Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/pc/text/spacedig/v15_2/v15no274.txt

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Date: Sat,  3 Oct 92 17:02:46
From: Space Digest maintainer <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Subject: Space Digest V15 #274
To: Space Digest Readers
Precedence: bulk


Space Digest                Sat,  3 Oct 92       Volume 15 : Issue 274

Today's Topics:
                "Hearing" meteors with your FM radio?
                   (Repost) NASA Langley Open House
                   another sad anniversary (3 msgs)
                             Blue Danube
                      Clinton and Space Funding
              Controversy over V-2 anniversary (2 msgs)
                    ephemeris data for NOAA  sats
                      Galileo Update - 10/01/92
                          Laser Space Mirror
                      Magellan Update - 10/01/92
                     Mars Observer orbit (2 msgs)
                           Military funding
                       NASA Langley Open House
                       Psalms from outer space?
                   Socialist myths about investment
                    Spinoffs...political, not R&D
             Toutatis impact in 2000 AD? (was Re: Help !)
         Wealth in Space (Was Re: Clinton and Space Funding)

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Subject: "Hearing" meteors with your FM radio?
Newsgroups: sci.space

Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
From: Dave Jones <[e-mail]>
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 15:19:06 GMT
Sender: [e-mail]
References: <[e-mail]>
Organization: :noitazinagrO
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Source-Info:  Sender is really [e-mail]
Source-Info:  Sender is really [e-mail]

robert.f.casey ([e-mail]) wrote:
: Last night, my downstairs neighbor in my apartment complex left their
: bathroom vent fan running all night, and it makes an annoying low
: frequency rumble.  Figured I could mask it some with some white noise
: using my FM clock radio tuned to an empty frequency.  Occasionally,
: I would hear a station fade in, become clear, then fade out, all in
: about 10 seconds.  I once saw, many years ago, a short blurb in Sky
: & Telescope (an astronomy mag) using your FM broadcast receiver and
: a directional antenna tuned to a station normally out of range to
: observe meteors.  I suppose I accidently observed meteors last night
: (Sept 30th).

Possibly, although short-lived phenomena in the ionosphere, such as
"sporadic-E" (transient formation of ion clouds in the E layer) also
have an effect on long-distance reception of VHF signals.  UK hobbyists
used to use this to pick up USSR TV broadcasts.

--
||)) There is no truth to the rumor that:)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))|
||)) Lotus are suing Apple for copying the look and feel of their lawsuits )|
||))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))|
||Dave Jones ([e-mail]) | Eastman Kodak Co. Rochester, NY   |

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

Date: Thu, 01 Oct 92 15:21:11 GMT
From: "Patrick S. Golden" <[e-mail]>
Subject: (Repost) NASA Langley Open House
Newsgroups: sci.space

NASA Langley Open House October 17, 1992

The public is invited to help NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton,
Va. celebrate its 75th anniversary with an open house  Saturday October
17, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.  Visitors will see dynamic flight simulators, tour
real wind tunnels where future aircraft concepts are being tested, see the
futuristic HL-20 "space taxi," see a dozen different displays, including
space exploration, future cockpit and windshear avoidance, and see
laboratories for structures, acoustics, robotics and more.  Come to the
birthplace of America's aeronautics and space programs and see the
facilities that have put Langley in the forefront of aerospace technology for
75 years.  Admission if free.
--
|-------------------------------|
|++Patrick Golden++             |
|Virginia Space Grant Consortium|
|Hampton, VA  23666             |

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

Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 15:52:06 GMT
From: Henry Spencer <[e-mail]>
Subject: another sad anniversary
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Scott Fisher) writes:
>How do you save money by turning off a spacecraft or an instrument on the moon,
>is someone charging for the bandwith they take up in the electromagnetic
>spectrum? :-)

You save money by stopping control and data collection activities here on
Earth.  At which point you have a choice:  leave the transmitters on,
perhaps to interfere with future space activities, or turn them off.
The usual choice is to turn them off.

>... Why not get some amatures/groups
>around the world to take on the projects?

For most of these things, amateurs simply do not have the resources to
make any useful contribution.  DSN's antennas are *not* small and their
receivers are *not* cheap; I doubt very much that the best amateur setup
on Earth could get any useful data back from Magellan, quite apart from
the problem of doing anything with it afterward (those pretty radar maps
require very large amounts of computing).

