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 ; Wed, 7 Feb 90 01:31:10 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Wed, 7 Feb 90 01:30:47 -0500 (EST) Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #14 SPACE Digest Volume 11 : Issue 14 Today's Topics: Re: Magellan Update - 01/17/90: really about metric vs. imperial units Payload Status for 02/06/90 (Forwarded) launch schedules for commerical Commucations satellites ??? Re: Spacecraft drives and fuel efficiency Galileo Update - 02/06/90 (Forwarded) Re: Spacecraft drives and fuel efficiency Removal from Mailing List Re: metric vs. imperial units Re: More Info On SSX NASA Headline News for 02/06/90 (Forwarded) Payload Status for 02/05/90 (Forwarded) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 5 Feb 90 22:02:12 GMT From: sun-barr!newstop!texsun!csccat!jack@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Jack Hudler) Subject: Re: Magellan Update - 01/17/90: really about metric vs. imperial units In article <4641@druhi.ATT.COM> neal@druhi.ATT.COM writes: > >I think it is long past time for NASA and other government agencies to >start using metric units, and I see practically no benefit from a >computational standpoint to the use nautical miles. > >-Neal McBurnett // AT&T Bell Labs, Denver // neal@druhi.att.com, att!druhi!neal Does this include civil and commercial aircraft and while were at why not everything... I don't know about you but I don't want to have to do replace all the instruments in my plane for metric ones.. can you imagine the cost involed here to everyone.. and the thought of doing an instrument approach in metric units when my mind and sole are trained in imperial, is just asking for midairs! I or my wallet vote NO. -- Jack Computer Support Corportion Dallas,Texas Hudler UUCP: {texsun,texbell,attctc}!csccat!jack ------------------------------ Date: 6 Feb 90 23:21:30 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: Payload Status for 02/06/90 (Forwarded) Daily Status/KSC Payload Management and Operations 02-06-90 - STS-36 (at SPIF) - MMSE operations continue. - STS-31R HST (at VPF) - At the OPF, IPCU installation into the orbiter was completed yesterday. The Imax IVT, ICBC cable connections, and IPCU/UDM mate test are scheduled for today. At the VPF, HST confidence test continues today. - STS-32R SYNCOM/LDEF (at SAEF-2) SYNCOM shipping container was loaded onto a flatbed truck and departed the O&C yesterday. At SAEF-2, LDEF deintegration continues. - STS-35 ASTRO-1/BBXRT (at O&C) - BBXRT pyro troubleshooting continues today. - STS-40 SLS-1 (at O&C) - Rack 3 weight and balance, along with MMU installation was completed yesterday. Fire suppression bottle installation and test will continue today. ECS operations will also be worked today along with rack 3 & 8 mating. MVAK training continues. - STS-42 IML (at O&C) - Racks 5 and 8 structural mods continue today. - STS-45 Atlas-1 (at O&C) - No activity. ------------------------------ Date: 5 Feb 90 20:41:36 GMT From: shlump.nac.dec.com!shodha.dec.com!SETPRV!jaques@decwrl.dec.com ( robert royal jaques) Subject: launch schedules for commerical Commucations satellites ??? Can some one post launch dates for commercial commications satellites. I know both the arian and the new US launch vehicles are to send up new satellites to replace and add to our aging commerical birds. thanks dr bob ------------------------------ Date: 6 Feb 90 17:00:40 GMT From: mentor.cc.purdue.edu!f3w@purdue.edu (Mark Gellis) Subject: Re: Spacecraft drives and fuel efficiency Just wanted to send a quick thank you to all those who responded to my questions about spacecraft drives. The information has been very helpful. My interest in fusion drives is, incidently, related to a comment just made on this news group: anti-matter drives will certainly be among the best choices for very high velocities and very high fuel efficiencies in spacecraft where you cannot rely on a separate power source (as in laser propelled light sails), but anti-matter sounds as if it involves technical problems that make fusion engines look like tinker toys. I think we will be able to get matter-antimatter drives eventually, but I also have a feeling that fusion may become the "cheap standard" for trade, passenger vessels, and so on because the fuels are either very accessible or easy to produce if you have controlled fusion power (as I recall, you make He3 by fusing deuterium, so if you have d-d fusion, you can make all the He3 you want). ------------------------------ Date: 6 Feb 90 17:17:08 GMT From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!forsight!