Nov 22 1968

From The Space Library

NASA Aerobee 150 A sounding rocket launched from NASA Wallops Station carried Univ. of Kentucky experiment to 101.7-mi (163.6-km) altitude to determine gravity preference of small white rat when subjected to artificial gravity field [see Nov. 21]. Rocket and in­strumentation performed satisfactorily. Good data were obtained. (NASA Rpt SRL)

JPL announced its astronomers had determined asteroid Icarus was about half mile in diameter and rotated every 21/2 hr, from data received dur­ing three-day series of seven microwave probes. Icarus was clocked at speeds from 36,000 mph to 1,450 mph at 4-million-mi distance-closest approach it had made to earth in 19 yr. A 450,000-w transmitter on 85-ft antenna at Goldstone Tracking Station in Mohave desert, beamed radar waves at 2,388-mc frequency. Reflected echoes were received by 210-ft antenna 14 mi away. Average radar round trip to Icarus was 43 sec. JPL radar astronomer, Dr. Richard M. Goldstein, said indications were that Icarus was "rough, even jagged, and perhaps shaped like a peach stone." Radar reflections were unable to indicate whether its sur­face was stony or metallic. If metallic, Dr. Goldstein said, its radius might be as small as 300 m; if stony, 600 m, which fixed Icarus' diam­eter at 600 to 1,200 m, with 900 m a probable figure. (NASA Release 68-197; AP, W Star, 11/20/68, A8; Goldstein, Science, 11/22/68, 903-4)

Electronic device used to monitor heart pumping performance of astro­nauts was being tested as a "potentially sensitive indicator of early transplant rejections," MSC's Dr. Charles A. Berry and Dr. Lawrence F. Dietlein told symposium of medical space scientists from 15 nations at World Health Organization in Geneva. "The device, if successful, would be ideally suited for this use." Dr. Dietlein pointed out that since no needles were used there would be no risk of infection and no risk of upsetting the delicate immunological balance of patients. (AP, Today, 11/24/68, 12A)

NAS in The Mathematical Sciences: A Report said that before World War II U.S. was consumer of mathematical talent but now was "uni­versally recognized as the leading producer." Graduate education in mathematical sciences at major U.S. centers was "far superior to that in all but two or three centers in the rest of the world," but shortage of college teachers was likely to worsen. Report recommended increased Federal support for basic research, including NASA programs, computer science, applied mathematics, graduate apprenticeships, and faculty im­provement. (Text; Schwartz, NYT, 11/24/68, 74)

Dr. Donald F. Hornig, President Johnson's Special Assistant for Science and Technology, would join Eastman Kodak Co. in "executive capac­ity" in early January, Science reported. He would also become profes­sor of chemistry at Univ. of Rochester. (Science, 11/22/68, 881)

U.S. and Romania signed agreements to exchange information on peace­ful uses of atomic energy, scientific delegations, and unclassified techni­cal literature and films. Romanian graduate students would be assigned to U.S. laboratories and universities. (Cohn, W Post, 11/21/68; El; AP, NYT, 11/24/68, 43)

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