Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/pc/text/spacedig/v15_2/v15no260.txt

Internet Message Format | 1993-07-13 | 33KB

Date: Tue, 29 Sep 92 05:06:52
From: Space Digest maintainer <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Subject: Space Digest V15 #260
To: Space Digest Readers
Precedence: bulk


Space Digest                Tue, 29 Sep 92       Volume 15 : Issue 260

Today's Topics:
                      Clinton and Space Funding
                     FUTURES with Jaime Escalante
           Miscellaneous responses to hypersonic questions
 Nick Szabo Disinformation debunking (Re: Clinton and Space Funding)
                            Porous Silicon
                   Socialist myths about investment
         Wealth in Space (Was Re: Clinton and Space Funding)
           X-15 (was Re: Hypersonic test vehicle proposed)

    Welcome to the Space Digest!!  Please send your messages to
    "[e-mail]", and (un)subscription requests of the form
    "Subscribe Space <your name>" to one of these addresses: listserv@uga
    (BITNET), rice::boyle (SPAN/NSInet), utadnx::utspan::rice::boyle
    (THENET), or [e-mail] (Internet).
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 01:15:49 GMT
From: Jeff Privette <[e-mail]>
Subject: Clinton and Space Funding
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.astro,talk.politics.space,alt.politics.bush,alt.politics.clinton

In article <j8#[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Thomas H. Kunich) writes:
|> In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Gary Coffman) writes:
|> >
|> >Voodoo economics Nick. Most US military R&D is spent in the private

|> Might I suggest a short course in economics? Consider any money spent

...

|> If Clinton gets in it will all be pretty much done for anyway. His
|> tax policy coupled with his spend policy will bankrupt the U.S.A.
|> in 5 years instead of the predicted 10 and space exploration can
|> be carried out by what is left of Europe and Japan's industries.

Well Thomas, I'm no economist, but from your statements I see
*you* aren't either (despite your rightious knocking of Nick).
With the rash, unsubstantiated statements flying around here, however,
I guess I have as much right to talk out of my field as you do.
...but I won't.  What I will do, for the sake of those wanting
pro and con information from *professional* economists, is recommend
they pick up this week's edition of TIME magazine.

TIME interviewed a group of the nation's leading economists (gee, I didn't
see Thomas' name...) and asked them to comment on various aspects of
both Bush's and Clinton's economic plan.  As a sneak preview, *none*
of these professionals expressed the right-wing paranoia so beautifully
displayed by Thomas.  They did have some doubts about both Clinton's and
Bush's planned policies, however there was a slight majority consensus
that Clinton's would result in better long term growth.  Of course the
objective reader may choose to ignore the comments of talented professionals
and accept the statements of a single armchair quarterback (read "Thomas").
Weirder things have happened...


-Jeff

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

Date: 28 Sep 92 13:59:51 EDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: FUTURES with Jaime Escalante
Newsgroups: sci.space

X-Date: 28 Sep 92 13:50:47 EDT
X-Organization: PBS:Public Broadcasting Service, Alexandria, VA
Lines: 296

TO:     Education Liasons; School Media Specialists; ITV Coordinators
FR:     PBS Elementary/Secondary Service
RE:     Instructional Television Program: FUTURES
DT:     September 1, 1992


The following instructional television series will be broadcast on many
PBS stations during the 1992-'93 school year. Please contact the
Education Services Director at your local PBS station to find out exact
broadcast times if available. Simply E-mail [e-mail] if you need
the name and phone # of your local contact.

FUTURES with Jaime Escalante
 Math, Science,
 Careers
 Grades 7-12

SERIES DESCRIPTION

1.         TITLE             FUTURES WITH JAIME ESCALANTE

2.         NUMBER/LENGTH         12/15-Minute

3.         SUBJECT/GRADE LEVEL             Math, Science, Careers/Grades
                    7-12

4.         PRODUCER             Foundation for Advancements in
                    Science and Education

5.         PRODUCTION DATE         1990

6.         DESCRIPTION

CLOSED CAPTIONED FOR THE HEARING IMPAIRED

The award-winning FUTURES, hosted by famed-teacher Jaime
Escalante and his actual students, captures his innovative
teaching style (profiled in "STAND AND DELIVER").
Escalante's tremendous success is based on the fact that
students are usually better motivated when they can connect
what they are studying now to what they will be doing in the
future.  FUTURES is about how math relates to the working
world -- to careers and jobs.  It is designed to motivate
students to study math by showing them the many ways math is
used, and the opportunities and life-styles available to
those who have good math skills.

