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 ; Fri, 1 Mar 91 01:49:46 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: Precedence: junk Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Fri, 1 Mar 91 01:49:41 -0500 (EST) Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #214 SPACE Digest Volume 13 : Issue 214 Today's Topics: Magellan Update - 02/26/91 HST Guide Star CD-ROMS Re: HST Guide Star CD-ROMS (Warning) Re: Terraforming, sun shield Wednesday NOVA on PBS: Russian Right Stuff Re: HST Guide Star CD-ROMS Numerology, theology Re: Terraforming, sun shield Re: Can Mars moons be seen from Mars? Re: Terraforming, sun shield Payload Summary for 02/26/91 (Forwarded) Re: Terraforming, sun shield 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: 26 Feb 91 21:29:26 GMT From: swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov!baalke@ucsd.edu (Ron Baalke) Subject: Magellan Update - 02/26/91 MAGELLAN STATUS REPORT February 26, 1991 The Magellan spacecraft and its radar system are performing nominally. All STARCALS (star calibrations) and DESATS (desaturations) during the past 24 hours were successful. The gyroscopes' temperatures appear to be leveling off, with a peak at 69.8 degrees C. The alarm limit is set at 70 degrees C. Later today, the M1058 command sequence will be sent to the spacecraft. It will include the solar panel offpoint and 10 minute early turn from mapping in order to maintain spacecraft temperatures at acceptable levels. It will also contain DMS-A (Data Management Subsystem) Test #3 which plays back stored data patterns which were recorded on February 21. ___ _____ ___ /_ /| /____/ \ /_ /| Ron Baalke | baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov | | | | __ \ /| | | | Jet Propulsion Lab | Is it mind over matter, ___| | | | |__) |/ | | |___ M/S 301-355 | or matter over mind? /___| | | | ___/ | |/__ /| Pasadena, CA 91109 | Never mind. |_____|/ |_|/ |_____|/ | It doesn't matter. ------------------------------ Date: 27 Feb 91 02:19:21 GMT From: usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!clarkson!clutx.clarkson.edu!tonguetd@ucsd.edu (Thomas Tongue) Subject: HST Guide Star CD-ROMS I could have sworn that somewhere I've seen advertised the guide star catalog for the Hubble Space Telescope, which includes stars dimmer than 6th magnitude, in some publication. I can't find the add anywhere. Does anyone know where this catalog (CD-ROM version) can be found, and for what price??? I'm sure that there are plenty of people interested in such an item on these news groups, but if you can't post, you can send me email at: tonguetd@clutx.clarkson.edu Thanx. -Tom ------------------------------ Date: 27 Feb 91 17:34:11 GMT From: agate!bionet!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!bill@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Bill Jefferys) Subject: Re: HST Guide Star CD-ROMS (Warning) Be warned: The HST Guide Star Catalog EXCLUDES stars brighter than ~ 8th magnitude (depending on where you are in the sky). This is because stars brighter than this cannot be used as guide stars. You will have to get brighter stars from another source, such as the SAO. Bill Jefferys -- If you meet the Buddha on the net, put him in your kill file --Robert Firth ------------------------------ Date: 26 Feb 91 17:17:51 GMT From: rochester!dietz@cu-arpa.cs.cornell.edu (Paul Dietz) Subject: Re: Terraforming, sun shield In article <53987@sequent.UUCP> dafuller@sequent.UUCP (David Fuller) writes: >I find the concept that humans find "uninhabited" planets fertile ground >for cultivation repulsive, ignorant and a propulsion of the status quo. Venus would be better used as a site for dirty industrial processes, rather than for dubious efforts like terraforming. I suggest using Venus's thick atmosphere as a radiator for industrial scale transmutation. With the upper atmosphere heated to ~1000 K, Venus could radiate the waste heat from the production (by fusion) of tens of tons of neutrons per second, which could transmute thousands of tons of useful isotopes per second. Of course, if you really do want to make habitats for people, you get a lot more area by demolishing Venus completely and building rotating structures. Gravity is such an inefficient way to keep one's