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Most Recent OBPR News - 4/26/2002
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1) An Awesome Global Experience! Global
Science and Technology Week
The Office of Science and Technology Policy of the Executive
Office of the President has joined with representatives from
over 2...
For more info: http://spaceresearch.nasa.gov/news.html#159
2) Dizziness in Astronauts Leads NASA
Researchers to Find Genetic Cause for Orthostatic Intolerance
Studies of astronauts before, during, and after spaceflight not
only will help stop the dizziness that occurs after returning
to...
For more info: http://spaceresearch.nasa.gov/news.html#158
3) Research on Station Weekly Update
In this week's update, the Space Shuttle Atlantis delivers new
and returned experiments and a new facility to the Station. <P></...
For more info: http://spaceresearch.nasa.gov/news.html#157
4) Workshop for Fundamental Physics
in Space
The workshop provides the Fundamental Physics investigators an
opportunity to report on progress in their research and to descri...
For more info: http://spaceresearch.nasa.gov/news.html#156
5) Research Update: Serendipity in the
Laboratory - Dust Busters and Dust Seekers Find Common Ground
Thanks to new tools that allowed researchers to create dusty
plasmas in the laboratory for the first time, researchers are
using...
For more info: http://spaceresearch.nasa.gov/news.html#155
Navigate to http://spaceresearch.nasa.gov/ for more OBPR news, information and features.
Cassini Significant Events
for 04/18/02 - 04/24/02
The most recent spacecraft telemetry
was acquired from the Goldstone
tracking station on Tuesday, April 23. The Cassini spacecraft
is in an
excellent state of health and is operating normally. Information
on the
present position and speed of the Cassini spacecraft may be found
on the
"Present Position" web page located at
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/english/where/
.
Magnetospheric and Plasma Science data
collection has resumed following
last week's Probe checkout. Quiet cruise activities continued
with
minimal onboard activities being performed.
The Satellite Orbiter Science Team (SOST)
and Project Science Group -
Satellite Surfaces Working Group met to make a decision on the
Enceladus
flybys in Orbits 3, 4, and 11. A plan was developed and SOST
will
request a change to the flyby altitude for the non-targeted Enceladus
flyby on Orbit 3 with the understanding that this may be very
difficult
for the Project to accommodate.
A Planetary Data System (PDS) archive
workshop was held this week at the
Huygens Science Working Team meeting in Paris, France. The meeting
was
attended by Huygens team Principal and Co-Investigators,
Interdisciplinary Scientists, and Cassini and PDS archive
representatives. The workshop was an introduction to the work
involved
in archiving with the PDS, and contained examples of Cassini
orbiter
work and demonstrations of Galileo and Pathfinder imaging CDs.
Huygens
team members responded positively to the presentation of proposed
roles
and responsibilities, which included help in generating instrument
description files based on the European Space Agency SP-1177
document.
Additional progress was made in archiving
for the Visual and Infrared
Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS), Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph
(UVIS),
and Cosmic Dust Analyzer (CDA). JPL Imaging node representatives
traveled to Tucson to meet with the VIMS team to discuss archiving.
Samples of UVIS data products were sent to the PDS Atmospheres
node for
review, and the iterative process for reviewing label contents
and file
structures has begun. Small Bodies PDS Node and CDA personnel
met to
further define data products. CDA has identified EKernel and
CKernel
data to archive.
Instrument Operations reported that
the Events Kernel System Design
document D-22965 was distributed last week. In addition, unit
and
system testing of E-Kernel software components has begun. Testing
is
going well, and development is on schedule.
Uplink Office (ULO) personnel presented
a tutorial on the use of the
Solid State Recorder Management Tool to users from the Spacecraft
Operations Office, Mission Planning, and Science Planning. Work
on
Mission Sequence Subsystem (MSS) D8.0.1 began this week. This
patch
delivery is intended to release the Science Opportunity Analyzer
and SSR
Management tools, synchronize the versions of the Inertial Vector
Propagator/Kinematic Prediction Tool in use by the Pointing Design
Tool
(PDT) and ACS operations, and address miscellaneous clean-up
of items in
PDT, APGEN, SEG and SEQGEN that are needed for the Science Operations
Plan development process.
ULO chaired a meeting where plans for
the development of the Automated
Sequence Process (ASP) were discussed and agreed upon. A preliminary
version of ASP is scheduled for delivery in late September '02.