7.  PROGRAM TITLES

101: AGRICULTURE -- The world is faced with growing
populations and decreasing land availability.  But research
and technology may pave the way to meeting the increasing
food needs of the earth's population, using ecologically
sound methods. Students will see innovations in agricultural-
engineering, aqua-culture, hydroponics and farming in space,
as introduced by specialists--all of whom use mathematics to
"feed the future."
Learning Objectives:
* To introduce students to trends and people in modern
agriculture.
* To demonstrate practical applications of math in
agriculture.

102: AIRCRAFT DESIGN -- One of mankind's greatest
fascinations is with flying: from mythological Icarus making
wings of wax to the human powered Gossamer Albatross flying
over the English Channel, to the Voyager plane
circumnavigating the earth, non-stop, on one tankful of fuel.
Students will see that only through an understanding of math
could engineers design crafts that would stay in the air.
Former Blue Angel, Navy Lieutenant Commander Donnie Cochran
joins Escalante and his class and talks about the preparation
needed for a career in jet aviation.  Students will see how
some of the world's most unique aircraft are designed.
Learning Objectives:
* To familiarize students with many areas of aircraft design.
* To give students some practical math applications in the
area of flight, e.g. ratios.

103: ARCHITECTURE AND STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING -- The great
skylines of American cities are monuments to mathematics.
Structures, from skyscrapers to rollercoasters, are only
feasible because of mathematics in practice.  Pritzker Prize
award-winning architect Frank Gehry joins Escalante in this
program.  Viewers will go for a wild ride on Viper, Magic
Mountain's newest, most daring rollercoaster, and meet
Viper's designers, then go to New York City and meet Ysrael
Seinuk, one of America's preeminent structural
engineers, and Cooper Union's student engineers.
Learning Objectives:
* To familiarize students with architectural and structural
engineering, past, present and future.
* To show students basic math applications in the work place
of architects and structural engineers, e.g. geometric
shapes.

104: AUTOMOTIVE DESIGN -- The automobile is part of most
students' fantasy life and remains America's largest single
industry.  Indy 500 champion Danny Sullivan joins
Escalante and demonstrates the math concept of velocity,
leading to an exploration of the world of auto design and

engineering at General Motors Advanced Concept Center and Art
Center College of Design.  World famous race car designer
Nigel Bennett, encourages students to "get all the math and
physics you can" if you want to become involved in automotive
design.
Learning Objectives:
* To introduce students to the automotive design industry.
* To show students practical examples of mathematics in
designing and racing cars, e.g. velocity, distance/time.

105: CARTOGRAPHY -- Mapping is no longer limited to making a
record of the terrain of a region.  The rapidly growing
population of the earth has made necessary detailed studies
of the physical and social environment, ranging from
pollution and food production to energy resources.
Cartographers are also engaged in mapping the moon and other
planets.  The major math applications cartographers use are
scale,ratios, points, and coordinates.  The most important
tool used in cartography is the computer.  Actor Edward James
Olmos joins Escalante and Carlos Hagen-Lautrup, head of
UCLA's Bruman (map) Library as this segment explores state-
of-the-art mapping processes.
Learning Objectives:
* To familiarize students with the field of cartography.
* To show students math applications in many varied
cartographical areas of math, e.g. coordinates.

