HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: wats@scicom.AlphaCDC.COM (Bruce Watson)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.astro
Subject: Re: ROTATION OF THE MOON
Date: 18 Nov 92 20:15:29 GMT
Followup-To: sci.space
Organization: Alpha Science Computer Network, Denver, Co.

In article <10160@ncrwat.Waterloo.NCR.COM| tjgerman@53iss6.Waterloo.NCR.COM (Trevor German) writes:
|
|	There was a question in rec.puzzles asking how to send a message
|	to the future (real time) say a million years or whatever and I
|	send it this responce.
|
|	-----------------------------------------------------------------
|
|	Re: sending a message to the future.
|
|	Obviously anything placed on earth is likely to be destroyed
|	by plate techtonics etc so no good burying something. A transmition
|	that takes that long to get back would be hard to receive even if
|	you were expecting it.
|
|		I have a much better idea. Take a dead satelite. A big one,
|	like say the moon. Then blast its surface with  enough nukes to
|	make an easily recognisable pattern that would be only partly
|	erased by comet and meteoride collisions. Then just for good measure,
|	adjust the rotational velocity of the moon so that the message
|	always faces the earth. The message could be something like
|	a big face......................
|
|	Came to me in a dream.

And put it at a distance so that it subtends the same angular diameter
as the sun.

-- 
Bruce Watson (wats@scicom)  Tumbra, Zorkovick; Sparkula zoom krackadomando.  
....alien language from an SF short story on a 78-RPM record I had as a kid.
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: phfrom@nyx.uni-konstanz.de (Hartmut Frommert)
Subject: Space launches online databases -- found !
Summary: there are (>) 2
Keywords: databases,spaceflight,launches
Organization: Dept. of Physics, University of Constance
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 16:33:23 GMT

Thanx to all who responded to my semi-recent quest.

To summarize: There are (at least) two databases of space launches usable on
PC:

1. sat-db, to geet via anon ftp from 
       archive.afit.af.mil
       user anonymous        or ftp
       pass <YourUserId>
   in the directory /pub/space (there is also other fine stuff)

2. Computertalk Space Object Catalog 
   (unfortunately not via ftp)
   NOTE TO ALL USERS:
     In order to enhance and improve the accuracy of updated editions of this
     catalog, users are urged to report errors, comments, suggestions, criti-
     cisms, etc., to the authors by mail, EMail or phone:
                    COMPUTERTALK RADIO NEWS SERVICE, INC.
                    Attn:  Joel Runes
                    217 Thorndike Street, Suite 203
                    Cambridge, MA  02141-1504
                    Phone:  617 + 494-0498
                    Fax:    By arrangement only
                    CIS:    71177,3700
           Messages may also be left on
           T. S. Kelso's Celestial BBS  (413) 427-0674
           or on Dave Ransom's RPV BBS  (310) 541-7299.
--
 Hartmut Frommert                 <phfrom@nyx.uni-konstanz.de>
 Dept of Physics, Univ of Constance, P.O.Box 55 60, D-W-7750 Konstanz, Germany
                                           -- Eat whale killers, not whales --
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: aws@iti.org (Allen W. Sherzer)
Subject: Re: Shuttle replacement
Organization: Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow
Distribution: sci
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 14:12:16 GMT

In article <By31np.F2q.1@cs.cmu.edu> amon@elegabalus.cs.qub.ac.uk writes:
  >> That means all it needs for the second launch is to be re-fueled.

>Well, I'll pick a rather important nit: No pilot in their right mind  
>gets behind the wheel/stick without doing a careful walkaround  
>pre-flight. 

To quote Sir Gawain: 'I stand a fool and you a wise man proved'.

>I expect that an operational DC1 vehicle will put the  
>pilot back into the loop in a way they never were or could be on the  
>Shuttle. With aviation style operations and complexity comes aviation  
>style checklists and hands on pilot responsibility. And a hearty amen  
>to that, brother.

That's an important point. When the Shuttle was first going up, 
comentators called it 'the most complex vehicle ever built'. The
problem was that they said it like it was a good thing. Complexity
is NOT a good thing and its about time we realized it.

