Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V10_3/V10_346.TXT

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Subject: SPACE Digest V10 #346

SPACE Digest                                     Volume 10 : Issue 346

Today's Topics:
             Re: Pegasus launch?
               Re: ESA bulletin
          Excess THOR rockets and parts to be sold.
            Re: New years eve 1999
         Re: proposed "space-mail" incentive
            Re: Non-autonomous Mars Rover
         Re: proposed "space-mail" incentive
            Re: Non-autonomous Mars Rover
             Re: Satellites in E-W orbits
         NASA Headline News for 12/14/89 (Forwarded)
     Re: Space industry projects: dismantling moons and asteroids
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 14 Dec 89 17:24:50 GMT
From: skipper![e-mail]  (Mary Shafer (OFV))
Subject: Re: Pegasus launch?

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Steve Hix) writes:

>Last I heard, Pegasus was supposed to launch around December 8.

>Did it?  Another slip?  ?

Probably as you read this it's on a dress rehearsal captive flight.
(Takeoff is scheduled for 1400 PST 14 Dec.)  They'll do everything
except launch it.

The first flight is currently scheduled for 17-18 January, according
to one of the B-52 pilots, although that date may be a little soft.

--

Mary Shafer  [e-mail] or ames!elxsi.dfrf.nasa.gov!shafer
         NASA Ames Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA
                   Of course I don't speak for NASA

------------------------------

Date:     Thu, 14 Dec 89 11:28 CST
From: Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey <[e-mail]>
Subject:  Re: ESA bulletin
Original_To:  SPACE

Lutz Massonne posted a message about *ESA Bulletin*, a swell quarterly
magazine.  He wasn't sure how you could get it in the States.

I have received it free of charge in the USA for several years.  I presume ESA
would send it to people in any non-ESA country.  You might also like to know
about *ESA Journal*, another free quarterly.  *ESA Journal* is for technical pap
ers, *ESA Bulletin* is more
general-- if still pretty technical-- and includes regular status reports on
every ESA program, as well as articles. The address again is:

ESA Publications Divison
ESTEC
2000 AG Noordwijk
The Netherlands

Be sure to let them know how much you appreciate this service!

At the same address, you can order ESA publications that are not free.  Details
are published in each issue of both magazines.

A final aside:  Think about getting your library to subscribe.

                        ///        Bill Higgins
   E                   ///
  |8D:O:          occc))))<))      Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
   E                 ///
                    ///            Bitnet: [e-mail]

Bumper sticker seen on a Soyuz:    SPAN/Hepnet/Physnet: 43011::HIGGINS

 DON'T LAUGH-- IT'S PAID FOR       Internet: [e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: 14 Dec 89 03:18:04 GMT
From: cs.utexas.edu!usc!henry.jpl.nasa.gov!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!aero![e-mail]  (Thomas F. Smith)
Subject: Excess THOR rockets and parts to be sold.

HEADS UP:  The USAF has THOR rockets and parts stored at
NORTON AIR FORCE BASE IN CALIFORNIA
The government is being asked now if anybody wants them.
Next comes any commercial companies.
C         YOU ARE A COMMERCIAL COMPANY AREN'T YOU?
Then the USAF museum and any other museums.
Then the smelter.  Let us hope not!

The price will be fair market value, whatever that is.
Anybody sold one lately?
    I WILL POST NEWS WHEN THEY ARE OFFERED
 TO COMMERCIAL COMPANIES.  SERIOUS OFFERS ONLY.  CASH SALES ONLY!


--
This space reserved.                                     Space Not Reserved.
Space Commercialization Office, Space Systems Division, Los Angeles AFB, CA.

------------------------------

Date: 14 Dec 89 20:01:40 GMT
From: rochester![e-mail]  (Paul Dietz)
Subject: Re: New years eve 1999

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:

>   When (western civilisation) enters the next millenium why not celebrate
>   with the BIGGEST fireworks ever. In the last hour of 1999 all MX:s,
>   Minutemans and Tridents with their Soviet counterparts could be launched
>   and converge at a point X at 23:59:59 GMT and then, you guessed it!

What a remarkably idiotic idea.  Warheads exploded in space still
put fallout into the atmosphere, and ICBMs don't loft their warheads very
far up.

