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November 30, 01

'ASTRO CLAUS' CONDUCTS MATH CONTEST/WEBCAST FOR STUDENTS

Hoping to see and hear their names during an upcoming NASA Internet
webcast, thousands of first- to fifth-grade students are expected to
participate in on-line, holiday-related math activities beginning
Monday, Dec. 3.

Students will submit answers to math problems and can send a
'stumper' problem of their own to the Merry Math website that
features Astro Claus and Dr. Joy, two characters played by website
personnel, at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/events/astroclaus/2001/
The webcast will enable students to watch live video, listen to audio
and interact in real time on the Internet with Astro Claus and Dr.
Joy on Friday, Dec. 14, at 10 a.m. PST (3 p.m. North Pole Time).

"The primary focus is to get children excited about math by relating
it to holiday activities," said Linda Conrad of the NASA Quest
program at NASA Ames Research Center, in the heart of California's
Silicon Valley. "Our webcasts are designed to engage the classroom in
science and mathematics, including lesson plans and curricula
developed by NASA." Students can participate in the NASA-sponsored
Internet events without pre-registering.

On Monday, Dec. 3, a series of questions ranging from first-grade
through fifth-grade skill levels will be posted on the Astro Claus
pages. Each question is tied to a mathematical concept appropriate
for the particular level. Students may respond to any or all of these
questions at any time prior to Thursday,
Dec. 13.

Astro Claus, an 'intergalactic character,' will appear on camera
dressed in red during the Dec. 14 webcast. Joy Colucci of Ames, who
plays Dr. Joy, will explain how to solve some of the problems during
the program. "These space travel experts will unravel mathematical
ideas and concepts pertaining to space flight, whether in a shuttle
or a sleigh," Conrad said.

"Dr. Joy will walk through the solutions to selected problems during
the webcast on Friday, Dec. 14," said Conrad. "We are selecting the
best answers submitted by the children. We have an additional contest
in which students describe a newly engineered sleigh for Astro
Claus." 'Astroelves' will select a winner of the written Astro sleigh
design contest during the program.

Students will learn the concepts of measurement, numbers and
operation. "At every age there are ways in which students can
experience mathematics in an enticing environment that deepens their
interest and propels them toward the life-long love of learning that
we strive to cultivate," Conrad said.

Thousands of students participated in Merry Math last year, according
to Tish Krieg, who leads this year's project.

The NASA Quest team, located at NASA Ames, produces Merry Math.
Quest's live interactive educational events feature NASA expertise,
serving thousands of students worldwide. Last year Astro Claus hit
the galaxies for the first time, and thousands of young students and
children tuned in eagerly to hear Astro Claus and Dr. Joy read their
names from the scroll of good little boys and girls.

Students and the public can visit a website at:
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/to find additional activities for K-12
students. For more information about the Internet webcasts and chats,
please call Linda Conrad at 650/604-1519. She also can be reached via
e-mail, at lconrad@mail.arc.nasa.gov

Astronomers Uncover Orbital Mystery Of Jupiter's Tiny Moons

NEW ORLEANS --- In what could be the ultimate in fast-forward,
Cornell University planetary scientists have used one of the world's
most powerful computing clusters to simulate motions of the small
moons of Jupiter over a one billion-year epoch. From this, the
researchers have learned how the tugs and pulls of the sun and
planets -- even from hundreds of millions of miles away -- shake out
the permanent moons of the giant planets from those that get tossed
away.

In a three-month computing marathon, the Velocity I cluster at the
Cornell Theory Center was able to mimic cosmic conditions over eons
that would cause physical perturbations in the moons of Jupiter. The
calculations were produced by entering orbital data from hypothetical
moons of the planet. As a result, the astronomers now have an
explanation for the unusual orbits of 12 confirmed small, eccentric
moons of Jupiter.

Joseph Burns, Cornell professor of astronomy and engineering, and
Valerio Carruba, Cornell graduate student in astronomy, will detail
their research in a talk, "On the Orbital Distribution of Irregular
Satellite Systems," at the American Astronomical Society's Division
for Planetary Sciences meeting today (Nov. 30) at the Hyatt Superdome
in New Orleans. Joining Carruba and Burns on the research were Philip
D. Nicholson, Cornell professor of astronomy; Brett J. Gladman,
Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, Nice, France; and Matthew J.
Holman, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass.

"The big moons are the ones you know and love, and their orbits are
circular and they are always in the planets' equatorial plane," says
Burns. "The small moons, about 10 to 100 miles in diameter, have
been captured by the large planets and they have distant, elongated,
elliptical orbits that are highly inclined. We wanted to know why."
None of the irregular moons (that is, those with non-circular orbits)
has an inclination -- the angle relative to the planet's orbital
plane -- between 47 degrees and 141 degrees. Thus, there is an area
of Jupiter's sky free from moons of any sort. The astronomers
discovered that any tiny moons that might once have orbited well off
Jupiter's orbital plane, have smashed into the planet or have been
tossed into a perpetual orbit around the sun, says Carruba. Below
the 39-degree orbital plane, the eccentricities of the moons'
elongated-elliptical orbit change little.

In other words, an observer positioned on Jupiter's equator would see
the four large Galilean moons grouped directly overhead and the tiny
satellites (the 12 confirmed plus a dozen other recently discovered
moons) scattered as much as 40 degrees away. Far to the north and
south there would be no moons.

To try to explain this phenomenon, the astronomers turned to the
Cornell Theory Center's Velocity I cluster. The 256-processor
cluster consists of 64 Dell PowerEdge servers, each with four Intel
Pentium III Xeon 500 Mhz processors and running Microsoft Windows
2000 operating system. The astronomers "installed" hypothetical
moons around Jupiter, programmed in the physical perturbations that
would likely occur in a simulated scenario and mimicked cosmic
conditions for a period of one billion years.

In addition to finding how the sun's gravity pulls the moons from
their orbits, the researchers are studying why the orbits of the tiny
moons are tightly clumped together. The astronomers have deduced
that the moons were once larger objects broken apart by cometary or
asteroidal collisions.

Burns says this research is an early step to understanding how the
giant planets were formed. "This research is similar to how
archaeologists -- by investigating what remains -- reconstruct the
birth and death of civilizations," says Burns. "As planetary
scientists, we have a comparable opportunity to decipher the origin
of giant planets by interpreting the orbital distribution structure
of irregular satellites that still orbit their planets. We hope to
use the observed distribution to start to unravel the formations of
the planets themselves."

Cassini Significant Events for 11/21/01 - 11/28/01

The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone
tracking station on Wednesday,
November 28. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health
and is operating normally. "Present Position" web page,
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/english/where/ .

Recent instrument activities include a Radio and Plasma Wave Science
(RPWS) High Frequency Receiver
calibration, instruments waking up after the Huygens Probe Relay test,
the Ka-Band Exciter and Traveling
Wave Tube Amplifier powering on, and all instruments going quiet for the
Gravitational Wave Experiment
(GWE). Engineering activities taking place onboard the spacecraft this
week include a transition to Reaction
Wheel Assembly (RWA) control from the Reaction Control Subsystem and an
RWA unload in preparation
for the GWE.

The Cassini Radio Science team began the GWE on November 25. This is
the first prime science objective
on the Cassini Program, and will run for 40 days, ending on January 4,
with two more opportunities later
during the cruise phase of the mission. The GWE research scientists
will use radio transmissions between
Cassini and Earth to search for gravitational waves measurably warping
space between the two, using
continuous coverage throughout the 40-day experiment to maximize the
chances of detecting the extremely
weak waves.

The multi-day Probe Relay test was completed this week. The tests were
required to check out the
communications link between the Huygens probe and the Cassini orbiter
spacecraft. Using the Goldstone
DSS-24 antenna, a series of signals was transmitted to Huygens, via
Cassini, to simulate the stream of data
that will be sent back by Huygens during its parachute descent through
Titan's atmosphere. This test
represented a major step towards the validation of the Huygens Recovery
Task Force design, testing the
nominal mission scenario and several deviations from it. While it will
take a few months to fully analyze the
data, initial indications show that all objectives were successfully
met.

A demonstration of uplink and downlink capabilities at the Emergency
Control Center (ECC) was conducted
last week and test reports indicate that all command, tracking, monitor
and telemetry data functions worked
successfully. Further testing of the ECC is planned after completion of
the GWE.

A Project Briefing was held to review the C31 Science Planning Team
integrated plan. The Program
Manager approved the contents of the plan, and C31 sequence generation
will continue into the next phase of
the process. Other Science Planning activities included the Saturn,
Cross-Discipline, and Ring Target Working
Teams meeting last week to finish integrating the Tour segments
associated with Orbits 4 through 10

The Imaging Science Subsystem and the Visual and Infrared Mapping
Spectrometer (VIMS) teams delivered
various software packages to the Multi-mission Image Processing
Laboratory (MIPL) Integration and Test
organization as a part of MIPL delivery D27. The delivery to Operations
will be in February 2002. The
delivery includes software to analyze data policing losses, extract
background, mirror data, and internal
housekeeping measurements from the VIMS Level 1A products, improve
validation of observation
description files delivered from the Science Teams, build such
observation description files in order to easily
generate test data, and improve handling of VIMS data when the visible
portion arrives before the infrared.

The Cassini Project scientist and deputy are attending the American
Astronomical Society Division for
Planetary Science meeting in New Orleans. A number of Cassini at
Jupiter papers have been presented.

Cassini is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and
the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of
the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., manages the
Cassini
mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.

Cassini Outreach
Cassini Mission to Saturn and Titan
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

LAUNCH OF SPACE SHUTTLE ENDEAVOUR RESET FOR TUESDAY, DEC. 4

International Space Station and Space Shuttle managers
have rescheduled the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour to
Tuesday at 5:45 p.m. EST from NASA's Kennedy Space Center,
Fla. The long-range weather forecast indicates favorable
conditions for launch.

The new date will allow sufficient time for a spacewalk to
clear an apparent obstruction in a docking mechanism on the
International Space Station's Zvezda module. This apparent
obstruction is believed to be preventing hooks and latches
from fully engaging to secure a Russian Progress supply
vehicle to its docking port.

The decision to reschedule was jointly made after Russian and
American flight controllers conducted an extensive review of
the amount of work required to complete the mating of the
Progress to the station.

In order to prepare for an expected four-hour spacewalk by
Expedition Three crewmembers Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail
Tyurin, beginning Monday morning about 8:30 EST, the crew,
including Commander Frank Culbertson, will adjust its sleep
schedule to match times during which the complex flies over
Russian ground communication sites -- a safety requirement.
The spacewalk will be carried on NASA TV beginning at 8 a.m.
EST Monday. A countdown-status press briefing will be carried
on NASA TV as soon as practical following the spacewalk.

This sleep-shifting currently does not match the schedule of
the arriving shuttle and Expedition Four crews, which is
required for the weeklong joint operations to transfer some
6,000 pounds (2,700 kilograms) of supplies to the station and
to the shuttle, in addition to swapping command from
Expedition Three to Expedition Four.

The decision to launch Endeavour Tuesday will allow both the
shuttle- and station-crew sleep schedules to properly align.
The decision also allows station managers to assess the
results of the spacewalk and allow launch controllers at
Kennedy to replenish power reactants aboard Endeavour that
would provide the flexibility for an additional day of joint
operations at the station, if necessary.

The shuttle crew of Commander Dom Gorie (Capt., USN), Pilot
Scott Kelly (Lt. Cdr, USN) and Mission Specialists Linda
Godwin (Ph.D.) and Dan Tani will deliver the Expedition Four
crew of Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Dan
Bursch (Capt., USN) and Carl Walz (Col., USAF) to the station
for a five-month stay aboard the complex, orbiting 240 miles
(386 kilometers) above the Earth.

The seven crewmembers will remain at Kennedy reviewing
mission-training plans and timelines, and spending time with
their families prior to Tuesday's launch. Gorie and Kelly will
conduct Shuttle Training Aircraft flights tonight and Sunday
to maintain proficiency for landing.

The countdown clock for Endeavour's launch will remain in the
T minus 11 hour hold until 2:47 a.m. EST Tuesday. Fueling of
the shuttle's external fuel tank will start at approximately
7:45 a.m. EST Tuesday and NASA TV coverage of the launch will
begin at 12:30 p.m. EST. A December 4 launch will provide for
a landing of Endeavour on December 15 at approximately 1:30
p.m. EST.

The Kennedy Space Center press site will be closed Saturday
and Sunday. Hours of operation Monday are from 8 a.m. to 7:00
p.m. and Tuesday from 7 a.m. to midnight.

Cassini Significant Events
for 11/21/01 - 11/28/01

The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone tracking station on Wednesday,
November 28. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health and is operating normally. "Present Position" web page, http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/english/where/ .

The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health and is operating normally. Recent instrument activities include a Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) High Frequency Receiver calibration, instruments waking up after the Huygens Probe Relay test, the Ka-Band Exciter and Traveling Wave Tube Amplifier powering on, and all instruments going quiet for the Gravitational Wave Experiment (GWE). Engineering activities taking place onboard the spacecraft this week include a transition to Reaction Wheel Assembly (RWA) control from the Reaction Control Subsystem and an RWA unload in preparation for the GWE.

The Cassini Radio Science team began the GWE on November 25. This is the first prime science objective
on the Cassini Program, and will run for 40 days, ending on January 4, with two more opportunities later
during the cruise phase of the mission. The GWE research scientists will use radio transmissions between
Cassini and Earth to search for gravitational waves measurably warping space between the two, using
continuous coverage throughout the 40-day experiment to maximize the chances of detecting the extremely
weak waves.

The multi-day Probe Relay test was completed this week. The tests were required to check out the
communications link between the Huygens probe and the Cassini orbiter spacecraft. Using the Goldstone
DSS-24 antenna, a series of signals was transmitted to Huygens, via Cassini, to simulate the stream of data
that will be sent back by Huygens during its parachute descent through Titan's atmosphere. This test
represented a major step towards the validation of the Huygens Recovery Task Force design, testing the
nominal mission scenario and several deviations from it. While it will take a few months to fully analyze the
data, initial indications show that all objectives were successfully met.

A demonstration of uplink and downlink capabilities at the Emergency Control Center (ECC) was conducted
last week and test reports indicate that all command, tracking, monitor and telemetry data functions worked
successfully. Further testing of the ECC is planned after completion of the GWE.

A Project Briefing was held to review the C31 Science Planning Team integrated plan. The Program
Manager approved the contents of the plan, and C31 sequence generation will continue into the next phase of
the process. Other Science Planning activities included the Saturn, Cross-Discipline, and Ring Target Working
Teams meeting last week to finish integrating the Tour segments associated with Orbits 4 through 10

The Imaging Science Subsystem and the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) teams delivered
various software packages to the Multi-mission Image Processing Laboratory (MIPL) Integration and Test
organization as a part of MIPL delivery D27. The delivery to Operations will be in February 2002. The
delivery includes software to analyze data policing losses, extract background, mirror data, and internal
housekeeping measurements from the VIMS Level 1A products, improve validation of observation
description files delivered from the Science Teams, build such observation description files in order to easily
generate test data, and improve handling of VIMS data when the visible portion arrives before the infrared.

The Cassini Project scientist and deputy are attending the American Astronomical Society Division for
Planetary Science meeting in New Orleans. A number of Cassini at Jupiter papers have been presented.

Cassini is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Cassini mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.

Cassini Outreach
Cassini Mission to Saturn and Titan
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

November 29, 01

Explosions on the Moon

During the 2001 Leonid meteor storm, astronomers observed a curious flash
on the Moon -- a telltale sign of meteoroids hitting the lunar surface and
exploding. In this story, experts describe the physics of lunar Leonid
explosions ... and speculate about meteor showers for observers living on
the Moon.

FULL STORY at

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast30nov_1.htm?list448368

OCEAN INSIDE JUPITER'S MOON CALLISTO MAY HAVE CUSHIONED BIG
IMPACT

A recent image from NASA's Galileo spacecraft adds
evidence to a theory that Callisto, the outermost of Jupiter's
four large moons, may hold an underground ocean.

The image shows a part of Callisto's surface directly
opposite from the Valhalla basin where Callisto was punched by
a major collision. The opposition point shows no effect from
the impact. Points opposite major impact features on some
similar-size worlds, such as Mercury and Earth's Moon, show
lumpy terrain attributed to seismic shocks from the distant
impacts.

The new image is consistent with a 1990s model proposing
that a liquid layer could be acting as a shock absorber inside
Callisto, said planetary geologist Dr. David A. Williams of
Arizona State University, Tempe.

"Although there is a lot of uncertainty in the computer
modeling of Callisto, it's good that this image supports the
hypothesis presented a decade ago. But it's not a smoking gun,
and a lot more evidence needs to be uncovered before we will
know for sure whether Callisto has a subsurface ocean,"
Williams said.

"Galileo has given us indications, primarily from
magnetometer data, of the possibility that Europa, Ganymede
and Callisto -- three of Jupiter's four large moons -- have
liquid-water layers," said Dr. Torrence Johnson, project
scientist for Galileo at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif.

"Liquid water is of interest not only for what it may
tell us about the evolution of these bodies, but also for
biological implications," Johnson said. Life relies on liquid
water, but an ocean on Callisto would not draw as much
interest in a search for life as one on Europa. An ocean on
Callisto would be much farther below the surface than Europa's
ocean. It would also be trapped between two layers of ice
rather than sitting on top of a warm rocky layer, as models
suggest for Europa.

Images taken of Valhalla's opposite point, or antipode,
during a May 25, 2001, flyby of Callisto by Galileo, show the
same type of cratered surface seen all over Callisto. In
contrast, regions opposite large impact basins on the Moon and
Mercury have grooved and hilly features known as "antipodal
terrains" and attributed to shocks from the impacts.

"The Valhalla antipodal region on Callisto is cratered,
but definitely not grooved and hilly," Williams said. He is
processing and analyzing the Galileo Callisto imagery with
James E. Klemaszewski and Dr. Ronald Greeley, also of Arizona
State University. Williams presented a preliminary analysis
today at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical
Society's Division for Planetary Sciences, being held in New
Orleans.

Earlier computer modeling of Callisto by Greeley and his
student Allison Watts suggested that if Callisto had a liquid
water layer in its interior, this layer would have dispersed
the seismic shock waves from the ancient Valhalla impact.
These shock waves might otherwise have produced grooved and
hilly terrain at the antipode.

Callisto is about the same size as Mercury. Its surface
of ice and rock is the most heavily cratered of any moon in
the solar system, signifying that it is geologically "dead."
There is no clear evidence that Callisto has experienced the
volcanic activity or tectonic shifting that have erased some
or all of the impact craters on Jupiter's other three large
moons. So, if the Valhalla impact billions of years ago had
reshaped the landscape on the opposite side of Callisto, those
effects would likely still be detectable.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages
Galileo for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.
Additional information about the mission is available online
at: http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov .

The new Callisto image is available online at
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/callisto .

NASA SPONSORSHIPS AWARDED TO HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., is awarding 25 high school
teams with sponsorships to compete in a robotics competition.

Sponsorships include funding to pay for the $5,000 entry fee to the First (For
Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), Southern California regional
competition, and in some cases pay for travel costs for one person to attend the January
kickoff meeting in Manchester, N.H. A local kickoff in Los Angeles will be available to
schools unable to travel to N.H.

The competitions are organized by First, a non-profit organization whose mission is to
generate an interest in science and technology. The First robotics competition aims to inspire
students, provide hands-on activities and foster teamwork. The program allows students to
work with engineers to build a robot. Each year, students get a task that their robot must
perform and a kit with nuts, bolts and other materials to get them started.

JPL is sponsoring the Southern California regional competition, which is the most
popular regional in the country, with more than 59 schools indicating interest. It is one of 13
competitions across the United States. The competition will take place April 4 to April 6,
2002 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The national robotics competition will be held
at Walt Disney World's Epcot Center in Orlando, Fla., April 25 to April 27, 2002. More than
530 teams are expected.

Information on First is available at: http://www.usfirst.org/ . Managed for NASA by
the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, JPL is the lead U.S. center for robotic
exploration of the solar system.

A complete list of all the NASA sponsorship winners is available at:
http://robots.larc.nasa.gov/ .

A list of the JPL awardees follows (all in California unless otherwise noted):

1. Arcadia High School, Arcadia
2. Cactus High School, Glendale, Ariz.
3. California Academy of Math & Science, Carson
4. Carl Hayden Community High School, Phoenix, Ariz.
5. Casa Grande Union High School, Casa Grande, Ariz.
6. Clark Magnet High School, La Crescenta
7. Coastal Academy, Torrance
8. Crescenta Valley High School, La Crescenta
9. Culver City High School, Culver City
10. Frazier Mountain High School, Lebec
11. Immaculate Heart High School, Los Angeles
12. Ironwood High School, Glendale, Ariz.
13. Jordan High School, Los Angeles
14. La Canada High School, La Canada
15. Pinewood Academy, La Canada Flintridge
16. Rolling Hills Prep School, Palos Verdes Estates
17. South High School, Bakersfield
18. South Mountain High School, Phoenix, Ariz.
19. Susan Miller Dorsey High School, Los Angeles
20. The Preuss School at UCSD, La Jolla
21. University High School, Los Angeles
22. Van Nuys High School, Van Nuys
23. Vanden High School, Fairfield
24. West Covina High School, West Covina
25. William Howard Taft High School, Woodland Hills

COMET ROCKS AND ROLLS IN SIMPLE MOVIE

NASA scientists have strung together images of comet
Borrelly to produce short movies of the comet as it travels
through space.

In one clip, the bare, rocky, icy nucleus wobbles back
and forth to reveal its textured surface, with some smooth and
some bumpy landscapes. The observations were taken when NASA's
Deep Space 1 spacecraft was between 3,700 and 9,500 kilometers
(between 2,300 and 5,900 miles) from the comet in September
2001.

In the second clip, jets of gas and dust shoot from all
sides of the comet's nucleus as it rotates a quarter turn. The
biggest jet, shooting from the central sunlit part of the
comet, is probably in line with the axis around which the
nucleus rotates. This large jet is eroding the central part
of the comet, smoothing parts of the terrain into rolling
hills. The erosion will eventually break the comet into
pieces. Coarsely textured parts of the comet at both ends are
geologically inactive areas. These images were taken from
between 22,500 and 4,980 kilometers (about 14,000 to 3,000
miles) away.

The images are available online from NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., at
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/videos/solar_system/comets.html .

NASA TV will broadcast a video file of the comet movies
at 12, 3, 6 and 9 p.m. EST Thursday, Nov. 29. NASA TV is
located on satellite GE2, Transponder 9C, audio 3880 MHz;
orbital position 85 degrees west longitude, with audio at 6.8
MHz.

Scientists are studying these images and other Deep Space
1 data for a better understanding of comets and their role in
the solar system. Deep Space 1's pass through comet Borrelly's
surrounding cloud of gas and dust yielded the best pictures
ever of a comet's rocky, icy nucleus. The images appear to
show the comet rotating but it is actually the spacecraft that
changed position as it passed close to the comet's nucleus.

Deep Space 1 completed its primary mission testing ion
propulsion and 11 other advanced, high-risk technologies in
September 1999. NASA extended the mission, taking advantage of
the ion propulsion and other systems to undertake this chancy
but exciting, and ultimately successful encounter. More
information is available on the home page at
http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/ .

Deep Space 1 was launched in October 1998 as part of
NASA's New Millennium Program, which is managed by JPL for
NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The
California Institute of Technology manages JPL for NASA.

Image credit: NASA/JPL

NASA SELECTS PLUTO-KUIPER BELT MISSION FOR PHASE B STUDY

NASA has selected a proposal to proceed with Phase B
(preliminary design studies) for a Pluto-Kuiper Belt (PKB)
mission, intended to explore the most distant planet in the
solar system. The mission will also explore the Kuiper Belt
beyond Pluto, a source of comets and believed to be the
source of much of Earth's water and the simple chemical
precursors of life.

The scientific value of this mission is highly dependent on a
2006 launch that achieves a flyby of Pluto well before 2020.
In order to ensure this launch date, NASA has established two
conditions that must be successfully met at the conclusion of
Phase B.

First, the mission must pass a confirmation review that will
address significant risks such as schedule and technical
milestones and regulatory approval for launch of the
mission's nuclear power source. Second, funds must be
available. Congress provided $30 million in fiscal 2002 to
initiate PKB spacecraft and science instrument development
and launch vehicle procurement; however, no funding for
subsequent years is included in the administration's budget
plan.

The mission, called New Horizons: Shedding Light on Frontier
Worlds, is led by Principal Investigator Dr. S. Alan Stern of
the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colo. He will lead
a team including The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics
Laboratory, Laurel, Md.; Ball Aerospace Corp., Boulder,
Colo.; Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif.; and NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., and Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

"Both proposals were outstanding, but New Horizons
represented the best science at Pluto and the Kuiper Belt as
well as the best plan to bring the spacecraft to the launch
pad on time and within budget," said Dr. Ed Weiler, Associate
Administrator for Space Science at NASA Headquarters,
Washington. Each team conducted a three-month concept study
including management, science content, technical aspects,
cost and schedule for a complete mission, including launch
vehicle, spacecraft and science instrument payload.

The proposal outlines how the team would undertake the major
science objectives defined in the January 2001 Announcement
of Opportunity. The spacecraft would use a remote sensing
package that includes imaging instruments and a radio science
investigation, as well as spectroscopic and other
experiments, to characterize the global geology and
morphology of Pluto and its moon Charon, map their surface
composition and characterize Pluto's neutral atmosphere and
its escape rate.

Pluto, the smallest planet, is actually a Kuiper Belt Object,
a class of objects composed of material left over after the
formation of the other planets. Pluto has large quantities of
ices of nitrogen and simple molecules containing carbon,
hydrogen and oxygen that are the necessary precursors of
life. Given Pluto's weak gravity, these ices would be largely
lost to space if Pluto had come close to the Sun. Instead
they remain there as a representative sample of the
primordial material that set the stage for the evolution of
the solar system as it exists today, including life.

"Visiting Pluto and other Kuiper Belt objects would be like
visiting a deep freeze containing samples of the most ancient
material in our solar system, the stuff that all the other
planets including Earth were made of," said Dr. Colleen
Hartman, Solar System Exploration Director in NASA's Office
of Space Science. "But the most exciting thing about going to
an unexplored planet is what we may find there that we're not
expecting."

NASA will work with Dr. Stern to further define the costs and
to finalize the design of the spacecraft and its
accommodation of the instrument sets. Stern, as Principal
Investigator, bringing together teams from academia, industry
and NASA centers, will lead the PKB mission. It will be
implemented following the highly successful management model
of NASA's Discovery Program.

Chandra captures Venus in a whole new light

Scientists have captured the first X-ray view of Venus using NASA's
Chandra X-ray Observatory. The observations provide new information about
the atmosphere of Venus and open a new window for examining Earth's sister
planet.

Venus in X-rays looks similar to Venus in visible light, but there
are important differences. The optically visible Venus is due to the
reflection of sunlight and, for the relative positions of Venus, Earth and
Sun during these observations, shows a uniform half-crescent that is
brightest toward the middle. The X-ray Venus is slightly less than a
half-crescent and brighter on the limbs.

The differences are due to the processes by which Venus shines in
visible and X-ray light. The X-rays from Venus are produced by fluorescence,
rather than reflection. Solar X-rays bombard the atmosphere of Venus, knock
electrons out of the inner parts of the atoms, and excite the atoms to a
higher energy level. The atoms almost immediately return to their lower
energy state with the emission of a fluorescent X-ray. A similar process
involving ultraviolet light produces the visible light from fluorescent
lamps.

For Venus, most of the fluorescent X-rays come from oxygen and
carbon atoms between 120 and 140 kilometers (74 to 87 miles) above the
planet's surface. In contrast, the optical light is reflected from clouds at
a height of 50 to 70 kilometers (31 to 43 miles). As a result, Venus'
Sun-lit hemisphere appears surrounded by an almost-transparent luminous
shell in X-rays. Venus looks brightest at the limb since more luminous
material is there.

"This opens up the exciting possibility of using X-ray observations
to study regions of the atmosphere of Venus that are difficult to
investigate by other means," said Konrad Dennerl of the Max Planck Institute
for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany, leader of an
international team of scientists that conducted the research.

The Chandra observation of Venus was also a technological tour de
force. The angular separation of Venus from the Sun, as seen from Earth,
never exceeds 48 degrees. This relative proximity has prevented star
trackers and cameras on other X-ray astronomy satellites from locking onto
guide stars and pointing steadily in the direction of Venus to perform such
an observation.

Venus was observed on Jan. 10, 2001, with the Advanced CCD Imaging
Spectrometer (ACIS) detector plus the Low Energy Transmission Grating and on
Jan. 13, 2001, with the ACIS alone. Other members of the team were Vadim
Burwitz and Jakob Engelhauser, Max Planck Institute; Carey Lisse, University
of Maryland, College Park; and Scott Wolk, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass. These Results were presented at this week's
"New Visions of X-ray Universe in the XMM-Newton and Chandra Era" symposium
in Noordwijk, Netherlands.

The Low Energy Transmission Grating was built by the Space Research
Organization of the Netherlands and the Max Planck Institute, and the ACIS
instrument was developed for NASA by The Pennsylvania State University,
University Park, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),
Cambridge. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages
the Chandra program. The Smithsonian's Chandra X-ray Center controls
science and flight operations from Cambridge, Mass.

More information on Chandra and images associated with this release
are available on the Internet at:

http://chandra.harvard.edu

and

http://chandra.nasa.gov

UA Student Discovers Evidence For 'Wandering' Poles, Convergence Zones On Europa

San Andreas-like faults in the crust of Jupiter's icy moon Europa provide
evidence that the crust, floating on a liquid water ocean, has slipped over
the globe, so that the poles recently have wandered hundreds of miles, a
University of Arizona undergraduate student reported today.

Alyssa R. Sarid also reported a second discovery from her survey of Europa's
strike-slip faults seen in Voyager and Galileo spacecraft images: She has
identified zones where surface ice has converged and disappeared entirely.

Sarid reported both results this afternoon at the 33rd annual meeting of the
American Astronomical Society Division of Planetary Sciences in New Orleans.
He talk was titled "Polar wander and surface convergence on Europa."

In a project suggested by UA planetary sciences Professor Richard Greenberg,
her research advisor, Sarid meticulously mapped all strike-slip faults
visible in two vertical swaths of Europa, one in the leading hemisphere and
the other in the trailing hemisphere. (The leading hemisphere is the forward
hemisphere of the moon in its journey around Jupiter; the trailing
hemisphere is opposite.)

In strike-slip, opposite sides of a fault shear apart, much as on Earth the
California coast shears southward relative to inland parts of the state.

Greenberg's research group, including Greg Hoppa, Randy Tufts, and Paul
Geissler, had earlier shown how tides on Europa could stress the surface and
in that way drive strike-slip motion. The theory predicted that strike-slips
south of the equator would shift right; that strike-slips north of the
equator would shift left; and that the orientation of strike-slips at the
equator itself would be mixed.

When Sarid compared her maps of strike-slip faults with the predictions of
the theory, she found that faults on one hemisphere of Europa were
systematically too far south to match the predictions, but on the other side
they were too far north.

Crust that a few million years ago had formed at the poles by now is
reoriented relative to the north and south poles by roughly 30 degrees,
Sarid and Greenberg conclude.

"What this suggests is that nothing keeps the thin ice shell of ice covering
Europa from sliding around -- it is free to slip and slide over the
underlying ocean," Greenberg said. "The result is the first confirmation
that the crust does wander relative to the poles of rotation."

Such polar wander had been predicted in 1989 by Gregory Ojakangas (then at
the University of Arizona) and David Stevenson of Caltech, Greenberg added.
They theorized that Europa's poles would "wander" because tidal friction
heats ice at the equator more than ice at the poles, so ice at the equator
is thinner than ice at the poles. And as Europa spins on its axis,
centrifugal force pushes thicker, more massive polar ice toward the equator,
so the poles shift.

Sarid and Greenberg also addressed a puzzle of the budget of Europa's
surface area, the mystery of where existing surface goes as new surface is
created.

Images from the Voyager and Galileo spacecraft had shown substantial
dilation, or pulling apart, along widely distributed tectonic bands, sites
where new surface area had been created, analogous to the widening of the
Atlantic Ocean with continental drift.

But researchers have failed to find specific sites on Europa where
comparable amounts of surface were being lost.

"Researchers have predicted there must be 'convergence zones' on Europa,"
Sarid said, "but no one knew what they would like like. We haven't know what
to look for until now."

By cut-and-paste reconstruction of strike-slip motion backwards in time,
Sarid found two locations where substantial surface convergence has
occurred. She found "convergence bands" in both locations. These features
are different from compression features on other bodies, which may explain
why they had previously been difficult to identify.

"These features are subtle. It was difficult to see them. The only reason we
could spot them was to go back in time," Sarid said.

"With its thin ice shell over a global ocean, Europa is unique. The
strike-slip motion provided the key to what has been going on," she added.

Sarid's survey covers the two broad surface swaths that run from the far
north to far south where Galileo spacecraft images at 200m/pixel resolution
were obtained for regional mapping purposes. The work was supported in part
by an undergraduate research assistantship from the Arizona Space Grant
program, funded by NASA. Greenberg was Sarid's research advisor in the space
grant program, and she now is part of his research group.

NASA TO EVALUATE AIRBUS JETLINER TAIL ASSEMBLY

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has
asked NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., to
assist in the ongoing investigation into the Nov. 12 crash of
American Airlines Flight 587 in Belle Harbor, N.Y.

Components from the tail section of the Airbus A300 will be
shipped to Langley for extensive evaluation. The parts are
due to arrive on Monday, Dec. 3.

The vertical stabilizer and rudder parts are made of a
carbon-fiber reinforced epoxy, a composite material. The
Safety Board is attempting to determine why these components
separated in flight.

Chandra Digest: Venus in a New Light

~~ Venus in a New Light ~~
Scientists have captured the first X-ray view of Venus using NASA's
Chandra X-ray Observatory. The observations provide new information
about the atmosphere of Venus and open a new window for examining
Earth's sister planet.
< http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cycle1/venus/index.html >

~~ The Terrible Twos: What Might Happen If Our Sun Had A Twin ~~
How would our Sun behave differently if it had a closely orbiting twin?
While astronomers don't know the exact answer, NASA's Chandra X-ray
Observatory has observed an intriguing star system that is beginning to
provide important clues.
< http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cycle1/0176/index.html >

~~ Planning Pays Off - Chandra Sails Through the Leonids Unharmed ~~
At 6:45 a.m., the drivers of the two cars lined up at the security gate
to Chandra's Operation Control Center (OCC) parking lot. The drivers
waved at each other. They and other members of the Flight Operations and
Science Operations teams arrived early on this Sunday morning to keep
watch during Chandra's encounter with the 2001 Leonid event.
< http://chandra.harvard.edu/chronicle/0401/leonids_part2.html >

~~ Operations CXO Status Report (Friday 11/23/01) ~~
Last week the observing schedule was halted twice due to high radiation
associated with solar flare activity. The loads were halted on Nov 19 at
9:50pm EST through a ground command to execute the SI Safing SCS 107.
This ensured that the accumulated radiation dose for ACIS remained below
the allowed threshold.
< http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/updates/update_112301.html >

NEW & NOTEWORTHY!

** Concentrate on Chandra's Memory Games! **
The classic game of matching pictures has been updated with some of the
most recent Chandra images (requires Java).
< http://chandra.harvard.edu/edu/games/concentration/game3/index.html >

** Question of the Week **
What is the most distant object Chandra can see, and what type of object
is it?
http://chandra.harvard.edu/resources/faq/sources/galaxies/galaxies-13.html

** Did You Know? **
Stars, like people, are seldom found in isolation. More than 80% of all
stars are members of multiple star systems containing two or more stars.
Exactly how these systems are formed is not well understood. Some are
thought to form when a collapsing cloud of gas breaks apart into two or
more clouds which then become stars, or when one star captures another
as a result of a grazing collision, or by a close encounter with two or
more other stars.
< http://chandra.harvard.edu/field_guide.html >

** All recent New & Noteworthy features are available at **
< http://chandra.harvard.edu/new.html >

CHANDRA CAPTURES VENUS IN A WHOLE NEW LIGHT

Scientists have captured the first X-ray view of Venus
using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The observations
provide new information about the atmosphere of Venus and
open a new window for examining Earth's sister planet.

Venus in X-rays looks similar to Venus in visible light, but
there are important differences. The optically visible Venus
is due to the reflection of sunlight and, for the relative
positions of Venus, Earth and Sun during these observations,
shows a uniform half-crescent that is brightest toward the
middle. The X-ray Venus is slightly less than a half-crescent
and brighter on the limbs.

The differences are due to the processes by which Venus
shines in visible and X-ray light. The X-rays from Venus are
produced by fluorescence, rather than reflection. Solar X-
rays bombard the atmosphere of Venus, knock electrons out of
the inner parts of the atoms, and excite the atoms to a
higher energy level. The atoms almost immediately return to
their lower energy state with the emission of a fluorescent
X-ray. A similar process involving ultraviolet light produces
the visible light from fluorescent lamps.

For Venus, most of the fluorescent X-rays come from oxygen
and carbon atoms between 120 and 140 kilometers (74 to 87
miles) above the planet's surface. In contrast, the optical
light is reflected from clouds at a height of 50 to 70
kilometers (31 to 43 miles). As a result, Venus' Sun-lit
hemisphere appears surrounded by an almost-transparent
luminous shell in X-rays. Venus looks brightest at the limb
since more luminous material is there.

"This opens up the exciting possibility of using X-ray
observations to study regions of the atmosphere of Venus that
are difficult to investigate by other means," said Konrad
Dennerl of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial
Physics in Garching, Germany, leader of an international team
of scientists that conducted the research.

The Chandra observation of Venus was also a technological
tour de force. The angular separation of Venus from the Sun,
as seen from Earth, never exceeds 48 degrees. This relative
proximity has prevented star trackers and cameras on other X-
ray astronomy satellites from locking onto guide stars and
pointing steadily in the direction of Venus to perform such
an observation.

Venus was observed on Jan. 10, 2001, with the Advanced CCD
Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS) detector plus the Low Energy
Transmission Grating and on Jan. 13, 2001, with the ACIS
alone. Other members of the team were Vadim Burwitz and Jakob
Engelhauser, Max Planck Institute; Carey Lisse, University of
Maryland, College Park; and Scott Wolk, Harvard-Smithsonian
Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass. These results were
presented at this week's "New Visions of X-ray Universe in
the XMM-Newton and Chandra Era" symposium in Noordwijk,
Netherlands.

The Low Energy Transmission Grating was built by the Space
Research Organization of the Netherlands and the Max Planck
Institute, and the ACIS instrument was developed for NASA by
The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, and the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.,
manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian's Chandra X-ray
Center controls science and flight operations from Cambridge,
Mass.

More information on Chandra and images associated with this
release are available on the Internet at:

http://chandra.nasa.gov
and
http://chandra.harvard.edu

CHANDRA CAPTURES VENUS IN A WHOLE NEW LIGHT

Scientists have captured the first X-ray view of Venus
using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The observations
provide new information about the atmosphere of Venus and
open a new window for examining Earth's sister planet.

Venus in X-rays looks similar to Venus in visible light, but
there are important differences. The optically visible Venus
is due to the reflection of sunlight and, for the relative
positions of Venus, Earth and Sun during these observations,
shows a uniform half-crescent that is brightest toward the
middle. The X-ray Venus is slightly less than a half-crescent
and brighter on the limbs.

The differences are due to the processes by which Venus
shines in visible and X-ray light. The X-rays from Venus are
produced by fluorescence, rather than reflection. Solar X-
rays bombard the atmosphere of Venus, knock electrons out of
the inner parts of the atoms, and excite the atoms to a
higher energy level. The atoms almost immediately return to
their lower energy state with the emission of a fluorescent
X-ray. A similar process involving ultraviolet light produces
the visible light from fluorescent lamps.

For Venus, most of the fluorescent X-rays come from oxygen
and carbon atoms between 120 and 140 kilometers (72 to 87
miles) above the planet's surface. In contrast, the optical
light is reflected from clouds at a height of 50 to 70
kilometers (30 to 42 miles). As a result, Venus' Sun-lit
hemisphere appears surrounded by an almost-transparent
luminous shell in X-rays. Venus looks brightest at the limb
since more luminous material is there.

"This opens up the exciting possibility of using X-ray
observations to study regions of the atmosphere of Venus that
are difficult to investigate by other means," said Konrad
Dennerl of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial
Physics in Garching, Germany, leader of an international team
of scientists that conducted the research.

The Chandra observation of Venus was also a technological
tour de force. The angular separation of Venus from the Sun,
as seen from Earth, never exceeds 48 degrees. This relative
proximity has prevented star trackers and cameras on other X-
ray astronomy satellites from locking onto guide stars and
pointing steadily in the direction of Venus to perform such
an observation.

