Jan 26 1966
From The Space Library
NASA Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight Dr. George E. Mueller spoke of reliability and quality assurance in the manned space flight program at the Annual Symposium on Reliability in San Francisco: “We have . . had to organize our mission reliability around the concept of a very exhaustive ground test program, with a detailed, recorded tracking of the history and experience of every part, from the original developer-fabricator’s plant, through the entire chain of subcontractor and contractor activities, to the final, completed article on the launch pad. By this thorough and repeated testing under every environmental condition that it is possible to simulate, and by understanding and correcting each test failure or performance discrepancy, we believe we can achieve the required high reliability whereby we will be justified in conducting major missions on the second, third or fourth vehicle, rather than on the thirtieth or the hundredth as in Gemini and Mercury.” ‘‘(Text)’’
USN had issued to General Dynamics Corp. a $20-million supplemental agreement to an existing contract to install satellite communications systems aboard each of three former Navy tankers that would serve as ocean-going tracking stations for NASA’s Project Apollo. ‘‘(Gen. Dynamics Release 1267)’’
Astronaut Walter M. Schirra, Jr., GEMINI VI command pilot, received a tiny gold harmonica from the Italian National Union of Mouth Organists and Harmonica Musicians for being “the first mouth organist in outer space.” ‘‘(AP, Phil. Eve. Bull., 1/26/66)’’
Commentary in New York Times on difficulty of allocating limited funds for scientific research: “The eminent Soviet physicist P. L. Kapitsa has published an article [see Jan. 20] acknowledging that American science is still contributing far more to mankind’s knowledge than its Soviet counterpart. He attributes the United States lead largely to the wiser American technique for Government subsidy of research. . . . Ironically, several months ago President Johnson. . . directed that Federal funds be more equally distributed among the nation’s universities and geographic areas and that a larger proportion of this money be allocated to universities for distribution as their administrators see fit, rather than directly to research scientists. “If the Kapitsa analysis is correct, the President’s order was a mistake and may lead to reduced productivity in American science.” ‘‘(NYT, 1/26/66,32)’’
Detailed report on “Scientific and Engineering Manpower in Communist China, 1949-1963,” by Dr. Chu-yuan Cheng, of the Univ. of Michigan, was made public by NSF. Communist China had been strengthening its scientific and engineering fields by putting thousands of students through colleges and universities. Yet, these masses of young scientists were getting less comprehensive training than older generations of scientists and also lacked sufficient experience to engage in top level research. 1963, many of China’s leading scientists were 60 or 70 yrs. old and engaged in basic and creative research. The success or failure in bridging the gap between the mass of young scientists and the older scientists would determine whether Communist China would become a scientifically advanced power in the next decade or two, Dr. Cheng said. ‘‘(Text)’’
U.K. had made a successful underground test of a major component of its own nuclear warhead for American-supplied Polaris missiles, it was disclosed. Prime Minister Harold Wilson told the House of Commons the test would lead to a considerable savings in costs. An earlier test had been unsuccessful. ‘‘(NYT, 1/26/66, 39)’’
January 26-29: American Physical Society met in New York. Dr. Charles H. Townes, Nobel prize-winner and MIT provost, said in a dinner speech both economically and scientifically feasible. “Furthermore,” he continued, “the task probably will be accomplished within time and money limitations set four years ago. These envisage a moon landing by late 1969 at a total cost of about $20 billion.” Townes announced the appointment of “an important ad hoc Science Advisory Committee” aimed at obtaining “the most fruitful relationship between NASA and the scientific community.” Headed by Prof. Norman Ramsey, the new group would “consider many . . . problems, concentrating particularly on how to carry out the most efficient and rich scientific program and what ways will allow the scientific community, including universities, professors, and students to participate most easily and effectively in the interesting possibilities which are now emerging.” In a panel on the origin and possible death of the universe, P. J. E. Peebles and David Wilkinson of Princeton Univ. and Robert W. Wilson of Bell Telephone Labs. told about evidence indicating that space was permeated by black body radiation. If this were so, it would support the “big bang” theory of the origin of the universe which held that at first, all was a mass of dense energy; then came expansion powered by much of the energy. The original energy would have the properties of the energy emitted by a black body-light, heat, and radio waves proportionate to its temperature. Because no other explanation existed for the energy the Princeton and Bell scientists had detected uniformly distributed over space, and because black body characteristics were so clear cut, they believed confirmation could be achieved within a year. Yuval Ne’eman of Tel Aviv Univ. proposed a new theory to explain the quasar (quasi-stellar radio source) : the force represented by the tendency of the universe to expand had been suppressed in some parts of the universe; thus, these areas were highly dense. But because this tendency is not suppressed under all conditions, it sometimes bursts forth and matter tears free of the intense gravitational attractions. When this happens, enormous amounts of matter and energy are emitted and observers on earth detect the event as a quasar. Scientists in a panel discussion on scientific data said the task of coping with the scientific information explosion should not become exclusively a Government responsibility. Discussion was based on December 1965 report of Federal Council for Science and Technology recommending that the Government-with participation of private groups-establish a national document handling system to help keep scientists abreast of new knowledge. In a discussion of planetary exploration, Cal Tech Prof. Robert B. that the manned lunar landing planned for the end of this decade was. Leighton, scientist in charge of the televising by MARINER IV of Mars (July 14, 1965), said there was still hope the TV pictures would yield information about Mars’ canals: “When we know more nearly where the camera was pointed-because it is not known very clearly now . . . we , may be able to say that this picture was taken at a place very near where a canal goes across.” Leighton said he had agreed to collaborate with Prof. Gordon J. F. MacDonald of UCLA on a television experiment for the Mariner spacecraft scheduled to fly by Venus in 1967. ‘‘(Texts; Wash. Eve. Star, 1/27/66, A3; Hines, Wash. Eve. Star, 1/28/66, A4; Weil, Wash. Post, 1/27/66, A2, 1/29/66, A6, 1/30/66, A7)’’
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