Word: helium
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Minutes later, Kittinger rose slowly in his gondola, "flying" his polyethylene balloon as expanding helium lifted it skyward. At each 5,000-ft. altitude mark, he checked by radio with ground-control technicians, monitored his instruments ("I certainly could not have died of boredom"). Then, at 0831, Kittinger checked his altimeter: 76,400 ft. An officer on the ground radioed the countdown: "Joe, it's X minus two minutes." Then: "X minus one minute...
Even more exciting is the possibility of using the MHD system with a nuclear reactor. In this case the gas will probably be argon or helium, laced with cesium to make it more conductive. It will circulate through the reactor, then through the generator and back to the reactor again. This system will have to wait for the development of high-temperature reactor cores, but Project Rover, the Atomic Energy Commission's nuclear-rocket program, has shown that the prospects of this are promising...
...until the nucleus (one proton and one neutron) of each atom is separated from the electron that ordinarily orbits around it (deuterium is the hydrogen isotope in heavy water, D2O). If the particles are made hot enough, the deuterium nuclei will collide with ample force to "fuse" together, forming helium 3 and giving off a neutron. When that happens, part of their mass is converted into energy-the energy of the hydrogen bomb, the stars...
Small Advantage. The company is also well on its way in commercial production of other "cold liquids." It is building a $6,000,000 facility for liquid nitrogen, liquid oxygen and liquid argon, has teamed up with Northern Natural Gas Co. to form the Helex Co., which will produce helium for missile development and atomic energy...
Argonne's new facility contains a series of airtight compartments. Each will be equipped with miniature machines and filled with helium to prevent spontaneous combustion. The ingots of plutonium, about the size of a matchbox, will be handled by remote control, or through the 1,576 "glove ports," where the workers put their hands into long rubber gloves fitted to holes in the glass viewing panels...