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Jet Propulsion Laboratory UNIVERSE
Pasadena, California - Vol. 23, No. 1 - January 15, 1993
_________________________________________________________________

Earth-approaching asteroid
captured by radar images

By Mary Hardin

     Using a large radar antenna at the Goldstone Deep Space
Communications Complex in the Mojave desert, JPL astronomers have
obtained the sharpest images yet of an Earth-approaching
asteroid, 4179 Toutatis, as it passed extremely close to Earth
last month.
     "This is our first clear look at one of the many thousands
of asteroids whose orbits can intersect Earth's orbit," said Dr.
Steven Ostro of the Geology and Planetary Section 326 and leader
of the radar team.
     The radar images reveal Toutatis to be a "contact binary"
asteroid, consisting of two irregularly shaped, cratered objects
about 4 and 2.5 kilometers (2.5 and 1.6 miles) in average
diameter and rotating with a period between 10 and 11 days.
Toutatis passed 4 million kilometers (2.5 million miles) from
Earth on Dec. 8 -- less than 10 times farther away than the Moon.
     Discovered by French astronomers on Jan. 4, 1989, almost
nothing was known about Toutatis before the radar images were
taken. The asteroid has now been shown to have a jagged, cratered
surface which indicates a complex history of collisions.
     "The binary nature of Toutatis is the most important single
result of this radar experiment," Ostro said.
     Previous radar images taken by Ostro and his colleagues of
another Earth-approaching asteroid, 4769 Castalia (1989 PB), were
too crude to reveal surface details but did show the object to be
bifurcated into two 1-kilometer (0.6 mile) lobes. Radar echoes
bounced off of other asteroids have also contained hints of
contact-binary configurations.
     "Three years ago we were startled by the initial evidence
for contact-binary asteroids," Ostro said. "Now it seems that
double bodies might be very common in the Earth-approaching
asteroid population. If so, then their abundance has important
implications for theories of the origin and evolution of
asteroids and meteorite source bodies.
     "For example, sub-catastrophic collisions might play an
important role in delivering asteroidal bodies into the inner
solar system from the main asteroid belt between Mars and
Jupiter," he said.
     The two components of Toutatis probably joined in a
relatively gentle collision, but their origins and the times and
circumstances of events leading up to the asteroid's current
configuration are unknown, Ostro continued.
     "Toutatis may be two pieces of a much larger asteroid that
once orbited in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter, but was
disrupted in a catastrophic collision with another large object,"
Ostro speculated. Another possible scenario is that Toutatis was
split into two parts by a collision not quite energetic enough to
completely pulverize it.
     The best way to study the history of Toutatis would be
through the analysis of samples returned from both Toutatis
components. While there are no plans yet to rendezvous with
Toutatis, Ostro said it and dozens of other near-Earth asteroids
are leading candidates for robotic flyby, rendezvous and sample-
return missions because of the asteroids' small gravitational
fields and because of the ease of maneuvering spacecraft between
the orbits of Earth and the asteroids.
     For most of the radar observations, a 400,000-watt coded
radio transmission was beamed at Toutatis from Goldstone's main
70-meter (230-foot) antenna. The echoes, which took as little as
24 seconds to travel to Toutatis and back, were received by the
new 34-meter (112-foot) antenna and relayed back to the 70-meter
station where they were decoded and processed into images.
     Full processing of the Toutatis radar data over the next few
months is expected to reveal details of surface features less
than 100 meters (330 feet) across. Eventually a detailed three-
dimensional computer model of the object will be constructed from
the data, Ostro said.In addition to Ostro, members of the JPL
radar team include Dr. Raymond Jurgens, Keith Rosema, Ron
Winkler, Denise Howard, Randy Rose, Dr. Martin Slade and Dr.
Donald Yeomans. ###
_________________________________________________________________

