January 31, 2002
WHITE HOUSE, NASA ADMINISTRATOR MOVE TO FILL KEY AGENCY POSITIONS
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe and the White House today announced a number of key nominations and appointments in an effort to fill open positions within the space agency.
The President announced his intention to nominate former NASA astronaut and Assistant Deputy Administrator, Major General Charles F. Bolden, U.S. Marine Corps, as NASA's next Deputy Administrator. Bolden, 55, currently serves as the Commanding General, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing.
"I am grateful for the President's overwhelming confidence in General Bolden. I could not ask for a more qualified partner to help lead this great agency," said Administrator O'Keefe. "His management and leadership skills in the fields of aeronautics and space technology will play a vital role in charting a new course for America's space program. I am delighted he accepted this nomination and look forward to welcoming him back to the NASA family. We are hopeful for expeditious consideration by the United States Senate."
A veteran of four Space Shuttle flights, Bolden was pilot on STS-61C in 1986 and STS-31 in 1990, and was the mission commander on STS-45 in 1992. That same year, he was appointed Assistant Deputy Administrator at NASA Headquarters in Washington, a position he held until 1994, when he was named commander of STS-60. He left the space program having logged more than 680 hours in orbit.
As Deputy Administrator, Bolden will serve as the chief operating officer for the agency and report directly to the Administrator. He will be responsible for directing and managing many of the programs and day-to-day operations and activities at NASA.
Administrator O'Keefe filled additional positions at NASA Headquarters. Paul Pastorek will serve as the agency's General Counsel at NASA Headquarters. He replaces Edward A. Frankle, who retired in December.
Pastorek's principal responsibility will be to serve in an advisory capacity to the Administrator and work with the Enterprise Associate Administrators and NASA Center Directors to ensure agency activities are conducted in accordance with all statutory and regulatory requirements.
Before joining NASA, Pastorek was a partner in the New Orleans office of the regional law firm of Adams and Reese. He was in charge of the Special Business Services Practice Group, which practiced in the areas of employment and labor, governmental relations, intellectual property, health care, oil and gas, and environment and education.
Pastorek's primary civic involvement is in education and he will play a role in many of NASA's institutional and education efforts. He currently serves as the president of Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, as well as serving on a number of other state boards and commissions. "Paul brings vast educational experience to NASA," added Administrator O'Keefe. "His fresh perspective will be valuable to the future efforts of this agency."
Two current Acting Associate Administrators, Glenn Mahone and Jeff M. Bingham, have been appointed to permanent Assistant Administrator positions, effective immediately.
Before being appointed Acting Associate Administrator of Public Affairs in August, Mahone served as NASA Press Secretary and Senior Advisor for the Administrator's office. He served as special assistant and senior advisor to the chairperson at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission before joining NASA in April 2000. His previous experience also includes work as a management consultant to the President and CEO of Stephens Engineering Company, Inc., Lanham, Md., and he was a special assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Employment and Training for the Department of Labor.
Bingham, who was appointed Acting Associate Administrator of Legislative Affairs in April, joined the agency's Office of Legislative Affairs in 1994, where he served as coordinator in NASA's Space Station Program Office. Before joining NASA, Bingham served 17 years as Chief of Staff to former U.S. Senator Jake Garn, of Utah, where he was actively involved in congressional consideration of NASA. In 2001, Bingham provided support to the Bush-Cheney Transition Team and was appointed Special Assistant to NASA Chief of Staff and White House Liaison, Courtney Stadd.
The Administrator also named Charles T. Horner, III as Deputy Assistant Administrator for Legislative Affairs (Resources) at NASA Headquarters. Horner is currently Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Army for Financial Management and Comptroller. At NASA, Horner will work with the Assistant Administrator of Legislative Affairs to provide executive leadership, direction, and coordination of communications and relationships between NASA and Congress. He'll also provide strategic advice and planning.
Horner has an extensive background in resource management and significant experience in legislative affairs and appropriations management.
"In order to make the right decisions for our nation's aeronautics and space programs, we have to get the right people in the right places," added Administrator O'Keefe. "These nominations and appointments are just the first steps in our journey. I'm excited about the future of NASA."
Additional announcements regarding positions within the agency are expected in the coming weeks.
Mars Odyssey Mission Status as of January 30, 2002
NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft is now in its mapping orbit after completing two maneuvers this week to fine-tune its nearly circular orbit and prepare it for the start of the science mission.
At 12:14 p.m. Pacific Time today, Odyssey fired its thrusters for 25 seconds and decreased the velocity of the spacecraft by less than 2 meters per second (less than 4 miles per hour).
On Monday, January 28, Odyssey fired its thrusters for 15 seconds, increasing its speed by just over 1 meter per second (about 2.5 miles per hour).
"These small orbit trim maneuvers complement the larger maneuvers we executed two weeks ago and tweak the orbit to get just the right altitude and ground track coverage that we desire. The net effect is that we move the periapsis point, the point nearest the planet, directly over the south pole and keep it there," said Bob Mase, Odyssey's lead navigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We are now in our final mapping orbit and we don't expect to perform any additional maneuvers to change the orbit."
Engineers are continuing to check out the spacecraft systems and science instruments in preparation for the science mapping mission that will begin in February. Two of the science instruments, both neutron spectrometers that are part of the gamma ray spectrometer suite, are currently operating and collecting science data about the composition of the Mars surface.
JPL manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Principal investigators at Arizona State University in Tempe, the University of Arizona in Tucson, and NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, operate the science instruments. Additional science investigators are located at the Russian Space Research Institute and Los Alamos National Laboratories, New Mexico. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, Colo., is the prime contractor for the project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., has provided aerobraking support to JPL's navigation team during mission operations.
new images of the giant planet Saturn and the Jovian moon Io have been obtained with the new NAOS-CONICA Adaptive Optics facility on the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory. The photos, with an explanatory text and all links, are now available at:
http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2002/phot-04-02.html
Kind regards,
The ESO EPR Dept.
Information from the European Southern Observatory
ESO Press Photos 04a-c/02 31 January 2002 For immediate release
Of Rings and Volcanoes Fine Images of Saturn and Io with VLT NAOS-CONICA Summary
With its new NAOS-CONICA Adaptive Optics facility, the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory has recently obtained impressive views of the giant planet Saturn and Io, the volcanic moon of Jupiter.
They show the two objects with great clarity, unprecedented for a ground-based telescope. The photos were made during the ongoing commissioning of this major VLT instrument, while it is being optimized and prepared for regular observations that will start later this year.
PR Photo 04a/02: VLT NAOS-CONICA photo of the giant planet Saturn (composite H+K band image). PR Photo 04b/02: The Jovian moon Io (Br-gamma image). PR Photo 04c/02: The Jovian moon Io (composite Br-gamma + L' image).
Commissioning of NAOS-CONICA progresses "First light" for the new NAOS-CONICA Adaptive Optics facility on the 8.2-m VLT YEPUN telescope at the Paranal Observatory was achieved in November 2001, cf. ESO PR 25/01. A second phase of the "commissioning" of the new facility began on January 22, 2002, now involving specialized observing modes and with the aim of trimming it to maximum performance before it is made available to the astronomers later this year.
During this demanding and delicate work, more test images have been made of various astronomical objects [1] <#note1> . Some of these show selected solar system bodies, for which the excellent image sharpness achievable with this new instrument is of special significance. In fact, the VLT photos of the giant planet Saturn and Io, the innermost of Jupiter's four large moons, are among the sharpest ever obtained from the ground. They even compare well with some photos obtained from space, as can be seen via the related weblinks indicated below. The raw NAOS-CONICA data from which these images shown in this Photo Release were produced are now available via the public VLT Science Archive Facility [2] <#note2> .
The NAOS adaptive optics corrector was built, under an ESO contract, by the Office National d'Etudes et de Recherches Aérospatiales (ONERA), Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Grenoble (LAOG) and the DESPA and DASGAL laboratories of the Observatoire de Paris in France, in collaboration with ESO. The CONICA infra-red camera was built, under an ESO contract, by the Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie (MPIA) (Heidelberg) and the Max-Planck Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik (MPE) (Garching) in Germany, in collaboration with ESO. Saturn - Lord of the rings
ESO PR Photo 04a/02
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Caption: PR Photo 04a/02 shows the giant planet Saturn, as observed with the VLT NAOS-CONICA Adaptive Optics instrument on December 8, 2001; the distance was 1209 million km. It is a composite of exposures in two near-infrared wavebands (H and K) and displays well the intricate, banded structure of the planetary atmosphere and the rings. Note also the dark spot at the south pole at the bottom of the image. One of the moons, Tethys, is visible as a small point of light below the planet. It was used to guide the telescope and to perform the adaptive optics "refocussing" for this observation. More details in the text. Technical information <#techinfo> about this photo is available below.
This NAOS/CONICA image of Saturn (PR Photo 04a/02), the second-largest planet in the solar system, was obtained at a time when Saturn was close to summer solstice in the southern hemisphere. At this moment, the tilt of the rings was about as large as it can be, allowing the best possible view of the planet's South Pole. That area was on Saturn's night side in 1982 and could therefore not be photographed during the Voyager encounter.
The dark spot close to the South Pole is a remarkable structure that measures approximately 300 km across. It was only recently observed in visible light from the ground with a telescope at the Pic du Midi Observatory in the Pyrenees (France) - this is the first infrared image to show it.
The bright spot close to the equator is the remnant of a giant storm in Saturn's extended atmosphere that has lasted more than 5 years.
The present photo provides what is possibly the sharpest view of the ring system ever achieved from a ground-based observatory. Many structures are visible, the most obvious being the main ring sections, the inner C-region (here comparatively dark), the middle B-region (here relatively bright) and the outer A-region, and also the obvious dark "divisions", including the well-known, broad Cassini division between the A- and B-regions, as well as the Encke division close to the external edge of the A-region and the Colombo division in the C-region. Moreover, many narrow rings can be seen at this high image resolution, in particular within the C-region - they may be compared with those seen by the Voyager spacecraft during the flybys, cf. the weblinks <#links> below.
This image demonstrates the capability of NAOS-CONICA to observe also extended objects with excellent spatial resolution. It is a composite of four short-exposure images taken through the near-infrared H (wavelength 1.6 µm) and K (2.2 µm) filters.
This observation was particularly difficult because of the motion of Saturn during the exposure. To provide the best possible images, the Adaptive Optics system of NAOS was pointed towards the Saturnian moon Tethys, while the image of Saturn was kept at a fixed position on the CONICA detector by means of "differential tracking" (compensating for the different motions in the sky of Saturn and Tethys). This is also why the (faint) image of Tethys - visible south of Saturn (i.e., below the planet in PR Photo 04a/02) - appears slightly trailed. Io - volcanoes and sulphur
ESO PR Photo 04b/02
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ESO PR Photo 04c/02
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Caption: PR Photo 04b/02 shows Io, the volcanic moon of Jupiter, as imaged with the VLT NAOS-CONICA Adaptive Optics instrument on December 5, 2001, through a near-infrared, narrow optical filter (Brackett-gamma at wavelength 2.166 µm). Despite the small angular diameter of Io, about 1.2 arcsec, many features are visible at this excellent optical resolution. PR Photo 04c/02 is a composite of the same exposure with another obtained at a longer wavelength (L'-filter at 3.8 µm), with a latitude-longitude grid superposed and some of the main surface features identified. Technical information <#techinfo> about these photos is available below.
Io has a diameter of 3660 km and orbits Jupiter at a mean distance of 422,000 km - one revolution takes 42.5 hours. Like the Earth's moon, it always turns the same side towards the planet. As shown by the Voyager spacecraft in 1979, its surface is covered by active volcanoes and lava fields - it is in fact the most volcanic place known in the solar system.
Due to this activity, Io's surface is continuously reshaped. The features now seen are all correspondingly young, with a mean age of the order of 1 million years only. The variations in appearance and colour are due to different volcanic deposits of sulphur compounds. The cause of all this activity is Jupiter's strong gravitational pull that leads to enormous stresses inside Io and related heating of the entire moon.
PR Photo 04b/02 is a near-infrared NAOS-CONICA image of Io, obtained on December 5, 2001, through a narrow optical filter at wavelength 2.166 µm. The excellent image resolution makes it possible to identify many features on the surface. Some of these are volcanoes, others correspond to lava fields between these.
PR Photo 04c/02 is a composite of that image and another obtained at longer wavelength (3.8 µm). A latitute-longitude grid has been superposed, with the most prominent features identified by name, including some of the large volcanoes and sulphurus plains on this very active moon.
Io has been observed with the NASA Galileo spacecraft since 1996 at higher resolution in the visible and infrared, especially during close encounters with the satellite (a link to Galileo maps of Io is available below). However, this NAOS image fills a gap in the surface coverage of the infrared images from Galileo.
The capability of NAOS/CONICA to map Io in the infrared at the present high image resolution will allow astronomers to continue the survey of the volcanic activity and to monitor regularly the related surface processes. Related sites The following links point to a number of prominent photos of these two objects that were obtained elsewhere. Saturn Voyager images: http://vraptor.jpl.nasa.gov/voyager/vgrsat_img.html
HST images: http://hubble.stsci.edu/news_.and._views/pr.cgi.2001+15
Pic du Midi images: http://www.bdl.fr/s2p/saturne.html
IfA-CFHT: http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/ao/images/solarsys/new/new.html Io NASA/Galileo site: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/moons/io.html
Volcanoes on Io: http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/planet_volcano/Io/Overview.html
HST image of Io: http://hubble.stsci.edu/news_.and._views/pr.cgi.1997+21
Keck I image of Io: http://www.astro.caltech.edu/mirror/keck/realpublic/inst/ao/Io/IoSnapshot.jpg
Galileo and Voyager maps of Io: http://www.lowell.edu/users/ijw/maps/ <http://www.lowell.edu/users/ijw/maps> (also with names of surface features) Notes [1]: The following astronomers and engineers from ESO and the partner institutes have participated in the current commissioning observations of Saturn and Io with NAOS-CONICA: Wolfgang Brandner, Jean-Gabriel Cuby, Pierre Drossart, Thierry Fusco, Eric Gendron, Markus Hartung, Norbert Hubin, François Lacombe, Anne-Marie Lagrange, Rainer Lenzen, David Mouillet, Claire Moutou, Gérard Rousset, Jason Spyromilio and Gérard Zins.
[2]: New archive users may register via the ESO/ST-ECF Archive Registration Form. Technical information about the photos PR Photo 04a/02 is based on four exposures, obtained with VLT YEPUN and NAOS-CONICA on December 8, 2001 (UT). Two of these were made with an H-band filter (10 sec exposure each, wavelength 1.6 µm) and two with a K-band filter (12 sec each, 2.2 µm). The satellite Tethys (diameter 1070 km, orbiting Saturn at a distance of approx. 295,000 km) served as reference source for the Adaptive Optics corrections and the telescope was offset guided to compensate for the differential motion. The frames were reduced in the normal way with classical flats, dark and bias correction. No convolution was made before the two colours were combined to produce the image shown. At the time of the exposure, Saturn was 8.80 AU from the Earth. With a diameter of approx. 120,000 km, its disk subtended an angle of 20.6 arcsec. The nominal resolution of the NAOS-CONICA image, about 0.07 arcsec, thus corresponds to 410 km at Saturn.
PR Photo 04b/02 is a reproduction based on a total exposure of 230 sec with VLT YEPUN and NAOS-CONICA on December 5, 2001, made through a Brackett-gamma filter centred at 2.166 µm. The resulting image resolution is 0.068 arcsec. At the moment of the exposure, the distance from the Earth to Io was about 641 million km (4.29 AU) and the image resolution therefore corresponds to approx. 210 km on the surface of the moon. PR Photo 04c/02 is based on a combination of the Brackett-gamma (here rendered as blue) with an L' frame (total exposure 4.2 sec; 3.800 µm; red), superposed with a coordinate grid and with some of the major surface features identified.
EUVE SPACECRAFT RE-ENTERS EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE
NASA's Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) re-entered the Earth's atmosphere at approximately 11:15 p.m. EST Wednesday. According to calculations made by the United States Space Command Space Control Center, EUVE re-entered the atmosphere over central Egypt.
"The actual location of EUVE's re-entry was within the predicted orbit track," said Scott Hull, spacecraft engineering lead for space science mission operations, at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "We expected EUVE could come in at a number of points along the ground track."
EUVE did not have an on-board propulsion system to allow engineers to control the spacecraft's re-entry. Using U.S. Space Command data, engineers calculated EUVE's orbit track and predicted where it could re-enter the atmosphere. EUVE was in a 28.5-degree orbit and could re-enter in any location within this orbit range. This range included areas as far north as Orlando, Fla., and as far south as Brisbane, Australia.
The object was not designed to survive re-entry intact and was expected to break apart and mostly burn up in the atmosphere. U.S. Space Command cannot confirm if any pieces survived re-entry.
EUVE was launched on July 7, 1992. Science operations ended in December 2000. During its eight years in orbit, EUVE was the first astrophysics mission to explore the extreme ultraviolet-and helped to bridge the gap in our understanding of this previously unknown spectrum. EUVE observed more than 1,000 nearby sources, including more than three dozen objects outside our galaxy.
Additional background information about EUVE is available at
http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/euve/euve.html
Four Weeks on Galileo January 28 - February 24, 2002
The long cruise period between encounters is now under way. In fact, this is the longest period between encounters that Galileo has spent since entering orbit around Jupiter in December 1995. Between our January 17 flyby of Io and the November 5 flyby of Amalthea, 292 days will pass. This long, looping trajectory will also take us the farthest from Jupiter we have been since entering orbit. On June 13 we will reach a distance of 348 Jupiter radii from the planet, which is nearly 25 million kilometers or 15.5 million miles. At that distance, light from the giant planet takes nearly a minute and a half to reach the spacecraft! On the same day the signal from Galileo takes 49.8 minutes to travel all the way to Earth.
Tuesday morning, January 29, the spacecraft executes a small 2 degree turn in place to keep the communications antenna pointed towards Earth.
Friday night, February 1, the Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS) performs the final planned remote sensing observation of the mission. This observation is a calibration to determine the response of the instrument to a known input signal. By periodically performing these calibrations throughout the mission, scientists are able to track how the performance of the instrument changes with time. This allows them to translate the instrument measurements into absolute physical quantities.
On Monday night, February 11, routine maintenance of the spacecraft propulsion system is performed. On Wednesday, February 13, routine maintenance of the tape recorder is performed.
On Friday night, February 22, the path of Jupiter and the spacecraft in Earth's sky takes it near our own Moon as seen by the tracking station near Madrid, Spain. Though the Moon does not actually block the spacecraft, reflected thermal radiation from the surface of this very close body can be seen by the antenna, and this can interfere with the signal from the spacecraft.
Data return from Galileo this month consists of playback of the recorded data that we were able to acquire during the Io flyby. These data include pictures of Europa and Amalthea (though not, unfortunately, of Io), and of Jupiter's atmosphere. Also included are a set of global maps of Jupiter's clouds by NIMS.
While the playback continues, the Magnetometer, the Dust Detector, and the Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometer continue collecting and periodically transmitting real-time data about the local environment of the spacecraft and about the interplanetary hydrogen distribution.
With the long gap between highlights, these reports are shifting to a monthly publishing schedule. Weekly reports will resume in October as we approach Amalthea and the activity level for the spacecraft picks up.
For more information on the Galileo spacecraft and its mission to Jupiter, please visit the Galileo home page at one of the following URL's:
http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo
January 30, 2002
NASA MANAGERS AVAILABLE TO DISCUSS RECENTLY APPROVED SPACE STATION CREW CRITERIA
The International Space Station partners have approved criteria for crewmembers visiting the orbiting space laboratory and NASA managers are available tomorrow to discuss the certification process.
The space station partnership approved the "Principles Regarding Processes and Criteria for Selection, Assignment, Training and Certification of ISS (Expedition and Visiting) Crewmembers" and the space station's Multilateral Coordination Board adopted the proposal earlier this month.
W. Michael Hawes, Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Station, and Charles J. Precourt, Chief, Astronaut Office, will be available by telephone Jan. 31 from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. EST to answer questions regarding the space station crew criteria.
Reporters who would like to participate in the teleconference should contact Dwayne Brown at 202/358-1726, Debra Rahn at 202/358-1638 or the NASA Headquarters Newsroom at 202/358-1600 by 4:30 p.m. EST today to make arrangements.
The document citing the crew selection, assignment, training and certification criteria for the International Space Station will be available Thursday at 10 a.m. EST on the Internet at:
http://www.nasa.gov/hqpao/isscrewcriteria.pdf
NASA FISCAL YEAR 2003 BUDGET BRIEFING SCHEDULED
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe will provide an overview of NASA's fiscal year 2003 budget request at a press briefing on Monday, Feb. 4, 2003, at 3 p.m. EST in the James E. Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters, 300 E St., SW, Washington.
NASA management officials will be on hand to answer questions at the briefing, which will be carried live on NASA Television with two-way question-and-answer capability for reporters covering the event from participating NASA centers. Media representatives planning to cover the briefing at a NASA field center should check in advance with that center's newsroom to ascertain potential badging or escort requirements in light of new security provisions.
A summary of the budget request will be distributed to media representatives at the beginning of the press conference. The budget request also will be available on the NASA Home Page at: www.nasa.gov
NASA TV is on GE-2, transponder 9C, located at 85 degrees West longitude, with vertical polarization. Frequency will be on 3880.0 MHz, with audio on 6.8 MHz.
NEW NASA ADMINISTRATOR O'KEEFE TO VISIT AMES RESEARCH CENTER
NASA's new Administrator, Sean O'Keefe, will make his first visit to Ames Research Center on Friday, Feb. 1, as he continues his tour of the Agency's 10 field centers.
O'Keefe will be available to speak informally with news media representatives from 12:45 p.m. to 1:15 p.m. PST in the Administration Building (Bldg. N-200) Committee Room.
O'Keefe was sworn in Dec. 21, 2001 as the agency's 10th administrator, following his confirmation by the U.S. Senate on Dec. 20, 2001. President George W. Bush nominated him for the position on Nov. 14, 2001.
O'Keefe's biography and official portrait are available at: http://www.nasa.gov/bios/okeefe.html
Ames Research Center is NASA's 'center of excellence' for information systems and technology, and leads the Agency's efforts in nanotechnology, biotechnology and air traffic management, among other areas.
VIRGINIA FIRM WINS $82 MILLION CONTRACT FROM NASA GODDARD
ManTech Systems Engineering Corporation of Fairfax, Va., has won a $82.3 million contract to provide engineering and technician mechanical support at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Goddard builds instruments and satellites that monitor the Earth's vital signs, study the Sun and its influence on our planet and peer into the deepest reaches of space for answers to fundamental questions about the origin and fate of the Universe.
To accomplish this task, Goddard operates the Environmental Test and Integration Facility to assemble the instruments and satellites and verify their ability to withstand the rigors of launch and the extremes of space. The contractor will provide engineering and technical services for the operation, maintenance and modernization of the facility.
This facility is one of the most complete and comprehensive within the United States government for environmental test and qualification of space flight hardware. The facility includes clean-room assembly and check-out areas, thermal vacuum chambers, a high capacity centrifuge, an acoustic test cell, electro-dynamic shakers, static-load test facilities, a modal test facility, electromagnetic compatibility test facilities and a magnetic characterization test facility.
The cost-plus-award-fee contract begins on May 1, 2002.
GENESIS MISSION STATUS UPDATE The second station keeping maneuver, SKM-1B, was successfully executed yesterday at high noon Mountain Time. The burn, which took about 282 seconds, was accurate to about 0.1 degree. Following this, star tracker images were taken for trending purposes. Initially, it seems that this maneuver was even better than the already good SKM-1A. SKM-1C is scheduled for mid-March.
This morning, a rejection grid test was performed with somewhat surprising results: The rejection grid was stepped up in 20-volt increments from 1500 to 1620 volts, and performed well. Previously, we had only been able to take the rejection grid up to about 1540 volts (while stepping up in larger increments). Next week, we will do more tests to see if we can now raise the software limit on the rejection grid.
We had three different solar wind regimes over the last week. We had a high-speed coronal mass ejection followed by high-speed wind. Now slow (interstream) solar wind is probably passing by the spacecraft. Science has reported that everything is going swimmingly.
Genesis mission status updates since the time of launch can be found at: http://www.genesismission.org/mission/statusupdate.html
Where is the Genesis spacecraft now? View the position of the Genesis spacecraft. Most images are updated every 10 minutes. http://www.genesismission.org/mission/live_shots.html ********************************************************** GENESIS MISSION WEBCAST AND NATIONAL ENGINEERS WEEK Date: February 21, 2002 Time: 10:00 a.m. PDT
Mathematics and science teachers, would you like to offer your students the opportunity to interact with Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers? The Genesis mission will conduct a Webcast that features a classroom activity from the upcoming Genesis "Destination L1: A Thematic Unit" education module. Here's how to participate. Print the teacher guide: http://www.genesismission.org/educate/scimodule/DestinationL1/DL1_PDFs/TGWEBkeplerslaws.pdf student text: http://www.genesismission.org/educate/scimodule/DestinationL1/DL1_PDFs/STWEBL1OrBust.pdf and student activity: http://www.genesismission.org/educate/scimodule/DestinationL1/DL1_PDFs/SAWEBInclinedPend.pdf from the Web site. (Adobe Acrobat Reader http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html is needed to download these pdf files.) After conducting the activity with your class, encourage interested students to submit questions about the activity, orbits, trajectories, or the Genesis mission in general via e-mail to: genesisepo@mcrel.org Questions must be submitted by midnight, February 7, 2002, after which they will be reviewed, and selected inquiries will be read on the Webcast and answered by Genesis mission Project Manager Chet Sasaki or Trajectory Analyst Jennie Johannesen. If you are unable to conduct the activity prior to February 7, you can tune in on Feb. 21 and watch Alta Loma, CA high school teacher Tom Curley conduct the activity with several students.
For more information on this activity, check out our Webcast page: http://www.genesismission.org/product/webcast.html
If you are unable to tune in at 10:00 a.m. PDT on February 21, the Webcast can be accessed on demand on the JPL Web site for later viewing. Check out past and upcoming Webcasts at JPL at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/webcast_events.html
Encourage your students to consider engineering as a career and support National Engineers Week. http://www.eweek.org/ ********************************************************** GENESIS AND DYNAMIC DESIGN Teachers, the Genesis mission is now in full science collection mode. Are you looking for a unit on data collection, and would you like to have it tied to a NASA mission? The middle school module: "Dynamic Design: A Collection Process" http://www.genesismission.org/educate/scimodule/CollProcess/index.html engages students in a data collection process using the example of Genesis solar wind collectors. The Dynamic Design series has two additional modules: "Dynamic Design: Launch and Propulsion" http://www.genesismission.org/educate/scimodule/Launch_Propulsion.html in which students learn about the history of rocketry and how rockets are launched, and "Dynamic Design: The Cleanroom" http://www.genesismission.org/educate/scimodule/CleanRoom.html where students experience the requirements and conditions of working in NASA's cleanest room.
Dynamic Design modules were written to address the science and technology recommendations in the National Science Education Standards, which state that "The understanding of technology can be developed by tasks in which students have to design something and also by studying technological products and systems."
January 29, 2002
Chandra Digest (Jan 29): Centaurus Cluster
NEW IMAGE!!! ** Centaurus Cluster: Vast Hot Gas Plume May Be A Passing Attraction The Chandra image of the Centaurus galaxy cluster shows a long plume-like feature resembling a twisted sheet. The plume is some 70,000 light years in length and has a temperature of about 10 million degrees Celsius. < http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2002/0146/ >
SPECIAL NEWS: ** Chandra Telescope Designer Wins 2002 Rossi Prize Leon Van Speybroeck of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts has been awarded the 2002 Bruno Rossi Prize of the High Energy Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society. < http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/02_releases/press_012302.html > <h%0Attp://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2002/gcenter/>
OUT OF THE NOISE: ** Of Parrots and the Milky Way What do parrots and the center of our galaxy have in common? The unexpected and admittedly somewhat tenuous connection can be found in two articles published the same week in two prestigious science journals. < http://chandra.harvard.edu/chronicle/0102/parrots/index.html > <h%0Attp://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2002/gcenter/>
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** Operations CXO Status Report (Friday 01/25/02) During the last week the observing schedule was interrupted when the spacecraft transitioned to bright star hold following a long maneuver at 10.53pm EST on Jan 23. < http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/updates/update_012502.html >
NEW & NOTEWORTHY!
++ Chandra in 2001: Top 10 Images Now in its third year of observations, Chandra has observed not only strange stars, but black holes, galaxies, and other cosmic phenomena. Taking a look back, here are some of the highlights of the past year with Chandra. < http://chandra.harvard.edu/resources/misc/chandra2001.html >
++ Photos from the 199th AAS The 199th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society was held in Washington, DC from January 6 - 10. See some of the scientists in action! < http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/aas/jan02/index.html >
++ All recent New & Noteworthy features are available at < http://chandra.harvard.edu/new.html >
STUDENTS CAN 'SEARCH' FOR A HABITABLE PLANET ON NEW NASA WEBSITE
Searching for a fictional planet on which people could live is one of the student activities available on a new NASA website that will open for business on Feb.1 at: http://astroventure.arc.nasa.gov
'Astro ferret,' a cartoon character, will guide students through a series of role-playing steps on the multi-media, interactive website. Young people using the 'Astro-venture' website can observe the effects of changes to the Earth and draw conclusions about what is needed for survival. Participants can 'feel' that they are part of an Internet world by receiving information seamlessly, through use of graphics, audio, video and audio transcriptions.
"Students in grades 5-8 are transported to the future where they role-play NASA occupations and use scientific inquiry, as they search for and eventually build a planet with the necessary characteristics for human habitation," said Christina O'Guinn of the educational technology team at NASA Ames Research Center, in California's Silicon Valley. "Supporting activities include Internet webcasts with real NASA scientists, online collaborations, classroom lessons, a student publishing area and occupation-related fact sheets and trading cards."
Webcasts enable students to watch live video, listen to audio and interact in real-time on the Internet with experts. The webcasts' URL is: http://quest.nasa.gov/astrobiology/astroventure/2002/index.html Two one-hour Astro-venture webcasts will take place in April. The first, 'Habitable Planets,' will be on April 2 at 10 a.m. PST. The second, 'Doppler Shift,' will take place on April 9 at 10 a.m. PDT.
"Our goal is to inspire students to pursue science, math and technology careers by engaging them in an extremely compelling topic, astrobiology, in a way that is very relevant to them, focusing on Earth and human survival," said Donald James, education director at NASA Ames. Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution and destiny of life in the universe. "Research shows that it is crucial to capture students' interest in science before they reach high school," he said. -more- -2- O'Guinn will describe the 'Astro-venture' website to as many as 150 teachers who will be attending a 'Space in the Classroom' conference Feb. 1 - 2 at the Golden State Museum in Sacramento, Calif.
The conference, for K-12 educators, is sponsored by the California Space Authority and will be hosted by the Space Foundation of Colorado Springs, Colo. More information about the conference can be found at: http://www.spacefoundation.org/sitc
The astronomy section of NASA's new website zeros in on our solar system's astronomical characteristics that make it livable to human beings.
"Students test cause-and-effect relationships to discover the characteristics that allow Earth to remain habitable. Students also will explore hands-on, inquiry-based lessons on states of matter and systems and then complete a mission in which they simulate the process scientists might use to find a planet that would be habitable to humans," said O'Guinn.
Students can participate in the NASA-sponsored Astro-venture Internet events without pre-registering. There is no charge.
The Astro-venture lessons meet national education standards and provide a purpose for understanding concepts such as states of matter. "Since we need liquid water to survive, we need to understand how liquid water is different from solid and gas and what conditions allow for water to be a liquid," O'Guinn explained. The website also highlights NASA careers and astrobiology research in astronomy, geology, biology and atmospheric sciences.
According to web team members, they are developing the website to meet educational standards, research-based instructional methods and the constraints of today's classrooms. The team includes instructional designers, graphic artists, multimedia programmers and web developers who work with NASA scientists, including some astrobiologists and their support personnel from the NASA Astrobiology Institute, which is headquartered, at NASA Ames.
Astrobiologists at NASA Ames are studying the organic chemistry of space, the formation of planetary systems, and the early history of the Earth, one NASA astrobiologist explained. These scientists investigate the origin of life and explore the most extreme environments that support life, from boiling hot springs to cold Antarctic rocks. Astrobiologists analyze martian meteorites for possible fossil evidence of life and carry out experiments in evolutionary biology using space shuttle flights.
"NASA Ames also is beginning a collaboration with California State University, Hayward, educational technology graduate students who are rapid-prototyping other modules and curriculum," O'Guinn said.
AGING NASA SPACECRAFT TO REENTER EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE
Engineers at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., predict a 7,000-pound spacecraft could re- enter the Earth's atmosphere as early as 10 p.m. EST on Jan. 30 or as late as 7 a.m. EST on Jan. 31.
NASA's Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) is currently 200 kilometers (124 miles) above the Earth with a descent rate of 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) a day. The estimated debris field is expected to be 800 to 1,000 kilometers (500-625 miles).
"The probability of the few EUVE surviving pieces falling into a populated area and hurting someone is very small. It is more likely that the small pieces will fall into the ocean or fall harmlessly to the ground," said Ronald E. Mahmot, Project Manager for Space Science Mission Operations at Goddard.
Unlike the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, which was safely de-orbited June 4, 2000, EUVE does not have an on-board propulsion system to allow engineers to control its re-entry. Much of EUVE will burn up in the atmosphere before ever reaching the ground. However, estimates show that up to nine objects ranging from approximately four to 100 pounds may survive re-entry. Much of this debris is made of titanium and stainless steel.
