Return-path: X-Andrew-Authenticated-as: 32766 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, 9 Jan 90 13:53:49 -0500 (EST) Received: from beak.andrew.cmu.edu via qmail ID ; Mon, 8 Jan 90 01:35:02 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Mon, 8 Jan 90 01:34:40 -0500 (EST) Subject: SPACE Digest V10 #390 SPACE Digest Volume 10 : Issue 390 Today's Topics: Re: Antigravity Re: Antigravity found? Payload Status for 01/03/90 (Forwarded) Astronaut crew named to international microgravity mission (Forwarded) Advanced Tracking and Data Relay Satellite Phase B RFP released (Forwarded) Re: The time thread that won't die. Re: Computational Fluid Dynamics ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 31 Dec 89 22:59:12 GMT From: cs.utexas.edu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!henry@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: Antigravity In article <4388@crdgw1.crd.ge.com> esmonddp@jupiter.crd.ge.com (Daniel P. Esmond) writes: >The results were obtained by dropping objects inside an outrageously >long vacuum tube mounted inside a deep cavern. Rate differences where >often less than 0.1%, but they were convinced they were on to something. There are several groups doing research into the hypothetical existence of either a fifth force (beyond gravity, electromagnetism, the nuclear force, and the weak-interaction force) or hitherto-unsuspected fine print in the behavior of gravity. There have been a few experiments that have suggested such a thing, but there have also been some well-conducted experiments with completely negative results. Gravity is a very weak force and doing high-precision experiments on it is difficult. (As witness the fact that the fundamental gravitational constant is still known to only about four digits.) Any complicating factor has got to be weaker still, or it would have been obvious long ago. The odds are very much against any practically-useful result. -- 1972: Saturn V #15 flight-ready| Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology 1989: birds nesting in engines | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu ------------------------------ Date: 3 Jan 90 07:50:15 GMT From: voder!dtg.nsc.com!andrew@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Lord Snooty @ The Giant Poisoned Electric Head ) Subject: Re: Antigravity found? In article <540@m1.cs.man.ac.uk>, mario@r3.cs.man.ac.uk writes: > This reminds me of the claims of Prof. Eric Laithwaite some years ago. > In a memorable BBC TV broadcast of the Royal Society's Christmas > Lectures sometime in the the early 70s (I was about 10 years old at > the time, I think) he asserted that the behaviour of gyroscopes could > not be properly described by existing physics, and that something > really fundamentally odd was going on..... > Some years later I remember him appearing on the BBC's "Parkinson" > chat show. He was still convinced that something revolutionary was > waiting to be discovered, and said that he booked a package on a > future Shuttle to prove whether the effect was genuine (this was > several, maybe 6 or 7, years before the first shuttle launch). > Clearly, it must have been some sort of effect influenced by gravity > (or possibly friction). > > Does anybody out there (presumably older than me :-)) remember this, > or what became of Laithwaite's claims (or even the man himself; he was > a very good presenter of science)? Did he fly a package on the > Shuttle? Were his claims disproved, was he ignored, or did he just > change his mind? > Mario Wolczko --- --- --- --- i wrote: -- Re gyroscope thread: Professor Eric Laithwaite, well-known British eccentric at Imperial College, London, did a lot of weird stuff with gyros in black boxes about 15 (?) years ago. They would sit around and then "inexplicably jump sideways", and similar stuff. He was doing this in the context of engineering lectures, his intention being for you to apply creative methods to work out what could possibly be inside the black box. Perhaps someone over in the UK can fill in the blanks here - i.e. references - as this may be germane to the Japanese results? --- --- --- -- ........................................................................... 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: 3 Jan 90 18:56:31 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: Payload Status for 01/03/90 (Forwarded) Daily Status/KSC Payload Management and Operations 01-03-90 - STS-31R HST (at VPF) - Cite/MUE installation worked yesterday and will continue today. Aft shroud wasp tent build up is active. Aft shroud clean/inspection followed by MLI installation is scheduled for today. - STS-32R SYNCOM (at Pad A) - Battery conditioning was in work yesterday and will continue today. CNCR, FEA and PCG experiment off line operations are continuing daily. - STS-35 ASTRO-1/BBXRT (at O&C) - MUE installation completed. ASTRO-1/BBXRT pre-IVT walkdown was accomplished. HDRR leak check completed. Installation of ASTRO-1 tent for holidays was accomplished. MLI installation and PR work off continued late yesterday. Have two remaining PRS to complete. The IPS NSI rework has been moved to Thursday morning. Cite testing due to begin today. - STS-40 SLS-1 (at O&C) - Rack 3 and rack 7 mod work picked up yesterday. - STS-42 IML (at O&C) - installed the standard cable tie struts on rack 9. - sts-45 atlas-1 (at o&c) - Began work on the installation of removal plugs and inserts. ------------------------------ Date: 3 Jan 90 19:02:22 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: Astronaut crew named to international microgravity mission (Forwarded) Edward Campion Headquarters, Washington, D.C. January 2, 1989 Jeff Carr Johnson Space Center, Houston RELEASE: 90-1 ASTRONAUT CREW NAMED TO INTERNATIONAL MICROGRAVITY MISSION USAF Col. Ronald J. Grabe has been named to command STS-42, a 9-day mission aboard Space Shuttle Columbia in December 1990. Stephen S. Oswald will be the pilot, and William F. Readdy will fly as a mission specialist. Columbia will carry the International Microgravity Laboratory in which five NASA astronauts and two payload specialists will conduct a variety of studies and experiments in the fields of materials processing and life sciences. Mary L. Cleave, Ph.D., and Norman E. Thagard, Ph.D., were assigned to the flight as mission specialists in June 1989. Two payload specialists will be named in the near future. Grabe, commanding his first Shuttle