  Allen

-- 
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Allen W. Sherzer | "A great man is one who does nothing but leaves        |
|  aws@iti.org     |  nothing undone"                                       |
+----------------------152 DAYS TO FIRST FLIGHT OF DCX----------------------+
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: cfifer@rvgs.vak12ed.edu (Craig Fifer)
Subject: Re: Databases
Organization: Virginia's Public Education Network (Roanoke)
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 92 01:47:49 GMT

I realize that this may not help you (because I don't know if
you can access the following databases through e-mail), but
other users may find this of use:

Lunar and Planetary Institute
lpi.jsc.nasa.gov (146.154.14.11)
Username: lpi

NASA Spacelink
spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov (128.158.13.250)

NASA NSSDC Online Data and Info Service
nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (128.183.10.4
SET HOST NSSDC or NSSDCA
Username: NSSDC or NODIS

NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database
ipac.caltech.edu (131.215.139.35)
login: ned

Space Physics Analysis Network Information Center
nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (128.183.36.23)
Username: SPAN_NIC


I would imagine that these are accessible by telnet, but I have
not used all of them.  I hope this helps someone!

-Craig Fifer
cfifer@rvgs.vak12ed.edu
-- 
_____________________________________________________________________________
|   Never play leapfrog with              |   Craig Fifer                   |
|   a unicorn!   -Murphy                  |   3736 Heritage Road, S.W.      |
|                                         |   Roanoke, Virginia  24015-4518 |
Newsgroups: sci.space
Organisation: European Space Operation Centre (E.S.O.C)
Date: Friday, 20 Nov 1992 11:28:37 CET
From: <PKRISTIA@ESOC.BITNET>
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject:    Space BBS in Somerset, UK ?

Since I will move to the Somerset area in the UK next year I would
be interested in any information on Astro/Space BBS's in that area.

Especially BBS's carrying NASA 2-line satellite elements

Thanks in advance

Poul
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: rjp1@cbnewsc.cb.att.com (be here now)
Subject: world in danger
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 18:51:33 GMT
Keywords: ozone, extinction

I don't know if this is the most appropriate newsgroup to ask this,
but here goes.  

Yesterday evening (11/17) on Headline News a short (~1 minute) news
item was read about a group of scientists who had published a document
warning us of the danger we're all in becuase of the rapid depletion
of the ozone and the also rapid extinction of many species of animals.
The news item was very brief and did not mention any names nor even
the title of the paper that was published.

It seems to me that if something as (seemingly) important as this
ought to have had more attention paid to it than a one-minute news
blurb without references.  Did anyone else catch this piece and can
someone point me to the document?  

Thanks,


--
Bob Pietkivitch     | "Moon, my long lost friend, is smiling from above."
rjp1@ihspa.att.com  |  -- Genesis, Stagnation 1970
From: nickh@CS.CMU.EDU (Nick Haines)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: `skipping' off an atmosphere
Date: 20 Nov 92 17:36:44 GMT
Distribution: sci
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University
Originator: nickh@VOILA.VENARI.CS.CMU.EDU

What does this term mean? Is it just a failed re-entry mode where your
perigee is too large so you leave the atmosphere again (with a smaller
apogee due to retardation)? Or is it more complex and something to do
with hot gases?

Replies by email, then I'll summarize.

Nick Haines nickh@cmu.edu
From: 2hfvfilmy@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Challenger Legal Action?
Date: 16 Nov 92 18:42:57 GMT
Article-I.D.: kuhub.1992Nov16.124257.44826
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services


   Maybe somebody could help me out here.  Referring to the Challenger
accident, was any legal action brought against any of the contractors (such as
Morton Thiokol)?  If so, what was the result of this legal action?  Thank you
in advance for any help you may be able to provide.

Joe
jhuwaldt@aerospace.ae.ukans.edu
From: kjenks@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov
Subject: Re: Minority Kids into Techies (was Re: Free Middle/High School Broadcasts)
Originator: kjenks@gothamcity
Keywords: discrimination
Organization: NASA/JSC/GM2, Space Shuttle Program Office
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 03:57:59 GMT

In article <ppw1kvp@rpi.edu> kentm@aix.rpi.edu (Michael V. Kent) writes:
>In article <1992Nov16.184820.1@fnalo.fnal.gov> higgins@fnalo.fnal.gov (Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey) writes:
>
>>Would it be simpler to ask white males, politely, *not* to become
>>engineers? 
>
>This is already being done, on a large scale, in the aerospace industry,
>though hardly politely.  Bottom left corner of sig says it all.
>
>Mike
>
>-- 
>Michael Kent                                   kentm@rpi.edu
>McDonnell Douglas                              Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
>
>Tute Screwed Aero Class of '92                              Apple II Forever !!

