Date: Wed, 3 Feb 93 05:30:19 From: Space Digest maintainer Reply-To: Space-request@isu.isunet.edu Subject: Space Digest V16 #116 To: Space Digest Readers Precedence: bulk Space Digest Wed, 3 Feb 93 Volume 16 : Issue 116 Today's Topics: Atlantis... Space FAQ 05/15 - References Today in 1986 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 Feb 1993 17:23:09 GMT From: Jeff Foust Subject: Atlantis... Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.space.shuttle In a recent article BrianT@cup.portal.com (Brian Stuart Thorn) writes: > > Yep, Atlantis is at Palmdale (Downey? I've heard both and don't know > which is correct...) The Atlantis is at the Rockwell facility in Palmdale. A group from the SEDS chapter at UCLA recently went on a tour there and got a great look at the orbiter. -- Jeff Foust Senior, Geophysics/Planetary Science, Caltech jafoust@cco.caltech.edu jeff@scn1.jpl.nasa.gov Final score of the Interstellar Space Deep Space 9 Station Championship Softball Game: Babylon 5 ------------------------------ Date: 2 Feb 93 08:57:52 GMT From: Jon Leech Subject: Space FAQ 05/15 - References Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.space,sci.answers,news.answers Archive-name: space/references Last-modified: $Date: 93/02/02 13:17:10 $ REFERENCES ON SPECIFIC AREAS PUBLISHERS OF SPACE/ASTRONOMY MATERIAL Astronomical Society of the Pacific 1290 24th Avenue San Francisco, CA 94122 More expensive but better organized slide sets. Cambridge University Press 32 East 57th Street New York, NY 10022 Crawford-Peters Aeronautica P.O. Box 152528 San Diego, CA 92115 (619) 287-3933 An excellent source of all kinds of space publications. They publish a number of catalogs, including: Aviation and Space, 1945-1962 Aviation and Space, 1962-1990 Space and Related Titles European Southern Observatory Information and Photographic Service Dr R.M. West Karl Scharzschild Strasse 2 D-8046 Garching bei Munchen FRG Slide sets, posters, photographs, conference proceedings. Finley Holiday Film Corporation 12607 East Philadelphia Street Whittier, California 90601 (213)945-3325 (800)FILMS-07 Wide selection of Apollo, Shuttle, Viking, and Voyager slides at ~50 cents/slide. Call for a catalog. Hansen Planetarium (Utah) Said to hold sales on old slide sets. Look in Sky & Telescope for contact info. Lunar and Planetary Institute 3303 NASA Road One Houston, TX 77058-4399 Technical, geology-oriented slide sets, with supporting booklets. John Wiley & Sons 605 Third Avenue New York, NY 10158-0012 Sky Publishing Corporation PO Box 9111 Belmont, MA 02178-9111 Offers "Sky Catalogue 2000.0" on PC floppy with information (including parallax) for 45000 stars. Roger Wheate Geography Dept. University of Calgary, Alberta Canada T2N 1N4 (403)-220-4892 (403)-282-7298 (FAX) wheate@uncamult.bitnet Offers a 40-slide set called "Mapping the Planets" illustrating recent work in planetary cartography, comes with a booklet and information on getting your own copies of the maps. $50 Canadian, shipping included. Superintendent of Documents US Government Printing Office Washington, DC 20402 Univelt, Inc. P. O. Box 28130 San Diego, Ca. 92128 Publishers for the American Astronomical Society. US Naval Observatory 202-653-1079 (USNO Bulletin Board via modem) 202-653-1507 General 202-653-1545 Nautical Almanac Office (info on the Interactive Computer Ephemeris) Willmann-Bell P.O. Box 35025 Richmond, Virginia 23235 USA (804)-320-7016 9-5 EST M-F CAREERS IN THE SPACE INDUSTRY In 1990 the Princeton Planetary Society published the first edition of "Space Jobs: The Guide to Careers in Space-Related Fields." The publication was enormously successful: we distributed 2000 copies to space enthusiasts across the country and even sent a few to people in Great Britain, Australia, and Ecuador. Due to the tremendous response to the first edition, PPS has published an expanded, up-to-date second edition of the guide. The 40-page