HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Subject: Russian/French mission to Mir: agreement signed for futur 
Distribution: world
Organization: Where's the beach ?
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 18:02:30 +0000


In article <1992Jul30.203019.16569@cs.sfu.ca> glennc@cs.sfu.ca writes:

>
>
>     The Russian/French Soyuz TM-15 mission to the CIS (Commonwealth of 
>Independent States) Mir space station has begun its research.

Aren't the Russians getting about, the 22-28 July Issue of Flight
International gives the Shuttle / Mir link up another going over.

Apparantly a cosmonaut will fligh on STS-60 / Discovery mission in November 93, which
will possibly involve a space walk with a US astronaut. The mission is
sceduled to carry the first Spacehab mid-deck augmentation module.

The [ US and Russian ] agencies have also agreed to the docking of a shuttle
and Mir around 1994-5 ans a five month flight on Mir by a US astronaut
doctor.

Paul

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul J. Gravestock                  | email: paulg@griffin.demon.co.uk
Hertfordshire, England              |        pgravestock@cix.compulink.co.uk
                                    |
               /It may be old news, but I just want to talk\
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: amon@elegabalus.cs.qub.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Answers to PLANES of the ecliptic question
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 92 12:00:00 GMT
Organization: [via International Space University]
X-Added: Forwarded by Space Digest
Original-Sender: isu@VACATION.VENARI.CS.CMU.EDU
Distribution: sci

> What would we measure this precession against, in order to  
distinguish it
> from the revolution about the galactic center, and oscillation  
about the 

> galactic plane?
> 


My gut feel is that no two circuits will be the same. Since a  
revolution is on the order of 100MY or so, there will be changes in  
stellar populations, changes in distribution due to mass falling into  
the center, different galactic "MASSCONS" at different points in the  
orbit that change over time. Even if the interior rotates "sort of  
solid body" the sort of is not really solid body. There is  
differential rotation as you go inwards. Just not as much as there  
"should" be.

I suspect Sol's orbit is rather chaotic.

And then, with the last orbit or so Milky Way has had a near approach  
of a small galaxy and the opposite rim from us is bent upwards. There  
is a trail of gas behind one of the Magellanic clouds (there is  
apparently a third one behind one of the ones we can see). Thus we  
are in a "peculiar" galaxy and our orbit may well have been perturbed  
to some extent by that pass. 


Additionally, current thinking is that galactic near misses are quite  
common. On a scale of 100MY per orbit, we might have seen a  
significant perturbation every few orbits. Keep in mind that the 2.2M  
LY between hear and Andromeda could be closed and reopened in the  
time span of just a couple orbits.

Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.space.shuttle,sci.astro
From: higgins@fnala.fnal.gov (Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Innumeracy: Won't You Please Help?(was Re: Whales (SETI))
Date: 27 Jul 92 12:21:05 GMT
Organization: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

In article <1992Jul27.054148.19489@ke4zv.uucp>, gary@ke4zv.uucp (Gary Coffman) writes:
> In article <13754@mindlink.bc.ca> Nick_Janow@mindlink.bc.ca (Nick Janow) writes:
>>gary@ke4zv.uucp (Gary Coffman) writes:
>>
>>> Any creature that doesn't grasp mathematics can't be said to be intelligent.
>>
>>Well, that lets out a lot of high school graduates.  :-)
> 
> And a lot of college graduates and most politicians. Innumeracy is a
> major problem.

Yes.  It's an affliction suffered by billions.

Or was that millions?

Anyway, "many."

Bill Higgins                           | Every so often, Innumeracy
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory  | strikes.  Out of all Americans,
Bitnet:     HIGGINS@FNAL.BITNET        | a lot suffer from it.  But
Internet:  HIGGINS@FNAL.FNAL.GOV       | we can win the fight against 
SPAN/Hepnet:      43011::HIGGINS       | Innumeracy with your help.
                                       | All it takes is a few pennies a day.
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: bhill@stars.gsfc.nasa.gov (Robert S. Hill)
Subject: Re: ET's, life in space
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.4-b1  
Organization: Hughes STX Corp./NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Distribution: sci
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 17:41:00 GMT

In article <rwallace.712535030@unix1.tcd.ie>,
>bhill@stars.gsfc.nasa.gov (Robert S. Hill) writes:
>>Suppose the `reaction vessel' contains 1E6 molecules of each of 20
>>amino acids.  Suppose that our magic polypeptide contains 1000 amino
>>acids, 50 of each kind for simplicity.  Let C(N,n) mean the combinations
>>in N objects taken n at a time (since it's a little hard to make double-
>>height parentheses on my terminal). ^ is exponentiation operator.
> 
>>   Prob(magic molecule) = C(1E6,50)^20 / C(2E7,1000)
> 
>I think you're using combinations, where permutations would be more
>appropriate (given that it's not only how many molecules of each type
>you select that's important, but also what order you arrange them in).

