Dec 9 1977
From The Space Library
KSC announced it had selected 2 companies to negotiate a contract for a 10-yr administrative telephone system at the center, including switching equipment, telephones, cabinets, switchboards and consoles, interior wire and cable, and other equipment needed for proper operation. The contract would contain an option to purchase. Companies remaining in competition were GTE Automatic Electric and Northern Telecom, Inc.; other firms submitting proposals were Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph, and Independent Business Telephone Co. (KSC Release 207-77)
LeRC announced it had awarded a $2 895 750 contract to Teledyne Industries, Inc., of Northridge, Calif., for management, engineering, and repair services to Centaur digital computers and remote multiplexers. The cost-plus-fixed-fee contract would run for lyr beginning Nov. 1. The digital computer would work with the Centaur inertial guidance system to compute and adjust flight without ground command, permitting the Centaur to deliver its payload to a preselected orbit; the remote multiplexer would work with the digital computer to supply inflight data during launch. Centaur, first U.S. liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen high energy rocket, had been a second stage on both Atlas and Titan III. Recently it had assisted the launch of the Voyagers, and was scheduled during the coming yr to launch several commercial comsats and the Pioneer mission to Venus. LeRC would manage the Atlas-Centaur and Titan-Centaur through all phases of manufacturing, testing, and launch. Teledyne would perform its job as contractor both at Northridge and at KSC in Fla. (Lewis News, Dec 9/77, 2)
JPL reported it had assisted DFRC with an engine problem on a possible Mars reconnaissance plane, a small remotely powered vehicle (RPV) called the Mini Sniffer developed by DFRC's Dale Reed for environmental research at 100 000ft above earth's surface. The Oft aircraft with a 22ft wingspan, powered by an airless 30hp engine running on hydrazine, was the first propeller-driven plane designed to operate above 50 000ft. JPL had taken a hand when asked by DFRC to help with an engine catalyst problem; Dr. Jose Chirivella, who solved the problem, saw the possibilities of using the miniplane on Mars.
Deployment of 16 mini RPVs, 8 from each of 2 carrier spacecraft, over Mars so that each could make 5 or more separate takeoffs and landings in different locations, could achieve a total of 80 possible missions. The carriers, orbiting about Mars, would serve as comsats to collect data from the mini RPVs for relay to earth.
The Martian RPVs would be instrumented to collect seismographic, meteorological, and geochemical data; they would conduct aerial magnetic and gravity surveys, take high-resolution photos, look for subsurface water, and study the speed and direction of winds and the pressure and density of the atmosphere. They might also collect surface samples from widely separated areas, storing them at a central location for return to earth by later missions. The small craft could be folded into 3m-long canisters protected by coverings that would fall away when parachutes unfolded to support the vehicles as they opened out to flight configuration for descent and cruise through the lower Martian atmosphere, landing like helicopters under power from variable-thrust retrorockets. (JPL Universe, Dec 9/77, 1)
LaRC reported on a recent visit to Buenos Aires, Argentina, by its Boeing 737 research aircraft outfitted with a new microwave landing system being demonstrated for FAA by a NASA team. The trip was scheduled during an Inter-American Telecommunications Conference sponsored by the Organization of American States that had invited the FAA to demonstrate the landing system. Part of the LaRC team flew to Buenos Aires on a C-5A packed with support equipment for the 737, including their own power supply; the rest of the team flew on the 737 with stops in Puerto Rico, Belem, and Rio de Janeiro. The 44-member team operated from 2 airports during its visit: the demonstration flights went from Ezeiza airport 21mi outside the city to the Aeroparque George Newbery in mid-town near the Rio de la Plata. The LaRC plane made 68 landings with the system, 56 of them automatic, and demonstrated it to more than 100 persons including officials from Argentina and other countries, and the press. Jack Reeder, chief of the terminal configured vehicle (TCV) program, said the team made the first automatic landing at the Buenos Aires airport and the first automatic landing by a commercial plane. (Langley Researcher, Dec 9/77, 3)
JSC reported on the medical evaluations of astronaut applicants for which the center's Flight Medicine Clinic had been responsible. The evaluation had four parts: the medical history (illness, injuries, surgery, etc.); a thorough physical exam; specialty evaluations (neurology, otorhinolaryngology, ophthalmology, etc.); and special tests such as the treadmill, pulmonary function test, and audiometry and body chemistry examinations. (JSC Roundup, Dec 9/77, 1)
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