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, 23 May 90 01:47:25 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Wed, 23 May 90 01:46:54 -0400 (EDT) Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #440 SPACE Digest Volume 11 : Issue 440 Today's Topics: Cape York Opportunity for space activists: Forensics Re: Endangered squirrels Re: Endangered squirrels The Magellan analogy Re: terraforming sources FREQUENT FLYER MILES Payload Status for 05/18/90 (Forwarded) NASA to brief media on Hubble Space Telescope instrument test (Forwarded) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 22 May 90 07:11:21 GMT From: cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!pikes!ndimas@rutgers.edu (Nicholas Dimas) Subject: Cape York Hello everyone, my name is Nicholas Dimas. Can someone please explain to me why Cape York is the "spaceport of the 21st century"? I keep reading about it on the net but I can't figure it out. Send mail via Internet: ndimas@pikes.denver.colorado.edu Thank You Nicholas Dimas ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 22 May 90 10:30 CDT From: Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey Subject: Opportunity for space activists: Forensics Original_To: SPACE,jnet%"skar@plains" Eric Lybeck, posting through his friend Keith Skar (skar@plains.nodak.edu), said: >I am a High School Debater... The Nation Forensics League (NFL) has selected >the Resolution for High School Debate Next year. It is: resolved: That the >federal gov't should significantly increase exploration of space. This seems to be a great opportunity for space activists. We (such folk as the readers of this net) are the people who know where to dig up the information the high-school debaters need. We could make ourselves useful to them. The least thing you might do is phone up your favorite local high school, introduce yourself to the forensics coach, and offer your time and phone number to answer the questions debaters will have in the fall. A bull session or two with somebody who knows about space issues might be of great benefit to them. If you wanted to put in a bit more work, dig up a list of resources and type 'em into a file you can hand the students. Good books you know of that help answer the questions. Relevant magazine articles. Good quotes (they love quotes). Old net postings you have lying around. Addresses where you can get free stuff. NASA/ESA/NASDA/Glavkosmos centers, aerospace companies, local universities that use satellites or rockets. You could even (if you were really ambitious) write your own outline of the subject, and explain how you think about the pros and cons. Dust off your vacation slides of KSC and your Voyager slides, and offer to give a presentation to high schools. The benefits include helping a whole raft of young people to think critically about space. Many of them will not particularly be space buffs, so you can give them exposure to the subject they wouldn't have gotten otherwise. You can't just propagandize-- remember that they must be equipped to argue either side of the question!-- but you can leave them much more aware of space issues, and much better informed than they would be depending on just the popular magazines. Then, in a couple of years, they will hit college and get Usenet accounts. Being sharp, witty, trained debaters, they will raise the standard of discourse on Space Digest/sci.space. Their skill will blow all of us old fogies out of the water on every argument... (-: I should apologize to Eric. If a number of netters take up my idea, large numbers of his competitors will benefit, and he'll be up against stiffer resistance. Still, he was smart enough to be the first to suggest this, and the three-month lead he's got will be tough to beat. ;-) Besides, I've already sent him my list of resources! ______meson Bill Higgins _-~ ____________-~______neutrino Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory - - ~-_ / \ ~----- proton Bitnet: HIGGINS@FNALB.BITNET | | \ / SPAN/Hepnet/Physnet: 43011::HIGGINS - - ~ Internet: HIGGINS@FNALB.FNAL.GOV _______________ | Coming \ The centennial of Herman Hollerith's | soon... | little card from the 1890 Census |_______________| of the water ------------------------------ Date: 22 May 90 18:55:21 GMT From: uc!nic.MR.NET!hall!gbt@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Greg Titus) Subject: Re: Endangered squirrels In article <9005211940.AA16520@gemini.arc.nasa.gov> greer%utdssa.dnet%utadnx@utspan.span.nasa.gov writes: >... Estimates of >the Mt. Graham red squirrel population range from 50 to 150 individuals. > [quite a bit deleted] >... Since the >squirrels' habitat spans about 10,000 acres, ... I have a hard time reconciling these numbers. If we assume 100 squirrels for the population, then we've got a population density of 0.01 squirrel/acre. This is way too low for