106: FASHION -- Most students relate to fashion and style,
but how many realize the importance of math in the creation,
manufacturing and marketing of clothing? According to
numerous fashion industry professionals, "all too few!" This
segment will follow fashion, from designer's drafting tables,
to manufacturing, buying and merchandising--demonstrating
"the mathematics of fashion." Actor Kadeem Hardison and top
model Cindy Crawford join Escalante and the students in
discovering the realities behind designing and marketing
"math" team jackets.
Learning Objectives:
* To introduce a behind-the-scenes look at a career in
fashion.
* To show through real interviews with specialists that math
is not only important it is  essential to success.  Math
applications include costing.

107: WATER-ENGINEERING -- It could be argued that water is
the most important element in our lives, but one which we
only stop to consider when there is too much (storms,
flooding) or when there is not enough (drought).  From coast
to coast, mathematics is vital to the management of water.
Film director James Cameron (The Abyss) joins Escalante to
explore the water supply from New York to California where
literally billions of gallons of water are needed daily.
Learning Objectives:
* To introduce students to the world of water control,
conservation and use.
* To show students practical math applications in the field
of hydro-engineering, e.g.  volume and rates of flow.

108: OPTICS -- Optics is the study of light and vision.  In
the future lasers and fiber optics will revolutionize
medicine, media and communications.  Students will see inside
AT&T Bell Laboratories, Lasermedia, and the University of
Arizona, Tucson, Optical Sciences Center where students meet
world famous astronomer Roger Angel. They'll see PacTel's
futuristic video telephone Video Window. They will also meet
world renowned photojournalist Mary Ellen Mark and
photographer J.P. Morgan.
Learning Objectives:
* To introduce students to the world of optics.
* To show students numerous math applications in the optics
field, e.g. fractions.

109: PUTTING MAN IN SPACE -- From that day in 1969 when man
first walked on the moon, the world has marveled at America's
dominance in space exploration.  We are now committed to
manning the first space station -- a remarkable
accomplishment of engineering and imagination.  Astronaut
Bonnie Dunbar joins Escalante to take students to Johnson
Space Center in Houston to demonstrate how math is
fundamental to the engineering that shapes our ability to
operate in outer space.  Students will get an inside look at
NASA's Mission Control, Weightless Environment Training
Facility, Flight Simulation and Robotics Laboratory. Learning
Objectives:
* To take students behind the scene of our nation's space
program in Houston.
* To introduce students to the various applications of math
and computers in the space program, e.g. balance and
equilibrium.

110: SOUND ENGINEERING -- Students love music, but it's a
long way from a songwriter's idea to listening to a hit tune
at home on your CD. The world of modern sound technology is
designed and built using the language of mathematics.
Students will travel behind the scenes to a rock concert,
recording studio, the world famous Hollywood Bowl, and the
film industry.  Students will meet Dr. Elizabeth Cohen, sound
acoustician for the Hollywood Bowl; Tom Holman, creator of
THX theater alignment; Dr. Amar Bose, Professor of Electrical
Engineering and Computer Sciences at MIT, and president and
founder of the Bose Corporation.
Learning Objectives:
* To introduce students to many areas of sound and the
diverse jobs available.
* To show students the need for "numeracy" in the field of
sound, e.g. sound waves, digital sound.

111: STATISTICS -- Everybody wants predictions about the
future. Statistics is the only way we know to confidently
project what could happen based on past results. The
increasing role of statistics in the census, in the music
industry, in marketing, politics, and sports will be
highlighted.  Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chairman of
President Bush's Council on Physical Fitness visits the
classroom to discuss the role of statistics in determining
the physical fitness of our nation's youth.
Learning Objectives:
* To show students that statistics (and statisticians) are
everywhere, affecting our lives.
* To introduce students to various math concepts, e.g.
sampling and projections.

112: SPORTS PERFORMANCE -- From the crack of the bat and the
curve of the ball, to sprinters, skateboarders and skiers,
athletic performance is being shaped by technological
innovation. Students will see mathematics being used at Santa
Cruz Skateboards, Nike, Dodger Stadium, Specialized Bicycles
and other venues. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Jackie Joyner-
Kersee join Escalante to explore the impact mathematics is
having on world class athletics.
Learning Objectives:
* To introduce students to the people and designers behind
sports.
* To show math applications in designing equipment for
athletics, e.g., parabola.

