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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 30, 1962)
MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFORD, OREGON THURSDAY. AUGUST 30. 1962 Comparisons Given Sovset on By ALVIN B. WEBB JR. Cape Canaveral - iUPIi - "Vi gavarfeetye-pa-rooskie?" This is a phonietic phrase, passed along for the benefit of future U.S. astronauts. It means, "Do you speak Rus sian?" At the rate the space race is going, it could be the first question American explorers will have to answer when they reach the moon. The implication is that the world's leading producer of television sets, swimming pools and electric can-openers may lose the No. 1 prize in space to a nation that only a few years ago had many soldiers who thought toilets were indoor drinking wells. Fifteen months ago. Pres ident Kennedy officially squared off the United Stales against the Soviet Union for the most spectacular and cost ly "prestige" struggle in his tory - a no - holds barred race to land the first men on the moon. America's goal: 1967, and 1970 at the latest. The first huge chunks of a 20 to 40 billion - dollar "pledge" for the moon proj ect sent U.S. industry into action. The first of a man power force that eventually will reach 500,000 was brought to harness "paper" projects poured off drawing boards like confetti from New York skyscrapers during a pa rade. U.S. Hopes Rise And from behind the Iron Curtain there was a year of comforting silence, broken only by the occasional launch ing of an unmanned Soviet "scientific" satellite. U. S. hopes rose on the tacit inter pretation that the silence de noted trouble in the Russian scientific camp. In a way, America itself had gone into a sort of "orbit" about the moon project nam ed "Apollo" and was jolt ed rudely back to earth when a pair of silvery spaceships streaked from the Russian heartland into the skies on the mornings of Aug. 11 and 12. For three days. Soviet "space brothers" Andrian Ni kolayev and Pavel Popovich soared round and round a stunned world which had for weeks anticipated a new Rus sian "spectacular," and had expected almost anything but this. Dramatic as the perform ance was, its implications for the future of the race to the moon were even more so. For the first time, there was a hint of a Soviet target date for a manned lunar landing 1965, anywhere from one to five years ahead of the U.S. goal. Shows Lead Although dubbed a "prop aganda stunt" in many quar ters, the Soviet twin - orbit feat actually was a solid sci entific accomplishment that demonstrated an equally sol id Russian lead in man-in-space techniques: 1. The performance indi cated Soviet scientists have mastered the difficult preci sion launching of large rock ets. The ability to fire these giant boosters, apparently within seconds of the planned launching times, still evades their U.S. counterparts. 2. The extremely close or bits of Vostoks 3 and 4 dem onstrated precision in guid ance techniques that closely approached t h e accuracy needed for flights toward the moon. The United States is a full two years away from any comparable test. 3. Many free world scien tists interpreted the nearness of the spaceships to one an other to mean this was a first step toward "rendez vous." a technique by which capsules and propulsion units could be hurled into separate orbits and there be assembled (or flights to the moon. Is Revelation II was a startling revela tion the Soviet Union ap parently has decided against tackling the troublesome tech nical problems of building a single gigantic rocket for a "direct" shot at the moon and has shifted to the "rendez vous" principle that would permit use of smaller rock ets. This is the track that U.S. space experts, after months of shuffling around among ideas, decided upon. But for some unexplained reason, they failed to anticipate that Russia might do likewise. At least, there was little, if any. advance speculation that the Soviets would attempt a twin orbit flight. It is believed the Soviet Union already is preparing an other two-man "spectacular." possibly within the next two to three months, and that will take one of two courses: -The launching of two Vos toks into similar orbits, a la Nikolayev and Popovich. with an attempt to bring the two cloe enough so that one cosmonaut could leave his ship and join his compatriot in the second for a joint rule back to earh. -Or the launching of two gle spaceship for an extend ed flight of perhaps a week or iwo. Dreary Prospect Between now and the day the first men land on the moon, the United States faces the dreary prospect of getting beaten time after time in man in - space accomplishments. James Webb, administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space administration, has con ceded that Russia likely will put up the first two - man spaceship into orbit and prob ably will accomplish the first manned flight around the moon. At this critical point. Amer ica cannot match Russia's rocket power or capsule size and it's a case of some un wanted chickens coming home ; to roost. i What the United States can- not buy now is time. This was the valuable commodity that was lost during the years aft- j er World War II, when Amer- ican military experts could see no reason for building ballistic missiles since they had manned bombers. liussia, on the other hand, had a meager manned bomb er force and had to go for something else to deliver atomic warheads. The answer was the ballistic missiles and the Soviet Union started de veloping them before 1950. The payoff was that Rus sia already had a stock of large, tried - and - true