Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V16_2/V16NO278.TXT

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Date: Sat,  6 Mar 93 05:05:11
From: Space Digest maintainer <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Subject: Space Digest V16 #278
To: Space Digest Readers
Precedence: bulk


Space Digest                Sat,  6 Mar 93       Volume 16 : Issue 278

Today's Topics:
                           Fire in the Sky
             Hot Bubble , Geminga, and Intersellar Travel
                   Low Earth Orbit in a Mars Blimp?
                      NASP (was Re: Canadian SS
                            Shuttle budget
                       Solar Panels Falling Off
                           Space Scientist
                         Stupid Fred Question
                             WARNING!!!!!
                    Wireless Power notes (1 of 3)

    Welcome to the Space Digest!!  Please send your messages to
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Date: Fri, 05 Mar 93 11:51:33 MET
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Fire in the Sky

On 3 Mar 93 06:09:08 GMT Michael Corbin wrote:

>On  March 12th, your perception of reality will be  substantially
>changed.
>
[stuff deleted]
>
>On  March  12th,  Paramount Pictures  and  Joe  Wizan/Todd  Black
>Productions  will present "Fire in the Sky," a true  story  based
>on the Travis Walton experience, whose abduction by a UFO is  one
>of the best-documented cases in history.
>
> [stuff deleted]

That was a hoax. The following has been posted by Robert Sheaffer
(SKEPTIC list):

Date:         Thu, 4 Mar 1993 18:17:06 -0800
From:         Robert Sheaffer <[e-mail]>
Subject:      The Selling of the Walton "UFO Abduction"
X-To:         [e-mail]
To:           "J. Pharabod" <[e-mail]>

       The Selling of the Travis Walton "Abduction" Story:
                   Some Background Information


                                         Robert Sheaffer
                                         P.O. Box 10441
                                         San Jose, CA 95157 USA
                                         March 4, 1993


     Australian  newspaperman  Jeff  Wells was a  member  of  the
     National  Enquirer  team that "packaged" the  Travis  Walton
     abduction  story for publication. Walton's story is now  the
     subject  of a major motion picture from Paramount, "Fire  in
     the  Sky."  Wells is one of seven authors  of  the  National
     Enquirer story "Arizona Man Captured by UFO" published  Dec.
     16, 1975. Upon his return to Australia, Wells wrote up  this
     insiders'  view  of the sordid goings-on for  his  newspaper
     column,  the  identities  of the  participants  only  thinly
     disguised.  "The  kid"  is  obviously  Travis  Walton.  "The
     cowboy" is his brother, Duane Walton. "The professor" is Dr.
     James  Harder of Berkeley, at that time a leading figure  in
     APRO,    the   now-defunct   Aerial    Phenomena    Research
     Organization,  and  still a  prominent  "abductionist."  The
     polygraph examiner is John J. McCarthy, the senior polygraph
     operator  in the state of Arizona. This story was  reprinted
     in  the _Skeptical Inquirer_, Vol. 5 Nr. 4  (Summer,  1981),
     pp. 47-52.


   "Profitable Nightmare of a Very Unreal Kind" by Jeff Wells

     (from _The Age_, Melbourne, Australia, 6 January 1979)

caption in photo box: "JEFF  WELLS  recalls his dealings with a
                       pathetic kid whose dream never quite got
                       off the ground."



     The  characters  in  this UFO story are real  even  if  they
appear more like the inventions of a Hollywood hack.
     A haunted young man, a ruthless cowboy, a strange professor,
a  hard-drinking  psychiatrist,  a  bunch  of  reporters  and   a
beautiful girl.
     All  were  thrown  together in the desert heat  by  a  close
encounter of the third kind and maybe they did contribute to some
Hollywood thinking.
     I was there and I can vouch for the motley human cast -  but
you   will   have   to  make  up  your   own   mind   about   the
extra-terrestrials with fishbowl heads.
     Some of the characters are still growing fat repeating their
version  of the story in the seemingly limitless American  market
for the bizarre.
     The  so-called facts, the carefully-woven tapersry that  has
become  the  "official  story" can now be counted  as  UFO  lore,
pablum  for  those who turn their heads to the sky in  search  of
meaning for their lives.

