Scientists Set Up ‘Watchdog’ Group

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29819, 11 May 1962, Page 13

Scientists Set Up ‘Watchdog’ Group

(N.Z Press Association—Copyright) WASHINGTON, May 10. An international science group has moved to keep space safe for science.

The scientists voted yesterday to establish a watchdog committee to determine whether proposed experiments by any nation might jeopardise space research of importance to all nations. United Press International reported The committee's recommendations for or against a “potentially harmful'’ space experiment would be reported not only to interested international scientific organisations but to “appropriate

bodies of the United Nations.”

The provision was adopted at the concluding session of an international symposium in Washington organised by the non-Governmental World Committee on Space Research Cospar. The Cospar group would keep an eye out for anything that might change the face of space before it could be scientifically scanned. U.P.I. said. U.S. plans to explode three H-bomb.: high over Johnaton Island in the Pacific have been denounced by some non-American scientists. The Cospar action, however. had no direct reference to the United States bomb tests, as it was taken in response to proposals made in 1961, before the tests were scheduled. U.P.I. reported. The group might study the U.S. Air Force’s project to throw hundreds of millions of tiny copper hairs into orbit to test their value as a reflector for long-range, jamproof radio communications. One effort to scatter the wires failed, and another is scheduled. U.S. scientists have assured their foreign colleagues that the belt of hairs would not last long enough in orbit to interfere seriously with optical or radio astronomy. Some criticism of the proposed experiment continued, however. The Cospar committee on "potentially harmful effects of space experiments” will also watch out for possible biological contamination of the rnivm and planets by earth rockets —which could hamper the search for life elsewhere in space—and for excessive use of sodium vapor in atmospheric research.