Dec 23 1985
From The Space Library
In order to improve communications among Indonesia's Eastern Island University's member campuses, which were spread over 1,600 miles of ocean, NASA's Lewis Research Center (LeRC) recently supervised installation of a solar power system for a teleconferencing center and earth station in the village of Wawotobi. The earth station provided the communications link among Wawotobi, Djakarta, and an earth communications satellite system and helped make the member campuses' scarce professors, research findings, and library resources more widely available to the rapidly increasing number of students throughout the region.
The teleconferencing center, a classroom large enough for 50 people, was equipped with a speaker system, microphones, a telecopier, an electronic blackboard, and a computer graphics display. The system was interactive and could connect with 11 main campus locations of the Eastern Island University Association and a conference room in the offices of the Director General of Higher Education in Djakarta.
Purpose of the teleconferencing system was to demonstrate the use of satellite communication in developing countries, and the solar power system showed the feasibility and practicality of solar (photovoltaic) power systems for small earth stations in remote areas.
Although diesel electric generators generally powered earth stations in the absence of conventional power lines, the high cost of diesel fuel and the high operation, security, and maintenance costs for diesel generators made use of a photovoltaic system attractive. The total photovoltaic array capacity to power the earth station at Wawotobi was 1.5 kilowatts, and LeRC expected the battery used in conjunction with the array to last about 10 years. The photovoltaic array had a life expectancy of more than 20 years.
The existing satellite system provided national communications services by radio, telephone, and telegraph to the 5000 inhabited islands.
Hughes Aircraft Co. was prime contractor for the photovoltaic power system, and their subcontractor in Indonesia was P. T. Elektrindo Nusantara. LeRC and Hughes would provide operations support for repair, maintenance, and spare parts through June 1986, when NASA would turn over complete responsibility for the system to PERUMTAL, the Indonesian national telecommunications authority.
The project completed the renewable energy systems programs managed by LeRC for the Department of Energy and the U.S. Agency for International Development. Since 1976 LeRC had been responsible for the installation of 71 photovoltaic power systems in 27 countries and the United States. These systems provided power for entire villages for water pumps, grain grinders, lights, vaccine refrigerators, schools, highway signs, forest lookout towers, insect traps, rural dispensaries, and the Wawotobi teleconferencing center/ earth station. (NASA Release 85-176)
NASA announced that Dr. Charles Kupperman was appointed effective immediately as executive assistant to the deputy administrator.
Kupperman came to NASA after serving as executive director of the President's General Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament. From 1978 to 1981 he was the research associate and defense analyst for the Committee on the Present Danger, and he also served as a member of President Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign and defense transition team. Kupperman was a consultant to R&D Associates and taught at the School of International Relations, University of Southern California.
Kupperman graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. degree in political science from Purdue University, received an M.A. degree in political science from the University of British Columbia, and a Ph.D. in international relations from the University of Southern California. He was the author of articles on defense, the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT), and national security policy for academic and public journals. (NASA Release anno., Dec 23/85)
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