From the beginning it has been recognized that space exploration, the
research connected therewith, and the ability to operate therein is of
more than passing interest to the military.
Congress recognized the fact when it passed the National Aeronautics and
Space Act of 1958 and directed that "activities peculiar to or primarily
associated with the development of weapons systems, military operations,
or the defense of the United States * * * shall be the responsibility
of, and shall be directed by, the Department of Defense."[8] In the
amendments to the Space Act proposed in 1960, this directive was
strengthened: "The Department of Defense shall undertake such activities
in space, and such research and development connected therewith, as may
be necessary for the defense of the United States."[9]
It is possible to argue, and indeed it has been argued, that ballistic
missiles such as IRBM's and ICBM's are not really "space" weapons, that
they are simply an extension of the traditional art of artillery. For
the purposes of this report, however, the argument appears to be largely
a semantic one. Such missiles do traverse space, they are guided through
space, and they employ the same engines and principles which are
presently used for purposes of scientific space exploration. While more
advanced "space" weapons may evolve in the future, the missile as we
know it today cannot very well be divorced from our thinking about space
and its practical uses.
Going on this assumption, and casting an eye in the direction of the
Iron Curtain, it is obvious that the Soviet Union is going all-out to
exploit space for military purposes.
Military men have known for years that the tremendously powerful booster
which the Soviets have been using to launch their massive sputniks was
originally designed to carry the primitive heavy version of the A-bomb
across continents.
If there was ever doubt of the extent to which the Soviets intend to
make space a selected medium for military purposes it was erased when
Premier Khrushchev made his address to the Supreme Soviet early in 1960.
He commented in part:
Our state has at 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 scientists, other scientists equally competent
and responsible sometimes cry them down as impractical, impossible or
even childish. One engineer, for instance, describes maneuverable manned
space vehicles as having "no military value," bases on the Moon as
having no military or communications use, and the idea of high velocity
photon-power for space travel as "a fantasy strictly for immature
science fiction." He also characterizes the reconnaissance satellite,
which U.S. military authorities have long since programmed and even
launched, as being "definitely submarginal * * *. A fraction of the cost
of a reconnaissance satellite could accomplish wonders in conventional
information gathering."[17]
Controversies such as these are difficult for the person who is neither
a scientist nor a military expert to judge. One is inclined to recall,
though, the treatment received by General Billy Mitchell for his
devotion to nonconventional bombing concepts; the fact that the utility
of the rocket as developed by America's pioneer, Dr. Robert H. Goddard,
was generally ignored during World War II; the fact that it took a
personal letter from Albert Einstein to President Roosevelt to get the
Manhattan Project underway.
Yet today the bomber, the missile, and the nuclear weapon form the
backbone of our military posture.
In other words, history seems to support the proposition that no matter
how remote or unlikely new discoveries and approaches may first appear,
the military eventually finds a way to use them.
Will it be any different with space exploration?