Clouds of Venus, The

for [Music] [Music] in one corner of the unmeasured universe 30,000 light years from The Hub of the Milky Way orbits one particular star earthman's Sun for Earth this sun is Fountain Head of warmth and light a massive nuclear fusion furnace 800,000 m in diameter closest to the Sun is planet Mercury tiny unchanging World there can be no life here the sunlet side hot enough to melt tin or lead and 67 million miles from the Sun the second planet Venus man once mistook her for a star called her Taipei the beautiful white one the mysterious planet 93 million miles from the Sun is the pathway of Earth Beyond here is planet Mars and five other solar worlds that man dreams of knowing but Earth is man's home he looks out at such constellations as Aries and Pisces and Aquarius and hundreds more perhaps man will never reach to the Wilderness of stars but he dares now to begin the exploration of his own solar system today he looks inward toward planet Venus [Music] dat line Cape canabo Florida press site number two July 22nd 1962 today the United States will attempt to blast its first spacecraft into planetary space first stage a modified [Music] Atlas second stage and aena B their passenger the spacecraft Mariner [Music] 1 program objective for this year launched two payloads to the neighborhood of Venus minus 10 seconds and counting [Music] [Music] 20 seconds and going up very nicely 30 seconds programming [Music] over 4 second still going good flowing up now we're not on trajectory how does it Lu onet this is rain Safety Stand by 270 she's getting up into the sunlight now Mark Mark three destruct command repeat destruct command Miss will apparently blew up with a big ball in the sky think the antenna is out that b your attention please Mariner 1 was destroyed when it deviated from the flight path there will be a press conference here in a few minutes the shock of abrupt failure difficult to accept even in this business where some failures must be expected we wait for bulletin then file the story but where does the story start historically I suppose it began more than 100 years ago when man first viewed the clouds of Venus because of the thick clouds it seemed logical to suppose Venus a wet World young hot and covered with swamps result it was imagined that only low forms of life exist there then in this Century spectrographic examinations showed that if water exists on Venus it is present only in Trace Amounts the atmosphere predominantly carbon dioxide and nitrogen conclusion the clouds might be composed of fine dust the surface could be an arid wind swept desert shortly before Mariner 1 Dr Carl San wrote a paper summarizing the information and theories then available many theories of the Venus environment have been suggested however new information eliminates at least some of these theories measurements with radio telescopes show that there is a region on Venus where temperatures are greater than 600° f it is just possible that the hot region exists at a high altitude in the ionosphere of Venus the surface temperature could then be almost earthlike and Life as we know it could exist there however it is more likely that the hot region is the surface heated either by an enormous greenhouse effect or by wind friction therefore if there is life on vus it is probably of a type that we cannot now imagine tantalizing exasperating Venus a single significant experiment can confirm old or create new theories hopefully Mariner flybys will provide that experiment but this morning the engineers meet with the press to announce failure of the first flight the second flight will be made as soon as possible the program will move ahead July 25th Mariner 2 operations are ahead of schedule after the new Atlas is brought to the pad I fly to California to attend a briefing when I first arrive in Pasadena at the jet propulsion laboratory I want to ask why are we exploring the planets before the conference we talk with Dr William H Pickering director of JPL in matter of fact terms he introduces the coming Greatest Adventure of man a sech for life on other worlds the long range purpose of unmanned exploration of the planets is a development of technology which will lead to eventual man exploration scientifically our objective is to assist in answering two basic questions what if any life forms exist on the planets and how has the solar system been formed we will be many years discovering the answers to such broad questions however we now are making the all important start now I'll call on Bob Parks our planetary program director B thank you gentlemen Marin a two operations are all unscheduled now obviously this is a high-risk Mission even if the Mariner launching is completely successful we have many critical flight problems to face we have a film to show you because I believe animation best illustrates the trajectory closest planets to the sun are first Mercury second Venus third Earth fourth Mars all orbit at different velocities Mariner 1 was launched when the planets were here the beginning of the firing window Mariner 2 must be launched before September 13th or we will have to wait 19 months until the next firing opportunity liftoff is the first of many critical Maneuvers it must program on time the main engines will shut off and separate after the sustainer engine burns out the atlas separates and the protective shroud is pushed out of the way parallel to Earth a Gina Fires for the first time a Gina's first cut off is Ed so Mariner becomes a satellite after a period of coasting aena will reignite injecting it into the Venus bound flight path Mariner and aena will then separate the solar panels and directional antenna will unfold and the 15th critical maneuver gas jets will fire to turn Mariners to face the Sun so it can generate its own electrical power