mission, flew previously as pilot on STS-51J in October 1985 and on STS-30 in May 1989. He was born June 13, 1945 in New York. Oswald will make his first space flight. Born June 30, 1951, in Seattle, he considers Bellingham, Wash., his hometown. Readdy, also making his first flight, was born Jan. 24, 1952, in Quonset Point, R.I., but considers McLean, Va., his hometown. Cleave, mission specialist on STS-61B in November 1985 and on STS-30 in May 1989, was born Feb. 5, 1947, in Southampton, N.Y. Thagard, mission specialist on STS-7 in June 1983, STS-51B in April 1985 and on STS-30 in May 1989, was born July 3, 1943, in Marianna, Fla., but considers Jacksonville, Fla., his hometown. ------------------------------ Date: 3 Jan 90 19:34:15 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: Advanced Tracking and Data Relay Satellite Phase B RFP released (Forwarded) Dwayne C. Brown Headquarters, Washington, D.C. January 3, 1990 Carter Dove Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. RELEASE: 90-2 ADVANCED TRACKING AND DATA RELAY SATELLITE PHASE B RFP RELEASED NASA today released the request for proposal (RFP) for the Advanced Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (ATDRSS). The RFP requests that companies demonstrate their ability and capacity to design, manage, integrate and test large, modern communications spacecraft and associated ground facilities. In the recently completed study phase, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., had awarded contracts in September 1987 totaling approximately $9.3 million to five contractors -- Ford Aerospace and Communication Corp.; General Electric Astrospace; Hughes Space and Communications Group; Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, Inc.; and TRW Space and Technology Group -- for an 18-month design feasibility study of the ATDRSS. The first ATDRSS spacecraft tentatively is scheduled for delivery in July 1997, when it could be used to replace one of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS) currently in use. "A four-satellite constellation of ATDRSS is expected to be in orbit and operational by 2001," according to Thomas C. Underwood, Assistant Chief for the TDRS System at Goddard. ATDRSS is intended to maintain the present NASA track and data relay system through the first decade of the 21st Century. The current TDRS system, which includes geostationary satellites and one operational ground facility and a second ground facility to become operational in 1993, has replaced most of the ground network of tracking stations used by NASA to track and communicate with its low Earth-orbiting spacecraft. The TDRS system provides improved communications coverage for the Space Shuttle. Future missions that will use the system include the Hubble Space Telescope, Space Station Freedom and the Earth Observation System. - more - - 2 - NASA currently has three TDRS satellites in orbit and three more in various phases of construction. By the end of the next decade, these satellites are expected to reach the end of their useful life and will require replacement. The ATDRSS satellite sought by NASA will provide the necessary continuation to meet user needs. "The advanced satellites," explained William S. Guion of Goddard's Tracking and Data Relay project office, "will differ from the existing TDRS spacecraft in two important respects: a new frequency band with a high-data rate capability of 650 million bits per second; and an enhanced multiple access system which will increase the data rate provided each of several simultaneous users from the current 50 thousand bits per second to 3 million bits per second." These higher communication rates will be needed primarily for relaying to Earth the high resolution images resulting from scientific and application missions on Space Station Freedom. Three TDRS currently in orbit are: TDRS-3 (TDRS-West), 171 degrees west longitude, over the Pacific Ocean southwest of the Hawaiian Islands and just east of the Gilbert Islands; TDRS-4 (TDRS-East), which recently replaced TDRS-1 at the east location, 41 degrees west longitude, over the Atlantic Ocean off the northeast coast of Brazil; and TDRS-1, which has been moved to approximately 79 degrees west longitude, over the west coast above the Equador, as an on-orbit spare. The current TDRS spacecraft, the largest and most complex operational communication satellites in the world, are built by TRW, Redondo Beach, Calif., and are owned and operated by CONTEL Federal Systems, Fairfax, Va. ------------------------------ Date: 2 Jan 90 20:55:24 GMT From: ns-mx!umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu@uunet.uu.net (Jacob Hugart,134E LC,(319) 335-6141,) Subject: Re: The time thread that won't die. From article <1990Jan1.191631.5414@hriso.ATT.COM>, by starr@hriso.ATT.COM (Michael L. Starr): > This will be beaten to death for the next 11 years, but a millennium > is any 1000 year period, and can start and end at any point in > time (just like a fiscal year can start at any time of the year). > What ends on Dec 31, 2000 is the 20th century, with the 21th century > beginning on Jan 1, 2001. If this is true (it is!), then doesn't the last decade of the 20th Century (i.e., the "Nineties") begin on January 1st, 1991? Or will we have an eleven year decade on our hands? Jacob Hugart Database Consulting Group, Weeg Computing Center, University of Iowa ------------------------------ Date: 2 Jan 90 23:09:30 GMT From: amelia!wk02!gundy@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Karen L. Gundy-Burlet) Subject: Re: Computational Fluid Dynamics I am a researcher in CFD....but in the subsonic/transonic regimes so I can't fully answer your question. One of the best references I have found for general information on CFD is: Computational Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer by Anderson, Tannehill, and Pletcher We do have a Aerothermodyanics Branch here at NASA-Ames. They do both experimental and computational work. You could try sending them a letter requesting a survey paper, or a selection of their recent papers. The address of the Branch Chief is: Dr. George Deiwert Chief, Aerothermodynamics Branch Mail Stop 230-2 NASA-Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000 Good luck! Karen L. Gundy-Burlet gundy@wk02.nas.nasa.gov Applied Computational Fluids Branch NASA-Ames Research Center ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V10 #390 *******************