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, 16 May 90 01:57:49 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Wed, 16 May 90 01:57:19 -0400 (EDT) Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #406 SPACE Digest Volume 11 : Issue 406 Today's Topics: Consort 3 launch advisory for 05/14/90 (Forwarded) Re: Galileo Update Hubble Wobble Re: Sagan vs. asteroids aliens' view of us Re: Niven's Inertialess Drive Jonathan's Space Report (May 15) Re: SPACE Digest V11 #387 NASA Headline News for 05/14/90 (Forwarded) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 15 May 90 16:11:56 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: Consort 3 launch advisory for 05/14/90 (Forwarded) Barbara Selby Headquarters, Washington, D.C. May 14, 1990 (Phone: 202/453-2927) EDITORS NOTE: N90-33 CONSORT 3 LAUNCH ADVISORY The launch of Consort 3, a commercial suborbital rocket carrying 12 microgravity experiments, has been moved forward a day to May 16 at 10:30 a.m. EDT, by the University of Alabama- Huntsville's Consortium for Materials Development in Space, a NASA Center for the Commercial Development of Space. Consort 3 will be launched from the Naval Ordnance Missile Test Station facilities at the U.S. Army's White Sands Missile Range, N.M., by Space Services, Inc., Houston, using its Starfire rocket. A delayed broadcast of the Consort 3 launch will be aired at Noon EDT, May 16, on NASA Select television via Satcom F-2R, Transponder 13, C-Band located at 72 degrees west longititude, frequency 3960.0 MHz, vertical polarization, audio monaural 6.8 MHz. ------------------------------ Date: 15 May 90 17:32:32 GMT From: usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars!baalke@ucsd.edu (Ron Baalke) Subject: Re: Galileo Update In article <21138@boulder.Colorado.EDU> serre@tramp.Colorado.EDU (SERRE GLENN) writes: >The subject line says it all. ("What is a SITURN?") > A SITURN is a small maneuver to keep the front end of Galileo pointed precisely at the sun, so that most of its instruments are shaded from the sun's heat. ------------------------------ Date: 15 May 90 19:11:17 GMT From: tm2b+@andrew.cmu.edu (Todd L. Masco) Subject: Hubble Wobble What suggestion are there for the causes of the "Wobble" in the HST? I have a few ideas, probably both resulting from a life spent immersed in science fiction and physics: 1) Light pressure - From Ron Baalke's reports, I gather that the "wobbles" have some correlation with relative sun up/down. The effects of light pressure should be small, but with the scale we're concerned about, it might become relevant. 2) Tidal effects - It seems to me that tidal effects should have a similar frequency; Again, the effects for something the size of the HST in a gravity well like the Earth's should be small, but we *are* concerned about a fairly small scale. [If this is indeed what is happening, it'll be vaguely amusing; The idea comes to mind from Niven's "Neutron Star"] 3) E/M effects from the Earth's B field - I'm not certain where the HST is in relation to the Earth's magnetic field, but moving a ferromagnetic structure through a magnetic field should induce some effect, dependent upon the orientation to the B field (not to mention Eddy Currents!); Again, this would have a similar frequency, as the HST moves in its orbit. These are, of course, (almost) complete shots in the dark, without any number-work with which to back them [I'm a lazy physics student recovering from finals, with a little more than a year left til I receive my degree]. Thoughts/Opinions/Refutations? -- | Todd L. Masco | Quantum Mechanics: The dreams stuff is made of. | tm2b@andrew.cmu.edu | ( ...!harvard!andrew.cmu.edu!tm2b ) ------------------------------ Date: 15 May 90 09:06:37 GMT From: mcsun!ukc!icdoc!syma!nickw@uunet.uu.net (Nick Watkins) Subject: Re: Sagan vs. asteroids In article <1990May9.164559.5662@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes: >One should remember that Chairman Carl seems to have heavy-duty ulterior >motives of the political kind these days, and that colors his views, to >put it mildly. As did LBJ's, JFK's, Kruschev's, ... Before you reply Henry, just consider how much is ever likely to be done in space for reasons of science or exploration, as compared to geopolitics, war, or your own favorite (commercial) drivers. Sagan has made some spectacular U-turns (notably on manned flight, as has Brian O'Leary for example) but he does at least understand this. "This film is abbout much more than just science" - ACC on 2001. Nick -- Dr. Nick Watkins, Space & Plasma Physics Group, School of Mathematical & Physical Sciences, Univ. of Sussex, Brighton, E.Sussex, BN1 9QH, ENGLAND JANET: nickw@syma.sussex.ac.uk BITNET: nickw%syma.sussex.ac.uk@uk.ac ------------------------------ Date: 15 May 90 15:55:12 GMT From: attcan!utgpu!utzoo!henry@uunet.uu.net (Henry Spencer) Subject: aliens' view of us In article <9005141459.AA01107@alw.nih.gov> AZM@CU.NIH.GOV writes: >If you are on a camping trip in the wilderness, protected