The Battalion
;Vol.88 No. 7 USPS 045360 16 Pages
College Station, Texas
Tuesday, September 6, 1988
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Brother, can you spare a dime?
Texas A&M coaches Charlie Thomas, R.C. Slocum and Mark John
son answer telephones during the local portion of the Jerry Lewis
Photo by Phelan M. Ebenhack
MDA Labor Day Telethon. The funds are used to aid people with
muscular diseases and to support research.
Rocket carries
secret payload
toward space
aval
,$1
UT engineers
[successfully
fire rail gun
AUSTIN (AP) — A new 90-mil
limeter electromagnetic rail gun that
may someday replace conventional
gas-expansion cannons on Army
tanks and other armored vehicles
has been successfully fired by Uni
versity of Texas engineers.
“For a brand new gun, it couldn’t
! have worked better,” Bill Weldon,
director of the Center for Electro
mechanics, where the weapon is be
ing developed in the second year of
a two-year test program, said.
Weldon says he now has a new
doorstop because of the successful
I test firings last month. It’s steel, 3
" inches thick and has a large hole
through it.
The doorstop is half of a 300-
pound target that was twice punc
tured by blunt, 2.5 pound aluminum
plugs in the test firings of the 90-mil-
limeter gun.
The electromagnetic gun is being
operated in a vertical firing range
150 feet deep at the center. Targets
are placed at the bottom of the hole,
about 100 feet from the gun’s muz
zle.
Researchers expect to have a 1989
shootout with competing labs in Cal
ifornia and Connecticut for devel
opment of a revolutionary anti-tank
weapon.
“Obviously, the size of our gun
might change but, for the foresee
able future, it’s the size we’ll use,”
Weldon said.
The electomagnetic gun’s alumi
num plugs thus far have been fired
at speeds of more than 6,500 feet
per second. Those are about the
speeds of projectiles from conventio
nal, gas-expansion tank guns. By
comparison, an M-16 rifle bullet
travels at just over 3,000 feet per sec
ond.
CS gets offshore technology hub
By Kathleen Reilly
Staff Writer
The only offshore technology
center in the United States will be es
tablished College Station.
The National Science Foundation
will provide more than $28 million
over the next five years to sponsor
the construction of the new Engi
neering Research Center for Off
shore Technology.
“It (the center) will provide re
search for students in this area and
enhance the university’s capability in
offshore engineering research,” says
Dr. Y. K. Jack Lou, the Texas A&M
associate director of the center.
The center will begin its research
by identifying critical technological
needs in the industry and devel
oping methods to meet them.
Texas A&M and the University of
Texas will share the main facility, lo
cated in A&M’s Research Park.
The University of Texas will con
tribute laboratories, faculty and the
Cray supercomputer complex to the
project.
John Flipse, distinguished profes
sor of civil engineering and ocean
engineering and director of the cen
ter, said the schools’ research capabi
lities will complement each other.
Data will be processed in Austin,
and results will be applied at the
A&M research facility.
“A&M will be the school for off
shore technology,” Flipse says.
The center will work to develop a
research program that will employ
students and give them hands-on ex
perience.
Faculty and graduate students will
be provided equipment to improve
their studies.
Lou, a civil and ocean engineering
professor, said the center will rival
those in Europe or Japan and be
come the focal point of the U.S. off
shore industry.
The center is the only facility in
the United States working on marine
hydrodynamics research, testing
wave forces on structures in the
Results will be used to improve
the stability of oil platforms in the
Gulf.
The center will work closely with
the offshore oil industry to improve
both research and education, Lou
said. Internships, seminars, design
projects and lectures will be offered
to students through the center.
Research will also affect the class
curriculum.
The results of research will be
brought into classroom study imme
diately.
Geological surveys have found
two oil deposits in the Gulf of Mex
ico, each as large as the original
Saudi Arabian deposit.
Yet current technology is incapa
ble of recovering the oil, which is
4,000-6,000 feet below sea level.
The new facility will test equip
ment that can reach depths in excess
of 4,000 feet.
A wave tank, equipped with direc
tional wave makers and a 49-foot-
deep pit, will test stability, especially
the tension legs, by simulating the
currents, wave forces and pressure
the equipment will be subjected to in
the ocean.
The majority of the $28 million
will be used to pay academic and re
search expenses: fees for publica
tions costs, workshops and salaries
for researchers, teachers, graduate
students and undergraduate work
ers.
The building and equipment will
cost about $4.5 million.
Consulting companies and oil
companies have pledged to support
the program with donations of cash
and services.
More than $3 million already has
been pledged.
The projected completion date of
the building is Spring 1990, with full
operation of the equipment and
building planned for the end of that
year.
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE
BASE, Calif. (AP) — A Titan 2
rocket that once sat in a silo armed
with a nuclear warhead was
launched into space Monday, carry
ing a secret Air Force payload be
lieved to be four spy satellites de
signed to eavesdrop on Soviet ships.
The launch marked the First time
one of the refurbished missiles had
been used as a space booster, and ap
parently was the second time U.S.
spy satellites had been sent into orbit
in less than a week.
