Space, Here We Come

The British Interplanetary Society is a serious body, dominated not by comicstrip artists and space-opera fictioneers, but by eminent scientists. Last week in London it was host to the Second International Congress on Astronautics, attended by 63 scientist delegates from societies in ten countries. For the delegates, space travel is a practical goal, and not too far in the future. Said Chairman Arthur C. Clarke of the society: "Space flight is likely to be the next major technical achievement of our species."

Man-Made Moon. The official subject of the congress was the "earth-satellite vehicle," generally regarded as the first step toward true space navigation. A small man-made moon, revolving on a circular orbit high above the earth's atmosphere, would be a handy spot from which to start a space voyage. Because the satellite would already be supported against the earth's gravitational pull by the centrifugal force of its rapid motion, only moderate power would be needed to launch the spaceship from it. Since there would be no atmosphere, the spaceship would not even have to be streamlined.

The delegates attacked nearly every angle of designing, launching, supplying and utilizing satellites, and none had given the matter closer study than Dr. Wernher von Braun, a member of the American Rocket Society. Von Braun is no impractical dreamer; he was the chief developer of the German V-2 rocket. He is now hard at work for the U.S. Army at Huntsville, Ala.; his paper was read for him.

In considerable detail, Von Braun sketched out a full-dress flight to Mars. It could be done, he wrote, by using two satellite stations as intermediate refueling and supply bases. The first satellite station would revolve around the earth and form the starting point for the interplanetary voyaging. The second would be established in an orbit around Mars. Then specially designed "landing boats" would descend into the thin Martian atmosphere to explore the planet's surface.

To Mars & Back. Von Braun's Marsprojekt would be a very considerable effort. Forty-six three-stage rocket ships, weighing 6,400 tons each* at takeoff, would have to make 950 trips above the earth's atmosphere, carrying cargo (39.4 tons of pay load per trip) and fuel to build and stock the satellite filling station. On this base, ten orbit-to-orbit spaceships would be assembled. Taking off for Mars, they would establish a second filling station in an orbit around that planet. Enough fuel and supplies would remain to set 50 men down on Mars in three landing craft and maintain them there for a year. Then two of the craft would bring them back to the Mars orbit station to start the long voyage home.

The round trip, Von Braun figured, would take two years and 239 days. The fuel required for the project, including establishing the satellites: 5,356,600 tons. Von Braun admitted that this is a lot of fuel, but he pointed out that one-tenth as much was burned up during the Berlin airlift "just because of a little misunderstanding among diplomats." He hoped that when mankind enters the cosmic age, "wars will be a thing of the past . . . and people will be ready to foot the fuel bill for a voyage to our neighbors in space."

* Weight of the Air Force's biggest bomber, the B-36: 139 tons.

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