Date: Sat, 6 Mar 93 05:05:11 From: Space Digest maintainer Reply-To: Space-request@isu.isunet.edu Subject: Space Digest V16 #278 To: Space Digest Readers Precedence: bulk Space Digest Sat, 6 Mar 93 Volume 16 : Issue 278 Today's Topics: Fire in the Sky Hot Bubble , Geminga, and Intersellar Travel Low Earth Orbit in a Mars Blimp? NASP (was Re: Canadian SS Shuttle budget Solar Panels Falling Off Space Scientist Stupid Fred Question WARNING!!!!! Wireless Power notes (1 of 3) 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, 05 Mar 93 11:51:33 MET From: PHARABOD@FRCPN11.IN2P3.FR Subject: Fire in the Sky On 3 Mar 93 06:09:08 GMT Michael Corbin wrote: >On March 12th, your perception of reality will be substantially >changed. > [stuff deleted] > >On March 12th, Paramount Pictures and Joe Wizan/Todd Black >Productions will present "Fire in the Sky," a true story based >on the Travis Walton experience, whose abduction by a UFO is one >of the best-documented cases in history. > > [stuff deleted] That was a hoax. The following has been posted by Robert Sheaffer (SKEPTIC list): Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1993 18:17:06 -0800 From: Robert Sheaffer Subject: The Selling of the Walton "UFO Abduction" X-To: skeptic%yorkvm1.bitnet@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU To: "J. Pharabod" The Selling of the Travis Walton "Abduction" Story: Some Background Information Robert Sheaffer P.O. Box 10441 San Jose, CA 95157 USA March 4, 1993 Australian newspaperman Jeff Wells was a member of the National Enquirer team that "packaged" the Travis Walton abduction story for publication. Walton's story is now the subject of a major motion picture from Paramount, "Fire in the Sky." Wells is one of seven authors of the National Enquirer story "Arizona Man Captured by UFO" published Dec. 16, 1975. Upon his return to Australia, Wells wrote up this insiders' view of the sordid goings-on for his newspaper column, the identities of the participants only thinly disguised. "The kid" is obviously Travis Walton. "The cowboy" is his brother, Duane Walton. "The professor" is Dr. James Harder of Berkeley, at that time a leading figure in APRO, the now-defunct Aerial Phenomena Research Organization, and still a prominent "abductionist." The polygraph examiner is John J. McCarthy, the senior polygraph operator in the state of Arizona. This story was reprinted in the _Skeptical Inquirer_, Vol. 5 Nr. 4 (Summer, 1981), pp. 47-52. "Profitable Nightmare of a Very Unreal Kind" by Jeff Wells (from _The Age_, Melbourne, Australia, 6 January 1979) caption in photo box: "JEFF WELLS recalls his dealings with a pathetic kid whose dream never quite got off the ground." The characters in this UFO story are real even if they appear more like the inventions of a Hollywood hack. A haunted young man, a ruthless cowboy, a strange professor, a hard-drinking psychiatrist, a bunch of reporters and a beautiful girl. All were thrown together in the desert heat by a close encounter of the third kind and maybe they did contribute to some Hollywood thinking. I was there and I can vouch for the motley human cast - but you will have to make up your own mind about the extra-terrestrials with fishbowl heads. Some of the characters are still growing fat repeating their version of the story in the seemingly limitless American market for the bizarre. The so-called facts, the carefully-woven tapersry that has become the "official story" can now be counted as UFO lore, pablum for those who turn their heads to the sky in search of meaning for their lives. I will never get rich on my version and I only tell it because of the UFO madness the papers tell me is sweeping this part of the world. The UFO phenomenon is really rolling here, as it has rolled for many years, and snowballed into juggernaut proportions in other countries where it is very big business. The stronger it gets here the closer the attention that will be paid to so-called classic cases of UFO encounters. You may recognize elements of this story among them. If so, you will realise that my story is a warning that in such cases, even the most celebrated and supposedly well-documented, there is nothing so pragmatic as proof. This incident happened a few years ago and made world headlines. I was working in San Francisco as a bureau man for a national weekly which has grown rich and powerful in catering to the middle-class craving for cancer-cures, Jackie Onassis, Hollywood gossip, psychic predictions, and like ingredients of the crumbling cake that is the American mind. It was naturally a matter of interest that a 22-year-old forestry worker was missing and that six witnesses had passed lie