i©ge 4-Thursday, October 20, 1977-The Michigan Daily br £ici n i Eighty-Eight Years of Editorial Freedom 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Space shuttle could be base for real star wars Vol LXXX VIlI, No.37 News Phone: 764-0552 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan 4~ousing SINCE 1968, when the I ~)completed, Regeni pessed University effort ng numbers of students ~mount of housing spaces SThey have seen single lIoubles, doubles to tripl to quads. Year after ye vWatched more and more ~ed out into the crowded ~ity housing market by d ~And this fall, Regents ~space turn into permane 71 freshwomen. ~:Dorms are currently ~400 more students fheoretical capacity leve] for Regents to quit watcl ~doing something about it. SThe University Hou ~(UHC) will present the F resolution tonight urging ~the University housing s :priority. While this reso propose any specific pro kIed housing, it is vital ake it seriously and ack the housing shortage is s must be top pr Vorit last dorm was can no longer ignore. is have wit- ND IGNORING is what they have s to fit grow- A been doing. Regents for years into a limited have stated that new housing construc- . tion funds just don't exist. But that s converted to .doesn't explain why, in known instan- es, and triples ces, Regents have'turned down multi- ar they have million dollar HUD loans. Or why ap- residents tur- plications weren't filed for what were and expensive likely loan possibilities. form lotteries. Regents have also voiced their con- saw lounge cern with long-range demographic nt housing for trends indicating the college-age population will sharply decline in the housing over next decade. This isn't a valid concern. than their Even if the number of students attend- 1, and it's time ing college does decrease, adequate hing and start housing would be a major factor in at- tracting students to enroll here and not tsing Council at other schools. egents with a Tonight the Regents should break them to make their decade of watching the Univer- ituation a' top sity trying to find space which isn't lution doesn't there. They should acknowledge posals for ad- UHC's resolution and do something that Regents about it, unless they want to see the nowledge that nightmare of students sleeping in omnething they corridors come true. By JOHN MARKOFF Space war - now only a movie fantasy - could add a frightening new dimension to global conflict as early as the mid-1980s. The Pentagon has quietly be- gun using the National Aeronau- tics and Space Administration's (NASA) new Space Shuttle pro- gram as a stepping stone to build a capability to fight a war in space. -MILITARY SPACE projects are now taking up a significant portion of NASA's planned Space Shuttle missions. lfore than 100 of these first 560 Shuttle flights will carry U.S. military satellites and weapons experiments into orbit. Congressional critics like Wil- liam Proxmire (D-Wisc.) have charged that through the Space Shuttle program, NASA - the civilian space agency - is be- coming an arm of the Depart- ment of Defense, increasingly subject to military priorities. Publicly, most U.S. officials are on record against expanding the arms race into space. In a press conference this month Sec- retary of Defense Harold Brown stated, "I would hope that we could ke p space from becoming an area of active gonflict." BUT SOME military planners are excited about possible star wars.' "Space is a dandy arena, actually," one Department of De- fense (DoD) scientist was quoted as saying in a recent issue of Aeronautics and 'Astronautics. "You've got to attract strategic war off the planet. The notion of abhorring war in space is just plain wrong." The Pentagon is concerned that the U.S. is falling behind the Soviets in key portions of the "space race.". One Air Force General summarized the mili- tary's view of the situation: "There has never been a trans- portation medium in the history of man that has not been ex- ploited for economic and military advantage. Space is not going to be an exception.", The Space Shuttle, now being tested in Southern California, will allow scientists, private industry and the military to send large payloads into orbit on a weekly basis during the 1980s. The Shut- tle system will include a reusable orbiter that will be boosted into space by giant rockets and then glide bacl to earth landing like an airplane. The first spaceflight for the Shuttle is ngw scheduled for 1979. PENTAGON involvement in the Shuttle