Bear in mind, also, that you get useful data back only with a team of
specialists keeping an eye on the spacecraft and telling it what to do.
Especially for ailing birds like Magellan that have to be nursed along
carefully.

Mostly, this sort of thing is just an order of magnitude beyond what
could be done informally.  The number of organizations which have the
equipment and technical expertise is extremely small, and they all have
their own work to do.

The Apollo lunar instruments might have been an exception.  They weren't
complex, they were mostly just sitting there sending data, and they were
close enough that a *really good* amateur setup might have been able to
receive from them.  Continued operation just might have been within reach
of amateur efforts, barely.
--
There is nothing wrong with making      | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
mistakes, but... make *new* ones. -D.Sim|  [e-mail]  utzoo!henry

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

Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 15:40:37 GMT
From: Henry Spencer <[e-mail]>
Subject: another sad anniversary
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Michael V. Kent) writes:
>Why on earth did they turn them off?  Maybe stop listening for a while, but
>why turn them off?  What if they had wanted to listen again sometime in the
>future?

The normal rule is to switch them off while you still can.  They would die
eventually, and if the receiver dies first, then the transmitter stays in
whatever state it was left in (probably).  There is concern about spectrum
pollution from transmitters that can't be shut off.
--
There is nothing wrong with making      | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
mistakes, but... make *new* ones. -D.Sim|  [e-mail]  utzoo!henry

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

Date: Thursday, 1 Oct 1992 11:31:31 MST
From: [e-mail]
Subject: another sad anniversary
Newsgroups: sci.space

Why were the Apollo seismometers turned off as opossed to simply not listening
to them anymore?  I don't see how turning them off would save any momey.
Furthermore, the latter option would have provided the opportunity to have
listened in later if money became available.
                                           Nathan Bridges
                                           Menlo Park, CA

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

Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 21:39:51 GMT
From: Dillon Pyron <[e-mail]>
Subject: Blue Danube
Newsgroups: sci.space

I'm sitting here on hold to DEC CSC, listening to the Blue Danube Waltz on
their hold music.  For some strange reason, I have visions of sleek Pan Am
(RIP) 'liners slowly spinning across a starfield.  Have I gone nuts, or should
I put up my 2001 tape for a while?
--
Dillon Pyron                      | The opinions expressed are those of the
TI/DSEG Lewisville VAX Support    | sender unless otherwise stated.
[phone] (when I'm here)     |
[phone] (when I'm home)     |"Repay kindness from a stranger by kindness
[e-mail]          | to another stranger."
PADI DM-54909

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

Date: 1 Oct 92 16:08:25 GMT
From: Michael Wallis <[e-mail]>
Subject: Clinton and Space Funding
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.astro,talk.politics.space,alt.politics.bush,alt.politics.clinton

[e-mail] (Gary Coffman) writes:

> Dennis, we are planning to return to the Moon, though that depends a
> lot on the outcome of the current political race. However, we're not
> yet ready for a new Hudson's Bay Company. We still need a few more of
> those dreaded *scientific* missions to tell us the lay of the land.
> My understanding of the Lunar Prospector was that it was to be such
> a scientific spy mission.
>
> The Hudson's Bay Company is not a bad model for Lunar development.
> It had a government franchise and private funding. The question is,
> what will be the lunar equivalent of beaver pelts? We need to know
> that before we can mount a significant commercial venture.

The advantage the "company of gentlemen explorers" had is that the
territory had been explored a bit and they knew there was something there
of value. We are NOT at the point where they were when they started. We'll
need a lot more lunar exploration before we're there, both manned and
robotic. ANY start in that direction is a good start.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Wallis -> [e-mail]

PLAN:   Live fast, die young, leave a neat corpse.
        Oh ... I'm too old to die young?     Rats!

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

Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 16:16:48 GMT
From: Frank Crary <[e-mail]>
Subject: Controversy over V-2 anniversary
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
>Well, one of the main purposes of the Rome Treaty was to make European
>countries economies so inter-related to make war in Europe impossible.
>A union will be even better (remember that Virginia and Mariland were
>very close to war in the colonial period...)

Actually, the only thing Virginia and Maryland ever came close to was a
_trade_ war (e.g. heavily taxing each other's exports...)

