Mar 31 1968
From The Space Library
NASA's six-week 1968 Airborne Aurora Expedition had accomplished most intensive studies ever made of northern lights and had proved dramatically value of high-altitude observatory jet transport aircraft to "stop time" near poles [see Jan. 18]. Expedition, based at Fort Churchill, Canada, with cooperation of National Research Council of Canada and managed and directed by Aim's Louis C. Haughney, had ended in mid-March. Convair 990 jet transport, carrying 13 experiments, followed underneath auroras at 550 mph, making frequent trips to north magnetic pole, north of Greenland; took 40,000 auroral photos; and recorded instrument readings on 180,000 ft of magnetic tape. Jet aircraft canceled out speed of earth's rotation by flying against it and holding constant position on night side of earth opposite sun at latitudes above 60° north. Aircraft on three occasions crossed same spot on arctic north pole end of earth's magnetic field as did NASA's Ogo IV satellite at south pole end, in 400-mi-altitude orbit over Antarctica. Measuring instruments on both satellite and aircraft were nearly identical. In another aircraft-satellite combination, on six passes aircraft measured group of auroras from below at 40,000-ft altitude while Ogo IV measured same group from above. (NASA Release 68-45; ARC Release 68-8)
Cost of spaceflight was discussed by space writer Arthur C. Clarke. As with aviation, cost would decrease as techniques improved. Reusable spacecraft, orbital refueling, and nuclear propulsion would make travel to moon, at least, "comparable in cost to that of global jet transport today." A conquest of space served no other purpose, it would provide "new mental and emotional horizons which our age needs more desperately than most people yet realize." Yet there were signs U.S. space effort was "grinding to a halt, as its initial crisis-induced momentum is exhausted." U.S. might well be "Sputniked" again in early 1970s. (Clarke, H Chron, 3/31/68; LA Times, 3/31/68)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
