This clearly will increase the cost of the HELIOS Project to the German Government.

Were they consulted prior to the decision to slip the launch schedule?

Did they agree to the slippage and to picking up their share of the increased cost?

Answer. Last summer stringent FY 1973 budgetary limitations required us to defer until FY 1974 expenditures on a number of our programs, including procurement of Titan boosters for HELIOS-B. In September we so informed the Germans, advising them that while it appeared likely that this would delay for some months the launching of HELIOS-B, we were trying to minimize such a delay. In December we told them we had good confidence for a launching in the third quarter of 1976, which would hold the delay to as little as six months. We welcomed German suggestions as to how, within the project framework, the effect of this slippage could be minimized and asked for an estimate of the incremental costs of HELIOS-B slip would entail. The German Government is exploring the financial and other impact of the launch postponement. In the meantime, the Joint Project Working Group is proceeding in the expectation that the launching may take place in the third quarter of 1976.

LUNAR SAMPLE ANALYSIS

THE CHAIRMAN. Dr. Naugle. In the R. & D. volume of the Budget Estimates on page RD 1-24 it says under Research and Test Operations of the Development, Test and Mission operations, “F.Y. 1974 funding will also provide for support contractor effort at the Manned Spacecraft Center to assist in continuing analysis · of lunar samples and data. . .” On RD 6–16, it says, “SR & T funding in fiscal year 1974 will be directed to providing the necessary science base for more effective analysis and synthesis of the data acquired from the lunar experiments," and it goes on to describe how and where this work will be done.

On page RD 6-20 under Data Analysis, it says, "Data analysis through mid fiscal year 1974 by Apollo principal investigators is funded under the Apollo program; continuation for the remainder of fiscal year 1974 of their analysis and reporting is a part of this budget item in fiscal year 1974.” Then, on page RD 6-22 you are requesting $4.6 million for Lunar Sample Analysis and an additional $4 million for Lunar Science Operations.

Would you please put this all in proper perspective for the committee?

Answer. The R&D budget estimates on page RD 1-24 cover the funding furnished by OMSF for base operations support for the lunar program at Johnson Space Center. It is primarily for contractor support devoted to the scientific analysis of lunar samples and data, and the curating and distributing to the scientific community of the stored lunar samples. The SR&T funding requested on page RD 6-16 is for supporting individual scientists in NASA centers, other government centers, universities, and industry to carry out research in the following science areas: a) earth-based observations, b) analog studies, c) theoretical studies, d) laboratory simulations, e) science experiment concepts and f) extraterrestrial materials (primarily based upon meteorites) studies.

The Apollo program has the responsibility of funding Principal Investigators on flight experiments, (ALSEP, Apollo Subsatellite etc.) for one year after the flight of Apollo 17. This funding enables the P.I. to reduce and analyze the data and publish a report on his results. For most of the P.I.'s these FY 1973 Apollo funds will carry his work through mid-FY 1974. In many cases it will be important for these P.I.'s to do further detailed analysis of their results and/or attempt to synthesize these results into a broader picture of the moon's origin and history. These continuing efforts and the efforts of scientists who were not Principal Investigators will be supported under the Lunar Data Analysis line on page RD 6-19.

The 4.6 million requested on page RD 6-22 is for lunar scientists working with the returned lunar material. This program involves over 130 domestic P.I.'s and over 700 co-investigators. Apollo program funding in FY 1973 amounted to 7.3 million, which will support many P.I.'s well into FY 1974. Further funding of continuing efforts plus support of new proposals received in FY 1974 will be from the 4.6 million requested by OSS.

The 4 million requested on page RD 6-22 for Lunar Science Operations is for the continued operation of the ALSEPS emplaced on the lunar surface and the Apollo subsatellite in orbit about the moon. It also covers the collection and reduction of the data received from these instruments and the distribution of this data to the P.I.'s.

Also included in this item is the continuing program involving lunar laser ranging utilizing the three laser retro-reflectors placed on the lunar surface by the

Apollo astronauts. The McDonald Observatory of the University of Texas is continuing its laser ranging experiments, and work is underway to establish a new ranging station on Mt. Haleakala in Hawaii.

THE CHAIRMAN. Dr. Naugle, how can there be any funding for the Apollo principal investigators through mid-fiscal year 1974 under the Apollo program since there are no funds requested for this program? Are these prior year funds! How much is being requested in the fiscal year 1974 budget for this type of activity?