                                                         Frank Crary
                                                         CU Boulder

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

Date: Thu, 1 Oct 92 21:20:34 BST
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Controversy over V-2 anniversary

> of the celebration yesterday. It was replaced by a minor
commemorative
> meeting with technical lectures, but also presentations of the
negative
> aspects of the V-2 as weapon in WWII.
>


I've been watching this in the papers. I find it sad that there is
such a fuss over a weapon that killed 3000 people in the UK... and
yet there is a statue to "Bomber Harris", a man who could go down in
history as one of the great mass murderers of WWII. His tactic of
night time random bombing of civilians killed orders of magnitude
more people than anything that happened at Penemunde, EVEN if there
were slave laborers killed there. Which is more callous: shooting a
conscript worker in the head or intentionally firebombing random
residential and business areas*. If there is a moral difference, I
sure as hell don't see it.

The bombing of Dresden was one of the greatest crimes against
humanity in history. I put it in the same class as Auschwitz. Even
the bombing of Hiroshima had an alibi: it did indeed make a costly
(in american lives) invasion unnecessary and ended the war in short
order. One can at least debate on that question. But Dresden was mass
bombed by thousands of planes, day and night, for no better reason
than to experiment to see if a fire storm would occur as theory
predicted. I would put it's planners in the same category as Dr.
Mengele, except he was a piker by comparison. His brutal experiments
only killed hundreds. The planners of Dresden killed about 100,000
innocents and got away scot free. They KNEW there were tens of
thousands of refugees were in the city and that there were only
trivial military targets in the city. It was done intentionally.

Only the war criminals on the losing side got the end of a rope that
they so richly deserved. The winners got medals for their atrocities.
An exception was some of the Japanese who were coopted by the
victors** and are still in influential positions...


Methinks they doth protest to much...


* The US carried out a similar project in Japan but had the partial
excuse that the industry was widely dispersed as cottage industry,
which was not the case in Europe. Zeroes were manufactured almost as
home industry and stopping this required razing up to 75% (or more)
of every city in Japan. I think they should have had to justify it in
an international court. Maybe they could have. I really don't know.

And of course, the Luftwaffe attacked London and other cities
(including Belfast). A little known fact is that the RAF bombed a
German city first. It was a ploy of Churchill to get the erratic
Hitler to fly off the handle and do something stupid. Up until that
time Goering was focusing the Lufwaffe on reducing the RAF bases and
aircraft manufacturing. After the British attack Hitler went berserk
and ordered the retaliation against London which put the Luftwaffe
into nice predicatable air corridors where the RAF had a chance to
decimate them. A gamble that won. It also had the effect of
stiffening some upper lips in London. Churchill was as ruthless as
they came. He counted on causing the bombing of his own people, but
England probably would not have survived without him. However, none
of this justified the leveling of German cities after the tide began
to turn.


** The US did not prosecute certain individuals involved in the
testing of biological warfare in China in which some US airmen are
said to have been used as the guinea pigs for Anthrax infections. The
experimental data was quietly taken over by the OSS. There was a bit
of a flap about this roughly ten years ago, but it seems to have been
forgotten again.

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

Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 18:23:00 GMT
From: Tommy Gilgan <[e-mail]>
Subject: ephemeris data for NOAA  sats
Newsgroups: sci.space

I am looking for a source for ephemeris data for the NOAA polar orbiting
satelittes. Any leads  as to the availability, or information on
this data would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks for ANY information on this topic,

Tom Gilgan
[e-mail]

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

Date: 2 Oct 92 06:18:37 GMT
From: Ron Baalke <[e-mail]>
Subject: Galileo Update - 10/01/92
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.astro,alt.sci.planetary

Forwarded from Neal Ausman, Galileo Mission Director

                                 GALILEO
                     MISSION DIRECTOR STATUS REPORT
                               POST-LAUNCH
                     September 25 - October 1, 1992

SPACECRAFT

1.  On September 28, a NO-OP command was sent to reset the command loss timer
to 264 hours, its planned value for this mission phase.

2.  The AC/DC bus imbalance measurements exhibited some change.  The AC
measurement increased 2DN and reads 16 DN (3.7 volts).  The DC measurement
has ranged from 128 DN (15.0 volts) to 135 DN (15.8 volts) and now reads
134 DN (15.7 volts).  These measurement variations are consistent with the
model developed by the AC/DC special anomaly team.

