Date: Thu, 18 Feb 93 05:04:16 From: Space Digest maintainer Reply-To: Space-request@isu.isunet.edu Subject: Space Digest V16 #196 To: Space Digest Readers Precedence: bulk Space Digest Thu, 18 Feb 93 Volume 16 : Issue 196 Today's Topics: Antimatter/Atomic Booms for Jettison! A response from Anonymous (4 msgs) Atomic lines in the Heliosphere Book Computers/AI in Shuttle-SSF HELP/QUESTION: remote characterization of rock/soil on Mars Help requested HST repair mission More The future *is* what it used to be Organics on Saturn, Jupiter, Titan PEGASUS QUESTION Pictures of Mars wanted Saturn Life sci.space (2 msgs) sci.space (also Re: A response from Anonymous) SETI and Virtual Reality Sherzer Column? SSTO news Virtual Reality research at NASA (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: Wed, 17 Feb 1993 17:26:32 GMT From: kjenks@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov Subject: Antimatter/Atomic Booms for Jettison! Newsgroups: sci.space Andrew Haveland-Robinson (andy@osea.demon.co.uk) wrote: : In article <1993Feb9.145038.1@fnalf.fnal.gov> higgins@fnalf.fnal.gov (Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey) writes: : >> You would probably want your engines on a long boom anyway, : >> however, because it makes radiation shielding much easier. : >There's an old saying among physicists: "Distance is the cheapest : >shielding." : That's an old saying amongst old physicists! :-) : ~~~ And physicists who are smart enough to live to an old age.... In my Introduction to Nuclear Engineering class, I was taught that there are four ways of limiting exposure to radiation: 1) Increase the distance between yourself and the source 2) Decrease your exposure time 3) Increase your shielding 4) Reduce the intensity of the source If somebody has come up with a new way, please advise. -- Ken Jenks, NASA/JSC/GM2, Space Shuttle Program Office kjenks@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov (713) 483-4368 "...back to the moon, back to the future, and, this time, back to stay." -- George Bush ------------------------------ Date: 17 Feb 93 04:05:13 GMT From: "Mr. Aaron Barnhart" Subject: A response from Anonymous Newsgroups: news.admin.policy,alt.privacy,comp.org.eff.talk,sci.space,sci.astro swaim@owlnet.rice.edu (Michael Parks Swaim) wrote: :In article barnhart@ddsw1.mcs.com (Mr. Aaron Barnhart) writes: :> *And* it needs net citizens who do not boldly :>go where they are not allowed -- that prohibition being in the form of :>a password or similar wall of separation, not a dumb notice that says, :>"Don't peek." : : Call me stupid, but I think that a plainly visible notice that says :"Don't peek" should be enough. (No, I don't think that the SRI notice was :plainly visible.) Well, now, that makes it pretty dumb, doesn't it? A. ------------------------------ Date: 17 Feb 93 04:13:29 GMT From: "Mr. Aaron Barnhart" Subject: A response from Anonymous Newsgroups: news.admin.policy,alt.privacy,comp.org.eff.talk,sci.space,sci.astro jsteiner@anwsun.phya.utoledo.edu (jason 'Think!' steiner) wrote: : :"oh no! i'm being threatened by anonymous email! who will come to my :rescue?!?" : :*dan-ta-da-DAAAA!* : :"Don't worry leetle missy, *I'll* save you! For I am Mr. D-key! D as in Dudley Do-Right, of course. All right, my rhetorical bluff has been called. And I of all people, who positively enjoys tossing the unopened non-personal mail in the garbage before he even makes it upstairs to his room. I am just leery about maintaining the balance between privacy and freedom of expression/information. When I think of anonymous e-mail, I do worry that folx whose agenda is curtailing harassment will wind up curtailing a few of the rights I currently enjoy. Anyway, my point was it's trickier navigating anonymous e-mail issues compared with anonymous ftp (provided you run your site correctly). Aaron ("Mr. Peabody") ------------------------------ Date: 17 Feb 93 04:15:49 GMT From: "Mr. Aaron Barnhart" Subject: A response from Anonymous Newsgroups: news.admin.policy,alt.privacy,comp.org.eff.talk,sci.space,sci.astro vpsoc@cs.UAlberta.CA (Rob Eitzen) wrote: :barnhart@ddsw1.mcs.com (Mr. Aaron Barnhart) writes: : : :>Shift to e-mail, however, and the balance needs to be different, :>since the absence of any kind of trail can lead to tremendous abuse :>by poor net citizens. Real wankers can be tracked down if they use :>ftp; but if anon e-mail were permitted, even that verifiable trail :>would vanish. The beauty about anon ftp, of