From: leech@cs.unc.edu (Jon Leech) Date: 5 Jul 94 21:53:08 GMT Newsgroups: sci.space.tech,sci.space.science,sci.astro,sci.answers,news.answers Subject: Space FAQ 01/13 - Introduction Archive-name: space/intro Last-modified: $Date: 94/07/05 17:51:24 $ Compilation copyright (c) 1994 by Jonathan P. Leech. This document may be redistributed in its complete and unmodified form. Other use requires written permission of the author. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ON SCI.SPACE.*/SCI.ASTRO INTRODUCTION This is the long FAQ for the sci.space hierarchy. It will soon be split across the newly created sci.space.{tech,science,policy} groups, but for now, it's being posted to all of them. The sci.space.tech moderator posts a more frequent short FAQ with concise answers; this is the place to go for more detail and references. If you have corrections or answers to other frequently asked questions that you would like included in this posting, send email to leech@cs.unc.edu (Jon Leech). If you don't want to see the FAQ, add 'Frequently Asked Questions' to your KILL file for this group (if you're not reading this with a newsreader that can kill articles by subject, you're out of luck). The current version of the FAQ is FTPable at ftp://explorer.arc.nasa.gov/pub/SPACE/FAQ/ along with more information expanding on topics in the FAQ. The hypertext version of the FAQ is at http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/space/top.html Good summaries will be accepted in place of the answers given here. The point of this is to circulate existing information, and avoid rehashing old answers. Better to build on top than start again. Nothing more depressing than rehashing old topics for the 100th time. References are provided because they give more complete information than any short generalization. Questions fall into three basic types: 1) Where do I find some information about space? Try your local public library first. The net is not a good place to ask for general information. Ask INDIVIDUALS (by email) if you must. There are other sources, use them, too. The net is a place for open ended discussion. 2) I have an idea which would improve space flight? Hope you aren't surprised, but 9,999 out of 10,000 have usually been thought of before. Again, contact a direct individual source for evaluation. NASA fields thousands of these each day. 3) Miscellanous queries. These are addressed on a case-by-case basis in the following series of FAQ postings. SUGGESTIONS FOR BETTER NETIQUETTE Read news.announce.newusers if you're on Usenet. Minimize cross references, [Do you REALLY NEED to?] Edit "Subject:" lines, especially if you're taking a tangent. Send mail instead, avoid posting follow ups. (1 mail message worth 100 posts). Internet mail readers: send requests to add/drop to SPACE-REQUEST not SPACE. Read all available articles before posting a follow-up. (Check all references.) Cut down attributed articles (leave only the points you're responding to; remove signatures and headers). Summarize! Put a return address in the body (signature) of your message (mail or article), state your institution, etc. Don't assume the 'reply' function of mailers will work. Use absolute dates. Post in a timely way. Don't post what everyone will get on TV anyway. Some editors and window systems do character count line wrapping: keep lines under 80 characters for those using ASCII terminals (use carriage returns). INDEX TO LINKED POSTINGS I've attempted to break the postings up into related areas. There isn't a keyword index yet; the following lists the major subject areas in each posting. Only those containing astronomy-related material are posted to sci.astro (indicated by '*' following the posting number). # Contents 1* Introduction (See "space/intro") Suggestions for better netiquette Index to linked postings Notes on addresses, phone numbers, etc. Contributors 2* Network resources (See "space/net") Overview Mailing lists Periodically updated information Warning about non-public networks 3* Online (and some offline) sources of images, data, etc. (See "space/data") Introduction Viewing Images Online Archives Center for Advanced Space Studies Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Infrared Processing & Analysis Center NASA Ames NASA Astrophysics Data System NASA Directory of WAIS Servers NASA Jet Propulsion Lab (Mission Information and Images) NASA Johnson Space Center (Manned Space Images) NASA Langley (Technical Reports) NASA Spacelink National Space Science Data Center Space Telescope Science Institute Electronic Info. Service Starcat Astronomical Databases Astronomy Programs Orbital Element Sets SPACE Digest Archives World-Wide-Web (WWW) GeoSphere Project (full Earth image) Landsat & NASA Photos Planetary Maps Cometary Orbits 4* Performing calculations and interpreting data formats (See "space/math") Constants and equations for calculations Computing spacecraft orbits and trajectories Computing planetary positions Computing crater diameters from Earth-impacting asteroids Map projections and spherical trignometry Performing N-body simulations efficiently Interpreting the FITS image format Sky (Unix ephemeris program) Nearby star/galaxy coordinates 5* References on specific areas (See "space/references") Publishers of space/astronomy material Careers in the space industry Comet/Jupiter Impact DC-X single-stage to orbit (SSTO) program How to name a star after a person LLNL "great exploration" Lunar Prospector Lunar science and activities Mars Direct / Lunar Direct Orbiting Earth satellite histories Spacecraft models Rocket propulsion Spacecraft design Esoteric propulsion schemes (solar sails, lasers, fusion...) Spy satellites Space capsule locations Space shuttle computer systems SETI computation (signal processing) Amateur satellies & weather satellites Tides Astronomical Mnemonics 6 Contacting NASA, ESA, and other space agencies/companies (See "space/addresses") NASA Centers / Arianespace / CSA / CNES / DARA / ESA / NASDA / NPO Energia / RSA / Soyuzkarta / Space Camp / Space Commerce Corporation / Spacehab / SPOT Image Other commercial space businesses 7 Space shuttle answers, launch schedules, TV coverage (See "space/schedule") Shuttle launchings and landings; schedules and how to see them Why does the shuttle roll just after liftoff? How to receive the NASA TV channel, NASA SELECT Amateur radio frequencies for shuttle missions Solid Rocket Booster fuel composition 8 Planetary probes - Historical Missions (See "space/probe") US planetary missions Mariner (Venus, Mars, & Mercury flybys and orbiters) Pioneer (Moon, Sun, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn flybys and orbiters) Ranger (Lunar lander and impact missions) Lunar Orbiter (Lunar surface photography) Surveyor (Lunar soft landers) Viking (Mars orbiters and landers) Voyager (Outer planet flybys) Soviet planetary missions Soviet Lunar probes Soviet Venus probes Soviet Mars probes European planetary missions Japanese planetary missions Planetary mission references 9 Upcoming planetary probes - missions and schedules (See "space/new_probes") ASCA Cassini Clementine Galileo Hiten Magellan Mars Observer TOPEX/Poseidon Ulysses Other space science missions Proposed missions 10 Controversial questions (See "space/controversy") Space shuttle mission costs What happened to the Saturn V plans Why data from space missions isn't immediately available Risks of nuclear (RTG) power sources for space probes Impact of the space shuttle on the ozone layer How long can a human live unprotected in space How the Challenger astronauts died Using the shuttle beyond Low Earth Orbit The "Face on Mars" 11 Space activist/interest/research groups and space publications (See "space/groups") Network Groups and Resources Groups Publications Undocumented Groups 12 How to become an astronaut (See "space/astronaut") 13 Orbital and Planetary Launch Services (See "space/launchers") NOTES ON ADDRESSES, PHONE NUMBERS, ETC. Unless otherwise specified, telephone numbers, addresses, and so on are for the United States of America. Non-US readers should remember to add the country code for telephone calls, etc. CREDITS Eugene Miya (then under the authority of the Computer Systems Division, NASA Ames Research Center) started a series of linked FAQ postings some years ago which inspired (and was largely absorbed into) this set. Peter Yee and Ron Baalke have and continue to spend a lot of their own time setting up the SPACE archives at NASA Ames and forwarding official NASA announcements. Many other people have contributed material to this list in the form of old postings to sci.space and sci.astro which I've edited. Please let me know if corrections need to be made. Major contributors I've managed to keep track of are: ad038@yfn.ysu.edu (Steven Fisk) - publication refs. akerman@bill.phy.queensu.CA (Richard Akerman) - crater diameters alweigel@athena.mit.edu (Lisa Weigel) - SEDS info aoab314@emx.utexas.edu (Srinivas Bettadpur) - tides awpaeth@watcgl.waterloo.edu (Alan Wm Paeth) - map projections aws@iti.org (Allen W. Sherzer) - Great Exploration baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov (Ron Baalke) - planetary probe schedules bankst@rata.vuw.ac.nz (Timothy Banks) - map projections, variable star analysis archive brosen@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov (Bernie Rosen) - Space Camp bruce_dunn@mindlink.bc.ca (Bruce Dunn) - propulsion refs. bschlesinger@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (Barry Schlesinger) - FITS format cew@venera.isi.edu (Craig E. Ward) - space group contact info chapin@cbnewsc.att.com (Tom Chapin) - planetary positions cunnida@tenet.edu (D. Alan Cunningham) - NASA Spacelink cyamamot@kilroy.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Cliff Yamamoto) - orbital elements datri@convex.com (Anthony Datri) - PDS/VICAR viewing software daver@sjc.mentorg.com (Dave Rickel) - orbit formulae dlbres10@pc.usl.edu (Phil Fraering) - propulsion eder@hsvaic.boeing.com (Dani Eder) - Saturn V plans, SRBs eugene@nas.nasa.gov (Eugene N. Miya) - introduction, NASA contact info, started FAQ postings frank.reddy@genie.geis.com (Francis Reddy) - map projections french@isu.isunet.edu (Patrick M. French) - space group contact info g@telesoft.com (Gary Morris) - amateur radio info gaetz@cfa.harvard.edu (Terry Gaetz) - N-body calculations, orbital dynamics glandis@lerc.nasa.gov (Geoffrey A. Landis) - survival in vacuum gmcquary@Ingres.COM (George F. McQuary) - nearby star refs grandi@noao.edu (Steve Grandi) - planetary positions greer%utd201.dnet%utadnx@utspan.span.nasa.gov (Dale M. Greer) - constants gregb@gemini.den.mmc.com (Greg Bollendonk) - space model catalog henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) - survival in vacuum, astronaut how-to, Challenger disaster, publication refs, DC-X higgins@fnal.bitnet (William Higgins) - RTGs, publishers, shuttle landings, spysats, propulsion, "Face on Mars", and general assistance with FAQ upkeep. hmueller@cssun.tamu.edu (Hal Mueller) - map projections, orbital dynamics jbh55289@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Josh Hopkins) - launch services jim@pnet01.cts.com (Jim Bowery) - propulsion, launch services jnhead@pirl.lpl.arizona.edu (James N. Head) - atmospheric scale heights jscotti@lpl.arizona.edu (Jim Scotti) - planetary positions kcarroll@zoo.toronto.edu (Kieran A. Carroll)- refs for spacecraft design ken@orion.bitnet (Kenneth Ng) - RTGs kjenks@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov (Ken Jenks) - shuttle roll manuever klaes@verga.enet.dec.com (Larry Klaes) - planetary probe history leech@cs.unc.edu (Jon Leech) - crater diameters lfa@ssi.com (Lou Adornato) - orbital dynamics