Word: antennas
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Some time this week, the newest NASA satellite is scheduled to perform a complex series of operations in orbit. If all goes well, Radio Astronomy Explorer-A will unreel a collection of booms and antenna until it turns into a veritable space spider, with two pairs of appendages reaching 1,500 ft. from tip to tip-a distance greater than the height of the Empire State Building (which is 1,472 ft.). With those great legs foraging for information, RAE-A will act as a flying radio telescope capable of monitoring signals that even the largest earth-bound installations cannot...
Mapping the Milky Way. This week the satellite will receive a radio command from earth and begin to unfurl its giant antenna system. Carried as flat ribbons of silver-plated copper alloy coiled on spools within the satellite, the tubular legs will be formed as the outer edges of the unwinding ribbons curl towards each other and meet. Tiny tabs along the edges of the ribbon will hook together as the tubeb forms, adding rigidity. At first, the antenna legs will be extended only 358 ft. from the craft, to test their stability. Then they will grow to their full...
Among executives in the entertainment industry, the worst four-letter word in television is CATV, otherwise known as Community Antenna Television, or Cable TV. Companies in the CATV field sell two services: extra channels that are not otherwise available, and interference-free TV pictures in poor reception areas. The CATV operators pick up the signals from TV stations with a high master antenna, and then feed the programs straight to subscribers' television sets through relay cables or microwave connections...
...Antenna Tail. To determine the behavior of objects penetrating the earth at high speed-a science that Sandia has named "terradynamics"-engineers have used projectiles weighing from 5 Ibs. to 6,000 Ibs. that strike the earth vertically at speeds of from 41 m.p.h. to 1,870 m.p.h., depending on the drop altitude and method of release. Some are merely shoved out of airplanes or hovering helicopters; others are dive-bombed or rocketed to boost their velocities. The best penetrators, Sandia has found, are pencil-shaped missiles of heavy metal that are at least 8 to 10 times longer than...
Before the projectile hits the ground, a small parachute tucked into its hollow tail is released, pulling out a long wire antenna. As the projectile pierces the earth, a small, insulated accelerometer responds to the sudden impact and subsequent slowing by producing a voltage that varies with the rate of deceleration. The voltage is amplified and transmitted through the antenna, which, unfurled, is long enough to remain extended above the surface...