Jul 17 1985
From The Space Library
NASA and the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) announced the first sales of a product manufactured in space-tiny polystyrene spheres to serve as NBS standard reference material. The spheres could improve microscopic measurements made throughout the economy in electronics, medicine, and other high-technology areas.
A chemical process developed for NASA by Lehigh University produced billions of the 10 micrometers (1/2500th of an inch) in diameter spheres during several Space Shuttle flights. Earthbound processes could not yield sufficiently uniform materials in usable quantities; when produced in a low-gravity environment, the spheres grew uniformly in size and shape.
NBS had packaged the spheres into approximately 600 Standard Reference Material (SRM) units priced at $384 per unit. Each unit was a 5-milliliter vial that contained about 30 million spheres in a 0.4% concentration by weight; the remainder was water. NASA and NBS shared sales proceeds equally. (NASA Release 85-106)
Policy A Congressional Office of Technology Assessment report on space cooperation, commissioned by Sens. Spark Matsunaga (D-Hi.) and Claiborne Pell (D-R.I.), said the U.S. and USSR could conduct valuable scientific exchanges, but the U.S. must handle any renewal of exchanges carefully in order to protect national security, the Washington Times reported. The report, the release of which coincided with the 10th anniversary of the joint Soyuz-Apollo docking mission in space, said the U.S. space program could particularly benefit from Soviet expertise in the life sciences and planetary sciences and that cooperation could lead to "substantive gains" in some areas of U.S. space research and applications.
In 1982 the U.S. cut off scientific contact between the two countries to protest the Soviet's invasion of Afghanistan, the declaration of martial law in Poland, and the exile of Russian human rights activist Andrei Sakharov. However, Congressional attitudes toward joint U.S.-USSR ventures had changed since then.
The report addressed scientific and practical benefits of cooperation, the potential for transferring sensitive military technology and know-how, the foreign policy aspects of space cooperation such as reducing tensions, and perceptions about Soviet motivations and behavior with respect to overall U.S.-Soviet relations.
Angelo Codevilla, an aide to Sen. Malcolm Wallop (R-Wyo.) and an expert on strategic space programs, said the key to cooperation with the Soviets is "to what extent do we give away the whole store" of the U.S. technology advantage. (W Times, July 17/85, 2A)
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