Jan 14 1972
From The Space Library
NASA's Office of Advanced Research and Technology (oART) was renamed Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology (OAST). Dr. James C. Fletcher, NASA Administrator, said NASA was steadily increasing its aeronautical activity and said name change "highlights the importance we attach to aeronautics." (NASA Release 72-10)
Dr. Robert R. Gilruth, Manned Spacecraft Center Director, was appointed to newly created position of NASA Director of Key Personnel Development. Dr. Gilruth would be responsible for integrating NASA's management work in planning to fill key positions, identify actual and potential candidates, and guide them through appropriate work experience. Dr. Gilruth would be succeeded by Dr. Christopher C. Kraft, Jr., MSC Deputy Director. (NASA Release 72-11)
Symposium on significant accomplishments in sciences was held at Goddard Space Flight Center. GSFC scientists presented papers covering their studies and experiments in astronomy during 1970. Dr. Norman H. MacLeod said imagery obtained by high-resolution infrared radiometer on Nimbus 3 (launched April 14, 1969) could now be handled quantitatively and might permit estimations of the location, amount, and seasonal changes in water available. Data could be used by governments for better management of natural resources. Study of effect on earth's surface temperature and climatology of climatic modification by carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and aerosol was discussed by Dr. S. Ichtiaque Rasool. Study had indicated that "runaway greenhouse effect" from accumulation of man-made carbon dioxide alone probably was not possible. But, as aerosol dust in air increased, albedo increased "very fast, compared to the opacity in the infrared; as the albedo increases, the solar radiation decreases, and the surface temperature goes down." Temperature could decrease in next 30 yrs as much as about 3 K [5.4°F]. Several climatologists had suggested that "3K decrease in global temperature is sufficient to trigger an Ice Age!" (Transcript)
Display of sculpture "Scott and Irwin on the Moon" by Red Grooms opened at Guggenheim Museum in New York. Diorama showing moon, Apollo 15 Lunar Roving Vehicle Rover and huge figure of astro- naut had been commissioned as part of NASA-National Gallery of Art "Eyewitness to Space" program but Grooms had paid all of his own expenses. Washington Post art critic Paul Richard later said work managed "to capture something of the scale, something of the heroism and the hubris, of man's exploration of the moon" It should "move to some public place, the National Portrait Gallery, perhaps, after it leaves the Guggenheim on Feb. 27." (W Post, 1/19/72, Bl) U.S. planned to build world's largest and most sensitive radiotelescope, Washington Post reported. President Nixon's FY 1973 budget request for National Science Foundation contained $3 million toward construction of $62.5-million array of 27 antennas, 35 km (22 mi) deep, that could pick up signals from outer space. Array had been designed by National Radio Astronomy Observatory, at Green Bank, W. Va., and was expected to take 6 to 10 yrs to build. (Cohn, W Post, 1/14/72, A3)
Discovery of phenomenon of triplet-triplet transfer of energy between organic molecules was recorded by Committee on Inventions and Discoveries of U.S.S.R. Council of Ministers in Moscow. Discovery by Soviet scientists V. L. Yermolayev and A, N. Terenin was described in Sotsialisticheskaya Industriya as "new landmark in the knowledge of the laws of the universe" with "great scientific and practical significance" for photophysics, radiation chemistry, photobiology, and photochemistry. "It can be said . . . that the science of the micro-particles of matter holds in its hands the entire future of a new technology. . . ." (Fms-Sov, 1/14/72, Ll)
Edwin E. Aldrin, Apollo 11 astronaut and second man to set foot on the moon, announced he was retiring from Air Force in summer. Col. Aldrin had been Commandant of Aerospace Research Pilots School at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., since he retired from NASA July 1, 1971. He said he was leaving USAF because his 10 yrs with space program had hurt his chances for promotion. (W Post, 1/15/72, A9)
Appointment of Dr. Eberhardt Rechtin, Principal Deputy Director of Defense for Research and Engineering and former Director of Advanced Research Projects Agency in Dept. of Defense, to new post of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Telecommunications was announced by Secretary of Defense Melvin R. Laird. New office had been established by DOD directive Jan. 11. (DoD Release 29-72)
Newspaper editorials commented on President Nixon's decision to develop space shuttle. Washington Post said arguments for or against shuttle were not "error free" since "major ones rest on projections into the future which are exceedingly difficult to make and others rest on basically undemonstrable assumptions about the quest for knowledge. Part of the difficulty springs from the fact that no one can know what space-based research will discover. Is the key to the hydrogen atom and thus to unlimited energy out there . . .? Will the world some day need to import minerals from space to sustain life here? Will man have to be in space to accomplish things such as these or can machines do them all? Above all, where does this kind of program fit in a national budget that cannot provide for doing all the things at home that ought to be done?" Such questions would make debate over space shuttle "different in character and significance from last year's debate over the SST." Standards applied to "project which involves scientific research and military considerations . . . must be somewhat different from those applied to a project, such as the ssT, which involved only another way to move people from place to place." (W Post, 1/14/72, A22)
Houston Post: "With the last Apollo moon flight scheduled later this year and the Skylab project to terminate in 1973, the shuttle holds the key to an on-going space program. Our failure to build it would indicate our lagging interest in space research to the possible detriment of future cooperation with the Russians in this field. It is true that we have important social priorities which need attention, but our space research posture in relation to the Soviet Union, whether competitive or cooperative, also carries a high priority." (H Post, 1/14/72)
L/G August Schomburg (USA, Ret.), former Commandant of Industrial College of the Armed Forces and former Commander of Ordnance Missile Command at Redstone Arsenal, died at age 63. He had served as consultant to NASA Administrator 1967-1970. (W Post, 1/16/72, D11)
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