Jul 8 1974
From The Space Library
An optical memory system that would increase computer memory storage capability by 30% had been developed by scientists under NASA contract, NASA announced. The new technique used organic compounds whose chemical reactions could be manipulated by low-power lasers to produce phase holograms (optical image-storing units) that could hold 100 million pieces of information per square centimeter. The new system also would be more economical, more compact, and more reliable and would require less energy and fewer moving parts. Advanced computer memory capability, required for future NASA missions, also could be useful for applications in business, industry, government, and education. (NASA Release 74-185)
Dr. Kurt H. Debus, Kennedy Space Center Director, and Univ. of Florida officials signed an agreement to permit the University to operate a coastal and oceanographic engineering laboratory at KSC. Telemetric monitoring of the Atlantic Ocean environment would be augmented by visual observation of ocean climate and beach erosion. (KSC Release 113-74)
The space shuttle had no imaginable use which could not be met more cheaply and expeditiously by rockets already in existence, columnist Nicholas von Hoffman charged in the Washington Post. Of the justifications for the space shuttle program, one of "the most persuasive is the large amounts of money that will be pumped" into an ailing economy. However, "it would be difficult to think up a more inflationary way to provide jobs for people." (W Post, 8 July 74)
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