Word: infra
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...orbit. This will eliminate a potential hazard to future lunar navigation as well as cause enough of a thud to give earthbound seismologists a good calibration test of the new lunar seismometer. Next, the astronauts will shoot a series of closeup photographs of the moon, using both ordinary and infra-red film to help NASA planners pick out landing sites for the remaining eight Apollo missions. Finally, Yankee Clipper's engine will be fired once again to begin the long, leisurely journey back to earth. Ten days 4 hr. 30 min. after it sets off from Cape Kennedy, Apollo...
...based Pacific Lighting Service Co. has applied the same principle to auto engines. After yearlong tests of six cars and trucks fueled by natural gas, the company reports a dramatic decrease in air pollution. Because natural gas burns cleanly, the vehicles emitted almost no hydrocarbons. Measuring the emissions with infra-red light, engineers found that carbon monoxide in the exhaust fell from 28 grams per mile with gasoline to 2 with natural gas; nitrous oxides dropped from 4 grams to .5. Already the company has started converting 1,100 other vehicles in its fleet to natural gas. Last month...
...week's end the infra-red spectrometer on board Mariner 7, the second of the two vehicles that flew past Mars, detected two gases-ammonia and methane-that could indicate the presence of primitive life. Both are produced on earth by biological decay. George C. Pimentel, a University of California chemist, said that he was unable to determine the amount of ammonia in the Martian atmosphere, but he estimated the concentration of methane as "no more than a few parts per million." In the earth's atmosphere, the amount is about 1.5 p.p.m.-and added rather jovially that...
Other scientists at Pasadena's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) hotly dispute the idea that the polar caps are largely frozen water. Most investigators are now convinced that they are mostly frozen carbon dioxide, otherwise known as dry ice. Mariner 7 helped their argument. Its infra-red radiometer measured the temperature of the area at - 253°F., or roughly the frost point of carbon dioxide on Mars...
Though Mariner 6 needed only one mid-course correction throughout its long journey, and Mariner 7 was almost on target, the flights were not completely trouble-free. Last week one of Mariner 6's infra-red spectrometers balked just as it was supposed to search out the gases and vapors in the Martian atmosphere. JPL technicians explained that the spectrometer, which should be cooled to below - 400° F. to operate efficiently, refused to chill at all. Mariner 7 caused even greater concern at Mission Control when it went off the air entirely for seven hours. Apparently struck...