feet on the floor. Paul F. Dietz dietz@cs.rochester.edu ------------------------------ Date: 26 Feb 91 02:00:03 GMT From: van-bc!rsoft!mindlink!a752@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Bruce Dunn) Subject: Wednesday NOVA on PBS: Russian Right Stuff My TV schedule lists the NOVA program on PBS television for Wednesday February 27 to be: Russian Right Stuff A three-part look at the Soviet space program opens with a profile of its chief designer Sergei Korolev -- Bruce Dunn Vancouver, Canada a752@mindlink.UUCP ------------------------------ Date: 27 Feb 91 16:01:46 GMT From: spacsun.rice.edu!uk1@rice.edu (Paul A. Scowen) Subject: Re: HST Guide Star CD-ROMS There's probably going to be tons'o'responses to this one. Our dept. purchased the HST GSC from ASP a few months back on CD-ROM. It includes stars down to 13.0 mag (I think). It also comes with both PC and Mac software, but the handy-dandy graphics software (which has a lot of bugs) is only available in the Mac version (thankfully we have a Mac). The cost was about $50 if I remember rightly. Also watch out for the so-called "guidestars", we identified 5 of them in one field to be giant extragalactic HII regions - hardly point sources! Hope HST really isn't using this list. Useful for reference though. -- |-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-| - __________ - | Paul A. Scowen / ___ ___ \ | - Department of Space Physics and Astronomy / / @ \/ @ \ \ - | Rice University, Houston TX 77251 \ \___/\___/ /\ | - (713) 527-8101 x2433, x3534 \____\/____/|| - | / /\\\\\// | - Internet: uk1@spacsun.rice.edu | |\\\\\\ - | scowen@vega.rice.edu \ \\\\\\ | - \______/\\\\ - | Span: RICE::SCOWEN _||_||_ | - -- -- - |-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-| ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Feb 91 14:35:09 EST From: John Roberts Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are those of the sender and do not reflect NIST policy or agreement. Subject: Numerology, theology >From: loren@dweasel.llnl.gov (Loren Petrich) >Subject: Re: The Moon => Existance of God...? (was Re: SPACE Digest V13 #102) >Date: 27 Feb 91 01:15:47 GMT >Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory >In article <1991Feb26.191851.7382@lonex.radc.af.mil> andrewsh@lonex.radc.af.mil (Harold G. Andrews II) writes: >>God always was and always will be. He is the one thing that will never change. > Will it someday happen that 2 + 2 != 4? Well, since you ask, yes, it could. :-) A pure mathematical expression such as 2 + 2 = 4 exists by human definition, and humans can change the definition any time they feel like it. Of course, the potential usefulness of such a change in dealing with the universe around us depends on current conditions. This sort of thing has happened before. Remember the good old days, when parallel lines didn't intersect? (*) Then one day someone (Gauss and others) proposed that it wasn't so, and non-Euclidean geometry was born. Now there's speculation that the universe itself may on the large scale be non-Euclidean, and if so, the traditional geometry will have to be thrown out except for purely theoretical applications and as a useful approximation for local conditions. (**) Even the famous Carl Sagan has speculated (in fiction) that *if* the universe was deliberately created from scratch, there had to be a decision process by which constants such as pi were selected. :-) (*) - A more accurate representation: given line A and point B which is not on line A, how many lines can be drawn through B that are parallel to A? In Euclidean geometry, the answer is always 1. in non-Euclidean geometry (depending on the flavor) the answer is either 0 or >1. (**) - Last I heard, it's still Euclidean to the limits of measurement, but it is felt that there's no particular reason to believe the measurements are sufficiently precise and accurate to make a measurement. >Loren Petrich, the Master Blaster: loren@sunlight.llnl.gov >Since this nodename is not widely known, you may have to try: >loren%sunlight.llnl.gov@star.stanford.edu I don't see much prospect of finding a scientific answer to the theological question of "why" the moon is there. However, it can be very interesting to speculate on the tremendous influence the