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 ; Thu, 9 Nov 89 01:40:52 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Thu, 9 Nov 89 01:40:24 -0500 (EST) Subject: SPACE Digest V10 #224 SPACE Digest Volume 10 : Issue 224 Today's Topics: Re: Tracking Military Satellites 1990 shuttle launch? Re: Antique Probes Re: Antique Probes Atomic weapon/power demographics Re: Young Astronauts Association: Where to Contact them Galileo Update Re: Voyager's last photo Re: Voyager's last photo Re: Tracking Military Satellites Re: Vax to ride space shuttle. Aging Payload Specialists Re: A "spacey" ambition? Replacing concrete for lunar construction ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 8 Nov 89 05:56:03 GMT From: palmer@tybalt.caltech.edu (David Palmer) Subject: Re: Tracking Military Satellites In article LANG@unb.ca writes: >> >> Date: 6 Nov 89 22:39:55 GMT >> From: pikes!udenva!isis!scicom!wats@boulder.colorado.edu (Bruce >> Watson) Subject: Tracking Military Satellites >> Who on the net has seen this one? Mike, Jim, Nick, Warren? > >From the October 1989 issue of Amateur Satellite Obervers: > >FLASHER >This story was well reported in the Oct. 9th issue of AW&ST. And >there is a photograph that shows the flash. Intelligence sources >admit that there was some malfunction after its deployment from >Columbia but now it's working. The article draws no conclusion >itself, but banners: Secret CIA Satellite Observed "Tumbling" by >Astronomers in 7 countries. Mr. Paranoia speaking. At one time the U.S. launched a spysat, then announced that it was not working. Observations of it by the Russkies showed that it wasn't beaming any data down to Earth, and it wasn't kicking out any film cannisters. As a result, they ignored it and didn't bother to cover up their missiles etc. when it passed overhead like they do for other spysats. Some time later, somebody published (was that the Pentagon Papers?) the fact that it was actually beaming the data up to a relay satellite, and that sat beamed it down to Earth. As a result the Russians started covering up and we lost a valuable asset. It is up to you to decide: Is it more likely that the CIA is being devious again, or that The Greatest Nation On Earth, Bastion Of Democracy has produced a space vehicle with problems. (Oh my! there goes my security clearance.) David Palmer palmer@tybalt.caltech.edu ...rutgers!cit-vax!tybalt.caltech.edu!palmer Meanwhile, on eng.string.floss, the waxed vs. unwaxed flamewar continues unabated. ------------------------------ Date: 7 Nov 89 22:02:08 GMT From: munnari.oz.au!murtoa.cs.mu.oz.au!ditmela!latcs1!colleen@uunet.uu.net (Colleen Pearce) Subject: 1990 shuttle launch? Hi, I am new to this newsgroup, and find it very interesting, sometimes a bit over my head, but never mind. What I would like to know is. I intend to go overseas (Europe and US) in 1990 (aug/sep to dec). Will there be any launches between any of the above times? Where will they be? As I am booking my tickets soon it would help to know this before I book. Thanks for you help -colleen ------------------------------ Date: 7 Nov 89 14:37:37 GMT From: mcsun!ukc!icdoc!syma!nickw@uunet.uu.net (Nick Watkins) Subject: Re: Antique Probes In article <20559@ut-emx.UUCP> clyde@ut-emx.UUCP (Clyde W. Hoover) writes: >> Pioneer >> Venus 1 1978 Where are they now? How do you know? >> Venus 2 Probes released? What about them? > *Don't recall Pioneer Venus 2, but PV1 may still be working. No > probes released - the Soviets do that sort of thing. One of these spacecraft DID release probes, one large, 3 small. They were not designed to last very long. They were released from the PV flyby spacecraft while the other went into orbit, if I recall correctly. Nick -- Nick Watkins, Space & Plasma Physics Group, School of Mathematical & Physical Sciences, Univ. of Sussex, Brighton, E.Sussex, BN1 9QH, ENGLAND JANET: nickw@syma.sussex.ac.uk BITNET: nickw%syma.sussex.ac.uk@uk.ac ------------------------------ Date: 7 Nov 89 18:05:07 GMT From: cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!mailrus!