Feb 22 1978

From The Space Library

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Current revision

NASA announced plans to launch Landsat-C, an improved satellite to monitor earth resources, from WTR March 5 aboard a 2-stage Delta vehicle, Third of a series designed to orbit earth at 917km (570mi) altitude and scan earth's surface in a systematic resources and environment study, Landsat-C would be placed in a near-polar orbit circling earth every 103 min. Its remote sensors would view a 185km (115mi)-wide strip of earth running nearly north-to-south at a 99° angle to the equator. Earth-surface coverage would proceed' west, with a slight overlap, covering the globe every 18 days. Synoptic repetitive coverage under consistent observation conditions was required for maximum use of the multispectral imagery.

Most important uses of Landsat data would correspond to three of the world's major problems: energy supplies, food production, and global large-scale environment monitoring. Innovations in the multispectral scanner system (MSS) would permit detection of day and night temperature differences in vegetation, bodies of water, and urban areas. The return beam vidicon (RBV) sensor improvements would increase recorded image resolution by 50%. Areas as small as half an acre would be identified and studied. Landsat-C also carried a data-collection system (DCS) that would collect data radioed directly from as many as 1000 remote ground platforms and relay them to a Landsat data acquisition station. The DCS would collect data on volcano activity, stream flow, water and snow depth, water temperature, and sediment density.

Goddard Space Flight Center was responsible for project management of the Landsat spacecraft, Delta launch vehicle, NASA image-processing facility, and worldwide tracking network. KSC would supervise launch. General Electric Co.'s Space Division was Landsat spacecraft prime contractor. (NASA Release 78-22)

NASA announced it had selected Teledyne Brown Engineering, Huntsville, Ala., for negotiations leading to award of a contract for payload/missions integration for the sixth Space Shuttle orbital flight test and for the first 3 Spacelab missions to be managed by MSFC. An experiment-integration contractor, Teledyne Brown would ensure that the group of experiments for each mission was compatible with the Space Transportation System scheduled to carry it into orbit. The contract would provide for manpower, materials, and associated services required for integration and operation of Spacelab payloads. Flights scheduled during 1980 to 1981 would offer opportunities for scientific investigations on Spacelab missions in the planning stage with scientists from throughout the world participating. These missions would give scientists the first chance to go into space as payload specialists and conduct their investigations in earth orbit, (Marshall Star, Feb 22/78, 1)

MSFC reported a two-wk visit by 13 Japanese scientists doing initial design review of the SEPAC (space experiments with particle accelerators) package to be flown on Spacelab 1. Heaviest and most complex of the experiments scheduled for that mission, the SEPAC had 16 scientific objectives in addition to proving its performance and compatibility with the Spacelab. It had been designed for multiple reuse, and would accommodate a number of scientific disciplines. The particle accelerator, for example, would shoot an electron beam to create a small scale artificial aurora in the upper atmosphere, timed to occur at a specific location for simultaneous observations from space and from earth for later comparison.

Professor Tatsugo Obayashi of the Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science at the Univ. of Tokyo said that nature had provided ideal laboratory conditions in space for many experiments. "There we can actively interact with nature and, by artificially exciting the electrons and ions of plasma and studying the results, we can eventually define the dynamics of space." The Japanese scientists had been working on the SEPAC experiment since early 1976. (Marshall Star, Feb 22/78, 4)

NASA announced that LaRC would sponsor a government-industry conference Feb. 28-March 3 on technology advances in design and operation of conventional takeoff-and-landing (CTOL) transport aircraft. Technical sessions would present new technology generated by NASA inhouse and contract efforts, including the ongoing Aircraft Energy Efficiency Program (ACES). Speakers would represent organizations in the airframe and engine industry, universities, and 4 NASA centers. The 45 presentations would be organized into 6 disciplinary sessions: propulsion, structures and materials, laminar-flow control, advanced aerodynamics and active controls, operation and safety, and advanced systems. (LaRC Release 78-10)

FBIS, in an unattributed commentary in English, reported that the USSR had been testing a laser system called "Glissada" that might permit safe airline takeoffs and landings in any weather. Questioning Professor Igor Berezhnoy, the commentator said: "The new system enables the pilot, in any weather without any additional aids, to find his airfield and the landing strip." Berezhnoy explained: A few dozen km from the airfield the pilot would see 3 red laser beams motionless, like pillars, over the airfield and would discern other beams, 2 red beams clearly indicating runway boundaries and a third directly down its middle; it is this axial beam that the plane would follow to land. The system would enable the pilot to detect even a half-meter deviation from course. The laser system would require little additional training of pilots and no additional equipment on the planes. The Soviets claimed the cost of the system and its installation and maintenance would be a fraction of the cost of present radio systems and airport-lighting equipment. (FBIS, unattributed commentary in English, Feb 23/78)

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