Word: spacecrafts
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...fact, Crick and Orgel estimate, man within a few decades will have nuclear rocket engines that would enable him to conduct a little panspermia of his own. Using such rockets, it would be possible to reach planets orbiting around any of thousands of stars with spacecraft carrying microorganisms, such as dormant algae and bacterial spores. Suitably protected and maintained at temperatures close to absolute zero, the organisms could be kept alive for a million years or more...
...loss of the thrusters on Apollo's service module was not in itself critical. Experience in NASA'S ground simulators has shown that an Apollo spacecraft can be steered with only one service-module rocket cluster-or even with only the thrusters on the command module. What worried space-agency engineers was the possibility of further deterioration in the propulsion system. The small thruster systems, as well as Apollo's big main engine at the rear of the service module, use the same type of oxidizer. What is more, the chemical had come from the same batch...
...manned space ventures, the Soviet Union is pressing ahead as strongly as ever in unmanned exploration of the cosmos. Last week the Russians took advantage of the current favorable position of the earth and Mars-an alignment that occurs only once every two years-to launch two more unmanned spacecraft toward the Red Planet. Dubbed Mars 4 and 5, the ships should reach the vicinity of the earth's nearest planetary neighbor, now some 42 million miles away, in about six months...
...usual, the Russians are tight-lipped about the project. But Western observers believe that the spacecraft might release a smaller lander. If so, that would mean a rerun of last year's Mars 3 mission, when a TV-equipped instrument package was dropped on the Martian surface. The unit ceased sending signals after 20 seconds-possibly because it was buffeted by the Red Planet's hurricane-force winds. By contrast, the U.S.'s Mariner 9 spacecraft, launched at approximately the same time, worked for almost a year while in orbit around Mars, taking more than...
NASA, which is strapped for funds, has decided not to take advantage of this year's launch window for Mars. But space-agency scientists are moving ahead with a variety of other explorations. Two Pioneer spacecraft are now speeding toward a rendezvous with Jupiter. Later this year NASA plans to launch a flyby of Venus and Mercury. In 1974 and 1976, with the help of European scientists, it will send Helios probes toward the sun. In 1977, as a substitute for its highly touted "grand tour" of the outer planets, it hopes to launch two flybys of Jupiter...