Nov 9 1975
From The Space Library
All four batteries on the Viking 2 lander had been fully charged, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory reported. The problem had been solved by using a backup charger system carried on the orbiter after the primary system failed earlier[ see 2 Nov.]. Recharging took about 24 hr per battery. The voltage had to be replenished before the spacecraft entered Mars orbit and before the lander separated from the orbiter. The difficulty with the lander's primary charger had been traced to failure of one of four resistors in the circuitry. To prevent unforeseen problems with the backup charger, Viking project officials had decided to keep at least one of the batteries charged throughout the remainder of cruise flight, to ensure activation of the switch shifting the lander from its solar-panel power to that from radioisotope thermoelectric generators. The two RTGs had not been used for primary power during flight to avoid thermal problems from the heat given off by the units. (LA Times, 6 Nov 75,1; Av Wk, 10 Nov 75, 6; SBD, 12 Nov 75, 64; Langley Researcher, 14 Nov 75, 1)
States from New England to California had joined the competition to be selected as the site of a proposed Federal Solar Energy Research Institute that might be spending up to $50 million annually within 3 yr after its establishment. Competition had begun even before issuance of formal criteria describing the center's mission and needs, expected later in November. A report on the center by a special committee of the National Research Council-an agency of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering-had forecast a staff of about 800 professionals and 800 support people. The committee had recommended a single institute administered by a nonprofit corporation, like those that govern many other large national laboratories; geographical location had not been considered as important as "intellectual atmosphere, technical suppliers and availability of services for a substantial laboratory." Issuance of criteria by the Energy Research and Development Administration would call for proposals early next year, with site to be chosen in April or May 1976 by Dr. Robert C. Seamans, Jr., Administrator of ERDA.
Among those already in competition were the state of N. Mex., which had put a proposal for the solar center in Feb. 1975 when ERDA . was a month old; a consortium of universities and industries on Long Island, N.Y.; the governors of six New England states, sitting as the New England Regional Commission, who voted to "work as a regional force" to get the center for' New England; and the state of N.Y., which had designated a coordinator to work on getting the center, including "assembling the necessary real estate" from various areas of the state. (NYT, 9 Nov 75, 33)
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