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December 1962 Radio-Electronics
 [Table of Contents]
Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics.
See articles from Radio-Electronics,
published 1930-1988. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.
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Hugo Gernsback,
publisher of Radio-Electronics magazine, penned this 1962 article
critiquing the U.S. for lagging behind the Soviets in manned spaceflight, noting
their superior orbital achievements (130.5 orbits vs. America's 12). He argues
that prolonged Earth-orbiting tests are unnecessary, as weightlessness and space
sickness - predicted decades earlier - are now proven manageable. Gernsback
traces U.S. delays to the government's historical neglect of rocketry pioneer
Robert H. Goddard, whose early 20th-century work could have secured American
leadership. Instead of mimicking Soviet Earth orbits, he urges immediate focus
on the Moon, prioritizing an unmanned electronic explorer to assess surface
conditions (e.g., potential dust depth) before risking human landings. Low lunar
orbits (~20 miles altitude) could map terrain via slowed cinematography, while
telemetry relays critical data. Gernsback condemns wasted resources on
"senseless" Earth missions, advocating for swift, electronics-driven lunar
exploration as the true space race objective (typically prescient of
Mr. Gernsback). His solution: deploy robotic probes first, then - armed with
data - send astronauts. The moon, not orbit counts, should define progress.
Senseless Orbiting ... Aping the Soviets Doesn't Get Us
to the Moon ...
 By Hugo Gernsback
After an unnecessarily late start into the space age on Feb. 1, 1958, four months
after Sputnik I, the US is still slavishly imitating the course of the Soviets.
When the Russians orbited a man around the earth on Aug. 6, 1961, then another
on Aug. 12, 1961, we followed suit on Feb. 20, 1962, and May 24, 1962. But the Russians
made 1, then 17-1/2 orbits against our 3 each. On Aug. 11 and Aug. 12, 1962, the
Soviets accomplished 64 and 48 or-bits against our 6 on Oct. 3, 1962. This makes
a total of 4 Soviet manned orbits against our 3. But the Russians' orbits far exceeded
ours - 130-1/2 against the US' only 12.
Why all this frantic orbiting around the earth? Because airless space is a totally
new experience to man, it must be well tested to make certain that he can survive
long space trips. On top of the deadly vacuum of space, another totally new experience
was added when man first began orbiting in space - weightlessness. Could he stand
this too? Yes, he could and did.
All these facts had been predicted as feasible by physicists, astronomers and
others for many decades. Fifty years ago, the present writer, in his magazine Modern
Electrics (March 1912), spoke of weightlessness in space and space sickness. Recent
experiences have shown that like sea-sickness, space sickness is suffered not by
all individuals but only by a certain percentage. Today, too, we have medicines
to counteract space nausea.
The point is that modern space flying is not a new or recent art - it is indeed
over 100 years old. Many scientists have occupied themselves with all its phases
for a long time. Its laws, its physics have been thoroughly known and dis-cussed
in textbooks for decades. Astronomers and mathematicians have solved the laws of
space flight, trajectories, orbits and the elapsed time of all contemplated interplanetary
flights.
Then why do the Russians lead and we follow in space? Their longer experience
in rocketry has given them an edge. Unfortunately, when our own Prof. R. H. Goddard,
of Clark University - the father of space rocketry - did his celebrated pioneer
work during 1914 to 1945, nobody in high government listened to him and to his epoch-making
discoveries. A few men in our War Department did appreciate his work, but the astronomically
high costs of going into space research discouraged our Government. Had we started
at that time, we probably would now be head of the Soviets.
In our opinion, we should stop NOW the senseless earth-orbiting manned rocket
experiments. We do not believe that any further such orbiting will enhance our space
knowledge to a large degree.
We know and are fully convinced that we are ahead in electronics and all its
know-how. It is axiomatic that rocketry and space exploration is unthinkable without
electronics.
We know, too, that our astronauts are well trained and do not lack in courage
as explorers into the unknown, any more than Columbus or Lindbergh did.
We know, too, that our real goal in space is the moon. But we are wasting too
much time on nonessentials. Washington space people tell us that, at present, imagination,
vision and urgency are lacking in many of our space departments. What we need is
a new approach to the moon problem, NOW - not in 1965 or 1967.
The money and effort spent in useless earth orbiting could better be used in
doing first things first.
Most scientists and space technicians are convinced that what is urgently needed
now is to place an unmanned exploring pilot vehicle on the moon immediately. Fortunately
we are working in that direction now.
Moreover, we have the means to accomplish it now-particularly when it comes to
electronic telemetry and guidance.
We have multiple rockets with sufficient thrust to orbit the moon, either instrumented
or manned; then by telemetered television we can pick the best location to land
an electronic explorer from the same rocket.
This is the prime requisite for landing a manned moon crew subsequently. No one
today knows the consistency of the moon's surface. Scientists speculate that in
the several billions of years of existence it may be covered with a layer of quicksand-like
dust that could be hundreds of feet deep, or only a foot thick. Patently, men should
not make a lunar landing under such hazardous conditions.
And that is the chief reason for a fully electronically instrumented explorer
in advance of a manned landing.
In the exploration of the moon, we should also speak of low moon orbiting. Such
orbits can either be polar or equatorial. The moon being airless, lunar satellites
are not hampered by an atmosphere. Thus, such orbits could be extremely low, if
it were not for the moon's mountains which rise to peaks of 30,000 feet, or more
than 5 miles. The orbiting satellite must clear such elevations. Perhaps the lowest
moon orbiter should be at least 20 miles above the surface. The time of revolution
at such an altitude is about 1 hour 52 minutes. But the orbiting speed of such a
low satellite is nearly 1 mile a second - too fast for visual observation of the
lunar topography. The solution: Make a taped cinematographic record which later
can be inspected at a slower speed.
In resume: 1. Stop aping the Russian manned earth orbits. Our goal is the moon
as the first vital space objective. 2. Fire into a low moon orbit a rocket that
carries an electronic-instrumented explorer.
3. Release the manless robot explorer from its mother rocket and set it onto
the moon to make hundreds of tests, including a television survey of the moon's
surface, these to be sent electronically coded to earth for evaluation.
Once we have complete data on the moon's surface and its consistency - then and
only then should we undertake a manned lunar landing, for which we should be ready
then.
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