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Архив RU.SPACE.NEWS за 20 января 1998

Дата: 20 января 1998 (1998-01-20) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: Planning Begins On Asteroid 'Nano-Rover' Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... From The "JPL Universe" Special issue: 1997 in review January 9, 1998 Planning begins on asteroid 'nano-rover' By MARY BETH MURRILL A formal project office was established in 1997 to manage the U.S. contribution to the Japanese-managed Muses-C mission to collect and return to Earth a sample from an asteroid. This innovative mission will use new flight technology, including solar electric propulsion, to send a spacecraft to asteroid 4660 Nereus and deliver a JPL-developed rover, which measures about the size of a shoebox, to the asteroid's surface. The Japanese Muses-C spacecraft will also fire explosive charges into the asteroid, collect the samples that are ejected from the impacts, and return the samples to Earth in a capsule for laboratory analysis. The mission is scheduled for launch in 2002. "This represents an opportunity for the U.S. and Japan's space engineers and scientists to combine their expertise to achieve major science and technology goals in a cost-constrained environment," said Ross Jones, project manager for the U.S. portion of the mission called Muses-C ("N" stands for "NASA"). Overall management of the Muses-C project resides at Japan's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science. In addition to providing the rover, JPL will arrange for the testing of the Muses-C reentry heat shield at NASA's Ames Research Center, arrange for supplemental Deep Space Network tracking of the spacecraft, and assist in spacecraft navigation. JPL's responsibilities also include arranging for recovery of the return capsule and performance of work to meet the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act. The asteroid samples will be returned to a landing site in the U.S, and American and Japanese investigators will collaborate on shared data from the rover and the spacecraft. In 1997, the JPL Muses-CN project team completed hardware and software integration of a nano-rover prototype. Performance evaluations of the camera and spectrometer for the rover also began, as did research and analysis of navigation and sample reentry work. Preliminary plans for the heat shield design review and testing are in place at the Ames Research Center. Muses-CN project highlights at JPL in the coming year will include the completion of the rover engineering model design, and release of the announcement of opportunity to the science community, beginning the selection process for scientists who will be investigators on the project. ### Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=

Дата: 20 января 1998 (1998-01-20) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: STARDUST Mission To Start Spacecraft Assembly & Test Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... From The "JPL Universe" Special issue: 1997 in review January 9, 1998 Stardust mission to start spacecraft assembly, test By MARY BETH MURRILL Stardust, the "faster, better, cheaper" Discovery Program mission that will send a spacecraft to gather a sample from a comet, has met the milestones necessary to begin assembly and test of the spacecraft hardware and software in early January at Lockheed Martin Astronautics in Denver. Scheduled for launch in February 1999, the Stardust spacecraft will embark on a seven-year journey through the coma and to within about 150 kilometers of the nucleus of Comet Wild- 2 (pronounced "VILT-2). It will be the first space mission to gather dust and other material from a comet and bring it back to Earth for scientific analysis. Stardust's scientific bounty from its five-year voyage will also include samples of the interstellar dust that passes through the solar system. Return of this interstellar material will provide scientists with their first opportunity for laboratory study of the composition of the interstellar medium. "We've experienced good cost and schedule performance in 1997," said Stardust Project Manager Dr. Kenneth Atkins. "We've learned lessons from previous Discovery projects like Mars Pathfinder, and we've been working to leverage common efficiencies with the other Mars projects being worked by JPL and Lockheed Martin." The project finalized its designs in June and has completed and collected almost all the hardware and software components in preparation for the system assembly and test, Atkins said. In February, Stardust mission engineers from JPL and Lockheed Martin will convene for a parachute drop test for the Stardust sample return reentry capsule system on the snowy desert plateau of the Utah Test and Training Range near Salt Lake City. The test range is the scheduled delivery site for Stardust's sample return in January 2006. Comet Wild-2 is a 'fresh' comet that was recently (in 1974) deflected by Jupiter's gravity from an earlier orbit lying much farther out in the solar system. Having spent most of the last 4.6 billion years in the coldest, most distant reaches of the solar system, Wild-2 represents a well-preserved example of the fundamental building blocks out of which the solar system formed. Both the comet and interstellar dust samples will be collected in aerogel, a lightweight transparent silica gel, the lowest density solid material in the world. (Aerogel was most recently used as a lightweight insulating material to protect the Mars Pathfinder Sojourner's electronics from the harsh, cold climate of Mars.) In November, the project received tens of thousands of responses to its invitation to the public to "send your name to a comet." JPL's Microdevices Lab will etch the names on a silicon wafer that will be placed on the Stardust reentry capsule. The names, collected in partnership with The Planetary Society, will make a round trip to Comet Wild 2, returning to Earth in the sample return capsule. ### Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=