Oops, you're right for the denominator, which is too small by a factor
of 1000 factorial.  I think the numerator is still right, given the
postulates of the model.  Log(numerator) = 4710.33  & log(denominator) =
7300.92, so log Prob = -2590.59  [Previous incorrect value of log(denom)
was 4733.32]  Note that I've actually weakened my own case, since
log 20^(-1000) = -1301.03.  Mea culpa.

I _still_ think, however, that you have to make a model with explicit,
detailed assumptions and compute the probabilities the right way.  The
reason is that combinatorics gets you into factorials and into huge
values of exponents.  And of course, your probabilities assumed for the
basic, microscopic events have to be physically well-founded.  And,
as others have said, you have to know all the outcomes that count as
success.  These last two requirements seem to be the hard part, judging
by the rest of this thread.

Is there a `biostatistical mechanics' which, like statistical mechanics
in physical chemistry, produces a well-defined macroscopic outcome
for a collection of 10 to the zillion power interacting items?

 - Bob Hill
---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------
   bhill@stars.gsfc.nasa.gov           ***MY individual opinions ONLY***
---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Space Station Freedom assembly questions
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 15:35:56 GMT
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology

In article <1992Jul29.141457.3965@samba.oit.unc.edu> cecil@physics.unc.edu (Gerald Cecil) writes:
>1. What is the current thinking on Shuttle accident probabilities and the 
>impact on Space Station assembly? ...

The best current thinking is that we really don't have a very good idea of
how reliable the shuttle is, given the limited number of flights flown
so far!  However, there is reason for concern.  A conservative guess at
failure rate would be 1-2%; USAF experience with large solid rocket motors
suggests that kind of SRB failure rate even if everything else is perfect.
(And everything else isn't perfect... the SSMEs push their technology
pretty hard, and every shuttle landing is a zero-defects operation with
little margin for error or mechanical failure.)  If we assume it's 1% and
there will be 50 shuttle flights between now and the station's fully-
operational status, there is about a 40% chance that another orbiter will
be gone by then.

Lots of people would like to avoid thinking about this, because it implies
(a) there will be more big PR emergencies and (b) there will be a need for
more extremely-expensive orbiters.

>2. What is the status of Shuttle-C?

Still a paper project going nowhere.
-- 
There is nothing wrong with making      | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
mistakes, but... make *new* ones. -D.Sim|  henry@zoo.toronto.edu  utzoo!henry
From: roberts@CMR.NCSL.NIST.GOV (John Roberts)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Space position
Date: 28 Jul 92 02:34:35 GMT
Organization: National Institute of Standards and Technology
	formerly National Bureau of Standards


-From: aws@iti.org (Allen W. Sherzer)
-Subject: Re: Space position
-Date: 27 Jul 92 12:25:25 GMT

->As opposed to the current thriving SEI program? :-) 

-There is a BIG difference between an administration pushing the program
-and looking for ways to fund it and one willing to let it die a quiet
-death.

Good point. Expressing general support for SEI is good, but it has to be
followed up by actual support after the election. 

->(It's my own opinion that starting actual manned Mars exploration / lunar
->colonization right now, with current hardware, would be a mistake...

-Why? IMHO most of what we will need we won't develop until we get there.
-The Russians have the best EVA gloves available. They have them because
-they needeed them. 

I was referring to the "$400 billion" proposal. The price *has* to come down
before an actual manned flight is attempted. My general feeling is that
at $50-100 billion, it would start to look realistic. Something like Great
Exploration might do it.

->Personally, I hope space is a nonissue in the upcoming election. With such
->a close similarity of platform positions, that might turn out to be the case.

-I doubt space will be an issue. But that isn't a good thing. 

