November 1963

From The Space Library

Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, writing in the Fall issue of Challenge magazine of the General ElectricCo., : "Space is not a gambit. It is not a gimmick. "Our national activities in space research and exploration are no longer in the category of a gamble. We are able to talk seri­ously about explorations and journeys, 26 million miles away to the planet Venus-or 47 million miles away to the planet Mars. "We have come a long way. In the new Age of Space which brings us together, we are destined to go a long way further. Where the moon is a major goal today, it will be tomorrow a mere whistle stop for the space traveler. I confidently believe that the developments of the Space Age will bring the beginning of the longest and greatest boom of abundance and prosperity in the history of man." (Challenge, Fall 1963, 24-5)

The Marquardt Corp. of Van Nuys, Calif., has delivered 30 produc­tion units of its Roksonde 200-I to West Germany. The sound­ing rockets would be used for meteorological testing at the Salto di Quirra Test Range in Sardinia. The meteorological data gathering is part of the overall European effort in support of the IQSY worldwide programs. As part of the program, the Mar­quardt Corp. will assist the West German government in two launching series. The first series was currently in progress, scheduled for completion by mid-December; the second would be completed in early 1964. (Marquardt Release, 11/21/63, SIN-, Jan., 1964)

JPL scientists Dr. Richard M. Goldstein and Ro­land L. Carpenter reported in Science magazine on recent radar experiments using an 85-ft. parabolic antenna at a tracking sta­tion in the Mojave Desert. The planet Mercury was found to be quite rugged, more so than Mars and twice as rugged as Venus. The experiments also corroborated Mercury's rotation period as 88 days. (Science Service, NYT, 11/6/63, 33)

Reported in Aviation World (Flugwelt) that West Germany has a $25 million-budget to develop a series of 5 satellites to be built under NASA's established quality control standards. The satellite would consist of three parts: the satellite capsule with a recovery unit, the sun mirror, the energy converter. The first satellite recovery capsule would descend with the aid of a parachute; later models would include a winged glider version. Telemetric transmissions and subsequent evaluation would commence as soon as the satellite enters an Earth orbit. The second satellite and the remainder of the series would be equipped with engines that will permit changes in the orbital parameters. On the second satellite small solid fuel rockets would be used, but the following models could be equipped with ion engines. The satellite's mission would include research in the guidance and direction stabilization systems during the launching investi­gation of the orbital rendezvous problems, as well as a study of the radiation belts. In the case of the fifth satellite, the ion engines could be replaced with nuclear-powered engines to permit con­tinuous orbital changes and accelerate to an escape velocity. (Flugwelt (Aviation World), Nov., 1963; SIN, Jan., 1964)

William B. Bergen, president of the Martin Co., writing in the November issue of Aerospace Management, expressed his approval of DOD's new cost-plus-incentive-fee (CPIF) contracting as op­posed to the more conventional cost-plus-fixed-fee (CPFF) con­tracting that had existed in R&D work for some years. CPFF was necessary in the early days of missile work and of space tech­nology when "We had a critical time element and our technology was shaky." Now, he said, "there aren't enough projects. . . to fill the aerospace plants. CPIF is going to be a great catalyst in separating the men from the boys in this business. Americans recognize talent by financial reward. If you have it, you get; if you don't have, you don't get. CPIF will be a great factor in providing the measure and the reward of the industry's talents." (CR, 11/19/63, A7150-51)

Navy Bureau of Weapons' astronautics group approved a study by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory and recom­mended that the Thor-Able-Star be substituted for the Scout as the launch vehicle for the Navy Transit navigational satellites. Navy had been dissatisfied with the reliability record of the NASA Scout boosters in the Transit program. (Av. Wk., 11/25/63, 23)

USAF was studying a novel method of protecting spacecraft from meteoroid hits, according to Maj. Gen. Marvin C. Demler (USAF), Commander of the AF Research and Technology Div. USAF's Flight Dynamics Laboratory at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, was studying the concept of surrounding the spacecraft with a 40-in. ­thick layer of metallic dust held in place by an electrostatic field. A meteoroid hitting the vibrating dust layer would be shattered or vaporized. (M&R, 11/25/63, 29)

Military role in the U.S. space program is "gen­erally misrepresented and largely misunderstood," Maj. Gen. Ben I. Funk, Commander of AF Space Systems Div., told the World Affairs Council meeting in Los Angeles. The national policy of using space for peaceful purposes "serves to put the military into space, not restrict space to purely non-military activities. What ever shape and direction our ventures into space ultimately take, military considerations cannot be separated from the political, economic, psychological, technological and sociological implica­tions of space development." (M&R, 11/25/63, 30)

NASA and the Air Force began a test of a 5-psi 100% oxygen environ­ment in a 42-day experiment with four airmen at Brooks AFB, Tex. It would include 7 days in the chamber in a normal atmosphere to gather base-line data, 30 days in the test atmosphere, one half day for detailed lung and eye examinations outside the chamber, and then 5 more days in the test atmosphere for "follow-up" observa­tions. Conducted jointly with NASA Manned Spacecraft Center, the experiment should lay to rest fears about the debilitating ef­fects of pure oxygen on lungs, blood, and other organs. (A&AE, December 1963, 91)

A solar array characteristics test was run on the orbiting SYNCOM II synchronous-orbit communications satellite. The test (on Nov. 22) found a power loss of 20% from the effects of solar radiation on the solar cells during four months in orbit. The text confirmed the desirability of changing the next Syncom satellite - Syncom C - from p/n cells with .006 in. quartz cover slides to n/p cells with .012-in. quartz cover slides. The newer n/p cells had shown in ground evaluation to last up to 20 times longer than conven­tional p/n cells. (GSFC Historian; Goddard News, 12/2/63, 2)

Reported in Astronautics and Aerospace Engineering that a "hitch­hiker" satellite called Satar (Satellite-Aerospace Research) would be built and tested by General Dynamics. A bullet-shaped spacecraft 12 ft. long and 30 in. in diameter, Satar would be in­corporated in Atlas missiles used for training missions. It would consist of a payload section capable of accommodating "several hundred pounds of experiments" and a propulsion section in­cluding a solid-propellant motor, guidance, attitude control, and related equipment. Satar would be released after Atlas burnout and coast about 15 min. before its own engine ignited to send it into orbit. First flight was scheduled for next spring. (A&AE, Nov. 1963, 158)

“The Solar Eclipse From a Jet” article appears in National Geographic Magazine

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