publication boasts 69 listings for summer and full-time job opportunities as well as graduate school programs. The second edition of "Space Jobs" features strategies for entering the space field and describes positions at consulting and engineering firms, NASA, and non-profit organizations. The expanded special section on graduate schools highlights a myriad of programs ranging from space manufacturing to space policy. Additional sections include tips on becoming an astronaut and listings of NASA Space Grant Fellowships and Consortia, as well as NASA Centers for the Commercial Development of Space. To order send check or money order made payable to Princeton Planetary Society for $4 per copy, plus $1 per copy for shipping and handling (non-US customers send an International Money Order payable in US dollars) to: Princeton Planetary Society 315 West College Princeton University Princeton, NJ 08544 DC-X SINGLE-STAGE TO ORBIT (SSTO) PROGRAM SDI's SSRT (Single Stage Rocket Technology) project has funded a suborbital technology demonstrator called DC-X that should fly in mid-1993. Further development towards an operational single-stage to orbit vehicle is uncertain at present; for considerably more detail on the SSRT program, get the document ames.arc.nasa.gov:pub/SPACE/FAQ/DeltaClipper by anonymous FTP or through the email server. LLNL "GREAT EXPLORATION" The LLNL "Great Exploration", a plan for an on-the-cheap space station, Lunar base, and Mars mission using inflatable space structures, excited a lot of interest on the net and still comes up from time to time. Some references cited during net discussion were: Avation Week Jan 22, 1990 for an article on the overall Great Exploration NASA Assessment of the LLNL Space Exploration Proposal and LLNL Responses by Dr. Lowell Wood LLNL Doc. No. SS 90-9. Their address is: PO Box 808 Livermore, CA 94550 (the NASA authors are unknown). Briefing slides of a presentation to the NRC last December may be available. Write LLNL and ask. Conceptual Design Study for Modular Inflatable Space Structures, a final report for purchase order B098747 by ILC Dover INC. I don't know how to get this except from LLNL or ILC Dover. I don't have an address for ILC. LUNAR PROSPECTOR Lunar Exploration Inc. (LEI) is a non-profit corporation working on a privately funded lunar polar orbiter. Lunar Prospector is designed to perform a geochemical survey and search for frozen volatiles at the poles. A set of reference files describing the project is available in ames.arc.nasa.gov:pub/SPACE/LEI/* LUNAR SCIENCE AND ACTIVITIES Grant H Heiken, David T Vaniman, and Bevan M French (editors), "Lunar Sourcebook, A User's Guide to the Moon", Cambridge University Press 1991, ISBN 0-521-33444-6; hardcover; expensive. A one-volume encyclopedia of essentially everything known about the Moon, reviewing current knowledge in considerable depth, with copious references. Heavy emphasis on geology, but a lot more besides, including considerable discussion of past lunar missions and practical issues relevant to future mission design. *The* reference book for the Moon; all others are obsolete. Wendell Mendell (ed), "Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century", $15. "Every serious student of lunar bases *must* have this book" - Bill Higgins. Available from: Lunar and Planetary Institute 3303 NASA Road One Houston, TX 77058-4399 If you want to order books, call (713)486-2172. Thomas A. Mutch, "Geology of the Moon: A Stratigraphic View", Princeton University Press, 1970. Information about the Lunar Orbiter missions, including maps of the coverage of the lunar nearside and farside by various Orbiters. SPACECRAFT MODELS "Space in Miniature #2: Gemini" by Michael J. Mackowski 1621 Waterwood Lane, St. Louis, MO 63146 $7.50 Only 34pp but enough pictures & diagrams to interest more than just the modelling community, I feel. Marco's Miniatures of Dracut, Mass. have