Return-path: X-Andrew-Authenticated-as: 7997;andrew.cmu.edu;Ted Anderson Received: from hogtown.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 ; Sun, 27 Jan 91 01:50:54 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: Precedence: junk Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Sun, 27 Jan 91 01:50:49 -0500 (EST) Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #077 SPACE Digest Volume 13 : Issue 77 Today's Topics: Re: W. Larrison's Re:Fwd: NASA Plans To Redesign Space Station Magellan Update - 01/22/91 Re: Ultimate Weapon Re: THE BLUE PLANET "Space Tomatoes" findings featured in education video conference (Forwarded) Magellan Update - 01/23/91 Status of Dryden Tours Re: Status of Dryden Tours Magellan Mapping of Venus (Forwarded) Administrivia: Submissions to the SPACE Digest/sci.space should be mailed to space+@andrew.cmu.edu. Other mail, esp. [un]subscription requests, should be sent to space-request+@andrew.cmu.edu, or, if urgent, to tm2b+@andrew.cmu.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 22 Jan 91 18:40:51 GMT From: snorkelwacker.mit.edu!usc!wuarchive!rex!rouge!dlbres10@bloom-beacon.mit.edu (Fraering Philip) Subject: Re: W. Larrison's Re:Fwd: NASA Plans To Redesign Space Station Commenting on Wales Larrison's version of Oliver Harwood's ideas, would like to say that I was probrably mistaken. There aren't that many managers out there who would like being 'end-run' around to the press... BTW, could someone please explain why a tetrahedral module arrangement isn't good for microgravity research? Why is it worse per se than the rectangular modules? Comments on my question: 1. A possible answer could be because of the physics of the arrangement; for example, location of laboratory away from c.o.g.... 2. In a manned station, vibration from habitation may be less easy to isolate than in a ractangular system ... (?????) (I'm just making a wild guess). But then again, the disturbances from people aboard, even in the rectangular arrangement, might cause disturbances as large as the c.o.g. factor... 3. Maybe these disturbances don't really matter that much (?)(just guessing again). After all, a lot of noisy microgravity with people on hand might be better than a small amount of 'Perfect' microgravity. Does anyone know how perfect the microgravity has to be in order to do useful work? Phil Fraering dlbres10@pc.usl.edu P.S.: I wrote something, and it turned out I was porobrably mistaken. Although I was vague in this post, I will endeavour (;-) to simply write what I know and hope that someone else is kind enough to correct me if I am wrong. But I would like to leave on this note: "The reserve of modern assertions is sometimes pushed to extremes, in which the fear of being contradicted leads the writer to strip himself of almost all sense and meaning." Winston S. Churchill, _The_Birth_of_Britian_. ------------------------------ Date: 22 Jan 91 23:46:46 GMT From: sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov!baalke@ucsd.edu (Ron Baalke) Subject: Magellan Update - 01/22/91 MAGELLAN STATUS REPORT January 22, 1991 The Magellan Spacecraft and its radar system continue to perform nominally, with good STARCALS (star calibrations) and DESATS (desaturations of the reaction wheels) in the past 24 hours. After over a month of nearly perfect STARCALS and DESATS there has been a slight, and expected, increase in star rejects. Spacecraft attitude has been maintained within mission specs, however. Recent temporary images strips, using preliminary ephemeris data and radar data recently received at Goldstone, have shown some one or two minute gaps. These are now believed to be the result of hardware problems at the 34 meter Goldstone station. The Mission Control Team is responsible for 24-hour, real time monitoring and control of the Magellan mission. Training of the team members is continuing for two reasons: o to train personnel new to the team since Venus Orbit Insertion. Staffing for 24-hour, real time surveillance has been increased to two people. o to train all personnel to quickly recognize and respond to spacecraft or communications anomalies, i.e. the many ways we can lose the signal. This training is taking place at JPL, Goldstone, and Denver to give the controllers direct contact with their DSN (Deep Space Network) and Spacecraft Team counterparts and the Magellan operational facilities. The SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) Data Processing Team produced 63 F-BIDRs (Full-Resolution Basic Image Data Record) during the 7-day period ending January 16. This included a standard F-BIDR from orbit 1038 and a temporary F-BIDR from orbit 1275. The temporary F-BIDRs are produced from data recently received at Goldstone and processed