Scientists Disagree About Lunar Surface

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30682, 23 February 1965, Page 13

Scientists Disagree About Lunar Surface

(N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright) LONDON, Feb. 2.

The first quick look at some of the 7126 pictures of the moon sent back to earth by the latest Ranger flight have persuaded scientists that men can be landed safely on the moon, says “The Times” Washington correspondent.

“The results will not be known for several weeks. One cautious conclusion, however, is that . . . . there are many suitable landing areas,” the correspondent says.

Even after the Ranger's masterly-executed flight all conclusions remained tentative until 1967 after unmanned Surveyor craft would have been landed to send back information on soil,

temperature and radiation, “The Times” correspondent adds.

The first of seven “Surveyor” flights, designed to land a spacecraft gently on the moon and “feel” it with mechanical fingers is planned for next October. The aim of the American programme is to land men on the moon by 1970.

Dr. Gerard Kuiper, heading a team of scientists studying Ranger B’s photos, said they showed the moon may be made of a “frothy material” that could make it treacherous for manned landings.

On the other hand, one of his associates at Arizona University, Dr. Ewen Whitaker, said he believed the surface would support a spacecraft. Still another of the investigating team, Dr. Harold Urey, said the pictures indicated the moon's upper surface might have the consistency of crunchy snow. Dr. Kuiper said it was im-

possible to say from the pictures how strong the moon's surface might be. He guessed it had the strength of rock melted in a vacuum which "may hide many treacherous things." Dr. Urey, a Nobel Prize winner, estimated the depth of one of several craters shown on photographs at 50 to 60 feet.

This might indicate the maximum depth of the soft, dust-like material many scientists believed covers most of the moon’s surface.

Dr. Kuiper said because different colours in the pictures suggested varying depths he guessed there might be three to six feet of loose material.

Dr. William Pickering said he thought the pictures had speeded the day when men would land on the moon.

Scientists were jubilant at the success of the Ranger 8 shot, which went with precision from lift-off at Cape Kennedy, Florida,, on Wednesday, until it hit the moon 66 hours later, only 15 miles from target in the Sea of Tranquility. It was the most successful Ranger shot so far. Ranger 9, the final shot of the series, is due to be fired in mid-March. Its target has not yet been decided.