“It was a spectacular launch with
all systems operating as expected,”
Air Force Capt. Norma Payne said.
But the spokesman added that of
ficials would not know for two to
three days whether the classified
payload achieved its intended polar
orbit circling the Earth from North
to South poles.
The rocket almost certainly car
ried a four-satellite addition to the
Navy’s White Cloud Navy Ocean
Surveillance System, an electronic
eavesdropping system that locates
and identifies Soviet and other ships
by detecting radio and radar trans
missions, space policy analyst John
Pike said before the launch.
“The Navy really likes them,” said
Pike, of the Washington-based Fed
eration of American Scientists.
“They are very important for being
able to keep track of the Soviet
fleet.”
Pike said a White Cloud launch
consists of one mother satellite and
three subsatellites, and that when or
bit is reached, the mother satellite
deploys the other three spacecraft so
all four are strung out a few hun
dred miles from each other in orbit.
The $37.5 million Titan 2 roared
off Space Launch Complex 4 West
and into fog-shrouded skies at 2:25
a.m. PDT, Payne said at this sprawl
ing military base 140 miles north
west of Los Angeles.
The liquid-fueled, two-stage
rocket is 103 feet high and capable
of lifting 4,200 pounds into a 100-
nautical-mile circular orbit.
Starting in the 1960s, Titan 2
rockets were kept in silos in Arkan
sas, Kansas and Arizona, where they
served as intercontinental ballistic
missiles, each carrying a nine-mega
ton hydrogen warhead.
But the missiles were removed
from service because the propellants
were corroding the innards of the
missile and they had a tendency to
blow up. Pike said.
The Air Force then ordered 13
Titan 2s reconditioned as space
boosters under a $528.9 million con
tract with Martin Marietta Corp. Air
Force officials have said more are
likely to be refurbished because re
cycling the old ICBMs is cheaper
than building new rockets.
On Friday, a satellite said to be de
signed for intercepting Soviet com
munications was launched by a $65
million Titan 34D rocket from Cape
Canaveral, Fla. But a source close to
the project, who spoke on condition
of anonymity, said the spacecraft
failed to achieve its desired station
ary orbit 22,300 miles high when the
upper stage of the rocket failed to
re-ignite. He said there was little
hope of salvaging that mission.
Despite that failure. Air Force
Secretary Edward C. “Pete” Al
dridge issued a prepared statement
after Monday’s launch, declaring,
“This is the year of space launch re
covery.”
“Today’s successful Titan 2
launch is the first of three new boost
ers the Air Force will launch in the
coming year,” Aldridge said. “The
Titan 2, Titan 4 and the Delta 2 . . .
will ensure this nation’s access to spa
ce.”
Gadhafi expects relations
to improve with Washington
TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Libyan
leader Moammar Gadhafi on Mon
day challenged the United States to
prove accusations he sponsors ter
rorism and said he expects relations
with Washington to improve under
the next administration.
Gadhafi said in an interview with
the Associated Press that he would
tike to visit the United States “if
things were different” and that Li
bya remains a close friend of the So
viet Union despite improved U.S.-
Soviet relations.
Gadhafi said Americans who be
lieve President Reagan’s charge that
he sponsors terrorism are very sim
ple, ignorant people.
Reagan accused Gadhafi of spon
soring the December 1985 attacks
that left 20 people dead at airports
in Rome and Vienna.
U.S. warplanes bombed Libya in
April 1986 in an attack that killed 37
people, including Gadhafi’s 15-
month-old adopted daughter. The
raid was intended to punish Libya
for its role in the April 5 bombing of
a West German nightclub in which
two American soldiers and a Turk
ish woman were killed.
A July 11 terrorist attack that
killed nine people on a Greek cruise
ship was linked to Abu Nidal, who is
believed to travel frequently to Li
bya.
“Of course, we are against imperi
alism, racism and Zionism,” Gadhafi
said. “We are not wrong, we are
right to defend our interests.
“We are ready to improve our re
lations with America if the policy of
America is changed. I expect this re
lation to improve.”
Gadhafi fielded questions in his
office at the Bab el-Aziziya, or Heav
enly Gate, military compound in
Tripoli. Soldiers w-ere posted in
watchtowers nearby and tanks were
housed in camouflaged garages.
Sources say Gadhafi has agreed to
give Tunisia a cut of the Buri oil
field, a 10-by-6 mile tract that lies 80
miles northwest of Tripoli and is ex
pected to yield up to 150,000 barrels
per day by mid-1989.
Under an arrangement, Libya
gets 81 percent of the production,
which began last month and is now
yielding about 20,000 barrels per
day.
On Sunday, during the cruise
with the Tunisian president to the
oil field, Gadhafi was asked whether
he preferred Republican nominee
George Bush or Democratic hopeful
Michael Dukakis as president of the
United States.
“The one I would back would
lose,” Gadhafi said laughing.
lof''
Holiday weekend accidents claim
at least 24 including police officer
Traffic accidents on Texas roads killed at least 24
people during the three-day Labor Day week
end, including a longtime Garland policeman
who was one of four to die in motorcycle acci
dents.