using preliminary ephemeris data. The purpose of these temporary products is to achieve timely confirmation that the SAR data collection process is working properly. The SAR data will be reprocessed later using final ephemeris data. The Image Data Processing Team (IDPT) produced 12 new digital F-MIDR (Full-Resolution Mosaicks) products and one digital Basic Radiometer Data Record product. These digital products contain data from several adjacent orbits. The IDPT also produced photographic transparencies and check-prints corresponding to 26 F-MIDRs. The 6-foot Venus Globe that is at JPL was installed in the Von Karman Spacecraft Museum this week. The background surface of Pioneer Venus and Venera images will be applied to the globe during the next few weeks by personnel from the United States Geologic Survey (USGS). A new Magellan exhibit has also been installed in the lobby of Building 230 at JPL. A set of twenty released images have been selected for a Magellan Results Slide Set. This slide set went to the vendor this week. Cosmonauts Alexander Balandin and Col. Anatoli Solovyov along with NOVA and Lockheed representatives toured the Magellan Science Area. The two cosmonauts were visiting NOVA to help highlight an upcoming NOVA series, "The Soviet Right Stuff," which will be broadcast in three one-hour segments on February 26, 27 and 28 on the Public Broadcast System (PBS). ___ _____ ___ /_ /| /____/ \ /_ /| | | | | __ \ /| | | | Ron Baalke | baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov ___| | | | |__) |/ | | |___ Jet Propulsion Lab | baalke@jems.jpl.nasa.gov /___| | | | ___/ | |/__ /| M/S 301-355 | |_____|/ |_|/ |_____|/ Pasadena, CA 91109 | ------------------------------ Date: 23 Jan 91 03:15:47 GMT From: swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!csri.toronto.edu!wayne@ucsd.edu (Wayne Hayes) Subject: Re: Ultimate Weapon Black holes have mass, momentum, velocity, direction, etc, just like any other object. There's nothing magical about black holes unless you get very close to them. Even then it's not magic, because yes, the Theory of General Relativity describes a black hole. In fact, Gereral Relativity is the theory that predicted the existence of black holes. Nobody has yet experimentally verified, once and for all, that black holes really exist (although my money says they do). Black holes could not be used as a weapon as you state. A black hole is formed when you have enough matter compressed into a small enough space to make the escape velocity somewhere nearby equal to the speed of light. This can be done with *any* mass, large or small. To make the Earth into a black hole, you would have to squeeze it into a ball about the size of a grape. Even our own Sun would make a black hole only about the size of a small city (10 km, 6 miles or so). The largest black holes postulated, in the centre of some galaxies with masses of several million Suns, *may* just be big enough to swallow a solar system. But you'd know a black hole that large would be coming long before it got within a few hundred light years of you, ie, probably hundreds of thousands of years before it "hit." Sorry to dissapoint you, but your physics is worse than "fuzzy". :-) If a black hole the size of the solar system was coming, you'd see gravitational effects long before you even saw the growing disk of black, missing sky as it got within visual range. -- "Dad, what should I be when I grow up?" "Honest." -- Robert M. Pirsig, _Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenence_. Wayne Hayes INTERNET: wayne@csri.utoronto.ca CompuServe: 72401,3525 ------------------------------ Date: 22 Jan 91 18:08:35 GMT From: sdd.hp.com!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!watserv1!watcgl!imax!hugh@ucsd.edu (Hugh Murray) Subject: Re: THE BLUE PLANET In article <1991Jan19.024259.20956@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes: > >I expect they work from the same originals, but the actual film used for >projection is different. The Omnimax format is predistorted in a seriously >peculiar way so that it comes out right when run through their strange >projection lenses and viewed on the dome. >-- Henry is not quite correct here. Film destined to be projected on an OMNIMAX dome is shot with a fisheye lens (Zeiss 30mm F-Distagon to be exact), and projected on to the dome with a fisheye projection lens with matched distortion characteristics. Although our projection lenses are custom designs they are not "strange" in any optical sense. Film sequences we intend to show in both of our formats are usually shot twice, once with a rectilinear lens and once with the fisheye. Hugh Murray hugh@imax.com Imax Systems Corp. ------------------------------ Date: 23 Jan 91 20:49:22 