SPACE SCIENCE AND APPLICATIONS IN THE 1970"S 



365 



which assist in the management of the Earth's resources (such as pre- 

 dictions of the world's wheat crop through "LACIE" — the Large 

 Area Crop Inventory Experiment), aeronautical research to aid in 

 producing safer and quieter airplanes, water quality monitoring 

 through remote-sensing scanners, aerial surveys which pinpoint build- 

 ings losing heat and assist in energy conservation, the use of solar 

 cells to convert sunlight into electrical energy, and satellite search 

 and rescue to aid aircraft and ships in distress. Indirect or "spin- 

 off" benefits include thousands of applications from aerospace now 

 being utilized in construction, public safety, health and medicine, 

 sports and recreation, transportation, food and agriculture, computers, 

 communications and community services. Among the items de- 

 scribed in "Spinoff 1978 and 1979" are the following: Domed fabric 

 roofs, originally developed from fiber glass fabric used for astonauts' 

 space suits, now widely used to reduce construction costs — one example 

 being the 80,000-seat "Silverdome", the home of football's Detroit 

 Lions; "intruder detectors" for home and industrial plants, which 

 were developed from highly sensitive seismic measuring devices used 

 on the Moon; satellite heart monitoring, for use by emergency medical 

 service vehicles to relay information while en route to a hospital 

 emergency room; automatic blood pressure measurement, as used by 

 astronauts for simple and accurate readings; "image enhancement" to 

 improve readibility of old documents and photographs through the 

 application of the process NASA used to improve pictures sent to 

 Earth from distant space; expansion of the data bank which helps pro- 

 mote technology transfer through access to 10 million documents con- 

 taining technical data of possible application to new developments; and 

 adaptation of thin insulating film on satellites for use on home and 

 office windows to reflect the Sun's heat outward in summer and retain 

 interior heat in winter. 



On July 19-20, 1979, the committee joined with the House Select 

 Committee on Aging in joint hearings on the applications of space 

 technology for the elderly and handicapped. In his statement launching 

 the hearings, Chairman Fuqua stated: 



Today, damaged hearts are run by pacemakers, and ailments diagnosed by a 

 computer. Tomorrow, the dispensing of medications and the elimination of chronic 

 pain will be accomplished by implantable devices. 



The joint hearings represented another in a long series of efforts 

 by the committee to encourage both NASA, other agencies and private 

 industry to place a high priority on the practical applications which 

 benefit human beings on spaceship Earth. 





