Thursday, April 23, 1998
Facilities Engineering (FE) Division director named
Bill Hamilton, executive staff director for the new Facilities Engineering (FE) Division, has been named acting FE Division director. Hamilton will head the division until a permanent replacement is found. A search committee currently is being formed in this matter.
Hamilton takes over for Bernie van der Hoeven, who retired Friday. Van der Hoeven originally was scheduled to retire in February, but stayed on long enough to oversee the transition of Facilities, Security and Safeguards (FSS) Division into two separate organizations. The other new division is called Security and Safeguards (S) Division.
Hamilton is a relative newcomer to the Lab. He joined in May 1997 after a 23-year career with Westinghouse. His last position at Westinghouse was director for solid waste disposal in Richland, Wash. Before that, Hamilton was manager for Westinghouse's Nuclear Waste Department in Pittsburgh, Pa.
The Navy veteran also was director for the Pre-nuclear Power School Department in Bainbridge, Md., from 1969 to 1973. He holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the U.S. Naval Academy and a master's degree in mathematics from the Naval Post-graduate School.
--Ternel N. Martinez
ALEXIS satellite marks fifth anniversary of launch
The Laboratory's ALEXIS satellite marks its fifth birthday Saturday. To celebrate, the durable craft will continue circling Earth and compiling observations of celestial emissions of extreme ultraviolet light with its six coffee-can-sized telescopes.
Over the years, ALEXIS has been a training ground for Laboratory staff in operating -- and rescuing -- a satellite and a proving ground for techniques and technologies used in or proposed for subsequent space missions.
A radio experiment aboard ALEXIS has captured radio signals that led to discovery papers on mysterious atmospheric discharges and allowed a host of students to cut their teeth on a scientific project.
And the satellite has compiled more than four years of unique observations of extreme ultraviolet emissions from the sky, though a complete analysis of these data is ongoing.
Launched April 25, 1993, the $17 million Department of Energy-funded satellite has lasted well beyond its nominal one-year mission to demonstrate its telescope and radio-receiver technology for nonproliferation applications and past a three-year lifetime engineering estimates gave it. After five years, it still has most of its capabilities intact, even though the satellite is starting to show signs of wear and tear.
"We're seeing normal and expected degradation at this point, but it's less than we would have originally expected after five years in orbit," said Diane Roussel-Dupré of Space Data Systems (NIS-3) and ALEXIS project leader. "It's very satisfying to see it still working as well as it is."
ALEXIS' rechargeable batteries aren't as potent as they once were, its four solar panels don't produce quite as much energy as they used to, and a bad memory chip garbles a portion of the data the satellite regularly transmits to a ground station at the Lab.
The satellite's scientific packages -- the Blackbeard radio experiment and the Array of Low-Energy X-ray Imaging Sensors telescopes -- still perform as capably as when they were launched.
The Blackbeard experiment, however, has been superceded by the Laboratory's FORTÉ satellite, and only occasional experiments are planned for Blackbeard in the future.
ALEXIS had a rocky beginning. One of the satellite's solar panels tore free of its hinge attachment during launch; a subsequent analysis showed the hinge had probably been damaged during ground testing, and launch vibrations were the last straw. Only electrical cables and a guide wire kept the panel attached.
Controllers could not establish contact with the satellite, and for some time it was feared lost.
Six weeks after launch ALEXIS sent a brief radio signal, telling the ground crew it was alive. Four weeks after that satellite operators successfully communicated with the craft, starting the slow process of bringing it under control, determining its condition and readying it for scientific operations.
Project officials attributed ALEXIS' survival to the robust design of the satellite bus -- the foundation of the satellite that supports the scientific packages, communications and telemetry -- provided by AeroAstro Corp., a small space-technology company that worked closely with Los Alamos.
"A key to ALEXIS' durability has been the innovative, low-power bus design provided by AeroAstro and the company's innovations in the telemetry system, which made ALEXIS a simpler spacecraft to operate," said Jeff Bloch, one of the scientific investigators for ALEXIS in Space and Remote Sensing Sciences (NIS-2). Bloch also credits the Los Alamos engineering team that integrated all the components of the satellite and prepared ALEXIS for launch and the software team that helped interpret what the satellite was doing and modify computer codes as necessary.
Another key was the dedication of the satellite operators who nursed the craft back to health. This required attending satellite passes in the middle of the night, over weekends or on holidays and sacrificing a lot of personal time. In fact, the satellite operators kept to this round-the-clock schedule until last November, when the team made automated contacts part of the operation.
The broken solar panel imparted a wobble to the spin-stabilized spacecraft that had to be precisely modeled so the photons captured by the six telescopes could be mapped back to their originating location on the sky.
