May 17 2001
From The Space Library
NASA announced the first significant group of awards for its Space Launch Initiative (SLI)~ a program dedicated to finding safer and more cost-effective modes of sending humans into space. NASA’s SLI board had awarded a total of US$767 million in contracts to 22 groups. NASA clarified that the purpose of the contracts was to find a long-term solution to replace the costly Shuttle program. Therefore, NASA intended that grantees focus on conceptual designs rather than on vehicle specifics. NASA had designed the program to facilitate the development of a new space vehicle by the middle of the 21st century. Those receiving the funds had to meet ambitious standards; NASA wanted awardees to design a craft that would be 10 times safer than the Space Shuttle, with 100 times higher rates of crew survival, at a 10th of the cost of the current Shuttle program. The SLI board had consulted more than 100 experts to determine which proposals should receive funding. (Marshall Star (NASA MSFC), “NASA Awards $767 Million in SLI Contracts,” 24 May 2001, 1, 6; Warren E. Leary, “NASA Begins Bid To Improve Its Launchings,” New York Times, 18 May 2001.)
Continuing its effort to support science-related education, NASA announced that in May 2001 it would welcome to its facilities the first participants in the Undergraduate Student Research Program (USRP), designed to expose 100 students, selected from a pool of more than 1,000 applicants, to the level of math, science, and technological research necessary to propel new discoveries in space exploration. The Virginia Space Grant Consortium coordinated the pilot program. Frank Owens, Director of NASA’s Education Division, expressed optimism that the program would fuel increased interest in vital scientific fields. (NASA, “NASA Introduces Pilot Undergraduate Student-Research Program,” news release 01-95, 17 May 2001.)
An international team of astronomers presented compelling new evidence that comet impacts had played a significant role in the formation of life on Earth. The researchers, led by Michael J. Mumma of NASA’s GSFC and Hermann Boehnhardt, working at the European South Observatory in Chile, presented their findings in an issue of Science devoted to the burgeoning field of comet research. The astronomers had used orbiting space telescopes, as well as telescopes throughout the world, to provide unprecedented coverage of comets passing Earth. In the course of their observations, the team had witnessed the breakup of the Comet LINEAR, thereby gaining new knowledge about the organic materials contained in comets. This new understanding of the composition of comets led to new information about the impact of comets on Earth~ especially during the collisions between comets and planets that occurred long ago. Mumma explained the significance of the new discoveries about the composition of comets: “The idea that comets seeded life on Earth with water and essential molecular building blocks is dramatic, and for the first time, we have seen a comet with the right composition to do the job.” The researchers concluded that comets had formed from dust, ice, and glass, and that, in colliding with other celestial bodies, comets had transferred fundamental building blocks to them. (Hermann Boehnhardt, “The Death of a Comet and the Birth of Our Solar System,” Science 292, no. 5520 (18 May 2001): 13071308; NASA, “In Coming Apart, Comet Linear Exposes Its Deepest Secrets,” news release 01-94, 17 May 2001; Peter N. Spotts, “Comets Give Clues to Solar System’s Infancy: New Studies Chronicle the Break Up of a Comet That Sheds Light on Early Planet Information,” Christian Science Monitor, 18 May 2001.)
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