Copyrighted 1959. Approximately 19,578 words.
An Introduction to Space, Based on a Pioneering
Scientific Report to the Congress in 1958
A condensation of The RAND Corporation’s volume Space Handbook, prepared for historically minded readers in a new century.
This is a condensation of the pioneering research study Space Handbook, which was researched and written by Robert Buckheim and other scientists and engineers of The RAND Corporation. It was first crafted early in 1958 in classified form as RM-2289-RC for the Select Committee on Astronautics and Space Exploration of the United States House of Representatives (which was then drafting the National Aeronautics and Space Act). In slightly revised form it was published by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D. C. in 1959. It became a hardcover book issued by Random House (1959). The original report and book contained many tabulations, diagrams, tables, and engineering renderings.
This condensation for the general public was drafted in the year 1959 by Vaughn Davis Bornet, who was then a recently employed staff member of RAND Administration. The original 239 page fine print version (301 as illustrated in the book) was reduced to 70 typed pages. The author of each chapter was required to read his portion of the manuscript and sign off on it as a completely accurate summary. (Most of them acquiesced with patient resignation.) Although put in line to be published for a non-specialized audience (finally, with internal order L-23982 of December 11, 1962), it somehow got detoured. The author treasured his handwritten original and kept a clean copy of the final manuscript, expecting ultimate publication. The RAND Corporation is now permitting the condensed version to be published on a nonprofit basis.
Here we have a rendering for the general reader of the scientific and engineering space knowledge of that point in time. The purpose of the entire Space research enterprise, wrote RAND president Frank R. Collbohm to the Congressional Committee in his letter of December 1, 1958 was “the development and accomplishment of a vigorous, adequate astronautics and space exploration program” for the United States.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
WHEN THE SPACE RACE BEGAN
EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION TO ASTRONAUTICS
EFFECTS OF ASTRONAUTICS
THE SOLAR SYSTEM AND OUTER SPACE
TRAJECTORIES AND ORBITS
LIFE ON A SPACE SHIP
MISSILES, SATELLITES, AND DOLLARS
OUR SATELLITES AND MISSILES
FLIGHTS TO THE MOON
PHOTOGRAPHY FROM SATELLITES
SATELLITES AND THE WEATHER
PRELUDE TO SPUTNIK
SOVIET SPACE PIONEERING
SOVIET SPACE PLANS
READING ABOUT AMERICAN SPACE ACTIVITY
EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
Early in 1958 the Congressional committee charged with studying space and astronautics—the Select Committee on Astro-nautics and Space Exploration, House of Representatives—reached out across the country to ask the nonprofit think tank RAND, located in Santa Monica, California, for data on astronautics to be used in making policy decisions. The result was a classified report. On November 14 the Committee said it needed additionally “an authoritative study in lay terms which would set forth clearly the present and definitely foreseeable state of the art in space flight.”
The request from the United States Government of November 14, 1958 was decidedly flattering. “…the final report on so grave a matter must be the most authoritative assessment which it is possible to give the American people. We have had many offers of help from different organizations, and their advice has been beneficial. However, we have come to the conclusion after careful review, that The RAND Corporation could make a unique contribution to the cause of public understanding if we can persuade it to marshal its resources of long experience and talent in this field to help us prepare a balanced report on the space outlook suitable for public release. We particularly like RAND’s reputation for independence and integrity.”
Congressman John W. McCormack, then Majority Leader as well as Committee chairman, said the need was for material in “ex-purgated form,” for the Committee was obligated to prepare “a balanced report on the space outlook for public release.” As it turned out, RAND relied heavily on its existing study to forward on December 29, 1958 a formal report suitable for government publication.
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Considerable research might show how far the first version of Space Handbook (“Astronautics and Its Applications”) was relied on by Congress when framing the legislation that created NASA. And how far did it influence candidates for the presidency and vice presidency in the Election of 1960 toward support of astronautics in general? Three of the four, after all, eventually became president. The famous Man on the Moon project instituted in the time of President John F. Kennedy, carried through in the years of President Lyndon B. Johnson, and completed in the first year of President Richard M. Nixon became a subject of decided interest to each. As for the Moon Project itself, the moon “will reach its best inclination in 1969,” these researchers judged! To be noted is the report’s concluding section, in which the Soviet government is shown (from Russian language sources) to be intensely serious about every aspect of space research and rocket development.
The RAND material submitted twice was financed by the Corporation’s own in-house funds. Its Washington recipients soon described it as “the most comprehensive unclassified study on the subject now available.” And they also said it was “the most comprehensive study of space technology ever prepared in a form usable by laymen.” They rushed seven thousand copies into print and passed a resolution of thanks.
Having quoted the praise, one knows that many other factors were at work in that time. Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson was committed and very active. There was a hard working Senate committee. The executive staff of the Eisenhower Administration was involved. Several staff members of the House committee played leading roles. There was impressive testimony offered by many individuals and organizations. Nevertheless, it was the RAND scientific and engineering effort that apparently gave assurance that what was being contemplated could one day come to pass.
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The Director of the research and writing of Space Handbook was Robert W. Buckheim. His colleagues—engineers, scientists, social scientists, and editors—need to be credited here: R. L. Bjork, S. T. Cohen, C. M. Crain, M. H. Davis, Robert A. Davis, Stephen H. Dole, T. I. Edwards, R. H. Frick, R. T. Gabler, T. B. Garber, Carl Gazley, Jr., Joseph M. Goldsen, Martin Goldsmith, S. M. Greenfield, E. C. Heffern, George A. Hoffman, Arnold L. Horelich, John H. Huth, Lloyd E. Kaechele, Helde K. Kallmann, Amrom H. Katz, W. W. Kellogg, F. J. Krieger, H. A. Lang, Eugene Levin, Hans A. Lieske, Milton A. Margolis, David J. Masson, William R. Micks, Frederick S. Pardee, Sidney Passman, Louis N. Rowell, Richard Schamberg, Frederick T. Smith, Myron C. Smith, Peter Swerling, E. H. Vestine, E. P. Williams, and Albert G. Wilson. Jesse L. Greenstein and Samuel Herrick were consultants. The government Committee Director, George J. Feldman, thanked George H. Clement of RAND for commendable liaison between the Committee and the Corporation. The editors on the project were Jack Vogel, Malcolm A. Palmatier, and N. J. Horgan. The staff of RAND’s Washington liaison office were involved throughout. Only nine of these individuals were alive in 2005.
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It is gratifying to see this abridgment of Space Handbook finally available. Here is the story: After Brownlee Haydon, then Communications Director at the RAND Corporation, suggested to me in 1959 that a summary, that is, a digest version be prepared for youths and the newspaper reading public, I completed the task. To our surprise, the New York publisher of a book version of the handbook demurred on issuing a “competing version,” saying that theirs was still selling. John Hogan, then corporation liaison for publications, filed his copy away and so did I, for other projects awaited. As a consequence, the narrative before us has resided in my filing cabinet for more than 44 years. Now the summarizing essay is published at last.
It is a surprise to anticipate that there may well be a new audience for this essay. Written at the time to explain “that new space activity” to the layman (and maybe some young people), it now can serve the purpose of giving new generations insight and perspective on what experts thought and planned at the dawn of our space age. We are “back there” once again, peering anxiously and hopefully (and insightfully) toward where we are now.
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SPACE, a subject now so generally recognized to be of the very greatest importance to Mankind, was once far less under-stood; indeed, it was considered to be downright mysterious. Astronautics as we know it is, after all, a relatively new science whatever the interesting roots found to exist among the ancients. Reading the present multi-authored half century old study may demolish some commonly held myths and misconceptions of today. It was intended for an audience that lived as the Eisenhower Administration was drawing to a close. NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) became operational the very month the Congress asked a second time for RAND’s help.
The project to put a man on the Moon did not exist in those days. The Soviet Union’s Sputnik had been launched, but an American had not yet gone into space. That ten years later the American public (including my family and myself) would be peering at TV sets to see men landing on the Moon in the summer of 1969 was far beyond the public’s expectation of likely futures.
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Several short paragraphs may help in clarifying the present text where it mentions various space vehicles of that day. Pioneer 3 was launched on December 3, 1958, ascending 63,580 miles. A communications satellite boosted by Atlas went into orbit Decem- ber 18 that year, and Vanguard 2, a scientific satellite, departed February 17, 1959. Thor launched a reconnaissance satellite on February 28, and Pioneer 4 would make a Moon flyby on March 3 of 1959.
Astronauts destined for lives of great fame were presented to the public April 9, 1959 and monkeys were launched and recovered May 28. The Scout vehicle began its workhorse career on July 1, 1960, and Mercury-Redstone was successfully tested August 12. Freedom 7 with Alan B. Shepard, Jr. ascended and returned after covering 302 miles on May 5, 1961. And on May 25 of his first year in office President Kennedy announced the determination to land astronauts on the Moon and bring them back successfully “before this decade is out.” Gus Grissom performed his suborbital mission on July 21, 1961 and John Glenn made his three orbit space flight on February 20, 1962, taking 4 hours, 55 minutes.
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The authors of Space Handbook hoped, but did not know, that any of those things would happen. None of its scholarly authors in the Fifties could predict The Future with certainty, but they were certainly trying! How would discoveries in science and technology change the world? The RAND authors of that day researched, thought, evaluated, and decidedly hoped that the space knowledge they offered the Congress in 1958-59 would ultimately blossom into a vast new and valuable activity. They were surely gratified that their report and subsequent book had wide circulation—in the government and elsewhere.
The report and the longer book were especially helpful to librarians at the dawn of the Sixties. Space Handbook was, to the Library Journal, the “most comprehensive guide” written to date. Booklist found it a “full-scale analysis.” Saturday Review thought it “likely to stand for some time to come as the last word on the subject,” and was “the first real textbook” with every aspect of astronautics offered in logical order.
Today we know that the passage of nearly half a century has brought an astonishing amount of the dramatic activity in space that these scientists and engineers analyzed and predicted. It may be informative—and occasionally just a little quaint—to read now in the early Twenty-first Century what they so perceptively described, and predicted with pioneering scientific accuracy and engineering skill, back in the middle of the Twentieth.
Vaughn Davis Bornet, Ashland, Oregon
I
INTRODUCTION TO ASTRONAUTICS
The idea of flight through space is deeply immersed in the general stream of human thought about the nature of the universe. As soon as man came to believe that the Moon was a solid sphere akin to the Earth he began to dream of the possibility of flying there.
ROCKETS
Only with the invention and development of the rocket in the 20th century, however, could man entertain serious notions about space exploration.
It was the development of rockets for military purposes—as in the German V-2 rocket program of World War II—that hastened the realization of space vehicles. Much earlier, “gunless rocket artillery” played a part in the art of war. Dr. Robert Goddard was a pioneer in the rocket development work of the United States in World War I, and he advanced the state of rocketry in many ways during the next two decades.
Basing his work on the labors of other investigators, Major J. R. Randolph of the United States Army Reserve deduced that the rocket might have two applications: firing over short ranges (with gunless artillery), and also intercontinental bombardment (the ICBM: Intercontinental Ballistic Missile). He also suggested that large liquid-propellant rockets of ICBM class might one day be used as boosters for manned intercontinental bombing vehicles (as will be [sic] the case for the Dyna-Soar). Just such a detailed program was being pursued by the Germans at Peenemunde between World War I and II.
GOVERNMENT RESEARCH
Prior to all this, it must be said, there was pioneering Russian research in the space field. While early German work by H. Oberth began in the 1920’s, Russian efforts began with the work of I. V. Meshcherskii and K. E. Tsiolkovskii during the days of the Czars near the end of the 19th century. Tsiolkovskii is generally recognized as the father of astronautics.
