Feb 14 1975
From The Space Library
High-temperature core reactors, fueled by fissioning uranium plasmas, could be used to "burn up" or eliminate radioactive wastes produced in the fission process, NASA announced. In a NASA sponsored program to develop advanced nuclear-powered rocket propulsion, scientists had found that long-lived radioactive wastes could be transformed into harmless materials by bombarding them with neutrons. The uranium-compound fuel could be circulated and returned to the reactor to burn up the materials produced in the fuel. Computer analyses showed that a gaseous fuel reactor could establish a balance in rates of production and elimination of the waste produced after 3 yr of operation; once this equilibrium was established, no additional long-lived radioactive wastes would be produced. The gaseous fuel reactor also could be designed to burn wastes from conventional nuclear-fission reactors. (NASA Release 75-44; Schneider et al., Nuclear Technology, Sept 75, 34-50)
Marshall Space Flight Center announced the award of a 10-mo $149 325 contract to Econ, Inc., to study the technical and economic feasibility of two different solar power plants, both in space and on the ground, and compare them with conventional terrestrial plants expected to exist in the future. The first system was an orbiting system which would generate electrical power from the sun and transmit it to industries and cities on earth. A second kind of solar-power generating system, located on a remote area of the earth, could transfer power via an earth-orbiting satellite to users thousands of kilometers away. Econ, Inc., would use results from earlier concept studies to define requirements for payload packaging, development and checkout, and resupply for launch on the Space Shuttle. (MSFC Release 75-37)
The government of Indonesia selected Hughes Aircraft Corp. to build a satellite communications system linking 120 million residents of the Indonesian islands. Under the $23:6-million contract signed in Jakarta, Hughes would build two satellites, a master control system, and nine earth stations. Thirty additional stations would be built to Hughes specifications by two other U.S. firms. The satellites were tentatively scheduled for launch in fall 1976. (LA Times, 16 Feb 75)
14 February-17 June: Flight Research Center flew 16 flights using an instrumented B-57 to gather detailed information on jet streams, thermal turbulence, and mountain waves over the western U.S. as part of the Measurement for Atmospheric Turbulence program. Onboard instruments measured velocity and acceleration in the various samples as the B-57 flew through the turbulence for 10 min on a straight-line course at altitudes up to 15 000 m. Langley Research Center, which had been making similar flights over the eastern U.S. since March 1974, would analyze the data for use in making future aircraft safer in turbulent air. (FRC Release 4-75)
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