Дата: 05 мая 1998 (1998-05-05)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: WDC-A R&S Launch Announcement 12934: Cosmos 2350
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COSPAR/ISES
WORLD WARNING AGENCY FOR SATELLITES
WORLD DATA CENTER-A FOR R & S, NASA/GSFC
CODE 633, GREENBELT, MARYLAND, 20771. USA
SPACEWARN 12934
COSPAR/WWAS USSPACECOM NUMBER
SPACECRAFT INTERNATIONAL ID (CATALOG NUMBER) LAUNCH DATE,UT
COSMOS 2350 1998-025A 25315 28 APRIL 1998
DR. JOSEPH H. KING, DIRECTOR, WDC-A-R&S.
[PH: (301) 286 7355.
E-MAIL: KING@NSSDCA.GSFC.NASA.GOV
29 APRIL 1998, 21:45 UT]
Further details will be in the next SPACEWARN Bulletin
Dr. Edwin V. Bell, II
_/ _/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/ Mail Code 633
_/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ NASA Goddard Space
_/ _/ _/ _/_/ _/_/ _/ _/ _/ Flight Center
_/ _/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ Greenbelt, MD 20771
_/ _/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/ +1-301-286-1187
ed.bell@gsfc.nasa.gov
SPACEWARN home page: http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/spacewarn/
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=SANA=
Дата: 05 мая 1998 (1998-05-05)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: Next Space Science Update Features Largest Explosion Since The Big Ban
Subject: Next Space Science Update Features Largest Explosion Since The Big Ban
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Donald Savage
Headquarters, Washington, DC April 30, 1998
(Phone: 202/358-1547)
Bill Steigerwald
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
(Phone: 301/286-5017)
NOTE TO EDITORS: N98-27
NEXT SPACE SCIENCE UPDATE FEATURES LARGEST EXPLOSION SINCE THE BIG BANG
The next Space Science Update, scheduled for 2 p.m. EDT,
Wednesday, May 6, 1998, at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC, will
feature the discovery of a gamma-ray burst which scientists are
calling the most powerful explosion since the creation of the
universe in the Big Bang. The gamma-ray burst, originating in a
distant galaxy, was first detected by the Italian Beppo-Sax
satellite and NASA's Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, with follow-up
observations using the Keck Observatory in Hawaii and the Kitt
Peak Observatory in Arizona, and confirmed by NASA's Hubble Space
Telescope.
Panelists will be:
* Dr. Shrinivas Kulkarni, Astronomer, California Institute of
Technology, Pasadena, CA
* Dr. David Helfand, Professor of Astronomy, Columbia
University, New York
* Dr. Stan Woosley, Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics,
University of California, Santa Cruz
* Dr. John Bahcall, Professor, School of Natural Sciences at
the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University, NJ
* Dr. Alan Bunner, Science Director for the Structure and
Evolution of the Universe program, NASA Headquarters, Washington,
DC, panel moderator.
The Space Science Update will originate from the NASA
Headquarters Auditorium, 300 E St., S.W., Washington, DC, and will
be carried live on NASA TV with two-way question-and-answer
capability for reporters covering the event from participating
NASA centers.
NASA Television is broadcast on the GE-2 satellite, located
on Transponder 9C, at 85 degrees West longitude, vertical
polarization, frequency 3880.0 Mhz, audio 6.8 MHz. Live audio of
the broadcast will be available on voice circuit at NASA's Kennedy
Space Center, FL, on 407/867-1220.
- end -
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=SANA=
Дата: 05 мая 1998 (1998-05-05)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: Student Winners To Be Honored In Washington, DC
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Beth Schmid
Headquarters, Washington, DC April 30, 1998
(Phone: 202/358-1760)
RELEASE: 98-72
STUDENT WINNERS TO BE HONORED IN WASHINGTON, DC
Twenty-nine students from public and private schools across
the United States have won national recognition in NASA's 18th
annual Space Science Student Involvement Program (SSIP)
competition. The students will be honored along with their
teachers at the National Space Science Symposium, May 2-5, at the
Hotel Washington, 515 15th St., NW, Washington, DC.
On Monday, May 4, all symposium events will be open to the
press. Beginning at 8:30 a.m. EDT, the national winners of four
of the competitions will present their winning proposals in the
Hotel Washington's Ballroom. At 1 p.m., eight national semi-
finalist high school student winners will present proposals for a
Mars science experiment project to a panel of NASA scientists. On
Tuesday, May 5, students will tour the Capitol and meet their
members of Congress.
The competition, sponsored by NASA and administered by the
National Science Teachers Association, is an interdisciplinary
program designed to address the need for greater literacy in the
areas of science, critical and creative thinking, mathematics and
technology. Nearly 10,000 students in elementary, junior high,
and high school competed in five competition categories using
their skills in mathematics, science, technology, art and creative
writing.
The National Space Science Symposium brings together the 29
national winners and their teachers to recognize their academic
achievement in an environment designed to further challenge their
talents. The trip to the symposium includes formal presentations
of their entries by the students.
In addition to their recognition in Washington, other awards
include opportunities to intern at a NASA field center for a week
during the summer, Space Camp scholarships, medals, ribbons and
certificates. Winners of the Intergalactic Art competition will
have their artwork displayed at the Hotel Washington during the
symposium. Interested persons can view the display in the Hotel
Washington's Ballroom through Tuesday, May 5. After the
symposium, artwork will be on display in museums, schools and
other public sites throughout this year.
At 6:00 p.m. on May 5, the students and their teachers will
be honored at a banquet at the Hotel Washington. The banquet
speaker will be Steven S. Oswald, an astronaut who currently
serves as the Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Operations
in the Office of Space Flight at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.
A complete list of SSIP winners can be found at the following URL:
ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/1998/98-072a.txt
-end-
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=SANA=
Дата: 05 мая 1998 (1998-05-05)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: Cassini Update - May 1, 1998
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Cassini Significant Event Report
For Week Ending 05/1/98
Spacecraft Status:
The Cassini spacecraft is presently traveling at a speed of approximately
147,000 kilometers/hour (~91,000 mph) relative to the sun and has traveled
approximately 555 million kilometers (~344 million miles) since launch on
October 15, 1997. Cassini's first planetary gravity assist, a technique
used to increase spacecraft velocity, occurred early Sunday morning, April
26th. Cassini is now traveling approximately 11,000 kph (7,000 mph) faster
than it was a week ago. The Venus-1 flyby was a tremendous success.
Post-flyby Navigation tracking has indicated that the spacecraft is
precisely on the desired trajectory. This information has allowed the
Program to cancel the next trajectory correction maneuver, which had been
planned for May 14, as it is no longer needed.
The most recent Spacecraft status is from the DSN tracking pass on
Tuesday, 04/28, over Canberra. There have been two additional no-telemetry
passes on Wednesday 04/29 and Thursday 04/30. The Cassini spacecraft is in
an excellent state of health and is executing the C7 sequence nominally.
Inertial attitude control is being maintained using the spacecraft's
hydrazine thrusters (RCS system). The spacecraft continues to fly in a
High Gain Antenna-to-Sun attitude. It will maintain the HGA-to-Sun
attitude, except for planned trajectory correction maneuvers, for the
first 14 months of flight.
