Mar 3 1977
From The Space Library
President Carter's first budget proposal contained additional funds for NASA, Nature magazine noted. The new administration had recommended $15 million for studies of potential missions to Mars after Viking; the previous administration had requested $5 million. Planetary scientists, pleased with the increased budget request as well as with Carter's recent remarks on the Space Shuttle, viewed these actions as presidential support of the space program. (Nature, Mar 3/77, 5; Spaceflight, Mar 77, 8)
NASA announced it had used Landsat, the earth resources monitoring satellite, to inventory irrigation systems in Nebraska. The 12 00 central pivot irrigation systems proved easily recognizable by their circular shape in photos from Landsat's 1480km-altitude orbit. Annual inventory of the irrigation systems had become necessary when the number of centralpivot sites increased by 40 to 60% each yr, affecting property values, land use, and fuel and water allocation. Landsat had proved the cheapest way to acquire an accurate and timely inventory. (NASA Release 77-38)
Prof. James L. Elliot of Cornell Univ. reported sighting a large number of objects-possible satellites of Uranus, the seventh planet-while he was using the 91cm telescope on NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory flying above the Indian Ocean. Another U.S. astronomer, Dr. Robert Millis of the Lowell Observatory in Ariz., reported similar observations while viewing Uranus from Perth in Australia. Each of the scientists claimed that the planet might have as many as 100 satellites ranging from 18 to 24mi in diameter. If confirmed, the new observations would give Uranus more satellites than any other planet in the solar system. (NYT, Mar 3/77, 77; C Trib, Mar 12/77)
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