Feb 20 1974
From The Space Library
Pioneer 10, launched by NASA 2 March 1972 toward a 3 Dec. 1973 encounter with Jupiter, was 60 million km beyond Jupiter and 913 million km from the earth, traveling at 80 000 km per hr on its flight path out of the solar system. Communications with the spacecraft, which took 1 hr 42 min, indicated Pioneer 10's operational systems were functioning well. Minor changes in operational systems during passage through Jupiter's intense radiation belts had disappeared or had no effect on spacecraft performance, but the cosmic ray experiment had suffered some loss of function. Experimenters were assessing the problem.
Pioneer 11, launched 5 April 1973, was 660 million km from the earth and traveling through the Asteroid Belt at 58 000 km per hr toward a December 1974 encounter with Jupiter. Its meteoroid detector had recorded eight hits in the belt, about the same rate of penetrations as for Pioneer 10 when taking into account design differences in the meteoroid detectors. (NASA Release 74 43)
Skylab Program Director William C. Schneider testified before the House Committee on Science and Astronautics' Subcommittee on Manned Space Flight in NASA's FY 1975 authorization hearings on early results from Skylab's earth resources data. Perhaps the most interesting so far was the unconfirmed indication of mineral deposits near Ely, Nev. The Skylab earth resources experiment package had also identified several areas of citrus fruit fly infestation on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande, demonstrated the use of remote sensing for snow mapping, identified new urbanization patterns in Phoenix, Ariz. and inventoried vegetation patterns in California test sites. A Baltimore-, area photo and similar imagery for 12 other cities were being used by the Dept. of Interior to test their use for updating the 1970 census.
Dr. Joseph P. Kerwin, astronaut on the 25 May-22 June 1973 mission to man the Orbital Workshop, testified that Skylab astronauts were healthy, happy, and not under significant stress during their long flights. After initial decreased appetite, an astronaut had a feeling of well-being with normal thirst and appetite, although he had a continued feeling of fullness in the head and tended to assume a peculiar posture with neck extended and moving backwards and elbows, hips, and knees flexed at 20° to 30°. He tended to become sleepy and required frequent exercise to restore vigor and alertness. His voice had a peculiar nasal quality. After the third day he was virtually immune to motion sickness.. Without gravity, there was no automatic sensation of up and down and without vision he could quickly get lost.
Dr. Harry C. Gatos, Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientist and Skylab materials processing investigator, testified Skylab experiments had shown that segments of crystals partially regrown in space exhibited none of the inhomogeneities from dopants (electronically active chemical elements) that characterized earth-grown crystals and inhibited their efficiency. In addition to preparation of special materials for electronic and medical uses, materials processing studies in space would provide an understanding of the structures of materials and permit preparation of materials to perform closer to their theoretical limits. Crystal-growing technology was developing new means to create and store power and could, within five years, provide a practical economic basis for using solar power. (Transcript)
The first two Lockheed S-3A Viking carrier-based jet aircraft were delivered to the Pacific fleet in San Diego. The $10-million swept-wing sub-marine-hunters carried 60 acoustic listening devices that could be dropped to the sea within 10 sec to transmit underwater sounds to the Viking. The Viking, which could fly 800 km per hr and drop from a cruising altitude of 12 000 m to sea level in two minutes, would replace the S-2, the mainstay of the Navy's antisubmarine defenses for 20 yrs. The Navy wanted delivery of 187 Vikings through 1975. (Holles, NYT, 21 Feb 74,13)
Dr. James C. Fletcher, NASA Administrator, said in a speech at Utah State Univ. that he was "certain there is intelligent life somewhere in this universe, but probably not in this solar system." Primary life would probably be found in our solar system, with Mars as the most likely candidate. The U.S.S.R. was expected to land a spacecraft on Mars within the next few weeks, but in an area not likely to have any life form. A NASA spacecraft would land on Mars in 1976 in the area most likely to have water. NASA intended to continue systematic exploration of the solar system and to search for extraterrestrial life. (Bean, Logan [Utah] Herald Journal, 20 Feb 74)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
