1964STUDENTS TRACK THE SPACE AGE

[Music] the screen news digest is presented to you as a public service by the purdue national bank of lafayette with five convenient locations for better banking services [Music] minus three minutes dm blockhouse do we gotta go tm blockhouse do i have a goal start one [Music] nine eight seven six five four three [Music] six seven eight nine plus ten plus 15 seconds cocoa beach florida at the very frontier of the space age here students live and go to school amid the sights and sounds shadows and echoes of nearby cape kennedy the words the phrases the vocabulary of the space age are found in every school and every town surrounding america's missile metropolis at satellite beach in the satellite high school student journalists prepare edit and publish a newspaper called the telstar in science classes teenagers explore the problems the instruments the pitfalls that challenge the rocket technicians who fire the mighty missiles at cape kennedy the interest extends beyond school hours as future space scientists test and prove out theories and procedures faculty members advise and counsel answer and suggest when help is needed in addition students at cocoa high school have designed built and put into operation a satellite tracking system in three years the teenage scientists have collected repaired and modernized almost one million dollars worth of obsolete technical equipment girls as well as boys have found a place in the students attempts to plot and track the explorations of the space age classroom theories and homemade equipment are regularly put to the test as the teenage scientists turn their sights on cape kennedy the ears and eyes of space age technology are raised into place on a rooftop in cocoa beach as 14 miles away the countdown begins listen now as the students put you inside the capsule of an american astronaut about to start a journey into space roger periscope has retracted rainbows 24 volts 26 amps [Applause] 15. [Applause] [Music] zero [Music] okay it's a lot smoother now a lot smoother [Applause] this is seven fuel is go and the oxygen is go g build up three six nine o pace okay cap stuff is green periscope is coming out what a beautiful view cut off tower denison green okay switching to manual pitch this is okay kevin pleasure is holding at 5.5 cabin holding at 5.5 fuel is go 2.5 g oxygen is go [Music] [Applause] [Music] seven of your fuel is go 4g 5.5 kevin oxygen go all systems are go [Music] the sounds of the space age are the challenge of the future and the students who plot them today may be the scientists technicians and spacemen who will create and transmit them tomorrow [Music] on top of the world beneath the surface of a giant ice cap in greenland a city is buried this is the story of that city this is the story of camp century man has never built a city like it 800 miles from the north pole construction of camp century will require six thousand tons of supplies and every ton must be transported 150 miles inland from a supply depot on the greenland coast the first men who arrive find a vast and lifeless plateau of snow and ice so harsh so hostile that nothing can survive upon it but this is the place where america will plant a 20th century colony a settlement under the ice [Music] soon giant snow plows are cutting a system of 23 trenches to house complete polar research facilities plus modern living quarters and recreation areas [Music] before long the first roofs go into place constructed of overlapping steel arches these roofs are installed quickly and easily when each roof is completed it is sealed with a coating of snow [Music] next work begins on the foundations of the prefabricated buildings that will be put up inside the tunnels it is cold work temperatures inside the tunnel sometimes drop to 20 degrees below zero and this in the middle of summer every building in camp century has been pre-erected tested and shipped as a unit every clip every part every component comes in a single shipment in this way there are no delays caused by missing parts with every unit checked out in advance construction of each building can be completed in less than a day as the work in each tunnel is finished the entrance way is blocked up with bricks of snow [Music] once in place the snow bricks will bind together into a solid and sturdy wall nature is doing its part making its contribution to the construction of camp century a bulldozer pushes loose snow into the doorway of the tunnel and the seal is complete science is building a heated lighted comfortable version of the traditional eskimo igloo [Music] each of the 23 tunnels has its own front and back door except that the residents of camp century go up and go down to get out and to get in when the escape hatch is completed it is both convenient and weatherproof [Music] meanwhile work is underway on the largest trench of all a tunnel 40 feet deep to house the atomic reactor that will supply the power needed for camp century the roof is quickly put into place for there is a danger of the walls collapsing [Music] the frame for the reactor building is made of steel beams despite the bitter cold and constant winds workmen scramble over the scaffolding and ride the beams into place [Music] at the same time heavily insulated pipes are being installed for electricity and water like any modern city camp century will require a complex network of piping in all sizes and shapes for water a steam hose melts a hole in the ice and creates a reservoir of ten thousand gallons a day electricity will be the principal source of heat for the city under the ice the transportation and installation of the giant nuclear power plant weighing more than 20 tons is the final and most difficult operation in the construction of camp century [Music] [Applause] [Music] since the arctic cold makes metal extremely brittle each unit must be handled with great care a routine bump or jolt will cause the metal to crack or to break [Applause] slowly ever so slowly the giant unit is inched into place the fit is snug top bottom and on either side a slip can mean disaster but careful planning good equipment skilled engineers combined to make sure that there are no slips the power plant has been pre-fitted in the united states and now it must be reassembled to within 1 8 of an inch the power plant consists of four basic elements a nuclear heat source equipment to change the heat energy into electrical energy a system to dispose of the excess heat and a network of instruments and controls to regulate the entire atomic operation one by one the bars of atomic fuel are removed from the barrels in which they were shipped each of the bars containing about a pound of uranium-235 is unwrapped inspected and wiped clean of any dust crewmen wearing protective clothing gingerly load the bars into a fuel storage tank here each one is checked and tested to determine its degree of radioactivity also each is examined to make sure that it will not become prematurely active while being assembled this is critical and highly dangerous work as each bar is safely stored and catalogued the report is made to workers assigned to the loading crews the workmen are protected by a shield of eight feet of water as they move the bars to the atomic reactor one by one the elements are taken out of storage [Music] it will require more than nine hours to load the atomic reactor with radioactive fuel at last the final bar is in place the reactor comes alive and camp century has power heat and length a month the final touches are put on the arctic metropolis and today powered by its nuclear reactor the city under the ice is a completely modern community with virtually every convenience found in conventional homes among the most important facilities at camp century is its dispensary complete in every detail isolated by 150 miles of ice and snow medical facilities must and can cope with any emergency nature also provides the biggest deep freeze in the world here is enough food to feed the camp for several months everything from steak to fruit salad the spacious kitchens serve up meals that are both healthy and appetizing [Music] to satisfy the enormous appetite that working in this climate produces means extra rations but there's always enough for the men who populate the arctic outpost except for the fact that their quarters have no windows the gi's at camp century live exactly as other soldiers do here as members of america's polar research and development program they are probing deeper and deeper into the secrets of the arctic as they carry out their year-round program of scientific tests and experiments at this very moment inside the city itself or out on the ice canyon the men of camp century are carrying man's pursuit of knowledge to the very ends of the earth [Applause] [Music] this film has been presented to you as a public service by the purdue national bank of lafayette a full service bank 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