Copyright (c) 1999

Subject: Facing Reality -- STOP CASSINI #129

Date: May 25th, 1999

Time Frame: There are 30 days left to demand that NASA smash Cassini into Venus!

Today's subjects:

• GAO investigation shows NASA vulnerable to cyber attack
• Study of NASA's problems to be completed a day late and $13 billion short
• Is NASA losing DS1, and could Cassini be next?
• Communications with NASA spokesperson Sandra M. Dawson, JPL
• Titan IVB successfully launched
• What was NBC's ATOMIC TRAIN movie really about?
• Followup correspondence with JR NYQUIST regarding survivability of nuclear war
• WHAT YOU CAN DO TODAY TO STOP NASA'S NUCLEAR ATTACK -- CASSINI
• Subscription information

GAO investigation shows NASA vulnerable to cyber attack:

----- FROM: NORTH COUNTY TIMES (California), Sunday, May 23rd, 1999, page A-3: -----

A government investigation into NASA's "cyber security" found it so vulnerable to attack that hackers could easily disrupt command and control operations, including the tracking of Earth-Orbiting spacecraft.

The General Accounting Office said last week that its teams also penetrated systems the process and distribute the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's scientific data and broke into many of NASA's most vital networks.

"Having obtained access to these systems, we could have disrupted NASA's ongoing command and control operations and stolen, modified or destroyed system software and data," said the report from the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress.

NASA officials said they agreed with many of the GAO's findings and were working to improve security, but the report possibly exaggerates the extent of the problem."

----- END OF FULL REPORT FROM NORTH COUNTY TIMES -----

Cassini and other deep-space probes are undoubtedly just as vulnerable to a cyber attack as the Earth orbiting satellites mentioned, especially during Cassini's upcoming 42,300 mph flyby of Earth, coming up August 18th, 1999.

That is one reason we oppose the flyby -- because of the possibility of a terrorist act or natural disturbance causing NASA to lose control of Cassini. It is one more reason Cassini should be reaimed NOW to be smashed into Venus on June 24th, 1999, so that neither NASA nor anyone else can accidentally or purposefully smash Cassini into Earth instead, which is inhabited by 6 billion people and countless animals who are susceptible to the carcinogenic effects of the awesome payload of 72.3 pounds (launch weight) of plutonium (dioxide, mostly Pu 238) puke pellets contained on board.

-- rdh

Study of NASA's problems to be completed a day late and $13 billion short

Due to the rash of recent rocket failures, President Clinton has commissioned a study of the problem. He gave the group 90 days to report, which is just enough time so that the report will be made public shortly after Cassini's Earth flyby. Therefore, if the report indicates NASA is incompetent, vulnerable and dishonest, the evidence will not be able to be used to demand the Earth flyby be stopped.

Even a day before the flyby, the maneuver can still be avoided if enough people complain! (See end of newsletter for information on how to complain to NASA.)

In any event, we feel it is unlikely the report will recommend the proper course of action, which is to dismantle and defund NASA, and build in its place a civilian space authority whose purpose is to peacefully use space in an safe and responsible manner and to help design international regulations for the peaceful and ecologically sound use of space.

-- rdh

Is NASA losing DS1, and could Cassini be next?

[Note: Larry Klaes has written to tell us that this next item is incorrectly presented here; the DS1 activity was an experiment in partial loss of control -- NOT an actual loss of any sort. -- rdh]

----- INCOMING EMAIL FROM LARRY KLAES -----

To: rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com From: Larry Klaes Subject: Notice from DS1 Remote Agent telemetry

Resent-Date: Fri, 21 May 1999 14:14:32 -0700 (PDT)
X-Authentication-Warning: rax.arc.nasa.gov: slist set sender to
rax-telemetry-summarized-request@rax.arc.nasa.gov using -f
Date: Fri, 21 May 1999 20:53:51 GMT
From: Remote Agent
To: rax-telemetry-summarized@rax.arc.nasa.gov
Subject: Notice from DS1 Remote Agent telemetry
Resent-From: rax-telemetry-summarized@rax.arc.nasa.gov
X-Mailing-List: archive/latest/30
X-Loop: rax-telemetry-summarized@rax.arc.nasa.gov
Resent-Sender: rax-telemetry-summarized-request@rax.arc.nasa.gov


