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J.P.L.'s philosophy about its mission to explore the solar system holds that new means and methods are called for. Most space studies so far, says Dr. Alfred Hibbs, chief of J.P.L.'s Division of Space Sciences, have been done by instruments (Geiger counters, photocells, etc.) that were already highly developed for use in balloons and sounding rockets to study cosmic rays and other denizens of nearby space. They work fine as far as they go, but they cannot analyze the surface of the moon, proving that it is made of something other than green cheese. This and other novel lunar problems will require novel instruments.
One such instrument under advanced development is a seismometer to measure moonquakes. Ordinary seismometers are notoriously ponderous and delicate instruments, but at Caltech and Columbia's Lament Laboratory, moon seismometers have been developed that weigh only a few pounds and can be dropped from 2,000 ft. onto an airport runway and still work properly. The final design to be landed on the moon is not settled, but it will essentially be a three-or four-pound weight suspended on springs in such a way that slight motion of the lunar surface on which the instrument rests will make the weight move in respect to its housing. This will create a faint electric current, just as a telephone transmitter does when sound waves hit it. Amplified and sent back to earth, the vibrations (if any) will tell seismologists much about the moon's crust, and perhaps whether it has a dense core like the earth's. They may even tell about meteors slamming down hard on the moon's airless surface.
Other instruments to study the moon are being planned. Some of them may shoot neutrons or other radiation at moon material to see how it reacts. These instruments will be helped by the moon's vacuum, which is better than the best in earthside laboratories. Other instruments will be hampered by vacuum. Bearings cannot be lubricated in the usual way, and their dry, vacuum-soaked parts may freeze together. But J.P.L. scientists and their collaborators hope to land on the moon a small, tough laboratory that will sample moon material, perhaps by drilling a hole and blowing the dust into a collector, and analyze it chemically. Some instrument packages will peer around with television eyes, transmitting grim moonscapes to the earth. Many of these instruments will work on Mars too, but for studying Venus, which has a dense, dark atmosphere probably churned by violent winds, a special design will be necessary.
Close-Dps of Mars. As they zestfully look to the future of their new science, U.S. spacemen boil with ideas that would have seemed inane or insane only a few-years ago. Some projects have already been instrumented and are waiting only for the rockets required to carry them into space. Others are well along on the drawing boards—and still others remain as the fascinating dreams that may become tomorrow's reality.