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, 24 Mar 90 01:44:15 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Sat, 24 Mar 90 01:43:48 -0500 (EST) Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #182 SPACE Digest Volume 11 : Issue 182 Today's Topics: Re: CHALLENGER CENTER Re: Orbital Sciences Public Offering Re: NASA Headline News for 03/15/90 (Forwarded) Re: Orbital Sciences Public Offering Re: NASA Headline News for 03/15/90 (Forwarded) Re: Freedom finding related to LDEF? Re: Shuttle escape systems, was Challenger's Last Words Re: Sandia Railgun Re: Giotto Update - 03/14/90 Nina and Columbus 500 Re: Shuttle Escapes and jumping from the space station. Re: Railgun ... Payload Status RACK Question... Re: Railgun ... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Sender: "Jack_Bacon.WBST897ai"@Xerox.COM Date: 23 Mar 90 06:41:14 PST (Friday) Subject: Re: CHALLENGER CENTER From: "Jack_Bacon.WBST897ai"@Xerox.COM Cc: "Jack_Bacon.WBST897ai"@Xerox.COM With regard to Mark Malone's question about the Challenger Center: My wife and I have been members for two years, and believe it to be VERY worthwhile. The center is the ONLY Challenger Memorial activity endorsed by ALL of the crew's families. As a member, you get a few token yearly communications, plus the occasional OUTSTANDING offer (a week-long VIP stay/conference at Johnson, special guest privileges at JPL for planetary encounters, Dinner with the President & a few senators, etc...) at rediculously low prices. At the first National Teacher's Conference put on by the center, we met most of the Teacher-in-space finalists from all the states (The Space Ambassadors program is strongly coupled with the Center), met 8 astronauts, and got several VIP tours & lectures at Johnson, plus a steamer-trunk full of classroom materials & resources, all for around $250. The center stresses cooperative learning & teamwork in mission-simulation exercises for entire classes of students, currently targeting elementary & Junior High levels. None of the activities to be accomplished in a typical "mission" can be done by an individual: they all require cooperation and teamwork. Each of the installations will have a different mission scenario (Moon Base, Halley comet rendezvous, etc...) with a mission control and a mission lab area. Just like NASA simulations, the instructors can juice up the exercise to match the skill levels of individual teams, so that everyone is challenged. They're still growing, too. The Houston center is finished, and the new headquarters building is going up now in Washington. Besides the many dedicated Challenger Center facilities, I also understand that there are plans to coordinate lots of TV and EMAIL links to "satellite" centers at area museums & schools, too. These folks are legit, sincere, and deserving of all of our support. Give 'em the bucks. -Jack ------------------------------ Date: 23 Mar 90 22:27:26 GMT From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sunybcs!uhura.cc.rochester.edu!rochester!dietz@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Paul Dietz) Subject: Re: Orbital Sciences Public Offering In article <5200@itivax.iti.org> aws@vax3.UUCP (Allen W. Sherzer) writes (about the OSC offering): >Do you know when the offering will be? > >If you are willing to take a little risk, buying before the first test >may be a good idea. If it works, the price will likely rise fast. Actually, maybe not. Public offerings tend to go out at inflated prices; there's an irrational urge with some people to "get in on the ground floor", especially if the company has been hyped (remember, say, Encore Computer, or Genentech?). It's generally a good idea to wait a while for disillusionment to set in. In the case of OSC, I (weakly) suspect the initial price will be more than a rational assessment of the risk would justify. You may feel differently. Paul F. Dietz dietz@cs.rochester.edu ------------------------------ Date: 23 Mar 90 05:19:21 GMT From: crash!orbit!pnet51!schaper@nosc.mil (S Schaper) Subject: Re: NASA Headline News for 03/15/90 (Forwarded) Aha, you conspiracy buffs, just what we need, some nut placing a seal in the orbiter's nose-wheel bay! :-) UUCP: {amdahl!bungia, uunet!rosevax, chinet, killer}!orbit!pnet51!schaper ARPA: crash!orbit!pnet51!schaper@nosc.mil INET: schaper@pnet51.cts.com ------------------------------ Date: 23 Mar 90 21:24:37 GMT From: ox.com!itivax!vax3!aws@CS.YALE.EDU (Allen W. Sherzer) Subject: Re: Orbital Sciences Public Offering In article <1990Mar23.170605.18715@cs.rochester.edu> dietz@cs.rochester.edu (Paul Dietz) writes: >There's an article about OSC in today's Wall Street Journal >(page 1, left column). OSC will be completing a public offering >in the near future. My stockbroker says the price is $13/share, >but the stock is not yet trading. I've asked him to get me a >prospectus. I probably won't buy until after a successful test, >though. Do you know when the offering will be? If you are willing to take a little risk, buying before the first test may be a good idea. If it works, the price will likely rise fast. Allen ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Allen W. Sherzer | If guns are outlawed, | | aws@iti.org | how will we shoot the liberals? | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: 23 Mar 90 05:19:21 GMT From: crash!orbit!pnet51!schaper@nosc.mil (S Schaper) Subject: Re: NASA Headline News for 03/15/90 (Forwarded) Aha, you