Return-path: X-Andrew-Authenticated-as: 7997;andrew.cmu.edu;Ted Anderson Received: from hogtown.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, 22 Feb 91 02:26:31 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: Precedence: junk Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Fri, 22 Feb 91 02:26:27 -0500 (EST) Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #190 SPACE Digest Volume 13 : Issue 190 Today's Topics: Doing What? Galileo Update - 02/20/91 Re: ONE SMALL STEP - REPLY space news from Dec 31 AW&ST Re: tuning in on Hubble MIP Computer Program Re: Space age learning tools available (Forwarded) Re: Terraforming, sun shield Administrivia: Submissions to the SPACE Digest/sci.space should be mailed to space+@andrew.cmu.edu. Other mail, esp. [un]subscription requests, should be sent to space-request+@andrew.cmu.edu, or, if urgent, to tm2b+@andrew.cmu.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 21 Feb 91 17:25:30 GMT From: usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!umich!sharkey!amara!mcdaniel@ucsd.edu (Tim McDaniel) Subject: Doing What? In article <1991Feb21.022020.1935@jato.jpl.nasa.gov> baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov (Ron Baalke) writes: ... the Pioneer [Venus] orbiter is still very active. Doing what? I see the progress reports for old probes: "Pioneer 11 attempted a UVS on MX2718281828.". Are these UVSes scientifically useful? Are any of these probes doing anything scientifically useful? (Well, I know the far-out ones are looking for a heliopause, but what else?) In particular: is the Pioneer Venus orbiter collecting optical images or using its radar (if any)? If not, why not, and what other instruments does it have? -- "I'd hang you from my nipples ... but it would shock the children." Tim McDaniel Applied Dynamics Int'l.; Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA Internet: mcdaniel@adi.com UUCP: {uunet,sharkey}!amara!mcdaniel ------------------------------ Date: 21 Feb 91 02:18:21 GMT From: elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov!baalke@decwrl.dec.com (Ron Baalke) Subject: Galileo Update - 02/20/91 GALILEO STATUS REPORT February 20, 1991 The Galileo spacecraft is 31.5 million miles from Earth, and 93.7 million miles from the Sun. Its speed in solar orbit is just over 77,500 mph, and the two-way communication time with Earth is 5 minutes 39 seconds. The spacecraft is doing very well, carrying out its new operational sequence (sent to spacecraft computers last week), making measurements of the interplanetary environment and carrying out routine engineering tests and other normal activities. Today, spacecraft activities will be limited to a sun acquisition. Tomorrow, no spacecraft activities are planned. ___ _____ ___ /_ /| /____/ \ /_ /| Ron Baalke | baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov | | | | __ \ /| | | | Jet Propulsion Lab | Is it mind over matter, ___| | | | |__) |/ | | |___ M/S 301-355 | or matter over mind? /___| | | | ___/ | |/__ /| Pasadena, CA 91109 | Never mind. |_____|/ |_|/ |_____|/ | It doesn't matter. ------------------------------ Date: 20 Feb 91 17:47:02 GMT From: agate!bionet!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utzoo!henry@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: ONE SMALL STEP - REPLY In article <9102201607.AA25023@iti.org> aws@ITI.ORG ("Allen W. Sherzer") writes: >... It could also be that dispite McDonnell Douglas's >willingness to sign a fix price contract that complications will >develop. In fact, it's almost predictable that they will. The big-rocket people in the US are not used to doing disciplined cost estimates and cost control to stay within fixed prices. At least two that I know of -- and McDD is one of them -- have blown cost estimates badly in the recent past. These folks are having an interesting time figuring out how to compete in the hard cold commercial world, after several decades of being sheltered by a cozy little socialist bureaucracy. -- "Read the OSI protocol specifications? | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology I can't even *lift* them!" | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry ------------------------------ Date: 21 Feb 91 03:13:28 GMT From: mintaka!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!usc!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utzoo!henry@bloom-beacon.mit.edu (Henry Spencer) Subject: space news from Dec 31 AW&ST None. [Really. I'd thought that AW&ST, as usual, simply hadn't published over the holidays, but it turns out they did. However, the Dec 31 issue was all-photo, with no news content, a "decade in retrospect" issue. The space content is minimal, and in fact the issue is generally visually boring. I'd call this experiment a failure. Anyway, no space news.] -- "Read the OSI protocol specifications? | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology I can't even *lift* them!" | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry ------------------------------ Date: 20 Feb 91 17:32:18 GMT From: rex!wuarchive!