Dec 17 1964
From The Space Library
MARINER IV Mars-bound space probe received two commands intended to cause the spacecraft's attitude control system to fix and remain on the star Canopus. The first required the tracker to break lock With the star Gamma-Velorum and go into a search for Canopus. Canopus was reacquired. The second command was to deter MARINER IV from losing its lock on Canopus. (NASA Release 64 323)
NASA extended until Dec. 31, 1966, its contract with the California Institute of Technology for research and development programs conducted at the Government-owned Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Work that would be performed included research and development in lunar and interplanetary programs, aeronautics, development and operation of deep space tracking facilities, providing NASA with technical advice, scientific studies, and reports of investigations, and providing supervision of related work given to contractors. Requirements from NASA would be issued in the form of written Task Orders, and the cost of this contract would be determined by the sum of these task orders. In addition, the two parties would negotiate each fiscal year for a fixed fee for the management of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. (NASA Release 64-320)
Dynatronics, Inc., Orlando, Fla., was selected by NASA to negotiate an estimated $3.5-million contract award for design, manufacture, and on-site engineering support of 19 pulse code modulation (PCM) systems in NASA's worldwide Apollo Manned Space Flight Network, with options for additional systems. (NASA Release 64-319)
NASA would negotiate with the Univac Div. of Sperry Rand Corp. for purchase of digital data processors to be used in the Apollo Manned Space Flight Network ground stations and tracking ships. The fixed-price contract would approximate $4.5 million for the ten systems with options for additional systems. (NASA Release 64-318)
Kenneth C. McCracken, head of cosmic ray research of the Earth and Planetary Sciences Laboratory at the Graduate Research Center of the Southwest said that the Imps (Interplanetary Monitoring Platforms) scheduled to be shot into earth orbit in 1966 would be the best tool for studying cosmic rays during the years of the quiet sun. Besides lasting much longer than either the "deep" space probes or the balloons, they would have one other tremendous advantage, McCracken said. "The IMPS will have very eccentric orbits, skimming 200 miles over the surface of the earth at the closest points of their orbits, or perigees, and soaring 185,000 miles out in space at their apogees, or farthest points of orbit. . . . That means that in counting and analyzing cosmic rays we shall for the first time be able actually to compare the virgin, or primary, rays with the secondary particles that have had all the wear and tear of passing through the earth's atmosphere and magnetosphere." (Getze, L.A. Times, 12/17/64)
Dr. Victor F. Hess, co-winner of the 1936 Nobel Prize and former Professor of Physics at Fordham Univ., died at the age of 81 in Mt. Vernon, N.Y. Dr. Hess shared the Nobel Prize with Dr. Carl C. Anderson of the California Institute of Technology for his part in the discovery of cosmic rays. (NYT, 12/19/64, 29)
Boeing announced that Dr. George M. Knauf, for the past three years deputy director of space medicine in NASA's Office of Manned Space Flight, would join the company as chief of bioastronautics. He would manage groups working on life support and protection, engineering psychology, and program support. (Seattle Post-Intelligence, 12/18/64)
Howard Simons of the Washington Post was awarded the 1964 American for the Advancement of Science-Westinghouse Science writing award. His winning entry consisted of stories on the Samos satellite, cybernetics in Russia, and the planet Jupiter. (Wash. Post, 12/18/64)
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