Word: spaceships
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...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 it as a childish stunt that may prove serious scientific vandalism...
...radiation level inside the satellite might reach about 0.06 roentgens per hour. At this rate a man would receive in five hours his maximum weekly permissible dose of 0.3 roentgens. A small amount of lead shielding would reduce the dose to a supportable level. The crew of an outbound spaceship need not worry about the radiation belt. If moving fast enough to leave the earth, they would pass through it in about 20 minutes...
...flowed like a slow liquid into the moon's low places. So the maria, said Gold, are not filled with lava, but with dust, perhaps several miles deep. Gold suspects that the dust near the surface is still as fluffy as baby powder. He warned that an unwary spaceship that lands on a smooth lunar plain might disappear in dry quicksand...
...that although the moon may have plenty of dust, its surface has been solidified. There may be a thin layer "like dust on a grand piano," but the underlying material, cemented together (not stirred up) by bombardment from space, is probably "crunchy" and strong enough to support an alighting spaceship...
...Before a large manned spaceship tries to land on the moon, said Dr. John Barnes of U.C.L.A., it might be a good idea to test the treacherous surface from a safe distance. A nuclear bomb exploded on the moon would tell a good deal, but its radioactivity would contaminate the virgin surface. Dr. Barnes suggests that a small amount of chemical explosive would be enough. Once planted on the moon, it could be exploded by a signal from a moon satellite. The same satellite could capture tossed-up debris, and tell by examining it whether that part of the moon...