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!henry@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: Antique Probes In article <2091@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov> baalke@mars.UUCP (Ron Baalke) writes: >Of the probes you've listed, we are still receiving signals from Pioneer >6-9, Pioneer 10 and 11... If I'm not mistaken, one of the early Pioneers (7?) was written off just recently when its signal could not be found. -- 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: Wed, 8 Nov 89 18:46:28 PST From: Peter Scott Subject: Atomic weapon/power demographics X-Vms-Mail-To: EXOS%"space@andrew.cmu.edu" It occurred to me (in a blazing flash of light...) just now that the number of lives saved by the invention of atomic power must be much greater than the number of lives taken by atomic weapons (radioisotopic medical scans, radiation therapy, numerous devices using radioisotopes such as weld scanners *vs.* Hiroshima/Nagasaki death toll plus minuscule number killed in freak accidental radiation releases). This would make a heck of a bargaining point the next time one of us has to debate one of them to garner support for something like Galileo. Unfortunately the representatives of the opposing side that it would be worth convincing wouldn't believe it without proof (many of them wouldn't believe it *with* proof, but fortunately their influence is considerably less). Anyone know how to start looking for statistics on this? The WWII bomb toll has been beaten to death, of course, but does, say, the Dept. of Census Surveys have anything on successful treatments using devices derived directly from research on ionizing radiation? Hospitals must report that sort of thing. Unfortunately I don't know how or where to access their data, I assume they must publish something regularly through the GPO. Wish they were on the net... Peter Scott (pjs@grouch.jpl.nasa.gov) ------------------------------ Date: 7 Nov 89 21:17:14 GMT From: voder!dtg.nsc.com!andrew@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Lord Snooty @ The Giant Poisoned Electric Head ) Subject: Re: Young Astronauts Association: Where to Contact them In article <8911070022.AA20616@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu>, ia4@CUNIXD.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU (Imran Anwar) writes: > > WHERE CAN I CONTACT THE YOUNG ASTRONAUTS ASSOCIATION? > - - - - - - - - - - This could be a problem, Imran. Most of them are old astronauts now. -- ........................................................................... Andrew Palfreyman a wet bird never flies at night time sucks andrew@dtg.nsc.com there are always two sides to a broken window ------------------------------ Date: 7 Nov 89 20:17:12 GMT From: cs.utexas.edu!usc!henry.jpl.nasa.gov!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!forsight!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov!baalke@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Ron Baalke) Subject: Galileo Update GALILEO WEEKLY STATUS November 7, 1989 As of 8 a.m. (PST) Tuesday, November 7, 1989, the Galileo spacecraft is 4.16 million miles from Earth, 28.2 million miles along its path to its first gravity assist at Venus. Round-trip light time is almost 45 seconds. Galileo still has 157 million miles to go just to reach Venus; it is reducing that distance at a rate of just over 60,000 mph, increasing slowly as it comes closer to the Sun. Jupiter lies about 2.4 billion miles ahead along the VEEGA trajectory. The spacecraft is spinning at about 3 rpm around an axis pointed a few degrees from the Sun. It is transmitting telemetry at 7.68 kilobits per second; the RTG's are providing about 570 watts of power, 60 watts more than needed at present. The heavy ion counter, an engineering instrument which detects charged particles from the atomic weight of carbon through that of iron, has been seeing at least one every 2/3 second, mostly oxygen. It detected and characterized the recent major solar flare. Last week Galileo's flight team continued checkout, maintenance, and characterization of various elements of the spacecraft. Notable among these was the dual-spin mode, in which a major part of the spacecraft, carrying the scan platform with 4 instruments, the probe and probe relay