Dec 1 1992
From The Space Library
NASA astronomers announced that the Hubble Space Telescope had caught a clear glimpse of more than 300 galaxies clustered four billion light-years away, giving astronomers their first detailed view of galactic structure at a time when the solar system was just beginning. The Hubble images revealed that star-forming galaxies were far more prevalent in the clusters of the younger universe than in modem clusters of galaxies near us today. The findings have important implications for theories of how galaxies have evolved and are continuing to evolve at an apparently rapid rate. The observations also may have uncovered the most distant cluster of galaxies yet seen at a distance of 10 billion light-years, two-thirds of the way back to the presumed origin of the universe. (NASA Release 92-213; NY Times, Dec 2/92; LA Times, Dec 2/92; W Post, Dec 2/92; The Sun, Dec 2/92; USA Today, Dec 2/92; UPI, Dec 2/92)
NASA announced plans to consolidate some management functions for the Space Station Freedom program and to create a contractor-led integration team to ensure the successful building and deployment of the international Space Station. The consolidations affected operations in Reston, Virginia, and at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The consolidation came amid charges of cost growth and delays at Johnson Space Center and among the center's team of contractors led by McDonnell Douglas. The problems associated with the $5 billion contract had prompted two audits and one investigation by NASA's inspector general. (NASA Release 92-214; W Post, Dec 2/92; Space News, Dec 7-13/92; Av Wk, Dec 7/92)
The Technology 2002 conference, sponsored by NASA, opened in Baltimore to display the wares of Federal agencies and private companies that had developed products they hoped to sell or license for use in new products. The conference was billed as a way for entrepreneurs and companies to look over the latest innovations coming out of Federal laboratories. Equally important, the conference was a way for the Federal government to find practical uses for the technology that had been developed with billions of dollars of taxpayers' money. (The Sun, Dec 23/92)
NASA scientists held the first news conference broadcast live from the southern polar region. The broadcast via satellite to NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, meant that Antarctica researchers would be able to talk with the outside world through electronic means instead of ham radios. More importantly, NASA Ames scientists hoped to use the hookup to employ special technology-"virtual reality" technology-to control remote exploration vehicles probing Antarctica's ice-covered lakes. Scientists hoped to study lake sediments because they might contain life forms similar to ones that might have existed at one time on Mars. In the future, scientists hope to use "virtual reality" technology for Martian exploration. (Peninsula Times Tribune, Dec 2/92; San Jose Mercury News, Dec 2/92)
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