HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Ten embarrassed questions about the moon (very long)
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1992 00:48:36 GMT
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology

In article <BxD5Hz.Ewt.1@cs.cmu.edu> roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov (John Roberts) writes:
>Henry will probably sneer at the following, but I have long thought that the
>moon influences living things on the Earth, and the observations stated in
>the above reference are certainly remarkable coincidences, if they are just
>coincidence. However, I wouldn't make any claim of strange "psychic 
>connections" - tidal and lighting cycles should be considered the main
>causes of any possible influence.

Careful statistical attempts to look for lunar effects over long periods
generally come up empty-handed.

However, it's not hard to understand how these tales get started.  For
one thing, lighting effects are indeed significant -- the rate of things
like burglaries really does vary with outdoor illumination.  For another,
the lunar cycle is sufficiently close to an exact number of weeks that
near-full moons often line up with weekends for several months in a row...
and all kinds of things, starting with alcohol consumption and proceeding
from there to automobile accidents and hospital admissions, show quite
strong 7-day cycles.  Finally, there is a well-known and well-understood
human tendency to remember the unusual and forget the mundane.  Yes, odd
things sometimes happen at the full moon... but to draw any meaningful
conclusions from this, you have to figure in the times when odd things
happened without a full moon, or the times when nothing noteworthy happened
during a full moon.  Coincidences do happen; to establish correlation, you
have to look at the non-coincidences too.
-- 
MS-DOS is the OS/360 of the 1980s.      | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
              -Hal W. Hardenbergh (1985)|  henry@zoo.toronto.edu  utzoo!henry
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: gary@ke4zv.uucp (Gary Coffman)
Subject: Re: Space suit research???
Reply-To: gary@ke4zv.UUCP (Gary Coffman)
Organization: Gannett Technologies Group
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 04:48:26 GMT

In article <1992Nov10.232320.4521@ucsu.Colorado.EDU> stanczyk@ucsu.Colorado.EDU (STANCZYK MICHAEL B) writes:
>With all the talk about US space suits being at 5 psi and pure O2 I was 
>wondering what the current state of research is in space suits using
>1 atm and normal air?

Imagine a starfish. Constant volume joints aren't constant volume. At
1 atm, you can't move unless you're Arnold S. The suit fabric becomes
so stiff when inflated to 14 PSI that you can't get any feeling through
it, gloves don't work. 1 atm suit designs are hard suits with remote
manipulators, one man space ships, not suits at all.

Gary

Newsgroups: sci.space,alt.conspiracy
From: pgf@srl03.cacs.usl.edu (Phil G. Fraering)
Subject: Re: NASA Coverup
Organization: University of SW Louisiana
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1992 18:00:27 GMT
X-Posted-From: srl03.cacs.usl.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: sol.ctr.columbia.edu

In article <4600@cruzio.santa-cruz.ca.us> snarfy@cruzio.santa-cruz.ca.us writes:


>I've been getting a lot of E-mail flak about my NASA coverup  postings.
>My  own time schedule does not allow me to answer all these individually,
>so I'll try to deal with the more typical objections herein.

If you don't have time to respond, you shouldn't be posting.

As Harry Truman said, "If you can't stand the heat, get out of
the kitchen."
--
Phil Fraering

We'll not fade out too soon
Not in this finest hour
Whistle your favorite tune
We'll send a card and flower, saying "It's a mistake!"
Xref: sparky sci.space:15341 alt.sci.planetary:232
From: sl25@cus.cam.ac.uk (Steve Linton)
Newsgroups: sci.space,alt.sci.planetary
Subject: Re: Comet Collision
Date: 5 Nov 92 03:45:52 GMT
Organization: U of Cambridge, England

In article <1992Nov4.234304.2259@gucis.cit.gu.edu.au>, wharvey@gucis.cit.gu.edu.au (Wayne Harvey) writes:
|> 
|> >In <BwwKo2.6vt@breeze.rsre.mod.uk> black@breeze.rsre.mod.uk (John Black) writes:
|> 
|> >>Maybe a near comet approach could be a good thing. I did a rough calculation 
|> >>and estimated that there must be something of the order of 10 to the power 11 
|> >>metric tonnes of water. Maybe in 130 years time somewhere on the Earth could 
|> >>do with some water,  <et cetera>
|> 
|> Here's something that people seem to be missing, that has been bandied about
|> by SF writers for a long time: 10^11 tonnes of water (and associated other
|> shit), if we could capture it and place it in Earth orbit, would provide
|> us with an awful lot of fuel for rockets. Perhaps we could even have fusion
|> rockets when the comet comes back in 130 years, and that would make for
|> some pretty inexpensive colonisation fuels.

