European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 29, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Challenger Accident. Nasa s Fletcher was not surprised at Proxmire s opposition to the station. He has consistently i opposed most major advances the United Stales has made in  Fletcher said. Pio Mirc was especially upset earlier this year when Nasa announced it had Relig Rcd the Cost of the station with the Price lag soaring irom $8 billion to$14 6 billion and the new figure was for a suddenly scaled Down phase one version minus two of the external struts to which scientific Experiment modules could be attached. The struts would be added in orbit at a later Dale under phase two. Then in july a National research Council panel reviewing station costs and technical issues for the White House said the total Cost to develop and deploy the first phase would be $25.05 billion in 1988 dollars with phase two increasing the Cost to $32.8 billion. The arc team said Nasa s estimate did not include launch costs civil service salaries facilities construction and modifications to the space shuttle which will be used Over 20 flights to haul up sections of the station for Assembly in orbit. Proxmire said Nasa left those expenses out of its estimate for a Good reason. If they had been a part of initial station Cost estimates there is a Good Chance Congress would not have allowed Nasa to Start the  Stofan responded that no other Nasa programs include such costs As launch vehicles and administrative support. Nasa has not budgeted in that manner nor will  he said. Yes the arc numbers Are accurate but to charge them to the space station is a different Way of bookkeeping than Nasa has  under the Agency s system he said the launch costs for hauling up components of the station on the shuttle Are charged to the space shuttle office. Some of the station s most vocal critics Are scientists a group which often voices concern about the Cost of manned space endeavours As compared to unmanned and earthbound scientific projects. Riccardo a Iacconi director of the space Telescope science Institute in Baltimore told a Senate subcommittee that All the spectacular science discoveries resulting from the space program in the 1960s and 1970s were based on the use of unmanned spacecraft launched by throwaway rockets and he said there should be More such robots. Giacconi said future goals of manned exploration should be established and the shuttle and station should be designed As stepping stones to those goals. But let us not Muddy the Waters by claiming that the space station and space science Are necessary to each other he said. Says Pike on the station they Are going to do some materials processing they Are going to be doing human space physiology animal space physiology. Basically life sciences and materials processing. If it s a $30 billion station that s $15 billion for each. Do we really want to spend that much Money on life sciences and materials processing scientists say the station is not suited for infrared astronomy and other science experiments looking outward into the solar system because the instruments would become contaminated by the station and its equipment. James a. Van Allen of the University of Iowa whose instruments aboard America s first satellite discovered the Van Allen radiation belts surrounding the choosing a word processor by Peter h. Lewis new York times for writers who write More than a Page a Day a word processor is the mos wonderful invention since the typewriter. Word processing is one of the least demanding tasks a computer is called on to handle. Unlike spreadsheets which require zillions of mathematical calculations or big data bases which require lots of disk Access word processors spend most of their time wailing for the writer to do something so while spreadsheets or data bases might get significantly better performance from one of the newest Whiz bang heat seeking 386 Mach 50 super personal computers with flex of malic transmission the average writer can do quite nicely with something a Little More sedate and a lot less expensive. Those relatively inexpensive one piece writing machines that Are advertised As sort of a Cross Between a typewriter and a computer Are just Dandy for people who write Only Short letters and memos. They Are easy to learn and simple to operate. Similarly some of the new typewriters have microprocessors that allow simple editing and spelling correction. But the machines of that Type that i have used Are simply too slow and the printed output is of inferior Quality. A dear Friend has just completed a Book manuscript on one such machine which shows that it can be done. I intend to congratulate her when she is released from the sanitarium. The next step up is a personal computer loaded with word processing software and connected to a Dot matrix Printer. For people just getting started i recommend buying one of the ubiquitous Industry Standard it or at clones with a monochrome Monitor and the write stuff pc loaded with word processing software. As much memory As one can afford. The computers Are pretty much All the same except for the new ism machines which Are not compatible with the Industry Standar Dand oddly enough the deciding Factor at least for me is often the feel of the keyboard and the look of the Monitor it s subjective. If you Don t like the keyboard you won t want to Type. And if the characters on the screen Are fuzzy or otherwise distracting you won t want to spend much Lime looking into it. The last thing a writer needs is an excuse to avoid writing As for Power there Are two types of computer a serious writer should consider Well three if one counts the Apple macintosh but the Mac is in a category by itself. Of the pc Type computers the least expensive Are based on the 8088 or 8086 Chip if you write As a Hobby this is the Chip for you. On the other hand if you write As a Hobby and have lots of Money or if you write professionally consider spending a Little More for a pc based on the 80286 Chip. If you choose an 8086-based pc with add on capability . Expansion Slot the computer can be upgraded later at additional Cost to run an 80286 Chip. Many writers feel they can get along quite nicely with the smaller Chip but they still feel More confident that they can upgrade their trusty old machine if their needs change or if some wonderful new piece of word processing software is developed that runs Only on the 286. The 80286 has All the Power you la Ever need i la regret that statement in a year i m sure. Thus the Nice thing about 286-based machines for people who have the Money is the Freedom from worrying about upgrading later. You buy it you forget about hardware if you bought a four slice toaster instead of a two slice toaster you ii understand. Again Many writers May not need the 80286 performance but it sure is Nice once you use an 80286. You ii be spoiled. A writer is far More Likely to outgrow the computer s memory than the computer s processor. The Basic Rule is to buy As much memory As you can afford. There Are two types of memory to be concerned about ram. For random Access memory and storage memory ram is pretty much Standard these Days at 512k or 640k, although some machines offer a megabyte 1.024k or More. Just a couple of years ago i could t imagine Ever needing More than 256k, and now i crave several megabytes memory is cheap so go for it. More important for writers is the storage. A hard disk was once considered a luxury but the Cost has fallen so much that it is now highly recommended. Hard disks also called fixed disks or Winchester drives or other variations thereof can hold the equivalent of dozens of floppy disks and can get to that information much faster. Twenty megs seems More than adequate but hard disks Are like garages and they fill up fast buy More if you can afford it. You can put a novel on a hard disk with plenty of room to spare. If All you do is write get a monochrome one color Monitor. Color monitors Cost More but in general they Don t display text with the same clarity As monochrome monitors. Some of the newer More expensive color monitors Are very Good though. Again try them out to see How they look. Earth recalled for the Senate panel Nasa s optimistic promises during the 1970s of shuttle payload costs As Low As $100 a Pound shuttle orbiter lifetimes of 100 missions and a launch rate of 50 missions a year. Although none of these projections came True the unmanned elements of our space program have delivered on their promises and have gone far beyond  he said. Van Allen said microgravity materials processing research that could produce pure pharmaceuticals and exotic new metals has significant research interest but. As of the present Date its demonstrated commercial potential is wildly incommensurate with the Cost of a space station that has materials processing As one of its principal declared  responding to the scientists complaints Stofan said they typically have a very narrow focus on their own discipline and tend to ignore the larger picture of what is in the Best interests of the United states in space. He said More than 30 companies have signed on to conduct commensal microgravity research aboard the station. The life sciences area also has been Well defined he said with a Well thought out program to learn about Man s adaptation to working and living in weightless space. The station is designed to evolve in time into a larger and More capable system As new technology develops during its lifetime of 20 to 30 years sometime in the future Mankind will again leave Earth and explore once More the lunar surface and land on mais Stofan said ii appears Likely that time will come within the next 40 years and much technology development needs to occur before then and the station will serve when the Mission begins As a Point of departure for the journey. Thus the space station is both a Laboratory for preparatory work essential to future manned space exploration and a platform for future Mission operations " sunday november 29,1987 the stars and stripes Page 17