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    Архив RU.SPACE.NEWS за 23 июля 1998

    Дата: 23 июля 1998 (1998-07-23) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: SpaceViews Update - 15 July 1998 [1/6] Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... S P A C E V I E W S U P D A T E 1998 July 15 http://www.spaceviews.com/1998/0715/ *** Top Stories *** Planet-B Launched on Mars Mission Researchers Find Evidence Against Martian Nanofossils Astronomers Discover Nearby Developing Solar System Baikonur Problems Delay Soyuz Launch *** Technology *** Japanese Satellites Test Docking Techniques AXAF Completes Environmental Tests Zenit, Sub-Based Missile Launch Satellites *** Policy *** Senate Vote Supports Space Station NASA Creates Near-Earth Object Office Movie Producers Challenged to Match NEO Grant *** Science *** Io Volcanoes Hottest in Solar System New Type of Near-Earth Asteroids Discovered European Astronomers Discover Another Extrasolar Planet *** CyberSpace *** The Space Weather Bureau Orbit-on-Web The Moon Race Homepage Wired Collections: Space Exploration *** Space Capsules *** SpaceViews Event Horizon Other News Editor's Note: We apologize for the delay mailing this issue. Problems with the mailing list software at ARI, the company that hosts the list, caused the delays. We are looking into solutions to prevent this from happening again. Please feel free to send any comments, concerns, suggestions, or question to jeff@spaceviews.com. Our next issue will be published August 1. *** Top Stories *** Planet-B Launched on Mars Mission A rocket carrying the Planet-B spacecraft, Japan's first Mars mission, lifted off early Saturday, July 4, on the first anniversary of the landing of the American Mars Pathfinder spacecraft. The M-5 rocket launched from the Kagoshima Space Center on the island of Kyushu in the predawn hours Saturday (late afternoon Friday EDT). The booster successfully placed Planet-B, renamed Nozomi ("Hope") after launch, into Earth orbit. Because the M-5 rocket is not powerful enough to place Nozomi on a direct trajectory to Mars, the spacecraft will spend the next several months in an elliptical Earth orbit. Two lunar flybys will provide the final kick needed to reach Mars. Once Nozomi arrives at Mars in October 1999, it will enter an elliptical orbit around the planet. A suite of 14 instruments from five nations, including the United States, will study the planet's upper atmosphere and ionosphere. When close to Mars, the spacecraft will carry out studies of the lower atmosphere and surface of the planet, and study the interaction of the atmosphere with the solar wind in more distant portions of its orbit. The interaction of the outer atmosphere with the solar wind is of particular interest to scientists since Mars, unlike the Earth, lacks a magnetic field to shield the atmosphere from the solar wind's charged particles. The solar wind may have played a key role in stripping gas from the Martian atmosphere, and data collected by Planet-B may provide clues to this process. The United States is contributing a neutral mass spectrometer (NMS) to the Planet-B mission. "The Neutral Mass Spectrometer will enable us to measure the chemical composition of the upper atmosphere of Mars on a global scale, which has never been done before," said Dr. Hasso B. Niemann, the NMS principal investigator at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Nozomi was launched almost exactly one year after Mars Pathfinder landed on the Red Planet. Japanese officials said the launch date for Nozomi was chosen as a way of honoring the American lander's mission. Two new American missions to Mars are scheduled for launch in the next six months. The Mars Climate Orbiter will launch in December to study Martian meteorology from orbit, while the Mars Polar Lander will lift off in January to land in the unique layered terrain near the Martian south pole. Researchers Find Evidence Against Martian Nanofossils A team of scientists reported Monday, July 6 that they had found new evidence which disproves claims that worm-like features seen in the Martian meteorite ALH 84001 are tiny "nanofossils" left behind by ancient Martian life. The research, led by John Bradley of Georgia Tech, Hap McSween of the University of Tennessee, and Ralph Harvey of Case-Western Reserve University, found that the fossil-like features seen in the meteorite were formed by mineralogical processes unrelated to life and at potentially very high temperatures. The scientists found that magnetite crystals seen in the meteorite were formed in the surrounding carbonates by epitaxy, or the ordered growth of one mineral atop another. Such formation requires temperatures of at least 120 degrees Celsius (248 degrees Fahrenheit), which would all but eliminate the possibility that fossilized Martian life exists in the meteorite. The crystals seen appeared free of defects, which the scientists noted is more representative of high-temperature growth than crystals grown at lower temperatures. Their research, to be published in the July issue of the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science, is the third paper by the team that has addressed the issue of whether the meteorite shows evidence of Martian life, as originally claimed by a team of Johnson Space Center (JSC) and other scientists in August 1996. "These three papers in combination basically invalidate much of their (JSC's) evidence," Bradley, an adjunct professor at Georgia Tech and executive director of the microscopy firm MVA Inc., said. The first paper reported that the magnetite crystals seen inside the claimed fossils were straight whiskers, not "daisy chains" as would be expected inside fossils. A second paper claimed the fossils themselves only resemble terrestrial fossils at certain viewing angles; at other angles they resembled inorganic scales or ledges. Bradley was strongly critical of the claims of the original JSC team. "Early skepticism has evolved into international consensus among meteoriticists and planetary scientists, with the exception of the JSC team, that this rock does not contain Martian nanofossils," he said. "I do not know of a single other individual who believes it at this point." Still, he does not expect the debate about ALH 84001 to end any time soon. "Unless the JSC team concedes, the debate will never die," he said. Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
    Дата: 23 июля 1998 (1998-07-23) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: SpaceViews Update - 15 July 1998 [2/6] Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... Astronomers Discover Nearby Developing Solar System An international team of astronomers reported Wednesday, July 8, that they had found evidence of a solar system forming around the nearby star Epsilon Eridani. The astronomers used the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, to find a ring of dust around the star that looks "strikingly similar" to our solar system's own Kuiper Belt of icy bodies, according to one astronomer. "What we see looks just like the comet belt on the outskirts of our Solar System, only younger," said Jane Greaves of the Joint Astronomy Centre in Hawaii. "It's the first time we've seen anything like this around a star similar to our Sun." Epsilon Eridani is a K2-class star -- slightly cooler than the Sun and one-third as bright -- located 10.7 light years away. The star is one of the closest Sun-like stars, but is believed to be much younger than the Sun. The images, obtained at submillimeter wavelengths, indicate that the solar system is in the process of forming planets. "This star system is a strong candidate for planets, but if there are planets, it's unlikely there could be life yet," Greaves said. "When the Earth was this young, it was still being very heavily bombarded by comets and other debris." Addition evidence for planet formation around the star is the existence of a bright spot in the ring of dust imaged by the astronomers. "There may be a planet stirring up the dust in the ring and causing the bright spot," said Bill Dent of the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, "or