Serious and substantial Government-sponsored rocket-research programs were established in Germany in about 1930, in the Soviet Union by 1934, and in the United States in 1942. These beginnings were greatly extended by the IRBM and ICBM programs of the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. in the 1950s.
WHAT IS COMING
Development of ballistic missiles has made the possibility of space flight an imminent reality. ICBM hardware is going to permit very important achievements in astronautics. For example, if additional equipment is developed and added to ICBM vehicles, it will be possible to:
(a) Orbit satellite payloads of 10,000 pounds 300 miles above the Earth;
(b) Orbit satellite payloads of 2,500 pounds at 22,000 miles altitude;
(c) Land 3000 pounds on the Moon;
(d) Land intact 1,000 pounds of instruments on the Moon;
(e) Land intact over 1,000 pounds of instruments on Venus or Mars;
(f) Probe the atmosphere of Jupiter with 1,000 pounds of instruments;
(g) Place a man or men in a satellite orbit around the Earth and recover them after a few days of flight.
By starting with the basic rocket vehicles now under development in the United States, all of these feats can be accomplished—and more. Yet none will come from the ballistic-missile programs without work of a very substantial nature.
With diligence and reasonable luck, the overall rocket machinery needed to attempt any of the above flights could be available in a few years—probably by 1964. As engines increase in size during these years, the payloads just mentioned will become five to ten times greater.
No important barriers now stand in the way of unmanned flights, although knowledge of the environment of space remains uncertain in many respects.
VEHICLE PERFORMANCE
To get a clear picture of our present state of progress, many fields of scientific interest need to be considered. Vehicle capabilities now depend on the status of (a) chemical propulsion systems, (b) structural materials, (c) design techniques, (d) fabrication methods, and (e) flight stabilization (autopilot) methods. While much remains to be done in each of these fields, a solid footing has been established.
Manned flight has special requirements that do not inhibit unmanned flight. Performance standards for human survival are much more severe than they are for instruments. After all, the manned flights that lie ahead should be round trips! Mistakes will count heavily when human life is at stake.
PRESENT REALITIES
Brief account may now be taken of certain realities in the development of equipment and techniques needed for space exploration.
If we are to be successful in guiding space vehicles to distant planets we will have to improve our knowledge of basic astronomy. The guidance and navigation equipment now available is probably adequate for most satellite and lunar flight missions. It seems to be inadequate for flights to the planets.
Systems to control the orientation or position of space vehicles during free flight must be perfected.
It is rather easy to maintain communications between space vehicles and Earth stations in satellite and lunar flights. While communication as far as Mars seems reasonably well in hand, greater distances will bring problems. With today’s technology, it will be rather easy to track and observe vehicles that are in orbit around the Earth or on lunar expeditions. Flights to Venus, Mars, or beyond will naturally be observed and tracked with reduced certainty.
Due to ballistic-missile reentry developments, instruments can now be put safely through the atmosphere of Earth, Mars, or Venus. The shock of actual contact with the surfaces of planets or the Moon can then be handled.
The supplying of adequate power for use in a space vehicle is still a difficult undertaking.
Equipment is not always reliable over long periods. We will be able to keep modest amounts of equipment working unattended over long periods and in strange environments only if there has been careful design and extensive testing in full knowledge of expected conditions.
Once a vehicle is moving in outer space, it drifts without power; but new thrusts can be exerted. Electrical propulsion systems can provide continuous thrust in space, but they require immense amounts of electrical power. Pending successful development of such propulsion systems and their necessary power supplies all space flights will be forced to rely on no more than occasional spurts of corrective thrust from conventional chemical rockets.
The things we need for sustained manned flight in space are: large launching rockets; extensive and highly reliable equipment for space vehicles; a considerable amount of study and experimentation; and, above all, actual test flights of manned satellites or similar vehicles.
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II
EFFECTS OF ASTRONAUTICS
Even though astronautics is in an early and uncertain state at present, it has important meaning for a very wide variety of human activities. Literally, astronautics may change the world!
This comparatively new preoccupation of humankind will have an impact on engineering and science, education, international relations and international law, religion, and government. It will affect warfare and the security of nations; it provides a new hobby for young and old alike.
RELIGION AND THE INTELLECT
The prospect of the departure of man and his machines from the very Earth itself will inevitably have a profound influence on man’s concept of his place in the general scheme of things. His discoveries on the nature of the world beyond the confines of Earth can be expected to influence the broad development of philosophy just as the invention of the telescope did generations ago.
With use of the telescope, man found that he was not the center of the universe. Will astronautics show man that he is not alone in the universe?
Already there has been serious theological discussion, for the implications of space flight with respect to religious principles are of lively interest. On September 20, 1956, Pope Pius XII formally stated before the International Astronautical Congress that space activities are in no way contradictory to Church doctrine. How other faiths will look on the matter remains to be seen.
GOVERNMENT SERVICES
Astronautics is by nature a high-cost activity that will have a considerable impact on Government expenditures and taxes. It will also affect corporate profits and personal incomes.
It may very well bring improved weather forecasting, better navigation and iceberg patrol activities, more accurate aerial mapping and geological surveys, superior forest-fire warnings, and better communications generally.
As astronautics improves and expands the work of mankind in various areas, there may turn out to be substantial economic benefits. It is a new industry, after all.
ENGINEERING
Practically speaking, astronautics is a very large engineering job. New equipment and facilities, often reflecting substantial advances over current practices, must be designed and built.
Because space exploration demands high reliability of equipment over very long periods of essentially unattended operation—during which time severe environmental conditions must be anticipated—all engineering must be high in quality.
Uncompromising thoroughness along with extensive testing, bold imagination, and painstaking attention to detail will have to be the hallmarks of engineering for space flight.
SCIENCE
The scientist must support the engineer with new data on the environment of space. Engineering action will thus be founded on the growing body of scientific knowledge.
Astronautics will build on new scientific knowledge. But it will also furnish the scientist with unparalleled new opportunities to explore the universe and to understand man.
Space vehicles can carry the scientist’s instruments—and eventually the scientist himself—to distant places. These regions have hitherto been inaccessible, and the new knowledge gained will have been hitherto unattainable.
The life sciences face two astronautical challenges. There is the problem of maintaining human existence outside the narrow living zone at the Earth’s surface. And there is the intriguing possibility of encountering living things on other planets!
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
The statesman who endeavors to promote world peace can see both a hope and a threat in astronautics. International cooperation in space enterprises could help to promote trust and understanding.
Astronautics may provide physical means to aid international inspection. Through such activities surprise attack may be avoided. Disarmament could be brought closer.
But astronautics might also lead to military systems which, as developed and deployed, could make the hope of disarmament, arms control, or inspection immeasurably more difficult to achieve.
It would appear that international cooperation in astronautics is the important road to efficiency. If the history of astronomy as an international science is any guide, scientific space exploration at its highest level cannot be done in isolated national packages.
The observation of natural celestial bodies—slow moving and apparently permanent when viewed from the Earth—has required close international collaboration. To create, observe, and retrieve artificial celestial bodies (satellites, space vehicles), which move with great rapidity as viewed in the observer’s instruments, will increase the need for international cooperation.
There is already good reason to seek international agreement on the allocation of radio frequencies for space vehicles. Access to the territories of other nations to recover space vehicles will be a necessity, particularly if manned vehicles happen to land accidentally on foreign soil.
LAW
Astronautics thus raises substantial questions for the legal specialist. Issues raised by problems of access and use of space will need thoughtful attention. The civic planner will be concerned over the physical demands of astronautics, for large tracts of real estate will be required for testing and operations. (Marine facilities and airports have created similar problems for local government.)
FOR EVERYONE
The work of amateurs in optical and radio observation of satellites has already been of great value. There is reason to believe that amateur activities in astronautics will take a place alongside such popular hobbies as amateur radio and amateur astronomy.
NATIONAL SECURITY
Novel military capabilities of great magnitude are likely to grow out of astronautics. Entirely new concepts of military action will have to be developed to exploit these. The change will be more than merely new ways of conducting reconnaissance and engaging in bombing.
Just as the short span of years since the flight of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk has had a revolutionary impact on military thought, equally large changes may come with the development of astronautics. We can no longer afford the comparatively leisurely pace of the adjustment that characterized emergence of the air age.
It is hard to believe that such space exploration efforts as man-ned voyages to Mars will be undertaken by any but a military type of organization. Months of hazard and hardship will require an organized, trained, and disciplined group of space adventurers.
Such considerations invite the thought that in this new adventure of our civilization there may turn out to be a new and important role for the military.
The space age will have an important impact on many phases of our lives. Not the least of these will be the effect on education at various levels. The broad problems to be faced will surely require not only specialists but generalists. Minds will have to cross traditional, classic disciplines. There will certainly be new horizons for each coming generation.
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III
THE SOLAR SYSTEM AND OUTER SPACE
As man approaches the age of space travel, he has large quantities of reasonably reliable information about his solar system and the vast reaches of outer space. He knows that he lives on one of nine planets which move around the Sun in the same direction. Their orbits are nearly circular (elliptical), and they are in almost the same plane (ecliptic). Pluto departs 17 degrees from the ecliptic, however.
Only two planets are closer to the Sun than is the Earth. These are Mercury and Venus. The four planets that are nearest to the Sun are sometimes called the “terrestrial” planets, while Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are called “major” or giant planets.
The terrestrial planets are relatively small and dense bodies. The giant planets, however, are composed principally of gases, although they have solid ice and rock cores far below the visible upper surfaces of their atmospheres.
Pluto remains almost a total mystery. Extremely cold, it has a small radius and a mass about 80 per cent that of Earth. Its orbit has been charted, but we know little else.
Space is so vast that it is impractical to measure distances in miles. Measurements may be given in terms of “astronomical units,” such a unit being the mean distance between the Earth and the Sun: 92,900,000 miles. This is one “a.u.” The diameter of the solar system, measured in this way, is about 79 a.u. (7,300 million miles).
THE SUN
Few human beings, cultured or primitive, have failed to re-cognize the importance of the Sun to their continued existence on Earth. Almost all usable forms of energy on the Earth’s surface are directly or indirectly due to the storing or conversion of energy coming from the Sun. Atomic and thermonuclear energy are exceptions.
The energy output of the Sun in the form of light and heat is very steady, but this uniformity is not true of its production of ultraviolet radiation, radio waves (solar static), and charged particles. This variable output was dramatically illustrated on February 23, 1956 when an 18-hour outburst of ionizing radiation, measured above the Earth’s atmosphere, was 1,000 times greater than normal.
Even though our Sun is only a medium-sized star, it is a thousand times the size of Jupiter and 300,000 times the size of the Earth! In the language of the astronomer, the Sun might be termed “a main sequence star of spectral type G-zero with a surface temperature of about 11,000 degrees Fahrenheit.”
THE PLANETS
Our knowledge of the planets is far from uniform, due to the problems involved in studying bodies in space which differ in size, mass, movements, composition, and distance from Earth.
Mercury
The planet closest to the Sun is Mercury. A small rocky sphere, half again the size of our Moon, it keeps the same side turned always toward the Sun. Because of this, one side of the planet gets as hot as 750 degrees Fahrenheit while the other has temperatures close to absolute zero (-459.6 degrees Fahrenheit). There appears to be no atmosphere there. The rocky surface of Mercury is similar to that of Earth’s Moon.
Venus
If the brilliance of the Sun keeps us from knowing very much about Mercury, other problems make facts about Venus even harder to gather. Its solid surface has never been seen, because its dense and turbulent atmosphere is opaque to light of all wavelengths.
It may be presumed that the surface of Venus is hot, dry, dusty, windy, and dark beneath a continuous dust storm. The atmospheric pressure is probably several times that at the surface of the Earth.
Neither free oxygen nor water vapor has been detected on Venus. Carbon dioxide seems to be the major atmospheric gas, with nitrogen and argon probably present in small quantities.
