Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/pc/text/spacedig/v13_2/v13_214.txt

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Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #214

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 13 : Issue 214

Today's Topics:
              Magellan Update - 02/26/91
            HST Guide Star CD-ROMS
         Re: HST Guide Star CD-ROMS (Warning)
             Re: Terraforming, sun shield
          Wednesday NOVA on PBS: Russian Right Stuff
              Re: HST Guide Star CD-ROMS
             Numerology, theology
             Re: Terraforming, sun shield
        Re: Can Mars moons be seen from Mars?
             Re: Terraforming, sun shield
           Payload Summary for 02/26/91 (Forwarded)
             Re: Terraforming, sun shield

Administrivia:

    Submissions to the SPACE Digest/sci.space should be mailed to
  [e-mail].  Other mail, esp. [un]subscription requests,
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----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 26 Feb 91 21:29:26 GMT
From: swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Ron Baalke)
Subject: Magellan Update - 02/26/91


                          MAGELLAN STATUS REPORT
                            February 26, 1991

     The Magellan spacecraft and its radar system are performing nominally.
All STARCALS (star calibrations) and DESATS (desaturations) during the past
24 hours were successful.

     The gyroscopes' temperatures appear to be leveling off, with a peak at
69.8 degrees C.  The alarm limit is set at 70 degrees C.

     Later today, the M1058 command sequence will be sent to the spacecraft.
It will include the solar panel offpoint and 10 minute early turn from mapping
in order to maintain spacecraft temperatures at acceptable levels.  It will
also contain DMS-A (Data Management Subsystem) Test #3 which plays back stored
data patterns which were recorded on February 21.
      ___    _____     ___
     /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|      Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
     | | | |  __ \ /| | | |      Jet Propulsion Lab | Is it mind over matter,
  ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |___   M/S 301-355        | or matter over mind?
 /___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /|  Pasadena, CA 91109 | Never mind.
 |_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/                      | It doesn't matter.

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

Date: 27 Feb 91 02:19:21 GMT
From: usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!clarkson!clutx.clarkson.edu![e-mail]  (Thomas Tongue)
Subject: HST Guide Star CD-ROMS


   I could have sworn that somewhere I've seen advertised the guide star
catalog for the Hubble Space Telescope, which includes stars dimmer than
6th magnitude, in some publication. I can't find the add anywhere. Does
anyone know where this catalog (CD-ROM version) can be found, and for what
price??? I'm sure that there are plenty of people interested in such an
item on these news groups, but if you can't post, you can send me email
at:
       [e-mail]

    Thanx.

             -Tom

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

Date: 27 Feb 91 17:34:11 GMT
From: agate!bionet!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx![e-mail]  (Bill Jefferys)
Subject: Re: HST Guide Star CD-ROMS (Warning)

Be warned:

The HST Guide Star Catalog EXCLUDES stars brighter
than ~ 8th magnitude (depending on where you are in the sky).
This is because stars brighter than this cannot be used as
guide stars. You will have to get brighter stars from another
source, such as the SAO.

Bill Jefferys

--
If you meet the Buddha on the net, put him in your kill file
    --Robert Firth

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

Date: 26 Feb 91 17:17:51 GMT
From: rochester![e-mail]  (Paul Dietz)
Subject: Re: Terraforming, sun shield

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (David Fuller) writes:

>I find the concept that humans find "uninhabited" planets fertile ground
>for cultivation repulsive, ignorant and a propulsion of the status quo.

Venus would be better used as a site for dirty industrial processes,
rather than for dubious efforts like terraforming.  I suggest using
Venus's thick atmosphere as a radiator for industrial scale
transmutation.  With the upper atmosphere heated to ~1000 K, Venus
could radiate the waste heat from the production (by fusion) of tens
of tons of neutrons per second, which could transmute thousands of
tons of useful isotopes per second.

Of course, if you really do want to make habitats for people, you get
a lot more area by demolishing Venus completely and building rotating
structures.  Gravity is such an inefficient way to keep one's feet on
the floor.