produced a 1/144 Skylab in an edition of 500 & a 1/48 Lunar Rover (same scale as Monogram and Revell Lunar Modules) in a similar edition. Prices are $45 for Skylab, $24 for LRV. Check with them for postage etc. I have no connection with them, but have found their service to be good and their stock of rare/old kits *is* impressive. Prices range from reasonable ($35 for Monogram 1/32 scale Apollo CSM with cutaway details) to spectacular ($145 for Airfix Vostok). Four Star Collectibles P.O. Box 658 Dracut Mass 01826, USA. (508)-957-0695. Voyager, HST, Viking, Lunar Rover etc. kits from: Lunar Models 5120 Grisham Rowlett, Texas 75088 (214)-475-4230 As reviewed by Bob Kaplow: Peter Alway's book "Scale Model Rocketry" is now available. Mine arrived in the mail earlier this week. To get your own copy, send $19.95 + $2.50 s/h ($22.45 total) to: Peter Alway 2830 Pittsfield Ann Arbor, MI 48104 The book includes information on collecting scale data, construction of scale models, and several handy tables. Appendicies include plans for 3 sport scale models, a 1:9.22 D Region Tomahawk (BT50), a 1/40 V-2 (BT60), and a 1/9.16 Aerobee 150A (BT55/60). I've only begun to study the book, but it certainly will be a valuable data source for many modellers. Most vehicles include several paragraphs of text describing the missions flown by the rocket, various specs including "NAR" engine classification, along with a dimensioned drawing, color layouts & paint pattern, and a black & white photograph. The vehicles included are the Aerobee 150A, Aerobee 300, Aerobee Hi, Arcas, Asp, Astrobee 1500, Astrobee D, Atlas Centaur, Atlas-Agena, Atlas-Score, Baby WAC, D-Region Tomahawk, Deacon Rockoon, Delta B, Delta E, Gemini-Titan II, Iris, Javelin, Juno 1, Juno 2, Little Joe 1, Little Joe 2, Mercury-Atlas, Mercury-Redstone, Nike-Apache, Nike-Asp, Nike-Cajun, Nike-Deacon, Nike-Tomahawk, RAM B, Saturn 1 Block 1, Saturn 1 Block 2, Saturn 1B, Saturn 5, Scout, Standard Aerobee, Terrapin, Thor-Able, Titan III C, Titan III E, Trailblazer 1, V-2, Vanguard, Viking Model 1, Viking Model 2, and Wac Corporal. ROCKET PROPULSION George P. Sutton, "Rocket Propulsion Elements", 5th edn, Wiley-Interscience 1986, ISBN 0-471-80027-9. Pricey textbook. The best (nearly the only) modern introduction to the technical side of rocketry. A good place to start if you want to know the details. Not for the math-shy. Straight chemical rockets, essentially nothing on more advanced propulsion (although earlier editions reportedly had some coverage). Dieter K. Huzel and David H. Huang, "Design of Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines", NASA SP-125. NTIS N71-29405 PC A20/MF A01 1971 461p Out of print; reproductions may be obtained through the NTIS (expensive). The complete and authoritative guide to designing liquid-fuel engines. Reference #1 in most chapters of Sutton. Heavy emphasis on practical issues, what works and what doesn't, what the typical values of the fudge factors are. Stiff reading, massive detail; written for rocket engineers by rocket engineers. SPACECRAFT DESIGN Brij N. Agrawal, "Design of Geosynchronous Spacecraft", Prentice-Hall, ISBN 0-13-200114-4. James R. Wertz ed, "Spacecraft Attitude Determination and Control", Kluwer, ISBN 90-277-1204-2. P.R.K. Chetty, "Satellite Technology and its Applications", McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0-8306-9688-1. James R. Wertz and Wiley J. Larson (editors), "Space Mission Analysis and Design", Kluwer Academic Publishers (Dordrecht/Boston/London) 1991, ISBN 0-7923-0971-5 (paperback), or 0-7923-0970-7 (hardback). This looks at system-level design of a spacecraft, rather than detailed design. 