Jul 30 1980
From The Space Library
- LaRC said that its researchers, working with the FAA in a Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics, might have solved a problem relating to general aviation aircraft distress-signal equipment, six of every seven failing to transmit after a plane crash and about 75% of all signals being false alarms.
The devices, emergency locator transmitters, emitted a signal on a wavelength designated for emergency use to locate; downed aircraft and were supposedly activated by the impact force of a crash. The problem was in the sensor switch, which was sometimes too sensitive to normal aircraft vibrations (and sent false alarms), sometimes not sensitive enough to forces in a crash.
Langley engineer Huey D. Carden had designed and tested an experimental switch sensitive to low-cycle vibrations out of the range of normal aircraft vibrations and closer to the low-cycle pulselike force of a crash. The researchers were also looking into the general usefulness of the beacons and their performance as a total system. (LaRC Release 80-53; NASA Release 80-118)
MSFC reported that July 21 had marked the end of an era: Gustav A. Kroll, last of the original 118-man "von Braun team" to leave the center, retired just six weeks short of having 35 years of U.S. government service. He had headed the structures division of MSFC's Structures and Propulsion Laboratory.
Kroll arrived in the United States in 1945 in Operation Paperclip and worked at Ft. Bliss, Tex., with the von Braun team, which transferred to Huntsville in 1950. Kroll became a U.S. citizen in 1954. He received NASAs exceptional service medal in 1976 for "guiding the overall structural design of the Solid Rocket Boosters," two of which would be used in the first two minutes of flight on each Space Shuttle launch, recovered, and refurbished for reuse. He had worked in structures throughout his career: "all of them-every one of Marshall's projects-Redstone, Jupiter, Saturn, Shuttle-all of them," he said. Looking back, "there are no favorites, but the highlight would have to be the Saturn V flight and landing on the moon." (MSFC Release 80-101)
The Washington Star said that prospects of mining on the Moon brought senators, scientists, and lawyers together to discuss profits that would not be earned for years, if ever. Witnesses at a Senate commerce subcommittee hearing said that some companies thought private investment would be hindered by any treaty that called for dividing lunar products among Earth's nations. A proposed Moon treaty approval last year by the United Nations said that lunar resources were "the common heritage of mankind," a phrase that might threaten profits of the few nations or companies that could mount successful moon-mining expeditions.
NASA's Dr. Robert A. Frosch said the treaty was not a problem, noting that years of development would have to precede any actual "issues of investment or returns in extraterrestrial resources." Former astronaut Sen. Harrison Schmitt (R-N.M.) asked if the treaty might have a chilling effect on investment; Frosch replied, "Only if you want to be chilled.” (Washington Star, July 30180, G-7)
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