Date: Thu, 3 Sep 92 05:01:27 From: Space Digest maintainer Reply-To: Space-request@isu.isunet.edu Subject: Space Digest V15 #159 To: Space Digest Readers Precedence: bulk Space Digest Thu, 3 Sep 92 Volume 15 : Issue 159 Today's Topics: Space FAQ 01/15 - Introduction Space FAQ 02/15 - Network Resources Space FAQ 03/15 - Data Sources Welcome to the Space Digest!! Please send your messages to "space@isu.isunet.edu", and (un)subscription requests of the form "Subscribe Space " to one of these addresses: listserv@uga (BITNET), rice::boyle (SPAN/NSInet), utadnx::utspan::rice::boyle (THENET), or space-REQUEST@isu.isunet.edu (Internet). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 2 Sep 92 18:56:41 GMT From: Jon Leech Subject: Space FAQ 01/15 - Introduction Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.space,news.answers Archive-name: space/intro Last-modified: $Date: 92/09/02 14:48:13 $ FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ON SCI.SPACE/SCI.ASTRO INTRODUCTION This series of linked messages is periodically posted to the Usenet groups sci.space and sci.astro in an attempt to provide good answers to frequently asked questions and other reference material which is worth preserving. If you have corrections or answers to other frequently asked questions that you would like included in this posting, send email to leech@cs.unc.edu (Jon Leech). If you don't want to see the FAQ, add 'Frequently Asked Questions' to your KILL file for this group (if you're not reading this with a newsreader that can kill articles by subject, you're out of luck). The FAQ volume is excessive right now and will hopefully be trimmed down by rewriting and condensing over time. The FAQ postings are available in the Ames SPACE archive in FAQ/faq<#>. Good summaries will be accepted in place of the answers given here. The point of this is to circulate existing information, and avoid rehashing old answers. Better to build on top than start again. Nothing more depressing than rehashing old topics for the 100th time. References are provided because they give more complete information than any short generalization. Questions fall into three basic types: 1) Where do I find some information about space? Try your local public library first. The net is not a good place to ask for general information. Ask INDIVIDUALS (by email) if you must. There are other sources, use them, too. The net is a place for open ended discussion. 2) I have an idea which would improve space flight? Hope you aren't surprised, but 9,999 out of 10,000 have usually been thought of before. Again, contact a direct individual source for evaluation. NASA fields thousands of these each day. 3) Miscellanous queries. These are addressed on a case-by-case basis in the following series of FAQ postings. SUGGESTIONS FOR BETTER NETIQUETTE Read news.announce.newusers if you're on Usenet. Minimize cross references, [Do you REALLY NEED to?] Edit "Subject:" lines, especially if you're taking a tangent. Send mail instead, avoid posting follow ups. (1 mail message worth 100 posts). Internet mail readers: send requests to add/drop to SPACE-REQUEST not SPACE. Read all available articles before posting a follow-up. (Check all references.) Cut down attributed articles (leave only the points you're responding to; remove signatures and headers). Summarize! Put a return address in the body (signature) of your message (mail or article), state your institution, etc. Don't assume the 'reply' function of mailers will work. Use absolute dates. Post in a timely way. Don't post what everyone will get on TV anyway. Some editors and window systems do character count line wrapping: keep lines under 80 characters for those using ASCII terminals (use carriage returns). INDEX TO LINKED POSTINGS I've attempted to break the postings up into related areas. There isn't a keyword index yet; the following lists the major subject areas in each posting. Only those containing astronomy-related material are posted to sci.astro (indicated by '*' following the posting number). # Contents 1* Introduction Suggestions for better netiquette Index to linked postings Notes on addresses, phone numbers, etc. Contributors 2* Network resources Overview Mailing lists Periodically updated information Warning about non-public networks 3* Online (and some offline) sources of images, data, etc. Introduction Viewing Images Online Archives NASA Ames NASA Spacelink National Space Science Data Center Space And Planetary Image Facility Space Telescope Science Institute Electronic Info. Service Astronomical Databases Astronomy Programs Orbital Element Sets SPACE Digest Landsat & NASA Photos Planetary Maps Cometary Orbits 4* Performing calculations and interpreting data formats Computing spacecraft orbits and trajectories Computing planetary positions Computing crater diameters from Earth-impacting asteroids Map projections and spherical