Дата: 29 января 1998 (1998-01-29)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: New Satellite Animation Shows El Nino In Atmosphere
Привет всем!
Вот, свалилось из Internet...
MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
Contact: Mary Hardin (818) 354-0344
VIDEO & INTERNET ADVISORY January 27, 1998
NEW SATELLITE ANIMATION SHOWS EL NINO IN ATMOSPHERE
New satellite animation shows the movement of water vapor over the
Pacific Ocean during the 1997 El Nino condition. Higher than normal ocean
water temperatures increase the rate of evaporation, the resulting warm
moist air rises into the atmosphere, altering global weather patterns.
The animation was created from data obtained by the Microwave Limb
Sounder (MLS) instrument onboard NASA's Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite
(UARS) from late December 1996 to late December 1997.
A NASA TV video file will feature the new animation at 9 a.m., noon,
3, 6, 9 p.m. Pacific Time today. NASA Television is available on GE-2,
transponder 9C at 85 degrees West longitude, with vertical polarization.
Frequency is on 3880.0 megahertz, with audio on 6.8 megahertz.
In addition, the most recent still images of the El Niсo water vapor
are now available online at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/elnino
The MLS instrument is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a
division of the California Institute of Technology.
#####
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 29 января 1998 (1998-01-29)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: Lunar Prospector Update - January 26, 1998
Привет всем!
Вот, свалилось из Internet...
Lunar Prospector Mission Status Report #15
January 26, 1998 - 07:00 p.m. EST (4:00 p.m. PST)
The Lunar Prospector spacecraft continues to
operate well according to Mission Control at NASA's
Ames Research Center. The current state of the
vehicle (as of 0000 GMT [Zulu] on Jan. 27),
according to Mission Operations Manager Marcie
Smith, is as follows:
Spacecraft Orbit Number: 174
Date Downlink Rate: 3600 bps
Spin Rate: 11.94 rpm
Spin Axis Attitude Longitude -- 352 deg
(maneuver target): Latitude -- 89.3 deg
Trajectory: Periselene: 88 km
Aposelene: 112 km
Period: 118 minutes
Occultations: None
Eclipses: 25 minutes duration
During the day on Jan. 26, 24 commands were sent to
the Lunar Prospector spacecraft to reorient the
spin axis and trim the spin rate. The spin axis is
now approximately aligned with the ecliptic north
pole, but it is tilted about 1 degree or so towards
the sun for thermal reasons and to reduce boom
shadowing on the solar arrays. As the Earth moves
around the sun, the spin axis must be "tweaked" a
bit to maintain this configuration.
The spin rate was trimmed to keep it within the
boundary constraints desired for gravity mapping.
The rate will be kept to 12.00 _ 0.10 rpm during
the first two months of the mission to assist in
achieving the gravity mapping objectives of the
mission.
A detailed timeline of today's commanding events
(expressed in GMT/Zulu time) is provided below:
16:52 Thruster heaters commanded on
17:18 Reorientation maneuver -- 12 pulses were
fired to precess the spacecraft spin axis
2.4 degrees
17:20 Reset thrusters
17:28 Thruster heater commanded on
17:54 A spin trim was conducted to reduce the spin
rate of the spacecraft from 12.098 rpm to
11.936 rpm via a 0.61 second thruster burn
17:54 Reset thrusters
As of 4:00 p.m. PST today (Jan. 26), no further
spacecraft commanding or science instrument
commanding events are currently scheduled for the
upcoming period.
David Morse
Ames Research Center
Moffett Field, CA 94035
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 29 января 1998 (1998-01-29)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: Hughes Selected To Build Weather Satellites
Привет всем!
Вот, свалилось из Internet...
Douglas Isbell
Headquarters, Washington, DC January 28, 1998
(Phone: 202/358-1753)
Allen Kenitzer
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
(Phone: 301/286-2806)
Pat Viets
NOAA/National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information
Service, Suitland, MD
(Phone: 301/457-5005)
RELEASE: c98-b
HUGHES SELECTED TO BUILD WEATHER SATELLITES
NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) have awarded a $423 million contract to Hughes Space and
Communications, El Segundo, CA, for the manufacture, launch and
delivery on-orbit of up to four weather-monitoring Geostationary
Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES).
The procurement of the GOES-N through -Q spacecraft marks the
extension of this multi-satellite program designed to provide
continuous monitoring of the Earth's weather systems and the
related space environment. The new spacecraft will be used to
continue and enhance the functions of the current GOES I-M series
of spacecraft.
GOES spacecraft are a mainstay of modern weather forecasting,
providing meteorologists and hydrologists with visible and
infrared images of weather systems, and precise atmospheric
soundings. They orbit above the equator at a height of 22,238
miles, stationed at 75 degrees west longitude and 135 degrees west
longitude to provide broad views of the Atlantic and Pacific
oceans where storms can be monitored while first forming.
The basic contract value of $423.1 million provides for two
spacecraft, GOES-N and -O, at a fixed total price. There are
separate, fixed-price options for two additional spacecraft, GOES-
P and -Q, priced at $190.9 million and $185 million, respectively.
Along with these options, there are additional, separately
priced potential contract costs. They include Government-directed
task assignments; additional integration and test support;
changes to Government-furnished equipment deliveries; program-
related launch vehicle changes; directed launch delays (due
primarily to on-orbit satellites lasting longer than expected) and
related spacecraft ground storage; and post-storage testing.
The GOES program is a partnership between NOAA and NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. NOAA is responsible
for program management and budget, determining the technical
requirements for the spacecraft, operating the spacecraft in orbit
and disseminating the resulting data. The NASA Goddard GOES
project office is responsible for the acquisition of the
spacecraft and oversight of the contract, and will support NOAA
during the post-launch operations phase.
