CONTACT WITH MOON

Evening Star, Issue 25701, 26 January 1946, Page 8

CONTACT WITH MOON

MADE WITH USE OF RADAR SUCCESSFUL AMERICAN EXPERIMENT ' ' WASHINGTON,. January 24. Army Signal Corps scientists have made radar contact with the moon in an experiment promising valuable peace-time, as vfell as war-time, application, according to the War Department. The first contact was made on January 10 and successfully repeated several times at the Evans Signal Laboratory, Belmar, New Jersey, ysing special equipment. Very high frequency pulses were shot into space at the speed of light. Echoes were detected about two and a-hajf seconds later. The moon's average . distance- from the earth is 238,857 miles. A possible application of- the experiment is the radio control of long-range jet or rocket-propelled missiles circling the earth above the stratosphere. Major-general Harry Tngles, the •chief- signals officer, said that the ; primary significance of the achievement was the discovery that very high frequency radio , waves from the earth could penetrate the electricallycharged ionosphere, which circles the earth, and the stratosphere, beginning 38 miles above the earth and ending in several layers, approximately 250 milps away. : ■ . General Ingles pointed out. that it may now be- possible to construct detailed topographical maps i'of distant planets with the aid of radar data and determine their composition and atmospheric characteristics. General Tngles,- recalled that the British physicist, Sir- Edward- Appleton, recently predicted that scientists might be able to map the surface of the moon 'accurately.-with radar, but other authorities belive that a considerable improvement io radar techniques was first necessary.