conspiracy buffs, just what we need, some nut placing a seal in the orbiter's nose-wheel bay! :-) UUCP: {amdahl!bungia, uunet!rosevax, chinet, killer}!orbit!pnet51!schaper ARPA: crash!orbit!pnet51!schaper@nosc.mil INET: schaper@pnet51.cts.com ------------------------------ Date: 23 Mar 90 20:08:21 GMT From: hp-pcd!hpcvia!kas@hplabs.hp.com (ken_scofield) Subject: Re: Freedom finding related to LDEF? >>Is the chief problem with a "full-time spacewalker" the radiation >>exposure? > >No, that's relatively minor, and the station itself doesn't give that much >more shielding. EVA as currently practised is a major hassle, with a lot >of overhead effort involved, and is considered relatively dangerous (less >redundancy than working inside in shirtsleeves). >-- >Never recompute what you | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology >can precompute. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu Last night on the program "Beyond 2000" (DISCOVERY Channel) they did a spot on a new hardshell diving suit for deep water diving. This articulated shell allowed a diver to descend vastly farther than normal SCUBA equipment, and all the while the interior pressure is maintained at 1 atm. Thus, there is no compression/decompression time wasted. It (allegedly) takes only a few minutes to enter/exit the suit. Reportedly, NASA is very interested in the suit, and is looking into building a space-worthy version in the next few years. However, they want a hybrid version which still uses some "soft" components as in the current designs. The primary advantages are: No "acclimation" time is required -- just put the suit on and head out the door. Better micrometeorite protection -- and better radiation protection (as compared to soft suits). While EVA's to repair the space station are certainly troublesome enough to want to minimize their necessity, it seems that a suit such as this could lessen the impact, no? * / \ |---/---\---| Ken Scofield C-9355 SSI #453890085 | Gone | Hewlett-Packard, ICO | Divin' or | 1020 NE Circle Blvd. | Jumpin' | Corvallis, OR 97330 |-----------| Phone: (503)757-2000 ucbvax!hplabs!hp-pcd!kas kas@hpcvia.CV.HP.COM Cute Disclaimer: Nobody ever listened to me before, so why start now? ------------------------------ Date: 23 Mar 90 05:19:27 GMT From: crash!orbit!pnet51!schaper@nosc.mil (S Schaper) Subject: Re: Shuttle escape systems, was Challenger's Last Words I think I remember reading that the shuttle floats like it flies - like a brick. If they did ditch, they would have to get out _fast_. The SRB's did _not_ steer straight in the Challenger accident, if the exhaust plumes on that memorable picture mean what they seem to mean. UUCP: {amdahl!bungia, uunet!rosevax, chinet, killer}!orbit!pnet51!schaper ARPA: crash!orbit!pnet51!schaper@nosc.mil INET: schaper@pnet51.cts.com ------------------------------ Date: 23 Mar 90 02:56:44 GMT From: brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!samsung!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!hutto!henry@apple.com (Henry Melton) Subject: Re: Sandia Railgun Every can of soup you launch with the coilgun will have to have something on it to adjust the orbit once outside the atmosphere. Otherwise it will come right back into the atmosphere, no matter what its apogee is. So if we are launching things at 50000g's, the thrusters and associated electronics will have to take it. Unless we have someone up there in orbit with a catcher's mit. -- Henry Melton ...!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!hutto!henry 1-512-8463241 Rt.1 Box 274E Hutto,TX 78634 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Mar 90 14:59:46 +0100 From: p515dfi@mpirbn.uucp (Daniel Fischer) Subject: Re: Giotto Update - 03/14/90 Cc: p257shu@unido.informatik.uni-dortmund.de, u082mbi@unido.informatik.uni-dortmund.de The Giotto Extended Mission Update <14 Mar 1990> says: > Giotto is currently going through a checkout of its science instruments > which is expected to last one month. The European Space Operations Center (Darmstadt, W.Germany) denies that! They have told me today that the section of the spacecraft that houses most of the scientific instruments is still too hot to begin with this checkout (it was baked by the sun during the recent perihelion passage of Giotto). Thus, at this time there are only routine checks of other onboard systems under way, and the actual science checkout will not start before the end of April. A second trajectory correction, BTW, was successfull on March 19th: the Hydrazine thrusters are still working flawlessly. Thus the S/C itself seems to be fine - whether there will be a 'Giotto Extended Mission' (GEM) seems to depend on the fate of the scientific payload alone, above all the status of the camera. [Based upon the 'Giotto Hotline' {Germany-6151-886-609}, ESA Press Release #7 of 15 March 1990 + personal comm. ESOC/PIO] Daniel Fischer [p515dfi@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de] on behalf of the newsletter SKYWEEK ------------------------------ Date: 23 Mar 90 10:31:50 GMT From: mcsun!ukc!reading!minster!john@uunet.uu.net Subject: Nina and Columbus 500 Last night's UK TV `Channel 4 news' carried a report of an entry for a proposed (unmanned :-)) solar sailing expedition to Mars in 1992 called `Columbus 500' ("In fourteen hundred and ninety two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue"). The design for a spacecraft called "Nina", after one of Columbus's