354 HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



Dr. Low. Well, sir, I am also very much interested in this program, and I think 

 all of us are. We felt that at the $4 million level in this budget year we could place 

 into technology utilization those most important things in this area that should be 

 in this area. 



In 1970, the committee succeeded in increasing the authorization 

 by $500,000, an increase which survived all the hurdles in the legisla- 

 tive process. The committee report in 1970 stated: 



To carry on the modest, but important work in disseminating the results of the 

 space program to the taxpayer, a small increase of $500,000 is recommended. Specifi- 

 cally, it would be used for an additional Applications Technology Team to work 

 specifically on the problems of transferring NASA technology for the solution of urban 

 development and environmental quality problems. 



The technology utilization program seemed well designed to 

 produce the kinds of results desired by the Congress. Four times a 

 year, NASA published "Tech Briefs," based on inventions or innova- 

 tions developed by contractors in the course of work for NASA. Also, 

 a summary of all inventions patented by NASA was published. In 

 addition, NASA published "Computer Program Abstracts" which 

 noted government-developed computer programs which could be 

 adapted for use by industry. All sorts of new information was made 

 available on decontamination, new lubricants, new developments in 

 welding and soldering, and many other industrial improvements. 

 Scientists, engineers, and computer retrieval specialists helped staff 

 NASA industrial applications centers to help industrial clients. 

 Another adjunct to the program was the State technology applications 

 center to help transfer some of this vast technology to State and local 

 governments and private industry. 



Once again, in 1971, NASA came back with a recommended 

 reduction down to $4 million in this area. This time, the committee 

 decided to increase the technology utilization program to $6 million — 

 an increase of $2 million over NASA's budget. The conference com- 

 mittee went along with a more modest increase to $5 million. Among 

 the new NASA-inspired inventions and innovations listed during the 

 1971 authorization debate by Representative R. Lawrence Coughlin 

 (Republican of Pennsylvania) were these: 



Chances are, gentlemen, that the packaged steak your wife bought at the market 

 this week is wrapped in the same type of transparent polyester film — one two-thou- 

 sandth of an inch thick — used for America's giant balloon satellites. 



Doctors can watch a movie of the beating of a patient's diseased heart — identi- 

 fying dead spots or scar tissue in the heart wall, and other malfunctions — with a 

 computer method devised by a NASA team at Stanford University. 



The search for new oil and gas deposits is being effectively aided by technology 

 directly resulting from the space program. 



