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 ; Thu, 4 Apr 91 02:38:42 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: Precedence: junk Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Thu, 4 Apr 91 02:38:37 -0500 (EST) Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #357 SPACE Digest Volume 13 : Issue 357 Today's Topics: Computational Science Workshop Re: nuclear rockets Re: How 'bout them Titans? 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: 3 Apr 91 23:53:58 GMT From: bcy@lanl.gov (Bonnie C Yantis) Subject: Computational Science Workshop Summer 1991 Los Alamos Workshop on Computational Science May 28 - August 23, 1991 Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos, New Mexico Deadline for Application: April 19, 1991 Cost: No charge Full-time immersion workshop, designed to provide advanced education for high performance computing use in computationally-intensive research, will address science, computing, and collaboration. For: * Scientists and engineers in computer-intensive research fields * Computer scientists and computer engineers * Educators in science, engineering, and computing * Graduate students, recent graduates, and others embarking on careers in computer-intensive scientific research fields * Graduate students, recent graduates, and others embarking on careers in computer science and computer engineering Seminars in computational science, plus work on computing aspects of their own research, for ten or fifteen scientists, engineers, and educators from Los Alamos, research laboratories, and academia, balancing research topics in sciences, engineering, and computer science to promote an interdisciplinary exchange. ___________________________________________________________________________ Los Alamos National Laboratory Computational Science Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 Summer Workshop May 28 - August 23, 1991 ___________________________________________________________________________ The Computing and Communications Division and the Advanced Computing Laboratory invite you to participate in the Summer 1991 Workshop on Computational Science. The full-time immersion workshop, designed to provide advanced education for high-performance computing use in computationally intensive research, will address science, computing, and collaboration. Specific aims are to: * Provide participating scientists and engineers in computer-intensive research fields with a multidisciplinary environment that will promote an exploration of advanced computational science methodology as it relates to their professional activities and will promote experimentation with intimate multidisciplinary science collaboration. * Provide computer scientists and computer engineers with an interdisciplinary environment that will promote an exploration of computer science and computer engineering research topics as they relate to the problems and constraints of contemporary computationally intensive scientific research and will promote experimentation with intimate multidisciplinary science collaboration. * Provide educators in science, engineering, and computing with an environment that will promote an exploration of high-performance computing methodologies and will enhance academic programs with computationally intensive research strategies and an understanding of scientific computing. * Provide graduate students, recent graduates, and others embarking on careers in computer-intensive scientific research fields with hands-on exposure to high-performance computing methodologies of importance to their professional activities, and integrate this as much as possible with participants' regular research work. * Provide graduate students, recent graduates, and others embarking on careers in computer science and computer engineering with an environment that will promote exploration of algorithmic and architecture concepts, related system issues, and the problems and constraints of the scientific disciplines that apply these concepts. ___________________________________________________________________________ Structure This workshop provides an interdisciplinary environment for scientists, engineers, and educators. It is centered on seminars on concepts and issues in computational science with discussions led by local and visiting lecturers. Participants work on computing aspects of their own research and learn how to evaluate computational strategies in the context of their own discipline by exploring the effects of a variety of architectures on their own application codes. Participants will be drawn from Los Alamos National Laboratory, research laboratories, and academia, balancing research topics in sciences, engineering, and computer science to promote an interdisciplinary exchange. Schedule The full-time workshop will be 12 weeks. Seminars and discussions are scheduled about a third of the time. The rest of the time is devoted to aspects of the participant's research. Participants are expected to focus their efforts on the workshop without the distraction of other projects or activities outside of their own workshop research. Seminar Topics * What is high-performance computing? * Comparative computer architectures and operating systems * Communications and