Date: Mon, 18 Jan 93 05:00:00 From: Space Digest maintainer Reply-To: Space-request@isu.isunet.edu Subject: Space Digest V16 #058 To: Space Digest Readers Precedence: bulk Space Digest Mon, 18 Jan 93 Volume 16 : Issue 058 Today's Topics: ** BUSSARD RAMSCOOP ** A question about mercury and Gemini. Astronomy ftp site best food for space? Carbon-carbon heat shields DC-1 and the $23M NASA Toilet Freedom's orbit Fullerene cages (2 msgs) Galileo Stuck Ribs / Remote Manipulator? Goldin's future Handling Antimatter Hewlett Packard conin space It's HAL's first birthday today! Let's be more specific (was: Stupid Shut Cost arguements) Solar sail (was: ** BUSSARD RAMJET **) Space Nuclear Power.... SSTO tidbit teaching star trek (2 msgs) UN ACTIVE IN ASTRONOMY MEETING REPORT Znamya: Orbiting mirror. 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: Sun, 17 Jan 1993 20:35:49 GMT From: Larry Wall Subject: ** BUSSARD RAMSCOOP ** Newsgroups: sci.space In article roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov (John Roberts) writes: : An option if you find (uninhabited) planets or other : solid bodies is to deploy very small probes to impact those bodies. The : interstellar velocity of those probes would result in spectacular explosions, : and you could conduct a remote spectrographic analysis. Next thing you know, someone will suggest making the probes out of some weird metal like iridium, just so we don't spoil the rest of the spectrum... :-) Larry Wall lwall@netlabs.com ------------------------------ Date: 17 Jan 93 18:14:10 GMT From: Pat Subject: A question about mercury and Gemini. Newsgroups: sci.space During the mercury and gemini program, we had very little experience in the developement of rockets, capsules, engines, etc. In fact mercury had a number of troubles with the main boosters. Now these systems had escape rocket towers for abort safety, but they would be jettisoned 1-2 minutes into flight. My question, is if you have already paid the penalty, to carry the tower, why not keep it as an emergency retro-rocket, in case the main retro-roket failed? granted the performance of the escape tower would have to be improved to match the main package, but were teh retros already fail-safe? seems like they were awful sure. thanks pat PS. the reason i dont ask this about apollo, is that there they were on a much tighter weight budget, there is no point dragging weight to the moon and back, and they also needed the CSM main engine to handle lunar injection, lunar departure. i dont think one single impulse would save them if the trajectroy went bad. also the LEM did seem adequate for towing :-) ------------------------------ Date: 17 Jan 93 19:18:50 GMT From: Kevin Deane Subject: Astronomy ftp site Newsgroups: sci.space Hello everyone, I am looking for a good AStronomy file FTP site. If you know of any plus know of some of the directories on said site please let me know. I thank you for any help you can give me. -- ==================================================================== |Kevin A. Deane (Kevin_Deane@Mindlink.bc.ca)| | |Simon Fraser University | "We will destroy | |Treasurer | the opposition" | |Fraser Valley Astronomers Society | | |----------------------------------------------| ------------------------------ Date: 17 Jan 93 06:41:25 GMT From: Ethan Dicks Subject: best food for space? Newsgroups: sci.space In article rabjab@golem.ucsd.edu (rabjab) writes: > I watched Robinson Crusoe on Mars the other day and got the idea to > put my food in toothpaste tubes. I squezed out all the paste into > jars and used the blender to turn various foods into paste. I'm > having some problems getting the paste in the tubes, however. Does > anyone have suggestions? Normally, you fill tubes of this nature through the crimped end, before it is crimped. Perhaps you could chop a few millimeters off the end and (after cleaning and filling the tube) recrimping it. > When that problem is solved, I am going to need to get more tubes. For those people who like to make their own toothpaste (for various reasons including medical/dental research), it is possible to buy toothpaste tube which have never been opened. If nothing else, check with your nearest dental college; perhaps they do toothpaste research (even on a small scale, like a graduate level course). -ethan ------------------------------ Date: 17 Jan 93 23:57:49 GMT From: Mary Shafer Subject: Carbon-carbon heat shields Newsgroups: sci.space On 17 Jan 93 01:47:25 GMT, roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov (John Roberts) said: JR> The Shuttle uses carbon-carbon for the leading edges of the wings, with the JR> outer layers