Satellite

After five years of intense study, I received degrees in Physics, Mathematics and Business Administration. Then all of a sudden, I had nothing to do! I socialized with another Coe physics graduate, Bill Whelply. Bill was going to the University of Iowa and working in the Cosmic Ray Laboratory. He mentioned that the University of Iowa needed physicists for their Cosmic Ray Laboratory to work on building satellites. He arranged an interview for me to meet with James Van Allen, famous for his work on the Van Allen Radiation Belts and the head of the physics department. When I met Van Allen and he learned that I was a recent graduate in Physics from Coe, he immediately invited me to join his team in the Cosmic Ray Lab to work on satellite projects. This was the moment when I truly understood the significance of a physics degree. Van Allen welcomed me into the graduate school and offered me a stipend to start working in the Lab the very next day.

When I joined the Cosmic Ray Laboratory and was assigned the desk space previously used by George Ludwick, it blew my mind. George had been instrumental in building the Explorer 1 Satellite, America’s first successful satellite. George had recently graduated and taken a job at NASA headquarters. So, it was an incredible honor to follow in the footsteps of such a pioneering scientist. Imagine going from being without a plan to suddenly working the next day alongside renowned scientists, making history. The Cosmic Ray Laboratory was highly respected, and it was a privilege to work there. I contributed to projects involving satellites like Voyager, OGO Transit, and Telstar. Inside my desk, George Ludwick had left numerous photos from his work on the Explorer 1 satellite, and I have shared them in the “Satellite” section. It was a true honor to receive an invitation from Jim Van Allen to join this world-class team of space scientists in their mission to explore space.

Probably not many people have had the opportunity to see the inside of a satellite, so I’ve shared a few photos from the lab that showcase the interior of a satellite.

The Injun 1 satellite required many different systems to be pulled together, including those that did not exist. I needed a satellite tracking system to receive the satellite radio telemetry signals as it would go overhead in space, so I went to Collins Radio (Rockwell-Collins) in Cedar Rapids to purchase a tracking station. A conference was set up to meet with a dozen of their top engineers. In the meeting, more details were provided about their tracking station. Everyone in the room was a salesman saying they had the best tracking system. I agreed that the signal to noise ratio was great. Then I asked them about the antenna mount. “Was it a horizontal-overhead mount or an overhead-horizontal mount?” The chatter in the room stopped and you could hear a pin drop. They realized that satellites were game changers. They had been concentrating on building horizontal mounts to look for Russian aircraft coming over the horizon and only looked left and right, never overhead. At that moment in the room, they realized that this kid (me) was telling the engineers that satellites were game changers and they had never thought that they would have to track something going directly overhead. They said it would take 6 months to deliver that type of antenna, but my problem was that we were launching in 60 days.

As a result, we used age-old American ingenuity. Being good old farm boys that were used to putting things together using bailing wire and tape, well, we couldn’t buy it so we built it. Using our grit, I went to the local TV shop and bought two Yagi TV antennas, like the ones in the photo. With my physics education, I calculated the lengths we needed to cut the elements, then cut the elements to the right wavelength to receive the satellite signal. Then I lashed the two antennas together at a 90-degree angle. I used two TV rotating mounts at a 90-degree angle from each other to move the antenna to track a satellite as it was going overhead. That was our tracking station and it worked well. This was good old farm boy’s ingenuity putting together a sophisticated UHF satellite tracking station using common sense, a couple of Yagi’s, some nuts and bolts, and a roll of electrical tape. This was how things got done. We forced success and lived up to the NASA motto “Failure is not an option.

I took my family to the opening of the Air and Space Museum. After walking up the steps, I saw Injun 1 and turned to my kids. Pointing at Injun 1, I said, “Daddy built that.

I worked with the early pioneers in space, including Jim Van Allen (Van Allen Radiation Belts), George Ludwig (Explorer 1), Brian O’Brien (OGO, Explorer series), and Werner von Braun (Rockets). Von Braun was the leader of a brilliant team of German rocket scientists under Hitler. They were spectacular with rocket hardware. Von Braun provided the booster for Injun 1, and we obtained a perfect orbit. The orbit was so perfect that the satellite will be in orbit for 900 years.

Later, when I was at NASA-Goddard, von Braun asked me to go to the moon with him. He was a brilliant showman and motivator of men, like a Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus showman. Later, when Kennedy proposed the moon shot, and von Braun was in charge, he handpicked several space scientists, including myself, and invited us to Nashville for a meeting. He was outside the building greeting us as we arrived. He saw me and enthusiastically asked me to join his moon-shot team as he arched his arm and body as if he was throwing a baseball. I asked him what the plan was, and he said they didn’t have a plan yet – but WE are going. WOW.”

When I was at Goddard Spoace Fligth Ceneter my job was to calculte space radiation damage to the satellte powere system and to design radiation protection based upon mission life. I used a Gamma radioactive soure but need both an electron and an proton nuclear accelerator to do the damage accesment correctly.

On day the brach manager came to ,e and said Goddard is going to build a space radiation effect laboratory and they want me to head-up the project. I said “why me?” They said it was easier to have me work with a bulding acrchtect than to teach an archtect nucear radion prtion. They said plus I would pass the building test. I said what is that? They saod you walk in the front door go up the steps go to the restroom, go down the steps and out the door. I thought that and easy test and thought to myself that Weiner von bruan did not pass this test. Because when he desinged the Explorer 1 Block house he foget to put in a toilt so they had to add it OUTSIDE THE BLOCK HOUSE.

The project was successful. I designed the radiation protection and purchase both the proton and the electron accelerators. They are being used for space radiation damage calcutation ever since.