Mar 25 1976
From The Space Library
The first satellite in the 2-ocean Marisat system inaugurated communications services to U.S. Navy ships. However, the scheduled 1 Apr. start of service to commercial shipping was canceled because of malfunctions in C- and L-band transmissions, involving random variations in signal strength. The Navy operations used UHF frequencies. Marisat 1 was launched 19 Feb. into synchronous orbit over the Atlantic; Comsat General Corp.-86% owner and manager of the Marisat system-said tests indicated that the problems could be solved "with respect to the [second] spacecraft" awaiting launch at ETR, in time to permit its scheduled launch 27 May for service in the Pacific Ocean. The difficulty appeared to be associated with a despun C-band triplexer, arising from loose metal particles. (Av Wk & Space Tech, 29 Mar 76, 14; Comsat 1975 rept. to stockholders, 9)
Space-related technology would serve to monitor municipal water pollution and dispose of solid wastes, NASA announced, describing systems for electronic monitoring of water quality in cooperation with the Gulf Coast Waste Disposal Authority and for sewage treatment at a plant midway between Los Angeles and San Diego. Johnson Space Center at Houston developed under contract with Boeing a trailer-mounted automated system to process data from up to 40 different water sensors for rapid indications of pollution, temperature, turbidity, and similar items. The current procedure was to sample city water at regular intervals and send the samples to a laboratory for analysis, with results available days later. JSC and the Goddard Space Flight Center developed a biosensor to give total bacteria count directly, by adding chemicals that caused bacteria to radiate light; this sensor could both detect and quantify living or dead bacteria in a continuous-flow water sample.
At Langley Research Center, scientists working on Skylab environmental control had developed an electronic sensor that could detect human or nonhuman fecal coliform bacteria in a few hours, rather than a few days; the device would permit public health authorities to act quickly if large quantities of disease-producing bacteria entered a water supply. The automated monitoring system would eventually include a device to detect known carcinogenic chemicals-chloroform and carbon tetrachloride, for instance-already found in the drinking water of cities surveyed for the project. Some of the pollutants were thought to be byproducts of chlorine added to city water to guard against waterborne diseases. A gas-chromatograph technique developed at Ames Research Center to extract minute samples of organic materials from the atmospheres of other planets would be valuable to concentrate the harmful chemicals detected in city water for rapid onsite analysis. Another Ames system, attaching fluorescent dyes to bacteria so that their presence could be recorded by electronic sensors, could be applied to detection of waterborne viruses.
As for sewage disposal, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory used for the new million-gallon-per-day treatment plant at Huntington Beach, Cal., a process invented by Marshall Humphrey, a JPL engineer working on lightweight materials for insulating rocket motors. Using a pyrolytic converter to produce activated carbon by chemical changes induced by heat, he found that sewage solids were excellent raw material for production of carbon. The new process would convert solid sewage to activated carbon, which could then be used to remove impurities from incoming waste water and recycled and reactivated with new incoming sewage. Gases generated from sewage solids would serve as fuel for the converter. Dry black odorless powder of carbon and ash would be the only residue from the process. Even the billion-dollar secondary sewage-treatment plants in compliance with EPA standards had not solved the problem of solid-waste disposal; primary treatment of sewage had left about 40% solid waste in water leaving the plants and discharged into rivers and offshore waters. The JPL process would exceed EPA standards for ocean discharge and reduce capital costs of processing systems as much as 25%. (NASA Release 76-57; KSC News, 4 Mar 76, 2)
NASA's reusable Space Shuttle program would produce significant benefits for civil aviation, the agency reported in announcing the first operational tests of an advanced flight-control system for civil aircraft to be conducted by the Shuttle, together with advances in structural materials technology for aerospace manufacturers.
Standard heavyweight mechanical backup flight-control systems had been required when reliability of electronic control systems was in question; however, aerodynamic requirements for the use of mechanical systems had hampered development of flight-efficient aircraft designs. Use of the advanced electronic controls would reduce weight, resulting in less fuel consumption, and a computer tie-in with ground navigation and mission controls would provide constant reliable communication and reduce traffic delays. Use of composites-strong lightweight combinations of metals and plastics-would reduce structural weight by more than 30% compared to aluminum. Developed by NASA and the Air Force in collaboration with industry, the composites would demonstrate in Shuttle testing the weight reduction and cost effectiveness needed for future designs. (NASA Release 76-58)
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