THE FANTASTIC HAZARDS OF LANDING ON THE MOON

Scientists are beginning to realize the awesome problems that our men ont he moon will be up against.  Shouldn't we take another look at our speedup program, which can only make those problems more formidable?

Barely four years from now our National Aeronautics and Space Administration intends to launch three astronauts into orbit 100 miles above the moon.  Then, if all goes as planned, two of these spacemen will leave their Apollo vehicle and head for the lunar surface in a 12-ton, bug-shaped space shuttle.  If they can land safely, perform their exploring missions and return to earth, they will have fulfilled mankind's most ambitious dream--a trip to the first way station en route to the beckoning planets and the distant stars.

But what will these men on the moon be up against?  Scientists have long known that the barren surface of the moon is uniquely inhospitable.  But only as telemetered instruments on satellites and space probes have brought vast quantities of new data have they realized how intense and formidable the perils are.  Today, hundreds of