6g4 HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIEM I AND TEC HN'OLOGY 



question, you still Jo not understand what our solar energy bill is. And I think you 

 think of it as some sort of a research and development program which it clearly is 

 not. It is a demonstration program. It is to put 4,000 solar units out in the field in 

 people's houses, in 4,000 buildings all over this country on Federal and private land 

 and houses, and factories and schools and Federal buildings and everything else, to 

 run for five years. * * * What this country needs is a demonstration program, not a 

 R & D. program. 



THE MEANING OF "PROOF OF CONCEPT" 



Ash responded that he did not feel NASA was geared toward 

 demonstration-type programs, and that it wasn't an open and shut 

 case. Zarb commented as they came to the close of the session that he 

 sensed a lack of a good working relationship with the committee, 

 particularly since there appeared to be differences of opinion over the 

 definition and full meaning of the phrase "proof of concept." Zarb 

 invited members of the staff to come over to the OMB office to continue 

 the discussion. Two days later, Swigert, Yeager, Hammill, Ratchford, 

 and Wells trooped over to the New Executive Office Building where 

 they went deeper into detail on some of the issues raised in Teague's 

 March 18 letter. One reaction obtained was that OMB agreed that 

 NASA should be the lead agency for a "program definition" study of 

 a solar satellite system and that OMB would not object if the commit- 

 tee wished to include any funding authorization for such a NASA 

 study. But they again stood firm against transferring funds from NSF 

 to NASA for solar research programs. "Let's not rock the boat be- 

 cause ERDA is going to be established soon" was the OMB conclusion. 



After a meeting which lasted three hours, a committee staff 

 member concluded a memorandum on the meeting by stating: 



The meeting concluded at 12:30 and hopefully marked a new era of cooperation 

 between OMB and committee staff. 



Unfortunately, his optimism ran away with him. 



At the initiative of the committee, the conference report and final 

 version of the NSF authorization bill passed in 1974 included a pro- 

 vision requiring NSF prior to undertaking any heating and cooling 

 or other solar energy programs to coordinate with NASA and report 

 the full details within 90 days to the Science Committee and the com- 

 parable Senate Committee. NSF was also directed to coordinate any 

 solar energy program with the academic community and private in- 

 dustry. The NASA authorization conference report in 1974 stipulated 

 that NASA "should apply added resources to its energy research and 

 development activities, including the solar satellite power station 

 study." 



