Paolo Soleri Model

Ed Hansberger of Yuma heats ten apart ments, right, with this flat-plate collector of his own design. Basically similar collee tors are planned for Paolo Soleri's "city energized for the sun," below still in the design stages.

WHAT'S NEW from page 11

For scientists themselves. For it is not true at all that there is nothing new under the sun.

Before the availability of natural gas and cheap electric power, the solar water heater was a commonplace. In Arizona, California, Florida, and other states, simple solar collectors with black-painted storage tanks were mounted on countless roofs to tap the sun for domestic water for bathing and other domestic uses. With cheap gas and electric energy, however, users turned away from such homely heaters. Only in recent years, as natural gas supplies have waned and even disappeared in some areas, and as electricity began to cost more, has the lowly solar hot water heater returned.

While solar water heaters are much used in Israel, Japan, and Australia, America presently is not a major user. Price is a big factor, and few homeowners or landlords appreciate the much greater initial cost. However, as gas is increasingly being cut off for new construction, and electricity climbs in price, solar installations are beginning to be made. Some people have built and installed their own, for a solar heater is a very simple project.

The Tucson Society of Professional Engineers recently reported that solar water heating is economical now in our state. Recommended is a collector area of about 80 square feet, and a large storage tank of 100 gallons to provide ample hot water the year around, over the occasional stretches of several days when very little solar energy is available.

Arizona is a popular setting for swimming pools, and solar heat can make pools more effective. It seems a shame to build an expensive pool and use it for only four months of the year but that is what most Arizonans do. The reason is financial, for heating with natural gas can cost a hundred dollars or more a month during winter. Electric heaters are prohibitive in operating cost for all but the wealthy. So pool owners are turning to solar heaters by the hundreds. The sun is matched well to pool heating because there is no need to provide very hot water. While domestic hot water must be in the range of 150 degrees or so, pools need to be warmed only to about 80 degrees, and some polar bears can survive in 75 degrees. Thus a very simple solar collector can do the job and operate efficiently sometimes even without glazing over the collector, or insulation under and around it.

To aid the solar heater in its task, some pool owners adopt methods of keeping heat in the pool after the sun has put it there. Incidentally, the pool itself is a good solar heat collector, if it is not shaded during the day by trees or houses. A sheet of plastic laid right on the pool works wonders, and can add as much heat to the pool as a solar heater. A heater about half the area of the pool can keep the water about 10 degrees above normal. Adding plastic contributes perhaps another 10 degrees, giving a temperature gain of 20 degrees over normal. Thus the pool can be comfortable for swimming in all but December, January and February.

With a solar water heater, and another to keep the pool warm, the home owner begins to wonder why not heat his house as well? Why not indeed, for there are now perhaps 200 such installations in our country, with new starts coming on so fast that no one can really keep up with them accurately.

Basically there are two methods to heat a house with sunshine. One uses water or some other liquid as the circulating and storage medium. The other uses air to gather heat from the collector. Both approaches work well, and generally the choice is made on the basis of environmental conditions prevailing in the area.

It is not surprising that the noted Paolo Soleri, whose "arcology" is flowering in the city of Arcosanti 60 miles north of Phoenix, should appreciate the use of solar energy for heat-ing ing a structure. Soleri speaks of a "city energized by the sun," and his Teilhard de Chardin Cloister to be built at Arcosanti embodies this concept.

The Cloister will be a series of spaces and shelters clustered around an apse 76 feet in diameter. This amphitheater is itself a "sun-machine" since it is cave-like and open toward the South. Stepping down in front of the amphitheater, and absorbing solar radiation, is a greenhouse garden which will feed warmed air to the amphitheater during the winter months.

The basilicas, two structures for exhibition on the east and west of the central amphitheater, present a south-facing wall over 200 feet in length. This wall curves outward and will be a good receptor of solar heat from the low winter sun yet also a good self-shading structure under the high summer sun. Atop the curved wall will be a solar collector measuring 9 feet by 200 feet. Air warmed by it will be blown into the exhibition space in the basilicas and recirculated to the solar collectors through an air chamber built along the walls.