    Paul F. Dietz
    [e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: 14 Dec 89 16:03:21 GMT
From: swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!kuhub.cc.ukans.edu![e-mail]
Subject: Re: proposed "space-mail" incentive

Henry Spencer writes:

>There actually wasn't *that* much demand for more rapid mail delivery in
>the early days of air mail.  Oh, some, yes, but it could never have been
>justified in a cost-benefit study, as I understand the situation.  Large-
>scale demand and use came after the service was in place and people felt
>they could rely on it.  This is, unfortunately, much the same situation
>we now face when it comes to cheap launch services:  there is good reason
>to speculate that new users would develop, but existing usage doesn't
>seem sufficient, in itself, to justify major efforts.  A leap of faith
>or a willingness to take some risk is needed.

This is one of the major shortcomings of a pure capitalist, market-based
economy. There are some, possibly a lot, of processes that would make
money at a high level of activity, but that would lose money at a low
level of activity. Since most of American business seems to be reluctant
to take risks, this seems like one of the areas where the government can
and should step in: start a pilot project to see if the market is there,
then, if it works, turn it over to private industry for a reasonable fee
(to recover some of the R&D costs). If I remember correctly, that's part
of NASA's job in the aerospace field:  test out new, not necessarily
practical (read immediately profitable) concepts, such as the forward-
swept wings plane.

Flame pre-empt:  No, I don't think American business got out of the risk
taking business because the government stepped in. I think (and this is
after doing some reading on the subject) that business got fat and lazy
during the post-World War II decades, when they were the only industrial
game in town. They were taking in steady profits for so long that they
got used to it as the nature of business, and hence won't even think
about risk-taking if there's a chance they'll lose that steady profit.

Travis Butler                    Argue ideas, not sources.
University of Kansas, Lawrence   [e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: 14 Dec 89 22:08:17 GMT
From: aramis.rutgers.edu!overture.rutgers.edu![e-mail]  (Steve Masticola)
Subject: Re: Non-autonomous Mars Rover

Peter Scott writes:

[re nonautonomous Mars Rover experiments using virtual worlds]

] It's already being done.  However, it doesn't handle the issues that
] have been raised here already (principally speed) because no-one has yet
] come up with a way of looking through rock.  With a low perspective and
] typical Martian terrain, there's a heck of a lot you can't see 3 minutes'
] drive away, hidden behind boulders.

The prespective doesn't have to be low. It occurs to me that you could
mount the cameras on a long, extensible pole, to look over the nearer
boulders. Or use a small dirigible for reconnaisance (if they'd work
in a thin atmosphere). A tethered balloon would be nice, but would
probably incur too great a risk of getting tangled.

And, like you said, you'd want to use satellite imaging, too. All
tricks are legal, as long as they work.

- Steve.

------------------------------

Date: 14 Dec 89 17:17:29 GMT
From: groucho![e-mail]  (Steve Emmerson)
Subject: Re: proposed "space-mail" incentive

[e-mail] (Henry Spencer) writes:

>There actually wasn't *that* much demand for more rapid mail delivery in
>the early days of air mail.  Oh, some, yes, but it could never have been
>justified in a cost-benefit study, as I understand the situation.

Agreed.  Indeed your premise, if I understand it correctly, was that
the early form of airmail delivery was more costly than the
alternatives.

You do agree, however, that there was some demand for that service.
Hence my quesion: "What are the modern-day analogues and how do they
compare, financially, to the previous situation?".

--Steve Emmerson    [e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 14 Dec 89 10:23:02 PST
From: Peter Scott <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Non-autonomous Mars Rover

aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu![e-mail]  (Steve Masticola)
writes:

>Can a fine-grain ranging system (optical or sonic) be used to get a
>reasonably good 3D image of the Rover's immediate environment? If so,
>why not use that data to set up a delayed-real-time telepresence
>environment for an operator on Earth? If it works, the Rover could
>move at a good clip for short distances without the need for local
>autonomy.

It's already being done.  However, it doesn't handle the issues that
have been raised here already (principally speed) because no-one has yet
come up with a way of looking through rock.  With a low perspective and
typical Martian terrain, there's a heck of a lot you can't see 3 minutes'
drive away, hidden behind boulders.

On the other hand, it occurs to me that an orbiter with modern reconnaissance
imaging systems should be able to take pictures down to a 5cm resolution
of the area the rover wanted to cover... with a judicious choice of orbits
the rover need not be unduly constrained in its territory, and the overhead
view plus photoclinometrical terrain reconstruction would yield the database
you described.