at intercept Earth and Venus will be 36 million M apart but spacecraft travel distance is 180 million mil 20 days after launch Earth will be ahead of Mariner but the spacecraft starts falling inward gradually increasing its speed the game of tag continues after 65 days Mariner will catch up with her Earth then Venus will catch and pass Mariner after 94 days but the velocity of the spacecraft is still increasing on the 109th day Mariner makes its closest approach on the sunlet side of Venus velocity relative to the sun 87,8 110 mph Mariner will then continue in an orbit around the Sun a flight that will last forever [Music] our desired Miss distance is about 10,000 miles from the surface of the planet however our instruments can still get good data if we come as close as 40,000 miles after the conference some of us inspect the spacecraft the key experiments are a microwave radiometer and an infrared radiometer working on two wavelengths these instruments will measure Venus temperatures possibly judge the amount of water vapor present and may provide better information on the cloud structure a magnetometer will measure magnetic fields for the interior planetary picture and Define the atmosphere in relation to charged particles and Magnetic storms for basic research to evaluate the hazards of man flight instruments will measure high and low energy charge charged particles over varying distances from The Sun Also equipment will obtain density Direction and momentum of micro meteorites information important for future spacecraft design and for developing the history of solar system Evolution the framework houses the liquid propellant rocket motor it can correct the trajectory by as much as a half a million miles solar panels consist of 9800 solar system s there are two command antennas and two transmitting antennas an omni antenna for use close to Earth and a directional antenna for longrange communications this spacecraft must operate unattended for nearly 4 months before shipping Mariner to the cape an American flag is added to the payload August 20th I return to the cape August 24th 4:30 a.m. the spacecraft is taken to the pad it's only 33 days since ill- fated Mariner 1 August 26th the Mariner 2 countdown begins events move on a strict timetable tus 45 minutes the fueling operations are completed more newsmen arrive at the Press site all Personnel clear the pad all Personnel clear the pad [Music] immediately it's past midnight now August 27th several times the count has gone to tus 1 minute then because of voltage fluctuations new holes have been called all tracking stations are standing by that's sadena this is launch operations launch plan is able 130 ready Roger -5 Mark clams to arm- 120 mark - 115 Mar status check missile power go system go propulsion go AMR go dapu go telting quality go spacecraft go Block House this is Mission director mission is green pressurization on watch tanking green 19 engine stand [Music] by engine [Music] start 5 4 3 2 1 [Music] I'm going up 20 seconds I'm going up very nicely [Music] 30 seconds it's is programming over FL p is following out now Mar one mark two how does she look on Telemetry look on Telemetry liftoff appeared normal we are waiting now for reports there is nothing to indicate any difficulty your attention please close downrange tracking stations confirm all rocket stages fired on schedule Africa has announced injection liftoff plus 1 hour the JPL Cape Command Center scientists and Engineers have gathered here for incoming reports the first 14 critical operations are complete we wait now for sun [Music] [Applause] acquisition sunlock we're in lift off plus 3 hours the customary news conference Jack James JPL Mission director announces escape velocity the spacecraft is operating normally but as yet there is no trajectory information nothing more can be said until additional tracking data are obtained during the next few hours engineers at Goldstone California Australia and South Africa monitor the flight tracking data are flashed to the JPL nerve center and the big computer Mariner 2 will intercept the Venus orbit missing the planet by a quar of a million miles the midcourse motor can make twice that correction like the man said we're in maybe Friday August 31st I return to JPL for a briefing on the remain in spacecraft Maneuvers this is an exact 16 scale model of the Mariner as you know the solar panels have already unfolded and the spacecraft is pointed at the sun on Sunday September 2nd the Jets will roll the spacecraft so it can see the Earth finding the Earth in its sensor it should lock on thus pointing its directional antenna at Earth and permitting long range Communications with Earth one or two days later we'll be ready to attempt the trajectory correction the spacecraft will be pointed in the New Direction and the motor fired for the proper length of time the trajectory correction is most pical the motor could malfunction destroy the mission or fail to put our instruments close enough to Venus the hours pass uneventfully tracking continuing then Sunday 10:45 p.m. the JPL space flight Operation Center the Earth lock operation is started only a few seconds to wait signal level is steady at - 145 dbm if Earth acquisition is successful signal strength will increase to about 128 dbm gold stone is tracking wmer Australia will soon take over spacecraft is about 1,1 160,000 mi from Earth signal level has gone way down Dro to -57 something has gone wrong signal strength should go up not down Communications cannot long be maintained at this low [Music] level werra is acquired report continuing low signal level [Music] signal level up up to normal -127 BBM lock on is accomplished the directional antenna must have been pointed at Earth and switched on just as the operation began then the spacecraft rolled