| Description | Gold states he knows it is unkind, and often unwise, to bother funding agencies with letters proclaiming urgency. He is quite aware of the type of problem NSF faces, and no criticism is implied.
However, Gold does have a serious financial problem developing by next month, in that the team who have been working with him on Earth outgassing and allied problems cannot be supported. It would be a major setback if no support could be found and Drs S Soter, E Bilson and S Dermott had to seek other work.
States he is expecting to receive other research support for other aspects of the outgassing story, such as from DoE, but applications for this are only just going in now. On the other hand, the support from the NSF Astronomy Section for solar system work, which was the main support for these persons, is coming to an end, because they decided to change their main thrust to the terrestrial problem with its major potential applications.
They have now added a great deal more to the story, and Gold has lectured about it in Great Britain, Germany, France and in many institutions in the US. States the important thing to him has been the complete absence of any serious objections to his thesis, and secondly the large amount of entirely favourable correpondence often adding supporting evidence.
Gold hopes very much that they can stay in business. |