The delta-v needed to place P/S-T in Earth rorbit is several times (5) more than that
needed to lift water or ice from the Earth's surface to orbit. Superficially this seems
to rule out the sort of scheme you propose, but there are other considerations.

The delta-v requirement can be greatly reduced by steering the comet at aphelion rather
than close to the Earth. This can't get it into an Earth orbital trajectory, but it coul;d
arrange an encounter with Jupiter or Saturn that might do something useful

Alternatively, close to the Sun there are forms of thrust available for maneuvering
comets that are not available for lifting  water from the Earth. Nuclear explosives to
create artificial outgassing, for example, or sunshades to control natural outgassing.
Again a direct Earth capture is unlikely, but a Jupiter assist might be achievable.

Finally, we could collide the comet, using one of the above tricks, with  something and
stop it that way. The Moon is one possibility, an Earth-crossing asteroid might be
another.
From: rborden@ra.UVic.CA (Ross Borden)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: gloves in space
Date: 12 Nov 92 19:09:24 GMT
Article-I.D.: cs.BxMCHp.J17.1
Distribution: sci
Organization: [via International Space University]
X-Added: Forwarded by Space Digest
Original-Sender: isu@VACATION.VENARI.CS.CMU.EDU

>In article <Bx9tw3.EzH.1@cs.cmu.edu| rborden@ra.UVic.CA (Ross Borden) writes:

>|	A better idea might be to cast a glove from heat shrink plastic.
>|It would be just large enough for an astronaut to fit his hand into.
>|The cuff of the glove would have a seal to attach it to the sleave of his
>|suit.  After fitting it on, he would gently heat the glove to form it to
>|his hand.
>|	It should provide a few atmospheres, enough to prevent damage.
                            ^^^
>One atmosphere is all we need.

	Brain was not in gear before keyboard was engaged :-)  Obviously,
that should be PSI, not atmospheres.  We don't actually need a full atm.
for the gloves, since the suits themselves are only about 5 PSI.  Three
in the gloves should be enough to minimize the pressure differential
between suit and gloves.

>-- 
>Bruce Watson (wats@scicom)  Tumbra, Zorkovick; Sparkula zoom krackadomando.  

>------------------------------
_______________________________________________________________________________
|                   .sig?  I don't need no stinking .sig!                     |
|                           rborden@ra.uvic.ca                                |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Xref: sparky sci.space:15586 alt.sci.planetary:258
From: carl@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU (Carl J Lydick)
Newsgroups: sci.space,alt.sci.planetary
Subject: Re: Lunar "colony" reality check
Date: 10 Nov 1992 03:50:50 GMT
Organization: HST Wide Field/Planetary Camera
Distribution: world
Reply-To: carl@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU
NNTP-Posting-Host: sol1.gps.caltech.edu

In article <1992Nov9.180901@betsy.gsfc.nasa.gov>, giglio@betsy.gsfc.nasa.gov (Louis Giglio) writes:
>|> >* A livable atmosphere is mostly nitrogen, not oxygen.
>|> 
>|> Which comes as a rude suprise to the astronaust who lived
>|> weeks on end on pure oxygen.
>                   ^^^^ ^^^^^^
>
>I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with either party, but I want to point
>out that
>this can't possibly be correct.  The oxygen had to be diluted with
>something.
>They would have died otherwise.

You would be correct had the vehicle been pressurized to 1 atmosphere. 
However, your conclusion does not follow if the cabin pressure was .2
atmosphere.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carl J Lydick | INTERnet: CARL@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU | NSI/HEPnet: SOL1::CARL

Disclaimer:  Hey, I understand VAXen and VMS.  That's what I get paid for.  My
understanding of astronomy is purely at the amateur level (or below).  So
unless what I'm saying is directly related to VAX/VMS, don't hold me or my
organization responsible for it.  If it IS related to VAX/VMS, you can try to
hold me responsible for it, but my organization had nothing to do with it.
From: sav@nanette.sni.de (Dr.Savory)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Mars over the Moon???
Date: 6 Nov 1992 13:26:43 GMT
Organization: Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG, Paderborn, Germany
NNTP-Posting-Host: nanette.sto.pdb.sni.de

Any body to be terraformed should have sufficient gravity to retain
an atmosphere (obvious?), so exclude the moon, OK ;)
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: Bruce_Dunn@mindlink.bc.ca (Bruce Dunn)
Subject: Re: Water and Moon Rocks?
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 05:10:49 GMT

> Charles Pooley writes:
>
> .....they cheated.  The idea was to use hydrogen form the earth, to
> chemically reduce the mix of various oxides in the regolith somewhat.
> The product of this is, of course, water vapor.  Hydrogen is almost
> nonexistant on the moon (unless it turns out that subsurface H2O does
> exist in polar area).


