Aug 16 1978
From The Space Library
GSFC reported that two Voyager spacecraft heading for Jupiter had discovered low-frequency radio waves naturally emitted from the planet behaving in a manner directly opposite to that of its high-frequency emissions. The Voyagers, now slightly more than halfway to their 1979 Jupiter encounter, had looked back at the earth for new clues to the origin of natural low-frequency radio waves flooding into space from earth. "The polarization plane of the low- and of the high-frequency radio waves from Jupiter seems to be exactly opposite," said Joseph Alexander, one of a team of GSFC scientists working on Voyager experiments. Observers could distinguish the source of the waves from the polarization plane (within which radio waves vibrated as they traveled through space) according to whether it 'varied randomly, systematically rotated clockwise or counterclockwise, or stayed constant. The Voyager spacecraft had permitted first-time measurement of the polarization plane of low-frequency radio waves, because the earth's ionosphere had heretofore shielded the waves from ground telescopes. Scientists for years had observed the high-frequency waves, not similarly blocked.
The GSFC team called the new data from Jupiter more puzzling than enlightening, with no explanation of why the waves differed so radically. One theory was that the two kinds of waves originated from entirely different kinds of processes in Jupiter's atmosphere; another theory suggested the same emission mechanism for both, with waves generated from Jupiter's southern hemisphere rotating clockwise at low frequency and those from the northern hemisphere turning counterclockwise at high frequency. As the Voyagers moved closer to Jupiter, the team hoped to find new clues by studying the planet's response to the solar wind. (Goddard News, Aug 16/78, 1)
GSFC reported that several Goddard-controlled satellites had observed the largest solar flare in recorded history July 11. The observations had furnished a new data base for scientists investigating the causes of solar flares and how they affected the earth. Explosions of solar flares on the sun's surface had generated huge shock waves in the solar wind, (ionized particles flowing at supersonic speeds over the earth and other planets) and had blasted into it new free-flying highly energetic particles that disorganized interplanetary magnetic fields. The flare had disrupted earth's ionosphere and had blacked out shortwave radio communications for 2hr throughout the entire sunlit hemisphere.
Two interplanetary monitoring platforms (IMPs) orbiting the earth had recorded the interplanetary magnetic field disturbances and the intensification of particle flow from the sun. Helios 1, a sun-orbiting satellite observing the sun from the opposite side of the earth July 11, had recorded changes in and composition of the radio noise, plasma, magnetic fields, and energetic particles streaming from the sun. The flare had saturated the high-sensitivity detectors on Orbiting Solar Observatory OSO 8, which had previously obtained data on smaller flares associated with the large-flare region. Atmosphere Explorer C had noted atmospheric heating from solar-wind particles deposited on the earth at high latitudes. The international sun-earth explorers A and B (Isee 1 and 2) had obtained data on the accompanying magnetic fields and energetic particles, and Applications Technology Satellite 6 had recorded data on high- and medium-energy plasma particles. (Goddard News, Aug 16/78, 2)
GSFC reported that scientists using astronomy satellite Sas 3 had pinpointed just beyond earth's galaxy the nearest of some 600 quasars found in the universe so far. The object, first discovered a yr ago, had never been identified as a quasar; besides being the nearest, the new quasar (named 0241) had been the third in recent mo found to radiate x-rays. The quasar had been 800 million light-yr away, obscured by thick dust in the galaxy and overlooked previously. Scientists hoped the nearby quasar might explain the mysteries of quasars' origin, either as eruptions in the centers of galaxies or as long-dead objects associated with the beginning of the universe, whose light was only now reaching the earth. (Goddard News, Aug 16/78, 4)
MSFC announced it had awarded to Mass. Inst. of Technology a $65 000 contract to study the economic and environmental advantages of large space-system material delivery and construction from extraterrestrial sources. The 7-mo study, assuming previous mining and preprocessing of the materials on the lunar surface, would consider final space processing to produce commercial-grade materials for manufacturing, and would explore manufacturing processes required to produce large space-system components.
Past studies had postulated economic and environmental advantages to the use of lunar materials for large space systems because such structures would require tremendous quantities of materials. One satellite power-system structure, for example, could occupy a 3mi2 area in space, and a large number of systems would be required to provide power to U.S. cities and towns. Materials mined and preprocessed on the moon and refined and manufactured in space would reduce the need to ferry large quantities of material from earth into space, avoiding the transportation costs and potential environmental impact of heavy-lift launch vehicles passing through earth's atmosphere. (Marshall Star, Aug 16/78, 2)
Aerospace Daily reported that Progress 3, launched by the USSR to dock with Salyut 6, had carried 6171b of food, 9921b of oxygen regeneration equipment, and 41gal of water to cosmonauts Kovalenok and Ivanchenkov, according to cosmonaut Konstantin Feoktistov, one of the designers of the Progress resupply vehicles. UPI quoted a Novosti report that consumption of food, water, and air by a 2-man space crew would range from 44 to 661b per day; a 2-man space station would need about 10tons of these supplies to stay in full operation for a year. (AID, Aug 16/78, 202)
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