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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 15, 1960)
MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE, MEDFORD. ORE. Rocket Fuels Are Popular Beverages of Americans THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, I960 By ALVIN B. WEBB. JR. United Prei, International Cape Canaveral-UIPD-Rocket xueis are America's most pop ular oeverages. For instasnce, that glass of water you had this morning contained the two propellants that will power the free worlds first high-energy space rocket starting next year. If the water in your area is fluoridated, you consumed a third fuel that has possibili ties for rocket engines - as soon as scientists can figure out how to stop it from eating through metal. And if, by this time, you have seasoned the water with bourbon or scotch, your stom ach is lined with a propellant scientists are counting on to lift a man to the edge of space within a few months. Don't Worry ,Don't start worrying about your inner plumbing. Water, as such, will do no more for a rocket motor than it would in your car's gasoline tank. And the best bourbon on the mar ket won't lift a missile 01 inch from its pad. But to a missile scientist- veritable modern-day alchem- ist-these everyday items hold the key to propulsion systems he will use to challenge Rus sia in the space race. It makes changing lead into gold seem a second-rate trick. Nearly every school kid who has taken chemistry has seen water-the familiar H20 -changed into its two ele ments, hydrogen and oxygen, by electrolysis. Scientists can take this one step further, by compressing the gases. The results are liquid hy drogen and liquid oxygen-in- tensely cold at hundreds of degrees below zero, difficult to handle. But they are now the substances that scientists of Convair Division of Gen eral Dynamics Corp. predict will open the entire inner solar system to research." Liquid hydrogen and oxy gen will be used for the first Shielding Is Unnecessary Heavy Washington, (Science Serv ice) Heavy shielding as pro tection for an astronaut against space radiations may not be necessary, at least for trips of less than SO hours and at distances not greater than 618 miles from earth, the Air Force School of Aviation Medicine at Brooks Air Force base, Texas, has announced. Lightweight aluminum pro vides acceptable shielding and, in fact, heavy shielding, such as lead or gold, would be more harmful than no shielding at all, Dr. George W. Crawford, nuclear physic ist of the school's department of radiobiology, reported. (Other recent reports show that living organisms are kill ed at heights of 1,180 miles.) Crawford's findings were based on examination of the biological specimens encased in a three-pound aluminum capsule as part of the payload of Discoverer XVIII satellite launched in November. The specimens spent SO hours in orbit during a gigantic solar flare. The satellite whirled about the earth 31 times be fore it was returned and re covered in the earth's atmos phere in the air near Hawaii by a USAF C-119 aircraft. Lethal Dose Previous estimates by sci entists of radiation levels had indicated that solar flares might be of such intensity as to deliver a lethal dose to astronauts unless protected by heavy shielding. "Our specimens received not more than 32 to 35 rads during the 50 hours they were in space," Crawford said. "They were in space during one of the largest solar flares ever recorded and were ex posed, to radiation from the flare for 50 hours, starting just seven hours after the flare began." This, is the first time such specimens from this country were exposed to such intensi ties and concentrations of ra diation for an extended time at such an altitude and re covered for analysis. The biological specimens were encased in different types of metal to test their ef fectiveness as shielding ma terials. Other specimens were shielded only by the thin aluminum covering of the specimen capsule and the com paratively thin shell of the recovery capsule. Radiation dosimeters showed that alum inum provided better shield ing properties , than lead and that any heavy metal such as gold or lead becomes a hazard during a solar flare as high energy protons interact with these heavy metals to create damaging X-rays, Crawford explained. This does not occur with the lighter metals or plastics. Bacterial spores sent along with the human tissue veri fied radiation measurements in the vehicle and the spores were not harmed. Specimens of algae, a possible space food and a plant useful for atmos phere regeneration in the con fines of a space capsule en vironment also appeared to be unaffected by radiation ex posure in their orbit in Dis coverer XVII. Samples of human eye and bone joint tissue were aboard. Human eye tissue is the most sensitive of all to radiation and the samples were sent aloft to determine whether they would survive.' Analysis has shown that the cells were not affected by the radiation and a sample portion now is reproducing normally. Human blood cells, also along for the space ride, were not damaged. These findings would indi cate that space radiation may not be the major hazard to space flight as previously be lieved. Better Mouse Trap Finally Invented Washington- (Science Serv ice) - Inventors are still try ing to come up with a better mouse trap, and the newest innovation, patented recently, uses the fly paper principle. Patent No. 2,962,836 was awarded to Samuel T. Hughes of Cullman, Ala., for a rodent-catching device that has the appearance of a flat-roofed bird house. A rectangular hood with round entry holes in either end fits over a pad of sticky papers. The bait is placed in a small bucket mounted inside one corner of the hood. When a mouse ventures into the building, it is trapped on the adhesive floor. A par ticular advantage of the trap is that the top piece of sticky paper can be peeled off and wrapped around the trapped mouse without ever handling it. time together in the Convair built Centaur rocket, a high energy vehicle which will be available in 1961 to give America a means of matching Russia pound for pound in ability to throw payloads into space. Centaur, generally consid ered this nation's next big step in rocketry, will be able to place 4Vj-ton satellites into orbit when launched aboard an Atlas missile. It also will ride atop the Saturn "super booster" to loft payloads of 20 tons or better. Rely on Liquids ' Centaur is a firm indication that, despite considerable ad vances in solid , fuels, U.S. scientists will be relying on liquid propellants for years to come to give men and ma chinery their big shoves to ward the moon and planets. Liquid-fueled rockets are highly complex-in fact, the hydrogen-oxygen Centaur was years in arriving because I scientists naa 10 aevise an en gine capable of using the high ly volatile propellants. Pratt and Whitney Aircraft finally accomplished it. But the all-important burn ing time can be controlled in liquid-fueled engines simply by electronically shutting off a valve. Solid-propelled rock ets, "which almost amount to overgrown and elaborated ro man candles, are considerably more dmicult to control. Liquid fuels were : made popular in the German V-2 rockets, and were extended into one of America's first ballistic missiles, the Army's Redstone. This rocket is powered- by liquid oxygen and alcohol-a ' variation of the substance which puts the kick" in liquor, Proved Reliable The oxygen-alcohol combi nation has proved so reliable that the Redstone will be the first ballistic missile to carry an American astronaut-a 14 minute hop 100 miles up and 200 miles over the Atlantic sometime next year, , Liquid oxygen, which actu ally serves as an oxidizer to allow other fuels to burn in airless space, will be used in the Saturn 1.5 million-pound thrust engine with a high grade kerosene. Beyond Saturn is' Nova, a rocket monster which will have a thrust of 9,000,000 pounds. Its fuel also will be liquid-probably liquid oxy gen and kerosene: 1 Scientists are constantly searching for "exotic" ' fuels for increased propulsion. The liquid hydrogen-oxygen com bination is the most potent scheduled for actual use, but considerable thought has been given to the "ultimate" liquid fuel mixture - hydrogen and fluorine. Fluorine Used Fluorine is an ' element which, when used in extreme ly small amounts, , has been employed safely in combat ting tooth decay. But liquid fluorine will eat through al most anything except certain kinds of wax and is a terrify ing substance to handle. At least one firm, Boeing Aircraft Co., reportedly has devised a propellant system based on hydrogen and fluor ine. The plan is contained in a study called "The Ultimate Chemical . Propellant," but has been kept under wraps. Meanwhile, scientists are af work on other propulsion sys tems that will give man the power he needs to conquer space-and they are not in clined toward being unable to see the forest for the trees. .The fuel for the next gen eration of U.S. super rockets may be, like that innocent glass of water, something you take for granted every day. 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