Word: spacecrafts
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...What a helluva bore," yawned a controller at Houston's Manned Spacecraft Center as Astronauts Frank Borman and James Lovell monotonously orbited the earth last week. By week's end, as Gemini 7 completed its seventh uneventful day in space, the flight had indeed escaped the spine-tingling crises that enlivened-and plagued-earlier shots. But the ennui in Houston and elsewhere in the U.S. was a high accolade. It demonstrated that flawless performance has become commonplace, that near-perfect timing, preparation and execution of Gemini flights have become routine...
...evidence of life is eventually found on the moon, it may well be because earthly microorganisms hitched rides on the Russian and U.S. spacecraft that have crashed on the lunar surface. To avoid similar celestial contamination that might obscure or alternative life forms before they are identified and studied, both U.S. and Soviet scientists plan to give future unmanned planetary probes a thorough cleansing before they leave the earth. At a conference on spacecraft sterilization sponsored by NASA at Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, scientists explained how the chances of contaminating Mars will be reduced to less than...
...Bugs. To rid Voyager of its terrestrial bugs, contractors will be required to build spacecraft parts in "clean" rooms like those where many delicate instruments are now produced. Final assembly will take place in an ultraclean room, where living contamination will be reduced to as little as a thousandth of what is allowed in clean rooms. At the same time, all of Voyager's exposed surfaces will be decontaminated with ethylene oxide, a colorless gas that is deadly to microorganisms. Finally, the spacecraft will be placed in an airtight, teacup-shaped canister and baked in a giant oven...
...Chances. Despite the inconvenience and expense-and the ever-present danger that Voyager's reliability might be impaired-NASA has no doubts about the ultimate value of its spacecraft-sterilization program. Says Associate Administrator Homer E. Newell: "Successful biological exploration of the planets is a goal that supersedes in importance any program, flight or schedule that would endanger the eventual acquisition of knowledge of extraterrestrial life...
Having effectively sterilized Voyager, scientists will take no chances on the spacecraft's becoming recontaminated by stray microorganisms as it rockets upward through the earth's atmosphere. The spacecraft will still be in its sealed canister when it is mounted on its launching rocket and blasted aloft. Only when it reaches deep into sterile space will explosive bolts be fired to release the life-free Voyager from its protective envelope and allow it to proceed toward its rendezvous with Mars...