Message-ID: <kaQmwTW00VcJ0-bU4T@andrew.cmu.edu>
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From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU
To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU
Date: Mon, 11 Jun 1990 01:41:52 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #516

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 11 : Issue 516

Today's Topics:
			 Re: Ersatz Free Fall
		  Re: Jupiter and Sodium Cloud......
			 Re: Lichens on Mars?
			Full funding for NASA!
	  Re: mars vs. venus, which is easier to terraform?
Re: Public Perception Of Space (was Re: US/Soviet Planetary Activity)
		     Re: Weather Satellite Photos
		  Re: HAWAII/ROCKET very long - 61k

Administrivia:

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----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 10 Jun 90 17:22:38 GMT
From: uvaarpa!murdoch!astsun.astro.Virginia.EDU!gl8f@mcnc.org  (Greg Lindahl)
Subject: Re: Ersatz Free Fall

In article <1128@sixhub.UUCP> davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (bill davidsen) writes:

>  Not like free fall at all. This is a uniform support, similar to the
>sensation when floating in water. Neat, but not the same. If you want to
>experience free fall (for 1-2 sec) find a pilot who will take a small
>plane into a "power on stall" with you. Bring your barf bag, many people
>do not like this at all!

No, no, no! You can get ~7 seconds in most small planes if you fly the
plane in a big parabola instead.  It takes practice, though. Also, you
probably won't need a barf bag on the first one.

>  The Air Force gets about 30 seconds by flying a parabolic trajectory
>with a bomber (details if someone has them).

The Air Force plane that used to do that crashed. So the only US plane
that does this on a regular basis is the Vomit Comet, a KC-135 run by
NASA (tail # 930). It is used for all sorts of zero g experiments. The
Soviets and ESA also fly parabolas on a regular basis.

--
"Perhaps I'm commenting a bit cynically, but I think I'm qualified to."
                                              - Dan Bernstein

------------------------------

Date: 9 Jun 90 17:11:25 GMT
From: decvax.dec.com!zinn!ubbs-nh!siia!drd@mcnc.org  (David Dick)
Subject: Re: Jupiter and Sodium Cloud......

In <88023FBBB03F203E9B@buasta.bu.edu> FRANK@BUASTA.BU.EDU ("CURATOR, B.U. DEPARTMENT OF ASTRONOMY") writes:

>After collecting more observations and 
>reducing the data, the sodium cloud appeared to extend a full 6 degrees 
>across the sky, about 12 full moons in diameter, or 400 Jovian radii!!! 

I wonder how much sodium there is in a structure this large.

David Dick
Software Innovations, Inc. [the Software Moving Company(sm)]

------------------------------

Date: 10 Jun 90 04:31:16 GMT
From: crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen@uunet.uu.net  (Wm E. Davidsen Jr)
Subject: Re: Lichens on Mars?


  Lichens do not take very hospitible conditions to survive... when GE
was doing it's oil eating bacteria, I was amazed that bacteria grow in
aviation gas and lichen live on mountain tops.

  This is not a statement that they could or do live on Mars, but I
would not bet much against survival if we seeded with them. Not that it
helps teraform, or that evolution is likely to have occurred on Mars,
but life forms are amazingly tough if you don';t restrict the meaning of
life to humans wearing clothing designed for style rather than function.
-- 
bill davidsen - davidsen@sixhub.uucp (uunet!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen)
    sysop *IX BBS and Public Access UNIX
    moderator of comp.binaries.ibm.pc and 80386 mailing list
"Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me

------------------------------

Date: 8 Jun 90 22:57:40 GMT
From: usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!zardoz.cpd.com!dhw68k!ofa123!David.Anderman@ucsd.edu  (David Anderman)
Subject: Full funding for NASA!

How many times is Spacecause going to ask us to support full funding for 
NASA projects? Isn't it about time for you people to face reality - that 
is: the way this country was developed (and is being developed)  is 
largely due to private companies making a profit? And as long as NASA 
remains a large bureaucracy, it will continue to stifle private 
investment. Therefore, throwing money at a bureaucracy is far from the 
best way to solve the problems of space development....
   

