21st CENTURY SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY \' Spring 2002
Features News SPECIAL REPORT 12 Alexander von Humboldt: 58 Why There Really Are A Republican Scientist in the Tradition of Franklin No Limits to Growth Timothy Rush Ralf Schauerhammer The most renowned scientist worldwide in the first half of the 19th PEDAGOGY Century, Humboldt is barely known today in the country of his 66 Gauss's Declaration of greatest philosophical affinities, the United States. Independence: The Fundamental Theorem of Algebra 31 Ibero-America Needs a Space Agency! Bruce Director Marsha Freeman NUCLEAR REPORT It's time for all the nations of Ibero-America to put forward bold 70 INTERVIEW WITH WALTER SIMON plans for space exploration, and for the developed nations to stop General Atomics Reactor sabotaging such projects, under the guise of non-proliferation. In Russia To Burn Weapons Plutonium 74 PBMR Moves Ahead In South Africa RESEARCH FRONTIERS 75 GROWING FOOD IN AIR A Second Green Revolution Caroline Hartmann and Elisabeth Pascali 76 INTERVIEW WITH DR. GIANCARLO COSTA Out-of-Soil Farming Produces A Superior Product at Less Cost SPACE 78 INTERVIEW WITH ACADEMICIAN NIKOLAI ANFIMOV Inside Russia's Unique Space Science Institute Departments EDITORIAL 2 Teach Gauss's 1799 Proof of the Fundamental Th e increasing prominence of skeptical environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg Theorem of Algebra was too much fo r Scientific American, which devoted 77 pages in its Laurence Hecht January 2002 issue to a hit-and-run attack on Lomborg, written by leading 3 LETTERS Malthusian scientists. The Special Report by Ralf Schauerhammer, "Why 8 NEWS BRIEFS There Really Are No Limits to Growth, " examines the fa ulty premises of 10 VI EWPOI NT both the Malthusians and Lomborg and his free market supporters. Back to the Moon, Then On to Mars! Or. Wendell W Mendell On the cover: Top left, Peruvian-born astronaut Carlos Noriega on a space walk (courtesy of NASA); lower left, artist's conception of the Argentine satellite SAC 55 2001 INDEX C, fully deployed in orbit (courtesy of CONAE); lower right, Brazil's VLS rocket 83 BOOKS (courtesy of Space Agency of Brazil). Cover design by Alan Vue. EDITORIAL
EDITORIAL STAFF Edltor-In-Chief Teach Gauss's 1799 Proof Of the Fundamental Ma�orie Mazel Hecht
Associate Editors'
Elijah C. Boyd Theorem of Algebra David Cherry Marsha Freeman Colin M. Low(Y e have all heard the frequent point, from among that second category Gregory B. Murphy Wlaments among our co-thinkers and of subjects, I have seen the light bulb go 'ElisabethPascali professional colleagues at the sadly on rather quickly in a few cases. From Charles B. Stevens reduced state of science and mathematics the technically educated category, I Books education in our nation. As in all such have most often encountered a furious David Cherry matters, after the righteous indignation spurt of calculating and sketching, to no Art bi;ector and hand-wringing, is over, one must ask good end, sometimes followed by resig Alan Vue oneself the realistic question: Are you part nation. But, with persistence, these too Advertising Manager of the problem, or part of the solution? will solve it. The exercise of constructing Marsha Freeman If you are not sure, we have a propos the square and rectangular numbers, as
SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD al for you. To introduce it, I ask you to Theaetetus describes it in Plato's dia
Francesco Ceiani, Ph.D. perform the fo llowing experiment. logue of that name, can serve as a usefu l Hugh W. Eilsaesser,Ph.D. STEP 1: As a suitable subject, locate flank on the mental block encountered. Bertha Farfan,M.D. any person who has attended high An Induced Mental Block James Frazer,Ph.D. school within the last SO or so years. You What is the problem? No student of John Grauerholz, M.D. Emmanuel Grenier may include yourself. Now, politely ask the classical method of education, which Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. that person, if he or she would please has been around for at least the past Wolfgang Liilge, M.D. construct fo r you a square root. 2,500 years, could ever have any prob Ramtanu Maitra "What do you mean construct a square lem with this simple exercise. The men Thomas E.Phipps, Jr.,Ph.D. root? I know what a square root is, but tal block which arises here is perfect B.A. Soldano, Ph:D: the Jonathan Tennenbaum,Ph.D. what do you mean "construct' it?" is a typ ly lawful result of the absurd and preva
21 st'CenturyScience a. Technqlogy ical answer from one sort of person. lent modern"c;lay teaching that number (ISSN 0895;6820) is published 4 titnes ai "I was never good at math. I'm not a can exist independent of any physically 2000, 21 year in every third month, by st Cen math person," is the usual form of the other determining principle. This is the ivory tury Science Associates, 60 Sycolin Road, Suite 203, Leesburg, Va. 20H5. Telt(703)'h type response. Curiously, I have fo und that tower view of mathematics, which holds 777-7473. it is from this category of respondents that sway from grade school to university, Aadress ail correspondence to 21st Cen tury, P. O. Box 16285; Washington, D.C. the correct solution is more I ikely to appear and reaches up like a hand from the 20041. " rapidly. In either case, some degree of grave, even into the peer review process Second-class postage is paid at Lees resistance, tempered by a natural curiosity, governing what can be reported as the burg, Va. and additional mailing offices. ' 21st centuryis dedicated to the promo is most often encountered at this point. results of experimental physics. tion of unending scientific progress, all STEP 2: Remain calm, but resolute. This was the view that the young Carl directed to serve the proper commcm aims of mankind. Draw a square on a piece of paper, and Friedrich Gauss so devastatingly attacked Opinions expressed in articles are not nec ask the question again. "Here is a square, in his 1799 "Proof of the Fundamental 21 essarily those of st Century Science.Asso please show me the square root." Theorem of Algebra,"l submitted as his ciates or tha SCientific adviSOry board .. We are not responsible for unsolicited Among the technically educated, it is doctoral thesis to the University of manuscripts. very common, next, to see the diagonal Helmstedt. That every algebraic equation Subscriptions by mail are,,$25 for 6 issues or $48 for 12 issues in the USA and Canada. of the square appear, often with the label of degree m, where m is a positive integer, Airmail subscriptions to other countries are �2 attached. As this has nothing whatso will have m roots, was a matter usually $50 6 $5 for issues. Back issues are each ever to do with the solution, I have learned as a truism in any high school ($6 foreign). Payments must be in U.S: cur rency. • found it most effective to point out in level advanced algebra course, at least POSTMASTER: Send address changes such cases, that the problem is really until the recent bad times. The proof of to 21 st Century: P. O. Box 1,6285, Washing- . ton, D.C. 20041-0285. much simpler than that. No knowledge the assertion was not a matter one usually Copyright © 2002 of the Pythagorean Theorem, nor any addressed. However, one has to take the 21st CenturyScience Associates higher mathematics, is required. student no further than the simple illustra
Printed in the USA ISSN 0895-682 A discussion of what is meant by a tive case x2 + 1 = 0 to cause a recogni www.21 stcenturysciencetech_�om square root may now prove useful. I tion of the essential paradox involved. mean a very simple discussion. At this In the usual training, one is taught to
2 Spring 2002 21 st CENTURY EDITORIAL write ±"'-1 as the two solutions. be accepted as true in mathematics, which "What is the square roa t af minus 1 ?" da es na t correspand to. a principle of phys "Ahem, that's com plicated; we may ical actia n. "It works," ar "it is ca nsistent address that later." with aur defined set af allawable apera Mathematicians have knawn af this tions and pracedures," is, therefare, nat problem since at least 1545. In that year, acceptable. By accepting such shartcuts, Letters Girolamo.Cardano published a delightful first truth is destroyed, then science, then account in Chapter XI af his Ars Magna. eca nam ies and wha le natians. Here Cardan solves the problem "find A New Curriculum twa numbers whase sum is 10 and Our prapasal, suggested by Scientific Fermat's Principle whase product is 40." After showing us Advisary Board member Lynda n H. To the Editor: that the solutians must make use of the LaRauche, Jr., is this. Let the mastery af I read with interest ya ur editarial an square ra ats af -1 5, Cardan exam ines Gauss's fundamental thea rem as devel Ferm at's principle ["Why You Don't what such a thing might be. Ask yourself: aped in his revalutionary 1799 proaf, Believe in Fermat's Principle," Fall If a square roa t is the length af a side of serve as a ca rnerstane af a new curricu 2001 , p. 2). I have na t seen ya ur view a certain square number, what is the area lum fa r seca ndary and university under pa int expressed elsewhere. I think there af the square, the length of whose sides graduate students. As LaRouche argued is little doubt that Fermat's principle, are negative? Finally, the Ba lagnese in mativating this propasal: and the principle af least actia n to. mathematician ca ncludes his discussian "Gauss's devastating refutatia n af which it led, are hiding quantum aspects of the paradaxical solutia n he has fa und Euler's and Lagrange's misca nception af af nature af which the ariginata rs af (nat without a bit of ta ngue in cheek, we 'imaginary num bers,' and the intraduc those principles were entirely unaware. presume): "This subtilty results from tian of the natia n af the physical efficien The really radical thing abaut quantum arithmetic af which this final point is, as cy of the geametry of the cam plex thea ry is not the "quantizatia n" aspect I have said, as subtile as it is useless."2 dam ain, is the fa undatia n of all defensi but the na nlacal-action aspect. That is So. the matter remained for two-and-a ble ca nceptions in madern mathematical what gets swept under the rug, but half centuries. Despite the technically ele physics .... It also. provides a standard af always keeps peeping aut under mis gant proafs af the Fundamental Theorem reference fa r the use af the term "truth," leading and ca nfusing guises such as af Algebra, provided successively by as distinct from mere apinian, within "EPR" [the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen par d'Ale mbert, Euler, and Lagrange, no resa mathem atics and physical science, and adox) . lution af the fundamental paradox af the also.with in the dam ain of sa cial relatia ns. In a sense, the phaton has to. knaw existence af the 'imaginary' number had Those ga als are achieved anly an the where it is ga ing before it can go ... been made. As Bruce Director explains in conditian that the student wa rks through and that is precisely the na nlacal aspect the Pedagagy sectia n af this issue (p. 66), Gauss's awn ca gnitive experience, both of the situation. Unlike a bird ar a pho Gauss's new proof af the fundamental the in making the disca very and in refuting ta n, we cannat aurselves be in twa arem , written at the age of 21, was an reductionism generically. It is the inner, places at once, hence the sweeping explicit and pa lemical attack an the shal cognitive sense af 'I knaw,' rather than 'I under the rug. And of ca urse, nothing is law misconceptia ns af his celebrated have been taught to. believe,' which must helped by Einstein's "insight" ca ncern predecessa rs. Gauss's sa lutian, which became the clearly understaa d principle ing the "relativity of sim ultaneity." The subsumes his creatia n af the com plex af a revived pa l icy af a universalized accompanying ca nviction that distant dam ain, establishes the sa -called im agi Classical humanist educatia n. simultaneity is "meaningless," ta gether nary numbers as perfectly lawful entities, "Once a dedicated student achieves the with slavish adherence to. Einstein's with no. handwaving required. inner cognitive sense af 'I knaw this,' he, belief that all distant action is causally From that pa int anward, the sorts af ar she has gained a benchmark against retarded, guarantees enduring confusian sa phistry, which still persist in the teach which to. measure many ather things." am ong physicists abaut the basic struc ing and practice af this subject matter, We heartily concur, and urge our ture af the wa rld. were no. longer necessary. The iva ry readers to. ja in us in taking up the peda Thamas E. Phipps, Jr. ta wer practice af mathematics was no ga gical challenge im plied. Let the Urbana, III. la nger necessary, na r desirable. In its inspired item in aur Pedagagy sectia n place must be the insistence which had serve as intraduction. -Laurence Hecht always ga verned mathematics from the Notes,______Radiation and Cancer time af the Greeks, that nothing' be 1. Carl Friedrich Gauss, "New Proof of the To the Editor: accepted as true fa r which we could not Theorem That Every Algebraic Rational Integral As a physician specializing in the Function in One Variable Can be Resolved into provide a constructible representation. Real Factors of the First or the Second Degree" treatment af cancer patients using radia This da es nat mean a crass em piricism. (Helmstedt: Fleckeisen's, 1799). English trans tion, I read with great interest Jerry As Gauss shawed for the case of the sa lu lation by Ernest Fandreyer, Prof. of Mathematics, Fitchburg State College available Cuttler's article "T he Significant Health tia n af algebraic functions, and as was at: http://libraserv1.fsc.eduJproof/gauss.htm Benefits of Nuclear Radiatian" in the already recognized in the writings of Plata , 2. Hieronimus Cardanus, Ars Magna (1545) ft. Fall issue [po 48). a higher ca ncept af magnitude requires an 65v, and 66r. transi. by Prof. Vera Sanford in In clinical external beam radiatherapy D.E. Smith, A Source Book in Mathematics, act af the mind. That granted, nothing is to (New York: Dover, 1959) pp. 201-202. we typically use large doses af carefully
EDITORIAL 21st CENTURY Spring 2002 3 directed ionizing radiation to eradicate Perhaps a better understanding of why Even if "Cognition and the higher tumors while sparing normal tissues. In such natural protective mechanisms are processes of life, are merely more such order to achieve this goal we exploit in place in all living organisms can accidents" there is no reason, in my physics to accurately target the tumors come from evolutionary biology and the thinking that "there is no reason to con (through the use of modern techniques geological sciences. The Earth was struct any such thing called science." such as 3-Dimensional Conformal formed roughly 4.6 billion years ago, Simple logic dictates that because the Radiotherapy and Intensity-Modulated and the first direct evidence of life first may be true, the second certainly Radiation Therapy), and radiobiology to appears around 3.6 billion years ago in does not have to be, and the fact that minimize the deleterious effect on the the form of stromatolites, mats laid science does exist certainly isn't any normal tissue that is inevitably exposed. down by cyanobacteria. (indirect evi proof that "cognition and the higher A large enough acute dose of radia dence of life can be found can be found processes of life" are not just accidents. tion will destroy practically any human even earlier in ratios of carbon-12 to Given that the higher processes were tumor, but will also destroy any adjacent carbon-1 3 in rocks, suggestive of photo just an accident, it would be truly amaz normal tissue. By fractionating the large synthesis.) ing! But, as good scientists, this possibil dose into smaller, daily doses, normal At the time that life was evolving on ity can not yet be ruled out. tissues can be largely spared while the this planet, ambient background radia Mike Bluett tumor is still eliminated. Thus, although tion levels were much higher than they Vancouver, B.C., Canada we are dealing with daily doses that are are today, because of the greater abun still quite large (on the order of 2 gray dance of naturally occurring radioiso The Editor Replies per day), normal tissues are still able to topes. Potassium-40, the greatest source The passage to which you are refer repair themselves with surprising effi of internal radiation dose (0.2 mGy/yr ring reads: ciency in most cases. on average now), contributed estimated "Darwin (and more so his modern fol As Cuttler points out, the public and doses of 1.6 mGy/yr early in Earth's his lowers among molecular biologists) scientific community are well aware of tory. External exposure from radioactive attempts to construct life from the bot the deleterious effects of large acute elements in the uranium and thorium tom up, so to speak, beginning from the doses of radiation but the biological series has declined over the eons as assumed existence of self-evident ele effects of low doses and dose-rates are well. The net result is much less radia mentary entities, known as atoms. far more obscure. While the LNT [Linear tion exposure today from natural back 'Evolution' is considered to be the aggre No-Threshold] hypothesis is attractive ground sources compared to the time gation, more or less by chance, of com for its simplicity, there are little human when life first evolved (over five-fold on plexes of such inanimate elementarities data at low exposures. As the article average). into an accidental state called 'life.' mentions, there are numerous epidemi The highly efficient DNA repair mech Cognition and the higher processes of ological studies that refute the LNT anisms now in place in all organisms life, are merely more such accidents. hypothesis, and some which actually evolved in the distant past when radia "Among the problems of this view, is support the opposite view; namely, radi tion levels were much higher than at that, if one believes it, there is no reason ation hormesis, the concept that small present. Accordingly, they are perhaps to construct any such thing called sci doses of radiation are actually benefi equipped to handle rad iation levels ence, which begins from the premise cial. While the cohort studies cited in much higher than currently exist. In light that it is possible to discover a lawful the article are i ntrigu i ng, hard-core of these considerations, the concept of ordering principle in nature. To claim to skeptics will remain unconvinced by low doses of radiation not being of great have proved that all is accident, is to any observational study and may remain harm seems far more plausible. In fact, ' have disproved the possibility of sci unconvinced by any data short of a in this light, the admittedly highly con ence." prospective randomized trial, which will troversial concept of some human mala The point you may be missing, is that never happen. dies being due to a "radiation-deficiency accident, by its nature, cannot be a law Part of the skepticism may stem from syndrome" may not be as far-fetched fu l cause. Perhaps the widespread the question of why there would be no after all. prevalence of statistical "explanations" negative effect (or perhaps a positive James We lsh, M.s., M.D. in what passes for modern science con effect) at low doses, when it clear that University of Wisconsin-Madison tributes to your confusion. large doses are so harmful. As Cuttler Medical School, We do not accept the premise that mentions, cells respond to radiation by Madison, Wise. everyth ing passing under the name "sci increasing their levels of protective ence" in modern university departments enzymes such as superoxide dismutase is such. Increasingly it is not. Science is (SOD) and DNA repair mechanisms. (in Evolution and Mind dying, and almost dead. When it comes fact, we occasionally exploit a similar To the Editor: to fundamental theoretical work, we phenomenon by administering pharma An argument you make in your reply have a preponderance of textbook-edu cological doses of synthetic radioprotec to a letter from Rhodes W. Fairbridge in cated parrots, who have no clear idea tants such as amifostine, a thiol-contain the Winter 2001 -2002 edition ["An where the ideas they are repeating come ing free radical scavenger, to further pro Earth Scientist Appreciates Vernadsky," from. Otherwise, we have many talent tect normal tissues during radiotherapy). p. 4] is rather puzzling to me. ed experimenters, who are held back by
4 Spring 2002 21 st CENTURY LETTERS their sloppy mastery of basics, and their to reach the present time without under ear. How can an ear that is made up of refusal to challenge the prevailing doc going any evolutionary process? flesh and bone develop such a perfect trines of classroom mathematics. (3) Let us put plenty of materials pres sound system? If we accept them to be Our problem, the mission of our mag ent in the composition of living beings the result of blind coincidences, then azine, is to re-create a modern science such as phosphorus, nitrogen, carbon, wouldn't it require that we put forth that capable of carrying on this noble tradi oxygen, iron, and magnesium generous the engineers and the technicians are tion, which was already in its death ly in plenty of big barrels. Moreover, we not as smart as these coincidences? throes by the onset of World War I. This can add into these barrels any material (6) As I have learned from the books I requires an assault, above all, on the that does not exist under normal condi have read so far, there is no transitional doctrines of accepted classroom mathe tions, but you consider as necessary. form indicating that a living thing turned matics. The standard of proof in the Let's add as much amino acids and pro into another by evolutionary means. Is it physical sciences, as by algebraic equiv teins as we like to the mixture, and correct? alence or statistical mechan isms, must expose these mixtures to as much heat Baran Uygar go. Scientific progress has been stifled and moisture as they like. Let's call the [email protected] for most of the past century under a world's best-known scientist beside the tyranny of pseudo-mathematical drivel, barrel. Let these experts wait by the bar The Editor Replies introduced through such channels as rels from father to son, from generation You raise some interesting questions. Bertrand Russell's Unification of the to generation for billions or even trillions TRe implied critique of the theory of Sciences project. of years. Let them be free to form every chance evolution, I agree with. How can The best remedy for the individual condition they think would be necessary chance be a scientific explanation of seeking truth is to throw away the text for the existence of a living thing. anything? However, if your alternative is books and most of the gobbledygook of After all these means, do you think the theory known as Creationism, I dis modern "scientific" commentary. Go actors like Clark Gable, Humphrey agree. back to the original, fundamental dis Bogart, or scientists like Einstein would We have the geological evidence of an coveries and relive them in your own come to existence out of these barrels? I apparent evolution in time of increasing mind and workshop. A return to such mean, can a human that has the ability ly complex life forms. We also have the classical principles, as the standard of to think, talk, feel, innovate, and observe present-day evidence of a vast array of educational practice is necessary if sci his own cells under an electron micro now-living forms, which, when arrayed ence is to survive. scope come into existence out of them? hierarchically, suggest a progressive Or, can giraffes, lions, bees, canaries, development from simple to complex, as parrots, horses, dolphins, rose, orchids, if by plan. Even if the progressive devel On the Origin of Life cloves, bananas, oranges, apples, figs, opment were not over time, one would To the Editor: olives, grapes, peafowls, pheasants, but still have to account for it. In biology lessons, we were taught terfl ies or millions of other species be It is useful in matters such as these, to that the first living thing is a primitive brought into existence? distinguish between explanation by effi one-celled organism. However, there (4) The ability to see the world very cient cause and by final cause, as are still a few points that confuse me. It sharply is a matter that I take into con Gottfried Leibniz pointed out. Science would be very much appreciated if you sideration occasionally. I examined the must always seek to explain phenomena would answer the questions I pose highest quality television systems, and by reference to efficient cause, that is, by below: realized that they cannot provide an analogy to some mechanism or other (1) How did the first living thing come image as sharp as a human eye can. form of intelligible representation, and into existence by itself? In the past, if There are television producing compa not rely on invoking miracle or divine one cell came into existence by itself in nies, such as Sony, Philips, with plenty intervention, whenever a difficulty arises. the primitive conditions, then why can't of scientists and engineers working in On the other hand, that there is a final anyone bring one cell into existence them. Although they have all the tech cause in every thing, which is the expres under the high-tech laboratory condi nology and many years of experience, sion of the end or perfection toward tions? Even one of the organelles located they cannot atta in the vision quality of a which all things in the universe are striv inside a cell such as mitochondria, golgi single human eye. Then, would it be ing, is also the fo undation of science. apparatus, endoplasmic reticulum can reasonable to consider this incredible For, if there is not a principle of ordering not be brought into existence. vision system formed as a result of blind to be discovered in the universe, there is (2) It is realized, by looking at their coincidences? no point to rational science. fossils, that some living beings have not (5) I considered the same situation for The interesting paradox arises when been changed over millions of years. For sound. The hearing system of a human is we examine the means by which we dis instance, fish fossils of 400 million years surprisingly qualified. Despite the exis cover a valid universal physical principle. before the present, dragonfly fossils of tence of hundreds of thousands of engi Science begins with the recognition that 140 million years, ammonite fossils of neers working in well-known compa the evidence of the senses is invalid: the 350 million years, scorpion fossils of nies, such as Pioneer, Kenwood, real physical world is not a projection of 320 million years. How could the Hitachi, they cannot obtain a clear self-evident objects onto our sensory above-mentioned living beings manage sound without any static as in a human apparatus, as if on a movie screen.
LETIERS 21st CENTURY Spring 2002 5 Objects. in fact, do not exist. What exists, the presumed, self-evident elementari experiments, criticized them for "massive as we discover by valid attempts to scien ties of level 1. and opaque shielding" which would can tifically study the false appearances pre Ask now, by what means can the dis cel out the effects of an entrained ether. sented to us by our sensory apparatus, is tinctly different phenomena of these (2) The sophisticated systems used to a process of continuous change. three levels of processes communicate calibrate the instrument may cancel out To examine this, begin from the obser with each other? How does mind act an ether drift without it ever being vation that we know three interrelated upon living body and living body upon detected. For example, regarding a test yet distinctly different types of processes abiotic processes, and how the reverse? of the interferometer the web site stated : in the world around us, which we can Only by such considerations, may we "In addition, the optical system in the describe as abiotic, living, a.nd cognitive. proceed to a clearer understanding of a tunnel adjusted the light path to within a Life, as you note, cannot be explained as concept of evolution that goes beyond millionth of an inch." If an optical sys a spontaneous outgrowth of the abiotic. either the triviality of randomness or the tem is used to adjust the light path, and Thus, even though all living things are formal sterility of a fundamentalist's cre if this adjustment is automatically done analyzable into the 92 elements, an ation. each time as observation is made, then assemblage of the precise chemical and There is more to be considered. For a any ether drift may be cancelled out. structural composition corresponding to fu ller discussion, we refer you to the The only way to see if this is happening a living thing does not produce life. book by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr., would be to analyze the adjustments of What is the distinction between the same Economics of the Noosphere, available the light path done each time. assemblage of matter a moment before, from www. larouchepub.com The space-based interferometer, I and one moment after death? hope, would not suffer from point (1). Similarly, for the distinction between Spacecraft have to be as light as possi an Idea (in Plato's sense of the term, Modern Interferometers ble, and I could not imagine the useful which would subsume a valid scientific And Dayton C. Miller ness of any excessive and heavy shield hypothesis), and a living being. Although ing over the light path, in the vacuum of uniquely associated with the human cog To the Editor: space. It may suffer from point (2), but nitive faculty, that is, to a particular type I was reading recently about NASA's this should be possible to turn off, or to of living being, a valid hypothesis is plans to build and place an interferome study the calibrations made by the com absolutely distinct from the living matter ter in orbit around the Sun. This brought puter systems for a discernible pattern with which it is associated; indeed, it can to mind the cover story in the Spring that would indicate an ether drift. live on for thousands of years after the 1 998 issue of 21 st Century Science & The space-based interferometer, called biological death of its innovator. Te chnology on the work of Dayton C. the "Space Interferometry Mission" or Let us view this paradox as it arises in Miller ["The Experiments of Dayton C. SIM, is scheduled for launch in 2009. physics, for example, which examines the Miller (1925-1926) and the Theory of Wo uld it, in your opinion, be possible to lowest of the three levels of phenomena. Relativity, " by Maurice Allais and study the results of the SIM to prove or In the development of any fundamentally "Optical Theory in the 19th Century, disprove the ether drift theory? new physical principle, we start from the and the Truth about Michelson-Morley Stuart Tw yford identification of something paradoxical, Miller," by Laurence Hecht] . Melbourne, Australia anomalous experimental phenomena If Miller did indeed detect an ether [email protected] which do not fit our existing hypothesis of drift, I wondered, would this new space the ordering of nature. Notice, that based interferometer also detect it? The Editor Replies already we are discussing, at once, all I looked up the space-based interfer I share your enthusiasm that modern three of the identified types of processes ometer on the Internet. I found that NASA instruments might contribute to our which are the subject of science, that is, are already building a ground based understanding of the unanswered prob the relationship of abiotic phenomena to interferometer at Mount Palomar. Called lems in the theory of light. I do not have the mind of the living process. the "Palomar Te stbed Interferometer," this the specialized knowledge to answer Now, by a step in the process which is is a prelude to another interfe rometer to your specific questions regarding the not subject to formal representation, a be built at the Keck Observatory on named instruments, but invite com new idea arises in the mind of the inves Mauna Kea, Hawaii, called the Keck ments from informed readers. tigator. To test that idea, an experimental Interferometer. The Keck Interferometer You ask whether results from the apparatus and design is conceived. The will eventually have a maximum light space-based interferometer could finally purpose of the experiment is to deter path of 140 m. The light path to Miller's prove or disprove the ether-drift theory. I mine the relationship of the idea in the interferometer was 32 m. think not. Since the Michelson-Morley, mind (level 3) to the abiotic processes I wondered if the Keck Interferometer and subsequent Miller experiments did (level 1) as mediated by the sensory would detect an ether drift, but I could not produce a null result, the widely apparatus (level 2). Foolish empiricists, immediately see two problems with this accepted view that the speed of light is who are not the people who conceive idea: indifferent to both the direction of propa valid new universal physical hypothe (1) The Keck light path will pass gation and velocity of the source is not ses, suppose that the subject of the through an underground tunnel. Miller, well-founded. But neither do experimen experiment is the relationship among when commenting on other ether drift tal results substantiate a simple interpreta-
6 Spring 2002 21st CENTURY LETTERS tion of ether drift. The true answer would us with a paradox. You see someone Thus, for all the Moon's idiosyncrasies, seem to lie in "none of the above." chopping wood, or fi ring a rifle, 300 the approximate longitude given by the yards away. First you see the blow, or torquetum would seem to be quite ade see the smoke from the muzzle, then quate for Pacific island hopping. The Moon and longitude some time later, you hear the sound. At first you are astonished, because, like an To the Editor: animal, or an empiricist, you are so used Eradicating Thank you for thought-provoking arti to linking the eye with the ear fo r that Drug Growing cles on the ancients' abilities to measure same event. But now, there seem to be longitude ["Ancient Navigators Could two events! This simple paradox helps To the Editor: Have Measured Longitude!" by Rick us calculate the speed of sound through Of course I was delighted by the over Sanders and "Building and Using Maui's the air. whelmingly positive review of my book, Ta nawa" by Bertram Cooper, Fall 2001 , Lunar distance works fo r a similar rea Buzzword, written by Va lerie Rush in p. 58] .... son. But I did not choose the Moon-the your Winter 2001 -2002 edition Question for my understanding: Moon chose me! There is no other way. ["Biotechnology Can Dry Up Terrorist Considering the variability of the Moon's The problem in fi nding longitude is that Financing," p. 71]. I'd like to make one orbit compared to that of the stars, why . all the "motions" of the stars, as every point of clarification, however, regard did Mr. Sanders choose the Moon's orbit one knows, but everyone forgets, are not ing the fictional versus the real-life as the celestial body of choice in estab real, but caused by the turning of the deployments of biocontrols to narcotics lishing longitude .... Earth. The Moon's east to west "motion" producing plants, which the book indi It is my opinion that the single most has the same cause. However, the Moon rectly proposes. important factor in determining longi has a real motion independent of our The statement, "Wyckham is forced to tude would be the tables of celestial rotation, in the opposite direction, as go underground while readying his positions at the reference meridian, and you know, from west to east. 'biowarfare' scenario for deployment," the hour angle, H, measured by the tor The trick is in your comment: "If the can easily cause non-fictional misunder quetum at the new location. This is mariner has kept track of the time lapse standings. "Biowarfare" is a misleading because, for the same instant of time, the since departure." Aye, there's the rub. and damaging definition to apply to the ecliptic coordinates remain fixed, but Before chronometers, the only available real-l ife "peaceful" use clauses for bio the equatorial coordinate, hour angle H, "time-piece" that was suffi ciently accu herbicides under the various current changes by one degree for each one rate, was the Moon: Change in lunar dis "biowarfare" conventions. degree of longitude change. tance (which you cannot see with the In the real world, one must realize Therefore, if the mariner has kept naked eye, but you can 'measure with a that agricultural biocontrol is a mature track of the time lapse since departure, naked eye instrument, such as a torque and well respected scientific discipline, and can find the table readings for the tum), will tell you how many hours have having begun in the United States in current day, the difference in the hour elapsed relative to that place on Earth for 1884, and its use having contributing to angle as read vs. the table, would indi which the Almanac you are carrying many success stories. Without the abili cate the longitude difference from the with you, was compiled. That will help ty for nations to use biocontrols, either reference meridian. you calculate your longitude. chemical or natural, control of many of My understanding is that lack of close Even after the chronometer was the weed, insect and other plant pests ly reproducible cycles makes the Moon a invented, lunar distance was always would not be possible. not-so-reliable reference for this. (The used as a check, by navigators using a In the current debate over using "nar alignment of the sidereal month, perigee special sextant with telescopic sights, cotics biocontrols" or mycoherbicides to of orbit, and line of Nodes occurs approx well into the 20th Century! On a similar restrict the growth of narcotics produc imately every 1,656 years. Thus the lunar principle, you can also use the satellites ing plants, one must realize that many cycles would vary with each monthly of Jupiter as a clock, provided you have nations consider such plants illegal for cycle, whereas the stellar cycles would be a small telescope. cultivation, and others have most fa irly constant-subject to the Equation of On your remarks of the complexity of recently shown willingness to use bio Time, Nutation, Precession, and so on.) the Moon's motion, I stay away from controls against them within their own I thoroughly enjoyed your magazine that, because the details-which are in borders, a designated peaceful use. and all of the articles, especially these any case irrelevant to the navigation we Therefore, use is not "warfa re" unless two. are talking about-can obscure the undertaken against the will of a grower John D. Shotzbarger, principle involved. For example, the nation, not however, with its consent! BSEEE Polynesian navigators used a multitude That gives nations that recognize the Minneapolis, Minn. of physical evidence to show them that connections between narcotics growth they were approaching land (the moun and trafficking and terrorism a chance to Rick Sanders Replies tainous ones obviously being the easi sever that ugly connection. It's an impor First, let us use a non-astronomical est), but the presence and fl ight direc tant semantic distinction. example to demonstrate a similar princi tion of certain birds, would give a radius Wa lton Cook ple, where our sense certainty presents of about 20 miles of the "target" island. Author of Buzzword
LETIERS 21st CENTURY Spring 2002 7 NEWS BRIEFS
EXELON WITHDRAWS FROM SUPPLIER END OF PEBBLE BED REACTOR Exelon Generation, which has been a partner in the development of South Africa's Pebble Bed Modular Reactor project, announced April 16 that it "will not be pro ceeding with the project beyond the completion of the current feasibility study phase." The U.s.-based company said that it wants to focus on electricity genera tion, power marketing, and distribution, and not become a reactor supplier. In an announcement of its withdrawal, Exelon stressed that it believes that the PBMR tech nology has the "potential to be viable and successful," and that "the project is now positioned for other companies with the appropriate expertise and core business experience to deliver the PBMR plants to power generators such as Exelon Generation." Exelon had a 12.5 percent stake in the project. PBMR head Dave Nicolls praised Exelon's involvement in the project over the last two years, and said that its departure "will not materially affect the long-term via bility of the PBMR technology in the world market." See p. 74 fo r an update on the PBMR.
CHINESE LAUNCH THIRD SHENZHOU TEST SPACECRAFT FOR MANNED FLIGHT At 10:15 PM local time, on March 25, China launched the third unmanned ver sion of the spacecraft it will use to take the first Chinese astronauts to space. People's Daily reported that the return module is "expected to return in a few days," but the The steel pressure vessel of this 770- orbital module may be in space much longer. Shenzhou II stayed aloft for nine MW PBMR reactor design is 6 meters in months. diameter and about 20 meters high, People's Daily also reported that Shenzhou III has an "additional module." inside a building that is 27 meters According to space analyst Charles Vick, this new feature appears to be a platform below ground. Its 370,000 fu el balls that may be attached to the front of the veh icle. Vick told space.com: "In general, (/lpebbles/l) are each the size of a tennis we should not underestimate the Chinese and their capabilities, especially since ball. they are building a second launch site that's almost complete." Having two launch pads wou ld allow China to launch Shenzhou vehicles in quick succession, which could dock in orbit, and form a space station complex. Chinese space officials stat ed that if all the unmanned Shenzhou tests are successfu l, a manned mission could take place next year. After the Soviet Union (1 961 ) and the U.S. (1962), China would become the third nation to launch its own astronauts.
OAU LAUNCHES NEW CAMPAIGN TO ERADICATE THE TSETSE flY The Organization of African Unity launched a new campaign to eliminate the African tsetse fly, a parasitic carrier of sleeping sickness. The fly now infests 37 sub Saharan African nations, and as many as 500,000 people have sleeping sickness, which kills 80 percent of those infected . In some regions, sleeping sickness kills more people than any other disease, including AIDS. The disease also kills an esti mated 3 million livestock animals per year, and prevents some of Africa's best land from being cultivated. As described in a Feb. 19 press release of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the campaign will introduce hundreds of thousands of sterile male flies into the breeding population of target regions. The flies are laboratory-bred, and made ster ile by gamma irradiation, which impedes the fertility of the sperm but not their func tioning. The steri le males mate, but the eggs produced in the female do not devel op. The sterile insect technique, combined with the use of insecticide, was used suc cessfully to clear the island of Zanzibar of tsetse in 1997. The current sleeping sickness epidemic began in the mid-1 970s, according to the Wo rld Health Organization, after systematic screening and treatment from 1940 to IAEA 1960 had almost eliminated the disease. The international reports do not mention Te chnicians in Ethiopia 's tsetse fly either the conditionalities of the International Monetary Fund and other world agen breeding center separate larvae before cies that forced budget cuts for health and development services, or the policy they hatch. changes that stopped the use of DDT and other pesticides.
8 Spring 2002 21st CENTURY NEWS BRIEFS SATURN LUNAR OCCULTATIONS PROVIDE SPECTACULAR IMAGES For the past few months, Saturn has been in the position in the sky where it is peri odically blocked from Earth view by the Moon. This photograph, taken by Dennis Slattery in California on Dec. 28, 2001 , captures the two bodies before the Moon glides in front of the ringed planet. It takes 2 minutes for the Moon's limb to cover Saturn's rings, during which times astronomers try to see if they can discern any new detail in the rings, as the Moon covers the light from the planet itself. For more views of the occultation, see http://www.spaceweather.com
DANISH GOVERNMENT CANCELS WIND FARMS AS TOO COSTlY The Danish government decided Jan. 24 to drop plans for installing three offshore wind power farms by 2008, which were to have a generating capacity of 450 megawatts, one fifth of Denmark's wind generating capacity. Industry and Economics Minister Bendt Bendtsen justified his decision by stating "We are very concerned about the costs for society and for Denmark's competitiveness if we con tinue to expand the use of green energy." Bendtsen told the Danish economic daily, Borsen, that Denmark has already exceeded its political target of 20 percent of renewables in the energy supply by 2003. "Our figures show that we are now at 27 percent," he said. The last study of the European Commission on the subject was less The Moon and Saturn, taken through an optimistic, calculating 7.8 percent for that figure. Bendtsen said that the cancella 8-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. tion of the three wind power farms will save $ 21 .3 million for consumers, who are now obliged to buy the renewable electricity at a high price. In a ministerial order issued Dec. 7, 2001, Bendtsen proposed a change in payment for wind ener gy, dropping payments to owners of wind turbines by almost 30 percent-from 0.60 Danish kroner per kilowatt hour to 0.43/kwh.
KENYAN RESEARCHER SUCCESSFUL WITH NUTRITION TREATMENT FOR AIDS Charles Mbakaya, a senior science researcher at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemril, has successfully treated AIDS patients with a nutritional treatment, reports the East African Standard. Mbakaya began his nutritional research after read ing a medical article a few years ago that compared the symptoms of AIDS to those of zinc deficiency, and noted the importance of zinc for the immune system. Mbakaya fo und a commercial dietary supplement high in zinc, and two years ago, assisted by Winfred Kisingu from Kemri and Dr. Patrick Orege from the National Aids Control Council, he began treating 44 people from the Association of People Living with AIDS. The results after two years show that the supplement, VIUSID, reduced the viral load in HIV positive individuals by more than 50 percent, and, in 19 percent of the patients, it reduced it to undetectable levels. Within three months of using the supplement, 80 per cent of the patients reported that signs and symptoms associated with HIV had resolved, and opportunistic infections had disappeared. Clinically, the VIUSID sup plement, which is produced by a Spanish company, has no marked side effects.
COMPLAINT FILED AGAINST PETA WITH INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE The Center fo r the Defense of Free Enterprise has filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service against People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETAl, asking that PETA's non-profit status be revoked for violations of tax laws and con nections to unlawfu l activity. The 12-page complaint outlines PETA's illegal activi ties, including its support for the Animal Liberation Front and the North American Earth Liberation Front, both officially recognized as domestic terrorist groups; its advocacy of arson; and its assault on business executives. The Center's executive vice president Ron Arnold commented: "Tax exempt status is for charitable purpos es. There's nothing charitable about encouraging arson." For more details, see www.cdfe.org.
NEWS BRIEFS 21st CENTURY Spring 2002 9 VIEWPOINT
Back to the Moon, Then On to Mars!
I f the United States is to colonize sions exceed any othe'r program in space, the case must be made for terms of mass delivered to orbit, opera going back to the Moon, as .a precur tional complexity, and stress to the sor for exploration of Mars. In fact, crew. These issues are discussed in human exploration of the Moon will detail in a paper presented at the accelerate the human exploration of International Astronautical Congress in Mars. If exploration of Mars is regard 1991 , by this author. Here, I wish to ed as only one element of exploration point to some recent work done on of the Solar System, the establishment issues related to crew health and safety of a permanent presence on the Moon in long-duration missions. is not a diversion or an impediment, In recent years, the Office of but rather part of the historical Bioastronautics at the Johnson Space process. It is a necessary step in Center has moved to a philosophy of understanding human capabilities in ensuring the safety, health, and per space. by Dr. Wendell W. Mendell formance of the crew during and after Here, in brief, is the historical con spacefl ight by identifying, understand text in which to see the case fo r the ing, and managing the risks associated Moon. least energy from propulsion mini with human presence in space. After cancellation of the Apollo mizes the mass in low Earth orbit. To initiate the risk identification Program in the Nixon Administration, Minimum energy trajectories are process, a team of researchers from NASA ceased long-range planning for called conjunction-class missions and NASA and from the National Space human exploration of space. During req uire specific orbital alignments of Biomedical Research Institute was the mission hiatus that followed the the Earth and Mars. Launch opportuni assembled. The team focussed on what Challenger explosion in January 1986, ties occur only once every 26 months, was considered to be the "worst case" NASA again began examining possible but the reasonably consistent energy scenario-a long-duration, highly future scenarios for human exploration requirements allow design of a single autonomous interplanetary mission beyond Earth orbit. The pace of these transportation system for all missions. such as the 1,000-day human expedi studies accelerated after the 1989 tion to Mars. speech by President Bush, establishing "Human exploration of the Once risks were identified, joint the short-lived Space Exploration Moon will accelerate the intramural-extramural teams formulat Initiative. ed critical questions that must be On August 7, 1996, a team of NASA human exploration of Mars." addressed in order to understand each scientists announced observations of a risk, and eventually mitigate it. meteorite from Mars as indicating a Unfortunately, arrival at Mars occurs Resources available for research are biological origin for several types of shortly after the optimal alignment for fin ite, so not every risk can be studied, features, implying extant or past life return to Earth, resulting in surface stay and not every mitigation strategy can on the red planet. NASA leaders times at Mars on the order of 500 days. be carried out to the fullest extent. In became interested in missions to Mars; Combining the transit times between fact, a total of 55 risks and 341 critical and the Mars Design Reference planets of about 8 months, we end up questions about crew health and safety Mission, conceived under the Space with the "l,OOO-day" mission. were raised. Therefore, an ongoing Exploration Initiative, became the Although many reports and studies process must prioritize risks and evalu basis for the space agency's thinking have discussed ways to mitigate the ate the efficacy of solutions. about future human missions into the effects of long mission durations on the The Benefits of lunar Exploration Solar System. crew, the assumptions of chemical The challenges of human exploration The Mars Design Reference Mission propulsion (that is, current technology) of Mars are also elements of human conservatively assumes chemical and minimum energy (that is, minimum exploration of the Moon. However, we propulsion only slightly more cost), lead to scenarios whose charac already have mounted brief expedi advanced than the current state of teristics raise sign ificant questions tions to the Moon and understand the affairs. Hundreds of tons of mass are about the health and safety of the mem operational environment satisfactorily. required to be launched from Earth bers of the crew. In fact, lunar exploration provides an orbit for each mission. Choosing inter Anyone fa miliar with human space ideal context within which to advance planetary trajectories that require the flight understands that these Mars mis- our technology to the level required for
10 Spring 2002 21 st CENTURY VIEWPOINT This 1980s artist's rendition of lunar construction on the Moon shows the deployment of a habitat. The painting was presented as a giftto space scientist KrafftEhricke, who had extensively written on lunar industrialization, at a conference in October 1984, in Wa shington, o.c, which Or. Mendell helped organize.
planning Mars exploration. with the decisions, but also the public, NASA programmatics is understand The Apollo missions demonstrate which must be comfortable with the able, the idea that humanity will forget that no problem exists for adaptation risks of Mars expeditions. about exploration of Mars is patently to low gravity for short times. Modern 'Penny Wise and Pound Foolish' absurd. That such a concern should lunar exploration would extend stay Cost is a major objection to a lunar exist is evidence that NASA has no time on the lunar surface to months, program. In my view, this is simply intrinsic long-range vision and that the and would monitor crew perform another example of being "penny-wise public supporting the space program ance. Missions that included long and pound-foolish." Mars expeditions has not been part of a societal vision for duration in weightlessness in Earth are several times more expensive and space. Presently, true expectations of orbit combined with lunar surface involve serious and unacceptable risks future space expeditions reside only in activity could be used to study the to crew survival. Investment in technol school children. regimes of human performance on a ogy development and research in a The objection assumes that exploring Mars mission. lunar program can replace much the Moon will so exhaust the nation, Cumulative effects of galactic cosmic investment toward a Mars program, if that no one will have the energy to con rays and solar particle events on the planned wisely. sider the planets beyond. On the con crews could be measured. Long-dura An objection to going back to the trary, nowhere in history has opening a tion lunar surface missions could also Moon, raised by fo rmer NASA frontier induced inertia. Access to a contribute to the understanding of psy Administrator Dan Goldin, is that a frontier generates creativity and chosocial factors associated with isola lunar program of exploration would pre destroys old ways of thinking in the tion, particularly if the crews lived on clude exploration of Mars. In this view, generation that is raised on its thresh the farside of the Moon where the Earth vested interests inside NASA and its old. is not visible. client aerospace contractors would pur In sum, a lunar program provides an The critical questions can be sue ever more complex projects related opportunity to build up space capabili addressed in a lunar mission context, to lunar infrastructure, with no intention ty in an evolutionary and orderly way, either as a substitute for an Earth-based to embark on new explorations. and to broaden the participation of the research program, or as a supplement It is true that NASA historically focus public in the excitement of space to one. Most important, experience es attention on a new major thrust only exploration. gained on the lunar surface raises the when the current program is expiring. Or. Wendell W Mendell is a plane read i ness to fl ight-proven status. A In other words, future planning is tacti ta ry scientist in the Office of Astro lunar program will reassure not only cal rather than strategic. materials Research at the NASA the managers who will be burdened But although bureaucratic angst over Johnson Space Center in Houston.