The Texas Department of Public Safety has es
timated that at as many as 35 people will die be
fore the fatality count ends at midnight Monday.
The count began at 6 p.m. Friday. Last year, 26
people died in Texas during the same period.
Eugene V. Fuller, 48, a longtime Garland offi
cer, was killed at 4:49 p.m. Sunday when his mo
torcycle was struck by a car in the 3400 block of
Bobtown Road in Garland. Fuller was off duty at
the time.
Two people were killed shortly after 4 a.m.
Monday when Israel Antonio Martinez, 28, of
Port Isabel, lost control of his car and it left the
road. Martinez, and a passenger, Angela Danielle
Nevils, 24, of South Padre Island, both died
when they were thrown out of their car just north
of South Padre Island in Cameron County. Nei
ther was wearing a seat belt.
David Wayne Thomas, 29, of Plano, died early
Saturday after his car was hit by a car coming out
of a private drive in the 9700 block of Harry
Hines Blvd. in Dallas. Police said Thomas was
thrown from his vehicle.
Louis Garza, 19, of Harris County, died of in
juries suffered when the pickup in which he was
riding struck a brick mailbox. Garza’s arm was
severed and he suffered head lacerations in the
accident which occurred about 7 p.m Sunday on
Grace Lane in Harris County.
The truck’s driver was in stable condition, offi
cials said.
Joan Hansen, 48, of Houston, died Sunday
when the car in which she was riding collided
with another vehicle at a Houston intersection.
Irma Marie Cabasas, 18, also of Houston, was
killed Sunday afternoon in Houston when the
car in which she was riding collided with a bus
and hit a traffic signal pole.
Corey Box, 4, of Pecos, died Monday of inju
ries suffered Sunday in a single-vehicle rollover
on Farm-Market Road 869 10 miles south of In
terstate 20 in Reeves County.
Baylor students Ronald Hugh Morris, 21, of
Conway, Ark., and Elizabeth Lynn Munson, 20,
of Houston, were killed Sunday about U/s miles
east of Robinson in McLennan County, said DPS
spokesman Tom Mobley.
Morris and Munson were riding a motorcycle
on Loop 340 when the vehicle changed lanes and
was struck by an approaching car, Mobley said.
A Pottsboro motorcyclist was killed about Sun
day in a collision on a farm-to-market road near
Sherman. Authorities identified the victim as 22-
year-old Darren Ray Carpenter.
Two people were killed in a head-on crash at
4:30 a.m. Sunday south of Floresville. Jimmy K.
Payne, 39, of Poth was killed when his south
bound vehicle veered into the northbound lane
and struck another vehicle, officials said.
Gardenia S. Hetzer, 34, of San Antonio, who
was in the northbound vehicle, also was killed in
the accident, which occurred on U.S. Highway
181 in Wilson.
In Longview, Jimmie Wayne Gibson, 39, was
standing by a parked vehicle when he was struck
and killed by another vehicle about five miles
west of Hawkins at 2:55 a.m. Sunday.
Ten others, including three pedestrians, were
killed earlier in the weekend, DPS officials said.
Silver Taps honors
deceased students
The solemn sound of buglers
playing “Taps” and the sharp
ring of gunfire will be heard on
campus tonight as eight Texas
A&M students who died during
the summer months are
honored in a Silver Taps
ceremony
at 10:30 in
front of the
Academic Build
ing.
The deceased
students being hon
ored are:
• Srinivas Yimada-
battuni Rao, 19, a junior
chemistry major from
Temple, who died April
14.
• Kevin Joseph Creel,
21, a junior civil engi
neering major from Ar
lington, who died April
. 30.
• Scott Michael Star
ling, 29, a graduate student in
wildlife and fisheries science
from College Station, who died
May 28.
•Bryan Scott Munson, 21, a
junior physical education major
from Spring, who died June 17.
• Manuel Martinez Jr., 19, a
sophomore general studies major
from San Antonio, who died July
20.
• Robert Franklin Kruse, 44, a
graduate student in educational
curriculum and instruction from
College Station, who died July 30.
• William Craig Calk, 23, a se
nior journalism major from
Cuero, who died Aug. 5.
• William Morris Hostetler,
22, a senior wildlife and fisheries
science major from Blanco, who
died Aug. 24.
Dating back almost a century,
the stately tradition of Silver Taps
is practiced on the first Tuesday
of each month from September
through April, when necessary.
The names of the deceased stu
dents are posted at the base of the
flag pole in front of the Academic
Building, and the flag is flown at
half-mast the day of the cere
mony.
Lights will be extinguished and
the campus hushed as Aggies pay
final tribute to fellow Aggies.
The Ross Volunteer Firing
Squad begins the ceremony,
marching in slow cadence toward
the statue of Lawrence Sullivan
Ross. Shortly after, three volleys
are fired in a 21-gun salute and
six buglers play a special arrange
ment of “Taps” three times — to
the north, south and west.