Return-path: X-Andrew-Authenticated-as: 7997;andrew.cmu.edu;Ted Anderson Received: from holmes.andrew.cmu.edu via trymail for +dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr1/ota/space/space.dl@andrew.cmu.edu (->+dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr1/ota/space/space.dl) (->ota+space.digests) ID ; Mon, 5 Jun 89 03:16:35 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Mon, 5 Jun 89 03:16:24 -0400 (EDT) Subject: SPACE Digest V9 #472 SPACE Digest Volume 9 : Issue 472 Today's Topics: Spiral arms (was Re: Extinctions: Asteroids and Dinosaurs) info request on MMI & ET comet strike in the carolinas? Re: Amazon Forest Destruction (was Re: Asteroids and Dinosaurs) Re: Magellan Status for 05/24/89 (Forwarded) Re: HST (article) Re: space news from May 1 AW&ST Re: Private Space Companies Re: Venus & the Greenhouse effect.. Fictional counterpart for Atlantis Re: HST transport schedule (as of 5/31/89) Bitnet Re: Venus & the Greenhouse effect.. Space Station computer system ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 1 Jun 89 11:42:34 PDT From: Peter Scott Subject: Spiral arms (was Re: Extinctions: Asteroids and Dinosaurs) usc!csun!solaria!ecphssrw%bob.csun.edu@BLOOM-BEACON.MIT.EDU (Stephen Walton) writes: >Contrary to popular belief, the steller density >(stars per cubic parsec) in spiral arms is the same as between the >arms; it is just that most of the new, hot, and therefore bright stars >are in the arms, causing them to stand out. Okay, my cosmology is a little rusty here... but I thought that arms in spiral galaxies were thought to be compression waves and therefore at different times different parts of the galaxy would be in the arms, which would preclude stellar differentiation on the basis of age? Isn't the differentiation between the disk and the halo, the Pop. I and II stars? Or am I hopelessly out of date? Peter Scott (pjs@grouch.jpl.nasa.gov) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 1 Jun 89 15:22:57 EDT From: capnal@aqua.whoi.edu (Alan Duester) Subject: info request on MMI & ET Hi: This is a general request to the members of SPACE. If you have any rumors, facts, or in-between information on either Third Millenium (MMI) or External Tanks Corp. that is fairly recent (within the last 6-9 months), I'd appreciate it if you'd E-mail it to me. Thanks very much. Al Duester, Ocean Engineer, M/S S201 Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst., Woods Hole, MA 02543 (508) 548-1400 X2474 (457-2000 TouchTone auto receptionist) capnal@aqua.span or capnal@aqua.whoi.edu or A.DUESTER on GEnie ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 1 Jun 89 15:22:07 EDT From: capnal@aqua.whoi.edu (Alan Duester) Subject: comet strike in the carolinas? "Carolina Bays", are they craters? Does anyone have any recent information on the geological features known as the Carolina Bays? These are elliptical dark splotches between 50m and 2000m in long axis which occur along the coast from Georgia to Virginia. There are about a *million* of them and they all have the same major-minor axis ratio of about 2:1 and are *all* lined up with the major axis pointed NW-SE. I find these features intriguing but can't find any recent work on them at all. There was a book on them in the '50's (by someone named Johnson I think) which concluded that "they were of complex origin" which means he couldn't figure it out. (Remember this was before the era of space awareness and that many meteors would be considered "ridiculously unlikely") I can't escape the conclusion that they are craters form a single massive event (an ice meteor that fragmented on impact? isn't this a comet?) but they look recent (to an untrained eye, at least, else the small ones would have been wiped by surface erosion.) The fact that all the axis line up leaves no other explanation that I can see. These "features" show up best from the air as dark patches in newly plowed fields or as swamps or even lakes for the larger ones. I suspect they were all originally lakes that filled into swamps, then got overgrown with forest till they were cleared for fields only a few hundred years ago. The boundary is sharper than 1 m and they often have a slight raised rim. I know that "all craters are circles" but I've heard rumors that "hypervelocity pellets fired at low angles into armor plate make