ships, was suggested by a group of British inventors. JPL has reportedly judged it to be the most promising of the design proposals submitted. The German company Messerschmitt has apparently expressed interest in building the craft. The innovative feature is the shape of Nina's solar sail. It is a circular fan which wraps up into a toroid, thus solving the problem of how such a sail can be compactly stored and cleanly deployed by a spacecraft. The inventor claims that this geometry is original, and had been prompted by his interest in, and experience with, Origami. Does any one have any further information? Where will the group find a launch vehicle? Funding? What instruments will the space probe carry? What research has been carried out into the (formidable?) problems of controlling a solar sail `in flight'? -------------------------------------------------------------- John A. Murdie +44 904 432752 Dept. of Comp. Sci. ukc!minster!john University of York England ------------------------------ Date: 23 Mar 90 22:56:42 GMT From: snorkelwacker!usc!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!dali!milton!maven!games@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Subject: Re: Shuttle Escapes and jumping from the space station. In article <1990Mar19.185607.26093@helios.physics.utoronto.ca>, neufeld@physics.utoronto.ca (Christopher Neufeld) writes: > In article <90Mar19.135002est.2709@ois.db.toronto.edu> hogg@db.toronto.edu (John Hogg) writes: >>However, a ``reasonably well protected human'' needn't wear a spacecraft. >>Station crew-escape systems have been proposed which amount to a >>spacesuit, a retrorocket pack, a heatshield, and a parachute. The >>advantages of such a system include simplicity and light weight. >>Unfortunately, an astronaut needing an escape system is quite likely >>to be ill or injured, and a stripped-down suit-shield-chute package >>is not an ideal ambulance. It still sounds worth developing. >> > You mean this is a real idea??? I saw this described in the SF novel > _Orbital Decay_ by Allen Steele and brushed it off as a fabrication by > the author. > You might be able to convince me to sit on top of a tank of fuel and > oxidizer, but you'd have a much harder time getting me to jump out of > the space station with the intention of soft-landing on the ground! As a Skydiver, I have jumped from some very hish places with the intention of "SOFT LANDING" on the ground. Going to the space station to jump sounds like the ultimate skydive. I'll bet that once such a system is devoloped and tested, there might even be a market for it. John. ------------------------------ Date: 23 Mar 90 22:16:04 GMT From: zephyr.ens.tek.com!tektronix!sequent!mntgfx!mbutts@uunet.uu.net (Mike Butts) Subject: Re: Railgun ... From article <6363@blake.acs.washington.edu>, by wiml@blake.acs.washington.edu (William Lewis): > quantities of matter into polar orbit. Of course, the only > reason to launch something into a polar orbit is for surveillance > applications... Looks like Cheney and the .mil bunch aren't ready Ahem...another use for polar orbits is store-and-forward message systems. The batch of amateur radio microsats that went up in January are little more than PCs with solarcells and radios, in sun-synchronous polar orbits. You can post a message from anywhere in the world with a cheap briefcase-sized packet node and be assured of its delivery to another node anywhere else within 24 hours. Not to mention the many non-military applications of surveillance (Landsat, SPOT, etc.) -- Michael Butts, Research Engineer KC7IT 503-626-1302(fax:1282) Mentor Graphics Corporation, 8500 SW Creekside Place, Beaverton, Oregon 97005 !{ogicse,sequent,tessi,apollo}!mntgfx!mbutts mbutts@pdx.MENTOR.COM Any opinions are my own, and aren't necessarily shared by Mentor Graphics Corp. ------------------------------ Date: 24 Mar 90 02:30:53 GMT From: snorkelwacker!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!dali!milton!maven!games@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Subject: Payload Status RACK Question... I like reading the payload status reports, and I have a fair idea of what is actually going on, however what are the RACK's that are constantly mentioned... I have a feeling that these are the pallets that actually go into the shuttle bay, but I havent a clue as to what the numbers associated with them really mean, is there some kind of map? Other things that I read seem to indicate that this guess is way off base however. Hopefully someone can clue me in. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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: 23 Mar 90 15:22:16 GMT From: rochester!dietz@pt.cs.cmu.edu (Paul Dietz) Subject: Re: Railgun ... pahsnsr@nmtsun.nmt.edu (Paul A. Houle) wrote: > Another story in last week's Av Leak was about a coil gun >proposed to be based in Hawaii; the goal is to toss kilogram >quantities of matter into polar orbit. Of course, the only >reason to launch something into a polar orbit is for surveillance >applications... The proposed EML in Hawaii wouldn't launch into polar orbits, I believe, but rather into somewhat less highly inclined orbits. The purpose would be to park large numbers of "Brilliant Pebbles" in orbits that pass over the Soviet Union, where they could be used for boost-phase intercept. Paul F. Dietz dietz@cs.rochester.edu ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V11 #182 *******************