VIEWPOINT 21st CENTURY Spring 2002 11 Alexander von Humboldt: A Republican Scientist In the Tradition Of Franklin
by Timothy Rush
The most renowned scientist worldwide in the first half of the 19th Century, Humboldt is barely known today in the country of his greatest philosophical affinities, the United States.
Library of Congress Benjamin Franklin (1706- 1 790)
he 200th anniversary of the celebrated travels of represent nature as one great whole, moved and animated by TAlexander von Humboldt in the Americas (1 799-1 804) internal forces."1 [See box, page 14.] is a fitting time to re-examine the work of this titanic fig ure of 19th Century science. A naturalist, explorer, and Humboldt's Republicanism · philosopher, Humboldt, who lived from 1769 to 1859, was Although born into a family of newly created, minor nobil above all a nation-builder, one of a tiny handful of passionate ity, and circulating in high social and administrative circles republican intellects who kept the outlook of Benjamin throughout his long life, Humboldt was a thorough republican Franklin alive across two generations of oligarchic reaction, to who revered the principles of the American Revolution. At age deliver it safely to the age of Lincoln. 21, he passed through Paris just as the first year anniversary of A gateway for gaining acquaintance with such a varied life, is the beginning of the French Revolution was being celebrated. Humboldt's own summation of his work. Cosmos: Sketch of a In this hopeful moment before the Jacobin phase of the Physical Description of the Wo rld, was the publ ishing sensation Revolution took over, when he thought that the principles of of mid-1 9th century Europe. It outsold all books but the Bible in the American Revolution had reached across to Europe, he its German editions, and was translated immediately into nine exclaimed to Georg Forster, his travelling companion, other languages. In Cosmos, Humboldt proclaimed the views of science and man which had animated him from his earl iest The time is already coming, in which people will years: in brief, that true wealth is to be found "in Man and the prize the worth of a man, not because of rank due to development of his power to discover and create." birth or accident, nor because of his power or his Rejecting the racism of the British and other empires, wealth, but only on account of virtue and wisdom.2 ' Humboldt boldly proclaimed: "There are no inferior races. All are destined equally to attain freedom." Nine years later, while searching for an opportunity to leave In his Preface to Cosmos, Humboldt says that the "principal the Old World and fi nding himself stymied by the onrushing impulse" which had "floated before my mind for almost half a Napoleonic Wars, he was no less vehement: century" was "the earnest endeavor to comprehend the phe nomena of physical objects in their general connection, and to I am so hampered in all my projects that I daily feel
12 Spring 2002 21st CENTURY about inventing a series of safety devices and other items of improved equipment, and in testing one of them, almost lost his own life. He rec ognized that the miners had no under standing of geology or other basics of an education, to more intelligently and safely carry out their work. In a stroke of dissimulative genius, he set up a special school for the miners, which he named the "Royal Free Mining School," even though it had no royal sanction or involvement whatever. Humboldt paid the ex penses out of his own pocket. Attendance was voluntary, but the program was a success from the start, and featured aspects of geology and mineralogy, hydrology (the function ing of water tables and the like), local geography, and basic mathematics. Humboldt wrote at the time:
If it is a pleasure, to broaden the domain of our knowledge by making new discoveries, then it is by far a greater and more human joy, to discover something which is connected to the preservation of a laboring class of people, with the perfection of any important industry.3
One can easily understand Humboldt's excitement at finding an egalitarian commitment to bringing all strata of society forward into pro ductive life, in one experience he records from his trav.els in New Spain (Mexico) in 1803:
What a number of beautiful ed i fices are to be seen in Mexico Statue of Alexander von Humboldt. in front of Humboldt University in Berlin; photo by Chris Lewis/Fusion [City] !. .. Instruction is communi Alexander Humboldt (1769-7859: "In claiming the unity of the human race, we resist cated gratis at the Academy of Fine the unsavory assumption of higher and lower races. " Arts. Large rooms, well lighted by Argand's lamps, contain some hun inclined to wish I had lived either 40 years earlier or 40 dreds of young people every evening, of whom some years later. There is only one advantage to be gathered draw from relief or living models. In this assemblage, (and from the present state of things, and that is the extermi this is very remarkable in the midst of a country where the nation of the feudal system and of all the aristocratic prejudices of the nobility against the castes are so inveter privileges which have so long pressed upon the poorer ate) rank, color and race is confounded: we see the Indian and more intellectual classes of mankind. and the mestizo sitting beside the white, and the son of a poor artisan in emulation with the children of the great These were not idle sentiments for Humboldt. Trained in his lords of the country. It is a consolation to observe, that early 20s as a mining engineer at the famed Freiburg School of under every zone the cultivation of science and art estab Mining, he was named mining overseer of a large district, and lishes a certain equality among men, and obliterates for a he immediately undertook to improve the conditions of the min time, at least, all those petty passions of which the effects ers, whose life expectancy was only 30 years. Humboldt set are so prejudicial to social happiness.
21st CENTURY Spring 2002 13 Humboldt, in fact, saw the fu ll participation of all the popula mechanics and technical chemistry, in carefu l selection tion in upgraded productive activity, not only as desirable, but and transformation of natural resources, [and) in which necessary to the successful state: the attentiOn to such activity does not penetrate all class es, will inevitably see their well-being collapse. Knowledge and inquiry ...joy and preparation of mankind, these are part of national wealth, often a sub Not surprisingly, Humboldt was a passionate opponent of stitute for those goods which Nature, in all too scanty slavery, and even though his travels in New Spain depended measure, has apportioned. Those nations, which are on an extraordinary safe conduct from the court of the Spanish inferior in general industrial activity, in the use of king, his writings on Cuba and Mexico included searing
' 'Unit� ��d(:�arm, ny': l;:IumbqJdt's Xiew ef N�ture ,� ;"'�gr. :" . 'd , ,�; :, i "" . ' In his . extensive Introduction to Cosmos, Humboldt . , It is with nations as with nature, which, according emphasizes that to a. happy expression of Goethe, "knows no pause in progress a;'d development,· and. attac�es, her ' " '<:�;;
therefore, to establish the unity and, harmony of this with the laws of the physical world . . . ·• : The knowl stupenclbus mass 9f fo,rce and 'rrlC3,tter.' ...1 e9ge'that resul�s from the free action o( th?yght is at . once'the deli8t'it,"and t�e indestrugible �rerogative , , A little phrase in the Summary of Contents which of man; and in forming part of the wealth of Humboldt himself dra,fted, is the kernel of " his prod igious mankind, it not unfreqlJentlyserves as a substitute life labors: ' fOf the natural riches/ which are' but sparingly scat tered over the Earth.3 � ,: " , : ." Necessity; for a simultaneous regard for all branches of natural science. Influence of this study Note the affinity of this perspedive with a crucial quali ' , . on national prosperitY and the welfare of nations; its · ty of conception embedded at the core of Ai'nerican System more earnest and characteristic aim is an inner one, economics, as expresseci by Alexander Hamilton, Lincoln, . arising from exalted mental activity' [emphasis and LaRouche.4 add.ed], .* Notes��______�� ____ �� ______�______1. Cosmps I, p. 24. Later in the te�t, this . notion blo;soms into this inspiring A 2. Cosmos I, p. 52. passage: , , 3. Cosmos I, p. 53. 4. On this requirement of the republican nation state, see Lyndon H. I take pleasure in persuading myself that scientific laRouche, Jr., "The Issue of Mind-Set: Executive Intelligence Review, subjects maY be treated of in language at once digni Vol. 2,7, No. 9 (March 3, 2000), pp. 12-44. laRouche states (page 33), "For the purpose' ol the science pf physical' !"conoiny. . ' . the roles of fied; grave, and anirh�ted, and, that those wlio are the two kinds of universal principles are distinguished as follows. restricted within the circumscribed limits of ordinary "Fiist, the validation of discoveries of new universal physical princi life, and have long remained sttangers to an intimate ples. leads to the unique experiments needed to prove those discov ered principles. By necessity, those experimental deSigns, If successful, communi.on with nature, may thus have opened to , inclulle features which express the distinct principle oltha inquiry. Thus, , them one of the richest sources of enjoyment, by each,such application of a new principle, .as in different media, and in , which the mind is invigorated by the acquisition of different combinations of principles, defines what are to be regarded as new technologies, technologies expressed in both the design of prod new ideas. Communion with nature awakens within ucts, and of productiVe and related processes. It is by these and relat us perceptiye facultie�•. that had )png lain. d�rmant; ed, m.eans, tt]al' the measurable power of th� Indlyl,dual over nature is · . and we thus compreherd at a'single glanb/ the influ increased, ,/.;; ·l\ . .... i , 'j "Second, the discovery of s.lJch principles and of related technolo ence exercised by physical discoveries on the gies, is not sufficient. Although discovery of universal principles occurs, enlargement of the sphere of intellect, and perceive in each instance, within the sovereign powers of cognition of the indi how a judicious application or mechanics,:,cl;emistry, ... vidual discoverer, the process of tran:;>mission of such knowledge, and of its 'application,' expresses a sOcial process. Withoy! cooperation and' other scie�ces t1iaybe m�de cbnduciJe to ' •..; ': among relevant members of societY, the propagation and realization of national prosperity [emphasis addedP these discoveries and technologies can not occur in such a manner and degree, as to have a notable sort of beneficial effect upon the demo- graphic. characteristics of society, Indeed" without such cooperation,
' _ ' .... _ / ' such propagation rtlNilt not 0f9�r .a� .aIl, . "," , And a little. later,, .; HUQ,lb. .• , Qldt writes:.. N , , ·
14 Spring 2002 21 st CENTURY denunciations of slavery, which he never attempted to tone down. In his very last years, he even struck a blow for the establishment of the Republican Party in the 1856 U.S. presi dential elections, by writing a condemnation of a bowdlerized edition of his Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, which had just appeared in a new U.S. ed ition (printed in New York), stripped of his denunciations of slavery. An outraged Humboldt wrote that the omitted part had greater importance than all the geography and statistical data put together. He put this condemnation directly in the hands of Gen. John C. Fremont's Republican cam As a young mining official, Humboldt invented this breathing apparatus and paign organization for its use in the campaign. other safety devices, out of concern for the terrible conditions under which In that same year, Humboldt succeeded in get miners worked. ting a law passed in Prussia that granted free dom to any black slave upon crossing onto Prussian soil. This household of Moses Mendelssohn, and the salon run by noted paralleled his life long efforts for fu ll emancipation of Jews in Jewish physician Marcus Herz and his daughter, Henriette. It Prussia. was in the Herz home, that young Alexander was introduced Humboldt loved to promote far-reaching infrastructure devel to the work of Benjamin Franklin, and he replicated several opment. Chapter 2 of his Political Essay on the Kingdom of New key experiments of Franklin and of Vo lta. Alexander promptly Spain, outlines no less than nine possible sites fo r an Atlantic arranged for a lightning rod to be installed on the Humboldt Pacific canal. (One of them became the Panama Canal 100 family home at Tege l, about 10 miles north of Berlin. It was years later.) Chapter 8 includes a fascinating hydraulic history of Prussia's second lightning rod, after the one at the University Mexico City, with detailed proposals fo r dealing with the prob of Gottingen. lem of drainage of its site, a valley lacking an outlet. A memo Through the Mendelssohn-Herz circle, Humboldt became a rable anecdote from 1844, when Humboldt was a captive of defender of Leibniz's scientific and philosophical method Pruss ian court politics as King Friedrich Wilhelm IV's chamber (against the "Enlightenment" promotion of the anti-Leibniz lain, recounts Humboldt calling the King's attention to drawings Vo ltaire and Newton), which was the hallmark of the heroic of the then just-completed New York City aqueduct. When the collaboration of Mendelssohn and Lessing in the 1750-1 780 King showed interest, Humboldt reported ly plied him for a period. week with classic examples of aqueducts throughout history, to During a semester at Gottingen in the spring of 1789, stimulate his interest in similar public improvements for Prussia. Humboldt studied mathematics with Abraham Kastner, the Throughout the 1840s and 1850s, Humboldt was a patron of man who transmitted the Leibnizian outlook to Carl Friedrich great railroad-building projects on both sides of the Atlantic; in Gauss, and who had brought Franklin to Gottingen for a visit fa ct, he took an interest in all new technological frontiers-from during the American Revolution. Humboldr's professor of clas steelmaking to the daguerrotype-all his life. sical philology and archaeology, Christian Gottlieb Heyne, introduced him to Georg Forster, who 15 years earlier, had Transmitting the Legacy of Franklin travelled the South Seas with Captain James Cook, and was a The true significance of Humboldt's work can only be seen passionate supporter of the American Revolution. Forster took on a canvas stretching from his formative years in the period Humboldt with him as his travelling companion to the Low of the American and French revolutions, to the Lincoln-era Countries, England, and France, and sowed the seeds of revival of the American System, three quarters of a century Humboldt's life long passion for exploration. later. Humboldt was among the small number of rigorous and Humboldt's year of study at the Mining School of Freiberg, courageous intellects who made possible the survival of the and his subsequent employment as mining inspector, brought American Republic and its mission in the world, over the inter him into contact with two of the most important pioneers of vening years of retreat in both Europe and the United States. German industrialization: Abraham Gottlob Werner, head of In scientific methodology and use of the most advanced the school, founder of the study of layering in geology ("geog measuring instruments of his time, he was a protege of the nosy"), and expert in the theory and construction of iron circles of both Benjamin Franklin and the Ecole foundries; and Friedrich Wilhelm von Reden, later Minister of Polyte chnique; in broader philosophic matters, his thought Mines in Silesia, who in 1790 had imported Germany's first was influenced by intense collaboration first with the family steam engine from Franklin's circles in England. During three and circle of Moses Mendelssohn (see box, page 16), and weeks when Humboldt was Reden's houseguest in Breslau, then with the greatest of the German Classical thinkers, Reden outlined detailed plans to Humboldt, for harnessing the Schiller and Goethe. steam engine to ironworks, based on using pitcoal rather than Gottlob Christian Kunth, ODe of the first tutors of Alexander charcoal as the raw material.4 and his older brother, Wi lhelm, introduced the Humboldt A third crucial acquaihtance of Humboldt in these circles brothers to the centers of Berlin intellectual life in 1783 : the was Johann Sebastian Claiss, the greatest expert in saltworks of
21st CENTURY Spring 2002 15 the time. In a letter of early 1792, Humboldt wrote of Claiss: tion of all the sources of salt in Germany. The principal idea is ...that all saltworks in Germany lie in a certain He possesses great physical and mathematical knowl manner, that can be shown through lines on a map, and edge, was seven years in England, worked a great deal from which one can find mile after mile of salt sources. with Franklin, was a long time in France ... and is in charge of all the Bavarian saltworks. I have been asking From these kinds of "thinking observations," as Humboldt him questions from morning to night, and I know of no called them, he was later to develop one of his greatest man in whose company I have learned so much. I took insights into "unity in diversity": the recognition that similar many new materials on these matters from Claiss, geological layering characteristics, wherever in the world they received also unpublished manuscripts by Franklin on were to be fo und, all had to come from a common fo rmative heat contrivances, and completed my map on the rela- process and share common characteristics. He thus con-
Humboldt and the Mendelssohn Family
All their lives, both Humboldt brothers enjoyed a singu Humboldt demonstrated these'!" intruments at the Berlin lar and intense relationship with the family of Moses Academy of Science. Mendelssohn (1 729-1 786) and related jewish intellectual In 1828, Felix Mendelssohn, grandson of Moses and son circles. The importance of Mendelssohn, and his collabo of Abraham Mendelssohn, was commissioned to write a ration with Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, has been told in a special cantata to celebrate the great international scientific special issue of Fidelia magazine, Summer 1999 (published conference organized by Humbolt that year. The resultant by the Schiller Institute). Their collaboration was the key work, known subsequently as the "Humboldt Cantata," was stone in igniting the German Classical period, and pivoted written for men's voices and an orchestra of basses and cel on defending and reviving the work of Gottfried Wilhelm los, trumpets, horns, and darinets, to a text by Ludwig Leibniz and johann Sebastian Bach, against the machina Rellstab which celebrated the triumph of the harmony of tions of Vo ltaire and other fa natic Newtonians. mind, over the chaos of the elements. One of England's most The first contact between the Mendelssohns and the reknowned "Leibnizians" at the conference, Charles Humboldts was in 1783, 'when Alexander and Wi lhelm's Babbage, wrote that after a walR with Humboldt, "discussing mathematics tlJtor, E:G. Fischer, taught mathematics jointly the singularities of several of our learned acquaintances," the to the Humboldt brothers and two sons of Moses two kept their respective engagelllents,, and "met again at the Mendelssohn. Moses himself, then at the end of his life, most recherche of all, a concert at Mendelssohn's." became a mentor to Wilhelm. Alexander became close to Humboldt's own magnetic researches, reinvigorated by two of the sons especially, joseph (1 770-1848) and Nathan contact with Gauss at the scientific conference, were con (1782-1852), and kept them as life long friends. ducted in special facilities constructed on the property of The Mendelssohn family acted as a kind of fi nancial safe Abraham Mendelssohn. The fo llowing description by ty net for Alexander throughout his life, as his devotion to Kellner (pp. 119-1 20) provides a striking portrait of this his travels and the publications of his works eroded and extraordinary moment: then used up his own inheritance. For instance, in 1799, when Alexander was in Spain having fi nally won permis ...a specially-constructed, nO[l-magnetic hut in sion fo r his trip to South America, his normal bank arrange which all metal parts were made, of copper, was set up ments broke down. Only a last-minute bank draft from the in the garden of the house ot Abraham Mendessohn Men'delssohn family bank enabled his departure. Similarly Bartholdy ... Humboldt's hut was in a corner of the in 1819, it was the Mendelssohn and Fraenkel bank which garden, not far from the summer-house where Felix ... stepped in to arrange a credit line in Paris fo r Alexander to and his older sister [Fanny] mpd� music in the purchase the instruments and books that he needed. At one evenings and practiced for the great musical event of point after his return to Berlin in 1827, Alexander faced the spring of 1829, the performance of the newly dis being thrown out of his apartment on the Oranienburger covered 51. Matthew's Passion [of J.S. Bach), a hun Strasse, when the owner planned to sell the building. The dred years after it had first been performed. Mendelssohn family secretly bought the building, and made an arrangement for Humboldt to live for the rest of In his declining years, after the death 'of his brother his life in the apartment with no raises in the rent. Wilhelm in 1835, the Mendelssohn fa mily-particularly But Humboldt found in the Mendelssohn fa mily much Joseph and his wife-became Alexander's own fa mily, as more than fi nancial assistance. There was ,a remarkable he spent his birthdays and other special occasions with ongoing scientific and intel lectual collaboration. In 1805, them. on his first trip . back to Berlin since returning from the It is no wonder that Alexander was out of favor in ' Americas, he. worked with Nathan Mendelssohn on some Germ;my during the Nazi years, accused of "philo innovative physical instruments of Nathan's own design. Judaism."
16 Spring 2002 21 st CENTURY tributed the name and concept of "the Jurassic period" to all subsequent dating schema in geology, after a visit to the Jura mountains. Similarly, during a whirlwind expedition to Siberia in 1829, he made a seemingly preposterous prediction that diamonds would be found in a district on the eastern slope of the Ural mountains-only to have his prediction confirmed even before his return to St. Petersburg five months later.
Science against Empiricism By 1794, Alexander's older brother, Wi lhelm, had taken up residence with his new bride, Caroline von Dacheroden, in We imar, at the invitation of the "Poet of Freedom," dramatist and historian Friedrich Schiller (1759-1 805). It was to be the defining period of Wilhelm's life; the intense collaboration with Schiller and Schiller's circle of friends, bore fruit later in Wilhelm's humanist educational reforms as Prussian minister of education (1809-1 810), his fou nding of the University of Berlin, and his profound works in the theory of language. But his younger brother, Alexander, was no stranger to the We imar circle. He often visited, establishing especially close relations with poet and natural scientist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, whose work on underlying form and structure in plants and animals, resonated strongly with Alexander's "Oneness Out of Manyness" methodology.s Much is made in shallow biographies of Humboldt, of a dis paraging remark Schiller made of Humboldt in a letter to Schiller's intimate, Christian Gottfried Korner, in 1797. "His mind is that cold, dissecting kind that wants all nature to be shamelessly measured," Schiller wrote, " ...when Nature must be seen and felt in its single manifestations and highest laws. With unbelievable impertinence he uses his scientific fo rmulae, which are nothing but empty words and narrow Archiv fur Kunst und Geschichte. Berlin concepts, as a universal standard." Korner's response was a fitting rebuke to Schiller's misap ' The Humboldt brothers were among Schiller's circle of praisal. friends at.}ena. Here, an illustration of Schiller (right) enterta ining in his garden. Alexander Humboldt (a t balcony) His [Humboldt's1 striving to measure and anatomical with Goethe (back row, left) and his brother Wilhelm (back ly dissect [anatomieren1 everything, rests on sharp obser- row, third from left).
,�� From Atlas geographique et physique du Nouveau Continent, by Humboldt and Bonpland
Humboldt measured and recorded the altitude of the Spanish Peninsula, during his six-week walk to Madrid, across the Pyrenees. He was the first to note that the interior of Spain is a plateau. This "cross-sectional" method of showing broad swaths of topological fea tures was a Humboldt innovation.
21st CENTURY Spring 2002 17 vation, and without this, there are no essay to Schiller's philosophical journal, useful materials for the investigator of Die Horen), there can be no doubt of Nature .... Meanwhile, he indeed Humboldt's keen absorption and appre seeks to order scattered materials, ciation of Schiller's outlook and genius. into a Whole, pays attention to the In the introduction to Cosmos, Humboldt hypotheses which expand his view, describes the origins of what he calls a and gives rise thus to new questions "philosophy of nature," in terms which regarding Nature. uncannily echo Schiller's Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man: Wi lhelm's appropriate observation regard ing his brother, was that "Alexander An intimate communion with really attempts to embrace all in order to nature, and the vivid and deep emo explore one thing, which can be done tions thus awakened, are likewise the only 9Y approaching it from all sides. He source from which have sprung the maintains a horror of the single fact." fi rst impulses toward the worship and Humboldt was then, and for the rest of deification of the destroying and pre his life, locked in combat with exactly serving forces of the universe. But by the empiricist ("just the facts, ma'am") Reproduced from Douglas Botting. Humboldt and the degrees, as man, after having passed Cosmos (London: Sphere Books Ltd., 1973), p. 60 school of Bacon, Hobbes, and Hume; through the different gradations of just as he would become locked in com Aime Bonpland in an illustration by intellectual development, arrives at bat with the other extreme, the German Pellegrini at the National Museum of the free enjoyment of the regulating Romantic "philosophers of nature/' who Natural History in Paris. power of reflection, and learns by rejected quantification and strict meas gradual progress, as it were, to sepa urement, and extolled feelings and intuition as the source of rate the world of ideas from that of sensations, he no true knowledge of the natural world. This latter school, exem longer rests satisfied merely with a vague presentiment plified in the work of F.W. Schelling (1 775-1 854L became of the harmonious unity of natural forces; thought begins known for such statements as "Forests are the hair of the ani to fu lfill its noble mission; and observation, aided by mal earth"-not too different from the Gaia thesis today. reason, endeavors to trace phenomena to the causes If Schiller disparaged Humboldt on this occasion (although from which they spring. Humboldt was also the only scientist invited to contribute an Humboldt ded icated one of his vol umes of botanical researches in the Americas, to Goethe; and he dedicated his book on Columbus and the Rediscovery of America, to Schiller. It was with a line from a poem by Schiller, "Der Spaziergang" (The Walk) of 1795, that Humboldt summarized a crucial point in Cosmos:
Here we touch upon the point, where, in contact with the sensuous world, the stimuli to pleasure are joined to a different kind of enjoy ment, an enjoyment which springs forth from Ideas. That which in the strife of the elements, is not per ceived as ruled by order and law fulness, becomes subject to reason. And man, as the immortal poet [Schiller] says, "seeks the immobile Pole in the flight of appearances."6
Training by the Ecole Polytechnique Humboldt and Bonpland before their climb of Ecuador's Mt. Chimborazo, 20,577 In 1796, Humboldt's mother died (his fe et, at the time thought to be the world's highest mountain. Even though they father had died years before, when he came 700 fe et short of the summit (they measured their altitude with sophisticated was 1 0), and he was left with a substan barometric readings), it remained the world record in mountain climbing fo r 30 tial inheritance. Though his career in years and earned Humboldt enduring popular acclaim worldwide. mining administration offered presti-
18 Spring 2002 21st CENTURY gious prospects, he resigned all his posts glossed over in virtually every biography and dedicated himself to preparations as just a lucky break. As the story goes, the for world travel-wherever an opportu envoy of Saxony to the court of Aranjuez nity should open up for the ambitious managed to get a good word in for scientific bent he had had since child Humboldt with the Foreign Minister, hood. Throughout 1797, he trained with Mariano Luis de Urquijo, who in turn bent the best botanists and geologists of the ear of the King, and that was that. Central Europe; in 1798, his road led to In fact, Humboldt's arrival had been Paris where his brother, Wilhelm, had seized upon as providential by a group of been dispatched as Prussian envoy. In Spanish notables who had been collabo Paris, Alexander gave lectures on his rating with Franklin and his allies for the own considerable researches and writ previous 30 years, and had sponsored an ings,? met the leading figures of French enormous scientific mobilization of the science (those who had not embarked best minds in Spain and the colonies fo r Egypt with Napoleon that year), and throughout that time. They were on the even joined the French geodetic survey defensive at the time of Humboldt's University of Pennsylvania Library team working on the triangulation meas arrival; his mission would revive, and urements of the Dunkirk-Barcelona Fa usto Elhuyar was one of an focus all their previous efforts.8 meridian line (passing through Paris), extraordinary cadre of scientists and Spain had begun economic renewal which later served as the basis for estab mining engineers recruited by the pro when the French Bourbons became lishing the length of the meter (one 40- American fa ction in the Spanish Court, Spain's ruling house at the beginning of millionth of the Paris meridian). and sent to Spanish America to unleash a the 18th Century, By mid-century, the It was during the summer of 1798, Franklin-style scientific and economic work of Jean Baptiste Colbert, the great that Humboldt received an invitation revolution. Another in this circle, Manuel exponent of industry and national devel that seemed sent from heaven: One of del Rfo, was Humboldt's classmate at the opment under France's Louis XIV, had his childhood heroes, Louis Antoine de Freiberg Min ing School, and hosted been fu lly translated into Spanish, and a Bougainville, celebrated for his circum Humboldt in Mexico in 1803. school of National Economy was form navigation of the globe a generation ear ing. Charles III, who reigned 1759-1 788, lier, had received a mandate from the Directory that then ruled was the greatest of the Bourbon kings. He tilted Spain toward France, to organize a five-year scientific exploratory mission, the American cause in the American Revolution, and spon which would make extensive stops in South America, the sored a Commonwealth policy toward the Spanish American South Pacific, Southeast Asia, the east coast of Africa, and colonies, which was designed to break the grip of feudalist even Antarctica. Bougainville asked Humboldt to join it. interests within Spain, by mobilizing a scientific and econom- Because departure was imminent, the ic breakout in the colonies. ecstatic Humboldt plunged into a whirl His leading ministers included: wind of training in the use of the most • The Count of Aranda, sent by advanced instruments that the scientists Charles as Spanish ambassador to of the Ecole Polyte chnique had avail France during the years of the American able, some of which-telescopes and Revolution. Aranda met Franklin, sealed magnetometers-featured new designs Franco-Spanish cooperation for the and capabilities. American cause, and even sent arms to But the project was postponed at the the colonists' side; last minute, as a result of French prepa • Pedro Rodriguez de Campomanes, rations for war with Austria. Humboldt who became a correspondent of was left high and dry. He had met a Franklin's American Philosophical capable young botanist, however, Aime Society at the end of Charles's reign; Bonpland, and the two of them set out to • Jose de Galvez, Charles's Minister explore ways to get into the Near East for the Indies who abolished the repar through southern France. When that timiento, a form of de facto slavery for looked too dangerous, they set off on ' the Indians, in 1776, year of the Drawing of Don Jose Celestino Mutis by foot to Spain. Fernandez, at the Cadiz Museo Iconografico; American Declaration of Independence. reproduced from Douglas Botting, Humboldt and the Galvez's nephew, Bernardo de Galvez, Cosmos (London: Sphere Books Ltd" 1973), p. 147 Breakthrough in Spain took up arms for the American cause; The way in which Humboldt suddenly Jose Celestino Mutis, the "Linnaeus of Galveston, Te xas, is named for him. found the patronage, in the court of South America, " was Humboldt's host Spanish King Charles IV, to undertake his in Nueva Granada (today, Colombia). A The Great Expeditions mammoth five years of travel through master botanist and astronomer, he was Charles and his ministers sent wave what is today Ve nezuela, Colombia, the most eminent of the scientific cadre dis after wave of scientists and expeditions Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, and Cuba, is patched by Charles III to the New Wo rld. into the Spanish colonies.
21st CENTURY Spring 2002 19 Humboldt's Trave,ls in.
umboldt and his bota�ist co-ady,enturer:� Ai;ne Antilles." It was also the slave-trade capital of the region, run ' H Bonpland, left Spain from the port of Corufia on Jl.lne largely. by th� British, and- Humboldt collected statistics 5, 1799, dodging .British warships blockading ' the 60asi: which constituted oReof the most devastating indictments of . They returned to Europe via the French port of Bordeau3, slaverY · ever . assembled. "It would be easy to prove," just over 5 years later, August 3, 1804. Whatever itinerary Humboldt Ia,ter . wrote, "that the whole of the West Indies, they had in mind at the start, it soon vanished ' in the ' whiEb 'now, 'comprises scarcely 2,400,000 Negroes and labyrinth of accident and happenstance which dominated mlJlattoes (free and slaves), received from 1670 to 1825 their actual route of travel. Alongside their multi-faceted nearly .5,OqO,gOO Africans. These revolting calculations scientific accomplishments, it was their cheerflll ha,ndling regarding the consumption of the human race do not include ' of dramatic hazards, discomforts, and setbacks (they were " the number of unfortunate slaves who perished on the pas > reported dead on repeated occasions in various U5>and �, sage or �ere thrown/into the sea as damaged merchandise." European newspapers), that made their travels slJch a sen:" Humt)oldt excorJated .. the Adam Smith British school by ' sation to the European and North American public. at:the ·.•. name, for. portraying this "greatest of all evils", as a "univer- time. ' saL benefit." ' Humboldt plcmned: next to head up to the U.S. Great June 1799 to Decemb�r 1800: Venezuela' gescend �nd map .the tv1iSsissippi, cross over Mexico, After a stopover in the Canary ,Islands, Hu�bol 'head' out to th'e Philipr,,>ines. Btir just at that moment a .' . . '.' > : · headed to Cuba. But typhoid broke out on board . ;:eq,sh�d �i�, s�ying that the French neared the South American' coast, and a , (,llmost sailed With Humboldt aboard put in at Cumana, Venezuela. From this cibru plans, Huml)Qldtand ,l3onpland s�i7ed the. . the next 16 months, o( trayelling; across i ,500 rior ve nezuela; arid cOllecting! close.• to 5 mens,.3,OOO of them unknown to. Eu ' " . the phenomena l:i umpoldt .... natural, rubber and tpe physiolpgy . . . brought the poison, Sllrare, back' to Europe Their travels, after crossing Jhe vasf ll�no$ of interior venezuela, carried them to the s hydrographic anomaly ,of the Casiquiare, a joining the Orinoco River of Nenezuela Negro of the Amazon . basin. Here Humboldt petroglyphs high on a bluff overlooking the Ri which first prompted his fascination with civilization and his conviction that, far being primitive peoples, the tribes of the Ney.,r resented degenerated higher societies that ha,d . itime trans"oceanic contact. Humboldt made carefu l observations of astronomi�al SU1- years. gularities, (including a solar eclipse of O,ctober and arJlete- was in Quito, in June of 1802, that word reached , or shower of November 1799,.one of the greatest on record)/ , Humbol,dt that the effort to catch up with Baudin's expedi ' along with precise observations of an ,earthquake, . ahd. . " tton" was in varn; Baudin ' had turned east in the South extended notations on what he called "atmospheric tides": a ' ,AAtlantic, to circti�navigate the globe by way of Africa, rather rise and faU in temperature and barometric readings in fo!-/r than west, via the Pacific coast of South America. ' oscillations every day at exactly the same times, at complete After the,i� mountain-climbing exploits, the travellers . variance with normal daytime heating. ('iThe mercwy falls' 'continued south, crossing over the Andes Cordillera into from 9 o'clock in the morning until 4 o'clock in the after� the headwaters of the Amazon for a short time; and then ' noon. Then it rises until 11 o'clock, falls again until 4:30, .. re-crossing at Cajamarca, where Humboldt watched the rises until 9 o'clock.") 'needle of his compass turn from North to South: It was the fi rst ever determination of an exact value (in the dip ' December 1800 to March 1801 : Cuba of the needle) fo r the i'magnetic equator," and it would After a perilous 25-daY voyage, . Humboldt and Bonpland serye as � 'world gauge for magnetic measurement for 35 disembarked in Havana, Cuba, . the "pear� of the Spanis.�
20 Spring 2002 21 st CENTURY Soon after, in the mountains above Truj illo, Peru, the travellers caug�t their first glimpse of the Pacific. Two drea ry months in lima were largely spent packing and shipping their collections to Mexico and Europe, but Humboldt took advantage of the time to make observations of a transit of Mercury across the Sun, to accurately set the longitude of lima's port, Callao, for the first time. Humboldt resolved to pr,oceed to the most dev.eloped of the Spanish possessions in the Americas, New Spain (Mexico). Heading to a stopover in Guayaquil, Ecuador, by ship, he made measurements of the great northward-flow ing cold current of that part of the South American coast, from then on known to world geography as the Humboldt Current-despite Humboldt's own repeated protestations
that he in no way had discovered it, but only investigated PA CIFIC OCEAN it.
March 1803 to April 1804: Mexico
Humboldt and his companions (Carlos de Montufar, the - son of the Provincial Governor of Quito, had joined the -I , , expedition in the Andes) travelled relatively little in - - - Mexico, in relation to the great distances of the earlier - phases of the expedition. But Humboldt carried out the most thorough research of the entire journey, with unprece dented access to all the archives of the vice-royalty con HUMBOLDT'S TRAVELS IN THE AMERICAS cerning natural resources, administration, income and expenditures, and much more. His personal tours took him Perhaps the most famous of these scientists was the monk to the centers of mining in Taxco, Real del Monte, and Jose Celestino Mutis, sent to Bogota, capital of Nueva Granada Guanajuato, in the company of his old friends from the (what is today Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador) in 1763. Mining School of Freiburg. He became the pre-eminent botanist of the hemisphere, cor And he could not pass up personal inspection of responding avidly with linnaeus in Sweden, perfecting the Mexico's great volcanoes, inch!ding the Jorullo volcano study and the painstaking painting of botanic specimens, and which had begun to surge upward from some cornfields founding the fi rst astronomical observatory in Spanish only 40 years before . The result was a treatise in politi America. In 1783, he led the legendary Expedici6n Botanica cal geography which set a world standard for such writ of the flora of northern South America, the largest such enter ing at the time, Political Essay on the Kingdof'(! of New prise of its time. Usually forgotten, however, are two large Spain. scale, companion botanical expeditions sponsored by the Spanish crown at the same time, the Rufz-Pav6n expedition to April 1804 to August 1804: study plant life in Peru and Chile, and the expedition of Dr. Cuba and the United States Martin Sesse to Mexico, California, and Guatemala. Humboldt had planned to continue westward from Humboldt was to pivot his work in Nueva Granada around Mexico, to complete a circumnavigation of the globe. an extended stay as Mutis's houseguest in 1801 . He would But instead, he headed back to Europe. His reasons, as befriend and correspond with Mutis's greatest protege, expressed in a letter of the time: "The damaged state of Francisco Jose de Caldas. our instruments, the futility of our efforts to replace No less notable was the Spanish crown's promotion of them, the impossibility of meeting Captain Baudin, the improved mining techniques, and the sciences of geology and lack of a ship that could bring us to the enchanted metallurgy. Exemplary was the deployment of the two Elhuyar islands of the South Pacific, but, above all, the urgent brothers, Fausto and Jose. Born in Spain of German parents, need to keep pace with the rapid advancement of sci the brothers were sent in 1 778 by the Count of Aranda to Paris, ence which must have taken place during our absence, Mannheim, and leipzig, to study the most advanced earth sci these are the motives for the abandonment of our proj ences of the time. Their researches in Upsaala, Sweden, in ect of returning via the Philippines and through the Red 1781 resulted in the discovery of tungsten, which brought the Sea to Egypt. . . . " brothers renown throughout Europe. In 1785, Charles com Instead, after a short repeat stop in Havana, he detoured missioned Fausto to organize a mission of German scientists to see his admired United States of America and its and miners to introduce advanced mining techniques to all the President, Thomas Jefferson. He would finally set sight on colonies. Fausto was named the director general of Mexico's European shores again, August 3, 1804. Royal Mining Corps in New Spain. By the time Humboldt reached Mexico in 1803, Humboldt's classmate at the
21 st CENTURY Spring 2002 21 The Philadelphia High Point A high point in Humboldt's five years of travels was Franklin's Philadelphia itself, where he arrived in May of 1 804. After writing President Jefferson that "for moral reasons, I could not resist seeing the United States," and requesting a meeting with the President, Humboldt threw himself into a dizzying round of meetings and activities with the surviving core of Franklin's collaborators at the American Philosophical Society, which Franklin (1 706-1 790) had founded in 1743. Humboldt's enthusiastic hosts included Dr. Benjamin Rush, eminent physician and signer of the Declaration of Independence; Dr. Benjamin Smith Barton, America's foremost botanist and an authority on American Indian culture; Dr. Caspar Wistar, holder of the chair of anatomy at the Franklin-founded University of Pennsylvania, and the fo remost authority on fossils in America; and Andrew Ellicott, one of America's leading astronomers and mathe maticians, based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Humboldt was elected a member of the Society on the spot, and sat for a fu ll portrait by the celebrated Dr. Charles Wilson Peale. Rush, Barton, Wistar, and Ellicott had all personally trained Meriwether Lewis exactly one year before, on the techniques of map ping, botany, astronomy, and medical sci Humboldt's profile of Mt. Chimborazo, showing different plants at different ence which Jefferson had mandated that his altitudes. personal secretary receive before leaving on the famed Lewis and Clark Expedition. Lewis Freiburg mining school in 1792, Manuel del Rio, had assumed and Clark were already headed up the Missouri River on the the directorship: first leg of their three years of travels when Humboldt arrived Fausto's brother, Jose Elhuyar, was assigned to Peru, where in the United States. If Humboldt's accounts of his travels and he installed a team that included German botanist Count studies in Central and South America seemed heaven-sent to Nordenflict-Humboldt's hosts and collaborators when he the Franklin Philadelphians who thrilled to Lewis and Clark's reached Lima in late 1802. mission of unveiling the western continental expanses, even All of these networks were, in turn, directly tied into more did it appear so to the author of the Expedition himself, Franklin and his American Philosophical Society. One of President Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson enthusiastically invited Franklin's little-known accomplishments is that he was a lead Humboldt to the White House for detailed conversations and ing Hispanist, interested in encouraging companion republi consultations. can currents in Spanish America. Franklin made a point of form ing an extensive collection in Philadelphia of the writings A Bountiful Scientific Harvest of Spanish American scientists and intellectuals. Leading fig Humboldt had left for the New World with no less than 40 ures throughout the continent tirelessly sponsored the return crates of instruments. They were of the most advanced designs flow of Franklin's works and those of the Philosophical Society then available from the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, and to Spanish America, notably through Antonio Alzate's Cazeta Humboldt was a master in their use.9 Some of the descriptions ' de Literatura in Mexico, Jose de Caldas's Semanario in Bogota, Humboldt provided of his travels are at once hilarious and and Jose Hip61ito Unanue's Mercurio Peruano in Lima. Alzate, harrowing-one of the reasons for his great popular acclaim in the naturalist known as Mexico's first experimental scientist, later years.lO But Humboldt's interaction with the Charles II/ translated and published Franklin's works on heat rays, optics, Franklin currents in Spanish America, produced an explosion and waves, and later became an official correspondent of the of measurements and hypothesis, one of the great scientific American Philosophical Society. treasure-harvests of all history. In the succeeding years, Humboldt personally aided in get Among his most notable achievements, developed in the 30 ting papers, journals, and letters, of prominent U.s. figures, volumes which he either wrote, or had others elaborate, based into Mexico, Caracas, Bogota, and Lima. on his and Bonpland's researches, are these:
22 Spring 2002 21 st CENTURY time were denigrating the spread of Renaissance modes of Th e title page from statecraft and science as viciously as such modes are deni ESSAI Humboldt and grated today. sua LA Bonpland's Essay on GtOGRAPHIE DES PLANTESj the Geography of Return to a Europe at War .lCCO)fP.lCJI't Plants, published in Humboldt was 34 when he returned in 1804 from his five D'UN TA BLEAU PHYSIQUE Pa ris in 1805. years of travels in the New Wo rld. He returned to a Europe DES REGIONS tQIlINOXULES, Humboldt broughta which had pitched into war while he was gone, and which F-W _ .s.. _ niaMM ....".. .. � ""'" c&e1MirMo...w. 1-qoo·.. olWi.odosrl_...... -....,...... ___ '199, '100. ."" new richness and would not emerge from it for 10 long years more. After the ... breadth to the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the reactionary regimes installed AL DE HUMBOLDT ET A. BONPLAND. understanding that by Britain and Metternich's minions throughout continental an increase in Europe, were directed to crush any activity consistent with the R.tDIGt PAR AL DE IIUNBOLDT. altitude mimicked ideals and example of the struggling United States republic. the changes in Humboldt had been lionized throughout Europe for the climate, flora, and exotic locales and daring of his explorations (newspapers A PA RIS, cau. LEVUULT, SCBOf.LL ET ci)J"J.G!I'IE, LIIUIJU. fa una of latitudes had reported his death many times over). He chose to make .", - 18oS. advancing to the Paris his headquarters for the next 23 years, despite the poles. imputation of disloyalty to Prussia it brought on him during the Napoleonic wars. But Humboldt needed the intellectu al and institutional resources then concentrated in the • He developed the first graphic representations of cross Ecole Polyte chnique circles of Paris to bring out his stu sectional altitude readings for large land masses. pendous 30 volumes of the scientific and cultural discover • His writings and graphic schema presenting the spatial ies of his travels. distribution of flora according to ecological zones, were revo Humboldt himself addressed a specially convened meeting lutionary (see his illustration of the intricate mosaic of plant of the Institute of France a few months after his return to zones on the rising slopes of Ecuador's highest peak, Europe, and boldly proclaimed: Chimborazo, p. 22). He made more precise the insight that ris ing altitude in the tropics, mimicked increasing latitude I aim at collecting ideas rather than material objects. A toward the poles: Travelling 50 miles from the coast of private person who with moderate means undertakes a Ecuador up to the top the Andes, was the equivalent, in terms journey round the world, has to confine himself to mat of plant and animal zones, of travelling 5,000 miles to the ters of major interest. To study the formation of the Earth north or south. and its strata, to analyze the atmosphere, to measure with • Humboldt first developed the theory and rigorous use of sensitive instruments its pressure, temperature, humidity, isotherms and isobars, to present geographically extensive the electric and magnetic charge, to observe the influ temperature and barometric readings over time. ence of the climate on the distribution of plants and ani • Among hundreds of other crucial geomagnetic readings, mals, to relate chemistry to the physiology of organized his discovery of the "magnetic equator" in Cajamarca, Peru beings, there are the aims I have proposed to myself.ll (where the needle on his magnetometer swung from north to south), gave a root value for geomagnetic scalar measure Humboldt carried out his aims by publishing the results of ments adopted worldwide until Gauss's development of an his travels, including 1,425 illustrations and maps, many absolute scalar magnitude in laboratory condi- tions in the late 1830s. Gauss pored over the World charI showing isothermal lints, ./im tUvised byHumbDldl in r817 rich bounty of Humboldt's measurements; the two of them would later collaborate in setting /::dr ,,f., S",,', ftur/:.,�,,,/,,,, . ./f.... 4.4-,�;Nl4:/r:.f -:.. up the first international organization for col . .... �- -�}i��. lecting geomagnetic data, the Magnetische Ve rein (Magnetic Union). Humboldt equally opened up fruitfu l lines of historical and cultural investigation. He awak ened Europe to the fact that pre-Columbian civilizations were advanced civilizations; that
. seemingly "primitive" peoples could well _ . __ ._._ . __-- -__-_ -., -�-_ . .-_ .... _ _ _ ..._ ._ _ . _ .-i...... _-__ -'._-.."'._ �"' :: :.::..=" _' '--===. _ : _ ...... _--- _ . -_-_-_..:. ... reflect merely the degeneration of previous higher cultures; that transoceanic contact, par ---j------t------_ 1. 1. ticularly between Asia and the Americas, was WL�� -,--� --�- ��� �- �· �· �� -L-� Reproduced from Douglas Botting, Humboldt and the Cosmos (London: Sphere Books Ltd., 1973), p. 209 likely in periods reaching back many thou sands of years. He rehabilitated the figure of Humboldt devised the concept of isothermal lines, a chart connecting equal Columbus, as a supreme navigator and explor mean temperatures, as a way of comparing different climate conditions er, while the "Enlightenment" salons of the around the world.
