Scientists Say
The Stars Really Simj
By Thomas A. Snapp
Times Staff Writer
The stars sing, their singing is
recorded, but unfortunately the
stars can't even carry a tune.
I'm not talking about the top re
cording stars of Hollywood, Calif.,
but about the real stars and con
stellations in the heavens—millions
of light years away.
"The stars sing to us,” an em
ployee of the Gilmore Creek Data
Acquisition site said recently.
The space station near Fairbanks
with its giant parabolic antenna,
85 feet in deameter, is able to pick
up and record signals from stars
way out in space. It is believed the
signals are generated by explod
ing stars.
That stars or constellations send
out radio signals was discovered
accidentally. After World War II,
people became aware of noise in
their receivers, noise for which
they couldn’t account. Scientists
studied the characteristics of the
noice and theorized that the sounds
must be emanating from stars.
Highly directionalized antennas
picked up and chartered the signals.
Through research it was determin
ed the sounds were coming from
particular spots in the heavens.
Today, on a routine basis, the Gil
Village Moves . ..
(Continued from page 1)
Section, Alaska State .Housing Au
thority. and Neal Jenson, Jr„ Hous
ing Development Officer, BIA. told
a special coordinating committee of
state and federal agencies meeting
in Anchorage on February 18 that
the villagers had planned the move
well.
Good Location
They said the villagers had as
sembled the necessary information
as to the size of all the proposed
houses, number of windows and
doors required, and other materials
needed for building.
M. G. Gebhart, executive director,
of the A.S.H.A., cited several ad
vantages of the Grayling site and
stated the authority considered it
a good location.
The coordinating committee, or
ganized to bring all the state and
federal forces to bear in assisting
the Holikachuk villagers, is com
prised of representatives of A.S.
H.A.. BIA, BLM, Arctic Health Re
search Center, Extension Service,
Agricultural Experiment Station,
Palmer, Alaska Department of
Health and Welfare. Federal Hous
ing Administration, and the Gov
ernor's Office.
Extensive Program
The proposal by the Alaska Hous
ing Authority, now pending in the
Public Housing Administration in
Washington, D.C., is for an exten
sive demonstration program to be
carried on in three widely separated
areas of Alaska.
According to Neal Jenson, BIA
Housing official, if the housing dem
onsttration program is approved.
Grayling would be the first project.
Under the plan, loans of approxi
mately $3,500 would be available
for natives to procure such finish
materials as insulation, plywood,
door and window frames and lites,
etc Payments would be about $25
or $30 per month.
The BLM has agreed to survey
fhe village site, the Bureau of
Health are making sanitary surveys,
and the Arctic Health Research
Center will furnish information on
prior research and set up a plan
for evaluating the completed build
ings.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs will
bu^ld a new school at the villoma
sit£ this summer and ha«s dug a well
there.
Grayling has beam fha sits of tft»
fish camps ofthe peaplp «£ Eoli&g
chufc for several yearff.
morce Creek station tracks stars,
such as Cassiopiea, by their sounds.
The personnel record the sounds
on tape and even the singing is re
corded in zigzaggy lines on graph
paper. By its sounds alone, they are
able to tell where Cassiopiea is at
all times.
Unfortunately, however, the per
sonnel have neverjfound any mean
ing in the radio signals or the sing
ing from distant stars. So far as
scientists know now, although the
stars hum and sing, they can't carry
a tune. Nothing has ever been re
ceived that makes sense from these
real recording stars in outer space.
But then, there are many who
contend that our present Holly
wood reck 'n roll artists don’t make
much sense either.
FNA Appoints
Committees
On April 16, the Fairbanks Na
tive Association held a meeting at
the Presbyterian Hospitality House.
The first half of the session was
taken up with reading of the newly
drafted constitution and by-laws.
Some amendments were made in the
constitution as well as the by-laws.
After the reading of the constitu
tion the group appointed chairmen
for the following: entertainment
committee, Irene Noyes, publicity
committee, Nick Gray; health and
welfare, Mary Jane Fate; education
committee, Edwin Lutzen; land com
mittee, Ralph Perdue. Each chair
man will pick three more people to
serve in his respective committee.
The second half of the meeting
was taken up by two invited speak
ers from the Fairbanks office of the
Bureau of Land Management, Ed
Harkabus and Wayne Fields.
Harkabus spoke on the legal as
pects of native allotment laws and
procedures in applying for land al
Bartlett Says. .T
Continued from Page 1)
mafrost near the border nor could
it find a water supply.
Native Claims
On the issue of native land claims.
Bartlett said he thought a forum
should be established for the settle
ment of the claims. He pointed out
that in a previous decision by the
Courts of Claims it had been ruled
that Tlingit, Haida Indians had ori
ginal rights to the principal parts
of Southeast Alaska.
He said it had been estimated
that eventually the Indians would
be compensated about $20 million
for the taking of the land.
On pending claims by Natives in
Interior and Northern Alaska. Bart
lett said, “I wonder now, as I have
wondered before, if we are getting
into the situation that occurred in
the Plains states.”
He said he doubted “if natives
needed large tracts of land, millions
and millions of acres. What would
they do with them?” he asked.
Bold And Foolish
“On the other hand of a deter
mination is made that they have
some rights here, and personally I
think it would be both bold and
foolish to deny they don’t, then
they are entitled to compensation,”
he added.
“I believe they are entitled to
land and I doubt if at the present
time natives have over 100.000 acres
of land in all of Alaska.”