rock- j ets on hand when the race for space started in 1957. It 1 escaped the problem the Unit- ; ed States is facing build ing a giant new rocket almost from scratch in a few com paratively short years. j Main Hope America's main hope for j eventually beating the Rus sians to the moon may well rest in its very wealth. Fi-1 nancing a manned lunar ex pedition is costly, to the So viet Union as well as to the i United States, and Russian j ! Premier N'ikita Khrushchev I himself on several occasions has complained about the ex pense. Some U.S. experts feel that, if the Soviet Union faces any more agricultural difficulties of the type it had last year, Russian leaders may be forc ed to pull some funds off the space program to keep the economy going. The Soviets spent more than the Ameri cans on space research last year about 2 billion dol lars to 1.8 billion dollars, it has been estimated. The degree of importance of the Nikolayev - Popovich flight to the long - run goal of first on the moon is still a subject of hot debate be tween U.S. space chiefs on the "official" level, who contend America will win, and other "unofficial" scientists, techni cians and experts who are be ginning to doubt it. 'Official' Reaction The "official" reaction to the two - orbit feat was, in spots, at considerable vari ance with the "unofficial" view: Official - Chiefs of the Na tional Aeronautics and Space administration pictured the Nikolayev - Popovich flight as a "baby step" which told nothing of who would win. Unofficial morale at Cape Canaveral hit a new all - time "low" among sci entists and technicians who realized the United States won't be ready for a similar "baby step" for another two years. Official Deputy NASA Administrator Hugh Dryden said there is no evidence that Russia has developed a big enough rocket to send a space craft to the moon. Unofficial some U.S. sci entists speculated that the new Vostoks weighed per haps seven or eight tons, de noting a rocket perhaps twice as powerful as the boosters that sent the first Soviet cos monauts, Yuri Gagarin and Gherman Titov, into orbit. Official Wernhcr Von Braun, America's most fa mous space scientist, said the U.S. rocket accuracy is just as good as that demon strated by Vostoks 3 and 4. Cannot Prove Unofficial The United States, unfortunately, cannot prove it anytime soon. There is only one launching pad for manned flights set up at Cape Canaveral and it takes a minimum of 30 to 60 days to get each shot off. Two U.S. spaceships in orbit at present is an impossibility. Official the U.S. Defense department said it saw no military significance to the two-orbit flights. Unoificial Soviet De- I ovsky observed the safe land ings 01 the two cosmonauts with this warning: "Let our foes know what technology and what militancy arc in the possession of Soviet power." One congressman comment ed confidently that "our space program is on solid ground." To which a bitter Cape Ca naveral technician replied: "That's the trouble space programs belong in space, not on the ground " I SHIP IT USME to or from Oakland, Sin Fran cisco, Los Angeles and other California points. Call Jack Fitzgerald 773-7761 RSI Pollen Storage May Lead Way to Better Seedlings Corvallis - Possibilities for improving tree seed quality j by storing pollen from super ior, selected trees were re ported this week by Oregon State university scientists dur ing the meetings of the Amer ican Institute of Biological Sciences. Under natural conditions, pollen life is limited to a brief period after discharge. The Oregon State scientists are "frceze-drying" the pollen to extend its life - perhaps for years - and to provide a sup ply of quality pollen for use in tree breeding projects. It would be possible too to ship pollen to any place in the world if the treatment is found feasible. Results for one year only so far indicate thai freeze-dricd pollen produces seeds which are as good as wind pollinated seed in regard to seed weight, gcrminability and seedling size. Trees Will Be Bred Selected trees will be bred with the treated pollen each spring for the next four years. The research report was read by Gordon K. Livings- iton, a graduate research as sistant. Leaders of the project 'are a husband-wife scientist team. Dr. Kim K. Ching, for !cst geneticist in the Oregon State University Forest Re- search laboratory, and Dr. Te May Ching. agronomist in the ! Agricultural Experiment Sta tion Seed laboratory. I The frceze-drying of hu mj 1 blood to hold in blood j banks gave birth to the idea I of freczc-drying pollen, it was j reported, and a similar ma 1 chine is used. ! First collections of pollen jfor the study were made last 'spring from Douglas fir trees. , The pollen is frozen in a cool- ing solution of dry ice and ; acetone and is then vacuum dried to remove the moisture in the pollen and facilitate storage. Fresh pollen has a moisture content of 12 to 16 per cent. That is reduced to 2 per cent in the frecze-dry j treatment. ! Vacuum Sealed i Pollen is vacuum sealed in glass ampoules and stored at varying temperatures, ranging from room temperature to 18 decrees below zero. Forest yield seed crops on ly about once in every threr or four years because seed production is hampered by many known and unknown factors, it was noted. The demand lor tree seed in world markets far exceeds the supply, especially for the seed which will produce trees with desirable characteristics. This project might provide some clue toward supplying nliil P4 W mm wwrh T0NT Sweater Styles are smart and practical for the whole family . . . 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