Jun 6 1994
From The Space Library
NASA's Office of Advanced Concepts and Technology announced its solicitation of proposals from all sources for industry-led research and development projects under the Aerospace Industry Technology Program (AITP). AITP aims to develop and apply advanced technology rapidly in the aerospace industry and in the non-aerospace commercial marketplace. (NASA Release 94-91)
A feature article described ways in which Pittsburgh was becoming "Robot City, USA." One of the reasons was NASA's $2.5 million grant in May 1994 to Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute to establish an engineering consortium that would transfer robotics technology to U.S. industry. Other robotic firms also came to Pittsburgh recently. Other than industrial uses for robots, NASA wants to use robots to explore Mars and get instruments on the planet's surface. David Pahnos, director of the new NASACMU consortium, saw an opportunity for Pittsburgh to become a technical center that pushed technology forward. (CSM, Jun 8/94)
Russian and U.S. Mars mission planners were meeting the week of June 6 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, to define how the two countries could best cooperate in a proposed multinational space exploration program to be called "Mars Together." France, Germany, and Italy were also considering joining the new 1998 mission to Mars. The new mission resulted from Russia's delay in its originally proposed "Mars 94" and "Mars 96" flights. The idea would be to combine major technological elements on which individual nations were already working. (Av Wk, Jun 6/94)
NASA and the Defense Department were evaluating a lunar rover mission for a Clementine 1 follow-on flight that would continue the validation of advanced, lightweight technologies for antiballistic defense applications. Clementine 1 was a Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) mission that tested new avionics and sensor technologies during its lunar mapping. The Clementine follow-on flight could apply BMDO's technology to bring a rover to the Moon's surface. (Av Wk, Jun 6/94)
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