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University Daily Kansan
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Mariner 2 Focuses on Venus After Command From Earth
WASHINGTON — (UPI)—A record-breaking command from Earth today focused on Venus the eyes which the Mariner 2 spacecraft will use to report whether the cloud-shrouded planet might sustain life.
It virtually assured scientists of obtaining more information than ever before has been gained from a foreign planet.
THE SCANNING DEVICE activated by the radioed command was set to penetrate Venus' cloud cover for about 42 minutes this afternoon.
The command climaxed several tense hours for space scientists who have been waiting expectantly since Aug. 27 in hopes of penetrating the age-21 mystery of the bright planet.
Mariner was supposed to have turned on scanners automatically at 2:21 a.m. EST today in preparation to begin viewing Venus at 1:55 p.m. EST.
But the spacecraft's built-in Mechanism failed to trigger an electronic foreman, or sequencer at the scheduled time. A second attempt to automatic triggering at 5:41 a.m. EST also failed.
ANOTHER ATTEMPT WAS possible after another three hours and 20 minutes, or at 9:01 a.m. EST. But at 8:35 a.m. EST, the Goldstone, Calif., tracking station sent a command to Mariner to turn on the scanners.
Six and a half minutes later, after
a 72-million mile round trip, the radio message from Mariner came back. The spacecraft had received Goldstone's command and had obeyed it.
As a result there was no need for the spacecraft to make a third attempt at fixing its eyes on Venus without a command from Earth.
Never before has any radio command been sent on such a long trip and been acted upon.
Today's probe climaxes a 109-day, 182 million-mile flight from Cape Canaveral. The 447-pound craft will pass within about 21,000 miles of Venus at 3:01 p.m. EST.
THE SPACECRAFT will make its closest approach to Venus at 3:01 p.m. EST. Scientists want the radiometers working several hours before this crucial moment.
Mariner 2 already has transmitted the greatest amount of information ever gleaned about magnetic fields, charged particles, cosmic dust, and solar winds in interplanetary space.
At that moment of closest approach to Venus, Mariner will be about 36 million miles in straight line distance from the earth and cruising at 88,400 miles an hour on a curving path around the sun.
nearest approach ever made by a spacecraft to one of Earth's planetary neighbors.
And in the 42-minute period between 1:55 p.m. and 2:37 p.m. EST it will provide man's first opportunity to obtain information from the vicinity of another planet.
WHAT THE INSTRUMENTS discover about Venus — whether, for example, it is a habitable world or an oven-like and lifeless desert — may take weeks of tape processing and study to interpret.
In that period, if Mariner's instruments do not falter, the radiometers will pierce the cloud cover and determine atmospheric and surface temperatures. They will search for signs of water vapor and oxygen. Other instruments will measure the planet's magnetic field, radiation belts, and gravitational force.
Friday, Dec. 14, 1962
Mariner 2 left the Cape atop an Atlas-Agenda B. rocket Aug. 27. Figuring out the right course to carry the spacecraft from the moving earth toward its moving target at varying speeds has been likened to hitting a fast flying clay pigeon with a rifle fixed to a spinning merry-go-round.
But, with the help of a slight change in course en route, the job was done and Mariner will pass Venus well within the planned range limits.
WASHINGTON — (UPI) — The State Department has put college students on notice that they could face prison if they attempt a Christmas holiday trip to Cuba.
CubaTripGets Federal 'No'
The warning was issued yesterday after it was reported groups of students from Boston, Buffalo, New York, and other cities planned to defy the government ban on travel to Cuba.
The Young Americans for Freedom, a conservative youth group, also went on record protesting the reported trips.
Under the law, the State Department requires specially validated passports for trips to the island nation. However, the passports are given only if the trip is in the "best interests of the United States."
If an unauthorized trip is made, the State Department said it is punishable by fine and or imprisonment
In a telegram to Acting Secretary of State George Ball, the group said the trip would be totally "unrepresentative of the great majority of American students who do not in any way support the present communist dictatorship in Cuba."
No KU students are apparently planning to make this trip, according to University officials. Some KU students went to Cuba two years ago on what was a Cuban-subsidized tour of the island.
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PARIS — (UPI) The United States called on its Atlantic Fact allies today to increase the strength of their forces in Europe.
U.S. Asks NATO Allies To Add to Their Forces
The demand was voiced by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara in a wide-swinging 50-minute speech to the Council of Ministers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
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NATO SOURCES described McNamara's speech as a major review of the Alliance's defense situation.
The full contents of McNamara's statement were not immediately available. But officials said he appealed to European NATO members to carry a bigger share of the western defense load.
He also appealed to them to boost the strength of the conventional forces facing the Soviets in Europe
McNamara did not discuss the possibility of creating a European nuclear striking force inside NATO with American help, the sources said.
McNAMARA'S STATEMENT was preceded by a 10-minute speech by U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk
U. S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk. The first two hours of the three-hour meeting were taken up with reports by NATO military chiefs. The reports were given by Allied Supreme Commander Gen. Laurus Norstad; Lt. Gen. C.P. Desumont of Belgium, chairman of the NATO military committee in Chiefs of Staff session; U.S. Admiral Robert L. Dennison, supreme allied commander Atlantic; British Admiral
Sir Alexander Bingley, commander in chief channel, and U.S. Air Force Gen. Dean C. Strother, U.S. Representative to the NATO permanent military committee and standing group.
The entire morning session was devoted to defense matters.
McNamara came here from London where his talks with British Defense Minister Peter Thorneycroft over the possibility of ending the American Skybolt Missile program created a major uproar in British political circles.
But here in Paris the emphasis was on getting the European nations to increase their contributions to NATO's conventional forces and bring them up to the levels believed needed for the proper defense of Europe.
ADVANCE INDICATIONS were that McNamara would have some success but not as much as he would like.
West Germany already has raised 11 army divisions and turned them over to NATO and is expected to turn over a 12th division soon. West German sources said the country may offer to add two more or increase the size of the existing divisions.
British sources indicated that Britain feels it has extended itself as far as possible — with what its Commonwealth commitments around the world — and can offer no more to Europe.
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