I suspect a major portion of the campaign will be on what can be sacrificed
to help balance the budget. Since I consider the space program to be pretty
heavily cut back already, I hope the discussion will be elsewhere. :-)

John Roberts
roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov

Organization: Masters student, Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: sci.space
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 14:29:52 -0400 
From: David O Hunt <dh4j+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Fwd: ET's, life in space


> I *am* thinking in statistics. If the smallest possible self-replicator
> is 1000 amino acids in size, and there is only one self-replicator of
> that size, and supposing there are 20 possible amino acids, then the
> odds against any 1000-amino acid chain being a self-replicator are
> 20^1000 to 1. Against this statistic, the total number of molecules that
> can have been formed in the visible universe since the beginning of
> time is insignificant.
> Russell Wallace, Trinity College, Dublin
> rwallace@unix1.tcd.ie

Ah, but you're making the mistake that there is only one such acceptable
sequence.  If you look at real proteins with structure, the structure is
the main key to their functionality.

I'm remembering off the cuff here, so please don't flame me about not
having numbers and sources:

It's been shown that if one considers structure and not sequence, the
probability that a biologically active protein will be formed increases
by many orders of magnitude.


David Hunt - Graduate Slave | My mind is my own.          | Towards both a
Mechanical Engineering      | So are my ideas & opinions. | Palestinian and
Carnegie Mellon University  | <<<Use Golden Rule v2.0>>>  | Jewish homeland!
============================================================================
Email:  dh4j@cmu.edu            Working towards my "Piled Higher and Deeper"

Cthulhu for President - Why vote for the lesser evil!
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: first man on moon date and time
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 16:08:38 GMT
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology

In article <1992Jul21.191349.1@mcclb0.med.nyu.edu> meyers@mcclb0.med.nyu.edu writes:
>at what time the first man stepped on the moon and when it wass
>televised...

2256 EDT 20 July 1969.  The TV coverage was live (well, subject to the
speed-of-light lag...).
-- 
There is nothing wrong with making      | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
mistakes, but... make *new* ones. -D.Sim|  henry@zoo.toronto.edu  utzoo!henry
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: cfrandal@iastate.edu (Charles F Randall)
Subject: Sat->Ground Optical Communications?
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, IA
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 05:23:51 GMT


I'm looking for references concerning optical communications systems
for transmitting data from a low-Earth orbiting satellite to a ground
station.

I know that optical communications systems are typically used for
sat->sat comm. systems and can typically achieve approximately 300
Mbits/s data rates.

I also know that the atmosphere causes considerable problems when
attempting sat->ground optical communication. It is my understanding
that this limitation is the reason that the optical communication
systems are currently only applied to sat->sat.

However, I have heard that the US Navy uses (sometimes?) an optical
communication system from sat->sub. I also heard that this can be done
even with the submarine under the polar ice caps.

I'm wondering if there are currently any NASA funded research projects
concerning sat->ground optical communications.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
-Randy

Charles F. Randall IV |    _               | "Are you kidding? I study
Aerospace Engineering |  == \---------..,  |  from crisis to crisis!"
Iowa State University |  ==___-----_____>  |       -anonymous student
cfrandal@iastate.edu  | _____b________d___ | <== ascii space shuttle
From: steinly@topaz.ucsc.edu (Steinn Sigurdsson)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Calendar and Zodiak
Date: 28 Jul 92 00:19:03 GMT
Organization: Lick Observatory/UCO
NNTP-Posting-Host: topaz.ucsc.edu
In-reply-to: stgprao@xing.unocal.com's message of Mon, 27 Jul 1992 22:07:16 GMT

In article <1992Jul27.220716.11396@unocal.com> stgprao@xing.unocal.com (Richard Ottolini) writes:


   The vernal equinox (spring) now occurs when the Sun is in the constellation
   Aquarius.  During the Roman Empire the sun was one constallation over in Pisces
   during the equinox.

Actually, whether we have entered the "age of aquarius" depends on
where you place the constellation boundaries, which are necessarily
a little arbitary - by one popular reckoning equinox moved into
Aquarius either last year or this spring, but I've seen claims that
it will not happen till about 2010 or so... note that when calendars
were first made the equinox was in Aries, as a glance at a horrorscope
should reveal!

|  Steinn Sigurdsson	|I saw two shooting stars last night		|
|  Lick Observatory	|I wished on them but they were only satellites	|
|steinly@helios.ucsc.edu|Is it wrong to wish on space hardware?		|
| "standard disclaimer"	|I wish, I wish, I wish you'd care - B.B. 1983	|
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: rda834x@nella4.cc.monash.edu.au (J. Zufi)
Subject: UFO pics from the shuttle
Organization: Monash University, Melb., Australia.
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 12:11:54 GMT

Here is Melbourne we have this dreadfully bad dirt program called
Hard Copy which had an article showing footage from a shuttle mission
where this object is flying along and suddenly takes off at a 90 degree
angle - a second later this 'mist' goes flying across the screen at 90
degrees again! Is this a load of crap - what was it really?

