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Jet Propulsion Laboratory UNIVERSE
Pasadena, California - Vol. 23, No. 2 - January 29, 1993
_________________________________________________________________

Science competition coming to Lab Feb. 20

     JPL will, for the first time, take part in the national high
school-students competition called the "Science Bowl," when it
hosts the semifinals among 16 four-member teams from San Gabriel
Valley schools Feb. 20.
     The Science Bowl, testing students' knowledge in chemistry,
biology, physics, mathematics, astronomy and general Earth and
computer sciences, is modeled after the old "College Bowl" TV
show that aired in the 1960s.
     The competition is sponsored by the Department of Energy. It
is the first time Southern California students have been able to
compete locally. The program began in 1991.
     San Gabriel Valley Schools will send teams of students from
advanced-placement courses to JPL for the competition. Students
from the Los Angeles Unified School District will be tested at
another DOE facility in Canoga Park.
     The 16 four-member teams will spread out over several rooms
in various buildings at the Lab for the elimination contests. The
last two teams will compete in late afternoon in von Karman
Auditorium, with JPL Chief Scientist Dr. Moustafa Chahine as
moderator.
     The finals will be held in Washington, D.C., coinciding with
National Science and Technology Week April 16-19. The winning
team will receive a variety of prizes, including a trip to
London.
     As teams are eliminated, team members tour the Lab, and
lunches will be provided for all students, their alternates,
teachers and advisors.
     The questions are of the type  college freshmen would be
expected to answer. For instance, a multiple-choice chemistry
puzzler like the following: The bonds in carbon monoxide are
metallic, ionic, covalent, or van der Waals?
     A math question similar to this one might be used: What is
the cube of the reciprocal of two-thirds in the form of a
fraction?
     The questions were proposed by the various DOE facilities
and JPL earlier and sent to DOE, where they were put into a pool.
From that series, questions were pulled and sent to the regional
locations to be used in these semifinals.
     Due to the success of the first two national Science Bowls,
this year's event has been expanded to include regionals hosted
by agencies other than DOE, including NASA.
     Teams from all 50 states have been invited, and more than
15,000 students representing more than 3,000 schools are expected
to participate in the regionals.
     Valley high schools that have signed up include Arcadia,
Blair, Pasadena, Charter Oak, Mark Keppel, Muir, Warren and
Woodbridge. Other schools have been invited but have not yet
responded. ###
_________________________________________________________________

Lab-wide employee survey to be conducted in February

By Mark Whalen
     As part of JPL's continuing effort to improve communication
between employees and management, a Lab-wide survey will be
conducted next month "to help identify obstacles that inhibit
people from getting their jobs done effectively," said Deputy
Director Larry Dumas.
     The need for an in-depth survey became clear at the outset
of JPL's Total Quality Management (TQM) initiative in early 1992.
At that time, a random employee survey was conducted and,
according to Dumas, it indicated that employees and management
were not communicating with each other very well. It also
revealed that JPL did not regularly assess how employees feel
about their work.
     The Lab has hired an international consulting firm -- the
Wyatt Company, which specializes in human resources--to design
the survey. Wyatt has worked with almost half of the Fortune 500
companies and has conducted employee surveys for such
organizations as Avco, Lockheed, IBM, Tenneco, Toyota, Arco and
Hughes Aircraft.
     In designing the survey questions, Wyatt recently conducted
interviews with the Executive Council and eight focus groups. To
ensure that the survey addresses areas of concern encountered by
the Lab population as a whole, the focus groups were made up of a
randomly selected cross section of JPL employees from all
organizations. Participants were asked to share their
perspectives on the way work is accomplished at JPL and how they
feel about their work.
     "We're looking for inputs that will lead to constructive
actions," Dumas said. "We are not interested in just collecting
information."
     The survey will be distributed in mid-February, and will
address a number of key work-related issues and solicit views on
needs and expectations for improving the quality of work.
     It will be a "blind" survey to ensure each respondent's
confidentiality; the forms -- to be returned directly to Wyatt --
will not identify survey respondents.
     A summary of the survey's results will be provided to
employees this spring.
     "We expect to do repeat surveys periodically and will use
these first results as a baseline from which to assess progress,"
said Dumas. "The origin of this effort is rooted very clearly in
the TQM initiative.
     "Now is the right time for a Lab-wide survey," added Dumas,
"because we have started the TQM initiative with the objective of
changing JPL's culture. The survey is a key tool in this process.
It's very important that all employees participate. It's not
mandatory of course, but I encourage everyone to take part so
that we have the benefit of each employee's ideas." ###
_________________________________________________________________

