Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (July 21, 1983)
SUMMER NKBRASKAN 4ULY 21,1083 newest project rf n l'T 2A I ! ' ) I 1 BY JO ANN MORRISON President Reagan is "way ahead of his staff" in supporting the space shuttle pro gram, according to Dr. Hans Mark, deputy director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Mark, featured speaker at the Gth annual Frank E. Sorenson lecture at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on Tuesday, said, "Reagan clearly understands the impor tance of this business...what it's all about and why it's necessary." Space satellites have created a much more stable world, according to Mark. "There would be no arms control agree ments possible without the monitor satel lites to verify and monitor these agree ments," he said. The space station is the next logical step after the space shuttle, and Reagan will probably give NASA the go ahead in the fall, he said. Politics have always been a factor in the space program, said Mark. "We led the shuttle program through four separate administrations and in each case we had to re-sell the idea over again," he said. Mark said that in late 1968, six months be fore the astronauts landed the moon, Tom Paine, director of NASA at the time, asked Mark and other members of a special NASA commission to come up with a pro gram that would "top" the moon landing. "The moon was symbolically important," he said, but the group realized that America needed a permanent presence in space. The result was a plan for a space station and a shuttle system costing $24 billion. Mark said that Paine went to Nixon who said, "do something for $12." "At that point we were forced to make a fundamental decision," Mark said. "What to do first the shuttle or the station?" He said that NASA decided to build the shuttle first because it was more difficult and, he said, NASA reasoned that once the x y x i . . : Fhcto by Lcrry Tool Dr. Hans M. Mark. shuttle was operational, it would be easy to justify the space station. In the summer of 1971, NASA again sub mitted a plan to Nixon, Mark said, and again were told "do something for half." NASA finally put a $8.5 billion program together.lt promised to fly a shuttle by 1979 with a 30-ton payload in earth orbit. "We didn't quite make it," Mark said. "The final cost was $8.5 billion, we flew in 1981 and we're not quite at 65,000 pounds." But now, he said, the shuttles have really come into their own. They have shown that they are critically important in supporting America's national security system and are proving to be a commercial success as well he said. Building the space station will be a slow process. NASA is requesting $50 million from the administration this fall to begin work on the project, but anticipate it will take seven years to complete the station costing $7 to $9 billion, he said. "The space station is not something that we will do tomorrow or next week," Mark said at an earlier press conference, "but it I X CfiOUZO 'mauuof r i x 'he up for that?.' ' . j fOB6ET THE NATIONAL ( - ' , t DEFICIT. . . ITS BUR6ER r --- "' V ' x I ft" J i Forget Reaganomics... it's w Ui n r, ir it (i a Den 60 onr -JSC :ri "t f . Y 5. -.-' 1 O TIT a fU I tegSF TJMIMS5 Pi ) n-r 3ZI 5.9th sr.Ln0Lijliimr6-C55i should be done, it will be done." V The proposed moon space station, he said, would be a 'garage' for space ships as well as a permanent baso for satellite re pair, maintanence crews and scientific ex periments. . Mark said that Wernher Von Braun made an analogy in 1977 between the exploration of Antarctica and the moon. Both were discovered in a race for inter national prestige, Von Braun said, and both are extremely remote, requiring new tech nologies for exploration. In the case of Antarctica, the airplane was the "enabling technology" which opened the continent. Richard Byrd flew the first plane to Antartica in 1929, about 20 years after the first man stood at the south pole, he said. The space station is the enabling tech nology for the moon, Mark said, and will probably be in orbit in 1990, 22 years after the first man stood on the moon. The analogy can probably be taken fur thur, Mark said. There are now more than 2,000 permanent residents in Antartica, from 20 nations.lt is not inconceivable, he said, using the same time frame, that by the year 2040, 10,000 people will be living on the moon. "There is no doubt that the space pro- Shuttlebugs can hitch ride The National Space and Aeronautics Administration did not fully realize the impact the shuttle program is having on the general public