Return-path: X-Andrew-Authenticated-as: 7997;andrew.cmu.edu;Ted Anderson Received: from beak.andrew.cmu.edu via trymail for +dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr11/tm2b/space/space.dl@andrew.cmu.edu (->+dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr11/tm2b/space/space.dl) (->ota+space.digests) ID ; Sat, 2 Dec 89 01:36:53 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Sat, 2 Dec 89 01:36:31 -0500 (EST) Subject: SPACE Digest V10 #294 SPACE Digest Volume 10 : Issue 294 Today's Topics: What happened when SkyLab came down? [was : What happens when a satellite comes down? Re: Reasons for Mars mission Information sources for frequent space questions (1 of n) Re: Galileo Astronauts Honored at JPL Re: Reasons for Mars mission Re: Salyut 7 Re: Antimatter Drives and Area 51 Re: FUSE and ACE Re: Why NASA wants to go to Mars RE: CRESCENT MOON ... Re: Gary Hudson and the Phoenix ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 2 Dec 89 00:46:04 GMT From: bbn.com!ncramer@bbn.com (Nichael Cramer) Subject: What happened when SkyLab came down? [was : What happens when a satellite comes down? In article loughry@tramp.Colorado.EDU (J. Loughry) writes: > Solar Max is coming down. According to the papers, [...] Can somebody settle an old discussion for me? When SkyLab came down, it was treated by the papers, Johnny Carson (and the Man In The Street) as more or less a miracle that nobody died. But I tried arguing with a friend that its reentry trajectory (i.e. down the Atlantic, around the tip of Africa and out across the Indian Ocean) was just too fortuitous to be blind luck. His arguement was that if this had been the case, we would have heard more about it. So, does anyone know? Was this just a lucky stroke? Or did NASA's PR (or more likely the media) blow it? Thanks NICHAEL ------------------------------ Date: 2 Dec 89 01:44:24 GMT From: norge!jmck@sun.com (John McKernan) Subject: Re: Reasons for Mars mission In article <14967@bfmny0.UU.NET> tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET (Tom Neff) writes: >Considering that it's easier and cheaper to inhabit the shelves than >the equivalent acreage on Moon or Mars, I wonder why people don't >spend more time pondering "self sufficient colonies" and "population >pressure relief" efforts down there. The continental shelves (or Antartica) are no replacement for space colonization. In the first place these areas have already been colonized, ie permanent manned research stations in Antartica and permanent manned oil drilling sites on the continental shelves. There are proposals for increased colonization, such as massive strip mining of the sea bed, or mining/drilling operations in Antartica, but political and ecological factors will likely stop such plans. If arbitrary groups of people were alowed to claim permanent mineral or fishing rights over the continental shelves then such groups of people would already exist. And if they were required to live were their claims were, I'm sure they'd be doing so (above the water because that's easier). John L. McKernan. jmck@sun.com Disclaimer: These are my opinions but, shockingly enough, not necessarily Sun's ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: 1 Dec 89 12:01:01 GMT From: amelia!eugene@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Eugene Miya) Subject: Information sources for frequent space questions (1 of n) Many space activies center around large Government or International Bureaucracies. In this country that means NASA. If you have basic information requests: (e.g., general PR info, research grants, data, limited tours, and ESPECIALLY SUMMER EMPLOYMENT (typically resumes should be ready by Jan. 1), etc.), consider contacting the nearest NASA Center to answer your questions. EMail typically will not get you any where, computers are used by investigators, not PR people. The typical volume of mail per Center is a multiple of 10,000 letters a day. Seek the Public Information Office at one of the below, this is their job: NASA Headquarters (NASA HQ) Washington DC 20546 NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) Moffett Field, CA 94035 [Mountain View, CA, near San Francisco Bay, you know Silicon Valley 8-) ] Ames Research Center Dryden Flight Research Facility [DFRF] P. O. Box 273 Edwards, CA 93523 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Greenbelt, MD 20771 [Outside of Washington DC] NASA Lewis Research Center (LeRC) 21000 Brookpark Rd. Cleveland, OH 44135 NASA Johnson Manned Space Center (JSC) Houston, TX 77058 NASA Kennedy Space Flight Center (KSC) Titusville, FL 32899 NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSC) Huntsville, AL35812 NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) Hampton, VA 23665 [Near Newport News, VA] Not a NASA Center, but close enough: Jet Propulsion Laboratory [JPL/CIT] California Institute of Technology 4800 Oak Grove Dr. Pasadena, CA 91109 There are other small facilities, but the above major Centers are set up to handle public information requests. They can send you tons of information. Specific requests for software must go thru COSMIC at the Univ. of Georgia, NASA's contracted software