Oct 22 1979
From The Space Library
NASA held a press conference on the launch of Magsat, scheduled for the end of the month from the WTR. Pitt Thome, director of space and terrestrial applications, described the mission as an effort to obtain a global picture of Earth's magnetic field, data previously available mostly from ground or aerial surveys and therefore both fragmentary and unreliable. A series of satellites (POGO) in the 1960s and 1970s had done some magnetic mapping, and this would be the first update of that information, used for navigation and for locating natural resources. Magsat would carry both scalar and vector magnetometers, so that it could measure not only the extent but also the direction of magnetic forces in Earth's crust. Variations in the data from those in previous studies would also shed light on tectonic plate motion, the constant though small movement of rigid plates forming the Earth's crust. The project scientist, Dr. Robert A. Langel of GSFC and John Denoyer of the U.S. Geological Survey described potential use of the Magsat data. Denoyer said he had been in southeast Asia recently with officials interested in oil prospecting, who would use the data in the next few years to look for petroleum as well as minerals. (NASA Release 79-129 (press kit); briefing text, Oct 22/79)
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