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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (May 16, 1973)
MTAUft 4 vfji [1 expenses Fayetteville, isas campus, :s are 422 n illas, the uti id 580 miles! ubbock, tliei :e school. Aii inference me: exas. mm b WE GIVE WE GIVE (VE IVE VE IVE Aggies Entered In SWC Track Championships; see Page 6 Vol. 67 No. 260 College Station, Texas Wednesday, May 16, 1973 Manning Of Skylab Delayed Due To Undeployed Panels HOUSTON (UPI)—Overheat ing problems replaced an electri cal power shortage as the most serious problem aboard Skylab 1 Tuesday, threatening- to make America’s first space station un inhabitable. The most fantastic solution be ing seriously considered by space officials here was for the first Skylab crew to take a big thermal blanket into orbit. They would either wrap it around the tubular space station like a bandage or drape it around one end of the huge lab like a baby’s diaper. Astronauts Charles (Pete) Con rad, Dr. Joseph Kerwin and Paul Weitz, originally scheduled to blast off from Cape Kennedy Tuesday for 28 days in Skylab, flew home to Houston instead and joined the crash program to sal vage the $2.6 billion project. “About all I can say is we’ve come home to regroup,” Conrad said after his white T38 jet land ed at Ellington Air Force Base near the Johnson Space Center. “I’m hopeful that over the next five days we can figure out some way to take care of the problem.” But the space agency’s hopes of launching Conrad’s crew Sunday, after a 5-day delay for developing a new mission plan, appeared far from certain. Skylab director Wil liam Schneider said it would be Saturday before he made a de cision on whether to try a Sunday launch. Space agency officials said “literally hundreds” of methods, ranging from the simple to the fantastic, were being considered to save the mission. Most of this work was taking place at the Johnson Space Center near Hous ton and at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The most extreme proposal, of ficials said, was the one involving the thermal blanket. Two types of blankets — one made of nulon, the other of a spe cial plastic material — were pro Prairie View A&M Gets Name Change The Texas Senate recently ap proved and sent to The House a measure changing the name of Prairie View A&M College to Prairie View A&M University. “University status” was a top priority among recommendations made by the College’s Centennial Council in its final report in 1970. The Texas A&M Board of Direc tors approved the proposal ear lier this year and bills were in troduced in both The House and Senate. The University classifi cation would be more appropriate in light of the institution’s board programs in graduate as well as undergraduate instruction and in research, and continuing educa tion. If approved, the new Prairie View name will be the fifth name change since the College was es tablished by the 15 Legislature in 1876. Corresponding with the establishment of the A&M College at College Station, under tiie pro visions of The Morrill Land Grant College Act, the Texas Legisla ture authorized a similar school for Negro Youth to operate under the management of the A&M Board. “The Agricultural and Mechan ical College for Colored Youth” was the original name which was changed in 1870 by The 16th Leg islature to “Prairie View Normal Institute.” In 1901 the name was changed to Prairie View State Normal and Industrial College and in 1946 to Prairie View Univer sity. The University name lasted one year when the College returned to its original A&M College desig nation. The “A&M” in the name would serve as a symbol only to indicate the college’s historical role and continuing land-grant college connection. 6 Honor Grads In Education Six graduating seniors from the College of Education were given Distinguished Honor Awards for Texas A&M Univer sity’s spring semester. Recipients are Ruben Garcia of Karnes City; Linda Lee Johnson, Lompoc, Calif.; Sally J. Russell, Corpus Christi; Linda L. Smajstrla, College Station; Rich ard E. Trayler, Perryton, and Fred L. Warhol, Bremond. Traylor and Warhol completed degrees in physical education, the others in educational curriculum and instruction. Students were chosen for the award for outstanding scholarship and leadership in the College of Education. Education Dean Frank W. R. Hubert made the awards. Traylor was a magna cum laude graduate. Russell, Smajstrla and Warhol graduated summa cum laude and Garcia cum laude. posed, sources close to the pro gram said. If either proposal were accepted, they said, the blankets would have to be manu factured from scratch, a time- consuming process. The blanket would be used to replace Skylab’s main shield against the heat of the sun, which tore off for unexplained reasons during the space station’s launch Monday. Loss of this shield crip pled half of Skylab’s electricity- producing solar cells and let the space station begin overheating once it was in space. Sources said there were two proposals for use of a blanket, each of which would require the astronauts to perform a space- walk to attach one end of the blanket to Skylab. A cranky set of solar power panels failed to deploy properly Monday