A century ago, Antarctica was the Earth's only unexplored continent. Then expeditions led by Amundsen and Scott landed there, striving to discover its secrets, seeking knowledge, and finding a land of stark beauty. They suffered great hardships but did not yield. Deep Space 2's twin probes will be pioneers in the exploration of Mars's Antarctica, striving to survive in its harsh enviroment, seeking precious water, and finding new truths about our solar system. Scott perished in Antartica. His memorial's inscription reads: "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." These are the aims of Deep Space 2. ..... The quote is originally from Tennyson's "Ulysses", which I think I will now have to read. Nasa seem to have omitted the "and" in their release. I'm sure I didn't in my entry. Paul ############################################################################ From: "Joan M. Weinberg" Congratulations to Paul Withers, LPL graduate student, who wrote the winning essay, among a NASA-record 17,000 entries submitted in a public contest to name the ambitious space mission. -----Original Message----- From: owner-press-release@lists.hq.nasa.gov [mailto:owner-press-release@lists.hq.nasa.gov] On Behalf Of NASANews@hq.nasa.gov Sent: Monday, November 15, 1999 1:00 PM To: undisclosed-recipients:; Subject: MARS PENETRATOR PROBES NAMED FOR PIONEERING POLAR EXPLORERS Douglas Isbell Headquarters, Washington, DC Nov. 15, 1999 (Phone: 202/358-1753) Mary Hardin Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA (Phone: 818/354-5011) RELEASE: 99-135 MARS PENETRATOR PROBES NAMED FOR PIONEERING POLAR EXPLORERS NASA's Deep Space 2 microprobes, due to smash into the surface of Mars near the planet's south pole on Dec. 3, have been named Amundsen and Scott in honor of the first explorers to reach the South Pole of Earth. Paul Withers, a graduate student at the University of Arizona in Tucson, wrote the winning essay, among a NASA-record 17,000 entries submitted in a public contest to name the ambitious space mission. "A century ago, Antarctica was the Earth's only unexplored continent. Then expeditions led by Amundsen and Scott landed there, striving to discover its secrets, seeking knowledge, and finding a land of stark beauty," wrote Withers, who studies the thin upper atmosphere of Mars. "ÉScott perished in Antarctica. His memorial's inscription reads: 'To strive, to seek, to find, not to yield.' These are aims of the Deep Space 2." Norwegian Roald Amundsen explored the Northwest Passage before leading the first successful expedition to the South Pole, reaching it on Dec. 14, 1911. Robert Falcon Scott led an English team to the South Pole in January 1912, only to discover the national flag left during Amundsen's earlier arrival. Although blizzards and starvation claimed Scott and his entire team on their return trip, the search party found scientifically valuable diaries and notebooks. The main purpose of NASA's miniature probes is technical, not scientific: flight-testing advanced technology that could be used by future planetary surface microlanders. Constructed to survive an abrupt impact at 400 mph with the layered terrain common in the south polar region of Mars, the two Deep Space 2 probes also carry sensors to search for the presence of water ice about three feet below the surface, as a secondary goal. "Deep Space 2 joins Mars Polar Lander as the first missions to venture to the south pole of Mars, so it's only fitting to name the microprobes after the two explorers who first set foot on Earth's South Pole," said Deep Space 2 project manager Sarah Gavit. "Like Amundsen and Scott, Deep Space 2 will have to survive great odds, including not only braving the elements but also crashing into the terrain with unbelievable force." A gift certificate for CompUSA merchandise worth $4000 will go to the grand-prize winner. The prize, provided by Lockheed Martin Corp., the Boeing Co. and CompUSA, will go directly from the donating companies to the winner. The top 25 finalists will receive one copy each of a Deep Space 2 poster signed by project team leaders. Participants in the contest were instructed to choose two people from history (not living), characters from mythology or fiction, two places or things in some way associated with each other, or a combination of the above elements. Submissions had to be accompanied by a short written composition of up to 100 words explaining why the entries would make good names for the probes. This essay was used as the tiebreaker if more than one person submitted the same pair of names, which happened in the case of the winning submission. The Deep Space 2 probes are piggybacking on NASA's Mars Polar Lander spacecraft, which was launched on Jan. 3. Each probe has an entry system consisting of a basketball-sized aeroshell with a grapefruit-sized probe inside. Released from the cruise stage of the Mars Polar Lander on Dec. 3 before it enters the atmosphere of Mars, the probes will dive toward the surface with no braking system beyond their cone-shaped exterior surface. Unlike any spacecraft before them, the probes must endure impact forces up to 60,000 times the force of Earth's gravity as they hit the surface. Upon impact, the aeroshell will shatter and the forebody of each probe will bury itself up to about three feet (one meter) underground, while the aftbody remains on the surface to transmit data back to Earth through NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. If successful, Deep Space 2 will demonstrate innovative approaches to entering a planet's atmosphere, surviving a crash-like impact and penetrating below a planet's surface. The mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, CA. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology. * end- * * * NASA press releases and other information are available automatically by sending an Internet electronic mail message to domo@hq.nasa.gov. In the body of the message (not the subject line) users should type the words "subscribe press-release" (no quotes). The system will reply with a confirmation via E-mail of each subscription. A second automatic message will include additional information on the service. NASA releases also are available via CompuServe using the command GO NASA. To unsubscribe from this mailing list, address an E-mail message to domo@hq.nasa.gov, leave the subject blank, and type only "unsubscribe press-release" (no quotes) in the body of the message. ############################################################################# From: Lori Stiles Hi Paul - Here's the latest news on you. Regards - Lori -------------------------------------- Date: Thursday, November 18, 1999 From: Douglas Isbell >See below. I've also seen the release on FLORIDA TODAY's web site and >SpaceDaily (spacer.com)... > > >>University of Arizona student wins Mars probe naming contest >> >> 11/17/1999 >> Associated Press Newswires >> Copyright 1999. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. >> >> TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - When two basketball-sized probes crash onto Mars >>next month, they will be carrying the names >> suggested by a University of Arizona student. >> >> Paul Withers, a planetary sciences graduate student, entered a NASA >>contest on whim to name the Deep Space 2 probes. >> >> His nomination: Antarctic explorers Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott. >> >> Out of 17,000 other applicants, his nomination was chosen. >> >> "I don't really think it's sunk in yet that there are two little probes >>that will smash onto the martian surface with my names on >> them," said Withers, 24. >> >> Amundsen and Scott led expeditions to the South Pole in 1911 and 1912. At >>the time, Anarctica was the Earth's only >> unexplored continent. Scott and his team froze to death or starved as >>they headed home. >> >> The Mars probes are to hit the south polar region of the planet. >> > > >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >Douglas Isbell >NASA HQ Public Affairs Officer >Space Science (Planetary) >202/358-1753 -3093 fax >douglas.isbell@hq.nasa.gov >http://www.nasa.gov >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > > > ############################################################################# From: Barbara Cohen I did some statistics on Paul's NASA essay: 99 words=$40.40 per word 514 characters=$7.78 per character 609 characters including spaces=$6.57 per character There are 1.7 sentences per paragraph, 14.1 words per sentence, and 5.0 characters per word. Word thinks it is written on an 8th grade level :)