Nov 16 1965
From The Space Library
Project Luster, managed by NASA Ames Research Center, successfully recovered samples of matter from interplanetary space with an Aerobee 150 sounding rocket launched from White Sands Missile Range, N. Mex, during the annual Leonid meteor shower. The sampling instrument comprising the payload consisted of three deploy. able arms, each containing four flat pans holding special collection surfaces. The arms deployed as programed at 47-mi. altitude on the way up, closing again at that altitude on the way down, Payload reached 89-mi, altitude, traveled 44 mi. downrange, and landed by parachute in soft sand. Vacuum seal of the 12 collection pans was found to be perfect on recovery. Unopened collectors would be distributed by ARC to 12 guest experimenters in the U.S. and Europe for study of the nature of comets and of extraterrestrial material in general. (ARC Release 65-26; NASA Rpt. SRL)
U.S.S.R. launched VENUS III unmanned space probe towards the planet Venus, Tass said the technique for placing the 2,112-lb, spacecraft into heliocentric orbit was similar to that used in orbiting VENUS II on Nov. 12. Trajectory was close to the one calculated. Purpose of both launches was "to augment the volume of scientific information and to obtain additional scientific data regarding Venus and outer space," but VENUS III contained equipment to carry out different scientific investigations from VENUS II. All systems were functioning normally. VENUS II and VENUS III were expected to reach the vicinity of Venus about March 1. (Tass, 11/17/65; Krasnaya Zvezda, Pravda, and Komsomolskaya Pravda, 11/17/65, ATSS-T Trans.)
Astronaut M. Scott Carpenter (Cdr., USN) told the National Press Club in Washington, D.C, that while both space and underseas programs were potentially important from the standpoint of material benefits, "I feel that whatever material gains come from the two programs, the ones we might get from the assault of the ocean are much more immediate than those we might get from an assault on the moon, for ex- ample." Later Carpenter received the Legion of Merit in a Pentagon ceremony for his work as one of the two team captains in Project Sealab Is Aug. 28-Sept, 26. (AP, Balt, Sun, 11/17/65; UPI, NYT, 11/17/65, 21)
G. Mervin Ault, NASA LRC engineer, discussed the status of development of high-temperature materials for advanced turbojet engines at the International Conference on Aircraft Design and Technology in Los Angeles. Meeting was jointly sponsored by the AIAA, the Japan Society for Aeronautical and Space Sciences, and the Royal Aeronautical Society. He said although the past decade had seen dramatic progress in such high-temperature or refractory materials, research had indicated that further improvements would be possible, especially in the structural properties of these materials. (LRC Release 65-81)
NASA disclosed plans for the new Applications Technology Satellites (ATS) that would appear to hover over a given spot on earth to check out communications, weather, scientific and engineering ideas. There would be five in all, with four in synchronous orbit at 22,300-mi. altitude. First ATS was scheduled for launch in 1966; two more would be launched in 1967; the last two in 1968, Primary aim of the ATS program would be to find out (1) what happens to satellites in synchronous orbit, and (2) what can be done by a satellite continuously above one area of the earth. Among experiments planned were color television transmission, the first attempt to "talk" among unmanned satellites and aircraft, and photographing cloud formation changes in one place over a long period of time. (NASA Release)
"We'll be lucky if we have nuclear propulsion around 1980," and electric propulsion is still further down the line for sometime after 1985, according to Dr. John C. Evvard, Deputy Associate Director at NASA Lewis Research Center. Evvard gave his views on advanced propulsion systems at the sixth annual Space Technology Series sponsored by the Canaveral Section, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, at Brevard Engineering College, Patrick AFB, Fla. A pioneer in electric propulsion and advanced nuclear rocket studies. Evvard believed such concepts should not be considered for Mars missions of under 100 flights per year, Only frequent flights would increase the need for higher specific impulse and would justify the expense, he said. Meanwhile, he predicted, chemical rockets of less than 500 sec. specific impulse would lift men to Mars, not by direct ascent but through a succession of parking orbits and assembly of hardware in space. Evvard told the meeting that since May 13, 1964, at least nine tests on Kiwi, Nerva, and Phoebus nuclear reactors had proved out a thrust greater than 50,000 lbs., at a specific impulse in excess of 750 sec. (Text)
U.S.S.R. had offered to launch a French satellite with a Soviet rocket during space cooperation talks in October, a Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) official told Space Business Daily. CNES had proposed launching an Imp-type payload into a 125,000-mi,-apogee orbit, but the Soviets preferred a 25,000-mi.-apogee orbit. (SBD, 11/16/65, 1)
November 16-18: The First Annual National Conference on Spacecraft Sterilization Technology, sponsored by NASA and hosted by Cal Tech, was held at Cal Tech to brief the space industry and the academic world on NASA's needs for spacecraft sterilization. (NASA Release 65-290)
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