Beginning a few years earlier, I'd been ridiculed each week in the theme song of the CBS series WKRP in Cincinnati. By 1984 that series had run its course, but Mr. Richard Sanders, who'd been in WKRP in Cincinnati, appeared in the later Simon & Simon episode, which was about astronauts and a fictionalized version of Glaser's SSP proposal. That was one of many indications I had that my friends at CBS were following my activities fairly closely. I later saw Mr. Gerald McRaney, who played one of the two main characters in Simon & Simon, on the street in Indianapolis.
Click here to view a fan web site with an description of the episode and cast list (episode 3-17, 2/9/84).
There's more about what happened in the following message from me to Dr. Peter Glaser which was sent by e-mail on August 13, 2004:
Thank you for your letter of Dec. 11, 2000. I’ve posted that letter here with your home address masked:
www.oocities.org/gahnsd/GLASER.gif
You wrote, “There is a growing consensus that SSP can be demonstrated in orbit in 25 years, and has the potential to become the major source of energy for Earth in this century without the adverse effects on the ecology of current energy sources.”
As a self-described “science generalist” or “science journalist,” I’m not an expert on many aspects of SSP (Space Solar Power)–which, for the benefit of others who may read this, envisions beaming pollution-free energy from space to Earth.
However the vicissitudes of life have given me some involvement with the subject. So I’ve tried to assess both the scientific and the political issues to the best of my ability. At this point in time, it seems to me that SSP is indeed still a very important idea and that it would be a very good thing if it were to be pushed along a little faster than it is at present. It deserves more attention in the press, including the science press, than it is getting at this time.
Although I have limited resources for making others do as I think best, last year I instituted what I called the “Gaus Science Award.” The first of these prizes I gave to Dr. Olaf Schneewind of the University of Chicago. I wrote about Dr. Schneewind’s award in my paper and electronic newsletters and gave the University of Chicago itself 200 shares of stock in our corporation.
This year I’ve decided to give you the Gaus Science Award.
Again the award is to come with 200 shares of our stock.
I plan to send the stock certificate for those shares to someone, somewhere before the end of the year.
The shares have a par value of $30/share and a book value of $18-$20, so the value of the prize in nominal. However, the shares have been traded and do have some market value. I suppose you might or might not want to bother with the shares. If the former is the case, I’ll simply mail you a certificate. If the latter is the case, feel free to name some individual, academic institution or corporation to whom or to which I could send the shares, with you as the donor.
I imagine my humble award as a publicity device. It provides a way of emphasizing my idea of what is scientifically meritorious. Looking around, one sees much that isn’t much good that’s being done in the name of science–so one would like to praise that work that is of better quality. I’m apparently a distant relation of German mathematician, Karl Gauss, and I’m hoping that our award will be able to borrow something from his luster.
It seems to me that your SSP idea has already proved its worth because of the role that it played in resolving the Cold War.