HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Antimatter (was propulsion questions)
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 15:50:34 GMT
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology

In article <711789755snx@osea.demon.co.uk> andy@osea.demon.co.uk (Andrew Haveland-Robinson) writes:
>Does it follow that from an "anti-perspective", matter would
>have the same properties as anti-matter from our perspective?
>Why haven't I heard of anti-energy?  Is there such a thing?
>Would anti-matter have anything to do with anti-gravity by any chance?

To the best of current knowledge, possibly disregarding fussy details of
interest only to particle physicists :-), antimatter behaves exactly the
same as ordinary matter in all ways except for the charges of the individual
particles.  There is no anti-energy; energy doesn't take sides in this
one :-).  Antimatter is believed to have positive mass and behave normally
with regard to gravity, although the jury is still out on this one:  if you
believe in general relativity, it should, but some of the more weird and
wonderful theories in recent times predict otherwise, and there are folks
pursuing experimental tests.  Weighing an antiproton is not simple.
-- 
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: gary@ke4zv.uucp (Gary Coffman)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Whales (SETI)
Date: 26 Jul 92 07:42:42 GMT
Reply-To: gary@ke4zv.UUCP (Gary Coffman)
Organization: Gannett Technologies Group

In article <1992Jul23.224402.75@news.uwyo.edu> rtravsky@news.uwyo.edu (Rich Travsky) writes:
>
>On the other hand, what would a whale do with knowing the prime numbers?
>Why would a whale(s) need numbers? I have read (back when I took some
>anthro) that some less technologically advanced _human_ cultures did
>not have a numbering system that went much beyond "one, two, and many".
>By the above metric, then, the people in these cultures are not
>intelligent.

Counting systems developed among humans because of the needs of herdsmen
to keep track of their flocks. Plane geometry developed as agriculturalists
needed to measure their fields. Number theory and higher forms of geometry
developed as an *intellectual* exercise among natural philosphers of the
ancient world. One, two, many was sufficient for subsistence gatherers and
nomad hunters too busy surviving to develop natural philosphy.

While whales don't usually herd their prey, they also don't have natural
enemies (except man) and should have sufficient leisure time to develop
a natural philosphy. I'd expect that their three dimensional environment
would lead to geometric insights, and their podding behavior would lead
to counting. From there, the leap to analytic geometry and prime ratios
should be the logical next step. Any creature that doesn't grasp mathematics
can't be said to be intelligent.

Gary
From: gary@ke4zv.uucp (Gary Coffman)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Whales (SETI)
Date: 27 Jul 92 05:41:48 GMT
Reply-To: gary@ke4zv.UUCP (Gary Coffman)
Organization: Gannett Technologies Group

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.

Gary
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: jdnicoll@watyew.uwaterloo.ca (James Davis Nicoll)
Subject: Re: Antimatter (was propulsion questions)
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Sun, 26 Jul 1992 23:26:23 GMT

In article <mikew.712022819@kpc.com> mikew@kpc.com writes:
>jdnicoll@watyew.uwaterloo.ca (James Davis Nicoll) writes:
>>	Given that one can mix the antimatter-reaction mass ratio to get
>>the Vexhaust one wants, the dangers of standing in the vicinity of the
>>exhaust of an antimatter powered ship could be *identical* to that of
>>standing inthe vicinity of a conventional ship.

>Actually there is one piece of information missing here. In a conventional
>rocket most of the exhaust is being used to push more fuel closer to orbit.
>In an antimatter rocket, you have a much higher payload/fuel ratio, so for
>the same payload, there will be much less exhaust.

	Odds are the antimatter will be the expensive component of the
reaction-mass/'fuel' mix, and so the am-reaction-mass ratio will be such 
that the am is used as efficiently as possible. The mass ratio is smallest
if there is a 50% am, 50% matter mix, but that uses much more am then
a mixture of am/m which is mostly matter. I would bet the population of
Gary, Indiana that if antimatter energised propulsion systems are used
from Earth's surface to reach orbit, the exhaust velocity  will be in the
10 km/s range, rather than close to C.

	Also, 'pure' photon drives tend to produce oodles of nasty 
hard radiation which could very well fall outside the allowable ranges
of todday's litigation prone society, plus they suck up power like a 
mad fiend.

