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 ; Thu, 9 May 91 01:49:31 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <0c-C=ZO00WBwQ9Q05Y@andrew.cmu.edu> Precedence: junk Reply-To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU From: space-request+@Andrew.CMU.EDU To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU Date: Thu, 9 May 91 01:49:26 -0400 (EDT) Subject: SPACE Digest V13 #510 SPACE Digest Volume 13 : Issue 510 Today's Topics: Re:International Civil Space Agency 93 Letter to U.S. Congress and Senate ESO or MIDAS contact address Re: GREAT IDEA Re: IT'S OVER Re: EXPLOSION over Los Angeles Re: tether's Goddard's Small Explorers (was Re: space news from March 11 AW&ST) Re: Recovering Galileo Re: Hypersonic Transport NASA Headline News for 05/06/91 (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: 3 May 91 00:30:30 GMT From: vax5.cit.cornell.edu!usf@cu-arpa.cs.cornell.edu Subject: Re:International Civil Space Agency 93 To all NewsNet Members Thank you for correcting my spelling, as this is one of my low points. I must also say that I am just learning the system and have not yet figured out how to spell check my documents on the VMSNEWS network. Any help I can recieve in this regards would be helpful. I must also remind those of narrow minds who seek after fault and not what is good in somthing, to lighten up just a little. For if you spent as much of your intellegence to look for what was being presented instead of nitpicking misspellings and the such, your time might be better spent. In the future I will make an effort to present corrected documents to the VMSNEWS network. Thank you for the many replies of support, Godspseed! Rick R. Dobson ExSincerely,ecutive Director UnRick R. Dobsonited Spa Founder and Executive Director United Space Federation, Inc. ------------------------------ Date: 3 May 91 01:25:18 GMT From: vax5.cit.cornell.edu!usf@cu-arpa.cs.cornell.edu Subject: Letter to U.S. Congress and Senate Dear Senators and Congressmen Many key technology related industries in your district are now suffering cutbacks and scale downs of epidemic proportions as a result of the collapse of the Cold War between the USSR and the USA. Thousands of your constituents ( VOTERS ) are now losing their jobs, their lively hoods, and the very means with which to support their familys and their communities. This could very well be the beginning of a devastating chain reaction which could engulf all areas of this countries economic infrastructure. I must also emphasize that this problem is not only occurring here in this country, but is also occurring at much worse proportions throughout Eastern Europe and the USSR. I ask you this Mr. Senator, what shall be your pledge to your constituents in the next few months when the hoards of letters cascade onto your desk from people who for years have had steady job security, who now stand bewildered and overwhelmed with fear for their family's survival in the long lines to collect unemployment checks; What shall be your response to the leaders of your States aerospace, electronic, manufacturing, and other key industries when they say " Mr. Senator, what shall we do, we have no work for our workers, and our Corporations are failing for lack contracts " ; And what Mr. Senator shall you do when the costs for providing subsidies and services to your states county, city, and town governments outstrips the income generated from Taxes which now have been eliminated, or greatly reduced, as a result of key industries and corporations failing and workers who no longer make taxable incomes. I have a viable solution to this problem and wish to receive your support and assistance in making it happen. I will put unemployed workers in your state back to work. I will give your states industry and corporations a bounty of contracts to fulfill. I will Mr. Senator generate enough new tax income for your state to fill its exhausted treasuries to overflowing. I have a dream Mr. Senator, a vision of renewed prosperity, adventure, and the opening and conquest of the new frontier. This dream and vision does not only incompass this country, but it incompesses the well being of the whole world. Thank you for your time and support, Godspeed! Sincerely, Rick R. Dobson Founder and Executive Director UNITED SPACE FEDERATION, Inc. ------------------------------ Date: 2 May 91 20:59:51 GMT From: mcsun!ukc!uos-ee!ee.surrey.ac.uk!A.Etemadi@uunet.uu.net (Ata Etemadi) Subject: ESO or MIDAS contact address Dear all I'm trying to get in touch with the people at the European Southern Observatory near Munich. They produce the MIDAS package. I would be grateful if someone could give me a relevant email address. regards Dr A. Etemadi <(|)>. -- =============================================================================== Dr. A. Etemadi, | Phone: (0483) 571-281 Ext. 2311 V.S.S.P. Group, | Fax : (0483) 300-803 Dept. of Electronic and Electrical Eng., | Email: University of Surrey, | Janet: a.etemadi@ee.surrey.ac.uk Guildford, | ata@c.mssl.ucl.ac.uk Surrey GU2 5XH | SPAN : ata@mssl United Kingdom | ata@msslc =============================================================================== ------------------------------ Date: 3 May 91 15:47:17 GMT From: news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utzoo!henry@uunet.uu.net (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: GREAT IDEA In article <91123.103206GIPP@GECRDVM1.BITNET> GIPP@gecrdvm1.crd.ge.com writes: >... for the hype and praise for OSC (which I am not knocking or >denying), how can everybody rate them as the hottest thing in town on >the basis of one launch (with the initial ride given/subsidized by a >gov't plane)? Isn't their money made on separation doohickeys ... Pegasus isn't making money yet, but that's because it's still in its very early stages. It will eventually. And yes, one launch isn't very much, but there are two more scheduled for this summer; the holdup has been payload readiness, not launcher problems. And the ride wasn't "subsidized" by a government plane: the customer provided the launch aircraft to reduce his launch costs, since he happened to own a suitable plane. (It's convenient that he did, since nobody else has one and setting one up from scratch would have been costly, but this was hardly a subsidy: it reduced the customer's costs, not OSC's.) The significance of Pegasus's one launch is not so much that it makes them a roaring commercial success, although that's certainly the way the wind is blowing. Its significance is that it was the very first launch of a completely privately developed launcher. It's also the first launch in a very long time of a launcher developed at modest cost (circa $50M) and in a relatively short time (about 3 years). -- And the bean-counter replied, | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology "beans are more important". | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry ------------------------------ Date: 5 May 91 03:06:35 GMT From: hayes.ims.alaska.edu!hayes!ejo@decwrl.dec.com (Eric Olson) Subject: Re: IT'S OVER In article <910504.19541068.041554@USM.CP6> WARREN@USMCP6.BITNET (MICHAEL DAVID WARREN) writes: >STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION WILL BE CANCELLED AFTER THE 1991-92 >SEASON. IT IS OFFICIAL FROM THE PRODUCERS OF THE SHOW. >I AM SO GLAD, THAT HAS TO GO DOWN IN THE ANNALS OF HISTORY >AS ONE OF THE WORST RATED SHOWS OF ALL TIME >NEXT TO THE 1988 DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION. >GOODBYE STTNG, YOU WILL NOT BE MISSED How nice. Are you sure you wanted to post this to sci.space, and not to sci.space.cadet? Eric Olson Gryphon Gang Fairbanks AK 99775 ------------------------------ Date: 5 May 91 02:09:39 GMT From: skipper!shafer@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer) Subject: Re: EXPLOSION over Los Angeles In article <32569@usc> robiner@mizar.usc.edu (Steve Robiner) writes: I've heard several reports on the radio this morning about a bright 'flash' of light in the sky over LA on the night of April 30th/morning of May 1st. Anyone know more about this? The L A Times said it was a meteorite and had a bunch of experts to back up their claim. The evening news said so too. It was described by witnesses as 'an electrical fire' and others as 'an explosion.' I heard one report on the radio that a witness who happened to videotape the event had his tape confiscated by the Air Force. Well, the Times had a picture. I didn't see a video tape, but I was in and out and not really watching. It looked like a meteorite trail to me and it certainly didn't look like an explosion--just the streak across the sky. I'm not trying to spread wild rumors, just reporting what I heard on the radio. And from those accounts it doesn't sound like your average meteorite. Maybe not average, but still a meteorite. People's accounts seem to be pretty inaccurate. Remember all the reports of explosions and gear being up, etc, at the time of the collision at LAX in February? No explosion, gear down, everything else false, it turned out. -- 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 "Turn to kill, not to engage." CDR Willie Driscoll ------------------------------ Date: 5 May 91 20:22:03 GMT From: snorkelwacker.mit.edu!think.