Jul 28 1978
From The Space Library
NASA announced that a water pump and grain mill powered by solar cells, which had been installed in a remote Upper Volta village, would soon relieve the daily burdens of the villagers. Under a cooperative agreement between the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) and NASA, AID would purchase all hardware including the solar-cell array, pump, and grinder; LeRC would provide manpower and technical management to design, fabricate, install, and monitor the system. The project would last about 1.5yr-several mo to set up the system and a yr for experimental operation, after which the villagers would run the system.
Dr. Louis Rosenblum, chief of the Solar and Electrochemistry Division at LeRC, said the solar-cell power system, after its completion in Dec. 1978, would be able to supply a peak 1.8kw of electricity; the water pump would be able to supply 4542 liters (1200 gal) of water per day. "The grinder will cut the time required to produce flour from 2hr to 10 minutes per family," he added. The cooperative project, part of an AID study of energy needs in food systems of less developed countries, would also address the socioeconomic effects of reducing the time needed by the women to grind grain and draw water. "There are more than three million villages without electric power in the world today," Dr. Rosenblum continued. "Success of the experiment in Upper Volta is bound to influence the direction taken by other developing countries to satisfy the pressing energy needs of their large rural populations." (NASA Release 78-111)
LaRC reported the White House had issued a statement July 20, 1978, commemorating the ninth anniversary of man's first walk on the moon. The statement read in part: "Nine years ago today, the world paused to watch two brave men tread the surface of the moon. It was a moment without precedent in human experience, a moment when terrestrial life reached out to touch another world. It is a source of pride for us that those men were Americans. Today, the lunar surface is criss-crossed in a half dozen places with the footprints of American astronauts and implanted with a variety of American scientific instruments.
"The Space Shuttle, our next major manned space project, will begin regular, routine economical operation in the early 1980s.... In the deeper reaches of space, we will continue to seek to expand our knowledge of the solar system and the universe of which we are a part.
"As time and technology take us ever more deeply into the space age, it will continue to be our policy to conduct operations in space as required for our national well being and to support the right of all nations to do likewise. In so doing, we remain committed to the underlying principle of the exploration and use of space for peaceful purposes and for the benefit of all mankind." (Langley Researcher, July 28/78, 2; Spaceport News, July 21/78, 1; JSC Roundup, July 21/78, 4; DFRC X-Press, July 28/78, 4)
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