Date: Thu, 23 Jul 92 05:01:31 From: Space Digest maintainer Reply-To: Space-request@isu.isunet.edu Subject: Space Digest V15 #026 To: Space Digest Readers Precedence: bulk Space Digest Thu, 23 Jul 92 Volume 15 : Issue 026 Today's Topics: Antimatter Antimatter (was propulsion questions) (2 msgs) Antiproton-boosted fission Astronomy Lab for MS Windows 3.X - BETA TESTERS NEEDED Astronomy Program E-mail newsletters ESA Future first man on moon date and time Galileo Update - 07/21/92 If the sun went out... Launch of Sojus TM-15 delayed Magellan successors? (was Re: Support Lunar Resource Mapper Too!) Nachos (Ted Molczan elements) mirror/backup site Propulsion questions (3 msgs) Star Trek and public perception of space/science/engineering Terraforming (2 msgs) UFO-pic from Phobos2-probe posted ! Whales and dolphins Welcome to the Space Digest!! Please send your messages to "space@isu.isunet.edu", and (un)subscription requests of the form "Subscribe Space " to one of these addresses: listserv@uga (BITNET), rice::boyle (SPAN/NSInet), utadnx::utspan::rice::boyle (THENET), or space-REQUEST@isu.isunet.edu (Internet). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 23 Jul 92 00:57:59 GMT From: John Roberts Subject: Antimatter Newsgroups: sci.space -From: dietz@cs.rochester.edu -Subject: Re: Antimatter (was propulsion questions) -Date: 21 Jul 92 07:24:09 GMT -In article , henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes: -|> Antimatter isn't a very efficient explosive. If you dropped an anti-iron -|> cannonball, it would just sit there and sizzle. (The radiation would make -|> the immediate neighborhood very unhealthy, mind you.) -No. Dropping an anti-iron cannonball -- or, indeed, exposing it to air --- would vaporize it in short order. The antiiron vapor would then quickly -mix with very hot air, and most of the antimatter would annihilate in -short order. OK, guys, so which is it? And what about a chunk of anti-(ablative heat shield) material? John Roberts roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov ------------------------------ Date: 22 Jul 92 20:06:49 GMT From: Bob Martin Subject: Antimatter (was propulsion questions) Newsgroups: sci.space pgf@srl03.cacs.usl.edu (Phil G. Fraering) writes: |sichase@csa2.lbl.gov (SCOTT I CHASE) writes: |>In article , henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes... |>> |>>Antimatter isn't a very efficient explosive. If you dropped an anti-iron |>>cannonball, it would just sit there and sizzle. (The radiation would make |>This doesn't sound right. What makes you think that the energy release would |>be so slow? The outer surface would be continuously annihilating with |>air and whatever surface you drop it on. It's not at all clear that |>things would be so nice as you describe. |It's called the Leidenfrost effect. The idea is, the outer layer blows |off and creates a thin vacuum-density layer of plasma insulating the |antimatter from the surrounding atmosphere... |BTW, Antimatter should also be rather stable at low temperatures. |Some of the positrons should boil off and be annihilated, leaving the |rest of the antimatter with a net negative charge. This should keep |electrons away, while keeping enough positrons bound to the set of |molecules to "screen" away protons and other positive nuclei... I'm beginning to think that this stuff is so stable that you could use it as a food additive. Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, where is the kaboom it gives. Is antimatter too stable to be used as a propellent? Would we have to work hard just to get sufficient annihilations to do useful work? -- +---Robert C. Martin---+-RRR---CCC-M-----M-| R.C.M. Consulting | | rmartin@rational.com |-R--R-C----M-M-M-M-| C++/C/Unix Engineering | | (Uncle Bob.) |-RRR--C----M--M--M-| OOA/OOD/OOP Training | +----------------------+-R--R--CCC-M-----M-| Product Design & Devel. | ------------------------------ Date: 22 Jul 92 20:00:37 GMT From: Bob Martin Subject: Antimatter (was propulsion questions) Newsgroups: sci.space sichase@csa2.lbl.gov (SCOTT I CHASE) writes: |In article , henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes... |> |>Antimatter isn't a very efficient explosive. If you dropped an anti-iron |>cannonball, it would just sit there and sizzle. (The radiation would make |>the immediate neighborhood very unhealthy, mind you.) The security needed |>to prevent *accidentally* dropping stuff that is worth billions of dollars |>a gram should mostly