Venus was observed on Jan. 10, 2001, with the Advanced CCD
Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS) detector plus the Low Energy
Transmission Grating and on Jan. 13, 2001, with the ACIS
alone. Other members of the team were Vadim Burwitz and Jakob
Engelhauser, Max Planck Institute; Carey Lisse, University of
Maryland, College Park; and Scott Wolk, Harvard-Smithsonian
Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass. These results were
presented at this week's "New Visions of X-ray Universe in
the XMM-Newton and Chandra Era" symposium in Noordwijk,
Netherlands.

The Low Energy Transmission Grating was built by the Space
Research Organization of the Netherlands and the Max Planck
Institute, and the ACIS instrument was developed for NASA by
The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, and the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.,
manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian's Chandra X-ray
Center controls science and flight operations from Cambridge,
Mass.

More information on Chandra and images associated with this
release are available at:
http://chandra.harvard.edu
and
http://chandra.nasa.gov

November 28, 01

A Massive Stellar Black Hole - M83 image - VLT Instruments

observations with the ESO Very Large Telescope have uncovered a stellar
black hole in the Milky Way with a mass of 14 solar masses. It is the
heaviest such object known so far. The details are available in ESO PR
24/01 at:

http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2001/pr-24-01.html

A new infrared image of the nearby large spiral galaxy Messier 83 has
been prepared. It shows an impressive wealth of details, also near the
centre. Look at the photo and read about the scientific background at:

http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2001/phot-32-01.html

Although new instruments are still being added to the VLT, it is never
too early to think about the future. ESO has just issued a "Call for
Proposals for 2nd generation VLT instruments", following a workshop on
this subject that took place earlier this year. Details will be found at:

http://www.eso.org/instruments/vlt2ndgenins.html

POSSIBLE SHARPSHOOTER INSECT PEST HABITATS MAPPED FROM AIR & SPACE

NASA satellite and aerial images of California's Monterey County vineyards
are helping local officials identify vineyards at risk of invasion by the
glassy-winged sharpshooter insect pest.

The gluttonous pest has caused widespread damage to Southern California's
vineyards, but has not yet invaded Monterey County. The glassy-winged
sharpshooter is blue-green, about a half inch long and is famous for a
stylus-like drill that the insect uses to draw moisture from plants.

"We're using remotely sensed imagery to map vineyards and other
sharpshooter habitats," said Lee Johnson, a California State University,
Monterey Bay (CSUMB) research scientist. Johnson is based at NASA's Ames
Research Center in California's Silicon Valley and is technical advisor for
the effort. The pest often lives in orchards and along riverbanks, ditches
and ponds and may threaten adjacent vineyards. "The maps will be used to
determine the most effective places for agricultural officials to place
traps to monitor for the sharpshooter," Johnson said.

"We created a defense map for the Monterey County Agriculture
Commissioner's Office to combat any invasion by the sharpshooter," said Bay
Area Shared Information Consortium (BASIC) president David Etter. "We
identified the habitats of these rascals. They like to hang out on stream
banks, in citrus groves and even in oak groves," he said. The insect sucks
moisture from the heavy stalk of grapevines, and in the process can deposit
a bacterium that causes Pierce's disease. Afflicted plants are unable to
draw ground moisture or nutrients, Etter said. The plant then dies.

"Each adult glassy-winged sharpshooter sucks out 200 to 300 times its body
weight in water every day. This is equivalent to an adult human drinking
4,300 gallons (16,340 liters) of water per day," said Dr. U Win, author of
a report about the project to map the pest's potential habitats. He also is
a research associate at the CSUMB Spatial Information, Visualization and
Analysis Resources (CSUMB-SIVA) Center.

The pest feeds on more than 70 species of plants and is active all year. In
addition to grapevines, the sharpshooter lives on citrus, avocado,
macadamia, eucalyptus, crape myrtle, oleander, oak, sycamore, sumac and
other plants. As of now, the insect has infested the entire counties of Los
Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Ventura and parts of
Butte, Contra Costa, Fresno, Kern, Imperial, Sacramento, Santa Barbara and
Tulare counties, according to Win.

"The Agriculture Commissioner's Office will place insect traps
strategically in the sharpshooter habitats, and mark their positions on our
maps with global positioning system (GPS) technology," Etter said. The maps
will make it easy to identify which vineyards are most vulnerable should
there be a sharpshooter invasion, officials said.

The researchers combined LANDSAT satellite pictures with high-altitude
aerial photos, and verified types of plants depicted by using
ground-gathered data to make an accurate computerized map of the vineyards,
orchards and other areas under study. "'Ground-truthing' was essential for
the verification of what was identified to be on the image and what was
really on the ground," said Win.

Researchers can detect vineyards, citrus orchards, oaks, eucalyptus,
avocados, cacti and ornamental vegetation, as well as riverbanks, ditches
and pond shores where the pest may live. Scientists can put bright colors
on the digital maps to clearly show different kinds of plants by using
different colors for different species.

The pilot project took place from March until October this year. There are
about 46,000 acres of vineyards in the Salinas Valley that generate about a
half-billion-dollar grape-wine economy.

"The pilot area covers approximately 15 percent of the Salinas Valley and
10 percent of the total vineyard acreage in the Salinas Valley," Win said.
"Mapping county-wide vineyards and other potential glassy-winged
sharpshooter habitats is being considered for the next phase."

BASIC sponsored the sharpshooter work with funding from the NASA Earth
Science Enterprise. BASIC worked with the CSUMB-SIVA Center to carry out
the project in collaboration with the Monterey County Agriculture
Commissioner's Office.

More information about the sharpshooter pest is on the Internet at:

http://plant.cdfa.ca.gov/gwss and at: http://www.basic.org

ESA scientists capture the Lion's offspring Down Under

After an eventful trip to the other side of the world,
ESA's intrepid scientists have returned with a treasure
trove of data about the 2001 Leonid meteor shower.

Read more about this trip at:
http://sci2.esa.int/leonids/leonids2001/

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
Expedition Three Science Operations
Status Report for the week ending Nov. 28, 2001

The Expedition Three crew and the science team on the ground are wrapping up
their research program and preparing precious science experiments and
samples from their three-month mission for the return to Earth on the
upcoming UF-1 Space Shuttle mission to the space station.

During the past two weeks, Commander Frank Culbertson and Flight Engineers
Mikhail Tyurin and Vladimir Dezhurov completed their final sessions of the
Hoffman Reflex, Pulmonary Function in Flight, Renal Stone and Crew
Interactions research programs and completed experiment hardware transfers
in the Destiny lab module that will support Expedition Four research
activities. Their effort drew praise from many of the experiment teams in
the weekly science summary faxed to the crew.

"I'd like to express on behalf of the Payloads Office, our profound
gratitude for all that you have done for us during the expedition,"
summarized John Uri, lead scientist for the Expedition. "Many of the
experiments were completed last week, especially with the extra time you've
dedicated to completing the research. From our point of view, this has been
a highly successful expedition, some experiments getting even more than
expected. I look forward to seeing you back on Earth."

Automated experiments continue to run in the Destiny lab, controlled by
science teams on the ground. The Dynamically Controlled Protein Crystal
Growth (DCPCG) and Advanced Protein Crystallization Facility (APCF) are
scheduled for deactivation on Thursday in conjunction with the launch of
STS-108. The Physics of Colloids in Space completed a 24-hour run on
Tuesday, re-homogenizing the colloid polymer gel sample and running various
diagnostics to measure the process.

Two vibration-measuring experiments, the Space Acceleration Measurement
System and the Microgravity Acceleration Measurement System, recorded the
November 22 undocking of the Russian Progress 5 spacecraft and are expected
to collect data during today's (Nov. 28) Progress 6 docking.

The Crew Earth Observations science team sent a list of geographic sites for
photography that should last through November 30, the last until STS-108
undocks. The sites include snow cover in the South Sandwich Islands, air
quality in southern Africa, Chilean glaciers, water level changes in Lake
Poopo in Bolivia, coral reefs in American Samoa, and agriculture in the
Parana River area of South America. In response to Commander Frank
Culbertson's request for more photography sites, the team has offered to
send him a copy of the daily site list for the STS-108 crew.

Following data earlier this week indicating a potential problem with the
Active Rack Isolation System, the ground team asked Culbertson to use a set
of pliers to tighten the screws on two upper pushrods. Culbertson radioed
Monday that he had completed that work, and tests of the vibration dampening
system resumed this week. Located in EXPRESS Rack 2, ARIS is designed to
provide a reactive force to vibrations caused by crew activities, operating
equipment and other disturbances that could harm delicate microgravity
experiments in the rack.

Several experiments will be returning to Earth along with the Expedition
Three crew. In addition to DCPCG and APCF, the Shuttle will return with
cell samples from the Cellular Biotechnology Operations Support System,
urine samples and other data from the Renal Stone experiment, the Bonner
Ball Neutron Detector, and the DREAMTiME high definition TV camera. The
crew plans to record the STS-108 arrival and ingress before stowing the
camera and equipment for return.

The Web

Status Report
http://www1.msfc.nasa.gov/NEWSROOM/news/releases/2001/01-359.html

ISS Science Operations News
http://www.scipoc.msfc.nasa.gov/

Experiment Fact Sheets
http://www.scipoc.msfc.nasa.gov/factchron.html

NEW IMAGES CATCH JUPITER'S MOON IO IN ACTION

A slumping cliff, migrating eruptions and churning lava
lakes appear in new images of Jupiter's sizzling moon Io from
NASA's Galileo spacecraft.

The images and explanatory captions are available online
at http://jpl.nasa.gov/images/io from NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

A high-resolution view of a cliff named Telegonus gives
information about erosion on a world that has neither surface
water nor wind. The cliff is slumping outward due to gravity.

The Tvashtar area on northern Io, where no volcanic
activity was seen prior to December 1999, now has a cluster of
hot spots. An infrared mapping image from Galileo's Aug. 6,
2001, flyby of Io shows that the surface within the Tvashtar
area is hot at the sites observed in 1999 and 2000, as well as
at newly observed sites. "The most explosive phase of the
Tvashtar eruption may have ceased, but these observations
reveal that the area is still active," said Dr. Rosaly Lopes,
a volcanologist at JPL. Tvashtar appears to be an example of a
volcanic site where activity starts vigorously then gradually
declines, similar to many eruptions on Earth, she said.

Io's most powerful volcano, Loki, offers a contrasting
style of eruption. The Loki hot spot brightens and fades over
periods of several months, possibly in periodic cycles, a
pattern not known on Earth. Scientists have proposed that
Loki is either an active lava lake or a caldera whose floor is
flooded by frequent lava flows.

Infrared mapping images of Loki from Galileo's Oct. 16,
2001, flyby of Io weigh in favor of the lava lake
interpretation. They show a concentration of high temperatures
along one edge, like a glowing shoreline. This suggests that
hotter lava from underneath is showing through where a cooler
lava crust is breaking up as it hits the crater wall. High-
resolution nighttime pictures of another of Io's hot spots,
Pele, also show the apparent overturning of cooler crust on a
lava lake.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology
in Pasadena, manages Galileo for NASA's Office of Space
Science, Washington, D.C. For more about Galileo, visit
http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov .

NEW IMAGES CATCH JUPITER'S MOON IO IN ACTION

A slumping cliff, migrating eruptions and churning lava
lakes appear in new images of Jupiter's sizzling moon Io from
NASA's Galileo spacecraft.

The images and explanatory captions are available online
at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/io from NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

A high-resolution view of a cliff named Telegonus gives
information about erosion on a world that has neither surface
water nor wind. The cliff is slumping outward due to gravity.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology
in Pasadena, manages Galileo for NASA's Office of Space
Science, Washington, D.C. For more about Galileo, visit
http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov .

November 27, 01

Alien Atmospheres

Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have detected the atmosphere
of a planet circling a Sun-like star 150 light years away. Their
ground-breaking discovery shows it is possible to measure the chemical
makeup of distant planets -- and to search for chemical markers of life
far beyond Earth.

FULL STORY at

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast27nov_1.htm?list448368

NEW IMAGES CATCH JUPITER'S MOON IO IN ACTION

A slumping cliff, migrating eruptions and churning lava
lakes appear in new images of Jupiter's sizzling moon Io from
NASA's Galileo spacecraft.

The images and explanatory captions are available online
at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/io from NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

A high-resolution view of a cliff named Telegonus gives
information about erosion on a world that has neither surface
water nor wind. The cliff is slumping outward due to gravity.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology
in Pasadena, manages Galileo for NASA's Office of Space
Science, Washington, D.C. For more about Galileo, visit
http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov .

SOHONEWS New Hot Shot: Shocking Events

The latest Hot Shot compares the three strongest energetic particle events
seen by SOHO. The peak flux during a proton storm is sometimes seen during
the shock passage - not during the first few hours of the storm. Indeed,
the most intense flux by half an order of magnitude was observed during
a shock passage. The page also links to the current Pick of the Week,
featuring the double halo event that started on Thanksgiving (Thursday
last week).

URLs: http://soho.nascom.nasa.gov/hotshots/
http://sohowww.estec.esa.nl/hotshots/

NASA HOSTS NATIONAL GRID COMPUTING FORUM

NASA's latest research in grid computing technology will be showcased
at an upcoming two-day workshop. The 2001 Information Power Grid
Workshop (IPG) will be held Dec. 4-5, 2001 at the Crowne Plaza Cabana
Hotel in Palo Alto.

The IPG is NASA's high performance computational grid, a network of
geographically distributed computational resources-from medium-scale
computers to the most powerful supercomputers, large databases, and
scientific instruments.

"The upcoming IPG workshop will provide a tremendous opportunity to
see how grid technology is being used to construct and operate a 21st
century infrastructure that efficiently and seamlessly integrates
computational and data resources, as well as on-line instruments,
into a system that can be used to support current and future NASA
applications," said Dr. Thomas Hinke of NASA Ames Research Center in
California's Silicon Valley and a conference organizer.

Among the more than 30 presentations are: "Aviation Safety Using
Numerical Propulsion System Simulations on the IPG" (Robert Griffin,
NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland); "Production-Level Distributed
Parametric Study Capabilities for the Grid" (Maurice Yarrow, NASA
Ames); and "Portals - Alliance User Portal" (Doru Marcusiu, National
Center for Supercomputing Applications).

Workshop presenters include research and development teams from each
of the major IPG-related organizations. The IPG is a collaborative
effort between NASA's Ames, Glenn and Langley research centers and
the National Science Foundation's Partnerships for Advanced
Computational Infrastructure programs at the San Diego Supercomputer
Center and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. The
IPG is now funded under the Computing, Information and Communications
Technology Program at NASA Ames.

Further information about the conference is available at
http://www.ipg.nasa.gov

HUBBLE MEASURES ATMOSPHERE ON WORLD AROUND ANOTHER STAR

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have
made the first direct detection and chemical analysis of the
atmosphere of a planet outside our solar system. Their unique
observations demonstrate it is possible with Hubble and other
telescopes to measure the chemical makeup of extrasolar
planets' atmospheres and potentially to search for chemical
markers of life beyond Earth.

The planet orbits a yellow, Sun-like star called HD 209458, a
seventh-magnitude star (visible in an amateur telescope) that
lies 150 light-years away in the autumn constellation
Pegasus. Its atmospheric composition was probed when the
planet passed in front of its parent star, allowing
astronomers for the first time ever to see light from the
star filtered through the planet's atmosphere.

Lead investigator David Charbonneau of the California
Institute of Technology, Pasadena, and the Harvard-
Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass.;
Timothy Brown of the National Center for Atmospheric
Research, Boulder, Colo.; and colleagues used Hubble's
spectrometer (the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, or
STIS) to detect the presence of sodium in the planet's
atmosphere.

"This opens up an exciting new phase of extrasolar planet
exploration, where we can begin to compare and contrast the
atmospheres of planets around other stars," says Charbonneau.
The astronomers actually saw less sodium than predicted for
the Jupiter-class planet, leading to one interpretation that
high-altitude clouds in the alien atmosphere may have blocked
some of the light. The team's findings are to be published in
the Astrophysical Journal.

The Hubble observation was not tuned to look for gases
expected in a life-sustaining atmosphere (which is improbable
for a planet as hot as the one observed). Nevertheless, this
unique observing technique opens a new phase in the
exploration of exoplanets, or extrasolar planets, say
astronomers. Such observations could potentially provide the
first direct evidence for life beyond Earth by measuring
unusual abundances of atmospheric gases caused by the
presence of living organisms.

The planet was discovered in 1999 through its slight
gravitational tug on the star. The planet was estimated to be
70 percent the mass of the giant planet Jupiter, or 220 times
more massive than Earth. Subsequently, astronomers discovered
that the tilt of the planet's orbit makes it pass in front of
the star -- relative to our line-of-sight from Earth --
making it unique among all the approximately 80 extrasolar
planets discovered to date. As the planet passes in front of
the star, it causes the star to dim very slightly for the
duration of the transit. Transit observations by Hubble and
ground-based telescopes confirmed that the planet is
primarily gaseous, rather than liquid or solid, meaning that
the planet is a gas giant, like Jupiter and Saturn.

The planet is an ideal target for repeat observations because
it transits the star every 3.5 days -- which is the extremely
short time it takes the planet to whirl around the star at a
distance of merely four million miles from the star's
surface. This close proximity heats the planet's atmosphere
to a torrid 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,100 degrees Celsius).

Observations of four separate transits were made by Hubble in
search of direct evidence of an atmosphere. During each
transit a small fraction of the star's light on its way to
Earth passed though the planet's atmosphere. When the color
of the light was analyzed by STIS, the telltale "fingerprint"
of sodium was detected. Though the star also has sodium in
its outer layers, STIS precisely measured the added influence
of sodium in the planet's atmosphere.

The team, including Robert Noyes of the Harvard-Smithsonian
Center for Astrophysics and Ronald Gilliland of the Space
Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, plans to look at HD
209458 again with Hubble in other colors of the star's
spectrum to see which are filtered by the planet's
atmosphere. They hope eventually to detect methane, water
vapor, potassium and other chemicals in the planet's
atmosphere. Once other transiting giants are found in the
next few years, the team expects to characterize chemical
differences among the atmospheres of these planets.

The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is operated by
the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy,
Inc. (AURA), for NASA, under contract with the Goddard Space
Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The Hubble Space Telescope is a
project of international co-operation between NASA and the
European Space Agency (ESA). The National Center for
Atmospheric Research is sponsored primarily by the National
Science Foundation.

QUAIL EGGS TO PROVIDE CLUES TO EFFECTS OF MICROGRAVITY

Hardware that will help scientists better understand the effects of
microgravity on avian development is set to fly into space later this
week. Launch of the STS-108 mission on space shuttle Endeavour is set
for Nov. 29 from Florida's Kennedy Space Center.

The Avian Development Facility (ADF) is designed to support space
experiments that use Japanese quail eggs. The primary objective of
flying the ADF on the upcoming mission is to validate its subsystems
and reduce the risk in developing a possible next generation of avian
development hardware.

"The Avian Development Facility provides optimal incubation
conditions for embryo development during flight," said Randy
Berthold, Ph.D., ADF project manager at NASA's Ames Research Center
in California's Silicon Valley. "It also minimizes crew time and
improves the science return by using advanced telerobotics and
teleoperations."

Secondary objectives of this flight will be support of two
peer-reviewed experiments that will study how the lack of gravity
affects the development of avian embryos. Stephen Doty, Ph.D., of the
Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City, will study the effects
of space flight on embryonic skeletal development. The development
and function of the avian vestibular system will be the focus of a
study by David Dickman, Ph.D., of the Central Institute of the Deaf,
Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.

The ADF is a fully automated avian egg incubator that requires no
crew interaction with the eggs. Avian eggs are ideally suited for
microgravity research because they are self-contained and
self-sustaining. "The ADF provides a snapshot of embryogenesis in
space using the avian embryos as a biological model," Berthold added.

The ADF will house 36 Japanese quail eggs in egg holders, which are
designed to isolate the eggs from vibration, to minimize any effects
of launch and re-entry on the developing embryos. The egg holders are
mounted on two rotating centrifuges that will provide either exposure
to microgravity or to a gravity force equivalent to that found on
Earth.

Interior environmental temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide and
oxygen concentration can be pre-programmed to provide optimal
incubation conditions for embryo development. The ADF also has an
automated fixative-injection system that can be programmed to fix, or
preserve, the embryos at specific times during incubation. The egg
holder is designed with a secondary containment system to prevent
leaking of injected fixative into the incubator. The ADF rotates the
eggs 180 degrees every hour, similar to turning in a natural
environment. The facility fits into a space shuttle middeck locker
location.

The ADF is one of several research habitats being developed by the
Space Station Biological Research Project (SSBRP) at NASA Ames.
SSBRP is responsible for managing the development of several habitats
that provide life support, environmental control, and monitoring
systems for various research subjects and specimens. The habitats are
being developed to operate with three major host systems: the
variable-gravity, 2.5-meter centrifuge; the microgravity holding
racks; and the Life Sciences Glovebox. In addition, SSBRP will manage
the development of various laboratory equipment items needed for
science operations. More information about the Space Station
Biological Research Project is available at:
http://brp.arc.nasa.gov/ Additional details about Ames' life
sciences research can be found at: http://lifesci.arc.nasa.gov/

Space Hardware Optimization Technology, Inc. (SHOT), of Greenville,
Ind., developed the ADF for NASA Ames. SHOT's previous avian
development hardware flew on the space shuttle in 1986 and 1989.
Information about SHOT is available at: http://www.shot.com.

The two ADF experiments are supported by NASA's Office of Biological
and Physical Research, which promotes basic and applied research to
support human exploration of space and to take advantage of the space
environment as a laboratory. More information is available at:
http://spaceresearch.nasa.gov/

"The ADF provides a unique opportunity to study fundamental
biological processes in ways that cannot be done here on Earth." said
SHOT project engineer Rachel Ormsby. "The information collected from
this mission is expected to help Earth-based biotechnology and health
care research leap forward toward cures or treatments that may
otherwise not have been realized."

STUDENTS WORLDWIDE ANTICIPATE NEXT SHUTTLE MISSION

Students in schools worldwide from first grade to
undergraduates are anticipating with excitement the next
space shuttle mission, scheduled for launch Thursday, as
their experiments venture into space.

The Space Shuttle Small Payloads Project (SSPP), based at the
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., and Wallops
Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va., is providing flight
opportunities for nearly 40 experiments designed to engage
students in space and scientific exploration.

"Providing students the experience of being scientific
investigators using the microgravity environment provided by
the space shuttle reinforces their understanding of science,
mathematics and technology," said Frank Owens, Director,
Education Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington. "And it is
this learning experience that can spark an interest and lead
them toward a career in science or engineering."

The most noticeable of the educational experiments on STS-108
is the Student Tracked Atmospheric Research Satellite for
Heuristic International Networking Experiment (STARSHINE-2).
STARSHINE is an education program for students around the
world to help construct a satellite and learn about satellite
orbits and natural events that affect these orbits.

To be deployed after the shuttle undocks from the
International Space Station, the beach ball-size satellite is
covered with nearly 900 aluminum mirrors that have been
polished by nearly 25,000 students around the world. The
satellite should be visible from Earth with the naked eye.

Through the six-month lifetime of the satellite, students
will be able to track its position, visually observe it at
twilight hours, calculate orbits, measure changes in the
orbit and observe the effect of solar activity on the orbit.

Rocky Mountain NASA Space Grant Consortium, Salt Lake City,
is sponsoring the project, the third in the STARSHINE series.
The first was deployed during a 1999 shuttle mission and the
second was launched from Alaska in September 2001.

Three organizations -- Utah State University, Logan;
Pennsylvania State University, State College; and the
Argentine Association of Space Technology, Argentina -- are
flying Get-Away-Special canisters that include experiments
that engage area students in space research. These
experiments include the development of a low-cost and
reusable plant-growth chamber; examination of the effects of
the space environment on crystal growth, popcorn and seeds;
and a water purification process.

NASA also will fly three Space Experiment Module (SEM)
payloads carrying 30 experiments designed by students from
throughout the United States, Argentina, Morocco and
Portugal, and Australia. In addition, STS-108 will mark the
fifth anniversary of the flight of the first SEM on STS-80 in
November 1996.

Three of these experiments were developed by high school
students in Maryland, Illinois and Washington and were
selected for flight through the NASA Student Involvement
Program. These experiments will study the affect of
microgravity on brine shrimp and their use as a food source
for fish during long-duration space missions; examine three-
dimensional resonance modes in microgravity and the
relationship to structures made for the microgravity
environment; and research how electrical currents flow in the
space environment.

Another experiment will bridge generations as students from
New Oxford Elementary School have teamed with residents at
the Brethren Home Retirement Community, both in Hanover, Pa.
The groups will examine how the space environment affects the
growth of soy seeds.

In addition to the educational experiments, a number of other
experiments will be flown that include examining smoldering
combustion in microgravity, testing prototype instrument
coolers for space flight and investigating planetary dust
rings.

A complete list and descriptions of SSPP experiments on STS-
108 can be found at:
http://www.wff.nasa.gov

U.S. CENTENNIAL OF FLIGHT COMMISSION AND EAA ANNOUNCE ALLIANCE

The U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission (COFC) and the
Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) -- the world's leading
recreational aviation organization, based in Wisconsin -- have
signed a memorandum of agreement to jointly publicize the
celebration of the 100th anniversary of the first powered
flight in 2003.

As a result of this agreement, the COFC will provide national
outreach support for the EAA's "Countdown to Kitty Hawk"
campaign. In turn, the EAA will help promote the Commission's
national campaign, called "Centennial of Flight: Born of
dreams. Inspired by freedom."

The EAA has developed an ambitious program to celebrate the
centennial. At the core of its plan for 2003 is the
construction, documentation and testing of the only
historically accurate and flyable 1903 Wright Flyer
reproduction. The EAA's cross-country tour of the Wright Flyer
will conclude on the sands of Kitty Hawk, N.C., on Dec. 17,
2003. The world will watch in anticipation as the reproduction
Wright Flyer attempts to recreate the monumental first flight
at the exact time and place 100 years later.

"The Wright brothers represent innovation, dedication and a
sense of adventure -- the same qualities that lie at the heart
of the Experimental Aircraft Association and its members,"
said Tom Poberzny, President of the EAA. "We look forward to
bringing that historic moment back to life on Dec. 17, 2003,
from the sands of Kitty Hawk."

"One of the Commission's fundamental tasks is to educate the
public about the centennial," COFC Chairman General J.R.
("Jack") Dailey said. "The EAA's touring of the reproduction
Flyer is an important educational tool because it is so
historically accurate. Our hope is that the reconstructed
Flyer reignites the spirit of adventure and innovation that
existed in the Wright brothers 100 years ago."

The U.S. Congress created the COFC to coordinate the
celebration of the 100th anniversary of powered flight. The
Commission's national awareness campaign will promote
activities --such as the EAA's "Countdown to Kitty Hawk" --
that commemorate the past 100 years of flight. Organizations
that work closely with the COFC will receive recognition as
participants in the national campaign.

A complete listing of centennial events and more information
on the COFC can be found on the Internet at:
www.centennialofflight.gov

More information on EAA and "Countdown to Kitty Hawk" is
available at:
www.eaa.org
and
www.countdowntokittyhawk.com

This Week on Galileo
November 26 - December 2, 2001

This week's major spacecraft activity comes on Friday, when Galileo
performs an orbit trim maneuver. This is the second of three rocket engine
burns planned to occur between the 32nd and 33rd close satellite encounters
since the aging spacecraft went into orbit. This one is scheduled to take
place near apojove, or the farthest point in the orbit from the giant
planet Jupiter. Apojove occurs on Saturday, at about 1:30 p.m. PST, when
the distance from Galileo to Jupiter is 160.9 of Jupiter's radii. This
translates into 11.5 million kilometers, or 7.15 million miles, which is
fully 1/13 the distance from the Earth to the Sun.

This is not the farthest from Jupiter that the spacecraft has been since
first arriving in orbit in December 1995. That honor goes to the 28th
orbit, when we reached a distance of nearly 290 Jupiter radii (20.7 million
kilometers or 12.9 million miles). But that distance in turn will be
surpassed in our 34th orbit in April 2003 when we stretch out to 369.5
Jupiter radii (26.4 million kilometers or 16.4 million miles) before making
our final plunge into Jupiter's atmosphere in September.

The remainder of the week is filled with the steady collection of real-time
data by the Magnetometer, the Dust Detector, and the Extreme Ultraviolet
Spectrometer, and by the continued playback of recorded data from the
October 15 flyby of Io.

While the Fields and Particles instruments continue the return of a
1.5-hour recording centered on the closest approach of Galileo to Io, the
Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS) and the Solid State Imaging
camera (SSI) play back data also acquired when Galileo was near its closest
point to Io. NIMS observations will provide thermal mapping and sulfur
dioxide distribution around Emakong caldera (an extended volcanic crater),
Tupan Patera (an active volcanic site that displays distinctive red
deposits), and Chaac caldera. An additional observation will examine a
newly discovered hot spot.

SSI will return pictures of Tohil Mons and Patera, the Mycenae Regio,
Culann Patera, and a region near the giant volcano Prometheus, taken while
those features were near the terminator, or day-night boundary. Additional
views are of the Gish Bar hot spot and a color look at the active volcanic
patera Tupan. SSI will also return the first medium-resolution look at the
Tvashtar volcanic region since a large plume eruption occurred there in
late 2000.

For more information on the Galileo spacecraft and its mission to Jupiter,
please visit the Galileo home page at one of the following URL's:

http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo

NOAA FISHERIES LAUNCHES PACIFIC ALBACORE TUNA TAGGING PROGRAM

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries), an agency of the
Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA), recently began a tagging program to track albacore tuna population
migration throughout the Pacific Ocean.
NOAA Fisheries Southwest Fisheries Science Center partnered with the
American Fishermen's Research Foundation, the Western Fishboat Owners'
Association (WFOA), and Japanese scientists for the project that includes
placing archival tags on albacore tuna in waters off San Diego, Calif. The
archival tags are sophisticated monitoring devices that can record
geographical positions daily for up to seven years, as well as sea
temperature and pressure, and internal body temperature for shorter periods
of time. Japanese scientists are also implanting the same tags in the
western Pacific.

The aim of the project is to collect information on the migratory habits
of the albacore. Past conventional tagging projects have shown that
albacore do make transpacific migrations. With the archival tags,
scientists now have the capability to track migrations along the U.S. West
Coast, and to assess whether some albacore stay in the eastern, mid, or
western Pacific Ocean as local resident populations.

"This type of tagging research provides critical data to help scientists
corroborate or refute currently held assumptions regarding the population's
movements within a year and between years," NOAA Fisheries scientist John
Childers said. "The new tagging program will serve as the baseline
information in the population models that are used to assess the health of
the stock of this valuable fishery."

This first-time project to place archival tags on albacore in the eastern
Pacific began Oct. 24, when the WFOA fishing vessel Her Grace departed
Avila Beach, Calif., with Childers aboard. He is in the process of
implanting a total of 15 archival tags in the stomach cavities of
individual fish. The American Fishermen's Foundation, who supplied the
tags, is offering a $500 reward for the return of the tags if found in a tuna.

Fisheries scientists generally agree that the North Pacific albacore
population is currently a relatively 'healthy' stock that has responded
favorably to catch rates over the last decade or so. Recent assessments of
the entire stock indicated that sustainable yields, on a global basis,
likely range between 176.4 and 220.5 million pounds (80,000 and 100,000
metric tons), which is roughly the level of total catches observed on an
annual basis during the latter part of the 1990s.

Albacore, which are caught in the Pacific Ocean by many nations, are a
major product for the U.S. canning industry and an important source of
protein for Americans. U.S. commercial fishers catch albacore as the fish
migrate from the western Pacific Ocean off Japan. Most of the albacore
catch is sent to canneries in American Samoa and Spain, where it is canned
as 'white meat' tuna. U.S. recreational fishers also catch albacore off
Oregon, Washington and California.

NOAA Fisheries is dedicated to protecting and preserving our nation's
living marine resources through scientific research, management,
enforcement, and the conservation of marine mammals and other protected
marine species and their habitat. To learn more about the NOAA fisheries
Southwest Fisheries Science Center, visit http://www.swfsc.nmfs.noaa.gov.

For information about the programs and activities of the American
Fishermen's Research Foundation and the Western Fishboat Owners'
Association, visit http://www.afrf.org and http://www.wfoa-tuna.org.

NASA SPACECRAFT TO HUNT FOR ELUSIVE GRAVITY RIPPLES

Barely perceptible fluctuations in the speed of a distant NASA
spacecraft coasting away from Earth could provide science's first direct
detection of gravitational waves, a basic feature of how the universe
behaves.

A 40-day search beginning Nov. 26 will use the Cassini spacecraft and
specially upgraded ground facilities of NASA's Deep Space Network.
"We've tried this before with other spacecraft, but this time we have
new instrumentation on the spacecraft and on the ground that gives us 10
times the sensitivity," said astronomer Dr. John Armstrong of NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We're able to measure the
relative velocity between Earth and Cassini with exquisite accuracy."

Cassini's speed relative to Earth will vary during the 40 days, but
will typically be about what it would take to zip from New York to
Chicago in five minutes. In contrast, this experiment could detect any
change in speed so small it would lengthen or shorten that trip by a
mere fraction of a second.

Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of space and time that
are set off by accelerations of massive bodies, such as black holes or
supernovas. Albert Einstein theorized they exist, and indirect evidence
confirmed his prediction in the 1970s.

"Gravitational waves are at the frontier of astrophysics. There's no
question they exist, but they have not yet been detected directly," said
Armstrong, leader of an international team that has been preparing for
years to conduct this search.

"Gravity waves can give us another window into the universe, the way
Galileo's telescope did in the 17th century and radio telescopes did in
the 1940s," said JPL's Randy Herrera, lead operations engineer. The
ability to detect gravitational waves could lead to their use as a way
to study black holes and other massive phenomena, he added.

Cassini is in a quiet cruise phase of its mission, 11 months past
Jupiter but still more than 30 months from its destination at Saturn.
The researchers will use radio transmissions between Cassini and Earth
to search for gravitational waves measurably warping space between the
two. The transmissions reveal velocity changes by the Doppler effect,
the same phenomenon that raises the pitch of an approaching train's
whistle or lengthens the light waves from a receding galaxy. If
gravitational waves within a particular range of long wavelengths are
passing through our solar system, they will alternately stretch and
compact space in a way that would rhythmically affect the
Earth-to-Cassini distance.

Italian scientists Dr. Bruno Bertotti of the University of Pavia and
Dr. Luciano Iess of the University of Rome are co-leaders of the
experiment. Italy's national space agency, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana,
provided crucial equipment aboard Cassini enabling the
gravitational-wave experiment to use higher-frequency radio
transmissions than have been used in earlier gravitational-wave searches
with Galileo, Mars Observer, Ulysses and Mars Global Surveyor
spacecraft. The higher frequency suppresses noise from the solar wind,
allowing more precise measurements of velocity changes.

JPL engineers have carefully instrumented a large dish antenna at the
Deep Space Network's Goldstone complex near Barstow, Calif., to send and
receive the higher frequencies with unprecedented Doppler sensitivity.
The upgrade includes refined pointing capability needed to exploit the
higher frequencies, said Sami Asmar, supervisor of JPL's Radio Science
Group. Other new equipment at Goldstone will allow researchers to
correct for the atmosphere's distortion of radio transmissions and
improve performance of the search.

The experiment will use links at lower radio frequencies between Cassini
and Deep Space Network antennas near Madrid, Spain, and Canberra,
Australia. This will enable around-the-clock observations. Taking data
with independent equipment at three sites will help discriminate subtle
instrumental effects from signals that might be gravitational waves.

The scientific importance of detecting gravitational waves has also
prompted ground-based projects, most notably the highly sensitive Laser
Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory, coordinated by the
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, and Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Cambridge. The two approaches complement each
other because the Cassini experiment is sensitive to million-fold longer
wavelengths of gravitational waves than the ground-based laser
interferometers are, Armstrong said.

The Cassini experiment is timed so that Earth is on a line between the
Sun and the spacecraft, minimizing noises on the radio link.
Measurements taken during the 40 days will take several months to
analyze. The experiment will be repeated twice more in the next two
years when the spacecraft's position will make the measurements
sensitive to gravitational waves from different directions in the sky.

Information about the Cassini-Huygens mission is available online at
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini . Cassini, launched in 1997, will begin
orbiting Saturn on July 1, 2004, and drop its piggybacked Huygens probe
onto the haze-wrapped moon Titan about six months later. The mission is
a collaboration of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Agenzia
Spaziale Italiana. JPL, a division of Caltech, manages the Cassini
program for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.

The terrible twos: What might happen if our Sun had a twin

How would our Sun behave differently if it had a closely orbiting
twin? While astronomers don't know the exact answer, NASA's Chandra X-ray
Observatory has observed an intriguing star system that is beginning to
provide important clues.

Scientists from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) used
Chandra to study two stars in an incredibly tight binary system. These
stars, part of the system known as 44i Bootis, orbit around so quickly that
they pass in front of one another every three hours.

"The Universe has gift-wrapped a wonderful laboratory for us to
study stars like our Sun," said Nancy Brickhouse of SAO who led the research
team. "We can use this strange alignment of these two stars whipping around
each other to learn more about magnetic fields and outer atmospheres in
stars like our Sun."

For decades, scientists have known that the Sun at the center of our
Solar System creates complex magnetic fields as it spins on axis roughly
once every month. These magnetic fields confine giant arches of hot,
ionized gas that erupt from the solar surface. Occasionally, these
eruptions flare out in the direction of Earth and affects satellites and
power grids.

Astronomers have long predicted that rapidly spinning solar-like
stars could produce magnetic field patterns very different from those of our
Sun. Unfortunately, any star outside of our Solar System - including 44i
Bootis - is too far away for even the biggest telescopes to resolve magnetic
loops on the surfaces.

However, the SAO team took advantage of the fact that 44i Bootis is
an eclipsing binary, where two stars circle around each other. The two
stars are aligned so that Chandra can capture the ebb and flow of radiation
as the stars pass in front of one another. Using the Doppler effect - the
same process that causes a siren to change its frequency as an ambulance
approaches - scientists were able to measure tiny wavelength shift in the
X-rays emanating from hot gas filling the magnetic field structures.

"By measuring the changes in the Doppler shift, we can use Chandra
to pinpoint where the radiation is coming from on these stars and it turns
out it's not where many scientists would have expected it," said SAO's
Andrea Dupree. "Chandra shows that most of the radiation from the 44i Booti
stars comes from areas around their poles. It's puzzling to understand how
these stars, which are very much like our Sun in many ways, can produce such
different patterns of X-ray structures when in a closely orbiting binary
system."

Chandra observed 44i Bootis, a multiple star system about 42 light
years from Earth in the constellation Bootes, with the High Energy
Transmission Grating for 59,000 seconds on April 25, 2000. In addition to
Brickhouse and Dupree, Peter Young of SAO was also a member of the research
team whose paper appeared in the Nov. 20, 2001, issue of the Astrophysical
Journal Letters.

The High Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer was built by the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Mass. NASA's
Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra
program. TRW, Inc., Redondo Beach, Calif., is the prime contractor for the
spacecraft. The Smithsonian's Chandra X-ray Center controls science and
flight operations from Cambridge.

Images associated with this release are available on the World Wide
Web at:

http://chandra.harvard.edu
and
http://chandra.nasa.gov

Cassini Significant Events 11/15/01 - 11/20/01

The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone
tracking station on Tuesday, November 20. The Cassini spacecraft is in
an excellent state of health and is operating normally. Recent
instrument activities include a Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS)
High Frequency Receiver calibration, and the Visual and Infrared Mapping
Spectrometer (VIMS), Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS),
Cosmic Dust Analyzer, Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument and RPWS
instruments going to sleep mode for the Probe test. Engineering
activities taking place onboard the spacecraft this week include an
update to the Attitude Control Subsystem (ACS) Ka-Band and X-Band body
vectors. A minisequence was uplinked that will allow RPWS to operate
during the upcoming Gravitational Wave Experiment (GWE).

The multi-day Probe Relay test began this week. The purpose of this
series of tests is to validate parts of the revised Cassini-Huygens
mission plan, in particular the new parameters of the telecommunications
link between the Probe and the Orbiter. The tests are designed to
examine the system's robustness to small variations in the
communications link that have not been accurately modeled on the ground.
Testing involves joint ESA-NASA teams at NASA's Goldstone DSN facility,
at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany,
and at the Cassini Mission Operations Center at JPL. Four of five tests
have been completed, and an initial assessment of the results indicates
no problems with telecommunications for the
revised mission plan.

Radio Science held a System Assessment Meeting (SAM) to determine the
readiness of the Radio Science System to support the GWE. The resolution
of the SAM was that the Cassini Program is ready to conduct the GWE.
Also in preparation for the GWE, Radio Science attended a delta design
review for the Cassini DSS-25 Upgrade Task. This delta-review closed
out several action items from September's initial review.

Mission Assurance completed an extensive review of the Cassini Uplink
Process, with emphasis on process and procedural improvement. The
process is very thorough and well documented. Existing procedures are
currently under review for updates. Refinements will be discussed and
incorporated into individual procedures over the next month. Flight
Team training and re-certification will be scheduled following
completion of the documentation updates. The Multi Mission Image
Processing Laboratory (MIPL)/ Instrument Operations team completed
implementing and testing of software in preparation for MIPL delivery
27. This software includes updates to
both ISS and VIMS product generators; new programs to support
identification of policed data and VIMS cube backplane contents; and
support for Cassini to use existing MIPL Spacecraft, Planet,
Instruments, C-matrix, and Events kernel programs.