Peter Scott ([e-mail])

------------------------------

Date: 14 Dec 89 17:08:51 GMT
From: mailrus!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!ists!yunexus!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Satellites in E-W orbits

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Feulner ... Matthew Feulner) writes:
>>in an orbit between 65 and 90 degrees.  There just aren't very many in such
>>orbits...
>
>They could be in the 65 to 115 degree orbits, with the 90-115 orbits
>looking SE to NW (ascending) or NE to SW (descending).  Examples of
>these are the 3 NOAA polar orbiters at an inclination (I believe) of
>99 degrees.  Not much else, though.

I think the stuff in sun-synchronous orbit (typically 97-99 degrees) is
close enough to 90 for their tracks to look pretty much N-S.
--
1755 EST, Dec 14, 1972:  human |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
exploration of space terminates| uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry [e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: 14 Dec 89 18:32:31 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA Headline News for 12/14/89 (Forwarded)

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, December 14, 1989                   Audio: 202/755-1788
-----------------------------------------------------------------


This is NASA Headline News for Thursday, December 14......


The launch of the STS-32 space shuttle mission has been moved to
no earlier than December 20.  The launch date is contingent on
validating systems on Launch Pad 39A.  This is the first time the
pad has been used since January of 1986.  Between now and launch,
workers must complete installation of ordnance devices, test
firing circuits, close out the orbiter's aft compartment and load
propellants.

If pad activities continue to run behind schedule a slip in the
launch to the 21st is likely.  The 58-minute launch window for
December 20 opens at 6:26 P.M., Eastern time.


A series of pre-launch news briefings will be held on Tuesday,
December 19 at Kennedy Space Center.


Astronomers have found what they believe to be the most distant
known star in the Milky Way galaxy.  It's estimated the star is
160,000 light years away.  Its detection may provide a means to
measure the galaxy's total mass.  The first sightings of the star
were made with telescopes in Arizona and Hawaii.


Mission controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory report the
Magellan Spacecraft has completed almost half of its journey to
Venus...with 241 days to Venus orbit insertion.  Its high-gain
antenna is pointed toward earth and engineering data is coming in
at 1,200 bits per second.  Intense solar activity experienced in
August, September and October caused some solar panel
degradation...but much less than had been provided for.






                        **************









-----------------------------------------------------------------
Here's the broadcast schedule for public affairs events on NASA
Select TV.  All times are Eastern.

Tuesday, Dec. 19.....

                     Assuming a launch date of Dec. 20, a series
                     of mission briefings on Tuesday will be
                     conducted, beginning at 9:00 A.M.

Wednesday, Dec. 20...

                     NASA Select television coverage of launch
                     day activities begins at 2:00 P.M.  the
                     58-minute launch window opens at 6:26 P.M.

All events and times are subject to change without notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
These reports are filed daily, Monday through Friday, at 12 noon,
Eastern time.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
A service of the Internal Communications Branch (LPC), NASA
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

------------------------------

Date: 14 Dec 89 16:36:34 GMT
From: usc!wuarchive!texbell!nuchat![e-mail]  (Steve Nuchia)
Subject: Re: Space industry projects: dismantling moons and asteroids

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Mark Gellis) writes:
>New topic for discussion.  [how to dismantle an asteroid for parts?]

My plan is to set off a small nuke near one to get it moving more or
less earthward, on about a 5 year trajectory.  Match speeds with it
again, stop its spin, and clamp onto the cool side.  Deploy a large
solar concentrator, arranged so the light pressure is generally
braking your orbital velocity.  Start feeding chunks of asteroid
into the nice vacuum furnace at the focus.  Form the nice stainless
steel (Ni & Fe, right?) Into structural shapes, and spit the slag
out in whatever direction will get you home fastest without bumping
into home when you get there.  Arrive sitting on top of a few hundred
tons of steel shapes and sheet in LEO, and start taking orders.  Learn
Russian on the way out, Japanese on the way back.  Retire.

--
Steve Nuchia          South Coast Computing Services      [phone]
"If the conjecture `You would rather I had not disturbed you
 by sending you this.' is correct, you may add it to the list of
 uncomfortable truths."   - Edsgar Dijkstra

------------------------------

End of SPACE Digest V10 #346
*******************