Loud cheers for Mariner 10

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33453, 7 February 1974, Page 13

Loud cheers for Mariner 10

(N.Z.P.A.-Reutcr—Copyright) PASADENA (California), Feb. 6. America’s Mariner 10 spacecraft is speeding towards Mercury today, having beamed to Earth the first closeup pictures of the planet Venus, and a stream of data.

The television transmission showed the expected white clouds, and some intriguing black patches. In spite of fears that the glaring light from the clouds might have thrown its trouble-plagued guidance system off balance, Mariner ”10 successfully used the force of Venusian gravity to hurl it onwards towards Mercury, the nearest planet to the Sun.

Scientists in the controlroom at Pasadena cheered as Mariner successfully negotia- ' ted its point of closest [ approach to Venus. ■ It is hoped that a key correction next Tuesday will set! j the spacecraft on a course . that will take it within 621 ! i miles of the surface of Mer- . cury on March 29. The total cost of the ■ Mariner 10 mission is t SUS9Om. 1 DAYS SHORTER 1 A French astronomer has i said in Paris that the Earth s is revolving faster, and that > the days have become ’ shorter. . Mr Andre Lallemand told . the French Academy of , Sciences that the day lost i about .001 seconds during the .-i first few weeks of this year, ; the period of irregularities having begun towards the l end of December. Previous rirregularities were much less t important, and of the order i of 0.0005 seconds a day, he 1 added. ; The calculations were made iat the Paris-based Interna-

tional lime Bureau by its director, Mr Bernard Guinot, and his chief assistant, Mrs xMartine Feissel. The study was made for the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration in connection with the Mariner 10 mission.