Mission Assurance attended the Ensure Mission Success Workshop. The
purpose of the workshop was to review high level processes and
practices, with the intent of establishing a set of institutional Flight
Practices. This workshop focused primarily on Systems Engineering and
Mission Assurance, and a follow-on workshop is scheduled for February
2002 to address other areas. A review was held for the Modules and
Target Options Requirements of the Mission Software System (MSS) D8
delivery. There was very good participation by the customers, and while
some Requests for
Action were submitted, none poses any problems to the MSS D8 schedule.
This review closes a major open item for proceeding with the D8
delivery, and the MSS development team expressed appreciation for the
support from the customers and Project in general in making the review a
success.

Twenty-six papers related to Cassini's flyby of Jupiter are being
presented at the upcoming Division for Planetary Science of the American
Astronomical Society meeting in New Orleans. Four sessions have been
devoted to the topic of Galileo and Cassini at Jupiter. In addition, a
series of eleven papers on Cassini's flybys of Venus and Earth will be
appearing in the December issue of Journal of Geophysical Research. This
issue will probably be out in mid-December, following the American
Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.

The terrible twos: What might happen if our Sun had a twin

Images associated with this release are available on the World Wide
Web at:

http://chandra.harvard.edu
and
http://chandra.nasa.gov

Listening to Leonids

For centuries scientists have regarded reports of sounds from meteors with
skepticism. Edmund Halley himself in the 18th century said they were
little more than "pure fantasy." Yet earlier this month plenty of sky
watchers heard strange hissing and sizzling noises during the Leonid
meteor storm. Was it a hallucination? Read this story and find out!

FULL STORY at

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast26nov_1.htm?list448368

Celebrating Native American Heritage Month
Descendent of legendary Cherokee chief, NASA Marshall scientist learned
history from family stories

A direct descendant of a legendary Cherokee chief, Robbie Hood, an
atmospheric scientist and hurricane hunter at NASA's Marshall Space Flight
Center in Huntsville, Ala., learned Native American history the
old-fashioned way -- from stories passed down generation to generation.

"My mom was the first to tell me about the Trail of Tears," Hood
said of the Cherokee's forced relocation from the Southeastern United States
to present-day Oklahoma in 1838-1839. Leading the Cherokees on their long,
hard journey was Hood's great-great-great-great grandfather, John Ross, the
first elected chief of the Cherokee Nation.

Ross, whose name in Cherokee is Kooweskoowe, held the office from
1828 until his death in 1866. Thousands died on the Trail of Tears, which
extends from Fort Payne, Ala., to Tahlequah, Okla. But the descendants of
those who did survive -- including Hood -- comprise today's Western Cherokee
Nation with more than 220,000 registered members.

"There are more native Americans than most people realize," said
Hood, of the Marshall Center's Global Hydrology and Climate Center at the
National Space Science and Technology Center (NSSTC) in Huntsville.

One-eighth Cherokee, Hood grew up about an hour from the Western
Cherokee nation's capital of Tahlequah, and is registered to vote in tribal
elections. Living near the heart of the Cherokee nation gave her
opportunities to learn about her heritage.

"Cherokees have a tradition of being culturally progressive," she
said. "They were one of the first tribes to embrace European settlers, the
first to develop a written language, and among the first to marry people
from other cultures."

Her famous ancestor, John Ross, was the product of such a union.
Like Hood, he was one-eighth Cherokee, yet kept his Native American
traditions and led the Cherokee nation for nearly 40 years.

Hood believes things have come a long way since her mother was a
child in the 1930s. "In the time of my parents' generation," Hood said,
"Native Americans often felt pressured to hide their identity or heritage."

In contrast, Hood's children are encouraged to discuss and learn
about their history. In Madison, Ala., where Hood and her family reside,
their schools play an active role, with special monthly classes for Native
American students. The classes, offered in kindergarten through eighth
grade, have enabled her children -- two daughters in junior high and one son
in the first grade - to learn about their heritage, language and traditions.

One way Hood shows her heritage is by keeping the natural gray in
her hair. "I started going gray when I was 13 years old," she said. "My
grandfather's hair was snow-white when he was only 16. That's one reason I
don't color my hair. It's part of my family heritage."

At NASA, Hood specializes in hurricane research, a path first
inspired in 1969 after her family moved to Picayune, Miss. A seventh-grader
at the time, she experienced a hurricane's power firsthand when Hurricane
Camille -- the second-strongest hurricane to hit the United States in the
20th century - left her family and many others without electricity for two
weeks.

"I learned that no matter how technically advanced our society
becomes, we're always affected by weather," she said. After working as a
meteorologist and university researcher, Hood joined NASA in 1987 as an
atmospheric scientist at the Marshall Center, where she has participated in
several NASA studies that seek a better understanding of our weather.

Most recently, she served as lead mission scientist in NASA's fourth
Convection And Moisture Experiment (CAMEX) study -- a mission that united
researchers from 10 universities, five NASA centers and the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration toward the common goal of improving hurricane
prediction and understanding.

Hood has an associate's degree in physics from Crowder College in
Neosho, Mo., a bachelor's degree in atmospheric science from the University
of Missouri in Columbia and a master's degree in physical meteorology from
Florida State University in Tallahassee. She is married to Michael Goodman
- a fellow NASA Marshall atmospheric scientist.

Marshall Space Flight Center is NASA's lead center for space
transportation and propulsion systems, microgravity research, and
development of advanced large optics manufacturing technology.

The NSSTC is a partnership with the Marshall Center, Alabama
universities and federal agencies. A collaboration that enables scientists,
engineers and educators to share research and facilities, the NSSTC focuses
on space science, materials science, biotechnology, Earth sciences,
propulsion, information technology and optics.

November 26, 01

ESA hosts major international X-ray symposium

In the two years since ESA's XMM-Newton and NASA's Chandra
space telescopes opened their eyes to the X-ray Universe,
the world's X-ray astronomers have been busy analysing and
interpreting the data from both observatories. This
week the XMM-Newton and Chandra scientific communities are
meeting in the Netherlands for perhaps the most important
symposium since the two observatories were launched in 1999.

November 21, 01

Mars Society Opens Global Communications
Nov. 21, 2001

The Mars Society has taken a step to open global communications -
with a new ultra-low cost phonecard.

Using the Mars Society phonecard, calls anywhere in the US or Canada
can be made anytime for 3.9 cents per minute. International rates are
even better. For example, calls from the US to Britain can be made
for the astonishing low rate of 5.5 cents/minute, from the US to
France or Germany for 6.9 cents/minute, and even far Australia can be
reached from the USA for just 7.9 cents per minute!

And best of all, 10% of what you pay will go to support the Mars
Society, helping fund such important projects as the Flashline Mars
Arctic Research Station, the Mars Desert Research Station, and the
Translife Mission to find out the effects of Mars gravity on higher
life from Earth.

So why pay much high rates to old fashioned phone companies that
aren't doing a thing to support space exploration? Get the Mars
Society phone card and save money while helping the cause.

You get sign up for your Mars Society phone card online at the Mars
Society website, www.marssociety.org. Do it today and start saving
today.

www.marssociety.org

Floating Fertility

Researchers have found that gravity -- either too much or too little of it
-- affects the behavior of sperm in puzzling ways.

FULL STORY at

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast21nov_1.htm?list448368

JOINT NASA/NCI RESEARCH TO DEVELOP SENSORS
FOR HEALTH MONITORING INSIDE THE HUMAN BODY

NASA has selected seven researchers to receive grants
totaling approximately $11 million over three years to develop
new biomedical technologies to detect, diagnose and treat
disease inside the human body.

The selected proposals will develop and study nanoscale (one-
billionth of a meter) biomedical sensors that can detect
changes at the cellular and molecular level and communicate
irregularities to a device outside the body.

Such technological advances will enable NASA to monitor and
treat the health of astronauts in space and -- on Earth --
provide the National Cancer Institute (NCI) with new
technologies to identify and treat specific types of cancer at
their earliest stages.

Sponsored by NASA's Office of Biological and Physical Research
in collaboration with NCI, this research program offers
scientists the opportunity to collaborate on the development
of minimally invasive microscopic sensors that will advance
and support health monitoring and patient care.

NASA and NCI received 53 proposals in response to their
solicitation. These proposals were all peer-reviewed at NCI by
scientific and technical experts from academia, government and
industry.

A list of the selected principal investigators, institutions
and research titles (by state) can be found on the Internet
at:
http://SpaceResearch.nasa.gov

More detailed information about the NASA/NCI research program
is available at:
http://NASA-NCI.arc.nasa.gov

NASA ANNOUNCES RESEARCH GRANTS IN MICROGRAVITY FLUID PHYSICS

NASA has selected thirty-five researchers to receive
grants to study microgravity fluid physics that may result in
beneficial applications for long-duration missions,
exploration of other planets and enhancing life on Earth.

The grants, totaling approximately $14.4 million over four
years, offer investigators the opportunity to use low-gravity
environments to enhance understanding of fundamental physical
and chemical processes associated with space flight.

Researchers will use NASA's microgravity research facilities
such as drop-tubes, drop-towers, aircraft flying parabolic
trajectories and sounding rockets, with the goal of working
toward experiments on the International Space Station and
space shuttle flights.

This research is sponsored by NASA's Office of Biological and
Physical Research, which solicited proposals to conduct
ground- and space-based research in fluid physics.

NASA received 209 proposals in response to this research
announcement. The proposals were all peer-reviewed by
scientific and technical experts from academia, government and
industry.

A list of awardees (by state) and their institutions and
research titles can be found on Internet at:
http://SpaceResearch.nasa.gov

SOHONEWS New Hot Shot: Coronal Mass Inflows

The latest Hot Shot features movies of coronal mass inflows as seen in
LASCO C2 difference images. It links to ESA and GSFC releases regarding
the publication of an ApJ Letter by N. R. Sheeley, Jr. and Y.-M. Wang,
"Coronal Inflows and Sector Magnetism".

URLs: http://soho.nascom.nasa.gov/hotshots/
http://sohowww.estec.esa.nl/hotshots/
NEXT SPACE SCIENCE UPDATE NOV. 27 PRESENTS
HUBBLE DISCOVERY ABOUT EXTRASOLAR PLANET

A major discovery from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope
about a planet outside our Solar System will be announced in
a Space Science Update at 1 p.m. EST Tuesday, Nov. 27, in the
James E. Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters, 300 E St. SW,
Washington. The discovery marks an important new capability
in efforts to uncover secrets about these newly discovered
extrasolar planets.

Panelists will be:

* Dr. David Charbonneau, Millikan Postdoctoctoral Scholar in
Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
in Pasadena;
* Dr. Timothy Brown, senior scientist at the High Altitude
Observatory of the National Center for Atmospheric Research
in Boulder, Colo.;
* Dr. Alan P. Boss, staff member at the Carnegie Institution
of Washington, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism;
* Dr. Bruce Margon, associate director for science at the
Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore;
* Dr. Anne Kinney, panel moderator and director of the
Astronomy and Physics Division in the Office of Space Science
at NASA Headquarters.

ESA receives IBIS gamma-ray imager after successful calibration

After six years of sometimes painfully difficult development,
the construction of the world's largest and most sensitive
gamma-ray imaging camera has finished. Following calibration
tests in Milan, the fully assembled IBIS telescope has now been
transported from Italy to ESA's European Space Research and
Technology Centre in the Netherlands to be integrated on the
INTEGRAL spacecraft.

November 20, 01

NASA Marshall Center Director Stephenson receives top national engineering
management award

Art Stephenson, director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville, Ala., has received the Engineering Manager of the Year Award
from the American Society of Engineering Management (ASEM).

The award was presented earlier this month during the organization's 22nd
national conference, held in Huntsville.

ASEM members nominate candidates for the Engineering Manager of the Year
Award, and the national board of directors selects the recipient.

"Art Stephenson was selected for the award because of his demonstrated
leadership," said Dr. Jerry Westbrook, conference chairman. "Mr. Stephenson
has inspired employees to emphasize Marshall values - people, customers,
excellence, teamwork and innovation. He has secured the leading role for
Marshall in the Space Launch Initiative (SLI), a new NASA program. He
stresses excellence in performance and leadership while fostering a
people-oriented culture. His words and actions qualify him for this
prestigious award."

"It is people that make technology and projects successful," said
Stephenson.

Hosting this year's award was ASEM's Tennessee Valley Section and the
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering and Engineering Management
at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Conference participants came to Huntsville from around the world to meet
with their peers in engineering management, to network and update themselves
on new ideas in the field. The conference enables managers to exchange ideas
with industry, government and academic leaders interested in the practice of
leadership in engineering, scientific and technical organizations.

Founded in 1979, ASEM's purpose is to assist its members in developing and
improving their skills, maintain high professional standards and to promote
the engineering management profession. ASEM has its headquarters at the
University of Missouri in Rolla.

Stephenson leads the Marshall Center -- NASA's premier organization for
development of space transportation and propulsion systems and NASA's leader
in microgravity research and advanced large optics manufacturing technology.
He administers a broad range of research and development activities, along
with more than 6,500 civil service and contract employees and an annual
budget of $2.3 billion.

Since joining Marshall in 1998, he has overseen the Center's work on
critical NASA initiatives such as development of new reusable launch
vehicles, Space Shuttle propulsion, advanced space transportation systems,
research in microgravity, and science payload operations aboard the
International Space Station, and the launch and continuing successful
operation of the Chandra X-ray Observatory - the world's most powerful X-ray
telescope.

He began his career in 1964 with TRW in Redondo Beach, Calif. In his first
assignment, he designed a computer test set to verify performance of the
Apollo Lunar Excursion Abort Guidance System. He later led development of
the Pioneer Jupiter Spacecraft receiver, the first spacecraft to leave our
solar system, and development of the Space Shuttle S-band communication
network transponder, still in use today.

From 1988 to 1992, Stephenson was director of space transportation and
advanced programs, heading TRW's study teams for NASA's Assured Crew Return
Vehicle De-Orbit Module as well as projects for U.S. military and
international space programs.

In 1992, he joined Oceaneering International Inc., and served as vice
president and general manager of Oceaneering Space Systems in Houston. Under
his leadership, the organization grew from 30 to 220 employees in five
years, serving Marshall, Johnson Space Center in Houston, the Departments of
Defense and Energy, and many prime contractors.

Stephenson was promoted to president of Oceaneering Advanced Technologies in
1997. This position combined Oceaneering Space Systems with responsibilities
for Oceaneering's U.S. Navy, Department of Energy and entertainment
businesses, including submarine rescue system design, robotics for hazardous
waste cleanup at nuclear waste sites in the United States, and attractions
for theme parks in Florida, California and Japan.

Stephenson is an Associate Fellow member of the American Institute of
Aeronautics and Astronautics and a member of the National Space Society and
American Astronautical Society. He was awarded NASA's Exceptional Service
Medal earlier this year at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

A graduate in electrical engineering from the University of Redlands,
Calif., he also completed the executive program in management at the John E.
Anderson Graduate School of Management at the University of California at
Los Angeles.

Stephenson is a native of New London, Conn.

U.S. CENTENNIAL OF FLIGHT COMMISSION
AND FIRST FLIGHT CENTENNIAL COMMISSION ALIGN EFFORTS

The U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission (COFC) and the
First Flight Centennial Commission (FFCC) of North Carolina
have signed a memorandum of agreement that will allow them to
jointly promote the celebration of the 100th anniversary of
the first powered flight in 2003.

As a result of this agreement, North Carolina activities will
receive the U.S. Commission's national outreach support. In
turn, the FFCC will help promote the overall national
celebration called "Centennial of Flight: Born of dreams.
Inspired by freedom."

The FFCC was created by the state of North Carolina to
develop activities that commemorate the centennial
celebration and the historical events within the state
related to the first flight. The group is currently planning
a wide range of centennial activities across the state.

"The FFCC's fundamental task is to remind the world what a
magnificent achievement the first flight was, to help us all
understand what flight has meant to the world and to
commemorate that achievement in North Carolina, the United
States and throughout the world," said Kathryn Holten,
executive director of the FFCC. "We will do this through
events, educational activities and partnerships with other
organizations promoting flight. Working with the U.S.
Centennial of Flight Commission is a wonderful opportunity to
help us carry out our mission."

Congress created the U.S. Centennial Commission to help
coordinate centennial activities across the nation, and to
advise the President, Congress and federal agencies on ways
to encourage and promote national and international
participation in the centennial celebration.

"We are pleased to be working with the First Flight
Centennial Commission," said COFC Chairman General J.R.
("Jack") Dailey. "North Carolina played an instrumental role
in the Wright brothers' first flight. The FFCC's involvement
with the centennial celebration will be an important part of
the overall celebration because of the historical
significance of its location."

The organizations will work together to promote centennial
activities and the milestones of flight through a variety of
channels, including their respective Web sites, printed
materials and the COFC main calendar of events. The FFCC and
the COFC will encourage a wide variety of celebratory and
educational events throughout North Carolina and the country.

A complete listing of centennial events is available on the
COFC's Web page at:
www.centennialofflight.gov

Information about the FFCC and its programs can be found at:
www.firstflightnc.com

More information is also available from Christian Markow,
U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission, at 804/675-8153 and
Kathryn Holten, First Flight Centennial Commission, at
919/733-2003.

NASA SELECTS 126 INNOVATIVE SMALL BUSINESS PROJECTS

NASA has selected 126 research proposals for negotiation
of Phase 2 contract awards for its Small Business Innovation
Research (SBIR) Program. The selected projects, which have a
total value of approximately $75 million, will be conducted
by 105 small, high-technology firms located in 28 states.

The goals of this NASA program are to stimulate technological
innovation, increase the use of small business -- including
women-owned and disadvantaged firms -- in meeting federal
research and development needs, and increase private-sector
commercialization of innovations derived from federally
funded research.

A total of 259 proposals were submitted by SBIR contractors
completing Phase I projects. These proposals were evaluated
to determine that they met SBIR Phase I objectives and are
feasible research innovations for meeting agency needs.

Phase 2 continues development of the most promising Phase I
projects. Selection criteria include technical merit and
innovation, Phase I results, value to NASA, commercial
potential and company capabilities. Funding for Phase 2
contracts could be up to $600,000 for a two-year performance
period.

The NASA SBIR Program Manager is located at the Goddard Space
Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., with executive oversight by
NASA's Office of Aerospace Technology, NASA Headquarters,
Washington. Individual SBIR projects are managed by NASA's
ten field centers.

A listing of the selected companies can be accessed on the
Internet at:

http://sbir.nasa.gov
NASA SPACECRAFT TO HUNT FOR ELUSIVE GRAVITY RIPPLES

Barely perceptible fluctuations in the speed of a distant
NASA spacecraft coasting away from Earth could provide
science's first direct detection of gravitational waves, a
basic feature of how the universe behaves.

A 40-day search beginning Nov. 26 will use the Cassini
spacecraft and specially upgraded ground facilities of NASA's
Deep Space Network. "We've tried this before with other
spacecraft, but this time we have new instrumentation on the
spacecraft and on the ground that gives us 10 times the
sensitivity," said astronomer Dr. John Armstrong of NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We're able to measure
the relative velocity between Earth and Cassini with exquisite
accuracy."

Cassini's speed relative to Earth will vary during the 40
days, but will typically be about what it would take to zip
from New York to Chicago in five minutes. In contrast, this
experiment could detect any change in speed so small it would
lengthen or shorten that trip by a mere fraction of a second.

Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of space
and time that are set off by accelerations of massive bodies,
such as black holes or supernovas. Albert Einstein theorized
they exist, and indirect evidence confirmed his prediction in
the 1970s.

"Gravitational waves are at the frontier of astrophysics.
There's no question they exist, but they have not yet been
detected directly," said Armstrong, leader of an international
team that has been preparing for years to conduct this search.

"Gravity waves can give us another window into the
universe, the way Galileo's telescope did in the 17th century
and radio telescopes did in the 1940s," said JPL's Randy
Herrera, lead operations engineer. The ability to detect
gravitational waves could lead to their use as a way to study
black holes and other massive phenomena, he added.

Cassini is in a quiet cruise phase of its mission, 11
months past Jupiter but still more than 30 months from its
destination at Saturn. The researchers will use radio
transmissions between Cassini and Earth to search for
gravitational waves measurably warping space between the two.
The transmissions reveal velocity changes by the Doppler
effect, the same phenomenon that raises the pitch of an
approaching train's whistle or lengthens the light waves from
a receding galaxy. If gravitational waves within a particular
range of long wavelengths are passing through our solar
system, they will alternately stretch and compact space in a
way that would rhythmically affect the Earth-to-Cassini
distance.

Italian scientists Dr. Bruno Bertotti of the University
of Pavia and Dr. Luciano Iess of the University of Rome are
co-leaders of the experiment. Italy's national space agency,
Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, provided crucial equipment aboard
Cassini enabling the gravitational-wave experiment to use
higher-frequency radio transmissions than have been used in
earlier gravitational-wave searches with Galileo, Mars
Observer, Ulysses and Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. The
higher frequency suppresses noise from the solar wind,
allowing more precise measurements of velocity changes.

JPL engineers have carefully instrumented a large dish
antenna at the Deep Space Network's Goldstone complex near
Barstow, Calif., to send and receive the higher frequencies
with unprecedented Doppler sensitivity. The upgrade includes
refined pointing capability needed to exploit the higher
frequencies, said Sami Asmar, supervisor of JPL's Radio
Science Group. Other new equipment at Goldstone will allow
researchers to correct for the atmosphere's distortion of
radio transmissions and improve performance of the search.

The experiment will use links at lower radio frequencies
between Cassini and Deep Space Network antennas near Madrid,
Spain, and Canberra, Australia. This will enable around-the-
clock observations. Taking data with independent equipment at
three sites will help discriminate subtle instrumental effects
from signals that might be gravitational waves.

The scientific importance of detecting gravitational
waves has also prompted ground-based projects, most notably
the highly sensitive Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave
Observatory, coordinated by the California Institute of
Technology, Pasadena, and Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge. The two approaches complement each
other because the Cassini experiment is sensitive to million-
fold longer wavelengths of gravitational waves than the
ground-based laser interferometers are, Armstrong said.

The Cassini experiment is timed so that Earth is on a
line between the Sun and the spacecraft, minimizing noises on
the radio link. Measurements taken during the 40 days will
take several months to analyze. The experiment will be
repeated twice more in the next two years when the
spacecraft's position will make the measurements sensitive to
gravitational waves from different directions in the sky.

Information about the Cassini-Huygens mission is
available online at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini .
Cassini, launched in 1997, will begin orbiting Saturn on July
1, 2004, and drop its piggybacked Huygens probe onto the haze-
wrapped moon Titan about six months later. The mission is a
collaboration of NASA, the European Space Agency and the
Agenzia Spaziale Italiana. JPL, a division of Caltech,
manages the Cassini program for NASA's Office of Space
Science, Washington, D.C.

MISSION: STS-108 - 12th ISS Flight (UF1) - MPLM

VEHICLE: Endeavour/OV-105
TARGET KSC LAUNCH DATE/TIME: Nov. 29, 2001 at 7:41 p.m.
TARGET KSC LANDING DATE/TIME: Dec. 10, 2001 at 3:16 p.m.
MISSION DURATION: 10 days, 20 hours
CREW: Gorie, Kelly, Godwin, Tani; (ISS up) Onufrienko, Bursch, Walz; (ISS
down) Culbertson, Dezhurov, Tyurin
ORBITAL INSERTION ALTITUDE and INCLINATION: 122 nautical miles/51.6 degrees

Shuttle Processing Note: Launch preparations for Shuttle Endeavour remain on
schedule at Pad B. Ordnance installation and pressurization of the
hypergolic propellant system are complete. Work in progress includes final
stowage in both the Raffaello Multi Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) and the
crew compartment. External Tank purge and aft closeouts are underway. No
work is scheduled for the Thanksgiving holidays (Thursday-Friday). Over the
weekend, the launch crew will begin preparations for picking up the final
countdown, scheduled for 11 p.m. Monday, Nov. 26. The seven STS-108
crewmembers will arrive at KSC on Sunday, Nov. 25.

MISSION: STS-109 - HST Servicing Mission 3B

VEHICLE: Columbia/OV-102
TARGET KSC LAUNCH DATE: Feb. 14, 2002
TARGET KSC LANDING DATE: Feb. 25, 2002
MISSION DURATION: 11 days
CREW: Altman, Carey, Grunsfeld, Currie, Newman, Linnehan, Massimino
ORBITAL INSERTION ALTITUDE and INCLINATION: 308 nautical miles/28.5 degrees

Shuttle Processing Note: Columbia is in the Orbiter Processing Facility
(OPF) undergoing pre-launch processing for the Hubble Space Telescope
servicing mission. Airlock verification and Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) leak
and functional testing are continuing, and preparations are underway to
install the Main Engine heat shields.
MISSION: STS-110 - 13th ISS Flight (8A) - ITS S0, MT

VEHICLE: Atlantis/OV-104
TARGET KSC LAUNCH DATE: March 21, 2002
TARGET KSC LANDING DATE: April 1, 2002
MISSION DURATION: 11 days
CREW: Bloomfield, Frick, Ross, Smith, Ochoa, Morin, Walheim
ORBITAL INSERTION ALTITUDE and INCLINATION: 122 nautical miles/51.6 degrees

Shuttle Processing Note: Atlantis is powered down in its OPF bay as
scheduled modification work continues. Processing operations will resume in
mid-December.

STRUCTURAL INSPECTION & MODIFICATION PERIOD

VEHICLE: Discovery/OV-103

Shuttle Processing Note: Shuttle managers continue to assess the content,
schedule and location for the structural inspection and modification down
period for Orbiter Discovery. System deservicing continues with removal of
the right Orbiter Maneuvering System (OMS) pod. Discovery will be rolled
back for temporary storage in the Vehicle Assembly Building next week.

ESA scientists listen to the Leonids

Although leaden skies over northern Europe last weekend
were a disappointment to most avid meteor watchers,
scientists at the European Space Research and Technology
Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands are happily recounting
their successful Leonid observations. The reason for their
delight is that, despite the cloud blanket that obscured
the familiar glowing meteor trails, they were able to
detect numerous radio echoes from the famous swarm of
shooting stars.

PRESS BADGING FOR STS-108 LAUNCH, LANDING, MISSION COVERAGE

Members of the news media planning to cover Space
Shuttle Endeavour's mission (STS-108) to the International
Space Station should expect, and plan for, changes in NASA
badging and escorting procedures for media at the Kennedy
Space Center, Fla.; Johnson Space Center, Houston; and Dryden
Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif.

Media wishing to cover the launch, landing and/or the mission
should contact each NASA center newsroom at the numbers above
for specific badging and escorting procedures.

Following are Web links to new badging requirements for
mission coverage:

Kennedy Space Center Press Site:
http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/release/2001/130-01.htm

Johnson Space Center Newsroom:
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/pao/media/rel/2000/J01-113.html

Dryden Flight Research Center:
http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/PAO/PressReleases/2001/01-66.html
SOHO's latest surprise: gas near the Sun heading the wrong way

Mysterious clouds of gas falling towards the Sun have been spotted
with the ESA-NASA SOHO spacecraft. They go against the fast-moving
streams of gas that pour out continuously into space, in the solar wind.
This discovery promises a better understanding of the sources of the
solar magnetism that envelops the Earth, quarrels with our own planet's
field, and to some extent protects us from cosmic rays coming from the
stars.

TOOL FOR FIRST COMET ORBITER WILL EXAMINE ESCAPING GASES

A lightweight NASA instrument from California has arrived
in the Netherlands, one step closer in its journey to examine
how gases escape from the nucleus of a comet.

The Microwave Instrument for the Rosetta Orbiter is one
of 17 instruments that will fly aboard the European Space
Agency's major mission to a comet. Rosetta will be the first
spacecraft to orbit a comet, and the microwave instrument will
be the first of its type to be sent to any solar system object
other than Earth.

"We'll look at the abundance of the gases, their
temperatures, the speed at which they're coming off, and the
temperature of the comet's nucleus," said Dr. Margaret
Frerking, the microwave instrument's project manager at NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

The JPL-built device was incorporated into the main
spacecraft structure in Alenia, Italy, and arrived in
Noordwjik, Netherlands, to begin a series of tests by the
European Space Agency. The next step in its journey is its
path to Kourou, French Guinea, for its January 2003 launch
into space. Rosetta will swing near Earth and two large
asteroids before reaching its chosen dance partner, Comet
Wirtanen, on Nov. 28, 2011. At that point in Wirtanen's 5.5-
year orbit, the comet will be at about as far from the Sun as
Jupiter and five times as far from the Sun as Earth.

Rosetta will drop a lander onto Wirtanen's nucleus, and
the orbiter will circle the comet at distances as close as 2
kilometers (1.2 miles).

From the orbiter, the microwave instrument will monitor
how the release of vapors from the comet's icy nucleus changes
as Wirtanen moves closer to the Sun. Gases and dust escaping
from the surface of a comet form a cloud-like "coma" around
the nucleus and a tail pointed away from the Sun.

"The spacecraft will remain in orbit around Wirtanen for
20 months as the comet moves in from Jupiter's distance from
the Sun to about Earth's distance," said JPL's Dr. Samuel
Gulkis, principal investigator for the instrument. "During
that time, the nucleus will warm significantly, and we'll be
able to watch the whole process as the comet evolves from an
inactive iceball to having a fully developed coma."

The instruments onboard the orbiter will include a camera
to study surface details, a microscope to analyze dust grains
coming off the nucleus, spectrometers to examine surface and
coma materials in various wavelengths, and an experiment to
probe the comet's interior with radio waves.

The microwave instrument is a very high frequency radio
spectrometer, weighing about 20 kilograms (44 pounds). It is
designed for studying water, carbon dioxide, ammonia and
methanol gases, four of the most abundant gases from comets.
The device is sensitive to slight differences in emission
wavelengths from those gases, allowing it to measure the
quantities coming off the nucleus, along with their
temperatures and speeds.

"We want to get a good estimate of the amount of mass
being lost by the comet so we can play that backward to get at
what the comet was like shortly after it was formed," Gulkis
said. That will help pin down ideas about how comets and
planets were produced during the infancy of our solar system.

The microwave instrument will also be able to measure
both the surface temperature of the nucleus and the
temperature just below the surface. "That temperature
difference will tell us about the insulating properties of the
surface and help us understand the thermal physics of what's
going on inside the nucleus," Gulkis said.

As Rosetta passes the stony asteroid Otawara and the
carbon-rich asteroid Siwa on its roundabout route to Wirtanen,
the microwave instrument will examine thermal properties of
those minor planets' surfaces and check whether they have any
permafrost layer leaking small quantities of water vapor into
space.

Online information is available about Rosetta at
http://sci.esa.int/rosetta and about the microwave instrument
at http://mirowww.jpl.nasa.gov . JPL, a division of the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the
instrument for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington,
D.C.

NASA/FRENCH OCEAN-OBSERVING SATELLITE SET TO SOAR

The Dec. 7 launch of Jason 1, NASA's newest oceanography
satellite, will continue the mission started by Topex/Poseidon
to monitor global climate interactions between the sea and the
atmosphere.

Jason 1 will monitor world ocean circulation, study
interactions of the oceans and atmosphere, improve climate
predictions, and observe events like El Nino. Jason 1 is a
joint U.S./French oceanography mission.

"Jason 1 will be a tremendous asset to our oceanography
program. It will take the research and development activities
done so successfully on Topex/Poseidon and add operational
utility and function," said Dr. Ghassem Asrar, associate
administrator for NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, NASA
Headquarters, Washington.

Since the oceans are so large, remote sensing from
satellites has proved to be the only way to get global
information about these vast, hard-to-measure expanses.
Spaceborne altimeters, such as the Poseidon 2 instrument that
Jason 1 carries, can calculate ocean heights to within
centimeters.

Gary Kunstmann, Jason 1 project manager at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., said, "We're very
excited about this launch and looking forward to greater
knowledge of the 'whys' and 'hows' of the world's climate
systems."

Jason 1 is the follow-on to the very successful
Topex/Poseidon satellite, a U.S.-French mission that has been
making precise measurements of ocean-surface topography since
1992.

The ocean and atmosphere transport heat from the
equatorial regions toward the icy poles, and the atmosphere
sends heat through a complex, worldwide pattern of winds. As
these winds blow across the oceans, they help drive the
currents and exchange heat, moisture and gases with the water.
While winds create daily, short-term weather changes, the
oceans have a slower, much longer-lasting effect on climate.
The powerful forces of wind and water combine to help regulate
the planet's climate.

Accurate observations of sea-surface height and ocean
winds provide scientists with information about the speed and
direction of ocean currents and the heat stored in the ocean,
which in turn reveals global climate variations. Jason 1 will
help scientists in their quest to understand these global
climate forces.

Weighing about 500 kilograms (about 1,100 pounds), Jason
1 is only one-fifth the weight of Topex/Poseidon. After
launch, Jason 1 will enter orbit about 10 to15 kilometers (6
to 9 miles) below Topex/Poseidon's 1,337-kilometer-altitude
(830-mile) orbit. During the next few weeks, Jason 1 will use
its thrusters to raise itself into the same orbital altitude
as Topex/Poseidon, and then move in close behind its
predecessor, trailing by about 500 kilometers (300 miles).

The two spacecraft will fly in formation, making nearly
simultaneous measurements. The science team will compare the
data to make sure the instruments are calibrated exactly.
This procedure is expected to take about six months. Jason 1
will then assume Topex/Poseidon's former flight path, and the
older satellite will move into a parallel ground track midway
between two Jason 1 ground tracks. Jason 1's mission is
designed to last three years.

Jason 1 carries five instruments: the Poseidon 2
altimeter, the spacecraft's main instrument, to measure
altitude; a microwave radiometer to measure atmospheric water
vapor; and three precision location-finding instruments.

Jason 1 is a joint project between NASA and France's
Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales. The U.S. portion of the
mission is managed for NASA's Office of Earth Science,
Washington, by JPL, a division of the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena.

More information about the Jason 1 program is available
at: http://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov and on the JPL home page at
http://jpl.nasa.gov .

ANY EARTHLIKE PLANETS OUT THERE? FREE LECTURES EXPLORE THE
IDEA

How did we get here? Are we alone? These tantalizing
questions are addressed in two free, public lectures called
"The Hunt for Earthlike Planets," at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory on Thurs., November 29, and at Pasadena City
College on Fri., November 30.

Dr. Charles Beichman, chief scientist of astronomy and
physics at JPL, will discuss NASA's Origins Program, a series
of missions on the ground and in space designed to find
planets orbiting other stars that might harbor life.

Scientists will hunt for planets with the same conditions
that make Earth such a cozy habitat for life -- water, the
right temperature, size, density and chemistry. With current
technology, we can find very large planets, which probably
don't have life. The Origins program is developing powerful
new telescopes to find smaller, Earthlike planets in a similar
"Goldilocks zone" around other stars -- not too hot, too cold,
too big or too small. Sophisticated instruments will look for
the telltale chemical signatures of life.

"We are looking initially for simple forms of life"
Beichman said, "but with this information we will be able to
assess the chances of someday finding intelligent life
elsewhere in the universe."

Beichman continues to serve as chief scientist for the
Origins Program at JPL. Previously, he was director of the
Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, NASA's premier
institute for infrared astronomy, jointly operated by JPL and
the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Beichman
also headed JPL's astronomy program in the mid 1980s. He
graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College, Cambridge,
Mass. He received masters' degrees in astronomy and physics,
and a PhD in astronomy from the University of Hawaii,
Honolulu. Beichman has been honored with two NASA awards and
has published more than 150 scientific and popular articles.

Both lectures begin at 7 p.m. Seating is on a first-
come, first-served basis. The lecture will also be Webcast on
Thurs., Nov. 29, at 7 p.m. Pacific time. The lecture at JPL,
located at 4800 Oak Grove Dr., Pasadena, off the Oak Grove
Drive exit of the 210 (Foothill) Freeway, will be held in the
von Karman Auditorium. The Friday lecture will be held in
Pasadena City College's Forum at 1570 E. Colorado Blvd.

For more information, call (818) 354-5011. Information
on the von Karman lecture and Webcast is available at
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/lectures/nov01.html . JPL, a
NASA center, is a division of Caltech.

NASA,s Marshall Center selects 20 contractors for specialized engineering
and project planning support

NASA,s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., has selected 20
contractors to receive blanket purchase agreements for specialized
engineering and project planning support.

These agreements will supplement existing engineering support provided by
Sverdrup Technology Inc., headquartered in Tullahoma, Tenn., under the
Marshall Center,s engineering, science and technical services contract by
making available the unique expertise and capabilities of these 20 firms to
the Marshall Center,s product line directorates.

The agreements will enable Marshall to fill critical requirements with the
best industry talent available while realizing the schedule and cost
benefits that increased competition promotes. The agreements also provide
the Marshall Center with an opportunity to increase its industrial base by
allowing firms that have not traditionally done a large amount of work with
Marshall to compete for new task orders. These agreements do not replace or
take away from the engineering support already being provided by Sverdrup.

"This initiative will support the Space Transportation, Engineering and
Science directorates and the Systems Management Office, said Michael
Sweigart, a contracting officer with Marshall,s Procurement Office. "It will
also be used to support the Space Launch Initiative.

The Space Launch Initiative, also known as the Second Generation Reusable
Launch Vehicle Program, is a NASA technology development program designed to
increase safety and reliability while reducing costs for space travel. The
Space Launch Initiative program is not only a technology development program
but also a program that is studying alternative launch vehicle architectures
that would use the technology in the end. The technology selected for
development is based on extensive studies assessing technology needs for the
Second Generation Reusable Launch Vehicle. Those technologies have been
prioritized and the funding is commensurate with those priorities. The
Marshall Center is NASA's Lead Center for Space Transportation Systems
Development and manages the Space Launch Initiative.

Firms receiving the blanket purchase agreements were competitively selected
from the General Services Administration,s Federal Supply Schedule for
professional engineering services. Firms selected for award include large,
small and small-disadvantaged businesses located in Huntsville, as well as
across the country.

The Marshall Center will compete future task orders for services among these
contractors with selection based on best overall value to Marshall. The
agreements have a minimum value of $25,000 and a maximum value estimated at
between $3-5 million per year through Oct. 31, 2005.

Firms awarded blanket purchase agreements are:

Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo.;
Boeing Service Company, Seabrook, Md.;
Booz Allen & Hamilton, McLean, Va.;
Computer Sciences Corporation, Fairfax, Va.;
ELMCO Inc., Huntsville, Ala.;
Futron Corporation, Bethesda, Md.;
ITT Industries, Reston, Va.;
Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems Inc., Tinton Falls, N.J.;
Madison Research Corporation, Huntsville, Ala.;
MEVATEC Corporation, Huntsville, Ala.;
Micro Craft Inc., Tullahoma, Tenn.;
MSE Technology Applications, Butte, Mont.;
Oceaneering Space Systems, Houston, Texas;
Orbital Sciences Corporation, Greenbelt, Md.;
Raytheon Aerospace Engineering Services, Houston, Texas;
Science Applications International Corporation, Huntsville, Ala.;
System Studies and Simulation Inc., Huntsville, Ala.;
Swales Aerospace, Beltsville, Md.;
Northrop Grumman Information Technology, Reading, Mass.;
Teledyne Brown Engineering Inc., Huntsville, Ala.

Leonids over the Carribean: an on-the-spot report

"As Leo ascended into the sky the rate of meteors increased. At 2.45 a.m
the first fireball exploded in front of the ship with a searing bright
glow."

Read our on-the-spot report from our correspondant in the Carribean at:
http://sci2.esa.int/leonids/leonids2001/

NEWS DIRECTORS: KSC BADGING REQUIREMENTS AND NEWS CENTER OPERATING HOURS SET FOR STS-108
LAUNCH ACTIVITIES

News media badging requirements and operating hours for KSC's News
Center have been established for the launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour
on mission STS-108.

Media are reminded that the earlier distributed annual badges are no
longer valid. Media must request current credentials in writing via fax to
the KSC News Room (321-867-2692) on the letterhead of their current
affiliation. The request must include name (as it appears on drivers license
or passport), social security number, date-of-birth, valid address (no P.O.
box), and phone number. Foreign journalists must submit their requests one
week in advance of the events.

News media representatives with proper authorization may obtain
STS-108 mission credentials at the Pass and Identification Building (PIDs)
on State Road 3 (south of KSC) on Merritt Island during published times. Due
to heightened security, media will not be permitted to drive into the
secured KSC areas. Once badges are distributed, media will be directed to a
remote parking location (at KARS 1) and bused to the KSC News Center. Media
buses will run between the Press Site and the remote parking location
periodically each day through launch time. Be advised, due to heightened
security, media should add appropriate time to their schedules.

Credential and badging hours are listed below.
KSC News Center office hours for STS-108
(Times may be adjusted in real time depending on mission events and
timelines.)

