Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/pc/text/spacedig/v16_0/v16no060.txt

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Date: Tue, 19 Jan 93 05:00:03
From: Space Digest maintainer <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Subject: Space Digest V16 #060
To: Space Digest Readers
Precedence: bulk


Space Digest                Tue, 19 Jan 93       Volume 16 : Issue 060

Today's Topics:
                             990 days ?!?
                       Air Force Space Command
                          Books on the sun??
                    DC-1 and the $23M NASA Toilet
                       ESA press release 02-93
                Galileo's 3 U.S. Tour(was Re: Galileo
               Galileo Stuck Ribs / Remote Manipulator?
              GASPRA article in Jan. 1 Science (2 msgs)
                       Goldin's future (2 msgs)
                      I want to be a space cadet
            JPL and public info (was Re: Goldin's future)
               NASA Daily News for 01/15/93 (Forwarded)
                 Nasa flight sim code/Simulator Game
                       Organic heat shielding.
          Sabatier reactor? (was Re: Oxygen in Biosphere 2)
                    Saving an overweight SSTO....
                        Space Digest V16 #057
                        Territorial conquest?
              The Nature of Space, Time and the Universe

    Welcome to the Space Digest!!  Please send your messages to
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----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Mon, 18 Jan 93 18:25:53 EST
From: Tom <[e-mail]>
Subject: 990 days ?!?

+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Allen W. Sherzer | "A great man is one who does nothing but leaves        |
|  [e-mail]     |  nothing undone"                                       |
+----------------------990 DAYS TO FIRST FLIGHT OF DCX----------------------+
                       ??? ????

Forgive me if I missed something, Allen, but the last time I looked this
figure was in the mid-hundreds.  What happened?

-Tommy Mac
------------------------------===========================================
Tom McWilliams               |Is Faith a short '  `      '   *.;     +%
[e-mail]       |cut for attaining    +    .      '
[phone] -or- 353-2986 |  . knowledge? ;"'       ,'    .   '     .
a scrub Astronomy undergrad  |      *     ,    or is it just  .       .
at Michigan State University |   ';   '        * a short-circuit?   ,
------------------------------===========================================

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

Date: 18 Jan 93 16:20:03 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Air Force Space Command
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]>
[e-mail] (Samuel Bryant) writes:

>
>US Space Command is the one you mean, and it is comprised of personnel
>from the Air Force, Army, Navy, and Canadian Air Force.  It only has a
>couple of hundred people and its role is to understand the warfighters
>needs and ensure those needs are met with adequate space support.  The
>commander in chief for US Space Command directs his component commands to
>get what he needs on orbit.  CINC Space's component commands are:
>
>Air Force Space Command, a MAJCOM with 30,000 personnel
>Army Space Command, 400 personnel
>Navy Space Command, 750 personnel
>
>So when people speak of Space Command they _are_ referring to Air Force
>since they mean the command that does the work -- launching, and
>controlling satellites on orbit.
>
Back when I supported Joint Chiefs as a civilian contractor it was well
known that the services had gotten much too big for their britches.  It has
been discussed for many years and the consensus appears to be a stronger
joint officer program.  The Air Force disses joint officers (i.e. refuses
to promote those who opt for JCS as opposed to AF staff).  I should note
that USAF is not exactly getting prizes for its recent operations (see
GAO/IMTEC-92-3 Satellite Control System Upgrade).  If you want to have a
large impact on the USAF space program, get a Phd in astro etc and go to
work for AEROSPACE corp.  They apparently get the really interesting stuff.

This is not meant to degrade the USAF but to merely relate that they are not
perfect and that joint command structure may change drastically if certain
individuals (not certain generals) have their way.

This obviously does not reflect the views of my employer which support USAF.

