Dec 20 2000
From The Space Library
NASA's Office of Earth Sciences selected Gencorp Aerojet to build the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS), a spaceborne instrument for measuring microwave energy emitted and scattered by the atmosphere. NASA intended the ATMS to replace instruments currently used on polar-orbiting weather satellites. NASA planned for the ATMS, working alongside an infrared sounder instrument, to produce daily global atmospheric temperature, humidity, and pressure profiles, essential for accurate weather forecasting and long-term climate research. Associate Administrator for NASA's Office of Earth Science Enterprise Ghassem R. Asrar remarked that the advanced technology would improve the accuracy of weather forecasting, from the current three-to-five day forecast span to seven-to-ten day predictions. NASA planned to fly the first unit as part of the National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Preparatory Project Bridge mission, intended to ensure continuity of research-quality data through the bridging of sounding data between NASA's Earth Observing System research missions and future NPOESS operational missions. Goddard Space Flight Center would provide oversight of the contract, worth US$206.6 million.
NASA announced it had begun searching worldwide for proposals from principal investigators and institutions to develop its first mission to Pluto. In the announcement of opportunity, NASA solicited proposals for a complete mission to the Pluto-Charon system and the Kuiper Belt, requiring that submitted proposals include an expendable launch vehicle and spacecraft, its bus and systems, and the scientific instrumentation package. Although NASA placed no restrictions on the mission's launch date, its stated goal was to reach Pluto by 2015, at a cost of no more than US$500 million in FY 2000 dollars. This was the first time that the Office of Space Science had solicited proposals for a mission to an outer planet on a competitive basis. NASA had chosen this approach to elicit "creative ideas from innovative thinkers" capable of developing highly focused missions rapidly and at a relatively low cost. NASA made the announcement after it had issued a stop order on the Pluto/Kuiper Express (PKE) mission on 12 September because of the PKE mission's unacceptably high increases in cost. NASA also appointed Colleen Hartman, the Deputy Director of the Research Division of the Office of Space Science, as the new Outer Planets Program Director, to act as the point of contact at NASA Headquarters for budget, content, and policy direction.
The Huygens Communications Link Enquiry Board released its findings, recommendations, and conclusions, after conducting interviews and hearings with the European Space Agency (ESA), NASA, and industry project staff and experts. The Board had reviewed the unexplained anomalies in the communication subsystem of the Huygens Probe, discovered during a Probe Relay Link Test in February 2000. The ESA Director General had formed an independent inquiry board to assess the current status of the Huygens communication link; to recommend means of safeguarding the mission objectives and guaranteeing full scientific data return; and to recommend ways to prevent similar problems in future projects. The Board had found that the entire project structure had led to the anomaly, outlining the specific problems in its report. The Board also made six recommendations and provided 10 recovery options. The Board's key recommendation was that, in the future, when a mission carries new hardware, the mission plan should be sufficiently flexible to allow for changes from ground command.
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