January 1970
From The Space Library
Space/Aeronautics reviewed status of aerospace and aeronautical projects at commencement of 1970s. Commercial transport industry was "microcosm of the capitalistic system. The health of any constituent, SST or airbus or Stol, is on trial in a harshly profit-motivated atmosphere that says. . . 'shape up or ship out.' Nowhere is this test more evident than in the troubled, hesitant posture of the U.S. SST program." With retrenchment to fixed-wing design "and a continual dropback in the urgency level of our SST effort," SST's competitive advantages were "being dissipated by an inexorable calendar." Apollo 11 lunar landing had alleviated Congressional opposition to further expensive long-term space commitments. "Suddenly, it was practical to think of going ahead with an expanded lunar exploration program." Space science and applications program had been marking time, "with most programs stretched out to match the diminished funding made smaller still by the nasty bite of inflation." But "light is beginning to show at the end of the long, dark tunnel of fiscal retrenchment." Success of satellite infrared spectrometer (SIRS), "welcome and long overdue test of ATS-3" for coast-to-coast relay of TV programs, and climb in "Comsat's '69 operating profiles" above $1million mark had led space science program steadily to shift "its dollar focus away from the earth." Civil systems activity by aerospace community was only token. "Yet 1969 may prove to have been a landmark year for the industry's relations with this strange and often self-contradictory market. New initiatives by the federal government indicate a growing awareness in Washington of what aerospace may be able to contribute to the solution of complex civil problems." (S/A, 1/70, 27-69, 81-132)
Fortune editorial commented on end of decade: "Before the 1960's are too hastily buried, it is well worth recalling... that the decade just ended was, for U.S. business, far and away the most profitable and productive ever. Indeed, in the long view of history, the Sixties will be remembered not just for tragic episodes, the war, riots, and assassinations, but also for the greatest floodtide of material abundance ever seen by human eyes. It is, after all, rare in human affairs that resources, talent, and institutions coincide to release fully man' remarkable productive capacities-and this happened in the U.S. in the Sixties." (Fortune, 1/70, 69-70)
Lightweight double-wall meteoroid< shield developed for enlarged propulsion system of Mariner Mars 1971 was described in Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets by JPL scientist John R. Howard. Outer sheet of Teflon-impregnated glass fabric and multilayer thermal insulation was more effective than aluminum sheet of same weight because of impact phenomena modification by heterogeneous first sheet and impact energy absorption by thermal insulation. Series of tests over range of impact velocities with projectiles of glass, nylon, and syntactic paste had been conducted. Linear extrapolation had shown that composite outer sheet was sufficient for specified meteoroid threat. (JSR, 1/70, 69-72)
J. W. Chamberlain, Associate Director for Planetary Sciences at Kitt Peak National Observatory, Ariz., reviewed cosmological theory for systematical exploration of outer planets in Astronautics & Aeronautics. Jovian planets-Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune had high intrinsic interest because their characteristics were similar to one another's but "vastly different" from those of terrestrial planets. Atmospheric distinctions which did exist among Jovian planets had probably "arisen from relatively minor differences in the prevailing conditions at the times of their birth." Major planets constituted "completely different kind of object." Nearest and biggest-Jupiter-had over 1000 times earth's volume and 300 times earth's mass for mean density of only 1.3 times that of water. It was "guardian (if not the parent) of a large family of at least 12 satellites, two of which are as large as a small planet. It has a daily rotation period of only 10 hr; and its atmosphere is composed primarily of hydrogen and helium, the most abundant elements in the Sun (and the universe itself... )." Neptune was "most distant of the giants" and Pluto was "nonconformist of the solar system" whose orbit "is far from circular, the solar distance ranging between about 30 and 50 A.U. [30 and 50 times distance from earth to sun] during its 248-year revolution, at a 17-deg inclination to the ecliptic." Many astronomers suspected larger differences between terrestrial and major planets held clues to formation of solar system. (A&A, 1/70,20-2)
Axe engineer Gerald J. Miatech and Aerojet-General engineer Clarence A. Lysdale reported application of multiple-satellite concept to particles and field research in Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets. Emphasis had been on experiments to resolve temporal and spatial interreactions of solar wind and earth's magnetosphere. Study had revealed feasibility, using proved technology, of establishing four satellite cluster for particles and field research in acceptable orbital array using single Thor-Delta launch vehicle. (JRS, 1/70, 60-8)
Lord Ritchie-Calder wrote in Foreign Affairs: "Past civilizations are buried in the graveyards of their own mistakes, but as each died of its greed, its carelessness or its effeteness another took its place. That was because such civilizations took their character from a locality or region. Today ours is a global civilization; it is not bounded by the Tigris and the Euphrates nor even the Hellespont and the Indus; it is the whole world. Its planet has shrunk to, a neighborhood round which a man-made satellite can patrol sixteen times a day, riding the gravitational fences of Man's family estate. It is a community so 'interdependent that our mistakes are exaggerated on a world scale.... Modern Man can outboast the Ancients, who in the arrogance of their material achievements built pyramids as the gravestones of their civilizations. We can blast our pyramids into space to orbit through all eternity round a planet which perished by our neglect." (Foreign Affairs, 1/70, 207-20)
- 1970
- January
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