Oct 15 1980
From The Space Library
NASA reported that it had begun a three-year program with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources using Landsat Data to detect gypsy-moth damage. Under an agreement signed recently, the data would identify and locate damage so that subsequent satellite images could be used to monitor affected areas. Foresters could identify infestations and isolate areas for pest management.
Results would be passed on to other states in the eastern United States that could use the techniques to control spread of gypsy-moth damage initially mapped in New England in 1910. Damage to hardwood forests in Pennsylvania over the past 10 years was an estimated $32 million; in 1980 alone, gypsy moth caterpillars defoliated 440,000 acres of hardwood forest, (NASA Release 80-155)
MSFC reported that it had recovered scientific packages launched from Palestine, Tex., on two 30-story-tall balloons after both balloons "by a remarkable coincidence" floated directly over the Alabama center. The 300-foot balloons traveled 20-35 mph about 23 miles up. Dr. Gerald Fishman, of MSFC's space science laboratory, said that it was "almost unbelievable" that the payloads flew over the center after drifting some 700 miles. MSFC had run a research balloon program for seven years, but not one balloon had ever come over the center, much less two.
The two experiments were also the most successful, Fishman said, recording more than 28 hours of gamma-ray data and more than 38 hours of cosmic-ray data. The first, which had been launched October 6 with a gamma-ray package, was seen by unaided eyes over MSFC about 1:30 p.m. October 7; MSFC scientists tracked it and took pictures by telescope. The second, launched October 7 with a cosmic-ray detector, flew over about 3 a.m. October 8. Both balloons were tracked by a telemetry station on Redstone Arsenal that received experiment data. A National Scientific Balloon Facility team recovered the gamma-ray package after it came to Earth near Roanoke, Va., and then sought the cosmic-ray package in a heavily wooded area near Elkins, W.Va., where a helicopter retrieved it. Both packages were returned to MSFC for analysis. (MSFC Release 80-129)
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