course, is you don't :>need to use the log, provided you set up everything correctly, and :>your bounty is truly everyone's to share. But who will protect the :>recipients of unwelcome and anonymous e-mail? : :I don't understand why they need protecting. What protection is there :for people from snail mail? If I wanted, I could write a nasty letter :and hand-deliver it to a person's mailbox. There is no protection :against this. I don't see it as being needed. Similarly for E-mail, is :there a need for protection? Perhaps as a compromise measure to keep the censors away from the electronic frontier which, unlike the U.S. postal frontier, is new and scary to a lot of people with a lot of time on their hands. A. ------------------------------ Date: 17 Feb 93 16:34:27 GMT From: peter bachman Subject: A response from Anonymous Newsgroups: news.admin.policy,alt.privacy,comp.org.eff.talk,sci.space,sci.astro OK anon, enough fooling around with the "pushing potion" how about settling down and enjoying a nice hot cup of virtual espresso? Dear readers of the net, anon poses a troublesome questioin of how one can deconstruct an argument that comes from nowhere. The answer is that his words map him(her) to physical spaceand thus communication is possible. Witness the result of exchanging the proper symbols...well Anon, what say ye? PB ------------------------------ Date: 17 Feb 1993 16:17:40 GMT From: "T. Joseph Lazio" Subject: Atomic lines in the Heliosphere Newsgroups: alt.sci.planetary,sci.misc,sci.astro,sci.space I'm interested in finding out about emission or resonance lines from interplanetary gas. Most of the discussion I've seen centers on the He I (59.3 nm) and the H I (121.5 nm, Ly alpha) lines. These have been used, for example, to obtain the velocity of the interstellar gas flowing through the solar system. I'd like to know if anyone has observed other lines, particularly H I (656.3 nm, H alpha). I've checked things like Ann. Rev. Astron. Astrophys., Ann. Rev. Earth and Plan. Sci., a data book from 1977 on the Interplanetary Medium, checked references in some works on the H I and He I lines, and scanned the annual indices for a few JGR: Space Physics. So far, no dice. Anybody have any other ideas? -- T. Joseph Lazio 514 Space Sciences Ithaca, NY 14853-6801 (607) 255-6420 lazio@astrosun.tn.cornell.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Feb 1993 16:59:53 GMT From: kjenks@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov Subject: Book Computers/AI in Shuttle-SSF Newsgroups: sci.space On horribly long lines, and without benefit of a spelling checker, nsmca@acad3.alaska.edu wrote: : Hum. Power why not have the Boo Computer when it was out of the Shuttle : have a small solar power cell (properly protected). And when you're working in shadow? : Glare. Hum. Mayeb have a display unit inthe helmet of the suit, that : the book can plug into it.. Maybe have a place to attached the book : computer into on the suit back pack. Make the book able to understand : the voice (I know in the future). We were investigating all of these when we ran out of funding for the project, even voice control. We had that one working in the lab, but the suit microphones and other factors distort the voice a bit. We've flown a couple of voice control experiments. One had problems recognizing an astronaut's voice from its pre-flight example because zero-G physiological effects (fluid shift, stretching, etc.) had actually changed his vocal patterns. (The same effects make you sound funny if you have a cold.) : Disk Drive? Why have a drive at all.. maybe a RAM Drive or have a set : channel that the book sends its info to and fro the shuttle.. Why have : a disk drive as long as you are close the the shuttle. Have a RAM : driver and have a auto dump feature (where the RAM Drive would dump its : memory to the Shuttle, to clear out the memory and to save what needs : to be saved). We need to put several megabytes of data into the machine. A few years ago, "several megabytes" consumed too much power and space for this particular application. Now, of course, RAM technology has improved to the point where this would be possible, but high density RAM chips have problems with the ionizing radiation we encounter outside the crew compartment. That "download from the Orbiter" technique requires a fast comm channel which doesn't currently exist. : Why radio? maybe a laser (lower power) when the down load happens.. Lasers are limited to line