Feb 8 1980
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(New page: NASA held a press briefing on the Solar Maximum mission slated for launch February 14. Dr. Thomas A. Mutch, associate administrator for space science, said that exploration of Earth's ...)
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NASA held a press briefing on the Solar Maximum mission slated for launch February 14. Dr. Thomas A. Mutch, associate administrator for space science, said that exploration of Earth's nearest star was significant both scientifically and technologically. Dr. Harold Glaser of NASA's solar terrestrial division noted that the Sun, dominant energy source for the Earth, was a variable star in that its energy output varied in periods running from 10 minutes to 1 years (the so-called solar cycle) as well as over periods of centuries.
The solar variations causes variations on Earth; for instance, the solar flares known to have a periodicity of 1 years. In short time periods, a flare is the most energetic manifestation of solar changes, with significant effects: Earth suffers communications problems along with atmospheric heating and other phenomena, and the trillion kilotons spewed into the solar system would affect almost all the planets. The focus of the Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) would be to understand more about solar flares in order to predict their occurrence. The magnetic field of the Sun had also been found to vary with a 22-year periodicity, strongly correlated with drought in the U.S. western plains.
During the 17th century, solar activity apparently ceased for about 80 years, a period called the Maunder Minimum which featured a "mini-Ice Age" documented in northern Europe. This seems to have happened more frequent than previously realized. Space research during the last 20 years had produced these data, Glaser said, including evidence the Sun might be changing sides, with a corresponding increase of luminosity or incident radiation. Also, the Sun appeared to oscillate rather like a fluid, probably because of interior activity whose nature was as yet unknown..
Joseph Purcell of GSFC, standing in for project manager Peter Burr who was ill, described the spacecraft and its planned retrieval by the Space Shuttle, and the modular design that would allow it to be serviced in orbit if necessary. The SMM would be the first NASA satellite designed for retrieval and first to include the tracking and data-relay satellite capability; at 5,000 pounds, it would also be the heaviest payload launched by a Delta. Purcell explained the 24-hour computer watch on the SMM, calling it an operation with "very intense man-machine relationships." Kenneth J. Frost, also of GSFC as SMM project scientist, described the payload as essentially one experiment to determine the nature of solar flares, using seven instruments and a "very detailed scientific game plan." Investigators needed a 24-hour watch to evaluate the plan's progress and to react to targets of opportunity on the Sun. For instance:, a flare on the Sun's west limb would be observed on Earth and by a series of spacecraft in orbit around the Earth, so that the quality and completeness of the observations would "far outstrip anything we've ever had before." The SMM spacecraft would have a productive lifetime of about two years, Frost said, and the scientific group at GSFC would consist of investigators prepared to spend that much time away from their home institutions. In response to a question, he pointed out that the broad range of the electromagnetic spectrum to be investigated by SMM could not penetrate Earth's atmosphere. (Text, Feb 8/80; NASA Release 80-16)
The Washington Star quoted Defense Secretary Harold Brown's statement before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation that NASA's Space Shuttle program was "critical" to defense planning. The committee was considering the FY81 budget requests of NASA and DOD. (W Star, Feb 8/80, A-5)
The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) reported that NASAs HEAO 1 had detected "surprisingly intense" X-ray emission from a pair of common Sunlike stars in the constellation Cepheus. The pair farmed a tight binary revolving around each other with a period of only six hours, in a rotary motion like "the twin blades of an eggbeater." The gas in the intervening space would be stirred violently and the magnetic-field lines twisted, stretched, and torn in a furious turbulence, the resulting X-ray emission being "millions of times that expected from either star alone." The HEAO 1 discovery was recently confirmed by the large telescope aboard HEAO 2 (Einstein), and other stars of that sort would be checked for X-ray emissions; two other binaries had been detected as X-ray sources. (NRL Release 3-1-80F)
LaRC reported award of a 3-year $4.6 million contract to Sperry Support Services for development, operation, and maintenance of flight simulators, including real-time digital programs for solving research problems and for aerodynamics and space flight. Sperry would design and operate flight simulators and would develop, integrate, and test electronic subsystems to use with existing data systems. (LaRC Release 80-9)
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