Oct 7 1973
From The Space Library
October 7-13: The International Astronautical Federation (AF) held its 24th Congress in Baku, U.S.S.R. In a message of greeting, the Soviet Council of Ministers said: "Nowadays, when important positive changes take place in international situations, ever more favourable opportuni-ties for development of scientific communication, exchange of experi-ence and uses of scientific achievements for practical needs of mankind open to scientists."
Academician Sergey Vernov of the Soviet Academy of Sciences said Soviet artificial satellites, placed simultaneously in different orbits, had facilitated studies of many regions of earth's radia-tion belts, including those where no space station had been before. He hypothesized the existence of an "unstable radiation zone" beyond the outer radiation belt where Soviet Electron satellites had recorded a flux of electrons with energies over 150 000 ev. He believed the zone to be a necessary link in the formation of the earth's radiation belts. Honorary guests Astronaut Thomas P. Stafford, U.S. Apollo Soyuz Test Project commander, and Soviet Cosmonauts Georgy T. Beregovoy, Vitaly I. Sevastyanov, and Vladimir A. Shatalov participated in an open discussion. Shatalov, head of cosmonaut training, said the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. could be good and equal partners in conquering space. Stafford said cooperation in ASTP had already solved colossal technical problems. "And if we can solve problems in space we can, consequently, solve considerable problems on earth." Soviet scientists reported on a man-plant interaction experiment in which four researchers spent six months in a closed biological environ-ment simulating the earth's biosphere.
The Siberian test project, spon-sored by the Krasnoyarsk Institute of Physics, had demonstrated that man could live in an artificial atmosphere created by green algae, fast-growing wheat, and a variety of vegetables. The plants had been irri-gated with sewage waste and with condensed moisture from the atmosphere. The researchers had breathed oxygen released by the plants, eaten the vegetables, and baked bread from the wheat during a simulated space trip in an underground chamber. A paper by Soviet specialists reported that an electric field might divert a flux of charged particles from a spacecraft. The spacecraft's exterior surface might act as one of the field's electrodes while the vacuum of outer space acted as an insulating medium, providing an effective radiation shield.
Dr. Ernst Stuhlinger, Marshall Space Flight Center Associate Director for Science, cochaired two sessions on sci-entific spacecraft systems. The 7th International History of Astronautics Symposium included the papers "From Back Fire to Explorer I" by Dr. Kurt H. Debus, Director, Kennedy Space Center; "R. H. Goddard: Accomplishments of the Roswell Years (1930-1941)" by Frederick C. Durant III, As-sistant Director for Astronautics, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution; "High Energy Propulsion at NACA Lewis En-gine Research Laboratory" by John L. Sloop, former NASA Assistant Associate Administrator for Aeronautics and Space Technology; and "Early Photography from Rockets" by Frank H. Winter of the Air and Space Museum. Dr. Maxime A. Faget, Johnson Space Center Director of Engineering and Development, received the 1973 Daniel and Florence Guggenheim International Astronautics Award of the International Academy of Astronautics for "playing a major role in developing the basic ideas and original design concepts that have been incorporated into all the manned spacecraft flown by the United States. . . . An expert on ve-hicles suitable for reentering the Earth's atmosphere, he is particularly noted for his contributions to the basic configuration of the command module and to the development of the pressure-fed hypergolic engines used on the Apollo modules." The meeting, attended by 1500 scientists from 29 countries, elected Dr. Charles Stark Draper, Director of the Charles Stark Draper Labora-tory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, IAF President. (Tass, FBIS-Sov, 10/8/73; MSFC Release 73-137; NASA Release 73-200; NASA Hist Off; Agence France-Presse, W Post, 10/12/73, A30)
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