23 chapters, 4 appendices, about 430 pages. It leads the reader through the mission design and system-level design of a fictitious earth-observation satellite, to illustrate the principles that it tries to convey. Warning: although the book is chock-full of many useful reference tables, some of the numbers in at least one of those tables (launch costs for various launchers) appear to be quite wrong. Can be ordered by telephone, using a credit card; Kluwer's phone number is (617)-871-6600. Cost $34.50. ESOTERIC PROPULSION SCHEMES (SOLAR SAILS, LASERS, FUSION...) This needs more and more up-to-date references, but it's a start. ANTIMATTER: "Antiproton Annihilation Propulsion", Robert Forward AFRPL TR-85-034 from the Air Force Rocket Propulsion Laboratory (AFRPL/XRX, Stop 24, Edwards Air Force Base, CA 93523-5000). NTIS AD-A160 734/0 PC A10/MF A01 PC => Paper copy, A10 => $US57.90 -- or maybe Price Code? MF => MicroFiche, A01 => $US13.90 Technical study on making, holding, and using antimatter for near-term (30-50 years) propulsion systems. Excellent bibliography. Forward is the best-known proponent of antimatter. This also may be available as UDR-TR-85-55 from the contractor, the University of Dayton Research Institute, and DTIC AD-A160 from the Defense Technical Information Center, Defense Logistics Agency, Cameron Station, Alexandria, VA 22304-6145. And it's also available from the NTIS, with yet another number. "Advanced Space Propulsion Study, Antiproton and Beamed Power Propulsion", Robert Forward AFAL TR-87-070 from the Air Force Astronautics Laboratory, DTIC #AD-A189 218. NTIS AD-A189 218/1 PC A10/MF A01 Summarizes the previous paper, goes into detail on beamed power systems including " 1) pellet, microwave, and laser beamed power systems for intersteller transport; 2) a design for a near-relativistic laser-pushed lightsail using near-term laser technology; 3) a survey of laser thermal propulsion, tether transportation systems, antiproton annihilation propulsion, exotic applications of solar sails, and laser-pushed interstellar lightsails; 4) the status of antiproton annihilation propulsion as of 1986; and 5) the prospects for obtaining antimatter ions heavier than antiprotons." Again, there is an extensive bibliography. "Application of Antimatter - Electric Power to Interstellar Propulsion", G. D. Nordley, JBIS Interstellar Studies issue of 6/90. BUSSARD RAMJETS AND RELATED METHODS: G. L. Matloff and A. J. Fennelly, "Interstellar Applications and Limitations of Several Electrostatic/Electromagnetic Ion Collection Techniques", JBIS 30 (1977):213-222 N. H. Langston, "The Erosion of Interstellar Drag Screens", JBIS 26 (1973): 481-484 C. Powell, "Flight Dynamics of the Ram-Augmented Interstellar Rocket", JBIS 28 (1975):553-562 A. R. Martin, "The Effects of Drag on Relativistic Spacefight", JBIS 25 (1972):643-652 FUSION: "A Laser Fusion Rocket for Interplanetary Propulsion", Roderick Hyde, LLNL report UCRL-88857. (Contact the Technical Information Dept. at Livermore) Fusion Pellet design: Fuel selection. Energy loss mechanisms. Pellet compression metrics. Thrust Chamber: Magnetic nozzle. Shielding. Tritium breeding. Thermal modeling. Fusion Driver (lasers, particle beams, etc): Heat rejection. Vehicle Summary: Mass estimates. Vehicle Performance: Interstellar travel required exhaust velocities at the limit of fusion's capability. Interplanetary missions are limited by power/weight ratio. Trajectory modeling. Typical mission profiles. References, including the 1978 report in JBIS, "Project Daedalus", and several on ICF and driver technology. "Fusion as Electric Propulsion", Robert W. Bussard, Journal of Propulsion and Power, Vol. 6, No. 5, Sept.