1. At 21 May 1999 20:46:25 GMT, spacecraft time frame:
Spontaneous spacecraft state changes just detected:
- Steering with thrusters is degraded but usable.
- Earth standby capability is degraded but usable.
- Sun standby capability is degraded but usable.
- Ability to use X-facing thrusters for Y-axis torque has failed and
appears unrecoverable.
- Ability to use Z-facing thrusters for Y-axis torque is degraded but
usable.

2. At 21 May 1999 20:46:25 GMT, spacecraft time frame:
RAX is looking for a way to recover.
The recovery will have to achieve (or maintain) four important states:
- Make it so MICAS camera is powered on.
- Make it so steering with thrusters is working okay.
- Make it so ACS is steering with thrusters.
- Make it so Low-Power Electronics subsystem is working okay.

3. At 21 May 1999 20:46:26 GMT, spacecraft time frame:
In an attempt to recover, RAX has decided to command Attitude Control
Subsystem to employ its ability to use Z-facing thrusters for Y-axis torque.
________________________________________________________
This email was converted from telemetry sent by the DS1 spacecraft's
Remote Agent, an autonomy experiment developed at NASA Ames and JPL.
To unsubscribe, see http://rax.arc.nasa.gov/email.html

----- END OF INCOMING EMAIL FROM LARRY KLAES -----

Communications with NASA spokesperson Sandra M. Dawson, JPL

----- INCOMING EMAIL FROM ELIZABETH PICARD -----

At 04:45 PM 5/17/99 -0700, Elizabeth Picard wrote:
oh well...

with.active.care,.your.friend,.bets
...
Received: from jpl.nasa.gov (sdawson.jpl.nasa.gov [137.79.50.153]) by
eis-msg-014.jpl.nasa.gov (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id NAA16496 for ;
Mon, 17 May 1999 13:55:40 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <3740828E.8C11AFEC@jpl.nasa.gov>
Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 13:56:47 -0700
From: Sandra M Dawson Sandra.M.Dawson@jpl.nasa.gov
Reply-To: sdawson@mail1.jpl.nasa.gov
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
...
To: Elizabeth Picard Q-runner@webtv.net
Subject: Re: hi sandra.
References: <7742-373E6534-8084@postoffice-273.iap.bryant.webtv.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

I take my position very seriously, and I do advocte for all life. Please
don't be mislead by a large amount of misinformation that is being
spread. Check our website at www.jpl.nasa.gov/casssini/rtg

Elizabeth Picard wrote:

please stop cassini as the risk is greater than the gain. every human
heart wishes for life.
cassini risks thousands of years of radioactive disease and mutations
for all lifeforms; human and plant.
you are in a position to at least advocate for life.
a rare place for a female.

with.active.care,.your.friend,.bets

--
Sandra Dawson
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
sandra.m.dawson@jpl.nasa.gov
(818) 354-1240 (voice)
(818) 393-6735 (faxboard)

----- END OF INCOMING EMAIL -----

----- MY RESPONSE -----

Thanks for sending me the email [shown above].

Please ask her to respond SPECIFICALLY to our charges, almost none of which are discussed at NASA's puny web site She is already on the mailing list of the SC newsletter (effective only one or two issues ago, as a matter of fact, though she probably got the ones addressed to "comments" as well for a long time.)

Please tell her that you think NASA should respond to the MANY charges, not just to a few they think are somehow appropriate. For example, ask her why NASA would allow 72.3 pounds of plutonium 238 dioxide to be RISKED if she really loves life, where does she expect those death-atoms to go? One in one million? Ask why she wants to stand under a falling knife, when solar options (including splitting the mission into two) would suffice to eliminate the "NEED" for the PU puke containment system.