trignometry Performing N-body simulations efficiently Interpreting the FITS image format Sky (Unix ephemeris program) Three-dimensional star/galaxy coordinates 5* References on specific areas Publishers of space/astronomy material Careers in the space industry DC-X single-stage to orbit (SSTO) program LLNL "great exploration" Lunar science and activities Spacecraft models Rocket propulsion Spacecraft design Esoteric propulsion schemes (solar sails, lasers, fusion...) Spy satellites Space shuttle computer systems SETI computation (signal processing) Amateur satellies & weather satellites Tides 6* Constants and equations for calculations 7* Astronomical Mnemonics 8 Contacting NASA, ESA, and other space agencies/companies NASA Centers / Arianespace / ESA / NASDA / Soyuzkarta / Space Camp / Space Commerce Corporation / Spacehab / SPOT Image Other commercial space businesses 9 Space shuttle answers, launch schedules, TV coverage Shuttle launchings and landings; schedules and how to see them How to receive the NASA TV channel, NASA SELECT Dial-A-Shuttle and how to use it Amateur radio frequencies for shuttle missions Solid Rocket Booster fuel composition 10 Planetary probes - Historical Missions US planetary missions Mariner (Venus, Mars, & Mercury flybys and orbiters) Pioneer (Moon, Sun, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn flybys and orbiters) Ranger (Lunar lander and impact missions) Lunar Orbiter (Lunar surface photography) Surveyor (Lunar soft landers) Viking (Mars orbiters and landers) Voyager (Outer planet flybys) Soviet planetary missions Soviet Lunar probes Soviet Venus probes Soviet Mars probes Japanese planetary missions Planetary mission references 11 Upcoming planetary probes - missions and schedules Galileo Mars Observer CRAF Cassini Other space science missions 12 Controversial questions What happened to the Saturn V plans Why data from space missions isn't immediately available Risks of nuclear (RTG) power sources for space probes Impact of the space shuttle on the ozone layer How long can a human live unprotected in space Using the shuttle beyond Low Earth Orbit The "Face on Mars" 13 Space activist/interest/research groups and space publications Groups Publications Undocumented Groups 14 How to become an astronaut 15 Orbital and Planetary Launch Services NOTES ON ADDRESSES, PHONE NUMBERS, ETC. Unless otherwise specified, telephone numbers, addresses, and so on are for the United States of America. Non-US readers should remember to add the country code for telephone calls, etc. CREDITS Eugene Miya started a series of linked FAQ postings some years ago which inspired (and was largely absorbed into) this set. Peter Yee and Ron Baalke have and continue to spend a lot of their own time setting up the SPACE archives at NASA Ames and forwarding official NASA announcements. Many other people have contributed material to this list in the form of old postings to sci.space and sci.astro which I've edited. Please let me know if corrections need to be made. Contributors I've managed to keep track of are: 0004847546@mcimail.com (Francis Reddy) - map projections akerman@bill.phy.queensu.CA (Richard Akerman) - crater diameters alweigel@athena.mit.edu (Lisa Weigel) - SEDS info aoab314@emx.utexas.edu (Srinivas Bettadpur) - tides awpaeth@watcgl.waterloo.edu (Alan Wm Paeth) - map projections aws@iti.org (Allen W. Sherzer) - Great Exploration baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov (Ron Baalke) - planetary probe schedules bankst@rata.vuw.ac.nz (Timothy Banks) - map projections, variable star analysis archive brosen@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov (Bernie Rosen) - Space Camp bschlesinger@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (Barry Schlesinger) - FITS format cew@venera.isi.edu (Craig E. Ward) - space group contact info chapin@cbnewsc.att.com (Tom Chapin) - planetary positions cunnida@tenet.edu (D. Alan Cunningham) - NASA Spacelink cyamamot@kilroy.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Cliff Yamamoto) - orbital elements datri@convex.com (Anthony Datri) - PDS/VICAR viewing software daver@sjc.mentorg.com (Dave Rickel) - orbit formulae dlbres10@pc.usl.edu (Phil Fraering) - propulsion eder@hsvaic.boeing.com (Dani Eder) - Saturn V plans, SRBs eugene@eos.arc.nasa.gov (Eugene N. Miya) - introduction, NASA contact info, started FAQ postings g@telesoft.com (Gary Morris) - amateur radio info gaetz@uwovax.uwo.ca (Terry Gaetz) - N-body calculations, orbital dynamics grandi@noao.edu (Steve Grandi) - planetary positions greer%utd201.dnet%utadnx@utspan.span.nasa.gov (Dale M. Greer) - constants henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) - survival in vacuum, astronaut how-to, publication refs, DC-X higgins@fnal.bitnet (William Higgins) - RTGs, publishers, shuttle landings, spysats, propulsion, "Face on Mars" hmueller@cssun.tamu.edu (Hal Mueller) - map