ellipses." so this must be a grazing hit. Yes, they do overlap one another. No, they're not river meanders which are erratic. These are *very* regular and I've seen *no* exceptions to the axis orientation. Serious problems remain. Why do they only show on the coastal plain? As soon as the land rises, I don't find any. Were sea level changes critical to their formation or preservation? Most of my input comes from a set of aerial mosaics taken in the mid '50's which show these features clearly. My father became interested during a flight over the area in the late fifties and got the photos from the Dept. of Agriculture that had done them for a land use survey. We took a vacation down thru the Carolinas in '58 and I remember swimming in one of the larger lakes. I've not seen any recent imagery, but I haven't gotten around to ordering Landsat or SPOT photos. I apologize if there's a lot of recent work and I just can't find it. Every geologist I ask draws a blank, mumbles "ox-bows" and changes the subject. Right now I'd bet on a comet. I'll bet it was one hell of a show! Dr. Albert M. Bradly, Research Specialist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Woods Hole, MA 02543 (508) 548-1400 x2474 Telemail : A.BRADLEY/OMNET abradley@aqua.whoi.edu *should* forward to above telemail account. For a better path, send Email via: capnal@aqua.whoi.edu (Al Duester) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 1 Jun 89 10:34 EST From: ELIOT@cs.umass.EDU Subject: Re: Amazon Forest Destruction (was Re: Asteroids and Dinosaurs) Date: 29 May 89 00:18:21 GMT From: att!shuxd!devildog!hiker!starr@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Michael Starr) Subject: Re: Amazon Forest Destruction (was Re: Asteroids and Dinosaurs) In article <463@cybaswan.UUCP> iiit-sh@cybaswan.UUCP (Steve Hosgood) writes: >Does anyo3 reckon that an 'educate the Brazilians' campaign based on these >shuttle photos would do any good? I'd like to think so, but I don't really >believe anything short of direct action would solve the problem. Has space photos of the depleted ozone layer over Antartica stopped the "civilized" population of the planet from recharging their car air conditioners with Freon? Yes, by US law production of freon will soon end. Chris Eliot Eliot@cs.umass.edu ------------------------------ Date: 1 Jun 89 20:04:24 GMT From: sgi!daisy!wooding@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Mike Wooding) Subject: Re: Magellan Status for 05/24/89 (Forwarded) In article <25841@ames.arc.nasa.gov>, yee@trident.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) writes: > SPACECRAFT > Distance From Earth (mi) 2,919,025 > > Velocity Geocentric 5,738 mph > Heliocentric 60,128 mph > > One Way Light Time 15 sec I assume that Geocentric velocity is in Earth origined coords, and Heliocentric in sun origined coords. But over the last two Magellan status - the Heliocentric velocity continued to increase but the Geocentric velocity decreased? The only explanation that comes to my mind is a change in Earth velocity wrto Sun? just curious - m wooding ------------------------------ Date: 1 Jun 89 16:58:48 GMT From: eugene@eos.arc.nasa.gov (Eugene Miya) Subject: Re: HST (article) This brings up an interesting article. It was published in Science, 17 March 1989 entitled "Will the Hubble Space Telescope Compute?" Another gross generalization from --eugene miya, NASA Ames Research Center, eugene@aurora.arc.nasa.gov resident cynic at the Rock of Ages Home for Retired Hackers: "You trust the `reply' command with all those different mailers out there?" "If my mail does not reach you, please accept my apology." {ncar,decwrl,hplabs,uunet}!ames!eugene Live free or die. ------------------------------ Date: 1 Jun 89 17:49:50 GMT From: cs.utexas.edu!wasatch!ch-tkr@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Timothy K Reynolds) Subject: Re: space news from May 1 AW&ST In article <1989May29.032320.2277@utzoo.uucp>, henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes: > > NASA picks Lockheed/Aerojet team to build the ASRM, despite safety panel > urgings that the project be dropped. > > . . . . . The plant will > supposedly ship its first flight-cleared motors in 1994, after which use > of the current Morton Thiokol SRBs will be phased out over three years. > Apart from getting rid of MT [about time!], ...... ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Hmmmm. When this contract award was announced, there was a big splash in the Salt Lake City Deseret News about MT being a sub-contractor for Aerojet on this proposal. MT spokesman said how this will insure continued participation in NASA and shuttle programs. Perhaps Henry's farewell is a bit premature? ch-tkr@wasatch.utah.edu ------------------------------ v id AA13529; Thu, 1 Jun 89 22:28:21 -0700 Date: 1 Jun 89 15:49:48 GMT From: fluke!ssc-vax!sml@beaver.cs.washington.edu (Stuart Lewis) Subject: Re: Private Space Companies > I doubt that Boeing can develop a new space vehicle given that it > cannot even build a new airliner from scratch without collaborating with > another company or without government aid. WHOA!!! WRONG WRONG WRONG! Boeing is *entirely* self sufficient when it comes to new airplane development. All of the Boeing planes were developed with in house money and bold market gambles. In fact, the 707 (Dash 80 or whatever you choose - let's not get picky :-)), and the 747 development costs nearly busted the company. Boeing *does* consult very heavily with the airlines (read: custo- mers) in all their endeavors. "How many passengers?", "What kind of range?", "How many galleys?", "Where do you want them?", "How many engines?", "How many aisles?", "Gross payload?" etc, etc. This ultra customer customization has in fact caused many of the delays you read so much about in the press lately. Seems that Boeing has gone a little too far in pleasing the customers and every plane down the line is a distinct original. We've come out lately and stated that this super customization is going to be scaled back in the future. However, a launch system *is* a different animal. Much fewer customers - you can't afford to be patient to start turning a profit after the 4 or 5 hundredth vehicle is sold/delivered like an airplane. So although I believe that Boeing does have the bucks to develop their own launcher, business sense says that would be foolish without some co-development monies or go ahead funding from the gov't. And don't be fooled - Arianne, like Airbus would roll over and die without the consortium (sp?) funding - if Arianne says they are making money it's because they have some creative accountants doing some number shuffles. Airbus though will stand on it's own two feet before very long if they continue to chink away at traditional Boeing niches. Stuart Lewis Boeing Aerospace ssc-vax!sml *******The opinions here stated do not necc'y reflect the position of the Boeing Company, but are entirely my own observations - no one else wants them so I thought bore you with them!************* ------------------------------ Date: 2 Jun 89 04:31:36 GMT From: voder!parns!berlioz!andrew@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Eraserhead @ The Noblest Explosion ) Subject: Re: Venus & the Greenhouse effect.. Despite Venus' proximity to the sun, are there any models out there which allow of surface temperature reduction to around the Earth's value? The only one I've read about was in Jerry Pournelle's "A Step Farther Out", where he mentions the "blue-green algae theory"; one hurls zillions of the little monsters at the upper atmosphere, and they descend slowly, anaerobically metabolising CO2 into O2 and water (or something like that) so that eventually the cooling rains thus produced make it to the surface. Is there any strong a priori reason why Venus could not be cooled by this or any other terraforming idea? - is the proximity to the sun going to defeat every attempt, even with radical restructuring of the atmosphere? -- Andrew Palfreyman USENET: ...{this biomass}!nsc!logic!andrew National Semiconductor M/S D3969, 2900 Semiconductor Dr., PO Box 58090, Santa Clara, CA 95052-8090 ; 408-721-4788 there's many a slip 'twixt cup and lip ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 02 Jun 89 01:28:49 CDT From: "Eric Edwards" Subject: Fictional counterpart for Atlantis In a recent post John Sparks (sparks@corpand.uucp) said: >ir, what about 'Atlantis'? Sure it's a mythical contenent, but what fictional >ship was it named after? Well if you pardon one letter, the "Atlantia" from the premier episode of "Battlestar Galactica" fits the bill nicely. On an ominous note: The Atlantia blew up in that episode. Bitnet: C506634@umcvmb.bitnet __________________________ Internet: C506634@umcvmb.missouri.edu / \.