3.  The Spacecraft status as of October 1, 1992, is as follows:

       a)  System Power Margin -  68 watts
       b)  Spin Configuration - Dual-Spin
       c)  Spin Rate/Sensor - 3.15rpm/Star Scanner
       d)  Spacecraft Attitude is approximately 4 degrees
           off-sun (leading) and 24 degrees off-earth (lagging)
       e)  Downlink telemetry rate/antenna-40 bps (coded)/LGA-1
       f)  General Thermal Control - all temperatures within
           acceptable range
       g)  RPM Tank Pressures - all within acceptable range
       h)  Orbiter Science- UVS, EUV, DDS, MAG, EPD, and HIC are
           powered on
       i)  Probe/RRH - powered off, temperatures within
           acceptable range
       j)  CMD Loss Timer Setting - 264 hours
           Time To Initiation - 192 hours


UPLINK GENERATION/COMMAND REVIEW AND APPROVAL:

1.  The EE-9 (Earth-Earth #9) final sequence and command generation package
was approved by the Project on September 29, 1992.  This sequence covers
spacecraft activities from November 23, 1992 to December 5, 1992.


TRAJECTORY

     As of noon Thursday, October 1, 1992, the Galileo Spacecraft trajectory
status was as follows:

    Distance from Earth         43,166,200 miles (.46 AU)
    Distance from Sun           129,476,400 miles (1.39 AU)
    Heliocentric Speed           59,800 miles per hour
    Distance from Jupiter        625,618,900 miles
    Round Trip Light Time        7 minutes, 50 seconds

SPECIAL TOPIC

1.  As of October 1, 1992, a total of 8231 real-time commands have been
transmitted to Galileo since Launch.  Of these, 3282  were pre-planned in
the sequence design and 4949 were not. In the past week, 1 real time command
was transmitted and pre-planned in the sequence design.  In addition, 5677
mini-sequence commands have been transmitted since March 1991; 3519 were
pre-planned and 2158 were not. In the past week, no mini-sequence commands
were transmitted.  Major command activities this week included commands to
reset the command loss timer.
     ___    _____     ___
    /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|     Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
    | | | |  __ \ /| | | |     Jet Propulsion Lab |
 ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |__   M/S 525-3684 Telos | Einstein's brain is stored
/___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /| Pasadena, CA 91109 | in a mason jar in a lab
|_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/                     | in Wichita, Kansas.

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

Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 15:58:02 GMT
From: Henry Spencer <[e-mail]>
Subject: Laser Space Mirror
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Ralph Buttigieg) writes:
>2) What would be the best way to convert the infra-red light back to
>electricity?

There is no terribly good way.  If you're willing to go for slightly shorter
wavelengths, solar cells are surprisingly efficient for laser reception,
because you can tune them for the exact wavelength involved.  I've heard
numbers circa 50%.  This is still pitiful compared to microwave rectennas,
mind you.

>3) How efficiant would the total system be? Especially compared to current
>ground based power transmission?

For distances where ground transmission is currently practical, this just
wouldn't be competitive.  The big problem is one you missed:  the *laser*
is terribly inefficient.  20% is an impressively efficient laser at present,
although I understand that free-electron lasers have the potential to be
rather better.

>4) Is anyone working on such a scheme?

People have looked at doing this sort of thing using microwaves, where the
losses are much lower.  There has been some study of using lasers to beam
power down from powersats.  I don't think anyone has looked seriously at
lasers for Earth-to-Earth transmission.
--
There is nothing wrong with making      | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
mistakes, but... make *new* ones. -D.Sim|  [e-mail]  utzoo!henry

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

Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 03:18:47 GMT
From: Ron Baalke <[e-mail]>
Subject: Magellan Update - 10/01/92
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.astro,alt.sci.planetary

Forwarded from the Magellan Project

                      MAGELLAN STATUS REPORT
                         October 1, 1992

1.  Magellan continues to operate normally, performing a
    starcal (star calibration) and desat (desaturation of
    the reaction wheels) on every orbit.

2.  The transmitter continues to peak at 55 degrees C, with a
    thermal cycle of 1.4 deg.

3.  The present mission cycle offers the unique opportunity to
    observe the periapsis of Magellan's orbit for 243 days,
    one full rotation of Venus.  Since the gravitational
    effects on the orbit are governed by the "Inverse Square
    Law," that the force of gravity is proportional the the
    masses (of Venus and the spacecraft) and inversely
    proportional to the square of the distance between them,
    the low portion of the orbits is the best for measuring
    the gravity variations.