projections, orbital dynamics jim@pnet01.cts.com (Jim Bowery) - propulsion, launch services jscotti@lpl.arizona.edu (Jim Scotti) - planetary positions kcarroll@zoo.toronto.edu (Kieran A. Carroll)- refs for spacecraft design ken@orion.bitnet (Kenneth Ng) - RTGs klaes@verga.enet.dec.com (Larry Klaes) - planetary probe history leech@cs.unc.edu (Jon Leech) - crater diameters lfa@vielle.cray.com (Lou Adornato) - orbital dynamics maury.markowitz@egsgate.fidonet.org (Maury Markowitz) - propulsion mbellon@mcdurb.Urbana.Gould.COM - N-body calculations mcconley@phoenix.Princeton.edu (Marc Wayne Mcconley) - space careers msb@sq.com (Mark Brader) - Mariner 1 info. mwm@cmu.edu (Mark Maimone) - SPACE Digest nickw@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Dr. Nick Watkins) - models, spysats opus@pioneer.unm.edu (Colby Kraybill) - SPIF data archive panama@cup.portal.com (Kenneth W Durham) - cometary orbits, IAU paul.blase@nss.fidonet.org (Paul Blase) - propulsion pjs@plato.jpl.nasa.gov (Peter Scott) - RTGs pschleck@unomaha.edu (Paul W. Schleck) - AMSAT, ARRL contact info rdb@mel.cocam.oz.au (Rodney Brown) - propulsion refs rja7m@phil.cs.virginia.edu (Ran Atkinson) - FTPable astro. programs rjungcla@ihlpb.att.com (R. Michael Jungclas)- models seal@leonardo.jpl.nasa.gov (David Seal) - Cassini mission schedule shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer) - photos, shuttle landings smith@sndpit.enet.dec.com (Willie Smith) - photos stephen@gpwd.gp.co.nz (Stephen Dixon) - shuttle audio frequencies sterner@warper.jhuapl.edu (Ray Sterner) - planetary positions stooke@vaxr.sscl.uwo.ca (Phil Stooke) - planetary maps ted_anderson@transarc.com (Ted Anderson) - propulsion terry@astro.as.utexas.edu (Terry Hancock) - NASA center info thorson@typhoon.atmos.coloState.edu (Bill Thorson) - FITS info tm2b+@andrew.cmu.edu (Todd L. Masco) - SPACE Digest tom@ssd.csd.harris.com (Tom Horsley) - refs for algorithms veikko.makela@helsinki.fi (Veikko Makela) - orbital element sets wayne@csri.utoronto.ca (Wayne Hayes) - constants weemba@libra.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener) - Voyager history yamada@yscvax.ysc.go.jp (Yoshiro Yamada) - ISAS/NASDA missions yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter Yee) - AMES archive server, propulsion In Net memoriam: Ted Flinn NEXT: FAQ #2/15 - Network Resources ------------------------------ Date: 2 Sep 92 18:56:55 GMT From: Jon Leech Subject: Space FAQ 02/15 - Network Resources Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.space,news.answers Archive-name: space/net Last-modified: $Date: 92/09/02 14:48:21 $ NETWORK RESOURCES OVERVIEW You may be reading this document on any one of an amazing variety of computers, so much of the material below may not apply to you. In general, however, systems connected to 'the net' fall in one of three categories: Internet, Usenet, or BITNET. Electronic mail may be sent between these networks, and other resources available on one of these networks are sometimes accessible from other networks by email sent to special 'servers'. The space and astronomy discussion groups actually are composed of several mechanisms with (mostly) transparent connections between them. One mechanism is the mailing list, in which mail is sent to a central distribution point which relays it to all recipients of the list. In addition to the general lists for space (called SPACE Digest for Internet users, and SPACE on BITNET), there are a number of more specialized mailing lists described below. A second mechanism is Usenet 'netnews'. This is somewhat like a bulletin board operating on each system which is a part of the net. Netnews separates contributions into hundreds of different categories based on a 'group name'. The groups dealing most closely with space topics are called 'sci.space.news', 'sci.space', 'sci.space.shuttle', 'sci.astro', and 'talk.politics.space'. Contributors 'post' submissions (called 'articles' in netnews terminology) on their local machine, which sends it to other nearby machines. Similarly, articles sent from nearby machines are stored locally and may be forwarded to other systems, so that an article is posted locally and eventually reaches all the Usenet sites interested in receiving the news group to which the article was posted. Gateway machines serve to redirect Usenet netnews into Internet and BITNET mailing lists and vice versa. If you can receive netnews, its more flexible interface usually makes it the preferred option to getting on one of the main mailing lists. MAILING LISTS SPACE Digest is the main Internet list, and is now being run by the International Space University (in only its second change of management in over a decade). Email space-request@isu.isunet.edu (message body should be in the format 'subscribe space John Public') to join. Note that the moderated SPACE Magazine list is defunct at present for lack of