Summer Session Kansan Friday, July 20,1962
U.S. to Probe Space in Check for Life on Venus
CAPE CANAVERAL—(UPI)— A U.S. robot explorer named "Mariner-1" is expected to set out on a 140-day rocket trip through space tomorrow to find out whether life could exist on the "mystery planet" Venus.
America will use a 10-story Atlas-Gena rocket to hurl the 446-pound probe more than 26 million miles in the first half of a spectacular space-age doubleheader that will open a new, multi-billion-dollar era of interplanetary exploration for humanity.
Venus, the historic "morning star," is the target for the initial assault. This is the unknown planet—the enigma of the solar system. Earth's closest planetary neighbor and yet the most mysterious because of the thick clouds that perpetually hide its surface.
Mariner-1 is built of six scientific instruments that form an electronic "eye" to peer through the clouds and find out what is under them.
What is "down there" is meaningful because it will help answer one of science's oldest riddles—there life on other planets, or is Earth unique in this respect? Venus and Mars are the only two members of this system considered to have even a slim chance of possessing life as we know it.
IN THE CASE of Venus, the clouds blot out the answers to important questions: Is its temperature right for life, or is it too hot or too cold? Is there enough oxygen in its atmosphere? Enough water? Is its surface grassy or marshy, or
If Mariner-1 can meet scientific expectations, man may have many of the answers by the end of this year.
a barren desert, or perhaps one huge ocean?
U. S. scientists plan to send Mariner-1 on a path that will take it to within 10,000 miles of Venus at its closest approach sometime early in December. Meanwhile, an identical explorer, Mariner-2, is standing by for a similar ride across space sometime next month.
If both shots get off on schedule and without difficulty, the United States will have two "eyes" closer than man will has ever managed when Venus whizzes by Earth on a comparatively close approach of slightly more than 26 million miles around the end of this year.
The Soviet Union also is expected to take at least one shot at Venus within the next few weeks. By September's end, the planet will be too far away and will not be back within "shooting range" until early 1964.
THE INSTRUMENTS each have specific jobs:
- Microwave radiometer. This is perhaps the most important experiment because it will "see" through the atmosphere to the surface. The radiometer will send short waves into the clouds to find out whether there is water in the atmosphere and what the surface temperature is—two of the most important factors for the possibility of life.
- Infrared radiometer. This experiment will work alongside the
Food Gifts Causing Problem in China
By Arthur Dommen
HONG KONG — (UPI) — Police in Communist China's southern provinces may soon face a difficult decision:
Should they enforce the law by confiscating food parcels shipped into Red China by overseas relatives of hungry Chinese people?
Or should they tolerate the food gifts, which would be an open acknowledgment of China's disastrous failures in food production?
All information reaching here points to another bad year for Red Chinese agriculture. The declining harvest is at its worst in the flood-stricken ricelands of the Chinese South.
Meanwhile, reports are prevalent in Hong Kong that the Communists are trying to pinch off the flow of small food parcels from post offices in Hong Kong and Macao. Gift shipments of food into Red China have reached an all-time peak in recent months.
NEWSPAPER REPORTS here have said the Nationalist Chinese government on Formosa is air dropping thousands of small food parcels in Southern Kwantung Province.
The Communists themselves have admitted that serious flooding damaged rice growing areas in Kwantung last month.
Canton radio said Sunday that 8,000 unemployed workers from closed-down factories in Canton were being mobilized for dyke repair work on the West River, where an extensive flood control project apparently has proven a failure.
Other areas of China face a continuing, if not worsening food shortage as summer harvesting activity moves northward.
Students of Red Chinese affairs say the best single indication of disastrous harvests is the fact that until
JIM'S CAFE 838 Mass. GOOD FOOD DAY and NIGHT
the end of June not a single item on harvesting activities had appeared in "Peoples Daily," official paper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist party.
Other Red Chinese papers have complained that wheat harvests this year are affected by "natural calamities."
microwave instrument, particularly in collecting refined information about the Venusian atmosphere. It also will look for "breaks" in the cloud cover-openings that scientists have never seen from Earth.
EXPLAINING THE apparently low harvests the official New China News Agency said on June 23 that in most of the wheat producing regions, the summer harvest follows prolonged struggles against spring drought and late frosts.
Reports are brought here by travelers that the Communists were rationing food parcelms mailed into China. Official reason given for the restriction was the need to eliminate black marketing of food parcel contents.
A spokesman for Chinese Enterprises Ltd., the principal operator of Hong Kong food parcel services, was quoted by a local newspaper as saying recently that "it is possible the (Communist) Chinese government may suspend packet services through local post offices." But he added that so far no official confirmation has been received.
Hong Kong residents mailed an estimated three million food packages into China during the first three months of this year alone.
- Magnetometer. This device will measure the strength and direction of magnetic fields in interplanetary space and around Venus—information scientists said would help in figuring out what the interior, and thus the surface, of the planet is like.
Refugees also said that warnings had been issued by Red Chinese officials against picking up food packets dropped by "Chiang Kai-shek bandits."
