Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/pc/text/spacedig/v16_4/v16no415.txt

Internet Message Format | 1993-07-13 | 18KB

Date: Sat,  3 Apr 93 12:35:29
From: Space Digest maintainer <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Subject: Space Digest V16 #415
To: Space Digest Readers
Precedence: bulk


Space Digest                Sat,  3 Apr 93       Volume 16 : Issue 415

Today's Topics:
                        Atlas rocket question
                       Biosphere Books Wanted!
                      Elevator to the top floor
                     How do they ignite the SSME?
                               Mach 25
                         NASA (dis)incentives
      Need info on Shuttle's Fuel Cell system and power systems
                            nuclear waste
                Perverse quotes. Was So I'm an idiot..
                    Portable Small Ground Station?
                         Quaint US Archaisms
            Sky Surfing Safety. What if you bite the wave!
                       Space Research Spin Off
            Terraforming Venus: can it be done "cheaply"?
           the call to space (was Re: Clueless Szaboisms )
                  Why use AC at 20kHz for SSF power

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

Date: 2 Apr 1993 22:36:14 -0500
From: Pat <[e-mail]>
Subject: Atlas rocket question
Newsgroups: sci.space

Didn't chrysler build the first Atlases, until they sold the
division to GD?  And Ford used to build Satelittes until they sold
that unit to Loral.  Did GM ever build spacecraft?

pat

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

Date: Sat, 3 Apr 1993 05:24:00 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Biosphere Books Wanted!
Newsgroups: sci.space

Another wierd question:

Is there any books or ? on Biospheres, types, and operation and such..???

Just curious..

==
Michael Adams, [e-mail] -- I'm not high, just jacked

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

Date: Sat, 3 Apr 1993 05:15:49 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Elevator to the top floor
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Matthew DeLuca) writes:
> In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Gary Coffman) writes:
>
>>Mountains are the easiest. A two hundred mile high mountain would
>>only need a base 3300 miles across to be "stable". That much mass
>>would upset the tectonic balance though, and who's willing to donate
>>a continent for the site?
>
> Gee, this sounds like a perfect job for Australia. :-)
> --
> Matthew DeLuca
> Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
> uucp:      ...!{decvax,hplabs,ncar,purdue,rutgers}!gatech!prism!matthew
> Internet: [e-mail]

Why not do some drilling, start a volcano on the ocean floor, and create your
own mountain and such, might not have to worry about tectonic plates or do
we... Im not a geologist....


Michael Adams
NSMCA@ACAD@.ALASKA.EDU
I'm not high, just jacked

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

Date: Fri, 2 Apr 1993 18:04:39 GMT
From: Clemens Emmanuel Tillier <[e-mail]>
Subject: How do they ignite the SSME?
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle,sci.space

Roger Wilfong writes: (about SSME ignition method)
>
>They use a pyrotechnic ignitor mounted on the pad that produces a lot of
>sparks for about 10 seconds.  This type of ignitor is basically the same
>type of pyrotechnic sparklers that were developed for the A4/V2.
>
I've heard the sparkers were intended to ignite *stray* hydrogen before it
builds up and explodes. What's the call here... Do they actually ignite the
SSME's or are they merely a safety device? Can someone at NASA shed some
light on this?

Thanks,
Clem <[e-mail]>

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

Date: Sat, 3 Apr 1993 08:24:48 GMT
From: Henry Spencer <[e-mail]>
Subject: Mach 25
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] ("RWTMS2::MUNIZB") writes:
>On 25 Mar 93 01:21:10 GMT, Jordin Kare <[e-mail]> writes:
>/Leik designs some pretty fancy vehicles, and has done a good deal of
>/nice mechanical and aerodynamic design and testing, but he's a _very_ long
>/way from having something that will fly...
>
>The following is from Prof. Myrabo's article in the Nov/Dec 1992 issue of
>the Space Studies Institute (SSI) Update...

Um, be careful here, Ben.  In case you don't recognize the name, Jordin
was head of the LLNL group that did most of the recent work on realistic,
near-term laser propulsion, including lab tests with real high-power lasers.

Much of the groundwork Myrabo is talking about laying for his concepts has
already been done for simpler and more practical ones.  What is lacking is
funding for flight experiments.
--
All work is one man's work.             | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
                    - Kipling           |  [e-mail]  utzoo!henry

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

Date: Sat, 3 Apr 1993 08:35:34 GMT
From: Nick Szabo <[e-mail]>
Subject: NASA (dis)incentives
Newsgroups: sci.space,talk.politics.space

[e-mail] (Andrew C. Welch) writes:

>Perhaps a solution would be for Congress to let NASA (or any other agency)
>conduct business the way they choose while at the same time holding them
>responible for the results.

