Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1957-10-27
Physicist at Maryland U.
Heads Cosmic Roy Study
~ 8. v. PUFFENRARGER

~ D. ". PUFFENRARGER
Much Of the important
pioneering into outer space u
being carried on ct the uni
versity e Maryland under the
direction Of S3-year-old Or. 8.
Fred Singer. who six years ago
proposed that the United
States launch an earth satellite.
Or. Singer heads up the
Physics DepartmentB Cosmio
Ray Group. which has MADE
many important contributions
to the investigations Of the
upper atmosphere.
Tomorrow the group win be-
gin another series Of expert
ments designed for basic re-
search many miles into the
sky.
The group viii IRE eight Of
the rockets Il has designed
from . Navy ship OF the Mary
land-Virginia coast. This h
the iirst phase Of 3 program
that viii lead eventually to
rocket experiments In the An
tarctic after firings on LAhra-
dor and at the Equator.
Terrapin and OrioIe
The rockets they win IRE are
the Terrapin and Oriole. The
Terrapin was developed several
years ago by the university as
an experimental device ct the
relatively inexpensive cost Of
about $4,000 for rocket and M
struments. DR.. Singer said the
new oriole was even less ex-
pensive. costing only several
hundred dollars.
His team Of seven senior
theoretical and experimental
physicists on the College Park
campus also has helped in some
Of the highly important prof.
eets announced last week.
Graduate students also are
used in the work.
They designed and built the
instruments to study cosmic
rays which we're in the rocket
which SCARED to 1000 miles In
the Pacific project Far Side"
And they developed the instru-
ment for measuring the erosion
Of the outer skin Of the ''Van-
guard" fred in Florida.
The boyish looking associate
professor. who has contributed
more than 100 research papers
to the field Of cosmic rays.
meteorites the aurora, the
theory Of relatively. space travel
and missiles. doesn't hold with
the thought that Russia Is
ahead Of the United States in
the field.
More Than . "Beep'
Our answer TO Sputnik win
be many more" he said, land
our satellites win give US more
than . radio beep." There win
be two instruments in the
United States satellite which
win tell scientists something
about conditions In the iono-
sphere, he said.
He said the Far Side prof.
ect was an example Of what
could be accomplished by an
integrated program Of all three
armed services. II was con-
ceived by the Air Forces Air
Research and Development
Command. using Army rockets
(~the best available") and
launched by techniques first
started BY the Navy.
The one thing 1t takes Is
guidance" DR.. Singer said.
The young bachelor, who
lives on Ridge road in Green
belt, believes the present rocket
research is the forerunner Of
rockets to the moon land fur
Their" but he won't make q
prediction Of when the moon
will be conquered. His aides
guess It won't be many years.
In q recent symposium at the
Johns Hopkins Applied Physics
Laboratory in Scaggsvilie, Nd.
DR.. Singer predicted that an
escape vehicles rocket or
satellite that can escape the
earth's gravitational fleld--can
become q moon rocket" II 1t
is accurately aimed.
Remote Controlled Device
However, he was speaking of
q remote-controlled device. not
one humanity manned. And he
was speaking Of the near fu-
ture before attempts are made
TO travel 20 the moon.
DR.. Singer told the audience
It would be sheer luck" TO
strike the moon with q rocket,
but expressed hope that q rock
ct narrowly missing the moon
would nevertheless have an
elastic collision" with the
moons gravitational pull.
This. he explained. meant
that the rocket would be pulled
In . half-circle around the
moon and head back toward the
earth. bringing perhaps yalua-