Friday. April 20, 1962 University Daily Kansan
Page 23
Von Braun Looks at U.S. Future in Space
By Dr. Wernher von Braun (Copyright, 1962, by United Press International)
HUNTSVILLE, ALA.—The United States, working in cooperation with and on behalf of the other nations of the Western world, has one of the most important and exciting challenges in history — the exploration of the universe.
Few accomplishments have had such profound effect on the future of humanity than will the results of this immense and fascinating endeavor.
Achievements in the exploration of space are directly linked to overall technological advancement, and in our age such advancement is indicative of the relative position of nations. We Americans have already felt the sting of being second in a race which we should, and could, have been first.
We have the capacity to be first to the moon; therefore, we must be first.
UNMANNED artificial satellites are being launched with increasing frequency to perform a wide variety of services for mankind. Our Tiros meteorological satellites have proven their worth by permitting meteorologists to predict more accurately the weather and detect disastrous storms. The military has developed warning and reconnaissance satellites to help us maintain our military posture.
Any remaining doubts that we are really in a space race with the Soviet Union were dispelled by the decision last spring of U.S. President John F. Kennedy to launch an ambitious program for manned lunar exploration.
Earth-circuling and navigational and geodetic satellites are proving themselves daily. We are also developing such scientific satellites as orbiting solar observatories and the orbiting geophysical observatories. The first solar observatory was successfully launched last month. It is now reporting back to earth how the sun affects the weather and any threats it may pose for space travelers. But perhaps of most immediate and practical interest is the communications satellite which will help put the man in the street in closer touch with his fellow humans around the world.
We at the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center are responsible to our parent organization—the U.S.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration — for the development of the space vehicles that will orbit satellites, send scientific payloads to distant planets and launch manned lunar expeditions.
The sub-orbital flights of astronauts Alan Shepard and Virgil Grissom, and the more recent orbital flight of John Glenn, were carried out under project Mercury, the first of three man-in-space programs being directed by NASA's manned spacecraft center at Houston, Tex.
PROJECT MERCURY will be succeeded by the Gemini Spacecraft Project, which calls for the orbiting of a two-man spacecraft. Gemini will be used to test the "orbital rendezvous" technique, by which an orbital launch vehicle and a manned spacecraft will be joined while in earth orbit and "relaunched" toward the moon.
One of KU's Oldest Statues Still Waits for Permanent Spot
It only the old Pioneer could talk, he could recall the gaps in his history that no other campus personality can remember.
The "Pioneer," a bronze figure with a shovel in hand, stands across the street from the east entrance of Fraser Hall. He faces west in a true pioneer spirit.
A "Daily Kansan" report in 1925 called the Pioneer a "long suffering and much moved statue." And now 37 years later, the Pioneer is still looking for a permanent resting place. The statue will have to be moved again in the next few years when Fraser Hall is torn down and a classroom is built on the site of the Pioneer's present resting place.
THE PIONEER statue was presented to the university about 1905 by the late Dr. Simeon B. Bell, whose bequest of land and money in 1905 made possible the inception of the KU Medical Center in Kansas City.
Dr. Bell was a pioneer settler who came to Kansas in 1856, five years prior to Kansas's admission as a state into the Union.
The statue has stood on at least two other sites since Dr. Bell gave it to the university. However, records and memories cannot recall where the Pioneer was housed from the time Dr. Bell gave the statue to the university and 1916 when it is remembered to have stood on a landing in Spooner Library. (Spooner Library became the KU Art Museum in 1926.)
The Pioneer stood in Spooner Library until the class of 1920 decided to donate as their senior gift, a base for the statue so that the "Iron Man" could stand out-of-doors. (The Pioneer was called the "Iron Man" in the 1921 Jayhawker.)
SO AFTER the presentation of the base the Pioneer was moved from Spooner Library to the site of the present Chi Omega fountain. Then about 1926 the Pioneer was moved to the present site east of Fraser Hall.
The bronze figure, standing almost 18 feet high, was done by Fredrick C. Hibbard, a native Missourian. The figure was cast at the American Bronze Foundry in Chicago.
The university has made no plans for the Pioneer while the new Fraser Hall is under construction.
Experience gained in this method of landing astronauts on the surface of the moon will be under project Apollo. A three-man spacecraft, Apollo, will follow Gemini. It will effect circumlunar and lunar landing missions scheduled before the end of this decade.
The two elements of this lunar rocket will be launched into orbit by 7.5 million-pound-thrust advanced Saturan vehicles currently being designed at the Marshall Center at Huntsville. We recently requested proposals from industry for a detailed systems definition and preliminary design of the Nova launch vehicle, which will be a logical follow-on to the advanced Saturn.
Nova, to be capable of placing more than 200 tons in earth orbit or sending more than 75 tons on an earth-escape trajectory, will be able to perform manned lunar landings with Apollo-type spacecraft in direct flights from earth.
FOLLOWING THE first tentative steps into space with project Apollo, man will pull on his seven league boots and take giant strides across space to the nearer planets of the solar systems. For Mars, and perhaps Venus, direct surface landings should be possible this century if the state of the art of astronautics continues to advance rapidly.
However, landings on frozen Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune may never be feasible, limiting man to landings on their natural moons. The problem of direct landings on the giant worlds are extremely complex and pose demands upon the design of manned spaceships that are far beyond our present capabilities. To illustrate the magnitude of the problem we need only consider the difficulty of trying to decelerate such a craft in the tremendous gravitational field of Jupiter and then attempting to take off again through an amazingly thick, turbulent atmosphere.
WHAT HAPPENS when we get in space? The environment will be hostile to man. He will be threatened by meteoroids, radiation, temperature extremes, lack of atmosphere and lack of pressure. But if he understands and obeys its laws, space will treat him well.
When we build our first outposts on the moon, or when we build our first orbiting space stations, our engineers will be called on for construction projects using strange materials in circumstances never before encountered.
Chemical Counters Drug Overdoses
RICHMOND, Va. — (UPI) — A chemical that counteracts overdoses of sleeping pills, alcohol, and morphine in animals has been used in experiments at the A. H. Robins Co. here.
Dr. Carl D. Lunsford, director of chemical research at the firm, reported that experiments with the new agent - AHR-619 - have demonstrated its usefulness in stimulating breathing in such conditions as lung disease, shock and depressed respiration following anesthesia.
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