detector tests in saying that he had last been seen running towards a huge UFO. My paper had offered tens of thousands of dollars to anybody who could positively prove that aliens had visited our planet - in the knowledge that exclusive rights could be worth millions. When, five days later, the young man we came to call "the kid" stumbled into a small western town, phoned his brother and claimed he had been kidnapped by the crew of an alien spacecraft we were ready. Within an hour I was on a plane to rendezvous in a desert city with a team of reporters and photographers flying in from Los Angelesand the East Coast. At the desert airport I bumped into one of them, a dapper young Englishman from the L.A. bureau, who briefed me. One reporter was at the cowboy's home talking money; the kid was inside in a state of shock. The office was wiring $1000 to help east the kid's discomfort and a celebrated UFOlogist, a California professor, was being flown in, all expenses paid, to lend a hand. Our immediate task was to bribe the brother with the thousand to shack up with us in a luxury motel on the outskirts of town, no names registered, where the rest of Press who were about to descend and the sheriff, who was calling the whole thing a hoax and demanding that the kid take a lie-detector test, would not bother them. "It isn't going to be easy," said the Englishman as we pocketed our credit cards and headed for our rented Pontiacs. "The brother has taken charge and the brother is some kind of psychopath. The kid is scared to death of him and so is our reporter." The cowboy was no disappointment. He was one of the meanest and toughest-looking men I've ever seen - in his late twenties, a rodeo professional and amateur light-heavyweight fighter, a total abstainer, broad-shouldered, T-shirt packed with muscle, chiselled-down hips, bow legged, eyes full of nails, tense, unpredictable. He leaned against a pick-up truck with a gun rack in the cabin and raked us with beams of cunning and hatred as strong as the flash from the spacecraft that had pole-axed his brother as the witnesses fled in terror. "Nobody is going to laugh at my brother," he said. Nobody wanted to laugh at his brother, we said. We only wanted give his brother a chance to tell his story to somebody who would understand. To prove our bona fides, and to keep away all those other jackals of the press, who would embarrass the kid with foolish questions, we would hide them away and pay the kid a grand to tell his story. If we liked the story, and it could be properly documented, and the kid could pass our lie-detector test, we would open up our cheque books all the way and start talking in five figures. To our relief the cowboy agreed - but not, he said, because of the money, because his brother had a true story to tell which would enlighten the world. Our first sight of the kid was at dinner in the hotel diningroom that night. It was a shock. He sat there mute, pale, twitching like a cornered animal. He was either a brilliant actor or he was in serious funk about something. But the arrival of the professor saved the day. He was as smooth as butter and he soon had the kid eating out of his hand. "You are not alone," he crooned. "There are many people, more than you would think, who have been chosen to meet them." Them? I began to wonder about the professor. The cowboy was so impressed he began to talk about his own UFO experience when he had been chased by a flying saucer through the woods as a child. Within a couple of hours the professor had talked the brothers out of taking the sheriff's polygraph test and into an hypnosis session in his room immediately. It looked as if things were going smoothly enough, with no hint that we were faced with four days of chaos. The next day the office announced that the whole story was to be filmed by a crew from the top-rating CBS muckraker TV show _60 Minutes_. We were to be on guard because CBS was out to shaft us, my editor warned. We were to present a bold front for good footage of dedicated reporters sparing no expense to bring the public the true story of one of the most amazing incidents in recorded history. The kid's fantastic story had been coming out under hypnosis but the brothers had become very conspiratorial with the professor and would speak only to him. [1] The professor seemed to have his own future on the lecture circuit and the paperback bookstands very much in mind and we didn't trust him. So we taped everything and had the CBS crew film the kid's story given under hypnosis. It was a tale of little men with heads like fishbowls and skin like mushrooms. But suddenly the strain began to tell on the kid and he