a moderator. Elements is a moderated list for fast distribution of Space Shuttle Keplerian Elements before and during Shuttle flights. NASA two line elements are sent out on the list from Dr. Kelso, JSC, and other sources as they are released. Email to elements-request@telesoft.com to join. Space-investors is a list for information relevant to investing in space-related companies. Email Vincent Cate (vac@cs.cmu.edu) to join. Space-tech is a list for more technical discussion of space topics; discussion has included esoteric propulsion technologies, asteroid capture, starflight, orbital debris removal, etc. Email to space-tech-request@cs.cmu.edu to join. Archives of old digests and selected excerpts are available by anonymous FTP from daisy.learning.cs.cmu.edu (128.2.218.26) in /usr/anon/public/space-tech, or by email to space-tech-request if you don't have FTP access. SEDS-L is a BITNET list for members of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space and other interested parties. Email LISTSERV@TAMVM1.BITNET with a message saying "SUBSCRIBE SEDS-L your name". Email saying "INDEX SEDS-L" to list the archive contents. SEDSNEWS is a BITNET list for news items, press releases, shuttle status reports, and the like. This duplicates material which is also found in Space Digest, sci.space, sci.space.shuttle, and sci.astro. Email LISTSERV@TAMVM1.BITNET saying "SUBSCRIBE SEDSNEWS your name" to join. Email saying "INDEX SEDSNEWS" to list the archive contents. Ron Baalke (baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov) runs a mailing list which carries the contents of the sci.space.news Usenet group. Email him to join the list. As a general note, please mail to the *request* address to get off a mailing list. SPACE Digest, for example, relays many inappropriate 'please remove me from this list' messages which are sent to the list address rather than the request address. PERIODICALLY UPDATED INFORMATION In addition to this FAQ list, a broad variety of topical information is posted to the net (unless otherwise noted, in the new group sci.space.news created for this purpose). Please remember that the individuals posting this information are performing a service for all net readers, and don't take up their time with frivolous requests. ACRONYMS Garrett Wollman (wollman@UVM.EDU) posts an acronym list around the first of each month. ASTRO-FTP LIST Veikko Makela (veikko.makela@helsinki.fi) posts a monthly list of anonymous FTP servers containing astronomy and space related material to sci.space and sci.astro. AVIATION WEEK Henry Spencer (henry@zoo.toronto.edu) posts summaries of space-related stories in the weekly _Aviation Week and Space Technology_. BUYING TELESCOPES Ronnie Kon (ronnie@cisco.com) posts a guide to buying telescopes to sci.astro. ELECTRONIC JOURNAL OF THE ASA Don Barry (don@chara.gsu.edu) posts the monthly Electronic Journal of the Astronomical Society of the Atlantic to sci.astro. ESA BULLETIN Harm Munk (munk@prl.philips.nl) posts summaries of articles in the quarterly _ESA Bulletin_ and the _ESA Journal_. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL Swaraj Jeyasingh (sjeyasin@axion.bt.co.uk) posts summaries of space-related news from _Flight International_. This focuses more on non-US space activities than Aviation Week. LARGE ASTRONOMICAL PROJECTS Robert Bunge (rbunge@access.digex.com) posts a list describing many "Large Telescope Projects Either Being Considered or in the Works" to sci.astro. NASA HEADLINE NEWS & SHUTTLE REPORTS Peter Yee (yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov) posts a variety of NASA material, including NASA Headline News (with the schedule for NASA SELECT), shuttle payload briefings and flight manifests, and KSC shuttle status reports. For Usenet users, much of this material appears in the group sci.space.shuttle. NASA UPDATES Ron Baalke (baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov) posts frequent updates from JPL, Ames, and other centers on the Ulysses, Gailileo, Pioneer, Magellan, Landsat, and other missions. ORBITAL ELEMENT SETS TS Kelso (tkelso@blackbird.afit.af.mil) posts orbital elements from NASA Prediction Bulletins. Mike Rose (mrose@stsci.edu) posts orbital elements for the Hubble Space Telescope to sci.astro. Jost Jahn (j.jahn@abbs.hanse.de) posts ephemerides for asteroids, comets, conjunctions, and encounters to sci.astro. SATELLITE LAUNCHES Richard Langley (lang@unb.ca) posts SPACEWARN Bulletin, which describes recent launch/orbital decay information and satellites which are useful for scientific activities. Recent bulletins are available by anonymous FTP from nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov in ANON_DIR:[000000.ACTIVE.SPX]. SHUTTLE MANIFEST Ken Hollis (gandalf@pro-electric.cts.com) posts a compressed version of the Space Shuttle launch manifest to sci.space.shuttle. This includes dates, times, payloads, and