21st CENTURY Spring 2002 23 hand-colored. The effort cost Humboldt personal role was the greatest. Among his. entire remaining personal fortune. these were the chemist Joseph Louis Why Paris? It was a question his Gay-Lussac (1778-1 850), and, especial brother, Wilhelm, would pointedly ask ly important, Dominique Franc;:oisArago as the Prussian Wars of Liberation (1 786-1 853}.13 against Napoleon's armies commenced It was Arago's work, first with after 1808, and Wilhelm's own son, Augustin Fresnel (1 788-1 827) in the Theodore, eventually went to the front establishment of the wave theory of lines. Why was Alexander in the light, and then with Andre-Marie enemy's capital? Ampere (1 775-1 837) in the develop Napoleon had styled himself a patron ment of electromagnetism, which over of science and had the means to keep threw the Newtonian straitjacket of the the scientific institutions of France more Arcueil circle and kept fundamental sci richly endowed than they were in any ence alive in France during the other country of Europe at the time. But Restoration. despite this nominal flourishing of sci Similarly, in Germany, Carl Friedrich ence, there was in fact a campaign Gauss (1 777-1 855) had reasserted against the key figure of republican Kepler's method over Newton's in his statecraft and science, Lazare Ca mot famous 1801 calculation of the orbit of (1 753-1 823), the Ecole Poly technique the asteroid Ceres. As Arago was fo under and "Architect of Victory" in Humboldt's great collaborator and inti saving France from invading armies in Franr;ois Arago, Humboldt's great ally mate friend in Paris, in the face of con 1794. Nothing exemplified this more and close personal fr iend, in the French stant political and scientific hostility clearly than the election of members of Ecole Polytechnique tradition. Humboldt (Arago's republicanism was even more the Institute of France's "First Class" and Arago, together with Fresnel and intransigent than Humboldt'S), so was Division in 1799. Carnot had been sum Ampere battled the stifling Newtonian Gauss in Germany, where both fa ced marily expelled, and consigned to virtu ism of Napoleon 's scientific toadies. the same hostile underlying conditions al internal exile for the next 15 years; after 1815. In Humboldt's failed attempt Napoleon arranged to have himself elected to Carnot's vacant to secure Gauss a professorship at the University of Berlin in chair! 1824, Humboldt revealed that he had first intervened on Further, the Institute and a smaller steering committee that Gauss's behalf with the King of Prussia as early as 1804. In controlled all patronage in the French scientific establish 1827, Humboldt wrote Gauss, that a significant motivation for ment, the Arcueil Society, were run by a mafia of Napoleon his decision to leave Paris and establish Berlin as his base of sycophants and diehard Newtonians, headed by chemist operations, was "the prospect of living near you and being Claude Louis Berthollet and astronomer Pierre-Simon Laplace able to join those who share my admiration for your great and (1 749-1 827}.12 varied talents ...." But Humboldt's genius was to use the fac ilities afforded in In 1837, when Gauss's son-in-law was one of the Paris (he became a fu ll member of the Arceuil Society, and in "G6ttingen Seven" professors expelled by order of the British 1810, a Foreign Associate of the Institute of France), to consoli overlords of the Bru nswick Duchy, Humboldt stepped in qui date his own scientific eminence, while sponsoring scientific etly to eventually arrange Berlin University appointments for circles in both France and Germany that would break the noose fo ur of them. Humboldt's own mail was opened and his of Enlightenment Newtonianism, and reassert the Cusa-Kepler movements surveilled by secret political police in both the Leibniz method. 1820s, in Paris, and in the 1840s and 1850s, in Berlin. Finally, he took to writing his most intimate comments in Hebrew or 'You Are Interested in Plants, Monsieur?' Sanskrit! Certainly there was no love lost between Napoleon and How precarious the survival of republican science was in Humboldt. In a famous meeting just before Napoleon was these years, and how crucial Humboldt's personal role in sav crowned as emperor in December 1804, Napoleon turned to ing it, is captured in two incidents from the period of the him and asked, "You are interested in plants, monsieur?" Napoleonic wars. In the winter of 1806-1 807, after Napoleon Humboldt replied that he was. "Well, so is my wife," was had secured a crushing victory over the Pruss ian armies at Napoleon's curt reply before he turned away. Jena, and the Prussian court had fled to the east, Humboldt In 1810, Napoleon ordered Savary, the Minister of Police, to interceded with the French authorities on behalf of the expel Humboldt from Paris within 48 hours, on suspicion of University of Halle, which Napoleon wanted to destroy as being a Prussian spy. The order was rescinded through the punishment for the patriotic passions of its students, and, at the intercession of Interior Minister Chapta!. last moment, saved the university. The tables were turned Through most of his first decade in Paris; Humboldt lived in seven years later, when the Allies triumphantly entered Paris in rooms at the Ecole Polyte chnique. His closest circle of associ early 1814; it was Humboldt who interceded with the Prussian ates, one generation younger than he, were all among the first authorities, to save the French Museum of Natural History graduating classes of the Ecole (founded 1794), when Carnot's from being ransacked.
24 Spring 2002 21st CENTURY 'From King to Bricklayers' Now, standing on the stage of the Singakademie, Humboldt By the late 1820s, Humboldt had gathered such personal developed the theme of the lectures in uncompromising words renown that he believed he could defy the post-Napoleon, later set down in his great work, Cosmos: "In claiming the unity Restoration repression of the republican development of science. of the human race, we resist the unsavory assumption of high In 1827, he returned to Prussia and immediately launched one er and lower races." Some peoples are more exposed than oth of the cultural coups of the age. Within a few short months, he ers to education and "cultural ennoblement," but "there are no had organized a series of public lectures in one of the most pres inferior races. All are destined equally to attain freedom." tigious halls in Berlin, the Singakademie, based on a concurrent, It should not be surprising that the opposing view, typified more extensive lecture series limited to Berlin University. The by Charles Darwin, could not make headway in the 30 years first of these 16 weekly lectures took place December 6, 1827, in which the fo rce of ideas lauQched by Humboldt in his before a packed house that included members of the royal Berlin lectures, and consolidated by the publication of house, merchants, students, and-in a complete innovation fo r Cosmos, took Europe by storm. Darwin only released his On the time-women. Contemporary chroniclers exclaimed how the Origin of Species, by Means of Natural Selection, or the everyone, "from King to bricklayers," was there. Preservation of Fa vored Races in the Struggle fo r Life, in 1859, That he set out to create a quality of citizenry that would be the year of Humboldt's death. a medium for the defense and transmission of scientific Humboldt's first lecture was on the ancient Greeks' view of progress, was already his declared aim from 30 years earlier. the interdependent order of th ings, Kosmos. The second lec In a letter written by Humboldt to a friend, Johann Gabriel ture, was on the contributions of the Arab renaissance. In a Wegener, in 1789, he declared : radical departure from conventional "descriptive geography," which took the surface of the Earth as its domain, Humboldt I'm just coming back from a walk in the zoo. Quite launched into a full description of the phenomena of the surrounded by purest, the most innocent joy of thousands heavens as well. He dwelt on the then-newly-discovered phe of creatures, who (happy memory of Leibniz's philoso nomenon of double stars, the latest results of astronomical phy!) joy in their existence ....Wo uld you believe it, optics and interference phenomena, volcanoes on the Moon, that among the other 145,000 people in Berlin, there are meteors, and sunspots. His aim was truly to integrate the cos hardly fo ur to be fo und who cultivate this part of natural mos: In the work that the lectures gave birth to, he would science--even if only as a hobby, for recreation. And for wri.te, how many should this not lead to a vocation or profes sion, doctors and especially miserable students of eco By uniting, under one point of view, both the phe nomics. When population increases, and along with it, nomena of our own globe and those presented in the the price of consumer goods, when the people end up regions of space, we embrace the limits of the science of shouldering the burden of a shattered economy, all the the cosmos, and convert the physical history of the more should we think about opening up new sources of globe into the physical history of the universe. food supplies for satisfying the wants affl icting us from all sides. Every day we tread on "resources" which we now import from distant parts of the world, until someone discovers them, after many decades, by accident; but then someone else comes along and buries the discovery again, or more rarely, spreads it widely. Everywhere I see the human understanding sunk in some error, everywhere he believes to have found the truth, and imagines that there is nothing left for him to improve, nothing left to discover.... This is true in religion, in politics, everywhere that popular opinion rules . . . . No, the great discoveries, which I myself have found buried in the writ ings of biologists from antiqu ity, which have been verified in modern times by learned chemists and technologists, have brought these thoughts to my mind. What is the use of any discover Humboldt's 7828 lectures at Berlin's Singakademie were a revolution in ies, if there is no way to make them statecraft. He was committed to imparting a passion fo r scientific inquiry to the intelligible fo r the uninitiated [empha humblest levels of society, and fo rg ing a citizenry around the appetite fo r sis addedl.14 scientific progress.
21st CENTURY Spring 2002 25 In Cosmos" which emerged 18 years later, Humboldt dedi time; the barometer; the thermometer; hygrometric and cates a substantial part of the second volume, to examination electromagnetic apparatuses; and the polariscope.16 of how mankind's interest in the study of nature is stimulated (he takes the work of landscape painters, natural history writ In sum, he writes, ers, and the use of exotic plants in gardens as exemplars of this process), and concludes with a survey of "the diversity of the The history of the civilization of mankind comprises means by which mankind attained to the intellectual posses in itself the history of the fundamental powers of the sion of a great portion of the universe."lS human mind, and also, therefore, of the works in which In such a "history of the physical contemplation of the uni these powers have been variously displayed in the dif verse," Humboldt urges close attention to "the prescient fancy ferent departments of literature and artY and the vivid activity of spirit which animated Plato, Columbus, and Kepler," and then identifies a three-part sub Goethe's friend Karl Friedrich Zeiter wrote to him of ject of investigation: Humboldt's sensational lecture series at the Singakademie: "Before me stood a man of my liking who gives what he owns (1 ) The independent efforts of reason to acquire a without knowing to whom, a speaker devoid of tricks and neb knowledge of natural laws, by a meditative considera ulous thoughts ...." Another correspondent of Goethe, Karl tion of the phenomena of nature. (2) Events in the histo von Holtei, was equally dumbstruck: ry of the world which have suddenly enlarged the hori zon of observation. [Here Humboldt takes Alexander the Eight hundred people hold their breath so that they Great's conquests, and the explorations of Columbus, as might hear one person speak. There is no more lofty paradigmatic.] (3) The discovery of new means of sensu impression, than seeing earthly power paying homage to ous perception, as well as the discovery of new organs the spirit; and already on that account, Humboldt's cur by which men have been brought into Closer connec rent activity in Berlin belongs to the most sublime phe tion, both with terrestrial objects and with remote nomena of the age.1 8 regions of space. Return to America Here Humboldt delves into the history of the develoPlT!ent During the period of the Napoleonic Wars and resultant of the telescope, the microscope, the compass, and constant sea blockades, there was little Humboldt could do to maintain his connection to the circles in the Americas he had the different contrivances invented for measuring terres so enthusiastically embraced. But the sentiments in his trial magnetism; the use of the pendulum as a measure of farewell letter to Jefferson in 1804, were never far from his mind. He had written then:
URAL I take leave in the consolation that MTS the people of this continent march with great strides toward the perfec tion of a social state, whi Ie Europe presents an immoral and melancholy spectacle. I flatter myself in the expectation of enjoying this consol
'. --.1', ing experience again, and I sympa '. thize with you in the hope ...that \ "'y �'\ humanity can achieve great benefit \ , from the new order of things to be fo und here ....1 9 CHINA
In the 1820s, he was able to reassert his personal commitment to the survival In 7829, Humboldt seized on an offer from the Russian government, finally to make and prosperity of the new republics then · a trip to the Central Asian heartland. He had eagerly sought backing from the emerging in all of the Americas. British government, to visit the Indian subcontinent, cross over the Himalayas and Humboldt's letter-writing energies were the Hindu Kush, and thence into Russian Asia. Humboldt saw this as the Old Wo rld prodigious; he wrote as many as 3,000 a equivalent to the historic scope of his Spanish American travels, 25 years earlier. year, "dispatched to both hemispheres," But the British were determined to prevent any Humboldtian projects which could as he stressed. undermine their colonial grip, and blocked his every request. In 1821-1 822, Humboldt was Humboldt's strenuous 5,000 miles of tra vel in one season, by carriage and boat, approached by a group of French fi nan across the vast interior spaces of Russia, nevertheless yielded a rich storehouse of ciers to act as their consultant on a large scientific knowledge, and fo reshadowed the "Eurasian Land-bridge" development mining project in Mexico. Humboldt perspective of today. saw this as a springboard to larger
26 Spring 2002 21st CENTURY things, and wrote his brother Wilhelm that the project
...shou ld prove useful for the best naturalists who, like myself, want to leave Europe ... I have a big plan for a large Central Institute of Natural Science that would serve all of the liberated portion of America in Mexico. The viceroy will be replaced there by a republ ican gov ernment, and I have got it in my head to end my life in the most agreeable and, for science, most useful man ner.... This is my wish [emphasis in original] ...to gather a number of scholarly men around me, and to enjoy the liberty of thought and feeling so indispensable to my happiness.... You may laugh at my Mexican project, but owning neither family nor children, one should plan ahead on how to make one's old age as pleasant as possible ....All letters from Germany are censored.20
Political instabilities in Mexico, and a suspicious transfer of the mining syndicate to London, prevented the plan from coming to fru ition. Humboldt instead shifted his ehergies to his return to Berlin, the launching of his "Cosmos Manifesto" at the Singakademie lectures, the hosting of 600 scientists at Alexander Dallas Bache in the field, ca. 1858. Bache, the first international scientific conference (a personal Fra nklin's great-grandson, was sent by America's beleaguered Humboldt project), and eight months of travel through American System patriots to meet with Humboldt and Gauss, Russian Asia. and reconnect America 's scientific and educational direction with the Humboldt circle. American Science: Humboldt and Bache From the 1830s, until his death in 1859, Humboldt directed left him with a head-ache[!] . his energies in a very special way to nurturing a next genera tion of u.S. scientists and intellectuals, capable of reigniting Humboldt put him in touch with the head of the Berlin the promise of the early years of the American Republic, Observatory to get better instruments for measuring terrestrial which had briefly re-emerged during the Presidency of John magnetism, and later, after Bache spent time with Gauss in Quincy Adams. Now, in the run-up to the American Civil War, Gbttingen, Gauss personally designed some of these instru this generation faced adverse home conditions, and ments. Restorationist government in Europe, uniformly hostile to the In the keynote address to a special memorial session of the survival of the American republic. American Geographical and Statistical Society upon The best lens through which to see the character of this peri Humboldt's death in 1859, Bache conveys the deep influence od, is Humboldt's relationship with Alexander Dallas Bache Humboldt exerted over the intervening years: (1806-1867), Frankl in's great-grandson. Bache-who had graduated first in his class from West Point in 1825, and would He loved to talk of the men he had met there [in later become head of the u.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, and Philadelphia, in 1804], and of the greatness of the coun founder and first president of the National Academy of try to which that city belonged. His scientific labors hav Sciences-was dispatched by the American Philosophical ing been chiefly performed on this continent, he looked Society circles to Europe for two years of travel, 1 836-1 838, to to this continent for his reward, and we feel that he was bring the scientific work and teaching methods of the Gauss ...al most an American.22 Humboldt circles to the United States. (On his return, he fo unded the first public high school in the United States south In the same address, Bache revealed that Humboldt and of New England; Central High School of Philadelphia, on Arago had been instrumental in intervening to defend Bache's these principles.) In all, Bache visited 278 schools in seven work at the Coastal Survey from political enemies in the countries, at the same time touring mines, quarries, iron United States in the mid-1 840s. works, dye works, gas · works, and other establishments of Many Germans, fleeing the Prussia of the repressive industry and infrastructure.21 Carlsbad Decrees to America, in the generation after 1815, Bache's first visit to Humboldt, in early 1837, is recorded in brought Humboldt's writings and intellectual influence with the briefest of entries in Bache's diary: them. With the opening of regular steamship travel between Europe and America in 1838, the trickle of Humboldt's I went to see Baron Humboldt by appointment. And American visitors going in the reverse direction, swelled to a spent nearly two hours during which the variety of stream. Among them were key figures in the group of ideas and subjects was actually overwhelming and I American patriots acting as de facto intelligence agents on
21st CENTURY Spring 2002 27 behalf of the besieged American republic, such as Samuel F. B. godless one," he had once written, "to perceive the decline or Morse and Washington Irving.23 ru in of old Europe in the increasing well being of any other While supporting Friedrich List's Zollverein (Customs region of our planet."2s Union) and the related pioneering railway construction plans The concluding words of the first volume of Cosmos, lead of Beuth and Rother in Germany (winning over King Friedrich the reader from that which is contemplated to that which con Wilhelm IV to von Krupp's revolutionary cast-iron steel templates: from the domains of the inanimate and of the liv process), Humboldt assisted the first stage of the great U.5. ing, to the cognitive. Much as the final words of Bernhard transcontinental railway construction project, later taken up Riemann's rehabil itation thesis of a few years later (which under Lincoln: the route-surveying expedition carried out by echoes Humboldt's phrasing), asserted the superior ontologi Lt. A.W. Whipple. cal character of unfolding physical processes to any formal mathematical representation of such processes, so Humboldt The 'Common Property of Mankind' delivers the sum of all his work on nature and natural history, Each age dreams that it has approximated closely to the to the higher science of the human mind. culminating point of the recognition and comprehension He began with a quote from his beloved brother Wilhelm: of nature .. ..A more animating conviction, and one more consonant with the great destiny of our race, is, that "If we would ind icate an idea which throughout the the conquests already achieved constitute only a very whole course of history, has ever more and more wide inconsiderable portion of those to which free humanity ly extended its empire, or which, more than any other, will attain in future ages by the progress of mental activity testifies to the much-contested and still more decidedly and general cultivation. Every acquisition won by investi misunderstood perfectibility of the whole human race, gation is merely a step to the attainment of higher things it is that of establishing our common humanity-of in the eventful course of human affairs .. .. striving to remove the barriers which prejudice and lim Forces whose silent operation in elementary nature, ited views of every kind have erected among men, and and in the delicate cells of organic tissues, still escape to treat all mankind, without reference to religion, our senses, will, when recognized, employed, and nation, or color, as one fraternity, one great community, awakened to higher activity, at some future time enter fitted for the attainment of one object, the unrestrained within the sphere of the endless chain of means which development of the physical powers. This is the ulti enable man to subject to his control separate domains of mate and highest aim of society, identical with the nature, and to approximate to a more animated recogni direction implanted by nature in the mind of man tion of the Universe as a Whole.24 toward the indefinite extension of his existence. He regards the Earth in all its limits, and the heavens as far Thus Humboldt concluded the second volume of his as the eye can scan their bright and starry depths, as Cosmos. His life had radiated a most beautiful and generous quality of foster ing and promoting the work of others, never viewing the accomplishments of someone else as a threat, but only another step in this larger enterprise. "Science is the labor of mind applied to nature," he wrote, and
that which has been acquired by means so different-by the ingenious application of atomic suppositions, by the more general and intimate study of phenomena, and by the improved construction of new appa ratus-is the common property of mankind.
Similarly, he had denounced the idea that other nations' prosperity would be a threat, rather than an asset, to one's own (an axiom of the British geopoliti cal school of Mackinder and Haushofer, which contributed enormously to the Humboldt in his library, in the last years of his life. One of his legion of American underlying British policies leading to visitors stated that he "went to Berlin, not to see its museums and galleries ... its Wo rld Wars I and II). "It were a perni opera and theater; but to speak to the greatest living man in the world-Alexander cious prejudice, I would even say a von Humboldt. /I
28 Spring 2002 21 st CENTURY von America," in Alexander von Humboldt: We lt und Weltgaltung anthology, inwardly his own, given to him as the objects of his Heinrich Pfeiffer, editor. (Munich: R. Piper & Co.). contemplation, and as a field for the development of his Luis Vasquez, 1985. EI Mercantilismo Mexicano versus el Liberalismo Ingles (Mexico, D.F: Editorial Benengeli). energies ...." Notes,______1. Cosmos I, p. 7. The many quotations from Cosmos in this article come, in Here Alexander continues: the main, from the E.C. OM translations of 1848-1 865. This edition has been recently reissued in two paperback volumes by Johns Hopkins With these words, which draw their charm from the University Press. The inquiring reader will delight in the chance to delve into Humboldt's crowning work directly, without having to rely on snippets depths of feeling, let a brother be permitted to close this in secondary works. There are problems in the OM translation, typically general description of the natural phenomena of the uni of the nature of dulling the liveliness of the original prose, and occasion verse. From the remotest nebulae and from the revolving ally of content. For instance, in the very first paragraph of the introduction, Humboldt's cry of the heart, "Die Natur aber ist das Reich der Freiheit" double stars, we have descended to the minutest organ ("Nature is above all the realm of freedom"), is rendered by OM, "Nature isms of animal creation, whether manifested in the is a free domain." But it was a contemporary, unexpurgated edition (see depths of ocean or on the surface of our globe, and to note 25 for British tampering with an earlier one), and will serve. 2. Brenner, p. 41 . the delicate vegetable germs which clothe the naked 3. Brenner, pp. 42-3. declivity of the ice-crowned mountain summit; and here 4. See ''The Franklin Circle Starts Modern England," by Anton Chaitkin, we have been able to arrange these phenomena accord Executive Intelligence Review, Vol. 23, No. 7 (February 9, 1996), pp. 25- ing to partially known laws; but other laws of a more 30, for the story of Franklin's work in fostering the industrial revolution in England-a revolution the British Oligarchs tried to suppress. mysterious nature rule the higher spheres of the organic 5. Humboldt's close friendship with Goethe, which would continue without world, in which is comprised the human species in all interruption until Goethe's death in 1832, is a study in itself. (See ''The its varied conformation, its creative intellectual power, Natural Science of Wolfgang Goethe," by Ralf Schauerhammer, 21st and the languages to which it has given existence. A Century. Spring 2001 , p. 12.) At several key points, especially in the 1797 period, it was contact with Humboldt that revived Goethe's interest in his physical delineation of nature terminates at the point natural science investigations. In 1816, Humboldt's final work on the geo where the sphere of intellect begins, and a new world of graphic distribution of plants, dedicated to Goethe, arrived just when 26 Goethe was grieving over the death of his wife. Goethe wrote to mind is opened to our view. Alexander's brother, Wilhelm, "l owe to your brother, a sweet consolation, as his pamphlet reached me in one of the saddest moments. I like it so much that it came to be the daily text of my contemplations. Please for ward the grateful note to him." (De Te rra, p. 249). Timothy Rush, with a background in Ibero-American stud 6. This long and rich poem by Schiller, was written in 1795, in exactly the ies, has been active in the intelligence work and political period when the contact between Schiller and Humboldt was at its height. orga nizing of the LaRouche movement for the past 28 years. It may be that Humboldt was privy to Schiller's creative process in writing the poem; it certainly summarized views that animated Humboldt for the His last fea ture-length contribution to 21 st Century was rest of his life. It is notable, that in the section just before the line quoted "Henry the Na vigator and the Apollo Project, " Summer so significantly by Humboldt, Schiller presents a string of powerful poetic 1992. images of expanding economic activity sustaining human life, and then extends this theme into the realm of the arts and sciences, in a way which must have entranced Humboldt: ''There begets happy fortune the talents Acknowledgements,______of heavenly children, / Nursed at freedom's fair breast, flourish the arts of The author wishes to give special thanks to Volkert Brenner, whose work in the delight. / Imitations of life by the sculptor give joy to the vision, / And the German magazine Fusion provided a foundation for this study, and whose sensitive stone speaks, by the chisel besouled, / Heavens synthetic rest continuing collaboration is deeply appreciated. Thanks also go to Rick on slender Ionian columns, / And the Pantheon's walls all of Olympus con Sanders for assistance in translation. tain. / Light as the the rainbow's vault through the air, as the cowherder's arrow, / bounces the bridge's yoke over the thundering stream. / But in the Bibliography,______still of the room, outlining meaningful figures, / Brooding, the sage is in In addition to the obvious place to begin in appraising Humboldt's life and search, stalking the creative mind. / Matter's power he tests, the hatreds work, which is with his own writings, it is fortunate for the English reader that and loves of the magnet, / Follows the sound through the air, follows three current biographies in English all have merit, and complement each through aether the ray. / Seeks the familiar law in the awful wonders of other, rather than overlap: See Botting, De Te rra, and Kellner. For those first hazard, / Seeks the immobile pole in the flight of appearances." delving into Humboldt, I particularly recommend Botting, because of the (Translation by Marianna Wertz.) magnificent illustrations. The definitive biography, however, remains one in Humboldt's statement in the 1845 preface to Cosmos, that "In the late German, in two volumes, by Hanno Beck. evening of an active life I offer to the German public a work, whose unde Hanno Beck, 1961 . Alexander von Humboldt (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner fined image has floated before my mind for almost half a century," is a pre Verlag). Two volumes. cisely dated reference to his years in Weimar with Schiller and Goethe. 7. Humboldt's published studies on the response of animal musculature to Douglas Botting, 1973. Humboldt and the Cosmos. (New York: Harper & Row). electrical stimuli, based on over 4,000 separate experiments in a one-year Volkert Brenner, 1999. "200 Jahre Lateinamerikafahrt: Alexander von interval in the mid-1 790s, converged on the design of a Voltaic battery, Humboldts Idee der Menschlichkeit: Das Universum 'geistig erobem'," independent of Volta's own contemporary breakthrough in that field. He Fusion Vol. 20, No. 3, p. 38. also published notable studies of the basalts of the Rhine Valley, and of Helmut De Te rra, 1955. Humboldt: The Life and Times of Alexander von plant growth underground in mines, without access to sunlight. Humboldt 1769- 1859. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf). 8. The material in this section is drawn from the superb book of Luis Alexander von Humboldt, 1845. Cosmos, a Sketch of the Physical Description Vasquez, EI Mercantilismo Mexicano versus el Liberalismo Ingles, and of the Universe. Translated by E. C. OM. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins two groundbreaking unpublished manuscripts of 1982, ''The Real Cultural University Press, 1997 reprint). Two volumes. History of Latin America: Charles Ill's Spanish Commonwealth," by Alexander von Humboldt, 181 4-25. Personal Narrative of a Journey to the Cynthia Rush; and "Contenido Politico de la Expedici6n de Humboldt a Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent. Translated and abridged by America" by Sara Madue/io de Vasquez. Their use is gratefully acknowl Jason Wilson. (London: Penguin Classics, 1995). edged by the author. Alexander von Humboldt, 1811. Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain. 9. A partial inventory and description of these instruments is provided by Translated from French by John Black. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Kellner, pp. 62-63. Orm & Brown, reprint of 1900 edition, issued 1983). 10. One example from Humboldt's account: "We began to load the new L. Kellner, 1963. Alexander von Humboldt. (London and New York: Oxford pirogue. It was, like all Indian canoes, made from one tree trunk, hollowed University Press). out by axe and fire. It was 40 feet long and 3 feet wide. Three people could Peter Schoenwaldt, "Alexander von Humboldt und die Vereinigten Staaten not squeeze together from one side to the other.. .. To make it wider at 21st CENTURY Spring 2002 29 the back of the boat we made branches into a kind of trellis, which stuck base in 1817, later to found the Boston Public Library); Charles Patrick out on both sides. Unfortunately the leaf roof of this lattice-work was so Daly (later long-serving president of the American Geographical and low that you either had to lie down, and consequently saw nothing, or you Statistical Society); Dr. Joseph Green Cogswell (in 1823 founder of the had to stay hunched over. ...The little cages with our birds and monkeys, first American school directly based on the German "Gymnasium" model increasing as we went on, were tied to the toldo and the prow. It was our developed by Wilhelm von Humboldt, and later commissioned by John travelling zoo. Despite losses due to accidents and sunstroke, we count Jacob Astor to scour Europe for the books to found the New York Public ed fourteen little animals when we came back from the Casiquiare .... In Library) ; Alexander Thayer, the biographer of Beethoven; and John Lloyd the overloaded pirogue, which was only three feet deep, there was no Stevens (founder of the first railway across the Panama Isthmus, and other room for the dried plants, trunks, sextant, compass and meteoro famous explorer of the Mayan ruins of Yucatan and Chiapas). logical instruments but under the lattice of branches on which we were Bayard Taylor, translator of Goethe's Fa ust and later U.S. ambassador obliged to lie down for most of our trip. To take the smallest object from a to Germany, expressed a veneration of Humboldt which appears as a leit trunk, or to use an instrument, we had to moor up and get ashore." motiv in the diaries and letters of the Americans who visited Humboldt dur (Humboldt, Personal Narra tive of a Journey to the Equinoctial Regions of ing these years: "I went to Berlin, not to see its museums and galleries, the New Continent, Penguin edition 1995, pp. 198-199.) the beautiful avenues under the lindens, opera and theater; nor to enjoy They lived on this pirogue in this manner for two months! Humboldt the colorful life of its streets and salons, but to speak to the greatest living gamely observed, "With some gaiety of temper, with looking after each man in the world-Alexander von Humboldt" (Schoenwaldt, p. 445). other and taking a lively interest in the majestic nature of these great river To the 1850 visit of Benjamin Silliman, we owe the following engaging valleys, the travellers put up with the evils that became habitual," especial account: In "a plain house in a quiet part of the city, [Humboldt] met us with ly the "torment of mosquitoes that accumulate under the low roof, and the great kindness in his library, a room of considerable size .... He has perfect heat coming from the palm leaves continually exposed to the burning sun." command of English and speaks quite agreeably. There is no stateliness or 11. Kellner, p. 64. reserve about him, he is as affable as if he had no claims to superiority. He conversed with an exceedingly musical voice, is animated and amiable, he 12. An historian of the Arcueil circle writes, with unintended irony, that in those stoops a little, has brilliant eyes, is of light complexion, his features and stature years, " ...there was in the case of Laplace a more than common plian round but not fat, his hair thin and white, his conversation brilliant and cy and understanding of political expediency," so that he could rise to sparkling with ideas. He was well acquainted with the American Joumal of Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor and Count of the Empire under Science, with Col. Fremont, and Prof. Bache's coastal survey. He traced for Napoleon; and then Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, and a marquis, us a canal project on a map, across the Isthmus at Darien .... He made some in the following Restorationist regime of Louis XVIII. The same chronicler very interesting remarks about the present state of Europe, and on the impos states that ''The work of the Arcueil group was to represent almost a ren sibility of keeping down moral power by physical force." (De Te rra, pp. 351 -2). aissance of Newtonianism. Much of this can be traced to the influence of Laplace. It is almost as though Laplace, hearing himself called the Newton 24. Cosmos II, pp. 354-56 of his age, accepted this title so literally and with such enthusiasm, that 25. Humboldt had cordial relations with the handful of British scientists trying having successfully described the solar system, he turned to examine the to revive any serious science in Britain, most notably Charles Babbage and numerous contributions to physics of the Great Man whose portrait hung John Herschel. One of Britain's leading Earth scientists, Edward Sabine, in his study at Arcueil". corresponded regularly with Humboldt, and later acknowledged that a cru 13. Arago, at age 20, had gone to Spain to help measure an arc of the ter cial piece of his solution to the puzzle of the origin of magnetic storms (the restrial meridian, only to fall prisoner of the Spaniards when war broke out sunspot cycle), came from a footnote in Cosmos. Sabine's wife, Elizabeth between France and Spain. Hiding the results of the survey on his body Juliana Sabine, was the first translator of Cosmos into English. during two years in a Spanish prison and one year in an Algerian or]e, he The British establishment, however, was deeply suspicious of, and at finally returned to France in 1809 to duly hand over the results of the work. times openly hostile, to Humboldt, for the obvious reason that the thrust of The first letter of congratulations to reach him was from Humboldt; this his thinking and activity ran so directly counter to the British Empire's commenced a remarkable friendship which would last until Arago's death racism, and determination to keep its colonial areas backward. in 1853, at which time Humboldt personally wrote the preface to Arago's Humboldt's great desire, after the travels in the Andes, was to explore the collected works, and saw them through to publication. other great "High Mountain" massif in the world, the Himalayas, and draw for Asia, the same enormous harvest of comparative measurements, 14. Brenner, p. 40. which he had already done for South and Central America. To get there, 15. Humboldt's emphasis on the role of landscape painting in developing pop he would have to gain permission from the British Government, and par ular enthusiasm for science, and his luminous descriptions of how only in ticularly from the British East India Company. Despite Humboldt's most the tropics, could one could find lush tropical vegetation directly adjacent determined personal intervention with British Prime Ministers Castlereagh to high mountain Arctic terrain (as in the equatorial Andes), inspired a and Canning, and a generous offer by Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III group of mid-1 9th Century landscape painters, led by Frederic E. Church, to cover the costs of the trip, the British door stayed firmly closed. to make pilgrimages to Ecuador and Peru, and paint from life, what A reviewer for the British Quarterly Review in 1816, slammed Humboldt had painted in words. The resulting series of landscape mas Humboldt's investigations of the pre-Columbian civilizations of the terpieces were the sensation of the New Yo rk salons on the eve of the Americas, with the following contemptuous words: Civil War. Church so revered Humboldt's vision, that he was preparing to "We do not mean to deny that the first attempts, however rude, of an send his huge "Heart of the Andes" painting directly to Humboldt in 1859, unenlightened people to register events, communicate ideas and render when word reached Church of Humboldt's death. (See catalog of the 1989 visible the operations of the mind, are void of interest; on the contrary, we National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.) exhibit, Frederic Edwin Church, consider them as so many landmarks by which we trace, in the most and the included essay by Stephen Jay Gould, "Church, Humboldt, and interesting manner, the progress of the intellectual faculties of man; but Darwin: The Te nsion and Harmony of Art and Science," p. 95. we wish to discountenance that perverse ingenuity which would mould 16. Cosmos II, p. 117. and twist them to its own purposes and give them a meaning which they 17. Brenner, p. 51 . were never intended to bear. "Neither do we mean to deny that this people had their calendar and 18. De Te rra, p. 269. their chronology .... [S]till, we cannot admit with our author that a nation so 19. De Te rra, p. 185. barbarous as the Mexicans had any knowledge of the causes of eclipses 20. De Te rra, pp. 254-5. or the Metonic period of nineteen years. A picture language or such rude 21 . Schoenwaldt, p. 432. representations of the objects of sense as village children chalk on walls 22. Bache told the 1859 Humboldt Tribute meeting in New York, that "It was and barn-doors, are the first and rudest efforts to record ideas, and the ale to the letters of Arago that l owed the friendship of Humboldt. When the scores of a village landlady the first approach to symbolic writing, and with Coast Survey, of which I am superintendent, was attacked by one of. . both of these even the wild Hottentots called bushmen, the very lowest per [the] strongest politicians of our day, Arago and Humboldt were the men haps of the human race, appear to be acquainted .... The Mexicans may to fly to the rescue of the work. They needed no preparation for this, and have advanced but, we believe, not a great way, beyond the village chil were ready at once with their letters expressing their sentiments as to the dren, the landladies and the bushmen." (Kellner, pp. 99-1 00) value of the work itself, and in regard to the way in which it had been exe Even the circles friendly to Humboldt in Britain, eventually reflected cuted; and it was to their testimony tbat the Secretary of the Treasury some of the racialist dogmas gripping the British oligarchy. The Sabine appealed, saying that the testimony of such men as Arago and Humboldt translation of Cosmos eliminated key passages which disputed British could not be set aside; and it was not set aside" (Schoenwaldt, p. 433). assertions of where the origins of Man were to be located. John Herschel criticized Humboldt for failing to agree that the center of the land mass of 23. Other visitors to Humboldt were the astronomer Maria Mitchell (whom the Northern Hemisphere was in a small town in midlands England, and Humboldt referred to in one of his letters as simply "Bache's friend"); urged that Humboldt rewrite a section of Cosmos, in order to portray Benjamin Silliman (close ally of Bache and key promoter of the Lincoln Kepler's work as at a lower conceptual level than Newton's. era industrial breakout of the United States); George Ticknor (a graduate of G6ttingen in the first group of Americans to pass through Gauss's home 26. Cosmos I, pp. 358-359.
30 Spring 2002 21st CENTURY Ibero-America Needs A Space Agency!
by Marsha Freeman
It's time fo r all the nations of Ibero- America to put fo rward bold plans fo r space exploration, and fo r the developed nations to stop sabotaging such projects, under BRAZIL the guise of non-proliferation.
or more than 15 years, Costa Rican-born astronaut Frankl in F Chang-Diaz has led a campaign to organize support for an Ibero American space agency, similar in concept to the European Space Agency, which engages in large scale projects through the participa tion of 15 nations. In October 2000,
Dr. Conrad a Varotto, the head of the Argentine Space Activities Com mission, made a concrete proposal to create such a space agency for all the nations of Ibero-America, found ed on joint activities between the region's two space powers, Brazil The nations of Ibero-America together have all of the capabilities needed fo r and Argentina, with "common spe a fu ll-scope space exploration program. Argentina, Brazil, and Peru have cific and detailed objectives."l fa cilities to launch scientific suborbital rockets, and Brazil is developing the Alcantara site, fo r satellites and, later, manned space fl ights.
21st CENTURY Spring 2002 31 by the International Monetary Fund in the 1970s, the peoples of Ibero-America fully expected to develop their industry, sci ence, and technology on a par with their developed neighbor to the north. One barrier for Argentina, and all the developing nations of the world, has been the enforcement of so-called "non proliferation treaties," especially by the United States, which has crippled developing sector nuclear and space programs by preventing the transfer of advanced technolo gy. By preventing such economic development, the condi tions of backwardness persist, laying the basis for civil unrest and war. Can nations such as Argentina, suffering through such a grave crisis, afford to finance a space program? They cannot afford not to! There is nothing more important to the long-term health of an economy than the development of the scientific and tech nical-industrial capabilities of a nation. Great infrastructure projects, like the exploration of space, mobilize these resources, upgrade education, inspire young people, and uplift a nation. By pooling their talents, capabilities, and resources, Ibero-America can move to the forefront of the exploration of the frontier of space. And, contrary to common belief, Ibero-America .is not made up of "Third Wo rld" countries starting space programs from scratch. These nations already have a long history of accom plishments in astronomy, aeronautics, and space, as well as in the applications of nuclear and other advanced technologies.