Please ask her if she wishes to LIE like Woody Smith did, claiming the RTGs are absolutely, positively, super-duper, cannot fail (she can read his exact words in our newsletter, of course) or if she understands that the RHUs, for instance, with 2.7 GRAMS (that's a lot!) of Pu 238 dioxide in each, are 100% GOING TO INCINERATE in a flyby accident. Ask her where she thinks THAT plutonium will go?

Ask her, please, if she knows that the human lung is a filter, about 90 square yards of filtration material -- ask her where SHE thinks that plutonium will go?

Ask her what happens to those who get a significantly higher dose than NASA expects the AVERAGE to be. Ask her what happens if Dr. Gofman or Dr. Sternglass are correct in the estimates they have expressed of the potential deaths from a flyby reentry accident. And ask her what she plans to say should Cassini's poison land predominantly over a major city? Will she say, "But the odds were so low -- one in one million!" Will that make up for the cancers, leukemias, birth defects, etc. which 72.3 pounds of plutonium dioxide can cause -- that is hundreds of billions of "potentially lethal doses".

Ask her if she read the various issues of the SC newsletter where we sought to define that term as accurately as possible. Ask her if she saw the issues that discussed the history of this project she now supports.

Please ask her if she has invited those who oppose NASA's plan to come in and talk as a group to NASA's experts, with a live Internet feed to the world.

Because if she has invited any of us, I haven't heard about it from anyone...

Thanks,

Russell Hoffman
Founder and Editor
STOP CASSINI newsletter

Here is a list of recent newsletters. Please ask her which one's she has read. All are available at the STOP CASSINI web site.

And please ask her why NASA will not link to the STOP CASSINI web site.

http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/cassini.htm

Listing of recent newsletters:

#126 is about Food Irradiation, another area of nuclear lies courtesy of the U.S. Government.

#125 should particularly interest Ms Dawson. Dr. Helen Caldicott was invited by employees of NASA AMES RESEARCH CENTER to speak before them, this issue includes a transcription of her excellent remarks. If Dawson loves life, here's a real chance to learn from a Doctor who also, clearly, loves life.

#124 is on "We don't need no stinking nuclear aircraft carriers". It was a presentation the SC editor made last fall at a public hearing. It goes into the history of our nutty nuclear Navy, the denial of obvious truths, the vulnerability, the damage they are doing and have been doing for some time, and can do if anything goes wrong (like a war or an accident or something). It is from a unique perspective, really, since they have been buying my educational software products for over a decade (not a lot of money, only a few hundreds of dollars, but its the principle of the thing!). It is thus at least partly my fault that the Navy is not properly trained. Anyway, there were several hundred people at the hearing and the vast majority of them seemed to like the remarks.

#123 is on THE EFFECTS OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS. I worked for almost a full year, (off and on, of course) on this issue. Had it checked by good nuclear scientists and stunningly knowledgeable activists and friends. (I hope Sandra Dawson can appreciate the effort that went into this report! -- it was produced with NO GOVERNMENT FUNDING!) It's as clear and brief a description of a very complex event that I could do, and certainly I personally, will never attempt that topic again! It was almost immediately republished in RADBULL which I'm very pleased about, and I know others have been forwarding it around, such as to the Indian and Pakistani Embassies. Comparable descriptions that I worked from are dreadfully complex, long, and incomprehensibly unemotional. This one gets right to the facts and sticks to them, but also offers an emotional plea for sanity at the same time. It's as serious as a heart attack and happens even faster. If Sandra Dawson wants to be quick to remind you that Cassini cannot "blow up" like a nuclear bomb, remind her that scientists have estimated that nuclear weapons kill the vast majority of the people they kill by spreading nuclear waste into the environment -- NOT from the blast and initial gamma radiation burst! And Cassini -- as Ms. Dawson hopefully recalls -- has over 400,000 Curies of plutonium on board. That is a lot of atoms; a lot of alpha particles. A lot of carcinogenic material.

