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Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 21:23:55 -0400
To: rjenkins@eng.auburn.edu (Rhon & Joyce Jenkins),
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From: rwhigham@mindspring.com (Russell Whigham)
Subject: ASTROFILES, July 1997
Greetings Astrophiles,
This will be an abbreviated ASTROFILES edition. Even ASTROFILES gets a
summer vacation. ;-)
One year ago this month, the Auburn Astronomical Society's web page was put
on the Internet. Happy anniversary web page!
JULY MEETING CANCELED
Because our normal July meeting date falls on the Fourth of July, and
subsequent Fridays posed problems for some, there will be NO MEETING in
July. We'll pick up were we left off in August.
JULY STAR PARTY
If the weather abates, we will plan to meet at Holley's Field on Saturday
July 5. During the summer months, here in the deep south, the atmosphere is
so laden with moisture that transparent skies are not much more than a fond
memory. But, just in case we get a long overdue clear night, we'll be there.
El Niņo is not to blame for the weather this time. It's the fault of all of
those who ordered telescopes to see comet Hale-Bopp, and are just now
accepting delivery of their new instruments.
JUNE MEETING
Rhon gave a slide presentation of the society's original observatory at
Moore's Meadow, that was both a trip down memory lane for those of us who
built it, and a preview of what we have planned for Kiesel Park. We were
pleased to have as first time visitors, our newest members, Marcus and Susan
Howell, who drove all the way up to Auburn from Enterprise. We're looking
forward to seeing them again soon.
ALLEN SCREWS' COOL SITE PICKS
*Since several of us were interested in the barn-door tracker at PSSG there
are directions to build one (with pics and motorized too, I think) at
www.webcom.com/sknkwrks/astrocam.html
*The Huntsville National Space Society chapter that was attempting to launch
a `rockoon' at Wallops Island has succeeded- details at
http://advicom.net/~hal5/HALO/HALO_summary.shtml (this
is a description of the overall project,there are links to the latest
updates, future plans and the Huntsville NSS chapter home page)
*There is an interesting article on EVAs and building the space station in
this month's `Air and Space' magazine from the Smithsonian/NASM-it's
usually on the magazine racks of most local bookstores.
AND, FOR YOUR VIEWING PLEASURE...
ROBOTIC MARS LANDING AND SPACE SHUTTLE REFLIGHT HIGHLIGHT A BUSY
AND CHALLENGING WEEK FOR U.S. SPACE PROGRAM
The week of June 30 promises to be a busy and memorable one
in the history of space exploration, with the landing of NASA's
Mars Pathfinder spacecraft on Independence Day, a Space Shuttle
launch of the STS-94 microgravity science mission, and ongoing
activities on Russia's Mir space station.
NASA will offer near-continuous access to these events for
the media and the general public. In addition to standard Space
Shuttle-related mission activities, NASA TV will provide coverage
of daily status briefings on Mars Pathfinder and extensive live
programming on July 4-6 from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
in Pasadena, CA. Telephone audio links will be available during
overlapping events and numerous Internet sites are accessible for
status reports and imagery. JPL also will operate a full-service
newsroom for the Pathfinder landing from June 30 to at least July 11.
The latest comprehensive schedule for NASA TV, and updates to
it as events progress, is available from NASA Headquarters; JPL;
Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX; and, Kennedy Space Center, FL.
It also is available on-line at the following URL:
ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/statrpt/jsc/tvsked/tvsked.txt
Mars Pathfinder Coverage Information
News media should contact JPL's Public Information Office at
818/354-5011 for information on credentials for its newsroom.
Please also notify JPL if you have a need for a Mission Audio feed
of the STS-94 mission distributed to your work location in the von
Karman Auditorium.
Beginning on June 30, the Mars Pathfinder landing newsroom at
JPL will be open at 818/354-8999, during at least the following
hours (all times EDT):
June 30-July 2 11 a.m.-8 p.m.
July 3 11 a.m.-11 p.m.
July 4 9:30 a.m.-3 a.m.
(July 5)
July 5-6 11 a.m.-3 a.m.