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utzoo!henry@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: tuning in on Hubble In article <1991Feb16.071104.1483@ms.uky.edu> ghot@s.ms.uky.edu (Allan Adler) writes: >Is it possible to tune in on transmissions from the Hubble space telescope ? Yes and no. All the necessary information is probably available if you work hard. (Actually, it is probably easier to tune in on the commercial comsat used to relay from the TDRS station at White Sands to the Space Telescope Science Institute.) However, it is all digital data using non-trivial encodings, and turning it into a picture will not be easy. Furthermore, consider that (a) HST spends a good bit of its time moving between targets, (b) a substantial fraction of the observing time is using non-imaging instruments, and (c) most of the pictures will be very dull to anyone but the astronomers who want them. -- "Read the OSI protocol specifications? | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology I can't even *lift* them!" | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Feb 91 17:35 EDT From: Subject: MIP Computer Program Does anyone know where I could get a copy of the source code for JPL's MIP (Multi-Mission Image Planning) software for the ibm pc ? Also does anyone know of anyother good interplanetary spaceflight simulation programs? Thanks! Don Platt (Platt_Don@CTSTATEU) Astronomy Department Western Ct. State Univesity Danbury, Ct. ------------------------------ Date: 21 Feb 91 20:10:46 GMT From: swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!convex!texsun!newstop!exodus!concertina.Eng.Sun.COM!fiddler@ucsd.edu (Steve Hix) Subject: Re: Space age learning tools available (Forwarded) In article <1991Feb21.152259.1268@convex.com> dodson@convex.COM (Dave Dodson) writes: >In article <1991Feb19.212114.5427@news.arc.nasa.gov> yee@trident.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) writes: >> Although NASA has been sending humans into space for more than 30 years > >Well, not quite. Alan Shepherd was launched on a suborbital flight in a Mercury >capsule on a Redstone rocket on May 5, 1961. That makes "more than 29 years" or >"about 30 years" true. Or are you counting something before Shepherd's flight? Maybe X-15 flights? (They used to get astonaut pins for high flights.) -- ------------ The only drawback with morning is that it comes at such an inconvenient time of day. ------------ ------------------------------ Date: 22 Feb 91 00:46:09 GMT From: ogicse!zephyr.ens.tek.com!wrgate!mtdoom!dant@decwrl.dec.com (Dan Tilque) Subject: Re: Terraforming, sun shield cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer) writes: >2fmzmumble@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu writes: >> >> Problem: Terraform Venus. Method: Orbit a large shield in front of the sun >> to cut incident visible sunlight by 50%. Assume: Manufacturing and > >First problem -- it's own gravitation would cause it crush down to a >little sphere in no time. Any object with a mass equivalent to a >200 mile sphere conforms itself into a round shape, rapidly. I'm >afraid your shield won't last. > >If you put it in orbit around Venus, it will, as they say, orbit >Venus -- so you don't have much of a shield several hours of the >day. Does the term "shield square" mean anything to you? That's right, build several huge rectangular flat panels (about 12,000 Km wide) and connect them with some real strong wire (all made from the finest unobtainium Larry Niven can think up) so that they make a ring and put the whole thing in orbit around Venus. Voila, not only do we cool Venus down, but we get a reasonable day and night cycle to boot (on one side of the planet anyway). >Solar power! Yeah, enough to run the heat pump that you'll need to >actually cool Venus down. Gosh yes! Put solar cells on the back sides of the shield squares and use them to power giant freezers on the surface. Freeze that CO2 right out of the atmosphere. (:-) for those who think I'm serious; there's always a few.) Also you could use some of that power to generate a magnetic field in the shield square ring since Venus has no field of its own. (Actually, this isn't a bad idea, assuming the existence of the shield square ring in the first place.) >> Any ideeeeaaars? > >Yes. Try big dirigibles in the upper atmosphere, carrying algae >to do the CO2 -> O2 conversion. Much more practical. Seriously, there are some problems with this idea too, although not insurmountable. Algae need more that just CO2 and light to live on. They also need water (a lot), nitrogen, and trace minerals like phosphorus and sulfur. The nitrogen is availiable from the Venusian atmosphere, trace minerals probably should be mined from the surface of Venus, although you could get them from an asteroid or somewhere (however, remember that you'll need tons of even the tracest mineral). Water is the big problem, but then it's always the problem with all schemes to terraform Venus. In the long run, you're going to need about as much water as Earth has in its oceans, so transporting it from Earth is out. So we either corral a bunch of comets or grab a small moon from an outer planet. --- Dan Tilque -- dant@mtdoom.WR.TEK.COM ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V13 #190 *******************