it could be the remnants of a massive collision between comets." A region near the star itself that appears partially free of dust is additional evidence for planet formation, astronomers said. Planets would be expected to absorb or otherwise clear out dust in the regions where they form. The existence of a solar system forming around a nearby Sun-like star may mean solar systems are quite common. "The implication is that if there is one system similar to ours at such a close star, presumably there are many others," Benjamin Zuckerman of UCLA said. "In the search for life elsewhere in the universe, we have never known where to look before. Now, we are closing in on the right candidates in the search for life." The same astronomers discovered dust disks earlier this year around the more distant and less Sun-like stars Vega and Formalhaut. Another dust disk was seen around the star HR 4796 at around the same time. The Epsilon Eridani discovery was announced at the "Protostars and Planets" conference in Santa Barbara, California. The work has been submitted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letters. Baikonur Problems Delay Soyuz Launch A lack of electricity and running water at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Russia's primary launch site, will delay next month's Soyuz launch of a Mir replacement crew by at least 10 days, Russian officials reported Wednesday, July 8. A three-person crew, including a former aide to Russian president Boris Yeltsin, was scheduled to lift off August 3 in Soyuz TM-28 to dock with Mir. However, a lack of electricity and water for the last two weeks at Baikonur, Kazakhstan, the Soyuz launch site, has forced officials to move the launch date back to August 13. Electricity and water were cut to Baikonur because of unpaid bills, a problem stemming from a lack of money allocated to Energia, the company that operates Mir for the Russian Space Agency, and part of Russia's larger financial woes. "People are preparing for the launch in terrible conditions, in temperatures of 37 degrees Celsius [99 degrees Fahrenheit], without light, without water, without money," said Energia president Yuri Semyonov told the Itar-Tass news agency. Power has been restored to Baikonur, Itar-Tass reported, but the two-week loss of power impacted launch preparations enough to force a launch delay. The launch cannot be delayed much longer. The Soyuz capsule currently docked to Mir, which brought current crew members Talgat Musabayev and Nikolai Budarin to the station, must return to Earth by late August as its systems are only guaranteed to function for that long. The Soyuz TM-28 will carry a relief crew of commander Gennady Padalka and engineer Sergei Avdeyev. Also flying on the Soyuz will be former presidential aide Nikolai Baturin. Baturin will investigate the status of the station and return with Budarin and Musabayev later in August. Energia threatened last month to shut down Mir as early as August if the Russian government did not pay the money it owed the corporation for operating Mir. On July 2 the Russian government agreed to provide Energia with 600 million rubles (US$100 million) to continue operating the station through mid-1999, at which time the station will be deorbited into the Pacific Ocean. *** Technology *** Japanese Satellites Test Docking Techniques A pair of Japanese satellites completed the first successful test of an unmanned, automated docking early Tuesday, July 7. The two sections of the Engineering Test Satellite VII (ETS-7) separated and moved two meters (6.6 feet) apart before docking together again at 7:30am Japanese time (6:30pm ET and 2230UT July 6). In the test, three grappling claws on the 410 kg (900 lbs.) target satellite, named Orihime, grabbed onto the 2,540 kg (5,590 lbs.) chaser satellite, named Hikoboshi. The test was the first time two unmanned spacecraft and undocked and redocked under remote control. Tests planned for later this year will try docking after the two spacecraft are separated by distances up to several kilometers. The technology is being tested with an eye for use on the International Space Station. Automated docking techniques would make it easier for unmanned cargo spacecraft to dock with the station. ETS-7 was launched last November 27, along with the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, a joint NASA/NASDA (National Space Development Agency) mission. The names of the two ETS-7 spacecraft come from an old Japanese tale, where the princess Orihime and her lover Hikoboshi were allowed to meet only once a year, on July 7th. Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
    Дата: 23 июля 1998 (1998-07-23) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: SpaceViews Update - 15 July 1998 [3/6] Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... AXAF Completes Environmental Tests The Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) satellite has completed all of its environmental tests, satellite builder TRW reported Wednesday, July 8, but a problem with one of the satellite's instruments was uncovered during the tests. AXAF spent a month in a thermal vacuum chamber at TRW's El Segundo, California, facility. The satellite was exposed to the vacuum of space and alternating periods of hot and cold temperatures to simulate the environment the satellite will be in after launch. Key subsystems and instruments were tested during the thermal vacuum test to ensure they worked as planned. Engineers also tested sending commands to the spacecraft from the AXAF Operations Control Center (OCC) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was during those tests that a mechanical problem was noticed in one of AXAF's instruments, the AXAF CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS). TRW's AXAF program manager, Craig Staresinich, said the cause of the problem and repair plans are being investigated. "We believe that the repair can be made in parallel with upcoming electrical testing of the observatory with little or no impact to the delivery schedule," he said. He added that the discovery of the problem during the tests was a success, not a failure, since AXAF's highly elliptical orbit makes any on-orbit repairs by shuttle crews impossible, unlike the Hubble Space Telescope. "Discovering a problem now is a success. Discovering a problem later, after launch, would be a failure," he said. AXAF, originally planned for an August launch, was pushed back to December after delays in the assembly of the spacecraft were reported late last year. Launch of the spacecraft is now likely to take place no earlier than January, as the first space station assembly shuttle flight is now planned for December. Zenit, Sub-Based Missile Launch Satellites An oft-delayed Zenit booster and a missile launched from a Russian submarine successfully placed satellites from several nations into orbit in early July. A Zenit 2 rocket lifted off at 2:30am EDT (0630 UT) July 10 from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, carrying five satellites, including a Russian Resurs-0 remote sensing satellite and several small satellites from other nations, including Chile, Thailand, and Israel. The launch was originally planned for June 23 but was pushed back more than two weeks because of problems with the guidance system on the booster. The booster was taken off its launch pad for over a week while repairs to the system were completed. A last-minute failure in the system delayed a launch planned for July 8. The launch is the first for the Zenit since a May 1997 launch ended in an explosion shortly after liftoff. The Zenit has experienced other launch failures in the recent past as well. An SS-N-23 ballistic missile launched the Tubsat-N satellites from the Delfin-class submarine Novomoskovsk, submerged in the Barents Sea, at 7:15am Moscow time July 7 (0315 UT, 11:15pm ET July 6). The satellite successfully reached orbit, officials reported. Tubsat-N, built at the Technical University of Berlin, consists of two small satellites, together weighing less than 11.5 kg (25.3 lbs.). The larger Tubsat-N and smaller Tubsat-N1 were launched attached and are designed to