From: Patrick Douglas Crispen 
To: tourbus@colossus.net
Subject: TOURBUS 8/24 -- NASA SHUTTLE WEB ARCHIVE


     /~~~|~~~~|~~~~|~~~~|~~~~|~~~~|~~~~|~~~~|~~~~|~~~~~/~~~|~\
    |____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____/    |  \
    |                                                /_____|---\
   /  --T-H-E---I-N-T-E-R-N-E-T---T-O-U-R-B-U-S-->  ///////|    |
  |                                                |///////|    |
  ~~~/~~~\~/~~~\~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/~~~\~~~~
     \___/ \___/  "Why Surf When U Can Ride The Bus?"  \___/


I want to personally apologize for the double posts that some
of you have received from TOURBUS recently.  I am not sure what
is causing this problem, but I can assure you that steps are being
taken to diagnose and fix this problem as quickly as possible.

I will do everything in my power to see that this problem is
fixed as soon as possible, and I want to thank each of you for
your patience and support in the interim.


TOURBUS -- AUGUST 24, 1995
TODAY'S STOP: NASA SHUTTLE WEB ARCHIVES
TODAY'S ADDRESS: http://shuttle.nasa.gov/


A couple of years ago I was a Simulations Director at the United
States Space Camp.  My job was to teach high school aged trainees
space shuttle orbiter and mission control operations, and then to
"test" the trainees' knowlege at the end of the week by staging
simulated 24-hour space shuttle missions.  The missions, of course,
were replete with all sorts of problems and glitches with the
orbiter (all caused by me) and the trainees had to use what they
had learned during their 10 days at Camp to solve the problems that
I threw at them.

To be a Simulations Director, I had to know a great deal about the
Space Shuttle (if I didn't know how a particular shuttle system
worked, how could I expect to be able to break it?).  To learn
about the shuttle, I had to read mountains of NASA technical
manuals (a fate that I would not wish upon my worst enemy).

Why was reading NASA technical manuals so difficult? Well, NASA
is famous for lines like "Upon completion of the OMS-1 thrusting
period, the RCS is used to null any residual velocities, if required."
Yeah, whatever. (Actually, if you know what the OMS and RCS are, this
makes perfect sense)

That's why I am so excited about today's TOURBUS stop:

     http://shuttle.nasa.gov/

This is NASA's official space shuttle homepage, and it contains
enough technical information about the shuttle to keep a former
SimGod like me happy for hours.  Better still, this page's
extensive use of hyperlinks finally gives you the opportunity
to decipher NASA's overwhelming sea of acronyms with just a
simple click of your mouse.

For example, let's learn something about the five aborts that the
shuttle can experience (RSLS, RTLS, TAL, AOA, and ATO).  From the
shuttle homepage, click on "Shuttle Mission Overviews" and then
on "51-L" (STS 51-L was the last flight of the Challenger).

The 51-L page contains a lot of information that you probably
want to read, but for now let's click on the "TAL" hyperlink
and see what happens.

What appears on your screen is the shuttle flight profile
of a Transatlantic Landing (TAL) Abort.  This isn't going to
make much sense to you, though -- you need to scroll to the top of
the TAL page first (up to the part that says "Background and Status"
and "Mission Profile.").

As you read through this page, notice all of the hyperlinks.
If you see a word or concept that you do not understand, just
click on the appropriate hyperlink.  This page will take you
step by step through the flight profile of a routine space
shuttle mission, and will even introduce you to the shuttle's
five aborts.

NASA's writing is a little terse, but the hyperlinks really do
help make things easier to understand.

By the way, back on the Shuttle homepage (http://shuttle.nasa.gov/)
you should also check out "Today@NASA". This page has some GREAT
Imax (60 mm motion picture) images from space, as well as links
to NASA's latest flight information and press releases.

... that's it for today (I want to keep the posts short until our
double post problem is fixed).  If you ever wanted to know the
difference between OMS and RCS, or if you ever wanted to know about
any other piece of shuttle information, today's TOURBUS stop is
for you!


TODAY'S SOUTHERN WORD OF THE DAY
--------------------------------

Y'ALL -- noun. A degree of rotation.
Usage: "There are three degrees of Southern rotation:
        Pitch, Roll, and Y'all."


 ********************  The WorldWideWeb Handbook  **********************
         For a good book on how to write your own Web files, see
                      "The WorldWideWeb Handbook"
                       (ITCP ISBN 1-85032-205-8)
    Details on the Web at http://www.ucc.ie/~pflynn/books/wwwbook.html
 ***********************************************************************


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TOURBUS - (c) Copyright 1995, Patrick Crispen and Bob Rankin
All rights reserved.  Redistribution is allowed only with permission.


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