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 ; Sat, 9 Mar 91 02:39:25 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: Precedence: junk Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Sat, 9 Mar 91 02:39:21 -0500 (EST) Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #249 SPACE Digest Volume 13 : Issue 249 Today's Topics: Re: Japanese Space Effort, II Explosive decompression (Was Re: HAL) Institutions involved in Space Research NASA Headline News for 03/08/91 (Forwarded) Names of notable women to be proposed for Venus features (Forwarded) Galileo Update - 03/06/91 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: 6 Mar 91 20:39:48 GMT From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!pitt!nss!Paul.Blase@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Paul Blase) Subject: Re: Japanese Space Effort, II NS> The Japanese program sounds awfully darn close to the program NS> Paul Dietz and I have been promoting -- the development of NS> space automation (factories, tugs, etc.) and non-chemical NS> propulsion (MPD, EML, etc.). It does look like Japan has its NS> head on straight regarding technology, strategy, and the most NS> economical scale for pursuing space activitites. They have NS> shrugged off the obsessions with "manned" projects and NS> mis-scaled technology, and come up with a lean, aggressive NS> program for developing the technology needed for space industry NS> and eventually colonization. Autonomous, in this case, means "All Japanese", not unmanned. Actually, their manned space program is quite active. I do agree with your comments (edited out) about NASA's fixation on tried-and-true chemical propulsion systems and ignoring of such things as MPD drives and electro-magnetic launchers. NS> Thanks, Paul, for a very informative posting! Your're welcome. --- via Silver Xpress V2.26 [NR] -- Paul Blase - via FidoNet node 1:129/104 UUCP: ...!pitt!nss!Paul.Blase INTERNET: Paul.Blase@nss.FIDONET.ORG ------------------------------ Date: 8 Mar 91 11:24:46 GMT From: eru!hagbard!sunic!news.funet.fi!tukki.jyu.fi!jyu.fi!otto@bloom-beacon.mit.edu (Otto J. Makela) Subject: Explosive decompression (Was Re: HAL) In article <1991Mar07.170249.14901@convex.com> tighe@convex.com (Mike Tighe) writes: [re David Bowman jumping vacuum in 2001] OK. So explode was a bad word choice. I didn't mean for it to sound like he had a hand grenade in his mouth. And since he had no other options to choose from, it wasn't all that unreasonable a choice. But I think he certainly would have died, and that was my point. I spoke about this last summer with an old NASA engineer. He told me that basically the film scene was right, except that he should have blacked out for a few seconds about seven seconds after his lungs had no oxygen intake (of course, you can imagine this happening as the scene does not show him leaving the airlock). Seems it takes this long for the non-oxygen-bearing blood to reach the brain from the lungs. Other decompression effects include the swelling of all loose bits of skin (joints, specially the ankles and thumb/index finger connection) making it hard to stand up or grasp things. However, it takes several minutes for irreversible damage to take place. As this has little to do with computer folklore anymore, I'm followuping this to sci.space ! -- /* * * Otto J. Makela * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * */ /* Phone: +358 41 613 847, BBS: +358 41 211 562 (USR HST/V.32, 24h/d) */ /* Mail: Kauppakatu 1 B 18, SF-40100 Jyvaskyla, Finland, EUROPE */ /* * * Computers Rule 01001111 01001011 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * */ ------------------------------ Date: 6 Mar 91 19:53:11 GMT From: munnari.oz.au!metro!cs.uow.edu.au!bhpcpd!stvl@uunet.uu.net (Steve Lechowicz) Subject: Institutions involved in Space Research I am a physicist currently working in industrial research. I am interested in doing a PhD in a space related area. What I would like to know is what Universities are currently involved in such research. Location is not really a problem although my preference would be for Australia or Canada. My interests, as far as research goes, are in the design of space-hardware such as landers, stations, and the like. Sorry about the broadness of this request but I figure its better to save any nitti-gritti detail for e-mail correspondence. Thanks in advance for any help on this. -- Steve Lechowicz, Research Officer (stvl@bhpcpd.kembla.oz.au) BHP Coated Products Division, Research and Technology Centre Port Kembla, New South Wales, Australia. ------------------------------ Date: 8 Mar 91 20:26:49 GMT From: usenet@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: NASA Headline News for 03/08/91 (Forwarded) Headline News Internal Communications Branch (P-2) NASA Headquarters Friday, March 8, 1991 Audio Service: 202 / 755-1788 This is NASA Headline News for Friday, March 8, 1991 Discovery rolled back into the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center at 11:00 am yesterday. Technicians are currently preparing the stack for demating of the orbiter. This should begin early next week. Following the demate procedure, Discovery will be rolled to Orbiter Processing Facility Bay 2. Atlantis will be rolled to the VAB later this afternoon. Hoisting and mating operations will then proceed immediately. The rollout of Atlantis' stack and mobile launch platform to launch pad 39-B is expected by late next week. The Gamma Ray Observatory will be featured at a press briefing and tour today at KSC's Vertical Processing Facility at 1:30 pm EST. GRO project scientists and managers will describe the observatory's mission and spacecraft features. The GRO payload will be transported to the launch pad early next week, to await the arrival of Atlantis and subsequent installation into the orbiter's payload bay. Atlantis, with the Gamma Ray Observatory payload, is set for launch on the STS-37 mission early in April. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * McDonnell Douglas Space Systems will launch the Inmarsat 2 satellite tonight from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The launch window for the commercial Delta 2 vehicle opens at 5:59 pm EST and closes at 6:54 pm EST. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Galileo is currently moving at 72,800 miles-per-hour, relative to the Sun, as it arcs outward slightly beyond the orbit of Earth. The spacecraft is 102 million miles from the Sun, and 35 million miles from Earth. Round-trip communication time between Galileo and the Deep Space Network stations is now running 6 minutes, 11 seconds. Recent activity on the spacecraft has been comprised of routine housekeeping activities. All science experiments currently are powered off except for the heavy ion counter, dust instrument, magnetometer, extreme ultraviolet instrument, and ultraviolet spectrometer. These instruments are now or will shortly be acquiring cruise phase data. Routine maintenance of the thruster system is planned for today. During this procedure, thrusters that have not been used recently are fired briefly to keep them and their oxidizer lines cleared. The next major event on the Jupiter-bound spacecraft's schedule is the October 29 flyby of the asteroid Gaspra. Here's the broadcast schedule for Public Affairs events on NASA Select TV. All times are Eastern. NASA Select TV is carried on GE Satcom F2R, transponder 13, C-Band, 72 degrees W Long., Audio 6.8, Frequency 3960 MHz. Monday, 3/11/91 1:00 pm NASA Radio show will be transmitted. 3:00 pm Total Quality Management Colloquium will be transmitted. Tuesday, 3/12/91 12:00 pm NASA Productions will be transmitted. 6:00 pm NASA Productions will be replayed. All events and times may change without notice. This report is filed daily, Monday through Friday, by 12:00 pm, Eastern. It is a service of NASA Headquarters Office of Public Affairs. Contact: CREDMOND on NASAmail or at 202/453-8425. ------------------------------ Date: 8 Mar 91 20:34:16 GMT From: usenet@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: Names of notable women to be proposed for Venus features (Forwarded) Paula Cleggett-Haleim Headquarters, Washington, D.C. March 8, 1991 (Phone: 202/453-1547) Jim Doyle Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. (Phone: 818/354-5011) RELEASE: 91-38 NAMES OF NOTABLE WOMEN TO BE PROPOSED FOR VENUS FEATURES Scientists of NASA's Magellan Project, in association with the U.S. Geological Survey, are inviting the public to propose names of notable women for the many impact craters and large volcanic vents being discovered on Venus by the Magellan spacecraft's imaging radar. "We want everyone, especially students, to share in the adventure of discovery," said Magellan Project Scientist Dr. Steve Saunders. He said that the impact craters on Venus are some of the most beautiful features in the solar system. They form somewhat randomly in time and space when an asteroid or very large comet collides with Venus' surface. "The flower-like symmetry of impact craters evidences the enormous energy of these infrequent events," he said. "A modest 20-mile-diameter crater represents more energy than is contained in all the arsenals on Earth." Names sent to the Magellan Project offices at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory will be compiled for the Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature, a committee of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). The IAU gives final approval to names for bodies in the solar system. Because the IAU meets only every 3 years and its next meeting is in July 1991, names newly proposed for Venusian features will not be considered until the following meeting in 1994. But names proposed this year, if accepted as provisional by the nomenclature committee, may be used on published maps and in articles, pending final approval by the IAU. Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey's Flagstaff, Ariz., field office said they expect names for 4000 or more features on Venus are likely to be required in the coming decade. Of those features, at least 900 are expected to be impact craters. Cratersand volcanic calderas, called "paterae," on Venus are named for notable, actual women. Indeed, all features on Venus are named for women, with only three exceptions. They are Maxwell Montes, named years ago for early radar pioneer James Maxwell, and Alpha Regio and Beta Regio. "The mapping of Venus is unique in the history of cartography," said USGS cartographers Ray Batson and Joel Russell. "Never has so much territory been discovered and mapped in so short a period of time." The process of naming features on Venus began in the 1960s with early radar images taken from Earth. It continued through radar mapping spacecraft expeditions of the United States and Soviet Union. But, they said, the Magellan mission is resolving features 25 times smaller than those mapped