     I  will  never  get rich on my version and I  only  tell  it
because  of the UFO madness the papers tell me is  sweeping  this
part of the world.
     The UFO phenomenon is really rolling here, as it has  rolled
for  many  years, and snowballed into juggernaut  proportions  in
other countries where it is very big business.
     The stronger it gets here the closer the attention that will
be paid to so-called classic cases of UFO encounters.
     You may recognize elements of this story among them. If  so,
you  will realise that my story is a warning that in such  cases,
even the most celebrated and supposedly well-documented, there is
nothing so pragmatic as proof.
     This  incident  happened  a few years  ago  and  made  world
headlines.
     I  was  working  in  San Francisco as a  bureau  man  for  a
national weekly which has grown rich and powerful in catering  to
the  middle-class  craving  for  cancer-cures,  Jackie   Onassis,
Hollywood  gossip, psychic predictions, and like  ingredients  of
the crumbling cake that is the American mind.
     It  was  naturally a matter of interest that  a  22-year-old
forestry worker was missing and that six witnesses had passed lie
detector  tests  in  saying that he had last  been  seen  running
towards a huge UFO.
     My paper had offered tens of thousands of dollars to anybody
who  could positively prove that aliens had visited our planet  -
in the knowledge that exclusive rights could be worth millions.
     When,  five days later, the young man we came to  call  "the
kid"  stumbled into a small western town, phoned his brother  and
claimed he had been kidnapped by the crew of an alien  spacecraft
we were ready.
     Within  an hour I was on a plane to rendezvous in  a  desert
city  with a team of reporters and photographers flying  in  from
Los Angelesand the East Coast.
     At  the desert airport I bumped into one of them,  a  dapper
young   Englishman  from  the L.A. bureau, who  briefed  me.  One
reporter  was  at the cowboy's home talking money;  the  kid  was
inside in a state of shock.
     The  office  was  wiring  $1000  to  help  east  the   kid's
discomfort  and a celebrated UFOlogist, a  California  professor,
was being flown in, all expenses paid, to lend a hand.
     Our  immediate  task  was  to bribe  the  brother  with  the
thousand  to shack up with us in a luxury motel on the  outskirts
of  town, no names registered, where the rest of Press  who  were
about to descend and the sheriff, who was calling the whole thing
a hoax and demanding that the kid take a lie-detector test, would
not bother them.
     "It  isn't  going  to be easy," said the  Englishman  as  we
pocketed our credit cards and headed for our rented Pontiacs.
     "The  brother has taken charge and the brother is some  kind
of  psychopath. The kid is scared to death of him and so  is  our
reporter."
     The cowboy was no disappointment. He was one of the  meanest
and toughest-looking men I've ever seen - in his late twenties, a
rodeo professional and amateur light-heavyweight fighter, a total
abstainer,   broad-shouldered,   T-shirt  packed   with   muscle,
chiselled-down  hips,  bow  legged, eyes full  of  nails,  tense,
unpredictable.
     He  leaned  against a pick-up truck with a gun rack  in  the
cabin and raked us with beams of cunning and hatred as strong  as
the  flash from the spacecraft that had pole-axed his brother  as
the witnesses fled in terror.
     "Nobody is going to laugh at my brother," he said.
     Nobody  wanted  to laugh at his brother, we  said.  We  only
wanted  give his brother a chance to tell his story  to  somebody
who would understand.
     To  prove our bona fides, and to keep away all  those  other
jackals  of the press, who would embarrass the kid  with  foolish
questions,  we  would hide them away and pay the kid a  grand  to
tell his story.
     If we liked the story, and it could be properly  documented,
and  the kid could pass our lie-detector test, we would  open  up
our cheque books all the way and start talking in five figures.
     To our relief the cowboy agreed - but not, he said,  because
of the money, because his brother had a true story to tell  which
would enlighten the world.
     Our  first  sight  of the kid was at  dinner  in  the  hotel
diningroom that night. It was a shock.
     He  sat there mute, pale, twitching like a cornered  animal.
He  was either a brilliant actor or he was in serious funk  about
something.
     But the arrival of the professor saved the day.
     He  was as smooth as butter and he soon had the  kid  eating
out of his hand.
     "You  are  not alone," he crooned. "There are  many  people,