Sunday, Nov 25........................ 1 - 6 p.m.
Monday, Nov. 26........................ 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Nov. 27...................... 8 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Wednesday, Nov. 28.................. 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Thursday, Nov. 29 (Launch Day)... 8 a.m. - 12 midnight
* [FOR MISSION DAY SCHEDULES SEE NOTE BELOW]
Monday, Dec. 10 (Landing day)... 8 a.m. -- 10 p.m.

* NOTE: The KSC News Center will support media questions for
overnight and weekend STS-108 Mission Status Briefings and the in-flight
crew news conference. Media interested in attending the briefings that occur
after normal office hours, MUST make their intentions known to the KSC News
Room at least 24 hours in advance, in order to secure proper access to the
press site. Times of these briefings are available in the NASA TV schedule
at: http://www.spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/nasatv/schedule.html

Pass and Identification Hours
Sunday, Nov. 25 ----------------------------- 1 - 2:30 p.m.
Monday, Nov. 26 ----------------------------- 8 a.m. - 12 noon
Tuesday, Nov. 27 ---------------------------- 8 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Wednesday, Nov. 28 ----------------------- 8 a.m. -- 3:30 p.m.
Thursday, Nov. 29 (Launch day)---------- 8 a.m. -- 6:30 p.m.

News media may obtain STS-108 mission credentials at the Pass and
Identification Building at Gate 2 on State Road 3, Merritt Island, during
the above published times.

NEWS MEDIA ARE REQUIRED TO BE UNDER PUBLIC AFFAIRS ESCORT AT ALL
TIMES WHILE AT KSC. MEDIA ARE NOT PERMITTED AT THE COMPLEX 39 CAFETERIA.

NEWS MEDIA ARE ALLOWED AT THE PRESS SITE ONLY WHEN THE KSC NEWS
CENTER IS OPEN.

Status reports and other NASA publications are available on the
World Wide Web at:
http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/kscpao.htm .

Information about the countdown and mission can be accessed
electronically via the Internet at:
http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/countdown/ and at
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/

What: Video News Release
Saving America's Most Endangered Species and Places
At sea with the Multi-Agency Marine Debris Expedition hauling in over 50
tons of derelict fishing nets from the waters around the Northwestern
Hawaiian Islands. Saving the endangered Hawaiian Monk Seal, sea turtles,
and precious coral reefs. Go underwater as divers locate and remove nets
from fragile ecosystems then scientists weigh and sort them to identify
their origin.
(Great! Evergreen Environmental Feature)

Who: National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, The Ocean
Conservancy, U.S. Coast Guard, Hawaii Sea Grant, and U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service.

NASA/FRENCH OCEAN-OBSERVING SATELLITE SET TO SOAR

The Dec. 7 launch of Jason 1, NASA's newest oceanography
satellite, will continue the mission started by Topex/Poseidon
to monitor global climate interactions between the sea and the
atmosphere.

Jason 1 will monitor world ocean circulation, study
interactions of the oceans and atmosphere, improve climate
predictions, and observe events like El Nino. Jason 1 is a
joint U.S./French oceanography mission.

"Jason 1 will be a tremendous asset to our oceanography
program. It will take the research and development activities
done so successfully on Topex/Poseidon and add operational
utility and function," said Dr. Ghassem Asrar, associate
administrator for NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, NASA
Headquarters, Washington.

Since the oceans are so large, remote sensing from
satellites has proved to be the only way to get global
information about these vast, hard-to-measure expanses.
Spaceborne altimeters, such as the Poseidon 2 instrument that
Jason 1 carries, can calculate ocean heights to within
centimeters.

Gary Kunstmann, Jason 1 project manager at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., said, "We're very
excited about this launch and looking forward to greater
knowledge of the 'whys' and 'hows' of the world's climate
systems."

Jason 1 is the follow-on to the very successful
Topex/Poseidon satellite, a U.S.-French mission that has been
making precise measurements of ocean-surface topography since
1992.

The ocean and atmosphere transport heat from the
equatorial regions toward the icy poles, and the atmosphere
sends heat through a complex, worldwide pattern of winds. As
these winds blow across the oceans, they help drive the
currents and exchange heat, moisture and gases with the water.
While winds create daily, short-term weather changes, the
oceans have a slower, much longer-lasting effect on climate.
The powerful forces of wind and water combine to help regulate
the planet's climate.

Accurate observations of sea-surface height and ocean
winds provide scientists with information about the speed and
direction of ocean currents and the heat stored in the ocean,
which in turn reveals global climate variations. Jason 1 will
help scientists in their quest to understand these global
climate forces.

Weighing about 500 kilograms (about 1,100 pounds), Jason
1 is only one-fifth the weight of Topex/Poseidon. After
launch, Jason 1 will enter orbit about 10 to15 kilometers (6
to 9 miles) below Topex/Poseidon's 1,337-kilometer-altitude
(830-mile) orbit. During the next few weeks, Jason 1 will use
its thrusters to raise itself into the same orbital altitude
as Topex/Poseidon, and then move in close behind its
predecessor, trailing by about 500 kilometers (300 miles).

The two spacecraft will fly in formation, making nearly
simultaneous measurements. The science team will compare the
data to make sure the instruments are calibrated exactly.
This procedure is expected to take about six months. Jason 1
will then assume Topex/Poseidon's former flight path, and the
older satellite will move into a parallel ground track midway
between two Jason 1 ground tracks. Jason 1's mission is
designed to last three years.

Jason 1 carries five instruments: the Poseidon 2
altimeter, the spacecraft's main instrument, to measure
altitude; a microwave radiometer to measure atmospheric water
vapor; and three precision location-finding instruments.

Jason 1 is a joint project between NASA and France's
Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales. The U.S. portion of the
mission is managed for NASA's Office of Earth Science,
Washington, by JPL, a division of the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena.

More information about the Jason 1 program is available
at: http://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov and on the JPL home page at
http://jpl.nasa.gov .

IT'S ABOUT TIMED: NASA SPACECRAFT WILL USE LOFTY PERCH
TO STUDY GATEWAY TO SPACE

A NASA mission will soon reveal the well-kept secrets of
a mysterious region situated 40 to 110 miles (about 60 to 180
kilometers) above the Earth called the Mesosphere and Lower
Thermosphere/Ionosphere (MLTI), where electrical currents
surge and auroras cast an eerie glow over the Northern and
Southern hemispheres.

The Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere, Energetics and
Dynamics (TIMED) mission will uncover the mysteries of this
region by producing the very first set of comprehensive,
global measurements of the MLTI.

TIMED is scheduled to launch Dec. 7 aboard a Delta II rocket
from the Western Range of Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.,
during a launch window that extends from 9:58 a.m. to 10:18
a.m. EST (6:58 a.m. to 7:18 a.m. PST).

Studying the MLTI was nearly impossible until now.
Conventional airplanes and balloons cannot reach this high
altitude, and it is too low for direct satellite measurements.
Satellites traveling at orbital speeds encounter enough
particles to burn up, and sub-orbital rockets are limited to
studying just one specific area before falling back to Earth
after only a few minutes.

This first in a series of six Solar Terrestrial Probes will
study the MLTI region from a very high location -- a 388-mile
(approximately 625-kilometer) circular orbit around the Earth.
TIMED will "share" its launch vehicle with an oceanography
mission called Jason-1.

"It is imperative that we learn more about the dynamics of the
MLTI because the Sun's energy often has profound effects on
the areas directly above and below this region," said Sam Yee,
TIMED project scientist at The Johns Hopkins University
Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) in Laurel, Md. "With
TIMED, scientists will be able to develop better predictive
models of space weather's effects on communications, satellite
tracking, spacecraft lifetimes and degradation of spacecraft
materials."

TIMED will gather data on the MLTI using four instruments:

* Global Ultraviolet Imager (GUVI). GUVI is an ultraviolet
spectrograph designed to measure the composition and
temperature profiles of the MLTI region, as well as its
auroral energy inputs.

* Solar Extreme Ultraviolet Experiment (SEE). This instrument
will observe solar ultraviolet irradiance (the primary energy
that is deposited into the MLTI region). SEE will determine
how much this energy varies and how it affects the atmosphere
and changes its composition.

* TIMED Doppler Interferometer (TIDI). TIDI will measure
winds and temperature of the MLTI, determining wind speed and
direction by examining minuscule changes in the color of light
emitted from chemical constituents in the atmosphere.

* Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission
Radiometry (SABER). This multi-channel infrared radiometer
will measure a wide range of infrared light emitted by the
atmosphere at several altitudes.

A unique feature of the TIMED mission is its interdisciplinary
approach. The four instrument Principal Investigators, or PIs,
will have direct control of their instruments and experiments
from the Payload Operations Centers at JHU/APL; NASA Langley
Research Center, Hampton, Va.; the University of Colorado,
Boulder; and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Each PI
institution will send daily commands to the TIMED Mission
Operations Center located at JHU/APL, where instructions for
the instruments and spacecraft will be gathered and uplinked
daily to the TIMED spacecraft. Six interdisciplinary
investigators participating in the TIMED mission will analyze
and interpret data acquired by the instrument PIs throughout
the mission.

NASA and the National Science Foundation are jointly
sponsoring a program that will enable the TIMED spacecraft
team to closely collaborate with other scientific community
members studying the MLTI. The program takes advantage of the
synergy between ground- and space-based instruments and of the
scientific contributions made by data assimilation and
modeling. One of the most significant contributions of the
collaborative investigators' program will be to provide
ground-based data complementary to that provided by the TIMED
spacecraft.

The TIMED mission cost of $193 million includes the
spacecraft, instrument payload, and launch vehicle. An
additional $42 million has been reserved for data analysis and
ground/mission operations. The Solar Terrestrial Probes
Program Office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center,
Greenbelt, Md., manages the TIMED mission for the Office of
Space Science, Washington. JHU/APL designed, built and will
operate the spacecraft and lead the science effort for NASA
during the mission.

Detailed information about the TIMED mission and other Solar
Terrestrial Probe missions is available at:
http://stp.gsfc.nasa.gov/missions/timed/timed.htm

Detailed information about the TIMED spacecraft and
instruments, interdisciplinary approach and mission operations
is at:
www.timed.jhuapl.edu

Smithsonian Selects NEAR Mission for 2001 Aerospace Trophy

The team that landed the first spacecraft on an asteroid was honored last
night at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum with
one of the museum's most distinguished awards, the Trophy for Current
Achievement.

The museum presented the award for outstanding achievement in scientific
or technological endeavors relating to air and space to NASA's Near
Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission team, which conducted the most
comprehensive study of an asteroid to date. Managed by The Johns Hopkins
University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), Laurel, Md., the mission
grabbed worldwide attention during a controlled descent to the surface
of asteroid Eros on Feb. 12, 2001.

"The NEAR mission accomplished a significant number of important space
firsts and it's gratifying to have the Smithsonian recognize the team
with such a prestigious award," says APL's Robert W. Farquhar, NEAR
mission director, who accepted the trophy. "The mission's accomplishments
would not have been possible were it not for an incredible team effort
by many institutions who are proud to share this honor."

The NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft, launched in 1996, traveled more than two
billion miles before being placed in orbit around Eros in February 2000.
It circled the asteroid for a year, dipping at times to within three
miles (5.3 kilometers) of the potato-shaped asteroid's ends and
returning more than 10 times the data expected over the program's
lifetime. The mission was full of surprises including a soft landing by
the spacecraft, which was designed only as an orbiter, and the craft's
ability to return valuable information from the asteroid's surface for
two weeks after touchdown.

Data obtained during the mission is still providing an abundance of
information to asteroid and comet researchers. NEAR Shoemaker, the 55th
spacecraft built by the Applied Physics Laboratory, remains on the
surface of Eros in hibernation.

The NEAR team shared the spotlight last night with aviator/astronaut
John Glenn, who was honored with the Institution's Lifetime Achievement
Award.

For more details on the NEAR mission visit Web site
http://near.jhuapl.edu

The Applied Physics Laboratory, a division of The Johns Hopkins
University, meets critical national challenges through the innovative
application of science and technology. For information, visit
www.jhuapl.edu

NASA/FRENCH OCEAN-OBSERVING SATELLITE SET TO SOAR

The Dec. 7 launch of Jason 1, NASA's newest oceanography
satellite, will continue the mission started by
Topex/Poseidon to monitor global climate interactions between
the sea and the atmosphere.

Jason 1 will monitor world ocean circulation, study
interactions of the oceans and atmosphere, improve climate
predictions and observe events like El Nino. Jason 1 is a
joint U.S./French oceanography mission.

Since the oceans are so large, remote sensing from satellites
has proved to be the only way to get global information about
these vast, hard-to-measure expanses. Spaceborne altimeters,
such as the Poseidon 2 instrument that Jason 1 carries, can
calculate ocean heights to within centimeters.

Jason 1 is the follow-on to the very successful
Topex/Poseidon satellite, a U.S.-French mission that has been
making precise measurements of ocean-surface topography since
1992.

The ocean and atmosphere transport heat from the equatorial
regions toward the icy poles, and the atmosphere sends heat
through a complex, worldwide pattern of winds. As these winds
blow across the oceans, they help drive the currents and
exchange heat, moisture and gases with the water. While winds
create daily, short-term weather changes, the oceans have a
slower, much longer-lasting effect on climate. The powerful
forces of wind and water combine to help regulate the
planet's climate.

Accurate observations of sea-surface height and ocean winds
provide scientists with information about the speed and
direction of ocean currents and the heat stored in the ocean,
which in turn reveals global climate variations. Jason 1 will
help scientists in their quest to understand these global
climate forces.

Weighing about 500 kilograms (about 1,100 pounds), Jason 1 is
only one-fifth the weight of Topex/Poseidon. After launch,
Jason 1 will enter orbit about 10 to15 kilometers (6 to 9
miles) below Topex/Poseidon's 1,337-kilometer-altitude (830-
mile) orbit. During the next few weeks, Jason 1 will use its
thrusters to raise itself into the same orbital altitude as
Topex/Poseidon, and then move in close behind its
predecessor, trailing by about 500 kilometers (300 miles).

Jason 1 carries five instruments: the Poseidon 2 altimeter,
the spacecraft's main instrument, to measure altitude; a
microwave radiometer to measure atmospheric water vapor; and
three precision location-finding instruments.

Jason 1 is a joint project between NASA and France's Centre
National d'Etudes Spatiales. The U.S. portion of the mission
is managed for NASA's Office of Earth Science, Washington, by
the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

More information about the Jason 1 program is available at:
http://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov
and on the JPL home page at:
http://jpl.nasa.gov

Novmember 19, 01

JASON/TIMED READY FOR LAUNCH ON DELTA II ROCKET DEC. 7

The launch of the Jason 1 and TIMED satellites aboard a Boeing Delta
II rocket is scheduled to occur on Friday, Dec. 7 from NASA's Space Launch
Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The 20-minute launch window
extends from 6:58 - 7:18 a.m. PST.

Jason 1 is a joint U.S./French oceanography mission. The spacecraft will
build on the heritage of the venerable Topex/Poseidon satellite in
continuing observations of the global climate interaction occurring between
the sea and the atmosphere. Jason 1 will monitor world ocean circulation,
study interactions of the oceans and atmosphere, improve climate predictions
and observe events like El Nino. The project is managed by the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory for NASA and the French space agency.

NASA's TIMED spacecraft will conduct the first global study of a critical
region of Earth's atmosphere, known as the mesosphere, lower thermosphere
and ionosphere. The two-year mission will study the influences of the sun
as well as humans on this least explored and understood region located
between 40 - 110 miles (60 - 180 kilometers) above the Earth's surface.
Data provided by TIMED will improve our understanding of this "gateway
region" and its effects on satellites, communications, and spacecraft
re-entering the Earth's atmosphere. TIMED is a NASA satellite managed by
the Goddard Space Flight Center.

The launch weather officer from the 30th Weather Squadron at Vandenberg Air
Force Base will also participate. Two-way question and answer capability
will be available from NASA field centers including Kennedy Space Center,
Goddard Space Flight Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory and NASA
Headquarters.

Media desiring to cover the prelaunch press conference should meet
at the south gate of Vandenberg Air Force Base on California State Road 246
at 10:30 a.m. They will be escorted to the NASA Vandenberg Resident Office.

NASA AMES SETS RECORD COMBINED FEDERAL CAMPAIGN DONATIONS

Civil service employees at NASA's Ames Research Center in
California's Silicon Valley have set an all-time record for donating
to the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC).

The federal employees and retirees at Ames contributed more than
$263,000 this year, exceeding the Ames campaign goal of $223,473 by
nearly $40,000. This represents an increase of about 18 percent over
last year's total contributions. Campaign organizers held the annual
two-week fundraiser earlier than usual, to give employees an
opportunity to contribute to organizations supporting the victims of
the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"This year's Combined Federal Campaign at NASA Ames is the most
successful ever," said Ames Director Dr. Henry McDonald. "I am
extremely pleased and proud of the way the Ames family responded,
particularly when the needs are so great."

Grace Ann Weiler, Ames' CFC chairperson, also was thrilled with this
year's campaign. "The CFC volunteers at NASA Ames stepped up to the
challenge and started the annual request for donations early this
year," she said. "This allowed civil servants and contractors to help
support the charitable organizations that are aiding the victims of
the recent attack on America, the victims' families and the usual
charities of their choice." Ames ranks first in per-employee
donations among Santa Clara County employers with more than 1,000
workers.

The Combined Federal Campaign supports and promotes philanthropy
through an employee-focused, cost-efficient and effective program by
providing all federal employees the opportunity to improve the
quality of life for all. It was established in 1961 by President John
F. Kennedy to consolidate numerous charitable campaigns, allowing for
a single annual campaign in all federal, postal and military
agencies. Donations to the CFC support more than 2,000 local,
national and international charities.

"The people of Ames showed outstanding participation by helping to
continue the tradition of leadership in displaying compassion for the
people in our community and country," Weiler noted.

November 18, 01

Rosetta orbiter rolls into the Netherlands

A little more than one year from now, ESA's Rosetta spacecraft
will be speeding through space at many thousands of kilometres
per hour. In comparison, the orbiter's stately journey across
Europe this week was fairly unspectacular, but the implications
for the Rosetta programme are immense.

November 17, 01

Notice of Intent: December 14, 2001
Proposal Due: February 15, 2002

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Office of Space
Science is releasing an Amendment to the NASA Research Announcement, NRA
01-OSS-01, announcing a second competition under this NRA for the Solar and
Heliospheric Physics program. The objective of this program is the
comprehensive study of all five solar and heliospheric research areas,
namely: the solar interior, the solar disk, the solar atmosphere, the
inner heliosphere, and the outer heliosphere. The program addresses this
objective through both a Supporting Research and Technology and a Low-Cost
Access to Space component. Part of a permanent rephasing of this program
within the fiscal year, a description of this new competition may be found
through the "Amendments" link on the homepage of the ROSS - 2001 NRA at:
URL http://research.hq.nasa.gov/code_s/nra/current/NRA-01-OSS-01/index.html .

Participation is open to all categories of organizations, foreign and
domestic, including industry, educational institutions, nonprofit
organizations, NASA centers, and other Government agencies. A Notice of
Intent to propose is requested by December 14, 2001, and proposals are due
by 4:30 PM EST February 15, 2002. Additional information may be obtained
from the Discipline Scientist for this program: Dr. William Wagner,
Sun-Earth Connection Division, Code SS, Office of Space Science, NASA
Headquarters, Washington, DC 20546; TEL: 202-358-0911; E-mail:
william.wagner@hq.nasa.gov .

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
Expedition Three Science Operations
Status Report for the week ending Nov. 16, 2001

Space Station experiments ranging from biology and human physiology to
materials processing and education were on track to pass the 50,000-hour
operating mark during the past week as Expedition Three nears its end later
this month.

"We've taken our first few steps to do continuous research operations," said
Expedition Three Lead Increment Scientist John Uri, reflecting on science
operations to date on the Station. "We've got a great team. We've gotten a
lot better about operations and being more efficient in saving crew time. A
lot of good science has already come down."

Those automated experiments continuing to run this week include the Advanced
Protein Crystallization Facility, Materials International Space Station
Experiment, Space Acceleration Measurement System, Microgravity Acceleration
Measurement System, and Dynamically Controlled Protein Crystal Growth, and
Experiment on Physics of Colloids in Space.

The Active Rack Isolation System ISS Characterization Experiment (ARIS-ICE)
conducted more short duration tests Monday through Thursday of the ARIS
controller. The purpose is to study stability and isolation performance of
new ARIS controller computer algorithms necessary to handle different ARIS
rack
hardware configurations. Data file downlink and analysis continue.
ARIS-ICE plans to conclude experiment operations in Expedition Four. NASA
managers decided last week to leave the ARIS ICE Payload On-orbit Processor
aboard the Station because it is useful for testing tool for ARIS equipped
Express racks arriving on future missions.

The Colloids experiment conducted a 48-hour test run that began Monday and
ended Wednesday. Scientists on the ground commanded it to start another
48-hour test run on Thursday. Like the 24-hour test completed November 9
and 10, these runs included low angle light scattering and time-lapse images
of the phase separation of the colloid-polymer critical point sample.
Scientists are able to repeatedly stir the colloid samples, allow them to
crystallize, and re-mix them to study colloid behavior.

The final Hoffman Reflex session for all three crewmembers is planned for
today (November 16). On the task list of optional items for the crew this
week as their schedules permit are the Crew Interactions survey, Bonner Ball
status check, Crew Earth Observations photography and DREAMTiME videography
of various geographic locations on Earth.

The Web

Status Report
http://www1.msfc.nasa.gov/NEWSROOM/news/releases/2001/01-351.html

ISS Science Operations News
http://www.scipoc.msfc.nasa.gov/

ARIS/ICE Fact Sheet
http://www1.msfc.nasa.gov/NEWSROOM/background/facts/aris.html

EXPPCS Fact Sheet
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/PAO/PAIS/fs12grc.htm

Experiment Fact Sheets
http://www.scipoc.msfc.nasa.gov/factchron.html

ENDEAVOUR LAUNCH TO COMPLETE RECORD YEAR IN SPACE

The Flight Readiness Review for STS-108 was held today at the Kennedy Space
Center. At its conclusion, the Space Shuttle Endeavour was given a go to
proceed toward launch on Nov. 29. The mission will take a fourth crew to
the International Space Station, finishing a record-breaking year of
missions that completed the first phase of the station's orbital assembly.

"In the past 12 months, we've completed some of the most challenging space
flights in history, setting records for the number of space walks that have
been conducted and the amount of hardware we've assembled in orbit," Space
Shuttle Program Manager Ron Dittemore said. "In the next year those
challenges will continue with missions just as complex to service the Hubble
Space Telescope and expand the station. The team continues to excel safely
and successfully. Endeavour is ready to fly."

Endeavour will be commanded by Dom Gorie (Capt., USN). Mark Kelly (Lt. Cdr.,
USN) will serve as Pilot, and mission specialists will be Linda Godwin and
Dan Tani. Traveling to the station aboard Endeavour to begin a five-month
stay will be Expedition Four Commander Yury Onufrienko and flight engineers
Carl Walz and Dan Bursch. Coming home on Endeavour after almost four months
on the station will be Expedition Three Commander Frank Culbertson, Pilot
Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin.

Endeavour will carry an Italian-built logistics module named Raffaello to
the station loaded with supplies and experiments. During the shuttle's stay
at the orbiting complex, one space walk is planned by Godwin and Tani to add
insulation to mechanisms that rotate the station's solar arrays.

Endeavour is planned to land Dec. 10 at the Kennedy Space Center .

November 16, 01

Chandra Digest

~~Chandra Prepares for the Leonid Meteor Shower~~
While skywatchers eagerly anticipate this weekend's Leonid meteor
shower, members of the Chandra X-ray Center team will be busy in their
own right. However, instead of gazing into the night sky for "shooting
stars," they will be monitoring and maneuvering Chandra to protect
NASA's premier X-ray facility from harm's way.
< http://chandra.harvard.edu/chronicle/0401/leonids.html >

~~Operations CXO Status Report (Friday 11/09/01)~~
Last week the observing schedule was interrupted following a high
radiation event at 1:37pm EST on Nov 4 that stopped the daily load and
activated the science instrument safing sequence (SCS 107). All actions
were nominal and assessment of the dump data confirmed that the trigger
was due to high proton counts in the EPHIN E1300 channel exceeding the
pre-defined threshold of 10 counts/cm2/s/sr. Radiation levels allowed
the loads to be restarted at 3pm on Nov 8.

The loads were interrupted a second time at 10am on Nov 9 to accommodate
a high priority Target Of Opportunity received late on Nov 8. The
target, XRF010930, is a candidate for the first X-ray observation of a
fast X-ray transient.
< http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/updates/update_110901.html >

/--------------------------------------------/

NEW & NOTEWORTHY!

**Have You Seen KS 1731-260?
Chandra's observation in March of 2001 of the neutron star KS 1731-260
showed that it is a remarkably 'cool' 3 million degrees Celsius.
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cycle1/ks1731/index.html

**Question of the Week
Is it accurate that satellites fall into two basic orbital groups, one
of these being very close to the earth, and the other being somewhat
farther away?
http://chandra.harvard.edu/resources/faq/astrophysics/astrophysics-22.html

**Name the Author
Who said: "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains,
however improbable, must be the truth." Vote for your choice at
http://chandra.harvard.edu/vote/quizlet.html

**All recent New & Noteworthy features are available at
< http://chandra.harvard.edu/new.html >

Huygens ready for dress rehearsal

Just over three years from now, ESA's Huygens probe will
separate from the NASA Cassini spacecraft and plunge into
the atmosphere of Titan, the largest of Saturn's 30 moons.
Far from the tender care of controllers on the Earth,
every precaution must be taken to ensure that the risks of
failure are minimised.

Leonids Around the Clock

Experts agree: a meteor storm will erupt somewhere on Earth this weekend.
But where? when? and how big will it be? Forecasts differ on these basic
points. To discover which predictions are correct, a NASA-led team of
astronomers will spread around the globe to monitor the 2001 Leonid
meteor
shower. Catch their reports live on the web!

FULL STORY at

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast15nov_1.htm?list448368

JASON AND TIMED MEDIA BRIEFINGS SET FOR NOVEMBER 19

The launch of the Jason-1, NASA's latest Earth Science oceanography
satellite,
and TIMED, NASA's Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere, Energetics and Dynamics
space science satellite, is scheduled for Friday, Dec. 7, from Vandenberg Air
Force Base, Calif.

In preparation for the launch, NASA will hold mission science briefings starting
at 1 p.m. EST Monday, Nov. 19, in the James Webb Memorial Auditorium, NASA
Headquarters, 300 E Street SW, Washington. The Jason mission team will present
first, followed by the TIMED mission team at 2 p.m. EST.

Jason 1 is a joint U.S./French oceanography mission. The spacecraft will build
on
the heritage of the Topex/Poseidon satellite in observing global climate
interactions between the sea and the atmosphere. Jason 1 will monitor world
ocean
circulation, study interactions of the oceans and atmosphere, improve climate
predictions and observe events like El Nino. Speakers for the Jason 1 mission
briefing will be:

-- Ghassem R. Asrar, Associate Administrator for Earth Science,
NASA Headquarters, Washington
-- Eric Lindstrom, Oceanography Program Scientist, NASA Headquarters
-- Nicole Papineau; Program Coordinator, Atmosphere, Climate and Ocean;
Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales; Paris
-- Charles Yamarone, Deputy Director of the Earth Science and Technology
Directorate, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif.
-- Lee-lueng Fu, Project Scientist, JPL

NASA's TIMED mission will study a mysterious region in our atmosphere called the
Mesosphere, Lower Thermosphere/Ionosphere, or "MLTI." Located about 40-110 miles
(60-180 kilometers) above the Earth, the MLTI is one of the last frontiers for
atmospheric exploration.

During its two-year mission, TIMED will study the basic structure of the MLTI,
its chemistry and the flow of energy to and from this layer of the atmosphere.
Scientists will analyze how the MLTI region affects, and is changed by, the
lower
atmosphere; how it influences the space near Earth occupied by low-Earth
orbiting
satellites; and how events on the Sun affect the MLTI. TIMED is a joint mission
between NASA and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab (APL), Laurel, Md.

Speakers for the TIMED mission briefing will be:
-- George Withbroe, Division Director, Sun-Earth Connection, NASA Headquarters
-- Mary Mellott, TIMED Program Scientist, NASA Headquarters
-- Sam Yee, TIMED Project Scientist, APL
-- Dave Kusnierkiewicz, TIMED Mission System Engineer, APL
-- Bruce Campbell, TIMED Project Manager, Goddard Space Flight Center,
Greenbelt, Md.

The briefings will be carried live on NASA Television with two-way question-and-
answer capability for reporters covering the briefing from participating NASA
centers. Reporters must coordinate in advance with NASA Center Newsrooms to
participate remotely. NASA TV is broadcast on satellite GE-2, transponder 9C, at
85 degrees West longitude, vertical polarization, frequency 3880 MHz, audio of
6.8 MHz. The briefing also will available on the Internet at:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv/ntvweb.html

November 15, 01

STATEMENT OF DANIEL S. GOLDIN ON THE
NOMINATION OF A NEW NASA ADMINISTRATOR

The following is a statement by NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin on the
President's intent to nominate Office of Management and Budget Deputy Director
Sean O'Keefe as his successor.

"I would like to offer my congratulations to Sean as he begins the nomination
process to become NASA's next Administrator. I look forward to assisting in the
transition of my leadership of America's space program to Sean.

"Nearly ten years ago, I accepted a job that was the fulfillment of a lifelong
dream. I'm sure that Sean must feel the same excitement and anticipation I first
felt when I was nominated as Administrator.

"I feel blessed to have had the unique opportunity to serve the people of this
nation in an area so tied to the hopes and dreams of all Americans. I hope that
Sean will feel equally blessed when he assumes his new job. The President has
nominated a man of intelligence, energy and deep integrity. I wish Sean well.

"The President intends to nominate Sean to what I feel is the best job in the
world, leading a team made up of the best people I've had the privilege to know.
There is no more dedicated group of people serving any agency in the federal
government. I am sure NASA's creative and diverse workforce will give Sean the
same outstanding support it's given me these many years."

Operation Leonids Meteor Storm:
ESA Scientists Search For Shooting Stars In The Southern Hemisphere

The Leonid meteors are coming - again! And this time, ESA scientists
will be avidly awaiting their arrival from the other side of the world,
in the Australian outback.

In addition to their studies of the meteor shower, the team intends to
test a new prototype of an instrument that is being developed for
future planetary missions to Mars, Mercury and the Moon.

Over the next few weeks, their adventures and discoveries will be
posted on the ESA science web site, so ... watch this space!
(or rather, visit http://sci2.esa.int/leonids/leonids2001/)

In the meantime, read about why they are going to Australia and what
they intend to do there.

Visit this special feature at:
http://sci2.esa.int/leonids/leonids2001/

NASA LEONIDS ACTIVITIES: SLEEPYHEADS MAY MISS SPECTACULAR
CELESTIAL DISPLAY

Early birds may catch more than their proverbial worms
this week. In the predawn hours of Sunday, Nov.18, the annual
Leonid meteor shower may put on one of its best shows in
decades, according to various scientists modeling the expected
Leonid activity this year.

"It's time to set your alarm clocks and get yourself out
under a dark sky," said Dr. Donald Yeomans, head of NASA's
Near Earth Object program office, at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "This could be the last
opportunity for watching an impressive meteor storm in a dark
sky for decades to come."

Yeomans explains what the Leonids are and how to see
them, in a video on the JPL Web site at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov .

Meteors, also called shooting stars, are really streaks
of light that flash across the sky as bits of dust and rock in
space collide with Earth's upper atmosphere and vaporize. The
Leonid shower appears every year around Nov. 17 or 18 as the
Earth intersects the orbit of comet Tempel-Tuttle and runs
into streams of dust shed by the comet. Best viewing times
this year are predicted to be the early morning hours of
November 18, with the peak activity expected around 2 a.m. PST
(5 a.m. EST).

They are called Leonid meteors for the direction in the
sky from which they appear to originate -- the constellation
Leo. Because the stream of comet dust hits Earth almost head-
on, the Leonids are among the fastest meteors around -- they
zip silently across the sky at nearly 70 kilometers per second
(44 miles per second). Every so often, Earth passes through an
especially dense clump of dust from Tempel-Tuttle, and a truly
spectacular meteor storm occurs -- the great Leonid storm of
1966 produced 150,000 meteors per hour.

Four NASA centers -- JPL; Marshall Space Flight Center,
Huntsville, Ala.; Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.;
and the Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. -- have
activities scheduled around this year's meteor shower.

At Marshall, researchers will use special cameras to scan
the skies and report meteor activity around the clock Nov. 17
and 18. From six key points on the globe, they will record and
transmit their observations to Marshall's Leonid Environment
Operations Center, a data clearinghouse that will provide
meteor updates in near real-time through
http://www.SpaceWeather.com -- a Web site sponsored by
science@nasa.gov.

"We're collecting this data to analyze and refine our
meteor-forecasting techniques," said Dr. Rob Suggs, the Leonid
Environment Operations Center team leader. "If we can better
determine where, when and how the meteors will strike, we can
take protective measures to prevent or minimize damage to our
spacecraft."

The researchers, along with colleagues from the
University of Western Ontario in Canada and the U.S. Air
Force, will monitor the storm from six locations, Huntsville,
Ala.; Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.; Maui, Hawaii; Sunspot, N.M.;
the U.S. Territory of Guam; and the Gobi Dessert in Mongolia.
Each location was selected based on meteor forecasts and the
area's climate.

The monitoring team also has the capability to detect
meteors the casual observer may miss. Using special image-
intensified cameras that can detect faint objects even in low-
light conditions, the researchers will monitor the shower,
using the video screens as windows to the skies. Every hour,
the teams will relay their observations to the Marshall
control center, helping to paint a comprehensive picture of
the meteor storm.

Most Leonid particles are the size of dust grains, and
will vaporize very high in the atmosphere, so they present no
threat to people on the ground or even in airplanes. However,
there is a slight chance that a satellite could be damaged if
it were hit by a Leonid meteor. The meteors are too small to
simply blow up a satellite. However, the Leonids are moving so
fast they vaporize on impact, forming a cloud of electrified
gas called plasma. Since plasma can carry an electric current,
there is a risk that a Leonid-generated plasma cloud could
cause a short circuit in a satellite, damaging sensitive
electronic components.

Goddard Space Flight Center is responsible for
controlling many satellites for NASA and other organizations
and is taking precautions to mitigate the risk posed by the
Leonids. These include pointing instrument apertures away
from the direction of the Leonid stream, closing the doors on
instruments where possible, turning down high voltages on
systems to prevent the risk of a short circuit, and
positioning satellites to minimize the cross-section exposed
to the Leonids.

Goddard controls or manages 21 satellites in the earth
and space sciences. It also manages NASA's Tracking and Data
Relay Satellite System constellation, which is controlled from
White Sands, N.M.

At Ames, meteor experts Dr. David Morrison, chief
scientist at NASA's Astrobiology Institute, and Dr. Scott
Sanford, a NASA planetary scientist, will be available Friday,
Nov. 16, at Ames for media interviews about the Leonid meteor
storm. The scientists will discuss NASA's airborne mission to
study the Leonids, the danger the meteors could pose to
satellites, recent Leonid prediction models and the latest
research, which suggests that meteors may have played a role
in the origin of life.

On Nov. 18, a team of 19 astrobiologists from five
countries will depart from southern California's Edwards Air
Force Base on an NKC-135 research aircraft to keep an eye on
the sky for satellite operators and to study the processes
that may have jump-started life on Earth. The 418th Flight
Test Squadron at Edwards Air Force Base operates the research
aircraft, which flew previous Leonid Multi-instrument Airborne
Campaign missions in 1998 and 1999 over Japan and Europe.

Many scientists think meteors might have showered the
Earth with the molecules necessary for life's origin. "We are
eager to get another chance to find clues to the puzzling
question of 'What happens to the organic matter brought in by
the meteoroids?'" said Dr. Michael Meyer, lead scientist for
astrobiology at NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. which is
sponsoring the airborne observing mission.

Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution,
distribution and future of life in the universe. Ames is
NASA's lead center for astrobiology and the location of the
central offices of the NASA Astrobiology Institute, an
international research consortium.

Information about the Leonid Multi-instrument Airborne
Campaign and live Leonid coverage are available at:
http://leonid.arc.nasa.gov/ or
http://www-space.arc.nasa.gov/~leonid/ .

Observers can calculate local meteor rates using their
home computers via:
http://www.space.arc.nasa.gov/~leonid/fluxestimator.html .

NASA TV will broadcast live commentary and video of the
Leonids from 9:30 a.m. to 3 a.m. PST (12:30 a.m. to 6 a.m.
EST) Sunday, Nov. 18. The broadcast, originating from
Marshall, will feature live video of the Leonids meteor shower
provided by a video camera with enhanced images and animation.
If weather and cloud cover inhibit observation, the broadcast
will be cancelled and regular programming resumed.

JPL is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science,
Washington, D.C., by the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena.

PINE ISLAND GLACIER CREATES A SPLASH

To the surprise of scientists, a large iceberg has broken
off the Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica well in advance
of predictions.

The new iceberg detached from the glacier when a crack,
which initially formed in mid-2000, spread rapidly until it
reached the breaking point. The iceberg's birth was captured
in a series of images taken by NASA's Multi-angle Imaging
SpectroRadiometer. These images, combined with previous
measurements and data from other instruments, provide
scientists with additional evidence of rapid change in the
region.

The image sequence and an animation are available online
at:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/earth/antarctica .

The first image was captured in late 2000, early in the
development of the crack. The second and third views were
acquired in November 2001, just before and just after the
formation of the new iceberg.

The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer, built and
managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.,
is one of several Earth-observing experiments aboard the Terra
satellite, launched in December 1999. The instrument acquires
images of Earth at nine angles simultaneously, using nine
separate cameras pointed forward, downward, and backward along
its flight path. More information is available at:

http://www-misr.jpl.nasa.gov .

JPL is a division of the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena.

November 14, 01

AMENDMENT TO THE NASA RESEARCH ANNOUNCEMENT
NRA 01-OSS-01,
RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES IN SPACE SCIENCE 2001 (ROSS-2001)
For Next Generation Ion Engine Technology

Release Date: November 26, 2001
Notice of Intent: December 28, 2001
Proposal Due: January 25, 2002

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Office of Space
Science is releasing an Amendment to the NASA Research Announcement, NRA
01-OSS-01, for Next Generation Ion Engine Technology. This amendment will
be available on the release date through the Office of Space Science
research opportunities web site at:
http://research.hq.nasa.gov/code_s/open.cfm

A Notice of Intent to propose is requested by December 28, 2001, and
proposals are due by 5:00 PM EST January 25, 2002. Questions may be
directed to Ms. Carol W. Carroll, Solar System Exploration Division, Code
SE, Office of Space Science, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC
20546-0001. FAX: (202) 358-3097; or E-mail: ccarroll@hq.nasa.gov .

NASA MODIFIES SPACE FLIGHT OPERATIONS CONTRACT

NASA recently negotiated two modifications to the Space
Flight Operations Contract with United Space Alliance,
adjusting costs, resolving open issues related to work done
last year and providing for a variety of tasks planned during
2002. Together, the modifications have a total value of $189
million.

The first modification bundles several different credits and
costs incurred in the Space Flight Operations Contract during
fiscal year 2001 and results in a net increase to the
contract value of $95 million. The largest task involved and
the majority of incurred costs are related to work on Space
Shuttle Columbia as part of a maintenance period that was
completed earlier this year.

The second modification enhances the fiscal year 2002 Program
Provisioning Task List, providing sustaining engineering for
the Space Shuttle Program, adding $94 million to the contract
value.

The program-provisioning tasks involve work on the shuttle
orbiters, ground operations, program integration, program
reimbursables, flight operations and solid rocket boosters.
The Space Flight Operations Contract allows program
provisioning to be assessed on an annual basis.

Work under the two modifications will be performed in
Houston; Huntington Beach, Calif.; Palmdale, Calif.;
Huntsville, Ala.; and at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

NASA LEONIDS ACTIVITIES: SLEEPYHEADS MAY MISS
SPECTACULAR CELESTIAL DISPLAY

Meteors, also called shooting stars, are really streaks of
light that flash across the sky as bits of dust and rock in
space collide with the Earth's upper atmosphere and vaporize.
The Leonid shower appears every year around Nov. 17 or 18 as
the Earth intersects the orbit of comet Tempel-Tuttle and
runs into streams of dust shed by the comet. Best viewing
times this year are predicted to be the early morning hours
of November 18, with the peak activity expected around 5 a.m.
EST.

They are called Leonid meteors for the direction in the sky
from which they appear to originate -- the constellation Leo.
Because the stream of comet dust hits the Earth almost head-
on, the Leonids are among the fastest meteors around -- they
zip silently across the sky at 44 miles per second. Every so
often, the Earth passes through an especially dense clump of
dust from Tempel-Tuttle, and a truly spectacular meteor storm
occurs -- the great Leonid storm of 1966 produced 150,000
meteors per hour.

