Re: Death Sentence for the Hubble?

From: D Schneider (snidelyd_at_netscape.com)
Date: 03/25/05 

Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2005 12:36:21 -0800

Jeff Findley <jeff.findley@ugs.nojunk.com> wrote:

Nits:

> [....] Now we
> have dozens of different companies in the long distance business, local
> phone systems owned by companies other than "ma bell",

Urrr, *had* dozens, and getting smaller by the day: SBC, Verizon, Sprint,
MCI, and the last 2 don't seem to be growing market share in that business
segment. AT&T may still have long distance holdings, but they're hurting
bad. One thing that has happened is the pre-paid phone card allowing
brokering of long distance services.

> cell phones, and voice over IP

It's not clear to me that either of these are the result of the breakup of
AT&T, or that they wouldn't have heppened without the breakup of AT&T.
These involve other technologies maturing rather than just incremental
evolution of telephone service. Note that one of the motivations for VoIP
is avoiding long distance charges, even in these days of depressed long
distance charges.

> (to say nothing of beepers, text messaging, and the Internet).

text message postdates the breakup, but the other don't.

[....]
> Re-entry is only "hard" because we've always done it with very dense
> re-entry vehicles. An RLV will be mostly empty tankage, so the heating
> during reentry will be far less severe than what any other US reentry
> vehicle has encounterd in the past.
>
> Note that early on, the ET on the shuttle included a vent on the nost to
> force it to tumble as it re-entered. If it didn't tumble, it was
> possible
> that it might actually hit the ocean more or less intact. Note that the
> original material of the ET was a fairly simple aluminum alloy and the
> insulation a fairly simple (cheap) spray on insulation instead of the
> reinforced carbon-carbon and silica tiles on the shuttle.

The ET is only a suborbital reentry; it is good supporting evidence but
not sufficient evidence for the claim that "reentry can be made easy".

/dps 

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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Death Sentence for the Hubble?
    ... > have dozens of different companies in the long distance business, ... Urrr, *had* dozens, and getting smaller by the day: ... AT&T may still have long distance holdings, ... > during reentry will be far less severe than what any other US reentry ...
    (sci.space.policy)
  • Re: Death Sentence for the Hubble?
    ... AT&T may still have long distance holdings, ... > brokering of long distance services. ... Note that one of the motivations for VoIP ... >> during reentry will be far less severe than what any other US reentry ...
    (sci.astro)
  • Re: Death Sentence for the Hubble?
    ... AT&T may still have long distance holdings, ... > brokering of long distance services. ... Note that one of the motivations for VoIP ... >> during reentry will be far less severe than what any other US reentry ...
    (sci.space.policy)
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