Senator Ford. Thank you, Doctor. Any other statements? Dr. Low. No more statements, sir. Senator Ford. Let's get into a few questions here. Dr. Lenoir, you talk about 5-year plans, 10-year phases, but you don't mention anything about how you and ERDA are coordinating. Dr. Teem, who testified previously, seems to be saying that it is ERDA's area of responsibility. How does NASA see it? Dr. Low. Mr. Chairman, as Dr. Teem pointed out, the recent decision was made that it is ERDA's responsibility to assess the feasibility and economy—practicality, if you will—of competing terrestrial power systems, terrestrial energy systems. With that in mind, therefore, it has to be ERDA's responsibility to decide whether this kind of work should proceed. If the decision is made that the work should proceed, it is NASA's responsibility, most likely with ERDA funding, to carry out the work. Senator Ford. Well, apparently, Dr. Teem doesn't have anything in his budget for fiscal year 1977, so even if they make a decision and with some flexibility, it is going to be extremely hard to reimburse NASA for its work. Dr. Low. Well, as Dr. Teem pointed out, this was a very recent decision, after the details of the 1977 budget were put together, but nevertheless he also mentioned that there is more than $70 million in the ERDA budget set aside for solar electric energy. I would hope that in NASA's working with ERDA some portion of that money-—and we don't need very much—will be assigned to NASA to continue this work. Senator Ford. You could well operate within the range of $70 million? Dr. Low. Yes, Mr. Chairman. Our initial request for funds for fiscal year 1977 was much less than that. I mentioned earlier, and I should add now, that much of the technology work here, work on solar cells, work on power transmission, on jower distribution, NASA has to do anyway in its own program, because we are still in the business, and will continue to be in the business, of sending satellites into space. And they, too, need their own electric power, power distribution, power generation, and soon. So some of the technologies which apply to satellite solar power also apply to many of our other things, and we will carry those on anyway. Senator Ford. When do you think NASA and ERDA will know enough to make a final decision on whether to build the satellite solar power system? Dr. Low. That will have to be an incremental decision, Mr. Chairman. As Dr. Lenoir pointed out, we believe very strongly that there are a number of phases to a program like this. Dr. Lenoir was talking in terms of overlapping phases that might last as long as 5 years each. The first step has to be to answer the questions in technology, in the environment, and particularly the economics questions, to decide whether one should proceed to the next step. Senator Ford. Is it feasible to have a time table now? Dr. Low. I believe that the satellite solar power team did develop its own timetable—but this is not total NASA nor NASA-ERDA policy to proceed on that timetable.
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