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 13:58:50 -0500 (EST) Received: from beak.andrew.cmu.edu via qmail ID ; Mon, 8 Jan 90 20:25:40 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Mon, 8 Jan 90 20:25:16 -0500 (EST) Subject: SPACE Digest V10 #394 SPACE Digest Volume 10 : Issue 394 Today's Topics: Re: Antigravity Re: NASA Headline News for 01/02/90 (Forwarded) Re: Simpler space suits? Re: Big Bang - no more Galileo Update 01/03/90 Re: Chris Robertson's "Henry bio" (was Re: who's out there?) Re-subscription needed? Magellan Update 1/3/90 Correction to Article Submission Re: Chris Robertson's "Henry bio" (was Re: who's out there?) NASA Select television programming (Forwarded) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 3 Jan 90 19:14:54 GMT From: agate!sag4.ssl.berkeley.edu!daveray@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (David Ray) Subject: Re: Antigravity I thought that when things go fast, close to the speed of light, their mass in our space-time-frame gets heavier, not lighter. Is it relavistic effects that make the gyroscopes get lighter? -d ------------------------------ Date: 3 Jan 90 23:55:15 GMT From: attcan!utgpu!utzoo!henry@uunet.uu.net (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: NASA Headline News for 01/02/90 (Forwarded) In article <39643@ames.arc.nasa.gov> yee@trident.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) writes: >The tenth attempt to launch a commercial Titan 3 rocket from Cape >Canaveral was successful... Ah, nothing like those wonderful expendables, always on schedule and always ready when the launch window is narrow... :-) -- 1972: Saturn V #15 flight-ready| Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology 1990: birds nesting in engines | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu ------------------------------ Date: 4 Jan 90 21:53:42 GMT From: att!mcdchg!illusion!marcus@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Marcus Hall) Subject: Re: Simpler space suits? In article <641@halley.UUCP> watson@halley.UUCP (William Watson) writes: >.... Comment were made on the expense >of current spacesuits, and the fact that suits today are custom made for >each astronaut (in the US, at least). This is not true with the space shuttle suits. The HUT (Hard Upper Torso) is made in one (possibly two?) size(s). The arms and legs are made in just a few sizes (with extensions to provide some alteration in the sizes). The gloves are custom made for each astronaut since it is necessary that they fit very exactly, but everything else is made in a limited number of sizes. Of course, the sizes loaded on the shuttle for any particular flight are chosen for the astronauts that are anticipated to be using them. I'm not sure how much truth is in this, but I have heard that the height requirements for astronaut applicants is so that they fit in the spectrum of suit sizes. marcus hall ------------------------------ Date: 3 Jan 90 13:27:45 GMT From: mcsun!ukc!icdoc!syma!marksm@uunet.uu.net (Mark S Madsen) Subject: Re: Big Bang - no more In article <4786@newton.praxis.co.uk> macey@praxis.co.uk (Ian Macey) writes: >I think you'll find the Big Bang theory has been looking pretty shakey for a >number of years now. I for one would put it down as a nice little theory >which seemed to work with what we knew at the time, but which almost certainly >isn't the right answer. Jeez! Is this condescension, or what??? "Nice little theories" are exactly what science is about, Dr Macey. The hot big bang model was formulated in the mid-sixties, and it's still going strong in the nineties - with the help of inflation, and supported by a lot of data that wasn't available in the sixties. >One of the people who has done a lot towards coming up with an alternative >theory of the existence/creation of the universe is Stephen Hawking of Oxford >University. His work involves (if I remember correctly) superstring theory and >steady state universes. For more information try his book 'A Brief History Of >Time' which is a very good read and gives a state of the art explanation for >the universe's existence. Now if you can't even get this right, then why should we trust your impressions of anyone else's science? FYI, Stephen Hawking is at Cambridge. His book is hardly state of the art. And his work doesn't need steady state universes or superstrings - just stationary Euclidean action and the correct boundary condition in the path integral. So my advice, contrary to yours is: 1) Read a couple textbooks 2) Get your facts straight 3) Don't teach your grandmother to suck eggs :-) >|\\\X\\|\ | Ian Macey Bath, England. (macey@praxis.co.uk) Mark. -- ####################################################################### ## Mark S. Madsen #### marksm@syma.sussex.ac.uk ################### #### Astronomy