And we felt that a quick look on this basis gave us the capability to check out the end-to-end requirement and to look at a list of critical components that we would want to verify prior to commiting to the further on. Senator Ford. You projected a 5-year program costing $230 million—-and that is nearly $50 million per year. Dr. Glaser, I believe, and Professor O'Neill seemed to be thinking in terms of somewhat less money in the next several years. Am I to take from that request that NASA is more confident about the future of this program than maybe they are? Dr. Lenoir. I don't know that that would be a fair thing to say. What we have done in our assessment of the numbers was to start from the bottom and assemble it coming up, looking at what the critical areas were as we saw them—-and in trying to scope what the problems were and what the problem would have to be to cover this, set it out to the task level and decide when we would have to do what and how would it phase together. Frankly, I considered the numbers from others and our numbers for this near-term, whether it be 3 years or 5 years, to be in agreement. Dr. Low. Mr. Chairman, I should add at this point that these were numbers developed by the Satellite Solar Power Team. They are not numbers in a NASA program or a NASA budget, nor are they part of the administration's budget. This was a technical team's assessment of one way of proceeding. Senator Ford. Well, in your prepared statement, Dr. Lenoir—I think you said this, “I feel strongly that the prospects are very good that solar energy from space will prove to be feasible and economical.” Do you have any other basis for saying that than ECON's economic analysis? Dr. Lenoir. The preliminary technology assessment that the Satellite Power Team did was a similar economic analysis, although based on earlier data. In addition, we have identified no technical areas that appear to be show-stoppers, so to speak, that appear to involve much more than a fairly straightforward advancement of today's technology. It is difficult, but I think that is what we are best at doing, solving these difficult problems. And the other thing that gives me confidence is that the earlier cost projections of even 2 years ago, based on very incomplete data—• different from what I would have expected—is not rising significantly, but is staying in the realm of where it was as we fill in some of the holes in this data base. Senator Ford. Dr. Low, would you state for the record what NASA has been spending in this area for the last 2 or 3 years—the last 2 or 3 budgets? Dr. Low. I would like to pass to Mr. Ginter for that. Mr. Ginter. Yes, sir. In fiscal year 1974 we had slightly over $1.2 million that was spent in this general area. It was approximately the same number in fiscal year 1975—and including the transition quarter of fiscal year 1976, we have approximately $2 million, very slightly over that. Senator Ford. Well, I recall those figures. And the $50 million per year that came from the Power Team seemed a little bit out of balance compared to the total number of dollars that you were using.
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