Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - November 8, 1987, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press november Page 11 by James Fisher Orlando Sentinel Washington later this the United states will take the biggest civilian space Gamble since it bet in 1972 that the shuttle would become the revolutionary answer to Safe and reliable Orbital the country lost seven Astro nasal Quarte Century reputation and the nations preeminence in space exploration on that now Many fear that the Odds Arent much better As the nation officially commits itself to a space James administrator of the National aeronautics and space expects to receive soon final recommendations to award four major contract packages Worth nearly billion to Complete the detailed design and construction of the orbiting Labora problems Nasa May spend billion or More before the station is occupied in the even though Many scientists and policy experts believe the Agency is poorly prepared to undertake such a Mammoth they believe Nasa has no Realis tic grasp of the stations costs and that the Agency budget wont nearly cover they fear the manned platform will Leech Money from other important science they worry details of the stations commercial and defence uses Are dangerously representative buddy Mackay recently expressed the feelings of Many lawmakers about the costs and nasal plans for the largest project the Agency will undertake through the turn of the in very nervous about it very said a member of the House space science and applications even the stations program Andrew concedes costs inevitably will increase and unexpected problems will he stresses what has been the stations primary Selling Point it is so crucial to the United states future in space that the country must commit itself to its no matter what sur Prises pop without it we do any thing else in the manned space pro such As a return to the Moon or a manned Mars Stofan More questions most legislators agree the station is needed particularly because the soviets already have operated a smaller version for two years even though the most common criticism i that Nasa is preparing to build it without knowing specifically How it will be every time managers come up before the House space science and applications commit they raise More questions than they said representative Robert Walker the sub committees ranking lawmakers have repeatedly shown support for the station by seeing its budget safely through several attempts at major cuts and a move by senator William prox mire this fall to kill the Stofan is keenly aware that Money troubles Are far from gambles on space lab orbiting station raises fears of expensive disaster the space station is vulnerable until they get it All up and operate he science fiction he agreed that Nasa May not have adequately explained the stations uses but bristles at Legisla tors suggestions that the Agency should have worked out More of the details of its construction and operation by this Why would i have the answers i Haven designed the space Sta Tion he the detailed design and engineering reviews will occur during the next two with most construction starting after although legislators Are pushing Nasa to resolve key problems be fore the nation moves much further into the former Nasa administrator James Beggs were As ready As Well Ever when the Reagan administration announced support for the station in Nasa promised the nation a full service facility for two years later officials privately admitted the figure had become science this Spring the administration ordered that the station be split into two and Nasa changed its Cost projection to billion for a Les powerful first the National research Council checked nasal figures and this summer reported the station actually will Cost As much As billion in 1988 dollars to when personnel and other costs Are the figure could reach As much As Walker and others estimate the costs will be Between billion and billion phase they As do that the station will devour too much of nasal annual budget during the next seven scaling Back other valuable worse Walker con Gress May decide in the midst of construction to drop the project As too wasting the Effort to that in nervous about very nervous Nasa officials have testified using their lower the station will consume an aver age of 25 per cent of the space Agency budget during nine that is based on another Nasa Assumption that it will get an increase from the billion an Nual budget proposed for 1988 to around billion in later policy experts and Many Legisla tors say they dont believe Nasa should count on any of these Esti mates being the shuttle originally was to be the space stations custom de signed transportation but problems revealed before and after the explosion last year of the shuttle challenger have prompted restrictions on the space planes ability to launch and service the shuttles once were expected to carry As much As pounds of cargo into orbit 25 to 50 times a yet space station engineers Are planning for a capability of carrying less than pounds about 15 times As recently As this summer Engi neers again changed station construction plans to avoid the threat that the first pieces of the station would reenter the atmosphere and Burn up because the shuttle lift them High Nasa Hopes to add thousands More pounds of payload weight by building an advanced solid fuel rocket but that is expensive and there Are no guarantees that Money to do so will be Avail shuttle loss with shuttles making fewer flights astronauts will be asked to live aboard the station for As Long As six months at at time the shifts originally Doc tors gradually will extend the shift length because they still dont know if six months in weightlessness is the arc panel Esti mates a 60percent Chance that an other shuttle will be lost by the time the stations first phase is further crippling the although Nasa officials speak publicly of Confidence in the stations transportation their continual accommodations for the weakened shuttle Fleet make critics and lawmakers what Are we going to launch with asked representative Bill Nelson chairman of the House space science and applications he and others strongly support the use of unmanned rockets to supplement shuttles serving the Large bite the space science Community still is wincing from the shuttle pro Grams of nasal budget in the fears Are running rampant that the station program is about to repeat the Many space scientists argue that plenty of the stations science work could be done More cheaply and efficiently on unmanned rockets or aboard an unmanned space plat form that was serviced Nasa officials attribute much of that criticism to disputes among scientists of different disciplines fighting for what limited Money is in its budget projections Nasa predicts that science research also will get 25 per cent of nasal Bud much of that will go to no Sta