Development of Nuclear Rocket Seen
Necessary for Race To Solar System
Editor'! not: It has been
charged that the United States
it moving too slowly toward
development of a nuclear
rocket - that it may loie the
race to the planets in its pre
occupation with reaching the
moon. The following dispatch
by a UPI space expert ex
plores the situation.
By JOSEPH L. MYLER
Washington (llPlt Space ex
perts agree that only the
atom's fantastic energy can
put men on Mars or fly them
around the more distant
planets of the solar system.
But after eight years of re
search and development, and
an expenditure of $400 mil
lion, a reliable nuclear rocket
is not yet a certainty.
A few years ago optimists
were predicting that a nuclear
rocket would be tested in
flight as early as 1965. A far
more realistic guess now is
1968.
If that first flight turns out
to be an unqualified success,
it still will take at least two
years more of intensive test
ing before anyone can say the
rocket is dependable enough
and safe enough to transport
human beings on missions
deep in hostile space.
At the present rate of prog
ress, by the time nuclear
rockets are proven and avail
able the first men should long
since have landed on the
moon.
By that time, however, the
United States may have de
cided to explore Mars. Boost
ers of atomic energy profess
certainty that it will be brok
en to space harness and ready
for the mission.
Under Review
At the moment, the nuclear
rocket development schedule
is being reviewed while ex
perts study what happened in
the most recent firing of a
flightless prototype engine at
the atomic proving ground in
Nevada.
Six experimental rocket re
actors have been ground-tested
so far, and project man
agers expect to "consume" 30
to 40 more before a flight test
is attempted. When the sev
enth firing will take place,
however, has not been decid
ed. There are those who be
lieve atom - powered rocket
stages might have become
availablc-if only more money
and effort had been commit
ted - for the Apollo program
to land men on the moon be
fore 1970.
But when the space race be
gan, the only rockets avail
able either to Russia or the
United States were chemical
ly fueled. So both countries
based their programs so far on
the chemical rocket technol
ogy, which was a legacy of
World War II.
Cannot Wait
When the United States de
cided to make a lunar landing
the main space business of
the 1960s, officials concluded
they could meet the schedule
only with chemical rockets.
They couldn't wait, they
figured, until a brand new
atomic rocket technology was
perfected.
Why should they have to
wait? Atomic energy obvious
ly is far greater, pound for
pound, than that extractable
from the best chemical fuels.
One pound of fissionable
uranium, for example, con
tains 10 million times the
energy in a pound of gasoline.
And the concept of a nuclear
reactor is fairly simple. You
merely heat a propellant, hy-1
drogen, in a reactor core and !
expel it through a nozzle. i
But the atom is by nature !
intractable, and dangerous, i
It would take a 10-million-1
pound all-chemical rocket sys
tem to send an exploring !
party to Mars. Substitution of !
a nuclear stage would cut the
weight to one million pounds.
Such a saving in just one !
Mars mission, the experts say, i
would more than repay all j
Poor Cooking Con
Lead To Overweight
New York - WB - The man
u'h -'izes up his girth and
rays -'my wife feeds mc too
well'' is in for a surprise.
Obesity clinics operated by
New York City s health de
partment have found that
poor cooking can lead to
overweight, and good cooking
maintains the proper weight
level.
When the basic meals do
not satisfy the natural desire
for eating pleasure, the tend
ency is to consume highly ca
loric sweet treats, the depart
ment said.
The clinics consider good
food preparation so important
to proper weight cont-ol that
they train mothers of obese
children to become belter
cooks.
The trick, if there is one to
weight control, is to cook de
licious food that gives com
plete flavor satisfaction with
every meal and still keep
away from every unnecessary
caloric.
the cost of developing and
producing the nuclear rocket.
Problems Formidable
So why not barge ahead
with an all-out crash program
to make a nuclear rocket? The
engineering difficulties are,
as the project managers say,
formidable. What's wanted at
the outset is a compact re
actor generating temperatures
at least twice those asked of
any ground-based or ocean
going atomic plant.
What's wanted are fuel
core and other materials that
can stand temperature ex
tremes ranging from about
430 degrees below zero Fahr
enheit, the temperature of the
liquid hydrogen propellant, to
4,000 to 6.000 degrees above
zero, the temperature of the
reactor core.
What's wanted are rocket
parts - valves, bearings, noz
zles, control instruments,
guidance equipment-that can
operate not merely in such
temperatures but in the pres
ence of radiation levels com
parable to those created by an
atomic bomb.
All these things - the right
materials, the right compo
nents, the necessary structur
al strength - must add up to
a rocket that can go from zero
to full power in a matter of
seconds, shut down and coast
a while, and then restart in
the near vacuum of space.
As one authority said, prac
tically everything ever under
taken in the space program
starts out looking impossible.
The nuclear rocket looked
even more impossible than
some other projects. But the
scientists and engineers are
not dismayed. They have en
countered no difficulties yet
which convinced them the job
cannot be done.
SECTION B
PAGES 1 to 8
MEDFORDSiWrRIBUNE
MEDFORD. OREGON, THURSDAY. FEBRUARY ' 1963
Books Donated for Overseas Shipment
Kansas City, Mo. -HW-Over
7,000 unused books have been
donated to People to Peo
ple by Maxwell Greffen of
Books Abridged, Inc., New
York City. The publications
will be distributed overseas
by the international friend
ship organization.
The hardback books, which
include autobiographies, bi
ographies, contemporary nov
els, classics and documenta
ries, constitute the largest
single gift presented People-
to-People since is reorganiza
tion in November, 1961.
The gift resulted from for
mer President Dwight D.
Eisenhower's article "How
You Can Make A Better
World" which appeared in a
national magazine last summed.
Persons working at home
constituted 7.2 per cent (4.7
million) of the total work force
(64.7 million) of the United
States at the time of the 1960
census.
More Americans Attend Concerts Than Ball Games
Menlo Park, Calif. - (I'PD -The
American is not as back
ward culturally as he's paint
ed by some critics.
Arnold Mitchell, Stanford
Research institute economist,
cites statistics to prove the
point.
In a recent study, Mitchell
reported that twice as many
Americans attend concerts and
recitals as see major league
ball games and that there are
more theatergoers than boat
ers, skiers, golfers and skin
divers combined.
Mitchell reported to the In
stitute's associate companies
that 120 million Americans at
tend cultural events annually
and as many as 50 million are
active amateur artists of one
sort of another.
"I find it somehow quaint,"
he said, "that more service
men visiting New York go to
the Museum of Modern Art
than to any other attraction,
except the Empire State build
ing." Mitchell found the market
for "the arts" currently runs
around $2.5 billion a year and
predicted the trend will cre
ate a total arts market of
about $7 billion by 1970.
Mitchell believes fie urge
to express personal creativity
is a major factor in the trend
toward the "arts" and thinks
this urge will increase as a
means of attaining both social
and personal satirfaction.
The trend, he suggested, re
flects the U.S. consumer's
growing disenchantment with
mass-produced goods as status
symbols.
Individually, Mitchell found
the outlay for culture rose by
well over 100 per cent be
tween 1953 and 1960 - twice
as fast as spending on all rec
reation. Mitchell estimated that
among those 50 million Amer
icans who participate in ama
teur art activities the ones
who play musical insruments
arc the most numerous, about
32 million. He also found
there were about 15 million
Sunday painters, sketchers or
sculptors, a million "art"
photographers and a half
million amateur actors.
r PENNEY'S
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Employment in the Los An
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decade, according to the Los
Angeles Chamber of Commerce.
when
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