Oct 5 1970
From The Space Library
Javelin sounding rocket, launched by NASA from Wallops Station, ejected barium cloud at 900-km (560-mi) altitude in cooperative experiment with Max Planck Institute of Munich, Germany, to study earth's electric' and magnetic fields. Red-tinged green cloud was visible for hundreds of kilometers along East Coast. Similar launches would be conduced Oct. 7 and in spring 1971. (WS Release 70-14)
Impending consolidation of launch support functions was announced by AFETR and KSC. Consolidations, resulting from joint studies in cost reduction, were expected to save more than $1 million annually. Included would be KSC medical services, life support services, nondestruct testing, frequency control, and electromagnetic compatibility and precision cleaning; also ETR timing, meteorological support, and ordnance storage. (NASA Release 70167)
Space applications of plutonium 238 were discussed by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg, AEC Chairman, at Fourth International Conference on Plutonium and Other Actinides in Santa Fe, N. Mex. Most noteworthy use of plutonium-238-powered, radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) had been as SNAP-27, power source for Apollo 12 experimental package left on moon. RTG's were "of particular interest as space electric power sources for missions requiring a long life and high reliability, where there are long periods of darkness or great distance from the sun, or where orientation or other problems tend to reduce the effectiveness of solar cells as an energy source." Significant number of future space missions might require plutonium 238 power source. Element "finds another extremely important use in space as the power source for waste disposal." Heat from plutonium 238 decay would both produce bacteria-free drinking water from waste products and incinerate waste itself. After Apollo, exploration of moon might continue with robot vehicles. "The maintenance and servicing of space stations and NERVA engines in space may be done more easily and safely by robots than by man.... Nuclear power would be an obvious candidate power system." (Text)
American Institute of Physics held meeting at Rockefeller Univ. in New York. Dr. Frederick Seitz, President of Rockefeller Univ., received Karl Taylor Compton Award for distinguished statesmanship in science. During interview following meeting Dr. William D. McElroy, NSF Director, said NSF had begun testing use of large teams of scientists from different disciplines under Federal funding as new approach to basic scientific research. NSF had allocated $70 million in 1970 for studies of pressing national and social matters. Dr. Jerome B. Wiesner, MIT Provost and science adviser to President Kennedy, said priorities had been misplaced. He advocated a national science policy. "If I invented a new military system to stop tanks, I could get $100 million at the snap of my fingers. But if I say we want to develop a new method of medical care, I don't know if I could raise $10 million." Dr. Harvey Brooks, Harvard Univ. Dean of Engineering, said: "The central problem is how science can be reasonably responsive to social problems without destroying itself as science. The health of science depends on its capacity to develop its own intellectual laws. If it attempts to become too responsive, it loses its integrity, and I see a danger of that happening now." (Reinhold, NYT, 10/6/ 70,1)
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