Oct 20 1978
From The Space Library
NASA announced that JPL, acting for the Dept. of Energy, had awarded study contracts to Acurex, Inc., Mountain View, Calif.; Boeing Engineering & Construction Co., Seattle, Wash.; and General Electric Space Division, Valley Forge, Pa., to develop a solar-energy concentrator for generating electric power. The contracts, each valued at about $240 000, would cover the first part of a two-phase program to develop a low-cost point-focusing solar concentrator. The concentrator would direct mirror-reflected sunlight to a heat absorber and heat-driven engine turning a generator to produce electricity to supplement electrical power for small communities and rural areas.
The solar concentrator to be developed under the contracts would include the optics (mirrors) and the mechanism that allowed the concentrator to track the sun. Heat absorbers and engine generators would be developed under separate contracts. Prime objective of the contracts would be to obtain the best thermal performance at the least cost per concentrator. As many as six would be tested and evaluated at JPL's Solar Thermal Test Site at Edwards, Calif. JPL would manage the study for DOE's Small Power Systems Program under an interagency agreement with NASA. (NASA Release 78-161)
Dryden Flight Research Center commemorated the final flight 10yr ago of the X-15, piloted by Bill Dana, that reached in its 11 min free flight atop speed of 3716mph (5.38 times the speed of sound) and peak altitude of 255 000ft. This chapter in aeronautical history would be celebrated by the Edwards, Calif., AIAA section at a dinner meeting featuring Bill Dana. The article in DFRC X-Press concluded: "Recent press reports call the Space Shuttle engines the first reusable liquid rocket engines. How soon they forget." (DFRC X-Press, Oct 20/78, 2)
President Carter at a press conference with editors and news directors was asked: "There was a big spread in the local (Cape Canaveral) newspapers yesterday that you were ordering cutbacks in the space program. And there are also rumors going around the Kennedy Space Center that as soon as the shuttle becomes operational, you will order even more cutbacks in an austerity program. So my question is this: What kind of space policy can we expect from your administration?" The President said: "I think a very aggressive space policy. Anyone who reads the documents that have been prepared very carefully, very thoroughly by the Defense Department, the CIA, NSC, all those who will use them, including Agriculture, Commerce, and finally approved by me, would say that it's a very sound program based on scientific need and actually capitalizing now upon the great exploratory efforts that have been made in space. We look upon the Space Shuttle as a way to change dramatic, very costly initiatives into a sound, progressive, and innovative program to utilize the technology that we have available to us.
"We'll continue interplanetary space exploration. We'll have a greatly expanded effort concerning astronomy assessments of the earth, weather, communications. Well expand our effort to bring into the space program now, both foreign countries and also private firms in our nation. And I think it is accurate to say that the Space Shuttle, which is approaching completion-we hope the first orbital flights will be less than a year from now-will open up a broad vista of new uses for our technology.
"So, we're not going to minimize or decrease our commitment to space at all. I think the spectacular efforts to send men to the moon and to make the first orbital flights, and so forth, have been just a precursor to now the more practical and consistent and effective use of our space technology.
"So, it's not a matter of playing down the importance of space; it's a matter of using what we've already learned in the most effective way." (Press Doc, Oct 20/78, 1976)
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