more than you would think, who have been chosen to meet them."
     Them? I began to wonder about the professor.
     The  cowboy was so impressed he began to talk about his  own
UFO experience when he had been chased by a flying saucer through
the woods as a child.
     Within  a  couple  of hours the  professor  had  talked  the
brothers  out of taking the sheriff's polygraph test and into  an
hypnosis session in his room immediately.
     It  looked as if things were going smoothly enough, with  no
hint that we were faced with four days of chaos.
     The  next day the office announced that the whole story  was
to be filmed by a crew from the top-rating CBS muckraker TV  show
_60 Minutes_.
     We  were to be on guard because CBS was out to shaft us,  my
editor warned.
     We  were  to  present  a bold  front  for  good  footage  of
dedicated  reporters sparing no expense to bring the  public  the
true  story  of  one of the most amazing  incidents  in  recorded
history.
     The kid's fantastic story had been coming out under hypnosis
but  the  brothers  had  become  very  conspiratorial  with   the
professor and would speak only to him. [1]
     The  professor seemed to have his own future on the  lecture
circuit  and  the paperback bookstands very much in mind  and  we
didn't trust him.
     So  we taped everything and had the CBS crew film the  kid's
story given under hypnosis.
     It  was a tale of little men with heads like  fishbowls  and
skin like mushrooms.
     But  suddenly  the strain began to tell on the  kid  and  he
lapsed  into sobbing bouts. He was falling apart and so  was  his
story.
     It  necessitated  flying  in  a  husband-and-wife  team   of
psychiatrists  from Colorado to tranquilize the kid and keep  the
cowboy from exploding.
     The kid was a wreck and it was all the psychiatrist could do
to get him ready for the lie-detector expert we had lined up.
     The  test lasted an hour and I was in the next room  fending
off  the TV crew when I heard the cowboy scream: "I'll  kill  the
sonofabitch!"
     The  kid  had failed the test miserably. The  polygraph  man
said it was the plainest case of lying he'd seen in 20 years  but
the office was yelling for another expert and a different  result
[2].
     To head that off we had the psychiatrist put the cowboy  and
the kid through a long session of analysis.
     Their  methods  were unique. The next day the four  of  them
disappeared  into a room and soon a waiter was headed there  with
two bottles of cognac.
     At  the end of it the psychiatrists were rolling  drunk  but
they had their story and the brothers were crestfallen.
     It seemed that the kid's father, who had deserted them as  a
child, had been a spaceship fanatic and all his life the kid  had
wanted to ride in a spacecraft.
     He  had seen something out there in the woods, some kind  of
an eerie light which had triggered a powerful hallucination which
might  recur at any time. There was no question of any kidnap  by
any mushroom men.
     The  kid needed medical help and the cowboy swore  he  would
shield him from further harassment.
     Reports began to filter in that the witnesses' lie  detector
tests  were not much help either - they supported the story  that
they  had  all seen the strange light but not  that  the  strange
light was identifiable as a spaceship.
     The  CBS crew had left in disgust and I sat down  to  detail
everything that had happened in a 16-page memorandum designed  to
kill the story. It was all over.
     I paid the $2000 hotel bill - including a mammoth bar tab to
which the psychiatrists had contributed nobly - for the five days
and we all scattered to the airport.
     It had been a lunatic experience from beginning to end, made
more  disturbing  by  the fact that on  several  occasions,  with
coaxings  from  the  professor, I had almost  believed  that  the
story was real.
     As I drove to the airport I was never so glad to be  leaving
a  city and to this day the whole experience there remains in  my
memory as some kind of nightmare.
     As  I  neared the airport I switched on the  car  radio  and
heard  familiar voices - the kid, the cowboy, and  the  professor
giving an interview about the kid's shatteing experience on board
a flying saucer.
     A  few  weeks later I picked up the paper I worked  for  and
found  that  with  the help of the professor  it  had  turned  my
memorandum into a sensational front-page story.
     The  professor  was calling me up demanding  tapes  for  his
lectures  and  the  kid was signing contracts for  books  and  TV
documentaries.
     And so another UFO hero was made.

