waashk/20ng huggingface dataset:
The most current orbital elements from the NORAD two-line element sets are carried on the Celestial BBS, (513) 427-0674, and are updated daily (when possible).  Documentation and tracking software are also available on this system.  As a service to the satellite user community, the most current elements for the current shuttle mission are provided below.  The Celestial BBS may be accessed 24 hours/day at 300, 1200, 2400, 4800, or 9600 bps using 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity.  Element sets (also updated daily), shuttle elements, and some documentation and software are also available via anonymous ftp from archive.afit.af.mil (129.92.1.66) in the directory pub/space.  STS 55      1 22640U 93 27  A 93120.24999999  .00044939  00000-0  12819-3 0   129 2 22640  28.4643 241.8868 0011265 284.7181 109.3644 15.91616537   580
Astronomy & Space magazine's UK telephone newsline carries the times to see the Russian Space Station Mir which will be visible every EVENING (some time between 9 o'clock and midnight) from April 27 to May 7. It's about as bright as Jupiter at its best. There are two cosmonuats on board.  For the time to watch, tel. 0891-88-19-50 (48p/min peak 36p/min all other times, but prediction is at start of the weekly message so it only costs a few pence).  E-mail reports of sightings would be appreciated: give lat/long and UT (a few seconds accuracy if possible) when it passes ABOVE or BELOW any bright star (say brighter than mag. 3), planet or Moon.  With Moon in evening sky also, note that from somewhere in U.K. Mir will pass in front of the Moon each night! Please alert local clubs to the telephone newsline, and general public as Mir can cause quite a stir!  -Tony Ryan, "Astronomy & Space", new International magazine, available from:               Astronomy Ireland, P.O.Box 2888, Dublin 1, Ireland. 6 issues (one year sub.): UK 10.00 pounds, US$20 surface (add US$8 airmail). ACCESS/VISA/MASTERCARD accepted (give number, expiration date, name&address).
This is turning into 'what's a moonbase good for', and I ought not to post when I've a hundred some odd posts to go, but I would think that the real reason to have a moon base is economic.  Since someone with space industry will presumeably have a much larger GNP than they would _without_ space industry, eventually, they will simply be able to afford more stuff.
In article <1993May1.051312.1@aurora.alaska.edu> nsmca@aurora.alaska.edu writes: >Getting wierd again?  Or perhaps even weird?  >Okay we have figure out that a mission specifically to Pluto is to large and to >expensive..  Hmmm, you might want to read this group more carefully; there's been a good  amount of discussion of the proposed Pluto Fast Flyby (PFF) mission that is  specifically designed to be small and cheap.
That is an idea.. The most efficient moon habitat..   also the idea of how to get the people off the moon once the prize was won..  Also the idea of how to rescue someone who is "dying" on the moon.  Maybe have a area where they can all "see" each other, and can help each other if something happens..   I liek the idea of one prize for the first moon landing and return, by a non-governmental body..  Also the idea of then having a moon habitat race..   I know we need to do somthing to get people involved..  Eccentric millionaire/billionaire would be nice.. We see how old Ross feels about it.. After all it would be a great promotional thing and a way to show he does care about commericalization and the people.. Will try to broach the subject to him..   Moonbase on the cheap is a good idea.. NASA and friends seem to take to much time and give us to expensive stuff that of late does not work (hubble and such). Basically what is the difference between a $1mil peice of junk and a multi $1mil piece of junk.. I know junk..