chemically converted to silicon carbide. The nose cap is also RCC (Reinforced Carbon-Carbon). -- Mary Shafer DoD #0362 KotFR NASA Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA shafer@rigel.dfrf.nasa.gov Of course I don't speak for NASA "A MiG at your six is better than no MiG at all." Unknown US fighter pilot ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 15 Jan 1993 06:00:20 GMT From: Steve Taylor Subject: DC-1 and the $23M NASA Toilet Newsgroups: sci.space bern@Uni-Trier.DE (Jochen Bern) writes: >The REALLY funny Thing about it is that the 2001 >Starship had artificial Gravity in at least a Part of the Ship; Every >Idiot would have chosen to put into that Area. I think the zero gravity toilet scene was on an orbital shuttle, not the main ship. Steve ------------------------------ Date: 16 Jan 93 19:07:39 GMT From: Bruce Watson Subject: Freedom's orbit Newsgroups: sci.space In article Subject: Fullerene cages Newsgroups: sci.space I couldn't say how well buckminsterfullerenes would work to cage anitmatter, but the idea of tipping a tank-killing rifle bullet with them won't work. You can fire fullerenes into a lead wall at many 1000's km/h and they won't break. They're *very* strong. The only way I can think of would be to put a small amount in a sealed chamber in a steel bullet along with some high explosive. On impact, the HE goes off and the chamber contains the explosion long enough to build up high pressure and temp to crack the fullerenes. The anti-matter anihilates, vapourizing the bullet and destroying the tank. _______________________________________________________________________________ | .sig? I don't need no stinkin' .sig! | | rborden@ra.uvic.ca | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 17 Jan 93 22:09:40 GMT From: Ross Borden Subject: Fullerene cages Newsgroups: sci.space I couldn't say how well buckminsterfullerenes would work to cage anitmatter, but the idea of tipping a tank-killing rifle bullet with them won't work. You can fire fullerenes into a lead wall at many 1000's km/h and they won't break. They're *very* strong. The only way I can think of would be to put a small amount in a sealed chamber in a steel bullet along with some high explosive. On impact, the HE goes off and the chamber contains the explosion long enough to build up high pressure and temp to crack the fullerenes. The anti-matter anihilates, vapourizing the bullet and destroying the tank. _______________________________________________________________________________ | .sig? I don't need no stinkin' .sig! | | rborden@ra.uvic.ca | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ From: agate!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!emory!kd4nc!vdbsan!willard!hypnos!skylab!news@ucbvax.berkeley.edu (Sellers) Subject: Galileo Stuck Ribs / Remote Manipulator? In article , ahabig@bigbang.astro.indiana.edu (Alec Habig) writes: > .. > >would it be to incorporate a robotic arm manipulator into these designs, > >articulated so that it could reach everything on the probe/satellite? > > I think the big problem would be that this arm would be just as likely to get > broken as any part that it might be able to fix. > If anything did break that the arm *could* fix, then it would be more than sensible to bring it along, wouldn't it? ------------------------------ Date: 17 Jan 93 18:39:32 GMT From: Pat Subject: Goldin's future Newsgroups: sci.space,talk.politics.space Allen, please post the addresses and phone numbers of the congresscritters we should call about for Goldins future. Also, goldin is getting sacked in a mass termination of all presidential appointees. Bush asked for everyone to quit 5 minutes before the inaugaration just to make clinton look bad. so maybe we can push for one guy to stay on. pat ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 17 Jan 93 14:06:12 EST From: John Roberts Subject: Handling Antimatter -From: clarke@acme.ucf.edu (Thomas Clarke) -Subject: Re: Handling Antimatter -Date: 17 Jan 93 03:30:31 GMT -Organization: IST, University of Central Florida, Orlando -In article <1j79vtINN7no@gap.caltech.edu> kwp@wag.caltech.edu (Kevin W. Plaxco) writes: ->In article <1993Jan15.143419.18253@cs.ucf.edu> clarke@acme.ucf.edu (Thomas Clarke) writes: ->The molecular weight of C60 plus antiproton is >721 daltons. ->Proton-antiproton annihilation would convert 2/721 or 0.28% ->of this into energy. The energy/mass ratio of this rocket ->fuel would, unfortunately, be no better than that of U-235. -Your calculation may scotch my tank destroying rifle bullet -scenario, however. A good thing too!