Jul 18 1978
From The Space Library
NASA reported that the Netherlands astronomical satellite ANS had been a success, based on comparison of mission results and prelaunch objectives. ANS, an Explorer-class x-ray and ultraviolet mission, was a cooperative program of the U.S. and the Netherlands, the U.S. providing a 2-part medium-energy x-ray instrument and the Scout, launch vehicle, and the Netherlands providing the spacecraft, a 2-part soft x-ray instrument, and a small ultraviolet telescope with photometers. During its 20mo lifetime, ANS had measured positions, spectra, and time variations of galactic and extragalactic x-ray sources in the energy range 2 to 15keV; defined upper limits of silicon-line emissions around 2keV; and transmitted more than 18 000 observations of about 4000 objects in the UV range 1500 to 3300A, in addition to other unexpected discoveries.
Although an unplanned elliptical orbit had drastically limited the x-ray observations, particularly in the pointed mode, and had substantially increased the spacecraft's exposure to radiation, the data it had returned were of a consistently high quality, except for partial failure of half the soft x-ray instrument 10mo after launch. ANS had reentered the atmosphere June 14, 1977. (NASA MOR S-875-74-01 [postlaunch) July 18/76)
NASA reported the U.S. Postal Service would commemorate the Viking missions to Mars by issuing a special postal stamp Thursday, July 20, second anniversary of the Viking 1 landing on Mars. LaRC and the Postal Service would hold a First Day of Issue ceremony in LaRC's activity center, and Dr. Donald Hearth, center director, would buy the first stamp. Robert McCall, whose two large murals were on display in the National Air and Space Museum, had designed the stamp.
NASA had launched two Viking spacecraft toward Mars in Aug. and Sept. 1975; the Viking 1 lander had touched down on Mars at 8:12am EDT July 20, 1976, and the Viking 2 lander arrived at 6:59pm EDT Sept. 3, 1976. During the mission ending in Nov. 1976, the landers and their partner, the orbiter spacecraft, had conducted experiments in 13 scientific disciplines. NASA had extended a reduced Viking mission until May 1978 to gather more information on Mars's weather, seasonal variations, and soil characteristics; a further reduced mission controlled by JPL would continue through Feb. 1979. The Viking high-resolution photographs of the planet from the surface and from orbit, numbering more than 30 000, had mapped most of Mars and had provided scientists with valuable information. (NASA Release 78-106; LaRC Release 78-34; Langley Researcher, July 14/78, 1)
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