zation outside of NASA which would represent the 

 users of the instrument. Similarly, the x-ray as- 

 tronomers have requested an institute to deal with 

 NASA on the tradeoffs which would affect the sci- 

 entific capabilities of future x-ray observatories 

 which may be flown in the Space Shuttle. -^^f" 



NASA's basic research in the life sciences has 

 been largely concerned with exobiology and the 

 effects of weightlessness on all living organisms. In 

 fact, the concepts of life detection systems were 

 first developed in the exobiology program. This 

 work reached its consummation in the recent Vi- 

 king experiment to determine whether life exists 

 on Mars. An even more important task was the 

 development of planetary quarantine procedures to 

 safeguard other planets from us and, moreover, to 

 protect us from the possibility of dangerous mi- 

 croorganisms being introduced into our environ- 

 ment by visitors or equipment returning from the 

 moon or from other planets. Another program 

 developed satellites to receive telemetry from 

 tagged wild animal subjects and to sense the envi- 

 ronment. There were also laboratory and geologi- 

 cal studies on the origin of life, work which 

 included Joshua Lederberg's research on the se- 

 quence of amino acids and Cyril Ponnamperuma's 

 on their natural synthesis. Some work related to 

 man's ability to survive in space involved basic 

 studies in mammalian physiology and response to 

 stress. The MSC, now the Lyndon B. Johnson 

 Space Center (JSC), became an important location 

 for some of this work. All these programs used 

 both contracts with universities and in-house ef- 

 forts.287 



Once the Apollo program had achieved its ini- 

 tial goal, the willingness to pay the cost of con- 

 tinuing a high level of effort began to fade. Conse- 

 quently the NASA budget began to contract. 

 Skylab followed Apollo, and the next stage of 

 manned space flight activities will be the Space 

 Shuttle. In the meantime, a series of unmanned 

 vehicles has been providing a great deal of basic 

 information about the solar system and beyond. 

 Uhuru and HEAO-A are still yielding x-ray data; 

 orbiting solar observatories like OSO-7 have pro- 

 vided new information on the sun; and interplane- 

 tary probes and landers in the Pioneer, Mariner, 



^'^^'"Institutional Arrangements for the Space Telescope" 

 (NAS: Washington. DC.. 197fi); draft of a proposal for an In- 

 stitute for X-ray Astronomy. June 5. 197.'i, prepared by H. 

 Friedman and R. Giacconi; "An International Discussion of 

 Space Observatories," a joint publication of the National 

 Academy of Sciences and the European Science Foundation 

 (1976), pp. 10-11. 



-^Informal communication from Dr. Orr Reynolds. Direc- 

 tor. NASA Biosciences Program l%2-1970. to NSB staff. 

 August 1977. 



and Viking series have greatly changed and im- 

 proved our ideas about Mercury, Venus, Mars, 

 and Jupiter. NASA also has launched successful 

 research satellites for other agencies, e.g., EROS 

 for uses and the SolRad series, which observes 

 the sun for Navy. 



The reduction in NASA's R&D budget from 

 $5.0 billion in 1965 to $3.0 billion in 1974, fol- 

 lowed by a slight rise in 1977 to $3.5 billion, did 

 not affect the basic research component apprecia- 

 bly. Caution must be exercised in extracting and 

 interpreting published figures on NASA basic re- 

 search because some have since been revised 

 downward by a factor of over two. The actual 

 trend however has been essentially flat for the last 

 10 years. 288 



In summary, NACA was an advisory agency 

 for the first 10 years. It then became a research 

 agency, doing very little design and development 

 and virtually no operations. In contrast, NASA has 

 had development and operation responsibilities in 

 addition to its research function. NACA was di- 

 rected by a committee while NASA has been 

 administered hierarchically. 289 NACA was created 

 for scientific reasons, and it accomplished its job 

 relatively unaffected by politics. NASA, on the 

 other hand, was created for political reasons. This 

 fact and NASA's high visibility have meant that 

 political considerations sometimes required com- 

 promise with purely scientific judgments. 

 However, NASA has made a major contribution 

 through basic research performed both in-house 

 and under contract. In addition, NASA has be- 

 come a service organization providing satellites 

 and other space vehicles on which experimenters 

 supported by other agencies may conduct impor- 

 tant basic research. 



Department of Energy and Energy 

 Research and Development 

 Administration 



The timing of this report precludes any direct 

 consideration of the Department of Energy (DOE) 

 and the changes which its establishment are bring- 

 ing about. ERDA. which has been absorbed by 

 the newly formed DOE after less than 3 years of 

 existence, was established in 1974. It brought to- 

 gether most of the nonregulatory functions of 

 the AEC, the energy research activities of Interior, 

 chiefly the Office of Coal Research (OCR) of the 



^*'*Fec/era/ Funds, amended by communication from NSF 

 (SRS) to NSB staff, August 1977. (See footnote 28.^.) 



^'^''Communication from NASA to NSB staff, December 

 1977. 



COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS AND HISTORICAL TRENDS 357 



