Return-path: X-Andrew-Authenticated-as: 7997;andrew.cmu.edu;Ted Anderson Received: from beak.andrew.cmu.edu via trymail for +dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr11/tm2b/space/space.dl@andrew.cmu.edu (->+dist+/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr11/tm2b/space/space.dl) (->ota+space.digests) ID ; Tue, 7 Nov 89 01:30:26 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <8ZJbNcG00VcJ8JQE40@andrew.cmu.edu> Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Tue, 7 Nov 89 01:30:02 -0500 (EST) Subject: SPACE Digest V10 #214 SPACE Digest Volume 10 : Issue 214 Today's Topics: Payload Status Summary for 11/03/89 (Forwarded) NASA Headline News for 11/02/89 (Forwarded) Re: Space Hotel or Donald Trump has missed the boat. Re: Moon Colonies / Ant Tanks? NASA Art Director Re: Moon Colonies / Ant Tanks? Gravity inside the Earth NASA's "thought" process (was RE: Fragile Space Shuttle) If There Were No Shuttle (was Re: galileo and me) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 6 Nov 89 13:03:35 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: Payload Status Summary for 11/03/89 (Forwarded) Payload Status Report Friday, November 3, 1989 George H. Diller STS-31/Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope was powered up for the first time in the KSC Vertical Processing Facility at 12:15 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 28. Testing continued until midnight when the telescope was powered down for the remainder of the weekend. Only minor electrical and communications problems were encountered during the first full day of tests. On Monday, Oct. 30, at 10:30 a.m., the HST was powered up once again. It is scheduled for power through third shift on Saturday morning when it will be powered down for the weekend. Five science instruments are undergoing functional testing through January. There have been no significant anomalies in the testing this week. Delta/COBE On SLC-2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, the changeout of the second stage fuel shut off valve has been completed. The COBE spacecraft will be erected atop the Delta launch vehicle on Saturday, Nov. 4. The countdown dress rehearsal is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 8. Launch is tentatively scheduled for Friday, Nov. 17, at the opening of a launch window which extends from 6:24 to 6:54 a.m. Pacific time. ------------------------------ Date: 6 Nov 89 13:10:03 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: NASA Headline News for 11/02/89 (Forwarded) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, November 2, 1989 Audio: 202/755-1788 ----------------------------------------------------------------- This is NASA Headline News for Thursday, November 2.... Work continues at launch pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center preparing the orbiter Discovery for its DoD mission later this month. Since hypergolic fuels are being loaded today the pad is clear of all but necessary personnel. A nitrogen tetroxide pump that broke down earlier today is being replaced. Fuel loading is expected to resume by mid-day. Meanwhile, a number of thermal tile on the Atlantis' elevon have been damaged. The elevon will undergo a structural inspection and the damaged tiles will be replaced. Atlantis flies again in February. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory says the Magellan spacecraft continues to operate in a satisfactory manner despite several recent failed star calibrations as it continues its long looping trajectory towards Venus. Magellan is presently 81 million miles from Earth and traveling at a velocity of 66,000 miles per hour relative to the Earth. One way light time to Magellan is just over seven minutes. Dr. Millie Hughes-Fulford, a medical researcher for the Veteran's Administration, has been designated prime Payload Specialist for the Spacelab Life Sciences-1 mission now scheduled for August 1990. She replaces Dr. Robert Phillips who had to step down because he could not meet medical standards for the flight. Twenty bioscience investigations conducted on the mission will help answer questions about the way humans adapt to microgravity and readapt to earth's gravity. Nasa's budget appropriation...$12.4 billion...along with that of the Veteran's Administration, H-U-D and other independent government agencies is awaiting the signature of the President. Following a voice vote and no debate on an amendment in the House of Representatives, Tuesday, the bill was sent to the White House. * * * * ----------------------------------------------------------------- Here's the broadcast schedule for public affairs events on NASA Select TV. All times are Eastern. Thursday, November 9..... 11:30 A.M. NASA Update will be transmitted. Looking ahead....NASA Select TV will carry the launch of the Cosmic Background Explorer satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base. Launch is expected about November 17. And NASA Select TV will carry the launch and landing only of the STS-33 DoD mission scheduled for later this month. All events and times are subject to change without notice. ----------------------------------------------------------------- These reports are filed daily, Monday through Friday, at 12 noon, Eastern time. ----------------------------------------------------------------- A service of the Internal Communications Branch (LPC), NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. ------------------------------ Date: 6 Nov 89 18:20:30 GMT From: zephyr.ens.tek.com!orca!pooter!kendalla@uunet.uu.net (Kendall Auel;685-2425;61-028;;pooter) Subject: Re: Space Hotel or Donald Trump has missed the boat. I saw part of the same news piece. The details I remember are that the hotel will rotate at about 3 rpm to give the rooms a bit of gravity. The lobby will be in the center, and weightless, with one "flight instructor" to every seven guests. Also, there will be some private quarters in the weightless area for guests who may want to try sleeping :-) :-) in the weightless environment. The model on display was quite large, and had two main sections. The first was a large wheel-like structure with cylindrical rooms attached along the perimeter. The second section was stationary, and had an enormous solar array and communication dishes attached to it, as well as the lobby. These guys were serious about the moon base, too, although I don't know how they're going to make concrete without water. Maybe they expect to find some at the poles, but it still seems a bit too valuable to waste on concrete. Is there a type of concrete that needs no water? Kendall Auel kendalla@pooter.wv.tek.com ------------------------------ Date: 6 Nov 89 21:58:43 GMT From: attcan!utgpu!utzoo!henry@uunet.uu.net (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: Moon Colonies / Ant Tanks? In article <2730@uceng.UC.EDU> dmocsny@uceng.UC.EDU (daniel mocsny) writes: >... The masses don't >move until either (1) things get so bad where they are that any >move seems like a probable improvement, or (2) the economic >rewards of moving become clearly apparent and irresistible. >So whether the economic motive is a carrot and/or a stick, it >is still economic. Don't forget non-economic motives. Several of the earliest colonies in North America were founded for religious reasons, and the economics be damned. >... Traveling into space and setting up shop >there is phenomenally expensive compared to living on earth. Have you ever looked at how much colonization movements on *Earth* cost? The Plymouth Rock colony was up to its eyeballs in debt for a generation after it was founded; just crossing the Atlantic was staggeringly expensive in those days. In a later and richer time, the Mormons merely spent their entire life savings to move west to Utah. Space transportation is still more expensive right now, but only mildly optimistic projections of what could be done -- soon -- to reduce its cost suffice to bring it down to the Mayflower range. >The >difference is inherent and should remain approximately the same >despite technological advance, e.g., any technological advance that >makes life on the Moon cheaper should make life on the Earth cheaper >by a comparable factor. Please justify this. The big cost of living on the Moon is the transport costs to get there, which have no equivalent on Earth. -- A bit of tolerance is worth a | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology megabyte of flaming. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu ------------------------------ Date: 6 Nov 89 15:32:55 GMT From: shlump.nac.dec.com!pragma.enet.dec.com!griffin@decvax.dec.com (Dave Griffin) Subject: NASA Art Director Can someone out there with a NASA directory give me the name (and mailstop, if possible) of either the Director of Art for NASA or the person who would handle public relations for that department. I am interested in getting reproductions of certain NASA-sponsored paintings and I've been told that NASA HQ should be able to put me in contact with the various artists I'm interested in. Rather than send my letter into the void, I was hoping I could attach a name to it. Many thanks, - dave ------------------------------ Date: 6 Nov 89 22:08:01 GMT From: attcan!utgpu!utzoo!henry@uunet.uu.net (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: Moon Colonies / Ant Tanks? In article <2683@uceng.UC.EDU> dmocsny@uceng.UC.EDU (daniel mocsny) writes: >... While the European pioneers were entering a rather >hostile environment, they certainly did not face any fundamental >environmental obstacles compared to living in Europe... The Donner Party would be interested to hear that. (They starved.) So would any number of other failed European pioneering expeditions and colonies. As I've commented in the past, for an unprotected human, the survival time in a -40C Saskatchewan blizzard is not much longer than on the surface of the Moon. I grew up there. Schoolkids safely cope with that environment. >Going to the Moon, on the other hand, will be incomparably harder. >The profound lack of resources, especially air and liquid water... There is plenty of oxygen -- about the only component of air that really matters -- in lunar rock. There *is* a shortage of water, but humans have handled that before. -- A bit of tolerance is worth a | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology megabyte of flaming. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Nov 89 10:13 EST From: Subject: Gravity inside the Earth Dan Mocsny writes: >If you dig down into the earth, part of the earth's mass is now above >your head, gravitationally attracting you back upstairs. [...] >I believe >that you can show with some calculus that the net gravitational >force you feel a distance X away from the earth's center, with Xwhere r=1 earth radius, is the same gravitational force you would >feel if you were standing on the surface of planet of radius X. >I.e., gravitationally speaking, the resultant force from all the >earth atoms at a depth X or less is zero. Should be "at a depth X or more", i.e. outside of X. In a deep well inside a planet, the attraction of the mass above you (i.e. with distance from the Earth's centre greater than your's) cancels itself out. Simply put, inside a shell of matter, you are unable to determine that that shell of matter exists gravitationally (assuming things like constant density, etc). Inside the Earth, gravity varies approximately linearly, from 0 at the centre to g on the surface. Density variations and non-sphericity of the Earth account for the approximately. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- | Arnold Gill | | Queen's University at Kingston | | BITNET: gill@qucdnast | | INTERNET: gill@qucdnast.queensu.ca | -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Nov 89 10:02:56 CST From: pyron@skvax1.csc.ti.com (When in fear, or in doubt, run around, scream and shout) Subject: NASA's "thought" process (was RE: Fragile Space Shuttle) The problem with NASA's operation of the shuttle is that they are too oriented on "mission". Each "mission" is totally unique and requires specially training and preparation. When I was in college, I worked "extra board" on the SP. When shuttle crews are picked by someone getting a 4am wakeup call ("Mr Pyron, you're called for the ENHOY, Extra 8313 South, Hearn to Houston, departs Hearn 6:31 am") then we will have an operation space transport system. Or do like the airlines. I have a friend who knows when he will be in Honolulu for the rest of this year! I grew up in the military, but I think it's time to drop that posturing and move to some thinking that works toward overall results instead of item oriented scheduling. Dillon Pyron | The opinions are mine, the facts TI/DSEG VAX Systems Support | probably belong to the company. pyron@skvax1.ti.com | (214)575-3087 | Professional assasination | The highest form of public service ------------------------------ Date: 6 Nov 89 15:57:56 GMT From: bfmny0!tneff@uunet.uu.net (Tom Neff) Subject: If There Were No Shuttle (was Re: galileo and me) In article <1989Nov5.234906.15254@cs.rochester.edu> dietz@cs.rochester.edu (Paul Dietz) writes: >I think the only thing Congress can be faulted on is not cutting the >shuttle program off completely back in the 70's. This raises an intriguing question: Where would we be today if the shuttle had in fact been killed, say during the Ford administration when there was still a decent chance? NASA apologists would like to at least imply that we'd be in some Dark Age with the Soviets controlling space. Cynics would say that's exactly where we are anyway. :-) What would have been affected, exactly? - Viking, Mariner, Voyager - no problem