Menzel Praises Plan Of Freshman Seminar

Howard E. Menzel, professor of Astrophysics, confirmed last week that the Freshman Astronomy seminar has made what may be an important contribution to the success of the Mars "fly-by" probe.

The probe consists of a satellite to be launched in 1962 that will attempt to photograph Mars at close range. The Freshmen proposed that instead of storing the photographs on magnetic tape, the satellite should be equipped with video tape. The video tape would permit the probe to take and store more than 500 photographs when the satellite was closest to Mars, instead of the four or five possible was magnetic tape.

Congratulating the seminar on "their clear, scientific grasp of the problems involved," Menzel stated that the video tape proposal would be "seriously considered in setting the final specifications of the satellite."