Communication with Earth during early cruise is via one of the
spacecraft's two low-gain antennas; the antenna selected depends on the
relative geometry of the Sun, Earth and the spacecraft. The downlink
telemetry rate is presently 40 bps.
Spacecraft Activity Summary:
On Friday, 04/24, there were no changes to spacecraft configuration.
On Saturday, 04/25, the Solid State Recorder (SSR) record and playback
pointers were reset, according to plan. This housekeeping activity, done
approximately weekly, maximizes the amount of time that recorded
engineering data is available for playback to the ground should an anomaly
occur on the spacecraft.
On Sunday, 04/26, the Venus-1 flyby and associated activities took place,
with Venus closest approach occurring at 6:44am PDT. The Radio & Plasma
Wave Science (RPWS) instrument conducted a several-hour search for signals
which could indicate the occurrence of lightning in the Venusian
atmosphere. The Radar instrument conducted an engineering test near
closest approach to attempt to acquire its first "bounce" from a target
body - a closed-loop test very difficult to accomplish on the ground.
Finally, during the portion of flyby when the spacecraft flew behind Venus
(as seen from the Earth), some of NASA's Deep Space Network equipment was
employed to conduct an atmospheric occultation experiment to obtain data
which can be used by the Radio Science team. Results of the RPWS and Radar
activities are going to be played back from the Cassini Solid State
Recorders (SSRs) this coming Saturday (5/2) and Sunday (5/3), respectively.
On Monday, 04/27, as part of the onboard sequence, Cassini executed a
Memory Readout of Mass Properties in preparation for TCM#4. As it turns
out, TCM#4 will not be needed and has since been cancelled (see above).
On Tuesday, 04/28, a maintenance activity was performed on the SSR Flight
Software Partitions. This activity repairs any SSR double bit errors
(DBEs) which have occurred in the code-containing portions of the Flight
Software partitions during the preceding period. The real-time command
based portion of the activity, which clears telemetry flags and reads out
the results of the maintenance activity, is scheduled for this Friday,
5/1.
On Wednesday, 04/29, there were no changes to spacecraft configuration.
On Thursday, 04/30, the Solid State Recorder (SSR) record and playback
pointers were reset, according to plan.
Upcoming events:
Activities scheduled for the week of 5/01 - 5/07 include: Reaction Wheel
Assembly Exercise, and AACS Fault Protection Log Maintenance (05/01),
playback of RPWS Venus-1 Mini sequence data (05/02), playback of Radar
Venus-1 Mini sequence data (05/03), AACS Inertial Vector Propagation (IVP)
Update Part#1 (05/03),AACS IVP Update Part#2 (05/04), SSR Pointer Reset
(05/05), and SRU-A Decontamination (05/06).
DSN Coverage:
Over the past week Cassini had 17 scheduled DSN tracks, occurring from
04/24 through 4/30, to support the Venus-1 flyby. In the coming week there
will be 9 DSN passes.
Huygens Probe Status:
No report this week.
POP 98-1 Review was held on April 30, 1998 at NASA Headquarters.
Teachers Workshop:
The Cassini Outreach Program held a workshop for teachers on Saturday,
April 25, in conjunction with the spacecraft's Venus 1 flyby the next day.
Approximately 105 teachers attended and heard presentations on Cassini,
swingby dynamics, Cassini's power system, the current state of knowledge
regarding Venus' atmosphere and surface, and Cassini educator materials
including the teacher guide, web page, and "Ways of Seeing" CD-ROM. Survey
forms returned by the attendees were very favorable.
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=SANA=
Дата: 05 мая 1998 (1998-05-05)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: Educators, Community Members Onboard For Jupiter And Comet Missions
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MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
Contact: Jane Platt
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 30,1998
EDUCATORS, COMMUNITY MEMBERS ONBOARD FOR JUPITER AND COMET MISSIONS
Educators and community members from across the country have been
selected from a field of hundreds of candidates to participate in educational
training and grassroots programs sponsored by NASA's Galileo project and
the Stardust comet sample return mission.
Both missions are managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
(JPL), Pasadena, CA. These programs are part of ongoing JPL and NASA efforts
to
enhance science and math teacher training in U.S. schools, and to bring the
excitement of space travel to the community level.
The Galileo project has named 55 new ambassadors and co-ambassadors to
educate the public in communities across America about the Galileo Europa
mission's current journey around Jupiter and its moons. The mission's main
focus is on the moon Europa, which may have a liquid water ocean beneath
its icy crust. The addition of the new graduates, who span the country from
northeast Maine to Hawaii, brings the total number of Galileo ambassadors
to 84. Each ambassador has proposed at least five community events, such
as planetarium shows, museum displays and programs for Boy Scouts and Girl
Scouts. The ambassadors, primarily K-12 educators, join the recently
appointed Galileo Fellows, who instruct other teachers in spreading the
word about the Galileo mission. A state-by-state listing of ambassadors,
hometowns, contact information and a calendar of ambassador-hosted events
can be found on the Internet at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/ambassadors.
The Stardust project, which will launch a spacecraft to a comet next
February, has chosen the initial 10 educators from 10 states as Stardust
Fellowship winners. An additional 15 will be chosen in the fall. The
educators will receive intensive training on the mission and its science.
The training is designed to facilitate development of a nationwide teacher
training initiative with supporting educational materials. The effort is
targeted at grades 4-8 and focuses on teaching students about small solar
system bodies such as comets and asteroids. Stardust's Fellows Program is
part of an educational outreach partnership between the project, the
Virginia-based Challenger Center for Space Science Education and Lockheed
Martin Astronautics, Denver, CO, which is assembling the Stardust spacecraft.
Information on Stardust and its Educator Fellows can be found at
http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov.
#####
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=SANA=
Дата: 05 мая 1998 (1998-05-05)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: Mars Global Surveyor Update - May 1, 1998
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Mars Global Surveyor
Flight Status Report
Friday, 1 May 1998
This week, the Mars Global Surveyor flight team closed out a
successful month of dedicated science operations. For over sixty
consecutive orbits starting in early April and ending on Tuesday, the
spacecraft's scientific instruments collected data near the low point of
its 11.6-hour orbit. Every day of that month, Surveyor transmitted nearly
25 megabytes of data back to Earth.
Much of the publicity generated by April's science collection
activities focused on targeted observations of several selected sites on
the Martian surface. Because explicit targeting is not part of the
Surveyor spacecraft's inherent abilities, these operations involved a
substantial collaborative effort between Dr. Michael Malin's camera team,
Dr. David Smith's laser altimeter team that assisted with Mars map
corrections, and project engineering elements such as mission planning,
spacecraft systems, and navigation.
Major imaging highlights included three photographs of the Cydonia
region in the northern hemisphere. This area is home to a one-mile (1.5-
km) wide object known popularly as the "face on Mars." One of the three
Cydonia images shows the so-called face at 14.1-feet (4.3 meters) per
pixel, a resolution about 10 times better than the best Viking Orbiter
image from 1976.
