Date: Fri, 13 Nov 92 05:12:20 From: Space Digest maintainer Reply-To: Space-request@isu.isunet.edu Subject: Space Digest V15 #420 To: Space Digest Readers Precedence: bulk Space Digest Fri, 13 Nov 92 Volume 15 : Issue 420 Today's Topics: Feynmann's legacy... Japanese X-ray satellite: Astro_D Lunar "colony" reality check Obscure Help Needed Repost: Space Compendium SPACE FOOD. How Food Processors Manufacture Space Food for NASA Town Meeting Water and Moon Rocks? (2 msgs) 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: Fri, 13 Nov 92 00:53:33 EST From: John Roberts Subject: Feynmann's legacy... -From: pgf@srl03.cacs.usl.edu ("Phil G. Fraering") -Subject: Re: Feynmann's legacy... -Date: 12 Nov 92 01:01:57 GMT ->In article 20255@access.usask.ca, choy@skorpio.usask.ca (I am a terminator.) writes: ->...Hopefully, those in NASA with a less vested ->interest in piloting spacecraft are seriously considering heavy lift vehicles, ->if only to prevent another Challenger from catching the American public unaware. -Bad luck. Al Gore's campaign speeches on the topic indicated that -NASA is going to continue to invest in the Shuttle well into the -21st century; But Goldin, the Congress, Bush, Quayle, and the Augustine Commission also support that policy. It makes sense to keep the existing manned launcher until a better one is "on line". -Gore also talked about the need to scale back the -efforts to develop new launchers. The impression I got from reading the speeches is that they reflect his opinions going into the job - it's not a matter of "read my lips" and a promise not to change. I thought most of the criticisms are valid - NLS requires a big customer like SDI to be really practical, NASP isn't intended to lead to a "working" spacecraft anytime soon (anyway, there's increasing interest in pursuing airbreathing craft in a less ambitious step in the traditional style of the "X" aircraft), and the question of whether Delta Clipper will be practical is still somewhat speculative. What needs to be added is a set of well-written technical presentations on the positive aspects of these approaches, and on the importance of pursuing multiple designs. (At the least, I feel that construction of DC-X should continue, and NASP and NLS should be continued at least as technology development programs.) I would assume that at least some of the people who strongly favor these programs are writing letters to Clinton/Gore '92, rather than just sitting around moaning. :-) While I would not presume to tell people what they can write, I expect that well thought-out technical arguments would be likely to carry the greatest weight, and proposing cuts in other programs to pay for it in the same letter would most likely be counterproductive. John Roberts roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov ------------------------------ Date: 13 Nov 92 04:02:56 GMT From: "Michael V. Kent" Subject: Japanese X-ray satellite: Astro_D Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.space In article rwmurphr@wildcat.ecn.uoknor.edu (Robert W Murphree) writes: > >The US hasn't launched any free-flyers in the X-ray since >HEAO or Eistein 10 years ago, have they? A few detectors on >other people's satellites of course, but nothing big since >Einstein. The German-American Rosat was launched in June 1990, the Broad Band X-Ray Telescope flew with the Astro payload on the Shuttle during STS-35 in December 1990, and the Diffuse X-Ray Spectrometer is scheduled to fly on the upcoming STS-54 mission to deploy a TDRS satellite in January 1993. I'm not sure the Shuttle fits your definition of free-flying or not, but some missions have been launched recently. Mike -- Michael Kent kentm@rpi.edu McDonnell Douglas Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Tute Screwed Aero Class of '92 Apple II Forever !! ------------------------------ Date: 13 Nov 1992 03:16:40 GMT From: Bryan Butler Subject: Lunar "colony" reality check Newsgroups: sci.space,alt.sci.planetary In article <1992Nov11.002243.20606@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> gsh7w@fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU (Greg Hennessy) writes: >Henry Spencer writes: >#Even so, nobody would have been rash enough to *predict* ice there. >#Recent radar-mapping work shows strong echos from Mercury's poles which are >#very difficult to explain as anything but ice deposits. > >The late Axel Firsoff has predicted ice on the caps of Mercury. > do you have a reference for this? people did consider the trapping of volatiles in shaded regions of Mercury (see e.g. Kumar, and Gibson), and ice was even suggested in permanently shaded regions (see Thomas), but i think the point was that nobody really _strongly predicted_ detectable amounts of ice at the poles of Mercury. Gibson, E. K., Jr., Phys. of Earth and Plan. Int., 15, 303-312, 1977 Kumar, S., Icarus, 28, 579-591, 1976 Thomas, G. E., Science, 183, 1197-1198, 1974 >However, Firsoff was known to have some "non-mainstream" ideas also. > >-- >-Greg Hennessy, University of Virginia > USPS Mail: Astronomy Department, Charlottesville, VA 22903-2475 USA > Internet: gsh7w@virginia.edu > UUCP: ...!uunet!virginia!gsh7w -bryan butler@cluster.gps.caltech.edu or butler_b@caltech.