NASA Daily News Summary For Release: August 6, 1999 Media Advisory m99-161 Summary: NASA ANNOUNCES RESEARCH GRANTS IN BIOLOGY-INSPIRED TECHNOLOGY Video File for August 6, 1999 ********** NASA ANNOUNCES RESEARCH GRANTS IN BIOLOGY-INSPIRED TECHNOLOGY NASA has selected 14 researchers to receive grants totaling approximately $6.5 million over four years to conduct research in biology-inspired technologies as part of a $12 million program. These grants represent new research efforts. Sponsored by NASA's Office of Life and Microgravity Science and Applications, this research opens a new area of technological development that could have tremendous impact on the future of NASA's human exploration program. Also, the technologies could have a beneficial effect on the quality of life on Earth through advances in noninvasive medical monitoring, safer automobiles and aircraft, and other uses only imagined today. NOTE: Local angles in La Jolla, CA Boulder, CO Washington, DC Pensacola, FL Urbana, IL Cambridge, MA Boston, MA Albuquerque, NM Ithaca, NY Toledo, OH Philadelphia, PA Clemson, SC Knoxville, TN Seattle, WA Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC: Renee Juhans 202/358-1712. For full text, see: ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/1999/99-089.txt ********** If NASA issues additional news releases later today, we will e-mail summaries and Internet URLs to this list. Index of 1999 NASA News Releases: http://www.nasa.gov/releases/1999/index.html ********** Video File for August 6, 1999 Item 1 - Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) Satellite Works to Unravel Solar Mystery (replay) Item 2 - Hubble Space Telescope Heritage Image: Ancient Storm in the Atmosphere of Jupiter (replay) Item 3 - Software of the Year Winning Programs Apply Space Technology to Make Cars, Bridges and Airplanes Safer, Spacecraft Cheaper - animation (replay) NOTE: Regarding the Upcoming Solar Eclipse NASA will NOT run the eclipse live on NASA TV throughout its duration on Aug. 11. Any media wishing to pick-up a live feed of the eclipse can go to Telstar 5, Ku transponder 11, 97 west, vertical polarity 11929 MHz downlink frequency. Audio 6.2 / 6.8. Credit MUST be given: "Courtesy Exploratorium/NASA" However, solar researchers Steve Maran and Craig DeForest will be available via NASA TV on August 11 from 6:00 to 11:00 am EDT to provide commentary over a live feed of the eclipse from Amasya, Turkey. To book an interview, contact Deanna Corridon 301/286-0041 or Wade Sisler 301/286-6256. More information about the eclipse is available at: http://eclipse99.nasa.gov/ ----- Video File for August 6, 1999 Item 1 - Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) Satellite Works to Unravel Solar Mystery Stiff Solar Atmosphere May Explain Heating Mystery. Dramatic new images from TRACE satellite are helping unravel a perplexing mystery: How can the atmosphere of the Sun be hotter than the star's surface? Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC: Donald Savage 202/358-1527. Contact at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD: Bill Steigerwald 301/286-5017. Item 1a - Vibrating Coronal Loops Huge loops and coils of heated coronal gas vibrate like a piano string hit by its hammer following the blast wave from a solar flare. It is those vibrations which heat the corona to intense temperatures, often many times hotter than the surface of the sun itself. Recent observations the TRACE spacecraft indicate that the corona may be millions of times more viscous than previously expected, thus explaining why the medium of solar plasma has a higher than expected level of molecular friction. Item 1b - TRACE Animation TRACE is one of NASA's Small Explorer spacecraft. Launched aboard a Pegasus rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA, in April 1998, TRACE studies the magnetic field of the solar atmosphere. Working in conjunction with the SOHO spacecraft, TRACE is tasked with the primary mission of unraveling some of the mysteries surrounding the solar corona. Item 1c - Interview Excerpts Dr. Leon Ofman, TRACE Project Scientist, talks about the latest images. Item 2 - Hubble Space Telescope Heritage Image: Ancient Storm in the Atmosphere of Jupiter Contact at Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD: Ray Villard 410/338-4707. Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC: Donald Savage 202/358-1547. Additional information about Hubble images is available at: http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pictures.html Item 3 - Software of the Year Winning Programs Apply Space Technology to Make Cars, Bridges and Airplanes Safer, Spacecraft Cheaper NASA has chosen as its 1999 NASA Software of the Year two innovative programs developed at NASA centers. One program applies technology developed for space to everyday life here on Earth by helping to make our cars, airplanes, bridges and other structures safer. The other program makes spacecraft cheaper and transforms science fiction into science fact by allowing spacecraft to operate themselves. Local angles: NASA Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field, Cleveland, OH; NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA; NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC: Elvia H. Thompson 202/358-1696. Contact at NASA Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field, Cleveland, OH: Barbara L. Kakiris 216/433-2513. Contact at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA: John Bluck 650/604-5026 or 650/604-9000. Contact at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA: John G. Watson 818/354-5011. Item 3a - Remote Agent Software on Deep Space 1 Remote Agent took control of Deep Space 1 for three days in May and operated the spacecraft autonomously. Item 3b - Genoa Software Animation Animation shows Genoa software simulation of spreading of damage to an aircraft fuselage. Information can be used to build stronger structures and to predict failure in existing ones. ----- The NASA Video File normally airs at noon, 3 p.m., 6 p.m., 9 p.m. and midnight Eastern Time. NASA Television is available on GE-2, transponder 9C at 85 degrees West longitude, with vertical polarization. Frequency is on 3880.0 megahertz, with audio on 6.8 megahertz. Refer general questions about the video file to NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC: Ray Castillo, 202/358-4555, Pam Poe, 202/358-0373, or Elvia Thompson, 202/358-1696. During Space Shuttle missions, you can access the full NASA TV schedule from: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/nasatv/schedule.html For general information about NASA TV see: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv/ ********** Contract Awards Contract awards are posted to the NASA Acquisition information Service Web site: http://procurement.nasa.gov/EPS/award.html ********** The NASA Daily News Summary is issued each business day at approximately 2 p.m. Eastern time. Members of the media who wish to subscribe or unsubscribe from this list, please send e-mail message to: Brian.Dunbar@hq.nasa.gov ********** end of daily news summary