of sight, but radio signals go through and around obstructions like suits and human bodies. Our safety guys get all worried about laser light blinding astronauts. (I could tell stories about the problems getting an optical mouse flown inside the crew compartment. The safety gang went a little bonkers about the brightness of the LED inside the mouse.) : The main CPU might be in the backpack, but the "screen" and "I/O : device" would be inthe helmet.. And the downloading device would be on : top of the helmet(?). : : HEads up display might be voice controlled or on ?? Again, these are options we had actually tested in hardware before funding ran out. Right now, we don't have the bucks for these "bells and whistles." The argument goes like this: Paper checklists have been good enough for every EVA performed so far. Why do we need an EVA book computer now? If the Space Station Freedom Program needs it, let THEM pay for it. I don't agree with that, but that's how it's going right now. If you are really, really interested, you might do some work as a Master's thesis or Doctoral dissertation. There is room for volunteer work, but it's currently very hard to volunteer for this stuff. -- Ken Jenks, NASA/JSC/GM2, Space Shuttle Program Office kjenks@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov (713) 483-4368 "We want to abolish the 'not invented here' syndrome which breeds insularity and fails to seize the good ideas within and outside of NASA." -- Daniel S. Goldin, NASA Administrator ------------------------------ Date: 17 Feb 93 18:03:37 GMT From: Matthew E Jorat Subject: HELP/QUESTION: remote characterization of rock/soil on Mars Newsgroups: sci.space I am a graduate student in engineering. Currently, I am working on a project that requires characterization of various materials by using remotely operated equipment. Some years ago, a space craft (the name of the craft escapes me) landed on Mars, and took samples of rocks and soil on the surface of the planet. As far as I know, the samples were analyzed remotely (on the surface of Mars). My question is how was such analysis performed? What type of chemical/physical processes would be able to identify characteristics of soil and rocks (or anything else for that matter) remotely? For instance, how did the scientists on earth determine whether the soil was organic or inorganic? How did they determine the composition of rocks (which elements were the rocks composed of)? If you can help me, please contact me via E-Mail. I appreciate any assistance in advance. MJ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Feb 1993 10:47:14 GMT From: /G=Rhodri/S=James/O=SJ-Research/ADMD=INTERSPAN/C=GB/@mhs-relay.ac.uk Subject: Help requested Newsgroups: sci.space Does anyone know how to get in touch with Helen Sharman? I am asking on behalf of Sou'Wester, the 1993 UK Eastercon. Please reply by EMail because I do not get this newsgroup fed to me. Thanks in advance, Rhodri James -- Rhodri.James%sj.interspan.gb@mhs-relay.ac.uk or RMJ10@phx.cam.ac.uk ------------------------------ Date: 17 Feb 1993 07:39:05 -0500 From: Pat Subject: HST repair mission Newsgroups: sci.space In article <1993Feb14.142749.2901@ke4zv.uucp> gary@ke4zv.UUCP (Gary Coffman) writes: >half smiley, look up GE's TIMs program.) As to software, I don't know >which instrument is responsible for fine pointing, but if it is one >that is left off of Jr, then some redesign is definitely required. > Guidance comes from thhe Fine guidance system. A series of three banana shaped ccd, which tap light off the WF/PC? My understanding is the FGS is considered almost a separate science instrument on it's own. ------------------------------ Date: 16 Feb 93 19:47:00 GMT From: Bruce Watson Subject: More The future *is* what it used to be Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.aeronautics From _Satellite_, Bergaust and Beller, 1956, p. 31 "Professor P. E. Sandorff of Massachusetts Insitute of Technology, five weeks prior to President Eisenhower's announcement of the Vanguard project, offered interesting details of what he termed the airplane-launching method. Sandorff considers the possibility of launching a satellite vehicle with a 500-pound payload from an aircraft (such as the B-52) at 9.5 miles' altitude. In this way, by lifting the vehicle through much of the atmosphere and adding the aircraft's speed to the vehicle, a satellite could be launched with a lower weight and cost than would be the case for a ground-launched