Four NASA centers -- Marshall Space Flight Center,
Huntsville, Ala.; Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt,
Md.; Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.; and the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. -- have activities
scheduled around this year's meteor shower.

At Marshall, researchers will use special cameras to scan the
skies and report meteor activity around the clock Nov. 17 and
18. From six key points on the globe, they will record and
transmit their observations to Marshall's Leonid Environment
Operations Center, a data clearinghouse that will provide
meteor updates in near real-time through:
http://www.SpaceWeather.com -- a Web site sponsored by
science@nasa.gov.

"We're collecting this data to analyze and refine our meteor-
forecasting techniques," said Dr. Rob Suggs, the Leonid
Environment Operations Center team leader. "If we can better
determine where, when and how the meteors will strike, we can
take protective measures to prevent or minimize damage to our
spacecraft."

The researchers, along with colleagues from the University of
Western Ontario in Canada and the U.S. Air Force, will
monitor the storm from six locations, Huntsville, Ala.; Eglin
Air Force Base, Fla.; Maui, Hawaii; Sunspot, N.M.; the U.S.
Territory of Guam; and the Gobi Dessert in Mongolia. Each
location was selected based on meteor forecasts and the
area's climate.

The monitoring team also has the capability to detect meteors
the casual observer may miss. Using special image-intensified
cameras that can detect faint objects even in low-light
conditions, the researchers will monitor the shower, using
the video screens as windows to the skies. Every hour, the
teams will relay their observations to the Marshall control
center, helping to paint a comprehensive picture of the
meteor storm.

Most Leonid particles are the size of dust grains, and will
vaporize very high in the atmosphere, so they present no
threat to people on the ground or even in airplanes. However,
there is a slight chance that a satellite could be damaged if
it were hit by a Leonid meteor. The meteors are too small to
simply blow up a satellite. However, the Leonids are moving
so fast they vaporize on impact, forming a cloud of
electrified gas called plasma. Since plasma can carry an
electric current, there is a risk that a Leonid-generated
plasma cloud could cause a short circuit in a satellite,
damaging sensitive electronic components.

Goddard Space Flight Center is responsible for controlling
many satellites for NASA and other organizations and is
taking precautions to mitigate the risk posed by the Leonids.
These include pointing instrument apertures away from the
direction of the Leonid stream, closing the doors on
instruments where possible, turning down high voltages on
systems to prevent the risk of a short circuit, and
positioning satellites to minimize the cross-section exposed
to the Leonids.

Goddard controls or manages 21 satellites in the earth and
space sciences. It also manages NASA's Tracking and Data
Relay Satellite System constellation, which is controlled
from White Sands, N.M.

At Ames, meteor experts Dr. David Morrison, chief scientist
at NASA's Astrobiology Institute, and Dr. Scott Sanford, a
NASA planetary scientist, will be available Friday, Nov. 16,
at Ames for media interviews about the Leonid meteor storm.
-more-
-3-
The scientists will discuss NASA's airborne mission to study
the Leonids, the danger the meteors could pose to satellites,
recent Leonid prediction models and the latest research,
which suggests that meteors may have played a role in the
origin of life.

On Nov. 18, a team of 19 astrobiologists from five countries
will depart from southern California's Edwards Air Force Base
on an NKC-135 research aircraft to keep an eye on the sky for
satellite operators and to study the processes that may have
jump-started life on Earth. The 418th Flight Test Squadron at
Edwards Air Force Base operates the research aircraft, which
flew previous Leonid Multi-instrument Airborne Campaign (MAC)
missions in 1998 and 1999 over Japan and Europe.

Many scientists think meteors might have showered the Earth
with the molecules necessary for life's origin. "We are eager
to get another chance to find clues to the puzzling question
of 'What happens to the organic matter brought in by the
meteoroids?'" said Dr. Michael Meyer, lead scientist for
astrobiology at NASA Headquarters, Washington, which is
sponsoring the airborne observing mission.

Information about the Leonid Multi-instrument Airborne
Campaign (MAC) and live Leonid coverage are available at:
http://leonid.arc.nasa.gov/
or
http://www-space.arc.nasa.gov/~leonid/

Observers can calculate local meteor rates using their home
computers via:
http://www.space.arc.nasa.gov/~leonid/fluxestimator.html
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) will host a webcast with
Yeomans explaining what the Leonids are and how to see them
on the JPL Web site at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

NASA TV will broadcast live commentary and video of the
Leonids from 12:30 a.m. to 6 a.m. EST Sunday, Nov. 18. The
broadcast, originating from Marshall, will feature live video
of the Leonids meteor shower provided by a video camera with
enhanced images and animation. If weather and cloud cover
inhibit observation, the broadcast will be cancelled and
regular programming resumed.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER HOME PAGE UNDERGOES TRANSFORMATION

Kennedy Space Center's public home page has wrapped up an extensive redesign
that will provide a more visitor-friendly interface while making it easier
to locate information. The new site premiers today.

Visitor input was a driving factor in the look and functionality of the new
design. Since May 2000, the last time the site underwent a design change,
hundreds of comments were submitted via an online survey form. Patterns
began to emerge and KSC Web managers designed the new home page using these
suggestions as a guide. The result is an organized, compact page that serves
as a portal to other parts of the site. The primary links are arrayed around
a large round graphic that changes each time the page is reloaded. Upcoming
launch and landing information is provided at a glance in the upper left
corner. With about a third fewer links, there is more room for a larger font
and additional news content.

Information contained on the site was divided into several categories, all
of which have their own new portal pages created to match the new home page
design scheme. Like the home page, each of these new pages has a prominent
navigation bar, informative link descriptions and colorful graphics.

"We've had teams of subject-matter experts and Web developers working on
this new design and layout for more than nine months," said Dennis
Armstrong, KSC's public Web site manager. "Our new pages load quickly,
navigation is greatly improved, and we have added some great new content and
functionality. We appreciate the time that so many of our site visitors took
to tell us what they thought."

KSC is also introducing a new multimedia gallery, through which the Center's
extensive still photo archives can be searched by a wide variety of methods.
Web managers hope to add the capability to search for video and audio files
in the future.

The Kennedy Space Center Web site, launched in 1993, has traditionally
focused on KSC-specific information such as Space Shuttle missions, Space
Station processing, and expendable launch vehicles. Recently, however,
several new links to other online NASA resources have also been added. In
the first five months of 2001, the KSC Web site received over 200 million
hits and three million unique visitors. The KSC home page is located at
http://www.ksc.nasa.gov.

METROPOLITAN TECHNOLOGY CENTER PLANNED AT NASA RESEARCH PARK

NASA Ames Research Center Director Dr. Henry McDonald and San José
State University (SJSU) President Dr. Robert Caret will sign an
agreement this Thursday, Nov.15, 2001, to establish the SJSU
Metropolitan Technology Center (MTC) at the NASA Research Park.

SJSU will act as the California State University (CSU) system lead to
develop the Metropolitan Technology Center to foster research
collaborations between NASA Ames and the CSU system, including its
campuses, organized research units, and affiliates. Such research
collaborations may include participation by SJSU graduate students in
NASA collaborative research and the formation of joint
university/NASA collaborative research teams. Officials believe the
MTC will have a major impact on the economic and social development
of Silicon Valley.

"Our goal is to develop a world-class, shared-use R&D campus by
partnering with industry, academia and nonprofits in the NASA
Research Park," McDonald said. "I am delighted to form this
partnership with San José State University to conduct joint research
in cutting-edge technologies and to develop new ideas to improve the
region's education infrastructure," he said.

"I am pleased to be formalizing our partnership with NASA Ames and
establishing the SJSU Metropolitan Technology Center at the NASA
Research Park," Caret said. "The signing of this letter of intent
represents the culmination of over two years of work between our
organizations. NASA and SJSU already enjoy a long and successful
history together with over 25 years of collaboration. The Research
Park will allow us to strengthen that partnership and build new
programs together. These programs will provide educational
opportunities, workforce development, and research opportunities to
help Silicon Valley continue to achieve and grow." Caret said.

"The benefit of the NASA Research Park project will accrue to the
entire state of California," said California State University
Chancellor Charles Reed. "With San José State University acting as
our lead institution, all campuses within the CSU can play a role in
the development of the Metropolitan Technology Center. President
Caret has the full support of my office as the partners continue to
implement their vision of a comprehensive research park serving the
region and the state."

According to the agreement, initial areas of work may include, but
would not be limited to, the following areas of research, education
and workforce development:

Research programs with a focus on information technology
o an institute for information science and technology;
o an institute for biotechnology;
o a center for sensors and wireless networking communication;
o a center for human factors research and applications; and
o a center for multimedia portals to information

Education programs with a focus on information technology
o academic degree programs at the bachelor, master and joint doctorate level;
o interdisciplinary graduate certificate programs;
o an institute for teaching effectiveness and student development
with a focus on the K-12
teacher shortage and K-12 student development

Workforce development and community programs
o a center for innovation, incubation and commercialization;
o a center for technical workforce development; and
o a collaborative for disaster mitigation

Speakers at the MTC signing event will include Dr. Henry McDonald,
NASA Ames Center Director;
Dr. Robert Caret, San José State University President; Dr. Charles
Reed, Chancellor, California State University; Carl Guardino, CEO
Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group; and Joe Raguso, Deputy Secretary,
California Technology, Trade and Commerce Agency.

NASA Ames Research Center recently announced the Environmental Impact
Statement (EIS) process under the National Environmental Policy Act
(NEPA) regulations to develop the land at Moffett Field under NASA
ownership. The proposed developments include the area called the
NASA Research Park in which the academic, industry and nonprofit
partners hope to conduct their collaborative research and education
programs. Upon the successful completion of both the EIS and EIR, a
Land Use Agreement may be signed and construction may begin.

Solar storm blasts Cluster

Activity on the Sun may be declining after last year's peak, but,
as the four Cluster spacecraft can testify, our nearest star can
still pack a hefty punch.

Find out how at:
http://sci.esa.int/content/news/index.cfm?aid=1&cid=1&oid=28930Mars Odyssey Mission Status

NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft has now entered the
main aerobraking phase of the mission.

"The initial phase of aerobraking has gone exceedingly
well. By skimming through the upper reaches of the Mars
atmosphere during each orbit, we have reduced our orbital
period by more than three hours in the past two weeks," said
David A. Spencer, the Odyssey mission manager at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Odyssey's orbital
period, the time required for the spacecraft to complete one
revolution in its orbit around Mars, is currently 15 hours.

The spacecraft's closest approach to the planet, know as
the orbit's periapsis, has been carefully lowered to 110
kilometers (68 miles) above the martian surface. "This
closest approach occurs over the north polar region on Mars,
in a relatively low density region surrounded by strong winds
like the jet stream on Earth," said Dr. Richard Zurek of JPL,
who chairs the aerobraking advisory group. "Like Earth, Mars
has distinct seasons, and this low density area, called the
polar vortex, develops each fall and will persist until
spring, long after Odyssey has finished aerobraking,"

NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft is monitoring the
lower atmosphere of Mars, observing the entire planet each day
to watch for dust storms and weather events that could affect
the upper atmosphere. If needed, Odyssey could also use its
own instruments to watch for dust storms. To that end, flight
controllers have completed the calibration and testing of the
thermal emission imaging system. The imaging team at Arizona
State University, Tempe, took the first visible wavelength
image of the planet on Nov. 2, which complements the thermal
infrared image that was taken earlier.

The aerobraking phase is planned for completion in late
January 2002. At that point, Odyssey will be in its desired
circular orbit, and the science mapping mission will begin
sometime in early February.

JPL manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's
Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Principal
investigators at Arizona State University in Tempe, the
University of Arizona in Tucson, and NASA's Johnson Space
Center, Houston, Texas, operate the science instruments.
Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, Colo., is the prime
contractor for the project, and developed and built the
orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from
Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California
Institute of Technology in Pasadena. NASA's Langley Research
Center in Hampton, Va., is providing aerobraking support to
JPL's navigation team during mission operations.

November 13, 01

1,024 SUPERCOMPUTER MAKES MORE ACCURATE CLIMATE ASSESSMENTS

NASA scientists can now evaluate the global impact of natural and
human-induced activities on climate and better predict probable
climate patterns in the future, thanks to the world's first
1,024-processor supercomputer.

The newly installed 1,024-processor machine at NASA's Ames Research
Center in California's Silicon Valley, along with a 512-processor
supercomputer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.,
are producing a 10-fold improvement in Earth science applications.
Scientists say the performance gains achieved on these supercomputing
systems will allow the United States to develop objective policies
for large, future industrial activities, such as urban planning, and
for examining alternative plans for urban development. The
supercomputers -- SGI™ Origin™ 3800 machines -- also can portray
current climate more quantitatively and simulate future global
warming scenarios.

"The new 1024-processor SGI Origin 3800 supercomputer at NASA Ames
will lead to faster and better development of climate models for the
Earth science community, government and industry," said William
Feiereisen, chief of the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) division
at Ames. "We have improved our ability to merge observed data and
simulation by a factor of 10 with considerably greater increases in
the core climate solver. Such a substantial increase in performance
allows Earth scientists to complete climate simulations in days,
rather than months, leading to a better understanding of how human
activity has changed climate patterns."

For the past three years, NASA Ames and SGI have been testing the
limits of single-system-image shared memory, in which all processors
share the supercomputer's memory as if it were a single entity, to
improve performance significantly over other clustered architectures.
A series of joint research agreements between SGI and NASA Ames has
resulted in SGI expanding the original SGI Origin 2000 product
offering from 128 to 512 CPUs, and most recently from 512 to 1,024
CPUs for the SGI Origin 3000 product line.

"The new techniques have demonstrated a development path that will
allow us to move forward to100-times performance improvements over
the next few years," said James Taft, co-director of the Advanced
Computing Technologies Group at Ames. "At these performance levels,
we can begin to execute climate simulations at truly high resolution,
while taking advantage of the huge data streams emerging from the
latest Earth resources satellites."

To improve the prediction capabilities of the climate models, the
1,024-processor SGI Origin 3800 supercomputer at NASA Ames
assimilates thousands of gigabytes of observational data from the
whole Earth to create a database for verifying the physics of the
computer model. NASA Ames then backs up a few years and runs the
climate model to see how good its predictions are. The computer
models then can be adjusted to improve their accuracy for future
predictions.

A memorandum of agreement with NASA Ames placed a separate
512-processor SGI Origin 3800 supercomputer at NASA Goddard, which is
only the second site in the world to put an SGI Origin 3800 of this
type into production.

"This collaboration between Goddard and Ames to acquire the latest
supercomputing technology grants NASA scientists a significant new
capability for understanding the intricacies of our planet's climate
system," said Dr. Ghassem Asrar, Associate Administrator for the
Office of Earth Sciences, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. "For
instance, the Goddard Institute for Space Studies has been able to
complete in two months research that would have taken six months on
their previous computing platform. This latest supercomputing
technology will grant NASA scientists a significant new capability
for understanding the intricacies of our planet's climate system and
being able to simulate them," Asrar added.

The primary user of the new SGI Origin 3800 supercomputer is
Goddard's Data Assimilation Office (DAO), which is preparing for the
Aqua satellite by building NASA's next-generation software for
incorporating observations into global climate models. Data
assimilation uses observations from satellites and other sources to
define the physical processes that make up weather and climate.

"With the SGI Origin 3800, NASA will more than double the amount of
data it ingests to 800,000 observations each day," said Dr. Richard
B. Rood, DAO senior scientist and acting director of the NASA-NOAA
Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation. "We will also integrate
assimilation systems for several satellites so that, like the real
Earth, the impact of one type of data will be felt by another type of
data."
The SGI Origin 3800's processing power, along with the multi-level
parallelism (MLP) software developed by Taft, which takes advantage
of its unique memory design, will enable the DAO climate models to
run more than four times faster and at double the resolution. Climate
models divide the globe into a grid of stacked boxes, solving the
relevant equations in each box and then assembling the full results.
With a box only 1/2-degree wide (or 30 miles over the continental
United States), the model will more faithfully represent atmospheric
conditions worldwide for periods as long as 15 years.
"These advances will reduce uncertainties in the climate assessments
that are an essential ingredient of the U.S. Global Change Research
Program," Rood noted.

EDUCATION SECRETARY, NASA SCIENTIST AND DC STUDENTS MAKE LONG
DISTANCE CALL TO SPACE STATION FOR INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION WEEK

U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige; Roger Crouch, NASA
International Space Station (ISS) Senior Scientist and former space
shuttle astronaut; Paul Vance, Superintendent, District of Columbia
Public Schools; and sixth-graders at John Quincy Adams Elementary
School in Washington will make a long-distance call to the
International Space Station Nov. 15 as part of International
Education Week. The event -- part of an entire morning of
educational activities -- begins at 11:50 a.m. EST, and reporters
are invited to attend.

During the call, students will have the opportunity to learn about
living and working in space through a question-and-answer session
with the three crewmembers aboard the orbiting outpost. The current
crew, comprised of U.S. Commander Frank Culbertson and Pilot
Vladimir Dezhurov and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, both of
Russia, "moved into" the station in August and will return home in
December when the new crew arrives. The ISS project represents 16
countries, working together to further exploration of outer space
and conducting research for the benefit of all humankind.

Paige and Crouch will be available for a media opportunity
immediately following the event with the station crew. To make
arrangements to cover this event, please call Kirsten Larson at
202/358-0243 or Jane Glickman or Stephanie Babyak at 202/401-
1307/2311. Reporters should arrive no later than 11:30 a.m. John
Quincy Adams Elementary School is located at 2020 19th Street, NW,
Washington. In addition, reporters may attend the entire morning of
activities beginning at 9:30 a.m. A full agenda is below.

International Education Week (IEW) was established in 2000,
underscoring the importance of international partnerships and
international education in today's global environment. The ISS theme
was chosen this year to highlight events and activities that
demonstrate the importance of math, science, technology, engineering
and international skills.

The space station event will be televised live on NASA Television.
NASA TV is available on GE-2, Transponder 9C at 85 degrees West
longitude, vertical polarization, with a frequency of 3880 MHz, and
audio of 6.8 MHz. Portions of the program will be replayed on the
NASA TV video file feed beginning immediately following the event,
and again at 3 p.m., 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. EST.

International Education Week Program
John Quincy Adams Elementary School

9:30 a.m. Living and working in space program, Auditorium
Roger Crouch, ISS Senior Scientist

10:30 a.m. Space-related, interactive activities for sixth-graders,
Science Classroom

11:50 a.m. Live, interactive event with the ISS crew, Science
Classroom

More information about International Education Week can be found on
NASA's Web site at:

http://education.nasa.gov/IEW2001

NASA/KSC CENTER FOR SPACE EDUCATION BOOK GRANT TO BENEFIT AREA LIBRARIES

NASA's Center for Space Education at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center
has awarded a collection of aerospace and science books to the library
systems of Brevard, Orange and Volusia Counties. KSC Director Roy Bridges
and Pam Biegert, chief of KSC's Education Programs and University Research
Office, presented the books to the library directors during a special
presentation at the Center for Space Education on Nov. 6.

The books were awarded as part of NASA's Partnering Librarians and NASA
(PLAN) program. The PLAN program goal is to help libraries update the
information they have regarding NASA's Space Program, science and
technology. The Center for Space Education used a $25,000 grant from NASA to
purchase more than 30 books for each of the 50 libraries.

"As more students use the library system to do their research for classes,
we felt that it was important that the libraries be knowledgeable of NASA's
programs and have up-to-date materials for their use," commented Biegert.

"We are very excited to be receiving these books that will fulfill so many
needs for our patrons and especially those students who have an interest in
space exploration and our space program," said Catherine Schweinsberg,
director of Brevard County Libraries.

According to Steve Dutczak, lead for K-12 Education Services at the Center
for Space Education, the PLAN program evolved from a similar education
workshop for teachers that has been in place at KSC for more than 40 years.

Directors and librarians from the three counties' libraries were invited to
attend five-day workshops during the summer of 2000. At the seminars, the
librarians were provided with useful information and materials about KSC and
NASA. They took this information back to their libraries and used the
materials as exhibits for the general public.

When the grant money became available, the librarians who attended these
seminars were canvassed as to what aerospace books were needed to update the
libraries. Some of the titles include, The History of NASA, John Glenn's
Return to Space, NASA Space Vehicles: Capsules, Shuttles and Space Stations,
The International Space Station and Into the Final Frontier: A History of
Manned Spaceflight.

Kathryn Robinson, director of the Orange County Library System, commented,
"The partnership between Orange County Library System and the Kennedy Space
Center, consisting of a one week training program for librarians and the
donation of library materials, has enriched library programs and has
enhanced our ability to make science accessible and interesting to children
and young adults."

"The education workshop was one of the best I've experienced. The generosity
of the staff and their accessibility and knowledge was an overwhelming
contribution to our library system," said Mike Knievel, director of the
Volusia County Public Library. "Families moving into Volusia County are
looking for quality schools and education. The contribution of these
aerospace and science books is outstanding."

Biegert added, "Educating the librarians through this program has proven to
be very beneficial in our education and outreach efforts and they have
become great assets in providing resources to the students and public."

Bridges, during the presentation, said, "Educating the future engineers,
scientists and leaders of tomorrow is a big part of our job. We need to
find other good ideas like this."

Sky survey lowers estimate of asteroid impact risk - Sloan data suggests
that there's only a 1-in-5000 chance of an asteroid wiping out civilization
in the next century. Previous estimates were about 1-in-1500. The sky is
not yet falling at http://www.sdss.org/news/releases/20011108.asteroid.html

------------------

Mars news:

Volcanoes Still Active on Mars? New Evidence for Ongoing Volcanism and
Water Release - science bubbling at
http://www.geosociety.org/pubntrst/pr/01-54.htm

Discovery of Buried Impact Craters on Mars Widens Possibility of an Ancient
Martian Ocean - an intoxicated scientist at
http://www.geosociety.org/pubntrst/pr/01-56.htm

Finally, here at NASA HQ, we have selected 10 scientific investigations for
the 2005 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) mission. Part of our future
Mars program gets defined at
ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2001/01-220.txt

------------------

The most powerful explosions in the universe, gamma-ray bursts, may come
with a 10-second warning: an equally violent burst of ultra-high-energy
particles called neutrinos. But detecting them won't be
easy. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011106084012.htm

More GRB news: the afterglow of a gamma ray burst, first detected by our
HETE-2 satellite, has been seen in x-ray, optical, and radio
wavelengths. Story at
ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2001/01-218.txt ; HETE-2 at
http://space.mit.edu/HETE/

------------------

Using data from SOHO, scientists now have the first clear picture of what
lies beneath sunspots, and have peered inside the Sun to see swirling flows
of electrified gas or plasma that create a self-reinforcing cycle, which
holds a sunspot together. This solves a major puzzle about the Sun, not
that there aren't plenty more remaining. Story at
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast07nov_1.htm?list52322 , SOHO at
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/

------------------

First Estimate of the Formation Temperature of Ammonia Ice in a Comet -
suggesting at the comet was formed between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus
in the primordial Solar System nebula. A potential new tool for studying
comets at http://www.subaru.naoj.org/Science/press_release/2001/11/index.html

------------------

NASA's 2002 Budget appropriation has been passed by both houses of
Congress, and is headed to the President for signature. I've posted the
Space Science excerpts at http://spacescience.nasa.gov/announce/2002approp.htm

------------------

Reminder - the Leonid meteor shower this weekend could be a fantastic
display. Rates of over 1000 meteors per hour have been
predicted. Definitely worth climbing out of bed! Details at
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast08nov_1.htm

MISSION: STS-108 - 12th ISS Flight (UF1) - MPLM

VEHICLE: Endeavour/OV-105
TARGET KSC LAUNCH DATE/TIME: Nov. 29, 2001 at 7:44 p.m.
TARGET KSC LANDING DATE/TIME: Dec. 10, 2001 at 3:41 p.m.
MISSION DURATION: 10 days, 20 hours
CREW: Gorie, Kelly, Godwin, Tani; (ISS up) Onufrienko, Bursch, Walz; (ISS
down) Culbertson, Dezhurov, Tyurin
ORBITAL INSERTION ALTITUDE and INCLINATION: 122 nautical miles/51.6 degrees

Shuttle Processing Note: Processing continues on schedule for the launch of
STS-108 on Nov. 29. At Pad B, hypergolic propellant loading of Shuttle
Endeavour is in progress. The replacement yaw actuator for engine No. 2 was
installed over the weekend and will undergo verification testing later this
week. The STS-108 Flight Readiness Review will take place Thursday at KSC.

MISSION: STS-109 - HST Servicing Mission 3B

Shuttle Processing Note: In the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF),
Columbia's main engines have been installed. Engine leak checks and potable
water servicing are in work.

MISSION: STS-110 - 13th ISS Flight (8A) - ITS S0, MT

Shuttle Processing Note: Orbiter Atlantis remains powered down in the OPF as
scheduled modification work continues through mid-December.

STRUCTURAL INSPECTION & MODIFICATION PERIOD

VEHICLE: Discovery/OV-103

Shuttle Processing Note: Discovery is in the OPF awaiting a decision by
Shuttle managers on the content, schedule and location of the structural
inspection and modification down period. Deservicing operations continue,
with preparations underway to remove the left and right Orbiter Maneuvering
System (OMS) pods

In this issue:
"SURVIVING MARS" DOCUMENTARY ON DISCOVERY CHANNEL VIEWED BY
MILLIONS
MIT MARS SOCIETY CHAPTER HOST THIRD SUCCESSFUL MARSWEEK EVENT
AUSTRALIAN MARS RESEARCH FACILITY 'ONE STEP CLOSER'

"SURVIVING MARS" DOCUMENTARY ON DISCOVERY CHANNEL VIEWED BY
MILLIONS

"Surviving Mars," the Discovery Channel's two-hour
documentary about the Mars Society's program to build and operate
the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station on Devon Island aired on
the evening of Wednesday Nov. 7th. By all accounts, the show was a
knockout. Despite being in competition with the Country Music awards
and the popular "West Wing" drama, the program garnered over 2
percent of the American TV viewing audience in its first broadcast.
That means it was seen by several million people. Additional millions
saw the program when it was rebroadcast on the morning of Saturday
Nov. 10. More broadcasts are expected; those who missed it should
check TV listings (where it is sometimes entitled "Mars on
Earth.). It is also expected to be produced and marketed by the
Discovery Channel as a home video.

Hats off to the Discovery Channel, producer Andy Liebman and his
Resolute Films team, sponsor Microsoft, the Flashline Company, and
all the people in the Mars Society and the Haughton Mars Project who
helped make this terrific public outreach event possible.

MIT MARS SOCIETY CHAPTER HOST THIRD SUCCESSFUL MARSWEEK EVENT

On the weekend of October 26-28, about 100 people attended the third
annual MarsWeek conference, which is held every fall at the MIT
campus in Cambridge MA. This year's conference focused on past,
present and future Mars Society projects. Several participants in
the Devon Island station described their experiences, and concepts
for research at the new Utah station were presented.

The new Mars Gravity initiative took center stage, with discussion
among design team members from several universities, including MIT,
Embry-Riddle and CalTech. Jim Benson, CEO of SpaceDev, discussed the
process of developing commercial interest in space exploration.
Workshops explored a wide range of cultural, scientific and
engineering issues related to the exploration of Mars.

MarsWeek was sponsored by the Mars Society, MIT's Undergraduate
Association, MIT's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, MIT's
Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, the
Massachusetts Space Grant Consortium, and the American Institute of
Aeronautics and Astronautics. See http://web.mit.edu/mars/ for more
information.

AUSTRALIAN MARS RESEARCH FACILITY 'ONE STEP CLOSER'

Australia is one step closer to having its own outback space research
facility, to be used for testing equipment and technology which could
help to send humans to Mars.

A group of Australian and international scientists and engineers have
now returned to Adelaide after two weeks in the Red Centre, and have
identified three sites for the conduct of this research, with the
most favourable location identified as the Arkaroola region in the
Northern Flinders Ranges. The other areas with strong potential for
future Mars analogue research are Arkaringa near Coober Pedy and the
Woomera region.

The first Project Jarntimarra expedition, organised by Mars Society
Australia, was an outstanding success, said President Guy Murphy.

"Project Jarntimarra is the lynchpin of our technical programme,
known as Operation Red Centre, and will have a number of important
spinoffs. We have now identified a variety of sites with Mars-like
characteristics, where valuable research can be carried out, such as
testing rover vehicles for surface exploration and interaction
between crews and mission controllers. The expedition also helped to
raise the public profile of Mars Society Australia through media
coverage of events, and alerted the scientific and engineering
community to our work, which is aimed at facilitating future human
exploration and colonisation of Mars.

"This ranking is our considered view of the three best Mars analogues
of the places we visited during this expedition. Mars Society
Australia intends to consult with traditional and existing
owners/leaseholders before making definite proposals to undertake
activities at any of these locations at a later date."

Members of the Jarntimarra team included astrobiologist Professor
Malcolm Walter of Macquarie University and the Australian Centre for
Astrobiology, geologists Dr Jonathan Clarke of the Australian
National University, Professor Vic Gostin of the University of
Adelaide and Matilda Thomas from the Australian Centre for
Astrobiology, roboticist Dr Graham Mann of Murdoch University, James
Waldie, from RMIT University, a PhD student who is working on new
spacesuit technology, Sydney University aerospace engineering
undergraduate Michael West, and Flinders University medical graduate
James Leyden.

Said Mars Society Australia Technical Director Jason Hoogland, "We
now have a core of local talent that having met face to face,
understands the challenges and will now act as champions of our
vision. While at Arkaroola, this team engaged in a series of
intensive workshops to map out a more detailed plan for our technical
activities over the coming years. This was also a wonderful
demonstration of collegiate-style debate and discussion that will
give rise to a more robust and ultimately more successful technical
programme.

"The team spent a couple of days developing a science and engineering
plan for Operation Red Centre, which we hope will get underway in
2002 or 2003. Basically we have now selected an optimal site for our
research, which we believe to be the Arkaroola region in the Northern
Flinders Ranges in South Australia. This site had a number of
advantages. It has good access by road year-round, is close to
infrastructure such as an airstrip and the Arkaroola resort, and has
visual characteristics which are analogous to Mars, such as the red
soil and dust.

According to Hoogland, the site is also currently home to some
leading-edge Mars research, allowing Operation Red Centre to leverage
off existing projects.

"For example, Professor Malcolm Walter is looking for signs of
microbial life in hot springs in the Arkaroola region. He believes
that if there is or has ever been life on Mars, this is the type of
environment where it would be located. We hope to build on this type
of work in the future."

The next step for Mars Society Australia, said MSA President Guy
Murphy, is to return to the Arkaroola site for more detailed analysis
and to raise funds for the establishment of a research facility or
habitat called Mars Oz. The type and size of facility has yet to be
decided upon, with Mars Society Australia investigating a number of
options. It is estimated that AU $250,000 will be required to set up
the facility for its first field season, but the benefits to the
local economy and Australian R&D would be far in excess of this sum,
said Murphy.

"We envisage that the habitat or 'hab' would be used by Australian
and international scientists and engineers during a field season,
much like the research facility the Mars Society has established on
Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic. These people would book time on
Mars Oz for conducting their research, which would be carried out
alongside the Mars Society Australia's own programme - Operation Red
Centre.

"We have a lot to offer the Mars scientific community and it would be
an amazing boost to Australian space science and technology to have
local and international personnel working side by side. We were
fortunate on this first Jarntimarra expedition to have Dr Carol
Stoker and Dr Larry Lemke from NASA Ames Research Center in
California with us, and the younger members in particular learnt a
great deal from spending time with them. It's a great model for the
future, and augers well for development of a strong scientific and
technical base in this country.

"If a human does eventually walk on the surface of Mars, Australia
will have had a part to play in this. I hope that the work Mars
Society Australia is doing will be an inspiration to young
Australians, and encourage them to pursue careers in science and
engineering."

Project Jarntimarra was sponsored by U.K. aerospace company
Starchaser Industries. Their logo 'The Sky is Not the Limit' was an
eye-catching sight on the sides of the convoy of vehicles owned by
local firm Westprint, which travelled over 4,000 kilometres through
some of Australia's harshest and most spectacular landscape. Mars
Society Australia is now seeking a sponsor for the rest of its
technical programme.

Said Hoogland, "Overall, the first Jarntimarra expedition achieved
and exceeded all our objectives. Our next step is to consolidate the
huge steps taken, recruit talent into our projects and, most
important of all, raise the financial and in-kind support needed to
see Operation Red Centre to fruition with all its hardware elements.
We have the capability to undertake genuinely world class research
that will advance our understanding of Mars and better prepare us for
human missions to the Red Planet.

"All we need now is the support to make it happen."

Media inquiries and requests for interviews regarding Project
Jarntimarra should be directed to: Jennifer Laing, Public Relations
Director, Mars Society Australia - ph 0417 135 113 or email:
pr@marssociety.org.au

For further information on Mars Society Australia, visit
http://www.marssociety.org.au
For further information about the international Mars Society, visit
www.marssociety.org.

November 12,01

NASA SELECTS 10 INVESTIGATIONS FOR 2005 MARS RECONNAISSANCE
ORBITER

NASA today announced the selection of 10 scientific
investigations as part of the 2005 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
mission. The 2005 mission will carry six primary instruments
that will greatly enhance the search for evidence of water,
take images of objects about the size of a beach ball, and
search for future landing sites on the martian surface.

Theinvestigations selected include two principal investigator
instrument investigations and eight facility team leader or
member investigations.

The two proposals to be led by principal investigators,
selected by Dr. Edward Weiler, associate administrator for
space science at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. , were
judged to have the highest science value among the 26
proposals submitted to NASA in August 2001 in response to the
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter 2005 announcement of opportunity.

"A new generation of reconnaissance instruments on this
orbiter with unprecedented capabilities will pave the way for
identifying the most compelling sites on Mars for sample
return and ultimately for human exploration," said Weiler.

The two principal investigator instrument investigations
selected are:

An ultra-high resolution, multi-color, stereo imaging
system, led by Principal investigator Dr. Alfred McEwen of the
University of Arizona, in partnership with Ball Aerospace
Corp., Boulder, Colo., at a total developmental cost of $31
million. The instrument will provide color stereo images of
the Martian surface at six times higher resolution than any
existing images, and is expected to improve understanding of
surface processes related to water and to help identify future
landing sites.

A hyperspectral imaging spectrometer for mineralogical
mapping, led by Principal investigator Dr. Scott Murchie of
the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory,
Laurel, Md., at a total cost of $17.6 million. The instrument
will provide extremely high-resolution hyperspectral images of
areas on Mars in wavelengths from .4 to 4 micrometers (visible
to short-wave infrared) for identifying key mineralogical
indicators of water and hydrothermal systems at spatial scales
smaller than a football field. Such data will be vital for
targeting future landed missions.

The other selected investigations, described below,
involve the analysis of data from mission-provided facility
instruments and spacecraft engineering systems.

Facility science team scientists affiliated with the Italian
Space Agency's shallow-subsurface sounding radar are: Dr.
Roger Phillips of Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.; Dr.
Jeffrey Plaut of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena;
and Dr. Bruce Campbell of the Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, D.C.

Facility science team member scientists associated with
gravity measurements that can be achieved with the spacecraft
are: team leader Dr. Maria T. Zuber of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Cambridge, and team members Dr. Frank
Lemoine of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.,
and Dr. Alex Konopliv of JPL.

Facility science team members selected for the accelerometer
science team are: team leader Dr. Gerald Keating of The George
Washington University, Washington, and NASA Langley Research
Center, Hampton, Va., and Dr. Stephen Bougher of the
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Other instruments onboard the Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter, not solicited by this opportunity, constitute re-
flights of experiments lost with the failure of the Mars
Climate Orbiter mission.

The specific scientific objectives of the Reconnaissance
Orbiter mission include researching the processes of present
and past climate change on Mars, searching the surface and
shallow-subsurface for sites that show evidence of water-
related activity, investigating the processes that are
responsible for the formation of the ubiquitous layers that
have been observed on Mars, and probing the shallow-subsurface
to identify regions where three-dimensional layering could
indicate the presence of ice or possibly lenses of liquid
water.

The 2005 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission represents
an integrated scientific-observation platform that will bring
together teams from universities, industry, NASA centers, and
other organizations. The spacecraft will be developed by
Lockheed-Martin Astronautics, Denver, and is scheduled for
launch to Mars in August 2005.

NASA's lead scientist for Mars exploration, Dr. Jim
Garvin, said, "NASA views the mission as the essential
'scientific gateway' to the future of landed and sample return
missions in its core Mars Exploration Program, as well as an
incredible mission of scientific discovery."

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission is managed by the
Mars Exploration Program at JPL for NASA's Office of Space
Science, Washington, D.C. The Mars program director is Orlando
Figueroa; the lead scientist for Mars exploration is Dr. Jim
Garvin; the orbiter program executive is Dr. Ramon Depaula;
and the orbiter program scientist is Dr. Dave Senske. The Mars
program manager at JPL is Dr. Firouz Naderi; the project
scientist is Dr. Richard Zurek; and the project manager is
James Graf.

"Europe joins the search for life elsewhere in the Universe"

At the dawn of the twenty-first century, the search for life beyond
our planet is getting serious and Europe is playing a full role. Over
the next two years, the European Space Agency will be sending two
spacecraft (Rosetta and Mars Express) to search for clues to life's
origins elsewhere in our Solar System. A third ESA probe, Huygens is
already on its way to Titan, a planetary-sized laboratory for pre-biotic
chemistry. ESA is also planning a series of spacecraft (Eddington, Gaia
and Darwin) to find planets orbiting other stars and even to look for
life's signatures on other worlds that look much like our own. These
missions are providing scientists from all over Europe with unprecedented
opportunities to unravel the origins of life.

Learn more about ESA's role in the search for life in the Universe at:
http://sci2.esa.int/specialevents/lifeinuniverse/

"Kibo Utilization Symposium in Kansai"
to be held in Osaka

The National Space Development Agency of Japan(NASDA) will hold the
second symposium concerning the International Space Station(ISS)
Japanese Experiment Module(Kibo) Utilization "The century of Space
Renaissance -making the ISS more open to our society-". NASDA held the
first "Kibo Utilization Symposium" on March 2001, with the aim to
increase the diversity of Kibo utilization to new fields and forms.

1.Date and time: November 28(Wednesday), 2001 9:30 - 17:00
2.Site: Umeda Sky Building 36F, Sky Room
(1-1-88, Ooyodonaka, Kita-ku, Osaka City, Japan)
3.Host Organization: NASDA
4.Cooperative Organizations:
Osaka Science & Technology Center(OSTEC), Kansai Space Forum(KSF),
ISS Business Forum, Japan Space Utilization Promotion Center(JSUP),
Institute for Future Technology(IFTECH)
5.Supporting Organizations:
*Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
(MEXT)
*Japan Federation of Economic Organizations
6.Fee: charge-free (prior applications are necessary)
7.Inquiries and public applications should be contacted to:
3-30-16 Nishiwaseda, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 169-8624, Japan
Sadanori KAWANO
Space Experiment Promotion Department
Japan Space Utilization Promotion Center(JSUP)
Phone to : +81-3-5273-2442
Fax to : +81-3-5273-0705
E-mail to: kawano@jsup.or.jp
8.Other: This symposium will be broadcasted live at NASDA Headquarters
(Minato-ku, Tokyo) and NASDA Tsukuba Space Center(Tsukuba, Ibaraki).

======================================================================
Date of Issue : November 12, 2001

Publisher : Public Relations Office
National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA)
28F World Trade Center Bldg.,
2-4-1 Hamamatsu-cho, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-8060
Japan
TEL:+81-3-3438-6111

NASDA Home Page :
http://www.nasda.go.jp/index_e.html

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To change registered e-mail address, or to cancel this service,
please access to
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Publisher : Public Relations Office
National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA)
28F World Trade Center Bldg.,
2-4-1 Hamamatsu-cho, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-8060
Japan
TEL:+81-3-3438-6111

NASDA Home Page :
http://www.nasda.go.jp/index_e.html

November 10-11,01

NASA SELECTS 10 INVESTIGATIONS FOR 2005 MARS RECONNAISSANCE
ORBITER

NASA today announced the selection of 10 scientific
investigations as part of the 2005 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
mission. The 2005 mission will carry six primary instruments
that will greatly enhance the search for evidence of water,
take images of objects about the size of a beach ball, and
search for future landing sites on the martian surface. The
investigations selected include two principal investigator
instrument investigations and eight facility team leader or
member investigations.

The two proposals to be led by principal investigators,
selected by Dr. Edward Weiler, associate administrator for
space science at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. , were
judged to have the highest science value among the 26
proposals submitted to NASA in August 2001 in response to the
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter 2005 announcement of opportunity.

"A new generation of reconnaissance instruments on this
orbiter with unprecedented capabilities will pave the way for
identifying the most compelling sites on Mars for sample
return and ultimately for human exploration," said Weiler.

The two principal investigator instrument investigations
selected are:

- An ultra-high resolution, multi-color, stereo imaging
system, led by Principal investigator Dr. Alfred McEwen of the
University of Arizona, in partnership with Ball Aerospace
Corp., Boulder, Colo., at a total developmental cost of $31
million. The instrument will provide color stereo images of
the Martian surface at six times higher resolution than any
existing images, and is expected to improve understanding of
surface processes related to water and to help identify future
landing sites.

