September 1962
From The Space Library
Conclusion that wheel-shaped space station was technically feasible and identification of problems that still exist were revealed in NASA Technical Note D-1504, compilation of 11 papers by NASA Langley Research Center staff. Selection of this 150-ft.-diameter, 171,000-lb. structure was result of studies by Langley for more than 2 years and detailed analyses by North American Aviation, Inc., for past 6 months. The report indicated the space station primarily would provide a means of learning to live in space, where zero-gravity and variable-gravity experiments could be performed, closed life-support systems could be qualified, and rendezvous techniques and systems developed. Chosen model could support up to 38-man crew.
Issue of ARS' Astronautics contained series of articles by NASA Langley Research Center scientists and others, reviewing LaRC research program on manned space-station technology since early 1960.
Search for two huge meteorites believed to have fallen in western Virginia near Covington and West Virginia near Clarksburg was conducted by Dr. Frank Drake, Director of National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Green Bank, W. Va. Reports by wit- nesses indicated that the meteorites weighed-about one ton each and that they fell in sparsely populated, national forest areas.
Dr. Joshua Lederberg, of Stanford University, and Dr. Carl E. Sagan, former University of California professor, wrote in September Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that large amounts of moisture may be frozen into the subsoil of the planet Mars. From openings in the planet's crust, steam and gas may escape and create hot spots that would be "favorable microenvironments for life." They said that recurrent clouds detected by telescope "may be symptomatic of this local outgassing of water vapor." Dr. John W. Findlay, deputy director of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory at Green Bank, W. Va., said Echo-type reflective orbiting balloon and West Ford-type copper-needle belts were potential threats to science of radio astronomy. Writing in Science magazine, Dr. Findlay said these objects would contribute to "noise" in radiotelescope reception and "would cut down sharply on an antenna's ability to receive faint signals." Army Corps of Engineers announced that Launch Complex 12 at Cape Canaveral would be modified to service larger and more sophisticated space vehicles. Complex 12 was used to launch Mariner and Ranger space probes.
World's first regularly scheduled Hovercraft transportation service ended. Operating since July with 8 round trips daily from Rhyl, Wales, to Wallasey, England, —, the experiment proved Vickers Armstrong 24-passenger Hovercraft could successfully negotiate soft sand and shallows as well as deeper water. Hovercraft rides 8 in. above surface (land or sea) on cushion of air.
Secret of radio emissions from planet Jupiter was proposed by physicists Dr. Leon Landovitz of Yeshiva Univ. and Dr. Leona Marshall, New York Univ. They suggest that perhaps Jupiter acts as a gigantic maser, using energy from the sun as its "pumping" energy, to produce the decameter waves. They proposed that Jupiter's decameter radiation was based on principle that the change of state of an electron with respect to static magnetic field results in either emission or absorption of electromagnetic energy, such as light or radio waves, at frequency that depends upon the magnetic field. There may be a "cascading" of such stimulated emissions from the electrons as the disturbance propagates through the electrically charged layer of Jupiter's atmosphere, Dr. Marshall Stated. Jupiter's emission of radio waves was discovered in 1955 by Dr. Bernard Burke and Dr. Kenneth L. Franklin, then of Carnegie Institution of Washington.
Seven X-15 pilots and Paul F. Bikle, Director of NASA Flight Research Center, were awarded the first John J. Montgomery Award for aerospace achievement by the National Society of Aerospace Professionals and the Aerospace Museum of San Diego. The X-15 pilots were A. Scott Crossfield, NAA ; Maj. Robert M. White, USAF; Neil A. Armstrong, NASA; John B. McKay, NASA; Joseph A. Walker, NASA; Cdr. Forrest S. Petersen, USN and Maj. Robert A. Rushworth, USAF.
Ground rehearsals for ONR-NSF-NASA Stratoscope II balloon-carried telescope experiment took place in Norwalk, Conn., the 36-in. telescope focusing on the planet Jupiter. Later in mouth, telescope was disassembled and transported to Palestine, Tex., where it would remain in hangar until first flight, in February or March 1903. To be lifted above most of the earth's atmosphere by two balloons, telescope would be stabilized at 80,000-ft. altitude throughout each observing night, where it will make a variety of astronomical and planetary observations.
“I Fly the X-15” article appears in National Geographic Magazine
- September
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