    Paul F. Dietz
    [e-mail]

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

Date: 26 Feb 91 02:00:03 GMT
From: van-bc!rsoft!mindlink![e-mail]  (Bruce Dunn)
Subject: Wednesday NOVA on PBS: Russian Right Stuff


     My TV schedule lists the NOVA program on PBS television for Wednesday
February 27 to be:


Russian Right Stuff

A three-part look at the Soviet space program opens with a profile of its chief
designer Sergei Korolev


--
Bruce Dunn   Vancouver, Canada    [e-mail]

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

Date: 27 Feb 91 16:01:46 GMT
From: spacsun.rice.edu![e-mail]  (Paul A. Scowen)
Subject: Re: HST Guide Star CD-ROMS

There's probably going to be tons'o'responses to this one.  Our dept. purchased
the HST GSC from ASP a few months back on CD-ROM.  It includes stars down to
13.0 mag (I think).  It also comes with both PC and Mac software, but the
handy-dandy graphics software (which has a lot of bugs) is only available in
the Mac version (thankfully we have a Mac).  The cost was about $50 if I
remember rightly.  Also watch out for the so-called "guidestars", we identified
5 of them in one field to be giant extragalactic HII regions - hardly point
sources!  Hope HST really isn't using this list.  Useful for reference though.

--
|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|
-                              __________          -
|    Paul A. Scowen                     / ___  ___ \           |
-    Department of Space Physics and Astronomy    / / @ \/ @ \ \        -
|    Rice University, Houston TX 77251            \ \___/\___/ /\       |
-    [phone] x2433, x3534             \____\/____/||       -
|                             /     /\\\\\//       |
-    Internet:    [e-mail]         |     |\\\\\\          -
|            [e-mail]          \      \\\\\\       |
-                               \______/\\\\          -
|    Span:        RICE::SCOWEN                _||_||_          |
-                                 -- --          -
|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|

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

Date: Wed, 27 Feb 91 14:35:09 EST
From: John Roberts <[e-mail]>
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are those of the sender
    and do not reflect NIST policy or agreement.
Subject: Numerology, theology


>From: [e-mail] (Loren Petrich)
>Subject: Re: The Moon => Existance of God...? (was Re: SPACE Digest V13 #102)
>Date: 27 Feb 91 01:15:47 GMT
>Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Harold G. Andrews II) writes:

>>God always was and always will be.  He is the one thing that will never change.

>    Will it someday happen that 2 + 2 != 4?

Well, since you ask, yes, it could. :-)
A pure mathematical expression such as 2 + 2 = 4 exists by human definition,
and humans can change the definition any time they feel like it. Of course,
the potential usefulness of such a change in dealing with the universe around
us depends on current conditions.

This sort of thing has happened before. Remember the good old days, when
parallel lines didn't intersect? (*) Then one day someone (Gauss and others)
proposed that it wasn't so, and non-Euclidean geometry was born. Now there's
speculation that the universe itself may on the large scale be non-Euclidean,
and if so, the traditional geometry will have to be thrown out except for
purely theoretical applications and as a useful approximation for local
conditions. (**)

Even the famous Carl Sagan has speculated (in fiction) that *if* the
universe was deliberately created from scratch, there had to be a decision
process by which constants such as pi were selected. :-)

(*) - A more accurate representation: given line A and point B which is not on
line A, how many lines can be drawn through B that are parallel to A? In
Euclidean geometry, the answer is always 1. in non-Euclidean geometry
(depending on the flavor) the answer is either 0 or >1.

(**) - Last I heard, it's still Euclidean to the limits of measurement, but
it is felt that there's no particular reason to believe the measurements are
sufficiently precise and accurate to make a measurement.

>Loren Petrich, the Master Blaster: [e-mail]
>Since this nodename is not widely known, you may have to try:
>[e-mail]

I don't see much prospect of finding a scientific answer to the theological
question of "why" the moon is there. However, it can be very interesting to
speculate on the tremendous influence the moon must have had on the development
of astronomy, and eventually on the interest in space exploration.

