 It's time for the Lawn Jean Chronoscope. A television journal of the important issues of the hour, brought to you every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. A presentation of the Lawn Jean Wettner Watch Company, maker of Lawn Jean, the world's most honored watch, and Wettner, distinguished companion to the world-honored Lawn Jean. Good evening. This is Frank Knight. May I introduce our co-editors for this edition of the Lawn Jean Chronoscope? They are CBS News Correspondents Larry LeSere and Lou Choffee. Our distinguished guest for this evening is Milton Rosen, head of rocket development for Naval Research Laboratories in Washington. You've often heard it said that science has far out-distance man's political and social development. But because of the mystery that surrounds science, one has a feeling that tremendous developments are in the offing which might catch us unawares. And one of those mysteries, of course, surrounds the space rocket. Mr. Rosen, as head of the development of the space rocket, you've shot a rocket higher than any other man has done. Now, do you think men will soon be liberated from the bonds of Earth and travel around in space? Well, Mr. LaSere, I think they will be liberated, as you say, eventually. How soon? I do not know. Well, how will this come about? Will a man go up in a rocket? Can that be done now? Well, I think that first we will explore with instruments. At the present time, rockets have gone up almost to 200 miles, what men have only gone up to about 15 miles. And the same story will be repeated in outer space. First instruments will be sent up in satellites, later men, and so on with the exploration of the moon and other planets. That model of a rocket that is on the desk, is that the famous Navy Viking, which you've shot off, the single-stage rocket? Yes, that's a model of a Viking. And that is not for military use but for exploration in space, is it? Yes, it's devoted to upper-atmosphere research. The nose and good part of the rocket is packed full of instruments to study the sun, to determine the pressure, composition of the atmosphere, to study cosmic rays, to study the ionosphere, all the things that interest scientists. Mr. Rosen, you talk about rockets. What is the difference between a rocket and a guided missile and a jet, these terms we hear so frequently? Well, guided missile is probably the broadest term and there are rocket guided missiles and jet guided missiles. The jet, as used in jet aircraft, is really an air-breathing engine. It's an engine that operates within the Earth's atmosphere and therefore would always fly relatively close to the Earth's surface. A rocket, however, doesn't need air from the atmosphere. It carries its own oxygen and it can operate outside the atmosphere and therefore it is the type of vehicle, the type of propulsion that will eventually be used in outer space. Mr. Rosen, you said that you couldn't say how soon man would be traveling in space, but do you think that the generation which is now watching space travel on TV will go out into space in their lifetime? Well, it's hard to say. I think they'll see a tremendous advance and a lot of this depends on how hard we work at it. I feel it's inevitable and that our youngsters will see a lot more than we have. Mr. Rosen, I'm searching for definition tonight. What is a satellite? A satellite is a vehicle that orbits or circles around the Earth continuously. The satellites that have been spoken about recently instrumented satellites that are being studied would say travel about 1,000 miles above the surface of the Earth and therefore they would complete an orbit or circuit around the Earth in about two hours. In other words, if you shot a rocket outside of the Earth's gravitational pull and not into the gravitational pull of another planet it would stay there and travel around the Earth as one of our satellites? Well, any satellite would be almost entirely under the influence of the Earth and the pulls of the other planets would be so minute that they wouldn't matter. The pull of the moon would probably be more important to a satellite about the Earth. Well, if you think space travel, and I think that implies that human beings would be traveling, is not in the foreseeable future. Nevertheless, how about this idea of shooting a rocket so high that it would go out of the Earth's gravitational pull and become a satellite? Is that in the foreseeable future? Oh, yes. I think such vehicles within our grasp now and that if a concerted effort were made that we could in very short time have an instrumented satellite circling around the Earth. Well, do you think it would be any great advantage or any possible danger to the rest of the world if one nation or another did build a satellite or a platform perhaps that was circling the Earth and could watch the rest of the world go by from their advantageous position? Well, I don't think there would be any danger. The possible military use of a satellite has been greatly overrated and even this point that you raise of watching other people is going to be very difficult. The first satellites will be used mainly for scientific experiments and collecting data about the region, studying cosmic rays. How