The final computer software for decoding the telescope data was recently completed and used to process all 49 months worth of archived data, stored on more than 150 CDs. The latest software more precisely models the satellite's orientation and produces sharper images than earlier versions.
To know precisely the strength of the emissions from the sky and interpret the data in the all-sky map, however, the team must calibrate each telescope accurately so they can separate instrumental effects from the signal measured. Bloch estimates this task will be completed in the next six weeks.
"When the calibration watershed happens, we expect that the science papers will flow," said Sandy Fletcher of NIS-2 and a member of the ALEXIS team.
The Blackbeard radio experiment, which doesn't care which way the satellite is pointing, early in the mission provided data that led to the first published reports of atmospheric discharges dubbed "trans-ionospheric pulse pairs," or TIPPs. No one has yet conclusively identified what atmospheric mechanism generates them.
Blackbeard demonstrated technology for studying a wide band of radio frequencies and capturing signals of interest amidst a noist radio background, important for nonproliferation work.
A more advanced version of Blackbeard's technology was launched last August on FORTÉ, or Fast On-orbit Recording of Transient Events. In addition, much learned from ALEXIS' operation has been useful to FORTÉ.
"ALEXIS has been a pathfinder for a lot of technology ported directly over to FORTÉ," Roussel-Dupré said. ALEXIS' ground station software, for example, was transferred directly to FORTÉ's operation. A ground station set up in Fairbanks, Alaska, and tested through ALEXIS contacts is now a principal link for FORTÉ. And useful tricks of the trade such as replaying recorded data to train operators and ways to use real-time state-of-health measurements also have been adopted from ALEXIS.
ALEXIS also has provided beneficial educational experience to nearly 30 students, undergraduate and graduate. For many, it was their first introduction to a research project and helped them decide on an educational or career path. Some have gone onto to jobs in the aerospace industry or onto graduate schools. "Their resumes are considerably strengthened by their experience with ALEXIS," Fletcher said.
Fletcher worked on ALEXIS while a graduate student at the University of New Hampshire, and has since joined Los Alamos' scientific staff. "One of the things that really attracted me to this project is that we talk to the satellite four times a day; it's all done here," she said. Students gain hands-on experience and carry a lot of responsibility for the project.
"The students have made significant contributions to the data analysis and code generation. They've also provided needed hands-on support for satellite control," Roussel-Dupré said.
The satellite's budget for the current fiscal year is $615,000 for scientific studies and operations. Eight people, of which only the three students are fulltime, make up the project team.
Roussel-Dupré hopes to keep ALEXIS going at least another year, into the peak of solar activity, to see the effects of increased numbers of charged particles in the orbital environment on the satellite's hardware and ability to survive given the radiation dose it has accumulated after five years.
Keeping ALEXIS going also helps gather information about long-term performance of various systems that is useful to the small satellite business. The team is learning how to coax more performance out of an aging satellite. The ALEXIS groundstation also has been studied by NASA as a possible model for controlling small satellites. And the ALEXIS experience has enabled Laboratory scientists to develop more competitive proposals for other missions.
"When DOE funded this project they had two questions: Would the telescope design work, and could Los Alamos build and operate a satellite? The ALEXIS team proves every day that the answer to both questions is, 'yes,' " Fletcher said.
--John R. Gustafson
Most of the white dots in this image have been identified with known celestial point sources that are bright in extreme ultraviolet light, which the telescopes on the ALEXIS satellite observe. In visible light, the naked eye can see hundreds of stars on any cloudless night. At extreme ultraviolet wavelengths, however, only a few dozen sources are apparent to ALEXIS, mainly because EUV light is attenuated as it crosses the galaxy so only nearby sources can be detected. Interestingly, ALEXIS can readily spot EUV emissions from a white dwarf known as Sirius B but can't detect the white dwarf's companion, Sirius A, which is the brightest star in the sky.
This image considers the sky as a cube surrounding a viewer on Earth, and the cube has been unfolded to create the T-shape seen here. The red lines mark a celestial coordinate system. The subtle shadings across the image are background artifacts. Image courtesy of James Theiler (NIS-2)
Former Major League Umpire pushes respect during Lab talk
Former Major League Baseball umpire Dave Pallone responds to a
question from an attendee during a talk Tuesday in the Physics Building
Auditorium. Pallone talked about respect and acceptance of other people.
His talk was sponsored in part by the Laboratory's Diversity (DV) Office.