Further helping to make the Teilhard de Chardin Cloister self-sufficient and less dependent on conventional energy sources is the fact that its north side will be cut into a cliff to provide a maximum of insulation. Terrace gardens atop the basilicas and the amphitheater will also provide insulation against winter cold and summer heat.

Most people can understand how the sun can heat a house - it does such an excellent job on a closed automobile in summer! Solar refrigeration, however, seems like solar magic to all but the refrigeration engineers who comprehend the absorption refrigeration cycle. This clever system needs no mechanical compressor, substituting an absorber that is actu-ated by heat which can be solar heat.Electrical wizard Michael Faraday invented absorption refrigeration quite by accident while trying to do something else with ammonia and water. He came back to find ice in one of the vessels used in his experiment. One of the results was the gas refrigerator of the Servel type with its small gas flame replacing a conventional compressor motor. Ice-making plants use ammonia-water absorption refrigeration equipment, and many buildings are cooled by large tonnage absorption units. Now Arkla Industries is manufacturing 3-ton units for use with solar energy systems.

The Tucson Society of Professional Engineers, who reported that solar water heating was economical right now, were less encouraging about home heating with sunshine unless it could be combined with summer refrigeration, using the same rooftop collector. This dream scheme is functioning now in many installations, with the hot summer sun providing the energy to refrigerate homes and buildings. The beauty of this approach is that when the cooling load is greatest, there is the greatest amount of solar energy to handle it!

In addition to the many solar homes under construction or planned for Arizona there are more ambitious projects including apartments, office buildings, medical centers, schools, and industrial plants.

Very large programs are envisioned to demonstrate that we do indeed possess now the technology needed to provide heat and service hot water to homes, apartments, and institutions throughout much of the nation.

The ultimate goal of Federal solar energy legislation is something that the experts call "technology transfer." This means moving the know-how from laboratories of the Solar Energy Research Institute into the market place and into the homes and other buildings of the American public. Here is the proof of the pudding, the pay-off in energy benefits to justify the expenditure of government dollars. Already we can begin to see glimpses of this pay-off in useful applications of solar energy in several areas.

SOLAR SCIENCE from page 36

Observatory has nine other telescopes on Kitt Peak. National Obser-vatory telescopes are equipped with advanced auxiliaryinstrumentation and computers for studying astronomicalobjects in both the optical and infrared regions.

The search for an ideal location for a National Observa-tory began in 1955. By airplane, jeep, and foot, the site surveyteam investigated 150 western mountain ranges, finally zeroingin on five possible locations. Two years of testing followedto determine which had the most ideal weather and stable airand the least interference by light or air pollution. After exhaus-tive testing, Kitt Peak was chosen and remains today one ofthe few accessible locations in the world where dark sky,transparency, and "seeing" conditions so necessary for astro-nomical work are outstanding.

Desert Sunshine Exposure Tests, Inc.

Desert Sunshine Exposure Tests, Inc. (DSET) is an inde-pendent solar-energy test facility whose principal business isthe exposure of materials to direct and indirect solar radiation.DSET pioneered in the acceleration of outdoor weatheringemploying natural sunlight and is the only facility of its kindin the world. Accelerated outdoor weathering is accomplishedwith 175 patented equatorial, follow-the-sun solar concen-trators known as EMMA (Equatorial Mount with Mirrors forAcceleration) and EMMAQUA (an EMMA machine utilizingwater spray on the samples).

DSET's facilities, which encompass the most completesolar radiation monitoring station in the U.S., unmatchedsunlight availability, and a history of experience in solarengineering, provide a unique capability in solar testing.Devices that have been tested at DSET include solar-cell arrays,flat-plate solar collectors, and concentrators for solar-thermalpower conversion. Currently being evaluated for long-lifetimperformance are solar cells; solar cell encapsulants; mirrorcandidates for heliostat power-tower arrays and parabolicconcentrators; transparencies and glazings; and flat and selec-tive black absorber coatings for solar receivers.