separate once in orbit. The satellites contain a number of experiments, including tests of reaction wheel and star sensor performance. They are also designed to store and forward low data rate communications. The Russian Navy, which conducted the satellite launch, said it plans future commercial launches using its nuclear submarines as a way to raise money for the cash-strapped armed service. *** Policy *** Senate Vote Supports Space Station In a final rebuke to a longtime but retiring foe of the International Space Station, the Senate voted down by a 2-to-1 margin July 7 a measure that would have cut funding to the station. By a vote of 66 to 33, the Senate rejected an amendment to a NASA appropriations bill proposed by Sen. Dale Bumpers (D-AR) that would have canceled the station and placed the funding intended for it into veteran's health and low-rent housing projects. Bumpers, a longtime opponent of the space station who is retiring from the Senate at the end of the year, has introduced similar amendments for many years. All have failed in Senate votes. In support of his amendment, Bumpers cited recent studies from the GAO that claimed the total cost to build and operate the station would reach or exceed $100 billion. The annual operating cost of the station alone, he said, "will be enough to fund 6,000 researchers at NIH [National Institutes of Health] and universities across America for a year." "We are going to have six people on the space station doing what the National Research Council estimates to be 24 hours of research each day, at a cost at which we could hire 6,000 researchers on earth," he said. Supporters of the station, including Sen. John Glenn (D-OH), took issue with some of Bumpers's statements. "This $96 billion is a fictitious figure; $40 billion of that, by NASA estimates, includes shuttle costs that are going to go on anyway," Glenn said. Glenn, who, like Bumpers, is retiring after this year, said spending on programs like the station is necessary to make progress. "If we ever tried to solve all problems and to do everything we wanted to do before we made research, we would never have moved off the east coast." Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
    Дата: 23 июля 1998 (1998-07-23) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: SpaceViews Update - 15 July 1998 [4/6] Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... NASA Creates Near-Earth Object Office The Jet Propulsion Laboratory will host a new NASA office dedicated to detecting, tracking, and understanding potentially hazardous near-Earth objects (NEOs), NASA announced Tuesday, July 14. NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office will focus on the goal of locating at least 90 percent of the estimated 2,000 asteroids and comets that approach the Earth and are larger than 1 kilometer (0.62 miles) in diameter, by the end of the next decade. "We determined that, in order to achieve our goals, we need a more formal focusing of our near-Earth object tracking efforts and related communications with the supporting research community," said Dr. B. Carl Pilcher, science director for solar system exploration at NASA headquarters. "Finding a majority of this population will require the efforts of researchers at several NASA centers, at universities and at observatories across the country, and will require the participation by the international astronomy community as well," said Dr. Donald Yeomans of JPL, an expert on asteroid and comet orbits who will head the new office. The new office will focus on coordinating efforts to detect NEOs as well as facilitating communications between astronomers and the public should a dangerous NEO be discovered. This second role for the NEO office is seen as a reaction to the fiasco surrounding the announcement in March that asteroid 1997 XF11 would pass dangerously close to the Earth in 2028. Later analyses of the data, combined with pre-discovery observations, eliminated any threat of a collision in 2028 within one day of the original announcement. In the months following the 1997 XF11 announcement, NASA has announced plans to more than double funding for NEO tracking projects, to around $3 million in 1999. NASA has also formed policy that requires NASA-funded astronomers -- most of the NEO community worldwide -- to better communicate any discoveries among themselves and NASA before going public. Movie Producers Challenged to Match NEO Grant Two private space organizations announced a $50,000 grant Wednesday, July 1, to support work to locate and track near-Earth objects (NEOs), and challenged the producers of two current Hollywood blockbusters to match the grant. The Space Frontier Founation (SFF) and the Foundation for the International Non-Governmental Development of Space (FINDS) announced the grant as a kickoff for a fundraising campaign to support NEO research and bring together top experts on the issue. The organizations alsom challenged the producers of the movies "Deep Impact" and "Armageddon" -- two summer blockbusters that depict comets and asteroids on collision courses with the Earth -- to match the grant. "The film industry has done an excellent job educating people about the very real threat NEOs pose to our civilization, and is making millions of dollars at the same time," said SFF president Rick Tumlinson. ""Meanwhile, there is very little money going to support the handful of heroic people doing the actual work of finding and tracking these potential Earth killers." "There are astronomers who cannot afford to turn on their telescopes," Tumlinson noted. "Hollywood is making a lot of money playing off of the fear -- now it's time for them to ante up." The grant will go towards a program called "The Watch" whose goal is to raise $1 million a year to support NEO research worldwide. The funds will be disbursed by an advisory council headed by John Lewis of the University of Arizona. The council will meet for the first time at an SFF conference in California in October. FINDS, a $13 million endowment that funds "breakthrough projects" in space-related topics, currently supports NEO tracking projects at Canada's University of Victoria and asteroid iron extraction work at the University of Arizona. Deep Impact, a movie released in May by Dreamworks and Paramount, cost $75 million. The movie has grossed over $133 million in the United States alone by late June. Armageddon, about a giant asteroid headed towards Earth, opened in North America July 1. Its budget was estimated at well over $100 million. *** Science *** Io Volcanoes Hottest in Solar System Planetary scientists using data from the Galileo spacecraft have discovered that volcanoes on Io are the hottest planetary surfaces in the solar system, reaching temperatures of thousands of degrees. Researchers from the University of Arizona, Brown University, and other institutions, writing in the July 3 issue of the journal Science, found that at least a dozen volcanic vents on Io, the innermost of Jupiter's four largest moons, reach temperatures of at least 1,200 degrees Celsius (2,200 degrees Fahrenheit). One is as hot as 1,700 degrees C (3,100 degrees F), about three times hotter than the sunlit surface of Mercury. "The very hot lavas erupting on Io are hotter than anything that has erupted on Earth for billions of years," said Alfred McEwen, director of the University of Arizona's Planetary Image Research Lab. "They are the highest surface temperatures in the solar system other than the sun itself." McEwen and colleagues combined infrared data from Galileo, which provided temperatures, with visible-light camera images to confirm that the hotspots were associated with volcanic vents. The temperatures and colors imply the lava is rich in heavy elements like magnesium. That finding is leading scientists to questions the composition of Io's surface. Highly volcanic surfaces like Io are thought to be highly differentiated, with low-density materials in the crust and heavier materials below. Such a differentiated body would make it difficult for heavy magma, like that inferred from the Galileo data, to make it to the surface. "The evidence suggests we're seeing heavy magma erupt to the surface. How do we explain that?" McEwen asked. "It's harder for dense material to rise through a low-density crust, although this has occurred on Earth's moon. Perhaps some process mixes the crust back into Io's interior, so the crust has a higher density." Studies of Io may help understand conditions on the early Earth, McEwen said. "Early Earth is hard to understand because the evidence has been so degraded by an active environment and plate tectonics. I like to think of Io as a grand experiment in planetary vulcanism and differentiation." Io is heated by tidal forces. The moon is locked into an orbital resonance with Europa and Ganymede, two other Jovian moons, making its orbit slightly elliptical. The tidal forces caused by Jupiter's gravity heat Io's interior, which in turn powers the moon's volcanoes. Io's volcanoes were discovered by the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft as the flew by the Jovian system in 1979. Since then, volcanic eruptions on Io have been monitored by ground-based infrared telescopes, the Hubble Space Telescope, and Galileo. Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