but came on around and locked onto Earth Monday September 3rd the midcourse maneuver was to have been tried today but the Earth sensor data reading is only 40 it should be twice that much lock on after midcourse correction might be impossible hday afternoon it is decided to go ahead with the trajectory correction Goldstone Engineers send roll pitch and velocity commands to the spacecraft the motor is fired and shuts off on time now we must wait new tracking data will determine if the flight path has been correct 2 hours later newsmen gather at JPL Mr Robert Parks makes the first announcement the midcourse maneuver was successfully accomplished the spacecraft has reacquired the sign I understand that Jack James has just left the space flight Operation Center and is on his way here have we gone past the point of any further correction are we now going for broke that is correct we can make no further correction or either right now or or else this is it that's right how long do you have to wait before you can evaluate the success of the mission we still have approximately 100 days to go before we arrive at Venus are you pessimistic or optimistic or what things are going great right now I'd like to introduce Jack James the Earth acquisition maneuver has just been completed successfully the complete midcourse maneuver was completed successfully and we will be on the target point the uh the Telemetry recordings I mean the data we're receiving on the ground looks just like the way we designed it you are on trajectory that's correct no it's wonderful we're in the Target Zone well that's it but now the long wait begins it's still 100 days to [Music] Venus September 7th each morning we wake up to ask the same question are we still tracking what about the Earth sensor September 18th sensitivity of the earth sensor has decreased from data number 40 to number 12 if Earth lock is lost Mariner will go into a role and Communications will be lost September 29th sensitivity drops to two then one Earth lock is lost the spacecraft Gyros turn on and Mariner goes into search [Music] mode 3 minutes later it again locks onto Earth Communications come back strong it's all right now and the Earth sensor comes up to normal data reading 65 the circuitry and trajectory will have to be analyzed ized to understand how the correction was possible October 10th Precision tracking has refined the Miss distance to 21,000 M well within the target Zone Mariner is 7 million M from Earth NASA headquarters Washington DC the first scientific results are released Dr Homer Newell NASA director of space Sciences moderates it can now be said that solar plasma or charged particles stream outward from the Sun at velocities up to 3 million mph fluctuations in this so-called solar wind are accompanied by changes in the magnetic field the density of micrometeorites in interplanetary space is much less than that near Earth Mariner 2 is already regarded as a major success then October 31st the spacecraft signals that power is lost from one solar panel by ground command science experiments are turned off to conserve power but 8 Days Later power comes up to normal cause apparently an intermittent short circuit November 16th Mariner reaches the halfway point components are heating more than expected November 26th 4:36 a.m. 22 1.2 million miles from Earth Mariner's voice is loud and clear on new new record for longdistance communication December 3rd effect of the sun is greater than anticipated temperature of the critical Earth sensor exceeds design limits goes over 143° off the Telemetry scale December 4th temperature of the battery is 120° it may fail but hopefully will not explode or short out the instruments December 8th 2 million miles to go Earth sensor temperature May reach approximately 180° the tension mounts as a new question is asked when turned on will the planetary experiments work 1:00 a.m. Thursday December 13th Earth sensor still working the battery nears 130° this is the longest day yet slowly the Gap closes half a million miles 300,000 JPL commands Center 11:00 p.m. Africa is tracking experiments continue to return data complete Victory seems to be within grasp but by midnight it is apparent Mariner has failed to turn on the radiometers 4:33 a.m. the 109th day Goldstone acquires two-way lock 5:35 a.m. from California Mariner is commanded engineering Telemetry off planetary experiments on the minutes pass each minute like an hour 5 minutes 6 [Music] minutes numbers are changing I'm getting data December 14th an early Christmas present for all the people of Earth the radiometer scan all science experiments are working Mariner 2 has successfully traversed 180 million miles of space February 26 1963 the preliminary results at the encounter altitude Venus has neither a magnetic field nor a high density electron ionosphere temperature at the top of the clouds -60° the planet's surface about 800° as Earthman knows it there can be no life on Venus years will be required to digest and finally interpret the 65 million bits of data that Mariner radioed back to Earth but perhaps most significant a planetary spacecraft system has been designed and proved plans can be made for flights to follow why do we explore space I found my answer one day in our future a rocket with a man headed for one of the planets will pursue its thundering logarithmic history after months of flight the man capsule will streak down through the planet's atmosphere you and I may help him do it we will help because we wonder if we really are alone or if on some other Beautiful World perhaps in some other corner of the universe there are other thinking beings asking the same questions that we ask with Mariner we have begun our greatest Adventure proving the existence of extraterrestrial life would be our greatest achievement [Music]