GRAA NEWSLETTER
P.O. Box 1184, Greenbelt, MD 20768-1184

IMPORTANT DATES

COMMENTS FROM TONY COMBERIATE, GRAA PRESIDENT: Our May speaker was Dr. Herbert Frey, Goddard‘s Chief of the Planetary Geodynamics Laboratory in the Sciences & Exploration Directorate. His presentation was entitled, “Recent Excitement in Solar System Exploration,” and covered three specific topics. The first was ‘Chasing a Comet – the Rosetta Mission,’ during which he described the 10+ year European Space Agency’s mission to the P67 comet and showed images of the 5 x 3 kilometer (km) comet that is traveling at 84,000 miles per hour in an elliptical orbit around the Sun. The Rosetta spacecraft, which has traveled over 7.7 billion km, used three planet flybys to rendezvous with the comet and take spectacular imagery while the comet became more active (developing a tail as material came off) as it approached the Sun. He also spoke about the history of Pluto and the recent discoveries of the New Horizons mission. Pluto was first discovered by Clyde W. Tombaugh in 1930 and was classified a planet until 2006, when the International Astronomical Union redefined it as one of several dwarf planets in the Kuiper Belt. The definition of a planet requires that it be in an orbit around the Sun, be big enough to be round, and have cleared the neighborhood around its orbit. Pluto has many surface variations, a lot of color, a hazy atmosphere, both nitrogen and water ice on its surface and five moons, including Charon, its largest and half of Pluto’s size. Pluto has an elliptical, inclined orbit that takes 248 years to orbit the Sun and its pole is tilted 120 degrees. Dr. Frey also discussed the latest information on exoplanet research. Planet formation in the universe is much more prevalent than previously thought. Over 5,000 potential planets around other stars have been discovered and almost 2,000 of them are confirmed to be real planets. One in five stars, like the Sun, has planets in the habitable zone (where water could be maintained on its surface). To date, 10 Earth-size (and 20 super Earth-size) planets have been discovered to be in other planets’ habitable zones. One of the things we have learned from studying other solar systems is that large gaseous planets sometimes form far out and migrate inward. If Jupiter had formed a little earlier in our solar system, it could have disrupted the formation of the inner planets, like Earth. Dr. Frey’s conclusion is that although Earth is only one of many planets in very many solar systems, there is no place like home. He will no doubt return to speak again about his favorite subject, Mars.

TREASURER’S REPORT: Treasurer Jackie Gasch received tax-deductible contributions from the following members: William Adams, Dario Galoppo, Ellen Herring, Bernard Johnson, Vernon Krueger, William Mack, Raymond Mazur, Grace Miller, Dorothy Perkins, Roger Ratliff, Carl Roberts (in memory of Mary Ellen Shoe), David Schaefer, Joseph Schulman, John Tominovich, Ralph Welsh, and Charles E. White.

RECENT NEW RETIREES: Douglas H. Fineberg, Carol L. Mosier, Janet L. Paul, Timothy J. Ray, Melonie E. Scofield, and Ronald H. Walsh.

FROM THE GODDARD ARCHIVES – IT HAPPENED IN JUNE: Cluster was a constellation of four European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft launched on the maiden flight of the Ariane 5G rocket from the ELA-3 launch complex near Kourou, French Guiana, on June 4, 1996, and was subsequently lost when the rocket failed to achieve orbit. The launch ended in failure due to an error in the software design caused by assertions having been turned off, which in turn caused inadequate protection from integer overflow. This resulted in the rocket veering off its flight path 37 seconds after launch, began to disintegrate under high aerodynamic forces, and finally self-destructing by its automatic flight termination system. This failure has become known as one of the most infamous and expensive software bugs in history, resulting in a loss of more than 370 million dollars.

THOUGHT FOR JUNE: How do trees feel when springtime arrives? Re-leaved!

REMEMBERING OUR FORMER COLLEAGUES:

