Word: rim
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...misstep, not a rock, that toppled Dante, and only after the robot had completed its main mission: a detailed study of the crater floor 300 ft. below the rim of Alaska's active Mount Spurr volcano that included a 3-D survey of the hellish terrain and an analysis of gases issuing from belching vents. Among the significant results: the first maps of the crater's surface, normally hidden by outcroppings and haze. Dante also discovered scant sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide in the noxious air, implying that the volcano, which erupted in 1992, will probably stay quiet...
What makes Dante II truly revolutionary, however, is its four computers and their controlling software. Although the robot was connected by cable to a power generator and transmitter at the crater rim, which let the scientists direct it via a satellite hookup to the control room, Dante II can operate independently at times and did for nearly half the mission, negotiating its own path through the boulders...
...Grand Canyon, which draws 5 million visitors a year, the rim is congested with automobiles, and the air is filled with the buzz of helicopters and small planes carrying sightseers. The number of air passengers has doubled since 1987, to 800,000. On the busiest routes through the canyon, an aircraft streaks by about once every 90 seconds, which has created a noise level that harasses wildlife and threatens fragile cliff formations. Congress has restricted the flyover areas to about half the canyon, but the National Park Service and the Federal Aviation Administration are devising regulations to limit noise...
...busy South Rim, where 7,000 vehicles a day compete for 1,500 parking spaces, rangers are trying to discourage autos. Businessman Max Biegert has revived the Grand Canyon Railway, which last year trundled 100,000 passengers to the rim from the main highway 65 miles away. A rail spur under development will connect with shuttle buses that now carry visitors along the rim. Eventually a hefty fee may be imposed on motorists who insist on bringing their cars into the park...
President Clinton, still in Europe following D-day celebrations, took to the podium in the French parliament to reassure Europeans that he hadn't forgotten about them. "America remains engaged in Europe," he said, attempting to refute those who say his Administration is preoccupied with Asia and the Pacific Rim. The first U.S. head of state to address the French parliament since Woodrow Wilson, Clinton sounded almost Wilsonian when he called for cooperation among America's European allies to settle the current war -- this one in Bosnia...