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ike many kids growing up
in the 1960s, Christopher
Ruf wanted to be an astro-
nt.His room was covered
in posters of'U.. astronauts. Models
of the spacecraft from Projects Mer-
cury, Gemini and Apollo lined his
- shelves.
On the afternoon of July 20,1969,
he listened to the radio broadcast
A NEW ER A IN as Apollo 11 touched down safely on
from a bygone era.
Covering the walls of each cinder-
block corridor are faded black and
white photos - cenes of students
huddled around miniature rockets or
typing away on now-outdated com-
puter consoles. They are glimpses of an
era quickly fading from memory as the
SPRL copes with the changing scien-
tific priorities.
For Fisk and his fellow research-
ers, this call to arms was a blank check
allowing them an unparalleled level of
scientific freedom. As control of space
became a matter of national security,
scientists were encouraged to take
risks without fear offundingshortages.
Universities alsoreapedtherewards,
as NASA began funding research labs
across the nation. For institutions that
were willing to cooperate with NASA,
of specialized infrastructure, designed
to allow researchers to prototype and
test instrumentation to be placed on
satellites.
Shaker tables simulate the violent
forces placed on items during launch
into orbit. Specialized vacuum cham-
bers subject instruments to the harsh
environment they will experience in
space. Clean rooms prevent even a
single dust particle from entering, and
the Space Physics Research Lab. His
second-floor corner office overlooks
the ongoing expansions across the
other engineering departments, the
medical campus and various other
nearby labs.
The SPRL has undergone several
expansions since its construction at
the height of the Space Race - a peri-
od of rapid scientific innovation span-
ning from the mid-1950s to early-1970s
that saw the two Cold War super-
powers - the U.S. and the Soviet
Union - battle for supremacy in all
matters of space research and
exploration. However, the
building's key character-
istics have remained
largely intact - in
many ways a
time cap-
sule
I tuhe lastuyears, NASA has been
targeted by policymakers looking to
cut spending, resulting in an essen-
tially stagnant budget. Beyond finan-
cial concerns, the U.S. space program
has suffered from a shift in the culture
value of scientific discovery.
"I was 14 when Sputnik went up -
it was 1957," said Lennard Fisk, the
Thomas M. Donahue Distinguished
University Professor of Space Science,
sittingin his office in the SPRL.
"You almost had to be alive then to
know the impact that had on science
education and scientific careers in that
time. There was quite a fervor in the
country over the fact that the Soviets
had launched the first satellite."
In a very real sense, Fisk has been
part of the space programs since the
beginning. After a decades-long career
- during which he served as the asso-
ciate administrator for space science
and applications at NASA, vice presi-
dent for research and financial affairs
at the University of New Hampshire
and, most recently, as president of the
international Committee on Space
Research, amongnumerous other posi-
tions - Fisk has experienced the full
spectrum of U.S. space research poli-
cies and priorities.
Like many of the 400,000 scien-
tists, machinists, engineers and crew
who worked for the U.S. Apollo pro-
gram at its peak in the late 1960s, Fisk
was motivated by a sense of national
urgency generated after the Soviet
Union successfully launched the first
manmade space satellite - Sputnik -
in 1957.
"It very much alarmed people that
somehow Communist society was
beating us in technological ability -
the country went ballistic on the sub-
ject," said Fisk.
In 1958, Congress passed the
National Aeronautics and Space Act
"to provide for research into problems
of flight within and outside the earth's
atmosphere, and for other purposes,"
accordingto the original text.
The University entered the space
science field in the late 1940s through
two departments.
Following the capture of hundreds
of V-2.rockets from the Germans at the
end ofWWII, two University research-
ers were awarded grants from the Air
Force to develop and mount scien-
tific instruments to be launched into
the upper atmosphere - marking the
beginning of the University's commit-
ment to space sciences.
William Dow served as the founder
and original director of the SPRL,
which grew out of the electrical engi-
neering department. In a parallel
effort, Emerson Conlon founded the
High Altitude Engineering Laboratory
out of the aeronautical engineering
department.
Eachlab employed unique approach-
es to study similar atmospheric phe-
nomenon, leading to competition
between scientists within the college.
Around 1950, when Les Jones and Nel-
son Spencer took over at the HAEL and
SPRL, respectively, the two labs were
already locked in their own pseudo
space race.
"(They) were almost enemies of each
other, both competing to make Michi-
gan a star in the space program," said
Engineering Prof. George Carignan,
who served as director of the SPRL
from 1962 to1984.
The two labs functioned in tan-
dem until Jones stepped down in 1968
due to a battle with leukemia. After
that, Cargnan said the HAEL slowly
decayed while the SPRL flourished.
By 1964, the University was granted
federal funds to build a new home for
the SPRL. The facility, still located at
its originallocation on Hayward Street,
was one of the University's first facili-
ties on the fledgling North Campus
- set apart from other departments
to ensure the security of its projects,
many of which were highly classified
at the time.
Today, the lab still houses an array
Over the course of the manned
space program, eight astronauts were
University alums. Notably, the entire
crew of the Apollo 15 lunar mission -
James Irwin, David Scott and Alfred
Worden - were University graduates.
Despite its historical roots in space
research and exploration, the Uni-
versity has been subject to the same
challenges facing all facets of the U.S.
space research enterprise, which could
result in lasting damage to the infra-
structure so carefully built up over the
last five decades.
Down the drain
"There are no bold initiatives," Fisk
said. "We stpped beingbold in 1972."
Two high-profile shuttle disasters
- Challenger and Columbia - and the
exorbitant cost of the International
Space Station - estimated at about
$150 billion to date - have led to the
deterioration of public support for
space research in recent years. Both
the shuttle program and the space
station have received criticism from
members of the scientific community.
Combined with the effects of the
federal sequestration, NASA's pro-
posed $17.5 billion budget - .05 per-
cent of the federal budget - for 2015
represents a one percent decrease
from members of the previous year,
a serious blow to universities that
rely heavily on those funds for their
research efforts.
In comparison, 4.5 percent of the
1966 federal budget - which would
today amount to $167 billion - was
allocated to NASA. Today, it's less than
0.5 percent.
After the last Apollo moon mission
in 1972, NASA began the process of
downsizing its workforce from about
30,000 civil servants to fewer than
20,000, according to Fisk. In simple
terms, the administration ran out of
things to do after reaching the moon,
and the country shifted its focus to
other priorities, such as the Vietnam
War.
"It didn't have a mission," Fisk said.
"It kept looking for a mission. When
the President says, 'Go to the moon and
bring them back in ten years,' you have
a very clear mission."
As the skilled workforce was forced
to find jobs in other industries, they
took with them the knowledge nec-
essary to maintain NASA's advanced
space programs.
"There's a huge loss of capability,"
said Fisk. "No one can build the Saturn
V today, we lost the keys."
Even among the scientific commu-
nity, there is a push to move away from
manned spaceflight. While the Apollo
moon missions were a key national
interest, many prominent researchers,
including Fisk, question the need for
continued use of the shuttle and Inter-
national Space Station. In terms
ofscientifievalue, mostspace research-
ers agree that unmanned crafts deliver
a greater 'bang for the buck.
Engineering Prof. Tamas Gombosi,
who researches planetary weather
and heliospheric physics, said NASA
and the space research community has
always wanted to do more research
than there are funds available. He said
the pool of scientists seeking funds has
See SPACE, Page 8B