-Oct. 1990 Fusion rocket engines are analyzed as electric propulsion systems, with propulsion thrust-power-input-power ratio (the thrust-power "gain" G(t)) much greater than unity. Gain values of conventional (solar, fission) electric propulsion systems are always quite small (e.g., G(t)<0.8). With these, "high-thrust" interplanetary flight is not possible, because system acceleration (a(t)) capabilities are always less than the local gravitational acceleration. In contrast, gain values 50-100 times higher are found for some fusion concepts, which offer "high-thrust" flight capability. One performance example shows a 53.3 day (34.4 powered; 18.9 coast), one-way transit time with 19% payload for a single-stage Earth/Mars vehicle. Another shows the potential for high acceleration (a(t)=0.55g(o)) flight in Earth/moon space. "The QED Engine System: Direct Electric Fusion-Powered Systems for Aerospace Flight Propulsion" by Robert W. Bussard, EMC2-1190-03, available from Energy/Matter Conversion Corp., 9100 A. Center Street, Manassas, VA 22110. [This is an introduction to the application of Bussard's version of the Farnsworth/Hirsch electrostatic confinement fusion technology to propulsion. 1500 Subject: Today in 1986 Newsgroups: sci.space In 18084TM@msu.edu (Tom) writes: >Got back from class, and some pals were watching the launch. We were >all pretty stunned when it blew up. Some thoughts that ran through >my head were "That's the risk required for actual exploration" and >"Damned shame that it had to happen to the first civilian" and >"Why do they keep showing it over and over?" Just in the interests of accuracy, Christa McAuliffe was not "the first civilian". Many of the Mission Specialists were and are civilians. She was the first PASSENGER (in the sense of not having a real mission assignment that required being there), unless you elect to give that honor to "Pukin' Jake". -- "Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to live in the real world." -- Mary Shafer, NASA Ames Dryden ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fred.McCall@dseg.ti.com - I don't speak for others and they don't speak for me. ------------------------------ To: bb-sci-space@CRABAPPLE.SRV.CS.CMU.EDU Xref: crabapple.srv.cs.cmu.edu sci.astro:31228 sci.space:55690 sci.answers:16 news.answers:5672 Path: crabapple.srv.cs.cmu.edu!cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news.harvard.edu!ogicse!emory!gatech!concert!borg.cs.unc.edu!not-for-mail From: Jon Leech Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.space,sci.answers,news.answers Subject: Space FAQ 04/15 - Calculations Keywords: Frequently Asked Questions Message-Id: Date: 2 Feb 93 08:57:45 GMT Article-I.D.: cs.math_728679017 Expires: 9 Mar 1993 18:50:17 GMT References: Followup-To: poster Distribution: world Organization: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Lines: 353 Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu Nntp-Posting-Host: monet.cs.unc.edu Sender: news@CRABAPPLE.SRV.CS.CMU.EDU Source-Info: Sender is really isu@VACATION.VENARI.CS.CMU.EDU Archive-name: space/math Last-modified: $Date: 93/02/02 13:17:04 $ PERFORMING CALCULATIONS AND INTERPRETING DATA FORMATS COMPUTING SPACECRAFT ORBITS AND TRAJECTORIES References that have been frequently recommended on the net are: "Fundamentals of Astrodynamics" Roger Bate, Donald Mueller, Jerry White 1971, Dover Press, 455pp $8.95 (US) (paperback). ISBN 0-486-60061-0 NASA Spaceflight handbooks (dating from the 1960s) SP-33 Orbital Flight Handbook (3 parts) SP-34 Lunar Flight Handbook (3 parts) SP-35 Planetary Flight Handbook (9 parts) These might be found in university aeronautics libraries or ordered through the US Govt. Printing Office (GPO), although more information would probably be needed to order them. M. A. Minovitch, _The Determination and Characteristics of Ballistic Interplanetary Trajectories Under the Influence of Multiple Planetary Attractions_, Technical Report 32-464, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., Oct, 1963. The title says all. Starts of with the basics and works its way up. Very good. It has a companion article: M. Minovitch, _Utilizing Large Planetary Perubations for the Design of Deep-Space Solar-Probe and Out of Ecliptic Trajectories_, Technical Report 32-849, JPL, Pasadena, Calif., 1965. You need to read the first one first to realy understand this