Date: Wed, 13 Jan 93 05:21:56 From: Space Digest maintainer Reply-To: Space-request@isu.isunet.edu Subject: Space Digest V16 #042 To: Space Digest Readers Precedence: bulk Space Digest Wed, 13 Jan 93 Volume 16 : Issue 042 Today's Topics: Antiproton efficiency (was Re: *** BUSSARD RAMSCOOP ***) British Isles: MIR visible now! DC-1 and the $23M NASA Toilet Let's be more specific (was: Stupid Shut Cost arguements) Magellan Update - 01/11/93 Mars Observer Update - 01/12/93 Moon Dust For Sale NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program - help Oxygen in Biosphere 2 Shuttle a research tool (was: Re: Let's be more specific) Toward 2001 - 11 Jan Who can launch antisats? (was Re: DoD launcher use) 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: Wed, 13 Jan 1993 02:53:30 GMT From: "Gregory N. Bond" Subject: Antiproton efficiency (was Re: *** BUSSARD RAMSCOOP ***) Newsgroups: sci.space In article <1993Jan11.194531.1@fnalf.fnal.gov> higgins@fnalf.fnal.gov (Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey) writes: As Jon pointed out, you gotta conserve baryon number by all known processes for creating antimatter What is baryon number? I assume this means that p-bar creation processes also creat protons, so you spend 2mc^2 and throw away the proton. Greg, not a nukular physicist. -- Gregory Bond Burdett Buckeridge & Young Ltd Melbourne Australia Dizzy Gillespie: RIP. ------------------------------ Date: 13 Jan 93 01:50:02 GMT From: apryan@vax1.tcd.ie Subject: British Isles: MIR visible now! Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.astro MIR visible from U.K. (and Ireland) until Saturday Jan. 16 (inclusive) If you want the time to see the Russian space station Mir (2 men on board at present) then call 0891-88-1950 from UK (1550-111-442 from Republic of Ireland). The time is given at the very start of this brand new astronomy and space hotline so it will only cost a few pence to call it. The full message (3 to 5 minutes) costs 48p/min peak, 26p/minall other times and tells you what to see in the sky over the British Isles every week. It is fully updated on Sunday evenings for the week ahead but will be specially updated mid-week if news warrants (new comet/nova/aurora...) Please tell your friends/colleagues, especially if you are a member of an astronomical club anywhere in UK/Ireland. Please email me if you see Mir as a result and let me know what you think of the hotline. P.S. Deirdre Lillis emailed me but I was can't reply. Please email again. ------------------------------ Date: 13 Jan 93 04:35:20 GMT From: Pat Subject: DC-1 and the $23M NASA Toilet Newsgroups: sci.space In article henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes: > >Sorry, not correct. The old shuttle toilet stores the solid wastes until >landing, when it is removed and cleaned out. Urine is separated to be >dealt with differently (dumped, I think); this is what has been done by >all such systems, including the Skylab one. > Uh, OH. I think we have a sci.space first here. I get to correct Henry. Bill, Dennis watch this real careful, you'll probably never see this again in this century. I watched a NASA fiilm on Select late one night, where they discussed the Skylab life support system. Skylab had three seperate water recovery systems. identical in function and part. Water was recovered from exhalation, urine and the shower/handbasin. each system used a wick evaporator to distill h2o and then passed the vapor through a carbon filter to remove odor and contaminants. For psychological reasons recycled urine was used solely forhand washing although it met quality requirements for drinking. The film showed the astronauts conducting daily qualtiy tests and doing maintenance on the system. I imagine in the event of a system failure the contingency plan was to valve all liquid sources back to one recycler for mission preservation. I think the shuttle dumps urine because the fuel cells produce lots of water and the weight of the recycler is not cost effective. pat ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 21:51:31 GMT From: Brad Whitehurst Subject: Let's be more specific (was: Stupid Shut Cost arguements) Newsgroups: sci.space In article <1993Jan12.171525.7437@ke4zv.uucp> gary@ke4zv.UUCP (Gary Coffman) writes: ...[others] >>>Shuttle designers originally >>>considered a titanium skin for the Orbiter, but even a metal as refractory >>>as titanium wasn't up to the job >> >>Yet Another Historical Error. Refractory metals were up to the >>job until NASA doubled the size of the Shuttle orbiter to meet >>military payload demands. (And some engineers at Rockwell still >>felt that refractory metals were viable, given sufficient ingenuity. >>Langley, and possibly other NASA centers have since come up with >>refractory metals which they believe can do the job. Some of these >>were considered for use on the fifth orbiter.) > >Even the SR71 uses fuel to help cool it's titanium skin, and it travels >more than four times slower than a re-entry vehicle. The only practical >metal more refractory than titanium is tungsten, and no one would seriously >consider a tungsten skinned vehicle. It would weigh too much, not to mention >the fabrication difficulties or the cost. Using titanium instead of aluminum >to *back up* a lighter heat shield is certainly