by a flimsy >nylon backpacking tent, and you discover,just around nightfall, that >you are directly in the path of a hungry, savage, salivating, snarling >pack of large, ferocious wolves, you do absolutely everything within >your power to render your presence... >...invisible, and then cringe in fear through the night hoping >that you will not be discovered, and the wolf pack will pass you by. On the other hand, if you are attacked by a hungry, savage, salivating, snarling (well, as well as they can) pack of large, ferocious mosquitos, you just swat the damn things, maybe put on some insect repellent, and carry on. You certainly don't make any attempt to be invisible: they simply are not a threat. -- Life is too short to spend | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology debugging Intel parts. -Van J.| uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu ------------------------------ Date: 15 May 90 13:56:56 GMT From: eru!luth!sunic!tut!funic!finsun!netmgr@bloom-beacon.mit.edu (Pekka Kytolaakso) Subject: Re: Niven's Inertialess Drive In <9573FBF15DDFE1EB31@VB.CC.CMU.EDU> KEVIN@A.CFR.CMU.EDU writes: > In reply to Fred Mccall: > The Kzinti, in Larry Niven's series, had developed a 'gravity gradient' >drive of some sort. The Inertialess drive was a human (or at least >human-used) device. In one of his short stories Louis Wu (a recurring >character) speculates that some new aliens he's met are using either a >reactionless drive or a 'kzinti-style gravity gradient drive'. If I remember right humans got the inertialess drive from the Outsiders. It happend during the first Man-Kzinti war. The Puppeteers had something to do with it, read 'Ringworld Enginers' for the whole tale. Pekka Kyt|laakso --------------------------------------------------------------- netmgr@csc.fi Center for Scientific Computing NETMGR@FINFUN.BITNET PL 40 SF-02101 Espoo FINLAND Phone: +358 0 4571 Telefax: + 358 0 4572302 ------------------------------ Date: 15 May 90 19:09:48 GMT From: frooz!cfa250!mcdowell@husc6.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell) Subject: Jonathan's Space Report (May 15) Jonathan's Space Report May 15 1990 (no.39) ---------------------------------------------------- The Hubble Space Telescope is in its Orbital Verification phase. Focus tests are in progress but have been delayed by errors in the Guide Star Catalog. High voltage testing of the instruments has begun. First WF/PC image is due in about a week. Launch of STS-35/Columbia is due for about Jun 3 following repairs to the orbiter cooling system. Anatoli Solov'yov (Komandir) and Aleksandr Balandin (Bortinzhener) continue in orbit aboard the Mir complex. The Soyuz TM-9 transport and the Progress-42 freighter are currently at the station. Solov'yov and Balandin have been in space for 92 days. Two MACSAT (Multiple Access Comsat) lightsats were orbited by Scout G-1 from Space Launch Complex 5, Vandenberg AFB on May 9. The satellites are a joint Navy/DARPA project. Kosmos-2077, launched on May 7 from Plesetsk, is a film-return imaging recon satellite with a life of two months. (c) 1990 Jonathan McDowell ------------------------------ Date: 15 May 90 07:14:08 GMT From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!jimcat@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Jim Kasprzak) Subject: Re: SPACE Digest V11 #387 In article <9005141453.AA00923@alw.nih.gov> AZM@CU.NIH.GOV writes: >> Mark S. also questions the ability of Space Industrialization to make >> a difference in how we live here, saying the military will eat all of the >> benefits and nothing here will change. >> >> I severely disagree with this. Solar Power sattelites could provide a >> cheap source of renewable energy indefinately. Asteroid mines could >> provide us with metals without destroying biosphere. It would be exporting >> our problems, but wouldn't it be prudent to export them to somewhere where >> there is _no_ life whatsoever? >> >I must agree with Mark S.' assessment of the situation, as must any reas- >oning person. The percentage of materiel being lifted into orbit that is Excuse me? I happen to agree myself, but I don't think you should infer that anyone who disagrees is not a 'reasoning person'. Such thinking is not exactly a mark of reason in itself. >of a military nature is increasing logarithmically. The u.s. "space program" >has been completely militarized (the desired outcome of the Challenger affair), Desired by whom? I don't seem to recall anyone, least of all NASA or the military, stating that space should be completely militarized after the Challenger disaster. >and with deployment of SDI weapons systems on the way, I don't really see What deployment? I have yet to see any functional SDI weapons, and you do sort of need a working weapon before you can effectively deploy it. >any sort of improvement in life on Earth, unless you call the very REAL threat >of nuclear death from the sky replacing the UNLIKELY POSSIBILITY of nuclear >death from the ground an improvement. Whoa