EUVE will start to break up when it falls to within 80 kilometers (50 miles) of the Earth. At this point, EUVE will have only four or five 90-minute orbits left before re- entering the Earth's atmosphere. Engineers will not know the re-entry point until approximately 12 hours prior to impact.
EUVE is in a 28.5-degree orbit and could re-enter in any location within this orbit range. This ranges includes areas as far north as Orlando, Fla., and as far south as Brisbane, Australia.
EUVE was launched on June 7, 1992. Science operations ended for the spacecraft in December 2001. During its early years, EUVE was operated from Goddard. In 1997, control of EUVE was transitioned from Goddard to the University of California, Berkeley and remained there until the program's termination in 2001. Slated for only three years, EUVE was operational for eight. NASA twice extended its scientific mission.
During its eight years in orbit, EUVE successfully opened a new window on the cosmos and helped to bridge the gap in our understanding of the extreme ultraviolet spectrum. Rather than seeing about 24 nearby objects as many predicted, EUVE observed more than 1,000 nearby sources, including more than three dozen objects outside our galaxy.
Additional background information about EUVE is available on the Internet at:
January 28, 2002
SOHO / Sun-Earth Connection Guest Investigator Programme AO
On 28 January 2002, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have announced a SOHO and Sun-Earth Connection Guest Investigator (GI) Programme, respectively, inviting the worldwide solar physics community to participate in the acquisition and analysis of SOHO data (ESA-SCI(2002)2 and NRA 02-OSS-01).
Details of the programme can be found on the Internet at
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/operations/guest_investigators
Letters of Intent are requested before 15 March 2002. Due date for proposals is 17 May 2002.
U.S. proposers should follow the format and other directions in NRA 02-OSS-01. Non-U.S. GIs will have to obtain funding for their research from their national or other international institutions.
Multiple Eyes for the VLT (ESO Press Release 01/02); VLTI data
illustrating the demand by modern astrophysics for frontline technology, today's Press Release from ESO is concerned with the so-called Integral Field Units (IFUs) for the VLT FLAMES facility. They will allow the astronomers to obtain 2-D spectra of extended objects like distant galaxies and will greatly increase the observing efficiency, e.g., of related cosmological studies. The original text, with five photos and all weblnks, is available at:
http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2002/pr-01-02.html
Information about the public release of scientific data from Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) commissioning has just become available on the web, cf.
http://www.eso.org/projects/vlti/instru/vinci/vinci_data_sets.html
NASA's SOLAR AIRCRAFT TO DEMONSTRATE FIRST COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS
This summer, look for a solar-powered airplane to glean meaningful data about Hawaiian coffee crops, when it is not otherwise engaged in demonstrating state-of-the-art telecommunications applications. NASA and commercial researchers are planning the missions to confirm the practical utility of high-flying, remotely piloted, environmentally friendly solar aircraft. Using a lightweight flying wing called the Pathfinder-Plus, the researchers will operate from the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) at Barking Sands on the island of Kaua'i. Last summer, the team from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center and commercial partner AeroVironment, Inc., flew the larger Helios Prototype solar airplane from PMRF to a record altitude of 96,863 feet. This summer's first two operations, co-sponsored by AeroVironment and their telecommunications customers, are tentatively scheduled for mid- to late June. They are aimed at a large segment of the uninhabited aerial vehicle (UAV) market for which AeroVironment, Inc., developer of the solar-electric flying wings, believes the aircraft are uniquely suited-as airborne platforms for commercial telecommunications relay services. "The first planned telecom demo is a third-generation mobile application providing two-way data rates of up to 384 kilobytes per second to a mobile user on the ground, suitable for video transmission to a handheld device, as well as for other voice and data transmissions including Internet access," said Stuart Hindle, vice-president of strategy and business development for AeroVironment subsidiary SkyTower, Inc. "The second telecom demo is a digital high definition television application providing a picture-perfect video broadcast signal to a fixed receiver on the ground at twice the resolution of conventional broadcast transmissions." Hindle noted that for the telecom applications, the Pathfinder-Plus and its on-board transceiver, flying above the weather at 60,000 feet, would act like an 11-mile tall tower in the sky, doing the function of a geostationary satellite but without the time delay. According to AeroVironment/SkyTower chief executive officer Tim Conver, just one of the firm's solar-electric aircraft could provide broadband local access services at "over 1,000 times the capacity of a typical space-based satellite, be deployed at a fraction of the cost of cable and DSL, and be set up in a matter of days." The third demonstration, planned for September, will find the Pathfinder-Plus soaring aloft on a three-flight coffee harvest optimization mission. While the flying wing loiters overhead at about 20,000 feet altitude, compact cameras will record spectral images of the Kaua'i Coffee Company plantation, the largest coffee plantation in the United States. The resulting color images will help growers determine which fields of coffee are ripest for harvest on a given day.
"Our objective is to demonstrate how this solar-powered UAV can be used as a platform for the acquisition and immediate use of high-resolution imagery," said principal investigator Dr. Stan Herwitz of Clark University, Worcester, Mass. "It is important to note that coffee is only one of many commercial UAV applications that we foresee using our imaging payload." Following the flights, the research team will share the results of the study with the plantation manager, and the data will also be available to agricultural interests around the world on the Internet. The coffee study is one of two demonstration missions funded by NASA's Earth Science Enterprise over a multi-year period to demonstrate the utility of UAVs for Earth science and commercial applications. "The Navy at Barking Sands established a working relationship with us on previous research missions, including the record altitude flights," said Jeff Bauer, Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) project manager at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif. "We plan to continue that relationship with this summer's missions and future missions now being planned." "The Pathfinder-Plus aircraft is available as a test platform for research and development of commercial missions," Bauer added. "If the customer has the funds, we have the capability."
The Great Dying
Two hundred and fifty million years ago something unknown wiped out most life on our planet. Now scientists are finding buried clues to the mystery inside tiny capsules of cosmic gas.
FULL STORY at
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/28jan_extinction.htm?list448368
Where lightning strikes New maps from orbiting sensors reveal where on Earth the powerful bolts will most likely strike
Lightning. It avoids the ocean, but likes Florida. It's likely to strike in the Himalayas and even more so in central Africa. And lightning almost never strikes the North or South Poles.
These are just a few of the things NASA scientists at the National Space Science and Technology Center (NSSTC) in Huntsville, Ala., have learned using satellites to monitor worldwide lightning.
"For the first time, we've been able to map the global distribution of lightning, noting its variation as a function of latitude, longitude and time of year," said Hugh Christian, a scientist from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. and project leader for the lightning team at the NSSTC's Global Hydrology and Climate Center.
This new perspective on lightning is possible thanks to two satellite-based detectors: the Optical Transient Detector (OTD) and the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS).
"These are two optical sensors that we've flown in lower Earth orbit," said Christian, whose team developed the sensors. "The Optical Transient Detector was launched in 1995 and we got five good years out of it, compared to the two years expected, before it stopped transmitting data. The Lightning Imaging Sensor was launched on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite in 1997, and it's still going strong."
"Basically, these optical sensors use high-speed cameras to look for changes in the tops of clouds, changes your eyes can't see," he explained. By analyzing a narrow wavelength band around 777 nanometers -- which is in the near-infrared region of the spectrum -- they can spot brief lightning flashes even under daytime conditions.
Before the Optical Transient Detector and Lightning Imaging Sensor, only approximate global lightning patterns were known. Ground-based lightning detectors employing radio-frequency sensors provide high-quality local measurements. But because such sensors have a limited range, oceans and low-population areas had been poorly sampled.
The development of space-based optical detectors was a major advance, giving researchers their first complete picture of planet-wide lightning activity. The new maps show that Florida, for example, is one place where the rate of strikes is unusually high.
Dennis Boccippio, an atmospheric scientist with the NSSTC lightning team, explained why: "Florida experiences two sea breezes: one from the East Coast and one from the West Coast." The "push" between these two breezes forces ground air upward and triggers thunderstorms.
Within thunderclouds, turbulence spawned by updrafts causes tiny ice crystals and water droplets, called "hydrometeors," to bump around and collide. For reasons not fully understood, positive electric charge accumulates on smaller particles -- that is, on hydrometeors smaller than about 100 micrometers -- while negative charges grow on the larger ones. Winds and gravity separate the charged hydrometeors and produce an enormous electrical potential within the storm.
"Lightning is one of the mechanisms to relax this build-up," said Boccippio.
Another lightning hot spot is in the Himalayas, where the extreme local topography forces the convergence of air masses from the Indian Ocean.
And where does lightning strike most frequently? Central Africa. "There you get thunderstorms all year 'round," Christian said. "It's a result of weather patterns, air flow from the Atlantic Ocean, and enhancement by mountainous areas."
The satellite data also track patterns of lightning intensity over time. In the Northern Hemisphere, for example, most lightning happens during the summer months. But in equatorial regions, lightning appears more often during the fall and spring.
Meanwhile, areas such as the Arctic and Antarctic have very few thunderstorms and, therefore, almost no lightning at all.
"Oceanic areas also experience a dearth of lightning," Christian said. "People living on some of the islands in the Pacific don't describe much lightning in their language." The ocean surface doesn't warm up as much as land does during the day because of water's higher heat capacity. Heating of low-lying air is crucial for storm formation, so the oceans don't experience as many thunderstorms.
According to Boccippio these global patterns probably aren't much influenced by human activity. Some people have suggested that buildings and metal communications towers increase the overall frequency of lightning strikes. But, "lightning that does make it to the ground is pretty much creating its own channels," Boccippio said.
"The likelihood that we are changing the amount of cloud-to-ground strikes with construction of towers is very slim." He cautions, however, that this has not been verified experimentally.
To answer such questions, a new lightning detector -- the Lightning Mapper Sensor or "LMS" -- is on the drawing board at the National Space Science and Technology Center. The proposed instrument would circle our planet in a geostationary orbit over the United States, detecting all forms of lightning with a high spatial resolution and detection efficiency.
The LMS, or something like it, could provide valuable -- even life-saving -- data to weather forecasters. "The same updrafts that drive severe weather often cause a spike in the lightning rate at the onset of a storm," explained Boccippio. So, measuring the rate of lightning flashes in real time might offer a way to identify potentially deadly storms before they become deadly.
The Web
News release http://www1.msfc.nasa.gov/newsroom/NSSTC/news/releases/2002/N02-001.html
Photo http://www1.msfc.nasa.gov/NEWSROOM/NSSTC/news/photos/2002/photosN02-001.htm
Francisc
The Mars Society Steering Committee
In accordance with the bylaws of The Mars Society, the Board of Directors nominated a slate of 24 candidates for the available steering committee seats. In addition, the membership was invited to nominate candidates for the steering committee with the intent that an election would be held early in 2002 and the top twenty-four vote getters would serve for the next two years.
The bylaws do, however, specify that the steering committee may be composed of up to 30 members.
Several members did participate in the nomination process. There were six declared candidates. Of these, four qualified to run for seats on the steering committee. These were Gary Fisher of the Philadelphia Freedom chapter, Bruce Mackenzie from the New England chapter, Mark Klosowski of Northern California and Guy Murphy from the Australian chapter.
After discussing the situation with all of the qualified candidates, the Board voted to expand the number of steering committee members to allow for each of the nominated candidates to have a seat. Therefore, for the term 1/1/2002 - 12/31/2003, the Steering Committee of The International Mars Society will be:
Buzz Aldrin Lorraine Bell Greg Benford Michael Bosch Penny Boston Bill Clancey Gary Fisher Mike Griffin Richard Heidmann Scott Horowitz Mark Klosowski Pascal Lee Larry Lemke Darlene Lim Bruce Lusignan Bo Maxwell Bruce Mackenzie Chris McKay Guy Murphy Tony Muscatello Declan O'Donnell Gabriel Rshaid Frank Schubert Peter Smith Carol Stoker Richard Wagner Maggie Zubrin Robert Zubrin
As always, steering committee meetings are open to all Mars Society members. The next scheduled meeting will be during the conference this August in Boulder, CO. To have an item considered for the agenda, please submit a brief statement of intent no later than July 15th.
NEW NASA ADMINISTRATOR TO VISIT DRYDEN FLIGHT RESEARCH CENTER
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe will make his first visit to the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif., January 31. O'Keefe will meet with NASA Dryden employees and inspect facilities and aircraft at this cutting-edge aeronautical research facility.
A brief opportunity for media members to talk with O'Keefe is scheduled from 3-3:20 p.m. at Dryden. Media members who want to attend this session should call Beth Hagenauer at NASA Dryden public affairs at (661) 276-7960. Media must be U. S. citizens, provide full name, date and place of birth, driver's license number and last six digits of their social security number. Two forms of photo ID are required for media to enter Edwards Air Force Base, where Dryden is located. Expect delays at the Edwards Air Force Base west gate. The west gate off Highway 14 at Rosamond, Calif., will be the only entrance for media.
O'Keefe, who was sworn in as NASA Administrator on Dec. 21, is visiting all NASA centers to learn their capabilities. After his visit to Dryden, he will tour the Ames Research Center near San Francisco.
January 26, 2002
Mars Society Covered in USA Weekend Magazine
The January 18-20 issue of USA Weekend magazine carried a full- collumn article about the Mars Society's Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station project. Written by Elizabeth Kaye McCall, the highly favorable article focussed on the experience of Katy Quinn, the Australian/American MIT geophysicist who served in the second crew rotation in the Flashline Station on Devon Island last summer.
The article, which prominently included the URL of the Mars Society website, began; "Desperate for adventure and glory? The Mars Society is looking for volunteers to test what life may be like on the red planet. "For geophysicist Katy Quinn, 30, that meant spending eight days last summer on a subzero arctic island surveying seismic activity in a spacesuit as part of the global group's Mars research project... "Many scientists believe our closest planetary neighbor may someday be inhabitable..."
McCall then asked Quinn a series of questions. The final question was: "If you could live anywhere, it would be..."
Quinn's answer: "Are you expecting me to say Mars? I would. I can't think of anything more exciting. I hope humans get there in my lifetime. It would be a dream come true if I was one of those people."
USA weekend has a circulation of over 30 million households. Together with coverage on CNN, the Discovery Channel, the BBC, Popular Science, and Scientific American, the Mars Society's Flashline Station project has now brought the vision of human Mars exploration to over 100 million homes.
To find out more about the Mars Society, visit our website at www.marssociety.org. Or contact info@marssociety.org.
NASA,s Space Launch Initiative seeks next round of proposals from industry, academia in late March NASA,s Space Launch Initiative is seeking its second round of proposals on technologies, experiments and other risk-reduction activities from industry and academia-- taking another step toward making space launch safer and more affordable in the future.
Technical proposals are due March 27.
NASA expects to award multiple contracts totaling approximately $500 million in September.
The Space Launch Initiative (SLI), also known as the Second Generation Reusable Launch Vehicle Program, is a NASA technology development program designed to substantially improve safety and reliability of space travel, while reducing costs. The program -- managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and supported by NASA Centers across the country -- focuses on improving access to space for America,s 21st century missions by increasing safety and reliability and reducing costs associated with a new generation of fully reusable launch vehicles.
"In spite of the advances in aerospace technology, human space flight remains a challenging endeavor, said Dennis Smith of the Marshall Center, manager of the Space Launch Initiative. "We are asking industry and universities to develop concepts and leap-ahead technologies needed to pioneer safer, lower cost space flight. They have a clean sheet of paper and the competition is wide-open.
This second round of requests targets research on propulsion, flight demonstrations and NASA-unique projects such as life support and crew safety, and integrated ground testing and simulations for a second-generation reusable launch vehicle. Space Launch Initiative management has identified these areas as critical to the program and in need of additional research.
The Space Launch Initiative,s first round of contract awards -- valued at $791 million -- went to 22 prime contractors. Those studies marked the first step of a process that will lead to development of a common set of alternative technologies that NASA will make available to all U.S. companies. These cutting-edge developments will be used for future government and commercial launch systems and space transportation operations. The Space Launch Initiative awarded an additional $94.6 million in December.
"Proposals funded under this program will further define the technical requirements for achieving NASA's safety and mission goals, Smith said. "The proposals will initiate essential activities necessary to develop vehicles, ground support equipment and operations for a second generation reusable launch system."
The original research announcement was issued in October 2000. NASA Research Announcement 8-30 Cycle I asked U.S. industry, educational institutions, nonprofit organizations and federal agencies to submit proposals in 10 areas: system engineering and architecture definition, airframe, vehicle subsystems, internal vehicle health monitoring, operations, upper stages, propulsion, flight mechanics, flight demonstrations and NASA-unique requirements such as life support and crew escape systems.
The technology selected for development is based on extensive studies to assess the technological needs for a second-generation reusable launch vehicle. These technologies have been prioritized and the funding is commensurate with those priorities.
The planned budget for the Space Launch Initiative totals $4.8 billion through fiscal year 2006.
The Space Launch Initiative,s goal is to enable full-scale development of a reusable launch system in 2006 -- with flight operations anticipated in the 2012 timeframe.
The Marshall Center is NASA's Lead Center for Space Transportation Systems Development. Marshall's efforts are supported by Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.; Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Miss.; Kennedy Space Center, Florida; Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif.; Johnson Space Center in Houston; Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.; the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.; Glenn Research Center in Cleveland; and the Air Force Research Laboratory, which includes research and development facilities at nine United States Air Force bases nationwide.
Additional information on NASA,s Space Launch Initiative and technical proposals is available on the internet at: http://www.slinews.com <http://nais.msfc.nasa.gov/EPS/EPS_DATA/083261-AMEND-008-001.doc>
NINE SMALL BUSINESS PROJECTS SELECTED FOR FUTHER DEVELOPMENT
NASA has selected nine research proposals for negotiation of Phase 2 contract awards for its 2000 Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program.
Phase 2 continues development of the most promising previously selected Phase 1 projects. Selection criteria include scientific and technical merit, future importance and eventual value of the innovation to NASA, company capabilities, and commercial potential. Funding for Phase 2 contracts may be up to $500,000 for a two-year performance period.
A total of 15 Phase 2 proposals were submitted by contractors completing Phase 1 projects. All proposals were peer-reviewed for both technical merit and commercial potential. The combined award total for the nine Phase 2 contracts is expected to be $4.5 million.
The goals of the STTR program are to stimulate technological innovation; increase the use of small business, including women-owned and disadvantaged firms, in meeting federal research and development needs; and increase private sector commercialization of federally funded research results. Two of the nine companies being announced today are disadvantaged firms.
The program also requires small businesses to conduct cooperative research and development by partnering with a research institution.
The NASA STTR Program Management Office is located at the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., with executive oversight by NASA's Office of Aerospace Technology. Individual STTR projects are managed by NASA's field centers.
A listing of the selected companies can be found on the Internet at: http://sbir.nasa.gov
Cassini Weekly Significant Events for 01/17/02 - 01/23/02
The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone tracking station on Wednesday, January 23. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health and is operating normally. "Present Position" web page, http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/english/where/ .
The C30 sequence continues to execute as planned. Science activities this week include the completion of a Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) functional test. This mini-sequence performed a functional checkout as the instrument transitioned from science mode, to sleep mode, and powered off. The Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) decontamination mini-sequence began execution, with the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer riding along. The spacecraft was turned to Spica with ISS taking a number of images using the Narrow Angle Camera. The spacecraft then returned to Earth point with ISS decontamination heater #1 and the ISS replacement heater left in the ON state. Decontamination activities will continue through the end of the month when a second set of images will be obtained.
Spacecraft activities included transition from Reaction Control Subsystem to Reaction Wheel Assembly mode in support of the ISS mini-sequence, a Command & Data Subsystem (CDS) Solid State Power Switch trip counter reset, and an autonomous CDS Solid State Recorder memory load partition repair.
In support of a Deep Space Network (DSN) request to test a new version of their firmware, a DSN Block 5 Receiver firmware test Immediate/Delayed Action Program (IDAP) was uplinked. The IDAP will execute next week, putting Cassini into 82K downlink mode over DSS-15, and returning to S&ER3 near the end of the pass.
The 27th Cassini Project Science Group (PSG) meeting concluded during this reporting period. Titan Orbiter Science Team and Satellite Orbiter Science Team meetings were held to continue working integration issues for the Titan and icy satellite flybys. Also during PSG week the Cross-Discipline Workshop's Equatorial Splinter Group was reactivated to re-segment the tour prior to the Titan 3 (T3) flyby. The re-segmentation was required due to the new probe mission design. The group successfully segmented the tour for this time frame and allocated the segments to the appropriate Target Working Teams.
Mission Planning gathered science response and impacts to proposed trajectory tweaks for tour. The tweaks included moving ring plane crossings to reduce the probability of dust impacts to the spacecraft and instruments. A presentation on the findings will be made next week. Archiving status reported by Instrument Operations indicated that many of the instrument teams have made progress identifying their data sets and working with the Planetary Data System (PDS) to design archive volumes and data processing systems. The Huygens Probe PDS representatives have been identified, and work to develop the Huygens PDS archive has begun. Radio Science plans to archive reduced products including atmospheric T-p profiles, ionospheric electron density profiles, ring opacity profiles, GM and higher order results from various gravity fields.
Uplink Operations - Mission Sequence Subsystem (ULO-MSS) internal status meetings have assessed progress towards the MSS D8 software delivery date in May of this year. While some threats were identified, there was only one task that could not be handled within the current ULO-MSS margin policy. Additional analysis incorporating new information indicates that the work can probably be done within the policy if some tasks are reallocated.
After review at a previous Cassini Design Team meeting (CDT), comments have been incorporated and a new plan designed to deal with system-level vs. instrument internal commands. The revised plan was presented at this week's CDT.
Cassini is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Cassini mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.
Cassini Outreach Cassini Mission to Saturn and Titan Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology National Aeronautics and Space Administration
JANUARY 25, 2002
ESO have just published a new colour image of the famous "Horsehead Nebula", obtained with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at Paranal, cf..
http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2002/phot-02-02.html
With the best wishes,
ESO Press Photos 02a-b/02
VLT Images the Horsehead Nebula Summary
A new, high-resolution colour image of one of the most photographed celestial objects, the famous "Horsehead Nebula" (IC 434) in Orion, has been produced from data stored in the VLT Science Archive. The original CCD frames were obtained in February 2000 with the FORS2 multi-mode instrument at the 8.2-m VLT KUEYEN telescope on Paranal (Chile). The comparatively large field-of-view of the FORS2 camera is optimally suited to show this extended object and its immediate surroundings in impressive detail.
PR Photo 02a/02: View of the full field around the Horsehead Nebula. PR Photo 02b/02: Enlargement of a smaller area around the Horse's "mouth"
A spectacular object
ESO PR Photo 02a/02
[Preview - JPEG: 400 x 485 pix - 63k] [Normal - JPEG: 800 x 970 pix - 896k] [Full-Res - JPEG: 1951 x 2366 pix - 4.7M]
ESO PR Photo 02b/02
[Preview - JPEG: 400 x 501 pix - 91k] [Normal - JPEG: 800 x 1002 pix - 888k] [Full-Res - JPEG: 1139 x 1427 pix - 1.9M]
Caption: PR Photo 02a/02 is a reproduction of a composite colour image of the Horsehead Nebula and its immediate surroundings. It is based on three exposures in the visual part of the spectrum with the FORS2 multi-mode instrument at the 8.2-m KUEYEN telescope at Paranal. PR Photo 02b/02 is an enlargement of a smaller area. Technical information <#techinfo> about these photos is available below.
PR Photo 02a/02 shows the famous "Horsehead Nebula", which is situated in the Orion molecular cloud complex. Its official name is Barnard 33 and it is a dust protrusion in the southern region of the dense dust cloud Lynds 1630, on the edge of the HII region IC 434. The distance to the region is about 1400 light-years (430 pc).
This beautiful colour image was produced from three images obtained with the multi-mode FORS2 instrument at the second VLT Unit Telescope (KUEYEN), some months after it had "First Light", cf. PR 17/99. The image files were extracted from the VLT Science Archive Facility and the photo constitutes a fine example of the subsequent use of such valuable data. Details about how the photo was made <#techinfo> and some weblinks to other pictures <#links> are available below.
The comparatively large field-of-view of the FORS2 camera (nearly 7 x 7 arcmin2) and the detector resolution (0.2 arcsec/pixel) make this instrument optimally suited for imaging of this extended object and its immediate surroundings. There is obviously a wealth of detail, and scientific information can be derived from the colours shown in this photo. Three predominant colours are seen in the image: red from the hydrogen (H-alpha) emission from the HII region; brown for the foreground obscuring dust; and blue-green for scattered starlight.
The blue-green regions of the Horsehead Nebula correspond to regions not shadowed from the light from the stars in the H II region to the top of the picture and scatter stellar radiation towards the observer; these are thus `mountains' of dust. The Horse's `mane' is an area in which there is less dust along the line-of-sight and the background (H-alpha) emission from ionized hydrogen atoms can be seen through the foreground dust. A chaotic area At the high resolution of this image the Horsehead appears very chaotic with many wisps and filaments and diffuse dust. At the top of the figure there is a bright rim separating the dust from the HII region. This is an `ionization front' where the ionizing photons from the HII region are moving into the cloud, destroying the dust and the molecules and heating and ionizing the gas.
Dust and molecules can exist in cold regions of interstellar space which are shielded from starlight by very large layers of gas and dust. Astronomers refer to elongated structures, such as the Horsehead, as `elephant trunks' (never mind the zoological confusion!) which are common on the boundaries of HII regions. They can also be seen elsewhere in Orion - another well-known example is the pillars of M16 (the "Eagle Nebula") made famous by the fine HST image - a new infrared view by VLT and ISAAC of this area was published last month, cf. PR 25/01.
Such structures are only temporary as they are being constantly eroded by the expanding region of ionized gas and are destroyed on timescales of typically a few thousand years. The Horsehead as we see it today will therefore not last forever and minute changes will become observable as the time passes. The surroundings To the east of the Horsehead (at the bottom of this image) there is ample evidence for star formation in the Lynds 1630 dark cloud. Here, the reflection nebula NGC 2023 surrounds the hot B-type star HD 37903 and some Herbig Haro objects are found which represent high-speed gas outflows from very young stars with masses of around a solar mass.
The HII region to the west (top of picture) is ionized by the strong radiation from the bright star Sigma Orionis, located just below the southernmost star in Orion's Belt. The chain of dust and molecular clouds are part of the Orion A and B regions (also known as Orion's `sword'). Other images of the Horsehead Nebula The Horsehead Nebula is a favourite object for amateur astrophotographers and large numbers of images are available on the WWW. Due to its significant extension and the limited field-of-view of some professional telescopes, fewer photographs are available from today's front-line facilities, except from specialized wide-field instruments like Schmidt telescopes, etc.
The links below point to a number of prominent photos obtained elsewhere and some contain further useful links to other sites with more information about this splendid sky area.
"Astronomy Picture of the Day": http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap971025.html
Hubble Heritage image: http://hubble.stsci.edu/news_.and._views/pr.cgi?2001%2B12
INT Wide-Field image: http://www.ing.iac.es/PR/science/horsehead.htm
NOT image: http://www.not.iac.es/new/general/photos/astronomical/
NOAO Wide-Field image: http://www.noao.edu/outreach/press/pr01/ir0101.html
Bill Arnett's site: http://www.seds.org/billa/twn/b33x.html Technical information about the photos PR Photo 02a/02 was produced from three images, obtained on February 1, 2000, with the FORS2 multi-mode instrument at the 8.2-m KUEYEN Unit Telescope and extracted from the VLT Science Archive Facility. The frames were obtained in the B-band (600 sec exposure; wavelength 429 nm; FWHM 88 nm; here rendered as blue), V-band (300 sec; 554 nm; 112 nm; green) and R-band (120 sec; 655 nm; 165 nm; red) The original pixel size is 0.2 arcsec. The photo shows the full field recorded in all three colours, approximately 6.5 x 6.7 arcmin2. The seeing was about 0.75 arcsec. PR Photo 02b/02 is an enlargement of a smaller area, measuring 3.8 x 4.1 arcmin2. North is to the left and east is down (the usual orientation for showing this object). The frames were recorded with a TK2048 SITe CCD and the ESO-FIERA Controller, built by the Optical Detector Team (ODT) </projects/odt/> . The images were prepared by Cyril Cavadore (ESO-ODT), by means of Prism software <http://www.astroccd.com/prism/> .
JANUARY 24, 2002
BLACK HOLE MYSTERY MIMICKED BY SUPERCOMPUTER
Advanced supercomputers have simulated extremely powerful energy jets squirted out by black holes, the most exotic and powerful objects in the Universe.
"This research helps us unlock the mysteries of rotating black holes and confirms that their rotation actually produces power output," said Dr. David Meier, an astrophysicist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Meier is co-author of a paper that will appear in the journal Science. The leader of the research team is Dr. Shinji Koide of Toyama University, Toyama, Japan.
A black hole is an object so dense and powerful that nothing, not even light, can escape. A black hole gobbles up stars and other material that approaches it, including other black holes. These odd objects form in one of two ways -- when a dying star collapses, or when many stars and black holes collapse together in the center of a galaxy, like our Milky Way.
Both types of black holes can rotate very rapidly, dragging along the space around them. When more material falls in, it swirls and struggles wildly before being swallowed. Astronomers have witnessed this violence, including the ejection of jets, with radio and X-ray observations, but they are not able to see a black hole itself.
"We can't travel to a black hole, and we can't make one in the lab, so we used supercomputers," Meier said. This simulation process is similar to weather-prediction techniques, which create animation of how clouds are expected to move, based on current satellite views and knowledge about Earth's atmosphere and gravity effects. In much the same way, the scientists combined data about plasma swirling into a black hole with knowledge about how gravity and magnetic fields would affect it.
"We have modeled a rotating black hole with magnetized plasma falling into it," said Koide. "We simulated the way that the magnetic field harnesses energy from the rotation of the black hole."
"In this case, jets of pure electromagnetic energy are ejected by the magnetic field along the north and south poles above the black hole," Meier added. "The jets contain energy equivalent to the power of the Sun, multiplied ten billion times and then increased another one billion times."
This jet phenomenon had been predicted by Professor Roger Blandford of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif., and his colleague, Roman Znajek, in the 1970s, but the new computer simulation confirms that prediction. The latest research was conducted in late 2001 using supercomputers at Japan's National Institute for Fusion Science.
Scientists have theorized the existence of black holes since the 1700s and identified jet-producing objects in the centers of galaxies since the early 1900s. In the 1960s, scientists explored the possibility that these jet-emitting objects were supermassive black holes between one million and several billion times heavier than our Sun. In the 1990s, it was discovered that such jets also are ejected by much smaller black holes in double star systems. A black hole ten times as massive as the Sun can form when the center of a dying star, 20 to 30 times the mass of the Sun, collapses on itself. This creates a tiny object, only a few miles across, with an intense gravitational pull. The other supermassive type of black hole is formed when many stars and black holes collapse together in the center of a galaxy.
In addition to Koide and Meier, the team includes colleagues Dr. Kazunari Shibata, Kyoto University, Kyoto, and Dr. Takahiro Kudoh, National Astronomical Observatory, Mitaka. Images of the research are available at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/blackholes .
The research was partially funded by an Astrophysics Theory Grant from NASA. The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.
Stardust Mission Status January 24, 2002
NASA's comet-bound spacecraft, Stardust, successfully completed a critical deep space maneuver, positioning itself on a course to encounter comet Wild 2 in January 2004 and collect dust from the comet.
At 21:56 Universal Time (1:56 p.m. Pacific Time), January 18, Stardust fired its thrusters for nearly 111 seconds, increasing the speed of the spacecraft by 2.65 meters per second (about 6 miles per hour).
"This is the maneuver that sets us up for the bigger maneuver. It's a combination of increasing the speed of the spacecraft and at the same time putting it on the path to reach Wild 2," said Robert Ryan, Stardust's mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "It's like the setup pass in a basketball game. Now we're ready to shoot the basket."
The spacecraft responded exactly as planned, said Ryan, although communication was tricky. Stardust is currently the farthest solar-powered object from the Sun, over 395 million kilometers (245 million miles) away. The spacecraft's signal confirming it had completed the maneuver took almost 30 minutes to reach Earth.
In January 2004, Stardust will fly through the halo of dust that surrounds the nucleus of comet Wild 2. The spacecraft will return to Earth in January 2006 to make a soft landing at the U.S. Air Force Utah Test and Training Range. Its sample return capsule, holding microscopic particles of comet and interstellar dust, will be taken to the planetary material curatorial facility at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, where the samples will be carefully stored and examined.
Stardust's cometary and interstellar dust samples will help provide answers to fundamental questions about the origins of the solar system. More information on the Stardust mission is available at http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov .
Stardust, a part of NASA's Discovery Program of low-cost, highly focused science missions, was built by Lockheed Martin Astronautics and Operations, Denver, Colo., and is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. The principal investigator is astronomy professor Donald E. Brownlee of the University of Washington in Seattle.
1. Second Call for Papers on "The Causes of the Aurora" for a Special Section of the Journal of Geophysical Research - Space Physics --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Robert A. Hoffman (rhoffman@pop600.gsfc.nasa.gov)
Recent satellite missions, including Polar, Image, and FAST, and analysis of data from older missions, have provided new insights indicating that the aurora can be produced by several different causes, in some cases dependent upon the local time of the aurora, in other cases dependent upon geospace conditions. Examples are the classical auroral substorm, the morning-side precipitation, the post-noon hot spot, pressure pulse aurora, convection bay auroras, strahl aurora, and cusp aurora. The goal of current progress in this area is to provide clear linkages between observational characteristics of the aurora and the associated magnetospheric and ionospheric processes. Part of this linkage involves the comparison of auroral forms with specific theoretical predictions. The purpose of this special section is to gather in one publication, and with a systematic presentation, a number of important advances on the observational characteristics of the various auroras and the theoretical investigations of the production mechanisms.