In addition to the Cydonia images, Surveyor's camera also obtained
two photographs of the Viking 1 landing site in Chryse Planitia, and one
image of the Mars Pathfinder landing site in the Ares Valles region. Some
of the objects visible in the Pathfinder image include major landmarks
photographed on July 4th, 1997, including the famous "twin peaks" and "big
crater." However, the lander and rover are not discernible in part
because at the imaging range of about 497 miles (800 km), their size in
the photograph is less than one pixel.
Despite this fact, the resolution of the current image still
exceeds the best photograph of Ares Valles taken during the Viking
Orbiter mission over twenty years ago. During mapping operations next
year, the camera may have an opportunity to image the Pathfinder landing
site again at ranges as low as 235 miles (378 km). In those images, small
objects such as the lander and parachute may be visible.
The Viking 2 lander site at Utopia Planitia was also targeted by
the camera for observation. Unfortunately, clouds obscured the site
during each one of the three attempts. Similar to the situation with the
Pathfinder site, further attempts at imaging the Viking 2 site may occur
next year during mapping operations.
Other experiments on the spacecraft have also been busy acquiring
data. Besides the camera, the laser altimeter, magnetometer, thermal
emission spectrometer, and radio science investigation teams have also
collected data since the beginning of April. These measurements include
northern hemisphere topography by the laser, local and global magnetic
properties by the magnetometer, atmosphere and mineralogy studies by the
spectrometer, and atmosphere and gravity field experiments by the radio
science team.
Of particular interest, Dr. David Smith's laser altimeter team has
been gathering data about the Martian north polar ice caps. On every
orbit, the laser measures the cap's topography in order to calculate its
thickness. In June, the ice cap's thickness will reach a maximum during
the height of the northern winter season. Thickness measurements from
April compared to those that will be taken in June will contribute toward
a greater understanding of the Martian cap formation.
Although extremely successful, the flight team temporarily
suspended science operations on Tuesday in preparation for a month-long
event called solar conjunction. Starting this weekend, communications
with the spacecraft will degrade as Mars begins to pass behind the Sun's
corona as viewed from the Earth. As a consequence, the radio signals sent
to and from Surveyor will experience a noise effect from solar
electromagnetic interference. During the middle of the month, the Sun
will directly eclipse the red planet and physically block radio
communications with the spacecraft.
Solar conjunction will end in late May as Mars moves out from
behind the Sun. At that time, the flight team will re-establish
commanding capability and resume science operations. Data collection will
then continue until the restart of aerobraking on September 11th. The goal
of this next phase of aerobraking will be to lower the current, highly
elliptical, 11.6-hour orbit to a low, circular, two-hour mapping orbit by
April 1999.
After a mission elapsed time of 540 days from launch, Surveyor is
229.36 million miles (369.12 million kilometers) from the Earth and in an
orbit around Mars with a high point of 11,108 miles (17,877km), a low
point of 108.3 miles (174.3 km), and a period of 11.6 hours. A special,
multi-week solar conjunction command sequence is currently executing on
the spacecraft, and all systems continue to perform as expected. The next
status report will be released sometime late May.
Status report prepared by:
Office of the Flight Operations Manager
Mars Surveyor Operations Project
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, CA 91109
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=SANA=
Дата: 05 мая 1998 (1998-05-05)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: NASA Launching High School Experiments
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Keith Koehler April 30, 1998
Wallops Flight Facility, Va.
(Phone: 757-824-1579)
RELEASE NO: 98-50 (98-11)
NASA LAUNCHING HIGH SCHOOL EXPERIMENTS
High school students from four states will travel to the Eastern
Shore of Virginia
next week to see their experiments fly on a suborbital rocket mission
scheduled for launch
May 6, 1998 from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Wallops Flight
Facility,
Wallops Island.
The experiments are part of the Suborbital Student Experiment
Module, a pilot
program to develop a payload system that allows students in primary school
through high
school to propose experiments for flight and launch them aboard a NASA
sounding rocket
within one school year.
Lynn Marra, head of Student Programs in the Education Division at NASA
Headquarters, Washington, D.C., said, "The students in the pilot program
have shown
great ingenuity in the design and assembly of their experiments. We are
very excited with
the future possibilities of this new and innovative program."
Keith Koehler, Wallops project coordinator, said, "The students
coming to Wallops
and participating in the launch process is a major part of this program.
We want to give
the students the opportunity to participate and gain an understanding of
all aspects of a
rocket mission from experiment design through data analysis."
"During the week the students will participate in the final payload
preparations, take
an active part in the launch countdown and present the preliminary results.
This will be a
week they will always remember," Koehler said.
Four experiments will fly on a single-stage Orion sounding rocket
to an altitude of
27 miles. The payload will impact in the Atlantic Ocean approximately 13
miles off the
coast of Wallops Island. The U.S. Coast Guard, Chincoteague, Va., will
recover the
payload and the experiments returned to the students the same day of the
launch.
The experiments include the study of the efficiency of electric
motor lubricants
during launch, the heat transfer of materials, atmospheric measurements,
and the effects
of acceleration on zebra fish embryos.
The participating schools are Worcester Country School, Berlin,
Md.; Southern
High School, Baltimore; North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics,
Durham;
Sauk Rapids/Rice High School, Minn.; and Glenbrook North High School,
Northbrook, Ill..
The Glenbrook experiment is serving as a backup.
The student teams submitted experiment proposals in December. At
the same time,
personnel from the Wallops Flight Facility began design of the payload
system.Fabrication
of the experiments and payloads began in late February and the experiments
arrived at
Wallops for integration and testing the week of April 20.
Koehler said, "The development and execution of this program has
been on an
extremely fast track. The student and Wallops payload teams have done a
tremendous
job of meeting the schedule."
The NASA payload system provides power and data recording systems
to each
deck and video cameras for two of the experiment decks. Each school was
provided a 14-
inch diameter deck plate on which to mount their experiment. The cost of
the experiment
components for each school varied from $20 to $250.
The pilot program is a joint effort between the Offices of Human
Resources and
Education, Space Science, and Space Flight at NASA Headquarters.
-end-
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=SANA=
Дата: 05 мая 1998 (1998-05-05)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: Mars Surveyor 98 Update - May 1, 1998
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1998 MARS SURVEYOR PROJECT STATUS REPORT
May 1, 1998
John McNamee
Mars Surveyor 98 Project Manager
Orbiter solar thermal vacuum (STV) testing was resumed April 27 in order to
calibrate the Pressure Modulator Infrared Radiometer (PMIRR) instrument.
All spacecraft and instrument STV test objectives were completed
successfully (including the calibration of PMIRR) on April 28. A system
aliveness test was conducted following STV with no anomalies and the go
ahead was given to remove the spacecraft from the thermal vacuum chamber.
The earlier PMIRR failure in STV was determined definitively to be a
mechanical failure of the optical chopper assembly, however the exact
failure mechanism (debris, power transients, etc.) has not been determined.
The damaged chopper assembly will be removed from the PMIRR instrument and
replaced with the flight spare. This swap can be accomplished without
removing PMIRR from the spacecraft. The damaged chopper will be examined
for the exact cause of the failure.
Lander integration and test activities are proceeding on schedule with no
significant problems. Lander solar thermal vacuum testing in the cruise
configuration is scheduled to begin on May 14.
