Jan 7 1976
From The Space Library
The U.S. Coast Guard began its Project Icewarn field program with the first of a number of daily ice-observation missions by aircraft over the Great Lakes during the winter navigation season. The flights would continue through 2 Feb., when ice conditions were expected to stop all shipping on the Great Lakes, and resume in Mar. with the breakup of the ice and continue through Apr. Objective of the program was to provide Coast Guard personnel with experience in operating a side-looking airborne radar (SLAR) system developed by NASA's Lewis Research Center, which included equipment to convert radar signals to ice-cover images transmitted in real time from the aircraft to the ground through a relay channel on Sms/Goes 1. The system would be demonstrated in a simulation during which ice-cover information would be transmitted to captains of lake shipping for use in routing the ships through the ice. (Wkly Briefs for Admr, 12 Jan 76)
A new computer program developed at Johnson Space Center from Landsat digital data could compile maps on any scale desired showing water surfaces in excess of 0.024 sq km, said specialists in the Earth Observations Division at JSC. Nations needing an inventory of their water resources could obtain maps of their lakes and reservoirs, and state governments could use the service in choosing between recreational and industrial use of available water supplies. The program, called Detection and Mapping (DAM) Package, required only $300 worth of computer time to map more than 33 800 sq km. As the two Landsats cover about 95 percent of the earth's land mass, the system could produce surface water maps for virtually all populated regions with almost 100% accuracy for water areas as large as 0.04 sq km; position accuracy-the degree to which the maps match the terrain-would be within 90m of dead center. User training would be typically no more than a day, and the system would need no experts to implement it. (NASA Release 76-4; JSC Release 76-01)
The Peoples Republic of China indicated for the first time that it planned to put a man into space, according to an article in the Peking Kuang- ming Daily entitled "The Launching and the Bringing Back of Artificial Satellites from Earth." As reported by radio from Hong Kong, the article recalled that PRC had put 5 satellites into orbit since 1970, emphasizing that China 4 (launched 26 Nov. 75) "returned to earth as scheduled after functioning , normally." After explaining how satellites were launched and recovered, the article added that recovery was particularly significant in "sending men into space." The radio report said that the article-first of its kind in the official PRC press-was even more surprising because the Chinese supposedly had not heard that man had walked on the moon, as this had never been reported in the Chinese press. (FBIS, Hong Kong AFP in English, by G. Biannic, 7 Jan 76)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