Papers designated for this special section must be received by 28 February 2002. Please indicate the special section, "The Causes of the Aurora," in your cover letter, and prepare your submission assuming the usual JGR standards and review process. All papers should be submitted through the electronic submission system. You may access this system at: <http://jgr-spacephysics-submit.agu.org>. For review purposes you may submit in one of the following formats: MS Word, Corel WordPerfect, LaTex using AGU style files only, or PDF.
Questions regarding this special section should be addressed to the organizers:
Robert A. Hoffman (rhoffman@pop600.gsfc.nasa.gov) Robert Strangeway (strange@igpp.ucla.edu) Stephen Mende (mende@ssl.berkeley.edu) </blockquote></x-html>
--------------------------------------------------------------- 2. SHINE 2002 Workshop Set for August 18-22 in Canadian Rockies --------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jon Linker <JON.A.LINKER@saic.com>
As those who have attended in the past can attest, SHINE workshops are the premier venue for lively scientific exchange between solar and heliospheric physicists. SHINE workshops are sponsored by NSF, but participation is community-wide. This year's workshop will be held August 18 - 22 at the Buffalo Mountain Lodge (http://www.buffalomountainlodge.com/bml/) in the charming town of Banff, Alberta, Canada near beautiful Lake Louise (http://www.banfflakelouise.com/).
Topics to be addressed at the workshop include CME initiation, complex CMEs, mechanisms of the heliospheric magnetic field reversal, solar-cycle evolution of solar energetic particle (SEP) effects, and possible SEP signatures of interacting CMEs.
Working group leaders are David Alexander (Lockheed), Nick Arge (NOAA/SEC), Christina Cohen (Caltech), Todd Hoeksema (NASA Headquarters), Tom Holzer (HAO) and Mark Popecki (University of New Hampshire).
Plan to attend. Mark your calendar now. Future announcements will include instructions for registration, housing, and details of the scientific program. These will also be posted on the SHINE website (http:// www.shinegroup.org) as they become available.
SHINE Steering Committee: Jon Linker (SAIC), Chair; Joan Burkepile (HAO), Nancy Crooker (BU, ex-officio), Nat Gopalswamy (CUA), Jim Klimchuk (NRL), Sara Martin (Helio Res.),Vic Pizzo (SEC, ex officio), Pete Riley (SAIC), Allan Tylka (NRL), Dave Webb (BC), and Thomas Zurbuchen (U Mich.)
------------------------------------------------------------------ 3. Job Announcement - Research Astronomer at Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, UK ------------------------------------------------------------------ From: Libby Daghorn <ead@mssl.ucl.ac.uk>
The MSSL Astrophysics Group has a vacancy for a research astronomer to work primarily on analysis of data from XMM-Newton observatory. XMM-Newton is the world-leading ESA X-ray observatory that is providing radically new views of the X-ray and ultra-violet sky. MSSL is a major centre for exploitation of XMM-Newton, with access to the largest fraction of guaranteed observing time in the UK through its hardware role in two of the three science instruments and its involvement in the XMM-Newton Survey Science Centre. The astrophysics group currently has over a dozen members of whom six are academic staff, and the position advertised here is one of a number supported by a rolling grant from PPARC. The group pursues a multiwavelength research programme and current interests include quasar and other AGN research, X-ray and microwave background studies, gamma-ray bursts, clusters of galaxies, X-ray surveys, X-ray binaries and cataclysmic variables and stellar coronal studies. Salary will be 17,626 to 21,503 pound dependent on experience. The successful candidate will have a PhD in a relevant field and should submit an application that will include a statement of current and future research interests, a CV, including full publication list, and the names of three academic referees, to The Personnel Manager, Mullard Space Science Laboratory, Holmbury St Mary, Dorking, Surrey RH5 6NT, UK. The appointment will be on the standard University Research Assistant scale at a level dependent on experience. Further information can be obtained from Professor Keith Mason (kom@mssl.ucl.ac.uk Tel 01483 204100) or from http://www.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/ Closing date for applications is 1 March 2002.
10,000 STUDENTS TO ATTEND 'FROZEN WORLDS' PROJECT AT NASA AMES
Some 10,000 students from the greater San Francisco Bay area will interact via satellite with scientists in Alaska during 50 telecasts Jan. 28 - Feb. 8 at NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley.
During the broadcasts, local students from grades 3 to 12 can talk live by satellite with scientists and students in polar regions who are studying geology, climate change, native cultures, plants, animals and even the bacteria of some of Earth's colder places. These investigations are part of "JASON Project XIII: Frozen Worlds." Organizers intend to show students connections between science concepts and real-world problems. Students also will take part in many hands-on educational activities in historic Hangar 1 at Ames.
"In JASON, neither the teachers nor the students have the answers, and young people and educators must find them together," said science teacher John Colombero, Ames' JASON Project coordinator. "This is how real research is accomplished." The JASON Foundation, named in the spirit of the Greek myth of Jason and the Argonauts, is a non-profit educational organization with headquarters in Needham, Mass. NASA is one of many sponsors of JASON activities each year that benefit students in the U.S. and abroad.
Each year the JASON Project focuses on an exotic theme and locations during the school year to excite and engage students in science and technology. After studying a unique environment for months, millions of students are able to view and, in some cases, to interact live in real time with researchers on the expedition site from primary interactive network sites. Ames is one of 33 JASON primary interactive network sites located across the United States, Canada, Bermuda and Europe.
This year students will be able to chat with 'Argonauts' on location in Alaska. Argonauts are students and teachers selected by the JASON Project to travel to JASON expedition sites.
"The JASON broadcasts offer students opportunities to see their peers take part in real research as it actually happens," said Thomas Clausen, education officer at Ames. Eight educators are accompanying a team of researchers and 25 student Argonauts from around the world on the scientific journey to Alaska.
"They are examining the geologic nature of these locations as well as many other things affecting the regions," Colombero said. "How is the climate changing? How is the ice pack being affected by climate change? What effect does pollution have on the polar environment? Students study the native peoples of Alaska and how their culture is affected by environmental changes taking place. We will examine the plants, animals and even the plankton and bacteria of these cold places."
"The teachers and students participating in JASON have been preparing for their visit to Ames since last fall," Clausen said. Local teachers who take part in JASON were required to attend a one-day class taught by scientists and local educators. Teachers received a 250-page curriculum, videotapes, compact discs, posters, maps and access to JASON Online. Using the educational materials and on-line activities, teachers prepared their students for the hour-long, live JASON broadcasts. The Internet site at http://www.jasonproject.org includes 'chat sessions' with scientists, a digital lab that provides experiments students can do on-line and other information. Teachers even can manage their students' class work with the JASON website.
In addition to almost 10,000 students from more than 100 schools, Ames will host at least 1,800 adults and teachers for the JASON activities. More than 2,700 of the students and 75 teachers are from 41 San Jose schools with a concentration of diverse and under served student populations. The city of San Jose's Healthy Neighborhoods Venture Fund provided grant money that enabled under served San Jose schools to bus students and teachers to JASON activities at Ames.
The NASA Ames JASON Project and the Resource Area For Teachers (RAFT), San Jose, Calif., collaborated to apply for the Healthy Neighborhoods fund that also paid for teacher trainers. Additionally, RAFT provided supplies for 'JASON City' activities for students in Hangar 1. A major part of RAFT's mission is to donate computers and hands-on materials to Bay Area schools and community groups at low cost. RAFT's website is at: http://www.raft.net
Following each broadcast, students will go to Hangar 1 to take part in hands-on JASON City activities designed to spark student interest in science and engineering. Volunteer scientists and science organizations will conduct the activities. They are mostly academic, but many of them are fun, too, according to Colombero. "We're going to do liquid nitrogen demonstrations, freezing balls and plants and then smashing them into a 'gazillion' pieces," he said. "We also have a make-a-walrus activity. The students will dress their teachers in walrus parts for a 'photo-op.'"
Organizers will provide a tall, walk-in freezer as large as a huge truck. "Kids will get a chance to 'chill out' in the huge freezer," said Clausen. Programs in Hangar 1will repeat daily during JASON from 9:45 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. PST.
SPEED GUNS IN SPACE: FREE TALKS ON USING RADAR TO MONITOR CLIMATE
How can the same radar technology used by law enforcement officials to enforce speed limits be used in space to monitor Earth's climate? Find out at two free, public lectures at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Thursday, Jan. 24, and Pasadena City College on Friday, Jan. 25.
The lectures, entitled "The Winds and Beyond: The Radar Scatterometer as a Global Climate Monitoring Device," will be presented by Dr. Michael Spencer, a senior radar systems engineer at JPL. He will discuss the increasingly important role radar technology and Earth-sensing radars, known as scatterometers, are playing in monitoring Earth's climate. Such instruments are able to penetrate clouds and "see" phenomena that are unobservable to conventional satellite- based cameras.
In recent years, JPL-developed scatterometer instruments such as the SeaWinds instrument on NASA's Quick Scatterometer satellite have measured and mapped global wind speed and direction. These data have proven useful in improving the forecast of extreme wind events, such as hurricanes, as well as monitoring longer-term climatic effects, such as El Nino. In addition to winds, researchers have found that scatterometer measurements are a sensitive indicator of other environmental processes. These new applications for scatterometry include monitoring of the polar ice sheet, detecting deforestation in the Amazon and predicting destructive flooding events.
Spencer joined JPL's radar science and engineering group in 1990 and has been involved in the design, testing and operation of several successful space radar missions. He is currently developing concepts for future Earth-observing sensors. Spencer earned a bachelor of science degree in physics from The College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Va.; master of science degrees in planetary science from The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, and in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles; and a doctorate in electrical engineering from Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
Both lectures begin at 7 p.m. Seating is on a first- come, first-served basis. The lecture will be webcast live and will also be available after the event on the JPL Web site. The lecture at JPL, located at 4800 Oak Grove Dr., Pasadena, off the Oak Grove Drive exit of the 210 (Foothill) Freeway, will be held in the von Karman Auditorium. The Friday lecture will be held in Pasadena City College's Forum at 1570 E. Colorado Blvd.
For more information, call (818) 354-0112. Information on the von Karman lecture and webcast is available at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/lectures/jan02.html . JPL is a division of Caltech.
NASA TV TO COVER NEXT EXPEDITION FOUR SPACEWALK
The second spacewalk by members of the Expedition Four crew aboard the International Space Station will be covered on NASA Television beginning at 10 a.m. EST Friday, Jan. 25.
Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineer Dan Bursch will exit the Pirs Docking Compartment around 10:35 a.m. EST for a six-hour spacewalk to install protective covers around thrusters on the Russian Zvezda Service Module. The crew will also attach additional antennas for future amateur radio operations.
Flight Engineer Carl Walz, who conducted a spacewalk with Onufrienko last week, will operate the space station's robotic arm - Canadarm2 - from inside and will serve as spacewalk choreographer.
One more spacewalk is planned during the five-month Expedition Four mission when Walz and Bursch will exit the U.S. Airlock Quest next month to preposition equipment that will be used during the installation of the S0 (S Zero) Truss on the ISS in April by the STS-110 crew.
NASA TV is available on GE-2, Transponder 9C at 85 degrees West longitude, vertical polarization, with a frequency of 3880 MHz, and audio of 6.8 MHz. Additional information on the International Space Station and the Expedition Four crew is available on the Internet at:
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov
NASA Marshall,s friction stir welding technology successfully commercialized by two companies
Two companies have successfully commercialized a specialized welding tool developed at NASA,s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
Commercialization of auto-adjustable pin tool technology - used in the friction stir welding process - marks another success for NASA,s technology transfer program. The program seeks to stimulate broad use of NASA-developed technologies by American private enterprise.
Friction stir welding uses the high rotational speed of a tool and the resulting frictional heat created from contact to crush, "stir together, and forge a bond between two metal alloys. The technique is more reliable and maintains higher material properties than conventional welding methods. However, friction stir welding has had a major drawback - reliance on a single-piece pin tool. The pin is slowly plunged into the joint between two materials to be welded and rotated at high speed. At the end of the weld, the single-piece pin tool is retracted and leaves a "keyhole, something which is unacceptable when welding cylindrical objects such as drums, pipes and storage tanks. Another drawback is the requirement for different-length pin tools when welding materials of varying thickness.
To overcome these drawbacks, a Marshall Center welding engineer helped design an automatic retractable pin tool that uses a computer-controlled motor to automatically retract the pin into the shoulder of the tool at the end of the weld - preventing keyholes. This design allows the pin angle and length to be adjusted for changes in material thickness and results in a smooth hole closure at the end of the weld.
MTS Systems Corp., a leading supplier of mechanical testing and simulation equipment based in Eden Prairie, Minn., recently introduced an advanced friction stir welding process system employing Marshall,s retractable pin tool technology. Use of the tool by MTS has resulted in applications that are cost-competitive, efficient and versatile for automotive, shipbuilding and other industries. This Marshall technology also has helped the company gain market share in the growing friction stir welding niche and develop additional business relationships.
Another company, MCE Technologies, Inc., (MCETEC) of Seattle, has developed a cutting-edge line of production stir welding equipment that uses Marshall,s retractable pin tool technology to provide flawless welds in high performance aluminum alloys, including those previously thought unweldable. The company,s use of the retractable pin tool has contributed to production advantages including minimal material distortion, lack of contamination and greater joint strength for friction stir welding applications in aerospace and other industries. Additionally, working with the Marshall Center has helped MCETEC remain a stable employer by improving its product offering to the friction stir welding market.
Applications for friction stir welding include aircraft, aerospace, marine shipbuilding and decks for car ferries, trucking, railroading and assembling large tank structures such as fuel tanks and radioactive waste containers.
Benefits of friction stir welding, using the Marshall Center,s retractable pin tool technology, include:
* Diverse materials: Welds a wide range of alloys, including previously unweldable and composite materials. * Durable joints: Provides twice the fatigue resistance of fusion welds and no keyholes. * Retention of material properties: Minimizes material distortion. * Safe operation: Does not create hazards such as welding fumes, radiation, high voltage, liquid metals or arcing. * No keyholes: Pin is retracted automatically at end of weld. * Tapered-thickness weld joints: Pin maintains full penetration.
For more information on NASA and the Marshall Center,s technology transfer program, visit the Website: www.nasasolutions.com
SPACE STATION EXPEDITION BRIEFING SET THURSDAY
The progress of the fourth expedition to the International Space Station will be discussed during a Mission Status Briefing beginning at 2 p.m. EST, Thursday, from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. The news conference will air live on NASA Television.
Mission officials will offer an update on activities aboard the space station and upcoming events, including Friday's spacewalk by Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineer Dan Bursch.
Along with Flight Engineer Carl Walz, Onufrienko and Bursch are in the second month of a planned five-month stay aboard the orbiting complex.
Thursday's briefers include: * Sally Davis, ISS Lead Stage Flight Director * Susan Brand, Expedition Four Increment Manager * Daryl Schuck, Expedition Four EVA Officer
NASA TV is available on GE-2, Transponder 9C at 85 degrees West longitude, vertical polarization, with a frequency of 3880 MHz, and audio of 6.8 MHz. For more information about the Expedition Four crew and the International Space Station, visit the web at:
This Week on Galileo January 21-27, 2002
This week sees the quiet murmur of cruise activities overtake the Galileo spacecraft once again. The hectic week of the encounter, the safing, and the recovery has passed, and the flight team turns its attention towards the next and final target, Amalthea, in November.
On Monday, another opportunity to execute an orbit trim maneuver passes unused. A maneuver opportunity is scheduled 3 to 4 days after a close flyby to clean up any inaccuracies in the trajectory that may have accumulated during the flyby. The final placement of the spacecraft at this encounter was just 1.5 kilometers (less than one mile) higher than our targeted 100 kilometers (62 miles), and just 5 seconds later than desired, which was well within the limits of our uncertainties. We are now assured that, even if we perform no other maneuvers, the Galileo spacecraft will correctly plunge into Jupiter's atmosphere in September 2003, fulfilling our responsibilities for planetary protection of Europa. Galileo's discovery of a probable subsurface ocean of liquid water on that icy moon leads to the possibility that that environment could harbor life. It is our responsibility, therefore, to make sure that the unsterilized Galileo spacecraft cannot possibly crash into that satellite in the future, potentially contaminating the environment with terrestrial microorganisms.
Also on Monday, routine maintenance of the spacecraft propulsion system is performed.
Throughout the week the Fields and Particles instruments (Dust Detector, Energetic Particle Detector, Heavy Ion Counter, Magnetometer, Plasma Subsystem, and Plasma Wave Subsystem) are collecting continuous real-time science. This continues a survey that began January 4 and will extend until Sunday. At that time, the magnetospheric survey will stop, and playback of the data that was recorded during last week's flyby will begin.
On Friday, the Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometer turns its power on and begins another extended examination of the hydrogen gas that fills the space between the planets.
January 23, 2002
PICTURES FROM THE REAL EDGE: NASA POSTS U.S. TOPOGRAPHY DATA
Displaying spectacular new 3-D images and animations of California from space, scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., today announced the release of high-resolution topographic data of the continental United States gathered during the February 2000 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission -- a mission that is creating the world's best topographic map.
"The release of the California mosaic and continental- U.S. Shuttle Radar Topography Mission data is a tantalizing preview of things to come from this program," said Dr. Michael Kobrick, mission project scientist at JPL. "We are processing data for the rest of the world on a continent-by-continent basis, mapping and exploring many relatively unknown regions where our maps will be far more precise than the best global maps in use today."
Dr. Yunjin Kim, mission project manager at JPL, said users in the United States and elsewhere would find wide applications for the data. "The maps produced from the mission will be among the most valuable, universally beneficial data ever produced by a science mission. National and local government organizations, scientists, commercial enterprises and civilians alike will find the data useful for applications as diverse as earthquake studies, flood control, transportation and urban planning, enhanced ground-collision warning systems for aircraft and better placement of cell phone towers," he explained.
With today's release, gigabytes of digital elevation- model data, sampled at an interval of one measurement every 30 meters (98 feet), are now available to selected science investigators, with 90-meter (295-foot) sample imagery available to the public. Processing and distribution of validated U.S. digital topographic data will continue on a regular basis, with completion expected this spring.
When completed in fall 2002, more than 12 terabytes of data encompassing nearly 1 trillion measurements will have been processed, representing the 80 percent of Earth's landmass between 60 degrees north and 56 degrees south of the equator. The areas mapped are home to approximately 95 percent of the world's population.
Thomas A. Hennig, mission program manager at the National Imaging and Mapping Agency, said, "The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission literally captured a snapshot of the Earth's surface at the beginning of the 21st century that will be of tremendous value for years to come. The data from this mission will provide the agency's customers a revolutionary leap forward in imaging information." The agency partnered with NASA, Germany and Italy in sponsorship of the mission.
The centerpiece of today's release is the California mosaic, a color-shaded relief elevation map. The image depicts California at a data-sample interval of 3 arc-seconds (approximately 90 meters or 295 feet). The map depicts changes in height as colors, with blues and greens at the lower elevations, rising through yellows and browns to white at the highest elevations.
The California mosaic image and animations are available at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm/ .
As processing of each continent is finished, data will be sent to the National Imaging and Mapping Agency for final quality checking and copies sent to the United States Geological Survey's Earth Resources Observation Systems Data Center, Sioux Falls, S.D., for final archiving and distribution.
The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission was flown aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour February 11-22, 2000. It used modified versions of the same instruments that comprised the Space Shuttle Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar that flew twice on Endeavour in 1994.
The mission collected 3-D measurements of Earth's land surface using radar interferometry, which compares two radar images taken at slightly different locations to obtain elevation or surface-change information. To collect the data, engineers added a 60-meter (approximately 200-foot) mast, installed additional C-band and X-band antennas, and improved tracking and navigation devices.
The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission supports NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, Washington, D.C., a long-term research and technology program designed to examine Earth's land, oceans, atmosphere, ice and life as a total integrated system.
JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
JPL NAMES NEW DIRECTOR OF OFFICE OF SAFETY AND MISSION SUCCESS
Matthew Landano has been appointed the new director of the Office of Safety and Mission Success, which oversees the engineering and reliability of the exploration missions developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
In announcing the appointment, JPL director Dr. Charles Elachi highlighted Landano's lengthy experience on a variety of space missions.
"Matt will play a vital role in the success of JPL's future missions to explore Earth, the solar system and beyond," said Elachi. "He brings to this important position an extensive and varied background in mission design, development, management and flight operations."
Landano is currently the deputy director of the Planetary Flight Projects Directorate and project manager of the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission. He came to JPL in 1969 as part of the Viking Orbiter System Design/Development Team. In 1973, he joined the Voyager Project System Design/Development Team. From 1978 to 1997 he held several positions with the Galileo mission, including system design group supervisor, chief engineer and deputy mission director responsible for day-to- day flight operations. In 1997, Landano worked on the Cassini mission, preparing the spacecraft for launch and early phase flight operations. He later joined the Planetary Flight Projects Office, where he played a significant role in supporting many projects, including Deep Space 1, Stardust, Deep Impact, Genesis and Galaxy Evolution Explorer.
Landano is author of the JPL Design, Verification/Validation and Operations Principles for Flight Systems, which sets the standard for all development projects at JPL. He has received two NASA Outstanding Leadership medals and a NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal. He was awarded an Aviation Week Laurels Award in 1989.
Landano's appointment becomes effective on March 11. He replaces Dr. Harry Detweiler, who announced his planned retirement late last year. Detweiler is retiring after 34 years at JPL.
Landano holds bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from California State University, Los Angeles. He lives in Glendale with his wife Angie; they have two married daughters.
Cell Wars
Immune cells vs. invaders: it's a war going on in every healthy human body. But when the combatants travel to space, say NASA scientists, curious things happen.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/23jan_cellwars.htm?list448368
NASA BALLOON MAKES RECORD-BREAKING FLIGHT
Larger than a football field and flying near the edge of space, a NASA scientific balloon has set a new flight record of almost 32 days after completing two orbits around the South Pole.
The record-breaking balloon carried the Trans-Iron Galactic Element Recorder (Tiger) experiment, designed to search for the origin of cosmic rays, atomic particles that travel through the galaxy at near light-speeds and shower the Earth constantly. The pilotless, helium-filled scientific balloon was launched from McMurdo Station, Antarctica, at 6:30 a.m. EST on Dec. 20, 2001. The balloon traveled approximately 8,800 miles (about 1,400 kilometers) before landing about 31 days, 20 hours later at 3:03 a.m. EST, Jan. 21, 284 miles (458 kilometers) from the McMurdo Station. Payload recovery operations are in progress.
The previous endurance record for a long-duration balloon flight was set in January 2001 from McMurdo. The flight was one orbit of the South Pole that lasted 26 days. The Tiger mission was able to more than double the amount of continuous science observational time over any previous balloon mission.
"We are excited with the duration of this flight, which allowed the scientists to get ample science to perform their studies," said Steve Smith, Chief of the Balloon Program Office at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va. "We routinely have long- duration balloons that float for up to two weeks, but to have one flight last for over 31 days is very rewarding."
Scientific balloons are made of thin polyethylene material, about the same thickness as ordinary sandwich wrap. An enormous balloon was needed to hoist the two-ton Tiger experiment to about 125,000 feet (38,100 meters). The Tiger balloon is taller than the Washington Monument, which stands just over 555 feet high. As the balloon rises, the gas it contains expands. The balloon used for this Antarctic flight expanded to a diameter of more than 424 feet (129 meters) and weighed 3,687 pounds (1,674 kilograms).
To complete the flight, the experiment and its parachute float to the ground after being separated from the balloon by radio command. Helium was released from the balloon for its descent near McMurdo station.
"The importance of Tiger is that it is the first experiment that has both sufficient collecting power and adequate resolution to measure abundances of all nuclei from iron through zirconium," said Tiger Principal Investigator Robert Binns, Washington University, St. Louis. "This will enable us to determine whether the cosmic-ray source is hot or cold, gas or solid. We have already seen in our quick-look analysis of flight data that Tiger's resolution is sufficient to resolve those nuclei."
Personnel from the National Scientific Balloon Facility, Palestine, Texas, who support approximately 25 NASA balloon flights annually from sites worldwide, conducted the launch, flight and recovery operations of the Tiger balloon mission. Antarctica ground and air operations support was provided by the National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs.
Tiger is a collaboration among Washington University; NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.; California Institute of Technology, Pasadena; and the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. The Wallops Flight Facility manages NASA's Scientific Balloon Program for the Office of Space Science, NASA Headquarters.
Information on NASA's Scientific Balloon Program is available on the Internet at: http://www.wff.nasa.gov/pages/scientificballoons.html http://master.nsbf.nasa.gov/fred/index.html
A plot of the balloon's flight path can be viewed on the Internet at: http://192.149.107.13/ice0102.htm
Pictures and information on the Tiger mission can be found at: http://cosray2.wustl.edu/tiger/index.html
NASA SOFTWARE TO HELP SPEED AIRCRAFT DEPARTURES
Researchers aim to avert airport gridlock with a new software tool being evaluated in NASA's virtual control tower simulator.
NASA researchers and Dallas/Fort Worth air traffic controllers conducted the second evaluation of the Surface Management System (SMS), being developed at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. Current systems used by airports don't provide controllers with accurate information about the number of future departures. During the various "rush hour" times at the airport, scheduled departures often exceed runway capacity, creating delays.
"The main objective of the Surface Management System is to allow the controllers and airlines to collaboratively manage departure operations and surface movements. The system gathers relevant information from multiple sources, processes it and displays the appropriate information and advisories to the users," said Dr. Steve Atkins, SMS project lead at Ames. "The system has the potential to decrease departure delays significantly," he added.
The information compiled by the system is displayed as aircraft-location maps, departure timelines and load-capacity graphs giving controllers timely data to effectively manage aircraft movement between the terminal and the runway. With this information, controllers can predict possible traffic congestion and rapidly eliminate system bottlenecks.
Ames' Future Flight Central (FFC) air-traffic control tower simulator was used for the evaluation. Future Flight central gives controllers a unique facility to test software tools with its detailed 360-degree views, providing controllers a very realistic experience. The data collected will be used to refine the SMS user interface and identify additional user features.
"We presented a spectrum of ideas to a group of Federal Aviation Administration controllers and airline representatives to help us focus on what potential capabilities would be most helpful. Our ideas have been received positively," said Atkins.
The realism provided by FFC will allow for the smooth transition to the field-test portion of the evaluation. Additional features such as integration with arrival scheduling and other air traffic management tools will be added as part of the staged evolution of the tool.
Other participants in the evaluation were representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration's Free Flight Program office, officials from major passenger and freight carriers, and controllers from Memphis, Tenn., and Norfolk, Va., airports.
The Surface Management System is being developed at Ames by the Advanced Air Transportation Technologies Project, a part of the Aviation Systems Capacity Program. Ames has been conducting air-traffic control research and development since the mid-1980s.
More information about the Aviation Systems Capacity Program can be found on the Internet at:
http://www.asc.nasa.gov/
More information about Future Flight Central is available at:
http://ffc.arc.nasa.gov
Displaying spectacular new 3-D images and animations of California from space, scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., today announced the release of high-resolution topographic data of the continental United States gathered during the February 2000 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) -- a mission that is creating the world's best topographic map.
"The release of the California mosaic and continental-U.S. SRTM data is a tantalizing preview of things to come from this program," said Michael Kobrick, JPL SRTM project scientist. "We are processing data for the rest of the world on a continent- by-continent basis, mapping and exploring many relatively unknown regions where our maps will be far more precise than the best global maps in use today."
Yunjin Kim, JPL SRTM project manager, said users in the U.S. and elsewhere would find wide applications for the data. "The maps produced from the mission will be among the most valuable, universally beneficial data ever produced by a science mission. National and local government organizations, scientists, commercial enterprises and civilians alike will find the data useful for applications as diverse as earthquake studies, flood control, transportation and urban planning, enhanced ground- collision warning systems for aircraft and better placement of cell phone towers," he explained.
With today's release, gigabytes of digital elevation-model data, sampled at an interval of one measurement every 30 meters (98 feet), are now available to selected science investigators, with 90-meter (295-foot) sample imagery available to the general public. Processing and distribution of validated U.S. digital topographic data will continue on a regular basis, with completion expected this spring.
When completed in fall 2002, more than 12 terabytes of data encompassing nearly 1 trillion measurements will have been processed, representing 80 percent of Earth's land mass between 60 degrees north and 56 degrees south of the equator. The areas mapped are home to approximately 95 percent of the world's population.
Thomas A. Hennig, National Imaging and Mapping Agency's (NIMA) program manager for SRTM said, "SRTM literally captured a snapshot of the Earth's surface at the beginning of the 21st century that will be of tremendous value for years to come. The SRTM data will provide NIMA's customers a revolutionary leap forward in imaging information." NIMA partnered with NASA, Germany and Italy in sponsorship of the SRTM flight.
The California mosaic image and animations are available at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm/
As processing of each continent is finished, data will be sent to NIMA for final quality checking and copies sent to the United States Geological Survey's EROS Data Center, Sioux Falls, S.D., for final archiving and distribution.
The SRTM was flown aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour Feb. 11-22, 2000. It used modified versions of the same instruments that comprised the Space Shuttle Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar that flew twice on Endeavour in 1994.
The mission collected 3-D measurements of Earth's land surface using radar interferometry, which compares two radar images taken at slightly different locations to obtain elevation or surface-change information. To collect the data, engineers added a 60-meter (197-foot) mast, installed additional C-band and X-band antennas, and improved tracking and navigation devices.
The SRTM mission supports NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, Washington, a long-term research and technology program designed to examine Earth's land, oceans, atmosphere, ice and life as a total integrated system.
NASA Software to Help Speed Aircraft Departures
NASA researchers and Dallas/Fort Worth air traffic controllers conducted the second evaluation of the Surface Management System (SMS), being developed at NASA Ames Research Center located in California's Silicon Valley. Current systems used by airports don't provide controllers with accurate information about the number of future departures. During the various 'rush hour' times at the airport, scheduled departures often exceed runway capacity, creating delays.
"The main objective of the Surface Management System is to allow the controllers and airlines to collaboratively manage departure operations and surface movements. The system gathers relevant information from multiple sources, processes it, and displays the appropriate information and advisories to the users," said Dr. Steve Atkins, SMS project lead. "The system has the potential to decrease departure delays significantly," he added.
The information compiled by the system is displayed as aircraft location maps, departure timelines and load capacity graphs giving controllers timely data to effectively manage aircraft movement between the terminal and the runway. With this information, controllers can predict possible traffic congestion and rapidly eliminate system bottlenecks.
Ames' FutureFlight Central (FFC) air traffic control tower simulator was used for the evaluation. FutureFlight Central gives controllers a unique facility to test software tools with its detailed 360° views, providing controllers a very realistic experience. The data collected will be used to refine the SMS user interface and identify additional user features.
"We presented a spectrum of ideas in front of a group of FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) controllers and airline representatives to help us focus on what potential capabilities would be most helpful. Our ideas have been received positively," said Atkins.
The realism provided by FFC will allow for the smooth transition to the field-test portion of the evaluation. Additional features, such as integration with arrival scheduling and other air traffic management tools, will be added as part of the staged evolution of the tool.
The Surface Management System is being developed at NASA Ames Research Center by the Advanced Air Transportation Technologies (AATT) Project, a part of the Aviation Systems Capacity Program. NASA Ames has been conducting air traffic control research and development since the mid-1980s.
More information about the Aviation Systems Capacity Program can be found on the internet at:
More information about Future Flight Central can be found on the internet at:
January 22, 2002
MARS SOCIETY UK SYMPOSIUM GREAT SUCCESS Bo Maxwell
The 1st Mars Society UK 1-day Symposium proved a great success. Held on the 19th January 2002, the event was attended by over 100 people of all ages and backgrounds. Featuring a total of 5 keynote speakers, the event promised to bring a huge amount of expertise and knowledge on Mars and exploring Mars together in one place.
The morning got off to a flying start with Dr. Robert Zubrin appearing on the BBC News 24 morning bulletin, which not only gave him a chance to talk about the Society and Mars Direct, but which also lead directly to a number of additional attendees coming along to the event afterwards.
After the opening address from the Mars Society UK President, Bo Maxwell, the event got underway with a 75-minutes presentation and Question and Answer session with Professor Colin Pillinger of the Beagle 2 project. During his talk, Professor Pillinger reviewed the history and progress of the Beagle 2 mission, before looking towards next year and the lander's launch aboard the Mars Express mission in June 2003. He also looked at the science Beagle 2 will be taking to Mars and related it back to studies of Martian meteorites here on Earth, bringing the audience right up to date with the latest thoughts on ALH84001 and other meteorites.
Following a robust question-and-answer session, Professor Pillinger was followed by Dr. David Cullen of the Cranfield Biotechnology Institute who talked about new means and methods for detecting possible life on Mars and the development of biotechnology that might be used in future missions to Mars. In his 40-minute presentation, Dr. Cullen unfolded many of the mysteries of biotechnology, presenting their benefits in a clear and concise manner.
During the lunch period, attendees were able to spend time with Professor Pillinger and his wife Dr. Judith Pillinger and Dr. Ian Wright and Dr. Mark Sims of Beagle 2, examining the model of the lander and asking questions about the mission. Trade stands provided by the Mars Society, Lambda Press (computers software including the 3D Atlas of Mars) and Terra Publishing provided attendees to purchase more Mars-related information. By that time Dr. Zubrin had returned from the BBC News Centre in London, and was interviewed by the BBC television series "Final Frontier" for a programme to be broadcast in the UK in March 2002.