one. It does include a _short_ summary if you can only find the second. Contact JPL for availability of these reports. "Spacecraft Attitude Dynamics", Peter C. Hughes 1986, John Wiley and Sons. "Celestial Mechanics: a computational guide for the practitioner", Lawrence G. Taff, (Wiley-Interscience, New York, 1985). Starts with the basics (2-body problem, coordinates) and works up to orbit determinations, perturbations, and differential corrections. Taff also briefly discusses stellar dynamics including a short discussion of n-body problems. COMPUTING PLANETARY POSITIONS More net references: Van Flandern & Pullinen, _Low-Precision Formulae for Planetary Positions_, Astrophysical J. Supp Series, 41:391-411, 1979. Look in an astronomy or physics library for this; also said to be available from Willmann-Bell. Gives series to compute positions accurate to 1 arc minute for a period + or - 300 years from now. Pluto is included but stated to have an accuracy of only about 15 arc minutes. _Interactive Computer Ephemeris_ (from the US Naval Observatory) distributed on IBM-PC floppy disks, $35 (Willmann-Bell). Covers dates 1800-2049. "Planetary Programs and Tables from -4000 to +2800", Bretagnon & Simon 1986, Willmann-Bell. Floppy disks available separately. "Fundamentals of Celestial Mechanics" (2nd ed), J.M.A. Danby 1988, Willmann-Bell. A good fundamental text. Includes BASIC programs; a companion set of floppy disks is available separately. "Astronomical Formulae for Calculators" (4th ed.), J. Meeus 1988, Willmann-Bell. "Astronomical Algorithms", J. Meeus 1991, Willmann-Bell. If you actively use one of the editions of "Astronomical Formulae for Calculators", you will want to replace it with "Astronomical Algorithms". This new book is more oriented towards computers than calculators and contains formulae for planetary motion based on modern work by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the U.S. Naval Observatory, and the Bureau des Longitudes. The previous books were all based on formulae mostly developed in the last century. Algorithms available separately on diskette. "Practical Astronomy with your Calculator" (3rd ed.), P. Duffett-Smith 1988, Cambridge University Press. "Orbits for Amateurs with a Microcomputer", D. Tattersfield 1984, Stanley Thornes, Ltd. Includes example programs in BASIC. "Orbits for Amateurs II", D. Tattersfield 1987, John Wiley & Sons. "Astronomy / Scientific Software" - catalog of shareware, public domain, and commercial software for IBM and other PCs. Astronomy software includes planetarium simulations, ephemeris generators, astronomical databases, solar system simulations, satellite tracking programs, celestial mechanics simulators, and more. Andromeda Software, Inc. P.O. Box 605 Amherst, NY 14226-0605 COMPUTING CRATER DIAMETERS FROM EARTH-IMPACTING ASTEROIDS Astrogeologist Gene Shoemaker proposes the following formula, based on studies of cratering caused by nuclear tests. (1/3.4) D = S S c K W : crater diameter in km g p f n (1/6) S = (g /g ) : gravity correction factor for bodies other than g e t Earth, where g = 9.8 m/s^2 and g is the surface e t gravity of the target body. This scaling is cited for lunar craters and may hold true for other bodies. (1/3.4) S = (p / p ) : correction factor for target density p , p a t t p = 1.8 g/cm^3 for alluvium at the Jangle U a crater site, p = 2.6 g/cm^3 for average rock on the continental shields. C : crater collapse factor, 1 for craters <= 3 km in diameter, 1.3 for larger craters (on Earth). (1/3.4) K : .074 km / (kT TNT equivalent) n empirically determined from the Jangle U nuclear test crater. 