Jan 28 1976
From The Space Library
The Viking 1 on its way toward Mars might have lost the use of one of its ovens just as Viking 2 was reported last week to have done, project officials said. Each of the Mars landers carried three ovens to heat surface samples for analysis by a gas-chromatograph mass spectrometer that would determine atmosphere elements and search for organic material that would indicate biological or nonbiological activity. Loss of one oven on each craft would not affect the operation of the instruments, but would mean that only two instead of three soil analyses would be done. A separate biology instrument on each lander would search directly for life forms in soil samples. A monitoring device on the ovens was suspected as the cause of the test-data anomaly. (NASA Releases 76-14, 76-IS)
The 12th annual meeting of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics opened in Washington with the theme "Aerospace and Public Policy," offering 9 panel discussions beginning with one on the Space Shuttle during which John F. Yardley, NASA Deputy Administrator for Space Flight, would give the keynote address on shuttle program status and flight operations plans. Other panels would discuss domestic direct-broadcast satellites; inflation, capital formation, and the aerospace industry; national transportation policy; military aircraft selection; exporting aerospace technology; aerospace and energy; transition to the future; and the environmental impact of aerospace operations. The AIAA convention was preceded by a 2-day aerospace sciences meeting during which about 200 papers were presented at 75 technical sessions. The AIAA's von Karman lecture would be presented by I.E. Garrick, distinguished research associate at NASA's Langley Research Center, speaking on aeroelasticity.
At the honors night banquet 29 Jan., 14 major AIAA awards would be presented; fellows and honorary fellows of 1975 would be honored; and Edgar M. Cortright -former director of LaRC and previously Chief of Advanced Technology, Assistant Director of Lunar and Planetary Programs, and Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Science and Applications and later for Manned Space Flight at NASA Hq-would be installed as AIAA president. Dr. Cortright had left NASA in Sept. 1975 after 17 yr to become vice president and technical director of Owens-Illinois Inc. Speakers at the honors banquet would be Clarence "Kelly" Johnson, chief of Johnson Space Center's spacecraft design division, who would receive the spacecraft design award of the year, and astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, who commanded Apollo 11 and took the first walk on the moon. (AIAA releases 6 to 16 Jan 76)
A communications satellite system to serve more than 200 U.S. public television stations within the next 2 yr was proposed by the Public Broadcasting Service and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in a report prepared for managers of PBS member stations before the annual meeting in Los Angeles next month. If the member stations approved the proposal and the Federal Communications Commission followed with its approval promptly, the system could be in operation within 21 mo, putting PB ahead of commercial networks by renting circuits on satellites operated by Western Union Telegraph Co. instead of leasing land lines from American Telephone & Telegraph at $12 million a yr. The $ 38 million satellite system would offer 3 or 4 channels instead of the single land line; expense of additional land lines had precluded additional transmissions to special audiences, such as Spanish-speaking populations in major cities and the U.S. Southwest; the cost of the land lines would increase yearly; and the cost of adding other stations to the PB satellite system would be limited to the cost of a simple ground receiver. (W Star, 28 Jan 76, A-l; W Post, 29 Jan 76, A-7)
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