    Дата: 23 июля 1998 (1998-07-23) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: SpaceViews Update - 15 July 1998 [5/6] Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... New Type of Near-Earth Asteroids Discovered Astronomers at the University of Hawaii have discovered a new type of near-Earth asteroid whose location makes them difficult to detect. Dr. David Tholen and Robert Whiteley of the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy discovered 1998 DK36 earlier this year and found that its orbit lies entirely within that of the Earth -- that is, it never gets farther from the Sun than the Earth. All previously known asteroids have orbits that take them at least briefly beyond the orbit of the Earth. This type of orbit makes the asteroids difficult to detect, as they are close to the Sun in the sky as seen from the Earth, and thus are only visible in the dawn and dusk skies. "All other efforts to discover asteroids on a collision course with the Earth are being directed at a region of the sky almost opposite the Sun," said Tholen. "The significance of this discovery is that we would have otherwise never found this new asteroid because it apparently doesn't travel to that region of the sky being scanned by other search efforts." Such asteroids could strike the Earth from the daytime side without any advance warning possible, Tholen said. 1998 DK36 was discovered in February using a specialized camera system on the University of Hawaii's 2.2-meter (88-inch) telescope atop Mauna Kea. Tholen and Whiteley were performing observations of the dawn and dusk skies using the telescope to search for near-Earth asteroids. The asteroid is estimated to be about 40 meters (132 feet) in diameter. The size is comparable with the size of the stony asteroid that caused the Tunguska explosion in Siberia 90 years ago and the iron asteroid that created Meteor Crater in Arizona 50,000 years ago. 1998 DK36 appears to orbit between the orbits of Earth and Mercury. Tholen said that although they were not able to make enough observations for a complete analysis, their best-fit orbit has 1998 DK36 passing an apparently-safe 1.2 million kilometers (750,000 miles) from the Earth. "1998 DK36 is nothing to lose sleep over," said Tholen. "It's the ones we haven't found yet that are of concern." European Astronomers Discover Another Extrasolar Planet A team of European astronomers led by the duo who discovered the first extrasolar planet around a Sun-like star announced Monday, July 6 that they had discovered another planet orbiting another star similar to the Sun. The team, led by Michel Mayor of Switzerland's Geneva Observatory and Didier Queloz of the Geneva Observatory and JPL, discovered the planet around the star 14 Herculis (also known as Gliese 614). The star, with about 80 percent of the mass of the Sun, is located 60 light-years away in the constellation Hercules. The team estimated the mass of the planet to be 3.3 times that of Jupiter, the largest planet in our own solar system. The planet is located 2.5 AU (375 million kilometers, 232.5 million miles) from its parent star and takes 4.4 years to complete one orbit. "This long-period planet, orbiting a nearby star, is a very promising candidate for direct imaging," the discovered said in an announcement from the Geneva Observatory. "The longer the period, the larger the separation between the planet and the parent star, therefore the easier it becomes to distinguish the feeble glow of the planet near the bright glare of the star." The observers said the estimated separation between the planet and star is good enough to attempt direct observations of the star using the 3.6-meter (141.7-inch) Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, using the telescope's adaptive optics system. The observers also confirmed the discovery last month of a planet around the star Gliese 876. The planet around the star, just 15 light years from Earth, was announced last month by veteran extrasolar planet discoverer Geoff Marcy of San Francisco State University. Mayor and Queloz discovered the first extrasolar planet around a Sun-like star when they discovered a planet around 51 Pegasi in 1995. *** CyberSpace *** The Space Weather Bureau Solar flares, aurorae, even meteor showers -- all are considered "space weather", events outside the Earth's atmosphere that can have effects on satellites, communications, and astronauts in orbit. The Space Weather Bureau provides updated information on the current space weather, such as solar flare activity, and a 24-hour forecast. There's also some background information on space weather phenomena and related news items. http://www.spaceweather.com/ Orbit-on-Web Orbit-on-Web allows people to perform orbital computations within their Web browser. Convert between orbital elements and state vectors, propigate orbits, compute transfers between orbits, and more, at this Web site. You'll need some knowledge of orbital mechanics and a browser that supports JavaScript to take advanatage of this site's features. http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/2902/orbit.htm The Moon Race Homepage The Moon Race Homepage features a detailed history of the race between the United States and the Soviet Union to be the first to set a man on the Moon. A detailed timeline explores Space Race history from the 50s into the 70s, and background information gives you the opportunity to learn more about the people and technologies that shaped the efforts of both countries. Pictures and videos add to the multimedia experience of the site. http://members.aol.com/dsmith6439/moonrace/moonrace.htm Wired Collections: Space Exploration While Wired magazine is considered by many to be a magazine of the Internet and new computer technologies, it has published a number of articles on space exploration in the past several years, with an emphasis on new space technologies. This Web site includes links to those articles, ranging from SETI to the Roton and robotic spacecraft. There are also links to Wired News space news articles. http://www.wired.com/collections/space_exploration/ Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