Karl Pitt ([e-mail])

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

Date: 18 Jan 93 14:30:34 GMT
From: Jadzia ROGL <[e-mail]>
Subject: Books on the sun??
Newsgroups: sci.space

    Well, basically I'd like to recommend you 3 books:


    I.  'BLINDED BY THE LIGHT'.
    The Secret Life of the Sun.

    by John Gribbin [Bantam Books, NY]

    It's written in a very understable way, treats
    also interesting you problem of the surface oscilla-
    tions. The author gives a good explanation of the physical
    processes in & around the Sun, pointing to what we
    know from our everyday's experience.
    A historical review and presentation of the recent deve-
    lopement in solar physics - help to understand what the
    actuall problems are & how the 'scientific tools' work.

    'Further lecture' recommends some other, in similar way
    written, books, with a small author's commentary to each
    of them.


    II. Another one, I know well, is in german, but perhaps
    there is an english translation so far (since it has
    been written in 1990) ?...

    The german titel:

    'DER STERN, VON DEM WIR LEBEN'
    Den Geheimnissen der Sonne auf der Spur

    by Rudolf Kippenhahn
    Editor: DVA, ISBN 3-421-02755-2

      (well, I even don't try to translate the title, because
     in a translation especialy the titles are very often
     changed, so it's better to ask for the author's name
     (the original titel is usualy quotated on the cover's
     opposite side)).

    I like very much prof. Kippenhahn's book. It's written
    in an absorbing & competent way.
    Explaining physical problems, he gives good basic,
    simple examples, so it makes it easy understable for
    interested reader.
     There are many years of experience in scintific & didactic
    work the author shares with the readers on these pages.


   III. BUT:
    ====

    There is another book (bible-look) I'd like to
    recommend warmly, a realy EXCELLENT work; best suited
    to graduate students as well as solar and stellar
    astrophysicists studying the Sun:


    "SOLAR INTERIOR AND ATMOSPHERE"


    Editors: A.N. Cox
         W.C. Livingston
         M.S. Matthews

    'The University of Arizona Press' - Tucson

    Contributions of 101 collaborating authors (best
    names in this domain) - present very recent results
    of Sun research !
    The book is "the most comprehensive of many recent
    books on this subject"...
    There is a whole PART (some 300 pages) handlig the
    problem of surface oscillations (observations & theory,
    rotation, the inversion problem, gravity modes, oscilla-
    tion mode excitation) and what they reveal about the
    inside. The other parts treat the solar interior, surface
    radiation, magnetic fields and the athmosphere. You have
    just the whole Sun, but there is also nice connection to
    the other stars. Finaly, in the last part you can find
    good prepared 'basic data' of: solar element abundances,
    models of solar interiors & solar p-mode frequencies.

    For 'further reading' there are some.... 150 pages of
    bibliography (tiny script :-) ... )

    The only disadvantage (?): ca 3kG :-(



good lecture !


Jadzia Rogl

Technical University
Dept. of Computing
Vienna - Austria

[e-mail]


Keywords:

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

Date: 18 Jan 93 16:13:59 GMT
From: Pat <[e-mail]>
Subject: DC-1 and the $23M NASA Toilet
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Max Elliot) writes:
>
>  Well Henry, guess you won't be needing a toilet anytime soon,
>  as you are supremely retentive in that area.
>
>  Cheers!
>-Max



Who is this jerk!?!   and what an idiotic inappropriate posting.
THis is sci.space, not rec.third-grade.mentalities.

From now on bucko, lets try to keep the subject to space, aeronautical
technologies, planetary science and occasionally politics of missions.

pat

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

Date: Mon, 18 Jan 93 14:18:40 CET
From: [e-mail]
Subject: ESA press release 02-93

    Press Release Nr 02-93
    Paris, 18 January 1993

    EURECA Mission Progressing towards Retrieval

            A EURECA Workshop  and Press Briefing is scheduled on
    Monday 8th February 1993 at ESA's Space Operations Centre, ESOC,
    Darmstadt, home of the EURECA Operations Control Centre (OCC)
    when Principal Investigators will present to the public the purpose,
    progress and preliminary findings of their experiments.

            Five months after the launch on 31 July 1992, more than three
    quarters of the planned work programme of science and technology
    experiments on-board EURECA have been accomplished successfully
    according to the original plan. The remaining payload related
    activities are anticipated to be concluded by mid-February 1993.

