Sun Microsystems of Sunnyvale, Calif., has donated $195,000 in major computer equipment to the University of Colorado at Boulder聮s space program that is expected to strengthen CU聮s already formidable international role in astrophysics.
The donation includes 13 new workstations, two computer servers and two state-of-the-art disk arrays. The Sun equipment will be used by undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral students and faculty, said Michael Shull, chair of the astrophysical and planetary sciences department.
The Sun donation was matched by CU-Boulder purchases of more than $125,000 of Sun computers using NASA grants, including $36,000 from the College of Arts and Sciences, the Graduate School, the APS department and the Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy.
"The Sun investment in the APS department at CU-Boulder recognizes and strengthens the key role that CU plays in astrophysics both nationally and internationally," said Shull. "Sun has demonstrated long-term confidence in CU聮s leadership in astrophysics, with the Hubble Space Telescope and for future NASA space missions such as the Next Generation Space Telescope and an ultraviolet telescope under consideration for launch early in the next millennium."
Because of CU聮s astrophysical and planetary science expertise with orbiting observatories like Hubble and the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer missions, Sun believes CU students and researchers may develop new business for the company, Shull said. "Our students will be developing new software that will be used at dozens of institutions around the United States and Europe."
The Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer Mission, or FUSE, was launched June 24 by NASA at Cape Canaveral, Fla. CU-Boulder developed a $9 million spectrograph that is the cornerstone of the $200 mission, which will explore the origins of the universe as well as quasars, galaxies and interstellar gas and dust.
The FUSE spectrograph was assembled at CASA's Astrophysics Research Laboratory in the CU Research Park. It involved 32 CASA students, faculty and engineers, including eight undergraduates.
The FUSE spectrograph is a progenitor of the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, a $40 million spectrograph selected by NASA in August 1997 to be designed by CU-Boulder聮s CASA for the Hubble Space Telescope and built jointly by CU and Boulder聮s Ball Aerospace Systems Group. The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph will be installed on Hubble during a 2003 space shuttle mission.
"The Sun involvement is a prime example of the university聮s Total Learning Environment strategy that demonstrates the close interplay between the computer industry and space astrophysics," said Shull.