Apr 8 1973
From The Space Library
The first closeup radar images of the moon's surface-obtained during the Dec. 7-19, 1972, Apollo 17 mission-had been assembled by scientists and engineers from Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Univ. of Utah, the Univ. of Michigan, and the Center for Astrogeology of the U.S. Geological Survey, NASA announced. The "pictures," products of the Apollo lunar sounder experiment, would eventually provide a geological cross-section of the moon, detailing subsurface structure to a depth of 1.3 km (0.8 mi). (NASA Release 73-65)
The April 6 announcement of the discovery of a distant quasar had strengthened the growing theory among astronomers that they had seen the edge of the universe, Walter Sullivan said in the New York Times. The implication was that, as Einstein believed, the universe was finite. "Beyond its expanding volume, . . .. nothing exists-not even space, because, in this concept, over such great distances space curves back upon itself." By determining the rate at which a quasar was flying away from the earth, astronomers could estimate its distance in terms of the time its light had traveled to the earth. The universe appeared to have originated in a "big bang" some 13 billion yrs ago, and the earliest quasars should be visible far enough away for their light to have been traveling earthward for that long. "But looking across vast distances-and hence, far back into time-man can see out only to 12 billion years (in the most distant quasars)." Hale Observatory astronomer Dr. Alan R. Sandage had said that in these quasars astronomers were seeing "the edge of the world." Astronomers had long suspected the existence of some sort of wall preventing them from seeing quasars in the region beyond 12 billion yrs. "Now it is beginning to look as though the `wall' is real.” (NYT, 4/8/73, 63)
April 8-23: Lunokhod 2 (landed on the moon by Luna 21 Jan. 16) began its fourth lunar day in the Sea of Serenity near the Le Monnier Crater with the activation of its solar battery. All onboard systems functioned normally after the third lunar night. During an April 9 session cosmic ray characteristics were researched, magnetic measurements made, and panoramic photos of the parking site were taken. Lunokhod 2 was brought to an area in the eastern part of the crater where a layer of basalt lava was bisected by a fissure 16 km (10 mi) long and 100 m (328 ft) deep in some places, to study the chemical composition and magnetic properties of the lunar rock in the fissure. Ledge rocks aided Lunokhod 2's movement. The vehicle did not stick in the loose ground and its velocity could be increased. On April 17 the lunar vehicle was halted to replenish electric power reserves before making a complex trip around the fissure. On April 23 Lunokhod 2 was parked for the lunar night after covering 11 km (7 mi). (Moscow Domestic Service, FBIS-Sov, 4/9/73, Ll; Tass, FBIS-Sov, 4/11/73, Ll-L2; 4/16/73, L1; 4/18/73, L1; Reuters, NYT, 4/23/73, 43)
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