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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 9, 2001)
PHOTO ENLARGEMENT SPECIAL! 12x18 ENLARGEMENT Only $10 (Reg. $15) Next day service, glossy or matte finish. From 35mm or APS film only. Offer expires April 16, 2001. 401 UNIVERSITY OF OREGON BOOKSTORE SCREEN PRINTING EMBROIDERY 344-7265 triangle@pond.net Not all t-shirts are created equal. ★ Athletic Clothing ★ Shoes ★ 27*TV’s ★ Misc. Equipment ★ Much More All items will be offered to state agencies and qualified nonprofit organizations prior to public sale on Friday, April 6, 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. UO Athletic Department SURPLUS Moshofsky Center, Next to Autzen Stadium Saturday & Monday, April 7th & 9th, 8:00a.m. - 4:00p.m. Announcing OSIPs new MBA with a technology focus. It'll make you stand out in the crowd. In as little as nine months, you could earn an MBA from Oregon State University. The program’s innovative approach to the integration of technology in business is designed to give you the skills business leaders are looking for. Along with the solid management education of a classical MBA, you’ll cover the latest developments in customer relationship management, e-commerce and other cutting-edge information technology.* We offer evening and part-time options, as well, so you can work classes into your busy schedule. If you want the advantage in the workplace, get the MBA that will set you apart. OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF BUSINESS Open minds. Open doors. _ www.bus.orst.edo/MBA • (541) 737-6031 Applications are now being accepted for the Fall term. - X- -« W X* & & i & £ Jkft# ---WWW, da ^rald.com Odyssey en route to Mars By Marcia Dunn The Associated Press CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The Mars Odyssey spacecraft rocketed away Saturday on a 286 million mile journey to the Red Planet and what NASA hopes will be a mis sion of redemption. It is the space agency’s first launch to Mars since a pair of hu miliating failures in 1999. “Absolutely fantastic,” said Ed Weiler, head of NASA’s space sci ence office. NASA program scientist Jim Garvin, noted that every rocket launch is accompanied by exhilara tion, as well as trepidation. “But for Mars and the fact this is such a vital step for us to keep the progress going, our sense of elec tricity is heightened,” he said. “There’s literally electricity in the air.” Some 100 people gathered at the press viewing area at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, a larg er crowd than usual for an un manned launch. Everything went well as the Delta rocket lifted off at the appointed moment at 11:02 a.m., carrying Mars Odyssey to ward its destiny. The weather was perfect, with a stunningly clear aqua sky. An on-board camera showed the launch site, then the cape, then the Florida coast growing smaller as the rocket climbed higher. Another camera panned on the golden-col ored Mars Odyssey at the top of the booster, coasting 100 miles above Earth and eventually spinning away. An exuberant Garvin oohed and aahed as he watched the flight on a video monitor. A half-hour after liftoff, right on cue, Mars Odyssey was propelled out of Earth orbit'at more than 25,000 mph and sped toward an October rendezvous with Mars. “Mars Odyssey: Have a safe jour ney to Mars,” the launch commen tator said as flight controllers ap plauded and shook hands. Named after Arthur C. Clarke’s science fiction novel and movie, ”2001: A Space Odyssey,” Mars Odyssey is quite possibly the most scrutinized spacecraft ever sent to the Red Planet. Its primary mission is to search for water at or just be neath the Martian surface, from a 250-mile-high orbit. “This mission has to succeed, there’s no question,” Weiler said Friday. “We’ve done the kind of testing, we’ve done the kind of checking that we know how to do ... and beyond that, I really don’t know what else we could do.” (( You never stop worrying about it It's like having a kid—you never quite crack the champagne. Phil Christensen geologist, Arizona State Universityy \ Mars Odyssey is scheduled to reach Mars on Oct. 24 and slip into orbit around the planet. For 2 1/2 years, it will study minerals in the rocks and measure chemical ele ments like hydrogen in a quest for water. “NASA’s main goal here is look ing for life. And so life means look ing for water,” said Arizona State University geologist Phil Chris tensen. Perhaps just as important for NASA is showing the public that the Mars program is viable. “There are a lot of people on the team who worked on the failed 1999 missions,” said George Pace, Odyssey’s project manager for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “They want some kind of redemption. They want a chance to show they can make this right.” In September 1999, the Mars Cli mate Orbiter ended up in pieces around Mars or smashed on the planet because engineers mixed up English and metric units of meas urement. Just 10 weeks later, the Mars Polar