September 1978
From The Space Library
NASA announced that scientists had confirmed detection by Pioneer Venus 1, on the first leg of its Imo voyage to Venus, of a powerful gamma-ray burst from somewhere in the universe. So called gamma-ray bursts, unknown until 1973, had enormous energies and occurred about once a month from random points in earth's galaxy or even beyond. Discovery of their origin-black holes, brilliant supernova, neutron stars, or some totally unexpected source-would be a difficult task for astronomers. Pioneer Venus measurements of these bursts during its 482million-km mission should enable scientists for the first time to track the origins accurately.
Two other American spacecraft (Vela, a DOE satellite orbiting the earth, and Helios B, a NASA-European scientific satellite orbiting the sun) had detected the gamma-ray burst; scientists would correlate observations of all the satellites to get a rough fix on the burst. Locating the origin of the burst would give scientists an idea of the extraordinary physical events that could produce such high-energy explosions; no current hypotheses could account for them. (NASA Actv, Sept/78, 19)
The USAF reported it had mapped and measured on the most detailed Shuttle models tested so far at AEDC the air pressures and loads to be encountered by the Space Shuttle during launch. The 6wk program had been the first to use mockups of the complete Shuttle orbiter, external fuel tank, and solid-fuel rocket boosters in AEDC's 16-ft transonic wind tunnel. NASA would compare results of these comprehensive tests with data obtained at AEDC and elsewhere on smaller, less detailed models.
NASA would follow up on the AFDC transonic tests with supersonic tests of the same models at Ames Research Center. AEDC had recorded surface pressures on a 3% scale model with 1646 measuring points scattered over its surface, one of the most comprehensive pressure models ever used there. It had tested a 2% scale model in the aerodynamic-force part of the study using 9 measuring instruments, the most ever installed on an AEDC model; and had measured air pressure at 25 points around the base of the Shuttle model. (AFSC Newsreview, Sept 78, 4)
Using the space environment for materials processing had limited application, and should be considered only on a case-by-case basis, according to a report by the Natl. Research Council's committee on materials processing in space, which had studied NASA's program. The committee said the early NASA program had used poorly conceived and designed experiments, often' with crude apparatus, from which weak conclusions had been drawn and in some cases over publicized. However, meaningful science and technology could result from :experiments in space if the problems to be investigated in space were soundly based in terrestrial science or technology, and if the proposed experiments addressed specific problems instead of being scheduled to take advantage of flight opportunities or space-facility capabilities. The committee said it had not found economically justifiable reasons for producing materials in space, and recommended that NASA deemphasize this area of technology, (NRC News Report, Sept 78, 7)
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