The G. T. Schjeldahl Company prepared an exposure testprogram under the Research Applied to National Needs(RANN) Program of the National Science Foundation. Thisprogram is entitled "Solar Power Array for Concentration ofEnergy (Project SPACE)" and is aimed at the eventual development of a large-field array of mirrors focused on a centralboiler.

The University of Minnesota/Honeywell Systems andResearch Center scale model of their parabolic-trough solarconcentrator is presently under test at DSET. This concentrator was designed and constructed under a National Science.Foundation grant. Well-calibrated solar radiation measurement facilities, coupled with the sunshine availability at NewRiver, solar engineering experience, and the security affordedby the remote location, were instrumental in the collector'sbeing located at DSET for its initial test.

Spectrolab, a Division of Textron, Inc., has been testingits solar-cell arrays at DSET for some time. Concentratorshave been utilized to determine the weatherability and lifeexpectancy of these power-generating systems.

Mr. Gene Zerlaut, President and Technical Director ofDesert Sunshine Exposure Tests, Inc., was long associatedwith NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center developing coatings for spacecraft temperature control. He is co-owner ofDSET with Mr. Joseph Robbins, major stockholder andChairman of the Board.

Motorola

With the same spirit that guided Motorola to Arizona forthe establishment of a research facility in Phoenix in the 1940s,the company has initiated a two-pronged research inquiry intosolar energy conversion technology..

Several years ago the company became concerned aboutrising energy demand and declining fossil fuel reserves, andbegan to study the possibility of utilizing other forms of energyconversion for meeting the future energy needs of the country.Two questions were asked: will there be a commercial needfor alternative forms of energy conversion, and are Motorola'sbasic skills and capabilities applicable to any of the tech-nological problems which will have to be solved to make thesealternative energy forms practical. The Arab oil boycott provided a quick answer to the firstquestion. At the same time, technical studies were showingthat Motorola's sophisticated background experience in metals,semiconductors, plastics, optics, thermodynamics, hydrody-namics, reliability physics, and volume manufacturing ofextremely low-cost, high-reliability products were directlyapplicable to the problems which would have to be overcomein order to make solar energy conversion devices practical.

In 1974, a specialized laboratory was built, equipped, andstaffed to conduct inquiries into solar-energy conversion systemsand other products relevant to the nation's emerging needs.Because of the unique advantages of the Arizona climate, aswell as proximity of major universities and other divisions ofMotorola, this laboratory was located in Phoenix. A largerooftop testing platform was incorporated to permit the simul-taneous daytime test of many solar devices. Two basic ways ofutilizing the sun's energy are currently under study. Thermal conversion uses the sun's energy directly for heat-ing, air-conditioning, and providing hot water; photovoltaicconversion directly changes the sun's energy into electricityby means of solar cells.

It is literally true that almost any ten-year-old can puttogether in his backyard a simple and remarkably effectivedemonstration of solar water heating. However, in order tobuild practical, commercially useful solar-energy converters,technologists must achieve a major reduction in cost along withimprovements in reliability and performance. For solar cellswe are already close to the expected performance, but the costmust be reduced about 100-fold before they will provideeconomical electric power. For thermal converters the solar devices most frequentlyread about cost reductions of the order of only two to threeare required, coupled with a similar improvement in per-formance.

Facilities at Motorola of importance to the solar energyprogram include laboratories for semiconductor processingand encapsulation, equipment for the direct growth of siliconsingle-crystal ribbon, a dedicated machine shop, large rooftopsolar testing platform completely facilitated and equipped withsolar instrumentation, thermal lab for testing solar climate-control components and running them in conjunction withrooftop collectors, a sophisticated optical lab and an electrical/electronic test lab.

