Jun 4 1974
From The Space Library
Dr. James C. Fletcher, NASA Administrator, presented Dr. Richard T. Whitcomb, Head of the Transonic Aerodynamics Branch at Langley Research Center, a $25 000 cash award for his invention of the super-critical wing. The cash award, made in a NASA Hq. ceremony, was the largest ever made by NASA to an individual. An improved airfoil design, the supercritical wing would permit significant increases in the speed and range of supersonic aircraft without increased fuel consumption. (NASA Release 74-148; NASA photo 74-H-422)
Boeing Co. and the U.S.S.R. State Committee on Science and Technology signed an agreement on aviation cooperation, including exchange of information and technology and eventual commercial exchange. (FBIS-Sov, 11 June 74, B8)
Dr. H. Guyford Stever, Director of the National Science Foundation and Chairman of the President's Advisory Committee on Energy Research and Development, predicted that solar heating and cooling systems would be commercially available in five years. Following a speech at the Edison Electric Institute's annual convention in New York, Dr. Stever said the technology would be ready before "society is ready to solve the economic issues surrounding it." A choice would have to be made between "build-ing a lower priced house with added cost for a solar heating-cooling sys-tem, or spending more on higher fuel prices in a conventional house." (Smith, WSJ, 5 June 74, 65)
4-18 June: A team of 15 scientists led by Dr. Thomas A. Mutch of Brown Univ. tested the Viking lander camera in an area of Colorado with geo-logic conditions similar to those expected on Mars. With photo-diodes in the focal plane instead of film, the camera used a nodding mirror to reflect the image through the lenses onto the diode one line at a time. The entire camera was then rotated to scan the next line. Because the image was sequentially acquired, at five lines per second, several minutes were needed to obtain a complete photograph. The lander's two-camera system would provide color, black-and-white, infrared, and stereoscopic views of the Martian surface and photometric information to help deter-mine sizes and composition of Martian soil samples, monitor the opacity of the Martian atmosphere, and record the position of the sun and brighter planets for precise location of the lander on Mars. (NASA Release 74-257; LaRC proj off, interview, 9 June 75)
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