J.Z.

-- 
[  Jonathan Zufi                  | rda834x@nellads.cc.monash.edu.au   
[  Robotics & Digital Technology  | zuf@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au          
[  Monash Univeristy, Caulfield	  | "A winner never quits; a quitter never wins"
[  Melbourne, Australia		  |			  traditional.
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: phfrom@nyx.uni-konstanz.de (Hartmut Frommert)
Subject: Re: Looking gif horse in mouth
Organization: Dept. of Physics, University of Constance
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 15:18:36 GMT

tffreeba@indyvax.iupui.edu writes:

[paraphrased:] How to get NASA GIF's on floppies ?

Best you ftp them from 
   ames.arc.nasa.gov
   user: anonymous          (or ftp)
   pass: <your_userid@your_node>
   cd /pub/SPACE/GIF

to get them on your comp, from that you can copy to your floppy.

Hope this helps.
 Hartmut Frommert, LS Dehnen, Physics, | E-Mail: <phfrom@dknkurz1.bitnet>
 Univ of Constance, P.O.Box 55 60,     |     or  <phfrom@nyx.uni-konstanz.de>
 D-W-7750 Constance, Germany  | + SAVE THE WHALES ! BOYCOTT NORWAY !        +
 Phone: +49-(0)7531-88-3747   | + Whales R intelligent. Whale killers not.  +
+ Whale killing is murder. Eating whales is cannibalism. Eat whale killers. +
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: rwallace@unix1.tcd.ie (russell wallace)
Subject: Re: Odds of Life
Organization: Trinity College, Dublin
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 12:11:56 GMT

In <ceS9ElO00WB6Egy2J_@andrew.cmu.edu> dh4j+@andrew.cmu.edu (David O Hunt) writes:

>IF (big if) one assumes that the probablilty of life arising on earth is
>so small that it couldn't happen, then there are only 2 possiblities
>for our existance:

>1)  That life arrived from another place (accidentally or purposefully)

>2)  That "God" created us

No, there are two other explanations:

3) The universe is infinite (therefore life must have formed in an
infinite number of places; however hardly any areas the size of the
*visible* universe would have even one inhabited planet).

4) The parallel worlds interpretation of quantum theory is correct, and
since the number of possible worlds either is infinite or for practical
purposes might as well be so, then many worlds will have an inhabited
planet (but far fewer will have two).

--
"To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem"
Russell Wallace, Trinity College, Dublin
rwallace@unix1.tcd.ie
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.astro,alt.alien.visitors,alt.paranormal
From: cary@carina.unm.edu (Ithlial the Archer)
Subject: Re: Phobos2-probe UFO pic-pro and contra
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 92 15:44:39 GMT
Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
Keywords: ufo, ccd, cosmic rays

Everything stated in the original post is a common occurence even in
ground based CCDs.  Especially the cosmic ray hits, which become quite
frequent on long esposures, like those used for extragalactic objects.   
On observing runs I've been on I've seen CR hits so energetic they 
saturate an entire column and possibly an adjacent one and leave residual 
charge on subsequent read-outs of the chip (somewhat like an after image 
that people get when they look at something very bright.)  Our method of 
dealing with cosmic ray hits is to take at least three short exposures 
in place of the one long one and then median them.  This works quite
well since even small chips are 512 by 512 (columns by pixels) so the 
chance of having even the same column hit is very small especially 
if you make your exposure time shorter.

On the one of the chips at our observatory (Capilla Peak, in the Manzanos
mtns in NM) we saw what we thought to be a comet.  We searched for the
object on subsequent nights, since we need at least 3 observations
to really nail down the orbit et cetera.  We could not locate the object. 
Then the 'object' appeared again at a far removed point in the sky.
A quick back of the envelope calculation show that if the 'comet'
was even at a very close range then its velocity was an order of
magnitude above solar system escape velicity and few times above 
galactic escape velocity.  The culprit was a fairly large defect on the
chip.

I think this story serves to show that defects and CR hits can produce
a wide variety of effects on CCDs.  We could have just as easily said
that the effect was and exhaust plume of a spaceship, but when we found 
out chip was acting silly the end result was the same:  we gotta buy
a new chip.

See ya,

Ithlial
 

My opinions, mine, mine, mine!

