Unmanned Satellite

Using cautious language, the American Rocket Society (made up of engineers, not space cadets) says that the time has come to take the first step toward space flight. Last week the society petitioned the National Science Foundation to "sponsor a study of the utility of an unmanned earth satellite vehicle." In Jet Propulsion, the society's journal, a long list of eminent authorities tell what can be accomplished by an unmanned satellite revolving around the earth.

Astronomer Ira S. Bowen of Mt. Wilson and Palomar Observatories is confident that even small instruments circling above the earth's atmosphere can gather information about the stars that is inaccessible to telescopes on the earth's surface. Pictures taken from a satellite will never get back to earth intact, but Bowen suggests that the plates be developed automatically, scanned by electronic apparatus and sent to earth by radio like wirephotos.

Hermann J. Schaefer of the Navy's School of Aviation Medicine wants to use the satellite to find out how animal tissue is affected by cosmic rays that have not been slowed by the atmosphere. An "animal capsule," he says, can be carried by the satellite, and the heartbeat and breathing of its inmate can be sent down to earth by radio. Other instruments can report how the spaceborne animal responds to "zero gravity." The most interesting effects of weightlessness, Schaefer admits, are apt to be psychological, and so they will not be observed in full flower until a human has been exposed to zero gravity, but he hopes that even spaceborne mice will develop a few space neuroses.

Homer E. Newell of the Naval Research Laboratory tells how a satellite can observe the atmosphere from its top better than surface-bound men can study it from its bottom. It can also observe meteors as they arrive from space, including the swarming "micro-meteors" that may be a serious obstacle to long-range space voyaging. These tiny, swift particles are believed to exert a powerful effect on the earth's weather, and they are almost impossible to observe from "down deep in the atmosphere.

Other uses of a satellite include accurate mapping of the earth's surface, aid to navigation and relaying television programs. Rocket experts believe that recent progress in guided missiles makes the project practical. They see no reason why man's first step into space should not be taken in the next year or two.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.