Jun 12 1974
From The Space Library
Effects of the shapes of trucks on air drag and fuel consumption were being studied by NASA. and the Department of Transportation, NASA announced. Trucks traveling 80 km per hr used more than half their engine horsepower to overcome drag. Preliminary tests had shown that a rectangular vehicle with rounded corners had 30% less air drag at 90 to 95 km per hr and used 15% less fuel. Other configurations would be tested at Flight Research Center and DOT's Transportation Systems Center using technology and instrumentation developed in FRC's aeronautics flight-test program. (NASA Release 74-152)
The House approved by voice vote the House-Senate conference report on H.R. 13998, recommending a $3.267-billion FY 1975 NASA authorization. The action cleared the bill for the President's signature. (CR, 12 June 74, HSO57)
Marshall Space Flight Center announced the award of a $5 986 930 contract modification to Chrysler Corp.'s Space Div. for stage and system engineering for the 1st stage of the Apollo Soyuz Test Project Saturn IB launch vehicle. The modification, effective 1 May 1974 through 31 July 1975, brought the existing cost-plus-award-fee contract total to $64 455 696. (MSFC Release 74-104)
No one was arguing against using the sun as an unlimited energy source but few saw it as an energy panacea, a Christian Science Monitor article said. With a firm commitment from the Government the sun could provide as much as one fifth of U.S. energy needs before the end of the century. But solar energy faced high capital costs for development; inefficient solar-collecting devices; unsolved corrosion and freezing problems for collectors; interfering building codes; lack of trained maintenance personnel; scarcity of solar technology designers, architects, and engineers; and insufficient mortgage money available. Solar energy also competed for funding with a Government "bias" toward nuclear energy. Government research dollars ran "25 to 1 in favor of nuclear energy." (Hoyt, CSM, 12 June 74)
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