Feb 28 1975
From The Space Library
The preliminary design review of Space Shuttle Orbiter 102 for the first manned orbital flight was completed on schedule. (NASA Gen Mgmt Rev Rpt, 17 March 75, 39)
Energy Research and Development Administration announced the award of a $2 612 000 contract to Hughes Aircraft Co.'s Hughes Research Laboratories to develop a new mercury valve for use in high voltage direct-current transmission. The liquid-metal plasma valve was a spinoff from a spacecraft ion engine developed by Hughes for NASA. The valve, a single-anode device that fired a vacuum are on signal, would be used to convert between alternating current and direct current at the terminals of high-voltage direct-current transmission lines. (ERLA Release 75-25)
Soviet and French scientists had completed the "Araks" study of the earth's magnetically interlinked points, Izvestiya reported, by observing what happened when a bundle of electrons was artificially injected into the magnetosphere. French Eridan sounding rockets equipped with electron accelerators, plasma generators, and instruments for measuring and recording wave radiation and particle streams-were launched on 26 Jan. and 15 Feb. 1975 from Kerguelen Island. During the ascent the accelerator emitted electron impulses at various angles to the line of magnetic force while the plasma generator emitted a stream of cesium plasma to compensate for the positive charge of the rocket.
At the same time Soviet and French specialists in Arkhangelsk Oblast made optical observations using supersensitive TV installations, photometers, and electron optical-image intensifiers. Radar and radio spectrographs in Kostroma and Vologda Oblasts observed the dispersal of radio waves and radio emission in the area where the electrons penetrated the dense strata of the atmosphere.
From the Araks data, scientists hoped to determine the true position of the magnetically interlinked spot and to learn more of the interaction between the electron bundle and its medium. (Izvestiya, FBIS-Sov,, 13 March 75, E2)
Aerodynamically designed wind-flow aids could reduce wind resistance to tractor-trailer trucks by up to 24%, NASA announced. In a series of tests conducted in 1974 at Flight Research Center, NASA and the Department of Transportation evaluated performance gains of a 15-m trailer outfitted with five different commercially available drag reduction devices and two different trailer-cab spacings. The tests had been conducted without and then with the devices, at speeds from 45 to 30 km per hour, to evaluate changes in fuel economy resulting from reductions in air drag. (NASA Release 75-39)
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