Friday, November 22, IQSS/The Battalion/Page 11
Future in space
3S rar fewer st
Official says U.S. has
space arbiters than people think
By FRANK SMITH
Staff Writer
An official with Houston’s In
stitute of Space Research told a
group of about 35 people in Rud
der Tower Thursday that the
United States has far fewer space
shuttle orbiters than some people
think it has.
Hubert Davis, director of pro
gram development at the institute
and a 1951 graduate of Texas
A&M, delivered a 50-minute ad
dress and slide presentation to
the group, which was mostly com
prised of students, as part of the
E.L. Miller “Future in Space”
Lecture Series.
“It’s thought that we have a
fleet of shuttles,” Davis said.
“(Some) call it the Space Trans
portation System as if it were a
major airline.
“But. . . there is a total of four
— count them, four — space
shuttle orbiters in existence.”
He also said that those orbiters
will probably be the only ones
around for a long time.
“Those of you who choose to
go into the space program as your
career are going to find yourself
in the very onerous position of
having to maintain and keep
flight-worthy something thats
obsolete in my time — because
the technology used in this ma
chine is now 15 years old,” Davis
said. —
Davis’ presentation also in
cluded slides of drawings of seve
ral proposed future space pro
grams.
He said plans for the construc
tion of a manned space station
currently provide for the station
to be built in space.
Such a system might require as
many as eight or nine space shut
tle flights extended over a span of
two years, he said.
Davis also said the private sec
tor will have an important inter
active role with the government
hi future space programs.
But interaction between the
two is often made difficult, he
said.
“There is a paper-burdened
system of doing anything be
tween government and industry
that’s got to be streamlined,” he
said.
“People talk about a
screwdriver costing $850,” he
said. “The harsh facts of life are
that they do — $5 for the
screwdriver and $845 worth of
paper work.”
_ Davis prefaced his address with
comments on Wednesday night’s
Strategic Defense Initiative Panel,
which was also a part of the Miller
Lecture Series.
He offered two points of opin
ion regarding SDL
• The United States govern
ment will not use SDI to launch a
first strike.
‘“The concept that SDI is in
some fashion immoral because it
would give our leaders a first
strike capability to me is patently
fraudulent because it’s not the
way in which this country beha
ves,” he said.
• The guarding of modern
technology for economic reasons
is both impossible and fruitless.
“Technology is not a precious
commodity like gold that you pos
sess for all times and guard care
fully for all times,” he said.
U.S. space industry growing in private sector
By MARYBETH ROHSNER
Staff Writer
Although the U.S. government
continues to launch most satellites
into space, two private space-in
dustry experts told a small audi
ence Thursday that private cor
porations are an expanding part
of the satellite-launching indus
try.
Earl Reese of Trans-Space In
dustry and Mark Daniels of Space
Services, Inc., speakers for the
E.L. Miller “Future in Space”
Lecture Series, said their compa
nies offer several advantages to
clients. Neither company has,
however, placed a satellite in
space.
Reese said Trans-Space Indus
try has expanded government-
initiated research on the Delta
rocket but has not yet gone into
production. He said it offers cli
ents reduced insurance rates be
cause the company launches only
one project at a time and the the
rocket is very reliable. He said
private companies have the most
appeal to clients that don’t re-
ouire manned space flight and
that many clients don’t need to
use a vehicle system as sophisti
cated as the shuttle.
“Unmanned flights are proba
bly more productive,” he said.
Space Services’ representative
Daniels said his corporation
hopes to win government con
tracts if the defense department
deploys the Strategic Defense Ini
tiative. He added that the com-
n plans to use their Conestoga
•cket to launch lighter pay-
loads into a low orbit.
Daniels said the launch busi
ness has expanded into unex
pected areas. For instance, he fre
quently receives calls from
funeral homes that wish to have
their client’s ashes scattered in the
vastness of space.
“We just nave to tell them we’re
in the transportation business,”
Daniels said. He said the com
pany would, however, consider
the requests of entertainers who
want to launch their albums into
the cosmos.
The speakers agreed that while
the outlook for private industry in
space is excellent, funding is another
matter. Both companies are pri
vately funded, and Trans-Space
Carriers plans to begin issuing stock
next vear.
Although both companies have
prospective clients, neither really
want to go into production with
out the security of a contract.
And, according to Reese, con
tracts are difficult to get because
the other main competitors — the
U.S. shuttle program and the
French rocket Ariane — have put
an artificially low price tag on
their launches and absorbed the
rest of the cost through govern
ment funding.
GTE service center
built to replace
local Phone Marts
Council suggests treatment for sex offenders
By JEAN MANSAVAGE
Reporter
General Telephone is touting its
new Customer Service Center as an
improvement over the GTE Phone
Marts.