He said justice should be served
so far as Natives are concerned
with “all possible diligence and
speed” and that the state should
not be pushed to intolerable delays
in its land selection program.
lotments. Fields covered the details
of surveying the land allotments,
j It was disclosed during the meet
[ ing that the executive committee
had voted $50 to donate to the
burned out family of Randy Kaw
kins.
FNA is planning to send two
thirds of its 7-man executive com
mittee to the Tannnn Indian Chief’s
meeting on June 5-7.
“THE WORLD BEYOND ZERO’—Richard Coan, NASA director of
the Gilmore Creek Data Acquisition Facility at Fox, Alaska, is shown
talking to Howard Rock, center, editor of the Tundra Times, and
Stanley Solomon, right, formerly of Pt. Barrow, now erf Fairbanks.
Th® picture was taken recently during the filming of a NASA,
mo vise, “The World Beyond Zero” for later presentation On a at
tttroal television network. In the movie Coan takes Rock emS Solo
mon through the station and explains how data is received
StttStttte* tu eqtaoe. —Tundra Timj?o Fhjpto
NIMBUS SATELLITE—This summer a second data acquisition sta
tion, a duplicate of the Gilmore Creek Data Acquisition Facility, is
being built at Fox, Alaska, for exclusive use of the U.S. Weather
Bureau. When the Navy told the Weather Bureau there might be
times when the Gilmore station would not be available for obtaining
information from weather satellites, the Weather Bureau allocated
money to build the station. The bureau is particularly interested in
obtaining data from the Nimbus satellites, to be orbited soon, and
the geophysical observatories. The Nimbus, a polar orbiting satellite,
will provide continuous television coverage of the daytime cloud
cover of the entire earth. —Official NASA Photo
Space Strategic . . .
(Continued from Page 1)
ed skyward that it is commonly
known as an “antenna farm."
But perhaps even more signifi
cant is the fact that the Fairbanks
College area will soon have three
NASA stations, one tracking station
and two data acquisition facilities.
No other location in the free world
even has two such important space
stations.
The Gilmore Creek Data Acqui
sition Site which will be going into
full operation this summer is the
: largest, most sophisticated GSFC
satellite ground station in the world.
And this summer a duplicate of [
this facility will be built just a
half mile from the first one on Gil
more Creek, near Fox. Alaska.
The third, NASA station, a minni
track station, is located off Farmers
Loop Road, near College.
The second data acquisition site,
to be built this summer on Gil
more Creek, may be the most im- 1
portant station in the world for ob
taining data for predicting the
weather.
The information that w'ill be ob
tained, officials believe, could save
thousands of lives in helping to
predict more accurately violent
weather storms and hurricanes.
The stations in Alaska will prob
ably become the most important
in the U. S. so far as weather ga
thering data is concerned, because
much of the weather in the lower
states originates in Alaska.
In the lower states, weathermen
often talk about a “cold wave on
its way” or “arctic air moving
south.1’ Knowing the weather in
Alaska is of vital importance in
forecasting the weather in the low
er states.
The TIROS weather satellites now
orbiting have provided much infor
mation to weathermen. Television
cameras within the satellites are
able to take pictures of the cloud
cover over Alaska and transmit
them down to earth through the
j data acquisition facilities.
The stations near Fairbanks, how
, ever, will be extremely important
l as time goes by, particularly when !
the NIMBUS series of satellites are 1
launched. The NIMBUS satellites
are so different from the TIROS,
they have been given an entirely
different name. In actuality, the
NIMBUS is the second generation
of weather satellites.
The stations will also become
more important in receiving data
from three important projects nick
named OSO. "EGO. and ‘PO
GO.”
OSO stands for Orbiting Solar
Observatory. EGO stands for Ec
centric Geophysical Observatory,
and POGO stands for Polar Orbit
ing Geophysical Observatory. OSO,
EGO. and POGO are among more
than 70 projects already planned
for the next few years.
And according to space officials,
there are new projects being dream
ed up every day.
Electronic technicians and space
research personnel at the Univer
sity of Alaska are expected to
double, triple, and quadruple.
The Gilmore Creek NASA sta
tion now employs 26 fulltime per
sons but when it goes on a 24
hour-a-day operation this summer,
it will have to employe about 70
persons. The second facility when
built and instrumented will employ
about the same number.
“We are primarily concerned with
gathering data and doing something
with it," said Richard Coan, NASA
director at the Gilmore Creek Data
Acquisition facility.
"Data in the sky doesn’t do any
one any gcod. It has to be brought
down to earth to be put to good
use.’’
Even Alaska youth are becoming
so—e seimis and in larger num
bers are got ig into the field of
'i^onhvs-'cs. This year more than
1 DO young Alas’;-a native men will
mW * ..oiling t . become electronics
technicians.
Alaska is rn the move toward
importance in the Space Age and
so are its people.
Demo W omen
Elect Officers
\
Democratic Women's Club, Fair
banks. held their regular monthly
meeting, Thursday. May 9. in the
home of Mrs. Lil Angerman. The
officers for the coming year were
installed.
They are: Mrs. Tul Angerman.
President; Mrs. Edward Mehalick,
Vice President; Mrs. Earl Cook.
Secretary; Mrs. Nathan Matlock,
Treasurer; and Mrs. Warren Tay
lor, Historian.
During the last session the club
passed a resolution to send a letter
to Governor William A. Egan, urg
ing him to designate Fairbanks as
the site for the next branch of the
Pioneer's Home.
The session was the last regular
meeting until September.