Possibly since the beginning of time, and certainly since early recorded history, man has been engaged in a struggle to fly straight up and to cover distances (including short distances) at an ever faster rate. Aircraft using the principle of the rotary wing are one result. There is evidence to support a theory that such machines may have existed, in one form or other, well before the birth of Christ. For hundreds of years, experimental work has gone forward persistently.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss certain aspects of the costs of the United States Space Programme. Attention will be concentrated on the work of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The United States Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 charges the NASA with the responsibility of “exercising control over aeronautical and space activities sponsored by the United States, except that activities peculiar to or primarily associated with …. defense of the United States …. shall be the responsibility of …. the Department of Defense.”

Although this talk, to conform to the general pattern of the Symposium has the word “Economics” in its title, the plain fact is that nobody at the present time is able to make a reliable assessment of the economics, in the usual financial sense, of ramjet launchers.

Rockets have already demonstrated their ability to fill this role and assessments of the cost can be based upon real experience, as Mr. Rothrock's paper clearly shows. The use of ramjets for this duty, or more strictly for part of the duty, since we cannot hope to provide ramjet power all the way from take-off to orbit, remains problematical. The first step must be to prove the feasibility of using ramjets and only when some of the major problems on which feasibility hinges have been solved, can any really rational assessment of the probable cost be made.

The Ground Stations to be discussed are the large Radio Stations required for a variety of Astronautical applications. The principle categories are:–

• Radio Astronomy,

• Telemetry and Control,

• Communications,

• Military applications,

I am taking as a starting point the basic assumption that the most immediate and feasible use for an earth satellite from an economic and commercial point of view is as a link in the existing world telecommunication system. This is a small part of the field of U.S. space programmes, but is the first application of satellite systems to be commercially viable. It is now uppermost in our minds and the tests to be made during this summer give immediate reality to the project.

In September 1957 the first small satellite was placed into orbit around the earth by the U.S.S.R. Since that time a very competitive situation has developed between the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A. Each side has presumably used its military ballistic missiles, together with hurriedly-developed second and third stages. We are now reaching a situation in the West where more carefully prepared and optimised rocket stages are being used, with the basic I.C.B.M. and I.R.B.M. first stages. The result of this is to put larger payloads into orbit for a given launch weight. Recently, cost figures for the past^ present and future satellite launchers have been quoted.

This paper is intended as an introduction to the theory of ablative processes in a hypersonic environment. The various types of ablation are discussed and the general heat transfer equation for an ablating body is given. The effects of radiation are introduced and the physical significance of the gasification ratio is explained. Throughout the paper the effects of a chemically reacting boundary layer are ignored.

Certain elastic systems may not only vibrate freely at proper (non-zero) natural frequencies, but may also move as rigid bodies. Such systems have “rigid body” modes which behave like principal modes corresponding to zero natural frequencies. These modes may be disregarded in the series representation of static distortions of such systems but must be taken into account in the representation of forced vibrations.

This note is concerned with the series representation of receptances of certain simple systems of this type, namely strings, bars, shafts and beams. These systems were discussed in reference 1, but there the rigid body modes were omitted. As the matter appears to raise some points of interest, a discussion of it seems to be called for. A similar analysis to that presented here may be applied to other unsupported, or partially supported systems, such as an unsupported plate.

This note is concerned with the correlation and presentation of information on heat transfer under conditions of turbulent forced convection for the flow of gases in tubes. Discussion will be confined to the region where thermal entrance effects are absent and, furthermore, it will be assumed that the flow velocity is sufficiently low for compressibility effects to be neglected.

The subject matter will be discussed in general terms only and it is not intended to produce quantitative conclusions, which may, however, be found in reference 11.