Astronautical and Aeronautical Events of 1962 - NASA's History Office

278 ASTRONAUTICAL AND AERONAUTICAL EVENTS OF 1 9 8 2
as power source for “space missions, communications satellites,
and other space applications.”
December 27: MARINER 11 calculated to reach its closest point to the
sun (65,505,935-mile perihelion) according to JPL scientists.
Alexander V. Topchiev, vice president of the Soviet Academy of
Sciences, died in Moscow. Winner of the 1949 Stalin Prize and
twice winner of the Order of Lenin, Topchiev was believed to
have played a major role in the development of new rocket fuels
and had attended many important international conferences
since 1960. He had recently declared that “war is no longer
possible” and had advocated East-West collaboration on nuclear
space propulsion.
Goddard Space Flight Center officials reported that they had
received “indications the voltage had recovered somewhat” in
RELAY satellite, but doubted that its communications mission
would be accomplished.
December 27-29: Second Western Conference of the American Geo-
physical Union at Stanford, Calif. Sidney M. Serebreny of SRI
reviewed TIROS I photographs on 14 orbits in May 1960, which
showed a blocking pattern in east-central Pacific accompanied
by an invasion of tropical air aloft into northerly latitudes and
rationale for positioning of the jet stream over the northern
Pacific. Life history of tropical cyclones was analyzed from Tiros
photographs by James C. Sadler of NSF. And Richard D. Tarble
of U.S. Weather Bureau indicated that TIROS I photographs of
ice pack and areal snow cover oould be used to predict river
flow and water supply from snow melt. Other space science
papers on meteorology and planetary sciences were presented.
December 28: Preliminary results of particle-flux-detectors onboard
MARINER 11 were reported by Dr. L. A. Frank and Dr. H. R.
Anderson at American Geophysical Union meeting, Stanford
Univ. The instruments showed absence of particles near Venus,
indicating the planet’s magnetic field does not extend out as far
as trajectory of MARINER 11; this observation was confirmed by
onboard magnetometer. Cosmic-ray measurements during the
probe’s interplanetary flight indicated cosmic-ray flus was a
constant measurement throughout the flight (approximately 3.0
particles per sq. centimeter per sec.). High-energy solar particles
were generally absent except for a single solar-flare event begin-
ning Oct. 23 ; low-energy solar-particle counter detected this event
and at least eight others. Total radiation dose recorded in
Oct. 23 event was only about 0.24 roentgens inside ionization
chamber’s 0.01-in.-thick steel wall, and radiation was very
non-pene trating.
At national confermce of American Geophysical Union at Stanford
Univ., scientists John D. Anderson and George Null of JPL
reported MARINER 11 fly-by of Venus produced the most accurate
estimate pet of the mass of that planet-0.81485 times the mass
of the earth, with probable error of 0.015 per cent. Final analysis
might slightly alter value and further reduce error.
Preliminary results of solar-wind experiments by MARINER II were
reported by Dr. Conway W. Snyder of JPL at American Geo-