After lunch, Dr. Zubrin was again in the spotlight when he presented a 65-minute presentation on the Mars Society, Mars Direct, the MARS project, and the Translife project before taking a number of questions from the floor. Received with considerable warmth and enthusiasm, Dr. Zubrin's address lead directly to a number of attendees signing-up with the Society, with two donations towards projects being made to Society representatives at the sales desk.
Charles Frankel followed Dr. Zubrin and gave an enlightening and witty presentation on his experiences at the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station on Devon Island before taking a closer look at the geology of Mars and how studying it may lead to a greater understanding of geological processes operating here on Earth.
Rounding-out the day, after two brief presentations on the Euro-MARS and on potential technology developments related to Mars exploration, Mr. Martyn Fogg gave an informative talk on the possibilities for terraforming Mars at some point in the future. Always an emotive subject, this talk reviewed some of the most promising models developed for planetary terraformation, including those developed by Mr. Fogg himself along with Dr. Chris MacKay and others.
Prior to the closing comments, given by Philip Dembo, the Mars Society's Executive Director, the guests were joined on stage by Dr. Mark Sims (substituting for Professor Pillinger, who had to depart before the end of the day), in an open panel discussion / question and answer session in which the press and the audience were able to pitch questions to them all as a panel of experts.
All-in-all the event was warmly received by the audience, and prompted numerous requests for the Society to hold more such symposia and meetings in the future, and well as generating a lot of support for the Society's work in Europe and the USA, including the generation of several new members of the Society, whom we welcome with thanks for their time and support.
Further information on Mars Society UK events can be found be visiting the Mars Society UK website at marssociety.org.uk.
For more information about the Mars Society, visit our website at www.marssociety.org, or contact info@marssociety.org
January 21, 2002
The Planetary Society Asks the Public to Speak Up About NASA Missions
Think NASA's on the right track or do you think the agency needs a change of direction? The Planetary Society seeks public input for the Planetary Decadal Survey being conducted by the National Research Council.
At NASA's request, the National Research Council is conducting a planetary science community assessment of the priorities for U.S. planetary research programs for the next 10 years. The Planetary Society has been asked to assist this "decadal survey" by seeking input from the general public about planetary exploration.
Respondents can access the survey questionnaire by clicking here. But hurry, the deadline for completing the form is January 31, 2002.
"This is an exciting and rare opportunity for the public to provide input to NASA's planning for the next ten years of planetary exploration," said Bruce Betts, Director of Projects at The Planetary Society. "We encourage everyone to take advantage of this chance to be heard."
NASA selects its missions and scientific objectives based on many considerations, including the anticipated scientific return, cost, feasibility, and public interest. This is the public's opportunity to tell NASA what they consider the priorities should be for planetary exploration and how they would like to be informed about the results from missions. All individual views expressed in the survey will be kept anonymous.
The brief survey includes sections on prioritizing the ultimate purpose of US planetary exploration, selecting the most important missions (i.e. Pluto, the Moon, Saturn, etc.), and whether it is preferable to mount missions to new bodies not previously visited by spacecraft or missions to explore previously visited objects in greater detail.
The questionnaire also asks how people prefer to learn about the results of exploration missions, though the internet, lectures, magazines or some other source.
One question relates solely to educators, asking what NASA products they prefer for classroom instruction about planetary exploration.
You can access the survey by Clicking Here.
The Planetary Society 65 N. Catalina Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91106-2301 (626) 793-5100 Fax (626) 793-5528 E-mail: tps@planetary.org
January 20, 2002
Scientists apply Earth's hydrothermal plume dynamics to Europa
The size of ice domes and movement of ice rafts on the surface of Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, are consistent with what one could expect of melting caused by a hydrothermal vent plume, or plumes, in an ocean beneath the ice, say oceanographers John Delaney of the University of Washington and Richard Thomson of Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
Scientists know that Europa has a layer of water on its surface that is perhaps 100 kilometers (60 miles) deep, making it nearly 10 times deeper than any of Earth's oceans. The thickness of the frozen surface continues to be debated.
If hydrothermal vent plumes are contributing heat to Europa's ocean, Delaney and Thomson estimate that the frozen surface of the ocean actually may be 3 to 5 kilometers (2 to 3 miles) thick on average -- instead of the 20 kilometers (12 miles) some have estimated. And it makes it all the more possible that researchers may find microorganisms living in vent fluids on Europa, as they do here on Earth.
Delaney and Thomson's model, the first to take what's known about plume dynamics on Earth and apply them to Europa, was the subject of a paper last year in the Journal of Geophysical Research and a presentation at December's American Geophysical Union meeting.
The possibility of life on Europa will be part of Delaney's presentation, "Volcanoes, Oceans and Life in the Solar System," a lecture that is free and open to the public Jan. 23, 7 p.m., Room 210, Kane Hall. His talk is the second in the "Oceans to Stars Lecture Series" offered by the UW's College of Ocean and Fishery Sciences and School of Oceanography.
Among scientists interested in Europa, a number think tidal forces generated by the gravitational tug-of-war between Jupiter, Europa and neighboring moons Io and Ganymede cause tidal flexing of Europa's icy crust, friction and then melting. Delaney, Thomson and others hypothesize that tidal flexing is at work on Europa's rocky core generating heat and magma.
Delaney and Thomson's model is the first:
* To estimate Europa's global heat flux through calculations that compare it with the flux from another of Jupiter's moons, Io, where measurements are far more accurate because there is no shroud of ice. They estimate Europa's heat flux is about a third of that from the Earth's seafloor.
* To describe how Europa's rotation and weak stratification of its ocean might keep a hydrothermal vent plume from dispersing. The scientists describe a plume continuously rising like a cyclone through 100 kilometers of ocean to reach the base of the ice.
* To determine that a plume, or plumes, only needed to focus 1 percent of Europa's estimated global heat flux for about 1,000 years to melt through 5 kilometers of ice and cause the ice rafts in the Conamara Chaos region on Europa. There are numerous possible examples on Earth of such steady-state hydrothermal venting, Thomson and Delaney say. The main vent site at the Endeavour segment of the Juan de Fuca Ridge off the west coast of Canada and the United States, for instance, may have persisted for thousands of years based on the composition and diversity of the biological community found there.
If the melting at the surface of Europa is caused in part by plumes from magma-heated regions of the seafloor, it is feasible that some of the dark materials observed on the surface of Europa, thought to be salts and hydrated sulfuric acid, are remnants of particle-laden plumes originating from the seafloor.
Delaney says a better understanding of the links between plate-tectonic processes on our own planet and the microbial life that flourishes near faults, fissures, vent structures and beneath the Earth's crust will help us seek life on other planets and moons.
He and Thomson are part of a consortium of researchers from Canada and the United States interested in using 2,000 miles of electro-optical cable -- cable that can carry power, instructions to remote instruments and data sent back from those instruments -- to wire the whole Juan de Fuca Plate off our coast. The Juan de Fuca is one of a dozen or so major tectonic plates that make up the surface of the Earth. Thousands of instruments, including tiny subs and probes that could be maneuvered by scientists back on land, would be stationed at 30 experimental sites along the cable network as part of Project Neptune.
GALILEO MILLENNIUM MISSION STATUS January 18, 2002
NASA's Galileo spacecraft resumed gathering scientific information at about 4:00 today Universal Time (8:00 p.m. Jan. 17 Pacific Time) after commands radioed from Earth took the Jupiter orbiter out of the passive standby mode it entered on Thursday.
Galileo passed within about 102 kilometers (63 miles) of Jupiter's moon Io on Thursday. Planned observations for the remainder of the spacecraft's current swing near Jupiter include a series of images of the planet's atmosphere, a farewell color study of its icy moon Europa and navigational imaging of the small moon Amalthea.
Galileo hit its target point for the Io flyby so accurately that a scheduled post-encounter firing of thrusters to fine-tune the trajectory was cancelled as unnecessary, said Dr. Eilene Theilig, Galileo project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The close flyby was calculated to use Io's gravity to put Galileo on course for its next encounters. Galileo will pass near Amalthea in November 2002 and plunge to its demise in Jupiter's crushing atmosphere in September 2003.
"As expected, visiting Io has proved to be a challenging and risky endeavor," Theilig said. "It's disappointing not to get the observations of Io that were planned for this encounter, but I am very proud of the flight team that has kept Galileo functioning in orbit more than three times longer than originally planned and revived it once more yesterday."
Galileo detected a computer reset and placed itself in a standby or "safe" mode Thursday at 13:41 Universal Time (5:41 PacificTime), about half an hour before its closest approach to Io. The reset was apparently caused by exposure to the intense radiation environment at Io's distance from Jupiter. Since the spacecraft began orbiting Jupiter in 1995, it has endured a cumulative radiation exposure about three-and-a-half times what it was originally designed to withstand.
NASA has repeatedly extended Galileo's original two-year mission in orbit. The spacecraft is now nearly out of the hydrazine propellant needed to keep its antenna pointed toward Earth. Knowing they would eventually lose contact and control of the spacecraft, the Galileo team chose the planned impact with Jupiter to ensure there was no chance the spacecraft might hit Europa. One of Galileo's important discoveries has been the likelihood of a melted saltwater ocean under Europa's icy crust, making that moon of great interest for future study of the possibility of extraterrestrial life.
Additional information about the Galileo mission is available at http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov .
Galileo was launched from the Space Shuttle Atlantis on Oct. 18, 1989. After a long journey to Jupiter, Galileo began orbiting the huge planet on Dec. 7, 1995, and successfully completed its two-year primary mission in 1997. That has been followed by three mission extensions. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.
January 19, 2001
GALILEO MILLENNIUM MISSION STATUS January 17, 2002
While approaching Jupiter's moon Io on Thursday, during the seventh year of its mission around Jupiter, NASA's Galileo spacecraft placed itself into standby mode, awaiting further commands from Earth.
"We're not totally surprised, because Galileo has already outlived expectations and we knew that it might encounter additional difficulties from the high-radiation environment on this flyby," said Dr. Eilene Theilig, Galileo project manager at JPL. "Galileo has already lasted more than four years past its original mission and has survived three-and-a-half times the radiation it was designed to withstand, so it's not unexpected that this flyby would be interrupted by a problem."
Images and other data were not collected during the closest phase of the encounter. The Galileo flight team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., is sending commands aimed at switching the spacecraft out of standby or "safing" mode for the later portion of the planned encounter period, which lasts into Sunday.
Galileo hit its intended flyby point, achieving one of the encounter's primary goals of using Io's gravity to put the spacecraft on course for a September 2003 impact into Jupiter. This flyby is the closest and last for Galileo at any of Jupiter's four major moons. The spacecraft sped within 102 kilometers (63 miles) of Io's volcanic surface.
At about 13:41 Universal Time (5:41 a.m. Pacific time) today, the spacecraft detected a computer reset, which caused Galileo to enter a so-called "safe" mode. In this mode, onboard fault protection software instructs the spacecraft cameras and science instruments to stop taking data and places them in a safe state awaiting further instructions from the ground. The situation is similar to some that occurred in previous orbits and appears to result from the radiation environment near Jupiter.
Engineers remain hopeful that they'll be able to restore normal spacecraft functioning by transmitting new commands to Galileo to restore data collection, Theilig said. The path of today's encounter was chosen to use Io's gravity to put Galileo on course to send it plunging into the crushing pressure of Jupiter's atmosphere in September 2003. Galileo is running low on the propellant needed to steer the spacecraft and keep its antenna pointed toward Earth. The intentional collision course with Jupiter was chosen as a way to end the mission before losing control of the spacecraft.
Mars Odyssey Mission Status January 17, 2002
NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft completed two maneuvers this week, fine-tuning its orbit in preparation for the science mapping mission that will begin in late February.
At 2 p.m. Pacific Time, January 17, Odyssey reduced the farthest point in its orbit, called the apoapsis, from an altitude of 520 kilometers (323 miles) to an altitude of 450 kilometers (280 miles). The spacecraft fired its thrusters for 195 seconds, and decreased the velocity of the spacecraft by 27 meters per second (60 miles per hour). This maneuver also moved the closest point of the orbit, called the periapsis, under the south pole of the planet.
Earlier this week, on January 15, Odyssey fired its thrusters for 398 seconds, increasing its speed by 56 meters per second (125 miles per hour) and raising the closest point in its orbit from 186 kilometers (116 miles) to 419 kilometers (260 miles). Flight controllers also changed the inclination of the orbit, the angle between the orbit plane and the Mars equator, to 93.1 degrees.
"Aside from the orbit insertion burn in October, these are the largest maneuvers that we have executed and they help us circularize the orbit. They were also the most complex to design and implement," said Bob Mase, Odyssey's lead navigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "These burns had to be executed at specific times to achieve the desired results, so the flight team had a lot of work to do in a very short amount of time. The maneuver performance was excellent."
During the next few weeks, flight controllers will continue to refine the orbit to achieve a final mapping orbit with a periapsis altitude of 387 kilometers (240 miles) and apoapsis altitude of 450 kilometers (280 miles).
Also this week, engineers turned on the neutron spectrometer, the high-energy neutron detector and a portion of the gamma ray spectrometer subsystem. These science instruments are working as expected. The formal mapping mission will begin next month.
JPL manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Principal investigators at Arizona State University in Tempe, the University of Arizona in Tucson, and NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, operate the science instruments. Additional science investigators are located at the Russian Space Research Institute and Los Alamos National Laboratories, N.M. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, Colo., is the prime contractor for the project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., is providing aerobraking support to JPL's navigation team during mission operations.
NASA Laboratory Astrophysics Workshop 2002
The NASA Office of Space Science (OSS) is sponsoring a 3-day workshop on Laboratory Astrophysics on May 1 - 3, 2002.
The purpose of this workshop is to discuss the current state of knowledge in this interdisciplinary field and to assess the needs in regards to NASA's space missions.
NASA-Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, is hosting the workshop which will be convened at Ames.
The deadline for pre-registration and submitting abstracts is January 25, 2002.
Detailed information regarding the charter and agenda of the workshop, registration, logistics, and abstract submission may be viewed at: http://www.astrochemistry.org/nasalaw.html
ASTRONOMY TALK TO TRACE NASA'S MARS EXPLORATION STRATEGY
'Following the Water: The New Program for Mars Exploration' -including recent discoveries about the red planet and the roster of Mars missions being planned -- will be the topic of a free, non-technical talk at 7 p.m. PST on Wednesday, Jan. 23, at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, Calif. The public is invited.
Scott Hubbard, deputy director for research at NASA Ames Research Center, will deliver the lecture. Hubbard recently returned to Ames after serving as the first Mars program director at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
"The Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture Series is a valuable resource for the community, bringing the latest scientific research in astrobiology and astronomy to a wide audience," said NASA Ames Director Dr. Henry McDonald.
At Ames, Hubbard is responsible for organizing, directing and implementing research efforts that further the strategic plans of the center. Prior to his assignment at NASA headquarters, Hubbard served as the Ames associate director for astrobiology and space programs, interim director of NASA's Astrobiology Institute (NAI) and manager of the agency's Lunar Prospector mission. He also is credited with creating NASA's Mars Pathfinder mission.
Prior to coming to Ames in 1987, Hubbard was vice president and general manager of Canberra Semiconductor and a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Hubbard received a bachelor's degree in physics and astronomy from Vanderbilt University and did graduate studies in semiconductor physics at the University of California, Berkeley.
Hubbard has been awarded four NASA medals: twice the Outstanding Leadership Medal and twice the Exceptional Achievement Medal. He also has twice been awarded Laurels by Aviation Week magazine. Hubbard was elected to the International Academy of Astronautics, is an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and is the author of more than 40 papers on space missions and related subjects.
Additional information about NASA's Mars exploration strategy can be found at:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/ and at
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mep/missions/index.html
This is the third talk in this year's Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture Series, co-sponsored by NASA Ames, Foothill College's Division of Physical Science, Mathematics and Engineering, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute.
The Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture Series is held at Foothill College's Smithwick Theater in Los Altos Hills. From Interstate 280, exit at El Monte Road and travel west to the campus. Visitors must purchase a one-day campus parking permit for $2.
Admission is free and the public is invited. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Children over the age of 13 are welcome. More information is available by calling the series hotline at 650/949-7888.
Farewell to Io!
The spacecraft is now fully recovered from yesterday's anomaly in which the onboard fault protection routines detected a despun bus reset about 28 minutes before the closest approach to Io. Because this could be a potentially harmful event, the spacecraft put itself into a safe mode and canceled the science sequence. The flight team worked throughout the day and evening to re-establish nominal spacecraft operations and to acquire the final track of recorded data. Unfortunately, three tracks of data all planned for recording within hours of closest approach to Io were lost because of the spacecraft problem. At this time we think the problem resulted from the radiation environment near Jupiter.
Galileo has now receded to 552,300 km (343,000 miles) from Jupiter and is increasing that distance by 12 kilometers every second. At its closest approach point, the spacecraft was 324,800 km (201,800 miles) above Jupiter's cloud tops.
Though our observations of Io are now complete, other science opportunities still await us over the next few days. At 4:30 a.m. PST [See Note 1] the radiation levels experienced by Galileo have dropped to the point where the attitude control software can again use three stars to determine the spacecraft orientation. While close to Jupiter, a single bright star is used to avoid confusion by radiation-induced noise in the sensor circuits.
At 5:41 a.m. PST the Solid State Imaging camera (SSI) snaps another picture of the small inner moon Amalthea. This image will be used to help the Navigation Team steer the spacecraft to a close encounter with that tiny moon in November. At 7:52 a.m. SSI acquires a color image of the Jupiter-facing hemisphere of the icy satellite Europa. This will be our last glimpse of that fascinating moon for the remainder of the Galileo mission.
At 10:30 a.m. a standard test of the spacecraft gyroscopes is performed. Over Galileo's 6 years in orbit, our old nemesis, radiation, has damaged the circuitry that measures the signals sent by the gyroscopes. On each orbit, after we have passed through the worst that Jupiter can dish out, we perform a test to calibrate the gyros for use during maneuvers and turns.
At 4:20 p.m. Saturday the Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS) begins the first of a set of three full-disk multi-color maps of Jupiter. This final global mosaic of the planet for the Galileo mission ends six hours later. When this observation is complete, the NIMS instrument is powered off until a final calibration in early February.
At 11:45 a.m. Sunday SSI begins a 26-hour observation of the turbulent region just west of the Great Red Spot in Jupiter's atmosphere. During this time, SSI shutters 18 pictures, which will enable scientists to study how the cloud forms change and evolve. The observation continues until 2 a.m. Monday morning, at which time the camera closes its eye for the final time, and the high-gear operations for another encounter wind down.
TECHNOLOGY MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, NASA GOES FOR MORE
The mission was to validate nine new breakthrough technologies in the unique environment of space -- technologies that will change the way spacecraft and Earth- viewing instruments are built and operated in the future. After a fully successful series of experiments and tests, NASA's going for more.
The Earth Observing-1 technology-testbed spacecraft was launched just over a year ago to see how a set of advanced technologies would fare in the actual space environment -- the final step in validating these new concepts. The instruments -- ranging from a hyperspectral imager (a "camera" that views the Earth's surface with spectral discrimination never before seen) to an X-Band Phased Array Antenna that sends high volumes of data back to Earth in a unique "pencil beam" pattern -- all met test objectives with "flying colors."
A pulsed plasma thruster was tested as a new way of controlling spacecraft attitude and "pointability," and an Advanced Land Imager validated a new low-cost way of providing Landsat-type or better views of Earth from space with more desirable size, mass and power and improved performance.
Breakthroughs in carbon composite-structure technologies to keep spacecraft lightweight and cool, and an advanced, wideband recorder processor were tested and found fit for use in future flights. A new lightweight, flexible solar array also proved a success.
Now that the mission has met all objectives within the one- year on-orbit goal, mission scientists and the user community want to keep things going. To accommodate user needs, NASA has formed a partnership with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in Reston, Va., to continue the mission through the acquisition and provision of mission data based on user requests.
The EO-1 Extended Mission partnership is modeled on the successful NASA/USGS Landsat data-purchase model, and parallels NASA's policy of charging for use of unique NASA capabilities. EO-1 is one-of-a-kind and no equivalent commercial source exists; the private sector is part of the user community that has requested continuing mission operations.
Under the extended mission agreement, NASA will continue to command and control EO-1, while USGS will take researchers' cost-reimbursable orders for spacecraft data. EO-1 price levels have been set to recover satellite operation, data processing and customer interface costs, estimated at approximately $5 million per year.
NASA and USGS believe that data from EO-1 may be valuable in global land-cover studies, ecosystem monitoring, mineral and petroleum prospecting, and agricultural crop discrimination and assessment, among other potential applications. The extended mission will allow a broad range of users to experiment and learn from these advanced capabilities. It also provides an ideal mechanism for technology transfer to the private sector.
Potential customers for these data include the existing 31 science teams who have been supporting the mission. The satellite-manufacturing industry; the value-added commercial remote-sensing community; the Earth Sciences research community; and federal, state and local agencies, as well as a variety of national security organizations, all may find potential use for the new, experimental data unique to EO-1.
NASA and USGS will review EO-1 operations on a monthly basis. Depending on the demand for EO-1-unique observations and spacecraft health, satellite decommissioning could occur as early as this spring or as late as the spring of 2005.
The EO-1 mission is part of the advanced technologies research conducted by NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, a long-term research effort dedicated to understanding how human-induced and natural changes affect our global environment.
Data inquiries and orders from USGS can be handled online at:
http://eo1.usgs.gov
A description of the EO-1 satellite and sensors is available at:
http://eo1.gsfc.nasa.gov
Cassini Weekly Significant Events for 01/10/02 - 01/16/02
The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone tracking station on Wednesday, January 16. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health and is operating normally. "Present Position" web page, http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/english/where/ .
The C29 sequence concluded operations this week with deregistration occurring on Sunday, January 13. The C30 background sequence, an Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) decontamination mini-sequence, and a Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) functional test mini-sequence were all successfully uplinked and registered. The background sequence began execution on Monday, January 14.
Science activities this week included Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) Periodic Instrument Maintenance, upload of RPWS and Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer (UVIS) Instrument Expanded Blocks, and execution of the CIRS functional test mini-sequence.
Spacecraft activities included an Attitude Control Subsystem (ACS) high-water mark clear, an ACS Periodic Engineering Maintenance including Backup ALF Injection Loader maintenance, engine gimbal, and Reaction Wheel Assembly exercises.
Science Planning completed development for the C31 sequence. The Uplink Office (ULO) has received the necessary input products and held the Subsequence Generation kick off meeting for this sequence. Science Planning development of C32 has begun. The Program briefing for this sequence is scheduled for January 28.
This week JPL hosted members of the Cassini science community and interested members of the flight team for Cassini's #27th meeting of the Project Science Group (PSG).
Mission Assurance has reviewed an updated procedure regarding real-time commanding. Both the procedure and checklist were extensively reviewed by flight team members and now become the official version. This procedure goes into effect immediately and will be used by anyone who is leading an uplink session, to ensure consistency between sessions.
Mission Assurance completed an additional review of the NASA Lessons Learned database, for lessons that could be applicable to Cassini. These lessons will be forwarded to Cassini team members, to ensure that lessons learned from previous projects are incorporated into the way Cassini conducts Mission Operations.
The Deep Space Communications Complex Spectrum Processors (DSP) were decommissioned across the entire Deep Space Network. These are the old type of open-loop receivers that the Radio Science Receivers are replacing.
In support of the Uplink Critical Design Review, all action items being held for uplink were statused and about half (of a total of 143) were closed. Many of the remaining big-ticket items relate to adaptability, pointing and Science and Sequence Update Process issues that will be closed with the delivery of the associated operations concepts.
A Delivery Coordination Meeting was held for MSS D7.6.2. The change was a minor patch to insert an updated Trajectory Correction Maneuver block needed by SEQGEN to support TCM-18 scheduled for Cruise 31.
The Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) and Space Infrared Telescope Facility projects have expressed interest in learning from Cassini's experience in security and ITAR issues. The team is currently discussing possible support options. MER is very interested in having security support. A memo of understanding still needs to be written to establish roles and support efforts.
The current national focus in grades K-4 is literacy. Cassini Outreach will be developing ways of being incorporated into the literacy curriculum (reading, writing) and thus maintain a foothold for science in early education. Grades 5-8 follow a mixed discipline curriculum including math and science. For grades 9-12 beta testing has been performed at some schools where children have been given access to planetary data sets. The experience has generated a great deal of excitement on the part of educators and students alike. Cassini intends to explore this area of education for these grades. The focus for informal education will be partnerships with museums, planetariums, and youth groups such as 4-H and boy and girls clubs.
The Resurgent Sun
Evidence is mounting that some solar cycles are doubled-peaked. The ongoing solar maximum may itself be a double -- and the second peak has arrived.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/18jan_solarback.htm?list448368
Dell PowerEdge Servers Help Astronomy Enthusiasts Remotely Operate Optical Telescope AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 4, 2002- The Astronomical League, one of the world's largest federations of amateur astronomers, has selected Dell PowerEdge™ servers to help operate the prototype of its International Space Station-Amateur Telescope (ISS-AT). When completed, the ISS-AT project will allow amateur astronomers with Internet access for the first time to view, capture and download images of outer space by a remotely operated optical telescope mounted on the International Space Station. For the prototype, Dell servers will link Vanderbilt University students at the Dyer Observatory to an optical telescope (similar to the one that will be on the International Space Station) located at the Winer Observatory outside of Tucson, Ariz. The students can then, via the Internet, remotely point the telescope toward specific celestial bodies of interest. Two cameras on the telescope also allow users to capture and download the images. "Industry-standard technology allowed us to realize our vision of creating a telescope for the International Space Station that can be enjoyed by amateur astronomers, students and scientists with just a few clicks of the mouse," said Orville Brettman, ISS-AT project manager, Astronomical League. "Without Dell's servers and other industry-standard hardware and software, it would not have been possible for us to embark on a project of this magnitude with our current resources." The Astronomical Leagues is also working with NASA and Boeing Space Systems on the ISS-AT project, which is scheduled to launch upon the completion of the ISS in 2006. Additional components of the ISS-AT include:
Meade 12" Optical Tube Assembly (OTA) and 647 Flip Mirror System Software Bisque Paramount GT-1100S Telescope Mount Santa Barbara Instrument Group (SBIG) ST5C and ST9E CCD Cameras TrueTime global positioning system receiver Hughes Network Systems DirecWay Satellite Internet System Optec Temperature Compensating Focuser ApogeeInc. Kendrick Dew Remover System Software Bisque TheSky Telescope Pointing and CCDSoft Imaging Software T-Point Pointing Accuracy Enhancement Software About the Astronomical League The Astronomical League is composed of more than 240 amateur astronomical societies from across the United States and is one of the largest amateur astronomical organizations in the world. Its mission is to promote the science of astronomy and help enthusiasts gain access to telescopes. The Astronomical League publishes a quarterly newsletter as well as sponsors and hosts conventions across the country. About Dell Dell Computer Corporation (Nasdaq: DELL) is the world's No. 1 computer systems company and is a premier provider of products and services required for customers to build their information-technology and Internet infrastructures. The company's revenue for the past four quarters totaled $31.8 billion. Dell ranks No. 48 on the Fortune 500, No. 122 on the Fortune Global 500 and No. 7 on the Fortune Global "most admired" lists of companies. Dell, through its direct business model, designs, manufactures and customizes products and services to customer requirements, and offers an extensive selection of software and peripherals. Information on Dell and its products can be obtained on the World Wide Web at www.dell.com.
January 18, 2001
Report from
Today on Galileo Thursday, January 17, 2002
Io, And How!
Today sees the most intense activities for the spacecraft as Galileo makes its final close flyby of the volcanic satellite Io. Beginning just 20 minutes after midnight PST [See Note 1], the Magnetometer instrument adjusts its sensors to be able to accurately measure the much stronger magnetic fields that will be encountered during the closest approach to Io and to Jupiter.
At 2:58 a.m. PST the Radio Science Team begins an experiment to probe the atmosphere of Jupiter itself as Galileo passes behind the giant planet as seen from the Earth. Telemetry in the transmitted radio signal from the spacecraft is turned off (don't worry, the other science data being collected on the spacecraft is being stored in computer memory, and will be read out later) and the radio signal is changed to a pure tone. As Galileo passes behind the planet, this tone passes through deeper and deeper layers of the atmosphere, and by observing the changes in intensity and frequency of the tone, scientists can determine temperatures, pressures, and electron densities down through the different layers of the atmosphere. Between 3:22 a.m. and 5:19 a.m. PST, the spacecraft will be completely blocked by the planet, and at 5:41 a.m. PST telemetry is restored to the normal configuration, and the bits flow once again. Also during this time, between 3:48 a.m. and 5:42 a.m. PST, the spacecraft finds itself in the shadow of the planet as it passes out of sight of the Sun. Since seeing the Sun is a key element in the spacecraft knowing its orientation in space, the on-board software is informed that the Sun will be invisible during this time, and that sightings of the star Achernar (Alpha Eridani) by the Star Scanner will be the sole means of maintaining attitude knowledge. This technique has worked well on many previous orbits.
As the Sun occultation ends, at 5:42 a.m. PST the Photopolarimeter Radiometer instrument (PPR) again turns it gaze on Io, now only one hour and 31,000 kilometers (19,300 miles) away, and spends 20 minutes studying the temperatures of the Prometheus volcano while that feature is on the night side of the satellite. These night-time studies allow scientists to determine the intrinsic temperatures of features, uncluttered with reflected sunlight.
At 5:46 a.m. PST the Energetic Particle Detector (EPD) performs a power cycle and memory reload. The high radiation environment in previous orbits has caused upsets to the microprocessor that controls the instrument. This pre-emptive reload helps assure us that the instrument is in the proper configuration and operating well for the close flyby to come.
At 5:58 a.m. PST the Fields and Particles instruments [the Heavy Ion Counter (HIC), EPD, the Magnetometer (MAG), the Plasma Subsystem (PLS), and the Plasma Wave Subsystem (PWS)] begin a 5.5 hour stretch of continuous high-rate data collection around the Io closest approach. In addition to the dynamic interactions expected close to Io, this recording will capture data on the Torus, a donut-shaped region of enhanced energetic particles that coincides with the orbit of Io. It will also study a feature known as the "ribbon", a temporary and changing energetically emitting region between the cold and warm portions of the torus.
Between 6:04 a.m. and 6:28 a.m. PST, PPR again studies the temperatures of Io as it scans along the equator of the satellite and then concentrates on the hot spot Marduk, and on the Pillan crater region, both in the southern hemisphere.
At 6:29 a.m. PST the Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer instrument (NIMS) begins its study of Io with a complementary view of the Marduk region.
The first of the Solid State Imaging camera (SSI) pictures of Io begins at 6:37 a.m. PST with images of the Pele caldera. Even though this feature is in the dark at the time, the lavas glow in the dark, and the brightness of the glow gives a good measure of just how hot the flows are.
At 6:40 a.m. PST PPR directs its line of sight straight down at Io and watches the landscape stream by as Galileo reaches its closest point to the satellite. This occurs at 6:43:53 a.m. PST at a distance of only 100 kilometers (62 miles) above the surface. At the closest point to Io, Galileo is passing over a latitude 43.6 degrees south of the equator. This is equivalent to flying over Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. As Galileo barrels past at 7.72 kilometers per second (17,270 miles per hour!) the landscape is passing too quickly for instruments like SSI to take clear pictures; they would be horribly smeared by the motion of the spacecraft while the shutter was open. It is up to instruments like PPR, that do not directly produce pictures, to provide measurements of the surface at the highest resolution possible. The Radio Science Io gravity experiment begun yesterday also reaches its most important phase at closest approach, where the pull on Galileo is at its peak.
One minute after closest approach, however, SSI can look to the side, where the range from the spacecraft to the viewpoint on the surface is about 1,200 kilometers, and will image a region of enigmatic circular rises called "tholi". This is our first look at these unusual features at this high resolution. This observation is followed in rapid succession by views of the Mbali Patera and the Kanehekili volcanic area. The Mbali pictures provide an opportunity to see the actual source of the lava flow there at a resolution of about 20 meters per picture element (65 feet per pixel).
At 6:53 a.m. PST NIMS provides a complementary thermal study of the Kanehekili hot spot. By combining observations of the same features taken by different instruments whose strengths lie in different regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, scientists can extend their knowledge of the body past mere form, and can deduce detailed structure, texture, temperature, and composition of the surface.
By 6:59 a.m. PST, a scant 15 minutes past closest approach, the distance to the tholi region has increased to 8,300 kilometers (5160 miles), and SSI provides wider-angle views of the region to supply broader context for the high-resolution pictures taken earlier. This is followed by broader context pictures of the Mbali and Kanehekili locations as well, with the Mbali pictures taken in color.
During the course of the next hour, SSI continues to capture views of several areas on Io. The Hi'iaka area is suspected of showing some strike-slip faulting, and there is the possibility that such a fault is tearing a mountain in two! The Pan Mensa area is a mountain with extensive fracturing and bright basins of lava (pateras) on either end. The Gish Bar region also has mountain-patera interactions and has been studied on previous orbits. This area also contains a mysterious Y-shaped crack. Finally, at 7:48 a.m. PST a strip of images ranging from far southern latitudes to just south of the equator stretches across the surface, capturing the Masubi and Kanehekili regions, as well as another hot spot that has shown some dramatic changes in appearance in the past.
During this time, PPR and NIMS are also studying the thermal emissions in the Kanehekili region. NIMS also views the Hi'iaka hot spot region. Then at 8:14 a.m. PST NIMS begins a 52 minute map of the entire Jupiter-facing hemisphere of Io.
The geometric closest approach to Jupiter occurs at 8:57 a.m. PST, when Galileo reaches in to 4.5 Jupiter radii (322,000 kilometers or 200,000 miles) above the cloud tops. This is the closest we've come to Jupiter since the 24th full orbit, which was also a close Io flyby, in November 1999.
