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, 18 Apr 90 02:34:20 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Wed, 18 Apr 90 02:33:49 -0400 (EDT) Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #280 SPACE Digest Volume 11 : Issue 280 Today's Topics: Re: Teenage Mutant Ninja Tomatoes Payload Status for 04/17/90 (Forwarded) Richard named Deputy Associate Administrator for Communications (Forwarded) Re: Listening to the Star (was RE: Drake Equation) Re: Gerry Bull Murder and "Doomsday Gun Re: The effects of decompression Whip launch as first stage? Re: space news from March 12 AW&ST etc. NASA Headline News for 04/17/90 (Forwarded) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 17 Apr 90 14:56:19 GMT From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!lavaca.uh.edu!uhnix1!nuchat!steve@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Steve Nuchia) Subject: Re: Teenage Mutant Ninja Tomatoes In article <1990Apr16.180456.29686@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov> pjs@aristotle.jpl.nasa.gov writes: >But anyway, what kinds of mutations might we expect, given the >especially energetic particles these seeds had to deal with? Exactly the same kinds you get on the ground, only more of them. ------------------------------ Date: 17 Apr 90 23:57:55 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: Payload Status for 04/17/90 (Forwarded) Daily Status/KSC Payload Management and Operations 04-17-90. - STS-31R HST (at pad-B) - HST battery charging continues. - STS-35 ASTRO-1 (at OPF) - Support for orbiter rollover to the VAB was provided Monday. Support for VAB operations will continue today. - STS-40 SLS-1 (at O&C) - Rack and floor installation into the module, aft end cone mating to the module, and preps for experiment train interface test were active Monday and will continue today. - STS-42 IML-1 (at O&C) - On Monday module pyrell foam replacement along with racks 3, 4, 7, and 11 staging operations were performed. Pyrell foam replacement will continue today along with racks 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, and 11 staging. - STS-45 (Atlas-1)- Connector bracket, support structure, and hardpoint installations will continue today. - STS-55 SL-D2 (at O&C) - Rack 12 staging will continue today. - HST M&R (at O&C) - ORUC power network verification and cable installation will continue today. ------------------------------ Date: 17 Apr 90 23:59:07 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: Richard named Deputy Associate Administrator for Communications (Forwarded) Debbie Rivera Headquarters, Washington, D.C. April 17, 1990 RELEASE: 90-55 RICHARD NAMED DEPUTY ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATOR FOR COMMUNICATIONS Sue Mathis Richard was named Deputy Associate Administrator for NASA's Office of Communications. The appointment was effective April 9, 1990. She works directly with the Associate Administrator on all matters concerning the news media, public services and television development. Before coming to NASA, Richard served as Vice President, Industry Communications for the National Cable Television Assn., overseeing press, publicity and public relations activities for the cable industry. Previously, Richard was Florida Communications Director for the Bush-Quayle Campaign and before that Public Relations Manager for the Walt Disney World Co. Prior to that she was a Special Assistant to President Reagan and Director of Media Relations at the White House. In addition to her extensive managerial experience, Richard has held several key positions as a journalist, including Washington television correspondent for Cox Enterprises, Inc., and cable television anchor and producer in East Lansing, Mich. She also is a former teacher, having served as an English/Communications instructor at Carl Brablec High School, Roseville, Mich. A native of Fraser, Mich., Richard graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in Radio/Television Communications. She now resides with her husband and 3-year old daughter in Alexandria, Va. ------------------------------ Date: 18 Apr 90 03:49:38 GMT From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!qucdn!gilla@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Arnold G. Gill) Subject: Re: Listening to the Star (was RE: Drake Equation) In article <15376@bfmny0.UU.NET>, tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET (Tom Neff) says: > >If those Indians were sitting in the forest today looking for smoke >signals as a sign of "they're presense" [good thing we have Universities >on the net isn't it] they would not catch our CB radios... but they'd >see our contrails! But they wouldn't know if it were natural or not - which effectively means that our existence would still be unknown. >The point is that civilization tends to add new media, not eliminate old >ones. We will surely still be emitting RF of identifiably sentient >origin many centuries from now. > >In fact the only reason I can think of that we'd stop emitting radio >would be DELIBERATELY, to avoid cluttering up the aether with our >noise... perhaps for