ATI Space Email Newsletter - August 1998
In this issue:
ATI SELECTED TO EDIT THE NEWHOO INTERNET SPACE DIRECTORY
NASA ESTABLISHES NEAR-EARTH HAZARDOUS OBJECTS
NEAR EARTH ASTEROID RENDEZVOUS (NEAR)
EFFORTS TO RECOVER SOHO SPACECRAFT CONTINUE
NEW ATI SPACE TRAINING SCHEDULE POSTED ON INTERNET
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ATI SELECTED TO EDIT THE NEWHOO INTERNET SPACE DIRECTORY
See HUMANS do it better.
NewHoo-- a new Internet directory that will organize links to the Internet
on key topics. The Applied Technology Institute (ATI) has been selected to
develop the Newhoo Space directory. Newhoo uses a large number of domain
experts to develop an intelligent directory of Internet links. Newhoo expects
to have more than 1000 editors and this vast army of human reviewers will
provide a superior directory than any produced by a small professional staff
or by a blind automated search engine. Yahoo, for example has only 80 editors.
By definition the Yahoo editors cannot be domain experts in the many areas
that they cover.
ATI develops and teaches continuing training seminars in Space and
Satellite Technology. Jim Jenkins, executive director of ATI will coordinate
the effort stated "ATI is pleased to be part of the Newhoo directory. The
Internet will continue to grow as a source for critical information for space
and satellite design. We feel that the Newhoo has the potential to provide the
most useful links in the Space field. ATI will use its instructors and
students to recommend the most useful Internet links. We all have experienced
the disappointment of a dumb Internet search engine results. We believe that
our group of domain experts will produce a more useful set of links and will
keep the links more timely then any automatic search engine can do."
You are invited to visit both ATI's home page and the Newhoo Space
Directory. Please send us your recommendations for Space and Satellite related
Internet links that you have found useful. Go to the Newhoo page above and
submit recommended URL addresses for sites that you find useful. We hope to
make this one of the most valuable pages for anyone looking for space related
information.
NASA ESTABLISHES NEAR-EARTH HAZARDOUS OBJECTS
A new program office to coordinate NASA-sponsored efforts
to detect, track and characterize potentially hazardous asteroids
and comets that could approach Earth will be established at NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA.
NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office will focus on the
goal of locating at least 90 percent of the estimated 2,000
asteroids and comets that approach the Earth and are larger than
about 2/3-mile (about 1 kilometer) in diameter, by the end of the
next decade.
"These are objects that are difficult to detect because of
their relatively small size, but are large enough to cause global
effects if one hit the Earth," said Dr. Donald K. Yeomans of JPL.
"Finding a majority of this population will require the efforts of
researchers at several NASA centers, at universities and at observatories
across the country, and will require the participation by the international
astronomy community as well."
JPL was selected to host the program office because of its
expertise in precisely tracking the positions and predicted paths
of asteroids and comets. No significant additional staff hiring
at JPL is expected at this time.
NEAR EARTH ASTEROID RENDEZVOUS (NEAR)
The first launch in NASA's Discovery program of lower-cost, highly focused
planetary science missions, NEAR was launched in February 1996 and
has since become the first spacecraft powered by solar cells to operate
beyond the orbit of Mars. On June 27, 1997, NEAR flew by the
asteroid 253 Mathilde. It found Mathilde to be composed of extremely
dark material, with numerous large impact craters, including one nearly
6 miles deep. A subsequent deep-space maneuver in July 1997 brought
NEAR back around Earth for a slingshot gravity assist that put the
spacecraft on a trajectory for its main mission: a rendezvous with the
Manhattan-sized asteroid 433 Eros. NEAR will arrive at Eros on
January 10, 1999. It will study Eros from as close as 9 miles for at least a
year. NEAR was built and is managed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied
Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland. Several of ATI instructors have worked
on NEAR and it will be covered in-depth in our Small Satellite Design seminar
on Jan 25-28, 1999.
EFFORTS TO RECOVER SOHO SPACECRAFT CONTINUE
Engineers are continuing efforts to reestablish contact
with the NASA/European Space Agency (ESA) Solar and Heliospheric
Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft using NASA's Deep Space Network
(DSN). Contact with SOHO was lost on June 24 during maintenance
operations. Engineers are concentrating on gaining a full understanding
of the events which led to the loss of signal, information which
might help them devise procedures which may recover contact with
SOHO.
Based on the last telemetry data received from SOHO,
engineers said it appears most likely that the spacecraft is
slowly spinning in such a way that its solar arrays, which
generate power, either do not face the Sun at all or do not
receive adequate sunlight to generate power. However, based on
the last data received, it appears that SOHO's solar panels may be
exposed to an increasing amount of sunlight each day as it orbits
the Sun. The SOHO Mission Interruption Joint ESA/NASA Investigation
Board has determined that three errors were made:the first two errors were
contained in preprogrammed command sequences executed on ground system
computers, while the last error was a decision to send a command
to the spacecraft in response to unexpected telemetry readings.
The spacecraft is controlled by a joint ESA/NASA Flight Operations
Team.
See http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/
NEW ATI SPACE TRAINING SCHEDULE POSTED ON INTERNET
The new schedule of ATI space and satellite technical training has been
posted on our web site. Brochures should be mailed by the end of July.
See http://catalog.com/hitekweb/sked.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/|\ APPLIED TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE tel.(410) 531-6034
|A| 12960 Linden Church Road fax (410) 531-1013
|T| Clarksville, Maryland 21029 e-mail: atiinfo@aol.com
|I|
||| ATI world wide web: http://catalog.com/hitekweb/
||| Space directory editor http://www.newhoo.com/Science/Space/
/ | \ James Jenkins, Executive Director
'' `` The Leader in Space Technical Training since 1984
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~