maury.markowitz@egsgate.fidonet.org (Maury Markowitz) - propulsion max@west.darkside.com (Erik Max Francis) - equations mazz@ipac.caltech.edu (Joe Mazzarella) - IPAC mbellon@mcdurb.Urbana.Gould.COM - N-body calculations mcconley@phoenix.Princeton.edu (Marc Wayne Mcconley) - space careers msb@sq.com (Mark Brader) - Mariner 1 info. mwm@cmu.edu (Mark Maimone) - SPACE Digest nickw@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Dr. Nick Watkins) - models, spysats ohainaut@eso.org (Olivier R. Hainaut) - publishers, STARCAT oneil@aio.jsc.nasa.gov (Graham O'Neil) - Lunar Prospector panama@cup.portal.com (Kenneth W Durham) - cometary orbits, IAU paul.blase@nss.fidonet.org (Paul Blase) - propulsion pete@denali.gsfc.nasa.gov (Pete Banholzer) - Clementine pjs@plato.jpl.nasa.gov (Peter Scott) - RTGs pschleck@unomaha.edu (Paul W. Schleck) - AMSAT, ARRL contact info pwt@minnie.bell.inmet.com (Paul Tarr) - Shuttle computer refs rdb@mel.cocam.oz.au (Rodney Brown) - propulsion refs rja7m@phil.cs.virginia.edu (Ran Atkinson) - FTPable astro. programs rjungcla@ihlpb.att.com (R. Michael Jungclas)- models rosborne@uk.ac.ucl.ps (Richard Osborne) - UK-SEDS seal@leonardo.jpl.nasa.gov (David Seal) - Cassini mission schedule shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer) - photos, shuttle landings smith@sndpit.enet.dec.com (Willie Smith) - photos stephen@gpwd.gp.co.nz (Stephen Dixon) - shuttle audio frequencies sterner@warper.jhuapl.edu (Ray Sterner) - planetary positions stooke@vaxr.sscl.uwo.ca (Phil Stooke) - planetary maps ted_anderson@transarc.com (Ted Anderson) - propulsion terry@astro.as.utexas.edu (Terry Hancock) - NASA center info thorson@typhoon.atmos.coloState.edu (Bill Thorson) - FITS info tm2b+@andrew.cmu.edu (Todd L. Masco) - SPACE Digest tom@ssd.csd.harris.com (Tom Horsley) - refs for algorithms veikko.makela@helsinki.fi (Veikko Makela) - orbital element sets Wales.Larrison@ofa123.fidonet.org (Wales Larrison) - groups & publications wayne@csri.utoronto.ca (Wayne Hayes) - constants weemba@libra.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener) - Voyager history yamada@yscvax.ysc.go.jp (Yoshiro Yamada) - ISAS/NASDA missions yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter Yee) - AMES archive server, propulsion In Net memoriam: Ted Flinn NEXT: FAQ #2/13 - Network Resources From: leech@cs.unc.edu (Jon Leech) Date: 5 Jul 94 21:53:20 GMT Newsgroups: sci.space.tech,sci.space.science,sci.astro,sci.answers,news.answers Subject: Space FAQ 02/13 - Network Resources Archive-name: space/net Last-modified: $Date: 94/07/05 17:51:27 $ Compilation copyright (c) 1994 by Jonathan P. Leech. This document may be redistributed in its complete and unmodified form. Other use requires written permission of the author. NETWORK RESOURCES OVERVIEW You may be reading this document on many types of computers, so much of the material below may not apply to you. In general, however, systems connected to 'the net' fall in one of three categories: Internet, Usenet, or BITNET. Electronic mail may be sent between these networks, and other resources available on one of these networks are sometimes accessible from other networks by email sent to special 'servers'. The space and astronomy discussion groups actually are composed of several mechanisms with (mostly) transparent connections between them. One mechanism is the mailing list, in which mail is sent to a central distribution point which relays it to all recipients of the list. In addition to the general lists for space (called SPACE Digest for Internet users, and SPACE on BITNET), there are a number of more specialized mailing lists described below. A second mechanism is Usenet 'netnews'. This is somewhat like a bulletin board operating on each system which is a part of the net. Netnews separates contributions into hundreds of different categories based on a 'group name'. The groups dealing most closely with space topics are called: sci.astro - astronomy, general. sci.astro.research - moderated, for discussion of current research in astronomy and astrophysics. sci.astro.{fits,hubble,planetarium} - topic-specific subgroups. sci.geo.eos - discussion of the Earth Observing System alt.sci.planetary - planetary science. sci.space.science is probably a better group for most purposes. talk.politics.space - space politics. sci.space.policy is preferred. sci.space.news - moderated, for mission status reports, news announcements, etc. sci.space.policy - space policy and politics. sci.space.science - moderated, space & planetary science. sci.space.shuttle - discussion specific to the space shuttle, including launch/landing schedules and mission activities. sci.space.tech - moderated, technical/hardware issues. Contributors 'post' submissions (called 'articles' in netnews terminology) on their local machine, which sends it to other nearby machines. Similarly, articles sent from nearby machines are stored locally and may be forwarded to other systems, so that an article is posted locally and eventually reaches all the Usenet sites interested in receiving the news group to which the article was posted. Gateway machines redirect several of the Usenet sci.space groups into Internet and BITNET mailing lists and vice versa; the other Usenet groups are not accessible as mailing lists. If you can receive netnews, its more flexible interface and access to a wider range of material usually make it the preferred option. MAILING LISTS SPACE Digest has been broken up into 5 separate digests to mirror the Usenet split of sci.space. To submit messages, the addresses are: To submit to: Send email to: -------------------- ------------------------------------- space space-tech@isu.isunet.edu spacepol space-policy@isu.isunet.edu spacesci space-science@isu.isunet.edu space-sh space-shuttle@isu.isunet.edu spacenws NO SUBMISSIONS ALLOWED To subscribe or unsubscribe to any of these lists (rather than to submit postings to them), email listserv@isu.isunet.edu The message body should be one of help (get help document) info genintro (get intro document) subscribe (add yourself to a list) signoff (remove yourself from a list) e.g. subscribe space John Public signoff spacesci If you need to communicate with a human list maintainer rather than the listserv, email space-request@isu.isunet.edu. Old copies of SPACE Digest since its inception in 1981 are in ftp://julius.cs.qub.ac.uk/pub/SpaceDigestArchive/ Elements is a moderated list for fast distribution of Space Shuttle Keplerian Elements before and during Shuttle flights. NASA two line elements are sent out on the list from Dr. Kelso, JSC, and other sources as they are released. Email to elements-request@telesoft.com to join. GPS Digest is a moderated list for discussion of the Global Positioning System and other satellite navigation positioning systems. Email to gps-request@esseye.si.com to join. A Usenet group, sci.geo.satellite-nav, has been established to deal with terrestrial applcations of satellite navigation. Space-investors is a list for information relevant to investing in space-related companies. Email space-investors-request@lunacity.com to join. The list maintainer is Michael Wallis (mwallis@lunacity.com). Space-tech is a list for more technical discussion of space topics; discussion has included esoteric propulsion technologies, asteroid capture, starflight, orbital debris removal, etc. Email to space-tech-request@cs.cmu.edu to join. Some archives (now somewhat out of date, but still interesting) are in ftp://ftp.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/usr/mnr/st or by email to space-tech-request if you don't have FTP access. Ssi-mail is a discussion group covering the Space Studies Institute. Email to listserv@link.com with a message saying "subscribe ssi_mail First Name Last Name". SEDS-L is a BITNET list for members of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space and other interested parties. Email LISTSERV@TAMVM1.BITNET with a message saying "SUBSCRIBE SEDS-L your name". Email saying "INDEX SEDS-L" to list the archive contents. SEDSNEWS is a BITNET list for news items, press releases, shuttle status reports, and the like. This duplicates material which is also found in Space Digest, sci.space.news, sci.space.shuttle, and sci.astro. Email LISTSERV@TAMVM1.BITNET saying "SUBSCRIBE SEDSNEWS your name" to join. Email saying "INDEX SEDSNEWS" to list the archive contents. Ron Baalke (baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov) runs a mailing list which carries the contents of the sci.space.news Usenet group. Email him to join the list. As a general note, please mail to the *request* address to get off a mailing list. SPACE Digest, for example, relays many inappropriate 'please remove me from this list' messages which are sent to the list address rather than the request address. PERIODICALLY UPDATED INFORMATION In addition to this FAQ list, a broad variety of topical information is posted to the net (unless otherwise noted, in the group sci.space.news created for this purpose). Please remember that the individuals posting this information are performing a service for all net readers, and don't take up their time with frivolous requests. AVIATION WEEK Henry Spencer (henry@zoo.toronto.edu) posts summaries of space-related stories in the weekly _Aviation Week and Space Technology_. BUYING TELESCOPES Ronnie Kon (ronnie@cisco.com) posts a guide to buying telescopes to sci.astro. ELECTRONIC JOURNAL OF THE ASA Editor Larry Klaes (klaes@verga.enet.dec.com) posts the monthly Electronic Journal of the Astronomical Society of the Atlantic to sci.astro, sci.misc, sci.space, and sci.space.news. The EJASA Volume Lists for ordering back issues may be requested from him, and back issues are also available from the ASA site ftp://chara.gsu.edu/ FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL Swaraj Jeyasingh (sjeyasin@axion.bt.co.uk) posts summaries of space-related news from _Flight International_. This focuses more on non-US space activities than Aviation Week. IAU CIRCULARS The IAUCs are copyrighted, and should NOT be posted to the net without the express permission of the director of the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams, Brian Marsden. The best way to get all the IAUCs is to subscribe--95%+ of CBAT/MPC funding comes from subscriptions! A subscription is $7.50 per month for hardcopy or e-mail delivery. E-mail version includes log-in privileges to collect the Circulars, as well as orbits from the MPC files, a facility for computing ephemerides, and other related services. Enquiries (and checks) should be sent to Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A. Email: thompson@cfa.harvard.edu with checks (in U.S. dollars) made out to "Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams". Subscribers can also purchase the MPC's cometary orbit catalogue at half price. A more complete description of IAUC/MPC services, which include catalogs of cometary and minor planet ephemerides, is available from the email contact. LARGE ASTRONOMICAL PROJECTS Robert Bunge (rbunge@access.digex.com) posts a list describing many "Large Telescope Projects Either Being Considered or in the Works" to sci.astro. NASA HEADLINE NEWS & SHUTTLE REPORTS Peter Yee (yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov) posts a variety of NASA material, including NASA Headline News (with the schedule for NASA SELECT), shuttle payload briefings and flight manifests, and KSC shuttle status reports. For Usenet users, much of this material appears in the group sci.space.shuttle. NASA UPDATES Ron Baalke (baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov) posts frequent updates from JPL, Ames, and other centers on the Ulysses, Gailileo, Pioneer, Magellan, Landsat, and