Sep 15 1978
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (1MB PDF)
Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced it had installed a new RCA domestic satellite (domsat) earth station with 10m antenna, now fully operational as part of the NASA Communications Network (NASCOM). RCA had received a contract to provide three 56-kilobitper-sec (kbps) wideband data channels between JPL and GSFC, primarily to serve the Voyager project. The three channels, used with new NASCOM-installed "tri-channel" end terminals, would provide a 168kbps end-to-end data transfer capability.
The antenna was the completion of a high-data-rate link to JPL from the Deep Space Network's 64m tracking station at Madrid; Voyager high-rate telemetry received at Madrid would be beamed up to the INTELSAT satellite, down to an East Coast receiving station, then to GSFC for transmission to JPL over the new domsat link. Although the 56kbps rate had formerly sufficed for telemetry received from overseas stations, the Voyager encounters with Jupiter scheduled to begin in the spring would need a higher (115.2 kbps) rate. (JPL Universe, Sept 15/78, 1)
JPL reported that solar cell roofing shingles made for it under contract by General Electric Co. could deal with the weather in two ways: they could both generate electricity and constitute a roof impermeable to wind and rain. The 50 shingles, developed and tested at JPL under a l yr $200 000 contract as part of Task IV of DOE's large solar array project, consisted of a rectangular synthetic-rubber base with a tempered-glass hexagon coating containing 19 photovoltaic cells. Solar-cell arrays would butt against each other when the modules were laid in the conventional overlapping manner. The shingles produced an average of 98w/m3 according to GE tests, and an array of about 1900 shingles could supply 90% of the power used by an all-electric home in the southwest U.S. However, the cost of the shingle-generated electricity was about $30 per watt, far higher than DOE's $8-a-watt target. Environmental and field tests at JPL would verify GE's results and study weathering effects, to help GE develop cost-cutting design refinements. (JPL Universe, Sept 15/78, 1)
Aerospace Daily reported that House-Senate appropriations conferees would allow NASA to reprogram FY79 funds from Space Shuttle production into development as it had done with $100 million in 1978, if the agency first asked Congress for a budget supplement to restore the production money. Reporting on a Sept. 14 compromise $4.35 billion NASA money bill, the conferees promised that NASA would receive "prompt consideration" of a supplemental request.
The reprogramming suggestion seemed to address the major concern: whether or not NASA could increase the rate of development spending ahead of supplement approval. Under a reprogramming, production would be slowed pending restoration of funds, but development could proceed at a rate consistent with the expected extra money. This arrangement had followed up on an earlier House provision dropped by the conferees, allowing NASA to set up a reserve fund for Shuttle development by taking $30 million from three science programs.
The conferees had approved NASA's $20.5 million request for development of a teleoperator retrieval system, with the proviso that NASA get approval from both appropriations committees before obligating more than $10 million of the money, and that the balance of $10.5 million be available "only for ;Space Shuttle funding requirements in the absence of committee approval." Both committees had been skeptical of the TRS proposal because its use in a Skylab mission might be impossible in view of Shuttle delays and the deterioration of Skylab's orbit.
Conferees also had agreed to add $500 000 to the money bill to start a Stereosat program; the House had added $4 million, the Senate nothing. The conference had compromised on an add-on of $2 million for a solar power satellite system, ratifying the House cut of $5 million from expendable launch vehicles. It had also eliminated funds for the SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) program. (A/D, Sept 15/78, 65)
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