							James Nicoll

Newsgroups: sci.space
From: glennc@cs.sfu.ca (Glenn Chapman)
Subject: Russian/French Soyuz TM-15 mission launched to Mir station
Keywords: Russian, Space Flight
Organization: CSS, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 00:10:28 GMT

     The Russian/French Soyuz TM-15 mission to the Mir space station was 
launched today (July 27). Onboard this  flight were cosmonauts Anatoli 
Solovyov and (Soyuz TM-5 to Mir June '88 for 9 days and Soyuz TM-9 to Mir in 
Feb '90 for 180 days) Sergei Avdeyev (first mission) from CIS (Commonwealth 
of Independent States) plus Frenchman Michel Tognini (also first flight).  
The crew will dock with the Mir complex on July 29th to join cosmonauts 
Alexander Viktorenko and Alexander Kaleri, who are in their 5th month in 
space (since Mar. 17th).  This "Antares" mission was paid for by the French 
and is devoted to life sciences/materials processing.  Equipment for the 
flight was brought up on the Progress M-13 cargo craft which was launched on 
June 30th and docked with Mir on July 4th, after an unsuccessful docking 
attempt on July 2nd.  One interesting point is the duration, which was 
originally set for 12 days, then increased to 16 days several months ago.  
After this mornings launch the CBC reported it as a month long mission. 
Viktorenko and Kaleri will return with Tognini in the Soyuz TM-14 craft.

    Solovyov and Avdeyev are scheduled to receive Progress M-14 on Aug. 14th 
bringing up the 0.7 Tonne Sofora propulsion unit (VDU).  Solovyov and Avdeyev 
will engage in four space walks to attached the Sofora to the 14 metre truss 
built on the Kvant module by Arsebarski and Krikalev in July 1991.  The long 
leaver arm of the truss will enable the Sofora rockets to control the 
attitude of the Mir complex with considerably less fuel usage.  The heavy 
attitude demands of Mir, with tis two 20 Tonne side modules, have put 
excessive demands on the gyrodyne attitude controllers on the Kvant modules, 
causing 5 of them to suffer damage. October will see Progress M-15 bring up a 
test solar sail that will be deployed about Oct. 20th.

    The next mission is scheduled for November when cosmonauts Manakov and 
Poleshchuk bring up an Israeli visitor on a commercial mission. Manakov and 
Poleshchuk are training for the space walks to repair the gyrodynes, which 
were never expected to be replaced in space. (Radio Moscow, CBC radio and 
Spaceflight, July)

    Sorry that I have been off the net in reporting for a while.  

							Glenn Chapman
                                                        School Eng. Science
							Simon Fraser U.
                                                        Burnaby, B.C., Canada
							glennc@cs.sfu.ca
From: steinly@topaz.ucsc.edu (Steinn Sigurdsson)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Propulsion questions
Date: 22 Jul 92 17:35:23
Organization: Lick Observatory/UCO
	<BrKIJJ.CKH@watdragon.waterloo.edu> <rmartin.711643766@thor>
	<NICKH.92Jul20115850@VOILA.VENARI.CS.CMU.EDU>
	<rmartin.711737055@yosemite>
	<NICKH.92Jul21150202@VOILA.VENARI.CS.CMU.EDU> <rmartin.711834955@thor>
NNTP-Posting-Host: topaz.ucsc.edu
In-reply-to: rmartin@thor.Rational.COM's message of 22 Jul 92 19:55:55 GMT

In article <rmartin.711834955@thor> rmartin@thor.Rational.COM (Bob Martin) writes:


   nickh@CS.CMU.EDU (Nick Haines) writes:

   >In article <rmartin.711737055@yosemite> rmartin@yosemite.Rational.COM (Bob Martin) writes:

   >   [about a black-hole drive]

   >   Can anybody tell us the efficiency of this with respect to a fusion
   >   drive?

   >I can guarantee that the answer to that question is "no". I mean, it
   >might be a neat idea, but we're not going to have a decent figure for
   >the efficiency of it until we've actually got a small black hole to
   >play with.

   Allright then, does anybody have a theoretical model that might shed
   some miniscule light on this subject?   (Sheesh!)