Problem is, how or why would Congress hold a government agency like
NASA responsible for its results?  When NASA succeeds (eg Apollo)
its budget gets cut.  When it fails (eg Challenger) its budget rises.
With most NASA projects, the greater their cost overrun, the greater
their revenue stream.  Attempts to reverse this built-in incentive
towards bureaucracy and failure are shouted down as "NASA bashing", so
there is no incentive, beyond the most rare self-sacrficing altruistic
motives, to use political action to correct this situation, even if
(a) said altruistic lobbyists recognized the problem for what it was,
(b) knew how to correct it, and (c) were effective enough to reverse
decades of contracting practice, attitude, and habit.  In my experience,
with all due appreciation towards Allen Sherzer and several of his colleagues
valiantly struggling against the corruption of NSS activism by NASA
lobbyists, there is no group of space activists that come anywhere close to
meeting these lofty demands, and thus no effective way of holding NASA
responsible for failures, or rewarding it for successes.


--
Nick Szabo                     [e-mail]

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

Date: 3 Apr 93 03:21:23 GMT
From: Michael Maverick Kopack <[e-mail]>
Subject: Need info on Shuttle's Fuel Cell system and power systems
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle,sci.energy,sci.space

I'm doing a paper for a History of energy class here at Tech and thought that
I'd do it on the Shuttle's power systems, specifically the fuel cells that it
uses. I remember hearing something about them when I went to Space Camp, but
this paper has to be 7-10 pages so....

Any sources or direct information would be greatly appreciated.

Specific topics:

Power distribution
How it works
Company that makes it
how much power it makes
efficiency
etc......

Thanks a bunch!

--Mike Kopack

--
Michael Maverick Kopack                | Sex, drugs, rock and roll
Internet: [e-mail]     |and my Amiga, what else could
          [e-mail] |one ever want?
          [e-mail]      \---------------------------------------

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

Date: Sat, 3 Apr 1993 01:02:10 GMT
From: Paul Dietz <[e-mail]>
Subject: nuclear waste
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:

> Uh, I thought one of the reasons why the accelerator-incinerator
> concept was being looked at was as a (politically acceptable)
> alternative to sticking the waste in the ground.  "Bulletin of the
> Atomic Scientist" seemed to be pretty gushy about the concept.  Get
> rid of it now rather than worry about it for 10,000 years and all that
> stuff...


Well, that would be moderately silly, as 10,000 years is not very long
geologically; analogues to waste such as uranium deposits have been
found that have remained intact, even without isolation from
groundwater, for over a billion years.  Also, it is not clear that
such a technical fix would really make any difference politically.
Some waste would not be destroyed (no chemical separation is 100%
effective).

Another reason the BAS might support the scheme is that accelerator
reactors can be used to breed U-233 from thorium with very short
doubling time.  U-233 can be denatured with U-238 (rendering it
useless for bombs) and used in thermal reactors without reprocessing
of spent thermal reactor fuel.  This would cut plutonium production by
a factor of 5 over today's thermal reactors (and much more over fast
breeders), and would give essentially unlimited nuclear fuel without a
"plutonium economy".

    Paul F. Dietz
    [e-mail]

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

Date: Sat, 3 Apr 1993 05:36:11 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Perverse quotes. Was So I'm an idiot..
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Master Blaster) writes:
>
>
> <Brilliant McElwaine forge removed to my hard disk>
>
> Here's what the critics said:
>
> Laughed so hard my legs got blown off!
>   -- Tsar Alexander III
>
> Brilliant satire!  Couldn't have written better myself!
>   -- S. Rushdie
>
> That had so much inertia I couldn't stop laughing!
>   -- A. Abian
>
> Wish I'd thought of THAT!
>   -- R. E. McElwaine
>
> I killed myself laughing
>   -- Master Blaster

I enjoyed my self so much, 20 million died.
 - either Stalin or Hitler.

I made peace with China, so I broke into the Democrats HQ?
 - Nixon

So whats a little war?
- Reagan

It aint my son who is dying in that war!
- Most US presidents/congress members.

==
Michael Adams, [e-mail] -- I'm not high, just jacked

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

Date: Sat, 3 Apr 1993 05:47:05 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Portable Small Ground Station?
Newsgroups: sci.space

How difficult would it be to set up your own ground station? I know that much
of the "ground stations" seem to be older tech, is there newer tech that will
allow for small, portable ground stations??

I am alos thinking about TV/Satilite stuff, but that is another newsgroup..

==
Michael Adams, [e-mail] -- I'm not high, just jacked

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

Date: 2 Apr 93 21:37:21 CST
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Quaint US Archaisms
Newsgroups: sci.space

    Just like to say a few words for the English System.  Miles,
acres, yards, feet, cups, quarts, etc have arisen from a _practical_
system.  For instance, the now rarely used furlong (220 yards), was
considered the best distance for a plowed furrow to be.  Mile was
originally 1000 paces.  The others may have once had basis in fact or
were simply random pickings but over time they have proved their
usefullness.
    And I don't have trouble converting, when I'm in the lab
<metric> and driving <english>.  See I have a form of dyslexia that
I can't judge distances, I always need a tape measure. (the red
numbers or the black ones?)

Candi Cabaniss Western Kentucky University
[e-mail]


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

Date: Sat, 3 Apr 1993 05:30:24 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Sky Surfing Safety. What if you bite the wave!
Newsgroups: sci.space

Wierd question, I seem to be good at them..

