Sep 21 1976

From The Space Library

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Current revision

NASA announced selection of Western Union Telegraph Co. and RCA Global Communications, Inc., for competitive negotiations leading to award of a single contract to provide tracking and data-relay satellite services (TDRSS) to support earth-orbiting spacecraft for 10 yr beginning in 1980. Goddard Space Flight Center would manage procurement of two relay satellites in synchronous earth orbit, plus ground- terminal facilities to be located at White Sands, N.M. The system would support all of NASA's scientific, applications, and 'manned spacecraft missions in earth orbit up to 5000-km altitude, including Space Shuttle, Spacelab, and the automated spacecraft which the Shuttle would insert into orbit in the 1980s. TDRSS, when fully operational, would provide coverage over 85 to 100% of each orbit as compared to a present average of 15%, and permit closing down many government-owned ground stations and leased communications circuits now needed to support earth-orbiting satellites in the Spaceflight Tracking and Data Network (STDN); portions of the latter system would be retained only for synchronous satellites and those in higher altitude elliptical earth orbits. (NASA Release 76-158)

Marshall Space Flight Center announced development of a solar concentrator-collector that would use a large plastic Fresnel lens to focus sunlight on a tube containing heat-transport fluid, for use in constructing or converting cooling systems in large buildings or in manufacturing processes requiring heat in the 200-370°C range. A Fresnel lens, consisting of a thin transparent material grooved on one surface, would serve the function of a heavier ordinary curved lens in focusing incoming light in the desired direction. MSFC's lens, thought to be the largest tried in a solar-energy application, was assembled from multiple lens panels and measured 1.8 by 3.6 meters; it had been undergoing tests at Wyle Laboratories in Huntsville since July 1976. It would be moved to MSFC and integrated into a solar test bed for further analysis of performance. Primary advantage of the Fresnel lens would be its adaptability to mass-production techniques, permitting low cost; besides the light weight and space saving of the acrylic plastic, MSFC cited durability and mechanical strength, as well as ease of cleaning, of lenses exposed to weather. The test article, to minimize technology requirements and to interface with existing systems, used off-the-shelf materials and hardware as fully as possible. MSFC findings would be made available to industry after further testing and evaluation. (MSFC Release 76-169)

MSFC announced selection of two NASA payload specialists and a backup for ASSESS II, a Spacelab simulation project to be flown in May 1977 in a four-engine jet aircraft. ASSESS II, a joint mission of NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), would use the two U.S. payload specialists and two selected by ESA [see 27 Aug.]. The two selected, both of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, were Dr. Robert T. Menzies and David S. Riliu; Leon B. Weaver of MSFC was chosen as the backup. Dr. Menzies would be principal investigator (PI) for the laser absorption spectrometer experiment; Biliu was a member of JPL's synthetic-aperture radar research team; Weaver, a veteran of the ASSESS Lear 4 mission of Oct. 1974 and presently assistant mission manager, would represent MSFC's Spacelab Payload Projects Office, and was selected from a group already involved in ASSESS II whose experience would permit training at minimal cost. The ASSESS II payload would include both NASA and ESA experiments in earth resources, monitoring of atmospheric pollution, and infrared astronomy. (MSFC Release 76-170; Marshall Star, 22 Sept 76, 4)

A year-long cooperative experiment using ATS 6 in a mission called SITE Satellite Instructional Television Experiment-to broadcast daily programs on agriculture, health and hygiene, family planning, and national integration to an estimated 5 million persons in 2400 remote villages in India never before exposed to television had "met its primary goal," said Prof. Yash Pal, director of the space applications center operated by the Indian Space Research Organization at Ahmadabad. ATS 6 had relayed the programs, broadcast from a ground station near Ahmadabad, to small ground terminals consisting of conventional TV receivers augmented with small electronic components and inexpensive antennas of chickenwire mesh, all built in India; another 2600 terminals near conventional TV stations had rebroadcast the instructional material to cities and nearby villages.

Before the programs began, teams of Indian social scientists and engineers had visited more than 6000 villages to select the ones to receive SITE transmissions; an individual in each village had to be identified as TV-set caretaker, and a public site-usually a school selected as the viewing center, so that "weaker sections of village society" could be assured of equal access to the TV programs. As some appropriate villages lacked electricity, these had to be supplied with power, a valuable side effect of the experiment. Programs for SITE had been developed by India's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in collaboration with ISRO; program content and format had to be kept simple because of the high rate of adult illiteracy. More than 1200 hr of diversified content were broadcast during the experiment; attendance was particularly high for programs related to animal husbandry and agriculture. Children's programs were received enthusiastically, with resulting improvement in school attendance, and many students brought younger members of the family to view the programs.

One yr of experimental TV would not "change the face of our villages," said Prof. Pal, but it had created "a cadre of dedicated people and the methodology necessary to sustain an ongoing program." As a follow-on, the Indian government would construct ground transmitters in six cluster areas of villages to include about 40% of those involved in SITE, to resume the educational programs by early 1977. (NASA Release 76-157)

The DOD did not really want the Space Shuttle, charged Sen. William Proxmire (D-Wis.), and NASA had "conned Congress into buying a pig in the poke" in its efforts to obtain funds for Shuttle development. DOD had shown that it did not want the Shuttle by its actions, said Proxmire, citing DOD's statement that it would "under no circumstances" pay for the fourth and fifth Shuttle orbiters, and the DOD decision to go forward with a new satellite communications system (DSCS-III) "which will not capitalize on the unique advantages of the Shuttle ... [but] is to be compatible with both the Shuttle and the present Titan III-C." Proxmire charged that the DSCS decision was based not on a 9-mo wait for the Shuttle, but on the fact that "DOD has little confidence in a cost-effective operational Shuttle." Proxmire also cited a General Accounting Office report issued in April that DOD would pay less to launch its satellites on expendable vehicles than on the Shuttle through 1990-1991, assuming that DOD did not plan to recover and reuse any of its satellites. (SBD, 24 Sept 76, 105)

William Allan Patterson, pioneer of many firsts in the airline industry, would receive the Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy at an annual dinner in Dec. sponsored by the Natl. Aeronautic Assn., announced NAA President John P. Henebry. The 77-yr-old Patterson, who retired as board chairman of United Airlines in 1963, had joined Boeing Company in 1929 and in 1934 was elected president of United (created in 1931 by Boeing's merger with 3 other airlines to form a transcontinental system), a position he held for 29 yr. Patterson had declared himself most proud of establishing in 1930 the occupation of air stewardess; he had been instrumental in passage of the Federal Aviation Act in 1958, establishing a single federal agency with full authority for air traffic control, and in obtaining appropriation of federal funds for installation of landing and navigation aids at major airports across the U.S. The trophy, a miniature silver copy of the plane flown by the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk in 1903, had been awarded yearly by the NAA for significant public service of enduring value to aviation in the U.S. (NAA release, 21 Sept 76)

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