#122 discusses a nuclear waste storage site in Beatty, Nevada, just to illustrate the historic trend (which is killing Americans via cancer, leukemia, birth defects, etc. etc.) Relation to Cassini? Well for starters, note that at little as 20 grams of Pu is all that was allowed above ground at Beatty, one of the largest nuke waste dumps in America (now closed, but still leaking). 20 Grams? Compare to Cassini's 30,000 grams. Ask Ms. Dawson where that plutonium will go. All be finely dispersed in the atmosphere? In what size? 5 to 10 micron particles, mostly -- the most dangerous size!

#121 discusses NATO and the threat of nuclear war. NASA's role is clear here -- if they did not create phoney civilian excuses for the use of RTGs, we would not be putting nuclear payloads into space for military purposes either! But NASA covers for the military, and the civilians -- that's us -- get hurt with cancers, leukemias, birth defects, and other health problems.

#120 is a discussion of the various international treaties which are meaningless and allow rather than prevent the madness of NASA/MIL's nuclear launches. Ask Ms Dawson if she herself is familiar with the actual words of the treaties themselves, since as a United States Citizen she is bound by them! Ask if she understands that NASA's illegal and immoral use of the Price-Anderson act to cover its nuclear launches precludes adherence to the International treaties she herself is bound by! Ask her this especially, because she should feel some sort of personal responsibility here, if nowhere else. The treaties make it clear that the group that launches, pays for ANY damage.

#119 talks about past Navy nuke puke waste policies, Titan accidents, and media lack of attention. Ask Ms Dawson if she isn't just the least bit uncomfortable when someone points out that Titan rockets don't have nearly the reliability record that NASA spoke so highly of before the Cassini launch. Ask if she feels lucky that Cassini was not on one of THOSE Titans that failed!

#118 is on how much D. U. is being used in Yugoslavia. Ask Ms Dawson if she is aware of any uses by NASA of depleted uranium, in the past, now, or planned for in the future.

#117 discusses NASA's "conditional probability of 1.0" for the RHU's, which NASA never mentions when they tell you how well contained the Plutonium on Cassini is. There are about 130 RHU's with about 2.7 grams of Pu 238 (in dioxide form) in each one, and they will be completely incinerated in a Cassini accident. Ask Ms Dawson when the last time was that she voluntarily told a media reporter about the RHUs and how they will fare in a reentry accident, when she was telling them about the RTGs and NASA's worthless dream that they will survive virtually unscathed -- and ask her if she was present when the RTGs were tested to the conditions expected in a reentry accident! Because she should know -- that NO ONE was present -- because they haven't been tested that well! Ask her if she knows this.

#116 is a modest plan to save the world -- by cutting class size. Please ask Ms Dawson if she agrees that the United States Government should tell the truth to its citizens. And if she thinks so, then immediately ask her why NASA misused the 1981 D. E. Rockey et al report on solar options for deep space missions in the 1995 Cassini Environmental Impact Statement!

----- END OF THIS EDITOR'S RESPONSE TO SANDRA DAWSON'S LETTER -----

We hope Ms Dawson will respond quickly and responsibly to either Elizabeth Picard or to this editor. -- rdh

Titan IVB successfully launched

After a string of failures, a Titan IVB was successfully launched from Vandenberg AFB this past week, with a military (secret) payload.

What was NBC's ATOMIC TRAIN movie really about?

I don't know how many people watched the NBC much-hyped propaganda piece "ATOMIC TRAIN", but here's a brief description of what it was about:

First of all, contrary to published reports, it was NOT about chemical waste OR nuclear waste on board a train. It was NOT about The Effects of Nuclear Weapons (TENW), which were gravely understated. In fact, the main effect of a nuclear explosion -- the cause of the most deaths (latent cancers, leukemias and birth defects) -- was ignored completely!

This was not surprising, since the show appeared on NBC, which is owned by General Electric, which makes nuclear power plants, which (as discussed in newsletter #128) are vulnerable to the Electro-Magnetic Pulse which accompanies a nuclear explosion.

ATOMIC TRAIN was a warning to the EMT, POLICE, FIRE and other emergency personnel that they are to FOLLOW ORDERS during any Y2K or other emergency.

