Apr 22 2005
From The Space Library
NASA announced that it had awarded Rice University's Carbon Nanotechnology Laboratory (CNL) an US$11 million contract to produce a prototype power cable constructed of carbon nanotubes. The engineers expected the so-called quantum wires to conduct electricity up to 10 times better than copper, at 1/6th the weight. NASA anticipated that the technology would help return humans to the Moon and enable travel to Mars and beyond. Richard E. Smalley, the project's Lead Investigator, explained that the Space Shuttle's primary power-distribution system accounted for almost 7 percent of its weight. However, NASA's next generation of human and robotic spacecraft would need far more power to support additional instrumentation and broadband communications, requiring a copper power-distribution system that would account for up to 25 percent of the craft's weight. Under the contract, CNL would provide NASA with a 1-meter (3.2-foot) prototype of quantum wire by 2010, a task requiring major breakthroughs in the production of nanotubes. To date, scientists had succeeded in producing wires no longer than several centimeters. At the time NASA awarded the contract, only armchair nanotubes~ a type comprising 2 percent of all nanotubes~ were suitable for use as quantum wires. Researchers at CNL planned to grow these nanotubes like crystals, placing “seeds” in a laboratory reactor and pumping in a source of carbon, such as carbon monoxide, with the hope of creating perfect, long armchair nanotubes each time. The researchers would then twist the tubes together to produce a quantum wire according to NASA's specifications. (NASA, “NASA Awards $11 Million “Quantum Wire” Contract to Rice,” news release J05-018, 22 April 2005, http://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/news/releases/J05-018.html (accessed 9 September 2009); Amit Asaravala, “NASA Funds 'Miracle Polymer',” Wired News, 28 April 2005.)
NASA announced the establishment of the DART Mishap Investigation Board to determine why the DART spacecraft had failed to complete its mission on 15 April. Initially, NASA had believed that DART had come within 300 feet (91.4 meters) of the target satellite before low fuel readings prompted it to abort its mission. However, NASA spokesperson Kimberly D. Newton later explained that new data had indicated that DART had bumped the satellite, boosting its orbit by as much as 5.75 miles (9.3 kilometers). However, DART had abandoned its target approximately halfway through its 24-hour mission. The Board consisted of seven voting members from NASA's MSFC, NASA's GSFC and ARC; the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; and the U.S. Air Force Space Command. NASA assigned eight federal employees to serve as advisors to the Board~six from MSFC, and one each from NASA's JSC and NASA Headquarters. NASA selected Scott D. Croomes of MSFC to chair the Board and Kerry L. Remp of GRC to serve ex officio, to assure that board activity conformed to NASA's procedural requirements. (NASA, “NASA Announces Dart Mishap Investigation Board Members,” news release 05-105, 22 April 2005, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2005/apr/HQ_05105_DART_mishap_board.html (accessed 29 June 2009); NASA Engineering and Safety Center, NESC Review of Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology (DART) Mission Mishap Investigation Review Board (MIB) (NESC Request No. 05-020-E, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, December 2006), http://klabs.org/richcontent/Reports/Failure_Reports/dart/167813main_rp-06-119_05-020-e_dart_report_final_dec_27.pdf (accessed 18 November 2009); Chris Kridler, “Failed DART Spacecraft Bumped Its Satellite Target,” Florida Today (Brevard, FL), 26 April 2005.)
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