other missions. ORBITAL ELEMENT SETS TS Kelso (tkelso@blackbird.afit.af.mil) posts orbital elements from NASA Prediction Bulletins. Mike Rose (mrose@stsci.edu) posts orbital elements for the Hubble Space Telescope to sci.astro. Jost Jahn (j.jahn@abbs.hanse.de) posts ephemerides for asteroids, comets, conjunctions, and encounters to sci.astro. SATELLITE LAUNCHES Richard Langley (lang@unb.ca) posts SPACEWARN Bulletin, which describes recent launch/orbital decay information and satellites which are useful for scientific activities. Recent bulletins are in ftp://nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (directory ANON_DIR:[000000.ACTIVE.SPX]) (This is a VMS FTP site, and the URL is non-functional). SHUTTLE MANIFEST Steven S. Pietrobon (steven@spri.levels.unisa.edu.au) posts a compressed version of the Space Shuttle launch manifest to sci.space.shuttle. This includes dates, times, payloads, and information on how to see launches and landings. These files are in ftp://explorer.arc.nasa.gov/pub/SPACE/MANIFEST/ SOLAR ACTIVITY Cary Oler (oler@hg.uleth.ca) posts Solar Terrestrial reports (describing solar activity and its effect on the Earth) to sci.space. The report is issued in part from data released by the Space Enviroment Services Center, Boulder Colorado. The intro document needed to understand these reports is in ftp://solar.stanford.edu/pub/understanding_solar_terrestrial_reports ftp://nic.funet.fi/pub/misc/rec.radio.shortwave/solarreports nic.funet.fi is an archive site for the reports (please note this site is in Europe, and the connection to the US is only 56KB). A new primary archive site, ftp://ftp.uleth.ca/ has been established and will be actively supported. SOVIET SPACE ACTIVITIES Glenn Chapman (glennc@cs.sfu.ca) posts summaries of Soviet space activities. SPACE ACTIVIST NEWSLETTER Allen Sherzer (aws@iti.org) posts a newsletter, "One Small Step for a Space Activist," to talk.politics.space. It describes current legislative activity affecting NASA and commercial space activities. SPACE EVENTS CALENDAR Ron Baalke (baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov) posts a calendar including anniversaries, conferences, launch dates, meteor showers and eclipses, and other space-related events. SPACE NEWS John Magliacane (kd2bd@ka2qhd.UUCP) posts "SpaceNews" (covering AMSATs, NOAA and other weather satellites, and other ham information) to rec.radio.amateur.misc and sci.space. SPACE REPORT Jonathan McDowell (mcdowell@cfa.harvard.edu) posts "Jonathan's Space Report" covering launches, landings, reentries, status reports, satellite activities, etc. TOWARD 2001 Bev Freed (freed@nss.fidonet.org) posts "Toward 2001", a weekly global news summary reprinted from _Space Calendar_ magazine. WARNING ABOUT NON-PUBLIC NETWORKS (Included at the suggestion of Eugene Miya, who wrote the item) NASA has an internal system of unclassified electronic mail and bulletin boards. This system is not open for public use. Specifically, NASA personnel and procurement operations are regarded with some sensitivity. Contractors must renegotiate their contracts. The Fair and Open Procurement Act does not look kindly to those having inside information. Contractors and outsiders caught using this type of information can expect severe penalities. Unauthorized access attempts may subject you to a fine and/or imprisonment in accordance with Title 18, USC, Section 1030. If in fact you should should learn of unauthorized access, contact NASA personnel. Claims have been made on this news group about fraud and waste. None have ever been substantiated to any significant degree. Readers detecting Fraud, Waste, Abuse, or Mismanagement should contact the NASA Inspector General (24-hours) at 800-424-9183 (can be anonymous) or write NASA Inspector General P.O. Box 23089 L'enfant Plaza Station Washington DC 20024 NEXT: FAQ #3/13 - Online (and some offline) sources of images, data, etc. From: leech@cs.unc.edu (Jon Leech) Date: 5 Jul 94 21:53:38 GMT Newsgroups: sci.space.tech,sci.space.science,sci.astro,sci.answers,news.answers Subject: Space FAQ 03/13 - Data Sources Archive-name: space/data Last-modified: $Date: 94/07/05 17:51:22 $ Compilation copyright (c) 1994 by Jonathan P. Leech. This document may be redistributed in its complete and unmodified form. Other use requires written permission of the author. ONLINE AND OTHER SOURCES OF IMAGES, DATA, ETC. INTRODUCTION A wide variety of images, data, catalogs, information releases, and other material dealing with space and astronomy may be found on the net. The sources with the broadest selection of material are the NASA Ames SPACE archive and the National Space Science Data Center (described below). A few sites offer direct dialup access or remote login access, while others offer file transfer over the Internet (referred to as 'anonymous FTP'). Sites not connected to the Internet cannot use FTP directly, but there are a few automated FTP servers which operate via email. Send mail containing only the word HELP to ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com, bitftp@pucc.princeton.edu, or ftpmail@doc.ic.ac.uk, and the servers will send you instructions on how to make requests. Shorthand for a specific file or directory at an anonymous FTP site is ftp://sitename/pathname[/] (e.g. ftp://explorer.arc.nasa.gov/pub/SPACE/FAQ/Index). The format has been changed to valid URLs for users of the World Wide Web. If you are using a normal FTP client, you will connect to the sitename part of the URL (explorer.arc.nasa.gov, in this case) and get the file specified by the pathname (/pub/SPACE/FAQ/Index). If a '/' terminates the URL, it indicates a directory containing multiple files. WORLD WIDE WEB (WWW) WWW is a global hypermedia network carried on the Internet and incorporating popular protocols including FTP, WAIS, gopher, archie, NNTP (netnews), etc. The Web is growing at an explosive pace, and huge amounts of space-related information are already online. This FAQ is evolving towards a fully hyperlinked Web document (a plain text version will continue to be posted to the net, of course). The primary change at present is the use of Web URLs (Universal Resource Locators) to specify files available by FTP (discussed above), sites accessible by telnet (URLs of the form telnet://sitename), and Web hypertext documents (http://site/page). If you are not familiar with the Web, you should probably begin by obtaining a Web browser (typically NCSA Mosaic for X, Mac, and PC) and exploring. The newsgroup 'comp.infosystems.www' is also available. The NASA Web home page is at http://hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov/NASA_homepage.html Other space-related material may be found on the Web starting with the overview page at http://info.cern.ch/Space/Overview.html There is also a pointer in the "information by subject" page under "Space Science." VIEWING IMAGES Don't ask for images to be posted to the space/astro newsgroups. They're clumsy to access, wasteful of net resources, and inappropriate in discussion groups. Retrieve images on your own using FTP or Web clients. The possible combinations of image formats and machines is forebodingly large, and I won't attempt to cover common formats (GIF, etc.) here. To read PDS and VICAR (and many other) formats on Unix systems running X, use XV 3.00, available in ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/xv-3.00.tar.Z The FAQ for the Usenet group alt.binaries.pictures discusses image formats and how to get image viewing software. A copy of this document is available from the Usenet FAQ archives in ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/alt.binaries.pictures ONLINE ARCHIVES CENTER FOR ADVANCED SPACE STUDIES CASS offers online searching of planetary science databases, including bibliographies, images, meeting abstracts, and other categories. Internet users can access CASS via http://cass.jsc.nasa.gov/CASS_home.html telnet://cass.jsc.nasa.gov (login "cass", password "online") This system is primarily for professionals in planetary science. Note that CASS includes and replaces the online service formerly offered by the Lunar and Planetary Institute. Contact leung@lpi.jsc.nasa.gov. DEFENSE METEOROLOGICAL SATELLITE PROGRAM (DMSP) DMSP is a two satellite constellation of near-polar orbiting, sun synchronous satellites monitoring meteorological, oceanographic and solar-terrestrial physics environments. DMSP sample data and information may be accessed on-line via: ftp://ftp.ngdc.noaa.gov/DMSP/ http://web.ngdc.noaa.gov/dmsp/dmsp.html gopher://gopher.ngdc.noaa.gov Contact Greg Deuel (dmsp@mail.ngdc.noaa.gov). INFRARED PROCESSING & ANALYSIS CENTER Caltech's IPAC provides access to an easy-to-use interface for making queries of many astronomical catalogs, especially those from the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) mission. You can also query the Bright Star catalog, SAO star catalog, a number of extragalactic (galaxy/quasar) catalogs, etc. Results can be saved to flat ASCII tables or FITS files and copied to your computer via FTP. Using the interface requires a machine running X Windows. You can get to IPAC via http://xcatscan.ipac.caltech.edu telnet://xcatscan.ipac.caltech.edu Log in as "xcatscan" (no password needed). Contact Joe Mazzarella (mazz@ipac.caltech.edu). NASA AMES Extensive archives are maintained at NASA Ames and are available via anonymous FTP or an email server. These archives include many images and a wide variety of documents including this FAQ list, NASA press releases, shuttle launch advisories, and mission status reports. Please note that these are NOT maintained on an official basis. A listing of files available in the archive is in ftp://explorer.arc.nasa.gov/pub/SPACE/Index An email server for the SPACE archive is temporarily out of service due to the archive moving to its new home, explorer. Instructions for accessing the email server will be returned to the FAQ when the server is running again. Magellan, Voyager, and Viking CD-ROMs are online in ftp://explorer.arc.nasa.gov/cdrom/ Tens of thousands of images are available. The GIF directory contains images in GIF format. The VICAR directory contains Magellan images in VICAR format (these are also available in the GIF directory). A PC program capable of displaying these files is found in the IMDISP directory (see the item "VIEWING IMAGES" below). The NASA media guide describes the various NASA centers and how to contact their public affairs officers; this may be useful when pursuing specific information. It's in ftp://explorer.arc.nasa.gov/pub/SPACE/MISC/media.guide Contact Peter Yee (yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov). NASA ASTROPHYSICS DATA SYSTEM The ADS is a distributed data retrieval system which is easy to use and provides uniform access to ground-based and space-based astronomy data from NASA data centers across the country. It currently has over 140 data catalogs of radio, infrared, optical, UV, and X-ray data which can be queried by position or any other parameter in the catalog. The ADS also provides tools to manipulate and plot tabular results. In addition, ADS has a Beta version of an Abstracts Service which allows users to query over 125,000 abstracts of astronomy papers since 1975 by authors, keywords, title words, or abstract text words. ADS use requires direct Internet access. For more info and to sign up to become a user, email ads@cuads.coloradu.edu. The User's Guide and "QuickStart" Guide (PostScript files) are in ftp://sao-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/ads/ADS_User_Guide Contact Carolyn Stern Grant (stern@cfa.harvard.edu). NASA DIRECTORY OF WAIS SERVERS A WAIS database describing servers