Mars
Conditions on the surface of Mars remain the subject of controversy among astronomers. White polar caps appear in winter and vanish with summer, although these seem to be well under a foot in thickness—perhaps little more than a frosty film.
Human life could not survive on Mars without somehow altering the visitor’s environment (perhaps by wearing space suits). In this sense a self-sustaining colony might be established there. Bleak and desert-like as Mars appears to be, there is rather good evidence that some life forms may exist, even though there seems to be no free oxygen and little if any water.
Mars revolves and inclines much like Earth. The seasonal color changes, from green in spring to brown in autumn, suggest vegetation. A Soviet researcher has concluded that dark areas visible on Mars are really vegetable life.
The surface of Mars is quite flat. The climate is similar to what would obtain in an 11-mile high desert on Earth. Tropical temperature in summer reaches about 90 degrees, but before dawn it drops sharply to 100 degrees below zero. Atmospheric pressure is about 8 to 12 per cent of that of Earth at sea level. The ”air” itself is considered to be mostly nitrogen.
The Giant Planets
The planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are large in diameter and rotate rapidly. Little sunlight reaches them. As a result, temperatures in the visible upper atmosphere are two or three hundred degrees (F.) below zero. (Almost nothing is known about Pluto.)
These large planets are thought to consist of small dense rocky cores surrounded by thin shells of ice covered by thousands of miles of compressed hydrogen and helium. Their atmospheres may also contain such gases as methane and ammonia! It might be said that they have a “rock-in-a-snowball” structure.
Certainly these planets do not appeal to the potential space traveler. But large satellites (some larger than our Moon) revolve about Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune. These “moons” might be more hospitable than the planets about which they orbit.
The Moon
Long an exciting object for Earth-dwellers, the Moon is a satellite about 2,160 miles in diameter which is about 240,000 miles distant. Its face is covered with many large craters, whose origin is still a matter for some debate.
Some mountains on the Moon may be higher than those on Earth, presumably because they are free from weathering. A Soviet astronomer recently reported observing an erupting volcano on the Moon. It has no appreciable atmosphere. The Moon’s surface is probably dry, dust-covered rock, a terrain far from uniform in chemical composition and physical arrangement. Although the Moon looks small to those who sit under the open sky at night, it is more than one-fourth the diameter of the Earth—a fact that some may find hard to believe.
Small Bodies in Space
Less well known to people on the street are the many small bodies which fly through space. These include asteroids, comets, meteorites, and micrometeorites.
Asteroids
Coming within a few million miles of the Earth from time to time are the asteroids. These are bodies varying in size from a few miles in diameter to nearly 500 miles. Ceres is the largest of these. Most of the asteroids are located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It is considered possible that they could be the shattered remains of a planet or planets.
Comets
Comets are very loose collections of orbital material that sweep into the inner regions of the solar system from space far beyond the orbit of Pluto. Their bodies consist of rarefied gases and dust, and their heads are thought to be frozen gases or “ices.
Meteorites
The Earth receives a large but debatable quantity of material from surrounding space in the form of meteoritic particles. Two recent estimates are 2,000 and 800,000 tons per day. Meteors enter the atmosphere at a velocity of 7 to 50 miles per second. When they enter the atmosphere they vaporize in dramatic light streaks visible to man. Whether meteors exist in other parts of space is not known.
The smallest dust particles in space are called “micrometeorites.” Because of solar radiation these particles, some that are very tiny spiral gradually toward the Sun.
Beyond the Solar System
The Earth’s solar system exists within a larger setting—an immense universe. The nearest neighbor of our system is Alpha Centauri, a star system which appears as a relatively bright object in the southern sky. It is four light-years away. (By comparison, Pluto is 5.5 light-hours from the Sun.)
Alpha Centauri consists of two stars orbiting around one another, and of a third star, Proxima, which is the star closest to our solar system.
While Alpha Centauri may or may not have planets, there is indirect evidence that other planetary systems exist. Judging from observed “wobbling” motions of the 100 or so stars within 20 light-years of the Sun, two or three may have planetary systems.
Speculation about the possible existence of life on planets in star systems other than ours has long excited the imaginations of earth-dwellers. If there are billions of planets in planetary systems, surely there must be some systems with Earth-like planets, and on some of these planets life similar to our own may have evolved.
It is hard to visualize the tremendous scale of the universe beyond the solar system, let alone trying to attempt physical exploration and communication.
Our galaxy is some 100,000 light-years in diameter, with the Sun being an insignificant star some 30,000 light-years from the galactic center, circling in an orbit of its own every 200 million years as the galaxy rotates.
Nor is this the end. Beyond are millions of other galaxies. These appear to be rushing away from one another at fantastic speeds. Where does it all end? One can only say that the limits of the telescopically observable universe extend in all directions at least two billion light-years from Earth.
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IV
TRAJECTORIES AND ORBITS
Persons discussing the flight of objects through space find it necessary to use a special vocabulary. Some technical words cannot be avoided. For example, the terms “trajectory” and “orbit” both refer to the path taken by a moving body in space.
“Trajectory” is commonly used in connection with projectiles (shells from cannons, for example). Here, the path followed by the object has an easily recognized beginning and ending point. “Orbit” is properly used to describe the motion of natural bodies (like the Moon). Such a path is indefinite or repetitive.
TYPES OF ORBITS
The paths followed by an object in space under the influence of the gravitational attraction of a large mass obey the laws of motion discovered by Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727). All of the major members of our solar system are nearly spherical in shape. Such bodies exert a force of attraction as if all of the mass were concentrated at the center of the body. Several types of paths, depending mainly on the object’s velocity, are possible under this gravitational attraction.
The accompanying illustration shows the general form of these orbits. The closed path is elliptical—typical of the orbits of earth satellites. These orbits are repetitive, subject to influences such as the Earth’s equatorial bulge and the drag of the atmosphere at high altitudes.
A special case of the elliptical orbit is the circle. This is a path which maintains a constant distance to the center of the parent body as the object rotates around it.
As the velocity (at point A) of the object in its orbit is increased, the maximum distance of the ellipse reaches even further. The limiting case, shown by the dashed line, is the “parabolic orbit.” This orbit is not closed (or repetitive) and extends to infinity at both ends.
The outer path shown is a “hyperbolic orbit.” This path is also open, and extends to infinity. The hyperbolic orbit is typical of the initial portion of an interplanetary flight. In all cases, the object’s velocity is greatest at the point closest to the parent body (point A).
ESCAPE VELOCITY
The term “escape velocity” means the value of the velocity at a given radius required to place an object in a parabolic orbit. This velocity is the value that would be achieved if a particle, initially at an infinite distance, should be allowed to fall to that radius from the central body.
The value of escape velocity varies according to a formula. It increases as the square root of the planet’s mass, and decreases as the square root of the distance from the center of the planet. This means, for example, that it is easier to escape from the Earth by starting from a higher altitude. Moreover, escape from a less dense planet would be even easier.
The speed required to escape directly from the Earth’s surface is about 36,700 feet per second. From the Moon it would be 7,800 and from Mars 16,700. From Jupiter, however, it would total 197,000 feet per second.
SATELLITE ORBITS
From what has been said, it is easy to see that planets, moons, and artificial satellites follow elliptical orbits. What determines the characteristics of these orbits?
The time required to make one complete circuit of the orbit depends on two factors. The more massive the parent body, the less time it takes for the satellite to make a full circuit. Second, the time for a complete revolution varies according to the distance between the nearest and farthest points on the ellipse (that is, on its “major axis”). The larger the major axis, the longer it will have to take to make one complete revolution.
The average speed of the satellite is called its “orbital velocity.” It varies as the distance from the center of the parent body. For example, early artificial satellites had orbital velocities of about 25,000 feet per second, while the Moon’s orbital speed is only about 3,300 feet per second.
INTERPLANETARY FLIGHT
In order to make a flight to another planet, the space vehicle must first escape from the Earth on a hyperbolic trajectory. In some special cases, the Moon’s gravitational field can accelerate the vehicle and thus aid it in escaping from the Earth. Thus the escape velocity, discussed earlier, is an important consideration. After it escapes from the Earth, the vehicle will be in an orbit around the Sun.
If we wish to aim for a specific planetary destination, should we choose one closer to the Sun than the Earth, or one farther away? To reach the outer planets, Jupiter for example, we must launch the vehicle so that it is traveling in the same direction as the Earth in its orbit around the Sun (its speed is about 100,000 feet per second). The vehicle must be traveling faster than the Earth to reach a greater distance from the Sun.
To reach Mercury or Venus (whose orbits are closer to the Sun), however, the vehicle must be launched so that it will travel in the opposite direction from that of the Earth. The vehicle’s velocity relative to the Sun will be less than the Earth’s so that it can fall closer to the Sun than the Earth’s orbit.
The launching speeds and travel times required to reach the other planets of our solar system appear in the accompanying table.
TRANSIT TIMES AND SPEEDS FOR INTERPLANETARY TRAVEL
Planet Transit Time Minimum Launching Velocity (feet per sec.)
Mercury 110 days 44,000
Venus 150 days 38,000
Mars 260 days 38,000
Jupiter 2.7 years 46,000
Saturn 6 years 49,000
Uranus 16 years 51,000
Neptune 31 years 52,000
Pluto 46 years 53,000
We see that the launch speeds required to reach the Earth’s closest neighbors—Venus and Mars—are just about equal, although Venus is closer to the Sun, while Mars is farther away than the Earth. Also, we see that it requires almost as high a launch speed to send a vehicle to Sun-drenched Mercury as to frigid Jupiter.
FLIGHT BEYOND THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Even though the transit time to Pluto is 46 years, there is no reason for not considering the matter of sending a space vehicle beyond the confines of our solar system.
To do this, we must accelerate the vehicle to at least escape velocity from the Sun. A launch speed of about 54,000 feet per second is required at the Earth–a relatively modest increase over that required to reach Pluto. After escaping from the Earth, the vehicle’s trajectory will be a parabola with the Sun at the focus. After countless centuries, its trajectory might be altered by a close encounter with a star or another planetary system.
Once a vehicle is out in space it needs no further propulsion to remain in orbit. Its orbit can be changed, however, by the application of very small forces for long periods of time. Unique propulsion systems, based on electrical accelerator principles, could therefore be used once the vehicle had been established in a satellite orbit at an altitude of several miles. These thrust levels would be of little significance at lower altitudes, where the atmospheric drag is appreciable.
If the speed of the space vehicle could approach the speed of light, a “time dilatation effect” has been predicted. Part of Einstein’s theory of relativity, this effect would mean that a passenger on a space vehicle, if traveling at nearly the speed of light, would find his elapsed time in flight travel far less than that measured by persons left behind on Earth!
Thus, if one of two 20-year old men left on a flight taking 45 earth-years to complete, the one remaining on Earth would be age 65 when his friend returned. To the traveler, however, having been traveling at nearly the speed of light, the trip would seem to have only taken a mere 10 years so that he would only be 30 when he returned.
Reaching speeds nearly equal to the speed of light (186,000 miles per second) would require entirely new propulsion systems: no presently foreseeable propulsion scheme would be capable of anything remotely like this speed.
* * *
V
LIFE ON A SPACE SHIP
When human beings venture aboard a departing space ship and leave the Earth’s atmosphere they create for themselves a number of quite serious problems.
How (and what) will they breathe? How—and in what direction–will they stand? What temperature can they expect? What of radiation, vibration, and noise?
Of one thing we may be reasonably sure: life in a space ship will have to be tailored to the health and well-being of man so far as possible. Man must eat, drink, and relieve himself. And he must be protected against toxic substances and the effects of long confinement.
