Sep 1 1977
From The Space Library
The Space Age might not yet be out of its teens, the Chicago Tribune reported, but the two decades that would end Oct. 4 since the launch of Sputnik 1 had brought many wonders. The newspaper cited worldwide television; photographs from space of the blue-white earth in the vastness of space; color pictures of the surface of Mars; close-ups of the planet Jupiter; men walking-and riding-on the surface of the moon; astronauts living aboard a space station for 84 days; and men "walking" in space, outside their ships. Satellites had changed human life as few other objects (the wheel, the printing press, gunpowder) had changed it, and had affected everything from the educational system to politics, from ideas about ecology to ideas about humanity itself and about its future.
Predictions of things to come in the next 20yr of the Space Age included weather modification, energy transmission from space, and permanent outposts in orbit and on the moon. People would use satellites to monitor air and water pollution, find minerals, chart water currents, predict earthquakes, map land use, keep tab on crops, look for fish, and make worldwide live television commonplace, the paper said. (C Trib, Sept 1/77, 1-7)
The Washington Post said NASA was looking for "someplace else to land the Space Shuttle." Its second free flight had been postponed when Hurricane Doreen turned the planned landing strip (a dry lakebed at Edwards AFB) into a "mud puddle." A NASA source said officials had investigated other sites for the flight, tentatively rescheduled to Sept. 7. (W Post, Sept 1/77, A-27)
Johnson Space Center confirmed that NASA would turn off science instruments on the lunar surface and would dismantle the JSC control center for Apollo lunar surface experiments package (ALSEP) as of Sept 30. The five stations still operating were put there by Apollo missions 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17. In July 1969 the original moonwalkers of Apollo 11 had left behind a prototype station with a design life of only 14 days; it had survived for 45 days and quit when its power supply failed. Specifications for the remaining five had included a lyr design life for 4, and 2yr for the Apollo 17 station; the Apollo 12 station was "well into its eighth year;" NASA noted.
Built to record and transmit long-term lunar-surface data, the stations with their long life had provided researchers with a real bonus instead of data from only one seismometer at a time, for instance, the group had operated as a sensor network, greatly enhancing available information on the moon's internal temperature and magnetic field, charged particles in its environment, and especially moonquakes and meteoroid impacts. Although the experiments would be terminated, the transmitters would continue to operate, serving earth as an astronomy reference point. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory would use the signals in deep space work such as astrometrics and spacecraft navigation or monitoring the motion of the lunar orbit against a background of extragalactic stars to test gravity theories.
The lunar stations had had problems: The Apollo 14 ALSEP ran for 4yr, quit for 2 days in March 1975, started up again, and had repeated this 6 times since. Understanding the trouble (temperature fluctuations resulting from the sun's position had caused short circuits) would help in designing future science stations. (JSC Release 77-47; NASA Release 77-203)
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