of interest to the space community is described by the source file: (:source :version 3 :ip-name "ndadsb.gsfc.nasa.gov" :tcp-port 210 :database-name "NASA-directory-of-servers" :cost 0.00 :cost-unit :free :maintainer "stelar-info@Hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov" :description "Server created with WAIS release 8 b5.1 on May 5 14:05:34 1993 by warnock@Hypatia Maintainers of WAIS databases of interest to the NASA community can register their databases with the NASA-directory-of-servers by sending the source file to stelar-info@hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov. Contact Archie Warnock (warnock@hypatia.gsfc.nasa.gov). NASA JET PROPULSION LAB (MISSION INFORMATION AND IMAGES) ftp://pubinfo.jpl.nasa.gov is an anonymous FTP site operated by the JPL Public Information Office, containing news releases, status reports, fact sheets, images, and other data on JPL missions. It may also be reached by modem at (818)-354-1333 (no parity, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit). Contact newsdesk@jplpost.jpl.nasa.gov or phone (818)-354-7170. NASA JOHNSON SPACE CENTER (MANNED SPACE IMAGES) JSC's digital image collection, containing thousands of images and descriptions covering the manned space program from Mercury to the present. ftp://images.jsc.nasa.gov http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/html/home.htm Contact Kevin Marsh (kmarsh@ja6.jsc.nasa.gov). NASA LANGLEY (TECHNICAL REPORTS) ftp://techreports.larc.nasa.gov/pub/techreports/larc/92/ offers technical reports. Start with files README and abstracts.92. Most files are compressed PostScript. The reports are also in a WAIS database with the following description: (:source :version 3 :ip-name "techreports.larc.nasa.gov" :tcp-port 210 :database-name "nasa-larc-abs" :cost 0.00 :cost-unit :free :maintainer "M.L.Nelson@LaRC.NASA.GOV" :description "NASA Langley Research Center Technical Reports Contact tr-admin@techreports.larc.nasa.gov. NASA SPACELINK SpaceLink is an online service located at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The system is specifically designed for teachers. The data base is arranged to provide easy access to current and historical information on NASA aeronautics, space research, and technology transfer information. Also included are suggested classroom activities that incorporate information on NASA projects to teach a number of scientific principles. Unlike bulletin board systems, NASA Spacelink does not provide for interaction between callers. However it does allow teachers and other callers to leave questions and comments for NASA which may be answered by regular mail. Messages are answered electronically, even to acknowledge requests which will be fulfilled by mail. Messages are generally handled the next working day except during missions when turnaround times increase. The mail system is closed-loop between the user and NASA. SpaceLink also offers downloadable shareware and public domain programs useful for science educators as well as space graphics and GIF images from NASA's planetary probes and the Hubble Telescope. You can access SpaceLink via telnet://spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov ftp://spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov Or you can dial in at (205)-895-0028 (300/1200/2400/9600(V.32) baud, 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit). Most of this information is also available from the Ames server in ftp://explorer.arc.nasa.gov/pub/SPACE/SPACELINK NATIONAL SPACE SCIENCE DATA CENTER (NSSDC) The National Space Science Data Center is the official clearinghouse for NASA data. The data catalog (*not* the data itself) is available online: telnet://nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov Log in as "NODIS" (no password). You can also get the catalog by sending email to 'request@nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov'. You can also dial in at (301)-286-9000 (300, 1200, or 2400 baud, 8 bits, no parity, one stop). At the "Enter Number:" prompt, enter MD and carriage return. When the system responds "Call Complete," enter a few more carriage returns to get the "Username:" and log in as "NODIS" (no password). The system is menu-driven; topics available as of 3/93 are: 1 - Master Directory - NASA & Global Change 2 - Personnel Information Management System 3 - Nimbus-7 GRID TOMS Data 4 - Interplanetary Medium Data (OMNI) 5 - Request data and/or information from NSSDC 6 - Geophysical Models 7 - CANOPUS Newsletter 8 - International Ultraviolet Explorer Data Request 9 - CZCS Browse and Order Utility 10 - Astronomical Data Center (ADC) 11 - STEP Bulletin Board Service 12 - Standards and Technology Information System 13 - Planetary Science & Magellan Project Information 14 - Other Online Data Services at NSSDC 15 - CD-ROMS Available at NSSDC For users with Internet access, datasets are made available via anonymous FTP once you select the desired datasets from the online catalog. For other users, data may be ordered on CD-ROM and in other formats. Among the many types of data available are Voyager, Magellan, and other planetary images, Earth observation data, and star catalogs. Viewers for Macintosh and IBM systems are also available. As an example of the cost, an 8 CD set of Voyager images is $75. Data may ordered online, by email, or by physical mail. The postal address is: National Space Science Data Center Request Coordination Office Goddard Space Flight Center Code 633 Greenbelt, MD 20771 Telephone: (301) 286-6695 Email address: request@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov SPACE TELESCOPE SCIENCE INSTITUTE ELECTRONIC INFORMATION SERVICE STEIS contains a large amount of information about the Hubble Space Telescope, such as status reports and newsletters, in addition to material oriented towards HST observers and proposers. To get started, ftp://stsci.edu/README Contact Pete Reppert (reppert@stsci.edu) or Chris O'Dea (odea@stsci.edu). STARCAT The Space Telescope European Coordination Facility, at ESO/Garching provides on-line access to a huge astronomical database, featuring - Observation log files of several satellites/telescopes (IUE,IRAS,HST,NTT...). - Spectra and images (IUE, HST). - Most of the astronomical catalogues (SAO, HR, NGC, PPM, IRAS, Veron, GSC and many others, more than 50) in a very convenient way (give center+radius+kind of objects, and you get the corresponding files!). Access at telnet://stesis.hq.eso.org (or STESIS on DECnet). Log in as "starcat" (no password). Files created can be retrieved via FTP. Contact: Benoit Pirenne (bpirenne@eso.org) (phone +49 89 320 06 433) at ST-ECF ASTRONOMICAL DATABASES The full SAO stellar database is probably not available online yet. It may be ordered on magnetic tape from the NSSDC. A subset containing position and magnitude only is available by FTP (see "Astronomy Programs" below). ftp://nic.funet.fi/pub/astro/ contains a large collection of astronomical programs for many types of computers, databases of stars and deep sky objects, and general astronomy information. This site is mainly for European users, but overseas connections are possible. ftp://explorer.arc.nasa.gov/pub/SPACE/MISC/galaxy.dat is a database of 8,436 galaxies including name, RA, declination, magnitude, and radial velocity, supplied by Wayne Hayes (wayne@csri.utoronto.ca). ftp://explorer.arc.nasa.gov:pub/SPACE/FAQ/ contains constellation boundary data (files constell.*) in a form suitable for the construction of star charts and atlases. ftp://iris1.ucis.dal.ca/pub/gif/ contains a number of GIFs from Voyager, Hubble, and other sources (most of this data is also in pub/SPACE/GIF on the Ames server). Please restrict access to 5pm - 8am Atlantic time. ftp://pomona.claremont.edu/astro/catalog/yale_bsc/ contains the Yale Bright Star catalog. Web users, note that this is a VMS site and Mosaic does not get along with their server, so this URL is a placeholder - run FTP manually. Contact James Dishaw (jdishaw@pomona.claremont.edu). The Hubble Guide Star catalog is available on CD-ROM for the Mac and PC for $49.95 US (catalog #ST101). Astronomical Society of the Pacific 390 Ashton Ave. San Francisco, CA 94112 Phone: (415) 337-2624 9 AM - 3 PM Pacific Time FAX: (415) 337-5205 For German (and possibly other European) readers, Jost Jahn (j.jahn@abbs.hanse.de) has a mail service to distribute astronomical data to interested amateurs at cost. About 30-40 catalogs are available for DM 6..8/disk. Several floppy disk formats are available. He also has a FAX service with current news on the observable sky. Email him if interested in these services, or write: Jost Jahn Neustaedter Strasse 11 W-3123 Bodenteich GERMANY Phone: FRG-5824-3197 FAX: (49)-581-14824 ASTRONOMY PROGRAMS A more complete list is posted monthly to sci.astro or available in ftp://nic.funet.fi/pub/astro/general/astroftp.txt This list is maintained by Veikko Makela (Veikko.Makela@Helsinki.FI). Some astronomy-related programs and databases archived from Usenet source groups: ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/comp.sources.unix/volume8/phoon.Z Moon phase and date routines ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/comp.sources.misc/volume8/moon.Z Another moon phase program ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/comp.sources.unix/volume15/moontool.Z Show moon phase picture on Suns ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/comp.sources.unix/volume12/starcharts/ ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/comp.sources.unix/volume13/starchart/ Starchart program & Yale star data ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/comp.sources.misc/volume11/starchart Starchart program, version 3.2 ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/comp.sources.misc/volume12/starchart2 Starchart program, update to version 3.2.1 ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/comp.sources.unix/volume16/sao/ Reduced SAO catalog ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/comp.sources.misc/volume11/n3emo-orbit ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/comp.sources.misc/volume14/n3emo-orbit Orbit: track earth satellites ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/comp.sources.misc/volume13/jupmoons Plotter for Jupiter's major moons [in perl] ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/comp.sources.misc/volume13/lunisolar Lunisolar (not sure what this does) ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/comp.sources.misc/volume18/planet Planet generation simulator Xephem is an interactive astronomical ephemeris program for X11R4/Motif 1.1 (or later) X Windows systems. It computes lots of information about the planets and any solar system objects for which orbital elements are available. A sample database of some 16000+ objects is included in the release kit. It's in ftp://export.lcs.mit.edu/contrib/xephem/xephem_2.4e.tar.Z and has been submitted to comp.sources.x. Contact Elwood Downey (ecdowney@noao.edu). Ephem is the forefather of xephem designed for simple 24x80 character displays, in ftp://export.lcs.mit.edu/contrib/ephem_4.28.tar.Z XSAT, an X based satellite tracking program, is available in ftp://export.lcs.mit.edu/contrib/xsat1.0.tar.Z Contact Dave Curry (davy@ecn.purdue.edu). Xsky 2.1.6, a computerized sky atlas for the X Window System, is available in ftp://arizona.edu/software/unix/xsky/xsky-216.tarz (This is a VMS FTP site, so the URL is nonfunctioning). Contact Terry R. Friedrichsen (terry@venus.sunquest.com). The "Variable Stars Analysis Software Archive" is in ftp://ftpastro.vuw.ac.nz/astrophys/ This is intended for specialists in this field, and they would appreciate people from outside New Zealand confining their FTP access to the astrophys directory, as they pay a significant amount for Internet access. Contributions are encouraged. Contact the archive administrator, Timothy Banks (astrophys-archive@kauri.vuw.ac.nz). For further details on the archive see _The Observatory_, 112, 16, 1992. The "IDL Astronomy Users Library" is in ftp://idlastro.gsfc.nasa.gov/README This is a central repository for general purpose astronomy procedures written in IDL, a commercial image processing, plotting, and programming language. Contact Wayne Landsman (landsman@stars.gsfc.nasa.gov). Daniel Roth (roth@ph-cip.uni-koeln.de) offers an astronomy software service for PC and Atari users in Europe. He has a large library available on disk and will be offering a CD-ROM with the entire library soon. A catalog is available; contact him for details. ORBITAL ELEMENT SETS The most recent orbital elements from the NASA Prediction Bulletins are carried on the Celestial BBS, (513)-427-0674. Documentation and tracking software are also available on this system. The Celestial BBS may be accessed 24 hours/day at 300, 1200, or 2400 baud using 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity. Orbital element sets are FTPable from the following directories: ftp://archive.afit.af.mil/pub/space/ NASA,TVRO,Shuttle ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/astro/pc/satel/ NASA,TVRO,Molczan,CelBBS,Shuttle ftp://kilroy.