European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 22, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 4 the stars and stripes tuesday August 22,1989 voyager 2 takes final  at Neptune Pasadena. Calif. A after a12-year, 4.4 billion mile space Odyssey. Voyager 2 fired its thrusters monday Totake final  toward Neptune the most Distant and last unexplored planet due for a visit by a spacecraft from Earth. The spacecraft is in great shape an everything is going extremely Well flight engineering manager Lanny Miller said. The Small adjustment in direction waste last needed to target voyager for thursday s close encounter with Nep tune and Friday s flight past its largest Moon Triton. The Man Euver meant to nudge voyager to the right and increase its Speed a tiny 1.1 Mph Means voyage will Fly closest to Neptune about 8 55 . Thursday. Engineers at the National aeronautics and space administration s Jet propulsion Laboratory received a signal from the spacecraft at 8 15 . Monday Indi Cating the thrusters started firing at 4 09 . It lakes four hours and six minute for the signals to reach Earth even at the 186,000-Milc-per-Sccond Speed of Light. The approaching encounter with Nep tune has drawn scientists Here from All Over the world. It s almost like being on a ship of discovery like Marco Polo Magellan and Columbus says Jurrick  Der Woude. A Laboratory spokesman. For most of us this is the last picture show the last foreign shores we visit in the solar  Cable television stations will carry live Nasa broadcasts of photographs from the planet. On its approach to the solar system s fourth largest planet the picture snap Ping space probe already has discovered four Moons in addition to Triton and nereid which had been discovered from Earth As Well As two partial rings of de Bris orbiting Neptune. Voyager also discovered Neptune has a magnetic Field Hurricane like storms dubbed scooters with 400 Mph winds 2,700-Milc-wide bands vaguely like Earth s Jet streams and a 8,100-by-4,100-Milc great dark spot probably a huge storm like Jupiter s great red spot. Nasa listed voyager s position As of 9 . Monday As 2.743 billion Miles from Earth and 3.211 million Miles from Nep tune approaching the planet at 42,310 Mph. Since it was launched in l 77.voyager 2 has travelled a curving path totalling 4.4 billion Miles. With no one planning a Mission to Pluto Neptune is the last unexplored planet that will be visited by a spacecraft from Earth in the foreseeable future. Neptune usually the eighth plane from the Sun currently is the ninth and most Distant. Pluto follows an elongated elliptical orbit and is closer now. Thursday night voyager makes it closest approach to Neptune by skirting 3.000 Miles above the planet s Cloud tops much closer than its encounters with Jupiter in 1979, Saturn in 1981 and Ura Nus in 1986. Sunday was the i2lh anniversary of the spacecraft s launch from Florida on aug. 20, 1977. The Neptune encounter Isth Climax of the $865 million twin spacecraft voyager Mission which also saw voyager 1 explore Jupiter in 1979 and Saturn in 1980. Sending voyager to Neptune was like sinking a 2,260-Milc Golf putt assuming the golfer can make a few illegal Fin adjustment while the Ball is rolling across this incredibly Long Green according to the voyager Neptune travel guide written by Mission planning manager Charles Kohlhass and his staff. About 170 researchers from around the world Are at the Laboratory for the Neptune encounter. Some scientists have said the planet May have 50 or More ring arcs different from the Complete rings encircling sat urn and uranus. They also say Neptune s magnetic Field May create auroras like Earth s Northern lights and also May trap orbit ing radiation belts similar to Earth s  Allen belts. Monday s course correction was de signed to assure voyager can  a radio signal at Earth when the probe starts to pass behind Neptune. By measuring changes in the signal scientists Hope to determine Neptune atmospheric pressures temperatures and chemical makeup whether ring arcs remade of dust Sand pebbles or boulders and How material is distributed inside Neptune. After the encounter voyager 2 like it sister Craft will continue on its Way out of the solar system. It will continue to sen data Back to Earth until its fuel runs out in 28 years.  of summer Gas crisis prove groundless Washington a dire forecasts of sum Mer Gas lines and higher prices Aren t materializing and analysts say prices at the pump May be heading even lower As the vacation season draws to a close. 