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, 22 Oct 1990 01:46:32 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: Precedence: junk Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Mon, 22 Oct 1990 01:45:59 -0400 (EDT) Subject: SPACE Digest V12 #479 SPACE Digest Volume 12 : Issue 479 Today's Topics: Mammoth Magellan Data Re: Deep Lunar Dust Story? Re: Theories needed on life Signoff RE: Deep Lunar Dust Story Deep Space Network... Re: Hybrid replacements for SRB's (was: Man-rated SRBs Ulysses Administrivia: Submissions to the SPACE Digest/sci.space should be mailed to space+@andrew.cmu.edu. Other mail, esp. [un]subscription notices, should be sent to space-request+@andrew.cmu.edu, or, if urgent, to tm2b+@andrew.cmu.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 21 Oct 90 19:34:11 GMT From: usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!euclid.jpl.nasa.gov!pjs@ucsd.edu (Peter Scott) Subject: Mammoth Magellan Data A graph on a nearby wall states that around March 1991, the data returned from Magellan will exceed that returned by all other planetary probes combined (pushing 1 trillion bits). Hmm, let's see, ftp'ing over a 56kbaud link... :-) -- This is news. This is your | Peter Scott, NASA/JPL/Caltech brain on news. Any questions? | (pjs@euclid.jpl.nasa.gov) ------------------------------ Date: 21 Oct 90 20:25:02 GMT From: crash!orbit!pnet51!schaper@nosc.mil (S Schaper) Subject: Re: Deep Lunar Dust Story? The concern was based on calculations that over the moon's assumed age, and the assumed rate of meteor impact, that the dust would be very deep indeed, and that in the lunar gravity, would be loose enough for the lander to sink down. If there was serious concern continuing I doubt they would have sent the men, but we had already had surveyor on the moon, so it must have been clear that something was wrong with the calculation based on age and meteor impact rate. See _Scientific American_ vol 202 (Feb 1960) p. 132 `Cosmic spherules and Meteoritic Dust' by Hans Pettersson. It seems to involve influx of dust as well as impact produced debris. The layer should have been 182 feet thick. UUCP: {amdahl!bungia, uunet!rosevax, chinet, killer}!orbit!pnet51!schaper The necktie is a device of Mordor ARPA: crash!orbit!pnet51!schaper@nosc.mil INET: schaper@pnet51.cts.com ------------------------------ Date: 20 Oct 90 22:39:47 GMT From: mnetor!utzoo!henry@uunet.uu.net (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: Theories needed on life In article <1990Oct19.204109.1718@nntp-server.caltech.edu> bruce@seismo.gps.caltech.edu (Bruce Worden) writes: >... Ignoring the high-gravity question, isn't it possible that an >Earth-like planet could have beings remarkably similar to us? There is a long-standing debate about whether we are built the way we are because of sheer chance or good engineering. There are lots of little things that clearly could change without altering our fitness for survival very much, e.g. the number of fingers on our hands. On the other hand, anything that has followed a similar evolutionary track -- from finned fish, to belly-dragging quadrupeds, to long-legged quadrupeds, to bipeds -- will probably have a fairly similar overall body plan. Even somewhat different evolutionary patterns (the existence of which is one subject of the debate) seem likely to agree on basic features, i.e. putting the sensors near the top for a better view, but not at the top where they are vulnerable to falling objects and low ceilings. But the die-hards will argue about even this. Oddly enough, some of the folks who are firmest about physical resemblance being unlikely are also the loudest about how advanced civilizations *must* be peaceful, egalitarian, etc. You'd almost think :-) it was their politics, not their scientific judgement, talking. -- The type syntax for C is essentially | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology unparsable. --Rob Pike | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Oct 90 15:18:46 EST From: Hobbes Subject: Signoff Helo. Please dop=drop me from the Space mailing list. Thank You. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Oct 90 22:13 CDT From: Jon Subject: RE: Deep Lunar Dust Story I just read a Deep Martian Dust Story in THE WORLD TREASURY OF SCIENCE FICTION (Little, Brown 1989) titled "The Valley of Echoes," by French writer Gerard Klein. I wasn't too impressed by it; maybe it was the translation. Anyway, the hand of van Vogt seems (to me) obvious. (It was written in 1973, bu which time no one had stumbled into a Dust pit on the moon, so...) /\__ \ \_ 2108 Hayes Street; # 415 \ \ Nashville, TN 37203 \ SUMATRA & ENVIRONS, Ltd. O \_ \_ \ Jon Ciliberto "Running at 300 Baud < \ from the heart of Medan." \ <_ O \_ CILIBERT@vuctrvax 615.320.1478 o. \ \ >__/\___/ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Oct 90 14:48 CDT From: Astronomy is looking up! Subject: Deep Space Network... X-Envelope-To: space+@andrew.cmu.edu I have a few questions on the Deep Space Network (DSN). How many attenas are there in the network? What are their sizes and locations? And now with Galileo, Magellan and Ulysses all needing to use the DSN is it capible of handling all of them without any serious loss of data? Dan Wihela Lupis%bsu.decnet@msus1.bitnet ------------------------------ Date: 21 Oct 90 23:45:30 GMT From: mnetor!utzoo!henry@uunet.uu.net (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: Hybrid replacements for SRB's (was: Man-rated SRBs In article <8496@fmeed1.UUCP> russ@m-net.ann-arbor.mi.us (Russ Cage) writes: >+ Hybrids are safer to transport, assemble and stack (as in "no danger"). Sorry, wrong. Hybrids still require transportation of a liquid oxidizer, e.g. liquid oxygen, which is a serious hazard, much more dangerous than (say) liquid hydrogen. Hybrids are certainly ahead of solids, especially during assembly and stacking, but "no danger" is simply untrue. -- The type syntax for C is essentially | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology unparsable. --Rob Pike | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry ------------------------------ Date: 22 Oct 90 05:09:39 GMT From: uokmax!rwmurphr@apple.com (Robert W Murphree) Subject: Ulysses Dear Ron Baalke: Could you comment, either by E-mail or in sci.space or sci.astro about the possibility of an extended mission for Ulyssess? After 1995 comes and the south pole of the sun is past, what's to stop Ulyssess from making the trip again and again? What does the orbit evolve too? Also, will the mission be limited by 1)expendables-attitude gas 2) power from the RTG etc. Is there political support at ESA for an extended mission? Is JPL providing the communications and ESA the operations or what? Thanks.. Robert W. Murphree Internet: rwmurphr@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V12 #479 *******************