To me, boxing is like ballet, except there's no music, no choreography,
and the dancers hit eachother.
From: r.kracht@abbs.hanse.de (Rainer Kracht)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Launch of Sojus TM-15 delayed
Date: 22 Jul 92 22:27:55 GMT
Reply-To: r.kracht@abbs.hanse.de
Distribution: sci
Organization: ABBS AstroMail, D-W 2121 Dahlenburg / Germany
X-Version: ZerUU V6.45c


 Launch of Sojus TM-15 delayed
 -----------------------------

 According to Radio Moscow, the launch of Sojus TM-15/Antares will 
 be on July 27 at 06h08m UTC (one day later than previously announced).

 Rainer Kracht
 r.kracht@abbs.hanse.de

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ABBS AstroMail, the first and most popular German astronomical bulletin board
------------------------- for amateur astronomers ----------------------------
    + 49 5851 7896 / V.21, V.22, V.22bis, V.32, V.42, V.42bis and MNP5
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Newsgroups: sci.space
From: rkornilo@nyx.cs.du.edu (ryan korniloff)
Subject: ReEe: aA 12 mile tether that gernerates 5000v?
Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci.
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 92 05:40:58 GMT

>Path: mnemosyne.cs.du.edu!uunet!olivea!tymix!rael!filfeit
>From: filfeit@rael.Tymnet.COM (Fil Feit)
>Newsgroups: sci.space
>Subject: A 12 mile tether that generates 5000v?
>Message-ID: <2177@tymix.Tymnet.COM>
>Date: 30 Jul 92 19:10:32 GMT
>Sender: usenet@tymix.Tymnet.COM
>Reply-To: filfeit@rael.Tymnet.COM
>Organization: Sun Microsystems
>Lines: 14
>Nntp-Posting-Host: rael
>
>Hi all.
>
>Can someone explain how that works?  I saw reference to this on the AP
>wire, and they must think this is perfectly normal, since no-one is
>bothering to explain it.
>
>Is there an article on this some kind soul can direct me towards?
>
>Thanks,
>
>--f2
>----------------------------------
>  Hey, Mother Earth, won't you bring me back down,
>  safely to the sea?

The 5000 volts are induced by the Earth's magnetic field as the spacecraft
orbits. The same principle in using magnets to enduce a voltage when you 
pass a magnet through a coil of wire.


     -- Ryan Korniloff
     -- rkornilo@nyx.cs.du.edu
From: dh4j+@andrew.cmu.edu (David O Hunt)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Fwd: Star Trek Realism
Date: 29 Jul 92 09:01:35 GMT
Article-I.D.: andrew.EeRgvjq00WB6M9AFZ6
Organization: Masters student, Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA



> AND the fact that the Enterprise can accelerate at accelerations
> which *must* be many multiples of one gravity, with no perceived
> acceleration inside the ship, but a phaser hit knocks the crew out of
> their chairs.

Simple - the motion accelerations are planned, and can be compensated
for by the inertial dampers, while phasor/disruptor/etc hits are unplanned.
Clearly, the transient-control devices they have aren't capable of
dealing with force-transients of that short a duration.
David "I knew controls would come in handy some day!" Hunt
From: higgins@fnala.fnal.gov (Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Food additive? (was Re: Antimatter (was propulsion questions))
Date: 27 Jul 92 07:34:52 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

In article <rmartin.711835609@thor>, rmartin@thor.Rational.COM (Bob Martin) writes:
> pgf@srl03.cacs.usl.edu (Phil G. Fraering) writes:
> 
> |BTW, Antimatter should also be rather stable at low temperatures.
> |Some of the positrons should boil off and be annihilated, leaving the
> |rest of the antimatter with a net negative charge. This should keep
> |electrons away, while keeping enough positrons bound to the set of
> |molecules to "screen" away protons and other positive nuclei...
> 
> I'm beginning to think that this stuff is so stable that you could use
> it as a food additive.  Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, where is the kaboom it
> gives.

Once I was in a bakery with another physicist.  The display cases
incorporated mirrors.  Right next to a pile of brownies was another
pile labeled "SEINWORB c55."

That's when we conceived our diet book:

                    THE AMAZING ANTIMATTER DIET:
              Eat All You Want and *Still* Lose Weight!

Alas, we got busy with other projects and never got around to writing
it...

Bill Higgins, Beam Jockey              | "I'm gonna keep on writing
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory  | songs until I write the song
Bitnet:           HIGGINS@FNAL.BITNET  | that makes the guys in
Internet:       HIGGINS@FNAL.FNAL.GOV  | Detroit who build the cars
SPAN/Hepnet:           43011::HIGGINS  | put tailfins on 'em again."
                                            --John Prine
Newsgroups: sci.space