2101 CONSTITUTION AVENUE CABLE ADDRESS: NARECO
WASHINGTON 25, ©. c. WASHINGTON, D. Cc.

NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL

OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

SPACE SCIENCE BOARD

February 28, 1562

MEMORANDUM \

FOR: Members, Commit

FROM: C, S&S, Pittendrigh, Chairman

T You are due some explanation for the delay in any communication from me

since our meeting last Fall, There have been several causes all conspiring tc
cloud, to some extent, both the exact nature of your task and the time-scale
for its completion, The principal things were: (1) the cancellation of all
existing programs for orbiting biolaboratories; (which had been in my mind, at.
least, the focal point of our projected program of symposia); (2) an extensive
shakeup in the organization of NASA that left inhouse responsibility for the
biosciences unclear for sometime; (3) a nearly complete reorganization within
the Space Science Board itself; (4) the announcement of an 8 week Summer Study
in the Space Sciences at Iowa City this summer, / This last item has recently
caused some further uncertainty as to how our detailed efforts this coming year
should be programmed, /

The total situation is new much clearer and one can, with this memorandum,
now lay out a fairly well-defined task and time schedule, First, something
should be said about the reorganizations in SSB and NASA,

It SSB_Reorganization

The new committee structure of the Board is laid out in the attached
Appendix I from George Derbyshire in the SSB Secretariat, The biological com-
mittees have been left as they were; the only change is the addition of an
ad hoc committee (Pittendrigh, Chairman; Hartline, Lederberg, Lambertsen) fer
coordination of the bioscience work, and with the further task of producing an
overall Board position paper on the biological effort in the space program,

Incidentally, the Secretariat of the Board is hoping to add a biologist
to its permanent staff and they would welcome suggestions from any of us,

Itt NASA Reorganization

Appendix II is a copy of the new organization in NASA. There are two
features of interest to the biologists,
a2e

First, the old Office of Life Sciences has been dissolved; it was
previously responsible for all "pure" biology and for the biomedical work
associated with the Man in Space (MIS) effort, MIS is now a separate office
under Holmes; and the biomedical work specifically under General Charles
Roadman (U. S, Air Force, on loan to NASA), All the non-MIS biology (Exobiology
and so-called Environmental Biology) is the responsibility of the Office of
Space Sciences, headed by Homer Newell, Newell's office of course, oversees also
all the physical science in space, For some time (November 1 to mid February)
Newell's office was without a biologist in charge, and during that period we
were therefore uncertain as to where the reorganization would lead and what the
program would be, In mid February Orr Reynolds left DOD and joined Newell as
Director of the biosciences program in his Office of Space Sciences, This
seems a real step forward in getting someone of known ability in charge of the ia-
house biology thinking at NASA

Second, the separation of biosciences from the MIS effort poses some new
problems, It is not yet clear how the new NASA structure is going to handle the
biological research needed as a basis for the MIS effort; one cannot pursue this
much further here -- but we should note that the efforts of some of our panels
(e.g., Zero-G and Closed Ecological Systems) have pertinence now to two distinct
branches of the NASA organization, and that organization contains no formal pro-
vision for coordination of the efforts at a higher level, It may be that before
long there will be further innovation at NASA to meet this obvious gap.

Iv Overall Biosciences Program for SSB Committees and Committee 15 in particular

Mc. Webb, the Administrator at NASA, has requested the SSB, via Dr. Bronk,
to undertake a Space Sciences Summer Study at Iowa City (State University of Iowa)
this summer in an 8 week session from June 18 to August 18, The purpose of this
operation (under Van Allen's Chairmanship) is to make a rigorous and complete
study of the entire scientific (vis-a-vis engineering) program of NASA, and to
produce a substantial report that will hopefully be of major assistance in guiding
NASA policy on space science for some time,

The question has arisen as to how the biological sciences could be meshed
into the project, This problem arises because the permanent biological committees
(14, 15, and 16) of the Board were initiated much later than the physical com-
mittees and they are still a long way from producing any definitive position papers.
Involvement in the full Iowa program would interfere with and further delay the
completion of their own special mission,

Discussion with several of the interested people has led to the following
program for the biologists.

