Present Space-Thinking Stops At Moon

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31109, 12 July 1966, Page 8

Present Space-Thinking Stops At Moon

The assembly Hues for some of the world’s largest rockets may soon be shut down. There is a real danger that many baghly-sldlled American rocket workers will find themselves laid off. Already there has been a scare at the Chrysler Corporation’s space division where the main stage of the Uprated Saturn I (formerly known as the Saturn I-B) is manufactured. The Apollo contracting firms sudi as North American Aviation, Boeing Aerospace, Douglas Aircraft and others are worried at the lack of orders to follow completion of their Apollo work. Officially, the American space programmers do not know where in the solar system they are going after they reach the moon. And tor that matter they are not at all clear on what their goals are on the moon itself. Furthermore, Russia's space goals have never been reliably stated but it would be ignoring history to believe that they have none. Early in 1956 the United States could have placed a small satellite in earth orbit. At that time the rockets which were combined to place the first United States satellite in orbit in 1958 were already in existence and could have been used had it been official policy to do so. Lack of that particular goal cost America dearly and gave the Russians the chance to seize many “firsts” in space. It was in 1961 that President Kennedy saw clearly that a bold programme was necessary to win back space supremacy from the Soviets. He set the first manned lunar landing as a national goal—even before the United States had achieved any kind of manned spaceflight Galvanised by the President’s declaration, the National Aeronautics

and Space Administration began to design the world’s biggest rockets, a fantastic qiaceport a world-wide network of tracking stations and a host of supporting facilities. The cost spread over the last five years, has been more than 20,000 million dollars. Now the money is beginning to dwindle. The spaceport is nearly complete. The rockets are coming along nicely. The spacecraft and moon-landing vehicles are in advanced stages of construction. And there to no more work to follow. Military Budget On the military side, the picture to a little brighter for the aerospace firms. Since last August when Presideot Mmson authorised development of a manned orbiting laboratory, a continuing military space budget of nearly 2000 nrillton dollars a year has been assured. However this effort to not designed or intended to support the exploration of space. The worries of the Vietnam war have probably distracted the President from a full consideration of the future United States space programme. Only he can decide what will be attempted after men have landed on the moon. Nor will he be able to postpone such consideration for very much longer. Already various groups and organisations are pressing for a space-goal beyond the moon.

Last year a panel of experts met at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, for two months’ intensive study which led to the recommendation that the planet Mars should be the first-priority target for planetary research. This, and other recommendations, have been published in a three-volume report by the

Space Science Board of the United States National Academy of Sciences. A few months ago the American Astronautics! Society added its voice to the growing clamour for longterm planning of space activity. During the fourth Goddard Memorial symposium of the society last March in Washington, the Democrat Representative from Minnesota, Mr Joseph E. Karth, complained about the Government falling down on making adequate plans. At the symposium the Vice-President, Mr Hubert Humphrey, merely emphasised that America could and would achieve the goal of a manned landtag on the moon before 1970. He set no further timetable for the future. Editorial crnnmeut in American trade and technical journals is now urging the President to raise his sights and commit the United States to the manned exploration of space beyond the moon. Such an objective, the editors claim, would take the sting out of a possible defeat by the Soviets in the race to the moon. Although they have not yet achieved rendezvous and docking in orbit the Russians have managed to orbit the moon, soft land on the moon and walk in space ahead of the Americans. These achievements, plus the undoubted payload capacity of their huge Proton booster, indicate that the Russians are well on the way to a manned lunar landing. “It is worth noting that the year in which the Russians are most likely to bring this off, if they do succeed, is 1968, the year of the next Presidential election,” says William Coughlin, editor of the “Missiles and Rockets” magazine.

What would be a suitable and desirable goal for the American space effort? According to many authorities the giant Saturn V moon roeket eould be developed into a veMcle capable of tak-

ing men to Mars, with a landing made possible if new forms of nuclear-electric propulsion are employed during the Interplanetary phase of the flight. Before the year

- 2000 it is estimated that r nuclear rockets will take men as near to the sun as the ’ planet Mercury and as far out • in the solar system as the ’ moons of Saturn. Unmanned space probes

will have reached even further. But they will not be of American origin unless the early planning is commenced quite soon. A suitable and practical set of goals for the United States space effort would be men on the moon by 1970, on Mars by 1980, on Mercury by 1985, on the moons of Jupiter by 1990, and on the moons of Saturn by tile turn of the century. Then, maybe, the stars?