khayo@sonia.math.ucla.edu (Eric Behr) (05/05/88)
Please note - I omitted KSC for 3 reasons: (a) the menu branches at
that point and total would take ca. 400 lines, (b) it reads too
much like a TASS release on Baikonur (or Fodor's "Bahamas") and
(c) everyone knows what is ("isn't" would be more in vogue) being
done there.
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GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER
Goddard Space Flight Center (130)
Greenbelt, MD 20771
This NASA field center, 10 miles northeast of Washington,
D.C., has put together a multitalented spaceflight team --
engineers, scientists, technicians, project managers and support
personnel -- which is extending the horizons of human knowledge
not only about the solar system and the universe ut also about
our Earth and its environment.
The Goddard mission is being accomplished through scientific
research -- research centered in six space and Earth science
laboratories and in the management, development and operation of
several near-Earth space systems. One of these systems is the
Hubble Space Telescope (HST), destined to become the first very
large astronomical telescope in space when deployed by the Space
Shuttle. The movements of the HST will be controlled from
Goddard's Space Telescope Operations Control Center, as the
observatory's five scientific instruments -- developed by the
Space Telescope Project team at Goddard -- study the stars,
planets and interstellar space. The Space Telescope Science
Institute, Baltimore, Md., where much of the data from HST will
be analyzed, operates under a contract managed by Goddard.
Another is the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE). This
spacecraft, being built at Goddard, will be deployed to test the
theory that the universe began about 15 billion years ago with a
"Big Bang" -- a cataclysmic explosion -- and then expanded.
Joining the HST and the COBE observation teams later will be the
Gamma Ray Observatory (GRO) and the Upper Atmosphere Research
Satellite (UARS). With four specially-designed instruments, the
GRO will try to penetrate the little-understood processes that
propel the energy-emitting objects of deep space: exploding
galaxies, black holes and quasars. A Goddard laboratory built
one of its instruments, the Energetic Gamma-Ray Experiment
Telescope (EGRET).
On the other hand, the UARS -- managed by Goddard -- will be
launched to look back at the Earth's upper atmosphere to help
scientists understand its composition and dynamics.
Once deployed in space, all these spacecraft will fall under
the 24-hour-a-day surveillance of a worldwide ground and
spaceborne communications network, the nerve center of which is
located at Goddard. One of the key elements of that network is
the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) with its
orbiting Tracking and Data Relay Satellite and associated ground
tracking stations.
One of the prime missions on the TDRSS horizon will be the
relay of communications to and from the Space Station when it
reaches operational status.
Goddard Space Station project personnel are responsible for
developing the capabilities of the instruments attached to the
outside of the station, as well as those on board orbiting
platforms deployed from the station.
Goddard's tracking responsibility also extends to its Wallops
Flight Facility located on Virginia's eastern shore. In fact,
Wallops prepares, assembles, launches and tracks satellites and
suborbital space vehicles and manages the National Scientific
Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas.
The suborbital vehicles include sounding rockets, balloons and
aircraft. These platforms are used to perform studies in
galactic astronomy, high energy astrophysics, solar physics and
planetary atmospheres, and to conduct atmospheric and
oceanographic research and terrain mapping.
The scientific data from these and other space flight
experiments are catalogued and archived at the National Space
Science Data Center at Goddard in the form of magnetic tapes,
microfilm and photographic prints to satisfy the thousands of
requests each year from the scientific community.
Much of the center's theoretical research is conducted at the
Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City. Operated
in close association with universities in that area, the
Institute provides supporting research in geophysics,
astrophysics, astronomy and meteorology to NASA and Goddard. Dr.
Noel W. Hinners is center director.
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JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (180-205)
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA 91109
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is located near
Pasadena, Calif., approximately 20 miles northeast of Los
Angeles.
JPL, occupying 177 acres of land, is a government-owned
facility staffed by the California Institute of Technology. JPL
operates under a NASA contract administered by the NASA Pasadena
office. In addition to the Pasadena site, JPL operates the Deep
Space Communications Complex, a station of the worldwide Deep
Space Network (DSN) located at Goldstone, Calif., on 40,000 acres
of land occupied under permit from the U.S. Army.
The laboratory is engaged in activities associated with deep
space automated scientific missions -- engineering subsystem and
instrument development, and data reduction and analysis required
by deep space flight. Current NASA flight projects under JPL
management include Voyager, Galileo, Magellan and the Mars
Observer. Major instruments under development include the Wide
Field/ Planetary Camera for Space Telescope, the scatterometer
instrument for the Navy's NROSS satellite and the Shuttle Imaging
Radar (SIR-C).
The laboratory designs and tests flight systems, including
complete spacecraft, and provides technical direction to
contractor organizations. JPL operates the worldwide deep space
tracking and data acquisition network (DSN) and maintains a
substantial technology program to support present and future NASA
flight projects and to increase capabilities of the laboratory.
Non-NASA work at JPL includes tasks for the Departments of
Defense and Energy, the Federal Aviation Administration and the
National Institutes of Health. Dr. Lew Allen is director of JPL.
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LYNDON B. JOHNSON SPACE CENTER
Johnson Space Center (AP4)
Houston, TX 77058
Johnson Space Center is located on NASA Road 1, adjacent to
Clear Lake, and about 20 miles southeast of downtown Houston via
Interstate 45. Additional facilities are located at nearby
Ellington Field, approximately 7 miles north of the center.
Johnson Space Center was established in September 1961 as
NASA's primary center for design, development and testing of
spacecraft and associated systems for manned flight; selection
and training of astronauts; planning and conducting manned
missions; and extensive participation in the medical, engineering
and scientific experiments carried aboard space flights.