a small rodent -- I would expect something in the range 1 to 10 squirrels/acre, or 100 to 1000 times as great a density. Squirrels just don't range very far. At 0.01 squirrel/acre, they couldn't even breed. I think either their range must be smaller or their population must be larger. greg -------------------------------------------------------------- Greg Titus (gbt@zia.cray.com) Ada Project Cray Research, Inc. Santa Fe, NM Opinions expressed herein (such as they are) are purely my own. Cray Research, Inc. is not in the squirrel business. ------------------------------ Date: 23 May 90 05:25:22 GMT From: uoft02.utoledo.edu!fax0112@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Subject: Re: Endangered squirrels In article <6981@hall.cray.com>, gbt@hall.cray.com (Greg Titus) writes: > In article <9005211940.AA16520@gemini.arc.nasa.gov> greer%utdssa.dnet%utadnx@utspan.span.nasa.gov writes: >>... Estimates of >>the Mt. Graham red squirrel population range from 50 to 150 individuals. >> [quite a bit deleted] >>... Since the >>squirrels' habitat spans about 10,000 acres, ... > > I have a hard time reconciling these numbers. If we assume > 100 squirrels for the population, then we've got a population > density of 0.01 squirrel/acre. This is way too low for a > small rodent -- I would expect something in the range 1 to 10 > squirrels/acre, or 100 to 1000 times as great a density. > Squirrels just don't range very far. At 0.01 squirrel/acre, > they couldn't even breed. > > I was just out in Tucson last week where the results of the latest survey where published. They said the population was higher than last year but still only about 125-150 critters. Your math is correct but on what grounds do you make your breeding claim? As the squirrels seem to have done ok so far I think your claim is absurd. Bob Dempsey Ritter Observatory ------------------------------ Date: 22 May 90 06:25:12 GMT From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!munnari.oz.au!metro!cluster!ray@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Raymond Lister) Subject: The Magellan analogy Patrick Haggood (pbh@pandora.cs.wayne.edu) writes ... [1] "Actually, the greater inhibitor to space exploration seems to be financial." [2] "Besides, Magellan didn;t have to throw his boat away after the trip (yeah, I know he died, I'm trying to make a point!) :-)" Point [1] is absolutely right - the Magellan expedition actually made a profit! Point [2] is not so right - Magellan started with 5 ships, and only one completed the voyage! (But not all were destroyed.) Guys like Magellan might have wanted "to boldly go where no [European] man has gone before" ambitions, but the guys who payed for their expeditions certainly weren't. They were interested in money. Here's some relevant extracts (in terms of analogies with space exploration) from The Encyclopaedia Americana ... > Magellan (1480-1521): > Portuguese navigator ... [distinguished military service] ... Magellan > lost the [Portuguese] King's favour ... Thereupon ... he entered the > Spanish service ... Magellan propossed that King Charles support an > expedition to seek a westward route to the Moluccas and thus settle the > controversy between Spain and Portugal as to the limits of the spheres > of influence allotted to each country by the bull of 1493 of Pope > Alexander VI. Magellan argued that he would be able to prove that the > Moluccas lay within the Spanish sphere. ... [In Sep 1519] he set sail > ... with five ships ... [In January 1520] they entered the Rio de la > Plata ... The Santiago was wrecked ... but her crew was saved ... [In > Oct 1520] they sighted the eastern entrance to the strait which now > bears Magellan's name ... The passage through the strait took about > five and one half weeks. As the San Antanio had deserted for Spain, there > were now three vessels which for 98 days sailed across the unknown waters > [of the Pacific]. ... in order to stay alive [they] were forced to eat > rats and the leather from the ship's rigging. They reached Guam [in March > 1521]. Magellan ... was killed by the natives of ... Mactan Island in his > attempt to capture it. One of the remaining ships ... returned to Spain > via the Cape of Good Hope, reaching [Spain in Sept 1522] with a crew of > 18 and a cargo of spices that more than paid the cost of the expedition. So why have I bored you with this? My point is that, in the past, the primary motivation for exploration has been profit (in Magellan's case, an attempt to find a loophole in a papal decree on trade limits). I suspect that a very lucrative $ reason for exploring space will need to be found before anything much happens. Dodgy SRBs, or NASA bureaucracy, are not the real problem, but merely a manifestation of the lack of $ incentive for going into space. Communications satellites and materials processing seem