Word: polarizer
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...past three months, a strange moth-shaped satellite has been orbiting the earth in a nearly perfect polar orbit some 560 miles high. Sweeping down from the Arctic to Antarctica and back again every 103 minutes, the 1,965-lb. spacecraft has been taking as many as 752 pictures of the earth every day; each shot covers a 115-by-115-mile square. Unlike U.S. and Soviet spy satellites, which are on the lookout for military sites, the mission of NASA's first Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS-1) is purely scientific. A direct spin-off of the space...
Along with its eye for color, ERTS has another useful capability. Because of the timing of its polar orbit, the satellite passes over the same spot on earth at almost precisely the same hour every 18 days. Lighting conditions at each site are thus unchanged (except for the slow seasonal drift in the angle of the sun and possibly different cloud cover). As a result, there is little difference in shadows from one picture to the next, and ERTS can quickly spot any changes in terrestrial features since its last visit...
...Polar lee. Debus let his gaze linger on the mighty Saturn V rocket beneath the Apollo 17 spaceship. "The Saturn V is the end too," said Debus. "I don't believe we will build a stronger rocket in this century. The Saturn can boost a payload of 200,000 lbs. into orbit. If you want more payload than that, it is cheaper to launch several Saturns than to develop a new rocket...
Debus compared the past and future of the space program to the difference between the excitement of discovering the South Pole and the somberness of staying there to study the polar ice. "We are in the age of economizing now. In the background is the shining star of adventure. But now we must bring the benefits of space...
Such symbolism aside, the motives and methods of chess players are as varied as their personalities. Even among the small number of men who have been world champions in this century there have been polar differences. Emanuel Lasker, title holder from 1894 to 1921, was a philosopher, mathematician and thoroughgoing "square" by most psychological standards. His satisfactions from chess appear to have been entirely intellectual. Cuba's Jose Capablanca (champion from 1921 to 1927), who gave up the orderliness of a projected career in engineering to become a chess giant and his country's hero, enjoyed competition...