redistribution service. You can reach them at cosmic@uga.bitnet. If this gives you problems, tell me. NOTE: Foreign nationals requesting information must go through their Embassies in Washington DC. These are facilities of the US Government and are regarded with some degree of economic sensitivity. Centers cannot directly return information without high Center approval. Allow at least 1 month for clearance. This includes COSMIC. EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY (O) 202/488-4158 955 L'Enfant Plaza S.W., Washington, D.C. 20024 Arianespace Headquarters Boulevard de l'Europe B.P. 177 91006 Evry Cedex France ARIANESPACE, INC. (O) 202/728-9075 1747 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite 875, Washington, DC 20006 SPOT IMAGE CORPORATION (FAX) 703/648-1813 (O) 703/620-2200 1857 Preston White Drive, Reston, VA 22091 National Space Development Agency (NASDA), 4-1 Hamamatsu-Cho, 2 Chome Minato-Ku, Tokyo 105, Japan SOYUZKARTA 45 Vologradsij Pr., Moscow 109125, USSR SPACE COMMERCE CORPORATION (U.S. agent for Soviet launch services) 504 Pluto Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80906 (O) 719/578-5490 69th flr, Texas Commerce Tower, Houston, TX 77002 (O) 713/227-9000 ------------------------------ Date: 1 Dec 89 14:06:07 GMT From: portal!cup.portal.com!fleming@uunet.uu.net (Stephen R Fleming) Subject: Re: Galileo Astronauts Honored at JPL >Time was then set aside for the >JPL employees to chat with the astronauts and to get their autographs. ...Just think about this sentence for a second... I'm not a basher of the individual astronauts; I'd love to be one. But the thought of people at JPL, the *real* space-science heroes of the last couple of decades, clustering around a bunch of Right-Stuffers like teenage groupies... I dunno. Maybe I'm getting cranky in my old age. Let it pass. +--------------------------+-------------------------------------------+ | Stephen Fleming | My employer doesn't pay for this account. | | fleming@cup.portal.com | In fact, my employer doesn't even know | | CI$: 76354,3176 | I'm here! Disclaimer enough for any | | Voice: (703) 847-7058 | network-aware lawyer-types, I hope... | +--------------------------+-------------------------------------------+ ------------------------------ Date: 1 Dec 89 13:42:14 GMT From: portal!cup.portal.com!fleming@uunet.uu.net (Stephen R Fleming) Subject: Re: Reasons for Mars mission >Well then, you must find going to the ocean floor equally appealing... >after all, it's a place for us to go, too. Seriously, if I was a >frustrated space cadet I would try to make a living somewhere out in >the relatively unexplored 70% of our planet's surface. You have all >the important analogies with space...it's hostile, expensive, >difficult, a place where Men can be Men, and so on. In Robert Heinlein's posthumously published book "Grumbles from the Grave" (just out), he mentions plans for a undersea science fiction novel titled "Ocean Rancher" which he was going to write to break up the string of spaceships-and-rayguns in the early 1950s. Poor health prevented him from completing the diving and travel required for his research. Considering the impact Heinlein's other "juvenile" science fiction novels had on an entire generation (take an informal poll of NASA's astronauts sometime), I wonder if getting such a book out in the mid-1950s would have had an effect. I suspect so. +--------------------------+-------------------------------------------+ | Stephen Fleming | My employer doesn't pay for this account. | | fleming@cup.portal.com | In fact, my employer doesn't even know | | CI$: 76354,3176 | I'm here! Disclaimer enough for any | | Voice: (703) 847-7058 | network-aware lawyer-types, I hope... | +--------------------------+-------------------------------------------+ ------------------------------ Date: 1 Dec 89 16:42:18 GMT From: cs.utexas.edu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!watserv1!watcgl!watsnew!mark@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Mark Earnshaw) Subject: Re: Salyut 7 In article <1989Nov30.173504.8560@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes: >Well, Salyut 7 itself is nominally still in operational condition, although >mothballed... >-- >Mars can wait: we've barely | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology >started exploring the Moon. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu Of course, this would be a fast cheap way for the Western world to get a space station. All we have to do is buy Salyut 7 from the Russians. They get desperately needed hard currency, and we get a working (?) space station a decade ahead of schedule (possible much more given the way deadlines have been slipping :-( ). :-) :-) -- Mark Earnshaw, Systems Design Engineering {uunet,utai}!watmath!watsnew!mark University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada mark@watsnew.waterloo.