Tion such As planetary orbiting telescopes and free flying science Agency science chief Lennard Fisk pcs to get overhaul again by Jeff Hershberger los Angeles daily news los Angeles stand by for yet another wave of personal com Puter last weeks announcement by International business machines that it soon will begin ship Ping new operating system soft Ware for its pc line represents a major turning Point in the the operating system will give High end personal computers the kind of Power that would have been unthinkable just a few years users can expect improved graphics capabilities and vastly faster word processing and other operating system the first version called operating will be shipped starting with a jazzed up version called Stan Dard edition becoming Avail Able next an operating system is the brain of a personal it controls a computers Overall until operating system soft Ware called Modos ran ism pcs and became a Standard fix Ture in the so called clone makers manufacturers who make personal computers that i Mick the ism pc used software writers wrote their pro Grams to work within that the new operating system Doest eliminate which will continue to be used for Lowed ism machines and other lines of personal what is provide users of ibis High end machines and several ism clones with a More powerful system that will run More Complex Microsoft and ism jointly developed but the Washington based software company also is marketing it to ism clone makers using the current is Dos operating starting Early next clone makers can License from Microsoft for use in their appropriate what ibis announcement did primarily was Tell the Lis is real and we can ship and meet our said Edward chairman and chief executive of Torrance based Ash ton Tate which like other software companies around the country is developing programs for ibis new Advance copies the onus is on the software companies to now take advantage of and the new hardware and deliver software that utilizes new Esber initial software programs using Are expected to be released next month and throughout the first Quarter of some including Borland International and computer associates International were showing and Vance copies of their new programs at the fall Codex computer show in Las significant amounts of software taking full advantage of wont be available until next fall and late next Industry trackers next months introduction of on ibis most powerful pcs will not severely Hurt clone manufacturers since Many sell machines also capable of running the new analysts obstacles its certainly not a hopeless situation for the clones by any stretch of the Treyve got but Treyve also got some obstacles Here and ism has a Lead time on said Charlotte an analyst with Rothschild in new those potential obstacles Are ibis two operating systems that Are being developed without Micro they Are slated for release in july and november next the expanded editions will offer several additional including an easier method of linking pcs with huge mainframe com and ism is expected to in clude proprietary components in its two fancier analysts say that if Consumers begin snapping up programs writ ten for the in designed operating clone makers will be pressured to duplicate personal sys pcs or risk losing Market British pc arrives Britain leading in compatible pc has introduced its new line to pictured Here is Astrad president Stanley Plotnick with the pc fitted with both a double disk drive and a hard color Monitor and the lq3500 letter Quality sky watch Robert Ballantyne Bra Fields Comet visible in night sky Here we go last wednesday just at the end of there i was on a lonely dirt Road searching the southwestern sky for a glimpse of a if you got a taste for this sort of thing with you Are in Comet Bradfield has student Steve Hiebert of Morden writes my dad and i saw it for the first time on october we observed it with both a pair of 7x50 binoculars and a c8 a Telescope with an 8inch diameter for a few weeks i have known that there was a new Comet out there which had the potential to become visible to the unaided but i had not bothered to travel out of town to observe it was Steves enthusiastic report that got we thought that it was better than valleys Comet was in this he faint spot the official name of the Comet is Bradfield is the name of the during the last two decades this observer has found More comets than anyone else in the he is William Brad Field of by Day he works As a scientist in charge of the rocket propulsion group at the department of defence weapons systems research on Clear moonless evenings and morn he drives to dark locations outside of sets up his come Hunting Telescope and sweeps the Comet 1987s is Bra Fields 13th with this he has found More comets than anyone else in the 20th he spotted it on August 11 As a very faint spot of Light Drifting through the Constellation of the next Day it was photo and a Small Tail was re Hieberto observation told me enough to make me want to take a it was about magnitude he easy to find this told me that it was just below the eyes ability to see but it should be easy to sight in a pair of binoculars or a Small it had a Tail that was about to of a degree he that is at least the length of the diameter of the full i was sure that they needed the c8 Telescope to see Comet Bradfield will be Well placed for viewing during the next few it is not difficult to but it is not simply a matter of going out and the whole proce Dure will remind you of attempts to observe valleys test time to see it is just As the sky becomes completely since this part of the sky is the later you the lower the Comet will the sky needs to be very Clear and you should go away from the lights of the the Comet is in the West South so head Southwest from town to be sure that the City lights Are behind i went a few Kilometres beyond Oak at the time of i have seen the Comet Only you May re member that last wednesday the sky was but it was also the night of the full the key to finding the Comet is knowing the stars of the Constellation of Ophir and the Star called for the next couple of nights it will be within a binocular Field of that each night it will move a Little and a Little farther to the you will need at least a simple Star faint Star when 1 saw the i was using 7x50 because of the brightness of the Moonlit it looked like a very faint and revealed itself As the Comet by seeming to be slightly out of compared to the Sharpness of All of the real although i spotted it i was not prepared to say that i had seen the Comet until i had checked the position of the thing i had seen on a Good Star to do i made a careful sketch of All of the stars that i could see near the including Gamma at i Laid tracing paper Over my Atlas and plotted the course of the from my i marked the position of my suspected it was close to the predicted position of the and in an otherwise Blank area of ;