Lander crash-landed on Mars and was lost, most likely be cause of a premature engine shut down. To avoid another fiasco, NASA spent millions of extra dollars on Odyssey, boosting the total mis sion cost to $297 million, and added dozens of extra sets of eyes to the project. About 22,000 pa rameters in the computer soft ware, any of which could doom the mission if wrong, were dou ble-checked. the tact remains, though, that Mars is tricky to reach. NASA’s suc cess rate at Mars is about 60 per cent. Counting Russia’s failed ef forts, the overall success rate is less than 30 percent. “We certainly learned a few years ago how difficult it can be and how you don’t want to take anything for granted, that this can be a one strike-and-you’re-out kind of busi ness,” said Scott Hubbard, NASA’s Mars program director. Besides its own scientific value, Odyssey’s reconnaissance mission will help NASA choose the touch down sites for a pair of rovers to be launched in 2003 and follow-on landers. Christensen hopes to find hot springs on Mars, which would make ideal landing sites. An in frared camera will search for any hot spots on the dark, cold side of the planet. Until then, Christensen is keep ing his fingers crossed. “You never stop worrying^about it. It’s like having a kid,” he said. “You never quite crack the cham pagne.” Online security focus of conference By Brian Bergstein The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO — Ten years ago, when most people still thought of computer hackers only as the nerdy henchmen to villains in science fiction movies, a group of less than 100 cryptographers got together in a Silicon Valley hotel to share ideas. Now the Internet is a pervasive part of life, a platform where $657 billion worth of commerce was transacted last year, according to Forrester Research. With that fig ure expected to increase 10 times by 2004, online security has be come a mainstream concern. And that small cryptographers’ gathering has exploded into a trade show and conference that is bringing more than 10,000 people to a San Francisco convention center this week. They will pe ruse exhibits by 250 security companies, chatter at a “cryptog raphers’ gala” and gather for a closing ceremony featuring come dian Dana Carvey. Lecture topics range from the arcane — one is titled “On the Strength of Simply Iterated Feistel Ciphers with Whitening Keys” — to the straightforward, like “Au thenticity in e-Business.” The RSA Conference, named for the Bedford, Mass.-based security company that puts it together, began Sunday and runs through Thursday. In another sign that security has be come important business, die spon sors include Intel, Microsoft', Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Compaq. “I think the RSA thing has come of age, and people are taking the whole topic seriously,” said Michael Ruehle, president and CEO of BioID America Inc., who plans to show off new technology from his company that scans a user’s face, voice and lip movements for high security identification. CC The anonymity and ubiquity of the Internet that makes it so attractive to users and the marketplace are the same qualities that make it difficult to secure. Mike Houlahan vice-president, Arcot Systems Inc. 11 Such biometric devices, which grant or deny access to users based on ironclad personal characteris tics, have been available for years. But even though ordinary pass words are easily stolen or forgot ten, biometrics have yet to move into widespread use because of high cost and varying reliability. Now, they could get a boost from the federal electronic signa tures law that took effect last year. The measure grants legal le gitimacy to documents approved' or digitally “signed” online. That is expected to drive up demand for anything used to initiate a dig ital signature — such as finger print readers and other biometric devices, or “smart cards” in which identification information is embedded. Security experts expect biomet rics soon will be commonly built into cell phones, handheld comput ers and anything else connecting to computer networks. Ruehle hopes to strike up partnerships this week to speed that process along. The most immediate challenge for Internet security and cryptogra phy is online fraud; which by some estimates takes place eight to 12 times as much as it does in the real world. “The anonymity and ubiquity of the Internet that make it so attrac tive to users and the marketplace are the same qualities that make it difficult to secure,” said Mike Houlahan, a vice president of Ar cot Systems Inc., a Silicon Valley company that makes software de signed to limit access to computer files and networks. Marina Donovan, an RSA Secu rity Inc. vice president who is managing the conference, expects a lot of discussion on developing an industry standard for securing transactions over wireless devices. “That impacts everybody, even my mother,” she said. “Security is a mainstream issue. People need to know how to do business online with confidence.”