Photo by Fred Rick
As a young boy sitting in Boston's Fenway Park, Dave Pallone told his father that one day he would be on the baseball field. Pallone ate, drank and slept baseball, like many little boys, and soon was able to live out his dream of being on the field, becoming a professional baseball umpire eight years later at age 19.
By the time he was 27, Pallone was the third youngest Major League Baseball umpire.
"What an unbelievable feeling," Pallone said Tuesday in the Physics Building Auditorium. "The dream of an 11-year-old came true."
Shortly before he made it to the big leagues, Pallone said he also learned that he was gay. He could have given up baseball, but decided he loved the game too much to give up his dream. Because he knew Major League Baseball couldn't accept his being gay, Pallone said for 10 years he lied and deceived baseball, his family and friends, but more importantly himself. "I found out I was different, something Major League Baseball didn't want in [its] little box," he said.
Pallone continued umpiring until 1988, when he said Major League Baseball fired him for publicly acknowledging his sexual orientation. "That's when I decided I needed to tell my story, to tell people about Dave Pallone," he said.
Since 1991, Pallone has traveled to college campuses, national laboratories and corporate America, and has given more than 600 broadcast and print media interviews to help people better understand that gay men and women are just like everyone else.
Pallone's talk at the Laboratory, "Who's Really on First," was sponsored by the Nuclear Materials Technology (NMT) Division diversity committee; the Diversity (DV) Office; the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Diversity Working Group at the Lab; and the Los Alamos Bisexual, Gay, and Lesbian Alliance, a Los Alamos community group.
During his two-day visit to Los Alamos, Pallone also spoke to Los Alamos, White Rock, Pojoaque and Española Little Leaguers about umpiring, respect and behavior on the field (see related story).
Pallone wrote a book about his life as a gay man and Major League Baseball umpire. The book, "Behind the Mask: My Double Life in Baseball," became a New York Times best-selling autobiography. Since the book was published, Pallone said he has received more than 80,000 letters from people thanking him for "giving them hope . . . for helping them understand . . . for helping them understand their children a little better."
Pallone recalled one man who wrote in a letter that he came across a television interview with Pallone. After watching the interview, the man told Pallone he decided against taking his own life. "When you get a letter like that, you know you're doing good," said Pallone. Another man told Pallone that at first he disliked Pallone both as an umpire and a gay man. But after reading Pallone's book, the man said he disliked himself more because of the ill feelings he once had for Pallone.
"No matter where I go . . . no matter how many people I meet, I will touch at least one person," said Pallone, who told the audience he isn't trying to change people. He said he just wants people to learn to respect other people, regardless of their sexual orientation. Or as Pallone said, "To show you that I really am just like you. We are all the same.
"Every single one of you in this room knows someone who is gay. It could be your brother . . . it could be your best friend. Yes, it could be your mother or father," said Pallone. "I wonder, would you turn your back on them? I hope that you wouldn't."
How can parents prepare for when children begin asking about gay men and women? Pallone said parents should talk to children about differences in people. "That is what diversity is all about," he said.
"Teach kids respect," added Pallone, "so they will know that you are there, that you always will love them. Talk to your kids about everything as often as you can."
In closing, Pallone said, "If I leave you with any thoughts, they are respect yourself and respect others, not only for yourself but for others."
--Steve Sandoval
Sportsmanship on the field
Boston Red Sox fans would have cringed at the sight of former Major League Baseball umpire Dave Pallone wearing a New York Yankees cap Monday at the Laboratory. Red Sox fans you see, as a rule, despise the Yankees, and Pallone was born in Boston and saw his first Major League Baseball game as an 11-year-old kid at Fenway Park. Many in Boston still point to that fateful day back in 1920 when Red Sox management traded an up-and-coming pitcher named George Herman "Babe" Ruth to the Yankees as the reason the Red Sox haven't been to the World Series since 1918.
But that didn't matter to the Little League baseball-playing boys and girls who came to the Physics Building Auditorium to hear Pallone talk about respect and good behavior on the playing field.
Pallone's talks -- he also spoke to human resources generalists in a private meeting, to employees and the public on Tuesday and to employees at Technical Area 55 on Monday -- were sponsored by the Diversity (DV) Office, the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Diversity Working Group at the Lab, the Nuclear Materials Technology (NMT) Division diversity committee and the Los Alamos Bisexual, Gay, and Lesbian Alliance, a Los Alamos community group.
Pallone autographed baseballs, including one for Laboratory Director John Browne, and the Diversity Office handed out baseball cards to the two dozen youngsters who attended Monday's talk. Pallone began his presentation with a videotape from a April 30, 1988, game in which he tossed Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose out of the game for arguing a call he made at first base and for bumping him.