Centre, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QH, UK. ## #################### Life's a bitch. Then you die. ################# ------------------------------ Date: 4 Jan 90 17:30:52 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 01/03/90 GALILEO MISSION STATUS January 3, 1990 Today the Galileo spacecraft is 13.6 million miles from Earth. Round-trip light time is almost 2+ minutes. It has travelled 116.4 million of the 185 million miles in its path to Venus encounter, now about 5 weeks away. Heliocentric velocity has risen to 71,020 mph. The spacecraft's spin rate is 3.14 rpm as estimated by the star scanner, and the attitude sun point angle is at 0.5 degrees. Last week's four-day science checkout was generally successful. All orbiter instruments were exercised and tested; the magnetometer, the heavy ion counter, the dust detector, and the UV spectrometer are still powered. On December 22, Galileo conducted a successful second trajectory correction maneuver, as programmed and monitored by the flight team. At present the mission is proceeding as planned with the spacecraft in normal dual-spin cruise mode. All temperatures and pressures are within acceptable limits, and the downlink telemetry rate is 1200 bits per second. DC and AC voltage imbalance measurements continue to fluctuate. All other power related measurements are stable and are as expected. On January 8, the operational sequence EV-4 (fourth sequence in Earth-Venus cruise) concludes, and EV-5 begins. EV-6 will contain the Venus flyby operations. 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: 5 Jan 90 00:40:56 GMT From: kr0u+@andrew.cmu.edu (Kevin William Ryan) Subject: Re: Chris Robertson's "Henry bio" (was Re: who's out there?) >... and had the chance to be ignored in person. Hmm. Does _everyone_ have this experience with Henry? Because, the same damn thing for me, at WorldCon - Boston, the end of August... kwr "Jest so ya know..." ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 04 Jan 90 20:27:29 PST From: Craig Cholar <3432P%NAVPGS.BITNET@vma.cc.cmu.edu> Subject: Re-subscription needed? I haven't received any issues of Space Digest since VOL 10 #357 arrived here on Dec 18th. I would like to continue receiving them, if at all possible. Please re-subscribe me. Thank you Craig Cholar, 3432P@NAVPGS.BITNET ------------------------------ Date: 4 Jan 90 00:34:59 GMT From: snorkelwacker!usc!henry.jpl.nasa.gov!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov!baalke@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Ron Baalke) Subject: Magellan Update 1/3/90 MAGELLAN STATUS REPORT Jan. 3, 1990 Today, the Magellan spacecraft is 111,898,063 miles from Earth, traveling at a speed of 65,982 miles per hour relative to the sun. One way light time is 10 minutes and one second. On Dec. 31, the spacecraft's computers detected an error in the privileged memory and took several actions to protect itself. First, the command data system (CDS) switched to its backup unit, side B, which took control to make sure the solar panels were properly aligned and the medium gain antenna pointed to Earth. The on-board cruise sequence, which was composed solely of momentum wheel desaturations and star calibrations, was cancelled by the CDS when the change over was made. The telemetry link was switched from the high gain to the medium gain antenna and the rate was reduced from 1,200 bits per second (bps) to 40 bps. Also, the command link was switched from the high gain to the low gain and the rate was reduced from 62.5 bps to 7.8 bps. A momentum wheel desaturation is being done once daily via non-standard commands to the spacecraft, and because of the low attitude drift rates no star calibrations have been needed. Magellan operations officials said the difficulty appears to be a memory cell oxide problem, but there is a possibility an energetic particle from recent high solar activity could have caused a memory hit in one of the science instruments. Magellan spokesman Dr. Ed Sherry said operations teams at JPL and at Martin Marietta in Denver will troubleshoot the problem over the next 8 to 10 days and then uplink a new sequence to resume normal cruise. The "bit-slip/bit-flip" problem was further isolated on radar tests performed on Dec. 12 through Dec. 14. The problem was occuring on only track 2 on one of the two tape recorders aboard Magellan. Deep Space Network was eliminated as a possible cause as data was run through two different DSN pathways, with the problem seen on both paths. This ruled out the Frame Synchronization Subassembly (FSS) and the Maximum Likelihood Convolutional Decoder (MCD) which were originally have been thought as a possible cause of the problem. There is no impact to the mapping phase of the mission due to this problem since only 2 tracks are needed from each tape recorder to record data. Each tape recorder has 4 tracks. SPACECRAFT Distance from Earth (mi) 111,898,063 Velocity Heliocentric 65,982 mph One-way light time 10 mins, 1 sec 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: 3 Jan 90 02:23:00 GMT From: cs.utexas.edu!samsung!