there. There are no plans by either side to put nuclear weapons in orbit. There was a treaty way back in the 60's, I think, which prohibited this sort of thing, and all parties involved are adhering scrupulously to it. So much so, in fact, that the Orion spacecraft, the only vehicle with interstellar capabilities that we could build with current technology, has been snuffed as a serious proposal because of its use of fission bombs for propulsion. Given the current political scene, this is probably a good idea; I'd feel very nervous about thousands of nuclear bombs in orbit, no matter who owned them. Accidents (and "accidents") can happen. ("We deeply regret the loss of the city of ______; an attitude control thruster misfired. It won't happen again, honest.") >THE main problem with the u.s. "space program" is that everyone is being >fooled by this misnomer. It should immediately be corrected to the far >more truthful, "orbital weapons deployment program." Then everyone can stop >pipe-dreaming about colonizing space, and concentrate on being scared >s**tless of nuclear death from the skies. Name one weapon that has been deployed in space with the intention of killing people on the ground. I don't know of any in the past, and like I said, there are no plans for such in the future. >> >> If we make the program mainly a spectator sport, it will fail. Football >> is cheaper. >Football, baseball, basketball, soccer, hockey, tennis, wrestling, boxing, >lacrosse, and gladiatoring are all CHEAPER than conquering space, and in >fact are the DIRECT CAUSE of the u.s.' failure to do so. So, batter up... > Now there's an interesting theory if I ever heard one. Are you saying that sports are responsible for our space program not being better than it is today? Very, very interesting. Please share with us the logic that lead you to such a conclusion. -- Jim Kasprzak kasprzak@mts.rpi.edu (internet) RPI, Troy, NY userfe0u@rpitsmts.bitnet "A spirit with a vision is a dream with a mission." -Rush ------------------------------ Date: 15 May 90 16:10:24 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: NASA Headline News for 05/14/90 (Forwarded) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Monday, May 14, 1990 Audio Service: 202/755-1788 ----------------------------------------------------------------- This is NASA Headline News for Monday, May 14.... Hubble Space Telescope operators now plan to lock onto guide and target stars twice in a row. The telescope completed a 36-hour sequence of activities including a successful fine guidance sensor star pattern matching test. Operators are also scheduled to turn on the high voltage to the faint object camera. The first test pictures are expected this week. ******** This weekend, Kennedy Space Center ground crews drained Freon from the shuttle Columbia's coolant system. Changeout activities are scheduled to begin this evening. A protective net located beneath the access platform covers the payload. Work at Pad 39-A to complete the valve change may delay the launch date approximately two weeks. ******** The Gamma Ray Observatory functions check that began May 8 concludes today. The systems activated include reaction wheels and gyros, the attitude control system and the spacecraft's primary power systems. One of the four great observatories to be launched, the Gamma Ray is scheduled to be placed in orbit late this year. ******** President Bush wants to plant an American flag as a way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. During the commencement speech at Texas A&I University, he said he believes that by the time we celebrate this historic event we should be on the planet Mars. The 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11 is June 20, 2019. ******** An Aviation Week Editorial says the Hubble Space Telescope joins the company of major historic explorations. Along with the fleets from Portugal, Spain and England in the 1400s, NASA's "exciting planetary missions will continue" the story. The editorial says the Hubble Space Telescope and the Great Observatory program is a "rallying point to interest" children in "careers that will help carry the U.S. to greater" adventures. ******** ---------------------------------------------------------------- Here's the broadcast schedule for Public Affairs events on NASA Select TV. All times are Eastern. Wednesday, May 16 12:00 Noon Launch of Consort 3. (Tape replay) Thursday, May 17.... 11:30 A.M. NASA Update will be transmitted. All events and times are subject to change without notice. ----------------------------------------------------------------- NASA Select TV: Satcom F2R, Transponder 13, C-Band 72 Degrees West Longitude, Audio 6.8, Frequency 3960 MHz. ----------------------------------------------------------------- These reports are filed daily, Monday through Friday, at 12:00 Noon, EDT. This is a service of the Internal Communications Branch, NASA Headquarters. ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V11 #406 *******************