Jubilant U S space experts today began sifting a treasure of scientific data relayed to earth by a man-made robot during a historic 42-minute rendezvous with Venus. The spectacular feat which climaxed a near-flawless 109-day voyage from Cape Canaveral Fla. clinched a major U S victory over Russia in the race to explore the planets. The 447-pound robot shaped like a windmill hot-redded thru the outskirts of Venus yesterday and then veered into an eternal orbit around the sun. Mariner 2 is expected to continue sending information to earth from as far out as 72 million miles.
For 42 minutes Mariner 2 eavesdropped on earth’s neighbor planet 36 million miles away and radioed back information which will help scientists determine: Whether earthlings ever can hope to set foot on Venus — How to construct future robots that will actually land on the planet for on-site inspections and on-the-spot studies, Such unmanned landings are being planned by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for some time after 1965. Meanwhile another robot similar to Mariner 2 will be launched past Venus around March 30 1964 when the planet again will be in good shooting range. In melodic radio tones that amounted to a scientific Symphony of success. Mariner 2 sent to ground-based listening posts “significant data” about the environment on and around Venus With telescopic eyes that can see heat and detect nature’s silent radio signals, the robot scanned the surface of Venus, the clouds around it and the atmosphere above them. Other instruments sampled the meteor dust in the vicinity of Venus and checked whether the planet is— like earth— girdled by radiation belts or surrounded by a magnetic field. Once the radioed information is decoded by computers punched on tapes and translated into English scientists hope to find out: Is it really hot enough to melt lead on the surface of Venus as indicated by long-distance temperature readings made from earth? (Preliminary information from Mariner 2 indicates that it is).— Is the planet completely shrouded by clouds as it seems to an earth-bound telescope or are there peepholes in the misty veil? —Is there any water in the atmosphere around Venus or is the planet blanketed by a deadly smog? — Is it possible for any life as we know it to exist on Venus?.
Questions that circulated around the engineers at NASA as this new and significant event started to sink in.
There was a lot of other news this – most all of it having to do with The Cold War – the war between India and China, more attempted escapes from East Berlin to West and President Kennedy proposing a Tax Cut.
All that and a lot more via this Shortwave newscast from The Voice Of America that may be a little hard to hear at times, but this is what was beamed to the Communist Bloc countries who were in the process of learning English.
Brave worlds for this December 15, 1962.
