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

IMPORTANT DATES

COMMENTS FROM VICE PRESIDENT TONY COMBERIATE, GRAA VICE PRESIDENT: With President Ron Browning “on the road again,” Vice President Tony Comberiate has provided this month’s synopsis of the speaker’s presentation at September’s luncheon. Our scheduled speaker, Dr. Paul Hertz, Director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters, was out-of-town attending a launch. Andrea Razzaghi, Deputy Director of Astrophysics, spoke most ably in his stead, especially given her experience serving at Goddard in several managerial positions from 1992 to 2009 prior to transferring to NASA Headquarters. She described the Astrophysics Division’s current and future activities and explained how the division consists of three principal areas: Physics of the Cosmos, Cosmic Origins, and Exoplanet Exploration. Current activities include working with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), which this year is celebrating 25 years of outstanding operations, and how its discoveries have changed our view of the universe today and also how we will most likely look at the universe in the future. Andrea showed attendees a panoramic view of the Andromeda Galaxy assembled from many HST images. Andromeda, our nearest neighboring galaxy, contains one trillion stars and is over 2.5 light years distant. HST images of Europa, a moon of Jupiter, indicate that it could contain more water (under a covering of ice) than Earth. She demonstrated just how complicated the next major Cosmic Origins mission, the James Webb Telescope, is by showing us an animation of its intricate 30-day deployment sequence. In response to the 2010 decadal survey, NASA’s next Exoplanet mission will be the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), which will complete the statistical census of planets in the Milky Way Galaxy and study dark energy. WFIRST, using a 2.4 meter telescope, will have 100 times the sky coverage of HST. Andrea described how the discovery of planets in our galaxy (now at 1873 and growing) has increased dramatically over time. Although our solar system is not typical, scientists have determined that almost every star has a planet. With the help of a future ”star shade,” scientists will be able to block out a star’s light to help in viewing the planet circling around it.

TREASURER’S REPORT: Treasurer Jackie Gasch received tax-deductible contributions from the following: Michael Cushman, Donald Crosby, Janet Jew, Carl Roberts, and David Stewart.

FROM THE GODDARD ARCHIVES - IT HAPPENED IN OCTOBER: On October 6, 1981, a Delta rocket launched the Solar Mesosphere Explorer (SME/Explorer 64) from Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA. The spacecraft was designed to investigate the processes that create and destroy the ozone in Earth’s upper atmosphere, or mesosphere. The mesosphere is a layer of the atmosphere extending from the top of the stratosphere to an altitude of about 80 kilometers (about 50 miles). The SME’s primary objective was to determine what changes in the ozone distribution as a result of changes in incoming solar radiation. The mission was managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and operated by the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado via Goddard. All instruments were turned off in December 1988 and contact was lost permanently in April 1989 due to a battery failure.

THOUGHT FOR OCTOBER: While the aging process has slowed most (if not all) of us down a bit as the years have whizzed by, thankfully it hasn’t shut us up!

REMEMBERING OUR FORMER COLLEAGUES:

• Carolyn A. Hanna, of Westminster, MD, passed away on September 3^rd. She was a Graphics Specialist at Goddard who came to Goddard in the early ’60s and worked in the Graphic Services Branch of the Technical Information Division in the Office of Administration (the name of the organization was later changed to the Administration and Management Directorate). In later years she worked in the Printing and Duplicating Section of the Graphic Arts Branch in the same division and directorate, retired in 1980.
• Barbara C. Holland, of New Carrollton, MD, passed away on September 2^nd. In the early ’70s, she was a Secretary at Goddard and worked in the Chemosphere Branch of the Laboratory for Planetary Atmospheres in the Space & Earth Sciences Directorate. She later served in the Astrochemistry Branch of the Laboratory for Extraterrestrial Physics in the Sciences Directorate and later served for many years as Administrative Assistant to the Chief of the Laboratory for Extraterrestrial Physics.
• Richard G. Holt, of Fairfax, VA, passed away on August 14^th. He was an Electrical Technician at Goddard who transferred to the Center at its inception from the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). In the early ’60s, he worked in the Physics Branch of the Aeronomy & Meteorology Division Office in the Office of Space Science and Satellite Applications. He later worked in the Experiment Engineering Branch of the Laboratory for Atmospheric & Biological Sciences. In the ’70s he worked in the Earth Observations Branch of the Laboratory for Meteorological & Earth Sciences, later still in the Sensor Evaluations Branch of the Instrument Systems Division in the Applications Directorate, and retired in the mid-’80s.
• Leslie “Les” H. Meredith, of Pawley’s Island, SC, passed away on July 15^th. He was among the cadre of scientists who transferred from the NRL to Goddard at its inception and was a Physicist hired as Chief of the Space Sciences Division in the Office of Space Science & Satellite Applications. A few years later, after an organizational name change, he became Chief of the Laboratory for Space Sciences and in the early ’70s became Deputy Director of the Space Sciences Directorate. In the early ’80s, he served as Director of the Applications Directorate and for nearly three years before retiring in 1987 was Goddard’s Assistant Director. Upon retirement, he joined the American Geophysical Union as its first Director of Research Programs.

VIDEO CLIP ON HOW TO GET TO MARS: To view an impressive and exciting clip from an IMAX documentary video produced in 2006, go to How to Get to Mars at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRCIzZHpFtY.

PLEASE NOTIFY GRAA WHEN YOU MOVE: Members are encouraged to remember to notify us when you move permanently to a new home address (or change your email address), as it helps us keep our membership database up-to-date and the newsletters showing up in your mailbox or computer inbox. You can simply send a note to our snail mail address appearing at the top of the front page of each newsletter or pick up a change of address form at your local post office, fill it in, and drop it in the mail to us (or email the change of email address to stratlaios@verizon.net. Such action will save us both time and money in trying to track you down when the US Postal Service returns newsletters back to us that, for one reason or other, cannot be delivered (or emails bounce back to us as undeliverable). With more and more members using cell phones, Ye Ed finds it extremely difficult and time-consuming to make contact with members.