Answer. The entire lunar budget for FY 1974 is $19.2 mililon and consists of the following items.

The Apollo principal investigators' funding through mid-FY 1974, noted on page RD 6-20, consists of funds authorized as part of the FY 1973 program.

LAUNCH VEHICLE PROGRAM

THE CHAIRMAN. Dr. Naugle, in your statement, you discuss briefly the prob lems you had with the Delta and the Centaur launch vehicles and that you increased funding to correct these problems, and you say steps were taken to curtail effort in other parts of the OSS program, resulting in delays in the High Energy Astronomy Observatory (HEAO), Helois-B, and a number of Explorers. To solve these launch vehicle problems required substantial funding.

Were you required to solve that funding problem within your office or is that an agency problem?

Answer. The provision of additional funding in FY 1973 for the Delta and Centaur launch vehicles was one of a number of adjustments undertaken within the Agency in establishing the FY 1973 Interim Operating Plan. These adjustments, which were reported to the Congressional Committees in October 1972, also included provision of additional funding for aeronautical research, additional funding for the Apollo Soyuz Test Project, a reduction in funds required for Apollo and a shifting of funds from Tracking and Data Acquisition to Lunar and Planetary Exploration to reflect the transfer of certain functions. In addition to these changes, involving transfer of funds among Authorization Act line items. a number of program adjustments internal to the individual Authorization lines were required at this time. Among these actions were deferrals of the Helios B and HEAO A&B missions, which acted to reduce launch vehicle funding require ments in FY 1973.

The increased funding of these vehicles was again referred to in our letters to the Congress dated February 16, 1973, reporting, pursuant to Section 4 of the Authorization Act, our intent to fund this program and the Lunar and Planetary Exploration program at levels in excess of those authorized.

In specific answer, the increased funding required for the Delta and Centaur launch vehicles represented an Agency problem. The Office of Space Science shared in the solution to this problem, but was not required to solve the problem alone.

THE CHAIRMAN. Dr. Naugle. In the Launch Vehicle Procurement Program $27.1 million was cut below your request to OMB.

What was the $27.1 million for?

Answer. The $27.1 million reduction in the Launch Vehicle Procurement Program was composed of vehicle deferrals and deletions consistent with program adjustments elsewhere in the Agency budget.

VIKING LAUNCH VEHICLE

THE CHAIRMAN. Dr. Naugle. In the GAO Viking report I notice that they say the estimated cost of the Titan III-Centaur launch vehicles is about $86 million, including shroud development and mission peculiar costs.

Is this the Titan IIIE-Centaur?

Would you please provide for the record a breakdown of this $86 million and state how this cost would differ if instead of the Titan IIIE-Centaur we could launch the mission with the Space Shuttle assuming that the second stage would be the Centaur launch vehicle?

Please make any comment you would care to make on this matter?

Answer. The vehicle concerned is the Titan IIIE-Centaur. The breakdown of the costs for two launch vehicles are as follows.

Basic hardware-Titan and Centaur___

Shroud development

Mission peculiar hardware

Engineering support

Total estimated cost-----

Millions

$49. 1

17.6

6.8

12.7

86.2

We have not done any costing of the Viking mission with the Shuttle since the Shuttle will not be available in the Viking 1975 time frame. If we assume that the Shuttle Centaur could be available to complete this mission, the hardware costs for two Centaur second stages would be about the same as for Titan$17.3M. Estimated costs for two flights for the Shuttle would be $21.0M. Assuming the same mission peculiar hardware (less shroud, which is not needed in the Shuttle) and engineering support for the Shuttle Centaur as for the Titan IIIE Centaur, then the total estimated cost would be $56.0M.

THE CHAIRMAN. Dr. Naugle. Is there an experimental payload for the Titan III-E Centaur proof flight?

Answer. The Titan IIIE/Centaur Proof Flight was established to obtain engineering data with which to certify that the flight performance of the launch vehicle and its subsystems matches that which was predicted by ground based testing and analysis.

The objectives are to demonstrate the capability of performing all flight events required during the Viking launch as well as to produce a maximum of engineering test data.

The launch will include a dynamic model of the Viking spacecraft in order to assure realistic vehicle environmental simulation and control system dynamics are achieved.