lapsed into sobbing bouts. He was falling apart and so was his story. It necessitated flying in a husband-and-wife team of psychiatrists from Colorado to tranquilize the kid and keep the cowboy from exploding. The kid was a wreck and it was all the psychiatrist could do to get him ready for the lie-detector expert we had lined up. The test lasted an hour and I was in the next room fending off the TV crew when I heard the cowboy scream: "I'll kill the sonofabitch!" The kid had failed the test miserably. The polygraph man said it was the plainest case of lying he'd seen in 20 years but the office was yelling for another expert and a different result [2]. To head that off we had the psychiatrist put the cowboy and the kid through a long session of analysis. Their methods were unique. The next day the four of them disappeared into a room and soon a waiter was headed there with two bottles of cognac. At the end of it the psychiatrists were rolling drunk but they had their story and the brothers were crestfallen. It seemed that the kid's father, who had deserted them as a child, had been a spaceship fanatic and all his life the kid had wanted to ride in a spacecraft. He had seen something out there in the woods, some kind of an eerie light which had triggered a powerful hallucination which might recur at any time. There was no question of any kidnap by any mushroom men. The kid needed medical help and the cowboy swore he would shield him from further harassment. Reports began to filter in that the witnesses' lie detector tests were not much help either - they supported the story that they had all seen the strange light but not that the strange light was identifiable as a spaceship. The CBS crew had left in disgust and I sat down to detail everything that had happened in a 16-page memorandum designed to kill the story. It was all over. I paid the $2000 hotel bill - including a mammoth bar tab to which the psychiatrists had contributed nobly - for the five days and we all scattered to the airport. It had been a lunatic experience from beginning to end, made more disturbing by the fact that on several occasions, with coaxings from the professor, I had almost believed that the story was real. As I drove to the airport I was never so glad to be leaving a city and to this day the whole experience there remains in my memory as some kind of nightmare. As I neared the airport I switched on the car radio and heard familiar voices - the kid, the cowboy, and the professor giving an interview about the kid's shatteing experience on board a flying saucer. A few weeks later I picked up the paper I worked for and found that with the help of the professor it had turned my memorandum into a sensational front-page story. The professor was calling me up demanding tapes for his lectures and the kid was signing contracts for books and TV documentaries. And so another UFO hero was made. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "Ground Saucer Watch" Memo on the Walton Incident: Conclusions (undated: probably December, 1975) "Ground Saucer Watch," a pro-UFO organization, was the very first UFO organization on the scene. In cooperation with Dr. J. Allen Hynek of CUFOS, Dr. Lester Stewart of GSW began to interview the Walton family while Travis was still "missing." They immediately smelled a hoax. These are their conclusions, without any changes - RS. 1. Walton never boarded the UFO. This fact is supported by the six witnesses and the polygraph test results. [3] 2. The entire Walton family has had a continual UFO history. The Walton boys have reported observing 10 to 15 separate UFO sightings (very high). 3. When Duane was questioned about his brother's disappearance, he stated that "Travis will be found, that UFO's are friendly." GSW countered, "How do you know Travis will be found?" Duane said "I have a feeling, a strong feeling." GSW asked "If the UFO 'captors' are going to return Travis, will you have a camera to record this great occurrence?" Duane, "No, if I have a camera 'they' will not return." 4. The Walton's mother showed no outward emotion over the 'loss' of Travis. She said that UFO's will not harm her son, he will be returned and that UFO's have been seen by her family many times. 5. The Walton's refused any outside scientific help or anyone who logically doubted the abduction portion of the story. 6. The media and GSW was fair to the witnesses. However, when the story started to 'fall apart' the Waltons would only talk to people who did not doubt the abduction story. 7. APRO became involved and criticized both GSW and Dr. Hynek for taking a negative position on the encounter. 