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, 25 Jul 1990 02:04:29 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <8afHND200VcJM1FE5J@andrew.cmu.edu> Precedence: junk Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Wed, 25 Jul 1990 02:03:59 -0400 (EDT) Subject: SPACE Digest V12 #121 SPACE Digest Volume 12 : Issue 121 Today's Topics: NASA Headline News for 07/24/90 (Forwarded) Re: World Space Agency Soyuz mass Re: Soviet shuttle, did it fly more than once? Re: Negative Matter [was Anti-Gravity Devices] Re: Negative Matter [was Anti-Gravity Devices] 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: 24 Jul 90 19:02:14 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: NASA Headline News for 07/24/90 (Forwarded) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, July 24, 1990 Audio Service: 202/755-1788 ----------------------------------------------------------------- This is NASA Headline News for Tuesday, July 24........ Preparations are underway at the Kennedy Space Center for tomorrow's liquid hydrogen tanking test on the Space Shuttle Atlantis. The call-to-stations for the test started on schedule this morning at 7:00 A.M. A baggie has been reinstalled over the tank flange and foaming operations have been completed. The closeouts of the aft compartment for the test are underway. ******** The launch of the unmanned Atlas-Centaur rocket carrying the Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite has been delayed to tomorrow afternoon. The launch is now scheduled for 3:21 P.M., weather permitting. Live coverage of the launch on NASA Select TV will begin at 2:00 P.M. EDT. ******** A new moon, 12 miles in diameter, orbiting planet Saturn, has been discovered by Dr. Mark Showalter, a researcher at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. He found the small, bright object while analyzing images taken by the Voyager 2 Spacecraft. A computer program used a "wake" pattern similar to the one that discovered the planet Neptune. The program sorted through 30,000 images sent back to Earth during the Voyager/Saturn encounters in 1980-81. ******** On August 10, the Magellan spacecraft reaches Venus after a 15- 1/2 month voyage. A media briefing will be held Thursday, July 26, to discuss what can be expected during the spacecraft's arrival, insertion into the planet's orbit, instrument check-out and subsequent mapping. Magellan's primary mission is to map 70 to 90 percent of Venus, with 10 times better resolution than any achieved before. ******** New research indicates that Venus may have lightning similar to that on Earth, according to NASA researcher Dr. Christopher Russell, Magnetic Fields Investigator for the Pioneer Venus Spacecraft. Previous studies revealed the lightning may be related to volcanic activity on the surface of the planet. However, radio signal data show that it is due to activity that occurs during the afternoons in a heavy layer of clouds about 35 miles above the surface, not from volcanos. --------------------------------------------------------------- Here's the broadcast schedule for Public Affairs events on NASA Select TV. All times are Eastern Daylight. Tuesday, July 24...... 11:45 A.M. U.S. and Soviet crew members of the Apollo-Soyuz Space Mission-- 15-year reunion news briefing at the Johnson Space Center. 12-2:00 P.M. NASA Video Productions. 6-8:00 P.M. NASA Video Productions replay. Wednesday, July 25.... 7:00 A.M. Tanking test on the Space Shuttle Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Center. 2:00 P.M. Launch of the Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite aboard the Atlas Rocket. Thursday, July 26..... 11:00 A.M. U.S. and Soviet crew members of the Apollo-Soyuz Space Mission-- 15-year reunion news briefing at the Kennedy Space Center. 12:00 P.M. NASA Update will be transmitted. 2:00 P.M. Magellan Status Press Conference. A summary on the Venus encounter scheduled August 10. 6:00 P.M. NASA Video Productions. Friday, July 27...... 10:00 A.M. Exobiology briefing at Ames Research Center tape replay from Thursday, July 26. -------------------------------------------------------------- All events and times may change without notice. This report is 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. JSNEWS7-24 --------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: 25 Jul 90 00:34:13 GMT From: apple.com!heksterb@apple.com (Ben Hekster) Subject: Re: World Space Agency I, for one, would have grave objections to any closer collaboration between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R in either space exploration or research. NASA still undeniably has the world's most technologically advanced space program. The fact that it requires the Russians eight years to make a smaller, non-functioning copy of the Space Shuttle obviously confirms this. The mere consideration of simply handing over all that we have so painstakingly built and learned, with all the sacrifices that so many have made, is utterly excruciating to me. In my opinion, NASA would most likely have voiced much stronger opposition to the idea, were it not for the awkward fact that so many of the liberal figures in the West are so completely overwhelmed by the dictator of the only