Penrose mechanism. Can't remember actual number but you recover
about 30% of rest mass energy. Main problem is that minimum stable
mass is uncomfortably heavy - particularly if you want a primordial
black hole that's been around a Hubble time - that's if Hawking's
right. 
	Of course if he is, and you can _create_ a  m < m_HubbleBH
black hole you recover almost 100% of the rest mass as it evaporates
;-)

|  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: nickh@CS.CMU.EDU (Nick Haines)
Subject: Re: does anyone know???
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 92 12:31:49 GMT
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University
Originator: nickh@VOILA.VENARI.CS.CMU.EDU

In article <l6mj1uINN6n0@aludra.usc.edu> kale@usc.edu (Nitin Kale) writes:

   does anyone know how i can get in touch with Dr. Stephen Hawking ?
   email , ph. no., address ????

Yes, I do. I don't know if I should tell you his email address,
though. Look at it this way, he's a very busy man with a terminal
illness and great communication difficulties. Replying to anything you
send him would likely take him hours. I think his time is more
valuable than that.

The thought of him communicating by telephone is so tragic it's almost
funny.

Oh, I can give you this snail address, since I imagine it gets
processed by secretaries:

Dr S.W.Hawking
DAMTP
Mill Lane
Cambridge
England

-----------------------------------
Nick Haines nickh@cs.cmu.edu
From: roberts@CMR.NCSL.NIST.GOV (John Roberts)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Star Trek - instrumentation
Date: 23 Jul 92 03:01:41 GMT
Organization: National Institute of Standards and Technology
	formerly National Bureau of Standards


-From: games@max.u.washington.edu
-Subject: Re: Star Trek and public perception of space/science/engineering
-Date: 20 Jul 92 18:10:51 GMT

-And then there are the tricorders.  These things have NO visible information
-display.  Just how do you get a diagnosis down to the synapses when all the
-user is looking at are flashing LEDs.

It's that great Star Fleet Academy training they all get. Don't you wish you
could take a 1-week survey course there now? At least I can look at an
oscilloscope display and derive a lot of information from what to a layman
would be a meaningless squiggle. :-)

The new version is better than the old Star Trek, in which Mr. Spock got most
of his information by looking into a blue light bulb!

I recently had a day off, and watched an old rerun of "Voyage to the Bottom
of the Sea". The displays on the submarine are really spectacular - the main
feature is a large grid of light bulbs that shows two 2-digit numbers, slowly
incrementing. :-) The digits are about a foot high.

The SSF walk-through mockup that was on display in Washington, D.C. is more
sophisticated - the displays are at least representative of what you might
see on the actual station. (Is it on display in some other city now?)

John Roberts
roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov
From: xrcjd@mudpuppy.gsfc.nasa.gov (Charles J. Divine)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Methods for meteor avoidance
Date: 27 Jul 92 21:12:56 GMT
Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt MD

In article <a6cf4fff@Kralizec.fido.zeta.org.au> brendan.woithe@f820.n680.z3.fido.zeta.org.au (Brendan Woithe) writes:
>I've just been wondering. . .
>
>After the meteor from last year passed withinn 4 minutes of the earth (the
>large one), I was wondering if we have any system of avoiding these 
>large beasts??!! I read that if it hit the earth, millions could have died.
>
>With a problem like this, surely there must be some defence!!!

There is currently no defense against these rocks.  People in the
sciences are just beginning to pay real attention to the asteroid
collision problem.  Outside the few who are scientifically literate,
almost no attention is paid to asteroid collisions with Earth.

Next time you're with nontechnical types (at a party say) tell
them the biggest environmental threat they face isn't some produced
by humans but is asteroids and then watch reactions.  If they
are doubtful, inform them about Tunguska.  A small part of comet
exploded in Siberia in 1908.  The resulting 10 MT blast leveled
trees for 50 miles around and knocked horses to the ground 400 
miles away.  In 1972 a small (100m) asteroid almost hit the 
US northwest.  If it had, we would have a major (multibillion) 
program designed to protect us.  It missed (barely -- it went 
through the upper atmosphere).  So we don't have such a program
yet.
>
>Anyone know anything about it???
>
>Thanks
>
>Jhagon
>
>
>... Our galaxy is just a figmant of someones bad imagination!!!
>--- Blue Wave/RA v2.10 [NR]
> * Origin: Coffee Au Go-Go. We don't know what it means either.
>(3:680/820.0)


-- 
Chuck Divine
From: roberts@CMR.NCSL.NIST.GOV (John Roberts)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Antiproton-boosted fission
Date: 25 Jul 92 14:43:46 GMT
Organization: National Institute of Standards and Technology
	formerly National Bureau of Standards


-From: tjn32113@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Thomas J. Nugent)
-Subject: Re: Antiproton-boosted fission
-Date: 23 Jul 92 20:25:49 GMT
-Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana

-roberts@CMR.NCSL.NIST.GOV (John Roberts) writes:

-[stuff about antiproton induced fission deleted]

->Great! Now we can build hand-held tactical nuclear machine guns. (One shot
->destroys a building several miles away.)  :-(  (Another E.E. Smith idea,
->this time from the Skylark series.)