-) Don't go selling it at the corner hardware store just yet - a milligram of antiproton-containing Buckminsterfullerene would release about as much energy as 120 pounds of high explosive. It's reminiscent of the "X-plosive" bullets in E.E. Smith's "The Skylark of Space". Fortunately :-), it would also cost about as much as one DoD annual budget to produce one of these at current rates, so these bullets aren't likely to find their way into "Saturday night specials" any time soon. John Roberts roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov ------------------------------ Date: 17 Jan 93 17:16:33 GMT From: apryan@vax1.tcd.IE Subject: Hewlett Packard conin space Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.space I read an interesting report in Sky and Telescope magazine for Feb'93 about about the Supercomputer Toolkit built jointly by MIT and Hewlett Packard to examine planetary motions. I am interested in any other astronomical/space projects that the Hewlett Packard company has been involved in as our society has dealings with Hewlett Packard's Irish branch. I was not aware of the Supercomputer Toolkit and am fascinated to know more. Is there anyone from HP on the net? I think I've seen network address with "hp" in them. Is this Hewlett Packard? Perphaps someone from MIT might know more also? Tony Ryan, Homn. Sec., Astronomy Ireland, P.O.Box 2888, Dublin 1, Ireland. ------------------------------ Date: 12 Jan 93 08:34:54 +1030 From: etssp@levels.unisa.edu.au Subject: It's HAL's first birthday today! Newsgroups: sci.space Me and my computer sal would like to wish HAL a very happy first birthday! Have you learnt any good songs lately HAL? -- Steven S. Pietrobon, Australian Space Centre for Signal Processing Signal Processing Research Institute, University of South Australia The Levels, SA 5095, Australia. steven@spri.levels.unisa.edu.au ------------------------------ Date: 17 Jan 93 18:07:09 GMT From: Pat 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: > >are a preferred solution. Honeycomb composite structures are another good >solution, but remain very expensive to fabricate. > Too the best of my understanding, the chinese use Bamboo heat shields on their rocket capsules. The bamboo carbonizes, and becomes an almost perfect insulator. A friend of mine watched a thermite lance get halted by a piece of plywood. the carbon just sucked up the heat. any low cost vehicle plans ever look at these? pat ------------------------------ Date: 17 Jan 93 16:58:44 GMT From: Gary Coffman Subject: Solar sail (was: ** BUSSARD RAMJET **) Newsgroups: sci.space In article lord@tradent.wimsey.bc.ca (Jason Cooper) writes: >Just curious... Does anybody out there know how much acceleration a >solar sail could offer, and how big it would have to be in area? The usual guesstimates fall in the micro-G range. Calculating light pressure at any given distance from the Sun is easy, calculating a practical mass to square footage ratio for the sail is the iffy part. To carry any substantial payload, the only proper answer to the size question is big, likely very very big. Gary -- Gary Coffman KE4ZV | You make it, | gatech!wa4mei!ke4zv!gary Destructive Testing Systems | we break it. | uunet!rsiatl!ke4zv!gary 534 Shannon Way | Guaranteed! | emory!kd4nc!ke4zv!gary Lawrenceville, GA 30244 | | emory!ke4zv!gary@gatech.edu ------------------------------ Date: 17 Jan 1993 21:30 CST From: IGOR Subject: Space Nuclear Power.... Newsgroups: sci.space Howdy, I had an argument with some of you a while ago on the fact that no nuclear reactor powered spacecrafts ( no RTG's but the real guys ) had been flying in space before. At the moment I was also saying that I did not know any western (US) projects of this kind ( I was saying that if indeed the US had sent something like that it would have been under a black project) but that i did not really know too much about the soviets. I was attending last week, the Space Nuclear Power Symposium in Albuquerque and had the confirmation that they have been doing that for years. Most of them were called RORSAT and were used at very low altitude, the most recent ones were two Topaz-I reactors sent on two cosmos missions ( i will get the numbers for people interested ). The USAF and SDIO are trying to qualify one (Topaz-II a russian made reactor) to fly in 1995-1996. Igor Carron Department of Nuclear Engineering Texas A&M University ------------------------------ Date: 12 Jan 93 09:12:21 +1030 From: etssp@levels.unisa.edu.au Subject: SSTO tidbit Newsgroups: sci.space Here's an interesting tidbit on Single Stage to Orbit technology I found in D. F. Robertson, "Teaming for a rocket," Space, vol. 8, no. 5, pp. 20-24, Oct.