Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/pc/text/spacedig/v13_2/v13_235.txt

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Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #235

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 13 : Issue 235

Today's Topics:
                   Eclipse
               LandSats 4 and 5
                   Re: Gaia
              Re: Space Profits
         NASA Headline News for 03/05/91 (Forwarded)
              Re: SPACE Digest V13 #208
           most frequently asked questions
   MAJOR SOLAR FLARE ALERT #2 - 05 MARCH (VERY HIGH SOLAR ACTIVITY)

Administrivia:

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

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

Date: 5 Mar 91 15:40:27 GMT
From: mcsun!corton!inria!seti!carmen.inria.fr![e-mail]  (P. Collet)
Subject: Eclipse


A couple of friends and I would like to watch the huge solar eclipse this
summer in the best conditions.

We read it is in Mexico on July 11th in the morning - Mexican time - that it
should last the longer, so we plan to get there, the only snag being that we
don't know exactly where !

Could any of you out there give us any hint on where we should be when it
happens - near what town,... we would even accept latitude and longitude :->


Thanks a lot,

Pete.


_______________________________________________________________________________
  ,---.----------------.                 | ``You know  you  have  a distributed
 (  /  )   /   / /      )  P. Collet     | system  when the crash of a computer
 / /      /   / /   /  /                 | you've never heard of stops you from
(_/  .   ( ( ( ( ( (  / Tel:   +33 (1)   | getting any work done.''
 \___________________/       39.63.52.94 |           Leslie Lamport, in spirit.
e-mail : [e-mail]           |_____________________________________
I.N.R.I.A.  BP.105  78153 Rocquencourt CEDEX  France   Fax: [phone]
_______________________________________________________________________________

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

Date: Tue, 5 Mar 91 11:49:12 PST
From: [e-mail] (Troy T. Pummill)
Subject: LandSats 4 and 5
Cc: [e-mail]


Hello netlanders.  I have been asked to post a question regarding LandSats.
According to the requestor, the LandSats (4 and 5) were put up by NASA and
run under NOAA.

Can anyone tell me whether they are will being used (i.e. are they still
functioning or were they de-funded)?

What was the engineering life of the satellites?

Any responses will be greatly appreciated.....


Direct email would be best....

thanks...trop


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|  Troy T. Pummill         |  [e-mail]                              |
|  Sr. Technical Instructor      |  ...uunet!lanslide.hls.com!trop            |
|  Hughes LAN Systems            |                                            |
|  [phone]                |  1225 Charleston Rd., Silicon Gulch        |
|  Mountain View, CA  94043     |  The preceding drivel is entirely my own!  |
------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------

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

Date: 5 Mar 91 19:07:14 GMT
From: celit![e-mail]  (Dave Smith)
Subject: Re: Gaia

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Larry Wall) writes:
>: What part of Gaia is its appendix? :-)
>
>Hmm, something that uses resources but doesn't contribute to the good of
>the whole, and is, in fact, occasionally destructive?  I'll have to
>think about that one...  :-)

Current (? - I heard it from a med student) thinking on the appendix is that
it's part of the immune system and releases anti-bodies into your gut.
Tonsils used to be thought pretty irrelevant too.
--
David L. Smith
FPS Computing, San Diego        ucsd!celit!dave or [e-mail]
"It was time to stop playing games.  It was time to put on funny hats and
eat ice cream.  Froggie played his oboe" - Richard Scarry

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

Date: Tue, 5 Mar 91 14:18:36 -0500
From: "Allen W. Sherzer" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Space Profits
Newsgroups: sci.space
Cc:

In article <[e-mail]>:

>>As I said, when professors and oil companies do their field work with
>>robots instead of going on site I'll believe you.

>You just made a big mistake. :-) :-) :-)

Nope. I lived in Texas for several years and saw lots of oil wells. I
know people who work on them. When I was learning SCUBA I read about and
knew commercial divers who worked on offshore rigs.

Yes there are no people where the oil is but there are a hell of a lot of
people needed to get the drill to where the oil is. The work they do (esp
the divers) is very dangerous and very expensive. If teleoperated robots
where anywhere near as good as a human on the site then they would be in
common use.

When all the comercial oil crews and survey teams are replaced by teleoperated
robots then I'll be convinced.

  Allen

--
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Allen Sherzer |A MESSAGE FROM THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT TO THE PEOPLE OF KUWAIT: |
|[e-mail]   |       "If rape is inevitable, enjoy it!"                     |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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

Date: 5 Mar 91 21:29:03 GMT
From: [e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA Headline News for 03/05/91 (Forwarded)


             Headline News
Internal Communications Branch (P-2) NASA Headquarters

  Tuesday, March 5, 1991    Audio Service: 202 / 755-1788

This is NASA Headline News for Tuesday, March 5, 1991

Kennedy Space Center technicians have removed Discovery's payload,
which is now in the payload changeout room, and expect to be able to begin
rollback of the orbiter by 2:00 am Thursday morning, March 7.  Work
today on Discovery includes detanking of the hypergolic fuels and the power
system reactants.

