Jan 25 1962
From The Space Library
EXPLORER X detected a "shadow" on the side of the earth facing away from the sun; in this shadow there is an absence of the solar "wind", a belt of plasma moving out from the sun at about 200 miles per second but deflected around the earth by the earth's magnetic field and creating a cone-shaped "shadow" some 100,000 miles across at its larger end. The EXPLORER X findings were reported to the annual meeting of the American Physical Society in New York by Dr. Bruno Rossi of MIT.
NASA approved Saturn C-5 development program and authorized NASA Marshall Space Flight Center to direct its development.
"Satellite Communications Corporation" bills were introduced by Senator Robert Kerr (S. 2650) and by Rep. George Miller (H.R. 9696), which would amend the NASA Act by adding a new section which would declare that it is "the policy of the United States to provide leadership in the establishment of a worldwide communications system involving the use of space satellites." The section would create a "Satellite Communication Corporation" which would be privately owned and managed, and which would develop and operate a communications satellite system.
Stars may devote of their lifetime energy to production of neutrinos, according to Dr. Hongyee Chiu of Yale and NASA's Institute for Space Studies, speaking before the American Physical Society in New York. Neutrinos are among the most elusive of atomic particles, having no weight and no electrical charge, passing through matter with little chance of being stopped and with minimum interaction. Dr. Chiu theorized that the universe may have once been made up entirely of neutrinos which interacted to produce other particles and elements and that eventually the universe may return to neutrinos.
The 140-ft. radiotelescope under construction at Green Bank, W. Va., would not be completed until 1963 and its original cost of $6 million would rise to $13 million, the National Science Foundation reported. Cause of most of the delay and added cost was said to be the danger of brittle fracture in the steel used to construct the antenna, which required that the fabricated parts be scrapped and new parts made.
Army Signal Research and Development. Laboratory at Fort Monmouth announced development of a super-powered laser with a peak power of more than 3 million watts. The laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) is 300 times as powerful as lasers in general laboratory use. It has potential in the fields of communications, range-finding, space vehicle guidance and special-purpose illumination.
Ten-year program for the study of weather, climate, and the atmosphere was submitted to the President's Special Assistant for Science and Technology, Dr. Jerome B. Wiesner. Report by Dr. Sverre Petterssen was based on six conferences among 189 meteorological specialists and called for tripled manpower and expenditures including much research in space programs.
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