8.       RIGHTS INFORMATION

Broadcast Rights -- ITV broadcast requires an ITV Broadcast
License. License fees vary and are based on the total
K-12 enrollment of the schools in the area served.  ITV
Licenses grant unlimited school broadcast use for one year,
including ITFS, educational cable, and other closed circuit
means.  Call PBS E/SS at [phone] or FAX questions to
[phone].

School Off-Air Record and Use Rights -- Series licensees may
allow schools to record programs off-the-air and retain them
for use during the term of the license. Call E/SS at (703)
739-5402 if you have questions or FAX to [phone].

Videotape Duplication and Distribution Rights -- Duplication
rights will be available for an additional fee ($5 per
minute) from PBS Video, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria,
Virginia 22314, [phone].

Audio-Visual/Non-Broadcast Rights -- A-V and non-broadcast
videocassette rights for informational and educational
purposes are held by PBS Video, 1320 Braddock Place,
Alexandria, Virginia 22314, [phone].  Two individual
episodes on one tape are available for $60 in VHS and $100 in
3/4 inch format.  The entire series of 12
episodes may be purchased for $300 on VHS and $540 on 3/4
inch.

Foreign Rights -- The foreign rights are held by FASE, 4801
Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 215, Los Angeles, California 90010,
[phone].

9.         PRINT MATERIALS

An extensive 42-page Teacher's Guide (with an accompanying
colorful poster) is available for $3.00 each (plus 20%
shipping and handling).  A minimum order of 10 guides is
required.  Reprint rights are available to stations for $150.
State-wide rights are subject to negotiation.  The Teacher's
Guide contains individual program synopses, vocabulary
review, career resources, and three levels of suggested
activities for each program.  To order guides, contact the
PBS Elementary/Secondary Service, 1320 Braddock Place,
Alexandria, VA. 22314, [phone].

10.         FUNDING

Made possible with funding by ARCO, The Carnegie Corporation
of New York, IBM, and The Department of Energy.  Ronald
McDonald's Children's Charities underwrote the Teacher's
Guide and accompanying poster.
END

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

Date: 29 Sep 92 01:07:33 GMT
From: Josh 'K' Hopkins <[e-mail]>
Subject: Miscellaneous responses to hypersonic questions
Newsgroups: sci.space

"Why not use launch HALO from the <Aurora, or your favorite balck program>?"

    That's fairly simple.  We can't.  For all intents and purposes, top secret
stuff might as well not exist.  As long as various hardware stays classified,
it can't be used for a testbed, and we can't really even konw for sure if it
would be suited to the task.  I'm all for declassifying much of this stuff,
since I think it's mainly to keep it out of financial scrutiny, but until
that happens, you can't buy an Aurora.

   NOTE:  The hypersonic release test that someone eluded to does not refer
to secret aircraft.  This was a test of a drone (the M-12?) being released
from the SR-71.  Now that I think about it, maybe M-12 refers to the SR-71
modified for the drone.  Anyway, it's not secret stuff. While it may be
potentially dangerous, the ones who know way it can be done.


>I saw something on the X-15 on the discovery channel last night.
>they were talking about the last flight of the A-2 which got burned
>up and retired.  they said that budget constraints forced it's retirement
>not damage.  it was damaged, but not totalled.  also they siad that
>the damage was avoidable and that they could fix and work their way
>up to mach 8, maybe higher...  so to test scramjet technology.

My informationa says the A-2 was "damaged to an irreperable degree," but I
guess if you have enough cash, that's a matter of opinion.

>maybe we should look at dusting off some of those.  certainly cheaper
>then a whole new program,.  maybe it's old, but it's paid for
>and with budgets so tight, we cant be picky.

You'd need to do more that "dust off" thirty year old experimental
hardware to get me into it.  I'd be very skeptical about flying X-15's.
Besides, they aren't really suited to the task.

>does anyone know what the Vmax for the X-15 was?  what were the structural
>limits on the birds and engines?