remaining one-party state in Europe that the only way to get any reasonable amount of funds allocated is by the embarassing kissing-up to said state. While I am personally convinced that President Bush would not favor the idea, I can only hope that he can hold out against the political pressure. Ben ------------------------------ Date: 20 Jul 90 18:55:33 GMT From: eagle!news@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Ronald E. Graham) Subject: sci.aeronautics, comp.software-eng, comp.org.ieee, sci.misc, sci.skeptic Subject: Discussion on engineering education newsgroup Date: 20 JUL 90 14:20:25 Expires: References: Sender: Reply-To: lvron@earth.lerc.nasa.gov Followup-To: Distribution: world Organization: NASA Lewis Research Center Keywords: This posting is in response to requests from Ian Hawthorn and Richard Miller, contributors to misc.education, that some discussion be carried out on the subject of problems in engineering education, and how they relate to (or, how they differ from) problems in any other educational realm. Their point (and I think it's valid) is that discussion outside of e-mail will better measure the interest in the proposed group (talk.engineering.education was the original title, but look for that to be changed before a call for votes) than e-mail alone. Let me kick off the discussion by describing a couple of problems I believe we have at the NASA Lewis Research Center that have piqued my personal interest in this subject: (1) the way things work; and (2) communications skills. Regarding (1): Russell Lawrence, one of the respondents to the call for discussion, stated: "I've met dozens of people who were able to perform intricate tasks by means of complex symbols or procedures while having no understanding whatsoever of the underlying problem." This is a good summary. We sometimes come out of school knowing how to use the book, especially if the book has the equations highlighted or boxed or listed in an Appendix, but we don't understand the physics of the problem. My mother continually is on my case for being a mechanical engineer who can't fix his own car. In my work area, a new hire is limited as to what s/he can accomplish on the job until some sense of the way the thing that is in question (generally a rocket, satellite, or the Space Station Freedom) works. But even that knowledge is based on the way simpler mechanisms work, and we sometimes have a limited understanding of that as well. Regarding (2): The Government continually states in its job descriptions that it is looking for personnel with "good oral and written communications skills". Where do you get these skills, in an engineering curriculum? In my own background, I was required two quarters of English and one of Speech as an undergraduate, and that wasn't enough to prepare me for the amount of, and the varied nature of, the communications I am expected to provide as part of my day-to-day duties. (About 60 to 75 percent of my job is reports, memos, bean-counting, meetings, phone calls, and teaching.) This problem is aggravated by the influx of internationals in the job-force. The internationals are great engineers, but, depending on the country of origin and on the length of stay in the USA, they may be simply terrible at communication. We have managers who hire internationals (they are easier to hire than white Americans), and then, faced with a communication gap that takes some work to overcome, just let them go to do their own thing. Then they actually wonder why the results are not what they want. Harry, a Chinese gentleman in my area, is also frustrated at this situation. In his previous position, he tells me all he had to do was "do analysis, get result". Now he has to do all the same paper-pushing as most of the rest of us. And it takes him that much longer, because we don't understand what he is saying on the first, or second, or third, try. Now, the Government offers ample training opportunities for its employees. How are the opportunities chosen? It's every one for him/her self, in most cases. I am interested, for myself, in finding out how to remedy (1) and (2) without turning all of Lewis upside-down to do it. (The Government would never put up with it anyway.) Are these kinds of things due to shortcomings in the university educational process? Or is the Government doing something wrong? For my own situation, did I do all I could? This is the sort of thing I am interested in, at least. Others will have to speak for themselves. RG "The scientific method is holy." - M. Scott Peck ------------------------------ Date: 24 Jul 90 17:34:13 GMT From: ksr!clj%ksr.com@uunet.uu.net (Chris Jones) Subject: Soyuz mass In article <23714@boulder.Colorado.EDU>, serre@boulder (SERRE GLENN) writes: > >Does anyone know how much a Soyuz weighs? > A Soyuz TM (the latest model) has a mass of 6600 kg. The SL-4 booster used to orbit it can put 7500 kg into LEO. -- Chris Jones clj@ksr.com {world,uunet,harvard}!ksr!clj Chris Jones clj@ksr.com {world,uunet,harvard}!ksr!clj ------------------------------ Date: 24 Jul 90 18:48:08 GMT From: concertina!fiddler@sun.com (Steve Hix) Subject: Re: Soviet shuttle, did it fly more than once? > In article <11712@hydra.gatech.EDU> ccoprmd@prism.gatech.EDU (Matthew DeLuca) writes: > > >If I remember correctly, the name of the orbiter that is going to fly next > >year translates as 'Little Bird'; I forget what the Russian transliteration > >is. Ptitsa? (with all letters pronounced) You do what you can when you can't use various non-ASCII letters. Maybe that's my old reading of serbo-croatian coming back to haunt me. ------------ The only drawback with morning is that it comes at such an inconvenient time of day. ------------ ------------------------------ Date: 24 Jul 90 20:10:34 GMT From: usc!