Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/pc/text/spacedig/v12_5/v12_553.txt

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Subject: SPACE Digest V12 #553

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 12 : Issue 553

Today's Topics:
              Magellan Update - 11/13/90
          Re: CRAF/Cassini Update - 11/09/90
           Re: The great light bulb debate
             Re: A philosophical question
             Successful Titan IV launch!
          Re: CRAF/Cassini Update - 11/09/90
            Re: Galileo Update - 11/02/90
         Early Soviet Venus (VENERA) Missions
           Re: The great light bulb debate
              RE: SPACE Digest V12 #517
 Re: sci.space or talk.origins? (was Re: Creationists and Moon Dust)
             Re: LNLL Inflatable Stations

Administrivia:

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Date: 13 Nov 90 19:12:06 GMT
From: julius.cs.uiuc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA.
Subject: Magellan Update - 11/13/90
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                         MAGELLAN STATUS REPORT
                           November 13, 1990

     The Magellan spacecraft is now in its 17th mapping orbit since radar
mapping was resumed on the morning of November 10.  All systems are nominal
and six of the seven STARCALS (star calibrations) in the past 24 hours were
fully successful.

     Late today, a software patch to control the solar panel positions with
ephemeris tables will be sent to the spacecraft.

     Analysis of radar data from tape recorder track A4 indicates that it is
about the same as before Superior Conjunction.  That is, it does not show the
progressive deterioration that was seen on track 2, but the rate of errors
was not improved by eliminating the solar panel vibrations.
      ___    _____     ___
     /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|
     | | | |  __ \ /| | | |      Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
  ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |___   Jet Propulsion Lab | [e-mail]
 /___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /|  M/S 301-355        |
 |_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/   Pasadena, CA 91109 |

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Date: 13 Nov 90 11:03:44 GMT
From: eru!hagbard!sunic!news.funet.fi!ra!abo.fi![e-mail]
Organization: Abo Akademi University, Finland
Subject: Re: CRAF/Cassini Update - 11/09/90
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In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Ron Baalke) writes:
>
>                          CRAF/Cassini Status Report
>                              November 9, 1990
> ...take the Huygens probe about 3 hours to parachute all the way down to the
> surface of Titan; if the probe survives the landing, valuable data will
> continue to be transmitted back for about 30 more minutes.  No more data will
> be returned to the Cassini orbiter from Huygens on any subsequent orbits, as
> the battery onboard Huygens will have rundown by then.
>

30 minutes! Why can't we send an advanced long-life, Viking-style probe
to Titan instead?! The Viking lander was "only" about twice as heavy as the
Huygens probe will be so the lack of a powerful-enough launcher surely cannot
be the reason? Is this just because of financial considerations again, or...?

MARCU$

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Date: 13 Nov 90 03:58:15 GMT
From: mnetor!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Subject: Re: The great light bulb debate
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In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (John Roberts) writes:
>The "inert" gas usually cited in the literature is nitrogen. Why would
>krypton be better than argon?

Nitrogen is not really inert when temperatures get high.  For example,
if you burn titanium in air -- 80% nitrogen, 20% oxygen, roughly -- the
ash is about 80% titanium nitride and 20% titanium oxide.  For applications
involving incandescent metals, you want something that is really inert.
(If you're being really picky, the noble gases [the preferred modern term]
are not really inert either, but under these conditions they qualify.)

Krypton is better than argon for the same reason that argon is better than
vacuum:  the denser gas slows the evaporation of the tungsten filament.
--
"I don't *want* to be normal!"         | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
"Not to worry."                        |  [e-mail]   utzoo!henry

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Date: 12 Nov 90 18:45:03 GMT
From: sdd.hp.com!samsung!umich!umeecs!msi.umn.edu!cs.umn.edu!sialis!orbit!pnet51![e-mail]  (S Schaper)
Organization: People-Net [pnet51], Minneapolis, MN.
Subject: Re: A philosophical question
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Because it might produce success. You can fish or cut bait. You can eat all
your seed during the hard winter and starve the next, or you can tighten your
belt and save seed for next year's crop.
  Human Beings are creative in nature, and it is part of our mandate to use
such creativity to make a better world/universe.
  "It is the glory of God to hide a matter, it is the Glory of Kings to search
it out" Prbs 16.
   We could all still be living on the Anatolain plateau, but our distant
ancestors took a risk and moved out to settle new, unknown lands. (Anatolian,
that
is).

Zeitgeist Busters!

UUCP: {amdahl!bungia, uunet!rosevax, chinet, killer}!orbit!pnet51!schaper
ARPA: crash!orbit!pnet51![e-mail]
INET: [e-mail]

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Date: 13 Nov 90 15:14:10 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (SERRE GLENN)
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Subject: Successful Titan IV launch!
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Titan IV now has a demostrated surge capability of 2 per year :-)



--Glenn Serre
[e-mail]

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Date: 12 Nov 90 20:09:51 GMT
From: rti!dg-rtp!dg-rtp.dg.com![e-mail]  (Brian Rice)
Organization: Data General Corporation, Research Triangle Park, NC
Subject: Re: CRAF/Cassini Update - 11/09/90
References: <[e-mail]>, <[e-mail]>
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In article <[e-mail]>,
[e-mail] (Doug Mohney) writes:
|> In article <[e-mail]>,
|> [e-mail] (Ron Baalke) writes:
|> >
|> > On the way to to Comet Kopff, CRAF will flyby the asteroid
|> > Hamburga.  JPL is currently in negotiations with the McDonald's
|> > hamburger franchise to arrange some kind of advertising deal
|> > (this is no joke).
|>
|> Does this mean that Ron Baalke will be replaced by Ronald McDonald
|> for our news postings ? :-)

JPL: "Junkfood Promotion Lab."

Seriously, I think Ron just threw this in to see whether or
not people were really reading his articles.  Either that or
NASA really wants to have CRAF do a gravity-assist flyby
someplace, and they're counting on the added mass of the
Happy Meal to justify it.
--
Brian Rice   [e-mail]   [phone]
DG/UX Product Assurance Engineering
Data General Corp., Research Triangle Park, N.C.

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Date: 12 Nov 90 11:43:25 GMT
From: mcsun!unido!mpirbn![e-mail]  (Daniel Fischer)
Organization: Max-Planck-Institut fuer Radioastronomie, Bonn, W-Germany
Subject: Re: Galileo Update - 11/02/90
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<[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Daniel Fischer)
Organization: Max-Planck-Institut fuer Radioastronomie, Bonn

In article <[e-mail]>
[e-mail] (Ron Baalke) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]>
[e-mail] (Henry Spencer) writes:
>> [...]  Ulysses is a European project with minor NASA participation.
>Here is NASA's contributions to the Ulysses mission:   [ list deleted ]
>NASA's participation with Ulysses is much more than minor.

And even more notable: this contribution is exactly what the ESA/NASA
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in 1979 had called for. Although these
MoUs do not have the legal status of a contract, at least this one has survived
all the earthquakes of the project! I wonder whether the MoU regarding the
Space Station will have the same fate in the end...

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Date: 13 Nov 90 15:34:20 GMT
From: bacchus.pa.dec.com!news.crl.dec.com!shlump.nac.dec.com!advax.enet.dec.com![e-mail]  (Larry Klaes)
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Subject: Early Soviet Venus (VENERA) Missions
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        Henry Thomas ([e-mail]) writes:

     >> A similar(?) problem occurred on Venus, where the probes Venera
     >> 11-14 lasted only a few hours.  The first ones didn't reached the
     >> ground because theirs parachutes where destroyed by the acid
     >> atmosphere.

        Not really.  The first Soviet attempts to land on Venus failed
    either because of prior mechanical difficulties or due to being
    crushed by the high atmospheric pressure towards the surface.  The
    landers of the VENERA 4, 5, and 6 missions (1967-1969) were designed
    to withstand only twenty Earth atmospheres (20 bars), the best esti-
    mate of air pressure on Venus' surface at the time.  Even the temper-
    atures were thought to be several hundred degrees cooler than now
    known.

        Yes, MARINER 2 did indicate an overall surface temperature of
    425 degrees Celsius (797 degrees Fahrenheit) back in 1962, but the
    Soviets were still holding out for a relatively cool and low air
    pressure Venus even in the late 1960s.  For example, the VENERA 4
    lander was designed to float in case it came down in a Venerean
    ocean!

        In addition, the sulfuric acid which pervades Venus' thick
    atmosphere was unknown at the time of the early VENERA missions.
    Its existence was postulated in 1973 and generally confirmed by
    the Soviet and American Venus missions of 1978.

        While not designed against acid, the descent parachutes on the
    early VENERA landers were very tough, plus the drop through Venus'
    air lasted no more than one hour.  It was the intense air pressure
    which destroyed these vehicles.  Not until the successful landing of
    VENERA 7 in December of 1970 was it finally confirmed that Venus has
    a surface pressure equivalent to being 990 meters (3,300 feet) beneath
    an Earth ocean, followed by temperatures one hundred degrees hotter
    than recorded by MARINER 2.

