WHAT'S NEW Friday, 7 Mar 03

WHAT'S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 7 Mar 03   Washington, DC   

SUMMER INTERNSHIP IN THE APS WASHINGTON OFFICE. We're looking for 
a physics graduate student or advanced undergraduate with genius
IQ and great writing skills.  Some writing experience desired.  
Two writing samples, resume and 3 letters of recommendation to:
[email protected] by April 18, 2003.

1. COLUMBIA: THE INVESTIGATION BOARD HAS BECOME MORE INDEPENDENT.
Of the eleven initial members, ten were federal employees (WN 14
Feb 03), raising concerns about independence. Is it important?
After Challenger, Feynman said he asked NASA managers to estimate
the failure risk.  They put it at roughly 1 in 100,000, but NASA
engineers put it closer to 1 in 100.  Shiela Widnall of MIT was
added for more independence (WN 21 Feb 03), and on Wednesday,
Adm. Harold Gehman, the chair, asked NASA chief Sean O'Keefe to
add three more academics: Doug Osheroff of Stanford, professor of
physics, Nobel prize in 1996; Sally Ride, professor of space
science at UCSD, a physicist and former astronaut who was on the
Challenger board; and John Logsdon, political scientist, director
of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University.

2. SATELLITE REPAIRS: WN OVERLOOKED THE SOLAR MAXIMUM MISSION. 
We incorrectly stated last week that Hubble was the only science
satellite repaired in orbit (WN 28 Feb 03).  Our readers lost no
time in setting us straight.  Launched in 1980, SMM's pointing
mechanism failed the first year.  NASA saw a chance to showcase a
daring rescue using the newly operational shuttle.  An astronaut
wearing a thruster backpack would maneuver to SMM, snag it with a
special tool, and tow it back to the shuttle for repair.  Alas,
the neutral buoyancy training pool simulated zero gravity nicely,
but not zero viscosity, and in the rescue attempt the astronaut
only managed to start SMM spinning wildly.  Months of planning
and training had to be scrapped.  SMM was grabbed by the Canadian
robot arm.  A mission meant to showcase unique human abilities in
space, instead proved the value of robots controlled by humans.  

3. VIRTUAL ASTRONAUT: PIONEER 10 SENDS ITS LAST SIGNAL TO EARTH. 
Its nuclear furnace has grown cold.  Launched in 1972 on a two-
year mission, the tiny 570-pound spacecraft was 30 years and 7.6
billion miles from home when it sent its last faint transmission
on 22 Jan 2003.  The first spacecraft to venture beyond Mars,
Pioneer 10 negotiated the unknown hazard of the asteroid belt to
send back the first close-up images of Jupiter.  It charted the
currents of the solar wind to the very edge of interstellar
space, while suffering the usual infirmities of old age: its
mechanical limbs arthritic; its senses dimmed by the battering of
radiation and micrometeoroids; circuits shut down to conserve
energy. It's last assignment was to find the heliopause, where
the solar wind is offset by the galactic wind, but in April 1997
it was passed by a younger, faster Voyager spacecraft.  It was
recalled to active duty by NASA's Deep Space Network as part a
communications study in support of a future interstellar probe. 
No matter, Pioneer 10 was expendable.  Requiescat in pace.

THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND and THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY.  
Opinions are the author's and are not necessarily shared by the
University or the American Physical Society, but they should be.
---
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