Word: spacecrafts
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...nearly five years the Canadian communications satellite known as Anik E-1 circled the earth without a serious hitch. Last spring, though, the $220 million spacecraft faltered. For hours, until users could switch over to backup systems, the transmission of all sorts of critical data--credit-card transactions, newspaper layouts, electronic paging requests, television and radio broadcasts--stopped. It took scientists a while, but they finally figured out what had caused the outage: storm damage...
...danger of geomagnetic storms is even worse, however, during solar maximum. At that time, long tongues of fiery plasma leap from the surface of the sun and rush toward earth like guided missiles. Sometimes the force of their impact is so great that the magnetosphere convulsively contracts. Even spacecraft in near-earth orbit can find themselves outside the magnetosphere's protective embrace, exposed to blasts of high-energy protons. A direct hit by these protons, experts warn, could prove lethal to astronauts working in space...
...thing or two about eccentricity. He shares Perot's elephantine ego, endless self-righteousness, grandiose political ambitions and deep-seated belief that people are plotting against him. Some of his notions--like the mystical importance of the number 19 and his claim to have taken trips on alien spacecraft--are as cockamamie as Hughes' obsession with germs. As far as I know, neither Perot nor Hughes ever pretended to speak on behalf of God. For Farrakhan and his followers, such miracles are strictly routine...
...space agency will launch two missions to Mars. The first, the Mars Global Surveyor, is an orbiter that will arrive in September 1997 and spend at least four months circling the planet and mapping its geology and climate. Despite its small size (10 ft. tall; 2,300 lbs.), the spacecraft carries quite an instrument load, including magnetometers to measure magnetic fields, a laser altimeter that can gauge the height of surface features to within 30 ft., and optical cameras that can detect objects as small...
...conduct experiments that subtle, it may be necessary not just to send a spacecraft to Mars but to bring a bit of Mars back to Earth. "It's always been clear that we're aiming for a sample-return mission," says Haynes. "A recent study projects one around 2005, but with more money we could probably do it sooner...