Evening star., 1960-08-16

ldNc Hal uly Ildu IlLIl6 W duJ US
world has become immeasurab
If somebody had posed t
tests in 1850, we need not have
worried about anything except
explosions taking place on our
planet. Today the situation is
different.
Experiments in space! Can
one control what is going to
happen? Can one get adequate
information about the results OF
such experiments? The topic
seems to fit into the adventures
Of Buck Rogers rather than
into serious discussions about
disarmament.
Let us consider a purely
hypothetical story.
The Russians may construct
a rocket which carries as pay
load two compartments.
One contains an atomic
bomb. The other is filled with
equipment which is ready to
make observations and to
broadcast the results.
The rocket is fired. 1t leaves
the gravitational field of the
earth. 1t continues to put miles
upon miles between itself and
its point of departure.
After a few months, it is so
million to 100 million miles
away. a distance comparable to
that between the earth and the
sun. At that time, a clockwork
separates the two compart-
ments. They drift slowly apart
until they are 10 miles away
from each other.
Sees and Reports
At this time the nuclear ex-
plosion occurs. The observing
equipment is far enough away
to be safe but close enough to
make accurate measurements.
Some of the measurements are
actually easier as there is no
air to block the path of the par
ticles emitted by the nuclear
reaction.
Does this appear fantastic?
Measurements of nuclear explo-
sions always must be carried
out by unnamed apparatus.
Every past test was carried out
with the help of distant control.
There is not too much differ
ence between the stations
where the human brain guiding
the events is at a distance of
Is miles and Of IS million miles.
Device Reports Back
After the measurements are
completed. the observing equip
ment turns on its broadcast sta
ton.
The information it has to
convey is vital but short. 1t can
be transmitted over the great
interplanetary distances with
little power.
1t will arrive in a carefully |
coded form which will appear
as inconspicuous, meaningless,
random noise to anyone except |
to those who have set up the |
nuclear experiments.
An experiment in space could
be as significant for q countFy's !
armed preparedness as a full
scale hydrogen bomb shot in the
Pacific or in Siberia. Yet if the |
Russians would carry out such
an experiment, we would notice
nothing. Had the Russians car
ried out such an experiment in
the past, no signals would have
been noticed.
Most people would guess that
space tests would be excessively
expensive. At least in one re-
spect, however, they would be
easier than the big tests we
carried out in the Marshall Is
lands. Space tests do not re-
quire the elaborate meteoro-
logical control and the great |
number of participants which
we employed in all Pacific ex-
periments. Actually the expense
of a space test is comparable
to that of one of the large ex-
periments on Eniwetok or BIZ
kini.
Two Policing Possibilities
Is there nothing we could do
to police interplanetary space
tests? There are actually two
possibilities.
The first one is to look for
the radiation emitted by the
bomb. Its visible portion will
be too faint, but the explosion !
also results in the mission Of
intense X-rays. Unfortunately !
these X-rays will be absorbed
by our atmosphere. Down here
we cannot receive them.
We can send up satellites and |
other space craft carrying de-
lection equipment. This posi-
bllity was carefully considered
what the Russians could do to /
diminish the number of X-rays
for which the police satellites
are looking.
The upshot is this. If the
Russians want to hide their ex-
plosion by shielding them in
outer space and if the power of
the explosion does not exceed
half a" megation-that is, the
equivalent of 100000 tons of
TNT-we see no hope of de-
tectlng their explosions, no