            EURECA, currently orbiting at an altitude just below 500 km,
    is planned to be retrieved together with its experiments and samples,
    at the beginning of May 1993 by Space Shuttle Endeavour on flight
    STS-57 scheduled for launch on 28 April 1993.

            The mission's output is composed of space science and
    experiment data sent to the ground regularly for scientific and
    engineering analysis, materials processes in the environment of very
    low residual acceleration that is offered by the EURECA mission,
    sample exposure to the space ambient, surface forces research,
    space particle collection and new technology applications. While a
    significant portion of the mission's yield is contained in its abundant
    and continuous data generation, the primary mission
    objective is the analysis in ground based laboratories of the
    biological and material-samples after their return to Earth and the
    ability, in principle, to re-use the spacecraft and payloads again in
    a later flight.

            Science and engineering data are made available to the users
    electronically with minimum delays, thus avoiding the ponderous
    physical shipment of data media of the past. To date, more than
    122100 data requests (on average around 800 per day) from various
    remote locations/ investigators (experiment home institutes, DLR's
    Microgravity user Support Centre, industry and ESTEC) have been
    served by the EURECA Data Disposition System (DDS) at ESOC,
    using mainly packet switching public data networks (PSPDNs) to
    transmit a total data volume in excess of 6000 million bytes (on
    average around 35 Megabytes per day).



            The satisfactory progress of the mission proves the underlying
    concept of operating a complex space research by means of satellite
    autonomy and on-board operations that are pre-programmed and
    controlled during scattered daily control centre contact times
    totalling only around 5% of the duration of the mission on average.

            Journalists wishing to attend the EURECA Press Briefing on
    8th February in Darmstadt, Germany and/or receive the programme,
    are kindly requested to contact directly the Public Relations Office
    at ESOC (Tel. :[phone]).

            More detailed status and progress reports will be provided at
    the press event on 8 february.

Regards Hermann Schneider
        Network Coordinator
        ESOC (European Space Agency's Operations Centre)

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

Date: 18 Jan 93 16:22:50 GMT
From: "Don M. Gibson" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Galileo's 3 U.S. Tour(was Re: Galileo
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article [e-mail], [e-mail] (Richard A. Schumacher) writes:
>If it makes anyone feel better, please recall that, if Galileo
>had launched on time in 1986, it would almost certainly have blown
>up before reaching Jupiter because of a maneuvering thruster design
>flaw. Part of the idle time was spent in redesigning and replacing
>these.
>
>Achieving 70% of original mission objectives is better than
>achieving 0%.


"almost certainly" is a pretty gross overstatement.  the thruster
run-away problem is just a possibility, not a certainty.
also, the thrusters weren't replaced, they are just commanded to
be used in short-duration pulses.

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

Date: 18 Jan 93 17:28:47 GMT
From: Gary Coffman <ke4zv!gary>
Subject: Galileo Stuck Ribs / Remote Manipulator?
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.astro,alt.sci.planetary

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (forrest.e.gehrke) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Gary Coffman) writes:
>> It's just
>>unfortunate that zero defects inspections prior to launch didn't catch
>>the loss of lubricant in this case. A squirt of Dri-slide at the Cape
>>would have avoided this problem entirely.
>
>Who told you that loss of lubricant was the problem?  How about a
>broken or cracked rib, or some other less obvious reason for the
>jam?

Well Forrest, that's the opinion of the Galileo engineers. A broken
or cracked rib should have caused a different kind of deployment problem.
There may be a less obvious reason for the deployment failure, it is a
bit hard to troubleshoot by remote control when the system wasn't designed
for such troubleshooting, but lubricant loss is the top contender
for the cause of the problem.

Gary
--
Gary Coffman KE4ZV          |    You make it,     | gatech!wa4mei!ke4zv!gary
Destructive Testing Systems |    we break it.     | uunet!rsiatl!ke4zv!gary
534 Shannon Way             |    Guaranteed!      | emory!kd4nc!ke4zv!gary
Lawrenceville, GA 30244     |                     | emory!ke4zv![e-mail]

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

Date: Mon, 18 Jan 1993 11:41:28 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: GASPRA article in Jan. 1 Science
Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.space

There is a nice (but brief) article on Gaspra in the Jan. 1 issue
of SCIENCE - editorial section, not a science team report, but it
includes a nice montage of images showing almost a full rotation...