        John Roberts                        "Don't count your postulates
        [e-mail]            before they're hatched."

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

Date: 27 Feb 91 21:40:32 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (Heidi Hammel)
Subject: Re: Terraforming, sun shield

[e-mail] (Henry Spencer) writes:
> [e-mail] (David Fuller) writes:
> >  I find the concept that humans find "uninhabited" planets fertile ground
> >  for cultivation repulsive, ignorant and a propulsion of the status quo.
> Do you feel similarly about the dreadful despoiling of the Hawaiian Islands
> by all those icky plants and animals?  (The original "unspoiled" state of
> those islands was bare, sterile volcanic rock.)
> If not, why is it proper for plants and animals to cultivate barren
> wastelands and not for humans to do likewise?

I guess my answer to your question, Henry, is that those plants and animals
are cultivating the barren wastelands into a viable ecosystem, with checks
and balances.  Humanity so far has only demonstrated a marked ability to
*destroy* stable ecosystems, returning them to barren wastelands.

I think that what humans have done recently to the Hawaiian Islands is
repulsive.  Oahu is, for the most part, ugly and seriously overdeveloped.
Maui is rapidly heading that way. Humanity (in particular Western
civilization) hasn't yet learned to live on the Earth without destroying
it; it hardly seems appropriate to move on to the next planet.
--
------   Heidi B. Hammel      ([e-mail])     MIT 54-316
--       Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences

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

Date: 27 Feb 91 22:32:59 GMT
From: agate!stew.ssl.berkeley.edu![e-mail]  (Eric J. Korpela)
Subject: Re: Can Mars moons be seen from Mars?

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Eric J. Korpela) writes:
>This may be a trick answer to a simple question, but I believe the record is
>held by Mars with three visible moons.

Oops!  Make that at least three.  It may be possible for those with good eyes
to separate the outer galilean satellites from Jupiter.  I haven't
done the calculations, so I'm not entirely sure.

    /\                      [e-mail]              Internet
   /__\  rioch              BKYAST::KORPELA    42215::KORPELA     DecNet
  /    \   of Chaos         korpela%bkyast@ucbjade                Bitnet
 (_____________________     <aka Eric Korpela>

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

Date: 26 Feb 91 02:12:57 GMT
From: unisoft!fai!sequent![e-mail]  (David Fuller)
Subject: Re: Terraforming, sun shield

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Joshua Duffin) writes:
>Just an idea, but as long as we're going to get water from asteroids, how
>about if we just send a real big one (err, make that comet I think, asteroids
>are more rocky than icy...) into Venus, to kick up a nice cloud of dust to
>cool off the planet at the same time as we add water?  Save on energy to
>decelerate the comet, too.
>
>
>UUCP: {amdahl!bungia, crash}!orbit!pnet51!jduffin
>ARPA: crash!orbit!pnet51![e-mail]
>INET: [e-mail]


I find the concept that humans find "uninhabited" planets fertile ground
for cultivation repulsive, ignorant and a propulsion of the status quo.

Without understanding the greater nature of the universe, we propose to
make a planet habitable inasmuch as sticking some giant terrestrial penis
into Venus' vagina without understanding in any real sense why
Venus is there or whether there is something more subtle to be learnt.

We may get older as a (male) race but we certainly don't get any
smarter.

My opinions are my own.
--
Dave Fuller
Sequent Computer Systems          Think of this as the hyper-signature.
[phone] (humans)              It means all things to all people.
[e-mail]

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

Date: 26 Feb 91 23:22:51 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Payload Summary for 02/26/91 (Forwarded)


                              KSC PAYLOAD STATUS REPORT
                                  February 26, 1991

          Mitch Varnes
          407/867-2468
          FTS 823-2468
          ----------------------------------------------------------------
                                 STS-39 (March 1991)

          The three primary STS-39 payloads, AFP-675,  IBSS and STP-1,  are
          inside Discovery's payload bay at Launch Pad 39-A.   Routine ser-
          vicing of the payloads is ongoing  with  no  major  anomalies  or
          problems being worked.   Upcoming work includes routine cryogenic
          servicing of Cirris and SPAS.