        Not necessarily cheated - it depends on what you are after.  If the
aim is to get the oxygen from the rocks, then the hydrogen is catalytic and
reused.  The recipe goes:

1) Pass hydrogen through hot regolith, and collect the resulting water.

2) Keep the regolith hot, and pull a good vacuum on it with a pump to recover
any adsorbed hydrogen - hope that you have not lost any via permanent
reaction with the regolith

3) Throw away the depleted regolith (or use for other processes)

4) Use electrolysis to split the product water, giving oxygen for breathing,
propulsion or whatever, and hydrogen to use for processing another batch of
regolith.


--
Bruce Dunn    Vancouver, Canada   Bruce_Dunn@mindlink.bc.ca
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Where are Pioneer and Voyager Headed?
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 17:57:55 GMT
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology

In article <BxM3pC.ADF.1@cs.cmu.edu> nickh@CS.CMU.EDU (Nick Haines) writes:
>... AC +79 3888 must be sqrt (1.5^2 + 1.65^2) = 2.23 ly from
>the sun, according to the Pioneer figures, and sqrt (2.2^2 + 1.64^2) =
>2.74 ly from the sun according the the Voyager figures. Not only are
>these numbers very different from each other, they're also much less
>than the correct distance to AC +79 3888.
>
>Doing the same calculation for Ross 248 gets us a distance of 3.5 ly
>(correct figure is 10.3), and for Sirius 26.8 ly (correct figure is
>8.7 ly).

Bear in mind that the stars are moving, in many cases at rather higher
velocities than the spacecraft.
-- 
MS-DOS is the OS/360 of the 1980s.      | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
              -Hal W. Hardenbergh (1985)|  henry@zoo.toronto.edu  utzoo!henry
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: fcrary@ucsu.Colorado.EDU (Frank Crary)
Subject: Re: Man in space ... )
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 20:28:45 GMT

In article <720944603snx@osea.demon.co.uk> andy@osea.demon.co.uk (Andrew Haveland-Robinson) writes:
>I would guess that space suits and space biosphere pressures are
>substantially less than trophospheric pressure ~ 5 psi?

I believe the current suits are 4.7psi pure oxygen. However, the
current goal of suit design is to raise the pressure to 8.5 psi,
without increasing the stiffness of the joints (e.g. without 
making them even more awkard to work in...) That would eliminate
the need to "pre-breath" pure oxygen for hours, before getting
into the suit. Currently, this proceedure is required to avoid
the bends...

>With an oxygen enriched supply, and spacesuits at 5psi, naked hands in space
>should be quite feasible.

I don't think so: One's blood vessels are at the same pressure as
one's lungs. There would be 5psi of pressure across the walls of
blood vessels. I'm fairly sure some would rupture. It wouldn't 
kill you, but it's bad enough to avoid if possible... (By the way,
this isn't a problem in the case of sudden decompression, because the
lungs and therefore the blood vessels are also at zero pressure...)

                                               Frank Crary
                                               CU Boulder

Xref: sparky sci.space:15444 sci.astro:11754 alt.sci.planetary:242 sci.geo.geology:2319
From: corleyj@helium.gas.uug.arizona.edu (Jason D Corley )
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.astro,alt.sci.planetary,sci.geo.geology
Subject: Re: Viking Photos Shows Evidence of Marsquakes
Keywords: Viking, Mars, JPL, USGS, MESUR
Date: 7 Nov 92 04:12:02 GMT
Organization: University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

I thought that the Viking landers had picked up only
minimal Marsquake activities.  Has something changed?

I remember reading that only two, and those very slight,
earthquakes were recorded over the umpteen year run
of the Viking probes.

Could someone please explain the new data to me (an
ignorant physics/math undergrad?)

