Utter Bilge?

When bluff, outspoken Australian Astronomer Richard van der Riet Woolley, 49, stepped off his plane at London Airport last week to take over his duties as Britain's new Astronomer Royal, he promptly let fly with some observations that shook space enthusiasts to their dedicated core. Gruffed Woolley, in response to reporters' questions about the prospects for interplanetary travel: "It's utter bilge. I don't think anybody will ever put up enough money to do such a thing . . . What good would it do us? If we spent the same amount of money on preparing first-class astronomical equipment we would learn much more about the uni verse . . . It is all rather rot."

Not content with such heresy, Astronomer Woolley went on to pooh-pooh flying saucers: "I was awakened about 3 a.m. by the R.A.F. and asked about an object 3,000 feet due west. I hopped out of bed and had a look. I should have said, 'Take off, boys, it's the Russians,' but I had to tell them it was the planet Mars."

For just a moment or so, there was a pained silence from British spacemen. Then there were howls of indignation. Cried Secretary Leonard Carter of the British Interplanetary Society: "We believe the first flight to the moon will take place within the next 20 years and that Professor Woolley will live to see it ... Future Astronomers Royal will spend most of their time in space observatories and not in Hurstmonceux [home of the Royal Greenwich Observatory]." Added Interplanetary Society Council Member Kenneth Gatland: "Space travel is inevitable . . . Toward the end of the century we will get manned vehicles which will orbit the moon, and right at the end ... we will get actual landings." Confessed one of Woolley's fellow astronomers at the Royal Observatory: "I'm not going to throw cold water on space travel; I'm a fan."

But Astronomer Woolley had also given courage to other conservatives. Said the Spectator's Columnist "Pharos": "I wish the Astronomer Royal had gone a little further and told them to take up model yachting instead. That is a much prettier pastime than dreaming about going to Mars with a goldfish bowl over one's head and a superconcentrated food lozenge under the tongue."

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