Jun 14 1965
From The Space Library
MARINER IV successfully performed a final tracking correction before its encounter with Mars on July 14. A preprogramed command electronically altered the look-angle of the star sensor to compensate for the changing relationship between the spacecraft, the sun, and Canopus. The star sensor must be pointed at Canopus so that the Mars probe would be properly aligned and stabilized in attitude. (NASA Release 65-198)
A crowd of two million gathered in Chicago during the parade and motorcade honoring Astronauts James A. McDivitt (Maj. USAF) and Edward H. White II (Maj. USAF) accompanied by Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, Honorary citizens medals were presented the astronauts at a special City Council meeting. Civil rights leaders postponed a demonstration protesting de facto school segregation in deference to the celebration. (AP, Wash. Post, 6/16/65; Wehrwein, NYT, 6/15/65)
Radio station WTOP in Washington, D.C, assisted NASA in conducting a radio signal interaction experiment employing a Nike-Apache rocket launched from Wallops Sta., Va, with a 55-lb. instrumented payload. WTOP transmitted a steady modulated tone for several minutes during the flight to enable Univ. of Illinois scientists to measure interaction of the WTOP signal on a signal of a different frequency broadcast from Wallops Sta. Both were received by instruments in the payload as the rocket rose to peak altitude of 110 mi. (NASA Release 65-195; Wallops Release 65-35)
EARLY BIRD I communications satellite experimentally transmitted to a Paris physician an electrocardiogram of a passenger on the S.S. France, 2,000 mi. at sea, the French Line reported. (NYT, 6/15/65, 70; AP, Wash, Post, 6/15/65, A14)
AT&T and ITT asked the FCC to reverse its May 12 decision awarding ComSatCorp temporary control over the initial three U.S. ground stations which would comprise important segments of a global satellite communications system, ITT, in its petition, contended that the ruling supported an "unwarranted monopoly in international communications." AT&T argued that the licensing policy was not in the public interest. ( WSJ, 6/14/65, 24)
M2-F2manned lifting body research vehicle was rolled out at Northrop Norair's Hawthorne, Calif, plant and accepted for NASA by Paul Bikle, Director of NASA Flight Research Center. The craft would be dropped from beneath the wing of a B-52 bomber at high speeds in tests to determine how this configuration would perform in the critical period during reentry if it were carrying astronauts. (AP, Wash, Post, 6/17/65, A3; ARC Astrogram, 6/24/65, 1)
U.S. News and World Report suggested that the success of the Gemini GT-4 flight should prompt reassessment of the U.S. position in the race with the Soviet Union. Two conclusions were noted: "1. In the civilian space race, White's self-propelled 'space walk' and McDivitt's ability to maneuver the spaceship put the U.S. ahead in at least two key areas and gave the U.S. a fighting chance eventually to overtake the Russians in the race to the moon... , "2. In the military space race, maneuvering of the Gemini spacecraft demonstrated that the region just above the earth-the inner space belt-could soon become vital to American security." (U.S. News., 6/14/65)
Lt, Col. Aleksei Leonov's comments on extravehicular activity during the March 18 VOSKHOD II flight were quoted in a review report authored by Prof. N. M. Sissakian of the Soviet Academy of Sciences and delivered in Paris at the Second International Symposium on Basic Environmental Problems of Man in Space: "I found that the slightest shift in direction of the force of impact caused rotation in the corresponding plane. Those persons who will be working in space will obviously have much to do in securing their bodies in [the weightless state]. As for the so-called psychological barrier that was supposed to be insurmountable by man preparing to confront the cosmic abyss alone, I not only did not sense any barrier, but even forgot that there could be one." (Wetmore, Av, Wk., 6/21/65, 25)
That antimatter could exist in aggregations of particles, not only as isolated subatomic particles, was demonstrated by physicists studying under AEC funds at Columbia Univ. Nevis Cyclotron Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory. Protons placed in Brookhaven's AGS synchrotron were hurled at almost the speed of light and energy of 30 billion electron volts at a target of beryllium; scientists used a high-transmission mass analyzer to detect anti-deuterons in the debris of collisions between high-energy protons and nuclei of atoms in the target. Research report appeared in Physical Review Letters. The existence of the antideuteron had been predicted theoretically, but its actual production indicated that properties of the nuclear force were closely mirrored in the world of antiparticles and that an antiworld would be conceivable in terms of contemporary nuclear physics. (Schmeck, Jr., NYT, 6/14/65, 1)