    Дата: 23 июля 1998 (1998-07-23) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: SpaceViews Update - 15 July 1998 [6/6] Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... *** Space Capsules *** SpaceViews Event Horizon July 21: Galileo flyby of Europa July 23: Long March 2C/SD launch of replacement Iridium satellites August 13: Soyuz TM-28 launch from Baikonur, Kazakhstan August 13-16: Mars Society Founding Convention, Boulder, Colorado Other News SpaceDev Buys British Firm: SpaceDev announced July 6 that it was acquiring Space Innovations Limited (SIL), a British builder of small satellites and satellite subsystems. Terms of the deal were not announced. SpaceDev is working on the Near Earth Asteroid Prospedctor (NEAP), the first private space exploration spacecraft, and the SIL deal is seen as a way to bring needed knowledge and technology into the company. "We are especially interested in SIL's deep space X-band transceiver capabilities, one of many SIL subsystems applicable to our Near Earth Asteroid Prospector," Jim Benson, president and CEO of SpaceDev, said. SPACEHAB Buys Engineering Firm: SPACEHAB moved to expland its presence in support of human spaceflight July 1 with the acquisition of Houston-based Johnson Engineering Corporation ("JE"), a Johnson Space Center contractor. JE handles a number of key services for NASA, including operations of the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, a weightlessness trainer; construction of ISS mockups used in training; and developing hardware for use in the crew quarters of the International Space Station. Key leaders of JE, including former astronaut Eugene Cernan, will stay with SPACEHAB and its JE subsidiary. "Having spent most of my career in the space program, I am delighted to be part of SPACEHAB, which has been leading the development of commercial systems that are advancing the frontier of human space flight," Cernan said. Boeing, TRW Win NRO Contracts: TRW and Boeing announced Friday, July 10, that they won contracts to build and launch, respectively, an experimental National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) satellite to test the feasibility of laser communications. Under a $77.8 million contract, TRW will design, build and operate the Geosynchronous Lightweight Technology Experiment (GeoLITE) satellite. The satellite will be launched in early 2001 on a Boeing Delta II rocket. GeoLITE is an advanced technology demonstration satellite designed to test the effectiveness of laser communications. It will also be outfitted with more conventional ultra-high frequency (UHF) communications equipment. Evidence for Magentars: Astronomers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center believe a recent series of low-energy gamma-ray bursts detected last month is caused by a magnetar, a rare type of neutron star with an intense magnetic field whose surface is subjected to powerful quakes. The bursts match the profile of a soft gamma repeater (SGR), a rare class of gamma-ray burst source. This SGR is only the fourth known to exist and the first discovered since the late 1970s. SGRs are thought to be a brief stage in the life of a magnetar, a neutron star with an intense magnetic field up to a million billion (10^15) times as powerful as the Earth's magnetic field. Astronomers think that the powerful magnetic fields of magnetars cause wrinkles in their tightly-bound surfaces. The fields cause wrinkles only a few millimeters high, but enough to cause the surfaces to crack in a "starquake" and release tremendous amounts of energy in the form of X-rays and gamma rays. University Gets Solar Satellite Contract: The University of California, Berkeley, has won a $72 million contract to build and operate a satellite designed to study solar flares during the upcoming solar maximum, the university announced June 30. The High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (HESSI) will be the first NASA spacecraft in over 25 years to be designed, built, and operated entirely by a university and its partners. NASA relinquished control of much of the mission to the university as a way reduce the costs of the mission, estimated to be $72 million. "When we initially put together this mission the estimated cost was 10 times as much, in part because we had to comply with the way NASA did things in large projects," said project leader Professor Robert Lin. "Now that NASA has changed its philosophy, we can be lean and efficient - and more responsible to the public." The spacecraft, scheduled for launch into Earth orbit in the year 2000, will carry a telescope that will observe solar flares at X-ray and gamma-ray wavelengths. This has been the July 15, 1998, issue of SpaceViews Update. SpaceViews Update is also availble on the World Wide web from the SpaceViews home page: http://www.spaceviews.com/ or via anonymous FTP from ftp.seds.org: /pub/info/newsletters/spaceviews/update/980715.txt For editorial questions and article submissions for SpaceViews or Spaceviews Update, contact the editor, Jeff Foust, at jeff@spaceviews.com. For questions about the SpaceViews mailing list, please contact spaceviews-approval@nss.org. ____ | "SpaceViews" (tm) -by Boston Chapter // \ // | of the National Space Society (NSS) // (O) // | Dedicated to the establishment // \___// | of a spacefaring civilization. Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
    Дата: 23 июля 1998 (1998-07-23) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: Today On Galileo - July 20, 1998 Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... TODAY ON GALILEO July 20, 1998 The Europa-Orbit 16 encounter continues today with a significant increase in spacecraft activity. The increase in activity is prompted primarily by the spacecraft's close flyby of Europa, but Galileo's instruments also take a good look at Jupiter's atmosphere and at Io. During the day, the spacecraft passes through closest approach to Jupiter, Callisto and Europa. Closest approach to Jupiter occurs at 5:18 pm PDT [See Note 1 below] at a distance of 633,000 kilometers (393,000 miles). Callisto follows at 8:55 pm PDT at an unremarkable distance of 1,250,000 kilometers (778,000 miles). Finally, the close flyby of Europa occurs at 10:04 pm PDT at an altitude of 1829 kilometers (1137 miles) and a speed of 6.2 kilometers per second (13,870 miles per hour). The photopolarimeter radiometer instrument kicks off today's observing by taking a look at Io. The observation is designed to identify and gather information describing large, low temperature hot spots on Io's surface. The observation is expected to provide scientists with information on how rapidly Io's surface heats up and cools down. The near-infrared spectrometer joins the observing activities with three observations of Jupiter's atmosphere. The first is designed to provide data that will allow scientists to track changes in temperature and composition from orbit to orbit. The remaining two will map a hot spot region at high spatial resolutions. Hot spots are areas where Jupiter's atmosphere is relatively cloud-free, allowing energy from the deeper, warmer layers of the atmosphere to escape into space. Observations of hot spots are the deepest the Galileo Orbiter will be able to see into Jupiter's atmosphere. The photopolarimeter radiometer also looks at Jupiter's atmosphere today. Four of its observations are designed to search for subtle temperature variations in Jupiter's atmosphere. In addition, in a single observation, the instrument takes a look a the region where two white ovals have either merged or one has disappeared. White ovals are large, long lived storms, although they're not as big as Great Red Spot. They are typically found to roll around in the boundary regions between two opposing zonal jet streams. The merging or disappearance of one of these storms has not happened since observing of these features started, approximately 50 years ago. The remainder of observations scheduled for today focus on the close flyby of Europa. Tied specifically to closest approach are observations performed by the fields and particles instruments and the radio science team. For about an hour surrounding the close flyby of Europa, the fields and particles instruments make high time resolution measurements of the dust, plasma, magnetic and electric field environment surrounding Europa. These measurements will be added to the growing repository of data that describes the interactions between Europa and Jupiter's magnetospheric environment. The radio science experiment, in contrast, starts 10 hours before and continues for 10 hours after the point of closest approach. During this time, the radio science team monitors Galileo's radio signal and measures changes in frequency caused by Europa's gravitational pull on the spacecraft. Using the Doppler effect, the team will be able to refine gravity field maps produced with measurements from previous orbits. In the remote sensing arena, the photopolarimeter radiometer starts