nuclear detonations
As a result of a request by the ad hoc group on detection of
te detection system
(in a 12 May 60 meeting), a proposal for an alternate satelli
was published by LASL and Sandia jointly on 10 June, 1960.
for Interium Capability
in Outer Space, Icos."
The title was "Proposal
The proposed satellite would
NY
to cut the time from
utilize only proven components and techniques in order
‘
nded by the ad hoc
inception to early system operation to 18 months as recomme
group.
was imagined
Whereas the system set forth in the Vela Hotel D & F plan
zed redundancy,
as suitable for a multi-lateral surveillance system and emphasi
on to 1 satellite
the proposed interium system relaxes the requirement of detecti
de, and provides much
only, decreases the detection range by an order of magnitu
be termed “identification
less detection redundants and hence less emphasis on what may
by a signature.”
On 13 May in 1960, Carson Mark sent an interesting letter to Hans Bethe,
apparantly at the request of Bethe, to bring him up to date on LASL'S Zavlings as to ZH
the possible gains in kilotons per pound from further weapons testing.
He gives an
extensive discussion of the present state of the :art and the possibilities for the
future and illustrates it with a graph which plots kilotons per pound against. pounds
for the device.
The graph shows four separate plots, the most optomistic (efficient)
of which has lately been presented in Washington, apparently, by Edward Teller.
Slightly less optémistic is a Livermore projection from November 1959 of what might
be hoped for in weapons development by 1970 and significantly less optomistic is a
similarprojection by Livermore for testing through 1965.
Well below all three of
these curves is a plot of the so-called State of the*Art Development, most of which
has not been verified by testing.
The designs which have been verified lie even
below this state of the art plot but for reasons discussed in some detail by Carson
Mark, various points on the "state of the art” curve are felt to be attainable even
by LASL.
As for Teller's prediction (and I believe he is saying that it could be
possible to reach such pointaWvithin about three years), not only would it require
100% efficiency and therefore it seems totally outlandlish to the LASL people, but
even Harold Brown of Livermore doesn't seem to accept this curve and thus Merk feels
that as far as the AEC is concerned it may be withdrawn and will only
"persist in the