I, for one, would like to hear that story.

I have been passed over for hiring and promotion at least twice at NASA
because I'm a white male, and "minorities" and women were needed to
meet a quota (which is currently called a "hiring goal" in Human
Resources euphamism).  I will never file a complaint because of the
career-limiting aspects of arguing with HR policies.  But I suspect
that the space program is not alone in having this problem, so this may
not be strictly a sci.space topic.

-- Ken Jenks, NASA/JSC/GM2, Space Shuttle Program Office
      kjenks@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov  (713) 483-4368

     "he  (n.) The third person singular pronoun in the
      nominative case, masculine gender.  1. Used to represent
      the male person, animal or other being last mentioned or
      implied.  2. Used to represent any person whose sex is not
      specified: 'Everyone knows he is mortal.'" 
        -- American Heritage Dictionary
From: BrianT@cup.portal.com (Brian Stuart Thorn)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Shuttle replacement
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 92 19:06:36 PST
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
  <1992Nov19.144309.22398@iti.org> <q!z1l0f@rpi.edu>
  <1992Nov20.142445.20795@iti.org>

Allen...
 
There is still *one* thing that the Space Shuttle can do that no other
launch system is capable of... bringing things back from orbit.
 
Whether or not it is efficient to do so is another question. I posted
another question about why Hubble Space Telescope is not brought back
home for repairs. There are many reasons in this case, mostly concerning
cost and loss of productivity (however limited it would be).
 
The Shuttle, as you continually point out, is enormously expensive to
operate and inefficient when it is operating. But I don't think putting
a Soyuz on an Atlas (which *doesn't* have the lift capacity, BTW) or a
Titan IV (which isn't much better than Shuttle) is a reasonable solution.
 
Shuttle certainly does not have 'twice the lift capacity' of Titan IV as
an earlier poster contended, but it does have about one-third more, I
believe. NASA just doesn't use that capability. Instead, NASA is flying
Shuttles with half-full payload bays (STS-52). Someday, we might actually
have a payload requiring all that lift, or return capacity, and as we did
after the demise of Saturn V, we'll be saying "why did we abandon it?"
 
Or maybe not.

On a related topic (your informative background on Delta Clipper) this
sounds like an excellent idea, but I'm nervous about it. Having grown up
in the Cape Canaveral area, and seen my share of boosters blow up or go
tumbling into the Atlantic, the idea of a powered descent and vertical
landing gives me the willies... I sure hope that thing has plenty of
redundancy... rocket engines have a way of conking out at innopportune
times.

-Brian
From: IEGS@MUSICB.MCGILL.CA (IEGS000)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: SATELLITE PHOTO
Date: 16 Nov 92 16:08:15 GMT
Organization: McGill University

COULD SOMEONE HELP ME: SUPPOSE A HURRICANE JUST BLEW IN! WHERE CAN I
FIND A SATELLITE PHOTOS OF IT'S PROGRESS?
PLEASE REPLY TO MC.BER
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: amon@ELEGABALUS.cs.qub.AC.UK
Subject: Re: Commercial Space Report, Russian remote sensing
X-Added: Forwarded by Space Digest
Organization: [via International Space University]
Original-Sender: isu@VACATION.VENARI.CS.CMU.EDU
Distribution: sci
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 14:14:06 GMT

> Folks who've analyzed the data say it's in the 1.5-2 

> meter resolution range .... Some rumors circulating in the 

> industry claim the data could have even a higher resolution quality, 

> but the data has been poorly digitized from photos.  This data is 

> obvious from a former "strategic asset" of the Soviet Union. 

> 

>    As a side note, on 2 October, a top Russian space commander 

> stated the Russian military space program will only survive by 

> sharing its expertise and hardware.  Col General Vladimir Ivanov was 

> quoted in a Krasnaya Zvezda interview as recommending Russian 

> military space systems be used for commercial and civilian purposes.  

> In particular, he was reported to have stated "Reconnaissance 

> satellites can be successfully used for long-distance probing of the 

> Earth's surface and for ecological monitoring without impairing 

> their main task." 

