Jul 23 1972
From The Space Library
NASA Technology Utilization Office representatives met in San Francisco with Public Technology Inc. officials and representatives of cities to review two-year joint effort to apply new technology to selected city problems. Discussed were improved protective clothing and equipment, improved detection and locating equipment for underground piping, equipment to determine presence of illegal drugs in human blood, and improved pavement patching materials that used waste matter. Meeting also discussed civil cooperation to form mass market for goods and services produced by application of new technology. Meeting prefaced July 24-26 second annual Urban Technology Conference at which NASA, other Federal agencies, and business and industry exhibited contributions to new technology. (NASA Release 72-154)
Apollo 15 Astronaut James B. Irwin said in telephone interview with Baptist Press that Apollo 15 crew "thought they were doing the best for our families" in carrying unauthorized postal covers to moon. Their decision not to accept share of proceeds from sale of covers had come about eight months before incident was reported in press [see June 18]. "We acted in haste and under the terrific pressures of the pre- and post-flight schedule-but that does not excuse it." NASA had had "no choice but to reprimand us." (AP, B Sun, 7/24/72, A5)
July 23-25: Erts 1 (ERTS-A) Earth Resources Technology Satellite was launched by NASA from Western Test Range at 11:06 am PDT by 2-stage Thor-Delta booster with nine strap-on rockets. Satellite entered circular, near-polar, sun-synchronous orbit with 906.9-km (563.6-mi) apogee, 899.7-km (559-mi) perigee, 103.2-min period, and 99.1° inclination. Primary objective was to acquire for three months synoptic, multi-spectral repetitive images from which useful data would be obtained for investigations in agriculture and forestry resources, mineral and land resources, land use, water resources, marine resources, mapping and charting, and environment. As secondary objectives Erts I would acquire complete, largely cloud- free coverage of U.S. with multispectral scanner (MSS) or return- beam-vidicon camera (RBVC) system, or both; acquire coverage over major earth land masses with MSS or RBVC; and demonstrate relay of data from remote ground-based platforms. The 941-kg (2075-1b), butterfly-shaped satellite carried RBV camera system, MSS subsystem, data-collection system (DCS), and two wide-band Video tape recorders (WBVTR). Launch was first step in merging space and remote sensing technology to manage earth resources more efficiently. Satellite would be able to cover earth with 500 pictures-1000 times fewer than 500 000 needed to cover earth from high-altitude aircraft. Each picture would cover 34 000 sq km (13 000 sq mi). Satellite would view 185-km (115-mi) strip of earth with global coverage every 18 days, crossing equator daily at about 9:30 am local time. Solar array lock-on to sun and three-axis stabilization were achieved as planned.
By July 25 instruments had been turned on and were operating satisfactorily. Initial imagery from RBVC system and MSS was excellent and showed detail. Data were being transmitted to stations at Fairbanks, Alaska; Goldstone, Calif.; and Greenbelt, Md.; and would be sent to data- processing facility at Goddard Space Flight Center. Ground station at Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, constructed and operated by Canadian government, would also receive data. Data would be distributed in form of high-quality film images or digitized data on computer-readable magnetic tape. Unlike previous unmanned programs where principal investigators had own instrumentation on board spacecraft and were responsible for own data analysis, all Erts 1 investigators had access to all data from onboard instruments. The 300 investigators from 43 states, District of Columbia, 31 foreign countries, and two international organizations would be assisted by 25 specialists assigned by NASA to analyze results. To carry out research required to evaluate satellite techniques, NASA was working with user agencies-including Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, and Interior, Environmental Protection Agency, and U.S. Corps of Engineers-and state and local organizations. Extensive cooperative earth resources projects had been established with Canada, Brazil, and Mexico, using Erts 1 and NASA earth observations aircraft. ERTS program was managed by GSFC, under direction of NASA Office of Applications. (NASA proj off; NASA Release 72-137)
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