Mar 19 1964
From The Space Library
Attempt to orbit NASA Explorer Beacon satellite (S-66) failed when third stage of Delta launch vehicle burned for only 22 sec. instead of normal 40. This Was only the second Delta failure and followed 22 consecutive successes. The 120-lb. satellite was designed to transmit data on the ionosphere directly to worldwide network of ground stations. In addition to making major ionosphere studies, the satellite was to have served as test bed for two geodesic experiments-reflection of a laser beam directed from Wallops Island, Va., and transmission on two frequencies permitting ground stations to study Doppler method of satellite tracking and influence of ionosphere on Doppler tracking. (UPI, Wash. Post, 3/20/64; Av. Wk., 2/23/64, 25; NASA Release 64-60)
NASA Nike-Apache sounding rocket with Rice Univ. payload was launched from Ft. Churchill, Canada, to 94-mi. altitude. Two photometers, two scintillators, three Geiger counters, and two magnetometers made coordinated measurements of light intensity and particle fluxes. (NASA Rpt. SRL)
Two U.S. commercial airline pilots reported seeing unidentified object explode in a "spectacular flash" as it entered earth's atmosphere over the Atlantic Ocean, about 200 mi. west of Land's End, England. Press sources reported speculation that explosion was part of jettisoned rocket used the previous day in Soviet launch of Cosmos satellite. (UPI, NYT, 3/20/64, 2)
Report by Committee on Science and Public Policy of the National Academy of Sciences, Federal Support of Basic Research in Institutions of Higher Learning, was issued by NAS. Prepared in response to requests from American Society of Biological Chemists and other scientific societies, the report attributed success of Federal scientific support program "in no small measure to enlightened policies of several federal agencies . . . specifically to the current emphasis on support by research projects grants and by fixed-price research contracts. . . . "The record shows a continuous regard for the government's responsibility for the money entrusted to it by the people. And the overwhelming majority of the scientific community has throughout the record respected that responsibility. . ." (NAS-NRC Release)
AFCRL scientist Sheldon B. Herskovitz had created a theoretical model and operation of an all-plasma radar system. The hypothetical radar system was based on some devices already developed, some representing techniques presently available but not applied, and some that simply were theoretically promising. (OAR Release 3 64 3)
Dr. Robert L Barre, former NASA Scientist for Social, Economic, and Political Studies, said in address before American Orthopsychiatric Association in Chicago: "Space activities may be viewed either as a cause or as a consequence of social and cultural change. From either point of view, freedom to engage in scientific activity entails significant social responsibility.. . . "It is ironic that a consequence of the extension of definite verifiable knowledge, the primary product of science, should be to extend confusion. To increase knowledge, not only adds knowledge where it did not previously exist, but corrects previously held mistaken knowledge and belief. In so doing, it alters the conditions of existence; hence man's relationship, not only to his physical environment, but to other men. "Scientists produce the conditions from which these alterations develop. The inescapable responsibility of scientists is to continuously inform society of the knowledge they have, or are trying to create, and to explain its scientific significance. "The institutional locus and the social role of the scientist has traditionally fulfilled this -responsibility. The scientist in the past was, not only a creator of knowledge, but an integrator, a teacher-a transmitter of knowledge. New knowledge could be incorporated in its appropriate context and transmitted more rapidly than it could be produced. Today we have altered these arrangements. . . . "While slowing down the system for the transmittal of new knowledge and reducing the proportion of the educated populace who have access to the existing system, we are simultaneously speeding up the production of new knowledge. While ignoring the processes of evaluation, integration, interpretation, and assimilation of new knowledge, we have fixedly accelerated the processes of specialized acquisition of new knowledge. "We have upset the equilibrium between invention and innovation. I submit that the social responsibility of the scientist is obvious: to assist society restore the balance." (Text)
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