Jul 22 1976

From The Space Library

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Current revision

Images from 2 Landsats circling the earth 912 km up had helped the state of Md. monitor strip-mining damage and inventory its surface coal-mining activities, NASA announced. The state did not know the location or extent of orphan mines-those abandoned before 1967-and began a mapping program to determine the extent of the disturbed land and the procedures and expense that would be required to reclaim it. A 1967 law required private companies to operate under state-approved reclamation plans; acreage disturbed before 1967 would be reclaimed by the state. The Landsat images showed from 25 to 30% more acreage affected by the mines than anyone had realized. Arthur T. Anderson of Goddard Space Flight Center's information transfer laboratory compared Landsat images taken over a 3-yr period ending in 1974 to identify and measure effects of strip mining in Western Md. with an accuracy better than that obtainable from aerial photography or field-inspection techniques. Other states using Landsat imagery for reclamation projects were Ohio, Tenn., W. Va., Ky., Pa., S.C., Fla., and the Great Plains states. (NASA Release 76-134)

President Ford would name Dr. H. Guyford Stever, director of the National Science Foundation for the past 4 yr, to head the recently reestablished White House Office of Science and Technology, the New York Times reported. The post had been abolished by President Nixon 3 yr ago "amid reports that he did not like the advice he was getting from it, particularly concerning antiballistic missiles and supersonic planes," the Times said. Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine had reported earlier that 4 conservative Republican senators had warned President Ford that Stever's nomination would be an "affront" to Congress; the NSF had been a target of some congreSSMEn because of funding projects that Congress considered questionable, Av Wk said. Other candidates for the position had shied away because of a possible change in administration after the forthcoming elections. Sen. Frank E. Moss (D-Utah) urged quick action on the nomination; the Senate Appropriations Committee had just cut $1 million from a $3.3-million budget estimate for the Office of Science and Technology. (NYT, 22 July 76, 37; Av Wk, 5 July 76, 13)

21-31 July: The Wash. Star "Portfolio" column reported that television was "barely there" as the Viking 1 spacecraft touched down on Mars and began to relay "those sharp, stark pictures to earth." Hardly had reporters began asking explanations from scientists "who looked stunned with pleasure at the accomplishment," when "it was commercial time . . . and the 9 a.m. programs." Viewers were "left wondering whether there was really an event of such magnitude being televised or more science fiction," the Star commented. (W Star, 21 July 76, B-1)

Commentary on the Viking landing on Mars: The Chicago Tribune hailed the mission as "an epoch-making success ... The achievement is the greater because the world has known from the beginning what we were attempting to do. There would have been no way to hide a failure." (C Trib, 21 July 76, 1-7)

The Phila. Inquirer called the landing "another giant leap for mankind" that "underscores the sophistication of unmanned spacecraft ... Risks can be taken ... that could not be justified with persons aboard . . . Its performance in the first hours on Mars speaks more eloquently than words." (P Inq, 21 July 76, 5-A)

The NY Times said the TV networks were criticized for their coverage; Dr. J. Richard Keefe, former NASA scientist now at the Univ. of Louisville, said the coverage was "downright disgusting . . . Talk about being blase about space exploration, this was just incredible . . . I think the population has become apathetic about the whole space program. It's kind of sad, I think." Spokesmen for the network told the Times they had given 20 to 25 min of coverage, showing the 2 pictures transmitted by Viking 1 and released by JPL where the transmission was received. NBC said its New York City switchboard had about 30 calls asking for more; ABC reported 25, and CBS reported 8 or 10. ABC said the number of calls was significant "for the time of day." "What they may not have understood was that we showed whatever we had," the spokesman said. "That was it." (NYT, 21 July 76, 12)

The Wall Street Journal said in an editorial that it could not "speculate with any confidence on why yesterday's Viking I landing on Mars was important. And yet we are confident that it was." The TV networks that "spent tedious hours broadcasting the dullest political convention on record" a wk ago "were preoccupied' with game shows" while Viking was sending back its first pictures of the surface of another planet. However, those who said the $1 billion cost of the project was wasted unless Viking's cameras pick up " something interesting, like a local resident," would be missing the point, WSJ added. The project demonstrated application of the most advanced technology to a single objective, advanced managerial skills as "a triumph of human organization," and left mankind with the psychic effects of the visit to another planet.