The center opens Monday and
will offer a wide range of services to
its Bryan-College Station customers.
“Tne facility is one in which cus
tomers can take care of their full
range of telecommunications
needs,” says John Wallace, division
public affairs manager.
“The customer can establish serv
ice, pay bills, buy or lease a phone
and inquire about a billing question
or problem. He also can have his
GTE phones checked or repaired
and even check telephone numbers
in our directory library at the Cus
tomer Service Center.”
The biggest improvement of the
Customer Service Center over the
GTE Phone Marts is the extended
business hours, Wallace says.
“The center will be open from 9
a.m to 6 p.m. Monday through Fri
day, a half-hour longer than the
Phone Marts,” Wallace says. “On
Saturday it will be open from 9 a.m.
to 5:30 p.m., a half-day longer than
before.”
In addition to longer hours, the
center offers other improvements
over the Phone Marts.
“Customers will be very pleased
with the layout which will allow them
to utilize tne facility in a lot quicker
fashion,” he says. “It’s geared toward
getting customers in and out of the
center quickly.”
The direct-line access to appropri
ate departments for customers who
need assistance in a billing or a re
pair also helps speed things alon;
ne says.
The private consultation areas i
the Customer Service Center ai
now more personalized than tf
open-air type of the Phone Marl]
Wallace says. They make the cu|
tomer feel more important, he add
“We also have conference roon
and displays targeted for small bu:
ness customers,” Wallace says.
One feature of the Custom^
Service Center that the Phone Mar
did not have is the telephone dire
tory library, he says. It contains d
rectories from throughout Tex;
and the Southwest and is availab
for customers to research numbers.
The Customer Service Center, 1<
cated in the Village Shopping Cei
ter, combines the services of tw
GTE Phone Marts in Bryan and Co!
lege Station.
“We saw Bryan-College Station ;
one and as growing together,” Wa!
lace says. “When we were looking i
combine and serve both commj
nities at a Single location, we couldrjj
have chosen a better place.”
The location has access to the 29t
Street corridor, University Dri\
and is only a short distance from tl
Highway o, he says.
The Customer Service Centt
concept was initiated in Bryan-Co
lege Station to improve services, n<
because there was a Specific problet
with the Phone Marts, he says.
One minor problem does exi;
with the Customer Service Cente
Wallace says,“People wonder if on
service location can be as effective a
two locations. We believe the Cu:
tomer Service Center will be mot
effective than were the two Phon
Marts.”
COLLEGE STATION — Treat
ment programs for imprisoned sex
offenders could reduce inmates’
chances of committing repeat of
fenses once they are released,
according to the chairman of a spe
cial state council.
Dr. Michael Cox, head of the
Texas Interagency Council on Sex
Offender Treatment, has recom
mended that inmates be treated
while they are in prison and after
their release in an attempt to reduce
the number of sex crimes in Texas.
About 70 percent of those sex of
fenders incarcerated and not treated
will commit sex crimes following
their releases, compared to 10 to 30
percent of those who receive psycho
logical treatment, Cox said.
Cox, a psychologist at the Baylor
College of Medicine, said Wednes
day he is convinced treatment pro
grams can be implemented at a mini
mal cost to the state.
Group psychotherapy is the most
effective form of treatment, but pa
tients must be treated for an
Pa-
ex
tended period, he said.
The council also recommended
that some of the state’s estimated
20,000 sex offenders could be
helped by taking Depo-Provera, a
medication that decreases the sex
drive, Cox said.
But Jane Rand, a staff psycholo
gist with the Texas Department of
Corrections, said she did not know if
the administration of Depo-Provera
would be feasible in the prison sys
tem because of possible violations of
prisoners’ rights.
“TDC’S position is not to do in
trusive things,” Rand said. “Depo-
Provera is still experimental. It’s the
kind of situation that we’re not ready
to embrace yet.”
Cox has had about an 85 percent
success rate treating sex offenders at
his private clinic, but he admits there
are some who cannot be treated.
“Sex offenders cannot be com
pletely cured,” Cox said. “The ten
dency might not go away but the
criminal activity can be suppressed.”
Movie to open in Mexico
Associated Press
MEXICO CITY — The Smash-
hit movie “Back to the Future”
will open Tuesday in Mexico with
a benefit for the Volunteers of
the National Cancer Institute.
The News, the English-lan
guage daily, reported that the an
nual event, which traditionally
features the Mexican premiere of
a hit movie, is more important
this year because the institute’s
cancer ward was destroyed in the
September earthquakes.
It said makeshift shelters are
being used in the interim.
Funds from the benefit at the
Polanco Theater will be used for
the construction of a new cancer
ward.
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Dave 835-7928
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