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

       "Ground Saucer Watch" Memo on the Walton Incident:

        Conclusions (undated: probably December, 1975)


"Ground Saucer Watch," a pro-UFO organization, was the very first
UFO  organization on the scene. In cooperation with Dr. J.  Allen
Hynek of CUFOS, Dr. Lester Stewart of GSW began to interview  the
Walton family while Travis was still "missing." They  immediately
smelled a hoax. These are their conclusions, without any  changes
- RS.


1.   Walton never boarded the UFO. This fact is supported by  the
     six witnesses and the polygraph test results. [3]

2.   The  entire Walton family has had a continual  UFO  history.
     The  Walton boys have reported observing 10 to  15  separate
     UFO sightings (very high).

3.   When Duane was questioned about his brother's disappearance,
     he  stated  that  "Travis  will be  found,  that  UFO's  are
     friendly."  GSW countered, "How do you know Travis  will  be
     found?" Duane said "I have a feeling, a strong feeling." GSW
     asked "If the UFO 'captors' are going to return Travis, will
     you  have a camera to record this great occurrence?"  Duane,
     "No, if I have a camera 'they' will not return."

4.   The  Walton's  mother  showed no outward  emotion  over  the
     'loss' of Travis. She said that UFO's will not harm her son,
     he  will  be returned and that UFO's have been seen  by  her
     family many times.

5.   The  Walton's refused any outside scientific help or  anyone
     who logically doubted the abduction portion of the story.

6.   The  media and GSW was fair to the witnesses. However,  when
     the  story  started to 'fall apart' the Waltons  would  only
     talk to people who did not doubt the abduction story.

7.   APRO  became involved and criticized both GSW and Dr.  Hynek
     for taking a negative position on the encounter.

8.   The Waltons 'sold' their story to the National Enquirer  and
     the story was completely twisted from the truth.



            RS  NOTES:

1.   In  other  words, James Harder was using  hypnosis  to  lead
     Travis  Walton  into "remembering" a  proper  UFO  abduction
     story.  UFOlogists cite the apparent consistencies of  these
     stories  as  proof that they are supposedly  authentic!  But
     here  we  glimpse  the  real  reason  behind  the   apparent
     similarities.

2.   The  very existence of this polygraph session with  John  J.
     McCarthy  was  kept secret by the National Enquirer  and  by
     APRO,  with  McCarthy ordered never to speak about  it.  The
     cover-up was revealed by Philip J. Klass in June, 1976.  The
     details of the Walton hoax, and its associated cover-up, can
     be  found in chapters 18-23 of Klass' book _UFOs The  Public
     Deceived_ (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1983).

3.   Apparently GSW thought that in order to have a "genuine" UFO
     abduction,  the  UFO  would have to land, and  pick  up  its
     passenger.


        Robert Sheaffer - Scepticus Maximus - [e-mail]
(end of Sheaffer's posting)

J. Pharabod

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

Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1993 21:20:40 GMT
From: Paul Dietz <[e-mail]>
Subject: Hot Bubble , Geminga, and Intersellar Travel
Newsgroups: sci.space

In article <stephens.731274333@ngis> [e-mail] (Dave Stephenson) writes:

> The recent discovery of a pulsar, supernova reminant at the same location
> of the Geminga Gamma ray source raises an interesting SETI question.
> The Supernova coused a hot bubble of low density gass in our neighourhood.
> Fermi's Paradox "Where is every one" supposes that if interstellar travel
> is a physical possibility, there has been plenty of time for a more
> advacne race to reach this earth from elsewhere in the galaxy. If
> Interstellar travel depends on a supply of interstellar hydrogen on route
> the Earth is presently nicely placed to be off the trade routes. Right
> in the middle of an interstellar desert in fact. So untill our local
> bubble fills in we are on our own! Any thoughts?


So, why didn't they get here 500,000 years ago, before the SN?  Or 5
million, or 50 million, or 500 million?  The galaxy is much older than
that; it would be quite a coincidence if they were to get to earth so
close to the time that technological civilization started here.

    Paul F. Dietz
    [e-mail]

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

Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1993 20:48:29 GMT
From: Josh Hopkins <[e-mail]>
Subject: Low Earth Orbit in a Mars Blimp?
Newsgroups: sci.space

[e-mail] (Gary Coffman) writes:

>[e-mail] (Henry Spencer) writes:
>>The central problem of attaining orbit is velocity, not altitude.  Balloons
>>can't operate to anywhere near orbital altitude, although they can be a
>>useful first step:  there have been balloon-launched sounding rockets.
>>But the velocity gap is even larger.  You don't see many Mach 1 blimps,
>>much less Mach 25 blimps.

>I said roughly the same thing Henry, but now I'm wondering. Is a supersonic
>blimp possible? Might be an interesting civil transport design, a VTOL SST.