practical, but with the >extremely good insulating qualities of available ceramic refractories, it >isn't necessary. An active cooling system could negate the need for a ceramic >shield, but would likely weigh more and be prone to breakdown. A heat shield Actually, tungsten (and most refractory metals) wouldn't work very well, since they oxidize at catastophic rates when they get too hot (in air, of course), not to mention the weight. And, while titanium is more heat tolerant than aluminum, it still will crap out at reentry temps. I have heard of some really exotic plated light metal alloys for making actively cooled honeycombs for the NASP. They looked at using our tunnel for some sample tests in combusting environments, but we couldn't get the heat transfer rates they wanted in the required time frame. Our tunnel typically runs heat transfer rates of 1.0-1.5 MW/m^2, and they were looking for more like 3-5 MW/m^2. The upshot is that if you don't have a skin which can run very hot in an oxidizing atmosphere (lots of atomic oxygen!), backed up with good insulation, you'll have to go to either active cooling or ablative cooling, depending on the length of exposure. We use water cooled nickel walls for our combustor, which have proven very durable. I have also tried mild steel with a nickel plate, to save money, and it has done pretty well also. The nickel superalloys are heavier than titanium, but they will hold strength to higher temps, and will resist oxidation, unlike tungsten and such. -- Brad Whitehurst | Aerospace Research Lab rbw3q@Virginia.EDU | We like it hot...and fast. ------------------------------ Date: 12 Jan 1993 22:23:40 GMT From: Steve Derry Subject: Magellan Update - 01/11/93 Newsgroups: sci.space Ron Baalke (baalke@kelvin.Jpl.Nasa.Gov) wrote: : MAGELLAN STATUS REPORT : January 11, 1993 .... : 5. Following the end of Cycle-4, the Magellan mission will begin a : "Transition Experiment" in which the periapsis will be intentionally : lowered to allow the atmospheric drag to slow the spacecraft's : velocity. This aerobraking maneuver will enable the mission planners : to circularize the orbit and gather high-resolution gravity data : closer to the poles of Venus. GREAT!!! Has funding been found for Cycle 5, or at least for the aerobrake experiment? If so, this is the first I've heard of it, but it is excellent news! -- Steve Derry ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 22:39:19 GMT From: "Thomas E. Smith" Subject: Mars Observer Update - 01/12/93 Newsgroups: sci.space Ron Baalke writes: >Today the spacecraft is 50,015,515 km from Earth (31,078,200 miles) >travelling at a velocity of 11.55 meters/second (25,829 mph). One way >light time is approximately 167 seconds. I was just curious, so on 12-30-92 I wrote down the info about velocity, and distance. The speed was 9.4083 km/s, and now it's 11.55 km/s (I assume that's supposed to be km instead of meters). I was just wondering what the change in velocity was from. The spacecraft is coasting isn't it? And at the moment isn't the Earth and Sun's pull greater than Mars? Signed, Perplexed -- ____________________________________________________________________________ | It's not my damn planet, understand | Tom E. Smith | | Monkey Boy?!! John Bigbootey | tes@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: 13 Jan 1993 04:16:26 GMT From: Pat Subject: Moon Dust For Sale Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.astro,alt.sci.planetary In article <1993Jan7.063900.1070@ke4zv.uucp> gary@ke4zv.UUCP (Gary Coffman) writes: >In article <1993Jan6.183139.3779@mksol.dseg.ti.com> mccall@mksol.dseg.ti.com (fred j mccall 575-3539) writes: >>think there was just a BIT more to it than that. Using the same >>logic, one could say that we paid $67 billion to develop Tang. > >And worth every penny. Yum, yum. :-) :-) Gee, gary If you like that stuff, you are sicker then i thought :-) ------------------------------ Date: 12 Jan 1993 21:27:38 GMT From: "Michael Q. McHenry" Subject: NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program - help Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.engr,sci.engr.biomed,soc.college.grad Greetings. I have just today found the 1991/1992 GSRP informational and application packet, but I have been unable to reach anyone about getting the 1993/1994 packet. The obvious phone numbers in this document are no longer in service, and the deadline for proposal submission is 01 February. If anyone has any information about this program, contacts, phone numbers or email addresses, I would greatly appreciate the e-mail. --- Quinn McHenry "If you would be a real seeker after truth, it mchenry@engr.latech.edu is necessary that at least once in your life Biomedical Engineering you doubt, as far as possible, all things." Louisiana Tech University - Rene Descartes ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Jan 93 22:56:00 PST From: Taber@bio2.com Subject: Oxygen in Biosphere 2 Biosphere 2 update 1/12/93 Oxygen will be added to Biosphere 2, raising the concentration to 19%, beginning Wednesday, January 13. We allowed the oxygen to drop to its current concentration of 14.4% primarily to determine if the rate of decline would reduce with the concentration, and to allow a study to proceed examining the acclimation of the crew the reduced