program began short- ly after the Nixon Administration - in a cost-cutting move - can- celled the Air Force Manned Or- biting Laboratory in 1969. The DoD subsequently decided to rely exclusively on NASA's Space Shuttle for routine access to space. By 1984, all military spaced missions will be carried by the Space Shuttle. The Pentagon's first ten shuttle missions will include the following satellites and weapons: *Air Force DSCS-3 - com- munications satellites for military use., *Defense Meteorological Satellites. "Laser weapons developed from the Space Laser Ex- are studying the use of lasers and space-mines, and some defense officials are worried that such Soviet satellite killers could be a threat to the Space Shuttle. On the U.S. side, NASA com- missioned a study last year on the feasibility of placing a huge array of mirrors in orbit to reflect the energy of ground- based lasers and shoot down enemy missiles. The think-tank envisioned an advanced version of the Space Shuttle to put the mirrors in orbit and estimated the cost of such a system to be $105 billion. NASA/DoD cooperation in the Space Shuttle program was called into question recently by the New York-based Council on ~ ' \'!. "- i f . increased and other technical changes made in the program at the military's request. IN AN INTERVIEW last week Gordon Adams, a researc associate at the Council, said tha NASA has been placed in position where it must indirectl subsidize many DoD costs. Ir 1976 the AireForce refused to par ticipate in funding the fourth an fifth Shuttle orbiters. "In effec NASA is carrying the charge fo what they had originally an ticipated being able to share tith the Air Force budget," Adams stated. But proponents of NASA's ne military role argue that it cooperation with the DoD spac program is both cost-effectiv and vital to national security. Major General Richard Henry vice commander of the Air Forc research and development ager cy for space systems, says "Th Shuttle represents the nex threshold for using space for vita military and scientific missions If military space technology cai provide reliability and global in formation, then our nation car cope with those forces that ar= upsetting the globa equilibrium." John Markoff is a freelance writ e and frequen t contributor to ho Pacific News -Service specializing i mi/htary affairs. a 4+ V 4? AE A MESS!j GET. ME SotMi.Wob't wH v )K4c~,4S SCMLTI4t4 r'I ' A0.couT NE MN5!s=tt ~m . YO "',t 0 0 K R .tKawuaA D~A, periment Definition (SLED) studies intended to counter Soviet ICBMs. 'Teal Ruby, an infra-red moni- toring system to detect low-flying aircraft. 'High. Altitude mrge Optics (HALO): a huge camera de- signed to monitor Soviet sites. MILITARY PLANNERS are, currently at work on more exotic and potentially more deadly research to be carried out by the Space Shuttle. Last month the Air Force contracted with the Vought Corporation to build a test ver- sion of a satellite killer. American intelligence agencies have reported that the Soviets 0 o. I' ? - ' f AL crcy pONDRS 0ro- -- }- 1 Economic Priorities. The Council warns that Congress' ability to control the U.S. space program will be complicated by the in- clusion of the military in the Space Shuttle program.- "Because the DoD will be en- tirely dependent upon NASA's transportation system for space launches," a Council report states, "there is a danger that in the future NASA programs will be oriented toward military, rather than civilian and scientific purposes." Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wis,) has claimed that NASA increased the payload of the Shuttle from 25,000. to 65,000 pounds to satisfy the Air Force and that Shuttle thrust was 0 'D Letters to The Daily The basketball ticket fiasco R EGGIE JACKSON was kind enough to euthanize baseball. Football season is at the mid-point. That means it's time to worry about basketball. True to form, Athletic Di- rector Don Canham's ticket allocation policy offers the student basketball fan thousands of would-be ulcers. University ;students have been granted just 5,100 (37 per cent) of Cris- ler Arena's 13,609 seats. This would be quite generous if the basketball team were made up of Ann Arbor ,mer- chants, alumni and Michigan residen- ts. Peculiarly enough, however, the Michigan basketball team is composed of students. While it is nice to see the athletic department operating in the black, we can't let the pursuit of the dollar keep us from fulfilling the students needs. After fine performances