Ibero-America's Aeronautics Pioneers , Photo by John Warick in The International Encyclopedia of Aviation, ed. David Monday (New York: Crown Publishers, 1977), p. 326. In 1870, American scientist Benjamin Althorp Gould was invited to come to Argentina by then-President Domingo Brazilian Alberto Santos-Dumont, a daring balloonist and Faustino Sarmiento. Gould was a close associate of Benjamin airship experimenter, is seen here in one of his powered Franklin's great grandson, Alexander Dallas Bache, the aerostats. Inside the basket, which is suspended from the founder of the National Academy of Sciences and leader of keel, is th e inventor and pilot. An engine is driving a American science in the 19th Century. Gould had studied in rudimentary propeller. Germany with scientist Carl Gauss, had been part of the American System intellectual movement in Philadelphia, and But is this really the right time for such a bold initiative? had founded the Dudley Observatory in Albany, New Yo rk, in Argentina is suffering a financial crisis which threatens its the 1850s. In Argentina, Gould fo unded and directed the very existence. Laboring under the weight of tens of billions of astronomical observatory in C6rdoba. dollars of unpayable and illegitimate debt, the economy has Walking in the footsteps of Alexander von Humboldt, along come to a near standstill. The import of life-saving medicines with a team of Argentine and American scientists, Gould set up has stopped, international commerce is paralyzed, factories the Argentine government's Meteorological Service. From 1872 and farms are empty, and an increasing section of the popula to 1884, the Service built 52 observation stations to collect tion cannot even afford to buy food. data, for studies of climate, hydrology, and the weather of For Argentina to survive, it requires a financial reorganiza Patagonia. tion that halts the debt payments, establishes a sovereign cur In 1885, one of Gould's associates at the observatory, rency that is controlled and protected by the government, and Walter G. Davis, took charge of the Meteorological Service, directs new internal credit to restart agriculture, industrial pro which he directed for the next 30 years. In 1910, Davis's duction, and commerce. These are emergency measures, to be "Climate of the Argentine Republic" was published by the taken immediately. Department of Agriculture, and included the most compre In looking toward the future, Argentina, and all of the hensive analysis of the climate, rivers, hydrology, magnetic nations of Ibero-America, must not simply return to a better characteristics, and weather of any part of South America. It past, but take leaps into the future. From the time of inde was the handbook for the development of navigation, flood pendence in the 19th Century, unti l fi nancial recolonization control, irrigation, and electrification, to be substantially
32 Spring 2002 21st CENTURY improved only decades later, with the advent of space-based about 5 meters above the ground, he covered a distance of Earth remote-sensing technology. 220 meters. This was the first successful powered flight by But by the end of the 19th Century, a new frontier was open anyone other than the American Wright brothers. ing, which promised to give man a new perspective on the Santos-Dumont also built small monoplanes, called world around him-travel through the atmosphere. In a num Demoiselles, before he retired from his aeronautical research ber of countries in Ibero-America, excitement about this new es, in 1910. He died in Brazil in 1932, and is considered the venue for manned exploration was widespread, and propelled father of Brazilian aviation. young enthusiasts to try their hand at the challenge of fl ight. In Peru, engineer Carlos Te naud Pomar, constructed a 36- In Argentina, jorge Alejandro Newbery (1875-1914), was an foot monoplane, at the School of Arts and Trades in Lima in active member of the Argentine Aero Club, participating in a 1908. Te naud had been educated at the Carnot Lyceum in series of balloon flights. An explosion in 1908, in which his France, and returned to Peru to work on the project. In 1910, brother, Eduardo, perished, delivered a setback to the Aero Club. the National Pro-Aviation League was founded in Peru, and But jorge Newbery, understanding the importance of developing soon afterwards, the Peruvian Air Club was established. Both this new technology, showed great courage and climbed aboard were precursors of the Peruvian Air Force. for two balloon flights the year after the accident. The establishment of the organizations promoting aeronau In 1909, Newbery wrote an article for the daily newspaper tics in Peru were in large part the work of Pedro Paulet, himself La Naci6n, titled, "Aeronautica." He states that the "amaze a pioneer in aeronautics and space technology. (See "Pedro ment produced by the progress in aerostatics [ballooningl is Paulet: Peruvian Space and Rocket Pioneer," by Sara Madueno not surprising." He described that technology as the "launch Paulet de Vasquez, 27st Century, Winter 2001 -2002.) While ing pad for a world revolution, linked not only to the science others were still trying to design a ship that would fly in the of war, but also representing a vast contribution to the study of atmosphere, Paulet was already designing craft that could fly meteorology, and a step toward resolving the ideal of the ease beyond it, in space. During his studies in Paris from 1895 to and rapidity of transportation." 1898, Paulet reports, he carried out experiments with a liquid Argentina was well suited to develop an aviation industry, fueled rocket engine, the first in the world. Newbery states, which was the reason for the founding of the Daring pilots from all over Ibero-America plowed new Aero Club. The balloon fl ights had a scientific purpose, "by ground and set new records during the early years of aviation. taking practical and theoretical studies carried out in other In 1910, Peruvian pilot Georges Chavez made the first aerial countries into the field." By using the appropriate instruments, balloons could provide "scientific data from observations in the layers of the atmosphere, and other important matters, whose usefulness has been very appreciated by the wise direc Von Braun: Why Argentina tor of the Meteorological Service, Walter Davis, who has spared no sacrifice to contribute to the greater success of the Should Be in Space [balloon fl ightsl ." Newbery's courage to resume balloon fl ights, and the In December 7963, the Argentine magazine Revista enthusiasm generated through the article here cited, revital Nacional Aeronautica published an interview with ized the Club. Spurred on by the Aero Club, in 1912, the field We rnher von Braun, who was then leading the effort in of Argentine military aviation was founded-the first in Ibero the United States to build the rockets that would ta ke America. men to the Moon. Vo n Braun was asked what countries At the same time, "balloon fever" had also caught on in like Argentina could contribute to space research. He Brazil. Alberto Santos-Dumont was born in the Brazilian state responded: of Minas Gerais in 1873. At the age of 18, he went to Paris, where, seven years later, in 1898, he took his first flight in a I am convinced that for countries like Argentina, a balloon. Santos-Dumont then began a project of developing practical contribution to space navigation is not only his own lighter-than-air craft, powered by an internal combus feasible, but, even beyond that, equally desirable. tion engine. He named his first small balloon, "BraziL" In july Aeronautical technology is the advance guard which 1901, he circled the Eiffel Tower in his own dirigible, powered orients and defines technical progress in an infinite by a 15-horsepower engine driving a propeller, flying about number of fields and disciplines, such as cybernetics 11.3 km. He won the 1 OO,OOO-franc M. Deutsch de la Meurthe (automation), electronics, measurement techniques, prize, and the "glamorous little Brazilian," as he was search for and knowledge of materials, etc. described, became internationally famous. Therefore, all participation in programs linked to Santos-Dumont decided that heavier-than-air planes, rather astronautics must echo advantageously, and have than balloons, would be the future of fl ight. In 1906, his flying favorable repercussions in, the totality of industry's machine, with fuselage, biplane wings, an Antoinette motor, potential, affecting equally, and in a healthy fashion, and a propeller, was ready for fl ight testing. His first attempts, the capacity for economic competition, without even on August 21, 1906, failed because of insufficient power. But considering-at least temporarily-the concrete fact on September 13, with a larger motor, he travelled 7 meters, that space exploration is the most fascinating under or 33 feet. The next month, on his second flight, he travelled taking facing our generation today. 60 meters in seven seconds, and in November 1906, flying
21st CENTURY Spring 2002 33 crossing of the Alps, and in 1918, army pilot Lieutenant ufacturer Aermachhi to manufacture the Xavante, a trainer and Canadalaria from Chile made the first fl ight across the Andes attack/photoreconnaissance aircraft. In 1972, the first EMB Mountains from west to east. Soon afterwards, German, 110 was delivered to the Brazilian Air Force. Today, Embraer French, and Italian companies were beginning regular com produces a fu ll line of its own commercial passenger and mil mercial air service from Europe to Ibero-America, training itary aircraft, including the EMB 145 AEW&C with a phased local pilots and establishing aeronautics infrastructure. array radar system, for early warning applications. This early interest in aviation in Ibero-America led to the Embraer is the world's fourth-largest commercial aircraft creation of aeronautics research institutes, and later, industries manufacturer, and in the year 2000, it produced 160 planes, to produce military and commercial aircraft. In the immed iate with a workforce of nearly 11,000 people. For the past three post-World War II period, top European scientists, like years, Brazil's leading export has not been coffee, but aircraft, German aerodynamics expert Kurt Ta nk, a former student of at $2.3 billion last year. Embraer has subsidiary companies in Albert Einstein, settled in Argentina. While at the Aerotechnic Singapore, Australia, and China. Institute, Ta nk designed the Argentine "Pulqui II" airplane, considered to be on a par with the Soviet MIG-1 5. By 1947, there were 392 foreign experts working at the C6rdoba Prelude to Space Exploration Aerotechnic Institute. By the end of the 1920s, an explosion of interest in rocket In Brazil, there had been partially successful attempts to technology development took place worldwide, emanating establish assembly-line manufacture of aircraft, beginning in from the German Society for Space Travel, formed in 1927. the late 1930s. In the 1950s, the government recognized that The Society published magazines, debated opponents, and teams of highly qualified personnel were needed, as well as gave public presentations everywhere on rockets and flights to significant capital investment, which led to the establishment the Moon, from universities to the basements of department of the Center for Aeronautical Technology, (CTA), described as stores! In addition, a modest experimental program was car the "MIT of Brazil," and the Institute of Aeronautical ried out with the participation of the father of spaceflight, Te chnology (ITA), under the Air Force. Aeronautical compa Hermann Oberth, and an enthusiastic young student, Wernher nies were also founded at that time. von Braun. Results were reported in their monthly magazine, In the 1960s, the Brazilian Air Force tasked the CTA to and travelled around the world. design, from scratch, a two-engine medium-sized transport Sister amateur rocket and spaceflight societies sprang up, plane to replace its aging fleet. The prototype Bandeirant and during the 1920s and early 1930s, the German Society for (Explorer, or Pioneer) was completed in 1968, and the fo llow Space Travel received inquiries about its activities from around ing year, Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica S.A. (Embraer), the world, including Montevideo, Uruguay, and Buenos Aires, was fo unded as a state-owned company to begin production Argentina. The Argentine correspondent was Ezio Matarazzo, of the aircraft. It involved private industry in Brazil from the a first-year chemistry student at the University of Buenos Aires. beginning, being 51 percent owned by the government, and In 1932, Matarazzo started the first astronautical magazine in · 49 percent by shareholders. It was privatized at the end of Ibero-America, and formed a space travel group, Centro de 1994, and is now owned by a group of national investors. Estudios Astronauticos. Although it was short-lived, the organ In 1970, Embraer signed an agreement with the Italian man- ization published articles in Aeronautica Argentina. At the same time, another, more central Argentine figure, was starting an educa tional and organizing campaign for this new field of space exploration. As reported in a paper presented at the International Astronautical Federation Congress in 2000 by Dr. Oscar Fernandez-Brital and Prof. Miguel Sanchez-Pen a, Argentine Te 6filo M. Tabanera began promoting space exploration in 1930. That year, writing in the Mendoza I/us trated News Magazine, Tabanera stated : "The Moon is waiting for us. Before we imagine, the Moon will be reached. This world is too small for us; we must seek to expand outside." Using a comparison to be clearly understood by Argenti nes, Tabanera wrote: "Before making the first railway Mendoza-Buenos Aires, we made a short one from Buenos Aires to Palermo. Similar to the most advanced U.S. aerial early warning and control systems, the Arriving at the Moon will give us the cer Embraer 145 AEW&C plane is equipped with an advanced phased-array radar, tainty of later reaching Mars and beyond." built in Europe by Ericsson. Brazil's main export is not coffee, it is aircraft. Ta banera volunteered to "accompany the
34 Spring 2002 21st CENTURY first" crew on these missions, and said, "In my view; we need only a short time to solve all the details, choose the best method, and decide to begin the trip." Throughout the rest of his life, Te6filo Ta banera dedicated significant effort to writing books about space travel, presenting papers and speeches on the importance of space applications (such as in educa tion), and representing Argentina in international fora on space. In 1979, he wrote his last book, Argentina Before the Challenge of the Th ird Millennium. In 1945, Ta banera became the first Argentine member of the British Interplanetary Society. Three years later, he founded the Argentine Interplanetary Society, which later became the Argentine Association of Space Sciences. For 10 years, it pub lished the only monthly magazine on space subjects in Ibero-America. Te6filo Tabanera brought space to Argentina, and brought Argentina into contact with the important people and international organizations promoting Argentine space pioneer Te 6filo Ta banera (fa r right), pictured with space exploration. In 1950, he attended the founding colleagues at the 1952 Congress of the International Astronautical conference of the International Astronautical Federation in Stuttgart, Germany. With him are (from left) Or. Irene Federation (lAF), in Paris-the only delegate from a Bredt, Prof. Hermann Oberth, Or. Eugen Sanger, Or. Fred Durant, and developing nation-and he attended each annual Or. Arthur C. Clarke. conference for the next 30 years. He hosted the 1969 IAF Congress in Mar del Plata, Argentina. Per6n invited several hundred European scientists to teach, In 1952, Tabanera published a pocket book, Wh at is a'nd help develop that nation's scientific infrastructure. In Astronautics ?, which was a bestseller and went through multi 1950, the National Atomic Energy Commission was founded, ple ed itions. "Most of us became space addicts because of this to promote and control government and private research, and book," the authors of the paper about Tabanera report. He led to draft proposals for the government for the use of nuclear a public campaign to organize space studies in Argentina, and energy. The decree creating the Commission noted "the established the National Space Commission, serving as its first Argentine Republic, unconcerned with any offensive inten president. tion, can work ... with an elevated sense of peace, for the At the 1969 Vienna meeting of the United Nations he lec benefit of humanity." tured on tele-education, using satellite technology for all of The National Atomic Energy Directorate was founded the Ibero-America, and in 1971, he proposed a very detailed study following year, to train the technical personnel to "direct, ori of how to best organize satellite television education for ent, and coordinate all of the studies relating to the use and remote areas. Ta banera also attended every Apollo lunar application of atomic energy, as well as carry them out, if nec launch, and the fi rst, 1981 , launch of the Space Shuttle, just essary." New research laboratories were created, and older, months before his death. moribund scientific institutions were revitalized. When he died, the Argentine daily La Nacion wrote: "The In 1953, with President Dwight Eisenhower's Atoms for death of Ing. Te6filo Tabanera implies, for our country, the loss Peace program, Argentina became the first nation to sign an of a lucid observer and an intelligent visionary who attempted agreement for cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear ...to bring knowledge, to put his country on a basis of equi energy with the United States. At the first United Nations ty and justice within the world's scientific and technological Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in 1955, community." Ta banera assumed that Argentina, and many of the delegation from Argentina presented ideas for more than the nations of Ibero-America, would be an integral part of this 40 projects. Agreements for cooperation in nuclear technolo greatest adventure of mankind. gy were also signed by Argentina with several other Ibero American nations, including Peru and Colombia. For the first decade of its nuclear program, Argentina con Ibero-America on centrated on learning about the new science and technology The Nuclear Frontier of nuclear fission, carrying out educational and cooperative programs with various countries, especially Germany. In the The end of World War II brought onto the world scene the 1960s, the first commercial nuclear power station was possibility of developing rockets for space exploration, and planned, to be sited in Atucha, about 100 km from Buenos nuclear fission for energy. Nations in Ibero-America were anx Aires. It was built by the German company Siemens, and the ious to exploit these revolutionary new tools. 335-MW reactor came on line in 1974. In Argentina, the postwar government of President Juan The second nuclear plant was sited near the scientific center
21st CENTURY Spring 2002 35 of C6rdoba. There was more participa tion from local industry in the construc tion of this Canadian CANDU reactor, as Argentina carried out a program of developing its own capabilities for designing and fabricating nuclear power plants. Construction of the second power plant, Embalse, began in 1974, and the plant became operational in 1983. In 1977, the government promulgated a decree defining the national objectives of Argentina's nuclear program, which included achieving maximum autonomy. In 1979, a program was approved to build four new power plants, to come into oper ation between 1987 and 1997, along with the mining and use of domestic uranium. The first of this series was to be the Atucha II plant, for which a contract was signed with KWU of Germany. Unlike the con struction of the previous two power plants, in 1980, an Argentine engineering company was established to take on the role of main contractor for design, and as Argentina's nuclear and space company, INVA� built the ETRR-2 nuclear research architect-engineer. The plant was project in Egypt fo r studies in neutron physics and materials science, radioisotope ed to be operational in 1988. production, boron neutron capture therapy fo r the treatment of cancer, and other But Argentina's debt-induced "deteriorat research. INVAP also trained the engineers and technical personnel to operate the ing economic situation" delayed construc reactor. Seen here is the reactor hot cell. tion, which paralyzed the nuclear program. Argentina also came up against a changed environment, in which anti-proliferation arguments were used to justify stopping the development of nuclear energy. In 1994, the government attempted to privatize Argentina's nuclear capacity, and seek private funding to complete Atucha II, but the effort failed to attract foreign capital. In 2001, the National Atomic Energy Commission completed a study which included the options for the unfinished Atucha II plant, which is 80 percent complete. It would cost $700 million to complete the project, they estimated, and more than $3 billion to abandon it. In May 2001, speaking at the 10th annual Ibero American Energy Conference in California (which state was in the midst of its own deregulation-caused energy crisis), Argentina Energy Secretary Alejandro Sruoga said that the government planned to push ahead with the foolhardy sale of the country's two nuclear units, and its plan to deregulate the country's electricity sector. Argentina's ongoing financial collapse and econom ic crisis have put all of these plans on hold. In February this year, the president of the National Atomic Energy Commission resigned, in the political upheavals that accompanied the bankruptcy of that nation. But while it was importing commercial nuclear power plants, Argentina fully planned to become a world supplier of nuclear energy technology, and a Th e Egyptian 22-MW thermal ETRR-2 reactor can accommodate up competitor to the otherwise "developed" nations. The to 30 fuel elements. This view is of the control rod drives which are Province of Rio Negro established the company, underneath the reactor pool. I NVAP, in Bariloche in 1976 to develop, build, and
36 Spring 2002 21 st CENTURY internationally market indigenous Argentine nuclear technolo the training and education of specialists in these nations, to gy. INVAP is also the only company in Argentina that meets spread nuclear science and technology worldwide. While the NASA qualifications for complete space projects, such as the world economic crisis has suppressed the demand that should construction of satellites, payloads, and ground stations. exist for such small, standardized nuclear plants, Argentina's In 1982, INVAP inaugurated the fi rst reactor designed and CAREM design is one of the front-runners for exporting plants built in Argentina. This was the 500 kilowatt RA-6 research to developing nations. and training reactor, located at the Nuclear Center Bariloche, run by the National Atomic Energy Commission. It is operated, The Case of Brazil maintained, and repaired by local personnel, who include A parallel process of nuclear science and technology devel nuclear engineering students at the Balseiro Institute of Physics opment has taken place in Brazil. As early as the 1930s, scien and Nuclear Energineering, named for the founded of the tists at the University of Sao Paulo were conducting research in Atomic Energy Commission, jose Antonio Balseiro. nuclear fission. In 1940, President Getulio Va rgas signed an Argentina also started exporting nuclear technology. The agreement with the United States, for the cooperative mining of first small research reactor it built was for Peru. uranium, in return fo r nuclear technology, and a committee was In 1985, INVAP signed a contract for the construction of a created to examine nuclear ties with the United States. At the 1-MW thermal Multipurpose Reactor for research, in Algiers. It same time, Brazil made the decision to work to develop' an was inaugurated in 1989, and is similar in general design to the independent nuclear capability. RA-6. The reactor is used for laboratory-scale production of In 1955, an agreement was signed under Atoms for Peace, radioisotopes for basic and applied research, and for the training for the transfer of nuclear technology from the U.S. to Brazil, of operating personnel. To ensure the transfer of technology, more with Brazil's expectation that this new technology wo uld lay than 50 Algerian engineers and technicians participated in the the basis for the postwar industrial development, and eco- project from the time of the contract signing. In 1992, INVA P won an international bid tendered by the Atomic Energy Authority of Egypt, and a contract was signed toprovide a reactor for research activities in a broad range of nuclear-related science and technology applications. Formal commissioning of the reactor, at Inshas, 60 km from Cairo, began in 1997, and the reactor reached its rated power of 22 MW thermal the next year. In February 1998, Presidents Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Carlos Menem of Argentina inaugurated the reactor. Many of the reactor's key com ponents-60 percent of the project-were manufactured by Egyptian companies. The Austral ian Nuclear Science and Te chnology Organization (ANSTO) announced in july 2000, that it had selected the Argentine company INVAP to build a 20-MW reactor to replace its existing research reactor. ANSTO stated that Australia's replacement reactor would be only one of two in the world to use some of the latest technology optimized for scientif ic investigations, and that the performance would be "comparable to the national neu tron sources of japan, France, and the USA." ANSTO reports that the contract, worth $278.5 mii!ion, "represents the largest sin gle investment in science and technology in Australia's history, and is among the largest infrastructure developments of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region." In the mid-1 980s, Argentina began the Th e successful completion of the second unit at the Angra nuclear complex CAREM Project to design small (under 300 (foreground), although delayed, is a testament to the commitment of the MW), modular commercial nuclear power Brazilian government toexp loit the advantages of nuclear energy fo r economic plants, and produce them for export to development, in spite of the decades-long U.S.-led policy of "denial" of nuclear developing countries. The goal included technology.
21st CENTURY Spring 2002 37 nomic independence, of Ibero-America. III. But recently, out of necessity, the gov The next year, in 1956, the Institute for ernment began reconsidering the comple Energy and Nuclear Research was creat tion of Brazil's third nuclear power plant. ed, followed 'by the Brazilian National In May 2001 , Brazil's President Commission for Nuclear Energy (CNENl. Fernando Henrique Cardoso announced In 1957, under the Atoms for Peace that a multi-year drought had brought Program, Brazil built the first of two reservoir reserves to 30 percent of nor nuclear research reactors, with U.s. sup mal, and that electricity from the nation's port. A second reactor was developed in hydroelectric plants would have to be 1960, and in 1965, Brazil built its first rationed. Three quarters of the nation's indigenous research reactor, in Rio de 170 million citizens were told to reduce Janeiro. consumption by 20 percent. As a result Throughout the 1960s, CNEN per of the crisis, later in the summer, the formed feasibility studies for the siting of National Council for Energy Policy asked Brazil's first commercial nuclear power for a "detailed analysis" in order to plant, and the site chosen in 1968 was at reconsider the completion of Angra III. Angra dos Reis, 130 km from Rio. The That study is to be completed by the end 625-MW Angra I power plant, built by of this year. Westinghouse, began construction in Unfortunately, outside private invest 1972, and went into operation in 1982, ment is being sought to complete the providing 20 percent of the electricity for Henry Kissinger, seen here in 7983 plant, and Electronuclear; the state Rio de Janeiro. But the Westinghouse at the State Department, was (a nd still owned company that runs Angra I and contract barred the transfer of nuclear is) a prime mover in promoting arms II, is trying to arrange financial support technology to Brazil, so other suppliers control agreements, and "non from abroad. It is hoped that the bank were sought. proliferation" policies, as a tool fo r ruptcy of Brazil's neighbor, Argentina, After the 1973-1 974 oil crisis, and withholding adva nced nuclear and and the financial reorganization and attendant quadrupling of oil prices, space technologies fr om developing debt cancellation that is necessary there, Brazil's President, Ernesto Geisel, creat- nations. will create the conditions in Brazil for a ed the Brazilian Nuclear Corporation return to a policy of national self-inter (Empresas Nucleares Brasileiras S.A., or Nuclebrasl, which est, and national investment in power and other infrastructure. consisted of companies for engineering, construction of reac tors, and fuel cycle activities. Its job was to expand the coun The Non-Proliferation Hoax try's nuclear power programs. But it was not just a series of financial crises in Ibero In 1975, over strong objections from the United States, Brazil America that has stunted nuclear energy programs. The signed a cooperative agreement with Kraftwerk Union AG in attempt to put international controls on nuclear technology Germany to build up t� eight additional nuclear plants, includ began virtually before the end of Wo rld War II. And in 1977, ing Angra II and III, a commercial uranium enrichment facility, with the accession of Jimmy Carter to the White House, nega and a pilot-scale plutonium reprocessing plant, to close the tive-growth Malthusian ideology, centered on "nonprolifera nuclear fuel cycle. West Germany did not require safeguards tion" policies to stop economic development, were fiercely under the International Atomic Energy Agency of the United directed against nuclear power, both in the United States and Nations. Soon after the start of construction, a financial crisis in internationally. 1982 in Brazil led it to negotiate loans with the International In order to continue to have access to commercial nuclear Monetary Fund. That institution demanded that, as a "condi power technology, nations were pressured to sign the Nuclear tionality" for a loan, Brazil limit the nuclear pact with Germany. Nonproliferation Treaty (NPTl . The Treaty was signed by the The number of planned power plants was reduced, to include Soviet Union and United States on July 1, 1968, and it was rat only Angra II and III; the two other plants were cancelled. ified by the u.s. Senate two years later. Although the Treaty In 1991, the decision was made to resume construction, and includes the language that "nothing in this Treaty shall be inter by 1996, the resources were so allocated. In July 2000, Angra preted as affecting the inalienable right of all the Parties to the II, double the capacity of the first plant, was finally connected Treaty to develop research, production, and use of nuclear to the electric grid. More than 5.0 percent of the power plant's energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination," virtually equipment was made by Brazilian firms. no non-nuclear country believed it would ever gain unfettered Concerning Angra III, for 15 years, the partially completed access to peaceful nuclear technology under this regime. power plant has been mothballed, with complaints that nuclear Later, under pressure from the Carter Administration, the power is "too expensive," that the electricity is unnecessary, and U.S. Congress passed the 1978 Nuclear Non-Proliferation that it is even "unsafe." The government has been unwilling to Act, which amended the 1950s Atomic Energy Act, and uni finance its completion, although almost $2 billion has already laterally suspended nuclear exports to countries that refused been spent. About 70 percent of the needed hardware from to sign the Treaty. These measures were even applied retroac Germany has been shipped, and is in storage. The plant is about tively to suspend shipments of nuclear fuel to Brazil for its 30 percent complete, and $1 .7 billion is needed to. finish Angra operating Westinghouse Angra I reactor.
38 Spring 2002 21st CENTURY The Carter Administration threatened had also publicly stated his belief that no reprisals if Brazil and West Germany did advances for mankind would ever come not accept conditions in their 1975 bilat from the "South." Such a geopolitical eral nuclear contract, agreeing to subject agenda, which in later decades became any spent fuel reprocessing to interna known as "technological apartheid," tional control, and to allow u.s. involve were the underlying fundamentals of ment in controlling nuclear technology President Carter's anti-nuclear, anti transfer between them. The idea of con growth policies. trolling so-called "dual use" technolo To day, the very existence of even the gies, such as spent fuel reprocessing and hobbled nuclear energy programs in breeder reactor technology, became pol Brazil and Argentina stand as examples icy. Under the guise of preventing coun of what can be achieved, with the com tries that did not already have a nuclear mitment to attain scientific, technologi bomb, from developing one, the policy cal, and economic parity with the sought to prevent nations from becoming nations that are considered "advanced," self-sufficient in civilian nuclear energy. or "developed." Both Argentina and Brazil rightly consid The same long-term perspective and ered such restrictions a violation of commitment of resources was required Stuart Lewls/EIRNS national sovereignty. for these nations to enter the space age. The unrelenting campaign to force During President Jimmy Carter's Admini Argentina and Brazil to sign the NPT stration, fr om 1977 to 1980, the Co uncil rested on the assumption that because on Foreign Relations' policy of "controlled Studying the Earth the research and development programs disintegration" of the U.S. economy, From the Equator were led by, or at least involved with the based on deregulation, was accompanied armed forces, these were, without ques by a campaign to stop the ambitious To Antarctica tion, military projects, aimed at develop nuclear development projects then under As soon as the space age began, only ing "weapons of mass destruction." This way in United States and overseas, under a few years after the start of the nuclear completely ignores what the intention the rubric of "nonprolife ration." age, nations in Ibero-America were anx was of these two nations, in developing ious to participate. The launch of the nuclear technology. Even after Brazil and Argentina-the only Explorer I satellite in january 1958 demonstrated, through the two Ibero-American nations that could possibly resort to the discovery of the Van Allen radiation belts, that rockets could use of nuclear weapons in a war with each other-had signed open up a new era of exploration of the Earth's near-space bilateral agreements in the 1980s to share their nuclear tech environment. And the location of Brazil and Argentina alone, nology, one-world nonproliferators insisted that these pro with access to the geophysical singularities at the equator and grams were still "suspicious." Antarctica would place Ibero-America in a key geographic In fact, in the United States, it was the leadership of the u.s. position for scientific studies. military that created the first scientific institutions and basic In 1961 , Brazilian President janio Quadros signed a decree infrastructure upon which the economic development of this creating the organizing group for the National Commission of country has depended. The earliest advanced education avail Space Activities (CNEA), under the National Research able, especially in science, mathematics, and engineering, Council. It was directed by Col. Aldo Vieira da Rosa. The was through military academies, such as West Point. The Army Commission developed a program to create technical labora Corps of Engineering built the physical infrastructure prerequi tories in Sao jose dos Campos, related to development of the site for westward development. The military institutions in technologies for studies in space and atmospheric sciences. Ibero-America, likewise, have played a major role in creating, One important target for study was the region of Barreira do organizing, and focussing the scientific talent of the nation. Inferno in Rio Grande do Norte. It is positioned within just 5 They understand that the first line of defense of any nation is degrees of the Earth's magnetic equator, (which is inclined 11 its scientific and economic strength. degrees from the equator), where a magnet would align itself If there were ever a legitimate concern that these two with the surface of the Earth. It is an important region from nations would develop nuclear weapons, making nuclear which to study phenomena in the Earth's ionosphere, which technology unavailable from the established nuclear powers extends between 60 and 500 kilometers from the surface. This only strengthened the resolve of both to develop their own atmospheric layer contains free electrons and ions, and its indigenous nuclear industries. Thus, the policy of denial only degree of ionization changes depending on time of day, sea defeated the supposed purpose of the Treaty. son, solar activity, and so on. In reality, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had clear In 1965, the government of Brazil began construction of a ly laid out the real purpose of such "nonproliferation" policies launch site at Barreiro do Inferno, in order to launch rockets to in 1974, when National Security Study Memorandum 200 study the lower altitude layers of the Earth's ionosphere, and a warned that population growth in the Southern Hemisphere's cooperative agreement was signed with NASA to study the developing nations, would threaten the national security of the ionosphere at altitudes below 200 kilometers. NASA supplied United States, by using up allegedly finite resources.2 Kissinger the suborbital sounding rockets for carrying aloft the scientific
21st CENTURY Spring 2002 39 A Brazilian Sonda sounding rocket is readied fo r launch. Th e scientific instruments on board provide data on the characteristics of the electrically conducting ionosphere, above the magnetic equator. Sonda rockets are used as stages in Brazil's larger VLS rocket, which is designed to launch satellites into orbit. yellowjacketsystems.com Th e Orion rocket, shown here, was one of a series (Vefculo Lanc;:adorde Satelites) rocket series, capable of deliv of suborbital sounding rockets developed by the eri ng satell ites to Earth orbit. Argentine Air Force, to carry scientific experiments from launch sites at Argentine bases in Antarctica. Argentina at the Pole While the equatorial region was under study by Brazil, sci instruments. The first launch in the series from Barreira do entists were taking advantage of Argentina's long history of Inferno was on December 16, 1966, and experiments contin exploration in Antarctica, to carry out rocket launches for ued from this site through the 1980s. atmospheric study. At the same time, Brazil began the development of its own In 1960, the National Commission on Space Research (CNIE), sounding rockets with the Sonda Program. The objective was was established by Presidential Decree, under the Air Force. to develop a series of launch vehicles incorporating incre Three years later, the Air Force Institute of Aeronautics and mental improvements through indigenous technology devel Space Investigations (IIAE) was planning experiments at extreme opment, culminating in a rocket powerfu l enough to place southern latitudes, near the South Pole. Argentina had estab satellites into Earth orbit. lished the first Antarctic observatory, "Islas Orcadas," in 1904. Sonda I, first launched in 1965, was a two-stage solid-fueled In a 1999 paper titled, "Scientific Experiences Using sounding rocket, weighing only 5 kilograms, and capable of Argentinean Sounding Rockets in Antarctica," Prof. Miguel reaching a 70-km altitude, while carrying a payload of scien Sanchez-Pena, a retired Air Force General who participated in tific instruments. Sonda II, developed to test improved propel the Antarctic science campaigns, described the technology lants, aerodynamics, electronics, and thermal protection, was developed, and research carried out, near the southernmost a single-stage rocket, 30 of which were launched. It was able reaches of the globe. to reach an altitude of 180 km with a 50-kg scientific payload. The IIAE worked on the design of sounding rockets for Sonda III, which first flew in 1976, was a two-stage rocket, atmospheric study. The first scientific campaign was conduct using the improved Sonda II as one of its stages. It was used as ed on the volcanic island of Larsen, at the Matienzo site, a meteorological rocket that reached up to 600 km with a pay which had been founded in 1961 . In 1965, the Air Force team load of up to 500 kg. arrived by airplane and on an icebreaker, along with the rock In 1984, Sonda IV was launched, designed to loft 300 kg of ets. Three Centauro rockets and two polyethylene balloons payload to 1,000 km, and was the precursor for the VLS were launched to take measurements in the atmosphere.
40 Spring 2002 21 st CENTURY Three Gamma rockets were launched simultaneously from Research, INPE. the range at Chamical Centro de Experimentacion y In 1973, Brazil became the third country in the world (after Lanzamiento de Proyectiles Autopropulsados, in the the United States and Canada), with a ground station, to Providence of La Rioja, 3,900 km from Matienzo, in order to directly receive remote-sensing images from NASA's Landsat compare the data. satellites. Brazilians came to the United States to be trained to The Chamical range was also used into the 1980s for sound interpret and process Landsat data, and through its laboratory ing rocket studies of the atmosphere in the Southern facilities in Sao Jose dos Campos, INPE did remote-sensing Hemisphere. The Inter-American Experimental Meteorological image data processing for Uruguay, Chile, Peru, and Rocket Network, EXAMATNET program, involved scientific Colombia. institutions in Argentina and Brazil, and NASA. And the Since 1971, INPE has offered a masters degree program in Marambio base in Antarctica was used for atmospheric ozone space science, which was expanded to include a doctoral pro studies from 1980 to 1982. gram in 1997. Early on, 50 promising students per year were At the Marambio base in Antarctica, which was inaugurat sent to the United States and Europe to become acquainted ed in 1969, two-stage Argentine Castor rockets were with the most advanced remote sensing technologies. At the launched in 1975, with a scientific payload developed by the same time, American experts went to Brazil to help formulate Max Planck Institute in Germany. A shape charge with a spe space policy. cial chemical mixture was ejected into the atmosphere to Very quickly, Brazil's leaders realized that an overall, long form an ionized cloud. The cloud produced a jet of electrons term policy was needed to direct investment in space technol reaching to the conjugate point in the Northern hemisphere, ogy, and in 1980, the Complete Brazilian Space Mission was and was observed by ground-based observatories in approved. The three goals of the program were to develop, (a) Argentina and by NASA aircraft flying east of New York. The indigenous satellites, (b) a launch vehicle, the VLS, to put the objective was to study the electrical and magnetic fields at satellites into low-Earth orbit, and, (c) a launch center at different altitudes, find neutral points, and compile tempera Alcantara. The $1 billion program had the aim of attaining ture and electron profiles. self-sufficiency in space technology, similar to the goal in Like Brazil, Argentina created the educational institutions nuclear energy, and was estimated to require a team of 1,000 and research and develoment infrastructure to establish its Brazilian scientists and engineers. own space launch capability. In 1958, the Fabrica Militar de New fa cilities were added at INPE, including a Center for Av iones began to develop solid propellant rockets, and manu Weather Forecast and Climate Studies, which produces five factured families of launch vehicles, including the Centauro day weather predictions, and is the only center of its type in family, with alpha, beta, and gamma versions, and the Orion, the Southern Hemisphere. The Integration and Te st Canopus, and two-stage Rigel and Castor rockets. Laboratory is also a unique fa cility, where small indigenous By 1979, the ilEA, on the outskirts of C6rdoba, had research satellites can be assembled and tested, and large foreign facilities covering the fu ll range of technologies needed for commercial communications satellites can also be accom launch vehicle development, including those to develop new modated for testing. propellants and solid fuels, to do aerodynamic research using The Complete Space Mission specifically authorized the wind tunnels, perform structural tests on space hardware, and development of four Brazilian satellites. One pair was the develop computing, guidance and control, metallurgy, and Satelite de Coleta de Dados, or SCD, the first of which was materials capabilities. placed into orbit by an American Pegasus rocket in 1993. It While the nations of Ibero-America were training their was Brazil's first homemade satellite, and cost $14 million. cadres of scientists and engineers, and beginning the develop The second SCD satellite was launched in 1998. The purpose ment of national space programs, they were ready to take of the SCD satellites is to function as relays for data collected advantage of the practical applications of space technology from platforms like ocean buoys and atmospheric measure that rockets and satellites were already making available. ment instruments. Data from more than 250 automated col lecting platforms in Brazil and neighboring countries comprise Using Space for Earth Applications this network, with the largest number installed by the National Brazil, which has a land area larger than that of the United Agency for Electrical Energy. These data are used to monitor States, extends from 3 degrees north to 34 degrees south of the eight hydrographic basins, allowing the management of water equator. From the start of the space age, it was clear that Brazil resources, forecasts, and flood alerts. would be one of the countries that would benefit greatly from The data collected are transmitted to satellites, and then are being able to study and monitor its coastline, land area, and relayed to receiving stations on the ground, which process the environment from space. In 1966, the first Brazilian ground information. The information is del ivered to the user in less station to receive meteorological images from satellites was than 30 minutes from the time the satellite passes overhead, installed. and is also available on the Internet. In 1971, President Emilio Garrastoyu Medici created the The second pair of satellites, SSR 1 and 2, will provide com ' Brazilian Commission for Space Activities to advise him in plete remote-sensing coverage of Brazil every fo ur days, sup planning national space priorities. The same year, a world plying data needed for monitoring natural resources, like for class remote-sensing capability began its development, est clearance and burning in the Amazon, and disasters, such with the establishment of the Instituto Nacional de . as flooding in the south of Brazil. Landsat can provide such Pesquisas Espacais, or National Institute for Space images only every 16 days, and the European SPOT satellite,
21st CENTURY Spring 2002 41 later, on the Brazilian VLS rocket. But the second stage of the launcher fa iled and the satellite had to be destroyed. These efforts, however, demonstrated that Brazil was fu lly capable of building its own satellites, a capability crucial for the future space development in all of Ibero-America. Brazil has continued to play a leading role in developing technology for satel lite remote sensing. It is contributing the Humidity Sounder for Brazil Experi ment, to fly on NASA's Aqua Earth observation satellite. This is a passive microwave radiometer, designed to pro vide profiles of atmopsheric humidity, and detect precipitation underneath clouds. In the tropics, vertical humidity variations are more of an influence on cloud formation and precipitation than that of temperature. Matra Marconi Space is developing the instrument, under contract with INPE. NASAl Goddard Space Flight Center Aqua is a multi-disciplinary study of the Brazil is using its decades of experience in Earth remote-sensing technology to interrelated processes of the atmosphere, provide the Humidity Sounder fo r Brazil instrument that will fly on NASA 's Aqua oceans, and land surface. Other instru satellite. Aqua will be launched this spring. ments on board will provide information on sea-ice concentration and tempera every 26 days. ture, snow cover, and soil moisture. The launch is planned for The cost of the constellation of four remote-sensing satellites spring 2000. is $280 million, about 80 percent of which is being spent in Brazil. Argentina in Space Because the Amazon covers 5 million square kilometers of Like Brazil, Argentina recognized that the first application of land area, larger than Western Europe, it can only be observed space technology of economic importance would be the abil by air or space. Brazil is involved in a multi-faceted project of ity to see the Earth from space. In the 1970s, the National monitoring the Amazon, for a variety of purposes, including Commission on Space Research outfitted the Vicenta Lopez illegal narcotics activities. In 1974, Brazil started to monitor Space Center with technology to do processing of Landsat the deforestation of the Amazon, using images from Landsat. It data. is now engaged in the PRODES project, for Estimate of But unlike Brazil, which decided in 1980 to fo rmulate and Amazon Gross Deforestation, which began in 1988. PRODES implement a wide-ranging, long-range plan for space devel is the largest forest monitoring project in the world, and is part opment, Argentina did not do so for another decade. Even so, of the $1.4 billion Amazon Protection/Amazon Surveillance in 1989, the Presidents of both nations signed the Joint System, under development by INPE. One proposal fo r inter Brazilian Argentinian Declaration on Bilateral Cooperation on national cooperation has been to extend PRODES to cover the the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, and two years later, the tropical forests in the broader Panamazonia, which would cost Argentine government established CONAE, the Argentina only 10 percent of each nation doing the observing individu Space Activities Commission. In 1994, CONAE promulgated ally. Amazonia itself covers parts of Guyana, Surinam, French the National Space Program, "Argentina in Space 1995-2006." Guyana, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, in addition to It is to be reviewed every two years, and have a permanent Brazil. horizon of one decade. At the same time that Brazil was making progress in design The first Argentine-built satellite was designed even before ing, building, and testing its own satellites for remote sensing, this 1 O-year program. It was the first in the series of SAC it was also developing a series of small satellites to test space (Satelite de Aplicaciones Cientfficos) satellites, built by INVAP, technologies for various applications. The SACI-1 satellite, which also produces Argentina's small nuclear reactors. In weighing only 132 pounds, was launched in October 1999. 1990, Argentina petitioned NASA for joint space work. In The $4.6 million spacecraft was designed to test antenna, bat November of that year, President Bush and his science advisor, tery, power, and computer systems technologies in space. Dr. Alan Bromley, visited Argentina, and an agreement was Unfortunately, INPE was not able to make contact with the made to develop a solar X-ray satellite with NASA's Goddard satellite after launch. Space Flight Center. In August 1991, Vice President Quayle SACI-2 was a meteorological satellite, launched two months and President Carlos Menem signed a framework agreement
42 Spring 2002 21st CENTURY for cooperation with NASA on Earth and space science, and the SAC-B mission was formalized. This was the first joint spacecraft mission b"y NASA with a country in Ibero-America. When former NASA Administrator Dan Goldin accompanied President Clinton to Argentina in October 1997, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed for U.5. launches of the series of Argentine SAC satellites. SAC-B was actually launched first, in November 1996, but was lost on launch. It was designed to study solar and astrophysics. SAC-A was launched from the Space Shuttle on the STS-88 mission in December 1998. It acquired more than 600 images of the Earth, and was active for seven months. The satellite tested solar panels that had been designed by the Argentine National Atomic Energy Commission, and it also collected geo magnetic data. SAC-C was launched in June 2000 on Space Activities Commission of Argentina, CONAE an American Delta rocket, and is Argentina's contribution to NASA's over Argentina has developed and built a series of scientific applications satellites, all Mission to Planet Earth project. SAC which have been launched through a cooperative agreement with the United C will be part of the Morningstar constel States. SAC-C, seen here with its antennas being tested at the Te 6filo Ta banera lation of satellites, which also includes Space Center, was launched in 2000, and fo cusses on Earth remote sensing. Landsat 7, Earth Observing Satellite-1 , and the Te rra satellite. But, of course, Brazil and Argentina were not the only coun tries in Ibero-America interested in joining the space age.
Peru, Homeland of Pedro Paulet Peru's contributions go as far back as the experiments and designs of Pedro Paulet at the end of the 19th Century. Peru early on recognized its "privileged position" in regard to the geomagnetic equator, and the System of the Peruvian University was created to exploit its geographical position. Peru also made a contribution to the first Apollo missions to the Moon, through observations and measurements of the consistency of the lunar soil from the Jicamarca Radio Observatory, near Lima. In 1972, at the IV International Symposium of the "Aeronomfa Ecuatorial," held in Nigeria, the recommendation was made to the Peruvian government to establish a scientific rocket-launching base for gathering ionospheric data, to com plement that obtained through the Peruvian Huayao Observatory, which is only 3.5 km from the magnetic equator. Peruvian authorities accepted the recommendation and pro ceeded to build the Punta Lobos launch base, 70 kilometers south of Lima, on the same magnetic meridian as the Jicamarca Observatory, which is 12 degrees South, only 1 degree from the magnetic equator. Th is photograph of SAC-A was taken just moments after it In May 1974, the first rocket launching took place, to was released from the Space Shuttle Endeavour, in December study the perturbations in the ionosphere along the magnet 7998. For seven months, the satellite took photographs of the ic equator. On June 11, the same year, the Peruvian govern Earth, and tested new technologies fo r fu ture generations of ment created the National Commission on Aerospace Argentine satellites.
21st CENTURY Spring 2002 43 riculum in aeronautical engineering. But Peru's interest in aerospace engi neering is not just academic-under development is Conidasat, a 200-kg minisatellite, which design and con struction is being undertaken entirely by CONIDA. Condisat's mission will be daily observations of Peru, providing panchromatic images as it travels in a polar orbit, from south to north. Conidasat is being designed to be com patible with a range of launch vehicles, including the American Pegasus and the European Ariane. The objective of the project is to acquire experience in all phases of satel lite design, construction, testing, and integration. It will bring another Ibero America member in to the "club" of space-faring nations. Peru has another important link to space exploration, Peruvian-born Carlos Noreiga. Noreiga and his family moved to the United States when he was five years old. After a career in the Marine Corps, Noriega was selected as a NASA astronaut, in December 1994. In 1997, he flew on Space Shuttle mis sion STS-84, which docked with the NASA Mir space station. On STS-97 in 2000, Peruvian-born astronaut Carlos Noriega waves at crew members inside the Space Noriega performed 19 hours of EVAs, Shuttle En'deavour during a space walk in December 2000. Argentina-born NASA or space walks, outside the astronaut, Fernando Caldeiro, has worked at the Kennedy Space Center since 1997, International Space Station, installing and was selected an astronaut candidate in 1996. He is waiting fo r his first fl ight. its solar arrays. He is currently assigned as back-up commander for the sixth Expedition crew for the space station. Research and Development (CONIDA), as the space agency In an interview before his fl ight to the ISS, Noriega was of Peru. asked about the station's importance. "We went to t.he Moon, The Center for Systems and Information Processing was and then we haven't gone anywhere else," he said. "But we established to carry out the digital processing of remote-sensing really haven't developed sufficiently the technologies to come images. Peru has undertaken studies on the recession of gla up with better ways to counteract the effect of weightlessness ciers, the Amazon River, the risk from volcanoes, and coastal on the human body.. ..We need to be able to travel farther, mapping. and in my mind, that's the biggest benefit we're going to get." CONIDA carries out reseach and development in the area of rocket technology, and plans to develop small- and medi Chilean Space Plans um-sized launch vehicles, along with other space agencies. Over the last decade, Chile has taken an increasing interest in Studies in aero- and gas-dynamics are under way for vehicle joining the space-faring nations. Chile has focussed on devel design, and the physical production of rocket parts and assem oping its own satellite capability, and sharing the achievements bly, in coordination with national industry. is planned. of space development within its scientific and academic com In 1995, the Center for Space Studies was created, to carry munities. In 1994, the Chilean Air Force signed a contract with out an academic program in order to train professional in the Surrey Satellite Te chnology, Ltd, in Britain to build its first use of space technologies. These include the processing and microsatellite, FASat-alpha. The goal of the 50-kg satellite proj interpretation of remote-sensing images for the full array of ect, was to create a group of engineers with aerospace experi applications, from geology and geography, to specific areas ence, and to install and operate a Mission Control Station in such as fishing and oceanography, and monitoring borders Santiago. FASat-alpha was launched in August 1995, but unfor and clandestine airports. There are over 200 students receiv tunately, the spacecraft failed to separate from the Russian ing training there each year. launch vehicle and never attained orbit. Through an agreement with the National University of FASat-Bravo, also built with Surrey, was launched in July Engineering, CONIDA is developing a masters degree cur- 1998, and orbited the Earth 14 times a day, for three years.
