Space Mouse

Most proposals for space flights (with space suits and space taxis and space garbage disposal) have been fine for the science-fiction trade but far ahead of practicality. Last week, Physics Professor Fred S. Singer of the University of Maryland told about a less ambitious space vehicle. Its name is the Mouse (for Minimum Orbital Unmanned Satellite of the Earth), and Singer thinks it should be man's next step toward space travel.

Circling Sphere. The Mouse will be a sphere, weighing 100 lbs. and packed with instruments, that will be carried up by a three-stage rocket. The third and final stage will enter an orbit 190 miles above the earth's surface. Then the propulsive parts will fall away and let the spherical Mouse continue on its own. It will circumnavigate the earth every 90 minutes, but will not do so "forever." There is still a little air at 190 miles, and friction will slow the Mouse until it finally sinks into denser air and crashes to earth or, more likely, burns up. Since it will not be manned, even by monkeys or mice, its demise will be no disaster.

Singer believes that the Mouse will stay up long enough to send back a wealth of information. It can analyze virgin sunlight that has not been altered by passing through the atmosphere. It can measure the earth's magnetic field, catch cosmic rays and observe the particles shot from the sun that cause the aurora.

All this information will be sent back to earth by the Mouse's automatic radio. Professor Singer suggests that the Mouse be put on an orbit that passes over both the poles. The earth will turn below the orbit, but the Mouse will cross one of the poles every 45 minutes, and airplanes can be sent to the polar regions to interview it. On the Mouse will be a receiving apparatus to pick up a signal from the airplane. When the signal arrives, a magnetic tape will start moving and send, in 30 seconds of telemetered code, all the information that the Mouse has gathered in its last trip from pole to pole. Brief messages are desirable, because electric power will have to come from some sort of battery. Later on, thinks the professor, a Supermouse can be sent up higher, stay up longer, and get its power from sunlight.

Precious Data. The cost of the Mouse, says Professor Singer, will be modest. He thinks that if five Mice are built, they should cost $1,000,000 each, which is less than the cost of a B-47 ($2,500,000). For this sum, U.S. scientists will get precious information beyond the capacities of present-day rockets.

The U.S. military will get data about the fringes of the atmosphere, where guided missiles will fly. The U.S. as a whole will gain prestige as the first nation to get a satellite, even if only a Mouse, on an earth-circling orbit.

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