Дата: 20 января 1998 (1998-01-20) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: US Space Program Turns 40 With Anniversary Of Explorer 1 Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... 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 January 14, 1998 U.S. SPACE PROGRAM TURNS 40 WITH ANNIVERSARY OF EXPLORER 1 The U.S. space program turns 40 on Saturday, January 31 -- and the public is invited to share in the celebration when space pioneers and others gather at Caltech's Beckman Auditorium at 8 p.m. to revisit the historic launch of the Explorer 1 satellite, developed by Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) four decades ago, before NASA was even born. The event is free of charge. "Explorer 1: Forty Years After, A Look Back and a Look Ahead" will feature Dr. William Pickering, the former director of JPL and a pioneering space telecommunications researcher who led the Laboratory's work in the Explorer era. He will describe the political, technical and scientific challenges and benefits of the Eisenhower-era race into space after the Soviet Union stunned the world with the launch of Sputnik in 1957. JPL's current director, Dr. Edward C. Stone, will follow with a presentation on all the exciting space discoveries made since then, and offer his vision for future explorations. Caltech's JPL was still operated as a research laboratory for the U.S. Army when it was selected in the autumn of 1957 to develop the first U.S. satellite, science package, communications system and the high-speed upper stages for the Army's Redstone rocket that would launch the tiny, 9-kilogram (20-pound) Explorer 1. JPL and the Army completed the assignment and successfully launched the satellite in less than three months. The intensive effort was accomplished by a team of experts from U.S. academia and the military, along with top World War II German rocket scientists such as Dr. Werner von Braun, who emigrated to the U.S. in the postwar years to help lead development of American rocket capability. A globally linked telecommunications system developed by JPL tracked Explorer 1 and received its scientific data as it circled the Earth. Amateur radio operators around the world were invited to listen in on Explorer 1's radio communications, including one key amateur radio shack operated largely by JPL ham radio operators at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's substation in Temple City, about 24 kilometers (15 miles) from JPL. In late 1958, JPL was reassigned from the U.S. Army to NASA when the civilian space agency was created, and has led the world's exploration of space with robotic spacecraft since then. Still operated as a division of Caltech, JPL has sent spacecraft to all of the known planets except Pluto, and this year will launch important astronomy and planetary exploration missions to comets, asteroids and Mars, along with many Earth-observing efforts. For more information about the January 31 event at Caltech, contact JPL's Public Services Office at (818) 354-0112. ##### Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=

Дата: 20 января 1998 (1998-01-20) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: STARDUST Update - January 16, 1998 Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... STARDUST Status Report January 16, 1998 Ken Atkins STARDUST Project Manager Hi Stardusters! ....... Here's our report from the bridge for this week. Assembly Test and Launch Operations phase activity begin ramping up this week with panels arriving in the high-bay area at Lockheed-Martin. We are still in the process of final security approval at Lockheed-Martin before images of the assembly area will start being posted on this website. We expect this to be resolved very soon. So keep watching. I know this sounds a bit like waiting for the weather forecast on the 10 pm news, but we are working the problem and we will succeed. The Flight Sample Return Capsule successfully completed centrifuge loads testing. This is an important milestone and signals its availablity to start loading the flight electronics, etc. The Cometary & Interstellar Dust Analyzer (CIDA) Engineering Model (Remember, this is one of our instruments to find out what Stardust really is.) has been delivered, bench tested by the CIDA team and cabled up in the Spacecraft Test Lab (STL) for interface testing which is just getting underway. This testing will allow us to test the electronic interfaces between this instrument and the spacecraft's data system. We want to take simulated impact data from the sensor and flow-it all the way through the flight and ground systems to a scientific display station. We'll then be sure CIDA can "phone home" from the comet. Success in this test will clear the way for our German colleagues to complete the fabrication of the actual flight unit. Outreach: a STARDUST Fellowship opportunity for teachers was announced and posted on the website under Education, What's New, and on the home page. This excellent opportunity is sponsored through the Challenger Center, one of three education partners. If you're a teacher....go for it! Outreach: The first microchip containing thousands of names collected during the fall; letters from the target comet, Wild -2, discoverer Paul Wild, from the Principal Investigator and others; along with photos of the development teams was delivered to Lockheed-Martin for installation in the Sample Return Capsule. Because of the significant interest by the public in this opportunity, a second chip is being planned. So once again.....stay tuned....if you or any of your friends missed the first opportunity. It's amazing to see a small chip the size of your little fingernail contining such a huge amount of information. Look for its picture elswhere on the site. See you next week! For more information on the STARDUST mission - the first ever comet sample return mission - please visit the STARDUST home page: http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/ Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=

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