Okay if a person is skysurfing and bites the wave, what is there to get them
safely to ground?? Basically what if they fall of the board and they go nose
first into the atmosphere??? What safety measures are there? available? design
ideas?

Of course going nose first into the atmosphere is a spectacular way to bite the
ground, but.. I would like to know I might actually live thru the experiance...


Surf the atmosphere NOW!!!!!!

Catch the gravity wave for a earthy experiance.
==
Michael Adams, [e-mail] -- I'm not high, just jacked

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

Date: Sat, 3 Apr 1993 05:39:17 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Space Research Spin Off
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <1pgei3$[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Pat) writes:
> In article <stephens.733603989@ngis> [e-mail] (Dave Stephenson) writes:
>>Anyone have any earlier examples of space research spin offs?
>
> I'd imagine there was some correlation between galileo's studies
> of the planets with the age of enlightenment.  Tycho helped a lot on that.
>

Question is can someone give me 10 examples of direct NASA/Space related
research that helped humanity in general? It will be interesting to see..

==
Michael Adams, [e-mail] -- I'm not high, just jacked


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

Date: Sat, 3 Apr 1993 05:42:21 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Terraforming Venus: can it be done "cheaply"?
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Charles Lindsey) writes:
> In <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Jeff Bytof) writes:
>
>>This discussion of terraforming Venus has really begun to fascinate me.
>>What is especially intriguing is the possibility that the kickoff
>>in the process could be the simple injection of microorganisms into
>>the atmosphere of Venus.
>
> I see one fundamental problem with micro-organisms to do the job.
> Presumably they are still based on DNA (I don't think we can entirely
> re-invent life yet), and one element necessary for DNA is phosphorus. I
> do not believe I have heard mention of any phosphorous in the Venusian
> atmosphere. Is that correct?
>
> Apparently, the reason why Lake Erie was not all gummed up with green
> algae until recently was because the available phosphorus was all used
> up - that is until all the housewives of Chicago really got going with
> phosphate-rich washing powders.
>
>
> --
> Charles H. Lindsey -------------------------------------------------------------
>            At Home, doing my own thing.           Internet: [e-mail]
> Voice: [phone]                            Janet:    [e-mail]
> Snail: 5 Clerewood Ave., CHEADLE, SK8 3JU, U.K.   UUCP:     mucs!clerew!chl

Interesting, why not then add Phosphorus to the atmosphere as a "seed"
element..

==
Michael Adams, [e-mail] -- I'm not high, just jacked

I like the idea of a venus terraform.. But what would the eco-phreaks say??
They have a cow if you try anything like it on earth..

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

Date: 2 Apr 1993 22:26:38 -0500
From: Pat <[e-mail]>
Subject: the call to space (was Re: Clueless Szaboisms )
Newsgroups: sci.space

If i recall the battle, it was near montreal.  THe terrain was terrible.
Sun Tzu's first rule was always pick the site of battle.  Too bad the
american forces never read chinese.

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

Date: Fri, 2 Apr 1993 23:19:46 GMT
From: Edmund Hack <arabia!hack>
Subject: Why use AC at 20kHz for SSF power
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <1pgdno$[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Pat) writes:
>
>I always thought GD's  Fighter plants were in Long Island.
>
No, Northrup has a plant on Long Island.

GD's former fighter business was in Fort Worth.  It now belongs to
Lockheed.  Bell was doing some of the V-22 R&D in Fort Worth.  I think
the LTV plant at NAS Dallas is closed. (Actually, the plant was owned by
DOD and used by LTV).


--
Edmund Hack - Lockheed Engineering & Sciences Co. - Houston, TX
[e-mail] - I speak only for myself, unless blah, blah..
"Everybody wants prosthetic foreheads on their real heads"
"I'm not an actor, but I play one on TV."

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


          id aa13287; 2 Apr 93 23:08:22 EST
To: [e-mail]
Path: crabapple.srv.cs.cmu.edu!fs7.ece.cmu.edu!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!emory!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!lll-winken.llnl.gov!fnnews.fnal.gov!fnal.fnal.gov!higgins
From: Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey <[e-mail]>
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: What happened to "space philosopher" Earl Hubbard?
Date: 2 Apr 93 18:07:35 -0600
Organization: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
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In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Jeff Bytof) writes:
> Back in the late sixties I read numerous articles by Earl Hubbard,
> who promoted a philosophy that exhalted space exploration, and
> gave it a high moral value.  What has become of him?

Hmm... where did you read his articles?

There was a lady named Barbara Marx Hubbard involved in "Project
Harvest Moon," which attempted to launch a final Apollo lunar landing
under private auspices.  Later she turned up on the stationery of the
L5 Society (board of governors, perhaps?) I think she was an heiress
to the Marx toy company fortune.

You can learn more about her pro-space enterprises in *The Spaceflight
Revolution* by William Sims Bainbridge.

I wonder if she is related to Earl Hubbard?

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

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

End of Space Digest Volume 16 : Issue 415
------------------------------