Return-path: X-Andrew-Authenticated-as: 32766 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 ; Tue, 9 Jan 90 13:44:20 -0500 (EST) Received: from beak.andrew.cmu.edu via qmail ID ; Sat, 6 Jan 90 01:37:48 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <8ZdN8Vi00VcJE7Q05H@andrew.cmu.edu> Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Sat, 6 Jan 90 01:37:22 -0500 (EST) Subject: SPACE Digest V10 #380 SPACE Digest Volume 10 : Issue 380 Today's Topics: Re: Photographer of the decade Re: Launching AUSSAT on Chinese rockets Re: Air to orbit launch in 1985? Re: Antigravity Re: Ringing in the new millenium Payload Status for 12/20/89 (Forwarded) Livermore space station query... Galileo Update 12/20/89 Re: Air to orbit launch in 1985? Re: proposed "space-mail" incentive Re: Air to orbit launch in 1985? Re: Scientific value of Apollo (was Re: Motives) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 29 Dec 89 22:45:08 GMT From: bfmny0!tneff@uunet.uu.net (Tom Neff) Subject: Re: Photographer of the decade In article <12571@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> dakramer@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (David Anthony Kramer) writes: >The editors of the magazine 'American Photo' nominated Voyager 2 as >the photographer of the decade... This is kind of a shame. Voyager was the CAMERA of the decade. The JPL imaging team are the PHOTOGRAPHERS of the decade... -- There's nothing wrong with Southern California that a || Tom Neff rise in the ocean level wouldn't cure. -- Ross MacDonald || tneff@bfmn0.UU.NET ------------------------------ Date: 31 Dec 89 00:16:47 GMT From: usc!cs.utexas.edu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!henry@ucsd.edu (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: Launching AUSSAT on Chinese rockets In article <15048@bfmny0.UU.NET> tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET (Tom Neff) writes: >Henry has looked better than this! When Afghanistan was invaded we >*did* embargo trade. With the accession of Mr Gorbachev things have >been unfrozen; the USSR has publicly and formally apologized for >Afghanistan in the last months... Ah, I see. The apology makes everything all right. I wonder if the mujahidin would agree, though, since the (Soviet-backed) Afghan government is continuing the slaughter without apology. Has Uncle Gorby apologized for the Gulag yet? >... By contrast, the butchers of Tiananmen Square are SMUG about >their atrocious response to 1989's wave of democracy. They flaunt their >dictatorly arrogance and cynically count on the West's selfish sense of >economic expediency to rescue them from hard consequences... For some reason, I find it difficult to be horrified at a few months' smugness about a few thousand deaths while dismissing most of a decade's smugness about the mass slaughter and systematic devastation in Afghanistan. Between the dead and the refugees, Afghanistan's population dropped 25-30% in the last decade. Its economy is in ruins, to put it mildly. Nasty little legacies like millions of unmarked land mines will be there for decades. And the war continues. In most ways, China is paradise by comparison. The consequences of Afghanistan were not particularly hard; the West's economic expediency came through for the USSR despite the initial fuss. And now that Gorbachev has apologized, let's let bygones be bygones? I have tried to convince myself that the protest/sanctions/embargo/etc uproar over China is not just the latest trendy cause, endorsed by the same people who were outraged about US policies in Central America but changed the subject whenever the word "Afghanistan" was heard, and that there is some rational reason for drastic response to ugly and vicious but comparatively minor repression... but I can't. Being a little less cynical for the moment... Trade policy should not be based on the whims of the moment; consistency and continuity are important. The space industry has been particularly plagued by policy-of-the-week decision-making in recent years. Encouraging though the fresh air in Eastern Europe is, and disgusting though the graveyard stench in China is, both are very recent developments. Next year things may well be reversed. It would be reasonable to discourage new Long March launch agreements until trends in China are clearer, but existing agreements which have already received formal approval should not be retroactively disapproved (especially without compensation) except in a dire emergency. -- 1972: Saturn V #15 flight-ready| Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology 1989: birds nesting in engines | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu ------------------------------ Date: 30 Dec 89 21:32:26 GMT From: portal!cup.portal.com!mmm@uunet.uu.net (Mark Robert Thorson) Subject: Re: Air to orbit launch in 1985? The F-15 based weapon is called the "Homing Vehicle". The spiderweb-like thing was used in the "Homing Overlay Experiment". These are completely different machines, but they both demonstrate that the "hit a bullet with a bullet" argument against ABM has been made impotent and obsolete by semiconductor silicon. Though SSI and MSI digital logic were available to the designers of the last ABM's before the treaty, that's nothing compared to what we have today. ------------------------------ Date: 31 Dec 89 18:07:25 GMT From: crdgw1!jupiter!esmonddp@uunet.uu.net (Daniel P. Esmond) Subject: Re: Antigravity In article <869@khijol.UUCP>, erc@khijol.UUCP (Edwin R. Carp) writes: > Anyone know anything about the Brown-Biefeld Effect (discovered by Townsend > Brown back in the early 1920's)? > > This supposedly exploited the tendancy for a charged conductor to move towards > its positive pole. A couple of years ago OMNI magazine had a brief report on continuing anti-gravity research in Australia ( if I remember correctly ). The report said that there is a direct corrolation between electro- negativity and the masses response to gravity. It seems that materials in a certain group ( charge-wise ) don't fall as fast as all others. The results were obtained by dropping objects inside an outrageously long vacuum tube mounted inside a deep cavern. Rate differences where often less than 0.1%, but they were convinced they were on to something. On the other hand, can you believe a report in a sci-fi magazine? - Dan ------------------------------ Date: 19 Dec 89 18:58:38 GMT From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!caesar.cs.montana.edu!ogicse!terryr@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Terry Rooker) Subject: Re: Ringing in the new millenium In article <891219.12260191.002240@RMC.CP6> JC@RMC.BITNET writes: >You folks all seem to be missing the wonderful opportunity presenting >itself here. Instead of arguing over which New Year's eve to have a >gigantic party you should arrive at the obvious compromise: celebrate BOTH >years. > Even better yet, start the party on New Year's 2000 and end it on 2 Jan 2001! -- Terry Rooker terryr@cse.ogi.edu ------------------------------ Date: 20 Dec 89 20:59:54 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: Payload Status for 12/20/89 (Forwarded) Daily Status/KSC Payload Management and Operations 12-20-89 - STS-31R HST (at VPF) - Began yesterday with construction of "wasp tent" to support Wide Field Planetary Camera (WF/PC) installation. WF/PC installation is planned for today. The every four hour wasp inspection of the VPF highbay is continuing and will work through the holiday week to ensure the problem has been resolved prior to picking up with HST operations in January. - STS-32R SYNCOM (at Pad A) - Battery conditioning will continue through 23 December and will pick back up again on 29 December. - STS-35 ASTRO-1/BBXRT (at O&C) - Software validation continues. ASTRO-1 was successfully moved from test stand 3 to cite test stand four. There were no problems encountered during the move. Access platforms are being installed followed by the cabling configuring of ASTRO-1 for cite testing. - STS-40 SLS-1 (at O&C) - Rack pyrell foam replacement worked yesterday. Rack 7 upper mods, rack 9, 11, & 13 front mods were worked yesterday. Module pyrell foam replacement continues. - STS-42 IML (at O&C) - No activity. Plan to pick up with rack mod work and staging today. ------------------------------ Date: 21 Dec 89 07:47:41 GMT From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!caesar.cs.montana.edu!milton!maven!games@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Games Wizard) Subject: Livermore space station query... Several weeks ago, there was a posting citing a study done by Lawerence Livermore laboratories stating that an inflatable Kevlar space station could be produced and flown for $40 million. Could someone send me enough information for me to get a copy of this from them for myself? ( Like the real title, who wrote it, who it was presented to, who commisioned it, etc??? ) Anything will be appreciated. Thanx in advance. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Trendy footer by: John Stevens-Schlick Internet?: JOHN@tranya.cpac.washington.edu 7720 35'th Ave S.W. Seattle, Wa. 98126 (206) 935 - 4384 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My boss dosn't know what I do. ------------------------------ Date: 21 Dec 89 17:21:43 GMT From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!henry.jpl.nasa.gov!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov!baalke@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Ron Baalke) Subject: Galileo Update 12/20/89 GALILEO MISSION STATUS December 20, 1989 The Galileo spacecraft is 11.3 million miles or just over 1 light-minute from Earth today. It is just over halfway (or about 93 million miles) along its path to Venus encounter, and is going 67,104 mph in its orbit. The spin configuration is in cruise mode, with the upper part of the spacecraft spinning at 3.15 rpm around the axis pointed within a couple of degrees of the Sun, and the lower part despun, fixed in orientation. The EV-4 (Earth-Venus #4) sequence is currently in effect, defining spacecraft operating states and functions. The celestial reference loss and science alarm monitors are disabled as planned. The telemetry rate is 1200 bits per second, and telemetry indicates that all temperatures and pressures are at acceptable levels. The spacecraft's attitude sun point angle is currently at 1.87 degrees, plus or minus 0.3 degrees. The spacecraft DC voltage imbalance measurement, which indicates the potential difference between the power busbars and the spacecraft chassis, has been fluctuating. The DC bus voltage imbalance has been slowly increasing and has reach nearly 17.3 volts. This does not reflect a fluctuation in spacecraft electrical power, which continues to show the normal margin. Nor does it pose any hazard to the spacecraft, which was designed to function at any level of imbalance up to short-to-chassis; Voyager 1 has been operating acceptably since early 1988 in this condition. On Friday the Galileo spacecraft will perform its second trajectory change, moving the Venus closest approach point to the desired 