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

IMPORTANT DATES

May 10	Our May speaker, Dr. Michelle Thaller, Goddard Astronomer and Science Communicator, will bring us up to date about our most exciting new mission: “The James Webb Space Telescope: New Eyes on the Universe”.
June 14	Dr. James Garvin, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Chief Scientist, will speak on the Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging (DAVINCI) mission.

COMMENTS FROM TONY COMBERIATE AND ARLIN KRUEGER:

Our April luncheon speaker was Dr. Paul Mahaffy, a Goddard Emeritus Scientist, who recently retired as the Solar System Exploration Division Chief. His talk was titled “Goddard’s Contributions to the Exploration of Planets, Moon, and Primitive Bodies in the Solar System”. Goddard’s planetary exploration expertise is largely in four areas: LIDAR, Magnetometry, Infra-red spectral imaging, and Mass spectrometry. Among the many accomplishments, Mars topography was mapped with the MOLA Laser Altimeter, Jupiter’s upper atmospheric structure and composition were determined with a mass spectrometer on the Galileo descent probe, while its magnetic field was measured with Goddard magnetometers on several planetary missions, and Pluto’s exotic ice surfaces were identified with IR cameras on New Horizon. The Goddard-managed OSIRIS-Rex mission, which was launched in 2018, took a sample of rocks from the Bennu asteroid for return to Earth last May and plans to drop them in the Utah desert on September 24, 2023.

Paul also described the Lucy mission, which launched last October to explore the Trojan asteroids that orbit the Sun in tandem with Jupiter. Two missions in current development are DAVINCI, a Goddard mission that will send both an orbiter and a descent probe to Venus, and Dragonfly, an Applied Physics Laboratory mission launching in 2027, which will send a robotic rotorcraft to the surface of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, arriving in 2034.

Goddard’s Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument on the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity Rover has provided important data about Mars’s early history. SAM, which takes up more than half the science payload onboard the rover, can search for carbon compounds associated with life, such as methane. MSL landed on Mars in 2012 and has explored geological sites over a 27 km route across Gale Crater toward its central Mount Sharp. Drilling core samples were analyzed in SAM looking for evidence that liquid water, along with the molecules necessary for life, once existed. These samples confirm that there had been a large freshwater lake fed by streams. In the first chronology experiment ever done on another planet, the mass spectrometer was used to determine from the abundance of isotopes created by cosmic rays that the sediments were deposited over about 80 million years. Also, potassium-argon dating indicated that the sedimentary rocks formed about 4 billion years ago. Another goal of SAM’s mass spectrometry experiment is the direct detection of isotopic signatures in the atmosphere. The detection of organic molecules and methane on Mars shows that Gale Crater was habitable 3.5 – 4 billion years ago and was similar to Earth at that time. Although SAM data are comprehensive, to absolutely conclude that microbial life existed on early Mars would require additional evidence of an abundance of complex molecules produced by living organisms. This is a goal of future Mars missions.

MEMORIAL FOR ALBERTA MORAN:

A memorial will be held for Alberta Moran at the GSFC Visitor’s Center (9432 Greenbelt Rd Greenbelt, MD 20771) on Saturday, May 7th at 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm, followed by a reception at the Greenbelt American Legion at 6900 Greenbelt Road. Alberta worked at Goddard from 1959 – 1984 and was a cofounder of GRAA and was actively involved in the Maryland Space Business Roundtable, the Goddard Employees Welfare Association (GEWA), and the Goddard Visitor’s Center. GRAA members who wish to attend the reception should RSVP via evite so that an accurate count can be obtained for the dinner at the Legion. For those attending, the family requests that you dress for a gathering of friends rather than a funeral.

REMEMBERING OUR FORMER COLLEAGUES:

Samuel Abram Wax, 81, of Alexandria, VA, passed away on March 15. Sam was born in St. Louis, MO and graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a degree in Engineering Physics. Sam moved to the Washington, DC area in 1961, taking a job at NASA in 1964. Sam was fascinated by computers his whole life and remained in the information technology field over a career that spanned more than 40 years. He joined NASA to work on a team that installed the first mainframe computer at Goddard. After five years at NASA, Sam joined Communications Satellite Corporation (COMSAT), where he spent 22 years and managed the transition from mainframe computers to local area networks. In 1990, Sam went to work for Information Management Consultants, entering the world of workflow management and rising to vice president. In 2000, he moved to Grant Thornton as a consultant in the area of computer security, becoming one of the first Certified Information Systems auditors. He retired in 2007.