Top speed was 4,519 mph (7,273 kph) acheived by William Knight.  I don't
know what the structural limits were, but it sounds like that was more
of a problem on landings than flight :-)

--
Josh Hopkins                                          [e-mail]
     The views expresed above do not necessarily reflect those of
ISDS, UIUC, NSS, IBM FSC, NCSA, NMSU, AIAA or the American Association for the
                      Advancement of Acronymphomaniacs

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

Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 00:52:00 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Nick Szabo Disinformation debunking (Re: Clinton and Space Funding)
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Thomas H. Kunich) writes...
>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
>>
>>I can't believe I just read this. Eco-political considerations will keep
>>fission out of near-earth space. If you've got fusion, you've got fusion for
>>everywhere, unless I'm grossly missing something on the byproducts of a fusion
>>plant verses the neuroticism which must go into place to make sure a fission
>>plant doesn't end up in the atmosphere.
>
>You don't _have_ fusion. For here or anywhere else.  We _may_ have
>fission drive, but just. And it's about as easy to do as colonize
>the Mariannas Trench.
>
>Fission drive is at least understood. Fusion is Big Science's way
>to more money.
>
Fission drive has been fully tested and flight qualified. It was abandoned
shortly thereafter. NERVA was to supplant the S III stage on the saturn V
for Apollo twenty, upping the delivered payload to the moon to 98 tons,
from the baseline Saturn V's 48 tons. Not bad, not bad. There were
movies of the test of the Nerva at the World Space Congress.  It was a
completely successful full power 265 minute or hour I forget which test. Do
you remember Bill?
d
Dennis, University of Alabama in Huntsville

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

Date: 28 Sep 92 22:56:26 GMT
From: Roger Arnold <[e-mail]>
Subject: Porous Silicon
Newsgroups: sci.energy,sci.space

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Howard Smith) writes:
> The  "cold-fusion" syndrome seems to be back. On page 33  of  the
> September  22  issue of Electronic Engineering Times there  is  a
> report  of a photovoltaic cell which measures 97% efficient.  Re-
> searchers  at  the State University of New York  (SUNY)  reported
> this phenomenon while experimenting with a new material known  as
> porous silicon - single crystal silicon etched in 46% solution of
> hydrofluoric acid with a current passing through it.
>
> The  material  also  acts a light-emitting  diode  when  reverse-
> biased.
> [..]

I haven't seen the EE Times article, but it sounds very much like
something I read about elsewhere--sorry, don't remember where, but
it was recent.

The article I read mentioned very high conversion efficiency for
current -> photons.  I don't recall that it said anything about
conversion the other way.  But there didn't seem to be anything
fundamentally irreversable about the conversion process, so the 97%
figure that you cite doesn't seem out of the question.  However..

The catch is that the 97% figure would only apply to point source
illumination at the single frequency for which the device was
physically configured.  You might be able to achieve a record solar
conversion efficiency by creating a spectrum of solar images, falling
onto a graded strip of these devices.  You might even come close to
the 80% that is the approximate thermodynamic limit.  But it wouldn't
be cheap, or practical for large scale use.

The real promise of these devices would appear to be for power
beaming.  I gather that the emitted light is similar to a laser beam,
in that it can be perfectly collimated.  If the conversion efficiency
is really as high as 97% in both directions, it would make a fine way
to power electric rockets on deep space probes.

--
Roger Arnold
[e-mail]

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

Date: 29 Sep 92 01:35:19 GMT
From: Nick Szabo <[e-mail]>
Subject: Socialist myths about investment
Newsgroups: sci.space,misc.invest,alt.politics.marrou,alt.politics.libertarian

>>[Chevron planning Siberian oil & gas field investments out to
>> 2030, debunking socialist myth about the market's "short-term
>> orientation]

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Gary Coffman) writes:

>Chevron, and other utilities and quasi-utilities do make long range
>investments, but the overall risks are low and well understood.

They are well understood, for the most part.  They are not low, as
you yourself note the high rate of dry holes -- sometimest whole fields
end up dry.  There are also less-well understood risks, such as the
political climate in Russia.  (Or in the U.S.!)