partial pressure of oxygen in the atmosphere. Some aspects of the acclimation appear to possibly have been delayed for reasons that are not yet clear. Tests done this week indicated that now all crew members are showing signs of acclimation. The crew's ability to acclimatize to falling levels of oxygen indicate the we can function satisfactorily in the range of 16% to 19% O2. We have observed no reduction in the rate of oxygen loss since closure. Because of the above results, increased symptoms of hypoxia being reported from the crew and my concern as safety officer that a further drop may lead to a safety problem, we have decided to supplement the oxygen in Biosphere 2. The oxygen level I am breathing now, as I key this in, is about equal to the oxygen partial pressure at an altitude of 13,400 feet, just over 4,000 meters. Professor Wally Broecker of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, who is the primary outside scientist working on oxygen in Biosphere 2, has concurred with the plan to put in oxygen and has reviewed our sampling and introduction protocol. Stable isotope studies conducted by Lamont-Doherty are our primary tool in the oxygen study along with experiments using small chambers containing soil similar to that in Biosphere 2. Over 9,000 kg of liquid oxygen will be trucked to the sight and injected as gas into the west "lung" through an existing pipe fitting. The "lung" is one of two variable volume chambers used to take the expansion and contraction of Biosphere 2's air volume with temperature changes etc. The west lung will be used to check the amount of oxygen injected by observing the volume change. The procedure will take several days since the oxygen will be injected in stages to permit measurements to be made as the injection proceeds. Medical work-ups will be repeated at 17% and 19% oxygen. This is expected to be the only oxygen injection needed for the remainder of the 1991-1993 mission. Another injection of oxygen may be required for the activities planned between this closure and the next. It may also be necessary, depending on the rate of oxygen decline, to again increase oxygen levels for the next crew. The sunny day we had today ended what was the lowest light levels of any 8 day period since closure. The reduced light was caused by rain that produced flooding in Phoenix and Tucson. The low light forced us to operate the CO2 removal and storage system at maximum capacity, but even so we reached our highest CO2 concentration since closure of over 4,500 ppm. While CO2 at this level poses no threat to the crew, plants and other animals, it can produce dangerously low pH in the ocean even with increased alkalinity to compensate. The low light increases the rate of oxygen depletion as well. Research samples are also scheduled to be exported on Wednesday, January 13, 1993 at 9:30 a.m. The samples include air, water, plant tissue, pollen, photographic film, and blood from the crew members. Taber MacCallum Biosphere 2 crew member tmaccallum@igc.org ------------------------------ Date: 12 Jan 1993 22:11:11 GMT From: steve hix Subject: Shuttle a research tool (was: Re: Let's be more specific) Newsgroups: sci.space In article steinly@topaz.ucsc.edu (Steinn Sigurdsson) writes: > >I'm coming in late on this thread, but consider why NASA operates its >own fleet of aircraft rather than lease them for all purposes. >In particular do people contend that say the Kuiper Observatory >should be put on a AA flight rather than a NASA owned Starlifter? Depends...mostly on whether our lawyers or their lawyers are better. AA *will* object to the body work. :} -- ------------------------------------------------------- | Some things are too important not to give away | | to everybody else and have none left for yourself. | |------------------------ Dieter the car salesman-----| ------------------------------ Date: 12 Jan 93 16:05:51 GMT From: Bev Freed Subject: Toward 2001 - 11 Jan Newsgroups: sci.space *********** TOWARD 2001 *********** Week of 11 January 1993 A Weekly Feature of SPACE CALENDAR + = Domestic (USA) Earth event * = Domestic (USA) space event o = International Earth event # = International space event -------------------------------------------------------------------- REPRINT INFORMATION This information is reproduced by permission of the Space Age Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Copyright January 11, 1993. Reproduction in any form without written permission violates federal statute with penalty of up to $50,000. SPACE CALENDAR is edited and published on the Big `Space' Island of Hawaii. ==================================================================== * * * * * * * + Energy Optics Las Cruces NM Astronauts eventually will be able to control equipment by blinking in code at a computer. Energy Optics Inc is under a $50,000 contract with NASA to demonstrate the concept. The system would free astronauts' hands for other tasks. * * * * * * * * Galileo Movies Pasadena CA A series of still pictures and three short movies comprising images shot by Galileo on its way past the Cis-Lunar system, as well as a tape recording suggesting the possibility of life on the planet Earth have been released by NASA. * * * * * * * o Khrunichev / Motorola Contract Moscow, Russia The Khrunichev Russian strategic