Mar 31 1992
From The Space Library
NASA announced the selection of 19 new astronaut candidates for the Space Shuttle program. The group consisted of four pilot astronaut candidates and 15 mission specialist astronaut candidates, including nine civilians and 10 military officers. The candidates, who were chosen from 2,054 qualified applicants, were to report to the Johnson Space Center, Houston, in August 1992 to begin a year of training and evaluation. (NASA Release 92-42)
Atlantis' astronauts reported the loss of a second scientific instrument, a telescope probing galaxies millions of light years away. Controllers spent hours trying to restore the telescope but to no avail. The telescope, the only astronomical instrument abroad, accomplished 19 observations before the fuse blew. More than 34 were planned for the nine-day mission. (W Post, Mar 31/92; USA Today, Mar 31/92; W Times, Mar 31/92; B Sun, Mar 31/92; NY Times, Mar 31/92)
In order to study the rarefied region that lies between 10 to 20 miles above the Earth, designers were developing a new class of robot airplanes to monitor zone depletion and global warming. A half-dozen companies were proposing drones designed to work at these altitudes, travel thousands of miles without refueling, or stay high in the sky for days, if not weeks, at a times. Some of the proposals are modifications of military models, while others harness unusual engines, airframes or materials. (NY Times, Mar 31/92)
Scientists reported that an array of instruments that detect the faintest twitches in the Earth's gravitational field had for the first time taken the pulse of the planet's solid inner core. The discovery opens a new avenue for studying the detailed structure of the Earth's deep interior, from which physicists would be able to calculate the mass of the Earth's inner core and to infer com- positions of both the inner and outer core. The achievement was expected to shed light on such enigmas as the nature of the electric dynamo believed to drive the Earth's wavering magnetic field. (NY Times, Mar 31/92)
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