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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1505.PDF
ASTKUNAU1 JtLr-ouji»inuiM FLIGHT, 19 October 1961 609 SMt"cw^ ANGULAR VELOCITY ADDITIONAL INPUTS PITCH YAW ROLL n CAPSULE ABORT SEQUENCER COMBUSTION CHAMBER PRESSURE BOOSTER EMERGENCY CUTOFF Above, Mercury abort-sensor system (Kuettner and Bertram) Right, time-study for Mercury safeguards during countdown (from the same paper) US INC 95' US INS l?5' US INC 9V USING ACECRAF SERVICE FROM VE SERVICE FROM VE MOB 1 LC STRUCTURE HICLE STRUCWKE HICLE TOWER FROM V HICLE STRUCTURE STRUCTURE NOTE INTO WS,IT INTO POSIT 7B OH *| ON AR '•6 U,. .ov(J«ni,al ^^^^^J PfRSONNEi ,,. UND tff«irir ii---' io T-. • 1 A X)N0 VIMCLE n-' ' to!-. to a> ASTRONAUT s 12- £1 <2 to VE« itLFV L'P 16? Inllj to Vf EXPOSURE - t 18 HAN-SEC ?us ?BO LTPO Ol-T n FV DUN 1 :" !«•! - ,.-. uf«JM i •• tfi B • ST^O OUT | ELfV KT1 - to INCAPACITATED -^ ?8- ASTRO 0UT HLEV OWN tip, to B ..;• . •'•::•:• i HI UIV w ASTRO OUT | ELtV 1 , a J MM t EXPOSURE OWN HI n . p' KAN-SEC T BHI ONNtL EXPOSURE • 13? MAN-SEC win to *>• 1 PERSONNEL EKPOSutl P83 W-SEC • 685 MAH-5EC toJl rERJOmtCL EXfQSUfiE • 68^ KAM-SCC Vahicl* ! 40 120 160 200 made over distances of about 100,000 miles, and voice transmissionsover approximately 1,000 miles. Because such radiation is heavily scattered and absorbed in the Earth's atmosphere, such communi-cations would be limited to outer space, e.g. between satellites. Papers presented in a structures session on the same day includedreviews of Saturn S-4 structural design, of composite construction, of crack propagation and of material problems in space, contri-buted respectively by L. H. Abraham of Douglas Aircraft; Bryan R. Noton of the Swedish Aeronautical Research Institute; ProfA. J. Murphy of the College of Aeronautics, Cranfield; and L. D. Jaffeand J. B. Rittenhouse of Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Investigations of cosmic radiation as measured by the second andthird Soviet "spaceship satellites'' (launched on August 19, I960, and December 1, 1960) were reported in the paper On Investiga-tion of Cosmic Radiation on Spaceship-Satellites by S. N. Vernov, V. E. Nesterov, N. F. Pisarenko, I. A. Savenko and P. I. Shavrin.The results of the experiments, the authors stated, made it possible to investigate in detail the boundaries of the Earth's radiationbelts, to determine the planetary distribution of cosmic radiation, to reveal anomalies of cosmic radiation and to establish the distri-bution and quantities of the absorbed doses at the altitudes of the nights of spaceships 2 and 3. Other Soviet papers included Some Results of the ConstantGeomagnetic Field Measurements carried out from Sputnik 3 over the Territory of the USSR by S. Dolginov, L. N. Zhuzgov, N. V.Pushkov, L. O. Pyurmina, and I. V. Fryazinov; and Investigation of Interplanetary Plasma and Planetary Ionospheres by means ofCharged Particle Traps on Space Rockets by K. I. Gringauz. The Congress Ends The Congress concluded on Saturday, October 7, with visits toNASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, a Western-style barbecue on the campus of Maryland University, and the Maryland-Syra-cuse university football game. Delegates were in turn impressed, overloaded and amazed.Meanwhile, on a quick trip to Cape Canaveral, Dr L. R. Shep- herd and Mr Len Carter of the British Interplanetary Society werehanding over a silver plaque which the Society had awarded to the seven Project Mercury astronauts. This was received on behalf ofthe group by astronauts Shepard, Grissom and Cooper. From Washington, most of the congress delegates were movingon to New York City and the annual meeting of the American Rocket Society, to be reported in these pages next week. The guest speaker at the luncheon meeting on Tuesday, October10, was Dr James Van Allen, head of the Physics Department at the State University of Iowa. On this occasion he was the recipient ofthe first American Rocket Society Research Award, donated by the Douglas Aircraft Co, for "his early application of rocketry tocosmic-ray research, his discovery of the radiation belts, and his continuing basic research in the field of space physics." After receiving the award Dr Van Allen spoke on the subject ofspace science and the US universities. He said, in part:— "The idealized role of the universities is to put the fine cuttingedge on the massive and relatively blunt intellectual tools which we are using. This can be done in two ways. First, we must rapidly assume theresponsibility for converting the callow and more-or-less half-baked interest and enthusiasm of our youth to solid competence. This