MACS -- another quality success story

By E.K. Davis
     When Division 37 speaks of MACS, they don't mean fast food.
What they're talking about is the Mission and Computing Support
(MACS) contract, which was designed to do much more than just
replace the former Mission Computing and Control Center
operations and maintenance contract which was re-bid in 1988.
     The new agreement was to provide for potential support to
the full spectrum of mission, computing and communications
activities throughout the development, operations and maintenance
life cycle. Of particular concern was having a contractual
vehicle to help accommodate the mission operations "bulge" of the
1990s, when Ulysses, Galileo, Magellan, TOPEX/Poseidon, Mars
Observer and Cassini support were added to the ongoing Voyager
missions. MACS was a means to readily accommodate the planned
growth in space missions within the JPL work force ceilings.
     The MACS contract also was designed to provide for a long-
term, stable association through a contract term of five years
plus five one-year options -- given satisfactory performance --
for a possible total of 10 years without re-bid. Three of the
one-year options have now been added to the contract.
     The MACS contractor is OAO Corp., which operates a fully
autonomous Contract Management Office near JPL to manage and
support their work force of more than 420 people. The MACS
contract can support any organization at JPL that has work
falling within the scope of the MACS contract.
     So, what does this have to do with a quality success story?
The incentives for MACS were unique, with two award fees: one was
of the standard performance award fee variety, but the second was
an award fee to encourage productivity improvement and quality
enhancement (PIQE).
     The PIQE award fee recognizes good ideas, their successful
implementation, and achievement of desired results -- which lead
to improved quality and lower cost of operations.
     The past four and a half years have seen substantial
improvements in customer satisfaction, process efficiencies and
quality, as measured by customer surveys and internal metrics.
And, cost reductions of more than $4 million have been validated!
These cost savings -- when extended through the full term of the
contract --amount to more than $9 million as of September 1992,
and are still growing.
     Some examples of the improvements made to achieve these
savings include:
     -- Solving an AMMOS (Advanced Multi Mission Operating
System) interface problem, resulting in a $400,000 cost avoidance
for new equipment;
     -- Reducing the cost of implementing a magnetic tape storage
facility by finding a source of reconditioned, used racks at
about one-quarter the cost of new racks;
     -- Adapting several PC-based programs to automate scheduling
functions, reducing required labor from 12 hours per week to one
hour per week;
     -- Consolidating maintenance of several computer types on
Lab to substantially reduce over maintenance costs to JPL.
     These are only a few of the 100 or so suggestions which have
been approved, implemented and verified since OAO began their
quality program.
     The MACS contract is one of JPL's largest, making customer-
supplier alignment an important factor in the achievement of our
goals. OAO has now aligned their four-year PIQE/TQM quality
program with Dr. Stone's four attitudes of quality: customer
focus, strategic planning, employee empowerment and continuous
improvement.
     For more information, call MACS Contract Technical Manager
Chuck Koscielski at ext. 4-0117. ###

E.K. Davis is manager of JPL's Institutional Computing and
Mission Operations Section 370.
_________________________________________________________________

News briefs

     Dr. Yvonne Freeman, director of JPL's Minority Science and
Engineering Initiatives Office, has taken a position as NASA's
assistant administrator for Equal Opportunity Programs. The
announcement was made by NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin.
     "Dr. Freeman has an excellent background in equal
opportunity programs, particularly in the education area," said
Goldin. "She knows NASA, and it will be great to have her back at
headquarters. She shares my deep commitment to developing a NASA
work force that reflects the diversity of our society."
     Freeman will return to NASA Headquarters, where she served
as manager of the Minority University Program from 1987-90.
     "Dr. Freeman has been instrumental in the advancement of
minority programs and activities at JPL," said Dr. Harry
Ashkenas, manager of JPL's University Affairs Office. "She will
be sorely missed."
     Ashkenas said a replacement has not yet been named.

     Dr. David Halpern, an oceanographer and senior research
scientist in JPL's Earth and Space Sciences Division Section 320,
will become a fellow of the American Meteorological Society (AMS)
at the society's Jan. 17 opening ceremony in Anaheim.
     Halpern specializes in measurements of surface wind over the
global ocean and the associated oceanographic changes of current,
sea-surface topography, temperature and phytoplankton. His
studies draw on observations from Earth-orbiting satellites,
including JPL's TOPEX/Poseidon spacecraft, and from numerical
models of ocean-atmosphere circulation.
     Halpern also serves as manager of the Multidisciplinary
Studies Program in JPL's Office of Space Science and Instruments.
He is co-investigator of two JPL instruments under development --
the NASA Scatterometer and the Stick Scatterometer -- to measure
surface winds during NASA's forthcoming Mission to Planet Earth.
     He is among 19 scientists in the international community
this year to be named fellows of AMS, a 13,000-member association
dedicated to oceanography and atmospheric studies.

     A kickoff meeting to discuss plans for JPL's American
Heritage Week will take place on Jan. 19.
     JPL employees and contractors who are interested in getting
involved are invited to attend the meeting at noon in Building
171, conference room 246. Committees will be formed at that time.
     Call Nerissa Parmelee at ext. 4-8669 for information.