I'd have serious qualms with a supersonic blimp.  I could, however, imagine
a supersonic rigid airship.  The drag would be rather high, but I think it
could work structurally.  There have been proposals that look like the Goodyear
blimp gave birth to a C-5's children.  Reasonably high speed airships should
be possible.  However, it would probably be very challenging to build a
hypersonic airship due to heating problems.

--
Josh Hopkins                                          [e-mail]

    You only live once.  But if you live it right, once is enough.
            In memoria, WDH

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

Date: 4 Mar 93 18:04:56 GMT
From: CLAUDIO OLIVEIRA EGALON <[e-mail]>
Subject: NASP (was Re: Canadian SS
Newsgroups: sci.space

Is NASP really dead??? I know  that it had its budget cut but not terminated! I also
remember an article in Space News about NASP. I do not remember the details but
it said something that they either had to postpone  the first flight or decided to go
along with a smaller prototype. Could anyone in the NET clarify that???

[e-mail]

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

Date: Fri, 05 Mar 93 10:13:09 EST
From: Tom <[e-mail]>
Subject: Shuttle budget

Pat sez:
>>NASA has a 13-14 billion dollar budget.  THey could fund any program
>>ona multi-year basis.  They just odn't choose to.  They want to waste
>>money.  it justifies jobs better.

Gary replies:
>>If only this were true. Congress has a standing policy of not approving
>>multi-year budgets. They refuse to obligate future Congresses to specific
>>expenditures. NASA does not have the legal power to do this on their own.
>>They must, by law, either spend their appropriation within the fiscal
>>year or return the money to the Treasury. (Actually they never draw it
>>in the first place, but that's the language of the appropriations bills.)
>>This has had major impacts on all long term NASA programs because year
>>to year funding has been a political football. On occasion, Congress
>>has granted NASA some discretionary money, but funds for major programs
>>are detailed in authorization bills and can't legally be diverted to
>>other projects.

This sounds to me like only one more reason why NASA should be reaplced
by some kind of private system, which has to answer only to it's
contributors or stockholders, rather than Congress.

-Tommy Mac
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom McWilliams | 517-355-2178 (work) \\     Inhale to the Chief!
[e-mail]  | 336-9591 (hm)\\  Zonker Harris in 1996!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: 5 Mar 1993 10:08:36 GMT
From: George William Herbert <[e-mail]>
Subject: Solar Panels Falling Off
Newsgroups: sci.space

[e-mail] (David B. Mckissock) writes:
>You heard wrong.
>1. MDAC is not building the solar panels, that is a WP-4 job

I didn't say they were building them.  I know, in fact, that they are not,
and have known so since before I started dealing with my MacDac sources.
It was my impression that the MacDac group working on panel loading
was part of the WP-2 funding even if the work was technically associated
with the solar arrays package.  Please, if someone has the detailed
WP breakdowns and can clarify this, let me (us) know...

>2. Yes, the Loads & Dynamics Working Group has calculated
>loads for certain Orbiter approach scenarios where the
>plume load on the array exceeds the array mast
>capability (so the array would break off). The scenario
>is if the Orbiter has do perform a breakout maneuver,
>because they get outside the approach corridor, then
>the calculated loads are too high. The program is
>looking at many options to solve the problem,
>[...]
>Also, some folks question the
>validity of the calculated loads - the computer code
>used to calculate the plume loads is unverified.
> Finally, NASA could always install an auto-pilot
>on the Shuttle, to automate the docking procedure,
>and this whole issue would become moot.
> One last point - the calculated Orbiter plume loads
>only exceed the array mast capability on the early
>flights, where the Orbiter is berthing in relatively
>close proximity to the array. After more truss is
>added to SSF on later flights, the array's are further
>from the plumes, and the calculated load is within
>the mast capability.

    I cannot post further information
from what I know about the WP problems without
burning sources.  Suffice it to say that while the
information you have given here is in no way indicated
false by any source I have seen or heard, it also does
not contradict what my sources said.

    I have specific information about
management's impact on simulation and calculation
methodologies from a totally nontechnical standpoint
which makes all the technical results extremely
QUestionable.  If you'd like to provide detailed
information to me to try and convince me otherwise,
feel free: I have an open mind.  But so far I have seen nothing
that indicates I was being jerked around by sources.


