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 ; Mon, 16 Apr 90 01:50:03 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <8a-Jni200VcJ85b04l@andrew.cmu.edu> Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Mon, 16 Apr 90 01:49:34 -0400 (EDT) Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #264 SPACE Digest Volume 11 : Issue 264 Today's Topics: Re: National Space Society Policy Survey NASA experiment to brighten easter sky (Forwarded) Re: Interstellar travel Re: National Space Society Re: Fermi Paradox Payload Status for 04/13/90 (Forwarded) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 13 Apr 90 23:02:49 GMT From: agate!agate!web@apple.com (William Baxter) Subject: Re: National Space Society Policy Survey In article <7519.26246111@pbs.uucp> pstinson@pbs.uucp writes: > As an active member I did not get the survey currently posted >in the net. The one members received not long ago was much more thought >provoking. I am sorry I don't still have a copy of it. It was very well done. > There >was no "right" answer and no "cheerleading". I quess you have to already be a >member to get the quality surveys. Please do not judge this organization by >the fiasco that was sent out to "attract" new members. Here is a copy of the last survey I received from NSS. It appears to be the same one that the previous article refers to. What do you think of this survey? Let me know. --------------- 1990 SPACE POLICY SURVEY Your answers to this survey will be used in formulating the National Space Society response to requests from the White House and Congress for the NSS position on space issues. While we have asked you to make tough choices, they are the very same choices that our government leaders will be making in the coming months. It will only take a few minutes to complete. Thank you. 1. President Bush has set the goals of establishing a permanent base on the Moon and the human exploration of Mars. Which of these should be the first priority for the United States? _Lunar Base _Exploration of Mars 2. NASA has proposed a $30 billion "Mission to Planet Earth" program which would monitor the environment and study global change. Compared with exploration of other planets and scientific research, what priority do you give to a space program developed for the purpose of studying the earth? _Mission Earth should be a top priority _Mission Earth should be given equal priority to other programs _Mission Earth should be given a lower priority 3. The most important reason that the U.S. should study space is: _To advance scientific knowledge _To gain technological innovations _To promote space settlement _To reap commercial benefits of space _To provide world leadership and boose national pride 4. The U.S. is exploring the potential for international cooperation on its Moon/Mars initiative. Do you feel that the U.S. should work: _strictly by itself _only with its allies _only with the Soviet Union _with broad-based cooperation 5. Should private space development efforts: _receive financial subsidies from the U.S. taxpayers _be self-supporting 6. Human space exploration has proved riskier and more cotly than materials research in space. However, the human experience in space is critical if we are to develop a space-faring civilization. Plans for the Space Station Freedom propose to balance materials research with programs directed to future human exploration. If such a balance cannot be achieved, should the Space Station and space programsn in general: _put materials research first _put human exploration first 7. To increase spending on the U.S. space program, would you most likely support (check only one): _shifting funds from the defense budget to NASA _shifting funds from social programs to NASA _increasing federal taxes 8. If you had $100 to allocate to the following NASA programs, how would you divide it up? $__for NASP (National Aerospace Plane) $__for Moon Base $__for Space Station Freedom $__for Solar Powered Satellites $__for Mars Exploration $__for support of Space Commercialization $__for Automated Science Missions $__for Advanced Launch Systems $__for Mission to Planet Earth $__for SETI (Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence) __total (must total $100) ----------------------- -- William Baxter ARPA: web@{garnet,brahms,math}.Berkeley.EDU UUCP: {sun,dual,decwrl,decvax,hplabs,...}!ucbvax!garnet!web ------------------------------ Date: 13 Apr 90 23:18:10 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: NASA experiment to brighten easter sky (Forwarded) Michael Braukus Headquarters, Washington, D.C. April 13, 1990 (Phone: 202/453-1549) Jim Elliott Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. (Phone: 301/286-8955) RELEASE: 90-54 NASA EXPERIMENT TO BRIGHTEN EASTER SKY Residents of central Canada and the North Central United States might experience a more colorful Easter than they expected. If all goes well, the sky in those areas will brighten with a rainbow of colors from an experiment being conducted NASA. The experiment is scheduled for 1:36 a.m. EDT, Easter Sunday. At that time, if conditions are right for the test, a canister of barium will be discharged into space from an orbiting satellite 315 nautical miles above the Earth. The satellite is Pegsat, launched on a Pegasus rocket on April 5, 1990. Using a unique launching system, the Pegasus was carried aloft under the wing of a NASA B-52 from Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and released at 43,000 feet. The Pegasus launch vehicle then placed the satellite into a 94.1 degree inclined orbit. Based on the achieved orbit and the requirements for proper lighting conditions, the chemical release window is approximately 2 weeks long starting the night of April 14, 1990. When the barium is released, it will form a yellowish cloud. The cloud will change to a green and white color, which will fade away while a purplish vertical streak develops and grows in length. The Pegsat satellite, designed, built and tested at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., carries two canisters