the sake of astronomy, perhaps out of some highly >advanced sense of environmental awareness... or perhaps to HIDE from >something NASTY out there!! :-) Or simply to make our backyard look nicer. How many people out there still have a 25 foot antenna sticking out above their house? Cable TV has nearly wiped out *THAT* form of communication. ------- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- | Arnold Gill | | | Queen's University at Kingston | If I hadn't wanted it heard, | | BITNET : gilla@qucdn | I wouldn't have said it. | | X-400 : Arnold.Gill@QueensU.CA | | | INTERNET : gilla@qucdn.queensu.ca | | -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ------------------------------ Date: 17 Apr 90 09:41:38 GMT From: brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!uxa.cso.uiuc.edu!sfn20715@psuvax1.cs.psu.edu Subject: Re: Gerry Bull Murder and "Doomsday Gun /* Written 11:45 am Apr 12, 1990 by burch@quik07.enet.dec.com in uxa.cso.uiuc.edu:sci.space */ would assume that the Iraqis would have had to test this gun, and that a "peaceful" mission would have had to be fabricated to justify it. This would have allowed the promise of HARP to have been realized. /* End of text from uxa.cso.uiuc.edu:sci.space */ Ha. Iraq has no peaceful missions. Anyone who wants to cooperate with Iraq involving any aspect of technology or science has more than my invitation to shoot themselves. Iraq has repeatedly confirmed their desire for weapons of destruction or terror i.e. chemical, biological, and nuclear. The only purpose of the Iraqi space program was the production of a missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads. I admit that it would be nice to see the HARP realized, but Iraq is _not_ the place to do it. (BTW, if you want references, just say the word. There is plenty of material to support this.) ------------------------------ Date: 17 Apr 90 13:11:27 GMT From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!watserv1!watdragon!watyew!jdnicoll@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Brian or James) Subject: Re: The effects of decompression I believe that tests exposing humans to a soft vacuum were done by Nazi Germany. The impression I have is that these tests were done to destruction of the human subject, but I have no idea what, if anything, was ever done with the results [or if the records survived the war in any meaningful way]. This is a bit like the hypothermia test the Germans did, in that while the test procedure was inhumane, the results may have been put to good use. To fend off flames, don't take this as a recommendation that NASA or any other group start performing intentionally lethal tests on humans. As an aside, while the dogs involved in the '60s vacuuum exposure tests were exposed until dead, for some reason the primates were not. This is probably because of the cost of getting new primates, rather than any primate prejudice. JDN ------------------------------ Date: 17 Apr 90 19:27:46 GMT From: sam.cs.cmu.edu!vac@pt.cs.cmu.edu (Vincent Cate) Subject: Whip launch as first stage? Ken Harrenstien: >Just to keep the thread alive, how about simply towing a Pega-RPV up? >The disposable wings (made by Rutan, of course) could be optimized >either for height or speed. The idea of a pair of F-15s slinging a >Pega-BB through Mach 2 is wild enough, I hope. Can you give any more details on how you would use 2!! F-15s to do this? Each with a sort of elastic tow rope, maybe? In the same way that a water skier can end up going much faster than the boat pulling him it should be possible for the glider to go much faster than the plane. Soaring type gliders can easily be higher than the plain towing them so extra altitude should be easy. If you are going to tow a rocket behind it seems that a good whip action off of a long tow line from a big plane would be fun. With a C-5A at about 600 MPH and 40,000 feet I think a whip could get a small rocket to well over Mach 2. What I would do is to have several gliders along the tow rope to provide the whip action. The number of intermediate gliders probably depends on the length of the cable. If we could have a kevlar cable that was 5 miles long with 4 intermediate gliders I think we could get at least an extra 1,000 MPH. I think that 2,000 MPH might even be possible. Can anyone say how much 5 miles of kevlar cable strong enough to lift 100,000 lbs would be? (possible BIG problem here) The way I see it working is as follows. The line of gliders (last being the pegasus) starts out at 45 degrees below the horizon (or as low as they can get really). If all gliders start lifting at the same time the ones closest to the plane should get up first since they do not have as far to go. The exact timing would all have to be worked out in order to get the whip to crack at the highest point (near 60,000 feet?). The C-5A weighs about 20 times as much as the pegasus, so the its engines should be able to keep it in the air and going forward while giving the pegasus at the end of the whip a 2 G acceleration. The gliders should be light and have good lift to drag ratios. Also, the C-5A