After each leap deeper into space, nothing is quite the same again." (WSJ, 21 July 76, 22)

A Washington Star editorial said that Viking 1 may have "ended generations of fanciful imaginings" about life on Mars, and asked if it was worth 7 yr of effort and $1 billion "to get a rather sobering view of what our imaginations told us was a fascinating planet." Although it was much too early to predict the "ultimate scientific harvest," the Star said "we have no doubt that the ultimate payoff will be more than adequate in scientific if not in fictional terms." (W Star, 22 July 76, A-14)

The first color photograph of Mars, showing a dramatic blue sky against a rust-red soil surface, was in error, Viking project scientists announced. Astronomer Carl Sagan said that someone had given the wrong weighting to the color filters in reconstructing the electronic image on earth, and that corrected photos would show a pinker sky. The seismometer on the Viking lander had apparently jammed and would impair detection of "marsquakes" unless corrected; Lou Kingsland, deputy mission director, said the proper command might not have been issued or the problem might be in the electrical circuits. (W Star, 22 July 76, A-1)

Having successfully set down the Viking 1 lander in a safe spot, Project Manager James S. Martin, Jr., announced that Viking 2 would be sent to a region likely to be more scientifically interesting even with less assurance of safe touchdown. Cydonia, a region halfway between the Mars equator and north pole, was considered because of a greater likelihood of water, required for the presence of life as we know it. Viking project scientists said they were eager to survey a site as different physically from the desert Chryse site as possible. Viking 2, still more than 1.6 million km from Mars, would arrive in orbit there early in Aug. and land about 4 Sept. if all went well. Debate on the second landing site focused on possible hazards in the northern region, out of range of the radar signals that led to choice of the first site. Astronomer Carl Sagan said the first landing was "reasonably lucky," with chances of success calculated at only 60%; and the northern site would be less promising. However, he and the other scientists voted overwhelmingly for Cydonia because, as Sagan said, "it is not only the probability of success but the significance of success" that merited consideration. (W Star, 22 July 76, A-6)

Asked about the role of luck in the successful Viking 1 landing on Mars, Project Manager James S. Martin, Jr., replied, "I don't plan on luck .... I believe that most of what you call luck you make yourself. It's people doing that extra job . . . " Martin's management approach during his 8 yr with the Viking project had been to "get into the details of everything .... I've never known any other way to be successful .... It inspires and motivates the next level of management to get involved." (NYT, 22 July 76, 24)

The "most electrifying new information" received from Mars since the Viking 1 landing was that the Martian atmosphere contained 3% nitrogen, an element essential to life as we know it, said the NY Times. Until this week, the absence of nitrogen on Mars had been the most compelling argument against existence of life "in any form" on Mars; now this argument had been removed. (NYT, 22 July 76, 30)

JPL scientists were still hedging on the color of the Martian sky, after announcing that photographs released earlier showing a blue sky might have been processed wrongly. Astronomer Carl Sagan noted that the "boos given to (the) announcement about a pink sky reflect our wish for Mars to be just like the earth." Dr. Thomas Mutch, leader of the Viking imaging team, said computer verification of the filtered signals for color reconstruction could take another wk or two. (W Star, 23 July 76, A-1)

Viking Mission Director A. Thomas Young told a news conference that the problem with the lander's soil-sampling arm was probably an error in the computer command that failed to drop a locking pin near the arm's "wrist." A new set of commands to extend the arm further and free the pin would be sent 24 or 25 July. The arm would scoop up soil and drop it in a hopper on the spacecraft that would distribute it to 3 biology experiments aimed at detecting signs of life on the planet. Other scoops would be used for chemical analysis. (NYT 24 July 76, 1)

Besides the trouble with its soil sampler, the Viking 1 lander was having radio problems, said Project Manager Martin. One of two receivers getting direct communications from earth was not working properly, and the radio for relaying data from the lander to its orbiter was operating in a low-power mode. Also, the instrument for detecting "marsquakes" had not been released from its "caged" position on the lander despite repeated commands. A special scientific team was checking to see if all the problems were related, perhaps in the computer signals to the electrical circuitry. ( W Star, 23 July 76, A-3)

Mars was a very much richer and larger planet than the airless and waterless moon, said a NY Times editorial, with a firm surface and virtually every essential required for life. Barring the catastrophe of a nuclear war, Mars could be sustaining a human population "by the time of this nation's Tricentennial," the paper said. (NYT 25 July 76, A-16)

"I really do not know what the fuss is all about-landing on Mars, I mean. I landed there 40 years ago," said Buster Crabbe, who played both Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers in movies of the 1930s. Crabbe, who won the 400-m freestyle swimming gold medal in the 1932 Olympic games, was hired by Paramount Pictures to do a Tarzan film, and went-on to star in space pictures. "People still remember old Flash," the 68-yr-old Crabbe said. "Here I am still around, no ill effects from my space travel .... I do feel sorry for our space people though, having to go through all the things we did years ago. I don't think they know what's in store for them. Just wait till they run into the clay men and the hawk men and the shark men." (NYT 25 July 76, E17; Tucson Ariz. Daily Star, 30 July 76, A-19)

