SATELLITES IN SPACE

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28936, 2 July 1959, Page 10

SATELLITES IN SPACE

Practical Uses Described

“I sometimes wonder what real value there would be in getting a man up into space,’ said Dr. C. D. Ellyett, of the University of Canterbury physics department, in his presidential address to the Canterbury branch of the Royal Society of New Zealand last evening. “Instruments are much tougher and they have longer memories,” said Dr. Ellyett. He was discussing the scientific results obtained from satellite and rocket flights

Enormous advances had been made in keeping down the weight of equipment in satellites Scientists had gone from valves to transistors and now to microelectronics, in which a complete circuit was only as large as the smallest thing a person could see. In some satellites internal energy requirements came from solar sources; and there were now nearly 100 American satellite tracking stations. One of the experiments conducted with the use of satellites was the measurement of radiation from the sun which did not penetrate the earth’s atmosphere —X-rays and some ultra violet rays. The result was a changed picture of the layered ionosphere around the earth. Information from satellites had shown that cosmic rays trapped in the earth’s magnetic field were almost certainly the cause of the auroras borealis and australis when the belts of radiation were agitated by activity or. the sun. Solar activity caused “leakages” from the belts of radiation at the poles. The Russian scientist Vernov had said that a satellite systematically searching the earth would be more efficient at discovering information about the belts of trapped cosmic rays than all the earth cosmic ray detection stations, said Dr. Ellyett. While meteorological stations viewed only 5 per cent, of the earth’s total cloud cover, a satellite could give a world-wide picture of the coverage, said Dr Ellyett. Satellites were also much more efficient in the science of geodesy —determining the position of places on earth in relation to other places—because of their extremely accurately known orbits. The maximum possible error in that type of measurement had now been reduced to 50ft. J There had been a considerable expansion of activity in the field of satellites and rockets during the International Geophysical Year, Dr. Ellyett said, but sinCe that time co-operation between countries had been breaking down . , ■ , “We are getting quickly back to the stage of every country going alone and doing its own experiments,” he said.