May 2 1970
From The Space Library
Dr. Thomas O. Paine, NASA Administrator, spoke during. 10day "Emphasis Space" program at Nebraska Wesleyan Univ. on "very basic question" of why U.S. should be spending "all of this money out in space when we have so many problems here on earth." He said answer was "indeed that human values have the highest priority. I would submit that the American space program is indeed a program that has tremendous human values. . . . we in the space agency who are effecting technical change feel that history shows that the interaction between technical change and social change is extremely close. We believe that the activities that we are carrying out will have a tremendous impact on the way our children and our children's children will live. We are in the business of creating new wealth and new power that can be used by all men." Apollo 12 Astronaut Charles Conrad, Jr., said that lunar flights were "enhancing man's knowledge of the environment in which he lives. . . space has proven to date that it is something that man can use that is of benefit to man. . . . The question is do you want it used." Space program was at point "where it is up to the people to decide through the government what uses we will put space to." (Neb Wes Univ's New Dimensions, 9/70; AP, San Diego Union, 5/3/70)
Impact of space requirements on U.S. computer industry was discussed by Dr. George M. Low, NASA Deputy Administrator, at ARCS (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists) Foundation Annual Scholarship Awards Banquet in Houston, Tex.: "In Project Mercury, ground-based computers were only required to determine quickly and accurately booster cut-off conditions. In Apollo, however, computers are used throughout the mission in real time, to calculate the trajectory to the moon and back, to compare three separate solutions for the lunar descent, to record and analyze thousands of bits of telemetered spacecraft information, to compare these to predicted' values to detect trouble, and . . . to monitor the well-being of the crew. For Mercury, the computer program contained 40 000 computer words; for Apollo, a 1500 000-word program was needed, while at the same time, the speed of the computers has increased sevenfold."' U.S. computer industry was doing $8 billion worth of business annually, paid highest average wages of any U.S. industry, and was "one of the most rapidly growing." In 1960, U.S. exported $48 million worth of computers; in 1969, $728 million dollars worth. "U.S. computer exports have increased by over 1400 percent in the first decade of the space age. This impressive record was built on excellence of performance through continuing technological superiority. In a large measure it was the stimulus of NASA's requirements that brought about these technological advances in the computer industry." (Text)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
