Feb 25 1993
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(New page: NASA scientists reported in the British journal Nature that a supernova may have caused a huge void known as the "Local Bubble" that envelopes the solar system and many nearby stars. Resea...)
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NASA scientists reported in the British journal Nature that a supernova may have caused a huge void known as the "Local Bubble" that envelopes the solar system and many nearby stars. Researchers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, said that evidence suggests that the bubble, an area about 300 light-years across, was formed by the supernova or explosion of a star about 340,000 years ago. The blast was strong enough that its radiation could have disrupted Earth's protective ozone layer and caused extra sunburns on the ancestors of modern humans. (NASA Release 93-036; USA Today, Feb 25/93; NY Times, Feb 25; P Inq, Mar 5/93)
NASA announced that, beginning in February, it would test "technology incubation," a new laboratory-to-market approach designed to help space technology contribute to U.S. industrial competitiveness. NASA was funding two centers, the Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, and the Johnson Space Center, Houston. The three-year experiment, which was being operated by the University of Texas, Austin, was receiving funding of $800,000 this year. (NASA Release 93-037)
The General Accounting Office (GAO) reported that the Superconducting Super Collider was millions of dollars over budget and that construction was behind schedule. According to the investigators, trend analysis suggested that the Collider could have a $650 million cost overrun; GAO also estimated that the project was 19 percent behind schedule. (W Post, Feb 25/93)
Government officials reported that a high-altitude weather satellite borrowed from Europe had been positioned to monitor the weather over the United States. It joined the GOES-7 U.S. weather satellite, which had been working alone since its companion satellite failed in 1989. The addition of the European satellite restored the normal system of having two weather satellites in orbit, one each over the East and West Coasts. (NY limes, Feb 25/93)
Daniel S. Goldin, NASA Administrator, named Dr. Joseph F. Shea, adjunct professor of aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and former NASA employee, to be in charge of the redesign of the Space Station. Goldin also announced measures to conserve resources and restrict new spending during the redesign transition. (NASA Release 93-038; Space News, Mar 1-7; UPI, Feb 27/93; W Post, Feb 27/93)
NASA announced funding for 11 mission concept studies that would attempt to design a solar system exploration mission for under $150 million each. A parachute-descending Venus atmospheric probe proposed by the University of Colorado was one of the ideas funded. (Washington Technology, Feb 25/93)
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