Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1967 - NASA's History Office

March 16 ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1967
that turned automatically to trap solar rays. (Reuters, NYT, 3/17/67,
13)
NASA ‘Nike-Apache sounding rocket launched from NASA Wallops Station
carried 96-lb payload with joint US.-India ionosphere experiment
to #-mi (142-km) altitude before impacting 100 mi downrange in the
Atlantic. Purpose of flight was to prove out instrumentation and test
new antenna design. Experiment, which measured electron and ion den-
sities and Lyman-alpha flux in lower ionosphere with a riometer-cosmic
radio noise absorption device-and a Langmuir probe, was being de-
veloped for series of cooperative NASA-INCOSPAR launches from Thumba
range, India. (NASA Release 67-61; WS Release 67-8)
* NASA Aerobee 150 sounding rocket launched from WSMR carried NRL-
instrumented payload to 120-mi (193-km) to obtain spectra from a
stellar ultraviolet image converter spectrograph and stellar photometric
data from two ultraviolet photon counters. Rocket and instrumentation
performed satisfactorily. (NASA Rpt SRL)
* 110 scientists from US. and six other countries were selected by NASA
Associate Administrator for Space Science and Applications Dr. Homer
E. Newell-upon recommendation of Space Science Steering Commit-
tee-to conduct experiments with first lunar samples returned by US.
Apollo astronauts. Principal US. investigators represented 21 univer-
sities, two industrial firms, three private institutions, and 10 Government
laboratories. Nine scientific institutions were represented in U.K. ;
three in West Germany; and one each in Canada, Japan, Finland, and
Switzerland. Most investigations would be conducted in scientists’ own
laboratories, but time-critical experiments would be carried out in
MSC’S Lunar Receiving Laboratory during quarantine period-antici-
pated to last 30 days. Plans called for a total of 122 experiments on
approximately 50 lbs of lunar material to study composition of lunar
surface and search for evidence of its origin. Four major investiga-
tive areas were: (1) mineralogy and petrology; (2) chemical and
isotope analysis; (3) physical properties; and (4) biochemical and
organic analysis. (NASA Release 67-55)
* Francis J. Sullivan and Dr. Hermann H. Kurzweg of NASA Office of Ad-
vanced Research and Technology testified before House Committee on
Science and Astronautics’ Subcommittee on Advanced Research and
Technology. Sullivan, Director of Electronics and Control Div., said that
the development of technology for high-resolution, 60- to 120-in space
telescopes for optical astronomy, communications, and other potential
applications was a major OART effort. “Success in this research will
provide the capability to study celestial objects which cannot be viewed
from the ground because of atmospheric attenuation and will provide
vastly improved resolution over that attainable through the earth‘s
atmosphere.”
Sullivan said because environmental, structural, and control problems
of large mirrors in space were almost insurmountable with conventional
fabrication and alignment, unique approaches were being studied. One
was 24-in-dia, three-segment mirror feasibility model in which distortion
sensor, located in front of primary mirror, determined which segments
were out of alignment and to what degree. Electronic circuitry then proc-
essed and used the alignment data to realign mirror surface segments
with actuators located behind each segment.
Dr. Kurzweg, Director of Research, said the JPL had developed a
new mathematical approach for calculating energy requirements for
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