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Space Shuttle Images of Earth to Reside On 3Com e-Network for Internet Age Education
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb. 11, 2000 - 3Com Provides e-Networking Capabilities for Mission Operation Center
at University of California, San Diego for Space Shuttle Mission
3Com Corporation (Nasdaq: COMS) today announced that images from EarthKAM, a NASA-sponsored program that
enables middle school students to take photographs of the Earth from a camera aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, will be
transmitted to and stored on a 3Com(R) e-Network for education.
As part of its mission, the space shuttle, which launched into space today, will use the EarthKAM digital camera to collect
highly accurate, high-resolution pictures of different areas of the Earth, including mountain ranges, valleys, deserts, coastal
plains and forests. Over 11,000 middle-school students from the United States, Germany, France and Japan will use
interactive Web pages to monitor the shuttle's flight path and to select areas of interest to photograph. The image requests are
sent to the shuttle through the Mission Operation Center network - the 3Com e-Network - at the University of California, San
Diego (UCSD). Within hours, students can access the digital images on the Web and then use the images to conduct their
own investigations of Earth.
"Technology is giving students greater access to resources across the globe without leaving the classroom," said Rose
Rodd, education industry manager at 3Com. "3Com is a global leader in deploying e-Networks for education that transform
teaching and learning. Our collaboration with NASA's EarthKAM program offers a remarkable opportunity for teachers to
integrate technology into their curriculum and create dynamic learning environments."
"Students can use the images not only to learn about math, science and geography, but also to learn about how to use
computers and the Internet," added Rodd.
High-speed 3Com e-Network for Interactive Learning from the Space Shuttle
3Com's e-Network solution, based upon its CoreBuilder(R) switch, provides the networking application support, bandwidth
availability and user access necessary for such a rigorous and extensive project as this EarthKAM program through the space
shuttle.
3Com's CoreBuilder 7000 switch is the backbone of the EarthKAM's Mission Operation Center, which is based at the
University of California, San Diego and manages the system that supports the EarthKAM program, headed by Dr. Sally Ride.
"Having the 3Com network has been essential. It allows us the networking capabilities to handle this exciting project with
the space shuttle for middle-school students worldwide," said Alann Lopes, chief technical officer for EarthKAM at the
University of California, San Diego. "With 3Com, we migrated from a 10 megabits per second shared network to a switched
Ethernet/ATM network giving faster, reliable access to our databases and giving us the ability to move multi-megabyte image
files throughout the network at near wire speed."
The University of California, San Diego has overall responsibility for coordinating the EarthKAM program. Undergraduate
university students with the support from advisors are operating the EarthKAM Mission Operation Center. The center
processes the image requests from the schools before routing them to the Mission Control at Johnson Space Center. The
schools interact principally with EarthKAM UCSD during the month leading up to the mission and especially during the
mission, receiving information, updates, and support from UCSD on the practical and educational aspects of the mission. The
Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Science Data Processing Systems group operates the EarthKAM data system through the San
Diego Supercomputer Center. This is the same JPL group involved with the processing of images from the Mars, Galileo and
Voyager missions.
More details about EarthKAM from the EarthKAM Web site http://www.earthkam.ucsd.edu/
About 3Com
With over 300 million customer connections worldwide, 3Com Corporation connects more people and organizations to
information and each other in more innovative, simple and reliable ways than any other networking company. 3Com delivers
e-Networking solutions through information access products and network systems to enterprises, small businesses, consumers,
carriers and network service providers. For further information, visit 3Com's World Wide Web site at www.3com.com or the
press site at www.3com.com/pressbox.
3Com and CoreBuilder are registered trademarks of 3Com Corporation.
CONTACT: 3Com Corporation
Anthony Petrucci, 3Com Public Relations
508-323-1547
anthony_petrucci@3com.com
www.3com.com
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