Basic HTML Version
ACOIIVERSATIOI WITH DR. JAMES FLETCHER
ADMINISTRATOR OF NASA
Q
UESTION -
PLAIN TRUTH:
What is the major contrib. ution
tha t the Apollo program has
made to tbe world?
ANSWER -
FLETCHER:
You have
to divide the contribution into two
parts: One is the technology and the
other is the spiritual.
On the technology, I tbink NASA
has developed and proven the kind
of technology tbat is necessary to
make use of space. We can really
inhabit space. We can take advan–
tage of the near space for uses on
earth, like communications, weather
and remole sensing satelli tes, plus
all of the spin-offs that go with that.
Wben people say we' re in the space–
age tecbnology, they mean that the
automobile industry, the consumer
(even razor blades use space-age
technology), and the cornputer in–
dustry are using the sarne tecb–
nology.
The spi ritual aspect is sornetimes
forgotten, and it 's funny how
quickly people forget. But when
man first landed on the moon, he
had confidence in himself, con–
fidence in man's ability. When he
landed there and stepped out on the
moon, he thought, "Mankind really
is going to amount to something."
1
don't know how to describe it any
more than that.
1 remember a young fellow, a
Congressman's son - he must have
been about eight or nine - who
watched Apollo 15. His dad asked
him, "What did you think of that,
Johnny?" You would expect a kid to
say, "Oh, wow, Dad! " or something
like that, but he said, "You know
Dad, it makes me proud to be an
American." I think even in Europe
people are saying, " It made me
24
proud to be part of mankind," be–
cause this is an achievement.
Q.
Are the Skylab missions going to
bave a mucb more practica! contri–
bution to science and technology
than tbe Apollo program?
FLETCHER:
Very much so. During
this decade, our whole focus is
toward helping the people here on
eartb more directly in all of our pro–
grams. Skylab is one, the ERTS
(Earth Resources Technology Satel–
ütes) is another, and we've got new
weather satellites. We hope that by
the end of the decade, we can ac–
tually forecast weather two weeks
ahead of time.
Also, we' re involved in many of
the scientific programs that are
aimed at the near planets, particu–
larly Mars and Venus. By studying
their atmospheres, we can get a
pretty good idea how the earth be–
haves; not just the weather, but the
whole earthquake picture and, gen–
erally, how to take care of the planet
Earth.
We have many smaller programs
that aren't so well known. We've got
the satellite program called EOS
(Earth Observ ation Satellite)
planned for two years frorn now. A
very heavy satellite from which we
can take pictures with lasers will
help us to observe the movernent of
the earth's crust. We'll be able to
measure movernents as small as two
to five centimeters - that is less than
two inches movement - so we' ll
measure creep and know when to
expect earthquakes as a result of
knowing that creep, because earth–
quakes occur after the strain is so
much that the earth has to give way.
That won' t happen right away,
but hopefully, we'U have a better
NASA
idea with that kind of data and
learn just when to expect major
earthquakes. That's kind of a fun
project, and it's not very expensive.
Q .
Will space sateUites help in the
search for new energy sources of oiJ
or coal?
FLETCHER:
In
a peripheral way. We
won' t bave the prime responsibility
for energy research and devel–
opment. But the tecbnology will
belp in severa! ways. One
is
a long
term proposition - that
is
the prob–
lem of getting energy out of the sun.
NASA probably knows more about
solar energy than anybody else be–
cause we've had to use solar energy
in our satellites. We'll be involved in
developing stations, say, out in the
desert, to pick up the solar energy.
One proposal has to do with a huge
satellite whicb picks up solar energy
and transmits it by microwaves
down to eartb. That's one area that
we're looking into. Tbat probably
won't bear fruit until the 1990's.
Another place that we're very
much involved
in
is the location of
new sources of energy. Right now,
they're asking us to look very bard
at geothermal energy sources. We
tbink we can belp on this, and so
we're going to take a long look from
the earth's satellites for these
sources. Of course, we already bave
found very large domes where old
deposits are. Tbese are special kinds
of formations which lend themselves
PLAIN TRUTH
January
1974
.