Solar energy utilization programs have failed in the pastbecause of inability to compete with alternative sources ofenergy. Motorola's main guideline in meeting its objectivesis cost effectiveness, and all design modifications are screenedfor cost/performance advantages. In addition, Motorola'sextensive concern with reliability offers great advantages. A20-year life for solar energy systems, with only infrequentmaintenance, would greatly enhance their general utilization.

These approaches towards the economics of solar energyutilization harmonize closely with the nation's need for solardevices that will have widespread usage, and thus a largeimpact upon the U.S. energy supply. Success will be enjoyedonly by those solar devices that show reasonable first cost,high performance, and trouble-free long life.

Dr. Robert Handy, Executive Director of Arizona SolarEnergy Research Commission, was formerly manager of Motorola's solar laboratory.

Goodyear Aerospace Corporation

Power generation using solar energy is one of the goals of the nation's solar energy program. Goodyear Aerospace was a pioneer in this field, and 13 years ago built the largest solar concentrator in the United States then or now.

The huge parabolic dish, 45 feet in diameter, focused sufficient sunlight to provide 15-kilowatts of power. This U.S. Air Force project was designed to be lofted into space, an early forerunner of such craft as Skylab. Goodyear's lightweight solar-energy concentrator was of reflective materials made rigid by foam plastic. So powerful was the heat flux at the focal point, the giant dish was prepared for shipment from the Litchfield Park plant at night to guard against possible injury to personnel handling it!

Terrestrial power plants are now in the news and Goodyear is a logical manufacturer of such equipment. The firm has capabilities in the field of optics, plastic films, metalworking, and fabrication of heavy structures.

In artist Robert McCall's futuristic concept, below, giant solar conversion panels are placed in outer space. Here he pictures them being serviced by one-man shuttle craft from a roving space station. The energy from the conversion panels is beamed to the night side of the Earth where special ground stations receive it.

Fleet Space Theater Puts YOU in Space

San Diego's $4 million Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater, the world's first Space Transit Simulator theater, is being lauded both as a "new generation of planetariums" and the "beginning of a new entertainment medium."

The city-owned entertainment complex, located on the Plaza de Balboa in 1,400-acre Balboa Park, has been in operation since March, 1973, and uses a variety of computer controlled first-of-a-kind projection systems with fisheye lenses and a projection dome than "surrounds" audiences in the 350seat theater. Included in the Space Transit Simulator system are a $235,000 water-cooled Omnimax projector using the largest film available (70 mm), a $270,000 computer-controlled Star Ball projector that can project 10,000 stars from any point in the universe at any time in history, the 76-foot-diameter projection dome, and various planet, image, and zoom projectors.

Visitors often describe the Fleet Space Theater productions as "indescribable."

The theater has been designed to take the viewer out of his normal frame of reference to space. The hemisphere projection screen, shaped like half a giant ball that is tilted 25 degrees from the horizon, "surrounds" the steeply tiered theater seating. Although the sheet metal screen appears solid, it has millions of small, evenly spaced holes through 22 per cent of its surface to permit passage of air conditioning and sound from 17 large speakers. Fifty speakers are also located under the theater seats.

A Science Center adjoining the theater features 32 exhibits on sensory exploration and perception aimed at providing insight into science through personal involvement in controlled experiments.

Several of the experiments involve optical illusions - rang-ing from a revolving trapezoid to a "stop action" wagon wheel and various color-combination tricks. Twelve-foot parabolicdisc dishes enable friends to whisper to one another from 50 feet apart.

Visitors can listen to and watch their heartbeats or view changes in the iris of one of their eyes as a light source is turned up and down. They also can watch vapor trails of high energy protons, alpha particles, and beta particles in an oversize nuclear cloud chamber or work with hologram, laser, and various types of communications displays.

Maj. Reuben H. Fleet, for whom the Fleet Space Theater and Science Center is named, is an aeronautical pioneer who inaugurated the first air mail service (Washington to Philadelphia, May 15, 1918) and who founded Consolidated Aircraft Corp., which is now Convair Division of General Dynamics Corp. in San Diego.