The pyroshock and vibration re-test of the engineering qualification model
Thermal Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA) Tunable Diode Laser (TDL) design fix
was performed successfully. Subsequently, the flight TDL passed vibration
re-testing with no problems. (Note: Pyroshock re-testing was performed
only on the engineering qualification model due to potential cumulative
effects of this testing on the flight instrument). The flight TEGA is on
schedule for integration with the lander spacecraft in June.
For more information on the Mars Surveyor 98 mission, please visit this
website:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98/
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=SANA=
Дата: 05 мая 1998 (1998-05-05)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: Cities Team With NASA and EPA For "Urban Forests" Study
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David E. Steitz
Headquarters, Washington, DC May 1, 1998
(Phone: 202/358-1730)
Tim Tyson
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL
(Phone: 256/544-0034)
RELEASE: 98-73
CITIES TEAM WITH NASA AND EPA FOR "URBAN FORESTS" STUDY
Three U.S. cities will partner with NASA and the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to study how strategically
placed "urban forests" and the use of reflective surfaces may help
cool cities, reduce pollution, lower energy bills, modify growth
plans and help mitigate further deterioration of air quality.
Slated to participate in the study, scheduled for May and
June, are Baton Rouge, LA; Sacramento, CA; and Salt Lake City, UT.
Researchers from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center,
Huntsville, AL, will study bubble-like accumulations of hot air,
called urban heat islands, and how these change between day and
night. Heat islands develop over cities as naturally vegetated
surfaces are replaced with asphalt, concrete, rooftops and other
man-made materials.
"The artificial materials store much of the Sun's energy and
remain hot long after sunset," said the experiment's lead
investigator, Dr. Jeff Luvall of the Global Hydrology and Climate
Center at Marshall. "This produces a dome of elevated
temperatures over a city, 5-10 degrees higher than air
temperatures over adjacent rural areas," he explained.
"The more a city grows -- replacing trees and grass with
buildings and roads -- the warmer it becomes, increasing peak
electricity demands. To meet these demands, power plants must
utilize fossil fuels to a greater extent, which ultimately has a
negative impact on air quality," said Luvall.
To better understand which surfaces contribute or drive the
development of heat islands, an aircraft equipped with thermal
imaging equipment will fly over the three cities taking high
resolution thermal measurements.
Researchers also will use thermal satellite imagery to map
and measure "hot spots" and visible energy rising up into the
lower atmosphere of the target cities.
Science team members will use the thermal imagery in
meteorological and air quality models, allowing researchers to
better understand how cities in different locations and with
different land use characteristics impact local and regional
climate.
Additionally, the EPA will use the satellite imagery to
determine how urban heat islands contribute to the ground-level
generation of ozone. Not to be confused with the ozone layer
protecting Earth from ultraviolet rays, ground-level ozone is a
powerful and dangerous respiratory irritant found in cities during
the summer's hottest months.
In findings from similar studies in Huntsville and Atlanta,
GA, researchers have learned that parks and other urban areas with
trees and grass are cooler than parking lots and areas with a high
concentration of buildings.
"These 'green areas' are cooler because they dissipate solar
energy by using it to evaporate water from leaves, thereby cooling
the air," said the experiment's co-investigator, Dr. Dale
Quattrochi of the Global Hydrology and Climate Center.
Researchers believe that cities could be "cooled" by
reintroducing vegetated areas, such as "urban forests," into the
cities. Certain varieties of trees shade buildings, preventing
solar heating, and are able to naturally cool a city as they
release moisture into the air and provide shade over urban
surfaces.
Another way to cool cities, the science team believes, is by
using reflective surfaces, such as light-colored roofs, roads, and
parking lots. Light-colored surfaces reflect rather than absorb
heat.
The researchers want to demonstrate that by "cooling" a city,
it is possible to directly reduce energy use by buildings, which
in turn reduces greenhouse gas emissions and ultimately improves
the air quality. Additionally, individuals, businesses and
governments can save money by reducing the amount of energy
consumed.
Based on the results of the project, the science team plans
to disseminate its findings nationally so other cities also can
incorporate what the team has learned into their long-range growth
plans.
The study contributes to NASA's Earth Science enterprise.
The enterprise is responsible for a long-term, coordinated
research effort to study the total Earth system and the effects of
natural and human-induced changes on the global environment. This
project also is aimed at the enterprise's efforts to make the more
near-term economic and societal benefits of Earth science research
and data products available to the broader community of public and
private users.
-end-
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=SANA=
Дата: 05 мая 1998 (1998-05-05)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: JPL-Sponsored Team To Compete In National Science Bowl
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MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
Contact: Diane Ainsworth
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 30, 1998
JPL-SPONSORED TEAM TO COMPETE IN NATIONAL SCIENCE BOWL
A JPL-sponsored team of math and science students from
Arcadia High School will compete in this year's National Science
Bowl, to be held May 1-4 at the National 4-H Center in Chevy
Chase, MD.
The team will compete with schools across the country in a
rapid-fire question-and-answer competition similar to the old
television program "College Bowl," designed to encourage students
to excel in math and science and to pursue careers in those
fields. Categories in this year's competition will include
astronomy, biology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, computer,
earth and general sciences, and current events in the scientific
and technical community.
"This is an exceptional team of students whose sole goal
since June has been the pursuit of the national championship,"
said Wayne Lee, mission planner on the Mars Global Surveyor
mission and one of the Arcadia High School coaches. "Their
knowledge and experience makes them one of the favorites to win
this year."
Arcadia is making its third consecutive appearance in the
national tournament for Science Bowl. This year's five-member
team features three returning players who almost won the 1997
tournament, and one returning player who was a finalist in the
1996 tournament.
During the 1997 and 1998 regional tournaments to qualify for
the nationals, Arcadia went undefeated and won each game by an
average of 125 points. This year, the team defeated Warren High
School in Downey in the final match of the Los Angeles County
Regionals with a score of 228-14.
"The team's success this year comes from the fact that they
have been practicing every week since June 1997, and have the
nucleus of last year's team returning to play this year," Lee
said. "Most of the team has given up a substantial portion of
other extracurricular activities, both academic and athletic, to
concentrate on winning the national championship."
The finalists from Arcadia High School are:
- Alex Fabrikant - Senior and team captain. A four-year starter on
Arcadia's varsity team, making his third consecutive trip to the
nationals.
- Alex Hong - Junior and second in command. A two-year starter
(1997 and 1998) on Arcadia's varsity team, making his second trip
to the nationals.
- Vincent Auyeung - Freshman and a first-year starter on Arcadia's
varsity team.
- Silvia No - Sophomore and first-year player who is majoring in
biology.
- Brian Li - Senior and second-year player, who will be making his
second trip to the nationals.
- Barbara Young - Co-coach of the team who is an advanced placement
chemistry teacher at Arcadia High School.
This year's national competition is sponsored by the U.S.
Department of Energy. Additional information about the
competition is available at http://www.er.doe.gov. Media may
follow the competition over the weekend or obtain results by
contacting the National Science Bowl Media Center at (301) 961-
2993 or (301) 961-2903.
