Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM (Special Event)

Monday, February 2, 1998 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium

NORMAN F. NESS

"In the Beginning...Explorers"

ABSTRACT -- The 1st USA artificial moon or Earth satellite was Explorer 1. Launched 40 years ago on January 31, 1958 the small University of Iowa spacecraft was the USA's initial contribution to the International Geophysical Year 1957-58. While beaten by the USSR with their SPUTNIK, launched Oct. 4, 1957, the USA captured one of the 1st scientific prizes of the Space Age with Explorer 1: the discovery of the Earth's VanAllen Radiation Belts. This talk overviews the successful 78 launches thus far in the EXPLORER program and highlights some of the special contributions and results of GSFC scientists and engineers. This robotic space program has surely been one of the most successful and cost-effective on-going programs of NASA, with the 10 IMPs, 2 RAE's, IUE, and COBE among its stellar performers.

SPEAKER: Dr. NORMAN F. NESS has been a Principal Investigator in more than 20 Explorer, Mariner, Pioneer, Helios, and Voyager spacecraft projects from 1961 to the present. From 1963-1973, he was Project Scientist for the IMP series of spacecraft, whose mission led to discoveries of planetary magnetic fields at Mercury, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. He received his PhD from MIT in 1959 and worked at GSFC from 1960 to 1986 and was appointed President and Professor of the Bartol Research Institute (BRI) at the University of Delaware in January, 1987. His research activities have continued with his PI role on the VOYAGER Interstellar Mission and as a Co-Investigator in the USA Mars Global Surveyor and ACE projects, and is an acknowledged world expert on the measurement of magnetic fields in space. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (1983), the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (1992), served on the NAS-NRC Space Studies Board (1990-94), and is currently a member of the Board of Trustees of the Universities Space Research Association (USRA).