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/space/ NASA,Molczan SPACE DIGEST ARCHIVES Copies of back issues of Space Digest are archived on LISTSERV@UGA.BITNET. Send mail containing the message "INDEX SPACE" to get an index of files; send it the message "GET filename filetype" to get a particular file. GEOSPHERE PROJECT (FULL EARTH IMAGE) Tom van Sant's GeoSphere Project has produced a very nice composite image of the entire Earth (without clouds, so all the surface is visible) by assembling thousands of Landsat images. This image is not in the public domain; any digital copies made available by anonymous FTP are illegal. GeoSphere offers the image in a variety of printed forms (posters, mugs, globes, etc.). Contact them at (800)-845-1522 for a catalog. They may be willing to license the digital database for specific uses, contact them for details. LANDSAT AND NASA PHOTOS You can get black-and-white 1:1M prints, negatives, or positives for $10, $18, $12 respectively for any Landsat data more than 2 years old from EDC, (Eros (Earth Resources Orbiting Satellite) Data Center). Call them at (605)-594-6511. You get 80 meter resolution from the MSS scanner, 135x180 kilometers on a picture 135x180 mm in size. I think you have to select one band from (green, red, near IR, second near IR), but I'm not sure. Digitial data is also available at higher prices. Transparencies of all NASA photos available to the public can be borrowed from the NASA photo archive; you can have copies or prints made. NASA Audio-Visual Facility 918 North Rengstorff Ave Mountain View, CA 94043 (415)-604-6270 PLANETARY MAPS Brief references to maps of all mapped solid bodies other than Earth, 47 by April 1994. This list is updated periodically. If there are many maps (e.g. Mars) a good general purpose global map is listed; where appropriate they are subdivided: relief maps (usually with placenames), topography (contours), geological maps etc. If not (e.g. Deimos) the best available map is listed. Some (e.g. Comet Encke) are simple diagrams of possible surface features ('sketch' under map type). A few interesting atlases are listed at the end. If you see errors or omissions please contact Phil Stooke at: stooke@vaxr.sscl.uwo.ca. References: USGS = U.S. Geological Survey. Order by I-number from USGS Map Sales, Box 25286, Denver, Colorado USA 80225. About $3 per sheet (some listed maps are sets of several sheets). Check before ordering. NASA Tech. Memo. 4395, 'Indexes of Maps of the Planets and Satellites 1992' by J. Inge and R. Batson, is the best guide to sheet maps. Most Apollo-era Moon maps (LAC, LTO) are out of print, but some may still be found at NSSDC (+ NASA CD-ROMs): National Space Science Data Center, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland USA 20771. Edmund Scientific address: 101 E. Gloucester Pike, Barrington, NJ 08007-1380, USA. Other references are to books and journals. Though not full bibliographic entries, to save space, there should be enough information to find the item. I will answer questions about planetary maps by e-mail at the address above. BODY MAP TYPE REFERENCE Mercury relief USGS maps I-1149,1171,1822 geology USGS maps I-1199,1233,1408,1409,1658,1659,1660, 2015,2148 atlas Davies et al., ATLAS OF MERCURY, NASA SP-423, 1978 globe USGS (out of print- see at Cornell U. or LPI) Venus relief USGS map I-2041 (Venera 15/16 data) topogr USGS map I-1324 (Pioneer Venus data) + GxDR CD-ROM (Magellan) available from NSSDC geology USGS map I-2059 (Venera 15/16 data) atlas ATLAS POVERKHNOSTI VENERY, Russia, 1989 globe USGS (out of print - see at Cornell U. or LPI) Moon relief USGS maps I-1218,1326,2276 topogr NSSDC: LAC maps (earthside)+ LTO maps (Apollo zone) geology USGS maps I-703,948,1034,1047,1062,1162, + Wilhelms, USGS Professional Paper 1348, 1987 atlas LUNAR ORBITER PHOTO ATLAS, NASA SP-206, 1971 + A. Rukl, ATLAS OF THE MOON, Hamlyn, 1990 globe Replogle Globes (via Sky Publ., ads in SKY+TELESC.) Mars relief USGS maps I-1618,2179, + Edmund Scientific Mars Map topogr USGS map I-2160 + MDIM CD-ROM, disk 7, from NSSDC geology USGS map I-1802 digital MDIM CD-ROMs, disks 1-6, available from NSSDC atlas Batson et al., ATLAS OF MARS, NASA SP-438, 1979 globe Sky Publishing (ads in SKY+TELESCOPE) Phobos outline Thomas, ICARUS, 40: 223-243, 1979 relief Bugaevsky et al., ADV.SPACE.RES. 12(9):17-21, 1992 topogr Thomas, ICARUS, 105:326-344, 1993 globe Max Planck Institut fur Physik+Astrophys., 1988 Deimos outline Thomas, ICARUS, 40: 223-243, 1979 relief Stooke, SKY+TELESCOPE 69:551-553, 1985 topogr Thomas, ICARUS, 105:326-344, 1993 Amalthea sketch Veverka et al., J.GEOPHYS.RES. 86:8675-8692, 1981 rel,topo Stooke, EARTH,MOON,PLANETS 56:123-139, 1992 Io relief USGS map I-1713 topogr Gaskell+Synnott,GEOPHYS.RES.LET. 15:581-584, 1988 geology USGS map I-2209 Europa relief USGS maps I-1241,1493,1499 geology SATELLITES OF JUPITER, Ch.14, U.Arizona Press, 1982 Ganymede relief USGS map I-2331 geology USGS maps I-1934,1966,2289 (more sheets to come) Callisto relief USGS maps I-1239,2035 Prometheus rel,topo Stooke, EARTH,MOON,PLANETS, 62: 199-221, 1993 Pandora rel,topo Stooke, EARTH,MOON,PLANETS, 62: 199-221, 1993 Janus rel,topo Stooke+Lumsdon, EARTH,MOON,PLAN., 62: 223-237, 1993 Epimetheus rel,topo Stooke, EARTH,MOON,PLANETS, 63: 67-83, 1993 Mimas relief USGS maps I-1489,2155 geology Croft, NASA TECH.MEM. 4300, 95-97, 1991 Enceladus relief USGS maps I-1485,2156 geology Smith et al., SCIENCE, 215:504-537, 1982 Tethys relief USGS maps I-1488,2157 geology Moore+Ahern, J.GEOPHYS.RES. 88:A577-A584, 1983 Dione relief USGS maps I-1487,2158 geology Moore, ICARUS, 59:205-220, 1984 Rhea relief USGS maps I-1484,1921 geology Moore et al., J.GEOPHYS.RES. 90:C785-C795, 1985 Titan sketch Lemmon et al., ICARUS 103:329-332, 1993 Hyperion sketch Thomas+Veverka, ICARUS, 64:414-424, 1985 Iapetus relief USGS maps I-1486,2159 geology Croft, NASA TECH.MEM. 4300, 101-103, 1991 Phoebe sketch Thomas et al., J.GEOPHYS.RES. 88:8736-8742, 1983 Puck sketch Croft+Soderblom, URANUS, U.Ariz.Press, 1991 Miranda relief USGS map I-1920 topogr Wu, LUNAR PLANET.SCI XVIII, 1110-1111, 1987 geology Croft+Soderblom, URANUS, U.Ariz.Press, 1991 Ariel relief USGS map I-1920 geology Croft+Soderblom, URANUS, U.Ariz.Press, 1991 Umbriel relief USGS map I-1920 geology Croft+Soderblom, URANUS, U.Ariz.Press, 1991 Titania relief USGS map I-1920 geology Croft+Soderblom, URANUS, U.Ariz.Press, 1991 Oberon relief USGS map I-1920 geology Croft+Soderblom, URANUS, U.Ariz.Press, 1991 Larissa relief Stooke, submitted to EARTH,MOON,PLANETS, 1994 Proteus sketch Croft, ICARUS, 99:402-419, 1992 rel,topo Stooke, submitted to EARTH,MOON,PLANETS, 1994 Triton relief USGS maps I-2153,2154,2275 geology Smith et al., SCIENCE 246:1422-1449, 1989 Pluto albedo Buie et al., ICARUS, 97:211-227, 1992 Charon albedo Buie et al., ICARUS, 97:211-227, 1992 4 Vesta sketch Stooke, PROC.ASTER.COMET.METEOR.'91, 583-586, 1992 29 Amphitrite sketch Barucci et al., ASTER.COMET.METEOR.II, 89-92, 1986 43 Ariadne sketch Detal et al., ASTRON.ASTROPHYS. 281:269-280, 1994 243 Ida sketch Binzel et al., ICARUS, 105:310-325, 1993 532 Herculina sketch Taylor et al., ICARUS, 69:354-369, 1987 624 Hektor sketch Hartmann+Cruikshank, ICARUS, 36:353-366, 1978 951 Gaspra topogr Thomas et al., ICARUS, 107:23-36, 1994 outline Veverka+, ICARUS 107:2-17 & 72-83, 1994 geology Carr et al., ICARUS, 107:61-71, 1994 4769 Castalia relief Hudson+Ostro, SCIENCE, 263:940-943, 1994 Comet Encke sketch Sekanina, ASTRON.J. 96:1455-1475, 1988 Comet Halley sketch Moehlmann+,COM.IN POST-HALLEY ERA,p.764,Kluwer 1991 rel,topo Stooke+Abergel, ASTRON.ASTROPHYS. 248:656-668, 1991 Swift-Tuttle sketch Sekanina, ASTRON.J. 86:1741-1773, 1981 Com.Tempel-2 sketch Sekanina, ASTRON.J. 102:350-388, 1991 Interesting atlases: (no single book has maps of all bodies listed above) ATLAS PLANET ZEMNOI GRUPPA... (atlas of terrestrial planets), Russia, 1992 ATLAS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM, Hunt & Moore (eds), Rand McNally, 1983 THE ASTRONOMER'S MANUAL, A. Rukl, Crescent Books, 1989. VOYAGER ATLAS, SIX SATURNIAN SATELLITES, Batson et al., NASA SP-474, 1984 COMETARY ORBIT DATA The Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams and the Minor Planet Center announce the sixth edition of the Catalogue of Cometary Orbits in IAU Circular 4935. The catalogue contains 1292 entries which represent all known comets through November 1989 and is 96 pages long. Non-subscribers to the Circulars may purchase the catalogue for $15.00 while the cost to subscribers is $7.50. The basic catalogue in ASCII along with a program to extract specific orbits and calculate ephemerides is available on MS-DOS 5.25-inch 2S2D diskette at a cost of $75.00 (the program requires an 8087 math coprocessor). The catalogue alone is also available by e-mail for $37.50 or on magnetic tape for $300.00. Except for the printed version of the catalogue, the various magnetic media or e-mail forms of the catalogue do not specifically meantion non-subscribers. It is possible that these forms of the catalogue may not be available to non-subscribers or that their prices may be more expensive than those given. Mail requests for specific information and orders to: Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Cambridge, MA 02138, USA NEXT: FAQ #4/13 - Performing calculations and interpreting data formats From: leech@cs.unc.edu (Jon Leech) Date: 5 Jul 94 21:53:41 GMT Newsgroups: sci.space.tech,sci.space.science,sci.astro,sci.answers,news.answers Subject: Space FAQ 04/13 - Calculations Archive-name: space/math Last-modified: $Date: 94/07/05 17:51:26 $ Compilation copyright (c) 1994 by Jonathan P. Leech. This document may be redistributed in its complete and unmodified form. Other use requires written permission of the author. CONSTANTS AND EQUATIONS FOR CALCULATIONS This list was originally compiled by Dale Greer. Additions would be appreciated. Numbers in parentheses are approximations that will serve for most blue-skying purposes. Unix systems provide the 'units' program, useful in converting between different systems (metric/English, CGS/MKS etc.) NUMBERS 7726 m/s (8000) -- Earth orbital velocity at 300 km altitude 3075 m/s (3000) -- Earth orbital velocity at 35786 km (geosync) 6371 km (6400) -- Mean radius of Earth 