vehicle." Another tribute to the staying power of the B-52. -- Bruce Watson (wats@scicom.alphaCDC.COM) Bulletin 629-49 Item 6700 Extract 75,131 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Feb 93 18:43:42 EST From: Tom <18084TM@msu.edu> Subject: Organics on Saturn, Jupiter, Titan Peter T. sez: >>Correct me if I'm wrong but if I remember correctly, Voyager 2 >>detected organic molecules in Saturn's upper atmosphere or >>in one of it's rings, and I concluded that thats what this is all >>about. Ron Baalke responds: >No life has been detected on Saturn, nor anywhere else in the solar system >outside of Earth. Organic molecules were detected by Voyager in the >atmosphere of Titan, the largest moon around Saturn. ... Doesn't Jupiter also have organics floating around in it's atmosphere, mostly methane, which cause all the reddish/brown coloring? Guess we'll have to wait for Galileo to know what and how much. -Tommy Mac ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tom McWilliams | 517-355-2178 (work) \\ Inhale to the Chief! 18084tm@ibm.cl.msu.edu | 336-9591 (hm)\\ Zonker Harris in 1996! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Feb 1993 17:39:16 GMT From: kjenks@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov Subject: PEGASUS QUESTION Newsgroups: sci.space Lawrence Curcio (lc2b+@andrew.cmu.edu) wrote: : [...] while taking advantage of at least some of airplane's velocity. Although pointing the vehicle in the right direction helps somewhat, adding a couple of hundred kph doesn't really do you that much good. The airplane's velocity is not a sizeable fraction of orbital velocity. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Feb 1993 21:47:22 GMT From: Ed McCreary Subject: Pictures of Mars wanted Newsgroups: sci.space >>>>> On Sun, 14 Feb 1993 17:40:57 GMT, chenina@rhrk.uni-kl.de (Robert Chenina [Chemie]) said: RC[> Hello Earth! RC[> I'm looking for some pictures from the Viking mission. The pictures RC[> are details obout the region called _Cydonia Mensae_ (approx. 40.9N, RC[> 9.45W) and referenced as: RC[> 35A72, 70A13, 673B56, 753A33. 35A72 and 70A13 can be found at: cs.ubc.ca under pub/local/image/mars phoenix.oulu.fi under pub/ufo_and_space_pics I've not seen the other two specifically listed at any ftp site. It's possible that there are on the raw Viking CDROMs, but I doubt it. It's also possible that these two are part of a mosaic found on the MDIM set. I'll check both of these tonight and post a followup. -- Ed McCreary ,__o edm@gocart.eng.hou.compaq.com _-\_<, "If it were not for laughter, there would be no Tao." (*)/'(*) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Feb 1993 01:59:51 GMT From: Enzo Liguori Subject: Saturn Life Newsgroups: sci.space Peter T. writes: >Recently a friend of mine asked me if I know anything about >life on Saturn {no not interdimensional garb}. Apparently a >friend of a friend of ....... , said something about life being >found on Saturn and heard it on the local news. > >Correct me if I'm wrong but if I remember correctly, Voyager 2 >detected organic molecules in Saturn's upper atmosphere or >in one of it's rings, and I concluded that thats what this is all >about. >Does anyone know otherwise? The idea of life in the atmosphere of the gas giants is rather old and not completely absurd. After all (if I well remember temperature-altitude profiles of Jupter atmosphere) the ambient temperature when the pressure reachs 1-2 bars should be in the range 0-100 degrees Celsius and therefore compatible with the existence of pretty complex organic compounds. The composition of such atmosphere, although different from the one of the Earth, is similar to the one used by Miller in its famous experiment which generated from ordinary gases like hydrogen, ammonia, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, with the only help of UV light and electric spikes, aminoacids. Infacts many organic compounds have been detected in the gas giants and they are even believed to give the characteristic colour to the Jupter clouds (I don't know which compounds, though). This, in principle, but the thing is pretty controversial, could lead to the appearence of self replicating molecules. From there the steps to life forms as we know them are easier to imagine (have a look at - The Blind Watchmaker - R. Dawskin - Penguin). Unfortunately all these nice dreams can be easly shattered if you think that the gas giants atmospheres are very turbolent, with a lot of