Mar 27 1962
From The Space Library
U.S. and U.S.S.R. technical representatives held the first of a series of talks on the possibility of joint cooperation in space research and exploration. Dr. Hugh L. Dryden, Deputy Administrator of NASA, represented the U.S.; Dr. Anatoli A. Blagonravov, of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, represented the U.S.S.R.
NASA fired a Nike-Cajun rocket from Wallops Station, Va., which released a sodium vapor cloud between 25 and 74 miles altitude. Rays of the setting sun colored the sodium cloud red, instead of sodium vapor's normal yellow.
In address to the Institute of Radio Engineers in New York, NASA Deputy Administrator Hugh L. Dryden stated: "The costs of satellites and space probes are so great that every possible step must be taken to assure success. In our scientific experiments we insist that the bench prototype developed by the physicist be redesigned by engineers to meet the environmental requirements, that the engineered prototype be tested on vibrators, in vacuum and temperature chambers and other ground equipment simulating the space environment beyond the required conditions, and that, if possible, the equipment be tested on the less expensive sounding rockets prior to use on the more expensive satellites. . . .
"To state the matter another way, we desire assured and demonstrated performances and reliability. The cost of the necessary engineering and tests is small compared to the cost of a single failure. We do not wish to be the first to use the newest and most advanced device nor the last to give up the obsolete. A moderately conservative engineering approach with adequate analysis and test is indicated as the best design philosophy."
Dr. Edward Teller, testifying before the House Committee on Science and Astronautics, recommended a program for establishing a large and independent colony on the moon, as a means of having a working base in space and control of near space from a standpoint of national security. A nuclear reactor should be developed to operate on the moon, eventually to furnish the power to extract water from the moon's rocks and soil, he said.
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