The
software will perform basic processing of a command request,
but not
include automated notification. Prototype development work is
underway,
with preliminary requirements to be finished and final coding
started
in late April '02. ULO began work on a presentation outlining
a
long-term plan for the Cassini Information Management System
(CIMS)
through the end of its development. The purpose is to inform
users of
the functionality available at critical milestones, and provide
a forum
to discuss processes currently under construction that CIMS will
be
required to support.
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
ESA finds a black-hole flywheel in
the Milky Way
Far away among the stars, in the Ara
constellation of the southern sky,
a small black hole is whirling space around it. If you tried
to stay
still in its vicinity, you couldn't. You'd be dragged around
at high
speed as if you were riding on a giant flywheel. In reality,
gas
falling into the black hole is whirled in that way. It radiates
energy,
in the form of X-rays, more intensely than it would do if space
were
still by tapping into the black hole's internal energy stream.
Read more about this at:
http://sci.esa.int/content/news/index.cfm?aid=1&cid=1&oid=29877
WHERE ON EARTH CAN YOU SEE PLANETARY
SPACECRAFT?
2002 is a special year for NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.,
and for space enthusiasts worldwide.
"This year marks the 40th anniversary
of planetary exploration," said Anita Sohus,
JPL's museum liaison. "The celebration is widespread and
space aficionados now have
the opportunity to see exhibits throughout California and the
country that feature products
from JPL."
A full-scale replica of the Saturn-bound
Cassini spacecraft is on display at the
California Science Center in Los Angeles. The spacecraft is the
centerpiece of the newly
reopened Air and Space Gallery. Rounding out the display are
full-scale models of the
Mars Viking lander (1976), Mariner 4 (first U.S. spacecraft to
fly by Mars, in 1965) and
Explorer 1, America's first spacecraft (1958). The permanent
exhibit opened March 9.
For more information visit www.casciencectr.org
.
The Chabot Space and Science Center
in Oakland, Calif., features "Spaceflight:
Journey to the Stars" through June 9, 2002. Visitors can
see models of the Cassini,
Stardust and Mars Odyssey spacecraft. The display also includes
a model of a small
rover, or nanorover, like one that may someday land on an asteroid
or other solar system
body. For more information, visit http://www.chabotspace.org/visit/exhibits.asp .
An exhibit at the Tech Museum of Innovation
in San Jose, Calif., features an
ultrasonic drill developed by JPL senior research scientist Dr.
Yoseph Bar-Cohen and
Cybersonics, Inc. During future space missions, the device could
extract samples using
lightweight landers with robotic arms and small rovers that roam
the surface of an
asteroid or planet. With the help of docents, visitors can operate
the drill at the
"Curiosity Counter." For more information visit http://www.thetech.org/ .
"Footsteps Through Time,"
an exhibit at San Diego's Museum of Man, displays
videos of JPL technology innovations with applications to health
care, the environment,
communications, education, transportation and computer technology.
They include
infrared cameras that can be used to detect breast cancer, as
well as inflatable membranes
that form large spaceborne telescopes. For more information visit
www.museumofman.org .
Many space-themed exhibits are geared
toward children. At Kidspace, an
interactive children's museum in Pasadena, Calif., children can
view a model of a Ranger
spacecraft. The Ranger missions in the 1960s provided high-quality
pictures of the moon.
These images were used for scientific study and selection of
landing sites for the manned
Apollo missions.
Children and adults visiting Disneyland,
in Anaheim, Calif., can experience space
exploration at an exhibit in Tomorrowland, featuring a model
of the Sojourner rover that
landed on Mars in 1997, as well as Explorer 1 and Pioneer 4 spacecraft
models.
Space enthusiasts in many other parts
of the country can see JPL products in
museums and displays.
* In Washington, D.C., the National
Air and Space Museum has full-scale models
of JPL spacecraft, including Voyager and Explorer 1. For more
info, visit
http://www.nasm.si.edu/galleries/gal111/universe/etu_artifacts.htm
.
* At the National Mall in Washington,
D.C. visitors can roam a scale model of the
solar system, developed by the Challenger Center, the National
Air and Space
Museum and NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C..
For more
information visit: http://www.challenger.org/ .
* Also in Washington, D.C., JPL images
from Mars Global Surveyor data and
Shuttle Radar Topography data are on display at National Geographic's
Explorer's Hall in the building's large display windows that
face the street.