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!rex!rouge!dlbres10@bloom-beacon.mit.edu (Fraering Philip) Subject: Re: tether's In article <1991May5.001117.14094@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes: >The simplest way is to have each end of the cable in good electrical >contact -- details left to the student :-) -- with the surrounding plasma. >Then you get current because the plasma is not moving at the same speed >with respect to the field as you are. I've heard of variants of MHD/MPD propulsion systems being proposed as plasma contacts of some sort. The course instructors :-) may perform some sort of appropriate demonstration as soon as a more frequent and less expensive bus to the lab envornment comes into use. -- Phil Fraering dlbres10@pc.usl.edu ''It's a Flash Gordon/E.E. Smith war, with superior Tnuctip technology battling tools and weapons worked up on the spot by a billion Dr. Zarkovs.`` - Larry Niven, describing the end to _Down in Flames_. ------------------------------ Date: 5 May 91 22:01:34 GMT From: rochester!sol!yamauchi@louie.udel.edu (Brian Yamauchi) Subject: Goddard's Small Explorers (was Re: space news from March 11 AW&ST) In article <1991Apr29.011039.28456@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes: >OSC to get two new NASA contracts: seven Pegasus launches (plus options >on three more) for Goddard's Small Explorer series, starting 1993 and >running two per year, Does anyone have any more details about the Small Explorer program? Are these orbital satellites or lunar/planetary probes? What are they designed to study, and how much do they cost? -- _______________________________________________________________________________ Brian Yamauchi University of Rochester yamauchi@cs.rochester.edu Department of Computer Science _______________________________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: 2 May 91 21:27:05 GMT From: sdd.hp.com!caen!kuhub.cc.ukans.edu!bell@hplabs.hpl.hp.com Subject: Re: Recovering Galileo In article <1991May2.182702.641@herbert.uucp>, doug@herbert.uucp (Doug Phillipson ) writes: > > Forgive this possibly silly idea, but could we just use > Jupiter or one of its moons to send Galileo back to Earth/Venus > for a gravity-brake back to earth orbit where the shuttle could > do a repair mission and carry up another booster for it. Or some > other trajectory to slow it down and return it to Earth? Would > this be cheaper than sending a comm satellite to jupiter? > > Douglas Phillipson (EG&G) Forgive me, but I can just imagine how the fringies who reacted so extremely to the launch of Galileo in the first place would react to NASA sling-shotting the thing back at the Earth. Besides, I suspect that the additional expense due to the extra shuttle flight, maintaining operations for Galileo for an additional (what?) 5-10 years while we bounced it around the solar system like a billiard ball, not to mention the frustration of the scientists and engineers involved in having the real meat of the mission put off again, doesn't justify this as an approach. After all, this isn't HST or some other spacecraft in a low earth orbit we're talking about. +------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Dr. Edwin V. Bell, II | E-mail: | | Mail Code 933.9 | (SPAN) NCF::Bell | | National Space Science | or NSSDC::Bell | | Data Center | or NSSDCA::Bell | | NASA | or NSSDCB::Bell | | Goddard Space Flight Center | (Internet) Bell@NSSDCA.GSFC.NASA.GOV | | Greenbelt, MD 20771 | | | (301) 513-1663 | | +------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ ------------------------------ Date: 6 May 91 18:21:07 GMT From: snorkelwacker.mit.edu!think.com!rpi!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utzoo!henry@bloom-beacon.mit.edu (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: Hypersonic Transport In article <10066@castle.ed.ac.uk> james@castle.ed.ac.uk (J Gillespie) writes: >] The first-class >]market simply isn't big enough to finance a large new airliner, especially >]an unusually high-tech one that could be expected to [cost a lot] > >Someone has to say it: what about Concorde? I'm no expert on its >history, but as I understand it most of the development costs were >written off, and the service is only just profitable in spite of the >*rather* high fares ... The existing Concorde service is comfortably profitable despite the very high costs of spares and support for such a small fleet. It does a good job of serving its small super-first-class market niche. But there wasn't the slightest hope of ever paying for the development costs on such a tiny production run; the project would never have been started if anyone had expected that so few would be sold. Concorde service went into the black only when all parties involved agreed to write off development costs as a lost cause. -- And the bean-counter replied, | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology "beans