STANFORD UNIVERSITY
MEDICAL CENTER
PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA

DEPARTMENT OF GENETICS June 18, 1962
School of Medicine

Mr. G.A. Derbyshire

Space Science Board

National Academy of Sciences
2101 Constitution Avenue
Washington 25, D.C.

Dear George:
Reference, your letter of June 7.

1. 4 can see no drastic reasons to react strongly to the proposal that
fecal wastes be jettisoned either in terrestrial orbit or in lunar landing
missions. Whatever risks are involved are already encompassed in the
hazard of flying the astronaut himself. There might, however, be some
more emotional reaction to this that ought to be cautioned against and kept

in mind in detailing the disposal, It would be unfortunate if large amounts
of contaminated material were indgscriminately scattered over the lunar
surface, especially if this were done in such a way as to make it impossible

to identify the point of deposition. Again, this is a hazard that may very
well attach to man himself, but there is no point in going out of our way

to create difficulties. Such wastes should, therefore, be deposited only

in hermetically sealed containers together with substantial amounts of some
long lived radioactive isotope that could be used retrospectively as a tracer.
Such deposits should also be made only in the immediate vicinity of sites

well established as lunar bases, the vicinity of which will have to be regarded
as potentially highly contaminated in any case.

These considerations should be sufficiently self evident, particularly in
regard to the avoidance of less well informed reactions that | do not believe
there is much point in organizing any special discussion unless the reactions
to your letter indicate a wide divergence of opinion. These remarks are not
intended as an endorsement of a contamination policy at the present time, but
reflect the belief that before manned Junar flights are actually attempted we
will have sufficient information about the lunar environment to better evaluate
the general hazards of lunar contamination.

+: The bibliography on Aerospace Medicine and Biology has very dubious value
by comparison with the other documentation activities to which NASA is now
committed.. However, you will understand that my reaction to this material

is conditioned by my own special interests which may not be quite congruent
with those of people more actively concerned with the field of space medicine.
Mr. G.A. Derbyshire 2 June 18, 1962

Rather than expend much energy on this partic lar issue, | think the Board
could serve a much more useful function by iasichedose ing the whole information
program in NASA or at least being sure that, this does have the benefit of
critical review by scientists who use it. (On the whole | think they are

doing very well now, but this is just by comparison with the medieval programs
in the handling of information in other agencies.)

Yours sincerely,

hn

/sOoshua Lederberg

tn

Professor of Genetics

  

JL: jc