At 9:17 a.m. PST PPR begins a 1.5-hour-long map of the entire visible disk of Io, which is now more than 80,000 kilometers distant (50,000 miles). Attention is then briefly torn away from Io as PPR takes a polarimetry measurement of the icy satellite Europa.
The focus returns to Io at 11:33 a.m. PST, when SSI acquires a color map of approximately half of the visible Io face. At 11:42 a.m. PST NIMS begins another hour-long mapping of the entire visible Jupiter-facing hemisphere of Io.
Our attention again wanders from Io, as SSI captures our second-best ever picture of the small inner satellite Thebe. In this picture, one pixel in the camera image spans 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) on the surface of the satellite. During our 26th orbit, our best resolution picture had a pixel span of only 2 kilometers (1.25 miles).
PPR now shifts the focus to Jupiter itself. Between 12:50 p.m. and 4:10 p.m. PST the instrument scans the giant planet from east to west, then from north to south, both through the Great Red Spot, then focusing on a long-lived white oval storm in the atmosphere, followed by a scan off of the northern limb studying atmospheric structure, finishing with another north to south pole-to-pole scan.
At 4:40 p.m. PST SSI steps up again with a color map of the side of Io that faces away from Jupiter. This view will cover many of the most dramatic features studied by Galileo to date. These include Prometheus, Amirani, Tvashtar, and the site of the giant new volcanic plume discovered during a previous flyby in August. NIMS follows this set of pictures with our final Io observation of the mission! This global map will search the Jupiter-facing hemisphere of the satellite for new hot-spots. By 5:02 p.m. PST, this observation is finished, and, a mere 10 hours after our closest brush with the volcanic fury of the most geologically active body in the solar system, we bid a fond farewell to Io forever! It has been an exciting and tumultuous ride over the past 6 years in orbit, and Io has never once failed to surprise and delight us! Thank you, old friend!
Though the Io observations have concluded, there is still good science to be done. PPR spends the next hour studying hot spots in the north equatorial boundary region of Jupiter's atmosphere, followed by a final instrument calibration. At 6:42 p.m. PST PPR performs one final polarimetry measurement of Europa.
About 10 p.m. PST SSI captures an image of the inner satellite Amalthea. This picture will be used for optical navigation, where the positions of the satellite and of distant stars are compared to provide the Navigation team an accurate idea of the relative positions of Galileo and Amalthea. This will be used to guide our trajectory to a close flyby of that satellite in November of this year.
What? Has it only been one day? The Spirit of Science Present is an extremely ambitious task master! And there's more to come...
=======
Note 1. Pacific Standard Time (PST) is 8 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). The time when an event occurs at the spacecraft is known as Spacecraft Event Time (SCET). The time at which radio signals reach Earth indicating that an event has occurred is known as Earth Received Time (ERT). Currently, it takes Galileo's radio signals 35 minutes to travel between the spacecraft and Earth. All times quoted above are in Earth Received Time.
Bob Goss appointed to Senior Executive Service at NASA Marshall
Bob Goss, Chief Engineer of the Flight Projects Directorate at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., has been appointed to the government Senior Executive Service.
As chief engineer, Goss is responsible for the technical success of several key Marshall Center projects, including the International Space Station, Space Station Environmental Control and Life Support Systems, Space Station Node modules, Multi Purpose Logistics Module, Lightweight Multi-Purpose Experiment Support Structure Carrier, and EXPRESS payload racks for the Space Station. He also oversees various advanced projects still under study, including solar power electrical stations in orbit that would provide power to the Earth by using microwave transmission. The Senior Executive Service is the personnel system that covers most of the top managerial, supervisory and policy positions in the executive branch of the federal government.
Goss came to NASA for the reasons many have - a fascination with the space program and an intense curiosity about how things work.
"In third grade, I was very interested in rockets and missiles and test pilots, as were a lot of other boys in the mid to late 1950s," he said. "Three of us started to get interested, and we were always looking for an opportunity to give a report to the class about things like breaking the sound barrier and rocket planes. I was good at math and science and decided to be an engineer."
Goss began his NASA career in 1966 as a Cooperative Education Program student in Marshall Center's Aero-Astrodynamics Laboratory. After graduating from college, he returned to Marshall in 1970 in the Analytical Aerodynamic Design Branch, where he worked on Space Shuttle designs and other studies.
One of his most rewarding efforts was the development of a makeshift blanket to shield the Skylab space station from the Sun after its own shield was accidentally ripped off during launch. Goss' job was to calculate the effect of the Apollo spacecraft's steering thrusters on the paper-thin shielding of the makeshift blanket.
"I have a lot of curiosity about a lot of things in nature, physics and chemistry," said Goss, recalling the challenges during his career. "I get a lot of satisfaction about solving problems and helping people solve problems."
Throughout the 1970s and '80s, he worked on a variety of projects, such as heavy-lift launch vehicles, space power generation, orbital transfer vehicles, and space robotic servicing. Goss worked in the Space Station Project Office from 1985 to 1989, and then became Mission Chief Engineer for the Spacelab-J science mission aboard the Space Shuttle. Since that flight, he has held increasingly challenging jobs in the Chief Engineer Office, leading to his selection as chief engineer of the Flight Projects Directorate in 1997 and his leading technical role in the Space Station program.
"The biggest technical challenge of the Space Station program is the "tremendous number of interfaces you have to understand and making sure you meet all the requirements of those interfaces," Goss said. "You have to be careful your design is safe, as well as successful."
Goss is a native of Fort Myers, Fla. He holds a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. He has completed numerous executive and management-level training courses and has received several awards, including the Silver Snoopy Award and the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal.
Goss and his wife, Rose Ann, who works in the Marshall comptroller's office, live in Huntsville. He is a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and is a volunteer with Technology Assistance For Special Consumers and the Huntsville Track Club.
The Marshall Center is NASA's lead center for development of space transportation and propulsion systems and advanced large optics manufacturing technology, as well as microgravity research -- scientific research in the unique low-gravity environment inside the International Space Station and other spacecraft. The Marshall Center also provided the Saturn V vehicle that took us to the Moon and developed the propulsion systems on the Space Shuttle.
News Release http://www1.msfc.nasa.gov/NEWSROOM/news/releases/2002/02-008.html
Bob Goss Photograph http://www1.msfc.nasa.gov/NEWSROOM/news/photos/2002/photos02-008.htm
http://www.nature.com/nsu/020114/020114-7.html
Life, as it was in the beginning?
A new type of Earth ecosystem could be found on other planets.
Scientists have found a community of microbes unlike anything else on Earth. Conditions in this ecosystem could mimic those on Earth when life began, and might exist elsewhere in today's Solar System.
Home to the microbes is a hot spring 200 metres beneath the US state of Idaho. Their lives owe nothing to the Sun. They generate energy by combining hydrogen from rocks with carbon dioxide, releasing methane as a by-product. These 'methanogens' belong to an ancient group related to bacteria, called the Archaea.
Mars and Jupiter's moon Europa have both been suggested as places where life could exist on hydrogen, today or in the past.
Full story here:
NASA, CARNEGIE MELLON SIGN COMPUTING AGREEMENT
NASA Ames Research Center has signed an agreement to award $23.3 million to Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science to develop a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional High-Dependability Computing Program (HDCP) to improve NASA's capability to create dependable software.
The incremental five-year cooperative agreement is part of a broad strategy for dependable computing that links NASA, Carnegie Mellon, corporate partners and other universities. Carnegie Mellon experts will collaborate with NASA scientists and researchers from universities, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Maryland, University of Southern California, University of Washington and University of Wisconsin, to measure and improve the dependability of NASA's systems.
"We are delighted to work with Carnegie Mellon," said Ames Center Director Dr. Henry McDonald. "Carnegie Mellon is a leader in computing and robotic technologies. We see this as a cornerstone as we move forward with the development of NASA Research Park," he said.
"While software dependability has been a theme of computing research for several decades, this program addresses the issue in a new way, looking at the particular challenges of large systems, and combining measurement with improvement," said William L. Scherlis, principal research scientist in the Institute for Software Research, International in Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science. Scherlis and James H. Morris, professor and dean of the School of Computer Science, are principal investigators on the High-Dependability Computing Program.
"This is a unique opportunity to develop an empirically based science for software dependability, and could have a major impact on NASA's ability to rely on complex software for advanced mission capability," said Dr. Michael L. Lowry, chief of research in advanced software engineering technology within the Computational Sciences Division at NASA Ames. Previous research collaborations between this division, headed by Dr. Daniel Clancy, and Carnegie Mellon have resulted in tools that formally verify artificial intelligence software that autonomously controls robotics spacecraft.
Dependability is a major challenge for all complex software-based systems. Today there are few effective techniques for measuring dependability and for improving the dependability of large and complex systems. Aspects of dependability include safety-critical reliability, high security, high integrity, continuous operation and human-computer interaction. "Human performance and human computer interaction are critical elements of software reliability," said Dr. Terry Allard, chief of the Human Factors Research and Technology Division at NASA Ames. These criteria have long been requirements for space and defense systems. Now they are increasingly important for systems in many other sectors of society, including systems associated with national infrastructure, defense and health care, as well as mainstream systems ranging from electronic commerce to desktops.
"By studying large systems and components important to NASA, we will be better equipped to understand the challenges of moving techniques for measuring and improving dependability from the laboratory into practice, both for NASA and for the mainstream software development that contributes to the NASA mission," Scherlis said. "The testbed projects will provide important stepping stones in this process." Testbed projects, to be announced over the next few months, are likely to include an advanced networking architecture for the International Space Station and NASA's research to improve air-traffic control.
Morris explained that the diverse skills needed to accomplish the HDCP's goals do not reside exclusively at any single laboratory. The principal focus is on strengthening software dependability for NASA. In addition, Carnegie Mellon and its partners will develop collaborations with industry and with other major software development efforts, including open source projects. First-year funding for the HDCP is $2.9 million, which will be divided between Carnegie Mellon's Pittsburgh campus, research efforts on the West Coast and other universities as subcontractors.
The High-Dependability Computing Program is the most recent in a number of important collaborations that Carnegie Mellon has undertaken with NASA. Carnegie Mellon has worked for the past two years to establish a presence in the Silicon Valley. This includes formation of the High-Dependability Computing Consortium (HDCC) jointly with NASA and 15 Silicon Valley companies, focused broadly on reducing failures in computing systems critical to the welfare of society.
Carnegie Mellon has an agreement with NASA to use facilities at Moffett Field to initiate the high-dependability program. "Carnegie Mellon has unique capabilities to offer in Silicon Valley, the information technology capital of the world," said Morris. He believes that Carnegie Mellon's presence in the valley not only makes its offerings more broadly accessible, but also can enhance the educational experience of students at the Pittsburgh campus by giving them opportunities for internships or research with NASA or Silicon Valley companies. In addition, "Carnegie Mellon has more than 2,500 alumni in Silicon Valley. They want to see us take a more active role in this environment," he said.
In other work with NASA Ames, Carnegie Mellon researchers have developed high-profile robots such as Dante, which explored the interior of a volcano, and Nomad, which discovered meteorites in Antarctica. In addition, Carnegie Mellon researchers also have worked with Ames researchers on projects such as formal methods for verifying digital circuitry, vision and navigation, machine learning and data mining.
JPL TO HOLD HIGH-TECH CONFERENCE FOR SMALL BUSINESS
On March 6 and 7, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., will host the 14th Annual High-Tech Conference for Small Business at the Westin Los Angeles Airport Hotel.
The two-day conference will focus on subcontracting and marketing opportunities for small, minority, women-owned and veteran-owned businesses in high-tech industries. It includes several "how-to" workshops featuring information on major programs, small business initiatives and other topics of interest.
Eugene Tattini, deputy director of JPL, will be the keynote speaker on March 6. Two networking receptions will provide additional opportunities to meet key people. One-on- one counseling opportunities to discuss potential business opportunities are available with more than 200 exhibitors including prime contractors, government agencies, educational institutions. There is no fee to exhibit. Due to space limitations, exhibitors are limited to prime contractors and government agencies. Contact Margo Kuhn at (818) 354-5722 for exhibit information.
A registration fee of $100 per person is due no later than Feb. 18, 2002. Pre-registration is advised as this event is well attended. To obtain a registration form, please visit the conference web site at http://acquisition.jpl.nasa.gov/boo/ . For further details, send an e-mail to Andrea.R.Salazar@jpl.nasa.gov or call (818) 393-5963. For hotel accommodations, contact the Westin at (310) 216-5858.
In conjunction with the High-Tech Conference for Small Business, JPL will hold the 7th Annual NASA/JPL Space Science Symposium on March 5. The symposium is an interactive and informative session highlighting the agency's space science and earth science programs to potential high-tech, small business suppliers. This event is free and pre-registration is highly recommended, as space is limited. To pre-register, please e-mail maryhelen.ruiz@jpl.nasa.gov by Feb. 28.
JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
When did liquid water fill the planets? Maybe not as early as was thought...
Planet-like bodies with liquid water formed very early in the history of the Solar System, or so scientists used to think. That scenario may now be due for revision after a finding with ESA's Infrared Space Observatory, ISO.
Find out more at:
http://sci.esa.int/content/news/index.cfm?aid=1&cid=1&oid=29255
January 17, 2001
MISSION: HESSI (High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager) LAUNCH VEHICLE: Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL LAUNCH SITE: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station LAUNCH DATE: NET Feb. 1, 2002
At Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the HESSI spacecraft was re-mated to the Pegasus launch vehicle on Dec. 20 and the payload fairing was installed around HESSI on Jan. 11. Mating of the Pegasus to the L-1011 is tentatively planned to occur on Jan. 23 and the ferry flight to KSC is targeted for Jan. 26.
The Flight Readiness Review was held at KSC on Monday, Jan. 14. At the conclusion, NASA and Orbital Sciences engineers decided to take an additional week to review the similarities of materials and components used on the Pegasus Orion solid rocket motor and the Graphite Epoxy Motor (GEM) of National Missile Defense BV-3 target vehicle that failed during launch late last year at Vandenberg.
Pegasus HESSI was returned to Vandenberg Air Force Base on the L-1011 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station last summer on June 21 to await the outcome of the X-43 and subsequent Taurus launch vehicle failure investigations.
MISSION: TDRS-I (Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-I) LAUNCH VEHICLE: Lockheed Martin ATLAS IIA (AC-143) LAUNCH PAD: CCAFS 36-A LAUNCH DATE: March 2002
The Atlas IIA wet dress rehearsal, a full countdown dress rehearsal with the vehicle fully fueled, was successfully performed on Jan. 9. No significant vehicle processing activity is scheduled this week.
The TDRS-I spacecraft is anticipated to arrive at KSC from the Boeing Satellite Systems plant in El Segundo, Calif. no earlier than Jan. 25. A review to determine the readiness of TDRS-I to be shipped to Florida for final launch preparations is planned for on or about Jan. 22. A definite launch date in March has not been determined at this time.
MISSION: Aqua EOS-PM (Earth Observing System Aqua Observatory) LAUNCH VEHICLE: DELTA II 7920-10L LAUNCH PAD: Space Launch Complex 2, Vandenberg Air Force Base LAUNCH DATE: March 24, 2002
The erection of the Delta II launch vehicle at SLC-2 is tentatively planned to begin on Feb. 20 on Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
This week the Aqua Ground Operations Working Group is occurring at the TRW plant in Redondo Beach, Calif. The readiness of the spacecraft for shipping and the remaining work to be done is being reviewed. At the conclusion of the meeting, a date will be identified for shipment of the spacecraft to Vandenberg Air Force Base.
FAREWELL, IO; GALILEO PAYING LAST VISIT TO A RESTLESS MOON
NASA's Galileo orbiter will dart past Jupiter's moon Io on Thursday in the veteran spacecraft's last and closest flyby of any of the giant planet's four major moons.
Io's volcanoes have presented many surprises since they were first seen in 1979 by NASA's Voyager spacecraft and especially during the six years that Galileo has been orbiting Jupiter. Scientists hope this week's encounter will reveal how several regions of Io have changed over the years.
"Galileo's days are numbered now, so it's especially exciting to visit Io one last time," said Dr. Eilene Theilig, Galileo project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "An orbital mission like Galileo gives you the advantage of getting to examine interesting places repeatedly over a period of time. That's been great for studying Io, since it keeps changing so much."
The Galileo flight team at JPL aimed the orbiter to skim just 100 kilometers (62 miles) above Io's multicolored surface at 14:09 Universal Time (6:09 a.m. Pacific Standard Time) on Jan. 17. "The reason we're going so close is to put Galileo on a ballistic trajectory for impact into Jupiter in September 2003," Theilig said.
Galileo has operated in orbit more than three times longer than its originally planned mission. The resilient spacecraft has survived about three and a half times as much exposure to radiation from Jupiter's radiation belts as it was designed to withstand. In its 33 loops around Jupiter, it has flown near Io six times previously and near the other three of Jupiter's planet-sized moons -- Europa, Ganymede and Callisto -- a total of 27 times.
The tour has relied on expert navigators to calculate several moves in advance, using each moon's gravity to help adjust the spacecraft's trajectory toward its various encounters.
However, the propellant supply needed for steering the spacecraft and keeping its antenna pointed toward Earth is now nearly exhausted. To avoid even a slim chance that Galileo could crash into Europa after its mission ends, NASA has decided to send it to a controlled demise in the crushing pressure of Jupiter's dense atmosphere. Galileo had earlier found evidence that Europa has a deep ocean of melted saltwater under its frozen surface, heightening interest in keeping Europa pristine for later studies of its potential for harboring extraterrestrial life.
Before its final plunge, Galileo will make the first close flyby of Amalthea, a small, inner moon of Jupiter, in November 2002.
This week, Galileo will make direct measurements of the charged particles and magnetic environment around Io. Also, its camera and instruments for infrared and thermal imaging have been programmed to make observations during the flyby. As much of the data as possible will be transmitted to Earth from the spacecraft's tape recorder in coming months, Theilig said.
Io, like Earth's Moon, always keeps the same side facing inward toward its planet. On Thursday, Galileo will be in position for its best-ever look at the Jupiter-facing side of Io. "We're hoping to see areas we haven't seen well since Voyager imaged them back in 1979," said JPL's Dr. Torrence Johnson, Galileo project scientist. "We'd like to know more about rates of change for volcanic features on Io." New observations are also planned for a previously inactive volcano that unexpectedly lofted a tall plume last summer.
On this swing through the inner portion of the Jovian system, Galileo will also examine storms on Jupiter itself and the Io torus, a doughnut-shaped band of charged particles encircling Jupiter at Io's distance from the planet.
A sporadic malfunction has affected performance of Galileo's camera since mid-2000, apparently due to radiation damage to an electronic component. The camera worked flawlessly during the most recent Io encounter in October 2001, but each time Galileo swings as close to Jupiter as Io's orbit, odds increase for more serious damage to the spacecraft from exposure to the planet's radiation belts.
Io is the innermost of Jupiter's four large moons. Heat from tidal flexing powered by Jupiter's gravitational pull makes it the most volcanically active world in the solar system, with an estimated 200 to 300 volcanoes rapidly resurfacing it.
Galileo left Earth aboard the space shuttle Atlantis in 1989. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Additional information about the mission is available online at http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov .
.
The Pace Picks Up!
The day begins with Galileo still over 25 Jupiter radii from the giant planet (1.8 million kilometers, or 1.1 million miles). Before 24 hours have passed, that distance will have closed to less than 15 Jupiter radii (1 million kilometers or 670,000 miles). During that time, the spacecraft is preparing for the close encounter that is lying in wait tomorrow.
At 5:00 a.m. PST [See Note 1] the attitude control software for the spacecraft is configured to rely on sighting only a single star during the Io flyby. The star scanner sensor ordinarily uses three or more stars as reference points for determining the spacecraft's orientation. However, as the spacecraft moves closer to Jupiter during encounter periods, the radiation environment heats up and the sensor gets bombarded by energetic particles, which cause noise in the electronic circuits. This noise tends to drown out the signals from fainter stars or can even be mis-identified as a star that is not really there. By selecting a single bright star, whose signal is expected to be much higher than the noise level, Galileo can reliably keep track of its orientation. During the 48 hours surrounding the closest approach to Jupiter and Io, we will be viewing the star Achernar (Alpha Eridani), which is the sixth brightest star in the catalog we maintain for use by Galileo. This same star has been used successfully in this same manner for the past 3 orbits.
Beginning at 9:30 a.m. PST, the tape recorder is moved to the correct location on the tape to begin the recording of science activities. Curiously, we don't always "begin at the beginning" when we record. When the entire science strategy for the orbit is laid out, we usually choose a particular block of high-priority, high-speed recording to occupy one continuous track of the four tracks we have available to us. By adopting this strategy, we don't have to stop our observation sequence to wait for the tape to change directions. When we are near the closest approach to a satellite, a few seconds can mean lost opportunities!
At 10:25 a.m. PST, Galileo reaches its closest point to the outermost of the four large satellites of Jupiter, Callisto. But at a distance of 1.7 million kilometers (1 million miles), it is too far away to be worthy of even a glance. Likewise, at 9:28 p.m. PST, our closest approach to Jupiter's largest satellite, Ganymede, is a distant 1 million kilometers (670,000 miles), and this body is also passed by for observations.
At 3:17 p.m. PST, the Photopolarimeter Radiometer (PPR) instrument is turned on and records a brief calibration sequence. Following this activity, at 4:00 p.m. PST, the instrument turns its gaze on Io for the first observation of that satellite during this encounter. This distant observation examines the thermal emissions from the dark side of the satellite for 13 minutes.
At 8:45 p.m. PST, the Radio Science Team begins a 20-hour-long study of the gravity field of Io, centered around the closest approach to the satellite. This study consists of closely watching the radio frequency of the signal transmitted by Galileo. As the spacecraft gets closer to Io, the gravity of that body tugs on Galileo, and the frequency of the radio signal changes. This is the familiar Doppler shift, usually described with the analogy of a train whistle changing pitch as the train approaches and recedes from the listener. With Galileo, the change in pitch of the radio signal corresponds to the change in speed of the spacecraft. That corresponds to how hard Io is pulling on the spacecraft, and that corresponds to the total mass of Io, and, at a finer level of detail, to how that mass is distributed within the satellite. An amazing amount of good science can be collected just from listening to the radio!
Registration deadline approaches for NASA's 9th Annual Great Moonbuggy Race
For high school and college students eager to try their design, building and athletic skills in the 9th Annual Great Moonbuggy Race the sign-up deadline is near. Teams must be registered for the race by Feb 1. The event, sponsored by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., is scheduled April 12-13 at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville.
The competition requires student teams to design a human-powered vehicle and in the process, confront real-world engineering problems. The challenge continues when students, a male and female, race their vehicles over a half-mile course of simulated lunar terrain, encountering man-made craters, rocks, ridges and soft soil.
Inspiration for the race is the challenges faced and overcome by the NASA team that designed the Lunar Rover Vehicle for Apollo astronauts to travel on the Moon.
High school students race Friday, April 12, and college students race Saturday, April 13.
"This year we're hoping to have the biggest field ever," said Durlean Bradford, Moonbuggy Race coordinator at the Marshall Center. "We already have 15 high schools and ten colleges registered."
Teams from 20 states and Puerto Rico participated in 2001 bringing more than 50 teams to the competition.
"There is still time to put a team together, design the vehicle, build it and be ready to compete in April, said Bradford. "But the registration has to be completed and to us by Feb. 1."
Prizes are awarded not only for the fastest vehicles, but also to the team whose design represents the best technical approach toward solving the engineering problem of navigating the simulated lunar surface.
"This is a fun experience," Bradford said, "but it's highly challenging in a variety of areas -- including, math, science, engineering, design and teamwork."
For more information about participating in the Great Moonbuggy Race, contact Bradford at: (256) 544-5920 or e-mail: durlean.Bradford@msfc.nasa.gov <mailto:durlean.Bradford@msfc.nasa.gov>.
General information about the even may be found on the Web site:
<http://moonbuggy.msfc.nasa.gov>.
More About the Marshall Center
The Marshall Space Flight Center is NASA's lead center for development of space transportation and propulsion systems, advanced large optics manufacturing technology, as well as microgravity research -- scientific research in the unique low-gravity environment inside the International Space Station and other spacecraft.
In the past, Marshall played key roles in the development and operation of the Saturn V rocket, Skylab, the Lunar Roving Vehicle, Spacelab and the Hubble Space Telescope. Today, the Center's primary management responsibilities include Space Shuttle propulsion systems; the Chandra X-Ray Observatory; future large-scale space optics systems; the Space Launch Initiative; space science and Earth science; and all scientific work aboard the International Space Station. Marshall is responsible for developing advanced space transportation systems designed to further the exploration of space while slashing the cost of getting there from today's $10,000 per pound to only hundreds of dollars per pound, and even less.
The Center is working to bring a future among the stars closer to reality for the people of Earth.
January 16, 2001
Easing off the (Greenhouse) Gas
Greenhouse gases are still accumulating in Earth's atmosphere, but more slowly than before, say NASA-funded researchers.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/15jan_greenhouse.htm?list448368
Fifth International Mars Society Conference Announced Personnel Changes at the Mars Desert Research Station Fund Raising Campaign a Major Success Steering Committee Nominations
Conference News
The Mars Society is pleased to announce that the Fifth Internationl Mars Society Conference will return to Boulder, Colorado at the University of Colorado campus, August 8th through August 11th, 2002. The Boulder campus is a beautiful, open campus with newly renovated facilities. It is the original home of the Mars Underground and site of the founding convention of The Mars Society, so we are thrilled to be returning this year.
The date of the conference has been moved up this year to make it easier for our student membership to attend.
We are happy to announce that we are able to hold our early registration rates at the same level as the prior two years, $60 student and senior and $180 regular. Early registration ends June 30, 2002. Registration is available through our website using your Visa, Mastercard, American Express or Discover card. Or you can download a registration form and fax or mail it in with your check or cc information.
See you there!
Call for papers:
The Mars Society is accepting abstracts for papers to be delivered at the conference this August. Topics covered will range from mission design to Mars survivial skills, chapter activities to arts and literature. All subjects relevant to Mars settlement and exploration are invited.
Send your abstract of 300 words as an email or word attachment to HeydonMars@aol.com. The deadline for abstract submissions is May 31, 2002.
Call for volunteers:
This year, Paige Heydon, Administrative Director of the Mars Society, will be serving as HQ coordinator of the conference. I will offer as much support as possible, but Paige will also need a solid volunteer team to assist with conference preparation, publicity and staffing.
We are actively seeking a local chapter member to serve as chapter coordinator. In addition, we will be looking several local members to assist that chair.
Once again, we will be able to offer free conference admission to a limited number of students who volunteer to work at the conference. And of course, we can use an almost indefinate number of on-site staff for registration, AV and guest assistance. As a long time conference volunteer, I can state unequivically that volunteers have the most fun. So join the in crowd this year and help the Mars Society. Contact Paige at HeydonMars@aol.com.
Vendors and Displays:
This year, vendors and displays will be located near the main plenary hall and registration. We will return to asking a donation from vendors of 10% of sales and inviting all chapters and non-profit organizations to display at the conference at no charge. Please reserve your table in advance to allow for the best allocation of space. Contact HeydonMars@aol.com.
Lodging and general info:
Because the University offers year-round lodging to students, we are not able to offer dormitory space to our conference attendees. There are many hotels in the immediate vicinity with rates from modest to luxury. We will be posting a few suggestions at the website in the near future. The nearest airport is Denver International Airport, which is about 45 minutes from the University by car. Shuttle service is available to Boulder. Boulder is a biking and walking town and bus service is also available. The weather in August is moderately hot (averaging around 85% Farenheit during the day.) There are occassional thunderstorms during the afternoon. Dress casually and comfortably. The campus is not overly large, but a good pair of walking shoes would be a plus.
Personnel Changes at the Mars Desert Research Station
On December 28th, Anna Paulson tendered her resignation as Program Manager for the MDRS. We would like to thank Anna for all of her hard work in getting the station erected on site and the volunteer teams mobilized. Anna will be returning to school at the University of Michigan and we wish her the very best of luck. We are grateful to have Anna continue in her role as coordinator for the Michigan Mars Rover team.
Frank Schubert who has served as construction manager for both the FMARS and the MDRS, will be adding the duties of Program Manager to his roster. Frank will be working directly with MDRS volunteers and researchers as well as assisting with fund-raising and public outreach activities. We look forward to working more closely with Frank and appreciate his efforts to work even harder for the success of this vital project.
Fundraising Campaign a Success
Thanks to the more than 200 people who have made donations, The Mars Society has raised over $30,000 from the end of year fundraising campaign. Dr. Zubrin spend last weekend autographing books and we will be mailing them out within the week.
Special thanks to those who became lifetime members. We will be designing a unique ID card to indicate your special membership status. The Mars Society will be continuing this offer of lifetime membership for individual donors at the $1000 level.
Unfortunately, Apollo Energy has indicated that they will have to cap their donation at $1000. This leaves us a bit short of our goal of $50,000 to continue operations at the Desert Hab. Any donations of $100 or more received through February 28th, 2002, either at the website or by response to our recent mailing, will be eligible for Dr. Zubrin's book offer and will be noted on our donor plaque. Also, remember that individual crew member sponsorships are still available at the $5000 level.
Your help is appreciated immensely. Thank you.
In line with our fundraising initiatives, we are especially pleased to announce that Pat Czarnik will be joining our fundraising task- force team. Pat has been a dedicated conference volunteer and served as team captain for several weeks at our KSC display. She and Tam are active members of the Ohio chapter. Welcome aboard, Pat.
We are seeking additional volunteers to be actively involved in research and ground work for this important task. Contact Maggie Zubrin, mzubrin@aol.com, if you would like to be involved in fundraising.
Steering Committee Nominations:
The following individuals have been officially nominated for seats on The Mars Society steering committee:
Gary Fisher - Philadelphia Bruce Mackenzie - New England Mark Klosowski - Northern California Guy Murphy - Australia
Because the number of seats available exceeds the number of candidates qualified to run, all qualified nominees will be given a seat. Thanks to all the members who participated in the nominating process.
AVIS AUX MÉDIAS / MEDIA ADVISORY
Guest speaker at the Canadian Club and « l'Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec » Canadian Space Agency Astronaut Julie Payette
Saint-Hubert, Québec, January 15, 2002 - Media are invited to attend two presentations by Canadian Space Agency Astronaut Julie Payette on Wednesday, January 16, 2002. At noon, Julie Payette will speak to guests of the Canadian Club about the construction of the International Space Station. This luncheon will take place in the Grand Salon B of the Wyndham Hotel, 1255 Jeanne-Mance St., Montréal. Ms. Payette will be available for interviews after the conference.
At 7:00 p.m. members of « La Régionale des ingénieurs de Montréal » will discover a multi-talented engineer, as Julie Payette will talk about her career and her experience in space. This dinner will take place in Salon Mont Blanc of the Four Points Sheraton Hotel, 475 Sherbrooke St. West, Montréal.
"Galileo's days are numbered now, so it's especially exciting to visit Io one last time," said Dr. Eilene Theilig, Galileo project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif. "An orbital mission like Galileo gives you the advantage of getting to examine interesting places repeatedly over a period of time. That's been great for studying Io, since it keeps changing so much."
The Galileo flight team at JPL aimed the orbiter to skim just 100 kilometers (62 miles) above Io's multicolored surface at 9:09 a.m. EST on Jan. 17. "The reason we're going so close is to put Galileo on a ballistic trajectory for impact into Jupiter in September 2003," Theilig said.
Galileo has operated in orbit more than three times longer than its originally planned mission. The resilient spacecraft has survived about three and a half times as much exposure to radiation from Jupiter's radiation belts as it was designed to withstand. In its 33 loops around Jupiter, it has flown near Io six times previously and near the other three of Jupiter's planet-sized moons - Europa, Ganymede and Callisto - a total of 27 times.
Galileo left Earth aboard the space shuttle Atlantis in 1989. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science in Washington.
