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‘Another life-saving by-product of American computer technology was the "pacemaker". Today more than 2,000 Germans live with one of these apparatuses in their chests. It is a battery-driven mini-generator which is introduced under the skin. From it the doctors insert a connecting cable through the superior vena cava to the right auricle of the heart. The heart is then stimulated to rhythmical movements by regular surges of current. It beats. When the battery of the "heart machine" is burnt out after three years, it can be changed by a comparatively simple operation. ‘General Electric, the American concern, improved this little miracle of medical technology last year when it developed a two-speed model. If the wearer of this "pacemaker" wants to play tennis or run to catch a train, he simply moves a bar magnet up and down for a moment over the spot where his built- in generator is located. His heart promptly works at a higher speed.’ So much for the report in Der Stern. Two more examples of by-products of space-research. Who still has the nerve to say that it is useless? 'The designs of space vehicles developed for soft landings on the moon have an interim interest for automobile manufacturers, for the knowledge of how such designs behave under conditions which cause their destruction can be appreciably increased. Even though it will not be possible to make cars safe for the passengers against all kinds of collisions, the designs used with most success in space travel can help to diminish the risk when collisions occur. "Honey-comb" sheets which are being used more and more in modern aircraft construction, guarantee high tensile strength with little weight. They have also been practically tested in automobile manufacture. The floor of the experimental gas- mo turbine-driven Rover car is made of "honey-combs". Anyone who knows the present state of research and the impetuous way in which it develops can no longer tolerate sayings such as 'It will never be possible to travel from one star to another’. The younger generation of our day will see this 'impossibility' become reality. Gigantic space-ships with incredibly powerful motors will be built, as the Russians proved in 1967 when they succeeded in coupling two unmanned space-craft in the stratosphere. One sector of space research is already working on a kind of protective screen, like an electric arc, which is attached in front of the actual capsule and is intended to prevent or deflect the impact of particles. A group of distinguished physicists is trying to detect what are known as tachyons. As yet these are theoretical particles which are supposed to fly faster than light and whose lower speed limit is the speed of light. Scientists know that tachyons must exist; it is now ‘only’ a question of providing physical proof of their existence. Yet such proofs have actually been produced for neutrinos and anti-matter! Finally I should like to ask the die-hard critics in the chorus of opponents of space travel: do they really believe that several thousands of probably the cleverest men of our time would waste their impassioned work on a pure Utopia or a trivial goal? measure the impact of micro-meteorites on space-ships, registers minute muscular spasms in certain nervous diseases. Under the headline 'Stimulus from Moon Rockets’, the newspaper Die Zeit contained the following report in its edition No. 47 of November 1967: