From: Marc Siegel <marc@quest.arc.nasa.gov>
Subject: Mars CD, searching NASA
Date: Mon, 11 Nov 1996 07:58:49 -0800 (PST)
Hello all, A few responses to recent discuss-lfm issues: 1) About the Mars CD that folks wrote about ordering and never receiving. >On page 31 of the NSTA Reports for October November is a freebie: the >Viking 20th Anniversary CD Rom. It is supposedly available at >http://eggfoo.arc.nasa.goc/signup/signup.html according to the report. >I have been upable to access this site (and it does not respond to a >"ping" either) yet. Just wondering if anyone has gotten through or if >anyone has found a way to obtain this resource. >Feel free to order it, just don't expect them to ever send it. I >ordered mine back in July and still haven't gotten it! jkc I had lunch with Geoff Briggs, the fellow who leads CMEX (he bought!). CMEX is the NASA group that developed the CD. They have not been shipping any CDs since the summer as they were working to convert the previously Mac-only disk into a Mac/PC disk. He led me to believe that the disk would be ready before the end of the calendar year and they would resume fulfilling orders at that time. They should probably have acknowledged each request with a message to that effect, or written that on their web page. I've passsed on your comments to him so perhaps he'll move in that direction. But for those folks who have ordered the CDs, they should eventually come. 2) About a NASA search service This is a difficult issue to solve, and certainly not one my group will take on for the agency. It is difficult because there are so many different groups within NASA producing K-12 material online. But I can tell you that Rick Smith, who leads Educational Technology at NASA HQ will soon have an education homepage that attempts to point to all of the NASA K-12 efforts, and this page will include a search engine. As for LFM, as Linda pointed out, the site does indeed have a search capability for info on the LFM pages. We think it is working well, but we've just switched to a much faster (and different computer), so it is possible there are glitches. If so, please send me details so we can fix them. As well, in the background section of LFM , there is a page dedicated to the most relevant Mars pages we know of. The direct address is http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/mars/background/links.html We have more links to add and over time this area will slowly grow. We preview all sites listed there and try to link only to the really good sites. So that is another way to get at more Mars info. But we have not built a search engine which includes LFM and all of these sites. I certainly see the value, but we are a bit short on people resources to do this. I'll keep it on the wish list, but I don't anticipate it happening anytime soon. Sorry to dissappoint in this regard. Three cheers for the MGS launch. I understand there is a problem with fully deploying one solar array. According to the MGS homepage: All systems are working well, however there is an indication that the -Y inner solar array panel has not deployed fully. It is about 18 degrees short of full deployment. Efforts are underway to play back the data that were recorded during the deployment and further planning will take place when these data are evaluated. The solar arrays are providing plenty of power and the partial deployment presents no near-term threat to either the spacecraft or the mission. Yours, Marc