Apr 15 1965
From The Space Library
Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) ascent engine underwent a 5-sec, test firing under ground level conditions at White Sands Missile Range. Initial indications were that the test had been successful. The 3,500-lb.thrust hypergolic engine was built by Bell Aerosystems and used a 50-50 mixture of UDMH and hydrazine for fuel and nitrogen tetroxide for the oxidizer. (MSC Roundup, 4/30/65, 1)
Vice President Hubert Humphrey wrote to Cape Kennedy technician Richard Tennis: "I understand that you are the gentleman who corrected the problem of the oxidizer leak on the Gemini-Titan [[[GT-3]]], "I simply wanted to express to you the thanks of all of us here in Washington who have watched so carefully the success of this program. It is the excellent and quick efforts of people like yourself that have made this program so successful." ( KSC Spaceport News, 4/15/65, 2)
Federal Urban Renewal Administration would approve location of the NASA Electronics Research Center in the Kendall Sq, area of Cambridge by declaring the area eligible for an urban renewal project, the Boston Globe reported. According to an unidentified Federal official, an eligibility report prepared by the Cambridge Redevelopment Authority had been approved by the New York regional office and approval from Washington, D.C, was expected soon. (Boston Globe, 4/15/65)
The Associated Press applied to FCC for recognition as "an authorized entity for the purpose of buying service from the Communications Satellite Corporation," AP was the first organization to take advantage formally of the clause in the Communications Satellite Act of 1962 that authorized ComSatCorp to furnish circuits "to the carriers and to other authorized entities, foreign and domestic," The law, however, did not define an authorized entity, also known as "authorized user" (in contrast to an "authorized carrier"). (Gould, NYT, 4/27/65, 1, 25)
A, J. Hayes, president of the International Association of Machinists, said at a Dallas briefing of industry sponsored by DOD and the National Security Industrial Association that Federal procurement officers were meddling in negotiations of labor and the aerospace industry to the extent that free collective bargaining was being eroded away. He said the affected unions would not settle this year for less than the 57-cent package in wage increases and fringe benefits recently worked out for the United Auto Workers. (AP, Denver Post, 4/15/65)
Battelle Memorial Institute reported reasons the sweet potato would be the best vegetable for a space garden: (1) it would yield a large number of calories per pound and would have a high count of vitamin A; (2) its leaves are edible, either cooked or raw; (3) under simulated space conditions, it would grow in 90 to 120 days; (4) it would give off oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide, aiding air conditions inside a spacecraft. The plan, Battelle said, would be to grow the sweet potato in a spacecraft in a soilless culture to provide fresh vegetables for astronauts. (AP, Wash, Post, 4/16/65)
A Cairo newspaper revealed that the United Arab Republic was training men for space flight. No date for a possible launching was given. (UPI, Milwaukee 4/16/65)
April 15-16: World scientists met in a special conference on the lunar surface sponsored by the International Astronomical Union and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center at Greenbelt, Md. Noting areas of disagreement among scientists, theoretical astrophysicist Thomas Gold of Cornell Univ. tried to explain why the Ranger pictures resolved so little: "The Ranger pictures are like a mirror. Everyone sees his own theories reflected in them," Prof. Gold saw a moon covered with dust; young craters composed of solid rock while older craters had somehow gone soft; and vast sheets of ice locked under compacted sediment beneath much of the lunar surface. Dr. Harold C. Urey, Nobel prize-winning chemist from the Univ. of California, referred to evidence of widespread collapse of the lunar surface, probably due to underground movement: "The RANGER IX's pictures scared me more than anything. There's all sorts of evidence that some of these craters are sinking," Dr. Eugene Shoemaker of the U.S. Geological Survey said that chances that the moon's surface was too soft for the 15-ton LEM were "almost vanishingly remote." (Simons, Wash, Post, 4/16/65; Clark, NYT, 4/16/65)
Dr. Ewan A. Whitaker agreed with findings in the paper he presented for his colleague, Dr. Gerald P. Kuiper of the Univ. of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, Dr. Kuiper concluded that the lunar surface had a bearing strength of between one and two tons per square foot. His calculations, made from data extracted from RANGER IX photographs, was based on the size of rocks ejected from a given impact crater and the distance they traveled. Other tentative findings were that the dark portions of the maria were due to some unknown fluid flows and not lava or ash flows; that the maria were not completely covered with lunar dust; and that the moon's surface exhibited a remarkable series of fracture patterns which could be due to polar contraction, tidal effects, or some other force. (Clark, NYT, 4/16/65; Simons, Wash, Post, 4,/16/65; Av, Wk, 4/26/65, 34)
Boris J. Levin, section chief of the Institute of Earth Physics, U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences, said studies based on radioactive emissions from meteorites and on lunar data indicated that the interior of the moon partially melted some two million years after the formation of that body began: "If you assume the moon is of the same material as meteorites, it is necessary to assume that the interior at one time was partly molten," Prof. Levin said the moon was formed simultaneously with the earth and w as not originally part of it. It was about 10 earth-radii distant and later shifted to the present position, He added: "We believe that there is a lava flow not covered by dust." (Wash, Post, 4/17/65; Milwaukee J., 4/17/65: CSM, 4/26/65; Av, Wk., 4/26/65, 34)
Dr. John Clark, NASA Director of Space Sciences, said that a year ago NASA officials had hoped that Ranger would tell something about the topography of the moon: "That in turn would tell something about the geometry needed for the landing vehicle, Ranger has done this and now we look to the Surveyor spacecraft to tell us the bearing strength of the moon's surface." (AP, Houston Post, 4/17/65; Clark, NYT, 4/17/65)
Dr. Fred L. Whipple of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory said the moon's surface might be lower than had been calculated: "The data indicates that RANGER VII and VIII, and maybe RANGER IX, landed one second late because the moon was one mile small. The moon's surface at the point of landing was lower by two kilometers (a mile and a quarter) than the average lunar radius." (AP, Houston Post, 4/17/65; Milwaukee J. 4/17/65)
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