-Nov. 1992. The article is on the U.S. National Launch System (NLS) and the U.S. Space Transportation Main Engine (STME), but had this to say about SSTO: "...A Congressional source involved in space issues and actively working to kill the National Launch System, who talked to Space under the condition that he not be identified, argued that the NLS is exactly what the US should have been doing a decade or two ago. Today, technology has passed it by. What little money is available for developing launch vehicles should go to the DC-Y Delta Clipper Single Stage Rocket Technology project, which advocates claim will ultimately reduce costs to orbit by `two orders of magnitude'." "...Space pointed out that none of the three NLS contractors believe that Delta Clipper's proposed thrust-to-weight ratio can be achieved with current technology. The source responded: `The engine, they're probably right, but you can trade that off in payload structure. The structure has been demonstrated in the mod-1980s by the Have Region programme.' The source said Have Region was an Air Force project that built the tankage and structure for a representa- tive single-stage-to-orbit design and verified the weight goals. `There is absolutely no doubt that we can build these structures.'" -- Steven S. Pietrobon, Australian Space Centre for Signal Processing Signal Processing Research Institute, University of South Australia The Levels, SA 5095, Australia. steven@spri.levels.unisa.edu.au ------------------------------ Date: 17 Jan 93 13:46:06 CST From: cabanc@wkuvx1.bitnet Subject: teaching star trek Newsgroups: sci.space Hello, currently I am a physics student who hopes to go into teaching. One of the reasons is Star Trek (long story), Any way I am doing research into using Star Trek as a teaching tool for students. Both to get them interested and applications (one high school teacher informed me that the startrek anti-matter was just a bunch of garbage). So If anybody out there has ideas on articles, personal examples, etc. they would be willing to share. I would apreciate it. Candi Cabaniss Western Kentucky University CABANC@WKUvx1.bitnet ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 17 Jan 93 22:08:08 GMT From: Ross Borden Subject: teaching star trek Newsgroups: sci.space Bruce Watson writes: >Contrary to all the movies we've seen, there has never been an elevator >fatality since Otis designed the safety features of the modern elevator >in the late 19th century. Sorry, there was an elvator fatality here in Victoria a few weeks ago. A worker was inside an elevator when something suddenly failed and the car fell 8 stories. The cause has yet to be announced. It was in the papers, and one of my employees attended the funeral. _______________________________________________________________________________ | .sig? I don't need no stinkin' .sig! | | rborden@ra.uvic.ca | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 17 Jan 1993 21:00:34 GMT From: Hans Haubold Subject: UN ACTIVE IN ASTRONOMY MEETING REPORT Newsgroups: sci.space UN ACTIVE IN ASTRONOMY MEETING REPORT The Second United Nations(UN)/European Space Agency(ESA) Workshop on Basic Space Science, with support from The Planetary Society(TPS), was held at the University of Costa Rica, San Jose (Costa Rica), 2 to 7 November 1992, and at the University of the Andes, Bogota (Colombia), 9 to 13 November 1992 The United Nations Office for Outer Space promotes collaboration in space science and technology among industrialized and developing countries. This workshop has been organized as part of the United Nations Programme on Space Applications, observing also the International Space Year(ISY) 1992 as a world-wide initiative of the Committee on Space Research(COSPAR), space agencies and the scientific community to enhance international collaboration in the field of basic space science. The workshop brought together astronomers of 13 countries from Latin America and the Caribbean, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States of America, ESA, NASA, and the UN. The workshop was held over a time period of two weeks in two countries. During the first week in Costa Rica scientific issues in planetary and solar system science were addressed. Cosmology and astronomy space missions were the main topics during the second week of the workshop which took place in Colombia. Specific observations and suggestions to promote the development and participation of Latin American and Caribbean countries in the basic space sciences, were addressed throughout the workshop and have been collected in a set of recommendations which will be presented to