Meanwhile, workers have found two tiny cracks of less than 4/100th's of an
inch in the fuel-line door-closing mechanism hinges on Atlantis.  The
impact of this currently is under discussion, but shuttle chief Robert Crippen
has said this issue will be resolved prior to rollover.  Orbiter closeout
activities continue with payload bay cleaning scheduled for this afternoon.
Atlantis should be ready for rollover to the Vehicle Assembly Building after
midnight Thursday.

Atlantis' Gamma Ray Observatory payload is in the Vertical Processing
Facility.  KSC will host a GRO briefing and VPF tour Thursday at 10:00 am
EST.  The GRO payload then will be moved to the launch pad Friday
morning.

                   * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The STS-40 Spacelab Life Sciences -1 flight readiness review/payload
certification review is today at KSC.  Preparation of Columbia for its
scheduled May SLS-1 mission continues.  The Spacelab module should be
transported from the Operations and Checkout Building to the OPF on or
about March 23.

                   * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

NASA has selected Orbital Sciences Corp., Fairfax, Va., for negotiation of a
contract that represents a new way for the space agency to carry out its
research activities.  OSC, working under a firm fixed-price contract of $43.5
million, will provide NASA with ocean color data to be used by the Goddard
Space Flight Center's Laboratory for Hydrospheric Processes.  All other
functions of the new project, the Ocean Color Data Mission, will be OSC's
responsibility, including development of the sensor and spacecraft, selection
and integration of a launch vehicle, launch services, tracking, and the
production and delivery of data for five years subsequent to a successful
orbital deployment.

The new mission will measure changes in ocean color indicative of
phytoplankton and chlorophyll concentrations.  Studying these
concentrations will help in the assessment of the global carbon cycle.  A
better understanding of the storage and release mechanisms of carbon will
assist climate modelling efforts.  This new research is a direct descendant
of the work which was carried out using the Coastal Zone Color Scanner
aboard the Nimbus-7 spacecraft.  The Ocean Color Data Mission spacecraft is
expected to be launched in August, 1993.  By securing the research data in
this manner, NASA enables OSC to sell the data to commercial users as well.
This type of data has been found to be useful by commercial fishery operators
since the phytoplankton concentrations often indicate large schools of fish.


                   * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

This afternoon at 1:00 pm EST the House Subcommittee on Space
Science and Applications will hold budget hearings for two NASA
program offices, the Office of Commercial Programs and the Office of Space
Operations.  James Rose, OCP chief, and Charles Force, OSO chief, will
testify before the subcommittee in room 2325, Rayburn House Office
Building.  Tomorrow at 1:30 pm EST, the same subcommittee has
called William Lenoir to testify on the Office of Space Flight's budget
request.  That hearing, scheduled for room 2318, Rayburn House Office
Building, will be televised live on NASA Select TV.  Also tomorrow, the House
Subcommittee on Energy has called Arnold Aldrich, Aeronautics and Space
Technology chief, to testify about the SP-100 program.

Here's the broadcast schedule for Public Affairs events on NASA Select TV.
All times are Eastern.  NASA Select TV is carried on GE Satcom F2R,
transponder 13, C-Band, 72 degrees W Long., Audio 6.8, Frequency 3960
MHz.

Tuesday, 3/5/91
    12:00 pm    Starfinder program, "Orbital Motion."

    12:15 pm    Commitment to Challenge program.

    12:30 pm    "One Picture Is Worth a 1000 Words" program.

     1:00 pm    Magellan science briefing live from the Jet Propulsion
                        Laboratory.  Participants will be Tony Spear, project
            manager; Dr. Steve Saunders, project scientist; and
            Dr. Gordon Pettengill, Massachusetts Institute of
            Technology, and Dr. Laurence Soderblom, U.S. Geological
            Survey, both science team members.  The science team
            also will show a new computer-animated radar image
            movie and will release four frames of radar imagery.

Wednesday, 3/6/91
     1:15 pm    Magellan-at-Venus status report live from the
            Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

    1:30 pm        House Subcommittee on Space Science and Applications
                        hearing, William Lenoir, Associate Administrator for
            Space Flight, to testify on the space transportation
            budget request, live from the Rayburn House Office
            Building, room 2318.

All events and times may change without notice.  This report is filed daily,
Monday through Friday, by 12:00 pm, Eastern.  It is a service of NASA
Headquarters Office of Public Affairs.  Contact:  CREDMOND on NASAmail
or at 202/453-8425.

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

Date: Tue, 05 Mar 91 15:19:26 EST
From: Tommy Mac <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: SPACE Digest V13 #208

Re: Moon Proving the Existence of God:

Please, let ME put this Baby to rest.