8. The Waltons 'sold' their story to the National Enquirer and the story was completely twisted from the truth. RS NOTES: 1. In other words, James Harder was using hypnosis to lead Travis Walton into "remembering" a proper UFO abduction story. UFOlogists cite the apparent consistencies of these stories as proof that they are supposedly authentic! But here we glimpse the real reason behind the apparent similarities. 2. The very existence of this polygraph session with John J. McCarthy was kept secret by the National Enquirer and by APRO, with McCarthy ordered never to speak about it. The cover-up was revealed by Philip J. Klass in June, 1976. The details of the Walton hoax, and its associated cover-up, can be found in chapters 18-23 of Klass' book _UFOs The Public Deceived_ (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1983). 3. Apparently GSW thought that in order to have a "genuine" UFO abduction, the UFO would have to land, and pick up its passenger. Robert Sheaffer - Scepticus Maximus - sheaffer@netcom.com (end of Sheaffer's posting) J. Pharabod ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1993 21:20:40 GMT From: Paul Dietz Subject: Hot Bubble , Geminga, and Intersellar Travel Newsgroups: sci.space In article stephens@geod.emr.ca (Dave Stephenson) writes: > The recent discovery of a pulsar, supernova reminant at the same location > of the Geminga Gamma ray source raises an interesting SETI question. > The Supernova coused a hot bubble of low density gass in our neighourhood. > Fermi's Paradox "Where is every one" supposes that if interstellar travel > is a physical possibility, there has been plenty of time for a more > advacne race to reach this earth from elsewhere in the galaxy. If > Interstellar travel depends on a supply of interstellar hydrogen on route > the Earth is presently nicely placed to be off the trade routes. Right > in the middle of an interstellar desert in fact. So untill our local > bubble fills in we are on our own! Any thoughts? So, why didn't they get here 500,000 years ago, before the SN? Or 5 million, or 50 million, or 500 million? The galaxy is much older than that; it would be quite a coincidence if they were to get to earth so close to the time that technological civilization started here. Paul F. Dietz dietz@cs.rochester.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1993 20:48:29 GMT From: Josh Hopkins Subject: Low Earth Orbit in a Mars Blimp? Newsgroups: sci.space gary@ke4zv.uucp (Gary Coffman) writes: >henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes: >>The central problem of attaining orbit is velocity, not altitude. Balloons >>can't operate to anywhere near orbital altitude, although they can be a >>useful first step: there have been balloon-launched sounding rockets. >>But the velocity gap is even larger. You don't see many Mach 1 blimps, >>much less Mach 25 blimps. >I said roughly the same thing Henry, but now I'm wondering. Is a supersonic >blimp possible? Might be an interesting civil transport design, a VTOL SST. I'd have serious qualms with a supersonic blimp. I could, however, imagine a supersonic rigid airship. The drag would be rather high, but I think it could work structurally. There have been proposals that look like the Goodyear blimp gave birth to a C-5's children. Reasonably high speed airships should be possible. However, it would probably be very challenging to build a hypersonic airship due to heating problems. -- Josh Hopkins jbh55289@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu You only live once. But if you live it right, once is enough. In memoria, WDH ------------------------------ Date: 4 Mar 93 18:04:56 GMT From: CLAUDIO OLIVEIRA EGALON Subject: NASP (was Re: Canadian SS Newsgroups: sci.space Is NASP really dead??? I know that it had its budget cut but not terminated! I also remember an article in Space News about NASP. I do not remember the details but it said something that they either had to postpone the first flight or decided to go along with a smaller prototype. Could anyone in the NET clarify that??? C.O.Egalon@larc.nasa.gov ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 05 Mar 93 10:13:09 EST From: Tom <18084TM@msu.edu> Subject: Shuttle budget Pat sez: >>NASA has a 13-14 billion dollar budget. THey could fund any program >>ona multi-year basis. They just odn't choose to. They want to waste >>money. it justifies jobs better. Gary replies: >>If only this were true. Congress has a standing policy of not approving >>multi-year budgets. They refuse to obligate future Congresses to specific >>expenditures. NASA does not have the legal power to do this on their own. >>They must, by law, either spend their appropriation within the fiscal >>year or return the money to the Treasury. (Actually they never draw it >>in the first place, but that's the language of the appropriations bills.) >>This has had major impacts on all long term NASA programs because year >>to year funding has been a political football. On occasion, Congress >>has granted NASA some discretionary money, but funds for major programs >>are detailed in authorization bills and can't legally be diverted to >>other projects. This sounds to me like only one more reason why NASA should be reaplced by some kind of private system, which has to answer only to it's contributors or stockholders, rather than Congress. -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: 5 Mar 1993 10:08:36 GMT From: George William Herbert Subject: Solar Panels Falling Off Newsgroups: sci.space dbm0000@tm0006.lerc.nasa.gov (David B. Mckissock) writes: >You heard wrong. >1. MDAC is not building the solar panels, that is a WP-4 job I didn't say they were building them. I know, in fact, that they are not, and have known so since before I started dealing with my MacDac sources. It was my impression that the MacDac group working on panel loading was part of the WP-2 funding even if the work was technically associated with the solar arrays package. Please, if someone has the detailed WP breakdowns and can clarify this, let me (us) know... >2. Yes, the Loads & Dynamics Working Group has calculated >loads for certain Orbiter approach scenarios where the >plume load on the array exceeds the array mast >capability (so the array would break off). The scenario >is if the Orbiter has do perform a breakout maneuver, >because they get outside the approach corridor, then >the calculated loads are too high. The program is >looking at many options to solve the problem, >[...] >Also, some folks question the >validity of the calculated loads - the computer code >used to calculate the plume loads is unverified. > Finally, NASA could always install an auto-pilot >on the Shuttle, to automate the docking procedure, >and this whole issue would become moot. > One last point - the calculated Orbiter plume loads >only exceed the array mast capability on the early >flights, where the Orbiter is berthing in relatively >close proximity to the array. After more truss is >added to SSF on later flights, the array's are further >from the plumes, and the calculated load is within >the mast capability. I cannot post further information from what I know about the WP problems without burning sources. Suffice it to say that while the information you have given here is in no way indicated false by any source I have seen or heard, it also does not contradict what my sources said. I have specific information about management's impact on simulation and calculation methodologies from a totally nontechnical standpoint which makes all the technical results extremely QUestionable. If you'd like to provide detailed information to me to try and convince me otherwise, feel free: I have an open mind. But so far I have seen nothing that indicates I was being jerked around by sources. -george william herbert ------------------------------ Date: 4 Mar 93 17:59:27 GMT From: CLAUDIO OLIVEIRA EGALON Subject: Space Scientist Newsgroups: sci.space Let us not discourage people who want a job with NASA. Although there is really a hiring freeze at NASA, I know many NASA employees who were hired recently (and they do not even have a graduate degree!!!). I have the feeling that hiring freeze means that NASA does not contract ADDITIONAL personnel however, if someone vacates his/her position, NASA can INDEED contract someone else to fill a vacant position. From my experience the people that have been hired, at least here are, in general, members of the minorities, i.e., women, American Hispanic etc... Of course, you have a better change to be hired by a NASA contractor and if you want to increase your chances and do not have a graduate degree, consider making your Graduate thesis with a NASA employee. C.O.Egalon@larc.nasa.gov ------------------------------ Date: 4 Mar 93 17:41:56 GMT From: CLAUDIO OLIVEIRA EGALON Subject: Stupid Fred Question Newsgroups: sci.space According to the booklet Spacelab J (for Japanese), published by NASA, NASDA stands for NAtional Space Development Agency of Japan. Apparently, there is no Aeroespace in the acronym as well as Nippon. I did not cross-check with other publications, but I am pretty confident that is the way it stands for. C.O.Egalon@larc.nasa.gov ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 3 Mar 93 20:25:33 EST From: digests (Email Digest Server) Subject: WARNING!!!!! Yo, The following message was sent to the space