PART 1: Upcoming Chats
PART 2: Project News
PART 3: Space Shuttle Simulations

UPCOMING CHATS

Thanks for you feedback on how we can increase attendance at ATO chats!
Most people I heard from felt that the time of chats was an issue.
Some suggested earlier times, some later in the day, and some suggested
weekends. I will discuss these ideas with my management.
Any more ideas?
Thanks, I look forward to hearing from you!

Susan Lee
slee@quest.arc.nasa.gov
 

QuestChats require pre-registration. Unless otherwise
noted, registration
is at:  http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/aero/chats/


Tuesday March 21, 2000, 9-10 AM PST
Aerospace Team Online  Regimes of Flight Chat with Leslie Ringo
Leslie Ringo is one of the engineers responsible for ensuring the
Vertical Motion Simulator responds exactly as a real aircraft would in the
air. Read her bio at
http://quest.nasa.gov/aero/team/ringo.html

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Tuesday, March 28, 2000, 10-11 AM PST
Aerospace Team Online QuestChat with Mary Reveley
Mary works with a propulsion systems analysis group to determine how
aircraft and engine designs will perform. Read her bio at
http://quest.nasa.gov/aero/team/reveley.html

PROJECT NEWS

Spring Break

There will be no update next week. We'll be back March 31, 2000.

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"Regimes of Flight"

A New Regime, by Susan Ashby is now online! This is the story of Chuck
Yeager's flight that broke the Sound Barrier! It will soon have movies and
interactive vocabulary as well. 

For more information see
http://quest.nasa.gov/aero/events/regimes/new.html

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Design a New Aircraft CONTEST!!!  

Regimes of Flight Design a New Aircraft Contest, Grades 4-8 
March 3 - April 14, 2000 
Choose one regime of flight: low, medium, high, supersonic, or hypersonic.
design an new aircraft for the regime you pick!
For more information: go to
http://quest.nasa.gov/aero/events/regimes/contest.html#design

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Congratulations to the Regimes of Flight Mural Contest winners!

You can see their work at
http://quest.nasa.gov/aero/events/regimes/mural.html

SPACE SHUTTLE SIMULATIONS

by Leslie Ringo

January 28, 2000

Our next simulation will be Feb 22- March 23, 2000.
We run motion simulations every six months at the
Ames Vertical Motion Simulator. 

Our research will be examining some engineering
studies regarding roll out distances. This is regarding
the distance down the runway the Space Shuttle
requires when landing. We will study various landing
scenarios with different winds. 

The major portion of every space shuttle simulation
session is Astronaut training for the landing phase of a
shuttle mission. This is for airspeeds less than Mach 1. 

Training at Ames' Vertical Motion Simulator (VMS) is
essential to the Astronaut crews since we can provide a
very high fidelity simulation. This means most like the
really landing. We can through in various failures (like
a blown tire) to better train the Astronauts for failures
during the landing. 

The VMS provides realistic training to Astronauts for
the landing phase of a mission. 

As a part of a recent trip to Johnson Space Center, I
was tasked to learn as much as possible about the entire
Space Shuttle Orbiter. So, in addition to the landing
phase that Ames is solely responsible, I have other
tidbits of information.