     JPL will host the fifth NASA Engineering Symposium Jan. 26-
27.
     The symposium's focus will be on integrated tools for
performing systems engineering functions. The first day is
devoted to new ideas in systems engineering and their
applications to NASA programs; on the second day, commercial
vendors will discuss and demonstrate their systems engineering
software products.
     There is no registration fee for the symposium, which will
be held in Building 180-101. All employees are welcomed. Call Dr.
Robert Shishko at ext. 4-1282 for information.

     A course covering the hardware and software design of
microprocessor systems and taught by Phil Salomon, a technical
staff member in the Guidance and Control Section 343, will begin
Feb. 8 at Pasadena City College.
     The class meets Monday and Wednesday evenings from 7-10
p.m., and offers particular emphasis on 8085 and 8086 processors.
Early enrollment is advised because of class size limitations.
     Call Salomon at ext. 4-6214 or PCC Admissions at (818)
585-7123 for information.

     An all-day seminar series on FORTRAN 90 will be presented in
von Karman Auditorium Jan. 27.
     The presentation will begin with a one-hour overview at 8:30
a.m., followed by three 90-minute sessions with more in-depth
discussion of specific topics.
     The seminar series is cosponsored by the JPL Supercomputing
Project, SSORCE; the Supercomputing and Computational Mathematics
Support Group in Section 372; and the Navigation Software
Development Group in Section 314.
     Event organizer Dr. Charles Lawson said those responsible
for choosing programming languages for JPL projects are
particularly encouraged to attend, but the series is open to all
JPL personnel.
     Call Lawson at ext. 4-4266 for information. ###
_________________________________________________________________

1992 was a year to remember for JPL

By Mark Whalen
     1992 may have been the busiest and most satisfying year in
JPL's history. As deep-space missions were launched from Earth,
others continued forward toward their goals after leaving our
planet in earlier years. The Lab's technological, engineering and
scientific wizardry allowed us to gaze at passing asteroids and
far off galaxies alike, and excited us with close-up views of our
own planet and others.
     New and challenging missions were proposed, helping us look
toward the next century with excitement and anticipation. And
1992 also showed the great diversity that is JPL, as much of the
Lab's efforts and discoveries attest to the fact that Earth is
indeed the most important planet for us to observe from above.
     Some highlights:

January
     Magellan, which was launched in May 1989, began its third
mapping cycle of Venus and focused on stereo mapping of selected
targets and areas not mapped earlier. ... A nine-member
delegation of Russian scientists and engineers spent a week at
the Lab, meeting with staff members of JPL's Navigation Ancillary
Information Facility to study a NASA information system they are
adopting for data distribution during their mission to Mars in
1994. They also met with scientists and engineers from the Mars
Observer mission and the Space Flight Operations Center.

February
     Spaceborne radar and enhanced satellite images helped JPL
geologists locate the lost city of Ubar in southern Oman, a
civilization dating back 5,000 years. ... On its way to the poles
of the sun, the Ulysses spacecraft sailed past Jupiter at closest
approach of about 172,000 kilometers (277,474 miles) from the
planet's center on Feb. 8. The spacecraft found a magnetosphere
that is more extended and thinner than that encountered by
Voyager. The Ulysses project also announced that the spacecraft
was able to study charged particles around Jupiter at higher
latitudes than its predecessors. ... JPL's Microwave Limb Sounder
(MLS) team announced discovery of exceptionally high levels of
ozone-destroying chlorine monoxide at Earth's northern latitudes.
MLS is aboard NASA's Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS).
"The findings show that the ozone layer is in significantly more
danger than previously thought," said Dr. Joe Waters, MLS' team
leader. ... The All Source Analysis System (ASAS), a computerized
battlefield intelligence system developed by JPL for the Army
which saw limited action in the Persian Gulf war, was accredited
by the Defense Intelligence Agency, meaning that ASAS can now be
deployed for use on battlefields as the Army chooses. ... JPL
Director Dr. Edward Stone announced Lab-wide implementation of
the Total Quality Management (TQM) initiative, focusing on
customer satisfaction and continuous improvement of work
processes.

March
     The Mars Observer spacecraft passed its last major test
before shipment to Cape Canaveral -- a 12-day thermal
environmental test to simulate the vacuum and temperature of
space. ... A new business ethics program is launched at the Lab.

