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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 1321.PDF
FLIGHT International, 25 July 1963 JODRELL BANK DIRECTOR VISITS SOVIET SPACE STATION Sir Bernard Lovell at Jodrell Bank on July 16 Sir Bernard Lovell, FRS, returned to Britain last week after three weeks in the Soviet Union during which he visited the Soviet deep space tracking station in the Crimean peninsula; revised his opinions on the direction of the Soviet space programme; and arranged for specific co-operative experiments in radio astronomy between Soviet observatories and Manchester University's Nuffield Radio Astronomy Laboratories at Jodrell Bank. Sir Bernard, who is Professor of Radio Astronomy at the Univer sity and Director of the Nuffield laboratories, discussed his trip at a press conference at Jodrell Bank on July 16. Describing himself as "the only human being who has visited both the American and the Soviet deep space tracking stations," he said that the Soviet deep space station in the Crimea contained three radio telescopes, massive in construction but "a little over half the size" of the 250ft dish at Jodrell Bank; the distance between one aerial and another was 10km. The equipment was "of the most fantastic ally high order," housed in huts that "we would regard as akin to wartime relics." It was a terrifying thought, Sir Bernard said, that "this incredible station" had been built in only one year. Why the urgency? Because the station had to be operational in time for the launch of the Soviet Venus probe in February 1961. The entire purpose of the station, unlike that of Jodrell Bank, was space research, and the installation probably represented an investment of about £20m. Sir Bernard said that he had been asked not to take photographs at the deep space station, nor to disclose certain items of information, including the exact location of the station. Also confidential was information which he had been given on the timing of forthcoming space launchings, which would be very useful at Jodrell Bank. The director of the station was Dr Jouli Khodarev, who accom panied Dr Alia Masevich on a visit to Jodrell Bank in June 1961 •n an unsuccessful attempt to make contact with the Soviet Venus probe. Asked why the Soviet scientists had shown and told him so much, Sir Bernard said that they were grateful for the assistance which Jodrell Bank had provided in tracking Soviet lunar and inter planetary probes; they regarded the British station with "rather deep reverence"; and they admired it as a creative enterprise. The professor's changed views on the Soviet space programme in general followed extensive discussions with Mstislav Keldysh, President of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, and senior acade micians. Sir Bernard said that he had previously believed that the Soviet space programme was aimed at getting a man on the Moon, and achieving this in advance of the USA, but "I now revise that opinion entirely." Much discussion was taking place in the Soviet Union on whether it was worthwhile to send men to the Moon, and at present there appeared to be two major problems to which no solution could be seen. The first problem was the hazard of radiation damage caused by solar flares: the Soviet scientists at present could not envisage Placing a man on the Moon with sufficient equipment to give adequate protection. Secondly, although it was not considered difficult to place a man on the surface of the Moon, there was the Problem of returning him safely to Earth. rhere was no Soviet conviction that it would be scientifically or otherwise worthwhile to place a man on the Moon, Sir Bernard reported. It appeared that high-level discussions on this subject had been going on in Russia, as in the West, and the Soviet scientists were fairly confident that they would be able to obtain by unmanned spacecraft some 90 per cent of the information which might be obtained by manned lunar flights. During one series of discussions, Academician Keldysh suggested to Sir Bernard that there should be international discussion between the world's scientists on the scientific value of manned lunar exploration. If its value was agreed, there should be international discussion on the selection of experiments. In an endeavour to make this suggestion more widely known, the President of the International Astronomical Union intended to raise the subject at an IAU meeting, and Prof Lovell would be reporting the suggestion to the Administrator of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration and to Lord Hailsham as Minister for Science. "The problem of orbital rendezvous," Sir Bernard said, "is considered capable of fairly immediate solution." No particular problems were here envisaged, and rendezvous would lead to the assembly of a space platform, in orbit around the Earth at about 200 miles, on which, in 5-7 years' time, the intention would be to build a large optical telescope and, perhaps, a radio telescope. Soviet scientists believed that, within the next few years, it would be possible to predict the dangerous bursts of radiation from the Sun in sufficient time for the crew of an orbiting platform to be brought safely back to Earth. Scientists (or cosmonaut-scientists; "I have met Gagarin, and he is so good, he is quite capable of operating an optical telescope") would be expected to operate on such a platform for periods of 5-6 days at a time. The overall direction of the Soviet space programme, Sir Bernard thought, was towards the erection in Earth orbit of "considerable pieces of equipment," together with the launching of additional luniks to the Moon and deep space probes to the vicinity of Mars and Venus. Asked whether the orbital platform was an alternative or an intermediate step to a man-on-the-Moon project, the professor said he thought the Soviet scientists had not yet decided. They were going ahead with the development of an orbiting platform; if in the process they succeeded in solving other problems they might change the programme. "I have been able to agree plans for co-operation between Jodrell Bank and the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory," Sir Bernard announced. Such co-operation was easier to arrange in the field of basic radio astronomy than in space exploration, but co-operation with the Soviet deep space station in the Crimea was being considered, and it was possible that Soviet personnel might visit Jodrell Bank on the occasion of Soviet launchings. Three co-operative radio-astronomy programmes had been clarified by Prof Lovell with the Astronomical Council of the Soviet Academy. First, an investigation of certain stars in the galaxy, involving in the Soviet Union a large telescope at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory and a number of other optical observatories; secondly, joint radar work on planets such as Venus, Mars and Mercury, in which signals would be transmitted from an extremely powerful transmitter in the Crimea and received by the 250ft dish at Jodrell Bank, and vice versa; and thirdly, a longer-term project, the simultaneous operation of large radio
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