STRESSES AND STRAINS
With or without companions, the space traveler faces physiological and psychological strains. But individuals will react to the problems of space travel in very different ways.
People differ greatly in their ability to withstand stress. And a given person will not always react the same at different times. The milder the stress the longer he can tolerate it.
By practice, moreover, the individual can improve his performance. Acclimatizing or conditioning has the same importance to the space traveler that it does for the submariner or the deep sea diver.
THE PROBLEM OF AIR
When man has too little oxygen, the usual symptoms are sleepiness, headache, lassitude, changed respiration, and mental impairment. At last there is inability to perform even simple tasks and an eventual loss of consciousness.
A five-man crew will require approximately 100 pounds of oxygen for a ten day trip. This might come from liquid oxygen, hydrogen peroxide, or some form of plant life. The first is hard to store. The second is less hazardous and it also produces water and energy. But a life-cycle would be best: man consuming oxygen and producing car-bon dioxide; plants reversing the process. Although algae tanks are cumbersome, algae do have attractive features for this key role.
Pressure is well known to be a problem for those who depart very far from sea-level. In general, for long periods of exposure, the pres-sure of oxygen taken into the lungs should be between 80 and 425 millimeters of mercury (the unit of measurement). Low oxygen pres-sure reduces one’s tolerance of other stresses, and many serious symptoms quickly appear if these extreme limits should not be taken seriously enough.
At sea level, air has a pressure of 14.7 pounds per square inch, and it is 21 per cent oxygen. How much change in these figures can be tolerated depends in part on what other gases may be present. Replacement of nitrogen with helium is helpful if higher pressures are to be endured.
Heavy panting and fatigue accompany the presence of too much carbon dioxide. It should be kept below four to seven millimeters of mercury. Narcotic effects, unconsciousness, and eventual death come with violation of this principle. Since man normally produces carbon dioxide at nearly the same rate as he consumes oxygen, this is a most important environmental consideration.
THE PROBLEM OF GRAVITY
Tolerable levels of the force exerted by gravity or acceleration of a vehicle are measured in “g’s.” Weightlessness is 0 g’s; normal earth gravity is 1 g. At 5 g’s only slight movements of body parts like arms and head are possible.
So far as the space traveler is concerned, however, the effect of gravitational forces can vary considerably depending on circumstances. While 17 g’s taken for a short time in a vertical position forces blood from the head toward one’s feet, produces blackout, and may also damage the spine, “transverse” g’s in the same amount taken lying down will not induce visual symptoms or loss of consciousness. Exposures of four minutes under these circumstances did not seem to harm human subjects during German experiments in World War II.
The rate of change of g’s can be important, however, for quick accelerations and decelerations during crash landings involve many g’s for brief periods. Injuries become more probable when the rate of change exceeds 500 g’s per second.
These gravitational figures may be misleading. Only on the reentry of “capsules” with no lifting surfaces would high “g” forces be present; glide vehicles cut reentry loads to very modest levels. And virtually all rocket engines can be throttled to reduce thrust.
What of “weightlessness” when in flight? It is believed that some persons will have no trouble with this strange sensation; others may have difficulties. Vehicle rotation, if necessary, could in fact create artificial gravity for the space traveler, but then rotation in itself has some disadvantages.
THE PROBLEM OF “CLIMATE”
Aboard the vehicle, the balance between temperature and humidity will be important. When temperature rises above 70 degrees man needs more water. This would complicate already difficult storage problems. Clothing and body weight will also affect the comfort of the traveler, while the amount of work undertaken will also be important.
THE PROBLEM OF RADIATION
The question of the effects of cosmic radiation on man is now being studied. Much will be learned in the next few years. We know a lot about other forms of radiation, but the RBE (“relative biological effectiveness”) of cosmic radiation remains a puzzle. And there is no satisfactory way of shielding against it. Still, physical measurement seems to show that the probable dosage from this will be low.
The newly discovered “radiation belts” of the Earth can be avoided by using polar areas for travel to and from the Earth’s surface radiation hazard.
In general, therefore, the forms of radiation from the Sun other than the occasional radiation from solar flares can be handled adequately with our present knowledge. Heat radiation can be handled by proper design of the outer skin of the space vehicle.
As for solar radiation in the visible, ultraviolet, and soft X-ray regions, present data indicate that these do not constitute a direct hazard to crews. Such radiation can easily be stopped or modified.
THE PROBLEM OF FOOD
The layman who gives casual thought to the matter of a space flight that might take weeks, months, or even years, quickly objects that “the food would run out.” A great deal of thought has been given to this problem.
Water on the vehicle may be recycled, and possibly food also, through the use of algae or various synthetic processes.
Food preservation will have to be such that the food remains attractive, can be stored with minimum refrigeration, and will have little bulk. Dehydration of food will lighten the weight by cutting down on packaging.
Conventional canning, freezing, and pickling are possible. But three new approaches to food preservation hold promise. These are gamma or beta irradiation and what is called freeze-drying.
Gamma or beta irradiation inhibit sprouting and destroy various microorganisms, parasites, and insects. But enzymes are seldom deactivated. When properly done—and the method is very complicated—there should be no induced radioactivity in the food. A variety of radiation doses are required for different results.
Potatoes given 7,000 r.e.p.’s (roentgen-equivalent-physical) have resisted sprouting for five and a half months at room temperature and well over a year when refrigerated.
When food is freeze-dried it is first frozen, then placed in a vacuum, and subjected to a pulsed electromagnetic beam of radar frequencies. Thus the food loses ninety per cent of its weight, and both bacteria and enzyme actions are inhibited. With air and moisture proof packaging, refrigeration is not needed. One company has used this method successfully on mushrooms, carrots, beef ribs, steak, veal cutlets, pork chops, lobster, fish, peas, strawberries, and even shrimp.
In the case of shrimp the product first has the consistency of popcorn. To prepare for eating they are soaked half an hour in tepid water and placed for two minutes in boiling water.
In summary, this can be said about food preparation: Canning eliminates refrigeration, and canned products last well. But weight is a serious problem. Second, the freeze-drying method also means that no refrigeration will be needed, that is, if packaging is adequate. Long life, light weight, and palatability of meals are advantages, while vitamin and protein structure are untouched. But admission of even two per cent moisture causes “browning” (a chemical, rather than enzyme, reaction), while a bit more moisture allows enzymes and bacteria to become active. The frozen foods familiar to all of us would be a problem on a space vehicle, because freezers and the foods them-selves would add great bulk.
Finally, irradiation, if somehow coupled with sterilization, would be quite versatile. But undesirable tastes, colors, or odors are normally a sterilization by-product. The stronger the dosage the worse the effects. And sterilization almost always produces side effects that are undesirable. Since broccoli turns gray and limp after such doses, the space traveler might find his overall morale better served by other methods of food preservation.
* * *
VI
MISSILES, SATELLITES, AND DOLLARS
Astronautics will for some years require the most ambitious kind of research and development activities. Space flight programs, like missile programs, will be expensive.
It costs money to launch large-payload vehicles into space, even though the primary components may already have been perfected as part of the military missile programs.
Astronautics is clearly an uncharted field. With a need for haste, there will be some duplication. There will be some mistakes.
One cost factor not present in many other purchases of goods and services is this: at least two alternative methods of reaching goals must often be financed at the same time. Only in such a way can we hedge against uncertainties.
Many space development decisions will produce no obvious final product. This unpleasant fact must be accepted. Exerting a high degree of selectivity at the beginning in order to conserve resources and insure that only the most promising alternatives are pursued will keep the ratio of activity to results as high as possible.
WEAPONS AND SPACE FLIGHT
As the United States plans its space flight developments, it can lean heavily on weapon systems already off the drawing boards and on others still to come.
By borrowing space flight hardware (vehicles, engines, etc.) from advanced points on the missile production lines, a large amount of money can be saved. The Explorer, Thor-Able, and Juno II programs did this to an important extent.
Interaction between space flight programs and the military ballistic missile effort will mean that the total cost of each activity becomes hard to measure. In order to determine the costs of either for efficient management prorating a number of cost elements must be regularly assessed.
Superpriority effort, of the kind undertaken during World War II, is typical of the recent American space and missile programs. This leads to payment of overtime salaries, travel costs incidental to expediting “crash” programs, and purchase of duplicate equipment to guarantee completion on time. These are expensive items. And the costs incurred because other work is pushed to one side are frequently ignored.
A significant cost item comes from efforts to schedule a constant workload in the missile and space field. It takes time to prepare for major tests. These often depend on the success of still other tests. The tests themselves are fraught with delays, two of them being the weather and the constantly shifting positions of celestial bodies.
TRENDS IN COSTS
Certain cost trends noticed in the missile field seem likely to be carried over into astronautics:
Thus, to accelerate the advance in basic technology is very expensive. Highly-trained personnel must be assembled, and elaborate test equipment has to be bought even though its use will be spasmodic. Extensive development facilities must be built.
Moreover, the cost of ground-support equipment has grown, both absolutely and relatively, in relation to flight hardware. Vehicles do not dominate in cost totals as is the case, for example, with modern manned jet aircraft.
There is a trend toward ever larger costs for testing equipment and for the development of prototype vehicles. As is well known in manufacturing, one-shot items (especially when put together by a number of contractors from complex specifications) are highly expensive compared with production-line items. Variations in the accounting procedures of contractors greatly magnify the problem of getting cost figures.
Businessmen will especially appreciate one technical problem on costs. There is a trend toward using more items that are individually handled. Thus costs assignable to handling, calibration, and testing have increased greatly in relation to actual fabrication costs. But estimation of these costs is always difficult.
Rudimentary estimating methods, like hours of labor devoted to manufacturing, are insufficient in the space and missile field. The cost of items in terms of their weight can be misleading when figuring the cost of design, prototype construction, and testing.
Finally, the type of testing done in astronautics and missile development is extraordinarily expensive. The test vehicle itself is often expendable, being totally destroyed as an incident to each test! Many other tests result in equipment destruction. All this results in a need for large numbers of test hardware items.
SHORT RANGE COSTS
The immediate future (two to four years [1958-60 or 1958-62]) will probably involve costs for the following types of major programs: space probes, scientific and reconnaissance satellites, the development of new components and materials, studies of the nature of space and bodies located in it, experiments on futuristic hardware, and such activities as the man-in-space program. The X–15 manned research vehicle and the Dyna-Soar glider for bombing and reconnaissance are other things that will no doubt have to be budgeted for in the next two to four years.
To summarize, these add up to three types of financial obligations. In one category are items inherited, in a sense, from current military programs. These can be used at small expense to launch small satellites and to make space probes.
A second degree of expenditure will be required for the development of new components and for the study of the space environment. Third will be systems research studies and experiments on futuristic space equipment.
In later years, after this four-year era has come to a close, emphasis will be on additional hardware and more launch and tracking facilities. The objective will then be to meet the requirements of manned travel to the Moon and certain planets, the assembly of space stations, the construction of a Moon base, and other activities along these lines.
VEHICLE COSTS
Operational space vehicle systems can be costed on a cost-per-pound basis. In general, as production volume increases, cost-per-pound for equipment items decreases. This is particularly true when the function of a component remains essentially the same.
For a liquid-propellant ballistic missile with self-contained guidance, costs can be broken up much along these lines: structure, 20 per cent, controls and subsystems 30; propulsion, 20; guidance 20, and payload container, 10.
GROUND EQUIPMENT COSTS
Tracking and guidance facilities (Cape Canaveral, Pacific Missile Range), and facilities around the globe for tracking and related purposes, are cost items of great importance. While individually small in size and cost, they are likely to be numerous and located in remote areas.
Such facilities are essential to activity in astronautics, for some form of ground tracking—radio, infrared, and optical—will be required by all space missions. It is in this way that their trajectories can be observed and monitored from the Earth.