In article <28641@galaxy.ucr.edu> datadec@ucrengr.ucr.edu  (kevin marcus) writes:  >Are there any public domain or shareware astronomy programs which will >map out the sky at any given time, and allow you to locate planets, nebulae, >and so forth?  If so, is there any ftp site where I can get one?      There are several star map programs available.  Your    job is to choose that you like.  Try anonymous-FTP    from:  	ftp.funet.fi:pub/astro/pc/stars 			       pc/solar                                mac 			       amiga 			       atari
In article <3918@eagle.ukc.ac.uk> rdl1@ukc.ac.uk (R.D.Lorenz) writes:    >Does anyone know how to size cold gas roll control thruster tanks    >for sounding rockets?     Well, first you work out how much cold gas you need, then make the    tanks big enough.  Our sounding rocket payload, with telemetry, guidance, etc. etc. and a telescope cluster, weighs around 1100 pounds.  It uses freon jets for steering and a pulse-width-modulated controller for alignment (ie during our eight minutes in space, the jets are pretty much continuously firing on a ~10% duty cycle or so...).  The jets also need to kill residual angular momentum from the spin stabilization, and flip the payload around to look at the Sun.  We have two freon tanks, each holding ~5 liters of freon (I'm speaking only from memory of the last flight).  The ground crew at WSMR choose how much freon to use based on some black-magic algorithm.  They have extra tank modules that just bolt into the payload stack.  This should give you an idea of the order of magnitude for cold gas  quantity.  If you really need to know, send me email and I'll try to get you in touch with our ground crew people.  Cheers, Craig
In article <C4zGAM.2nJ@zoo.toronto.edu>, henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes: > In article <1993Apr2.214705.1@aurora.alaska.edu> nsmca@aurora.alaska.edu writes: >>How difficult would it be to set up your own ground station? >  > Ground station for *what*?  At one extreme, some of the amateur-radio > satellites have sometimes been reachable with hand-held radios.  At the > other, nothing you can do in your back yard will let you listen in on > Galileo.  Please be more specific. > --  > All work is one man's work.             | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology >                     - Kipling           |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu  utzoo!henry   SPECIFIC: Basically to be able to do the things the big dadies can do.. Monitor, and control if need be the Shuttle...  Such as the one in Australia and such....
In article <1993Apr26.155915.8998@desire.wright.edu> jbatka@desire.wright.edu writes:     I assume that can only be guessed at by the assumed energy of the    event and the 1/r^2 law.  So, if the 1/r^2 law is incorrect (assume    some unknown material [dark matter??] inhibits Gamma Ray propagation),    could it be possible that we are actually seeing much less energetic    events happening much closer to us?  The even distribution could    be caused by the characteristic propagation distance of gamma rays     being shorter then 1/2 the thickness of the disk of the galaxy.
Hmm.  $1 billion, lesse... I can probably launch 100 tons to LEO at $200 million, in five years, which gives about 20 tons to the lunar surface one-way.  Say five tons of that is a return vehicle and its fuel, a bigger Mercury or something (might get that as low as two tons), leaving fifteen tons for a one-man habitat and a year's supplies? Gee, with that sort of mass margins I can build the systems off the shelf for about another hundred million tops.  That leaves about $700 million profit.  I like this idea 8-)  Let's see if you guys can push someone to make it happen 8-) 8-)  [slightly seriously]
Well, we got some responses and are doing some interviews with interesting responders. However, just in case the other posting was overlooked by an incredibly talented person ... Mea Culpa for posting this here for Mike, but we're looking for someone special:     Tandem Computers is currently looking for a software wizard to help  us architect & implement a fault-tolerant generalized instrumentation  subsystem as part of our proprietary operating system kernel (TNS  Kernel). The TNS Kernel is a proprietary, loosely-coupled parallel,  message-based operating system. The TNS Kernel has wide connectivity  to open standards.    In this key individual contributor role, you will work with other  developers working on various components of the Transaction Management  Facility.    Your background needs to encompass some of the following 4 categories  (3 of 4 would be excellent):    Category 1. Math: Working knowledge of statistics, real analysis, as  used in experimental physics or chemistry, or in engineering.    Category 2. Working knowledge of telemetry issues-- i.e. time series,  autocorrelation, and statistical correlation of data streams.    Category 3. Integration & Test -- Instrumentation of systems under test,  i.e. payloads, flight modules, etc.    Category 4: Software Engineering: programming skills, algorithms, and  systems software techniques.
