-3 When the work force increases the work cubicles will increase to space habitats, and the habitats to colonies, just as the sod huts of the prairies increased to towns, and the towns to Memphis, Houston, and Los Angeles. Advancing the opportunities for using the space of the Solar System for the benefit of humankind should be a national goal. During these hearings you are being told by experts that the technology is feasible. You know this is true because Apollo, Skylab, and Viking have shown the way. You know, too, I hope, that the billions spent on the moon landings have been returned to the economy many times over. One hundred and one nations participate in the communications satellites, all making money on their investment. The advance in computers is one of the mainstays of our economy. The weather and earth sensing satellites are more than paying their way. In the past quarter century nothing the government has done has been such a success. This is something to build on! It is one of the very few things that has given the taxpayer back more than he has paid in. I have a specific request to make of this Committee. I want to see a receiving antenna, a rectenna, receiving energy from a satellite solar power station via microwave. -4 I would like to see it over the horizon off the south shore of Long Island. The rectenna should be of optimum size, perhaps three miles in diameter, delivering seven to ten thousand megawatts, enough to power the City of New York and part of Westchester County. Then we won't need contraversial power plants in the Hudson Valley polluting the air, fouling the river, and generating nuclear wastes for storage and disposal over thousands of years to come. I would like to put in a bid for a Satellite Solar Power Station for New York City now. I would like to. see one operating within my lifetime, paying back the taxpayer's investment and serving as a prototype for providing the rest of the nation and the world with power. Under the pressure of World War II our country developed the atom bomb from chain reaction to Hiroshima in three years, the Manhattan Project. President Carter, in his first speech on energy a year ago said the energy problem was so serious it should be attacked on a wartime footing. Satellite Solar Power Stations are a much simpler concept than atom bombs. We know far more about them than we did about isotope separation in 1942. Arthur D. Little and Boeing have told me seven to eight years at Apollo pressure would -5 do the job, and Apollo pressure was considerably less than "wartime footing." I would like to see a Satellite Solar Power Station for New York. The 5-6th Graders at the Garrison School would like to see it. Al Yanitelli who runs the liquor store in Cold Spring would like to see it. Connie Umberger who runs the bookstore, my wife's friends in the Garden Club, everyone with whom I have spoken in the environmentalist movement would like to see it. When I have shown slides on the Space Program to the Brewster Lions, the Carmel and Kent Historical Societies, the Watertown Presbyterian Church, and elsewhere, I have been kept, always, 45 minutes to an hour after each talk answering questions. Perhaps this interest is local, but long distance phone calls to friends across the country, and a recent trip to Texas and California indicate a widespread and growing interest in the future of space. The New Frontier offers fame, wealth, and challenge. Our need for energy, for new raw materials, for new products, can spark its opening. Then who knows what opportunities will come. Who could have guessed, 200 years ago, what opening the world west of the Appalachians would bring us? I want to see a Satellite Solar Power Station serving New York City as a forerunner of many others. I admire what the Soviets are doing, but I think we should be exploring the ways to a better life up there too. January 19, 1978 5124 Durham Rd. W Columbia, Md. 21044 Committee on Science and Technology U. S. House of Representatives 2321 Rayburn Office Bldg. Washington, D. C. 20546 Dear Mr. Chairman: I recently sent a letter to N. P. Ruzic, author of the IDEA concept. A copy of his reply (January 11, 1978) is enclosed. I am following his suggestions. You will find enclosed: 1) 2) 3) Copy of my letter to Ruzic, modified for publica- Copy of "Solar Thermal Power". Copy of U. S. Patent 4,033, 118 "Mass Flow Solar I offer all this material, including this letter, as testimony to the Committee on Science and Technology. Note that I first communicated this new absorber concept to NASA Headquarters (Code RR) on March 25, 1977. Dr. K. W. Billman of NASA-Ames Research Center responded to that letter September 13, 1977 and private communication on the concept is continuing. I further note that Mr. T. A. Coultas of the National Bureau of Standards Office of "Energy Related Inventions" is the coordinator of a "level two" investigation of the concept. Dr. Billman and/or Mr. Coultas can be consulted for independent evaluation of the new concept. Sincerely yours, W. R. Powel W. R. Powell, Ph.D) Neil Ruzic & Co. consultants to NASA developers of "Island for Science' January 11, 1977 Mr. W. R. Powell Applied Physics Laboratory Johns Hopkins Rd. Dear Mr. Powell: Thank you very much for your letter of Jan. 5. Certainly the idea of solar powersats constitutes the best future space program. Toward that end, I suggest you send a copy of your letter to me, modified for publication, prior to Jan. 24, to: Mr. James E. Wilson Committee on Science & Technology Washington, D. C. 20546 telephone: (202) 225-8101 Jim is the staff man for the Committee on Science & Technology, headed by Olin E. Teague, of Texas, which committee is meeting Jan. 24-26 to consider future space programs. An expanded version of my I.D.E.A. article will appear as part of the testimony. Jim Wilson to include your letter in the booklet of testimony. Ask I also suggest you modify the letter for publication in Industrial Research. Send it to editor Robert L. Jones, Industrial Research, Dun-Donnelley Publishing Corp., 222 S. Riverside Plaza, Chicago, Ill. 60606. (You had the address wrong in your letter.) Tell Jones you would like to have it appear in the Letter to the Editor column. Let's keep in touch. Sincerely, Meil Bic Neil P. Ruzic (219) 874-5139 • PO. 527, Beverly Shores, Ind. 46301 |