could slow down by 100 MPH without any real problems which, with no loss, would be enough momentum to send something 1/20th as heavy at 2,000 MPH. Just in case people missed the start of this (Pegasus launch from a Valkyrie) it seems that the difference between a polar launch and an equatorial launch (1,000 MPH) causes the payload of the Pegasus to go from 600 lbs to 900 lbs. Clearly if you could add 1,000 MPH to a polar launch in some way you could add 300 lbs to the payload. Since payload to orbit seems to be around $10,000 for small payloads, this is worth around $3,000,000 per launch. A whip might pay for itself after only a couple launches but I have no idea how expensive kevlar (can anyone say?) not to mention these extra gliders or development cost. I could see a whip launch giving an extra 2,000 MPH and 20,000 feet over a simple B-52 launch. This might even double the payload that could be sent into a polar orbit making 1,200 lbs. If we take the operating cost of the towline as zero, then the price per pound to polar orbit could be cut in half with such a whip, making the Pegasus really attractive!! -- Vince ------------------------------ Date: 17 Apr 90 16:19:33 GMT From: att!cbnewsh!mrb1@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (maurice.r.baker) Subject: Re: space news from March 12 AW&ST etc. In article <1990Apr17.023212.29553@utzoo.uucp>, henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes: > Soviets say that the first Buran orbiter probably will not fly again, > since it is too far behind what is now considered full flight standard > in electronics and life support. Does anyone know how many orbiters there are in the USSR shuttle "fleet"? Is this really saying that there is a new orbiter design under construction now, or that the one-and-only (presumably) flight of the Buran is the last 'shuttle' flight we'll see from USSR ? M. Baker homxc!jj1028 ------------------------------ Date: 17 Apr 90 23:56:26 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: NASA Headline News for 04/17/90 (Forwarded) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, April 17, 1990 Audio Service: 202/755-1788 ----------------------------------------------------------------- This is NASA Headline News for Tuesday, April 17..... A new Auxiliary Power Unit installed in the orbiter Discovery will undergo a "hot fire" test on Wednesday. A 20-30 second firing will qualify the unit for the STS-31 launch scheduled for April 25 at Kennedy Space Center. The batteries which were removed from the Hubble Space Telescope last Saturday are undergoing charging and will be reinstalled in the telescope on Saturday. A careful check of detectors in the payload bay indicate no signs of contamination to the telescope. A heater cable leading from Discovery's aft compartment to a rear External Tank strut has been disabled. It shorted out during last week's countdown. Warm weather at the Cape precludes the need for the heater during launch next week. * * Associated Press reports the National Research Council feels a joint U.S. - Soviet mission to Mars is too risky and suggests the two countries follow a "graceful path" of coordinated but independent explorations. The council, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, said the Soviets and U.S. "have no prior experience with the degree of cooperation necessary to carry out a technical project of this complexity or magnitude". * * The crew for the STS-35 mission will conduct a news conference Friday, April 20, at Johnson Space Center. They will discuss their roles in the flight set for mid-May. The orbiter Columbia will carry the Astro payload into Earth orbit to conduct a series of astronomical observations. The news conference begins at 10:30 a.m., EDT, and will be carried on NASA Select TV. * * Solar arrays and antennas will be deployed today aboard the Palapa B-2R communications satellite launched aboard a Delta 2 rocket last Friday. *************** ---------------------------------------------------------------- Here's the broadcast schedule for Public Affairs events on NASA Select TV. All times are EDT. Thursday, April 19.... 11:30 a.m. NASA Update will be transmitted. Friday, April 20..... 10:30 a.m. STS-35 Astronaut News Conference from Johnson Space Center. Tuesday, April 24..... 9:00 a.m. STS-31 Countdown Status Report 10:00 a.m. APU/HST Status Report 11:00 a.m. Pre-launch News Conference Wednesday, April 25..... 4:00 a.m. STS-31 Launch and mission coverage begins. All events and times are subject to change without notice. NOTE: During the STS-31 mission NASA Select TV will provide daily mission highlights on Satcom F1R at midnight, EDT. F1R is located so that TV stations and educational institutions in Hawaii and Alaska may access the NASA Select video. ---------------------------------------------------------------- These reports are filed daily, Monday through Friday, at 12 noon, EDT. ----------------------------------------------------------------- A service of the Internal Communications Branch, NASA Hq. ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V11 #280 *******************