This doesn't stop them when the product they are after is useful,
people will be it, and they'll make money.  It should stop
them when there is little desirable product or service, like the projects
you are promoting.

>When the risks of space exploitation reach similarly low and well understood
>levels, there won't be a problem with investor owned utilities working
>in space. Comsats have already reached that point.

Were comsats at that point in 1962, when AT&T had invested over $300
million ($92) of its own money, and Hughes a big chunk of its own
money, before NASA stepped in and claimed credit and Congress forced
AT&T out of the business?  One wonders why comsats reached that
point so quickly, while we've spent $100's of billions on astronaut
projects and space stations that never have.  It must be "short-term
thinking" to spend money wisely and do something useful.

>Nowhere has anyone yet hit a gusher in space that justifies
>a lot of dry holes.

In fact, we are learning about the Jupiter-family comets, which will
be the oilfields of the 21st century, fueling the cargo rockets
plying between the planets major and minor.  It's just that
NASA and most space fandom is living back in the 1960's,
when socialism was the utopia and the space program the epitomy of
the glories of socialism, and who gave a damn if it was useful.
Too many still live under the delusion that NASA is providing a
rational vision for space development.  It should be commerce, or at
least an applications and business orientation, providing the leadership,
not a washed-up "vision" of yesteryear that has already squandered
$100's of billions from our treasury.

>Governments, though subject to year to year political infighting, can
>make long range high risk commitments since they aren't required to
>show a quarterly profit to their investors, the taxpayer.
And indeed, we have $100's of billions worth of failures, and practically
no commercial successes, to show for this risk-taking.  How is this
supposed to be good?

>Since most
>space exploitation projects don't have short timeframes on their returns,
>venture capitalists tend to avoid them.

This is nonsense.  VC's regularly invest in biotech companies where
revenue doesn't start coming in until 10-15 years after the investment,
if the drug doesn't fail completely, eg to get FDA approval.


--
[e-mail]        Tuesday, November third  ##  Libertarian  $$  vote
Tuesday  ^^ Libertarian  --  change  **  choice && November 3rd @@Libertarian

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

Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 00:44:00 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Wealth in Space (Was Re: Clinton and Space Funding)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.astro,talk.politics.space,alt.politics.bush,alt.politics.clinton

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] writes...
>In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] writes:
>
>>Nick, Nick, Nick, don't you ever read the reports about recently discovered
>>near Earth Asteroids?  There is one of the found in 1987 (I forgot the
>>designator) that is confirmed by albedo and spectral studies to be nickel
>>iron, as are about 10% of all meteorites found on earth.  The size of this
>>asteroid is about 1.7 miles by .8 miles.  It was estimated in the
>>article that I read, that based upon similar fractions found in metorites on
>>the earth of that type, that there was approximately 90 billion dollars worth
>>of gold and 1 trillion dollars worth of Platinum, give or take a few million.
>
>That's before you bring it home. Actual price of gold and platinum on earth
>would drop, ASSUMING you can bring home the metals for a price less than or
>equal to the price of extracting them using current and near-term methods.
>
>Basic laws of supply and demand. More goods, prices drop.
>
>I dunno, maybe everyone could have gold-plated fixtures in their bathrooms? :)
>
>> From the day of the first contract
>>to the moving out to Pad 39, it was only five years for the first Apollo.
>>We can do it IF we have the will.
>
>If it is deemed necessary, sure. So far, it hasn't. Same reason why we haven't
>built powersats or space colonies or anything else up in the sky. No need.
>
>
>                 Play in the intelluctual sandbox of Usenet
>
>  -- >                  [e-mail]                        < --

Check out your chemistry books. platinum is one of the best if not the best
chemical catalyst in existence. We use a little in every Catalytic converter
on every car in the first world.  A Brinks truck comes into a factory near
Huntsville every week with a shipment of platinum for the catalytic converters
made here.  Platinum is used in many industrial processes. (Some smart
researcher here should give us a breakdown). It would be wonderful if the
price of platinum would drop by a factor of 10. Then there would only be
100 billion dollars worth on the asteriod BUT consumption would go way up and
some industrial processes would become more efficient due to the new cost
effectiveness of using the lower cost patinum.  Therefore demand would
increase greatly, while lowering the cost of our overall industrial process.
If this were an American enterprise, this could put our basic industries
that rely on platinum based catalytic processes to become more cost
competitive on a world basis, which would help ease our balance of payments
burden and begin to bring terrestrial wealth back into this nation. Not a
bad deal actually.