termoconvettive motion from the deep hot to the cold surface and viceversa. It's thus very unlikely that many complex organic compound could survive to such exercise. On the other hand gas giants have been there for a very long time and are also very large. Lots of time and space are believed to be important factors to the rise of self replicating molecules. Who knows. >Cheers >Peter T. Enzo -- Vincenzo Liguori | enzo@research.canon.oz.au Canon Information Systems Research Australia | Phone +61 2 805 2983 PO Box 313 NORTH RYDE NSW 2113 | Fax +61 2 805 2929 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Feb 1993 13:22:12 GMT From: "Nic Percival (x5336" Subject: sci.space Newsgroups: sci.space I thought this newsgroup was about science or space. Apparently its about netiquette. -- Nic Percival | | Micro Focus | "Anything is good and useful | nmp@mfltd.co.uk Newbury | if it's made of chocolate.." | (0635) 32646 Ext 5336 Berks, RG13 1JT | | ------------------------------ Date: 17 Feb 93 17:15:35 GMT From: Henry Spencer Subject: sci.space Newsgroups: sci.space In article <1993Feb17.132212.5708@mfltd.co.uk> nmp@mfltd.co.uk writes: >I thought this newsgroup was about science or space. Apparently its >about netiquette. Pointless flame wars about netiquette erupt occasionally in almost all unmoderated groups. If you don't like it and want it to go away, the right thing to do -- apart from possibly adding suitable items to your kill file, if your newsreader supports one -- is to grit your teeth and IGNORE IT. It will die quickly if everyone just shuts up about it. (It's not as if arguing is going to accomplish anything anyway.) -- C++ is the best example of second-system| Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology effect since OS/360. | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry ------------------------------ Date: 17 Feb 93 06:55:16 GMT From: Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey Subject: sci.space (also Re: A response from Anonymous) Newsgroups: sci.space In article , henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes: > In article <1993Feb17.132212.5708@mfltd.co.uk> nmp@mfltd.co.uk writes: >>I thought this newsgroup was about science or space. Apparently its >>about netiquette. > > If you don't like it and want it to go away, > the right thing to do -- apart from possibly adding suitable items to > your kill file, if your newsreader supports one -- is to grit your > teeth and IGNORE IT. It will die quickly if everyone just shuts up > about it. Henry is right, of course, but I'd like to mention one thing that may have eluded some readers on sci.space, Nic Percival and Jason Cooper among them. The thread "Subject: Re: A response from Anonymous" is cross-posted to five newsgroups. >Newsgroups: news.admin.policy,alt.privacy,comp.org.eff.talk,sci.space,sci.astro In some of these newsgroups, endless discussion about the merits of anonymous posting is entirely appropriate. But people who are posting followups in those groups are probably not aware that the space people and the astronomy people are getting annoyed at slogging through the thread. If people removed the sci.* groups from the followup list, the world would be a better place. On a few occasions when I had a lot of time on my hands, I sent a polite message to every person posting to inapproriate groups in a thread and pointed out the fact. They were always very nice about acknowledging the mistake and fixing it. I don't have time for this now but possibly someone else wants to try it. Bill Higgins, Beam Jockey | "Treat your password like Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory | your toothbrush. Don't let Bitnet: HIGGINS@FNAL.BITNET | anybody else use it-- Internet: HIGGINS@FNAL.FNAL.GOV | and get a new one every SPAN/Hepnet: 43011::HIGGINS | six months." --Cliff Stoll ------------------------------ Date: 17 Feb 1993 17:49:44 GMT From: Tim Thompson Subject: SETI and Virtual Reality Newsgroups: sci.space In response to an earlier query, I am quite confident that the NASA SETI program has nothing to do with virtual reality. Remember, communication with any possible aliens is definitely NOT part of the NASA SETI project. It is strictly a radio search for extraterrestrial signals of an intelligent nature. Detection of such a signal is the project's sole purpose, responding to any such signal has never been considered as part of the NASA SETI project. Of course, I suspect that if such a signal is