STI BULLETIN ONLINE 

A quarterly publication of the NASA Scientific and Technical Information (STI) Program produced by the NASA 

Center for AeroSpace Information (CASI) for the users of our information products and services. 

January 2005 

Featured Articles Departments

• Outreach Team Receives Outpouring of

Marshall Support, Despite Downpour

• From the Users

• From the Centers

• From the STI Program Office

Focus On...Swift

Publication News

• Current Topics

• NASA History

View Previous Issues

Subscribe/Unsubscribe

Featured Articles 

Outreach Team Receives Outpouring of Marshall Support, Despite Downpour 

CASI’s Outreach Specialists Michelle Mariano and Chris Stark were met with both heavy rains and warm, friendly people 

on their trip to Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama, October 19-21, 2004. With the invaluable

help of MSFC’s STI Office, CIO Office, and the Engineering Learning Organization Initiative, Mariano and Stark were able

to raise awareness in the MSFC community of the NASA Aeronautics and Space Database. Together, they braved the

downpour and set up shop in the lobby outside the cafeteria to spread the word using flyers and computer 

demonstrations. They were also able to conduct two in-depth training sessions for those who were interested in learning

how to use the database to its fullest potential. Their efforts resulted in more than 30 new registrants and plenty of 

valuable feedback that CASI can use to improve the products and services they provide to the NASA community. 

In between promoting the NASA Aeronautics and Space Database, Mariano and Stark found time to pop into the MSFC 

Documentation Repository, the centralized facility for the receipt, storage, management, and distribution of MSFC

technical documentation. They had the opportunity to meet the repository staff and discuss key issues that affect both

parties. Upon returning to CASI, Mariano and Stark were able to begin a mutually beneficial project with the repository. 

They deemed this visit time well spent! 

Mariano and Stark continued their Alabama adventures at the Redstone Scientific Information Center (RSIC), operated by 

the U.S. Army. RSIC serves as the primary library for NASA MSFC employees and contractors. They conducted an 

informal training session on the NASA Aeronautics and Space Database to both seasoned and new RSIC librarians and 
were able to gather feedback from a librarian’s perspective. In addition, they discussed how CASI could help RSIC best 

serve the NASA MSFC community. 

Thanks to the support they received from MSFC and RSIC, Mariano and Stark were able to declare their 3 days in

Alabama a team accomplishment! 

Michelle Mariano and Betty Fowler, MSFC Head of Publications, at a lunchtime

demonstration of the NASA Aeronautics and Space Database. 

Chris Stark and the Redstone Scientific Information Center (RSIC)

librarians during a NASA Aeronautics and Space Database training

and discussion on October 21, 2004. 
STI BULLETIN ONLINE 

Focus On ... ... Swift 

Back to Main

NASA successfully launched the Swift satellite on Saturday, November 20th from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Swift is a multi-wavelength observatory dedicated to the study of gamma ray burst science. It is expected to observe more 

than 200 bursts during its 2-year mission. The main mission objectives are to: 

• Determine the origin of gamma-ray bursts 

• Classify gamma-ray bursts and search for new types 

• Determine how the blast wave evolves and interacts with the surroundings 

• Use gamma-ray bursts to study the early universe 

• Perform the first sensitive hard X-ray survey of the sky 

The Swift launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on November 20th at 12:16 p.m. 

Swift is comprised of three instruments which will work together to provide rapid identification and

multi-wavelength follow-up of gamma ray bursts and their afterglows. The three components are:

a Burst Alert Telescope, an X-ray Telescope, and a UV/Optical Telescope. 

Gamma ray bursts are the most powerful explosions in the universe. They occur approximately 

once per day and are brief flashes of gamma radiation. Currently, scientists do not know their 

origin. Swift will provide scientists with a tool dedicated to answering questions regarding gamma 

ray bursts and solving the mystery of their origin. 

Artist rendering of the Swift spacecraft with a gamma ray burst going 

off in the background. 

If you are wondering what “Swift” stands for, the name "Swift" is not an acronym. The

observatory is named after a small, nimble bird, the same bird that appears in the Swift 

logo. The Swift observatory is built to be agile, quickly turning to point its instruments at 

gamma-ray bursts and relaying the burst locations to the ground within seconds, much

like the Swift bird might grab up insects as it flies through the sky. Thus, the Swift bird

serves as a metaphor for the Swift observatory. 
The citations below provide a sample of recently published information found in the NTRS: NASA Technical Reports 

Server. Some documents are available in full-text Portable Document Format (PDF) files that you can download free of

charge, while others can be purchased through the STI Help Desk at 301-621-0390 or help@sti.nasa.gov. Please use the 

document identification numbers listed below when contacting the Help Desk. You can also keep up to date on this topic 

by checking Scientific and Technical Aerospace Reports (STAR), a biweekly abstract journal, in Category 89 –

Astronomy. You can find STAR on the STI Web site at http://www.sti.nasa.gov. 