--------. / \ "The Amiga just isn't reliable enough unless you | | Eric |---------+ | know a lot about the machine" -- Jerry Pournelle | `--------' ! | ================================================|| .--------. ! | "I did notice that at my party people stood in | | Edwards|_________+ | line to play with the Amiga"-- Jerry Pournelle | /`--------'  | BYTE, October '88 \__________________________/ ------------------------------ Date: 1 Jun 89 16:02:36 GMT From: mnetor!utzoo!bnr-vpa!bnr-fos!bnr-public!pdbain@uunet.uu.net (Peter Bain) Subject: Re: HST transport schedule (as of 5/31/89) In article <576@stsci.edu> sims@stsci.EDU (Jim Sims) writes: >Some current schedule item based on a preliminary LMSC schedule: >7/10 HST Horizontal - SMA Staking >10/18 Ship HST and GSE >10/22 Install PCS Simulator >11/27 - 12/21 Funct test, GST 8 >1/11 Remove GSE cables >2/28 - 3/9 Move to PAD Can you say "acronym overload"? Jim, could you give us this in English? Thanks -peter ------------------------------ X-Delivery-Notice: SMTP MAIL FROM does not correspond to sender. Date: Fri, 2 Jun 89 09:46 EDT From: "New theories tend to wait for old theorists to die." Subject: Bitnet Hello. I haven't received mail from SPACE-L or PHYSICS-L in about a week and a half. Could I have been UNSUB'ed without my knowing it, or has there been a problem with bitnet distribution, or has there just been no mail? Please respond directly to me, CALVIN @ JHUIGF.BITNET Thanks in advance for any/all replies. Damian Hammontree System Programmer, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD ------------------------------ Date: 2 Jun 89 17:38:48 GMT From: ncrlnk!ncrcce!johnson@uunet.uu.net (Wayne D. T. Johnson) Subject: Re: Venus & the Greenhouse effect.. In article <862@mv03.ecf.toronto.edu> murty@ecf.toronto.edu (Hema Sandhyarani Murty) writes: > >I would be extremely interested in the Science article if you could give >me the reference. If cloud cool the surface, then they don't seem to helping >Venus any. There was a breif article in Discover this month about the early results of a "EARTH ENERGY BUDGET" project. It indicated there that the clouds formed over land do indead reduce the heat due to the sun. I don't have the article here but can bring it in if there is some interest. -- Wayne Johnson (Voice) 612-638-7665 NCR Comten, Inc. (E-MAIL) W.Johnson@StPaul.NCR.COM or Roseville MN 55113 johnson@c10sd1.StPaul.NCR.COM These opinions (or spelling) do not necessarily reflect those of NCR Comten. ------------------------------ Date: 2 Jun 89 17:39:19 GMT From: att!pegasus!psrc@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Paul S. R. Chisholm) Subject: Space Station computer system Since there's so much interest in the Space *Shuttle* computer systems, I thought you all might be interested in an article on the Space *Station* computer systems. "A System for the 21st Century" appears on pp. 51-54 of the May 15, 1989, issue of DATAMATION (v. 35, #10). Some highlights: they're talking about thirty to forty IBM PS/2 model 80's (*please* no religious arguments here; maybe they'll wise up and use 's hardware instead), using trackballs or force-resistant hand controllers instead of mice as pointing devices, with 4 megabytes of RAM and running X-Windows, networked with Fiber Distributed Data Interface and perhaps IEEE 802 (they didn't say if they meant Ethernet, Token Ring, or StarLAN). There's also an Earth-bound system, the Software Support Environment (SSE), for software development. The whole deal will require 1,500,000 lines of Ada code, including 900,000 for the SSE. DATAMATION has occasional reports on NASA computer efforts; see also "Is Error-Free Software Achievable" in the February 15, 1989 issue. (The answer seems to be yes, if you're willing to spend a kilobuck per *line* of code. Richard Feynman is quoted as saying shuttle software was of the "highest quality". The 500,000 lines of shuttle code have had 0.1 errors per thousand lines of code; the norm is closer to ten.) Paul S. R. Chisholm, AT&T Bell Laboratories att!pegasus!psrc, psrc@pegasus.att.com, AT&T Mail !psrchisholm I'm not speaking for the company, I'm just speaking my mind. ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V9 #472 *******************