detected, someone will become interested in the communication aspects. --- ALL OPINIONS EXPRESSED ARE MINE ALONE. BELIEVE THEM AT YOUR OWN RISK. I AM NOT AN OFFICIAL OR UNOFFICIAL SPOKESMAN FOR THE SETI/HRMS PROJECT. ------------------------------------------------------------ Timothy J. Thompson, Earth and Space Sciences Division, JPL. Assistant Administrator, Division Science Computing Network. Secretary, Los Angeles Astronomical Society. Member, BOD, Mount Wilson Observatory Association. INTERnet/BITnet: tjt@scn1.jpl.nasa.gov NSI/DECnet: jplsc8::tim SCREAMnet: YO!! TIM!! GPSnet: 118:10:22.85 W by 34:11:58.27 N ------------------------------ Date: 17 Feb 93 14:25:09 GMT From: "Allen W. Sherzer" Subject: Sherzer Column? Newsgroups: sci.space In article <1993Feb15.133454.21974@cs.ucf.edu> clarke@acme.ucf.edu (Thomas Clarke) writes: >Is your column syndicated? Where does it appear? >I think I would like to read it! The column appears in most of the NSS chapter newsletters. I also post it to talk.politics.space and the NSS BBS system. From there it wanders into a number of other newtowks and BBSs. The column is written with Tim Kyger who is the space staffer for Rep. Dana Rohrabacker (R-CA). Allen -- +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Allen W. Sherzer | "A great man is one who does nothing but leaves | | aws@iti.org | nothing undone" | +----------------------118 DAYS TO FIRST FLIGHT OF DCX----------------------+ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Feb 1993 16:13:58 GMT From: Ed McCreary Subject: SSTO news Newsgroups: sci.space >>>>> On Sun, 14 Feb 1993 22:53:00 GMT, rhealey@rogue.digibd.com (Rob Healey) said: RH> In article , pgf@srl03.cacs.usl.edu (Phil G. Fraering) writes: RH> |> goods. If you want US manufacturing to stay alive, buy something else. RH> |> Like an Amiga. Or an Atari. While you can. It's too goddamn late for RH> |> you to stop acting retarded and buy a NeXT. RH> Commodore stopped producing Amiga's in the US last year. Their RH> main facilitys are in Hong Kong, Germany and Scotland(?). I RH> don't think Atari's are made in the US either. I believe Apple's RH> are the only US made computer on the micro market and they RH> spend alot of their money in litigation over look and feel; sigh... Aren't you forgetting someone?!? (hint, hint, look at my address). -- Ed McCreary ,__o edm@gocart.eng.hou.compaq.com _-\_<, "If it were not for laughter, there would be no Tao." (*)/'(*) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Feb 93 09:53:09 GMT From: Ata Etemadi Subject: Virtual Reality research at NASA Newsgroups: sci.space G'Day I have heard that at NASA there is ongoing research into VR. Anyone have any more information about what NASA or ESA are doing in this area ? While on the subject, does anyone know if SETI are using VR ? I would have thought this is one way to _be_ an alien, and hence establish possible communication protocols. regards Ata <(|)>. -- | Mail Dr Ata Etemadi, Blackett Laboratory, | | Space and Atmospheric Physics Group, | | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine, | | Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2BZ, ENGLAND | | Internet/Arpanet/Earn/Bitnet atae@spva.ph.ic.ac.uk or ata@c.mssl.ucl.ac.uk | | Span SPVA::atae or MSSLC:atae | ------------------------------ Date: 17 Feb 93 14:53:47 GMT From: Richard Ottolini Subject: Virtual Reality research at NASA Newsgroups: sci.space In article <1993Feb17.095309.18657@cc.ic.ac.uk> atae@prawn.ph.ic (Ata Etemadi) writes: >G'Day > >I have heard that at NASA there is ongoing research into VR. Anyone have >any more information about what NASA or ESA are doing in this area ? While >on the subject, does anyone know if SETI are using VR ? I would have thought >this is one way to _be_ an alien, and hence establish possible communication >protocols. As an aside, NASA pretty much invented the subject at its Ames Lab in Mountain View. In the early 1980s they applied flight simulator technology to other uses such as remote operation of planetary robots, immersive space station simulation, and so on. At that time the technology was incrediably expensive requiring a couple of dedicated minicomputers and top-of-the-line graphics terminals. Other Silicon Valley companies, most notibly VPL, commercialized the technology and brought costs down. VPL also coined the current term of virtual reality. ------------------------------ End of Space Digest Volume 16 : Issue 196 ------------------------------