July 7-11 11 a.m.-8 p.m.
Status reports on mission activities for Mars Pathfinder will
be issued by the JPL Public Information Office. Daily audio
status reports will be available by calling 800/391-6654 or
818/354-4210.
A pre-landing briefing on Mars Pathfinder and its science
objectives at Mars will be held at JPL on Tuesday, July 1, at 1
p.m. EDT. If the STS-94 launch remains scheduled for this date,
this briefing will not be shown live on NASA TV. A taped
rebroadcast of this briefing currently is planned for later that
evening and the next morning. Media can access a live audio feed
of this briefing by calling 818/354-6170. During the briefing,
the STS-94 countdown can be heard on a Mission Audio feed to JPL.
Extensive information on Mars Pathfinder, including an
electronic copy of the landing press kit, related press releases,
fact sheets, status reports and images, is available from the JPL
World Wide Web home page at URL:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/marsnews
The Mars Pathfinder project also maintains a home page at URL:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mpfmir
These sites may receive heavy traffic on the days close to
landing, but Internet users around the world can follow the
mission by way of multiple local mirror sites that are now on-
line, with links listed at the Web site above. The Internet sites
feature updates on mission activities and will provide Pathfinder
photographs of the Martian surface, once they become available.
The sites also will feature a bird's eye view of the Mars
Pathfinder mission operations area at JPL, via a live video camera
feed that is updated every 15 minutes.
Images returned by the Mars Pathfinder lander and rover will
be released to the news media in electronic format only during the
mission via addresses furnished to media upon request. These
sites will include files offering the highest spatial and color
resolution of images returned by the Pathfinder lander and rover.
Images also will be carried on NASA Television during daily Video
File broadcasts.
STS-94 Coverage Information
As with all Space Shuttle missions, the Johnson Space Center
newsroom will be staffed 24-hours a day throughout the 16-day STS-
94 mission, Microgravity Science Laboratory-1, beginning at 9 a.m.
EDT on July 1. Information regarding the mission can be obtained
by calling the JSC Newsroom at 281/483-5111.
Information on STS-94 is available through several sources on
the Internet. The primary source for mission information is the
NASA Shuttle Web. This site contains information on the crew and
their mission and will be regularly updated with status reports,
photos and video clips throughout the flight. The NASA Shuttle
Web's address is URL:
http://shuttle.nasa.gov
If that address is busy or unavailable, the STS-94 Countdown
Page can be found at URL:
http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-94/countdown.html
and the MSL-1 Home Page can be found at URL:
http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov
Television coverage of STS-94 on NASA TV during the heaviest
period of Mars Pathfinder activities will include update reports,
Flight Day Highlights, the "Mission Update" program and Mission
Status Briefings, when warranted. Uninterrupted air-to-ground
feeds of conversations between the astronauts in orbit and ground
controllers along with mission commentary can continue to be heard
on Mission Audio, which will be distributed to the NASA centers,
as is usually the case during Shuttle flights.
During the time when Mars Pathfinder activity is seen on NASA
TV, a clean TV feed of Shuttle coverage also will be available at
JSC. Reporters covering Mars Pathfinder at either JPL or the
Kennedy Space Center will not be able to obtain a clean TV feed of
Shuttle coverage after launch, only the programmed feed of both
Mars Pathfinder and Shuttle activities through NASA TV.
If the launch of STS-94 is delayed until July 4, NASA will
issue an updated TV events programming schedule at the Web site
listed at the beginning of this Note To Editors.
NASA Television is broadcast on the satellite GE-2,
transponder 9C, C Band, 85 degrees West longitude, frequency
3880.0 MHz, vertical polarization, audio monaural at 6.8 MHz.
-end-
PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
Contact: Diane Ainsworth
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 24, 1997
PUBLIC WILL HAVE INTERNET VIEW OF PATHFINDER ACTIVITIES
Internet users around the world may begin following the Mars
Pathfinder spacecraft as it approaches Mars and prepares for a
July 4 landing by way of a variety local mirror sites that are
now online.
