Mar 31 1968
From The Space Library
NASA's six-week 1968 Airborne Aurora Expedition had accomplished most intensive studies ever made of northern lights and had proved dramatically value of high-altitude observatory jet transport aircraft to "stop time" near poles [see Jan. 18]. Expedition, based at Fort Churchill, Canada, with cooperation of National Research Council of Canada and managed and directed by Aim's Louis C. Haughney, had ended in mid-March. Convair 990 jet transport, carrying 13 experiments, followed underneath auroras at 550 mph, making frequent trips to north magnetic pole, north of Greenland; took 40,000 auroral photos; and recorded instrument readings on 180,000 ft of magnetic tape. Jet aircraft canceled out speed of earth's rotation by flying against it and holding constant position on night side of earth opposite sun at latitudes above 60° north. Aircraft on three occasions crossed same spot on arctic north pole end of earth's magnetic field as did NASA's Ogo IV satellite at south pole end, in 400-mi-altitude orbit over Antarctica. Measuring instruments on both satellite and aircraft were nearly identical. In another aircraft-satellite combination, on six passes aircraft measured group of auroras from below at 40,000-ft altitude while Ogo IV measured same group from above. (NASA Release 68-45; ARC Release 68-8)
Cost of spaceflight was discussed by space writer Arthur C. Clarke. As with aviation, cost would decrease as techniques improved. Reusable spacecraft, orbital refueling, and nuclear propulsion would make travel to moon, at least, "comparable in cost to that of global jet transport today." A conquest of space served no other purpose, it would provide "new mental and emotional horizons which our age needs more desperately than most people yet realize." Yet there were signs U.S. space effort was "grinding to a halt, as its initial crisis-induced momentum is exhausted." U.S. might well be "Sputniked" again in early 1970s. (Clarke, H Chron, 3/31/68; LA Times, 3/31/68)
During March: Special ESSA task force recommended environmental science and service agencies take early, joint steps toward national effort for development and use of earth-oriented space technology. In Man's Geophysical Environment: Its Study from Space, task force predicted future space platforms would be able to acquire global geophysical data on unprecedented scale for environmental disciplines. It recommended combination of manned and unmanned space vehicles-rather than either alone-and warned that orbiting environmental observatories might provide data too rapidly for effective use unless data handling and display improvements were begun in immediate future. It rated highly spacecraft capability to service and repair manned spacecraft in orbit, to provide semiautomatic mode to operate manned spacecraft after flight crew left, and to launch subsatellites, special probes, and recoverable capsules from orbit. Among proposals for missions were continuous monitoring of space disturbances to predict spaceflight hazards, global ionospheric mapping, global noise and interference survey, global measurements of absolute ground and sea surface temperatures and surface roughness, and surveys of snow areas, river and lake ice distribution, rain and river gauging, shoals, and sea states. (Text)
NRC Committee on Polar Research, established in 1958 to continue research begun by NAS during International Geophysical Year, began review of significant results of past research efforts, to pinpoint scientific questions that should be studied in either of polar regions during next few years, and to make recommendations on national research goals. (NAS-NRC-NAE News Report, 3/68, 2)
Strong arguments in favor of Europe's making comsats "focal point" of space activity were presented in Spaceflight by spacewriter Arthur C. Clarke, former chairman of British Interplanetary Society. "Reliable domestic radio services are not available over most of the world. Long distance services are of poor quality . . . [and] by 1970, there will be 130 million VHF sets in the world, many of which could pick up direct radio broadcasts from satellites." U.K., he said, "certainly cannot do everything in space. But what we should not tolerate is the apparently invincible ignorance of those who think that nothing in space is worth doing. . . . Our space achievements will be our greatest legacy to the future. Indeed they will create that future. They will make it possible to have a future." (Clarke, SF, 3/68, 78-84)
Effects of manned space flight program on communities surrounding NASA space flight centers were discussed in Monthly Labor Review. South had gained most from 1967 decision to proceed with Apollo Program. Total civil service and contractor employment increase of 66,000 in five states bordering Gulf of Mexico was about 5% of area's increase in total nonagricultural employment. However, economic significance of program had not been uniform. Employment at Mississippi Test Facility exceeded half of total employment in Hancock County in 1966, while space employment in Houston, Texas, was less than 2% of total employment. Space employment accounted for slightly more than 7% of total employment growth in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi since 1961. Employment growth brought population growth, caused expansion of school facilities and faculties, raised per capita income, and increased retail sales. Beginning decline of employment in program in 1966 had moderated economic growth, and if funding continued to decline after 1968 communities would have to adjust to sharply contracting employment. (Holman, Konkel, Monthly Labor Review, 3/68, 30-6)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