	Jason
	Ono-Sendai R&D
From: magnus@thep.lu.se (Magnus Olsson)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Light sails again
Keywords: light, sails
Date: 5 Nov 92 08:59:14 GMT
Organization: Theoretical Physics, Lund University, Sweden

In article <ida.720921989@atomic> ida@atomic (David Goldschmidt) writes:
>  A light sail works by light pressure (I calculate F = Power/C,= 
>4.66 E -6 /m^2 at 1 AU)  My question comes from what happens if you tilt
>the sail.  It will red or blue shift the light just as much as a nontilted
>sail, so the force on it should be the same, but is it applied in the same
>direction as the light, or perpendicular to the sail?
>   force            force
>     | /               \  /
>     |/         or      \/________>  light path
>     /_____>            /|
>    /|                 / |
>   / | <light         /  |
>  ^mirror            ^mirror
>
>  If possible could somebody explain why it happens whichever way.  Its not
>clear to me why the energy lost or gained in red or blue shifting the light
>has to go into kinetic energy  (couldn't it just heat up the sail?)


This is not intended as a flame, but I think you need to take a deeper
look at your freshman physics course.

What's important isn't just energy conservation, but momentum
conservation. Light carries momentum (the simplest way to understand
this is to think of a light beam as a stream of particles, photons,
but it works for waves as well), and when you deflect a light beam you
change its momentum. This change has to be compensated in some way -
if the mirror is free to move (as is a light sail), it will take up
the missing momentum by starting to move. 

This is exactly as if you were to bounce a lot of tennis balls off the
mirror. 


In your example, light comes in in the upward direction and goes out
to the right. This means its total momentum change is directed
downwards to the right (at 45 degrees in your picture). The light sail
will compensate this by moving in the opposite direction. This means
it will feel a force that is directed upwards to the left, at a 45
degree angle.

So, to answer your question shortly, it's momentum conservation that
prevents the absorbed energy from just heating the mirror.


Magnus Olsson                   | \e+      /_
Dept. of Theoretical Physics    |  \  Z   / q
University of Lund, Sweden      |   >----<           
Internet: magnus@thep.lu.se     |  /      \===== g
Bitnet: THEPMO@SELDC52          | /e-      \q
From: johnu@scic.intel.com (John Urbanski)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Sounding Rockets
Date: 10 Nov 92 00:40:30 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Intel Corporation


Anyone have / know where I can get data 
on sounding rockets.

Thanks for any info you can send me .


john

  
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: dj@ekcolor.ssd.kodak.com (Dave Jones)
Subject: Re: ALTERNATIVE Heavy Element Creation in Universe
Organization: Vonnegut Tent Rentals, Inc.
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 92 15:02:46 GMT

mcelwre@cnsvax.uwec.edu wrote:
>                               BIOLOGICAL ALCHEMY
>                           
> 
>                A very simple experiment can demonstrate (PROVE) the 
>           FACT of "BIOLOGICAL TRANSMUTATIONS" (reactions like Mg + O 
>           --> Ca, Si + C --> Ca, K + H --> Ca, N2 --> CO, etc.), as 
> 
> 
This is well-known, and follows from research described in the 50s by an
associate of John W. Campbell, Jr., in which an avian source of auric
metal ovoids proved to involve SIMULTANEOUS fusion of low MW elements which
provided the driving energy for Fe + I -> Au.

Note that this experiment ALSO involved the results of sprouting beans.

--
||Dave Jones (dj@ekcolor.ssd.kodak.com)|Eastman Kodak Co. Rochester, NY  |
Xref: sparky sci.space:15759 alt.sci.planetary:297
From: fiddler@concertina.Eng.Sun.COM (steve hix)
Newsgroups: sci.space,alt.sci.planetary
Subject: Re: Lunar "colony" reality check
Date: 11 Nov 1992 22:27:50 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mt. View, Ca.
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: concertina

In article <1drh9aINN91n@gap.caltech.edu> carl@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU writes:
>In article <1992Nov11.143433.18514@news.weeg.uiowa.edu>, jboggs@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu (John D. Boggs) writes:
>=From article <1992Nov11.005151.15358@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov>, by jenkins@fritz (Steve Jenkins):
>=
>=Yes to blindness in newborns, but it is the *nitrogen* that has the narcotic
>=effect in deep sea diving -- hence the use of helium for the really really
>=deep dives.
>
>If oxygen at high pressures DIDN'T cause the bad effects, why bother mixing it
>with helium?  Yes, nitrogen has narcotic effects at high pressure, but so does
>oxygen.

