FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS VOL. 40, NO. 11 .:.:
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FALL RIVER, MASS.
Friday, March 15, 1996
Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly
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$13 Per Year
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KATHERINE AND MATTHEW Hart, parishioners of St. Joseph, Fairhaven, celebrate their 50th anniversary as members of the Legion of Mary. Helping them celebrate at the 44th annual Acies ceremony held last Sunday at St. Mary's Cathedral, Fall River are (from left) Rev. Timothy Goldrick who presented the Allocutio', Rev. Horace Travassos, Rector of the Cathedral, Rev. Barry W. Wall, Diocesan Spiritual Director of the Legion of Mary, and Rev. Matthew Sullivan, SS.CC., who presented the opening prayer and led the recitation of the rosary. (Anchor/ Jolivet photo)
Diocesan youth gives NASA a hand
Shuttle propulsion: it's a gas
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Index Church & VVorld 12 Daily Readings 5 Editorial 4 Family Fare 10 11 Healthwise Necrology 7 Our Rock ~~ Role.. 15 Steering Points 16 Youth News 14
By Christian Vieira Mills ~nchor Shiff Pick a gas, any gas. As long as it's from the solid elements of the periodic table of the elements, Jason Gleghorn says it can produce enough thrust to send a shuttle into space. A senior at Bishop Connolly High School, Fall River, this student of the physics of flight can tell you a lot about nuclear engineering or plasma physics. Just ask him. The National Aeronautic and Space Administration did.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and NASA. "I wanted to design a space shuttle that would take off and
land like an airplane," he said. The problem was acceleration. T~ escape Earth's gravitational pull, a speed of about 25,000 mph or
Jason Gleghorn, the son of M r. and Mrs. Thomas Gleghorn of Dartmouth and a member of St. John the Baptist Church, Westport, wanted to work on a project in space science the summer before he was to begin his freshman year at Bishop Connolly. He asked a friend of the family for some ideas. This friend, Dr. Robert Hessler, an oceanographer at Scripps Institute of Oceanography in California, told him simply to look up one word.
STANDING PROUDLY amid physics lab equipment at "He told me to look up the Bishop Connolly High School, Fall River, Jason Gleghorn world 'drag,'" said Jason. "That led me to research in aerodynamdisplays his model of an engine that may be able to blast a ics and space flight systems." It led shuttle into space. He has worked for four years on this experhim to what has been four years of iment and has attracted the attention of MIT and NASA. research that have attracted the' (Anchor;' Mills photo) attention of physicists at both the
Mach 6 is necessary. Comparatively, most commercial jets' cruising speeds are about 500 mph. Enter John Cheney, Connolly physics teacher. "M r. Cheney took me and several other students to an open house at the Plasma Fusion Center at M IT," Jason said, "and that ga ve me the idea that I might be able to use this in my experiment." Subsequently, Jason contacted M IT Professor Kevin Wenzel at the Plasma Fusion Center and discussed the possibilities of using plasma for propulsion, "Professor Wenzel has been great," Jason added. "He has taught me about it [plasma), its uses and how to make it." Since Jason is so interested in the science, several graduate students have invited him to join their experimentation. Not having proper equipment readily available to test his theories had been one of the limitations Jason faced. He built his own wind tunnel and measuring tools but needed more than that to properly conduct his experiments. So after checking with NASA, Professor Wenzel cleared the way for Jason to use M IT's plasma fusion generator. Plasma uses a charged system. His engine uses a direct current Turn to Page 13