Evening star., 1961-03-05

To the winner of the race,
just the satisfaction of helping
Russians. It would also mean
hard cash-hundreds Of mil
lions of dollars.
Convair-Astronautics, builder
of the Atlas Intercontinental
Ballistic Missile, calls its plan
"MARS"-for Manned Astro-
nautical Rese arch Station.
Martin-Denver, builder Of the
Titan ICBM, has named its
program "Gambit"- a set
of initials, but a term borrowed
from chess which means first
move"
Mars is q little ahead at the
moment, in the sense of having
hardware more nearly avail
able. But Gambit's hackers
say that plan can be translated
into flyable nuts and bolts
before Mars can mature.
Both plans are aimed at plac-
ing a small group of men in
orbit within the next two or
three years. If accepted by the
Government, and if successful
in execution, either plan would
telescope American Space-flight
schedules by several years.
Mercury Aided Both
The two programs hackers
sensitive to possibly adverse re-
actions from the civilian Space
agency, deny that Mars ano
Gambit are designed to "get
there ahead" of Project Apollo
Apollo is the Space Agency's
still rudimentary plan to send
up several men for several
weeks, sometime after the mid
die Of the decade.
A mockup of Mars hardware
ALREADY stands in a back ares
of Convair- -AStronautics' plant
on the northern edge of San
Diego, Calf. Gambit as yet has
not been translated from paper
into three dimensions, but en-.
gineerS at Denver say no untriec
technology stands in the way
of building their space station
as soon as a go-ahead is gwen
Both Mars and Gambit
would go far beyond Project
Mercury in prospecting space,
but both would lean heavily
on things discovered and hard
ware built for Mercury, the
Nations initial effort to put a
man into orbit.
The two advanced program.
envision something very much
like a Mercury space capsule
as the heart of the system. Tht
crews-two men in the cas-
Of Gambit, three men in Mar.
would ride up to orbit anC
would come back to earth in {
Mercury-type. truncated-cone
shaped vehicle. While in orbit
they would do their assigned
tasks in a cylindrical, thin
walled laboratory area just af
Of the capsule, and would us
the capsule for sleep and rec,
reation.
The fact tnat poth system
use Mercury-type vehicles ant
cylindrical work areas does no
mean that someone has beer
cribbing from someone. I
means merely that at this stag,
of the space game there is onl!
one feasible way to do wha
Mars and Gambit'S engineer
are trying to do.
The Space Agency's Projec
Apollo, when and If it come
off, will benefit considerabl!
from advanced technolog!
available in the middle ant
late- 1865. Consequently, it viii
orbit a more elegant space sta
ton than either Mars or Gam
bit will provide.
But to put a fancy. Apollo
style station into orbit will TAXI
not only considerable doing
but the doing of some thing'
that are not yet perfected. Thi'
is the point Of both Mars anC
Gambit, as seen by the men II
charge of the two programs.
1--WE are convinced that w
could be in orbit in 1864 with
Mars-type vehicle with what
we know today - no break.
Ithroughs necessary" says Franz
Zylius, advanced projects en-
gineer for Convair-AStronau'
tics.
Spending Own Funds
"The objective Of Gambit Il
to establish an early capability
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