IRAS: 10 years ago, infrared widened our eyes

By Mary Hardin
     Ten years ago this week, the launch of the Infrared
Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) made history as the first
spacecraft designed specifically to study the universe at
infrared wavelengths.
     "IRAS opened the entire Milky Way to our view, revealing
previously unsuspected phenomena and providing new probes of the
structure of the galaxy," said Dr. Charles Beichman, director of
JPL's Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) and a member
of the IRAS science team.
     The satellite was an international project involving The
Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States, but its
early life was so full of problems it almost didn't get off the
ground. To begin with, the project was two years and tens of
millions of dollars over budget due to problems with the
detectors, the telescope and the cryogenic valves. There were
also some fears that the cover would not come off the telescope,
and if it did, that the mirror would be covered with nitrogen
frost. Despite these concerns, the spacecraft was launched, and
after a troubled start, it began producing a steady stream of
data.
     To ensure that the satellite was sensitive to the infrared
heat coming from deep space, the spacecraft carried 700 liters of
superfluid helium to cool the telescope and detectors to a
temperature of 2 degrees Celsius above absolute zero. After 10
months in orbit, the helium evaporated and the data-taking
portion of the mission was over.
     But the data-analysis phase was just beginning. From its
vantage point above the glare of Earth's atmosphere, IRAS
produced more than 600,000 individual objects and more than 1,600
images of the entire sky. All told, the IRAS mission has helped
astronomers make many startling discoveries.
     "IRAS found more evidence for planet building among mature
stars," Beichman said. "One of the great surprises of the mission
was that Vega, one of the brightest visible stars in the sky, was
10 times brighter in the infrared than predicted. The infrared
radiation coming from Vega, and similar stars, is consistent with
a ring or disk of solid material orbiting the central star. IRAS
found that one-quarter of all stars have this same phenomenon."
     Another surprise was the number of galaxies it revealed. "No
one expected IRAS to find more than 1,000 galaxies, but we found
60,000," Beichman exclaimed. "These galaxies have been used to
probe the overall structure of the universe. One IRAS object may
be a galaxy captured in the process of formation.
     "IRAS was also a prolific comet finder, having detected
about 25 of them," he continued.
     Observations of these objects have changed the way
scientists think about comets. Prior to IRAS, astronomers thought
comets were large balls of ice hurtling through space. IRAS
showed that comets are made of mostly dirt and rock, with an icy
covering.
     The wealth of data produced by IRAS is used in ongoing
research by astronomers from around the world.
     "IRAS revealed the infrared sky to us in the way people will
be looking at it for a long time," Beichman said. "It is our
first and only view of what's out there until somebody does it
better. And it's not going to be easy to do it much better than
we did."
     That opportunity to follow up on many of the IRAS
discoveries will come sometime after the turn of the century,
when JPL's Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) is launched
into solar orbit. SIRTF will take advantage of the enormous
technical advances in infrared detector arrays that have been
made over the last decade, making it 1,000 times more sensitive
than IRAS.
     However, SIRTF may lack a bit of magic that came with its
predecessor. "After all, one can open one's eyes to the night sky
for the first time only once," Beichman concluded. That honor
will forever belong to IRAS. ###
_________________________________________________________________

News briefs

     Dr. Philip Leung of the Reliability Engineering Section 521
has been awarded a patent for a dielectric particle injector for
material processing, a concept that resulted from research he
initiated as part of a Magellan flight-anomaly investigation.
     Leung developed the concept and demonstrated the process for
using an electrostatic force to eject charged dielectric
particles. Previously, the operation of electrostatic atomizers
required conductive particles and the presence of a conductive
liquid as the particle source.
     Leung's research results have not only led to a plausible
mechanism for explaining the flight anomaly, but also to a
process with potential for commercial application.