Tracking stations will have to be located–no doubt about it–all around the globe. The nature of space vehicle trajectories and the rotation of the Earth make this necessary
The Vanguard effort, for example, includes a string of radio sites stretching south to Chile and optical tracking stations stretching around the world latitudinally. Such stations are potentially permanent astronautical assets. They will have to be enlarged and supplemented for further space activities.
Costs involved in creating ground facilities are impressive—for these and many other reasons. The functions which some of these stations must perform are highly varied. Among them are final assembly of vehicles and equipment, operation of the test range, processing data received from flights, and sizable amounts of photographic work.
As rockets with payloads of 100,000 pounds and more are discussed and then planned, serious problems will arise when creating launch facilities. The Propellant loads may be millions of pounds of energetic chemicals. Safety problems are going to be impressive; one solution—an expensive and difficult one—will be purchase or lease of much open space around launching sites.
The possibility of creating artificial launching islands is an interesting alternative to finding suitable locations in the United States. If the islands were a few miles off shore, the method might prove particularly suitable.
In any case, locations of bases far from their sources of industrial and military support will be costly. And the building of a string of sub-bases to monitor launch bases will add to the already considerable dollar outlay.
* * *
VII
OUR SATELLITES AND MISSILES
The time may come when the American public will have the same knowledge of space missiles and satellites that it now has of automobiles. For years the names and model characteristics of perhaps a dozen makes of cars have been commonly known by many adults and youngsters. The variety of missiles and satellite programs, and the constant mention of these in the newspapers, means that a new masculine hobby could consist of knowing these programs by their designated names.
Vanguard, Redstone, Thor, Jupiter, Atlas, Titan, and others are names in the headlines as we enter the Space Age. While some performance characteristics are secret, the layman can learn basic facts about this handful of major United States hardware items.
VANGUARD
The Vanguard satellite vehicle is the only known development to be designed completely and originally as a satellite launcher. Coming into public notice in the summer of 1955, Vanguard has three rocket-powered stages. Each stage illustrates one of the three basic types of power plant design: turbopump-liquid, pressurized liquid, and solid propellant.
Vanguard weighs about 22,000 pounds. With an initial thrust of 28,000 pounds it is designed to place into a satellite orbit some 20 pounds of payload plus about 55 pounds of third-stage casing. (Large variations in the performance potentials given here may be expected because of the ability to combine various components in many ways in the effort to increase capabilities.)
REDSTONE
A surface-to-air missile with a range of 175 nautical miles, the Army’s Redstone engine develops 75,000 pounds of thrust. Its weight is 40,000 to 50,000 pounds. A change in one propellant ingredient (ethyl alcohol was replaced by hydyne) provided a 12 per cent increase in missile range. With this fuel, the Redstone placed a 31 pound Explorer I in orbit, 18 of it instrumental payload (January 31, 1958).
THOR AND JUPITER
Thor (Air Force) and Jupiter (Army) IRBMs have reached an advanced stage of development. The range of both is 1,500 miles. Thrust runs 150,000 pounds. The similar capabilities of the 100,000 pound Thor and Jupiter missiles as space-flight launching vehicles are being put to use—as in the Pioneer Moon rocket program.
Thor-Able is a two stage assembly comprised of the Thor booster plus the Vanguard second stage. This vehicle covered a range of 5,500 miles in July, 1958, being the first ballistic missile to have done so. It can send 85 pounds to the Moon and somewhat less on an interplanetary trajectory. The Thor-Able can probably place 300 to 500 pounds in satellite orbit.
In a program called Project Discoverer, the Thor vehicle in combination with a second-stage developed by Lockheed (using a Bell-Hustler liquid-propellant engine) will orbit some 1,300 pounds, including the burnout weight of the second stage. It is planned that some payloads of the Discoverer series will be returned to Earth and physical recovery realized.
Juno II is the Jupiter IRBM plus the solid-rocket cluster upper stages like that on the Redstone-Explorer series. It can send a Pioneer payload of 13 pounds to the Moon and can launch a 100-foot inflatable sphere as an Earth satellite.
With improved upper stages, Thor and Jupiter can launch 2,000-pound satellites.
ATLAS AND TITAN
The Atlas and Titan missiles of the Air Force are designed to deliver a thermonuclear warhead to a range of about 5,500 miles. Gross weight of each is about 200,000 pounds; takeoff thrust is over 300,000 pounds. Thus, large weights can be placed in satellite orbits and space-flight trajectories.
Atlas has the unique ability to place itself, tanks and all, in a satellite orbit at an altitude of 400 miles—that is, without carrying a military load. An Atlas vehicle was placed in satellite orbit on December 28, 1958 with 150 pounds of instrumented payload.
Atlas or Titan may be able to place a payload of about 2,500 pounds into a satellite orbit at an altitude of 150 miles. If an upper stage of 20,000 to 30,000 pounds using high-energy propellants is added to Atlas, a payload of about 8,000 pounds can be placed in a 400-mile-high satellite orbit.
ADVANCED ENGINE DEVELOPMENTS
Nuclear rocket development under Project Rover is expected to lead to the ability to orbit a very large payload. Development of rocket engines in the 1.5-million-pound thrust class has been started.
Such engines could send many thousands of pounds on Moon flights or on trips to various planets. A single engine of such thrust could probably place a payload of 30,000 to 50,000 pounds into a satellite orbit at an altitude of 300 miles.
X-15
Two elaborate piloted vehicles now under development in the United States are X-15 and Dyna-Soar. Both of these rocket-powered vehicles have required extensive research and development in system components, much attention to human-factors engineering methods, and hardware production of test vehicles.
THE Air Force, Navy, and NASA-sponsored X-15 is under development at North American Aviation. It includes provisions for pilot control, so that the human occupant will drive rather than merely ride the vehicle. Fifty feet long and more than 31,000 pounds in weight, the X-15 carries about 600 temperature and 140 pressure-sensing devices to measure structural and aerodynamic loads as well as special equipment to record pilot reaction.
Two sets of controls are provided in X-15, one for use in the Earth’s atmosphere and one to make pilot control possible in the vacuum conditions above the Earth’s atmosphere. The latter system uses mono-propellant rocket-thrust units powered by hydrogen peroxide gas.
The basic engine uses liquid oxygen and liquid ammonia as propellants and develops 50,000 pounds of thrust.
The purpose of X-15 is to gain knowledge of flight conditions at extremely high altitudes (100 miles) and at advanced flight speeds (3,600 miles per hour).
DYNA-SOAR
Based on principles of dynamic soaring, this rocket boosted hypersonic glider will have some capacity for powered flight. It will have sufficient lift to make a regular controlled aircraft landing after its reentry.
Dyna-Soar is an advanced manned bombing and reconnaissance vehicle planned for seven years by the Air Force, the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, and the aircraft industry. Boeing Airplane Company, Glenn L. Martin Co., and Bell Aircraft Corporation are major contractors on this development program.
* * *
VIII
FLIGHTS TO THE MOON
The Moon has had a mystical appeal to man ever since he first noticed this silvery disk moving through the night sky. In this dawning age of astronautics it has taken on special interest. Much nearer to the Earth than any of the planets, the Moon looks like a challenging object for eventual exploration by man.
It is only natural for the layman to expect the scientists, who are leading the way into this new age, to plan flights to the Moon. Such flights have been the subject of fiction for hundreds of years. Indeed, both the United States and the U.S.S.R. have fired rockets which have passed close to the Moon and continued on to take up orbits around the Sun just like the Sun’s natural planets.
POSSIBILITIES
As a result of theoretical studies, several types of trajectories to the vicinity of the Moon are now possible, once a vehicle can be boosted to a speed which is close to escape velocity.
Some of these alternatives are:
A rocket can be shot like a bullet on a slightly curving trajectory to crash into the Moon. If the vehicle contains a rocket motor which could be fired when it is near the Moon, the vehicle could be made to land softly on the surface of the Moon. This technique must be perfected before man is to set foot on the Moon, because otherwise the vehicle would impact at speeds of 8,000 feet per second or more.
A vehicle could be launched so that it will “loop around” the Moon and return to the Earth. If desired, the vehicle could be programmed to return to the Earth’s surface or it could be allowed to miss the Earth, and end up in a satellite orbit around the Earth. The Moon’s gravitational attraction and its motion around the Earth could be used, by means of a close encounter, to boost the speed of a vehicle on its path to one of the planets.
A vehicle equipped with a rocket which could be fired near the Moon, could also be put into a satellite orbit around the Moon—just as the Moon is a satellite of the Earth.
Through extremely careful planning, it might be possible to place vehicles as semi-permanent “buoys” in space adjacent to the Earth and the Moon.
Such types of missions whet the imagination of the scientist and layman alike. However their realization depends on matters that will require some explanation.
GUARANTEEING A HIT
The problem of sending a rocket to the Moon so that it hits somewhere on the surface is something like skeet shooting (moving target shooting) from a position on a turning table. The Earth is spinning on its axis while the Moon moves around the Earth. The distance between the two bodies is about a quarter of a million miles. We cannot aim directly at the moon, but must aim at where it will be some days after the launching. The Moon’s mass helps a little because it will help pull the vehicle toward it.
What is of concern in determining the kind of trajectory which the vehicle will follow is its speed at some altitude above the Earth and the angle at which it is fired. The minimum velocity required to reach the Moon is only slightly less than escape velocity from the Earth. How much can this speed vary and still have the rocket hit the Moon? How does the angle of flight affect the path of the rocket? The allowable variations, or errors, in speed and angle are determined by the magnitude of the speed.
[Editor’s Note: The text of the original Space Handbook discusses this subject in detail, and gives diagrams showing the relationship between these quantities to insure a hit on the Moon.]
At speeds near the minimum, the angle tolerance is quite large, while the allowable error in speed is only a few feet per second. This can be explained by the fact that the vehicle will be travelling very slowly near the Moon’s orbit so that the Moon will effectively pull it in and collide with it. At much higher velocities, however, the allowable tolerances are reversed: the angle must be quite accurate, but the velocity error can be somewhat greater. This case is more like the skeet shooting example, where the bullet travels much faster than the ”bird” (the target).
The allowable errors in the burnout velocity of a vehicle on a trajectory which requires about two and a half days to reach the Moon are about 50 feet per second faster or slower than programmed. They are a few tenths of a degree from the planned value of the angle.
The larger these initial errors are from the desired values, the farther the actual impact will be from the planned location. If there are larger errors the vehicle will miss the Moon completely.
HOW LONG?
The space vehicle’s time of flight from the Earth to the Moon is naturally very dependent on its initial free-flight velocity. For example, at the minimum possible initial velocity, it would take the vehicle about five days to reach the Moon. But a speed increase of only one per cent reduces the trip time to about two days!
The flight times planned for the Air Force “Pioneer” Moon shots were about 2.6 days, while that planned for the Army Juno II shot was 1.4 days. The actual velocity difference between them was only about 2.5 per cent.
It has been suggested that the vehicle’s impact on the Moon could be signaled to Earth by spreading dye powder, or by detonating about ten pounds of illuminant.
CIRCLING THE MOON
If the vehicle’s initial speed is less than the local value of escape velocity from the Earth, a vehicle can be fired in such a way as to pass around the Moon and then return to the Earth—without any additional propulsion.
One possible use for such a flight, if the payload of the vehicle could be recovered, would be to acquire high quality photographs of the Moon’s hidden side. And it is possible, with modest increases in present technology, to arrange for the reentry of a vehicle to the Earth at these speeds.
For an unpowered vehicle to follow a path like this, it must be aimed so that it intersects the Moon’s orbit at a point ahead of the Moon. Then the Moon’s gravitational attraction will swing the path around for the return trip. The path could, however, miss the Moon by distances anywhere from a few miles to several tens of thousands of miles.