information on how to see launches and landings. SOLAR ACTIVITY Cary Oler (oler@hg.uleth.ca) posts Solar Terrestrial reports (describing solar activity and its effect on the Earth) to sci.space. The report is issued in part from data released by the Space Enviroment Services Center, Boulder Colorado. The intro document needed to understand these reports is available by anonymous FTP from solar.stanford.edu (36.10.0.4) in pub/understanding_solar_terrestrial_reports. nic.funet.fi (128.214.6.100) also has this document in /pub/misc/rec.radio.shortwave/solarreports and is an archive site for the reports (please note this site is in Europe, and the connection to the US is only 56KB). A new primary archive site, xi.uleth.ca (142.66.3.29), has recently been established and will be actively supported. SOVIET SPACE ACTIVITIES Glenn Chapman (glennc@cs.sfu.ca) posts summaries of Soviet space activities. SPACE ACTIVIST NEWSLETTER Allen Sherzer (aws@iti.org) posts a newsletter, "One Small Step for a Space Activist," to talk.politics.space. It describes current legislative activity affecting NASA and commercial space activities. SPACE EVENTS CALENDAR Ron Baalke (baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov) posts a calendar including anniversaries, conferences, launch dates, meteor showers and eclipses, and other space-related events. SPACE NEWS John Magliacane (kd2bd@ka2qhd.UUCP) posts "SpaceNews" (covering AMSATs, NOAA and other weather satellites, and other ham information) to rec.radio.amateur.misc and sci.space. SPACE REPORT Jonathan McDowell (mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu) posts "Jonathan's Space Report" covering launches, landings, reentries, status reports, satellite activities, etc. TOWARD 2001 Bev Freed (freed@nss.fidonet.org) posts "Toward 2001", a weekly global news summary reprinted from _Space Calendar_ magazine. WARNING ABOUT NON-PUBLIC NETWORKS (Included at the suggestion of Eugene Miya, who wrote the item) NASA has an internal system of unclassified electronic mail and bulletin boards. This system is not open for public use. Specifically, NASA personnel and procurement operations are regarded with some sensitivity. Contractors must renegotiate their contracts. The Fair and Open Procurement Act does not look kindly to those having inside information. Contractors and outsiders caught using this type of information can expect severe penalities. Unauthorized access attempts may subject you to a fine and/or imprisonment in accordance with Title 18, USC, Section 1030. If in fact you should should learn of unauthorized access, contact NASA personnel. NEXT: FAQ #3/15 - Online (and some offline) sources of images, data, etc. ------------------------------ Date: 2 Sep 92 18:57:13 GMT From: Jon Leech Subject: Space FAQ 03/15 - Data Sources Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.space,news.answers Archive-name: space/data Last-modified: $Date: 92/09/02 14:48:08 $ ONLINE AND OTHER SOURCES OF IMAGES, DATA, ETC. INTRODUCTION A wide variety of images, data, catalogs, information releases, and other material dealing with space and astronomy may be found on the net. A few sites offer direct dialup access or remote login access, while the remainder support some form of file transfer. Many sites are listed as providing 'anonymous FTP'. This refers to the File Transfer Protocol on the Internet. Sites not connected to the Internet cannot use FTP directly, but there are a few automated FTP servers which operates via email. Send mail containing only the word HELP to ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com or bitftp@pucc.princeton.edu, and the servers will send you instructions on how to make requests. The sources with the broadest selection of material are the NASA Ames SPACE archive and the National Space Science Data Center. Don't even ask for images to be posted to the net. The data volume is huge and nobody wants to spend the time on it. VIEWING IMAGES The possible combinations of image formats and machines is forebodingly large, and I won't attempt to cover common formats (GIF, etc.) here. To read PDS and VICAR (and many other) formats on Unix systems running X, use XV 2.11, available by anonymous FTP from export.lcs.mit.edu (18.24.0.12) in contrib/xv-2.11.tar.Z and the other standard X11 FTP sites. The FAQ for the Usenet group alt.binaries.pictures discusses image formats and how to get image viewing software. A copy of this document is available by anonymous FTP from the Usenet FAQ archives at pit-manager.mit.edu (18.72.1.58), in directory pub/usenet/alt.binaries.pictures. ONLINE ARCHIVES NASA AMES Extensive archives are maintained at NASA Ames and are available via anonymous FTP or an email server. These archives include many images and a wide variety of documents including this FAQ list, NASA press releases, shuttle launch advisories, and mission status