By Staff Reports
Arizona Daily Wildcat
January 15, 1997

Science Briefs

UA camera ready for NASA after 13 years of research

After 13 years of research by University of Arizona astronomers, NASA has an infrared camera ready for installation on the Hubble Space Telescope.

The UA transferred ownership of NICMOS, a Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer, to NASA on Dec. 19.

"The infrared capabilities of NICMOS will allow Hubble to see more distant objects than before," said Rodger Thompson, the UA astronomer who led the project.

NICMOS will allow Hubble to look through the dust clouds that hide distant stars and galaxies being formed, Thompson said. This will enable researchers to measure the size of the universe, find out when galaxies form stars, and what the center of our own Milky Way galaxy is like.

"The greatest challenge has been keeping the NICMOS project alive for the past 13 years. We had the Challenger disaster, the problem with the HST mirror and many funding problems," he said.

The UA was awarded the $100 million contract after answering a request for proposals from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

About two-thirds of the money was paid to subcontractors, including Ball Aerospace Corp. in Boulder, Colo., where the camera was manufactured. The remaining one-third stayed in the Tucson economy.

Thompson said the UA expects to receive an additional $20 million in grant money over the next five years to analyze the data.

NICMOS, which looks like a large, black telephone booth, arrived at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Dec. 30.

Thompson spent 10 days in Florida testing and integrating NICMOS into the space shuttle Discovery, which is scheduled to launch Feb. 13.

"So far NICMOS has passed all of its initial tests perfectly," Thompson said.

Astronauts will install NICMOS onto the Hubble Space Telescope during that flight.

-Edina A.T. Strum

UA opens new Science and Technology Park officially

The University of Arizona officially opened its new Science and Technology Park, 9000 S. Rita Road, Dec. 10.

The facility, bought by the Arizona Board of Regents from IBM in 1994, is dedicated to bringing the UA and private industry together on research projects, said Michael Cusanovich, vice president for research and graduate studies.

Since opening, seven research firms and the Arizona International Campus of the UA have moved into the 1,340-acre park.

The smallest of the companies, with just four employees, is Alstec Systems Inc., a software development company.

Alstec moved into the Park in November 1995. Company president Alfredo Diaz said, "Being at the site gives you a corporate image you couldn't project from outside the Park. Clients take us more seriously."

Diaz said the company now employs one UA engineering student and as the company grows, it will offer several internships to UA students.

Marshall Worden, project director, said the most important goal of the Park is "to aid and support the long-term development of the university itself."

That development will come through creating research partnerships, providing additional research space for the university and housing the AIC, he said.

Teaching will also be emphasized alongside research goals, Worden said.

"The Science and Technology Park is already providing a benefit to students enrolled at the international campus, and additionally we hope students will find internships out there," he said.

-Edina A.T. Strum

UA professor talks to Gore about space science future

University of Arizona planetary sciences professor Jonathan Lunine was among 21 scientists who met with Vice President Al Gore Dec. 11 to discuss the future of the U.S. space program.

"This symposium will be an opportunity to explore the challenges in space science that lie before us and to examine the broader implications of our recent discoveries in space science," Gore said in the invitation letter.

The meeting was held in the Indian Treaty Room in the Old Executive Building, next to the White House, and was run in a question-and-answer format.

"There was lots of atmosphere in the room," Lunine said.

"The meeting was scheduled for two hours and lasted an extra 40 minutes."

The most exciting part of the trip was seeing Gore depart from prepared remarks and really launch into the questions, he said.

"The vice president was well informed and is really interested in the future of space science," Lunine said.

Over the next 10 years the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's budget is expected to decline, and the symposium was an attempt to stabilize the space sciences portion of that budget, he said.

Lunine said three top areas for future research are:

• Answering the question: Did life begin first elsewhere in our galaxy?

• Continue to search for Earth-like planets outside our solar system.

• Peer back as close to the beginning of the universe as possible - by looking at very distant galaxies.

"We won't be able to follow up on these discoveries if the budget keeps decreasing," he said.

Gore closed the meeting by saying that funding for continued space sciences research will be part of the budget recommendations made in February.

-Edina A.T. Strum

X-ray machine to identify smallest atomic structures

UA physicist Charles Falco has added the most powerful X-ray machine in the state to his lab, which will allow researchers to study elements as thin as a single atom.

The machine is called a rotating-anode X-ray diffractometer - a big name that means the X-rays rotate and a diffractometer measures the atomic crystal structure of the element.

Newly designed, the X-ray box is one of only a few in the world that can generate a constant 18 kilowatts of X-ray power.

In comparison, X-ray machines in medical offices are about 50 times less powerful and cannot operate continuously without burning up, Falco said.

University of Arizona students and faculty will have access to the X-ray equipment for research purposes, he said.

"If you synthesized a compound or found a new mineral, the X-rays can identify the atomic crystal structure," Falco said.

Researchers will now be able to make faster identifications of elements and do so with smaller samples, he said.

The geosciences department has already expressed interest in using the new equipment, which should be in full operation by late January.

Falco purchased the machine with a $180,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

-Edina A.T. Strum