Mar 21 1974
From The Space Library
The success of Skylab's Apollo Telescope Mount solar experiment was more than a milestone in space exploration, Dr. John Eddy, solar physicist of the Boulder, Colo., High Altitude Observatory, said in a New Scientist article. This battery of the world's most advanced telescopes lofted to the ideal observation site had clarified previous theoretical sketches of the vertical extent of the sun's chromospheric structures. Spicules, which outlined the giant circulation cells of the chromosphere and extended through the transition region, disappeared at temperatures of 1 million K in the low corona, suggesting that the magnetic field lines diverged in the corona.
First results from the ATM x-ray observations destroyed the common concept of a homogeneous background corona, which had served as a basis of modern coronal physics, and revealed that the corona was com-posed almost entirely of closed loop structures fitting magnetic field lines calculated from observed photospheric fields.
Reasons for the ATM success included the large-scale and highly sophisticated instruments, large data-storage capability, efficiency of instrument operation, operation of the six instruments in concert, extensive ground support, and astronaut interest and training. Program results would be shared by scientists in many countries and the program appeared a good investment, in scientific yield per dollar spent. (New Scientist, 21 March 74, 738-741)
Dr. James C. Fletcher, NASA Administrator, testified in FY 1975 NASA au-thorization hearings before the House Committee on Science and Astronautics that NASA supercritical wing technology was "ready now for both military and commercial people to pick up and use."
Dr. Rocco A. Petrone, Associate Administrator, said demonstration tests for solar heating and cooling under way at Marshall Space Flight Center [see 11 Jan.] would provide enough baseline data within one year to 18 mos to install the system in a significant number of homes. (Transcript)
George Cunningham, paralyzed from the neck down in a high school foot-ball game, was the first quadriplegic to use a device developed for astronauts disabled in space, the Baltimore Sun reported. He could place a telephone call, control a radio or TV, open the curtains in his hospital room, or call the nurses' station by blowing into a tube. The device, Nu-Life, made up of two tiny video display screens and a miniature computer, was operated by inhaling and exhaling into a plastic tube or con-trolled by eye rotation, a turn of the head, or a touch of the tongue. (AP, B Sun, 21 March 74, A3)
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