Way off topic: Olfactory detection and asteroid probes

At 11:02 PM 2/22/2001 -0000, e.heritage@... wrote:

>topic now: At NASA they actually have a department that sniffs every single

As of yet, there is no electronic instrument that can detect organic
compounds with the sensitivity of a human nose. For many years, there has
been an accessory for gas chromatographs (sensitive laboratory chemical
separator/analyzer) called an olfactory detector, which takes the output
and routes it to what almost looks like a brandy snifter. They are used by
expert chemists for ultimately sensitive identification of trace chemical
compounds.

Browe over to http://near.jhuapl.edu for the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous
homepage. It is a supremely successful space exploration effort (in
contrast to the unfortunate couple of Mars probes), yielding much more
information than its planners wildest hopes. And don't forget the Mars
Pathfinder mission (http://mars.sgi.com/default.html) which also exceeded
hopes (and resulted in some really cool downlodable stereo photographs and
VRML panoramas--have your analglyphic glasses handy!)

Now back to the regularly scheduled chipmaking...

Randy

Randy Gordon-Gilmore ,----.___________ ______________ _________________
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