‘TRUE PLANETARY PRORE’

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30977, 5 February 1966, Page 15

‘TRUE PLANETARY PRORE’

fXZ. Press Assn —Copyright) NEW YORK, Feb. 4. The first landing, intact, of a vehicle on another celestial body marks the start of true planetary exploration, the “New York Times” news service science editor, Walter Sullivan, said today.

Sullivan wrote

It has also raised hopes that manned vehicles will be able to set down on the moon without vanishing into a choking sea of dust. The Soviet spacecraft, Luna IX. is apparently sitting on the surface, since it is sending signals to earth. The achievement marks a new departure in space exploration. because all other observations of bodies other than the earth, have been made from a distance. Some of the photographs sent to earth just before the

Rangers crashed on to the moon showed rocks and other small features, but they did not answer the basic question: Can a man walk on the moon?

Luna IX may do so. Men may ultimately walk through the scenery that it probes. The techniques used in setting the unmanned vehicle down can be developed for future landings on Mars, the asteroids, and other celestial bodies. The method used by the Russians was probably quite similar to that projected for the American Surveyor. New Stage

However, landing a spacecraft intact on a body that has no atmosphere marks a new stage in space technology. The launching of the first Sputnik on October 4, 1957. was a “brute force” operation, but to guide a vehicle to the properly sunlit part of the moon, bring it down gently on its foot and aim its radio antenna at the earth is a feat

of quite a different order. It took five attempts for the Russians to do it, whereas they apparently launched the initial Sputnik on the first try.

Apparently the Ocean of Storms has been the target of all Soviet attempts at a soft landing. Three of them crashed there and the fourth swerved off course in midflight and missed the moon altogether. Largest Smooth Area The Ocean of Storms is the largest smooth region of the moon. It has been proposed that such “seas” derive their appearance from a deep covering of dust. Many experts believed the surface was a “fairy castle” structure with little bearingstrength. This led some to speculate that at least some of the previous Lunas failed to send signals to earth after arrival on the moon simply because they had vanished beneath the surface. Luna IX has disproved this hypothesis.

The Soviet achievement does not necessarily mean the first man to land on the moon will be Russian. Booster Rockets

That will be determined to a large extent by the development speed of the heavy booster rockets, manned vehicles and rendezvous techniques needed for the manned landings. In fact, the results of the Luna IX observations may reduce some of the American

requirements for independent testing of the moon’s surface.

This would depend on Soviet publication of the observations. In the past the Russians have been secretive about their big rockets and space technology, but have published many of their scientific results.

Thus, although proposals for a joint Soviet-American assault on the moon have never borne fruit, it may be that the two programmes will, to some extent, support one another. The United States has already demonstrated another technique vital for exploration of the moon and planets, space rendezvous.