FORT MONMOUTH, N. J.—Almost ever
since satellites
and rockets became a reality, rather than a gleam in some
physicist's eye, the Astro Observation Center near here has
been on round-the-clock observation, seven days a week.
Operated by the Institute for Exploratory
Research, Div-
ision C, the
Observation
Center is in West Deal, Ocean Township. It is about eight miles from
the U. S. Army Signal Research and Development Laboratories, and is
linked to the Labs by instrumentation hook-up.
Lloyd Manamon, AOC director, said he now has
available more than 20,000 trackings of interesting orbits. It is
believed to be the world's most comprehensive collection of such
trackings, which are on both Sanborn paper charts and Doppler magnetic
tapes.
Trackings on File.
Trackings of almost every satellite launched
by the United States and Russia are on file here, and three physicists
led by Dr. Peter R. Arendt are constantly going over the data. They are
primarily interested in propagation studies, and the aging effects on
quartz crystals as they pass through the Van Allen radiation belts, Dr.
Arendt said.
Missions of the Observation Center, as set
forth by Mr. Manamon, are to:
1. Extract radio propagation data using
signals transmitted from earth satellites and space probes;
2. Act as tracking station for rocket shots
from Cape Canaveral, especially the "quick look" evaluation program for
the Juno II series firings from the Cape by the National Aeronautics
and Space Ad-
ministration.
The quick look, Mr. Manamon explained, is a method
of using precision Doppler measurements in determining orbital data for
new satellites. The precision of the station is such that the accuracy
of the frequency standards used in this operation are accurate to two
parts in 10" per day.
This accuracy is possible, he con-
tinued, due to the instrumentation hook-up wherein the Observation
Center's local frequency standard is phase-locked to the R&D Lab's
Atomachron cesium beam frequency standards.
Used to Check Atmosphere.
In addition, Doppler measure-
ments are used for studying atmospheric profile characteristics, which
is important to future satellite communication programs.
The West Deal station is capable of reading
out telemetry on the standard IRIG channels and can make signal level
records which are also used for measuring spin, tumble and yaw of the
satellites, Mr.. Manamon stated.
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tern, operating on a
phase-locked audio-frequency loop and employing tracking filters by
Inter-State Electronics Corp., Anaheim, Calif. Automatic readouts are
from filters by Dymec System, a division of Hewlett-Packard Co., Palo
Alto, Calif., which transform to punch tape at the rate of 60
characters per second.
This tape in turn can be immedi-
ately transmitted over teletype circuits to computer centers. In the
past, the West Deal station has fed such centers as the George C.
Marshall Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.; Goddard Space Flight Center,
Greenbelt, Md., and the Air Force Space Track Center, Colorado Springs.
Antenna systems used vary from high-gain Yagis
by Telrex, Inc., Asbury Park, N. J., which are circularly polarized and
can be rotat- ed on pedestals for overhead tracking, augmented by a
series of ground plane antennas, rotatable helix and military tracking
types.
The system in the past for space probe work
utilized 50-foot par- abolic-type antennas, remotely controlled from
the Signal Corps' Evans Area six miles away, Mr. Manamon said.
3 8-Channel Recorders
The station utilizes three eight-channel
Sanborn recorders. The audio Doppler time base and other data is
recorded on 27-channel Ampex tape recorders. The telemetry equipment
and the micro-lock system, both by Hallamore Electronics Co., Anaheim,
Calif., are used for deep space probe tracking.
The Observation Center is unique in that by
employing the Dop-Lock system it can cover a frequency range of 15kc to
1,000 megacycles uninterrupted, Mr. Manamon stated. The injection
frequency for the system is produced by a bank
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of frequency synthesizers supplied by
Rhode & Schwarz of Germany.
Operated since the very early days of Sputnik
1 in October, 1957, the present facility, which covers 208 acres, was-
improved in 1959. Concurrently used as a radio re ceiver testing area
for the USAS RDL, it was established in 1954 as! a low-noise area radio
receiving\ site.
The ambient noise figure here is approximately
30 db below one microvolt, Mr. Manamon pointed out, and over-all
sensitivity of equipment is on the order of minus 157 dbm.
Observation Center physicists, said Dr.
Arendt, now are engaged in calculating inflection and aging of
transmitting or oscillating circuits in satellites. based on data
obtained from trackings.
"We cannot now say whether aging of the crystal-controlled circuits in
satellites is due to cosmic radiation or other factors," he added.
By use of the precision Doppler system,
however, they have unexpectedly found that quartz crystals in some
missiles have changed either due to acceleration or temp- erature
effects, he said.
As of July 24, Vanguard I, the first satellite
with solar batteries,! which was launched March 17, 1958, had made its
13,171st orbit. Van-guard I is transmitting on 108.022 megacyles. and
amplitude recordings have indicated that one of its six solar cell
clusters has been in-operative since last November, Dr:,
Arendt said.
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