Technology external wraparound electrical heat ers with integral weather seals to maintain a minimum temperature of 75 °F. The O-rings are made of the Viton fluoropolymer used in the Challenger because of problems with alternative materials tried. This first firing did not simulate the dynamic forces that impact on the booster during an actual launch. A second, more stringent develop ment motor test late in November will use a special test stand to apply such dynamic loads. NASA will then adopt the final booster design for flight, and will go on to "qualification" and "pro duction verification" tests of this design. There will be up to eight full-scale booster test firings, if time permits, before first launch of a shut tle, Discovery, now scheduled for next June 2. And last month NASA switched on the power for the first time in 19 months and began test ing the Discovery orbiter. John Thomas, manager of NASA's
booster redesign program, calls the schedule "exceptionally tight" but "doable." Any significant failure in the tests would necessitate booster redesign and delay of the launch, however. Many observers are skep tical the shuttle will be ready to fly in June. Meanwhile, NASA has just con tracted with Rockwell Internation al to build a fourth shuttle orbiter within 45 months, adding to the three grounded orbiters and replac ing the Challenger, at a cost of at least $1.3 billion. And in August NASA awarded nine-month con tracts of up to $3.3 million each to five aerospace firms for design and definition studies for an advanced, second-generation solid rocket boost er. These studies will include both a segmented motor like the current booster and a monolithic design, in which the propellant is cast with out joints. If built, the motor would start shuttle flights in late 1993. Richard Seltzer, C&EN Washington
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ISHIHARA SANGYO K A I S H A , LTD. 1 0 - 3 0 , Fujimi 2 - C h o m e , C h i y o d a - k u , T o k y o , J a p a n , T e l e x : 2 3 2 4 3 0 6 ISK J I S K ( E U R O P E ) S . A . 3 3 / 3 1 Rue M o n t o y e r , Box 8 1 0 4 0 Bruxelles Tel:(02)512-54-50-512-72-78 Telex:23362 ITDD Β I S H I H A R A C O R P O R A T I O N ( U . S . A . ) Transamerica Pyramid 42nd Floor 6 0 0 M o n t g o m e r y S t r e e t , San Francisco, Ca 9 4 1 1 1 Tel:415-421-8207 T e l e x : 2 7 8 0 1 0 ICUSA UR CIRCLE 16 ON READER SERVICE CARD
42
September 7, 1987 C&EN
Oil, chemical firms join gas research program The Gas Research Institute (GRI) has expanded its Industrial Associates Program (IAP) with the addition of a number of new cosponsors. A joint research effort, IAP is aimed at "leveraging" R&D funding at a time when some of the traditional sources of funds are drying up. Each industrial cosponsor in the program contributes $50,000 per year for three years, and GRI con tributes $1.4 million for the triennium. So far about a dozen major oil and chemical companies have joined the program. IAP will focus on heterogeneous catalysis and surface science, organometallic chemistry, theoretical chem istry, and biological catalysis. The most promising results from IAP will be transferred to GRTs Applied Chemical Process Research Program. This program concentrates on de veloping catalytic processes for the conversion of natural gas to chemi cals and fuels. Daniel A. Scarpiello, GRTs man ager of catalysis research, points out that natural gas traditionally has been used as a heat source and a feedstock for a limited number of chemicals. Until recently, most fore casts had predicted limited a n d shrinking supplies of natural gas. This focused gas research on the matter of generating substitute nat ural gas. Current supply prospects are much more optimistic, and the focus has shifted to converting the presumed ample supply of natural gas to other products. Among the new directions for nat ural gas utilization are the on-site generation of useful methane-based products, the development of meth ane-based fuel cells, expanded use of methane as a chemical feedstock, direct use of methane as a reducing agent, particularly in metallurgical applications, and other new appli cations that would improve end-use flexibility. Perhaps the most intrigu ing of these is on-site generation of useful methane-based products. The implication of on-site gener ation is that miniplants would be made available at the point of con sumption of t h e methane-based
products. This would require some greatly improved catalytic chemistry, as well as a major engineering challenge in plant reliability and serviceability. One possibility that has been mentioned outside of GRI is a mini methanol plant for fuel cooperatives. For some years mini ammonia plants have been favored by agricultural co-ops. It remains to be seen just how "mini" the miniplants might become. Some advocates are suggesting that individual households could even have methane converters for various purposes. The tactical objective of GRI's methane reaction science effort is to identify and characterize new chemical and biological concepts for the conversion of methane or for modification of its physical form that could lead to new and useful services for the consumer. The strategic focus will be on very long-range frontier research in the investigation of the chemistry, biochemistry,
and biology of C-H bond activation and catalyzed methane conversion reactions. The emphasis is on chemical research, with biochemical and biological studies being necessary ancillaries. By the end of 1988 GRI expects to be a key agency for the support of and information on methane reaction science. IAP research contracts are normally solicited through requests for proposals. Distinguished advisory boards and peer review are usually used in deciding on the merit of proposals. It is indicative of the times that GRI, which is primarily maintained by the gas supply industry, would be drawing support from oil and chemical companies. Two immediate reasons are the considerable cutbacks that many chemical and oil companies have made in their inhouse R&D budgets, and a new interest in diversifying feedstocks to nonpetroleum sources. Joseph Haggin, Chicago
Intel offers faster line of supercomputers Intel Scientific Computers' hypercube-based family of concurrent supercomputers entered its second generation last week. The company announced new hardware and software developments that make the iPSC/2 family much simpler to program and up to 10 times faster than the first generation. The high-speed parallel computer systems are used primarily for large-scale scientific and engineering applications. Some of the possible applications are of direct chemical interest. Since introducing the first iPSC generation two years ago (C&EN, Feb. 18, 1985, page 31), Intel has shipped about 70 of the systems worldwide. About 70% are used in research at universities, 20% in defense-related applications at government and defense contractor
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CIRCLE 25 ON READER SERVICE CARD September 7, 1987 C&EN
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