Apr 14 1978
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (1MB PDF)
NASA announced successful launch of a FltSatCom-A Feb. 9 on an Atlas-Centaur from ETR's launch complex 36 at 1617:01hr EDT. Transfer-orbit parameters were 35 968.5km apogee, 167.20km perigee, and 26.4° inclination. NASA had fired the apogee-kick motor on Feb. 11 to inject the spacecraft into the desired synchronous orbit. All spacecraft systems were operating normally. (MOR M-491-202-78-01 [postlaunch] Apr 14/78)
NASA announced that the Jupiter-bound Voyager 2 was having problems with both its radio receivers that prevented Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers from sending commands to the spacecraft. Early spacecraft data had indicated failure of one receiver, and the backup receiver might have had trouble receiving commands from earth; the spacecraft had continued sending information to earth. The Voyager had been designed to switch radio receivers if it had not received earth command for 7 days; the receiver that appeared to have failed had been the one on-line, and in 7 days the spacecraft computer should automatically switch to the backup receiver. Engineers would then attempt to reestablish communications by sending commands to the spacecraft. (NASA Release 78-56)
The Voyager 2 spacecraft had accepted a command, the W Star reported, ending a week-long radio failure that had threatened its mission to Jupiter and Saturn. To protect the mission, engineers at JPL had begun reprogramming the spacecraft's onboard computer "so it will still do its science when it passes Jupiter and send back the results whether we can talk to it or not," said JPL spokesman Frank Bristow. Earlier in Apr., the spacecraft had automatically switched from the primary to secondary receiver because Voyager had not received an uplink from tracking stations for 7 days; the commands had not been sent because controllers had been preoccupied with scan-platform problems on Voyager 1. Controllers were reviewing their activities to pinpoint why they had overlooked an uplink, to ensure the lapse would not recur during the mission. (W Star, Apr 14/78, A-7; Av Wk, Apr 17/78, 20)
Scientists at JPL had assisted UCLA doctors in treating tumors with heat therapy, or hyperthermia, JPL Universe reported. While other researchers were exploring various ways of treating cancer with heat, UCLA neurosurgeon Robert Rand and veterinary radiologist Harold Snow had developed the concept of using a magnetic field to focus intense heat on specific diseased organs without damaging surrounding tissue or other parts of the body; To get the complex equipment required to test the theory, the doctors had enlisted the help of JPL scientists Dr. David Elliott and Glenn Haskins.
Dr. Rand had reasoned that, if heat would aid destruction of cancer cells, applying heat to an organ injected with magnetic material might more effectively deaden the tumor and any peripheral cancer cells. He asked Elliott and Haskins to design a magnetic heating system and build the equipment to see whether isolated organs could be heated. The JPL scientists had created a field coil to surround a patient's body, generating a 0.1 tesla (1,000 gauss) magnetic field at a frequency of 5000Hz to heat a magnetized organ to temperatures up to 55C for approximately 5min. Initial tests on rabbits had elevated the temperature of an isolated organ as anticipated; further testing on dogs would determine if the method worked on larger subjects. (JPL Universe, Apr 14/78, 2)
The NASA 928 aircraft, Johnson Space Center's high-altitude WB-57F operated by its Aircraft Operations Division for DOE, had made 2 flights for the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), JSC Roundup reported, to support research on the transfer of pollutants from the troposphere to the stratosphere in the vicinity of jet streams. The plane had taken air samples at altitudes between 35 000 and 60 000ft and measured the samples with onboard sensors: the stratospheric Aitken-nuclei detector, and the ozone monitor. The former would determine concentration and size of Aitken nuclei, considered tracers for tropospheric air, and the ozone monitor would determine the concentration of ozone, a tracer of stratospheric air; Nuclei-detector data superimposed on ozone-monitor data would define pollutant transfer. NCAR would analyze the data and reimburse JSC for the cost of the flights.
NASA-928 aircraft, equipped with various sensors, were used primarily to determine concentrations of radioactive particulates and gases and other trace constituents at several altitudes in the upper atmosphere (40 000 to 65 000ft). (JSC Roundup, Apr 14/78, 1)
JPL's Edward Divita would be featured speaker at a meeting on nuclear waste disposal in Los Angeles Apr. 18, sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society. Divita, a professional nuclear engineer who had performed several radiation studies of nuclear and space systems, analyzing and assessing the various disposal options, would speak on "Technical Status of Salt Bed, Sea Bed, and Space Waste Disposal." (JPL Universe, Apr 14/78, 1)
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