previously and its radar data will cover an area nearly equivalent to that of the continents and the ocean floors on Earth. Many features on Venus, by international agreement, are named for goddesses of ancient religions and cultures. But craters and volcanic calderas or vents, the paterae, are named for actual women. There are certain stipulations, however. For example, women must have been deceased for at least 3 years and must have been in some way notable or worthy of the honor. Names of military or political figures of the 19th and 20th Centuries are specifically forbidden under rules of the IAU, as are the names of persons prominent in any of the six main living religions. Names of a specific national significance also are not allowed. When the name is submitted, her birth and death years and a one or two sentence written rationale for the honor should be given, along with a reference book citation, if available. The Magellan project members ask that submissions be sent to: Venus Names Magellan Project Office Mail Stop 230-201 Jet Propulsion Laboratory 4800 Oak Grove Dr. Pasadena, Calif. 91109. ------------------------------ Date: 8 Mar 91 22:41:20 GMT From: elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jato!mars.jpl.nasa.gov!baalke@decwrl.dec.com (Ron Baalke) Subject: Galileo Update - 03/06/91 GALILEO STATUS REPORT March 6, 1991 Today, the Galileo spacecraft is traveling at 72,800 miles per hour relative to the Sun as it arcs outward slightly beyond the orbit of Earth. The spacecraft is 102 million miles from the Sun and 35 million miles from Earth. Round-trip communication time is 6 minutes, 11 seconds. During the past week the spacecraft has conducted routine housekeeping activities. All science experiments are powered off except for the Heavy Ion Counter (HIC), Dust Detector (DDS) instrument, Magnetometer (MAG), Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EUV) instrument and Ultraviolet Spectrometer (UVS), which are or will be taking data during the cruise phase. On Friday, March 8, routine maintenance of the thruster system is planned. During this procedure, thrusters that have not been used recently are fired briefly to keep the thrusters and oxidizer lines cleared. Today, the following is planned for the Galileo spacecraft: o Cruise Science memory readouts of the MAG, DDS and EUV instruments; the first of these is in process. o Radio frequency receiver and command detector performance characterization tests. There are no spacecraft activities planned for tomorrow. ___ _____ ___ /_ /| /____/ \ /_ /| 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: 8 Mar 91 22:33:12 GMT From: dog.ee.lbl.gov!hellgate.utah.edu!csn!magnus.ircc.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!linus!linus!cyclone!sokay@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (S. J. Okay) Subject: Re: Terraforming, sun shield In article <1991Feb28.001811.13990@athena.mit.edu> hbh@athena.mit.edu (Heidi Hammel) writes: >In article <1991Feb27.223706.12865@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes: >>On the contrary, I think making our mistakes somewhere *else* would be a >>fine idea. We're not going to be able to learn without mistakes. And >>it's not as if we're going to be destroying existing ecosystems on, say, >>Venus. We could hardly leave it in worse shape than it is now. > ^^^^^ >Spoken from a truly geocentric (humanocentric?) point of view ;-). So what would you propose we do?e-how would you solve things like the fresh water problem and overpopulation? Go ahead and see if anybody would actually entertain ideas like forced abortions, life-span limitations, birth taxes, etc. for population control! In my view, we either get that radical, or we start moving off-planet. Other efforts are not likely to have the needed cumulative effect in time. >Just because humanity *can* alter a system doesn't mean it *should* alter a >system. *Especially* before the other world is fully explored robotically. >What I'm trying to get across is that there is free choice is human >intervention of natural evolution - whereas plants and insects (in the >Hawaiian Island example given by Henry originally) are not making active, >informed decisions to modify the ecosystem. Does *that* answer the question? >If not, maybe you could rephrase the question? You're right..they're not making active, informed decisions, they are merely acting out of instinct and their own self-interest. They don't have the capacity to realize cause and effect and that draining a ecosystem for its resources without replenishing them or giving them time to replenish themselves will result in their own destruction. WE DO. We have the ability to say 'hey, we're really screwing up here, maybe we should move off and lessen then burden some.' or 'Well, we could really screw things up here by experimenting on the ecosystem, lets try it somewhere else where theres' nothing to mess up'. >>Incidentally, it's quite possible to find cases where plants and animals >>have destroyed stable ecosystems, starting with the greatest ecological >>disaster in Earth's history: the evolution of photosynthesis. > >And look where it eventually lead us ... purported global warming due in Thats right...blame it on the plants. They're the cause of all this!!! Let get 'em!!! Fetch me my flamethrower Maw! (Multiple :)s implied for the humor-impaired) ---Steve ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V13 #249 *******************