SpaceViews Event Horizon

New SETI Project for Upgraded Telescope: The University of California at Berkeley's SERENDIP IV project will kick off this summer, using the newly upgraded Arecibo radio telescope. SERENDIP (Search for Extraterrestrial Radio Emissions from Nearby Developed Intelligent Populations) will search 168 million channels every 1.7 seconds, looking for evidence of signals from extraterrestrial intelligence. The privately-funded project, which receives major support from individuals and several computer companies, will be one of the first major projects for the upgraded 300-m (1,000-ft.) Arecibo radio telescope, which was dedicated June 14 after a five-year, $27 million upgrade.

Cassini Concerns? Both NASA and private entities seem to be showing more concern about efforts by anti-nuclear activists to prevent the launch of the Cassini mission to Saturn this fall. In a message distributed online last week, The Planetary Society said "a relatively small group of activists are having a big influence on the White House approval process." It distributed a statement by executive director Lou Friedman explaining the low probability of an accident. NASA is also taking steps to distribute more information about the plutonium-fueled RTGs Cassini is carrying and dispelling myths and rumors about the dangers. Reportedly the CBS news program "60 Minutes" will have a segment on Cassini in September, one that may have a negative slant against the mission.

X-38 Drop Tests: NASA will start atmospheric tests of a subscale model of the X-38, the proposed crew return vehicle for the International Space Station, in July. The first tests will be "captive carry" tests where the model remains attached to a B-52; unpiloted drop tests will start in August. The testing will lead up to an unpiloted space flight test during a shuttle mission in the year 2000... Japanese plans for a lunar mission have been put on hold until 1999. The Lunar-A probe was to have been launched in August, but problems with the design of a set of penetrators that would have been dropped by the spacecraft to the lunar surface force the delay. The delay was compounded by work on the Planet-B mission to Mars, scheduled for launch in 1998.

Other News: Israel may be having second thoughts about flying an astronaut on the space shuttle. Members of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, are worried the project would be too expensive. Although NASA would pay for astronaut training, Israel would have to pick up the bill for living expenses and for experiments performed by the astronaut on the shuttle, a tab which could run to several million dollars... NASA announced June 12 the latest in its series of spinoffs: an anti-icing fluid for airplanes that also may inhibit the development of rust in automobiles. Since the material is "food grade", meaning its contents have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, we have to borrow a line from an old Saturday Night Live skit: if we can use it as a dessert topping, can we also use it as a floor wax?... While "Babylon 5" may be increasingly popular among NASA employees, terminology from "Star Trek" is still making its way into common use at NASA centers, especially among those working on the space station. According to an online source, "the Collective" (station management) seeks to "assimilate" (use existing technologies) and hopes to avoid a "warp core breach" (the loss of the Service Module). And what is the Prime Directive? stay on schedule and on budget, of course...