         Larry Klaes     [e-mail]
                or  ...!decwrl!advax.enet.dec.com!klaes
                or  [e-mail]
                or  [e-mail]

              "All the Universe, or nothing!" - H. G. Wells

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Date: 13 Nov 90 21:21:27 GMT
From: zephyr.ens.tek.com!wrgate!mtdoom![e-mail]  (Dan Tilque)
Organization: Upper Left Coast Liberation Army
Subject: Re: The great light bulb debate
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[e-mail] (Henry Spencer) writes:
>
>Krypton is better than argon for the same reason that argon is better than
>vacuum:  the denser gas slows the evaporation of the tungsten filament.

Obviously we need to take this to it's logical extension.  It's time to
start recycling all that radon that everyone has in their houses.

And I want no namby-pamby whining about radon being radioactive.  In a
lightbulb, that's not a bug, it's a feature.

---
Dan Tilque    --    [e-mail]

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Date:    Tue, 13 Nov 1990 9:44:06 EST
From: [e-mail]
Subject: RE: SPACE Digest V12 #517
To: [e-mail]
X-Vmsmail-To: SMTP%"[e-mail]"

Nobody has yet pointed out that, although light bulbs have an inert gas
in them at atmospheric pressure (to make them easier to manufacture, so
that their envelopes may be thinner, and to prevent outgassing of the
filament), vacuum tubes have no such things.  Vacuum tubes have somewhat
thicker envelopes and are fairly safe as long as you keep your fingers
off that B+ wire.
--scott
   (who thinks making 6L6's in space would be a good idea)

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Date: 13 Nov 90 16:59:49 GMT
From: usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jpl-devvax![e-mail]  (Larry Wall)
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
Subject: Re: sci.space or talk.origins? (was Re: Creationists and Moon Dust)
References: <s64421.658155100@zeus>, <[e-mail]>, <[e-mail]>
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In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Gary Coffman) writes:
:
: In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
: >This is coming from the point of view of a "creationist" who doesn't
: >care how old the world is, or the mechanism by which it was made: only
: >who started the mechanism.  Some folks do believe that.  Be careful not
: >to assume all folks are the same.  And if you want to flame me, kindly
: >do it e-mail.  The flames don't belong here either.
:
: I've got to ask what a creationist with this unscientific attitude is doing
: in a sci group or for that matter receiving my tax dollars at a public
: scientific institution. Don't you belong in a Monastary sir? I've
: got no quarrel with someone who might say God created the big bang, now
: let's work out the science from there. But someone who says God created
: the Universe and then declares that that is all that counts and disavows any
: interest in working out the science can't claim to be a scientist or be
: trusted to do scientific work.

Hmmm...

Could it perhaps be that you've misread Gary's article?  I read the "doesn't
care" as an assertion of open-mindedness on the means, not lack of interest.
As such, there is nothing there inconsistent with a scientific attitude, apart
from any emotional baggage you wish to attach to the word "creationist",
which, after all, he did put into quotes to tell you it wasn't being used in
the ordinary sense.

While we're on the subject of being in touch with reality, you shouldn't
assume that everyone who works at a scientific institution is a scientist,
either.  (I think there are more secretaries than scientists at JPL.  Which
is not to say that the rest of us aren't keenly interested in science...)
Using such an assumption as the basis of a quasi-diatribe is not in the
best interests of net harmony.

Larry Wall
[e-mail]

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Date: 13 Nov 90 20:43:16 GMT
From: sun-barr!newstop!exodus!norge.Eng.Sun.COM![e-mail]  (John McKernan)
Subject: Re: LNLL Inflatable Stations
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[e-mail] ("Allen W. Sherzer") writes:
>An inflatable station could be made smaller for 0G however if they are
>to maintain artificial gravity, it is about as small as they can get. It's
>not clear which has more life cycle cost. Crew can be left on a spinning
>station for a year with no problems.
>+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
>|Allen W. Sherzer| I had a guaranteed military sale with ED-209. Renovation |

Soviet crews have stayed in orbit for over a year. They have demonstrated
that with advanced exercise machinery and lots of exercise it is possbile
to return to the Earth after a year in a 0g environment and completely
recover.

John L. McKernan.                                                  [e-mail]
Disclaimer: These are my opinions but, shockingly enough, not necessarily Sun's
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End of SPACE Digest V12 #553
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