Microlock Ground Antenna, 1956 [photograph].

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Microlock Ground Antenna, 1956 [photograph].

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/733106175

Helix Antenna Installation, 3/23/56. [Description from photo index.]. On March 22, 1956, preliminary satellite tracking tests began in a field near JPL. The antenna is being assembled in the photo above. The prototype Microlock ground receiving station included the antenna, instrumentation built into a 25 foot van, generators, and other equipment. This experimental antenna included a ten-foot square groundplane made of plywood and metal, a three-foot diameter by five-foot long fiberglass reinforced plastic tube with a metal strip helix, and two struts in the rear that allow the groundplane to be tilted to any angle. The cylinder detached from the groundplane, which then separated into 3 pieces for transport. A low-power, light-weight transmitting beacon was towed by a helicopter at about 10,000 feet, simulating the flight of a satellite in the distance and over the test site. A 450-foot nylon rope separated the beacon from the helicopter, to minimize any effects on the experiment. The beacon was similar in size and shape to components used less than two years later on Explorer I.

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Jet Propulsion Laboratory Library and Archives

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SNAC Resource ID: 8108297

Jet Propulsion Laboratory Library and Archives

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Jet Propulsion Laboratory (U.S.). Photolab.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6g26rt0 (corporateBody)

One of the first people hired at GALCIT Project #1 in November 1941 was photographer George Emmerson (1913-1994), an emigrant from Newcastle, Great Britain. Audrey Voice and Mary J. Taylor as photographer's assistants joined Emmerson in 1943. Emmerson took almost all the early photos that became a part of this collection, a collection described in brief as the work product of the JPL Photolab. As JPL grew, so did the assignments to the Photolab to photograph all Laborato...