Friday, 26 July 1991 Washington, DC

1. A DEBATE RAGES AT NSF OVER THE LENGTH OF RESEARCH PROPOSALS.
The draft version of an "Important Notice" that would set strict new limits on the length of research proposals is not viewed as a blessing by everyone. It should speed up proposal preparation and review and save a few trees, but some people worry that it's not fair to beginning investigators who feel they must demonstrate to reviewers who have never heard of them that they've mastered the subject. Of course, if they have no grant, they have the time.

2. GOES-LITE: YOU PAY TEN TIMES AS MUCH FOR THE SAME CAPABILITY.
Our sole geostationary weather satellite, GOES- 7, could fail at any time. Even if it does not fail, it will begin to drift from its position over the equator in about a year and its performance will start to degrade a few months later. A planned replacement, GOES-Next, is already 3 years behind schedule, $500M over budget and is no longer expected to be superior to GOES-7. GOES-Next is currently undergoing emergency surgery to repair flaws and can't be in operation before GOES-7 begins to degrade. According to a General Accounting Office report, released yesterday at a House Environment Subcommittee hearing, the US should consider buying Japanese. Japan has satellites in production that could replace GOES-7 for $160M-- including the launch. That is less than one-tenth the $1.7B price of GOES-Next, which is on a cost-plus NA$A contract. How can the Japanese sell them so cheaply? By having them built in the US by the GOES-7 contractor NA$A dropped.

3. QUAYLE ANNOUNCES THAT NA$A HAS BOUGHT ITS LAST SPACE SHUTTLE.
NA$A wanted money for a fifth orbiter; the four existing shuttles will be tied up by space station construction-- if the station ever gets beyond redesign. But following recommendations of the Augustine Report (WN 14 Dec 90), Vice President Quayle said, "It makes no sense to risk shuttle astronauts unless we absolutely have to." They should never have to; the shuttle is piloted by robots. But safety is not the only concern; according to recent NA$A testimony, each shuttle launch costs about $500M. At that price, if you could transmute lead into gold by taking it into orbit, it wouldn't pay. The shuttles will be replaced gradually by a new launch system that will include converted military rockets. Under the category of "They should have known better": The Quayle announcement was timed to coincide with the launch of Atlantis to make it seem upbeat. Bad choice. It shared space with news that the launch was scrubbed due to computer failure.

4. BUT WILL THE NEW LAUNCH SYSTEM CONTRIBUTE TO OZONE DEPLETION?
Concern centers on the fact that solid-fuel rockets, such as the shuttle boosters, eat ozone. NA$A says its computer simulations show that the effect is small compared to industrial pollutants. We assume this is not the same NA$A computer program that missed finding the antarctic ozone hole in satellite data because it was designed to "exclude data values outside of the expected range."



Bob Park can be reached via email at whatsnew@bobpark.org
THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
Opinions are the author's and are not necessarily shared by the University, but they should be.