January 1969
From The Space Library
Listen to NASA Special Report #51
JPL Senior Staff Scientist Albert R. Hibbs summarized results of NASA'S Surveyor program in Astronautics and Aeronautics. Experiments on five Surveyor spacecraft which successfully landed on moon between May 30, 1966, and Jan. 7, 1968, indicated surface material was granular and very fine with 10 3 dynes/cm2 cohesion. Slightly deeper material had lower normal albedo than undisturbed surface. Chemical composition of surface material was similar to basaltic rocks on earth; mare material contained more iron elements than highland material; and highland material had higher albedo than mare material. Chemical analyses indicated material did not resemble chondritic meteorites. From observed data scientists concluded that moon had undergone significant chemical differentiation during its history and had been subjected to basaltic lava flows; surface was continually being "churned and pulverized" by meteoroid impacts; some undefined process lightened optical surface and darkened buried material; and mare areas were "surprisingly similar and offer numerous safe-landing zones for future lunar missions." (A&A, 1/69, 50-63)
U.S.S.R. was testing 150-ton, 250-passenger "compound" helicopter, American Broadcasting Co. reported. Largest helicopter in Western world was 19-ton Sikorsky CH-54H Flying Crane. Soviet 47-ton Mi-10 was world's largest. New compound helicopter had wings that assumed lifting function from rotors at cruising speed; it obtained most of its thrust from conventional propulsion when it converted from vertical to cruising flight. Sikorsky had proposed 32.5-ton compound helicopter to DOD and U.S. civilian transportation authorities. (NYT, 1/12/69, S23)
MIT scientist Dr. Jerome B. Wiesner in Technology Review said reorganization and strengthening of Federal mechanisms for planning and supporting R&D was only solution to "present antagonisms and . . . skepticism" about the value of a continued high level of R&D support. He proposed new agency with NSF at core for planning R&D and to "indicate resource allocation for all public endeavors, including foreign aid and national security." (Technology Review, 1/69, 15-17)
Systems approach was needed in applying "human and technological resources to domestic problems," Space/Aeronautics said. Growth areas for aerospace industry spinoff included urban, environmental, surface-transportation, medical, and ocean systems. Lessons to be learned in dealing with these systems were: (1) massive problems required efforts on massive scale; (2) R&D cycle for civil system was always longer than political cycle being counted on to support it; and (3) even when system was built jurisdictional prerogatives could "make a mess of the implementation." Aerospace companies should employ their capabilities "to assess their experience in high technology and their managerial skills" and apply experience "to new systems challenges." (S/A, 1/69, 106-7)
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