Rocket To Moon Predicted Soon

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28425, 4 November 1957, Page 11

Rocket To Moon Predicted Soon

“They're years ahead of the States.” said Dr. D. F. Lawden. professor of mathematics at the University of Canterbury, commenting on the launching of the second Russian satellite. Dr. Lawden is a member of the council of the British Interplanetary Society. and is a research specialist on rocket ballistics. The Russians must have developed some more powerful fuel than those conventionally used, said Dr. Lawden. as the rocket used to place the satellite in orbit would be of fantastic size otherwise. It was very doubtful if atomic fuels could be used at prosent, as the powerful radiation would have killed the dog unless very heavy shielding was Used “if they can put something that size in orbit, it would not be much harder to put a small object on the moon.” said Dr. Lawden. "The fact that they have put this one up now means that probably they have something like that up their sleeves for November 7. It is apparent that space travel with guided missiles is only a few months away." Russian scientists were possibly so far ahead of the Americans because they had gone ahead on their own lines instead of following German war rocket development. said Dr. Lawden. The United States had got all the top German rocket scientists after the end of the war, and had been developing their research along German lines. The Russians apparently had developed their own research, after taking over the German V2 station at Peenemunde after. the war. Closeness to Earth “I'm staggered by this —it's really astounding.” said Mr C. S L. Keay, a research worker in the physics department at the University of Canterbury, when he heard of the news nf the launching of a second Russian space satellite. Mr Keay, with other research workers in the department. plotted the orbit of the first satellite from reported observations. If the figures given by the Russians were correct, for the period of the orbit and the maximum height reached, the satellite might approach as close as 130 miles to the earth at its lowest point, said Mr Keay. The orbit appeared to be more eccentric than that of the first satellite, and if it approached as close as he had calculated it would be difficult to say how long it might stay up. It was impossible to predict at this stage whether the satellite would be seen from New Zealand, said Mr Keay. If it passed close to New Zealand during the twilight hours 'it should be seen easily, even with the naked eye. It would travel across the sky at ■ a slower speed than that of the first satellite. "There is not a great deal of , point in getting more visual ; observations.” said Mr Keay. The ; most useful possibility was to get • photographic information. but whether anything more was done . would depend on Dr H. A Whale. • of Ardmore College, Auckland, who is the New Zealand Inter-

national Geophysical Year correspondent on rockets and satellites. “My colleagues and I cannot undertake to repeat the work we did with the first satellite, because we must return to our own research programmes.” said Mr Keay. Possibly the most interesting thing about this satellite was that the dog inside would be completely weightless, since the rocket was in free fall in a relatively stable orbit, said Mr Keay. It would be the first creature to exist under weightless conditions for any length of time.