Mar 4 1965
From The Space Library
NASA's OSO II satellite, which completed its first month in orbit at 11:36 a.m. EST, had circled earth 419 times and daily returned about 7 mi. of tape-recorded data, NASA reported. Designed to provide detailed information on solar x-rays, gamma rays, and ultraviolet rays, OSO II was functioning normally except for failure of the Harvard College Observatory ultraviolet scanning spectrometer and for sporadic return of data from the spectroheliograph portion of Naval Research Laboratory coronagraph. Earlier problems with data transmissions from GSFC ultraviolet spectrometer had been resolved. (NASA Release 65-74)
NASA's OGO I had received ground-administered "shock treatments" to correct faulty inverter. Continued malfunctioning of inverter, which supplied power for rotation of solar panels to maintain proper angle to the sun, would have shortened OGO I's lifetime for lack of electric power. All other systems were functioning normally except attitude control. OGO I was still spin-stabilized in orbit; apparently horizon scanners were obscured by experiment boom only partially deployed. 19 of the 20 scientific experiments were returning usable scientific data. (NASA Release 65-75)
U.S.-Mexican agreement for operation of NASA tracking station at Guaymas, Mexico, had been extended to 1970, NASA announced. The station would be used to track Project Gemini and Project Apollo. The two Governments also agreed to cooperate on meteorological sounding programs. (NASA Release 65-76)
Milton B. Ames, Jr., Director of NASA Space Vehicle Research and Technical Div., told the House Committee on Science and Astronautics' Subcommittee on Space Sciences and Applications that lightweight, flexible plastic baffles had proved more efficient for controlling fuel "sloshing" in launch vehicle's propellant tanks than heavy metal baffles. He said plastic baffles could also serve to prevent leakage of propellant gas used in fuel-pumping during weightlessness. (Text; NASA Auth. Hearings, 133-50)
Dr. Maurice Goldhaber, Director of AEC's Brookhaven (N.Y.) Laboratory, testifying before a subcommittee of the Joint Senate-House Atomic Energy Committee, announced discovery of the "antideuteron," largest particle of antimatter yet known to be produced on earth. Antimatter consisted of various subatomic particles which could annihilate their particular opposite number if they struck them. Goldhaber later told newsmen that scientists had reported observing occasional particles of antimatter running earthward from outer space. "It could be that somewhere else in the universe there is an `anticosmos' that occasionally leaks particles to the earth." (AP, Louisville Courier-Journal, 3/4/65)
Basing his judgment on successful Feb. 27 firing of Thiokol's 156-in. solid propellant rocket motor, Harold W. Ritchey, President of Thiokol Chemical Corp., predicted U.S. could produce within 30 months a flyable rocket capable of generating 7 million lbs. of thrust. Brig. Gen. Joseph J. Bleymaier (USAF), Deputy Commander (Manned Systems) of USAF Space Systems Div., commented: ". . . this firing provides us with final proof that we can configure an all-solid space booster of tremendous capability when the requirement presents itself." (Appel, NYT, 3/5/65)
Senate passed House-passed bill designating March 16 of each year as Dr. Robert Hutchings Goddard Day. (CR, 3/4/65, 4009, 4010)
Firefly, a new life detection instrument containing an extract of common firefly's lamp, had been developed by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center to help determine how far out and how much life existed in earth's atmosphere. This information would be essential to prevent contamination of sterilized probes enroute through earth's atmosphere. Firefly, containing luciferin, luciferase, and oxyGen. would glow whenever it encountered adenosine triphosphate, a chemical essential to all life known on earth. Report of any encounter with live microorganisms would be immediate, precluding need for recovering detector. (GSFC Release G-5-65)
Columbia, Harvard, and Yale Universities' medical libraries, aided by a National Science Foundation grant, were linked by a network of computers and telephone lines, thereby giving students instant access to medical literature in all collections. Frederick G. Kilgour, Yale medical librarian, foresaw elimination of duplicate material when telecommunication and photographic reproducing devices were added to the network. Pages from a book in one city could be furnished to student in another city and even reproduced for him to check out. (Phillips, NYT, 3/5/65, 1)
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