[MRCA] Seventies Technology

[Rob Flory]

The Voyagers also lasted quite a while, and of course all these WWII radios
that just keep on going are impressive.

A piece of gear I worked with that was way beyond its design life was the
300-foot radio telescope at Green Bank, WV which was built to do a 1-2 year
survey of the sky.  .  It was less than 2 years from concept to completion
but did world-class science for 26 years before it collapsed in 1988, only
a few years after I was messing with it.  (I didn't do it, honest!  I was
working on feedpoint antennas, not structural stuff)

For milsurplus tie-in, see another long-lived telescope at Green Bank, run
by the Navy, which contributes to measuring what a day is.  The original
dishes were built from kits around the same time as the 300-foot.

https://public.nrao.edu/telescopes/historic/green-bank-interferometer.

RF

Ray wrote:
Back in 1978 NASA did the ISEE-3 program to study charged particles and the
effects of solar wind and later used the satellite to do fly by Halley's
Comet in 86 and finally study Coronal ejections with the program being shut
down in 1997, apparently the satellites final orbit will bring it back
around the earth later this year and NASA is allowing a private group, the
ISEE-3 Reboot Project to attempt to control the satellite, NASA has no
funding or interest apparently. It's amazing to see that something built
that long ago and subject to the worst environmental conditions imaginable
may  still be capable of operation, downlink of the main transmitter has
been detected so some systems must still be operational.
You can see more about this at:   http://spacecollege.org/

Ray F/KA3EKH
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