HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: Bruce_Dunn@mindlink.bc.ca (Bruce Dunn)
Subject: Metric again
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1992 17:03:22 GMT

> John Roberts writes:
>
> By the way, I think you'll be much happier in the long run if you do your
> calculations in SI (metric) units. I often do simple calculations in
> standard
> units, but the tough problems are much more easily handled using SI.


        I am delighted to find that NASA seem finally to be moving toward
metric, not just in theory but in reality.  Ron Baalke's postings about
various spacecraft now use metric units as the primary system, with
traditional American units in brackets.  About a week ago I joined a public
tour through the Goddard Space Flight Center (just north of Washington DC).
Goddard has a backup Shuttle mission control center which can take over
Shuttle operations if the Houston center is down.  There was a Shuttle up at
the time, and data related to the mission were being displayed in real time
on a large display at the front of the control room (the tour saw the room
from behind a glass wall).  Shuttle altitute was listed in km, and velocity
was listed in km/sec.
        Does anyone know if NASA uses degrees C for reporting things like the
Shuttle cabin temperature and the temperature of experiments?



--
Bruce Dunn    Vancouver, Canada   Bruce_Dunn@mindlink.bc.ca
From: 3001crad@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (Charles Frank Radley)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Automated space station construction
Date: 11 Nov 92 14:06:13 GMT

In article <1992Nov8.064256.7682@ucsu.Colorado.EDU> fcrary@ucsu.Colorado.EDU (Frank Crary) writes:


>Is anyone looking into robots with very limited autonomy? That is,
>under direction from a human, but able to execute instructions on
>their own for periods of, say, ten seconds?

Yes, there are programmable mechanical systems on Freedom.
They do not have arms legs and heads, and they do not look like androids,
by they are intelligent machines, and therefore you can call them robots.
   The Mobile Transporter is controlled by a 386 MDM and contains very complicated control algorithms and decision making routines to
carry payloads of different weights along the rail.
  It can faul-find itself, and report failures.
(fault-find)
  It varies its acceleratioin and speed depending on the mass of the
payload.
  It can be programmed to travel different distances, and to connect
and disconnedt itself from space station main power, and transfer power back and forth to internal battery power, .  Its battery power modeule contains
sophistiacted algorithms to control the state ofc charge of the bbattery, and the control its charging and discharging.
  A obot by any other name.
    robot
When you tell it to move to worksitee-N itk knows exactly what to do, and howe to do it, and will proceed autonomoulsly unl;ess it is interrupted, or unless it detects that something is wrong.

>                                         Frank Crary
>                                         CU Boulder
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: palmer@sfu.ca (Leigh Palmer)
Subject: Re: astronauts voting
Organization: Simon Fraser University
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 19:49:13 GMT

In article <1992Nov9.180712.18824@julian.uwo.ca> jdnicoll@prism.ccs.uwo.ca
(James Davis Nicoll) writes:

>        With the exception of voters in  Quebec (Quebec ran its own
>'referendum' with slightly different rules), I do not think Canadians
>were allowed absentee ballots  in  the recent 'referendum'.

They were in British Columbia. I think that was quite general.

Leigh
From: roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov (John Roberts)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Coverup - gravity doesn't exist?
Date: 7 Nov 92 02:20:17 GMT
Article-I.D.: cs.BxBqIz.4ot.1
Distribution: sci
Organization: National Institute of Standards and Technology formerly National Bureau of Standards
X-Added: Forwarded by Space Digest
Original-Sender: isu@VACATION.VENARI.CS.CMU.EDU


-From: Roger.Wilfong@umich.edu (Roger Wilfong)
-Subject: Re: Coverup - gravity doesn't exist?
-Date: 6 Nov 92 18:03:00 GMT
-Organization: UofM Hospitals
  
-There's always Alway's Speculation on Physical Laws.  
  
-   "Until a physical law is discovered, compliance is not mandatory."  
  
-It's kind of like "if a tree fell in the woods ...".  As applied to gravity, 
-Alway's Speculation is that before Newton, objects fell because they wanted 
-too (but when no one was looking, they sometimes fell up) - after Newton, 
-objects were required to fall under force of law (a force much greater than 
-gravity).
-:-)

"Just you wait - as soon as someone discovers gravity, they'll all fall down
and hit the ground." (Caption of "Herman" cartoon.)

This concept is discussed in a slightly more serious context in the
Heinlein novel "Waldo".

Come to think of it, if this Speculation is valid, then those people who
are looking for "dark matter" are trying to destroy the universe! Maybe they
should be arrested - conspiring to destroy the universe must violate *some*
federal law!