reports. Please note that these are NOT maintained on an official basis. FTP users should connect to ames.arc.nasa.gov (128.102.18.3) and look in pub/SPACE. pub/SPACE/Index contains a listing of files available in the archive (the index is about 200K by itself). To access the archives by email, send a letter to archive-server@ames.arc.nasa.gov (or ames!archive-server). In the subject of your letter (or in the body), use commands like: send SPACE Index send SPACE SHUTTLE/ss01.23.91. The capitalization of the subdirectory names is important. All are in caps. Only text files are handled by the email server at present; use one of the FTP email servers described in the introduction to this section for images or programs. The Magellan Venus and Voyager Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus CD-ROM image disks have been put online in the CDROM and CDROM2 directories. The disks will be rotated on a weekly basis. Thousands of images are available in these collections. The GIF directory contains images in GIF format. The VICAR directory contains Magellan images in VICAR format (these are also available in the GIF directory). A PC program capable of displaying these files is found in the IMDISP directory (see the item "VIEWING IMAGES" below). The NASA media guide describes the various NASA centers and how to contact their public affairs officers; this may be useful when pursuing specific information. It's in MISC/media.guide. Any problems with the archive server should be reported to Peter Yee (yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov). NASA SPACELINK SpaceLink is an online service located at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The system is specifically designed for teachers. The data base is arranged to provide easy access to current and historical information on NASA aeronautics, space research, and technology transfer information. Also included are suggested classroom activities that incorporate information on NASA projects to teach a number of scientific principles. Unlike bulletin board systems, NASA Spacelink does not provide for interaction between callers. However it does allow teachers and other callers to leave questions and comments for NASA which may be answered by regular mail. Messages are answered electronically, even to acknowledge requests which will be fulfilled by mail. Messages are generally handled the next working day except during missions when turnaround times increase. The mail system is closed- loop between the user and NASA. SpaceLink also offers downloadable shareware and public domain programs useful for science educators as well as space graphics and GIF images from NASA's planetary probes and the Hubble Telescope. You can dial in at (205)-895-0028 (300/1200/2400/9600(V.32) baud, 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit), or telnet to spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov (128.158.13.250, also known as xsl.msfc.nasa.gov) if you're on the Internet. Anonymous FTP capability will be offered in the future. Most of this information is also available from the Ames server in directory SPACELINK. NATIONAL SPACE SCIENCE DATA CENTER (NSSDC) The National Space Science Data Center is the official clearinghouse for NASA data. The data catalog (*not* the data itself) is available online. Internet users can telnet to nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (128.183.36.23) and log in as 'NODIS' (no password). You can also get the catalog by sending email to 'request@nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov'. You can also dial in at (301)-286-9000 (300, 1200, or 2400 baud, 8 bits, no parity, one stop). At the "Enter Number:" prompt, enter MD and carriage return. When the system responds "Call Complete," enter a few more carriage returns to get the "Username:" and log in as 'NODIS' (no password). The system is menu-driven; topics available as of 4/10/92 are: 1 - Master Directory - NASA & Global Change 2 - Personnel Information Management System 3 - Nimbus-7 GRID TOMS Data 4 - Interplanetary Medium Data (OMNI) 5 - Request data and/or information from NSSDC 6 - Geophysical Models 7 - CANOPUS Newsletter 8 - International Ultraviolet Explorer Data Request 9 - CZCS Browse and Order Utility 10 - Astronomical Data Center (ADC) 11 - STEP Bulletin Board Service 12 - Standards and Technology Information System Data can be ordered from the NSSDC on CD-ROM and other formats. Among the many types of data available are Voyager, Magellan, and other planetary images, Earth observation data, and star catalogs. Viewers for Macintosh and IBM systems are also available. As an example of the cost, an 8 CD set of Voyager images is $75. Data may ordered online, by email, or by physical mail. The postal address is: National Space Science Data Center Request Coordination Office Goddard Space Flight Center Code 633 Greenbelt, MD 20771 