- A hyperspectral imaging spectrometer for mineralogical
mapping, led by Principal investigator Dr. Scott Murchie of
the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory,
Laurel, Md., at a total cost of $17.6 million. The instrument
will provide extremely high-resolution hyperspectral images of
areas on Mars in wavelengths from .4 to 4 micrometers (visible
to short-wave infrared) for identifying key mineralogical
indicators of water and hydrothermal systems at spatial scales
smaller than a football field. Such data will be vital for
targeting future landed missions.

The other selected investigations, described below,
involve the analysis of data from mission-provided facility
instruments and spacecraft engineering systems.

- Facility science team scientists affiliated with the Italian
Space Agency's shallow-subsurface sounding radar are: Dr.
Roger Phillips of Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.; Dr.
Jeffrey Plaut of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena;
and Dr. Bruce Campbell of the Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, D.C.

- Facility science team member scientists associated with
gravity measurements that can be achieved with the spacecraft
are: team leader Dr. Maria T. Zuber of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Cambridge, and team members Dr. Frank
Lemoine of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.,
and Dr. Alex Konopliv of JPL.

- Facility science team members selected for the accelerometer
science team are: team leader Dr. Gerald Keating of The George
Washington University, Washington, and NASA Langley Research
Center, Hampton, Va., and Dr. Stephen Bougher of the
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Other instruments onboard the Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter, not solicited by this opportunity, constitute re-
flights of experiments lost with the failure of the Mars
Climate Orbiter mission.

The specific scientific objectives of the Reconnaissance
Orbiter mission include researching the processes of present
and past climate change on Mars, searching the surface and
shallow-subsurface for sites that show evidence of water-
related activity, investigating the processes that are
responsible for the formation of the ubiquitous layers that
have been observed on Mars, and probing the shallow-subsurface
to identify regions where three-dimensional layering could
indicate the presence of ice or possibly lenses of liquid
water.

The 2005 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission represents
an integrated scientific-observation platform that will bring
together teams from universities, industry, NASA centers, and
other organizations. The spacecraft will be developed by
Lockheed-Martin Astronautics, Denver, and is scheduled for
launch to Mars in August 2005.

NASA's lead scientist for Mars exploration, Dr. Jim
Garvin, said, "NASA views the mission as the essential
'scientific gateway' to the future of landed and sample return
missions in its core Mars Exploration Program, as well as an
incredible mission of scientific discovery."

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission is managed by the
Mars Exploration Program at JPL for NASA's Office of Space
Science, Washington, D.C. The Mars program director is Orlando
Figueroa; the lead scientist for Mars exploration is Dr. Jim
Garvin; the orbiter program executive is Dr. Ramon Depaula;
and the orbiter program scientist is Dr. Dave Senske. The Mars
program manager at JPL is Dr. Firouz Naderi; the project
scientist is Dr. Richard Zurek; and the project manager is
James Graf.

ASTRONOMERS ANTICIPATE METEOR "STORM" ON NOVEMBER 18TH

Most everyone has glimpsed an occasional "shooting star," or meteor. But
imagine what it would be like to see hundreds -- or even thousands -- of
them in a single night. Such a spectacle may occur in the hours before
dawn on Sunday, November 18th. In fact, if astronomers' predictions hold
up, skywatchers in North America can expect to see their most dramatic
meteor display in 35 years. "Earth is about to plow through a cloud of
space dust that could light up our skies with celestial fireworks," notes
Alan MacRobert, senior editor for SKY & TELESCOPE magazine.

These meteors, called Leonids because they appear to radiate from the
constellation Leo (the Lion), will signal the arrival of fast-moving dust
particles shed by Comet Tempel-Tuttle, which loops around the Sun every
33 years. Like a truck on a dirt road, the comet creates a dusty wake
that spreads along its orbit. When Earth crosses that orbit in mid-
November each year, skywatchers usually see a handful of shooting stars,
a weak meteor "shower." But three times each century Earth crosses the
dust stream where it's especially dense, and when that happens we
experience what astronomers call a meteor "storm."

Meteors are created when sand- or pebble-size grains strike Earth's
atmosphere at high speed and create streaks of superheated air along
their paths. The Leonids, which are one of a dozen or so annual meteor
showers caused by streams of cometary debris, arrive at a blistering
44 miles (71 kilometers) per second -- the fastest known. Two years ago
the Leonids briefly peppered the skies over Europe and the Middle East
with 3,000 meteors per hour (nearly one every second). In 1966 lucky
observers in the southwestern United States gaped in awe for 20 minutes
as Leonid meteors fell at the rate of 40 per second!

In the November 2001 issue of SKY & TELESCOPE, meteorologist Joe Rao
assesses the predictions provided by three teams of specialists, who
agree that two dramatic storms appear likely this month.

A burst lasting perhaps two hours is expected in the predawn hours of
November 18th for observers throughout most of North and Central America.
The maximum rates should occur near 5:00 a.m. EST (corresponding to
4:00 a.m. CST, 3:00 a.m. MST, 2:00 a.m. PST). With no moonlight spoiling
the view, the storm may briefly spawn anywhere from several hundred to
1,000 or 2,000 meteors per hour for observers with clear, very dark
skies. A fourth prediction, issued recently by NASA researcher Peter
Jenniskens, argues that the hourly rate could top 4,000.

An even bigger storm is expected 8 hours later for viewers rimming the
far-western Pacific Ocean. Because these locations lie on the other side
of the International Date Line, this peak occurs before dawn on November
19th. Several thousand meteors may streak across the sky for an hour or
so starting about 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. in eastern Australia (depending on
location); 2:00 a.m. in Japan; and 1:00 a.m. in western Australia, the
Philippines, and eastern China.

"If Earth manages to pass through a thick concentration of material,"
Rao notes, "the upper atmosphere can blaze with meteors storming like a
fiery rain from the Sickle of Leo."

THE PUNDITS' PREDICTIONS

Peak Activity in North America (morning of November 18th)

Hourly Rate Midpoint time Midpoint time
(EST) (PST)

Asher & McNaught 800 4:55 a.m. 1:55 a.m.
  Brown & Cooke 1300 8:00 a.m. 5:00 a.m.
  Lyytinen & Van Flandern 2000 5:28 a.m. 2:28 a.m.
  Jenniskens 4200 5:09 a.m. 2:09 a.m.

(These meteors will be dominated by dust particles shed by Comet Tempel-
Tuttle in 1767, though Brown & Cooke believe the dominant source will be
dust shed in 1799.)

Peak Activity in Asia and Australia (morning of November 19th)

   Hourly Rate Midpoint time Midpoint time
   (Toyko) (Sydney)

  Asher & McNaught 2000 2:24 a.m. 4:24 a.m.
   8000 3:13 a.m. 5:13 a.m.

  Brown & Cooke 800 2:00 a.m. 4:00 a.m.
  Lyytinen & Van Flandern 8500 3:15 a.m. 5:15 a.m.
  Jenniskens 1800 2:08 a.m. 4:08 a.m.
   2700 2:55 a.m. 4:55 a.m.
  (These meteors, which may arrive in two distinct bursts, will be dominated
  by particles shed by Comet Tempel-Tuttle in 1699 and 1866, respectively)

  IMAGE CAPTION:
  [http://www.skypub.com/news/images2001/pr_leonids2001_leonidglobes_big.jpg
  (276KB)]
  Left: This "meteor's-eye view" shows how Earth will be oriented for the
  first expected peak of the Leonid shower on November 18, 2001, at about
  5 a.m Eastern time. This is when the various experts predict that Earth
  will encounter particles released by Comet Tempel-Tuttle in 1766. While
  this entire hemisphere will experience the shower, meteors will only be
  visible in the nighttime region to the left. Right: About 8 hours later,
  a second and perhaps stronger burst of meteors is expected over the
  Pacific Ocean, favoring observers in Australia and eastern Asia. Sky &
  Telescope diagram.

Asteroid Viewing Opportunity for the Public

There is a rare opportunity to visually observe a near-Earth asteroid
next month. 1998 WT24 will make its closest approach to Earth on 2001
December 16 (UT; Saturday night, Dec. 15 in the U.S.), when its
magnitude is expected to brighten to nearly 9th magnitude (meaning it
will be easily visible in telescopes 4" or larger). It is a multiple

opposition object, with a small ephemeris uncertainty (meaning it should
be about where predicted). It will be passing close to several bright
stars, so should be an easy target to find. There is probably not another
predicted opportunity for a bright one like this until 2004, when (4179)
Toutatis will reach a very favorable opposition. Since the closest
approach occurs during a new-Moon weekend, this is also a great
opportunity for astronomy clubs (and outreach programs too) to establish
public viewing programs to educate the public.

While I don't have the details yet, an announcement like this typically
means that a star-like object will be visible slowly moving, compared to
background stars, through the telescope's field of view. Don't expect to
see much more than that; just the same it is a rare opportunity to see
an object this bright. A few times a year there are opportunities to see
similar objects, but they are usually more than 100x fainter than this
one is predicted to be, and usually the predicted positions are much less
certain.

JPL's groundbased radar observers (Ostro et al.) will be active with this
one.

One could consider working with local amateur astronomers to organize
public viewing sessions in suburban and rural areas using medium to large
telescopes. A webcast of images from TIE or elsewhere would be another
approach.

NASA WEBCAST TO HIGHLIGHT WORLD OF ROBOTS FOR HUD CENTERS

Residents in federal housing developments will be able to
learn about the robotics of today and tomorrow during a NASA
Internet "webcast" next week, perhaps sparking the interest of
young people in science and engineering.

The webcast, scheduled for 6 p.m. EST Nov. 14, will reach hundreds
of Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) "Neighborhood
Networks" community technology centers across the country. The
webcast will be rebroadcast at 9 p.m. EST on Nov. 14.

The one-hour program, "NASA Robotics for Exploration and
Discovery," is a general-interest session during which NASA
experts will discuss the current and future uses of robots. People
tuning in will be able to "learn, discover, hear and interact with
their neighbors and their space agency," according to the
program's producers.

"It is clear from occupational outlook studies that NASA and
American industry eventually will need many more roboticists than
are being trained in our schools," said Tom Dyson, an engineer at
NASA Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley. "While
there clearly is no NASA employment implied by this session, it is
possible that this kind of opportunity could launch a student
toward thinking about a robotics career," he said. Dyson works on
NASA's Learning Technology Project, which is producing the
robotics webcast.

"This is a great opportunity for residents of HUD housing to be
exposed to robotics," said Delores Pruden, director of HUD's
Neighborhood Networks Program. "Youth, especially, will be able to
see first-hand the importance of math and science. Both HUD and
NASA benefit from this partnership, and we look forward to
implementing future educational events together."

The community technology centers, located on HUD multifamily
properties, include computers hooked to the World Wide Web, and
provide computer and job skills training and placement. webcasts
enable people to watch live video, listen to audio and interact in
real time on the Internet with experts.

Students who took part in previous robotics competitions will
participate in the webcast. Some young people who formed teams to
build, program and compete robots, one against the other, have
been inspired to go to college and pursue science and engineering
careers, according to the NASA engineers who were mentors.

Although robotics is attracting a cross-section of young people,
mentors are particularly encouraged by the enthusiasm of some
youths who attend 'continuation' high schools.

"Last year, students from San Jose's Foothill High School were
leaders of the championship alliance of the 2000 FIRST Robotics
Tournament in Orlando," said Mark Leon, Robotics Education Project
manager for NASA. "Most of these students are of Hispanic or Asian
heritage from a challenged social or economic status. Foothill's
students are classified as 'youth at risk' because Foothill is a
continuation high school. This spot is the last stop for students
on their way out, or their last chance to get it together. In this
case, the students not only got it together, but they have
surprised the world."

"Here we have the kids that society expects the worst of, and they
give us their absolute best," said NASA Ames engineer and mentor
Alan Federman.

More information about the robotics webcast is on the Internet at:

http://learn.arc.nasa.gov/events/hud/

The NASA Robotics Education Project assists students in learning
engineering and computer skills by supporting robotics competition
and other educational robotics activities. More information is on
the Internet at:

http://robotics.nasa.gov
http://www.kipr.org

Media representatives can find the nearest participating HUD
center on the Internet at:

http://199.223.18.220/nn/contacts.nsf/centersearch

Cassini Weekly Significant Events
for 11/01/01 - 11/07/01

The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone
tracking station on Wednesday, November 7. The Cassini spacecraft is in an
excellent state of health and is operating normally. "Present Position"
web page, http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/english/where/ .

The C28 sequence has completed execution, and the C29 sequence was
uplinked last week and began execution on Sunday November 4. Recent
instrument activities include two Radio and Plasma Wave Science High
Frequency Receiver calibrations, Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) scattered
light characterization and dark frame observations, a RADAR Periodic
Instrument Maintenance activity, a Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument Ion
and Neutral Camera collimator plate test, and the beginning of the Visual
and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) radiator test. Engineering
activities taking place onboard the spacecraft this week include a
transition from Reaction Wheel Assembly (RWA) to Reaction Control
Subsystem control, an RWA unload, and transition back to RWA control for
the VIMS Radiator test.

The C30 sequence activity kicked off this week with the beginning of the
Subsequence Generation Phase. This sequence is planned to have lower
levels of activity, such that Cassini personnel can focus on tour
planning. The C30 sequence is planned to contain an ISS mini-sequence with
a VIMS ride-along, and a turn to point the Cosmic Dust Analyzer in the
spacecraft ram direction to increase their science return.

The Instrument Operations (IO)/ISS team returned the Composite Infrared
Spectrometer (CIRS) support images, dark frames, and scattered light test
data. The support images were processed and have been sent to ISS and
CIRS for analysis. The IO/ISS team continued its camera haze anomaly
investigation based on the C28 decontamination results.

The Attitude Control Subsystem (ACS) Flight Software (FSW) team has
delivered version A8.4.0 of ACS FSW to the test labs as scheduled. The
version for the Flight Software Development System was also released. The
team is exercising the standard test set on the new delivery, which closes
seven flight software changes.

Mission Planning and the Spacecraft Operations Office completed a study of
the Cassini hydrazine propellant budget, with results showing a margin of
60 kg of hydrazine at the end of the four-year nominal mission. Science
Planning will reassess their propellant usage strategy in the coming
months in light of this study.

The final report for the Titan Science Uplink Verification activity was
published, and a full suite of Target Working Team meetings was held last
week to continue with the integration of the tour.

Cassini Information Management System (CIMS) developers from Southwest
Research Institute met with the Cassini Uplink Operations/ Mission
Sequence Subsystem (MSS) and Science Planning representatives, and have
agreed to plans for the next several deliveries of CIMS in support of the
Science Operations Plan development. A discussion was held with Mission
Support & Services Office (MSSO) representatives to review CIMS
performance and compatibility issues with the MSSO proposed mid-tier
architecture.

Administration Initiates New Salmon Restoration Efforts
Federal Agency to Review Hatchery Policy; Maintain Protections

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA fisheries), today announced
that it will immediately implement actions to improve salmon protection and
recovery efforts, including a comprehensive, public review of its salmon
hatchery policies and increasing its support for local recovery efforts,
while maintaining current protections for listed salmon species. The review
will also seek to determine if the Alsea decision presents any new
opportunities for enhancing salmon restoration efforts beyond the
traditional scope of the Endangered Species Act. In response to the court
decision in Alsea Valley Alliance v. Evans, the Administration will focus
its energy and resources on rebuilding salmon runs rather than appeal the
court's decision.
"Recognizing the successes of local restoration efforts, we are determined
to build on this momentum and bring state, local and tribal groups together
to discuss salmon restoration efforts in a new and meaningful way," said
Bill Hogarth, NOAA fisheries assistant administrator. "Our goal is to
apply the best science and take into account public input in developing a
salmon protection model that will benefit people, our environment and
ensure healthy fish populations for generations to come."

Hogarth said the agency will immediately take several steps to respond to
the court's order and provide consistency in future ESA listing decisions:

NOAA fisheries, working closely with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
will review and finalize its hatchery policy regarding the inclusion of
hatchery-bred salmon as part of populations listed under the Endangered
Species Act. This policy review will include full opportunity for public
input and is expected to be completed by September 2002.
The agency will also review approximately 20 other ESA listings that
include hatchery-bred salmon that may be affected by the final hatchery
policy. The process will run concurrently with the hatchery policy review
and should be completed within 45 days of completion of the policy review.
NOAA fisheries will support and encourage local initiatives to restore
salmon runs and will become a full partner in those efforts. NOAA
fisheries will focus on working with successful local salmon recovery
efforts and public/private partnerships such as the Hatchery Scientific
Review Group, Puget Sound Shared Strategy, Lower Columbia River Estuary
Program and a multitude of local watershed recovery efforts throughout the
Northwest and California.

Working with state, federal, tribal and private partners, NOAA fisheries
will continue to protect all currently listed species during the review
process.

Details of the agency's actions are contained in its 'Salmon ESA Review
Action Plan' available on the Web at http://www.nwr.noaa.gov

"We look forward to a thorough review of our hatchery policies that
addresses the court's decision in the Alsea case in a timely manner, while
also ensuring that wild stocks of Pacific salmon are protected during our
review," Hogarth said.

In conducting its review and these rebuilding initiatives, the
administration will mount a comprehensive outreach effort to hear from
state and regional authorities, tribal leaders, sportsmen,
conservationists, farmers, interest groups and affected industries. "A key
component to a successful salmon protection policy will be the input and
cooperation of these communities," Hogarth said. "It is essential that
this be an inclusive process that takes into account the diverse interests
of the Pacific Northwest region and California."

In taking these steps, NOAA fisheries has been guided by the principles
developed by the governors of the four Northwest states - Oregon,
Washington, Idaho and Montana. In a set of recommendations announced in
July 2000, the governors emphasized the importance of a comprehensive,
collaborative and ecosystem-based approach to salmon recovery. The strong
leadership of these governors, backed by innovative state conservation
programs such as the Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds, and
Washington's Statewide Strategy to Recover Salmon, helps ensure the
regional salmon recovery efforts will continue unaffected while the
hatchery policy is reviewed. "NOAA fisheries looks forward to working
with western states affected by salmon listings on these initiatives, and
building a salmon restoration program based on consensus and mutual
understanding," said Hogarth.

NOAA fisheries listed Oregon coast coho salmon under the ESA in 1998 as a
distinct population (called an Evolutionarily Significant Unit or ESU), but
did not list hatchery fish that came from the same group. On Sept. 12,
2001, Oregon federal district Judge Michael Hogan set aside the listing,
ruling that the agency must include both hatchery and naturally-spawning
salmon in its determination of the Oregon coast coho ESA listing status.

NOAA fisheries managers will be seeking public input as they revise the
agency's hatchery policy to ensure (consistent with the Alsea decision)
that when the agency lists an ESU, it lists the entire ESU - whether that
ESU includes hatchery fish, naturally spawned fish, or both. The Alsea
decision found that NOAA fisheries could list an ESU and could determine
which populations belonged in the ESU. But once a decision was made to
include hatchery fish in the ESU as it was here, all populations - hatchery
and natural alike - must be listed or not listed together. Beyond that,
the Court's order has raised questions about how NOAA fisheries should
consider the use of artificial production in achieving the purposes of the
Endangered Species Act when it makes a determination about the natural
sustainability of an ESU.

"This decision affords the Northwest region the ability to reevaluate and
improve salmon protection efforts," said Bob Lohn, NOAA fisheries'
northwest regional administrator. "By working with local communities to
strengthen existing state and federal protections and learning from the
successes, including tribal programs, we can build a broad community-based
approach to protecting salmon and their critical ecosystems."

This review, including an open inquiry with public hearings and comment,
will examine how the ESA should be applied to those salmon populations that
include fish reared in hatcheries. It will also address the extent to
which hatchery populations can be used to accelerate recovery, and
long-term standards for hatchery operation to assure that hatchery
practices will not undermine a rebuilding or recovered population.

Besides Oregon coast coho, NOAA fisheries has listed approximately 20
additional ESUs of salmon and steelhead with hatchery populations that are
part of an ESU but not listed. NOAA fisheries intends to begin immediately
updating its information on these ESUs, and will review their status in
light of this new information and the revised policy. The agency expects to
complete these reviews by next fall.

"We will proceed with protection and recovery activities for all listed
salmon species," said Lohn. "We are committed to sustaining the
partnerships that we've built to work together on conserving our salmon and
steelhead and their ecosystems."

In addition to maintaining current protections for listed salmon species,
NOAA fisheries will seek agreements with other federal agencies, states,
tribes and private landowners to maintain existing protections for Oregon
coastal coho salmon during the agency's reconsideration of the Oregon
coastal coho and other ESUs' listing status.

NOAA fisheries, an agency of the Commerce Department's National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is dedicated to protecting and
preserving our nation's living marine resources through scientific
research, management, enforcement, and the conservation of marine mammals
and other protected marine species and their habitat. To learn more about
NOAA fisheries, please visit http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov

MISSION: STS-108 - 12th ISS Flight (UF1) - MPLM

VEHICLE: Endeavour/OV-105
TARGET KSC LAUNCH DATE: Nov. 29, 200
TARGET KSC LANDING DATE: Dec. 10, 2001
MISSION DURATION: 10 days, 20 hours
CREW: Gorie, Kelly, Godwin, Tani; (ISS up) Onufrienko, Bursch, Walz; (ISS
down) Culbertson, Dezhurov, Tyurin
ORBITAL INSERTION ALTITUDE and INCLINATION: 122 nautical miles/51.6 degrees

Shuttle Processing Note: Shuttle Endeavour remains on scheduled for launch
on Nov. 29. At Pad B, the STS-108 flight crew participated in the Terminal
Countdown Demonstration Test that was completed successfully this morning.
The crew will return to Houston this afternoon. Later today the Raffaello
Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) will be installed into Endeavour's
payload bay. This weekend, pad technicians will replace the yaw actuator arm
in Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) #2 and preparations will begin for
hypergol propellant loading.

MISSION: STS-109 - HST Servicing Mission 3B

Shuttle Processing Note: Columbia is in the Orbiter Processing Facility
(OPF) undergoing preparations for the Hubble Space Telescope Servicing
mission next February. Work is in progress to install the Shuttle's main
engines and service the potable water supply.

MISSION: STS-110 - 13th ISS Flight (8A) - ITS S0, MT

Shuttle Processing Note: Scheduled modification operations continue with
Orbiter Atlantis in the OPF. The vehicle will remain powered down until
mid-December.

STRUCTURAL INSPECTION & MODIFICATION PERIOD

VEHICLE: Discovery/OV-103

Shuttle Processing Note: Discovery is in the OPF as Shuttle managers
continue to assess the content, schedule and location of the structural
inspection and modification down period. Operations in progress include
de-servicing of the potable water and ammonia systems and hypergol drain.

Rosetta's mating ritual completed

A major landmark was passed this week in the race to prepare the
Rosetta spacecraft for its January 2003 launch from South America.
After the successful mating of the two modules that make up
ESA's comet chaser, the Rosetta flight model is now ready for
transportation to the European Space Technology and Research
Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands. It will then undergo an
exhaustive series of tests before shipment to the launch site
at the end of summer 2002.

Read more about it at:

http://sci.esa.int/content/news/index.cfm?aid=13&cid=36&oid=28903

November 9, 01

ASTRONOMY TALK TO FEATURE EXPLODING STARS AND BLACK HOLES

'The Extreme Universe of Gamma-Ray Astronomy' -- including exploding
stars, blazing galaxies and giant black holes - will be the topic of
a free, non-technical talk next Wednesday, Nov. 14, at Foothill
College in Los Altos Hills, Calif.

Lynn Cominsky, Ph.D., of Sonoma State University, will give an
illustrated talk about how current (and future) space telescopes can
help us explore some of the most bizarre and intriguing objects in
the cosmos. She will discuss how gamma rays, the most energetic
waves in the universe, can show us dying stars, stellar corpses
devouring one another, and gargantuan explosions in the hearts of
other galaxies -- places and phenomena whose power dwarfs all human
activity.

"The Astronomy Lecture Series is a valuable resource for the
community, bringing the latest scientific research in astrobiology
and astronomy to a wide audience," said Dr. Henry McDonald, director
of NASA's Ames Research Center.

In addition to her well-known astronomy research, Cominski serves as
lead for education and public outreach for NASA's Gamma-ray Large
Area Space Telescope (GLAST) mission. She has worked on the Uhuru,
Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer, and other space missions, and serves as
deputy press officer of the American Astronomical Society. Cominsky
is the author of over 50 research papers.

"Lynn Cominsky, besides being a noted research astronomer, is well
known for her ability to explain complex astronomical ideas in basic
terms to students, teachers and the public," said Andrew Fraknoi of
Foothill College's astronomy department.

A unit of Foothill College academic credit will be available for
those who attend all six lectures in the 2001-2002 series and write a
short paper. Material for registering for the Astronomy 36 course
will be available at the lecture on Nov. 14.

This is the second talk in this year's Silicon Valley Astronomy
Lecture Series, co-sponsored by NASA Ames, Foothill College's
Division of Physical Science, Mathematics and Engineering, the
Astronomical Society of the Pacific and the SETI Institute.

The Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture Series is held at Foothill
College's Smithwick Theater in Los Altos Hills. From Interstate 280,
exit at El Monte Road and travel west to the campus. Visitors must
purchase a one-day campus parking permit for $2.

Admission is free and the public is invited. Seating is on a
first-come, first-served basis. Children over the age of 13 are
welcome. More information is available by calling the series hotline
at 650/949-7888.

X-43A MISHAP INVESTIGATION UPDATE

The NASA Mishap Investigation Board analyzing the June 2,
2001, X-43A mission loss is continuing to meet at NASA's Langley
Research Center in Hampton, Va., where a model of the X-43A combined
vehicle is undergoing wind tunnel testing. The board plans to
remain at Langley throughout the completion of wind tunnel testing
and data analysis.

The X-43A is intended to be the first scramjet-powered vehicle,
capable of attaining speeds as high as Mach 10. The X-43A mission,
first in a series of three, was lost moments after the X-43A and its
launch vehicle were released from the wing of the B-52 carrier
aircraft. Following booster ignition, the X-43A and its launch
vehicle stack experienced structural failure, deviated from its
flight path, and its flight was deliberately terminated.

The board continues to believe that a single root cause for the X-43A
mishap is unlikely. The Board Chairman, Robert Hughes of the Marshall
Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., said that the investigation
team has put in place many of the pieces to understand the mishap. He
stated that the investigation activities needed to complete the
investigation are linked to the data being developed from wind tunnel
and mechanical testing. Analyses using these data will provide the
final answers.

Langley leads the X-43A program, with flight operations
conducted by Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif. The
vehicle contractor team, led by MicroCraft in Tullahoma, Tenn.,
includes The Boeing Co., Seal Beach, Calif.; and GASL, Inc.,
Ronkonkoma, N.Y. The booster is a modified Pegasus launch vehicle
provided by Orbital Sciences Corp., Chandler, Ariz.

Members of the Mishap Investigation Team include NASA representatives
from Dryden, Langley, Marshall, Goddard Space Flight Center,
Maryland, and Kennedy Space Flight Center, Florida, plus contractor
representatives.

NOAA Fisheries Officials to Hold Media Availability on
Oregon Coast Coho Salmon Decision

Officials from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA fisheries) will
hold a teleconference media availability to discuss the Alsea Valley
Alliance v. Evans court decision.

What: Teleconference media availability

When: Friday, Nov. 9
noon - 1 p.m. EST
9 - 10 a.m. PST

Number to call: 888-282-0356, pass code 18239

Who: Dr. Bill Hogarth, assistant administrator for NOAA fisheries
Bob Lohn, regional administrator, Northwest Region
Donna Darm, northwest assistant regional administrator
Jim Lecky, southwest assistant regional administrator

Background information: NOAA fisheries listed Oregon coast coho under the
Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1998 as a distinct population (called an
Evolutionarily Significant Unit or ESU), but did not list hatchery fish
that came from the same group. On Sept. 12, Oregon federal district Judge
Michael Hogan set aside the listing, ruling that the agency must include
both hatchery and wild salmon in its determination of the Oregon coast coho
ESU. NOAA fisheries will immediately take steps to respond to the court's
order, and provide consistency in future ESA listing decision-making.

Media Note: NOAA fisheries officials will be available for interviews after
the media availability. To arrange for interviews, contact NOAA public
affairs in Washington, D.C., or Seattle, Wash.

November 8, 01

Jaw-dropping Leonids

On Sunday morning, Nov. 18, 2001, sky watchers somewhere will see a
dazzling storm of Leonid meteors. Read this story and find out how you
can be one of them.

FULL STORY at

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast08nov_1.htm?list448368

PACIFIC RECYCLES LAST YEAR'S WINTER

If you liked last winter, you'll like this one. If not,
you won't.

The Pacific ocean continues to be dominated by the
Pacific Decadal Oscillation, an above normal sea level pattern
that is larger and stronger than any El Nino/La Nina event,
according to the latest information from the U.S.-French
Topex/Poseidon ocean-monitoring satellite.

"It is striking how similar October 2001 looks to October
2000," said Dr. William Patzert, an oceanographer at NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "Last winter the
weather- and moisture-delivering jet stream was steered north
by this pattern, resulting in a very chilly, stormy winter in
the Midwest and continuing drought on the West Coast."

"Looks like a repeat performance to me," Patzert added.

The Topex/Poseidon data were taken during a 10-day
collection cycle ending Oct. 29. They show that the near-
equatorial ocean has been very quiet during the past year, and
sea levels and sea surface temperatures are near normal.
Above normal sea surface heights and warmer ocean temperatures
still blanket the far western tropical Pacific and much of the
north mid-Pacific.

In the western Pacific, the buildup of the Pacific
Decadal Oscillation, first noted by Topex/Poseidon
oceanographers more than three years ago, has outlasted both
the El Nino and La Nina of the past several years. This
warmth contrasts with the Bering Sea, Gulf of Alaska and West
Coast, where lower than normal sea surface levels and cool
ocean temperatures continue.

"There will be winners and losers in the next few
months," said Patzert. "The upper and lower Midwest should
expect intermittent blizzards, and the West Coast and
Southwest a continuation of below normal rainfall. The
outlook is not extreme nor catastrophic."

These data are in line with the U.S. winter forecast
issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration's National Weather Service. They also show a
repeat of last winter's chill across the northern states and
relative warmth across the South, with continuing drought in
the southeastern states and possibly the western states.

"Next month's launch of the Jason 1 satellite will
continue the revolutionary Topex/Poseidon data-gathering with
a smaller satellite based on new technologies," said Dr. Lee-
Lueng Fu, the Topex/Poseidon and Jason 1 project scientist at
JPL. "It will further improve the understanding of ocean
circulation and global climate forecasts, as well as provide a
key step towards making sea surface height measurement a
permanent component of a global ocean observing system in the
future."

The joint U.S.-French Topex/Poseidon mission and the
Jason 1 program are managed by JPL for NASA's Earth Science
Enterprise, Washington, D.C. JPL is a division of the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

For more information, see the following urls:

Topex/Poseidon -- http://topex-www.jpl.nasa.gov
October 2001 Topex/Poseidon image --
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/earth/pacificocean
Last year's October pattern --
http://hail/Datasets/links/hail/air7/akh/TPimages/2000/oc
t2000_ball.gif .
NOAA seasonal weather forecasts --
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories/s794.htm
Jason 1 -- http://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov

Leonid Meteor Storm! When, Where and How to Watch

Astronomy News Update
Leonid Meteor Storm! When, Where and How to Watch

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/leonid_watching_011106-1.html

Europa's Ice Crust Is Deeper Than 3 Kilometers, UA Scientists Find
Lori Stiles
University of Arizona

Impact craters on Europa -- the jovian satellite that scientists say may
hide a subsurface liquid ocean - show that the moon's brittle ice shell
crust is more than 3 to 4 kilometers (1.8 to 2.4 miles) thick, two
University of Arizona planetary scientists report in Science (Nov. 9
issue).

The thickness of Europa's hard ice shell is a hot scientific debate.
Some argue the crust must be only one or two kilometers (six-tenths mile
to 1.2 miles) thick, given ridges, cycloid cracks and other geological
features. Others contend the ice crust must be 10 times thicker, and
that it includes a warm convecting ice layer that shapes observed
surface features.

Beyond geology, the wider fascination with Europa is the possibility
that it conceals a liquid water ocean, and, potentially, life.
Instruments proposed for a future Europa orbiter mission include radar
and other instruments to detect and explore the possible ocean. To
explore an ocean - if it does indeed exist - scientists have to know the
thickness of the overlying ice.

Elizabeth P. Turtle and Elisabetta Pierazzo of the UA Lunar and
Planetary Laboratory numerically simulated impacts powerful enough to
produce central peaks in impact craters imaged by the Galileo
spacecraft.

At least six of 28 impact craters observed by Galileo and Voyager have
well defined central peaks, Turtle said. They are found in craters
larger than 5 kilometers (3 miles) in diameter. Images of the six
craters are online at

http://pirlwww.lpl.arizona.edu/~turtle/craters_europa/.

"There aren't many impact craters on Europa, but those that exist can
tell us a lot because we understand the cratering process better than we
understand many of the other processes that shape Europa's surface,"
Turtle said.

"The morphologies (structure) of some craters indicate that these
impacts didn't completely vaporize or melt through a cold, brittle ice
layer on Europa. So based on this observation, our impact simulations
demonstrate that the ice crust must be more than 3 to 4 kilometers
thick," Turtle said. "I should emphasize that what we've done is put a
lower limit on the thickness of the ice. These simulations do not put an
upper limit on ice thickness."

Central peak craters are observed on Earth, the moon, and Mars, Turtle
said. "We have geologic evidence from Earth and the moon that shows that
the material that collapses up into the central peak is material that
was previously buried, but has been uplifted and broken up. Central
peaks are deep bedrock that has been uplifted," much like a splash that
results from dropping something into water, Turtle said.

"What we're seeing here on Europa appear to be standard central peaks.
Since central peaks are deep material that's been uplifted, that means
these impacts could not have penetrated through Europan ice to water.
Water would not have been able to form and maintain a central peak."

Researchers also have hypothesized that Europa might have a thick ice
shell composed of a thin brittle layer over warm convecting ice. But
Turtle's and Pierazzo's research shows that the impacts couldn't have
even penetrated to warm ice.

Europa's largest known central peak impact crater, the 24-kilometer
(14-mile) diameter Pwyll, for example, contains a central peak roughly 5
kilometers (3 miles) in diameter and about 500 meters (three-tenths
mile) high. Turtle calculated that if there were warm convecting ice
beneath Pwyll's peak, the peak would have disappeared in less than a
year.

This work is the first step in a multi-stage modeling project to
determine ice thickness and better understand the geology and evolution
of Europa, the UA scientists say.

The very sophisticated code that Pierazzo applied in this research to
simulate the passage of the impact shock wave through water ice is very
time consuming. It took two weeks to produce simulations of shock waves
that occur in fractions of a second.

The next step is to use a less detailed and less time consuming code to
simulate crater excavation and collapse to put further limits on the ice
thickness, Turtle said.

In future research the team plans to simulate the temperature
distribution during impacts for insight into structure of the solid ice,
and to use information on temperatures and ice strength to model how
long Europa's central impact peaks might exist.

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
Expedition Three Science Operations
Status Report for the week ending Nov. 8, 2001

Ground stations in Houston, Seattle, Cleveland and Birmingham
commanded payloads and downlinked experiment data from the Space Station
during the past week while the crew continued health and status monitoring
of payloads and preparations for a spacewalk.

Seven hours of crew time are scheduled for payload activities this week, as
the crew shifts their attention to the November 12 EVA. As usual, the crew
is likely to complete more science activities from a list of optional items
sent to the Space Station every week. Ground commanding is concentrated
into specific blocks of time this week with the Station in an orientation
that prevents KU band communications coverage for parts of the operational
day.

The Active Rack Isolation System ISS Characterization Experiment (ARIS-ICE)
is continuing daily this week. Stiffness tests using new power umbilicals
and a variety of isolation tests were conducted to build composite ARIS
isolation performance spectra for crew waking and sleep periods. Scientists
have concluded experimental power cables for EXPRESS Rack 2 -- where ARIS
is located - will transmit fewer vibrations to the rack than the baseline
cables. ARIS is an experimental vibration dampener, which consists of
several "powered shock absorbers" used to negate accelerations caused by
crew activities, moving equipment, docking spacecraft, etc.

The Experiment on Physics of Colloids in Space completed runs of 24 hours
last Friday and 12 hours on Monday and Wednesday (November 5, 7), with
another 24-hour run scheduled for today (November 8). Scientists direct
samples to be mixed, allowed to crystallize, and re-mixed while cameras and
light-scattering lasers capture the growth process to learn how colloidal
systems function. The results have implications for many products and
manufacturing processes on Earth.

All three crewmembers conducted the weekly Crew Interactions experiment
today, having completed last week's questionnaires on Thursday and Friday.
This 20-minute computer-based survey attempts to identify and characterize
important interpersonal and cultural factors that may affect the performance
of the crew and ground support personnel during Station missions through
factors like tension, cohesion and leadership roles.

Geographic locations for the Crew Earth Observations photography program
this week included auroras expected to result from the high solar activity,
the Nile river and associated agriculture, seasonal burning in southern
Africa, forest health in the eastern United States, human development on the
Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Turkey, and snowfall in the Canadian Rocky
Mountains.

The crew completed a documentary filming session with the DREAMTIME high
definition television camera on Tuesday (November 6). The activity was
completed from the task list, adding more quality footage to document life
aboard the orbiting facility. The film products will be returned aboard
Space Shuttle Endeavour in December.

Several other automated experiments continued to collect and transmit data
during the past week. The Dynamically Controlled Protein Crystal Growth
experiment is progressing normally, and samples are entering the
crystallization phase. The camera system that allows experimenters on the
ground to see their samples and control the crystallization process
continues to capture images every 12 hours of Tray 2 samples and providing
insights into Tray 1 crystallization.

The Microgravity Acceleration Measurement System continues to operate,
collecting vibration data about the Station. These data include
measurements and impulses primarily from aerodynamic drag and
gravity-gradient effects but will also capture any low-level propulsive
events like gas or fluid venting overboard. Other continuing automated
experiments include Advanced Protein Crystallization Facility, and the
Materials International Space Station Experiment.

Preparations continue for the transition from Expedition Three to Expedition
Four later this month. The crew will be moving the Bio Technology
Refrigerator from EXPRESS Rack 1 to EXPRESS Rack 4, and Space Acceleration
Measurement System hardware from Rack 2 to Rack 4. Other upcoming
preparations include programming ground and flight computers to operate new
Expedition Four experiments.

November 7, 01

NASA TO "SHARE THE OPPORTUNITIES"
WITH MINORITY UNIVERSITY PRESIDENTS AND ADMINISTRATORS

NASA officials from across the agency will meet with
minority university presidents and administrators to discuss
issues facing the minority university community.

"Share the Opportunities" is the principle theme for a NASA
conference hosted by the Kennedy Space Center, Fla., for
university presidents and top administrators from
Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic
Serving Institutions, and Tribal Colleges and Universities.
The conference is scheduled for Nov. 29 to Dec. 1, 2001, at
the Renaissance Orlando Resort in Orlando, Fla.

Dr. Louis W. Sullivan, president of Morehouse School of
Medicine in Atlanta and Secretary of Health and Human
Services under former President George H. W. Bush, will be
one of the keynote speakers. Kennedy Space Center Director
Roy Bridges and Deputy Director James L. Jennings also will
attend the conference.

By gathering suggestions from the leadership of the minority
institutions represented, NASA hopes to take positive steps
to forge partnerships with the universities.

NASA will "Share The Opportunities" by identifying and
describing competitive research opportunities in NASA's five
strategic enterprises; by providing opportunities to network
with each of NASA's 10 centers to explore areas of mutual
expertise; and by discussing competitive funding
opportunities available through research announcements and
education announcements and activities. NASA also will
identify potential opportunities in small and disadvantaged
business announcements and activities, and technology
transfer and commercialization initiatives.

Conference attendees will have the added bonus of viewing the
launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour, currently targeted for
Nov. 29.

Mars Society Special Bulletin#49
Nov. 6, 2001
Reproduce or Pass on as Desired
For further information, visit our website at www.marssociety.org or
contact info@marssociety.org.

In this Issue
***BRITISH MARS SOCIETY BREAKS MAJOR PRESS
***ZUBRIN GIVES PLENARY ADDRESS TO NATIONAL COLLEGIATE HONORS COUNCIL
***MARS ON EARTH TO AIR WEDENESDAY, NOV 7TH ON DISCOVERY CHANNEL

BRITISH MARS SOCIETY BREAKS MAJOR PRESS

The Mars Society UK broke major press this month with a 12 page set
of cover stories in the November issue of "Astronomy Now"
Britain's best selling astronomy magazine. "Collectively
entitled "Exploring Mars: The Race to the Red Planet," the
spread
includes articles by Mars Society UK president Bo Maxwell,
international Mars Society president Robert Zubrin, leading
exobiologist Julian Hiscox and University of Hertforshire Professor
Emeritus Chris Kitchin, all hitting hard for human Mars exploration.