44 Spring 2002 21st CENTURY and the Mexican government was invit ed to select and fly an astronaut to accompany the Morelos 2 satellite on the Space Shuttle. When applications were solicited, 1,500 students and pro fessionals in medicine, engineering, physics, and mathematics volunteered. Rodolfo Neri Vela was chosen, and the Mexican government paid NASA $10 million for the flight. During his Shuttle mission, Neri, who has a doctoral degree in physics, carried out a number of experiments, including examination of the effects of micrograv ity on the reproduction of Escherichia coli-B bacteria, the transport of nutrients in plants," electroconductance in specific areas of the body, and the effect of weightlessness and light on the germina tion of seeds. He also took photographs NASA of Mexico from space. Physicist Rodolfo Neri accompanied a Mexican communications satellite aboard the Interest in space has continued to Space Shuttle Atlantis as a payload specialist in 1985. Mexico needs a space agency flourish in the universities of Mexico. In in order to fo rmulate and carry out research and experiment projects today, and to 1995, a 50-kg satellite developed at the join with an Ibero-American space agency to meet long-term goals, fo r the fu ture. Autonomous University of Mexico, UNAM, was built, to obtain data on vol Through its Ozone Layer Monitoring Experiment, the space canic particles and meteor trails in the upper atmosphere. The craft obtained a total of 1,273 images of Chile, which were satellite was lost in a Russian rocket failure. UNAM's second shared with NASA and various universities that are studying small satellite, weighing only 17 kg, was su ccessfully the ozone layer. launched in 1996, to research small meteorites. In August 2001 , a civilian space agency was established in Chile. It plans, over the next 10 years, to develop a mini-satel lite for communications, and in 15 years, a geosta:tionarysatel lite for domestic communications, making use of international cooperation.
The Mexican Mission Throughout Ibero-America, there has always been a broad-ranging interest and excitement about spiKe, particu larly among young people. As early as 1962, Mexico had an amateur space society which became a member of the International Astronautical Federation. In that year, President Adolfo Lopez Mateos signed a decree establishing the National Commission for Outer Space. But the Mexican space exploration program was never adequately funded, and in 1977, the Commission was cancelled. In 1988, a small Management for Space Affairs Office was also dis banded. Mexico joined the international satellite communications consortium, Intelsat, in 1968, to gain access to space for domestic television and other services, and in 1980, President Jose Lopez Portillo decided to procure Mexico's first two communications satellites. The government estimated at that Maximiliano Londono, (left) head of the Ibero-American time there were more than 14,000 remote towns and villages Solidarity Movement (MSIA) in Colombia,. fo unded the without telephone service. In 1985, the Morelos satellite, Association to Promote an Aerospace Agency in Colombia, built by Hughes, was launched for Mexico from the Space with students and professors in colleges and universities in Shuttle. Bogota, Here Londono and colleagues Ca rlos Orlando Parra At that time (before the Challenger accident), NASA occa and Edgar Espejo display one of the rockets their space sionally flew payload specialists along with a specific payload, society was getting ready to launch.
21st CENTURY Spring 2002 45 Recently, a feisty group of space enthusiasts and young peo domestic launch sites, as is done by the United States, Russia, ple has been encouraging the Mexican government to re Europe, Japan, India, and China. establish a space agency, and join other Ibero-American Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the Argentine military nations in space exploration. The Mexican Space Society was developed a series of ever more capable rockets, and in 1982, fo rmed in 1990 through the energetic organizing of Jesus it began development of the Condor II. This was a two-stage Raygoza. The group has worked with Mexican schools to solid-fueled rocket, designed fo r a payload of 450 kg and a develop a space science curriculum, and has worked on ama range of 800 to 1,000 kilometers. teur rocket projects. For much of its fledgling rocket technology, Argentina relied Raygoza has presented documents to the Energy on help from abroad. After the Malvinas War, fought with Commission of the Mexican Congress, proposing the creation Britain in 1982, the Argentine government decided that of Mexican space research facilities, and possible spaceports although it would still have to obtain certain components for launches. In 1995, the Mexican Space Society submitted a abroad for the Condor II, local industry should be developed formal proposal to the government for the formation of a space and relied upon, as much as feasible. The military's stated goal agency, and in March 1998, it testified before a hearing on the in the Condor II program was to be able to place payloads, Congressional Committee on Science and Te chnology In an interview in 1999, Raygoza stated, liTo return to the Moon and send people to Mars ... are not merely the theoretical goals of a handful of space scientists, but a necessity for civilization today, if it wants to guarantee its long-term future developemnt./I He likened space exploration to the undertaking by the King of Castille in the 15th Century, in sending out Columbus, which ended with the conquest of America. /lOur civilization is deteriorating ' Raygoza said, / "and if we don't develop economically, in the long term, we are going to sink./I The Mexican Space Society continues to promote this idea, which would undoubted ly gain support, were there an Ibero-American space agency. Similarly, in Colombia, an enthusiastic group of university students and professors have formed the Association to Promote a Colombian Aerospace Agency. Participants from the National University, Universal District and Antonio Narino, and the University of San Buenaventura have built and launched amateur rockets, and are studying the physics, chemistry, and other sciences required for a space program.
The Fight to Launch From the very beginning of Ibero-America's par ticipation in space exploration, both Argentina and Brazil were developing their own rockets. A rock et-launching capability has been rightly seen as a national security and sovereignty issue, as well as an economic one. By 1994, Mexico, for example, had spent $579 million for its satellite communi cations system, largely paid to foreign companies to build and launch its satellites. Argentina and Brazil were determined to develop their own Space Agency of Brazil domestic space industries. Both Argentina's and Brazil's rocket programs The VLS rocket on the launch pad at the Alcantara launch site in Brazil. grew out of their early sounding rocket campaigns. The VLS is Ibero-America 's only remaining indigenous rocket, fo llowing Both used the small-scale rockets as the building the U.S.-led success in ending Argentina's Condor program. Further blocks for multi-stage launch vehicles, with the developing the technology and testing of the VLS should become a goal of using indigenous rockets launched from principal joint project of an Ibero-American space agency.
46 Spring 2002 21st CENTURY military and civilian, into Earth orbit, and to advance vanguard such "weapons of mass destruction." technologies, with applications in both the military and civil The MTCR crippled Ibero-America's space launch pro ian aerospace field. grams, by preventing the export of technology. As an "agree The Condor II was also a joint project, in which Egypt was ment" that is not a treaty, the MTCR does not impose sanctions to be involved in the production of the launcher, (called the on countries that violate the regime, and export "missile" Vector), and Iraq was providing the financing for the Middle technology. But u.s. protests and pressure on the other signa East project, known as Badr-2000 in Iraq. A consortium of tors led to Italy's withdrawl of support for Argentina's Condor mostly European firms handled various portions of the Condor program, and in 1989, France finally capitulated and ended its II project, and more than a dozen U.S. firms were directly offer to send its Viking liquid-fuel rocket technology, and involved. experts, to Brazil. Also, in the 1980s, during the Iran/Iraq war, the Brazilian The United States did apply sanctions unilaterally against private company Avibras began marketing multiple rocket countries in Ibero-America, as it has also done against Russia's launcher artillery systems derived from its Sonda sounding space enterprises for their cooperation with Iran, and against rockets, to Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Qatar. But it Pakistan, for receiving assistance from China. These sanctions, became clear that the world's major arms producers, with and the broader pressure from the MTCR, helped slow the VLS the United States in the lead, were not going to stand for launch project in Brazil, and ended the Condor II project in any competition in weapons sales, especially to the Middle Argentina. East. In truth, the "missile race" in the Middle East began not dur Condor Cancelled, but Brazil Resists ing the war between Iran and Iraq, but in 1961, when Israel In April 1990, Argentine Defense Minister Humberto launched its Shavit rocket. After the 1967 Middle East war, Romero stated that the Condor program had been "suspended France slapped on an embargo, but the United States assisted and frozen." He stated that although the Condor rocket was Israel in developing warhead and guidance technology, and intended as a satellite launcher, it was "paralyzed" by the Israel developed its own Jericho missile, and deployed it in international political assault, so a political decision had to be 1968. taken to stop it. In addition, he said, Argentina did not have the funds to continue. The International Monetary Fund promised 'Non-Proliferation,' Again the debt-burdened country new loans, if it would abandon its As early as 1972, the United States banned the export of missile program. launch vehicle technology to Brazil, in the hope that this Great Britain was "concerned" that the Condor II would would kill its rocket launcher program. In the mid-1 980s, the allow Argentina to strike the Malvinas. Israel was concerned space powers made their move to shut off all technology trans that the Egyptian and Iraqi ties to the project threatened to fer to any country that refused to stop development of rocket spread missile technology throughout the Middle East, launcher systems. although only Israel itself had such capabilities. At the same In 1982, following the Iran-Iraq war, President Ronald Reagan time that the political pressure mounted, the financial situation signed a National Security Decision Directive to investigate was reaching a breaking point, and Foreign Minister Domingo ways to control missile proliferation. In 1985, the Group of 7 Cavallo assured the United States that Argentina would kill the advanced industrial countries initiated talks, and in April 1987, Condor program. In return, he expected help from the U.S. the United States, Britain, France, West Germany, Italy, Canada, with the IMF, World Bank, and private bank negotiations. How and Japan made public the Missile Technology Control Regime successful Cavallo's approach was then, or more recently (MTCR), a supposedly "voluntary arrangement." when he returned for a stint as Treasury Minister, is evident in What gives the immediate lie to the claim that this Regime the bankruptcy of Argentina today. was intended just to stop weapons proliferation, is the fact In 1991, Argentina became a signator to the Missile that it defines "missiles," to include space launch vehicles Te chnology Control Regime, and in April 1992, it bowed to that would be used for commercial purposes, and sounding the enormous pressure, and handed over most of the compo rockets, that are used for scientific experiments. The signa nents from the Condor program to be destroyed. In 1991 , the tory countries agree not to export, not only rockets, their civilian Argentine Space Activities Commission, CONAE, was production facilities, and systems, but also a wide range of established, in order to open the door to increased coopera "dual use" parts, components, and subsystems, like propel tion with NASA in the United States. lants, structural materials, test equipment, fl ight instruments, Brazil refused to buckle under the pressure, even though and so on. As in the Nuclear Nonprol iferation Treaty, the by 1992, the Brazilian Air Force announced that as a result MTCR states that the agreement is "not designed to impede of the sanctions, the VLS program ' was being seriously national space programs or international collaboration in delayed. Because it could not gain access to the fuel com such programs," but then admits that "the technology for a ponent, inertial guidance, reentry, and other technology space launch vehicle is virtually identical to that used in a needed to continue development of the VLS, �razil was ballistic missile"-banning technology transfer for all rocket forced to develop its domestic research and industries, or programs. abandon the project. Because the nuclear powers insisted that Ibero-American Again, as in the case of nuclear energy, if the goal were countries wanted to develop nuclear weapons, they could actually to prevent rocket technologies from matming in now claim that their rockets were just the delivery system for Ibero-America, the sanctions policy failed. It just forced
21st CENTURY Spring 2002 47 nations to develop these industries internally, although more An Ibero-American Spaceport slowly, without international assistance. The assumption that a On October 16, 2001 , the Wa shington Post reported a state technology blockade would kill Brazil's rocket program was ment by the President of the Brazilian Space Agency, Luis foolish to begin with. An article published in the Gilvan Meira Filho, who said, "We do not want to stay locked October/November 1997 issue of Air & Space magazine in the developing world forever. Our road out will be paved reminds the "nonproliferation" mafia that there is a "myth" with science and technology. That is what Alcantara is all that the VLS could not be a success "without a von Braun," about." that is, an outsider. In the 1970s, the Brazilian Air Force built a rocket launch But, the article states, the Brazilian space program has its facility at Alcantara, the capital of the state of Maranhao, on own fa thers, including Jayme Boscov, who worked in France land that encompases more than five times the area of the on the Concorde and came back to Brazil to start the program European Space Agency's launch site at Korou in French that created the Sonda and VLS; and Joao Verdi de Carvalho Guyana. The $230 million facility was used for suborbital Leite, who was the president of Avibras. sounding rockets experiments. To show its intentions, in 1994, the government of Brazil In 1980, the plan was to expand Alcantara to accommodate created a civilian space agency (AEB), which said it would' launches of Brazil's VLS, and other nations' commercial abide by the MTCR guidelines. Proliferation "experts" even launches of rockets and satellites. Although financial difficul admitted that Brazil had made "a pretty credible case that ties slowed progress, in 2000, Retired Air Force General there was never a missile." Archimedes de Castro Faria Filho, director of programs at the The United States agreed to join a campaign to launch 30 Ministry of Science and Technology, reported at a symposium sounding rockets from the Alcantara launch site in 1994, as a in Washington, that between 1984-1 990, the new Alcantara carrot to lure Brazil into formally joining the MTCR. In October launch center was built, at a cost of $300 million. 1995, the Brazilian Senate enacted a bill that imposed export The state-owned airport operator Infraero is responsible for controls on launch materials and six days later, the MTCR mem commercially developing Alcantara. In 1999, it was estimat bers states voted to accept Brazil, on the condition that its mis ed that foreign clients would be charged about $2 million sile projects be terminated. No country that was a non-missile per launch to use the facility. At that time, Italy's Fiat/Avio state before 1987 had been allowed to join the MTCR without had signed a collaborative agreement to invest $70 million agreeing to destroy its rocket program. in upgrades, as part of a consortium using the Ukrainian But Brazil would agree to no such thing. Eventually, the Tsyklon rockets from Alcantara. Also, Lockheed-Martin was Clinton Administration accepted Brazil's pledge that it would in discussion with Brazil to launch its new Athena-3 rocket not develop the VLS as a missile, having lost the fight with there. Brazil over its development as a commercial launch vehicle. More recently, it was reported in Space News on October 8, The U.S. had to swallow its regulations, and admit Brazil to the 2001, that the U.s. Air Force is planning to launch an experi MTCR as the only nation that had not tested a rocket before mental satellite aboard an air-launched Pegasus booster from 1987, but did not have to physically destroy its program. Alcantara, in 2003. The first test fl ight of the VLS took place in November 1997, but one of its four engines fa iled, and the rocket was More U.S. Pressure destroyed. The second test flight, in December 1999, which But the United States has decided that regardless of its stated carried the $6 million SACI-2 satellite, was destroyed, because admission that the VLS is being developed as a commercial of a second launch fa ilure. This is not unusual at the start of a launcher, and the fact that Brazil is a signer of the MTCR, every rocket test program. thing that can be done, will be done, to stop Brazil from achiev Since the promulgation of its Complete Brazilian Space ing an independent launch capability. On April 18, 2000, a Mission in 1980, Brazil has planned to complete development Technological Safeguards Agreement, required under the of a commercial space launcher, to become self-sufficient in MTCR, was signed between Brazil and the United States, which sending spacecraft into Earth orbit. Although that effort has is supposed to allow for the commercial launching of American been delayed, it is under way. The third test of a VLS vehicle rockets and American satellites from Alcantara. Any satellite that is now scheduled for October 2002, and a fourth test is has even one U.S.-made component is subject to export planned. approval by the United States for its launch. Recently, a Brazilian delegation led by President Fernando On August 31, 2001, a doc.wment explaining the Agreement Henrique Cardoso visited Russia, and a Russian delegation is was sent to the federal deputies and senators in Brazil. On expected to visit Brazil by the summer of 2002. Discussions September 9, 2001, Brazilian Rep. Waldir Pires said in a report will include the development of liquid-fuel propulsion tech to the Foreign Affairs and Naional Defense Committee that the nology for the next generation of Brazil's iaunchers, after the Safeguard Agreement should be rejected, because of its "con VLS test program. Such high-energy upper stages will increase tempt for national sovereignty." Other voices in the Brazilian the payload capability of Brazil's rocket launcher. legislature are urging rejection of the Agreement. Why? The third goal of the Complete Space Mission is the ability to The Agreement establishes restricted areas on the facility, launch Brazilian-made satellites, on Brazilian-made rockets, accessible only to U.s.-approved personnel during the assem from a launch site in Brazil. But here, again, there has been a bly and launch of U.S. payloads or vehicles. The Agreement frontal assault from the United States. prohibits Brazilian customs officials from inspecting closed
48 Spring 2002 21st CENTURY containers with U.s. equipment that enter the port at Alcantara. observed Brazil's satellite-building and testing capabilities, first And, most egregious, the Agreement stipulates that Brazil is not hand. In 1995, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso visited to use revenues from commercial launches for the develop China, and the two sides decided to enlarge the CBERS pro ment of the VLS ! So much for the oft repeated lie that export gram, adding the construction of a third and fourth satellite, control regimes db not prevent the development of civilian and an extra satellite as a transition between the two pairs. technology. CBERS-l was launched on October 14, 1999, and the According to the u.s. Department of State, this restriction is Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology was able to unique to the Agreement with Brazil, because the United States release its fi rst image 15 days later-a swath of jungle in the does not want any support for "new missile systems." The state of Amazonas, in northwestern Brazil. CBERS-l is a 3,000- Department acknowledges that U.S. policy "goes beyond the pound satellite, which is controlled at the Xi'an Satellite Control MTCR regime," and adm its that it does not think that "other Center in China. Aboard CBERS-l is a Wide Field Imager for countries will go along with the u.s." on these restrictions. The data in visible light, and the infrared part of the electromagnet State Department recognizes this is a "sensitive political issue ic spectrum, a High Resolution CCD Camera, and an Infrared for Brazil," but thinks the Safeguards Agreement will pass the Multispectral Scanner. Both China and Brazil are nations with Brazilian Senate. That remains to be seen. extensive territories with large, uninhabited areas, that are hard Brazil is also pursuing other options. On November 18, to reach. The satellite data will be used for forestry, agriculture, 1999, the space agencies of Brazil and Ukraine signed an geology, and hydrology. Brazil hopes to compete with American agreement in Kiev for cooperation in space areas, including the and French remote-sensing systems in marketing the imagery. launch of Ukrainian rockets, such as the Tsyklon, at Alcantara. The second CBERS satellite is now scheduled for launch A Ukrainian delegation is scheduled to visit Alcantara in the from China in the summer of 2002. spring of 2002, according to the head of the Brazilian space In September 2000, Chinese Foreign Minister Ta ng Jiaxuan agency, Mucio Dias, to determine the modifications that are visited Brazil, and an accord was signed for the "Satellite Sino required at the existing facility, and the costs involved, in order Brazilian Project of Land Resources." This expanded the bilat to launch Ukranian Ts yklon rockets. The project is estimated to eral cooperation, and outlined the terms of shared cost for the cost between $150 and $200 million. A technology safeguards two second-generation satellites. At that time, Brazilian agreement has already been signed by the two nations. Minister of Science and Technology, Ronaldo Sardenberg, stat Virtually as soon as the ed that "future bilateral coop Missile Te chnology Control eration in technology may Regime went into effect in expand to areas such as biol 1987, Brazil realized that it ogy, information, human would have to broaden its genetic engineering, and scope of international cooper agriculture." ation in space technology in In early 2002, Brazil signed order to move forward. In July a space cooperation agree 1988, Braz ilian President Jose ment with India, the country Sarney visited China. The two most like itself, in its goal for governments signed an agree- self-sufficiency, and the level ment to develop two of its space technology. On advanced remote-sensing March 1, Dr. K. Kasturirangan, satellites. Brazil was to build Chairman of the Indian Space the satellites, and China to Research Organization, and provide some of the technolo Dr. Mucio Dias, President of gy and the launch on a Long the Brazilian Space Agency, March rocket. At the time the signed a broad Memorandum program started, INPE made of Understanding in Banga clear that Brazil intended to lore, India, to cooperate in use the cooperation with space. The MOU includes China "to break down the programs in satellite technolo developed countries' preju gy, organization of training dice against advanced tech Domingo Ca vallo, the International Monetary Fund's man in programs, and exchange of nology transfer." Argentina, was fo rced out of the government in December technical and scientific per In 1993, the contract for 2001, after that nation's default on its debt, thanks to the poli sonnel to work together on two China-Brazil Earth cies he had promoted as Finance Minister. During his stint as For specific issues .. Remote Sensing satell ites, eign Minister in the early 7990s, Ca vallo threw Argentina's At the signing ceremony, (CBERS) was signed in Condor program on the scrap heap, in exchange fo r the promise Indian Minister of State for Beijing. That year, President that international financial institutions would "help" Argentina. Space, Smt. Vadundhara Jiang Zemin visited INPE dur Ca vallo was charged with "aggra vated contraband" linked to Raje, stated that although ing a to ur of Brazil, and illegal weapons sales and jailed in early 2002. "India and Brazil are located
21st CENTURY Spring 2002 49 More than $300 million has been spent by the Brazilian government to build fa cilities at the Alcantara launch complex in northeast Brazil fo r the launch of fu ll-scale rockets. Because the United States has tried everything in its power to prevent this independent launch capability from becoming operational in Ibero-America, the Brazilian government is working with other nations, like Ukraine, to begin commercial launches from this site. . continents aparton the globe, we share several things in com South America," Dr. Va rotto of the Argentine space agency stat mon. We are both large countries, with a rich endowment of ed that Argentina is cooperating with Brazil in an natural resources. The cultural heritage that we both possess is "economic/technical feasibility study for the development of a rich and diverse . ... Significantly, both our countries are satellite launcher that satisfies the orbital and payload require developing nations striving to accelerate the engines of our ments of the space missions of [Argentina's] National Space economic growth through judicious use of science and tech Program, using at least, a high-efficiency liquid stage." nology." The focus of the cooperation will be on space tech Although Argentina gave up its Condor II program, it has not nology applications such as communications, remote sensing, given up on the importance of an Ibero-American space launch and meteorology. capability. "The Argentine determination of working with Brazil While Argentina and Brazil have bilateral agreements in this field cannot be more explicit," Varotto stated, referring with other countries, the most important for the future of an to Brazil's VLS. Ibero-American space agency is the one they have with Argentina and Brazil currently mutually support tracking each other. Although historical rivalries have affl icted rela and telemetry and control of each others satellites. Argentina tions between Argentina and Brazil for a long time, in 1989 has also used the test facilities at INPE in Brazil for its satellites. the presidents of both countries signed the Joint Brazilian To gether, both countries are designing the Argentine-Brazil Argentinian Declaration on Bilateral Cooperation in the Satellite for Investigations in Food, Water, and Environment, or Peaceful Uses of Space. Under this framework, in 1996, SABIA (see p. 53). It will be a $30 million, 350-kg satellite, they signed a government-to-government agreement for with a multispectral scanner in the visible and near-infrared, cooperation in space science, technology, Earth resources providing a ground resolution between 6 and 8 meters. Every and environmental studies, and made a commitment to three days, SABIA will cover the entire Mercosur region of develop combined satellite missions and means of access to Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. space and launch services. Dr. Varotto says that for Argentina, "Brazil and Argentina In his October 2000 speech calling for a "space agency for have a very good opportunity to work together on the
50 Spring 2002 21 st CENTURY Mercosur Space Agency organization. Even more, the Agency tant hardware, which the United States would then not may incorporate member states in advance of their incorpo have to build. ration to Mercosur. But to do 50, it is our opinion that we Brazil agreed to build four major types of hardware for the should consider seriously the design of a Common Space space station. The first is an EXPRESS Pallet (for Expedite the Program, starting with Brazil and Argentina, with common Processing of Experiments to Space Station). EXPRESS is a objectives." structural support which attaches small payloads to the U.S. One objective must be to broaden Ibero-America's partici external truss segments of the station. Brazil is to supply four pation in manned space fl ight. units, each of which can accommodate up to six experiment
Brazil's Bold Move Into Space
The ultimate goal of space technology development is to enable the exploration of space by men. In this, Brazil has taken a bold step. In 1982, President Ronald Reagan made an offer to Brazil to fly an astronaut on the Space Shuttle. While such plans were put on hold after the Challenger accident, Brazilian scientists did participate in important protein crystal growth experi ments that have flown on seven Shuttle missions. On the first, mission STS-83 in 1997, the Second-Generation Vapor Diffusion Apparatus carried eleven proteins in its experiment chambers, including two proteins related to Chagas disease. INPE The group of investigators working on this project included scientists from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico, In 7993, Chinese President Jiang Zemin (left) visited the and Uruguay. engineering fa cilities at INPE in Brazil, to observe satellite Brazil was interested in both extending the research in pro design and construction activities fo r the joint Ch ina-Brazil tein crystal growth on the International Space Station, and also Earth Remote Sensing satellite. Brazil's decision to cooperate making a substantial contribution, in exchange for which, it with China in space technology, is part of its attempt to could fly an astronaut on the space station. develop more advanced space systems, despite the u.S. In December 1996, Brazil was invited by NASA to join policy interference. the space station program as a partic ipant, and when Administrator Dan Goldin accompanied President Clinton to Brazil in October 1997, NASA and the Brazilian space agency signed an implementing agreement, for the "Design, Development, Operation, and Use of Flight Equipment and Payloads for the ISS." The object of the agreement was for Brazil to produce pieces of hardware for the station, and in return, to have access to research facilities on board, or "util ization rights," and the oppor tunity for a Brazilian astronaut to live on the station. One benefit that Brazil saw in this arrangement is that its uni versities and research centers would be able to cooperate with those of other countries. And Brazilian indus try would have to qualify its industri al processes according to rigorous manned space fl ight standards. Because NASA's budget was increas INPE ingly unable to fulfill all the U.S. Before its launch on from China's Ta iyuan launch center, the Brazilian-made commitments to the station project, China/B razil Earth Remote Sensing satellite underwent acoustic testing at the Brazil would be contributing impor- Chinese Academy of Space Te chnology.
21st CENTURY Spring 2002 51 payloads, for a total of 1.36 tons. The EXPRESS Pallet supplies power and data to each of the payloads. The Technology Experiment Facility (TEF), is hardware to also accommodate experiments on the external structure of the space station, providing long-term exposure to the space environment for payloads. Brazil is to supply one unit, which can be moved from the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle, via the Shuttle's robotic arm, to its position on the truss. Brazil is also to provide the Window Observational Research Facility Block 2, which will be used as a mount for opti cal instruments at the window, for Earth observation. Different scientific instru ments can be mounted behind the win dow at different times. Four Unpres surized Logistics Carriers are also to be built by Brazil, to carry spare parts and maintenance equipment. They will be mounted on the truss and make avail able tools and equipment that can be stored in space. In exchange, the Brazilian space agency is entitled to experiment time, CEBRS- 1 was launched on October 14, 1999, aboard a Chinese Long March using space station equipment, and to rocket, as the first fruit of the China-Brazil space cooperation agreement. room in the Space Shuttle to ferry exper iments up to the station, and back to Earth. Brazil will have available, for example, the use, for one year, of a rack inside the station, where its experiments can be placed. Also available will be 3 percent of the operational time available at the observation window. NASA will provide for one Brazilian Space Agency station crew member for one increment (three or four months of liv ing on the station). Brazilian Air Force Major Marcos Pontes reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1998, to begin his training for a space station mission. Pontes is a test pilot, who has flown 20 different types of aircraft. He had graduated from Naval Postgraduate School in Brazil, when he was select ed for the astronaut program. He is currently working in tech nical assignements in the Astronaut Office, until he is assigned to a space fl ight. Such commitments, running in the hundreds of millions of dollars, have not been easy for Brazil to meet, because of the worsening spiral of debt payments, financial crises, and result ing budget cutbacks. In September 1998, the first contract was signed between INPE and the Boeing Company, to act as a subcontractor fo r the Brazilian space station hardware. The Brazilian Space Agency had delegated INPE to oversee the station work. Brazil was to pay Boeing up to $10 million to provide oversight of INPE the design and integration of the hardware. It was estimated The first image taken by the Wide Field Imager aboard that it would cost about $120 million to meet Brazil's hard CBERS- 1 one week after the launch of the satellite. On the ware commitments. top is a section of the Va lpes River, and near the bottom, of But in early 1999, the Brazilian central bank removed reg the jupura River, southwest of the State of Amazonas. The ulatory constraints and allowed its currency to float, reduc image covers an area of 300 sq kilometers. ing the value of the real compared to the u.S. dollar by 30
52 Spring 2002 21st CENTURY percent. The International Monetary Fund required the country's leaders to implement severe budget cuts and austerity, leading to cuts in the space agency's budget for the International Space Station. By mid-year, Boeing, which was not being paid, removed its consultant and closed its office in Brazil. Brazilian officials warned that such behavior could damage a 15-year relationship with INPE. "If you want to establish and maintain a long partner ship, you don't act like that during the first thun derstorm," stated INPE Director Marcio Nogueira Barbosa. But if Brazil were not to deliver the hard ware, NASA would have until the end of 1999 to find another supplier. On October 6, 1999, NASA officials met with the Brazilian Minister for Science and Tec hnology, who assured NASA that Brazil would meet its obligations for the space station. "We may have to make cuts in other ministries," he said, but the government con Space Activities Commission of Argentina, CONAE siders the project important. The executive branch The first space project developed jointly by two nations of Ibero asked the legislature for $23 million for the next year, America will be the remote-sensing Argentina-Brazil Satellite fo r reversing earlier year 2000 budget plans that did not Investigations in Food, Wa ter, and Environment, or SABIA. It will be include that request. In December, Brazilian officials based on a modular platform concept that can then be utilized fo r ' told NASA that they were resuming station work, and other satellites. Although each nation has specific remote-sensing Boeing was paid the $3 million it had been owed for requirements, the joint satellite allows each country to take advantage work on the EXPRESS Pallet. of the advancements of the other. In January 2001, Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer was awarded the contract to begin construction work Recently, another setback arose in the program. At the end on the EXPRESS Pallet project, based on the feasibility study it of 2001, Embraer's bid to build the hardware was reported ly had conducted. At that time, the projected launch date for the 50 percent higher than the $120 million projected cost. first pallet was 2003, with a total cost of $120 million, spread According to the Brazilian Space Agency, negotations are now over four years. being held, which "could lead to a revision of the proposal" Embraer has made. Embraer's bid estimate is being carefu lly examined. According to NASA, there will be a meeting with Brazilian representatives in the early spring, to make a decision about Brazil's ability to supply the hard ware. Because the EXPRESS Pallet is infrastructure to be used by all of the space station's participants, NASA must ensure that it is completed. Slippage in the overall station schedule, largely as a result of Russian, and now American, budget problems, has forced a delay of the launch of the Pallet to 2005. The NASA official stated that the "whole space sta tion program is in a major state of flux," as a result of the U:S. budget problems, and they "want to keep Pallet Brazil in the project." Brazil made a bold and daring decision to be the first "developing" nation involved in manned space flight. It is a crucial first step, to open this vast and Payload EXPRESS Pallet challenging frontier, with all of the benefit such Attach Structures exploration will have, for all of the nations of Ibero- NASA America. Th e EXPRESS Pallet (for Expedite The Processing of Experiments to Space Station) is Brazil's primary contribution to the International Space Every Child, An Explorer Station-the first by a developing nation. Although a series of financial If the infrastructure and capabilities . for space crises has slowed the timetable for delivering the hardware, Brazil is exploration of all of the nations of Ibero-America determined to meet its commitments and remain in the space station were coordinated, a broad-scale, fu ll-scope space program. program would emerge. Ibero-America, with little if
21st CENTURY Spring 2002 53 any help from other nations, tion, and machine tools; and the could design, build, test, and technical challenges that forced soon, launch satell ites. the introduction of new technol Argentina's experience with its ogy into industry, even continu Condor launcher program ing for two decades after NASA should be applied to the remain had spent the money to take men ing development for Brazil's VLS. to the Moon. This rocket should be available The major problem is not to launch payloads for all Ibero financial, or a lack of capital and American nations. human resources for Ibero Small satellite development, America to carry out great proj taking place in at least Chile, ects in space. The major chal Peru, and Mexico, can be the lenge is the fight that must be stepping-stone for small- and won for the ability of each human modest-sized satellites, not only being to be enabled to make sci for applications in Earth obser entific and economic contribu vation and communications, tions to his country, and for the but, also in space science. Why leadership of nations, to carry out not apply the scientific instru policies based on their sovereign ments and data processing facil self-interest. ities developed for Ibero In 1997, internationally re America's extensive Earth nowned American economist remote sensing projects, for Lyndon LaRouche spoke before example, to studying our next an audience of 500 people, in door neighbor, the Moon? Th ere is nothing more inspiring fo r a young person Lima, Peru, and addressed this By combining the physical, than to see someone who is "like them" carry out question. LaRouche said: "Never scientific, and human resources exciting tasks in space. Air Force Major Marcos accept the idea that certain of this entire region, an Ibero Pontes, an astronaut from the Brazilian Space Agency, natons are rich and others poor. American Space Agency could has been tra ining with NASA as a Mission Specialist Never accept the idea of being a become a fu ll-fledged partner in since 1998, preparing to take his turn living on the poor country. Never conceive of manned space fl ight, while it is International Space Station. Pontes is an example to yourselves as persons from a also developing the ability to all young people in Ibero-America that they too can poor country. I ask you to turn reach out farther into space on its participate in the great adventure of space your eyes to the stars, to see with own. exploration. pride and confidence what the The choice of paths could not mind makes you capable of be more clear. Continued adherence to the dictates of the achieving. Forty years from now, which is not so far away ... bankrupt International Monetary Fund will mean more mis the children of some of the youngest members of this audi ery, and no future. The alternative is the revolution in edu ence will walk on the surface of Mars. The sons and grand cation, infrastructure, and economic technological growth sons of some of the poorest rural families of Peru today will that would be the result of an aggressive space exploration wa lk on Mars." program. The outstanding example of such an effect is the American Apollo program in the 1960s. It created a genera Marsha Freeman is an Associate Editor of 21 st Century. Her tion of new scientists engineers; a demand for basic industri most recent book, Challenges of Human Space Exploration, al goods that required investment in electricity, transporta- was published by Springer Praxis in 2001.
Notes______population growth for U.S. security and overseas interests," was drafted 1. Varotto made his forceful proposal in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, at the under the direction of Ford administration officials Henry Kissinger and Congress of the International Astronautical Federation (IAFJ, titled, "Space Brent Scowcroft in 1974, and declassified in 1991. The focus of this docu Activities in South America." In his speech, Dr. Varotto noted "the possibil ment is not that "overpopulation" prohibits economic growth in the Third ity of shaping, in the not-distant future, a Mercosur [Common Market of the World, which is the argument stated for public consumption. NSSM 200 South] Space Agency, with its prospective extension to other interested directly states that continued population growth in "less developed coun South American countries." The' permanent members of Mercosur are tries" might lead to the increase of the economic, political, and military Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay; associate members are Bolivia power of these countries, at the expense of the power of the Anglo and Chile. Americans! Concern is also voiced that population reduction will help the Although bilateral space cooperation agreements already exist between United States to continue its access to strategic minerals in the developing Argentina and Brazil, Dr. Va rotto explained, joint activity up to the present sector. time has been based on the "coincidence" of activities and projects being NSSM 200 lists 13 "key countries" as special targets for population persued in each country. What is needed are "common specific and decline: India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, Mexico, Indonesia, Brazil, the detailed objectives," from which new joint programs would be organized. Philippines, Thailand, Egypt, Turkey, Ethiopia, and Colombia. Mass sterili Dr. Varotto stressed that it is "a key point to incorporate other South zation, abortion, and '1amily planning" are among the techniques called for American countries into associative space cooperation with Argentina and to undermine the growth of these states. Brazil." More details on NSSM 200 can be found in "U.S. Declassifies Its 2. National Security Study Memorandum 200, titled "Implications of worldwide Depopulation Policy," by Joseph Brewda, 21st Century, Summer 1991, p. 10.
54 Spring 2002 21st CENTURY Hecht, Laurence. "Should the Law of Gravity Be Messer, Philippe. ''The Scientific Renaissance of AUTHOR INDEX Repealed?-The Suppressed Electrodynamics the Medieval Cathedrals." Fall, 17. Aujard, Henry. "August '99 Eclipse Studies Show: of Ampere-Gauss-Weber." Spring, 2. Messer, Philippe. "Genesis and the Laws of The 'Allais Effect' Is Real!" Summer, 70. Hecht, Laurence. "Free Science from Linearity." PhYSics." Fall, 20. Aujard, Henry. "Chronology of Work on Gravitation Summer, 2. Muckerheide, Jim. "For World Development, Go and Relativity." Summer, 73. Hecht, Laurence. ''The Ampere Angular Force As a Nuclear!" Summer, 9. Batterson, Jeremy. "A New Register Shift in the Discoverable Type of 'Natural Product'." Murphy, Greg. "Hot Air Over Wind Energy." Fall, Solar System: How I Know Pluto Is a Kuiper Summer, 20. 66. Object." Summer, 80. Hecht, Laurence. "Why Yo u Don't Believe Fermat's Ohtake, Satoru. "Interview with Satoru Ohtake: Blue, Linden. "Interview with Linden Blue: General Principle." Fall, 2. Japan Urges U.S. to Rejoin Fusion Projecf' Atomics GT-MHR Ready to Go in 6 Ye ars" Hecht, Laurence. "Leibniz, Vernadsky, LaRouche." (Marsha Freeman). Winter, 47. (Marjorie Mazel Hecht). Spring, 57. Winter, 2. Perfect, Ross. "Pitcairn Island Petroglyph Camargo, Guilherme. "Interview with Guilherme Hecht, Marjorie Mazel. ''The New Nuclear Power." Deciphered." Winter, 54. Camargo: How Brazil's Nuclear Association Spring, 49. Planck, Max. "Planck on 'Pseudo-problems in Defeated Greenpeace" (Jonathan Hecht, Marjorie Mazel. "Safer, Cheaper, More Science' ," excerpts translated by Alexander Te nnenbaum). Spring, 63. Efficient: Inside the Fourth-Generation Hartmann with commentary by Caroline Cooper, Bertram. "Building and Using Maui's Reactors." Spring, 50. Hartmann. Summer, 66. Ta nawa." Fall, 61 . Hecht, Marjorie Mazel. "A Meltdown-Proof Sanders, Rick. "Ancient Navigators Could Have Cuttler, Jerry M., D.Sc. ''The Significant Health Reactor: The General Atomics GT-MHR." Measured Longitude!" Fall, 58. Benefits of Nuclear Radiation." Fall, 48. Spring, 55. Saumont, Remi. "Anti-Gravity: Myth or Reality." De Paoli, Dino. "Is Mind a Mystery?" Summer, 29. Hecht, Marjorie Mazel. "Interview with Linden Blue: Spring, 27. Director, Bruce. ''The Division of the Circle and General Atomics GT-MHR Ready to Go in 6 Saumont, Remi. "Anti-Gravity: Myth or Reality/Part Gauss's Concept of the Complex Domain." Years." Spring, 57. 2: The Paradoxes of Moving ElectriCity." Fall, 32. Winter, 20. Hecht, Marjorie Mazel. "South Africa's Supersafe Schauerhammer, Ralf. ''The Natural Science of Director, Bruce. "Gauss and His Te acher [Abraham Pebble Bed Reactor." Spring, 60. Johann Wolfgang v. Goethe." Spring, 12. Gotthelf Kastner]." Winter, 22. Hecht, Marjorie Mazel. "Will the Pebble Bed Come Stevens, Charles B. "John M. Dawson, Fusion Fell, Julian. "Biography of a Renaissance Man to the USA?" Spring, 61. To rch Pioneer, Dies." Winter, 10. Part 2: Barry Fell's Revolution in Deciphering Hecht, Marjorie Mazel. "A Biochemical Approach Stevens, Charles B. "Science Profile: Prof. Old World Scripts." Summer, 36. for Treating Degenerative Diseases of Aging." Frederick Drach Ta ppert, Mathematician and Fell, Julian. "A Personal Note [about Michael Summer, 82. Experimenter." Summer, 8. Thomas Ryan]." Summer, 37. Hecht, Marjorie Mazel. "Remembering Bob Stevens, Charles B. "An AppreCiation of the Work Freeman, Marsha. ''The Deregulation Fraud: It's Stevenson, Oceanographer and Friend." Fall, of Fusion Scientist Daniel Wells." Fall, 12. 14. Not 'Supply and Demand'." Spring, 40. Storms, Edmund. "Where Do We Stand on Cold Freeman, Marsha. "Why U.S. Utilities Were Hecht, Marjorie Mazel. "Food Irradiation Fusion?" Summer, 76. Technology Can Kill Anthrax." Winter, 64. Regulated." Spring, 42. Te nnenbaum, Jonathan. "Interview with Guilherme Freeman, Marsha. "A Coordinated Wall St. Kepler, Johannes. "Objections to Aristotle," trans Camargo: How Brazil's Nuclear Association Assault: Who Killed U.S. Nuclear Power?" lated by George Gregory. Winter, 27. Defeated Greenpeace." Spring, 63. Spring, 70. LaRouche, Lyndon H., Jr. "Lyndon LaRouche Te nnenbaum, Jonathan. "Prince Philip's WWF Freeman, Marsha. "NASA's Hyper-X: Hypersonic Proposes: A 25-Year Solution to the Energy Sues LaRouche Affiliate in Brazil." Spring, 69. 40. Crisis." Spring, 44. Flight Ready for Ta keoff." Fall, Te nnenbaum, Jonathan. "Vernadsky and the Freeman, Marsha. "Will the U.S. Join the World LaRouche, Lyndon H., Jr. "Eurasian Development: Science of Life." Summer, 14. The Next Step for the Biosphere." Summer, 33. Fusion Effort?" Winter, 44. Thomas, Andy. "Interview with Astronaut Andy Freeman, Marsha. "Interview with Satoru Ohtake: LaRouche, Lyndon H., Jr. "The Political Issue of Thomas: It's Time for Australia to Get Into Japan Urges U.S. to Rejoin Fusion Project." Human Cloning." Fall, 4. Space!" (Marsha Freeman). Winter, 59. Winter, 47. LaRouche, Lyndon H., Jr. "Metalingual Gregory, George. "Afterword: The Context of Decipherment: The Implications of Sumerian." SUBJECT INDEX Kepler's Attack on Aristotle's Lie." Winter, 39. Winter, 6. Gregory, George, tr., "Kepler Exposes Aristotle's Lillge, Wolfgang, M.D. "Biophysics and the Life Agriculture Sabotage of Astronomy," a translation of Process." Summer, 24. News Brief. "Brazil to Ta ke a Leading Role in Food Kepler's "Objections to Aristotle." Winter, 27. Lillge, Wolfgang, M.D. ''The Case for Adult Stem Irradiation." Summer, 6. Grenier, Emmanuel. "B. Soldano on the Non Cell Research." Winter, 51 . Equivalence of Inertial and Gravitational Mass." Lowry, Colin. "How Do Cells See Each Other?" Astronomy and Astrophysics Spring, 34. Spring, 74. Aujard, Henry. "August '99 Eclipse Studies Show: Hartmann, Caroline. "100 Years of Quantum Madueno Paulet de Vasquez, Sara. "Pedro Paulet: The 'Allais Effect' Is Real!" Summer, 70. Physics: Max Planck's Unanswered Challenge." Peruvian Space and Rocket Pioneer." Winter, Batterson, Jeremy. "A New Register Shift in the Summer, 64. 11. Solar System: How I Know Pluto Is a Kuiper
INDEX 21st CENTURY Spring 2002 55 Object." Summer, 80. News Brief. "21st Century Book Credited as Freeman, Marsha. "Why U.S. Utilities Were Freeman, Marsha. "NASA's Hyper-X: Hypersonic Leading Opposition to Ozone Scare." Spring, Regulated." Spring, 42. Flight Ready for Ta keoff." Fall, 40. 11. Freeman, Marsha. "A Coordinated Wall St. Gregory, George. "Afterword: The Context of Camargo, Guilherme. "Interview with Guilherme Assault: Who Killed U.S. Nuclear Power?" Kepler's Attack on Aristotle's Lie." Winter, 39. Camargo: How Brazil's Nuclear Association Spring, 70. Defeated Greenpeace" (Jonathan Kepler, Johannes. "Objections to Aristotle," trans Editors. "Bring Science Back to Life: Vernadsky's Te nnenbaum). Spring, 63. lated by George Gregory. Winter, 27. Method" (A Schiller Institute Conference). Te nnenbaum, Jonathan. "Prince Philip's WWF Summer, 13. Biography and Obituary Sues LaRouche Affiliate in Brazil." Spring, 69. Te nnenbaum, Jonathan. "Vernadsky and the News Brief. "Mel Gottlieb, Director of Princeton News Brief. "World Going Toward a Glacial Era, Science of Life." Summer, 14. Fusion Lab, Dies." Spring, 11. MIT Climate Scientist Says." Summer, 6. Hecht, Laurence. ''The Ampere Angular Force As a Schauerhammer, Ralf. ''The Natural Science of News Brief. "Prince Bernhard Sued for Crimes Discoverable Type of 'Natural Product'." Johann Wolfgang v. Goethe." Spring, 12. Against Humanity." Summer, 6. Summer, 20. Stevens, Charles B. "Science Profile: Prof. News Brief. "Bug Power Eats Into the Professed Lillge, Wolfgang, M.D. "Biophysics and the Life Frederick Drach Ta ppert, Mathematician and Efficiency of Windpower." Summer, 7. Process." Summer, 24. Experimenter." Summer, 8. News Brief. "Brazil Court Revokes Order Seizing De Paoli, Dino. "Is Mind a Mystery?" Summer, 29. Fell, Julian. "Biography of a Renaissance Man Green MafiaBook." Fall, 10. Hartmann, Caroline. "100 Years of Quantum Part 2: Barry Fell's Revolution in Deciphering News Brief. "Monarch Caterpillars Are Not Physics: Max Planck's Unanswered Challenge." Old World Scripts." Summer, 36. Sensitive to Pollen from Bt Corn." Fall, 10. Summer, 64. Fell, Julian. "A Personal Note [about Michael News Brief. " 'The World Is Going Toward a Planck, Max. "Planck on 'Pseudo-problems in Thomas Ryan)." Summer, 37. Glacial Era,' Says Lindzen." Fall, 11. Science'," translated by Alexander Hartmann Stevens, Charles B. "An Appreciation of the Work Murphy, Greg. "Hot Air Over Wind Energy." Fall, with commentary by Caroline Hartmann. of Fusion Scientist Daniel Wells." Fall, 12. 66. Summer, 66. Hecht, Marjorie Mazel. "Remembering Bob Aujard, Henry. "August '99 Eclipse Studies Show: Stevenson, Oceanographer and Friend." Fall, Epigraphy The 'Allais Effect' Is Real!" Summer, 70. 14. Fell, Julian. "Biography of a Renaissance Man Aujard, Henry. "Chronology of Work on Gravitation News Brief. "Enrico Fermi Honored at Italian Part 2: Barry Fell's Revolution in Deciphering and Relativity." Summer, 73. Old World Scripts." Summer, 36. Embassy in Washington, D.C." Winter, 8. Hecht, Laurence. "Why You Don't Believe Fermat's Stevens, Charles B. "John M. Dawson, Fusion Sanders, Rick. "Ancient Navigators Could Have Principle." Fall, 2. Measured Longitude!" Fall, 58. To rch Pioneer, Dies." Winter, 10. Messer, Philippe. "The Scientific Renaissance of Madueno Paulet de Vasquez, Sara. "Pedro Paulet: Cooper, Bertram. "Building and Using Maui's the Medieval Cathedrals." Fall, 17. Ta nawa." Fall, 61. Peruvian Space and Rocket Pioneer." Winter, Messer, Philippe. "Genesis and the Laws of 11. Perfect, Ross. "Pitcairn Island Petroglyph Physics." Fall, 20. Deciphered." Winter, 54. Biology Saumont, Remi. "Anti-Gravity: My1h or Reality/Part Epistemology and Scientific Method 2-The Paradoxes of Moving Electricity." Fall, Schauerhammer, Ralf. "The Natural Science of 32. Johann Wolfgang v. Goethe." Spring, 12. Saumont, Remi. "Anti-Gravity: My1h or Reality." Sanders, Rick. "Ancient Navigators Could Have Spring, 27. Lowry, Colin. "How Do Cells See Each Other?" Measured Longitude!" Fall, 58. Spring, 74. Hecht, Laurence. "Free Science from Linearity." Cooper, Bertram. "Building and Using Maui's Summer, 2. Lillge, Wolfgang, M.D. "Biophysics and the Life Ta nawa." Fall, 61 . Process." Summer, 24. Editors. "Bring Science Back to Life: Vernadsky's Hecht, Laurence. "Leibniz, Vernadsky, LaRouche." Method" (A Schiller Institute Conference). Hecht, Marjorie Mazel. "A Biochemical Approach Winter, 2. for Treating Degenerative Diseases of Aging." Summer, 13. LaRouche, Lyndon H., Jr. "Metalingual Summer, 82. Te nnenbaum, Jonathan. "Vernadsky and the Decipherment: The Implications of Sumerian." Science of Life." Summer, 14. LaRouche, Lyndon H., Jr. ''The Political Issue of Winter, 6. Human Cloning." Fall, 4. De Paoli, Dino. "Is Mind a Mystery?" Summer, 29. News Brief. "Enrico Fermi Honored at Italian Lillge, Wolfgang, M.D. ''The Case for Adult Stem Fell, Julian. "Biography of a Renaissance Man Embassy in Washington, D.C." Winter, 8. Cell Research." Winter, 51 . Part 2: Barry Fell's Revolution in Deciphering Madueno Paulet de Vasquez, Sara. "Pedro Paulet: Old World Scripts." Summer, 36. Development and Population Policy Peruvian Space and Rocket Pioneer." Winter, Hartmann, Caroline. "100 Years of Quantum 11. LaRouche, Lyndon H., Jr. "Lyndon LaRouche Physics: Max Planck's Unanswered Challenge." Director, Bruce. "Gauss and His Teacher [Abraham Proposes: A 25-Year Solution to the Energy Summer, 64. Crisis." Spring, 44. Gotthelf Kastner)." Winter, 22. Hecht, Laurence. "Why You Don't Believe Fermat's Gregory, George, tr., "Kepler Exposes Aristotle's Muckerheide, Jim. "For World Development, Go Principle." Fall, 2. Nuclear!" Summer, 9. Sabotage of Astronomy," a translation of Saumont, Remi. "Anti-Gravity: My1h or Reality/Part Kepler's "Objections to Aristotle." Winter, 27. LaRouche, Lyndon H., Jr. "Eurasian Development: 2-The Paradoxes of Moving Electricity." Fall, Gregory, George. "Afterword: The Context of The Next Step for the Biosphere." Summer, 33. 32. Kepler's Attack on Aristotle's Lie." Winter, 39. Earth Science LaRouche, Lyndon H., Jr. "Metalingual Decipherment: The Implications of Sumerian." Mathematics News Brief. "World Going Toward a Glacial Era, Winter, 6. MIT Climate Scientist Says." Summer, 6. Director, Bruce. "The Division of the Circle and Gauss's Concept of the Complex Domain." News Brief. " 'The World Is Going To ward a Fusion Winter, 20. Glacial Era,' Says Lindzen." Fall, 11. See Nuclear Science. Medicine Engineering and Cybernetics Geometry News Brief. "Brazil to Take a Leading Role in Food News Brief. "Maglev Train System Will Provide Director, Bruce. ''The Division of the Circle and Irradiation." Summer, 6. Greater Security." Fall, 11. Gauss's Concept of the Complex Domain." Hecht, Marjorie Mazel. "A Biochemical Approach News Brief. "Leaning To wer of Pisa Reopens After Winter, 20. for Treating Degenerative Diseases of Aging." Engineers Stabilize Its Tilt." Winter, 8. History of Science and Te chnology Summer, 82. Environment and Environmentalism Director, Bruce. ''The Division of the Circle and Cuttler, Jerry M., D.Sc. ''The Significant Health Benefits of Nuclear Radiation." Fall, 48. News Brief. "Why Britain's Queen Elizabeth Just Gauss's Concept of the Complex Domain." Loves Her Aboriginals." Spring, 10. Winter, 20. News Brief. "Ritalin Has Same Effects As Amphetamines and Cocaine." Winter, 9. News Brief. "Animal Rights Leader Boasts of Hecht, Laurence. "Should the Law of Gravity Be Disdain for Life: Animal and Human." Spring, 11. Repealed?-The Suppressed Electrodynamics News Brief. "France Sets Up Mad Cow Disease of Ampere-Gauss-Weber." Spring, 2. Lab at Atomic Research Center." Winter, 9.