system and associated electronics, was spun in reverse while the rest of the machine was still spinning at about 3 rpm. This mode, which allows the camera and other remote-sensing instruments to be aimed at planetary targets, was satisfactorily maintained during the 70-minute checkout. The spacecraft was then put back in the all-spin mode for other planned cruise operations. These included sun pointing (moving the spin axis from about 10 down to 1.25 degrees from the Sun line). Before and after this maneuver, the star sensor was given a star map and turned on to determine attitude and spin rate, which it did as planned. An additional propulsion system maintenance sequence was done early Monday. The first trajectory correction maneuver is planned for November 9, 10, and 11; it will change the spacecraft velocity by less than 17 meters per second (about 38 mph). Small axial and lateral thrusters will fire in pulses of about 1-sec duration. Nothing in the mission so far has ruled out the possibility of an asteroid encounter (Gaspra, between the first and second Earth flybys). However, no final decision on asteroid encounters will occur until after the Venus flyby in February, when Galileo's flight team and other project personnel evaluate the post-Venus flight path and the propellant margins at that time. Ron Baalke | (818) 541-2341 x260 Jet Propulsion Lab M/S 301-355 | baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov 4800 Oak Grove Dr. | Pasadena, CA 91109 | ------------------------------ Date: 8 Nov 89 22:09:38 GMT From: bfmny0!tneff@uunet.uu.net (Tom Neff) Subject: Re: Voyager's last photo In article <1989Nov8.174601.1361@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes: >Merely detecting that you are in an asteroid belt takes good >instruments or considerable luck. Bad luck! :-) -- There's nothing wrong with Southern California that a || Tom Neff rise in the ocean level wouldn't cure. -- Ross MacDonald || tneff@bfmn0.UU.NET ------------------------------ Date: 8 Nov 89 17:46:01 GMT From: mailrus!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!henry@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: Voyager's last photo In article <3398@uafcveg.uucp> arb2@uafhcx.uucp (Allan R Baker) writes: >Could you explain why asteroid belts don't need to be dodged. Because they are not shoulder-to-shoulder rocks; they are merely areas where the density of rocks is a little bit higher than usual... but still very low. Merely detecting that you are in an asteroid belt takes good instruments or considerable luck. In the main belt in our solar system, there are thousands of asteroids known, and undoubtedly lots more that we haven't noticed yet... but they are spread through many quintillions of cubic kilometers of space. -- 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: 9 Nov 89 03:32:58 GMT From: johnsonr@boulder.colorado.edu (JOHNSON RICHARD J) Subject: Re: Tracking Military Satellites Daniel Pommert (daniel@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu) writes: |Richard Langley (LANG@unb.ca) writes: |>From the October 1989 issue of Amateur Satellite Obervers: |>... The article draws no conclusion |>itself, but banners: Secret CIA Satellite Observed "Tumbling" by |>Astronomers in 7 countries. |However, in the report of the current shuttle status there was the |line: "installation of the extravehicular mobility units." |Is this the unit which is used by astronauts to rescue a satellite? Yes. It's also known as a space suit. :-) |-- Daniel Pommert | Richard Johnson johnsonr@spot.colorado.edu | | CSC doesn't necessarily share my opinions, but is welcome to. | | Power Tower...Dual Keel...Phase One...Allison/bertha/Colleen...?... | | Space Station Freedom is Dead. Long Live Space Station Freedom! | ------------------------------ From: gateh%CONNCOLL.BITNET@VMA.CC.CMU.EDU Date: Wed, 8 Nov 89 11:10:49 EST X-Mailer: Mail User's Shell (6.4 2/14/89) Subject: Re: Vax to ride space shuttle. There was an article in the October 30, 1989 issue of Digital Review on page 66 titled "VAX 6200 To Orbit Earth On Discovery Space Shuttle". To summarize, the SpaceVAX is based on a militarized version of the VAX 6200 (32-bit, 16MB), and will be running VMS. It will be used to test the response of a robot arm located on the ground at the Goddard Space Flight Center. The SpaceVAX can operate in temps between -65 and 160 F, and can withstand temps (when not operating) between -80 and 203 F. It "can also withstand all levels of humidity, dust and sand." It is roughly one cubic foot in size, sits on a cold plate, and is cooled by convection. The SpaceVAX is in a pressurized container at normal atmospheric pressures. The arm it is testing is planned for use in construction of space stations and for maintenance of unmanned spacecraft. The arm "will join the computer in space during a shuttle mission scheduled for 1992." Gregg TeHennepe | Minicomputer Specialist BITNET: gateh@conncoll | Academic Computing and User Services Phone: (203) 447-7681 | Connecticut College, New London, CT ------------------------------ Date: 7 Nov 89 23:55:07 GMT From: frooz!cfa.HARVARD.EDU@husc6.harvard.edu (Steve Willner) Subject: Aging Payload Specialists NASA press release: > Hughes-Fulford, 43, previously assigned to Spacelab Life > Sciences-2 as the prime payload specialist, has been reassigned > to SLS-1 to replace Dr. Robert W. Phillips, 60. Phillips is ^^ > stepping down for medical reasons. I wonder if he really failed to pass an exam or just lost his FAA first class medical because of the age limit. Or does NASA impose its own age limit? Anybody know? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steve Willner Phone 617-495-7123 Bitnet: willner@cfa 60 Garden St. FTS: 830-7123 UUCP: willner@cfa Cambridge, MA 02138 USA Internet: willner@cfa.harvard.edu ------------------------------ Date: 8 Nov 89 15:38:49 GMT From: cs.utexas.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!delta.eecs.nwu.edu!phil@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (William LeFebvre) Subject: Re: A "spacey" ambition? In article <2857@trantor.harris-atd.com> wmccain@x102a.harris-atd.com (mccain wb 17021) writes: >In reference to the recent discussions of how to get into space, how would >one actually go about applying? Apply for what? There is a special procedure (and a special set of requirements) for applying to be an astronaut. For any other space-related job, it's pretty much the same as applying for any other type of job: send the company a cover letter and your resume. Remember: working directly for NASA means working for the gonvernment, which means taking and passing the civil servant exam (or at least, so I am led to believe). Also, being a full-time astronaut means working for NASA, therefore.... William LeFebvre Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Northwestern University ------------------------------ Date: 7 Nov 89 19:43:02 GMT From: jerbil@csvax.caltech.edu (Stainless Steel Gerbil [Joe Beckenbach]) Subject: Replacing concrete for lunar construction In his article Kendall Auel (kendalla@pooter.WV.TEK.COM) writes: >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? Water may be at the poles; this type of exploration will be needed. However, rock melts might be able to provide similar functions. From a paper by Rowley and Neudecker at Los Alamos, "In-Situ Rock Melting Applied to Lunar Base Construction and for Exploration Drilling and Coring on the Moon", the authors give crush strengths of rock glasses made from terrestrial rocks. For a cylindrical melt around a core and (presumably) measured as part of a wall of melts, the minimal crush strength is given as 110 megapascals (axially) and maximal at 132 megapascals (tangentially). [The cylinders were made in basalt tuffs closely similar to lunar regolith, in the authors' words, with radius of 5.7 cm.] I don't have any numbers to relate this stress rating against concretes or any other materials. Anyone with a good eye for structural analysis, or at least enough to assay for what size box or dome this could provide support? [1 megapascal == 10e6 kg m^-1 sec^-2] Joe Beckenbach Caltech CS department -- Joe Beckenbach 339 S. Catalina #316 jerbil@csvax.caltech.edu VEGGIES FOREVER! Pasadena, CA 91125 (818) 577-8983 ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V10 #224 *******************