News Briefs
October 1962 Radio-Electronics

October 1962 Radio-Electronics [Table of Contents] Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Radio-Electronics, published 1930-1988. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.

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News Briefs

Biggest Radio Telescope Abandoned by Pentagon

The huge radio telescope in Sugar Grove, W. Va., mentioned several times in these columns, has been abandoned, due largely to costs far greater than had been expected when construction was started in 1958. At that time, the cost was estimated at $79,000,000. More than $130,000,000 has already been invested in the project, and it is expected that, if brought to completion, the telescope would cost more than $200,000,000. It was also rumored that the primary purpose of the telescope was not entirely research in physics, space communications, navigations and radio astronomy, as originally announced, but primarily to eavesdrop on radio messages within the Soviet Union, by using the moon as a reflector. Advances in electronic and satellite technology, it was said, have rendered this approach obsolete.

New Radar Technique Assures Moon Landings

A new approach to measuring the velocity of missiles and space vehicles was demonstrated to the press by the RCA Missile and Surface Radar Div. at Moorestown, N. J. The demonstration showed that velocity measurements accurate to 0.1 foot per second are possible. Accuracy of this order is extremely important in such projects as landing a vehicle on the moon. Under certain given conditions, the velocity a craft must attain to make a perfect bull's-eye on the moon is 34,830 feet per second. If the velocity is 34,790 feet per second or less, the craft cannot reach the moon. If it is 34,880 feet per second or more, it will over-shoot.

The new technique improves measurement accuracy by using what is called the "coherent pulse technique". The radar signal triggers a beacon in the missile or spacecraft. This beacon actually amplifies and retransmits the radar pulse without materially affecting the rf phase and frequency content. When the pulse is returned, the radar measures the doppler frequency shift, giving the vehicle's velocity. An ordinary radar-triggered beacon returns the pulse with no exact relationship to the pulse that triggered it, and therefore would be useless in making precise measurements.

The system is applied to an FPS/16 radar, and the receiver local oscillator signal is also synchronized to the transmitter signal, to keep the phase exact.

The FPS/16 radar, used to demonstrate the new method of precise velocity measurement.