SPACE echo FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)  
(Originally compiled by Bev Freed, founder of this echo
 who retired after 6 years as Moderator in Dec 1995)

=========================== Subjects This FAQ Covers ======
1.   What's NASA Select? 
2.   What's NASA Spacelink?
3.   I have this great idea for (insert pet idea).  
4.   Why can't they use the Enterprise? 
5.   What happen to the Saturn V plans? What about reviving
     the Saturn V as a heavy-lift launcher?
6.   What about UFOs and that Face on Mars?
7.   What about Challenger? 
8.   Did Buran ever fly?  When will it fly again? 
9.   Hurl nuclear waste into the Sun!
===========================================================

1.   What's NASA Select? 
     A satellite audio/video service offered by NASA.  You can't
     receive it unless you own a TVRO system and can receive 
     SatCom F2, or subscribe to a cable company willing to carry it.

2.   What's NASA Spacelink?
     A BBS for educators operated by the Marshall Space Flight Center.
     Number: (205) 895-0028.
     NOTE: Unfortunately, "guest" access is No Longer available
     to this dial up service, as the welcome screen told a recent
     visitor. My thanks to Andrew in Australia for this info. 29/01/98.  

3.   I have this great idea for (insert pet idea).  
     Why don't they use it?  
     Bets are on it's already been considered and trashed.  Hope you 
     aren't surprised, but 9,999 out of 10,000 have usually been
     thought of before.  NASA fields thousands of these each day.

4.   Why can't they use the Enterprise? 
     The test article known as Enterprise was put through the wringer,
     so to speak.  It wasn't meant to be space-worthy.  Currently, it
     is at Dulles International awaiting its new home -
     - a special museum.  

5.   What happen to the Saturn V plans? What about reviving the 
     Saturn V as a heavy-lift launcher?
     Possible but very expensive.  Tools, engineers, subcontractors, 
     facilities are gone or converted for the shuttle, and would 
     need rebuilding, re-testing, or even total redesign.

6.   What about UFOs and that Face on Mars?
     What about them?  We DON'T discuss such topics on the Space 
     Echo.  There is a UFO echo on the backbone.  
     Take UFO/Martian/space alien discussions there. 

7.   What about Challenger? 
     As a nation attempting to develop a space-faring civilization, 
     we learned much and agonized greatly over the tragedy.  The 
     best way to pick up after tragedy is to move on, leave the 
     memories in our hearts, and carry out the mission by continuing
     forward.  The friends and families of the Challenger astronauts
     and the ground teams may run across this conference, and it 
     would behoove us all to treat the mission with quiet respect. 

8.   Did Buran ever fly?  When will it fly again? 
     Buran's one and only flight (unmanned) was 15 Nov 88 with a 
     liftoff time of 6:00 a.m., Moscow time.  Now a museum piece,
     it will not fly again.  Its flight consisted of two orbits 
     at 51.6 degrees.

9.   Hurl nuclear waste into the Sun!
     Launching anything into the Sun is enormously expensive, very 
     difficult, and not terribly efficient.  The payload couldn't be
     very much, which means you'd have many launches.  Earth orbits 
     the Sun at something like 18 miles per second.  To send a 
     payload directly into the Sun, you must cancel out this 18
     mi/sec vector, leaving the payload "standing still" so it 
     will fall directly into the Sun.  If you leave it with much
     forward vector, it will orbit in a very narrow ellipse with
     the top end at Earth's orbit, and we could COLLIDE with it.
     It's very difficult to send an object up to 5 mi/sec to 
     attain orbit.  Pushing something to 18 mi/sec is vastly harder.
     We simply don't have the technology to achieve this, 
     and when we do, we might be "breeding" bacteria to resolve the 
     problem, or we might find a great use for the stuff. 

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