-Well, considering that the system to carry the antiprotons is arguably
-the smallest system, and it would mass over a couple tons (with things like
-the laser or electron inertial confinement guns massing hundreds of tons),
-I don't think it quite qualifies as a hand-held machine gun.

If it would take a lot of effort to make it into a practical weapon, that's
fine with me. Maybe nobody will bother - there's something to be said for
avoiding the development of weapons that are more useful to terrorists than
to conventional armies.

That's apparently also an advantage of muon-catalyzed fusion - in a lecture here
on the subject several years ago, it was stated that the effect cuts off
above a fairly low temperature, so it couldn't be used in an explosive weapon.
(That probably also rules out using it in a thermal rocket engine, but you
could use it in space to drive an ion engine.)

John Roberts
roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov

Newsgroups: sci.space
From: 18084TM@msu.edu (Tom)
Subject: Months
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 92 20:23:14 GMT
Organization: [via International Space University]
X-Added: Forwarded by Space Digest
Original-Sender: isu@VACATION.VENARI.CS.CMU.EDU
Distribution: sci


>But don't forget that the Romans "moved" the first of the year from March to
>January for religious/family reasons which had nothing whatsoever to do with
>precession, variations in earth's orbit or rotation, or any other
>astronomical justification.  Remember, OCTober was formerly the 8th month and
>DECember was the 10th.

I thought the reason was because the Romans added two months:  August, after
Augustus ceaser, and July, after Julius Ceaser?  Since they were both before
SEPTember, OCTober, etc, the cute numbering system broke down...

-Tommy Mac                     .  "  Malcolm X:      +
.------------------------  +                      *       +
|   Tom McWilliams; scrub       ,     .  You've seen the hat,  "        +
|  astronomy undergrad, at     *       +;.     .  '
| Michigan State University   '                      .    "
|   18084tm@ibm.cl.msu.edu                        '      ,  *
|       (517) 355-2178       ;  +  '  now catch the movie!           *
'-----------------------
From: faught@redfox.ssc.gov (Ed Faught)
Subject: Re: If the sun went out...
Reply-To: faught@redfox.ssc.gov
Organization: Superconducting Super Collider Laboratory
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 16:52:52 GMT

I remember reading this as a possible explanation for the low neutrino rate  
from the sun's core. The theory was that the sun IS out, the visible and lower  
wavelength radiation is coming from the photospere but is not being fed from  
the core any more. It'll take 10,000 years to cool. Anyone else read this one?
--
Ed Faught  WA9WDM  faught@psychosis.ssc.gov
 Superconducting Super Collider Laboratory
From: hughes@gary.enet.dec.com (Gary Hughes - VMS Development)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Delta
Date: 28 Jul 92 17:07:18 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation


In article <27JUL199219250158@judy.uh.edu>, seds%cspar.decnet@Fedex.Msfc.Nasa.Gov writes...
>You know what's funny here is that this idea was tried successfully about 
>thirty years ago. The boosters that were paralled together were Redstones, and
>the vehicle produced was the Saturn I and IB. Very successful rockets, 28
>launches and *NO* failures. 
> 

Uh, not really. The S-I stage was built out of Redstone and Jupiter structural
parts (i.e. tanks), but propulsion, guidance and components to tie all this
together were all new. 

