Moon Race

The United States presently plans to funnel $20 billion and untold man-hours of its best scientists into an effort to put an American on the moon as soon as possible. Sending a man to the earth's nearest neighbor, however, is little more than a huge publicity stunt. The same amount of information could be gained simply by landing an instrument package on the moon--a far easier and less expensive project. Also, such a venture would not need to endanger the life of an American astronaut in a program forced to sacrifice safety for the sake of speed.

The moon race diverts far too many physicists, engineers, and other scientists from more practical and more scientifically valuable projects to the frantic effort to make sure that the man on the moon will be American. And the moon race consumes over $20 billion, money which could be taking many more worthwhile projects off the shelf. Vastly more knowledge would be reaped from money put into solar probes or orbiting geophysical laboratories than will be gained from a manned moon shot.

Some political observers have speculated that NASA had to tie its appropriations requests to the moon race in order to get Congress to approve them. But spending huge sums on ill-conceived projects benefits no one. If parts of the research involved in the moon program are valuable, their financing should be justified on their own merits.

Up to now, national prestige has been the chief motive for U.S. participation in this space track meet. In the eyes of many, beating the Soviet Union to the moon would erase its Sputnik triumph of 1957. It would seem, however, that the U.S. could gain more prestige through significant and valuable scientific breakthroughs than through the moon race. Certainly it can gain prestige in ways less financially and scientifically wasteful.

Now, in addition, the Russians appear to have backed out of the race. Khrushchev has plainly stated that although the USSR will continue its moon program, it will proceed in the future at a much more leisurely pace. Recent developments within the Soviet Union such as the poor harvest make it likely that the Russians do indeed want to spend more money on improving their earthly existence and less on a race to escape it.

Although it may be desirable to put a man on the moon eventually, the senselessness and waste of our crash program seem obvious, particularly now that the Russians have slackened the pace of their own. President Kennedy should seize the opportunity presented by the Soviet slowdown to completely reassess NASA's operations. A rational and scientific space research program if, after all, long overdue.