-george william herbert

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

Date: 4 Mar 93 17:59:27 GMT
From: CLAUDIO OLIVEIRA EGALON <[e-mail]>
Subject: Space Scientist
Newsgroups: sci.space

Let us not discourage people who want a job with NASA. Although there is really a
hiring freeze at NASA, I know many  NASA employees who were hired recently
(and they do not even have a graduate degree!!!). I have the feeling that hiring
freeze means that NASA does not contract ADDITIONAL personnel however, if
someone vacates his/her position, NASA can INDEED contract someone else to fill
a vacant position. From my experience the people that have been hired, at least
here are, in general, members of the minorities, i.e., women, American Hispanic
etc... Of course, you have a better change to be hired by a NASA contractor and if
you want to increase your  chances and do not have a graduate degree,  consider
making your Graduate thesis with a NASA employee.

[e-mail]

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

Date: 4 Mar 93 17:41:56 GMT
From: CLAUDIO OLIVEIRA EGALON <[e-mail]>
Subject: Stupid Fred Question
Newsgroups: sci.space

According to the booklet Spacelab J (for Japanese),  published by NASA,   NASDA
stands for NAtional Space Development Agency of Japan. Apparently, there is no
Aeroespace in the acronym as well as Nippon. I did not cross-check with other
publications, but I am pretty confident that is the way it stands for.

[e-mail]

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

Date: Wed, 3 Mar 93 20:25:33 EST
From: digests (Email Digest Server)
Subject: WARNING!!!!!

    Yo,

    The following message was sent to the space Digest.
It appears to have come from a postmaster.  To avoid any possible alias
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attend to this message, including forwarding it back to the list under
your name if necessary.  Thank you.

                Virtually yours,

                    Incoming Mail Daemon

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From: Katy Root <"Katy Root"@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu>
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Motorola's Iridium - looking for info.
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
Date: 2 Mar 93 05:20:25 GMT
Article-I.D.: news.C38xI1.4qr
Sender: Net Noise owner <[e-mail]>
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Source-Info:  Sender is really [e-mail]

I would like information on Motorola's Iridium project if anyone has any
or knows of any good sources for information.  I am looking for
background on the project and looking for ways in which it will benefit
different groups of people.

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

Date: 4 Mar 93 09:25:54 GMT
From: Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey <[e-mail]>
Subject: Wireless Power notes (1 of 3)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.energy

Dr. Gay Canough ([e-mail]) has asked me to
post these notes to sci.space for her.  Please respond to her, not to
me, if you have questions.

The notes are long, so I'm breaking them into three parts.  And I
suppose it would be a good idea to cross-post to sci.energy, no?

                                       Bill Higgins
===============================

Notes on the First Annual Wireless Power Transmission
Conference, held in San Antonio, TX Feb 23-25, 1993
[Part 1 of 3]

These notes are a summary of notes I took at the conference,
and so they represent only what I personally witnessed.
There will be an official proceedings which I encourage all
of you to get. There were parallel sessions on laser power
beaming which I did not get to attend.

The conference was organized by the Center for Space Power
at Texas A&M university in College Station, TX.

I have complete lists of speakers, sponsors and participants
as well as the conference program, if anyone wants it.

The theme of the conference was commercial potential of
wireless power transmission (WPT). ISU alums are probably
most familiar with the idea of beaming power from solar
stations in space down to Earth. However, there are several
other possibilities for using WPT. These include

1) point to point power transmission on Earth
2) power transmission from Earth to space
3) power relay on Earth via a relay satellite

So WPT covers more than space solar power.

The ISU SSPP video ran continuously in the exhibit area and
Bill Brown did his world famous power beaming demo during a
break.

["ed. comment" is a comment by me on a topic.]

Feb 23 Morning:

After the keynote, there were four plenary talks. Dr. Glaser
discussed energy needs for the future of Earth and how to
work up to the ultimate goal of getting power from space.
His "terrace" or series of steps to get there, includes
Earth-to-Earth WPT, small satellite demos, other larger
demos. Consensus is growing now, on what each of the steps
in the terrace should be. Some interesting comments by Dr.
Glaser include:

* the amount of coal burned in 1985 was 18700 tonnes; at the
current growth in coal use, the amount consumed in 2020 will
be 26800 tonnes. [ed. comment: can we burn this much without
harming the Biosphere-1 ??]

* it typically takes 75 years to transition from one major
source of energy to a new one.

* physical wires installed for power transmission (2 GW)
from UK to France cost (past tense) $3 billion.