(i) It is hoped that one or two biologists can be found who will be
sufficiently interested, informed, and able to attend the whole Iowa session,
Their function will be twofold: (1) to represent, in some sense, the broad interests
of the biolgical community in the formulation of any major policy issues; and (2)
to join with the ad hoc Biological Coordinating Committee of the Board on Sep- --
tember 5 in Princeton when it meets to complete the general position paper on space
biology I referred to earlier, Pittendrigh hopes to attend the Iowa program for

a few brief visits and thus keep contact with the biolgists going through the whole
exercise, — te .
~3-

(ii) Apart from the above liaison activity with the Iowa program the
biological committees are to go ahead independently with their own programs
this summer, The immediate goal is the general position paper on space bio-
sciences earlier attended to; and this is to be delivered to NASA by September 12,
It will thus reach NASA at essentially the same time as the Iowa Report whose
main contents will be concerned with physical sciences,

To meet this schedule the ad hoc Coordinating Committee (Pittendrigh,
Hartline, Lambertsen, Lederberg and coopted members) will meet in Princeton
September 5 to complete the revision of a draft that will have been prepared by
then, To complete the draft we need written reports from all the panels and
working groups of the three permanent committees (14 - Exobiology; 15- Environ-
mental Biology; 16 - Man in Space) by August 15th, 1962,

This brings us, then, to the real meat of this memo: you are requested to
activate your panel as soon as possible and make arrangements suitable to all

concerned for one (or more; you decision) meetings, symposia, or work- sessions,
and to submit written reports to me by August 15,

Vv Mission of Individual Panels

The pwpose of the panel's written reports is to provide the Biology
Coordinating Committee of the Board with all the technical information and
judgment they need for the preparation of the Board's overall position paper,
on the desirable scale, scope and to some extent -- details of biological effort
in the NASA program,

Each panel should address itself to the following items: (1)

(a) Whatever the panel chairman feels is necessary

(b) A statement of what scientific issues exist in his designated
area that can conceivably be tackled in. the space program. Where-
ever possible, and this is especially true for Magnetic Effects
and Zero-G Effects, a theoretical analysis of a possible basis
for effects should be included,

The report should then proceed to consider how the work necessary to
attack the problems can best be done in terms of:

(2) Orbiting Biological Laboratories
(3) Sounding Rockets

(4) Balloons

(5) Ground based laboratories

I have recently had several conversations with Dr. Newell about the
biological program in general, The principal question he has wanted answered
was: Does the biological community need and want a program of orbiting bio-
laboratories? You will recall we had earlier thought this was an established
-4-

program, and we were going to consider what should be put in them, The position
now is that they will only come into existence if we (as the biological community)
Say we need them and what for, I canvassed a sufficient number of people to

get confirmation of my own opinion that the answer to Newell's question was Yes,
we do need orbiting labs, I have passed this on to him and he is now looking for
our detailed justification and suggested experimental programs by September 15.
The character of our final report then will at least greatly affect the size and
scope of the program of orbiting biolabs.

Item (2) above is therefore a considerable responsibility we have to
discharge.

It will also be useful to have your evaluation of what, in your area, can
usefully be pursued in sounding rockets and balloons. And it will be especially
helpful to have your full thoughts on what is needed now, and in the near future,
in the way of associated ground-based work,

Should any of you wish to have more information on the characertistics --
durations, altitudes, payloads, length of zero-g experience, etc, -~ of sounding
rockets, etc, please feel free to use the full resources of the SSB's Secretariat,
George Derbyshire is your representative there,

I am adding separate personal notes to each panel chairman covering special
points on his program, Please let me know (with copy to George Derbyshire), as
soon as your plans for expanding your panels and holding working sessions
crystalize, In all matters of arranging meetings, travel -- and in finding suitable
people for you job -~ the SSB Secretariat will give you all the help you need,