CO-OPERATION IN SPACE RESEARCH

Press, Volume C, Issue 29452, 2 March 1961, Page 14

CO-OPERATION IN SPACE RESEARCH

The nature of co-operation between Britain, France Australia, and the United States in space r esearch, and the present and| future British programme i in this field was outlined to a group of physics students and staff of the University o>f Canterbury yesterday by Dr. R. L. F. Boyd, leader of the space research group from University College, London Britain could launch a large three-quarter-ton satellite or fire an instrumented satellite towards the moon he said, but such programmes were expensive and the Government had not yet made up its mind Dr Boyd is making a short tour of New Zealand and Australia to examine the possibilities of'future Commonwealth co-operption in upper atmosphere ignd space research. He spent some time at Woomera supervising research being done by his university team He will leave for Washington today tor talks on the scientific equipment to be used in a satellite. Seoul I. to be Punched this vear by the United States Initially five universities had been interested in space research in Britain but others had since joined. A wide range 'of research including measurements of the wind and temperature 50 miles above the earth and higher, cosmic rays, radiation and the concentration! of electrical particles at various heights and astronomical Work was being done, said Dr Boyd Two rockets, the Skylark which could travel more than 200 nailes above the earth’s surfaeje and the Black Knight which, could go several hundreds of miles were being used Skylark had proved quite successful. It could carry 1501 b oi instruments, its nose cone could be returned to earth by oaractute and its instruments could be discarded at specific heights if necessary Skylark was a space research rocket while Black Knight was designed for military research

although it had been used by the universities he said Both the French, in the Sahara, and the United States, at Fort Churchill, had offered the British universities the use of their rockets for carrying instruments. One satellite. Scout I, would be launched this year if there were no delays in the programme and eventually three satellites would be set up using American power equipment and British instruments, said Dr. Boyd.

The future of entirely British work was still uncertain, however Using a combination Blue Streak and Black Knight rocket it would be possible to send 1001 b of instruments out of the earth’s gravitational field towards the moon, or launch a heavy observatory.

A great potential existed but large programmes were expensive and the Government had not yet made up its mind, said Dr Boyd So far rockets carrying British instruments had been launched at the rate of about one a month, but it was hoped that two could be launched each month within two years.

If the firing was successful there was a 70 per cent, chance of gaining useful information. or st least of finding better methods and techniques for getting information. Each experiment 'i J a 54’ per cent, chance of success but the chance of suecess declined as more instruments were put into each ocket. It was still comparatively cheap, however, to take the risk of failure by putting a considerable number of instruments into each rocket. The ns. u ments were not expensive in relation to the rocket cost, said Dr Boyd.