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Nov 92 00:41:31 CST From: "Steve J. Quest" Subject: Obscure Help Needed Newsgroups: sci.space jdnicoll@prism.ccs.uwo.ca (James Davis Nicoll) writes: > > > > An embarrassing request: my HP died and I discover I cannot > remember how to do logs with a slide-rule, nor can I find my sr-related > texts. Clearly, I am senile. Anyone out there recall how the damn things > work? > > James Nicoll > > James, Do you have a log chart from the back of a college math text? I could fax one to you if you need it..........sq ------------------------------ Date: 12 Nov 92 11:44:11 EST From: tflavell@pbs.org Subject: Repost: Space Compendium Newsgroups: junk,sci.misc,sci.space,misc.kids,k12.ed.science,sci.aeronautics TO: Education Liasons, School Librarians, ITV Coordinators FR: PBS Elementary/Secondary Service RE: Space Compendium DT: November 11, 1992 INVESTIGATE AND CELEBRATE SPACE EXPLORATION! The "1992 International Space Year" Compendium has been jointly produced by PBS E/SS and the Student Space Foundation with support from the National Science Teachers Association's Space, Science & Technology Division to assist educators in grades K-12 in their planning and celebration for the 1992 International Year of Space. It is also designed to help educators and students investigate and celebrate space exploration for many years to come. This comprehensive compendium lists hundreds of classroom resources, including videos, books, research reports, posters, computer software, space societies, teacher training workshops, music, and more! Parents may also find this useful in supporting budding scientists/astronomers. 135 pgs. To order copies of the compendium, send a $10.00 check to: PBS E/SS; Space Compendium; Att: Tom; 1320 Braddock Place; Alexandria, VA 22314-1698. SORRY, NO PURCHASE ORDERS ACCEPTED. END ------------------------------ Date: 12 Nov 92 23:13:28 GMT From: Nigel Allen Subject: SPACE FOOD. How Food Processors Manufacture Space Food for NASA Newsgroups: sci.space,rec.food.cooking,alt.food,misc.misc Here is a press release from the National Food Processors Association. HARVEST FOR THE HEAVENS A Different Way of Thinking Call it space food...or cuisine for the Cosmos. Whatever name you use, space travelers are serving up a new dimension to that old adage--"dining under the stars." Work is now underway at research labs in private companies and by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to create new lines of space fare, not only for Earth-circling crews, but for future expeditions bound for the Moon and the distant planet Mars. For many people, the thought of food taken into space still conjures up a mental image of an astronaut hunched over a toothpaste-like tube, sucking on something ground control swears is tuna salad. "I guess NASA did a great job of public relations back in the Apollo days," explains Charles Bourland, food scientist for NASA's Man-Systems Division at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. "Our astronauts started eating from a spoon back 15 to 20 years ago. They've had utensils and have been eating from open food containers for a long time," Bourland says. The first astronauts, however, did have to endure unappetizing bite-sized, gelatin-coated cubes, semi-liquids stuffed in aluminum tubes, and freeze-dried powders. [subhead] The Right Process for the Right Stuff When a Space Shuttle streaks upward into Florida skies from its Kennedy Space Center launch pad, onboard are more than a hundred different food items. Cereals, scrambled eggs, spaghetti, and strawberries are included, each having gone through a dehydration process. When the foods are ready to be eaten, they are later rehydrated, using water. Twenty varieties of drinks, including tea and coffee, are also dehydrated for use in space. The standard Shuttle menu supplies each crew member with three balanced meals, providing 2,800 kilocalories each day. Diets are designed to supply each astronaut with all the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) of vitamins and minerals necessary to work and live in the microgravity world of space. Selected foods contain ample amounts of potassium, calcium, and nitrogen to counter the loss of these minerals when the human body is exposed to microgravity. "All of the foods have to be shelf-stabilized," NASA's Bourland says, "requiring no refrigeration, special treatment, or handling. And the food has to be good for at least a year." Food used onboard the Shuttle is processed to reduce the probability of pathogenic and food-spoilage bacteria, yeasts, and molds being present. Shuttle foods take on several different forms: natural, thermostabilized, irradiated, intermediate moisture process, and freeze dried. Food packaging can take the forms of off-the-shelf thermostabilized cans, flexible pouches, or semirigid containers. A chow line on the Shuttle means waiting your turn in front of an all-in-one food-preparation galley. This galley comes complete with a pantry, hot-and-cold water dispensers, an oven that heats up to 82 degrees C, and food serving trays. Meal preparation for a crew of seven is accomplished in about 30 minutes. A typical dinner for a high-flying Shuttle astronaut might consist of a shrimp cocktail, steak, broccoli, rice, and a fruit cocktail, topped off with chocolate pudding and a grape drink. [subhead] Food Industry on Earth Drives