56 Spring 2002 21 st CENTURY INDEX Lillge, Wolfgang, M.D. 'The Case for Adult Stem Batterson, Jeremy. "A New Register Shift in the BOOK REVIEWS Cell Research." Winter, 51 . Solar System: How I Know Pluto Is a Kuiper Berggren, J. Lennart, and Alexander Jones. Object." Summer, 80. Hecht, Marjorie Mazel. "Food Irradiation Ptolemy's Geography: An Annotated Tra nslation Saumont, Rami. "Anti-Gravity: Myth or Reality/Part Te chnology Can Kill Anthrax." Winter, 64. of the Th eoretical Chapters. (Rick Sanders) Fall, 2-The Paradoxes of Moving ElectriCity." Fall, 71. Nuclear Science, Nuclear Energy, 32. Birch, Beverly. Marie Curie: Courageous Pioneer and Fusion Science and Technology Policy in the Study of Radioactivity. (Marjorie Mazel News Brief. "Domenici Bill (S.472) Gives Timetable Hecht) Fall, 71 . to Develop New Nuclear Reactor." Spring, 10. News Brief. "Domenici Bill (S.472) Gives Timetable to Develop New Nuclear Reactor." Bonnicksen, Dr. Thomas M. America's Ancient Hecht, Marjorie Mazel. 'The New Nuclear Power." Spring, 10. Forests: From the Ice Age to the Age of Spring, 49. Discovery. (Richard S. Bennett) Summer, 86. News Brief. "Freeman Speaks at NASA Ames Hecht, Marjorie Mazel. "Safer, Cheaper, More on 'The Extraterrestrial Imperative'." Spring, Cook, Walton. Buzzword. (Valerie Rush) Winter, Efficient: Inside the Fourth-Generation 11. 71 . Reactors." Spring, 50. News Brief. "2 1st Century Book Credited as Forster, George. A Voyage Round the Wo rld. (Rick Hecht, Marjorie Mazel. "A Meltdown-Proof Leading Opposition to Ozone Scare." Spring, and Lenore Sanders) Winter, 66. Reactor: The General Atomics GT-MHR." 11. Golf, Dr. M. Lee. A Fly for the Prosecution: How Spring, 55. LaRouche, Lyndon H., Jr. "Lyndon LaRouche Insect Evidence Helps Solve Crimes. (J. Gordon Blue, Linden. "Interview with Linden Blue: General Proposes: A 25-Year Solution to the Energy Edwards, Ph.D.) Spring, 86. Atomics GT-MHR Ready to Go in 6 Years" Crisis." Spring, 44. Hall, Rex, editor. The Mir Space Station: Russia 's (Ma�orie Mazel Hecht). Spring, 57. Hecht, Marjorie Mazel. "The New Nuclear Power." National Pride. (Marsha Freeman) Spring, 88. Hecht, Ma�orie Mazel. "South Africa's Supersafe Spring, 49. Hench, Larry BOing-Boing the Bionic Cat and Pebble Bed Reactor." Spring, 60. l. Freeman, Marsha. "A Coordinated Wall St. the Jewel Th ief. (Marjorie Mazel Hecht) Fall, Hecht, Marjorie Mazel. "Will the Pebble Bed Come Assault: Who Killed U.S. Nuclear Power?" 71 . to the USA?" Spring, 61 . Spring, 70. Klugar, Jeffrey. Moon Hunters: NASA's Camargo, Guilherme. "Interview with Guilherme News Brief. 'World Going To ward a Glacial Era, Remarkable Exp editions to the Ends of the Camargo: How Brazil's Nuclear Association Mit Climate Scientist Says." Summer, 6. Solar Sys tem. (Marsha Freeman) Summer, 87. Defeated Greenpeace" (Jonathan Sproule, Anna. Thomas Edison: The Wo rld's Te nnenbaum). Spring, 63. News Brief. "Nuclear Power Prospects Expanding In Asia, IAEA Says." Summer, 6. Greatest Inventor. (Marjorie Mazel Hecht) Fall, Freeman, Marsha. "A Coordinated Wall St. 72. Assault: Who Killed U.S. Nuclear Power?" News Brief. "Bug Power Eats Into the Professed Vernadsky, Vladimir I. The Biosphere, tr. D.B. Spring, 70. Efficiency of Windpower." Summer, 7. Langmuir, ed. Mark A.S. McMenamin (Elisabeth News Brief. "Nuclear Power Prospects Expanding Storms, Edmund. "Where Do We Stand on Cold Pascali) Spring, 82. In Asia, IAEA Says." Summer, 6. Fusion?" Summer, 76. Wilmut, lan, Keith Campbell, and Colin Tudge. The Muckerheide, Jim. "For World Development, Go LaRouche, Lyndon H., Jr. "The Political Issue of Second Creation: Dolly and the Age of Nuclearl" Summer, 9. Human Cloning." Fall, 4. Biological Control. (Colin M. Lowry) Fall, 68. Storms, Edmund. "Where Do We Stand on Cold News Brief. "Brazil Court Revokes Order Seizing Fusion?" Summer, 76. Green MafiaBook." Fall, 10. News Brief. "Will the U.S. Join the ITER News Brief. "Maglev Train System Will Provide Intemational Fusion Project?" Fall, 10. Greater Security." Fall, 11. News Brief. "Russia and India to Sign Nuclear News Brief. "Russia and India to Sign Nuclear Power Plant DeaL" Fall, 11. Power Plant Deal." Fall, 11. News Brief. "Indonesia, Republic of Korea Sign Cuttler, Jerry M., D.Sc. "The Significant Health Nuclear Desalination Pact." Fall, 11. Benefits of Nuclear Radiation." Fall, 48. Stevens, Charles B. "An Appreciation of the Work Murphy, Greg. "Hot Air Over Wind Energy." Fall, of Fusion Scientist Daniel Wells." Fall, 12. 66. Back Issues of Freeman, Marsha. 'Will the U.S. Join the World News Brief. "Protests Mount Over U.S. Cuts to Fusion Effort?" Winter, 44. Intemational Space Station." Winter, 8. Ohtake, Satoru. "Interview with Satoru Ohtake: News Brief. "France Sets Up Mad Cow Disease 21st CENTURY SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Japan Urges U.S. to Rejoin Fusion Project" Lab at Atomic Research Center." Winter, ·9. (Marsha Freeman). Winter, 47. News Brief. "China Reaffirms Plan for First Hecht, Marjorie Mazel. "Food Irradiation Manned Space Flight." Winter, 9. Te chnology Can Kill Anthrax." Winter, 64. Thomas, Andy. "Interview with Astronaut Andy are available at Thomas: It's Time for Australia to Get Into Pedagogy Space!" (Marsha Freeman). Winter, 59. $5 each postpaid Sanders, Rick. "Ancient Navigators Could Have Hecht, Marjorie Mazel. "Food Irradiation ($8 foreign). Measured Longitude!" Fall, 58. Te chnology Can Kill Anthrax." Winter, 64. Cooper, Bertram. "Building and Using Maui's Space Science, Te chnology, Ta nawa." Fall, 61. Send check or money order and Exploration Physics U.S. currency only News Brief. "Freeman Speaks at NASA Ames on News Brief. "First High-Temperature 'The Extraterrestrial Imperative.' "Spring, 11. Superconductor Cable Ready in Detroit." Freeman, Marsha. "NASA's Hyper-X: Hypersonic Spring, 10. Flight Ready for Ta keoff." Fall, 40. Grenier, Emmanuel. "B. Soldano on the Non News Brief. "Protests Mount Over U.S. Cuts to Equivalence of Inertial and Gravitational Mass." 21 st Century International Space Station." Winter, 8. Spring, 34. News Brief. "China Reaffirms Plan for First P.O. Box 16285 News Brief. "Sensational Russian Announcement Manned Space Flight." Winter, 9. of New State of Matter." Summer, 7. Washington, D.C. 20041 Madueno Paulet de Vasquez, Sara. "Pedro Paulet: Hartmann, Caroline. "100 Years of Quantum Peruvian Space and Rocket Pioneer." Winter Physics: Max Planck's Unanswered Challenge." ' 11. Or order online at Summer, 64. Thomas, Andy. "Interview with Astronaut Andy Planck, Max. "Planck on 'Pseudo-problems in www.21stc.enturysciencetech.com Thomas: Ifs Time for Australia to Get Into Science'," translated by Alexander Hartmann Space!" (Marsha Freeman). Winter, 59. with commentary by Caroline Hartmann." Ifldex fo r 1988-2000 available on website Summer, 66.
INDEX 21st CENTURY Spring 2002 57 SPECIAL REPORT
Why There Really Are No Limits to Growth by Ralf Schauerhammer
n recent months, it has I become noticeable that the political endurance of the green zero-growth ide ology is disappearing. For example, the greens were not able-except some times in attenuated form to push through internation ally their measures against emissions of what they call the "climate poison," car bon dioxide. Such develop" ments have created a politi cal environment in which more and more scientists have gotten up the nerve to come out openly against the untenable theory that the effect of human industry is to bring about a global climate catastrophe. In Germany, which vaunts itself as an international model of ecological aware The decisive fa ctor fo r judging the long-term, self-subsisting growth process of the economy is ness, the Green Party is fight the development of the creative power of labor. Th is is the cornerstone of the American System ing to stay above 5 percent in of physical economy, which is diametrically opposed to the British "free market" system. Here, the regional elections and an illustration of the Milwaukee Iron Company works in 19th Century America. the coming federal elections. Meanwhile, in Denmark, a true eco-EI Since the paradigm shift towards a reality, only "multiplication." It reminds Dorado, the prime minister of the new zero-growth society, brought about by one of the classic example of the lily government, the ultra-liberal Fogh the forces behind the Club of Rome pond, where the plant population dou Rasmussen, gave "eco-skeptic" Bjorn aided and abetted by more than 30 bles each week. After only one week it is Lomborg the job of making an in-depth years of conscious lies and propagan completely fu ll, and-Help! But that is examination of state expenditures for da2-billions of dollars have been not growth, it is no more than multipli green projects. thrown away upon ideologically moti cation, which naturally finds its "limits'" Lomborg, a former member of Green vated projects. A correction of the worst in the pond's surface area. peace, and Associate Professor of excretions of this paradigm shift is long True growth includes a quality that Statistics at Aarhaus University in overdue. But what should be the con transcends mere multiplication. The Denmark, authored a book last year, The ceptual basis for this overdue correc clearest example is the growth of a Skeptical Environmentalist, which rips tion, for an enduring improvement of human being in the first year after the to pieces-one by one-the hair-raising, the human economy in the biosphere? fertilization of the egg, from which he or lying fairy tales of the environmentalist That is the question. she grows. In this process, it is not so mafia.1 And this same "dissident" First, let us ask ourselves, what made much a question of multiplication of Lomborg will now preside over when it so easy for the Club of Rome to pull off cells, but rather permanent differentia and where the money spigot to the its desired paradigm shift? The trick they tion, reorganization, and the develop greens is going to be turned off. The pain pulled in their notorious report, Th e ment of new organs, which are the sub threshold has been passed, and a wail Limits to Growth, was so transparent, stance of true growth. The quality of ing and gnashing of teeth are resounding that nobody should have fa llen for it. change of the growth process becomes throughout the media and the Internet, The trick consisted of using the word particularly obvious with the singular hoping for its green echo. "growth," for something which is, in event known as birth. Yet, in principle,
58 Spring 2002 21 st CENTURY SPECIAL REPORT the same qual itative transformation is 23 of that year, appeared under the title, true for any growth process that is capa "The Path of Hayek, Scientist of Freedom, ble of maintaining itself over any length Has Come to an End." Simon wrote: of time. Naturally, that is especially the "Hayek's great work all flows from the case for economic processes. fundamental vision of classical econom Why did almost all politicians, econ ics and political science, which Hayek omists, and scientists fall for this simple terms 'spontaneous order.' This evolu trick? The reason lies in a deeply rooted tionary principle (originally enunciated in flaw in the thinking process of the dom 1705 by Bernard de Mandeville) ascribes inant free market economic doctrine, the development of society and economy which makes its acolytes blind to the to what Adam Ferguson-colleague of trick. Anyone who thinks that value is David Hume and Adam Smith-called created by the parasitical buy-Iow-and the 'invisible hand.' Hayek flexibly and sell-high principle, does not understand pragmatically adapted this principle to true growth at all. various conditions of modern everyday Likewise, anyone who seeks to meas life ...." ure economic growth, as an accountant The admiration was mutual, as attested might, in fixed scalar units, such as tons in two letters of von Hayek, which Simon of prodl,lction, quantities of money, included in the appendix to his book, Th e Bjorn Lomborg official web page prices, amounts of energy, and so on, Ultimate Resource. In the first letter, dated fails to see-just as does the Club of Skeptical environmentalist Prof. Bjorn March 22, 1981, von Hayek writes: Rome-the decisive factor for judging Lomborg, whose arguments stay within "Dear Professor Simon, the long-term, self-subsisting growth the realm of statistics. "I have never before written a fan letter process of the economy, namely, the to a professional colleague, but to dis development of the creative power of tively oppose the Club of Rome's notori cover that you have in your Economics of labor. The essential dynamic of this ous trick. Thus, an examination of Population Growth provided the empiri qual itative development cannot by its Simon's theses promises an interesting cal evidence for what with me is the very nature be captured by purely statis insight, into whether or not the new result of a life-time of theoretical specula tical methods, nor by so-called "nonlin opposition to zero-growth ideology can tion, is too exciting an experience not to ear" mathematical models. It is this overcome its blind spot. share it with you. The upshot of my theo "dogmatic" problem which we will Julian Simon and Friedrich Hayek retical work has been the conclusion that examine more closely here. On April 13, 1992, Simon's obituary of those traditional rules of conduct (esp. of Bjorn lomborg and Julian Simon Friedrich Hayek, who had died on March several property [property held in sever In arguing as a "skeptical environmen alty--exclusively, not jointly]) which led talist," Bjorn Lomborg avoids everything to the greatest increases of the numbers of which is not directly related to statistics. the groups practicing them leads to their Statistics is his professional field, and here displacing the others-not on he feels himself relatively secure against 'Darwinian' principles, but because the flood of attacks from green quarters. based on the transmission of learned This position is understandable enough, rules-a concept of evolution which is but hardly adequate for making a funda much older than Darwin." mental change fo r the better. It is clear Isn't it touching to see the two men and Lomborg discusses this-that his fall joyfully into each other's arms, to thinking is strongly influenced by the celebrate their agreement about the American economist, Julian Simon. most essential point of economic sci Julian L. Simon, who died in 1998, ence? Too bad they both are dead asserted-contrary to today's ruling par wrong! With "spontaneous order," adigm-that the resources of mankind "invisible hands," and long-wave. statis are not finite, and that, in particular, the tics, the secret of true growth in the "master resource," energy, is adequately economy of humankind in the eco available. "At worst, the cost ceiling pro sphere can never be discovered. vided by nuclear power guarantees that Mandeville Vs. Leibniz the cost of electrical power cannot rise In 1705, Mandeville published a cyn far above present energy costs, political Economist julian Simon, who ical satire, called The Grumbling Hive obstacles aside," he writes.3 influenced Lomborg, argues correctly republished in 1714 as The Fable of the Yet, at the same time, Simon was a that there are no limits to growth, but Bees, or Private Vice, Public Virtue representative of the free market eco locates himself in the "free market" which Simon emphasizes in his obituary nomic theory of von Hayek-precisely British school, which has fa iled to as the "source" of Hayek's and his own that theory, which was unable to effec- effectively oppose the zero-growthers. most essential concept. This satire
SPECIAL REPORT 21 st CENTURY Spring 2002 59 became a bestseller and was reprinted Hobbesian thinking and feeling, and five times during Mandeville's lifetime. becomes a fellow citizen of the "best of Mandeville maintained that Thomas all possible worlds." Leibniz did not call Hobbes's war of all against all, is that it this because everything in the world which forces man-a "creature of was as good as it could be,S but because instinct"-into a social order, and this man has the freedom to comprehend the yields Mandeville's essential thesis: that world and willfully improve it-that is, what we call evil in the world, both the as a creature in the image of God, to moral and the natural, is the great princi take part in creation. Schiller expressed ple which makes us into social beings, the this Leibnizian thought, saying, "To be solid basis fo r life, and the basis for all the like God is the destiny of man"6 industry and occupations of man, without Based on this fundamental standpoint, exception; here it is that we have to search Leibn iz developed the foundations of for all art and science. As soon as evil scientific economics, which explains the should cease to exist, society would have creation of value by the increase of to decay, if not go under completely.4 labor power and technology-and that Thus, the "moral" thrust of The Fable without any invisible or spontaneous of the Bees, according to Mandeville, is hands and things. that "There must be pride, luxury, and This economic science was carried over deceit for a people to flourish." Frederich von Hayek, free market guru, to the United States, the "New World," by Happy the one who has not yet come based his philosophy on 18th Century Benjamin Franklin, and further developed into contact with the history of free mar Bernard Mandeville's principle that there. We ll into the 19th Century, this was ket economic dogma, and wou ld now "there must be pride, luxury, and deceit still known as the "American System," the naturally ask such "naive" questions as: fo r a people to fl ourish." diametric opposite of the British System, How is it possible that only evil, pride, the predecessor to what is today euphe luxury, and deceit can do something to a servant of his whims and wishes, and mistically called "globalization." In the 20th good for society, and, in the second thus must ascribe the existence of society Century, British free trade dogma dominat place, how can improvement of society to "invisible" gods, and the development ed ever more strongly, and today the only take place by evolution based on "spon of society to "spontaneous"-that is, economist who draws explicitly upon the taneous orderi ng"? "unknowable"-organizational process Leibnizian tradition of the American Both questions are justified, and easy to es), the free moral activity of man brings System, is Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. answer: both are ideologically based pos a joy and a happiness, next to which the Simon Vs. LaRouche tulates, far removed from actual relations most liberal indulgence of the senses I now present some excerpts from among human beings. There is absolutely pales in comparison. Julian Simon's "Grand Theory" and go no basis for free market economic theory'S The individual who is moral in this into more detail on the concepts of "optimistic" dogma that "maximal person sense, becomes a free citizen of a uni Lyndon LaRouche. The intention here is al gain produces maximum social gain." verse that remains completely closed to not merely to fa ult the Lomborg and It is obvious that, contrary to th is Simon books. Their statistical material is dogma, human societies do not arise helpful, and should be used to beat the spontaneously, behind the back of human ecomafia over the head, boxing their intellect, so to speak, once people are ears with it until they should no longer allowed to indulge their sensual drives, dare to spread their shameless lies. perhaps as the autocatalytic fo rmation of Yet, for us to succeed in turning structures occurs in chemical reaction around the decades-long march down systems, or as in computers which form the road to an environmentalist dictator the images of structures for chaos theo ship, and to solve the current economic reticians. The improvement of social problems, will depend entirely upon the organization is always conceived of by degree to which we might rediscover, human beings, and fo ught for. And often, along with LaRouche, the Leibnizian Friedrich Schiller reminds us, it must be concepts, apply them, and develop paid for with the "blood of the best and them further. the most noble." In Chapter 4 of his book, Simon True human freedom is moral action. explains his "Grand Theory" as follows: Moral action does not consist of following "After I investigated case after case of a set of virtuous, socially determined rules. phenomena which the doomsters said The creative man acts morally when he is were getting worse because of increasing acting in accordance with his free will. Central to the free market school is the scarcity and population growth, and fo und Quite the opposite of the free-marketeer's view of Th omas Hobbes (1588-1 679) of instead that they were getting better ... I concept of freedom (which degrades man mankind as a war of all against all. began to wonder whether there is a deep
60 Spring 2002 21st CENTURY SPECIAL REPORT connection, a general theory that em has to explain what this means, and in through the application of valid discov braces all these phenomena. And I believe which way it is done, he insists on put eries of principle, the following must be there is.... In short, humankind has ting man's conscious creativity in paren said of the notion of time."l evolved into creators and problem-solvers. theses, and relegating it to a "sponta This difference between Simon and Our constructive behavior has counted for neous" evolutionary process, which the LaRouche in the creative role of the sov more than our using-up and destructive "individual" does not need to be able to ereign individual, is not something behavior, as seen in our increasing length recognize, nor is able to recognize, minor. It is of decisive political signifi of life and richness of consumption. This because of its "complexity." cance, for from LaRouche's standpoint, view of the average human as builder con Such contradiction is absolutely not what follows is that the individual must ' fl icts with the view of the average human there in the work of LaRouche. For him, orient himself to take that political as destroyer which underlies the thought the case is just as simple as it, in fact, is. action which will lead to the betterment of many doomsdayers." To the degree that the individuals in of society through individual action. So far, we could not be in greater society; embody and bring into action Simon's "spontaneous" mechanism, agreement. The problem with Simon's their typically human creative capabili which acts largely behind the backs of "Grand Theory" makes its first appear ty, and consciously transform their tech those involved, negates precisely indi ance when he explains how and why nology and culture, their relative popu vidual responsibility, and, true to the humankind is generally capable of cre lation density increases-a prerequisite doctrine of Mandeville, from the evil ative activity. He writes: for the long-term survival of society. individual comes-wonderfu lly-eco "The sort of analysis suggested by LaRouche states this as fo llows: nomic progress. Politically, LaRouche's Friedrich Hayek, offers an explanation of " ... Reduced to essentials of principle, appraisal is the foundation for a neces the observed long-term trend. Hayek (fol all validatable discoveries of universal sarily representative republican society, lowing upon Hume) urges upon us that physical principle, occur in the same while Simon's is very well accepted in ' humankind has evolved sets of rules and general form. (1) The use of experimental an aristocratic system, or a plutocracy in patterns of living which are consistent with methods to generate an ontological para democratic disguise, such as the United survival and growth rather than with dox in an existing equivalent, or analog States of recent years. decline and extinction, an aspect of the of a mathematical physics; (2) The gener Anti-Entropy Vs. Evolution evolutionary selection for survival and ation of a solution, in the form of a newly Simon makes his "Grand Theory" growth rather than with decline and extinc discovered, or rediscovered technology, more profound through considerations tion, an aspect of the evolutionary selec or universal principle, from within the taken from physics, entering into the tion for survival among past societies .... sovereign cognitive capabilities of an problem of "entropy and limits." It is "What are the key patterns that main individual mind; (3) The replication of the useful for us to also follow him onto this tained us and increased our numbers? original experiment and act of discovery terrain, since it is to be suspected that Certainly the evolved cultural patterns within the sovereign cognitive powers of here too, we will find again, in a differ include voluntary exchange between another individual. (4) The sharing of this ent form, the same problem that we just individuals, and the market that experience, in a sufficiently broad way, discussed above. Simon declares: humankind has evolved to provide within a society, to permit the discovered "The Second Law of Thermodynamics resources in increasing quantities; insti principle to become a subject of the asserts that in a closed system (please tutions, such as schools that pass on cooperative practice needed to bring the note those crucial two words) the random knowledge; libraries and legends and use of the principle to fruition. That, in disorder of energy-charged particles must storytellers that store knowledge; and the simplest possible way, is what should increase over time. The faster that the monasteries and laboratories and R&D be understood as the act of discovery and particles move ... the faster the move departments that produce knowledge .... social integration of a validatable univer ment away from order toward disorder.... "But ignorance of these cultural and sal physical principle. The doomsdayers extrapolate from this biological patterns is not devastating for "This method is the foundation for the simple idea the belief that the more fuel us, and such ignorance ought not to be Classical humanist mode in education, that humans use in current decades, the surprising, given the complexity of these including one's own self-education. In sooner our species must come to an end patterns and the difficulty of any one the process of developing mankind's or lack of energy to maintain a patterned person seeing much of any pattern. increasing mastery of the universe, there existence .... This vision is set forth well Belief that our evolved history is, as I is a certain ordering in·the determination by the noted mathematician Norbert suggest, toward being creators rather of which discovery must tend to occur Wiener, who at last viewed the grim than destroyers may be strengthened by first, and as second which is likely to future with an attitude of Whitmanesque some evidence that such evolution occur only in the changed environment nobility rather than panic. ..." spontaneously occurs independently brought into existence by the prior dis And this is how Simon proposes to within most human groups, as a result of covery. Since the increase of mankind's solve the problem: the conditions of natural life that potential relative population-density, as "But whereas the Second Law implies humankind faces." measured per-capita, per square kilome decreasing order, from the point of view of Is this not remarkable? Simon empha ter, and in terms of demographic charac human beings all our observations record sizes the development of mankind teristics of populations, is the result of a long-term increase rather than decrease through and for creativity, but when he man's increasing mastery of the universe in disorder, no matter what quantities we
SPECIAL REPORT 21st CENTURY Spring 2002 61 look at. The increase in complexity of liv action in Euclidean space, but demands ing things throughout geological time, and the concept of the multiply connected of human society throughout history, are Riemannian manifold. the most important examples, of course. Perhaps the following simile can pro BiologiCally-as is suggested by the word vide an idea of this. Imagine a phase 'evolution'-the Earth has changed from a space, in which the principle of dead smaller number of species of simple crea matter works as a kind of funnel, in which tures toward a larger number of complex a ball bearing runs an elliptical path. The and ordered creatures. Geologically, the living principle is active in this process, activities of human beings have resulted in not by working upon the ball directly, but a greater heaping up of particular materi rather, with a very weak force, deforming als in concentrated piles, e.g., the gold in the boundary conditions of the fu nnel. By Fort Knox and in gold jewelry compared this means, in spite of its weakness, the to the gold in streams, or the steel in build living principle can bring about qualita ings and junk piles compared to the iron tive changes, for example, in that it and other ores in the ground .... All this changes the funnel enough, that the suggests more rather than less order in the "non-living" ellipse suddenly becomes a human environment with the passage of parabola or a hyperbola. time, and hence contradicts theories of This double process, which again increasing entropy.... The concept of should be thought of as a single process, entropy simply doesn't matter for human in turn has working upon it in a similar well-being. Our earthly island of order can manner, the principle of human reason, grow indefinitely within the universal' sea creating a higher quality of singularities. of chaos. Life could even spread from The most essential point here is that Earth to other planets, other galaxies, etc. Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr., today the only LaRouche can describe a coherent anti incorporating an increasing portion of the economist who represents th e entropic process that can give a coherent universe's matter and energy. What hap Leibnizian tradition of the American explanation of entropy, not-entropy (called pens at the end of time is anybody's guess: System of economics. evolution by Simon), and the effective the universe may or may not be bounded. power of human reason in the universe. Wh9 cares?" The service performed by Lyndon It will not have escaped the observant Just at the decisive moment, Simon LaRouche is to have rediscovered the reader, why LaRouche's solution has throws in the towel, although he is com school of mathematical physics that runs remained hidden to Simon. The pletely right when he reproves the dooms from Leibniz, through the Gottingen Mandeville-Hayek dogma of "sponta dayers, saying that they are extending, in school of Abraham Kastner, through Carl neous" self-organization denies human an illegitimate manner, the validity of the Friedrich Gauss, Bernard Riemann, and reason as an actively working force in law of entropy. Also, his pointing to anti Georg Cantor, providing thus the spiritu the universe. Admittedly, it can describe entropic evolution in living nature and al weapons with which these universal the effects of reason after the fact, but human society is right on the mark. ly operative principles can be explained. only through a deus ex machina, and But where is the connection? Simon's LaRouche's work is coherent with the not in the coherent universal connected "Who cares?" is not going to convince fact that he did not nonchalantly dismiss ness in which this universal principle any doomsdayer. They will just agree! Norbert Wiener's entropic nonsense, as manifests itself. But this real paradox cannot be pushed Simon did, but passionately addressed The steepest part of the road is now off to the "end of time." It is active at and solved the problem decades ago. behind us; the two points still to fo llow, each moment, because one must pro Because this cannot be explained in a lead us by an easier path to the goal, but ceed from the standpoint that the uni few words, I refer you to LaRouche's rel are no less important, because they lead verse is intelligible in a coherent man evant writings,B and sketch here only the us to the question of why all of this is of ner. Each person strives for such coher most general form of the solution. such great political significance. ent expl'anation; we can all lay claim to In the universe, three fundamentally Julian Simon Vs. Julian Simon it; without it, there is no science. different principles are manifest: first, When someone like Simon treats a fu n Simon fa ils to reach a level where he dead matter, such as for example, damental question with such flimsy argu might have fruitful discussion with the described by the law of entropy; second, ments, it will take revenge on him in the doomsdayers. The more he urges that living matter, which is characterized by most unexpected places. One of these, development is evolutionary, when anti-entropy; and third, the principle of which is of great import for Simon's argu actually it must be grasped from the reason, which is manifested by man's ment against the doomsdayers, is to be human principle of anti-entropy, the activity. All three universal principles fo und in his Chapter 26, with the inter more his opponents will stiffen them work in the same universe, but not in the esting title, "The Effect of Population selves in the universal validity of the law same way. This unequal and combined upon Te chnology and Productivity." of entropy, down into the microscopic operation cannot be understood within Simon begins quite correctly: domain. And who could blame them? the framework of causal reciprocal "The most important economic effect
62 Spring 2002 21st CENTURY SPECIAL REPORT of population size and growth is the con other natural resources become less or doubts about providing fo r their off tribution of additional people to our stock important and a smaller part of the econ spring... the superabundant effects are of useful knowledge. And this contribu omy with every passing decade. But repressed afterwards by want of room tion is great enough in the long run to additional discoveries can certainly be and nourishment. .. and among animals, overcome all the costs of population welcome, if only because of the excite by their becoming the prey of each other. growth. This is a strong statement, but the ment of scientific adventure." "Perhaps the most nightmarish of the evidence for it seems very strong. Many Here Simon contradicts himself, and biological analogies came from Alan who depreciate the potential contribution just precisely at the core of his own Gregg, the former director of the of knowledge of additional people, and "Grand Theory." Again and again he has Rockefeller Foundation's Medical who would halt population growth, also said, and rightly so, that the "cause of Division: 'There is an alarming parallel make little allowance for mind-boggling new discoveries, or the cause of apply between the growth of a cancer in the discoveries yet to be made. They assume ing ideas that were discovered earlier, is body of an organism and the growth of that what we now believe is impossible, the 'shortage' of resources."9 And now human population in the earth's ecolog- he explains that this process has ended. We have reached the point that man is "invented out." From now on, we can engage in science for entertainment, but it is no longer really necessary for our existence. And that, in spite of the fact that it is invention that lays the basis for the existence and growth of mankind? With this capital contradiction comes the revenge of Simon's cavalier "Who cares?" regarding the entropic principle in the abiotic world, and his concomi tant refusal to understand the effective power of human reason in the universe. It is quite clear that the doomsdayers, even if they might only confusedly per ceive what is really at stake here, will use the leverage they get from this con tradiction, in order to destroy Simon's argument from within. www.arttoday.com library of Congress Malthus Vs. Franklin Rev. Th omas Malthus (1766-1 834), in I must address another capital fault in Benjamin Franklin staunchly supported his 7798 Essay on the Principle of Julian Simon's book, an error that I can the Leibnizian view on the development Population, argues against the free only explain to myself on the basis that of labor power-the American System development of the new American Simon must have had strong prejudices of economics. Ye t, julian Simon Republic 'and everything it stands fo r. against the intellectual tradition of the fra udulently attributes Malthus's views Malthus proposed: "All children who American System of economics, and in on population to Franklin. are born, beyond what would be consequence, against LaRouche, whom required to keep up the population to a he never mentions. ical economy.... ' desired level, must necessarily perish, In Chapter 24, Simon correctly attacks "But we must recognize what Malthus unless room be made fo r thefT} by the the lily-pond example mentioned at the eventually came to recognize. After he death of grown persons .... We should beginning, but then he writes the fo llow published the short simplistic theory in fa cilitate, instead of fo olishly.and vainly ing nonsense about Benjamin Franklin: the first edition of his Essay on endeavoring to impede the operations of "It is interesting that a similar analogy Population, he took the time to consider nature in producing this mortality.... " was suggested by Benjamin Franklin two the facts as well as the theory. He then centuries ago. In Malthus's words, 'It is concluded that human beings are very will always be so ...." observed by Dr. Franklin, that there is no different from fl ies and rats." So far so good. But shortly thereafter, bound to the prolific nature of plants or This passage contains a howling lie and Simon writes: animals, but what is made by their a malevolent denigration of Benjamin "This does not imply that a higher crowding and interfering with each oth Franklin, which could not but be deliber standard of living requires additional ers' means of subsistence ....' This is ate on Simon's part. Simon asserts not that discoveries .... We now have on our incontrovertibly true .... In plants and ani Malthus, but Franklin, equates human hands the knowledge to provide energy mals the view of the subject is simple. population growth with that of the ani at constant or declining costs forever, They are all impelled by a powerful mals. For "proof" he cites not Franklin, and the knowledge to produce food in instinct to increase of their species and but a quote from Malthus about Franklin. almost inexhaustible quantities. All this instinct is interrupted by no reasoning Reading Franklin's text of 1751 directly,
SPECIAL REPORT 21st CENTURY Spring 2002 63 leads to quite other conclusions. But even on the other hand, writes the exact predecessor of Malthus? It is generally a close reading of the text cited by opposite, in his Essay on Population. A known, that Malthus borrowed his Law Malthus, shows that Franklin absolutely few pages after the Franklin quote of Overpopulation, and it is also as clear did not equate the multiplication of ani brought up by Simon, Malthus writes, as daylight, that Malthus lifted the geo mals and man. This equivalence alleged "The human race will be constantly metric series of population growth from by Simon, is not to be found in the words endeavoring to increase beyond the Giammaria Ortes.13 of Franklin, but rather in a modern passage means of subsistence." Why is Simon so insistent upon con from Gregg, which Simon places directly Let us not fo rget that Malthus penned his fusing the roles of Benjamin Franklin after the Malthus-Franklin quote, in order Essay only after England had driven the and Malthus? Why does he wish to to give the impression that this was also American colonies into the War of attribute to the representative of the Franklin's opinion. Such a juxtaposition of Independence, and had lost the war. In this American System, the rival principles of quotes is counterfeiting of the worst sort. situation, British colonial power did not the British System? The level of fraud carried out by think Franklin's message-that America The quintessence of Simon's "theoret Simon becomes still clearer if one reads would soon have a growing, well-off pop ical works" provides an answer. For here the cited writing of Franklin in its histor ulation-was all that joyful; this was a we have the assertion: ical context, and then compares it with dangerous threat to the British Empire at " ... that those traditional rules of con how and why Malthus saw himself the time, all the more because it had to duct (esp. of several property) which led obliged, at the end of the 18th Century, increase the looting of its own population. to the greatest increases of the numbers to publish in great haste, a simplistic The first purpose of Malthus's Essay, of the groups practicing them leads to essay on zero growth. therefore, is to polemicize against the their displacing the others-not on When Franklin wrote his Observations free development of the Americas,l1 and 'Darwinian' principles but because in 1751, which are quoted a half century the second, to propagandize for the based on the transmission of learned later by Malthus, he was not thinking of repeal of the Poor Laws in England,12 rules-a concept of evolution which is revolution and separation from England, which argument he bases on a mathe much older than Darwin." but he offers practical advice to both matical trick, that "the Poor Laws ... If we locate this standpoint within its England and the American colonies, on themselves create the poor which they historic reality, we see the fo llowing: On how to improve and expand the are maintaining." one hand, there is the tradition of the economies of both.lO He foresaw a strong The Rule of the Cuckoo's Egg system of physical economy from growth in the population of the American Even if one were to accept, that Leibniz through Franklin into the colonies, because there land is so cheap Julian Simon is ignorant of these histori American System, then through and would remain so, so that each work cal matters, the question remains, why Friedrich List, Witte, and so on, up ing man could get cheap land in order to did he decide to make Franklin into a through LaRouche. On the other hand, nourish his family and the there is the system based on fam ily of his children. greed and parasitism, of Frankl in said that labor Mandeville through Malthus, power would be expensive in through the British system of America compared to Britain, free trade, up through today's because in America everyone globalization, to Hayek and could easily be on his own, Simon. and would rather produce History emphasizes again independently than work for and again, that it is the sys low wages. Moreover, he tem of physical economy that said, slave labor in America creates wealth, by a constant could not pay off within such upgrading of labor power, a framework. while the free trade system, Finally, Franklin under can only hope to cheaply scores the diametric opposite acquire the wealth created by of the Malthusian premise, in physical economy. One of his assertion that a great the essential ru les for the free increase in offspring is not trade system to survive, is to always based upon natural fer lay its cuckoo's egg in the tility, but upon education in nest of physical economy. diligence, through which the Thus, when Simon tries to EIRNS children are put into the situa pawn off the Malthusian egg tion of having a better income. The only true optimism fo r the fu ture is based on the certainty on Benjamin Franklin, he is Franklin thus recognizes that mankind can use its creative powers to achieve real growth, only conforming to the the significance of the devel by continually improving living standards on Earth-and absolutely essential "practi opment of labor power for moving on to colonizing space. Here, LaRouche visits the High cal ru les" of the free trade population growth. Malthus, Energy Physics Laboratory in Ts ukuba (Science) City, Japan. system.