Viking 1 did not relay any picture of life-sized Martians to earth because it landed in the wrong place, charged columnist Art Buchwald in the Wash. Post. Buchwald reported his friend, a science-fiction buff, as saying the scientists were interested only in finding "a smooth place to set down the camera." If the Martians sent a camera to earth, the smoothest place to land it would be the Sahara desert. "If you lived on Mars you wouldn't pitch a tent on some barren spot where nothing was happening," argued the friend. "If Viking had landed next to one of their canals, the Martians would have sailed their tall ships up to it and given us the greatest show ever seen on television." (W Post, 25 July 76, H-1)

A series of simple commands from earth freed the mechanical arm on the Viking 1 spacecraft reported to have jammed 22 July. The extend- able arm would be able to dig into the Martian soil as planned, and the second Viking spacecraft would be able to land in Cydonia now that the Chryse area could be explored. The Viking was commanded to extend its arm twice as far as previously and to rotate it several times to free a locking pin inserted to protect the arm from vibration during its flight in space and landing on Mars. The command was timed to precede transmission of a spacecraft camera image taken soon after receipt of the command; the boom would not be in the picture if it had not responded to the order to extend itself in front of the camera eye. When the picture came in a half hour later, the mechanical arm was in clear view, and a surface shot clearly showed the locking pin had fallen free. Flight directors had not succeeded in uncaging a seismometer, composed of 3 delicate balancing beams to detect movements in the planet's crust, that had been wired together for protection from vibrations. Spacecraft computer signals to electrify and burn the wire were not received, and a second command bypassing the computer apparently failed also. Detection of marsquakes might have to depend on Viking 2, scheduled to land in the Cydonia basin about 4 Sept. (W Post, 26 July 76, A-1)

The atmosphere of Mars was once 10 times thicker and richer in gas than it is today, and "we could breathe that atmosphere" if it were richer in oxygen, said Dr. Tobias Owen of the State Univ. of N.Y., a member of the project science team at JPL, where the first samplings by the Viking 1 mass spectrometer were analyzed. Mars's atmosphere was now 95% carbon dioxide, 2 to 3% nitrogen, 1 to 2% argon, 0.3% oxygen; earth's atmosphere is 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 0.9% argon-40, and 0.03% carbon dioxide. "Mars is an intermediate planet between the earth and the moon," said Dr. Owen. "We do not see a hugely abundant biology, but that doesn't say there's none at all." Color pictures of the Martian surface near the Viking lander revealed a soil even redder than in the original picture received last week. Rocks strewn over the desert sands exhibited a red coating laid down years ago when Mars's atmosphere was richer in oxygen and water, "through oxidation of the iron and hydration of the minerals," said Viking geologist Alan S. Binder. "We propose to test the hypothesis by cracking open one of the red rocks ... to see if there is any rust inside." (W Post, 27 July 76, A-1; W Star, 27 July 76, A-3; C Trib, 27 July 76, 5)

Viking 1's mechanical arm scooped its first sample of the Mars surface 28 July, leaving a sharp-edged trench clearly visible in a picture transmitted afterward by the unmanned lander. The 3-m arm, a tube about 38 mm in diameter, ended in a sharp-edged scoop that could dig into the surface with a force of about 13 kg if necessary. When the cover snapped shut on the sample, the arm retracted and swiveled to sift the sample into a funnel feeding into the "biology box." This container, about the size of a large milk carton, encased the 3 experiments designed to detect life. Two other experiments, also located under funnels, were the gas chromatograph mass spectrometer to detect organic molecules and an x-ray fluorescence spectrometer to identify inorganic materials, Sensors inside the funnels would tell whether the samples were sufficient.

The 3 biology experiments were the "pyrolytic release" experiment of Dr. Norman Horowitz, to look for microorganisms that used the sun as a source of energy like photosynthesis on earth to build organic compounds, through exposure of the sample to radioactive carbon dioxide under artificial sunlight; a "labeled release" experiment by Dr. Gilbert Levin of Biospherics, Inc., to look for signs of microbial metabolism by tracing radioactive organic compounds injected into the Mars sample to see if they were consumed, releasing gaseous wastes that could be detected; and a "gas exchange" experiment by Vance Oyama of NASA's Ames Research Center to provide a rich variety of foods in a liquid form-"chicken soup"-to the Mars sample and look for changes in gas composition inside the experiment chamber that would indicate the food was being used.