The first spacecraft purchased under this contract will be
ready for launch in October 2001. GOES N-Q will carry an Imager
and a Sounder to provide regular measurements of Earth's
atmosphere, cloud cover and land surfaces. Two of them also will
carry a Solar X-ray Imager and Space Environment Monitor instruments.
-end-
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 29 января 1998 (1998-01-29)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: Space Pioneers Recall 1st US Satellite Launch Upon 40th Anniversary
Привет всем!
Вот, свалилось из Internet...
Douglas Isbell
Headquarters, Washington DC January 28, 1998
(Phone: 202/358-1753)
Mary Beth Murrill
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
(Phone: 818/354-6478)
RELEASE: 98-15
SPACE PIONEERS RECALL FIRST U.S. SATELLITE LAUNCH UPON 4OTH ANNIVERSARY
Forty years ago this week, a team of scientists and
engineers successfully launched Explorer 1, the first U.S.
satellite to orbit the Earth. This historic accomplishment
marked the nation's debut in the Cold War-era space race and
set the stage for the establishment of the civilian space
agency that would become NASA.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA,
was still operated as a research laboratory for the U.S. Army
when it was selected in November 1957 to develop the first
U.S. satellite, including its science package, its
communications system, and the high-speed upper stages for
the Army's Redstone rocket that would guide the tiny,
20-pound Explorer 1 into the great unknown. JPL and the Army
completed the assignment and successfully launched the
satellite in less than three months. JPL and the Army
Ballistic Missile Agency, based in Huntsville, AL, joined in
firing the satellite toward space from the missile test
center at Cape Canaveral, FL, on Jan. 31, 1958.
The scientific experiment onboard, a cosmic ray detector
built by Dr. James Van Allen of the University of Iowa, soon
returned one of the most important findings of the space
program: the discovery of what are now known as the Van Allen
Radiation Belts around the Earth. Explorer 1 went on to
operate for three months.
Following the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik on Oct.
4, 1957, "there was a lot of pressure to get a satellite in
orbit as quickly as possible," said Dr. William Pickering,
then JPL's director and the orchestrator of the Explorer 1
effort at JPL.
The intensive effort was accomplished by a team of
experts from U.S. academia and the military, along with top
World War II German rocket scientists such as
Dr. Wernher von Braun, who emigrated to the United
States in the post-war years to help lead the development of
American rocket capabilities. A globally linked
telecommunications system developed by JPL tracked Explorer 1
and received its scientific data as it circled Earth.
Amateur radio operators around the world were invited to
listen in on Explorer 1's radio communications, including one
key amateur radio shack operated largely by JPL ham radio
operators at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's substation in
Temple City, near JPL.
The most difficult technical challenge, said Pickering,
"was getting the three rocket stages to work consistently, to
get it all to go in the right direction, with no guidance
system." Considering the telecommunications and computing
capability of the Explorer 1 era versus that available for
last summer's Mars Pathfinder mission, Pickering said, "it's
astonishing to think what has happened over 40 years."
Van Allen, still an active planetary and space physics
researcher, recalled that, the morning after the historic
Explorer 1 launch, "a big press conference had been called at
the Great Hall of the National Academy of Sciences in
Washington, DC, and although it was 1:30 in the morning,
there was still a huge crowd of reporters waiting around."
Donna Shirley, Mars Exploration program manager at JPL,
was in high school when the news hit that Explorer 1 had been
launched. "It was a terrific emotional moment," she
recalled. "It seemed like a scary thing that the Soviet
Union was so powerful that they could launch Sputnik. When
Explorer went up, it was, 'Rah, rah, our team!'" she said.
"It seemed to be framed in 'us versus them' rather than
focused on the real technical and scientific achievement. But
the dawn of the Space Age affected my life a lot.
"I don't think the 'right stuff' to work in the space
program has really changed all that much" since the days of
Explorer 1, said Shirley. "You don't have cigar-smoking guys
with slide rules anymore, but I think the 'right stuff' is
still the same: dedication and competence."
In late 1958, JPL was reassigned from the U.S. Army to
NASA when the civilian space agency was created, and has
helped lead the world's exploration of space with robotic
spacecraft since then. Operated as a division of the
California Institute of Technology, JPL has sent spacecraft
to all of the known planets except Pluto, and this year will
launch major astronomy and planetary exploration missions to
comets, asteroids and Mars, along with many Earth-observing
efforts.
As the size of NASA's space missions takes advantage of
miniaturized electronics to shrink to fit the new "faster,
better, cheaper" mold, some complete space science
instrument packages are about the size of that on tiny
Explorer 1, Shirley said.
"Miniaturization is allowing us to shrink down the
brains of our spacecraft but still allow us to do more with
them than we used to. The challenge now is to shrink the
rest of the spacecraft down."
Considering the future of space science, Van Allen
observed that "there is no shortage of great ideas on what
we'd like to do. 'Faster, better, cheaper' is NASA's mantra,
and the recent successful launch of the Lunar Prospector
spacecraft is the best example of that. But the Hubble Space
Telescope is a good example of big projects that will
continue to be conducted. I think we have a very bright
future in space science in all areas. There is good public
support," he said. "There is virtually no limit to what can
be investigated in interplanetary science and astronomy."
-end-
NOTE TO EDITORS: Photos are available to news media to
illustrate this story by calling the Headquarters Audio
Imaging Branch at 202/358-1900. Photo numbers are:
97-HC-482
97-HC-483
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
сайт служит астрономическому сообществу с 2005 года