Additional information about the mission is available online at: http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov
NEWLY DISCOVERED ANTARCTIC MICROBES SUGGEST LIFE IS POSSIBLE IN TERRAINS ON MARS Canadian and New Zealand scientists have found living microbes buried deeper than perhaps ever before in Antarctica's ice-free Dry Valleys. They and collaborating planetary scientists at the University of Arizona say new research "opens up the possibility of life on Mars and the possible positions within a soil where it might be found." The international team is reporting the work in Icarus in the article, "Morphogenesis of Antarctic Paleosols: Martian Analogue." The scientists have discovered long-lived colonies of insecticidal fungi and a common species of Penicillium bacteria at two sites in two salty soil horizons more than one to three inches (3 to 8 centimeters) beneath Antarctic surface pavement. The cold, xeric Dry Valley soils formed under environmental conditions very like those of past and present Mars, "where similar weathering could occur and possible microbial populations may exist," the researchers said. "We believe that our field-based investigation of parts of the Antarctic yields valuable information about soils and microbial life that may bear significantly on future manned and unmanned missions to Mars, especially since the martian surface archives an active and varied geologic history similar in many ways to that of Antarctic terrains," they add. Authors are William C. Mahaney of York University in Ontario, Canada; James M. Dohm and Victor R. Baker of the University of Arizona; Horton E. Newsom of the University of New Mexico; David Malloch of the University of Toronto (who analyzed the microbes); R.G.V. Hancock of the Royal Military College, Ontario, Canada; Iain Campbell of Land and Soil Consultancy Services, Stoke, New Zealand; Doug Sheppard of Geochemical Solutions, Petone, New Zealand; and Mike W. Milner of York University. The hyper-arid, ultra-cold climate of the Antarctic Dry Valleys comes closer to present-day martian climate than anywhere on Earth. Mean annual temperatures in the Quartermain Mountains, where these microorganisms were found, hover at minus 30 degrees to minus 35 degrees Celsius. Precipitation is practically nil -- equal to less than 10mm (less than four-tenths inch) annually. Mahaney said that when, in January 1998, he, Campbell and Sheppard ventured into the tills of the Aztec and New Mountain areas, near Taylor Glacier in western Antarctica, they weren't thinking about Mars. Part of Project K-105 in New Zealand's Antarctic Program, they intended to determine the age of paleosols, or ancient soils. "And we went looking for microbes," Mahaney said. Mahaney has analyzed microbes in soil in regions ranging from Canada and Wyoming's Wind River Range to Mount Kenya in East Africa. He is about to join Geological Survey of Finland scientists on a full-scale drilling program into more than billion-year-old weathered metamorphic rock in northern Finland that is a possible analogue to a large thrust sheet in the southern hemisphere of Mars. Mahaney performs some laboratory analyses at York University's Geomorphology and Pedology Laboratory, a facility he has directed for 30 years but that is slated for closure starting this year. Glaciers deposited "tills," or rock debris, at the Aztec and New Mountain areas beginning roughly 23 million years ago, when Antarctic climate was warmer and wetter than at present. Glaciers advanced and retreated repeatedly through time, depositing successive layers of dolerite and sandstone till that weathered and changed chemically when bathed in wind-blown ocean salt and other materials, forming successive soil layers. Each soil layer, as it formed, built up salt and released iron. Salt through time accumulated in the older, lower layers. The glaciers protected rather than eroded the underlying surfaces, preserving the lower horizons in the multistory paleosol profiles, the scientists noted. Mahaney said they focused on layers they dated using a beryllium-10 isotope dating technique at from 10-to -15 million years old. "We went to the iron-rich horizons, where we thought we'd find lots of microbes, because microbes need iron for physiological processes," Mahaney said. "And we sampled the lower-down, high-salt horizons, where we thought we would find few microorganisms. We found just the opposite. "We found microbes in soil with 3,000 ppm salt concentrations. That's like vodka. That's so much salt, temperatures can drop to minus 56 degrees Celsius before there's frost bite. " Highly concentrated sulphate salts lower the freezing point. Under the right "supercooled" conditions, water remains liquid, noted UA Regents' Professor Victor R. Baker. The availability of liquid water is a problem for microorganisms both in Antarctica and on Mars. "Although these (supercooling) processes are not fully understood on Earth," Baker said, "the fact that they occur in Antarctica shows the possibility that they also might occur on Mars. Indeed, the Mars questions are stimulating exactly this kind of work that will advance our understanding of extreme processes on Earth." "We also found that these microbe colonies are not just a one-shot occurrence," Mahaney said. "We found abundant, well-formed, long-lived fungi colonies at two sites in two organic-carbon-poor layers between 3 centimeters and 8 centimeters (more than one inch to more than three inches) below the surface pavement. "The strange thing is, we found several colonies of Beauveria bassiana -- fungi that thrive on insects. The colonies may have been there longer than centuries, maybe millennia, maybe since the last Ice Age -- I have no idea how long. So the question is, what do these well-developed colonies live on?" Scientists first discovered algae, fungi and bacteria growing inside porous sandstone and surface pavement in the Antarctic Dry Valleys more than 20 years ago. Researchers since have found long-lived algal mats submerged under 10-foot-thick lake ice crust, bacteria living in hot volcanic fumaroles of Mount Erebus, and microorganisms in other Antarctic ecological niches. NASA has long been interested in the Antarctic Dry Valleys as terrain analogous to Mars, and in Earth "extremophiles" -- organisms that grow in the most extreme, severe environments. But when Mahaney presented a paper at the August 2000 polar science conference in Reykjavik, Iceland, on the weighty implications of finding life in soil horizons in such a hostile environment in many ways analogous to Mars, some dismissed the idea as half crazy, said UA's James Dohm. He and Baker, however, realized the implications "are extremely important to future unmanned and manned Mars missions that might sample soil horizons to be analyzed for extant life," Dohm said. They have been collaborating with Mahaney on further research, assimilating the latest analyses of images and information from Mars space missions into the work. "It appears that tills have been emplaced on Mars under environmental conditions approximately similar to those occurring in the Dry Valleys study site, and that the time scale of 10 million years may apply to both areas," the scientists wrote in Icarus. And while little so far is known about soils or weathered surfaces on Mars, current thinking is that early Mars' climate was warm and wet, and that throughout its mainly extremely cold, dry climate history, Mars since has been episodically, very briefly, warm and wet, Baker and others conclude. They reported on it in Nature as early as 1991 and as recently as July 12, 2001. "The glacial climates of Antarctica would have led to glaciers that produced the same kinds of surfaces that were sampled in Antarctica and that we see on Mars today," Baker said. Dohm, Nathalie Cabrol and Edmon Grin of the NASA Ames Research Center, Jeff Kargel of the U.S. Geological Survey - Flagstaff, and others reported last month at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting on Mars' geologically recent glacial landforms, feature types that Baker also described in his July 2001 Nature insight article. "Earth-like landscapes which are modified by glaciers, rock glaciers and mudflows are especially pronounced in Mars' southern latitudes, south of 30 degrees," Dohm concludes from a study he conducted with Cabrol and Grin. "Soils may have formed at these southern latitudes, at the tremendously deep (10-kilometer or 6-mile deep) volatile sediment sinks such as Argyre and Hellas impact basins, and at the polar regions," he said. There is a growing body of geoscientific evidence that suggests Mars' early environment was Earth-like longer than previously believed, he added. "If early Mars was Earth-like, then soils later exposed by faulting, collapse, impact and/or explosion may one day be sampled by a rover," Dohm said he concludes from research in collaboration with Robert Anderson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Explosions would occur if hot magma hits ground water or shallow surface water. Arizona State University's Paul Knauth reported at the December AGU meeting on the high probability that Mars could produce extremely saline brines, Baker noted. "The evaporation and wind transport of the salts from these brines would readily lead to the types of processes that formed the soil zones in Antarctica," Baker said. "The water that was mobilize
d by the changing climates on Mars, implied by the recent water-related landforms would flush these salts into the soil horizons, even for extremely cold mean climate conditions," he said. Michael Malin and other Mars Global Surveyor scientists reported last month in Science on the fact that martian climate is not stable, but changing even on short time scales, Baker added. "All these considerations would imply that Mars, like Earth, has climatically sensitive zones that preferentially locate certain kinds of soil development. The past climates that produced certain kinds of soils can then be interpreted, or 'reconstructed,' from the studies of the old soils (paleosols) that formed under those past conditions. " Scientists have used these same kinds of paleosol studies on Earth to study past climates that changed in response to the ice ages. "Soils and living organisms on Earth are closely associated. In a sense, soil is the 'excited skin of the Earth', as the famous soil scientist Nikiforoff said. If Mars also has soils related to biological process, then they may be related to the history of life on that planet, as well as the history of martian climate," Baker said. ***PHOTOS/CAPTIONS: Download Aztec and New Mountain areas, Antarctica @ http://graucho.opi.arizona.edu/graphix.images/antmapfinal.jpg CAPTION: Map -- Location of paleosols at Aztec and New Mountain areas, Antarctica (Map courtesy of W.C. Mahaney, York University) Download MOLA relief map of Mars @ http://graucho.opi.arizona.edu/graphix.images/fig.3-icarus.jpg CAPTION: Mars Orbital Laser Altimeter shaded relief map of the western and eastern equatorial regions on Mars, including, highland-lowland boundary, Thaumasia plateau, Valles Marineris, Argyre and Hellas impact basins, newly identified outflow channel system, (MOLA Science Team images: NASA/JPL/GSFC). Download Viking image @ http://graucho.opi.arizona.edu/graphix.images/photofig.jpg CAPTION: Viking orbital image showing potential glaciated terrain east of Hellas Planitia (PHOTO: NASA). Download Field site 1 photo @ http://graucho.opi.arizona.edu/graphix.images/antprints1.jpg CAPTION: Mahaney in the Antarctic Dry Valleys field site (PHOTO: Courtesy of W.C. Mahaney, York University) Download Field site 2 photo @ http://graucho.opi.arizona.edu/graphix.images/antprints2.jpg CAPTION: Sheppard (left) and Campbell in the Antarctic Dry Valleys field site. (PHOTO: Courtesy of W.C. Mahaney, York University)
January 15, 2001
Voyage of the Nano-Surgeons
NASA-funded scientists are crafting microscopic vessels that can venture into the human body and repair problems, one cell at a time.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/15jan_nano.htm?list448368
GREENHOUSE EMISSIONS GROWTH SLOWED OVER PAST DECADE
A new NASA-funded study shows that the rate of growth of greenhouse gas emissions has slowed since its peak in 1980, due in part to international cooperation that led to reduced chlorofluorocarbon use, slower growth of methane, and a steady rate of carbon dioxide emissions.
Researchers have shown that global warming in recent decades has probably been caused by carbon dioxide (CO2), and other greenhouse gases including chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), methane, tropospheric ozone, and black carbon (soot) particles.
Overall, growth of emissions has slowed over the past 20 years, with the CFC phase-out being the most important factor, according to the study.
"The decrease is due in large part to cooperative international actions of the Montreal Protocol for the phase- out of ozone depleting gases," said Dr. James Hansen of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York. "But it is also due in part to slower growth of methane and carbon dioxide, for reasons that aren't well understood and need more study."
The findings appeared in the December 18 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Hansen co- authored the paper with Makiko Sato of Columbia University, New York.
The warming effect of methane is about half as large as that of CO2, and when methane increases it also causes a rise in tropospheric ozone levels. Tropospheric ozone is a principal ingredient in "smog," which is harmful to human health and reduces agricultural productivity. The rate of methane growth has slowed during the past decade, and it may be possible to halt its growth entirely and eventually reduce atmospheric amounts, Hansen and Sato suggest.
Another warming agent deserving special attention, according to the authors, is soot. Soot is a product of incomplete combustion. Diesel powered trucks and buses are primary sources of airborne soot in the United States. Even larger amounts of soot occur in developing countries.
The study also suggests that reduction of methane emissions and soot could yield a major near term success story in the battle against global warming, thus providing time to work on technologies to reduce future carbon dioxide emissions. Currently, technologies are within reach to reduce other global air pollutants, like methane, in ways that are cheaper and faster than reducing CO2.
Though reducing these climate-forcing agents is important, scientists caution that limiting CO2 will still be needed to slow global warming over the next 50 years.
Hansen emphasizes that CO2 emissions are the single largest climate forcing, and warns that they need to be slowed soon and eventually curtailed more strongly to stabilize atmospheric conditions and stop global warming. Over the next few decades, Hansen said, it is important to limit emissions of forcing agents other than CO2, to buy time until CO2 emissions can be better managed.
If fossil fuel use continues at today's rates for the next 50 years, and if growth of methane and air pollution is halted, the warming in 50 years will be about 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit (0.7 Celsius). That amount of warming is significant, according to Hansen, but it is less than half the warming in the "business-as-usual scenarios that yield the specter of imminent disaster."
The climate warming projected in the Institute scenario is about half as large as in the typical scenario from the report of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This is because the IPCC considers a large range of forcings and models. The warming in the GISS model is similar to the lowest of the IPCC results, despite the fact that the GISS model has a relatively high sensitivity to forcings.
Additional information is available on the Internet at:
http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/20020103greenhouse.html
http://www.giss.nasa.gov/gpol/papers/2001/2001_HansenSato.pdf
January 14, 2002
U.S. CENTENNIAL OF FLIGHT COMMISSION AND THE WRIGHT EXPERIENCE FORM ALLIANCE
The U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission and The Wright Experience of Warrenton, Va., have entered into a memorandum of agreement that will allow them to jointly promote the 100th anniversary of the first powered flight in 2003.
The Wright Experience, which is building an exact reproduction of the Wrights' 1903 Wright Flyer, will receive national outreach support from the Commission as a result of the agreement. In turn, The Wright Experience will help promote the national outreach campaign, "Centennial of Flight: Born of Dreams -- Inspired by Freedom."
Ken Hyde, executive director of The Wright Experience, and his team of Wright devotees are working to rediscover the experimentation and methodology of the Wrights' pursuit of flight. The task is particularly difficult because the Wrights left very little documentation of their work in an effort to hide their secrets and expertise from imitators.
"Today we see the magnificent evolution of the Wrights' original efforts," Hyde said. "Our quest is to discover how the first steps were made -- steps that are lost in history. We are confident that we will retrace those steps and finish the first century of flight as it began, by flying over the sands of Kitty Hawk. It will be an amazing end to a once-in-a-lifetime celebration of both the realization of dreams and the freedom of flight."
The U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission was created by Congress to coordinate and publicize the activities celebrating the 100th anniversary of powered flight. The Wright Experience's 2003 Wright Flyer will be an important part of the national celebration, which consists of a range of events, activities and educational components.
The Wright Experience has contracted with the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) to build the reproduction Flyer, known as the 2003 Wright Flyer, which will be flown at the Wright Brothers National Monument in Kitty Hawk, N.C., at 10:35 a.m. on Dec. 17, 2003, exactly 100 years after the Wrights' first flight. Prior to that date, the 2003 Wright Flyer will tour the country as part of the EAA's centennial celebration, "Countdown to Kitty Hawk presented by Ford Motor Company."
"The 2003 Wright Flyer is an important educational tool because it is so historically accurate," Commission Chairman Gen. J. R. ("Jack") Dailey said. "The task Ken has undertaken to reproduce the airships of the Wright brothers requires tremendous dedication and innovation. The excitement and anticipation that will stem from watching the 2003 Wright Flyer lift off the sands of Kitty Hawk will be a fitting climax to the centennial celebration."
A complete listing of Centennial events and more information on the Centennial of Flight Commission can be found at: www.centennialofflight.gov
More information also is available from Christian Markow, U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission, at 804/675-8153.
Additional information on The Wright Experience can be found at: www.wrightexperience.com
More information also is available from Mike McCall, The Wright Experience, at 540/955-2100.
500 STUDENTS AND THEIR ROBOTS COMPETE IN 'ARCTIC RESCUE' SCENARIO
A daunting challenge awaits 500 northern California students and their miniature robots on Jan. 12, 2002, at San Jose City College.
Students must use their expertise and imagination to respond to the following transmission: Massive Arctic storm approaching. Stop. Expedition Arctic Impact ordered to evacuate. Stop. Renowned scientists trapped by storm. Stop. Millions in equipment and valuable research in peril. Stop. Request immediate assistance. The contestants, ages 9-14, will compete to save the imaginary Arctic expedition by programming their robots to perform various missions within a 2-minute time limit.
"The purpose of this challenge is to enhance student awareness in science and engineering. We often find that students participating in these programs show great improvement in their science and math courses," said Hank Schwoob, team mentor and volunteer coordinator, from NASA Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley. "I knew this was going to be big when out of 600 students in my daughter's school, 60 are participating."
The competitors' Lego robots will be scored on their ability to: raise three flags, launch a weather balloon, raise a weather tower, get a medicine barrel, deliver a research instrument, retrieve an ice core, move a storage hut away from cracking ice, deliver 10 fuel barrels, and rescue three scientists.
Teams have eight weeks to build their robots from identical kits received from the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) organization that sponsors robotics competitions across the country. Each year the competition focuses on a scientific or technological problem facing the world today. This year's challenge is global warming.
The FIRST Lego League is a collaborative effort between FIRST, the NASA Robotics Education Project managed by NASA Ames and industry partners.
Further information about the FIRST Lego League is on the Internet at:
http://www.usfirst.org/jrobtcs/index.html
More Details about the NASA Robotics Education Project are on the Internet at:
http://robotics.nasa.gov/
January 12, 2001
Mars Odyssey Mission Status January 11, 2002
Flight controllers for NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft sent commands overnight to raise the spacecraft up out of the atmosphere and conclude the aerobraking phase of the mission.
At 12:18 a.m. Pacific time Jan. 11, Odyssey fired its small thrusters for 244 seconds, changing its speed by 20 meters per second (45 miles per hour) and raising its orbit by 85 kilometers (53 miles). The closest point in Odyssey's orbit, called the periapsis, is now 201 kilometers (125 miles) above the surface of Mars. The farthest point in the orbit, called the apoapsis, is at an altitude of 500 kilometers (311 miles). During the next few weeks, flight controllers will refine the orbit until the spacecraft reaches its final mapping altitude, a 400-kilometer (249-mile) circular orbit.
"The successful completion of the aerobraking phase is a major milestone for the project. Aerobraking is the most complex phase of the entire mission and the team came through it without a hitch," said David A. Spencer, Odyssey's mission manager at JPL. "During the next month, we will be reconfiguring the spacecraft to begin the science mapping mission." The science mission is expected to begin in late February.
During the aerobraking phase, Odyssey skimmed through the upper reaches of the martian atmosphere 332 times. By using the atmosphere of Mars to slow down the spacecraft in its orbit rather than firing its engine or thrusters, Odyssey was able to save more than 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of propellant. This reduction in spacecraft weight enabled the mission to be launched on a Delta II 7925 launch vehicle, rather than a larger, more expensive launcher.
JPL manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Principal investigators at Arizona State University in Tempe, the University of Arizona in Tucson, and NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, operate the science instruments. Additional science investigators are located at the Russian Space Research Institute and Los Alamos National Laboratories. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, Colo., is the prime contractor for the project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., is providing aerobraking support to JPL's navigation team during mission operations.
JASON 1 MISSION STATUS January 11, 2002 The joint NASA/French Space Agency oceanography satellite Jason 1 has reached its operational orbit and begun six months of instrument calibrations with its sister spacecraft, Topex/Poseidon.
Mission flight controllers at France's Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales' (CNES) Satellite Control Center, Toulouse, France, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., yesterday commanded Jason 1 to fire its thrusters and lower itself into its operational orbit of 1,337 kilometers (830 miles). Jason 1 is now approximately one minute (approximately 370 kilometers or 230 miles) ahead of the Topex/Poseidon satellite, on an identical ground track.
Launched December 7, 2001 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., Jason 1 was initially inserted into a 1,327 kilometer (823 mile) orbit 10 kilometers (6 miles) below Topex/Poseidon. A series of thruster maneuvers over the past five weeks gradually placed Jason 1 into its current orbit.
Checkout of the spacecraft and its instrument payload is now complete. All instrument and spacecraft functions and the operations systems at the French space agency and JPL are functioning nominally.
"Jason 1 has begun observations of the same spot of the ocean surface as Topex/Poseidon under nearly identical conditions," said Dr. Lee-Lueng Fu, Jason 1 project scientist at JPL. "These unprecedented observations will allow mission scientists to calibrate and validate the new measurements from Jason 1 with those of Topex/Poseidon. The combined data records will enable us to study long-term changes in the ocean and their effects on climate." Following completion of the calibration phase, plans are for Topex/Poseidon to be placed in a parallel ground track orbit midway between two adjacent Jason 1 ground tracks. The paired spacecraft operations are expected to produce observations with higher resolution than either satellite could attain alone. This enhanced resolution will improve the detection of ocean eddies, coastal tides and currents and will have both scientific and practical applications.
The French space agency is expected to hand over routine spacecraft operations to JPL in April. JPL will control the satellite and its instruments for the remainder of the mission, expected to last three years. The French control center will continue to monitor the satellite, perform navigation functions and conduct performance analyses.
Jason 1 will continue Topex/Poseidon's observations of ocean surface topography for monitoring world ocean circulation, studying interactions of the oceans and atmosphere, improving climate predictions and observing events like El Nino.
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the U.S. portion of the mission for NASA's Office of Earth Science, Washington, D.C.
January 11, 2001
NASA AIMS TO BRIDGE THE SCIENCE GAP AMONG YOUNG WOMEN
Only 22 percent of all American scientists are female, and women make up only 9 percent of engineers. Studies show that the interest girls have in math and science equals that of boys in elementary school but declines sharply by the time girls leave middle school.
A panel of six female scientists and engineers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., will try to narrow this gap on Sunday, Jan. 13 during a live broadcast and webcast. The women will discuss the paths they pursued and the challenges they faced to achieve science-related careers. Approximately 100 middle school and high school-aged girls will take part in the discussion, and others nationwide are invited to join in remotely.
This talk-show-formatted session was born as a way to connect the scientists and engineers at JPL with girls in the Techbridge program at the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland, Calif. The webcast soon evolved into a far-reaching effort extending to local students and the public.
"We realize that this science gap exists all over the country and for that matter, the world," said Stephenie Lievense of the Mars Public Outreach team at JPL. "We want girls to see all the opportunities that are available to them. One way to do that is to provide them with access to these role models. Girls are sincerely interested in technology, but often have little or no access to female scientists and engineers."
"This event gives me an opportunity to show these girls that engineers are more than the pocket-protector, calculator-carrying individuals depicted on screen; that nerd is a good term, and that science, though challenging, is fulfilling," said Dr. Ayanna Howard, robotics research engineer at JPL.
The issue of encouraging more young women to enter the science and engineering fields is getting wider attention. The current issue of the Girl Scouts of America "Leader" magazine devotes its entire issue to girls and technology. In that issue, three JPL women speak about what influenced them to pursue a career with NASA.
The public is invited to watch the event on NASA Television or on the Web during a live broadcast and webcast on Sunday, Jan. 13, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time (8:30 to 9:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time).
The webcast can be accessed at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/webcast/womeninscience.html. Many cable providers carry NASA TV. For NASA Television schedule information, see http://www.nasa.gov/ntv/breaking.html.
The session will be moderated, with questions taken in advance from the public on the JPL homepage at www.jpl.nasa.gov and that day from a live audience in JPL's von Karman Auditorium. Students at the Chabot Space and Science Center's Techbridge program will also ask questions remotely on the phone. Two students from the program will be present in the auditorium to ask questions on behalf of their fellow classmates.
The Techbridge program goal is to increase the girls' confidence in using technology and to spark creative problem solving. The JPL Mars Public Engagement and Technology Outreach teams provided funding for this event. The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA. JPL is the lead U.S. center for robotic exploration of the solar system.
SPACE SURVEY YIELDS NEW INFO ON CALIFORNIA'S LANDSCAPE, QUAKES A space-based survey by a research team from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and Rice University, Houston, Texas, offers new insights into the history of central California's varied topography and the region's earthquake hazards.
Using several years of data from precise space-based surveying methods such as the Global Positioning System, researchers Dr. Donald Argus of JPL and Dr. Richard Gordon of Rice University found a strong correlation between the degree to which the Pacific tectonic plate and its adjacent Sierran microplate push against one another (converge) or pull apart from one another (diverge) and the height, extent and age of California's coastal mountains. Their results were published recently in the Geological Society of America Bulletin and were featured as a recent "Editor's Choice" in Science.
"This precise positioning data is allowing us to better understand why central California's coastal mountains are where they are and where they're growing," Argus said.
Much of coastal California rides on the Pacific plate, while the Sierran plate serves as a buffer zone of sorts for the North American plate, which carries the rest of the continental United States.
North of the 'big bend' in the San Andreas fault, the relative motion of the Pacific and Sierran plates in central California nearly parallels the San Andreas and related faults. In most places, the plates are converging at rates up to 3.3 millimeters (.13 inches) per year, horizontally shortening Earth's crust across the fault and raising California's coastal mountains.
"We found the greater the rate of convergence, the larger the size and extent of the mountains," said Argus.
The affected mountains include the Temblor and Diablo Ranges, those on the west flank of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley, others near the San Andreas fault system and those strictly near the coast. These ranges block drainage of the watershed comprising the Sierra Nevada and great central valley of California into the Pacific Ocean. In contrast, he and Gordon found that just north of San Francisco, the Pacific and Sierran plates are slowly pulling apart at a rate of 2.6 millimeters (.1 inches) per year, opening a hole manifested as a topographic low in San Pablo Bay. Here, rivers originating in the Sierra Nevada mountains drain through the coastal mountains on their way to passage under the Golden Gate Bridge and out into the Pacific.
Argus and Gordon's study also addresses overall earthquake hazards in the region. They calculated the lateral rate of motion between the Pacific and Sierran plates at approximately 39 millimeters (about 1.5 inches) per year. This rate differs significantly from a previous estimate of 34 millimeters (about 1.3 inches) per year obtained by measuring and dating creek displacements across the San Andreas fault. The scientists attributed this difference to inelastic deformation, slip along other faults or both. These observations limit the total amount of strain that may be released in earthquakes along the fault system, Argus said.
The researchers also found a general relationship between the degree of convergence and the degree of stable sliding along the San Andreas and other northwest-striking strike-slip faults in central California. Where convergence rates are low or negative, sliding tends to be stable, manifesting itself as steady "creep" or small to moderate earthquakes; where convergence rates are high, the faults tend to be unstable, resulting in great earthquakes such as the 1906 San Francisco quake. In most cases, the stable fault sections move parallel to the direction of relative plate motion.
Argus and Gordon found prominent exceptions to this rule, however, that make their hypothesis at best a partial explanation for the observed distribution of locked and nonlocked fault sections. They speculate that other unknown factors are at work in these areas.
Based upon present rates of fault convergence and neglecting the effects of erosion, the two calculated the age of California's coastal ranges to be at least 3 to 6 million years, with the Diablo Range estimated at approximately 10 million years old. Most previous age estimates range from 1 to 3 million years. This research was funded as part of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, a long-term research effort dedicated to understanding how human-induced and natural changes affect our global environment.
ESA's new camera will revolutionise the way astronomers observe the Universe
Scientists at the European Space Agency have developed a new camera that is poised to revolutionise the way astronomers observe the Universe. Called S-Cam, the new device's capabilities read like an astronomer's wish list. From now on, astronomers will know almost everything about starlight from one simple observation.
Read more about this at: http://sci.esa.int/content/news/index.cfm?aid=1&cid=1&oid=29220
In Search of E.T.'s Breath
Astronomers are discovering new worlds outside our solar system at a dizzying pace. Do any of them harbor alien life? No one knows, yet... But advanced telescopes might soon reveal the telltale signs of E.T.'s breath.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/10jan_exo-atmospheres.htm?list448368
EXPEDITION FOUR SPACEWALK LIVE COVERAGE ON NASA TV JAN. 14
The first spacewalk planned for the Expedition Four crew aboard the International Space Station will be covered on NASA Television, with commentary beginning at 3:30 p.m. EST Monday, Jan. 14.
Russian Commander Yury Onufrienko and American Flight Engineer Carl Walz will exit the Pirs Docking Compartment at approximately 3:50 p.m. EST for a scheduled six-hour spacewalk, or Extravehicular Activity (EVA). The two will move a Russian cargo crane to the Zarya module of the complex for future assembly work. American Flight Engineer Dan Bursch will operate the Canadarm2 robotic arm from inside the space station and act as spacewalk choreographer.
Up to three more spacewalks are planned during the five-month Expedition Four mission. The next is scheduled for Jan. 25 by Onufrienko and Bursch to continue the external outfitting of the Zvezda Service Module.
NASA TV is available on GE-2, Transponder 9C at 85 degrees West longitude, vertical polarization, with a frequency of 3880 MHz, and audio of 6.8 MHz.
Additional information about the International Space Station and Expedition Four is available on the Internet at: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov
ICE EXPLORER CONCEIVED FOR OTHER WORLDS GETS ARCTIC TEST
Robots that melt their way through ice may one day explore below frozen surfaces of other worlds, based on a pioneering version that successfully bored into an Arctic glacier in an adventurous field test. NASA teamed with the Norwegian Polar Institute and Norwegian Space Center to use the ice-penetrating robot, or Cryobot, for the first time on a glacier on the island of Spitsbergen, far above the Arctic Circle in the Norwegian- administered international territory of Svalbad. Researchers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology coped with fading daylight, frequent snow and severe cold while camping on the Longyearbreen glacier for more than a week. Migrating polar bears were also a concern, particularly during the team's late-night and early-morning vigils of the warm-nosed robot probe. Despite these obstacles, the test was completed, with the probe successfully melting down 23 meters (75 feet) into the glacier. "The test showed the design has viability. It established a bold foothold for opening up new, below-the-surface environments for scientific study," said Lloyd French, Cryobot task manager at JPL. "In exploring outer planets, we have observed from two environments: space orbits and planet surfaces. Now we have a potential third: subsurface."
The Cryobot began at JPL as a concept for examining what's under the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa. NASA's Galileo spacecraft, orbiting Jupiter since 1995, has accumulated strong evidence that Europa has a deep saltwater ocean below the ice, making that moon a prime target for studies of possible extraterrestrial life.
"In developing ideas for exploring Europa, we realized the same technology could be applied to icy environments elsewhere -- ice on Earth, the polar icecaps on Mars," French said.
"There's never been a probe before that does what this one can," said Wayne Zimmerman, lead engineer for the task. Earlier probes were much larger, required more power, did not carry a full navigation and control system, could not manage sediment buildup in front of the probe, and had limited science-payload capacity."
The first prototype of the Cryobot is a cylinder about 1 meter (3.3 feet) long and 12 centimeters (5 inches) in diameter. Heated water at the downward end melts ice, and gravity provides the propulsion. Instruments such as a camera and chemical sensor ride aboard to study the deep layers without the need to hoist a core to the surface. A tether behind the vehicle provides an electronic link to the onboard instruments and carries electricity from the surface to supply heat in the Cryobot.
On deeper descents, ice would be allowed to refreeze behind the robot, but in the first field tests, the borehole was reopened for retrieving the equipment.
"By no means is Earth merely a testing ground for Europa and Mars, said JPL's Dr. Frank Carsey, Cryobot task scientist. There are many interesting environments on Earth where a Cryobot could be the best technology for conducting safe and effective scientific studies."
For exploring lakes that lie under permanent ice, a Cryobot would have an advantage over rotary drilling or hot- water drilling, which leave a hole open. Allowing ice to refreeze behind the descending Cryobot would minimize contamination of the lake, Carsey said. Antarctica has at least 70 lakes under ice, including Earth's fourth-largest lake, Lake Vostok.
Choosing the Longyearbreen glacier for the first Cryobot field test took advantage of the Norwegian Polar Institute's research infrastructure and logistical support in Svalbard.
"In the past, the United States and Norway participated in a global race for the North Pole on Earth. Now, with the help of the Norwegian Polar Institute and Norwegian Space Center, we're cooperating on a possible way to explore another north pole, on Mars," said French.
A mission proposal called Cryoscout will compete with other Mars Scout proposals to be chosen by NASA for a 2007 launch to Mars. Cryoscout is one of 10 Mars Scout concepts selected last year for further study. It proposes using a Cryobot to descend through Mars' polar ice cap.
"If you want to learn about the climate history of Mars, which is important in the search for life, you want to examine the layers of the polar caps, and this is how you can do it," said Scott Anderson, a geophysicist on the Cryobot field-test team.
Work also continues on developing plans for how a Cryobot could be used on icy worlds such as Europa or Titan, though NASA has no specific plans at this point for landing a spacecraft on either. A Europa Orbiter mission is under development at JPL with a launch target of 2008.
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages Cryobot development for the NASA Office of Aero-Space Technology's Cross-Enterprise Technology Program, NASA Office of Space Science and NASA Office of Earth Science, in Washington, D.C.
A New Year message from the Director of the Science Programme of ESA
10-Jan-2002 Dear Colleagues,
The year 2001 has been a transition year in the real meaning of the word. There were no launches this year. However four missions (INTEGRAL, Rosetta, SMART-1, Mars Express) are currently being prepared and will be launched within the next 18 months. The industrial contract for Herschel-Planck was signed. At the same time we started preparatory work on several missions selected in late 2000, Gaia, Solar Orbiter, BepiColombo, NGST, LISA and Eddington, as well as a crash exercise to look at a re-use of the Mars Express bus, (Venus Express).
It is probably the impact of the other 'transitions' which took place this year that will be remembered most in the years to come. The most momentous transition was the departure of Professor Roger M. Bonnet, who on 30 April 2001 left the post of Director of the Science Programme, which he occupied since 1983. I took over from Roger Bonnet on May 1st. His achievements do not need to be repeated here and the gratitude of the entire European space science community and the staff of the Science Programme for his legacy was very clear when he left. He created the concept of a long-term programme and the resulting consensus within the space science community, that are now seen as the norm.
A second transition has been a re-organisation of the Space Science Department at ESTEC. This re-organisation, initiated by Professor Bonnet, has been completed in the last six months. The new department is now called the Research and Scientific Support Department (RSSD). The Department is to be seen to be at the service of the European space science community, throughout development (through provision of study and project scientists) and after launch, in the field of science operations.
However it will also undertake a new role in assisting in the early development of payloads. The latter task is particularly important. The complexity and cost of payloads is increasing and the Executive is receiving more and more warnings from ESA Delegations that the cost of payloads has become unbearable. Nevertheless, we wish to keep instrument development in the space community as much as we can. Accordingly the Science Programme, besides implementing measures aimed at decreasing the cost of instruments by providing common subsystems and displacing the spacecraft-payload interface in a direction favourable to the instrument, has now set up the Science Payload Technology Division within RSSD, and to coordinate with national programmes, the Science Payload Technology Consultative Group.
The third transition results from the decision endorsed at the Science Programme Committee (SPC) in December to move to a planning to match closer reduced expectations of future financial resources, based on the decisions taken at the Council meeting at Ministerial level in Edinburgh (November 2001). Clearly, the previously published plan which the scientific community cherished, as both balanced and timely, offering a mix of flagship missions and smaller, flexible missions, cannot be implemented. The drafting of a realistic plan will occupy the first half of the coming year and will involve the scientific community of Europe through the full advisory structure, enlarged if appropriate, as well as the Science Programme Committee. Some guidelines can be seen now: launched missions will have to be extended as long as possible, international collaboration will have to be promoted, re-use of platforms will have to be pushed.