#####
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 05 мая 1998 (1998-05-05)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: NASA Awards $131 Million Contract Option To CSC To Continue Informatio
Subject: NASA Awards $131 Million Contract Option To CSC To Continue Informatio
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Jennifer McCarter
Headquarters, Washington, DC May 1, 1998
(Phone: 202/358-1639)
Jerry Berg
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL
(Phone: 256/544-0034)
RELEASE: C98-e
NASA AWARDS $131 MILLION CONTRACT OPTION TO
CSC TO CONTINUE INFORMATION SUPPORT SERVICES
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL, has
exercised an option to continue an existing contract with Computer
Sciences Corp. (CSC), Falls Church, VA, for the provision of a
myriad of information services to Marshall and to NASA agencywide.
The priced option, valued at $131,845,510, covers the period
May 1, 1998, through April 30, 1999. It continues efforts under a
contract titled Program Information Systems Mission Services
(PrISMS), which was awarded to CSC in 1994.
Work performed by CSC and its subcontractors under PrISMS
includes support to Marshall in the areas of computer systems,
applications software, networks and telephone systems, data
reduction and audio-video services.
It also includes a range of services in support of the entire
agency, including management of several wide-area networks,
agencywide information management systems, and the NASA Automated
Data Processing Consolidation Center.
The option is the third of a possible six priced options.
The PrISMS contract has an approximate total value, if all options
are exercised, of $1.053 billion.
- end -
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 05 мая 1998 (1998-05-05)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: NASA Awards Five Firm The George M. Low Award
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Sonja Alexander
Headquarters, Washington, DC May 1, 1998
(Phone: 202/358-1761)
RELEASE: 98-74
NASA AWARDS FIVE FIRMS THE GEORGE M. LOW AWARD
Five aerospace companies were awarded the space agency's
highest honor today for excellence and quality. NASA
Administrator Daniel S. Goldin presented the 1998 George M. Low
Award to the companies at the thirteenth annual NASA Continual
Improvement and Reinvention Conference on Quality Management in
Alexandria, VA. The award, established in 1985, is NASA's highest
quality and excellence award for contractors and subcontractors
and the oldest award for organizational quality.
ILC Dover, Inc., Frederica, DE, received the award in the
large business, product category; and Allied Signal Technical
Services Corporation, Lanham, MD, and DynCorp, Johnson Support
Division, Houston, TX, both received the award in the large
business, service category. In the small business, product
category BST Systems, Inc., Plainfield, CT, received the award;
and Advanced Technology Company, Pasadena, CA, received the award
in the small business, service category.
"These companies exemplify excellence and outstanding
achievements that prove beneficial to NASA and the Nation's
industry," said Goldin.
ILC Dover, Inc., specializes in developing high technology
engineered softgoods. The company has a long record of
outstanding performance in the development of EVA spacesuits. Its
recent success came from the development and delivery of the Mars
Pathfinder airbag landing system.
Allied Signal Technical Services Corporation demonstrated
exemplary operational proficiency of over 99.996 percent from 1995
through 1997 with 99.94 percent systems reliability covering the
same time frame.
"Each of these companies has definitely made a positive
impact on NASA's performance goals," said Frederick D. Gregory,
Associate Administrator for Safety and Mission Assurance at NASA
Headquarters.
DynCorp, Johnson Support Division, provided and supported a
variety of specialties and supports a wide array of aircraft
equipment and systems. The success of NASA's astronaut training
program and Shuttle mission support programs is directly related
to the performance of this contractor.
BST achieves consistently outstanding performance in a field
often characterized as "black magic" -- aerospace batteries. BST
developed the battery for the Mars Pathfinder. The battery lasted
more than three times the planned Mars surface-mission duration,
98 Martian days versus the required 30 days.
Advanced Technology Company is considered a world-class metal
joining company, tackling jobs that most organizations consider
impossible. The company has produced 20 imaging detectors that
are operating error-free in space.
The conference featured NASA Administrator Goldin as well as
keynote presentations by Peter B. Teets, President and Chief
Operating Officer, Lockheed Martin Corporation; Allan R. Mulally,
President, Information Space and Defense Systems, The Boeing
Company; and David Crocker, President, Crocker Associates.
In addition to celebrating Low award winners, the conference
is a forum to share best practices and lessons learned from
quality management initiatives.
-end-
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 05 мая 1998 (1998-05-05)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: Sky & Telescope News Bulletin - May 1, 1998
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SKY & TELESCOPE'S NEWS BULLETIN
MAY 1, 1998
ASTRONOMY DAY 1998
Saturday, May 2nd, is Astronomy Day. Astronomy clubs, planetariums, and
museums across the country will likely hold daytime astronomy fairs and
evening star parties, "To promote the forerunner of all scientific
endeavors and to provide information, resources, and encouragement in all
facets of astronomy." For more information about Astronomy Day, see
http://www.skypub.com/astroday/astroday.html. To find an astronomy club or
planetarium near you, see SKY & TELESCOPE's Astronomical Directory at
http://www.skypub.com/astrodir/astrodir.html.
COMET STONEHOUSE
On the night of April 21st Patrick L. Stonehouse of Wolverine, Michigan,
noticed a diffuse object in Serpens Caput while viewing with his 17-inch
(0.44-meter) reflector. Subsequent observations revealed movement, and on
April 26th, IAU Circular 6883 announced Comet 1998 H1. Comet Stonehouse's
closest approach to the Sun (perihelion) occurred on April 14th, thus the
comet is fading as it recedes from the Sun and Earth. Currently, observers
note it is about magnitude 10.5 or 11, visible in modest telescopes (3- to
6-inch aperture). It is well placed in the sky for comet watchers in the
Northern Hemisphere (and for Astronomy Day). During the upcoming week, the
comet moves through Bootes, only a few degrees from Arcturus, and is thus
visible throughout the night and highest in the sky near local midnight.
Here are positions for Comet Stonehouse at 0 hours Universal Time in 2000.0
coordinates:
R.A. Dec.
May 2 14h 53m +24.5 deg.
4 14 40 +28.4
6 14 27 +31.9
METEOR SHOWER THREAT?
While amateur astronomers eagerly await the Leonid meteor shower in
November, aerospace professionals are a little worried. Every 33 years,
when the shower's parent Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle swings around the Sun, the
Leonids often surge into a brief meteor "storm." The comet rounded our star
earlier this year. Operators of Earth-orbiting satellites are concerned
that the increase in cosmic debris could pose a danger to their equipment.
To discuss the issues, engineers, astronomers, and aerospace insurers
gathered on April 27-28 at the Leonid Meteoroid Storm and Satellite Threat
Conference, held in Manhattan Beach, California. There are many more
billions of dollars worth of equipment in orbit now than there was during
the last Leonid storm in 1966. While the true threat is uncertain, many
companies aren't taking any chances and may turn off satellites during the
predicted peak. Even the Hubble Space Telescope will be turned away from
the stream.
SOLAR TORNADOES
Giant vortexes of gas on the Sun, likened to Earthly tornadoes, have been
discovered by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft.
Researchers announced on April 28th that they have detected about a dozen
of the storms. The vortexes have average rotation speeds of 15 km per
second, but they can be as much as 10 times faster. They are most often
seen near the Sun's poles. And speaking of the Sun, observers report a
large naked-eye sunspot on the disk -- another good target for Astronomy
Day activities.
