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 ; Wed, 14 Mar 90 02:18:56 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Wed, 14 Mar 90 02:18:29 -0500 (EST) Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #145 SPACE Digest Volume 11 : Issue 145 Today's Topics: NASA Headline News for 03/12/90 (Forwarded) One Final Opportunity To Become An Astronaut? Re: SR-71 Record Flight Information SR-71 at Smithsonian Re: SR-71 Record Flight Information Re: Artificial gravity Re: Artificial Gravity ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 12 Mar 90 22:53:51 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: NASA Headline News for 03/12/90 (Forwarded) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Monday, March 12, 1990 Audio: 202/755-1788 ----------------------------------------------------------------- This is NASA Headline News for Monday, March 12 The orbiter Atlantis atop the the 747 shuttle carrier aircraft touched down on Sunday at Biggs Air Force Base in El Paso, Texas. The 747 has refueled and, after another overnight delay due to weather, it will continue on to the Kennedy Space Center tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, at the Kennedy Space Center, the Space Shuttle Discovery is at the Vehicle Assembly Building. There, it is scheduled to resume power-up interface tests to verify connections between the orbiter, external tank, solid rocket boosters and mobile launcher platform. A letter to NASA Administrator Truly from the late Soviet scientist Andrei Sakharov made a request to join with the Soviet Union in a scientific space mission. The White House agreed that NASA would participate in Radioastron, to study qusars believed to be at the cores of infant galaxies. A Soviet 10-meter radio radio telescope is scheduled for launch into Earth orbit in 1993 and then link up with U.S. ground-based telescopes to produce images from deep space. Aviation Weekly reports the Energy Department has enough plutonium 238 to supply electrical power for two future NASA spacecraft. Department officials confirm a supply is available despite comments by DOE Secretary Watkins that the U.S. plutonium stockpile could be depleted in order to restart a reactor in Hanford, Washington. The Comet Rendezvous/Asteroid Flyby and Cassini probes would need plutonium-powered electric generators called RTGs. Administrator Truly says the United States risks losing its international partners in the manned space station project if congress cuts back on the $2.6 billion requested for the project in 1991. He told a senate subcommittee last week that a reduction in the President's request would create a delay. Truly said the Japanese, European and Canadian partners would look very seriously at our commitment to the project. #### ----------------------------------------------------------------- Here's the broadcast schedule for public affairs events on NASA Select TV. All times are Eastern. Thursday, March 15... Goddard Space Flight Center 9:00 A.M. Hubble Space Telescope science briefing. 12:00 P.M. Preparation, deploy, and verification servicing briefing. 5:00 P.M. How to cover the mission. (for media). Monday, March 19..... Johnson Space Center 9:30 A.M. STS-31 flight directors mission overview. 10:30 A.M. Secondary middeck student experiments. 11:30 A.M. Flight crew news conference. Wednesday, March 21.. 1-2:30 P.M. Total Quality Management in Action Colloquium. Please note: NASA Update will not be transmitted this week due to the conference activities. Update will resume next week. 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: 13 Mar 90 01:48:00 GMT From: cs.utexas.edu!samsung!xylogics!transfer!lectroid!jjmhome!cpoint!frog!john@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (John Woods) Subject: One Final Opportunity To Become An Astronaut? I just observed in the 12 March 1990 Aviation Leak that the latest shuttle mission had a head count one higher than the body count. NASA and the Air Force evidently have a human skull outfitted with radiation detectors, used "to study the effects of radiation on the body for use in planning space station missions and lengthy stays on the Moon or Mars." They apparently don't know who donated the skull, and the donor did not know that they would be flying on the shuttle (economy class?). So, those of you who can't meet the usual astronaut requirements, take heart (or some other part): "It is anticipated that a full torso will be flown in future shuttle missions to verify [a radiation] organ-dose equivalent model," according to a Johnson document on the project. The facts in this article are real. Only the interpretation need be taken with a grain of salt. ;-) -- John Woods, Charles River Data Systems, Framingham MA, (508) 626-1101 ...!decvax!frog!john, john@frog.UUCP, ...!mit-eddie!jfw, jfw@eddie.mit.edu ------------------------------ Date: 12 Mar 90 13:34:58 GMT From: amara!khai@uunet.uu.net (S. Khai Mong) Subject: Re: SR-71 Record Flight Information In article shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer (OFV)) writes: > the California coast near Oxnard. They had a 6 kt tailwind. They > crossed the Atlantic coast east of Salisbury, Md, decelerated, and > turned. They landed at Dulles, in Chantilly, VA. They did a low How long and what distance does an SR-71 need to decelerate from Mach 3 to subsonic