:-)  :-)

John Roberts
roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov (John Roberts)
Subject: Re: Technology book
X-Added: Forwarded by Space Digest
Organization: National Institute of Standards and Technology formerly National Bureau of Standards
Original-Sender: isu@VACATION.VENARI.CS.CMU.EDU
Distribution: sci
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 01:39:23 GMT


-From: sysmgr@king.eng.umd.edu (Doug Mohney)
-Newsgroups: sci.space
-Subject: Re: N-1 giant Moon rocket photo in *AvLeak*
-Date: 10 Nov 92 21:52:31 GMT
-Organization: Computer Aided Design Lab, U. of Maryland College Park

-Maybe NPO Energiya would create a full-color picture book called "Secrets of
-the Soviet Space Program 1957-1992." 

-So, Bill, how much would you pay for such a book? :-)

At Farnborough '92, one of the well-known people present (John W.R. Taylor
of Jane's All the World's Aircraft) said that when he asked a Russian pilot 
for permission to look in the cockpit of his aircraft, the pilot, instead of 
saying "nyet" (which may have been the case in previous years), 
said "five pounds". :-)

(The Russian aircraft now have fly-by-wire, by the way.)

John Roberts
roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov

Newsgroups: sci.space,alt.conspiracy
From: sbradley@scic.intel.com (Seth Bradley)
Subject: Re: NASA Coverup
Keywords: Ten Embarrassing Questions about the Moon
Organization: Intel Corporation
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1992 17:25:12 GMT

In article <4603@cruzio.santa-cruz.ca.us> snarfy@cruzio.santa-cruz.ca.us writes:
>   there is a solid pillar of iron of unknown age  near  New  Delhi  ,India,
>   that has never rusted ,and no one knows why .

This is a popular myth promoted by Van Daniken.  The pillar does indeed
rust.  It is regularly cleaned of said rust.  End of mystery.
-- 
Seth J. Bradley, Senior System Administrator, Intel SCIC
Internet: sbradley@scic.intel.com   UUCP: uunet!scic.intel.com!sbradley
----------------------------------------
"A system admin's life is a sorry one.  The only advantage he has over
Emergency Room doctors is that malpractice suits are rare.  On the other
hand, ER doctors never have to deal with patients installing new versions
of their own innards!"  -Michael O'Brien
From: Chris Hanson <chanson@igc.apc.org>
Newsgroups: sci.space
Date: 07 Nov 92 22:24 PST
Subject: Scandium and Osmium end-users
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1469100026:000:327
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!chanson    Nov  7 22:24:00 1992



I am doing some research into current uses of Scandium 
and Osmium 187.  Does anyone have information on
how these substances are used in industry and
manufacturing?  I am especially interested in
identifying end-users.

Thanks for your help.

Chris Hanson
E-mail:  chanson@igc.org
Telephone:  415-988-1155
Fax:  415-988-9209

Newsgroups: sci.space
From: kentm@aix.rpi.edu (Michael V. Kent)
Subject: Re: Shuttle Status for 11/13/92 (Forwarded)
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 19:15:08 GMT

In article <1992Nov13.182845.21792@news.arc.nasa.gov> baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov writes:
>                         SPACE SHUTTLE WEEKLY STATUS SUMMARY
>                              Friday, November 13, 1992

           [STS-52 just completed.]

>          Mission: STS-53 DoD   Inclination: 57 degrees
>          Launch timeframe: Dec. wk 1   Nominal Landing Site: KSC
>
>          Mission: STS-54                    Inclination: 28.45 degrees
>          Launch Timeframe: January Wk 2     Nominal Landing Site: KSC     
>
>          Mission: STS-55/Spacelab-D2         Inclination: 28.45 degrees
>          Launch timeframe: February, wk 4    Nominal Landing Site: KSC
>

Wow!  Look at this.  Do you remember the last time we launched four missions
in numerical order?  Glad to see payload processing is starting to settle down
into a process.

