Aug 22 1967
From The Space Library
House voted 312-92 in favor of $4.6-billion NASA FY 1968 appropriation bill (H.R. 12474) -NASA's lowest in five years. This was the sum recommended by the House Appropriations Committee [see Aug. 18]. Two amendments by Rep. William F. Ryan (D-N.Y.)-one to reduce R&D funds by $100 million, one to reduce administrative operations' funds by $37 million-were defeated by voice vote. (NASA LAR VI/93; CR, 8/22/67, H10909-30)
Leonard Rawicz, former patent counsel for CSFC, had been appointed NASA Assistant General Counsel for Patent Matters, succeeding Robert F. Allnutt, who was named NASA Assistant Administrator for Legislative Affairs June 15. (NASA Release 67-226)
Tass announced that U.S.S.R. would build more than 20 relay stations during 1967 so that Moscow telecasts could be transmitted via Molniya comsats to Siberia, the Soviet Far East, and the "extreme north." (Reuters, W Post, 8/24/67; Clark, NYT, 8/25/67)
USAF announced it was sending teletype messages between two aircraft flying 10,000 mi apart via a satellite in 20,000.mi-altitude earth orbit. Scheduled over six-month period, communications tests were being conducted over Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, North and South America, the polar regions, and Europe. (AFSC Release 144.67)
A college which would train 2,000 pilots and technicians annually for the expanding aviation industry was proposed in report by a study group sponsored by the Economic Development Administration. Report recommended that various segments of the aviation industry join to form a nonprofit organization to operate flight training portion of the college. Academic side would be handled by Arizona State Univ. Report estimated college would cost $13-million and could be opened by 1969. (UPI, NYT, 8/23/67,73)
August 22-31 : International Astronomical Union (IAU) met in Prague. Dr. Robert B. Leighton of Cal Tech reported that there were about three times as many craters on Mars as preliminary photos transmitted in 1965 by MARINER IV spacecraft indicated. Citing data from two-year study of photos using new computer-enhancement technique, Dr. Leighton said pictures showed 300 clearly defined craters and more than 300 additional possible craters. Original estimate from unprocessed pictures was less than 100. Mars appeared to be about as densely pitted as the moon but its craters were smoother because of more effective erosion processes. Several photos showed a number of linear features similar to lines formed by rifts and faults on the moon. These features were not the "much-discussed" canals of Mars because they were too narrow to be visible from earth, Dr. Leighton said, but they might be related to some of the markings identified earlier as canals. (NASA Release 67-225)
Dr. and Mrs. Pierre Connes of Haute Provence Observatory and Meudon Observatory, France, respectively, reported evidence that might indicate Venusian clouds are not formed by water. Observation technique which greatly increased precision with which planets' spectra could be analyzed showed spectral lines of hydrogen chloride and hydrogen fluoride in the light reflected from Venus. When hydrogen fluoride combines with water it creates hydrochloric acid which absorbs radar waves; yet radar waves are known to penetrate Venutian clouds, returning echoes to the surface of the earth. (Sullivan, NYT, 8/24/67)
The "mysterium phenomenon"-peculiar radio emissions from the Milky Way which display almost all the characteristics of artificial interstellar communication-was the subject of a report by Dr. T. K. Menon, National Astronomy Observatory, Green Bank, W. Va., and a later panel discussion. Dr. Menon said most recent observations of the emissions in the nearby part of the galaxy had been made simultaneously from California, Massachusetts, and U.K., using almost the entire width of earth as a baseline for measurement. They had identified sources of emissions which were smaller than the smallest star as seen by the human eye and discovered some of these emissions were fluctuating on time scales measured in hours or even less. Panel raised the possibility that emissions might be from stars in the process of formation. They were being transmitted at four closely spaced wavelengths associated with hydroxyl, a molecule formed of a single oxygen and hydrogen atom, and were being given off when such molecules shed energy. Emissions also appeared to have various properties associated with a maser-man-made device in which a radio or light wave is beamed through certain atoms whose energy has been raised, enormously amplifying original wave and, if wave is confined to a single axis, producing a beam of extreme intensity. (Sullivan, NYT, 8/26/67,1,10; 8/28/67, 22)
Lunar Committee postponed naming of surface features on moon's far side pending the results of Lunar Orbiter V mission. A list of 228 names for approximately 500 major features had been submitted by Soviet scientists, but US. delegates cited errors in their designations and asked that features be assigned numbers until a more definitive map could be prepared using Lunar Orbiter V photos. Commission agreed to interim number designations and accepted US. map temporarily, assigning study group to report on specific names at next assembly. (Sullivan, NYT, 8/25/67, 13; NASNRC-NAE News Report, 10/67, 6-7)
IAU president Dr. Pol Swings of Belgium confirmed an observation made by two obscure Irish astronomers in 1882. Astronomers Lohse and Copeland had observed a comet during the day, apparently with a handheld spectroscope, and reported that it glowed strongly with spectral lines of iron as it passed the sun. All earlier observations of light emitted from comets as they neared the sun indicated they were composed of very light materials, and the idea that they were rich in iron was viewed skeptically. However, photos and electric recordings taken of the comet Ikeya-Seki as it passed the sun in 1966 showed unmistakable spectral lines of iron, Dr. Swings said. (Sullivan, NYT, 8/27/67, 51)
Dr. Gordon H. Pettengill, MIT's Lincoln Laboratory, said that results from an experiment which studied Martian terrain by bouncing radar signals off the planet indicated: (1) Mars was roughly as mountainous as earth; (2) there were no large bodies of water on Mars; and (3) there was no clear correlation between height of land and presence of dark areas on Mars. (Sullivan, NYT, 8/30/67, 15)
Dr. Bradford A. Smith, New Mexico State Univ., confirmed report by French astronomer Pierre Guerin that atmosphere of Venus was moving around the planet in a clockwise direction at a remarkable rate of speed. Conclusion was based on photos of Venusian atmosphere taken successively both at night and during the day, which recorded changes in wavelengths of ultraviolet light. (Sullivan, NYT, 8/30/67, 15)
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