April
     Andrew Thomas, a JPL mechanical engineer, was chosen as an
astronaut for NASA's space shuttle program. ... JPL's Employee
Recreation Club celebrated its 40-year anniversary. ...
Organizational Dynamics Inc., JPL's TQM consultant, found in a
random Lab survey that employees believe that existing policies
and procedures "interfere with their ability to perform excellent
work." The survey also found that employees believe that "many
policies and practices are outdated and get in the way of serving
customers." ... JPL and the Pasadena Unified School District
dedicated the district's new Saturday Science Academy program,
which was partially funded through a $50,000 contribution from
JPL.

May
     Oceanographer Mark Drinkwater, JPL's principal investigator
for the Weddell Sea Project, began research in the Antarctic on
that region's interaction of the ocean, ice cover and atmosphere.
... Newly appointed NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin made his
first visit to JPL on May 28, urging Lab employees to be bold and
innovative, and to try to cut through NASA's bureaucracy to
restore the agency's technical and managerial excellence. ... JPL
Director Dr. Edward Stone told the first-ever "Briefing for
Industry" conference in Pasadena that the Lab wants to build a
stronger relationship with industry. "We see industry more in
partnership. But this also means that industry should assign its
very best people to projects and provide sufficient
oversight."Magellan project scientists identified large
landslides on Venus which are similar to slides on Earth and
Mars, the largest of which spread 30 km (18 miles) across the
surface. Project Scientist Steve Saunders said the most dramatic
landslides on Venus may have formed much like the Mount St.
Helens eruption in Washington in 1980. ... NASA approved JPL's
redesign of the Cassini mission to Saturn, set for 1997. Under
the plan, the spacecraft's weight will be cut by about 20 percent
to 5,050 kilograms (11,130 pounds); overall cost is projected to
drop by about $250 million.

June
     The Galileo mission released detailed photographs of the
asteroid Gaspra, which were taken in October 1991. The spacecraft
visited Gaspra on its first swing through the main asteroid belt,
between gravity-assist flyby encounters with Earth. Images were
played back indirectly from the spacecraft tape recorder through
the low-gain antenna at distances of up to 430 million kilometers
(266 million miles). ... In commemoration of the 25th anniversary
of the Surveyor rover missions to the moon, JPL revealed "Rocky
IV," a prototype for a small rover that will be part of the Mars
Environmental Survey (MESUR) Pathfinder mission, which would send
a single lander and instrumented rover to Mars beforehand to
photograph the surface and look for hydrogen, a possible sign of
water. The remote-controlled, 16 1/2-pound vehicle is designed as
a precursor to a sample-return mission. ... Citing the fact that
"A classic never goes out of style," Goldin announced that the
agency's original 1959 "meatball" insignia would return to
replace the newer, tubular "worm" logo. ... JPL research
physicist Eugene Trinh served as a payload specialist on STS-50
(Space   Shuttle Columbia), the U.S. Microgravity Laboratory-1.
During the 14-day mission, the longest ever for shuttle flights,
Trinh conducted experiments on the Drop Physics Module, a
microgravity instrument supporting various experiments on the
dynamics of fluids and gases in space.

July
     Dr. Peter Lyman, Deputy Director of the Lab for five years,
announced his retirement; Larry Dumas, formerly assistant
laboratory director for the Office of Telecommunications and Data
Acquisition, was named Deputy Director.

August
     TOPEX/Poseidon, a joint U.S./French mission managed by JPL
to study ocean surfaces in unprecedented detail, took off from
Kourou, French Guiana on Aug. 10. The three-to-five-year mission,
which will utilize a dual-frequency radar altimeter and high-
accuracy satellite orbit determination systems, will enable
oceanographers to map the large-scale movement of ocean water and
understand how the ocean changes with time. The satellite's orbit
will take it over the entire Earth's surface every 10 days. ...
The Deep Space Network successfully tracked the European
spacecraft Giotto as it flew within 200 kilometers (124 miles) of
the comet Grigg-Skjellerup, the closest encounter ever performed
by a spacecraft. ... Robert Staehle of JPL's Systems Analysis
Section described the feasibility of a fast flyby mission to
Pluto, which could be launched before the end of the decade. ...
Launch of the Mars Observer spacecraft was delayed for several
weeks because of contamination in the nose fairing, discovered
during a routine payload inspection. ... Norman Haynes, who had
served as deputy assistant laboratory director for the Flight
Projects Office, was named to replace Dumas as ALD for the Office
of Telecommunications and Data Acquisition. ... The U.S. Postal
Service issued a commemorative stamp honoring JPL founder Dr.
Theodore von Karman.

