"SOMETHING NEW UNDER THE SUN, Satellites and the Beginning of the Space Age"
Copyright:Copernicus/Springer Verlag (New York)
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Book description.
My Career as an Engineer, An Autobiographical Sketch, by John R. Pierce, the University of Tokyo (1988); and
Orbital Radio Relays," by J. R. Pierce, Jet Propulsion, April 1955 (page 183).
In Spring 1958, Pierce and Rudi Kompfuer read about William O'Sullivan's ideas for a balloon-like satellite to measure air density and realized that by bouncing microwaves off its surface they could test many technical aspects of satellite communication (page 184). Interview with John Pierce.
Brief notes describing an ARPA satellite conference on July 13-14, 1958, and John Pierce's involvement with William Pickering in developing the Echo project (page 184). The notes are in the John Pierce colIection (#8309 Box 5, folder-leading to Echo) at The American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming).
At the sixth meeting of the TPESP on June 7 and 8, 1955, William J. O 'Sullivan, from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA-a forerunner of NASA), presented his ideas for a giant aluminized balloon that could be observed from Earth, allowing information to be deduced about the density of the upper atmosphere (page 184). Richard Porter told him the idea was interesting, and that the proposal should be sent to the working group on internal instrumentation (NAS archives).
At the seventh meeting of the TPESP, on September 5, 1956, O'Sullivan told the panel that NACA was prepared to build its air drag satellite experiment without the backing of the IGY (NAS archives).
There is a May 13, 1958, memo from Rudy Kompfuer to E. I. Green, including John Pierce's memo "Transoceanic Communication by Means of a Satellite."
May 26, 1958: a memo by Brockway McMillan, "A Preliminary Engineering Study of Satellite Reflected Radio Systems." The study is based on Pierce's ideas. McMillan favors twenty satellites at medium altitudes to give continuous service and envisages that there would be a market for a
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