     All purchases of data-processing equipment at JPL require an
approved Automated Data Processing Equipment (ADPE) acquisition
justification document, and a Feb. 5 briefing will explain the
ADPE Plan Expert System (APES) Writer.
     The system helps plan writers save time, and is useful for
transcription, equipment specification and related justification.
     Plan writing, especially for first-time or infrequent plan
writers, requires consultation of guidelines or shell outlines
published by the Information Re-sources Management office (IRM),
referencing previously written plans, and several cycles of
review and rewriting with an IRM plan analyst.
     Copies of APES Writer and Documentation will be available at
the noon briefing, in the 167 Conference Room.
     Contact task manager Irene Wong Woerner at ext. 6-6503. ###
_________________________________________________________________

Speakers Bureau honors volunteers

     The JPL Speakers Bureau officially said thank you to the 130
volunteers whose dedication to the Lab has been felt throughout
the community. More than 80 people attended the Jan. 14 ceremony
that included brief messages of appreciation for all their work
on behalf of the Lab from Deputy Director Larry Dumas; Dr.
Charles Elachi, assistant laboratory director, Office of Space
Science and Instruments; Charles Yamarone Jr., manager, TOPEX;
Carolynn Young, public information director, Mars Observer
project; and Kay Van Lepp, public services offices and bureau
coordinator.
     For the past two decades, the Speakers Bureau has enabled
schoolchildren, professional organizations like Kiwanis and
Rotary, the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, university and college
students, and library information services to take a peek at the
world of JPL, its flight projects, flight instruments, the solar
system and future space travel.
     "Speakers come to us already having done many presentations.
And they do so because they're proud of their work and love
telling others about it. They're dedicated people who enjoy
talking about JPL, as well as inspiring others," said Van Lepp.
###
_________________________________________________________________

