May 21 2007
From The Space Library
NASA celebrated the 80th anniversary of Charles A. Lindbergh’s solo transatlantic flight with Lindbergh’s grandson Erik Lindbergh, himself an aviator, who had recreated his grandfather’s historic flight in 2002. Erik Lindbergh joined NASA in its rededication of a unique astronomy craft, a 747 airliner, which Pan American Airways had christened “Clipper Lindbergh” in 1977. NASA had modified the aircraft, enabling it to carry a 45,000-pound (22.5-ton or 20.4 tonnes) infrared telescope system. Designed to fly at more than 40,000 feet (12,192 meters), the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) would operate at an altitude above nearly 99 percent of Earth’s atmospheric water vapor, greatly enhancing the observatory’s ability to study the cosmos. The German Aerospace Center had provided the telescope, and NASA had modified the craft.
NASA, “NASA’s SOFIA To Be Rededicated on Historic Lindbergh Anniversary,” media advisory M07-52, 11 May 2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/may/HQ_M07052_SOFIA_event.html (accessed 24 March 2010); Aero-News Network, “Erik Lindbergh Dedicates NASA’s Sofia in Honor of Grandfather,” 22 May 2007.
NASA announced that the chemical analyzer at the end of the arm of the Mars rover Spirit had measured a concentration of pure silica in a soil sample at Gusev Crater, providing the strongest evidence to date that Mars was much wetter in the ancient past than at present. At 90 percent, the concentrated deposit of silica could only have formed in the presence of water. Spirit’s discovery had been the result of a mechanical failure. One of the rover’s six wheels, which had become incapable of rotating, had gouged a deep impression as it moved through the soil. The scraping had exposed patches of bright soil, leading to the discovery of the silica. Steven W. Squyres of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, Principal Investigator for the Mars rovers’ scientific instruments, underscored the significance of the discovery, stating, “the fact that we found something this new and different after nearly 1,200 days on Mars makes it even more remarkable.” J. Douglas McCuistion, Director of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, added that the unexpected discovery was a reminder that Spirit and Opportunity were still conducting cutting-edge exploration more than three years into their extended mission.
NASA, “Mars Rover Spirit Unearths Surprise Evidence of Wetter Past,” news release 07-118, 21 May 2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/may/HQ_07118_Spirit_discovers_wet_Mars.html (accessed 24 March 2010); Space.com, “NASA Rover Finds Surprising Evidence for Mars’ Watery Past,” 21 May 2007, http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/070521_rover_wetterpast.html (accessed 6 April 2010).
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