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    Архив RU.SPACE.NEWS за 05 мая 1998

    Дата: 05 мая 1998 (1998-05-05) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: WDC-A R&S Launch Announcement 12934: Cosmos 2350 Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... 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/ Hа сегодня все, пока! =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 Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... 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 - Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
    Дата: 05 мая 1998 (1998-05-05) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: Student Winners To Be Honored In Washington, DC Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... 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- Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
    Дата: 05 мая 1998 (1998-05-05) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: Cassini Update - May 1, 1998 Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... 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. Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
    Дата: 05 мая 1998 (1998-05-05) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: Educators, Community Members Onboard For Jupiter And Comet Missions 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: 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. ##### Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
    Дата: 05 мая 1998 (1998-05-05) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: Mars Global Surveyor Update - May 1, 1998 Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... 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 Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
    Дата: 05 мая 1998 (1998-05-05) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: NASA Launching High School Experiments Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... 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- Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
    Дата: 05 мая 1998 (1998-05-05) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: Mars Surveyor 98 Update - May 1, 1998 Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... 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/ Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
    Дата: 05 мая 1998 (1998-05-05) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: Cities Team With NASA and EPA For "Urban Forests" Study Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... 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- Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
    Дата: 05 мая 1998 (1998-05-05) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: JPL-Sponsored Team To Compete In National Science Bowl 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: 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 Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... 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 Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... 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 Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... 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 Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... 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 Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... 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 Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... 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 Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... 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 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 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. ##### Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
    Дата: 05 мая 1998 (1998-05-05) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: Concept For Spacecraft Aerogel Tiles Can Be Used On Earth Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... 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- Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
    Дата: 05 мая 1998 (1998-05-05) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: NASA Temper Foam Is A Spinoff Success Привет всем! 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- Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=

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