Return-path: X-Andrew-Authenticated-as: 0;andrew.cmu.edu;Network-Mail Received: from po3.andrew.cmu.edu via trymail for +dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr1/ota/space/space.dl@andrew.cmu.edu (->+dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr1/ota/space/space.dl) (->ota+space.digests) ID ; Sat, 13 Aug 88 05:36:28 -0400 (EDT) Received: from po2.andrew.cmu.edu via qmail ID ; Sat, 13 Aug 88 05:34:40 -0400 (EDT) Received: from po2.andrew.cmu.edu via qmail ID ; Sat, 13 Aug 88 04:07:05 -0400 (EDT) Received: from andrew.cmu.edu via qmail ID ; Sat, 13 Aug 88 04:06:08 -0400 (EDT) Received: by ANDREW.CMU.EDU (5.54/3.15) id for +dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr1/ota/space/space.dl; Sat, 13 Aug 88 04:05:26 EDT Received: by angband.s1.gov id AA07626; Sat, 13 Aug 88 01:04:50 PDT id AA07626; Sat, 13 Aug 88 01:04:50 PDT Date: Sat, 13 Aug 88 01:04:50 PDT From: Ted Anderson Message-Id: <8808130804.AA07626@angband.s1.gov> To: Space@angband.s1.gov Reply-To: Space@angband.s1.gov Subject: SPACE Digest V8 #323 SPACE Digest Volume 8 : Issue 323 Today's Topics: Rocket Triggered Lightning Research Program enters sixth summer (Forwarded) Spacesploitation ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 5 Aug 88 14:11:58 GMT From: yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: Rocket Triggered Lightning Research Program enters sixth summer (Forwarded) George H. Diller August 1, 1988 Kennedy Space Center Release No. 55-88 ROCKET TRIGGERED LIGHTNING RESEARCH PROGRAM ENTERS SIXTH SUMMER KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. - The NASA-sponsored Rocket Triggered Lightning Program (RTLP) has entered its sixth summer season at the Kennedy Space Center. Triggered lightning launch activity has resumed from the pads on the shore of Merritt Island's Mosquisto Lagoon, approximately 8 miles north of the Vehicle Assembly Building. A space age, high-tech version of Ben Franklin's key on a kite string, the program entails launching three-foot-tall solid fueled rockets into a thunderstorm to an altitude of 3,000 feet, trailing a wire to ground. Data are collected by lightning in- vestigators at the launch control site and at near-by field loca- tions. There is capability to launch up to a dozen rockets from each pad in a single thunderstorm, depending on the storm's lightning potential. The principal investigators began installing instrumentation at KSC on July 15 for the summer program, which lasts through August. Approximately 40 investigators are participating in the program this year from 15 institutions including the federal government, the private sector, leading universities, and inter- national organizations. The lightning research program grew out of NASA's desire to improve lightning protection systems for KSC facilities and space launch vehicles. This objective continues with an additional goal of improving lightning forecasting. Because the nature of this research has a broad range of applications, and because the the result of a lightning strike is everyone's problem, NASA has encouraged others to participate. Eventual civil applications of the Rocket Triggered Lightn- ing Program may include earlier and more precise lightning warn- ings, lightning avoidance by aircraft, and the development of lightning protection systems that would preclude power outages and loss of communications. A new element has been added for the 1988 season. A tethered balloon 1500 feet in the air has suspended from it an instrumented lightning strike object at an altitude of 500 feet. The ultimate goal is to develop a set of data that will delineate the characterics of the lightning strike potential in three environments; over land, over water, and in the air. This year NASA continues to collect data for evaluating the effectiveness of lightning protection systems used for facilities at the Kennedy Space Center, and to increase understanding of the lightning initiation process. This will improve early detection of thunderstorm development and lightning strikes. It will also enhance the quality and reliability of launch criteria for lightning avoidance by understanding how rockets or other aerospace vehicles can trigger lightning. In addition, a data base continues to be established to bet- ter understand the climatology of the Cape Canaveral area so that more precise weather forecasts can be developed. Along with NASA, the leading institutions participating this year are NOAA, the U.S. Air Force Geophysical Laboratory, the Naval Research Laboratory, Boeing Aircraft, Dayton Granger Cor- poration, the Electric Power Research Institute, Florida Power Corportion, the University of Florida, the University of Arizona, the State University of New York at Albany, Embry Riddle Aeronutical University, the University of Mississippi, the New Mexico Institute of Mining Technology, and the University of San Juan in Puerto Rico. Also, three government-sponsored research groups from France are again participating which include CENG (Centre Etudes Nucleaires de Grenoble), ONERA (Office National d'Etudes et de Recherches Aerospatiales), and CNET (Centre National d'Etudes Telecommunications). The French have had an ongoing involvement in the