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(meteorobs) (Fwd) NEWS
Thought people might be interested in this tidbit.
Kim
If anyone needs to get ahold of me for info, call me at work,
613-546-5509
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date: Thu, 09 Jul 1998 22:17:10 -0400
From: JAY RESPLER <JRespler@surfnjdot net>
Organization: Sky Reporter at njsurf.com/skyviews/
To: JRespler@surfnjdot net
Subject: NEWS
July 9, 1998
Dust Seen as Possible Sign of Solar System
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES -- A ring of dust particles circling a nearby star looks
remarkably like the belt of comets outside Pluto and Neptune, and
researchers say they think that it could mean the existence of other, similar
solar systems.
Although there is no direct evidence of any planets amid the particles,
astronomers using a telescope in Hawaii found a bright spot in the dusty ring
around Epsilon Eridani, among the 10 closest stars to Earth.
The spot could be dust sucked into the gravitational field of a young planet, said
Jane Greaves, the lead researcher and a scientist for the James Clerk Maxwell
Telescope operated by the Joint Astronomy Center in Hilo, Hawaii.
Ms. Greaves presented the results Wednesday at the Protostar and Planets
conference in Santa Barbara, Calif. The dusty ring is about the same distance
from the star as the Kuiper Belt is from the Sun.
The Kuiper Belt contains 70,000 large comets and millions of smaller ones.
Because so many parallels exist between the star system and this solar system,
the findings may open a window on the early history of the Sun and planets.
Ms. Greaves submitted the findings last week for publication in Astrophysical
Journal Letters.
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---------------------
July 9, 1998
Report Concludes China Unlikely to Have
Recovered Communications Satellite Data
Related Article
Coverage of the China Satellite Inquiry
Forum
Join a Discussion on China Satellite Inquiry
By ERIC SCHMITT
ASHINGTON -- A Pentagon review has concluded that sensitive
encoded circuit boards that disappeared after a failed launching of an
American communications satellite in China two years ago most likely
were destroyed in the fiery crash.
Last month Defense Department officials said they suspected that the Chinese
authorities had stolen the devices from the wreckage of a $200 million satellite
that was obliterated when the Chinese rocket carrying it exploded shortly after
launching.
But a review by the National Security Agency, the military's supersecret
codemakers and codebreakers, found no evidence of wrongdoing by Chinese
authorities.
"It is highly unlikely that the devices survived the crash because of the crash
impact and high temperatures produced by burning rocket propellents," said the
review, which noted that the devices were housed very close to the rocket's fuel
tank.
In the off chance that the Chinese recovered the microprocessor chips, which tell
an orbiting satellite which way to point in order to receive and transmit signals,
they would not have learned much, the review concluded: "It is highly unlikely
that these items could have been recovered in sufficient detail" to enable the
Chinese to reproduce them.
The White House had ordered the review after House Republicans, notably Rep.
Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania, voiced fears at a hearing last month that the loss
of the encoded circuit boards might have harmed national security.
The case of the missing circuit boards became part of a congressional inquiry
into whether sensitive American satellite technology was given to China that
ultimately may enhance Beijing's military.
After the House hearing last month, the White House released a statement from
the National Security Agency that said the loss of the devices would have
"minimal" impact on American security because the technology was 20 years old.
Even before the accident, the government had scheduled a routine upgrading of
algorithms, or the set of instructions, guiding American satellite encoding
equipment, the statement said. Thus, encoded devices for one satellite could not
gain access to or control other satellites.
Weldon on Wednesday expressed skepticism over the administration's
explanation. "The whole thing is very suspicious," said Weldon, who is a member
of the House select committee looking into accusations involving China. "Why
didn't they have these answers a month ago?"
The Defense Department provided a copy of the one-page review Wednesday
after Franklin Miller, a senior Pentagon official, testified before a Senate
Governmental Affairs subcommittee on the export of sensitive technology to
China. Miller had expected questions on the missing circuit boards, but senators
asked none.
When asked about the issue after the hearing, Miller said, "The government's
position is that the devices almost certainly did not survive."
Miller said the Clinton administration officials had never asked China for an
accounting of the missing technology because an American team of industry and
military observers concluded the day after the accident that the devices were
likely lost in the crash.
On Feb. 15, 1996, at the launching of a Loral Space & Communications satellite in
southern China, the Chinese rocket exploded 22 seconds after liftoff, showering
debris and burning fuel on a nearby Chinese village. By U.S. accounts, as many
as 200 civilians were killed.
For five hours, U.S. officials said, Chinese authorities barred American monitors
at the launching center from visiting the crash site, purportedly for their own
safety.
According to an industry official, an American inspection team, made up of
representatives from the Pentagon, Loral and Intelsat, the communications
consortium that had planned to use the satellite, finally was able to comb the
crash site for pieces of the satellite.
The team recovered pieces comprising about one-third of the satellite, but many
parts were mangled or melted beyond recognition, the industry official said.
The Loral satellite contained about 100 circuit boards that resembled trays, which
were inserted into large metal rectangular boxes called command processor units.
About 1,000 computer chips were built into the circuit boards, but the industry
official said only two chips -- each on a separate circuit board -- were actually
encoded.
The American team found parts of 12 trays, and about three of them were
battered but mostly intact. Loral sent these parts back to its laboratory in Palo
Alto, Calif., for analysis.
Government and industry officials said Chinese officials would have no way of
knowing which of the chips were encoded because they all look alike. Loral
employees could tell them apart by comparing company records with code
numbers on the circuit boards. None of the recovered chips were encoded, the
officials said.
The U.S. inspection team concluded the Chinese had not taken anything because
they were too busy dealing with the emergency, and had made no apparent effort
to retrieve the circuit boards.
"If they were trying to search the field for something, they'd have collected every
recognizable piece and sent it to a lab," said the industry official.
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Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company
--
Regards,
Jay Respler
--
JRespler@surfnjdot net
Sky Views: http://njsurf.com/skyviews/
Satellite Tracker * Early Typewriter Collector
Freehold, New Jersey
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