_                    
                                                         |_|                   
      V   V   SSSS   OOO   PPPP                 \__      |_|      __/          
      V   V  S      O   O  P   P                   --____/ \____--             
      V   V   SSS   O   O  PPPP                    _ _ _ --- _ _ _             
       V V       S  O   O  P                      |_|_|_|  @|_|_|_|            
        V    SSSS    OOO   P                             o-o                   
                                                          /                    
      ***  N    E    W    S  ***                        <)                     
 

KEY SCIENCE PROGRAMS

At its meeting in March, the VISC approved the six Key Science Programs (KSPs) recommended by the Scientific Review Committee. In alphabetical order, these are:

• Blazars,
• High Brightness Temperature/Intra-Day Variability,
• Jet Motions,
• Key Sources,
• Maser Spots, and
• Mega-Masers.

FRINGES!

First fringes were detected at the VSOP correlator in Mitaka last September for K4 format data (see VSOP News no. 24). Earlier this month first fringes were detected from data recorded with VSOP Terminals in VSOP mode at Nobeyama and Usuda. VSOP mode data has two 16 MHz channels of two-bit sampled data, whereas K4 format has sixteen 2 MHz channels of 1-bit sampled data.

SHAKEN, NOT STIRRED

Over the last week vibrational testing of the MUSES-B satellite along all three axes was carried out. It was quite an impressive site to see (and hear) the 830 kg spacecraft being shaken! After testing the pitch, roll and yaw, MUSES-B was given shock treatment: dropped from a height of 12mm. This violent treatment is aimed to simulate the buffeting the satellite will have to endure during the launch. Re-testing of the on-board electronics, and partial deployment of the main antenna masts, solar paddles, and K-band telemetry antenna boom, will follow to ensure everything has survived.

BOTTI-SHELLI? or BOTTI-CHERRY?

The older form of the kanji (or pictograph) for sakura, the cherry tree, comprises the basic character for `tree', together with the characters for `woman', and two `shell's. (This will no doubt conjure images in the minds of some readers of Botticelli's `Birth of Venus', in which the woman in question is floating to shore on a shell!) The newer form of the kanji replaces the shells with three dashes above the `woman', often visualised as three cherry blossom petals falling from the tree onto the woman below. A very timely image, as it is now cherry blossom season in Tokyo, with cascades of pink petals fluttering to the ground.

 
 
       Editors: Phil Edwards and Hirax Hirabayashi