Thanks to the people who have answered here and in email to my  question about which countries engage in space surveillance.  Unfortunately, I apparently didn't make the meaning of the message  clear, since most replies have addressed satellite reconnaissance,  rather than space surveillance        What I meant was _not_ which countries use satellites to look at  the Earth (satellite reconnaissance) , but _was_ which countries have  programs to detect and track (i.e., determine the orbital elements of)  satellites as they pass overhead (space surveillance).       The US uses missile-defense radars, supplemented by a fascinating  quasi-radar operated by the Navy, to do this for satellites in LEO, and  electrooptical systems for objects at altitudes above 5,000 km or so.  The FEE, I understand, does much the same thing.       Amateur satellite observers use eyeballs, binoculars, stopwatches  and PCs for objects out to around 1500 km, enabling them to keep track  of satellites for which, ah, official element sets aren't available.  See the fascinating books by Desmond King-Hele for details, as well as  the files in the molczan directory on kilroy.jpl.nasa.gov.  The  material posted in my previous message suggests that Japan engages in  optical and radar space surveillance to a modest degree, and it may be  that other countries do also.       Which was the question I meant to ask: who are they, how do they do  it, and why do they do it?   Allen Thomson                     SAIC                        McLean, VA
In article <lv8fpoINNqo1@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> jmck@norge.Eng.Sun.COM (John McKernan) writes:  > Some new information has been discovered recently. Microscopic fossils > have been found in VERY old rocks. The theory is that this life is so > old that it must have been destroyed during the periodic intense  > meteorite bombardments that were a feature of the early solar system. > Under this theory life originated on Earth multiple times (between > multiple meteorite bombardments), and therefore the conditions for > the creation of life cannot be that unlikely.   This was all badly reported in the news.  There is no evidence that signs of life found in old rock predate putative planet-sterilizing events.  Rather, the argument was that if life arose shortly the last sterilizing event, then it must be easily formed.  The *inference* was that life originated before and was destroyed, but there was no evidence of that.  However, even this argument is flawed.  It could well be that origin of life requires specific conditions (say, a certain composition of the atmosphere) that do not last for long.  So, perhaps life formed early only because it would have had no other chance to do so, not because it was likely that life would originate under those conditions.
in article <1rpv9o$k00@wraith.cs.uow.edu.au>, u9152083@wraith.cs.uow.edu.au (Glen Justin Balmer) says: > Message-ID: <1rpv9o$k00@wraith.cs.uow.edu.au> ... > If not, has anybody heard of the particle propolsion system? >  > Thanx. 8-) >  > Glen Balmer... >  I believe that my former employer Hughes Aircraft Company has a working Ion  Propulsion system for satellites.
In article <C5Kys1.C6r@panix.com> dannyb@panix.com (Daniel Burstein) writes: >A short story in the newspaper a few days ago made some sort of mention >about how the Japanese, using what sounded like a gravity assist, had just >managed to crash (or crash-land) a package on the moon.
In <1993Apr3.233154.7045@Princeton.EDU> lije@cognito.Princeton.EDU (Elijah Millgram) writes:   >A friend of mine and I were wondering where the expression "pushing >the envelope" comes from.  Anyone out there know?  Every aircraft has flight constraints for speed/AOA/power.  When graphed, these define the 'flight envelope' of that aircraft, presumably so named because the graphed line encloses (envelopes) the area on the graph that represents conditions where the aircraft doesn't fall out of the sky.  Hence, 'pushing the envelope' becomes 'operating at (or beyond) the edge of the flight (or operational) envelope'.   Note that the envelope isn't precisely known until someone actually flies the airplane in those regions -- up to that point, all there are are the theoretical predictions.  Hence, one of the things test pilots do for a living is 'push the envelope' to find out how close the correspondence between the paper airplane and the metal one is -- in essence, 'pushing back' the edges of the theoretical envelope to where the airplane actually starts to fail to fly.  Note, too, that this is done is a quite calculated and careful way; flight tests are generally carefully coreographed and just what is going to be 'pushed' and how far is precisely planned (despite occasional deviations from plans, such as the 'early' first flight of the F-16 during its high-speed taxi tests).  I'm sure Mary can tell you everything you ever wanted to know about this process (and then some).  --  "Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to live  in the real world."   -- Mary Shafer, NASA Ames Dryden
In <1993Apr28.141606.17449@lambda.msfc.nasa.gov> bday@lambda.msfc.nasa.gov (Brian Day) writes:  >rdouglas@stsci.edu (Rob Douglas) writes:  >>[...]  But try to land a shuttle with that big huge telescope in the  >>back and you could have problems.  The shuttle just isn't designed to land  >>with that much weight in the payload.  >Is HST really _that_ much heavier than a Spacelab ???  I can't speak to sheer mass, but part of the problem is that HST wasn't built to ever be brought back down.  It's not built for those kinds of 'jolt' forces and there is no support cradle for it (which is additional weight that would be required.  --  "Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to live  in the real world."   -- Mary Shafer, NASA Ames Dryden
In article <9303311213.AA49462@jsc.nasa.gov>, mcelwre@cnsvax.uwec.edu (R. E. McElwaine) writes: |> RUSSIA'S OPERATIVE |>  |>                In March 1993, Russian President Boris Yeltsin |>           proposed to the United States and the United Nations a global |>           defense shield (with "Star Wars"-type weapons) AGAINST ...  Funny.  A bit disturbing.  Forging a posting seems somewhat unethical, even if the subject is as notorious as McElwaine.  Followups should definitely not go to sci.space.
