Jun 20 1975
From The Space Library
Dr. Harold Brown, President of California Institute of Technology, announced the appointment of Dr. Bruce C. Murray as Director of Jet Propulsion Laboratory, succeeding Dr. William H. Pickering who was retiring after 21 yr in the position.
Dr. Murray, a Caltech professor of planetary sciences for 15 yr, had also been a researcher on JPL space missions for more than 10 yr. He was completing scientific descriptions of Venus and Mercury from Mariner 10 data, gathered during a February 1974 encounter with the planet, and comparing the surface histories of Mercury, Venus, Mars, and the moon with the history of the earth.
Dr. Pickering had been with JPL since 1944 and had served as its Director since 1954. As Director, Dr. Pickering led JPL in designing and building the first orbiting U.S. satellite, Explorer 1 (launched 31 Jan. 1958). Also under his leadership, JPL had designed the Ranger, Surveyor, and Mariner spacecraft that were launched to gather information on the moon and nearby planets. (NASA Release 75-179)
Sen. Frank E. Moss (D -Utah) introduced, for himself and Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.), S. 1987, the President's bill [see also 9 June] to "strengthen staff capabilities for providing advice and assistance to the President with respect to scientific and technological considerations affecting national policies and programs." The proposed bill would create an Office of Science and Technology Policy within the Executive Office of the President.
The bill was referred jointly to the Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, Committee on Commerce, and Committee on Labor and Public Welfare. S. 1987 was similar to H.R. 7830 introduced 11 June by Rep. Olin E. Teague (D-Tex.) in the House of Representatives. (CR, 20 June 75, 511117)
Marshall Space Flight Center announced the formation of a solar heating and cooling task team to support requests made by the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA). The task team, under the leadership of Donald R. Bowden, would direct MSFC's role in ERDA's program to demonstrate heating and cooling applications of solar energy. The team would. acquire examples of existing solar heating and cooling- systems and would direct additional development of these systems to increase efficiency and lower costs.
ERDA had authorized approximately $50 million to MSFC for work which would cover 5 yr and use 100 persons at MSFC. (MSFC Release 75-130).
Indecision and lack of a national policy had prevented the U.S. from having its own domestic communications satellite system after 9 yr of planning, a Washington Star article quoted Communications Satellite Corp. President Joseph V. Charyk as saying. In less than 10 yr a global comsat system developed under U.S. leadership was carrying more than two-thirds of the world's transocean communications. Canada had had its own since 1972. The problem, Charyk said, was that, after the success of the global system, "everybody wanted in." Companies, including American Telephone & Telegraph Co., Western Union Telegraph Co., Hughes Aircraft Co., RCA Corp., and Fairchild Industries, Inc., expressed interest in developing a domestic system. The Federal Communications Commission, whose job it was to decide who would operate such a system, seemed only intent upon keeping ComSatCorp and AT&T from dominating the field. Quoting Charyk, the Star said the net effect of this lack of a positive policy by the White House, Congress, and the regulatory agencies was that all the U.S. had to date were two or three earth stations using reproductions of the Canadian system.
Despite the problems, Charyk said that two of ComSatCorp's domestic programs were nearing operational stages: Marisat, a maritime comsat planned for a summer 1975 launch, and Comstar 1, scheduled for launch in 1976. ComSatCorp would also participate with several European countries and Canada in the Aerosat program to test the use of comsats for aircraft navigation.
However, Charyk said that, under the "open skies" policies of the FCC , ComSatCorp had no guarantees of permanent service. "It is `hard to get customers with these rules in effect." (Snider, W Star, 20 June 75, D7)
A digital Stol and navigation, guidance, control, and display system in an augmentor wing aircraft (a modified C-8A Buffalo) guided the aircraft to an automatic landing at the short-takeoff-and-landing (STOL)
test facility at Crows Landing, near Patterson, Calif. The automatic landing, first for a STOL aircraft, was a milestone in the flight acceptance of the Stoland system being developed by Sperry Flight Systems under contract to Ames Research Center. The system would be tested on other STOL aircraft. (ARC Astrogram, 17 July 75, 2)
A Science magazine article detailed some early findings from the Atlantic Tropical Experiment (GATE) of the Global Atmospheric Research Program (GARP). GATE, a 72-nation research effort during the summer of 1974 to gather meteorological information on the tropics, found very few cumulus clouds. Clouds in weather disturbances tended to be grouped in patterns, usually in roughly linear bands. Prior to GATE the only visible indicators of these weather disturbance patterns were cloud clusters seen on satellite photographs, but the details were unknown; GATE demonstrated that these clusters were high cirrus clouds that formed above the weather disturbance and might persist long after the rain clouds themselves had dissipated. The organization of active rain clouds then came under intensive study as the essential feature of atmospheric convection.
Although scientists had previously thought that cloud bases formed at a given level in the atmosphere, clouds in the GATE area were found to form at many different altitudes; many did not reach the heights often associated with tropical cumulus clouds until the latter part of the summer. The strength of weather disturbances intensified during the experiment, indicating that the tropical atmosphere probably altered over the course of the summer as its moisture content and convection increased, causing the clouds to grow taller as higher and higher levels of the atmosphere were warmed.
GATE scientists also investigated the air layer between the cloud bases and the sea surface, finding that the subcloud layer was profoundly altered by the passage of a cloud. Warm moist air taken up into the cloud to fuel the convection was replaced by cooler drier air from higher in the atmosphere. Scientists believed that the resulting mix might explain cloud spacing and lifetime, and might indicate a continually changing subcloud layer in marked contrast to conditions prevailing in fair weather. GATE experiments documented the existence of atmospheric waves in the tropics and showed that weather disturbances developed near the low-pressure portion of the wave.
Scientists also discovered a peculiar rapid meandering of the equatorial undercurrent-an intense eastward flowing stream 100 m below the sea surface at the equator-that shifted north and south about 1° in latitude on either side of the equator with an apparent period of 16 days. (Hammond, Science, 20 June 75, 1195-98)
Kennedy Space Center announced the award of a $6 473 074 fixed price indefinite-quantity contract to Modular Computer Systems, Inc., for minicomputers and associated equipment and services for the Space Shuttle. The contract included $4 226 646 in hardware and services already ordered and $2 246 428 in additional hardware. Modular Computer Systems would supply minicomputers, peripheral equipment, special interface devices, associated software, engineering and maintenance support, spares, and documentation. (KSC Release 114-75)
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