CASSINI PASSES VENUS
The Saturn-bound Cassini spacecraft made its first planetary encounter
April 26th when it passed 284 km over the surface of Venus. Closest
approach was at 13:52:14 Universal Time. Instruments aboard the spacecraft
looked for lightning in the atmosphere and performed a radar test by
bouncing a radio signal off the surface. The planet's gravity boosted
Cassini's speed by 7 km per second. Launched last October, Cassini and the
Huygens Titan probe, supplied by the European Space Agency, still have a
long way to go before reaching the ringed planet. The spacecraft will make
three more gravity-assist flybys -- a second pass by Venus, then one by the
Earth, and then one by Jupiter -- before arriving at Saturn in 2004.
THIS WEEK'S "SKY AT A GLANCE"
Some daily events in the changing sky, from the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE.
MAY 3 -- SUNDAY
* First-quarter Moon (exact at 6:04 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time).
MAY 4 -- MONDAY
* Mercury is at greatest elongation in the dawn, 27 degrees west of the Sun.
* Regulus shines to the right of the Moon this evening.
MAY 5 -- TUESDAY
* The red long-period variable stars V Coronae Borealis, S Ursae Majoris,
R Draconis, and T Cephei are all at maximum light (7th or 8th magnitude)
around this date.
MAY 6 -- WEDNESDAY
* The Moon appears midway between Regulus (far to its upper right in early
evening) and Spica (far to the Moon's lower left). About an equal distance
below Regulus is the orange star Alphard.
MAY 7 -- THURSDAY
* The brightest star in the northwest after dusk this month is Capella. Far
to its upper left are Castor and Pollux, lined up horizontally. Less far to
their lower left is Procyon.
MAY 8 -- FRIDAY
* Look for Spica below the Moon tonight.
* Early Saturday morning the dark limb of the waxing gibbous Moon will
occult the 4.8-magnitude star 74 Virginis for observers in much of the South
and West. See the timetable in the January Sky & Telescope, page 97, or at
http://www.skypub.com/occults/lunocc98.html.
MAY 9 -- SATURDAY
* The nearly full Moon shines in the southeast after dusk. To its upper
right, by about a fist-width at arm's length, is Spica. Almost three times as
far to the Moon's upper left is brighter Arcturus.
============================
THIS WEEK'S PLANET ROUNDUP
============================
MERCURY is barely above the eastern horizon as dawn brightens. It's to the
lower left of Jupiter and Venus.
VENUS shines low in the east during dawn, with Jupiter to its upper right.
Venus is 6 times brighter than Jupiter. They're 10 degrees apart on the
morning of May 3rd and separating by about 1 degree per day.
EARTH is below your feet. If you can't find it, you're in trouble.
MARS is hidden behind the glare of the Sun.
JUPITER is to the upper right of Venus, in the east-southeast during dawn;
see Venus above.
SATURN is hidden in the glare of sunrise, to the lower left of Mercury.
URANUS and NEPTUNE, magnitudes 6 and 8, respectively, are in Capricornus in
the southeast before dawn. See the finder chart in the May Sky & Telescope,
page 96.
PLUTO, magnitude 13.8, is near the Ophiuchus-Scorpius border. It's well up
in the southeast by midnight. See the finder chart in the May Sky & Telescope,
page 97. The charts for Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are also at
http://www.skypub.com/whatsup/urnepl98.html.
(All descriptions that relate to the horizon or zenith are written for the
world's midnorthern latitudes. Descriptions that also depend on longitude
are for North America. Eastern Daylight Time, EDT, equals Universal Time
minus 4 hours.)
More details, sky maps, and news of other celestial events appear each month
in SKY & TELESCOPE, the essential magazine of astronomy. See our Web site at
http://www.skypub.com/. Clear skies!
SKY & TELESCOPE, P.O. Box 9111, Belmont, MA 02178 * 617-864-7360 (voice)
Copyright 1998 Sky Publishing Corporation. S&T's Weekly News Bulletin and
Sky at a Glance stargazing calendar are provided as a service to the
astronomical community by the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE magazine.
Widespread electronic distribution is encouraged as long as these paragraphs
are included. But the text of the bulletin and calendar may not be
published in any other form without permission from Sky Publishing (contact
permissions@skypub.com or phone 617-864-7360). Illustrated versions,
including active links to related Internet resources, are available via SKY
Online on the World Wide Web at http://www.skypub.com/.
In response to numerous requests, and in cooperation with the Astronomical
League (http://www.mcs.net/~bstevens/al/) and the American Association of
Amateur Astronomers (http://www.corvus.com/), S&T's Weekly News Bulletin and
Sky at a Glance are available via electronic mailing list too. For a free
subscription, send e-mail to skyline@gs1.revnet.com and put the word "join"
on the first line of the body of the message. To unsubscribe, send e-mail
to skyline@gs1.revnet.com and put the word "unjoin" on the first line of the
body of the message.
SKY & TELESCOPE, the Essential Magazine of Astronomy, is read by more than
200,000 enthusiasts each month. It is available on newsstands worldwide.
For subscription information, or for a free copy of our catalog of fine
astronomy books and products, please contact Sky Publishing Corp., P.O. Box
9111, Belmont, MA 02178-9111, U.S.A. Phone: 800-253-0245 (U.S. and
Canada); 617-864-7360 (International). Fax: 617-864-6117. E-mail:
custserv@skypub.com. SKY Online: http://www.skypub.com/. Clear skies!
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 05 мая 1998 (1998-05-05)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: This Week On Galileo - May 4-10, 1998
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THIS WEEK ON GALILEO
May 4-10, 1998
Galileo continues to process and transmit to Earth science information
stored on the onboard tape recorder during the spacecraft's pass through the
heart of the Jovian system at the end of March 1998. Science data processing
is interrupted once this week as the spacecraft runs a performance test on
the attitude control subystem to check on computer software changes made
over the weekend. The software changes should make it possible for the
attitude control computer to correct and use the anomalous data being
produced by one of the spacecraft's two gyroscopes. The gyroscope has been
behaving anomalously since December 1997.
This week's processing and transmission schedule includes observations that
have already been processed and transmitted to Earth once. A normal part of
operations on Galileo, this reprocessing and retransmission opportunity
provides the chance to fill all data gaps caused by transmission problems.
It also allows any particularly interesting information to be reprocessed
under different processing conditions and retransmitted to Earth. Finally,
it allows new parts of observations, that would not otherwise have been
returned, to be processed and transmitted to Earth.
