June 1971

From The Space Library

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Current revision

Skylab was described in article by Dr. George M. Low, NASA Deputy Administrator, in Astronautics & Aeronautics: "By far the largest manned spacecraft we have ever built, Skylab will be the fore-runner of permanent stations in space. In orbit 435 km [270 mil above Earth, the Skylab cluster will be 36 meters [118 ft] long and will weigh 82238 kilograms [181 304 lbs]. One of its major components will be a workshop with 362 cubic meters [474 cu yds] of work area. Other parts will include a Multiple Docking Adapter, Airlock Module, Apollo Command and Service Module, and an Apollo Telescope Mount, the last of these a full-fledged solar observatory capable of observing, monitoring, and recording phenomena on the Sun's surface that cannot be seen from Earth." Skylab would carry from earth orbit "about 50 scientific, medical, applications, and solar-astronomy experiments. Twenty of these will be in the life sciences, to determine how man performs and adjusts under conditions of prolonged space flight. The study of materials and manufacturing will be another area of interest. By means of an electron-beam generating device and an electric furnace, metals will be melted, molded, and welded, and other metallurgy and crystal tests performed in a work chamber exposed to zero-gravity and the vacuum of space." (A&A, 6/71, 20-1)

NASA released two publications for sale by Superintendent of Documents, GPO. Apollo 14 Preliminary Science Report (NASA SP-272), prepared by MSC, described Apollo 14: mission and summarized scientific results. On the Moon With Apollo 15, guidebook to Hadley Rille and Apennine Mountains, had been prepared by Dr. Gene M. Simmons, MSC Chief Scientist. Publication would aid in following progress of Apollo 15 mission by giving timeline for mission, describing and illustrating lunar surface scientific experiments, and defining terms. (Texts)

NASA released Goals and Means in the Conquest of Space by R. G. Perel'man (NASA Technical Translation F-595 dated May 1970). Translation of Tsui i Puti Pokoreniva Kosmosa, "Nauka" Press, Moscow, 1967, concluded: "The time will come when space liners will be sent across interstellar routes, but the achievements of Soviet science and technology will never be forgotten, since they first made it possible for man to set foot in the universe, and since the labor of every Soviet citizen is involved." (Text)

Stanford Univ. and MIT experiments to determine internal structure of protons and neutrons by use of 21-bev beam at Stanford's Linear Accelerator Center were described in Scientific American by Dr. Henry W. Kendall of MIT and Dr. Wolfgang K. H. Panofsky of Stanford Univ. Scientific team had smashed what they thought were basic atom particles, to find that "the way ultrahigh-energy electrons are scattered by protons and neutrons suggests that these `elementary' nuclear particles have a complex internal structure consisting of pointlike entities." New entities had been named "partons" because they seemed to be parts within parts. Scientists had concluded, "It is still too early to say whether the parton model will lead to an understanding of the nucleon's structure or whether entirely new ideas may be required." (Scientific American, 6/71, 61- 77)

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