Aucbvax.4987 fa.space utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!space Fri Nov 6 06:18:53 1981 SPACE Digest V2 #29 >From OTA@S1-A Fri Nov 6 05:42:22 1981 SPACE Digest Volume 2 : Issue 29 Today's Topics: Shuttle technology Clipping Service - Pick your Future in the Second Space Race "America to the Moon" Occluding a star to see a planet ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 5 Nov 1981 1248-CST From: Clyde Hoover Subject: Shuttle technology To: space at MIT-MC These primitive Earthlings.... forgetting that the oil needs to be changed every 200,000 miles! NEVER believe the mileage claims from manufacturers - they all want you to believe you can get to Alpha Centauri using 10% less antimatter if you use their hyperdrive lubricant! ------- ------------------------------ Date: 6 November 1981 02:21 est From: Schauble.Multics at MIT-Multics Subject: Clipping Service - Pick your Future in the Second Space Race To: Space at MIT-MC [This is an excerpt from the lead article in the November 1981 issue of Reason, a conservative political magazine. The issue discusses the issues of private space operations. This article is written by James C. Bennett] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ... Consider two scenarios. Both start in the present and diverge from decisions that are only slightly different in their initial reasonableness but are very different in their long-term consequences. Although both scenarios are projections, they are not fantasy -- the actors, issues, and possibilities all have some basis in what has happened to date. Which one will be reality and which one will remain fiction? Flourish... =========== In 1983 the Reagan administration wins a congressional vote on its plan to "privatize" NASA's Space Transportation System by 1987. United Airlines and Boeing announce a joint venture to form United Spacelines. They state their willingness to assume responsibility for many of NASA's existing commercial space contracts and obligations and to operated selected NASA facilities for profit. A few years later, MATCO, a consortium of Fortune-500 manufacturing firms, contracts with the newly formed United Spacelines Corporation to purchase three shuttle external tanks, on orbit. United Spacelines has created a lucrative market for such tanks by deciding to lift them all the way to orbit rather than throwing them away as earlier NASA Shuttle launches had. MATCO announces it will use the external tanks as structures for a commercial, manned orbital research facility, intended to begin operations in 1988. In 1990, with the space station ready for business, MATCO announces that the contract to transport personnel has been awarded to United Spacelines, as expected. However, it surprises many by awarding the contract to transport bulk cargo to a "dark horse" company, Space Truck, Inc. "Space Truck quoted us a lower price, and we think they can do the job," explains a MATCO executive. In 1993, an independant contractor leasing space from MATCO at one of its orbital stations uses a zero-gravity, containerless processing technique to develop a significant advance in semiconductor technology. She sells her invention to a leading semiconductor firm ... and retires for life at the age of 27. Subsequently, National Telecom, the second-largest US telecommunications company, announces that its next communication satellites will be launched by Inter-Spatial Transport, Inc.'s "Heavy Lift" rocket. Representatives of Nippon Rocket, the other major contender, admit that ISTI's new cost-saving innovations have left them "surprised ... and working hard to catch up." By the year 2000, Space Truck-Boeing Corporation unveils its newest model space launcher, promoting it as, "not just another breakthrough in reliable low-cost space transportation, but \the/ breakthrough." At the significantly lower cost of transport to orbit, solar power satellites will finaly become profitable mechanisms for producing energy to suit Earth's needs. "Looking back," says an STB spokesman, "it's a good thing this industry has been lean and competitive for so many years. Otherwise space travel would still be an expensive luxury, not an everyday occurrence." An enchanting vision! But just assume that the first decision had been made a little differently... ... or flounder? ================ In 1983, the Reagan administration agrees to grant NASA regulatory authority over space operations, including private activities. "They \are/ the space experts," says one administration spokesman. At NASA, a high-level official promises that private firms will not be treated as rivals, but as allies in the opening of the space frontier. A few years later, backers of Space Truck, Inc., announce that they can no longer support their attempt to start a private launch service. "After waiting three years to get certification for our vehicle, approval is still not even in sight. We can't afford to wait any longer." With the bankruptcy of Space Truck, serious efforts by private American firms to enter the space transportation business cease. In 1987, federal budget cutters force NASA to shelve its space operations center project "because it is an immense burden on American taxpayers." Components already orbited are turned over to the Air Force for use at its restricted surveillance space station. A few years later, a European-Japanese joint venture in semiconductor production announces its discovery of a remarkable technical advance at its research space station. In 1995, in a major policy speach in San Jose, California, the president announces that no new follow-on to the Space Shuttle will be funded. "In hard times like these, we just cannot afford luxuries like advanced space transportation systems. Our first priority must be taking care of our unemployment problems in seriously depressed areas such as Detriot, and, of course, Sunnyvale." The turn of the century passes quietly in America. An American historian reads a paper at the annual meeting of the American Economic Association. His topic: "Private American Space Companies: Could They Ever Have Successfully Competed with State-Financed Corporations of Europe and Japan?" His talk is almost as well received as the previous one, "Lessons from Lysander Spooner's Attempt to Compete with the US Post Office." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [The entire article is too long to transcribe. Those interested in the topic should be able to find the issue without too much trouble. I intend to transcribe one of the sidebars, but that will have to wait until another day. Paul ] ------------------------------ Date: 6 November 1981 02:27-EST From: Robert Elton Maas Subject: "America to the Moon" To: SPACE at MIT-MC There's a rather nice series on PBS currently called "America to the Moon". Each half-hour episode is a review of one of the Apollo missions. Last week was Apollo 11 (Neil Armstrong: "One small leap for a man, one giant leap for mankind") and tonite was Apollo 12 (landing within 600 feet of a Surveyor, "That was one big step for me, even if it was a small one for Neil" ). They have the highlights of footage from launch to splashdown, plus overview explaining what the main mission was and what good info was obtained. For example, this time they told how Apollo 11 had found its maria to be 3.8 E9 years old while Apollo 12 landing in just about the newest maris found it to be 3.2 E9 years old, thus indicating that all major activity on the Moon stopped about 3 E9 years ago, so that what we find there is a record of bombardment for 3 E9 years not erased by geologic upheavals and climate like on Earth. Here in SF bay area it's on KQED (9) Thursday 22:30 PST. ------------------------------ Date: 6 November 1981 02:54-EST From: Robert Elton Maas Subject: Occluding a star to see a planet To: SPACE at MIT-MC In the COSMOS episode about Ionian experiments and Pythagorean dogma, Carl Sagan suggests one spaceship holding up a disk to block out thelight of a star while another spacecraft looks aside the disk to see if a planet is visible. I think this would be a wonderful experiment to do for nearby stars such as Sirius and Barnard's star. How soon will this experiment be feasible? 5 years?? ------------------------------ End of SPACE Digest ******************* ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.