Jun 29 1973
From The Space Library
The importance of exercise in space was stressed by Skylab 2 Astronaut Charles Conrad, Jr., at a Johnson Space Center Skylab crew press conference: "I do think that the bicycle ergometer . . . contributed to our well being." Subsequent Skylab crews "probably should exercise longer periods of time, and ... add to the exercise some muscular ex-ercises rather than strictly cardiovascular." Dr. Joseph P. Kerwin said that "it was a continuous and pleasant surprise" to find out "how easy it was to live in zero-g, and how good you felt. It's easy to move, it's easy to work." He said that future missions could go on open-ended as long as the individual crew member could "pool a reasonable amount of blood in his legs . . . and provided his response to exercise, his appetite, his body weight, general feeling of well being, and ability to do work" continued without significant change. Paul J. Weitz said that the easy adjustment in space was due partially to the "extremely high fidelity equipment" on which they trained. "There were many times that you could look around and you really didn't know . . . if you were in the trainer or you were in the vehicle." There was no difference in the extravehicular activity, it could just as well have been in the water tank because of the good training gear. (Transcript)
Explorer 48 Small Astronomy Satellite, launched for NASA by an Italian crew from the San Marco Facility Nov. 16, 1972, was adjudged a suc-cess. It had satisfied its primary objective of measuring the spatial and energy distribution of primary galactic and extragalactic gamma radia-tion for six months. Explorer 48 had observed a weak but finite compo-nent of high-energy gamma ray photons at galactic latitudes greater than 20° and a positive flux of gamma rays from the Crab Nebula, established as a source of 60 to 200 mev radiation. Spacecraft-control-section performance had excelled except for a de-graded star sensor. An anomaly in the experiment readout system in late May had caused some degradation in the scientific data and a June failure in the experiment low-voltage power-supply circuitry had halted experiment data transmission. The first anomaly had corrected itself; attempts were being made to correct the second. (NASA prog off)
President Nixon issued Executive Order 11726 from San Clemente, Calif., establishing a Federal Office of Energy Policy. He announced the ap-pointment of Colorado Gov. John A. Love as its Director and released a statement outlining a $10-billion, five-year program for energy re-search and development. The President established a goal for the next 12 mos for energy consumption reduction of 5% nationwide, and 7% within the Federal Government. (PD, 6/7/73, 867-75)
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