X-Andrew-Authenticated-as: 7997;andrew.cmu.edu;Ted Anderson
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Wed, 20 Jun 1990 01:59:55 -0400 (EDT)
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Date: Wed, 20 Jun 1990 01:59:26 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #544
SPACE Digest Volume 11 : Issue 544
Today's Topics:
British national space activity
Re: What makes a nebula glow??
Re: SPACE Digest V11 #541
NASA Headline News for 06/19/90 (Forwarded)
Administrivia:
Submissions to the SPACE Digest/sci.space should be mailed to
space+@andrew.cmu.edu. Other mail, esp. [un]subscription notices,
should be sent to space-request+@andrew.cmu.edu, or, if urgent, to
This is rather on the old side I hope to be able to give the NET swifter responses in
the future.
National Ciriculum
==================
The keynote address to the March meeting of the Parlimentary Space
Committee was given by Robert Jackson MP Parlimentary Under Secretary of State,
Department of Education and Science.
He includes amongst his responsibilities a DES contribution of some $45
million to the space programme, the great majority of which is deployed on
European Space Agency projects. This amounts to more than 25 per cent of
Government civil space spending.
Parliamentarians and industrialists pressed the point that insufficient
attention was being paid to the education benefits of space as a source of
inspiration, as a broadly based scientific and technological training which
provided an entry point into a wide variety of career patterns, and as an area
of science which offered the widest ranging theoretical and practical problems.
Members observed that whereas applications for aerospace related courses at
Universities continue to increase - typically 15 applicants for each place -
engineering as a whole found it difficult to attract students.
While emphasising the autonomy of higher education institutions and of the
Research Councils, the Minister was sympathetic to this view and to a
suggestion that an increase in University training in Space Technology at both
Undergraduate and Postgraduate level could be a valuable investment for the
country. He would also discuss with the Secretary of State the possibilities of
including space related matters in the national curriculum for schools.
The Minister empasised that his department continues to exercise the most
rigorous judgements on space spending. Priority would continue to be given the
the ESA's science programme to which the UK contributed 25 milion per annum.
UK pressure had led to the recent major review of the scope and costs of ESA's
Horizon 2000 science programme and he was encouraged by the suport now being
given by other countries for the improvment measures. Other DES intrests
include earth observation, which involves a contribution of some 7 million
next year. In this area the UK attaches a particulary high priority to the
Polar Platform project. However, he was sceptical about the commercial rewards
of ESA's microgravity programmes.
The Commitee also took intrest in a British company's success in an
international competition for a race to Mars in 1992 to celebrate the 500th
anniversary of Columbus' voyage to America.
The race will be between solar powered spacecraft representing Europe, US
and Asia and employing vast sails (280 meters diameter when unfolded but made
of material only thosands of an inch thick) which will be propelled by the
pressure exerted by sunlight - light particles or photons.
The Cambridge Consultant' design has been selected as the best technical
solution from world-wide contenders. The race and the technological challenge
is likely to hold all the inspirational appeal of space which the Parlimentary
Space Committe was recommending to the Minister
ESA meets PSC.
==============
On 3-4 May, in Paris, the Parlimentary Space Committee (PSC) met with
officials of the European Commission and the European Space Agency (ESA) for
discussions on space policis and plans in the light of 1992 and the changing
European political scene. The Committe, chaired by Michael Marshall MP, with
member of both Houses and leading space industrialists, met with Mr. Joan Majo
of the Commission's telecommunications Director General (DG13), and with Prof.
R. Luest, Director General of ESA, and all of his Programme Directors.
PSC members came prepared to hear views coloured by the differences in the
policies of the two Administrations, since the Commission had appeared to
challenge ESA's previous sovereignty in civil space R&D. Instead, the PSC came
away convinced of the enormous potential in close co-operation between the two
Administrations, for the development, exploitation and commercialisation of
both space communications and earth observation. the PSC also gained a
first-hand account of the practical impact of the UK's declining share in ESA
programmes.
In his prsentation to the PSC, Mr. Majo advocated the cause for change and
for a new framework for Eurpean space. The Commission's proposals for achieving
this were set out in the document "The Community and Space: A Coherent
Apprach", which was issued in 1987. ESA had proved to be a highly successful
Agency for civil space co-operation in the past, but the need had emerged for a
shift from scientific and research goals to more commercial objectives geared
to meeting market and user demands and improving European competitiveness in
the space field. The Community was best placed to meet this need.
Community resposibilities also included the overall co-ordination of space
R&D, and the focus of space intrest in the developing dialogue with Eastern
Eurpoe. The Commission was also axious to improve co-operation between the
civil and military space sectors, not only for strategic advantage but also to
bolster the Comunity's industrial strength and competitivness.
In their presentations to PSC, Prof. Luest and his team stressed the fact
that Europe's great acievements in space communications, earth observation and
science stemmed first and foremost from the co-operation built up around ESA.
On the UK's contribution to ESA, it was emphasised that Britain had bee a
major and successful partner in the past, and the decline in our share of
activities from 14% to 6% over the past 6 years was a matter of profound
regret. The UK had been on the point of dominating the Eurpopean space
telecomunications market through its major share of ESA's ECS, MARECS and
OLYMPUS satellites, only to put its position at risk by pulling out of new
Agency programs too far and too quickly. Prof. Luest cited the UK's meager
share of 1% and 6% of the 2 new ESA telecomunications satellite programmes, and
questioned the UK Government's assumptions about the maturity of the space
communications market.