The HL Delta idea was to cluster complete Delta 1st stage cores, functioning
independantly, i.e. if one engine shutdown early there would be no way to
transfer the propellants from that core and run the other engines longer to
compensate. Avoiding complexities like this would have kept the development
time/cost down.

gary
Newsgroups: sci.space,news.groups,sci.astro
From: knapp@spot.Colorado.EDU (David Knapp)
Subject: Re: 2nd (last)  RFD sci.space.planets
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 15:11:46 GMT

In article <1992Jul22.153602.13995@ncar.ucar.edu> ilana@kiowa.scd.ucar.edu (Ilana Stern) writes:
>I would just like to point out that David Knapp appears to have either
>gotten me confused with someone else (partially) or mis-edited an article
>I followed up, as he has credited me with a few words I did not write.  
>His quotes of my email and articles are basically correct, except I
>did not say:
>
>>"...I agreed to withdraw my objection
>>if (1) an effort be made to allow access by non-Usenet people (comparable to
>>SPACE Digest), and (2) Earth be excluded from discussions involving politically
>>hot topics like ozone depletion and global warming, not because these topics
>>are unworthy, but so this won't become yet another fiery political group."
>
>He has correctly stated my basic position (that I would only support
>sci.space.planets if it would not duplicate sci.geo.meteorology).
>
>-- 
>/\        Ilana Stern DoD#009 | Whoever first said, "Things are seldom as they 
>  \_][    ilana@ncar.ucar.edu | seem," was wrong.  Things are usually as they
>      \_______________________| seem.  Otherwise, they wouldn't seem that way.


My most *humble* of apologies! I *hate* when that happens. That quote can
be correctry attributed to roberts@cmr.cmr.nist.gov.   (hopefully)

Again, sorry for the egregious error.


-- 
David Knapp                                      University of Colorado, Boulder
Highly Opinionated, Elderly and                      knapp@spot.colorad.edu
Perpetual Student of Chemistry and Physics.
            Write me for an argument on your favorite subject.
From: roberts@CMR.NCSL.NIST.GOV (John Roberts)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Calendar and Zodiac
Date: 30 Jul 92 02:31:37 GMT
Organization: National Institute of Standards and Technology
	formerly National Bureau of Standards


-From: arromdee@jyusenkyou.cs.jhu.edu (Ken Arromdee)
-Subject: Re: Calendar and Zodiac
-Date: 29 Jul 92 20:10:07 GMT
-Organization: Johns Hopkins University CS Dept.

-In article <9207291235.AA05080@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov> roberts@CMR.NCSL.NIST.GOV (John Roberts) writes:
->In the British Empire, the month of September, 1752 lost 11 days (the day
->after September 2 was September 14). It was the renters who complained,
->because they had to pay a full month's rent.

-OK.  I've had it.  Could someone in alt.folklore.urban please clear this up?

-The way I've usually heard this is as a "rebuttal" to the notion of
-superstitious peasants who felt that they lost 11 days out of their life
-because of the calendar change; the explanation, you see, is that they were
-upset about having to pay the extra 11 days rent, so they weren't acting on
-superstition at all.

-But even this seems rather suspicious to me.  It implies a bit too much of a
-lack of common sense on the part of landlords.  Does anyone know if this is
-what _really_ happened?

I don't think it was lack of sense on the part of the landlords - I think
it was part of the the legal decisions that brought about the change.

By the way, the Orthodox church still uses the Julian calendar (in the US
and Russia, anyway, and presumably elsewhere). I believe the skew is currently
14 days, and should remain so until AD 2100. Since the determination of the
date of Easter is partly a function of the phase of the moon, the lag between
the two observations of Easter is variable.

John Roberts
roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov
From: hack@arabia.uucp (Edmund Hack)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: A 12 mile tether that generates 5000v?
Date: 30 Jul 1992 21:59:51 GMT
Organization: Lockheed ESC, Houston

In article <2177@tymix.Tymnet.COM> filfeit@rael.Tymnet.COM writes:
>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?

Look in last week's Aviation Week for an article on the TSS launch and
experiments.

-- 
| Edmund Hack - Lockheed Engineering & Sciences Co. - Houston, TX
| hack@aio.jsc.nasa.gov    SpokesPersonp(Me,or(NASA,LESC)) = NIL
|   **** Papoon for President! You Know He's Not Insane!! ****
From: jack@cscdec.cs.com (Jack Hudler)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Star Trek Realism
Date: 31 Jul 92 12:20:19 GMT
Distribution: sci
Organization: Computer Support Corporation,  Dallas, Texas.

In article <nsmc5kc@twilight.wpd.sgi.com> wsj@wpd.sgi.com writes:
>
>interstellar space.  AND the way the shuttles bank and turn as if they're
>airplanes. 

They bank and turn because, if they didn't, you'd bitch that they didn't.
-- 
Jack Hudler - Computer Support Corporation - Dallas,Texas - jack@cs.com
Newsgroups: sci.space