European space science flagships (cornerstones) are going to be difficult to sustain if the economic constraints continue. Because of this, I have indicated publicly that I felt that the Science Programme would be moving "off the gold standard".
European space industry has also to be challenged in the next few months to see what part they can play. The stability and long term planning of the programme is something that works to industry's advantage and gives them the opportunity to make their own long-term planning. Moreover, the technical demands of the science programme both allow the honing of skills and, most importantly, developing new ones. With the help of the Directorate of Industrial Matters and Technology (D/IMT), we shall be looking with industry large and small to see if there are ways we can improve the technological investment and procurement procedures of the programme to everyone's benefit.
I am taking the new situation as a challenge. At the same time you can rest assured that I will strive to engage all those interested across Europe to work together to plan a new Science Programme which will enable us to look with confidence and expectation into the future.
With my best wishes to all of you for a successful 2002.
David Southwood, Director of the Science Programme of ESA
ROBOTIC CONSTRUCTION CREW ROLLS UP ITS SLEEVES
The first construction workers on Mars may not need hardhats.
NASA researchers successfully demonstrated the first use of multiple rovers that work tightly in sync to perform tasks such as coordinated grasping, lifting and moving of an extended payload, while navigating through obstacles on natural terrain.
"The Robotic Work Crew behaves a lot like its human counterpart might during a home construction project. Consider the challenge two people face when transporting a long, heavy board through a busy worksite," said Dr. Paul Schenker, supervisor of the Mechanical and Robotics Technologies Group and principal investigator for the project at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
"Each person alone, or in this case each rover, has a variety of behaviors for how to carry smaller things," Schenker explained. "The trick is to combine such individual behaviors to safely carry and manipulate bigger things. The rovers must share the workload and thinking, exchange important sensory cues and quickly comply with each others' motions."
During outdoor tests near JPL, in which the deployment of a solar power station was simulated, two such cooperating rovers autonomously approached, gripped and carried a 2.5- meter (8-foot) long container over distances of more than 50 meters (164 feet).
The Robotic Work Crew can traverse uneven, hazardous terrain. The crew visually detects and tracks its goal, identifies nearby objects in its path, and works collectively to avoid obstacles in its path. Throughout this process, the robots constantly update each other about payload forces and motions as felt at their respective grippers. If the beam is slipping, the rovers collectively sense the problem and compensate.
New software called Control Architecture for Multi-robot Planetary Outposts is the shared brain that commands the team of rovers. "The two robots tightly coordinate their individual sensory and control behaviors in an uncertain, fast changing environment to accomplish a common goal," said Dr. Terry Huntsberger, project system engineer at JPL, who along with his colleague Dr. Paolo Pirjanian, led the development of the new control software.
"The robot team robustly fuses this information into a bigger picture, coming up with a best cooperative control solution," Huntsberger continued. "We can easily add new behaviors and additional robots to the system. New behaviors can be simple or more complex, with some behaviors building on top of numerous others already in place." The JPL researchers say the rovers function much like a construction crew without a foreman. They note that once the system has been programmed with basic behaviors and coordination models, it is a truly distributed and autonomous intelligence across the robot team that gets the job done, responding to situations of the minute.
"Mars is hundreds of millions of miles from earth; we can hardly predict every scenario the rovers may encounter or foresee every rock and hill," said Schenker. "But, it is possible to give two or more rovers a set of instinctively reactive behaviors, a shared network of sensing and control, and a democratic decision-making process that enables them to decide the best action strategies. Call it a case of robots networking for success."
Although work on the Robotic Work Crew is in the early stages, the underlying multi- robot cooperation technologies appear essential to building outposts for a sustained human and/or robotic presence on Mars and the creation of large surface science networks. The software and technical approach also has promise for future robotic assembly and maintenance of spacecraft in orbit, such as the deployment of large optical structures or power stations, as well as setting up camp on Mars before humans arrive and supporting their work thereafter.
Further information on the Robotic Work Crew is available at:
http://prl.jpl.nasa.gov/projects/rwc/rwc_index.html
NASA's Cross Enterprise Technology Development Program provided funding for this work. The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA. JPL is the lead U.S. center for robotic exploration of the solar system.
January 9, 2001
Expedition Four Science Operations Status Report for week ending Jan. 9, 2002
The Experiment on Physics of Colloids in Space began a record 120-hour test on Monday, January 7, in an effort to explore these novel particles with many common uses on Earth.
"The science team is re-examining the early stages of the crystallization of the AB-6 binary colloidal crystal alloy for a long consecutive amount of time to produce better data on its crystallization," said Mike Doherty, project manager of the colloids experiment at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. "We are looking at the crystallization process using higher resolution imaging in an attempt to unmask two different aspects of the light scattering from this sample."
A colloid is a system of fine particles. Common examples are paint, milk and ink, as well as copy machine toner, phosphors for computer screens, and anti-slip floor coatings. They are also used in manufacturing processes such as the polishing of silicon for computer chips. By using the low gravity environment of the Space Station to better understand their behavior, scientists hope to develop new materials and manufacturing processes on Earth.
Also on Monday, the Active Rack Isolation System ISS Characterization Experiment science team began a series of one-minute isolation tests with a new control program. ARIS is an experimental vibration dampening device designed to protect delicate microgravity experiments from accelerations caused by crew activity, operating equipment and other disturbances.
The crew completed checkout of equipment Monday for the Extravehicular Activity Radiation Monitoring (EVARM) experiment. Both the badge reader unit and the individual radiation badges, which will be placed in the cooling undergarments of the spacesuits checked out perfectly, and the data was downlinked to the ground. One of several radiation-monitoring experiments aboard the station, EVARM will be the first to measure radiation dosage encountered by the eyes, internal organs and skin during specific spacewalks. The first use of the radiation badges during a spacewalk will be during the 8A Space Shuttle mission to the Station. The principal investigator is Ian Thomson of Thomson & Nielsen Electronics, Ltd., Ottawa, Canada. It is managed by the Canadian Space Agency and NASA's Johnson Space Center.
Flight Engineers Carl Walz and Dan Bursch completed the first session of the Renal Stone experiment, including collection of urine over a 24-hour period and diet monitoring and logging. The experiment, managed by Johnson Space Center, is studying the risk of developing kidney stones during long-duration space flight, as well as testing a preventative drug.
Among the photography sites for the Crew Earth Observations science program this week are industrialized Southeastern Africa, lakes in the Sierra Nevadas and the Peruvian Andes, Patagonian glaciers, the Tuamotu Archipelago, biomass burning in Angola, snow and ice in the South Sandwich Islands, the Yangtze River delta, and the Eastern United States.
Untended operations monitored by science teams on the ground continue with a pair of protein crystal growth experiments, a suitcase-sized collection of materials attached to the outside of the space station and vibration-measuring experiments in the Destiny laboratory module.
On Monday, Jan. 7, Bursch removed the hard drive from the Payload MDM 2 and replaced it with a new memory card, carried to the Station on the UF-1 Space Shuttle mission in December 2001. Located in Avionics Rack 3 in the floor of the Destiny lab module, the MDM processes all ground commands to the payload racks and science experiments, as well as telemetry from racks and experiments to the ground. The Payload Operations Center at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center will be monitoring the performance of the memory card over the next four weeks.
"The new memory card is more radiation-hardened and has three times as much memory as the hard drive, so it gives us a more reliable, more flexible capability," Expedition Four Payload Operations Director Tim Horvath said.
Editor's Note: The Payload Operations Center at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages all science research experiment operations aboard the International Space Station. The center is also home for coordination of the mission-planning work of a variety of international sources, all science payload deliveries and retrieval, and payload training and payload safety programs for the Station crew and all ground personnel. _______
Status Report http://www1.msfc.nasa.gov/NEWSROOM/news/releases/2002/02-005.html
ISS Science Operations News http://www.scipoc.msfc.nasa.gov/
EXPPCS Fact Sheet http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/PAO/PAIS/fs12grc.htm
Expedition Four Fact Sheets http://www.scipoc.msfc.nasa.gov/factchron.html
Some intriguing new results from Chandra this week at the American Astronomical Society 's (AAS) 199th meeting in Washington DC: ===================================
** X-Ray Mosaic Of Galactic Center: Chandra Takes In The Bright Lights, Big City Of The Milky Way NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has made a stunning, high-energy panorama of the central regions of our Milky Way galaxy. The observations enabled astronomers to determine the nature of the hot gas that pervades the region and better understand how it enriches the galactic suburbs with heavy elements. < http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2002/gcenter/ >
** Abell 2597: Chandra Finds Ghosts Of Eruption In Galaxy Cluster "Ghostly" relics of an ancient eruption that tore through a cluster of galaxies have been found by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The discovery implies that galaxy clusters are the sites of enormously energetic and recurring explosions, and may provide an explanation why galaxy clusters behave like giant cosmic magnets. < http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2002/1269/ >
** X-ray Gas Associated With Galactic Center Radio Arc Chandra observations of a region of the Galactic Center have found an X-ray filament and cloud about 40 light years across. These X-ray features are associated with large filamentary and shell-like structures that are bright sources of radio waves. < http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2002/gradioarc/ >
** Operations CXO Status Report (Friday 01/04/02) Happy New Year from the Chandra Team! During the last two weeks the observing schedule was interrupted once following a high radiation event at 1:30am EST on Dec 26 that stopped the daily load and activated the science instrument safing sequence (SCS 107). All actions were nominal and radiation levels dropped sufficiently to allow the loads to be restarted at 6pm on Dec 27. Observations of Beta Ceti, G78.2+2.1, CYG X-1, A168 were impacted by the event and will be rescheduled in a later load. < http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/updates/update_010402.html >
++ Scale & Distance Calculate the distance for two points on the sky at the same distance from Earth with our interactive calculator. < http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/scale_distance.html >
DEATH OF BURT EDELSON HIGHLIGHTS HIS NASA LEGACY
More than 15 years after he left NASA, the late Dr. Burt Edelson's legacy can still be seen in NASA's Space Science and Earth Science programs.
Dr. Edelson passed away January 6 in New York City, where he was visiting family and friends. He was 75.
Between 1982 and 1986, he was NASA's Associate Administrator for Space Science and Applications. Soon after arriving, he approved the program that would provide for the development of new instruments for the Hubble Space Telescope.
"He had the vision and foresight to know that Hubble had to be maintained and upgraded," said Dr. Edward Weiler, Associate Administrator for Space Science, who was the Hubble program scientist in the 1980s. "He allowed us to start development of the second Wide-Field/Planetary Camera, which was installed during the first Hubble servicing mission and became the telescope's workhorse scientific instrument."
Coincidentally, on January 8, only two days after Dr. Edelson's death, a NASA Space Science Update unveiled the latest findings from the camera: evidence that a substantial portion of the stars in the universe formed relatively quickly after the big bang.
Dr. Edelson's influence can also be seen in NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, which grew out of Mission to Planet Earth, a program originally proposed in 1986 and formalized in the late 1980s.
"Burt Edelson sponsored the concepts that became Mission to Planet Earth, though it didn't become a program until after he had left NASA," said Dr. Ghassem Asrar, Associate Administrator for Earth Science.
Dr. Edelson was a long-time advocate of the Landsat program and other applications of remote sensing research, said Dr. Asrar, and spent much of his professional life working for improvements in telecommunications satellite technology. He sponsored the development of NASA's Advanced Communications Technology Satellite, which was launched in 1993.
A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Class of 1947, he went on to receive his M.S. and Ph. D. degrees from Yale University in Metallurgy as part of his military service.
He was assigned to the Naval Research Laboratory in the mid- 1950s, where he started a series of distinguished space applications projects in navigation and positioning and in 1959 started the U.S. Navy program in satellite communications. Commander Edelson was assigned from 1962-65 to the new White House National Space Council. Upon his retirement from the Navy in 1967, he joined Comsat Corp. as the Deputy Director of the fledgling Comsat Laboratories. He became its Director in 1972.
Dr. Edelson provided the vision and leadership for a large number of new satellite communications components, systems and applications, including the development of small ground and ship terminals, space teleports, and geostationary platforms. Dr. Edelson retired from Comsat as a Senior Vice President in 1982. He retired from NASA in 1986 and became a Fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced and International Studies, in Washington.
His desire to have a satellite communications R&D center with engineering capability resulted in his 1991 founding of the Institute for Applied Space Research at the School of Engineering and Applied Science of the George Washington University in Washington. He remained active directing R&D projects, primarily in high data-rate satellite communications, until his death.
Dr. Edelson co-authored a number of books on satellite communications and had over 75 technical publications. He chaired national and international committees on science and engineering and served on the Boards of a number of emerging companies. He always emphasized the global nature of space and co-founded a number of international space programs including the Japan-U.S. Science Technology and Space Applications Program. He was a Member of the International Academy of Astronautics, a Life Fellow of the IEEE, and a Fellow of the AIAA, the AAAS and the British Interplanetary Society. He was a Member of the Cosmos and Army-Navy Club. He received numerous awards including the U.S. Navy Legion of Merit, the Yale University Wilbur Cross Medal, the NASA Exceptional Service Medal and the SSPI Hall of Fame Award.
He is survived by his beloved wife of 49 years, Betty Good Edelson; his sons Stephen, John and Daniel and their wives Margaret, Catherine and Vivian; and his grandchildren Rachel, Kate, David, Rose and William.
NASA researchers have successfully demonstrated the first use of multiple rovers that work tightly in sync to perform tasks such as coordinated grasping, lifting and moving of an extended payload, while navigating through obstacles on natural terrain.
"The Robotic Work Crew behaves a lot like its human counterpart might during a home construction project. Consider the challenge two people face when transporting a long, heavy board through a busy work site," said Paul Schenker, supervisor of the Mechanical and Robotics Technologies Group and principal investigator for the project at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif.
"Each person alone, or in this case each rover, has a variety of behaviors for how to carry smaller things," Schenker explained. "The trick is to combine such individual behaviors to safely carry and manipulate bigger things. The rovers must share the workload and thinking, exchange important sensory cues and quickly comply with each other's motions."
During outdoor tests near JPL, in which the deployment of a solar power station was simulated, two such cooperating rovers autonomously approached, gripped and carried a 2.5-meter- (8- foot-) long container over distances of more than 50 meters (164 feet).
The Robotic Work Crew can traverse uneven, hazardous terrain. The crew visually detects and tracks its goal, identifies nearby objects in its path and works collectively to avoid obstacles. Throughout this process, the robots constantly update each other about payload forces and motions as felt at their respective grippers. If the beam is slipping, the rovers collectively sense the problem and compensate.
New software called Control Architecture for Multi-robot Planetary Outposts is the shared brain that commands the team of rovers. "The two robots tightly coordinate their individual sensory and control behaviors in an uncertain, fast-changing environment to accomplish a common goal," said Terry Huntsberger, project system engineer at JPL, who along with his colleague Paolo Pirjanian, led the development of the new control software.
"The robot team robustly fuses this information into a bigger picture, coming up with a best cooperative control solution," Huntsberger continued. "We can easily add new behaviors and additional robots to the system. New behaviors can be simple, or more complex, with some behaviors building on top of numerous others already in place."
The JPL researchers say the rovers function much like a construction crew without a foreman. They note that once the system has been programmed with basic behaviors and coordination models, it is a truly distributed and autonomous intelligence across the robot team that gets the job done, responding to situations of the minute.
"Mars is hundreds of millions of miles from Earth; we can hardly predict every scenario the rovers may encounter or foresee every rock and hill," said Schenker. "But, it is possible to give two or more rovers a set of instinctively reactive behaviors, a shared network of sensing and control, and a democratic decision-making process that enables them to decide the best action strategies. Call it a case of robots networking for success," he said.
Although work on the Robotic Work Crew is in the early stages, the underlying multi-robot cooperation technologies appear essential to building outposts for a sustained human and/or robotic presence on Mars and the creation of large surface- science networks. The software and technical approach also has promise for future robotic assembly and maintenance of spacecraft in orbit, such as the deployment of large optical structures or power stations, as well as setting up camp on Mars before humans arrive and supporting their work thereafter.
CHANDRA TAKES IN BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CITY OF MILKY WAY
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has made a stunning, high-energy panorama of the central regions of our Milky Way galaxy. The findings are an important step toward understanding the most active area of the Milky Way as well as other galaxies throughout the universe.
Like a sprawling megalopolis, the new Chandra images show hundreds of white dwarf stars, neutron stars and black holes bathed in an incandescent fog of multimillion-degree gas around a supermassive black hole.
"The center of the galaxy is where the action is," said Q. Daniel Wang of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. "With these images, we get a new perspective of the interplay between stars, gas and dust, as well as the magnetic fields and gravity in the region. We can see how such forces affect the immediate vicinity and may influence other aspects of the galaxy."
Wang presented the montage of 30 separate Chandra images today at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington, and in a paper published in the Jan. 10, 2002, issue of the journal Nature. The images, made with the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS) July 16-21, 2001, covered a 400- by 900-light-year swath of the center of the galaxy.
One immediate result was that the team could separate out the individual X-ray sources from the diffuse glow produced by hot gas. "We can now see that the sources are responsible for most of the X-rays from highly ionized iron previously attributed to the diffuse glow," said Eric Gotthelf, of Columbia University in New York, a co-author. "So we must now revise our notion of the hot gas, which appears to be about 10 times cooler than previously thought. It's only a relatively mild 10 million degrees!"
The diffuse X-ray emission seems to be related to the turmoil and density of matter in the inner Milky Way. Stars are forming there at a much more rapid rate than in the galactic "suburbs." Many of the most massive stars in the galaxy are located in the galactic center and are furiously boiling off their outer layers in searing stellar winds. Supernova explosions are far more common in the region and send shock waves booming through the inner galaxy.
And then there is the three-million-solar-mass black hole at the epicenter. Although Chandra recently observed a small flare from the vicinity of the central supermassive black hole, the power output near the black hole remains relatively low.
However, an unexplained fluorescence of iron atoms, observed by the team to be associated with molecular clouds a few hundred light-years away, may indicate that the supermassive black hole was hundreds of times brighter in the past. Alternatively, the fluorescence could be due to high-energy particles called cosmic rays produced by supernovae or bygone eruptions from the supermassive black hole.
"The galactic center is dominated by very high pressures due to the hot gas component and the strong magnetic fields," said Cordelia Lang, also of the University of Massachusetts, and a co-author. "It's a nice place to visit with a telescope but I wouldn't want to live there."
The Chandra map shows that the high-pressure and high- temperature gas is apparently escaping from the center into the halo of the galaxy. "A galaxy is a sort of ecosystem, and the activity in the center can seriously affect the evolution of the galaxy as a whole," said Wang. "Astronomically, the center of the Milky Way is really in our backyard, and, therefore, provides an excellent laboratory to learn about the cores of other galaxies."
The ACIS instrument was developed for NASA by Pennsylvania State University, University Park, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program, and TRW, Inc., Redondo Beach, Calif., is the prime contractor. The Smithsonian's Chandra X-ray Center controls science and flight operations from Cambridge, Mass.
More information on Chandra and images associated with this release are available at: http://chandra.harvard.edu and http://chandra.nasa.gov
SUN IS MOSTLY IRON, NOT HYDROGEN, PROFESSOR SAYS
ROLLA, Mo. -- For years, scientists have assumed that the sun is an enormous mass of hydrogen. But in a paper to be presented Thursday, Jan. 10, at the American Astronomical Society's meeting in Washington, D.C., Dr. Oliver Manuel says iron, not hydrogen, is the sun's most abundant element.
Manuel, a professor of nuclear chemistry at the University of Missouri- Rolla, claims that hydrogen fusion creates some of the sun's heat, as hydrogen -- the lightest of all elements -- moves to the sun's surface. But most of the heat comes from the core of an exploded supernova that continues to generate energy within the iron-rich interior of the sun, Manuel says.
"We think that the solar system came from a single star, and the sun formed on a collapsed supernova core," Manuel says. "The inner planets are made mostly of matter produced in the inner part of that star, and the outer planets of material form the outer layers of that star."
Manuel will present his the evidence for his assertion in his paper, "The Origin of the Solar System with an Iron-rich Sun," at 10 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 10, at the AAS' 199th annual meeting at the Hilton Washington and Towers in Washington, D.C. In addition, Cynthia Bolon, a UMR graduate student in chemistry who has studied with Manuel, will present related research in her paper, "Repulsion and Attraction between Nucleons: Sources of Energy for an Iron-rich Sun and for First Generation Stars," following Manuel's presentation.
Manuel says the solar system was born catastrophically out of a supernova -- a theory that goes against the widely-held belief among astrophysicists that the sun and planets were formed 4.5 billion years ago in a relatively ambiguous cloud of interstellar dust.
Iron and the heavy element known as xenon are at the center of Manuel's efforts to change the way people think about the solar system's origins.
Manuel believes a supernova rocked our area of the Milky Way galaxy some five billion years ago, giving birth to all the heavenly bodies that populate the solar system. Analyses of meteorites reveal that all primordial helium is accompanied by "strange xenon," he says, adding that both helium and strange xenon came from the outer layer of the supernova that created the solar system. Helium and strange xenon are also seen together in Jupiter.
Manuel has spent the better part of his 40-year scientific career trying to convince others of his hypothesis. Back in 1975, Manuel and another UMR researcher, Dr. Dwarka Das Sabu, first proposed that the solar system formed from the debris of a spinning star that exploded as a supernova. They based their claim on studies of meteorites and moon samples which showed traces of strange xenon.
Data from NASA's Galileo probe of Jupiter's helium-rich atmosphere in 1996 reveals traces of strange xenon gases -- solid evidence against the conventional model of the solar system's creation, Manuel says.
Manuel first began to develop the iron-rich sun theory in 1972. That year, Manual and his colleagues reported in the British journal Nature that the xenon found in primitive meteorites was a mixture of strange and normal xenon (Nature 240, 99-101).
The strange xenon is enriched in isotopes that are made when a supernova explodes, the researchers reported, and could not be produced within meteorites.
Three years later, Manuel and Sabu found that all of the primordial helium in meteorites is trapped in the same sites that trapped strange xenon. Based on these findings, they concluded that the solar system formed directly from the debris of a single supernova, and the sun formed on the supernova's collapsed core. Giant planets like Jupiter grew from material in the outer part of the supernova, while Earth and the inner planets formed out of material form the supernova's interior.
This is why the outer planets consist mostly of hydrogen, helium and other light elements, and the inner planets are made of heavier elements like iron, sulfur and silicon, Manuel says.
Strange xenon came from the helium-rich outer layers of the supernova, while normal xenon came from its interior. There was no helium in the interior because nuclear fusion reactions there changed the helium into the heavier elements, Manuel says.
More information is available on the Web at http://www.umr.edu/~om/summary/evidence_fe_sun.html
Information about the American Astronomical Society is available on the Web at http://www.aas.org/
HUBBLE SUGGESTS FIRST STARS OPENED IN A BLAZE OF GLORY
The deepest views of the cosmos from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope yield clues that the very first stars may have burst into the universe as brilliantly and spectacularly as a fireworks finale. In this case though the finale came first, long before Earth, the Sun and the Milky Way Galaxy formed.
If this interpretation is correct, it offers a tantalizing possibility that astronomers may behold this stellar blaze of glory when they use NASA's Next Generation Space Telescope and other future space telescopes to probe even farther into the very early universe.
Studies of Hubble's deepest views of the heavens by Kenneth M. Lanzetta of the State University of New York at Stony Brook and colleagues lead to the preliminary conclusion that the universe made a significant portion of its stars in a torrential firestorm of star birth, which abruptly lit up the pitch-dark heavens just a few hundred million years after the big bang. Though stars continue to be born today in galaxies, the star birthrate could be a trickle compared to the predicted gusher of stars in those opulent early years.
This new idea of a continually escalating rate of star birth the farther Hubble looks back in time offers a dramatic revision of previous Hubble Deep Field studies that proposed that the star birthrate in the early universe ramped up to a "baby boom" about halfway back to the beginning of the universe.
"If this can be verified it will dramatically change our understanding of the universe," said Dr. Anne Kinney, director of the Astronomy and Physics division at NASA Headquarters, Washington. "Because stars are the building blocks of galaxies and the birthplace of solar systems, proving that countless numbers of stars began forming so early after the birth of the universe could cause us to rethink a lot of our theories."
Lanzetta bases his conclusion on a new analysis of galaxies in the Hubble deep fields taken near the north and south celestial poles (in 1995 and 1998 respectively). He reports in an upcoming issue of the Astrophysical Journal that the farthest objects in the deep fields are only the "tip of the iceberg" of an effervescent period of star birth that is unlike anything the universe will ever see again. Lanzetta concludes that 90 percent of the light from the early universe is missing in the Hubble deep fields. "The previous census of the deep fields missed most of the ultraviolet light in the universe; most of it is invisible," he says.
Based on an analysis of galaxy colors, Lanzetta concludes that the farthest objects in the deep fields must be extremely intense, unexpectedly bright knots of blue-white, hot newborn stars embedded in primordial galaxies that are too faint to be seen even by Hubble's far vision. It's like seeing only the lights on a distant Christmas tree and inferring the presence of the whole tree.
Likewise, Lanzetta deduced the total population of stars in the early universe based on observing only the brightest stars with the Hubble telescope. Because such far extrapolations are built on certain assumptions, this conclusion will require further analysis and observation.
Lanzetta next plans to use Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys, to be installed in early 2002, to look even deeper into the universe to try to directly verify some portion of the missing light. He will also look for very distant supernovae as an alternate measure of star formation. "Because they are point sources of light, supernovae are not subject to the same cosmological brightness-dimming effects like galaxies (which are extended sources of light)," says Lanzetta.
The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. operates the Space Telescope Science Institute for NASA, under contract with the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international co-operation between NASA and the European Space Agency.
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/2002/02
http://hubble.stsci.edu/go/news
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/latest.html
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pictures.html
SOHO's private view of a sunbathing comet
You could see it easily with your unaided eye (but don't try!) if only Comet Machholz 1 were not so very close to the Sun. This unusual comet, reputed to flare up a lot, is today sweltering only 18 million kilometres from the Sun. This is its closest approach on an orbit that brings it back to the solar vicinity every 63 months. The best and perhaps the only view of it at this time comes from the ESA-NASA sunwatching spacecraft SOHO.
Read more at: http://sci.esa.int/content/news/index.cfm?aid=1&cid=1&oid=29213
CHANDRA FINDS GHOSTS OF ERUPTION IN GALAXY CLUSTER
"Ghostly" relics of an ancient eruption that tore through a cluster of galaxies were recently uncovered by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The discovery implies that galaxy clusters are the sites of enormously energetic and recurring explosions, and may provide an explanation why galaxy clusters behave like giant cosmic magnets.
"Chandra's image revealed vast regions in the galaxy cluster Abell 2597 that contain almost no X-ray or radio emission. We call them ghost cavities," said Brian McNamara of Ohio University in Athens today during a press conference at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington. "They appear to be remnants of an old explosion where the radio emission has faded away over millions of years."
The ghost cavities were likely created by extremely powerful explosions, due to material falling toward a black hole millions of times more massive than the Sun. As the matter swirled around the black hole, located in a galaxy near the center of the cluster, it generated enormous electromagnetic fields that expelled material from the vicinity of the black hole at high speeds.
This explosive activity in Abell 2597 created jets of highly energetic particles that cleared out voids in the hot gas. Because they are lighter than the surrounding material, the cavities will eventually push their way to the edge of the cluster, just as air bubbles in water make their way to the surface.
Researchers also found evidence that this explosion was not a one-time event. "We detected a small, bright radio source near the center of the cluster that indicates a new explosion has occurred recently," said team member Michael Wise of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, "so the cycle of eruption is apparently continuing."
Though dim, the ghost cavities are not completely empty. They contain a mixture of very hot gas, high-energy particles and magnetic fields -- otherwise the cavities would have collapsed under the pressure of the surrounding hot gas.
"Ghost cavities may be the vessels that transport magnetic fields generated in a disk surrounding a giant black hole to the cluster gas that is spread over a region a billion times larger," said McNamara. If dozens of these cavities were created over the life of the cluster, they could explain the surprisingly strong magnetic field of the multimillion-degree gas that pervades the cluster.
Galaxy clusters are the largest known gravitationally bound structures in the universe. Hundreds of galaxies swarm in giant reservoirs of multimillion-degree gas that radiates most of its energy in X-rays. Over the course of billions of years some of the gas should cool and sink toward a galaxy in the center of the cluster where it could trigger an outburst in the vicinity of the central massive black hole.
Chandra observed Abell 2597 on July 28, 2000,for 40,000 seconds with the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS) instrument. Pennsylvania State University, University Park, and MIT developed the instrument for NASA. In addition to a group of astronomers from the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, and the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, the team included: Paul Nulsen, University of Wollagong, Australia; Larry David, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass.; Chris Carilli, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Socorro, N.M.; and Craig Sarazin, University of Virginia.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program, and TRW, Inc., Redondo Beach, Calif., is the prime contractor for the spacecraft. The Smithsonian's Chandra X-ray Center controls science and flight operations from Cambridge, Mass.
Images associated with this release are available at:
http://chandra.harvard.edu
and
http://chandra.nasa.gov
January 8, 2002
The Edge of Sunshine
Solar energy is an abundant source of power for spacecraft navigating the inner solar system. But how far away from our star can photovoltaics work?
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/08jan_sunshine.htm?list448368 January 7, 2002
Photo credit: Adam Contos, W. M. Keck Observatory WORLD'S LARGEST TELESCOPE CREATES A VIRTUAL STAR OVER HAWAII Brings Astronomers Closer to Unveiling the Entire Sky with Adaptive Optics
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii - The W. M. Keck Observatory, home to the world's two largest telescopes, and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have created a "virtual" guide star that will greatly increase the ability of the Keck II telescope using adaptive optics to resolve fine details of astronomical objects. Installed in 1999, the Keck adaptive optics system has enabled astronomers to minimize the blurring effects of the Earth's atmosphere, producing images with unsurpassed detail and resolution. The adaptive optics system uses light from a relatively bright star to measure the atmospheric distortions and to correct for them, but only about one percent of the sky contains stars sufficiently bright to be of use. The new virtual guide star will enable Keck astronomers to study nearly the entire sky with the high resolution of adaptive optics.
The virtual guide star, which achieved "first light" on December 23, was created using a 20-watt dye laser to illuminate a diffuse layer of sodium atoms that exists 60 miles (95 km) above the Earth's surface. When activated by the laser, the sodium atoms produced a very small source of light, less than 3 feet (1 meter) in diameter, which allowed the adaptive optics system to measure the distortions of the atmosphere. The resulting virtual star was measured at 9.5 magnitude, about 25 times fainter than anything that can be seen by the unaided eye, but bright enough to operate the adaptive optics system. The star appeared orange, the familiar color of common low-pressure sodium vapor street lights. The laser guide star system was funded by the W. M. Keck Foundation, with additional funding provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Science Foundation's Center for Adaptive Optics (CfAO). It was developed in collaboration with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).
Adaptive optics refers to the ability to compensate or adapt to turbulence in the Earth's atmosphere, removing the blurring of starlight. Adaptive optics systems measure the distortions of the light from a star and then remove the distortions by bouncing the light off a deformable mirror that corrects the image several hundred times per second. With the Keck adaptive optics system, astronomers are obtaining infrared images with four times better resolution than those produced by the Hubble Space Telescope, which orbits high above the Earth's atmosphere. Many significant discoveries have already been attributed to Keck adaptive optics, and the Keck laser guide star system will lead to many more.
"We asked for an early present this year, and just before Christmas we were given a virtual star that will dramatically increase the research capabilities of the world's largest telescope," said Dr. Frederic Chaffee, director of the W. M. Keck Observatory. "This effort could not have been possible without the talent and dedication of our adaptive optics and laser guide star teams. We couldn't be happier with these results, and we look forward to fully integrating the laser with our adaptive optics system by the middle of 2002."
The Keck virtual guide star system consists of a dye laser that is used to produce light with the wavelength of the atomic sodium resonance line at 589 nm. The 20-watt output of the dye laser is projected out of a 20-inch (50 cm) lens attached to the side of the 10-meter Keck II telescope.
"We have seen lasers develop into powerful tools in fields ranging from medicine, to laser printers to compact disc players. Our new virtual guide star marks the start of a new era, when we'll see lasers contributing to astronomy as well," said Claire Max of LLNL, principal investigator for the Keck laser project and professor of astronomy at the University of California at Santa Cruz.
The main components of the Keck adaptive optics system are a wavefront sensor camera, a fast control computer and a deformable mirror. The wavefront sensor camera measures distortions due to atmospheric turbulence using light from the guide star. A control computer computes the wavefront distortion up to 670 times a second and sends commands to the deformable mirror. The deformable mirror, about six inches (15 cm) in diameter, is made out of a thin sheet of reflective glass controlled by 349 actuators that can adjust the shape of the mirror by several microns, a distance large enough to correct for atmospheric distortions.
Center for Adaptive Optics
Support for the Keck virtual guide star adaptive optics program is provided in part by scientists at the Center for Adaptive Optics (CfAO), a national center devoted to the advancement and application of astronomical adaptive optics technology. Headquartered at the University of California, Santa Cruz, the center is engaged in research, education, instrument development, and the dissemination of knowledge about adaptive optics to the broader scientific community. Additional information is located at the CfAO Web site at http://cfao.ucolick.org/.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
The Keck virtual guide star system is the world's most powerful laser currently in use at an astronomical telescope. The laser was developed by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and LLNL staff played a key role in the deployment of the laser at the telescope. LLNL is a national security laboratory with a mission to ensure national security and apply science and technology to the important issues of our time; advanced lasers represent one of the Laboratory's core technology areas. LLNL is managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. For more information visit the LLNL Web site at http://www.llnl.gov/.