the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) for consideration. The objectives of the workshop were achieved through intensive joint discussions after detailed presentations made by all participating astronomers. The workshop was held in the spirit that the continuing quest for fundamental knowledge and transfer of the achieved knowledge into education and public perception, present an important driving force for social, cultural and economic renewal. This can be accomplished in an efficient way through international collaboration at the highest scientific level. Special introductory lectures were given to introduce current prominent problems and challenges in the basic space sciences, of interest and importance not only for the Latin American and Caribbean region, but also for developing countries in general: The ESA lecture (W.Wamsteker) `Archives and their relation to the development of fundamental scientific ideas`, the TPS lecture (C.R.Chapman) `Catastrophic impacts on Earth`, the ISY lecture (R.v.Ammon) `Detection of astrophysical neutrinos`, the Costa Rica lecture (W.Fernandez) `Changes in solar irradiance and atmospheric turbidity in Costa Rica during the total solar eclipse of July 1991`, and the Colombian lecture (S.Torres) `COBE results and their cosmological implications`. Among the distinguished speakers whose support for the workshop was exemplary were W.J.Anderson (Canada), J.Bennett (NASA), C.- G.Faelthammar (Sweden), M.H.Ibanez (Venezuela), A.M.Mathai (Canada), J.Sahade (Argentina), and H.-U.Zimmermann (Germany). Through the initiative of Prof. M.Kitamura (Japan) the Government of Japan has initiated and will continue to support the establishment of national astronomical observatories in developing countries through the provision of suitable equipment such as small astronomical research telescopes with associated equipment. The European Space Agency strives to provide in 1993 a limited number of personal computer systems to research institutes and universities in developing countries where such basic facilities are sometimes not easily accessible. The United Nations Office for Outer Space will in the future continue its responsibility in promoting this series of workshops to stimulate international collaboration in the field of basic space science. After the first workshop held in Asia (India) in 1991 with the support of the Indian Space Research Organization(ISRO) and the second Latin America and the Caribbean held this year, the next workshop is planned for 1993 in Africa. These workshops will continue to bring together active astronomers from developing and industrialized countries, and to seek, with support from space agencies and the international scientific community a strengthening of the growth of basic space science in countries where the techniques and infrastructure to benefit from the progress made in this field have not yet been fully developed. --- Hans J. Haubold, Office for Outer Space, United Nations, New York, NY 10017, USA, HJH2@AIP.BITNET or hjh2@aip.org ------------------------------ Date: 17 Jan 93 17:37:06 GMT From: apryan@vax1.tcd.ie Subject: Znamya: Orbiting mirror. Newsgroups: sci.space In article <30262@castle.ed.ac.uk>, ntc@castle.ed.ac.uk (N T Clifford) writes: > > A report carried in `The Guardian' (Thursday January 14) detailed an upcoming Russian space event. > > Apparently a recent Progress cargo ship (1992-71A?) currently docked (or station keeping) with Mir is due (maybe next month) to unfurl a 65 foot 'space mirror' constructed from aluminium coated plastic film, in an experiment known as `Znamya' (Banner). > > Apparently this is an attempt to extend the daylight hours of the Siberian regions by reflecting sunlight to the required areas. > The information carried on our UK newsline (0891-88-1950) says that the last Progress in Oct'92 carried p an experimental solar sail perhaps this is where the confusion arises? Anyway, Mir will now be crossing UK and Ireland in daylight until it is visible in morning skies in early Feb. (and evening skies from early March) although such a large item could probably be seen during daylight in which case 0891-88-1950 will carry the times to watch. Did the article mention the 0891 number? If not can you let me know the name of the reporter? If you still have it and are not too busy I'd love to see the piece if you could possibly post it to me (I'd reciprocate with a copy of our magazine). Tony Ryan, Hon. Sec., Astronomy Ireland, P.O.Box 2888, Dublin 1, Ireland. newslines: 0891-88-1950 (UK) 1550-111-442 (Eire). ------------------------------ End of Space Digest Volume 16 : Issue 058 ------------------------------