Johnson has program management responsibility for the Space
Shuttle program, the nation's current manned space flight
program. Johnson also has a major responsibility for the
development of the Space Station, a permanently manned,
Earth-orbiting facility to be constructed in space and operable
within a decade. The center will be responsible for the
interfaces between the Space Station and the Space Shuttle.
Johnson also is responsible for direction of operations at the
White Sands Test Facility (WSTF), located on the western edge of
the U.S. Army White Sands Missile Range at Las Cruces, N.M. WSTF
supports the Space Shuttle propulsion system, power system and
materials testing.
Johnson Space Center is one of the major tourist attractions
in the southwestern United States. More than one million
visitors, including many international visitors, tour the center
each year. While most of the 100 buildings, situated on 1,620
acres, are office space and laboratories, five buildings are open
to the public every day except Christmas.
Briefings are conducted daily at the Mission Control Center,
where Shuttle missions are monitored. Other buildings,
accessible on a self-guided basis, house spacecraft and space
artifacts. Aaron Cohen is center director.
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LANGLEY RESEARCH CENTER
Hampton, VA 23665-5225
Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., is approximately 100
miles south of Washington, D.C. It is situated in the Tidewater
area of Hampton Roads, between Norfolk and Williamsburg, Va. The
center occupies 772 acres of government-owned land divided into
two areas by the runway facilities of Langley Air Force Base.
The west area consists of 749 acres, 430 owned by NASA and 319
under permit from the Air Force. Runways, some utilities and
certain other facilities are used jointly by NASA and the Air
Force. An additional 3,286 acres of marshland near Langley are
under permit to NASA and are used as a model drop zone. The
total acreage presently owned, under permit or leased is 4,168.
Langley's primary mission is the research and development of
advanced concepts and technology for future aircraft and
spacecraft systems, with particular emphasis on environmental
effects, performance, range, safety and economy. Examples of
this research are projects involving flight simulation, composite
structural materials and automatic flight control systems.
Work continues in the development of technology for avionic
systems for reliable operations in terminal areas of the future.
Efforts continue to improve supersonic flight capabilities for
both transport and military aircraft. The center works with the
general aviation industry to help solve problems concerning
aircraft design and load requirements and to improve flight
operations.
The aeronautical research program is
aimed at identifying and pursuing basic and applied research
opportunities that seek to increase in performance, efficiency
and capability. Included in the research laboratories are a
variety of wind tunnels covering the entire Mach-number speed
range.
The National Transonic Facility is a new cryogenic wind tunnel
providing a unique opportunity for conducting high
Reynolds-number research at subsonic and transonic speeds. Major
research disciplines include materials; flutter, aeroelasticity,
dynamic loads, and structural response; fatigue fracture;
electronic and mechanical instrumentation; computer technology;
flight dynamics and control and communications technology.
Langley was responsible for NASA's Viking Project that orbited
and landed spacecraft on Mars in 1976. The Viking conducted a
detailed study of the Martian atmosphere and surface and searched
for life forms on the planet.
Langley's newest major project is developing technology for
the National Aero-Space Plane.
Langley supports manned and unmanned space programs, including
the Space Shuttle and Space Station, through the development of
experiments, sensors, communications equipment, and data handling
systems.
Other research programs include investigations of effects such
as heat, vacuum, noise and meteoroids on space vehicles, the use
of advanced composite and polymeric materials for structures and
thermal control systems, and improved technology for many kinds
of electronics systems. Richard H. Petersen is center director.
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Ericeugene@pioneer.arpa (Eugene N. Miya) (05/06/88)
In article <11974@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> khayo@MATH.ucla.edu (Eric Behr) writes: ================================================================== >GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER >Goddard Space Flight Center (130) >Greenbelt, MD 20771 > This NASA field center, 10 miles northeast of Washington, >D.C., has put together a multitalented spaceflight team -- Sometimes I wonder......(oops, you didn't hear that ;-) Actually, from the computer standpoint, they have a deserving but largely unrecognized project: the Goodyear (now Loral Defense) Massive Parallel Processor (MPP) which has largely, but independently been eclipsed by the Connection Machine. Remember, flight projects are everything. Computing is a secondary technology. ================================================================== >JET PROPULSION LABORATORY >Jet Propulsion Laboratory (180-205) ^^^^^^^ `Engineering'/Admin Bldg, PIO. >4800 Oak Grove Drive >Pasadena, CA 91109 > NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is located near >Pasadena, Calif., approximately 20 miles northeast of Los >Angeles. > JPL, occupying 177 acres of land, is a government-owned >facility staffed by the California Institute of Technology. The shortest description for perhaps one of the best Centers! Well almost. A better description (if you read RISKS) in "Legends of Caltech" is typified in "DEI." Great photo. >and the Shuttle Imaging Radar Oh my God! I should send this back to RSAG! ================================================================== >LANGLEY RESEARCH CENTER >Hampton, VA 23665-5225 > Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., is approximately 100 >miles south of Washington, D.C. It is situated in the Tidewater >area of Hampton Roads, between Norfolk and Williamsburg, Va. The The shorter distance a Center is from HQ, the more likelihood they can influence program managers. Goddard is something of a noteable exception to this rule. Another gross generalization from --eugene miya, NASA Ames Research Center, eugene@ames-aurora.ARPA resident cynic soon to be aurora.arc.nasa.gov at the Rock of Ages Home for Retired Hackers: "Mailers?! HA!", "If my mail does not reach you, please accept my apology." {uunet,hplabs,hao,ihnp4,decwrl,allegra,tektronix}!ames!aurora!eugene "Send mail, avoid follow-ups. If enough, I'll summarize."