Apr 9 1994
From The Space Library
Space Shuttle Endeavour, which had been rescheduled to lift off on April 8, was launched April 9 because of had weather. In its cargo bay was the Space Radar Laboratory, weighing 23,000 pounds and containing $366 million worth of imaging systems. The system was to bounce radar waves off Earth in three frequency bands to produce three-dimensional maps of ocean cur-rents, river valleys, forests and farm lands, the geology of volcanoes, and features under desert sands. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and the German and Italian space agencies developed the equipment. The radar developed a glitch after the first day, but ground control was able to repair it and the results were most successful. (NY Times, Apr 8/94; W Post, Apr 8/94; B Sun, Apr 8/94; Reuters, Apr 8/94; USA Today, Apr 8/94; AP, Apr 8/94; UP, Apr 8/94; Reuters, Apr 9/94; AP, Apr 9/94; W Post, Apr 10/94; NY Times, Apr 10/94; B Sun, Apr 10/94; P Inq, Apr 10/94; UPI, Apr 10/94; Reuters, Apr 10/94; AP, Apr 11/94)
NASA researchers were to go underground on April 11 in Lechuguilla Cave in Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico to try to replicate conditions on Mars. NASA engineer Larry Lemke was mainly interested in the technology aspect of developing robots to collect the microorganisms in Lechuguilla if it proved a useful source. NASA planetary scientist Chris McKay and contract microbiologist Penny Boston wanted to see if microorganisms living inside Lechuguilla could reveal life that might exist on Mars. Bacteria in the cave get their energy from sulfur and iron, believed to be two main ingredients of Mars's soil. Samples taken during the five-day under-ground stay that ended on April 16 were to be analyzed at the U.S. Geological Survey laboratory in Denver, a NASA-contracted laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. (AP, Apr 9/94; AP, Apr 13/94; AP, Apr 18/94)
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