Band, David L.; Comparison of the Gamma-Ray Burst Sensitivity of Different Detectors; 20030022795 

Chelberg, David; Drews, Frank; Fleeman, David; Welch, Lonnie; Marquart, Jane; Pfarr, Barbara; 

Obtaining the Greatest Scientific Benefit from Observational Platforms by Consideration of the Relative

Benefit of Observations; 20030095961 

Choi, Michael K.; Thermal Design to Meet Stringent Temperature Gradient/Stability Requirements of

SWIFT BAT Detectors; 20000072444 

Cline, T.L.; Norris, J.P.; Hurley, K.C.; Strategies for Studying the Sources of Gamma Ray Bursts; 

20030025398

Fishman, G. J.; Six, N. Frank; EXIST (Energetic X-ray Imaging Survey Telescope): The Next Large GRB 

Observatory; 20030001693

Fishman, Gerald J.; Whitaker, Ann F.; Observations of GRBs: Current Research and Planning for a Next

Generation GRB Observatory; 20010070000 

Fishman, Gerald J.; EXIST: The Next Large GRB Observatory; 20030062029 

Fishman, Gerald J.; Considerations for a Next Generation GRB Observatory; 20000080181 

Fishman, Gerald J.; Rose, M. Franklin; Considerations for a Next Generation GRB Observatory; 

20010021169

Gehrels, Neil; Swift: A Gamma Ray Bursts Explorer; 20030054379 

Gehrels, Neil; The Swift MIDEX Mission; 20040081292 

Gehrels, Neil; The Swift Gamma Ray Burst Mission; 20040090633 

Grindlay, J.; Gehrels, N.; Harrison, F.; Blandford, R.; Fishman, G.; Kouveliotou, C.; Hartmann, D. H.; 

Woosley, S.; Craig, W.; Hong, J.; Proposed Next Generation GRB Mission: EXIST; 20030037375 

Hansen, Patricia A.; Day, Diane; Secunda, Mark; The Swift Project Contamination Control Program: A 

Case study of Balancing Cost, Schedule and Risk; 20030102244 

Krimm, Hans A.; Barbier, Louis M.; Barthelmy, Scott D.; Eftekharzadeh, Ardeshir; Fenimore, Edward E.;

Gehrels, Neil; Hullinger, Derek D.; Markwardt, Craig; Palmer, David M.; Parsons, Ann M.; Searches for 

Hard X-Ray Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows with the BAT on Swift; 20030037381 

Markwardt, Craig; Monitoring and Detecting X-ray Transients with the Swift Observatory; 20030054353 
Meegan, Charles; Rose, M. Franklin; Future Missions for Gamma-Ray Astronomy; 20010021172 

guyen, Quang H.; Settles, Beverly A.; Image Processor Electronics (IPE): The High-Performance 

orris, J. P.; Bonnell, J. T.; How Can The SN-GRB Time Delay Be Measured?; 20040031459 

orris, Jay P.; Gamma-Ray Bursts and Cosmology; 20040012963 

arsons, A.; Hullinger, D.; Markwardt, C.; Barthelmy, S.; Cummings, J.; Gehrels, N.; Krimm, H.; Tueller, 

obinson, David W.; Building a New Kind of Graded-Z Shield for Swift’s Burst Alert Telescope; 

N

Computing System for NASA SWIFT Mission; 20030053388 

N

N

P

J.; Fenimore, E.; Palmer, D.; Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) Instrument Response; 20040079828 

R

20030032274 
STI BULLETIN ONLINE 

Departments

• From the Users

o NTRS: NASA Technical Reports Server

o NACA TRS: National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics 

(NACA) Technical Report Server

o Other STI Products

Back to Main

From the Users 

NTRS: NASA Technical Reports Server 

Q. I have searched the NTRS for NASA SP-7012, but I didn’t find it. How should I search for report numbers? 

A. To search for report numbers in the NTRS, remove any punctuation marks and replace them with spaces. For 

instance, the report you mention would be searched for as follows: 

NASA SP 7012 

You can enter this in either the Simple Search screen or in the Report Number / Journal / Conference text box on the 

Advanced Search screen. For more tips on searching the NTRS, please click the “Help” button in the toolbar at the top of 

the screen. 