In his article "The Case for humans on Mars," Dr. Hiscox
dissects the arguments of those who maintain that scientific
exploration of Mars can best be done by robots. "It is completely
wrong to think that evidence for early terrestrial life was lying
around waiting to be found and almost certainly would not have
been found by a small number of robotic surface rovers parachuted in
from elsewhere in the solar system," Hiscox says pointedly.

In his article, "First Footprints," Bo Maxwell adds to this
by discussing two places, Candor Chasma and Ares Valles that invite
human explorers. Professor Kitchin presses the point further. In his
article, devoted to alternative means of conducting an expedition, he
concludes: "in just over a century we have gone from human
expeditions to Mars being pure science fantasy to the point where
everything is in place to make them possible. Now all we need is the
determination to do it." Finally, in case anyone was wondering
what to do to help, Zubrin rounds out the set with an article about
the Mars Society itself. "history is not a spectator sport. The
talents and energy of every person who supports this ideal are needed
for it to succeed. If you believe in its goals, then the Mars Society
needs you."

All in all, it's a great set of articles. If you live in the UK,
be sure to pick up an issue.

Congratulations to the Mars Society UK for this breakthrough press
coverage!

ZUBRIN GIVES PLENARY ADDRESS TO NATIONAL COLLEGIATE HONORS COUNCIL
Mars Society president Robert Zubrin gave the plenary address to the
annual conference of the National Collegiate Honors Society held in
Chicago last week. Speaking to an audience of over 1000 of the best
college students and educators in America, Zubrin raised enormous
enthusiasm for a new age of space exploration with a presentation of
the Mars Direct plan. Commenting on the talk afterwards, one female
Afro-American professor from New Jersey said; "That was the
greatest talk I ever heard. This would be the greatest thing we could
ever do." All fifty copies of the "Case for Mars" and
"Entering Space" books available sold out, and over a hundred
people signed up to receive Mars Society electronic bulletins.
Evidently, neither war nor terrorism can deter Americans from their
desire to open the new frontier.

MARS ON EARTH TO AIR WEDENESDAY, NOV 7TH ON DISCOVERY CHANNEL
In some TV guides its called "Mars on Earth;" in others
it's called "Surviving Mars." But whatever the title, the
two-hour TV documentary of the Mars Society's Flashline Mars
Arctic
Research Station project will air on the Discovery channel 8 PM
Eastern time on Wednesday Nov. 7th. Filmed over two summers on Devon
Island by twice-Emmy award winning documentarian Andy Liebman, the
documentary shows how the Mars Society beat the odds to successfully
build the station after a failed paradrop destroyed their
construction equipment and the paid construction team fled the island
during the summer of 2000. It then goes on to show how the Flashline
Station was used during the summer of 2001 to conduct the first ever
sustained program of human Mars exploration operations field research.

It's going to be a great show. Don't miss it.

To find out more about the Mars Society, visit our website at
www.marssociety.org.

SOHO reveals how sunspots take a stranglehold on the Sun

A sunspot turns out to be a kind of whirlpool, where hot gas near the Sun,s surface converges and dives into the interior at speeds of up to 4000 kilometres per hour. This is the latest discovery by the ESA-NASA SOHO spacecraft.

More at: http://sci.esa.int/content/news/index.cfm?aid=1&cid=1&oid=28320

THE SUN'S DARK SECRET: HOW SUNSPOTS PULL THEMSELVES TOGETHER

Scientists now have the first clear picture of what lies beneath
sunspots, enigmatic planet-sized dark areas on the Sun's surface, and
have peered inside the Sun to see swirling flows of electrified gas or
plasma that create a self-reinforcing cycle, which holds a sunspot
together.

The new research, gathered from the Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI)
onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft, will
deepen understanding of the stormy areas on the Sun in which sunspots
appear. Vast explosions associated with these active magnetic regions
occasionally affect high-technology systems.

Sunspots have fascinated people since Galileo's observations of them
contradicted the common belief that heavenly objects were flawless.
Sunspots remain mysterious because at first glance, it seems they should
rapidly disappear. Instead, they persist for weeks or more. "They obey
what is a fundamental finding of observational science: Anything that
does happen, can happen," said Philip Scherrer of Stanford University,
Palo Alto, Calif., Principal Investigator for SOHO's MDI. "We now have a
hint at 'how.'"

Astronomers know sunspots are regions where magnetic fields become
concentrated. Yet, anyone who played with magnets as a child has felt
how magnetic fields of like polarities repel each other. The strong
solar magnetic fields should naturally repel each other also, causing
the sunspot to dissipate. In fact, observations show that surface
material clearly flows out of the spots.

Alexander Kosovichev and Junwei Zhao of Stanford University and Thomas
Duvall of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., used MDI's
unique ability to look just below the sunspot's surface and clearly
observed inward-flowing material for the first time. The Astrophysical
Journal published their research August 10.

"We discovered that the outflowing material was just a surface feature,"
said Zhao. "If you can look a bit deeper, you find material rushing
inward, like a planet-sized whirlpool or hurricane. This inflow pulls
the magnetic fields together."

Solar astronomers have long known that the intense magnetic field below
a sunspot strangles the normal up-flow of energy from the hot solar
interior, leaving the spot cooler and therefore darker than its
surroundings. The suppression of the bubbling convective motions forms a
kind of plug that prevents some of the energy in the interior from
reaching the surface.

The material above the plug cools and becomes denser, causing it to
plunge downward at up to 3,000 miles per hour, according to the new
observations. That draws the surrounding plasma and magnetic field
inward toward the sunspot's center. The concentrated field promotes
further cooling, and as that cooling plasma sinks it draws in still more
plasma, thereby setting up a self-perpetuating cycle. As long as the
magnetic field remains strong, the cooling effect will maintain an
inflow that makes the structure stable. The superficial outflows seen
right at the surface are confined to a very narrow layer.

Since the magnetic plug prevents heat from reaching the solar surface,
the regions beneath the plug should become hotter. A June 1998
observation provided evidence for this also. "We were surprised at how
shallow sunspots are," said Kosovichev. Below 3,000 miles the observed
sound speed was higher, suggesting that the roots of the sunspots were
hotter than their surroundings, just the opposite of the conditions at
the surface. "The cool part of a sunspot has the shape of a stack of two
or three nickels," he added.

"The cool downward flows dissipate at the same depth where the hot
upward flows diverge," said Duvall. "With these data one cannot get a
sharp enough picture to really explain the details. Until now we've
looked down at the top of sunspots like we might look down at the leaves
in treetops. For the first time we're able to observe the branches and
trunk of the tree that give it structure. The roots of the tree are
still a mystery."

MDI explores beneath the surface of the Sun by analyzing sound-generated
ripples at its surface using a technique called acoustic tomography -- a
novel method similar to ultrasound diagnostics in medicine that use
sound waves to image structures inside the human body. SOHO continues to
mark an era of successful partnership between the European Space Agency
and NASA within the Solar Terrestrial Science program.

Images and more information are available at:

http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/20010919sunspot.html

NASA TV COVERS FINAL EXPEDITION THREE SPACEWALK

NASA Television will provide coverage of the third and
final spacewalk for the Expedition Three crew aboard the
International Space Station on Monday, Nov. 12, beginning at
3:30 p.m. EST.

Commander Frank Culbertson and Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov will
exit the Pirs Docking Compartment around 4 p.m. EST for a
spacewalk expected to last up to six hours. Flight Engineer
Mikhail Tyurin will operate the Canadarm2 robotic arm from
inside the station and act as spacewalk choreographer.

During their spacewalk, Culbertson and Dezhurov will complete
the external outfitting of the Pirs by attaching navigational
system cables and foot restraints. They also will survey one
solar array panel on the Zvezda Service Module, which failed
to deploy properly following its launch in July 2000.

NASA Television is available on GE-2, Transponder 9C at 85
degrees West longitude, vertical polarization, with a
frequency of 3880 MHz, and audio of 6.8 MHz.

What Lies Beneath a Sunspot

Awesome plasma hurricanes were one of the surprises revealed when
scientists recently peered beneath the stormy surface of our star.

FULL STORY at

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast07nov_1.htm?list448368

NASA "WHY?" FILES TV SERIES WINS FIRST EMMY

An innovative NASA educational television series that
reaches millions of elementary students around the world was
recognized by the National Academy of the Television Arts and
Sciences with an Emmy for "Best Children's Series."

The regional Emmy bestowed by the academy's Philadelphia
Regional Chapter was presented Nov. 2, 2001, to the NASA
"Why?" Files series, which is produced by the Office of
Education at NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.

This is the first Emmy award for the science-focused
educational television series that debuted in October 2000.
The Emmy was based on the four programs produced during the
show's 2000-2001 season: "The Case of the Unknown Stink,"
"The Case of the Barking Dogs," "The Case of the Electrical
Mystery" and "The Case of the Challenging Flight."

The NASA "Why?" Files introduces students in grades 3 through
5 to NASA; integrates mathematics, science, and technology
through the use of problem-based learning, scientific inquiry
and the scientific method; and seeks to motivate students to
become critical thinkers and active problem solvers.

"With a great cast of kids, great content and great support
from the Langley researchers," said Lauren Yee, the show's
senior producer, "we knew we had the right combination to
make this a winning series." Yee also defined both the close
connection with teachers in the Hampton City, Va., School
District and the partnership with Busch Gardens in
Williamsburg, Va. "Recognition also goes to the local
teachers who helped to develop the content and the story line
for each program."

Each program includes hands-on classroom and home activities,
virtual field trips, research experts and Dr. "D," the tree-
house detectives' next-door neighbor and mentor. The tree-
house detectives are six ethnically diverse, inquisitive
schoolchildren who investigate and solve a variety of
everyday problems.

Other recent honors for the series include the Awards for
Publication Excellence, the International Film Festival Award
and the Golden Web awards for the NASA "Why?" Files web site.

The NASA "Why?" Files show has reached over 3.7 million
students worldwide and about 167,000 registered educators and
parents. The NASA "Why?" Files can be seen on PBS-member
stations across the United States and NASA TV, down-linked
via Ku- and C-band satellite, and accessed via the Internet
at:

http://whyfiles.larc.nasa.gov

THE SUN'S DARK SECRET: HOW SUNSPOTS PULL THEMSELVES TOGETHER

Images and more information are available at:

http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/20010919sunspot.html

NGST Flight Investigations AO

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Office of Space
Science is releasing an Announcement of Opportunity (AO 01-OSS-05) entitled
Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST) Flight Investigations. Selection of
proposals through this AO are intended to provide NASA with science
investigations associated with an instrument capable of achieving NGST
imaging goals in the near infrared (a collaborative effort with the
Canadian Space Agency), science investigations associated one Mid-Infrared
Instrument Science Lead, science investigations associated with three other
team members for the Mid-Infrared Science Team, science investigations
associated with one NGST Facility Scientist, science investigations
associated with one NGST Telescope Scientist, and science investigations
associated with four Interdisciplinary Scientists. The primary science goal
of the NGST mission is to advance the understanding of the formation of the
first stars and galaxies. Participation is open to all categories of
organizations, foreign and domestic, including industry, educational
institutions, nonprofit organizations, NASA centers, and other Government
agencies. Upon the release date, specific guidance for proposal
preparation will be available via the World Wide Web
site: http://research.hq.nasa.gov/code_s/open.cfm . There will be a
preproposal conference held in the Washington, DC area beginning at 8:30 AM
on Friday, November 30, 2001. The AO 01-OSS-05 link at
http://research.hq.nasa.gov/code_s/open.cfm will contain URL's to details
about the conference.

NASA'S HETE SPOTS RARE GAMMA-RAY BURST AFTERGLOW

A rare optical afterglow of a gamma-ray burst, the most
powerful type of explosion in the universe, was recently
discovered by NASA's High Energy Transient Explorer (HETE),
the first satellite dedicated to spotting these frequent yet
random explosions that last only for a few seconds.

The burst occurred in the constellation Lacerta, and was
relatively close, only about 5 billion light-years from
Earth. Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) can be more than 10 billion
light-years distant. "With this first confirmed observation
of a gamma-ray burst and its afterglow, we've really turned
the corner," said Dr. George Ricker of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, principal
investigator for HETE. "As HETE locates more of these bursts,
we will begin to understand what causes them."

The opportunity to see the afterglow in optical light
provides crucial information about what is triggering these
mysterious bursts, which scientists speculate to be the
explosion of massive stars, the merging of neutron stars and
black holes, or possibly both.

The burst occurred Sept. 21, but because the enigmatic bursts
disappear so quickly, scientists can best study the events by
their afterglow. HETE detects these bursts as gamma rays or
high-energy X-rays, and then instantly relays the coordinates
to a network of ground-based and orbiting telescopes for
follow-up searches for such afterglows.

While GRBs often produce corresponding outpourings of X-rays,
astronomers rarely detect visible light associated with the
bursts, perhaps because they originate in regions of dense
gas and dust that obscure any visible light that may be
produced by the explosion.

Additional observations of this event, made with the Italian
BeppoSAX satellite and the Ulysses space probe, were
coordinated by HETE team member Dr. Kevin Hurley at the
University of California, Berkeley. The combination of the
localization by this Interplanetary Network with the original
HETE coordinates provided the refined information needed by
ground-based observers to point their optical telescopes.

Armed with the satellite-derived localization, the team led
by Dr. Shri Kulkarni of the California Institute of
Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, spotted the afterglow in
optical light, with a Large Format Camera on the Palomar 200-
inch telescope on Sept. 22. In follow-up observations on Oct.
17, the Caltech group measured the "redshift," the distance,
of the afterglow object using the Double Spectrograph on the
Palomar 200-inch telescope. In addition, on Oct. 17 they also
pinpointed a twinkling radio counterpart using the Very Large
Array in Socorro, N.M. "We believe that this object is very
likely the afterglow of GRB 010921, detected and localized by
HETE," said Kulkarni.

The event was also captured 22 hours after the HETE trigger
by a robotic telescope in Tucson, Ariz., operated by Dr. Hye-
Sook Park of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory,
Livermore, Calif., and her colleagues.

HETE was launched into near-Earth orbit Oct. 9, 2000, to
detect gamma-ray bursts, which signal the extragalactic
release of as much power as a billion trillion Suns. No one
is sure though what causes them or exactly where they
originate. Like beacons from the early universe, these bursts
are thought to originate billions of light-years away.

"Gamma-ray bursts are the most energetic events since the Big
Bang, yet one occurs about once a day somewhere in the sky,"
Ricker said. "The unique power of HETE is that it not only
detects a large sample of these bursts, but it also relays
the accurate location of each burst in real time to ground-
based optical and radio observatories."

HETE was built by MIT and is under NASA's Explorer Program,
which is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center,
Greenbelt, Md. HETE is a collaboration among NASA, MIT, Los
Alamos National Laboratory, N.M.; France's Centre National
d'Etudes Spatiales, Centre d'Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements,
and Ecole Nationale Superieure de l'Aeronautique et de
l'Espace; and Japan's Institute of Physical and Chemical
Research (RIKEN). The science team includes members from the
University of California (Berkeley and Santa Cruz) and the
University of Chicago, as well as from Brazil, India and
Italy. HETE, the first satellite dedicated to the study of
gamma-ray bursts, is on an extended mission until 2004.

More information on HETE can be found at:
http://space.mit.edu/HETE

You can view a selection of photos taken during the first
rocket launch sponsored by NASA's Student Launch Initiative at
http://www1.msfc. nasa.gov/ NEWSROOM/ news/photos/ 2001/photos01-346.htm

RELEASE: 01-346
Hands-on learning effort by NASA Marshall Center encourages teens to
choose engineering career

"Scientists study the world as it is, engineers create the world
that never has been." -- Theodore Von Karman

A group of college engineering students in Huntsville, Ala., is about to
take a unique "final exam," but they won't get a letter grade.

Instead, they'll experience the challenge and excitement of launching
their own rocket and a scientific payload. They're working to meet NASA
specifications that are modeled after the same Flight Readiness Reviews
mandated for each Space Shuttle flight.

Participating in a NASA education program called the Student Launch
Initiative, the students have been designing, building and testing their
rocket and the scientific payload to be carried by the craft. Now,
they're focused on the last big hurdle: a successful launch they hope will
see the rocket - and their aspirations - soar more than 2 miles high.

The Student Launch Initiative, sponsored by NASA's Marshall Space Flight
Center in Huntsville, was created last year to head off a potentially
critical situation on the horizon: a shortage of engineers and rocket
scientists.

"It's very clear that we need scientists, engineers and mathematicians in
the future to carry on the business that we do at NASA," says Art
Stephenson, director of the Marshall Center. "When we looked at the
number of students entering college to go into these fields, we realized
there were not enough students to meet the demands that we see down the
road in the next 10 years."

Inspired by a high school rocketry program in Fredericksburg, Texas,
Stephenson saw first-hand how building and launching rockets is a way to
encourage students to choose engineering or science careers. The result
was the Student Launch Initiative: hands-on rocket science done by teams
of high school and college students.

The first phase of the program culminated Oct. 6 when three high school
teams brought their rockets and payloads to a U.S. Army test range on
Redstone Arsenal, a historic site of U.S. rocketry work. More than 200
spectators held their breath as the students' apprehension turned into
relief and excitement when they watched their rockets fire and soar
skyward.

Now, two college teams are about to confront the same moment of truth.

On Dec. 1, students from the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) and
neighboring Alabama A&M University will take their rocket and science
payload to the launch pad to determine if they've got the right stuff.
Propelled by a hybrid motor, the rocket will carry a protein crystal
payload - or cargo -- approximately 2 miles aloft, a higher bar than the
1-mile goal set for the high school teams.

"This project has taught me to work on a team," says Shane Smith, a
junior majoring in mechanical engineering at UAH and a member of that
school's Student Launch Initiative Team. "You have to learn to trust the
other members to do their job. But the best part is knowing that our
rocket will fly."

A major goal of the program is not simply to launch rockets, but to expose
students to university-level research. A panel of NASA scientists and
engineers set more rigorous guidelines for the rocket and payload designed
by the college teams than those set for the high school competition.

The Student Launch Initiative allows students to transcend classroom
learning by enabling them to apply creativity -- along with the scientific
background gained in classes -- toward a meaningful project, according to
Jim Pruitt, manager of education programs at the Marshall Center and
organizer of the Student Launch Initiative.

NASA uses its unique resources, whenever possible, to support educational
excellence, since education is a key element in NASA's overall mission.
The space agency participates in education outreach programs through its
field centers around the country.

November 6, 01

NEW CARL SAGAN CENTER SITE TO BE DEDICATED NOV. 9 AT NASA AMES

The late internationally renowned astronomer Carl Sagan will be honored Friday, Nov. 9, 2001, during a dedication ceremony starting at 10:30 a.m. (PST) at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., on the site of 'The Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Cosmos' (The Carl Sagan Center).

NASA officials will announce the dedication of the site, located on approximately seven acres of land in the planned NASA Research Park at Moffett Field, Calif. The dedication will be particularly significant, coming as it will on the exact day that would have been the 67th birthday of the famed researcher.

"As one of my last official acts as Administrator, I am thrilled to be dedicating the site for the new Carl Sagan Center at NASA Ames Research Center," said NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin. "Carl was an incredible visionary, and now his legacy can be preserved and advanced by a 2lst century research and education laboratory committed to enhancing our understanding of life in the universe and furthering the cause of space exploration for all time," Goldin said.

"No honor would have meant more to Carl than this," said Ann Druyan, his wife and collaborator for 20 years. "He loved NASA, cherished his relationship with Ames, and dreamed that we, as a civilization, would turn our genius to the deep questions of life in the cosmos."

"The Sagan Center will be a huge step forward toward our goal of developing a world-class, shared-use research and development campus in association with academia, industry and non-profits," said NASA Ames Center Director Dr. Henry McDonald. "I believe that, in retrospect, we will come to view this day as one of the most significant in the evolution of Ames Research Center and establishment of the NASA Research Park (NRP), one that set the tone for the next 20 to 30 years and beyond," he said.

The Carl Sagan Center site dedication comes after months of work, according to officials. NASA Ames Research Center and Lockheed Martin representatives signed a historic agreement on March 22, 2001, after working for over 15 months on potential areas for research and technical collaborations. The agreement committed both sides to initiating the development of a collaborative research facility and office complex in the NRP in order to pursue collaborations with NASA and other NRP partners, especially the University of California.
"We're delighted that, with this site dedication ceremony today, we move another step closer to making the Sagan Center a reality," said Donald Fulop, Vice President of Business Development, Lockheed Martin Space Operations, Houston. "It is fitting that this 21st century laboratory be named for the 20th century's most articulate and passionate advocate of space exploration. The Sagan Center, the product of an innovative public-private sector partnership, will attract and promote collaborative research and development among its partners in industry, academia and NASA."

NASA Ames Associate Director and manager of the laboratory facility design, Nancy Bingham, agreed. "The lab represents an unprecedented, futuristic venue for scientific collaboration," she said. "It will be open to the broad scientific community and is specifically designed to increase the interplay of scientists in fields for which there is no obvious common ground. A modular design contains the planned laboratories but also provides flexibility for change and evolution," she added.

As currently planned, the Sagan Center will consist of three 30,000-square-foot laboratory modules, with the potential to add a fourth at a later date, and a 30,000-square-foot public gallery exhibition area and a 500-seat auditorium.

"The Carl Sagan Center will provide an exceptional opportunity for leading-edge, multi-disciplinary research in support of NASA's mission to understand 'are we alone in the universe?,'" said NASA Ames Deputy Director for Research Scott Hubbard. "Scientists will conduct both basic and applied work that will further our understanding of life's origins, evolution and future. Researchers will integrate new findings in nanotechnology, biology and information technology to develop new miniature tools for sample analysis and data understanding," he said.

"A genomics and microbiology laboratory will be used to understand the fundamental processes of living systems drawn from a variety of different environments," Hubbard added. "A new biosensors facility will enable development of devices to study the fingerprints of life, both here on Earth and on other planets. Tiny devices that mimic or replicate the processes in living systems will emerge from the nanotechnology laboratory," Hubbard predicted.

"We are planning the UCSC Silicon Valley Center for research, education and community service to be located in the NRP," said University of California at Santa Cruz Chancellor MRC Greenwood. "We are very excited about becoming the primary research collaboration partner in the new Sagan Center facility with industry and NASA."

The laboratory project is permitted under the Environmental Assessment conducted under Ames' 1994 Comprehensive Use Plan (CUP). As proposed, the project, including a new office complex, could include approximately 700,000 square feet of new construction in the NRP on more than 21 acres. The laboratory itself would comprise approximately 120,000 square feet. Other NRP partners are participating in an environmental entitlement process called an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that NASA is currently conducting. The EIS, once adopted, would permit new construction, in addition to that allowed by the 1994 CUP.

COMPUTER VISION TEST HOLDS PROMISE FOR ROBOTIC EYE DOCTOR

A five-minute vision test using a laptop computer with a
touch-sensitive screen can be used on Earth and in space to
help diagnose the onset of eye diseases and even certain types
of brain tumors.

With one eye covered, a person sits in front of a
computer screen divided into a grid. The subject stares at a
central spot on the touch-sensitive screen and, using a
finger, outlines missing areas of the grid. The computer
records, processes and displays a 3-D image of the subject's
visual field. The test for each eye takes about 4 to 5
minutes.

"As NASA moves forward to establish a permanent presence
in space, this may be
considered a breakthrough step for the creation of an
autonomous onboard physician," said Dr. Wolfgang Fink,
physicist and senior member of the technical staff at NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "It is a non-
invasive, quick and easy process that gives astronauts and
physicians on the ground an almost instant auto diagnosis.
This type of technology will be useful for long-term space
missions where early detection and advance monitoring will be
key to the health of the astronauts."

Fink, a visiting research assistant professor of
ophthalmology at the University of Southern California, Los
Angeles, developed the 3-D Computer-Based Threshold Amsler
Grid Test as part of his post-doctoral research while at the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, with his
colleague Dr. Alfredo Sadun, Thornton professor of
ophthalmology at USC. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

"This new test is not only more revealing than standard
visual field tests, but it is also much quicker and simpler
than existing methods. This test may make visiting an
ophthalmologist cost-effective, convenient and fast, giving the
doctor a tool to do a better job," said Sadun.

This tool has been undergoing testing in clinical trials
that began last year at the Doheny Eye Institute, Keck School
of Medicine at USC. Trial results show that the screening
test helps detect a variety of eye conditions, such as
glaucoma and macular degeneration-- the two leading causes of
blindness. Early detection of these conditions and
appropriate treatment are crucial in preventing further loss
of sight.

Caltech has filed a full patent on the screening test,
and several companies have expressed interest in licensing the
technology that may become commercially available as early as
next year. Future uses envisioned are: monitoring the effects
of intracranial pressure elevation in low-gravity environments
and evaluation of possible stroke onset and of acute and
chronic stroke conditions. Funding for this project was
through a grant from the National Science Foundation,
Arlington, Va. JPL is the lead U.S. center for robotic
exploration of the solar system.

More information is available at:
http://www-aig.jpl.nasa.gov/public/mls/home/wfink/3DVisualFieldTest.htm .

This Week on Galileo
November 5-11, 2001

Another uneventful week on the engineering front leaves the Galileo
spacecraft time to focus its attentions on playback of the recorded data
from the October 15 flyby of Io. From the Photopolarimeter Radiometer
instrument (PPR) we expect to see two observations of Io, the main focus of
this orbit. First up is data from thermal maps of the dark side of Io taken
while the spacecraft was still six hours away from its closest approach.
This is followed by a more detailed study of the temperatures of the
Colchis caldera taken while that feature was in the dark. These dark-side
measurements allow scientists to determine the intrinsic temperatures of
the features, uncomplicated by any warming from the Sun's rays.

The Solid State Imaging camera will provide us with our highest resolution
view of the massive volcano Loki, which was taken while that feature was
near the terminator, or day-night boundary, of Io. This view stretches the
shadows, and allows scientists to gauge the relative heights of the
features they see.

Again, the bulk of the week is dedicated to the return of a
two-and-a-half-hour-long recording by the suite of instruments that measure
the electromagnetic fields and energetic particles that encircle Jupiter.
These instruments are the Energetic Particle Detector, the Heavy Ion
Counter, the Magnetometer, the Plasma Subsystem, and the Plasma Wave
Subsystem. While last week's recording was made of the turbulent transition
from the background magnetosphere into the Io Torus, this week's focus is
on the relatively more quiescent depth of the Torus itself. The torus is a
doughnut-shaped area of increased radiation and particle density that
nearly coincides with the orbit of Io.

The Magnetometer and Dust Detector instruments continue their measurements
of the immediate environment of the spacecraft, and the Extreme Ultraviolet
Spectrometer instrument also continues an 11-week-long study of the solar
variation in the interplanetary hydrogen and helium abundances.

For more information on the Galileo spacecraft and its mission to Jupiter,
please visit the Galileo home page at one of the following URL's:

http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo

Giant Eyes for the VLT Interferometer
First Scientific Results with Combined Light Beams from Two 8.2-m Unit Telescopes
Summary

It started as a preparatory technical experiment and it soon developed into a spectacular success. Those astronomers and engineers who were present in the control room that night now think of it as the scientific dawn of the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI).

On October 29, 2001, ANTU and MELIPAL, two of the four VLT 8.2-m Unit Telescopes at the ESO Paranal Observatory, were linked for the first time. Light from the southern star Achernar (Alpha Eridani) was captured by the two telescopes and sent to a common focus in the observatory's Interferometric Laboratory.

Following careful adjustments of the optical paths, interferometric fringes were soon recorded there, proving that the beams from the two telescopes had been successfully combined "in phase". From an analysis of the observed pattern (the "fringe contrast"), the angular diameter of Achernar was determined to be 1.9 milli-arcsec. At the star's distance (145 light-years), this corresponds to a size of 13 million km. The observation is equivalent to measuring the size of a 4-metre long car on the surface of the Moon.

This result marks the exciting starting point for operations with the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) and it was immediately followed up by other scientific observations. Among these were the first measurements of the diameters of three red dwarf stars ("Kapteyn's star" - HD 33793, HD 217987 and HD 36395), a precise determination of the variable diameters of the pulsating Cepheid stars Beta Doradus and Zeta Geminorum (of great importance for the calibration of the universal distance scale), as well as a first interferometric measurement of the core of Eta Carinae, an intriguing, massive southern object that may possibly become the next supernova in our galaxy.

This milestone is another important step towards the ultimate goal of the VLT project - to combine all four 8.2-m telescopes into the most powerful optical/infrared telescope system on Earth. When ready, it will be able to reveal at least 15 times finer details in astronomical objects than what is possible with any existing, single ground-based telescope.

PR Photo 30a/01: Overview of the VLT Interferometer.
PR Photo 30b/01: "Joint" stellar light-spot produced via ANTU and MELIPAL at the VLTI focus.
PR Photo 30c/01: Interferometric fringes from the star Achernar.
PR Photo 30d/01: Time sequence of fringes from Achernar.
PR Photo 30e/01: "Visibility curve" of the star Psi Phoenicis.
Scientific Appendix

First VLTI observations with two 8.2-m telescopes

ESO PR Photo 30a/01

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ESO PR Photo 30b/01

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Caption: PR Photo 30a/01: Overview of the VLT Interferometer as it was operated when the light beams from two of the 8.2-m telescopes were combined. The VINCI instrument that was used for the present test, is located at the common focus in the Interferometric Laboratory. PR Photo 30b/01 shows one of the first "joint" light-spots from a star as seen at this VLTI focus and resulting from the superposition of light collected with the 8.2-m VLT ANTU and MELIPAL telescopes. Despite the long optical paths (about 200 m), the quality is excellent (FWHM = 0.45 arcsec). Note that this is not (yet) an image of the stellar surface.

At 1 o'clock in the morning of October 30, 2001, ESO astronomers and engineers working in the VLTI Control Room successfully combined the light from ANTU and MELIPAL, two of the four 8.2-m VLT Unit Telescopes at the Paranal Observatory. The same night, a series of high-resolution test observations with the VINCI instrument [1] <#note1> at the focus of the VLT Interferometer (VLTI) proved that this complex system was functioning extremely well, and within the technical specifications.

Following about seven months after the moment of "VLTI first light" during which the light beams from two small test telescopes were combined - as described in detail in ESO Press Release 06/01 - this accomplishment above all serves as a demonstration of the possibilities and potential of interferometric observations with the four giant VLT telescopes.

The two large telescopes used for the present test are separated by 102 metres. In order to properly combine the starlight received by them, a train of 25 mirrors is needed. All of them must be adjusted with a precision of one thousandth of a millimetre or better.

As can be seen on PR Photo 30a/01, the light from the observed star is first directed towards the Nasmyth focus by three mirrors in the telescope tube. From here, it continues towards the intermediate Coudé focus below the telescope and then onwards through a subterranean light duct to the VLTI Delay Lines that are installed in the Interferometric Tunnel. At the end of this long chain of mirrors and after traveling a distance of approximately 200 metres, the light finally reaches the VINCI instrument in which the two beams interact coherently (in phase) to produce "interferometric fringes".

The tests have shown that the starlight arrives at the VINCI instrument with a pointing accuracy of about 1 arcsecond and, even more important, with a long-term tracking stability of the order of 0.2 arcseconds per hour.

In fact, the image quality measured at the focus of VINCI is essentially identical to that of the individual telescopes at the Nasmyth (and Cassegrain) foci. Stellar images as sharp as 0.4 arcsec (note that this is the size of the "seeing disk" FWHM, not yet a real image of the stellar surface; the VLTI will start producing two-dimensional images of stars and other objects at a later stage) have been obtained at the interferometric focus, cf. PR Photo 30b/01. The installation of an Adaptive Optics system (see below) will later reduce the image size to the theoretical limit of 0.057 arcsec (for observations with an 8.2-m telescope in the infrared K-band at wavelength 2.2 µm (or 0.032 arcsec in the J-band at 1.2 µm).
First scientific results already during the test observations

ESO PR Photo 30c/01

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ESO PR Photo 30d/01

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Caption: PR Photo 30c/01 shows the interferometric fringes of the star Achernar, as observed on the computer screen in the VLTI Control Room, at the moment of "First Light" with two 8.2-m VLT telescopes. PR Photo 30d/01 displays the time evolution of the interferometric fringes obtained on Achernar. Each horizontal scan represents a recorded fringe pattern, with time running vertically from bottom to top. PR Photo 30c/01 was extracted from one of these scans.

The technical demonstration being so successful, the ESO astronomers and engineers involved in the development of the VLTI immediately decided to go one step further. And indeed, the interferometric fringes recorded with the light beams from two 8.2-m VLT telescopes during these initial technical tests have already led to some very valuable scientific results.

The first star to be observed - the brightest star in the southern constellation Eridanus (The River) and known as Alpha Eridani or Achernar - is quite different from our Sun. It is estimated to be several times more massive and, with a surface temperature of about 20000 degrees, it is about three times hotter than our local star.

The distance to Achernar has been measured by the ESA HIPPARCOS satellite as about 145 light-years, and from its apparent brightness, it is found to be almost 1000 times more luminous than the Sun. Consequently, it depletes its energy resources much faster and has a much shorter life expectancy (about 100 million years) than the Sun (about 10,000 million years).

The new measurement with the VLTI found the angular diameter of Achernar to be 0.00192 ± 0.00005 arcsec. This is equivalent to the angle subtended by a 1 Euro coin (diameter 23.25 mm) as seen from a distance of 2500 km, or by a car (4 metres long) on the surface of the Moon. At the indicated distance, this angle also shows that the real size of Achernar is about 13 million kilometres, and that it is therefore nearly ten times larger than our Sun.

Following that first observation, and in spite of the many technical tests scheduled at this moment of the VLTI commissioning work, the astronomers were able to carry out several other scientific observations. During this exciting first period of operation, among others, measurements were made of three red dwarf stars, three stars surrounded by disks, one red giant star, two Cepheid stars and one luminous blue variable star. Preliminary results from some of these observations are described in the Appendix.

Angular measurements with the VLTI like the present ones will soon become routine and will allow astronomers to measure accurately the physical characteristics of many different types of stars. For instance, the precise measurement of the angular diameter of Achernar will make it possible to deduce directly and accurately its surface temperature, an important information for our understanding of the formation and evolution of such hot and massive stars.
From 40-cm to 8.2-m
The present event follows after half a year of much hard work by ESO astronomers and engineers.

Earlier this year, the VLTI achieved "first fringes" by combining two small 40-cm siderostat telescopes (ESO PR 06/01). Since then, ESO astronomers and engineers have upgraded the VLTI and are preparing it for regular observations that will start next year. The present results obtained with the combination of two giant telescopes constitute one important milestone along this road.

Between March and October 2001, about 1000 individual measurements were carried out on celestial objects with the light beams from the small test telescopes. This process is on-going, as part of the commissioning of the VLTI, and is aimed at a detailed technical characterization of the interferometer and thorough knowledge of its performance. Such observations mainly serve to obtain technical data.

Nevertheless, some of them also provide interesting scientific results. For example, during the week just prior to the first fringes now achieved with two large telescopes, nearly 150 measurements were obtained over 4 nights. Among them, five Mira stars (a type of large and cool, pulsating stars) and two close binary stellar systems were observed - some of them had never before been studied interferometrically. Moreover, a large number of objects were observed for calibration. These data are now being evaluated, and will help astronomers to refine their understanding of the capabilities of the VLTI - they will soon become available to the astronomical community via the VLT archive.

In the same period, substantial additions were made to the system, e.g., a third Delay Line was installed in the Interferometric Tunnel. This allows the use of the telescopes on the east side of the beam combination laboratory (including MELIPAL) and also to combine the light beams from up to three telescopes at a later moment. The additional mirrors needed in order to permit the combination of the light from the two 8.2-m telescopes were installed.

The extensive software that controls the telescopes and the instruments has undergone several revisions to accommodate the increased needs required by the more complex system of Unit Telescopes, delay lines and test instruments. At the same time, the overall reliability of the facility has been constantly improved.

The path that the light travels from the two 8.2-m telescopes to the VINCI instrument must be kept constant to within a fraction of a micron, or better than one thousandth of a millimetre! Although it is therefore extremely sensitive to even very small disturbances, the VLT Interferometer has proven to be remarkably reliable and robust. For instance, an earthquake of magnitude 4+ on the Richter scale happened in August 2001 in the middle of a series of interferometric measurements. However, thanks to the many safeguards and compensatory measures built into the system, the VLTI continued to function all through the tremor. The observations were barely affected by the ground vibrations.

It should also be noted that, unlike the 40-cm siderostat telescopes, the 8.2-m telescopes are so large that the images they produce are significantly affected by atmospheric turbulence. In order to overcome this problem, ESO is now developing a system of "Adaptive Optics" correctors (MACAO) which will "remove" the distortions introduced by the atmospheres by means of small, rapidly reacting computer-controlled deformable mirrors. From 2003, this system will increase the sensitivity of the VLTI by a factor of about 100 (5 magnitudes) compared to the present observations without adaptive optics.
VLT Instrumentation
The next steps in the VLTI project will be the integration of a new instrument working at a wavelength of 10 µm (the Mid-Infrared interferometric instrument for the VLTI (MIDI)) in the middle of 2002, the addition of a fringe tracker (FINITO) and then of a 3-way, 3-photometric bands instrument (the near-infrared/red VLTI focal instrument (AMBER)) at the beginning of 2003.

Following closely will be the addition of three 1.8-m movable telescopes dedicated to interferometry, and of the Adaptive Optics system. With all these components in place, the VLTI will represent the most powerful interferometer available in the southern hemisphere, and will enable scientific investigations on a wide range of topics ranging from the direct detection of planets around other stars, to the formation and early evolution of stars, to the study of extragalactic objects.
A dedication to Ariela Rijo
On behalf of the staff, the Director of the Paranal Observatory adds this message:

"The Paranal Observatory, while very pleased at the present success of the first fringes from two of the 8.2-m telescopes, at the same time is greatly saddened by the loss of our colleague Ariela Rijo who passed away on October 31".

"She was a wonderful person and an excellent colleague who contributed greatly to the implementation of the VLTI on Paranal. The Paranal Observatory dedicates this result to her memory".
Note
[1]: The VINCI instrument was built under ESO contract at the Observatoire de Paris (France) and the camera in this instrument was delivered by the MPI for Extraterrestrial Physics (Garching, Germany). The detector and the detector electronics was supplied by ESO.

Scientific Appendix: First VLTI stellar measurements with two UTs

ESO PR Photo 30e/01

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Caption: PR Photo 30d/01 shows the "visibility curve" for the red giant star Psi Phoenicis as measured on two nights (16 data sets; three points to the right) with two VLT UTs (ANTU + MELIPAL) for three different positions in the sky and on four nights with the 40-cm test siderostats on a shorter 16-m baseline (8 data sets; one point to the left); see the text below. From the fitted curve, a preliminary value of the angular diameter is 8.21 ± 0.02 milli-arcsec (mas).

This appendix presents some technical details of the measurements, obtained with the VLTI and two UTs during the first three test nights. While it must be emphasized that the stated results are still provisional, they clearly indicate the excellent performance of the VLTI already at this early stage and, not least, the great potential for important fundamental observations with this facility. Note in particular, that the quoted errors reflect the statistical uncertainty in the data only and that additional calibration errors must later be taken into account.

The observational data were taken on a variety of astronomical objects, including three red dwarfs, three stars surrounded by disks, one red giant, two Cepheids and one luminous blue variable. All of these measurements were calibrated by observing a reference star of known angular size. Each data set required about ten minutes of continuous observations.

Fringes were found on all pointed objects within a few minutes of time and kept for up to several hours. All data were deemed to be of high quality and will be analyzed in detail within the next weeks. A preliminary data reduction was possible for part of these objects and it gave the results listed below (all quoted values are uniform disk diameters):
For the blue dwarf Alpha Eridani, on which first fringes were found, 11 data sets were taken within three nights and an angular diameter of 1.92 ± 0.05 milli-arcsec (mas) could be estimated, which is precisely in line with previous measurements.
The nearby red dwarf HD 217987 was measured to have a diameter of 0.92 ± 0.05 mas, resulting from two data sets. This is the first measurement of the angular diameter of a dwarf star as small as type M0, and one of the very few available for cool main sequence stars in general.
The giant star HD 36167 was found from four data sets to have a diameter of 3.32 ± 0.02 mas. This measurement constitutes a significative refinement of the earlier, indirect estimate of 3.55 ± 0.06 mas (Cohen M. et al. 1999, Astronomical Journal 117, 1864).
For the three stars which are known to be surrounded by a disk, the following results were obtained: Epsilon Eridani 2.20 ± 0.02 mas (8 data sets in two nights); Fomalhaut (Alpha Piscis Austrini) 2.31 ± 0.02 mas (4 data sets); Beta Pictoris unresolved (4 data sets). Further analysis is expected to put a significant lower limit on the visibility for the latter star.
The two Cepheids Zeta Geminorum and Beta Doradus showed diameters of 1.78 ± 0.02 mas (7 data sets) and 2.00 ± 0.04 mas (6 data sets), respectively. The diameter of Zeta Geminorum has been measured before by three different interferometers. Its diameter is expected to vary between about 1.5 mas and 1.8 mas within ten days. On the date the VLTI data was taken, its phase was close to the foreseen maximum diameter. Beta Doradus has never been measured before.
The red giant Psi Phoenicis was measured on two nights (16 data sets) with the UTs for three different positions in the sky, hence with three different projected baselines. Some weeks earlier it had been measured on four nights with the 40-cm test siderostats (8 data sets) on a shorter 16-m baseline. The star was well resolved already in the previous measurements, but the addition of the data recently obtained with the UTs is of fundamental importance because with their longer baseline and larger light-gathering power, it now becomes possible to obtain visibility measurements beyond the first null, cf. PR Photo 30e/01. Such measurements in the future will enable astronomers to measure fine details such as limb-darkening and deviations from spherical symmetry. The preliminary diameter value for this star is 8.21 ± 0.02 mas.
The enigmatic object Eta Carinae is a luminous blue variable, a supermassive star, which underwent a massive outburst in the 1840's. This outburst was responsible for the creation of the surrounding Homunculus Nebula. The central object is not well understood, but is likely to have a complex structure and therefore the first interferometric measurement with the VLTI is of great importance. Fringes with a low contrast (amplitude of about 20%) were detected, indicating that the central object is resolved on a scale of a few milliarcseconds. More observations will be obtained to further investigate this peculiar object.

