Nov 20 1975
From The Space Library
Pioneer 11 had been scheduled to take its first look at Saturn, according to controllers at Ames Research Center. Upon its encounter with Jupiter on 2 Dec. 1974, Pioneer's trajectory was altered by the gravitational effects of Jupiter to one that would take Pioneer to Saturn on or about 1 Sept. 1979. The spacecraft had returned the only pictures ever taken of Jupiter's polar regions and probed the planet's intense inner radiation belts for the first time, attaining the highest speed ever attained by a manmade object (171000 km per hr).
Pioneer was still more than 1287 million km from Saturn, but in a position to observe the ringed planet at a phase angle 4 times larger than the largest angle at which Saturn could be seen from earth. The total amount of light and the polarization of sunlight reflected from a planet's atmosphere at different angles could reveal the composition of the atmosphere; scientists would watch Saturn throughout Pioneer's approach to note changes in intensity and polarization of light reflected from the planet with changes in phase angle. The viewing angle would also permit study of the light-reflecting characteristics of Saturn's rings in large areas of shadow from the planet, an effect not visible from earth. Pioneer was headed upward out of the plane containing the sun's planets, and in 1977 would attain a distance above this plane of about 161 million km, allowing it to measure phenomena coming from higher latitudes on the sun than previously observable. (ARC Release 75-53; MOR S-811-73-07, 19 Nov 75)
Jet Propulsion Laboratory had awarded a $20-million contract to Lockheed Missiles and Space Co. for design and development of SEASAT A, an ocean survey satellite that would circle the earth 14 times a day and view 95% of the surface every 36 hrs. Scheduled for launch in 1978, SEASAT would record radar imagery of waves and ice fields, ocean topography, tides, and currents, and would measure wave height, length, and direction; force and direction of sea-surface winds; and temperatures of the sea surface and the air/sea interface. (W Star, 21 Nov 75, A2; Av Wk, 8 Dec 75, 6; SBD, 21 Nov 75, 118)
A new satellite-fed printing plant that would speed delivery of the Wall Street Journal to its readers in the southeastern United States had been introduced to Orlando, Fla., area business leaders and dedicated by the Journal's publishers, Dow Jones and Co. The $2-million plant could print 70 000 copies of the newspaper per hour, and would serve readers in Ga. and Fla. at first, with distribution into five other southeastern states coming later.
The paper would be printed in Orlando on the date of publication in Chicopee, Mass., by the use of Westar 1 facilities provided by American Satellite Corp. Fullsize facsimiles of pages would be put under a high-intensity scanner that would convert the images to electronic impulses beamed to Westar 1. The satellite would relay the impulses to the Orlando plant where they would be received on page size photo film; sending and receipt of data for a full page had been clocked at 3.5 min. The film would be used to make photolithographic plates for the Orlando press.
The Orlando plant would be the tenth regional printing plant for the Journal. The eastern edition previously delivered to 60 000 subscribers in Fla. and Ga. had been airmailed from Silver Spring, Md., arriving a day late. (Orlando Sentinel-Star, 20 Nov 75, 20A)
The Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Organization awarded a $36.3-million contract to McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Co. for building and testing in earth orbit a space laser communications system. The 5-yr contract would produce three synchronous satellites to relay high-data-rate messages by laser to aircraft, ground stations, or other satellites, with a capability of transmitting a billion pieces of data per sec-about 20 times the data volume possible with present commercial communications-satellite systems. The award includes development of the space and ground-station equipment. McDonnell would work on high-accuracy pointing of the laser beams, within 10 millionths of a degree. (St. Louis P -D, 20 Nov 75, 13; LA Times, 9 Dec 75, 15C; SBD, 20 Nov 75, 107)
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