moon must have had on the development of astronomy, and eventually on the interest in space exploration. John Roberts "Don't count your postulates roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov before they're hatched." ------------------------------ Date: 27 Feb 91 21:40:32 GMT From: hbh@athena.mit.edu (Heidi Hammel) Subject: Re: Terraforming, sun shield henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes: > dafuller@sequent.UUCP (David Fuller) writes: > > I find the concept that humans find "uninhabited" planets fertile ground > > for cultivation repulsive, ignorant and a propulsion of the status quo. > Do you feel similarly about the dreadful despoiling of the Hawaiian Islands > by all those icky plants and animals? (The original "unspoiled" state of > those islands was bare, sterile volcanic rock.) > If not, why is it proper for plants and animals to cultivate barren > wastelands and not for humans to do likewise? I guess my answer to your question, Henry, is that those plants and animals are cultivating the barren wastelands into a viable ecosystem, with checks and balances. Humanity so far has only demonstrated a marked ability to *destroy* stable ecosystems, returning them to barren wastelands. I think that what humans have done recently to the Hawaiian Islands is repulsive. Oahu is, for the most part, ugly and seriously overdeveloped. Maui is rapidly heading that way. Humanity (in particular Western civilization) hasn't yet learned to live on the Earth without destroying it; it hardly seems appropriate to move on to the next planet. -- ------ Heidi B. Hammel (hbh@athena.mit.edu) MIT 54-316 -- Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences ------------------------------ Date: 27 Feb 91 22:32:59 GMT From: agate!stew.ssl.berkeley.edu!korpela@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Eric J. Korpela) Subject: Re: Can Mars moons be seen from Mars? In article <1991Feb27.222156.21130@agate.berkeley.edu> korpela@stew.ssl.berkeley.edu (Eric J. Korpela) writes: >This may be a trick answer to a simple question, but I believe the record is >held by Mars with three visible moons. Oops! Make that at least three. It may be possible for those with good eyes to separate the outer galilean satellites from Jupiter. I haven't done the calculations, so I'm not entirely sure. /\ korpela@ssl.berkeley.edu Internet /__\ rioch BKYAST::KORPELA 42215::KORPELA DecNet / \ of Chaos korpela%bkyast@ucbjade Bitnet (_____________________ ------------------------------ Date: 26 Feb 91 02:12:57 GMT From: unisoft!fai!sequent!dafuller@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (David Fuller) Subject: Re: Terraforming, sun shield In article <4206@orbit.cts.com> jduffin@pnet51.orb.mn.org (Joshua Duffin) writes: >Just an idea, but as long as we're going to get water from asteroids, how >about if we just send a real big one (err, make that comet I think, asteroids >are more rocky than icy...) into Venus, to kick up a nice cloud of dust to >cool off the planet at the same time as we add water? Save on energy to >decelerate the comet, too. > > >UUCP: {amdahl!bungia, crash}!orbit!pnet51!jduffin >ARPA: crash!orbit!pnet51!jduffin@nosc.mil >INET: jduffin@pnet51.orb.mn.org I find the concept that humans find "uninhabited" planets fertile ground for cultivation repulsive, ignorant and a propulsion of the status quo. Without understanding the greater nature of the universe, we propose to make a planet habitable inasmuch as sticking some giant terrestrial penis into Venus' vagina without understanding in any real sense why Venus is there or whether there is something more subtle to be learnt. We may get older as a (male) race but we certainly don't get any smarter. My opinions are my own. -- Dave Fuller Sequent Computer Systems Think of this as the hyper-signature. (708) 318-0050 (humans) It means all things to all people. dafuller@sequent.com ------------------------------ Date: 26 Feb 91 23:22:51 GMT From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: Payload Summary for 02/26/91 (Forwarded) KSC PAYLOAD STATUS REPORT February 26, 1991 Mitch Varnes 407/867-2468 FTS 823-2468 ---------------------------------------------------------------- STS-39 (March 1991) The three primary STS-39 