4.  Magellan came out of the last period of periapsis
    occultations at the end of Cycle 3.  This also provided a
    unique opportunity for atmospheric scientists because,
    just as the low part of the orbit became "visible" to the
    DSN (Deep Space Network) tracking stations, the radio signal
    was passing through the atmosphere of Venus.  Fluctuations
    in the signal provided a measure of density variations in the
    atmosphere.

5.  These measurements will complement data from the Pioneer-
    Venus Orbiter, which is dipping into the upper atmosphere
    of Venus on a "death spiral" which is expected to end in
    December.

6.  Tomorrow, October 2nd, Tommy Thompson will present a
    "Brown Bag" Seminar on "Radar Studies of the Moon,"
    describing earth-based radar observations of the world's
    natural satellite.  This presentation was postponed from
    Sept. 25 due to the press conference which followed the
    Mars Observer launch.
     ___    _____     ___
    /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|     Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
    | | | |  __ \ /| | | |     Jet Propulsion Lab |
 ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |__   M/S 525-3684 Telos | Quiet people aren't the
/___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /| Pasadena, CA 91109 | only ones who don't say
|_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/                     | much.

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

Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 17:59:58 GMT
From: Steve Collins <[e-mail]>
Subject: Mars Observer orbit
Newsgroups: sci.space

The orbital elements for MO will probably not make much sense to
software designed for earth orbiting spacecraft, since MO is moving faster
than escape velocity. At this point, MO is best thought of as orbiting
the sun. I will ask the nav guys about computing Ra and Dec from earth
and post the results. Come to think of it, one of our attitude tools
might give the information, because in outer cruise, we point the
spacecraft back at the Earth.... I can tell you that to first order, we
are departing the earth along the Earth's velocity vector about the sun,
since the transfer orbit is close to a Hoama Homman elipse.
                 steve collins MO Spacecraft Team (AACS)
?

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

Date: 1 Oct 92 21:58:11 GMT
From: Henry Spencer <[e-mail]>
Subject: Mars Observer orbit
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Steve Collins) writes:
>The orbital elements for MO will probably not make much sense to
>software designed for earth orbiting spacecraft, since MO is moving faster
>than escape velocity. At this point, MO is best thought of as orbiting
>the sun. I will ask the nav guys about computing Ra and Dec from earth...

Some of us actually have software designed for interplanetary trajectories,
believe it or not.  Please give us heliocentric elements, *not* Ra and Dec.
We can compute Ra and Dec ourselves if we know where the thing is.

(I suppose we could always ask you for several sets of Ra/Dec data and
then do an orbit determination, but it seems kind of silly.)
--
There is nothing wrong with making      | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
mistakes, but... make *new* ones. -D.Sim|  [e-mail]  utzoo!henry

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

Date: Thu, 01 Oct 92 08:34:04 PDT
From: Jim Bowery <[e-mail]>
Subject: Military funding
Newsgroups: sci.space


>As I stated in my previous post.  Until the programs are set up to
>orderly divert the money to another R and D effort, it should stay in
the
>military budget where at least it is going some good.

The only other D effort the present military money should go to is one
that creates tax incentives for private investment in D.

Comparing civilian government D to defense government D demonstrates
that civilian government D is DESTRUCTIVE to the advacement of
technology.

The economic multiplier of such government civilian D investment is
NEGATIVE and profoundly so.

In essence, every dollar spent on civilian government D, as opposed to
commercial D or military government D, is a dollar spent waging war
against the incentives for technological leadership.

--
INTERNET:  [e-mail] (Jim Bowery)
UUCP:   ...!ryptyde!netlink!jim
NetLink Online Communications * Public Access in San Diego, CA [phone]

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

Date: Thu, 01 Oct 92 15:02:02 GMT
From: "Patrick S. Golden" <[e-mail]>
Subject: NASA Langley Open House
Newsgroups: sci.space

NASA Langley Open House October 17, 1992

--
|-------------------------------|
|++Patrick Golden++             |
|Virginia Space Grant Consortium|
|Hampton, VA  23666             |

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

Date: 1 Oct 92 08:12:10 GMT
From: Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey <[e-mail]>
Subject: Psalms from outer space?
Newsgroups: sci.space

Trivia time:

A friend has stumped me with the following question:

>  Which Psalm was it that was read from space by an astronaut?
>My mom was wondering  (she guessed Psalm 8).