We do plan to carry a piggy-back experiment package designed to evaluate the interaction of high voltage systems operating in a plasma in space. The package, called Sphinx, is a 200 lb. self contained package.

LUNAR AND PLANETARY BUDGET

THE CHAIRMAN. Dr. Naugle. Your fiscal year 1973 authorization for the Lunar and Planetary Exploration program was $321.2 million. This was increased to about $332 million, primarily, as we understand it, because of the transfer into this program of the Planetary Flight Support project from the Tracking and Data Acquisition program. However, your fiscal year 1974 budget request is $312 million, down $25.6 million from your request to OMB.

What was in the budget, that we don't see now, to account for that $25.6 million reduction?

Answer. The reduction of $25.6 million consisted primarily of a deferral of the Pioneer-Venus project from the FY 1974 estimates, and reductions in supporting research and technology and in lunar data analysis.

THE CHAIRMAN. Dr. Naugle, in your statement you say that Mariner 9 has changed our previous concept of the planet, Mars. In what way?

Answer. The data from previous Mars missions (Mariners 4, 6 and 7) caused many scientists to think of Mars as a cratered, dead, moon-like planet. Mariner 9 completely changed that concept by sending back pictures of large, recently active volcanos; a huge rift canyon thousands of miles long; and meandering channels which imply the existence of running water some time in the past history of Mars. Spectral data from Mariner 9 showed the surface of Mars to be about 60% silicon dioxide, indicating a geologically active planet whose lighter elements have risen to the surface as a result of differentiation. A global dust storm was seen as well as localized dust storms and cloud formations. The terrain in the polar regions is layered indicating possible glacial activity. All of these indications present Mars as an active planet and not the dead planet previously pictured.

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OAO RESULTS

THE CHAIRMAN. Dr. Naugle, as an example of the OAO-2 contributions to astronomy, you say "it gave us a star atlas in the ultra-violet."

What is the importance of having such a star atlas?

Answer. The ultraviolet star atlas provides the results of a survey of the sky in the ultraviolet. Each time astronomers have explored a new wavelength range they have found surprises in the form of bright sources of radiation which had been unexpected previously. On the basis of their observations of the sun, no celestrial source of either radio or X-ray emission should have been seen outside the solar system and the infrared should have been very uninteresting. Thus, astronomers no longer trust their extrapolations from the visible region of the spectrum without a general mapping of the sky in the new wavelength range. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) experiment on OAO-2 provided such a map for the ultraviolet between 1000 Å and 3000 Å. Perhaps the greatest surprise is that no surprises were found. The ultraviolet sky looked very nearly the way we had expected it to look, although reflection nebulae near bright stars were brighter in the far ultraviolet than we had expected, making the Pleiades, for example, a striking object. The latter tells us that the dust near these stars is finer than we had thought. We also are making good use of the extensive OAO-2 data to study other properties of intersteller dust in various directions in space.

Maps in the ultraviolet will be very useful in planning programs for later satellites such as the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) and the Large Space Telescope (LST). If you wish to observe a star, it is necessary to have some way of ensuring that you are not observing a nearby object either instead or simultaneously. While, as mentioned above, OAO-2 proved that our extrapolations from the visible have been good, they would not have permitted us to detect a relatively faint, very blue star near a much brighter yellow star. In the far ultraviolet, the relative brightness might be reversed leading to very puzzling observations if no map is available to check for such eventualities.

The OAO-2 atlas is now being analyzed to determine the average properties of various types of stars. To be able to categorize celestial objects demands the extensive observations of many stars. To grasp the magnitude of this task, we point out that to completely understand only the steller content of our galaxy (which is only one of millions) would require information on two billion stars! Since such a task is impossible to contemplate, we need a large enough sample so we can confidently feel that it is representative of the whole population of stars in our galaxy. Steller catalogs are to an astronomer attempting to understand celestial phenomena what the opinion samples are to Dr. Harris who tries to fathom the persuasions of our citizens. In both cases, the sampling must be done in as homogeneous a manner as possible. The OAO-2 atlas will have two primary long term uses. The mass of data collected will allow for the determination of features that can catagorize steller objects on the basis of distinctive physical parameters (e.g., pressure, temperature, luminosity). Also, the atlas is a sample which is extensive enough, and on a solid homogeneous base, to permit the meaningful intensive study of interesting sub-groups (e.g., examination of hot, young stars and the variations amongst them as a function of position in the galaxy).