Phil Stooke

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

Date: 18 Jan 93 16:53:00 GMT
From: Ron Baalke <[e-mail]>
Subject: GASPRA article in Jan. 1 Science
Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.space

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] writes...
>There is a nice (but brief) article on Gaspra in the Jan. 1 issue
>of SCIENCE - editorial section, not a science team report, but it
>includes a nice montage of images showing almost a full rotation...

The same images are also shown on the cover of the January 5 issue of
EOS.  The montage consists of 11 images, with the smallest image taken
when Galileo was 164,000 km from the asteroid (6 hours prior to
closest approach), and the best image was taken from a distance of
16,000 km (30 minutes from closest approach).  Gaspra rotates about
every 7 hours.
     ___    _____     ___
    /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|     Ron Baalke         | [e-mail]
    | | | |  __ \ /| | | |     Jet Propulsion Lab |
 ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |__   M/S 525-3684 Telos | Every once in a while,
/___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /| Pasadena, CA 91109 | try pushing your luck.
|_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/                     |

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

Date: 18 Jan 1993 08:55:55 -0500
From: Matthew DeLuca <[e-mail]>
Subject: Goldin's future
Newsgroups: sci.space,talk.politics.space

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

[Referring to Greg Earle]

>I think you're DAMN lucky to be working at JPL at all, and if I was in
>your position I wouldn't give a hoot who was running NASA.  Just do
>a good job without complaining and maybe someday you'll be administrator.

God forbid someone speak up, instead of being a drone.
--
Matthew DeLuca
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
uucp:      ...!{decvax,hplabs,ncar,purdue,rutgers}!gatech!prism!matthew
Internet: [e-mail]

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

Date: 18 Jan 93 16:13:29 GMT
From: "Peter J. Scott" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Goldin's future
Newsgroups: sci.space,talk.politics.space

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Dave Michelson) writes:

> Sad but true, that impression certainly exists.  I toured a well-known radio
> observatory several years ago.  The assistant director made a comment about
> a project.  A colleague on the tour offered that at JPL, they're doing such and
> such in connection with a similar project.  The assistant director replies
> (somewhat annoyed), "JPL spends most of their time doing PR.  Here, we do
> science."

I imagine a lot of public educational effort is mistaken for PR, appearing
rather similar.  Public education is one of NASA's duties.  In fact,
Goldin told us (general address to JPL, 11/25/92) that we weren't doing
enough of it.

--
This is news.  This is your       |    Peter Scott, NASA/JPL/Caltech
brain on news.  Any questions?    |    ([e-mail])

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

Date: 18 Jan 93 02:12:43 GMT
From: Colin Panisset <[e-mail]>
Subject: I want to be a space cadet
Newsgroups: sci.space

[e-mail] (rabjab) writes:

}I saw 2001 A Space Odyssey the other night and I started to get the
}feeling that if I didn't get into space, I would die!

}I heard that the Air Farce now has a space command- is there now a
}service academy like Annapolis where I can be a space cadet?

No, indeed - there's no need. You can be a space cadet anywhere.

--

  -Colin Panisset *:^)                         | "CTBCPP (Clay Tablet By
         {panissec|colinp}@nms.otca.oz.au      |  Carrier Pigeon Protocol),
                                     So There. |  defined in RFC-39127"

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

Date: 18 Jan 93 06:21:56 GMT
From: Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey <[e-mail]>
Subject: JPL and public info (was Re: Goldin's future)
Newsgroups: sci.space,talk.politics.space

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Peter J. Scott) writes:
> In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Dave Michelson) writes:
[at some radio observatory]
>> The assistant director replies
>> (somewhat annoyed), "JPL spends most of their time doing PR.  Here, we do
>> science."
>
> I imagine a lot of public educational effort is mistaken for PR, appearing
> rather similar.  Public education is one of NASA's duties.  In fact,
> Goldin told us (general address to JPL, 11/25/92) that we weren't doing
> enough of it.