64 Spring 2002 21st CENTURY SPECIAL REPORT The Political Reality and zero-growthers is clearly growing, 2. In the Global 2000 report, drafted under the Carter administration, this was admitted, not Anyone who attempts to use facts because the economic situation is get without pride. from books by Bjorn Lomborg and Julian ting markedly worse. The zero-growth 3. See Chapter 11 in The Ultimate Resource. Simon in the debate with the zero ideology was a phenomenon of prosper 4. This summary comes from Karl Marx, from his growth ideology, had better be very ity in the industrialized sector, which it amusing "Digression on Productive Labor." careful that he is not putting a cuckoo's was possible to graft onto the poorer 5. It took the diseased brain of a Voltaire (1694- 1778) to concoct the satire, Candide, for egg in his own nest. In the present con countries of this world only forcibly, and spreading this kind of lie about Leibniz. dition of the world economy there is no with only modest success. 6. In Schiller's dissertation, he explains that "in basis for indulging in the "optimistic" It would be an even greater paradox to the image and likeness of God," is not to be understood as a condition, but rather as the illusion of the free market system of expect the "spontaneous" resolution of process of self-perfection. Schiller's pur thought that the "invisible hand" will problems by the "invisible hands" of the pose in this work is to demonstrate that in arrange everything for the best. free market forces at this precise point in reality, all of man's sensual appetites are ultimately derived from this drive for self To day it is anything but doomsday time, in which this g!obalized free trade perfection. thinking to reject the cheerful prediction system is collapsing. Anyone who does 7. Lyndon LaRouche, "A Lawless U.S.A. To day: of the free market dogma of "always not recognize what it means for Faith, Hope, and Agape!" Executive Intelligence Review, May 13, 2001 . more and always better," no matter how President George W. Bush, who took 8. A more exact treatment can be found, for exam extensive the statistical series that are office as a radical free marketeer, to ple, in the article by laRouche cited in note 7. supposed to prove it. These long statisti impose protective tariffs to rescue the last 9. In Chapter 3. cal series are no more capable of cap remnants of the American steel industry, 10. "Land being thus plenty in America, and so turing the actual substance or quality of does not understand what hour the clock cheap as that a labouring man . . . can in short Time save Money enough to purchase a growth than the systems of equations of has struck. Such a one can take it as Piece of new Land for Plantation, whereon he the computer models that supposedly guaranteed that his "optimism," based as may subside a Family, such are not afraid to prove the "limits to growth." it is on free market dogma, will soon marry; for, if they even look far enough forward to consider how their Children, when grown up, The human population has indeed completely abandon him. are to be provided for, they see that more Land grown dramatically over the millennia. We are entitled to' a true optimism for is to be had at rates equally easy.... Labour will never be cheap here, where no Man continues But this generality must not cause us to the future by virtue of the certainty that long a Labourer for others, but get a Plantation forget that many civilizations have col we live in a world which is, in Leibniz's of his own .... The Labour of Slaves can never lapsed hideously. That there has been expression, "the best of all possible be so cheap here as the Labour of working Men in Britain.... The great Increase of overall growth in spite of this, explains worlds," in which obviously all is not as Offspring ... is not always owing to greater nothing of significance. When the devel it should be, but a world which men and Fecundity of Nature, but... industrious opment of human civilization is consid women can continually improve. The Education; by which the Children are enabled to provide better for themselves." ered with more exactitude, it becomes scientific basis for this is available to us 11. This theme runs like a thread throughout the frighteningly clear that whether the way in the foundations of physical economy. whole Essay of Malthus. In Chapter 14, for out of a dark age were to be found, often When we grasp this today, apply it, and example, he writes:, "Were I to live a thousand years, and the laws of nature to remain the depended on a mere handful of people. make it fruitfu l in the solution of the same, I should little fear, or rather little hope, a The achievements of such geniuses are world's problems, then we actually will contradiction from experience in asserting that invisible in the long-range statistics, or make a better world, with more people, no possible sacrifices or exertions of the rich, in a country which had been long inhabited, are attributed to "spontaneous" events. and better nourished and better educated could for any time place the lower classes of When they fa il, however, the statistics people. We will colonize planets and the community in a situation equal, with regard suddenly show a dramatic shift. That to circumstances, to the situation of the com someday even new galaxies. We will not mon people about thirty years ago in the north holds good most especially for our world, only do it, we will also know why we are ern States of America." in which there is de facto but a single doing it, and we will achieve an ever bet Or in Chapter 17, the following: "A person who contemplated the happy state of the lower world culture: One cannot now rely, for ter understanding of how to drive fo rward classes of people in America twenty years ago example, on Arab culture to rescue the this process of growth in the universe. would naturally wish to retain them for ever in substantial corpus of the Greek classical Real growth has, in fact, no limits. that state, and might think, perhaps, that by preventing the introduction of manufactures period for the European Renaissance. Ralf Schauerhammer is an editor of and lUXUry he might effect his purpose, but he That these are no mere abstract consid the German-language science magazine might as reasonably expect to prevent a wife erations, is shown by the writing on the or mistress from growing old by never expos Fusion, a computer specialist, and an ing her to the sun or air," wall in the most recent United Nations organizer with the LaRouche political 12. This is a reference to the milestone Act of population report,14 in which, after many movement in Germany. He is the co Parliament of 1601 under Elizabeth I, "An Act years of warning of a "population explo author of The Holes in the Ozone Scare: for the Relief of the Poor." sion," for the first time there is mention of 13, Giammaria Ortes, Riflessione sulla Popola The Scientific Evidence That the Sky zione delle nazioni per rapporto all'Economia an imminent "reduction of world popula Isn't Falling, published by 21 st Century. nazionale, 1790, tion." Several experts even expect an "ava This article was translated fro m German 14. The United Nations report, The Future of lanche-like" collapse of population, which by Rick Sanders and David Cherry. Fertility in Intermediate-Fertility Countries, says openly that even in those nations which must be taken with utmost seriousness. had high population growth in the middle of the Notes______It is also necessary to attend to the 20th Century, fertility must clearly fall below the 1. Bjorn Lomborg, The Skeptical Environmental rate of 2.1 children per woman, the rate nec paradox that popular resistance to the ist: Measuring the Real State of the World essary to keep the size of the population con (New Yo rk: Cambridge University Press, 2001) decades-long push of the doomsdayers stant.
SPECIAL REPORT 21st CENTURY Spring 2002 65 PEDAGOGY
GAUSS'S DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE The Fundamental Theorem of Algebra by Bruce Director
n September 1798, after three years of already fu lly developed by circles associ I self-directed study, the great mathemati ated with Plato, and expressed most cian Carl Friedrich Gauss, then 21 years explicitly in the Meno, Theaetetus, and old, left Gottingen University without a Timaeus dialogues. Plato and his circle diploma. He returned to his native city of demonstrated this concept, pedagogical Brunswick to begin the composition of ly, through the paradoxes that arise when his Disquisitiones Arithmeticae, and, considering the uniqueness of the five lacking any prospect of employment, regular solids, and the related problems hoped to continue receiving his student of doubling a line, square, and cube. As stipend. After several months of living on Plato emphasized, each species of action credit, word came from the Duke that the generated a different species of magni stipend would continue, provided Gauss tude. He denoted such magnitudes by obtained his doctor of philosophy the Greek term dynamis, a term akin to degree-a task Gauss thought a distrac Leibniz's use of the word Kraft, translated tion, and wished to postpone. into English as "power." Nevertheless, he took the opportunity That is, a linear magnitude has the to produce a virtual declaration of inde "power" to double a line, while only a pendence from the stifling world of magnitude of a different species has the deductive mathematics, in the form of a "power" to double the square, and a still written thesis submitted to the faculty of Carl Friedrich Gauss different species has the "power" to dou the University of Helmstedt, on a new (1777- 1 855) ble a cube (see Figures 1 a and 1 b). In proof of the fundamental theorem of Bernhard Riemann's language, these algebra. Within months, he was granted Aristotelian falsehoods tbat had become magnitudes are called, respectively: sim his doctorate without even having to so popular among his contemporaries. ply extended, doubly extended, and triply appear for oral examination. Looking back on his dissertation 50 extended. Plato's circle emphasized that Describing his intention to his former years later, Gauss said: "The demonstra magnitudes of lesser extension lacked the classmate, Wo lfgang Bolyai, Gauss wrote, tion is presented using expressions bor capacity to generate magnitudes of higher "The title [fundamental theorem} indicates rowed from the geometry of position; for extension, creating; conceptually, a suc quite definitely the purpose of the essay; in this way, the greatest acuity and sim cession of "higher powers." only about a third of the whole, neverthe plicity is obtained. Fundamentally, the Do not think here of the deductive use less, is used for this purpose; the remain essential content of the entire argument of the term "dimension." Although a der contains chiefly the history and a cri belongs to a higher domain, independ perfectly good word, "dimension" in tique of works on the same subject by ent from space [that is, anti-Euclidean}, modern usage too often is associated other mathematicians (viz. d'Alem bert, in which abstract general concepts of with the Kantian idea of fo rmal Bougainville, Euler, de Foncenex, La magnitudes, are investigated as combi Euclidean space, in which space is con grange, and the Encyclopedists ... which nations of magnitudes connected by sidered as a combination of three, inde latter, however, will probably not be continuity: a domain, which, at present, pendent, simply extended dimensions. much pleased), besides many and varied is poorly developed, and in which one Think, instead, of "physical exten comments on the shallowness which is so cannot move without the use of lan sion." A line is produced by a physical dominant in our present-day mathemat guage borrowed from spatial images." action of simple extension. A surface ics." It is my intention to provide a summ may be bounded by lines, but it is not In essence, Gauss was defending, and ary sketch of the history of this idea, and made from lines; rather, a surface is irre extending, a principle that goes back to Gauss's development of it. It cannot be ducibly doubly extended. Similarly, a Plato, in which only physical action, not exhaustive. Rather it seeks to outline the volume may be bounded by surfaces, arbitrary assumptions, defines our steps which should form the basis for which in turn are bounded by lines, but, notion of magnitude. Like Plato, Gauss oral pedagogical dialogues, already it is irreducibly triply extended. recognized it were insufficient to simply under way in various locations.' Thus, a unit line, square, or cube, may state his discovery, unless it were com Multiply Extended Magnitude all be characterized by the number 1, but bined with a polemical attack on the A physical concept of magnitude was each 1 is a species of a different power.
66 Spring 2002 21 st CENTURY PEDAGOGY EJ
Figure 1 (b) Figure 1 (a) DOUBLING THE CUBE DOUBLING THE SQUARE The magnitude which has the "power" to produce a cube whose volume is Th e magnitude which has the double, is different from the magnitude which has the "power" to double a "power" to produce a square of square or a line. It is the smaller of two geometric means between the two double area, is the diagonal of the cubes. Th is magnitude is incommensurable with both those lower magni smaller square, and is called lithe tudes, the square and the line.
geometric mean, II between the two squares. The magnitude of the length of the diagonal is ships among higher powers, gave rise to numbers could achieve only after long incommensurable with, and can what became known by the Arabic word work capable of discouraging the most not be produced by, the magni algebra; and, from Gottfried Wilhelm firm." tude of the length of the side of Leibniz (1 644-1 716) on, as analysis. While finding the physical action that the smaller square Here, the relationship of magnitudes of generated a succession of higher pow the second power (squar�s) and the third ers, Leibniz left open the question of power (cubes) were investigated in the what physical action produced the Plato's circle also emphasized, that form of quadratic and cubic algebraic square roots of negative numbers. this succession of magnitudes of higher equations, respectively. Meanwhile, Proof of the Fundamental Theorem powers, was generated by a succession equations of higher than the third degree By the time Gauss left G6ttingen, he of different types of action. Specifically, took on a formal significance, but lacked had already developed a concept of the a simply extended magnitude was pro the physical connection which could be physical reality of the square roots of duced from linear action, doubly seen in quadratics and cubics. negative numbers, which he called, extended magnitudes from circular Girolamo Cardano (1 501 -1 576), and complex numbers. Adopting the method action, and triply extended magnitudes later, Leibniz, showed that there was a of Plato's cave metaphor, from The from extended circular action, such as "hole" in all forms of algebraic equa Republic, Gauss understood his com the rotational actions which produce a tions, as indicated by the appearance of plex numbers to be shadows reflecting a cone, cylinder, or torus. This is present the square roots of negative numbers, as complex of physical actions (action act ed, pedagogically, by Plato in the Meno solutions to such equations. Peering into ing on action). This complex action dialogue, with respect to doubly extend this "hole," Leibniz recognized that reflected a power greater than the triply ed magnitudes, and in the Timaeus, with algebra could teach nothing about extended action that characterizes the respect to the uniqueness of the five reg physics, but, that a general physical manifold of visible space. ular solids, and the problem of doubling principle underlay all algebraic equa It was Gauss's unique contribution, to the cube. Plato's collaborator, Archytus, tions, of whatever power. devise a metaphor, from which to repre demonstrated that the magnitude with Writing in about 1675 to Christiaan sent these higher forms of physical which a cube is doubled, is not generat Huyghens (1 629-1 695) on the square action, so those actions could be repre ed by circular action, but from extended roots of negative numbers, Leibniz sented, by their reflections, in the visible circular action, that is, conic sections. added that he had invented a machine domain. It fell to Apollonius of Perga (262-200 which produced exactly the required In his 1799 dissertation, Gauss brilliant B.C.) to present a full exposition of the action of this general physical principle: ly chose to develop his metaphor, polem generation of magnitudes of higher pow li lt seems that after this instrument, ically, on the most vulnerable flank of his ers, in his work on Conics. His approach there is almost nothing more to be opponents' algebraic equations. Like was exhaustively to investigate the gen desired for the use which algebra can or Leibniz, Gauss rejected the deductive eration of doubly and triply extended will be able to have in mechanics and in approach of investigating algebraic equa magnitudes, which he distinguished into practice. It is believable that this was the tions on their own terms, insisting that it plane (circle/l ine) and solid (ellipse, aim of the geometry of the ancients (at was physical action that determined the parabola, hyperbola) loci. least that of Apollonius) and the purpose characteristics of the equations. As Abraham Gotthelf Kastner indi of loci that he had introduced, because A simple example will help illustrate cates in his History of Mathematics he had recognized that a few lines deter the point. Think of the physical meaning
(1 797), the investigation of the relation- mine instantly, what long calculations in of the equation x2 = 4. Obviously, x
PEDAGOGY 21st CENTURY Spring 2002 67 domain of squares, but in the cognitive Figure 2 domain, of the principle of squaring. THE PRINCIPLE OF This can be illustrated pedagogically, SQUARING by drawing a square whose area we'll Th e principle of call 1. Then draw the diagonal of that "squaring" involves square, and draw a new square using doubling the angle of that diagonal as a side. The area of the rotation and squar new square will be 2. Now, repeat this ing the length. action, again to generate a square Angle 13 is double whose area is 4 (Figure 2). angle 0., and angle 'Y What is the principle of squaring so is double angle 13. illustrated? The action that generated the Also, the length of B magnitude which produced the square is the square of A whose area is 2, was a rotation of 45° and the length of C and an extension of length from 1 to the is the square of B. -1=1. To produce the square whose area is 4, that rotation of 45 degrees was dou bled to 90°, and the extension was squared to become 2. Repeat this refers to a side of a square whose remains, what is the physical meaning of process several times, to illustrate that area is 4. Thus, 2 is a solution to this -1=1? the principle of squaring, can be thought equation. Now, think of the physical One answer is to say that -1=1 has no of as the combined physical action, of meaning of the equation x2 = -4.From a physical meaning, and thus the equation doubling a rotation and squaring the formal deductive standpoint, this equa x2 = -4 has no solution. To this, Euler length. The square root is simply the tion refers to the side of a square whose and Lagrange added the sophistry, richly reverse action. That is, halving the angle area is -4. But, how can a square have ridiculed by Gauss in his dissertation, of rotation and decreasing the length by an area of -4? Formally, the second that the equation x2 = -4 has a solution, the square root. equation can be solved by introducing but the solution is impossible! Now draw a circle and a diameter, the number 2-1=1, or 2i, which when Gauss demonstrated the physical and apply this physical action of squar squared, equals -4. But, the question meaning of the -1=1, not in the visible ing to every point on the circle. That is,
- 1
-..J-1
Figure 3 Figure 4 SQUARING A COMPLEX NUMBER GAUSS'S COMPLEX DOMAIN The general principle of "squaring" can be carried out Gauss demonstrated that all algebraic powers, of any
on a circle. Th e point z2 is produced from z by doubling degree, when projected onto his complex domain,
the angle 0. and squaring the distance from the center of could be represented by an action similar to that of
the circle to z. squaring (Figure 3).
68 Spring 2002 21st CENTURY PEDAGOGY take every point on the circumference of bers with this type of compound physi demonstrated for squaring. For example, the circle. Draw the radius connecting cal action (rotation combined with the action of cubing a complex number that point to the center of the circle. That extension). He made them visible, is accomplished by tripling the angle of radius makes an angle with the diameter metaphorically, as spiral action project rotation and cubing the length. This you drew. To "square" that point, double ed onto a surface. Every point on that maps the original circle three times onto the angle between the radius and the surface represents a complex number. a circle whose rad ius is the cube of the diameter, and square the length. Each number denotes a unique combi original circle. The action associated Repeat this action with several points. nation of rotation and extension. The with the bi-quadratic power (fourth Soon you will be able to see that the point of origin of the action ultimately degree) involves quadrupling the angle points on the first circle all map to points refers to a physical si ngu larity, such as of rotation and squaring the square of on another concentric circle, whose the lowest point of the catenary, or the the length. This will map the original cir radius is the square of the original circle. poles of. the rotating Earth, or the center cle fo ur times onto a circle whose radius But, it gets curiouser and curiouser. of the bar magnet. is increased by the square of the square, Since you doubled the angle each time In the above example, the original cir and so forth for the all higher powers. you squared a point, the original circle cle becomes a unit circle in the complex Thus, even though the manifolds of will map to the "squared" circle twice domain. The center of the circle is the action associated with these higher (Figure 3)! origin, denoted by 0, the ends of the powers exist outside the triply extended
There is a physical example that illus diameter are denoted by 1 and -1 . The manifold of visible space, the character trates this process. Ta ke a bar magnet square root of -1 is found by halving the istic of action which produced them, and rotate a compass around the mag rotation between 1 and -1 , and reducing was brought into view, by Gauss, in his net. As the compass moves from the the radius by the square root. Think complex domain. North to the South pole of the magnet carefully, and you will see that "-1 and Notes ______(1 80°), the compass needle will make - -v=1 are represented by the points on 1. This pedagogical exercise is part of an ongoing one complete revolution (360°). As it the circumference which are halfway series on "Riemann for Anti-Dummies," pro moves from the South pole back to the between 1 and -1 (Figure 4). duced for study by members and friends of the International Caucus of Labor Committees. North, the needle will make another Gauss demonstrated that all algebraic Some have been published in The New complete revolution. In effect, the bar powers, of any degree, when projected Federalist newspaper. See also Bruce Director, magnet "squares" the compass. onto his complex domain, could be rep ''The Division of the Circle and Gauss's Concept of the Complex Domain," 21st Century Winter Gauss associated his complex num- resented by an action similar to that just 2001 -2002, p. 20.
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PEDAGOGY 21st CENTURY Spring 2002 69 NUCLEAR REPORT
INTERVIEW WITH WA LTER SIMON General Atomics Reactor in Russia To Burn Weapons Plutonium
Mr. Simon is a nuclear engineer and grade plutonium on both sides-U.s. Senior Vice President fo r Reactor and Russian. The two governments, Projects at General Atomics (GA) in San actually Presidents Boris Yeltsin and Bill Diego. He is in charge of the company's Clinton, each had declared a total of joint program with Russia to build a about 34 tons of weapons-grade plutoni high-temperature gas-cooled nuclear um as surplus, and now, after the recent reactor, the GT-MHR, which will use discussions that President George Bush weapons-grade plutonium as fu el. had with Russian President Vladimir A graduate of the University of Aachen Putin, they want to reduce the whole in Germany, Mr. Simon has worked with weapons inventory further-I haven't General Atomics since 1961, most of seen any specific numbers yet. that time on the high-temperature gas cooled reactor. He was interviewed by Question: It would take a long time for Managing Editor Marjorie Maze! Hecht you to get through 34 tons of plutonium at the end of 2001. fuel. Yes, the history of that goes way back. Question: What is the status of the Simon: "There is just no way around The alternative to burning plutonium as General Atomics project to build the building these new reactors. " fuel, which we continue to work on, is Gas Tu rbine-Modular Helium Reactor, the use of MaX fuel (mixed oxide fuel). the GT-MHR, with the Russians? detailed design, what we call the final The idea was to use MaX fuel in Our schedule right now is that by early design, and then, when that is done, Russian I ight-water reactors, as well 2002 we will have completed the pre we'll make the plans to start getting the as-they have a fast breeder reactor liminary design. The Russians have been construction work done. doing it with the fast breeder. The num working on it. There are somewhere ber that came out was that the capacity between 700 and 800 people in Russia Question: When do you expect a is somewhere between 2 to 2.5 tons per working on this program right now. demonstration reactor to be complet year that could be burned as MaX. ed? Now, of the material that has been Question: Can you describe the reactor The goal is still to have the first mod declared surplus, the 34 tons, all will be design? ule on line in 2009. burnt. The design itself hasn't changed much [see figure, p. 71 L but we have much Question: Is the site in Russia already Question: Who is funding this part of more detail on it than before. It is a high selected? the project now? temperature gas-cooled reactor coupled Yes, the site that we've discussed with Our project has one unique character to a gas turbine. The gas turbine drives the Russians is Seversk. Th is is the for istic, that in the beginning, GA and the the generator, as well as the compressors mer To msk-7, about 10 or 15 miles out Russian nuclear agency, Minatom, that circulate the gas. That is basically of the city of To msk in Siberia. This used shared the cost. That's how we started. what we are working on. In addition to to be a closed city, but it is not closed When the U.S. Congress began to that, we need to do fuel development, anymore. The Russians still have two support this program, starting in fiscal since we are talking about plutonium plutonium production reactors running year 1999, the Congress required that of fuel. there, because they need the power, to the first money it made available (a total heat the city and provide electricity. of $5 million), $3 million would have to Question: Because you will be burning These reactors will be shut down soon. be spent in Russia, but under the condi weapons plutonium in Russia? tion that the Russians match the amount Ye s, weapons-grade plutonium. That Question: So, the GT-MHR, when it is of u.s. money going into the project. is the purpose of the project in Russia. built, will begin burning up the surplus Well, the Russians have done that, They have started to do some testing on weapons plutonium, of which there is a and I'll have to say right now, that this is reactor components, and we are march great deal. the only plutonium destruction program ing on; the next step is to go into the There are many tons of weapons- with the Russians (and there are several;
70 Spring 2002 21st CENTURY NUCLEAR REPORT A MELTDOWN-PROOF REACTOR: THE GENERAL ATOMICS GT-MHR This cutaway view of the current design fo r a 285 MW electric power plant, shows the two steel pressure ves sels, one for the reactor and the other for the power con version system. Both are housed below ground, in a concrete building. Above ground are the auxiliary sys tems fo r operating the reactor, and the refueling machine. The GT-MHR produces higher process heat (1,560°F) Power compared to the 600° limit of conventional water-cooled conversion nuclear reactors, allowing greater electric generating effi system ciency and a wide range of industrial applications. It uses a direct conversion gas turbine to produce electricity, thus simplify ing the reactor system and increasing effi ciency.
Reactor vessel Source: General Atomics
the I ight-water reactor program with fo llow a parallel branch here, to what we Entergy, for instance, is very interested in MOX is still ongoing) where the money are doing with the Russians. Even though getting the gas-cooled reactor moving. is being paid 50-50. The gas-cooled the Russian design is mainly focussed on reactor program is, and will continue as, the plutonium disposition, in the end, it Question: Is the plan that you would a joint program, which means that for will be the prototype fo r a commercial move forward here in parallel, and per every dollar that the United States puts unit. That's the way we look at it. haps have another prototype built in in, the Russians put in an equal amount. And we have now started to go in a the United States? This goes back to the contract we nego commercial direction, in parallel to the Yes, in the end we will have to have a tiated in 1994-95. Russian program. prototype in the U.S. However, the proto There will have to be some design type we are talking about for the U.5. is Question: What are the prospects here changes made relative to the plans we about a year or so behind the Russian in the United States for the gas-cooled are designing with the Russians. One plan. We would go ahead and build the reactor? example is that we would not use pluto Russian plant, and then, after that, we Earlier this year, GA decided that after nium, particularly not weapons-grade would start construction on a U.S. plant. the electricity problems we had in plutonium, as the fuel for commercial There are certain things that we would California, and the energy plan that U.S. applications. This is the track that just take over and util ize. For example, came out, spearheaded by Vice we are on now. the fuel element here would be loaded President Dick Cheney, that we should We will put together a consortium of with enriched uranium rather than with move forward here with the GT-MHR on companies which, hopefu lly, will work plutonium. And there will be a few other the commercial side. First of all, the U.5. together and modify the design as may things that will have to be modified .... Department of Energy started looking at be necessary. The plan is really now to Secondly, of course, we'll have to start what to do to get nuclear power back on march on toward a commercial unit. talking with the Nuclear Regulatory track. Clearly in the long term, and even We formed a utility advisory commit Commission (NRC). in the relatively short term, this country tee, led by Entergy, and including is going to need more power, and this Omaha Public Power District, Nuclear Question: Have you begun to do this? means that new power generation Management Corp., Dominion, PSEG, We had our kickoff meeting in sources will have to be built. Even and Constellation. We have several addi December 2001 in Washington; it's though a lot of coal and gas will have to tional companies that have joined, but what we call the pre-application kickoff continue to be burned, the renewables which have not yet been announced. meeting, the first dialogue with the NRC (solar and wind) will not be able to close The bottom line of all this is that the to get this whole thing moving. the gap .... Utility Advisory Committee represents And so, nuclear power has to come about 35 percent of the U.S. nuclear-gen Question: The pebble bed modular back. I'm sure you have seen the num erating capacity. These people are active. reactor [PBMR] design has already been bers. They are talking about 100,000 These people are in Washington, D.C., brought before the NRC by Exelon, more megawatts in the next 20 years. fighting for the gas reactor, together with which is working with the South And so, we decided that we should also us, or by themselves. It is quite clear that Africans, and it seems to me, just from
NUCLEAR REPORT 21st CENTURY Spring 2002 71 observing from the outside, that the reaction on the part of the NRC is favorable to these new reactors. Fundamentally, I agree with you. These are different types of reactors the PBMR and GT-M HR. They are quite different from the traditional light-water Outer isotropic reactors. I can only go back-and I'm pyrolytic carbon putting a little bit of caution in here-in Silicon carbide barrier coating the sense that we had been dealing with Inner isotropic the NRC some years ago on the early pyrolytic carbon modular HTGR [High-Te mperature Gas Porous carbon Cooled Reactor], and we had submitted buffer a preliminary safety information docu Uranium oxycarbide ment on the design, and we asked for a kernel safety evaluation report and we got all Fuel particle that. But when the NRC came down in the end, there were maybe something like Fuel block 10 items or so on the table that would apply for both the conventional light GT-MHR FUEL COMPONENTS water reactors and the advanced reac Tiny fu el particles are encased in ceramic spheres, which serve as "contain tors, in which I would count the liquid ment buildings" fo r the fission products. The overall reactor design prevents metal reactor (LMR), which at that time the reactor from ever getting hot enough to split open the tiny ceramic spheres was on the table, and the HTGR. The that contain the fu el. NRC spent quite a bit of time on these Each fu el pellet is about 0.03 inch in diameter. At the center is a kernel of items, but in the end they came out with fissile fu el-uranium oxycarbide. Th is is coated with a graphite buffer, and is rulings whereby it turned out that if then surrounded by three layers, two of pyrolytic carbon and one of silicon there was any doubt of how to do some carbide. The fu el particles are mixed with graphite and fo rmed into cylindri thing, they always favored the existing cal fuel rods about 2 inches long. The fu el rods are then inserted into holes methods for light-water reactors. And drilled into hexagonal graphite fuel element blocks, which are 14 inches wide we were not enthused about that. and 31 inches long. Th e fuel blocks, which also have helium coolant chan These issues will have to be revisited. nels, are stacked in the reactor core.
But I think the attitude of the NRC, in Source: General Atomics the meantime, really has changed. They recognize that these machines-the GT MHR and the PBMR-have passive safe So, we have chosen design parame elements-about 14 inches across the ty characteristics that make these reac ters, from the geometry to the material, flats and about 70 inches tall. We are tors literally meltdown proof, and there in such a fashion, that you may attack going to use the same graphite fuel ele are no other reactors that can do that. the fuel particle's integrity, but you can ment configuration for the Russian This is an example of the things that we never destroy it. design as well as the u.s. design. Why? will have to discuss and work on with Well, we have irradiated in total about the NRC. Question: So, the fuel particle's coating 2,500 fuel elements in this reactor, is an impermeable containment. where we found only two blocks which Question: These new designs are really a That's correct. The coated particles had a hairline crack, just two webs. completely new concept, very different are one of the barriers [to a fuel melt We had a lot of discussion about this from the existing conventional reactors. down], but of course they are the most with the. NRC at that time, but in the end, That's right. For example, there is the significant one. the NRC accepted that there was no rea fact that we have in both of these son for serious concern, that we could designs only ceramic material for the Question: To go back to the NRC- continue to operate with the cracked reactor. This is all material that can tol In December, we had a whole day blocks, because the cracks just rel ieve the erate fairly high temperatures. From a meeting with the NRC. That's something stresses. That's what it came down to. safety standpoint, we have chosen our that the PBMR already has started . So we are going to use the same fuel reactors in terms of physical size and I would say that we have one advan elements, the same shape, with the only physical shape, such that even if you tage, and that is, GA had the experience difference being that in the United lose all the cooling, you get fuel temper of the Fort St. Vrain HTGR. This nuclear States we'll use uranium fuel instead of atures which can basically not exceed plant operated in Colorado, and had a plutonium. 1,600°C, and that compares to a fuel steam cycle [not a direct conversion gas The other part that we had the NRC particle that can take at least 2,000°C. turbine], and had hexagonal block fuel look at in the late 1980s and early · 72 Spring 2002 21st CENTURY NUCLEAR REPORT 1990s, was the large-scale modular gas kilowatts per cubic foot, or watts per Question: Is this back in the early cooled reactor, which had the same fuel cubic centimeter, whichever way you 1980s? elements. In the big scheme of things, in want to do it. It turns out that you come Yes. We got a letter from Congress in terms of design philosophy, as well as up with something that is about 3 watts 1984 suggesting that we look at reactors the design itself, things haven't changed per cubic centimeter, and so now you that would be much safer. It took us less that much, although there have been have fixed the diameter and you have than a year, before we said that with this changes in details. And so, my point is fixed the power density. small reactor, we will not be competitive that the NRC already has familiarity with The only way you can make more against these big 1,000-megawatt light our kind of reactor design, but in the power is to make the core taller. water reactors. And so we were looking case of the pebble bed reactor, the NRC Ty pically, if you look at these numbers, to go to higher power levels. has never reviewed a pebble bed design. they come out between 8 to 10 meters, The first thing we went to was an And so I think they may have to do more and so you have a tall, skinny core. annular core. The whole trick with the things for the NRC. Well, we at GA went through this too. annular core, is that you keep the path And now comes the question of how short from where the heat is generated to Question: In general, in terms of the you choose your parameters, specifical the place where you can radiate the heat PBMR, your design has an advantage in ly, by the condition of not having control off. That is basically the whole idea terms of the power density. Can you say rods in the core, nor exceeding the behind the annular core. something about that? 1 ,600°C temperature during an incident Sometimes people ask, why don't you Maybe the simplest way to talk about where you lose all your coolant, at fill the inside of the annular core with that is historically. The Germans started which point the reactor would shut itself fuel, rather than putting in graphite out with the modular pebble bed design, down, all by itself. However, in such an blocks. Well, if you do that, you would and there were some very simple rules incident, the decay heat will still build have to reduce the power, for tempera that they began with. Number one, there up. And that can only be removed by ture reasons, to the same size that we should be no control rods in the reactor. conduction from the inside of the reac would have to go to for a much lower This was an experience from the AVR, a tor to the reactor vessel surface, and power density, and the total power level smaller research reactor at the jUlich then radiated away from the reactor ves would be the same as that of a fu lly Research Center, and the THTR [Thorium sel surface to cooling panels which sur loaded pebble bed reactor without an High-Te mperature Reactor], a 300- round the cavity in which the reactor annular core. megawatt electric power reactor, both has been placed. In other words, if you make a larger pebble beds. I did not work on them, but So, if you look at the PBMR, I think the core, and you want to meet the require I am reasonably familiar with them. commercial modular version of the ments mentioned earlier, you'll get the In the larger reactor, to keep the reac design was somewhere around 10 meters same power level you would get if you tor under control, they had to push the high and 3 meters diameter, and if you had a smaller core with a higher power control rods into the pile of pebbles, and multiplied this out and then figured the density. And in that case, if there was a this actually damaged pebbles, so there efficiency to convert the heat to electrici loss of coolant, the heat would have to fore, they decided that in the next plant ty, the design should have come out at go from the center of the core to the out they wanted to build, a modular reactor, around 100 or 110 megawatts power. side, and that heat path is much longer. they didn't want to have any control rods Later, the word came out that the To drive that heat, the temperature in the that had to go into the pebble bed. So, South Africans actually went to an center will have to meet the 1 ,600°C cri that means, basically, that you have to annular core. And I have to say, that terion, and you don't gain anything. Yo u control the reaction with control rods in whether it's a pebble bed or a prismatic do gain, however, when you go to an the reflector [which surrounds the reac block-type core, if you apply these rules annular core. tor core) , which means that you have to that I mentioned, they are equally control the reaction by its neutron leak restrained by the power level. Yo u have Question: Is that because the space age-because you catch the neutrons in exactly the same problem. You can only between where the heat is produced the reflector outside the reactor, and if go to a certain reactor diameter, and where it gets taken off, is very short you catch more, they can't come back because that's all you can control. And in the annular core? [to make more fissions]. This is how you once you have that, you can only That is correct. That's the bottom line deal with the reactivity. choose the same power density. So, of this. And it turns out that if you go to So this is rule number one. To do that, there is literally no difference in the an annular core, in the annulus, where however, you'll find that the size limit is design I imitations. the fission takes place, we now have a somewhere around 10 feet-3 meters It turned out, that when GA started power density over 6 watts per cubic in diameter for the reactor core. working on the modular high-tempera centimeter. The next item is the power density. In tu re reactor, at the suggestion of a graphite reactor core that is 3 meters in Congress, we actually started with the Question: So that's twice the power diameter, you do not want to exceed the pebble bed reactor. However, we real density of the PBMR. 1,600°C (the limit in case you lose all ized within the first few months, that Well, if the PBMR is just a cylinder, coolant), and these parameters basically from our vantage point in this part of the that is correct. But the PBMR has also determine the power density in terms of world, these plants were too small. done something here, and has gone to
NUCLEAR REPORT 21st CENTURY Spring 2002 73 an annular core. the world that can at this time give you design for this was proposed by Lyndon the steel forgings for the flanges, etc., for LaRouche, and is now being undertaken Question: So is their power density now such a reactor, and that is a Japanese by many of the countries involved better? company. China, Russia, Iran, for example. As I think that the power density in the developed by LaRouche and his wife, the PBMR annulus has gone up to about the Question: So that's the limitation on design includes industrial corridors, and same level as our design. They are now size right now. the model nuclear plant selected to talking about 120 to 150 MW electric That's where we are right now. We are power those corridors is the HTGR for the small core. up to something that's about '26 feet in either the pebble bed or the GT-MHR. diameter, which is not so easily trans . The development area is vast enough so Question: As opposed to their previous portable. Theoretically, you could build that we would need both designs. So we 100 to 110 MW electric? a 1 ,OOO-MW annular core. But then you are very interested in getting mass pro Yes, and this is a 10 to 30 percent have other manufacturing and assembly duction capabilities for these reactors. increase in power. They basically took issues that will have to be dealt with. There is room for both of them. And, that path. Now, I'm really speculating, in the end, the question is really the cost because I don't know the facts in that Question: The United States has com of the electricity that comes out. detail, but my assumption is that they pletely dismantled any of its capacity to did this because they wanted to get the build a large reactor vessel. The same is Question: I would also look at it anoth cost down; meaning, if you think in true for the fusion reactor program. So er way, not the cost-accounting way: terms of dollars per kilowatts, if you what we need is a renaissance to get What is the cost of not doing this for have more kilowatts in the denominator, this program off the ground, and not our society and for the world? then the cost comes down. And also, of have just one reactor-we're talking I was rather referri ng to the stuff that course, the additional power that you about a need for many reactors in the will be built in the end; the machines get out helps. United States. that will be built will be the ones that That's right, and I wouldn't mind hav produce the lowest-cost electricity. Question: So, your design is larger. ing 10, or 15, or 20 under construction Our design has 600 MW thermal, at the same time. Question: Yes, but, I also think that in 285 MW electric. looking at that formulation, one also Question: I think that's the direction we has to consider what will happen if we Question: This size, as I understand it, is have to go in. I don't know how familiar don't do this, where the cost will be about the limit of what can be mass pro you are with the concept of the Eurasian incalculable if we don't proceed. duced. For example, if you wanted to Land-Bridge. This is a development pro Absolutely. We have to proceed. And turn out several modules in a factory gram, a railway-vectored development I think it may take a little bit longer than assembly line, if the reactor were much corridor, for the Eurasian land mass, we would like to see, but in the end, bigger than 285 MW, you couldn't do it. which stretches from the east coast of there is just no way around building I think there is only one company in China to the west coast of Europe. The these new reactors.
South Africa's PBMR Is Moving Ahead
he initial feasibility report for the Ferreira said that "the investors are detailed engineering and planning work. T Pebble Bed Modular Reactor taking a cautious and prudent approach In addition, there will be a round of pub (PBMR), now under development by to satisfy themselves that all the remain lic meetings on the environmental impact South Africa's electricity company, ing technical and organizational uncer assessment early this year. "It is hoped Eskom, has been completed, and the tainties surrounding the project are that the South African government and detailed feasibility report has been resolved to the appropriate degree, the shareholders will give the green light reviewed by the investor groups, and is before committing funds to the construc for the building of a construction module now before a 14-member panel of inter tion of the first reactor." before the end of 2002," Ferreira said. national experts appointed by the South PBMR is a 110 megawatt-electric Eskom anticipates exporting up to 30 African government. (MW-e) design. This type of pebble bed PBMR modules a year once the program According to PBMR spokesman To m reactor was developed in Germany, but for mass production is under way. Ferreira, "The feasibility study has con Eskom has added new technologies, such Because of the economies of mass pro firmed that there are no unresolvable as the direct-cycle helium turbine, to duction of standardized modules, Eskom issues. The investors have indicated that make the reactor more efficient. Eskom's has estimated a total cost of PBMR-gen they remain positive about the PBMR's partners in the PBMR project include erated electricity at less than 1 .6¢ per potential and toward the end of the year South Africa's Industrial Development kilowatt hour. (Now, most U.s. con will make decisions about the way for Corp. and British Nuclear Fuels Ltd . sumers are paying 8¢, or more.) ward for the project." The next phase of the project is more -Marjorie Maze! Hecht
74 Spring 2002 21 st CENTURY NUCLEAR REPORT RESEARCH FRONTIERS
GROWING FOOD IN AIR A Second-Generation Green Revolution by Caroline Hartmann and Elisabeth Pascali
or the past 15 years, the Italian com Fpany SAID has operated an experi mental center for research on new tech nologies applied to agriculture. Under the leadership of Dr. Giancarlo Costa, this center has developed a new aeroponics process, called the Green Line System, which can be applied on an industrial scale. Aeroponics is the process of grow ing plants under greenhouse conditions in air, rather than the better known process of hydroponics, where plants are grown in an aqueous solution. The parent company, SAID, is a small entrepreneurial firm located in Altavilla Vicentina, a suburb of the city of Vicenza in the Veneto region of Italy. SAID (which stands for Special Industrial AfJplications of Diamonds) is a typical middle-sized firm of this area, owned by its manager, Giannino Bonato. It is a world leader in cutting diamonds for industrial uses, such as cutting granite Dr. Ciancarlo Costa (right) discusses aeroponic lettuce growing in the SAID and ceramics, and in producing dia laboratory with Lyndon LaRouche. mond tools for machine tools. SAID has 130 workers and uses very method all around, for several reasons. tended to address one detailed aspect advanced technologies, including a labo Hydroponics requires a substratum at a time, rather than to focus on the ratory fo r materials analysis, which uses a which is often expensive, and which development of an integrated system plasma atomic photometer. This revolu tends to interact with the nutrient solu which could be applied in an efficient tionary machine is able to read molecular tion, absorbing the nutrients and releas way on a mass scale. The SAID project, composition through an atomic beam (a ing them at a later time, which makes therefore, set out to take the solutions sort of atomic molecular scanner). the regulation of feed ing difficult. Also, to problems in the field of aeroponics Growing in Air because the roots are constantly sub that had been found from this research, Originally, aeroponic techniques merged, there can be a problem of and join it to the industrial processing were studied by NASA to solve problems putrefaction if not enough oxygen technology and know-how of their of feed ing people employed in space reaches them. Finally, hydroponics has company, to obtain a cost-effective sys exploration and colonization. not eliminated the possibility of weeds tem that could be deployed on a mass In aeroponics, plants are inserted into growing together with the crops. scale. About 10 years of study and support structures with their roots sus Aeroponics could solve these prob research were needed to solve the pended in the air. The roots are regular lems by eliminating the aqueous solution problems that hindered the industrial ly sprayed with a nutrient solution, and substrate. It has also been fo und that, scale use of aeroponics, such as lower which, in the Green Line System, is because of the highly controlled growing ing the costs of the management of the recycled through a closed-circuit situation, aeroponic products tend to be nutrient solution, and of the electronics hydraulic system, in order to minimize richer in nutrients, homogeneous in size, applied to plant management. water and chemical dispersion. and to ripen more quickly. Their goals for the "ideal aeroponics Although hydroponics has long been When SAID and Dr. Costa began system" were: developed for areas with little cultivat their project, most of the research in • To lessen the unproductive space in able land or short growing seasons, aero aeroponics had been on a strictly aca the greenhouse. ponics is potentially a superior growing demic level. Such "pure research" Continued on page 82
RESEARCH FRONTIERS 21st CENTURY Spring 2002 75 INTERVIEW WITH DR. GIANCARLO COSTA Schematic of a Green Line aeroponic greenhouse. The central computer monitors the light, temperature, and moisture of the plants, the circulation of the nutritive solution, and the removal of waste.
aeroponics systems adapted for use in the orbital stations, but our business does not have any relationship with the· American space agency. Some of our researchers have had a great rapport and collaboration with the Russian "City of the Stars" [the Y. Gagarin Training Center for Russian Cosmonauts] . In the United States there are various firms concerned with hydroponics and "out-of-soil" techniques in general, but none has reached our technological level, especially with respect to the completely closed cycles of nutritive solutions.
