Word: lasered
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...concert is a study in controlled flash, spectacular but not gaudy. Even the trappings of the typical rock super-production-smoke bombs, laser beams, meticulous lighting and shifting backdrops-are used sparingly, for maximum effect. McCartney, wide-eyed, boyish, bounces along eagerly on the warm good will of the crowd. He swings into his syncopated little ditty Silly Love Songs, a current hit single (number two on the charts) taken from his latest hit album, Wings at the Speed of Sound, out two months and already gone way past gold (a million dollars' worth of album sales) into platinum...
Dubbed LAGEOS, for laser geody-namic satellite, the new satellite consists of an aluminum shell dimpled with 426 so-called cube-corner prism reflectors. Each of the prisms reflects directly to the source a laser beam striking it from any angle. Inside the sphere is a solid brass core, which contributes most of the 903-Ib. satellite's weight. Because it is so small yet has so much mass, LAGEOS will not be much affected by any traces of the earth's atmosphere, particles in the solar wind, or variations in the earth's gravity field...
Future Map. NASA, working through the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, will aim high-powered pulses of laser light at the satellite from positions on the earth. By measuring the length of time the light needs to travel to the satellite and reflect to the laser stations, scientists will be able to calculate the exact distance from each laser gun to LAGEOS. Thus, by placing stations on each of the dozen or so tectonic plates that constitute the earth's surface, they can track the rate and direction of the plate movement, which results in continental drift. With stations on each...
NASA scientists estimate that measurements made during the first four years of the program should be accurate to within four inches. But eventually, once the measurement techniques are perfected and more laser stations become operational, movements of the earth's surface as small as .4 in. per year, averaged over four years, will be detected...
Because Hughes' life was so shrouded by secrecy, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to assess his achievements. Beyond doubt, he possessed a visionary gift for applying the scientific breakthroughs of today to create the new products of tomorrow. With his encouragement, his companies developed the laser, communications satellites and a dizzying array of esoteric weaponry. As one senior Pentagon intelligence officer puts it, "He was something of a genius in understanding far-out concepts of electro-optical systems, infra-red sensors and other sophisticated gear from undersea to outer space...