In article <1993Apr25.154449.1@aurora.alaska.edu> nsmca@aurora.alaska.edu writes: | |Better idea for use of NASA Shuttle Astronauts and Crew is have them be found |lost in space after a accident with a worm hole or other space/time glitch.. | |Maybe age Jemison a few years (makeup and such) and have her as the only >survivour of a failed shuttle mission that got lost..
Not to mention how those those liberal presidents, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush.   did nothing to support  true commercial space activities.
In article <1993May14.200217.3044@iti.org>, aws@iti.org (Allen W. Sherzer) wrote: >  > A staffer just told me an interesting story about DC-X. An Air Force > costing team just looked at the DC-X (now called the DC-X1 BTW) and > gave an estimate on how much it would cost the Air Force to build it. > It cost SDIO $70M to build and it would cost the USAF: >  >  >  >         $320 million or four and a half times as much.  I'd be willing to bet that a majority of the cost difference could be accounted for by the AF's requirement for superfluous 2167 documentation, 5 or 6 huge requirements and design reviews, travel expenses flying personnel around to meetings, and over specifying the hardware. I doubt that the actual fabrication cost in materials and labor would be very different from SDIO's costs.
How difficult would it be to do a solar sail mission to say mercury?  Not much has been there and there is a 23?KM/s delta v to eat off.  could a  solar sail, handle say adiscovery bus, and drop it into mercury orbit,  good enough for rockets to put it into some form of polar orbit?
In <1993Apr20.001428.724@indyvax.iupui.edu> tffreeba@indyvax.iupui.edu writes: >Let's play a game - What would be a reasonable reward?  What companies would >have a reasonable shot at pulling off such a feat?  Just where in the >budget would the reward come from?  Should there be a time limit?  Would a >straight cash money award be enough or should we throw in say . . . >exclusive mining rights for the first fifty years? You get the idea.  A cash award is OK. A time limit would be nice. You can't give away mining rights (assuming there's anything to mine) because you don't own them.  -----------------------------------------------------------------  .sig files are like strings ... every yo-yo's got one.
In article <C5suMG.2rF.1@cs.cmu.edu> flb@flb.optiplan.fi ("F.Baube[tm]") writes: >At one time there was speculation that the first spacewalk  >(Alexei Leonov ?) was a staged fake. > >Has any evidence to support or contradict this claim emerged ? > >Was this claim perhaps another fevered Cold War hallucination ?  This claim was made when someone spotted training film footage spliced into the footage of the actual spacewalk.
In article <1993Apr20.204335.157595@zeus.calpoly.edu> jgreen@trumpet.calpoly.edu (James Thomas Green) writes: >Why do spacecraft have to be shut off after funding cuts.  For >example, Why couldn't Magellan just be told to go into a "safe" >mode and stay bobbing about Venus in a low-power-use mode and if >maybe in a few years if funding gets restored after the economy >gets better (hopefully), it could be turned on again.    One consideration to remember is that if you don't turn it off now, you may not be able to later.  This isn't a case of reaching over and flipping a switch; much of the spacecraft has to be working correctly to execute a "turn off" command successfully.  Spacecraft do malfunction in their old age.  The big concern is not radio clutter from idle spacecraft, but radio clutter from malfunctioning spacecraft that can no longer be turned off.