New procurement process saves time, money

By Karre Marino
     It used to be that when a university sought a JPL contract
to do basic or applied research, 90 or more days could pass
before the contract was signed, sealed and delivered. Not any
longer. A year ago, Midge Breslof, a contract negotiator
specialist in Section 626, began looking for ways to simplify the
process by encouraging closer communication between JPL's
technical staff and negotiators, using streamlined contracts.
     Breslof said her efforts to change the procedure were
precipitated by the many university complaints that JPL took too
long to give researchers the go-ahead.  "Of course, we realized
that fewer administrative requirements with contracts would yield
more time and money for research."
     Her Division Manager, Fraser Draper, gave Breslof the green
light to create a system that would reduce time and paperwork.
She had traveled to NASA headquarters last June to participate in
a workshop that evaluated NASA's own new system of awarding
grants. "I came back so excited," she remembered, knowing that
JPL could benefit from what she'd learned.
     Breslof developed a process that cloned the way grants are
issued. "We streamlined the written materials needed in the
procurement file. We had been writing lengthy supporting
documentation and duplicating information, even for contracts of
$20,000, which is a relatively small sum."
     For example, the process calls for an evaluation from the
technical staff, she said. A technical manager's written report,
for instance, would be channeled to the negotiator, sometimes two
to three weeks later. This would then be incorporated into the
cost evaluation.
     Breslof's process merged the two documents, creating a
technical/cost evaluation. She also had the engineer and
negotiator work with each other directly, talking on the phone,
poring over the proposal together.
     "The negotiator would immediately have a better idea of the
researcher's goals, how the study would be conducted, how much it
would cost. Working this way takes about 15 minutes, when it
would have taken three weeks."
     The next part of the procedure she sought to modify was the
Procurement Summary. "We simplified it," Breslof explained. "The
negotiator fills in the pertinent information, which indicates
that everything has been reviewed, and it is all okay. This new
summary, like the technical/cost evaluation, is essentially
pre-written, and the negotiator simply checks the appropriate
positive statement."
     Before, she noted, "the negotiator would write a Procurement
Summary with descriptions, background information, costs -- taken
from referenced documents. Each report was new, unique and
contained justification for the proposed research. It was very
time consuming."
     Breslof, who credits Draper; Stuart Imai, her section
manager; and her supervisor, Gordon Campbell -- "they really gave
me a free hand" -- said that yet another modification is the
contract itself.
     "They used to be about 35 to 40 pages. Now, they're at about
10 pages, and we're shooting for two."
      She was able to do away with the lengthy standard general
provisions by incorporating them by reference. Also, "When a
university makes its proposal," she said, "it includes a
description of the research it will perform. We would write a
statement of work that would then be kicked back to the
contractor, who would ensure that it is in line with their
proposal. Now, we refer to the technical portion of the
university's proposal instead of trying to reinvent the
wheel--that is, writing out each item of work to be performed,"
she explained.
     Finally, Breslof is developing a contractor database. "We
can do a mass mailing once a year: Each recipient accepts the
terms and conditions of a contract in advance, identifies who is
authorized to sign it, and indicates what the university's
indirect rates are."
     Breslof noted that for these changes to work, everyone had
to be in the loop, from JPL's Subcontract Review Office and
Caltech's Office of the General Council to Property and Contract
Audit. "People were super, supportive and willing to make it
work."
     The results? "The university people are happier and the
technical people are delighted. In fact, we recently renewed
about 30 contracts, and it took about a month. Such a process, if
done the way we used to, would have taken several months."
     When the database and two-page contract are in place in
April, Breslof said she expects contracts to universities and
colleges to be issued in 10 days.
     It only took a little initiative, communication and
cooperation to make everyone happy. ###

Sidebar:  Policy will allow more
  autonomy for buyers, contract negotiators

     The Procurement Division certainly understands the efficacy
of the Total Quality Management initiative. In fact, for the
first time in years, review thresholds and signature authorities
have been increased to allow more autonomy for staff within the
Procurement Division, effective Feb. 1.
     "Now negotiators and buyers can make more decisions
themselves and improve the procurement cycle time," said Fraser
Draper, Procurement Division manager. "The increases mean that
procurement personnel will take responsibility for reviewing and
signing more contracts themselves."
     Signature authorities for a Buyer I, for instance, have been
increased from $5,000 to $10,000; a section manager may sign off
on a $1 million contract, up from the $300,000 ceiling.
     The review thresholds for basic contracts and purchase
orders at the Subcontract Review Office and Caltech's Office of
General Counsel, now at $100,000, have been increased to
$250,000.
     The new policy, Draper maintained, is symbolic of meaningful
change and signals JPL's commitment to empowering its workforce.
It also indicates that an entire division is doing something to
speed up the cycle of approval. Of course, the larger issue means
that other divisions may follow suit and institute their own
policy changes to make their work more efficient and effective.
     The order approving the plan was signed by JPL Director Dr.
Edward Stone Jan. 19. ###
_________________________________________________________________

Shadow Day is set, volunteers sought

     JPL is again sponsoring its Annual Shadow Day for the
students of its adopted school, Charles W. Eliot Middle School.
The event, in its sixth year, will enable some 300 kids to
participate in a program that offers an insight into the world of
JPL and the people who populate it. The Public Services Office is
looking for a wide variety of JPL em-ployees-- engaged in all
types of projects and departments--who are willing to have a
student spend part of the day (9:30 a.m. until 2 p.m.), observing
them. (Shadow Day is actually being held on two Thursdays, Feb.
11 and March 4.) If you're interested in sharing your routine
with a student, please contact Kimberly Johansen at x4-2413. ###