Word: solarized
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...rose higher in the lunar sky and temperatures climbed toward 270° F. Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists prepared to shut down their successful Surveyor spacecraft for a two-day siesta. Then they suddenly discovered that the protective shadows of Surveyor's solar panel and rectangular high-gain antenna had fallen over the television camera, keeping it cool enough to shoot pictures for an extra day. Before the camera was again directly exposed to the sun's rays and had to be turned off, Surveyor raised its picture total to an incredible 4,002. After the siesta...
Scientists were also astounded at the efficiency of Surveyor's solar panels, which seemed to be having no trouble keeping its batteries fully charged. "We never dreamed in our fondest dreams that we would have so much power," admitted Aerospace Engineer Leo Stoolman, a technical director at Hughes Aircraft, which built Surveyor. As a result, scientists who had at first speculated that Surveyor might operate for only 30 hours into the long lunar night began talking confidently about at least three times that much nighttime telemetry before batteries run down...
...distinguish lunar objects, Surveyor had already taken and transmitted more than 2,000 pictures. Because Surveyor landed in the morning of the two-week lunar daytime, period, its TV camera should be able to operate for about twelve days, powered by batteries that will be constantly recharged by solar cells. By shooting the reflections from a mirror that can rotate 360° and tilt up and down, the fixed camera can televise views from Surveyor's feet to above the horizon a mile away. As the lunar night descends, the batteries should remain charged long enough for the camera...
...solar wind may also be responsible for the moon's magnetic field reported by Luna. Scientists believe that charged particles from the sun induce tiny electric currents in the moon. These, in turn, generate a weak magnetic field which-like the earth's-is probably distorted into a cometlike shape and may even have its own collection of energetic electrons for Luna to detect. The presence of these electrons would be characterized by a peak of radiation every three hours-each time Luna passed through the lunar tail on the antisolar side of the moon...
...shifts in frequency predicted by Einstein. An M.I.T. scientist plans to bounce high-frequency radar pulses off Venus as it begins to swing behind the sun. If Einstein's theory holds, the radar waves will be slowed down slightly as they pass through the strongest part of the solar gravitational field-enough to cause a 40-mile error in radar measurement of the distance of Venus from the earth...