suffice as protection against simple forms of malice. |>It is, in any case, not something you can put in your pocket, because it's |>stable only inside a substantial piece of equipment. |This doesn't sound right. What makes you think that the energy release would |be so slow? The outer surface would be continuously annihilating with |air and whatever surface you drop it on. It's not at all clear that |things would be so nice as you describe. I expect that the heat generated from the initial annihilations would melt and then vaporize the cannonball fairly rapidly. I think the exposed surface area would rize at a geometric rate. So, perhaps the boom would be relatively quick. -- +---Robert C. Martin---+-RRR---CCC-M-----M-| R.C.M. Consulting | | rmartin@rational.com |-R--R-C----M-M-M-M-| C++/C/Unix Engineering | | (Uncle Bob.) |-RRR--C----M--M--M-| OOA/OOD/OOP Training | +----------------------+-R--R--CCC-M-----M-| Product Design & Devel. | ------------------------------ Date: 23 Jul 92 01:12:26 GMT From: John Roberts Subject: Antiproton-boosted fission Newsgroups: sci.space -From: bwood@diva.Berkeley.EDU (Blake Philip Wood) -Subject: Antiproton-Boosted Microfission (was: Antimatter ...) -Date: 22 Jul 92 13:05:55 GMT -All the postings so far have missed the most realistic application of -antimatter to space propulsion: antiproton-boosted microfission. -This is being investigated by a number of folks at Penn State, in -collaboration with some people at Phillips Lab in Albuquerque. -The Penn State lead is R.A. Lewis. The reference I happen to have -on hand is from Nuclear Science and Engineering, (109) p.411 (1991). -The basic idea is that hitting a U235 or Plutonium nucleus with an -antiproton makes it so unstable that you get an average of 16 neutrons -out of the resulting fission, as opposed to the usual 2-3. This means -that the critical mass which can be completely fissioned is very -small. -The article above quotes -results from another paper which suggests that fissioning one -70mg Plutonium pellet per second in this fashion, each event requiring -only 2e8 antiprotons, could yield 5GW of power in a complete propulsion -system with a specific mass of only 0.07 kg/kW. Great! Now we can build hand-held tactical nuclear machine guns. (One shot destroys a building several miles away.) :-( (Another E.E. Smith idea, this time from the Skylark series.) Maybe they ought to be careful of who gets hold of the technology. John Roberts roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov ------------------------------ Date: 22 Jul 92 12:40:55 GMT From: FRANK NEY Subject: Astronomy Lab for MS Windows 3.X - BETA TESTERS NEEDED Newsgroups: sci.space Add me as well, please: Francis A. Ney, Jr. Computer: Clone 386-33 with copr 101 S Harrison Road 8 meg Sterling, VA 22170-2421 DOS 5 and OS/2 2.0 (703) 709-5324 VGA 512k Drives: 43M and 105M -- The Next Challenge - Public Access Unix in Northern Va. - Washington D.C. 703-803-0391 To log in for trial and account info. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Jul 92 11:38:35 PDT From: 3728P@CC.NPS.NAVY.MIL Subject: Astronomy Program Hi Everybody, I joined the list after a friend told me about it. Anyway, I missed to info about the Astronomy Program for Windows. Can someone email it to me privately, unless there is enough people still interested to post it here again... *==================================================================* * SOONG Bitnet: 3728p@NAVPGS.BITNET * * Internet: 3728p@CC.NPS.NAVY.MIL * *------------------------------------------------------------------* * * * This space for rent, Call 1-900-668-6680 * * * *==================================================================* ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Jul 92 17:10:21 GMT From: Eric Wininger Subject: E-mail newsletters Newsgroups: sci.space Are there any newsletters that are disseminated through e-mail relating to the topics of astronomy/space science/NASA Headline News. If these newsletters do exist, could someone please tell me how I could subscribe to them. Please respond via e-mail, and I will summarize all of the replies to the net. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 20:57:56 GMT From: Tom Baltzer Subject: ESA Future Newsgroups: sci.space I heard today that ESA's ERS-1 Satellite has been down since July 16th or so. Anyone else hear this? Anyone know the scoop? It appears that they are being fairly tight lipped about it, (given this thread it's not too surprising). Any info would be appreciated. Tom. ------------------------------ Date: 22 Jul 92 19:52:30 GMT From: Marc Sarrel Subject: first man on moon date and time Newsgroups: sci.space In article henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes: 2256 EDT 20 July 1969. The TV coverage was live (well, subject to the speed-of-light lag...). Hey, Neil just made it in Prime Time coast to coast. :-) -- Marc Sarrel "Strange as it seems, Jet Propulsion Laboratory There's been a run of crazy dreams, mas@mipl8.jpl.nasa.gov And a man who can interpret could go far -- Could become a star." ------------------------------ Date: 22 Jul 92 18:11:12 GMT From: Jack Hudler Subject: Galileo Update - 07/21/92 Newsgroups: sci.space In article <1992Jul21.180050.29150@news.arc.nasa.gov> baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov writes: >Forwarded from Bill O'Neil, Galileo Project Manager > > Today, July 21, 1992, the turn to the warming attitude in preparation for >the Dual Drive Actuator (DDA) pulse is scheduled to begin at approximately >10:57 PDT. The first of the two Dual Drive Actuator pulse turn ons is >scheduled at 12:46 PDT for approximately a 2-second duration. This pulsing method, is its frequency fixed or are they going to vary it. I understand that this method is solely for driving the motor in a PWM mode in order to get more power to the actuator, correct? Seems to me that varying the pulse freq. would cause the antenna array to vibrate through its natural resonance. This assumes the motor could have such effects. This might be safer than trying to shake the spacecraft. -- Jack Hudler - Computer Support Corporation - Dallas,Texas - jack@cs.com ------------------------------ Date: 23 Jul 92 01:27:26 GMT From: John Roberts Subject: If the sun went out... Newsgroups: sci.space -From: sherwood@fenris.space.ualberta.ca (Sherwood Botsford) -Subject: Re: If the sun went out-how long life survive? -Date: 20 Jul 92 19:31:16 GMT -Organization: University Of Alberta, Edmonton Canada -A first approximation could be to look at the cooling rate when the sun is -turned off each night. If the air is clear, this is typically 10-15 C. With -heavy overcast it's 5 C. If 0 happens to be in the range, you can deduct about -4-6 degrees from that range due to latent heat effects. -Using those two as bounds, it would take 3-5 weeks before atmospheric gasses -started to liquify. However, most of the civilized world would stop in a week. Radiative heat loss is roughly a function of the fourth power of absolute temperature. So as the temperature went down, the rate of cooling would also decrease. Also, the oceans contain a tremendous amount of heat, which would take a long time to dissipate (even before freezing). If the cooling leads to a change in the albedo, this would also affect heat loss (the higher the albedo, the slower the loss). John Roberts roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov ------------------------------ Date: 22 Jul 92 22:27:55 GMT From: Rainer Kracht Subject: Launch of Sojus TM-15 delayed Newsgroups: sci.space Launch of Sojus TM-15 delayed ----------------------------- According to Radio Moscow, the launch of Sojus TM-15/Antares will be on July 27 at 06h08m UTC (one day later than previously announced). Rainer Kracht r.kracht@abbs.hanse.de -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ABBS AstroMail, the first and most popular German astronomical bulletin board ------------------------- for amateur astronomers ---------------------------- + 49 5851 7896 / V.21, V.22, V.22bis, V.32, V.42, V.42bis and MNP5 ------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 17:37:47 GMT From: "Phil G. Fraering" Subject: Magellan successors? (was Re: Support Lunar Resource Mapper Too!) Newsgroups: sci.space sysmgr@king.eng.umd.edu (Doug Mohney) writes: >In article <1992Jul22.041320.1@fnala.fnal.gov>, higgins@fnala.fnal.gov (Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey) writes: >>Flying a Magellan-type mission to Mars or the Moon would be neat, too, >>but synthetic-aperture radar demands a heavy committment of >>tracking-network resources. >Why? Because there is the possibility that subsurface features could be resolved? -- Phil Fraering pgf@srl0x.cacs.usl.edu where the x is a number from 1-5. Phone: 318/365-5418 "There are still 201969 unread articles in 1278 groups" - nn message "57 channels and nothing on" - Bruce Springsteen ------------------------------ Date: 22 Jul 92 21:41:14 