A model of Tu-144, proposed supersonic passenger plane, was displayed by the Soviet Union at the International Air Show at Le Bourget, France, Tu-144 was designed for a capacity of 121 passengers, a speed of 1,550 mph, and a range of 4,000 mi. (Kamm, NYT, 6/16/65, 1, 9)
An instrumented experiment package capable of recording lunar phenomena and relaying information to earth, would be installed on the moon by astronauts before their return to earth, reported Howard Simons in the Washington Post, Simons said that NASA officials explained that the package would contain "combination of instruments to measure the moon's gravity and atmosphere, heat flow and solar wind, PROTON activity and micrometeorite impacts for as long as a year," Such information would be helpful in planning the establishment of permanent lunar bases and in studying the history of the earth and the solar system. (Simons, Wash, Post, 6/14/65, A9)
Discussing Russian-American cooperation in space in a letter to the editor in the New York Times, Donald Spero, a student at Columbia Univ. School of Engineering, said: "... technical integration of the U.S. and (assumed) Russian lunar programs is out of the question, Hardware for every phase of the Apollo program has already been designed and built. . . "The integration of a Russian booster and an American capsule would be a technical impossibility, . The only plausible alternative for initial lunar exploration would be to include a Russian cosmonaut in the Apollo crew or one of our astronauts as a member of the Russian expedition. Even if problems of language and pilot training could be overcome, political and propaganda considerations eliminate this alternative, "Realistic possibilities for cooperation lie in the areas of unmanned probes, communication and weather satellites, and eventually manned planetary exploration and establishing of lunar bases." (NYT, 6/14/65)
A New York Times editorial by Harry Schwartz concerning Soviet-American cooperation in space: "The real issues relate to the advantages and disadvantages in the moon race itself-including, of course, its propaganda aspects. "The argument that cooperation will not mean significant savings is strongest for the immediate future, but its force weakens rapidly as one extends the time horizon of both nations' future space efforts. Even in the next year or two both countries could gain from a full pooling of space technology and knowledge because this would reduce the number of Gemini-type flights each would have to engage in. "Major cost advantages can certainly be gained by agreement on a division of labor between the Soviet Union and the United States, if it is accompanied by a decision to send mixed crews on major missions. For example, a pooling of information and resources might permit one country to focus on the hardware needed for the moon trip, while the other concentrated on the equipment needed to send men to Mars... "But the major savings from real Soviet-American cooperation in space might come from another direction entirely, In both countries influential voices are urging major military efforts looking to the creation of armed national space fleets . . The time is past due for decision between space cooperation, or the extension of a rivalry that could cost both Soviet and American peoples dearly-and perhaps not solely in terms of vast sums wasted." (Schwartz, NYT, 6/14/65, 31, 32)
June 14-21: PDP-5 and PDP-8 (Program Data Processing) computers, reported to simultaneously collect and analyze oceanographic data and to use data received by radio from artificial earth satellites to fix the position of ships, were displayed at the Ocean Science and Ocean Engineering Conference and Exhibit in Washington, D.C. PDP-5 had first been used by the U.S. Coast Guard during the 1964 International Ice Patrol season to predict the speed and course of icebergs drifting into major ship lanes. (Callahan, NYT, 6/14/65, 58M)
Dr. James H. Wakelin, Jr., president of the Scientific Engineering Institute of Boston, said in an address at the Conference: "We must look forward to undersea dwellings, laboratories and military installations in which men would live and work for the economic good and military defense of the United States." Dr. Wakelin advised President Johnson to appoint a National Advisory Commission on the Ocean to develop a 10-yr, program for study, exploration, and use of the seas. (UPI, NYT, 6/15/65, 6)