The best I can come up with is that some passages from Genesis were
read byt the Apollo 8 crew on Christmas in 1968, but I have no record
that they read Psalms or any other part of the Bible.

Can anybody do better than this?

     O~~*           /_) ' / /   /_/ '  ,   ,  ' ,_  _           \|/
   - ~ -~~~~~~~~~~~/_) / / /   / / / (_) (_) / / / _\~~~~~~~~~~~zap!
 /       \                          (_) (_)                    / | \
 |       |     Bill Higgins   Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
 \       /     Bitnet:     [e-mail]
   -   -       Internet:  [e-mail]
     ~         SPAN/Hepnet:      43011::HIGGINS

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

Date: 1 Oct 92 12:19:29 GMT
From: Gary Coffman <ke4zv!gary>
Subject: Socialist myths about investment
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Henry Spencer) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Gary Coffman) writes:
>>...the pioneers often go broke and it is those who stand on their shoulders
>>who profit. You are like someone belittling Goddard because it was
>>Von Braun who capitalized on his work...
>
>Although I agree with Gary's general point, this is a poor example.  The
>early practical development of rockets in both Germany and the US did not
>owe much to Goddard except a few bits of basic concept and inspiration,
>because Goddard published hardly anything about his later work.  Von Braun
>drew much more on the early experimental work of the VfR -- which he was
>personally involved in -- than on Goddard's more advanced but little-known
>efforts.

I had the impression from reading several histories of rocketry that
Goddard and Oberth carried on a lively correspondence through the
BIS. Thus I assumed that Von Braun benefited from Goddard's work.
I'm not suggesting that the V2 was a lineal descendant of Goddard's
little rockets, just that various  "tricks of the trade" passed
between the two. If that's wrong, I'd like to know.

Gary

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

Date: Thu, 01 Oct 92 19:01:14 EDT
From: Tom <[e-mail]>
Subject: Spinoffs...political, not R&D

>The truth is, I am personally not voting on a single issue.

Neither am I!  I think the whole field is ridiculous, and a complete
waste of time! :-) :-) :-)

>If you want to argue about ethics and values, I'll refer you to Tommy
>:-)

Oh, no you don't.  Arguing with me about ethics is bad.  Takes too much
time.  Causes zits, and ring around the collar...

-Tommy Mac                     .  "                  +
.------------------------  +                      *       +
|   Tom McWilliams; scrub       ,     .                        "        +
|  astronomy undergrad, at     *       +;.     .  '             There is
| Michigan State University   '                      .    "   no Gosh!
|   [e-mail]                        '      ,   *
|       [phone]       ;  +  '                                 *
'-----------------------

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

Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 16:07:08 GMT
From: Martin Connors <[e-mail]>
Subject: Toutatis impact in 2000 AD? (was Re: Help !)
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]>
[e-mail] (Dave Tholen) writes:
> Why wait?  We already know it isn't going to hit in 2000.  We do know it
> will pass 0.011 AU in 2004.
..in regard to the postulated risk of a Toutatis impact. People worried
about that impact should bear in mind that the radius of the Earth is
000044 AU so even if Toutatis was coming in randomly within a circle of
radius 0.011 AU the geometrical chances of impact would be about ten in a
million. Maybe double that for gravitational focussing. Of course Toutatis
is NOT coming in randomly, and even for its chaotic orbit we know the
position well enough to say that over the next few encounters it will not
be hitting and after that its encounters are not so close.
 So don't lose sleep over Toutatis in this century or next....

Martin Connors
Space Research
University of Alberta

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

Date: 1 Oct 92 12:01:18 GMT
From: Gary Coffman <ke4zv!gary>
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] (Tom Horsley) writes:
>See, I have proven it is possible. Now there are just a few little piddling
>details to work out :-).

Well golly Mr. Wizard, what's the hold up? :-)

>+==== Censorship is the only form of Obscenity ======================+
>|     (Wait, I forgot government tobacco subsidies...)               |
>+====================================================================+

You knew I wasn't going to let this pass. Tobacco, the one crop grown
by US farmers where the producers receive NOT ONE DIME from the
government. Unlike soybeans, peanuts, cotton, sugar, corn, milk, etc,
the government does not pay tobacco producers in order to bolster
income. Instead, in the only farm program that works, the government
issues permits to producers restricting the amount of crop they can
market, thus assuring a good price *without* subsidy.

Gary

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End of Space Digest Volume 15 : Issue 274
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