Public relations and public education. I have trouble understanding
the distinction-- maybe somebody can enlighten me.

BUT I wish to proclaim, loudly, that JPL has always provided excellent
service when I needed something from the Public Information Office
or other departments.  Many times they have put extra effort into
digging up material or answers.  In particular Frank O'Donnell and Bob
MacMillan have been helpful and friendly.  And the Net has benefited
from this, as I frequently share information I've obtained from JPL.

I also have to thank Peter Scott and Ron Baalke in particular, as well
as other more occasional posters, for making copious information
available to the Net from JPL, when (I believe) it's not strictly
required by their jobs.

Other NASA centers are pretty good, too, and Peter Yee deserves
acclaim for maintaining the Ames archive.  But I couldn't stand by and
watch JPL get slammed when I know they do such an outstanding job.

I really don't think there's any conflict between having a first-rate
laboratory and a first-rate PIO.

     O~~*           /_) ' / /   /_/ '  ,   ,  ' ,_  _           \|/
   - ~ -~~~~~~~~~~~/_) / / /   / / / (_) (_) / / / _\~~~~~~~~~~~zap!
 /       \                          (_) (_)                    / | \
 |       |     Bill Higgins   Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
 \       /     Bitnet:     [e-mail]
   -   -       Internet:  [e-mail]
     ~         SPAN/Hepnet:      43011::HIGGINS

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

Date: 18 Jan 93 12:55:22 GMT
From: Matthew DeLuca <[e-mail]>
Subject: NASA Daily News for 01/15/93 (Forwarded)
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Peter Yee) writes:

>An Ames Research Center visiting scientist, in a journal entry to be
>published today in Science, says that collisions with objects as large
>as the planet Mars early in the evolution of the Earth are the cause of
>the Earth's relatively rapid rotation rate.

I'm not sure I buy this theory.  Is this guy saying that Venus, with its
243-day retrograde rotation is more like the 'norm', as opposed to Earth
and Mars, each with ~24 hour rotation?  I guess it's time to find 'Science'
in the library...
--
Matthew DeLuca
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
uucp:      ...!{decvax,hplabs,ncar,purdue,rutgers}!gatech!prism!matthew
Internet: [e-mail]

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

Date: 18 Jan 93 17:46:33 GMT
From: "joseph.l.nastasi" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Nasa flight sim code/Simulator Game
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] writes:
> >
>
> Don't know of any old sim data and such, but it would be an interesting public
> affairs ploy or way to make money.. Have NASA design space simulator games
> based on old flight.. Have different levels. Beginner would be just to get the
> feel of the fligth, but higher levels would give you the "pilot" and possible
> crew more free-reign to actually fly the space shuttle simulation or other
> crafts.. Gemini, MErcury, Apollo, X-Crafts. And such..
> Either NASA design the game or have someone subcontract it...
>
> Any takers??
>
>
> Michael Adams
> Alias: Morgoth/Ghost Wheel
> [e-mail]


I have been working on a Mercury Simulator for a couple of years now.
(it's a part-part time project)  I chose The Mercury spacecraft because
it was the only mission a felt I had a snowball chance in hell of
understanding!  My Mac-based simulator is a very accurate representation
of the Friendship 7 spacecraft (they were heavily modified for each
mission) and is about 65% complete.  A while ago I posted a request
for info which I will now re-post.  I've tried writing to various
factions of the govenment and have gotten nowhere (big surprise, huh? :-).

Someday, I'll get to finishing this thing!

I wonder if anyone has data on the old Mercury hardware, possible
someone who worked on the project?  I need _very_ techincal info,
not the usual P.R. stuff.  I would be willing to pay for copying,
and mailing.

1. A complete breakdown of the operation of every switch, guage
and indicator in the spacecraft.  I realize that there were differences
in the layout from flight to flight.  Copies of astronaut
training manuals might be useful here.

