Mar 21 1995
From The Space Library
The Hubble Space Telescope serves as an interplanetary weather satellite for Mars and Venus. It shows that the Martian climate has changed since Viking visited Mars in the mid-1970s. The planet is now cooler, clearer, and drier. Venus continues to recover from an intense shower of sulfuric "acid rain" triggered by a suspected volcanic eruption in the late 1970s. Such knowledge of weather is critical to the planning of future missions to these planets. They also make natural laboratories for testing computer models that will lead to a general theory of the behavior of planetary atmospheres. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). (NASA Release 95-31; Fla Today, May 14/95; Av Wk, Mar 27/95; Science, Mar 31/95)
NASA accepted a proposal from Johns Hopkins University to restructure the Agency's Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE). In addition to launching the spacecraft two years earlier than originally planned, the size, complexity, and cost of the program have also been reduced. The goal of the Explorer program restructuring was to enable funding for more frequent Medium Explorer (MIDEX) missions launched on a new medium-lite expendable launch vehicle. The FUSE mission was designed to study the origin and evolution of the lightest elements created shortly after the Big Bang, and the forces and processes involved in the evolution of galaxies, stars, and planetary systems. The far ultraviolet region of the spectrum can only be observed out-side the Earth's atmosphere. (NASA Release 95-33; Space News, Aug 28/95)
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