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1972: NASA hell of a year (1)
1972 - NASA at crossroads
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"Large Space Telescope systems, such as power supplies, data storage units, and transmitting equipment, as well as components from the telescope itself, must be extremely reliable over a long period of time (...)
In view of the cost and magnitude of the initial installation, the telescope must be capable of full operations for many years. To meet these requirements, manned servicing of the facility seems unavoidable.
The presence of man, at least at intervals, appears essential for three many functions: initial alignment, adjustment, and checking of the telescope and of the scientific and support equipment; maintenance of the equipment, including periodic inspection and repair, and modification of the system, particularly replacing replacing and updating the instrumentation as the scientific program demand.
If man is considered essential to the long term operation of the LST, the telescope should be designed so that all its components can be maintained, replaced or repaired in orbit. Further, since precision work is extremely difficult in a space suit (...) a manned space station nearby, with full life support equipment, would probably be required also. "
(Excerpt from: Scientific uses of the large space telescope National Research Council - Space Science Board Ad-Hoc Committee on the Large Space Telescope - 1969)
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“What kind of program can we run?” Joe Muldoon asked Phil Stone. He riffled a pile of photostats, journals, and books on his desks.
“If I could eat proposals, I’d be a fat man; the one thing we’re not short of is ideas.
Should we go back to the Moon and start mining it for minerals?
Or maybe we should capture an asteroid, toss it in Earth orbit and mine it for rare metals.
Maybe we can build colonies at the libration points of the Earth-Moon system.
Maybe we should have factories in space, making crystals, or drugs, or perfect, seamless metal spheres.
Maybe we could build huge hydroponic farms in space, where the sun always shines.
Or maybe we ought to put up square miles of solar arrays, for clean power.
Maybe we could mine the Earth’s upper atmosphere for lox…”
NASA wasn’t short of visionaries, and new ideas, and proposals of all sorts. But there was no unity.