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: "Space Tomatoes" findings featured in education video conference (Forwarded) Terri Sindelar Headquarters, Washington, D.C. (Phone: 202/453-8400) January 23, 1991 N91-4 NOTE TO EDITORS: "SPACE TOMATOES" FINDINGS FEATURED IN EDUCATION VIDEO CONFERENCE NASA's Educational Affairs Division will transmit via satellite an educational video conference Jan. 29 to present the results and discuss the implications derived from the data collected by student investigators participating in the Space Exposed Experiment Developed for Students (SEEDS). Budding student scientists throughout the nation planted gardens last spring and summer to experiment with tomato seeds which had been exposed to the harsh environment of space for nearly 6 years aboard the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF). Dr. Jim Alston, Director of Research, Park Seed Company, Greenwood, S.C., will review the SEEDS project and describe the results of his research. He will also share some of the experiences he has collected from the thousands of schools participating in the SEEDS project. Ken Selee, a teacher from Turlock, Calif., will give a teacher's perspective on the SEEDS activity. Dr. Kenneth Wiggins, Director of the Aerospace Education Services Program, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, will present the preliminary findings summarized from data submitted by participants. Finally, Dr. Bill Kinard, LDEF Project Scientist, NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., will discuss results derived from many of the other LDEF experiments. More than 30,000 educators in 50 states are expected to participate in this broadcast. These 1-1/2 hour, interactive video conferences are designed to update teachers on NASA programs, demonstrate aerospace activities for the classroom and announce new programs, products and activities available to classroom teachers. Participating school districts will receive transmissions from 2:30 to 4:00 p.m. EST. The Jan. 29 conference -- the third in a series of four -- will be transmitted on Westar IV, channel 19. There is no charge for registration or participation in the video conference. ------------------------------ Date: 23 Jan 91 21:01:26 GMT From: sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov!baalke@ucsd.edu (Ron Baalke) Subject: Magellan Update - 01/23/91 MAGELLAN STATUS REPORT January 23, 1991 The Magellan spacecraft and its radar system continue to perform nominally. Six of the seven STARCALS (star calibrations) in the past 24 hours were successful. The spacecraft controllers reported a couple of spikes in the reaction wheel telemetry, indicating brief periods of momentum buildup near the alarm limits. Corrective commands are planned for later today. Telemetry from the CDS (Command Data Subsystem) indicated that spurious command response flags have been set. These occur when the spacecraft detects incoming commands and none are expected. The cause of the spurious signals is being investigated. ___ _____ ___ /_ /| /____/ \ /_ /| | | | | __ \ /| | | | Ron Baalke | baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov ___| | | | |__) |/ | | |___ Jet Propulsion Lab | baalke@jems.jpl.nasa.gov /___| | | | ___/ | |/__ /| M/S 301-355 | |_____|/ |_|/ |_____|/ Pasadena, CA 91109 | ------------------------------ Date: 24 Jan 91 02:30:33 GMT From: skipper!shafer@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer) Subject: Status of Dryden Tours In the past, I've posted about the public tour of NASA Dryden. At this time, Edwards AFB, where we're located, is in security condition Bravo. This means that casual visitors, those not personally known to someone on base and not on official visits, are not allowed on base. This means no public tours. When security goes to a lower level and the tours return, I'll let you know. I assume that this is true at all military and federal locations that normally have limited tourist access, so you may wish to check on the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB, Kennedy Space Center, etc, before you plan an excursion around one of these. -- Mary Shafer shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov ames!skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov!shafer NASA Ames Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA Of course I don't speak for NASA "A MiG at your six is better than no MiG at all"--Unknown US fighter pilot ------------------------------ Date: 24 Jan 91 05:34:15 GMT From: skipper!shafer@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer) Subject: Re: Status of Dryden Tours In article shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer) writes: In the past, I've posted about the