Word: probed
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Most of the earth's space-conscious scientists would be much happier if the first lunar probes merely pass around the moon, examining it with instruments or cameras, and bring or radio their information back to earth. This delicate problem in celestial mechanics has been worked on for more than a century in finer and finer detail. Many factors must be considered, including the speed of the probe, the motion of the moon around the earth, and the overlapping gravitational fields of the earth, moon and sun (see diagram...
Both the Russians (with buttoned lips) and the U.S. (with considerable public discussion) are preparing to probe the moon. Lieut. General Samuel E. Anderson declared last week (and was sternly shushed by the Pentagon) that the Air Force will fly three lunar probes this year, in August, September and October. A lunar probe means neither a landing nor a circumlunar trip with a manned spaceship, both enormously difficult, but an impact on the moon or passage around it by an unmanned Sputnik-like vehicle. A one-way trip ending in impact is probably the easiest, but many scientists oppose...
Chemical explosions (e.g., magnesium flash powder) would not do as much damage, but they would contaminate the moon in their own way. So would powdered dyes or carbon black splashed on the moon's surface to make a visible mark. Even a probe that lands gently on the moon and tells about its feat by radio (no easy trick) might carry earthside germs whose desiccated corpses would confuse later-coming biologists. Many scientists have urged that any vehicle intended to hit the moon should be sterilized inside and out before it leaves the earth...
...academy elects its members on the basis of merit. It not only directs the policies of the twelve "sister academies" of the various republics, it runs at least 126 research institutes, and to a large extent governs the work of more than 200,000 scientists and technicians. Its institutes probe into everything from weather control and ionospheric explorations above the Antarctic icecap to elaborate schemes for landing electronic-guided tanks on the moon. It sponsors as many as 100 field expeditions at a time, one of which last year discovered in Siberia what may be the largest diamond field...
...spending." If the economy is so constituted (and here a careful analysis is needed) that it cannot rely on private consumption to keep it in a state of expansion, the role of government must be seriously re-evaluated. The Eisenhower Administration has so far shown itself unwilling even to probe the hypothesis...