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. 

October 2005

Featured Article Departments

• Outreach Staff Visits JPL and Dryden

Focus On... Deep Impact

• From the Users

• From the Centers

• From the STI Program Office

Publication News

• Current Topics

• NASA History

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Featured Articles 

Outreach Staff Visits NASA JPL and Dryden 

The X-15 airplane on display at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. 

 

In September, NASA CASI Outreach Specialist, Kurt McIntyre, and 

Information Specialist, Tanya Gutierrez, spent 2 days each at NASA

Dryden Flight Research Center and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 

Their focus was to promote the NASA Aeronautics and Space 

Database with the help of center STI, publications, and library 

personnel. 

 

McIntyre and Gutierrez conducted two NASA Aeronautics and Space 

Database training sessions at each center and handed out 

information to center employees in the cafeterias. Upon returning

from the trip, McIntyre said, “The training sessions were a huge

success. The turnout was impressive at both Dryden and JPL.” This

was the largest response to center training sessions so far,

demonstrating that the NASA community is increasing its

acknowledgement of the NASA Aeronautics and Space Database as 

an extremely helpful and important research tool. 
(From left to right) Margo Young, Teresa Bailey, Andrea Stein, Barbara 

Amago, Kurt McIntyre, and Ann Coppin in the library at the Jet

Propulsion Laboratory.

The CASI Outreach team extends a special thank you to Barbara

Rogers of the Dryden library; Andrea Stein, Susanne Tutt, and Scott 

Bowdan of the Technical Information Section at JPL; and to Barbara

Amago and Margo Young of the Library, Archives, and Records 

Section at JPL. Because of their support, these visits were extremely 

successful on all levels. 

 

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STI BULLETIN ONLINE 

Focus On ...... Deep Impact 

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Launched on January 12, 2005, NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft made a successful voyage to its encounter with comet 

Tempel 1. The trip took 172 days and covered 268 million miles (431 million kilometers) of deep space. As the spacecraft 

approached the comet, it released an impactor, which collided with the comet at 1:52 a.m. EDT on July 4, 2005. The Deep

Impact flyby spacecraft monitored the collision and its results from nearby. The spacecraft collected and downlinked data 

for scientific review. The impact was powerful, but it was not forceful enough to make an appreciable change in the 

comet’s orbital path. 

This artist’s concept shows the moment of impact and formation of

the crater. 

The objective of the Deep Impact mission is to study the interior

of a comet. Comet Tempel 1 orbits the Sun every 5.5 years,

making it a good target to study evolutionary change in the

mantle or upper crust of the comet. Comets are the remainders 

of material formed in the coldest part of our solar system, and

impacts from comets have played a role in the evolution of the

Earth. Scientists hope the project will answer basic questions

about the formation of the solar system by providing information

on the nature and composition of comets. 

Sensitive instruments on the flyby spacecraft collected data during 

and after the impact. 

Since the July 4th collision, space-based telescopes and groundbased observatories have both played an important role in

observing the effects of the impact. Space-based telescopes, 

such as the Hubble and Swift, are being used, as well as the 

ground-based Submillimeter Array in Hawaii. Colleagues at the 

University of Maryland and seven other facilities have been 

working on analyzing the raw data that were collected during the

encounter with the comet. In August, Deep Impact Science 

Team members presented preliminary findings at the Asteroids,

Comets, Meteors symposium held in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. The

principal findings of the mission were published in the September 

issue of Science magazine. 
The Deep Impact spacecraft took this picture of the comet on April 25, 2005,

while they were 39.7 million miles apart. 

On July 20, 2005, a scheduled burn placed Deep Impact on a trajectory to

fly past Earth in late December 2007, thus making it available for another 

mission. Andy Dantzler, Director of the Solar System Division of NASA’s 

Science Mission Directorate, also announced that all investigators interested

in using the spacecraft for further science investigation may submit 

proposals to the 2005 Discovery Program Announcement of Opportunity for 

a Mission of Opportunity. 

The citations below provide a sample of recently published information on 

this topic 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

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 

Help Desk. You can also keep up to date on

http://www.sti.nasa.gov. 

