THE PATH OF VENUS

this complex looking package represents a carefully organized assembly of our most advanced space-age instruments the products of our high degree of technical skill in engineering and manufacturing the very latest developments in our scientific state-of-the-art this instrumented package is a symbol of our present stage of civilization in capsule it is being sent on a fantastic assignment it's magnetic memory contains electronic orders to record and to communicate the first information ever transmitted to earth through millions of miles of solar space it's name is pioneer five its destination the path of Venus we are living in the year nineteen sixty ad also in the year three of the Space Age our rapid scientific growth and technical developments have accelerated our civilization through several ages in the last few years the air age the jet age the Atomic Age the missile age and now our rocket powered missiles have propelled us into the space age bad controlled test conductor power removal is not complete request permission the explorers of this new age are different from those of any past ages they are the scientists the engineers the military men talented trained and dedicated with years of experience in highly technical and challenging research and development projects to qualify them for the responsibilities they have undertaken our planet Earth has been explored from pole to pole on land on sea and in the air and we've explored the universe we live in we've done as much as earthbound man could do now our world of tomorrow has taken on a new dimension we suddenly realize that our closest neighbors are somehow more mysterious the Sun Jupiter Saturn and Mars they are no longer things to look at they have become places to go someday soon the solar system has become another new world to explore we become aware of an infinite future as we glimpse our own star system as a tiny speck of light within a gigantic super atom called a galaxy from our viewpoint we see it as the Milky Way we are not ready to send our first manned flight to Venus or any other planet yet we still have many things to learn before we send a human astronaut along the space routes being explored by our electronic Scouts what will the weather be like in space how close can we get to the Sun but will we discover when we land on Mars rich mineral deposits opportunities for establishing new colonies in space or will we find a reception committee waiting to welcome us at someone else's ultra-modern spaceport it would be interesting to know our Space Age explorers have just recently discovered evidence that there is water vapor on Venus that is perhaps as significant as statements as the one expressed a few hundred years ago the earth is round but in more recent years we have expanded our understanding of the solar system our science and technology have developed enormously we have created space-age instruments that we can send behind the lines of present knowledge like interplanetary private eyes under strict orders to seek out and report back information that will satisfy our urgent need to know it isn't safe to send a human being to do a man's job yet instead we have at our command a gigantic man made Ginny with an electronic brain this towering three-stage missile able for designed to propel pioneer 5 the first deep-space probe into the Venus orbit was prepared for its historic mission by a team of missile engineers a Blee supported by Douglas under contract to the Air Force the executive agents for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration this is the same expert scientific military-industrial team responsible for so many others successful for boosted space experiments it was a similar thor able rocket that launched the instrumented spacecraft pioneer one to an altitude of over 70,000 miles while a transmitted back to earth the first scientific data obtained from an outer space environment a Thor able was also the vehicle which placed into orbit the extremely successful Explorer 6 satellite paddlewheel the same dependable rocket combination is being used to place the tyros series of weather eyes satellites into precise orbits it would seem the Thor the intermediate-range ballistic missile developed for the Air Force has become the workhorse of the Space Age during the last few seconds of the countdown on pioneer 5 you cannot help but feel that you would like to go along or at least you very much dislike being left behind Shane 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 from our earthbound point of view the last visible impression is created by the vapour trail as the space probe climbs to the pool layers of the outer atmosphere the reliable for has nearly completed its phase of the assignment separation every successful separation is achieved as well as complete separation from the known reality of Earth so far below but by using our imagination we will take you as far out as we can go today by simulating what you might see if you were actually aboard the spacecraft we are following along the path of Venus if our pioneer had left the earth a few months earlier our objective would already be in sight but Venus past this point in space some time ago however if we can travel faster we might even overtake our neighbor planets what would you imagine that Venus might look like from the nose of our space vehicle if we could see it without distortion from the heavy veil of the Earth's atmosphere would it look something like the earth at a comparable distance spinning majestically on its axis moving along its orbit around the Sun could we define land masses or discern oceans could we detect any evidence of civilization or any signs of life at all what profitable returns might we expect from our present investment in space vast new mineral wealth new sources of energy and power vital scientific discoveries to help us eliminate disease will we ever know unless we get much closer than we are today that was our answer from deep space we will know much more because of Pioneer 5 and its historic exploration probing millions of miles into deep interplanetary space we know now that will be able to receive and to transmit to communicate to our own man-made instruments as far away as Venus or Mars even more that we will be able to communicate to our human astronauts along the same space route someday soon who knows what answers we will get one day when we send our call directly to other planets in this technological cradle a new age has been born the Space Age it seems that we have reached the point of no return because we've glimpsed another new horizon we've discovered another new world to explore within the greater environment of our solar system our science our civilization our world our lives will never be the same again truly we are witnessing the dawn of a new age for mankind