October 1965
From The Space Library
JPL Director William H. Pickering, describing MARINER IV's Mars mission in Astronautics and Aeronautics, wrote: "This mission has proven to be of immense scientific and engineering importance. New scientific information is now available on regions of the solar system never before penetrated with instruments. Observations from the vicinity of Mars suggest entirely new concepts about the nature of that planet. Spacecraft performance has shown our ability to design and construct a remotely operated device of astonishing complexity, Its continued operation establishes a standard of reliability seldom, if ever, attained. Even maintaining two-way communications over distances exceeding 100-million mi, remarkably demonstrates advances in communication technology which were not thought possible a decade ago, "The design concepts underlying Mariner date back to 1959 when the Jet Propulsion Laboratory began the Vega program. In 1960, Vega was modified to become Ranger. The Mariner series took its present form in 1961, when a mission to Venus was planned for the planetary opportunity in August 1962." (Pickering, A&A, 10/1965, 20-21)
Dr. Charles S. Sheldon, National Aeronautics and Space Council Staff, in NASC compilation of international space programs, predicted that future Soviet activities in space would include: manned circumlunar flight; development of a Soviet version of MOL; large manned stations maintained for indefinite periods by supply ferries; manned lunar landing; major new version of an interplanetary probe, notably on using Venus as a target this fall. (Normyle, Av. Wk, 10/11/65, 32)
USAF had formed a seven-member, top-level policy committee to function as chief advisory group of manned orbital laboratory (MOL) objectives and problems, reported Aviation Week and Space Technology. Chaired by Air Force Secretary Harold Brown, the committee would establish program objectives, plans, schedules, milestones, and development and test goals; make program and system changes; define major technical developments; and identify management and fiscal problems, as well as problems that affect other military departments and Government agencies. (Av, Wk, 10/4/65, 25)
"It seems clear that preeminence in aeronautics and space in the future will certainly demand a continuous evolvement of new technology," Dr. Raymond L. Bisplinghoff, Special Assistant to the NASA Administrator, said in Air Force and Space Digest, "The consequences of not having done our homework prior to undertaking a system development to meet an explicit requirement are overruns in cost and time. These costs in resources are often so high that the means must be found to evolve new technology in advance of requirements. One would conclude from this that the formulation of a responsible requirement demands an underlying body of technology, "One of the most important purposes served by the creation of technologies is to provide options in the selection of new requirements or missions. The existence of several technical options is fundamental to sound planning. Because of the many important implications of space activities, policy planners will require that they be given options. It therefore seems desirable that the development of a new branch of technology be directed toward a related class of requirements or missions rather than a single requirement. ..." (AF Mag, 10/65, 61-64)
NASA Office of Technology Utilization issued a report on metal-forming techniques currently in use in the aerospace industry including those in the experimental stage; a survey, "Handling Hazardous Materials," dealing with such oxidizers as liquid fluorine, chlorine trifluoride, nitrogen tetroxide, and ozone; a book containing 71 ideas for shop techniques and applications used successfully in space-related research at NASA centers; and a technical survey tracing significant recent progress in plasma jet technology. (NASA Releases)
USAF had ordered an additional six Titan IIIC launch vehicles for unmanned payload applications, bringing to 19 the number of firm orders, reported Aviation Week and Space Technology. (Av, Wk., 10/11/65, 23)
Dr. Krafft A. Ehricke, Director of Advanced Studies of General Dynamics Corp., in a series of talks at Evanston College, predicted several "realistic possibilities" for the 1980's and 1990's: (1) a manned space station to handle the world's communications needs, including global telephone calls complete with televised views of the speakers; (2) space vehicles to keep man informed of all weather developments, detect forest fires, and inform firefighters; (3) orbiting manned information centers to supply doctors and other scientists with data an any subject regardless of how distant they were from the source of material on earth; (4) orbiting hospitals or lunar hospitals to relieve persons suffering from certain ailments by providing gravityless or very low gravity conditions. (Chic, Trib, 10/10/65)
Dr. Walter Dornberger, Vice President for Research of Bell Aerosystems Co., former chief of German V-2 missile program, and father of the Dyna-Soar concept, was interviewed on the eve of his retirement from Bell by Claude Witze in Air Force and Space Digest. Witze said: "[Although Dornberger is] the outstanding pioneer in the development of ballistic rockets, he feels strongly that we have erred in relying on this single vehicle, with its inherent limitations," He quoted Dr. Dornberger: ".our whole approach to space is no good, if we really want to think of space as an operational area, " 'We must use a completely different approach. We must get away from this launching from pads, which costs millions and billions of dollars, to the more conventional way of taking off from a runway.' " Witze continued: "He predicts that after we have gone to the moon we will start over again, Project Apollo cannot be turned back, he says, but the next time 'we must create an environment in space that can be used by men, not only for research but for commercial and military purposes.' "This environment he is talking about is a permanent space station, one that will never come back into the atmosphere. This will require a logistics system-a recoverable, reusable space transporter to carry people and supplies back and forth to space. The Dyna-Soar was a crude but necessary step in this direction, replaced today by the concept of the aerospace plane... "The Dornberger thesis is that a manned station in near space is as practical as a military base on Okinawa, a laboratory at the South Pole, or an aircraft parts and maintenance depot in Chateauroux, Once established, all that is needed is a logistics system to keep it going. From such a space station, expeditions can be sent to the moon, or many other places in space, with engines that give a thrust of only 20,000 pounds, instead of the millions of pounds required on one-way booster trips... " Quoting Dr. Dornberger: " 'It took mankind hundreds of years to learn to use the sea, but only fifty years to use the air, Space can be used in twenty-five years, if we get started. I doubt that the use of space vehicles will be more hazardous than the use of submarines,' " (AF Mag., 10/65, 80-88)
- October
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