NASA Daily News Summary

For Release: Feb. 18, 1999

Media Advisory m99-034

TODAY'S SUMMARY:

* NASA AIRCRAFT TAKES STUDENT EXPERIMENTS TO NEW HEIGHTS

* HEART ASSIST PUMP EFFECTIVE IN EUROPEAN TRIALS
* ARTIFICIAL MUSCLES TO BE USED ON ROBOTIC SPACE EXPLORERS

VIDEO FILE FOR FEB. 18, 1999

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NASA AIRCRAFT TAKES STUDENT EXPERIMENTS TO NEW HEIGHTS

College students from around the country are set to take

a wild roller coaster-type ride aboard a NASA aircraft in the
name of science. NASA's 1999 Reduced Gravity Student Flight
Opportunities Program, funded by NASA and administered by the
Texas Space Grant Consortium, Austin, TX, will take up to 96
teams of undergraduate students aloft in a KC-135A aircraft
to study the effects of microgravity on various scientific
experiments. This year, the students will fly in two
separate sessions with the first 48 teams flying in March and
the rest in August.

The NASA KC-135A aircraft flies over the Gulf of Mexico.

During each two- to three-hour flight, the aircraft maneuvers
through a series of about 40 steep climbs and descents,
called parabolas. Depending on the precise trajectory flown
by the plane, the passengers and their experiments can
experience about 25 seconds of a zero-gravity environment on
each parabola. The KC-135A aircraft is used to introduce
astronauts to the feeling of microgravity, test hardware and
experiments destined for spaceflight, and evaluate medical
protocols that may be used in space.

Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC: Beth Schmid

202/358-1760.

Contact at NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX: Eileen M. Hawley

281/483-5111.
For full text, see:
ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/1999/99-021.txt

^^^^^

HEART ASSIST PUMP EFFECTIVE IN EUROPEAN TRIALS

A miniaturized ventricular-assist pump, developed for

heart patients using NASA technology, has been successfully
implanted into seven people in European clinical trials.
More than 20 additional implants are expected by mid-1999.
This use of the underlying NASA technology, based in part on
that used in Space Shuttle fuel pumps, has resulted in a
remarkable battery-operated pump. It is two inches long, one
inch in diameter and weighs less than four ounces. It is
small enough to fit into a child's chest.

The concept for the pump began with talks between Baylor
College of Medicine's Dr. Michael DeBakey and one of his
heart transplant patients, a NASA engineer who worked at
NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. He knew first-hand
the urgency heart-failure patients feel waiting for a donor
heart, and he knew Space Shuttle technology. After his own
heart transplant, the engineer worked evenings and weekends
on the initial pump design, along with Dr. DeBakey and
others.

About 5 million Americans suffer from heart failure

annually. Approximately 35,000 heart failure patients need
transplants each year, but only 2,500 donor hearts are
available.

Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC: Michael

Braukus 202/358-1979.

Contact at NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX: John Ira

Petty 281/483-5111.

For full text, see:

ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/1999/99-022.txt

^^^^^

ARTIFICIAL MUSCLES TO BE USED ON ROBOTIC SPACE EXPLORERS

 Artificial muscles designed to give space robots animal-
like flexibility and manipulation ability will get their
first test on a small NASA rover destined to explore an
asteroid. The artificial muscles are based on a simple,
lightweight strip of highly flexible plastic that bends and
functions similarly to human fingers when electrical voltage
is applied to it. The technology is being developed at NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA,

The technology could lead in the future to the

development of insect-like robots that emulate biological
creatures. Years from now, these devices could also
conceivably replace damaged human muscles, leading to
partially "bionic men" and "bionic women" of the future,
according researchers. In the near-term, the technology will
be tested in the form of miniature wipers to clear dust off
the viewing windows of optical and infrared science
instruments on the Mu Space Engineering Spacecraft (MUSES-CN)
nanorover. This mission, led by the Japanese space agency
ISAS, is designed to land the palm-sized rover on an asteroid
following its 2002 launch, and return a sample of the
asteroid to Earth.

Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC: Doug Isbell

202/358-1753.

Contact at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA:

John G. Watson 818/354-5011.

For full text, see:

ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/1999/99-023.txt

**********

If NASA issues any news releases later today, we will

e-mail summaries and Internet URLs to this list.

Index of 1998 NASA News Releases:

http://www.nasa.gov/releases/1998/index.html

Index of 1999 NASA News Releases:

http://www.nasa.gov/releases/1999/index.html

**********
VIDEO FILE FOR FEB. 18, 1999

ITEM 1. ARTIFICIAL MUSCLES

ITEM 2. HUBBLE FINDS MORE EVIDENCE OF GALACTIC CANNIBALISM

^^^^^

ITEM 1. ARTIFICIAL MUSCLES

Footage to accompany release above, including nanorover

and miniature wipers.

Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC: Doug Isbell

202/358-1753.
Contact at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA:
John G. Watson 818/354-5011.

ITEM 2. HUBBLE FINDS MORE EVIDENCE OF GALACTIC CANNIBALISM

Eerie silhouette of dark dust clouds against the glowing

nucleus of the elliptical galaxy NGC 1316 may represent the
aftermath of a 100 million year-old cosmic collision between
the elliptical and a smaller companion galaxy.

Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC: Donald Savage

202/358-1727.
Contact at Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD:
Ray Villard 410/338-4707.

^^^^^

NASA normally airs the Video File at noon, 3:00, 6:00, 9:00
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with audio on 6.8 megahertz.

Ray Castillo
NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC: 202/358-4555.

For the most recent NASA Video File Advisory, see:

ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/tv-advisory/nasa-tv.txt

For general information on NASA Television, see:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

**********

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END OF DAILY NEWS SUMMARY