The biology-box samples would incubate for from 5 to 12 days before results were announced, and a positive finding 'would be confirmed by subsequent control experiments. The science team anticipated a long wait for any kind of answer, as well as the possibility that the answers might be contradictory. Dr. Gerald Soffen, chief scientist for Viking, pointed out that results would be difficult to interpret: "you have to put yourself on the level of a microbe," he added. The microbes might drown in the liquid, ingest the wrong food, or burn up in the warm experiment chambers. (W Star, 28 July, A-1, A-5)

One of the five soil-testing experiments on Viking 1 did not receive enough soil to actuate it, project officials announced, and two attempts to start the gas chromatograph mass spectrometer working on a sample apparently failed. Project Manager Martin said the flight engineers were not yet able to determine what went wrong, because the sampling arm apparently worked as planned but the sample never got into the instrument. The motor driving a stirring rod to brush particles through a strainer did not come on, and scientists speculated the sample might still be sitting on the strainer. A photograph of the trench dug to obtain the sample had shown that the soil was surprisingly cohesive, "like wet sand," according to Princeton Univ. scientist Dr. Robert B. Hargraves. After delivering soil to the experiments in the biology box, the mechanical arm made 2 attempts to dig and deliver a sample to the mass spectrometer but the instrument did not signal receipt of the sample either time. It was not clear, Martin said, whether the arm lost the soil on the swing back or was off the mark when it deposited the soil, or the soil in the hopper never filtered down to the instrument. The arm responded properly to the following command and delivered a spoonful of soil to the x-ray spectrometer with no difficulty. (NYT, 29 July 76, 1; W Post, 29 July 76, A-3; W Star, 29 July 76, A-3; WSJ, 29 July 76, 1)

Viking project scientists debated the makeup of the Mars soil sample that might have been too thick to filter into an instrument opening. Dr. Ronald Scott said that, although the material was somewhat cohesive, "certainly something must have gotten through." Deputy Mission Director Kingsland said the most likely causes of the apparent malfunction were failure of the mechanical scoop to obtain a full sample, or failure of the "level full" indicator in the instrument to signal properly. Dr. Klaus Biemann of MIT, chief of the gas chromatograph experiment, said the arm might have come up empty from the trench after scooping for the biology experiments, and that a repeat attempt next week would take both possible explanations of the problem into account. Kingsland said the material seemed to have a consistency "something like wet clay." Dr. Scott emphasized that this did not indicate water in the soil. The other instruments seemed to be processing their samples normally, and results from the inorganic-chemistry sampling in the x-ray spectrometer should provide the first assay of Martian soil as early as tomorrow. (NYT, 30 July 76, A-22; W Star, 30 July 76, A-5; C Trib, 31 July 76, 2)

The first experimental results from Mars, returned 30 July by Viking 1's lander, showed that the surface consisted of iron, calcium, silicon, titanium, and aluminum, in amounts that would be determined within a few days. The entire surface around the lander was covered with a very thin coating of vivid orange-red iron oxides that gave the plant its red or rusty appearance. "Mars is a painted desert," said Dr. Gerald Soffen, one of the project scientists. Dr. Priestly Toulmin, leader of the inorganic-chemistry team, noted that Mars soil up to now could be analyzed only by long-distance methods such as light reflections from the surface; Viking had "picked up a piece of Mars and put it into an analytical instrument." Dr. Benton Clark, also of the inorganic. chemistry team, said that Viking had not detected trace elements like vanadium or molybdenum considered essential for plant growth on earth; this did not mean the elements were not present, nor had elements like arsenic been detected that would make earth soil sterile. The results "do not rule out the possibility of some form of life," Dr. Clark added. Results from the 3 biology experiments would be transmitted to earth within a few days. (NYT, 31 July 76, A-1)

22-24 July: NASA launched the second in a series of Comstar satellites at 6:04 pm EDT 22 July from Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral, Fla., on an Atlas-Centaur AC-40 into a transfer orbit with 42 171-km apogee, 2930-km perigee, and 21.8° inclination. Like its predecessor launched 13 May, Comstar-B ( called Comstar D-2 in orbit) was owned and would be operated by Comsat General Corp. under lease to American Telephone and Telegraph Co. as part of a three-satellite domestic communications system. Comstar D-2 went into orbit lacking FCC approval for its operational use; AT&T engineering director Robert Latter said details for use of the system had not been worked out. On 24 July at 6:12 pm EDT, Comsat General commanded firing of the apogee kick motor to put the Comstar into station at 95°W, above the equator for coverage of the southwestern U.S., at approximately 35 793-km altitude. A third Comstar would be launched in 1978 to allow for growth of service, and a fourth Comstar would be built as a spare. (NASA Release 76-127; Comsat General Release CG-76-117; NASA MOR M-491-201-76-02; [prelaunch] 20 July 76, [postlaunch] 13 Dec 76; D/SD 26 July 76, 127)

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