are more important". | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry ------------------------------ Date: 6 May 91 18:49:46 GMT From: usenet@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) Subject: NASA Headline News for 05/06/91 (Forwarded) Headline News Internal Communications Branch (P-2) NASA Headquarters Monday, May 6, 1991 Audio Service: 202 / 755-1788 This is NASA Headline News for Monday, May 6, 1991 . . . Discovery's mission experiments were concluded successfully yesterday and the crew is in the process of landing preparations now. The deorbit maneuver to bring Discovery back from orbit is now scheduled for 1:49 pm EDT. That maneuver will give Discovery a 2:49 pm EDT landing time on Runway 22 at California's Edwards Air Force Base. All orbiter systems are performing nominally and weather predictions for Edwards call for good landing weather. Over the weekend, the Discovery crew was quite busy with several additional chemical releases; stowing and retrieving the Infrared Background Signature Survey package with the robot arm, and finally, yesterday, splicing cables to allow the three secondary scientific experiments to bypass their non- functional tape recorders and send data directly to the White Sands tracking station. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Joust 1 launch did not occur this morning as scheduled. The countdown was delayed from its planned 7:00 am EDT launch due to a series of problems which kept cropping up. First, a range control computer problem halted the count; the next halt was due to a payload problem; another halt was unexplained. Joust flight management picked up the count with about three minutes left at 8:45 am. At T-0, the Joust 1 did not ignite and the launch team declared a "hang fire" situation. Flight and launch system engineers are presently in the process of safing the vehicle and beginning the anomaly investigation. No launch decision has been made at this time. The Joust is a commercial suborbital rocket carrying 10 materials and biotechnology experiments for the University of Alabama in Huntsville. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Endeavour left Biggs Army Air Field, El Paso, this morning at 10:00 am EDT, heading for Ellington Field, Houston. Following the approximately-one-hour flight, NASA's new 747 shuttle carrier aircraft, with Endeavour on its back, landed at Ellington and will remain there for about four hours. Endeavour will then depart enroute to Columbus Air Force Base, Miss. The shuttle carrier aircraft crew will layover in Columbus and depart for Kennedy Space Center tomorrow, weather permitting. Weather conditions between Mississippi and Kennedy call for thunderstorms, so the 747 crew will make a day-by-day assessment of flight weather before proceeding to Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The seven-member STS-40 crew arrived at Kennedy yesterday and are today engaged in the mission terminal countdown demonstration test. The test concludes tomorrow at 11:00 am. The STS-40 mission flight readiness review is scheduled for next Monday and Tuesday, May 13 and 14, at Kennedy. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Jet Propulsion Laboratory Galileo flight controllers report that the spacecraft entered a safe mode again on Friday. This incident is reported to be similar to the previous incident which involved one of two control and data computers which took itself off line, causing the remaining one to enter the safe mode. JPL management reports that this incident is not expected to have any impact on the mission and appears to be completely unrelated to the high-gain antenna partial deployment problem. JPL expected to have Galileo back online and fully functional, with regard to the computer subsystems, by this morning. Here's the broadcast schedule for Public Affairs events on NASA Select TV. Note that all events and times may change without notice, and that all times listed are Eastern. Monday, 5/6/91 1:49 pm Scheduled deorbit maneuver for Discovery (audio only). 2:49 pm Scheduled landing of Discovery at Edwards Air Force Base Runway 22 (LIVE). 4:30 pm Post-landing press conference from Dryden Flight Research Facility (LIVE). 8:30 pm STS-39 crew departure from Dryden for Houston (LIVE). This report is filed daily at noon, Monday through Friday. It is a service of NASA's Office of Public Affairs. The contact is Charles Redmond, 202/453- 8425 or CREDMOND on NASAmail. NASA Select TV is carried on GE Satcom F2R, transponder 13, C-Band, 72 degrees West Longitude, transponder frequency is 3960 megaHertz, audio is offset 6.8 MHz, polarization is vertical. ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest V13 #510 *******************