6378 km (6400) -- Equatorial radius of Earth 1738 km (1700) -- Mean radius of Moon 5.974e24 kg (6e24) -- Mass of Earth 7.348e22 kg (7e22) -- Mass of Moon 1.989e30 kg (2e30) -- Mass of Sun 3.986e14 m^3/s^2 (4e14) -- Gravitational constant times mass of Earth 4.903e12 m^3/s^2 (5e12) -- Gravitational constant times mass of Moon 1.327e20 m^3/s^2 (13e19) -- Gravitational constant times mass of Sun 384401 km ( 4e5) -- Mean Earth-Moon distance 1.496e11 m (15e10) -- Mean Earth-Sun distance (Astronomical Unit) 1 megaton (MT) TNT = about 4.2e15 J or the energy equivalent of about .05 kg (50 g) of matter. Ref: J.R Williams, "The Energy Level of Things", Air Force Special Weapons Center (ARDC), Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, 1963. Also see "The Effects of Nuclear Weapons", compiled by S. Glasstone and P.J. Dolan, published by the US Department of Defense (obtain from the GPO). EQUATIONS Where d is distance, v is velocity, a is acceleration, t is time. Additional more specialized equations are available from: explorer.arc.nasa.gov:pub/SPACE/FAQ/MoreEquations For constant acceleration d = d0 + vt + .5at^2 v = v0 + at v^2 = 2ad Acceleration on a cylinder (space colony, etc.) of radius r and rotation period t: a = 4 pi**2 r / t^2 For circular Keplerian orbits where: Vc = velocity of a circular orbit Vesc = escape velocity M = Total mass of orbiting and orbited bodies G = Gravitational constant (defined below) u = G * M (can be measured much more accurately than G or M) K = -G * M / 2 / a r = radius of orbit (measured from center of mass of system) V = orbital velocity P = orbital period a = semimajor axis of orbit Vc = sqrt(M * G / r) Vesc = sqrt(2 * M * G / r) = sqrt(2) * Vc V^2 = u/a P = 2 pi/(Sqrt(u/a^3)) K = 1/2 V**2 - G * M / r (conservation of energy) The period of an eccentric orbit is the same as the period of a circular orbit with the same semi-major axis. Change in velocity required for a plane change of angle phi in a circular orbit: delta V = 2 sqrt(GM/r) sin (phi/2) Energy to put mass m into a circular orbit (ignores rotational velocity, which reduces the energy a bit). GMm (1/Re - 1/2Rcirc) Re = radius of the earth Rcirc = radius of the circular orbit. Classical rocket equation, where dv = change in velocity Isp = specific impulse of engine Ve = exhaust velocity x = reaction mass m1 = rocket mass excluding reaction mass g = 9.80665 m / s^2 Ve = Isp * g dv = Ve * ln((m1 + x) / m1) = Ve * ln((final mass) / (initial mass)) Relativistic rocket equation (constant acceleration) t (unaccelerated) = c/a * sinh(a*t/c) d = c**2/a * (cosh(a*t/c) - 1) v = c * tanh(a*t/c) Relativistic rocket with exhaust velocity Ve and mass ratio MR: at/c = Ve/c * ln(MR), or t (unaccelerated) = c/a * sinh(Ve/c * ln(MR)) d = c**2/a * (cosh(Ve/C * ln(MR)) - 1) v = c * tanh(Ve/C * ln(MR)) Converting from parallax to distance: d (in parsecs) = 1 / p (in arc seconds) d (in astronomical units) = 206265 / p Miscellaneous f=ma -- Force is mass times acceleration w=fd -- Work (energy) is force times distance Atmospheric density varies as exp(-mgz/kT) where z is altitude, m is molecular weight in kg of air, g is local acceleration of gravity, T is temperature, k is Bolztmann's constant. On Earth up to 100 km, d = d0*exp(-z*1.42e-4) where d is density, d0 is density at 0km, is approximately true, so d@12km (40000 ft) = d0*.18 d@9 km (30000 ft) = d0*.27 d@6 km (20000 ft) = d0*.43 d@3 km (10000 ft) = d0*.65 Atmospheric scale height Dry lapse rate (in km at emission level) (K/km) ------------------------- -------------- Earth 7.5 9.8 Mars 11 4.4 Venus 4.9 10.5 Titan 18 1.3 Jupiter 19 2.0 Saturn 37 0.7 Uranus 24 0.7 Neptune 21 0.8 Triton 8 1 Titius-Bode Law for approximating planetary distances: R(n) = 0.4 + 0.3 * 2^N Astronomical Units This fits fairly well for Mercury (N = -infinity), Venus (N = 0), Earth (N = 1), Mars (N = 2), Jupiter (N = 4), Saturn (N = 5), Uranus (N = 6), and Pluto (N = 7). CONSTANTS 6.62618e-34 J-s (7e-34) -- Planck's Constant "h" 1.054589e-34 J-s (1e-34) -- Planck's Constant / (2 * PI), "h bar" 1.3807e-23 J/K (1.4e-23) - Boltzmann's Constant "k" 5.6697e-8 W/m^2/K (6e-8) -- Stephan-Boltzmann Constant "sigma" 6.673e-11 N m^2/kg^2 (7e-11) -- Newton's Gravitational Constant "G" 0.0029 m K (3e-3) -- Wien's Constant "sigma(W)" 3.827e26 W (4e26) -- Luminosity of Sun 1370 W / m^2 (1400) -- Solar Constant (intensity at 1 AU) 6.96e8 m (7e8) -- radius of Sun 1738 km (2e3) -- radius of Moon 299792458 m/s (3e8) -- speed of light in vacuum "c" 9.46053e15 m (1e16) -- light year 206264.806 AU (2e5) -- \ 3.2616 light years (3) -- --> parsec 3.0856e16 m (3e16) -- / Black Hole radius (also called Schwarzschild Radius): 2GM/c^2, where G is Newton's Grav Constant, M is mass of BH, c is speed of light Things to add (somebody look them up!) Basic rocketry numbers & equations Aerodynamical stuff Energy to put a pound into orbit or accelerate to interstellar velocities. Non-circular cases? PERFORMING CALCULATIONS AND INTERPRETING DATA FORMATS COMPUTING SPACECRAFT ORBITS AND TRAJECTORIES References that have been frequently recommended on the net are: "Fundamentals of Astrodynamics" Roger Bate, Donald Mueller, Jerry White 1971, Dover Press, 455pp $8.95 (US) (paperback). ISBN 0-486-60061-0 NASA Spaceflight handbooks (dating from the 1960s) SP-33 Orbital Flight Handbook (3 parts) SP-34 Lunar Flight Handbook (3 parts) SP-35 Planetary Flight Handbook (9 parts) These might be found in university aeronautics libraries or ordered through the US Govt. Printing Office (GPO), although more information would probably be needed to order them. M. A. Minovitch, _The Determination and Characteristics of Ballistic Interplanetary Trajectories Under the Influence of Multiple Planetary Attractions_, Technical Report 32-464, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., Oct, 1963. The title says all. Starts of with the basics and works its way up. Very good. It has a companion article: M. Minovitch, _Utilizing Large Planetary Perubations for the Design of Deep-Space Solar-Probe and Out of Ecliptic Trajectories_, Technical Report 32-849, JPL, Pasadena, Calif., 1965. You need to read the first one first to realy understand this one. It does include a _short_ summary if you can only find the second. Contact JPL for availability of these reports. "Spacecraft Attitude Dynamics", Peter C. Hughes 1986, John Wiley and Sons. "Celestial Mechanics: a computational guide for the practitioner", Lawrence G. Taff, (Wiley-Interscience, New York, 1985). Starts with the basics (2-body problem, coordinates) and works up to orbit determinations, perturbations, and differential corrections. Taff also briefly discusses stellar dynamics including a short discussion of n-body problems. COMPUTING PLANETARY POSITIONS More net references: "Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Almanac" (revised edition), Kenneth Seidelmann, University Science Books, 1992. ISBN 0-935702-68-7. $65 in hardcover. Deep math for all the algorthms and tables in the AA. Van Flandern & Pullinen, _Low-Precision Formulae for Planetary Positions_, Astrophysical J. Supp Series, 41:391-411, 1979. Look in an astronomy or physics library for this; also said to be available from Willmann-Bell. Gives series to compute positions accurate to 1 arc minute for a period + or - 300 years from now. Pluto is included but stated to have an accuracy of only about 15 arc minutes. _Multiyear Interactive Computer Almanac_ (MICA), produced by the US Naval Observatory. Valid for years 1990-1999. $55 ($80 outside US). Available for IBM (order #PB93-500163HDV) or Macintosh (order #PB93-500155HDV). From the NTIS sales desk, (703)-487-4650. I believe this is intended to replace the USNO's Interactive Computer Ephemeris. _Interactive Computer Ephemeris_ (from the US Naval Observatory) distributed on IBM-PC floppy disks, $35 (Willmann-Bell). Covers dates 1800-2049. "Planetary Programs and Tables from -4000 to +2800", Bretagnon & Simon 1986, Willmann-Bell. Floppy disks available separately. "Fundamentals of Celestial Mechanics" (2nd ed), J.M.A. Danby 1988, Willmann-Bell. A good fundamental text. Includes BASIC programs; a companion set of floppy disks is available separately. "Astronomical Formulae for Calculators" (4th ed.), J. Meeus 1988, Willmann-Bell. "Astronomical Algorithms", J. Meeus 1991, Willmann-Bell. If you actively use one of the editions of "Astronomical Formulae for Calculators", you will want to replace it with "Astronomical Algorithms". This new book is more oriented towards computers than calculators and contains formulae for planetary motion based on modern work by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the U.S. Naval Observatory, and the Bureau des Longitudes. The previous books were all based on formulae mostly developed in the last century. Algorithms available separately on diskette. "Practical Astronomy with your Calculator" (3rd ed.), P. Duffett-Smith 1988, Cambridge University Press. "Orbits for Amateurs with a Microcomputer", D. Tattersfield 1984, Stanley Thornes, Ltd. Includes example programs in BASIC. "Orbits for Amateurs II", D. Tattersfield 1987, John Wiley & Sons. "Astronomy / Scientific Software" - catalog of shareware, public domain, and commercial software for IBM and other PCs. Astronomy software includes planetarium simulations, ephemeris generators, astronomical databases, solar system simulations, satellite tracking programs, celestial mechanics simulators, and more. Andromeda Software, Inc. P.O. Box 605 Amherst, NY 14226-0605 COMPUTING CRATER DIAMETERS FROM EARTH-IMPACTING ASTEROIDS Astrogeologist Gene Shoemaker proposes the following formula, based on studies of cratering caused by nuclear tests. (1/3.4) D = S S c K W : crater diameter in km g p f n (1/6) S = (g /g ) : gravity correction factor for bodies other than g e t Earth, where g = 9.8 m/s^2 and g is the surface e t gravity of the target body. This scaling is cited for lunar craters and may hold true for other bodies. (1/3.4) S = (p / p ) : correction factor for target density p , p a t t p = 1.8 g/cm^3 for alluvium at the Jangle U a crater site, p = 2.6 g/cm^3 for average rock on the continental shields. C : crater collapse factor, 1 for craters <= 3 km in diameter, 1.3 for larger craters (on Earth). (1/3.4) K : .074 km / (kT TNT equivalent) n empirically determined from the Jangle U nuclear test crater. 3 2 22 W = pi * d * delta * V / (12 * 4.185 * 10 ) : projectile kinetic energy in MT TNT equivalent given diameter d, velocity v, and projectile density delta in CGS units. delta of around 3 g/cm^3 is fairly good for an asteroid. An RMS velocity of V = 20 km/sec may be used for Earth-crossing asteroids. Under these assumptions, the body which created the Barringer Meteor Crater in Arizona (1.13 km diameter) would have been about 40 meters in diameter. More generally, one can use (after Gehrels, 1985): Asteroid Number of objects Impact probability Impact energy as diameter (km) (impacts/year) multiple of Hiroshima bomb 10 10 10^-8 10^9 1 1 000 10^-6 10^6 0.1 100 000 10^-4 10^3 assuming simple scaling laws. The Hiroshima explosion is assumed to be .013 MT TNT equivalent, or about 5*10^13 joules. References: Clark Chapman and David Morrison, "Cosmic Catasrophes", Plenum Press 1989, ISBN 0-306-43163-7. Gehrels, T. 1985 Asteroids and comets. _Physics Today_ 38, 32-41. [an excellent general overview of the subject for the layman] Shoemaker, E.M. 1983 Asteroid and comet bombardment of the earth. _Ann. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci._ 11, 461-494. [very long and fairly technical but a comprehensive examination of the subject] Shoemaker, E.M., J.G. Williams, E.F. Helin & R.F. Wolfe 1979 Earth-crossing asteroids: Orbital classes, collision rates with Earth, and origin. In _Asteroids_, T. Gehrels, ed., pp. 253-282, University of Arizona Press, Tucson. Cunningham, C.J. 1988 _Introduction to Asteroids: The Next Frontier_ (Richmond: Willman-Bell, Inc.) [covers all aspects of asteroid studies and is an excellent introduction to the subject for people of all experience levels. It also has a very extensive reference list covering essentially all of the reference material in the field.] MAP PROJECTIONS AND SPHERICAL TRIGNOMETRY Two easy-to-find sources of map projections are the "Encyclopaedia Britannica", (particularly the older editions) and a tutorial appearing in _Graphics Gems_ (Academic Press, 1990). The latter was written with simplicity of exposition and suitability for digital computation in mind (spherical trig formulae also appear, as do digitally-plotted examples). More than you ever cared to know about map projections is in John Snyder's USGS publication "Map Projections--A Working Manual", USGS Professional Paper 1395. This contains detailed descriptions of 32 projections, with history, features, projection formulas (for both spherical earth and ellipsoidal earth), and numerical test cases. It's a neat book, all 382 pages worth. This one's $20. You might also want the companion volume, by Snyder and Philip Voxland, "An Album of Map Projections", USGS Professional Paper 1453. This contains less detail on about 130 projections and variants. Formulas are in the back, example plots in the front. $14, 250 pages. You can order these 2 ways. The cheap, slow way is direct from USGS: Earth Science Information Center, US Geological Survey, 507 National Center, Reston, VA 22092. (800)-USA-MAPS. They can quote you a price and tell you where to send your money. Expect a 6-8 week turnaround time. A much faster way (about 1 week) is through Timely Discount Topos, (303)-469-5022, 9769 W. 119th Drive, Suite 9, Broomfield, CO 80021. Call them and tell them what you want. They'll quote a price, you send a check, and then they go to USGS Customer Service Counter and pick it up for you. Add about a $3-4 service charge, plus shipping. A (perhaps more accessible) mapping article is: R. Miller and F. Reddy, "Mapping the World in Pascal", Byte V12 #14, December 1987 Contains Turbo Pascal procedures for five common map projections. A demo program, CARTOG.PAS, and a small (6,000 point) coastline data is available on CompuServe, GEnie, and many BBSs. Some references for spherical trignometry are: _Spherical Astronomy_, W.M. Smart, Cambridge U. Press, 1931. _A Compendium of Spherical Astronomy_, S. Newcomb, Dover, 1960. _Spherical Astronomy_, R.M. Green, Cambridge U. Press., 1985 (update of Smart). _Spherical Astronomy_, E Woolard and G.Clemence, Academic Press, 1966. PERFORMING N-BODY SIMULATIONS EFFICIENTLY "Computer Simulation Using Particles" R. W. Hockney and J. W. Eastwood (Adam Hilger; Bristol and Philadelphia; 1988) "The rapid evaluation of potential fields in particle systems", L. Greengard MIT Press, 1988. A breakthrough O(N) simulation method. Has been parallelized. L. Greengard and V. Rokhlin, "A fast algorithm for particle simulations," Journal of Computational Physics, 73:325-348, 1987. "An O(N) Algorithm for Three-dimensional N-body Simulations", MSEE thesis, Feng Zhao, MIT AILab Technical Report 995, 1987 "Galactic Dynamics" J. Binney & S. Tremaine (Princeton U. Press; Princeton; 1987) Includes an O(N^2) FORTRAN code written by Aarseth, a pioneer in the field. Hierarchical (N log N) tree methods are described in these papers: A. W. Appel, "An Efficient Program for Many-body Simulation", SIAM Journal of Scientific and Statistical Computing, Vol. 6, p. 85, 1985. Barnes & Hut, "A Hierarchical O(N log N) Force-Calculation Algorithm", Nature, V324 # 6096, 4-10 Dec 1986. L. Hernquist, "Hierarchical N-body Methods", Computer Physics Communications, Vol. 48, p. 107, 1988. INTERPRETING THE FITS IMAGE FORMAT If you just need to examine FITS images, use the ppm package (see the comp.graphics FAQ) to convert them to your preferred format. For more information on the format and other software to read and write it, see the sci.astro.fits FAQ. NEARBY STAR/GALAXY COORDINATES To generate 3D coordinates of astronomical objects, first obtain an astronomical database which specifies right ascension, declination, and parallax for the objects. Convert parallax into distance using the formula in part 6 of the FAQ, convert RA and declination to coordinates on a unit sphere (see some of the references on planetary positions and spherical trignometry earlier in this section for details on this), and scale this by the distance. Two databases useful for this purpose are the Yale Bright Star catalog (sources listed in FAQ section 3) or "The Catalogue of Stars within 25 parsecs of the Sun", in ftp://explorer.arc.nasa.gov/pub/SPACE/FAQ/ (files stars.data,stars.doc) A potentially useful book along these lines is: "Proximity Zero, A Writer's Guide to the Nearest 200 Stars (A 40-Lightyear Radius)" Terry Kepner ISBN # 0-926895-02-8 Available from the author for $14.95 + $2.90 shipping ($5 outside US): Terry Kepner PO Box 481 Petersborough, NH 03458 NEXT: FAQ #5/13 - References on specific areas From: leech@cs.unc.edu (Jon Leech) Date: 5 Jul 94 21:53:43 GMT Newsgroups: sci.space.tech,sci.space.science,sci.astro,sci.answers,news.answers Subject: Space FAQ 05/13 - References Archive-name: space/references Last-modified: $Date: 94/07/05 17:51:30 $ Compilation copyright (c) 1994 by Jonathan P. Leech. This document may be redistributed in its complete and unmodified form. Other use requires written permission of the author. REFERENCES ON SPECIFIC AREAS PUBLISHERS OF SPACE/ASTRONOMY MATERIAL Astronomical Society of the Pacific 1290 24th Avenue San Francisco, CA 94122 More expensive but better organized slide sets. Cambridge University Press 32 East 57th Street New York, NY 10022 Crawford-Peters Aeronautica P.O. Box 152528 San Diego, CA 92115 (619) 287-3933 An excellent source of all kinds of space publications. They publish a number of catalogs, including: Aviation and Space, 1945-1962 Aviation and Space, 1962-1990 Space and Related Titles European Southern Observatory Information and Photographic Service Dr R.M. West Karl Scharzschild Strasse 2 D-8046 Garching bei Munchen FRG Slide sets, posters, photographs, conference proceedings. Finley Holiday Film Corporation 12607 East Philadelphia Street Whittier, California 90601 (213)945-3325 (800)FILMS-07 Wide selection of Apollo, Shuttle, Viking, and Voyager slides at ~50 cents/slide. Call for a catalog. Hansen Planetarium Publications 1845 South 300 West, # A Salt Lake City, Utah 84115-1804 (801-483-5400) / (800)-321-2369 (801)-483-5484 (fax) Said to hold sales on old slide sets. Look in Sky & Telescope for contact info. Lunar and Planetary Institute also Univ. Space Research Assn. (USRA) Division of Educational Programs also USRA Division of Space Life Sciences Center for Advanced Space Studies 3600 Bay Area Boulevard Houston TX 77058-1113 (713)-486-2182 LPI has a quarterly magazine, "The Lunar and Planetary Information Bulletin," edited by thompson@lpi.jsc.nasa.gov (P. Thompson). Also technical, geology-oriented slide sets, with supporting booklets. John Wiley & Sons 605 Third Avenue New York, NY 10158-0012 Sky Publishing Corporation PO Box 9111 Belmont, MA 02178-9111 Offers "Sky Catalogue 2000.0" on PC floppy with information (including parallax) for 45000 stars. Roger Wheate Geography Dept. University of Calgary, Alberta Canada T2N 1N4 (403)-220-4892 (403)-282-7298 (FAX) wheate@uncamult.bitnet Offers a 40-slide set called "Mapping the Planets" illustrating recent work in planetary cartography, comes with a booklet and information on getting your own copies of the maps. $50 Canadian, shipping included. Superintendent of Documents US Government Printing Office Washington, DC 20402 Univelt, Inc. P. O. Box 28130 San Diego, Ca. 92128 Publishers for the American Astronomical Society. US Naval Observatory 202-653-1079 (USNO Bulletin Board via modem) 202-653-1507 General Willmann-Bell P.O. Box 35025 Richmond, Virginia 23235 USA (804)-320-7016 9-5 EST M-F CAREERS IN THE SPACE INDUSTRY In 1990 the Princeton Planetary Society published the first edition of "Space Jobs: The Guide to Careers in Space-Related Fields." The publication was enormously successful: we distributed 2000 copies to space enthusiasts across the country and even sent a few to people in Great Britain, Australia, and Ecuador. Due to the tremendous response to the first edition, PPS has published an expanded, up-to-date second edition of the guide. The 40-page publication boasts 69 listings for summer and full-time job opportunities as well as graduate school programs. The second edition of "Space Jobs" features strategies for entering the space field and describes positions at consulting and engineering firms, NASA, and non-profit organizations. The expanded special section on graduate schools highlights a myriad of programs ranging from space manufacturing to space policy. Additional sections include tips on becoming an astronaut and listings of NASA Space Grant Fellowships and Consortia, as well as NASA Centers for the Commercial Development of Space. To order send check or money order made payable to Princeton Planetary Society for $4 per copy, plus $1 per copy for shipping and handling (non-US customers send an International Money Order payable in US dollars) to: Princeton Planetary Society 315 West College Princeton University Princeton, NJ 08544 COMET/JUPITER IMPACT Dan Bruton (astro@tamu.edu) maintains a lengthy FAQ covering the upcoming impact of Comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter in July, 1994. It is frequently posted to sci.astro and can also be obtained via ftp://tamsun.tamu.edu/pub/comet/comet.faq http://info.cv.nrao.edu/staff/pmurphy/jove-comet-wham-2.html A mailing list has been established for SL-9 discussion. Email LISTPROC@SEDS.LPL.ARIZONA.EDU saying "SUBSCRIBE SL9 YOUR_FIRST_NAME YOUR_LAST_NAME" to join. DC-X SINGLE-STAGE TO ORBIT (SSTO) PROGRAM BMDO SSRT (Single Stage Rocket Technology) project has funded a suborbital technology demonstrator called DC-X that flew successfully three times in August and September 1993. The SSRT program has been moved from BMDO to ARPA, and may now move to NASA. If funded, flight tests of DC-X will be completed, followed by a building more capable test vehicles. With luck this would culminate in a SSTO demonstrator in 5-6 years. DC-X and the SSTO concept have attracted a great deal of interest on the net, and discussion continues. An collection of pictures and files relating to DC-X is at ftp://ftp.cc.utexas.edu/pub/delta-clipper/ http://gargravarr.cc.utexas.edu/delta-clipper/title.html A SSRT news mailing list, which echoes additions to this archive site, can be subscribed to by sending email to "listserv@zimbazi.cc.utexas.edu" with a first line containing "subscribe ssrt-news". Contact Chris W. Johnson (chrisj@bongo.cc.utexas.edu). HOW TO NAME A STAR AFTER A PERSON Official names are decided by committees of the International Astronomical Union, and are not for sale. There are purely commercial organizations which will, for a fee, send you pretty certificates and star maps describing where to find "your" star. These organizations have absolutely no standing in the astronomical community and the names they assign are not used by anyone else. It's also likely that you won't be able to see "your" star without binoculars or a telescope. See the back pages of Astronomy or other amateur astronomy publications for contact info; one such organization may be found at: International Star Registry 34523 Wilson Road Ingleside, IL 60041 This