GSC Update

*NASA's Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers are outperforming any and all expectations. Despite cosmic radiation, freezing and burning temperature extremes, and limited sunlight, NASA scientists expect both rovers to outlive their 90 day life expectancies. These rovers are capable of much more than their precursor, 1997's Sojourner/Pathfinder lander/rover combo. Spirit and Opportunity travel in feet, not inches, can climb over small rocks and obstacles, explore craters, and are able to dig small trenches to search for clues for water.

*A huge mass of rock and ice has been found in the Kuiper Belt (a ring of frozen cometesque garbage near the outer fringes of our Solar System) that is the largest object discovered in our Solar System since Pluto. The object, labeled "2004 DW" is 520x1170 miles and relatively round (physics lesson- gravity forces mass to compact into the smallest shape with the highest density of material- a sphere).

*"Today's flight suits don't have a constant volume at the joints and elbows," explained aerospace engineer Bruce Hilty, of NASA's Johnson Space Center, during a summit here this week on the agency's shuttle life extension program. "When they inflate upon decompression, they can swell up like the Michelin tire man."

*March 2005 seems to be the next date NASA plans on launching the Space Shuttle, to leave time for accelerated foam-projectile testing, physics modeling, and giant wind-tunnel tests.