ARG%SU-AI@sri-unix.UUCP (12/19/83)
From: Ron Goldman <ARG@SU-AI>
a015 2238 15 Dec 83
PM-Space Art, Bjt,430
Artist Plans High-Altitude 'Light Show'
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) - Taking the sky for his canvas and colored
gases for his brush, an artist plans to paint the heavens next spring
in a three-minute high-altitude light show - with a little help from
the space shuttle.
The work is the product of six years of effort by Joseph Davis, a
fellow at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
Davis' plan involves creating artificial versions of the Northern
Lights with the use of a number of components including an electron
gun, gas and a radio frequency shield.
''I became aware of some experiments on auroral phenomenon over the
past 30 years. So with the help of a large amount of data and people
here, I figured what specific power and light relationship we would
need to do it from the space shuttle,'' Davis said Thursday.
Davis, 33, has paid the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration $10,000 to carry a 200-pound, five-cubic-foot capsule
that will open at the right moment and begin discharging into the
ionosphere.
He's dubbed the project ''New Wave Ruby Falls'' after bumper
stickers he saw as a child urging people to ''See Ruby Falls,'' a cave
at Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, Tenn.
''I began in about 1977 to negotiate with the NASA Space
Transportation Systems headquarters in Washington,'' Davis said.
''They didn't really know what to think at first.''
What colors will be visible in the sky will depend on the kind of
gases and the amount of energy, Davis said.
''We expect to do a sequence of 60 discharges per minute, one per
second, to create an aurora,'' Davis said. ''They will stretch over
several horizons. The shuttle's trajectory will affect how we see it
on earth.''
Davis said he expects the aurora to last about 190 seconds.
''But if we're really lucky, and if there are enough particles in
the ionosphere, it will last a lot longer. It all depends on the hour
of the day.''
Davis said when he first began talking with NASA about his project,
it was mainly talks over the telephone. But he said things became
serious once some money was put on the table.
''Then it was a matter of submitting plans. So I sent them so many
proposals that they couldn't just get rid of me,'' Davis said. ''They
found some problems, but they never totally rejected anything.''
In fact, Davis was so involved in negotiations that he helped NASA
develop its policy for dealing with parties interested in sending up
payloads aboard the shuttle.
''We could go up as early as January, that date was given to us a
while ago,'' he said. ''But we have a lot of work to do, and a spring
date is more realistic.''
ap-ny-12-16 0139EST
***************
a026 0009 16 Dec 83
PM-Space Passengers,460
Tourists in Space a Possiblity by 1985, NASA Says
By WARREN E. LEARY
AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - In a couple of years, a space shuttle could be
orbiting Earth with an odd passenger who won't be flying the craft or
conducting an experiment. Essentially, that passenger will be a
tourist.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said Thursday it
is finishing plans to send into space the first person who is neither
an astronaut nor a scientist.
The first flight of a shuttle with a space tourist aboard could come
as soon as 1985, said NASA Administrator James M. Beggs.
NASA expects to publish regulations in the Federal Register next
week on carrying non-astronaut passengers aboard the shuttle. Before
the proposed rules become official, there will be a 60-day comment
period followed by another two months to incorporate any changes
resulting from the public comments, the agency said.
''I hope that by the spring of next year, we will begin the
selection process for the first passenger,'' Beggs said after a
Washington Press Club speech.
Beggs said the first non-scientist, non-astronaut aboard the shuttle
probably would be an author, artist, or journalist. In the jargon of
NASA, such passengers would be called Citizen Observers-Participants.
''Astronauts who've been in space say the pictures they've brought
back don't do justice to what they've seen,'' Beggs said. ''Perhaps we
need someone who can better describe the experience.''
Beggs said he expected the first such flight within three years, but
added that it may come ''as early as 1985.''
The citizen observers selected will go through a three-month
training period before the flight, he said.
The regulations provide for putting these persons on the NASA
payroll during training so that candidates would not be restricted
because of their personal financial condition. This is to make sure
that access to space is not restricted to the wealthy, he added.
Beggs said passengers would be more than sightseers. Although not
expected to do major experiments, the travelers would have some duties
aboard the shuttle.
''We will try to make practical use of them in assisting the
astronauts,'' he said, ''even if that means being assigned from time
to time to clean the galley.''
The move to eventually get some ordinary people into space follows
the recommendation of a task force of NASA's Advisory Council.
In its report to the agency, the task force said ''NASA should take
the next step in opening space flight to all people by flying
observers...''
The proposed regulations would establish an evaluation committee
within NASA to manage the selection process and set up basic
guidelines for applicants, including health and training criteria.
Applicants would be evaluated by a NASA-designated outside review
panel, but the agency would retain authority to make the final
selection.
ap-ny-12-16 0308EST
***************cas@cvl.UUCP (Cliff Shaffer) (12/21/83)
Just what we need - space pollution. This idea of making artificial
"Northern Lights" is the latest in a series of "artistic" large scale
projects by a number of different people. Don't any of them care about
the environment?
Cliff Shaffer
{seismo,ihnp4,allegra}!rlgvax!cvl!cashenry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (12/29/83)
Before you object to the "artificial Northern Lights" notion on the
grounds of environmental damage, please explain what environmental
damage it will do that will persist for longer than a few minutes.
The amounts of material that will be put into the upper atmosphere by
such a project are utterly negligible compared to what's already there;
it doesn't matter which particular material you are thinking of. The
only reason there is any noticeable effect at all is because the
material ejected from the shuttle is concentrated in one small area.
It doesn't stay that way.
--
Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henrykcarroll@utzoo.UUCP (Kieran A. Carroll) (01/03/84)
I hope that Cliff Shaffer was joking when he referred to the artificial
aurora plan as "space pollution". While the project will be large-scale
in the sense that it will cover a large piece of sky, it will create
a very small number of ions when compared with the number up there already.
Of course, If This Goes On...conceivably, truly large discharges
of ions in low orbit could start causing problems. They might
result from the widespread use of ion thrusters for raising satellites
form low to geosynchronous orbits, for example. A long-term
increase in the ion population could result in brighter nights,
if the aurorae borealis and australis began to approach the equator--
this would make earthbound astronomers unhappy. Depending on the type
of ion produced, the old fears of reducing the amount of ozone in the
upper atmosphere, thus increasing the flux of ultra-violet solar
radiation at the earth's surface, might be realized. Further,
the quality of the vacuum in low-earth orbit could be degraded,
with ions reacting with the glass coverings of photo-electric cells,
and with the optics of high-precision telescopes and spy-satellites
in low orbits.
In short, I don't think that we have much to fear at the moment,
especially from this one project, but we shouldn't be
>too< complacent...
-Kieran A. Carroll
...decvax!utzoo!kcarroll