to be modest profit winners, but neither requires a large presence in space. O'Neill's power satellites might eventually be the reason for the opening of the "high frontier", but the world will have to go seriously green before that will happen. Raymond Lister Department of Computer Science University of Sydney AUSTRALIA Internet: ray@cs.su.oz.AU ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 22 May 90 04:38 CST From: Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey Subject: Re: terraforming sources Original_To: SPACE Henry Spencer just mentioned that the December 1989 *JBIS* was devoted to terraforming. I'd like to add a couple of notes on other sources. Jim Oberg is supposed to be editing a book of technical papers on terraforming (I think it's called *The Terraforming Papers*). These are from the first terraforming session held at the time of (but not part of) the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference a few years back (1982? 1983?). I think there has been a second such session since; don't know if it will be included in the book. The book is not published yet; I think I'd have heard. People interested in terraforming should rush out and read Oberg's 1981 book *Ne w Earths* published by: Stackpole Books Cameron and Keller Streets PO Box 1831 Harrisburg, PA 17105 $16.95 This is a good popular-level book, and possibly the only book-length survey of the subject. ______meson Bill Higgins _-~ ____________-~______neutrino Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory - - ~-_ / \ ~----- proton Bitnet: HIGGINS@FNALB.BITNET | | \ / SPAN/Hepnet/Physnet: 43011::HIGGINS - - ~ Internet: HIGGINS@FNALB.FNAL.GOV ------------------------------ Date: 22 May 90 20:34:54 GMT From: m2c!wpi!horshac@husc6.harvard.edu (Matthew J Rosenwasser) Subject: FREQUENT FLYER MILES Which astronaut has the most Frequent Flyer miles? My guess would be the Russians who stayed up for a year. On a country scale, it would still be the Russians. But, if you included the unmanned probes (Unmanned Frequent Flyer miles) then I think that the US would win. ------------------------------ Date: 22 May 90 23:39:01 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: Payload Status for 05/18/90 (Forwarded) Daily Status/KSC Payload Management and Operations 05-18-90 - STS-31R HST (at VPF) - Post launch GSE removal continues. - STS-35 ASTRO-1/BBXRT (at Pad-A) - BBXRT liquid argon servicing was completed Thursday. The BBXRT T-0 retest will occur today. - STS-40 SLS-1 (at O&C) - Power up IPR troubleshooting and MVAK training will be performed today. - STS-41 Ulysses (at ESA 60) PAM-S spin balance operations will continue today at ESA 60. At the VPF, VPHD preps continue. - STS-42 IML-1 (at O&C) - Module pyrell foam replacement, floor staging, and rack staging continues. - STS-45 Atlas-1 (at O&C) - Cable installations will continue today. - STS-46 TSS-1 (at O&C) - High strength fasteners were replaced third shift Friday. - STS 47 Spacelab-J (at O&C) No work is scheduled for today. - STS-55 SL-D2 (at O&C) Rack 12 staging will continue today. - HST M&R (at O&C) Paper closure and ORUC interface will be performed today. ------------------------------ Date: 22 May 90 23:36:16 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: NASA to brief media on Hubble Space Telescope instrument test (Forwarded) [Getting this out a bit late. Travel precluded a timely posting. -PEY] Paula Cleggett-Haleim MAY 19, 1990 Headquarters, Washington, D.C. 12:30 p.m.EDT (Phone: 202 453-1547) Jan Ruff Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md (Phone: 301-286-6255) N90-35 NOTE TO EDITORS NASA TO BRIEF MEDIA ON HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE INSTRUMENT TEST On Sunday May 20, at 1:00 p.m.EDT, NASA's HST management team will brief media on a test image of star field NGC 3532, from the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, Md. Media may view this engineering test image from the HST newsroom, located at the GSFC Visitors Center. Prior to NASA's reception of this first test image, media will be briefed on how an image is obtained and captured on the ground. The briefing will be carried live on NASA Select television, available on Satcom F2R, transponder 13 at 3960 MHz, located at 72 degrees W. Longitude. Media wishing to cover this event are advised to contact Goddard Public Affairs, 301/286-2639,2640,2641 or 2162 beginning noon Sunday to arrange for accreditation at the Goddard News Center. A taped status report is available by calling GSFC on 301/286-6397. The complete orbital and science verification period, which ensures that all systems and instruments are functioning properly, extends over an eight-month period. The HST team is approximately one-quarter into that verification period. ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V11 #440 *******************