Abell, P. A.; Fernandez, Y. R.; Pravec, P.; French, L. M.; Farnham, T. L.; Gaffey, M. J.; Hardersen, P. S.; 

enna, M.; Mahaffy, P. R.; Three Dimensional Multi-Fluid Simulation of Comet Halley; 20050166983 

raun, David F.; Heinrich, Michael; Ai, Huirong Anita; Ahrens, Thomas J.; Penetrator Coring Apparatus 

lark, B. C.; Economou, T. E.; Green, S. F.; Sandford, S. A.; Zolensky, M. E.; Streaming Clumps Ejection

ombosi, Tamas; Modeling of Cometary Atmospheres; 20040111367 

uss, G. R.; The Nature of Interstellar Dust; 20030073559 

ewitt, David; Hillman, John; Physical Properties of Cometary Nucleus Candidates; 20030015195 

ewitt, David; Thermal Studies of Near Earth Objects; 20030012610 

irk, R. L.; Duxbury, T. C.; Horz, F.; Brownlee, D. E.; Newburn, R. L.; Tsou, P.; Topography of the 81/P

isse, Carey; Infrared Observations of Cometary Dust and Nuclei; 20040084783 

owry, Stephen C.; Weissman, Paul R.; Sykes, Mark V.; Reach, William T.; Observations of Periodic 

oore, Jeffrey M.; Schenk, Paul M.; Callisto: A World in its Own Right; 20030063021 

aylor, Travis S.; Moton, Tryshanda T.; Robinson, Don; Anding, R. Charles; Matloff, Gregory L.; Garbe, 

agner, William; Raymond, John C.; Interaction of Comets and the Solar Wind; 20040000671 

eissman, Paul R.; Lowry, Stephen C.; The Size Distribution of Jupiter-Family Cometary Nuclei; 

uennemann, K.; Collins, G. S.; Melosh, H. J.; Numerical Modelling of the Deep Impact Mission

Kusnirak, P.; Sarounova, L.; Sheppard, S. S.; Physical Characteristics of Asteroid-like Comet Nucleus 

C/2001 OG108 (LONEOS); 20030110885 

B

B

for Cometary Surfaces; 20040062104 

C

Model and the Heterogeneous Inner Coma of Comet Wild 2; 20040056014 

G

H

J

J

K

Wild 2 Nucleus Derived from Stardust Stereoimages; 20050170606 

L

L

Comet 2P/Encke: Physical Properties of the Nucleus and First Visual-Wavelength Detection of Its Dust

Trail; 20030111483 

M

T

Gregory; Montgomery, Edward; Solar Sail Application to Comet Nucleus Sample Return; 20030106568 

W

W

20030110858

W

Experiment; 20050180813
Zolensky, M.; Sandford, S.; Hoerz, F.; Brownlee, D.; Tsou, P.; Clark, B.; Preliminary Sample Analysis 

 

Plan for the Cometary and Interstellar Samples Being Returned by the Stardust Spacecraft; 20040056015 
STI BULLETIN ONLINE 

Departments

From the Users

• NASA Aeronautics and Space Database

• NTRS

• Other Products

Back to Main

From the Users 

NASA Aeronautics and Space Database 

Q. I am only interested in NASA documents. How do I restrict my search to retrieve only NASA material? 

A. Limiting your search results to only NASA documents can be done with one click. Each search screen has a check 

box labeled “Search NASA documents only” or “NASA documents only.” Just select that box to limit your retrieval to 

NASA material. 

For this purpose, NASA materials are those where at least one of the following is NASA: an author’s affiliation, a meeting

sponsor, a financial sponsor, or the organization source. 

________________________________________________________________________________________________

NTRS 

Q. I am trying to find out the extent of holdings via the NASA Technical Reports Server (http://ntrs.nasa.gov/) 

 

The reason I am asking is that, in our Physics and Astronomy Department here, we have literally thousands of NASA 

publications (mostly 1960s and 1970s) that are on our open shelves and gathering dust. We also have a shortage of floor 

space, so we are looking at moving them into our storage facility, but we are not clear as to what is and what is not 

available electronically via the NASA Web sites.

 

Any help will be much appreciated. 

A. It is the intent of the NASA Scientific and Technical Information (STI) Program Office to make all NASA formal series 

reports available online through the NTRS: NASA Technical Reports Server at http://ntrs.nasa.gov/. The NASA STI

Report Series includes the following: Technical Publication (TP), Technical Memorandum (TM), Contractor Report 

(CR), Conference Publication (CP), Special Publication (SP), Technical Translation (TT), and NACA reports. Newly

produced reports are being added in PDF. We are also adding older material to the NTRS as resources permit. 