the observing of Europa. Throughout the day, the instrument completes three observations designed to characterize the thermal variations of Europa's surface and shed light on how the surface was formed, how old it might be and what it is made of. Two of the observations are performed on Europa's dark side and one looks at Europa's day side. The spacecraft's camera gathers information on Europa's surface via nine observations taken at resolutions ranging from 19 meters (62 feet) to 240 meters (788 feet) per picture element. The regions captured in the observations include Agenor linea, the northern and southern portions of Thrace Macula, the Taliesin crater and Thynia linea. Also included in this image campaign is a region of pull-apart wedges, a region near Europa's terminator and a region of highly dissected terrain. The last of these is the one taken at the highest resolution of this encounter, 19 meters (62 feet) per picture element. The near-infrared mapping spectrometer, together with the ultraviolet spectrometer, with four observations, also take a look at several different regions of Europa. Each region is characterized by distinct geological features associated with the formation of the Europan surface. The observations focus on regions containing contrasting bright and dark features, including a remarkable distribution of dark and bright materials in and around the Thrace Macula region. Information about the composition of these regions can be obtained by studying the contrast between the features. Note 1. All times listed correspond to the Pacific Time zone (currently daylight saving) and spacecraft event time. Radio signals indicating that an event has occurred on the spacecraft reach the Earth 35 to 50 minutes later, depending on the time of year (currently 36.5 minutes). 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: 23 июля 1998 (1998-07-23) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: New Mars Global Surveyor Image Available Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... NEW MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGE A new image taken by the Mars Global Surveyor spacercraft is now available at the MGS website: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/msss/camera/images/7_17_98_gusev_rel/index.html The image caption is appended below. Ron Baalke Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) High Resolution Images July 20, 1998 Moon/Mars Landing Commemorative Release: Gusev Crater and Ma'adim Vallis Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera Release: MOC2-58a, -58b, -58c, -58d Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera Image ID: 577869444.25905 P259-05 (A) [Image] 107 KByte JPG image (A) Gusev Crater and Ma'adim Vallis. Gusev Crater is approximately 150 kilometers (93 miles) across. Ma'adim Vallis is the nearly straight canyon that enters Gusev Crater from the lower right. White box indicates the location of MOC image 25905, shown below in (C). Picture is a high resolution digital image mosaic of Viking Orbiter images prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey. North is up, illumination is from the upper left. (B) [Image] 183 KByte JPG image (B) Close-up of southern Gusev Crater and the location (white box) of MOC image 25905. Ma'adim Vallis is the canyon that enters Gusev Crater at the lower center of the frame. Compare with (A) for context. Picture is a U.S. Geological Survey digital image mosaic of Viking Orbiter images. The white box is approximately 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) wide and 35.5 kilometers (22 miles) long. North is up, illumination is from the upper left. (C) [Image] 167 KByte JPG image (C) The MOC image 25905, shown at 40% of its original size. At this size, the image resolution is 18.3 meters (60 feet) per pixel. The white box indicates the location of the subframe shown at full resolution in (D). North is approximately up, illumination is from the lower right. (D) [Image] 160 KByte JPG image (D) Floor of Ma'adim Vallis, seen at 7.3 meters (24 feet) per pixel. Subframe of MOC image 25905. See (C) above for context. North is approximately up, illumination is from the lower right. You may need to adjust the images for the gamma of your monitor to insure proper viewing. Note: This MOC image is made available in order to share with the public the excitement of new discoveries being made via the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. The image may be reproduced only if the image is credited to "Malin Space Science Systems/NASA". Release of this image does not constitute a release of scientific data. The image and its caption should not be referenced in the scientific literature. Full data releases to the scientific community are scheduled by the Mars Global Surveyor Project and NASA Planetary Data System. Typically, data will be released after a 6 month calibration and validation period. Click Here for more information on MGS data release and archiving plans. CAPTION On July 20, 1969, the first human beings landed on the Moon. On July 20, 1976, the first robotic lander touched down on Mars. This July 20th-- 29 years after Apollo 11 and 22 years since the Viking 1 Mars landing-- we take a look forward toward one possible future exploration site on the red planet. One of the advantages of the Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) over its predecessors on the Viking and Mariner spacecraft is resolution. The ability to see--resolve--fine details on the martian surface is key to planning future landing sites for robotic and, perhaps, human explorers that may one day visit the planet. At present, NASA is studying potential landing sites for the Mars Surveyor landers, rovers, and sample return vehicles that are scheduled to be launched in 2001, 2003, and 2005. Among the types of sites being considered for these early 21st Century landings are those with "exobiologic potential"--that is, locations on Mars that are in some way related to the past presence of water. For more than a decade, two of the prime candidates suggested by various Mars research scientists are Gusev Crater and Ma'adim Vallis. Located in the martian southern cratered highlands at 14.7њ S, 184.5њ W, Gusev Crater is a large, ancient, meteor impact basin that--after it formed--was breached by Ma'adim Vallis. Viking Orbiter observations provided some evidence to suggest that a fluid--most likely, water--once flowed through Ma'adim Vallis and into Gusev Crater. Some scientists have suggested that there were many episodes of flow into Gusev Crater (as well as flow out of Gusev through its topographically-lower northwestern rim). Some have also indicated that there were times when Ma'adim Vallis, also, was full of water such that it formed a long, narrow lake. The possibility that water flowed into Gusev Crater and formed a lake has led to the suggestion that the materials seen on the floor of this crater--smooth-surfaced deposits, buried craters, and huge mesas near the mouth of Ma'adim Vallis--are composed of sediment that eroded out of the highlands to the south of Gusev Crater. In 1995, the Exobiology Program Office at NASA Headquarters produced a report, An Exobiological Strategy for Mars Exploration (NASA SP-530), that included Gusev Crater as a possible priority site for future Mars exploration because it might once have been a lake. At 12:17 a.m. (PDT) on April 24, 1998--during Mars Global Surveyor's 259th orbit--MOC obtained the high resolution image of Gusev Crater and Ma'adim Vallis shown above, in part to test some of the proposed hypotheses. The raw image has a scale of 7.3 meters (24 feet) per pixel. At this scale, there are no obvious shorelines that would indicate the past presence of a lake in either Ma'adim Vallis or Gusev Crater. There are several alternative explanations for this absence, including: * It is possible that any lake in Gusev occurred so long ago that erosion by wind and hillslope processes have long since removed such features. * It is possible that 7.3 meters per pixel is insufficient to identify key diagnostic lake features. * It is possible that a lake once existed, but that shore- and near-shore processes as they occur in terrestrial lake environments did not occur on Mars. * It is possible no lake ever existed. When Mars Global Surveyor achieves its Mapping Orbit in March 1999, MOC will have the ability to obtain pictures with resolutions around 1.5 meters (5 feet) per pixel. Sometime during the mapping mission, it may be possible to image Gusev Crater again to look for potential lake features and possible future landing sites. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO. Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