15 cents although Consumers arc i gallon More this summer than last nearly All the increases came in the two months after the Exxon Valdez Oil spill last March. Since june retail prices in most areas have slipped slightly. On june 13, the consumer group buyers up division of the Ralph Nader founded Public citizen organization issued a report saying that tight sup plies and rising demand a would Lead to higher Price Sand possibly 1970s-style Gas lines by Early August. Christopher Dyson author of the report said then that he expected prices to jump about 10 cents gallon during the summer mainly because of a Supply squeeze. In fact there have been no reported shortages of gasoline even in Remote areas with heavy tourist traffic according to Joseph Koach. Executive director of the service stations dealers of America. He noted that Many Industry groups As Well As the Bush administration had disputed buyers up s pre diction. They be got to have egg on their faces Koach , in an interview last week acknowledged that his report was off the Mark but he said the nation still faced a precarious Supply situation and that a refinery or pipeline Accident could throw the retail gasoline Market into crisis. Some other analysts in june agreed with Dyson View that a Supply crunch was possible but none went so far As to predict motorists would face Back  at the Gas pump. Dyson said he had totally underestimated the refining Industry s ability to sustain an exceptional gasoline prices worldwide Japan Norway j3.59 France l South Korea in . I dollars per a 85 gallon for unleaded gasoline. Leaded gasoline Chicago Tribune graphic source Undberg Survey by High rate of production throughout the  was the major reason our prediction did t come out As it should have Dyson  also did not expect the High rates of summer Oil production by major foreign producers which prices for crude used to make Gaso rushed Down Price ne.. Refineries have run nearly full blast this sum Mer using an average 89.8 percent of available capacity in june and 90.3 percent in  july figure was the highest for any month in 11 years according to the american Petroleum  risk of shortages also was cased by a Lack of growth in gasoline  Energy department said demand in the first half of this year was unchanged from a year earlier although it says growth will resume soon. Last Spring it had predicted about a i percent increase for this year s first  usually is the Peak period for gasoline consumption and demand normally drops off by  Lundberg a private Energy forecaster based in Fred Ericksburg va., said the recent slump i gasoline prices is clearly due to an unexpectedly weak summer driving season which he said could mean the Economy is entering a recession. Lundberg and other analysts say the Price drop is Likely to continue although the Pace and depth of decline will be determined in part by the willingness of wholesalers and station dealers to pass on savings from lower crude  Energy department says it expects the aver age Price of imported crude Oil by summer s end to be about $17 a barrel or about 10 percent Lowe than last Spring. Theoretically that would mean a decline of about a Nickel a gallon at the pump Al though Many factors including state taxes could change  department said in a recent report that 12 states have raised Gas taxes this  Stewart an Energy analyst at the private National economic research associates inc., said in an interview that he expects retail gasoline prices to fall at least a few cents a gallon in the next several weeks. People with sons have 2nd child sooner study says Washington a couples whose first child is a son arc quicker to try for a second baby than parents who Start with a daughter according to re searchers who say they had expected just the opposite. We were expecting some preference for people with a daughter to be More Likely to have a rapid second Binh or rapid third birth because the literature suggests that there is a slight preference in american society for sons said Paul t. Schollaert of old Domin Ion University in Norfolk va., in a phone interview. Achieving a gender balance however is apparently More important than having a boy according to a analysis by Schollaert and Jay d. Teachman of the University of Maryland. The report was published inthe August Issue of demography the journal of the population association of America. The researchers both sociologists also found that couples who have two children of the same gender Are quicker to have a third than couples who already have a boy and a girl. Their results were based on an analysis of births to More than 2,000 women reported in the government s National Survey of family growth in 1973,1976 and 1982. By recording births every six months the sociologists were Able to compare whether women in on group bad births before those in other groups. They did not measure the actual difference in timing How Ever. Schollaert said the findings could allay fears about the future ability to select a child s sex. People in Many societies have a Strong preference for boys leading to the killing of female babies Schollaert said. Studies in the United states have indicated a slight preference for boys he added so logic is that if you tried once and had a daughter you d be More Likely to go try again  we found to the contrary was that those who had sons were More Likely to have a rapid Sec Ond birth he  said however that the preference for boys could play a Factor in having another child quickly since couples that have sons Are slightly More Likely to stay married and the most powerful determinant of whether you have another child in Short order is Are you married in their report Teachman and Schollaert said fathers arc More Likely to be involved with their son than their daughters. This involvement leads to greater familial ties and interdependence that work against marital , women with sons Are More Likely to remain married and have a second child. Since women with daughters Are More Likely to be divorced or separated they have a lesser Chance of having second children the researchers concluded. "