[meteorite-list] NPA 12-17-1946 Army-CIT Artificial Meteorites Test

From: MARK BOSTICK <thebigcollector_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Jul 27 12:53:13 2005
Message-ID: <BAY104-F184CBF3A519411562B0900B3CC0_at_phx.gbl>

Paper: Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
City: Walla Walla, Washington
Date: Tuesday, December 17, 1946
Page: 6 (of 14)

Six Artificial Meteorites To Be Fired in Spectacular Test

     White Sands, N. M. (AP) - Six artificial meteorites, ejected two at a
time at 10-seconds intervals, will be shot into space in a spectacular night
test of German V-2 rocket Tuesday night.
     The meteorites will be fired 70, 80 and 90 seconds after the 14-ton
missile is launched. Roughly this will be at the altitudes of 22 to 40
miles.
     Dr. Fritz Zwicky of the California Institute of Technology, who
conceived the idea of creating artificial meteorites, said the "key to
interplanetary travel may be found in the tests."

Use Army Grenades

     Standard army rifle grenades will be used to fire the meteorites -
small pieces of metal - from the rocket. The grenades will be ejected by a
bazooka-like device. Four and one-half seconds after they leave the rocket
a shaped explosion in the warhead of the grenade will be set off by time
fuse, hurling the metal meteorites into space.
     No larger than a dime, the bits of iron are calculated to become white
hot almost at once and to be consumed long before they could reach the
earth.
     Dr. Zwicky and Dr. Fred Whipple of the Harvard observatory are here
with equipment for observation of the artificial meteorites. Observatories
as far away as Los Angeles and Dallas have been asked to watch for the
spectacle which some scientists say may be visible by the naked eye for 300
miles.
     Immediate goals of the experiment, Dr. Whipple has said, are to
determine the reactions of the upper atmosphere to moving bodies which pass
through it, and to eliminate much of the guesswork in computing the size of
natural meteors.

To Record Flights

     Flights of the tiny missiles will be recorded by two giant aerial
cameras equipped with rotating shutters.
     Since the metal bits presumably will be molten. Dr. Zwicky expects
further contributions to upper atmospheric knowledge to result from
telescopic observation and spectroscopic pictures.
     In the not too distant future, it is predicted that artificial
satellites of the earth may be created in the same fashion as the
meteorites.
     Two sets of apparatus to record cosmic ray information also will be
carried by the night rocket, one in the warhead and the other behind it,
both designed by John Hopkins laboratory. The armed forces still are trying
to check previously obtained cosmic ray data, which if confirmed, will
radically change earlier theories.

(end)

Clear Skies,
Mark Bostick
Wichita, Kansas
http://www.meteoritearticles.com
http://www.kansasmeteoritesociety.com
http://www.imca.cc

http://stores.ebay.com/meteoritearticles

PDF copy of this article, and most I post (and about 1/2 of those on my
website), is available upon e-mail request.

The NPA in the subject line, stands for Newspaper Article. The old list
server allowed us a search feature the current does not, so I guess this is
more for quick reference and shortening the subject line now.
Received on Wed 27 Jul 2005 12:53:10 PM PDT