The Internet sites feature updates on mission activities,
and will provide Pathfinder photographs of the Martian surface
once they become available. The sites also feature a bird's eye
view of the Mars Pathfinder mission operations area at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, via a live video camera feed
that is updated every 15 minutes.
"We're expecting a siege of hits on July 4," said David
Dubov, Mars Pathfinder webmaster at JPL. "Our best estimate,
based on past events such as Galileo, the Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9
collision in 1994, Comet Hale-Bopp's return and other celestial
events has led us to plan for at least 25 million hits on July 4,
and a similar level of hits per day during the week following
landing."
To accommodate the overwhelming interest among the public,
JPL will have about 20 mirror sites around the world by the end
of June so that people can use the sites closest to their homes
rather than trying to access the JPL site. "Most of the domestic
sites were picked because of their connection to the National
Science Foundation backbone, a very robust network that can
handle high traffic," said Kirk Goodall, Mars Pathfinder web
engineer. "Combined, these mirror sites will be able to service
up to 30 million hits per day."
During landing day activities and the Pathfinder rover's
primary, seven-day mission, members of the public should access
the following Pathfinder mirror sites closest to their homes:
CORPORATE MIRROR SITES
Silicon Graphics Computer Systems, Inc.
http://mars.sgi.com
Load capacity per day: 15 million hits/day
CompuServe, Inc.
http://mars.compuserve.com
Load capacity per day: 10 million hits/day
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
http://www.sun.com/mars
Load capacity per day: 6 million hits/day
PUBLIC SECTOR MIRROR SITES
NASA Ames Research Center
Moffet Field, CA
http://mpfwww.arc.nasa.gov
Load capacity per day: 5 million hits/day
National Center for Supercomputer Applications (NCSA)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne, IL
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/mars
Load capacity per day: 4 million hits/day
Cornell Theory Center
Cornell University, NY
http://mars.tc.cornell.edu
Load capacity per day: 4 million hits/day
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR #1)
Boulder, CO
http://www.mars.ucar.edu
Load capacity per day: 4 million hits/day
San Diego Supercomputer Center
San Diego State University, CA
http://mars.sdsc.edu
Load capacity per day: 4 million hits/day
NASA Kennedy Space Center
Cape Canaveral, FL
http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/mars
Load capacity per day: 2 million hits/day
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena, CA
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mpfmir
Load capacity per day: 1 million hits/day
National Center for Atmospheric Research
(NCAR #2) Boulder, CO
http://mars.nlanr.net
Load capacity per day: 1 million hits/day
Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center
University of Pittsburgh, PA
http://www.psc.edu/Mars
Load capacity per day: 750,000 hits/day
NASA Lewis Research Center
Dayton, OH
http://pathfinder.lerc.nasa.gov
Load capacity per day: 500,000 hits/day
The Catlin Gabel School
Portland, OR
http://mars.catlin.edu
Load capacity per day: 500,000 hits/day
INTERNATIONAL MIRROR SITES
National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA)
Tokyo, Japan
http://mars.tksc.nasda.go.jp/JPL
Load capacity per day: 2 million hits/day
Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES)
France http://www-mars.cnes.fr
Load capacity per day: 1 million hits/day
The Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research
Organization (CSIRO)
Sydney, Australia
http://sparkli.tip.csiro.au/mars
Load capacity per day: 1 million hits/day
Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex CDSCC - NASA/JPL)
Canberra, Australia
http://tid.cdscc.nasa.gov/mars
Load capacity per day: 500,000 hits/day
IKI (Institute for Space Science)
Moscow, Russia
http://www.iki.rssi.ru/jplmirror/mars
Load capacity per day: 250,000 hits/day
Mars Pathfinder is the second in NASA's Discovery program of
low-cost spacecraft with highly focused science goals. The Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, manages the Mars Pathfinder
mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.
Until next time,
Russell
Russell Whigham
Montgomery AL
rwhigham@mont.mindspring.com
Auburn Astronomical Society
http://www.mindspring.com/~rwhigham/