FROM THE XO
By Glenn Martin
Another month down, and you can feel the temperature beginning to dip as summer bids us farewell! Time to send the kids back to school (heh heh) and start getting ready for another El Niño winter. Quick plug from your local PG&E rep – make sure you have flashlights with fresh batteries, a battery-powered radio, and some bottled water and ready-to-eat snacks, just in case my coworkers in your jurisdiction have a bad day, and you’re out of power for more than a few hours. It is my understanding that some parts of Florida, which were hit the worst by Hurricane Charley a few weeks ago, are STILL out of power! They lost thousands of poles and miles of overhead wire, and they have to rebuild massive sections of their grid. And I thought I was working a lot of overtime!
NASA launched the MESSENGER probe to Mercury on August 3rd. As NASA requires a cool acronym for everything (except the satellite I entered the contest to name), MESSENGER stands for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging. After flying by Earth once next year, and Venus twice after that to adjust its trajectory and perform some instrument calibrations, it will perform three fly-bys of Mercury in 2008 and 2009 before settling into Mercury orbit in March 2011. Then it will spend a year analyzing Mercury with a variety of sensor systems, including several spectrometers and visible-light cameras. The spacecraft will be protected from the Sun’s heat (about 840° Fahrenheit at that distance) by a shield made of ceramic cloth; this shield will maintain a room temperature environment for the delicate scientific instruments. No spacecraft has been to Mercury since NASA sent Mariner 10 there in 1975, and that mission did little more than photograph some of the surface. MESSENGER has the potential to greatly increase our knowledge of our toasty little neighbor.
On the other side of the asteroid belt, the Cassini probe continues to explore picturesque Saturn and its complex chorus of rings and moons. The next big event in its mission is approaching – a close fly-by of Titan in October, followed by the release of the Huygens planetary lander on Christmas Day (assuming they celebrate Christmas at the same time on Saturn). The European-built Huygens will enter Titan’s atmosphere on January 14, 2005 at 0200 California time – yes, NASA is THAT precise – and hopefully continue to function as it descends to the surface. Nobody knows if the probe will land on a solid or liquid surface, so it’s designed to survive and transmit detailed data in either eventuality using the Surface-Science Package.
On the fictional end, I hope you enjoyed Part I of Peak Powercat Performance last month! Part II is in this month’s newsletter; the exciting conclusion will be coming your way in October! I encourage everyone to submit their fan-fic to the newsletter, so the rest of us can enjoy your efforts. It doesn’t have to be Star Trek – any element of the sci-fi or fantasy genre is welcome.
That’s about all for now – gotta leave room for my story! Remember that school is back in session (again I say: heh heh), so when you’re behind the wheel, keep an eye out for the little monsters scurrying hither and thither. Until next month: that is all...carry on!
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