That was the real purpose of the movie -- to help train the "professionals" to do take orders from "the authorities" without question. Numerous incidents in the movie were provided to show those personnel how thinking for themselves will only cause trouble. The utterly unrealistic lack of radioactive after-effects from the blast was just a subplot.

-- rdh

Followup correspondence with JR NYQUIST regarding survivability of nuclear war

----- FOLLOWUP TO NEWSLETTER #128: LETTER TO JR NYQUIST -----

To: J. R. Nyquist jnyquist@northcoast.com
cc: Joseph Farah jfarah@worldnetdaily.com

Subject: Attached is an answer to your article (FYI)

Date: Monday, May 24th, 1999

Dear Sir,

Attached is a response to your recent article in WorldNetDaily. I would be happy to print a response in my newsletter if you care to make one. Thank you in advance for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Russell Hoffman
Editor
STOP CASSINI newsletter

Attachment: STOP CASSINI newsletter #128

----- END OF OUTGOING EMAIL TO JR NYQUIST -----

----- JR NYQUIST'S RESPONSE TO THE ABOVE -----

At 01:16 AM 5/25/99 +0000, you wrote:

Subject: A Brief Reply to Hoffman

Dear R. Hoffman:

I am not an advocate of nuclear war. But I do advocate survival, should a disaster happen. I am opposed to the sort of pessimism and hopelessness that you are preaching. It is defeatism and it serves no useful purpose.

JR Nyquist

----- END OF LETTER FROM JR NYQUIST -----

----- MY RESPONSE -----

Re: A Brief Reply to Hoffman

May 25th, 1999

Dear Mr. Nyquist:

How dare you call me a pessimist, a defeatist, or hopeless! You have made another mistake; I am none of those and I PREACH NOTHING.

I am a realist.

To be honest, I doubt you even read the whole thing. You certainly haven't answered to what you expect the EMP to do to America, or to how you managed to ignore the EMP and its inevitable effects in your misguided, misleading and inappropriate article. You haven't explained why you needed to dig up a nearly forty year old study to back your points. And you haven't explained how pretending things aren't so which are, helps anyone.

Go ahead and live in your dream world, Mr. Nyquist.

But don't accuse others of preaching when they speak the truth in response to your dogma; dogma which indeed, serves no useful purpose (except as a springboard for rational and honest talk on the subject).

Sincerely,

Russell Hoffman

----- END OF RESPONSE TO JR NYQUIST'S LETTER -----

The best way to survive a nuclear war is not to start one.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TODAY TO STOP NASA'S NUCLEAR ATTACK -- CASSINI

To stop NASA's dangerous upcoming August 18th, 1999 flyby of Earth by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, with its deadly cargo of 72.3 pounds of plutonium 238 dioxide, arrogantly launched in 1997 amidst strong protests, contact NASA/JPL to complain:

Cassini Public Information
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena CA 91109
(818) 354-5011

NASA states that they do not have the resources anymore to answer most emails they receive. Liars! They have $13 billion dollars to play with. They can answer the public's questions.

Here's NASA's "comments" email address:
comments@www.hq.nasa.gov

Daniel Goldin is the head of NASA. Here's his email address:

daniel.goldin@hq.nasa.gov or dgoldin@mail.hq.nasa.gov

Here's the NASA URL to find additional addresses to submit written questions to:

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/facts/HTML/FS-002-HQ.html

YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW WHAT NASA IS DOING TO YOUR HEALTH.

Be sure to "cc" the president and VP and your senators and congresspeople, too.

president@whitehouse.gov
vice.president@whitehouse.gov

Always include your full name and postal address in all correspondence to any Government official of any country.

After you have acquainted yourself with what NASA is doing, please:

READ OUR RESOLUTION AGAINST CASSINI!
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/petition/reso1999.htm

SIGN OUR PETITION!
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/petition/cass1999.htm

CANCEL CASSINI by JUNE 24th, 1999!

Subscription information

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Published by Russell D. Hoffman electronically.
Written in U.S.A.
Please distribute these newsletters EVERYWHERE!
WHAT YOU DO MATTERS!
*** CANCEL CASSINI BY JUNE 24TH, 1999! ***

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