Word: putt
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Nuclear Batteries. Passing rapidly over these projects, Engineer Putt expressed enthusiasm for the military satellite that is being developed by Lockheed Aircraft Corp. under the various names of Pied Piper, ARS and Weapon System117L. By next July 1, he said, $50 million will have been spent on the Pied Piper, and $100 million more will be spent in fiscal 1959. The chief failing of present-day satellites is that their batteries run down too quickly to permit them to perform useful military duties such as worldwide reconnaissance. But the Air Force is working on four improved sources of power...
...real objective, of course, is manned space flight, and Putt sketched three Air Force projects headed in that direction. The first is the rocket plane X-15 (TIME, March 3), which Putt thinks can be beefed up enough to carry an orbiting human and return him to earth alive. The second is DYNA-SOAR (from "dynamic soaring"), a vehicle that will use what Putt calls "boost-glide flight." It will be boosted up like a rocket, but will have wings and controls. The pilot can permit it to orbit freely around the earth for a while, or he can bring...
...third Air Force project is a true manned orbiter, launched from the ground as the final stage of a great rocket weighing several hundred thousand pounds. Putt does not tell much about it except that it will be "suitable for manned re-entry and recovery...
Lunar Outpost. It would not be difficult, according to General Putt, for a modified Thor to carry a radio transmitter to the moon and to mark the surface with a visible spot. "If this project were started in the next few weeks," he said, "first launch to the moon would be made this year...
...Putt admits that not all experts share his belief that a military base on the moon would be useful. Since the moon's gravitation is only one-sixth as strong as the earth's, it should be easier to shoot at the earth from the moon than in the other direction. The moon's lack of atmosphere might make it possible to catapult earth-bound missiles out of deep shafts. Both the moon base and its weapon launchers could be on the far side of the moon, forever invisible from the earth, but all of the turning...