KSC program and along with the United States pioneered the first rocket triggered lightning research. The participants collaborating in the program change from year to year because the objective of each organization differs, predicated on distinct areas of direct application. The field mill system at KSC, used to detect and locate lightning, is providing data as part of most experiments in the program this summer. As in the past, field mills are being used to study the electric field environment in situations where lightning is being triggered. This will provide a more complete picture of weather conditions conducive to triggering lightning, and will provide data which can assist in developing guidelines that can extend to larger launch vehicles. For a second year, in addition to the traditional land pad, a raft-like launching pad is being used. The 12-by-12 foot plat- form used to launch rockets from about 100 feet offshore, is con- nected with the launch control and instrumentation facility by pneumatics and fiber-optic instrumentation. A lightning strike with a more "pure" electrical signature is generated from a launch over water. This is more characteristic of natural lightning since it is not subject to electrical current distor- tions from the ground or pad-associated ground support equipment. The tethered balloon included in this year's research resembles a blimp, is 85 feet long, 25 feet in diameter, and holds 20,000 cubic feet of helium. Suspended from the balloon is the instrumented lightning strike object. This cylinder is ap- proximately 8 feet long, 2 feet in diameter, and weighs about 60 pounds. Also suspended from the balloon is an airborne electric field mill. This is being provided by the University of Missis- sippi, with research assistance from the New Mexico Institute of Mining Technology. The objectives using the balloon are being closely coor- dinated with the French research team. Four lightning science objectives are under study. 1.) Determine the pre-attachment of electric fields to the suspended lightning strike object which would initiate a lightn- ing strike. Eventually, by detecting and understanding the process by which a cloud develops a charge, it is anticipated that forecasters can be provided with advance notice as to where and when lightning will occur. 2.) Attempt to document with photography and other data collec- tion methods the lightning initiation process of an upward-going positively charged "streamer" and downward-going negatively charged "step leader" from a free-flying object, believed gen- erated by high electric fields. This process exists in nature between ground and cloud. 3.) Improve understanding of how far lightning will travel from its point of origin to a distant object during a strike, called the "lightning striking distance." In addition it will hopefully be learned why lightning also chooses to strike some particular secondary object instead of some other. 4.) Study the relationship between a ground-based field mill and an airborne field mill which is above the area of space charge, or interference created from the ground environment. This can ultimately improve the accuracy of launch criteria. NOAA is flying a pair of P-3 Orion weather reconnaisance aircraft with standard meteorological observation instruments and an airbourne field mill to compare data with a similarly instru- mented pod and a field mill which are suspended from the balloon. The intent is to correlate the data from each set of instruments and assess reliability. It is possible that lightning may not strike the instru- mented canister suspended from the balloon. If this is found to be true, then the rockets will be attached to the canister for launch. Using the tethered balloon probably comes the closest to recreating Ben Franklin's original experiment using "high-tech" methods. Hopefully it will lead to discoveries as significant as Franklin's original studies. The private sector participants each have an objective for the summer program with a specific application in mind and have provided lightning strike objects which are mounted on the land launching pad. Boeing Aircraft has installed a fiberglass radome and as- sociated radar dish taken from the nose of a jet aircraft to study the effectiveness of metal lightning diverter strips at- tached to the radome. This essentially creates an airborne at- tach point on which to focus a lightning strike which then provides a preferred path through the skin of the aircraft. Boeing, together with the Dayton Granger Corporation which manufactures the diverter strips, will attempt to learn what type, how many, and where these metal strips should be placed on the radome to establish effective protection. However, the desire is to use as few as possible so that the efficiency of the radar antenna beneath it is not impaired. Again this year, the Electric Power Research Institute and Florida Power Corporation are testing the effectiveness of lightning current recorders. These recorders measure the lightn- ing current wave form with its associated effect throughout the power distribution system. Based on data obtained during last summer's program, changes have already been implemented into