2. Copies of the flight plan for MR-3 (Shepard, MA-6 (Glenn),
MA-8 (Schirra).

3. Copies of the Checklist for those flights.  This might be included
with the flight plan.


I've gotten hold of all the press releases, which included quite
a bit of good info.  I've spent some time in the research library
in the Air & Space museum.  But still need more info.

BTW, anyone have an old mercury control panel they wanna sell? :-)

Thanks,
Joe Nastasi
AT&T, Middletown, NJ
[phone] 7am-4pm EST M-F

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

Date: 18 Jan 93 13:49:35 GMT
From: "David M. Palmer" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Organic heat shielding.
Newsgroups: sci.space

[e-mail] (Josh 'K' Hopkins) writes:
>Actually, I think they [Chinese] use(d) oak.  They may also use
>bamboo, but it sounds like you may have it confused.  I believe oak's
>an ablative material, at least in the form they use it in.  Personally,
>I'd like to know just how well osage would hold up.  I don't know its
>thermal properties, but it's mighty stubborn stuff.

You could use Kudzu.  It will grow back faster than it burns away :-).

--
        David Palmer         [e-mail]

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

Date: 18 Jan 93 06:02:53 GMT
From: Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey <[e-mail]>
Subject: Sabatier reactor? (was Re: Oxygen in Biosphere 2)
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Pat) writes:
> Taber can ytou comment on this?   and did you guys consider setting
> up a small sabatier reactor to recycle the CO2, or was this against
> operating principles,  I imagine a Laser printer sized solar driven
> sabatier reactor should be able to produce ~1 CF of O2 every hour.
> not a lot, but enough to balance the problem.

Pat, could you explain, for the benefit of chemical engineering
illiterates, what the heck is the "sabatier" reaction and how you can
make a chemical reactor gadget so small?

--
     O~~*           /_) ' / /   /_/ '  ,   ,  ' ,_  _           \|/
   - ~ -~~~~~~~~~~~/_) / / /   / / / (_) (_) / / / _\~~~~~~~~~~~zap!
 /       \                          (_) (_)                    / | \
 |       |     Bill Higgins   Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
 \       /     Bitnet:     [e-mail]
   -   -       Internet:  [e-mail]
     ~         SPAN/Hepnet:      43011::HIGGINS

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

Date: 18 Jan 93 18:29:01 GMT
From: Bruce Dunn <[e-mail]>
Subject: Saving an overweight SSTO....
Newsgroups: sci.space

> Dani Eder writes:
> If you are trying to deliver cargo (not necessarily people) at the lowest
> cost per kg, then the solution is to fly the DC-1 sub-orbital (to about
> 0.7 of orbital velocity) and kick out the payload with a solid kick
> motor attached.  The numbers go like this:


        Interesting idea.  Without a full orbital flight, the DC-1 will not
be able to land at its launch site.  Any idea on how far downrange the DC-1
would land, and whether this could be accomplished within the width of the
continental USA?  If not, or a Florida launch is needed to get a 28.5 degree
orbit, where in Africa would be a suitable landing site?  A quick look at a
globe suggests launching from Hawaii would require landing somewhere the the
northern half of south America. Return to the launch site would presumably be
by another suborbital hop, although this unfortunately means that two
refueling and launch sites are needed and two DC-1 flights are needed to put
1 payload into orbit.

        Drawings of the current concept for the DC-1 show a mid-body cargo
bay 15x15x30 feet with a door to the side of the spacecraft.  Once out of the
atmosphere and finished the boost phase, the door will have to be opened and
the payload ejected and the door shut again before the DC-1 reenters.  This
has to work flawlessly in a very constrained time period - reentering with
the payload bay door still open would probably be disasterous.  Any estimate
of the time available between the end of boost and the beginning of reentry?

