Mar 7 1977
From The Space Library
Dr. James C. Fletcher, NASA administrator, announced that the planetary probes scheduled for launch Aug. 20 and Sept. 1 would be named Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. The two craft would view Jupiter, Saturn, and their respective satellite systems, and might also look at Uranus and Neptune. JPL had designed and built both probes.
In March 1979 Voyager 1 would pass within 357 000km of Jupiter, the solar system's largest planet, and go on to rendezvous with Saturn in Nov. 1980, passing within 209 000km of the ringed planet's cloud tops and within 6430km of Titan, Saturn's largest moon and the only satellite in the solar system known to have an atmosphere. (NASA Release 77-41)
NASA's upcoming 5yr plan (1978-1982) had projected annual budgets for fiscal yrs 1980-1982 in excess of $4.7 billion, Aviation Week reported. The plan, an internal document used to guide the agency, would allow NASA as many as 7 major new mission starts in FY 1979, including a Mars rover and a Halley’s Comet rendezvous. (Av Wk, Mar 7/77,47)
MSFC announced it would consider using the Space Shuttle's external fuel tank (ET) as a permanent space platform. James E. Kingsbury, head of MSFC's Science and Engineering Directorate, proposed to replace 57m3 of an ET's liquid oxygen with provisions for 90 days, then launch another Shuttle to bring a crew, a Skylab-airlock module and multiple docking adapter, and a solar electric-conversion wing to the orbiting ET to constitute a habitable space station. All the required equipment, now in storage or on display in the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, had been flight-tested. (MSFC Release 77-36; NASA Release 77-42; Htsvl Times, Feb 20/77, 8)
JSC announced it would use CAMAC, a European innovation used in working between computers and hardware to produce standard scientific electronic subassemblies, as a link between Shuttle computers and onboard experiments. CAMAC would reduce costs by permitting actual onboard assembly of major electronic sections from a CAMAC subassembly pool. MSFC had been studying the equipment to ensure reliability during Shuttle operations. (JSC Release 77-14)
JSC announced award of a $2 752 000 contract to Hamilton Standard Division of United Technologies Corp., Windsor Locks, Conn., for development and production of a Space Shuttle portable oxygen system for use independently or connected to the orbiter's oxygen system. Consisting of a face mask, rebreather loop, heat exchanger, oxygen bottle, and recharge kit, the system would operate during emergencies and for prebreathing before spacewalks to denitrogenize the crew's circulatory systems. (JSC Release 77-18)
NASA might undertake a Cosmic Background Explorer satellite program, Av Wk reported. The satellite would examine the character of cosmic background radiation claimed by many scientists to prove the big-bang theory of the universe's formation. (Av Wk, Mar 7/77, 11)
A cryogenically cooled infrared telescope carried aboard the Space Shuttle would become the major infrared research instrument in space, Av Wk reported. NASA studies had indicated such a telescope could gather spectroscopic data on objects 1000 times fainter than now visible. (Av Wk, Mar 7/77, 11)
New infrared detectors at Kitt Peak Natl. Observatory might have detected frozen methane on the surface of Pluto, Av Wk reported. If verified, the observations would indicate a smaller size for Pluto and would change current theories of Pluto's interaction with other planets. (Av Wk, Mar 7/77, 11)
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