recorders associated with FPC's power grid. This measures more accurately what happens to the power line system when lightning occurs. In addition, the effectiveness of protective devices for Florida Power will be assessed under actual conditions on a dedi- cated, normally powered line subject to the lightning environ- ment. The ongoing participation of three major university institu- tions in the program will enable them to move closer to their re- search objectives, expanding upon the knowledge gained in pre- vious years. The State University of New York at Albany is taking high speed video and film photography of lightning flashes. From this imagery they will study the lightning stroke process, the velocity of the stroke, and the stroke's fractal geometry. This data will be of benefit to other lightning researchers. The University of Arizona has three objectives during the 1988 summer season. They are studying the optical properties of lightning with the specific objective of improving satellite air- borne sensors which are being developed by the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center for installation on future weather satel- lites. The optical equipment can distinguish where the lightning strikes, and by photographic analysis quantify the type and mag- nitude of the strike. Approximately 1,000,000 watts of light per meter of lightning channel has been measured with an internal temperature of 60,000 degrees. This optical system also provides accurate data on which to judge the accuracy and reliability of other lightning instrumentation. Further, this could assist NASA in the field of planetary meteorology in understanding the lightning process on other planets. The Univeristy of Arizona is also measuring and analyzing the production of ozone from lightning. It is postulated that ozone generation by lightning may replenish the Earth's natural supply, possibly being depleted by aerosols. Again this year University of Arizona researchers are taping the sound of thunder at various distances from the rocket trig- gered lightning launch site, hoping to learn how thunder is produced, and how the sound characteristics of thunder change with distance from the lightning. The University of Florida is continuing to develop sensors which remotely sense the electrical atmospheric environment to detect the early lightning initiation processes. This will im- prove the ability to measure and forecast a three-dimensional electrical environment up to 25 miles distant from Kennedy Space Center. Antennas for this system are under installation at KSC. Associated instruments will be installed later in the season. The goal is to gather information which may help determine the pre-initiation process of lightning before it actually oc- curs. From this may come a more cost-effective way to forecast thunderstorm development and the lightning initiation process-- parameters that can be included in KSC's launch commit criteria. Another aspect of the University of Arizona research has a similar objective but takes an alternative approach, using a sen- sor buried in the earth. This sensor detects a ground current which is correlated with the measured negative potential between ground and cloud. The purpose is to locate the generating source of currents in the cloud that are associated with specific cloud development. Potentially, either system could provide advance notice of the occurance of lightning. Also, aircraft may be able to use such instrumentation to map and avoid charged clouds. The Advanced Program Development Office of NASA Headquarters and NASA-KSC are supporting the Rocket Triggered Lightning Program by attempting to transfer technology generated by the program to private industry, other federal agencies, univer- sities, and the general public. In addition NASA is promoting the attributes of the Cape Canaveral area for lightning research, hoping to demonstrate the feasibility of establishing a permanent atmospheric science research laboratory at the Kennedy Space Cen- ter, attracting other private sector participants. ------------------------------ Cc: anarchy-list%sob.cwi.nl%mcvax.uunet.uu.net@note.nsf.gov Subject: Spacesploitation Date: Fri, 05 Aug 88 15:53:38 -0400 From: Fred Baube Regarding the discussion and comparison of the ocean seabed, Antarctica, and outer space as "common heritages of mankind", and whether this is a deterrent to exploitation, entrepeneurial or otherwise .. There's not really anything fundamentally wrong or evil about the economic development/exploitation regime established by the Law of the Sea Treaty ("UNCLOS 3"). And because the legal statuses of the Antarctic and outer space are much less well-defined, similar criticism about either is premature. UNCLOS 3 does not tell private interests they are forbidden to exploit the seabed. It's mainly the legalistic aspects of UNCLOS 3 as a treaty instrument that have kept the US from ratifying it; among other things, it seems to leave signatories vulnerable to an open-ended amendment process. This hasn't stopped the US from taking advantage of transit rights codified by the treaty, but it *has* inhibited private parties from leaping into the legal limbo of seabed development. It's