RESEARCH ON SPACE

Press, Volume C, Issue 29508, 9 May 1961, Page 11

RESEARCH ON SPACE

British Work

(N Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) LONDON. May 7.

The fate of an astronautslow death in the cold wastes of outer ' space or a safe landing on Mars or Venus—may rest on revolutionary developments in space measurements announced at Jodrell Bank research station. A team of scientists at Britain's giant radio observatory in Cheshire has made radar calculations which, they say, would reduce the error margin on a Venus rocket flight from 20.000 to 2000 miles.

Led by Dr. J. Thomson, a lecturer in radio astronomy, the team has just completed radar tests disclosing that all the planets are a foot a mile further away from the earth than previously calculated. One vital phase of the programme was bouncing echoes off Venus, 30 million miles away, when it was at its closest to earth last month.

Two specific results are calculations of Mars’s distance from Earth to within 5000 miles, correcting a previous uncertain estimate of 50 million miles, and the discovery that the sun is 2000 miles more distant than previously estimated. Dr. Thomson said that in the past, the Russians, even with a perfect rocket, would not have been able to aim it accurately. The Venus study programme will continue for four or five years in an effort to obtain even more accurate measurements.