Science: Message from the Moon

The coded signals picked up by the National Bureau of Standards’ field station at Sterling, Va. echoed a historic message: “What hath God wrought!”* It marked a historic occasion. The message had come all the way from Cedar Rapids, Iowa on ultra high frequency waves (418 megacycles) which do not normally travel beyond the horizon. It arrived by way of the moon.

The 20-kw transmitter of the Collins Radio Co. at Cedar Rapids, explained the Bureau of Standards, was pointed at the moon. So was the receiving antenna at Sterling. The wave went up and back (450,000 miles in 2½ seconds), vaulting high above the bulge of the earth.

The first radio contact with the moon was made nearly six years ago by the U.S. Army Signal Corps at Belmar, NJ. (TIME, Feb. 4, 1946). The Signal Corps sent powerful radar pulses and got faint echoes in return. The Bureau of Standards’ experiment, the first to send an actual long-distance message via the moon, may have a practical outcome. Ultra high frequency waves are not affected by the electrical disturbances in the atmosphere that sometimes black out other radio channels. With their great ‘disadvantage (short, “line-of-sight” range) overcome by using the moon as a reflector, they may carry vital messages when other channels fail.

The bureau does not think that television addicts will ever get their favorite programs in the hinterland by aiming their antennae at the moon. The reflected signal is far too weak for standard television sets. Another trouble: the signal would be reflected from many places on the moon. So the moonstruck TV screen would show a tangle of ghosts, just as if the transmitter were surrounded by tall buildings. But messages by way of the. moon may become a dependable aid to long-distance communications by radiotelegraph and radiotelephone.

*The first message sent by Samuel Morse on May 24,1844 over his new telegraph line from Washington to Baltimore.