NASA Daily News Summary

For Release: July 20, 2000

Media Advisory m00-139

SUMMARY

NEWS RELEASES

NASA SCIENTISTS DETECT RAPID THINNING OF GREENLAND'S

COASTAL ICE

NASA TO ANNOUNCE MARS 2003 PLANS AT NEWS BRIEFING JULY 24

NO TELESCOPE NEEDED: NASA WEB SITES LET STARGAZERS TRACK

IMPENDING SPACE STATION "NUPTUALS"

A SCHOOL COMMUNITY IN THE BRONX EXPLORES "LIVING ON MARS"

THROUGH ART

VIDEO ***ALL TIMES EASTERN***

VIDEO FILE FOR JULY 20, 2000

UPCOMING TELEVISION EVENTS

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NEWS RELEASES

NASA SCIENTISTS DETECT RAPID THINNING OF GREENLAND'S

COASTAL ICE

Scientists who want to monitor the state of our global

climate may have to look no farther than the coastal ice that
surrounds the Earth's largest island. A NASA study of Greenland's
ice sheet reveals that it is rapidly thinning. The ice mapping
was completed by NASA, which has been surveying the Greenland ice
sheet for nearly seven years. Now, for the first time, portions
of the entire ice sheet covering Greenland have been mapped with
sufficient accuracy to detect significant changes in elevation.

In an article published in the July 21 issue of Science, Bill

Krabill, project scientist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight
Center's Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, VA, reports that
the frozen area around Greenland is thinning, in some places, at a
rate of more than three feet per year. Any change is important
since a smaller ice sheet could result in higher sea levels.

Greenland covers 840,000 square miles and 85 percent of the

island is covered by ice, some of which is up to two miles thick.
With its southern tip protruding into temperate latitudes,
monitoring this portion of the ice sheet may be one of the best
ways to measure changes in our climate, at least in the Northern
Hemisphere.

Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC: David E. Steitz

(Phone: 202/358-1730).
Contact at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD: Lynn
Chandler (Phone: 301/614-5562).

For full text, see:

ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2000/00-112.txt

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NASA TO ANNOUNCE MARS 2003 PLANS AT NEWS BRIEFING JULY 24

NASA will announce the agency's Mars exploration plans for

2003 at a news briefing to be held 2:00 p.m. EDT Monday, July 24,
2000, at NASA Headquarters, 300 E St. SW, Washington, DC.

Two missions under consideration are a Mars scientific

orbiter, which will have a camera capable of imaging objects as
small as about two feet (60 cm) across, and a large scientific
rover which will land using an airbag cocoon like that on the
successful 1997 Mars Pathfinder mission. Dr. Edward Weiler,
Associate Administrator, Office of Space Science, Washington, DC,
made the final selection.
Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC: Donald Savage
(Phone: 202/358-1547).

For full text, see:

ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/note2edt/2000/n00-031.txt

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NO TELESCOPE NEEDED: NASA WEB SITES LET STARGAZERS

TRACK IMPENDING SPACE STATION "NUPTUALS"

Stargazers will be in for a rare treat July 25, when the

newest piece of the International Space Station joins its mate in
a match made in the heavens. And you can track the module's
progress with the naked eye.

Web sites developed by both NASA's Marshall Space Flight

Center, Huntsville, AL, and NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston,
TX, are making it easy and exciting for enthusiasts across the
country and around the world to catch a glimpse of the Russian
Zvezda Service Module, as it closes in on the International Space
Station for a July 25 docking.

Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC: Kirsten Williams

(Phone: 202/358-0243).
Contact at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL:
Steve Roy (Phone: 256/544-0034).

For full text, see:

ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2000/00-114.txt

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A SCHOOL COMMUNITY IN THE BRONX EXPLORES

"LIVING ON MARS" THROUGH ART
 So what would it be like living on Mars? Southwest Bronx, NY
school children will have an opportunity to describe it, not with
words, but with a picture. A 7,000 square foot mural to be exact.

The NASA Art Program and the NASA Astrobiology Institute are
partially funding a mural entitled "Living on Mars." City Arts--a
Manhattan-based art organization dedicated to transforming
neglected areas of New York City into public art spaces--and New
Settlement--a non-profit housing and community building
organization in the South Bronx--are coordinating the project.

Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC: Bert Ulrich (Phone:

202/358-1713).

For full text, see:

ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2000/00-113.txt

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If NASA issues any news releases later today, we will e-

mail summaries and Internet URLs to this list.

Index of 2000 NASA News Releases:

http://www.nasa.gov/releases/2000/index.html

Index of 1999 NASA News Releases:

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

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VIDEO FILE FOR JULY 20, 2000

ITEM 1 - GREENLAND ICE THINNING - GSFC

ITEM 2 - BRONX PAINT PROJECT - HQ
ITEM 3 - VIEWING OPPORTUNITIES FOR INTERNATIONAL SPACE
STATION
- JSC
ITEM 4 - HOW TO VIEW COMET LINEAR - JPL (REPLAY)
 ITEM 5 - THE AGE OF COMETS - GSFC (REPLAY)
ITEM 6 - THE AMAZING QUILT STORY (QUILT OF COMPTON GAMMA
RAY
OBSERVATORY)- GSFC (REPLAY)
ITEM 7 - APOLLO 11 B-ROLL PACKAGE

ANY CHANGES TO THE VIDEO LINE-UP WILL APPEAR ON THE NASA

VIDEO
FILE ADVISORY ON THE WEB AT

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

WE UPDATE THE ADVISORY THROUGHOUT THE DAY.

The NASA Video File normally airs at noon, 3 pm, 6 pm, 9 pm

and midnight Eastern Time.

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UPCOMING TELEVISION EVENTS

July 21, Friday

1:00 - 2:30 p.m. - Summer Scholar Live News Interviews - MSFC

July 25, Tuesday

*7:45 p.m. - Service Module B-roll Feed for Media (launch and
processing footage) - JSC
*8:00 p.m. - Service Module Docking Live Coverage and Commentary
Begins - JSC (and Mission Control Moscow in Korolev via JSC)
*8:53 p.m. - Service Module Docking With the International Space
Station - JSC
*9:15 p.m. - Post Docking Press Conference (this time is
approximate and questions will only be allowed by media in Moscow
at the Mission Control Center) - Korolev via JSC

July 26, Wednesday

1:00 - 2:30 p.m. - Summer Scholar Live News Interviews - MSFC

July 27, Thursday

4:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. - Deep Space 1 Update Live News Interviews -
JPL
For a complete list of upcoming live television events, see
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv/breaking.html

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Unless otherwise noted, ALL TIMES ARE EASTERN.

NASA Television is available on GE-2, transponder 9C at 85 degrees

West longitude, with vertical polarization. Frequency is on 3880.0
megahertz, with audio on 6.8 megahertz.

Refer general questions about the video file to NASA Headquarters,

Washington, DC: Ray Castillo, 202/358-4555, or Fred Brown,
202/358-0713, fred.brown@hq.nasa.gov

During Space Shuttle missions, the full NASA TV schedule will

continue to be posted at:
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/nasatv/schedule.html

For general information about NASA TV see:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv/

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Contract Awards

Contract awards are posted to the NASA Acquisition information

Service Web site: http://procurement.nasa.gov/EPS/award.html

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end of daily news summary