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 ; Fri, 8 Jun 1990 02:11:52 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: Precedence: junk Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Fri, 8 Jun 1990 02:11:23 -0400 (EDT) Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #507 SPACE Digest Volume 11 : Issue 507 Today's Topics: Re: Ulysses plutonium essay in .... SPACE Digest Subscription Re: HAWAII AND STAR WARS Hubble Space Telescope Update - 06/05/90 Re: NASA Headline News for 06/06/90 (Forwarded) NASA Headline News for 06/07/90 (Forwarded) GLONASS Time Measurements Administrivia: Submissions to the SPACE Digest/sci.space should be mailed to space+@andrew.cmu.edu. Other mail, esp. [un]subscription notices, should be sent to space-request+@andrew.cmu.edu, or, if urgent, to tm2b+@andrew.cmu.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 06 Jun 90 13:51:21 EDT From: Kenneth Ng Subject: Re: Ulysses plutonium essay in .... :Date: 2 Jun 90 16:30:19 GMT :From: crabcake!arromdee@umd5.umd.edu (Kenneth Arromdee) :Subject: Re: Ulysses plutonium essay in *The Nation*, 14 May : : :Oh-oh, they're at it again.... : :Does anyone have any good references to exactly _how_ toxic plutonium is? :Hopefully when the next round starts on this newsgroup we'll be ready so there :won't be thousands of postings of the same factoid over and over again.... :(This also includes how toxic the particular _form_ of plutonium is used, since :the technophobes don't seem to know the difference between isotopes. Also :facts such as that if burning plutonium produces finely-divided oxide particles :which are easy to breathe that's irrelevant if the plutonium on the spacecraft :is already in oxide form....) :-- One of my spare time projects has been compiling a list of references and actual studies. Unfortunately the project is far from complete, but some of the raw data appears below. From what I've read plutonium dust particles or plutonium oxide particles stay in the air about as well as sand does. Also, to get particles small enough to get through the body defenses, you need a far longer period of time to absorb the equivalent dosage amounts. In the mean time the lungs also contain mechanisms for ejecting foreign material. Please note, however, that I am not an expert on this topic (yet), and that I am taking a fair amount of this work at face value until I understand it better. "Hazards from Plutonium Toxicity", by Bernard L. Cohen, Health Physics, Vol 32 (may) 1977, page 359-379. To summarize: Inhalation of insoluble plutonium, death by fibrosis of the lung: 60 days = 12000 micrograms; 1 year = 1700 micrograms, 3 years=500 microg. Inhalation of plutonium needed to cause lunge cancer sometime in the next 30 years: 200 micrograms. Ingestion hazards: insoluble plutonium: 2.0 grams soluble plutonium: 0.7 grams. selenium: 0.3 grams potassium cynaide: 0.7 grams. methyl dichloride: 0.8 grams caffine: 14 grams. From "Toxicity" by Michael A Kamin (?) I've also go the following dosages: ammonia 350 mg/Kg ddt 100 mg/Kg arsenic 48 mg/Kg nicotine 1 mg/Kg dioxin(not sure which one) 0.001 mg/Kg botulism toxin 0.00001 mg/Kg Note that these values are giving in 'mg/Kg'. This is the dosage in milligrams per Kilogram body weight needed to kill 50 percent of the population. Also I'd recommend checking out the "Handbook on Toxicity of Inorganic Compounds", edited by Hans G. Seiler and Helmut Sigel. Chapter 66 on Transuranium elements, chapter 2 on the Bioinorganic chemistry of toxicity (for those new to the field of toxicology as I was), and chapter 73 on Radiotoxicity. Infortunately these articles give values in mBq, which I have yet to figure out how to convert to grams or anything else for that matter. ------------------------------ Date: 7 Jun 90 05:53:16 GMT From: pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!munnari.oz.au!metro!cluster!nuts!cc!c8919865@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Subject: SPACE Digest Subscription I have only a limited knowledge of what is going on behind sci.space, but I would like to subscride to Space Digest if that is at all possible. My number is c8921212@cc.nu.oz.au. (Ignore this number, it is a different account and I ain't typing this - confused? Thanks.) Please do NOT put the source account number of this message on the list. Thankyou even more. ,--, ,--, ,--, ,--, ,--, ,--------, | ------------------------------------- | | | | | | | | / / | ,-----' PLAIZIER. (Undergrad) | | | | | | | |/ / | '---, | Newcastle Uni (AUSTRALIA, not UK) | | | | | | | |\ \ | ,---' | | '--, | '--' | | | \ \ | '-----, | c8921212@cc.nu.oz.au '-----' '--------' '--' '--' '--------' | ---------^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^-------- THIS IS THE NUMBER! ------------------------------ Date: 6 Jun 90 23:08:35 GMT From: sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!zardoz.cpd.com!dhw68k!ofa123!Mark.Perew@ucsd.edu (Mark Perew) Subject: Re: HAWAII AND STAR WARS >The fact (if true) that Cape Kennedy includes a thriving wildlife >refuge is irrelevant to the Hawaii question unless the two >eco-systems are very similar and the proposed use (in the largest >sense of the word) of the Big Island site is very similar to the use >at the Cape. Neither of these similarities has been established. First, the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge does indeed exist. I have seen it with my own eyes. Inside the Refuge (which includes all the land encompassed by KSC (and CCAFS?) not in use by NASA/DOD) you will find a number of thriving endangered species including, but not limited to bald eagles and manatees. Various waterfowl and amphibians are doing quite nicely. Second, the fact is *extremely* relevant in that it shows that if we keep our wits about us we can live in harmony with nature and endangered animals at the same time as enjoying our technological marvels. Running off half (or eighth) cocked like the original submitter seems wont to do is not going to do either side any good. --- Opus-CBCS 1.12 * Origin: Universal Electronics, Inc. (1:103/302.0) -- uucp: Mark Perew Internet: Mark.Perew@ofa123.fidonet.org BBS: 714 544-0934 2400/1200/300 ------------------------------ Date: 7 Jun 90 15:23:48 GMT From: sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov!baalke@ucsd.edu (Ron Baalke) Subject: Hubble Space Telescope Update - 06/05/90 Hubble Space Telescope Update June 5, 1990 A rather uneventful past 24 hours for HST except for the Scientific Instruments (SI's). Bootstrap Phase B ran to completion. Guide star acquisitions continued to run rather smoothly for except for one set of 3 reacquisitions: an ephemeris was uploaded to HST, this requires the velocity aberration compensation to be turned off and, somehow, it did not get turned back on. By the time this was discovered three reacquisitions had failed. Once the aberration correction was reactivated acquisitions again were successful. Fixed Head Star Tracker (FHST) updates continue to work well. SI activities in the past 24 hours had the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS) and High Speed Photometer (HSP) turn on and the Wide Field Planetary Camera (WFPC) take two more Planetary Camera (PC) images in support of Bootstrap Phase B. SI activities will continue until 2:30 PM (16:30 UT) Wednesday when a scheduled 64 hour rerun of Bootstrap Phase B part 3 begins. Bootstrap Phase B, parts 2 and 3, completed yesterday but no new data was gathered so there have been no mirror movements. Part 3 (coarse wavefront measurement) is going to be rerun starting Wednesday at 2:30 PM EDT (16:30 UT). Great caution has been taken to avoid problems that occurred during the first run, increasing the execution time to 64.5 hours. Mirror adjustments will be made at the conclusion of this run (Saturday). The WFPC team has been analyzing the most recent PC images. Of greatest interest is that there is better data to support the claim that the structure of the broad "disk" component of the stellar images in the PC varies dramatically over the field of view. As of the moment they do not know the cause but the suspicion is that this is due to variable obscuration of the beam by telescope and camera structures. A quantitative model is being tested so more on this later. The statement on PC8 that it "did not return good data" now has an explanation: at current warm temperatures the chip has a high background and the data was of too low a Signal-to-Noise Ratio (S/N) to use, i.e. it is NOT a problem. _ _____ _ | | | __ \ | | Ron Baalke | baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov | | | |__) | | | Jet Propulsion Lab | baalke@jems.jpl.nasa.gov ___| | | ___/ | |___ M/S 301-355 | |_____/ |_| |_____| Pasadena, CA 91109 | ------------------------------ Date: 7 Jun 90 15:41:40 GMT From: mcsun!ukc!icdoc!mvax.cc.ic.ac.uk!sund!umapu02@uunet.uu.net (D.A.G. Gillies Supvsr Dr K.J. Bignell) Subject: Re: NASA Headline News for 06/06/90 (Forwarded) In article <12171@june.cs.washington.edu> dfkling@june.cs.washington.edu (Dean F. Kling) writes: >In article <51090@ames.arc.nasa.gov> yee@trident.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) writes: >>----------------------------------------------------------------- >>Wednesday, June 6, 1990 Audio Service: 202/755-1788 >>----------------------------------------------------------------- >> >>This is NASA Headline News for Wednesday, June 6........ > [...] >>A historic photo from the Voyager I probe is most likely the only > [...] >>mosaic taken last February 13. It took Voyager 30 minutes to >>transmit each image while traveling at 186,000 miles per second > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >>taken at 3.98 billion miles away from Earth. The picture will be >>available at this afternoon's news conference. >> > > I would have thought that the time dilation would have made the >transmission time MUCH longer than 30 minutes. > This WAS a joke wasn't it ???? David Gillies (umapu02@cc.ic.ac.uk) ------------------------------ Date: 7 Jun 90 20:09:19 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: NASA Headline News for 06/07/90 (Forwarded) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, June 7, 1990 Audio Service: 202/755-1788 ----------------------------------------------------------------- This is NASA Headline News for Thursday, June 7........ A news conference is scheduled today to discuss yesterday's liquid hydrogen leak test on the orbiter Columbia. Kennedy Space Center technicians have isolated the location of the leak that caused last week's delay in the launch of Astro-1. A decision to roll the Space Shuttle Columbia off launch pad 39-A and back to the Vehicle Assembly Building will be addressed as well as the potential impact on launch dates for STS-35 and future missions. The conference is scheduled for 2:00 P.M. EDT. ******** The China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and its Chamber of International Commerce will sponsor Asia's largest telecommunications conference this November, according to Space Fax Daily. Expo Comm China 90 will include developments in communications satellites, maritime satellite systems and related equipment. The story reports the minister for the People's Republic of China Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications said, the China market is projected by mid-1990 to grow at a rate of 10 percent annually. The government is reported to have a $22 billion budget package to continue modernization of China's communications infrastructure. ******** The unmanned Soviet "Kristall" module carrying supplies for the two cosmonauts failed to dock with the Mir space station yesterday, the Reuters wire service reports. It appears a computer automatically shut down the docking maneuver about two hours ahead of schedule, according to the story. The Soviet Tass news agency said the computer may have pinpointed a malfunction in one of the engines of the Kristall module's orientation system. A second attempt may occur tomorrow. ******** Columnist Jack Anderson's column discusses space debris and says "U.S. and Soviet officials are quietly conducting junk-reduction talks." Anderson says NASA is handling the negotiation with the Soviets" in hopes of keeping politics out of it." ******** --------------------------------------------------------------- Here's the broadcast schedule for Public Affairs events on NASA Select TV. All times are Eastern. Thursday, June 7........ 11:30 A.M. NASA Update will be transmitted. 12:00 P.M. Mission of Apollo/Soyuz 12:30 P.M. COBE 12:45 P.M. C.A.S.I.S. Workshop (Center of Atmospheric and Space Information Sciences) 2:00 P.M. STS Operations-Live Press Briefing Launch Schedules and Priorities ----------------------------------------------------------------- All events and times are subject to change without notice. These reports are filed daily, Monday through Friday, at 12:00 P.M. EDT. This is a service of the Internal Communications Branch, NASA HQ. Contact: JSTANHOPE on NASAmail or at 202/453-8425. ----------------------------------------------------------------- NASA Select TV: Satcom F2R, Transponder 13, C-Band 72 Degrees West Longitude, Audio 6.8, Frequency 3960 MHz. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 07 Jun 90 17:39:06 ADT From: LANG%UNB.CA@vma.cc.cmu.edu Subject: GLONASS Time Measurements The Bureau International des Poids et Mesures, Sevres, France, has begun reporting UTC-GLONASS time measurements. The measurements are made at the University of Leeds in the U.K. by Prof. Peter Daly using a single receiver with averaging over about 10 satellites. The BIPM warns that because the measurements are obtained with a single receiver, they are uncomfirmed. The results, interpolated to 0 hours UTC for the first four months of 1990, are as follows: Date C1 = UTC-GLONASS SD 1990 MJD (microseconds) (microseconds) -------------------------------------------------------- JAN 8 47899 43.23 0.09 JAN 18 47909 43.64 0.12 JAN 28 47919 44.09 0.13 FEB 7 47929 44.58 0.11 FEB 17 47939 45.01 0.10 FEB 27 47949 45.43 0.12 MAR 9 47959 45.85 0.10 MAR 19 47969 46.27 0.14 MAR 29 47979 46.45 0.09 APR 8 47989 46.59 0.09 APR 18 47999 46.76 0.07 APR 28 48009 46.94 0.11 SD is the reported standard deviation. (Source: BIPM Circular T 28 (1990 June 1)) ================================================================================ Richard B. Langley BITnet: LANG@UNB.CA or SE@UNB.CA Geodetic Research Laboratory Phone: (506) 453-5142 Dept. of Surveying Engineering Telex: 014-46202 University of New Brunswick FAX: (506) 453-4943 Fredericton, N.B., Canada E3B 5A3 ================================================================================ ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V11 #507 *******************