speeds? -- Sao Khai Mong: Applied Dynamics, 3800 Stone School Road, Ann Arbor, Mi48108 (313)973-1300 (uunet|sharkey)!amara!khai khai%amara.uucp@mailgw.cc.umich.edu ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 12 Mar 90 18:48:33 EST From: John Roberts Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are those of the sender and do not reflect NIST policy or agreement. Subject: SR-71 at Smithsonian >From: skipper!shafer@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer (OFV)) >Subject: SR-71 Record Flight Information >OK, troops, here's the straight skinny, from the Lockheed full-page >ad in the LA times, 7 March 90. >THE ONLY PLACE TO CATCH IT >IS AT THE SMITHSONIAN. > On March 6, 1990, SR-71 # 972 made its final flight, from Los Angeles >to Washington, D.C,, setting four speed records along the way. Rightfully, >this Blackbird will ultimately be placed on permanent display by the >Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museaum. It's a fitting >tribute to a masterpiece of modern aviation. >Mary Shafer shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov or ames!skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov!shafer > NASA Ames Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA > Of course I don't speak for NASA Saying it's going to the Smithsonian doesn't quite pin it down. I expect it will remain at Dulles, to become a part of the Smithsonian annex there, which will also feature the prototype shuttle Enterprise (already there) and the Enola Gay (currently at Silver Hill, in several pieces). Question: Is it possible for the general public to see Enterprise/SR-71 now, or will we have to wait until the official opening of the annex? John Roberts roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov ------------------------------ Date: 13 Mar 90 05:59:24 GMT From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!carroll1!dtroup@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (David C. Troup) Subject: Re: SR-71 Record Flight Information In article <39428@apple.Apple.COM> lowerre@Apple.COM (Bruce Lowerre) writes: >Better than that. The replacement is the space shuttle. Somehow, I find that this is absurd. Replacing an aircraft that can be just about ANYWHERE, ANYTIME with a craft that flies about twice a year (individual orbiters) and cant do anything until it's into orbit. > The U-2 became obsolete when the Russians >developed a cannon ball that could be blasted high enough to shoot it down. Well, a Surface to Air Missle, but a rock is a rock, huh? >The SR-71 became obsolete when satellites were developed with telescopic >cameras good enough to photograph the license plate of a car. Ahem! Wrong. When we (US) did the strike with the F-111's, where did the recon picts come from? A '71, thats where. The problem with the Key-Hole satellites is that you cant just "send one to look at Lybia" bacause of fuel restraints. The Blackbird is STILL a respectable recon platform, even though we have satellites. We still have HUMINT (Human Intelligence) too, and wasnt that replaced with the Camera? :-) One of the problems with the "Falklands War" was that there was no satellite coverage (that I know of) in that area. If anyone knows otherwise, please let me know. Thanks... >As for mach 4 at 100,000 feet, the dream of hypersonic flight with scramjet >engines is being researched. I think they're looking BEYOND mach 4. Not much left after the X-15 tests... Thats *HYPERSONIC*. And MUCH higher than 100,000ft. Hey, it's realy too bad that we didnt continue with the Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar...The Soviets have one..Or maybee we do too. :-) A vehicle like the X-20 would be VERY usefull today. A fleet of about 20 or so would be desirable. later folks... -- David C. Troup ! SkunkWorks ! 2600 hz |"Im going to work at an office dtroup@carroll1.cc.edu | that has no phone, and 414-524-6809(dorm)7343(work) | returning home with sandy The Surf Rat - DC 12 on Neil Pryde and Seatrend | feet." ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 12 Mar 90 17:08:28 EST From: John Roberts Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are those of the sender and do not reflect NIST policy or agreement. Subject: Re: Artificial gravity >From: cs.utexas.edu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!physics.utoronto.ca!neufeld@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Christopher Neufeld) >Subject: Re: Artificial Gravity > But it does keep accelerating. Remember, acceleration is the time rate >of change of the velocity vector (speed or direction or both). A point on >the rim of a hoop of radius 'r' rotating at a constant angular velocity 'w' >experiences an acceleration of r*w*w. This is a measure of the force needed >to keep pushing the object in a circular path, when it would really rather >move in a straight line. An equivalent is acceleration = v*v/r, where v is the instantaneous value of the velocity in the direction of travel. .............................. >From: sdcc6!sdcc3!ph600fji@ucsd.edu (Sir Six) >Subject: Re: Artificial Gravity rephrased > There's an interesting scene in _2001_ when Commander Poole (or >was it Bowman? hmm. whatever) jogs around the spinning carousel. >I was just thinking, would he get a better workout by jogging in the >same direction as the spinning of the carousel