Jul 11 1985
From The Space Library
Dr. Mario Acuna, project scientist at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), announced that the Active Magnetospheric Particle Tracer Explorers (AMPTE) project, an international scientific experiment to determine how the solar wind interacted with the earth's magnetosphere, would produce on July 18 or 20 at midnight EDT the world's second artificial comet. In the fourth and final phase of the project, a West German satellite would release at 70,000 miles above earth two barium canisters into the solar wind on the flank of the earth's magnetosphere. The release would create an artificial comet expected to be visible in the southwestern United States to the unaided eye for approximately four minutes.
In the first phase of the AMPTE project, the West German satellite released September 1984 lithium into the solar wind outside the earth's magnetosphere. Preliminary results of that experiment indicated that less than 1% of the solar wind gained access to the magnetosphere under the conditions in which the releases took place.
In the second phase, the German satellite created on December 27, 1984, a barium cloud on the flank of the earth's magnetosphere about 70,000 miles above the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Peru. Data from the artificial comet indicated that the solar wind eroded it much faster than scientists had anticipated.
Releases on March 21 and May 13, 1985, of barium and lithium into the earth's magnetotail region ended the third phase of the AMPTE experiments. Acuna said of those releases, 'Although, disappointingly, no tracer ions were detected by the U.S. satellite (Charge Composition Explorer) located inside the magnetosphere, this fact is in itself a very significant result. It implies that fundamental revisions to our current models of the magnetosphere need to be made to account for these negative observations." (NASA Release 85-105)
NASA announced that S. Neil Hosenball, NASA general counsel since 1975, would retire on August 2 to become director of the University of Colorado's new Center For Space Law and Policy. Before appointment to his current position, Hosenball served as deputy general counsel since October 1967. Earlier he had been assistant general counsel for procurement and had served for four years at Lewis Research Center.
From 1970 to 1979, Hosenball was a member of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and headed the U.S. delegation at legal subcommittee and committee sessions.
Hosenball, who received a B.S. degree from the University of Michigan and his LL.B. degree from Harvard Law School, was awarded the NASA Exceptional Service Medal in 1967, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal in 1973, the National Civil Service League Career Service Medal in 1980, and the Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive in 1983.
The Center for Space and Law Policy, established in November 1984, was one of a very few such institutions in the world and was intended to guide the university in its space research efforts. (NASA Release 85-104)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
