Jan 3 1965
From The Space Library
MARINER IV changed the rate of sending scientific data from 331/2 to 81/2 bits of information per second by an automatic switching operation. This was the first command initiated by the spacecraft itself since it performed its mid-course maneuver Dec. 5. MARINER IV had traveled nearly 63 million miles in its 325-million-mile flight to Mars; the straight-line distance between earth and the spacecraft was 6,156,704 miles. Systems were operating normally after 36 days in space. (NASA Release 65-4)
More than 50 million Europeans-including viewers behind the Iron Curtain-had received same-day transmission of the Tokyo Olympic Games via U.S. satellites SYNCOM III and RELAY I last October, NASA announced. (NASA Release 65-2)
Japan's Ministry of Telecommunications said signals from what they had thought a new Soviet satellite turned out to be Italian-U.S. SAN MARCO I. launched Dec. 15, 1964. (AP, Wash. Eve. Star, 1/2/65; AP, Wash. Sun, Star, 1/3/65)
Dr. Albert J. Kelley, Deputy Director of NASA Electronics Research Center, said in an article in Boston Sunday Globe: "The need for increased electronics research to develop devices which will meet the demands and rigors of long space flights will affect our industrial outlook and economy in many ways. By requiring a 'new look' at electronics, NASA, led by ERC, will provide a research emphasis such as we have not had since World War II when the golden age of electronics started. "We have been in the 'rocket phase' and are now entering the 'electronic phase' of space flight development, a phase which will affect us dramatically over many years." (Boston Sun. Globe, 1/3/65)
British designers had perfected a miniature rocket costing only $2,240 per copy, it was reported. Nine ft. in length with a 7½-in. diameter, the rocket would use solid fuel and reach a speed of 3,500 mph, sending the casing containing scientific instruments to maximum altitude of 80 mi. plus. (AP, Kansas City Times, 1/4/65)
Scientists concluded that explosions and resultant earth-craters created by giant meteorites bore a striking similarity to the effect produced by the larger nuclear weapons; hence a meteorite fall might be mistaken for a nuclear explosion. Opinions varied as to the size of the body that could gouge a crater as large as the Meteor Crater of Arizona- anywhere from 30,000 tons to 2.6 million tons, with an explosive force of 20 million tons of TNT. Both the size of the meteorite and its velocity on impact would be factors in producing a crater. (Sullivan, NYT, 1/3/65, 6E)
Semyon A. Kosberg, 61, one of the Soviet Union's leading designers of airplane engines, was killed in an automobile accident. He had been given the title "Hero of Socialist Labor" and had won a Lenin prize for his designs. (NYT, 1/5/65, 12)
Writing in Pravda, I. Akulinichev, Dr. of Medical Sciences, said: ". . . Of course, the question of lunar laboratories is now only at the level of scientific planning. . . . To bring this possibility closer to our times, it is necessary to accomplish manned flights to the region of the Moon. Further, we need to solve reliably the question of methods to use for a successful lunar landing of a spacecraft and the return of the cosmonauts to Earth. In my view, the first lunar laboratories will initially study the possibilities of the prolonged sojourn of man on the Moon, Scientists will investigate ways of using the lunar conditions for assisting the normal life activity of people. . . . Finally, the scientists will study the conditions of orientation on the Moon and the possibilities of the navigation of interplanetary spacecraft." In the same issue of Pravda, Soviet Academician B. Konstantinov wrote: "In this New Year's article, I wish to dwell on the possibility of international cooperation in the use of solar energy. . . . What appears most attractive is the conversion of solar energy into electricity. In the foreseeable future, man may solve this problem; along with this, it is conceivable that the problems of controlling the weather and climate will also be solved." (Pravda, 1/3/65, 4, ATSS-T Trans.)
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