Feb 22 1976

From The Space Library

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Current revision

Study of earth's climate to permit predictions of global climatic changes by the end of the century should be the top space priority, said a study group formed by NASA last year to assess U.S. progress in space and where it should go next. The 3-vol report of the study group did not mention manned exploration of Mars, which had been the prime recommendation of a forerunner study 7 yr ago. Citing the dependence of the world's population on a complex system producing food and fiber where climate is favorable, the report said the entire system was predicated on a constant climate. Understanding of climatic processes would help solve earth's most pressing problems: food shortages, and worldwide weather changes caused by pollution. The report estimated that a 1-degree cooling of earth's annual temperature would mean loss of $1 billion in grain production, $2.2 billion in timber and fiber output, and $1.4 billion in fish catches; the drop would also increase the demand for electrical energy by $700 million, with a $2.4 billion rise in health costs other than treating skin cancers caused by alterations in earth's atmosphere. The group recommended development of 6 satellites to identify and assess worldwide crop conditions; other satellites to study chemical changes in the atmosphere and to watch for solar changes affecting earth's weather; and a network of 4 to 6 large geostationary satellites to observe ice and ocean conditions and keep tabs on the earth's radiation balance. Manned flight should develop along the lines of Space Shuttle and space station to be used partially for climate study-and instrumented craft should be sent to explore every solar-system planet except Pluto, the report said. Cost of the weather-satellite program was set at $1.7 billion, with operating costs over 20 yr estimated at $4.6 billion; the planetary exploration program would cost a total of $5.1 billion to the year 2000. (W Post, 22 Feb 76, A-3)

NASA announced plans for a seventh Lunar Science Conference to be held 15 to 19 March at JSC, bringing together scientists in geology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, engineering, and biology under joint sponsorship of JSC and the Lunar Science Institute of Houston. Discoveries about the moon would be applied to problems of the origin and early history of the solar system, for instance using lunar data to interpret craters and volcanoes photographed on the surfaces of Mercury and Mars. Other papers would discuss meteorites, satellites of Jupiter (about the size of earth's moon), and use of earth-based telescopes to measure chemical composition of asteroids. Lunar Science Conferences had been held yearly since 1970, when the first such assembly heard scientific results from the Apollo 11 moon-landing mission. More than 700 scientists from as far away as Australia attended the 1975 conference. (NASA Release 76-25)

Steam might be the power behind rockets of tomorrow, the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science was told by Dr. Freeman Dyson of the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study. Steam engines of the future would be powered not by coal but by laser beams so powerful that they could instantly turn water into superheated high-velocity steam that could carry a 1-ton spacecraft into earth orbit. Basic research on laser propulsion had already been done by Dr. Arthur Kantrowitz of the Avco Everett Research Lab. in Cambridge, Mass. A laser beam with energy of I million kw would be needed to carry a rocket and its spacecraft away from earth; this laser would be 10 times more powerful than any developed so far. Ideally, the laser and rocket would be located on a mountain at 3-km altitude, where air would be free of water vapor that would reduce laser efficiency. Development of laser propulsion would take money, Kantrowitz said, but not as much as other rocket engines have cost. (W Post, 23 Feb 76, A-2)

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