Digest. It appears to have come from a postmaster. To avoid any possible alias loop, it has been forwarded to you. Please take any steps necessary to attend to this message, including forwarding it back to the list under your name if necessary. Thank you. Virtually yours, Incoming Mail Daemon >From isu@VACATION.VENARI.CS.CMU.EDU Wed Mar 3 20:25:24 1993 Received: from VACATION.VENARI.CS.CMU.EDU by isu.isunet.edu (5.64/A/UX-2.01) id AA17186; Wed, 3 Mar 93 20:25:24 EST Received: from crabapple.srv.cs.cmu.edu by VACATION.VENARI.CS.CMU.EDU id aa04721; 3 Mar 93 20:21:59 EST To: bb-sci-space@CRABAPPLE.SRV.CS.CMU.EDU Path: crabapple.srv.cs.cmu.edu!cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news.harvard.edu!ogicse!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!news.cso.uiuc.edu!shale.spcomm.uiuc.edu!Katy Root From: Katy Root <"Katy Root"@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> Newsgroups: sci.space Subject: Motorola's Iridium - looking for info. Message-Id: Date: 2 Mar 93 05:20:25 GMT Article-I.D.: news.C38xI1.4qr Sender: Net Noise owner Organization: University of Illinois Lines: 4 X-Xxmessage-Id: X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.1.1d17 X-Xxdate: Mon, 1 Mar 93 23:22:44 GMT Source-Info: Sender is really news@CRABAPPLE.SRV.CS.CMU.EDU Source-Info: Sender is really isu@VACATION.VENARI.CS.CMU.EDU I would like information on Motorola's Iridium project if anyone has any or knows of any good sources for information. I am looking for background on the project and looking for ways in which it will benefit different groups of people. ------------------------------ Date: 4 Mar 93 09:25:54 GMT From: Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey Subject: Wireless Power notes (1 of 3) Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.energy Dr. Gay Canough (canough@bingvaxa.cc.binghamton.edu) has asked me to post these notes to sci.space for her. Please respond to her, not to me, if you have questions. The notes are long, so I'm breaking them into three parts. And I suppose it would be a good idea to cross-post to sci.energy, no? Bill Higgins =============================== Notes on the First Annual Wireless Power Transmission Conference, held in San Antonio, TX Feb 23-25, 1993 [Part 1 of 3] These notes are a summary of notes I took at the conference, and so they represent only what I personally witnessed. There will be an official proceedings which I encourage all of you to get. There were parallel sessions on laser power beaming which I did not get to attend. The conference was organized by the Center for Space Power at Texas A&M university in College Station, TX. I have complete lists of speakers, sponsors and participants as well as the conference program, if anyone wants it. The theme of the conference was commercial potential of wireless power transmission (WPT). ISU alums are probably most familiar with the idea of beaming power from solar stations in space down to Earth. However, there are several other possibilities for using WPT. These include 1) point to point power transmission on Earth 2) power transmission from Earth to space 3) power relay on Earth via a relay satellite So WPT covers more than space solar power. The ISU SSPP video ran continuously in the exhibit area and Bill Brown did his world famous power beaming demo during a break. ["ed. comment" is a comment by me on a topic.] Feb 23 Morning: After the keynote, there were four plenary talks. Dr. Glaser discussed energy needs for the future of Earth and how to work up to the ultimate goal of getting power from space. His "terrace" or series of steps to get there, includes Earth-to-Earth WPT, small satellite demos, other larger demos. Consensus is growing now, on what each of the steps in the terrace should be. Some interesting comments by Dr. Glaser include: * the amount of coal burned in 1985 was 18700 tonnes; at the current growth in coal use, the amount consumed in 2020 will be 26800 tonnes. [ed. comment: can we burn this much without harming the Biosphere-1 ??] * it typically takes 75 years to transition from one major source of energy to a new one. * physical wires installed for power transmission (2 GW) from UK to France cost (past tense) $3 billion. * For original papers on WPT, see the Dec 1970 issue of Journal of Microwave Power * The communications satellite market is $10 billion per year, the world energy market is $1 TRILLION per year. * The Japanese Ministry of Industry and Trade (MITI) has just announced it is officially supporting research on space solar power. * For the latest on space solar power, see Dr. Glaser's new book entitled Solar Power Satellites publisher = Simon and Schuster