Jan 5 1993
From The Space Library
Vice President Dan Quayle's space policy advisory board released a report stating that "The U.S. government's organization of space activities is not appropriate for the post-Cold War era." The report noted that space bureaucracy must be simplified and centralized and that more technology must be shared between government and industry. It also called U.S. space launch capabilities inefficient and unsafe. (W Post, Jan 5/93; Space News, Jan 5/93)
NASA's new Shuttle toilet, the Improved Waste Collection System (IWCS), was slated for its first space-flight test later this month. The IWCS, which is designed to accommodate long-term flights, has "basically unlimited capacity" because of its innovative method of compacting solid waste and use of a modular removal container. The device's $30 million price tag brought criticism from government auditors. (W Post, Jan 5/93; USA Today, Jan 6/93; AP, Feb 13/93)
Satcon Technology Corporation (SATCON) entered into an agreement with Advanced Medical Systems Inc. (AMS) for the joint development of cardiovascular medical devices. SATCON was using its active motion control technology to develop these devices. This technology was developed as part of the Department of Defense and NASA's SBIR program; the program was established by Congress to provide money to U.S. small businesses to develop innovative products with high commercial potential. (AP, Jan 5/93)
Astronomers have discovered a huge concentration of mysterious "dark matter," which scientists believe may make up as much as 95 percent of the universe. The finding was the first to "indicate that there may be enough material to close the universe," said the research team's Richard F. Mushotzky of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. In a closed universe, the expansion of the universe, which is being slowed by the pull of gravity, would come to a halt or nearly so. The discovery was detected by the international ROSAT x-ray satellite observatory. ROSAT, an acronym for Roentgen Satellite, is a joint project of Germany, the United States, and the United Kingdom. It was launched on a Delta 11 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, on June 1, 1990. (NASA Release 93-1; W Post, Jan 5/93; W Post, Jan 8/93; B Sun, Jan 5/93, Jan 8/93; NY Times, Jan 5/93; Arizona Republic, Jan 5/93; P Inq, Jan 8/93; Newsweek, Jan 18)
Shortly after Space Shuttle Endeavour's launch later this month, technicians and engineers from GTE Government Systems Corporation were to establish an almost continuous communications link with the Shuttle. The space link to Earth would come through a system of Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS), which would be supplemented by a satellite carried by Endeavour. (Business Wire, Jan 5, 93).
NASA announced that engineer Karl Anderson from the Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, California, had invented a process that yields more accurate, faster stress measurements. Anderson's method uses a circuit called a "constant current loop"; the system prevents errors caused by temperature changes in the wires that link instruments, called strain gauges, to recording devices. (NASA Release 93-002; AP, Jan 25/93; Antelope Valley Press, Jan 20/93)
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