is not an endorsement of ISR. LLNL "GREAT EXPLORATION" The LLNL "Great Exploration", a plan for an on-the-cheap space station, Lunar base, and Mars mission using inflatable space structures, excited a lot of interest on the net and still comes up from time to time. Some references cited during net discussion were: Avation Week Jan 22, 1990 for an article on the overall Great Exploration NASA Assessment of the LLNL Space Exploration Proposal and LLNL Responses by Dr. Lowell Wood LLNL Doc. No. SS 90-9. Their address is: PO Box 808 Livermore, CA 94550 (the NASA authors are unknown). Briefing slides of a presentation to the NRC last December may be available. Write LLNL and ask. Conceptual Design Study for Modular Inflatable Space Structures, a final report for purchase order B098747 by ILC Dover INC. I don't know how to get this except from LLNL or ILC Dover. I don't have an address for ILC. LUNAR PROSPECTOR Lunar Exploration Inc. (LEI) is a non-profit corporation working on a privately funded lunar polar orbiter. Lunar Prospector is designed to perform a geochemical survey and search for frozen volatiles at the poles. A set of reference files describing the project is in ftp://explorer.arc.nasa.gov/pub/SPACE/LEI/ LUNAR SCIENCE AND ACTIVITIES Grant H Heiken, David T Vaniman, and Bevan M French (editors), "Lunar Sourcebook, A User's Guide to the Moon", Cambridge University Press 1991, ISBN 0-521-33444-6; hardcover; expensive. A one-volume encyclopedia of essentially everything known about the Moon, reviewing current knowledge in considerable depth, with copious references. Heavy emphasis on geology, but a lot more besides, including considerable discussion of past lunar missions and practical issues relevant to future mission design. *The* reference book for the Moon; all others are obsolete. Wendell Mendell (ed), "Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century", $15. "Every serious student of lunar bases *must* have this book" - Bill Higgins. Available from: Lunar and Planetary Institute 3303 NASA Road One Houston, TX 77058-4399 If you want to order books, call (713)486-2172. Thomas A. Mutch, "Geology of the Moon: A Stratigraphic View", Princeton University Press, 1970. Information about the Lunar Orbiter missions, including maps of the coverage of the lunar nearside and farside by various Orbiters. MARS DIRECT / LUNAR DIRECT Robert Zubrin and collaborators have developed several proposals for near-term, low cost manned missions to Mars and the Moon. These proposals center around the use of "indigenous propellants" to reduce the mass which must be launched from Earth - for example, sending a robotic "mining" vehicle to Mars before the astronauts arrive, which would extract methane from the atmosphere for use on the return trip. Some references are: Zubrin, R. and Baker, D., "Mars Direct: A Simple, Robust, and Cost Effective Architecture for the Space Exploration Initiative, AIAA paper 91-0326, 29th Aerospace Science Meeting, Reno, Nevada, Jan. 7-10, 1991. Zubrin, R. and Baker, D., "Humans to Mars in 1999", Aerospace America, Aug. 1990, p. 30-32, 41. Walberg, G., "Ho Shall We Go to Mars? A Review of Mission Scenarios", Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, Vol. 30, No. 2, Mar.-Apr. 1993, p.129-139. ORBITING EARTH SATELLITE HISTORIES A list of Earth orbiting satellites (that are still in orbit) is in ftp://explorer.arc.nasa.gov/pub/SPACE/FAQ/Satellites SPACECRAFT MODELS References to plans, kits, building, and other information can be found in the Rec.Models.Rockets FAQ in the rec.models.rockets newsgroup. Greg Bollendonk (gregb@gemini.den.mmc.com) maintains a lengthy document including a catalog of available models, mail order sources, and periodicals and literature in the field. This is available at ftp://explorer.arc.nasa.gov/pub/SPACE/FAQ/ModelCatalog ROCKET PROPULSION George P. Sutton, "Rocket Propulsion Elements", 5th edn, Wiley-Interscience 1986, ISBN 0-471-80027-9. Pricey textbook. The best (nearly the only) modern introduction to the technical side of rocketry. A good place to start if you want to know the details. Not for the math-shy. Straight chemical rockets, essentially nothing on more advanced propulsion (although earlier editions reportedly had some coverage). Dieter K. Huzel and David H. Huang, "Modern Engineering for Design of Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines", revised, updated, and enlarged by many others. Volume 147 in Progress in Astronautics and Aeronautics, AIAA 1992, ISBN 1-56347-013-6. Order through "Tasco", which sells books for the AIAA. They are reachable at 1-800-682-2422, 9 to 5 eastern time. Cost is $109.95. The updated version is well worth having. In spite of its title, it isn't strictly limited to engines but also deals with issues closely coupled to engine design, such as tank pressurization, engine-vehicle interfaces etc. It appears that the update is largely the work of the older generation of engineers at Rocketdyne, with the idea that "It is immensely important that the skills, experience, and know-how of this earlier generation be preserved and passed on to a younger generation - clearly, completely, and effectively" (W.F. Ezell, V.P. Engineering, Rocketdyne, in the book's preface). [review by Bruce Dunn] SPACECRAFT DESIGN Brij N. Agrawal, "Design of Geosynchronous Spacecraft", Prentice-Hall, ISBN 0-13-200114-4. James R. Wertz ed, "Spacecraft Attitude Determination and Control", Kluwer, ISBN 90-277-1204-2. P.R.K. Chetty, "Satellite Technology and its Applications", McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0-8306-9688-1. "Spacecraft Systems Engineering", Peter Fortescue and John Stark (editors), John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0-471-93451-8. Henry Spencer: "I think I would rate this as better than Wertz&Larson in a lot of ways. It doesn't go into the same depth on some topics, especially the ones that are more mission planning than hardware design. On the other hand, it goes into noticeably more depth on many things, and it is generally more interesting reading. For serious spacecraft engineering I'd want both, but this is the one I'd recommend for someone who just wanted to buy one book for a good technical overview." James R. Wertz and Wiley J. Larson (editors), "Space Mission Analysis and Design", Kluwer Academic Publishers (Dordrecht/Boston/London) 1991, ISBN 0-7923-0971-5 (paperback), or 0-7923-0970-7 (hardback). This looks at system-level design of a spacecraft, rather than detailed design. 23 chapters, 4 appendices, about 430 pages. It leads the reader through the mission design and system-level design of a fictitious earth-observation satellite, to illustrate the principles that it tries to convey. Warning: although the book is chock-full of many useful reference tables, some of the numbers in at least one of those tables (launch costs for various launchers) appear to be quite wrong. Can be ordered by telephone, using a credit card; Kluwer's phone number is (617)-871-6600. Cost $34.50. ESOTERIC PROPULSION SCHEMES (SOLAR SAILS, LASERS, FUSION...) This needs more and more up-to-date references, but it's a start. ANTIMATTER "Antiproton Annihilation Propulsion", Robert Forward AFRPL TR-85-034 from the Air Force Rocket Propulsion Laboratory (AFRPL/XRX, Stop 24, Edwards Air Force Base, CA 93523-5000). NTIS AD-A160 734/0 PC A10/MF A01 PC => Paper copy, A10 => $US57.90 -- or maybe Price Code? MF => MicroFiche, A01 => $US13.90 Technical study on making, holding, and using antimatter for near-term (30-50 years) propulsion systems. Excellent bibliography. Forward is the best-known proponent of antimatter. This also may be available as UDR-TR-85-55 from the contractor, the University of Dayton Research Institute, and DTIC AD-A160 from the Defense Technical Information Center, Defense Logistics Agency, Cameron Station, Alexandria, VA 22304-6145. And it's also available from the NTIS, with yet another number. "Advanced Space Propulsion Study, Antiproton and Beamed Power Propulsion", Robert Forward AFAL TR-87-070 from the Air Force Astronautics Laboratory, DTIC #AD-A189 218. NTIS AD-A189 218/1 PC A10/MF A01 Summarizes the previous paper, goes into detail on beamed power systems including " 1) pellet, microwave, and laser beamed power systems for intersteller transport; 2) a design for a near-relativistic laser-pushed lightsail using near-term laser technology; 3) a survey of laser thermal propulsion, tether transportation systems, antiproton annihilation propulsion, exotic applications of solar sails, and laser-pushed interstellar lightsails; 4) the status of antiproton annihilation propulsion as of 1986; and 5) the prospects for obtaining antimatter ions heavier than antiprotons." Again, there is an extensive bibliography. "Application of Antimatter - Electric Power to Interstellar Propulsion", G. D. Nordley, JBIS Interstellar Studies issue of 6/90. BUSSARD RAMJETS AND RELATED METHODS R. W. Bussard, "Galactic Matter and Interstellar Flight", Astronautica Acta 6 (1960): 179 - 194. G. L. Matloff and A. J. Fennelly, "Interstellar Applications and Limitations of Several Electrostatic/Electromagnetic Ion Collection Techniques", JBIS 30 (1977):213-222 N. H. Langston, "The Erosion of Interstellar Drag Screens", JBIS 26 (1973): 481-484 C. Powell, "Flight Dynamics of the Ram-Augmented Interstellar Rocket", JBIS 28 (1975):553-562 A. R. Martin, "The Effects of Drag on Relativistic Spacefight", JBIS 25 (1972):643-652 D.P. Whitmire, "Relativistic Spaceflight and the Catalytic Nuclear Ramjet", Acta Astronautica 2 (1975): 497 - 509. D.P. Whitmire and A.A. Jackson, "Laser Powered Interstellar Ramjet", JBIS 30 (1977):223 - 226. FUSION "A Laser Fusion Rocket for Interplanetary Propulsion", Roderick Hyde, LLNL report UCRL-88857. (Contact the Technical Information Dept. at Livermore) Fusion Pellet design: Fuel selection. Energy loss mechanisms. Pellet compression metrics. Thrust Chamber: Magnetic nozzle. Shielding. Tritium breeding. Thermal modeling. Fusion Driver (lasers, particle beams, etc): Heat rejection. Vehicle Summary: Mass estimates. Vehicle Performance: Interstellar travel required exhaust velocities at the limit of fusion's capability. Interplanetary missions are limited by power/weight ratio. Trajectory modeling. Typical mission profiles. References, including the 1978 report in JBIS, "Project Daedalus", and several on ICF and driver technology. "Fusion as Electric Propulsion", Robert W. Bussard, Journal of Propulsion and Power, Vol. 6, No. 5, Sept.-Oct. 1990 Fusion rocket engines are analyzed as electric propulsion systems, with propulsion thrust-power-input-power ratio (the thrust-power "gain" G(t)) much greater than unity. Gain values of conventional (solar, fission) electric propulsion systems are always quite small (e.g., G(t)<0.8). With these, "high-thrust" interplanetary flight is not possible, because system acceleration (a(t)) capabilities are always less than the local gravitational acceleration. In contrast, gain values 50-100 times higher are found for some fusion concepts, which offer "high-thrust" flight capability. One performance example shows a 53.3 day (34.4 powered; 18.9 coast), one-way transit time with 19% payload for a single-stage Earth/Mars vehicle. Another shows the potential for high acceleration (a(t)=0.55g(o)) flight in Earth/moon space. "The QED Engine System: Direct Electric Fusion-Powered Systems for Aerospace Flight Propulsion" by Robert W. Bussard, EMC2-1190-03, available from Energy/Matter Conversion Corp., 9100 A. Center Street, Manassas, VA 22110. [This is an introduction to the application of Bussard's version of the Farnsworth/Hirsch electrostatic confinement fusion technology to propulsion. 1500