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!physics.utoronto.ca!neufeld@ucsd.edu (Christopher Neufeld) Subject: Re: Negative Matter [was Anti-Gravity Devices] In article <1990Jul23.144528.14832@watdragon.waterloo.edu> jdnicoll@watyew.uwaterloo.ca (Brian or James) writes: >In article <1990Jul22.221606.15097@helios.physics.utoronto.ca> neufeld@physics.utoronto.ca (Christopher Neufeld) writes: >>If we >>posit "negative matter" whose response to a gravitational field is to >>move in the "wrong" direction, but is otherwise composed of charged >>particles in bound states, then it should behave qualitatively the same >>as normal matter in interactions with photons. > > Ah. In that case, change the question to 'How can you tell you're >looking at negative matter'? > Because it falls up. It looks qualitatively similar (let's not ask whether the fundamental charge will still equal the electron charge, as that would change its interaction strength with photons), but in the absence of all other forces, it moves away from a collection of matter which we refer to as "positive matter." Negative matter is that material which is repelled by a hydrogen atom taken at random from the ocean, and which attracts that atom in turn. Note that there is no experimental evidence to suggest the existence of "negative matter," but that doesn't keep us from speculating about its possible properties, if it does exist. -- Christopher Neufeld....Just a graduate student | "The eagle may soar, but neufeld@helios.physics.utoronto.ca Ad astra! | the weasel never gets cneufeld@{pro-generic,pnet91}.cts.com | sucked up into a jet "Don't edit reality for the sake of simplicity" | engine." Simon & Simon ------------------------------ Date: 25 Jul 90 01:11:32 GMT From: usc!wuarchive!wuphys!ihr@ucsd.edu (Ian H. Redmount) Subject: Re: Negative Matter [was Anti-Gravity Devices] In article <1990Jul24.161034.7598@helios.physics.utoronto.ca> neufeld@physics.utoronto.ca (Christopher Neufeld) writes: >In article <1990Jul23.144528.14832@watdragon.waterloo.edu> jdnicoll@watyew.uwaterloo.ca (Brian or James) writes: >> Ah. In that case, change the question to 'How can you tell you're >>looking at negative matter'? >> > Because it falls up....it moves away from a collection of matter >which we refer to as "positive matter." Negative matter is that material >which is repelled by a hydrogen atom taken at random from the ocean, and >which attracts that atom in turn. This isn't the usual meaning attached to ``negative [mass] matter''---you have to breach the equivalence principle to do this. Negative-mass matter, as usually understood, falls DOWN in the gravitational field of a positive- mass body. (In relativistic terms, the spacetime geodesics near the body correspond to downward fall, irrespective of the mass of the test body on a geodesic. In Newtonian terms, the negative mass cancels from both sides of the equation of motion.) The signature of negative mass is that it REPELS other bodies---of positive or negative mass---gravitationally. Thus a lump of negative-mass stuff would fall toward the earth, while exerting a repulsive force on it. Sound contradictory? It isn't. Consider two bodies with masses equal in magnitude and opposite in sign. The negative-mass body is attracted to the positive mass; the positive-mass body is repelled from the negative with equal force. If they start at rest, the two bodies will chase each other across the Universe. It may appear, since the total energy of this odd couple is ever zero, that they can accelerate beyond the speed of light to infinite speed. Doesn't work that way...the pair approach the speed of light asymptotically, because each feels the RETARDED gravitational field of the other, and the transmission time becomes important at relativistic speeds. This problem is treated in detail in the ``Problem Book in Relativity and Gravitation,'' by Lightman, Press, Price, and Teukolsky (Princeton University Press, 1975), p. 81 and pp. 379-385. A more general treatment of negative mass, with references to earlier works, is the article ``Negative Mass in General Relativity,'' by W. B. Bonnor, General Relativity and Gravitation, v. 21, n. 11 (1989), pp. 1143-1157. The usual argument against negative mass is not merely that none has been observed, but: if it exists, why aren't we simply drowning in it? It would be energetically favorable to produce it from the vacuum, the more the better. In technical terms, the vacuum would be unstable, contrary to observation. Ian H. Redmount, Sole Proprietor of any of the above which is not fact ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V12 #121 *******************