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!pikes!udenva!isis!scicom!paranet!f428.n104.z1.FIDONET.ORG!Michael.Corbin@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Michael Corbin) Subject: Correction to Article Submission * Forwarded from Michael Corbin, 104/428 * Originally to All * Originally dated 02 Jan 90 19:20:50 A slight correction to the 'Call For Submission of Articles' previously posted: ParaNet, upon payment to the author, retains the first exclusive publication rights. This means that an author can sell his material after the first publication through Oddysey. Thanks, Mike -- Michael Corbin - via FidoNet node 1:104/422 UUCP: !scicom!paranet!User_Name INTERNET: Michael.Corbin@f428.n104.z1.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ Date: 5 Jan 90 15:37:10 GMT From: usc!cs.utexas.edu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!db.toronto.edu!hogg@ucsd.edu (John Hogg) Subject: Re: Chris Robertson's "Henry bio" (was Re: who's out there?) In article kr0u+@andrew.cmu.edu (Kevin William Ryan) writes: >>... and had the chance to be ignored in person. > > Hmm. Does _everyone_ have this experience with Henry? No. --- John Hogg hogg@csri.utoronto.ca Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto ------------------------------ Date: 6 Jan 90 03:36:50 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: NASA Select television programming (Forwarded) Les Gaver Headquarters, Washington, D.C. January 5, 1990 N90-2 NOTE TO EDITORS/PROGRAM DIRECTORS NASA SELECT TELEVISION There will be a substantial amount of activity on NASA Select television over the next several days involving a variety of events including: o STS-32 Shuttle mission to recover LDEF. o Astro-1 mission science objectives briefing. o NASA Total Quality Management Colloquium. o Delta rocket launch (DOD mission with NASA support). Details follow: Jan. 6 - Coverage of Space Shuttle mission STS-32 begins at 9 a.m. EST with a series of backgound briefings from the Kennedy Space Center. Jan. 7 - Prelaunch press conference by program officials at 11:30 a.m. EST. The principal objectives of this 10-day mission are to deploy a communications satellite and to retrieve the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) satellite. There will be NASA Select coverage each day with transmission of numerous individual downlinks of live and taped material. The highlight of coverage will be pictures of the approach to and retrieval of LDEF. These pictures will be live and in color. Several other on-orbit events, including a crew press conference, will be available live in color. Otherwise, a substantial amount of live television from the Space Shuttle will be in flickering black and white except at the Johnson Space Center where all material is available in color. Videotape of B&W downlinks will be available in color later on the satellite. The day and time of the LDEF retrieval are closely tied to the day and precise time of the Shuttle launch and, therefore, cannot be pinpointed in this note. Please check the mission television schedule daily. Directions on how to obtain the schedule are provided at the end of this note. Jan. 8 - Launch of STS-32 in live color. Coverage begins at 3:30 a.m. EST. Lift-off scheduled for 8:10 a.m. EST. Jan. 9 - Videotape playback of presentations about science objectives of the Astro-1 mission. The presentations will have been made earlier in the day during a colloquium at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md. Astro-1 is a Shuttle payload of three independent telescopes that will provide spectral coverage in the ultraviolet. They will study the behavior of quasars, galaxies, active galactic nuclei and hot stars. This is one of NASA's most important science missions in the next 5 years. It is scheduled for launch this April. The playback currently is scheduled between noon and 4 p.m. EST. STS-32 mission developments could alter this schedule. Jan. 10 - Presentation at the NASA Total Quality Management Colloquium by Dr. Carolyn Burstein, Chief of Quality Management, Office of Management and Budget - 1-2 p.m. EST. Jan. 11 - Live coverage of the launch of a Delta 6 rocket to deploy a Navy global positioning satellite. This is a Department of Defense event. NASA is providing television support - 3:50 to 4:11 p.m. EST. Jan. 12 - STS-32 live, on-orbit crew press conference at 6:53 a.m. EST. Reporters must be at the Johnson Space Center to participate. ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V10 #394 *******************