Based upon this metabolic information NASA is considering extending lunar surface extravehicular activity in Apollo 13 and subsequent missions. 2 SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS IN SPACE The Nation's space program made far-reaching contributions to science during recent months. Astronauts set up a geophysical station on the moon to transmit data to earth and brought back samples of the lunar surface for analysis; two spacecraft flew past Mars to collect extensive data; and scientists received invaluable physiological data from an instrumented Biosatellite carrying a primate. PHYSICS and ASTRONOMY PROGRAMS Orbiting Observatories Orbiting Solar Observatory-6, launched on August 9, resembles earlier spacecraft of this type but scans the solar disk better from a similar orbit. It weighs 640 pounds and is spin-stabilized (fig. 2-1). Its stabilized "sail" section is able to point, with an accuracy greater than one minute of arc, at 16,384 points in a grid over the solar disk. This sail carries an ultraviolet spectrometer-spectroheliometer developed by the Harvard College Observatory and X-ray spectrometers developed by the Naval Research Laboratory. The Harvard instrument can be programed from the ground on an orbit-by-orbit schedule as needed for "real time" scientific analy sis. On the "wheel" of OSO-6 are a British instrument to study important solar helium spectral lines, an Italian one to measure solar X-rays and cosmic gamma rays, and three American instruments to measure solar X-rays, zodiacal light, and neutrons. All of these provided data as planned. On December 7, Orbiting Astronomical Observatory-2 completed a year in orbit (20th Semiannual Report, p. 56, and 21st Semiannual Report, p. 50). The Smithsonian celescope on board has taken over 6,000 pictures of the celestial sphere; the Wisconsindesigned instrument has observed 762 celestial objects and transmitted data in geophysics, stellar astronomy, and interstellar matter in the ultraviolet energy range. Data received on Mars were being compared by scientists with information supplied by the Mariner Mars missions (p. 56). In December, the fifth Orbiting Geophysical Observatory completed the first total sky survey of hydrogen Lyman/alpha radiation. (OGO-5 was launched in March 1968.) This radiation-emitted by hydrogen at 1,216 angstroms-indicates the presence of neutral hydrogen gas around the sun and the existence of several strong sources in the Milky Way. The measurements, obtained by an ultraviolet photometer of the University of Paris, were made possible by the highly elliptical orbit of the satellite (perigee 186; apogee 92,000 miles). AZUR Satellite The first cooperative satellite with West Germany, AZUR, was launched on November 7 to study the trapped radiation belts (ch. 7, p. 140). Placed in a nearly polar elliptical orbit at altitudes up to 1,600 miles, it carries eight instruments developed in German laboratories for measuring magnetic fields, protons, electrons, and a band of ultraviolet radiation between 3,000 and 3,900 angstroms. Second Airborne Auroral Expedition An 85-hour study of the Aurora Borealis (the Northern Lights) and the polar cap airglow was made from a NASA jet airplane between November 20 and December 8. The Canadian Churchill Research Range, Fort Churchill, Manitoba, was the primary operating base, with other flights from Fairbanks, Alaska, and Bodo, Norway. Instruments of NASA, ESSA, several universities and industry, as well as from Canada and France, and TV and photographic equipment were aboard the aircraft, which was staffed by scientific teams from the United States, Canada, and France. The 14 instruments carried out measurements in spectrometry and broadband photometry from the near ultraviolet to the infrared, riometry, and magnetometry. Most of the 15 flights included coordinated measurements with overpasses of the OGO-6 satellite and the geostationary ATS spacecraft. The results of this study confirmed those of a similar one in January-March of 1968 (19th Semiannual Report, p. 42) and provided new data. For example, flights from the Norwegian base could be made during total darkness to observe geomagnetic midday auroras. Sounding Rockets and Balloons Sounding rockets were continuing to play an important role in space research and in testing instruments to be flown on satellites. Twenty-five launches were made-among them simultaneous tests during a solar flare of two instruments being developed for the Apollo Telescope Mount, and tests of an improved solar X-ray telescope-proportional counter spectrometer, and a near-ultraviolet high resolution spectograph. There were also 24 balloon launchings, the most important of which was a successful engineering test of major mechanical components of the Stratoscope II optical stellar telescope. This instrument is being developed for very high quality photography from above the lower atmosphere. In addition, a number of the balloons carried equipment to measure heavy cosmic-ray ions and electrons. |