Word: radar
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...heavens, Venus has always been less than clear to astronomers. Wrapped in dense clouds of gases, the Venusian surface remains hidden even to the most powerful optical telescopes. Now, scientists are employing electronic means to explore the mysteries of the earth's sister planet. Using radio beams, Radar Astronomers Richard M. Goldstein and Shalhav Zohar of Caltech's Jet Pro pulsion Laboratory reported last week that they have mapped 160,000 sq. mi. of Venus, an area about equal to the size of the entire U.S. Northeast...
Their rough but unique closeup of Venus stems from 17 radar probes with NASA's 210-ft. dish antenna at Goldstone, Calif., last summer. At that time Venus was only 26 million miles from the earth. Since then, the scientists have been "drawing" a map by feeding their electronic findings into a computer. The result shows three blotches of extremely rough terrain, which Goldstein presumes are mountains, moonlike craters or fields of boulders...
Clocking the Signal. Celestial radar mapping is based on the same radio-echo techniques used in plane spotting and ship navigation. But bouncing radar waves off planets requires far more power and precision. For the Venus experiment, the Goldstone installation operated at 100,000 watts, twice the power of the largest U.S. commercial radio stations. When the signals came back 41 minutes later, they measured just a tiny fraction of a watt...
...dramatize their overwork and the limitations of radar tracking equipment no longer able to cope with the crowded sky, the newly unionized controllers began to play the game according to the book. They invoked long-avoided regulations requiring at least a three-mile separation between planes for safety (in recent months, aircraft had been allowed as close as two miles). One proposal to ease the jam included a temporary shutdown of 335 FAA-manned flight service stations and transfer of their 900 controllers to busier towers...
...daily food imports of at least 200 tons, a target that a fly-by-night air lift of chartered old Constellations has not been able to meet. A bare trickle of supplies has been flown in, some by the Vatican. The flight into Biafra is a dangerous trip through radar-guided Nigerian antiaircraft fire to a secret, kerosene-lit airstrip that one pilot describes as "little wider than a bicycle path." A medicine-laden aircraft crashed last month, killing its American pilot and two other Americans...