Jul 11 1965
From The Space Library
Reports by U.S. astronauts of seeing details on the earth's surface while orbiting the earth at altitudes of over 100 mi, did not surprise physicists at the U.S. Bureau of Standards' Central Radio Propagation Laboratory in Indianapolis, reported the Indianapolis Star, Wind tunnel experiments there had proven that the closer a viewer is to turbulent air, the more it distorts an image: the image wavers in brightness, changes position, and shifts in and out of focus. All these effects diminish contrast-an essential factor in identifying objects in aerial reconnaissance. The effects are reduced and seeing improves as the viewer moves away from the turbulence. (Lewis, Sci, Serv., Indianapolis Star, 7/11/65)
New York Times editorial on July 14 MARINER IV flyby of Mars said: "On Wednesday, if all goes well, one of the epoch-making experiments in the history of science will take place as MARINER IV comes within 6,000 miles of Mars and takes pictures for transmission back to earth, Not since Galileo first trained his telescope on the moon has there been such a prospect for a quantum leap in man's knowledge of a nearby world. "Whatever the results of the picture-taking experiment, the accomplishments of MARINER IV are already historic, Launched last Nov, 28, it has traversed a preassigned course for more than seven months, During this time it has flown roughly 350,000,000 mi. while communicating back to earth new scientific data as well as a steady flow of information on its flight and its internal condition. This performance far exceeds all similar earlier feats. "For comparison we may note that MARINER II-justly famed for its flight past Venus in 1962-needed to fly only three and a half months and 180 million miles to reach its objective. And while MARINER II sets a record signalling to earth from a distance of 53.9 million miles away, MARINER IV has recently been transmitting from the neighborhood of Mars, now over 130,000,000 miles distant from this planet." (NYT, 7/11/65, E10)
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