is not aneasy matter... "The education of young people is one of the most elusive of humanenterprises. Yet, by and large, colleges and universities have brought our culture to where it is today, and no other segment of our culture hasyet demonstrated a comparable level of capability in transforming the 240 260 a In Seconds 400 440 interest and enthusiasm of youth into broad-gauge leadership. Webelieve that we can continue to do so in the space-science field, though we do not promise overnight miracles. And we will need substantialfederal assistance if we are to match the national ambitions in this new field of human endeavour."Secondly, I believe that the graduate colleges of our universities have the potential for contributing in an essential, direct and far-sighted way to fundamental advances in space science and, perhaps to a lesser extent, in space technology . . ." Although speaking in the context of the United States scene, thebasic philosophy behind Dr Van Allen's remarks applies equally well to this country. Another speaker during Tuesday's activitiesat the meeting delivered a paper which was international in its implications—and, indeed, in its title. The author was Mr ArnoldFrutkin, Director of International Programs, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and his subject was The Character ofInternational Co-operation in Space. Mr Frutkin gave a realistic appraisal of the world space-sciencescene, and endeavoured to separate scientific and political implica- tions—which in his opinion had frequently been indiscriminatelyintermixed. He said, in part:— "International co-operation, particularly in science, is today lookedupon much as an all-powerful and benign genie which is reluctant to come all the way out of the bottle. The feeling is widespread that if weonly knew the right words to say. the genie would emerge and exercise his full powers to resolve many of the problems that vex the world..."There are important misconceptions as to the amount and value of the work already done by the genie and the environment he requiresfor his best work. It is widely thought that the great precedent of international co-operation in geophysics is applicable in many otherscientific and non-scientific fields. It is felt that there is a special quality in science which reduces political obstacles. This has led, in turn, tothe hope that political problems might be solved if referred to scientific forums, or, on the other hand, that the introduction of scientific ortechnical programmes into political forums may have an ameliorating influence. There are undoubtedly elements both of truth and optimismin all of this . .. "In our own field and in others as well, the prime illustration of thevast potential of international co-operation is the recent International Geophysical Year."There is a popular notion that the IGY represented a unified and integrated programme of inter-governmental co-operation in the study ofEarth and its environment. In fact, the IGY was international prin- cipally in its non-governmental aspects. The international functions(planning and loose co-ordination) were performed entirely by commit- tees of scientists representing only scientific institutions, reachingdecisions only where unanimity could be achieved, and with little authority to implement their programmes. The implementation of theirproposed programmes was done on a national basis .. . "The reasons for its success tend to be rather special. In the firstplace, the problems of geophysics—unlike those in many laboratory sciences—actually require study of the earth on a global basis. Priorto the IGY, a long history of co-operation and exchange had been built up by geophysicists, and an organizational complex reflecting this factexisted in a close network of national and international scientific societies . . ."The next important point to make is this. The IGY was indeed relatively free of politics. It is quite probable, however, that this wastrue only to the extent that political considerations were not directly involved. Where political considerations existed, they made themselvesfelt. The participants either side-stepped them or in effect yielded. I doubt that it can fairly be said that the IGY solved any political prob-lems. Thus, the question of Chinese representation plagued even the IGY programme."More important for our concerns here, the broad success which characterized the scientific effort in virtually all other fields did notreally extend to the IGY programme in space research, where, it is now very clear, the Soviet Union had political rather than scientific object-
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