Capt. Jacques-Yves Cousteau urged the organization to "preserve and protect the sea from pollutio." He also warned against conducting undersea explorations entirely with instruments and suggested: "Let us go down ... and see for ourselves, with our eyes." (Casey, Wash, Post, 6/16/65, A14)
June 14-25: "Science in the Sixties," a seminar sponsored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, was held in Cloudcroft, N. Mex. In opening remarks, Maj. Gen. Don Ostrander, AFOSR Commander, said: "The purpose of these Cloudcroft meetings is to stimulate ideas-to act as an intellectual catalyst. We all have a responsibility to try to understand the complex interrelationships between science and technology, and between technology and national defense; through understanding, to participate in the excitement and urgency of the creative turmoil which is such an inescapable part of the age in which we live!" Historian A. Hunter Dupree, professor of history at the Univ. of California (Berkeley) and a consultant to NASA, said that scientists with a negative attitude regarding the Nation's manned space flight activities had a laboratory-limited view of scientific endeavor and had lost perspective of the contributions made to American and world science through exploration and survey expeditions in the field. He pointed out the relationship of the Pacific voyages of Capt. Cook to Darwin's later theory of evolution and said: "One can as little predict the results of space exploration as Captain Cook could have predicted Darwin's theory," According to Dupree, it was the general expansion of knowledge that would lead to later fruitful developments. But to justify these developments immediately or to justify exploration in terms of predictable developments would be a mistake. (Simons, Wash, Post, 6/16/65; AFOSR Release 5-65-2; Aerospace Historian, 10/65, 106110)
An artificial frog's eye which could be sent to the surface of Mars to detect living organisms was described by Warren McCullough and Louis Sutro. Research had revealed there were four varieties of ganglion cells in the eye of the frog-each processing different information. The MIT scientists had proposed the following scheme to microscope in a tiny NASA: the artificial eye would be coupled to a computer, Samples of Martian soil would be seen by the frog's eye through the microscope. When movement was detected, the eye would inform the computer, which would decide whether a picture of the moving organism should be taken for relay back to earth. (Simons, Wash. Post, 6/18/65, Al)
Theories on biological rhythms were proposed by Colin Pittendrigh of Princeton Univ. at the AFOSR seminar, He suggested that oscillations or biological rhythms were serving a fundamental function that was not yet fully identified and that all organisms undergo oscillations with a periodicity that matches that of the external world-roughly 24 hrs. Light, even in negligible amounts, could alter these oscillations. In Pittendrigh's view, once the true face of biological clocks-time measuring mechanisms innate in all living organisms-was seen, science would have vital clues to how life developed on earth and how biological rhythms determine what it is all living things do. (Simons, Wash, Post, 6/22/65, A6)
Star collisions were suggested by astrophysicist Thomas Gold of Cornell Univ. as one way that energy now associated with a host of new objects observed throughout the universe was released. He said a prime candidate for providing the right kind of environment for star collisions was elliptical galaxies. In their predeath condition, elliptical galaxies start to lose stars that comprise the galaxies. Star loss causes the galaxies to shrink and become denser. The remaining stars rush in and out through the heats of these galaxies at speeds possibly as high as 24 million mph-greatly enhancing the chance for star collisions. The effect of collisions at these speeds would be to release amounts of energy equivalent to that calculated to be stored in the quasi-stellar radio sources. Gold had not observed such star collisions, but dense regions on the "brink of destruction" had been detected. "We must inspect each in turn," Gold said, adding, "maybe we will learn that something totally different is involved, a new type of energy source that physics doesn't know about." (Simons, Wash, Post, 6/23/65)
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