* For original papers on WPT, see the Dec 1970 issue of
Journal of Microwave Power

* The communications satellite market is $10 billion per
year, the world energy market is $1 TRILLION per year.

* The Japanese Ministry of Industry and Trade (MITI) has
just announced it is officially supporting research on space
solar power.

* For the latest on space solar power, see Dr. Glaser's new
book entitled Solar Power Satellites  publisher = Simon and
Schuster

Dr. Glaser did an EXCELLENT job of summing up the motivation
to strive for use of space solar power. He also discussed
the need for careful assessment of environmental impact. A
video of this presentation would be very powerful in
educating people on the need for new energy sources and the
wisdom of research into space solar power.

The next talk was by Dr. Glenn Olds, Commissioner of Alaska
department of natural resources. Dr. Olds gave a very
enthusiastic talk on how to use pilot projects to get
started on WPT. Alaska may be the very first user of WPT.
They are planning a facility to beam power across a bay to a
remote village. This village currently burns diesel fuel to
power their generators. They need more power, shipping in
fuel is expensive, it's dirty to burn, etc. They are
planning this mainly as a research pilot project. The first
plant will probably not be economical, but its main purpose
is research. Understand that the motivation for doing this
goes beyond power for a single village. There are many
villages in this same situation in Alaska. Also, Alaska has
huge reserves of fossil fuel and hydro power, but no means
of exporting power. They may someday be able to export that
energy by generating it there and beaming it to other points
on Earth by WPT. He explained that Alaska is the largest
state of the union, at 2.5 times the size of Texas (and
Texans were warned not to make too many Alaska jokes, or
Alaska would split into 2 states, making Texas 3rd largest
instead of second!) He gave a long list of advice, much of
which concerned how government and industry should interact
to develop new energy sources.

We next heard from James Rose, former NASA administrator for
commercial programs. He went into more detail on how
government and industry should team up to pursue commercial
space ventures. He talked about the Centers for the
Commercial Development of Space (CCDS's) and what they have
done. They have succeeded quite well in getting industrial
partners at these centers, to the point where industry funds
more than half of all the centers' research.

The last plenary was by Kathryn Sullivan. She discussed
strategic partnerships. She emphasized that successful
partnerships are ones where all partners benefit equally.

During lunch, we all went out on the San Antonio Riverwalk
and soaked up the sun. Us Northerners thought we had just
been beamed to another planet. San Antonio had 70 F sunny
weather, whereas Binghamton, NY is having -10 F and snow.

We also had time to ogle the exhibits. There were several
videos, a large and impressive looking gyrotron (35 GHz)
from Varian, Inc, a microwave powered lunar rover (that
actually works) and the power beaming demo (the same one we
had at ISU). The ISU solar power program animation was
prominently displayed and participants were impressed by it.

In the afternoon there were 3 parallel sessions:

1) papers on laser WPT and transportation
2) papers on terrestrial WPT, relay satellite, sun-
synchronous demo and lunar sps
3) projects going on in Russia, France and Japan

I attended talks in 2 and 3. Parallel sessions are difficult
for me, since everything was so good.

Penny Haldane; Alaska 21. She is the program manager for the
WPT project, known as Alaska 21, and she filled us in on the
details. They are working with Raytheon, A.D. Little, and
the Texas A&M Center for Space Power. The project idea came
out the SPS 91 conference.

Alaska has a land area of 570833 square miles with a
population of 600000 (less than 1/10 the population of Los
Angeles). Half the population lives in Anchorage. Many of
the people live in remote villages and in 60% of these
towns, electricity costs $0.4 / KWh. (That's 4 times what I
pay here in Binghamton).

The pilot system will supply power to a village which is
across the water from a generating station and to which it
is very expensive to string wires. The system will have to
work in the harsh weather conditions, which includes snow,
100 mph winds, and temperature extremes. It will use
magnetrons (2.45 GHz) such as found in microwave ovens,
because they are cheap and well developed. The distance will
be a few miles, power received will be 50 to 100 kW. Each
magnetron puts out 1 kW. They chose to use many magnetrons,
so that if one breaks, it won't be a total loss of power,
but only a small amount. The overall efficiency will be
around 25%. This is not the maximum efficiency possible, but
higher efficiency would be too expensive for a pilot plant.
The antenna will be a phased array with an effective
aperture of 35 m in diameter. The maximum power density will
be about 20 mW/square cm. [This is the same power density as
Bill Brown's power beaming demo, or 100 times less than your
typical microwave oven.] The receiver will employ the Bill
Brown rectenna design. Dr. Glaser and people at A.D. Little
will be doing a complete environmental impact statement(EIS)
for the system. People from the village and surrounding
areas will be part of the process of doing the EIS and
siting.