On July 11, we attended a special preview showing of the current program a three part presentation which took us "out of this world" without leaving the planet.

Part one, "Laserium," is the world's longest running planetarium feature. It is at once a cosmic laser ballet and symphonic concert employing the most advanced expanded-image technology custom designed for the Fleet Space Theater dome projection.

Choreographing krypton laser forms, patterns and designs in the truest reds, blues, yellows and greens are developed to rock and classical music.

"The newly-installed generation of mirrors, prisms and mechanical devices," San Diego laserist Gary Stadler said, "expands the Laserium projection field and adds texture to the brilliant krypton hues."

He explained that shimmering laser-created forms bounce, intertwine, swirl and wiggle to such music as Strauss' "Blue Danube," Cal Tjader's "Gimme Shelter," Respighi's "Pines of the Appian Way" and "Tank" by Emerson Lake and Palmer.

"Probes in Space" is the second and "mainest part" of the program. It takes the viewer on a "hitch-hike" trip on NASA's Mariner, Pioneer and Viking probes to our nearest planets.

In answer to hundreds of requests, the Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater opens its program "Probes in Space" with an "up-to-the-minute" view of the San Diego night sky.Using the starfield, with a superimposed San Diego horizon ... a live presenter will point out the position of constellations and planets in that night's sky. The neighboring planets of Mars, Venus, Mercury and Jupiter who are "visited" in the film, "Probes in Space" will be pointed out and their positions plotted so that viewers at the Space Theater can walk out of doors and spot those very planets in the sky.

Part three, "Viva Baja," gave us the "mostest thrill" since our first big time roller coaster ride. The viewer is in every scene in the air, exploring exotic deserts, rural villages, resorts and jutting cliffs over crystal bays.

Exclusive movie footage captured at Baja California's Scammon's Lagoon shows the Gray Whale breeding grounds, provides scenes of the huge mammals surfacing, spouting, fluke-showing and breaching during a one minute ballet of whale behavior.

Film maker Roger Tilton reports that Los Angeles mam malogist Dr. William Samaras says it could take twenty years of field study to capture these whale activities. "We were for tunate enough," Tilton said, "to film everything that a whale does in public."

He additionally announces that new Omnimax technology in underwater filming will provide a new level of Space Theater involvement-excitement. "The SeaCor total fisheye-lense underwater camera," Tilton said, "fully lives up to its name by filming the sea in front of the diver as well as the depths below, to the sides and overhead surface with the sun sparkling on rippling waves. After all is said and done, it is one whale of a show! Information regarding specific shows may be obtained by contacting Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater and Science Center, 1875 El Prado, Balboa Park, San Diego, California 92101.

JOINT U.S.-SOVIET STAMPS MARK APOLLO-SOYUZ LINKUP

The U.S. Postal Service and the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of the Soviet Union have issued a twin pair of postage stamps honoring the Apollo-Soyuz space mission.

These stamps, one of U.S. design and one of Soviet design, were issued on the day of the launches, July 15. The same two designs are used by both nations on stamps that are identical with those issued in the other nation except for language and denomination.

The U.S. design is by noted space artist Robert McCall, of Paradise Valley, Arizona. The U.S.S.R. design is by Soviet artist Anatoly M. Aksamit who is best known as an aviation artist.

The denomination of the stamps issued by the United States is 10 cents and those issued by the Soviets 12 kopecks. Both the U.S. and Soviet stamps are about the same size. A limited amount of U.S. stamps are available at local post offices in panes of 24, 12 of each design, and measure 2.44 inches by 1.05 inches (62mm. by 26.7mm.).

McCall has been closely identified with the U.S. space program since 1958. He designed the twin 8-cent stamps issued in 1971 to salute 10 years of U.S. achievements in space, as well as the Skylab commemorative of 1974 and the Pioneer stamps of 1975.

McCall's space art combines the weight of reality with the weightlessness of outer space in a convincing and dramatic way. Although much of his work is based upon NASA photographs, McCall's artistic perception keeps his paintings from freezing into photographic flatness.

