Second add to NASA News Summary for April 5, 2000
m00-067b

Strangers in the Night: Ulysses Spacecraft Meets a Comet

During an unplanned rendezvous, the Ulysses spacecraft found itself gliding though the 
immense tail of Comet Hyakutake, revealing that comet tails may be much, much longer 
than previously believed. "This tail extends half a billion kilometers (more than 300 million 
miles). That's more than three times the distance from the Earth to the Sun," said Dr. 
Nathan Schwadron, of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Findings appear in the April 
6 issue of the journal Nature.

Full text:

ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2000/00-055.txt

Headquarters contact: Dolores Beasley (Phone: 202/358-1753)

Jet Propulsion Laboratory contact: Jane Platt (Phone: 818/354-5011)

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NASA Selects its Inventions of the Year

It won't be long before such diverse products as lipstick, art and circuit boards could benefit 
from a thermoplastic developed for use in space.  NASA thinks so much of the 
thermoplastic's commercial potential that it named the high-tech material its 1999 
Commercial Invention of the Year.  A research team from NASA's Langley Research 
Center, Hampton, VA, developed the winning invention.

Full text:

ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2000/00-053.txt

Headquarters contact: Sonja Alexander (Phone: 202/358-1761)

Langley Research Center contact: Keith Henry (Phone: 757/864-6120/24)

Goddard Space Flight Center contact: James Sahli (Phone: 301/286-4084)

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NASA to Test Wind Turbine in World's Largest Wind Tunnel

For the first time ever, engineers at NASA's Ames Research Center will begin testing a 
wind turbine this month in the world's largest wind tunnel to learn how to design and 
operate the turbines more efficiently.  The three-week test of the U.S. Department of 
Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) "Unsteady Aerodynamics" 
research wind turbine is scheduled to begin April 17.  Tests will be conducted in Ames' 80-
by-120-Foot Wind Tunnel.  The wind tunnel is primarily used for determining low- and 
medium-speed aerodynamic characteristics of full-scale aircraft and rotorcraft (helicopters). 

Full text:

ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2000/00-054.txt

Headquarters contact: Michael Braukus (Phone: 202/358-1979)

Ames Research Center contact: Michael Mewhinney (Phone: 650/604-3937)

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