The vehicle’s path will resemble shapes which vary from a “figure eight” to a slightly distorted ellipse, depending on the initial velocity and also on the distance of closest approach to the Moon. The total round trip flight time can vary between six days and about a month, again depending on the speed and miss-distance.
An unpowered vehicle returning from a ten-day circumlunar trip and intended to land at a specific point on the Earth could miss by about 800 miles if the flight time is off by only an hour. This effect is due to the rotation of the Earth. A few short periods of corrective thrust could, however, overcome such problems.
USING THE MOON TO ACCELERATE THE VEHICLE
The Moon’s gravitational attraction and its orbital motion around the Earth can also be used to increase the speed of a vehicle headed for distant space. This effect can be achieved if the vehicle reaches the Moon’s orbit shortly after the Moon has passed by. The speed increase is determined by the miss distance of about 500 feet per second in launch velocity.
SATELLITES OF THE MOON
Vehicles can be established as artificial satellites of the Moon if provision is made for a speed reduction in the vicinity of the Moon. The Moon’s gravitational field will then be able to capture the vehicle so that it becomes a satellite. A speed reduction of about 4,000 feet per second would suffice.
MOON TO EARTH
Once a man has arrived on the Moon, launching a vehicle from there to the Earth is easier in some ways than getting to the Moon. Hitting somewhere on Earth is easier because the Earth is larger and its gravitational field is stronger.
The Initial velocity at the Moon would have to be about 10,000 to 15,000 feet per second; that is a few thousand feet per second greater than escape velocity from the Moon. This is approximately one-third of the escape velocity required at the Earth. Typical flight times would be from one to four days. The allowable errors at launch would be quite large if we merely wish to hit somewhere on the Earth.
Returning to a specific point on the surface is quite difficult, because the Earth’s rotation will cause the landing point to move if the flight time is in error. The danger, therefore, is not that the vehicle will miss the Earth, but that it will land in the middle of an ocean or some other inaccessible place.
SPACE BUOYS
It is theoretically possible to establish “space buoys” at certain specific points in the Earth-Moon system so that they will remain in fixed positions relative to the Earth and the Moon. These ‘buoys” could be used to aid in the tracking of vehicles on interplanetary flights if they were so equipped. These five specific points are called “centers of liberation.”
Three of these points lie on a straight line drawn through the Earth and Moon but are unstable. That is, a vehicle would drift away if slight errors were made in positioning. The last two points, forming equilateral triangles with the Earth and Moon, are more stable. Vehicles would tend to drift slowly away due to the Sun’s net gravitational attraction and the force of solar radiation. Yet small continuous thrust could help maintain their positions.
Bodies at these “equilateral triangle” points are observed in the solar system. Two groups of asteroids called the “Trojans” occupy the vicinity of these points relative to the Sun and Jupiter. The other planets perturb their motions only slightly.
[Editor’s Note: When one contemplates from the perspective of a third of a century the excitement and the drama of the moon landing in 1969, the five pages this writer chose to devote in 1959 to Space Handbook’s 25 technical and prose pages given to the idea of a “lunar landing” are clearly inadequate. Yet he, like the research team of the time, really couldn’t have expected the government to devote the kind of massive commitment (and even obsession) that actually evolved in the Sixties, especially after President Kennedy publicly placed the Nation on notice. Congress, surprisingly, funded the expensive project under stimulation by a committed President Johnson, 1963 to 1969. The launch finally happened during President Nixon’s first year in office.
[On the matter of timing a Moon landing effort, the full text of this paragraph from the 1959 study needs to be quoted verbatim: “…there is a best time to shoot during a given day, a best day during a given month, and a best month once every 18.6 years. The influence of time of day on payload is very strong (strong enough to make the whole operation possible only at the best time); the influence of the time of month is less strong (not likely to be the difference between feasibility and infeasibility except with marginal systems); and the effect of the 18.6-year cycle is rather minor.”
[The authors continued: “It is of interest to note that at present the Moon is near its least favorable inclination. It will reach its best inclination in 1969.” And 1969 proved to be the Moon landing year, indeed! The meaning of inclination was: “That element of an orbit which indicates the angle between the plane of that orbit and a reference plane (in the solar system, the ecliptic).” Ecliptic, in turn, means “the plane of the Earth’s orbit, which makes an angle with the equator of about 23 degrees 27 minutes.” Both definitions from the original volume’s Glossary.]
* * *
IX
PHOTOGRAPHY FROM SATELLITES
An observation satellite is a movable window through which man can see the Earth on which he has walked for so many centuries. These camera and television-equipped satellites of the future will provide man with astronomical pictures, cloud observation, international reconnaissance for peaceful and military purposes, and a continuous portrait of the Earth from miles in space.
EARLY EFFORTS
When man uses satellites for photographing the Earth he will be continuing a long habit of focusing a camera on portions of his planet. The French photographer Nadar (a pseud.) went on photographic balloon trips beginning in 1858, and a balloon photograph of Boston was taken from an altitude of 1,200 feet on the eve of the Civil War.
George Lawrence, an American, took elaborate serial photo-graphs from balloons in the early 100s. When airplanes came to be regarded as practical and safe, photographers began to use them for camera platforms.
In two world wars and in Korea, branches of the armed forces of the United States made good use of photographs for reconnaissance and intelligence work.
Photography from rockets is half a century old [from 1958]. By 1912 Alfred Maul had devised a rocket, stabilized by a gyroscope, which carried an 8 x 10 camera to a height of 2,600 feet. The success of airplane photography in those years soon caused a loss of interest in using rockets for the purpose.
PICTURES FROM SATELLITES
Aerial photography in recent years has developed techniques unfamiliar to most amateur photographers. Different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum have been used: for example, radar reconnaissance, electronic interception and infrared methods have proven of service in time of war. Over-all requirements in time of peace, however, will be somewhat different.
Specialists in the new field of satellite photography use certain terms that may be mentioned briefly. The ratio of altitude to the focal length of the lens is given in terms of a “scale number.” The higher the number, the less fine detail that can be seen, for the scale number is altitude divided by focal length of lens.
“Resolution” in aerial photography has the usual photographic meaning—the ability of a lens-film combination to render a standard pattern of black and white lines so that it is barely distinguishable. If a lens-film combination should be said to yield a resolution of “10 lines per millimeter,” it means only that when there are ten lines and spaces per millimeter they can be distinguished with this lens-film combination.
By “ground resolution” is meant the measurement of a distance on the ground that corresponds to one line (at the limit of resolution). Exact numbers for ground resolution are not attainable in practice because, among other things, the emulsion from which film is made will affect the actual (as opposed to the theoretical) results.
DIFFERENT RESULTS
Levels of photographic detail which will prove attainable may be classified into four types, A through D, according to the degree of ground resolution. Level A would resolve detail on the ground to a measurement of 50 to 200 feet; B: 10 to 50 feet; C: 2 to 8 feet; and D (the most difficult): 6 inches to 2 feet.
Level A would be a combination of film, altitude, and lens focal length appropriate to making panoramic views of millions of square miles. Railroads, highways, urban areas, airfields, and naval installations would be identifiable. This scale has limited value, however.
Level B would be for areas somewhat less in extent (measured by hundreds of thousands of square miles). Parked aircraft, almost all lines of communication, and details barely discernible at level A would be visible at level B.
Level C gives detail in terms of hundreds of square miles. Most of World War II photography was accomplished at this level, where extremely detailed analyses of sites, airfields, industries, and other activities could be made.
Small areas of perhaps one square mile may be handled at level D of ground resolution, where very fine detail on new activities, military sites, and other installations may be seen.
In summary, a reasonable concept of satellite photographic activity would cover all areas of interest at level A or, if possible, level B every six months or so. New major installations could be detected, patterns of use ascertained, and hints for further photography at better levels of resolution would be gained.
The goal would be to have in operation an over-all photographic program, aimed at giving results at various levels of detail.
The quality of results would depend in actual practice on the weather, cloud interference, illumination, and other factors. Fortunately, photographs made in 1954 at a rocket altitude of 150 miles with a six inch lens, giving a ground resolution much less than even level A (only 500 feet) still showed major railroads, airfields, and many major streets in a city.
It is realistic to suppose that one can find large installations in the process of construction by using systems performing at level A or B. At such levels it is certainly possible to get clues of sufficient interest to warrant using C or D systems on limited areas.
But first we must get an A-level system in operation so that further planning for higher resolutions can be undertaken.
CAMERAS AND LENSES
Lens designs, camera precision, and film characteristics have all improved in recent years. Much that was impossible is now feasible. Shutterless cameras that take a continuous strip of film, and panoramic cameras have opened up new opportunities.
The modern panoramic camera comes from a rather old camera design. A lens which actually covers only a narrow angle “sweeps out” a wide-angle photograph by scanning the scene. An image is de-posited on a relatively long but narrow strip of film. Unfortunately, this type of camera does not take an entire picture at a single instant, so between-the-lens shutters are universally used for snapping.
The concept of “image speed” is useful when thinking of photography from rapidly moving vehicles. There are ways of compensating for this distortion. To achieve high resolution the blur caused by uncompensated image motion must be restricted to less than about 1/200 of a millimeter. This can be done by using a short exposure (fast shutter) and by moving the camera (panning) during the exposure.
By the use of sensitive film emulsions and extremely high-speed optics the exposure time in a satellite camera–box cameras are 1/50 of a second–could be perhaps 1/5,000 of a second! Blur would then be greatly minimized.
In this event, even the high satellite speed of 25,000 feet per second will yield a blur corresponding to only about two and a half feet on the ground.
Lenses with focal lengths of 100 and 240 inches have been developed at this time by the Air Force. Such lenses will be useful in satellites eventually.
Comparison of existing high-altitude photographs with theoretical data on photography from a satellite shows that there is striking evidence of the potential ability of satellites to secure some useful photographs.
USEFULNESS
Satellite photography can help answer serious questions about a real or potential enemy. His capabilities and intentions will both be revealed to some extent. What does he have and where is it? How many does he have and how does he use them?
Mapping, sharing, and weather reconnaissance are other uses.
Spaceborne reconnaissance will be valuable in the future because it can cover extremely large areas quickly, and the possibility of individual error in observing is minimized. For many reasons, large launching rockets will be required for maximum progress with observation satellites.
* * *
X
SATELLITES AND THE WEATHER
Does man stand any chance of controlling the weather? No one knows. Mankind must first, in any event, achieve a better understanding of the basic nature of the atmosphere surrounding the planet. The new science of astronautics may help mightily to bring this understanding nearer.
Satellites as weather observing tools may offer man the ability to get a quick view of the Earth as a whole. How much benefit this will be to meteorologists can only be surmised at this time, but it should be substantial.
At first, weather observation from a satellite will be chiefly optical. The Vanguard satellite has a scanning system for the purpose of looking back toward the Earth. But this type of observation will give little more than an intelligent guess on the exact temperature, pressure, humidity, and other conventional items dear to the heart of the student of weather. Possible use of the infrared spectrum will help, however.
Early satellites will make clouds the leading item for observation, since the patterns of clouds over the whole globe can be observed by ordinary television techniques and radioed to the ground. Fortunately, an accurate cloud analysis can convey much information. Even if observations on the Earth’s surface are already giving good data, satellite cloud observations can add continuity and complete-ness beyond any now available.
PRESENT SOURCES
A worldwide weather data collection network supported by most of the civilized nations of the world is now in operation [1958]. This is because weather affects almost every known activity of man either directly or indirectly, and the success of many of man’s enterprises can only be made certain by accurately predicting future weather.
Knowledge of the weather at the polar regions and over the vast oceans remains inadequate. Communication from ships and aircraft is not enough, and it is not continuously available. Perhaps satellites can plug this gap.