Dr. Glaser did an EXCELLENT job of summing up the motivation to strive for use of space solar power. He also discussed the need for careful assessment of environmental impact. A video of this presentation would be very powerful in educating people on the need for new energy sources and the wisdom of research into space solar power. The next talk was by Dr. Glenn Olds, Commissioner of Alaska department of natural resources. Dr. Olds gave a very enthusiastic talk on how to use pilot projects to get started on WPT. Alaska may be the very first user of WPT. They are planning a facility to beam power across a bay to a remote village. This village currently burns diesel fuel to power their generators. They need more power, shipping in fuel is expensive, it's dirty to burn, etc. They are planning this mainly as a research pilot project. The first plant will probably not be economical, but its main purpose is research. Understand that the motivation for doing this goes beyond power for a single village. There are many villages in this same situation in Alaska. Also, Alaska has huge reserves of fossil fuel and hydro power, but no means of exporting power. They may someday be able to export that energy by generating it there and beaming it to other points on Earth by WPT. He explained that Alaska is the largest state of the union, at 2.5 times the size of Texas (and Texans were warned not to make too many Alaska jokes, or Alaska would split into 2 states, making Texas 3rd largest instead of second!) He gave a long list of advice, much of which concerned how government and industry should interact to develop new energy sources. We next heard from James Rose, former NASA administrator for commercial programs. He went into more detail on how government and industry should team up to pursue commercial space ventures. He talked about the Centers for the Commercial Development of Space (CCDS's) and what they have done. They have succeeded quite well in getting industrial partners at these centers, to the point where industry funds more than half of all the centers' research. The last plenary was by Kathryn Sullivan. She discussed strategic partnerships. She emphasized that successful partnerships are ones where all partners benefit equally. During lunch, we all went out on the San Antonio Riverwalk and soaked up the sun. Us Northerners thought we had just been beamed to another planet. San Antonio had 70 F sunny weather, whereas Binghamton, NY is having -10 F and snow. We also had time to ogle the exhibits. There were several videos, a large and impressive looking gyrotron (35 GHz) from Varian, Inc, a microwave powered lunar rover (that actually works) and the power beaming demo (the same one we had at ISU). The ISU solar power program animation was prominently displayed and participants were impressed by it. In the afternoon there were 3 parallel sessions: 1) papers on laser WPT and transportation 2) papers on terrestrial WPT, relay satellite, sun- synchronous demo and lunar sps 3) projects going on in Russia, France and Japan I attended talks in 2 and 3. Parallel sessions are difficult for me, since everything was so good. Penny Haldane; Alaska 21. She is the program manager for the WPT project, known as Alaska 21, and she filled us in on the details. They are working with Raytheon, A.D. Little, and the Texas A&M Center for Space Power. The project idea came out the SPS 91 conference. Alaska has a land area of 570833 square miles with a population of 600000 (less than 1/10 the population of Los Angeles). Half the population lives in Anchorage. Many of the people live in remote villages and in 60% of these towns, electricity costs $0.4 / KWh. (That's 4 times what I pay here in Binghamton). The pilot system will supply power to a village which is across the water from a generating station and to which it is very expensive to string wires. The system will have to work in the harsh weather conditions, which includes snow, 100 mph winds, and temperature extremes. It will use magnetrons (2.45 GHz) such as found in microwave ovens, because they are cheap and well developed. The distance will be a few miles, power received will be 50 to 100 kW. Each magnetron puts out 1 kW. They chose to use many magnetrons, so that if one breaks, it won't be a total loss of power, but only a small amount. The overall efficiency will be around 25%. This is not the maximum efficiency possible, but higher efficiency would be too expensive for a pilot plant. The antenna will be a phased array with an effective aperture of 35 m in diameter. The maximum power density will be about 20 mW/square cm. [This is the same power density as Bill Brown's power