What is NASA's annual budget? This year will do, a few years back wpuld be nice too but I need this item fast so emails off the top of your head very much appreciated (FAQs vanish here!).  -Tony Ryan, "Astronomy & Space", new International magazine, available from:               Astronomy Ireland, P.O.Box 2888, Dublin 1, Ireland. 6 issues (one year sub.): UK 10.00 pounds, US$20 surface (add US$8 airmail). ACCESS/VISA/MASTERCARD accepted (give number, expiration date, name&address).
In article <pgf.735606045@srl02.cacs.usl.edu>, pgf@srl02.cacs.usl.edu (Phil G. Fraering) writes... >Jeff.Cook@FtCollinsCO.NCR.COM (Jeff Cook) writes: >.... >>people in primitive tribes out in the middle of nowhere as they look up >>and see a can of Budweiser flying across the sky... :-D >  >Seen that movie already. Or one just like it. >Come to think of it, they might send someone on >a quest to get rid of the dang thing...  Actually, the idea, like most good ideas, comes from Jules Verne, not _The Gods Must Be Crazy._  In one of his lesser known books (I can't remember which one right now), the protagonists are in a balloon gondola, travelling over Africa on their way around the world in the balloon, when one of them drops a fob watch.  They then speculate about the reaction of the natives to finding such a thing, dropped straight down from heaven. But the notion is not pursued further than that.
In article <1rd1g0$ckb@access.digex.net> prb@access.digex.com (Pat) writes: > >My guess is  why  bother with  usingthe shuttle to reboost? > >why not  grapple,  do all said fixes,   bolt a small  liquid  fueled >thruster module  to  HST,   then let it make the re-boost.  it has to be >cheaper on mass then usingthe shuttle as a tug.   that way, now that >they are going to need at least 5  spacewalks,  then they can carry >an EDO pallet,  and  sit on station and even  maybe do the  solar array >tilt  motor  fix. >  	As Herny pointed out, you have to develop the thruster. Also, while much lighter, you still have to lift the mass of the thruster to orbit, and then the thruster lifts its own  weight into a higher orbit.  And you take up room in the payload bay.
We run "SpaceNews & Views" on our STAREACH BBS, a local operation running WWIV software with the capability to link to over 1500 other BBS's in the U.S.A. and Canada through WWIVNet.    Having just started this a couple of months ago, our sub us currently subscribed by only about ten other boards, but more are being added.    We get our news articles re on Internet, via ftp from NASA sites, and from a variety of aerospace related periodicals. We get a fair amount of questions on space topics from students who access the system.  ____________________________________________________________ | George Hastings		ghasting@vdoe386.vak12ed.edu |   | Space Science Teacher		72407.22@compuserve.com      |  If it's not | Mathematics & Science Center 	STAREACH BBS: 804-343-6533   |   FUN, it's | 2304 Hartman Street		OFFICE:       804-343-6525   |  probably not | Richmond, VA 23223		FAX:          804-343-6529   |    SCIENCE!
James Nicholl sez; >>       If the  new  Kuiper belt object *is*  called 'Karla', the next >>one  should be called 'Smiley'.  Jeff responds; >Unless I'm imaging things, (always a possibility =) 1992 QB1, the Kuiper Belt >object discovered last year, is known as Smiley.  >-- >Jeff Foust              [49 days!]      "You're from outer space." >Senior, Planetary Science, Caltech      "No, I'm from Iowa.  I only work in >jafoust@cco.caltech.edu                  outer space." >jeff@scn1.jpl.nasa.gov                  -- from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home  I wouldn't worry too much about it, Jeff.  If you work for JPL, then your job IS imaging things :-)  (I know, it was a just a typo, but I couldn't resist.  At least, I hope it was a typo, or my stupid joke is stupider than I intended :-)  -Tommy Mac ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tom McWilliams 517-355-2178 wk   \\ As the radius of vision increases, 18084tm@ibm.cl.msu.edu 336-9591 hm \\ the circumference of mystery grows.