I think it's worse than that for O2: above two atmospheres or so, it's very
toxic.

The mixing gases are used to get the partial pressure of O2 down to non- (or
at least less-) toxic levels.


--
-------------------------------------------------------
| Some things are too important not to give away      |
| to everybody else and have none left for yourself.  |
-------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: sci.space,alt.sci.planetary
From: jboggs@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu (John D. Boggs)
Subject: Re: Lunar "colony" reality check
Organization: University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 14:39:03 GMT

From article <1992Nov11.020940.4767@gn.ecn.purdue.edu>, by mechalas@gn.ecn.purdue.edu (John P. Mechalas):
> 
> This is true for the most part, but at high O2 pressure, normally inflammable
> objects burn quite well.  So in that respect, it is indirectly a fire 
> hazard...sort of.  :)
> 

Actually, normally inflammable objects burn quite well at sea-level pressure
of pure *air*.  However, you need the high pressure to get normally 
*non*flammable objects to burn.       [high pressure O2]

Trust me, I'm a librarian.

-John D. Boggs     john-boggs@uiowa.edu

Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.astro,alt.sci.planetary,alt.cd-rom,sci.geo.geology
From: baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov (Ron Baalke)
Subject: Magellan CD-ROMs
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.3-4   
Keywords:  Magellan, JPL
Reply-To: baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1992 00:59:19 GMT

                     =====================================
                             MAGELLAN CD-ROMs
                                 Cycle 2
                             November 5, 1992
                     =====================================

     Fourteen more Magellan CD-ROMs (volumes 53 through 66) have now
been released by the Magellan project.  A total of 77 Magellan CD-ROMs
are now available: 66 CD-ROMs containing radar images, and 11 CD-ROMs
containing altimetry data.  Volumes 1 through 52 contain the radar
images taken by the Magellan spacecraft during Cycle 1, the first 8 month
mapping of the planet Venus.  Volumes 53 through 66 are the first release
of the Cycle 2 radar data.

     The CD-ROMs can be obtained from the National Space Science Data Center
(NSSDC) at the Goddard Space Flight Center.  The "nominal" charge is $20 for
the first CD-ROM, and $6 for any additional CD-ROM in an order.  However,
NSSDC may waive this charge for a small amount of data requested by bona fide
research users, government laboratories, etc.  School teachers who are unable
to pay may be helped on a case by case basis, and/or as resources permit.
Researchers funded by NASA's Solar System Exploration Division can also obtain
the CD-ROMs through the Planetary Data System at JPL.

     NSSDC's address is:

	National Space Science Data Center
	Goddard Space Flight Center
	Greenbelt, Maryland 20771
	Tel: (301) 286-6695

        Email address:   request@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov

     You can also reach NSSDC by logging on to their computer.  To log onto the
NSSDC computer, telnet to NSSDC.GSFC.NASA.GOV and give the username "NSSDC".
You will then be connected to a menu system which allows you to use the
"Master Directory".  You can also leave questions and orders for the NSSDC
staff.  If this is the first time you have used the NSSDC "NODIS" system, it
will ask you for information (name, address, ...) to keep a database of NSSDC
users.

     NSSDC also provides the following software to display the images:

        o IMDISP       (IBM PC)
        o Browser      (Macintosh)
        o Pixel Pusher (Macintosh)
        o True Color   (Macintosh)

     The Magellan CD-ROMs will also eventually be available at the anonymous 
ftp site at the Ames Research Center: ames.arc.nasa.gov [128.102.18.3].
The Ames site has two CD-ROM drives and they are accessible through the
pub/SPACE/CDROM and pub/SPACE/CDROM2 directories.
     ___    _____     ___
    /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|     Ron Baalke         | baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov
    | | | |  __ \ /| | | |     Jet Propulsion Lab |
 ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |__   M/S 525-3684 Telos | Give people a second 
/___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /| Pasadena, CA 91109 | chance, but not a third. 
|_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/                     | 

Newsgroups: sci.space
From: gawne@stsci.edu
Subject: Re: Mars Simulation in Antarctica
Organization: Space Telescope Science Institute
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 00:01:51 GMT

So does this mean penguins are martian immigrants?

Inquiring minds want to know!

:) :) :)

-Bill Gawne, STScI
Newsgroups: sci.space