beaming demo, or 100 times less than your typical microwave oven.] The receiver will employ the Bill Brown rectenna design. Dr. Glaser and people at A.D. Little will be doing a complete environmental impact statement(EIS) for the system. People from the village and surrounding areas will be part of the process of doing the EIS and siting. They expect the system will cost $20 million and can be built and running in 2 years. They will be applying for state and federal funds to start the project. During the Q&A a point was brought up about how to keep birds from nesting on the antenna or rectenna, since these places will be slightly warmer than the surroundings. Dr. Glaser replied that more thought would have to be given to this and some experiments done. [ed. comment: Birds are attracted to any warm spot people make, be it WPT antennas or your chimney and so some measures have to be taken to ensure the equipment keeps working and the birds are unharmed.] Next, I went to the other room to hear Dr. Kaya talk about METS. You ISU alums may remember that this is the project which Mr. Boz proudly announced as ISU's first involvement in a real WPT experiment. It has been accomplished! Funding to build a rectenna was arranged by some of the SSPP faculty [you know who you are :)]. Alan Brown and his team at Texas A&M then built it, took it to Japan, installed it on the METS payload and launched it. The launch took place in tropical paradise, otherwise known as Tanegashima, on Feb 18, just 5 days before the conference. Although careful data analysis is in the works, they do know that the rectenna DID WORK and he showed us the actual readout of its response. METS science done included control of microwave beam, performance of phased array and rectenna, study of ohmic heating of plasma and plasma wave excitation. Specs: power beamed = 832 W phased array antenna size = 16 x 13 x 4 cm instruments = HF receiver (100kHz to 10 MHz), VLF receiver (1 kHz to 100 kHz), plasma density detector, TV camera The microwaves are not made by magnetrons, but by FET amplifiers. The efficiency of these was 42%. The rectenna efficiency was about 70%. METS was a suborbital flight with a max height of 260 km. Plans for more experiments are in the works and these include * using the Japanese Free Flyer to be launched by the H2. This would involve beaming 10 kW of power over 1 km at 2.45 GHz, testing ability of phased array to control the beam pointing. * IPSAT space to space 100 kW with 40 m antenna, working at 24 Ghz in 500 km orbit. Dr. Fujino gave more details of the antenna and the MILAX airplane which flew on Aug. 29,1992. Going back to the other room, I attended Mr. Lilly's talk on putting a solar power station in a 22000 km polar orbit to supply industries with direct service. He proposed to supply peak load power to companies who frequently loose power due to local grid's insufficient capacity at peak load. He pointed out that a brown out (loss of power for a few hours) at his company caused significant problems since most people worked on computers. Data is lost and no work gets done if there is no electricity. He proposed a system to provide 50 to 75 MW on demand. It would have a 655 m aperture and work at 5.8 GHz. It would beam to 4 receivers on Earth, one of which would be in Seattle, Washington. The cost per watt would have to be around $12 to make it economically feasible. This means that the cost of the satellite would have to be similar to the cost of a commercial aircraft, or about $400 /pound. This is 2 orders of magnitude less than current satellites cost. The output of the PV array would exceed the output of the combined Earth based PV output today (which is 65 MW). The final talk of the day I went to was the European view regarding energy transmission in space. Dr. Lucien Deschamps talked about putting a small satellite demo up and pointed out that detailed experiments on microwave beam control in the space plasma will have to be done. Guy Pignolet briefed us on the Reunion island project. This involved WPT from point to point on the island. The island is a resort area and people do not want wires, and wires would be difficult to install. They are planning a pilot project to beam 100 kW over 3 km. Funding for the European efforts is coming from ESA, CNES and EDF (Electricite de France, a utility) [to be continued] Gay Canough e-mail(Internet): CANOUGH@BINGVAXA.CC.BINGHAMTON.EDU (GEnie) : G.CANOUGH phone/fax= 607 785 6499 voice mail = 800 673 8265 radio call sign: KB2OXA 'Snail Mail: ETM, Inc. PO Box 67 Endicott, NY 13761 ------------------------------ End of Space Digest Volume 16 : Issue 278 ------------------------------