Capturing a Moon and Other Diversions

As Deputy Assistant Secretary for Scientific Programs in the U.S. Department of the Interior, S. (for Sieg fried) Fred Singer has his hands full.

Charged with responsibility for devel oping long-range policy positions, he must daily consider such weighty issues as the effects of using the oceans for disposal of wastes, the need for international agreements to halt despoiling of the environment, and the possibility of large-scale re-use of waste water. Despite such earthly responsibilities, Singer, who is a physicist by training, also finds time to promote ideas that are truly out of this world.

In articles, speeches and informal discussions with other scientists, he has advocated the early start of a program to send manned spacecraft past nearby planets. He has theorized that life may have once begun to develop on the moon and has suggested that it might be worthwhile to seize one of the moonlets of Mars and fly it back into earth orbit.

Asteroid Closeup. The Martian moon-naping mission, which is Singer's most startling concept, stems from his longtime fascination with Phobos and Deimos, the two tiny, natural satellites of Mars. If the moonlets turn out to have been passing asteroids captured by Martian gravity, Singer argues, they would present a unique opportunity for man to have a first closeup look at asteroids. Even more important, he says, they may have been created at the same time as Mars--but because of their small size they probably did not experience the violent chemical and physical changes that occur during the evolution of planets and larger moons. If so, says Singer, "we have a chance to examine the original stuff out of which terrestrial planets were made."

Singer concedes that Phobos and Deimos could be explored by visiting spacecraft. But if little Deimos, only five miles in diameter, could be brought into earth orbit, it could be investigated more thoroughly. The technology of the interplanetary move, which would be man's first rearrangement of the solar system, would be simple, Singer says. An efficient, low-thrust nuclear engine capable of firing for long periods of time could be set up on Deimos to push the moonlet out of its orbit and start it curving toward the earth. The cost would be high, says Singer, but it might well be justified by the discovery of valuable moonlet mineral deposits that could be mined and economically transported back from earth orbit.

Manned Flybys. At a time when much of the scientific community is in favor of confining manned soace flight to the vicinity of the earth, Singer has grander plans. Although a manned mission past nearby planets would be physically trying, to say nothing of being more complicated and expensive than a series of unmanned probes, he feels that it could gather more scientific information. "Man can make experiments on the spot, based on what he has just observed," he says. Thus one manned flyby might well supply more information than many unmanned missions, each several years apart. Also, Singer points out, preparations for manned planetary flybys would generate major advances in technology, more fully capture the imagination and support of the public, and set the stage for eventual manned landings on Mars.

Singer's wide-ranging theories and proposals have been conceived and assembled during an unusually varied career. The 44-year-old bachelor has taught physics at Princeton, designed mines for the Navy and conducted upper-atmosphere research at Johns Hopkins. He has been a scientific liaison officer in the U.S. embassy in London, a professor of physics at the University of Maryland and a researcher in planetary atmospheres at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. He served as director of the National Weather Satellite Center of the U.S. Weather Bureau, and before taking his present post in 1967 was dean of the

School of Environmental and Planetary Sciences at the University of Miami.

"Each move gave me a completely new perspective," says Singer. "If I had sat still, I'd probably still be measuring cosmic rays, the subject of my thesis at Princeton. That's what happens to most scientists."

Lunar Life. Much of Singer's spare time is now taken up with work on the theory that the moon was once an independent member of the solar system; that it passed too close to the earth and was captured by terrestrial gravity (TIME, Feb. 3, 1967). After the capture, he speculates, an atmosphere and oceans may have formed on the moon and lasted long enough to support the evolution of complex molecules that were forerunners of life. Singer is attempting to complete the theory while keeping one eye on the fast-moving Apollo moon program. "The idea is to try to work all this out before the moon samples are brought back and examined for evidence of such events. That's the real fun of it all--to be able to say 'I told you so.' In science, that's the name of the game."

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