A fixed position on auxiliary nuclear power

摘要

On June 29,1961 Transit IV-A became the first spacecraft to carry a radioisotope power supply into space, and in February of the previous year The Engineer was given a brief glimpse into the development of the nuclear power source. Transit IV-A was one of several artificial Earth satellites designed at fabricated by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Maryland, USA as part of the ARPA-funded Transit programme, which established the basis for the wide acceptance of satellite navigation systems. As well as carrying a radioisotope power supply, Transit IV-A was notable also for breaking an APL mission-duration record and confirming that the Earth's equator is elliptical.