The solid-state imaging, or camera, team has three observations on this
week's schedule. The first contains a region of Io that scientists hope to
image at much higher resolution toward the end of the Galileo Europa Mission
in October 1999. The image that is returned this week will provide a context
for the October 1999 image. The two other images returned by the camera team
contain different regions of Europa. The first looks at the the Mannann'an
crater region and the second at a region of dark spots. The near infrared
mapping spectrometer team returns the other two observations scheduled for
this week. The first is the highest resolution map of Io that will be
obtained during the Europa Campaign (December 1997 - April 1999) of the
Galileo Europa Mission. It also contains the best view of the south pole of
Io to date, although a better view is planned for observations in November
1999. The second observation captures Europa and a region of ice rifts.
For more information on the Galileo spacecraft and its mission to Jupiter,
please visit the Galileo home page:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 05 мая 1998 (1998-05-05)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: WDC-A R&S Launch Announcement 12935: Iridium 69 and 71
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COSPAR/ISES
WORLD WARNING AGENCY FOR SATELLITES
WORLD DATA CENTER-A FOR R & S, NASA/GSFC
CODE 633, GREENBELT, MARYLAND, 20771. USA
SPACEWARN 12935
COSPAR/WWAS USSPACECOM NUMBER
SPACECRAFT INTERNATIONAL ID (CATALOG NUMBER) LAUNCH DATE,UT
IRIDIUM 69 1998-026A 25319 02 MAY 1998
IRIDIUM 71 1998-026B 25320 02 MAY 1998
[IRIDIUM NUMBERS HAVE NOT BEEN STRICTLY SEQUENTIAL.]
DR. JOSEPH H. KING, DIRECTOR, WDC-A-R&S.
[PH: (301) 286 7355.
E-MAIL: KING@NSSDCA.GSFC.NASA.GOV
04 MAY 1998, 13:15 UT]
Further details will be in the next SPACEWARN Bulletin
Dr. Edwin V. Bell, II
_/ _/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/ Mail Code 633
_/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ NASA Goddard Space
_/ _/ _/ _/_/ _/_/ _/ _/ _/ Flight Center
_/ _/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ Greenbelt, MD 20771
_/ _/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/ +1-301-286-1187
ed.bell@gsfc.nasa.gov
SPACEWARN home page: http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/spacewarn/
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 05 мая 1998 (1998-05-05)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: Idea Of Using Moon For Satellite Salvage Suggested By Two Former JPLer
Subject: Idea Of Using Moon For Satellite Salvage Suggested By Two Former JPLer
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From: Rex Ridenoure (rex@smad.com)
Here's some background for you on the Hughes Asiasat-3 story. Feel free
to post this on any news site you feel is appropriate. Thanks in
advance.
So far, Hughes has not been offering any details on this part of the
story in their press releases; we are actively trying to rectify this
situation! Hughes has admitted to me and Ed Belbruno on the phone that
the Moon was not in their trade space before my call on Jan. 16th. We
are encouraging them to make some public acknowledgement about this very
soon.
Rex Ridenoure
Microcosm, Inc.
Torrance, CA.
(310)320-0555
rex@smad.com
****
IDEA OF USING MOON FOR SATELLITE SALVAGE SUGGESTED TO HUGHES BY TWO
FORMER JPLers.
The idea of using the Moon as a tool to (possibly) salvage Hughes'
Asiasat-3 satellite was first suggested to Hughes by former JPL mission
engineer Rex Ridenoure on January 16th, following a phone call to
Ridenoure from on-call JPLer Dr. Ed Belbruno. Ridenoure is now Manager
of the Space Systems Division at Microcosm, Inc. (Torrance, CA);
Belbruno is President of Innovative Orbital Design, Inc. (New York,
NY).
Since Belbruno and JPLer Jim Miller were involved with the salvage of
the Japanese/ISAS Hiten lunar spacecraft mission in the early 1990s
(i.e., getting it to lunar orbit with limited propellant), Belbruno has
developed several other novel orbit-transfer techniques using his "Weak
Stability Boundary" theory.
When Belbruno heard about the Asiasat-3 problem -- the Proton's upper
stage failed to circularlize from GTO to GEO, leaving it in a 51-deg.
GTO orbit -- he called Ridenoure wondering whether Ridenoure knew the
status of the vehicle. (Ridenoure was familiar with Belbruno's work and
was also a former Hughes employee with good contacts there.) Belbruno
surmised that since Asiasat-3 had been written off as a $200M loss by
the insurers, perhaps it could be used as a testbed for one or more of
his novel orbit transfers, as was Hiten.
Ridenoure called Hughes (Loren Slafer and Chris Cutroneo) on Jan. 12th,
got some basic insight into Asiasat-3's status, orbit, engineering
numbers, etc., and then spent a couple of hours getting more info on the
spacecraft via the Web and analyzing the situation. Using some
estimated delta-Vs from Belbruno, Ridenoure and another Microcosm
mission analyst, Curtis Potterveld, determined that Hughes might be able
to deliver Asiasat-3 to GEO with several YEARS of lifetime left (in
terms of stationkeeping propellant), compared to NONE using conventional
techniques. These rather spectacular results were conveyed by Ridenoure
to Belbruno and Hughes on January 16th and since then Hughes has spent
about $1M on a small, clandestine team to study and implement the basic
idea.
Hughes determined that they could not adequately track the vehicle much
beyond GEO, so instead of using Belbruno's suggested technique (3- to
5-month trip time, much of it well beyond the Moon), they opted for an
Apollo-style "free-return" path which takes the spacecraft out of
contact for only a few days. (The swingby occurs on May 7th.)
Belbruno's transfer could have removed all 51 deg. of inclination; the
plan Hughes is executing now takes out about 40 deg.
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 05 мая 1998 (1998-05-05)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: NASA Awards Five Firms The George M. Low Award
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Sonja Alexander
Headquarters, Washington, DC May 1, 1998
(Phone: 202/358-1761)
RELEASE: 98-74
NASA AWARDS FIVE FIRMS THE GEORGE M. LOW AWARD
Five aerospace companies were awarded the space agency's
highest honor today for excellence and quality. NASA
Administrator Daniel S. Goldin presented the 1998 George M. Low
Award to the companies at the thirteenth annual NASA Continual
Improvement and Reinvention Conference on Quality Management in
Alexandria, VA. The award, established in 1985, is NASA's highest
quality and excellence award for contractors and subcontractors
and the oldest award for organizational quality.
ILC Dover, Inc., Frederica, DE, received the award in the
large business, product category; and Allied Signal Technical
Services Corporation, Lanham, MD, and DynCorp, Johnson Support
Division, Houston, TX, both received the award in the large
business, service category. In the small business, product
category BST Systems, Inc., Plainfield, CT, received the award;
and Advanced Technology Company, Pasadena, CA, received the award
in the small business, service category.
"These companies exemplify excellence and outstanding
achievements that prove beneficial to NASA and the Nation's
industry," said Goldin.
ILC Dover, Inc., specializes in developing high technology
engineered softgoods. The company has a long record of
outstanding performance in the development of EVA spacesuits. Its
recent success came from the development and delivery of the Mars
Pathfinder airbag landing system.
Allied Signal Technical Services Corporation demonstrated
exemplary operational proficiency of over 99.996 percent from 1995
through 1997 with 99.94 percent systems reliability covering the
same time frame.
"Each of these companies has definitely made a positive
impact on NASA's performance goals," said Frederick D. Gregory,
Associate Administrator for Safety and Mission Assurance at NASA
Headquarters.
DynCorp, Johnson Support Division, provided and supported a
variety of specialties and supports a wide array of aircraft
equipment and systems. The success of NASA's astronaut training
program and Shuttle mission support programs is directly related
to the performance of this contractor.
