Oct 13 1978
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (1MB PDF)
NASA announced it had given David Johnson, director of DOC's National Environmental Satellite Service (NESS), the 1978 William T. Pecora award for his work in applying satellite remote sensing to monitoring weather and the environment. NASA and DOI had presented the award annually since 1974 for outstanding contributions by individuals and organizations to remote sensing.
The 1978 award citation, presented to Johnson Oct. 11 in Sioux Falls, S.D., as part of the fourth annual Pecora memorial symposium on remote sensing, said that Johnson "has devoted a major portion of his scientific and managerial life to the development and implementation of remote sensing systems designed to observe weather patterns, impacts of weather and man on our environment, the climatological trends of the earth, and in the process eliminated or alleviated loss of property and life as a result of natural disasters." Dr. Pecora, who died in 1972, had been undersecretary of the Interior and a motivating force in NASA's Landsat earth-resources survey satellite program and in DOI's EROS (earth resources observation systems) program. (NASA Release 78-155)
Spaceport News reported astronomers studying data obtained by the international ultraviolet explorer IUE satellite might have discovered a third black hole believed to be at the center of a globular cluster (a miniature galaxy shaped like a globe) some 15 000 light-yrs away. The WE large ultraviolet telescope had penetrated the background light coming from a globular cluster and reached its cote, where researchers found radiation from a group of 10 to 20 bright blue stars, apparently orbiting a black hole possibly small in size but with a mass equal to 1000 stars like the sun. Researchers would study movements and interrelationships of the stars to define the rotation about the center of the million-star cluster. (Spaceport News, Oct 13/78, 7)
JPL reported it had awarded CalTech a 5-yr extension, effective Oct. 1, 1978, of its contract in force since 1962 for R&D work performed at JPL. Cost of the 5-yr extension, in contrast to previous 2 or 3-yr extensions, was estimated at more than $250 million annually. JPL would mark the 20th anniversary of its affiliation with NASA in Dec. 1978; before 1958, JPL had worked primarily for the Army Ordnance Corps. Running concurrently but separately with the R&D contract was an ongoing contract to provide buildings, equipment, and other facilities necessary for work performance. A separate memorandum of understanding (MOU) negotiated in Dec. 1968, stating terms of agreement between NASA and CalTech for JPL activities, had been updated and renegotiated and was due for completion by the end of 1978. (JPL Universe, Oct 13/78, 1)
NASA and the state of Texas had signed a 3-yr agreement that the Texas natural-resources information system (TNRIS) would use Landsat computer-processed data in managing the state's natural resources, Johnson Space Center reported. Project costs were estimated at $600 000 for NASA and $750 000 for Texas. Day-to-day operations would use a mix of manual and computer-assisted remote-sensing methods to monitor Texas natural resources; photographic and electronic data from aircraft, ground-truth measurements, and weather-station environmental data would supplement satellite data during early phases of the project. JSC and a TNRIS task force would design and implement the data system; NASA would provide technical expertise. (JSC Roundup, Oct 13/78, 1)
Sixty-five percent of the food carried on Shuttle missions would be cooked, packaged, and tested in a new JSC food lab, JSC reported. Orbiter menus would be standardized on a 6-day cycle. About 15 % of Shuttle food-mainly flexpacks and thermostabilized food items-would be supplied by the U.S. Army's Natick Research and Development Command in Mass. Another 20% would be off-the-shelf items, from chewing gum and SNAP-top puddings to peanut butter.
The orbiter's lower deck would contain a galley with an oven, serving trays, water dispensers, and other serving equipment. When the galley was installed and operational (about mission SS-7), an hr before meal time the crewperson cooking would spend about 5 min rehydrating dehydrated food `items, loading meal trays, and placing them in the galley oven. After meals, trays and silverware would be cleaned and sterilized for reuse.
JSC nutritionist Rita Rapp, who has seen space-food technology evolve from bland squeeze-tube pastes carried on Mercury spacecraft to the electrically-heated food trays in the Skylab wardroom, said, "We try to present foods in a normal way, more like people are accustomed to eating on earth. Operational experience permitted us to add new food items-wider selection and better packaging-as we learned weightlessness did not cause the problems everyone anticipated." (JSC Roundup, Oct 13/78, 4)
Scientists and marine biologists trying to preserve the Great Lakes from pollution would receive vast amounts of new and more accurate information from a Nimbus-G satellite scheduled for launch Oct. 23, Lewis Research Center announced. Among its seven sophisticated instruments to measure parameters ranging from stratospheric aerosols and ozone to polar sea ice extent would be a coastal zone color scanner (CZCS) to measure water color and temperature, two characteristics affected by amounts of pollution and algae in water. The scanner would operate exclusively over water, taking pictures of an area encompassing the entire Great Lakes system in 2min, or of any particular area every 4 out of 5da, and would transmit the Great Lakes data to GSFC for recording and processing. Information in the form of photographs and digital-computer tapes would be archived and disseminated to assigned study groups.
A Great Lakes experiment team with scientists from LeRC, EPA, NOAA, the Canadian National Water Research Inst. and Center for Remote Sensing, the Environmental Research Inst. of Michigan, the Univ. of Minnesota, Case Western Reserve Univ., Ohio State Univ., and State Univ. of New York would assess the regional value of CZCS water-quality measurements. LeRC would be responsible for interpreting Great Lakes CZCS data and comparing it with coordinated ship measurements. (Lewis News, Oct 13/78, 1)
The Washington Post reported the Carter Administration had decided to allow the Peoples Republic of China to buy an American communications satellite launched by the U.S. The administration was waiting for the Chinese to reconfirm interest in the deal, the most sophisticated technology transfer so far between two countries. Several yr ago the Chinese had reserved a slot for a communications satellite with the U.N. agency monitoring the field. Discussions were still tentative, as the Chinese would have to negotiate with the few U.S. comsat manufacturers and would have to buy an undetermined number of ground stations. A satellite would cost $15 to $17 million; placing it in orbit would cost $13 to $23 million, depending on the rocket used. Regardless of any military implications, the satellite sale would probably annoy the USSR, which had repeatedly warned of danger in Washington's "playing the China card" (cultivating closer Chinese ties while Peking-Moscow relations were strained). (W Post, Oct 13/78, C-14)
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