December 1967
From The Space Library
Listen to the NASA year end report for 1967
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A preliminary report on Surveyor V, compiled by OSSA, recounted spacecraft's performance. "Surveyor V will be remembered as having first performed one of man's most extraordinary technical feats, a remotely conducted analysis of the chemical constituents on an extraterrestrial body in our solar system." The compilation included information on principal scientific results, TV observations, astronomy, lunar surface parameters, and lunar theory and processes. (Text, NASA SP-163)
JPL scientist Sidney J. Slomich, writing in Astronautics and Aeronautics, emphasized need for national purpose to apply the highly advanced technology of space. "New impetus would be gained through the establishment of a coordinating national organization, governmental or private, to take advantage of the potential of advanced technology through modern communication techniques. The situation calls for a comprehensive national effort, with leadership coming from the highest levels of government to break down further interdisciplinary, interagency, organizational, and psychological and occupational barriers and to check out in detail a wide variety of potential applications like those cited above, relating them to the country's and the world's most pressing problems. . . . Emphasis should be on the application of the vast array of existing techniques, not on the development of new ones, and on near-term objectives-no longer, say, than two or three years. Government agencies, the universities, publicly and privately supported research centers . . . must be banded together into a cooperative effort devoted to applying to the problems of our age the many solutions the new high technology makes possible. There is needed . . . a public or private national organization, a research center, and, above all, a national purpose to bring this about." (Slomich, A&A, 12/67, 54-8)
Claude Witze, in Air Force and Space Digest, claimed that USAF pilots testing F-111A were enthusiastic about the aircraft's potential. "These . . . pilots consider the F-111A weapon system the greatest single technological jump designed for their mission since the wedding of the jet engine and modern avionics. The F-111A, they predict, will let them hit tactical targets harder, with greater accuracy, and at longer ranges than any other airplane. . . ." Accelerated F-111A testing and training program begun at Nellis AFB, Nev., in July had accumulated encouraging statistics, he said: "By September, the new wing had set an unprecedented record. During that month, the five planes flew a total of 304.1 hours, an average utilization rate of 60.8 hours per aircraft. In October, the month in which the first production model was delivered . . it was 59.7 hours per aircraft. The stated requirement for the F-111A is thirty hours per aircraft. The best previous records set at Nellis on other aircraft have been in the area of thirty eight hours a month per aircraft. . . with systems far less complex than those of the F-111A." In addition, he noted, F-111A had set "an extraordinary record for safety. Far fewer aircraft have been lost than USAF experienced in previous similar programs." (AF/SD, 12/67,4!5-55; CR, 12/5/67, S1788-90)
Writing in Astronautics and Aeronautics, Hudson Institute scientists Herman Kahn and Anthony J. Wiener listed possible events and discoveries that could occur by the year 2000. List, according to the authors, showed "that as a result of the long-term trends toward accumulation of scientific and technological knowledge and the institutionalization of change through research, development, innovation and diffusion, many important new things are likely to happen in the next few decades." List included: extension of life expectancy to more than 150 yrs; antigravity, practical use of gravity waves; interstellar travel; substantial lunar or planetary bases or colonies; and discovery of extraterrestrial life and, possibly, communication with extraterrestrial intelligence. (Kahn, Wiener, A&A, 12/67,28-p-8)
Calculation of effective radiated power by measurement of signal strength from eleven orbiting military communications satellites was accomplished by AFCRL; two satellites exhibited below standard response. Measurements, made at 401 megacycles, were carried out at the 84-ft parabolic antenna facility, Sagamore Hill Radio Observatory, Mass. (OAR Res Rev, 12/67,4)
Development of a laser system for detecting small variations in moon's motion, and for measuring earth-moon distances to within two meters was reported by AFCRL. A laser beam would be directed at a reflector placed on lunar surface; reflected light would be detected. (OAR Res Rev, 12/67,5)
“Mars: A New World to Explore” article appears in National Geographic Magazine
- December
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