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov!baalke@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Ron Baalke) Subject: Galileo Update - 02/06/90 (Forwarded) GALILEO VENUS FLY-BY February 6, 1990 NASA's Galileo spacecraft will fly by planet Venus at about 1 a.m. EST, Sat., Feb. 10, 1990, on the first leg of its gravity- assisted flight path to planet Jupiter. Galileo will record scientific observations for playback in October. There will be no live or real-time science from this Venus fly-by. Galileo Project Manager Dick Spehalski will present the latest status updates on the trajectory, the spacecraft and its instruments at a press briefing at noon EST, Feb. 10, from JPL. The briefing will be carried live on NASA Select TV, Satcom F2R, Transponder 13, at 72 degrees W. Longitude. Project Scientist Torrence Johnson and Mission Design Manager William O'Neil also will participate in the briefing. The NASA Headquarters sixth floor auditorium, 400 Md. Ave., S.W., will be open during the press briefing. 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: 7 Feb 90 00:31:17 GMT From: samsung!cs.utexas.edu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!henry@think.com (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: Spacecraft drives and fuel efficiency In article <7147@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> f3w@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Mark Gellis) writes: >... anti-matter sounds as if it involves technical >problems that make fusion engines look like tinker toys... The fun part is, it may actually be the other way around! Antimatter handling technology obviously needs a lot more work if antimatter rockets are to be practical, and somebody needs to invest heavily in production facilities. However, there are few really basic problems involved, and little doubt that the result would work. The problem with fusion is that it is fiercely difficult to make it work in the first place, and *then* you have to make it light enough for a rocket. (That last is not a trivial issue; few of the existing controlled-fusion designs look like they could be turned into rocket engines with useful thrust:weight ratios.) Fusion has a large head start, but antimatter research has been making far more rapid progress in recent times. >... (as I recall, you make He3 by >fusing deuterium, so if you have d-d fusion, you can make all the He3 >you want). Unfortunately, making useful amounts of He3 this way requires truly vast fusion plants. The Daedalus study planned to mine its He3 out of the atmosphere of Jupiter, because it looked easier! They did look at making it by transmutation, and at gathering it from the solar wind. Both those schemes lost out because they were far more difficult. Making large quantities by transmutation involved such staggering power outputs that a civilization capable of doing that probably has better ways to power starships. Mining it out of the solar wind involved such huge collecting areas that a civilization which can do that can probably build a Bussard ramjet instead. -- SVR4: every feature you ever | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology wanted, and plenty you didn't.| uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu ------------------------------ Date: Tue 6 Feb 90 20:42:53-EST From: H. Sommer Subject: Removal from Mailing List Cc: sommerh@a.isi.edu Please remove me from your mailing list. Thanks Hal Sommer (Sommerh@a.isi.edu) ------- ------------------------------ Date: 7 Feb 90 00:31:28 GMT From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!newstop!jethro!forestbear.Sun.COM!creagh@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Creagh Yates) Subject: Re: metric vs. imperial units >In article <1990Feb5.162645.1272@phri.nyu.edu> roy@phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) writes: >>> the most metric nations still use feet and knots in the air. France, even. It seems that I remember some things given in kilometers, such as geosyncrous orbit and the distance to the moon. Is that correct? Creagh ------------------------------ Date: 7 Feb 90 01:42:41 GMT From: pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!m.cs.uiuc.edu!carroll@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Subject: Re: More Info On SSX /* Written 6:14 pm Feb 5, 1990 by larry@omews10.intel.com in m.cs.uiuc.edu:sci.space */ /* ---------- "More Info On SSX" ---------- */ I recently (2/5/90) got some interesting information on SSX from ewright@convex.com (Edward V. Wright). [ ... ] a useful payload of 9000 to 20,000 lb. [ ... ] The anticipated cost of each vehicle is around $30 million, yielding launch costs of about $50 per pound of payload in Low Earth Orbit. /* End of text from m.cs.uiuc.edu:sci.space */ Forgive my math, but I get $30,000,000 / 20,000 lb = $1500/lb, not $50. For a 9,000 lb payload, it's $3333/lb. Where did you get $50/lb from? For a 20,000 lb payload, and $50/lb, the vehicle must cost only $1million. Alan M. Carroll "And there you are carroll@s.cs.uiuc.edu Saying 'We have the Moon, so now the Stars...'" CS Grad / U of Ill @ Urbana ...