Mar 19 1975
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NASA announced that lunar samples would be available to colleges and universities for teaching purposes. Under a new NASA program, a "thin-section educational package," consisting of several 0.03-mm slices of representative lunar material plus brief descriptions, could be borrowed for several months by institutions offering undergraduate or graduate work in the geosciences. The purpose of the program was to broaden the use of NASA's lunar sample collection. (NASA Release 75-76)
19-20 March: A special conference at Lewis Research Center, "Selected Technology for the Gas Industry," discussed how NASA-developed technology could id the U.S. gas industry in ways such as satellite search for fossil fuels, turbine machinery and compression technology, heat transfer, fluid flow and fluid properties, safety, technology for liquefied natural gas, instrumentation, materials and life prediction, and reliability and quality assurance.
Addressing a conference dinner 19 March, Dr. James C. Fletcher, NASA Administrator, said, "In an age when space research and technology was measured by its immediate value in the marketplace, studies of the planets often are considered little more than an exercise in curiosity. Nothing could be farther from the truth." When spacecraft were developed to meet the specialized needs of space travel and planetary exploration, technology was advanced. "NASA cannot lay claim to the development of the electronic computer, but it can take a large credit for spurring a revolution in the electronics industry." The need for lightweight components in spacecraft led to electronic microminiaturization. The Illiac 4 computer, developed at the Univ. of Illinois for DOD and now operated jointly by DOD and NASA, could perform 300 million calculations a second and store 1 trillion bits of information at a time, more than the entire surviving output of the Greek and Roman civilizations. Operational since 1973, Illiac's speed and refinement allowed scientists to simulate and study global climate changes, study long-range effects of pollution on the atmosphere, distinguish between earth tremors from natural sources and underground nuclear blasts, develop seismic pictures of the earth's outer shell, and enhance Medical x-rays so that tumors could be discovered in earliest stage of development. Illiac 4 has helped solve problems that had eluded scientists for decades.
Other space technology was being used effectively to preserve and manage the earth's resources and enhance the quality of life for all its inhabitants. Communications satellites were making global communications a reality. Meteorological satellites had advanced the science of weather forecasting on land and sea. Sensors, surgical instruments, biological isolation garments, lenses, portable cardiac care systems, and eye switches were just a few examples of space technology used in the medical field. New alloys and materials developed to withstand the rigors of space were being used for longer lasting automobile and aircraft engines; temperature-resistant lubricants and fireproof materials added to the safety of homes and buildings.
"The fast-growing list of things that are and will be as a result of our venture into the cosmos is almost beyond imagination. Everyone who lives will be affected by them. And because of them, the world a decade or so hence will be quite different from the world we now know." (LeRC Release 75-11; Fletcher speech, text)
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