{edu,cdn} ------------------------------ Date: 29 Nov 89 12:19:59 GMT From: eru!luth!sunic!tut!hydra!hylka!sundius@bloom-beacon.mit.edu (Tom Sundius, U of Helsinki/Physics, +358 0 1918339) Subject: Re: Antimatter Drives and Area 51 In article , HIGGINS@FNAL.BITNET (W.T. Higgins) writes: > Michael Sloan MacLeod posted a discussion about: > >>Robert Lazar, formerly employed by the government at the mysterious >>Area 51, says that the US government has 500 pounds of element 115, >>which somehow produces antimatter when irradiated. > > Lazar is pulling the wool over somebody's eyes. There were less than 300 pounds > of element 115, and probably less now. Samples were tested in various Amazing! I thought that the highest-numbered element produced so far was number 109, and that just a few (3?) nuclei had been seen... Cheers, T S :-) +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ ! Tom Sundius BitNet: SUNDIUS@FINUH, SUNDIUS@FINUHCB, ! ! Department of Physics SUNDIUS@FINFUN ! ! University of Helsinki Internet: sundius@hylka.helsinki.fi, ! ! SF-00170 Helsinki, Finland sundius@csc.fi ! ! Phone : +358 0 1918339 Decnet: HYFLT::SUNDIUS, HYLK::SUNDIUS ! ! Fax : +358 0 1918366 PsiMail: PSI%244203008::SUNDIUS ! +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ ------------------------------ Date: 1 Dec 89 20:42:59 GMT From: bfmny0!tneff@uunet.uu.net (Tom Neff) Subject: Re: FUSE and ACE In article <891201103742.000006BD0D1@grouch.JPL.NASA.GOV> PJS@GROUCH.JPL.NASA.GOV (Peter Scott) writes: > [The acronym department earned its pay this month - PJS] --------------- Otto Preminger Korolev Space Complex, Beltway, Maryland Dec. 1, 1989 ACRONYM GENERATOR SYSTEM (AGS) CONTRACT AWARDED FOR SPACE STATION FREEDOM ... [oh never mind] -- When I was [in Canada] I found their jokes like their | Tom Neff roads -- not very long and not very good, leading to a | tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET little tin point of a spire which has been remorselessly obvious for miles without seeming to get any nearer. -- Samuel Butler. ------------------------------ Date: 1 Dec 89 22:03:21 GMT From: mephisto!prism!mg27@handies.ucar.edu (Michael J. Gourlay) Subject: Re: Why NASA wants to go to Mars Jeff Goldader writes: ]From "Aviation Week and Space Technology," Oct. 30, 1989 (p.15): ] ]`SAY WHAT? ]Franklin D. Martin, NASA's associate administrator for exploration, has a ]host of reasons for sending humans to Mars.... ]... one committee member thought ]he noticed an omission. "Hey, Frank, you left off science," A. Thomas ]Young, the president of Martin Marietta Electronics and Missiles Group, ]... "Yeah, maybe so. Yeah," Martin acknowledged. But he quickly ]brushed Young's comment aside, remarking offhandedly that "science is ]one of the reasons you do these things, but it's not the driver." ' ] ]Personal Editorial Begins: ] ]Am I the only one who nearly became physically ill after reading this? No, you are not the only one. That is truely unbelievable. Who the.. What!! He!! Hey! Harumph. ]Is this truly what our space program has become, a bunch of administrators ]who are no longer aware that space exploration is meant for science? ... ] ]I would rant and rave about cancelling the whole damned mess, but you've all ]heard that before. If any of you hopeful ones needed proof of the final ]collapse of the United States' space program, here it is. Instead of cancelling, what seems like a possibility is competition from other space administrations. Too bad there isn't a totally private space industry to compete with NASA. It seems that what this.. this _guy_ was after was that nobody wants to fork over (sound pun intended) the dough for pure science. It's not economically hip. -- Michael J. Gourlay GT Box 35431 Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Physics, Atlanta Georgia, 30332 uucp: ...!{decvax,hplabs,ncar,purdue,rutgers}!gatech!prism!gt5431b Internet: gt5431b@prism.gatech.edu My opinions. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 1 Dec 89 17:16:40 CST From: pyron@skvax1.csc.ti.com (When in fear, or in doubt, run around, scream and shout) Subject: RE: CRESCENT MOON ... Although the information requested is, in some way, related and even useful to the readers of this e-pub, I personally can deal without the 300+ (did anyone count?) lines. If someone is actually interested, let him or her subscribe. But don't take up my precious disk space until I can read it. A short announcement and pointer to where more info can be obtained would be more appropriate. Especially since this has been going on for a year or so. Dillon Pyron At some time, each must stand alone. pyron@skvax1.ti.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 1 Dec 89 10:22:07 PST From: Peter Scott Subject: Re: Gary Hudson and the Phoenix This is the venture that was going to provide either orbital or sub-orbital, I forget which, tourist flights for Society Expeditions by 1992. Cost was $55,000 per passenger. They took $5,000 deposits (I know some people who paid it), and supposedly the first flight was reserved by the Stanford Alumni Association, but a few years ago they announced that they had met insurmountable technical difficulties and S.E. refunded all the deposits, with the option of applying it to another trip of theirs. So what did they do that now makes this a viable project? Peter Scott (pjs@grouch.jpl.nasa.gov) ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V10 #294 *******************