Back to Top

________________________________________________________________________________________________

NACA TRS: National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) Technical Report Server 

Q. I need the following NACA report, and I can’t find it on the NACA Technical Report Server: Kuhn, Paul, 1942. “A

Method of Calculating Bending Stresses Due to Torsion.” NACA Wartime Report L-352. 

A. The report you requested is available on the NACA Technical Report server at http://naca.larc.nasa.gov/. If you click 

on the "Additional Reports" link below the search box on the Simple Search screen, you will be taken to a list of NACA 

report series. The Wartime Reports can be found by clicking on the Wartime Reports, “WR” link. The reports are listed in

numeric order. Plans are underway to integrate the reports in the “Additional Reports” section with the reports accessible

through the search interface. 

Back to Top
________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

Other STI Products 

Q. I would like all back issues of STAR that are not available at: http://www.sti.nasa.gov/Pubs/star/Star.html. 

A. We have STAR in electronic format dating back to 1996. If you need all issues, we can send them to you on a CDROM. Individual issues can be sent by e-mail. 
STI BULLETIN ONLINE 

Departments

• From the Centers

o Goddard Library Hosts Annual Open House Event

Back to Main

From the Centers 

Goddard Library Hosts Annual Open House Event 

Michele Skinner 

Center Director Dr. Ed Weiler provides opening remarks. 

The Goddard Library’s Annual Open House Event was held October 20, with

Center Director Dr. Ed Weiler providing opening remarks. The theme 

“Information@work,” focused on putting information to work for researchers 

and scientists at Goddard. 

NASA Chief Historian Dr. Steve N. Dick providing a stimulating and thoughtprovoking presentation. 

In the afternoon, NASA Chief Historian Dr. Steve N. Dick provided a 

stimulating and thought-provoking presentation on “The Living Universe:

NASA and the Development of Astrobiology,” also the title of his recently 

published book. To view Dr. Dick’s slide presentation, go to: 

http://library.gsfc.nasa.gov/Announce/Oct2004/ GSFCAstrobiology.pdf 

To view the Web cast presentation, go to: 

http://128.183.174.165/asx/Public/KM/2004/Library_OH_2004.asx

Throughout the day, demonstrations were provided to attendees on the 

library’s Reference Services, the Digital Archiving System, Library1Search, Video Technologies, Knovel Interactive 

Handbooks, the Web of Knowledge, and IEEE Xplore.
For over 40 years, the Goddard Library has played an integral role in the Center’s research, supplying the information 

needed to our researchers and scientists. In 2002, the library was honored with the Federal Library of the Year Award. For 

many years now, the Goddard Library has provided desktop access to full-text journals and books, numerous indices to 

research literature, and library services such as interlibrary loan requests and book renewals. Online desktop resources 

and services save researchers time. 

The resources made available are carefully and thoughtfully selected by science librarians to ensure the highest levels of 

information authority. Goddard librarians assist researchers in finding all relevant articles, reports, and other information 

resources, in order to provide the most accurate assessment of existing research. 

In all, over 450 people attended the event, including librarians and

information scientists from the D.C. area and even a librarian from New York 

City! As always, the Annual Open House Event included many giveaways

and refreshments and an informative time for everyone. 

Back to Top
STI BULLETIN ONLINE 

Departments

• From the STI Program Office

o Focus on Digital NASA STI

Back to Main

From the STI Program Office 

Focus on Digital NASA STI 

NASA continues to focus on providing STI in digital format (PDF Searchable Image Exact, where possible) in full text. The 

STI Program now has an end-to-end digital capability that includes receiving STI electronically, converting STI to digital 

format in the event it is not received electronically, scanning older NASA documents (both paper and microfiche) to digital 

format, disseminating STI electronically, and submitting NASA STI to the National Archives and Records Administration

(NARA) electronically. NASA will continue to convert older NASA documents to PDF as time and resources allow. 

Back to Top 
STI BULLETIN ONLINE 

Publication News

• Current Topics

o Data Distribution From Swift

o Upcoming Events

Back to Main

Current Topics 

Data Distribution From Swift 

All data collected from Swift will be put in the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC), 

with mirror archives in Italy and the United Kingdom. The archives will make the information available to everyone

electronically. The data will be processed as soon as they are downloaded and will go directly to the archives without a 

proprietary period. For more information on the amount of time it will take to download the data, please see the Swift 

home page at: http://swift.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/swift/about_swift/mission_flow/dataprod_timeline.html. 

Gamma ray burst GRB030329 detected by the HETE satellite in 2003.

