Dec 29 1972
From The Space Library
Lunar scientists at Manned Spacecraft Center told press they had not yet been able to determine from study of Apollo 17 lunar samples whether orange soil found on lunar surface proved existence of lunar volcanic activity. Dr. Wallace C. Phinney, Chief of MSC Geologic Branch, said soil had no "distinct evidence of alteration" as from steam or sulfur gas in volcanic action. "As to what caused the orange coloration, we must wait until we have more chemistry. The most interesting thing is it has very fine grain soil samples, greater than 90 percent in glass." Dr. Paul Gast, Chief of Planetary and Earth Sciences, said glass could indicate volcanic or other crust-related activities. Soil was not particularly rich in water or sulfur, properties associated with volcanic action. (UPI, W Star & News, 12/30/72, A3)
Ames Research Center announced successful completion of $30- million contract with Univ. of Illinois and Burroughs Corp. for design, development, and manufacture of ILLIAC IV computer system. ILLIAC IV, most powerful computer in existence, would be integrated into large remote-access system at ARC as computation resource on nationwide Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) network. System would be accessible to universities and Government. ILLIAC IV would solve problems conventional computers could not solve economically, in global climate dynamics, distant seismic event detection, multisensor processing, fluid dynamics, and computational aerodynamics. (ARC Release 72-145)
U.S.S.R. successfully flight-tested new intercontinental missile over 6300-km (3900-mi) distance between Tyuratam in central U.S.S.R. to Kamchatka Peninsula. U.S. intelligence experts later said flight was first successful test of improved missile about as large as Soviet SS-9. (Hoffman, AP, W Star & News, 1/7/73, A5)
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