3 2 19 W = pi * d * delta * V / (12 * 4.185 * 10 ) : projectile kinetic energy in kT TNT equivalent given diameter d, velocity v, and projectile density delta in CGS units. delta of around 3 g/cm^3 is fairly good for an asteroid. An RMS velocity of V = 20 km/sec may be used for Earth-crossing asteroids. Under these assumptions, the body which created the Barringer Meteor Crater in Arizona (1.13 km diameter) would have been about 40 meters in diameter. More generally, one can use (after Gehrels, 1985): Asteroid Number of objects Impact probability Impact energy diameter (km) (impacts/year) (* 5*10^20 ergs) 10 10 10^-8 10^9 1 1 000 10^-6 10^6 0.1 100 000 10^-4 10^3 assuming simple scaling laws. Note that 5*10^20 ergs = 13 000 tons TNT equivalent, or the energy released by the Hiroshima A-bomb. References: Gehrels, T. 1985 Asteroids and comets. _Physics Today_ 38, 32-41. [an excellent general overview of the subject for the layman] Shoemaker, E.M. 1983 Asteroid and comet bombardment of the earth. _Ann. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci._ 11, 461-494. [very long and fairly technical but a comprehensive examination of the subject] Shoemaker, E.M., J.G. Williams, E.F. Helin & R.F. Wolfe 1979 Earth-crossing asteroids: Orbital classes, collision rates with Earth, and origin. In _Asteroids_, T. Gehrels, ed., pp. 253-282, University of Arizona Press, Tucson. Cunningham, C.J. 1988 _Introduction to Asteroids: The Next Frontier_ (Richmond: Willman-Bell, Inc.) [covers all aspects of asteroid studies and is an excellent introduction to the subject for people of all experience levels. It also has a very extensive reference list covering essentially all of the reference material in the field.] MAP PROJECTIONS AND SPHERICAL TRIGNOMETRY Two easy-to-find sources of map projections are the "Encyclopaedia Brittanica", (particularly the older volumes) and a tutorial appearing in _Graphics Gems_ (Academic Press, 1990). The latter was written with simplicity of exposition and suitability of digital computation in mind (spherical trig formulae also appear, as do digitally-plotted examples). More than you ever cared to know about map projections is in John Snyder's USGS publication "Map Projections--A Working Manual", USGS Professional Paper 1395. This contains detailed descriptions of 32 projections, with history, features, projection formulas (for both spherical earth and ellipsoidal earth), and numerical test cases. It's a neat book, all 382 pages worth. This one's $20. You might also want the companion volume, by Snyder and Philip Voxland, "An Album of Map Projections", USGS Professional Paper 1453. This contains less detail on about 130 projections and variants. Formulas are in the back, example plots in the front. $14, 250 pages. You can order these 2 ways. The cheap, slow way is direct from USGS: Earth Science Information Center, US Geological Survey, 507 National Center, Reston, VA 22092. (800)-USA-MAPS. They can quote you a price and tell you where to send your money. Expect a 6-8 week turnaround time. A much faster way (about 1 week) is through Timely Discount Topos, (303)-469-5022, 9769 W. 119th Drive, Suite 9, Broomfield, CO 80021. Call them and tell them what you want. They'll quote a price, you send a check, and then they go to USGS Customer Service Counter and pick it up for you. Add about a $3-4 service charge, plus shipping. A (perhaps more accessible) mapping article is: R. Miller and F. Reddy, "Mapping the World in Pascal", Byte V12 #14, December 1987 Contains Turbo Pascal procedures for five common map projections. A demo program, CARTOG.PAS, and a small (6,000 point) coastline data is available on CompuServe, GEnie, and many BBSs. Some references for spherical trignometry are: _Spherical Astronomy_, W.M. Smart, Cambridge U. Press, 1931. _A Compendium of Spherical Astronomy_, S. Newcomb, Dover, 1960. _Spherical Astronomy_, R.M. Green, Cambridge U. Press., 1985 (update of Smart). _Spherical Astronomy_, E Woolard and G.Clemence, Academic Press, 1966. PERFORMING N-BODY SIMULATIONS EFFICIENTLY "Computer Simulation Using Particles" R. W. Hockney and J. W. Eastwood (Adam Hilger; Bristol and Philadelphia; 1988) "The rapid evaluation of potential