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| Boston Globe December 24, 1961 Page 37 |
Transcript:
500-Mile Walk on the Moon Already Mapped Out
By ARTHUR A. RILEY
Although this nation has a long-range goal of placing a man on the moon within the next 10 years, a veteran California rocket engineer claims that it is technically feasible to put a 12-man exploration team on that planet before the end of this decade.
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Allyn B. Hazard of the engineering staff of Space-General Corp., affiliated with Aerojet-General Corp., recently outlined his plan for a 12-man lunar surface exploration mission in a technical paper delivered in Los Angeles.
An expedition of this kind would require four rocket vehicles weighing from six to eight million pounds to transport the explorers to a lunar landing. Three of the vehicles would be round-trip passenger carriers; the fourth would be a non-return cargo craft which would deposit approximately 15 tons of supplies on the moon.
According to the rocket engineer's plan, the expedition would be divided into two groups - a four-man mission and eight-man support team.
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However, engineer Hazard has come up with a definitely planned mission to be carried out on the lunar surface.
Long an observer and student of the moon, the engineer said: "A major effort of this expedition could be a 500-mile overland journey - such as from a landing site in Mare Imbrium near the Crater Gruithuisen to the Crater Aristarchus and back."
Plans call for the trip to be made in two moonmobiles, each carrying two men. The other members of the expedition would remain at the landing site, living in space ships, conducting experiments and establishing a permanent base of operations.
The journey from Gruithuisen to Aristarchus and return was selected because the intervening area is mainly a flat plain and devoid of large craters and pock-marked surface areas. Moonmobiles, with somewhat the appearance of farm tractors, have been designed by Hazard. They would travel at speeds up to five miles per hour over the lunar terrain.
The engineer puts an estimated time of 10 days or less for the round trip journey. He expressed the opinion that the journey should be taken during the 330-hour lunar night wherein the surface temperatures on the moon run at about minus 250 degrees Farenheit (sic) thereby avoiding the deadly radiation emitted by the sun during daytime solar flare activity.
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Hazard already has designed the space suits for the men on the moonmobiles. It is a marked departure from the type now worn by astronauts and they may be worn for a full two weeks period.
The moon explorers making this penetration into the unknown will live like turtles in these hard shell space suits.
Discussing the suit in detail, Hazard said: "By making the body section oversize, it is possible for the man to perform all normal bodily functions such as eating, sleeping, and elimination while occupying the space suit."
He further pointed out that equipment within the body shell will be provided for heating food, communications and controlling the moonmobile. A full scale model has been built and is now undergoing engineering tests.
Hazard also suggested that giant vacuum chambers be built on earth to test equipment and train the men for lunar surface operations. "In the case of the 500-mile lunar journey training, exercises could be conducted in these space simulators," he said. "The men attired in space suits, would unload their moonmobiles from the cargo carrier, perform brief equipment checkouts and start off on a 500-mile circuit around 2500 feet of vacuum the tunnels."
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Should a vehicle break down en route, the men would have to fix it or walk back to the landing site. "Not until the adequacy of the equipment and operator training has been demonstrated in these vacuum chambers, the engineer concluded, "would it seem practical to send the expedition to the moon."
Despite the fact that space suits and life support systems appear practical for such an expedition, Hazard the rocket engineer did not make mention of the hazards en route, such as radiation, meteor contact, whether the moonmobiles would meet the conditions encountered on the moon's crust, or the colossal power to meet the lift-off requirements of the four rocket vehicles weighing from 6 to 8 million pounds.
However, the time is not far distant when samples of the moon's surface will be obtained, that metals to withstand friction and meteor contact will be developed, and, of course, rocket thrust is constantly being increased. That 250,000-mile distance between the earth and the moon will be one day traversed by man.
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