Scientists Attack U.S. Experiment

Press, Volume C, Issue 29651, 23 October 1961, Page 11

Scientists Attack U.S. Experiment

(N ZJ’^.-Keuter—COPVHoM) LONDON, October 22. The American satellite scattering of 850 million copper needles in a belt round the earth brought worried reaction from British and European scientists last night.

The troubled scientists were headed by the director of the Jodrell Bank radiotelescope, Sir Bernard Lovell, who described the act as one of “extra-terrestrial contamination.” The United States “needles” experiment is aimed at cheapening and speeding communications by bouncing radio waves halfway round the world off the belt of needles. The experiment has been previously criticised as a possible danger to optical and radio observation. Sir Bernard Lovell said the project did not represent a scientific experiment but had been devised by United States military scientists and was intended to provide a secure means of military communications. It was a “stain on the hitherto untarnished American programme of space research.” Russia would be able to use it to justify her own contamination of the atmosphere. Sir Bernard Lovell, who had previously expressed doubts about some “unspecified military reason” for the operation, said: “I have been pleased to accept a personal assurance from the President's scientific advisers in the White House that there are no other hidden military aspects. "Nevertheless, the comtamination of space in this manner for communication purposes cannot possibly be justified in view of the satellites and other means now available for long-distance communication which may be made secure from enemy action.” He said: "... Minor errors in the launching can change the orbit to such an extent that the lifetime of the wires in space may be hundreds of years instead of a few years. "Over that scale of time it is not possible to prejudge what observational facilities might be jeopardised by even this relatively small concentration of wires in space. “Furthermore, if the intention of the project is fulfilled then further launchings

must be made and the position will deteriorate rap-dly.’ Professor Martin Ryle, head of the Milliard radio and astronomy section of Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University, said the launching was worrying because "too little is known how long this stuff will last “If the Americans cannot guarantee the lifetime of this stuff they should not launch it” he said. “The onus is on them to prove it is all right The question is how far are we prepared to go for what may prove to be only a temporary expedient” Dr. R. U Waterfield, a former president of the British Astronomical Association, said: “I, like most astronomers in Britain, am very much against this project. It may seriously interfere with radio and optical astronomy. I don't think any good will come of this.” Professor Fred Hoyle, Plumian profeuor of astronomy and experimental philosophy at Cambridge, said: “An intellectual crime has been perpetrated. It is exactly what I have always felt about the apace programme—that tbe astronomers were being used as a facade of respectability for an essentially military project” In The Hague. Professor J. H. Oort chairman of the International Astronomical Union, said last night that he regretted the United States had launched the satellite without consulting representatives of the interested sciences. He said he did not expect any direct harm to astronomy to result from today’s launching. He feared, however, that if it was successful there would be pressure to repeat the experiment on a biggrr scale. If the needle bend became permanent, it would harm telescopic observations. The British United Prers reported that a Moscow broadcast last night said Mr Keldysh, president of the ÜBS.R. Academy of Sciences. was among many scientists who had protested against United States plans to disperse the needles in space. The protest was made on the grounds that the needles would impair the study of outer space.