10,000 miles from planet center (about 6,200 miles above the cloud tops). Closest approach will occur about 10 p.m. PDT February 9. At injection, the aim point was biased out to several hundred miles from Venus. This maneuver, will thrust mostly at right angles to the sun line, with a magnitude of about 3/4 of 1 meter per second (about 1/20 the first maneuver). It will be done in four segments or pulse chains, taking about 2-1/4 hours in all. All of the orbiter science instruments are off except for the magnetometer and HIC. Next week all the orbiter science instruments will be checked out in a four-day programmed sequence, preparing for Venus encounter. Ron Baalke | baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov Jet Propulsion Lab M/S 301-355 | baalke@jems.jpl.nasa.gov 4800 Oak Grove Dr. | Pasadena, CA 91109 | ------------------------------ Date: 28 Dec 89 07:29:21 GMT From: zephyr.ens.tek.com!tektronix!percy!parsely!bucket!leonard@uunet.uu.net (Leonard Erickson) Subject: Re: Air to orbit launch in 1985? A production system probably would work exactly that way. To hit an orbiting body, your missile has to be at the right place at the right time. (ie it has to intercept). Acheiving orbital velocity will not aid this goal, and could make it more difficult. It's definitely *cheaper* to just throw something "in front" of the satellite. -- Leonard Erickson ...!tektronix!reed!percival!bucket!leonard CIS: [70465,203] "I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters." -- Solomon Short ------------------------------ Date: 29 Dec 89 02:55:32 GMT From: cs.utexas.edu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!henry@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: proposed "space-mail" incentive In article <12790@watcgl.waterloo.edu> mark@watsnew.waterloo.edu (Mark Earnshaw) writes: >> 1) Burial. >>... >Where exactly would this ash end up? We already have lots of junk in earth >orbit without putting more up there... There was one serious burial-in-space proposal. It specified use of a medium-altitude orbit, long-lived and in the thick of the Van Allen belts where nobody else wants to operate. >... or fire it out of orbit. In the latter case, you >still have to make sure that it's going to land somewhere so that we don't have >all these commemorative urns flying around the solar system with unknown >trajectories. Considering the enormous volume of natural debris already flying around the solar system with unknown trajectories, it is unlikely that this would be a significant issue. -- 1972: Saturn V #15 flight-ready| Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology 1989: birds nesting in engines | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu ------------------------------ Date: 29 Dec 89 03:05:02 GMT From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!cs.utexas.edu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!henry@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: Air to orbit launch in 1985? In article <246@sixhub.UUCP> davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (bill davidsen) writes: >... a report of the F15 shooting down a dead US satellite >with a missle... in 1985. Now I realize that it is not impossible to >throw something slow moving into orbit and let a satellite "run into >it" as it were, but it is certainly not the reliable way to do it. I >would doubt that anyone would design a production defense system which >involved a crossing shot on something at orbital velocity. This is, in fact, exactly what was done. It's somewhat demanding for the guidance system, but it is *much* easier to boost a payload to orbital altitude than to get it to orbital speed, and the relative velocity is high enough that you don't need a warhead. The projectile was an infrared seeker system with a ring of rocket motors around it, boosted by one or two stages of big solid rocket after being dropped from a tuned-up F-15 in a steep supersonic climb. It was quite a sensible design for an antisatellite system, since you could hit any low orbit on a few hours' notice by flying the F-15 to the right place. -- 1972: Saturn V #15 flight-ready| Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology 1989: birds nesting in engines | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu ------------------------------ Date: 29 Dec 89 04:58:27 GMT From: cs.utexas.edu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!henry@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: Scientific value of Apollo (was Re: Motives) In article <15025@bfmny0.UU.NET> tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET (Tom Neff) writes: >>It's interesting that some of the people who said that Apollo was a >>ridiculously expensive way to get minimal results are now the ones who >>are saying that Apollo completely explored the Moon, so we should forget >>the Moon and press on to Mars. > >Bah. Claims to this effect would be much more credible if they included >names and statements... Louis Friedman of the self-styled Planetary Society, writing in Aviation Week a couple of years ago. Exact reference can be dug up if needed. Actually, almost any statement by the Planetary Society's overlords -- Sagan, Murray, Friedman -- in which they deign to mention the Moon at all says the same thing: "no further exploration worth doing at this time -- ON TO MARS!". -- 1972: Saturn V #15 flight-ready| Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology 1989: birds nesting in engines | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V10 #380 *******************