SATELLITES SHED LIGHT ON A WARMER WORLD

While winter may be approaching, researchers using
data from satellites and weather stations around the world
have found the air temperature near the Earth's surface
has warmed on average by 1 degree F (0.6 degree C)
globally over the last century, and they cite human
influence as at least a partial cause.

Dr. James Hansen of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space
Studies, New York, and Marc Imhoff of NASA's Goddard Space
Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., along with several other
researchers analyzed records for 7,200 global weather
stations and used satellite observations of nighttime
lights around the planet to identify stations with minimal
local human influence. Their findings appeared in a recent
issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres.

"Warming around the world has been widespread, but it is
not present everywhere," Hansen said. Warming in the past
50 years has been rapid in Alaska and Siberia, but
Greenland has become cooler. The lower 48 United States
have become warmer recently, but only enough to make the
temperature comparable to what it was in the 1930s.

Hansen and Imhoff are making a special effort to minimize
any distortion of the record caused by urban heat-island
effects as they research global warming. It is recognized
that recorded temperatures at many weather stations are
warmer than they should be because of human developments
around the station. Hansen and Imhoff used satellite
images of nighttime lights to identify stations where
urbanization was most likely to contaminate the weather
records.

Urban heat-island effects are created when cities grow and
asphalt roads, tar roofs and other features are
substituted for areas where plants would otherwise grow.
Trees provide shade and cool the air through evaporation.
The hard dark surfaces like pavements store heat during
the day, which is released at night, keeping the city
hotter for longer periods of time.

U.S. Defense Meteorological Satellites measure the
brightness of nighttime lights all over the Earth's
surface. Hansen and Imhoff used the night-light brightness
to classify the location of each weather station as urban,
near-urban or rural. "We find larger warming at urban
stations on average," said Hansen, "so we use the rural
stations to adjust the urban records, thus obtaining a
better measure of the true climate change."

Evidence of a slight, local human influence is found even
in small towns and it is probably impossible to totally
eliminate in the global analyses. Although Hansen and
Imhoff have not yet applied satellite data in most of the
world, they adjusted the long-term trend of urban stations
to be consistent with the nearest rural stations. They
estimate that remaining urban influence on the global
record is not more than about 0.18 degree F (0.1 degree
C).

Hansen and his colleagues classified the global climate
into three time segments between 1900 and 2000. Each
segment revealed a small swing in the Earth's global
temperature over a period of time.

From 1900 to 1940, the data showed the world warmed. "That
warming may be in part a response to released greenhouse
gases and in part natural climate variability," Imhoff
said.

Between 1940 and 1965, the globe cooled by about 0.18
degree F (a change of 0.1 degree C), which some scientists
attribute to the increased aerosols (fine particles in the
air) during this time. Aerosol forcing can lead to more
cloud cover and block incoming radiation. Aerosol
increases are related to the rate of growth of fossil fuel
use, which peaked in this period. Hansen noted
fluctuations in ocean heat-transport may also contribute
to such climate swings over decades.

The third period, from 1965 to 2000, showed a large and
widespread warming around the world. During this time
warming intensified in the El Nino region of the (eastern)
Pacific Ocean, and the Indian, Atlantic and Arctic oceans
also warmed.

This research was conducted as part of NASA's Earth
Sciences Enterprise, a long-term research effort dedicated
to understanding how natural and human-induced changes
affect our global environment.

More information and images are available at:
http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/20011027heatisland.html

The latest SOHO Hot Shot (added 24 October) features one of the
brightest comets observed by LASCO, visible throughout the entire C3
and C2 fiels of view.

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/hotshots/2001_10_24/

Also, we have added a new feature to the SOHO web pages: The Weekly
Pick, linked from the top of the home page. The direct link is:

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/pickoftheweek/

Tuesday November 6th, NASA will carry live on NASA TV
a Space Science Update titled "What's New Under the Sun": Scientists
have studied sunspots for the past 400 years. Now, for the first time,
they can peer below the surface at conditions that reveal the Sun's
dark mysteries.

NASA TV is broadcast on satellite GE-2, transponder 9C, at 85 degrees
West longitude, vertical polarization, frequency 3880 MHz, audio of 6.8
MHz. The briefing will also be webcast live from the Internet through
links found at:

http://www.nasa.gov/

http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/schedule/schedule.htm on the KSC Home
Page for the latest schedule of future Shuttle missions.

MISSION: STS-108 - 12th ISS Flight (UF1) - MPLM

Shuttle Processing Note: At Launch Pad 39B, the Space Shuttle Main Engine
Flight Readiness Test (FRT) was completed last Friday and the Helium
Signature Test over the weekend. During the FRT a failure occurred in the
yaw actuator of Engine Number 2. The actuator will be replaced with no
impact to the launch schedule. During this week the Raffaello Multi Purpose
Logistics Module will be installed in the Orbiter and the Countdown
Demonstration Test (TCDT) will take place with STS-108 crew participation.

MISSION: STS-109 - HST Servicing Mission 3B

Shuttle processing Note: SCAPE operations were conducted over the weekend
checking out the Auxiliary Power Units. Orbiter Columbia's main engines will
be installed this week.

MISSION: STS-110 - 13th ISS Flight (8A) - ITS S0, MT

Shuttle processing Note: Orbiter Atlantis remains powered down for
modification work that will continue until mid-December.

STRUCTURAL INSPECTION & MODIFICATION PERIOD

VEHICLE: Discovery/OV-103

Shuttle Processing Note: Shuttle managers continue to assess the content,
schedule and location of Discovery's structural inspection and modification
period. Discovery's de-servicing operations are underway.

SUPERCOMPUTING CONFERENCE TO FEATURE NASA TECHNOLOGY

NASA's cutting-edge research in high-performance computing and networking will be showcased at an upcoming seven-day conference in Denver.

SC2001, the Conference of High Performance Computing and Networking, will be held Nov. 10-16 at the Denver Convention Center. More than 5,000 participants are expected to attend the conference. This year's theme, "Beyond Boundaries," reflects the global theme of linking the world in a fiber-optic network.

"High-performance computing and networking are critical to NASA's quest to expand frontiers on the Earth, in the air and in space," said Dr. Eugene Tu, manager of NASA's Computing, Information and Communications Technology (CICT) program at NASA's Ames Research Center, located in California's Silicon Valley. "From improving our understanding of observational Earth and space data, to incredible computational models of revolutionary aerospace vehicles, our planet, and even distant stars, high-performance computing is absolutely critical to advancing our knowledge."

The 50-by-50-foot NASA exhibit will showcase more than 30 supercomputing demonstrations. Scientists from six NASA centers will feature a variety of real-time and interactive demonstrations of the latest research in computational applications serving NASA's aerospace, Earth science, and space science missions, including remote collaboration and use of virtual reality; software tools for developing, debugging, converting, monitoring and optimizing code in grid environments; learning technologies, and high-end networking. A large collection of workstations, an interactive theater, and virtual reality devices will be used to display the research and encourage visitor interaction.

Among the features at NASA's SC2001 exhibit will be a demonstration of a job scheduler that processes large numbers of engine simulations for the aviation safety program; a demonstration of a distributed/collaborative scientific tool called "growler;" and a series of high-definition data visualizations of Earth and space phenomena presented in the High Definition Television (HDTV) format.

One of the featured NASA exhibits will be a demonstration of aviation safety using the Numerical Propulsion System Simulations (NPSS) on NASA's Information Power Grid (IPG). The goal of NASA's Aviation Safety Program is to develop and demonstrate technologies that contribute to a reduction in aviation accident and fatality rates by a factor of 5 by year 2007 and by a factor of 10 by year 2022.

Large volumes of flight data are collected continuously by airport flight-tracking telemetry facilities. This data set consists of the radar tracks of all incoming and departing aircraft and could be processed to evaluate and track the engine performance of monitored aircraft. Data processing in this scenario is problematic in that it requires three basic elements: an engine simulation, high-end computing resources, and a job scheduler.

NASA's Glenn Research Center has worked to provide a solution to this problem by developing a job scheduler that processes large numbers of engine simulations using the Numerical Propulsion System Simulations. Simulations are executed on the high-end computing resources made available by the NASA Information Power Grid. Further information is available at: http://accl.grc.nasa.gov/rgriffin/AVSP/Presentation/AVSPDEMO.htm

Another demonstration will feature the "growler" tool, a component-based framework for distributed/collaborative scientific visualization and computational steering. Developed at Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, the "growler" provides an infrastructure that allows various kinds of functional modules to be "wired" together to create distributed and collaborative scientific applications. The individual components can be local or remote -- that is, an application can be created on a single computer, or it can be distributed over a network.

Another NASA demo will feature High Definition Television (HDTV) visualizations of Earth and space science. As scientists rely more on simulations and observations to understand nature, they are confronted by massive amounts of data to sift through and analyze. With data volumes at billions, even trillions, of bytes, visualization enables scientists to see the physical processes at work.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center has created high-definition data visualizations of Earth and space phenomena. Presented in the HDTV format, visualizations to be shown at SC2001 will include climate models probing the coupled ocean-land-atmosphere response to seasonal variability such as El Niño/La Niña; multi-year views of global ozone and plant life; a Mars terrain fly-over; and zoom-ins to several U.S. cities that seamlessly combine four data sets. Further information about this project is available at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov

SC2001 is sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society. Further information about the conference is available at http://www.sc2001.org/

More information about NASA high-performance computer technologies featured at SC2001 is available at http://www.nas.nasa.gov/SC2001

Space Weather News for November 5, 2001
http://www.spaceweather.com

A powerful solar explosion on Nov. 4th sparked an X-class solar flare and
hurled a bright coronal mass ejection toward Earth. The expanding cloud
will probably trigger strong geomagnetic activity when it sweeps past our
planet on Nov. 6th or 7th. Sky watchers, even those living at middle
latitudes, should be alert for auroras during the nights ahead.

November 3, 01

Visit the Genesis mission outreach Web site at: http://genesismission.jpl.nasa.gov

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Genesis Mission Status Update
Week of October 22: Preparations have begun for inserting the spacecraft into orbit about the first Lagrangian point, L1, which will occur on November 16, 2001. The backshell of the sample return capsule, still in the "cracked open" position, will be closed completely in preparation for orbit insertion on November 13. Science will be paused on November 15 and then restarted on November 19.

Recent activities on the spacecraft include continuing to check out the science instruments and the WIND algorithm, which will be used to automatically determine the type of solar wind that is passing by the spacecraft, then extend or stow the appropriate solar wind collector arrays to catch particles in the wind.

A solar shock and coronal mass ejection reached the spacecraft about 16:30 Universal time on October 21. There was a slight noise increase in the electron monitor when the shock came through. LANL reports, "Everything looks hunky-dory."
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Visit the mission status page at: http://www.genesismission.org/mission/statusupdate.html to review status reports since the time of launch.

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Launch Replay
After a flawless launch on August 8 at 12:13:40 p.m. EDT, the Genesis spacecraft is on its mission to "catch a piece of the sun." View JPL news release and launch replay at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/2001/release_2001_169.html
Kennedy Space Center maintains a photo archive of images that reveal mission progress from the time of spacecraft arrival at Cape Canaveral until the time of launch. You can view these spectacular images at: http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/captions/subjects/genesis.htm

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Genesis Discussion Forums
Genesis Education and Public Outreach announces the debut of its online discussion forums. These forums offer an opportunity to exchange ideas and offer suggestions on a variety of mission outreach activities and services. Initial forums are targeted to classroom teachers who are using Genesis education materials. You can collaborate with other teachers across the country, share great teaching strategies, and request ideas or suggestions. There are four types of educator forums: 1) Network Talk, 2) Genesis Education Modules: Middle School, 3) Genesis Education Modules: High School, and 4) Genesis Kids. Use this opportunity to talk with other teachers just like you! For information on how to participate, contact John Ristvey at: jristvey@mcrel.org

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NASA's Office of Space Science and the Discovery Program Quarterly Newsletters
Do you like to be kept informed of recent developments in NASA mission programs and their outreach activities? Two quarterly NASA newsletters that are a "must read" are NASA's Office of Space Science (OSS) Quarterly Newsletter and the Discovery Program Newsletter. You can subscribe to the OSS newsletter by e-mailing Larry Cooper, editor, at: larrycooper@oai.org The Discovery Program Newsletter is posted quarterly online at the Discovery mission newsletter page: http://discovery.nasa.gov/newsletters_archive.html

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For the Conference-Attending Teachers
Are you attending the November 13-17 National Alliance of Black School Educators conference at the Los Angeles Convention Center? At the Jet Propulsion Laboratory booth, Genesis Education and Public Outreach Coordinator Dr. Gil Yanow will demonstrate two technology-rich education products: the interactive periodic table and the cleanroom electronic field trip. For Texas educators, look for the Genesis mission booth at the Science Teachers Association of Texas annual convention at the Austin Convention Center, November 1-3.

Both of these conference booths will feature mission products for your classrooms, including posters, module handouts, fact sheets, and bookmarks.

Observations reveal curiosities on the surface of asteroid Ceres

San Antonio, Texas -- For immediate release

An international team led by scientists at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has discovered some curious properties of the largest asteroid, Ceres. The astronomers observed Ceres with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) at ultraviolet wavelengths using a resolution higher than previously attained. The resulting images are the first to resolve detail on the surface of Ceres and show features as small as 50 kilometers across.

Led by Principal Investigator Dr. Alan Stern of SwRI, the team detected a dark spot on the surface of Ceres, which it nicknamed "Piazzi" in honor of the discoverer of Ceres. "Although we can't determine the nature of the spot with these data, whether it is an area of different coloration or possibly a crater from an impact by another asteroid, it is pretty big," says Dr. Joel Parker, also of SwRI, who led the team in the analysis of the images. "The Piazzi feature has a diameter of about 250 kilometers, which is more than a quarter the size of Ceres. If it resulted from an impact, the object that hit Ceres would have been about 25 kilometers across. It must have really shaken things up."

The high-resolution images allowed the team to refine measurements of Ceres. Although Ceres is the largest known asteroid -- estimated to contain more than one-third of the total mass of all other asteroids combined -- researchers still dispute its size, even after 200 years of observations. The new HST measurements indicate that the asteroid is slightly flattened, with a diameter ranging from 930 to 970 kilometers. Spinning objects can have a flattened or "squashed" shape depending on how big they are, how fast they spin, and what kind of material they are made of. However, the amount of flattening seen on Ceres is more than expected and may indicate that the inner structure is not as homogeneous as previously assumed.

"These results are very tantalizing," says Stern. "What we need to be definitive are observations with better resolution and frequent enough to follow Ceres through a nine-hour rotation period to track surface features. This 'movie' would allow us to finally map the surface of Ceres and figure out what the Piazzi feature is." The team has already proposed such an experiment with a new instrument to be installed on HST next year.

The analysis of the Ceres images will be published in the January 2002 issue of The Astronomical Journal. Authors include researchers from SwRI, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cornell University, the University of Arizona, and the Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées in France.

In addition to being the largest asteroid, Ceres was also the first asteroid to be discovered. In the latter part of the 18th century, astronomers noted a regular spacing in the planets of the solar system, but with a gap between Mars and Jupiter where they expected to find a planet. On January 1, 1801, the Sicilian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi at the Palermo Observatory discovered a moving object in the region. Researchers at the time assumed that this object, Ceres, was the missing planet. However, early observations indicated that Ceres was too small to be a planet, and as more such objects were discovered in the region, they became known as "asteroids" or "minor planets." Ceres orbits the sun once every 4.6 years at a distance of 41 million kilometers, and it spins on its axis once every nine hours.

EDITORS: The Ceres images are available for viewing and download at www.swri.org/press/ceres.htm.

SwRI is an independent, nonprofit, applied research and development organization based in San Antonio, Texas, with more than 2,700 employees and an annual research volume of more than $315 million.

XMM-Newton's new vision of a classic 'Deep Field'

In January 1996, the Hubble Space Telescope released a picture of
part of the sky in the Ursa Major constellation. Known as the
Hubble Deep Field (HDF), it offered mankind's deepest and most
detailed optical view of the Universe. Since then the image has
become a reference for astronomers with numerous follow-up
observations at other wavelengths. Today, XMM-Newton contributes
its own X-ray vision of this notable region of the heavens.

Cassini Weekly Significant Events
for 10/25/01 - 10/31/01

The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Canberra
tracking station on Wednesday, October 31. The Cassini spacecraft is in an
excellent state of health and is operating normally. Information on the
spacecraft's position and speed can be viewed on the "Present Position"
web page, http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/english/where/ .

Recent instrument activities include a Radio and Plasma Wave Science
(RPWS) High Frequency Receiver calibration, a Composite Infrared
Spectrometer boresight calibration, and an Ultraviolet Imaging
Spectrograph (UVIS) Interplanetary Hydrogen Survey and Spica observation.
Engineering activities taking place onboard the spacecraft this week
include a static phase error test to characterize the spacecraft Deep
Space Transponder uplink receiver tracking, and the final S-band pattern
calibration for the Huygens Probe radio system. A minisequence uplinked
last week executed and overlaid the Attitude Control Subsystem (ACS)
momentum bias commands from the background sequence with new updated
values produced by the ACS team.

In preparation for the upcoming 40-day Gravitational Wave Experiment, the
Radio Science Subsystem (RSS) team conducted a dataflow test in order to
verify data paths in the RSS Ground Data System. DSN station personnel
were familiarized with the monopulse system configuration, calibration,
and operation, and flowed the monopulse monitor data back to JPL. RSS also
conducted a long Ka-2-band track, with the various subsystems performing
extremely well. Other activities performed in preparation for the GWE
include an Ultra-Stable Oscillator characterization, a boresight
calibration, and an RSS quiet test with the Fields, Particles, and Waves
(FPW) instruments to determine if the RSS can detect the FPW instruments
in their "noisy" states.

The Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) post-warm-up images were downlinked
for analysis. The 15 images were planned in support of the UVIS Spica
observation, and were examined for potential changes relative to the
pre-warm-up images. Preliminary results show a change in the character of
the anomaly with the halo gone but more spreading of the star image than
before. ISS also performed a scattered light observation, in an effort to
resolve an anomaly observed in C25 when an ISS observation received far
more light than expected. This current observation included a series of
scans across the sky to see how much scattered light ISS gets at different
distances from the sun for a selection of different orientations, to see
if reflection off another part of the spacecraft is causing the extra
light seen by ISS.

The RADAR team performed an instrument calibration, which involved
collecting radiometry data of two microwave sources while executing
repeated box scans. These scans were performed as close as possible to
the power-on of the instrument so the RADAR team can better characterize
their warm-up calibration requirements. Currently, RADAR is requiring 3
hours of warm-up for radiometry in science planning, which causes them to
frequently conflict with other instrument teams. They are hoping to be
able to reduce their warm-up time based upon the understanding they
receive from analyzing this data.

In conjunction with the ISS scattered light observation, the
Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument (MIMI) performed a test of the Ion and
Neutral Camera (INCA) collimator. The test ramps the INCA high voltage
collimator plates up to operational voltage on the positive plate, leaving
the negative turned off. This is done in coordination with the scattered
light test to provide a condition of sunlight on the collimator plates,
but no thruster activity. It tests the theory that this configuration
will prove to be noise-free for RPWS and Cassini Plasma Spectrometer
(CAPS). RPWS supported this test by monitoring its data for interference.

The C29 Sequence Team development phase has been completed. The Final
Sequence Integration & Validation Approval meeting was held, and all
Cassini teams approved the sequence for uplink. The C29 sequence will be
uplinked on Nov. 1 and will begin execution on Nov. 4. This sequence
includes a Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer radiator test, a
5-pass Probe Relay Test, the first of three GWEs, an Attitude Control
Subsystem (ACS) Periodic Instrument Maintenance, and a Cosmic Dust
Analyzer flight software upload and checkout.

The Science Uplink Verification (SUPV) activity for three Titan flybys has
been completed, and the SUPV for three Icy Satellite flybys begun. The
Science Planning Team is in the process of generating a final report on
the Titan SUPV, which will include lessons learned from this exercise. A
full suite of Target Working Team (TWT) integration team meetings was held
last week to continue with the integration of the tour. Semi-monthly
Satellite and Titan Orbiter Science Team meetings are now being held on
Fridays.

The Attitude Control Team has released its the third quarter report. In
summary, the attitude control system is operating properly. There were no
fault protection entries, all trends are as expected, and all scheduled
activities were executed normally.

Cassini is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and
the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Cassini
mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.

Cassini Outreach
Cassini Mission to Saturn and Titan
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Vibrating Space Bones

A new and unorthodox treatment under study by NASA-funded doctors could
reverse bone loss experienced by astronauts in space -- and relieve
osteoporosis sufferers here on Earth.

FULL STORY at

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast02nov_1.htm?list448368

FIVE KENNEDY SPACE CENTER SENIOR EXECUTIVES RECEIVE PRESTIGIOUS AWARD

Five Kennedy Space Center (KSC) senior executives were recently awarded the
prestigious Meritorious Executive Presidential rank award.

The award is presented each year to a small group of career senior
executives within the federal government who demonstrate strength in
leadership and a personal commitment to excellence in public service.

KSC recipients include Roy D. Bridges, Jr., Center Director; Larry
C. Ellis, Acting Deputy Director, International Space Station and Payload
Processing; James E. Hattaway, Jr., Director, Procurement Office; David A.
King, Director, Shuttle Processing; John J. (Tip) Talone, Jr., Director,
International Space Station and Payload Processing.

Awardees were nominated by NASA Administrator Daniel S.Goldin. Their
nominations were reviewed and evaluated by a panel of private citizens and
approved by the president.

The Meritorious Executive Presidential rank award is presented to only 5
percent of government career Senior Executive Service (SES) members each
year.

NASA TO "SHARE THE OPPORTUNITIES"
WITH MINORITY UNIVERSITY PRESIDENTS AND ADMINISTRATORS

NASA officials from across the agency will meet with
minority university presidents and administrators to discuss
issues facing the minority university community.

"Share the Opportunities" is the principle theme for a NASA
conference hosted by the Kennedy Space Center, Fla., for
university presidents and top administrators from
Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic
Serving Institutions, and Tribal Colleges and Universities.
The conference is scheduled for Nov. 29 to Dec. 1, 2001, at
the Renaissance Orlando Resort in Orlando, Fla.

Dr. Louis W. Sullivan, president of Morehouse School of
Medicine in Atlanta and Secretary of Health and Human
Services under former President George H. W. Bush, will be
one of the keynote speakers. Kennedy Space Center Director
Roy Bridges and Deputy Director James L. Jennings also will
attend the conference.

By gathering suggestions from the leadership of the minority
institutions represented, NASA hopes to take positive steps
to forge partnerships with the universities.

NASA will "Share The Opportunities" by identifying and
describing competitive research opportunities in NASA's five
strategic enterprises; by providing opportunities to network
with each of NASA's 10 centers to explore areas of mutual
expertise; and by discussing competitive funding
opportunities available through research announcements and
education announcements and activities. NASA also will
identify potential opportunities in small and disadvantaged
business announcements and activities, and technology
transfer and commercialization initiatives.

Conference attendees will have the added bonus of viewing the
launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour, currently targeted for
Nov. 29.

NASA TO "SHARE THE OPPORTUNITIES" WITH MINORITY UNIVERSITY PRESIDENTS AND
ADMINISTRATORS

NASA officials from across the agency will meet with minority university
presidents and administrators to discuss issues facing the minority
university community.

"Share the Opportunities" is the principle theme for a NASA conference
hosted by the Kennedy Space Center, Fla., for university presidents and top
administrators from Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic
Serving Institutions, and Tribal Colleges and Universities. The conference
is scheduled for Nov. 29 to Dec. 1, 2001, at the Renaissance Orlando Resort
in Orlando, Fla.

Dr. Louis W. Sullivan, president of Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta
and Secretary of Health and Human Services under former President George H.
W. Bush, will be one of the keynote speakers. Kennedy Space Center Director
Roy Bridges and Deputy Director James L. Jennings also will attend the
conference.

By gathering suggestions from the leadership of the minority institutions
represented, NASA hopes to take positive steps to forge partnerships with
the universities.

NASA will "Share The Opportunities" by identifying and describing
competitive research opportunities in NASA's five strategic enterprises; by
providing opportunities to network with each of NASA's 10 centers to explore
areas of mutual expertise; and by discussing competitive funding
opportunities available through research announcements and education
announcements and activities. NASA also will identify potential
opportunities in small and disadvantaged business announcements and
activities, and technology transfer and commercialization initiatives.

Conference attendees will have the added bonus of viewing the launch of
Space Shuttle Endeavour, currently targeted for Nov. 29.

EARTHQUAKE STUDIES: FAULT MOVING FASTER THAN BELIEVED

Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,
Calif., and the University of California, Los Angeles, have
concluded that earthquake fault zones in California's eastern
Mojave Desert are moving in different ways than they expected.

For years researchers were aware that movement in the
southern California shear zone was distributed over a 100-
kilometer (60-mile) wide area. However, they assumed that deep
below the surface the Blackwater Little Lake and the Garlock
faults were creeping steadily, something that the new study
seems to contradict.

New findings indicate that more than half of the right-
lateral motion of the Eastern California shear zone is sharply
concentrated along the Blackwater Little Lake fault system.
The rapid strain accumulation observed along the fault system
indicates that the fault is building up stress in the shallow
crust at a rate three times faster than the rate inferred from
geological observations. This may be the manifestation of
stress transfer between the Garlock fault and other faults in
the Mojave area, in particular those that produced the
magnitude 7.3 Landers earthquake in 1992 and the magnitude 7.8
Owens Valley earthquake in 1872.

Scientists arrived at the conclusion after studying radar
interferometry data collected by satellites over the last
eight years. Radar interferometry is a method to map the
topography and displacement of the Earth's surface with
extreme accuracy.

A paper with the findings is in the Nov. 1, 2001, issue
of the journal Geology.

"The most exciting thing is we discovered something we
didn't expect. We were looking for deformation on the Garlock
fault, but we saw in the image a concentration of shear along
the Blackwater Little Lake fault, which cuts the Garlock fault
at a right angle," said Dr. Gilles Peltzer, a UCLA professor
and JPL research scientist who is the lead author of the
study. "Radar interferometry has been applied previously to
the study of earthquakes, and what we are imaging here is the
surface strain field produced by the slow creep occurring at
depth on active faults between earthquakes."

Operated by the European Space Agency, the European
Remote Sensing satellites use interaction of radar waves to
measure distances and angles precisely. The satellites look at
Earth in a slanted angle at 23 degrees. The only other way to
gain such accurate information on fault displacement would be
to place Global Positioning System receivers every 50 meters
(about 165 feet).

JPL is a division of the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena.

November 2, 2001
National Space Development Agency of Japan

IGOS OPEN SESSION
LIVE INTERNET COVERAGE

Wednesday, 7 November, 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. (JST)
During the 8th meeting of the Integrated Global Observing Strategy(IGOS)
Partnership in Kyoto, a three-hour Open Session will be held at the Kyoto
International Conference Hall.

The session will be carried live via the Internet at the following
website:
http://www.ceos.org/pages/igosopen.html
The coverage can be accessed using Windows Media Player 7 or a later
version.

Panelists at the Open Session will give presentations in English, and
also answer questions from members of the media and public attending
the event.

In Japanese only, there will also be a two-way online link with the
headquarters of the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA)
in Tokyo, using terminals at the NASDAi public information center on
the 28th floor of the World Trade Center Building in Hamamatsucho. Media
representatives and members of the public are also invited to watch and
take part in the Open Session using this link from Tokyo. Please note
that at NASDAi, the panelists' presentations will be available only
in Japanese interpretation.

For further information on the IGOS Partnership meeting and the Open
Session, please see the press release issued on 19 October 2001,
available at:
http://yyy.tksc.nasda.go.jp/Home/Press/e/200110/igos_011019_e.html

November 1, 2001

The Fading Milky Way

Light pollution is a growing environmental problem that threatens to erase
the night sky before its time.

FULL STORY at

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast01nov_1.htm?list448368

Rare Observing Opportunity for November

On November 17 and 18, the Leonid meteor stream will once again become
active, offering another opportunity to see major showers from the
ground, and the flashes of impacting meteoroids on the Moon. This time
offers the best chance to see the latter since at least 1999, but the
opportunity this year is better for certain parts of the world.

However, this will also likely be the last significant chance to observe
lunar meteors in such abundance until at least 2098, barring a storm
from the Draconid meteors with a favorably placed Moon. This results
from the perturbation of the parent comet 58P/Tempel-Tuttle by Jupiter
in 2029. This year, the Moon will be a thin, waxing Crescent, low in
the southwest at nightfall, but observers are strongly encouraged to
pair up and observe the Moon for impacts on the 17th, 18th, and 19th of
November 2001. A low west-southwest and southwest horizon is essential
for observations, as is at least a small telescope, and a method of
accurately recording any candidates observed (videotape, audiotape with
WWV time signals, etc.). The Moon is expected to pass through several
streams, including that derived from the 1965 passage (Moon passage from
roughly 13h UT to 18h UT on 17 November).

The next day, 18 November,
the Moon passes thru several trails, including those generated by the
1800 and 1833 returns. Outer fringes of the 1767 and 1866/1699 trails
are also encountered during this time. Elevated meteor activity at the
Moon is expected between roughly 10h UT on 18 November and 02h UT on 19
November. The Moon enters the outer parts of the 1800 trail at roughly
12hUT, 18 November, and the 18:33 trail some four hours later. Peak
lunar meteoric activity should occur around 16hUT, before the Moon exits
these trails around 18h.

Many more details, are available on the LMIS web page, at
http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~rhill/alpo/lunarstuff/lunimpacts.html

Brian Cudnik
Coordinator, Lunar Meteor Impact Search Section
Association of Lunar & Planetary Observers
Member Houston Astronomical Society, the Astronomical League, and the
American Astronomical Society

EDWARD A. FRANKLE, NASA GENERAL COUNSEL,
ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT

Edward A. Frankle, NASA's General Counsel for the past
13 years, announced plans to retire after a distinguished
career, effective December 28. No successor has been
selected.

Frankle, who was appointed to the position as the Agency's
chief legal officer in July 1988, said it is time to leave
the Federal Government and enter the private sector.

"Despite my current job satisfaction and belief that I am
still contributing to the NASA mission, the time has come to
strike out on my own," Frankle said in his retirement notice
to NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin. "I am proud of each
and every member of the NASA legal family and am confident
that it is well positioned to transition smoothly to new
leadership."

As General Counsel, Frankle is responsible for the legal
aspects of all NASA's activities, providing direct legal
support to the NASA Administrator and senior management. He
also manages the Agency's intellectual property and ethics
programs and directing a staff of attorneys. Frankle also
provides legal guidance and support to the legal staff at
NASA's field centers.

"I want to express my appreciation for Ed's service to
America's space program. He's an outstanding lawyer, and his
guidance and thoughtful approach will be missed," said
Administrator Goldin. "He's a real leader and a tenacious and
highly effective defender of the Agency and its programs, and
has created a comprehensive legal infrastructure that is
strong, well equipped and positioned for the future."

Before his current appointment, Frankle served as NASA's
Deputy General Counsel. He first joined the Agency in 1982,
where he held the position of Chief Counsel at NASA's Goddard
Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Before joining NASA, Frankle served as the Associate
Director, Policy development and Administrative Legal Systems
for the Selective Service System. From 1974 to 1988, he was a
member of the Office of General Counsel for the Navy. From
1968 to 1974, Frankle, who has a bachelor's degree and a
master's degree in aerospace engineering, worked as an
engineer with the Navy.

Since joining NASA, Frankle was awarded the Presidential Rank
of Meritorious Executive in 1988 and 2001, the NASA
Exceptional Service Medal in 1989, the Presidential Rank of
Distinguished Executive in 1992, the NASA Exceptional
Achievement Medal in 1994, and the NASA Distinguished Service
Medal in 1993 and 2001.

Additional information about the Office of General Counsel is
available on the Internet at:

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/ogc/

ENGINEERS TEST WRIGHT GLIDER REPLICA IN WIND TUNNEL

Before they learned to fly, the Wright brothers learned
to glide. A life-size reproduction of one of the aviation
pioneers' early gliders has undergone wind tunnel tests at
NASA's Langley Research Center's Full Scale Tunnel in
Hampton, Va.

During the experiment, which is being underwritten by the
Langley Research Center, engineers took a number of different
measurements to determine how the Wright 1901 glider
performed. The 22-foot wingspan aircraft was the second
glider designed by Orville and Wilbur Wright as they worked
to create the first human-powered flying machine.

"It's fitting that we invest in wind tunnel tests to document
the Wrights' discoveries. Orville Wright was on the advisory
committee that established Langley Research Center in 1917,
just fourteen years after that first historic flight at Kitty
Hawk, N.C. Wright also visited Langley a number of times,"
said Mike Finneran, head of Langley's Office of External
Affairs. "Our first engineers built on the Wright brothers'
early successes and helped advance aeronautics into a modern
science."

The wind tunnel tests are part of ongoing research being done
by Old Dominion University (ODU) of Norfolk, Va., and The
Wright Experience of Warrenton, Va. The Discovery of Flight
Foundation, a non-profit organization also in Warrenton, has
contracted with The Wright Experience to uncover and document
how the Wright brothers, neither of whom finished high
school, managed to conquer the principles of flight in five
short years.

None of the Wrights' first prototype aircraft were saved, nor
were their early construction documents and drawings. To try
to retrace the brothers' ground-breaking steps to flight,
Wright Experience founder Ken Hyde and his team are
researching, reconstructing, testing, analyzing and
documenting authentic full-scale reproductions of many of the
Wright brothers' aircraft and engines.

"Rediscovering the secrets of the Wright brothers to inspire
a new generation is what motivates The Wright Experience,"
said Hyde. "Our journey will continue through December 17,
2003, with the flight of a reproduction of the 1903 Wright
Flyer at Kitty Hawk. Our ultimate goal is to build and test
all the Wrights' aircraft. It is The Wright Experience's
mission to keep the Wright brothers' dream alive."

The 1901 glider was an important step in the Wrights'
development of the Flyer, not because it was successful, but
because it wasn't.

"The 1901 glider was extremely difficult to control and it
didn't demonstrate flight-handling characteristics consistent
with theories used by the Wright brothers," said Professor
Robert Ash, Wright tunnel-test program manager for ODU. "So
Wilbur and Orville decided they needed a different approach.
They built a small-scale wind tunnel to evaluate nearly 200
airfoil and wing models. They started the world's first
successful wind tunnel-based aircraft design program, a
precursor to the systems engineering approach used by the
aviation industry today."

The Wright Experience and ODU have already built and tested a
number of reproductions of Wright propellers in their quest
to "reverse engineer" the 1903 Wright Flyer and other early
Wright aircraft. The reproduction of the Flyer is under
construction at The Wright Experience workshop.

More information on the Wright Experience is available at:
http://www.wrightexperience.com

More information on the Langley Full Scale Tunnel is
available at: http://www.lfst.com

The US Centennial of Flight Commission was set up by Congress
to provide recommendations and advice to the President,
Congress and Federal agencies on the most effective ways to
encourage and promote national and international
commemoration of the centennial of powered flight. More
information on the centennial, the history and future of
powered flight, and events planned to celebrate the upcoming
anniversary is available at:
http//www.centennialofflight.gov

Solar Orbiter Payload Studies: Call for 'Letters of Interest'

The Solar Orbiter mission was approved in October 2000 by ESA's Science
Programme Committee as a flexi-mission for launch in the 2008-2013
time-frame. ESA intends to set up one or more Working Groups to support
studies of instrumentation of the kind envisaged for Solar Orbiter, and now
invites members of the scientific community wishing to participate in this
activity to submit 'Letters of Interest'.

The full text of the Call for Letters of Interest can be found at
http://sci2.esa.int/solarorbiter/docs/call_for_loi.pdf

PHOTO NO.: STScI-PRC01-37

HUBBLE REVEALS ULTRAVIOLET GALACTIC RING

The appearance of a galaxy can depend strongly on the color
of the light with which it is viewed. The Hubble Heritage
image of NGC 6782 illustrates a pronounced example of this
effect. This spiral galaxy, when seen in visible light,
exhibits tightly wound spiral arms that give it a pinwheel
shape similar to that of many other spirals. However, when
the galaxy is viewed in ultraviolet light with NASA's Hubble
Space Telescope, its shape is startlingly different.

The Hubble image of NGC 6782 was taken with the Wide Field
Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) in June 2000 as part of an
ultraviolet survey of 37 nearby galaxies. The observations
were carried out by an international "Hubble mid-UV team" led
by Dr. Rogier Windhorst of Arizona State University.
Additional observations of NGC 6782 were made by the Hubble
Heritage Team in June 2001. The color image was produced by
combining data from both observing programs that were taken
through color filters in the WFPC2 camera that isolated
ultraviolet, blue, visible, and infrared light.

Credits: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Acknowledgment: R. Windhorst (ASU)

The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is operated by
the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc.
(AURA), for NASA, under contract with the Goddard Space Flight
Center, Greenbelt, MD. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project
of international cooperation between NASA and the European
Space Agency (ESA).

National Space Development Agency of Japan

NASDA REPORT NO.112 NOW AVAILABLE

Online version of the latest NASDA REPORT (No.112, 2001 October) is
now available on the URL below.

http://yyy.tksc.nasda.go.jp/Home/News/News-e/112index.htm

C O N T E N T S

The Successful Launch of H-IIA No.1, a Step toward Re-accelerating
Japan™fs Space Activity
Earth Environment from Space 18
Let Us Talk to Space Challengers
Series of World Heritage from Space 7

PDF file of the issue is also available.
http://yyy.tksc.nasda.go.jp/Home/News/News-e/pdf/nr112.pdf

MARS ODYSSEY'S FIRST LOOK AT MARS IS ALL TREAT, NO TRICK

NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey gave mission managers a real
treat this Halloween with its first look at the red planet.
It's a thermal infrared image of the martian southern
hemisphere that captures the south polar carbon dioxide ice
cap at a temperature of about minus 120 C (minus 184 F).

The spacecraft first entered orbit around Mars last week
after a six-month, 460- million-kilometer (285-million-mile)
journey.

The image, taken as part of the calibration and testing
process for the instrument, shows the nighttime temperatures
of Mars, demonstrating the "night-vision" capability of the
camera system to observe Mars even when the surface is in
darkness.

"This spectacular first image of Mars from the 2001 Mars
Odyssey spacecraft is just a hint of what's to come," said Dr.
Ed Weiler, associate administrator for space science at NASA
Headquarters in Washington, D.C. "After we get Odyssey into
its final orbit it will be much closer to Mars than when it
took this image, and we'll be able to tell whether or not
there are any hot springs on Mars, places where liquid water
may be close to the surface. If there are any such locations
they would be places we might like to explore on future
missions."

The image covers a length of more than 6,500 kilometers
(3,900 miles), spanning the planet from limb to limb, with a
resolution of approximately 5.5 kilometers per pixel (3.4
miles per pixel), at the point directly beneath the
spacecraft.

The spacecraft was approximately 22,000 kilometers (about
13,600 miles) above the planet looking down toward the south
pole of Mars when this image was taken.

It is late spring in the martian southern hemisphere. The
extremely cold, circular feature shown in blue is the martian
south polar carbon dioxide ice cap , which is more than 900
kilometers (540 miles) in diameter at this time and will
continue to shrink as summer progresses. Clouds of cooler air
blowing off the cap can be seen in orange extending across the
image.

The Mars Odyssey image is available on the Internet at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/mars/odyssey_mars.html ,
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/global/PIA03459.html ,
http://themis.asu.edu/latest ,
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-
bin/GenCatalogPage.pl?PIA03459 .

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars
Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science. The
thermal-emission imaging system was developed at Arizona State
University, Tempe, with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing,
Santa Barbara, Calif. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is
the prime contractor for the project, and developed and built
the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from
Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California
Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

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