Which types of vegetables and flowers can be cultivated with the aeroponic method? Out-of-Soil Farming Produces The Green Line System allows for the cultivation of almost all of the vegetables and A Superior Product at Less Cost flowers normally raised in greenhouses, and it is complete Or. Giancarlo Costa, director of the vation originate? ly versatile; that is, one can switch from SA ID agricultural research center, was The idea of aeroponics on an industri growing flowers to growing vegetables, interviewed by Giovanni Cilli and al scale was born from the needs of and vice versa, with extreme ease.... Ca roline Hartmann in July 2001. Excerpts greenhouse farmers in the course of the of that interview appear here, translated last 50 years. Greenhouse farming in soil Can one influence the rate of growth of fr om the Italian by Elisabeth Pascali. had problems with the exhaustion of the plant? Have you encountered a [nutrients] and mineralization of the higher rate of growth in these plants as Are you the only company in the world soils; hydroponics had problems with compared to ordinary ones? that has developed this method? the difficult management of th� sub At this point it is well known to both For the moment, we are unique in strates, and the nutritive solutions. researchers and cu Itivators that have possessing a universal solution like the With the Green Line System, the nutri used it, that aeroponics increases both aeroponic invention called the "Green tive solution cycle is perfectly managed. the productive returns per square meter Line System," which is protected global The roots are completely in air, and .so of cultivated surface and the rate of ly by patent. are not subjected to the influence of any growth of the plants. Because the plants Farming without soil is a necessary substrate. Thus, the oxygenation is total, find themselves in the absence of sub change at this point, because of prob permitting total mineral absorption. strate, and with their root apparatus well lems related to decreasing soil fertility oxygenated, the mineral absorption is and the lack of sufficient water or good What is your relationship with much more rapid, and therefore the qual ity, so it is rather obvious that the NASA-have you found receptiveness metabolic process is accelerated. Plants world of research and international and collaboration? Also, are there com mature from a week to 15 days sooner entrepreneurship should be researching panies in the U.S. that work in the aero with this method than with traditional a system that satisfies both requirements. ponics sector at your same level? farming, depending on the type of crop. We are aware that NASA has invested Where did the idea of aeroponic culti- many millions of dollars for research in How did you resolve the problem of
76 Spring 2002 21st CENTURY RESEARCH FRONTIERS putrefaction, and of the scum formed in tion of the bacteriological flora. Or, look it is our firm conviction that the future the closed-cycle nutritive solution? You at the tropical zones where the high natu of agriculture will be concentrated mentioned that this was one of the lead ral humidity fosters insects that cause inside of the solar belt of the planet, ing problems that came up in the first huge crop damage. Another big advan which goes from 30 degrees south lati phase of experimentation with the aero tage the Green Line System has over tra tude to 30 degrees north latitude of the ponic method. ditional cultivation is with regard to the Equator. ideal geo-climatic conditions One of the principal problems in the use of additives fo r the plants' health. We exist in this band. management of nutritive solutiohs has have achieved a 75 percent reduction in Unfo rtunately, this is also where the been the elimination of the exuded radi the need for such additives, relative to poorest countries in the world exist, and cals-that is, to put it in simple terms, the regular production methods. The Green where the water problems exist. toxins emitted from the crop plants during Line product can be defined as "ecologi However, thanks to new technologies, the normal cycle of growth. The solution cally friendly" and quasi-natural. among which aeroponics is included, we was possible, thanks to the rapidity of the Another problem to consider is the can intervene using existing energy (solar) absorption of the nutritive solution, and to quality of life of the agricultural workers. at zero cost to produce an abundance of an absence of organic material in the entire in the Western world, the young find it food. All of this can happen, if the rich [closed nutritive] system that would permit difficult to enter traditional agriculture countries of the West will decide to invest the proliferation of pathogenic agents. because of the lack of dignified condi in these projects within the immediate tions. But with the Green Line System, it future, and to resolve the heavy financial How do vegetables grown with the is like doing clerical work. The worker is crisis that is gripping them. Green line System taste? on his feet, not bent over; dressed in a Obviously, the principal test of prod white shirt; and in an environment Since this idea of cultivating vegetables ucts grown with our aeroponic system is without soil began in the space pro made by the consumers, above and "Plants mature from a week grams, do you think that aeroponics can beyond the superior organoleptic char have a role in the colonization of the to 15 days sooner with this acteristics that we demonstrate in the Moon and Mars? laboratory. Well, all of the consumers of method than with traditional in cases of a long stay in space, the aeroponic products, after they have tast farming, depending on the astronauts need to have as close to the ed them, find it difficult to return to the type of crop." same conditions as possible as on Earth, traditional ones. They are reminded of in order not to suffer irreversible physical the "old tastes" of Grandma. damage. For proper functioning, the body The tomato, for example, not only has which hovers around 20° C to 25° C requires traditional fo ods (not freeze a much stronger characteristic aroma, (68° F to 77° F) and 50 to 60 percent dried, or in the form of pills), in order to but is more sweet and has all of those relative humidity. in sum, ideal condi carry out such regular functions as intes after-tastes that by now have been lost as tions for the human body. tinal peristalsis and the supply of the max a result of the inadequate knowledge Furthermore, one gets to work with imum possible vital energy to the cells. and management of mineral fertilizers, electronics, agronomy, and chemistry This can only be obtained by raising which has stressed quantity over quality. an occupation which is both fun and fresh vegetables, and this is possible in aeroponics, both characteristics rewarding. This is why countries are only with the utilization of aeroponic [quantity and quality] are satisfied, in interested. technology, since there is no soil, and the right proportion. the use of water is restricted. Thus, if we Do you also build plants in poor coun want to colonize space by allowing a What countries are using your system? tries? .. long stay for some human beings, the We have a number of plants in Spain, Our aeroponic system, the Green Line, only solution is aeroponics. Southern italy, and now the Arab world, is particularly adapted to poor countries, where the interest is enormous. where the biggest problems are the lack Do programs already exist to make use Aeroponics can be adapted for use of water, or the poor quality of the water. of aeroponics in space colonization? anywhere in the world. it is time to over With water savings of around 90 percent, Having collaborated in the past with come the common prejudice that it is a we can overcome both of these prob the Russian Space Program (a few technique intended only to save water lems, and activate a start-up of agricul months after the fall of the [Berl in] Wa ll), even if that remains a priority, and so, ture in the Third Worid. i am fa miliar with the research that is most i nteresti ng to those cou ntries Unfortunately, these countries gener being done in that direction, and, in par where water is scarce. ally don't have the means to provide ticular, relative to the creation of a state To demonstrate this, look for example themselves with such technology, and of gravity, to also overcome the "disori at the Ligurian Coast where 50 percent of some financial assistance from the West entation" that plants undergo in space. the greenhouses are abandoned, would be necessary. These are problems which are difficult because, after many years of cultivating to solve, but which, in part, i have flowers in the same terrain, the flowers do In what parts of the world do you already resolved. However, both the not come up anymore because of prob expect to see great projects with your Russians and the Americans are working lems with mineralization and of destruc- technology? Continued on page 82
RESEARCH FRONTiERS 21st CENTURY Spring 2002 77 SPACE
INTERVIEW WITH ACADEMICIAN NIKOLAI ANFIMOV Inside Russia's Unique Space Science Institute
Dr. Nikolai A. Anfimov was born on all the designers, and all the factories, March 29, 1935, in Moscow. He gradu separated from the Institute and became ated from the Moscow Institute of independent-Special Design Bureau Physics and Te chnology in 1958, and Number 1. This was the design branch. became a Research Engineer with the Today this is the Rocket & Space Research Institute of Thermal Processes, Corporation Energia, headed by Yuri now the Keldysh Research Center. A Semyanov, general designer and presi member of the Russian Academy of dent. Sciences, he has been at the Central The second branch of the Institute was Research Institute of Machine Building research. From the earliest days, we did (TsNIIMash) since 1973, and he became research in materials, aerodynamics, the its director in February 2000. strength of rockets, and so on. After Dr. Anfimov is the head of the 1956, Research Institute No. 88 became Coordinating Scientific and Engineering only involved in research. We changed Co uncil of the Russian Aviation and the name to Ts NIlMash in 1967, and it Space Agency, Rosaviakosmos, which became the research institute, which Courtesy of Nikolai Anfimov oversees the basic and applied research does not design or develop any flight Nikolai Anfimov: "We are seeing the investigations on board the Russian seg hardware. Of course, we participate in first positive steps in this direction, of a ' ment of the International Space Station. different design and development pro closer point of view and a mutual under He has authored and co-authored more grams. We really fo llow all of the rock standing. " than 100 scientific works in aero-gas ets, launch vehicles, and spacecraft dynamics, heat tra nsfer, thermal protec designed and produced in the Soviet this, the space program is signed by the tion, the ground testing of spacecraftand Union and Russia, because we are head of the Russian Space Agency, and rockets, and the integrated analysis of responsible fo r scientific investigations, is presented to the Russian Federation prospective space transporta tion and ground testing, expertise at different lev government for approval. Lower-level space systems. els, and so on. plans, yearly plans, are also prepared. He was interviewed by Associate Editor Marsha Freeman on Oct. 3D, Question: Is it not the case that you also Question: This means that your space 2001, in Wa shington, D.C. have input into the plans of the Russian plan is based on technical evaluation Aviation and Space Agency, although and scientific capabilities. In the United Question: The history of your Institute you are a research institute? This is very States, we start with a political evalua . is a very long one. It is my understand different than in the United States. tion. ing that it has been involved in every Yes, it is very different. In fact, our First of all, we make a draft of the program since the start of the Soviet Institute is very unique. All visitors from space plan with other institutes, because missile program. the United States and other countries say we are obligated to come up with joint In recent years, the military and civil that there is no analogue in the world, programs also for other specialized insti ian programs have been separate, but because we combine very different tutes, so we work together. And the eco we had civilian programs at all times. activities and responsibilities. We are nomic institutes are responsible fo r cost Before 1992, we had no official space responsible for proposals for all the evaluations. program for civilian purposes, only space activities. We prepare the draft of But there are a lot of political aspects. some scheme, but no long-term public the Russian Federation space program. Our Institute and the Russian Av iation documents. I'd like you to understand We receive, of course, proposals from and Space Agency (Rosaviakosmos) are that there are two branches of our insti many organizations, but we combine, involved in discussions with the State tute. Originally it was united, joint. It analyze, and prepare a single draft. After Duma [Parliament] in different commit was Research Institute Number 88. Its this draft is discussed in the Russian tees. We talk there very often and I per task was to develop, and to produce the Aviation and Space Agency, there are sonally have discussions and make first Soviet long-range ballistic missiles. meetings at diffe rent levels, and we pres some presentations because we consid In 1956, Sergei Korolov, together with ent this report to the Agency Board. After er that different committees in the Duma
78 Spring 2002 21st CENTURY SPACE need to learn more about the problems cosmonauts could have changed some certify it? of space activities-the pluses and devices. But there was no money, and Yes, we give the final permission to minuses of space activity. Rosavia no repairs, so the Mir station went to its fly. We also collect permissions from kosmos delegated our Institute to work end. It was a political story. leading organizations, for example, with the Duma. Of course, officials from Energia Rocket & Space Corporation, for Rosaviakosmos are also working there, Question: In addition to evaluating spe manned fl ights. After that, we prepare and their input is the most important, but cific proposals and developing an over the conclusion. According to Russian we assist them. all plan for the space program, how are law, we need to have permission and For example, when leaders of you involved in space science and tech certification for only the first flight of Rosaviakosmos have to give diffe rent nology? space systems. But for the most impor speeches in the Duma, we prepare pre Our second task is to apply our tant missions, such as each manned liminary materials. Personally, Mr. Yu ri expertise to all the proposals and space flight-including the Soyuz trans Koptev, the director of Rosaviakosmos, prospects in Russia for rocket and space port vehicle, the unmanned Progress works very hard himself, but we prepare technology. Each project from each cargo vehicle, some distinct module drafts. organization is sent to our Institute and we prepare permissions for every article Other very important decisions are we must evaluate it. It may involve some and every fl ight. political. The most striking example, other organizations that are specialized, was the situation with the Mir space sta for example, in rocket engines, the Question: How many people work at tion. When we decided to stop the fl ight Keldysh Research Institute, but general the Institute? of the Mir station, there was a political conclusions are made by our Institute. To day, about 4,600. Twelve years ago, and public storm. Those people who Other organizations may sign or not it was approximately 12,000. We have didn't give money for the manned space sign, in different cases, but our signature diminished by two and a half times. program, now said, "it is Russia's pride . is necessary. . . don't kill it; don't make it descend. It After that, we participate in some Question: Over the last year, it seems is a national treasure." I heard a lot of design work. There are a lot of science that President Vladimir Putin has put speeches on our TV, and it was a purely and technology programs, and we are more emphasis on investment in eco political debate, of course, because last involved with many. Academy institutes nomic infrastructure and rebuilding year we had no other choice. From the are also involved. We are especially parts of the Russian economy. There technical and economic point of view, involved in ground testing, because we also seems to be a policy to revitalize the Mir station had to descend. have unique facilities to test real hard Russia's scientific manpower. Do you This discussion started three years ware and simulate fl ight conditions. see any change in policy? ago, and if there had been money for the An important part of our responsibili There are no big spurts. But really for support of the Mir station, it would have ty is the certification of rocket and space 10 years we had a diminishing of the been possible [to save it] then. It could system before the first fl ight. space budget. Two or three years ago, have flown several more years. It would the space budget was stabilized. It may have been possible to make repairs; the Question: So nothing flies unless you have been slightly increased, but there was some inflation which ate the increase. In 2002, we have a draft of the budget, which gives us a more serious increase. It is necessary for our space industry to cooperate with foreign countries. We have income from commercial con tracts, and this enables Russian space enterprises to survive. For example, at the Khrunichev Space Center, they did not do as well as they would like, but they did get good money from launches. Energia Corporation also gets commer cial inputs. They do this to compensate for the deficit from government money.
Question: A NASA official said, recent ly, that in the West, development of. a Courtesy of Nikolai Anfimov new reusable launch vehicle would cost Dr. Anfimov (right) and Gen. (ret.) Thomas Stafford in October 2000, signing the about $5 billion. No individual compa. protocol fo r the work of the joint commission to ensure safety fo r crews on the Inter ny could do this; only the government national Space Station. The signing took place in Rio de janeiro, during the 57st could do it. But in Russia, the new InternationalAstr onautical Congress. Angara rocket, and Baikal reusable first
SPACE 21 st CENTURY Spring 2002 79 stage are being developed even though the economic situation has been so bad. The Angara expendable launch vehi cle is being developed mostly from commercial money (aside from Angara's rocket engines). Khrunichev Center uses its profits from commercial flights. A very small part is from our government. Baikal, the reusable fly-back booster, is being developed only with commercial money, without any government sup port. Khrunichev Center is interested in using new technology to be competitive in the world market. They use their own money for this purpose. Khrunichev Center is a government company. It has no stockholders, so it can invest money in its future advanced projects. Recently there was a very interesting decision, by Yu ri Kop,tev-by the way, this was published in Space News. There was a special decision of Rocket NASA and Space Corporation Energia, Expedition 4 crew members Daniel Bursch, Yu ri Onufrienko, and Carl Wa lz pose on Khrunichev, and Ts llNMash, and Dec. 11, 2000, during their fo ur-month stay on the International Space Station. approved by Koptev, for commercial Before the start of each mission, the commission, headed by General Staffo rd and activity on the Russian segment of the Dr. Anfimov, must certify the safety of the station. International Space Station. The sense of the decision is that commercial activity between Russia and the other partners the International Space Station. Gen. is done jointly, not done separately by on the ISS about launching space tourist (ret) To m Stafford is the chairman from each organization. And the money from Dennis Tito to the station, most news the American side, and I am the chair commercial activity must be deployed stories never mentioned that Russia man from the Russian side. We provide back into the Russian segment of the needed the money he was paying for a special analysis and prepare a recom International Space Station. the flight, in order to meet its responsi mendation, for the NASA Administrator bilities to the partners and the program. and Mr. Koptev, before each new crew Question: Do you have an idea of what We talked about it, but Western offi fl ight to the ISS. Mssrs. Goldin [former percentage of the money Russia will cials didn't understand it; the Congress NASA Administrator] and Koptev need to meet its responsibilities for the of the United States Rep. approved the work of this joint commis ISS will have to come from commercial Sensenbrenner, a very "dear friend" of sion, and because of recent events, it is activity on the station? Russia, was permanently against Russian considered a very important interaction We need approximately a twofold initiatives, between the United States and Russia on increase for Russia to meet all of its joint space flights, responsibilities. The government money Question: But since the Russian govern By the way, before the Tito flight, we is enough only for the most needed, ment policy has been changing, it may worked very hard together to come to a immediate work, not for next year, and be more possible to increase coopera decision on this fl ight. We signed a joint the year after. So the commercial money tion. decision. The American crew departed will have to match the government Russian government policy was very from Moscow on Saturday at 11 AM, budget money. good all the time, in words, but not in and we signed the joint decision on For example, a Soyuz transport vehi budget payments. There were many Saturday at 1 AM, after midnight. cle is under production fo r one year and holes in our Russian budget. nine months. To launch Soyuz vehicles Question: Regarding September 11, it in 2003 we now need to begin produc Question: Yo ur predecessor, Dr. was quite extraordinary that after U.S. ing this hardware. Usually, Energia Vladimir Utkin, played an important nuclear forces were put on alert, the Corporation asks for credit for this pur role in the U.S./Russian cooperation first foreign leader President Bush pose. But in the future, they need to pay during the Shuttle/Mir program. Do spoke to was President Putin. In previ fo r th is cred it. you play an active role in the ous times, the Russian military would This is a very delicate question, of U.S./Russian cooperation? also be on alert, but President Putin said course. Yes. We are continuing this work. that the Russian forces would stand There is a very special joint, bilateral down, because he understood the secu Question: When the fight was going on commission, for the safety of flights to rity threat to the United States. It would
80 Spring 2002 21st CENTURY SPACE seem that there are changes in the in some scientific projects, such as the Science Laboratory, under NASA, which U.S./Russian relationship, after investigation of the radiation of rocket is on Long Island in New York. We did September 11. plumes, because a launch is detected by special testing in a PGU for a hyperson We are seeing the first positive steps in the radiation of the plume. This is our ic vehicle. It was the first testing of a this direction, of a closer point of view, speciality-the investigation of physical model hypersonic ramjet engine with a and a mutual understanding. I hope this processes, such as radiation. supersonic combustion process. understanding will be closer. It's very important, from our point of view, that Question: One technology now moving Question: What are the most important before September 11, there was no into flight testing in the United States is projects that the Institute is working on understanding from American, and hypersonic technology. What research now? Western organizations, of the events in is being done in Russia in this area? Perhaps our cooperation on future Chechnya. We cooperate with Americans in sci launch vehicles. We are working hard They conceived this as a battle of the entific conferences in hypersonics. For investigating new technologies for future Chechen people for their independence, many years, I was a member of the com launch vehicles. I can mention also new but the roots of these two events are the mittee of the American Institute of technologies for small spacecraft, among same. Te rrorism was financed by the Aeronautics and Astronautics, which which are very effective electric same bin Laden and there are a lot of arranges these conferences. I represented thrusters, so-called ALT-anode layer fo reign fighters among the Chechen Russia there. Now, another man from our thrusters. By the way, last year the ALT troops. We see that now in the United Institute is a member of this committee. developed and produced at Ts NIlMash States there is a much better understand At Ts NIlMash we have supersonic and flew on an American research spacecraft. ing of the unity of these two problems. hypersonic wind tunnels, a unique pis Of course, there is a big diffe rence. ton gas-dynamic facility with multi-cas Question: Are you looking at reusable Chechnya is a part of Russia and always cade compressions (PGU), and high or expendable launchers? will be an area of Russia. For you, bin temperature electric arc facilities. One We are looking at both. We are look Laden is far from the United States and of our first commercial projects with the ing at the modernization of expendable you are not fighting on your ground, but United States, six or seven years ago, launch vehicles; new fuels, such as in another country. This is the diffe r was with the GASL-General Applied methane and liquid natural gas; and also ence. But the roots are similar. in the reusable direction. We are responsible for systems Question: There have been a analysis and the total program. number of joint military R&D We invite other organizations projects, some of which were to participate. not being funded adequately For example, we always do in the United States. Are they the work with materials. We continuing? are testing samples for vehicle I can't answer your question construction and for thermal because our Institute is not protection, and construction involved in military projects elements in various test facili with foreign countries. There ties, which simulate fl ight con are other people in the ditions and the space environ Ministry of Defense who work mental. We don't develop new with foreign companies. We materials, but work with other work with the Ministry, for research institutions that devel Russian military forces, but not op them. jointly on American military projects. They worked inde Question: How are the techni pendently from us. cal data transferred from your I know the RAMOS [Russian Institute to an organization, American Observation Satel such as the Khrunichev Design I ite] project. It is led by Bureau? Academician Anatoliy Savin, Khrunichev Center designs former head of Cometa, a sci vehicles themselves, but they entific production organiza often use our preliminary tion, which is involved in results to design their vehicles. developing satellites which It was our finding, for example, watch areas of potential missile that it was most important for launches-special early warn The new Angara fa mily of launch vehicles is being devel Russia to have a reusable first ing spacecraft. oped at Khrunichev Space Center, mainly from fu nds it stage, for a future Russian Our Institute is involved only receives from commercial launches of its Proton rocket. reusable launch vehicle. This
SPACE 21st CENTURY Spring 2002 81 was the conclusion of our research, over near the Caspian Sea, if there were no Interview with several years. Khrunichev Center is possibility that the first stage would fall using this idea for designing their Baikal down. If it is a fly-back stage, other Dr. Giancarlo Costa boosters. In addition, they then ordered launch sites may be used. It is much Continued (ro m page 77 a lot of different partial investigations more flexible. on using aeroponics for space. and testing from our Institute. They asked for research concerning gas Question: Do you plan to have launch We know that you have also developed dynamics, acoustics, and so on. es from Australia? innovative ideas for combatting cancer. We used their money, among other Some agreements are signed. A new Can you tell us about that? things, to pay our staff. launch vehicle must be developed, the I think that every individual, besides Aurora, which can be considered a mod working and enriching himself, must Question: What is the advantage of the ification of the Soyuz launcher. It will also give something to humanity, just as Baikal, the reusable liquid fly-back have a new central core stage, with NK- humanity gives to the individual. .., booster? 33 rocket engines, which were devel With this logic, I thought of putting at A reusable first stage will have the oped and produced in the 1960s-1 970s the disposal of humanity, free, my per ' advantage of a lower total cost. But, for the Russian Moon rocket, the N-1 . sonal research abilities, directed toward more important is the environmental sit Our Institute is involved in some testing, the most dreadful evil that affl icts uation. Yo ur launch site is at the ocean, and is providing expertise on this project. mankind: cancer. so you have much less of an environ My innovative idea is that the assertion mental problem of spent boosters and Question: What do you see as the of traditional medicine, that genetic stages falling down on land. longer-term goal of space exploration? mutations cause cancers, is one of the We have continental cosmodromes. Anfimov: A manned expedition to most colossal lies in existence. Not even Our first stages cross over the land area Mars is the dream of rocket technology 5 percent of cancers are caused by genet of Russia, Kazakhstan, and Tu rkmenistan. pioneers. Now is the time for conceptual ic mutations, and in those cases, the In 1999 we had a lot of problems, and feasibility studies of such an expedi patient has been exposed to high doses of ,because of accidents with two Proton tion: Such research is now under investi radioactivity. But does it seem possible launch vehicles. Kazakhstan fo rbade gation in Russia, at the Keldysh Research that the "Grand Architect" that has launches of Protons from Bailkonur for Center, Energia, Ts NIlMash, and other planned the universe and man, has creat some period. That is why we are inter organizations. The main questions under ed a structure of DNA-genetic muta ested in not having the first stage fa ll investigation are the mission scenario, tions-so fragile as to be able to be mod down, but fly back to the launch site. power/propulsion complex, and so on. ified by pollution, or by an error in nutri We could use other launch areas, To day we can forecast manned Mars tion? Traditional medicine now recog such as Kapustin Yar, on the Vo lga River expeditions in 201 5-2025. nizes tumor co-factors, and this consider ation alone is sufficient to found research on a completely new basis . . Green Revolution well beyond this. Continued fro m page 75 The Green Line System, according to What approach did you adopt? ..
• To obtain even and constant lighting its developers, makes aeroponics com I put together some among the most (preventing the plants from having to petitive, not only with traditional agri brilliant minds on the planet that were compete for light). culture, but also with hydroponic agri disposed to see this pathology from a
• To allow the same setup to success culture. Green Line aeroponic farming completely different angle than that of fully produce many different crops. allows productivity increases per square establishment medicine, and not neglect
• To make the installation and main meter which are three times higher than anything that has · been done. Thanks, tenance of the system inexpensive and those of traditional farming. Further, the above all, to aeroponics, we have arrived suitable to various greenhouse and cli closed-cycle nutrient solution permits at the conclusion that cancer manifests matic conditions. 90 percent of the water to be saved, with itself only when there is an alteration of
• To decrease the amount of chemical zero pollution. the acid/base ration in the organism. waste. Economist Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr., a This alteration happens as a result of
• To create large savings in energy, member of the scientific advisory board diverse co-factors, such as smoking, pol water, and labor. of 27st Century visited the SAl D labora lution, wrong eating, stress, and so on.
• To control the entire climatic and tory in July 2001 . In an interview at the Obviously, to develop this argument in nourishing system through a computer time, Mr. LaRouche stressed that firms any detail· would require a book-length ized sensor system. like SAID are a concrete example of report, not just a few lines in a maga The resultant product is SAID's Green what really creates wealth and profit in zine. However, the advice that I can give Line System. To day, SAID has sold and the economy: the application of new to those sick with tumors is that if they built aeroponics plants in the Canary scientific and technological discoveries want to heal themselves, the principle Islands, southern Spain, Italy's Mezzo to labor productivity, through the devel requirement is that of alkalizing the giorno region in the south, and the opment of machine tools, industrial body before undertaking any type of Middle East, and it expects to expand machines, and new design processes. therapy.
82 Spring 2002 21 st CENTURY SPACE BOOKS
The Authentic But Not Official Rickover by Theodore Rockwell
Rickover: The Struggle for Excellence nuclear energy is little appreciated, even by Francis Duncan by those in the field. When President Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2001 Eisenhower asked Admiral Rickover to Hardcover, 364 pp. $37.50 build the world's first commercial atom r. Frank Duncan is very clear that ic power station, many believed that he Dthis is not an "official biography." would merely go ahead with his aircraft After a decade of interviews and records carrier prototype plant, which had never searching, he will defend its accuracy been approved, and put a civilian label and completeness. But, he explains, an on it. They didn't know Rickover. He "official biography" implies that some didn't do things half way. one has hired a writer to document a Rickover was a strong enforcer of pre-determined story, and Duncan is an security classification. "Don't help independent professional. potential enemies copy our best Professional historians, I ike practition weapons," he said. But when he was ers of the world's oldest profession, suf tasked to create a civilian plant, he deter fer unfair competition from amateurs. All mined to do more than just build a writers believe they are fully qualified to demonstration plant. He would lay a write history, and they do so shameless declassified technological foundation for ly (this reviewer included). But profes an entire industry. Back in 1947, when sional training and long practice in the ther a historian nor a professional writer, he first went to Oak Ridge to learn art make a difference, as Frank Duncan and my book was more of a memoir nuclear technology from the Manhattan shows us in this biography, the product than a biography. atomic bomb project scientists, he start of a full decade of meticulous chroni The Real Rickover ed his people collecting and collating all cling and research. So now, at long last, we have an the relevant technical information and Much has been written about four-star authentic biography, the product of an data on various aspects of nuclear tech Admiral Hyman George Rickover, USN. experienced, independent historian, nology. They got it declassified, and pub Clay Blair, Jr., wrote The Atomic located "on site," in an office near lished it in handbooks-nuclear physics, Submarine and Admiral Rickover in Rickover's, with complete contempo beryllium, radiation shielding, liquid 1954. But Blair was a Pentagon corre raneous access to the fi les and records, metal technology-1 3 handbooks in all. spondent for Time-Life, and his story was from 1969 until the Admiral's death in Rickover extended this process in his focussed on the Navy's effort to force 1986. He continued his writing and new civilian capacity and started getting Rickover's retirement at age 53. Blair's research almost to the publication date all this new information hammered into book was important in bringing Rickover of this book in November 2001 . the American codes and standards sys to national attention. But it read like the The challenge Duncan faced was not a tem-boiler and pressure vessel codes, Time cover story that it became. shortage of information, but a need to sort welding standards, and so on. A Civilian Norman Polmar and To m Allen, expe out the facts and the stories from a pletho Reactors Branch had been set up in the rienced writers, began their 1982 book, ra of anecdotes ranging from improbable Atomic Energy Commission, to parallel Rickover: A Biography, by quoting a but true, to believable but totally fabricat the existing branches covering naval, note from Rickover's secretary: "Admiral ed. And among all the stories about army, and aircraft systems. Rickover Rickover does not desire to have a book events and world figures, he was also try worked with its Director, a lawyer written about him. Therefore, he will not ing to bring into focus the real Rickover. named Hal Price, to ensure that the kind grant the interviews you requested." And For there is, after all, a human person of operator training and monitoring that so, their 200 interviews did not include inside and nearly hidden by the icon. he used for Navy crews could and many of the key players. Pol mar told me Rickover is widely known as "the would be applied by industry. that the "unauthorized" aspect of his father of the nuclear navy." That story Most of that story is not covered in biography was what made it sell; but it has been told in many places, including this Rickover biography. Duncan had didn't make it authentic. Duncan's prize-winning 1990 book, discussed it in his 1990 book on the In 1992, I wrote Th e Rickover Effect: Rickover and the Nuclear Navy: Th e technological lessons learned in How One Man Made a Difference. Discipline of Te chnology. But the extent Rickover's program; he did not need to Unlike the other authors, I was a player and true nature of Rickover's contribu go back over that material in this biogra in the events I described. But I am nei- tion to the commercial development of phy. But I mention it here so that people
BOOKS 21st CENTURY Spring 2002 83 working today in the commercial aspects of nuclear technology would be Are you looking for reminded to be aware of the source of an extraordinary much of what they take for granted in their daily work. translator? In today's environment, where text You just found him! books, trained nuclear engineers and scientists, pre-tested computer software for design and operation, and a selec Richard Sanders tion of code-stamped nuclear compo translator nents such as pumps, valves, instru ments and computer codes are all read I translate ideas, ily available, it is hard to imagine what our world would be like if Rickover had not just words! not taken on the chore of seeing that all these things would be there when they More than 15 years experience were needed. To day we hear cries that translating scientific material. there is so much uncertainty, no leader ship, and layers of bureaucratic obsta Courtesy of Naval Institute Press 1-540-668-7141 Te lephone cles. How can one hope to make 1-540-668-7143 Fax progress? I suggest that you picture as Admiral Rickover, in a rare photograph E-mail to: [email protected] best you can what life would be like if that shows him with a smile. we had yet to develop these many tools Translate from: Dutch, French, and aids that were Rickover's legacy. lessons and Inspiration German, Italian, and Spanish; also Now, in that retrospective mode, read Anglo-Saxon and Middle English this fine biography of Duncan's and see Translate into: (American) English For the Record how Rickover faced and overcame many of the same sorts of obstacles we A reviewer is supposed to find an find before us today. There are both les error to show that he did in fact sons and inspiration in these stories. All read the book. I found one, but the solutions seem obvious after the fact. author beat me to it. On page 156, And all obstacles look less formidable discussing Rickover's role in help when you know they have already been ing the British establish a nuclear overcome. Duncan brings alive again submarine program, Duncan writes those days when Rickover often said, that the British fo und Rickover "There's nothing in the Old or New "hard to deal with, hard to predict, Testament that says this has to work." and often abrasive, but without him It seems unreal to say it today, but we they would never have gotten their were not at all sure that the decisions first nuclear submarine to sea." made then would prove to be workable. "Never, Frank?" I asked Duncan. Nobody assigned Rickover his task, and "That's a long time." But he had no one was there to assure that he would already fo und that error and he was get what he needed to do it. I urge you to highly upset by it. read this book and regain the spirit of "As published, that's a devastat uncertainty and high adventure that once ing judgment of England's techno characterized the nuclear enterprise. It logical capabilities," he told me. will help you put today's obstacles and "But the manuscript I submitted uncertainties in a new perspective. had two more little words before Because now as always, in the old war the period. I said 'in 1963.' 1 can see rior's phrase, "Fortuna Audaces Juvat" how the press's editor might have (Fortune favors the bold). figured we didn't need that phrase, Th eodore Rockwell worked fo r
..,,,,:-i -:JB;,W��.- =m.... ,-*�. '�-:;:':' "ll ' since I had set the time frame earli Admiral Rickover in his headquarters Infinite Energy Magazine er in the paragraph. But look at the 1949-1 964, the last 10 years as his �old Fusion Technology, Inc. diffe rence it makes! All I intended Te chnical Director. He is a fo unding offi P.O. Box 2816 . TF to say was, it would have taken cer of MPR Associates, Inc., and of Concord, NH 03302-2816 Ph: 603-228·4516 Fx: 603·224·5975 them longer. I'd sure like to straight Radiation, Science & Health, Inc. A ver http://www.infinite-energy.com en out the record on that." sion of this review appeared in Nuclear News, December 2001.
84 Spring 2002 21 st CENTURY BOOKS The Man Who Inspired the Space Age by Marsha Freeman
The Artof Chesley Bonestell detail, and his ability to visualize an by Ron Miller and Frederick C. Durant III entire city, on the Moon and Mars. London: Paper Tiger, 2001 Although it is not widely known, in Hardcover, 256 pp., $50.00 this period, Chesley Bonestell con t the age of 5, Chesley Bonestell tributed to many of the projects Abegan to paint. And, at the age of Americans see around them every day. 10, "he became fascinated with the In 1916, he worked with landscape sight of Venus in the evening and morn architect-engineer Mark Daniels to ing skies," the authors of this biography design one of the best known scenic recount. This combination of a talent for highways in the United States, along the painting, and a fascination with astrono coast of California. my, would later produce the premier In the 1920s, Bonestell worked with a artist of the Space Age. number of prominent architectural firms In 1905, at the age of 17, Chesley in New Yo rk, and contributed to the Bonestell and a friend "caught an early design of the Chrysler Building, and train to San Jose and hiked the twenty other skyscrapers, in that city. He six miles to the summit of Mt. Hamilton worked with famed architect Cass and Lick Observatory," Bonestell Gilbert, on the design of the U.S. reports. (He had free passes from the Supreme Court Building in Washington, Southern Pacific Railroad, for which he and the state capitols of Minnesota and was doing magazine illustrations.) West Virginia. Bonestell also worked on "That night I saw, for the first time the work was dedicated to architecture, in the design for the Plymouth Rock Moon through the 36-inch refractor, but order to create on paper the buildings, Memorial in Massachusetts. most impressive and beautifu l was landscaping, and bridges, that would After the 1929 stock market crash, Saturn through the 12-inch refractor. As bring the United States into the new cen and the slowdown of skyscraper con soon as I got home, I painted a picture of tury. This experience wou ld later struction in N�w Yo rk, the Bonestells Saturn." That painting was lost the fol undoubtedly inform his attention to returned to California. In 1932, lowing year in the great San Francisco fire, but it started Chesley Bonestell on a more than 50-year career of portraying on a canvas what men could only imagine existed in the universe. In 1910, Bonestell, while an architecture student at Columbia University in New Yo rk, observed Halley's Comet. In 1986, the year he died, Bonestell became one of the handful of people to witness the return of Halley's Comet twice in his lifetime. A Love of Great Projects After studying art and architecture, Chesley Bonestell left Columbia University in 1910 (with out earning his degree), Illustrations are courtesy of Ron Miller and Frederick C. Durant III and returned to his home A deta il of the Golden Gate Bridge anchors, one of a series ofpen and ink drawings by Bonestell in California. For the next in 7935, showing details of the construction of the bridge. The drawings were used to illustrate the two decades, much of his publication, The Golden Gate Bridge: A Te chnical Description in Ordinary Language."
BOOKS 21st CENTURY Spring 2002 85 state of knowledge about the Moon at that time, and make it accessible to a very broad audience. The great scientist Johannes Kepler had done the same, in his Somnium, 250 years earlier. In the 20th Century, in 1940, Chesley Bonestell decided to use the medium of paint to provide a view of what he could gather from the scientific commu nity were the features of the Solar System that were as yet unseen. "[T] he planets of our Solar System had never been accurately depicted from their satellites, through a definite visual angle," Bonestell wrote. "Always before it had been an 'artist's conception.' ... As my knowledge of the technical side of the motion picture industry broadened, I realized I could apply In this view, 200 miles above the crater Albategnius, Bonestell shows us what the Moon 's camera angles as used in surfa ce .will look like, not in an artist's imagination, but to an astronaut looking out the window the motion picture studio to of his spacecraft. It appeared originally in Life magazine in 1944, and in The Conquest of Space, illustrate 'travel' from satel in 1949. lite to satellite, showing Saturn exactly as it would Bonestell started a five-year project, pro Narrows in New Yo rk, a dam across the look, and at the same time, I could add ducing detailed construction drawings Yangtze river in China, and a tunnel interest by showing the inner satellites or for the building of the Golden Gate under the English channel. Fifty years outer ones o"n the far side of Saturn, as Bridge in San Francisco, and contributed later, these projects have come, or are well as the planet itself in different phas- to the bridge's final design. He had also coming, to fruition. es." contributed to the redesigning and In 1938, his career took a new turn, Thus, he began a series of now rebuilding of that city, in the wake of the and he began a period of working for famous studies of Saturn as seen from 1906 fire. Hollywood motion picture producers. Titan, and other of its moons. In later During the 19305, while President The limited array of special effects avail years, when observations showed that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was organiz able at that time meant that artist's draw because Titan is covered in a heavy ing the government agencies that would ings were needed to fill in panoramic blanket of clouds, Saturn would not be rebuild infrastructure to beat back the background scenes, where the actors visible from its surface at all, Bonestell, Depression, Chesley Bonestell created were in actual sets in the foreground. handled this "mistake" philosophically. beautiful visual presentations of public Bonestell produced a lunar landscape His initial paintings had created a works projects that were authorized by for the film, Destination Moon in 1950, bombshell. He submitted the series of the recovery programs. and contributed to Citizen Kane, Th e Saturn paintings to Life magazine, which Bonestell would continue his interest Hunchback of Notre Dame, and numer published them in its May 29, 1944 issue. in building great projects for many more ous other films. As Miller and Durant relate: "No one years, even after his work turned in other But while in Hollywood, Bonestell before had seen such paintings-they directions. In the late 1940s, Bonestell continued his work in architecture, and, looked exactly like snapshots taken by a submitted art work to Coronet maga as the authors report, "never lost his space-travell ing National Geographic zine, some of which was published in interest in astronomy." photographer. For the first time, render 1949, in Seven Future Wo nders of the A New View of the Solar System ings of the planets made them look like Wo rld. These unsolicited paintings At the end of the u.s. Civil War, real places and not mere 'artist's impres included the future possibility and French writer Jules Verne used the form sions.' " These renderings of the planets, design for a bridge across the Ve rrazano of a fictional story to summarize the which presented them as "real places,"
86 Spring 2002 21st CENTURY BOOKS would have a profound effect on a num 'artist's conception,' but a picture which two years, eight magazine articles were ber of young people, who would change you might obtain it if were possible to published, which covered every aspect their plans, and became some of the most get a very good camera with perfectly of man in space. Yo ung people, their f�uitful contributors to astronomy and color-true film into the proper position eyes wide, would read about astronaut space science. and have it manned by a good photog training, unmanned satellites, winged But Chesley Bonestell's art was about rapher who could use just the right space shuttles, huge orbiting space sta to take another, and most significant, exposure with the proper artistic touch. tions, lunar landings, and the assembly turn. In 1944, at the Hayden It is obvious that this involves, not just a of gargantuan spaceships, for missions to Planetarium in New Yo rk City, he met special talent coupled with special stud Mars. Willy Ley, the German rocket pioneer ies, but really an entire life history." This series of articles, which was later and space writer who had come to the Two years later, Bonestell's vision of published as a series of books, estab United States in 1937. Ley, who had just manned spaceflight would be extended lished not only the outline for the next completed his seminal work on the his yet further, with his introduction to 50 years in space, as envisioned by von tory of the brand new field of rocketry, Wernher von Braun, at an Air Force Braun, but actually demonstrated, advised Chesley Bonestell to include School of Aviation Medicine conference through Bonestell's art work, that man spacecraft and astronauts in his render in San Antonio, Te xas. There, von Braun could go into space. ings of space. was signed on to writing a series of arti Throughout the 1960s, Bonestell's Building Cities in Space cle for Colliers magazine, for which collaboration with Ley, von Braun, and In 1949, the first product of this col Chesley Bonestell would be one of the astronomers and scientists, produced laboration between an artist and a sci illustrators. books and articles, including the 1964 ence writer appeared, as the Conquest Starting in 1952, and extending over Beyond the Solar System, where Ley and of Space. The book included 58 paint ings by Bonestell, illustrating th� text written by Ley, and provided the first "snapshots" to be seen of the lunar sur face. These were only to be surpassed by the cameras aboard the unmanned probes sent to the Moon by the Soviet Union and United States in the 1960s. But the key to the conquest of space, was man. The paintings portray the spaceship ready for liftoff, scenes of the Earth beneath the craft before it heads to the Moon, the flight to the Moon, the way the Moon would look from the win dow of a spaceship, just above the sur face, lunar landings, the establishment of an initial base of operations, and a "weekly transport vehicle" ready to head back to Earth. Will Ley wrote the introduction to the magnificent book, which he called, "Mostly About Chesley Bonestell." In it, he explained what was required to pro duce what Bonestell had created, using the view of Saturn from Titan (which Bonestell gave to Ley as a gift), as an example: " ...[T) he artist has to know the laws of optics in principle and in detail, since the very first thing that will con front him is a little problem like this: the whole picture will correspond to a visu al angle of 30 degrees; the object is 31,000 miles in diameter and will be seen from a distance of 220,000 miles; it will therefore subtend an angle of so many degrees, which will be how much in my picture?" Here, Bonestell has painted the beginnings of a lunar base, which appeared in The The result," Ley states, "is not an Conquest of Space. A weekly transport rocket to Earth is being readied fo r launch.
BOOKS 21st CENTURY Spring 2002 87 Bonestell take readers on an interstellar It III public museums, flight, and the 1972 book Beyond including the National Jupiter, written by Arthur Clarke. Air & Space Museum in Chesley Bonestell lived long enough Washington. That many to see many of the projects he depicted of his works are also in paint come into being in reality. available, in large part, Although not all of his artistic represen for public use, is the tations turned out to be accurate, such result of the diligent and as his jagged, rather than rounded, dedicated work of this mountaintops on the Moon, Bonestell book's authors, especial would modestly say, "even if they're ly the close friend of the wrong, they did influence young people artist, Fred Durant. and got them interested in astronomy, so The fact that both they at least served that purpose." Durant and Ron Miller In fact, the dramatic representations in -himself a space illus Bonestell's art excited and gave new trator and artist-were direction to many in the generation of personal friends of Ches scientists and engineers who later car ley Bonestell, makes this ried out the missions they had seen in book not only a unique the books, articles, television, and the collection of black and movies, which Bonestell had helped white and color plates of make real. Bonestell's work, but Chesley Bonestell created this painting of the Chinese The Bonestell Treasure also a warm, personal, observing Halley's Comet in 240 B.C. for the book, The The body of Chesley Bonestell's artwork and humorous story of Solar System, published in 7967. The painting inspired is a treasure, which has been preserved (in this most remarkable him to do a whole series of beautiful paintings in most cases) and catalogued, with some of man. Chinese style.
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HOUSTON ' TEXAS USA ' 10-19 OCTOBER ' 2002
34th Scientific Assembly of the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) 53rd International Astronautical Congress of the International Astronautical Federation (lAF), the International Academy of Astronautics (lAA), and the International Institute of Space Law (IISL)
We now stand on the threshold of a new era in space. The World Space Congress · 2002 is its launch pad. From 10-19 October 2002 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Te xas, the world space community will come together to explore the directions the space community will take over the coming decade. This will be an unprecedented gathering of the world's leaders from space science, engineering, technology, government, and business.
During 40 daily concurrent scientific and technical sessions, the Congress will cover a wide range of space topiCS within Science, Te chnology, Infrastructure, MiSSions, Legal & Policy, Business & Applications, and Education & History. Special plenary sessions will examine four critical areas of interest: International Space Station Utilization, Space Commercial Applications for Other Industries, Life Sciences and Bio Medicine, and a Vision for the Next 25 Years of Scientific Investigations in Space. The Congress will also feature official associated events, the Space Ops 2002 Conference and the International Space Station Utilization Conference, as well as an impressive collection of other professional and educational related activities inherent to the space community.
UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE U.S. NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES (NASI HOSTED AND ORGANIZED BY THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF AERONAUTICS AND ASTRONAUTICS (AIAAI · HOST INDUSTRY SPONSOR BOEING SPACE AND COMMUNICAT IONS . OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR SPACE NEWS
Plan now to take part in a history-making event that will help set the world's course for a new decade of progress in space and benefits on Earth.
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