Aksamit has been a professional artist since 1946. For many years, he was chief artist for advertising for Aeroflot, the Soviet airline. Since 1960, he has worked on postage stamps with his best-known series, on the history of U.S.S.R. civil aviation, being issued in 1969. Besides the joint stamps with the U.S., Aksamit has designed additional Soviet stamps to be released in honor of Apollo-Soyuz.

Don Quixote, Jesse James and the Tucson ACT Gang in Spectacular Arizona Highways Gold Stage Holdup

There's no business like show business! And in show business we know of no brighter and more brilliant happening than "Diamond Studs" as performed by a group of young Arizonans known professionally as Arizona Civic Theatre.

On June 14th, 1975, in the picturesque setting of famous Old Tucson, the ACT group exploded the most spectacular bomb in Western show business by combining their annual Don Quixote Award banquet with the first American road show premiere of "Diamond Studs," a brilliant musical satire based on the story of Jesse James.

The New Yorker Magazine says, "Diamond Studs' is a country-and-western version of a life of Jesse James; the life doesn't bear close examination but is great fun to listen to. In a cabaret setting." They should have added "Western Style!" At every performance, just as in the original Broadway production, the audience is seated at small cafe tables. Foaming pitchers of beer, bags of peanuts and popcorn, as well as a program of the evening's entertainment is on each table.

Light-hearted and fast paced, it is pure entertainment from beginning to end . . . with talent as professional as any seen in New York. Produced by Old Tucson's Robert Shelton, "Diamond Studs" is directed by ACT's resident director Sandy Rosenthal, with Doc Gordon as music director and Frances Smith Cohen doing the choreography.

Outstanding performances are given by Phil Stover as Jesse James, Rena Cook as Zee James, Nancy Booth as Belle Starr, and Jim Griffith doubling as Cole Younger and "Ma" James. Dozens of others alternate between making music and playing an occasional role, and all perform with zest and spirit.

The production will run through Labor Day at Old Tucson, but if you can't make the trip, there is a possibility of it opening in Phoenix and touring other metropolitan areas in the West.

ACT's annual Achievement Award Dinner serves a two-fold purpose . . . in addition to honoring someone or some-thing of unusual artistic merit, it provides a fund raising event for the theatre group. Peter Marroney, head of the University of Arizona drama department, and recipient of last year's award, presented Don Quixote, an original bronze sculpture by artist Tom Barrington, to Editor Joseph Stacey and James C. Stevens, director of publications.

Arthur Loew, Jr., did a masterful job as master of ceremonies, followed by George Rosenberg who narrated the Arizona Highways Magazine story, illustrated with color slides of the magazine's most beautiful pictures.

The party was given in the true tradition of the West, with refreshments and hors d'oeuvres served in Old Tucson's main square, with mariachis at one end and square-dancers on the other. For dinner and the premiere, guests moved into the giant sound stage to be seated.

The over four hundred enthusiastic patrons were given red, white and blue lunch boxes containing seafood cocktails, a submarine sandwich, fruit, cheese and red wine. Even the most sophisticated guest applauded the originality of the cuisine, and the patriotic lunch boxes have become a symbol of those who truly appreciate and want to contribute to the further success of the Arizona Civic Theatre group.

SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Awareness of remissness in this business oftimes comes too late for press time correction. In reviewing our first "off-the-press" copies of our special July Indian Basket edition, we noted the absence of credits and acknowledge-ments due the Heard Museum of Phoenix for the quantity and quality of baskets selected from what is generally considered to be one of the world's major collections. We are especially grateful to Heard Museum Director, Dr. Patrick T. Houlihan and members of the museum staff. Their interest, dedication and cooperation in the preparation of our honored "Collector Series" has been an important asset toward the measure of excellence consistent with our association.

Outer space journeys may someday be made in huge "solar sails" driven by sunlight. Artist Robert McCall depicts such a futuristic trip.