exactly would you get such a satellite up above the Earth? Well, it would be a rocket and as most people have said it would probably be a three stage rocket. Starting with a large rocket which then pushes a smaller rocket, the middle rocket to a high altitude, then this one takes over and finally the third or last rocket would have enough speed to climb into an orbit and stay there. Do you think it would be possible at any point to station men up there to have like a kind of a roving city circling the Earth? Well, this is a great distance away from an instrumented satellite and the practical problems of getting any large amount of material up to a satellite orbit are the things that make it very difficult. Now, these are what you are learning about now in these shoots from Sandy Air Base and White Sands and the shooting of your Viking rocket. Is that what you're learning about now, the difficulties of transporting men up to outer space? No, not necessarily men. We're learning about the difficulties of operating rockets and the difficulties of making equipment work. But we learn enough about that to show us how difficult it would be to maintain a man up there, to maintain all the equipment necessary to give him air, to keep him from freezing or roasting, to protect him against cosmic rays and radiation, to protect him against weightlessness. Mr. Rosen, would you think you'd have any difficulties in getting volunteers to go up in a rocket even now? I doubt it. A lot of people are volunteered to go up. Then why don't you send a man up there then? Well, we see little useful purpose in doing it. So much effort would have to be expended on protecting that one man that we could more profitably send instruments to do the work. And these instruments do tell you what is taking place in the upper atmosphere at the moment, as well as a man could? Probably better, because you can do a variety of things with instruments. A man cannot count cosmic rays, but a guy or counter can. Mr. Rosen, what's the difference between your research rocket and the rockets used for military purposes as weapons? They are usually more rugged, whereas our rocket is built primarily for efficiency to reach very high altitudes. Also, the Viking isn't built particularly to hit any target. Its object is to reach the highest altitude and to send back information to the ground by radio. Mr. Rosen, what is the most difficult problem you have to overcome in, let's say, going to the moon? Well, that's a hard question to answer. I think we're faced with a multitude of problems, all of which have practical difficulties. In theory, none of these problems are really very difficult. It's when you have to build something to do the job that you run into a lot of practical trouble. Mr. Rosen, one question I would like answered is, why go to the moon at all? What practical benefits can we get from going to the moon? Well, it's very hard to say. There are certainly people who will see benefit just in the exploration. The benefit to science, I think there's a lot to be said for discovery, finding out new things. After all, the upper atmosphere is now the last earthly frontier. If we want to discover new regions, we have to go away from the earth. Mr. Rosen, you're a member of the American Rocket Society. Do you think it would be worthwhile to start a crash program like the one we employed to build the atom bomb in order to build a rocket that would go to the moon? As many of us would like to see such a program if we do any wishful thinking, I think we should take a more gradual approach. I think we should concentrate on instrumented rockets, on learning more about the problems before we attempt any big program for, say, the exploration of the moon. Mr. Rosen, the fact that you are a space expert leads me to a question I think I have time for. That's the question about flying saucers. They've been reports that they've been seeing some sort of objects in the sky in Italy now. Now, as a space expert, do you think there's anything in these flying saucer stories? Well, I think the people are seeing something. What it is, I don't know. And there have been many explanations, any one of which I think might be plausible. One of the explanations, of course, is that these saucers are visitors from outer space. Until there is some tangible proof of that, I can't accept that as the final explanation. I see, but you do think there is something to it. But I want to thank you very much for being so interesting in asking so many questions tonight, Mr. Rosen. Thank you. The opinions expressed on the Lone Gene Chronoscope were those of the speakers. The editorial board for this edition of the Lone Gene Chronoscope was Larry Lassur and Lou Choffee. Our distinguished guest was Milton Rosen, head of rocket development for Naval Research Laboratories in Washington. To give a Lone Gene Watch this Christmas is to give just about the finest watch made anywhere in the whole world, and yet unbelievably, a Lone Gene Watch is not costly. There are many outstanding Lone Gene Watches perfect for Christmas giving priced as low as 70-150. Lone Gene's ladies watches are superb examples of the jeweler's art. 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