Jun 1 1976
From The Space Library
Recently published criticism by columnist John Keats of "a' modest NASA effort to provide meals for elderly people" not only "managed to misunderstand just about every aspect of what we are doing" but also "put down the elderly and [raised] my ire in the process," astronaut Joseph P. Kerwin wrote in a letter to the New York Times. Kerwin pointed out that the NASA program was a response to the Texas Governor's Committee on Aging, which had asked the agency for help in developing good-tasting easy-to-prepare and easy-to-deliver meals for people not reached by programs such as Meals on Wheels or group meals sponsored by Congress in various city centers. Kerwin said NASA's engineers "know a little about packaging and shelf life," and "we care because we have relatives who are old, and because we'll be old ourselves soon-if we're lucky." The technology being used to do a job for the old was good, Kerwin concluded, "but it's the caring of which I am most proud." (NYT, 1 June 76, 34)
During its 3 most active yr, NASA had awarded only 19% of its procurement funding to concerns in the industrialized Northeast, according to a Library of Congress study commissioned by Rep. Michael J. Harrington (D-Mass.), whereas the Sunbelt states-ranging from Maryland to Texas-received 33% of the total awards. Of $8.7 billion spent by NASA in procurement contracts for 1968, 1971, and 1975, the Northeast received $1.7 billion and southern regions received $2.9 billion, the report said. "While the aggregate populations in these combined regions are roughly comparable," Harrington said, "the NASA procurement contracts run almost 2 to 1 against us . . . NASA's contract award procedures now join that long and growing list of federally funded activities which discriminate against the industrialized Northeast states." (NYT, 2 June 76, 40)
NASA announced an agreement with the Indian Space Research Organization (]SRO) to add a solar-energy experiment to the cooperative satellite instructional television experiment (SITE) now under way using Ats 6, the applications technology satellite. In May, ISRO was sent 2 solar arrays capable of producing 260 watt-hr of power a day under Indian sunlight conditions; the arrays would provide electricity to run 2 of the SITE TV receivers during the 4 hr each day that Indian programming would be broadcast to some 5000 villages using Ats 6. When India's National Committee for Space Research studied power alternatives for the SITE terminals in 1969, solar cells were used almost exclusively in spacecraft and were considered too expensive for use on the ground; since that time, demand had increased sharply, the price had come down, and the: sharp rise in petroleum prices had made the price of solar power more attractive. Although current cost of a solar-power system for a SITE terminal was estimated as $311 per yr (26% higher than the $247 cost of kerosene generators), research and production should bring the cost down to about $139 a yr by 1979, while the price of kerosene-generated electricity could well' be higher. Also, arrays from solar cells could be produced in India and other developing countries by using existing technology, which would add to the advantages of solar power for use throughout the world.
Solar power had proved desirable for use in areas not having central power stations; the solar-power systems were simple to install, had no moving parts, and needed only cleaning of array surfaces and maintenance of electrolyte levels as operational maintenance. NASA's Lewis Research Center had demonstrated a solar array as a power source for an Ats 6 ground station last year; the India project would be one of many conducted by LeRC to support the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) in demonstrating terrestrial applications of solar-cell-generated electricity. An ISRO engineer would visit L.RC for training in assembly and operation of the solar arrays. (NASA Release 76-95)
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