• Albert Arking, of Potomac, MD, passed away on April 25^th. He started his career in the '60s as a Physicist at Goddard’s Institute of Space Studies (GISS) in New York City as one of its original staffers when GISS was associated with the Theoretical Division of the Office of Space Science & Satellite Applications under the lead of Robert Jastrow. In the early '70s he moved back to Goddard proper and worked in the Meteorology Branch in the Laboratory for Meteorology & Earth Sciences of the Space & Earth Sciences Directorate. During many varied assignments in later years, he served as Head of the Climate & Radiation Branch, Laboratory for Atmospheric Sciences in the Applications Directorate, Project Scientist for the TIROS Project, Project Scientist for the VISSR Atmospheric Sounder experiment, team member of the first International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project, and member of the Nimbus 7 Experiment Team on the Earth Radiation Budget experiment team.
• John M. Hayes, of Arnold, MD, passed away on April 23^rd. He was a Mechanical Engineer at Goddard. During the '70s he worked in the Electronics Division in the Space Applications & Technology Directorate and in the '80s was Head of the Data Storage Section of the Instrument Electronic Systems Branch in the Instrument Division of the Engineering Directorate. In the early '90s, prior to retiring, he was assigned to the Meteorological Satellites (Metsat) Project in the Flight Projects Directorate.
• Allen D. Huffman, of Edgewater, MD, passed away on April 23^rd. He was an Electronics Technician at Goddard and during the '70s and '80s worked in the Laboratory for Solar Physics (later changed to the Laboratory for Astronomy & Solar Physics) in the Earth & Space Sciences Directorate (later changed to the Sciences Directorate. During the early '90s, prior to retiring, he was assigned to the Instrument Division and later to the Space Technology Division of the Engineering Directorate.
• Florence S. Insley, of Pocomoke City, MD, passed away on May 10^th. At Goddard, she was a Secretary at the Wallops Flight Facility who worked, among several assignments over her 30-year career, in the Data Communications Systems Section of the Instrument Branch in the Engineering Division of the Suborbital Projects & Operations Directorate.
• Charles H. Juergensmeyer, of Carlinville, IL, passed away on May 11^th. He was a Mathematician at Goddard who, in the '60s, worked in the Data Systems Division and later the Mission & Trajectory Analysis Division of the Tracking & Data Systems Directorate. Prior to taking early retirement in the '70s he was assigned to the Computation Division of the Mission & Data Operations Directorate.
• Johnnie C. Long, of Pocomoke City, MD, passed away on April 17^th. At Goddard, he was an Electronics Technician at the Wallops Flight Facility. Among varied assignments, he worked in the Operations Division in the '80s and early '90s, in the later '90s in the Program & Mission Management Division, and in the '00s in the Electrical Systems Center and Electrical Engineering Division, all of which were in the Suborbital Projects & Special Orbital Projects Directorate.
• Kevin P. McCarthy, of Annapolis, MD, passed away on April 12^th. He was a Study Manager at Goddard and still working at Goddard in the Flight Projects Directorate when he unexpectedly passed away. Aside from his varied assignments at Goddard, he volunteered to spend six months or so helping to clean up the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, LA.
• John C. Moody, of Wake Forest, NC, passed away on April 10^th. He was an Aerospace Engineer at Goddard who, in the early '60s, worked in the Aeronomy & Meteorological Division of the Office of Space Science & Satellite Applications and later in the '60s in the Systems Division of the Technology Directorate. In the '70s, he worked in the Earth Observations Systems & Systems Engineering Division of the Space Applications & Technology Directorate.
• Nathan E. Novack, of Wallops Island, VA, passed away on May 18^th. At Goddard, he worked as an Electronics Engineer (Radar) at Wallops Flight Facility. Prior to his retirement in the early '90s he was Chief of the Engineering and Safety Division in the Suborbital Projects & Special Orbital Projects Directorate.
• Stanford Ollendorf, of Silver Spring, MD, passed away on May 7^th. He was an Electrical Engineer at Goddard and in the '60s worked in the Spacecraft Technology Division of the Office of Space Science & Satellite Applications. In the ‘70s he worked in the Engineering Physics Division of the Space Applications & Technology Directorate. In the '80s he was Head of the Spacecraft Component Development & Analysis Section of the Applied Engineering Division of the Engineering Directorate. In the '90s he was Head of the Robotics Branch of the Space Technology Division and later in the Systems Development Office and later still in the Technology Planning & Integration Office, all of the Engineering Directorate. In the early '00s he worked in the Mechanical Systems Division of the Applied Engineering & Technology Directorate.
• Howard K. Ottenstein, of Hauppauge, NY, passed away on March 4^th. He came to Goddard in 1964 as a Resources Analyst and spent several years in the Sciences Directorate before transferring to the Flight Projects Directorate (FPD) as a Program Analyst in 1989, where he stayed until retiring in 2005 after 40+ years (but stayed at Goddard and worked as a support service contractor for an additional ten years). Perhaps his greatest achievement was serving as Editor of “The Critical Path,” the FPD’s periodic magazine and helping facilitate FPD’s Project Management Development Emprise.
• David E. Provost, of Edgewater, MD, passed away on May 15^th. He was an Electronic Engineer at Goddard and in the '70s worked in the Test & Evaluation Division of the Systems Reliability Directorate. In the '80s and '90s, he worked for the Applied Engineering Division of the Engineering Director, including a stint as Head of the Robotics Data Systems & Integration Section.
• S. Ichtiaque Rasool, of Bethesda, MD, passed away on April 20^th. He was a Physicist at GISS in the '60s and a colleague of Albert Arking. Soon thereafter, he transferred to NASA Headquarters and served as Chief Scientist of the Office of Space & Terrestrial Applications and later as Chief Scientist for Global Change in the Office of Space Science & Applications.