--- Opus-CBCS 1.12
 * Origin: Universal Electronics, Inc. (1:103/302.0)
--  
uucp:     David Anderman
Internet: David.Anderman@ofa123.fidonet.org
BBS:      714 544-0934   2400/1200/300

------------------------------

Date: 9 Jun 90 17:46:31 GMT
From: decvax.dec.com!zinn!ubbs-nh!siia!drd@mcnc.org  (David Dick)
Subject: Re: mars vs. venus, which is easier to terraform?

In <1990Jun4.142436.14144@watdragon.waterloo.edu> jdnicoll@watyew.uwaterloo.ca (Brian or James) writes:


>Why is it so many discussions
>of nt could easily replace the word 'nanotechnology' with 'direct 
>intervention of God' without signifiantly affecting their information content?
...
>[Not that I won't speculate on nt
>myself, but I remember all those predictions of 'meterless atomic
>power' in the '40s and '50s.]   

If nanotechnology turns out to be an extremely high-return investment
will the same kind of forces arise that killed meter-less power?

E.g., non-standard engineering making every project unique so 
that separate, expensive design and construction (including enviro-impact
statements) are needed;  a process that allows construction to be
well in progress before court challenges are mounted; domination of
the industry by institutions that have the most to lose by innovation;
emphasis on mega-projects (ostensibly for efficiency and because of
massive capital requirements) rather than small-scale projects where
rapid innovation can thrive...

David Dick
Software Innovations, Inc. [the Software Moving Company(sm)]

------------------------------

Date: 10 Jun 90 21:34:09 GMT
From: cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!aristotle!pjs@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu  (Peter Scott)
Subject: Re: Public Perception Of Space (was Re: US/Soviet Planetary Activity)

In article <416@newave.UUCP>, john@newave.UUCP (John A. Weeks III) writes:
> The newspaper pictures were handled in an especially ignorant manner.
> I did not see any real hard information in any of the articles that
> I read about how each of the pictures was created or rendered.  The
> least that NASA could have done was to print a little note saying
> that the newspaper reproduction of the photo would probably be of
> low resolution and the actual digital information received was better
> (or x% higher resolution where x is made-up but sounds impressive 8-).

Are you sure they didn't?  Remember, newspapers edit press releases.

> The only hope NASA has to rescue it's new Moon program would be to
> send a mission to "the dark side" of the Moon.  Maybe they could con
> the public on this.  After all, the commies have never seen the dark
> side of the moon!  8-)

Actually they were the first to see it, which is how come most of the
features back there have Russian titles.  Or maybe your smiley was suggesting
that we could fool the public about that too?

This is news.  This is your       |    Peter Scott, NASA/JPL/Caltech
brain on news.  Any questions?    |    (pjs@aristotle.jpl.nasa.gov)

------------------------------

Date: 11 Jun 90 04:33:17 GMT
From: news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!henry@rutgers.edu  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Weather Satellite Photos

In article <7444@jarthur.Claremont.EDU> jokim@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (John H. Kim) writes:
>I'm interested in weekly (or daily) satellite photos of ocean
>surface temperatures.  I recently visited Scripps Institute
>of Oceanography and they had a small display about it at the
>aquarium.  Something about satellite NOAA 6.
>
>Does anyone know if these pictures are free to the public,
>where/how you can get it, or if you can get it if you have
>a satellite dish (and enough computer power)?

US weather-satellite pictures are free to anyone who feels like receiving
them; there are a good many amateurs doing so.  Unfortunately, to do this
you need special electronics -- it's not in the commercial comsat frequency
bands -- and there's a fair bit of hardware involved.  For the low-orbit
birds (I forget where NOAA 6 is), you also need tracking programs and
a computer-controlled antenna.
-- 
As a user I'll take speed over|     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
features any day. -A.Tanenbaum| uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu

------------------------------

Date: 11 Jun 90 04:46:09 GMT
From: news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!henry@rutgers.edu  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: HAWAII/ROCKET very long - 61k

In article <1050400021@cdp> jhanson@cdp.UUCP writes:
>...Many of you
>are currently working on projects that will indirectly kill
>plants, animals and humans...

Almost all of us indirectly kill both plants and animals whenever we sit
down to dinner, get dressed, buy a new house, etc.  And anyone who uses
major bridges or tall buildings in any way indirectly contributes to
human deaths as well.  (Those things cost lives, not just money, to build
and maintain.)

Details matter.
-- 
As a user I'll take speed over|     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
features any day. -A.Tanenbaum| uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu

------------------------------

End of SPACE Digest V11 #516
*******************