Back to Top 
________________________________________________________________________________________________

pcoming Events 

rmation, please see: http://polywww.in2p3.fr/actualites/congres/cherenkov2005/

U

“Towards a Network of Atmospheric Cherenkov Detectors VII” will be held April 27-29, 2005 at Ecole Polytechnique, 

Palaiseau, France. For more info . The 

onference topics will include: 

ents and observations 

h-energy gamma ray sources 

ion with space instruments 

• Data archiving and formatting and link with mainstream astrophysics. 

ation, 

lease see: http://www.tifr.res.in/icrc2005/

c

• Status of VHE astrophysics in 2005: new instrum

• From shower images to astrophysical imaging 

• Multi-wavelength observations and phenomenology of hig

• New projects in ground-based high-energy astrophysics 

• Instrumentation and calibration for Cherenkov telescopes; inter-calibrat

The 29th International Cosmic Ray Conference will be held in Pune, India, August 3-10, 2005. For more inform

p . The tentative schedule includes the following sessions on gamma rays: 

-RAY, GAMMA RAY AND NEUTRINO ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS 

es (Active galactic nuclei, Quasars, galaxy clusters, etc.) 

ents 

• OG.2.7: New experiments and instrumentation 

ergy Sources in Galaxies,” will be 

eld in Dublin, Ireland, August 15-19, 2005. The main topics at the conference will be: 

• s on individual high-energy sources in galaxies that have been obtained with Chandra 

ed from the X-ray investigations 

• Discussion of the high-redshift context of the source populations 

-Ray Universe 2005 Conference will be held in Madrid, Spain, in September 2005. Some of the topics to be covered 

re: 

t studies 

on 

studies, and the cosmic X-ray background 

• Gamma ray bursts 

X

• OG.2.1: Diffuse X-ray and gamma ray emission 

• OG.2.2: Galactic sources (Binaries, pulsars, supernova remnants, etc.) 

• OG.2.3: Extra-galactic sourc

• OG.2.4: Gamma ray bursts 

• OG.2.5: High-energy neutrino astrophysics 

• OG.2.6: Gravitational wave sources and experim

The International Astronomical Union Symposium, No. 230, “Populations of High-En

h

• Overview of key source categories in our Galaxy (X-ray and gamma-ray) 

Review of the result

and XMM-Newton 

• Derivation of global descriptions of high-energy source populations in galaxies 

• Assessment of the evolutionary status of stellar populations, deriv

The X

a

• Stars, stellar systems, planetary and come

• Interacting binary systems, SNR, pulsars 

• The ISM and diffuse Galactic emissi

• AGN, galaxies, clusters of galaxies 

• Surveys, population 
STI BULLETIN ONLINE 

Publication News

• NASA History

o Gamma Ray Detector

o Astro

o GRO

o Chandra

o Black Hole

Back to Main

NASA History

NASA Image eXchange (NIX) is a Web-based search engine for searching one or more of NASA’s online media 

collections. Using keyword searches, NIX returns thumbnail-sized images, textual descriptions, image numbers, links to 

higher resolution images, and links to the organization that stores each image. The following is the result of a search for 

the history of gamma ray burst observations: 

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Gamma Ray Detector 

Gamma ray detector withdrawn from inner anticoincidence mantle in 1968. 

Back to Top
________________________________________________________________________________________________

Astro 

The Astro Observatory was designed to explore the universe by observing and measuring the ultraviolet radiation from

celestial objects (1990). 

Back to Top 

________________________________________________________________________________________________

GRO 

The release of the Gamma Ray Observatory during STS-37 deployment (1991). 

Back to Top 
________________________________________________________________________________________________

Chandra 

A computer rendering of the fully developed Chandra X-ray Observatory (1999). 

Back to Top

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Black Hole 

Chandra X-ray Observatory provided this X-ray and optical image of the active galaxy NGC 1068 showing gas blowing 

away in a high-speed wind from the vicinity of a central supermassive black hole (2000). 

Back to Top
STI BULLETIN ONLINE 

• Subscribe/Unsubscribe

Back to Main

Subscribe or Unsubscribe 

Go ahead... Subscribe now... It's easy. You will receive automatic notification via e-mail when each new issue is

published. 

Send an e-mail now to subscribe. Leave the subject line blank, and in the body of the message, type: 

subscribe sti-bulletin < your name >

Do not type the angle brackets ( < > ). Do not use your e-mail address as your name. Your e-mail address will be

captured automatically. 

A return e-mail will be sent to you, confirming your subscription. 

To unsubscribe from the STI Bulletin listserv, send an e-mail to listserv@sti.nasa.gova, leave the subject line blank, and

type the unsubscribe command in the text area of the message, formatted as follows: 

unsubscribe STI-BULLETIN

If you encounter any problems, send an e-mail to the Listserv Administrator at listmstr@sti.nasa.gov