Peter Bruce Worland, 80, of Summerville, South Carolina died Thursday, March 17, 2022. Peter was born on July 8, 1941 and grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He graduated from West Division High School as the salutatorian in 1959. He was always interested in learning. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Math in 1963. He nearly changed majors to English and Literature but was concerned about job possibilities. He remained at the University to earn a Master’s Degree in Math in 1965. He spent a year working at IBM, another teaching at Milwaukee School of Engineering. Peter then moved to State College, Pennsylvania to earn his Doctorate Degree in Computer Science at Penn State University in 1971. He held research posts at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, the Hanford Nuclear Research Center in Washington State and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. He spent a year’s sabbatical at the Colorado State University and a semester at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Peter retired in 2004.

Joseph "Joe" Edward Dunn, Jr., 86, passed away surrounded by his family in Pennsylvania on March 25, 2022. Joe was born in November 1935 in Scranton, Pennsylvania and graduated in 1957 from Penn State University with a degree in Electrical Engineering and dedicated the majority of his career with Computer Science Corporation in support of NASA and the Goddard Space Flight Center in the orbit determination area. There, he provided over 30 years of service and received several awards in recognition of his contributions, including the Silver Snoopy Award for “dedication and outstanding support that greatly enhanced space flight safety and mission success.”

David J. Fromme, 84, of York, Pennsylvania, died on March 28th. After serving in the U.S. Army, Dave began working at Goddard in the Budget Branch before serving as the Financial Manager and eventually a DPM/R for several projects including Landsat-D, GRO, ISTP, TDRS, and GOES. After retiring in 1993, Dave moved to York, Pennsylvania, where he continued his lifelong love of Polka dancing.

Roy Morgan, 94, of Rockville, MD, died on April 1, 2022. Roy grew up in McGregor, TX and received a Bachelor’s of Science degree in 1949 from Prairie View College. In 1950, he was called to active duty in the U.S. Army and left in 1958 with the rank of Captain. He moved to Washington, DC, where he achieved a life goal of earning a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1963 from Howard University. He began his NASA career in 1963 at Goddard Space Flight Center, transferred to NASA Headquarters in 1980 to work on the Space Shuttle Program, and retired as Branch Head in the Orbiter Division in 1989.

Karen A. Blynn, 67, died on April 6, 2022, after a long illness. Karen graduated from Penn State University, and after working for VISTA and ACTION, she returned to school and obtained her Master's degree in Public Administration from Virginia Commonwealth University, where she met her husband of 36 years. Upon receiving her Master’s degree she was selected as a Presidential Management Intern and began working at Goddard in 1983, where she spent 30 years in several positions including the Deputy Director of the Financial Management Division, now the Office of the CFO. She also worked as a Program Manager in the Office of the Center Director, the Management Operations Directorate, the Applied Engineering and Technology Directorate, the Projects Directorate, and the Information Technology and Communications Directorate. Karen worked on many Center and Agency teams and was held in high regard by those who knew her and had the privilege of working with her. Karen also worked at NASA Headquarters in the Office of the Inspector General, before returning to Goddard. Upon retirement, Karen devoted herself full-time to her artistic endeavors, as a potter, and as an Artist in Residence at the Sandy Spring Museum in Sandy Spring, MD.

John Franklin Cook, 88, passed away at Gilchrist Hospice Center on April 20, 2022, in Columbia, MD. John was born January 22, 1934, in Duncansville, PA and graduated from Hollidaysburg High School. He joined the US Air Force in December 1952 and served as an electronic countermeasures and heavy ground radar repairman in the U.S. and a variety of locations in Japan until December 1956. Following his discharge from the US Air Force, John joined Bendix Corporation and he and his wife, Jean, traveled throughout the country as he worked at various radar sites. Eventually they settled in Maryland where John first joined a start-up company, Scientific Analysis Consulting and Programming Support Corporation, as a partner and programmer on government contracts. When an opportunity came up to join the early space program, he jumped at the chance taking a position at Goddard in 1970 where he worked in the Systems Evaluation Branch in the Mission Support Computing and Analysis Division and the Mission Applications Branch in the Information Systems Division, until his retirement in 2005.

FROM THE GODDARD ARCHIVES — IT HAPPENED IN MAY:

On May 4, 2002, Delta-II launched AQUA, the first of the A-train or afternoon polar orbit earth observation satellites. It was a joint mission with US, Japan, and Brazil instruments. Four of the six instruments are providing data today.

TREASURER’S REPORT:

Treasurer Jackie Gasch received tax-deductible donations from Charles Woodyard, John Haberman, and Ellen Herring.