Mike

-- 
Michael Kent                                   kentm@rpi.edu
McDonnell Douglas                              Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Tute Screwed Aero Class of '92                              Apple II Forever !!
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: i0c0256@summa.tamu.edu (IGOR)
Subject: why don't you stop snarfy, here is why, no computations!
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: Texas A&M University, Academic Computing Services
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 23:28:00 GMT


Hello snarfy,

I for one am not related to any governmental agency, I am not even american.
I therefore do not really qualify for a cover-up of any kind.
I do not know where your argument is failing and I am sure some other 
readers will take the time to tell you exactly. The thing is that I had with
 my group the extraordinary  possiblity to be in weightlessness, in martian
(1/3g) and in lunar gravity (1/6g) while riding on NASA's KC-135 recently.
I can tell you that if you want to have the agility that those guys had
while on the moon ( from the movies) you HAVE to be at MOST under 1/6 g
and definetly way under .34g.
Trust me, the martian gravity is bitch, there is NO fun being under it
and it's relatively dangerous to even try a backflip.
Then again the pilot might have fooled us since he's a NASA employee!
then again our experiments DO HAVE accelerometers and they match
with NASA's (ain't it weird :-))



Igor
Texas A&M University
From: BrianT@cup.portal.com (Brian Stuart Thorn)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: First Saturn 5 Launch - 25 Years Ago Today
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 19:48:51 PST
Organization: The Portal System (TM)

>>the dummy payload went into a nearly circular orbit<<
 
I thought Apollo 4 (AKA Apollo-Saturn 501) carried a fully operational
Apollo Command/Service Module (CSM). The CSM later made a high-speed
re-entry to simulate lunar-return velocity, and the critical heat shield
performed perfectly.
 
-Brian
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Space Propulsion Research
From: jim@netlink.cts.com (Jim Bowery)
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 92 06:50:30 PST
Organization: NetLink Online Communications, San Diego CA

William Fabanich <WAF102@psuvm.psu.edu> writes:

> What universities are best knownfor their research into space propulsion
>  research ? How about a list, a ranking, and/or general opinions ? Whatever y
>  might feel answers this question best.
> 
>                          Thanx,
>                             Bill Fabanich
>                             waf102@psuvm.psu.edu

If they are "well known" at present, they are probably your enemies.

--                    
INTERNET:  jim@netlink.cts.com (Jim Bowery)
UUCP:   ...!ryptyde!netlink!jim
NetLink Online Communications * Public Access in San Diego, CA (619) 453-1115
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: cecil@physics.unc.edu (Gerald Cecil)
Subject: NASA Town Meeting in Rayleigh -- Was: NASA is too big.
Reply-To: cecil@physics.unc.edu
Organization: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 22:35:33 GMT

In article 20255@access.usask.ca, choy@skorpio.usask.ca (I am a terminator.) writes:
>I was reading Feynman's account of his work investigating the Challenger
>and he was complaining about how NASA is so backward. Now the shuttles
>are flying again, what is NASA's situation?

Based on the 1st NASA Town Meeting in Rayleigh on Monday that I attended,
some in NASA are still denying reality.  The lone astronaut chairing the panel
took issue with the question I posed to Goldin regarding shuttle reliability.
Goldin gave a reasonable response, stressing ongoing work on improving engine
and turbopump reliability.  He emphasized that within 2 yrs NASA was going to 
fly the shuttle strictly for missions that required human presence, once they
launch all the shuttle-specific payloads that have accumulated. Later, after 
Goldin left, the astronaut stridently stated that (I paraphrase): ``I want to clear
up some misconceptions regarding the Shuttle. The Shuttle is the most reliable
space vehicle that's every flown.  We have a reliablity of .987, etc etc etc.''
OK, so use his number, raised to the 45th power (= approx # of shuttle flights
until SSF is assembled) to get a 45% probability of losing an orbiter.  Feynman
must be spinning in his grave.  Hopefully, those in NASA with a less vested
interest in piloting spacecraft are seriously considering heavy lift vehicles,
if only to prevent another Challenger from catching the American public unaware.

I'll give a more complete report on the meeting in a few days.
---
Gerald Cecil cecil@wrath.physics.unc.edu  919-962-7169 
Physics & Astronomy, U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3255 USA
From: sreardon@bradley.bradley.edu (Steven Reardon)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Nuclear waste to Venus?
Date: 6 Nov 92 23:25:40 GMT
Article-I.D.: bradley.1992Nov6.232540.26441
Distribution: usa
Organization: Bradley University

In <BxAqvJ.Ftp.1@cs.cmu.edu> roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov (John Roberts) writes:

>-HS>Venus, you might as well just fly it *into* Venus.  It's not as if Venus
>-HS>is good for anything else.  (Although one would want to do rather more
>-HS>thorough studies of Venus before starting to use it as a dump...)

>-Why do that?  Conceivably Venusian terraforming could be done and now
>-you've contaminated it with radioactives.  If dumping is the solution
>-dump on an airless body.