networks * Code analysis and optimizations * Software design * Scientific computing languages, including Fortran, C, C++, and Mathematica * Scientific algorithms, numerical methods, data structures * Vectorization and parallelization * Scientific graphics and visualization * Distributed workstation environments * Large-scale scientific research and simulations * Intimate multidisciplinary science collaboration Cost: No charge. Deadline for Application: April 19, 1991 ___________________________________________________________________________ Selection of Participants Ten or fifteen participants will be chosen using the following criteria: * Working knowledge of Fortran or C and one operating system * Computer-intensive research topic * Balance of research topics in sciences, engineering, and computer science; and the possibility of interdisciplinary exchanges between participants. * Willingness to serve as consultants or models for others interested in promoting the integration of high-performance computing technology into research. Computing Facilities Each participant will be provided with a workstation in a common office area, consulting, and computer accounts for a variety of systems: * Connection Machine CM-2 * Cray Y-MP * Convex C220 * IBM 3090 600E/VF * Other advanced architecture machines Scientific workstations available to participants include Sun, Macintosh II, IBM RISC 6000, and NeXT. High-performance graphics workstations, such as Ardent Titan, FPS, and SGI 4D/380 GTX, are also available. ___________________________________________________________________________ For further information, contact: Ann Solem or Pat Malone Group C-2, MS B253 Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos, NM 87545 USA Telephone: (505) 667-5460 FAX: (505) 667-4361 Electronic mail: WPCS@LANL.GOV ___________________________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: 4 Apr 91 06:16:04 GMT From: agate!stanford.edu!leland.Stanford.EDU!gooch@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Carl Gooch) Subject: Re: nuclear rockets In article <1991Apr3.214517.20570@emperor.scs.com> daver@emperor.scs.com (Dave Rickel) writes: >I saw an article in the local paper today about a nuclear booster the DoD was >supposed to be developing for SDI. From what i could gather, the working >fluid was hydrogen, the Isp was on the order of 900 secs, and they were >talking about testing in the atmosphere. That would tend to imply a large >thrust. Ahh. The paper said the project was code-named Timberwind, was >secret, and that the source was talking on conditions of anonymity. Looks like we all saw this article. I don't know whether the project described in the NYTimes article is the same as a project that the Air Force is working on, concerning which I heard an (unclassified) presentation last year. The Air Force's preliminary design used a particle-bed reactor. That is, the fissionable material was imbedded in small carbon (?) pellets. The hydrogen coolant passed through this flock of particles and left in a big hurry, Isp ~ 1000 sec. Since the fissionable material and fission products are never exposed to the coolant stream, the nastier bits of radiation were neatly contained. Their two main concerns at the time were (a) the thermal properties of the pellets, which in small-scale tests showed a tendency to crack, and (b) the obvious problem of, What if the thing goes down? The latter they were not too worried about, because the pellets are structurally very strong. Furthermore, if the crash causes the reactor vessel to burst, the pellets are spread out enough to stop the reaction. Some clean-up would clearly be in order, and I don't know how much radiation to expect to leak through any pellets that were missed in the clean-up. Again, I don't know that these projects are related; I'm only reporting what I recall about the AFOSR project. Carl -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Carl Gooch | Why am I inside at a keyboard when gooch@leland.stanford.edu | I could be outside riding bike? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: 4 Apr 91 01:59:46 GMT From: agate!bionet!uwm.edu!spool.mu.edu!cs.umn.edu!kksys!wd0gol!newave!john@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (John A. Weeks III) Subject: Re: How 'bout them Titans? In article shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer) writes: > I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but I thought the explosion was > kind of pretty, in a pyromaniacal way. Of course, knowing that the > folks in the control room were OK helped. Saw it on CNN--it was spectacular! I liked how the explosion looked like an expanding cylinder rather than the typical expanding hemishpere. The sparklers caused by flying debris was a nice touch. Nothing can quite compare to the submarine launched missile that failed about a year back (you know, the one that did two or three spirals before it was destroyed), so I give the Titan 4 booster a 9.2 on the excellent explosion scale. 8-) -john- -- +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ John A. Weeks III (612) 942-6969 john@newave.mn.org NeWave Communications ...uunet!tcnet!wd0gol!newave!john ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V13 #357 *******************