    Дата: 23 июля 1998 (1998-07-23) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: NEAR Weekly Report Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... NEAR WEEKLY REPORT July 17, 1998 MISSION OPERATIONS: NEAR spacecraft state is nominal. All instruments are still off. AIU #1 in control. Presently switching between GS-5 attitude mode (Sun pointing) and GS-4 (Earth pointing) attitude modes during selected real-time contacts. Approximately one third of real-time contacts are still Sun pointing (Fan Beam @ 9.9 Bps) to minimize unnecessary m omentum buildup. Completed Solid State Recorders (SSRs) segmentation on July 8. New segmentation scheme will support dual recorder operations now through the end of mission. Operations is reviewing results. Loaded new semi-permanent macros required for Eros operations and to be used after Seq_gen operations begin. First Seq_gen command load was aborted last Friday after it was discovered the XGRS commands included in it had not gone through sufficient revie w (better safe then sorry). Consequently, a fundamental change to the routine command processing flow was made to include instrument engineer reviews prior to delivery to Mission Operations. Also, a comprehensive review of all current instrument command sequences is underway. The new MSI flight software was delivered to Mission Operations on Friday, July 10. Operations has made the necessary updates to the telemetry and command database, loaded the new software to the simulator, and begun testing. Participated in the normal weekly Eros planning meetings. Future Plans: Seq_Gen based commanding will now begin with the spacecraft command load to be executed on August 31. Continuing with comprehensive review and test of all instrument Command Activity Sequences (CASs). Continuing development and trial use of Mission Operation's Web pages. Incorporate new version of Epoch 2000 software that contains numerous "bug fixes" to real-time software. Upcoming Spacecraft Activities: July 17: Turn on MAG July TBD: Turn on XGRS July 22: MSI software upload July/August TBD: Load AIU #2 with software version 1.06 (prior to FC load) July/August TBD: Flight Computer (FC) software upload August TBD: Momentum Dump testing via "Fancy Burn" August 13: OpNav A #1 (First OpNav of Eros) August 26: TCM 14 September 28: OpNav A #2 October 7: Multispectral Rotation Sequence (Dry Run) MISSION DESIGN: NEAR Mission Design Team tasks during the past week include: (1) Mission Design personnel computed details of the next trajectory correction maneuver, TCM-14, scheduled for August 26 at 17hU.T. The burn will be performed with the high-gain antenna (HGA) pointed at the Earth with a -xB component of 0. 237 m/sec and a +zA component of 0.707 m/sec, according to our latest m_tcm14_d4b design. The rendezvous burn sequence is unchanged from last week. As of late July 16, we have come close to convergence with Nav on the TCM-14 and rendezvous maneuver desi g ns. TCM-14 will undergo a slight revision next week to prepare inputs for two separate burns 30 minutes apart. This revision will account for a flight computer software revision delay, that may prevent performing TCM-14 with the "fancy burn" mode. (2) Mission Design Team personnel completed conceptual design of the NEAR Eros Encounter Timeline web page, which will be accessible from NEAR's home page <http://near.jhuapl.edu> no later than December 20, 1998. (3) Mission Design Team personnel participated in the NEAR Eros Arrival and Early Operations Meetings on Thursdays, and wrote and distributed formal minutes for the weekly meeting. Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
    Дата: 23 июля 1998 (1998-07-23) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: Mars Global Surveyor Update - July 17, 1998 Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... Mars Global Surveyor Project Status Report Overview Prepared by Mars Surveyor Operations Project Manager NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Friday 17 July 1998 The Mars Global Surveyor continues successfully acquiring science data in the second part of the Science Phasing Orbit period. The spacecraft health remains excellent. Two science instrument calibration activities were completed in the past week: a internal mirror alignment calibration and limb observation for the Thermal Emission Spectrometer, and a set of independent rotations of the spacecraft's solar arrays to complete the calibration of residual spacecraft magnetic fields for the Magnetometer instrument. Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=
    Дата: 23 июля 1998 (1998-07-23) От: Alexander Bondugin Тема: Mars Society Bulletin#4 Привет всем! Вот, свалилось из Internet... Message: 533 To: Mars Society Mail-List Member <list@marssociety.org> From: Mars List Manager <Marsman@wayback.com> Subject: Mars Special Bulletin #4 Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 19:54:23 -0700 MARS SOCIETY SPECIAL BULLETIN #4 Reprint, pass on or post as desired. For more information see http://www.marssociety.org SEND "MARIE CURIE" TO MARS! As a result of the $20 million added to the Mars 2001 mission by the Senate Appropriations Committee following mobilizations by the Mars Society and the Planetary Society, NASA is now considering restoring a rover to the mission. NASA had originally planned to fly the highly capable Athena rover to Mars in 2001, however after the administration took $60 million from the program to pay for a Space Station overrun, the Athena rover was pulled from the mission. The $20 million restored is not enough to support flying Athena, but it may be possible to fly the smaller Marie Curie rover equipped with some of Athena's instrumentation. Marie Curie is about the size of the Sojourner rover flown to Mars by the Pathfinder mission in 1997, but could be made more sophisticated. In particular, increasing the power of her transmitter could allow Marie Curie to report back through the orbiter, as well as the lander, thus allowing her to rove over the horizon from the landing site and to continue operations after the lander fails. Flying her in 2001 would be a major step towards restoring the forward motion in the robotic Mars program that was severely endangered after the Administration's unsound decision to strip committed funds from the 2001 Mars mission. To insure that she flies, the Senate Appropriations Committee will need to follow the $20 million they wisely restored to the program this year with another $30 million next year. Committee staffers have implied that they will do this, but the situation is fluid and continued political pressure is needed to make sure that this occurs. The real issue however, is that the robotic Mars program is grossly underfunded. For a budget of $150 million per year (about 1% of NASA's budget) they need to launch two Discovery-class missions to Mars every two years while preparing the technology base for a much more ambitious Mars Sample Return mission, tentatively scheduled for 2005. In reality, in order for this program to be accomplished, the funding for the Mars program needs to be doubled. It should be: No other current NASA program is accomplishing near as much for anything like the cost. Furthermore, for the administration not to do so is a direct violation of President Clinton's pledge of August 1996 to "put the full technological and intellectual might of the United States behind the search for life on Mars." Beyond this, of course, is the need for starting the humans to Mars program, beginning at a funding level equal to that of the robotic Mars program. Marie Curie may