Word: solarity
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...Formation of a "solar bank" to aid projects that would push the proportion of all U.S. energy supplied by solar power to 20% by the year...
...manned program came an equal lack of enthusiasm for automated missions to explore the planets. In 1972, with help from the White House, Congress eliminated the "Grand Tour" project, which would have taken advantage of a rare (once every 180 years) planetary alignment to survey the entire outer solar system. Those missions that were approved often did not receive funding for complete analysis of the return data. Others--to map the moon and check it for metal deposits, to research solar phenomena, to rendezvous with Halley's Comet--never got past appropriations subcommittees...
Nevertheless, the solar system we knew ten years ago pales in comparison to the picture we have of it now. Back then, there were very few definable worlds: the Earth, the moon, fuzzy pictures of Jupiter and Saturn, and a few cryptic shots of Mars...
Farther out, beyond the asteriod belt, Jupiter has been visited by several unmanned spacecraft, most recently Voyagers I and II. The most massive planet in the solar system has no surface to speak of, but the patterns in its stormy atmosphere and bands of swirling colors would please Dali. Also, Saturn no longer has a monopoly on rings. For hundreds of years, it looked that way, but since 1977 rings have been discovered around both Uranus and Jupiter. Surprise...
When they get there, they might want to switch on the experiments left behind by the Apollo astronauts. Sending data back to earth about moonquakes, solar wind levels, and so on, they were still operating in September 1977 when it was decided that we couldn't afford to pick up the signals. So the instruments were turned off. Only a few scientists were upset; no one else cared one way or the other. Welcome to the Space...