NASA is currently evaluating the option of making more than the NASA STI Report Series documents available via 

NTRS in the future, depending on resources. 

 
For reports from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA, NASA’s predecessor agency), there are two 

different places to search. The NTRS is one, and the other is the NACA Technical Reports Server at 

http://naca.larc.nasa.gov/. The NACA TRS has only NACA reports and covers the years 1917 through 1958. If you run a 

search in the NACA TRS and cannot find a report, I suggest using the index. The index is located under the “additional 

reports” link under the basic search engine box. You can scroll through ARs, RMs, TMs, TNs, TRs, and WRs. The reports 

are listed in numerical order. In addition, we are still adding reports to both the NACA TRS and the NTRS as resources 

allow (that includes reports dating back to the NACA time period). If you come across a report that is not listed in the 

NACA TRS or the NTRS, you can always contact us here at the NASA Center for AeroSpace Information (CASI) to ask if 

we have a copy. 

________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

Other Products 

Q. I’m confused by the acronyms NASA uses. I know that EVA means a spacewalk, and SSME means the Space Shuttle 

Main Engines, but there are so many more. What about EROS, and SeaWiFS? Is there a place to look them up? 

A. A new listing of acronyms used at NASA is now available on the NASA STI Web site, http://www.sti.nasa.gov, under 

“Highlights,” click on “Acronym Listing.” The listing is arranged alphabetically by acronym. You can find out there that 

EROS means the Earth Resources Observation System (the Landsat program) and SeaWiFS stands for Sea-Viewing 

Wide Field-of-View-Sensor. 

You can suggest additional acronyms to add to the list by using the acronym submission form on the first page of the 

listing. 

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STI BULLETIN ONLINE 

Departments

From the Centers

• News From Glenn Research Center

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From the Centers 

News From Glenn Research Center 

Concha Reid and Michelle Manzo of Glenn Research Center and Mike Logan of Langley Research Center, will receive 

the 2004 Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Charles M. Manly Memorial Medal for their paper, “Performance 

Characterization of a Lithium-Ion Gel Polymer Battery Power Supply System for an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle,” NASA TM2004-213401. This annual award “recognizes the author(s) of the best paper(s) relating to theory or practice in the design 

or construction of, or research on, aerospace engines, their parts, components, or accessories at a meeting of the Society 

or its sections during the calendar year.” 

“This award, established in 1928, is administered by the Manly Memorial Board of Award. It consists of a certificate, a

bronze medal, and an honorarium, and is presented each year at a major SAE aerospace meeting.” (From the SAE Web

site http://www.sae.org/news/awards/list/manly/) 

The award will be presented at the SAE 2005 AeroTech Congress & Exhibition during the awards luncheon on Tuesday 

October 4, 2005, at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center in the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport area, Texas, USA. 

The work is supported by the Energetics-Advanced Battery Program in Glenn’s Research and Technology Directorate. 

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STI BULLETIN ONLINE 

Departments

From the STI Program Office

• NASA Help for Hurricane Katrina Survivors

• New Aerospace Pathfinders on STI Website

• STI Program Office Head Attends CENDI Planning Meeting

• NASA STI Help Desk Changes

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From the STI Program Office 

NASA Help for Hurricane Katrina Survivors 

NASA has been helping its affected installations, Stennis Space Center, in Mississippi, and Michoud Assembly Facility, 

near New Orleans, by locating and providing help to NASA employees and their families, and then securing and repairing

the NASA facilities. All NASA Centers have been involved in this effort, in addition to helping non-NASA families through 

various charities and volunteering, such as through the American Red Cross. Hurricane Katrina efforts by NASA have 

involved truckloads of supplies and equipment, emergency communications, disaster assistance and rescue teams, 

portable water filtration system, medical and mental health professionals, thousands of gallons of fuel for power

generators and other equipment, such as generators, data gathering for environmental impact analysis, airlift of supplies 

to support the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and other agencies in evacuating medical patients, security personnel,

and donations to the NASA Family Assistance Fund through http://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/AN_FAF.html. Photos

of the impact to these facilities from hurricanes Katrina and Rita can be seen at

http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/hurricane_2005.html. 

________________________________________________________________________________________________

New Aerospace Pathfinders on STI Web Site

The NASA Center for AeroSpace Information (CASI) has four new information products called Aerospace Pathfinders on 

its Web site. Each Pathfinder highlights a variety of information resources on a particular subject, in print, or on the Web. 

