Aug 11 1967
From The Space Library
NASA Aerobee 150 sounding rocket launched from WSMR carried ARC-instrumented payload to 88-mi (141-km) altitude to collect for analysis meteoritic debris during the peak of meteor shower. Three deployable module support arms held four module trays each, to entrap meteoritic debris. Rocket and instrumentation performed satisfactorily. (NASA Rpt SRL)
OGO "handlers" were hoping that Ogo IV (launched July 28) might be economical enough with its gas supply to permit it to continue for one year at the peak of its investigative capabilities. Achievement of one-year performance would enable satellite to gather data on earth, its upper atmosphere, and its near-space environment during period of peak solar activity, which occurs every 11 yrs. Ogo IV's gas system, used to supply thrust to series of small attitude-stabilized jets, had been improved by installation of gas bottle filled with krypton instead of argon. This increased gas pressure from 3,000 psi to 4,000 psi and doubled available impulse from 900 to 1,800 pound-seconds. NASA reported that if present gas expenditure rate were maintained they were assured the minimum 50 days of three-axis stabilized operation that would permit mission success. (NASA Release 67-210)
Universities should not rely so heavily on NASA and DOD to advance and support basic science, Cal Tech president Lee A. DuBridge suggested in Science. A moderate fraction of these agencies' budgets was necessarily used to advance basic research, he said, and in the space program the resulting technologies are providing a valuable tool for carrying on scientific investigations which would otherwise be impossible. However, it must . . . be stressed that neither NASA nor any other agency charged with implementing a national-policy goal is intended to be a philanthropic agency authorized to provide benefactions to university science departments. They are agencies seeking to get a job done, and they turn to universities only when the universities can render a service. . . ." DuBridge urged that Federal Government develop a more adequate and balanced program for strengthening basic science by charging "suitable agencies (principally the National Science Foundation) with this particular task" and providing adequate funds for carrying it out. (DuBridge, Science, 8/11/67,648-50)
Commercial applications of a miniaturized TV aerial developed by USAF after four years of research were being explored by at least 100 electronic companies, Jack Gould reported in the New York Times. Firms believed device, originally developed for military communications, might accommodate public preference for small antennas without sacrificing picture quality. Inventor Edwin M. Turner, attached to the Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB, told the press that the "heart" of the miniaturized antenna was the use of transistors. (Gould, NYT, 8/12/67, 27)
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