Friday, 16 April 93 Washington, DC
1. SPACE BILLBOARDS! IS THIS ONE THE "SPINOFFS" WE WERE PROMISED?
In 1950, science fiction writer Robert Heinlein published "The
Man Who Sold the Moon," which involved a dispute over the sale of
rights to the Moon for use as billboard. NASA has taken the first
steps toward this hideous vision of the future. Observers were
startled this spring when a NASA launch vehicle arrived at the
pad with "SCHWARZENEGGER" painted in huge block letters on the
side of the booster rockets. Space Marketing Inc. had arranged
for the ad to promote Arnold's latest movie. Now, Space Marketing
is working with University of Colorado and Livermore engineers on
a plan to place a mile-long inflatable billboard in low-earth
orbit. NASA would provide contractual launch services. However,
since NASA bases its charge on seriously flawed cost estimates
(WN 26 Mar 93) the taxpayers would bear
most of the expense. This
may look like environmental vandalism, but Mike Lawson, CEO of
Space Marketing, told us yesterday that the real purpose of the
project is to help the environment! The platform will carry ozone
monitors he explained--advertising is just to help defray costs.
2. NOBEL LAUREATES TREK TO WASHINGTON TO DEFEND THE SUPERCOLLIDER
When the SSC has its back to the wall, Nobel laureate high-energy
physicists march on Washington. In a demonstration of support,
seven Nobel laureates marched in on Wednesday. Congress was out
of town, but they met with Vice-President Gore and congressional
staff. They also participated in a press conference arranged by
an SSC lobbying organization, at which reporters' questions
focused on Japanese non-participation. There seemed to be hope
that Clinton might raise the issue with Prime Minister Miyazawa,
who arrived in Washington yesterday, but according to White House
sources, neither the SSC nor the Space Station is on the agenda.
3. WILL TRAXLER'S PARTING GIFT OF PORK FATTEN UP THE OSTP BUDGET?
Before retiring from Congress, Bob Traxler (D-MI), chair of the
House VA/HUD/IA Appropriations Subcommittee, used his position to
bring home the bacon one more time (WN 14 Aug 92). He earmarked a
record $85M for something called the Consortium for International
Earth Science Information Network in Saginaw--that was on top of
the $28M he gave the same outfit a year earlier. Presumably,
CIESIN is intended to disseminate the information that would be
collected by EOS if CIESIN weren't taking the money that could
have been used to build EOS. Traxler scattered the CIESIN largess
among several agencies, including $2M to the Office of Science
and Technology Policy at the White House. Traxler no doubt enjoyed
the irony. Allan Bromley was an out-spoken opponent of
earmarking, but OSTP is compelled to use the funds for the Saginaw
sinkhole, whether it likes it or not. The Washington Post points
out this morning that Bromley's successor at traditionally
under-funded OSTP stands to benefit: the $2M sent the OSTP budget from
$4.2M to $6.2, but it's only one time. So this year, when the
White House slashed $1.1M from OSTP, it only went down to $5.1M.
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