by the cagers in the last two years, it is very possible that more than 5,100 students will want basketball tickets this year. And the fact that Crisler Arena only holds some 13,000 persons means, inevitably, that a limit must be set on the number of student, cut-rate tickets. But 5,100 is an unjust, unrealistic limit. The team is mainly for the students, and we deser- vP hftar than 37 ner cent of Crisler's and these tickets go on sale before' tickets are made available to the general public. Then, if less than 7,000 students desire basketball tickets, they can easily be sold to the general public. While this would lose some revenue for the athletic department -- student tickets cost much less than general admission tickets - it would, at least, be as equitable as possible considering the construction of playing in an arena vhich only seats 13,609. PATHETIC distribution policy compounds the ticket disaster. The present lottery more closely resembles Russian Roulette than equitable rationing. Under the new plan there is no guarantee that a student will be able to see even one basketball game during his or her four years in Ann Arbor. If more than 5,100 students want tickets, the names of all those students, regardless of class rank will go into a lottery. The first 5,100 chosen will then receive tickets, with seniors getting first choice and so on. The problem is that since there is no priority system for the lottery, even a senior can't be assured a ticket. Thus a student could actually lose out in the lottery all four vars here ,ndn never mt In attgnr a leach cartoon To The Daily: I was very disappointed in Keith Richburg's editorial drawing that appeared in The Daily last week. His depiction of a blind Rick Leach throwing the football was not entertain- ing and was in very poor taste. I don't think the artist is at all aware of Rick's talent.. Last year Rick finished first in the Big Ten in both yards-per-pass and passing percentage. He also finished 14th in the ballot- ing for the Heisman, and was chaser} as the best quarterback in the Big Ten by the coaches of these schools. This year Rick has been given more of a chance to show his passing skills, and he has performed quite well. Football News has been quoted as calling him "the best quarter- back in the country" this season:. Also, by the end of his junior year Rick will have accounted for more offensive yardage and more career touchdown passes than any other athlete in the history of Michigan football. His agility, quickness, ability to read and adjust to defenses, mastery of the option, and leadership role makes him crucial to our team. It seems very unprofessional to publish a half-page personal insult against someone who has too much class to retaliate, and (in the eyes of the experts) who has proven the insult to be falsely based. I would hope that in the future neither the artist nor the writers of the editorial sectionwould stoop to such cheap shots. I have come to expect much better from your publication. --Don DiPaolo, Head Football Mgr. quality / equality To The Daily:' I have always felt that the mainsgoal of the medical and law schools of this country should be to turn out qualified doctors and lawyers. Affirma- tive action programs lower the admission's standards of pro- fessional schools. This results in the acceptance of lessquali- fied students and an ultimate lowering of academic stand- ards. While it is true that one. cannot expect a poorly educat- ed minority to compete on equal academic terms with a well educated majority on ad missions tests, is this any reason to lower the standard for those few with appropriat skin color and surnames? I ii right to sacrifice quality for the sake of equality? Or would it b fairer to all concerned to insur that minorities received a equal education prior to re questing admission to profes sional school. Regrettably equal education for all is not ye a reality. However, I feel i would be more reasonable t attack the problem at this leve than with a quota system. After all, a medical school should be, foremost, a place for the edupa- tion and training of people into the medical profession, and not simply a tool used in the interest of social change. -James Eridok~: 15 A) ICJ t A tOu1 . Gcp r p CCt l- C01J "f tPlA71VE - - - dere r Q J K -(G. FAWO -J L v cEW W f A4!e c r7J ,. /E T 'JA O FF'FT5 HATeR- (fL'ori/ I I I1 CiAG~ Mil £ASrC'kV GOD C- s v 40 -r, -rA V LbG 1A,--? A LA r A FY "Y 1 C t[Y' r , -%I 1E s - rr-,rr- rti 1 /+r r.