous human combustion?
>
Hallucination on the part of stupid, gullible, easily deceived people
with IQs that match their hat sizes. Again, one of the more reliable
segments of the present-day american population, easily as trustworthy
as people who believe dan quayle is intelligent, or anything close to
it.

                             IT DOESN'T EXIST!!!

                                                  Marc Arlen
                                                  AZM@NIHCU

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

End of SPACE Digest V11 #574
*******************