METEOROLOGICAL SATELLITES
The United States government’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) began a meteorological satellite development program with several key projects in this field. This program has to a large extent been taken over beginning in 1958 by the National Aeronautics and Space Agency [soon to be Administration].
A rocket vehicle is to place a meteorological satellite in orbit at an altitude of about 300 miles. Satellite packaging must be developed, and ground tracking data readout network will be needed. A data handling and processing system and routine data analysis procedures will make the satellite useful.
Observations at first will be of cloud cover patterns, seen via miniature television cameras. One will sweep a path of 1,200 by 6,000 miles. Ten pictures 1,200 miles on a side will be taken on each orbital revolution. These will overlap to make a strip.
The cameras will be most sensitive in the red part of the spectrum; this will tend to reduce the blue light scattered by the atmosphere. An additional camera will have a longer focal length for telescopic effects.
While pictures will be taken at the best point in the orbit (the pictures will be best when the Earth is in sunlight and the satellite is pointing properly), the pictures will be transmitted to the ground station at the time when the satellite passes overhead.
The agencies responsible for analysis and use of meteorological satellite data are the United States Weather Bureau and the Geophysics Research Directorate of the Air Force Cambridge Research Center.
WATCHING THE CLOUDS
Cloud observations from a satellite could provide the meteorologist with a view of the entire world’s weather pattern that can hardly be achieved by present indirect methods. In addition, some detailed information can be gained from cloud photographs. These will be clearer than might be expected, because the bright sun-drenched clouds will contrast sharply with the Earth background. Poor results will come whenever the background consists of snow or of water illuminated by the sun when it is low in the sky.
By cloud study it is possible to learn much about wind direction. The slope of cumulonimbus clouds may indicate the variation in the wind with different altitudes. Cumulus clouds form on the lee sides of mountains, and the direction of industrial smoke can reveal wind direction at low altitudes. Clouds may indicate for the observer the boundaries of areas of warm and cold air and the approximate value of temperatures in the upper air. Barometric pressure may not be determined by cloud observations, unfortunately, except in the most general sense of identifying “high” or “low” pressure systems.
While recognition and identification of clouds is entirely feasible through satellite weather reconnaissance, rapid transmittal of this information to Earth will at first be difficult, especially if large areas are being viewed at one time.
INFRARED OBSERVATIONS
Infrared and other electromagnetic measuring methods are a powerful tool for ascertaining temperatures at various altitudes high in the skies. The altitudes would in fact be fixed as the tops of various layers of atmospheric gas that absorb radiation in different parts of the spectrum.
Measurement of atmospheric gas content or temperature by this method would be very valuable. Variations in various gases such as ozone and carbon dioxide are necessary to an improvement in the ability to forecast weather. In addition, moisture or water-vapor content of the atmosphere is needed to forecast the advent of clouds and rain.
A comparison of the amounts of solar radiation entering and leaving the atmosphere will yield a better measure of its heat balance. This in turn will tell us more about how energy gets distributed around the Earth.
FORECASTING
The satellites may bring some improvement in our hurricane and typhoon warning service. Forecasting for the western side of our continent may be improved. The air lanes and shipping lanes in several oceans may get better weather prediction as the result of early satellites. In general, continuity in data may be a major satellite contribution. This alone will certainly provide some overall improvement in our forecasting ability.
It may be that one day we shall have a “Satellite Weather Data Center,” where incoming data will be quickly processed to extract the maximum amount of usable meteorological information for immediate distribution. This would be a very important contribution, for the time from weather data acquisition to dissemination should as a rule be limited to one hour.
For this reason, problems of disseminating data should have at least as much of our thought and effort as do the design and operation of the data-gathering space vehicle.
THE FUTURE
Many of the ideas discussed here have not been completely proved by experiment. Enough information is at hand, however, to indicate the desirability of using satellites for weather research. It is entirely possible that as we gain experience in this use of satellites in orbit around the Earth, the data from them may actually supplant a part of our present weather network.
Control of the weather—long a dream of mankind—will never come, however, until the chain of physical events leading to a particular weather phenomenon is understood. The meteorological satellites, as they are placed in orbit, will help us to understand the links in the weather chain.
* * *
XI
PRELUDE TO SPUTNIK
The American public was astonished by the launching and orbit of Sputnik I on October 4, 1957. Average men and women in other countries were equally surprised by this dramatic addition to the Moon–a body which until then had enjoyed a monopoly as it revolved regularly about the Earth.
The Soviet accomplishment was real. And it was significant. But it may have been the element of complete surprise that electrified the watching world.
Should Sputnik have surprised us in this way?
SOVIET ORGANIZATIONS.
A close student of scientific developments with a knowledge of the Russian language could have traced many of the steps that led to Sputnik I. The founding and development of organizations, the announcement of achievements, and the confident prediction by noted scientists of coming events all make a discernable pattern when viewed in retrospect.
The existence of an official Soviet space-flight program was revealed in a speech by A. N. Nesmayanov, President of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences, on November 27, 1953. He was speaking in Vienna on a general topic when he observed, “Science has reached a state when it is feasible to send a stratoplane to the Moon [and] to create an artificial satellite of the Earth.” Was this an indication of what he then knew of his country’s progress in rocket propulsion?
In 1954 the Soviets established a permanent Interdepartmental Commission on Interplanetary Communications. Its mandate was to “coordinate and direct all work concerned with solving the problem of mastering cosmic space.” Top scientists were named Chairman and Vice Chairman.
Soon an Astronautics Section of an Aeroclub was founded “to facilitate the realization of cosmic flights for peaceful purposes.” Prize winning scientists were among the charter members.
STEADY PROGRESS
The Large Soviet Encyclopedia published in June of 1954 contained an article on Interplanetary Communications (the Russian equivalent of “astronautics” and “space flight”). There was by then a good deal to write about, for by 1949 the Soviets had embarked on an upper atmosphere research-rocket program that involved the recovery by parachute of test-flight containers and experimental animals. The single-stage rocket initially used in May, 1949 reached 68 miles into space with a payload in instruments of nearly 300 pounds.
Payloads carried by geophysical rockets then and later were recovered by parachute. On August 27, 1958, a Soviet single-stage geophysical rocket carried 3,720 pounds to a height of 279 miles. The instruments and the two dog passengers were successfully recovered.
Soviet scientists had revealed in December 1956 a number of details about their upper-atmosphere research. Dogs sent round trip to an altitude of 68 miles had been fastened in a hermetically sealed space suit with a removable plastic helmet. A two-hour supply of oxygen was included. Each of two chassis had a radio transmitter, oscillograph, thermometers, sphygmometer, camera, and parachute. Separation from the nose section took place at two distinctly different altitudes.
Another revelation of 1956 was a description of an instrument container about the size of a very tall man. This metal cylinder in three sections weighed about 550 pounds. It was dropped automatically by parachute as the descending space rocket reached the height of 7.5 to 6 miles above the Earth.
The first section of this cylinder is hermetically sealed. It contains power supplies, ammeters, camera, and the program mechanism which controls the operation of all the instruments located in the container.
The second section, open to the atmosphere, contains flasks and gauges. The upper section, hermetically sealed like the first, contains a parachute. Spikes located in the bottom of the container insure a vertical landing.
The revelations about the dogs and the container dropped by parachute received wide publicity in the Soviet press. It was revealed that cosmic ray investigations began in the Soviet Union in 1947, and that systematic studies of the atmosphere (including dog studies) had been conducted since 1951.
PREDICTING SPUTNIK
The year 1957, Soviet spokesmen confidently predicted, would see the successful launching of an Earth Satellite by the Soviet Union. On June 1 Academician A. N. Nesmeyanov was quoted as follows in Pravda: “As a result of many years of work by Soviet scientists and engineers to the present time, rockets and all the necessary equipment and apparatus have been created by means of which the problem of an artificial Earth satellite for scientific research purposes can be solved.”
The same authority said a week later that “soon, literally within the next months, our planet Earth will acquire another satellite.” Technical problems had been overcome, he said, and the necessary apparatus had been created. In Soviet scientific literature of May-June there appeared requests to astronomers and their organizations to prepare for the passage of a satellite overhead.
In a Russian amateur-radio magazine appeared several articles on Earth satellites. Information on orbits of satellites was given, together with methods for using the 20- and 40-megacycle frequency signals. Their purpose was made clear.
The same magazine, Radio, told in July and August how to build a radio receiver and a direction-finding attachment of tracking the forthcoming Soviet sputniks. A notice in large type told Soviet radio amateurs to prepare to track and how to submit data on the signals to “Moskova-Sputnik.”
On August 27, 1957, only a matter of weeks before Sputnik I, a TASS report in Pravda said that “successful tests of an inter-continental ballistic rocket and also explosions of nuclear and thermonuclear weapons have been carried out in conformity with the plan of scientific research work in the U.S.S.R.”
When the time for launching Sputnik I finally arrived, the Soviet government had arranged for the placement of scientific delegations in foreign capitals. Washington and Barcelona were hosts to Soviet scientists ostensibly present because of International Geophysical Year activities.
All in all, the Soviets had made their intention to launch an Earth satellite entirely clear to those who were prepared to listen and of a mind to take seriously what was being said.
* * *
XII
SOVIET SPACE PIONEERING
The confidence of the Soviet Union in its potential for space conquest is reflected in one otherwise small item. After the successful sputnik flights, the Soviet authorities first asked observers everywhere to address any tracking data they obtained to “Moskova-Sputnik.” But subsequently the Soviet government requested that a new address be used. Henceforth data was to be sent to “Moskova–Kosmos.” In Soviet eyes, therefore, the Sputniks are only the beginning.
The Interdepartmental Commission on Interplanetary Communications of the Astronomical Council of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences has been declared the agency responsible for the scientific aspects of the Soviet space-flight program. The road to that organizational development has been a long one.
EARLY WORK
Russia’s rich historical background in astronautics began before the turn of the century with the writings of I. V. Mesheherskii on the dynamics of bodies of variable mass and the publications of K. E. Tsiolkovskii on the principles of rocket flight.
While Tsiolokovskii is to the Soviets the patron saint of the science of astronautics (and Western historians have regarded him highly), he had several contemporaries of note. F. A. Tsander developed the idea of using certain rocket components as fuel after they had served their structural purpose. In the early 1930s he built and successfully tested a rocket motor operating on kerosene and liquid oxygen.
Other Russian leaders involved in early astronautics were Yu. V. Kondratyk (the idea of aerodynamically braking a returning rocket), N. A. Rynin (the author of a nine volume set on astronautics), Ya. I. Perel’man (a popular writer), and I. P. Fortikov (an organizer).
That the Russians have possessed a native competence in various aspects of rocketry and space flight—amounting to technical sophistication—is perfectly evident. In 1929 a group called GIRD was formed by some scientists and engineers who were studying “reactive motion.” Their interest lay in rocket engines and propellants. The publications of the group were significant, although few of these writings reached the United States.
THE 1930s
Russian rocket experiments in the 1930s make impressive reading. V. P. Glushko was designing rocket engines as early as 1929. A few years later he conducted test-stand firings with gasoline, benzene, and toluene as fuels, and with liquid oxygen, nitrogen tetroxide, and nitric acid as oxidants.
F. A. Tsander designed an engine called OR-2 which in 1933 developed a thrust of 100 pounds with gasoline and liquid oxygen. In the years 1941-46 the Russians would develop engines with thrusts of 660, 1,320, and 1,980 pounds.
In the mid-thirties a Russian rocket actually climbed to a height of six miles.
STATE CONTROL
The Soviet government organized as early as 1934 a state-sponsored rocket-research program, since this field of research was seen to have an enormous military potential.
While this was five years after the German government’s entry into the field, it turned out to be eight years earlier than Army-sponsored research in the United States.