Telephone: (301) 286-6695 Email address: request@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov NSSDCA is also an anonymous FTP site, but no comprehensive list of what's there is available at present. SPACE AND PLANETARY IMAGE FACILITY Available 24 hours a day via anonymous FTP from pioneer.unm.edu. Has approximately 150 CD-ROM's full of imagery, raw, and tabular data. To start, get the file: pioneer.unm.edu:pub/info/beginner-info This will hopefully give you all of the information you need to get data from their machine. beginner-info has been translated to other languages, you should look inside pub/info for the particular language that meets your needs. Contact help@pioneer.unm.edu. SPACE TELESCOPE SCIENCE INSTITUTE ELECTRONIC INFORMATION SERVICE stsci.edu (130.167.1.2) has a large amount of information about the Hubble Space Telescope available by anonymous FTP, such as status reports and newsletters, in addition to material oriented towards HST observers and proposers. Get the top level README file to begin with. Contact Pete Reppert (reppert@stsci.edu) or Chris O'Dea (odea@stsci.edu). ASTRONOMICAL DATABASES The full SAO stellar database is *NOT* available online, probably due to the 40 MB size. It may be ordered on magnetic tape from the NSSDC. A subset containing position and magnitude only is available by FTP (see "Astronomy Programs" below). nic.funet.fi (128.214.6.100) has a large collection of astronomical programs for many types of computers, databases of stars and deep sky objects, and general astronomy information in directory /pub/astro. This site is mainly for European users, but overseas connections are possible. mandarin.mit.edu (18.82.0.21) has the following data available via anonymous FTP in directory /astro: StarChart v3.2, orbital elements for bright comets and asteroids, the Yale Bright Star catalog, Saguaro Astronomy Club Deepsky and Double Star databases, some PC astronomy programs, and possibly more. Get astro/README. Contact ccount@athena.mit.edu with questions. The Ames archives contain a database of 8,436 galaxies including name, RA, declination, magnitude, and radial velocity in MISC/galaxy.dat. Supplied by Wayne Hayes (wayne@csri.utoronto.ca). iris1.ucis.dal.ca (129.173.18.107) has a number of GIFs from Voyager, Hubble, and other sources available by anonymous FTP in pub/gif (most of this data is also in SPACE/GIF on the Ames server). Please restrict access to 5pm - 8am Atlantic time. pomona.claremont.edu has the Yale Bright Star catalog for anonymous FTP in directory [.YALE_BSC]. Contact James Dishaw (jdishaw@hmcvax.claremont.edu). The Hubble Guide Star catalog is available on CD-ROM for the Mac and PC for $49.95 US (catalog # ST101). Astronomical Society of the Pacific 390 Ashton Ave. San Francisco, CA 94112 Phone: (415) 337-2624 9 AM - 3 PM Pacific Time FAX: (415) 337-5205 For German (and possibly other European) readers, Jost Jahn has a service to distribute astronomical data to interested amateurs at cost. About 30-40 catalogs are available for DM 6..8/disk. Several floppy disk formats are available. Because of the expense of receiving email on his system, he asks that you contact him by physical mail: Jost Jahn Neustaedter Strasse 11 W-3123 Bodenteich GERMANY Phone: FRG-5824-3197 ASTRONOMY PROGRAMS Various astronomy-related programs and databases posted to the net in the past are archived for anonymous FTP at multiple sites, including ftp.uu.net (137.39.1.9). Also see the ASTRO-FTP list posted to sci.astro monthly, which is more complete than this list. Astonomical/Space-related sources of interest in comp.sources.unix: Volume 8: phoon moon phase and date routines Volume 12,13: starchart starchart program & Yale Star data Volume 15: moontool shows moon phase picture on Suns Volume 16: sao reduced SAO catalog Astonomical/Space-related sources of interest in comp.sources.misc: Volume 8: moon another moon phase program Volume 11: starchart starchart program, version 3.2 Volume 11: n3emo-orbit orbit: track earth satellites Volume 12: starchart2 starchart program, update to version 3.2.1 Volume 13: jupmoons plotter for Jupiter's major moons [in perl] Volume 13: lunisolar lunisolar (not sure what this does) Volume 14: ephem-4.21 astronomical ephemeris, v4.21 Volume 14: n3emo-orbit patch to orbit 3.7 Volume 18: planet planet generation simulator Elwood Downey (e_downey@tasha.cca.cr.rockwell.com), the author of "ephem", has offered to mail copies to people who can't find it on one of the archives. XSAT, an X Window System based satellite tracking program, is available by anonymous FTP from export.lcs.mit.edu (18.24.0.12) in contrib/xsat1.0.tar.Z. Contact Dave Curry (davy@ecn.purdue.edu) for more information. The "Variable Stars Analysis Software Archive" is available via anonymous FTP from kauri.vuw.ac.nz (130.195.11.3) in directory pub/astrophys. This is intended for specialists in