> 

>   Due to policy considerations, the US government 

> has been reticent to release high-resolution Earth Observation data, 

> and has encouraged the use of 100-meter resolution Landsat Data for 

> commercial or non-critical government needs.

It is really hard to believe isn't it? Total role reversal. I suddenly find US  
defense department acting like a bunch of socialists and the former evil  
empire's military acting like capitalists... And I find myself rooting for the  
russians to win this round. Down with the Socialist Pigs! Up with Capitalism!  
You have nothing to lose but your chains!!

Incidentally, I ran across this DOD doublethink on remote sensing over a  
decade ago when I had a chance to question a General at a AAAS session. As I  
think back on it, his answers to pointed questions about the need for high  
resolution in commerce were very similar to a parody of the old Communists  
answers to everything. Ie, you know he didn't really believe a word he was  
saying. He knew he was lying through his teeth, you knew he was doing so under  
orders, and he knew that you knew. And both of you realized that the answers  
he was giving made about as much sense as Lysenkoism.

I must admit there is little else about Clinton I care for, but maybe he'll at  
least take a broom to the Pentagon and put the Cold Warriors out in the  
Dustbin Of History.
From: claudio@nmsb.larc.nasa.gov (Claudio Egalon)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Breasts in zero-g
Date: 18 Nov 1992 17:50:02 GMT
Organization: NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA  USA
Distribution: world
Reply-To: claudio@nmsb.larc.nasa.gov (Claudio Egalon)
NNTP-Posting-Host: b1230bmac9.larc.nasa.gov

Hmm... That is an interesting point. Sometime ago I read somewhere 
(I guess it was in the OMNI Space Almanac, I am not sure) that 
whenever a woman go to space in zero g, the breast keep on floating, 
in the upwright position. Interesting enough, (still according to the 
same reference), the same  thing happens to the penis of the male 
astronauts. This is what I call the OverSEX Effect of space-flight, after 
the Overview Effect concept developed by a guy from  Princeton ( I  
guess that his name is Frank White). No insult was intended,  of 
course.


Newsgroups: sci.space
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Galileo HGA: Hypothesis
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 00:54:26 GMT
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology

In article <1992Nov20.000916.4853@sfu.ca> palmer@sfu.ca (Leigh Palmer) writes:
>... how are you going to *keep* the relay at that point between Earth and
>Galileo? You'd pretty much have to put it in orbit around Jupiter...

You *have* to put it in orbit around Jupiter.  Putting a relay halfway
between Earth and Jupiter is utterly useless; it has to be practically
in Galileo's back pocket for it to receive high-rate transmissions from
the low-gain antennas.

>Another idea: Put a really large radiotelescope in Earth orbit and hook it to
>the Deep Space Network...

There really is very little advantage to doing this in orbit.  Lighter
construction, yes, but much higher costs and no maintenance access.
With the current state of space transportation, you're better off building
it on Earth.
-- 
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: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Lunar "colony" reality check, part 2
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 18:14:23 GMT
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology

In article <BxwAKL.M5B.1@cs.cmu.edu> roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov (John Roberts) writes:
>With so many Earth-based processes relying greatly on gravity, can you be
>sure that low gravity will be worse than none at all? Experience with
>chemical processes in microgravity is very limited - not counting rocket
>engines (which I don't think of as a *process* anyway)...

And actually, the experience with rockets is moderately instructive...
Great pains have to be taken to make sure that fuel flow works right in
free fall.  Attitude-control engines and minor maneuvering systems typically
put a flexible diaphragm between pressurizing gas and fuel, and big
main-propulsion engines often simply can't be started without a preliminary
shove from a smaller system to settle the fuels to the bottom of the tanks.
-- 
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: zellner@stsci.edu
Subject: Re: COSTAR adjustments
Organization: Space Telescope Science Institute
Distribution: sci,na
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 16:28:15 GMT

In article <BxsM1p.Cw1.1@cs.cmu.edu>, roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov (John Roberts) 
writes:
> 
> Anything on what degrees of motion can be adjusted? (i.e. swing angle,
> arm length, tilt, spacing.)
> 

Basically, each optical channel of COSTAR is adjustable for focus, x-tilt, 
and y-tilt via stepper motors.  After deployment, each mechanism will be 
scanned back and forth through a successively finer range, and images will 
be taken to find the best settings.  