Space Food Developments NASA is now relying heavily on commercially available food products. Among the foods purchased by NASA from nearly 60 outside vendors are: roasted salted almonds; kona coffee; chicken, ham, tuna, and turkey salad spreads from Carnation Company (an NFPA member); butter crackers; dried beef; and banana, tapioca, and chocolate puddings from Del Monte Foods Company (an NFPA member). According to food scientist Bourland, NASA has been basically living off the food industry for several years. "At one time, NASA was in the forefront doing research and development in food processing, particularly in freeze-drying technologies," he says. "In the last 15 years now, we have been depending upon industry, and the food industry itself, to provide the leading edge of the research. We just take what they have and adapt it to space food systems," Bourland added. [subhead] Biotechnology and Space Harvesting: To Mars and Beyond Clearly, the trek to Mars and back would demand much in the way of food technology. That mission could require astronauts to spend upwards of 500 to 600 days away from Earth. Some scientists see use of biotechnology for the flight. For example, instead of growing a tomato from a seed, perhaps it will be more convenient to grow it from a tomato cell. While this technology is currently not available, perhaps by the time humans strike out for Mars, genetic engineering would permit such a food production concept. Thomas Parks, President of Food and Agrosystems, Inc., a food processing equipment manufacturer and consulting group in Sunnyvale, has also taken up the challenge of space food production. His company is studying food processing techniques for future space harvesting. The research can be applied to types of crops useful for a sprawling Moon outpost. Wheat, potatoes, and other plants are under study, as is use of an algae pool to break down plants to yield oxygen. Explains Parks: "In my own mind, I can't help but feel that our work in controlling waste and pollutants in recycling systems for space will help society here on Earth. Pollution on our planet goes up the stack, down the drain, or out the backdoor. In a space station, you can't do that. It's a different way of thinking." Leonard David is a space consultant and writer living in Washington, D.C. [photos] [caption for photo of Dr. Matthys] Dr. Allen Matthys, now Director of Technical Regulatory Affairs at the National Food Processors Association, is shown here testing space food applications at Texas A & M University, c. 1964. [sidebar] Nothing Like a Chow Down After Liftoff [Italics]: There's only one way to learn what it's like to eat while spinning around the globe at 17,000 miles per hour. Ask people who have been there. NFPA's Editorial Manager, Michelle Spring, spoke to former astronaut Bill Pogue about high-velocity dining. ------------------------- [subhead] Bill Pogue Prior to rocketing the first humans into space, nobody knew if a person could eat in orbit. Is gravity needed to help digest food? Would an astronaut choke trying to swallow food? These questions became moot when Soviet cosmonauts and American astronauts routinely ventured spaceward beginning in the 1960s. Bill Pogue was one of those early pioneering astronauts, staying aloft from late 1973 into early 1974 for 84 days, still the U.S. record. He orbited Earth in America's first experimental space station, Skylab. Currently, Pogue is a consultant to NASA and is working with the Boeing Aerospace Company. As for the problems of eating in space, Pogue comments: "Well, you ingest a lot of air...but swallowing is no problem in zero-G. I have felt, though, that the metabolic process is somehow different. I was hungrier in space and needed to eat more frequently. After about three hours without food, you experience 'space crud'--a general malaise that affects performance. It's like coming down with a cold, only it goes away after you eat," Pogue says. The foods of astronauts are supplemented with different nutrients, noted Pogue, and for good reason. "NASA nutritionists are very careful to keep the proper mineral balance in our diets. You tend to lose sodium, potassium, and calcium in zero-G. The calcium loss cannot be compensated for with supplements, though. The calcium, or bone mass, loss is related to not being erect for long periods of time. Scientists have found the same kind of bone mass loss in hospital patients confined to a bed for long periods of time." For many of the astronauts, it appears that the taste buds are affected by space travel. Pogue agrees. "There have been a number of tests for this in Skylab. Basically, things taste blander in space. We craved spicy and strong flavors--horseradish, Tabasco sauce, mustard, garlic, pepper." Looking out into the future, the veteran astronaut anticipates problems in regards to multi-national crews and the foods to which they are accustomed. "As we move toward a true international cooperation in space," Pogue explains, "and as astronauts from all nations eat together in space stations, we are going to face a problem. There are clear differences in dietary balances among different cultures. Different countries maintain a different balance of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, for instance. It will be quite a challenge to come up