missile plant will launch three communications satellites under a contract with Motorola Corp. Khrunichev has been cleared to spend $40 million on the project. * * * * * * * o Japan / Germany Space Research Uchinoura, Japan Japan and Germany are pledged to begin uncrewed space exploration using Japan's M-3S rocket, developed by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science. In February 1994, the spacecraft will orbit Earth 5 times and land in Australia. * * * * * * * + AMSC Share Reallocation Washington DC Skylink Corp and Mobile Satellite Corp, formed in the 1980s to develop the American Mobile Satellite Corp, have dissolved and reallocated AMSC shares to the initial individual investors. Skylink distributed 142,857 shares to 45 stockholders, and Mobile Satellite distributed 295,707 shares to 55 stockholders. * * * * * * * + Paramax Award McLean VA Paramax Space Systems received the annual Team Excellence Award from Johnson Space Center for providing "high quality systems and software engineering services, products and support to Space Shuttle and Space Station Freedom." * * * * * * * + High Frontier Conference Princeton NJ The upcoming High Frontier Conference 11, scheduled for May, is dedicated to the memory of Space Studies Institute founder Gerard K O'Neill. It will include papers on space manufacturing, space development, and space settlement. * * * * * * * o Meteorite Insurance Tokyo, Japan A Japan insurance company will repair a meteorite-caused hole through the roof, ceiling, and floor of the home of Masaru Matsumoto, under a clause covering "damage from outside flying objects." Astronomers from across Japan are studying the landing site of the football-sized meteorite. * * * * * * * o Optus-B2 Failure Xichang, China China is working to recoup its position in the world commercial launch industry following evidence of a launch-phase error that destroyed the Optus-B2 satellite on 21 December. Hughes engineers spotted a "brief fireball" in a video of the launch and found pieces of the fairing and spacecraft along the flight path. * * * * * * * Lunar Footnote (Statistic) + 7,326 Days since Moon last visited by humans; 2,912 days until 1 January 2001. * * * * * * * o International Space Year 1992 (Quotation) "The most important policy objective of the ISY . . . is to instill a new Space Age frame of reference in the thoughts and actions of governments and individuals." -- The late U S Senator Spark M Matsunaga, Hawaii -------------------------------------------------------------------- ABOUT SPACE CALENDAR Space Calendar provides a weekly preview of upcoming events in the space industry. It is published weekly by the SPACE AGE PUBLISHING COMPANY from offices in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. For a free sample of the printed publication, use the address, telephone, or fax numbers for the Hawaii office listed below. SPACE AGE PUBLISHING COMPANY also publishes SPACE FAX DAILY from its offices in Cupertino, California. For information about SPACE FAX DAILY use the address, telephone, or fax numbers for the California office listed below. HAWAII OFFICE: 75-5751 Kuakini Highway, Suite 209, Kailua-Kona HI 96740; 808-326-2014, fax 808-326-1825. CALIFORNIA OFFICE: 10020 North De Anza Blvd, Suite 102, Cupertino CA 95054; 408-996-9210, fax 408-996-2125. ==================================================================== -- Bev Freed - via FidoNet node 1:129/104 UUCP: ...!pitt!nss!freed INTERNET: freed@nss.org ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Jan 1993 02:58:12 GMT From: "Matt J. Martin" Subject: Who can launch antisats? (was Re: DoD launcher use) Newsgroups: sci.space In article ewright@convex.com (Edward V. Wright) writes: >In henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes: > > >>Careful here... I don't know exactly what legal maneuvers took place >>when the US formally joined the UN, but if the UN Charter has the status >>of a Senate-ratified treaty, that means it has the force of law in the >>US... and one of the clauses in there is a renunciation of war as an >>instrument of national policy. > >Well, not really. The "supreme law of the land" is the US Constitution, >not international treaties -- no matter what the State Department might >tell you. It pretty specifically spells out warmaking powers in terms >that can't be ammended by a simple act of Congress. > I beg to differ. Article 6 of the U.S. consitution states "...all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in eery State shall be bound thereby..." The above includes anything George Bush signs. >All of which is irrelevent because, as I said, George Bush de facto >surrendered US sovereignty in 1992. > Sovereignty is an illusion to begin with. It doesn't exist. --- ########################################################################## ## / ## Progress Before Peace! ## / ## ## // ## Matt J. Martin, Technosociology and Space Politics ## // ## ## ///// ######################################################## ///// ## ## // ## Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN ## // ## ## / ## myempire@mentor.cc.purdue.edu ## / ## ########################################################################## ------------------------------ End of Space Digest Volume 16 : Issue 042 ------------------------------