not be the Goddess of Wisdom, but she's the next best thing. If she flies, it will be because of the political pressure mounted by the Mars Society and like minded people so far, and that which we will mobilize in the future. The same can be said for raising the funding of the robotic Mars program overall to an adequate level, and getting the humans-to-Mars program started. It can happen, but it will only happen if we make it happen. Everyone needs to speak up. Save the robotic Mars exploration program. Start the human exploration program. Send these gentlemen your message! President Bill Clinton - president@whitehouse.gov Vice President Al Gore - vice.president@whitehouse.gov NASA Administrator Dan Goldin -dgoldin@mail.hq.nasa.gov Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) - senatorlott@lott.senate.gov Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-GA) - georgia6@mail.house.gov Senator Christopher Bond, Chairman VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies Subcommittee -kit_bond@bond.senate.gov Representative Jerry Lewis (R-CA), Chairman VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies Subcommittee - c/o dave.lesstrang@mail.house.gov Further information about the situation with the 2001 Mars mission can be found in Mars society Special Bulletins #2 and #3, which are posted on the Mars society website at http://www.marssociety.org. MARS SOCIETY CONFERENCE: "THE WOODSTOCK OF MARS" At this point, over 500 commitments have been received to speak or attend the Mars Society Founding convention, which will take place in Boulder Colorado, August 13-16, 1998. Included among the nearly 200 speakers are representatives from the US, Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Rumania, Greece, Japan, China, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Jamaica, and Mozambique. Every NASA center is represented. Every US National Lab, and many of the top universities are represented. Among those attending are representatives from every walk of life ranging from scientists and engineers to prominent poets and filmmakers. Two national TV crews, a major documentary maker, two leading print journalists, and an important national radio commentator have also already registered. Some of the many distinguished speakers who will address the convention include: Mr. Jim Benson, the president and CEO of SpaceDev, a privately held and publicly traded company that is raising capital to fund interplanetary exploration on a private basis. Dr. Jacques Blamont, one of the leading exponents of Mars exploration in France, and the worlds' expert in the use of balloons to explore Mars from the air. Dr. Everett Gibson, one of the co-leaders of the famous ALH84001 Mars meteorite team, who will reveal the group's latest evidence for past life on Mars. Dr. Matt Golombek, Project Scientist for JPL's Pathfinder mission. Dr. Michael Griffin, former NASA Associate Administrator for Exploration and current Executive Vice President of Orbital Sciences, Inc. Dr. Christopher McKay, of NASA Ames Research Center, one of the seminal figures in the search for life on Mars and the possibility of terraforming the Red Planet. Prof. Frederick Turner, author of the Miltonian epic poem "Genesis," who will discuss the interrelationship between great ages of exploration and great ages in the arts. Dr. Lowell Wood, heir to Edward Teller as a leader in advanced technology development at Lawrence Livermore National Lab, who will discuss how such technologies can be used to explore, colonize, and ultimately terraform Mars. Dr. Robert Zubrin, the creator of the Mars Direct plan and the author of "The Case for Mars," who will discuss how we can get human explorers on Mars within a decade, and why we must. If you have not yet registered, now would be a good time to do so. By preregistering, you can avoid, and possibly help prevent, excessive lines at the on-site registration tables. Forms for fax, mail or on-line registration can be found at the Mar Society website at http://www.marssociety.org. It's going to be the Woodstock of Mars! BRITISH MARS SOCIETY CHAPTER HOLDS FIRST MEETING On July 4, the UK Chapter of the Mars Society held its first public meeting in London. Professor Colin Pillinger, the chief investigator of the Beagle II spacecraft which Britain hopes to fly to Mars in 2003, gave an inspiring talk about the likelihood of life on Mars and current efforts to explore it. All of the twelve attendees voiced a commitment to being involved in the Society. The next public meeting will take place in about a month. Details will follow shortly. For further information, contact Philip Dembo: philip@dembo.demon.co.uk FRENCH CHAPTER OF MARS SOCIETY TO FORM We have received a number of inquiries from people wishing to join a French chapter of the Mars Society. Those wishing to help organize a French Mars Society should send an e-mail to Robert Zubrin (zubrin@aol.com), who will then forward it to the French organizers. The founding of a French Mars Society will be a very important step, as France has the third largest space program in the world, and is currently negotiating an alliance for Mars exploration (only robotic, so far) with NASA. A French Mars Society can play a vital part to insure that France continues to expand its role in interplanetary exploration. NEW MARS BOOKS Pathfinder Project Scientist Dr. Matt Golombek and Business Week senior science writer Paul Raeburn are the authors of a new book, "Mars: Uncovering the Secrets of the Red Planet." The large format illustrated book will be published by the National Geographic Society in August and will retail for $40. The book includes two spectacular panoramic gatefolds and more than 135 color photographs taken by the Viking, Pathfinder, and Mars Global Surveyor missions. Matt Golombek will speak at the Mars Society conference about both the experience and science of the Pathfinder mission on Friday August 14, and sign copies of the hot-off-the-press book at that time. If you are going to buy the book, this will be the best place to do it, because it will be a signed first edition and 100% of the profit will go to the Mars Society!. "The Case for Mars" by Robert Zubrin with Richard Wagner is now available in Chinese. The edition is published by Business Weekly Publications in Taiwan, and will be distributed both on Taiwan and in mainland China. In addition to 7 English language printings of the book by Simon and Schuster, other translations of "The Case for Mars" have been published in German, Japanese, and Polish. A French edition is currently being negotiated. Those interested in obtaining copies of the Chinese edition should contact Sarah Chen. Her e- mail address is: sarah@bwp.com.tw The Mars Society is interested in publicizing information about new books or other resources concerning Mars. If you know of a book that you think should be mentioned in our special bulletins or our electronic magazine, New Mars, please forward it to Richard Wagner, the New Mars editor, at campr2@javanet.com SECOND ISSUE OF "NEW MARS" PUBLISHED The second issue of "New Mars," the Mars Society's electronic journal containing the latest news and features concerning Mars exploration and settlement has now been published. Some of the articles include discussion of Generation X and Mars, the Haughton Mars Project to explore Mars-like environments in the Canadian Arctic, the state of space exploration, the proposed French-American Mars exploration alliance now being negotiated in high government circles, the situation of Europe's 2003 Mars Express Mission, and the Mars society's sponsored Hakluyt Award contest for the best letters written by students to world leaders urging the initiation of a human Mars exploration program. New Mars is available for viewing through the Mars Society's website at http://www.marssociety.org New Mars is edited by former Ad Astra editor Richard Wagner. If you have an idea for a possible contribution, you can contact him at campr2@javanet.com. To find out more about the Mars Society, visit our website at http://www.marssociety.org. Hа сегодня все, пока! =SANA=

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