Nov 28 1969
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (1MB PDF)
Geologists at Lunar Receiving Laboratory held press conference on Apollo 12 lunar samples and expressed surprise at samples, differences from rocks retrieved by Apollo 11. Preliminary examination of samples showed they were crystalline and larger than anticipated. Dr. Jeffrey L. Warner, MSC geologist, said rocks returned by Apollo 11 contained up to 12% titanium oxide, but those from Apollo 12 contained only about 2%-amount consistent with terrestrial rocks. He said geologists were very puzzled by absence of breccia rocks in Apollo 12 samples because 75% of rocks from Apollo 11 were breccia. Crystalline rocks were similar to volcanic rocks found by Apollo 11, but some of Apollo 12 rocks were coated with glass and had protruding crystals up to 21/2 in long. (Rossiter, W Post, 11/29/69, A3; W Star, 11/29/69, Al)
Apollo 12 astronauts, enclosed in mobile quarantine facility, arrived at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where they were greeted by huge crowd, Marine band, civic and military officials, and hula troupe. (Rossiter, W Post, 11/29/69, A3)
President Nixon announced intention to nominate Apollo 11 Astronaut Michael Collins as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs to succeed Dixon Donnelly who had resigned in January . Nomination was submitted to Senate Dec. 2. (PD, 12/1/69, 1667; 12/8/69, 1702)
Mars, reddish color might be attributed to carbon suboxide, Univ. of Massachusetts physicists William T. Plummer and Robert K. Carson reported in Science. They had found reflection spectrum of Mars could be well matched from 0.2 mu through 1.6 mu and farther by polymers of carbon suboxide. (Science, 11/28/69, 1141-2)
In Science article advocating large-scale mobilization of scientists to solve world's "crisis problems," John Platt, Associate Director of Univ. of Michigan Mental Health Research Institute, said human race was on steeply rising "S-curve" of change. "We are undergoing a great historical transition to new levels of technological power. . . . In the last century, we have increased our speeds of communication by a factor of 107; our speeds of travel by 102; our speeds of data handling by 106; our energy resources by 103; our power of weapons by 106; our ability to control diseases by something like 102; and our rate of population growth to 103 times what it was a few thousand years ago. Within last 25 years "the Western world has moved into an age of jet planes, missiles and satellites, nuclear power and nuclear terror." But S-curve was beginning to level off. "This means that if we could learn how to manage these new powers and problems in the next few years without killing ourselves by our obsolete structures and behavior, we might be able to create new and more effective social structures that would last for many generations." (Science, 11/28/69, 1115-21)
Science editorial said faltering U.S. public support of science pointed to conclusion: "Science has established no secure claim in its own right upon the priorities of our national treasury." At World War II's end, U.S. taxpayer had become leading patron of science. "For the next 20 years, public money flowed in increasing volume to the support of science." Public support "began to level out in 1965, and the support of university science is now down about $250 million from the 1965 peak of $1.3 billion." In foremost U.S. universities "federal funding of science has exerted pressures tending to divide and dissolve that frail community. At best, it has installed and expanded scientific departments . . . without regard to the needs and priorities of the university as a whole. . . At worst, it has established in the universities entirely inappropriate activities, motivated by the interests of the mission-oriented granting agencies and often inimical to free inquiry and to the humanity of science." (Science, 11/28/69, 1101)
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