jordankatz@cdp.UUCP (04/02/89)
This is the National Space Society's Space Hotline for the week ending March 31, 1989. Thursday the nations first privately owned spacecraft was launched by Space Services Inc. The Starfire 1-Model rocket carried the Consort-1 payload on a ride for a total of 15 minutes. The rocket climbed to an altitude of 198 miles above the earth, the payload of experiments experienced about 7 minutes of near zero gravity. Space Services executives were very satisfied with the launch and stated that this was the first of many. White House Spokesman Marlin Fitzwater called NASA associate administrator for space flight Rear Adm. Richard Truly, a leading candidate for the position of NASA administrator. The problem is that Rear Adm. Truly's active status in the Navy puts his appointment in conflict with section 202 of the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958. The section says NASA shall be headed by an Administrator who shall be appointed from civilian life by the President with the consent of the Senate. The White House could ask Truly to resign his commission; ask Congress for a waiver or other ways around the law. But Fitzwater was unclear in confirming whether a waiver was already asked for or not. Dr. James Fletcher the resigning NASA administrator confirmed in Washington DC last Wed. that he will head a $5 million dollar effort by the University of Utah to expand experimentation into Nuclear Fusion. Last week the chairman of the Chemistry Dept. and a British Professor at the University of Utah reported they had sustained nuclear fusion in glass flasks at room temperature for several hours. If this experiment can be verified than the potential for production of clean, safe, simple electric power is enormous. Some 200 private companies have expressed interest in the process already. Meanwhile at Kennedy Space Center... Atlantis's pad has been closed since Wed. so workers can load propellants into the solid rocket booster hydraulic power units, the auxiliary power units, the reaction control system, and orbital maneuvering system pods. The last of three new oxidizer turbo pumps arrived at KSC on thursday. The new pumps will be installed on Atlantis when the pad is reopened. The launch of Atlantis is still scheduled to take place April 28, 1989. 8 of the 32 chicken embryos taken aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery's last mission were dead on arrival. One of Discovery's crew suggested that the experiment might show that life cannot begin anew in that environment. The 8 embryos that died were part of 16 which were fertilized the day before liftoff, the other 16 were fertilized nine day prior to launch. April 1st is when the first batch of chicks are expected to hatch. During the last launch of Discovery NASA engineers used a High Definition Television system to record the event. HDTV with its 1,125 line video image makes it comparable to 35mm film. Normal television has a 330 line video image. The HDTV system will allow for quicker analysis of launch related curiosities, such as the tank insulation which broke loose and damaged the heat tiles of Atlantis last time it was launched. The system was comprised of three HDTV cameras from Sony, a Southern Bell fiber optic communication link which relayed the images to video monitors and VCR's from Sony. On Wed. Soviet Scientists reported that they had lost contact with their second unmanned Mars Moon probe Phobos-2. Although all is not lost stated some scientists, there is a slight chance of reestablishing communications with the craft. Technicians are determining whether it problem is a navigational error or a auxiliary transmitter has failed. Monday April 3, the USSR will brief NASA officials and Tue. April 4, will hold a press conference. The loss of the spacecraft concerns would be space partners with the Soviets, about the risk of putting to much faith in the Soviet Planetary program. The failure should reduce some of the pressure that's been building on the US to decide whether it wants to collaborate or go forward with its own aggressive Mars exploration strategy. The USSR has gone madison avenue? In its quest to be a constant record breaker the Soviet Union will be the first country to sell advertising in space. For a mire (ha, ha) $620,000 you get your corporate logo on: cosmonauts' space suits; Launch site billboards: Three minute commercial filmed by the cosmonauts; Two 6' by 9' signs on the side of Mir! Tass announced Wed. that a Swiss Ad firm signed a contract. This has been Jordan Katz reporting for the National Space Society's Space Hotline. This message will next be updated April 7, 1989.
howeird@hpwrce.HP.COM (Howard Stateman) (04/03/89)
>This is the National Space Society's Space Hotline for the week ending >March 31, 1989. >8 embryos that died were part of 16 which were fertilized the day before >liftoff, the other 16 were fertilized nine day prior to launch. April 1st >Hotline. This message will next be updated April 7, 1989. >---------- This is useless information, unless they did a control group which did not go into space. If they did, I'd like to know how many of the eggs fertilized the day before the launch were dead by the time the shuttle landed (of those eggs which were fertilized but not launched). If they didn't, I'd like to know why not, and what makes them think they are doing an experiment worth paying any attention to.
pipes@nssdcs (David Pipes ) (04/05/89)
Howeird,
(Cool name...)
CBS News stated, several days after the landing, that the
experiment was done with a control group, and implied that none had
died from that group (it could have been that only the 'expected'
number had died...I am not sure. What floored everyone is that the
expected results were on the order of deformities, low hatching weight
or the like. No one expected dead chickens. Furthermore, it appears
that the most vulnerable ones were those in very early stages of
development. This could be very important to people who want to design
long-term life support systems in which animals would be bred in orbit.
Gravity might be a necessary ingredient for reproduction.
As to why anyone should consider this worth paying attention to,
well, you tell me. You certainly seem interested in the results and
methods! :-)
| EMail: pipes@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov David Pipes |
| Vox: (301) 286-2248 |
| These opinions are mine, not my employers. You may share |
| them, but please put them back neatly when you are done. |jwm@stdb.jhuapl.edu (Jim Meritt) (04/05/89)
In article <1190001@hpwrce.HP.COM> howeird@hpwrce.HP.COM (Howard Stateman) writes: }>This is the National Space Society's Space Hotline for the week ending }>March 31, 1989. }>8 embryos that died were part of 16 which were fertilized the day before }>liftoff, the other 16 were fertilized nine day prior to launch. April 1st }>Hotline. This message will next be updated April 7, 1989. }>---------- }This is useless information, unless they did a control group which did }not go into space. They did, of course. }If they }didn't, I'd like to know why not, and what makes them think they are }doing an experiment worth paying any attention to. I would not extend opinions on technical competence on the performance of experiments further than personal experience. Or perhaps that WAS your way of doing it? How often have your experiments crashed because of leaving out the control group? Disclaimer: "It's mine! All mine!!!" - D. Duck