of barium. The second canister will be discharged at a later time. Purpose of the experiment is to study the complex interactions of the fast-moving cloud of chemicals with the Earth's magnetic field, electric field and the space environment at the release altitude, according to project scientist Dr. Robert A. Hoffman, of the Goddard Space Flight Center. He said the primary active chemical released is vaporized barium, which, when struck by sunlight, becomes electrically charged and emits its own characteristic light. The releases will occur in a region over northern Canada between Churchill and Yellowknife. To observe them, scientists from international laboratories will establish optical observing sites at the Churchill Research Range and at Lynn Lake in Manitoba, Fort Smith in the Northwest Territories, and at Stony Rapids, Saskatchewan. Other observation points have been established in the United States, located in Massachusetts near Boston, in West Texas, New Mexico, California and Washington, as well as Puerto Rico. ------------------------------ Date: 14 Apr 90 00:39:45 GMT From: rochester!uhura.cc.rochester.edu!!prine@pt.cs.cmu.edu (Ron Prine) Subject: Re: Interstellar travel I am no scientist, but I just happen to find this in Heinlein's _EXPANDED UNIVERSE_ pg. 369 ROUNDTRIP BOOST COMPARISON OF ELAPSED TIME Thrust Earth-Mars-Earth Earth-Pluto-Earth @ 1 gee 4.59 days 4.59 weeks @ 1/10 gee 14.5 days 14.5 weeks @ 1/100 gee 45.9 days 45.9 weeks @ 1/1000 gee 145.0 days 145.0 weeks He states that he added the 1/1000 so that you could see that even with Solar Sails you could make the trip. Now you can tear this apart and see how this works. My idea is that we need to get our constant acc. drives in better shape. Later Ron Prine ------------------------------ Date: 13 Apr 90 07:58:30 GMT From: agate!agate!web@apple.com (William Baxter) Subject: Re: National Space Society In article <12876@venera.isi.edu> cew@venera.isi.edu (Craig E. Ward) writes: >In article <7827@celit.fps.com> dave@fps.com (Dave Smith) writes: >> The survey, however, is designed to produce specific responses >>from the respondent. >> As someone pointed out in e-mail to me, every organization needs >>sheep. This is fine. However, I don't like their agenda as shown to me >>from that survey > You need be careful about judging the whole program from such a narrow slice >of information. There's no need to play dumb, Craig. The NSS wants sheepish members. People who think for themselves just invite trouble. They disagree. The swill that appears in the society magazine often offends their taste, and they become angry when their letters and articles are refused for publication. They ask for financial statements and minutes to committee meetings, and occasionally have the audacity to attend the meetings! They object to rigged elections. They want to know who writes the NSS position papers, and where the information cames from. They complain about slanted surveys designed to obtain answers supporting the current headquarters opinions. How rude! How insolent! How inconvenient! > Commercial space receives good and positive coverage in the >Society's magazine, Ad Astra. These articles usually disclose the fact that the authors don't have a clear idea what commercial space might mean. > Articles about private enterprise space development show up >regularly and the December 1989 issue was all commercial. The cover of this issue pictures a paper airplane made from a one dollar bill doing a high-g turn, like a typical picture of NASP. It makes a rather powerful statement, but probably not what they intended. > This is from NSS president Charles Walker's column in the same issue: > [back to the future with Uncle Sam picking up the tab, blah blah] Yes, and his three examples of commercial space ... [drum roll, cymbals] Europe, USSR, Japan! > I hope you better feeling about NSS now. It's vitally important that we all feel good about it. No matter what happens, just remember that warm, fuzzy feeling. Thinking can be so terribly unpleasant. -- William Baxter ARPA: web@{garnet,brahms,math}.Berkeley.EDU UUCP: {sun,dual,decwrl,decvax,hplabs,...}!ucbvax!garnet!web ------------------------------ Date: 15 Apr 90 06:54:24 GMT From: sdd.hp.com!samsung!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!larry!scherb@decwrl.dec.com (Frank Scherb) Subject: Re: Fermi Paradox Why not consider the idea that the Galaxy is so big that given about a million years of exploration you still only see a very small piece at best? I personally think that the scale of astronomical distances precludes the idea of exploring SPACE on a "microscopic" level since the galaxy IS mostly space. That means you have to think in R^3 not in linear displacement. ------------------------------ Date: 13 Apr 90 23:14:48 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: Payload Status for 04/13/90 (Forwarded) Daily Status/KSC Payload Management and Operations 04-13-90. - STS-31R HST (at pad-B) - On Thursday the payload bay doors were reopened. Today a HST battery removal dry run will be performed. - STS-35 ASTRO-1 (at OPF) - BBXRT GSE was installed and checked out in the MLP on Thursday. Support for orbiter rollover to the VAB will be provided today. - STS-40 SLS-1 (at O&C) - Rack and floor installation into the module, fire suppression system troubleshooting, and preps for experiment train interface test were active Thursday and will continue today along with aft end cone transfer to test stand 2. - STS-42 IML-1 (at O&C) - On Thursday module pyrell foam replacement along with racks 3, 4, 7, and 9 staging operations were performed. Pyrell foam replacement will continue today along with racks 4, 7, 9, and 11 staging. - STS-45 (Atlas-1)- Pallet to pallet mating was completed Thursday. The pallet train will be transferred to the south rails today. - STS-55 SL-D2 (at O&C) - Rack 12 staging activities will continue today. - HST M&R (at O&C) - ORUC power network verification will continue today. ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V11 #264 *******************