than be jogging in >the opposite direction? (My thinking is that one would effectively >increase the angular velocity while the other would effectively >decrease it, and therefore that one would increase the centrifugal >force while the other would decrease it.) eh? He would weigh more running in the direction of spin. If he ran against the direction of spin fast enough to cancel out the spin velocity, he would become "weightless", and drift around until something slammed into him. In fact, once he gets moving, there is no need for the cylinder to spin - his own motion holds him against the surface. The Skylab astronauts did this in imitation of the movie "2001" (there was a film loop in the Air and Space Museum showing the stunt). In contrast to the clever special effects of "2001", in "2010" the crew walk around on the floor normally (justified by the spinning section of the craft), *except* when Dr. Floyd places several objects in midair, and they float! It's not even plausible that this is along the axis of rotation. I suppose it must have been pushed through by some scriptwriter who claimed "It's a great special effect, and nobody will notice the inconsistency." .............................. John Roberts "I didn't overact! I DIDN'T OVERACT!!!" roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov - Roy Scheider ------------------------------ Date: 13 Mar 90 02:45:19 GMT From: cs.utexas.edu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!physics.utoronto.ca!neufeld@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Christopher Neufeld) Subject: Re: Artificial Gravity In article <15248@bfmny0.UU.NET> tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET (Tom Neff) writes: >In article <561@fsu.scri.fsu.edu> pepke@gw.scri.fsu.edu (Eric Pepke) writes: >>Another thing is that, while the cylinder is spinning, you wouldn't be >>able to change the direction of the ship, so you would have to stop it for >>direction changes. > >This turns out not to be true. > >Gyroscopic effects only occur when the delta-vee is out of the plane >of rotation! So long as course corrections are in-plane, you can handle >it with coordinated thrusters. > This is a bit unclear. Just to make sure we're talking about the same thing, imagine the ship is a hoop rotating in space, with a central shaft and drive lying along the axis of rotation. If that's not clear, take the space station from 2001, and put an engine where the docking port is, so that it thrusts along the axis of the ring. There are three possible rotations of this structure (assuming it is a rigid body). Roll, which doesn't change the direction in which the needle is pointing, and pitch and yaw which are interchangeable in absence of a well-defined up and down. Roll has little use if you're trying to change course. Pitch and yaw result from pushing on the front of the needle in one direction, and the back of the needle in the other direction. Both of these look like a gyroscope being brought from vertical to some angle from the vertical. This action tries to change the angular momentum vector through the angle subtended by the nose of the ship. In order for this to happen, the rotating ring has to experience a torque. This torque would stress the bearings and wall supports, probably enough to require a more rugged design if you wanted to change the ship's orientation quickly while the carousel was spinning. >So how do you change the plane of rotation? Flywheels. > This would still stress the mountings of the big carousel. To avoid this stress, the carousel would have to experience a torque sufficient to move it together with the needle. I can't see a way to do this by putting flywheels on the carousel. The scheme I could imagine would be the following: build the ship with the carousel stationary, and a stationary flywheel which spins along the same axis. Spin up the carousel against the flywheel so that the total angular momentum of the ship is zero. This way you can spin the carousel down again without spinning the whole ship around its axis and without firing reaction jets to discard the angular momentum. Now, with everything standing still, turn the ship to your new heading, and spin up the carousel and countering flywheel to restore gravity to the carousel. Of course, this scheme requires two rotational couplings. A more likely proposal in terms of reliability would probably be to make the whole thing rigid (so that the needle also spins with the same angular velocity as the carousel) and strong enough to take the turning torques, and then do it brute force without spinning things down. If you have weeks to prepare for your turns this shouldn't be too difficult. Now, if you propose that the carousel lies on the back of the needle, or is mounted longitudinally within the body of the needle, then you need not make such elaborate preparations for a course change. >-- >Annex Canada now! We need the room, \) Tom Neff > and who's going to stop us. (\ tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET -- Christopher Neufeld....Just a graduate student | "I always think there's neufeld@helios.physics.utoronto.ca | a band." cneufeld@pro-generic.cts.com Ad astra! | Prof. Harold Hill "Don't edit reality for the sake of simplicity" | (The Music Man) ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V11 #145 *******************