The Best Laid Schemes o' Mice an' Men…
Aerospace America, July 2000, Industry Insights: "Why Space Mishaps are on the Rise"
A
statistical analysis indicates that the rate of launch vehicle and payload
mishaps had risen throughout the 1990s. A table of "Payload and
Launch Vehicle Success Rates" reveals a high of 96.5% (1992) and a low of
85.0% (1997) for payloads and a high/low of 96% (1990-92) and 90% (1996 &
1999) for launch vehicles. The trend toward loosing hardware has increased
insurance costs and decreased confidence in certain vehicles.
Rise in launch vehicle failures was attributed to introduction of new and unproven vehicles from the middle of the decade onward. Of the new vehicles at least a dozen had at least one failed launch. The article concludes that there is nothing seriously wrong with the new launch vehicles but that "[launch vehicle] programs are being allowed almost no grace period before a negative overreaction about their potential competitiveness emerges in the market."
To Be or Not to Be
Foxnews.com; Feb 8, 2000; Science: "Hibernation Gene Found That Could Send Man to the Stars"
Hibernating animals can live in a state where body temperature is slightly above freezing, oxygen consumption is close to nil, and heart rate is only a few beats per minute. Research sponsored by the U.S. Army, at North Carolina State University, has identified two genes involved in human hibernation. The Army's goal is to find a method of inducing "protective hibernation" in battlefield casualties until they can get medical help. In Britain, research at the Rowett Institute in Aberdeen is being done to determine how these genes could be triggered in humans. The immediate objective is a means of preserving organ donors and possibly helping people lose weight.
If
this research bears out, it may awaken an old science fiction idea concerning
space travel. As popularly foreshadowed in 2001: A Space Odyssey,
hibernation could allow crews to sleep for months or years as they cross the
void of space. Biomedical research would allow modern man to come full-circle:
allowing him to use genes originally evolved for the ancestors of humans to
sleep through the winter abyss.
Wherefore Art Thou Ophelia and Cordelia?
Sky & Telescope, July 2000, NewsNotes: "'Lost' Moons of Uranus Recovered"
Fourteen
years after Voyager 2 discovered them, astronomers using images from the Hubble
Space Telescope have recovered the two innermost moons of Uranus. It took
exacting orbital calculations and manipulation of dozens of Hubble images to
recover Ophelia and Cordelia. These approximately 30-km
diameter satellites are of interest because they act as "shepherd"
moons that corral the particles in Uranus' main ring. From Earth such small
distant objects would be difficult to image under the best of 
circumstances.
Their proximity to Uranus and location on either side of that planet's main ring
system made them even harder to discern from Earth without special techniques.
In Greek mythology Titan dethroned his father Uranus -- the first ruler of the Universe. Now Titan and 20-others "crown" Uranus as the planet with the most known satellites.
Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow
SpaceScience.com; Jun 20, 2000; Science@NASA: "Sugar in Space"
A team of scientists using the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) 12-Meter millimeter-wavelength telescope has discovered a form of sugar in the molecular cloud known as Sagittarius B2 (North). The molecule discovered was Glycolaldehyde, an 8-atom molecule of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. This simple sugar can form more-complex sugars such as Ribose -- a building block of the genetic code-carrying nucleic acids (RNA and DNA) -- and Glucose -- the sugar found in fruits. It is yet to be determined how the Glycolaldehyde came about in this star-forming area of space.
The
discovery is not just a curiosity; it indicates that the building blocks of life
are formed before molecular gas clouds coalesce into stars and planets. This may
be key in understanding the rise of living organisms on Earth.
This will be the last sweet smell of success at the NRAO 12-Meter; it will be shutdown at the end of July. The pioneering receiver was built in 1967 at Kitt Peak, Arizona, and detected dozens of new molecules in space. Its work will continue with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array - a 64 radio-telescope array -- in northern Chile, now under development.