Word: saturn
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Scientists have abandoned hope of finding life-or any indications that it once existed-on the earth's own desolate moon. But what are the chances of uncovering any signs of life on more distant moons? Focusing their telescopes on satellites of Saturn and Jupiter, astronomers have now discovered evidence that in at least one case suggests that primitive life may indeed exist elsewhere in the solar system...
That possibility was suggested in a recent study of Titan, the largest of Saturn's ten moons, by a team of Cornell University scientists under Astronomer-Exobiologist Carl Sagan. From infra-red and other telescopic measurements of the satellite, a body as large as the planet Mercury, Sagan and his colleagues conclude that Titan is relatively much warmer (about-100° F.) than previously estimated. It also has a thicker atmosphere than had been suspected and is leaking small quantities of hydrogen gas into space. Pondering these surprising conditions on Titan, the Cornell group has evolved a picture...
...Dante's Inferno. An incredible belch of flames against the night, ominous clouds of steam and smoke, and finally a thunderous, earth-shaking roar that assaulted the senses and numbed the minds of the 500,000 spectators gathered on nearby Florida beaches and highways. As the Apollo 17 Saturn rocket began to lift ponderously from Cape Kennedy's launch pad 39A, the entire sky was filled with an orange-pink glow, a false dawn against which gulls and pelicans wheeled and fluttered in aimless confusion. The awesome spectacle marked a fitting beginning to the mission of Apollo...
...precisely T-minus-2 min. 47 sec., the computer should have ordered pressurization of the liquid oxygen tanks in the Saturn 5's third-stage booster. But because two tiny electrical contacts in the computer's miniaturized circuitry did not touch, the signal was not given. That failure was noticed by an alert launch controller, who immediately threw a manual switch that started the necessary procedure. The computer, programmed only to check its own automatic signals, assumed that pressurization had not begun and stopped the countdown...
...craft becomes disabled, the other can safely return all of the astronauts to earth. Unlike lunar missions, the journey will not begin directly from earth; that would require boosters too huge to be practical. Instead, the two cylindrical ships will be lofted piecemeal into earth orbit by Saturn-type boosters. There, the separate parts will be latched together. Finally, a space shuttle will bring up the astronauts as well as their fuel and supplies...