Nov 12 1971
From The Space Library
Washington Daily News editorial said Mariner 9 had al- ready accomplished `"enough to win plaudits from any but the most jaded." It had "photographed ... one of Mars' moons . . - and with luck will go into orbit around the planet itself, taking pictures of surface details no bigger than a football field. "No one can tell where the ever-expanding horizons of man's knowledge will lead, nor the extent to which Mariner 9 will enlarge our knowledge of the solar system. But jaded we are not, and we are frank to say that we are downright thrilled by Mariner's exploits." (W News, 11/12/71)
Portrait of Dr. Thomas 0. Paine, third NASA Administrator (1969- 1970) was unveiled in NASA Hq. ceremony attended by Dr. James C. Fletcher, NASA Administrator; Dr. Paine; and Rep. George P. Miller (D-Calif.), Chairman of House Committee on Science and Astronautics. Portrait, by artist William Draper, would hang at NASA Hq. (Transcript)
Cost of full operational space transportation system had been put at $12.7 billion, "although new cost-cutting efforts may reduce that figure," Univ. of Michigan engineer T. A. Heppenheimer said in Science article. Shuttle's scientific benefits "do not in themselves justify its development. . . . Defense, commercial, and applications benefits combine as well to furnish the justification. Nevertheless, the scientific benefits should not be overlooked. For the first time, laboratory-type investigations may be carried out in space, not by scientist-astronauts, but by scientists." (Science, 11/12/71, 646- 7)
Seattle Times quoted Dow Jones News Service as saying Italian government had approved funding of $320 million for joint Boeing Co. and Aeritalia S. P. A. development of STOL aircraft to carry 100 to 150 passengers. Aeritalia hoped to begin production in 1974 or 1975. Boeing could decide to produce aircraft in U.S. if market warranted. (Seattle Times, 11/12/71)
Discovery of diamonds in 1.4-kg (3-1b) meteorite that fell through roof of storehouse on Finnish island of Havro Aug. 2 was announced by Smithsonian Center for Short-Lived Phenomena. It was sixth such meteorite to be found. First discovery of meteoritic diamonds had been made by Russian scientists in 1888 while analyzing meteorite found near Novoured. (um, NYT, 11/13/71)
Univ. of Toronto had announced discovery by astronomer Dr. Sidney Van Den Bergh of three galaxies composed of thousands of stars, Washington Post reported. (W Post, 11/12/71, A36)
November 12-13: Scientists at P. N. Lebedev Physics Institute and Soviet Academy of Sciences' Crimean Astrophysics Observatory experimented with laser to locate reflector left on moon by Apollo 15 astronauts during July 26-Aug. 7 mission. Pravda later quoted Soviet scientist A. Sukhanovsky as saying experiment was "continuation of research work on the `earth-moon' system by the laser location method." First successful experiment to locate French reflector on Lunokhod 1 had been conducted in December 1970. "The accuracy of the measurement of the distance to the reflector was then in the order of several meters." In current experiment "for the first time we have succeeded in measuring the distance to the U.S. angular reflector." Fact U.S. scientists had not succeeded in locating French reflector on Lunokhod l was "apparently connected with differences in the methods of calculating the reflector's supposed coordinates." (FBIS-Sov-71-266, 11/23/71, LI)
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