- High energy radiation experiment. This instrument will measure the number and intensity of radiation particles in deep space and around Venus. Radiation in space is considered one of the greatest hazards facing future space travelers, but comparatively little is known about how much danger these particles actually pose.
- Solar plasma detector. This gadget will determine the flow and density of "hot" particles from the sun—the so called "solar winds" which fill our planetary system.
- Cosmic dust detector. This instrument will measure cosmic dust in space, another of the hazards confronting manned flights. The detector also could provide some clues to the origin of the solar system itself.
Peace Corps Boxer in Thai
The Peace Corps scored another first recently when a Volunteer slugged, kicked, kneed and elbowed his way to a draw in a Thai-style boxing match.
In holding his own against Thai pugilist Wooth Barbos, Volunteer Robert Pitts, 25, of Red Bank, N.J., became the first non-Thai to do better than suffer defeat at the hands and feet of a Thai boxer in a Thai-style bout.
Pitts, who boxed American-style at Yale, studied the Thai technique for three weeks before tying the Thai at Operation Mitrapab's charity boxing show in Bangkok June 5.
"It's a whole new area of fighting," Pitts said before the contest. His trainer, Chow Jawewong, one-time Thai boxing champion, said the 5-4, 126-lb. American entered wholeheartedly into the world of kicking and elbowing, but had some initial trouble getting his leg up high enough for a good boot at his opponent's head.
Barbos, who was making his first appearance in the ring, weighed in the same as Pitts but stood a couple of inches taller and reportedly had a slightly longer reach. It was not clear whether this referred to arm reach or leg reach.
"You can pick up some bad habits from Thai boxing. Pitts said."
STUDENTS!
Grease Jobs $1.00
Brake Adj. 98c
BUSINESS MACHINES CO.
Automotive Service Motor Tune Ups Wheel Balancing 7 a.m. - 11 p.m.
up.
Portable typewriters $49.50
PAGE CREIGHTON
FINA SERVICE
1819 W. 23rd
1819 W. 23rd
Cleaning and repairing for all kinds office equipment. PRINTING by offset.
912 Mass.
VI 3-0151
Mimeographing and Ditto work.
The Hungover Can Work, Study Says
NEW YORK — (UPI) — People given to the horrendous morning-after complaint, the hangover, are going to be disappointed in science all over again. Once more science has demonstrated that the physical capacity for working is not diminished by the hang-over state.
This newest scientific effort to find a sound physical basis for hangover decrepitude covered three key points: 1.) work load; 2.) Muscular strength; 3.) Muscular co-ordination. It did not cover state-of-mind. By now many alcohol scientists suspect the hangover is largely psychological.
OF THE TOTAL of 30 night-before drunks, three dropped out but there were also three drop-outs among the 30 without hangovers. Of the 27 remaining hung-over men, only 9 could bring themselves to keep pedaling the bicycle for the required 5 minutes. But 12 of the other group flunked, too.
Thirty healthy young men spent a night together. Fifteen got roaring drunk and the other 15 remained cold sober, to serve as "controls." Some weeks later this boys-night-out was repeated, but the drunks of the first night stayed sober and the "controls" of the first night got the booze.
During the morning-after all were put to the test. They rode a stationary bicycle which was so weighted it required a heavy muscular output. They gripped an instrument which measured the strength of their strongest hand. They jumped up a wall to see how high they could go.
Since the men were alternately "controls" and experimental subjects, it was possible to compare them individually in the hang-over state and the sober state. Two performed more work on the bicycle in the former than the latter! Twelve were better workers when sober but with 13 it made no difference whether they were hung-over or not.
Kansan Classifieds Get Results
In the hand-strength and jumping tests, the presiding scientists could find no differences of statistical meaning between the two groups. The scientists also measured heartrate, both in the resting state and at various stages of the bicycle riding.
IN THE RESTING state, the heart rate of the night-before drinkers was elevated enough for it to be statistically significant. During the first 2 minutes of bicycle work this elevation of rate continued but during the remaining 3 minutes of the 5-minute work periods, there was no statistically meaningful differences.
The experiments were conducted in Finland, where funds are available for much scientific exploration of the effects of alcohol. The scientists were Drs. Esko Karvinen, Matti Miettinen and Kaj Ahlman of the Institute of Occupational Health, and they reported to a technical organ of the Rutgers University Center of Alcohol Studies, New Brunswick, N. J.
Their subjects were Helsinki policemen and firemen. The scientists noted that the "controls" spent the night in the same dormitory with the drunks, which meant their sleep was bound to have been disturbed. This could have made them less sharp for the morning-after tests.
Fitness Group Old
WASHINGTON — (UPI) — The American Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation—the official "arm" of President Kennedy's Youth Fitness Program—was founded in 1885 by William G. Anderson of Yale.
A picnic at Lone Star is not complete without a TUB of CHICKEN from the BIG BUY 23rd & Iowa
$1.50 All You Can Eat Drink and dessert extra
CLUB STEAK BUFFET
The Little Banquet
On the Malls
4:45-7:30 p.m.
Friday
23rd & La.
Entire Stock
Summer
Dresses
Summer
One Group
Sportswear
Now
Reduced
Terrill's 803 Mass. VI 3-2241
803 Mass.