with an international menu that will accomodate each country's tastes, habits, and dietary needs," Pogue concludes. [END OF SIDEBAR] [Use posed photo of Bill Pogue] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 13 Nov 92 01:19:40 EST From: John Roberts Subject: Town Meeting -From: cecil@physics.unc.edu (Gerald Cecil) -Subject: NASA Town Meeting in Rayleigh -- Was: NASA is too big. -Date: 11 Nov 92 22:35:33 GMT -Organization: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. -Based on the 1st NASA Town Meeting in Rayleigh on Monday that I attended, -some in NASA are still denying reality. The lone astronaut chairing the panel -took issue with the question I posed to Goldin regarding shuttle reliability. -...Later, after Goldin left, the astronaut stridently stated -that (I paraphrase): ``I want to clear -up some misconceptions regarding the Shuttle. The Shuttle is the most reliable -space vehicle that's every flown. We have a reliablity of .987, etc etc etc.'' -OK, so use his number, raised to the 45th power (= approx # of shuttle flights -until SSF is assembled) to get a 45% probability of losing an orbiter. Feynman -must be spinning in his grave. Hopefully, those in NASA with a less vested -interest in piloting spacecraft are seriously considering heavy lift vehicles, -if only to prevent another Challenger from catching the American public unaware. Those numbers sound reasonably consistent with the estimates NASA has made previously (and also stated during Congressional hearings). Yes, space flight is not a 100% safe activity. If you want to live a long time, it's not a good idea to go up on *every* Shuttle flight - note that few if any astonauts go on more than 4-5 missions. NASA did order the parts to build a replacement orbiter in case one is needed - (if one replacement is available, what is the probability of getting through SSF assembly with four orbiters intact?). Furthermore, if an orbiter were to be lost in the next few years, the assembly lines would still be sufficiently intact to make another set of parts. (It might be better in that case to take Rockwell up on its offer to build updated orbiters at a substantially reduced price.) There has been talk of building a fifth orbiter now as an on-line backup. The consensus appears to be that with the projected remaining lifetime of the Shuttle program, the probabilities don't justify the added expense. Also note that one of the major goals of the SSF redesign has been to minimize the number of flights actually needed for assembly. John Roberts roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 05:10:49 GMT From: Bruce Dunn Subject: Water and Moon Rocks? Newsgroups: sci.space > Charles Pooley writes: > > .....they cheated. The idea was to use hydrogen form the earth, to > chemically reduce the mix of various oxides in the regolith somewhat. > The product of this is, of course, water vapor. Hydrogen is almost > nonexistant on the moon (unless it turns out that subsurface H2O does > exist in polar area). Not necessarily cheated - it depends on what you are after. If the aim is to get the oxygen from the rocks, then the hydrogen is catalytic and reused. The recipe goes: 1) Pass hydrogen through hot regolith, and collect the resulting water. 2) Keep the regolith hot, and pull a good vacuum on it with a pump to recover any adsorbed hydrogen - hope that you have not lost any via permanent reaction with the regolith 3) Throw away the depleted regolith (or use for other processes) 4) Use electrolysis to split the product water, giving oxygen for breathing, propulsion or whatever, and hydrogen to use for processing another batch of regolith. -- Bruce Dunn Vancouver, Canada Bruce_Dunn@mindlink.bc.ca ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 13 Nov 92 01:30:07 EST From: John Roberts Subject: Water and moon rocks? -From: bruceh@mothra.rose.hp.com (Bruce Hendler) -Subject: Water and Moon Rocks? -Date: 11 Nov 92 23:20:17 GMT -Organization: HP - Systems Technology Division -The other evening I was watching a PBS special about the moon. I briefly -caught a portion of the program about some scientists creating water -from moon rocks brought back by one of the Apollo missions. It was being -done by introducing hydrogen into the rock. They showed this working... -you could see water dripping from the moon rock. Could someone please -explain this in more detail. Like I said, I only caught a glimpse of it and it -totally amazed me. Since the hydrogen has to be imported (water, LH2, metal hydride, plastic, etc.), this is basically a method of extracting oxygen from the lunar material (though the water would be useful too). You produce water from moon rock and hydrogen, elecrolyze the water, save the oxygen, then react the hydrogen with more moon rock to make more water, and the process repeats. I believe there are also oxygen extraction methods that do not require the use of hydrogen. Much of the research going on now is performed using *simulated* lunar material, made up of the appropriate mix of Earth rocks. For instance, EPCOT now has demonstrations with plants growing in simulated lunar soil and simulated Mars soil. John Roberts roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov ------------------------------ End of Space Digest Volume 15 : Issue 420 ------------------------------