Tritium, Argon 37, and Manganese 54 Radioactivities in a Fragment of Sputnik 4

Tritium, argon 37, and manganese 54 radioactivities were measured in samples from a steel fragment of Sputnik 4. The tritium activity was low compared with the amount expected to be produced by cosmic rays. Some metallurgical evidence suggests the possibility that the lowest tritium content was in the sample that may have experienced the most heating. The amount of manganese 54 radioactivity was approximately forty per cent of the value obtained in Aroos by others, whereas the amount of argon 37 was about twenty per cent of that measured in Aroos and about thirty per cent of that estimated from the argon 39 measurements in Aroos, Norfork, Pitts, and Treysa, together with the ratio of production cross sections.