By contrast, the UK's support for ESA's science and earth observation
programmes was applauded as a major factor towards their spectacular success.
Although ESA's convention specifically ruled out collaboration in any
military applications, Prof. Luest was convinced that member nations would
support a major role for the Agency in any European programme for the
verification of conventional disarmament from space, both in terms of
technologies and the use of ESA earth observation satellites.
Prof. Luest was convinced of ESA's ability to meet all future challenges
without any fundamental change in its charter or organisation. He welcomed the
extending dialogue with the Commission. Whereas it was often claimed that ESA's
industrial policy of ##juste retour## was a major source of potential conflict
with the Single Act and future relations with the Commission, he himself could
foresee no such problem. The awarding of industrial contracts by the Agency on
the basis of national contributions has been effective in promoting European
competitivness, and since ESA's business is R&D and upstream of the market, it
does not conflict with Single Act rules.
For further Information please contact:
Michael Marshall MP
House of Commons
Whitehall
LONDON
Tel: 071 219 4698
Or send stuff to me to pass on to him (cheaper if in the USA!)
at : seds@cc.ic.ac.uk
------------------------------
Date: 19 Jun 90 13:12:53 GMT
From: uokmax!rwmurphr@apple.com (Robert W Murphree)
Subject: Re: What makes a nebula glow??
The answer is: BOTH. In the star nursery of a molecular cloud environment
there is both flourescence and reflection. When in close proximity to a
hot star, radiating a large fraction of its energy in the ultraviolet, there
is flourescens. A good example is the orion nebulae (not visible at this time oof year). There are some examples in Cygnus (north american nebulae, etc) see
July Astronomy Magazine. There is also reflection-usually not visible in telescopes or binoculars (I'm guessing here). Pictures of the pleiedes show wispy
clouds which are reflection nebulae. In addition, some nebulae, called dark
nebulae, are actually clouds of dust obscuring locally thick bands of stars
and look like 'holes' in the sky. A good description of the history of dark
nebulae, nebulae and the Intersteller medium in general is Gerrit Vereschuirs
relatively new book "Intersteller matters". Glad you asked, Mark.
Robert W. Murphree
rwmurphr.uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu
------------------------------
From: AZM@CU.NIH.GOV
Date: Tue, 19 Jun 90 08:18:23 EDT
Subject: Re: SPACE Digest V11 #541
> From: ogicse!unicorn!n8035388@uunet.uu.net (Worth Henry A)
>
> Governments lack the political will, businesses lack the profit
> motive, and the general public lacks the courage and insight to undertake
> major space initiatives. WHINING on the net or to your congressional
> representatives about this sad state of affairs will accomplish NOTHING.
>
> It is instead time for space enthusiasts to create an incentive that
> leaves governments and businesses no choice but to get involved. Previous
> posters have suggested that the government should create a prize as an
> incentive, however, this is not going to happen for all the usual reasons
> (do you actually believe that Washington could keep its hands off a
> large sum of money while waiting for someone to make a claim).
>
> What I suggest is that some non-profit organization(s) (existing or
> yet to be formed) sponsor such prizes for major accomplishments in space
> exploration and development. But, how could such an organization ever
> hope to raise a large enough prize to interest those with the resources
> and ideas to succeed? INSURANCE, along with a "hook" that makes it
> fool-hardy for governments and industry not to get involved.
>
> When?
> -----
> Why not now? The anniversary of Columbus' Voyage is coming up and
> promotional tie-ins are possible. One of the prizes could be for the
> first solar-sail racer to pass the orbit of Mars.
>
> MISSION TO EARTH, the MOON, MARS and the solar sail racers are waiting,
> and all we are doing is WHINING about what Washington is not doing and
> will never do on their own. The ball is in our court and it is high time
> we quit complaining and started to come up with some method to provide
> governments and industry with no choice but to sponsor international
> space initiatives. Lets take the money wasted on lobbying and mailing
> useless questionnaires and put it toward developing some real programs and
> incentives.
>
> Well, this is my though on the subject, what are yours? Lets quit
> wasting bandwidth on whining and start kicking around some real ideas.
> After all, the collective intellect of the net must surely be in excess
> of that of congress and the White House put together, it's time to put
> up or shut up!
>
Although I agree with your concern over the dying (dead?) united states
space program, I would hope that other solutions than the one you pro-
pose can be found. The profit motive, and the governmental equivalent
of it, the power-increase motive, have turned "society" in the united
states into a nightmare of verbal and visual vomit. Advertisements of
every conceivable product and service befoul the surfaces of every
physical object in our world, with their gross, gaudy, garrish mes-
sages. On the airwaves our sensibilities are assailed and assaulted
by "songs" whose "lyrics" tell us of constipation, and diahrhea, and
menstrual blood, and passages stuffed with mucous and phlegm, and
filthy toilet bowls, and roach-infested kitchens, and mold-and-fungus
ridden basements, and decaying food, and foul breath, and upset
stomachs, and loose bowels. I am seriously convinced that it is these
constant revolting, nauseating, raucous advertisements that are the
true causes of most of the suicides in this country.
PLEASE don't let this happen to space. Even if it takes an extra
century for man to finally escape from planet Filth, and even if it
is not the united states that finally succeeds in escaping, don't
let the sickening disease of commercialism/profit-hunger/power-hunger
befoul and contaminate space. It really won't be worth it.
Derd Valpar
AZM@NIHCU
------------------------------
Date: 19 Jun 90 18:39:35 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov!yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA Headline News for 06/19/90 (Forwarded)
