EZE: THE MICHIGAN DAILY FRMA"Y. DECEMBER 14. K~~~~~~~~~~~L11!t TL U IU!lNVAV. 1RTAV1 U'1IA- **a4,a*aw*S UA ' 1%+11.JA , l.+iiar.lvl"r xv& 1*, 1004 Troubled Venus Probe Nears (Continued from Page 1) Does Venus have a magnetic field? Does it have a belt of charged particles around it, like the earth's Van Allen radiation belt? And most important of all, Mar- iner II might give some good clues on whether there is life on the planet or if the environment of Venus ,can support life. Measuring Devices Mariner II is a 447-pound pack- age of measuring devices and radio equipment. The spacecraft is 12 feet long with its 161/2-foot spread of two solar panels. Its radio signals are so loud and clear that there is hope now that Mariner II may continue relaying information part or even all the way to its closest approach to the sun. Tiny Planet At that time Mariner II will be about 65.5 million miles from the sun, 2.7 million miles from Venus, and 44.2 million miles from the earth. From that point it will loop far out into space, becoming a tiny planet in solar orbit. Mariner II was launched last Aug. 21 by an Atlas D and Agena B rocket combination. The rocket put itself into a "parking orbit" 150 miles above the earth and a few minutes later the Agena fired its rocket to send the Mariner into an escape trajectory toward Venus at about 25,700 miles an hour. About an - hour after launch, ,Mariner's solar panels had opened, the attitude control system was turned on and it began "locking on" to a course to the sun. Two days later,, after it was determined that all of Mariner's systems were working properly, a command was sent to turn on the scientific in- strumentation. Seven days after launch Mariner II oriented itself to the earth as well as the sun. Miss Planet' It was soon found out that if Mariner II kept on its present path to intercept Venus, it would' miss the planet by 233,000 miles, far outside the measuring range of the instruments in the space craft. So on Sept. 4, when Mariner II was nearly one and a half mil- lion miles from the earth, the craft was given a "nudge" by its rocket. It is now expected to pass about 21,000 miles from the planet. Mariner II's magnetometer has already detected ,magnetic fields all through space. But a small metal plate designed to register the impact of dust particles has detected far fewer of these than scientists had expected, creating something of a puzzle. According to Jet Propulsion Laboratory officials, Mariner II's instruments have. been making and sending back some 90,000 measurements a day. First Probe As sophisticated as this space probe is, Mariner II is only the Targe closest approach and at a disc of some 25,262 miles from planet. The velocity of Mariner II be increasing at the time, bet of the gravitational pull of V and will be about 87,000 mile hour. If all goes well, the radiom will function for 42 minutes, both the dark and sunlit side in range. The spacecraft will the planet's terminator, or d ing line between light andc ness, at 2:17 p.m. At 2:37 p.m.-24 minutes b Mariner II reaches its closes proach to Venus - the scar period will end as Venus n out of sight of the radiom and the spacecraft will be structed to turn off the tw( struments. t s "A gift from tance -Follett 's the -means more" I will cause M genus,,, . - es anFOLLETT ' leters while your Xmas Shopping s are cross headquarters ivid-or dark- O iefore BOOKS - RECORDS ;Wi AR TOYS-CAMERAS eters ARTSUPPLIES-STATIONERY in- and o in- UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SOUVENIRS first of many future space shots. At least one and possibly two Mar- iners will be launched in the early spring of 1964. And two Mariners will be prepared for launchings toward Mars when the "red" plan- et moves into an advantageous position in the fall of 1964. On Nov. 25, a signal from Mar- iner II indicated that it had brok- en the previous long-distance record for space communication set in June 1960 by the United States' Pioneer V space probe that went past the moon. The reasons scientists are not sure exactly how far Mariner II will come to Venus are the rela- tively crude measurements of pre- cisely where the three tracking stations, spaced around the world are situated, historic imprecision in the calculation of Venus' course, and ignorance about the "pres- sure" that sun radiation exerts on objects far out in space. Second Planet Venus, our morning and even- ing "star", is the second planet fron the sun, between Mercury and our planet, the earth. It takes Venus 225 days to make one orbit of the sun. She is called our sis- ter planet because her diameter- 7,800 miles-is very close to the earth's diameter of 7,926 miles. One theory suggests that the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere creates a "greenhouse" effect that holds most of the heat absorbed by the sun beneath the thick blanket of clouds. Another theory proposes that Venus is heated by friction pro- duced by high winds and dust clouds. This presents a picture of Venus as a vast desert. And some astronomers believe the surface of Venus is one, all-covering ocean. At her closest approach to the earth, Venus is 26.3 million miles from the earth. When the earth and Venus are on opposite sides of the sun, they are farthest apart- 102 million miles. But there is much unknown about Venus. Some scientists say the day is 22 hours and others say it may rotate only once a year- thus keeping only one side to the sun, like the moon does to the earth. Recent radar measurements seem to indicate that the latter figure may be the correct one. Venus is .perpetually covered by dense clouds believed to be com- posed of carbon dioxide and nit- rogen. A Soviet astronomer has recently found what he believes to be traces of oxygen in the at- mosphere of the planet thus giv- ing greater credibility to the chance that life may exist there. Various Methods Temperatures of the planet have been measured by various meth- ods, but many of them conflict. Most recent measurements indi- cate a temperature of minus 38 degrees Fahrenheit in some part of .the atmosphere and 615 de- grees at or near the surface of the planet. The coded signals, as received by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory'sj Goldstone, Calif., tracking station, will be relayed and amplified over the nation's radio and television networks. The data received from the spacecraft as it passes Venus will take four weeks or more to ana- lyze. Dr. William H. Pickering of Jet Propulsion Laborato'y said re- cently, "The reports back have already upset my conceptions of the particles and, rays encoun- tered in space by the Mariner. "If everything works as well as it is now, we will get back the first actual reports of what Venus is- to compare these facts with what our assumptions have been," he said. Some time between 2 and 4 a.m. this morning a stored command within the spacecraft was suppos- ed to have switched on the two radiometers. If signals showed that this had not been done by about 6 a.m., a switch-on signal would have been sent from the Woomera, Austra- lia, tracking station-the part of the tracking network in the best position to command the craft at that particular hour. The radiometers, 20 inches in diameter and 5 inches deep, are mounted on a swivel driven by an electric motor in a 120-degree scanning motion. 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