public tour of NASA Dryden. At this time, Edwards AFB, where we're located, is in security condition Bravo. This means that casual visitors, those not personally known to someone on base and not on official visits, are not allowed on base. This means no public tours. I've gotten e-mail inquiring about the Shuttle landings. I dunno. I'm not sure anyone does. As we get closer, I'll find out. BTW, the next landing for which we are scheduled to have ramp visitors (cookie badges for family and friends) is in May. Not long after I find out something factual and definite, I'll post it. -- Mary Shafer shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov ames!skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov!shafer NASA Ames Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA Of course I don't speak for NASA "A MiG at your six is better than no MiG at all"--Unknown US fighter pilot ------------------------------ Date: 24 Jan 91 15:34:40 GMT From: swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov!baalke@ucsd.edu (Ron Baalke) Subject: Magellan Mapping of Venus (Forwarded) MAGELLAN MAPPING OF VENUS PROVIDES SIGNIFICANT NEW KNOWLEDGE The Magellan spacecraft mapping the surface of Venus with imaging radar has swept over nearly 55 percent of the planet, an area comparable on Earth to the distance from Los Angeles to New Delhi, India. Scientists report that the radar mapping data is providing significant new knowledge about the surface of Venus and its atmosphere. All of the areas mapped show widespread evidence of volcanism, said Project Scientist Dr. Steve Saunders, along with evidence of tectonics, the process that produces mountains. "Venus and Earth are the only planets in our solar system that have linear mountain belts," he said. But the mountains on Venus are not deeply eroded by rainfall and running water as are the mountains on Earth. Magellan also confirmed the number of Venus impact craters that scientists had expected to find, judging from their earlier Earth-based radar data. The smallest impact craters seen so far on the surface are about 3 miles in diameter, indicating the dense Venus atmosphere has effectively shielded the surface from bombardment of smaller asteroids and comets. There also is evidence that the poisonous, thick atmosphere of Venus was not formed recently, Saunders said. Surface images indicate it may be from 400 million to 800 million years old or even older. The Venus atmosphere is 90 times heavier than that of Earth and is composed primarily of carbon dioxide with significant amounts of sulfuric acid at upper levels. Saunders said scientists see in the images that linear mountain belts are being pulled apart by gravitational forces on the planet. New styles of volcanism have been found and lava channels hundreds of miles long occur at several places on the plains. Although lava channels have been found on Earth, none are as long or as regular as those seen on Venus. Another new type of volcanism is being referred to by scientists as "pancake" domes. These structures appear to be up to 20 miles across and nearly a mile high and form on the plains. Scientists believe the domes are formed by an outflow of a pasty, thick lava, similar to silicon-rich lavas on Earth. Volcanic domes also form on Earth, but they are much smaller and form in volcanic calderas, Saunders said. The images also reveal indications of turbulent surface winds on the planet. The evidence is in the form of wind streaks in the lee of topographical obstacles, such as the small, low shield volcanoes on the plains. "Careful mapping of those wind streaks over the entire planet may give us meteorological data about circulation of the atmosphere near the surface," Saunders said. To date, there have been 118 days of mapping and 973 orbits. A total of 819.6 mapping orbits have been received on Earth, 45 percent of the planet's surface, Project Manager Tony Spear said. Fifteen days of mapping were lost, as expected, to superior conjunction, the period last November when Earth and Venus were on opposite sides of the sun and data transmission between the two planets was impossible. There have been other losses of data since mapping began last Sept. 15, due to spacecraft problems and difficulties at the various Deep Space Network stations, Spear said. But of the area covered by mapping orbits, only 2.4 percent has been lost. ___ _____ ___ /_ /| /____/ \ /_ /| | | | | __ \ /| | | | Ron Baalke | baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov ___| | | | |__) |/ | | |___ Jet Propulsion Lab | baalke@jems.jpl.nasa.gov /___| | | | ___/ | |/__ /| M/S 301-355 | |_____|/ |_|/ |_____|/ Pasadena, CA 91109 | ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V13 #077 *******************