Dec 12 1996
From The Space Library
Researchers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center announced that tests aimed at improving the efficiency of Space Shuttle engines would likely translate into substantial savings for commercial airlines as well. Researchers had learned that locating an engine's turbine airfoils in the "optimum position" could cut down the flow of fluttering wakes of gases. When wakes occur, an engine requires additional energy to run and generates higher temperatures. NASA researchers predicted that the findings would have special application for the Boeing 777. Improving efficiency by a half percent would save hundreds of gallons of fuel per flight. The researchers had based the new positioning of the turbines upon the simple principle evident when a bike racer drafts behind a competitor-because the first rider takes the full brunt of the wind, the second can travel equally as fast with less exertion. The engineers found that by aligning turbines in the most efficient positions, the engine derived a similar drafting.
New audio recordings, gathered from the excursion of NASA's Galileo spacecrafts to Jupiter's large moon Ganymede, contained a "soaring whistle and hissing static," suggesting that the moon possesses a planet-like magnetosphere. According to Donald A. Gurnett, who had conducted the experiments using Galileo's plasma wave instrument, the data "is kind of like looking at a musical score." The sound patterns mimic those found on Earth, Saturn, and Jupiter. Gurnett suggested that the new findings would have broad significance for the scientific community, possibly allowing scientists to draw further conclusions about the interplay between magnetic forces and matter throughout the universe.
NASA announced the successful harvest of the first crop of healthy plants grown completely in space. Grown aboard the Russian space station Mir, the super-dwarf wheat grew robustly in the microgravity of space. Researchers at NASA's Ames Research Center termed the successful harvest a step toward a greater human presence in space. "The development of plant-based, regenerative life support systems is critical to sustaining a crew during long-duration missions such as the Mars exploration," NASA's David Bubenheim explained. The space station crew had raised the plants aboard Mir in a greenhouse designed by a team of Russian and Bulgarian engineers. Florescent lights had provided sufficient light for the plants, and the astronauts had injected water directly into the Soil.
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