Jan 7 1969
From The Space Library
U.S. patent No. 3,420,471 was granted to John D. Bird, Howell D. Garner, Ernest D. Lounsberry, and David E. Thomas, Jr." LaRC engineers who assigned rights to NASA for jet shoes to enable astronauts to move in space. Wearer could rotate body by natural ankle and leg motions and control direction by turning body and aiming head in swimming motion. Previous devices for similar purpose required use of one or both hands or operation of complex arrangement of control jets and gyroscope sensors. Toe pressure in new shoes would release nitrogen through thruster in sole of each shoe. With electrical control, pressure would be applied to switch. Alternate method would be fluidic control, with toes pressing syringe. (Pat Off PIO; NYT, 1/11/69, 39)
Once Vietnam war was over, Michael Harrington said in Washington Evening Star, there would be "money enough for both slums and space if the nation has the political will to appropriate it." Space exploration could provide "economic alternative to war." It was "simply not true that the United States must choose between the heavens and earth. By the mid-Seventies, this country will have achieved a $1 trillion gross national product and because of this . . . there will be almost $30 billion in 'extra' federal funds by 1972. That projection does not require any increase in taxes and it assumes that there will be a fairly high level of military spending." (W Star, 1/7/69, A7)
Christian Science Monitor editorial asked, "Would it not be possible, as America's eventual space aim, to see the moon treated much as Antarctica today is treated?" That is "as a 'continent' where nationality does not play a significant role. There could be a research station on the moon, manned the year around-not merely by Americans but by invitation to the scientists and technicians of other interested nations." (CSM, 1/7/69)
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