What about gold? Well if the price dropped by a factor of ten, there would
only be nine billion dollars worth of gold. Well that puts gold at a price
in the $30-$40 dollar range. This would bring much more demand for gold,
especially in electronics packaging which is where the majority of gold
is used today.  This lowering of cost, if an American enterprise would make
our electronics industry more competitive on a global basis, therefore
bringing more wealth into this nation, creating jobs for the educated, and
providing money for needed social services as well as for the bread and
circuses crowd in Congress.  Not a bad deal actually.

I haven't mentioned the Nickel and Iron that makes up the vast majority of
the asteroid.  There is probably a couple of trillion tons of smelter grade
nickel/iron (read steel) available on that one asteriod.  What would this
do? It would effectively end all iron importation to the United States,
(We mine very little these days ourselves). This would help in our
balance of payments.  Also, the vast quantity of material could be used
in places where it is not cost effective to do so today, such as in the
primary structures of bridges and buildings. Stainless steel, which this
material basically is, would last five hundred years between needed replacement
on bridges in the Northeastern US and Europe, vastly lowering maintance
and replacement costs for our interstates. (Remember that a recent estimate
placed this cost in the 200 billion dollar range in the next 20 years).
This of course would free up billions to be used for bread and circuses as
well as to buy back our country from the Japanese and other foreigners. Not
a bad deal for ONE asteroid.

Then after all of these goodies, a much larger fraction of the American
people would have the wealth to buy gold plated bathroom fixtures.

Not a bad deal really

Dennis, University of Alabama in Huntsville

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

Date: 29 Sep 92 03:56:53 GMT
From: "John A. Weeks III" <[e-mail]>
Subject: X-15 (was Re: Hypersonic test vehicle proposed)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.aeronautics

In <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Pat):
> I saw something on the X-15 on the discovery channel last night.  they were
> talking about the last flight of the A-2 which got burned up and retired.

That was the premier episode of "Frontiers of Flight", which will run
weekly on Discovery at 8CST on Saturdays.  Each show will focus on a plane
in the NASM collection.

The X-15 show was very good.  I especially enjoyed Scott Crossfield's
comments.  After one early flight failure, Scott was describing how the
rocket engine exploded and blew off part of the rear of the X-15.  This
forced an immedieate landing, too soon to dump all of the fuel.  The heavy
landing caused the X-15 to break just behind the cockpit.  To sum things
up, Scott said that they had two failures on that flight.  First, the engine
blew up, and second, the aircraft broke in two.

Early X-15 flights were unpowered glide tests with the X-15 being dropped
from the B-52 at about 30,000 feet.  Total glide time was just over 3 minutes.
Scott commented that his `check out flight', the time he was allotted to
learn to fly and land the X-15, lasted all of 3 minutes 37 seconds.

An orgainzation of glider fans once sent Scott Crossfield a polished brick.
Scott said that he did not realize it at the time, but that he apparently
set a record for the shortest time for a glider to descend from 30,000 feet
to landing.  To the best of his knowlege, he still holds this record today.

Frontiers of Flight showed a few seconds of footage of the X-15 engine
explosion on the static test stand at Edwards.  Crossfield said that he had
a slightly ominous feeling while he was climbing into the airplane and
everyone else was heading for the block house bunkers.  About the explosion,
he said it was the largest noise he ever heard in his life.  One engineer
at North American calculated that Crossfield experienced a force of 150 G's
during the explosion.

-john-

--
==============================================================================
John A. Weeks III        [phone]            [e-mail]
Newave Communications, Ltd.                ..!uunet!tcnet!newave!john

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

End of Space Digest Volume 15 : Issue 260
------------------------------