until this summer, ac cording to Dr. Hans Mark, NASA deputy administrator. Mark, who was at University of Nebraska-Lincoln for the Frank E. Soren son lectures on Tuesday, said NASA took a 747 with the Enterprise on its back to Europe and were greeted by hundreds and thousands of enthusiastic fans in France, England and Germany. - "Over 800,000 people came to see 'the bird' at the air show in Paris," said Mark,"it was a record crowd." Mark said that he was standing in the cockpit when they flew 'the bird' up the Thames in London and what seemed like a million people lined the rivers' banks to watch the shuttle fly by. "I asked myself, 'Why aren't we doing this in America?' " he said. The NASA official said that up to now the shuttle is flown from Edwards Air Force Base in California to Florida with little publicity, hut'now all that is going to change. "I don't see why we can't stop in vari ous American cities and let people see the shuttle like they did in Europe. We have to stop and refuel anyway," he said. When reminded that Lincoln's airport can accommodate a 747, Mark said, "I know, we'll get here." Mark also said that NASA was taking names of people who are interested in flying on the shuttle. They already have 30,000 names on file, but anybody inter ested should write to NASA, he said. "We're looking for people that can look at the experience of space flight from a different perspective...like poets, journalists, writers..." Mark said that Jacques Costeau had expressed an interest, and he'll be 70 pretty soon, so age is not necessarily a factor. Interested shuttlebugs can write to NASA, Washington, D.C.,20546. gram is opening new frontiers in science," Mark said, "and within two years we will be sending up the space telescope, probably the single most important satellite." Mark said that the telescope can improve astrono mers' ability to see the universe by 20 times, a capability that has not been equalled since Galileo invented the telescope in 1610. "What came out of Galileo's invention was that within a few days of observation, he was able to settle the dominant scientific and philosophical questions of his time -what was at the center of the solar system, the earth or the sun?" Mark said that the final resolution of this argument led to a major cultural revolution and he speculated that the space telescope could have similar results. "It will give us a fighting chance to see if other stars have planetary systems around them," he said. "Is life as we know it unique or has it occurred everywhere else? Are we alone or not?" The space telescope might help answer these questions, he said, and "either way the answer comes out, it'll boggle the mind." Three country western groups perform Sunday "Country in the Pines," an afternoon of country western music, featuring Free Ride, Last Call and Blue River, will be held Sun day from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Pinewood Bowl in Pioneers Park. This event is sponsored by the Pinewood Bowl Committee and there is no charge. A free will offering will be taken. All three groups are local musicians and have performed in the Lincoln area. Free Ride is the house band at Tucker Inn in Lincoln. SUMMER NEBRASKAN The Summer Nebraskan is a student newspaper published each Thursday as a laboratory project by School of Journal ism classes in Advertising, Editing, Photography and Reporting. REPORTERS Bill Conradt Meiling Liu Joan Morrison Larry Sparks Robin Stanosheck David Trouba JoAnne Young PHOTOGRAPHERS Mark Bastin Chris Dooley Gene Gentrup Nancy Johnson Mica Kubicek Amy Kunce David Lavender Sheryl Neyens Mark Nisley F.C. Palm Larry Toof Chris Welsch Dave Wesely COPY EDITORS Melissa Dunlevy Russ Powell Fred Spearman Jim Wegman ACCOUNT REPS Susan Hill Jerry Scott Instructors are Jack Botts, Julie Dean, Al Pagel and Don Glover. School of Jour nalism Dean is R. Neale Copple. Ride the Lincoln Phone 473-0973 LEAVE HILTON (DOWNTOWN) 4:30a m 7.05 a.m. 9:45 a m 1:50pm 3 45 p.m. 6:30 p m. 8 40 p.m. BASIC ONE-WAY RATE IN EITHER DIRECTION $ 1 2 OO ROUND-TRIP (Must be purchased as such) son nn CHILDREN UNDER AGE 1 2- onyb (when traveling with an adult): round-trip $10.00 Live In Omaha? UNCOLN-EPPLEY XPRESS 24 Hours a Day Omaha Phone 449-8693 LEAVE EPPLEY . DEPART ARRIVE ARRIVE COCO'S ARRIVAL EPPLEY COCO'S HILTON 4 45 5 50 5 55 ' 7 00 715 8 30 10 15 11:30 1 1 45 1000 1M5 12 25 1:35 1 45 2 05 315 4:45 6 00 6 20 405 5:15 645 8 00 8:15 745 845 1000 10:15 9 50 1000 11:15 1130 RESERVATIONS REQUIRED Call 473-0973 or 49-8693 ,4 hours in advance. CASH ONLY ACCEPTED