Laurel Outlook

Asks to Allow Atomic Rocket Service to Moon
CHICAGO. - R. L. Farnsworth asked the government to grant him the first civilian permit to put atomic energy to peacetime use. He wants to develop a solar transportation system providing regular eight-hour flights to the moon.

Mr. Farnsworth, president of the U. S. Rocket society, wrote a letter to the research council on national security at Washington asking for permission to use atomic energy to make a rocket in which earth dwellers could travel through the universe at a rate of seven miles per second.

"The discovery of atomic power means that rocketeers who have been shooting at the moon can raise their sights to the planets beyond," he said, in an interview. "It means that some day there will be a regular rocket service to the moon and other planets.

"I want to see a solar transportation system that would make the man in the moon our next-door neighbor."

Visualizing the moon as the Chicago of the universe - a shuttle station for rocket service to points beyond - Mr. Farnsworth said atomic power can solve most of the problems that have vexed his fellow rocketeers.

His principal difficulty, he said, would be in harnessing atomic power.