Message-ID: <4ZQWQFO00VcJQ8EE5W@andrew.cmu.edu>
Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU
From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU
To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 89 01:34:58 -0500 (EST)
Subject: SPACE Digest V10 #283

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 10 : Issue 283

Today's Topics:
   Re: Problems with D module launched to USSR's Mir space station
		   Re: Why NASA wants to go to Mars
		   Re: space news from Oct 2 AW&ST
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Date: 27 Nov 89 17:37:22 GMT
From: mailrus!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!ists!yunexus!utzoo!henry@purdue.edu  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Problems with D module launched to USSR's Mir space station

In article <14958@bfmny0.UU.NET> tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET (Tom Neff) writes:
>>                                                  It appears that if
>>we want to build something as big and complex as space stations then
>>you need to have humans there to repair them.
>
>Again, circular.  If you didn't need to man rate everything it wouldn't
>be so big, fragile and complex in the first place...

It wouldn't *start out* so big, fragile, and complex.  It would get there
eventually.  Of course small, simple unmanned missions don't have such
problems, but that's because they're small and simple, not because they're
unmanned.  Make them big and complex, like say a multi-launch unmanned
Mars sample return, and they *will* have to worry about such things.

If you never go out of the shallows, of course you never have to learn
to swim.
-- 
That's not a joke, that's      |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
NASA.  -Nick Szabo             | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu

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Date: 27 Nov 89 21:30:48 GMT
From: uhccux!goldader@ames.arc.nasa.gov  (Jeff Goldader)
Subject: Re: Why NASA wants to go to Mars

In article <14259@boulder.Colorado.EDU> johnsonr@spot.colorado.edu (Richard Johnson) writes:
>
>Huh?  Wherever did you get the idea that space exploration was meant for
>science?  Space exploration was meant for geo-political muscle-flexing from
>the start.  "Science" was just tacked on to make the launching of rockets
>more palatable from a propaganda point of view (and more acceptable to a
>peace-loving public).
>

Well, I've gotten many replies to this effect.  I guess that was just the
last of my youthful idealism being washed down the drain.

With this latest news that it will cost $400 billion to put 4 people
on Mars, I have also arrived at the opinion that there are now *two*
space projects which should be stopped, and the money given to better causes:
the Mars Initiative and the Incredible Shrinking Space Station.  I hope
someone in Congress develops an intellect and tries to kill them, but the
thought of all that money pork-barreled out is probably giving Congress
the warm fuzzies already.  (Whether we actually get anything for it is, of
course, irrelevant)

Jeff Goldader                        University of Hawaii
goldader@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu      Institute for Astronomy

"So, Lonestar, now you see that Evil will always win- because Good is stupid."
-The Dark Lord Dark Helmet, _SPACEBALLS_ 

Disclaimer: The University of Hawaii and the Institute for Astronomy neither 
support nor are in *any way* responsible for these opinions.

------------------------------

Date: 28 Nov 89 02:09:15 GMT
From: helios.ee.lbl.gov!ux1.lbl.gov!mikec@ucsd.edu  (Mike Chin)
Subject: Re: space news from Oct 2 AW&ST

In article <1989Nov26.223357.27453@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
>but will need regular fuel shipments from Earth.  The 20kHz AC power
>system is abandoned [good!] in favor of DC.   [Curious -- why not use the
>standard aircraft 400Hz AC?  Because that would be an admission that the
>ridiculous 20kHz stuff was a mistake?]  The thermal control system is being
Why is 20 kHz bad? I vaguely remember an article in Powertecnics describing
this system, but I wasn't aware of any controversy.

I was involved in a Explorer sat project where all voltages were derived
from a 28V bus; designing the DC-DC converters was a major effort (luckily
not done by me).

Mike Chin
Lawrence Berkeley Labs
MJChin@lbl.gov

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End of SPACE Digest V10 #283
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