this field, and they would appreciate people from outside New Zealand confining their FTP access to the astrophys directory, as they pay a significant amount for Internet access. Contents are relatively sparse at present due to the youth of the archive - contributions are encouraged. Contact the archive administrator, Timothy Banks (bankst@kauri.vuw.ac.nz) for more information. The "IDL Astronomy Users Library" is available by anonymous FTP from idlastro.gsfc.nasa.gov (128.183.57.82). This is a central repository for general purpose astronomy procedures written in IDL, a commercial image processing, plotting, and programming language. Contact Wayne Landsman (landsman@stars.gsfc.nasa.gov) for more information. ORBITAL ELEMENT SETS The most recent orbital elements from the NASA Prediction Bulletins are carried on the Celestial BBS, (513)-427-0674. Documentation and tracking software are also available on this system. The Celestial BBS may be accessed 24 hours/day at 300, 1200, or 2400 baud using 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity. Orbital element sets are available via anonymous FTP from the following sites: archive.afit.af.mil (129.92.1.66) NASA,TVRO,Shuttle directory: /pub/space ftp.funet.fi (128.214.6.100) NASA,TVRO,Molczan,CelBBS, directory: /pub/astro/pc/satel Shuttle (*) kilroy.jpl.nasa.gov (128.149.1.165) NASA,Molczan directory: /pub/space/ nachos.ssesco.com (192.55.187.18) NASA,Molczan directory: /sat_elements SPACE DIGEST ARCHIVES Copies of back issues of Space Digest are archived on LISTSERV@UGA.BITNET. Send mail containing the message "INDEX SPACE" to get an index of files; send it the message "GET filename filetype" to get a particular file. LANDSAT AND NASA PHOTOS You can get black-and-white 1:1M prints, negatives, or positives for $10, $18, $12 respectively for any Landsat data more than 2 years old from EDC, (Eros (Earth Resources Orbiting Satellite) Data Center). Call them at (605)-594-6511. You get 80 meter resolution from the MSS scanner, 135x180 kilometers on a picture 135x180 mm in size. I think you have to select one band from (green, red, near IR, second near IR), but I'm not sure. Digitial data is also available at higher prices. Transparencies of all NASA photos available to the public can be borrowed from the NASA photo archive; you can have copies or prints made. NASA Audio-Visual Facility 918 North Rengstorff Ave Mountain View, CA 94043 (415)-604-6270 PLANETARY MAPS The USGS address for maps of the planets is: U.S. Geological Survey, Distribution Branch, Box 25286, Federal Center, Bldg. 41 Denver, CO 80225 Maps cost $2.40 to $3.10 per sheet (a few come in sets of 2 or 3 sheets). The best global maps of Mars based on Viking images are 1:15,000,000 scale in 3 sheets. These maps are: I-1535 (2 sheets only) - relief, albedo, names I-1535 I-1618 (3 sheets) - relief, names I-2030 (3 sheets) - relief, topographic contours I-1802-A,B,C (3 sheets) - geology There are many other maps as well: 30 sheets at 1:5,000,000 scale in relief, albedo, geology, photomosaic forms (not all 30 sheets available in all formats); 140 sheets at 1:2,000,000 scale as photomosaics of the whole planet, about 100 sheets of interesting sites at 1:500,000 scale in photomosaic format, and lots of special sheets. Then there are maps of Mercury, Venus, the Moon, the four Galilean Satellites, six moons of Saturn and five of Uranus. [Phil Stooke (stooke@vaxr.sscl.uwo.ca), the author of this item, has offered to respond to email requests for information on any topic relating to lunar and planetary maps.] COMETARY ORBIT DATA The Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams and the Minor Planet Center announce the sixth edition of the Catalogue of Cometary Orbits in IAU Circular 4935. The catalogue contains 1292 entries which represent all known comets through November 1989 and is 96 pages long. Non-subscribers to the Circulars may purchase the catalogue for $15.00 while the cost to subscribers is $7.50. The basic catalogue in ASCII along with a program to extract specific orbits and calculate ephemerides is available on MS-DOS 5.25-inch 2S2D diskette at a cost of $75.00 (the program requires an 8087 math coprocessor). The catalogue alone is also available by e-mail for $37.50 or on magnetic tape for $300.00. Except for the printed version of the catalogue, the various magnetic media or e-mail forms of the catalogue do not specifically meantion non-subscribers. It is possible that these forms of the catalogue may not be available to non-subscribers or that their prices may be more expensive than those given. Mail requests for specific information and orders to: Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Cambridge, MA 02138, USA NEXT: FAQ #4/15 - Performing calculations and interpreting data formats ------------------------------ End of Space Digest Volume 15 : Issue 159 ------------------------------