Word: space
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Ever since the Russians began their space shots, an insistent array of U.S. military pundits, politicos and editorialists have charged that the U.S. is lagging behind the Russians in the missile race, is heading toward a disastrous missile gap in the 1960s, and is foolishly placing a balanced budget above adequate military defenses. Last week, at long last, Defense Secretary Neil McElroy, backed by "the best intelligence there is," rose to the challenge. With General Nathan Twining, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, McElroy went over to the Capitol to set the facts before the Senate Armed Services Committee...
...what columnists have long called "new approaches," hung high like pie in the sky. Any bright young Senator could make headlines by calling a press conference to tell how the U.S. could become the Man in the Moon. Even hard-bitten Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson had become a space specialist, gone clean out of this world...
Vacuum Extinguisher. If the power is to be cut off entirely, it can be done by extinguishing the rocket's fire. This is almost impossible at atmospheric pressure; if the flaming propellant is extinguished, it tends to relight. But in the vacuum of space all that is necessary is to blow off the rocket's nozzle. The vacuum outside strikes into the rocket's heart. The hot combustion gases are sucked away from the unburned fuel so quickly that they do not heat it to the kindling point. The rocket's fire goes out instantly...
Another control problem is how to supply small bursts of power to alter the course of a rocket deep in space, to land it softly on the moon or swing it around Mars. Fuel systems now in use do not operate efficiently at low throttle, and once the fuel is turned off they cannot be re-ignited easily. Last week the Naval Ordnance Test Station at China Lake, Calif, unveiled a fuel system that could solve this problem. It uses hypergolic fuel, i.e., two fluids that ignite as soon as they come in contact. A feed mechanism (using...
What form should a museum take in midcentury? There is the palace-a grand gallery with lofty, vaulted skylights. There is the closed box-an exhibition space sealed off from outside light and divided into cubicles where displays can be lighted with the calculated drama of a stage set. Chicago's Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, 72, whom fellow architects rank with Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, accepts neither form. In Mies's view, a museum should be composed only of "three basic elements-a floor slab, columns and a roof plate...