                               STS-42 (December 1991)
                        International Microgravity Laboratory

          Checkout and testing of  the  IML-1  elements  is  proceeding  on
          schedule  at  Test  Stand  Stand  2  of the Operations & Checkout
          Building High Bay.  No outstanding issues are being worked.

                                  STS-40 (May 1991)
                                Space Life Sciences-1

          Five members of the STS-40 flight crew were at KSC last week par-
          ticipating in the Crew Equipment Interface Test.   The astronauts
          were  conducting  equipment  and other checkouts inside the SLS-1
          Spacelab module.   This exercise was one of the final  milestones
          to  be  done  on  SLS-1  before  it is transferred to the Orbiter
          Processing Facility for installation into the  orbiter  Columbia.
          That transfer is currently slated for late March.

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

Date: 26 Feb 91 23:37:02 GMT
From: voder!pyramid!ctnews!tsnews![e-mail]  (Ward Griffiths)
Subject: Re: Terraforming, sun shield

[e-mail] (Dan Tilque) writes:

>Does the term "shield square" mean anything to you?  That's right,
>build several huge rectangular flat panels (about 12,000 Km wide) and
>connect them with some real strong wire (all made from the finest
>unobtainium Larry Niven can think up) so that they make a ring and put
>the whole thing in orbit around Venus.  Voila, not only do we cool
>Venus down, but we get a reasonable day and night cycle to boot (on one
>side of the planet anyway).

Unfortunately, the ring of shadow squares suffers from the
same drawback as a ringworld: instability within its plane
of revolution.  The ones between the Ringworld and its sun
could balance themselves by tacking on light pressure and
solar wind, but such a ring around Venus would have those
forces all coming from basically one direction, that of
the Sun.  I suspect that the attitude thrusters would use
prohibitive quantities of reaction mass.

>Also you could use some of that power to generate a magnetic field in
>the shield square ring since Venus has no field of its own.  (Actually,
>this isn't a bad idea, assuming the existence of the shield square ring
>in the first place.)

Actually, if Venus DID have a magnetic field, this could
be used to stabilise the ring of shadow squares.  But yes,
there does need to be some way to deflect charged particles
from the Solar Wind.  In this case, at the expense of
stability in the shadow ring, however, since deflection
will have a greater effect on the shadow ring than just
interception.

>[e-mail] (Clayton Cramer) writes:

>>Yes.  Try big dirigibles in the upper atmosphere, carrying algae
>>to do the CO2 -> O2 conversion.  Much more practical.

Why dirigibles?  They just have to float around, not go
anywhere in particular.  Balloons are MUCH cheaper, as
much of a Zep junkie as I am.

But Dan covered the algie raw material problem well
enough as it is.

>Water is the big problem, but then it's always the problem with all
>schemes to terraform Venus.  In the long run, you're going to need
>about as much water as Earth has in its oceans, so transporting it from
>Earth is out.  So we either corral a bunch of comets or grab a small
>moon from an outer planet.

Well, elsewhere in this newsgroup I just read a
proposal for using comet/asteroid collisions as a way
of providing delta vee to get the asteroids into GEO
or HEO.  (I am NOT an eco-nazi, but I am not crazy
about the idea of steering intact asteroids closer
than GEO, and preferably not that close.  Refine as
high up as convenient.)  We'd might as well do
something with the leftover cometary mass.

--
          Ward Griffiths, Unisys NCG aka Convergent Technologies                The people that make Unisys' official opinions get paid more.  A LOT more.
===========================================================================          To Hell with "Only One Earth"!  Try "At Least One Solar System"!

If I say love, I'll sound sentimental, and if I say sex, I'll sound cynical.    I'll call it pair bonding and sound scientific.         The Golden Apple

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

End of SPACE Digest V13 #214
*******************