on the $294-million Sky lab space station, forcing a 5-day delay in the launch of the astro nauts who will live aboard the craft. The decision was announced by the Skylab program director Wil liam Schneider after officials evaluated for several hours the problem with America’s first space station. The three astronauts, Charles Conrad Jr., Dr. Joseph Kerwin and Paul Weitz were told about the decision in their crew quar ters. They were to have blasted off Tuesday to link up with the sta tion for 28 days in orbit but in stead were returning to their quarantine quarters in Houston to continue training and await the new launch date Sunday. The 118-foot Skylab, a vital part of a $2.6 billion science- from-orbit program that was to eventually include the three manned launches, was smoothly drilled into orbit from Cape Ken nedy. But before the craft completed its first orbit, mission control an nounced that solar cell wings, which supply electrical power to the spacecraft by converting sun light, had failed to deploy auto matically. After studying the problem for more than eight hours space agency officials announced the delay. “The launch (of the astronauts) has been recycled for five days to Sunday, May 20, because of incidents which occurred during the Skylab deployment,” the an nouncement said. “This will per mit further evaluation of alterna tive flight plans to maximize re turns from the Skylab mission.” ONLY CHAMPION? Scotty Jones ranks as A&M’s only favored champion in Saturday’s SWC meet to be held in Austin. Jones, sophomore from Houston, has run the 120-yard high hurdles in: 13.5 this season which is the con ference best and one of the tops nationally. OCCUPANCY BEGINS FOR TAMU’s first completed high-rise structure. The Oceanography-Meteorology complex was constructed at a cost of $7.6 million and stands 15 stories high. It is the highest building between Dallas and Houston. First High - Rise Building Begins Move - In Operations Move-in has started at Texas A&M’s new $7.6 million Oceano graphy-Meteorology Building, an nounced Dr. Vance Moyer, head of the Meteorology Department and project coordinator for the build ing. The 15-story structure began receiving desks, filing cabinets and other furniture for its future residents this week. Bids are ex pected to be opened Wednesday for contract movers to relocate heavy equipment from Goodwin Hall to the new facility. “This is the finest geosciences building of its type in the nation, and it will be so for at least the next 10 years,” noted Moyer, who has been involved in the project over the entire seven-year period from the planning stage through construction. The 15 floors contain approxi mately 100,000 square feet of of fice, classroom and laboratory space. TAMU’s first high-rise also boasts a 50-ton water tank for use in air-sea interaction studies. Other highly specialized laboratories will be devoted to re search in such fields as ocean dy namics, hydrodynamics, acoustics, cloud physics, air pollution me teorology, laser radar, microwave and infrared radiation. In addition to the Oceanography and Meteorology Departments, the building will house the Office of the Dean of Geosciences and the Center for Marine Resources. The structural-steel building is one of the tallest structures be tween Houston and Dallas. It is topped with a 16-foot radar dish, used in conjunction with two smaller five-foot diameter dishes for multi-frequency capabilities. The weather radar system has a 400-mile range. The building was designed by the Fort Worth firm of Preston M. Geren, Architect & Engineer and Associates. Preston M. Geren Jr. is a 1945 TAMU graduate. His father, who died in 1970, was a 1912 graduate and his grand father at one time headed the Mechanical Engineering Depart ment. Houston-based Manhattan Con struction Company of Texas built the facility. Want To Improve Your Health? Walking Is Better Than Jogging If you’ve shunned walking be cause it’s a “sissy” exercise or because you feel jogging will give you better results, think again, says the May/June issue of Fit ness for Living Magazine. Ac cording to a new study at the Physical Fitness Research Labo ratory of Wake Forest Univer sity, reports the magazine, walk ing is as good as any exercise, and better than most to improve your appearance, heart and lungs. Particularly if you're over 40 years of age. The Wake Forest University study involved 16 healthy but sedentary males between the ages of 40 and 56, says the article, “Walk Your Way To Health.” Results showed that: (1) walking improves your body proportions more quickly than jogging; (2) walking gives you 28 percent more oxygen in your heart . . . it’s the lack of sufficient oxygen that usually triggers a heart at tack; (3) resting diastolic blood pressure is significantly reduced; (4) pulmonary circulation is in creased by 15 percent. Among the other significant benefits walking offers, reports Fitness for Living are: —Walkers suffer none of the muscle strains, joint sprains of the knee and ankle, foot ailments, or heel injuries that joggers do. —By walking, the muscles in your feet, calves, thighs, buttocks and abdomen give your heart a big assist in pumping some 72,000 quarts of blood through your