not a big problem for the US and the OECD, because placer deposits and crusts that fall within the US EEZ are turning out to be much better economic bets than seabed nodules, and the Soviet Union and South Africa have not (yet) moved to exploit OECD import vulnerability in manganese, cobalt, or any other metal found in marine deposits. Check OTA reports for details. Roughly speaking, an entity (such as a US company) wishing to develop a seabed tract is to give its survey results, and a list of pairs of tracts, to the "International Seabed Authority" (ISA), which gets its choice of the better of each pair of tracts, and use on its tract (the ISA's) of the same technology available to the company on its (the company's) tract. The notion is REJECTED that a monopoly on economical technology shall imply a monopoly on exploitation of the "common heritage". How *else* can the ISA be expected to exploit a plot and develop a distributable surplus value ? The US objects to the treaty's tech transfer provisions, but they are objections to the specific implementation set forth in the treaty, and not to the principle involved. UNCLOS 3's seabed provisions are not absolute prohibitions on development or developers, they're novel (and as yet untried) mechanisms to try to ensure that everyone (in the UN) gets a piece of the pie. A company is not denied the fruits of its developmental abilities, it is denied absolute property rights. Property rights and developmental rights are a creature of gov- ernment, and there's no government in the seabed, or Antarctica, or space, just the UN. Unilateral assertion of US interests outside of a treaty framework would invite, even *mandate*, corresponding acts by other nations, ensuring a mess. Presumably, if Capitalist Company "A" can profitably develop a tract, then so can Multi-National "ISA", if it has access to comparable technology, and a modicum of managerial competence. This should then preclude unilateral exploitation. An ISA-type model was not the only way seabed development could have been accommodated, but the US went along with it at the time. (There's a belief in some parts that the US traded the seabed provisions for the codification of transit rights, never intending to ratify the treaty, thus getting what it wanted in the short-term at the cost of establishing an undesireable precedent for the "common heritage's exploitation.) Regarding alternatives to an ISA-type regime, royalty schemes and the like have their own problems. For the Antarctic, an ISA-like scheme is only one of several possible institutional models that could be implemented. Environmental considerations seem to be paramount, and there's the nasty matter of conflicting claims (cf. the Falklands), so progress is very slow. The recent minerals agreement on the Antarctic reinforced the current scheme wherein non-Treaty-signatories are excluded, but that is about all it settled, I believe. There *are* other institutional models under consideration that implement certain flavors of ownership wherein signatory nations have incentives both to encourage exploitation and to preserve the environment. Virtually *none* of these models provide for the recognition of existing national claims, despite Chilean mothers giving birth down there and other imaginative claims- advancement methods. If Outer Space is asserted to be the "common heritage of man- kind", that is not in principle excluding its exploitation, or locking out entrepeneurs. It's asserting a principle that although private initiative may be [is] a motivational force for development, perhaps the heavens are not best left solely to the technological "Haves", i.e. the likes of Union Carbide and Occidental Petroleum. It also leaves an opening for *multi- lateral* regulation of environmental issues, so that we don't end up with something like Heinlein wrote about in "The Man Who Sold the Moon", where rockets lay carbon trails on the lunar surface to create a giant soft drink logo. Or nuclear contamination of Mars. Horatio Alger is a story for kids, not a useful model for extending "progress" into space. Armchair libertarian entre- peneurs should not be concerned that they will not be able to exploit exploit exploit. What they *should* be concerned about is that on the high seas, flagless ships are strictly verboten, and any country can board a flagless ship. If you want to set up your own operation at L1 or L2 or the Asteroid Belt, you'll be able to build it, but if current customary practice holds, you'll have to submit to some nation's jurisdiction. The US is the enemy here; we've been vigorously enforcing the UNCLOS 3 provi- sion that a ship under Slobovian registry must have a "genuine link" to Slobovia, clamping down on "flags of convenience". Fur- ther, at least in the case of the Sarah (Radio New York Inter- national), we boarded the ship, and later lied about asking the permission of the flag state (I have this from an authoritative source). Not a pretty precedent. If you think that "common heritage of mankind" is some sort of romantic tripe, or Third-World blathering, or One-World Commie-nism, so be it. #include ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V8 #323 *******************