Apr 8 1965
From The Space Library
MARINER IV, 49,373,799 mi, from earth and traveling 34,738 mph relative to earth, had covered 206,868,340 mi, in its journey toward Mars at 9:00 a.m. EST. (NASA Release 65-111)
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center awarded RCA a $4.6-million contract to provide a real-time deep space tracking and data acquisition system for support of Project Apollo missions. Contract called for installation, checkout, and documentation of RCA's long-range (32,000 mi,) FPQ radar on land made available near a NASA site on Cooper's Island, Bermuda, through a land-lease agreement with DOD. The "Q-6" radar would have a flexible capability to support NASA programs other than manned flight. (GSFC Release G-9-65; GSFC Release G-10-65)
Army Corps of Engineers awarded Fisher Construction Co. a NASA-funded $1,497,728 fixed-price contract for construction of Lunar Mission and Space Exploration Facility at Manned Spacecraft Center. (DOD Release 220-65)
NASA Administrator James E. Webb said at the U.S. Naval Academy "... we are on the verge of another major breakthrough-the capability to forecast weather at least five days in advance with better accuracy than we can now predict 24 to 36 hours ahead. Atmospheric systems such as weather balloons and ground and seabased instruments which are already developed, together with satellite systems and high speed computers, should make it practicable in the next few years to establish a global observation system. As distinguished from the satellites whose main mission is cloud cover photographs, the more advanced future system will be able to map the structure of the earth's atmosphere in terms of wind, temperature, and pressure at various altitudes." He continued: "We foresee the possibility of carrying sensors in satellites that will give us the thermal patterns of the ocean's surface which, when compared with the atmospheric conditions in any area, may give us the ability to predict the formation of fog, Similarly, ocean currents can be mapped and studied to advance the science of oceanography, We can even measure sea state-roughness of the sea -from a satellite." (Text)
Dr. Eugene Shoemaker, head of the astrogeological branch of the U.S. Geological Survey, said in an interview with the Houston Post while at Rice Univ. as a speaker in the President's Lecture Series that the Ranger program had cost a total of about $200 million, He estimated that each Ranger shot had cost just under $30 million and said that although four of the seven Ranger missions had failed, it would have been foolish to settle for one success: "Just imagine that the Martians sent a Ranger-like camera to take pictures of the earth, With just one shot, they'd end up with pictures of a space no bigger than the size of an urban lot, or of the peak of the Alps, or of the sand dunes in Arabia, Could they tell anything about the earth from pictures of just one of these?" The Ranger program, just concluded with the success of RANGER IX, gave U.S. scientists good pictures of three different areas of the moon, Shoemaker said, "A Ranger picture is worth a million computer words." (Perez, Houston Post, 4/8/65)
Panel on Science and Technology of the House Committee on Science and Technology reported on its sixth meeting (aeronautics), Jan, 26-27. Report was a comprehensive summary of views by the Committee and Panel members and the more than 150 scientists and engineers attending as representatives of Government, industry, and the scientific and academic communities, In its general conclusion, report stated three objectives for future improvement of U.S. civil aeronautics: "Insure that our economy continued to have the best air transportation system to give it a continuing advantage in world competition"; "Insure that U.S. aeronautical development is immediately responsive to the demand, and sufficiently great to continue leadership in the domestic and world markets"; and "Maintain recognized world leadership in technical matters to insure a favorable image and stature of the U.S. technological competence in aeronautical development." Some of its general observations on the future of aeronautics: "There is a need for more centralized direction, control, and procedure . . . [of the] widely dispersed . . . technical competence and expertise behind aeronautical development in the United States... . "The aircraft industry in general is willing to contribute to any program designed to further aviation advancement, but the degree of their contribution w ill depend upon the extent of Government support, and the availability of a market. The extent is also dictated by the extent of their earnings on marketable products for which the Government is usually the principal customer. "There are indications that an insufficient amount of research effort is being put forth in the hypersonic regime of the flight spectrum, particularly in the field of propulsion, "The aeronautical research and development capability of NASA is not being used to its maximum capacity." (House Rpt. 227, 32-34)
In address on "The Early History of the Space Age" at the Univ. of Wisconsin, Eugene M. Emme, the NASA Historian, said: "The Space Age clocks on, Never before have basic alterations in fundamental knowledge, in practical engineering, and for an universal perspective been thrust so quickly upon mankind. . . . "Few serious thoughts, whether associated with the physical or social sciences, or humanities, can ignore some aspect of the space venture, Like it or not, man's time for space mobility is here." (Text)
The Flight Safety Foundation, under FAA contract, conducted day and night tests in the purposely-wrecked Constellation aircraft at Deer Valley, Ariz., to obtain data on emergency evacuation of passengers in survivable accidents, "Passengers" were local volunteers; airline stewardesses were provided by several air carriers. Evacuation duplicated obstacles passengers would face in real situations. Passenger reactions were recorded with remotely-controlled motion picture cameras; certain phases of the operation were timed with precision clocks. Test results would aid in planning advanced studies which would explore seat spacing, aisle widths, and other related factors. (FAA Release 65-27)
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