From: yee@atlas.arc.nasa.gov (Peter Yee)
Subject: NASA Daily News for 01/04/93 (Forwarded)
Apparently-To: sci-space-news@ames.arc.nasa.gov
Followup-To: sci.space
Originator: yee@atlas.arc.nasa.gov
Reply-To: yee@atlas.arc.nasa.gov (Peter Yee)
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 01:05:07 GMT

Daily                 News
Monday, January 4, 1993
Two Independence Square, Washington, D.C.
Audio service: 202/358-3014

 % Dante robot project called "unqualified" success in telerobotics;
 % Robot team now in process of removing Dante from volcano, will come 
                home then;
 % STS-53 and STS-54 briefings set for Wednesday and Thursday, Jan. 6 & 7;
 % NASA scientists announce major finding at American Astronomical 
                meeting --
 % RoSat team reports on possible discovery of "dark matter" around local 
                galaxies.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The Dante robot team in the Antarctic called off their project Saturday
after they discovered that the problem with their computers was being
caused by a physical break in the fiber-optic cable connecting the
robot with its computers located about 2 kilometers away (1.2 miles) at
the team's base camp.

The Dante robot had advanced slightly more than 6 meters (about 21
feet) in the initial attempts to deploy it down the 228-meter-deep (750
feet) Mt. Erebus volcano's inner rim.  The robot was transported from
Pittsburgh to the Antarctic in a series of interim stops and finally
arrived at McMurdo Sound on Dec. 15.  By Dec. 25, the NASA-National
Science Foundation and university team working this project had
assembled the robot and its associated computers and communications
gear at the foot of the active volcano.

The mission goal was to test the concepts of telerobotics, test
sophisticated robots such as the Dante (built by Carnegie-Mellon
University staff and students) in the very harsh environment of the
Antarctic, and to determine the applicability of using such devices
under their own autonomous control systems as possible explorers for
the Moon and Mars.

David Lavery, the NASA Headquarters Telerobotics Program manager and
the on- site project supervisor in the Antarctic, said that even though
the cable break prevented the robot from descending down to the
volcano's lava lake, the team considered the telerobotic and
robot-in-harsh-environment portions of the demonstration to be
"unqualified successes."

The team is in the process of getting the robot back up to the rim of
the volcano and from there down to their staging ground at the
volcano's base.  The 11-member science and engineering team will then
disassemble the robot and its associated elements, their computers,
communications gear and other items for shipment by helicopter back to
the National Science Foundation's main South Pole facility at McMurdo.
The team expects to be out of Antarctica and on their way home by
January 15.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

NASA will hold a series of briefings on Jan. 6 and 7 to discuss the
upcoming STS-54 mission to deploy a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite
and to report on the completed STS-53 mission.  At 9:30 am, Wed. Jan.
6, lead flight director for the STS-54 mission, Phil Engelauf, will
present an overview of the mission.  That briefing will be followed by
a series of briefings describing the STS-54 cargo, including the TDRS,
the Diffuse X-ray Spectrometer, and several secondary payloads.  At
4:00 on Jan. 6, the flight crew of the STS-53 mission will present a
series of videos and still photographs of their mission and describe
their activities during the early December flight.  On Thursday, Jan.
7, at 10:00 am, the STS-54 crew will discuss their upcoming
activities.  All the briefings will be carried live on NASA Select

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

A group of NASA and university scientists today reported that
instruments located on the U.S.-German RoSat scientific satallite have
discovered a significant concentration of "dark matter" in the space
surrounding three small galaxies located about 150 million light years
from here.  Goddard Space Flight Center astrophysicist Richard
Mushotzky and colleagues reported at the American Astronomical
Society's annual meeting in Phoenix their discovery of enough dark
matter surrounding the three galaxies (known as the "NGC 2300 group")
to provide initial confirmation of the dark matter theory.  The theory
postulates that the bulk of matter in the universe is associated with
matter which is undetectable through currently-available sensing
technologies but which can

The Mushotzky group, using the Position Sensitive Proportional Counter
instruments on the RoSat, have found that the three NGC 2300 galaxies
are enmeshed in a huge cloud of hot gas nearly 1.3 million light years
in diameter.  The amount of mass contained in that cloud is roughly
equal to 500 billion solar masses and would have dissipated into space
long ago were it not for gravity.  Mushotzky said the amount of mass
required to create that level of gravity is "about 25 times greater
than the mass of the three galaxies" themselves.  The Goddard Space
Flight Center expects to release several excellent images of the dark
matter later this week.

If, as has also been postulated, such clouds are present in the more
pdominant smaller clusters of galaxies in the universe, then this
represents a possible solution to the missing 90-to-95 percent of the
universe's total mass.  Mushotzky said that if that were found to be
true, and the team will continue with observations of other smaller
clusters, then the fate of the Universe can be foretold -- it would
collapse again, rather than expanding forever.  Current theory holds
that the Universe began as a single point of mass which has been
expanding outward since the moment of the Big Bang, estimated variously
to be between 10 and 20 billion years ago.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Here's the broadcast schedule for Public Affairs events on NASA Select
TV.  Note that all events and times may change without notice, and that
all times listed are Eastern.  Live indicates a program is transmitted
live.

Monday, January 4, 1993
Live    12:00 pm   NASA Today news program.
        12:15 pm   Aeronautics & Space Report.
        12:30 pm   Voyager of Endeavour.
         1:00 pm   For All Mankind.
         1:30 pm   Living and Working in Space.
         2:00 pm   Reaching for the Stars.
         2:30 pm   Looking Ahead and Back.
         3:00 pm   
 at 4:00 and 8:00 pm and 12:00 midnight the broadcast 
           schedule of the day repeats.

Wednesday, January 6, 1993
Live     9:30 am   STS-54 mission with lead flight director Phil Engelauf from
                   Johnson Space Center.

Live    10:30 am   STS-54 educational experiment "Physics of Toys": with Greg
                   Vogt from JSC.

Live    11:05 am   STS-54 Tracking and Data Relay Satellite payload briefing
                   with Charles Vanek from Kennedy Space Center.

Live    11:50 am   STS-54 TDRS Inertial Upper Stage booster briefing with Sid
                   Soucier from Marshall Space Flight Center.

Live    12:25 pm   STS-54 Diffuse X-ray Spectrometer payload briefing with
                   Louis Kaluzienski, Wilton Sanders, and Chris Dunker from JSC.

Live     2:00 pm   STS-54 Improved Waste Collection System briefing with Dan
                   Germany from JSC.

Live     2:35 pm   STS-54 spacewalk briefing with Ron Farris and Gerry Mill
                   from JSC.

Live     4:00 pm   STS-53 post-mission briefing with STS-53 crew from JSC.
   at 4:00 and 8:00 pm and 12:00 midnight the broadcast 
            schedule of the day repeats.

Thursday, January 7, 1993
Live    10:00 am  STS-54 crew pre-flight briefing with STS-54 crew from Johnson
                  Space Center.
   at 4:00 and 8:00 pm and 12:00 midnight the broadcast 
           schedule of the day repeats.

This report is filed daily at noon, Monday through Friday.  It is a
service of NASA's Office of Public Affairs.  The editor is Charles
Redmond, 202/358-3014 or CREDMOND on NASAmail.  NASA Select TV is
carried on GE Satcom F2R, transponder 13, C-Band, 72 degrees West
Longitude, transponder frequency is 3960 MegaHertz, audio subcarrier is
6.8 MHz, polarization is vertical.
Newsgroups: sci.space.news