>Without working too hard at the math, I strongly suspect that cleaning up
>a few million tons of high-level radioactive waste would add far less than
>a thousandth of a percent to the cost of terraforming Venus. With that kind
>of cost ratio, it would be an insignificant impediment to terraforming.

>This is not to say I favor the idea - I think the nuclear waste should be
>kept on the Earth.

Say, if you're gonna get it going fast enough to escape Earth, why not just 
aim it at the sun?  It would disintigrate long before it got there.

Just my 2 hunks of crust worth,

Steve 

-- 
*   The state has a system set up whereby the only people who are       *
*   allowed to have guns are those without convictions.                 *
*  ---                                              --- Steven Reardon  *
*"Gun Control" is hitting your target. ** sreardon@bradley.bradley.edu  *
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov (John Roberts)
Subject: Re: Town Meeting
X-Added: Forwarded by Space Digest
Organization: National Institute of Standards and Technology formerly National Bureau of Standards
Original-Sender: isu@VACATION.VENARI.CS.CMU.EDU
Distribution: sci
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 06:20:40 GMT


-From: cecil@physics.unc.edu (Gerald Cecil)
-Subject: NASA Town Meeting in Rayleigh -- Was: NASA is too big.
-Date: 11 Nov 92 22:35:33 GMT
-Organization: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

-Based on the 1st NASA Town Meeting in Rayleigh on Monday that I attended,
-some in NASA are still denying reality.  The lone astronaut chairing the panel
-took issue with the question I posed to Goldin regarding shuttle reliability.
-...Later, after Goldin left, the astronaut stridently stated 
-that (I paraphrase): ``I want to clear
-up some misconceptions regarding the Shuttle. The Shuttle is the most reliable
-space vehicle that's every flown.  We have a reliablity of .987, etc etc etc.''
-OK, so use his number, raised to the 45th power (= approx # of shuttle flights
-until SSF is assembled) to get a 45% probability of losing an orbiter.  Feynman
-must be spinning in his grave.  Hopefully, those in NASA with a less vested
-interest in piloting spacecraft are seriously considering heavy lift vehicles,
-if only to prevent another Challenger from catching the American public unaware.

Those numbers sound reasonably consistent with the estimates NASA has made
previously (and also stated during Congressional hearings). Yes, space
flight is not a 100% safe activity. If you want to live a long time, it's
not a good idea to go up on *every* Shuttle flight - note that few if any
astonauts go on more than 4-5 missions.

NASA did order the parts to build a replacement orbiter in case one is needed -
(if one replacement is available, what is the probability of getting through
SSF assembly with four orbiters intact?). Furthermore, if an orbiter were to
be lost in the next few years, the assembly lines would still be sufficiently
intact to make another set of parts. (It might be better in that case to
take Rockwell up on its offer to build updated orbiters at a substantially
reduced price.)

There has been talk of building a fifth orbiter now as an on-line backup.
The consensus appears to be that with the projected remaining lifetime of
the Shuttle program, the probabilities don't justify the added expense.

Also note that one of the major goals of the SSF redesign has been to
minimize the number of flights actually needed for assembly.

John Roberts
roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov

Newsgroups: sci.space
From: jenkins@fritz (Steve Jenkins)
Subject: Re: Man in space ... 
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA)
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 18:20:37 GMT

In article <BxDHG0.6Eu@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes:
>As Clarke has pointed
>out, if you *expect* the decompression, you can boost your internal oxygen
>supply considerably by hyperventilating first.

But not by much.  At normal arterial O2 partial pressure (about 100 mmHg),
the blood is almost completely saturated with oxygen.  You can raise
the partial pressure by hyperventilating, but not the oxygen content.
Hemoglobin is remarkable stuff.

The best you could do in anticipation is to prepare to hold your
breath (carefully!) so as to maintain some O2 pressure in the lungs, and
hence in the arterial blood.  If the lung pressure goes to zero, so
immediately does the arterial PO2.  The transport delay from lungs to
brain is on the order of 20 seconds, so you can't expect to maintain
consciousness much longer than that.  The oxygen demand of the brain
is high, and there are no signifcant stores of oxygen anywhere in
the body outside of the lungs and arterial blood.

Note that it's the partial pressure, not the concentration that
matters.  Even breathing pure O2 from a tank doesn't help much at low
ambient pressure.  That's why climbers on Everest are at the limits
even with supplemental oxygen.