BST achieves consistently outstanding performance in a field
often characterized as "black magic" -- aerospace batteries. BST
developed the battery for the Mars Pathfinder. The battery lasted
more than three times the planned Mars surface-mission duration,
98 Martian days versus the required 30 days.
Advanced Technology Company is considered a world-class metal
joining company, tackling jobs that most organizations consider
impossible. The company has produced 20 imaging detectors that
are operating error-free in space.
The conference featured NASA Administrator Goldin as well as
keynote presentations by Peter B. Teets, President and Chief
Operating Officer, Lockheed Martin Corporation; Allan R. Mulally,
President, Information Space and Defense Systems, The Boeing
Company; and David Crocker, President, Crocker Associates.
In addition to celebrating Low award winners, the conference
is a forum to share best practices and lessons learned from
quality management initiatives.
-end-
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 05 мая 1998 (1998-05-05)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: NASA's Top Excellence Award Goes To Three JPL Contractors
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MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
Contact: Mary Beth Murrill
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 1, 1998
NASA'S TOP EXCELLENCE AWARD GOES TO THREE JPL CONTRACTORS
Three aerospace companies were awarded NASA's highest honor
today for the excellence and quality of work they performed on
the Mars Pathfinder and other projects for NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, CA.
NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin presented the 1998
George M. Low Award to the companies at the 13th annual NASA
Continual Improvement and Reinvention Conference on Quality
Management in Alexandria, VA. The award is NASA's highest
quality and excellence award for contractors and subcontractors
and the oldest award for organizational quality.
"These companies exemplify excellence and outstanding
achievements that prove beneficial to NASA and the nation's
industry," said Goldin.
ILC Dover Inc., Frederica, DE, which specializes in
developing high-technology engineered soft goods, received the
award for product in the large-business category for work on the
development and delivery of the Mars Pathfinder airbag landing
system. The company also has a long record of outstanding
performance in the development of astronaut spacesuits for
extravehicular activity in space.
BST Systems Inc., Plainfield, CT, received the award for
product in the small-business category for development of the
battery used on the Mars Pathfinder mission's Soujourner rover.
The battery lasted more than three times the planned Mars
surface-mission duration, 98 Martian days versus the required 30
days.
Advanced Technology Company (ATCO), Pasadena, CA, received
the award for service in the small-business category. ATCO is
considered a world-class metal joining company, tackling jobs
that most organizations consider impossible. The woman-owned
company has produced 20 imaging detectors that are operating
error-free in space, and has worked on a variety of JPL projects
over the past 26 years, including the development of the Wide
Field Planetary Camera 1 and 2 for NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
Two other companies, Allied Signal Technical Services
Corporation, Lanham, MD, and DynCorp, Johnson Support Division,
Houston, TX, were given the award for service in the large-
business category for their work with other NASA centers.
JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology,
Pasadena, CA.
#####
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=SANA=
Дата: 05 мая 1998 (1998-05-05)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: Concept For Spacecraft Aerogel Tiles Can Be Used On Earth
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Don Nolan-Proxmire
Headquarters, Washington, DC May 4, 1998
(Phone: 202/358-1983)
John Bluck
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
(Phone: 650/604-5026)
RELEASE: 98-76
CONCEPT FOR SPACECRAFT 'SOLID SMOKE' TILES CAN BE USED ON EARTH
A new concept for spacecraft tiles also can be used on Earth
to make efficient, vacuum-like insulation for refrigerators,
furnaces and automobile catalytic converters.
The new material is similar to that used for the tiles on the
Space Shuttle to protect the vehicle from the heat generated
during reentry into Earth's atmosphere. However, the new tiles
have a layer of aerogel, or 'solid smoke,' mixed into the tile's
air spaces.
"Solid smoke, or aerogel, works like a vacuum layer because
it's a great insulator," said aerogel tile co-inventor Dr. Susan
White of NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA. "The new
aerogel tiles can insulate spacecraft from ten to 100 times better
than today's tiles."
Aerogel is made of silica, alumina and carbon as well as
other materials, and can weigh less than the same volume of air.
"The aerogel used to fill the air spaces inside the tiles is like
strings of nanosized pearls, all tangled up," White said. A
nanometer is a billionth of a meter.
The fibers that form the tiles are mostly a mixture of silica
and alumina oxides, according to co-inventor Dr. Daniel Rasky,
also of Ames. The spaces inside the untreated spacecraft tiles
are less than a millimeter wide.
"The reason the aerogel tile composite will act as a great
insulator for keeping freezers cold, or automobile catalytic
converters hot, is that the air flowing through the tile is almost
completely blocked by aerogel," White said. "It is like having a
chunk of solid vacuum where you need it."
"Aerogel is very brittle and can't be machined, but
spacecraft insulation tiles filled with a layer of aerogel can be
cut, machined, drilled and attached to a surface," White said.
"Aerogel-tile insulation can be made into different shapes for
many uses here on Earth."
The aerogel space-tile material could be used in commercial
products that require mechanically tough super-insulation, such as
catalytic converters for cars or specialty refrigeration units.
In addition, the new material potentially could be used for
furnaces; for liquefied gas transport trucks; or for liquid carbon
dioxide, special nitrogen and oxygen containers.
The new aerogel tiles could also be used to insulate future
spacecraft from the heat of reentry into the atmosphere. "Not
only will the aerogel tiles protect future spacecraft from very
high reentry temperatures, the materials also will better protect
spacecraft from ice formed on the extremely cold fuel tanks when
the vehicle is waiting on the pad for launch," White said.
High temperature and environmental testing of aerogel space
tiles was conducted at Ames for seven years. A patent is pending
for the new material.
NASA actively encourages commercialization of its
technologies. To learn more about NASA innovations,
commercialization efforts and the agency's technology transfer
programs, interested parties can call 1-800/678-6882 or access the
NASA Commercial Technology Network web page at URL:
http://nctn.hq.nasa.gov/
-end-
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=SANA=
Дата: 05 мая 1998 (1998-05-05)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: NASA Temper Foam Is A Spinoff Success
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Вот, свалилось из Internet...
Don Nolan-Proxmire
Headquarters, Washington, DC May 4, 1998
(Phone: 202/358-1983)
NOTE TO EDITORS: N98-30
NASA TEMPER FOAM IS A SPINOFF SUCCESS
NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin will receive the one
millionth pillow produced by Tempur-Pedic Inc. on Wednesday, May
6, at 5 pm EDT in the NASA Headquarters Auditorium, 300 E Street,
SW, Washington, DC.
The pillow, made from a foam material developed by NASA
researchers to cushion pilots against the rigors of test flight,
will be presented by Tempur-Pedic's CEO, Robert Trussell. The
Lexington, KY, company's pillows, mattresses and other products
are used to treat disorders ranging from sleeplessness to pressure
ulcers, commonly known as bedsores.
Temper Foam, a visco-elastic, body-temperature reactive
material which returns to its original form even after
compression, was first developed by NASA's Ames Research Center,
Moffett Field, CA, for use in Space Shuttle seating and to protect
airline passengers in crashes. The material was recently inducted
into the United States Space Foundation's Space Technology Hall of
Fame, Colorado Springs, CO.
-end-
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=SANA=
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