The four subjects include Airborne Networks; Earned Value Management; Lightweight, Temperature-Tolerant, Radiation 

Hard Sensors, and Spiral Development. Depending on usage, more subjects may be added to this information product. 

Find these helpful guides for researchers by visiting the STI Program Web site at http://www.sti.nasa.gov, under the

“Highlights” heading. 

________________________________________________________________________________________________

STI Program Office Head Attends CENDI Planning Meeting

George Roncaglia, Head of the STI Program Office, and other Federal STI managers attended the CENDI (Commerce, 

Energy, NASA, Defense, Interior) Planning Meeting, in Maryland, September 7-8, 2005. CENDI has three goals:

Coordination and Leadership, STI Life Cycle Management, and Education. CENDI currently has membership from 12

U.S. Federal agencies, including those listed above and the Environmental Protection Agency, the Government Printing
Office, the Department of Agriculture, the National Archives and Records Administration, the Department of Education, 

the Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Science Foundation. 

________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

NASA STI Help Desk Changes

In accordance with the President’s Management Agenda and NASA policy, effective in September, the NASA STI Help 

Desk began referring non-STI-related inquiries from the public to the NASA Public Inquiries Officer. NASA is also 

participating in the Government-wide Misdirected E-mail Initiative. The NASA STI Help Desk will continue to handle all 

help desk inquiries that involve NASA STI or imagery associated with the NASA Image eXchange (NIX). Last year, the 

STI Help Desk handled approximately 10,000 inquiries via e-mail, fax, and telephone. 

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STI BULLETIN ONLINE 

Publication News

• Current Topics 

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Current Topics 

You can see more pictures and animations of the Deep Impact mission at these web sites from other partners in the

mission:

• Ball Aerospace has close-ups of various parts of the spacecraft during testing and assembly. 

http://www.ballaerospace.com/deepimpact.html. 

• The University of Maryland site has QuickTime videos of scientists discussing the mission. 

http://deepimpact.umd.edu/gallery/animation.html. 

For more on comets in general, the following resources can help:

• The Comets section of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Planetary Photojournal site has tips on observing 

comets and pictures of comets recently visible from Earth. 

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/solar_system/asteroids_comets/comets_ index.html. 

 

• The “Comets & Meteor Showers” Web site compiled by Gary W. Kronk has information on comets past and

present. 

http://comets.amsmeteors.org/

• Kronk’s Web site “Memorable Comets of the Past” has drawings and observations, including notes on the first 

recorded sighting of Halley’s Comet, over 2,100 years ago. 

http://cometography.com/past_comets.html 

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STI BULLETIN ONLINE 

Publication News

• NASA History

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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 are samples of images from both NIX and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Deep Impact Web site. JPL’s

image gallery is located at http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/images.html. 

________________________________________________________________________________________________

An Earth-based photograph of Comet Kohoutek in the sky on December 6, 1973. The comet was more than 19 million miles 

from the Earth. 

________________________________________________________________________________________________

This image was taken during a close approach of Stardust’s January 2, 2004, flyby of Comet Wild 2. 
The Hale-Bopp comet passed by Earth during the spring and summer of 1997. This photo taken from the Space Shuttle shows

the comet at sunset. 

________________________________________________________________________________

The Deep Impact launch took place on January 12, 2005 (JPL image). 

________________________________________________________________________________

This November 7, 2002 Hubble image shows that the comet LINEAR’s nucleus has been reduced to a shower of glowing 

“mini-comets.” 

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Tempel 1 observed from a telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory on April 11, 2005. The comet was near its closest 

approach to Earth at this point (JPL image). 
This infrared view of Jupiter taken November 7, 2002, shows the plume from the impact of fragment G of Comet ShoemakerLevy 9. 

________________________________________________________________________________

This image shows Tempel 1 approximately 5 minutes before impact. The nucleus is estimated at 5 kilometers across and 7

kilometers tall (JPL image). 

________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Spitzer Space Telescope captured this image on December 18, 2003, of the Schwassmann-Wachmann Comet, which

experiences frequent outbursts that produce abrupt changes in brightness. 

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This image shows the initial ejecta that resulted when the impactor collided with comet Tempel 1 on July 4, 2005 (JPL image). 

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