"For all you Little Leaguers in here, that's not what you're supposed to do," Pallone said. "You never, never, never touch an umpire. Because Pete Rose touched me, he had to pay $10,000."
Later, Pallone asked a youngster what position he played. The boy said he was a pitcher, to which Pallone said, "You have to be really nice to umpires. And you know why? Because they give you a really big strike zone."
He also said catchers should never show up an umpire by turning around to argue a call. He called Hall of Famer and former Reds catcher Johnny Bench the best catcher he ever saw play and said Bench never tried to show up an umpire.
Pallone also told the audience, which included some Lab employees and Little League parents, that ball players never should lose their temper. He admitted that in the game where he tossed Rose that he lost his temper. "Umpires should always stay in control," said Pallone. "I learned something from that . . . hopefully Pete Rose learned something [too]."
Pallone also admonished parents who argue with umpires from their bleacher seats, saying they set a bad example for their children. "They will learn from you; if you start yelling at the umpire . . . it doesn't help [your children]," he said. "Nolan Ryan never argued. Willie Mays never argued. Willie Stargell never argued, Dale Murphy never argued," Pallone continued.
He also reminded youngsters not to fight on the field. "Fighting on the field is not what you do to make yourself a good baseball player," said Pallone.
"You should never, ever try to start a fight. If you're a pitcher and someone comes charging at you, you could break a hand, a finger. You could hurt your shoulder . . . there goes your baseball career."
And at the age when boys and girls play Little League baseball, sportsmanship is more important than winning, Pallone told the youngsters. "Everyone knows its great to win," he said. "At your age, what's most important is to say I played the best I could . . . to say 'we'll beat you next time, you played the best today,' " he said. "And that's all that matters."
In response to a question from the audience, Pallone said he misses baseball, but left the game after 18 years because he wanted to do something different. He noted that he has many fond memories of the game, including calling the game that marked the 50th anniversary of baseball's All Star game in old Comiskey Park in Chicago in 1983, being the home plate umpire when Pete Rose broke the all-time career hits record and when Nolan Ryan recorded his 4,000th career strikeout.
--Steve Sandoval
UNM professor of biology to present colloquium Tuesday
James Brown of the University of New Mexico will present a Director's Colloquium on Tuesday in the Physics building Auditorium. The colloquium, "Scaling Laws for Living Things," begins at 1:10 p.m. and is open to the public. For more information, see a master management memo.
Panel discussion on current contributions to national defense today in Study Center
Current contributions by Native Americans to the nation's defense is the focus of a panel discussion this morning in the J. Robert Oppenheimer Study Center.
The panel discussion begins at 11:30 a.m. in the Jemez Room and is sponsored by the Laboratory's Native American Diversity Working Group and the Diversity (DV) Office as part of the Lab's observance of American Indian Heritage Month.
Mile Baron of Astrophysics and Radiation Measurements (NIS-2) and chairperson of the Native American Diversity Working Group will be joined by George Yates of Neutron Science and Technology (P-23), Mike Butler of Weapons Engineering (ESA-WE), and Mark Garrett and Darl Patrick of Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque.
The panel discussion is free and open to employees, students and subcontract personnel.
"Native American Contributions to the National Defense: Then and Now," is the theme for the Lab's American Indian Heritage Month observance.
Native Americans have a long history of contribution and service to the nation's defense and security, said Barbara Grimes of the Community Involvement and Outreach (CIO) Office and a member of the working group. "We want to provide information to the general Lab public about Native Americans who have had significant involvement or a role in national defense," said Grimes.
--Steve Sandoval
DOE team recognized
The American Academy of Environmental Engineers has awarded a Department of Energy team its "Superior Achievement for Excellence in Environmental Engineering" award. The group honored DOE for developing a plan to speed up its waste clean-up program while reducing costs. Engineers from 11 DOE sites, including Los Alamos, are on the team. More information is available in a DOE news release.
UC Berkeley establishes endowed chair named for Glenn Seaborg
Nobel laureate Glenn Seaborg has been honored with the establishment of the Glenn T. Seaborg Chair in Physical Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. The first faculty member to hold the new chair is Alexander Pines, who has made major advances in the field of nuclear magnetic resonance. More details can be a found in a UC news release.
| On today's bulletin board | |
|---|---|
|
|
Past Daily Newsbulletins | Last week's headlines
Other Laboratory news sources
Reflections
| News Releases
| Dateline: Los Alamos
LANL | Phone Book | Search | Help
L O S A L A M O S
N A T I O N A L L A B O R A T O R Y
Operated by the University of California
for the US Department of Energy
LANL PC Users Group to feature Windows 98 -- A Sneak Preview