-- 
Steve Jenkins      			jenkins@devvax.jpl.nasa.gov
Caltech/Jet Propulsion Laboratory	(818) 306-6438
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov (John Roberts)
Subject: Re: oxygen atmospheres
X-Added: Forwarded by Space Digest
Organization: National Institute of Standards and Technology formerly National Bureau of Standards
Original-Sender: isu@VACATION.VENARI.CS.CMU.EDU
Distribution: sci
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 01:40:23 GMT


-From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
-Subject: oxygen atmospheres
-Date: 10 Nov 92 21:29:43 GMT

-Neither.  In space, the Apollo spacecraft used the atmosphere it was
-designed for:  low-pressure pure oxygen.  It wasn't feasible to run that
-way on the pad, though, because the spacecraft wasn't built to stand an
-external pressure exceeding internal pressure.  After some attempts to
-fireproof the interior for 1atm of oxygen -- abandoned as impossibly
-difficult -- they switched to using a mixed-gas atmosphere before and
-during launch, with switchover to low-pressure pure oxygen on the way up.

Did the astronauts continue to breathe pure oxygen on the pad to avoid the
bends?

John Roberts
roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov

Newsgroups: sci.optics
From: knapp@spot.Colorado.EDU (David Knapp)
Subject: Re: Laser Marking Materials
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 21:18:39 GMT

In article <1992Nov10.160305.20372@actcnews.res.utc.com> Bob.Clarke%bbs@actcnews.res.utc.com (Bob Clarke) writes:
>LASER MARK MATERIALS
> 
>I am working on a project to replace mechanically made metal
>nameplates with laser marked nameplates.  Using a ND-YAG marking
>system to remove ink from an aluminum plate works but is not ideal
>because you have to stock different blank sizes.  Also the ink does
>not provide great resolution for a complicated company trade mark.
> 
>I have only found one material made specifically for laser marking, 
>TESA LASER LABEL 6930, it is a self adhesive acrylic on acrylic
>design.  The laser removes the top layer revealing a contrasting
>color lower layer.  The acrylic is rated to 200C.
> 
>Does anyone know any other laser marking materials on the market
>that are good to 200C or more?  Our application is jet engine
>mounted so we really do need a high temperature material.
> 
>Please do not E-mail me, for it isn't working.
>--
>Bob Clarke, user of the UnixBBS System @ actcnews.res.utc.com
>E-Mail: Bob.Clarke%bbs@actcnews.res.utc.com
>========================================================================
>   United Technologies Corporation
>   Opinions expressed do not necessarily represent UTC.



I would think that black anodized aluminum would be ideal.

In fact, I've seen this used for this exact purpose.


-- 
David Knapp                                   University of Colorado, Boulder
Perpetual Student                                 knapp@spot.colorado.edu
Looks like hate *is* a family value after all and Colorado families are for it.

Newsgroups: sci.optics,sci.physics
From: siegman@EE.Stanford.EDU (Anthony E. Siegman)
Subject: Re: Diffraction patterns from irregular slits
Organization: Stanford University
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 92 23:56:07 GMT

>In most of the physics textbooks, informations are given on the
>fact that how to calculate the difraction patterns from  a surface
>containing regular slits(i.e.,similar length and widths). The question
>is how does one find the patterns if the surface contains irregular
>slits(i.e., diferent lengths and widths)?

   Well, assuming you really have a collection of regular slits, and
they're coherently illuminated (which is more or less implied in your
statement of the problem), you can just _add_ coherently the
diffracted field (not intensity!) patterns of the individual slits.
From: aq061@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Scott Devine)
Newsgroups: sci.optics
Subject: Laser optics
Date: 6 Nov 1992 16:41:03 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: slc10.ins.cwru.edu


I need a very cheap optical setup for a laser diode.  I want to have a dot
the size of a quarter at the end of 750 yards.  I plan to use a 5mw laser
diode.  I need to know the rest..
-- 
-------------------------------------------------
_  //   Scott Devine (aq061@cleveland.freenet.edu)
\\//                                              
 \/ Amiga, the world's most perfect machine.
From: bobs@hal.COM (Bob Schaugaard)
Newsgroups: sci.optics
Subject: Laser for a science fair
Keywords: laser
Date: 12 Nov 92 15:59:02 GMT
Organization: HaL Computer Systems, Inc.
NNTP-Posting-Host: janus.hal.com


My son is in an 8th grade honors science class and is interested in doing
a science fair project on lasers.  Is there an easy and inexpensive way
to get a laser to work with?   How hard would it be to make one?
Any suggestions or comments? Thanks in advance.

Bob Schaugaard
bobs@hal.com
(512)794-2855