Jul 14 1967
From The Space Library
Second anniversary of Mars flyby by NASA's MARINER IV, during which spacecraft flew within 6,118 mi of Mars, took 22 close-up photos of the planet, and transmitted scientific data on Martian atmosphere. Launched from ETR Nov. 28, 1964, MARINER IV had traveled 1.3 billion mi during its 959 days of flight and had operated continuously for more than 23,000 hrs-exceeding its 6,000-hr design lifetime by more than 400%. NASA announced that satellite, which was expected to continue operating satisfactorily until early 1968, had been assigned a new mission. It would be used in an experiment to conduct simultaneous comparison of solar radiation during August 1967 "solar system line-up" involving MARINER IV, MARINER V (launched June 14), the earth, and the sun. (NASA Release 67-182)
U.S.S.R.'s Venus IV unmanned Venus probe, launched June 12, was about 5 million mi from earth and was performing satisfactorily, U.S.S.R. announced. Spacecraft was expected to reach Venus in mid-October. (AP, W Star, 7/15/67,1)
Bistatic radar detection-experimental technique for mapping celestial bodies by bouncing signals off them from an orbiting spacecraft-had been used successfully to map a portion of the lunar surface, Stanford Univ. Center for Radar Astronomy scientists Dr. G. L. Tyler, V. R. Eshleman, G. Fjeldbo, H. T. Howard, and A. M. Peterson reported in Science. Radar waves emitted Oct. 12, 1966, from an antenna on NASA's LUNAR ORBITER I spacecraft had reached earth as two signals: one directly, and one after being reflected by the moon. Both underwent different shifts in frequency. From a measurement made on the ground scientists were able to tell the direction from the spacecraft to the site on the moon. Other measurements related to the same site enabled them to triangulate the position. (Science, 7/14/67,193-5)
US. space program was a sound investment which would pay "handsome dividends" to all Americans and to humanity in general, UCLA professor of chemistry Dr. Willard F. Libby told AAS meeting in Denver. Winner of the 1960 Nobel Prize in chemistry and discoverer of radio-carbon dating, Dr. Libby suggested that space program opponents "quit grumbling about going-to-the-moon extravagance with taxpayers' money" and realize that large expenditures were necessary to maintain US. world leadership in space. "And we can't stop at the moon. . . . Once we've ventured that far, we should establish a base there for manned takeoffs to Mars and Venus. "Now Congress is debating the merits of authorizing space exploration beyond the moon in the early '70s. They have duty to debate such a venture, costing more than $2 billion. But what . . . would Congress do with that money if it weren't spent on future space research?" Space research had already made great contributions to medicine, microelectronics, worldwide communications, and many other fields, he said, and could continue to achieve much more "for the good of humanity and the expansion of frontiers of human knowledge." (Lindbergh, Denver Post, 7/16/67)
Harry N. Atwood, an associate of the Wright Brothers, died at age 83. On July 1, 1911, during 17-hr 12-min flight from Boston to Washington, D.C., Atwood became first man to fly over New York City. The following month he successfully flew his biplane, the "Baby Wright," 1,265 mi from St. Louis to New York City in 28 hrs 58 min, setting a new air distance record and winning a $10,000 prize. In 1927 Atwood announced the development of a motor that would "develop power without the use of a propeller, by exhausting exploding gases into the atmosphere or water, thus driving itself forward much as a rocket does." In 1935 he developed strong, lightweight plywood for aircraft bodies. (AP, NYT, 7/16/67,65)
U.S. tourist vacationing on beach at Harbour Island in the Bahamas had found a 10-ft-long piece of metal bearing words "United" and "destruct mechanism here," Sun Diego Union reported. Assuming metal to be part of a rocket, the tourist had notified KSC officials, who retrieved the part and determined that it was an insulation panel from the upper stage of an Atlas-Centaur used Oct. 26, 1966, to launch a Surveyor model on a test flight. (AP, SD Union, 7/14/67)
July 14-16; NASA's SURVEYOR IV (Surveyor D) was successfully launched from ETR by Atlas-Centaur booster (AC-11) on an excellent 65-hr lunar-intercept trajectory, but mission ended prematurely when communications with spacecraft were lost seconds before it was scheduled to soft-land on the moon. The abrupt termination of the spacecraft's signal made it impossible to determine whether spacecraft had landed safely or crashed out of control. Launched by the last direct-ascent (single-burn) Centaur vehicle in Surveyor program, 2,290-lb SURVEYOR IV performed all required sequences on schedule, including a midcourse maneuver which narrowed estimated target miss from 124 mi to 2.4 mi. Landing sequence began as planned when spacecraft shifted its normal cruising attitude to position main retrorocket downward toward moon. Radio contact was lost two seconds before retrorocket ended its planned 42-sec burn to slow spacecraft's speed from 5,900 mph to 350 mph. Repeated attempts to reestablish radio contact with spacecraft failed. SURVEYOR IV carried photographic equipment, a surface sampler, and a magnetic device on one of its footpads to test for magnetic materials in the lunar soil. Primary mission objectives: (1) to soft-land on the moon in the Sinus Medii and (2) to obtain TV photos of the lunar surface. Secondary objectives: (1) to conduct a vernier engine experiment; (2) to manipulate lunar surface with surface sampler in view of TV camera; (3) to obtain touchdown dynamics data; and (4) to obtain thermal and radar reflectivity data on lunar surface. Target zone in the Sinus Medii was almost in the exact center of moon's visible hemisphere and was rougher than the Ocean of Storms where SURVEYOR I and SURVEYOR III had landed. Benjamin Milwitzky, NASA Surveyor Program Manager, said the site was so rugged that spacecraft had only a 50-50 chance of landing intact. "But this region is extremely important to Apollo and that's why we're going there." SURVEYOR IV was fourth in series of seven spacecraft in NASA's Surveyor program: SURVEYOR I (launched May 30, 1966) and SURVEYOR III (launched April 17, 1967) both soft-landed successfully and transmitted photos to earth; SURVEYOR II (launched Sept. 20, 1966) did not soft-land because of ignition failure in one of its three vernier engines. Program was directed by OSSA Lunar and Planetary Programs Div.; program management was assigned to JPL. (NASA Release 67-172; NASA Proj Off; UPI, NYT, 7/15/67, 22; AP, NYT, 7/17/67,16; Reistrup, W Post, 7/15/67, W; 7/16/67, A5; 7/17/67, 1; UPI, W Star, 7/14/67, A l; 7/15/67, A2; 7/16/67, B5; 7/17/67, A1)
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