--
Bruce Dunn    Vancouver, Canada   [e-mail]

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

Date: Mon, 18 Jan 93 19:02:50 EST
From: Tom <[e-mail]>
Subject: Space Digest V16 #057

[e-mail] (Patricia C. Vener-Saavedra) writes:
> Hi there. As I recall, in about a billion years the sun will have
> about twice the luminosity it presently has. The average surface of
> Earth will be about 100 degrees C. Some lakes and rivers will have
> begun to boil. It will not be pleasant for homo sapiens.:-)

David Brahm sez;
>Don't worry; I hear Clinton has a plan...

No doubt involving air-conditioner subsidies, free sunglasses, pay water
fountains, tax breaks for businesses in Michigan, Wisconsin, Alaska, or
other northern states, incentives for solar-cell producers,....:-)

-Tommy Mac
------------------------------===========================================
Tom McWilliams               |Is Faith a short '  `      '   *.;     +%
[e-mail]       |cut for attaining    +    .      '
[phone] -or- 353-2986 |  . knowledge? ;"'       ,'    .   '     .
a scrub Astronomy undergrad  |      *     ,    or is it just  .       .
at Michigan State University |   ';   '        * a short-circuit?   ,
------------------------------===========================================

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

Date: Mon, 18 Jan 93 18:40:10 EST
From: Tom <[e-mail]>
Subject: Territorial conquest?

>>>The urge to colonize the universe seems to come from an urge for
>>>territorial conquest that has been with us for a long time.  It is
>>>interesting how old themes are constantly repeated in the present.

>>"... for my purpose holds to sail beyond the sunset and the baths of
>>all the western stars until I die... To strive, to seek, to find and
>>not to yield." (from Ulysses, assuming my memory is accurate...)

Yes, and by James Joyce if my memory is accurate.  I think there's an important
>difference between the desire to conquer new territories and the desire that
>I think many of us feel, which is expressed by the above quote.  I don't need
>to control any of this stuff, I just have to experience it.

Indeed.  There is a fundamental division between previous explorations that
many people take as the model for 'the drive toward space' and the drive
toward space.

Territorial conquest doesn't have much meaning if there's no life where
you plan to go.  How can a non-entity be 'conquested'?  We might make it
our territory, which might be referred to as 'making non-habitable
environments habitable', but unless we boot someone, there is no
conquest going on.  Even better, since we will undoubtably take many
life forms with us, perhaps even whole ecosystems, it would be the
absolute opposite of conquest, since we would be putting other life
in 'our' territory.

I prefer to characterize the Drive Toward Space as it was shown in movies
like 2001;  As an expression of the very human quality, curiosity, which
I think, is why Josh wants to experince it, regardless of his power over it.

-Tommy Mac
------------------------------===========================================
Tom McWilliams               |Is Faith a short '  `      '   *.;     +%
[e-mail]       |cut for attaining    +    .      '
[phone] -or- 353-2986 |  . knowledge? ;"'       ,'    .   '     .
a scrub Astronomy undergrad  |      *     ,    or is it just  .       .
at Michigan State University |   ';   '        * a short-circuit?   ,
------------------------------===========================================

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

Date: Mon, 18 Jan 93 18:59:54 EST
From: Tom <[e-mail]>
Subject: The Nature of Space, Time and the Universe

Dale sez;
>I would recommed two
>books that really help to illustrate the concepts of more than three
>physical dimensions and the expanding Universe.  The books are:

>"Flatland; a romance of many dimensions" by Edwin Abbott and
>"Sphereland; a fantasy about curved spaces and an expanding Universe" by
>Dionys Burger.

Or, to save time, get "The Fourth Dimension" by a guy whose name I forgot.
Sorry about that.  This book has excerpts from the above texts, plus
lots more neat stuff.  If you look for it, you want the one about math
and space, not the musical group! :-)

-Tommy Mac
------------------------------===========================================
Tom McWilliams               |Is Faith a short '  `      '   *.;     +%
[e-mail]       |cut for attaining    +    .      '
[phone] -or- 353-2986 |  . knowledge? ;"'       ,'    .   '     .
a scrub Astronomy undergrad  |      *     ,    or is it just  .       .
at Michigan State University |   ';   '        * a short-circuit?   ,
------------------------------===========================================

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End of Space Digest Volume 16 : Issue 060
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