The W. M. Keck Foundation
The W. M. Keck Foundation provided the bulk of the capital to build the two 10-meter telescopes as well as the adaptive optics and laser guide star systems. The W. M. Keck Foundation is one of the nation's largest philanthropic organizations, focused primarily on the areas of medical research, science, and engineering. The Foundation also maintains a program for liberal arts colleges and a Southern California Grant Program that provides support in the areas of civic and community services, health care and hospitals, precollegiate education, and the arts. For more information, visit the Foundation's Web site at http://www.wmkeck.org/.
W. M. Keck Observatory
The W. M. Keck Observatory, operated by the California Association for Research in Astronomy (CARA), provides astronomers from associated institutions access to two 10-meter telescopes, the world's largest. Each telescope features a revolutionary primary mirror composed of 36 hexagonal segments that work in concert as a single piece of reflective glass to provide unprecedented power and precision. Each telescope stands eight stories tall and weighs 300 tons, yet operates with nanometer precision. The observatory is operated by the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which joined the partnership in October, 1996. For more information, visit the W. M. Keck Observatory Web site at http://www2.keck.hawaii.edu:3636/ or send e-mail to: www@keck.hawaii.edu.
Astrobiology Science Conference 2002
NASA Ames Research Center and the NASA Astrobiology Institute will be hosting the Astrobiology Science Conference 2002, to be held at NASA's Ames Research Center April 7-11, 2002. All areas of Astrobiology are welcome, including the origin of the solar system, evolutionary biology, life in extreme environments, microbiology, ecosystem science, global change, educational programs, and space missions.
The website for the Astrobiology Science Conference 2002 is now accessible! Detailed information regarding registration, conference logistics, abstract submission, and guidelines for selection of oral and poster presentations may be viewed at the following web address:
http://web99.arc.nasa.gov/abscon2/
This site is best viewed on Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher and Netscape 6.0 or higher. Please update your browser to avoid problems with your on-line registration and abstract submission.
Early Bird Registration & Abstract Submission deadline: February 1, 2002
We hope to see you there!
We apologize to those who may receive this message more than once as some of our lists overlap.
Lynn J. Rothschild, Chair Science Organizing Committee Rho Christensen, Chair Local Organizing Committee
Minority and woman-owned businesses to present capabilities to NASA and aerospace contractors
What: The Technology Transfer Department and the Procurement Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., are hosting a first-of-its-kind event. The Minority and Woman-Owned Technology-Based Small Business Capabilities Exposition provides a forum for more than 40 firms to present their capabilities to top project managers of both the Marshall Center and NASA's prime contractors.
Who: Forty-two minority and woman-owned, technology-based small businesses will make individual presentations and participate in networking sessions during the two-day event.
When: Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2002 7 a.m. - 8 p.m. CST
Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2002 7:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Where: Calhoun Community College Aerospace Technology Center Tanner, Ala. (Decatur Campus)
Contact: Carolyn McMillan at Marshall Center's Technology Transfer Department at (256) 544-9151, or via e-mail: carolyn.mcmillan@msfc.nasa.gov <mailto:carolyn.mcmillan@msfc.nasa.gov>
Watch a comet swing by the Sun
Periodic comet 96P/Machholz is heating up. Every 5.24 years the comet swings remarkably close to the Sun, and this week is one of those times. The comet is growing a long bright tail as it plunges toward our star.
Unfortunately, humans can't see the comet so close to the glaring Sun, but coronagraphs on board the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) will be able to observe the unfolding encounter. The comet appeared yesterday within SOHO's field of view and will remain so for the next few days.
Unlike many Sun-approaching comets, notably the "Kreutz sungrazers," 96P/Machholz is expected to survive its fiery encounter. Perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) will take place on January 8th at a distance of 0.12 AU.
Visit SpaceWeather.com for movies of the present encounter (and one that happened 5 years ago) as well as links to more information.
NEW NASA ADMINISTRATOR BEGINS FIELD CENTER TOUR
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe begins a tour of agency field centers this week with a trip to NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., on Thursday, Jan. 10. Administrator O'Keefe continues his tour Jan. 17 with a visit to NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston.
Administrator O'Keefe was sworn in Dec. 21 as the agency's 10th chief, following his confirmation by the U.S. Senate on Dec. 20. President George W. Bush nominated him for the position Nov. 14.
The Administrator will be available to briefly speak with media representatives during his tour of the Langley facility. For more information and to make arrangements for access to Langley contact Chris Rink at 757/864-6786.
During his trip to Houston, Administrator O'Keefe will be introduced by U.S. House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas). The two met Dec. 4 in the Representative's Washington office. For information regarding access to JSC during the Administrator's Jan. 17 visit, contact the newsroom at 281/483-5111.
The NASA Administrator plans to visit all the agency's field centers in the coming weeks. Additional information about Administrator O'Keefe is available on the Internet at:
http://www.nasa.gov/bios/okeefe.html
This Week on Galileo January 7-13, 2002
This is the last week of orbital cruise activities for the Galileo spacecraft before it shifts into high gear for the next and final Io flyby. This week the distance between Galileo and Jupiter shrinks by nearly half, from 90 Jupiter radii (6.4 million kilometers or 4 million miles) on Monday, January 7, to 50 Jupiter radii (3.6 million kilometers or 2.2 million miles) on Sunday, January 13. On Thursday the spacecraft orientation is shifted by 2 degrees to keep the communications antenna pointed towards Earth.
On Saturday the sequence of commands that will govern spacecraft activities during the Io flyby will be transmitted to Galileo from the 70-meter (230-foot) diameter communications antenna near Madrid, Spain.
On Sunday the Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometer instrument (EUV) is turned off. The instrument has been collecting data on interplanetary hydrogen and helium abundances since October 29. Since EUV shares data processing resources on the spacecraft with the Heavy Ion Counter instrument (HIC), EUV now turns over the reins to HIC, which will participate in the study of charged particles in the Io environment during the flyby.
In the meantime, playback of the data recorded during the last Io flyby in October comes to a conclusion. This final week of playback will be used to help fill in gaps in previous playback data for the Solid State Imaging camera, the Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer, and the Fields and Particles suite of instruments. Finally, on Sunday the playback process is halted to get ready for the recording activities to come.
A SUCCESSFUL 2001 LIFTS KENNEDY SPACE CENTER INTO A NEW YEAR
During the past year, Kennedy Space Center (KSC) achieved many milestones. KSC celebrates these 2001 accomplishments and will use the momentum to accomplish the ambitious goals set for 2002.
The International Space Station completed its first phase and saw the first Utilization Flight. Six Shuttle missions were launched in 2001 and six more are planned for 2002. In 2001, four of NASA's seven Expendable Launch Vehicle (ELV) Program missions were launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS). The others were launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., and the Kodiak Launch Complex, Alaska. Thirteen NASA ELV missions are currently scheduled for 2002. In addition to providing those safe, successful launches, the Center moved forward in its quest to enhance its mission as a Spaceport Technology Center. Several partnerships with other government agencies, commercial enterprises and academia were strengthened or formed.
The International Space Research Park (ISRP) is a new partnership between NASA and the state of Florida. The goal of the ISRP venture is to build an environment for world-class research and technology development performed through the collaborative efforts of industry, academia, and government.
The NASA-led Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) project will allow for full-scale demonstration, testing and qualification of Spaceport Technology projects within an infrastructure resembling a launch environment. Spaceport Technology projects showing promise in a laboratory environment can be deployed and qualified at the ATDC under "real world" conditions.
NASA's Education Programs and University Research Division, United Space Alliance and The Boeing Co. established a partnership with Florida Space Research Institute (FSRI) to work with KSC experts to develop an Advance Learning Environment. The objective is to develop a prototype cryogenics module and additional partnerships with national and international universities and aerospace industry representatives to take the learning environment into the academic community, as well as utilize it in other industries.
Space Shuttle
All six Shuttle missions in 2001 focused on the International Space Station, each marking a new milestone in Station assembly. Working with Expedition crews, transporting supplies and performing Station maintenance were all tasks associated with the 2001 Shuttle missions.
The first Shuttle mission of the year, STS-98, installed the U.S. Destiny Laboratory Module onto the Station, relocated a docking port, delivered supplies and equipment to the Expedition One crew, and conducted three successful spacewalks.
STS-102 marked the return of the Space Station's first resident crew-Expedition One. Space Shuttle Discovery also delivered the Expedition Two crew and the contents of the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module, and completed two spacewalks.
While at the Station, the STS-100 crew delivered and installed Canadarm2, a new-generation robotic arm supplied by the Canadian Space Agency to perform assembly operations. They also helped to transfer supplies and equipment from the Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module and conducted two spacewalks.
The STS-104 crew teamed with the Expedition Two crew and performed three spacewalks to install the Joint Airlock Module. The module enables astronauts to exit the Station and conduct spacewalks without the presence of the Shuttle as well as house gear and provide a location for astronauts to sleep the night before a planned spacewalk.
The STS-105 crew delivered the Expedition Three crew, attached the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module, transferred supplies and equipment to the Station, and completed two spacewalks.
Not only did the STS-108 crew deliver the Expedition Four crew to the Station, conduct a spacewalk and attach the Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module to the Station, but the mission also celebrated many historical moments. STS-108 was the first Utilization Flight of the Station program. The returning ISS crew's stay marked one year of continuous human presence in orbit. NASA also honored victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks by sending nearly 6,000 small U.S. flags into orbit as part of the "Flags for Heroes and Families" campaign. Families of victims and survivors will receive these flags along with a memorial certificate.
Orbiters launched by the KSC team during 2001 carried 38 crew members into space and carried many major payloads into orbit. Four of the six missions landed at KSC. Missions STS-98 and STS-100 landed at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.
Six shuttle missions are currently planned for 2002. These diverse flights will include Expedition crew rotations, a Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission (STS-109), and a research mission (STS-107).
Expendable Launch Vehicles
KSC enjoyed a successful 2001 as the lead center for NASA's acquisition and management of expendable vehicle launch services. Seven ELV launches occurred during 2001. Four were launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. One was launched from Kodiak, Alaska, and two from Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB), Calif.
The 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft began its journey aboard a Delta launch vehicle from CCAFS. It will begin to map the Martian surface in April 2002 where it will search for geological features that could indicate the presence of water and may contribute significantly toward understanding the requirements for a more sophisticated exploration of Mars.
The Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP), a NASA Explorer mission, was launched in June aboard a Delta II rocket. It will measure the temperature of the cosmic background radiation over the full sky with unprecedented accuracy to provide answers to fundamental questions about the origin and fate of our universe.
The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-M (GOES-M) launched in July aboard an Atlas II rocket with a new instrument, a Solar X-ray Imager, aboard to forecast space weather and the effects of solar storms.
The Genesis mission, designed to collect and return to Earth 10 to 20 micrograms of solar wind, lifted off in August from CCAFS aboard a Delta II.
Two ELV launches took place in September. The Quick Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (QuikTOMS), launched from VAFB, was placed in an improper orbit after a problem with staging caused the Taurus rocket to lose velocity. An Athena I launch vehicle carried the Kodiak Star mission into orbit from the new Kodiak Launch Complex in Kodiak, Alaska. NASA's Starshine 3 and three Department of Defense satellites were delivered into different orbits.
The Jason-1/TIMED launch from VAFB closed out the year. Jason-1 will monitor global ocean circulation, study the link between the oceans and atmosphere, improve global climate predictions, and monitor weather conditions such as El Nino. TIMED will explore the Earth's atmosphere, the Mesosphere, and the Lower Thermosphere/Ionosphere.
Eight ELV missions are currently scheduled to launch from CCAFS during 2002. The first launch, a High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (HESSI) mission, is planned for late January. Five launches are scheduled from VAFB.
International Space Station
The Station is the largest, most sophisticated and most powerful spacecraft ever built and additions during 2001 contributed to its dominance. Enhancements included the Destiny Lab, Canadarm2, and the Quest Joint Airlock.
Payload processing at KSC hit a record high in fiscal year 2001, with eight Space Station components prepared for first flight. The components -- the Z1 truss, the P6 truss, the U.S. Lab Destiny, the Canadian robotic arm, three Multi-Purpose Logistics Modules, and the Joint Airlock Module -- underwent final assembly, system level qualification testing, acceptance testing and preflight preparations.
The delivery and installation of Quest during Shuttle mission STS-104 in July completed Phase II of Station assembly. December's STS-108 Shuttle mission was the first Utilization Flight of the Station program.
On Nov. 2, 2001, the International Space Station celebrated one full year of continuous international human presence in orbit.
Four of the six Shuttle missions planned for 2002 will perform Station work. Six additional elements, including three trusses and the Mobile Base System that joins the Canadarm2 as part of the Mobile Servicing System, will be delivered. STS-110, the first of these Shuttle missions, is slated to launch in April.
Spaceport Technology
In 2001, KSC proved it was on the right path for developing the center as a Spaceport Technology Center.
KSC aligned Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR), Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR), Center Director's Discretionary Fund (CDDF) and university research and funding with Spaceport Technology thrust areas. KSC also developed a prototype of a range process simulation model and a technology portfolio analysis tool with the SBIR contractor.
For the second consecutive year, KSC came in first out of all the NASA Centers for Space Act Awards for fiscal year 2001. The Center's efforts won $175,000 for KSC, NASA and contractor innovators.
KSC and contractor employees submitted 123 new invention disclosures. This represented 10 percent of all the invention disclosures submitted by the eleven NASA centers, including Headquarters. KSC also initiated five new license agreements and two have been finalized representing 7 percent of all new NASA licenses. KSC received $56,000 for the fiscal year, representing 6 percent of all NASA royalties for the period.
2001 Technology Spinoffs
The Thermal Insulation System and Method were designed by the Cryogenics Test Laboratory as a cryogenic insulation system and a method for manufacturing and packaging the insulation. The spacing between the insulation layers allows it to provide higher insulation properties at soft vacuum conditions than current cryogenic insulation. The new insulation can be manufactured in blanket, sheet, or sleeve form, depending on the application.
The Active Particle Fallout Monitor measures the size and number of particles as small as 5 micrometers in diameter that are collected on a witness surface and provides multiple cleanliness measurements that conform to Military Standards. This technology has been patented, licensed and commercialized. Targeted markets include aerospace, semiconductors, medicine and electronics fabrication.
The Improved Single-Station Accurate Location of Lightning Strikes technology was developed at KSC. It determines the ground strike point of lightning in the immediate vicinity of the Space Shuttle launch pads. The technology provides the location (within a meter) of a strike within the perimeter of the observation area.
The Photographic Images Scaling Device can be attached to a charge-coupled device (CCD) or film cameras and through use of laser beams, projects a known pattern into the field of view. When a photograph is taken, the image of the pattern appears, along with the image of the object under investigation, allowing the viewer quantifiable information as to the size of the object.
The Signaling Enhancing Wireless Communications Headset Subsystem technology provides NASA with wireless push-to-talk signaling in its launch operations. The technology permits multiple wireless users to operate independently in the same environment without interference.
Community Outreach and Education
In 2001, KSC exceeded the $220,000 goal by raising over $260,000 during the Combined Federal Campaign. This was the first time KSC raised over a quarter of a million dollars. Forty percent of the funds went directly to the local community. The remainder of the funds was distributed to national and international organizations.
In October, over 250 KSC employees partnered with local volunteers for Days of Caring. Volunteers participated in a variety of community service projects around Brevard County, benefiting health and human service agencies funded by the United Way of Brevard.
In April, KSC participated in Space Day in Tallahassee. Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan, and Speaker of the House Tom Feeney spoke from the floor of the House Chamber to the Expedition Two crew aboard the International Space Station. Florida Commissioner of Education Charlie Crist honored the winner of a statewide art contest sponsored by KSC and several contractors.
KSC's Education Programs and University Research Division had one of its busiest and most successful years in 2001. Throughout the fiscal year, over 120,000 teachers, students, and citizens participated in KSC education programs. Over 1,000 K-12 teachers worldwide participated in KSC's summer educator workshops, which are modeled after the national standards in math, science and technology.
KSC transitioned the Fundamental Biology Outreach Program (FBOP), formerly Space Life Sciences Outreach, from Ames Research Center (ARC). FBOP provides quality opportunities for customers to gain understanding of, or to participate in, research objectives and benefits of NASA's fundamental biology research.
KSC's 2001 Undergraduate Student Research Program (USRP) summer program, a pilot program sponsored by NASA Headquarters Education Division, had more than 500 undergraduate student applicants, representing more than 300 colleges and universities from all 50 states and Puerto Rico. Twelve interns were selected, and these students worked with technical mentors in their chosen disciplines during the summer.
The International Space Station webcast series gave students and educators a behind-the-scenes look at KSC's role in Space Station processing. Participants observed the 100th Shuttle launch and an overview of the Station featuring the Destiny module, and learned about the function of international partners, life in space and KSC's role in meeting astronaut medical requirements. Over 20,000 participating viewers worldwide "toured" KSC facilities and had their questions answered live by NASA experts.
KSC Director Roy Bridges summed up the year. "Clearly we had a great run," he said. "That things went so well is a real credit to the professional team at KSC.....You can count on the KSC team to do it right."
JANUARY 5, 2001
Photos "Courtesy of NASA/JPL/Caltech".
A beautiful explosion on the Sun dazzles scientists
On January 4, 2002, an explosion on the Sun hurled an unusually beautiful coronal mass ejection (CME) into space. "The complexity and structure of the CME amazed even experienced solar physicists at the SOHO operations center," says Paal Brekke, the SOHO Deputy Project Scientist. Although the eruption was not substantially Earth-directed, the outskirts of the expanding CME might nevertheless sweep past our planet on Jan. 6th or 7th and trigger geomagnetic activity. Visit SpaceWeather.com for movies and updates. http://www.spaceweather.com
Comet-Chasing Spacecraft Nears Completion at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab
NASA's CONTOUR Mission Readies for Summer 2002 Launch
Capping nearly two years of detailed development and assembly, engineers at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, are putting the last touches on the CONTOUR spacecraft, which will provide the closest and most detailed look ever into the icy heart of a comet.
Slated to launch July 1, 2002, CONTOUR (Comet Nucleus Tour) will encounter at least two diverse comets as they zip through the inner solar system. From as close as 100 miles (160 kilometers) away, the spacecraft will snap high-resolution photos of the comet nucleus, map the types of rock and ice on the nucleus, and analyze the composition of the surrounding gas and dust. CONTOUR's targets include comet Encke in November 2003 and Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 in June 2006 - though the mission team can send the spacecraft to an as-yet undiscovered comet should such a valuable opportunity arise.
Currently parked in an APL clean room, CONTOUR has had all onboard systems tested, including all four of its scientific instruments - two cameras, a dust analyzer and a mass spectrometer. Over the next week, APL technicians will attach solar panels and the final layers of the resilient, Kevlar-and-Nextel dust shield designed to protect CONTOUR from speeding bullet-like particles around the comets.
Environmental testing on the craft begins Jan. 14 on APL's large vibration tables. On Jan. 28, CONTOUR will ship to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for nearly three months of additional tests in Goddard's expansive facilities.
"These rigorous checks will verify that CONTOUR can stand up to the shaking during launch and the harsh conditions of outer space," says Edward Reynolds, CONTOUR mission system engineer at APL.
In May, CONTOUR will leave Goddard for Kennedy Space Center, Florida, in final preparation for launch aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket.
CONTOUR is the next launch in NASA's Discovery Program of low-cost, scientifically focused missions. APL manages the CONTOUR mission for NASA and will operate the spacecraft. Dr. Joseph Veverka of Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, is CONTOUR's principal investigator. For the latest news and images, visit the CONTOUR Web site at www.contour2002.org.
January 4, 2002
HUBBLE CAPTURES OPAQUE GLOBULES IN SPACE
Hubble photo by NASA/JPL
Strangely glowing, floating dark clouds are silhouetted against nearby bright stars in a busy star-forming region viewed by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
The image showing dense, opaque dust clouds -- known as globules -- in the star-forming region IC 2944 is available online at http://heritage.stsci.edu or http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/2002/01 or http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/wfpc . It was taken by Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, designed and built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Little is known about the origin and nature of these globules in IC 2944, which were first found by astronomer A.D. Thackeray in 1950. Globules are generally associated with large hydrogen-emitting star-formation regions, which give off the glowing light of hydrogen gas.
The largest globule in this image consists of two separate clouds that gently overlap along our line of sight. Each cloud is nearly 1.4 light-years along its longest dimension. Collectively, they contain enough material to equal more than 15 times the mass of our Sun. The surrounding hydrogen-rich region, IC 2944, is filled with gas and dust illuminated and heated by a loose cluster of stars that are much hotter and more massive than our Sun. IC 2944 is relatively close by, only 5,900 light-years away in the constellation Centaurus.
Using the remarkable resolution of Hubble, astronomers can for the first time study the intricate structure of these globules. They appear to be heavily fractured, as if major forces were tearing them apart. When radio astronomers observed the faint hiss of molecules within the globules, they realized that the globules are actually in constant, churning motion, moving supersonically among each other. This may be caused by powerful ultraviolet radiation from the luminous, massive stars, which heat up hydrogen gas in the region. The gas expands and streams against the globules, leading to their destruction. Despite their serene appearance, the globules may actually be likened to clumps of butter put into a red-hot pan.
The globules are most likely dense clumps of gas and dust that existed before the hot, massive stars were born. But once the stars began to irradiate and destroy their surroundings, the clumps became visible when their less dense surroundings were eroded away. This exposed them to the full brunt of the ultraviolet radiation and the expanding hydrogen-rich region. The new images catch a glimpse of the process of destruction.
The hydrogen-emission image that clearly shows the outline of the dark globules was taken with Hubble's camera in February 1999 by Bo Reipurth, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, and collaborators. Additional broadband images that helped to establish the true color of the stars in the field were taken by the Hubble Heritage Team in February 2001. The composite result is a four-color image. The Space Telescope Science Institute is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA under contract with the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between the European Space Agency and NASA. The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.
Image Credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Acknowledgment: Bo Reipurth (University of Hawaii)
COURT DECISION VALIDATES NOAA FISHERIES DOLPHIN PROTECTION IN EASTERN TROPICAL PACIFIC TUNA FISHERY
The Court of International Trade has ruled in favor of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) by dismissing a lawsuit brought by the Defenders of Wildlife over implementation of its dolphin conservation program in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean tuna fishery. "This is good news for dolphins, tuna, fisheries managers and the international agreement process," said Bill Hogarth, NOAA Fisheries director. "This court decision strengthens our holistic approach to dolphin-safe tuna management in the international arena. Under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the United States must set strong protection standards that also take into account international trade, commerce, international agreements, and foreign policy."
In the Dec. 7 decision, Judge Judith M. Barzilay agreed with NOAA Fisheries' interpretation of the International Dolphin Conservation Program Act (IDCPA) and upheld the legality of implementing regulations put into effect in January 2000. The court also affirmed that the government complied with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in completing the regulations and in negotiating the 1999 Agreement on the International Dolphin Conservation Program.
Finally, the court held that NOAA Fisheries' "affirmative finding" for Mexico was not arbitrary and capricious. The affirmative finding allows Mexico to export to the United States yellowfin tuna harvested in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean using purse-seine vessels with a carrying capacity greater than 400 short tons.
The NOAA Fisheries tuna/dolphin team has worked over the last decade on a progression of key achievements leading up to the Agreement on the International Dolphin Conservation Plan (Agreement on the IDCP), its authorizing act, the IDCPA, dolphin research and monitoring, and U.S. regulations. These achievements have resulted in (1) a precipitous drop in dolphin mortality in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean since 1986 from 133,000 dolphins per year to less than 2,000 per year, (2) a cooperative international mechanism for setting dolphin mortality limits, tracking them, and holding the tuna fleet, and appropriate flag countries accountable if limits are exceeded, (3) a system for tuna tracking and verification, and (4) a process for lifting import embargoes to countries that can document compliance with the Agreement on the IDCP.
On Feb. 8, 2000, Defenders of Wildlife and other environmental organizations filed suit against the Assistant Administrator for Fisheries in the Court of International Trade. The plaintiffs alleged that NOAA Fisheries did not lawfully implement the IDCPA, the NEPA, and the Administrative Procedure Act. The plaintiffs sought a preliminary injunction from the court to prevent NOAA Fisheries from making "affirmative findings" to lift embargoes against Mexico or other eastern tropical Pacific Ocean tuna fishing nations.
The ruling by the Court of International Trade strongly supports U.S. participation in the IDCP and is a validation of the continued efforts of ETP-fishing nations to reduce dolphin mortality in the ETP tuna fishery. This ruling has far-reaching implications for international resource management, reaffirming the importance of multilateral cooperation in ecosystem-based conservation of international fishery resources.
Additional information regarding the tuna/dolphin program can be found on the NOAA Fisheries website at http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/prot_res/PR2/Tuna_Dolphin/tunadolphin.html.
Cassini Weekly Significant Events for 12/27/01 - 01/02/02
The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone tracking station on Wednesday, January 2. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health and is operating normally. "Present Position"
web page, http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/english/where/ .
Recent instrument activities include two Radio and Plasma Wave Science High Frequency Receiver calibrations. Engineering activities taking place onboard the spacecraft this week include an Attitude Control Subsystem (ACS) high-water mark clear.
Execution of C29 continues normally with the ongoing Gravitational Wave Experiment, of which 37 days out of 40 days have been completed. Spacecraft health remains excellent, maintaining a quiet spacecraft on RWA control. Instruments remain quiet as well with MAPS data being collected and downlinked.
On Dec. 29, continuous DSN coverage in place for the GWE was interrupted by a predicted lunar occultation lasting 1 hour and 24 minutes. All ground operations for loss and re-acquisition of signal after the occultation proceeded normally.
January 3, 2002
Bionic Eyes
Using space technology, scientists have developed extraordinary ceramic photocells that could repair malfunctioning human eyes.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/03jan_bioniceyes.htm?list448368
M 16-Eagle Nebula /Photos "Courtesy of NASA/JPL/Caltech".
The following is and tradition of earlier years, a short communication with links to some of the ESO PR Highlights from 2001:
http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2002/phot-01-02.html
We are sure that there will be many more exciting stories about new developments at ESO during 2002 - as subscriber to the ESO-NEWS service, you will receive information about new items as soon as they appear on the web.
May we also call your attention to the recent "jubilee" of the FORS1 multi-mode instrument on the VLT - the 1001st night on December 27/28, 2001 - cf.
http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2001/phot-38-01.html
Just before the holidays, we published a spectacular image of the Eagle Nebula, obtained with the infrared multi-mode instrument ISAAC at the VLT. If you missed it, we strongly recommend that you take a look at:
http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2001/phot-37-01.html
BOEING GETS OK TO BUILD 11th UHF FOLLOW-ON SATELLITE (photo, illustration)
EL SEGUNDO, Calif., The U.S. Navy has authorized Boeing Satellite Systems, Inc. (BSS), to begin production of the 11th in a series of UHF Follow-On (UFO) satellites, which provide global communications for the armed forces. BSS is a unit of The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA).
The agreement amends an existing $1.9 billion contract under which BSS has built and launched 10 UFO satellites. The satellite will be launched in 2003.
The Navy began replacing and upgrading its ultra-high frequency (UHF) satellite communications network during the 1990s with a constellation of Boeing 601 spacecraft known as the UHF Follow-On (UFO) series. In 1999, the Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command granted BSS initial funding for long-lead parts procurement and related activities on UFO F-11. With this authorization to proceed with F-11's construction, the Navy is moving to sustain the UFO constellation into the latter part of this decade.
"Over the life of this highly successful program, the UHF Follow-On payloads have evolved to meet the customer's changing needs, while being contained within the same basic Boeing 601 platform. This building-block approach allowed us to add valuable enhancements to the satellite payloads without a break in production," said Tig H. Krekel, President of Boeing Satellite Systems, Inc. "We take great pride in our role on this program because the UHF mobile service is the backbone of military communications today, supporting warfighters on land, at sea and in the air."
UFO F-11 will use the Boeing 601 bus, like the previous UFO satellites. It will carry a UHF (ultra-high frequency) payload for narrowband two-way battlefield connectivity, and an EHF payload. The high-capacity EHF subsystem provides enhanced antijam telemetry, command, broadcast and fleet interconnectivity communications, using advanced signal processing techniques.
The most recent UFO satellites F-8, F-9 and F-10 also carry a high-capacity global broadcast service (GBS) payload, which uses commercial-like direct broadcast satellite technology to provide critical information to U.S. and allied forces. The UFO constellation provides the Department of Defense (DoD) with communication services that range from mobile communications to intelligence dissemination and quality-of-life programming.
BSS is the world's leading manufacturer of commercial communications satellites and a major provider of space systems, satellites, and payloads for national defense, science and environmental applications. The company was formed in October 2000 when Boeing acquired the Hughes Electronics satellite manufacturing companies, which included Hughes Space and Communications Company, Hughes Electron Dynamics, Spectrolab, Inc., and Hughes Electronics' 50 percent share of HRL Laboratories.
The Boeing Company, headquartered in Seattle, is the largest aerospace company in the world and the United States' leading exporter. It is the world's largest manufacturer of commercial jetliners and military aircraft, and the largest NASA contractor. The company's capabilities in aerospace also include rotorcraft, electronic and defense systems, missiles, rocket engines, launch vehicles, and advanced information and communication systems. The company has an extensive global reach with customers in 145 countries and manufacturing operations throughout the United States, Canada and Australia. At year-end 2000, Boeing and its subsidiaries employed more than 198,000 people.
SURPRISING HUBBLE FINDINGS SUBJECT OF NEXT SPACE SCIENCE UPDATE JAN. 8
New findings about starbirth in the early universe -- findings that could overturn current theories if verified -- will be presented in a Space Science Update at 2:00 p.m. EST Tuesday, Jan. 8.
The event will be held in the James E. Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters, 300 E St. SW, in Washington. The findings being released are the result of new research on the deepest views of the Universe ever taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
Panelists include:
* Dr. Kenneth M. Lanzetta, associate professor of physics and astronomy at the State University of New York at Stony Brook * Dr. Lisa Storrie-Lombardi, astronomer at the SIRTF Science Center, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. * Dr. Bruce Margon, associate director for science at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore * Dr. Anne Kinney, panel moderator and director of the Astronomy and Physics Division in the Office of Space Science, NASA Headquarters.
A bus for reporters covering the American Astronomical Society's Winter meeting in Washington will depart from the Washington Hilton and Towers at 1919 Connecticut Avenue, NW, at 1:30 p.m. EST, for NASA Headquarters, and return to the hotel following the SSU at about 3:20 p.m.
Information about the bus schedule and location will be available in the AAS Newsroom at the Hilton when the meeting opens Jan. 6.
The briefing will be carried live on NASA Television with two-way question-and-answer capability for reporters covering the event from participating NASA centers.
NASA TV is broadcast on the GE-2 satellite, Transponder 9C, at 85 degrees West longitude, with vertical polarization, frequency 3880.0 MHz, audio 6.8 MHz. Audio of the broadcast will be available on voice circuit at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., by calling 407/867-1220, 1240 and 1260.
Explore the violent death of stars with the Chandra X-ray telescope in lecture open to registered press
A star explodes, and its contents -- trillions of tons of carbon, iron, calcium, and other heavy elements -- suddenly race into the surrounding interstellar medium, forming a colorful, wispy remnant which will ultimately seed new stars, planets and life itself.
The Chandra X-ray Observatory is providing unprecedented views of the remains from exploding stars. In a lecture open to press registered for the 199th American Astronomical Society meeting, Dr. Una Hwang of the University of Maryland and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., will describe how Chandra's advances are revealing details never seen before about the death of stars and the dispersal of their remains.
The lecture, "New Views of Supernova Remnants with the Chandra Observatory," is an invited talk to be held Monday, January 7 at 3:40 p.m. during the 199th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington, D.C. The lecture will be presented in the International Ballroom Center of the Hilton Washington and Towers hotel, 1919 Connecticut Ave, N.W., which is hosting the meeting.
"Ordinary stars and especially exploding stars, or supernovae, are the source of all the heavy elements in the Universe, including those that make up our bodies," said Hwang. "Supernova remnants are the aftermath of supernova explosions, and Chandra is revealing just how complex and beautiful they truly are."
Supernovae are among the most powerful explosions in the Universe, briefly shining with the brilliance of a hundred billion Suns. Triggered either by the cataclysmic collapse of a massive star's core, or by uncontrolled nuclear burning that starts in the core of a white dwarf star, the supernova shock wave rips through the star's outer layers, blasting them to space to form "supernova remnants" that eventually span trillions of miles.
In this violent outburst, the atoms that make up the star are fused to form even heavier elements, and are flung out into space, where they are eventually recycled to form a new generation of stars and planets. Much of the matter in supernova remnants is so hot it radiates in X-rays, which is why an X-ray telescope is so important for studying the remnants.
"Chandra has two important advances that help us understand supernova remnants," said Hwang. "First, it can make high-resolution X-ray pictures, which are necessary to see how material is being distributed in the remnant. Second, it can analyze the X-ray images via spectroscopy to determine the composition, temperature, and motion of material in the remnant. These are clues to help us learn about the explosion and its aftermath."
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, which was launched and deployed by the Space Shuttle Columbia in July of 1999, is the most sophisticated X-ray observatory built to date. Chandra is designed to observe X-rays from the Universe, including those from the remnants of exploded stars.
For a picture of a supernova remnant by Chandra, refer to: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cycle1/cas_a062700/index.html
For more information about Chandra, go to: http://chandra.harvard.edu/