Authentic Science Fiction Monthly, No. 65 — page 23: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE planetary Society, Professor von Braun and other world experts on astronautics have agreed that three types of spaceship are required for travel in the Solar System. We have already discussed the satellite vehicle; we must now consider the orbit-to- orbit spaceship; the landing craft will be looked at later. Let us now suppose that the manned space station, probably more than one, is circling the Earth and that the technique of using satellite vehicles to haul materials to the circular orbit has been perfected. One early result of this will be to construct an unmanned deep-space rocket in the orbit, fuel it and send it in a long ellipse out to the Moon, to pass round the side no man has yet seen. While it does so, cameras aboard will record the features of that hidden side, presumably much like the familiar side we know. Other flights will be made by such unmanned radio-con- trolled rockets. It is likely that some will, in the vicinity of the Moon, be made to fire their motors and convert their orbit into a closed orbit about the satellite for closer and more prolonged study of the lunar surface by television cameras. This manceuvre, con- 22 FICTION trolled over 240,000 miles of space, will require perfect timing, since the signals will suffer a time-lag of one and a half seconds. It is unlikely that humans would be capable of controlling directly such operations, so that electronic computers would be used to work out instantaneously the required bursts of firing from the rocket’s position. It may, however, be worth- while, not only from the point of view of obtaining more complete information regard- ing surface conditions and possible landing areas, but also to leave circling the Moon an emergency store of fuel that could be used by the first manned expedition to the satellite. Meanwhile, in the space station orbit will be assembled the orbit-to-orbit ships and the landing craft for the expedition. Almost certainly more than one ship will take part, since it would be unwise to put all one’s eggs in one basket. The true spaceship will appear a strange, fragile craft, probably a number of spherical compartments, fuel tanks, and rocket motors held together by a thin framework of girders. Such a ship could never leave or land on the Earth or any of the planets. connicloooks.Ccomn)