Keeping up with the Moonses

By A. P. HERBERT

'foryou can take your mind off the Screatles 'for a minute or two I feel it right to bring you up to date about a kindred subject, the moon. The senior satellite keeps getting into the papers; but each item, or utterance, seems to contradict the one before, and the moon- conscious citizen may well be bewildered.

Four or five months ago the scene was one of rather happy confusion. It was like the end of a light musicarplay, where the author begins to bring order into the tangle he has tiresomely created. It would be too much to say that sense prevailed, but sense seemed to be creeping in. The principal characters, though probably mad, were at last on speaking terms, and even looked • like living happily ever after for a year or two.

In 1963 there were strong American mutter- ings about the high cost of space, especially the

moon. Our Times said, on April 27: - .

For the first time there is slight danger that Congress may cut the programme. . . . The. Republicans are stepping up their campaign against government spending. . . They ob-.. viously sense that, popular support is wavering. Scientists are becoming increasingly restless at the way the. political aims.. of the 'race are:r taking precedence over the scientific. Many in-: dustries are losing their best scientists to space work. Basic research is said to be suffering. The 'technological fall-out' is not as great as' was expected. . . . Clearly if the world were a sane place there would be only one answer —to drop the whole stunt as quickly as pos- sible and spend most of the money on. the'. betterment of life on earth. The frontiers of knowledge could still be pushed back quite fast enough with a careful programme of-unmanned scientific exploration in space.

Then in July, you may remember—but I bet you don't—Professor Sir Bernard Lovell came back from Moscow with exciting news. The Russians, of all people, were getting bored ;IJA„ the moons It would be too difficult and dangerous to put a man on the thing--`in the foreseeable future'—with any chance of his doing anything to justify the journey. As for scientific ,research, they now felt that 90 per cent of the informa- tion desired could be got by landing instruments. Sir Bernard boldly told the top Rus,ian. scientist, our old friend Keldysh, that he didn't agree, and escaped from Moscow alive.

He then, in AuguSt, went to Washington and told them (by request) what the Russians had said, also that they', would be interested in a, joint international job. President Kennedy. at first said, 'Pooh! We carry on.' But on September 21, 1963, he startled the cosmos with this historic (for a week o14- two) declaration :

Why should mart's first (light to the moon be a matter of • national competition? Why should the United States and the Soviet Union, in preparing for such expeditions.. become in- volved in inunense duplication of research, con- struction, and expenditure? Surely we should explore whether the scientists and astronauts• of our two Countries—indeed of all the world —cannot work together in the conquest of space, sending some day in this decade to the moon, not the representatives of a single nation, but the representatives of all humanity.

(This, by the way, reminded me of the utter- ance of a British literary man in 1960: `The space race is the most childish episode in the bi.tory of man:) At this point the librettist would have arranged to bring the two leading parts on to the stage together, and worked up for a merry .finale. In an affair involving two local authorities a joint committee would have been appointed, and would have sat pretty soon.

Nothing like this seems to have happened. Nothing happened. Gagarin and Valentina went chattily round the world saying that they would be going to the moon soon, and the next thing- was that the Americans *cleverly hit the moon without the slightest Keldysh co-operation , (February 2, 1964). The crazy play seems to have started all over again. An American moon- landing has been fixed for July. 1, 1969. I can't

wait. •

Most of us, dragooned and dizzy, have stopped asking that silly old queStion : 'What is the point of putting a man on the moon?' Mr. Chapman Pincher, that lively writer, told us in the Daily Express of October 26, 1962:

Devices called lasers.- ----

(You know about lasers, of course---'Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radia- tion.')

Devices called lasers, which permit extremely powerful beams of light to be transmitted over long distances, open up the possibility of 'death rays' which would take two seconds to reach the earth from the moon.

That's one 'point.' Here'.. another: If the West had bases on the moon equipped with nuclear rockets capable of striking targets On the earth the Russians would have to wipe them out first or at' the same time as the 'Western earth bases.

But to do this they would have to launch their missiles at the moon two and a half days beforehand. This would give the West enough warning to strike first. So the mere existence of melon bases 'may greatly reduce the risk of nuclear war.

This is why 'the Americans are determined to stake a claim, etc.

So now, you ignorant folk, you know. Like the Hydrogen. Bomb itself, this is a Promise of PeaCe.

Note, by the way,' that that was the' second rocket to hit the inoffensive moon. The 'serious' scientists must be on the fringe of frustration-- poor old CETEX,' for example, the Committee on Contamination by Extra-Terrestrial Explora: tion. Far back in 1958 they deciared that the moon atmosphere and dust incInded --must re-

'It ell. you were the one who first proposed an opening to the left."'

main untouched and virginal. Rockets should keep their distance and preliminary researches be carried out by circumnavigation only. In 1960 they were even against the 'soft landing' of in- struments, for 'the moon's atmosphere will almost certainly be spoilt once measuring in- struments are landedsince this requires decelera- tion which in the present state of the art would involve the release of chemical elements in ton amounts.' Spoilt? What for? For 'the most challenging of all planetary studies, that of extra- terrestrial life.'

Sir Bernard Lovell is after that, too—the secret of creation, the alleged 'uniqueness' of man, life elsewhere and so on. But he is all for landing a man, and quickly. For, he says: 'The lunar impact of an earth rocket is unlikely to disturb the subsequent investigations of the moon, which, because of the aridity'of themoon, will almost certainly be physical in character and not biological.' (The Exploration of Space, Harper and Rowe.) "

So here we have a triangular clash of scien- tists—CETEX and others, 'Keep out!—Russia's `Soft instruments' (or so they say)—and: the forthright Sage of lodrell 'Bank 'Expeditionary; Force.' • Scientifically [Sir Bernard says] the moon

is the one body in the solar which may., yield the most critical information about the': formation of a planetary system, and from thenCe of life itself. These tremendous investi,'' gations . . . may alter our entire outlook oo man's uniqueness. They must be carried out . . . before the lunar environment' becomes too contaminated with earthly material. The answer must be surely to land men on the moon rather than to pursue the goal through a lengthy series of unmanned landings which will never yield the same decisive answers.

But what exactly is 'the man' going to do?.' Sir ,Bernard. we must confess, 'knows what he wants': 'Surveyor,' which the Americans hope to land on the moon in 1963-64, has a drill which will bore a few feet into the lunar surface and will then analyse the material and transmit the data back to earth. But Surveyor has no brain. it cannot then ask the next question. Further series of such unmanned probes will be needed, extending over decades, to find the answers, which a trained geologist would get in a few; hours on the hinar surface. The geologist will bore deep into the lunar substrata to lied out if the core of the moon is molten, he will select meteoric material w.hich will have made impact on the,moon without becoming molten in pass- ing through the earth's atmosphere, and perhaps most important of all, he will he able to use judgment in dealing with the unexpected. Machines cannot display the mast important capabilities of man in these explorations. The machine cannot 'make on-the-spot judgments., neither can it discriminate and select from alternatives which .have•not been antitipated by its designers. The 'ability to .adapt to the us' expected.situations or discovery is a vital factor in exploration. (4 peer, April, 1963.) So now you know. I cannot say I wool' I Much about the question of my uniqueness, and I 'wonder whether any answer is worth £14,000,000,000. But Sir Bernard's busy geologist is a prettier picture than the other fellow 1[1- stalling those death-rays. Perhaps, though. sue shall have them both. On the other hand. according to Sir Bernard. in July, 1963: 'The Russians have come to the conclusion that it will he impossible for many' years to come to get enough equipment on to the moon to enable a Mall to do a useful lob work and then get him hack.'

. Now I trust. is.clear..