…also of Interest: Space and Accelerators

A synchronous weather‐watching satellite, planned by Verner Suomi and Robert Parent of the University of Wisconsin, moved into position over the equator south of Hawaii in December, the first of five planned to follow cloud and air‐mass motion…When the moon occulted Pioneer VII in mid‐January, space scientists planned to look at variation in radio signals from the spacecraft to check existence of a lunar atmosphere. An atmosphere would refract signals at 50 MHz differently than at 400 MHz. The experiment would also measure “roughness” of the lunar disc, thus improving lunar occultation measurements of quasars…John Hagen of Pennsylvania State University proposes that NASA orbit a huge radio telescope 8000 km above the earth. The antenna, 300 meters long, would detect signals at 1, 3 and 9 MHz…Three Emperor tandem Van de Graaffs are approaching completion at Minnesota, Chalk River and Heidelberg. A new order for one has come from Munich—the university and the technical institute.