Take Off That Space Suit

Loose talk about space travel has gone pretty far; it may be a bit early to think of orbiting Air Force generals and rocket company executives circling the moon. To bring some sense to such flights of fancy, President Lee DuBridge of Caltech last week gave the Western Space Age Conference in Los Angeles a tranquilizing dose of anti-poppycock.

Physicist DuBridge is all for unmanned satellites to study the earth and nearby space, and perhaps to orbit the moon. "A scientist," he said, "cannot help but be excited by this prospect. It opens up wholly new areas of exploration. A whole book could be written about what the astronomers would like to do with a telescope above the atmosphere.''

Is It Worth It? About satellites that carry human beings Dr. DuBridge is dubious. "For most scientific explorations in space," he said, "the presence of man involves quite unwarranted complications and expense not justified by what he can contribute to the success of the venture . . . . Instruments are content to coast around in space unused and unattended for years, and to come back to earth, if at all, in a fiery cataclysm. But not a man. He wants to get back to earth not only unburnt but essentially unjarred. Now I assure you this is not easy, and we are a long way from having the faintest idea of how to do it in any practical way."

Easy or not, "human beings are going to insist, some day, on taking journeys out into space. The spirit of human adventure cannot be suppressed, no matter what it costs . . . But when we talk about landing a man on the moon or Mars or some other planet and then getting him off again and back home safely, we are talking about a new order of magnitude of difficulty and cost . . . Nothing impossible about it, you understand. It will just take a lot of money and a long time. Whether it is worth it or not depends on our concept of the values to be achieved."

What are these values? "Clearly, a man landing on the moon and coming back could bring back valuable scientific information, [but] most responsible scientists would feel that we could collect plenty of scientific data about the moon during the next few years by cheaper methods.

"What then about the military value of space travel? Satellites . . . will make fine reconnaissance vehicles . . . and will be good for weather observations . . . That, as far as I can see, is about the end of the story on the military value of earth satellites. You can't drop a bomb from a satellite; it just won't drop, and to project a bomb to earth is about as difficult as getting our human being back to earth . . . It's no good getting it on the wrong side of the earth."

A 240,000-Mile Shot. "What about a military base on the moon? There have been some extraordinary statements made on this question in recent months. Here is a typical one: 'A base on the moon with elaborate equipment and highly trained men . . . would be an observation post surpassing anything military strategists have dreamed of in history.' I am not familiar with military strategists' dreams, but I do know that from the moon only one side of the earth faces you at a time, and for a good fraction of each month that face will be in total darkness . . . and much of it will be covered by clouds anyway. And anyone who thinks he can see a man-made object from 240,000 miles away is a bit optimistic."

DuBridge cites "some military generals who ought Jo know better" as advocating launching weapons from the moon to the earth. "It is my firm opinion that this is utter nonsense. Why transport a hydrogen warhead, together with all men and equipment. 240,000 miles to the moon, just to shoot it 240,000 miles back to earth, when the target is only 5,000 miles away in the first place? If you did launch a bomb from the moon to a target on earth . . . the warhead would take five days to reach earth. The war might be over by then.

"Can we use the great new technologies of space travel for peaceful and scientific purpose? Or are we going to be led into wild programs of Buck Rogers stunts and insane pseudomilitary expeditions? The decision is going to be made soon, and it is high time that the best people in America ... do some hard thinking about it."

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