September
     Ulysses Project Scientist Edward Smith reported that data
acquired by the spacecraft show that the solar wind exerts a much
stronger influence on Jupiter's magnetic field than previously
thought. ... The Mars Observer spacecraft lifted off on Sept. 25.
The mission, which will play a critical pathfinding role for
future missions to Mars, will study the planet's geology,
geophysics and climate. Objectives include identifying and
mapping surface elements and minerals, measuring the height of
surface features, defining the gravitational field and searching
for a planetary magnetic field. The spacecraft will reach Mars in
August 1993 and will spend a full Martian year -- 687 days --
mapping the planet.

October
     Space Shuttle Columbia carried in its cargo bay JPL's Lambda
Point Experiment, which used cryogenics technology developed by
the Lab's Low Temperature Research facility to study changes in
properties of materials during phase transitions. The environment
of space allowed testing of a Nobel Prize-winning physics theory
to an accuracy 100 times greater than that possible on Earth. ...
Five hundred years after Columbus landed in America, JPL's High
Resolution Microwave Survey -- the most powerful search ever for
extraterrestrial intelligence -- began its sky survey at the Deep
Space Network's Goldstone station, NASA's Ames Research Center
and at the Aricebo Radio Observatory in Puerto Rico. DSN antennas
in California and Australia will scan the entire sky across
millions of frequencies in the microwave band. ... JPL
geologists, working with colleagues from Louisiana State
University, discovered previously unknown earthquake faults in
the Mojave Desert by analyzing remote sensing images at optical,
infrared and radar wavelengths. ... The SIR-C/X-SAR Project
received delivery of the X-band hardware from its German and
Italian manufacturers, making way for testing and integration in
1993. When completed, the antenna -- which will perform a series
of environmental experiments from Space Shuttle Endeavour -- will
be the most massive piece of flight hardware ever assembled at
JPL.

November
     JPL astronomer Peter Eisenhardt reported findings that a
distant radio galaxy previously thought to contain old stars --
older than some estimates of the age of the universe -- may
instead be a very young system caught in the act of formation.
... The Lab announced it has entered into a collaboration with
Cray Research Inc. to conduct joint research and development with
a new massively parallel supercomputer developed by Cray. JPL
will take delivery of one of the first models this fall. ... The
Miniature Seeker Technology Integration (MSTI) spacecraft took
off from Vandenberg Air Force Base on a four-day mission. MSTI,
which carried a Department of Defense payload that took infrared
photos of islands in the Pacific Ocean, undertook an innovative
approach in its design process which was hardware-driven, rather
than requirements-driven. Eighty-three percent of the $15-million
spacecraft was built from off-the-shelf components. ... The
"eyes" of the Hubble Space Telescope -- JPL's Wide
Field/Planetary Camera-1, captured the most detailed view ever of
a galaxy's core, feeding a suspected black hole in the Virgo
cluster, about 45 million light years from Earth. Final work is
under way on WF/PC-2, which will correct the optical flaw in
Hubble's primary mirror in late 1993.

December
     Exactly two years after its first gravity assist pass by
Earth, the Galileo spacecraft made its second flyby on its way to
Jupiter on Dec. 8, streaking above the South Atlantic Ocean at an
altitude of 304 kilometers (189 miles). On its way to Earth, the
spacecraft's camera captured various images and spectral scans of
the northern regions of the moon, as it flew within 110,000
kilometers (about 68,000 miles) of the lunar surface. The
spacecraft will reach Jupiter in December 1995. ... One day after
Galileo's closest approach to Earth, researchers for the Galileo
Optical Experiment (GOPEX) fired laser beams from locations in
California and New Mexico to the spacecraft at distances of up to
6 million kilometers (3.7 million miles). GOPEX is part of a
program testing the use of laser beams to transmit large volumes
of space-acquired data currently achieved by radio signals. ...
Using satellite images taken before and after the June Landers
earthquake, JPL geologist Robert Crippen produced a videotape
showing the motion of earthquake faults in the Mojave Desert.
This was the first time that fault motion has been observed
through the use of images acquired from space. ... JPL
astronomers obtained the sharpest images yet of an Earth-
approaching asteroid, 4179 Toutatis, as it passed within 4
million kilometers (2.5 million miles) of Earth. ###