The WFPC-2 should be installed at the same time as COSTAR and has stepper 
motors to adjust the pick-off mirror in x or y.  Also the tip and tilt of
fold mirrors inside three of the four cameras will be adjusted via electro-
strictive devices - a bit of exotic technology, since there isn't room
for stepper motors there.

Ben

Newsgroups: sci.space
From: fcrary@ucsu.Colorado.EDU (Frank Crary)
Subject: Re: Mars Simulation in Antarctica
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 05:45:44 GMT

In article <17547@mindlink.bc.ca> Bruce_Dunn@mindlink.bc.ca (Bruce Dunn) writes:
>        At one point I believe that the US was operating a small nuclear
>reactor as a source of power and heat in one of their Antarctic bases.  Does
>anyone know the details - this would be highly relevant to moon and or mars
>bases (which of course would have to however have alternate methods of
>rejecting heat).

MacMurdo Station, the main US base in the Antarctic, used to operate
such a reactor. It was _not_ a space-related system such as the SNAP
designs, just an ordinary, small, Earth-based system. I don't know
if it is still opperational, but I doubt the assertion that Antarctica
is now a "nuclear free zone": The only treaty on the subject of the
antarctic is about 30 years old, and make no mention of such a thing 
(In fact, I _think_ the treaty pre-dates the reactor at MacMurdo...)

                                                Frank Crary
                                                CU Boulder
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: jdnicoll@prism.ccs.uwo.ca (James Davis Nicoll)
Subject: Re: Moon Capture Theory
Organization: University of Western Ontario, London
Distribution: sci
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 18:43:42 GMT

>>I seem to remember some theory a while back that the moon was actually
>>*captured* by Earth at some stage (I think it was about 800 million
>>years ago), which also has corollaries in some of the very early
>>human legends.

	I  find  it *very* difficult  to believe  that events  800
million  years ago would  have corollaries  in  the myths of  a species
4  orders of magnitude less old, except  perhaps by co-incidence. 

						James  Nicoll
From: n4hy@wahoo.UUCP (Bob McGwier)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Solar Sailing
Date: 20 Nov 92 16:15:35 GMT
Organization: IDA Center for Communications Research


I have a local high school student asking me for information on Solar
sailing.  I have programs that will allow him to manipulate the sail
if I knew how to calculate `thrusts' etc. from the photon pressure.
Any details you care to send, primarily references, that will allow me
to help this very bright student, I would appreciate it.

Please use EMAIL.  I will summarize replies that contain useful information.

Bob McGwier
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: kentm@aix.rpi.edu (Michael V. Kent)
Subject: Re: Minority Kids into Techies (was Re: Free Middle/High School Broadcasts)
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 05:47:11 GMT

In article <1992Nov16.184820.1@fnalo.fnal.gov> higgins@fnalo.fnal.gov (Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey) writes:

>Would it be simpler to ask white males, politely, *not* to become
>engineers? 

This is already being done, on a large scale, in the aerospace industry,
though hardly politely.  Bottom left corner of sig says it all.

Mike

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

Tute Screwed Aero Class of '92                              Apple II Forever !!
Xref: sparky sci.space:16153 alt.sci.planetary:338
From: wdw@math2.sma.usna.navy.MIL (Wm. Douglas Withers -- math  FACULTY <wdw@sma.usna.navy.mil>)
Newsgroups: sci.space,alt.sci.planetary
Subject: Re: space news from Oct 23 Science (not AW&ST)
Date: 20 Nov 92 14:07:09 GMT
Followup-To: alt.sci.planetary
Organization: U.S. Naval Academy

In article <Bxzonr.6uE@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes:
>The 23 Oct issue of Science has three very interesting papers, the formal
>scientific announcement of the radar discovery of ice at Mercury's poles.
>Herewith a short summary...
[rest deleted]

I wonder why the same techniques can't be used to shed light on the question
of the presence of ice at the Moon's poles.  Comments, anyone?

Followups are directed to alt.sci.planetary.
-- 
Els Withers                   email: wdw@math2.sma.usna.navy.mil
Department of Mathematics     phone: (410)267-3192 / fax: (410)267-4883
United States Naval Academy
Annapolis, MD  21402-5002     Senri no tabi mo ippo yori...
Newsgroups: sci.space