July 1977

From The Space Library

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Current revision

NASA reported that researchers at LaRC had devised a nuclear pumped laser output 100 times more powerful than that available from noble or inert gases, 3.Sw in a volume of only 1 cubic centimeter. A major step in laser technology, the experiment had converted kinetic energy from the splitting of atoms directly into photons (light energy, in the form of laser beams) without the energy-wasting intermediate step of converting heat to electricity.

The aim of the research had been to produce and transmit large quantities of power in space, using high-power laser beams as highly efficient energy conductors with transmitters and receivers measured in meters rather than in kilometers for similar microwave equipment. Laser beams could connect central power plants in space with settlements, materials processing centers, or scientific operations in earth orbit; laser powered vehicles could transport payloads to geosynchronous orbit from lower altitudes. (NASA Release 77-143)

An idea tried 61yr ago had come of age, NASA reported, with the piggyback flights of the orbiter Enterprise on its Boeing 747 carrier. In 1916, to put a Bristol Scout airplane at an altitude where it could attack Zeppelin bombers over England, the British had loaded it on a three engine Felixstowe flying boat for a single flight May 17 of that year. Both aircraft had landed safely, but the experiment had not been repeated. (NASA Release 77-148)

NASA noted that Landsat-1, first satellite to focus specifically on earth and its natural resources, had completed its 5th yr in orbit. Launched July 23, 1972, with a life expectancy of only 1yr, Landsat had monitored air and water pollution, geological resources, agricultural production, and potential water supply. Dr. Wernher von Braun had predicted that this program alone could give the U.S. "a return exceeding its total space program investment." (NASA Release 77-150)

In a W. Post column, science writer Daniel S. Greenberg commented on the "leaky embargo system that is supposed to deny the Soviets western technology of strategic value." The principal feature of a new DOD plan drawn up for State and Commerce Dept. approval before presentation next spring to the Coordinating Committee of Nations "NATO minus Iceland, plus Japan") on restricting strategic export to Communist bloc nations was that "it isn't confined to hardware," Greenberg noted. The new embargo scheme, he said, was aimed at technological know-how; its enforcement would admittedly encompass "the entire span of advanced American technology.... Hardware can be stopped at the loading dock, but know-how, being intangible or confined to paper, calls for different barricades." The truth about the embargo, Greenberg charged, was that "virtually no one is interested in it except certain military and industrial elements in the U.S. Furthermore, most of what we won't sell is easily available from sales hungry producers elsewhere. And, finally, there is ample evidence that ... the Soviets, despite their many technological shortcomings, can home produce whatever they deem necessary." The proposed embargo, Greenberg concluded, might retard the Soviets a bit, but the presence of DOD "gumshoes in the American scientific and technological enterprise is a stiff price to pay" for that delay. (W Post, July 12/77, A19)

JPL reported that Donald Lynn and Jean Lorre of its image processing laboratory had shared in a scientific investigation of the Shroud of Turin, preserved in Italy since 1578. At the request of groups in N.Y. and N.M., Lynn and Lorre had used advanced NASA techniques (mathematical and contrast enhancement) to obtain a noticeably clearer image from negatives and color slides taken at a 1973 display of the cloth and the image appearing on it. (JPL Universe, July 1/77, 1; Natl Inq, July 19/77, 4)

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