It was just a thought, a passing fancy, a moment of wild abandon where I'd
given myself over to an episode of frivolity and insipidness.  So sorry!
I just thought someone else might have similar thoughts.  I won't do it again.

To the Fundamentalist:  I didn't say He put it there to prove anything.  I said
                        he put it there to help us.  Jeez!

To the scientists;  God is improbable.  So are eclipses, life, intelligence,
etc. etc.  If you can accept probability functions as proving things about
Quantum mechanics (no one's ever SEEN an electron) why not theology?

Please, don't respond anymore.  You'll all keep misquoting me.

Tommy Mac          The opinions incited here are not my responsibility....
18084tm@msu
Acknowledge-To: <18084TM@MSU>

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

Date:     Tue, 5 Mar 91 11:19 EDT
From: <[e-mail]>
Subject:  most frequently asked questions

     There was a question at the end of the most frequently asked questions
posting last week about a program to simulate the entire solar system. I use
a program named Dance of The Planets for IBM pcs that is excellent. It allows
the user to simulate the orbital motion of all the planets and known satellites
in the solar system plus 4000 asteroids and many comets. This program also
allows the user to type in the orbital elements to simulate any newly
discovered body. In version 2.0 one can also to Earth view to see all the
messier objects and pulsars,quasars,bright galaxies and radio sources plus the
constellations.

      The graphics of the simulation are quite stunning with good simulations
of the planet's faces including cloud patterns for the gas giants.

      The program is however quite expensive($195) but if you really want to
have the solar system at your finger tips this is the best program I have
seen.




                                        Don Platt (Platt_Don@CTSTATEU)
                                        Astronomy Department
                                        Western Ct. State Univesity
                                        Danbury, Ct.

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

X-Delivery-Notice:  SMTP MAIL FROM does not correspond to sender.
Date:    Tue, 5 Mar 91 12:58:13 MST
From: [e-mail] (CARY OLER)
Subject: MAJOR SOLAR FLARE ALERT #2 - 05 MARCH (VERY HIGH SOLAR ACTIVITY)
X-St-Vmsmail-To: st%"[e-mail]"

                        --  MAJOR SOLAR FLARE ALERT  --

                                MARCH 05, 1991
                                   Alert #2

                   ** WARNING - VERY HIGH SOLAR ACTIVITY **
                              Flare Event Summary
                           Potential Impact Forecast


                                    --------


MAJOR ENERGETIC EVENT SUMMARY

     Two more major X-class flares have erupted in the last 12 hours.  This
makes a total of six major energetic flares in about the last 24 hours.
Solar activity is VERY HIGH!

     A powerful class X2.0/3B flare exploded from Region 6438 at a location
of S21E86 at 09:14 UT on 05 March.  The flare began at 09:37 UT, peaked at
09:14 UT and ended at 10:16 UT.  No sweeps were observed from this event.

     A major flare erupted off the southeast limb from Region 6537 at a
location of S09E69 at 17:21 UT on 05 March.  This flare was rated a class
X1.4/2N flare.  It began at 17:15 UT, peaked at 17:21 UT and ended at 17:32
UT.  No sweeps were observed from this flare.

     Region 6438 is the largest and most complex region rotating into view
around the eastern limb.  This region is still too close to the limb to
discern any significant detail.  However, the frequency and power of the
recent flare activity is indicative of very high magnetic gradients and
complexity.  This region is expected to continue to produce major flares
and many X-class level flares over the next week.

     Region 6437 was somewhat of a surprise.  It is optically small and
seemingly simple.  However, it somehow managed to spawn a class X1.4/2N
major flare at 17:21 UT.  This event (and most of the others) was
associated with an intense short-duration SID/SWF.  Blackout conditions on
the HF bands occurred as high as 15 MHz.



POTENTIAL TERRESTRIAL IMPACT FORECAST

     Major flaring will continue for at least the next two to three days,
and possibly throughout the coming week.  High intensity SID's/SWF's will
occur in synchronism with these events.  SID durations could exceed 30 to
45 minutes in some of the more powerful events.  VHF SID-induced signal
enhancements are likely, with possible DX conditions for VHFers during
periods of SID activity.  Frequent SIDs are expected over the coming week.

     There is not expected to be any terrestrial impacts (ie. proton,
geomagnetic, etc.) from these recent flares.  They are still too far east.
Proton activity could increase (if flaring continues) within approximately
the next 4 to 8 days.  High probabilities for proton and PCA activity will
occur as Region 6438 crosses into the western hemisphere near 12/13 March,
provided major flaring continues for that long.

     Major Flare Alerts and/or updates will continue to be posted on a
daily basis throughout the coming week, or until activity diminishes.


**  End of Alert  **

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

End of SPACE Digest V13 #235
*******************