fields in particle systems", L. Greengard MIT Press, 1988. A breakthrough O(N) simulation method. Has been parallelized. L. Greengard and V. Rokhlin, "A fast algorithm for particle simulations," Journal of Computational Physics, 73:325-348, 1987. "An O(N) Algorithm for Three-dimensional N-body Simulations", MSEE thesis, Feng Zhao, MIT AILab Technical Report 995, 1987 "Galactic Dynamics" J. Binney & S. Tremaine (Princeton U. Press; Princeton; 1987) Includes an O(N^2) FORTRAN code written by Aarseth, a pioneer in the field. Hierarchical (N log N) tree methods are described in these papers: A. W. Appel, "An Efficient Program for Many-body Simulation", SIAM Journal of Scientific and Statistical Computing, Vol. 6, p. 85, 1985. Barnes & Hut, "A Hierarchical O(N log N) Force-Calculation Algorithm", Nature, V324 # 6096, 4-10 Dec 1986. L. Hernquist, "Hierarchical N-body Methods", Computer Physics Communications, Vol. 48, p. 107, 1988. INTERPRETING THE FITS IMAGE FORMAT If you just need to examine FITS images, use the ppm package (see the comp.graphics FAQ) to convert them to your preferred format. Failing that, the basic reference for FITS may be found in the following 3 papers: Wells, D. C., Greisen, E. W., and Harten, R. H., "FITS: a flexible image transport system," Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series, 44, 363-370, 1981. Grosbol, P., Harten, R. H., Greisen, E. W., and Wells, D. C., "Generalized extensions and blocking factors for FITS," Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series, 73, 359-364, 1988 Harten, R. H., Grosbol. P., Greisen, E. W., and Wells, D. C., "The FITS tables extension, Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series, 73, 365-372, 1988. A DRAFT document describing FITS and the Floating Point Agreement defining FP storage formats is available by anonymous FTP from nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (128.183.36.23). Get ANON_DIR:[FITS]README.;1 to begin with. There are known to be errors and ambiguities in this document, so it should not be used as a fundamental reference. Questions should be sent by email to the FITS support office (bschlesinger@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov) or telephone at (301)-513-1634 A FORTRAN library for reading and writing FITS files is available by anonymous FTP from tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov (128.183.8.77) in directory pub/fitsio3. Contact the author, William Pence (pence@tetra.gsfc.nasa.gov) for more details. SKY (UNIX EPHEMERIS PROGRAM) The 6th Edition of the Unix operating system came with several software systems not distributed because of older media capacity limitations. Included were an ephmeris, a satellite track, and speech synthesis software. The ephmeris, sky(6), is available within AT&T and to sites possessing a Unix source code license. The program is regarded as Unix source code. Sky is <0.5MB. Send proof of source code license to E. Miya MS 258-5 NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000 eugene@orville.nas.nasa.gov THREE-DIMENSIONAL STAR/GALAXY COORDINATES To generate 3D coordinates of astronomical objects, first obtain an astronomical database which specifies right ascension, declination, and parallax for the objects. Convert parallax into distance using the formula in part 6 of the FAQ, convert RA and declination to coordinates on a unit sphere (see some of the references on planetary positions and spherical trignometry earlier in this section for details on this), and scale this by the distance. Two databases useful for this purpose are the Yale Bright Star catalog (sources listed in FAQ section 3) or "The Catalogue of Stars within 25 parsecs of the Sun" (in pub/SPACE/FAQ/stars.data and stars.doc on ames.arc.nasa.gov). NEXT: FAQ #5/15 - References on specific areas ------------------------------ End of Space Digest Volume 16 : Issue 116 ------------------------------