Thus, in various ways, such ventures are important tools that gain us better understandings of our physical world.

THE CHAIRMAN. Dr. Naugle, you stated that the OAO-2 was able to observe the explosion of a star in a nearby galaxy and that this produced the brightest super nova seen in 35 years. What is the significance of being able to observe such an event and what did we learn from it?

Answer. After a very massive star has expended its accessible nuclear fuel, it contracts very rapidly. The center then becomes so hot and dense that it can burn heavier elements that had been stable until then. This new burning takes place explosively and the star loses about half of its mass in a brilliant display called a "supernova." Because only very massive stars behave this way and, of course, only once at the end of their lifetime such an event is extremely rare. It is generally believed that a supernova occurs about once every thirty to one

hundred years among the two hundred billion stars in our galaxy. None has been observed in the Milky Way in four hundred years.

Although we believe that we understand the physics which governs the explosion, and we are now sure that we can recognize the remnants after they have expanded for centuries, we have almost no knowledge of the behavior of the expanding cloud immediately after it is produced and why it develops into such impressive sources as the Crab Nebula and the Cygnus loop. Thus, astronomers have been eager to get all the information they can on any supernova which occurs in other galaxies. The recently observed (relatively nearby) one presented an excellent opportunity. The observations of this event covered the optical, infrared and radio regions as well as the ultraviolet. These observations have not yet been completely analyzed theoretically. When they are, the ultraviolet observations will form one important piece of an intriguing puzzle; they are of less significance by themselves. Nevertheless, the fact that novae and supernovae appear to behave so differently in the ultraviolet permits us to draw some conclusions. The nova observed in the previous year clearly showed, in its ultraviolet spectrum and brightness curves, the development of an expanding shell which was transparent in the optical region; the supernova showed no evidence of such a shell in the ultraviolet. We know that the material must have been there. Hence, it is presumably much hotter than the shell around a nova.

THE CHAIRMAN. Dr. Naugle, in your statement you discuss very briefly the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory named Copernicus, noting that it was launched in August 1972.

For the record, did it complete its mission successfully?

Answer. The third Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (OAO-3), named Copernicus, has achieved its primary scientific and technical objectives and the mission has been declared a success. The nearly 2000 observations already obtained of ultraviolet and X-ray sources have increased our knowledge of the interstellar medium and stellar sources as discussed in the following section. The operational performance of the spacecraft and the experiments give confidence that the satellite will continue to be a powerful astronomical facility for making significant observations and contributing to numerous astronomical problems for months, and perhaps years, to come.

COPERNICUS SCIENTIFIC RESULTS

"Facts on the embryos and the ghosts of stars" might be an apt summary of the results pouring forth from the ultraviolet and X-ray experiments on Copernicus, respectively. The life of a star begins in a dense cloud of gas and dust, and, for the massive ones, ends in one or more explosions (as novae or supernovae) which return this material to the interstellar medium to form new stars. There, most of it is concentrated into new clouds to start the process again. The ultraviolet experiment on Copernicus has shown that there is even less matter between the clouds than we had expected, with only about one atom in each fifty (50) cubic centimeters. Within the clouds, much, and possibly most, of the most abundant element, hydrogen, is in the molecular form, in contrast to the region between the clouds in which fewer than one hydrogen atom in a million is in a molecule. Amazingly, about one in every 200 of these hydrogen molecules appear to contain an atom of "heavy hydrogen" (deuterium) compared to the situation on the earth where only about one molecule of hydrogen gas in 3000 contains an atom of deuterium. Although radio astronomers have observed many molecules in a few exceedingly dense clouds, the Princeton astronomers found only carbon monoxide in addition to hydrogen in the more typical clouds they studied. This unexpected failure to observe other molecules probably means only that the laboratory and theoretical data on which predictions had been based are too sparse to be reliable.

The clouds also seem to be underabundant in gases of such common elements as aluminum, oxygen, and carbon. Apparently, these elements have condensed onto grains of dust which were also observed to dim the light of the stars studied by Copernicus. Since the dust in these clouds is even less transparent than that observed by OAO-2 at longer wavelengths, some of the grains must be very small, consisting of only a few thousand atoms. Between the clouds, such ele