* A full-scale replica of Cassini is on loan to the Chicago Museum
of Science and
Industry.
* Both the Kansas Cosmosphere in Hutchinson,
and the Virginia Air and Space
Center in Hampton, display full-scale models of the Viking (Mars)
lander.
* The American Museum of Natural History
in New York City has added models of
the Stardust and Space Interferometry Mission spacecraft to the
space gallery.
JPL is managed for NASA by the California
Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
WHERE ON EARTH CAN YOU SEE PLANETARY
SPACECRAFT?
2002 is a special year for NASA's Jet
Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and for space enthusiasts
worldwide.
"This year marks the 40th anniversary
of planetary
exploration," said Anita Sohus, JPL's museum liaison. "The
celebration is widespread and space aficionados now have the
opportunity to see exhibits throughout California and the
country that feature products from JPL."
A full-scale replica of the Saturn-bound
Cassini spacecraft
is on display at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.
The spacecraft is the centerpiece of the newly reopened Air
and Space Gallery. Rounding out the display are full-scale
models of the Mars Viking lander (1976), Mariner 4 (first
U.S. spacecraft to fly by Mars, in 1965) and Explorer 1,
America's first spacecraft (1958). The permanent exhibit
opened March 9. For more information visit
www.casciencectr.org .
The Chabot Space and Science Center
in Oakland, Calif.,
features "Spaceflight: Journey to the Stars" through
June 9,
2002. Visitors can see models of the Cassini, Stardust and
Mars Odyssey spacecraft. The display also includes a model
of a small rover, or nanorover, like one that may someday
land on an asteroid or other solar system body. For more
information, visit
http://www.chabotspace.org/visit/exhibits.asp .
An exhibit at the Tech Museum of Innovation
in San Jose,
Calif., features an ultrasonic drill developed by JPL senior
research scientist Dr. Yoseph Bar-Cohen and Cybersonics, Inc.
During future space missions, the device could extract samples
using lightweight landers with robotic arms and small rovers
that roam the surface of an asteroid or planet. With the
help of docents, visitors can operate the drill at the
"Curiosity Counter." For more information visit
http://www.thetech.org/ .
"Footsteps Through Time,"
an exhibit at San Diego's Museum
of Man, displays videos of JPL technology innovations with
applications to health care, the environment, communications,
education, transportation and computer technology. They include
infrared cameras that can be used to detect breast cancer, as
well as inflatable membranes that form large spaceborne
telescopes. For more information visit
www.museumofman.org .
Many space-themed exhibits are geared
toward children. At
Kidspace, an interactive children's museum in Pasadena, Calif.,
children can view a model of a Ranger spacecraft. The Ranger
missions in the 1960s provided high-quality pictures of the moon.
These images were used for scientific study and selection of
landing sites for the manned Apollo missions.
Children and adults visiting Disneyland,
in Anaheim, Calif.,
can experience space exploration at an exhibit in Tomorrowland,
featuring a model of the Sojourner rover that landed on Mars
in
1997, as well as Explorer 1 and Pioneer 4 spacecraft models.
Space enthusiasts in many other parts
of the country can see
JPL products in museums and displays.
* In Washington, D.C., the National
Air and Space Museum has
full-scale models of JPL spacecraft, including Voyager and
Explorer 1. For more info, visit
http://www.nasm.si.edu/galleries/gal111/universe/etu_artifacts.htm .
* At the National Mall in Washington,
D.C. visitors can roam a
scale model of the solar system, developed by the Challenger
Center, the National Air and Space Museum and NASA's Office of
Space Science, Washington, D.C.. For more information visit:
http://www.challenger.org/
.
* Also in Washington, D.C., JPL images
from Mars Global
Surveyor data and Shuttle Radar Topography data are on display
at National Geographic's Explorer's Hall in the building's large
display windows that face the street.
* A full-scale replica of Cassini is
on loan to the Chicago
Museum of Science and Industry.
* Both the Kansas Cosmosphere in Hutchinson,
and the Virginia
Air and Space Center in Hampton, display full-scale models of
the
Viking (Mars) lander.
* The American Museum of Natural History
in New York City has
added models of the Stardust and Space Interferometry Mission
spacecraft to the space gallery.
JPL is managed for NASA by the California
Institute of Technology
in Pasadena.
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