They expect the system will cost $20 million and can be
built and running in 2 years. They will be applying for
state and federal funds to start the project.

During the Q&A a point was brought up about how to keep
birds from nesting on the antenna or rectenna, since these
places will be slightly warmer than the surroundings. Dr.
Glaser replied that more thought would have to be given to
this and some experiments done. [ed. comment: Birds are
attracted to any warm spot people make, be it WPT antennas
or your chimney and so some measures have to be taken to
ensure the equipment keeps working and the birds are
unharmed.]

Next, I went to the other room to hear Dr. Kaya talk about
METS. You ISU alums may remember that this is the project
which Mr. Boz proudly announced as ISU's first involvement
in a real WPT experiment. It has been accomplished!

Funding to build a rectenna was arranged by some of the SSPP
faculty [you know who you are :)]. Alan Brown and his team
at Texas A&M then built it, took it to Japan, installed it
on the METS payload and launched it. The launch took place
in tropical paradise, otherwise known as Tanegashima, on Feb
18, just 5 days before the conference. Although careful data
analysis is in the works, they do know that the rectenna DID
WORK and he showed us the actual readout of its response.

METS science done included control of microwave beam,
performance of phased array and rectenna, study of ohmic
heating of plasma and plasma wave excitation.

Specs:
power beamed = 832 W
phased array antenna size = 16 x 13 x 4 cm
instruments = HF receiver (100kHz to 10 MHz), VLF receiver
(1 kHz to 100 kHz), plasma density detector, TV camera

The microwaves are not made by magnetrons, but by FET
amplifiers. The efficiency of these was 42%. The rectenna
efficiency was about 70%.

METS was a suborbital flight with a max height of 260 km.

Plans for more experiments are in the works and these
include
* using the Japanese Free Flyer to be launched by the H2.
This would involve beaming 10 kW of power over 1 km at 2.45
GHz, testing ability of phased array to control the beam
pointing.
* IPSAT space to space 100 kW with 40 m antenna, working at
24 Ghz in 500 km orbit.

Dr. Fujino gave more details of the antenna and the MILAX
airplane which flew on Aug. 29,1992.

Going back to the other room, I attended Mr. Lilly's talk on
putting a solar power station in a 22000 km polar orbit to
supply industries with direct service. He proposed to supply
peak load power to companies who frequently loose power due
to local grid's insufficient capacity at peak load. He
pointed out that a brown out (loss of power for a few hours)
at his company caused significant problems since most people
worked on computers. Data is lost and no work gets done if
there is no electricity.

He proposed a system to provide 50 to 75 MW on demand. It
would have a 655 m aperture and work at 5.8 GHz. It would
beam to 4 receivers on Earth, one of which would be in
Seattle, Washington. The cost per watt would have to be
around $12 to make it economically feasible. This means that
the cost of the satellite would have to be similar to the
cost of a commercial aircraft, or about $400 /pound. This is
2 orders of magnitude less than current satellites cost. The
output of the PV array would exceed the output of the
combined Earth based PV output today (which is 65 MW).

The final talk of the day I went to was the European view
regarding energy transmission in space. Dr. Lucien Deschamps
talked about putting a small satellite demo up  and pointed
out that detailed experiments on microwave beam control in
the space plasma will have to be done. Guy Pignolet briefed
us on the Reunion island project. This involved WPT from
point to point on the island. The island is a resort area
and people do not want wires, and wires would be difficult
to install. They are planning a pilot project to beam 100 kW
over 3 km. Funding for the European efforts is coming from
ESA, CNES and EDF (Electricite de France, a utility)

[to be continued]

Gay Canough
e-mail(Internet):  [e-mail]
         (GEnie)   :  G.CANOUGH
phone/fax= 607 785 6499    voice mail = 800 673 8265
radio call sign:   KB2OXA

'Snail Mail:
ETM, Inc.
PO Box 67
Endicott, NY 13761

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End of Space Digest Volume 16 : Issue 278
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