Space Rescue

Dogs, cats, monkeys and rats may be sent up in space vehicles with no hope of safe return. But in the Western world, at least, a human sent into space must have a reasonable chance to get back in fair condition. At the Air Force's invitation, scientists gathered last week in San Antonio for the second international symposium on space problems, and took a hard look at that "reasonable chance."

Veteran Test Pilot Robert M. Stanley of the Stanley Aviation Corp. (makers of airplane subassemblies) tackled the easy end of the problem: how to get the crew down to earth alive if their vehicle misbehaves on launching or while it is still in the atmosphere. The men will be in the nose of the ship, perched above a vast amount of explosive, corrosive, poisonous fuel. If the first-stage engines misfire, the crew will have to be shot away from the ship "with extreme promptness and at high velocity to a considerable distance." This means that the cabin must be instantly detachable and must have some sort of propulsion as well as a quick-opening parachute to bring it softly to earth.

Nothing but Eloquence. If a mishap occurs at altitudes higher than 20 miles, no ordinary escape capsule is likely to survive the heat and shock of return to the lower atmosphere. Besides a parachute, it should have wings of a sort, plus rocket propulsion so that the crew can choose a reasonably favorable part of the earth to land on. Except for trying to hit Kansas instead of Antarctica, the crew should be able to leave everything else to automatic devicing. "About all that is expected of them." said Stanley, "is that they return to earth alive and express with eloquence their reactions to space flight."

When the spaceship has climbed above the atmosphere and is in orbit or on an interplanetary course, mishaps are still possible. Krafft A. Ehricke of Con-vairs Astronautics Division suggested that spaceships should be provided with "secondary vehicles"--space lifeboats that could pull away from the main ship and either return to earth or call for a rescue party.

Cluttered Space. Norman V. Petersen of Lockheed Aircraft Corp. pointed out that as the space age develops, the vicinity of the earth will be thick with spaceborne hardware. Circling above the atmosphere will be many kinds of satellites, including weather monitors, communication stations and staging bases for deep-space expeditions. Such crowded conditions aloft, thinks Petersen, will call for elaborate rescue bases on the earth below. The rescue ships, analogous to the hardy boats that the Coast Guard launches into stormy seas, will have to take off almost instantly on getting an S O S--from a satellite whose orbit is drooping into the fringe of the earth's atmosphere, from a spaceship whose pressure or oxygen system is failing. They will have to be fast and highly maneuverable, and they will need to carry a great deal of fuel to reach the orbit of the satellite in distress. They should be supplemented by special satellites patrolling space at various levels like so many space-going Coast Guard cutters. When a satellite crew calls for help, the appropriate patrol ship can send a life craft with supplies, or to take the crew aboard. Or. if the orbit of a satellite is shifting dangerously across the path of another and threatening a collision that would destroy both in a bloom of incandescent vapor, the rescue craft can nudge one of them gently to a safer course.

Such problems are not as remote as even science fictionists think. Last week the magazine Missiles and Rockets reported that NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) is already calling for bids on a manned satellite capsule that will give its occupant a reasonable chance of walking the earth again. Specifications call for many of the features outlined by the scientists at San Antonio. The capsule is to be equipped with downward-firing rockets that will lift the capsule free in case of launching-pad failure. If the capsule reaches an orbit and has circled the earth for a while, its speed will be reduced for re-entry by retrorockets firing ahead. The final touchdown will be by parachute. Supplies will keep the occupant alive until rescuers reach him. Apparently all controls will be automatic; the capsule will be designed to make a safe landing even though the "crew" is a dummy or a chimpanzee.

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