Aug 30 1978
From The Space Library
Preliminary results of a yr-long energy-conservation study at LaRC had indicated that a family could save money and energy using new technical systems developed in the space program, NASA announced. A family of four that volunteered to live in a conventional house equipped with unconventional technical systems designed to save energy and water, had achieved the following results: total energy used for all purposes, including heating and cooling, was a little less than half the amount used by a conventional all-electric home under the same conditions. Total dollar savings from use of less energy and water had amounted to more than $1200 for the yr, an average of more than $100 a mo.
The Technology Utilization House (called Tech House) was a contemporary-style home built at LaRC to test equipment available or to be shortly available. The family of Dr. Charles Swain, professor at Florida State Univ. in Tallahassee, had volunteered to live in the house for a year to test the technical systems under normal living conditions. Swain, his wife, daughter of 18, and son of 13 had moved into the house in August 1977 to live as normally as possible, while many of their actions were monitored, sensed, measured, and turned into computer printouts of data numbers.
Early research results had indicated that all the systems incorporated in the Tech House had been put to use. Although some systems worked better than predicted, and others did not work as well, the technical information collected would be useful in redesigning or modifying some of the systems to make them more efficient. Analysis of the experiment data would tell engineers much more about how to customize systems to fit particular kinds of houses, to suit areas of the country with different geographical and climate conditions, or to meet special needs of individuals. One possible "sleeper" system incorporated in the Tech House-the water recycling equipment-might greatly benefit future homeowners if the U.S. continued to experience periodic water shortages.
Preliminary performance data from some of the major systems indicated that thermal-design features such as improved insulation and double-door entries had accounted for about 60% of energy savings. Solar collectors on the roof and a solar-supplemented heat-pump system had supplied more than 50% of the energy required to heat the house, amounting to about $300 in energy-cost savings. The Tech House, funded by NASA's Office of Technology Utilization, had been completed in June 1976 and opened to the public for a yr before the Swains moved in. (NASA Release 78-135)
NASA announced that the United Nations would use the world's most powerful comsat, the Cts Communications Technology Satellite operated jointly by NASA and the Canadian Dept. of Communications, in a demonstration of remote simultaneous interpretation of a conference and of transmission by facsimile of conference documents for remote translation. Cooperating in the demonstration would be ComSatCorp and ENTEL, an Argentine state-owned telephone company.
The UN Conference on Technical Cooperation Among Developing Countries currently meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, through Sept. 12 would be the demonstration subject. Pictures and voices of the conferees sent to a portable NASA terminal at UN Headquarters in New York would be interpreted, translated into five official UN languages, and returned through Cts to a portable ComSatCorp terminal in Buenos Aires, where conference attendees could select the language of their choice. The New York terminal, a NASA-developed portable earth terminal bus, was a mobile broadcast-receive studio with a 2.4m (8ft) dish antenna designed for use with Cts. Another phase of the experiment would be high-speed simultaneous transmission on other Cts channels of texts of speeches and other documents from Buenos Aires to UN. Hq for translation and return the next day. Cts earth terminals could transmit at a frequency of 14GHz and receive at 12GHz. (NASA Release 78-134)
FAA announced it had awarded a $1 989 193 contract to Bendix Corporation's Communications Division, Baltimore, Md., for prototypes of an advanced microwave landing system (MLS) offering precision all weather approach-and-landing guidance at large airports. Called the "basic wide" MLS because of its antenna system, it would provide more precise guidance than simpler lower-cost versions already demonstrated at locations around the world-the small community airport and "basic narrow" versions adequate for most commercial fields. The new equipment, installed by FAA at NASA's Wallops center, would undergo tests for approximately 6mo as a joint FAA-NASA-USAF effort. The International Civil Aviation Organization had adopted the U.S./Australian developed MLS earlier in 1978 as the standard approach-and-landing guidance system of the future [see April 24]. Actual installation and use of the equipment at airports worldwide would follow a transition phase demonstrating MLS-unit operation in the field. (FAA Release 78-71)
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