The Practical Values of Space Exploration | Page 6

its disposal powerful rocket equipment. The military air
force and navy have lost their previous importance in view of the
modern development of military equipment. This type of armament is
not being reduced but replaced. Almost the entire military air force is
being replaced by rocket equipment. We have by now sharply cut, and
it seems will continue sharply to cut and even discontinue the
manufacture of bombers and other obsolete equipment. In the navy, the
submarine fleet assumes great importance, while surface ships can no
longer play the part they once did. In our country the armed forces have
been to a considerable extent transferred to rocket and nuclear arms.
These arms are being perfected and will continue to be perfected until
they are banned.[10]
While it is difficult to assess the actual extent of the Soviet
preoccupation with missiles, it has been reported that the Russians are

building upward of 100 IRBM and ICBM bases to be manned by about
200,000 men. Most of these, at least the intermediate range bases, are
said to be along Russia's Baltic coast, in East Germany, in the southern
Ukraine and in the Carpathian Mountains.[11]
In any event, the space age is clearly "here" so far as the military are
concerned, and U.S. forces--particularly since the development of the
much lighter atomic warheads--have been likewise diligent in their
space efforts. This is because many military minds are now agreed that:
We are moving inevitably into a time of astropower. We face a threat
beyond imagination, should events ever lead to open conflict in a world
of hypersonic velocities and a raging atom chained as our slave. We
must be strong, we must be able to change to meet change. What may
come against our beloved America will not be signaled by one light
from the North Church steeple, if they come by land, or two, if they
come by sea. Never again. They will come through space, and their
light of warning will be the blinding terror of a thermonuclear
fireball.[12]
It is important to note, in connection with military matters, that pure
rocket power, is not the only avenue to success in space use. The
American Atlas missile, for example, which can carry a nuclear
warhead and which operates on considerably less thrust than the
powerful Soviet boosters thus far demonstrated, has nevertheless
shown the capability of negotiating a 9,000-mile trek and landing in the
target area. This is about 1,500 miles farther than any Soviet shots
revealed to the public in the 2-1/2-year period following the first
sputnik. It is also a sufficient range to permit reaching almost any likely
target on the globe.
From the military point of view, the meaning thus brought out is that
sophistication of missiles together with reliability and ease of handling
is more important than pure power.
When we begin to consider both the civil and military aspects of space
use in the decades ahead, however, rocket power acquires fresh
importance. It is, as one expert says, "the key to space supremacy."[13]

Not only is much heavier thrust required for ventures farther out into
space, but probably thrust developed by different means as well, such
as atom, ion, or even photon power.
This suggests the possibilities of weapons which today are considered
to be "way out" or "blue sky"--in short, farfetched. Yet they include the
ideas of men with solid scientific training as well as vision. For
example, Germany's great rocket pioneer, Prof. Hermann Oberth, "has
proposed that a giant mirror in space (some 60 miles in diameter) could
be used militarily to burn an enemy country on Earth. For peaceful
purposes, however, such a space mirror could be used to melt icebergs
and alter temperatures."[14] Another reputable German scientist who
has been working for a number of years on photon (electromagnetic ray)
power as a source of propulsion, declares that if such power is possible
so is "the idea of a 'death ray,' a weapon beam which burns or melts
targets, such as enemy missiles, on which it is trained. The idea has
been familiar in science fiction for a long time and has been scorned
often enough. Yet, if the photon rocket is possible so is the ray
gun."[15]
Still another proposal, one made to the Congress, involves use of the
Moon as a military base. "It could, at some future date, be used as a
secure base to deter aggression. Lunar launching sites, perhaps located
on the far side of the Moon, which could never be viewed directly from
the Earth, could launch missiles earthward. They could be guided
accurately during flight and to impact, and thus might serve peaceful
ends by deterring any would-be aggressor."[16]
In spite of the fact that ideas such as these are being sponsored by
competent and responsible