payloads, AFP-675, IBSS and STP-1, are inside Discovery's payload bay at Launch Pad 39-A. Routine ser- vicing of the payloads is ongoing with no major anomalies or problems being worked. Upcoming work includes routine cryogenic servicing of Cirris and SPAS. STS-42 (December 1991) International Microgravity Laboratory Checkout and testing of the IML-1 elements is proceeding on schedule at Test Stand Stand 2 of the Operations & Checkout Building High Bay. No outstanding issues are being worked. STS-40 (May 1991) Space Life Sciences-1 Five members of the STS-40 flight crew were at KSC last week par- ticipating in the Crew Equipment Interface Test. The astronauts were conducting equipment and other checkouts inside the SLS-1 Spacelab module. This exercise was one of the final milestones to be done on SLS-1 before it is transferred to the Orbiter Processing Facility for installation into the orbiter Columbia. That transfer is currently slated for late March. ------------------------------ Date: 26 Feb 91 23:37:02 GMT From: voder!pyramid!ctnews!tsnews!ward@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Ward Griffiths) Subject: Re: Terraforming, sun shield dant@mtdoom.WR.TEK.COM (Dan Tilque) writes: >Does the term "shield square" mean anything to you? That's right, >build several huge rectangular flat panels (about 12,000 Km wide) and >connect them with some real strong wire (all made from the finest >unobtainium Larry Niven can think up) so that they make a ring and put >the whole thing in orbit around Venus. Voila, not only do we cool >Venus down, but we get a reasonable day and night cycle to boot (on one >side of the planet anyway). Unfortunately, the ring of shadow squares suffers from the same drawback as a ringworld: instability within its plane of revolution. The ones between the Ringworld and its sun could balance themselves by tacking on light pressure and solar wind, but such a ring around Venus would have those forces all coming from basically one direction, that of the Sun. I suspect that the attitude thrusters would use prohibitive quantities of reaction mass. >Also you could use some of that power to generate a magnetic field in >the shield square ring since Venus has no field of its own. (Actually, >this isn't a bad idea, assuming the existence of the shield square ring >in the first place.) Actually, if Venus DID have a magnetic field, this could be used to stabilise the ring of shadow squares. But yes, there does need to be some way to deflect charged particles from the Solar Wind. In this case, at the expense of stability in the shadow ring, however, since deflection will have a greater effect on the shadow ring than just interception. >cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer) writes: >>Yes. Try big dirigibles in the upper atmosphere, carrying algae >>to do the CO2 -> O2 conversion. Much more practical. Why dirigibles? They just have to float around, not go anywhere in particular. Balloons are MUCH cheaper, as much of a Zep junkie as I am. But Dan covered the algie raw material problem well enough as it is. >Water is the big problem, but then it's always the problem with all >schemes to terraform Venus. In the long run, you're going to need >about as much water as Earth has in its oceans, so transporting it from >Earth is out. So we either corral a bunch of comets or grab a small >moon from an outer planet. Well, elsewhere in this newsgroup I just read a proposal for using comet/asteroid collisions as a way of providing delta vee to get the asteroids into GEO or HEO. (I am NOT an eco-nazi, but I am not crazy about the idea of steering intact asteroids closer than GEO, and preferably not that close. Refine as high up as convenient.) We'd might as well do something with the leftover cometary mass. -- Ward Griffiths, Unisys NCG aka Convergent Technologies The people that make Unisys' official opinions get paid more. A LOT more. =========================================================================== To Hell with "Only One Earth"! Try "At Least One Solar System"! If I say love, I'll sound sentimental, and if I say sex, I'll sound cynical. I'll call it pair bonding and sound scientific. The Golden Apple ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V13 #214 *******************