Mar 7 1974
From The Space Library
A proposal to tap energy from tiny black holes, superdense Objects in space, was presented by Dr. Lowell Wood, member of a three-man team from the Lawrence Livermore Laboratories, at a conference of international physicists organized by the New York Academy of Sciences. Some black holes within the orbit of the moon might be so tiny that their effects would not be evident beyond a few hundred meters. A tiny power plant could be placed in orbit to accompany the moving hole but remain at a discreet distance. Fusion fuel would then be fired from the power plant to the hole, and the hole's extremely powerful gravity would squeeze the fuel toward the vanishing point. The fuel would fuse, releasing vast amounts of energy, which could be collected and beamed to the earth by microwave frequencies. (Sullivan, NYT, 9 March 74, 12)
The House of Representatives passed the Federal Energy Administration bill, H.R. 11793, which would reorganize and consolidate certain functions of the Federal Government in a new Federal Energy Administration to promote more efficient management of energy. (NASA LAR, XIII/26)
The first system to use solar energy to heat a U.S. school began operation in Timonium, Md. The $568 000 project, jointly sponsored by the National Science Foundation and AAI Corp. [see 2 Feb.], was rushed into operation in six weeks to use the remainder of the winter's chilly days to gather experimental data for future solar heating systems. (Richards, W Post, 8 March 74, C2)
7, 12-14 March: Dr. John E. Naugle, Associate Administrator for Space Science, testified on NASA'S space science program before the House Committee on Science and Astronautics' Subcommittee on Space Science and Applications during FY 1975 authorization hearings: A Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) satellite was proposed for FY 1975 design study and launch in the next period of maximum solar activity, 1978-1979. SMM would investigate solar flares and related phenomena and their effects on the solar-terrestrial system, making, for the first time, simultaneous measurements of flares across the electromagnetic spectrum-within a national program of satellite, sounding rocket, and ground-based observations of the sun during maximum activity. The spacecraft would be shuttle-retrievable for refurbishment and reflight with advanced solar physics experiments in the 1980s.
Requested funding for the Large Space Telescope (LST) for FY 1975 was $6.2 million, to proceed with design of telescope optics, detectors, and support systems. NASA had originally planned to spend about $10 million in FY 1975 on the LST-to be launched on the space shuttle in 1980-but reduced the request to reflect the four- to six-month delay in shuttle development.
NASA--in cooperation with the Naval Research Laboratory, Sandia Laboratories, and West Germany-was developing an Aries sounding rocket to support the physics and astronomy program. Aries, which used the 2nd stage of surplus Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles, would provide a greater lift and longer flight time than possible at the price of rockets now in use.
Cost overruns on the 1975 two-spacecraft Viking mission to Mars could total 10% of the original $838-million estimate for the program because of hardware development problems. Major problems with the biology instrument included packing the sophisticated instruments into a small volume, development of very small valves to inject sufficiently small amounts of nutrients into Martian samples, and thermal control. The instrument was running $21.2 million over the budgeted cost. Difficulties also had been encountered in producing enough 0.005-cm plated magnetic wire of uniform characteristics for the onboard computer. Dr. Naugle said that, although the overall complexity of the spacecraft had been underestimated, "we expect these problems to be solved and to launch both Viking spacecraft on schedule in 1975." (Transcript)
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