From: yee@atlas.arc.nasa.gov (Peter Yee)
Subject: NASA Daily News for 01/05/93 (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 01:08:01 GMT

Daily                 News
Tuesday, January 5, 1993
Two Independence Square, Washington, D.C.
Audio service: 202/358-3014

 % Ames-Dryden engineer develops better "strain" gauge measurement system;
 % STS-54 pre-mission & STS-53 post-mission briefings set for tomorrow, 
                Thursday;
 % Dante robot packed in boxes, team expects to be home by January 15;
 % NASA releases more Cosmic Background Explorer pictures of Milky Way;
 % Preparations for next week's launch of Endeavour for STS-54 going 
                smoothly;
 % Space Station Office buildings lease in Reston extended through 1997;
 % JPL will hold another in its series of Magellan-at-Venus science seminars.

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

A NASA engineer has developed an idea which could revolutionize the way
engineers measure stress and strain with wire gauges.  Karl Anderson,
Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility, invented a method to prevent
errors caused by temperature changes in the wires used to measure
stress and strain.  The new system Anderson has invented applies a
different type of electrical circuit to the gauges, eliminating the
electrical effects of temperature changes to the wire gauge.

The new method is expected to produce quick and possibly large cost
savings as well as tremendous savings in the time required to perform
accurate stress and strain analysis.  The old method, using an
electrical averaging circuit invented nearly 150 years ago, required
repeated testing to produce a consistent set of resultsPwhich were then
averaged.

NASA has applied for patents on the innovation.  Technical literature
on the invention can be obtained from the National Technical
Information Service, Springfield, Va., by requesting NASA TM-104260.

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

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
television.

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

The latest report from David Lavery, the NASA Telerobotic Program
manager who supervised the Dante-Mt. Erebus robot exploration
demonstration, states that the team has retrieved the robot and is now
in the process of packing it into its shipping crates.  Lavery said the
team expected to depart the National Science Foundation's South Pole
logistics station at McMurdo Sound for Christchurch, New Zealand, as
early as Friday, Jan.  8.  The team members expect to be back at their
respective home organizations by Jan. 15.

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

NASA released another set of Cosmic Background Explorer images of the
Milky Way galaxy in Phoenix today as part of the activities associated
with this annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society.  The new
COBE pictures are taken in a variety of infrared wavelengths and show
the dust lanes of the galaxy, the dust embedded in our own solar
system, and the overall structure of the Milky Way and its companion
smaller galaxiesPthe Large and Small Magellanic Clouds.  COBE was
launched Nov. 18, 1989 and has produced a number of discoveries, the
most important of which what that the background radiation of the
Universe is entirely consistent with the Big Bang Theory of cosmic
evolution.

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

The preparations for next week's launch of Endeavour for the STS-54
Tracking and Data Relay Satellite deploy mission continue to progress
smoothly at the Kennedy Space Center.  Activity expected to have been
completed by this morning included closeouts of the main engine
compartment and checks of the TDRS and its Inertial Upper Stage
electrical systems.  The launch countdown begins this Sunday, Jan. 10,
at 12:01 am. EST The launch is currently scheduled for 8:52 am EST on
Wednesday, Jan. 13.  Nominal end- of-mission landing is set for 8:24 am
EST on Tuesday, Jan. 19 at the Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing
Facility.

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

NASA has extended the lease for its Space Station Freedom offices in
Reston, Va.  The new lease arrangement covers the lease from Sept. 1,
1993 through Aug. 31, 1997, with options to cover the period through
Aug. 31, 2003.  Lease costs for the period through 1997 are slightly
more than $6 million, with the period from 1997-through 2003 estimated
at nearly $11.4 million.  The contract is a firm fixed price contract
and is with Parkridge Phase III Associates.

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

Scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will replay a science
seminar on Magellan mission results of Venus radar mapping this Friday,
Jan. 8, at 2:00 pm EST.  The seminar will be taped on Jan. 6 in the JPL
von Karmauditorium.  The  featured speaker is Tim Parker, the Magellan
project science assistant, who will discuss the more than 200 lava
channels so far discovered and what they might be able to tell us about
Venus' geologic history.




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.

Tuesday, January 5, 1993


Satellite validation testing for STS-54 mission P no 
programming.

Wednesday, January 6, 1993
Live  9:30 am   STS-54 mission overview 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 Miller 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 cE
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