{ucbvax,pur-ee,convex}!s.cs.uiuc.edu!carroll ------------------------------ Date: 6 Feb 90 20:15:45 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: NASA Headline News for 02/06/90 (Forwarded) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, February 6, 1990 Audio: 202/755-1788 ----------------------------------------------------------------- This is NASA Headline News for Tuesday, February 6..... Langley Research Center investigators began conducting detailed visual inspection of the Long Duration Exposure Facility spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center today. Yesterday technicians installed support beams to enable the entire LDEF to be rotated so all the experiments can be viewed. The visual inspection program at KSC will continue through February 17. An Air Force C-5A jet transport will carry the Gamma Ray Observatory from California to Cape Canaveral today. The large observatory satellite is scheduled to be launched aboard the Space Shuttle orbiter Atlantis in November. The observatory, called G-R-O, will be deployed into a near-circular 280 mile high orbit where it will gather data in an effort to learn more about the origin and fate of the universe. The GRO will be the heaviest payload ever deployed by the shuttle....17 tons. Work continues at Kennedy Space Center in prepartion for launch of the orbiter Atlantis later this month. The flight readiness review is scheduled for Thursday and Friday. NASA communications managers will meet this week to determine if they can fIX the TDRS-West satellite that experienced loss of one of two Ku-band antennas recently. A NASA spokesman says tests are continuing to determine the exact source of a system power loss aboard the satellite. NASA Administrator Truly testifies today on Capital Hill on the fiscal year 91 budget. Thursday, the House Space Subcommittee will hear testimony on the agency's space science and applications budget request. * * * * ----------------------------------------------------------------- Here's the broadcast schedule for public affairs events on NASA Select TV. All times are Eastern. Thursday, February 8..... 11:30 A.M. NASA Update will be transmitted. Saturday, February 10....(correction) 12:00 noon News conference from JPL on Galileo flyby of Venus All events and times are subject to change without notice. ----------------------------------------------------------------- These reports are filed daily, Monday through Friday, at 12 noon, Eastern time. ----------------------------------------------------------------- A service of the Internal Communications Branch (LPC), NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. ------------------------------ Date: 6 Feb 90 22:35:33 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: Payload Status for 02/05/90 (Forwarded) Daily Status/KSC Payload Management and Operations 02-05-90 - STS-31 HST (at VPF) - HST functional test was completed Friday. At the OPF, IPCU installation into the orbiter will occur today. At the VPF, HST confidence test will start today. - STS-32R SYNCOM/LDEF (at SAEF-2) the LSET and the SYNCOM cradle shipping container departed the O&C Friday. At SAEF-2 LDEF deintegration continues. - STS-35 ASTRO-1/BBXRT (at O&C) - BBXRT power on stray voltage checks were performed Friday. Emissivity checks will be performed today. - STS-40 SLS-1 (at O&C) - Hoist equipment proof loading was completed Friday. On Saturday, racks 1, 2, and 4 were weighed, and staging activities were performed on 3, 8 and 9. Fire suppression bottle installation and test will continue today. ECS operations will also be worked today along with rack 9 mating. MVAK training continues. - STS-42 IML (at O&C) - Racks 5 and 8 structural mods were worked Friday and Saturday and will continue today. Rack 11 staging was also worked Saturday. - STS-45 Atlas-1 (at O&C) - No activity. ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V11 #14 *******************