Word: earthly
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Pickering decided that the payload-basically a Geiger counter to detect cosmic rays in space and two incredibly light but powerful radio transmitters-would have to be modified in one respect. It contained a miniature tape recorder to record the cosmic-ray data during a trip around the earth and then transmit it quickly when triggered by a coded signal sent up from the ground. Designed for Vanguard, this elegant apparatus would not work in Explorer I, which would spin too fast. So it was removed, requiring Explorer I to broadcast continuously...
...amazing conclusion: the earth was surrounded by a belt of intense radiation, apparently trapped by earth's magnetic field. It might be deadly enough to interfere seriously with man's attempts to fly out into space...
...that, at the suggestion of Physicist Nicholas Christofilos of Livermore Laboratory, the Department of Defense was planning to launch Project Argus, in which three atom bombs would be rocketed above the atmosphere and exploded (TIME, March 30). The high-speed electrons released were expected to be shunted around the earth by the earth's magnetic field. Van Allen's discovery that nature had already provided such electrons was a considerable shock...
...carried sophisticated instruments that Van Allen's laboratory had provided to distinguish between "hard" and "soft" radiation, and shielded Geiger counters designed to count radiation intensity at extremely high levels without blacking out. On Aug. 27 the first Argus shot sent man-made electrons zigzagging round the earth. The satellite cut through them back and forth, making about 250 passes before its batteries were exhausted on Sept...
...because of military security. But he had plenty to tell about the natural radiation. He could say with assurance that a human satellite crew exposed to maximum Van Allen radiation for a few days would surely die. It looked as if the fierce particles, which slam close to the earth in the auroral regions, were the explanation of the ancient mystery of the northern lights...