GMT From: Cliff Yamamoto Subject: Nachos (Ted Molczan elements) mirror/backup site Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.space Please add this to the FAQ. A mirror/backup site has been created for nachos.ssesco.com which typically carries Ted Molczan's orbital elements from his BBS. The anonymous FTP site is as follows: Name: kilroy.jpl.nasa.gov Address: 128.149.1.165 Aliases: jpl-fmc-gw.jpl.nasa.gov The nasa elements will be located in: ~ftp/pub/space/elements/nasa Ted Molczan's elements will be located in: ~ftp/pub/space/elements/molczan This site is NOT temporary. Once nachos is repaired, kilroy will be a mirror site to reduce loading on nachos and to perhaps archive the elements sets for a longer period (there are no foreseen disk usage problems on kilroy). Chris Elmquist will be fowarding the elements to kilroy which are automagically placed into the appropriate FTP directory. If you have any questions/comments/complaints about this mirror site, please email me. Regards, Cliff Yamamoto ---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------- Internet: cyamamot@kilroy.Jpl.Nasa.Gov | MaBell: 1 (818) 354-1242 - office cyamamot@grissom.Jpl.Nasa.Gov| 1 (818) 354-2825 - fax cky@vermithrax.Jpl.Nasa.Gov --------------------------------------- Bitnet: cyamamot%kilroy.Jpl.Nasa.Gov@Hamlet.Bitnet Uucp: uunet!kilroy.Jpl.Nasa.Gov!cyamamot@uunet.UU.NET ames!elroy!jato!jpl-mil!kilroy.jpl.nasa.gov!cyamamot Packet: KA6JRG@W6VIO.#SOCA.CA.USA.NA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- USnail: Clifford K. Yamamoto - KA6JRG Jet Propelled La-bore-atore-ee 4800 Oak Grove Drive M/S 238-737, Section 333 Pasadena, Calif. 91109 ------------------------------ Date: 22 Jul 92 19:55:55 GMT From: Bob Martin Subject: Propulsion questions Newsgroups: sci.space nickh@CS.CMU.EDU (Nick Haines) writes: >In article rmartin@yosemite.Rational.COM (Bob Martin) writes: > [about a black-hole drive] > Can anybody tell us the efficiency of this with respect to a fusion > drive? >I can guarantee that the answer to that question is "no". I mean, it >might be a neat idea, but we're not going to have a decent figure for >the efficiency of it until we've actually got a small black hole to >play with. Allright then, does anybody have a theoretical model that might shed some miniscule light on this subject? (Sheesh!) -- +---Robert C. Martin---+-RRR---CCC-M-----M-| R.C.M. Consulting | | rmartin@rational.com |-R--R-C----M-M-M-M-| C++/C/Unix Engineering | | (Uncle Bob.) |-RRR--C----M--M--M-| OOA/OOD/OOP Training | +----------------------+-R--R--CCC-M-----M-| Product Design & Devel. | ------------------------------ Date: 22 Jul 92 22:35:23 GMT From: Steinn Sigurdsson Subject: Propulsion questions Newsgroups: sci.space In article rmartin@thor.Rational.COM (Bob Martin) writes: nickh@CS.CMU.EDU (Nick Haines) writes: >In article rmartin@yosemite.Rational.COM (Bob Martin) writes: > [about a black-hole drive] > Can anybody tell us the efficiency of this with respect to a fusion > drive? >I can guarantee that the answer to that question is "no". I mean, it >might be a neat idea, but we're not going to have a decent figure for >the efficiency of it until we've actually got a small black hole to >play with. Allright then, does anybody have a theoretical model that might shed some miniscule light on this subject? (Sheesh!) Penrose mechanism. Can't remember actual number but you recover about 30% of rest mass energy. Main problem is that minimum stable mass is uncomfortably heavy - particularly if you want a primordial black hole that's been around a Hubble time - that's if Hawking's right. Of course if he is, and you can _create_ a m < m_HubbleBH black hole you recover almost 100% of the rest mass as it evaporates ;-) | Steinn Sigurdsson |I saw two shooting stars last night | | Lick Observatory |I wished on them but they were only satellites | |steinly@helios.ucsc.edu|Is it wrong to wish on space hardware? | | "standard disclaimer" |I wish, I wish, I wish you'd care - B.B. 1983 | ------------------------------ Date: 23 Jul 92 01:32:11 GMT From: John Roberts Subject: Propulsion questions Newsgroups: sci.space -From: sherwood@fenris.space.ualberta.ca (Sherwood Botsford) -Subject: Re: Propulsion questions -Date: 20 Jul 92 19:39:55 GMT -Organization: University Of Alberta, Edmonton Canada -> (if you have only a microgram of protons in your one-metre bottle, the -> potential energy is as high as the mass energy). -> -> Nick Haines nickh@cs.cmu.edu -Is this then a means of storing energy at higher densities than merely having -it as mass? (Anti protons, heck, we'll just stuff a pound of electrons into a -soda straw. Point it away from the direction you want to go, and snip off the -end...) The mass of the bottle + contents goes up by the mass-equivalent of the energy it took to force the contents into the bottle. John Roberts roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov ------------------------------ Date: 22 Jul 92 19:58:55 GMT From: SCOTT I CHASE Subject: Star Trek and public perception of space/science/engineering Newsgroups: sci.space In article , pgf@srl03.cacs.usl.edu (Phil G. Fraering) writes... > >>No need. I'll stand up and ask it. It is such a ridiculous question? > >Yes. If we are going to live in fear of constantly wiping out >totally unrecognizable life forms we might as well all give up >and mass suicide now. True, we don't know whether or not Mars I think you're overreacting just a little. All I suggested is that we use some care before contaminating or sterilizing some planet which might harbor life that we don't immediately recognize as such. I'm sorry if that interrupts your plan for the new interplanetary highway offramps, but I don't think the locals want you to raze their neighborhoods just so that you can stay on schedule. Besides, taking the time to make sure we understand the consequences of our actions might yield tremendous scientific gains and make it easier for use to deal with similar situations in the future. If there is abundant life in our neighborhood of the galaxy, it pays to start out our exploration of nearby planets with some respect for the life we might find there. It might generate some reciprocal respect which we might well be in need of in the future. No one suggested but you suggested that we should never move for fear of obliterating some society of bacteria. And I fail to see the objection to recognizing the limitations of our knowledge and the harm we might cause to ourselves and others by acting precipitously. -Scott -------------------- Scott I. Chase "The question seems to be of such a character SICHASE@CSA2.LBL.GOV that if I should come to life after my death and some mathematician were to tell me that it had been definitely settled, I think I would immediately drop dead again." - Vandiver ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Jul 92 17:02:20 BST From: amon@elegabalus.cs.qub.ac.uk Subject: Terraforming Dr. Zubrin pointed out some interesting facts in his luncheon talk at the 1992 ISDC. If you raise the temperature of Mars by ~ 5C, it will go into a runaway greenhouse that will not stop until all the CO2 is gaseous. This will leave you with ~ 5psi CO2 atmosphere at ~50F with most water in the liquid state. It will take less than 10 years to occur. He had some very interesting graphs that showed how very close Mars is to a lower of two unstable points. I pointed out to him that because of the orbital changes in Mars over time, this could well happen naturally during the peak of the next "warm" cycle. He stated that a nuclear power plant in the GW range synthesizing and releasing NH4 would be sufficient to raise the temp by the requisite 5C in a short time. He suggested a faster method would be to use 4 Nerva class engines to move a large comet to impact. The extra gases would be enough to raise the temparture past the unstable point. Once the runaway occurs, the system is stable in the new configuration. Ie, Mars is metastable, it is in the lower "uninhabitable" state and it is very close to the pushover to fall into the the "habitable" state. An O2 atmosphere would take generations however. But with free water and lots of CO2 and mild temperatures, plants will get on just fine and will do the job with no further intervention. Humans could walk freely with nothing more than a scuba mask. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 19:38:31 GMT From: Bill Seward Subject: Terraforming Newsgroups: sci.space In article <1992Jul22.183853.152911@cs.cmu.edu>, amon@elegabalus.cs.qub.ac.uk writes: >Dr. Zubrin pointed out some interesting facts in his luncheon talk at >the 1992 ISDC. > >If you raise the temperature of Mars by ~ 5C, it will go into a >runaway greenhouse that will not stop until all the CO2 is gaseous. [ technical details tossed] OK, let's grant that we could perform these actions with current technology, given sufficient political will/$$. Since Mars has less gravity (no flames, I know that isn't the right way to put it), how long could we expect this new atmosphere to last? Generations, centuries, what? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Bill Seward | | | SEWARD@CCVAX1.CC.NCSU.EDU | Pithy saying wanted. Inquire within. | | SEWARD@NCSUVAX.BITNET | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Jul 92 23:40:14 GMT From: Colby Kraybill Subject: UFO-pic from Phobos2-probe posted ! Newsgroups: alt.alien.visitors,sci.space,alt.paranormal,sci.skeptic In article leo@zelator.in-berlin.de (Stefan Hartmann) writes: > >The UFO is approximately 15 and 1/2 miles long ! > I am also curious as to how the size of the object was determined. After some more poking around, Phobos has the shape of an ellipsoid, whose major axis are 27.9 km, and 19km. That is 16 miles by 11 miles. If the measurements of the object are correct, this could *easily* be Phobos. Deimos is only only 15 km along it's major axes. -- Colby Kraybill Space and Planetary Image Facility University of New Mexico ------------------------------ Date: 23 Jul 92 00:53:17 GMT From: John Roberts Subject: Whales and dolphins Newsgroups: sci.space -From: amon@elegabalus.cs.qub.ac.uk -Subject: Re: Whales and dolphins -Date: 22 Jul 92 18:33:49 GMT -The social structure of dolphins is among the most complex on Earth, -right up there with Homo Sapiens and Pan. --- Chimpanzees? They also have a very complex (and violent) social structure. -Dolphins form small cooperative groups that will sometimes form -coalitions with other cooperative groups. What is interesting is that -they may be the only other species that understands the double-cross -in the Machiavellian sense. -They will work with a group until it becomes in their interest to -work with yet another group against the first group. I don't doubt you're right, but other less intelligent animals will sometimes do this too, particularly the "bachelor groups" as you describe. I've heard of groups of male lions attacking a dominant male to get territory or mates, then fighting among themselves. There are extensive studies of possible evolutionary incentives to form specific behavior patterns. -So much for the peaceful, lovable porpoises... But they definitely -are far, far up the scale of social evolution. At least they tend to be well-disposed toward humans. Speaking of behavior patterns and cultures, E.E. Smith did a really interesting job of them in the Lensman series. Dozens of possible ET cultures, vividly described but in an unobtrusive way, and most of them fairly believable. In fact in "Masters of the Vortex", a novel placed in the setting of the Lensman universe, he describes two cultures, both intelligent and sympathetic, yet each acting in ways that are very harmful to the other, because the physical makeup of the two cultures is so different that neither is aware that the other exists. Heinlein apparently learned a lot from Smith (he wrote at least one article praising Smith as a pioneer in SF), and this theme is reflected in some of his novels, as well as the general theme of misunderstandings between cultures. This is a case where the speculations of science fiction have had a strong influence on the approach toward scientific research (SETI). John Roberts roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov ------------------------------ Date: P From: P Date: Wed, 22 Jul 92 16:51:51 BST From: amon@elegabalus.cs.qub.ac.uk Received: by NeXT Mailer (1.63) To: Space-request@isu.isunet.edu Subject: Re: "Inertial" propulsion Status: RO About two years ago an Japanese physicist published a paper in which he seemed to show a measurable change in weight of a spinning gyroscope. The paper was good enough to survive peer review in a major journal (Physics A or B I think) It has not been replicated to my knowledge, and may even have been proved to be artifact by now. Otherwise there would be a hell of a lot more being heard about it. That is the only "scientific" mention of the rotational to linear motion idea in recent years. There are, of course, the drill-bit-on-a-balance types, of which there is one practitioner who seems to show up in the pseudo science literature a great deal. They are heard from a great deal more. But as to any hardcore experimental evidence? .... Nope. As to theoretical backing? Don't even ASK a theoritician. They'll bite your kneecaps off. ------------------------------ End of Space Digest Volume 15 : Issue 026 ------------------------------