sys tem daily. —Your whole body benefits. Lungs dialate with fresh air (where there is any), muscles stretch, turn and knead with every step. Limbs, neck, rib cage, pelvis, spine and buttocks are all exercised. And, the muscles you use take in such a wide area and the effort involved is so widely distributed, that no one set of muscles is overtaxed. How effective is walking in weight reduction or slimming ? Says Fitness for Living: walking converts fat or flab into muscle and muscle weighs more than fat! It’s more attractive too. But while walking doesn’t burn a great many calories, a brisk walk stimulates your metabolism which lights a fire under those unwant ed calories. Getting into the walking habit is a lot easier than you think and the magazine suggests these ways to start walking your way to better health: • Park your car one mile from the office and walk. Keep your dress shoes in the office and walk in the most comfortable shoes you own. • If you must carry papers and books home with you, try a knapsack slung over your back rather than a briefcase that can Weigh heavily on your arm. • If you’re in the habit of taking your family for a Sunday drive, take them for a walk instead. If you live in a city dirtied by pollution, then drive out to a pleasant woodsy area and start walking. A WELCOME PRESENTATION — Capt. Jacques Cous teau seemed to like the idea of a book TAMU President Jack Williams presented Wednesday. It was “Famous Trees of Texas,” for those “long cruises when you might want to look at a tree,” Dr. Williams said. ‘Quality Of Life Depends On Yon’ Parts of the Antarctic visited by Jacques Cousteau left him with “the impression of return ing to a time when man had not yet appeared” on earth. Other areas show evidence of man’s poor management of the seas, even in the remote, inhos pitable Antarctic, Capt. Cous teau said in a Wednesday address at A&M. The famous oceanographer and his son Phillippe were mobbed by autograph seekers on the main A&M campus and the TAMU Mitchell Campus in Gal veston. The Cousteau oceanogra phic research ship “Calypso” is docked there for repairs. The City of Galveston adopted Cousteau. TAMU’s Texas Mari time Academy made him an hon orary commander of the Corps of Midshipmen. Aggie caps and sweatshirts were presented to the Calypso crew, officers and sci entists. The Calypso docked Wednes day at Pelican Island. The ship will berth at the Mitchell Campus until it goes into drydock for maintenance and repair. After leaving the shipyard, the Calyp so will remain at the Mitchell pier for a three-month rest per iod for the crew. TAMU President Jack Wil liams presented Capt. Cousteau and his party a plaque bearing glass-sealed marine life and a book. “We thought that since you are at sea for so long, you might occasionally like to see a tree,” Dr. Williams said on presenting the copy of “Famous Trees of Texas,” a Texas Forest Service publication. Phillippe Cousteau received a special invitation at Galveston from an attractive redhead from Houston. Mary Bush, vice pres ident and trip chairman of “Div ing Dames,” invited the younger Cousteau on a diving expedition with the club this weekend. Phil lippe declined, noting the group was leaving Wednesday evening for New York. “We are proud of our associa tion with Capt. Cousteau and his men,” commented Moody College Dean William H. Clayton. The TAMU official presented the caps and shirts to the Cousteau group. Capt. Cousteau praised Texas A&M for helping open the eyes of people to an understanding of the ocean. “The opportunity to improve the quality of life in the future depends entirely on you,” he chal lenged students in the College Station address. A crowd of more than 700 students, faculty and staff took all space in the Zachry Engineering Center lecture hall for his talk. It came during the middle of final exam week. “We will do our best to help you,” Cousteau went on, “but the job depends entirely on your gen eration.” He listed three main impres sions of the recent Antarctic cruise that severely damaged the Calypso. “Away from the scientific sta tions, the Antarctic has virgin places,” he said, “places where the air is clear and the water is free of toxic substances” as if man had not yet appeared. “The Antarctic Ocean teams with life, but very few species,” said the Frenchman known for his television series “The Under sea World of Jacques Cousteau.” “It is very vigorous life, but very fragile. It is susceptible to col lapse if some building stones are taken out.” The best example of man’s “poor management of the sea” Cousteau was “miles and miles of beach lined with skeletons of whales,” he said. “We also found skele tons on the bottom in many places where we dived.” “We’ve got to stop this stupid economic competition between countries,” he charged, suggest ing that authorities should co operatively set prices to include the cost of species protection and pollution control. Cousteau said “there is a good chance the next Calypso cruise will go into the Indonesian area of the Indian Ocean.” Weather WEDNESDAY — Clear today & tonight. Warm afternoon; cool night. High 80, low 59. THURSDAY — Clear. High of 82. University National Bank “On the side of Texas A&M.” Adv.