Stalin came to have a personal interest in the development of long-range, rocket-propelled guided missiles, it has been alleged.
In summary, it must be said that the Russian effort in astronautics has been more than an extension of knowledge, brains, and equipment seized in Germany after World War II. There was much original thinking and research. This has not surprised scientists elsewhere who know of exceptionally capable technical Russians like Semenov (a Nobel prizewinner in chemistry) and Zel’dovich, Kristianovich, and Sedov (all significant figures in combustion theory and fluid dynamics).
THE GERMAN INFLUENCE
Yet Soviet borrowing from the Germans undoubtedly meant much to Soviet rocket science. After World War II the Russians thoroughly and systematically exploited German rocket power plants, thereby learning much about guidance and control equipment.
By seizing most of the German rocket-test and production facilities and personnel, the Soviets established under their control after 1945 the state of the art in German rocket activity. While most of the captured Germans were repatriated in 1952, a group of electronics experts was not to be returned to their homeland until the year 1958.
Following World War II, the Soviet program increased the thrust of the German V-2 substantially, and they more than tripled its range. A super-rocket engine was developed, its thrust reaching a total of 265,000 pounds.
AWARDS AND HONORS
The work of Soviet scientists in astronautics, while often kept secret for military reasons, has been given a good deal of recognition by the government of the Soviet Union.
In 1954 the Presidium of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences established the E. E. Tsiolkovskii Gold Medal for outstanding work in the field of interplanetary communications. The award would be made every three years.
After the success of the first sputniks, the scientific research organizations that had participated in the development and launching of the satellites were presented the Order of Lenin and the Red Banner of Labor recognition. A group of scientists, designers, and workers was given the title Hero of Socialist Labor.
Lenin prizes were given to “a large group” of scientists, designers, and specialists. And “a large number” of experts, engineer-techno-logical workers, and others were awarded orders and medals of the Soviet Union.
Finally, the groups making these awards (the Central Committees of the Communist Party, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, and the Council of Ministers) announced: “To mark the creation and launching in the Soviet Union of the world’s first artificial Earth satellite it has been decided to erect in 1958 an obelisk in Moscow, the capitol of the Soviet Union.”
These awards were made collectively, it will be noted, for the Soviets cloaked with anonymity the men and institutions who had dramatically achieved the first concrete step in man’s conquest of space. Similar military caution had long been a Soviet custom when dealing with rocket developmental matters.
Nevertheless, a large scientific literature and a variety of speeches and announcements have made it possible for a handful of specialists in other countries to keep somewhat informed on Soviet progress, plans, and hopes for the ultimate conquest of space.
* * *
XIII
SOVIET SPACE PLANS
The American expert who studies the printed literature of Soviet astronautics is quickly impressed by the boldness, scope, and dedication of the Moscow effort. It is aimed at the ultimate conquest of the cosmos through manned interplanetary travel.
There seems to be no question in the Soviet mind that their country will realize this cherished dream of mankind—thus fulfilling the authoritarian goals of the Communist Party.
The Soviets are building up a mountain of detailed information. Its source is concentrated studies in geophysics, astrophysics, celestial mechanics, and radio astronomy. Planetology, astrobiology, and space medicine are other favorite Soviet disciplines whose data will help make interplanetary communication a reality.
Already, as is well known, the Russians have made great strides toward attaining their goals. Large geophysical research rockets and massive artificial Earth satellites plus an accompanying detection, tracking, and data-handling network are well-publicized advances.
The aspirations of the Soviet Union are of the deepest possible interest to the people of the United States. Recognizing the difficulties of prediction, it still seems probable that the Soviet plans for the future will take four basic forms. These are: geocosmic flights (use of space to get a vehicle from one point on Earth to another); orbital flights around the Earth (sputniks); lunar flights (to Earth’s Moon); and interplanetary travel (Mars, Venus, etc.).
GEOCOSMIC FLIGHTS
This category of space use is vital to men and nations, for it includes ballistic missiles for use in war. Soviet achievements in geocosmic flight include long-range one- and two-stage (that is, “multi-stage”) ballistic missiles and biological rockets. With the latter the Soviets study the behavior of animals in capsules sent to altitudes of more than 60 miles. The velocity requirement in such instances is less than 4.9 miles per second—not quite enough to send a vehicle into orbit.
Because they long to be first to achieve manned space flight, it is reasonable to think that there will soon be a Soviet announcement of what will be termed the “successful return” of a human passenger from a rocket flight within the Soviet Union. Their intensive study of space medicine will facilitate this feat.
ORBITAL FLIGHT
Soviet launchings in this category have been spectacular, effective, and significant. Large in size, the sputniks were effective world-wide propaganda devices. But their significance in the long run lay in their scientific and military implications.
Sputnik III, announced on May 15, 1958, had a gross weight of 2,919 pounds (2,130 pounds of which was instrumentation). It was no idle boast when a Soviet scientist said a few months before this launching that Soviet scientists “can now raise the most diverse problems in the investigation of the upper layers of the atmosphere and in the region of cosmic space closest to the Earth.”
The Soviets are aware of the importance of recovering photo-graphic film, instruments, and animals from satellites. Realizing that this class of material would be of much greater value than transmitted (radioed) data, they have discussed the general techniques of recovery. The existence of various recovery projects has been revealed, although one Soviet professor has admitted [1958] that the recovery problem has not yet been solved.
The ultimate goal in this flight category (where velocity ranges from 4.9 to 6.9 miles per second) is naturally a manned space station.
This would be a space laboratory. It would also be an intermediate station for future interplanetary voyages.
LUNAR FLIGHT
A flight velocity of slightly less than the “escape” velocity of 6.9 miles per second (that is, 6.8 miles per second) is necessary to reach the Moon. A Soviet expert has predicted, “The first flight to the Moon, or circumflight of the Moon, will evidently take place within the next few years.”
Before a Moon flight takes place, he added, “a number of artificial satellites will be launched along increasingly elongated orbits which will draw nearer and nearer to the Moon.” Its mysterious terrain will be partially revealed, he continued.
Trajectories for Moon flights have been extensively calculated in Moscow and Leningrad. Thus the Soviets are well prepared with the theoretical knowledge needed for lunar flights.
While there seems to be no doubt of Soviet ability to propel a vehicle all the way to the Moon, it remains to be seen if they have the necessary guidance and control capability to strike it. Their first attempt apparently missed when “Mechta” went off into orbit around the Sun.
INTERPLANETARY TRAVEL
Soviet flights from Earth to other planets will be scheduled, it is evident, according to a rigid timetable. Thus a trip to Mars would take 260 days and one to Venus 146 days, but only if the “blast-offs” took place when these planets were as close to Earth as possible. The Soviets are well aware of this, and they will undoubtedly schedule planetary flights accordingly. The approximate theoretical minimum velocity of a space vehicle destined for Mars would be 10.4 to 13.5 miles per second. For a trip to Venus the speeds would be roughly similar (10.2 and 16.6).
Knowing that chemical rockets would be largely inadequate for such flights, the Soviets say they are looking forward to having nuclear engines play a major role in interplanetary flights. New developments for that purpose will naturally affect geocosmic (Earth to Earth) flights as well.
SECRECY
Because the space-flight program of the Soviet Union is intimately connected with the ICBM (military) program, military secrecy has veiled certain details of satellite launchings. Yet the very orbiting of sputniks has made it possible for the free world to deduce important details from observed facts.
For example, a Japanese scholar who worked from scraps of information placed the launching spot of the sputniks at about 248 miles southeast of the Aral Sea, in the Kyzyl Kum Desert. He also hazarded a guess on the launching times down to the minute.
While Soviet scientists gave 18 formal papers on rocket and satellite research at the August, 1958 International Geophysical Year Meeting in Moscow, vitally important data were carefully withheld. No information was released concerning the nature of the rockets used to put the Soviet satellites into orbit!
What is known about Soviet progress in astronautics is impressive in the extreme. What may be guessed inspires further sober thought. Thus sputniks I, II, and III attained perigee (minimum) altitudes of 141 miles, 139.5 miles, and 140 miles respectively. These almost identical heights may indicate that a fairly good guidance system was initially employed by Soviet scientists. If true, it may or may not mean that this guidance system is necessarily suited to ICBM (military) use.
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[Editor’s Note: The research material submitted to the Congress included a page on developments in Great Britain and a paragraph of speculation on activity in China. This editor chose then not to cover that information. However, it does have interest today that the British Interplanetary Society (founded 1933) then published a respected Journal, and there was an intention to pool Commonwealth resources on space. The Black Knight and Black Streak missile programs were discussed briefly; together they might reach an altitude of 1,600 miles, it was thought. Overall, the British might be capable of “instrumental probes on lunar and interplanetary flights.” The British sought uniqueness and originality. As for the Chinese, all that could be surmised was that “reports” said that they might be using Russian equipment to launch something eventually.]
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READING ABOUT AMERICAN SPACE ACTIVITY
An Editor’s Note
The literature on astronautics is immense. So is the list of titles on space exploration. Volumes on each subject are readily found on Amazon and in the bibliographies of recent books. Even the smallest public libraries take pride in providing extensive information on both subjects for children, youths, and adults. One bibliographical source on the Internet will particularly interest all who are curious about NASA vehicles, leadership, and activity since 1958.
Readily available to be read on the internet is a 74 page bibliography produced by the NASA History Office entitled Research in NASA History: A Guide to the NASA History Program, athttp://history.nasa.gov/sp4543.pdf. The Internet has easily located oral histories and essays that reveal the Space concerns of leaders in the 1957-59 period.
In addition to book and report titles, the above site gives the names of NASA centers and laboratories nationwide and some miscellaneous information. The reader of even a portion of this lengthy listing will instantly appreciate how far American astronautics and space exploration have come since the Congress began investing money from the federal budget in research, rockets, and the National Aeronautics and Space Agency. (It was on November 7, 1958 that it could be reported that NASA had announced for the first time that it was ready to welcome Industry’s space capsule design proposals.)
Long available in government documents sections of libraries, the Congressional version of Space Handbook can now be found for reading by computer users on a major NASA Internet website: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/conghand/spcover.htm The hardcover edition,indexed and with a glossary, can be found in used condition in many libraries.
The year 1959 was one for publication of any number of books on astronautics and space, as well as for aviation in general. While few of the authors were working full time for a living in scientific investigation and engineering, the books appear to display considerable knowledge of the new and developing age of space, and their authors’ efforts to make difficult material intelligible seem to have been successful.
A lengthy bibliography of this literature can be seen in one place. Frederick I. Ordway, III assembled his annotated listing of the literature from 1931 to 1961 over a period of years. Entitled Annotated Bibliography of Space Science and Technology, it is readily available to today’s readers on the Internet as part of the Boggs Spacebooks webpage. For our purposes, the listing for the year 1959 is particularly relevant. While it is tempting to offer some of the more pertinent titles here, the simplicity of locating it on the Internet makes it quite unnecessary. It is the third revision (1962) that is particularly appropriate, it appears.
Finally, to get nearly up to date on the Soviet side of the space race, there is a 2003 volume entitled The Soviet Space Race with Apollo by Asif A. Siddiqi which does a thorough job of investigating the whole area of Moscow’s attempt to prevail in the long 20th Century contest with the United States. The material summarized in the present volume was pioneering in its time! Indeed, the primary RAND researcher on the Soviets, F. J. Krieger, was quoted at length in the New York Times of 1958 on Soviet capabilities and intentions, and the thrust of what he offered the Congress still makes good reading now.
What is important is to bear in mind that When the Space Race Began has the limited purpose of bringing the reader back to the state of awareness among experts in 1958; it is by no means intended to pose as even a superficial introduction to the now highly sophisticated area of knowledge embraced by the term Astronautics. What it does, it is hoped, it does reasonably well.